Katyn: "It is a damned place"

Poland's President Lech Kaczynski has been killed in a plane crash, with many of Poland's highest-ranking government officials, on route to the annual commemoration of the Katyn Massacre in Russia. At Katyn in 1940, Soviet secret police murdered nearly 22,000 Polish Army officers, each man shot once in the back of the head. Above, the dramatic statue at Exchange Place in Jersey City, NJ, commemorating the massacre, also see below. 

Speaking of the plane crash, former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski said:  “It is a damned place. It sends shivers down my spine. First the flower of the Second Polish Republic is murdered in the forests around Smolensk, now the intellectual elite of the Third Polish Republic die in this tragic plane crash when approaching Smolensk airport.”

Browning the Electorate

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has just yesterday called a general election for May 6th, which short of a minor miracle will likely see him lead the governing Labour Party to an ignominious defeat, just like the kick in the ass British voters gave to the Conservatives in 1997. For those unfamiliar with the British system, the Prime Minister of the day must call an election on or before the date by which the current session of Parliament is five years old. This gives the Prime Minister something of an advantage, depending on the political scene: if the governing party seems to be riding high in the polls after, say, three and a half years into a parliamentary session, then he or she might call an election and, if they win, buys the government an extra couple of years with which to screw things up, sorry, govern.

But Brown has been at best, weird, if not actually disastrous in his time as P.M., and I can reveal to you just how unbalanced and dangerous after receiving the following email from him in my magic Gmail Spam folder this morning. I mean, he calls himself a prudent Scotsman??!

Seems They Are Fiddling While...

...Rome Bleeds. Today's New York Times, column by Maureen Dowd, addressing the latest news about the Church and its pedophiles, and why do the Church Bosses not grasp the seriousness of their problem?...

The church is dying from a thousand cuts. Its cover-up has cost a fortune and been a betrayal worthy of Judas. The money spent came from social programs, Catholic schools and the poor. This should be a sin that cries to heaven for vengeance. I asked a friend of mine recently what he would do if his child was molested after the church knew. ‘I would probably kill someone,’ he replied.

Above image: what the Church Fathers are hoping to do with That Dowd Woman when No One is Looking.

Of course, if you think so little of those molested by priests that you simply try to pay them hush money, your conscience won't even stir if you cut the checks from funds for feeding the poor, and education. In the wake of Martin Luther's Reformation, at least historians could weigh that though schism abounded, the fracturing of Christendom happened within the context of an argument about what the Church should be, what does God intend for His myriad flock? After this scandal, people might simply walk away in droves, in disgust. In the 21st century, will we see the Catholic Church foundering in an ocean of disinterest?

Can Animals Be Gay?

Can animals be gay, asks today's New York Times, in an article accompanied by the above photo. We ask, can that photo editor be straight?

Did You Know?

Americans, did you know that British tabloid 'newspaper' The Sun, has a prominent section called "Bizarre USA," devoted to insane news and crap from your country? Isn't it time that you amended that lend-lease check? (Check, meaning 'bill,' and not 'cheque.' American English can be confuserizing, isn't it?)

The Sick Rose

O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.