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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Here's your sign..

The Catholic Church and it's Pope are back in the news.

"Bishops restate concern for abuse victims, praise the Pope's leadership"..

Really, they praise the Popes' leadership?
If this story wasn't about a sanctimonious bunch of pedophiles, that statement might be funny.

"WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voiced concern for victims of clergy sexual abuse while offering praise for Pope Benedict XVI's long-standing leadership in dealing with abuse cases."...

"I
n recent weeks hundreds of new sex abuse allegations against priests and other church personnel have surfaced in Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland."...

Here's a time line of some details..
from Anderson Cooper 360..
"
.... Let's start here in April of 2005. Cardinal Ratzinger was installed as pope. Now, he was formally the archbishop of Munich.

And, for years, he was the Vatican's top enforcer of doctrine and law and prosecution of alleged pedophile priests. Now, slide forward, eight months later, December 2005. Because of his elevation to pope, a federal judge rules he cannot be named in a Texas lawsuit that alleged he had a role in his prior position as Pope John Paul's chief law enforce in covering up the molestation of three boys by a seminarian.

Now, during his first visit to the United States in April of 2008, he says he was deeply ashamed of the sex scandal and pledges -- and I quote -- "not to allow pedophiles to become priests."

Then, November of last year, a report in Ireland accuses former archbishops, four of them, of turning a blind eye to abuse.

Now we flash forward to this month, March 12. Pope Benedict is linked to the clergy scandal in Germany. The allegation is that, while he was archbishop of Munich, he approved the transfer of a molesting priest so he could get therapy, but the priest went on to molest more kids.

Now, a subordinate later took responsibility for returning that priest to duty. The Vatican spokesman claims, well, that essentially absolves the pope. But the pope has not addressed what he knew and what he did or did not do.

Now we go to March 20. The pope writes a pastoral letter apologizing to Irish victims of pedophile priests. And, just two days ago, March 24, the pope is accused of failing to defrock Father Lawrence Murphy, who allegedly molested as many as 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin during the 1960s and '70s.

A religious trial which Benedict would have had the ultimate jurisdiction over back in 1996 was halted -- get this -- after Father Murphy wrote him a letter saying that he was in poor health and had already repented.

So, again, "The National Catholic Reporter" newspaper saying -- and I quote -- "Nothing less than a full, personal, and public accounting will begin to address the crisis that is now engulfing the worldwide church."...

The "crisis that is now engulfing the worldwide church" is that people are leaving..
Wake up and smell the coffee..

It's hard to believe a priest could get away with molesting deaf kids for decades.
Sometimes there seems to be no justice and no accountability for people in power or the rich.
We have seen this over and over again here in the United States Government.
War crimes, war criminals that have drained resources of a suffering economy and the death of millions.
The Vatican represents how perverse religious fanatics can be.
When will people wake up to embrace reason & logic and dismiss myths & superstition?

"Two old books based on myths & superstition, passed down over the years by word of mouth with no means to verify nor authenticate the stories become a tool of patriarchal society to suppress the masses through this dogma."

How you like me now?

***



Sunday, March 07, 2010

HCR... REFORM?

Here we sit waiting on HCR... What health care REFORM?
Doesn't appear to be much in what you might actually see as reform.
"Business as usual" in Washington. There should be a law against letting lobbyists and CEOs from health insurance companies or big pharma meet in secret or cut backroom deals or sit at the table and dictate policy.

As congressional activity grinds along at a snails pace the insurance companies have a proactive agenda. Start raising the rates... h/t.. TPM
Anthem Blue Cross CA - 39%... mo money, mo money..
"Last year.... the five largest health insurance companies - WellPoint, UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, Aetna, and Humana - took in combined profits of $12.2 billion, up 56 percent over 2008. "


Is there any question that profit needs to be taken out of this equation?
Some have said that health care is a civil right and that this is a moral issue. But Obama and his ilk not only didn't pursue a single payer plan, they gave up the public option.
What campaigning Obama may have wanted is different than what President Obama demands.

h/t...Intoxination
"Tomorrow Obama will lay out his compressive healthcare plan. That’s only a year into the debate and when healthcare is on life support. Obama decided a long time ago to play it safe in the world of politics, rather than taking a firm stand. That is something FDR would never have done."

So who will stand up?
Um... Mr Kucinich, what do you say?
“Clearly, the insurance companies are the problem, not the solution"...

3/16/10*** UPDATE***
OOPS!!!
It appears there has been a change of plan..
"Kucinich changes position on health care, will vote 'yes'.."

***
Here is the meat & potatoes of this stinker of a bill..

Mr. Nader & Mr. Kucinich @ Democracy Now




Kucinich looks beat down, almost broken. People are saying "he caved" and now call him "Caveman Kucinich". It appears he did give up the fight because of some strange sense of loyalty to the office of the president and for what?
I say the "office of the president" because this man; Obama; has done little to make things better and he has done alot to stay on the same path as Bush and that sucks.

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