Random News Stories

[Cain]

While I'm as critical of the Pope's former career as anyone, I've been surprised by how open to criticizing especially financial power he has been.

It's worth noting he is the first Pope Francis, and he is specifically named for St Francis of Assisi.  It's worth looking into his career progression, if you're only up on the "he liked animals" bit.  St. Francis was very unpopular with the Church hierarchy, and was quite lucky not to be burnt as a heretic.

The Pope has to sort out his own house, though.  The corruption of the Vatican Bank is a particular worry, as is the element that meddle with French and Italian politics with a barely disguised glee.  Popes have been killed before...and in living memory, too.

[P3nT4gR4m]

First of all, he probably doesn't believe that gays or women should be 100% equal to straight males in the eyes of the Church. He is a reformer, but that doesn't mean he's secretly a Marxist or a Feminist or even all that keen on equal rights for LGBTs in general. So even if he did have the power to institute immediate, radical changes in Church doctrine (which for the multiple reasons I stated before, he DOESN'T), he wouldn't do it. But he's also clearly acknowledging that the Church is backward and outdated in many of the ways it goes about its business, if not the fundamental doctrines underpinning the faith. So he is giving the Church a much needed housecleaning to get it a little lighter on its feet so it is capable of moving faster on social change issues - which will, over time, allow the Church to amend its standing on some of its more basic doctrinal stances.

Look, I'm not a fan of the RCC in anything except its sense of aesthetics. I wish everyone would quit being Catholic this afternoon. But just because I disagree with the RCC strongly on what I believe to be fairly sturdy moral grounds, doesn't mean that an abrupt change in its direction wouldn't tear the entire organization to pieces - doubtlessly leaving a majority of its followers still headed in the same direction as they were before, only more determined to never ever change. As much as the Church tells its followers what to believe and how to behave, they also tell the Church what it is allowed to teach. That's the nature of a huge organization. It can lead the way to change, but it must do so incrementally and slowly if it wants to maintain legitimacy in the eyes of its members and influence over their opinions. With an institution the size and age of the RCC, yes, time often moves on the scale of centuries, or at least decades. There are still Catholics who are pissed off about Vatican II, for fuck's sake. You're not going to turn that boat on a dime, no matter how much you or anyone else wishes you could.

I also think it's a little disturbing how everyone wants everything to happen right fucking NOW NOW NOW. Thanks, Internet. Would you be blaming Suffragettes for taking half-measures against patriarchy because all they wanted was the vote? Things take time, no matter what it seems like on the evening news. Especially with things as deeply held as human sexual identity, you can't just say "well we all believe X now." You have to move slowly so the masses end up thinking that they've always believed X.

This! What we're dealing with here is an ocean of dumb and we're what? Hoping it gets smart overnight? These guys are only just beginning to get their heads around concepts like biology, which goes against their entire worldview, btw. Progress will not be anytime soon and incremental steps toward - slightly less retarded - are always going to be better than nothing.

[inode_buddha]

OK, this is different... mass fainting in factories , vietnam and cambodia? Malmnourished garment workers protesting in the only socially acceptable way they have? Dunno, but its definitely interesting...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/opinion/workers-of-the-world-faint.html

[Left]

OK, this is different... mass fainting in factories , vietnam and cambodia? Malmnourished garment workers protesting in the only socially acceptable way they have? Dunno, but its definitely interesting...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/opinion/workers-of-the-world-faint.html

Cool!
*waves dead chicken at article*

[Left]

Had not heard anything about this:

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/10/21852934-uruguay-becomes-first-country-to-legalize-marijuana-trade?lite

Uruguay became the first country to legalize the growing, sale and smoking of marijuana on Tuesday, a pioneering social experiment that will be closely watched by other nations debating drug liberalization.
A government-sponsored bill approved by 16-13 votes in the Senate provides for regulation of the cultivation, distribution and consumption of marijuana and is aimed at wresting the business from criminals in the small South American nation.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Had not heard anything about this:

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/10/21852934-uruguay-becomes-first-country-to-legalize-marijuana-trade?lite

Uruguay became the first country to legalize the growing, sale and smoking of marijuana on Tuesday, a pioneering social experiment that will be closely watched by other nations debating drug liberalization.
A government-sponsored bill approved by 16-13 votes in the Senate provides for regulation of the cultivation, distribution and consumption of marijuana and is aimed at wresting the business from criminals in the small South American nation.

It annoys the shit out of me that news articles keep referring to legalization as an "experiment", as if prohibition is the natural default condition and not something we invented in the twentieth century.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25802437

UKIP has suspended an Oxfordshire councillor after he blamed recent flooding on the government's decision to legalise gay marriage.

In a letter to his local paper, David Silvester said he had warned the PM the legislation would result in "disaster".

He said David Cameron had acted "arrogantly against the Gospel".

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he was entitled to his "strong Baptist view of the world", but had defied a request not to do further media interviews.

Mr Farage said: "So we suspended him, quite rightly."

Still got a horrible feeling that this band of fools and cretins will end up being a coalition partner at the next elections.

[inode_buddha]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25802437

UKIP has suspended an Oxfordshire councillor after he blamed recent flooding on the government's decision to legalise gay marriage.

In a letter to his local paper, David Silvester said he had warned the PM the legislation would result in "disaster".

He said David Cameron had acted "arrogantly against the Gospel".

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he was entitled to his "strong Baptist view of the world", but had defied a request not to do further media interviews.

Mr Farage said: "So we suspended him, quite rightly."

Still got a horrible feeling that this band of fools and cretins will end up being a coalition partner at the next elections.

Oh, cool. It was getting so terribly boring to pick on Texas all the time. It loses its novelty after a while, to be tossed aside like the cheap whore that it is.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25802437

UKIP has suspended an Oxfordshire councillor after he blamed recent flooding on the government's decision to legalise gay marriage.

In a letter to his local paper, David Silvester said he had warned the PM the legislation would result in "disaster".

He said David Cameron had acted "arrogantly against the Gospel".

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he was entitled to his "strong Baptist view of the world", but had defied a request not to do further media interviews.

Mr Farage said: "So we suspended him, quite rightly."

Still got a horrible feeling that this band of fools and cretins will end up being a coalition partner at the next elections.

Oh, cool. It was getting so terribly boring to pick on Texas all the time. It loses its novelty after a while, to be tossed aside like the cheap whore that it is.

Texas will always http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYa-pFh_sHA

I mean, God bless Texas.

[Left]

Texas will always http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYa-pFh_sHA
I mean, God bless Texas.

...I should brush my teeth more...

[Telarus]

http://newday.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/16/fda-acetaminophen-doses-over-325-mg-might-lead-to-liver-damage/


Oh, you FDA. You MADE the manufacturers put acetaminophen in Vicodin & other opiods ON PURPOSE (it's an "adulterant" that is supposed to "deter addiction"). And then you went "oops, maybe they should put less of that in those drugs".

My friend died of liver failure a few years ago because the first hospital he saw looked at his yellowed, jaundiced skin and went "You're a drunk, go home" instead of being aware of this and asking how much opiates he had been prescribed/taking.

Fuck those people.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25802437

UKIP has suspended an Oxfordshire councillor after he blamed recent flooding on the government's decision to legalise gay marriage.

In a letter to his local paper, David Silvester said he had warned the PM the legislation would result in "disaster".

He said David Cameron had acted "arrogantly against the Gospel".

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he was entitled to his "strong Baptist view of the world", but had defied a request not to do further media interviews.

Mr Farage said: "So we suspended him, quite rightly."

Still got a horrible feeling that this band of fools and cretins will end up being a coalition partner at the next elections.

Oh, cool. It was getting so terribly boring to pick on Texas all the time. It loses its novelty after a while, to be tossed aside like the cheap whore that it is.

Texas will always http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYa-pFh_sHA

I mean, God bless Texas.

Amazing, it's ALL THERE.
The WHOLE STATE summed up in ONE video.

[Junkenstein]

Remember Tommy Robinson of Ex-EDL fame?

Well:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25862838

Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has been jailed for 18 months for mortgage fraud.

Robinson, 31, from Bedfordshire, who stood down from the EDL last year, was sentenced at St Albans Crown Court after pleading guilty last November.

The fraud amounted to £160,000 over a period of six months.

Judge Andrew Bright QC described him as the "instigator, if not the architect" of some of the frauds.

Passing sentence, the judge told him: "This was an operation which was fraudulent from the outset and involved a significant amount of forward planning."

He described Robinson as a "fixer" who had introduced others to fraudulent mortgage broker Deborah Rothschild.

2014 isn't going badly at all so far.

[Junkenstein]

The annual North Korea Sabre rattling has commenced in earnest:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25873269

North Korea has sent an open letter to the South calling for reconciliation and an end to "hostile military acts".

The letter, published in North Korea's state media, comes weeks before South Korea is due to hold joint military drills with the US.

South Korea dismissed the letter as having a "hidden motive"

By "Hidden motive" they seem to mean "insincere threat". Taking bets on what action NK will take to show people what's what. I've got £1 on closing Kaesong again and £5 on the public execution of a foreign citizen.

[Left]

http://newday.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/16/fda-acetaminophen-doses-over-325-mg-might-lead-to-liver-damage/


Oh, you FDA. You MADE the manufacturers put acetaminophen in Vicodin & other opiods ON PURPOSE (it's an "adulterant" that is supposed to "deter addiction"). And then you went "oops, maybe they should put less of that in those drugs".

My friend died of liver failure a few years ago because the first hospital he saw looked at his yellowed, jaundiced skin and went "You're a drunk, go home" instead of being aware of this and asking how much opiates he had been prescribed/taking.

Fuck those people.

Indeed.