The Pope's Biggest Gay Sex Scandals

BY ELIAS GROLL

Foreign Policy

If a report on Thursday, Feb. 21, in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica is to be believed, Pope Benedict XVI's recent decision to resign just got a whole lot more interesting. The paper claims that around the time that Pope Benedict decided to step down, the pontiff learned of a faction of gay prelates in the Vatican who may have been exposed to blackmail by a group of male prostitutes in Rome. The revelations allegedly appeared in a 300-page report by three cardinals that the pope commissioned to investigate the release of internal documents by his butler, the so-called"Vatileaks" scandal. (A Vatican spokesman has refused to confirm or deny La Repubblica's claims, and the internal Vatican report is reportedly stowed away in a papal safe for Pope Benedict's successor to peruse.)

Seen in the context of Pope Benedict's career in the Catholic Church, it is difficult to understand why revelations of yet another sex scandal would push him to resign. For over a decade, he has served as the church's point person for responding to allegations of abuse. From 1985 until his election to the papacy in 2005, Benedict served as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a powerful Vatican body charged with policing church doctrine. In 2001, Pope John Paul II transferred responsibility for dealing with the sex scandals enveloping the institution to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's office. In that role, Ratzinger received tens of thousands of complaints alleging sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. Those documents often went into lurid detail, and Ratzinger is said to have been deeply affected by the experience.Read more.

American Idiocy

Last night was the Motion Picture Academy-sponsored dinner in Beverly Hills honoring the directors and producers of this year's five nominated films for Best Documentary. The dinner was an occasional tradition my wife and I started six years ago when we took our fellow nominees (we were nominated for Sicko) out for a meal to get to know each other. The Academy liked the idea, so this year it is holding dinners during Oscar Week for each of the separate branches' Oscar nominees.

Thus, last night, as an elected Governor of the Documentary Branch, I and my fellow Governors – Michael Apted and Rob Epstein – were co-hosting the nominee dinner for the documentary filmmakers. But one of the nominated directors was not there – Emad Burnat, the co-director of the Oscar-nominated 5 Broken Cameras. This exceptional, award-winning movie about how Emad's village in the West Bank used non-violence to oppose the Israeli's government's decision to build a wall straight through their farms and village – only to see (and capture on camera) Israeli soldiers shooting unarmed Palestinian civilians – had become the first Palestinian documentary ever to be nominated by the Academy.

While we awaited Emad's arrival from the airport – he and his family had already spent nearly six hours at an Israeli checkpoint as he was attempting to drive to Amman to catch their plane – I received an urgent text from Emad, written to me from a holding pen at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Here is what it said, in somewhat broken English: Read more.

Extremis Malis Extrema Remedia, Will Pakatan Lose Badly?

Hantu Laut

"Extremis malis extrema remedia"

That's Latin for "desperate times call for desperate measures"

Is Pakatan Rakyat going to lose the elections badly and they knew it ?

They are preparing for a "war of attrition" to wear down the people with lies and half-truths of BN plan to cheat in the 13th General Elections. It is the amber that will flame the "Malaysian Spring" advocated by Anwar to bring down the elected government, if he gets his way. 

Many Malaysians do not believe this but all indications point to a high probability of chaos and violence if Pakatan loses the elections. The series of attacks on BN leaders and PM Najib Tun Razak shows their lack of confidence.

The Lahad Datu standoff is telling of their desperation for the people's attention. Instead of closing rank with the government in a matter of national security they chose to resort to all kind of subterfuges, making wild and unsubstantiated allegations and completely disregard their dangerous gameplay.

To kick start the propaganda he recruited Ambiga to form BERSIH under the pretext of demanding free and fair elections. BERSIH has successfully poisoned the minds of many Malaysians with its false and deceitful propaganda, accused massive cheating at the polls by BN in the past and that the BN will again cheat in the 13th GE. 

Now, a Facebook called "I Love New PM", which I suppose must be referring to Anwar has came up with the most stupid propaganda one can imagine, that the BN have issued 2,000,000 I/Cs to foreigners in Selangor and you can laugh your guts out the irony and incongruity of the whole thing, I/Cs with expiry dates.

Would any right thinking Malaysians believe in such ludicrous poppycock? The I/C shown was for temporary residence in Malaysia, but I am pretty sure there are Malaysians stupid enough to believe the story. 

The Facebook was set up either by DAP members or supporters .The Facebook page came with annotation "1,000,000 Chinese dont want MCA to represent the Chinese"

A dead giveaway that it is the handiwork of DAP. 

Here, PKR's biggest braggart and pseudo-intellect Mr Rafizi Ramli desperately trying to debunk the Economist Intelligence Unit prediction of BN winning the 13th GE. The man is all hat and no cattle. Consider himself the brightest rising star in PKR, and a possible threat to Anwar's blue-eyed boy, Azmin Ali.

The real intellects would rather believe the EIU report than pro-Pakatan grovellers the likes of Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider, Free Malaysia Today and the mother of all whoring yellow journalism and bias-motivator of the worst kind, the Malaysian Chronicle, mostly for the reading pleasures of the plebs and the proles, gutter journalism at its worst. 

If stupid as stupid can be this man should take the coveted title for being the dumbest man ever to be used by the oppositions. Once they finished with him they will dump him by the roadside. Here, he is suing Najib for calling him not a credible person. Can you sue me if I call you stupid or your are ugly? You can try if you have a lawyer like R.Sivarasa. For someone used to scrapping bottom of the barrel every case is a possibility.

Deepak and his not so confident looking lawyer.

DAP leaders have misrepresented PAS to the Chinese community as a moderate Islamic party. They have traded in the threat to Chinese culture with their own selfish ambition to gain political power. 

From the few attempts by PAS to impose Islamic values on the Chinese in Kelantan and Kedah, one can safely assume PAS will not abandon its ambition to implement hudud once they get to Putrajaya and I will repeat here once again, what I have written before, the Muslim MPs from UMNO will give their supports to PAS to implement hudud through the backdoor, to punish the Chinese for abandoning them in their hours of need. 

UMNO leaders and many Malays for that matter still think they have been more than benevolent to the Chinese, sharing political power, allowing them to do business freely with the least interference and allowing vernacular schools which they think was a big sacrifice and at the expense of the Malay language, which is also the national language and many tales of young Malaysian Chinese not being able to speak the national language fluently.

There is no need to change the Constitution to enforce mild form of hudud. Mild for the Muslims but not necessary mild for Chinese and other non-Muslims. 

To start with they can  enforce Islamic values through local authorities such as city and municipal councils, which they invariably controlled. 

They can close down entertainment places such as discos, nightclub, bars and ban the sales of alcoholic drinks in designed areas or even the whole country. There is nothing in the Constitution that can stop them from doing so. If anyone can quote me the relevant article in the Constitution regarding this I'll be happy to hear from them. 

I am also looking forward to the eventuality of the day of pork free Malaysia.

Am I trying to scare you? 

No, that's the reality in Malaysia. No one want other religious beliefs or other's ethnic culture to be imposed on them. 

Just as the Malays feel Islam and the name Allah are sacred to them and will fight tooth and nail to preserve its exclusiveness, likewise, the Chinese do not want anything Islamic impose on them.

DAP overlooked the fact that 40% of Chinese are fence-sitters and wait for the wind before they set sail.

At this juncture they all looked ardent supporters of DAP, but should they have the slightest doubt of PAS political agenda, they all may scurry away like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

Can DAP control PAS trumpeters comes elections day?

PAS will not make any headway in Sabah and Sarawak.

Much Ado Over Nothing..Piddling The Politics

Hantu Laut

If you want to run the political mileage just make sure you choose the right contrivance.

This guy must be the biggest joker in town, getting upset over trivial things, SMS sent to him by BN, making it sounds like he received a death threat.

Hundred of thousands of people received SMS every day, messages they don't need. Most people would usually ignore or delete them, or complain to the service provider, who can't do much to help you if the SMS is from a third party.

This DAP man must be starving for publicity for him to make such big fuss over nothing.

Read here his piddling around .