The Pope and Bush
By John Amato Tuesday Apr 15, 2008 10:35amThe Pope is here. Froomkin has a thought.
"Bush's approval rating among Catholics stands at 33 percent in Washington Post-ABC News polling, matching his rating among the general public."
I have to wonder if, while Bush and the pope talk about their shared values, the subject of human dignity and torture will come up.
Here's Benedict in a Sept. 6, 2007 address, stating: "I reiterate that the prohibition against torture cannot be contravened under any circumstances."
CNN cut away from its Pope coverage to bring us this Supreme Court breaking news:
The Supreme Court has upheld the three-drug lethal injection method used by the state of Kentucky in a 7-2 decision, clearing the way for a nationwide stay on executions to be lifted. Chief Justice John Roberts penned the case opinion, while two Justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter, dissented...read on.
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Let the executions and torturing begin in earnest!
They could compare notes...the inquisition vs. the bush administration. I
The United States should join the "civilized" world and abolish the death penalty....and torture.
More crickets....can you hear them?
Is it me or are Roberts, Scalia and Alito all Catholic? And all three voted for lethal injection? Some Catholics those three clowns are!!
Now the US can get back into the race to see who has the most executions this year. We keep great company with that club....China, Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia.....
Great club eh?
-GSD
The Pope should call out this war criminal. It would be so great....for the world.
unless the torturer is a priest and the tortured is a young child
I don't see why anyone would look to the head of a pedophile organization for moral guidance.
Is that a Confederate flag I see behind the pope?
http://www.canadaeast.com/front/article/269659
Joe Klein's conscience @ 4:
I'm Cathollic, and I support the death penalty - under strict judicial review. I make no claim that it is sensible or consistent with my supposed Catholic values. (At the same time, I support a woman's right to choose, and think the rest of this 'Christian nation,' as long as they remain silent on the issue of torture, are no better than I am.)
I thought that five of the Supreme Court justices were Catholic.
I am even more concerned about the executions of those wrongfully convicted. They should abolish the death penalty.
I am with No 5 asking is that a Confederate Flag behind Bush&Pope ? ( Huff Post has the same Photo as the Canadian paper-check it out ) ( that would raise a slew of other questions and concerns [nazi/klan issues?])- anyone know if that Flag really was on the stage ???
Thou Shall Not Kill.
pretty f'in simple.
Why do "Christians" have so much trouble understanding those 4 words?
Torture, Executions, "PreEmptive Wars" & ButtFucking Little Boys.
Christ would be so proud of you !
You have to realized that many prominent American Cardinals are pro-Bush--even in spite of the Pope's condemnation of the war in Iraq. If the Pope comes down hard on Bush, then he'll have a rebellion on his hands.
And it still boggles my mind how millions of American Catholics still mindlessly go to church every Sunday and give their hard-earned cash to the "Catholic Appeal" and other racketeering organizations.
How in hell can Bu$h's approval rating be 33%?! Is there really that many hoodwinked sheeple still left in the U.S.? WTF will it take before these supporters admit what Bu$h and his cabal of crooks and liars has done to their country, their personal safety, and their personal freedom (to name a few things)?
C Quil @ 9:
Yes it is .. Confederate Battle Flag.
wtf?
It's the Mississippi state flag.
http://www.50states.com/flag/msflag.htm
Bitter enigma4ever of Watergate Summer @ 13:
Was George Allen there?
I stand corrected... there's blue below it.. not red or white...
It's not the Mississippi state flag.
Maybe the Pope will pull a pistol out from under his cloth and shoot bush for his crimes.
Let the Crusades begin AGAIN!
Onward Christian soldiers!
MargeAggedon @ 8:
It is folly to smear all priests as pedophiles.
Wrap your head around this..
Big white house dinner in honor of the pope, but he can't make it.
He has a meeting scheduled at the same time.
Ron @ 19:
No. But I think Larry Craig is working the restroom.
This just came across my news ticker-
Reuters-Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, two other civilians killed in Gaza 11:36am EDT
Just sad news.
Life in a Red State, part 254
My Great Aunt, a FOX News junkie, explaining why she preferred George Bush over John Kerry in 2004: "Well at least he's a Christian". Go figure!
Bush couldn't care less what the Pope thinks about torture; Bush isn't Catholic and, if his deeds are the true indication of his beliefs, he doesn't believe in God. His only use for the Pope is that measure of public approval Bush can derive by extracting gestures of approval from Benedict. To Bush, the Pope is just another prop, just as are the troops.
C. Montgomery Burns @ 23:
Ok I'll just call them all fools and point out the pedos as they're arrested.
Abbybwood @ 3:
This won't happen when you have "devout" Christians -- like Chimpy, Gov. Huckabee and others -- who favor the death penalty and support wars of aggression.
Shadowgm Hussein @ 10:
I think you get my point though. I don't know if you ever watch EWTN. It's sickening watching Raymond Arroyo. He's as phony as they come. EWTN just loves that all three are on the court. Yet they are hardly any better Catholics than the hoi polloi.
“Bush’s approval rating among Catholics stands at 33 percent .... his rating among the general public.”
How the fek could they find 33%% of Americans who not only do NOT want this coke head monkey shit canned last week, but actually approve of him?!
False data, or Americans need help and some 'fact goggles'.....
YourMom @ 27:
26 President PNACcio Says: This just came across my news ticker-
Reuters-Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, two other civilians killed in Gaza 11:36am EDT
Just sad news.
Both are sad.
President PNACcio @ 26:
Just more commas.
HEY! The Price Is Right is on!
There is a big difference between so-called Christians and Catholics.
Liberal AND Proud @ 35:
Delusion is delusion.
Will B @ 32:
Ya - one in three still love the monkey licking moron. I don't get it either.
It puts the whole theory of evolution into question... Dammit, the Creationists win again.
BTW, can we call him Pope Benny?
Kill, kill, faster, faster!!! Way to go Supremes.
Brendan @ 37:
Ratzi the nazi is one of the more popular names for the high holy child fucker. But Benny the Knife sound appropriate too since he's the head of a syndicate and all.
CitizenX @ 24:
I heard that the Pope never eats in public.
Bush "Thank you your holiness, awsome speach" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/16/bush-to-pope-benedict-tha_n_969...
Dignity and integrity!!
The Moron Factor, sad the numbers are up to 33%, but hey, 67% is enough as long as we get to the polls.
Am I the only one who hopes that the Pope yells at Bush in German?
What is a Christian?
Somebody who would adhere to the teachings of Christ, as recorded in the New Testamant? Fine. They are a reasonable set of guidelines. You can be an Atheist or even a Muslim to do that!
Unfortunately, a lot of people who call themselves Christians in 21st Century USA, including Catholics, are basically cult members who can't think for themselves and live according to dogma and biblical misinterpretation. No offense meant to anybody!
A reader of the New York Times sent in this joke.
The meeting between the Pope and the president is a meeting of two world leaders.
One barely speaks English and thinks he's the emissary of God
The other is the Pope.
The Catholic church loves executions, soon we will be back to burning people alive thanks to letting elections be stolen. God does not elect are leaders. The bible has fooled everyone, the future of live sacrifices can be seen at sickshit.com. Watch as human beings are sacrificed in the name of tyrants.
Liberal AND Proud @ 35:
sounds like a joke with a punchline.
As a recovering Catholic , I'll never go back to either. "Fear is the heart of love" is the common theme in Christianity. Fear . Fear. Fear the man watching you. It works great on kids to make them conform, but it fucks up adults eventually.
"..Bush and the Pope talk about their shared values...."
Like restricting a woman's right to choose, bashing gay people, and covering up for conservative "family values" hypocrites and sex offenders.
41 Ruthless People
I hope when boosh ever meets a major rabbi he doesn't say he can't wait to dig into the pig.
ThunderMonkey @ 20:
Why is that flag flying at the WH???!!!
Paul @ 28:
I think we could also add the Dalai Lama to that list as well. Bush honors these religious leaders but in reality he uses them for political gain. As everyone knows, Bush and by extension the United States is despised by most of the world because of Bush's policies. We have to keep in mind that the Pope doesn't just represent American Catholics but a faith that has large populations of Catholics in South America and Europe as well. Many of those nations that make up those populations absolutely hate Bush. Bush knows this, so he rolls out the red carpet and will shower the Pope will gifts and praise. Let us just hope that those people in those other nations see through Bush's facade.
War Criminal welcomes War Criminal....what an irony...
MargeAggedon @ 36:
I like to think I'm lusion.
I guess if I'm sick, that would make me an ill lusion.
StirFry @ 47:
Religion is utter complete and total crap.
And it does definitely sound like a joke with a punchline. Unfortunately it's not.
ysbaddaden @ 54:
I'll give it to you but that was a long way to go for that joke :D
Pope and Confederate flag has been "disappeared" from the Canada East online site and replaced with Pope and No Flag picture.
The properties of the picture give this as a permanent link though. Will this be disappeared as well?
http://harvest.canadaeast.com/image.php?id=116234&size=343x247&no_aspect
I was torn as to whom deserved the majority of my sympathy for having to be seen with the other until I took a second look and saw not only "President Resident Evil" but "First Lady Pickles" and "Spring Break Daughter".
Sorry Mr. Pope!
Curtsie!
Brendan @ 37:
Sure. But that would mean if the Pope visited Capitol Hill, we'd have The Benny Hill Show.
If he was celebrating mass at Shea Stadium, it'd be Benny and the Mets. (Though if he chose to take in an opera instead, it'd be Benny at the Met.)
And, of course, you realize that the Popemobile is a Mercedes, meaning it would probably be listed on a shipping manifest as, "Mercedes, Ben's" ...
::: rimshot :::
There's probably a pun waiting in the Michael-Jackson / Pedophile / Ben, a movie about Rats / Ben, a pope whose real name is Ratzinger realm, but I'll leave that one alone for now ...
Gee, on the same day that SCOTUS says it's okay to kill people who kill people to show killing people is wrong. We are the laughing stock of the western world.
Liberal AND Proud @ 35:
Not really - they all mostly ignore the Bible. Things like, thou shalt not kill (applies to Jews too); judge not lest ye be judged; turn and offer the other cheek; easier for a camel to pass thru the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven.
The so-called "christian tenets" seem to have been rejected by-an-large by most "god fearing" christians in this country, from what I can tell.
What makes anyone think that the pope would be against torture? They practically invented water boarding - remember the inquisition?
John @ 61:
I'm not going to be suckered into a religious argument. Nice try though.
Did boosh get to ride the popemobile to the popecave?
Or did the Pope first have to spray him in the face with some popegas?
Also known as flatulence.
zugzug @ 62:
Not personally.
Joe Klein's conscience @ 4:
They're all Catholic. So is Thomas. Several of them, Scalia and Thomas, are members of a radical sect called Opus Dei. See here
John @ 61:
It's my understanding that the Jewish faith does not include the New Testament, therefore, the only item that 'applies to the Jews, too' is your first citation: Thou Shalt Not Kill.
Judge not, lest ye be judged is from the Gospel According to Matthew.
Turning the other cheek is from the Gospel According to Luke.
The eye of the needle/rich man citation is also from Matthew.
Interesting thing though, is Popeman in his other identity as John Ratzinger was the head of the Inquisition now known as the the Committee For Doctrinal Purity.
Bitter enigma4ever of Watergate Summer @ 13:
It's the Mississippi flag - same thing, more or less.
ThunderMonkey @ 20:
Blue beside it, at the top of the flag. Look at the flag pole. The problem is we're used to looking at flags displayed in the official way, with the attachment points for the pole on the viewer's left. This photo is of a flag with the pole to the right.
OK...just noticed a pic of the pope and bushy with a rebel flag in the background...what's up with that?
I tried to copy and paste it here, but obviously it didn't work.
Read somewhere this morning, sorry can't find link, that there are five SC justices who are catholic and they are invited to the pope-less party tonight.
right on! @ 16:
It's the "steeple sheeple". :-)
C. Montgomery Burns @ 23:
and more so to characterize an entire "organization" as such.
YourMom @ 27:
Kerry supports a woman's right to choose. That, in the eyes of some, disqualifies him as a Christian. Plus he has *gasp* Jewish ancestors!
John Barringer @ 74:
indeed you are correct. though i did read an article awhile back about how THIS pope was one of the main guys behind relocating the pedophile priests so they wouldn't be prosecuted.
Did anyone notice ol' Medicated George looking like he was gonna break into another soft-shoe routine as the anthems played? He got this schmucky grin on his face and his head started to bobble just a bit ...
And let us not forget the human dignity of those abused altar boys and the torture it must have been for the priests to be relocated to another Parrish and away from their object of affection.
Imagine! the 2 biggest LIARS in the entire world TOGETHER in one place! One peddling lies to the general public, and the other to a select group of gullible suckers worldwide. It boggles the mind.
And I am forever thankful that I chose to be on the traffic squad instead of an altar boy ...
RB-Chicago @ 52:
As a decidedly lapsed Catholic I'm no big fan of the church or this particular pope but the above is a huge stretch. Ratzinger was a member of the Hitler Youth but that was a legal requirement by the time he was inducted and he did serve in the German army but he was drafted (out of the seminary, for Pete's sake) at the age of 16. He was drafted into the Anti-Aircraft Corps so, arguably, he was shooting at the "war criminals" who were bombing German cities.
Hmmmm, maybe the pope came to warn chimpy of "the curse of bush." Every high level person and their families will cursed and so will their families for 10k years. (Hopefully the family would no longer be after 10k years.)
Religion is utter complete and total crap.
And it does definitely sound like a joke with a punchline. Unfortunately it's not.
Or so you believe. '-)
It's a fricken cult @ 15:
You got that right. Golden fountains, no taxes, millions in donations, millions of Spanish speaking people. The Catholic Church is beyond wealthy. It's in a league of its own (making.)
Shadowgm Hussein @ 77:
He was just getting antsy - couldn't wait to get this "bullshit" over with and go for a bike ride.
F#&@ing infant!
Dumb question -- is Souter Jewish, 'cause that would mean that the Jews are the best Catholics.... I'm getting really confused about all of this.....
John Barringer @ 83:
Religion is utter complete and total crap.
And it does definitely sound like a joke with a punchline. Unfortunately it's not.
Or so you believe. '-)
Nope. I know.
Shadowgm Hussein @ 80:
LMAO! Coffee meet screen! XD
MargeAggedon @ 87:
Or so you believe. '-)
Nope. I know.
Believing is an emotional state. A feeling.
Knowing is what you earn from honest integration of facts.
Is it true the Pope is going to perform for georgie a dramatic recreation of the Burning Bush?
MargeAggedon @ 87:
Or so you believe. '-)
Nope. I know.
As a Wiccaen I resent that
I decided if I was going to be irrational, I would be so in a big way.
I've been a little too successful at it though.
When I was career testing back in my college days, they told me I was almost entirely right-brained (the less rational more creative type.)
ysbaddaden @ 91:
Nope. I know.
As a Wiccaen I resent that
I decided if I was going to be irrational, I would be so in a big way.
I've been a little too successful at it though.
When I was career testing back in my college days, they told me I was almost entirely right-brained (the less rational more creative type.)
Since the existence of God is unprovable, His existence has to be a matter of belief, pro and con. In that light, even athiesm (to which I subscribe) becomes a belief system. (Unless the Babel Fish is real.)
John Barringer @ 92:
--
Athiesm doesn't require that emotion of faith, or belief. I see that it can be that way for some athiests.
"The Pope & Bush"
One crooked pretender to another. When criminal minds get together, people get ripped-off, lied to & murdered.
Atheism isn't a belief system since that would in effect say they believe in not believing.
Logically it cancels itself out.
However one could call it an opinion or a belief in Naturalism or Materialism.
Now yoiu see why I drink so much.
There are a lot of gods, demons, devils, angels, spirits, faeries. They are part of something called the "is-not." My feelings of belief or faith, or absence of these emotions, exert no impact on that "is-not" status.
Hey brad of #96 no picking on Faeries or gnomes or leprechauns.....They are the only ones I can count on to clean my house or chase rabbits from the garden...
The problem is that 'belief' has become synonymous with 'being right'. You must be damned in order for me to be saved, and so on. It's when faith becomes a zero-sum game that we wind up with problems, a concept of the divine that requires exclusions rather than inclusions.
Frybread @ 30:
which must be the Christian way... whatever happened to that saying? It went something like this: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
I thought that was called the golden rule in Christian circles, certainly in the 1950s, 1960s, and maybe even the 1970s... when the evangelicals overran things, it seemed they tossed this out with the baby and the bathwater.
Should not this be titled "the pig and the poke"?
?
Just read the NY Post lead page if you want to see what disrepect, ignorance and friggin ARROGANCE towards another religion and a country/ally. PITIFUL
I love the way karma is piling up the ironies. Like when they broke from some upbeat Iraq speech by McCain to announce a big bombing in Iraq. Maybe it's just the revenge of the (real) news editors.
I have to post a small defense of Catholic Charities. They really do a lot of good in their communities. And unlike some of the Rescue Missions, there are no religious strings attached. Traditionally Catholics are supposed to teach by example, not by proselytizing.
Powkat @ 102:
Any relation?
http://www.psu.edu/dept/inart10_110/inart10/gif%20krazy.GIF
Powkat @ 103:
People tend to connect the value of the charities to the perceived value of the church authority. Misleading tacked-on distractions, like beautiful classical cathedral art.
Here's a serman the Pope should listen to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk
Sermen?
Sermon
Like the Jamaicans.
MountainMan23 @ 17:
not a confederate battle flag, but not much better. Mississippi state flag. Also seen Indiana's flag. not sure what those are there for. here are all of the state flags.
http://www.tmealf.com/4x6/US%20States-ALL-2.jpg
Brad @ 93:
Faith and belief aren't the same thing, really. You might say that belief is the holding of a position in the absence of convincing supportive evidence, while faith is the holding of a belief despite evidence to the contrary.
"The Supreme Court has upheld the three-drug lethal injection method used by the state of Kentucky in a 7-2 decision, clearing the way for a nationwide stay on executions to be lifted. "
===>>Ban the morning-after pill, cuz it's outright MURDER.
23 C. Montgomery Burns Says: MargeAggedon @ 8:
I don’t see why anyone would look to the head of a pedophile organization for moral guidance.
It is folly to smear all priests as pedophiles.
=====================
Yes, tis true. It doesn't seem to matter when you talk about gays though, does it? These are the "propaganda wars". You may quote me on that.
Mpls_Dem @ 109:
Many government ceremonies include the display of all 50 state flags as well as the flag of the US. Part of my time in the Army was spent in the US Army Honor Guard. Part of my duties there was to carry one state flag or another during various ceremonies (though I never got to carry my own state flag, that of Maryland, which I think is among the most beautiful).
Edwin Hussein (small town bitter oaf) @ 112:
I may. It's absolutely true. We humans have an endless capacity for demonizing "the Other".
C Quil @ 9:
Obhviously it WAS a Confederate flag because the site has been removed!
Also: I think it's bizarre that the White House would go to all the trouble of having a dinner in honor of the Pope and they didn't know that the Pope would be at prayers then and could not attend the dinner? Smells as fishy as those scallops on the menu. Pity they didn't have a Passover seder for the Pope instead(a few nights too early) and then he wouldn't have been able to sneak out of that one.
Shadowgm Hussein @ 67:
-----------------------------------------
About the Jewish faith: Actually not only "Thou shalt not kill" (the Old Testament): The Jewish faith always reveres the Talmud which permits the murder of all non-Jews WITH IMPUNITY.
It also permits having sex with children "as long as they are under nine years of age".
http://www.missionislam.com/nwo/talmud.htm
I'll bet the Bush Drunk and Ratso are out cruisin' for altar boys and hash about now.
mystic @ 115:
No, it was the Mississippi flag. You don't seriously think the white House would fly the Confederate battle flag at an official ceremony, now do you?
Interesting poll because the US Council of Bishops, or whatever they're called, issued a poll that said 8 out of 10 Catholics agree with their Pope. As a former Catholic, I would go with the WaPo poll: it's more like 3 out of 10.
117 Pechorin Says: I’ll bet the Bush Drunk and Ratso are out cruisin’ for altar boys and hash about now.
Corned beef hash? Love it!
3 Abbybwood Says: The United States should join the “civilized” world and abolish the death penalty….and torture.
More crickets….can you hear them?
That'll Be the Day...
So Stevens voted in favor of this and yet he's also today being quoted as saying that he's now against capital punishment. Sounds like double-speak to me.
They each seem to have a rather large percentage of sexual perverts working for them.
How nice that George and Laura held a birthday party for a man whose church dogma condemns abortion and pays lip service to ending capital punishment! As for Pope guy, not only did this former Hitler Youth boy soldier help facilitate child molestation by priests during his predecessor's reign (stonewalling, moving pedophile clerics to new parishes and new opportunities for abuse), Bendict regularly wrote John Paul II's anti-abortion bulls against pregnancy termination on the principle that "life begins at conception." Yes, but sometimes it ends at lethal injection. And there was Pope guy wining and dining with the World Champion Capital Punisher. Dubya killed more men and women as governator of Texas in eight years than all previous govs in 160 years. Shouldn't Benedict have declined the White House invitation for this reason alone?
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