New Guy

I see that the fish-eaters have elected a new boss — a guy from Chicago, no less — and there ya go.

Ordinarily, I’d be totally indifferent to this event;  but quite apart from being an atheist, though, I was always critical of the new Pope Leo XIV’s predecessor because he was, to put it mildly, a Green Commie.

However:

Before being elected pope, he shared several posts on X that took aim at the Trump administration’s approach to immigration, including the controversial policy of separating families at the US border. In one post that Pope Leo XIV re-shared, the original author wrote: “There is nothing remotely Christian, American, or morally defensible about a policy that takes children away from their parents and warehouses them in cages. This is being carried out in our name and the shame is on us all.”

Nope, yer Holeyness;  the shame is entirely on the parents who exposed their children to all this.

But still (from Wikipedia):

Pope Leo XIV has opposed the ordination of women to the diaconate. As a bishop, Prevost opposed the inclusion of curriculum regarding “teachings on gender in schools” in Peru, stating that the “promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist.”

Also:

In 2012, Prevost lamented that popular culture fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel”, citing the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”

Sheesh.  If all the above is true (#WikiPediaIsAwful), and apart from the “Catholic” thing, those are things that I might have said.

So maybe the Catholic Church might become something worth belonging to, again, for those people interested in such stuff.  And devout, conservative Catholics — like many of my Loyal Readers — can stop being ashamed of their Church’s leadership.

Doomed By Stupidity

I once had a Jewish girl friend who complained:  “Oy, Judaism is such an inconvenient religion!”  when she was really hungry one morning and I offered her (in jest) a ham-and-cheese sandwich (which she turned down, btw, “because that’s doubleplus-un-kosher, Kim” ).

She should thank her lucky stars she wasn’t a Muslim.

…what used to be known as “taking things to extremes.”

Outrage

So this prime pair:

…needed some painting done in their little love nest, but when they asked one house painter to do the job, they got this reply:

Needless to say, the fegelehs  are “outraged”.  And so am I.

While it is absolutely within anyone’s right to turn down work — for any reason — this little painter needs to get a good swift smack:  not for refusing to work for homosexuals, but for using her religion publicly as an excuse not to do so. Sheesh, could she not just have said, “Sorry, but my work schedule is really full right now, so I can’t do the job”?  Of course not:  she had to use this situation to loudly proclaim her faith — the kind of thing that gives all religious adherents a bad name.  And I know that lying is typically taboo, but FFS there’s a reason they’re called “white lies”:  a falsehood that is used out of politeness or manners to avoid causing offense.

(I typically refer to people like this as “asshole Christians”, although I should also point out that when I once read about a Muslim chick refusing to work in a supermarket’s meat department because it would mean touching pork products, I referred to her in similar terms.)

Now, of course, some other asshole in government (is there another kind?) is going to get all puffed up and outraged too, and as day follows night, regulation and/or law is going to follow — which outrages me — and laws like this will be used to bludgeon people like bakers who refuse, for the same reasons as Painter Polly, to make cakes for soon-to-be-married lesbos.

And all civility is lost, and the lawyers get rich.

As for our two nesting gayboys:  it’s not like the world of interior decorating is devoid of people of similar inclination to yours.  Just find one — it will not be difficult — and stop making a production about it.

Everyone involved in this sad little tale needs to be smacked about the head with a Cluebat®.

Stick To Souls, Padre

From Da Church:

Amid a mounting debate in America over the constitutionality of gun control, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark has entered the fray with a different argument: That people should voluntarily forgo their Second Amendment rights for the betterment of society.

“I honestly believe it is the best thing we can do to change the culture of violence that threatens us today,” Tobin said.

“Let’s voluntarily set aside our rights in order to witness the truth that only peace and never violence, is the way to build a free society that is lived concretely in our homes, our neighborhoods, our communities, our nation and our world,” he said.

Tell you what, Yeronner:  you introduce unicorns into your liturgy first, because that’s where your “never violence” wishful thinking leads to.

And “setting aside rights” never ends well — as the revocation of the First Amendment’s freedom of worship would show you, after about half a second’s thought.

Just… shuddup, you self-righteous asshole.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the range.

Oops

The story of the film so far:  you’re the 65-year-old pastor of a Christian congregation, and one day you decide to admit to everyone that a couple of decades back, you were a very bad boy and had an extramarital affair.  All the congregation rises, and you get a standing ovation for your honesty, humility and courage, etc. etc. amen.

Then this happens:

The woman with whom he had conducted the affair ascended the stage, saying the pastor had slept with her when he was 38 and she was 16.

Whoa.  It takes a lot to make my jaw drop nowadays, but this one did.

RFI:  is there a statute of limitations on statutory rape?