Monday, May 31, 2004
The existence of God is a non problem
Does anybody care if one believes in the true existence of unicorns? Or elves? Or fairies? Not really. It is not considered a real problem (if not, perhaps, a psychiatric one, if one insists they exist, unreasonably). The same should apply to the idea of the existence of God. The existence of God is simply a non problem.
Wondering about atheism, theism, agnosticism and so on, really means indulging in a non problem.
But, unlike those who are stuck to irrational ancient beliefs - such as that in God, legacy of a past of ignorance and fear - I am so open that should any evidence be put forth on the existence of a God (or unicorns, elves and fairies for that matter), I am prepared to cease considering it-he-she a non problem and welcome it-he-she in the realm of the existent.
However, if the existence of God is a non problem, unfortunately the existence of fanatics and fundamentalists is not a non problem.
I blame modern psychiatry for not concentrating more on such a species of lunatics.
Again on the love escape of the Catholic priest
Rev. Giuseppe Noto, the Catholic priest who run away with a 23 year old woman (I wrote on this in one of my previous posts), says: "I am not going to go back. I loved my parishers, but at a certain point things in life change", the news report today.
If we reflect over this story, one can consider the following. Rev. Giuseppe Noto made an healthy choice. And his case is surely not rare: he met a woman, fell in love and left the church.
Is he less moral than the 50% (or more) Catholic priests who indulge in clandestine non-celibate relationships or simply lustful practices (often of homosexual nature) and yet, despite their hypocrisy and sins (in the light of the Catholic teachings), continue to wear the priestly vestments which, really, are more and more becoming a distinctive sign of duplicity, dissociative behaviour and grime?
I think the answer is quite obvious.
Likely, the non-celibate priests who chose to remain in the church either consider their hypocrisy the price to pay for loyalty and outward respect of the religion they belong to, and don't really believe non-celibacy is a big deal (maybe they consider it old-fashioned and only provisionally not accepted). Or, they mentally reject non-celibacy, without being able to apply their beliefs, thus leading a life in guilt, and likely affected by psychiatric conditions and unbalances that are surely not desirable in people with responsibilities in education. Either way they are slimy hypocrites.
It is surely striking that the Roman Catholic Church, an organization which claims to care for people, is so blind in recognizing that the high number of non celibate priests simply means that the standards imposed are not human (in that sexuality is a fundamental component of humanity) and are largely inapplicable. Not to mention the fact that celibacy has not always been mandatory. St. Peter was married, and likely many other apostles were too, and surely they did not uncharitably abandon their wives. Only later in history, following a path of progressve dissociation from reality, did the Church impose celibacy as mandatory.
Catholics should start to seriously think over the fact that some teachings of the Roman Catholic Church (particularly as regards sex, celibacy and marriage) show a diseased, dissociated and alienated vision of life which, in turn, is cause of disease and hypocrisy. They should consider that the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church are simply the result of humans. And humans can be wrong, very wrong. Surely even the fact of retaining a faith in Christ should not imply persisting in errors.
A formula for hypocrisy
I found an article on hypocrisy by Lonnie Lee Best on the Internet. The article contained the following formula which I found quite interesting in its being obvious and yet usefully visualising a concept:
Hypocrisy is the result of the difference between beliefs and actions.
I am not going to say which is the first category of hypocrites that comes to my mind. I wonder if any of my readers can guess?
In Detroit a new exhibit: "Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America"
"Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America.", an interesting exhibit documenting lynching in the United States in the period between 1878 and 1935 will open July 15 at the Detroit Museum.
"This exhibit will force you to deal with the story of lynching and all the appalling implications that remain with us. It was domestic terrorism. A crime was committed in America against Americans." said the president of the museum, Christy Coleman, as reported in an article by Frank Provenzano (Free Press Staff Writer) from which I am drawing information on this event.
From the article by Frank Provenzano:
"The chilling black-and-white photographs of torture from 1878-1935 tell an indelible tale of the moral contradiction at the heart of a country founded on equal justice for all that turned a blind eye to human-rights violations.
The disturbing stories of abuse and torture perpetrated by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq show that the issues of human-rights violations raised in 'Without Sanctuary' are still relevant."
Congratulations to Rev. Giuseppe Noto
Giuseppe Noto, 33 years, Catholic priest in the "Chiesa della Salute" in Castelvetrano (Trapani, Sicily), was a held in high esteem and appreciation in his town, and had also received positions of responsibility from the bishop.
But there are sometimes events that go beyond any expectation. In fact, stricken by a classic "love at first sight" the reverend run away with a 23 year old woman who was engaged and used to attend his church with her fiancé. The woman's fiancé has taken the circumstance with philosophy and stated: "In this misfortune I am lucky: at least this did not happen after marrying. And one cannot command one's heart."
Congratulations, Rev. Noto. At least you followed you heart in the open. Unlike half (or more) of the Catholic priests in the world who have relationships clandestinely and hypocritically.
Once for all, the Roman Catholic Church should delete the obligation of celibacy for priests, which turns out to be only a facade, and a sign of hypocrisy and pathogenic refusal of humanity.
Source: La Repubblica (Italy)
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Web site of Michael Moore who won the Palme D'or at the 57th Cannes Film Festival with his film Fahrenheit 9/11: http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Worth checking out.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
"Prisoner abuse 'on wider scale', US report say". Read the article on the Guardian.
From the Guardian:
Human rights climate 'worst in 50 years'
The 2004 annual report [of Amnesty International] documents human rights abuses in 155 countries including execution, detention without judicial process, hostage taking and "disappearances" by state agents.
It condemns attacks by al-Qaida and others as "sometimes amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity" but says principles of international law that could prevent such attacks were being undermined and marginalised by powerful countries such as the US.
"Governments are losing their moral compass, sacrificing the global values of human rights in a blind pursuit of security. This failure of leadership is a dangerous concession to armed groups," said Irene Khan, the secretary general of Amnesty International. [Read the whole article]
Jessica Cutler is a Saint
Jessica Cutler (picture from New York Post,
found in an article, in Italian, of the Corriere della Sera online)
It must be very hard and boring nowadays to be a Republican in the United States. It takes stamina to withstand industrial amounts of rhetoric on the Country, and the manifest destiny of US leadership applied to the whole world (PNAC), and resolve (at the expense of reasoning and good sense), and to deal with the increased Christian fundamentalism, manicheism and pathetic messianism of the current president.
So how can they be blamed if the look for some well deserved relaxation? Mind you, it may be a bit in contrast with the proclaimed virtues of Christian abstinence-only (supported obsessively by the Bush administration), or even the sacrament of marriage, but well, a little sin can be for the good of the country, can it not?
In this light, a woman like Jessica Cutler certainly has a role, because any righteous citizen needs a release from the hardships of modern society, and Republican politicians even more!
The story of Jessica Cutler seems to have reached the whole world (in fact I read it today on an Italian online newspaper). As everybody knows by now, she was working as a Staff Assistant ("or 'Staff Ass' as the men on the Hill like to say", she writes in her blog). But as 25,000 dollars per year really were not enough for her, she was contributing to the relaxation of some virtuous Republicans (even some quick relaxation sessions during lunch) often for a monetary sign of gratitude. Her "fault"? Using the internet during work for writing about her nursing activities. Which ultimately was the reason for being fired. Of course if she had simply kept doing what she wrote about, it would have been ok, presumably! As probably it will be ok for those who used her services.
One thing must be said. For a start, Jessica Cutler is more virtuous than those she worked for. She is open and straightforward, she says and writes what she does, and does not hide the fact of having received money. There is some innocence about her and candour. How many Republicans are so open, sincere and honest? They really appear more like those who would say "do as I say don't do as I do" (in this they are in good company, many churches do the same).
Another picture of Jessica Cutler (picture from the Washington Post)
So I really hope all the best for Jessica Cutler. Not the same for the abstinent-only pro-life (Christian oriented? Born again? Born once?) Republicans.
Monday, May 24, 2004
A must read article by Susan Sontag on the Guardian:
"What have we done?
The horrific images from Abu Ghraib have come to define the ill-starred occupation of Iraq, but what do they really tell us about America? Are they simply the work of a few rogue soldiers, or the result of the new foreign and domestic policies of the Bush administration, which find ready approval in an increasingly brutalised society? Susan Sontag on the ugly face of the war on terror"
Read the article here.
Brazil: 41% of priests 'reject' celibacy
says Catholic Bishops Association
I have been accused by some loyal Catholics, DrChrist for instance, to draw on biased data when I write that half of the Catholic priests are sexually active and equal percentage is gay (I have written various posts on this and related topics. You can read one of the most recent here).
Interestingly, DrChrist does not object by presenting counter-data, but simply states arbitrarily, and in a quite uncharitable way indeed (towards the seriousness of the authors), that the data I have must surely be biased if they say that Catholic priests are freaking hypocrites.
Probably anything that reveals Catholic priests' hypocrisy is wrong without need of proof, according to DrChrist.
Probably even Catholic bishops in Brazil are biased when they say 41% of their priests reject celibacy, and 62% think homosexuality is not a sin, uh? You can read the article here. Mind you, according to theologian Adriana Zarri, Brazilian priests are very celibate compared to other countries.
From the article (stress is mine):
"The same survey showed 62% rejecting the idea that homosexuality is a sin. Forty-one percent said they have experienced "loving relationships" with women since ordination, a phrase that was not specifically defined.
[...]
"However, one of the co-ordinators of the survey, Luiz Antonio Gomez de Souza, said: 'We are not talking here about platonic relationships between priests and women.' "
Note that not only have 41% of priests had non-platonic special relationships with women, also 62% say homosexuality is not a sin. This latter percentage is close to the percentages on clergy homomosexuals found in various studies. What a coincidence! One wonders what deep emotional (and sexual) orientation may lead 62% of Catholic priests to state (against the teachings of the Church) that homosexuality is not a sin.
Continue to put your head under the sand, guys. Piety and devotion and faith need that, it seems.
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Michael Moore won at Cannes Movie Festival with his Fahrenheit 9/11. Watch this movie when it is released, it raises many questions that the Bush administration should answer. A review of Time Magazine here.
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Israel's attack in Rafah:
"War Crime" say they United Nations
Again a massacre in Palestine, in Rafah. Over 12 Palestinians were killed today (32 in 3 days), amongst whom various children, by the Israeli Armi during their massive invasion of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Elicopters, tanks and missiles were used against civilians.
The attack has been condemned by the Secretary General of the Arabic Alliance, Amr Moussa, by Tony Blair ("unacceptable and wrong") and by the European Union.
The representative of the UN, John Dugard, defines the Israeli attack a "war crime"
The Bush administration expresses "concern" while, in its usual funambulistic, unconditional support of Israel, invites "all parties to exercise maximum restraint". But the ever condemned Palestian "terrorism" cannot be a reasom for not strongly condemning the criminal state terrorism of Sharon which keeps inflaming the Middle East. If agreement is expected when opposing terrorim, the criminal policies of Israel should be opposed with even more energy by all nations in the world, and particularly the US, in that Israel has a pretense of legality and legitimacy, whereas all the reasons for legitimacy and rights have been taken away from the Palestinians.
Nobody seems to really be willing to solve the situation of Israel. currently the biggest WMD in the whole Middle East.
Picture from LaRepubblica (Italy). News read on LaRepubblica and http://abcnews.go.com/
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
This is what war is about
I found a quite interesting Web site (http://www.theblackflag.org/) that had a shocking picture in their current home page. I decided to post it here even if it may be shocking because it truly represent what war is about.
Too often, comfortably sitting in our living rooms, the news that arrive from the media, packaged as a TV series, are made aseptic and partial. Too often, war can appear something abstract even, that takes place is some remote place, and that does not regard us, if not for some equally abstract duty of being informed.
This was the caption under the picture in the above-mentioned site:
The military is angry at Al Jazeera for broadcasting images of the dead and injured in Fallujah. I have a favor to ask of everyone. Turn as many Americans on to Al Jazeera as you can. Some of us in America happen to value the truth considerably more than the DOD.
I don't think I am far from the truth if I say that when it comes to the Iraqi war, the logic of aggression and abject economical and geopolitical interests have prevailed over attempts of finding solutions without a war. The Bush administration appeared to be anxious to attack Iraq for inexistent reasons. Before being an organization, the United Nations are the expression of an ideal of peace and stability in the world. The same ideal that the Bush administration has mindlessly walked over.
These same considerations apply to the situation in Palestine. The US must stop supporting the belligerant and aggressive policies of Sharon, premier of a state that is high in the rank of the states that have not respected UN resolutions and international conventions. The Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, has reprimanded Israel twice in the last three days for Israel's illegal policy of demolishing Palestinian houses in the area of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Do they care?
Sunday, May 16, 2004
God has always been a provisional patch for human ignorance.
...and men created God after their likeness
The contrivance of God was since the very beginning an attempt to understand and control nature, with respect to which humans felt small and vulnerable, and to cope with the anguish of death. It was therefore the expression of a desire of power, or more power, associated to the fear of the unknown in nature and the awareness of finitude.
Looking at this from a different point of view, it was a preparation: through the invention of God, humans expressed their desire of being Gods themselves, and while contenting themselves with the alleged relationship with an invented entity, exploiting the soothing support of a psychotic idea, they work hard towards becoming Gods, proceed in expanding their knowledge, possibly to overcome the limits that have determined the creation of gods in the first place, and to find reasons for the existence of things, whose gratuitousness they cannot accept.
An article of the NewYorker shows that "The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq."
Friday, May 14, 2004
Saved
A new movie directed by Brian Dannelly and produced by Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), featuring Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin will be released on May 28th. This is the summary found here:
When a girl attending a Baptist high school becomes pregnant, she finds herself ostrasized and demonized, as all of her former friends turn on her. The film is a coming-of-age story and also a dark comedy. "It's like those monster vampire high school kind of movies, only here the monsters are Jesus-freak teenagers," says Michael Stipe, the R.E.M. lead-singer turned movie producer.
An interesting article on what could possibly be definined a post-alcoholism religious psychosis.
A short interesting movie
I found in the Internet an interesting Flash animation that shows the US policy towards Iraq and particularly the role of Saddam Hussein, before he was suddenly considered (when no longer useful) an 'evil doer'.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
The vocation of the Unmighty Matty Canister
Some people feel a call to God. I have decided to write a short story to try to give an account of the depth and amplitude of such a mysterious event.
"You see, father, I felt the enema of life..."
"Enema? What you mean Matty?"
"Yes the mystery”
"Oh ok, enigma"
"Yes what did I say?"
"Ok go ahead, son, I understand now"
"I felt the big enigma of life deep inside me, and I suddenly knew there was only an answer..."
"yes son, I understand you very well."
"My greatest aspiration is that of becoming more closely part of the bride of God, the Church, as a deacon, hoping to humbly deserve such a honour, because I have indeed comprehended that only as a deacon shall the enema of life be fulfilled..."
"I am glad to hear that son, I sure hope your path will be paved with grace and enormous satisfactions"
"I have tried other paths, the easy ones, the ones that the inane world consider straight, but after many attempts I understood that, as the Bible says, in Luke 13:22-35, one should choose the Narrow Door, however hard and difficult the entrance might be!"
"yes son, the doors that most people enter, however orthodox they may appear to them, are not the Narrow Door that we, saved, know to be the only one that leads to the ultimate bliss."
"Exactly father, I can recognize, and admire in you, the perspicacity that divine Grace only can confer to a human soul".
"Don't say so, you make me blush, son"
"So father, like I said, I have tried various ways, and I finally understood, that whereas the world preaches wisdom, I shall embrace madness, for verily madness to the world is reason to God..."
"yes son!"
"..whereas the world preaches power, I shall embrace passivity, because suffering is to be passive to the will of God…"
"yes yes yes, oh saintly words, Matty"
"... whereas the world screams and raises a loud vulgar voice, I shall pursue the softness of the fluted voices of angels"
"yes yes yes, oh yes, Canister, your remind me of the early days when I felt aroused by faith and heard the call"
".... and whereas the world, blindly pursue the delusive and deceitful common pleasures of the flesh, I shall pursue less common pleasures..."
"oh Matty! I love it when I meet men that feel so strongly the call"
"yes father.. oh father, I have decided to give in, to comply, to accept, to bend to the will of God..."
"...Oh Matty, I have decided the same, years ago, welcome to the great sisterhood of the brides of God, and come here and give me a pure, theologically sound, big sisterly kiss!"
Bush: "Rumsfeld did a superb job"
Monday, May 10, 2004
The tortures in Iraq: a systemic method of violence and sadism
The tortures of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers cannot be considered an unfortunate isolated accident, perpetrated by a few, particularly sadistic people, without specific notions on the Geneva Conventions. However ignorant soldiers might be, they are surely instructed to do one thing: obey. Any soldier is aware that not obeying orders, or behaving outside the rules, has an immediate response in some form of punishment. The soldiers shown in the pictures that have appeared all over the world, raising scandal, indignation and rage, surely don't look as if they are hiding their sadistic activities: they do it somewhat publicly, in places where other soldiers could come, they take pictures and smiles. They behave as if the their activities were perfectly normal and acceptable. They don't appear the least bit as if they have fear to be reprimanded and get in trouble with their superiors.
Their behaviour would not have taken place had they not felt that was somehow complying with indications or acceptance from higher levels.
Truth is, the tortures were part of a method (as the Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, proves too), a method applied in other areas too, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. This is why the explanations given by Bush and Rumsfeld on the torture episodes are simply not credible.
Bush and all his administration, shall be held accountable for everything. Not only have they allowed illegal, sadistic and cruel behavior to take place, but by doing so they have made the peace-making process a more difficult goal to reach, and raised the rage of masses of people, who now have the pictorial personification of what many anti-US extremists keep preaching (as many papers have pointed out).
The following is the report of the ICRC (pdf format, from the Web site of the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica").
A sign that democratic values and principles of accountability, let alone human values, are not simply a facade should mean, for a start, that Rumsfeld should resign. Also, the leadership in Iraq should immediately pass to the United Nations.
For all the abstinence-only education fanatics an alternative approach to sexual education from England. The title of the article is a bit misleading, but it makes lots of sense and above all is more realistic and has proved to be effective.
Interesting how on one side of the Atlantic, law-makers recognize teenagers as sexual being who have the right to receive information, while in the New Continent they are considered objects of indoctrination and kept in ignorance.
Friday, May 07, 2004
Freaking hypocritical queers
The more one observes them, the more one is disgusted by the Roman Catholic Church (the worst seem to be, I am afraid, some American fanatics. Possibly contaminated by puritan, born again fundamentalists?) and by the pretention and arrogance of many self-appointed God-chosen Christian people with their patronizing facace of piety.
Freaking hypocrites.
Instead of continuously bashing homosexuals, premarital sex and so on (showing an indubitable obsession for sex, and a pathological rejection of it, and contributing to intolerance) - while being for the most part gays and sexually active and enjoying all the queer rituals and toys and attire of priests - why don't you guys bash the war in Iraq, tortures, unilateral war, capital punishment, Bush and Rumsfeld?
As if the problems of the world were all about penises and vaginas and their use. How sick is to concentrate on that all the time? The more one think about it the more one is convinced that the Roman Catholic Church is made of a bunch of queers. If that were not true, they would have other priorities, they really would fight against the real problems instead of titillating themselves with sex ethics and fiddling with their expensive toys (on the intrinsic queerness of the Church I have written extensively here, where several bibliographic references can be found).
Is that the price society should pay for people who have not the guts of coming out of the closet and, because of their guilt, try to impose an obsessive pathogenic view of life on others?
A Wretched New Picture Of America
An article on The New Yorker.
A comment of Massimo Cacciari (in Italian).
Interesting comment on the abuses in Iraq by US soldiers.
"We will bring democracy to Iraq"
The first act of inhumanity in Iraq was not torture, but a unilateral war in the first place. The hidden, dirty interests smuggled as virtuous desire to bring democracy. Death spread with the 'good conscience' of a facade morality. Torture is only the outcome of all this.
[Photograph from La Repubblica online, originally from Washington Post]
