This Easter Sunday, the group that brought you the inquisition and the crusades (imagine how those little pageants would have played out in a nuclear era) gives you a man who presided over- and gave his blessing to- decades of institutionally approved rape and pedophilia: Pope Benedict. Benny will cap off eight days of religious services and deliver his annual Easter Message in St. Peter’s Square. The address will be translated into 60 languages and heard around the world.

That the Pope, head honcho of the group responsible for the rape of more children, the murder of more women, and the torture of more innocent people than any other institution ever created by man- I’m speaking of the institution known as the Catholic Church- holds a position granting him higher respect than, say, Charles Manson, is, as they say, one of the great mysteries of faith.

Will Benny respond to criticism from notable Catholics, like the opinion piece penned in the Washington Post earlier this month by the self described yet excommunicated Catholic Sinead O’Conner, who said that the Pope’s recent apology for the sexual abuse of children by Priests rang hollow.

The Pope claimed that he wishes to bring healing to all of the victims by suggesting that those victims find their way back to closeness with the church- that very same church that demanded oaths of silence from the victims of sexual abuse.

In the words of another prominent world leader who claimed frequent communication with God:

“Fool me once, shame on, shame on you….. you fool me, you can’t get fooled again.”- former President George W. Bush

The Pope, like George Bush, understands well that powerful organizations seeking world domination rely on an uninformed and obedient populace.  Fear mongering and terror are two strategies in pursuit of this objective. The Church has burned scientists at the stake as part of a strategy to keep the masses from learning the Bible’s historical accuracy can not withstand the academic rigor of a typical 9 year old.

So, this Easter Sunday, while the Pope may not traffic in the same rhetorical minefield that lead the church to publish a how to guide to find, torture, and kill witches like they did the 1500’s with the publication of The Witches Hammer, the bestseller that served as a field guide for the Church sanctioned reign of terror and the torture and death of millions, but the overall objective will be the same, Protect and promote the institution.

The Pope has signaled clearly that he will not be intimidated by critics of the most recently acknowledged sexual abuse cases when he said that faith in God helps lead one “toward the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion.”

Let that phrase linger, as you consider the several millennia of terror techniques implemented by the Catholic Church, the most recent chapter of which includes the institutionalized rape of children and the protection, by the church, that benefits the monsters in priests clothing.

The Petty Gossip of Dominant Opinion.

The RNC has fired Allison Meyers, director of the group’s “Young Eagles” program, for approving the expenses at Voyeur, A West Hollywood hot spot where potential RNC donors enjoyed drinking 20 glasses Chenin Blanc while watching simulated lesbian sex acts with women who look as if the just sauntered off the set of Eyes Wide Shut.

At least we know there are some same sex unions these regressives are willing to support.

Thanks to the audacity of reimbursing this two thousand dollars tab at bondage to themed sex club and the stupidity of including said expenses on a FEC filling report, RNC chairman Michael Steel is on the ropes, no longer able to hide behind the hypocrisy of the old boys club version of don’t ask don’t tell.

Yes, it might be fun to gloat that the party of family values is once again revealed as a group if rich, elite, deviant, circle jerking, patriarch espousing regressives. Fun as that might be, it misses the point.

Let’s say that the two thousand dollar reimbursement was for taking out a potential big donor to The Master’s Golf Tournament. This two thousand dollar expense would be a non-story. Ah, golf. At least the good old boy network still has golf and the culture of exclusivity and opulence it provides for the rich beneficiaries of Hypercapitalism.

But ask yourself, what is more offensive: a group of consenting adults watching a group of paid performers pretended to have sex, or a round of golf at The Masters? Remember, it is still recent history that RNC, like the Masters, was not open to people of color. Just as the old boys network accepted that the atlas holding up their sport was a black man, he suffers a tragic fall from grace when it is revealed that he has been doing exactly what generations of rich, powerful, country club men have been doing: having multiple sex partners outside of marriage.

It’s not just Republicans. I’ll give you three fucken words: John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic President of the United States, simply had to go to confession, talk to a man in a dress behind a curtain who would absolve his sins on the one hand while giving an alter boy a spankerchief with the other and all was well with the world.

The RNC, the Catholic Church, and Golf: institutions the regressives hold dear continue to reveal themselves as shams. Like the Roman Catholic Church, an institution whose current self-destruction will be a blessing for all of mankind, (pun intentional) the destruction of the Republican Party will only be judged by history as progress.

What if the Regressive Neo-Cons are Right? (Book review: ‘Courage and Consequence’ by Karl Rove)
by Davis Fleetwood
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One has to tip their cap to Karl Rove, not many people can carry to their grave the epitaph that their name has been entered as an adjective in the Oxford English Dictionary as synonymous with a Straussian, Noble Lie, brand of politics that ushered in a new era of regressive neo-conservatism.

In fact, it is a deft piece of Rovian politicking that the man of Courage and Consequence referenced in Rove’s memoir is not the author, but George W. Bush. That the book is timed to surf the surging meme of Tea Party Terrorism and sustain regressive momentum for the 2010-midterm elections, is another testament to Rove’s dedication to the Regressive wing of the Republican Party that he helped shape. Rove the memoirist is dutifully playing his part in the rotating firing squad that is our fickle two party duopoly: a circus side show passing itself off as Representative Democracy.

The book settles some scores and preaches to the converted, so it is a shame that few liberals, should they sneak a peek while sipping a latte at their locally owned independent bookstore, consider the horrific question:

What if the Regressives are right?

What if the only answer to the dwindling oil reserves and religious fanatics intermingling with the American Spirit to own more, get bigger, better, richer, is to dominate the chess board of world politics so that when the trigger for World War Three does go off, God will bless the USA in granting her the best endgame strategy? What if torture, imperialism, and the waging of illegal and immoral wars in far off lands do afford us the luxury of our American Style of living? What if the commonly tossed off show of respect to fallen U.S soldiers killed and wounded in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam, that they “died protecting our freedom”, was not such a load of propaganda?

What if, my brothers and sisters on the left, Karl Rove is right?

If he is right, then his Straussian ethos, the idea that in politics there is such a thing as a Noble Lie (such as lies that lead us into the Iraq war), that in politics it is neccesary to lie to the unwashed masses, that our current foreign policy is a variation on what the founding fathers called manifest destiny. If this is true, then “When history was written,” as W. famously said referring to the book of history in the past tense “the final page will say victory was achieved by the united states of achieved by the united states of America for America for the good of the world.”

Victory by the U.S. for the good of the world. Sounds like Manifest Destiny’s Child.

If that final page in history plays out as George Bush envisioned, his vision – no doubt- shaped by Rove- then the start of that last chapter will certainly be the final days of World War 2. Fat Man and Little Boy, the pet names for the two atomic bombs that incinerated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, wiping out more human life in a flash of an eyelash than ever before in human history, established America as the baddest mother F&^KER on the block.

The progressive movement had a moment- in the 60’s when the tide was almost turned. When we almost got to live out the destiny of another book of history. However, in the five-year period between 1963 and 1968, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr were all killed. Now, whether or not you believe they were men with ear pieces and black suits who knew 17 different languages and 17 different forms of kung fu and backroom meetings and exchanges of large cash that led up to the killings of these four men is besides the point.

Whether or not there was an actual organization or an actual conspiracy, there was cultural/political force that silenced Kennedy, Kennedy, King, and Malcolm. The results of those four leaders being killed in such a short amount of time is that Americans collectively put their tale between their legs, their heads down, and they did what they were told. Where we are today- our illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan is the result of those four men being killed. Don’t kid yourself.

What if there were a cultural/political force or even an organization that was to have silenced Bush, Rove, Cheney, Condi Rice and Bill Crystal, and other regressives on the project for the new American century? What if?

Because Manifest Destiny’s Child, also known as the U.S. foreign policy, is certain to lead to World War III.

If we want to avoid World War III, if we want to reach 2050 and have something to look back on, then our Darwinian evolutionary pace better pick up. Is it possible that progressives need to borrow a page from the regressive handbook and bring into being a secret organization that creates a cultural/political force that creates the context in which key leaders of the regressive movement are eliminated?

If so, who has the courage, and what are the consequences?

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