I have a rule about bringing politics into the LNMC because it's all about the music so I obeyed my own rules. I wanted to give a shout out to Sinead O'Connor for writing a terrific op-ed in the Washington Post about the Sex scandal that has rocked Ireland involving the Catholic Church and the Pope.

In October 2005, a report sponsored by the Irish government identified more than 100 allegations of sexual abuse by priests in Ferns, a small town 70 miles south of Dublin, between 1962 and 2002. Accused priests weren't investigated by police; they were deemed to be suffering a "moral" problem. In 2009, a similar report implicated Dublin archbishops in hiding sexual abuse scandals between 1975 and 2004.

Why was such criminal behavior tolerated? The "very prominent role which the Church has played in Irish life is the very reason why abuses by a minority of its members were allowed to go unchecked," the 2009 report said.

Despite the church's long entanglement with the Irish government, Pope Benedict's so-called apology takes no responsibility for the transgressions of Irish priests. His letter states that "the Church in Ireland must first acknowledge before the Lord and before others the serious sins committed against defenceless children." What about the Vatican's complicity in those sins?

Benedict's apology gives the impression that he heard about abuse only recently, and it presents him as a fellow victim: "I can only share in the dismay and the sense of betrayal that so many of you have experienced on learning of these sinful and criminal acts and the way Church authorities in Ireland dealt with them." But Benedict's infamous 2001 letter to bishops around the world ordered them to keep sexual abuse allegations secret under threat of excommunication -- updating a noxious church policy, expressed in a 1962 document, that both priests accused of sex crimes and their victims "observe the strictest secret" and be "restrained by a perpetual silence....read on

Please reads the full op-ed. It's quite powerful. I remember when she tore up the Pope's picture on SNL (Youtube news report embedded here) and the visceral reaction she received over it. It was as if she committed a form of sexual abuse on the church and the Pope. Artists that take a stand like she did risk their entire careers to shed light on injustices. Anyway, she's my hero.

These scandals have really hurt me deeply even though I no longer adhere to all the teachings or rituals of the Catholic Church as I once did. Italians, just like the Irish revered the Catholic church and I grew up as a child and young adult in that world. What she did in 1992 was courageous and necessary, but to see the reality play out now in real time is so disturbing. And I'm positive we'll see a lot more.

Thank you, Sinead.

A quick shout out to the one of our own, the blogger "Jump to the Left" at Les Enrages, who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation at UCLA this week.

"Yep, that's one more hyper-smart well-educated woman that you'll never get a date with, Glenn." "Back at you, Sean."

Open Thread below....

Tonight I am at a blogger meet-up in Washington DC, sponsored by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. A shout out to the bloggers in attendence I've had the opportunity to meet: Last Left Before Hooterville, My Left Wing, Yikes!, Pharyngula, Bad Astronomer, One Pissed Off Veteran, Tristero of Hullabaloo, Neural Gourmet and Lambert and Vast Left from Corrente.

Open Thread below. Happy Sunday.

Excuse me, Henry Kissinger, why are you writing op-eds for papers in the United Arab Emirates? And John McCain is not a flip-flopper, he's a metronome.

Waldenswimmer : A helpful guide to controlling your gag reflex during the SOTU.

Les Enrages - gets a virtual visit from the Pentagon.

Spocko's Brain takes a well-deserved comedy break. And a big shout out to The Electronic Frontier Foundation, for giving Spocko free legal representation in the KSFO case.

Jesus' General is in correspondence with Dinesh d'Souza . And Norbizness Axes the President a la Jim Lehrer.

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guest round up by Blue Gal - bluegalsblog AT gmail DOT com

I've been posting about the sick Christian video games that Rick Warren has been part of the last few weeks. Now it appears that the pressure got to one of Warren's top aides, who has resigned as an adviser to the developers of Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Here's the newest Update:
"Mark Carver, a top aide to mega-church pastor and best selling author Rick Warren, has resigned as a business advisor to Left Behind Games, the developers of a video game in which Christian militias wage physical and spiritual warfare using the power of prayer and modern military weaponry to convert New Yorkers and kill those who resist. Mr. Carver's abrupt resignation, announced in a statement e-mailed to Talk to Action by Mr. Warren's Purpose Driven Ministries on June 6, 2006, came in response to a two-part series on Talk to Action that criticized the game's antisocial nature (warriors shout "Praise the Lord!" as they blow infidels away, and players can switch to the side of the AntiChrist to kill Christians)."

James Brady gets a letter about Home school Ben

Jane writes the mother of all letters to James " Crybaby" Brady about the hiring of Ben to the Washington Post blog.

Dear Jim,

I know it's been a while, I hope you didn’t think I'd forgotten you. But when I heard that you'd hired Ben Domanech to set up his own tumescent little outpost of wingnuttia at the post.com, I just had to give my home boy a shout out....read on

UPDATE: The Rude Pundit auditions for the Washington Post Blog as the resident liberal. Do you think he'll get it?

My good friend from Bradblog, has just started a radio show via Raw Radio called The Brad Show.

Its on Saturday nights 7p - 11p ET (4p - 8p PT) Rebroadcast Sunday afternoon:

12noon-4p ET (9a - 1a PT)

Finally, the bloggers have a media voice! Let's shout about it!

Shaun (O Mac) Daily former member of the Clinton/Gore 96 National Steering Committee hosts a webcast that is a discussion talk show not a shout and yell talk show that is the norm as of late.

Wednesday at 6pm PST to listen to the show go to www.lvrocks.com click on LISTEN and to join in the discussion click on CAM/CHAT. This is my first, so who knows what I'll say.

Shaun also blogs at Subject to Discussion