Comments on Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You....

Scrotum.

I find it incredibly creepy that John Paul II's statement on the death penalty is basically rank utilitarianism - removing the right not to be killed by the government, in order to preserve the most life possible. But isn't that what a right is? Something that's not up for utilitarian calculation? As in, the right not to be tortured shouldn't ever, ever be violated, even in order to prevent more torture.

By this logic (more life = better), you should go around opposing people's right to contraception . . . oh wait.

Yeeeehaw!!!! That is one evil looking cowboy!

duh! of course it is reserved for liberals. Since when can one expect consistancy from The Church?

also, that is the GAYEST hat I have ever seen.

Great post Dan - as a "liberal Catholic" this double standard always gets to me. Conservatives apparently get to decide which life is sacred - unborn child unable to live outside of the womb? totally sacred! Living breathing person who (may or may not have, depending on how much you trust our justice system) committed a heinus crime? Not sacred.

"nee Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger"

Joseph Ratzinger was born not just a Cardinal, but also female? Wow!

I wanna be a Cowboy....and you can be my Cowpope......

I think I had a cowboy hat like that when I was about four or five - I wonder if it might have been my Catholic grandmother trying to tell me something?

What you are forgetting is that these seemingly hypocritical positions are politically consistent. If a child is born out of wedlock, or just plain unwanted, then the chance is greater that it will end up in an at-risk situation requiring state intervention. Catholic Charities, by virtue of their competitive bidding is the institution that is chosen to temporarily house these children. This means that the children in such a scary and lonely situation might have the chance to be introduced to the comfort of the Catholic version of Jesus--be they Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, or whathaveyou. Proselytization on the taxpayer dollar...sounds win/win to me.

Similarly with illegal immigration: why improve economic conditions in Mexico, when you can force the Mexicans to seek refuge in the United States, and subsequently shelter them until you can demand 'amnesty citizenship' for them, for which they will repay you by voting affirmatively on Church issues? Both of these things increase the Church's power in the U.S. Faith well spent.

As to the condemned to die, they are too old to convert, and besides as felons cannot vote to increase Catholic power. QED.

that ooga-booga guy waving the big cardboard sign interminably in front of pacific place is right: the catholic church are liar and pope is devil...ooga, booga!

@5: the Pope has even gayer hats, though.

Nazi popes ALWAYS corrupt their ideals to cozy with tyrannical leaders. It's their job.

Ooga-booga is reserved for speaking in tongues. Strictly a Charismatic practice, don't you know. Klaatu, Verata, Nicto, seminis! seminis! seminis! is what you were looking for, I believe.

The big problem with being against the death penalty is that it lumps you into the group that is against all those other things, too...

And why-the-hell is only human life considered sacred?

What about polar bears? And the gazillions of unwanted dogs and cats? And cows and pigs and chickens???

Great pic of da holy faddah.

If I knew he had that hat, I would have gotten him a couple of cap guns, a gun belt, and some spurs for his birthday.

If the case brought up had to do with abortion and the justices voted to ban abortion you would give them shit for voting by their religion, and not secularly as they're suppose to as governmental officials. Can't you just leave their religion out of their decision?

I'm demanding consistency from the POPE, DW. I'm against religion dictating the actions of politicians—or politicians and judges using their offices to impose their religious beliefs on others. The pope, however, is FOR that. Well, at least when we're talking liberal or Democratic politicians. And he should be called on it.

I'm for gay sex and recreational drugs and legalized prostitution too. But Ted Haggard, to take another example, was against all those things. It doesn't make me a hypocrite to note Ted's hypocrisy—or the Pope's.

Remember, only liberals can be accused of relativism.

He looks like Emperor Palpatine, beware the Dark Side!

Never mind the hat, people. What about the herpes sore?

Judges are not politicians and do not make law - at least that's the lament of the losing party.

If indeed they are guided by law and precedent, they couldn't really be faulted (and thus denied communion) when they weren't enacting law or policy but merely doing their job.