Pope a Dope?

In his second encyclical, Spe Salvi, Pope Ratso, leader of the Roman Catholic Church and Fester Addams lookalike, takes godless communism to task and councils people to turn away from science and technology and instead embrace Christian faith as the answer to World Peace and eternal salvation.

So what's the deal? Has he been smokin' the fringe off his little golden shawls? Has plunging his love hammer into an endless succession of altar boys caused a plaque to form on his brain? Is cable TV not available at Castle Gandolfo?

What communists? The evil empire of the Soviet Union and it's iron curtain is no more. The Chinese are in the midst of the greatest capitalistic revolution the world has ever seen. Is he mad because Fidel is still alive? Does Hugo's promise of plumbing and basic health care to a few million campesinos frighten him? Maybe he's upset because those Che T-shirts are still such hot sellers.

Science? Not since the Catholic Church excommunicated and imprisoned Galileo have scientists been so at odds with popular conception. No one believes or wants to hear about global warming, the ecological implications of pollution, overpopulation, stem cell research, or virtually anything else scientists have to say, unless it has to do with quick and easy weight loss. A majority of those that attend church regularly apparently don't even believe in evolution of the species. Man, that's black dirt ignorance at it's sweet loamy finest.

Christian faith? As George Bush and his zomboid VP keep telling us, we are on the verge of World War III. Christian versus Muslim. I guess we could call that a pan jehovan conflict, especially since the senior Jehovist branch of religion, Judah, is likely to figure into the conflict somewhere. Jehovah worship, in any form, is clearly a most toxic poisoner of social tranquility. It's hard to understand how it could positively affect anyones life, much less eternal salvation. Anybody with any sense of self preservation at all, should be eschewing religion and catching a tramp steamer to the Falkland Islands.

I'm sad this pope is really old, he could get to be a lot of fun. It's gonna be great to see who those wacky cardinals will come up with next, though.