This is not the criminal syndicate you are looking for

Matt Taibbi asks, not entirely unreasonably, what it will take for the Pope to be gotten rid of.

I hate to point this out, but the Pope is already complicit in covering up systematic child abuse by the Catholic church through several decades.  That this hasn’t gotten rid of him means nothing will.  The Pope could go on TV tomorrow mainlining coke while punching pregnant mothers and it wouldn’t make a difference.  I mean, we now have abundant evidence the Pope is in charge of what is, essentially, the largest and most powerful child abuse ring in the world, and apparently that’s all OK, at least as far as the Vatican and various legal authorities in strongly Catholic are concerned.

As I’ve remarked, this has made me consider a career in being a Catholic priest.  Why, I’ll be able to rob banks and murder people who annoy me all day long, because apparently the law and basic morality don’t apply to God’s favourite child molestation ring.

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Ah, Italy, your wacky disdain for human rights never gets old

From Times online:

An Italian comedienne who said that Pope Benedict XVI would go to Hell and be tormented by homosexual demons is facing a prison term of up to five years.

Addressing a Rome rally in July, Sabrina Guzzanti warmed up with a few gags about Silvio Berlusconi — her favourite target for her biting impressions — before moving on to some unrepeatable jokes about Mara Carfagna, the Equal Opportunities Minister and one-time topless model.

But then she got religion, and after warning everyone that within 20 years Italian teachers would be vetted and chosen by the Vatican, she got to the punchline: “But then, within 20 years the Pope will be where he ought to be — in Hell, tormented by great big poofter devils, and very active ones, not passive ones.”

The joke may have gone done well with her crowd on the Piazza Navona in Rome, but not with Italian prosecutors. She is facing prosecution for “offending the honour of the sacred and inviolable person” of Benedict XVI.

The Christian world may have been dismayed, even outraged, at the Muslim reaction in 2005 to Danish cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammed, but Italian law enforcement appears to have had its own sense of humour failure. Giovanni Ferrara, the Rome prosecutor, is invoking the 1929 Lateran Treaty between Italy and the Vatican, which stipulates that an insult to the Pope carries the same penalty as an insult to the Italian President. Prosecution requires authorisation from the Ministry of Justice, for which Mr Ferrara has applied.

I mean, seriously, come on now Italy.  You’re just making the rest of Europe, and yourselves, look bad with this shit.  Hand over the blackshirts, get back to making delicious foods, wines, and artistic pieces and we will forget about this.

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