The Pope's Skewed Priorities

» Here is something I find interesting and curious .. Pope Francis calls "evil" (not merely "unwise") substances with known medicinal properties that can help people deal with things in their lives ..

Pope John Paul II Gives a Warm Papal Embrace to Marcial Maciel.. yet he calls "a saint" a man who has repeatedly embraced a known pedophile

(.. because the pedophile provided a financial benefit).

I like what you are doing, dawg. I appreciate what you are doing. I respect what you are doing.

I admire what you are doing. I am even impressed by what you are doing. And I am not the only one.

But I think you need to rethink some of your priorities.

The Catholic church has long had a problem in the area of misprioritization, and I don't want you to fall into the same trap.

You are basically embracing a man who has repeatedly embraced a known pedophile.

Christ the Redeemer | Rio de Janiero, BrazilActually, you MORE THAN embrace him. You gave him your highest honor.

Your highest blessing. Your ultimate seal-of-approval.

I was not going to give you shit about making the pedophile-embracer John Paul II a "saint" ..

.. because I can see the ecclesiastical expediency behind it.

But if you want to start calling innocent people "criminals" and saying they should be incarcerated ..

.. then I will start comparing values. (Just watch me work .. watch me go-to-town .. like mister James Brown.)

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Dr. Sanjay Gupta | NeurosurgeonBecause you seem to be saying that people who gratefully partake of substances put here by God are criminals.

Can you see why I feel some of your priorities are skewed?

Here in the States, we incarcerate waay too many people.

We -- the so-called "leader of the free world" -- LEAD THE WORLD in locking people up and throwing away the key.

We actually take away people's freedom more than any other nation on the planet. And for the most bullshit reasons. We throw people in prison for farting in public. Yes, I jest .. but not as much as you might think.

I am trying to reverse this unfortunate trend, while you seem to want to accelerate it .. if you want to make casual drug users criminals.

(Oh, speaking of incarceration, look at this .. this is nice.)

I know lots of people who use drugs casually and have no problems whatsoever. They function at levels far above the norm (.. at least, from what I have seen).

And NFL Nate will back me up on that.

Locked Up in America | Solitary NationIf someone does not want want to do drugs .. great! Wonderful.

No drug user will ever condemn a person for not doing drugs. (That just leaves more for them.)

Drugs are not for everyone. This is something that everyone admits.

But for that person who does not partake to say to someone who does » "You are a criminal and should be incarcerated." .. that is WRONG.

That is trying to impose your values and opinions on another human being and make him or her out to be a criminal when (s)he is not.

Perhaps you can see how something that Richard Pevear said in his intro to Dostoevsky's » Notes from Underground (1864) ..

.. where he wrote that » "it speaks for the habit of substituting the psychological for the moral." (Think about it.)

Do you see how the patterns align?

Demetria Duncan | Locked Up in AmericaIf you can get to a place where you can see how those two patterns align ..

.. then I would be impressed.

I think you can do it, too. You're just the man. The 007 Pope.

If you are having trouble getting the patterns to align ..

.. take a closer look at how Pevear discusses how other translators (.. that's you, dawg, you are one of the other translators) .

.. how Pevear discusses how other translators have substituted (incorrectly, grosssly incorrectly) the word » spiteful for the (correct) word wicked.

It is something of an inverse relationship, as viewed thru a mirror, which can make it difficult to see .. but you have used the word evil .. which inversely aligns with the word » wicked.

This inverse alignment is why I use the word » skewed in the title.

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)In other words, you are saying that these people are "evil" for what they do ..

.. rather than for who they are (.. what they have become after an injust socitey has ground them into pavement).

Or perhaps you are feeling frisky and want to go for the two-point option. Try this »

» read about what Dostoevsky says .. about people telling them what to want and what NOT to want.

Which, by the way, is the point at which Pevear calls Notes from Underground as » having "arrived at the full music of this underground oratorio."

Then see if your position toward drugs might resonate with the way that Dostoevsky might end his most revolutionary novel with the outburst » "They won't let me .. be good."

Kelly Thomas Getting the Shit Kicked out of him, July 5, 2011For some, tho certainly not for all, drugs can be a coping mechanism ..

.. especially for those times when their lives get all fucked up.

The problem, as I see it, is not so much the drugs themselves ..

.. but rather the thing(s) that make them want to do them ..

And very often the source of the thing that makes them want to do drugs can be found in the injustices of society.

If you beat the dog long and hard enough, yes, it will become fucked up .. and look for something to help it "escape" or deal with its fucked up life.

If you adjust / tweak / modify society so that it starts supporting them instead of attacking them .. then you will see results far beyond that which you do by incarcerating them. (Trust me.)

And the thing that is very cool is that » you are already doing this stuff.

Oh, I just heard (June 23rd) that you excommunicated the mafia. When I read that, I thought to myself » "That man has balls." <end mafia excommunicate update>

But have you ever smoked cannabis? Do you have any first-hand experience in this area? If not, how can you know what you're talking about?

Robert Mickens | Vatcan Correspondent for the Tablet, an international Catholic WeeklyCome on into the Twenty-first century. Step right up .. to embrace Twenty-first century priorities ..

.. where those who embrace known-pedophiles for financial reasons are NOT saints ..

.. and where plant-based organic substances can and do indeed provide medicinal benefits for some.

Or is that too big of a step? You were doing so good.

Should I set up an appointment for you with Dr. Sanjay? He is not merely a general practicioner, no, but rather a » neurosurgeon.

Or do you know better than a trained medical professional? Than a neurosurgeon.

If you really wanna educate yourself .. see » here.

The end. ■

Update July 28, 2014 » Mackie [Macke] at Yahoo Finance did a » nice, little ditty (2 mins) to follow-up on a call by the editorial board at the NY Tmes to repeal cannabis prohibition.

I used to not like Mackie. He used to irritate me. He still does, sometimes, but I'm starting to warm to him.

I could be wrong, but Mackie does not strike me as someone who would ever smoke cannabis .. because he seems wrapped a little too tightly. Tho often in a humorous way.

Get a massage, Mackie. Do some yoga. Stretch out. Grab a sauna. A Jacuzzi. Lighten up, brother.

Is it true that bald guys always get the hot chicks? Every time I am at a party, there is some bald guy there with a smokin' hot babe. After a while I started asking » "Dude, WTF is it?"

They all told me the same thing. So it must be true. ■■

Update July 31, 2014 » Check out this article at the NY Times » The White House Tries, Fails to Explain Why Marijuana Should Remain Illegal.

I would've been proud to have written that.

But really, is there anything better than when the people speak with eloquence? ■■■

Update September 4, 2014 » A little tangential, but nonetheless worth reading about Pope Francis A Church for the Poor .. by Paul Vallely, a director at The Tablet .. same place as Robert Mickens.

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This page contains a single entry by Rad published on June 21, 2014 6:21 AM.

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