Making Catholicism safe for Mel Gibson

I would like to preface the following by noting that I was born into the bosom of the Catholic Church, raised by devout Catholics, taught by Christian Brothers. I served Masses, sang in the choir, and was altar boy of the year in my parish. I have experienced firsthand all the good that can flow from people whose faith has informed their lives. I also witnessed, however, the physical and sexual abuse that was often meted out by those who wear the "uniform" of the Church—particularly the brothers and priests—as well as the arrogance that animates the pronouncements coming out of Rome, and out of bishops and other officials who have done so much to advance causes that, despite being given cover by their collar, promote hatred and sow division among people. Although brewed a Catholic and imbued with many of its teachings, I have found it impossible to stay in the Church, since some of what look to be its core values are ones I absolutely reject, in particular its rejection of full membership for women, its homophobia, its misogyny, and its twisted and backward views on sexuality (not surprising, given the ludicrousness of celibate misogynists setting themselves up as experts on family life). Add to that list now its racist bigotry, thanks to Joseph Ratzinger, aka Benedict 16.

Ever since his predecessor J2P2 told Catholics that anti-Semitism was in fact a sin, Der Kurrent Pope has kept a special place in his heart for Jew haters and other ding-dongs who long to return to the bosom of Mother Church, and has now welcomed some of them back with open arms. Last year, when Ben16 relaxed rules to allow the return of the Latin Mass, one of the effects of this was to reinstate the Good Friday prayer that seeks the conversion of the Jews (who we all know "murdered" our Lord and Saviour on the Cross). This reinstatement is odd, given that the Church has, since Vatican II, rejected the notion of collective guilt for Jews for the crucifixion, but Ratzinger seems unbothered by this. Four bishops of a schismatic sect who rejected the Church in the wake of Vatican II reforms and who have referred to both Popes J2P2 (who excommunicated them) and Benedict16 as "heretical"—among them Richard Williamson, a very vocal Holocaust denier who also claims that the US staged the 9/11 attacks so they could go to war in Afghanistan—have been welcomed back into the Church, apparently without having so much as to recant any of their repulsive bigotry. Days after this, B16 promoted ultra-conservative Father Gerhard Maria Wagner to assistant bishop of Linz, in Austria. Father Wagner believes, among other things, that Harry Potter spreads Satanism, and that hurricane Katrina and the flood of New Orleans were divine retribution for the city's tolerance toward sex and gays. He was particularly pleased that in addition to brothels and clubs, the Katrina disaster hit five of the city's abortion clinics.

One can just imagine a boy's night out with the likes of "Bishop" Williamson, Father Wagner, and Hutton and Mel Gibson. Not to mention that Neo-Nazi waste of skin, Ernst Zundel, who found himself enthusiastically defended by Williamson years ago when the latter was in Canada.

Frances Kissling put it best in the New Republic, "It is not merely discouraging or problematic that Pope Benedict XVI is making nice with a Holocaust denier, or mending fences with a splinter group of ultraconservative anti-Semites, it is sick and evil."

What kind of church is it that (or equally, what kind of a spiritual leader is it who) will welcome back into their midst someone who bears false witness about one of the most horrific episodes in human history, who in so doing continues to perpetrate a hate crime? Those who might be tempted to find the answer to this in Joseph Ratzinger's being German should note that German Chancellor Angela Merkel tore a strip off him over this, and that many prominent German Catholics have raised a holy ruckus, so much so that only today the Vatican declared that Williamson would have to recant his Holocaust denial as a condition of his being brought back into the Church. The Vatican also stated that Ratzinger didn't know about Williamson's views before asking him back in. This latter shit-eating statement cannot but be a lie, yet another sin to be added to this catalogue of shame for the Church.

It will take a long time, and a new Pope at a minimum, before the stain of this will wash off the leadership of the Church. In the meantime, those clerics who preach hatred, and all those who enable them in the Church need to be told to go to hell.

Free at Last

This is almost as deep into winter as you can get, and it feels like it. It was brass-monkey cold all last week, and the air has been thick with Bush's pathetic attempts to spin his place in history, a stupid man frantically trying to polish a turd. Many fatuous words were spoken about a library and a book from the Bushes—apparently Laura believes there's a lot we would pay $40 to find out from her. Frat Boy Smirk himself is said to be keen to sharpen his favourite crayon and give it a go. That would give him a two-book head start on filling up his new lie-berry. Presumably the new facility will feature stations where weary readers can go to have their reading calluses treated. Signs will hang from the ceiling reminding the various visiting Bush scholars: "REMEMBER: Lips together when reading."

One hopes for the day when Bush and Cheney will have their Pincohet moment, charged with war crimes and unable to travel for fear of being taken off the plane and sent to The Hague. The world showed it was serious when it hauled Milosevic and Karadzic (and soon, one hopes, Mladic) before the International Criminal Court. It should show no less zeal in seeking to add Bush and Cheney to this butchers' gallery. It would be worth paying to see W try to smirk and chuckle his way through a war crimes trial. He'd look good in orange.

Here in the Great White North, Prime Minister Doughboy gets a second chance to get it right with a budget next week. OpLeader Ignatieff makes noises that if it contains broad tax cuts, the Libs won't vote for it, and we're back to coalition time. However, Ignatieff never liked the coalition idea and will try to steer around it if he can. Harper may accommodate him, since he may realize that playing chicken this time around will see him in Stornaway post-haste. However, since he likes to campaign far more than govern, Harper may just decide to pull another adolescent stunt and force a crisis—election or coalition?—which would provide plenty of drama and keep everyone distracted from the world of hurt coming our way in the next several years. Harper may decide that now is not the time to be running things, since as the recession deepens, people will find out that at the end of the day, Sweater Boy, like his hero W, is really interested in rewarding his friends, and has no particular interest in, or talent for, running an economy for the benefit of everyone. Let's hope he takes financial wizard Patricia Croft's advice on how to weather the coming storm, delivered on TV on January 9: "batten down the hatchets."

Harper has decided his quest for a reformed Senate is doomed, as any first year poli sci student could have told him and Preston Manning back in the 90s, when this idea was trotted out as part of the sacred Reform canon. A quick look at the formula for amending the constitution (it basically requires unanimity from the provinces and federal government), not to mention memories of the great fun we all had the last time we tried doing it, could have saved the Reformistas a lot of grief. Then again, Reformers were never more happy than when angry and venting their own special brand of sour gas. In any event, Harper appointed 18 new warm bodies to the upper chamber, including media stars Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin, skier Nancy Green Raine and 15 other hacks, this while the House was prorogued. It might be argued that this is nothing more than facing political reality, and it is something he would rather not do if he had his druthers, but this can't be said of his decision to appoint a new Supreme Court justice without running it by a parliamentary committee, something he crowed about doing in 06. Apparently, Stevie doesn't think getting MPs' input on such appointments is worth it this time. Easy come, easy go. Back to Square One.

Still no word from the secret committee of anti-abortion MPs on how they intend to outlaw abortion without anyone finding out. Stay tuned. Or not.

Prince Harry, who distinguished himself a couple of years ago for showing up at a costume party dressed as a Nazi (perhaps in affectionate remembrance of his great-grand-uncle Edward VIII/Duke of Windsor, legendary bon vivant, Nazi sympathizer and likely traitor), has called a Pakistani member of his regiment "our little Paki friend," but we are told it is meant as a term of affection, as is, apparently, "raghead," another nickname he is fond of using. Harry comes by his racism honestly: daddy Charles affectionately refers to polo-playing friend Kuldip Dhillon as "Sooty", and Charles' daddy, notorious horse's ass Prince Philip, famously told British students in China they would end up "slitty-eyed" if they stayed there much longer. As for Harry, he continues in the tradition of other "spares" to the heirs, like Princess Anne, who must be kept occupied lest they open their mouths and Philip's genes kick in. If one prefers to treat things royal as a matter of animal husbandry, as is often done, Harry can soon be expected to get to work fashioning a suitable breeding arrangement, by way of marriage. His role as spare is not done, of course, until William suitably discharges himself of his responsibilities in this matter, with his own pair of spawn. And who knows? One need only look to the aforementioned Eddy8 to see the wisdom of having someone in the wings who can step in, someone who must share your blood, according to the rules, and, oh, by the way, definitely cannot be a Catholic.

Meanwhile, in the Unholy Land, Israel, having pulverized Gaza over the holidays, is getting out just in time before President Obama is inaugurated and has something to say about this latest murderous incursion. Sadly, it is hard not to see this as being as much about the upcoming Israeli election as anything else, as everyone trips all over themselves trying to out-Likud each other. Israel would like us all to see this as a one-off aimed at silencing Hamas rockets, with no reckoning being made of the effect of decades of Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestinian land, leaving the Palestinians something very much like the detestable Bantustans of apartheid-era South Africa. Media in this country and in the US have drunk the Israeli Kool-Aid; Israel is a fragile vulnerable country surrounded by fanatical mortal enemies, who need periodic doses of Israeli medicine to keep them in line. It is perfectly reasonable to kill 1000 or so Arabs every once in a while, just to show them.

I have come to the depressing belief that Israel and the Palestinians are doomed to a perpetual death-dance. Both are permanently traumatized populations who believe they can will their favoured reality into being. Do Tzipi, or the Ehuds, or Bibi really believe the claptrap they spout about how they will "topple" Hamas and replace it with a government more to their liking? What arrogance is it that looks upon the Palestinians as people allowed to elect only those who meet Israeli approval? As long as Israelis look upon their neighbours this way, there is no way forward.

The Gaza adventure exposes Israel as a country that wants not peace but only quiet. The biggest favour a President Obama could do for Israel is to tell them that they will not receive another red cent from the US until they immediately stop all settlements on Palestinian land, and submit a plan to dismantle the ones already there. If Israel is serious about long-term peace, they cannot pursue it while taking the land from under the Palestinians' feet.

Support for Israel on this side of the pond has sadly come down to support for the Likud view of never-ending violence and war, something dear to Netanyahu's heart. If, God forbid, he wins in February, Israel can look forward to more of the same, a debilitating prospect for anyone interested in her long-term security, but even more maddeningly, understandable in the short term, given Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran have made it a stated aim to see Israel wiped from the map. Welcome to Square One again. The future belongs to those with the rockets, guns and bombs.

I have been to The Beast, Tina Brown's answer to the HuffPost, and sampled some of Conrad Black's ageless prose. Actually, a while back, Black wrote a column in the Globe and Mail defending FDR from the revisionist claptrap of the right wing in the States to the effect that the New Deal actually made the Great Depression worse than it was. Black is always fun to read, and when he practises scholarship, he is at his best. It doesn't hurt that he writes coherently and in complete sentences, either. He seems to be unaware, though, of the ludicrous spectacle of him casting himself in the role of stalwart defender of the wrongfully convicted, something he has announced to the world from his cell through The Beast. Further outpourings from him on this subject are sure to be entertaining. We can look forward to five more years of his tireless work on behalf of those who have been shafted by the system, man.

HNY

Pulled a Harper and prorogued the blog for December. After the coalition drama was put on hiatus, December offered little except the departure of Stephane Dion. I couldn't bring myself to watch his address to the nation, apparently with a hand-held camera in some basement, explaining the coalition. At least his departure speeds up the succession process in the Liberal party, and someone who projects a little more gravitas is in place to act as a check on Harper, who can't be trusted not to pull a stunt at the first opportunity. Look for another election in 09. Little Stevie can't help himself.

A Conservative MP announces he leads a secret caucus of anti-abortion MPs, whose identities he declines to reveal.  Apparently this secret group plans to pass a law outlawing abortion without anybody knowing. Good luck with that.

Look for Conrad Black to remain in prison, and raise a glass to Patrick Fitzgerald.

Bristol Palin had a kid, named Tripp. I had no idea it was tripping season, but there you go. Supposedly she will  score somewhere in the neighbourhood of 300 Gs for the baby pix.

Obama thought it would be a good idea to have homophobe bible thumper Rick Warren read the invocation to his inauguration. Swing and a miss. Like all episodes involving gas, this too shall pass, but it shows Obama continuing to have a tin ear on sexual orientation, around which I sense a profound discomfort on his part. 

Buh-bye 08. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

A Consummation Devoutly to be Wish'd

So Stephen Harper, only 6 weeks after being denied his majority, finds himself on the cusp of being thrown out of a job by a feckless and fractured opposition. Quite a demonstration of leadership, wouldn't you say? He joins that other Tory with a minority who, to prove his manliness, decided that the people were wrong to deny him a majority and would proceed as if he had one: Joe Clark. To share this distinction with Clark must turn Harper's spit to vinegar. And all because he couldn't resist the temptation to try to destroy his political opponents, something that looks like he is more interested in than in doing anything about the economy, which the last three years have shown he had sadly mismanaged, burning through more than $60 billion in tax cuts for his well-heeled friends.

Thomas Walkom of the Star called it right. While the world is plunging ahead with massive stimulus initiatives, Harper chooses to do essentially nothing. That is actually a defensible enough strategy, given that much of what needs to be done must wait til after Obama takes over. So what do Harper and his Harrisite Flaherty do? Give in to the yahoo howlings of their base and go for predictable red-meat targets. Target public service pay and their right to strike (the public service in Ottawa has been running at a record profit clip over the last 10 years, delivering gigantic surpluses), pay equity, and while they're at it, destroy their political opponents.

Having got used to daring the opposition to kiss his posterior and seeing them dutifully pucker up, Harperbot figured he could cow them into going out of business, daring them to plunge the country into another unnecessary election. Having already run one unnecessary election himself, forcing another one was something Harper figured the opposition parties could not afford to be seen doing, let alone afford, period. The opposition, dispirited as they settled into their seats for a long winter in the political wilderness, were instantly galvanized by this gratuitous bit of pissery and in the blink of an eye, a unite-the-left movement had formed, lured by the heady prospect of instant governing. They may just find they like it. Welcome to a new era of coalition governments, brought to you by your unfriendly Conservative party.

This is another classic example of the Reform-party nastiness that curdles in the Tory soul. Like the neo-cons he idolizes, Harper and his hyenas prefer to campaign rather than govern and simply cannot keep themselves from waving their dicks in front of people when they think they can get away with it. In the current crisis, the proposal to essentially kneecap the other parties bespeaks an adolescent, video-gamer opportunism.  

Today, Little Stevie has gone into his sweater drawer with a vengeance and said he won't try to eliminate the funding for the other parties under the current arrangement after all. Old Milky Eyes, however, may find that everyone has moved on and decided that he cannot be trusted to be a leader, and that he will be asked to spend Christmas in Stornaway. Given his predilection to sulkiness, though, he may just decide to take his ball and go home. 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd. 

So here we are at the end of 08, Harper has failed to get his majority against a fractured and poorly led opposition, and is looking at being tossed out on his ample keister by them. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Now Jim Flaherty will be free to pursue his dream of becoming Premier of Ontario and doing what really wanks his crank—jailing the homeless.

Shocked Disbelief

Still awash in the sea of endorphins unleashed by the accession of Obama, and waiting for the Big Shoe to drop on the economy. Part of the giddy hope that grips us is no doubt a reflection of the passing of Oedipus Tex from the scene. George Wanker Bush grows paler and more insignificant every day, filling his days issuing regulations and orders to ruin as many things as he can in his final 60 days, jetting around warning all those A students that regulating the markets is bad, this while we were treated to the  spectacle of Alan Greedspan admitting to Congress and the world that one of the linchpins of his economic philosophy was, how to put this? W-R-O-N-G.

“Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,” he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Greenspan has been a life-long disciple of nutjob pseudo-philosopher Ayn Rand, a favourite of adolescents desperate to show their worldliness and to find deep meaning in an all-encompassing philosophy. That he would continue to cleave to Rand's undercooked gumbo of ersatz libertarianism in his later life does not recommend him.

We have, with the great help of Randers like Greenspan, been told that of all the fields of human endeavour—making cars, building houses, tending to the sick, representing parties in court, farming—tending to others' money should, alone among them all, be unencumbered by rules and regulations meant to curb abuses by mere mortals. Working in finance bestows infallibility, it seems. Markets are self-regulating, they take care of themselves, their self-interest (paging Ayn Rand) provides the necessary corrective.

Except, of course, when it doesn't. And then there is a state of shocked disbelief.

Although Daniel Gross in Slate tells us that analogies to the Great Depression are over the top, Nobel winner Paul Krugman on Friday wrote: "nothing is happening on the policy front that is remotely commensurate with the scale of the economic crisis. And it’s scary to think how much more can go wrong before Inauguration Day."

Turn Out the Lights

Time for the Repugnicans to break out the fine beach-size 400-thread-per-inch Egyptian cotton crying towels, because it's over, baby. Reports have the McCain team jockeying for a post-blowout take-down of Sarah Palin, who they claim has gone rogue on them. When Peggy and Cotton Hill finally sat down for their interview with Brian Williams of NBC, their body language spoke volumes. McCain suppressed the twitches, sighs, snorts and harrumphs that he featured to such edifying effect in his last debate appearance, but clearly these running mates were not feeling the love. Palin, for her part, has reportedly become fed up with her McCain handlers and, with 2012 in mind, gone off-message, publicly questioning the decision to abandon campaigning in Michigan and to not talk about Jeremiah Wright. 

And then there is Ashley Todd, 20-year-old Texan college student and McCain volunteer who previously worked with that model of rectitude, the College Republicans (of Jack Abramoff infamy). On Wednesday she called police in Pittsburgh to report that she had been attacked by what she described as a tall black man who, realizing she was a McCain supporter, carved a B (for Barack, you see) into her cheek with a blunt knife, but such was the assailant's finely modulated rage, he didn't manage to break her skin. She showed up with a black eye and sure enough, the red welty B was there, only it was backwards, exactly the way it would be if someone had carved it into her cheek while looking in the mirror. Oops. It didn't take the cops long to get Ashley to fess up that she made the whole thing up. A more pathetic end note for the McCain campaign can hardly be imagined: raving about what awful things that black man has done to  them, clutching their little Obama monkey dolls. We can finally retire all the old myths about McCain the reforming maverick, the man of honour, of sound judgment. He'll go down as running the dirtiest campaign in recent memory, and that's saying something. As for the Grotesque Old Party, it threatens to turn into a lunatic rump, powered only by paranoia and bigotry. Even Colin Powell—having permanently sullied his reputation by his disgraceful performance at the UN when he knew the evidence was, as he was reported to have said at the time, "bullshit"—couldn't take any more.

Palin of the Day: Zamboni

While I was away...

To put it tritely, since I last posted, some 62 trillion (that's 62 million million) chickens have come home to roost, and we face a future of diminished opportunities and cancelled retirements while we find a way to clean up the mess left by the wizards on Wall Street, which doled out $62 billion to itself in bonuses alone in 06. The meltdown has exposed the US as a clapped-out shell of its former self, creating wealth through the financial equivalent of musical chairs, passing ticking Financial Explosive Devices from one to another, pocketing fees and bonuses in the billions along the way. Millions of Americans are headed for ruin, and they are taking the world down with them.

I regret my amateur fascination with particle and astro-physics. I am now haunted by the likelihood that we may have already passed an "event horizon" and are now plunging into a black hole, our momentum now too much for us to overcome until all the wealth we have accumulated is squeezed into a forlorn single dollar. Or maybe the analogy of the boat headed toward the precipice of a great falls is more apt; past a certain point, all the back-paddling in the world results in diddly. At least in this scenario, we can hear the "roar" of our fall before we go over. Or maybe that "sound" is the flush as we vortex down, down, down into the bowl. 

Into a black hole. Off a cliff. Down the crapper. Take your pick.

There are, however, things to be grateful for. In two weeks, Obama will be elected president, and Conrad Black rots in a cell.

Of course, here we did finally have our election, to the tune of a quarter billion, which ended up changing nothing. An increased minority, but a minority just the same. Harper will have until next May to throw his weight around, at which point the Liberals will choose a new leader, and we'll essentially have a do-over of the last Parliament.

It came down to what I spoke of earlier: a tin ear on Québec. Trashing artists is always good to pump up the Tory yahoo base, but Quebecers actually like their artists. Québec has its own home-grown culture, with its own stars, and doesn't quite guzzle American pop culture like English Canada does. It also, quite unlike the rest of Canada, thinks highly of its record in keeping young people out of jail, and has the stats to show that it works. So it was manna from heaven for the Bloc, who came storming back to deny the Harperites a majority.

I agree with Lawrence Martin of the Globe and Mail that we are likely to see Harper leave before the next election (assuming he doesn't have one foisted on him). With everything in his favour this time around, he still couldn't get a majority. Next time out, he can't count on a Liberal leader as easy to defeat as Dion. And by that time, we all stand to be considerably worse off than we are now, which won't bode well for the Tories. So I think Steve will take a look at the landscape and pull a Mike Harris, get out of town while the getting is good.

Since my last post, the US election has taken what looks like will be its final shape, with Obama finally pulling away from Cotton McCain and Peggy Palin. McCain is now just a jittery old poot, reduced to flailing and mugging and Palin seems to be more interested in burnishing her far-right cred for '12. Is a chair on The View in her future?

Palin of the Day: Mutt