Of Popes And Blind Eyes

There ain't no Jesus gonna come from the sky. Now that I found out I know I can cry.
- John Lennon


The arrival of Pope Francis to the United States this month has caused the country to go absolutely ape shit. The major television networks might as well rebrand their initials thusly: American Broadcasting Catholics, National Broadcasting Catholics, Catholic Broadcasting System, Catholic News Network and Fatima Over Xenophobia.

Throughout it's history, the United States of America has routinely turned the blind eye, even if it means strained neck muscles. A classic example of turning the blind eye is the amazing number of our very own saintly Presidents who owned slaves! A history class blind eye. Yet, the Pope's visit may expose this blind eye as the festering puss hole it really is.

Leading the blind eye brigade (with more and more frequency as this century of horror continues) are people who otherwise identify themselves as progressives and/or free thinkers. Did the Catholic Church suddenly come out for abortion rights? Did the Pope marry a stadium full of same-sex couples? Well, one would think so as the country turns that blind eye to the obvious hatred of the Catholic Church toward gays and women in these cases alone. Hello? Even evangelical Republicans are pissing their pants because President Obama has invoked the names of Jesus, Lord and dammit, God, more times in the last 48 hours than the top ten Republican candidates have in the last four months combined. On top of that, John Boehner must be bawling his eyes out, chain smoking cigarettes and downing pints of booze because everyone has turned a blind eye to the fact that he was the one who invited the Pope to speak before Congress in the first place.

A couple of Pope Francis' more overt actions while in the United States include a canonizing and riding around in a Fiat. I guess Fiat needed some serious god-like intervention rebranding. Ever checked the history of Fiat? Do so, it is quite illuminating. The word fiat itself might also be something worth looking into, because, well, the Pope.

More egregious is the canonizing of Father Junipero Serra, or in Catholic Church parlance, the guy is now a Saint. Serra, working for the ever popular Inquisition, arrived in Mexico in 1749 and it wasn't long before he settled up north near present day Monterey, California. He established missions so he and his sadists could covert natives he said were guilty of, "...the most detestable and horrible crimes of sorcery, witchcraft and devil worship." Guilty of torture and murder is a saintly pursuit of course and defenders have actually used language to excuse the priest's savagery by claiming all the native peoples were voluntarily led to the word. To top it off, Serra has been rebranded as well, he now has been, in a Church/Orwellian revisionism, labeled "evangelizer of the West" by Pope Francis. Native Americans have used different and certainly more accurate descriptions such as "monster" and "for the pope to accord sainthood is such an obscene gesture on the part of the Catholic Church." It's all turning one big blind eye to old and new atrocities.

Lest we forget, Argentina's "Dirty War", propagated by a military dictatorship in the 1970s and early 1980s. Supported of course by the United States Government because of, well, communism! There's some question of then Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio's (now Pope Francis) involvement in helping the dictators round up "undesirables". But, where there is white smoke there's a Pope.

I implore the few remaining actual progressives and/or free thinkers to rise up and open their blind eyes. When some critical thought is applied, President Obama and Pope Francis are a perfect match, perhaps made in heaven as it were. Obama was ordained with the Nobel Peace Prize and has wage the Endless Wars which continue to kill thousands of civilians every year. He has openly bragged about extra-judicially murdering American citizens and kisses the asses of corporate America and the military/industrial complex. But, because he tosses out a few bromides about climate change, health care and the war on women he is drooled over by the blind eye left. Is it just too difficult to reconcile images of burned, crushed children with the peace president? Is it simply a road not traveled because once trod upon there is never going back to that misperceived comfort of constantly turning a blind eye?

One thing, beyond mindless Pope fawning and massive turning of the blind eye, is that there will be NO press coverage of dissenting viewpoints. No long interviews with agnostics or atheists will be condoned or allowed. I only hope that the constant turning of the blind eye has not led us so far down the slippery slope that we can not as a country ever climb back up.

(Obama meets the Pope at a military airport and they laugh and laugh how people still haven't figured out they're Bankster puppets. Image from Getty Images under Fair Use.)

 

9/11 Museum Of Rich Crass Elites & Tastelessness

The 9/11 Museum in New York City on "hallowed ground" has opened. Wherever one may fall along the spectrum, from believing in the government's conspiracy theory (which, of course, the museum endorses) to believing there were no planes, no one can deny that this "museum" is nothing more than a feel good for rich, crass elitists and a monument to tastelessness.

(photo by Todd Heisler, New York Times, under Fair Use)

It was bad enough that the powers that be decided to move some 8,000 pieces of remains to a repository in the same building as the new "museum" as opposed to an aboveground tomb like the Unknown Soldier. It was even worse that crass rich elitists (some of whom made a lot of money off of the attacks) attended what amounted to a cocktail party on hallowed ground before the "museum's" official opening. “You enjoy dinner & drinks on top of my brothers grave last night douchebags?” tweeted Robert Shay Jr.’s sister.

(photo by Marcus Santos, The New York Daily News, under Fair Use)

No, the real jaw dropping act of tastelessness is the gift shop. You read that right, on "hallowed ground" there rests a fucking gift shop where people will continue to make money off of the victims. Perhaps the most tasteless gift in this dive is the 9/11 Cheese Plate, complete with little stars where the attacks occurred. I'll wait as you let that sink in.

(photo by Scott Lynch, The Gothamist, under Fair Use)

If anyone is still onboard with idea that your rich overseers and politicians have always had your best interests at heart I hope this "museum" has disabused you of that. Imagine what a visit to the gift shop might be like.

"Hello, and welcome to the 9/11 Museum Gift Shop. Oh, I see you're spying our classy 9/11 Cheese Plate. Perfect for your wine and cheese parties as you discuss the latest best seller. No, no, no, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Perhaps I could interest you in one of our Mohamed Atta passport replicas? They're only $9.95 each. We also have ashtrays formed out of the steel from the girders. They make excellent conversation starters as well has a repository for your butts. Or, might I interest you in our 9/11 Paperweights? Made from the pulverized remains of your fellow citizens, it retails for only $29.95. Buy two, they make wonderful gifts!"
 

New York City Police Kill Gunman AND Wound 9 Bystanders

From the "you just can't make up this stuff" department comes the stunning story of a police shoot down of a gunman in New York City that came only minutes after Mayor Bloomberg spoke on his radio show once again about the need for gun control. Unbelievably, even though all the bystanders were shot by the police, Mayor Bloomberg callously used this tragic event to call for laws to enforce stricter gun laws on civilians and not the police! He also fabricated details by saying all the bystanders were hit by fragments or ricochets.

(This man, a bystander, was shot in the elbow by police.)

Even though Americans are still awaiting any surveillance video from the Aurora, CO theater shootings, for example, NYPD released video of the police shooting of the gunman within hours of the event.

The sequence of events has a disgruntled ex-employee walking up to his former boss on a busy sidewalk and shooting him in the head several times. He then put the gun back into a black bag he was carrying and fled the scene. Around the corner from the initial shooting, a construction worker alerted two police officers to the gunman who was walking in front of the entrance to the Empire State Building. As can be seen on the released videos, the two officers come up behind the gunman and appear startled when he stops, turns around, reaches into his bag and pulls out his gun, pointing it at them. Before he can shoot them, the officers shoot at him with 16 rounds, striking him several times while also hitting nine bystanders. The gunman falls to the sidewalk on his back and raises his arms a bit as he rapidly succumbs to his wounds.

(The gunman falls to his knees while being shot by police.)

It is a miracle that none of the bystanders were seriously hurt or killed. The Mayor's fragments story doesn't wash as one man was shot in the elbow, a woman was shot in the knee and another was shot in the neck. Finally, after the gunman is shot, he falls on his back and dies, but the NYPD rolls over the dead body and cuffs it!

(The dead gunman now lying on his stomach and handcuffed.)

JOHN LENNON - A Conspiracy Of Silence

©2010 by Rod Harrel

Author's Note: This is the original script for the documentary of the same (see link to video below).  

            Thirty years later there remains the accepted history of John Lennon’s death: a lone nut Beatle fan gunned down the pop culture hero. The songs, the tributes, the articles, the videos rarely mentioned the killer, and when they do, he was always alone. Or, perhaps, he did have company, but it was in the form of his demons, his misconceptions of Christianity, or his craving for infamy. A lone nut, a fan no less, had gunned down our dear, beloved, ex-Beatle John. It would seem all sewn up, except for what Sean Lennon said in 1998.

 

            “He was a countercultural revolutionary, and the government takes that shit really seriously historically,” Sean Lennon said of his father’s death. “He was dangerous to the government…These pacifist revolutionaries are historically killed by the government, and anybody who thinks that Mark Chapman was just some crazy guy who killed my dad for his personal interests is insane, I think, or very naïve, or hasn’t thought about it clearly. It was in the best interests of the United States to have my dad killed, definitely. And, you know, that worked against them, to be honest, because once he died his powers grew. So, I mean, fuck them. They didn’t get what they wanted.”1

Photo: Bob Gruen

The quote, from an interview, was an amazing thing to see in print: Sean intuitively lays out the groundwork for further investigation of his father’s death. Unfortunately, perhaps predictably, less than two weeks after the interview there was some serious backpedaling by Sean. Older half-brother, Julian Lennon, had publicly chastised Sean, saying that his remarks were “ill-advised” and that “if you’re going to say something like that, you need to have your facts.” Through a spokesman, Sean said that he regretted saying what he did immediately after the interview.2 In the world of celebrity, the word regret is apparently a synonym for “sorry that I told the truth.” All that is left is a brotherly debate, in public no less.

            Incredibly, in the conspiracy-strewn landscape of American pop culture, the Lennon brothers’ statements represent only the second public contradiction of the accepted history their father’s assassination. Only Fenton Bresler’s groundbreaking 1989 book, Who Killed John Lennon? stands as the first. The book caused nary a ripple in the mainstream media, the press corps, America’s fourth estate.

JOHN LENNON - a conspiracy of silence

Now that the tea party is out of my system, I'd like to share with you all a documentary I did last winter about John Lennon's assassination.
I'm getting ready to shoot a new scary short film and this is a good way to clear the palette.