GayNZ.com: "Pope Benedict XVI has delivered an implicitly anti-gay Easter message at Good Friday services at the Vatican in Rome." 

Germaine Greer on Elizabeth II: "The next crisis will come if Elizabeth's subjects begin to suspect, as the faithful did of the previous pope, that she is gradually becoming senile. If then she should abdicate in favour of the heir apparent, who is as disliked by the people as he dislikes them, the monarchy will be once again in crisis. This thought is probably enough to keep her reigning over us indefinitely." 

Austin Cline has a good takedown of Constitutional silliness by one D. A. Seese. Familiar? Yes, I gave her a quick lesson on the use of reason in ethical arguments last month. An easy target? Perhaps. I just find it amusing that she describes herself as a member of "the greatest generation" (a phrase which is absolutely, positively not value-laden), and her statements about the Constitution exhibit a degree of willed ignorance which even I, someone without either formal legal training, a college degree or citizenship of the United States, can see to be patently false. She is living proof that religion brings more ignorance than it does knowledge. 

Boing Boing are reporting that Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been called "little whores" by Catholic League president William "Vatican-sized whore" Donohoue. Oh man, I'm so jealous. Seriously, though, South Park has been so bang on target with the recent episodes. 

First Amendment time: Submission by Theo Van Gogh (Google Video), and "It's in the Koran" (banned from Google Video). 

Popewatch 

So, we're all evil sinners. News? Apparently. So sayeth young Joseph Ratzinger:

For those of you unschooled in these Catholic matters, let me spell out what this means: those damn fags are getting their marriages, erm, civil unions and we won't have a bit of it!

And some people in the EU are getting disenchanted with the role we're playing in politics and trying to freeze us out. We just about got away with it last year with the World Youth Day debaclé until them secularists found out about it and started bitching.

The family is privileged by our government. You've got an unmarried, childfree person like me, who has to subsidise the institution of family through force. And when I object that said privileges should be available equally, or that I'm not happy with being forced to subsidise said institution, I'm "attacking" the family.

Well, the family is attacking the glory of the invidiual. They tie people down, rape them both mentally and physically, hinder their development (the phrase "too clever for his own good" is a phrase only suitable for family viewing - nobody without the burden of children could say such a foul thing!) and cause havoc in their life.

The family is the last taboo. If someone is raped by a total stranger, that is worthy of contempt. If someone is raped by a a priest, that is worthy of scorn. If someone is raped by a family member, that is worthy of secrecy, lies, deceit and covering up. "We're all family" covers a multitude of sins far worse.There is bliss in the unconditional love of the family, to be sure, but that goes wrong so frequently.

Privilege the family if that is what you want. But let's be honest about what we are doing. The family aren't being attacked. All that's happening is the people who the proponents of the family have attacked - single people, childfree people, gays and lesbians - are asking for compensation.

Joseph Ratzinger, or Benedict, or whatever he's called, is typical of the moral dimness that affects so many churchmen. They condemn in the abstract, but brush over the reality of morality. In short, he's a clueless man in a dress. They'll lament the movie version of Dan Brown, but they won't do anything to stop their flock from abusing children. It's all in the family of God, remember. If you're not part of that hypocritical family, you're worthy of scorn. But once you are inside, you are protected from every accusation.

Back At Ya, Boy 

Ben Goldacre takes the Daily Mail to task for it's mixed coverage of 'medicalisation'. The funny thing is that all the alties condemn Western medicine using the line of medicalisation - it's turning things in to diseases, it's peddling cures for diseases which it has itself invented, it is the cause of the problem, not the cure.

Well, right back at ya! Alternative medicine commits every evil the drug companies do, only they do it without the oversight of science.

The alties get pissy when drug companies take traditional medicine and exploit it for commercial gain. There is something to their complaint - the patenting system doesn't make sense, nor does it promote innovation. But they are doing exactly the same thing. They're taking traditional medicine, bottling it up and selling it in health food shops. Only you can't look their crap up on PubMed and find out whether it works or not.

The alties say that doctors lie and mislead, hold back information from patients. Oh yeah? So do you lot!

When I say "Western medicine works", I'm not saying that they are guilt free. The monopolistic practices of drug companies, the abuse of IP and their secretive behaviour are all wrong, but, as a patient, when faced with a choice between doctors who have been trained in universities administering practices tested in science labs, and fruitcakes trained by their uncritical chums, using unproven and almost untestable nonsense like homeopathy, I'm going for the lesser of two evils.