The Catholic Church in LA to pay $660 million

It’s about time.

Parishioners across the sprawling Los Angeles Archdiocese responded with relief, support and a measure of worry Sunday to news that the church will pay $660 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse, the largest payout to date in the nationwide Roman Catholic molestation crisis.

But some also angrily blamed Cardinal Roger M. Mahony for failing to reach a settlement in the local cases years earlier.

“I’m furious,” said Robert Sotelo, a retired West Covina electrician, after hearing Mahony celebrate Mass at the downtown Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. “Why did he take so long?”

Well, until the massive amount of abuse in Boston was publicly uncovered, the Church was, as it always has been, supremely arrogant in believing that they were untouchable.  That’s one reason.  They wanted to hide the systemic problem in the priesthood.  That’s another reason.  The fact that the Church is made mostly of men, with all the flaws and desires contained therein, and are expected to fight human nature at every turn and suppress the way we were all made, well that’s yet another.

You know what’s missing from this long-term, massive scandal?  A hell of a lot of criminal prosecutions.

Posted by JimK at 04:37 PM on July 17, 2007
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Categories: News,  The Catholic Church,  Crime and Criminals
Tags: catholic church scandal abuse

The Breck Girl is a pussy

This is rich.  So Amanda Marcotte says horrible and hateful things for like, five years, and because Edwards throws a little money at her, all of a sudden she’s sorry for it all.

Interesting.  Not standing by her vitriol...I wonder why?  Oh yeah, the money.  Hey, that makes Amanda Marcotte a whore.  So anyway, Edwards unfired her.  The woman who wrote this:

Today’s “Jesus cries when women fuck” update by Amanda Marcotte

Well, the Texas House of Representatives got Republican Jesus and he reminded them that out of of all the things he hates, which are multitude, nothing incurs his wrath more than women’s sexuality.

Don’t relegate yourself to the used cunt lot

Of course, if you’re a perverted religious nut, the blood and the pain of “cherry”-breaking is probably a de riguer part of a woman’s life, both to give the man a cheap thrill of actual blood while enacting the sex-as-violent-possession construction that is part of virginity fetishization and to remind the woman of her religious teaching that womanhood is suffering (see: Genesis).

And this:

Q: What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit?
A: You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology.

That woman didn’t intend to to “malign anyone’s faith?” Pardon my French, but bull fucking shit.  Look, if you know me, you know I have no great love for the Catholic Church.  In fact I have no great love for any organized religion.  I respect a few philosophies here and there.  I respect a few religious leaders and/or icons here and there.  I’ve said some pretty nasty things about Catholic leadership specifically because, let’s face it, a lot of them fuck young boys...too many to be simply random luck of the draw in the pedophile lottery.  There is something evil and systemic at work in the modern church.

What you will not see is me denying or repudiating or even apologizing for saying it.  It was true then, it’s true now and I stand by my words.  I would never make up some nonsense like I didn’t mean to “malign anyone’s faith.” Of course I did. Every nasty thing i have ever said about Catholic priests and the Vatican was designed specifically to malign the Catholic Church.  If Amanda says she never intended to “malign anyone’s faith,” she’s a liar, John Edwards is a liar when he says he believes her, and they deserve the failure that is about to be heaped upon them.

Let me recap: 

More

Bigot and horrible person repudiates five years of posturing and proselytizing because the Breck Girl batted his eyelashes and left her some money on the dresser, thereby confirming that she is in fact for sale, and cheaply to boot.  Amanda Marcotte has whored herself to John Edwards.

See, this is why I just piss EVERYONE off and ruin any chances I ever have to do something like blog for a presidential candidate.  I just could not live with myself if I had to apologize for my honest opinions and pretend I didn;t mean what I said over the last five years.  I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror without feeling like a complete whore.  I couldn’t sell my integrity that cheaply.

Plus I’ll never give up saying “fuck” in blog posts, not even for Rudy Giuliani.  I’d make them put it in my contract, “JimK is allowed to say ‘fuck’ in all its forms on the Giuliani For President campaign blog.” Which ultimately is why I would say no to a candidate if, and this would never happen, one asked me to blog for them.  I’d be a liability, just like Marcotte is to Edwards.  The difference between us - besides the politics - is that I am not a whore.  My integrity, such as it is, is not for sale to anyone.

Edwards is even more done today than he was yesterday.  Hillary looks like a paragon of virtue and sense - and an island of religious compassion - next to the team of Marcotte and Edwards. 

Hat Tip: Dan Riehl, who not only has links to Amanda’s highlights, but also said “Thank God you losers found each another, it makes you so much easier to spot.” Exactly.

*UPDATE*

Oh my.  Jeff Goldstein - another blogger you may remember hates my guts and once threatened me, so if I’m linking, you know I must think he’s done this justice - could not be more on point about Marcotte.  His post is packed with information and links that show, in no uncertain terms, what kind of person Marcotte really is.  It’s not about her hatred of Catholics.  She hates EVERYONE who isn’t a far-left progressive female.  Jeff sums it up well with these words:

Of course it was her intent.  Just as it was McEwan’s intent.  And worst of all, Edwards knows it. That he has pretended to take the two at their word, in an ostentatious gesture of “trust,” is precisley the kind of staged treacle that makes people doubt the sincerity of politicians; and that both Marcotte and McEwan have assured their own personal Patriarch that they’ll behave, now that he’s promoted them to the grownups’ table, is, to put it bluntly, one of the most pathetic public surrenderings of personal integrity I’ve ever seen.

Seriously.  We should feel bad for them.

That is, were we to actually believe they meant any of it.  Because how this plays out for the netroots is this way:  either they are cheering on an ideological sellout, or they are knowingly and happily embracing an opportunistic liar.  So.  Congrats to them.  Once again, they’ve covered themselves in white hot sticky glory!

Bingo.  That’s what this boils down to; Edwards supporters are applauding a liar or they are cheering on a whore.  Either way, this is going to bring John Edwards’ political career to an end.  Thanks, Amanda!  We really appreciate the work you’ve done on behalf of conservatives everywhere!

Also, see Malkin for a roundup of reactions.

Lastly, Iowahawk is on fire with The Pandagon Papers

Less

Posted by JimK at 03:50 PM on February 08, 2007
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Categories: News,  Politics,  The Catholic Church,  The Stupidity Of Man
Tags:  Amanda Marcotte Election 2008

Muslims the world over determined to prove Benedict XVI right

Can someone explain to me why, if a person claims that you are violent by nature, you would say to them “Take it back or I’ll kill you?”

I mean, doesn’t that simply confirm that the person levelling the criticism is 100% right about you?

In case you missed it, Pope Palpatine (I swear I cannot see him without seeing the Emperor!) said:

Rather than tackling the challenge of fundamentalist terrorism with a pithy remark packaged for the 9/11 anniversary or reaching for a John Paul-inspired sweeping gesture, the professor Pope went digging into his books. He went so far as to quote a 14th century Byzantine emperor´s hostile view of Islam’s founder. “The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war,” the Pope said. “He said, I quote, ‘Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.’” Benedict added “I quote” twice to make it clear these were someone else’s words. Nevertheless this reference was undoubtedly the most provocative moment of a provocative lecture. In a sense, explicitly including the Muslim prophet by name, and citing the concept of jihad, was a flashing neon signal to the world that the soft-spoken Pope intends to make himself heard clearly on this defining tension of our times.

He was right to make the effort to make sure they knew he was quoting someone else, not that it mattered, and he was right in the quote he chose.  Now I feel dirty.  I just defended the Pope.  Still, when a man is right, he’s right.  At some point Islam is going to have to come to terms with the fact that there is violence at the heart of the religion and the social, societal structure around most nations that feature Islam as the predominant religion.  I don’t know what came first, the violence inherent in the worship or the social pressures creating a violent society, and I don’t much care.  It’s 2006, not 1006.  Fucking grow up already.  Join the technological revolution.  Move past the dark ages.

Let it go, Muslims.  Learn to let things go.  Not everything must be responded to with cries of jihad and acts of violence.  Sometimes you can just laugh at the infidel and carry on with your day.  Try it...it’s very liberating.

Posted by JimK at 01:46 AM on September 17, 2006
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Categories: News,  The Catholic Church,  The Middle East
Tags: Catholic Church pope benedict Islam

I find myself torn

On the one hand, bad, bad criminal.  On the other...

A jury today rejected a prison inmate’s insanity defense and found him guilty of first-degree murder in the strangulation of pedophile priest John Geoghan, a central figure in Boston’s clergy sex abuse scandal.

Joseph Druce admitted sneaking into Geoghan’s prison cell in August 2003. He jammed the door shut with a book, then beat and strangled the 68-year-old defrocked priest.

The defense had argued that Druce was mentally ill and under the delusion that God had chosen him to kill Geoghan and send a message to pedophiles around the world. Prosecutors presented a different picture, describing Druce as a conniving killer who planned the murder for weeks so he could be a “big shot” in prison.

“He was not a mentally ill person, raging out of control,” Prosecutor Lawrence Murphy said. “He’s a calculating individual who waited for his opportunity.”

After the verdict was read, Druce looked at the jury and said: “It’s all right. Good job.”

“No hard feelings. Have a good night,” he added as the jury filed out of the courtroom.

During the trial, Druce had described a troubled childhood in which his father beat him and his mother, and he said he was physically and sexually abused at a residential school for troubled children.

He killed Geoghan, he said, to avenge the innocent children the former priest was accused of molesting. He said he overheard Geoghan advise other inmates on how to molest children and say he planned to move to South America after prison so he could resume working with children.

“I had seen myself as the designated individual who had to put a stop to the pedophilia in the church,” Druce said.

I...uhh...kind of want to call Druce a hero, to be honest with you.  Child molesters are bad enough.  Priests who do it?  Yeah...a little prison death is too good for them.

Posted by JimK at 11:51 PM on January 25, 2006
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Categories: News,  Crime and Criminals,  The Catholic Church
Tags: John Geoghan pedophile Boston Catholic Church Joseph Druce

I spoke too soon!

Looks like I have a legitimate reason to dislike the new pope after all.

In a small volume published in 2000 called The Spirit of the Liturgy, itself an expansion of an essay Ratzinger wrote in 1986, the future pope argued,“‘Rock’… is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals, it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe.”

What a backwater,hillbilly, unenlightened and moronic way to view music.

Before anyone can complain that I am focusing on something as inane as what Ratzinger thinks about rock & roll, hear me out.

A person who would hold such an antiquated, nonsensical notion is someone who will likely hold such notions about a lot of things.  Someone like this still thinks woman need hysterectomies to cure the vapors.  The point of watching a public figure of power who would act as a censor of entertainment is that they clearly do not have the best interests of freedom in mind.

The other point that people fail to realize is that anyone who would dictate to you what you should and should not watch, read or listen to is not giving you any credit for being a thinking, reasonable adult with the intellect to decide for yourself.  In fact, it’s more than just not giving you credit...they are actively seeking to remove your ability to decide, instead treating you like a sub-human who doesn’t have the ability to think for yourself, needing them to make decisions as basic as what television show to watch or if you should ever listen to a “rock” record again.  In this case, you no longer have the blessing of the pope if you choose to defile your good Catholic life with say, Buddy Holly.

Does that even seem sane?

It’s simply ridiculous.  There is no excuse for a politician, a church leader or anyone else to treat people that way.  And if they do...do you truly believe in your heart that their lack of faith in your ability to make decisions will stop with entertainment?

Of course not.  It’s completely unreasonable to think they would stop there...after all, you’re not smart enough to decide for yourself...they must do it for you.  In otherwords, they create the need for themselves to exist in your life.  Thereby keeping themselves in one form of power or another.

Amazing how that works, isn’t it?

Watch the watchers, people.  The censor reveals more about him or her self than they realize.

In lighter fare...If I am elected, my pope name, based on my real name, will be
Pope Monstrous Doug I.  If I use my commonly used nickname online, it will be Pope Ugly Harry II.  Sweet.

Posted by JimK at 12:19 AM on April 21, 2005
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Categories: Entertainment,  Things To Ponder,  Politics,  The Catholic Church

The new pope

I don’t care.  The institution is damaged beyond repair.  Good bad or indifferent, a new pope won’t mean a damned thing until they own up to systemic abuse of children and a despicable plan that goes all the way to the top to cover it all up. 

Posted by JimK at 07:00 AM on April 20, 2005
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Categories: The Catholic Church

More Catholic leadership idiocy

Can you believe these idiots?

Vatican officials on Thursday held out Pope John Paul II’s stoic suffering with Parkinson’s disease as an antidote to the mentality that modern medicine must cure all, calling this a “religion of health” that is taking hold in affluent countries.

“While millions of people in the world struggle to survive hunger and disease, lacking even minimal health care, in rich countries the concept of health as well-being figures in creating unrealistic expectations about the possibility of medicine to respond to all needs and desires,” said the Rev. Maurizio Faggioni, a theologian and morality expert on the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life.

“The medicine of desires, egged on by the health care market, increases the request for pharmaceutical and medical-surgical services, soaks up public resources beyond all reasonableness,” Faggioni said.

He spoke at a news conference before a debate to be held at the academy next week on politically hot issues such as the right to life and medical care.

Psychiatrist Manfred Lutz, a Vatican academic, hailed John Paul, who for years has struggled with Parkinson’s, as “the living alternative to the prevailing health-fiend madness.”

Wow.  Just...wow.  Sick?  In pain?  Don’t go to the doctor, you should suffer for your sins, you piece of filth.  Don’t see relief until you are a quivering mass of pain and disease, beyond any hope of being cured.

What the fuck is wrong with these people, and why would any rational adult still follow them?  Need more proof that the Catholic Church is hopelessly out of touch with the needs of the world?

OK.

Asked about anti-AIDS measures, Sgreccia reiterated the Vatican’s teaching against use of condoms and the Church’s insistence that sexual faithfulness within marriage is the best ways to combat the HIV contagion.

Yeah, that head-in-the-sand routine works REAL good.

Idiots.  Amazingly blind, just-as-bad-as-fundamentalist-mullahs idiots.  Cox & Forkum, as usual, get it right.

Posted by JimK at 04:16 AM on March 03, 2005
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Categories: The Stupidity Of Man,  The Catholic Church

Allow me to clarify something

I’ll admit it, I was pretty harsh in my post about the Catholic League going after a television show.  I have a lot of anger toward the Catholic Church.  No, a priest never touched me.  SOmeone else did.  Doesn’t mean a thing.  *ANY* human should have had had enough when the Catholic powers-that-be needed the outrges of an entire world before they moved to do *anything* productive about the molestation issues.

However, I am not mad at Catholics.  If you choose to continue to be a member of the chursh, I don;t understand your decision but I don’t hate you for it.  My anger is directed at the Church and at the presumptious assholes like the Catholic League, who apparently exist to be perpectually offended.

And in case anyone else wants to ask me, if that TV show had mocked Jews or Muslims or anyone else, I would not be outraged. In case you;re new to me and my site, the thing that offends me more than anything are people who get professionally offended at EVERYTHING.  I am, in all things, an advocate of FREEDOM.

Go look that word up and see if you can come up with a reason why it digusts me when any religious group tries to legislate what should be a parental job.  As for offended adults?  GROW UP.  If you don’t like what hapens on a TV show, don’t watch the show.  Or, if you were smart, you *watch* the show, find out who advertises on that show and contact THEM with your complaints.

Instead, everyone’s first reaction is to try to get networks take something off the air.  Oh my sentive ears!  I can’t imagine having to push the button on my remote!  Oh my sensitive eyes!  I thnk I saw a pretty girl in skimpy clothing!

Grow the hell up.  You have control over what enters your home.  Kids or no kids, you *can* control what you are exposed to.  You can’t control *every* little thing, but no one forces you to watch edgy programs.  Hell, no one forces you to watch TV at all.  Go read a book, if you can find one you haven’t burned yet.

As for regular folks, especially thinse of you that frequent this place and are Catholic (or any other religion I may offend in the future), most of the time my words are not directed at you, but at those who are in charge of your choice of religions.  My words to you would be along the lines of “Why don’t you support freedom?”

You see, forced morality is not morality at all.  Maybe more people need to read (not watch the movie) “A Clockwork Orange.”

Posted by JimK at 09:24 AM on March 01, 2005
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Categories: Things To Ponder,  The Catholic Church

Why I got out

This is a prime example of why I despised being a Catholic.  The most hypocritical, uptight, asinine organized religion on the planet, bar none.

Hey idiots?  IT’S A FRIGGING TELEVISION SHOW THAT NO ONE WATCHES.  Way to get them higher ratings, morons. 

My favorite part is the “poor us” from the Catholic League.  I wonder if they got as many complaints each and every time a priest was found to have FUCKED A CHILD?  Could that be the last time they received so many complaints?

It’s been quite a while since we’ve been deluged with as many complaints as this episode of ‘Committed’ fielded.

Whatever, Nancyman.  Call me when you actually give a shit about the massive number of molestations for which your scumfuck of a priesthood is reponsible.  Or maybe one of the big-mouthed Catholic bloggers could take a minute or two to mention it.  Or maybe, just maybe, bloggers that pretend to care about issues that cause kids to hurt themselves could point out that getting fucked by a priest might do some emotional damage, whereas watching a TV show where they made some jokes about the holy cracker does exactly nothing to anyone who doesn’t already want to be outraged.

I suppose it’s not as easy to look to your own house as it is to write columns about how Angelina Jolie and emo music are killing our children.

Oh, and transubstantiation is a metaphor you unbelievable jackasses.  Stop calling for the cancellation of every goddamned thing that “offends” your precious sensibilities already.  You’re making the rest of us sick.

Posted by JimK at 05:00 PM on February 27, 2005
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Categories: The Catholic Church

Officials bristle at bishop’s epistle

I’m with the Madison Dems on this one.

Posted by JimK at 01:40 AM on December 06, 2003
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Categories: The Catholic Church