Ben and Dick

Just two quick things that recently made me puke my guts out: Pope Benedict's visit to Brazil, and Dick Cheney's trip to Baghdad.

The Pope spent much of his trip, his first visit to the Americas, railing against Marxism and Capitalism. Fine. Whatever. Go for it.

Perhaps slightly more problematic is what he had to say about the evils of abortion and, for crying out loud, contraception. Laws that legalize these practices, he said in a nutshell, threaten the future of mankind. So our problem, in other words, is not overpopulation, but underpopulation.

Is this man out of his mind?!? Exactly how many impoverished children does he think will be too many before he changes his mind about...OK, he's not going to advocate a woman's right to choose anytime soon, or ever, but CONTRACEPTION? Jesus H. Christ, if he's playing that "we must people the earth" card, I've got news for him: it's peopled--6.5 billion and counting. And he was right there in Brazil, where there's no shortage of the things.

Maybe next time the cardinals will see fit to elect someone willing to make reforms to a hopelessly antiquated stance, someone slightly younger and with a more modern perspective, preferably someone too young to remember the industrial revolution.

Then there is Cheney, who has been doing his part in controlling the world population. I don't have much to say about the draft-dodger's surpise pop in, except the obvious. How dare this lying mass-murderer show his face to the troops? How dare he talk to them? How dare he touch them? Still waiting for that one last heart attack to rid us of this bastard.

nb