SHAFTWAXER

For the first time, I turned off a presidential debate. The debate last night on ABC was, to put it lightly, fucking awful. What a waste of time. I lasted 45 minutes before being disgusted. Hell, I was annoyed enough to write an angry post on the internet! Because, you know, that will change everything.

In all sincerity, I did write an email to ABC news:

I am writing because for the first time ever, I had to turn off a presidential debate. The debate on the 16th of April was awful. Entirely lacked any substance in the first 45 minutes. Instead of digging into issues of any relevance or substance, it was petty scandal after petty scandal, digging up silly stuff we had already moved beyond. Bitter? Yes, but not at Obama’s comments. Bitter that 90 minutes were wasted and turned into a tabloid. Shameful.

I would have written more, but there was a 500 character limit. Instead of issues like the economy, Iraq, the housing crisis, health care, the farce that is our justice department, corruption, governmental oversight, human rights, poverty… you know, shit that actually matters, we had to sit through a rehash of every stupid petty tabloid scandal. Who gives a fuck about wearing a flag pin? Just because you wear a flag pin doesn’t mean you magically become a good person. How many of those fuckers in congress wear pins yet continually deny veterans benefits they deserve with a new GI bill? What the fuck kind of question is “Is Rev. Wright more or less of a patriot than you?” How is that relevant to me? How does that shape me as a tax paying American? How does that help those in need? How does that help the least among us?

What a fucking joke.

Oh lucky us! The pope is here! The pope is here!

Pope Benedict XVI came to our shores and has been met with both adulation as well as protests. Seems that whole child molestation thing isn’t going away like they might have hoped it would. As far as I’m concerned, the more they bring it up, the better. They still have yet to take responsibility for their actions, not exactly the most Christian thing to do.

But that’s not my point right now. Earlier, on his visit to the White House, be made a statement praising America as a country where secular society and religious belief can co-exist. I agree. It’s possible. Unfortunately, he kept talking. He warned American bishops of the “subtle influence of secularism” that can co-opt religious people and lead even Catholics to accept abortion, divorce and co-habitation outside of marriage. Apparently birth control is one of our great moral issues that we face.

Sorry, but you are out of touch. Of course divorce is bad. Almost all of us have been effected by it. I don’t think anybody gets married with the intention of getting divorced. And if they do, what the fuck? But really. It seems that we have bigger concerns that living together or pre-marital sex.

It’s hard to take his “infallible” shit seriously when we get gems concerning the child molestation scandle like this:

What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?

Don’t deflect the issue. Of course violence is bad. So is a priest raping a little boy or a little girl.

THIS is just part of the reason I no longer identify myself as “Catholic”.