TheAgitator.com
Afternoon Links
Thursday, March 25th, 2010- Colleges that teach The Wire.
- Is the federal government spying on Wikileaks?
- Theory: One easy way to distinguish intellectually honest conservatives from the knuckle-dragging lumpentariat wing of the movement is to ask their opinion of Joe Arpaio.
- Very nice write up in The Washington Post on the latest Flex Your Rights video.
- Legalization of marijuana will be on the California ballot in November.
- I’m sure this comment is going to anger some people, but it’s a serious question, and I’m not trying to be coy: If the Pope is chosen by the hand of God, why would God have selected to lead his church a man who sheltered pedophiles?
If the Pope is chosen by the hand of God, why would God have selected to lead his church a man who sheltered pedophiles?
I once had a guy tell me that Mary the mother of Jesus was just 14 when impregnated by the Holy Spirit therefore by the standards of today God Himself must be a pedophile.
But I try not to think about shit like that.
Anent the subject of the Mussolini of Maricopa County:
The publication for which I used to write recently published shameless Valentine to Arpaio. The really interesting stuff — a stark demonstration of the dichotomy Radley describes above — can be found in the comments:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/crime/2560-worlds-toughest-sheriff-no-apologies
Wanna fuck with family values born again evangelicals wingnuts? I just like to point out the fact that Jesus was a Bastard.
It’s the equivalent of telling a girl from Queens or Brooklyn that she’s from Long Island. It tends to seriously mess with their heads.
If the Pope is chosen by the hand of God, why would God have selected to lead his church a man who sheltered pedophiles?
I believe that ‘the Lord works in mysterious ways’ is the stock answer you’re looking for here Radley…
the wikileaks and flex your rights guys are genuine badasses who deserve wider audiences.
“If the Pope is chosen by the hand of God, why would God have selected to lead his church a man who sheltered pedophiles?”
Is there anything in the Bible that specifically addresses pedophilia as wrong or against God?
10 Rules for Dealing with Police DVD is for sale? For cash money? Are the people who made this being idiots on purpose? I understand that it costs money to produce videos, but who among their target audience is going to shell out fifteen clams? No one. Sigh.
Granted the current Pope is the first to even make any statement about pedophilia in the Catholic Church. It has literally been happening for centuries, with every Pope before Benedict turning a blind eye–the very same one they used to not see the Holocaust, BTW.
Catholicism. Feh. And I say that even though some of my best…well, you know.
If the knuckle-draggers don’t care that stopping Arpaio is simply the right thing to do, then at least they should care that in just the five incidents listed in the article Arpaio has cost the county over $20 million in settlements! How many schools could that build, how many potholes could that fix? Or even better, how much could taxes be lowered if the county wasn’t constantly having to pay Arpaio’s victims? If decency and morality won’t convince the knuckle-draggers, fiscal sanity should.
If Wikileaks isn’t lying in this status then I’m sure they are being watched. Even though the content of the video sounds pretty bad, I’m sure the feds are just as pissed about the encryption being cracked.
Law Enforcement at all levels and priests are there any other professions that get away with as much evil as these?
Sure, you could say politicians but they generally have people looking to take them down as a matter of course. So the things they do tend to get exposed and lead to bad results for them.
As for that Cal pot legalization initiative, it does not go as far as I like but it does go far enough to cause all the idiot control-freaks, badge lickers and other excreta to foam at the mouth, moan and cry and just generally make fools of themselves.
I don’t know what it’s chances are but the end vote will be a good guide to just how much respect that cops and their ilk have left in this state.
I dunno, some of the dudes chosen by the hand of God in the Bible were total bastards, so it’s not like there’s no precedent. St. Paul was originally a prosecutor, fer crissakes (though to his credit, he gave that up to make tents for a living or something). Some of those guys were even kings – that’s like a politician crossed with with a cop, with a little bit of serial killer thrown in.
How did I go this long without knowing of WikiLeaks?
I am ashamed of myself.
Ok, you got me, Radley. Which one of those conservatives is the intellectually honest one?
Matt Mahoney | March 25th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
How about “the Lord jerks in mysterious ways”?
Come on Radley, that is NOT a serious question. It’s pretty standard stuff that the actions of God cannot be explained by man. If you don’t know that answer by now I don’t know what to say.
Frankly, in both Boston and LA, the argument could have been made for prosecution of the archdiocese — the legal entity — under the RICO statute, because boy was there ever evidence of a corrupt organization.
I have heard say that one reason Cardinal Law is now safely tucked away in Vatican City is that he felt the need to skip town before he got indicted.
The bummer about being an atheist is I don’t believe these monsters will roast in hell.
Great writeup indeed in the WaPo on Flex Your Rights… however, as always, there has to be a part of the article that makes me want to gag.
“If the Pope is chosen by the hand of God, why would God have selected to lead his church a man who sheltered pedophiles?”
From a Catholic perspective, only Peter the apostle was chosen by god (Jesus) to be pope. Popes are chosen by the members of the College of Cardinals who are under 80 years old, not god.
Maybe the Vatican’s chief exorcist knows. ;)
slightly off topic, sorry, but:
Is lumpentariat the same as lumpenproletariat? Not a native speaker so threw me a bit, especially since lumpen means army service where I come from.
If mr. Balko means that some conservatives are (quoting wiki/Marx): “”swindlers, confidence tricksters, brothel-keepers, rag-and-bone merchants, beggars, and other flotsam of society.’ ” then I am of course all for it. Although I don’t really have anything against brothel-keepers as such I guess.
@ #2 | Will Grigg
A reason not be a member of the John Birch Society.
Pope Answer – Who cares as long as the sheep keep paying up in the collection plate their required 10%. The P.T Barnum theory is proven yet once again.
And it’s a moot point anyway as the pope (as god’s representative here on earth) personally paid for the “indulgences” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence ) so they should all be free and clear as soon as god gets the check.
“Is there anything in the Bible that specifically addresses pedophilia as wrong or against God?”
http://bible.cc/matthew/18-6.htm
comes pretty close.
If the Pope is chosen by the hand of God, why would God have selected to lead his church a man who sheltered pedophiles?
Being a Protestant, I would say that papal elections are simply about politics, like any other election.
I mean, some popes bought their way into the papacy, there have been reports of orgies, suspicions of murder, two popes serving simultaneously accusing the other of being illegitimate.
Church politics has always been pretty ugly.
It’s nice to see the comments that are critical of Arpaio seem to get the highest up-votes over at link Will posted for The New American.
Always on the lookout for intellectually honest conservative viewpoints, I happily clicked through to the Classical Values blog and read the rational and refreshing commentary there on Sheriff Arpaio. Unfortunately, going to the CV front page and scrolling down a few screens, I came across a pitch for Jonah Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism” and this line:
“The variant of socialism where the government doesn’t nationalize the means of production but controls it through law and regulation is called fascism.”
Anyone else find that definition of fascism a trifle…incomplete? I propose a second litmus test for conservative reasonability. After asking how they feel about Arpaio, ask if they’d recommend Goldberg’s book.
Can I get a definition of “lumpentariat”?
10 Rules for Dealing with Police DVD is for sale? For cash money? Are the people who made this being idiots on purpose? I understand that it costs money to produce videos, but who among their target audience is going to shell out fifteen clams? No one. Sigh.
It’s moving quite well so far. We get a lot of orders from educators and community activists who then present the material to people who might not have thought to seek it out. Anyway, you don’t have to pay for it if you don’t want to. Our previous video has more than 3 million views online, and we’ll soon be making the new one available for free on the web as well.
“If the Pope is chosen by the hand of God, why would God have selected to lead his church a man who sheltered pedophiles?”
“Suffer the little children.”
So saith the Lord.
Amen.
God is amazing praise him!
Um, I am pretty sure that Catholics don’t believe the Pope was chosen by the hand of God.
“Legalization of marijuana will be on the California ballot in November.”
Nobody should be too excited about this. Ballot initiatives do not carry the force of law, even though they are constitutional amendments. Proposition 209, which dealt with illegal immigration, was passed by the voters but never enforced by the State. I don’t think it was even overturned by a court, it was simply ignored.
Then there’s the issue of federal supremacy, so I would expect the Feds to redouble their activity in California as a message to the rest of the States should it pass.
And of course, lurking in the shadows as with every issue, is that the State has no earthly business involving itself in what a human puts into his/her body, so passing a law making marijuana legal gives the State as much control, if not more, by people running to the State for its blessing.
#31 bearing: “Um, I am pretty sure that Catholics don’t believe the Pope was chosen by the hand of God.”
Um…I know some that do. Fervently and without question. They are idiots…but they do believe that.
I guess but it captures the general idea. You’ll have a hard time getting people to agree to specific definitions of the various “isms”. IMO, Obama’s admin, like the Bush admin before it, has been much heavier on the fascism than socialism.
And, if you’re “on the lookout for intellectually honest conservative viewpoints”, check out The American Conservative. They were against the war in Iraq from the start and wouldn’t even endorse Bush in 2004. Not as good on immigration but that’s expected (although I will give them credit for doing a cover story this year on the myth of immigrant crime).
And, if your bored, go through their cover archive. Good stuff (like Giuliani as Benito).
“… why would God have selected to lead his church a man who sheltered pedophiles?”
Because God wants a Pope who will help the most heinous sinners to repent and seek grace? Because God believes that man needs to overcome challenges during life, and being abused by pedophilic priests is a worthy challenge? Because God gets a kick out of the sideshow antics of the modern Catholic Church? Because the Christian God (Roman Catholic subspecies) is just as idiotic and malevolent as most of the other gods invented by mankind?
In response to Swampy (#6): I believe that the numerous injunctions against adultery (defined as sex outside of marriage) apply to the sexual abuse of children. Love of children is OK, you just cannot have sex with them until you’re married. That’s why Mohammed was a non-sinful pedophile: he married a ten-year-old girl before bedding her.
If the Pope is chosen by the hand of God, then what the fuck is up with the Cardinals casting ballots? Also, why does it take multiple days/ballots/black smoke before the “right” Pope is “chosen”?
Radley,
I think that Louis CK can answer all your questions about God and the pope.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VABSoHYQr6k
I LOVE Louis CK!
#7 | Black Bellamy- I order the videos for my daughter and my friends borrow some of them. I have Stossel videos, history videos… beats her having to listen to me trying to explain the world.
Thanks Nick. I already visit the TAC site often, Larison is almost always worth reading.
Having read Liberal Fascism, I’d love to know what specific gripes mattt has against it. It’s heavily researched, and that definition of fascism is a pretty good one. You might not be familiar with the use of the word before it got turned into “stuff I don’t like”.
For those who are actually curious, the Catholic teaching is that the selection of the pope is guided by the Holy Spirit, which does move in mysterious ways, in order to protect the Church from theological error (ie: papal infallability in regards to proper Church teaching – it is impossible for the Pope, when speaking officially in his teaching office, to be theologically incorrect about Church doctrine).
That doesn’t mean that the Pope can’t be a sinner. In fact, there were plenty of Popes who sinned greatly and whose behavior was downright awful. From the standpoint of Catholic theology, the most important thing about the Pope is that he protect and defend the theology.
Also, I would point out that only Jesus was able to have the foresight to know if a person whose sins were forgiven would really and truly repent. The Pope is obligated to forgive someone if they confess. If the Pope had forgiven a pedophile, we can only guess what other actions would have been taken given the limited mentality of the psychology of pedophiles in the 1970s.
Sorry for the off-topic post but I just HAD to bring this one up.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/03/25/sims.tn.dog.vandalizes.car.wtvc?hpt=C2
Video of dog tearing the bumper off a cop car. This dog knows who the enemy is. :)
Hey did WIKILEAKS post those hacked phoney global warning emails?
#41: Liberal Facism? Heavily researched? As in, “anybody read any Spencer?”
I would have said that Jonah was suspect #1 in turning “facism” into “stuff I don’t like.” You are now #2.
I was just about to post a link to that same dog eating the cop car video. Good boy, Winston!!!
The dogs are learning!
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/03/25/sims.tn.dog.vandalizes.car.wtvc?hpt=C2
10 Rules for Dealing with Police can be viewed in it’s entirety at Cato’s site. The first couple minutes is Tim Lynch speaking, then you see the film.
http://www.cato.org/events/100212screening.html
Mmmm! The anti-catholic bigotry here is delicious.
#43 | Stephen – best quote in the video was when the owner said that he knew a ‘lot of dogs have been shot by cops for a lot less’…
imagine if you could train that dog to rip car bumpers off!
If the Pope is chosen by the hand of God, why would God have selected to lead his church a man who sheltered pedophiles?
Because the giant spider told him to?
The Bolsheviks had a slew of “isms” to explain away why what they or their compatriots were doing wasn’t “true communism” or “true socialism.”
They would call some things “state capitalism” or “deformed worker’s state” or “bureaucratic collectivism” just to make sure that people knew that “this isn’t what we had in mind” when utopia didn’t spring up.
Bros 43, 45, 46, and 48 – this video could not be more ON topic. It’s a bit late in the evening for me to post, but this is one of the best Response videos ever. I was working on a post for my blog earlier this evening on the Arpaio facist debacle. Even the Arizona Rep is covering all of it. Talk about a scumbag who’s overplayed his hand a tad too much.
Look, we all agree about these issues. How can we get change? The war on drugs is a part of it, but these scum will go after 70-year old women with expired tags with the same vehemence. We can all preach to our choir group here, but what is it, elimination of qualified immunity and absolute immunity? Yes, but I don’t know the details of doing these things. Let’s all figure it out and do what we legally can.
If Gary Coleman had been elected weed would already be legal in California. And with his experienced epic two part parental guidance warning episode of Different Strokes, where Dudly gets molested by Gordon Jump at the bike shop, I’m sure he’d take a stand against faggy alcoholic pedophiles that would be firm, yet comforting and tough while providing relief.
In response to the Pope question, I think for you to be intellectually honest, I do not think you can equate turning someone over to Law Enforcement with “goodness”. The Pope is the leader of his own mission, outside of Government. He is subject to his own rules, i.e. compassion, forgiveness, etc. I am not a fan of the church, but I also think it does not make you “right” to turn someone in the law.
Good lord, do cops actually walk up to people’s houses trying to get them to agree to a ‘safety inspection’ like in the video? Wouldn’t that be a ‘confidence scam’? Besides being unethical, it’s an insult to the homeowner’s intelligence.
What are the possible outcomes? They invade your privacy and find nothing… thus wasting everyone’s time, or they find actionable contraband and arrest you. There is no good side. The homeowner does not get a cookie.
Crib sheet!
If cops want to search your car:
“I don’t consent to searches”
If cops want in your house:
“Do you have a warrant?”
If cops stop you on the street:
“Am I being detained or am I free to go?”
If you are detained:
” “
Unless I misread the story, for abuse ending in 1974, then-Cardinal Ratzinger’s office was contacted in 1996, and the abuser (who was in poor health and died shortly thereafter) pleaded a statute of limitations.
That sounds…not unduly objectionable by then-Cardinal Ratzinger? As others have noted the problem is the 22 years it took the bishop to actually decide to complain about the abuser.
More generally, Catholic teaching and infallibility relates ONLY to certain teaching matters, not all. Also, Catholics believe in free will, i.e. Cardinals can elect a “bad” Pope. It’s not deterministic (that’s part of why unless by error, intercessionary prayers in a Catholic church ask e.g. for politicians to follow their conscience, NOT to vote a particular way – obviously, sometimes this principle is violated). As this Pope himself and others have noted, there have been many bad people who have been Pope.
[...] this criminal with a badge told her to “shut the F### up”! More on all of this is here and [...]
If the Pope is chosen by the hand of God, why would God have selected to lead his church a man who sheltered pedophiles?
It is said that Satan’s greatest trick was convincing people he didn’t exist.
I disagree. His greatest trick was convincing people that he is God.
In response to the Wikileaks question: Of course they are.
In response to Joe Arpaio: Fuck him. He makes us Arizonans look like idiot racist hicks. Which we are.
In response to the question about the pope: We are all fallible and require God’s grace. Also, I’m a Lutheran.
Prop 209 wasn’t enforced because it was overturned by the 9th Circuit.
Same problem as usual. They people in charge of the Catholic church, and all other religious organizations, are men, not God! No matter how many other men vote on it, the ones making the decisions, are,still, in the end, MEN, NOT GOD! They claim to follow “God’s will”. But, how is God’s will, when men vote on it? What I said is, probably, repetitious, but men are all flawed.
They tend to illustrate how wrong it is for men to judge other people. But, that happens a lot, by us so called Christians! The big churches are just another group of politicians, making the world in their image! Politicians that protect the wicked, while persecuting anyone else, not in their click!!
“They would call some things “state capitalism” or “deformed worker’s state” or “bureaucratic collectivism” just to make sure that people knew that “this isn’t what we had in mind” when utopia didn’t spring up.”
somewhere around 2006, you saw some bushies sinilarly retort, “bush isn’t a *real* conservative!” (and why didn’t they realize that before 2004?)
but now they’ve reverted to fawning over missmeyet palin