POPE CAN’T SEE BEAM

Extraordinary that the Pope can’t see Catholic Church’s Bloody past, or par for the course?

The Pope has accused Mahomet of encouraging conversion by force, a practise of the Catholic Church since it had the power. This became widespread during the Inquisition on the continent and was used against Jews, Muslims and Christian heretics alike. Generally it’s true the Church, while practising torture, did not give sentences greater than life imprisonment, turning over the “guilty” to secular authorities for burning, but a similar legalism did not save the Jews from accusations of “deicide” after the crucifixion of Jesus by the Romans.

The Catholic Church was responsible for the deaths of thousands in this particularly painful manner. It also spread its way across South America and other parts of the “heathen” world by violence and forced conversion, which almost always led to economic and social advantage to the Church and its supporters, and the impoverishment and enslavement of the aboriginal populations.

Of course the Catholic Church is not unique, very few religious powers have reputations undamaged by historic events, and it would be unproductive to raise this if there were signs that the Church was a reformed character. But in fact it continues to exert its pressure all over the world and almost always to the detriment of the poor and oppressed. The Catholic Church did not have clean hands in the past, and it does not have clean hands in the present. The Pope, with his questionable role in the Second World War and his refusal to address it, is not in a position to cast a stone at anyone.

Self Indulgence

Can anybody explain to me why it is self indulgent of people to ask Blair to go, but not self indulgent of him to insist on staying?









BLAIR EXPLAINS

Don't you just love Stingrays?

The stingray is a docile creature, but when it feels threatened it flicks up the spine on its tail, and whips it around, delivering what can be a damaging or even fatal blow. The spine is coated in a venom that can kill tissue and cause inflammation.

Stingrays only sting in defence - they are not aggressive. They sting when they feel threatened, not from aggression but from fear.

There are 480 species of stingray: most common in warmer waters, they can grow to 5 metres in length.