Pope Benedict XVI Blames In-house Sexual Abuse of Children on the Rest of the World

 Newsbyte  1 Response »
Dec 272010
 
Pope Benedict XVI delivers a message blaming the rest of the world for his Church's systematic sexual abuse of children for decades

Pope Benedict XVI delivers a message blaming the rest of the world for his Church's systematic sexual abuse of children for decades

In an end-of-the-year speech delivered to cardinals and bishops assembled in Vatican City, Pope Benedict XVI attempted to guide the Roman Catholic Church in a direction that will lead to significant reflection on the systematic abuse and molestation of young children that we have come to commonly know as a “abuse scandal”.  While he made not so much of a hint of an indication that the Church would stop trying to interfere in investigations into abusive priests – or in the case of Ireland, demanding that those involved be granted immunity – he did find a brand new scapegoat for the sexual abuse woes of the Church: secular society.

Benedict also said, however, that the scandal must be seen in a broader social context, in which child pornography is seemingly considered normal by society and drug use and sexual tourism are on the rise.

From what was a shell game of moving abusive priests around to parishes that hadn’t heard of their evil deeds just yet, the Pope has now moved on to an equally pointless shell game: shifting blame from unrelated cause to unrelated cause.

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The Obama Dream & 30 Items From A Sold Out Reality

 Writings & Musings  No Responses »
Dec 162010
 
Policy items accomplished? Sure, and many of them. What has been left behind, however, is inexcusable.

Policy items accomplished? Sure, and many of them. What has been left behind, however, is inexcusable.

In the still-infant months of the Obama administration, April of 2009, the shine of hope and promise that was ushered in during the previous campaign began to see its first blemishes.  While there was the embracing of releasing Bush-era memos detailing exactly how and when captives held by the United States could be tortured, and under what legal framework would be created to protect said behavior, any hope for actual justice for such heinous acts carried out in the name of the United States were quickly snuffed from existence.

Obama stated, back then, that CIA agents right on up to members of the Bush administration would not face prosecution for orchestrating, implementing, and justifying systematic torture of prisoners.  Not now, and in theory not ever.

Within days, the enormous amount of power that was diverted to the Executive Branch during the Bush administration via the AT&T-led warrant-less wiretapping program also found a new voice of support stemming from the Obama administration.  There would be no investigation of high-level Bush administration officials that pushed for the surveillance and there would be no investigation of the American companies that took part in the American government-sponsored spying on American citizens of every walk of life.

The reaction from the vast and general public was a collective shrug of the shoulder.  The President took shelter behind approval ratings in the mid 60′s and continued to ride out the storm.  Nearly two years later, the government can also now take nearly-nude photographs of you and feel you up – for your safety, of course.

Thus highlighted what would become an extremely depressing and long line of Very Important Things that the President would either ignore, capitulate on, reverse course, and – as much as the cheesiness of the phrase makes me cringe – flip flop on.

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Encouraging Religious Exclusion, Bigotry, & Standing Against Science: The Vatican’s Diplomatic Games

 Writings & Musings  1 Response »
Dec 152010
 
Pope Benedict XVI leads the world's Roman Catholics, and seeks to impose its conservative values on the Western world via diplomacy

Pope Benedict XVI leads the world's Roman Catholics, and seeks to impose its conservative values on the Western world via diplomacy

One of the latest tidbits of interesting information to expose itself thanks in part to Wikileaks is the apparently quite active diplomatic schedule of the Catholic Church, from its sovereign post in Vatican City.

Over the past ten years the Vatican has either stuck its nose or made a very concerted effort to stick its nose in the affairs of relatively serious issues across Europe, and since the calls are being made, there does have to be someone on the other end of the line listening.  The question becomes: why?

Why does only one of the world’s main religions find itself with a place at the diplomatic table with actual countries who have to contend with actual issues that effect millions of people on the actual world’s stage?  Why does only one of the world’s main religions get a diplomatic megaphone that allows it to continuously be a force, or at least factor, in a wide range of geopolitical & science issues?

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The Internet after Wikileaks

 Techy Go Beep  3 Responses »
Dec 092010
 
Julian Assange of Wikipedia - Wanted by Interpol, but not for what you think.

Julian Assange of Wikipedia – Wanted by Interpol, but not for what you think.

Crises precipitate change.

Make no mistake: the release of information by Wikileaks – the State Department cables still standing at a mere ~1,200 of 251,287 released – with more promised for next year (target: Bank of America?) is coming off as a devastating shot by the freedom and openness that the Internet offers at the halls of entrenched power and the extremely complex chess game that makes up the way things are.  Those on the power-side of the argument: governments, politicians, businesses; will be looking for figurative (or literal) blood after this is all set and done.

The gears of “justice” are already in motion against Wikileaks’ head Julian Assange.  Though much like notorious gangster Al Capone being eventually busted for tax evasion because it was an easier case for the government to pursue, Mr. Assange is also being prosecuted for something that has nothing doing with the core reason why governments want him silenced.  Instead of leaking information, he is being charged with rape.  The rapid-fire and rapid-research world that the Internet brings us today, Mr. Assange being wanted by Interpol is quickly countered with enough smoke to make one really have to consider just what is real and what is stirred-up feelings that amount to nothing more than a smear campaign – ultimately being a well-placed diversion from the continuing secrets of the world’s balance of power being bled onto the Internet.

Given time, this will all pass.  What will be next for the Internet, though?

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Difference Indistinguishable

 Writings & Musings  No Responses »
Dec 032010
 
Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faces a protest in 2007

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faces a protest in 2007

In the early days of the Obama Administration – March of 2009 – a human rights group in Spain named Association for the Dignity of Spanish Prisoners made an appeal to Spain’s National Court that the body use its ability to protect the rights of Spanish citizens no matter where they may be by targeting the United States and it’s creation of “a legal framework that allegedly permitted torture”.  Charges were brought against a who’s-who list of the legal accomplices to the pro-torture policy of the Bush Administration:

  • Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
  • Chief of staff/legal adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, David Addington
  • Pentagon general counsel William Haynes
  • Undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith
  • Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel, Jay Bybee
  • Official in the Office of Legal Counsel, John Yoo

Between these men, you had the sources for policies that reigned for most of the opening decade of this century when it came to America’s outward appearance to the rest of the world.  From these men you saw the legal framework and backing for the undoing of decades of goodwill that the United States made and gained throughout the 20th century.  From these men you saw the legal justification for a superpower – and by extension anyone else if they so chose – to abandon things like the Geneva Convention.

The Obama Administration had a rather important decision to make.

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The Drive to Snuff the Light: Outspoken Calls for Assassination of Wikileaks’ Assange

 Writings & Musings  1 Response »
Dec 022010
 

We’ll start with a Video of the day…

Brazen?  Cold?  Irresponsible?  Reprehensible?  A full week of leaks hasn’t even concluded yet, and there are outright calls for assassination to do… what, exactly?  The full load of documents have already been released to major media outlets, and there are back up plans out there even in the event of Mr. Assange’s death.  Still, with merely 600 of the 251,000+ leaked State Department communications out there, the cries for blood have started to rise in the political classes the world over.  Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Assange, for rape – charges that were brought in August of this year, just after embarrassing documents were released by Wikileaks about America’s current involvement in Afghanistan.

President Obama’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs, has said the U.S. government might want to prosecute Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, for violating U.S. secrecy laws and perhaps even for espionage. But that is not the reason for the notice – at least not yet. Swedish authorities on Nov. 18 asked Interpol to help them take Assange into custody for questioning on accusations of rape and sexual harassment.

The charges were brought by two Swedish women in August after what both described as consensual sexual encounters in Sweden that escalated into something unwanted and illegal. Assange, who has long expressed fear of reprisal from Washington and other governments, denied anything but consensual sex and suggested that the two women were part of a plot to smear his name and undermine his campaign to get government secrets into the open.

Before the women came forward, Assange had sought a Swedish residence visa, hoping to benefit from the country’s strong protection of press freedoms. But since then, he has been traveling constantly and staying below the radar, popping up in London, appearing on a videoconference in Amman, Jordan, and answering questions from Time magazine via Skype, reluctant to show himself in flesh and blood.

To be honest, calls for blood sound a little atypical eliminating from Canada, but rest assured that in places you would expect them, there the calls for blood lie.  Former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin has already done it by saying Mr. Assange should be hunted down with the same urgency as Osama Bin Laden, which one would think the intent being “kill him” – though if it is handled as haphazardly as the original target, Mr. Assange has 10 years and counting to roam free.

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