Religion

This morning I read that Pope Francis has taken the brakes off the the beatification of Oscar Romero. I'm not entirely sure what the requirements are for martyrdom, but Romero certainly met my requirements.  Perhaps you are old enough to remember Pope John XXIII, and the Second Vatican Council.  Perhaps you are old enough to remember Liberation Theology.

Perhaps not, but every once in a while the Catholics remember what Jesus and Christianity once were all about.  Francis seems to have remembered it was about helping the poor, but  the rest of Christianity may take a long time to catch up.

In the meanwhile, Coptic Christians in Egypt are being exterminated by Salafists; Sunnis in Lebanon are being suicide-bombed by by Shi'ia; Muslims in India and Cambodia are being exterminated by Hindus; (who knows what kinds of) Christians and (who knows what kinds of) Muslims are exterminating each other in various former colonial fiefdoms of Africa; and the Sunni-Shi'ia conflict is playing itself out all over the Middle East.

One nice thing about the USofA is that we atheists are far less likely to be suicide bombed than in other parts of the world (unless we work at abortion clinics.)  Maybe it feels good to feel so fucking sure of yourself, but that's no excuse.

Tell your god to go fuck himself.  Take care of all those orphaned children, and all those refugees.  Probably there's no reward after you're dead, but that shouldn't matter.  Do it for now.

Timbuktu

When I was a kid, Timbuktu was a metaphor for the farthest reaches of the world.  Within the last few days, it's been the middle of a fight against Islamic militant crazies.  What we're finally discovering, though, is that it is a center of Sufi learning, and what might be the best of Islamic culture.  We still don't know how much damage the Salafi assholes did to the Timbuktu libraries and cultural sites, but there is one thing that is certain — for whatever remains, we have to thank the French.

When the French refused to join the USofA in the invasion of Iraq, and asshole Republicans started talking about "freedom fries," the French were a lot smarter than the Bush administration.  Okay, Parisians are no more tolerant of redneck tourists than, say, New Yorkers, but how can you fault them for that?  When Francois Hollande — self-confessed Socialist — sent a limited number of French troops into Mali, his decision made a lot more sense than when Bush sent a hell of a lot more Americans into Iraq.  In the Maghreb, there is a real threat.  Saddam Hussein was a very bad guy, but never a threat to American interests.  More than anything, he was a counterbalance to the Iranians.  Well, that's gone.

Vive la France.