More cold water thrown on Elizabeth Loftus

I have repeatedly, for years, many more times than once, called out Elizabeth Loftus and her claims on child memory.

At that "many more" link, I first estimated that she may have made as much as $500,000 for her "expert witness" testimony in courtrooms. I also called her out for erecting what I called a stereotypically Freudian version of memory repression and using that as a strawman.

And, now, without her being named by name, it turns out that claims like hers are overblown. 

The two authors, a post-doc researcher and a professor of child psychology, both at University College London, did metadata type work on 49 studies covering almost 40,000 people.

This:

Over an average gap of two and a half years, people’s memories of maltreatment barely budged, supporting the case for using a single time-point assessment in both research and clinical practice. That said, we still don’t know whether this stability holds over longer stretches of time, so more research is needed.

Is the key.

So, unless there's a particular psychologist trying to ramp up their career with something like ritual satanic abuse claims, listen to the kids, just like listening to the women. 

The authors do introduce caveats, but these caveats still don't give carte blanche to Loftus-type claims:

That’s not to say memory is perfect. About one in five people did change their response over time. This shouldn’t be read as evidence that someone was lying, though. 

Memories can shift for all sorts of reasons, such as how someone comes to interpret what happened to them, ordinary quirks of memory, how comfortable someone feels disclosing sensitive information in a given setting, or simple human error. 

This is why any record of maltreatment disclosure, whether in research or in clinical practice, should also capture the context in which it was made. This may well shape how consistently that account holds up later.

There you are. 

Near the end, the pair has one more observation that pretty directly kneecaps Loftus:

Finally, we found that while adults’ memories of childhood maltreatment were very stable over time, young people’s memories of maltreatment were less stable and decreased over longer gaps between assessments.

Boom. 

Habemus papam! And, what's up with the style of Leo XIV?

Habemus papam! Wonder what was behind the "style" of Leo XIV? 

 

It may be because Leo XIII was known as Pope of the Workers.

 

Contra non-Pope Donald blathering about this being an honor for Merikkka, the former Cardinal Prevost stands for nothing he does. Most of his pre-Vatican ecclesiastical life was spent in Peru and he even has Peruvian citizenship. 

 

Wiki already has a page up on the former Robert Prevost. First thing to note? He's only 69. So, like his stylistic predecessor, who was the third-longest serving pope, he could be around a while. He also was hand-picked by Francis to get his cardinal's hat, and per the paragraph above, will continue down various social justice roads, while not necessarily having the same emphasis as Francis. In other words, contra the cliche, which is trite and not really true (see also Benedict XVI following John Paul II) "a fat pope followed a fat pope." 

 

His insider background, per Wiki's info? In 2019, Francis named him to the Congregation of the Clergy. That oversees matters related to "secular" versus "regular" clergy. A year later, named to the Congregation for Bishops, which oversees their appointment. So, he has a network that would have been building up for the past five years. That will have increased when he was named prefect, or overseer, of the organization in early 2023. (It should be noted that, a year earlier, Francis appointed the first women to the organization.)

 

In February of this year, he gets his cardinal's biretta. Remember that Francis is already hitting the finish line here, and the appointment would have certainly elevated his standing. The conclave CAN elect non-cardinals, but really, that doesn't happen. So, the elevation, and the timing, were certainly a papal kiss.

Prevost is not perfect. He's certainly not perfect on sexual abuse scandal issues, as Wiki notes. And, per the Pope Crave account on Shitter, he might not be as "good" as Francis on sexual orientation issues and matters related. A respondent to Pope Crave also notes that he's not as good, apparently, on handling of sexual abuse issues as his defenders suspect.

 

Final note: Prevost is on Shitter himself. And bagged on Bagger Vance three months ago:

 

JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others https://t.co/hDKPKuMXmu via @NCRonline

— Robert Prevost (@drprevost) February 3, 2025

So, there you go.

 

That said, for fundamental mainline Protestants who still follow Martin Luther or John Calvin on this? We have a new holder of the office of antichrist! Actually, per the link, as I've said before, good Lutheran or Calvinist theology would actually call the papacy "the man of lawlessness," and good biblical criticism distinguishes between that person, antichrist and the Beast of 666.

Gainesville, other Texas juvie detention centers cited by federal DOJ

Per press release from the DOJ's Eastern Division of Texas, it's disgusting:

“Children are committed to TJJD facilities to receive treatment and rehabilitation so that they may return to their communities as law-abiding, productive citizens,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the release. “Our investigation showed that, far from achieving those objectives, TJJD engaged in a pattern of abuse, deprivation of essential services and disability-related discrimination that seriously harms children and undermines their rehabilitation. State officials have an obligation to keep these children safe, to teach them, to provide them necessary health services and to treat them fairly, without discrimination. The Justice Department is committed to protecting the rights of vulnerable children in juvenile facilities. We look forward to working with state officials to remedy these violations, institute needed reform and improve outcomes for Texas children.”

The full investigation, of more than 70 pages? Worse. Re Gainesville, here's a couple of the findings:

A December 2019 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics provided TJJD with additional notice of a pattern of abuse in its secure facilities. The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that, in three of the five TJJD secure facilities, children reported some of the highest rates of sexual victimization in the country. At Ron Jackson, fourteen percent of the children reported being sexually victimized by staff or other children. The rate was even higher at Gainesville and Mart, where one in six children reported abuse.

 And:

In August 2022, the Office of Inspector General sustained allegations that a boy at Gainesville forced another to perform oral and anal sex.

Disgusting.

But, like the years-long foster care scandal here in Tex-ass, I suspect Kenny Boy Paxton and TJJD staff will try to run out the clock on this as much as possible. Already, in an email to an online news organization, we have hand-waving as part of the response:

TJJD worked closely with DOJ investigators during their site visits in 2022, the peak of the agency’s unprecedented staffing shortages. We provided extensive responsive material and appreciate the DOJ’s professionalism throughout this process.

Yikes.

"Unprecedented staffing shortages" is one thing at a widget factory. Entirely another, here.

Semi-yikes? This Samuel Gaytan of Lone Star Live letting that TJJD email run anonymously, unless it was part of an official on-background guarantee.

But? A separate DOJ press release from the Southern District of Texas essentially called bullshit on that:

“The conditions in the facilities are unacceptable,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas. “Our investigation found that children in these facilities face sexual abuse by staff and other children. Tragically, this is not the first investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at TJJD facilities. Since the early 2000s, other investigations by Texas state agencies and the Texas Rangers substantiated sexual abuse allegations of the children at TJJD facilities, yet this horrifying problem persists. Working with Texas’s other U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, the Civil Rights Division and the State of Texas, my office hopes to provide protections to the vulnerable and help right wrongs that have existed for far too long.”

There you go.

Speaking of 2022? Here's the bottom line, from Texas Public Radio, about the TJJD facing Sunset Commission review at that time:

TJJD has been in perpetual crisis since it was formed in 2011, according to Sunset Commission staff. It was formed after the scandal-plagued Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Department were merged.

Other than staffing, one big reason is leadership changes.

And, Abbott stealing money from it for Operation Lone Star and Schwertner focused on new buildings rather than more staff exacerbated the issue.

Per the site where I saw this, TJJD promised a statement by yesterday afternoon. As of 4:30, nothing.

Side note: The Trib was way behind the curve on this. As of 4:30 yesterday no story. (It finally dropped something later yesterday evening.)

Gainesville, from what I know, beyond the current report, has long been considered one of the worst of the worst of the current and former juvenile state schools. 

Oh, speaking of? The claim that school location makes it hard to hire people is bullshit, at least in this case. Gainesville is just 30 miles from Denton and an hour from the Metromess proper. Beyond that, the TDCJ, while it has had some degree of shortages itself, has prisons all over the state.

Never Abbotters go Dumpster diving for crappy ads

Yes, Texas has its equivalent of Never Trumpers, and they're exemplified by the Mothers Against Greg Abbott PAC, which like the Project Lincoln of Rick Wilson and other Never Trumper Republican Grifters, includes "moderate" Republicans and centrist independents as well as Democrats.

Their latest stunt? Exploitative of children, as shown by the picture below that leads the Chronic's story.

Abbott's a shit on guns, I totally agree. But, this is manipulative and exploitative of a kid's emotions.

Second, it's a PAC. Those of us not ensconced in the duopoly know the cozy arrangement that Beto-Bob, aka R.F. O'Rourke, has had with PACs in his political past.

Third, the Dems in Mothers Against Greg Abbott are surely ConservaDems at heart, as they call for change "from the center."

Fourth and related? Though they have a subvertical for "Press and News Articles," as well as an "About," under "Information," there's not a lot of detailed position-type stuff. For example, and knowing Beto-Bob's history, while also knowing that state-level "national health care" is dicey, where IS their position on anything beyond Medicaid expansion? Where is their position on unions? On actual lawsuit reform?

Fifth? Nancy Thompson's own story about realizing the acronym for her organization seems ... uh, not exactly the same?? ... from story to story.

Sixth, somebody's giving them big bucks for cutting ads like this, and the pros to help them do it, per this story.

Seventh, if only 25 percent of Texas' child abuse cases are sexual abuse, and if only 1 percent of those 18,000 happen in school settings, why aren't Mothers Against Greg Abbott wrapping kids in five oversized condoms instead?

==

To put it another way, per Zvi Mowshowitz, this ad is as exploitative and abusive of children as is an active shooter drill.

Let's do more to stop April being National Child Abuse Prevention Month

Note: The following is adapted from a newspaper column.

This is April, which means it’s National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

I didn’t do so last year, because I was new to my current newspaper setting, but it’s been a tradition of mine to write one or more columns every month about this issue, primarily about child sexual abuse.

First, I know that this is an uncomfortable topic. And rightly so. Nobody likes to think of the most vulnerable members of our society being abused like this before they’ve had a chance to grow up. But, only by addressing this issue in reality can we hope to translate the pain of that discomfort into reality.

Second, there are myths about child sexual abuse as well as realities. And part of addressing this issue, and reducing it (unfortunately, we will surely never eliminate it) is looking at the realities not the myths.

Some realities are hard to come by. Many victims don’t talk about, let alone legally report, their abuse even after entering adulthood. The pain, as well as the shame, of child sexual abuse, are both reasons why.

That word “shame” is as good a starting point as any for talking about some of the realities.

The shame is there in part because counselors tell us that child victims often believe they did something to cause the abuse, even though that’s not true. It’s often the only way a younger child, especially, can try to make sense of the inexplicable.

Sadly, the shame is also often there for another reason. Exact percentages are pretty much impossible to come by, but “stranger danger” child sexual assaults are a clear minority. Again, without exact percentages being available, perpetrators are normally known to their victims, and often known well, whether as trusted friends of the family, or as family members. A lot of child sexual abuse, because of this, happens at the residence of the victim or the perpetrator.

Girls are more often the victim of child sexual abuse than boys, but boys are a significant minority of victims. And, while men make up the vast majority of perpetrators, women are also sometimes abusers.

Child sexual abuse can include exhibitionism and display of pornography to victims, as well as more graphic physical acts. In some cases, one child may have severe reactions to one incident of abuse than another child does to multiple instances.

Children that come from broken homes or other unstable situations are generally more vulnerable to the effects of child sexual abuse, as are younger children. And, because poverty rates run higher, and stable family lives run lower, among minorities, that means that sexual abuse runs higher there, in general, along with its effects.

And, those effects are great. Childhood and adult depression, other mental health problems, drug addiction and alcoholism, teen pregnancy, children running away from home or dropping out of school can all hurt, even shatter, lives.

Children aren’t perfect, and can tell fibs, or have imaginary friends, even at younger ages.

But, when a child shows signs of depression or anxiety, let alone when a child has sexual-related comments or actions inappropriate to his or her age, that child’s behavior should be looked at with total seriousness. Even more so, when a child makes a comment about a certain adult’s behavior, the child should be listened to in all seriousness.

Doing everything we can to address social situations that may influence the likelihood of child sexual abuse — and physical and emotional abuse — is something else we need to treat with all due seriousness, too.

That includes income raises, and jobs with a better sense of security. In turn, that's yet another reason to address income inequality issues in America.

Beyond that, this includes doing what we can as a society to promote better parenting.

When we fail to prevent the abuse, it means doing a better job of counseling victims, whether as children or those who come forward much later as adults.

It also includes walking a fine line on the issue of old memories. Memories may not be “repressed,” as some researchers almost stereotype some claims, and as some counselors believe, and try to “induce” them to come back to life. That's especially true because not all allegedly false memories are totally false; rather, a fair amount are conflated or blended from two or more true memories.

However, sexual abuse victims can, and do, “detach” from their memories. I don’t care what exact terminology one wants to use, cases where this does happen clearly exist. And, any adult or child who does claim such memories without undue prompting from a counselor should be taken seriously.

Popes, priests, ministers, sexual abuse and incest

Benedict XVI, aka Ratzi the Nazi, has announced he is resigning the papacy effective the end of this month.

Although he said it was due to age, which is a legitimate statement as he approaches 85, nonetheless, as I blogged and the vast majority of media notes, the Catholic priestly sex abuse scandal, and his failure to deal with it well, in either a legal or moral way, is surely part of the reason for his resignation.

That said, while in no way downplaying the severity of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests, or the severity of the cover-up by archbishops, cardinals and two (at least?) popes, is it fair to stigmatize Catholic priests too much over this?

I say no.

In general, priests and ministers, taking all Christian denominations together, do NOT have a higher rate of being sexually abusive than the general adult population. However, they are in positions of trust, as are another stigmatized group, Scoutmasters, and a non-stigmatized group, school teachers.

That's not even counting incestuous sexual abuse, which makes up a clear plurality, at least, of sexual abuse in the US but is still largely taboo to discuss.

And, all of the above show that "stranger danger" is a myth that, if anything, is damaging itself when it comes from helicopter moms, especially, making them paranoid.

Of course, numbers are very hard to come by. Sexual abuse in general is underreported, and incest even more so.

That said, per Wikipedia, with multiple links off its page, even if we go with the lower end of estimates, at 30 percent, incest may make up a plurality of sexual abuse. I think the high end estimate of 70 percent may be too high, but, if it's over 40 percent, I'm sure it's a plurality.

And, between parents, other family, and a variety of known adult friends of the family, the "known" percentage of sexual abusers is estimated at 80-90 percent.

Other "known" non-family sexual abusers, besides clergy or Scoutmasters, will include teachers, neighbors, baby-sitters, friends from church and more.

Near the bottom of this webpage is more information on refuting the stranger danger myths.

So, again, while not exonerating Catholic priests, or Protestant ministers, or Scoutmasters, I urge humanists in general, whether secular ones or not, and atheists in particular, especially Gnus, to see Benedict's retirement as a teaching moment about the truths of sexual abuse.

Gnu Atheists probably don't want to admit this. Hell, probably most of them won't admit this, period, about the facts of clergy child sexual abusers.

Even a lot of non-Gnu Atheists may be reluctant to let go of an easy story line.

Sorry, but facts are facts.

For the non-religious, if you have religious neighbors, their kids are in more danger from a family member than from their church's religious leader.

Is it #NCAA boycott time over #PSU and Sandusky?

Bobby Bowden's right — tear it down!
ESPN photo

Update, July 23: Yes, the NCAA penalty is strong, but is it strong enough. Time to boycott?

On the other hand, Yahoo's Dan Wetzel says it's worse than the "death penalty." We shall see.

That said, as I read more, I do think the NCAA was very serious. I like what I read; it's just too bad that Paterno isn't still alive himself to see all those wins vacated. At least his wife is.

Original blog follows:

I agree totally with the many commentators who say Penn State deserves, and needs to get, the "death penalty" from the NCAA for its football program. It deserves it far more than Southern Methodist University.

Hell, in this ESPN piece about college administrators versus college athletics, in the video at the top (sharing blocked right now) fellow NCAA coaching icon Bobby Bowden says Penn State should pull down its Joe Paterno statue. (Try this URL for just the video.) And, he's right — the man should be, if others get indicted, quite arguably be named as an unindicted co-conspirator, because conspire he did.

But, this is the NCAA we're talking about. Nobody's gotten the death penalty, or close to it, since SMU. And, so far, the NCAA has been mum about the Freeh report. And, it may well continue to be.

Is it possible that it will take the push of a threatened boycott of watching NCAA football, and maybe even a boycott of NCAA advertisers, to get it to do the right thing? Then, we need to start talking about that NOW.

And, if you're a serious college football fan, but a decent human being at the same time, you need to decide on which side of the bread your priorities are buttered.

And, beyond that, let's tell the NCAA it needs to engage in other massive housecleaning. If that includes revisiting the issue of pay for athletes, then that's what it includes. The NCAA must address ALL issues related to institutional governance and how best to improve them.

Finally, we know why Paterno's wife is lying about him. She's trying to protect her finances at least as much as his legacy.

Someone else not totally in the world of honesty? Joe Posnanski, who is actually trying to flog his new Joe Paterno hagiography, all while refusing to answer questions about the book or his book tour (which his publisher has scaled back).  There's bupkis about Paterno on his blog, too.

A MUST-READ on male child sexual abuse

 I don't know who Rick Reilly interviewed for this totally insightful piece, but a comment like this is very true:

Many men who were sexually abused as children have ruinous relationships with women. They begin to think they are dirty to the core, shameful and dangerous to women. They're terrified they can't be trusted not to hurt women, so they run from them.

Reilly includes longer excerpts of a specific "survivor" story, about incest, in fact, not stranger or even trusted neighbor, child sexual abuse.

The symptom he mentions is one of the biggest, and totally dispels the lie that abuse turns most survivors into perpetrators themselves.

Besides loss of trust, the single biggest other symptom is loss/non-development of self-esteem and self-confidence. A world in which one feels and seems totally powerless, especially if the abuse is at home, can tend to have that type of ongoing effect.

Meanwhile, Howard Bryant notes that celebrity athletes who served on the board of Second Mile, Jerry Sandusky's charity (or "grooming front" for new boys to abuse) are running like hell from it ... BUT ... without speaking out for the victims.

Reilly is right. There is more hope for survivors than before. That said, understand that healing will never be perfect. And sometimes it won't be close.

It's about the children, not Joe Paterno

As Penn State football coaching legend Joe Paterno announces his retirement effective the end of this year, in large part for failure to do more to report alleged child sex abuse by a long-time assistant, Rick Reilly reminds us:

It's about the children. It's not about Paterno's reputation, and its possibly being sullied. It's not about Jerry Sandusky's reputation, either. It's about the children: the ones he allegedly sodomized. The ones whose alleged sodomy Paterno failed, no, refused, to report.

Imagine: Victim One, according to the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News, was often taken out of class by Sandusky to be further molested. Just taken out of school by somebody who wasn't his parent, with no questions asked until his mother finally called the principal and asked her to check into it. Later that day, the principal called back in tears. "You need to come down here right now."

Unfortunately, the reality can't even be fully comprehended by many.

It's about the children -- and the adults they eventually became. Or tried to become. Or didn't know how to become.

Some of us understand that already. And, those his column Sunday didn't go far enough, Frank Bruni got this at least partially right. It's about the trust.

Joe Paterno trusted insider flunkies that he had built up around himself more than anybody else, to the point he could tell the university a flat "no" when it was suggested, eight years ago, that he retire. And now, Joe, because of that, it's time for you to pay the price. When I saw the dam burst, I thought you shouldn't be allowed to coach out the season, frankly.

Fortunately, Penn State has ethics, or PR fears. Paterno is out, immediately. Good. That said, I fear the Nittany Lions' home game Saturday will be a Paterno love orgy, unless the same board of regents who canned him does a pre-game memorial to him while also doing something meaningful in relation to child sexual abuse. Otherwise, Paterno, while he may disagree with the regents' decision, needs to support them in making Saturday's last home game as smooth as possible.

But, again, it's not about Paterno, it's about the children. And the children who grow up to be adult "survivors."

Some sports columnists get it, already going to writing about the pain Paterno caused. Read Ivan Maisel.

Paterno? No, he isn't the one to feel sorry for, even after decades of dignity and grace. If Paterno thinks getting fired on his retirement day stings, he doesn't know true pain.

He can reread the grand jury report to find out about that. Some of those lost boys of Penn State could have been saved, and Joe Paterno will go to his grave knowing that will forever be college sports' greatest shame.

Or Rick Reilly, who totally gets the "trust ripped away" issue.

If these boys really were molested, groped and raped by a middle-aged ex-Penn State football coach, then whatever misjudgment Paterno made will be a single lit match compared to the bonfire these boys will walk in for years to come.

Many of them won't be able to trust. Won't be able to love. Won't be able to feel -- nor trust or love themselves.

For the reality of adult "survivors," read my blog post (adapted from a newspaper column I wrote) about Laveranues Coles. You'll see from that just how much child sexual abuse, especially when it is ongoing, is about manipulating trust, or pseudo-trust.

There's been plenty of talk about how Wall Street traders may be sociopaths. Well, what about ongoing child molesters like Jerry Sandusky apparently is? They're even worse trust manipulators. After the allegations, not only did nobody do anything, nobody asked why Sandusky might be so interested in running youth camps. And, beyond the "trusted" coaches, teachers, principals, Catholic priests and Protestant ministers, let's not forget that at least one third of child sexual abuse happens at home. Given that Penn State's now ex-president has a sociology Ph.D., the disgusting, non-funny irony of America's willful ignorance in that area comes home to roost.

And, the flip side of abusers abusing trust is enablers like Paterno abusing power. That is dirty laundry indeed.

Meanwhile, some thoughts on a different bit of "exploitation" below the fold.

Frank Bruni gets child sex abuse half right

But ONLY half right. Until we're ready to admit that not only do many child sex abusers not wear trench coats, but that they also don't wear priestly vestments or the clothes of neighbors down the street, but that they wear the clothes and drive the cars of parents and step-parents (both dads AND moms) grandparents, uncles, aunts and sibilings old enough to not be "Playing doctor," we will still be in a land of myth and denial about the reality of child sexual abuse. And, the horrible stripping away of trust.

Exact numbers are hard to come by, but it's estimated that one-third or more of child sexual abusers are relatives of the child.

CareerBuilder job of the day with the BSA!

Anti-gay? Check? PR-known history of sexual abusers in your volunteer ranks? Check. Having just lost a lawsuit over that, with punitive damages tacked on? Check. Yeah, I guess the Boy Scouts of America probably do need a "public relations specialist."

Pope: Those priests don't work for ME!

Yep, that's the Vatican's latest defense in the sex abuse scandal. In essence, it's claiming that abusive priests and bishops are independent contractors, therefore the Holy Mother of WTF Church isn't responsible for their actions. Along with that, it's telling the court system that this is all ultimately based on religious issues going back to apostolic times, and therefore the legal system needs to just take the pope's claims on ... err ... faith!

Of course, given the hugely hierarchical nature of Catholicism, this is a whopper of a lie. Bishops control parish and non-parish assignments for priests. Archbishops control bishops. And, who names the archbishops?

Old Benedicktus XVI, aka Herr Ratzinger of Hitler Youth fame. (The man surely knows a thing or two about authoritarianism, chains of command, unswerving devotion to higher authorities, etc.)

Oh, Ratzy? U.S. courts have waded into this issue in the past, too, you schmuck. I can't remember the name of it, but one case involved altar donations to a parish, donated by laypeople. The parish priest wanted to do something different, and a court ruled the laypeople had no say in the matter. I'm sure there's other issues involving a bishop telling a priest what to do that have gone to court at some time in the past.

That's on top of the claim that a 1962 decree of Catholic canon law allegedly did NOT forbid bishops from reporting suspicions of child sexual abuse to the authorities.

And, this whopper undercuts Herr Ratzinger's claims that the church needs to be penitent.

Well, the church perhaps. The church's money and property? Well, another story. No, no, no penitence needed to go as far as St. Peter's. Or the Vatican's holdings in Italian utilities, etc.

Beyond that, Il Papa is infallible, right? So, HE doesn't need to be penitent. Just those low-down, perverted independent contractors that he never hired nor supervised, right?

Catholic hierarchy now blames gays, not Jews

From one canard to another: Now it's the old claim that homosexuality causes pedophilia. If you're a gay priest, keep your head very low.

Priest: Jews are behind child-abuse condemnations

A couple of months ago, supposedly, the Catholic Church was being persecuted like Jews in the Holocaust.

Now, I guess that's not true.

Rather, the Catholic Church is being persecuted BY JEWS.

(R)etired Bishop Giacomo Babini of the Italian town of Grosseto told the Catholic Pontifex website that the Catholic pedophile scandal is being orchestrated by the "eternal enemies of Catholicism, namely the freemasons and the Jews, whose mutual entanglements are not always easy to see through… I think that it is primarily a Zionist attack, in view of its power and refinement. They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God-killers."

What's that sound I hear from the Vatican? It's crickets, I believe.

Priest: Jews are being child-abuse condemnations

A couple of months ago, supposedly, the Catholic Church was being persecuted like Jews in the Holocaust.

Now, I guess that's not true.

Rather, the Catholic Church is being persecuted BY JEWS.

(R)etired Bishop Giacomo Babini of the Italian town of Grosseto told the Catholic Pontifex website that the Catholic pedophile scandal is being orchestrated by the "eternal enemies of Catholicism, namely the freemasons and the Jews, whose mutual entanglements are not always easy to see through… I think that it is primarily a Zionist attack, in view of its power and refinement. They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God-killers."

What's that sound I hear from the Vatican? It's crickets, I believe.

Hande hoch, Herr Ratzinger!

Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins want to make a citizens' arrest of Pope Benedict XVI, in essence.

They hope he can be brought low just like acclaimed Spanish magistrate Balthsar Garzon had one-time Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet arrested.

That said, their clock is tikcing. As the story, notes Benedict will be in Britain between September 16 and 19, visiting London, Glasgow and Coventry, where he will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th-century theologian. The pair has already retained two lawyers, who believe they can ask the Crown Prosecution Service to initiate criminal proceedings against Benedict, start their own civil action against him or refer his case to the International Criminal Court.

Can we have the International Criminal Court try him in ... Nuremburg? Oh, the irony.

Oh, and while we're at it, can we dig up John Paul II and try him posthumously?

And why not? John Wilkes Booth was put on trial posthumously.

As for why, JPII's top fundraiser was a notorious pedophile, as well as a well-protected one.

Pope Benedict goes paranoid with 'anti-hate' claim

Yep, that's the latest from the Vatican. Supposedly all the brouhaha over his cover-up of child sex abuse by Catholic priests, and all done so on behalf of his semi-sainted predecessor, John Paul II? It's part of a hate-based anti-Catholic plot.

Yes, non-Catholics hate the church for its anti-female, anti-contraceptive, anti-abortion, anti-gay-rights agenda.

Well, now, we learn, as of April 12, that it's not "everybody" that hates Catholics so much as it is ... those effing god-killing Jews.

A couple of months ago, supposedly, the Catholic Church was being persecuted like Jews in the Holocaust.

The Catholic Church is being persecuted BY JEWS.

(R)etired Bishop Giacomo Babini of the Italian town of Grosseto told the Catholic Pontifex website that the Catholic pedophile scandal is being orchestrated by the "eternal enemies of Catholicism, namely the freemasons and the Jews, whose mutual entanglements are not always easy to see through… I think that it is primarily a Zionist attack, in view of its power and refinement. They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God-killers."

What's that sound I hear from the Vatican? It's crickets, I believe.

Hey, Herr Ratzinger? Put the shovel down!

More seriously? I could give a rat's ass one way or the other about Catholic doctrine. OR about more liberal Catholics bitching about it. They can vote with their feet or their wallets. And, until they do, they can stop whining outside Catholic circles so much. Vote with your wallets, AND with an e-mail to your bishop, archbishop, etc. about a more liberal next pope, as well as a morth ethical one. (And, some antitoxin for John Paul III, since John Paul I obviously didn't have any.)

I do care if anybody breaks the law, especially something as egregious as child sexual abuse. I do care if people use positions of authority to help them break such laws. I do care if their compadres (pun intended, here) and superiors aid and abet their lawbreaking through cover-ups, stonewalling and similar actions. I do care if the world's only religious body to be recognized as an independent nation hides behind diplomatic law. I do care if it trivializes the Holocaust, which has roots all the way back in the First Pogram conducted by knights on the way to the First Crusade.

Beyond the child sex abuse scandal, Benedict Ratzinger has other problems back in his German homeland, anyway.

Uhh, Herr Ratzinger, when you get a chance, between child sex abuse woes and getting Jews mad, and speaking of that, you might want to tackle this:

A chapel built on a mountainside in Germany is turning into a shrine for neo-Nazis after it emerged that it was built with marble and grainte taken from the ruins of Adolf Hitler's luxury retreat.

A swastika was reportedly found carved into one of the wooden beams of the Wegmacher Chapel, which was built in 1997, while local residents claim a number of shaven-headed, leather jacket-wearing 'pilgrims' leave behind notes of praise to Hitler and candles burning in his memory.

It was only recently that the Bavarian government admitted that material from the wreckage of Hitler's retreat, the Berghof in Berchtesgaden, was used in the construction of the chapel.

Some of the stones are from the terrace of the Berghof - quarried by Jewish slave labourers in concentration camps.

Oh. My. Fucking. Doorknob. Why the German Catholic Church hasn't taken the simple solution and just razed this place to the ground, I have no idea.

Meanwhile, back to the sex abuse scandal. Plenty of Catholics in robes besides Herr Ratzinger need to put down their shovels.

First, in what is indeed appalling, the bishop of Tenerife, Spain, like U.S. rape case trials of 30 years ago, raises the old, ugly, "they were asking for it" angle, this time in relation to abused kids.

And, via Ed Brayton, George Neumayr, editor of Catholic World Report, claims that people like me really don't care about the kids. He doesn't go down the Vatican's Catholic-bashing angle; rather, he says, the non-Catholic secular culture is the real abuser of children.

Update, April 9: And now, we see Herr Ratzinger has real reason to be afraid. The AP has uncoverd a letter with Ratzi's on signature, opposing the defrocking of American priest Stephen Kiesle.

AP said the Rev Kiesle was sentenced to three years of probation in 1978 for lewd conduct with two young boys in San Francisco. It said the Oakland diocese had recommended Kiesle's removal in 1981 but that that did not happen until 1987.

Cardinal Ratzinger took over the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with sex abuse cases, in 1981.

Yeah, but Herr Ratzinger was too busy serving as John Paul II's attack dog on Catholic liberals to take the time to deal with this.

Update, April 14:From one canard to another: Now it's the old claim that homosexuality causes pedophilia. If you're a gay priest, keep your head very low.

Vatican 'double fail' on child sex abuse

Herr Ratzinger! Pope Benedict XVI shoots himself in the foot twice with his personal preacher comparing, undenied, the child abuse row to anti-Semitism. We DO KNOW what organization, for well more than a millennium, has been the leading purveyor of anti-Semitism, starting with the First Crusade also conducting the First Pogrom. I think this is called "double fail."

Shouldn't Herr Ratzinger now defrock himself?

The uncovering of the evil — sorry, not a word I use lightly, but what else can you call it — of the man now styled Benedict XVI grows by the day.

Maybe that should be made a condition of some of the lawsuits against various Catholic dioceses. Along with various secularly "diabolical" punishments.

Hitchens takes Benedict XVI to the woodshed

Cardinal Herr Ratzinger, now the current 'His Holiness,' has plenty to apologize for on the German sex abuse scandal. A Vatican-imposed statute of limitations on abused people filing claims?

And, yes, per my previous post on John Paul II and his stalled sainthood, "Herr Ratzinger" is exactly the epithet he deserves, with all it implies.