Blogroll Me! How This Old Brit Sees It ...: Could Pope Benedict Be Going A Bit Bonkers Too?

27 November 2006

Could Pope Benedict Be Going A Bit Bonkers Too?

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First, we'd like to make a few things clear.

We are agnostic.

But we weren't always.

In fact, we still see the 'gospels' as great - though we definitely do not 'do' dogma..

We are not anti any religion.

However, we are anti ALL fundamentalists, extremists and/or zealots - whatever their religion, sect, cult, race, gender, sexual orientation, colour, political beliefs, their nationality and/or whatever.

Including, incidentally, any intolerant, immoderates immersed amongst mainstream atheists

Also, it's our personal opinion that infallibility is an impossibility.

Further, we strongly believe in both the absolute right of free speech, as well as the right to possess a healthy and harmless sense of humour.

And by the way and for what it's worth, our own mother's family were Irish Catholics while our father's family were Scottish Protestants.

As their offspring, we sincerely believe ourselves to be totally fair, balanced, truthful and tolerant.

Okay?

Clear where we're coming from?

Right, then.

Now that we've gotten all that out of the way, we want to say this.

After what he recently said regarding Islam, then insisting that this trip of his to (98% Sunni Muslim), Turkey still takes place -- we believe the man shown above must be (at least, a little bit), mad.

Hopefully, the malady's merely temporary.

We sincerely hope so.

Honest to 'you know you'.

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15 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, Ratburger is undeniably mad and/or evil. The devil indeed wears Prada ...

11:32 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That man is a pure hustler if ever there was one. He all but appointed himself as pope.

12:18 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Did you know this?

Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth

Justin Sparks, Munich, John Follain and Christopher Morgan, Rome

THE wartime past of a leading German contender to succeed John Paul II may return to haunt him as cardinals begin voting in the Sistine Chapel tomorrow to choose a new leader for 1 billion Catholics.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, whose strong defence of Catholic orthodoxy has earned him a variety of sobriquets — including “the enforcer”, “the panzer cardinal” and “God’s rottweiler” — is expected to poll around 40 votes in the first ballot as conservatives rally behind him.



Although far short of the requisite two-thirds majority of the 115 votes, this would almost certainly give Ratzinger, 78 yesterday, an early lead in the voting. Liberals have yet to settle on a rival candidate who could come close to his tally.

Unknown to many members of the church, however, Ratzinger’s past includes brief membership of the Hitler Youth movement


Here's more from The Times.

12:29 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jesus H !!!!

Alternately cover one side of his face as you look at just the other one side.

Shit. Talk about scary.

12:36 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

TOB, No wunner I likes ya, lad ... my Ma and Pa had the much the same divide as yours, Irish Catholic and (er,) English Prots. And the first in either family to marry outside the faith. (Their own parents had been mixers, too -- but only outside each other's Euro national origins, having dared to marry Krauts, mostly for their hearty cooking I think.)

All in Victorian America.

So here am I, some years later, like you a bloke who's actually spent time getting to know real people in the Middle East -- and this erstwhile Hitler Jugend (and Waffen-SS intern in the last, brutal days of WW2) dares repeat a medieval Byzantine emperor's views of the Muslims of his day, and THEN goes a-calling to the very country and people that took that emperor's lands?* Even if it's the most rational, secular, and democratic-spirited majority-Muslim nation today?

* - edit: I forgot how fond the Germans are of visiting lost territories.

Unbelievably stupid and cruel. As catherine d. said, it's the devil himself in Prada. Remember the shot of his cloven thumb? On the sinister side, IIRC.

xxx, I did as you said -- his left (our right) side said Lecher, and the other one was straight out of Batman comix *and* NSDAP/Reichswehr posters. I'm booking a session with a therapist now, in anticipation of the nightmares! ;^)

5:50 am  
Blogger Wisewebwoman said...

Joey The Rat as some have it. No disrespect, though I am a recovered Catholic who believed in it all and took many years to de-programme. I agree with everyone, I was stunned when he anointed himself Il Papa knowing how he felt about other religions (intolerance of both Jews and Muslims, not sure how he feels about Hindus, buddhists, et al). Like the priors he has the requisite mysogeny for women tightly in place though may bend a bit on celibacy as so many priests are marrying behind his back which is a very good thing as that means they are not bothering altar boys.
As always, my Goddess has no religion, at all, at all.

7:05 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The photo says it all, Richard.

As for the Turkey visit, I'm sure it's not personal, you know. It's just bidness.

It's the place to go if you wanna drug deal or need some under the counter nuke technology. (Just joking. I'm sure Joey da Rat has reliable suppliers already)

Turkey is where East meets West and buyers meet sellers. It's win-win for everybody...except the ordinary Turks who will be the meat in the sandwich when East meets West in war.

Do a deal with the devil and you get burnt every time. Which brings me back to Ratzinger.....
This is just a guess, but I think it will be to talk the Turks into a deal involving staying out of Iraqi Kurdistan for help in getting into the EU (which they never will). The Turks will get burnt.

A lot of important people are doing personal visits around the globe at the moment. Something big is in th wind. Something that can't be talked about over the airwaves or put in writing, if you know what I mean.

9:38 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The photo says it all, Richard.

As for the Turkey visit, I'm sure it's not personal, you know. It's just bidness.

It's the place to go if you wanna drug deal or need some under the counter nuke technology. (Just joking. I'm sure Joey da Rat has reliable suppliers already)

Turkey is where East meets West and buyers meet sellers. It's win-win for everybody...except the ordinary Turks who will be the meat in the sandwich when East meets West in war.

Do a deal with the devil and you get burnt every time. Which brings me back to Ratzinger.....
This is just a guess, but I think it will be to talk the Turks into a deal involving staying out of Iraqi Kurdistan for help in getting into the EU (which they never will). The Turks will get burnt.

A lot of important people are doing personal visits around the globe at the moment. Something big is in th wind. Something that can't be talked about over the airwaves or put in writing, if you know what I mean.

The last time Olmert went to Washington, the Lebonese War followed. I'm expecting something to follow this visit. After Olmert left Washington, there was a flurry of visits overseas by Cheney Rice and Bush and Blair and Howard goes to the US.

9:42 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Richard,

It is interesting to know a bit about your origins because it explains the man, tolerant and humanist.

As for Ratzo, he is obsessed with faith and religion in Europe. Europe is mostly secular now and there is nothing he can do about that and it is not the fault of Islam, it was the fault of 20th century communist and socialist egalitarian ideologies. If he want to serve Catholicism he might well turn to countries where Catholicism is well, alive and rooted in the reality of the people; Latin America.
It is time we got another pope, a pope from altin America, a pope preoccupied by social justice and poverty and ot by the doctrine of faith.

Ha has disgraced himself by his mean attacks on Islam to a point of no return. And they call him a pope philosoher ? This is a proof that faith and reason don't go hand by hand.

3:58 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm not in the least surprised the Rat msde it from Hitler Jugend or where ever to Head Honcho of the Catholic Church as you've only to ponder the regular sordid tales that see light of day fairly often to see the crass hypocrisy that the CC wallows in.

10:03 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Religion is BUNK!! Dangerous bunk. Callous bunk.

Like politicians should be judged by what they DO rather than what they say, so should the so-called church leaders.

11:24 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Getting their ducks all in a row?

Debating "War and Peace" behind Closed Doors: NATO'S Riga Security Conference

by Michel Chossudovsky

3:15 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wisewebwoman--

It probably won't surprise you to learn that Pappa Ratzi takes a dim view of Buddhism. He equated it with spiritual masturbation.

See here here here and here.

3:28 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Apparently, this pope is the last but one. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes





*sweetoldlady*

6:11 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sweet old lady,

I knew that penultimate pope thing rang a bell, so I searched through old brit's blog. Look what he wrote over a year and a half ago when Ratzo first 'got the job'.

Boy did the old brit give that piece an apt title.

Spooky ...

Tuesday 19th May 2005 - Cardinal Ratzinger became the new pope.

Because I'm agnostic, it doesn't mean too much to me. I don't give credence to clairvoyants and the like either, so their predictions cut no ice at all. But, sometimes there are things I honestly can't call anything but 'spooky!'

The night before the Vatican vote for Ratzinger, one of my favourite old films happened to be on TV again, so I watched

That full spooky blogpost is here.

9:17 pm  

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