Brutally Honest

Bishop in Ireland accused of "incitement to hatred"

How far are those opposed to religious liberty willing to go?

In Ireland, pretty damned far apparently:

A HOMILY delivered at Knock shrine by the Bishop of Raphoe, Philip Boyce, is being investigated by the Director of Public Prosecutions following a formal complaint by a leading humanist who claims the sermon was an incitement to hatred.

The gardai have confirmed to former Fine Gael election candidate John Colgan that they have prepared and forwarded a file to the DPP after he made allegations that the address by Dr Boyce was in breach of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989.

The homily, entitled: "To Trust in God" was delivered to worshippers during a novena at the Marian shrine in Co Mayo last August and subsequently reported in the media, including The Irish Times, under the headline: "'Godless culture' attacking church, says bishop."

Mr Colgan, a retired chartered engineer and economist from Leixlip, Co Kildare, referred in his formal complaint to two key passages in Dr Boyce's homily which he believes broke the law.

One of the passages referred to the Catholic Church in Ireland being "attacked from outside by the arrows of a secular and godless culture".

A second passage, which was included in the complaint, stated: "For the distinguishing mark of Christian believers is the fact they have a future; it is not that they know all the details that await them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness."

Mr Colgan, who was a leader in the 'Campaign to Separate Church and State' in the late 1990s, said in his complaint: "I believe statements of this kind are an incitement to hatred of dissidents, outsiders, secularists, within the meaning of the [Incitement to Hatred] Act, who are perfectly good citizens within the meaning of the civil law. The statements exemplify the chronic antipathy towards secularists, humanists etc, which has manifested itself in the ostracising of otherwise perfectly good Irish citizens, who do not share the aims of the Vatican's Irish Mission Church."

...

In his complaint, Mr Colgan said he attributed this prejudice to "hostile propaganda disseminated in school and chapel in the main by or for the institutional churches, for there is no rational or temporal reason". In a statement to the Sunday Independent, Martin Long of the Catholic Communications office said: "Bishop Boyce's homily 'To Trust in God' is available for anyone to read at catholicbishops.ie.

"I advise any person to read it and judge it for themselves. It is clearly a reasonable, balanced, honest -- and indeed self-critical from a church perspective -- analysis of the value of the Catholic faith. Bishop Boyce is a good and holy man and much loved by those who know him."

The entire sermon can be read here and ought to be.  First, because it's a great sermon.  But more importanly, because it'll become quite obvious that it is most absent of anything a rational person would call hatred.

To see an incitement to hatred in anything written in that sermon is to have given oneself over to delusion. John Colgan is someone who is in dire need of prayer.

Then again, I guess that act in and of itself would also be seen by him to be an incitement to hatred.

H/T to Deacon Greg.

Nancy Pelosi on Newt as President: "That will never happen... there's something I know" (UPDATED)

By Locutisprime

Well....I for one can't wait to see this.

UPDATE: Gingrich responds:

Newt Gingrich, responding Wednesday to comments from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi that he has no shot at winning the presidency, said his campaign makes his former House colleague and other Democrats “hysterical.”

“As my campaign has gotten stronger, the attacks have become more hysterical and more factually incorrect,” Mr. Gingrich said in an interview Wednesday with The Washington Times-affiliated “America's Morning News” radio program.

...

Mr Gingrich challenged Mrs. Pelosi to “put up or shut up.”

“I have no idea what she’s talking about, I don’t think she has any idea what she’s talking about. But bring it on,” the GOP presidential front-runner told hosts John McCaslin and Dana Mills. “When you’re a left-wing Democrat, the prospect of a Gingrich presidency is really sort of like a nightmare. And they’re right. My goal is to go to Washington to change it, not just to get along with the old order.”

Ladies and gentlemen, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

By tim, The Godless Heathen

Via The Gateway Pundit:

"We saw what happened when Iran took hostages in 1979. A president lost his re-election. The prestige of the United States was challenged."

"I am not going to be taken hostage again to extend the Bush tax cuts when every economist says that it’s absolutely absurd forever and points to the fact that no jobs are necessarily created by extending the Bush tax cuts, at least on the top one percent of Americans, and when the top one percent population polled have said that they have no problem with losing that ludicrous benefit forever and ever. And then, when everyone understands the question of mutual sacrifice, benefit and sacrifice, with all of our soldiers coming home we’re now going to talk about being held hostage to the Bush tax cuts forever."

(Emphasis mine)

I have so much to say, yet…I’d rather hear what you, gentle reader, think of that.

"It's not just a coincidence that I look like Jesus"

Pray for this guy.  He's seriously messed up.

The man charged with attempting to assassinate President Barack Obama described himself as "a modern day Jesus" in a rambling video tape sent to the Oprah Winfrey show.

Via The Telegraph.

Your brain on OWS

This nearly convinced me to join the Occupy Wall Street crowd... it's just so compelling... so motivating...

(Be warned... the language is not suitable for children... then again, if you're a parent disposed to teaching your children what not to become, it might be worth exposing them to this... abject example of complete lunacy):

Crossposted at Wizbang.

Zombie land in America

By Locutisprime

Friday's Occupy Atlanta protest. Note, John Lewis shows up to speak to the crowd and the assembled zombies never give him the chance, so he leaves. I guess they would rather play repeat after me.

"Zombie (Haitian Creole: zonbi; North Mbundu: nzumbe) is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft.[1] The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli."

I believe this (bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli) part of the definition is more than applicable to what we are witnessing nationally via this organized effort to attack capitalism and the American way of life.

How's that hope thang working out for ya?

The ever wise and poignantly witty Gerard Vanderleun is taking us back to a MoveOn.Org campaign ad worth revisiting:

Has hope happened to you yet?

Crossposted at Wizbang.

Consensus

Al Gore's prescription needs refilling:

The former vice president dropped in on an Aspen Institute media forum titled “Networks and Citizenship” on Thursday and railed against corporate evildoers who put profit above society.

Gore referenced the book “Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming” by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, which tells of how petroleum, steel, autos, utilities and others enlisted lobbyists to cloud the climate debate.

Gore recalled how not long ago tobacco giants “succeeded in delaying the implementation of the surgeon general’s report for 40 years – 40 years! In every one of those 40 years the average number of Americans killed by cigarettes each year exceeded the total number of Americans killed in all of World War II: 450,000 per year. My sister was one of them. … It was evil, evil, evil.”

The model of media manipulation used then, Gore said, “was transported whole cloth into the climate debate. And some of the exact same people — I can go down a list of their names — are involved in this. And so what do they do? They pay pseudo-scientists to pretend to be scientists to put out the message: ‘This climate thing, it’s nonsense. Man-made CO2 doesn’t trap heat. It may be volcanoes.’ Bullshit! ‘It may be sun spots.’ Bullshit! ‘It’s not getting warmer.’ Bullshit!” Gore exclaimed.

“When you go and talk to any audience about climate, you hear them washing back at you the same crap over and over and over again,” he continued. “There’s no longer a shared reality on an issue like climate even though the very existence of our civilization is threatened. People have no idea! … It’s no longer acceptable in mixed company, meaning bipartisan company, to use the goddamn word climate. It is not acceptable. They have polluted it to the point where we cannot possibly come to an agreement on it.”

He wasn't done.

The reality that's being shared Mr. Gore is that you're losing it... not just the global warming debate, but your freakin' mind.

It might be time for an intervention.

H/T to Doug Powers.

Crossposted at Wizbang.

Snuggle with your dog... under the rug... yet another way to go green

By Chuck aka XtnYoda

Ummmm .... are they serious down under?

AUSTRALIANS are being urged to play board games and snuggle up under a rug with a pet or their families to help cut power bills.
.....
"Improving energy efficiency is a way households can help lower carbon pollution while saving money..."

The further this goes ... the more absurd it becomes.

Given Sheila Jackson Lee's logic, George W. Bush was the first black President

Who knew?

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on Friday strongly suggested that members of Congress are making it difficult for President Obama to raise the debt ceiling because of his race.

"I do not understand what I think is the maligning and maliciousness [toward] this president,” said Jackson Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. “Why is he different? And in my community, that is the question that we raise. In the minority community that is question that is being raised. Why is this president being treated so disrespectfully? Why has the debt limit been raised 60 times? Why did the leader of the Senate continually talk about his job is to bring the president down to make sure he is unelected?”

...

"I am particularly sensitive to the fact that only this president — only this one, only this one — has received the kind of attacks and disagreement and inability to work, only this one," said Jackson Lee from the House floor.

"Read between the lines," she continued. "What is different about this president that should put him in a position that he should not receive the same kind of respectful treatment of when it is necessary to raise the debt limit in order to pay our bills, something required by both statute and the 14th amendment?"

...

"I hope someone will say that what it appears to be is not in fact accurate," said Lee. "But historically it seems to be nothing more."

Here Ms. Lee... here's some accuracy... you're a loon... you're a race-baiter... you're an embarrassment to all Americans... it's a sad commentary on the state of affairs in this country that you've been elected...  you do more to feed racism in this country than any chapter of the KKK... you do more to hurt the black man and keep him down than any racist...  you will one day have to account for your racism, your hatred, your lunacy...

God have mercy on your sorry soul.

Crossposted at Wizbang.