Firing a Catholic priest, having teenagers arrested for exercising their 1st Amendment rights, Paul Ryan just doesn't give a f*ck anymore.

I am blowing this Popsicle stand, so fuck all of you!

Courtesy of the NYT: 

The chaplain of the House said on Thursday that he was blindsided when Speaker Paul D. Ryan asked him to resign two weeks ago, a request that he complied with but was never given a reason for. 

The sudden resignation of the chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy, shocked members of both parties. He had served in the role since he was nominated in 2011 by Speaker John A. Boehner, a fellow Catholic. In an interview, Father Conroy was categorical: His departure was not voluntary. 

“I was asked to resign, that is clear,” Father Conroy said. As for why, he added, “that is unclear.” 

“I certainly wasn’t given anything in writing,” he said. “Catholic members on both sides are furious.” 

Father Conroy said he received the news from Mr. Ryan’s chief of staff. “The speaker would like your resignation,” Father Conroy recalled being told. He complied.

Father Conroy does have a theory about why he was fired:  

Though Father Conroy said he did not know whether politics were behind his departure, he pointed to a prayer he had given on the House floor in November, when Congress was debating tax overhaul legislation. 

“May all members be mindful that the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle,” he prayed. “May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.”

Conroy says that he was chastised after that prayer for getting "too political," and not long after that he was out.

However Paul Ryan says "Nuh uh. that's not why I did it."

Courtesy of Politico:  

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) tried to quell the controversy Friday morning by addressing his decision to fire Father Patrick Conroy during a private GOP conference meeting. Ryan said Conroy's ouster wasn’t politically motivated, as some have speculated. He said it came after complaints from multiple members about how the Jesuit priest wasn’t meeting their “pastoral needs,” as several Republican lawmakers exiting the meeting put it.

Oh yeah, how many priests do we know that were fired for not providing enough Jesus juice to the flock?

(Actually this is the first time in history that a priest has EVER been given the old heave ho by the Congress.)

But Ryan's scorched earth policy did not end there.

Naomi is in high school, she just got arrested while peacefully protesting outside of Paul Ryan's office. Naomi has a message for @SpeakerRyan. Please retweet this and tweet out the link to make sure he gets it.@_naomi_abigail_ #DworkinReport #NeverAgainhttps://t.co/gWXJmCndr4

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 27, 2018

Apparently since Ryan has no plans to run for reelection he is not even going to pretend that he is not a festering pustule on the face of humanity.

I am one of those who has known that Paul Ryan is a hateful little prick since he first came on the scene.

Now with one foot out the door he no longer seems interested in hiding that fact.

Idaho Senator Dan Foreman yells "Abortion is murder" at his constituents and then threatens to have them arrested. Yes, he's a Republican.

This is how Senator Dan Foreman, Idaho District 5, treats his constituents. We drove 7 hours to meet with him and he threatened to call the police if we entered his office. SPREAD THIS! pic.twitter.com/SfDzdciqg1

— nicky (@nicky_skinz) February 19, 2018

Well he seems nice.

Irish priest claims there is a desperate need for more exorcists due to increase in "demonic activity." Hang on, I have to check what year it is again.

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

An Irish priest has put out an urgent call for backup to help with the growing demand for exorcisms in the country, according to reports. 

“It’s only in recent years that the demand [for exorcisms] has risen exponentially,” Father Pat Collins said, adding that anyone who doesn’t see the need for more exorcists is “out of touch with reality.” Collins wrote an open letter to Irish bishops asking them to begin training more priests to deal with exorcisms, and he cited the International Association of Exorcists’ belief that demonic activity has increased substantially in recent years.

Collins has been speaking out about the activities of what he has called “the evil one” for years. He is widely considered Ireland’s most prominent exorcist, and he has also advocated for the church to take a more active role in demon hunting.

 "Anyone who doesn’t see the need for more exorcists is out of touch with reality.”

Just let that bounce around in your skull a little.

These are the people we are forced to share the planet with. These are the people whose beliefs we are encouraged to respect.

Thank you, but no thank you.

This kind of superstitious nonsense should be called out and refuted every single time we hear about it.

No, people are not talking to an actual god.

No, there are no guardian angels watching over you.

No, there are no spirits which need to be placated with charms or magic spells.

And no, there are no demons.

Yes, there is mental illness, and yes there are scientifically based strategies for supporting those who suffer with them.

And an exorcism is the very last thing that they need.

Students at an all girls Catholic School in Maryland out their substitute teacher for his alt-right views, and participation in Charlottesville riot.

Courtesy of Fox News: 

A substitute teacher and field hockey coach at an all-girls Catholic school in Maryland was fired after his "alt-right" views were discovered by students. 

Gregory Conte was fired this week from the Academy of the Holy Cross in Kensington after students discovered his personal Twitter profile in which he made remarks such as “Hitler did not commit any crimes,” FOX 5 DC reported.

The Twitter account, in which Conte used the name Gregory Ritter, said he was the director of operations at the National Policy Institute, which is run by high profile white supremacist Richard Spencer. Conte's Twitter account was still active when this article was published. 

The students also found footage of Conte at the deadly August white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. 

The school issued a statement to parents in which they claimed that Conte's views did not seem to have a negative impact on his students.

Oddly enough the school learned about Conte's troubling alter ego in October, but did not notify the parents until January.

As for Conte, he does not seem to have had his beliefs shaken in the least.

It's wonderful to see all these people coming out in support of me on Twitter. Thank you, all. Now... once the Alt-Right takes over IRL, we cannot be stopped!

— Gregory Ritter (@Real_Greg_Conte) January 6, 2018

Well that's a troubling tweet.

New book reveals Vatican intrigue, Mother Teresa's vast wealth, and rampant pedophilia.

The book is called "Original Sin" by author Gianluigi Nuzzi, and it paints a rather disgusting picture of the Holy See as a den of iniquity, depravity, and base immorality.

Here are some excerpts courtesy of the Daily Beast:

The book is filled with salacious scoops, backed up by copies of documents printed in an exhaustive index. He shines a light on the disappearance of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee who went missing 30 years ago after a music lesson and whose body has never been found. Conspiracy theorists waffle between theories that she was kept as a sex slave for priests for years or that she was murdered by a local Roman gang of criminals as a threat to her father, who may have witnessed a crime. 

Nuzzi provides interview transcripts, sealed court documents and secret video from when police opened a mobster’s tomb in Rome to search for her body to support the theory that she was murdered by an “international group” that Pope Francis has been made aware of. He asks if justice has or will ever be served in the case.

On Mother Teresa:   

Nuzzi also sullies the legend of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, made a saint by Francis in 2016. He has uncovered accounting slips from secret bank accounts, in dollars and Italian lire, that the austere nun kept in her charity’s name in the troubled Vatican bank during the time when American archbishop Paul Marcinkus led the institution. 

Nuzzi said her accounts were so flush that if she had withdrawn the money or transferred to a more legitimate institution, the bank “risked default.” The nun, whose net worth is thought to be in the billions in the name of her charity, was such a valued client that she was ushered in through a secret door so no one suspected she was the bank’s wealthiest patron at a time when most women were prohibited from having accounts in their own names.

On the almost institutionalized pedophilia:   

But the most troubling revelation in the book is one that Nuzzi himself admits he only scratched the surface of. He provides horrific proof of widespread sexual abuse inside San Pio X, the pre-seminary boarding school where middle school and high school age boys who express interest in joining the priesthood are still sent today. 

The boys of the institute, housed in the same majestic building where former Vatican secretary of State has a controversial penthouse apartment which was recently renovated with funds from the Vatican’s children’s hospital, officially serve as altar boys at Vatican masses and choir boys for St. Peter’s basilica. But the author also alleges they are actually nothing short of play things for the Vatican priests who like sex with young boys. 

Nuzzi interviewed a former seminarian thought to be a victim and published disturbing phone transcripts in which priests discuss playing with the boys, how ejaculate was referred to as “milk” and that oral sex was described as “a game” that should only be played once every two days. 

He also amplifies the accusations of a Polish man named Kamil Tadeusz Jarzembowski, who was a student at the pre-seminary when he was 13 years old and who has sent a number of complaints about what he saw to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which acts as gatekeeper for such accusations to determine their legitimacy. Despite saying he witnessed at least 140 sexual acts by an older priest who was “favored by various monsignors in the Church” on his underage roommate, he was eventually expelled from the seminary.

By all rights this book should launch an investigation that would essentially destroy the Catholic religion, and see the Vatican disassembled brick by brick.

But of course that will not happen, and the church has actually survived two previous books by Nuzzi which also contained astonishing revelations.

It is certainly no secret that I do not have much use for ANY religion, but Catholicism in particular seems to be incredibly toxic.

In my opinion no parent worth a damn would ever consider sending their child to be an alter boy in the Vatican, or ANY Catholic church for that matter.

Vatican backed article goes after Trump White House for “apocalyptic geopolitics.”

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

An explosive article written by two close associates of Pope Francis has accused Steve Bannon, the chief White House strategist, of espousing an “apocalyptic geopolitics” whose roots are “not too far apart” from that of Islamist extremism. 

The article in La Civiltà Cattolica, which is vetted by the Vatican before publication, lays out a scathing critique of “evangelical fundamentalism” in the US, arguing that, on issues ranging from climate change to “migrants and Muslims”, proponents of the ideology have adopted a twisted reading of scripture and the Old Testament that promotes conflict and war above all else. 

The piece was published just days after evangelical leaders met US president Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House and “laid hands” on him in prayer following discussions about religious freedom, support for Israel and healthcare reform.

Vatican experts said the article would have had the explicit backing of the church and Pope Francis. Its authors, Antonio Spadaro, the editor-in-chief of the publication, and Marcelo Figueroa, the editor-in-chief of the Argentinian edition of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, are known as confidantes of the Argentinian pope.

It claims that fake religious arguments are being used to demonise segments of the population – particularly when it comes to migrants and Muslims – and to promote the US as a nation that is blessed by God, without ever taking into account the “bond between capital and profits and arms sales”.

You know I find this to be a fascinating time for American Catholics.

Here they are torn between the Holy Father, a very progressive pontiff, and Donald Trump, who they clearly favored in the 2016 election. (Well, the white Catholics at least.)

One leads them toward the future, and other seems determined to drag them back to the dark ages.

And the fact that it is the Pope who is more forward thinking, and the US president who is resisting change, is perhaps the most troubling thing about it.

Pope Francis says "It's better to be an Atheist" than a bad Christian.

Courtesy of CNN:

If you're a Christian who exploits people, leads a double life or manages a "dirty" business, perhaps it's better not to call yourself a believer, Pope Francis suggested in a homily on Thursday in Rome. 

"So many Christians are like this, and these people scandalize others," Francis said during morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, according to Vatican Radio. "How many times have we heard -- all of us, around the neighborhood and elsewhere -- 

'But to be a Catholic like that, it's better to be an atheist.' It is that: scandal." "But what is scandal? Scandal is saying one thing and doing another." 

In the Catholic Church, causing scandal also a grave offense. 

Examples of such sins abound, the Pope said, from money launderers to business owners who take beach vacations while stiffing their employees.

Well this is essentially what I have been saying for years. 

Of course I would probably just have stopped with "It's better to be an Atheist." But still the Pope makes a good point.

There are SO MANY so-called Christians who use the religion as camouflage to do terrible, and even criminal things, while using their "faith" to deflect criticism.

We have seen that with tons of politicians, performers, and even pastors.

And these "Christians" seemingly feel absolutely no guilt in judging all of those around them while acting in ways that are direct violations to the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

And yes, Sarah Palin of course definitely falls into that category.

Personally I am typically FAR more trusting of a person who openly rejects religion than I am of somebody who constantly reminds everybody about their faith.

Don't get me wrong there are quite a number of very kind, and very moral religious people in the world.  And some of them have been good friends of mine.

But since I place such a premium on critical thinking skills there is always a little distance between myself and those who can accept the existence of extraordinary things without the benefit of evidence.

Booed by a roomful of priests. Donald Trump makes history at the Al Smith Dinner.

You can see the moment that Trump loses the room.

It is at the 12:36 mark where Trump "jokes" that Clinton is so corrupt that she was kicked off the Watergate Commission. And then he just keeps on digging himself into an every deepening hole.

And when he accused Hillary of hating Catholics I thought we might actually see a church sanctioned lynching.

I have no idea what Trump was thinking, but if he was thinking that he wanted to lose the Catholic vote, he might have made a little progress in that area.

Here was how ABC News reported on the event:

The dinner in New York, to benefit charity, is supposed to be a light-hearted roast where the presidential candidates take jabs at themselves and each other, but the event came just a day after the particularly nasty third presidential debate. 

During the debate, the candidates didn't shake hands or acknowledge each other before or after the forum. 

Trump, who spoke first, tried at first to keep things light-hearted, but quickly turned to harsh criticism about Clinton, who he described as “corrupt.” His remarks drew boos from the crowd, unprecedented for the event in the memories of observers. 

“Hillary believes it's vital to deceive the people by having one public policy. And a totally different policy in private. That's okay,” he said, to boos from the crowd. “I don't know who they're angry at, Hillary, you or I? For example, here she is tonight in public, pretending not to hate Catholics.”

My understanding is that the candidates hire their own joke writers to help them with their speeches, however it appears that Trump's joke writers are the same trolls who send those emails of Michelle Obama as a chimp, and Hillary Clinton being burned as a witch.

I heard repeatedly on cable news that this is the FIRST time in the history of this Al Smith dinner than anybody has ever been booed. And remember this was a room full of priests!

So I think it is only fair to also post Hillary's remarks.

As you will see her joke writers actually had some talent, and her delivery was a little more in keeping with the mood of the event. See? There were still a few barbed remarks, and jokes at Trump's expense, but in no way did Hillary overstep any boundaries or lose the crowd.

And besides that some of her jokes were actually funny.

I almost think this dinner served as a microcosm of the two campaigns.

There's Hillary, disciplined, prepared, and self deprecating.

And then there's Trump, angry, humorless, and nasty to his core.

P.S. Oh there was at least one person who was more upset by Hillary's remarks than Trump's.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

During her spiel, Clinton gave a shout-out to the “wonderful elected officials” in the room. “The honorable Chuck Schumer. The honorable Andrew Cuomo. The honorable Mike Bloomberg.” 

“And, we have Rudy Giuliani,” she said to laughs. 

The camera panned to his face in the crowd. There was nothing even resembling a smile going on there. It was just a scowl and a pair of lopsided glasses hanging on his nose. 

Okay now THAT'S funny!

The Pope has declared Mother Teresa a saint. Here is why she is undeserving of any kind of honor.

Courtesy of MSN: 

Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint on Sunday, praising the tiny nun for having taken in society's most unwanted and for having shamed world leaders for the "crimes of poverty they themselves created." 

Francis held up Mother Teresa as the model for a Catholic Church that goes to the peripheries to find poor, wounded souls during a canonization Mass that drew an estimated 120,000 people — rich and poor, powerful and homeless — to a sun-filled St. Peter's Square. 

"Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer," Francis said in his homily. 

The canonization was the highlight of Francis' Holy Year of Mercy and may come to define his papacy, which has been dedicated to ministering to society's most marginal, from prisoners to prostitutes, the refugees and the homeless.

Yes well if that is what he was hoping for, this is a swing and a miss.

Two years ago there was a research paper published which explained why that is: 

‘The sick must suffer like Christ on the cross’ 

At the time of her death, Mother Teresa had opened 517 missions welcoming the poor and sick in more than 100 countries. The missions have been described as “homes for the dying” by doctors visiting several of these establishments in Calcutta. Two-thirds of the people coming to these missions hoped to a find a doctor to treat them, while the other third lay dying without receiving appropriate care. The doctors observed a significant lack of hygiene, even unfit conditions, as well as a shortage of actual care, inadequate food, and no painkillers. The problem is not a lack of money—the Foundation created by Mother Teresa has raised hundreds of millions of dollars—but rather a particular conception of suffering and death: “There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering,” was her reply to criticism, cites the journalist Christopher Hitchens. Nevertheless, when Mother Teresa required palliative care, she received it in a modern American hospital. 

Mother Teresa’s questionable politics and shadowy accounting 

Mother Teresa was generous with her prayers but rather miserly with her foundation’s millions when it came to humanity’s suffering. During numerous floods in India or following the explosion of a pesticide plant in Bhopal, she offered numerous prayers and medallions of the Virgin Mary but no direct or monetary aid. On the other hand, she had no qualms about accepting the Legion of Honour and a grant from the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti. Millions of dollars were transferred to the MCO’s various bank accounts, but most of the accounts were kept secret, Larivée says. “Given the parsimonious management of Mother Theresa’s works, one may ask where the millions of dollars for the poorest of the poor have gone?”

In short Mother Teresa was a penny pinching fame whore who believed that the poor grew closer to God in their suffering and yet sought out the best medical attention available when she herself became ill.

She was one of the worst hypocrites on the planet, and made millions of dollars off of the suffering of others while doing virtually nothing to ease their pain or cure their ills.

To learn more simply watch this documentary by the brilliant Christopher Hitchens who may have been one of the first to see through this charlatan's act.

California Catholics upset about a bill which would no longer allow them to discriminate against gays. Oh the humanity!

Courtesy of the National Catholic Register:  

Catholic and other Christian educational institutions in California face the loss of existing protections that allow them to carry out their educational mission in line with their religious principles, due to a new bill working its way through the California Legislature. 

The Golden State’s bishops have opposed the bill as both a violation of the Church’s religious liberty and an attack on poor students. 

State Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, the author of S.B. 1146, has argued that the bill closed a “loophole” that allows religious-based institutions of higher learning to discriminate against homosexual and transgender students, thanks to existing religious exemptions from state and federal non-discrimination statutes. The bill affects all institutions of higher learning in California accepting public funding, either directly from the state or through students. 

“California has established strong protections for the LGBTQ community, and private universities should not be able to use faith as an excuse to discriminate and avoid complying with state laws,” Lara explained in an April statement to constituents about the bill, which has the backing of the LGBT lobby group Equality California. 

Apparently the bill has already passed the senate and is now headed toward the assembly. 

Gee what is this country coming to when Christian schools can no longer hate on the gays while hiding behind their holy book?

You know didn't the Pope JUST ask the Catholics to stop being such dicks to the LGBT community?

Why, yes he did.

Supporters of Catholic school basketball team chant "You killed Jesus" at Jewish opposing team members.

Courtesy of the National Post:  

An ugly thing happened at a high school basketball game in a suburb of Boston on Friday night. 

It occurred at a division title game between the all-boys Catholic Memorial School and the public Newton North High School, which has a large Jewish community of students. The game was held at Newton South High School, where an estimated 100 young men sitting in the student section cheering for Catholic Memorial shouted, “You killed Jesus, you killed Jesus,” according to several witnesses who asked not to be identified. Most of those chanting fans wore red shirts as a display of support for their team. Some of the witnesses, who were Jewish, said they found the chant alarming. 

One spectator who was shaken by the events — and who asked not to be identified — is a native of Skokie, Illinois, where in the mid-1970s, a controversy erupted when neo-Nazis wanted to march through the heavily Jewish town. Skokie officials tried to stop it but lost the case in court. This spectator, whose parents are survivors of World War II concentration camps, said, “I can’t believe it,” she said. “I just can’t believe it.”

Nothing like religion to bring people together, don't you think?

Pope calls for worldwide ban on the death penalty.

"This is going to work better if you DON'T read the book."

Courtesy of Reuters:  

Pope Francis on Sunday called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, saying the commandment "You shall not kill" was absolute and equally valid for the guilty as for the innocent. 

Using some of his strongest words ever against capital punishment, he also called on Catholic politicians worldwide to make "a courageous and exemplary gesture" by seeking a moratorium on executions during the Church's current Holy Year, which ends in November. 

"I appeal to the consciences of those who govern to reach an international consensus to abolish the death penalty," he told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square. 

"The commandment "You shall not kill," has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty," he told the crowd.

Uh, hey I don't want to be "that guy," and  I totally support this idea, but has the Pope read the book that is supposed to provide his moral compass?

For instance there is this passage from Deuteronomy 17:

2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant, 
3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; 
 4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel: 
5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. 

Yeah I know, that's the Old Testament and a lot of Christians like to pretend that they get all of their moral guidance from the New Testament.

Well if true then this is what you are instructed to do in Luke 19:27:

But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.

Like I said, the Bible does not exactly give clear instructions on not murdering.

And if you want to choose God as your moral barometer.....well you don't want to choose God as your moral barometer.

By some estimates, just in the Bible alone, God has murdered somewhere between just below 3 million to 25 million people.

And if you take Creationists at their word, that death did not exist until after Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge, that means every single creature that walks, swims, or flies on this planet has been murdered by God since that time just to punish mankind for the actions of two ignorant people.

So like I said, good on the Pope for calling for an end to the death penalty, but maybe he wants to base his reasoning on something less hypocritical like, I don't know, the Game of Thrones books for instance?

So Donald Trump is now in a war of words with the most popular Pope in a generation. Is THIS finally a step too far for "the Donald?"

So apparently the Pope had some things to say about Donald Trump during his visit to Mexico.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

Inserting himself into the Republican presidential race, Pope Francis on Wednesday suggested that Donald J. Trump “is not Christian” because of the harshness of his campaign promises to deport more immigrants and force Mexico to pay for a wall along the border. 

“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said when a reporter asked him about Mr. Trump on the papal airliner as he returned to Rome after his six-day visit to Mexico.

Ouch!

Well Trump is a reasonable fellow so I am sure he will be....what's that, he attacked the Pope on Facebook?

Courtesy of Trump-book:

In response to the Pope: 

If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians. 

The Mexican government and its leadership has made many disparaging remarks about me to the Pope, because they want to continue to rip off the United States, both on trade and at the border, and they understand I am totally wise to them. The Pope only heard one side of the story - he didn’t see the crime, the drug trafficking and the negative economic impact the current policies have on the United States. He doesn’t see how Mexican leadership is outsmarting President Obama and our leadership in every aspect of negotiation. 

For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith. They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant. 

Donald J. Trump

Is Trump encouraging an ISIS attack on the Vatican here?

Because THAT is kind of how this sounds.

Okay now come on, Trump cannot really take on Pope Francis like this and not lose at least SOME of his support, right?

While everybody is lamenting the passing of Justice Scalia, let's take a moment to allow Bill Maher to remind us that he was essentially a religious nutjob.

I found this video the other day on Reddit, and thought it was definitely something that we needed to see again.

As sad as it is for the Scalia family to lose ole Grandpa Antonin, to be honest it might be the best thing to happen to this country in quite a few years.

Just saying.

Pope talks about climate change on first visit to America, and then proves it is getting hotter by causing conservative heads to explode.

Source

So today it has been wall to wall Pope-aganda. You can't get away from the guy.

Every cable news station now looks like the Christian Broadcasting Network. And every talking head has now seemingly converted to Catholicism.

To be honest I am completely Poped out.

However I did find this portion interesting during his remarks at the White House earlier today:

Mr. President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution. Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation. When it comes to the care of our “common home”, we are living at a critical moment of history. We still have time to make the changes needed to bring about “a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change” (Laudato Si’, 13). Such change demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition not only of the kind of world we may be leaving to our children, but also to the millions of people living under a system which has overlooked them. Our common home has been part of this group of the excluded which cries out to heaven and which today powerfully strikes our homes, our cities and our societies. To use a telling phrase of the Reverend Martin Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on a promissory note and now is the time to honor it.

Now that is really wonderful, not only did Pope Francis discuss the most important challenge of our time, climate change, but he also commended President Obama for working to resolve the problem.

That is really wonderful and should make both Catholics and everyday Americans feel great about their Pope and their President.

Yeah right!

Here is how Fox News host Stuart Varney responded to the speech: 

“I’ve got to repeat, I was shocked at how much time the pope spent on climate change! And how he walked right into the politics of climate change!” 

“We have just sat though the president of the United States greeting Pope Francis to the White House and then the pope then launched into a 15 minute speech, in which it was largely about climate change and how we’ve all got to get on board with efforts to combat climate change,” Varney continued. “I think he stepped right into policy… I’m astonished by this!” 

“This is pure politics, that’s what it is,” Varney insisted. “You raise the price of energy, what does that do to poor people in Africa, parts of Asia, Latin America, it impoverishes them. And the pope is now advocating precisely those policies. 

“Where’s the statement about saving my soul?” he asked. “The holy father is in the United States of America, a minister to my soul, the soul of all Catholics, all Christians. Come on!”

Well good luck getting into heaven with THAT attitude.

Varney is far from the only conservative who is rending his garments over this visit.

Mike Huckabee is not expressing so much anger at the Pope as he is angry with the President for his “classless decision to transform Pope Francis’ visit to the White House into a politicized cattle call for gay and pro-abortion activists.”

Other Republican presidential candidates are also irritated at the Pope for his "divisive" message.(Meaning one that too closely resembles the one attributed to that carpenter from Galilee.)

Yeah like I said I am pretty done paying too much attention to the Pope's visit at this point, but I do have to say that just the fact that he freaks the conservatives out this much makes him probably one of my favorite Pope's thus far.

Though to be honest that's a pretty short list.

Catholic lawmaker refuses to see the Pope because the pontiff will not condemn Planned Parenthood and will instead discuss "socialist talking points" like climate change.

Hmm, maybe if Gosar DID see the Pope he could tell him that hairpiece is not fooling anybody.

According to his article in Townhall Gosar had hoped that the Pope would discuss things that he cared about such as, "to address the enslavement, belittlement, rape and desecration of Christian women and children; to address the condoned, subsidized, intentionally planned genocide of unborn children by Planned Parenthood and society."

However much to Gosar's dismay the Pope does not work for him, and will instead focus on, as the Republican puts it, "His Holiness instead intends to focus the brunt of his speech on climate change--a climate that has been changing since first created in Genesis. More troubling is the fact that this climate change talk has adopted all of the socialist talking points, wrapped false science and ideology into “climate justice” and is being presented to guilt people into leftist policies."

Aww, somebody has the sads.

So Gosar has decided to respond in the only way he know how, he is going to pout.

"If the Pope plans to spend the majority of his time advocating for flawed climate change policies, then I will not attend. It is my hope that Pope Francis realizes his time is better spent focusing on matters like religious tolerance and the sanctity of all life. As the leader of the Catholic Church, and as a powerful voice for peace throughout the world, His Holiness has a real opportunity to change the climate of slaughter in the Middle East… not the fool’s errand of climate change."

You know I am not one to jump on the Pope Francis bandwagon, and I am still a little suspicious of his motives, but I am a huge fan of how he pisses off those on the Right who cannot believe that he refuses to promote their agenda.

Around half of those raised in Catholic churches have abandoned their faith, and around half of those have abandoned religion altogether.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

Roughly half of Americans raised in Catholic households have left the church at some point -- and most of them have stayed away for good, according to a recent report by Pew Research Center. 

These "former Catholics" make up 15 percent of the U.S. population, according to another recent survey by Public Religion Research Institute. These Americans are largely abandoning religion altogether after leaving the Catholic Church, while others find new homes in Protestant denominations and non-Christians faiths.

And the good news just keeps right on coming. 

There are more Atheists and Agnostics entering Harvard this year than Catholics or Protestants.

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

Harvard’s combined number of atheists and agnostics among its incoming class exceeds the number of Catholics and Protestants, as Pew Research Center’s Conrad Hackett noted. The number appears to be a striking contrast with the rest of the U.S. millennial population, those from ages 18 to 34. 

Pew’s survey suggested a decline in Christianity in the U.S., especially among millennials, though Harvard’s freshman still don’t appear to reflect the rest of millennials in the U.S. 

Among the general population in the U.S., 52 percent of millennials identify as Protestant or Catholic, according to Pew, compared to 34.1 percent of Harvard’s incoming class. And 13 percent of millennial Americans identify as atheist or agnostic, compared with 37.9 percent of Harvard freshmen who said they were atheist or agnostic. 

Part of the reason why American Christianity is on the decline is due to the number of people who don’t self-identify with a religion anymore. Pew also asks survey respondents if they are unaffiliated with faith, and 36 percent of them describe themselves as not affiliated with religion.

This is just the kind of thing that makes me hopeful for the future of our country. 

The more critical thinkers that we produce, no longer hindered by superstitious nonsense, the stronger and more progressive we become as a nation. 

Catholics come out as victims of their own prejudice, due to their anti-marriage equality stance.

Courtesy of Blue Nation:

 In a video that must be seen to be believed, a group of people, shown in black and white for dramatic effect, sit down to “come out.” 

But they’re not coming out as gay. No, they’re doing something far more courageous. 

They’re coming out as being against same-sex marriage. 

The group behind this video is called Catholic Vote, a conservative non-profit, and it is fairly obvious that as members of one of the largest churches in the world they have no idea what it is like to be discriminated against.

As evidenced by the fact that this video is extremely insulting to every person who has ever been shamed for being gay, or for not being religious, or for daring to stand up for the rights of others.

Jeb Bush touts his pro-life stance by bringing up his interference in the Terri Schiavo case. Seriously?

Courtesy of McClatchy DC:

Bush, who converted to Catholicism for his wife, Columba, said his faith is an “organizing part of my architecture,” as a person and, as an elected official. He said when he became governor he was “shocked” at what he said was the “total lack” of regulations at abortion clinics and pushed for regulations on the clinics. 

He said he also signed a partial birth abortion ban, led a fight for a constitutional amendment requiring parental notice for abortions and signed into law a bill that required 48-hour notice to a parent or guardian. 

And he defended his role in the Schiavo case, including his support for a law that ordered doctors to reinsert a feeding tube into a comatose woman six days after it had been removed under a court order. The law was later struck down as unconsitutional. 

“When I was asked to intervene on behalf of a woman who could not speak up for herself, I stood on her side,” Bush said. “I stood on the side of Terry Schiavo and her parents.” 

Man I have been waiting for Jebbie to stumble into this one.

This courtesy of Politico:  

It started as a private legal back-and-forth between her husband and her parents. Before it ended, it moved from circuit courts to district courts to state courts to federal courts, to the U.S. Supreme Court, from the state legislature in Tallahassee to Congress in Washington. The president got involved. So did the pope. 

But it never would have become what it became if not for the dogged intervention of the governor of Florida at the time, the second son of the 41st president, the younger brother of the 43rd, the man who sits near the top of the extended early list of likely 2016 Republican presidential candidates. On sustained, concentrated display, seen in thousands of pages of court records and hundreds of emails he sent, was Jeb the converted Catholic, Jeb the pro-life conservative, Jeb the hands-on workaholic, Jeb the all-hours emailer—confident, competitive, powerful, obstinate Jeb. Longtime watchers of John Ellis Bush say what he did throughout the Terri Schiavo case demonstrates how he would operate in the Oval Office. They say it’s the Jebbest thing Jeb’s ever done. 

The case showed he “will pursue whatever he thinks is right, virtually forever,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. “It’s a theme of Jeb’s governorship: He really pushed executive power to the limits.” 

I think the term "the Jebbest thing Jeb has ever done" is a great description of this incredible overreach by the then Governor of Florida.

And what's more it, perhaps more than anything else, illustrates that Jeb, much like his brother George, is unable to recognize facts when they disagree with what his faith tells him is right.

And that is why he should NEVER be allowed to be President of the United States.