Just Two Things, and Then I'll Go

Here's a couple of things that have me wanting to mouth off.

I saw a note on the CNN site that reported how some Democrats are joining the Tea Party movement. They say that they liked Obama to begin with but now see he is really bad for the country. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that they are not among the 50 million or so who don't have health care coverage. I don't get it: if we are such a great country, what is it that makes us say fuck you to our fellow citizens, as long as we have what we want in our lives? Isn't it best if everyone has a chance? Doesn't that make for a stronger country overall?

Then you look closer at the CNN article and you see that 96% of Tea Partyers call themselves Republicans, and only 4% define themselves as Democrats. And if you look even further, you can see at least one "Democrat" saying that he eventually voted for John McCain. Just what kind if Republican is that? And what is CNN's angle? They couldn't come up with any real Democrats who dislike the administration enough to join an openly racist organization? Guess not.

The second thing that has gotten me a bit riled is the latest Roman Catholic pedophilia scandal. Of course, the acts resulting in the scandal go back decades, and continue to occur today, but let's not sweat the details. I saw a letter in Time magazine from a woman who said: "Pedophiles exist in all walks of life, yet Catholic priests get the headlines, even though just a tiny percentage have committed this shameful offense. Choosing to live the vow of chastity is a gift of one's total self to God and has no relevance whatsoever to pedophilia."

First, I would wonder what percentage of pedophiliacs in a religious organization, often left in charge of young children, is acceptable. Second, you miss the point if you think that the greater offense is in the acts of a sick individual. It is, by far, in the universal cover up committed by the Catholic Church in their delaying, obstructing, denying, and removal of the offender from retribution, and their placing of that offender in a position to commit the same crimes, without a hint of warning to the new community of victims. They haven't just driven the getaway car, they have loaded the gun, they have formulated the plan, they have held the victim down while the perpetrator raped them, again and again. They are just as guilty, and they should be made to pay. And when they are done, by which I mean when they have run out of money, they should be shut down, so that at long last a plague can be removed from the people.