Monday, July 16, 2007

$660 million?


The Archidioces of LA just settled out of court with 508 cases of sexual abuse for $660 million. That's dollars. That's 508 cases. $660 x 10^6. I'll give you that a number of these people are probably jumping onto the ox cart for a payout. Still...Let's say it's only 250 cases. THAT IS WAY MORE THAN ZERO!!!!! OK a number of questions come up...

1. Where does a body based on the vow of poverty come up with $660 million? OK, they have to sell some land and liquidate some holdings and borrow but they CAN come up with it. Could you? $660 milliion?

2. What is their souce of income to compile a portfolio that would allow even a chance of putting together $660 millon. Who's dropping the big coins in the plate?

3. Maybe it's time to let priests marry. Aparently polishing the candle isn't doing it for them any more.

4. BIG question....why doesn't the creator see this coming and DO something about it before it happens. This isn't any old chuch thrown together by some cracker in South Caolina with a microphone and a couple of snakes. This is THE church created by HIM. Upon this rock St Peter built THE church.* Well, what the hell? Is this working or not?

Discuss

*The pope says that the Catholic church is the only real church but that other christians still get to go to heaven. . . .Sure, but I bet they have to go to the end of the line on the really cool rides.


From the LA Times:

The deal settles all 508 cases that remained against the archdiocese, which also paid $60 million in December to settle 45 cases that weren't covered by sexual abuse insurance.

The archdiocese will pay $250 million, insurance carriers will pay a combined $227 million and several religious orders will chip in $60 million.

The remaining $123 million will come from litigation with religious orders that chose not to participate in the deal, with the archdiocese guaranteeing resolution of those 80 to 100 cases within five years, Hennigan said.

The archdiocese is released from liability in those claims, said Tod Tamberg, church spokesman.

The settlements push the total amount paid out by the U.S. church since 1950 to more than $2 billion, with about a quarter of that coming from the Los Angeles archdiocese.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

God's never too busy...

OCEAN CITY, New Jersey (AP) -- Miss New Jersey can keep her crown despite photos that show her acting "not in a ladylike manner."

Polumbo

Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo blew kisses to audience members during the announcement.

Hours after a nervous Amy Polumbo went public Thursday with photos of herself that had been sent anonymously to pageant officials, those officials decided the pictures did not merit stripping her of the title.

"I'm very happy about this decision, and I look forward to resuming my agenda* as Miss New Jersey," said a smiling Polumbo, who blew kisses to audience members during the announcement.

The beauty pageant winner apologized for the trouble the pictures had caused and thanked the pageant board for its support.

"I want to thank the public," Polumbo said. "I also want to thank God for getting me through this."

The pictures include one showing what Polumbo said was her boyfriend apparently biting her breast through her shirt, another of Polumbo in a limousine wearing jeans with her legs spread in the air and another of her in what appears to be a Halloween costume dress holding two small pumpkins up to her breasts.

"It's not in a ladylike manner. I'm not a robot. I'm a human being," Polumbo said.

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OK, I like to imagine God sitting in a huge control room....like the one at Fermi Lab only bigger and with even more buttons and things that go 'boooop'. So, he's sitting there and it must be action packed... "Let's see I got that plane with mechanical trouble, Osama is still hiding somewhere, still can't quite get rid of No Child Left Behind, there's that kid playing on the train tracks...what the. . . hold the phone! CODE BLUE! CODE BLUE! Someone is being mean to Miss New Jersey. Shut down ALL the prayer lines EXCEPT her's. Roger.

Yeah, the creator has time for your tough life as a beauty queen. (This is where we need Sam Kinison) Starving people just wait a minute will you? sheesh. Some people.

(Oh and I hate her hair! and her giant front teeth!)

*Don't you really want to see this agenda: Get up, comb hair, take nap, comb hair, check make-up, blow kisses, act bitchy to my aids, comb hair, buy a dress, repeat.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Which came first the bible or the religion?


I haven't written much about the bible itself in this blog. Suffice it to say that there are numerous problems with it. In general, if it was written via divine inspiration (and how does that work?) as the official word of God then why are there so many inconsistencies? One simple example: In Genesis (rife with inconsistencies) we find that God separated the day from the night and then a couple of days later created the sun. Hmmm...You see the problem.

Of course the bible has been written and re-written many times over the years and scholars agree that there are numerous 'authors' work in the bible. So, why doesn't God fix this? No big secret that copies of copies and re-telling of stories ends up with huge distortions. So, come on. Divinely inspire someone and let's have a re-write.

Come to think of it, if you are God and want to bring God's word to people, why use multiple authors at all. Couldn't God see that that was going to lead to problems?

Also, why is the bible so wrong about so many things that we now know to be true. There is no question any longer about the age of the universe and that it all started with the Big Bang about 13 billion years ago. If God was the cause of the big bang why isn't it mentioned in Genesis? What we have instead is a reflection of the thinking in the day of the nature of the universe including a lot of flat earth references and no freaking idea as to how big the earth or space is in general. Could it be that these authors weren't so inspired after all? Could it be that the bible is a collection of tales that were formally passed on by word of mouth and then at one point put down on paper? Could it be that LATER people got the idea that this book was holy and must have come from God?

What seems more reasonable?

Finally, to people who say that the bible is just metaphor and not meant to be factual I say you have the cart before the donkey. Religions started getting organized and split into various groups AFTER the bible. The bible is the reason that there are religions. So you can't hang your hat on your favorite church on Sunday and they pooh pooh the bible. If it's not the divine word of God then where does that put your church and religion? As usual, the thoughtless theist wants it both ways and avoids this sort of thinking.