h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

No comment from me required.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jHqndf9Kx4&feature=player_embedded

This is absolutely amazing. The way he talks freely for five minutes while nobody else even dares to breathe... they just let him finish what he has to say because they kmow it is the trutzh that must out.

There have been songs, jokes, stories and rumours about Catholic priests having their way with children for as long as the church existed. Why did it take close to two thousand years for this to come out into the open? And will this finally break down the gates to a point where they can no longer hush it up? Surely, this must encourage those who are being abused TODAY to speak up and put an end to it and make sure that those perpetrators must answer to a WORLDLY court of law?

Okay, I looked this up, Ryan Commission, and what I'm having trouble with is this quote from a minister:

"The concept of the child as a separate individual with rights came late to this country."

That would explain it, but it will break your heart.

I've seen the movie about the Magdalen Sisters, and the one Pierce Brosnan did called "Evelyn". The news just gets worse and worse.

Is this basically "truth and reconciliation"?

That's one way of putting it, I suppose.

I don't know. Sometimes I wonder if there ever was a time when this country was "normal". Sometimes I wonder whether it's worth all the fuss made about it. In the recent past, it certainly hasn't been. For most of the last century both parts of the country were run by two bands of gangsters, who lined their own pockets, and gave jobs to their friends, and turned a blind eye to anything those friends did, no matter how much it was hurting other people.

It makes me angry, and it makes me feel sad. Sad that some people are secretly delighted that they can use revelations like this as, well, a political football, as the man said in the clip. Angry that bastards with no shame knew what was happening, and said nothing about it. Sometimes doing nothing can be the most violent act of all. Angry about the preying that went on.

And it makes me incredibly angry that some of the most gentle, intelligent and talented teachers I've ever known, both women and men, some clergy people, some not, are tarred with the same brush as thugs and criminals who hid behind their black uniforms. Because that's what they were.

I'm not a "nationalist" in any sense of the word, but I've a certain fondness for this country. Sometimes I just wonder why.

So much of what goes on is stupid. And you wonder how in the world it got that way.

And how anybody could do that to a child. And why anybody would cover it up. And...

Way back in the 1970s, I found out that a clergyman I knew of had used his position to molest female college students. I was outraged, and wanted something done about it. The other clergymen told me they didn't want to 'ruin his career' because he had a family. In other words, a married man in his thirties was a more valuable person than an unmarried girl in her twenties.

Another clergyman who knew about it was also a professor of theology. He told them, 'Either he goes or I go.' When they did nothing, he left, and was offered a better job at a prestigious university. Didn't help the situation, but I'm glad he got out of there.

I got out of there, too - stopped volunteering, stopped dealing with them, found another outfit to work with.

Not much else you can do.

I think there's a lot more that can be done.

Sorry, this whole thing has annoyed me greatly. Without being flippant, it's the first time I've listened to a Fianna Fáil-er and wanted to punch someone other than the speaker.

I hope there is something constructive that can be done, this time.

If nothing else, that people make sure it never happens again.

There is. Make fun of them, sing about them, and make sure every pompous asshole always has a jester who looks like him.

I'm not joking.

No, you're right - that's a perfect answer.

The other night, we were watching 'Gangs of New York'. There was an extra video on that disc, about the history background.

Thomas Nast, the cartoonist, kept drawing Boss Tweed in unflattering ways. Even though most of Tweed's constituents couldn't read, they could 'read' the cartoons. Tweed ended up in trouble.

He fled to Spain - where people recognised him from the cartoons, and extradited him.

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/96/67896-004-ABA798A3.jpg

http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/today/images/1204tweedledee_big.jpg

Hi

I haven't read it all, and understand less. But still I want to make a contribution.

I was married to an Irish man, catholic brought up, now long gone, i.e.dead. He went to a catholic male school, and I've gathered from some of the things he has let slip that the priests, munks or whoever were a cruel bunch of people.

I am now married to an Italian man, catholic brought up, but with a communist streak in the family, who has told me about how catholic priests in the refugee camps in Italy hurt and/or abused children and young females.

Since I was 25 - 32 years ago, I gave up on religion. Some people believing in doing good and becoming better humans are fine, according to me. They could do it without a faith of some form of religion - but that is their choice.

I gave up religion because, as an institution - no matter which religious faith - it wants to invade and succumb humans who are just going about to survive and being of use to their chosen society. And the institution often becomes a capitalist body and thus not knowing right from wrong most of the time, because it wants to protect its investment. .

Religion goes about to kill, to destroy both the body and mind of the next person, to twist arms and forbid - life.

The pope bans gay marriages but does not want to make an investigation into whether celibacy is a reason for pedophilian behavior, or whether believing one is of the 'right' extraction make it legal to be a warped human being.

I have during the weekend been at a meeting with priests who support asylum seekers in Denmark and who have initiated a movement called A Decent Denmark. I admire their passion for human rights - which I share. But in my opinion it is human to be like that - not religious.

Sorry to go on in your thread.

As an English cowriter of a book always ends his mails to me: PLU - Peace, love and understanding.