Assholes In The News

"Here we have this radical left-wing organization, whose logo should be more the hammer and sickle..." LA Supervisor Michael Antonovich, regarding the ACLU's petition to have the cross removed from the LA county seal, on the grounds that it is an endorsement of Christianity.heard on Fox News Chicago, 9:00 PM 5/29/04



(While I don't agree with the ACLU, isn't this typical of the right?? If someone dares to disagree with your position, they're automatically Communists. In fact--isn't it typical of the right to dismiss everything about Communism as uniformly negative and worthy of being demeaned?)



"Pat Tillman, the pro football player inspired by the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Army, apparently was killed by friendly fire when a fellow soldier mistakenly identified an Afghan fighter accompanying Tillman as the enemy and started shooting, senior defense officials said yesterday." Newsday,5/29/04



No, I'm not saying Tillman was an asshole. But isn't it amazing that the stories promulgated by the media, stories which have increasingly been used to define the "heroes" in this war, have almost uniformly been proven in time to be based on false pretenses? Jessica Lynch, and now Pat Tillman--I'm not saying they shouldn't be proud of what they did...but I -am- saying that they're not the "heroes" we make them out to be. Their ordeals happened because they were in a foreign country based on the unilateral decision of a corrupt government, and they both suffered because that government claims high moral reasons to "liberate" a group of people who in large part do not wish to be "liberated" in the way this government envisions. While I can't say I agree with the beliefs for which Tillman died and Lynch suffered, I can say that I admire the conviction that leads them to fight for those beliefs--and would defend their choice to fight for them. HOWEVER...I have to wonder if either of them would have the same respect for my beliefs--the beliefs which lead me to think this war is morally indefensible.



"Gay Catholics who plan to identify themselves by wearing a rainbow sash in church Sunday should be denied communion, according to a memo Cardinal Francis George has written to all pastors in the Archdiocese of Chicago....(T)he cardinal wrote that wearing the sash indicates disagreement with church teaching that gay sexual relations are sinful, and therefore those who wear the sash should not receive communion."Chicago Sun-Times, 5/25/04



A friend of mine finds herself in a position to have to deal with this issue; a devout Catholic with many gay friends (many of whom are Catholic priests!) I had a conversation with my mother today, in which I mentioned this situation. Her reply is one of several reasons this is placed in "Assholes in the News". "If they want Communion so badly, then let them go someplace else," she said.



So--in my mother's fucked-up alien universe, apparently it's okay to receive Communion as long as you PRETEND to agree with the principles of the Church. As long as no one KNOWS you disagree, it's fine to accept the most important sacrament in the Catholic Church, goes Mom's view--because after all, it's not what you believe that's important, but what people think you believe.



(Hey Mom...Remember when you asked me if LJ lives here, and I told you he doesn't? Well, see, it's not important whether I tell you the truth, right? Just whether you think I tell you the truth.)



And that's not even to get started on what I think of the actual ruling.



There are times I have to look forward to being dead, in the hopes that all my earthly questions will be answered, that all the unknowns will become known. (This hope, along with my hope of an eternal reunion with JP, is the main reason I hope for an afterlife (as detailed here.) Among the questions I hope to have answered is, "How can people claim that their intolerance is due to their belief in God/Allah/whatever, when all evidence and practical experience seems to indicate that these deities are themselves tolerant of any and all shortcomings? How can people claim to that they accept Jesus--arguably one of the most tolerant figures in all religious history--and then use that alleged belief in Jesus as the grounds for their intolerance of anyone who believes differently than they do?"



That the purveyor of all this intolerance is the nominal head of the Catholic Church only makes it all the more repulsive to me.