Bleeding Virgin Mary

It's been awhile since we've had a good crying/bleeding Mary story and this one, not surprisingly, comes from our friends down south in Baton Rouge, LA. There, a man has a very nice Virgin Mary statue in his front yard (I got to get me one of those...oops, no front yard!). The statue suddenly started bleeding out a hole in the side of Mary's head. It kind of looks like a bullet hole but perhaps not. Of course 'the faithful' are flocking there to pray and to sit on some uncomfortable looking chairs under a little tent to . . . well I guess they're staring at the bleeding virgin. And not surprisingly, the news media are flocking there as well just like they can't resist going to Punxsutawney PA for groundhog day. I've written about these 'miracles' before so lets jump to the bulleted questions.

• How is this a miracle? What does it really mean to the faithful?
• Does this support your faith somehow?
• Has anyone tested it to see if it really is blood? 
• How is blood coming out of a plaster virgin's head connected to anyone's faith? 
• I suspect the statue has a metal inner structure and some cracks in the outer facade. That could be rust leaking out of the old girl's head. Does anyone want to know if that's the case? How old is the statue? Was that hole already there and only recently started leaking? Did anyone from the news media suggest that it might be a normal rust event and not a miracle? Is this incisive reporting? 

 Compare this with the recent report of the discovery of the Higgs boson. After years of research, tons of data, peer review up the wazoo, and not reporting until they were more than 99.9% statistically confident, THEN they go ahead with their pronouncement. Gosh that's a lot of work.

But here one dope looks at his statue and says, "That's blood", and there is no follow up question! No testing? No . . . no nothing! What is the virtue in taking wild claims like this on faith?  And let's just stop and fucking THINK for a minute. . . THIS is how the creator of the universe lets you know he (or she) is still on the job? This is a sign from above? Really? This is the best he can come up with. Isn't that a little disappointing if you're one of the flock?

It makes me cringe when they interview the dopes that show up for this kind of event. And, it frightens me when I remember that these same dopes probably vote and they probably vote Republican!