Every day, there is a story somewhere about a member of clergy doing horrible things to children. Every day there are other clergy covering up for those misdeeds.
The first step to regain trust? 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗮𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗸𝗶𝗱𝘀. The second step? Turn in ALL of the abusers to secular authorities. In-house punishment is part of the cover-up.
Certainly, "Stop abusing kids" would be a monumental first step, considering that it's pretty clear that the RCC hasn't done anything substantial to reduce its predilection for molesting the youngest of its members.
I would say that the second step would be: "UTTER TRANSPARENCY," which would include cooperating with local law enforcement in the investigation into child sex abuse or abuse in general, making themselves TOTALLY AVAILABLE to scrutiny.
Would be nice. STILL not holding my breath on that one.
While a great comment, the worst part of what you've written here is that there's no way to tell where you're talking about because it's happened so @#($*&% often.
The crash in the polling of trust in clergy is as welcome as it is overdue. From the Spotlight reportage on predator priests in the Boston archdiocese to the multiple posts on the topic that Hemant has made since he first started his blog, the word is getting out that there are men of the cloth who take advantage of their position and authority to manipulate and abuse their congregants or parishioners.
Ordinarily, I'd say that maybe this news might spur them on to clean up their act, yet I saw no such action after either 60 Minutes or the Boston Globe did their work. No, it's going to take a lot more such news articles and A LOT MORE PRESSURE before churches clean up their act.
That certainly lit a fire under the Bobby Jones segregation academy. Unfortunately, it spurred them to use abortion as a ruse to get their flock to the polls to vote against sanity.
Well, there are a lot of progressive clergy out there condemning the actions of their conservative brethren, but their reach is generally a lot smaller than the conservatives.
Which is why, win or lose the primary, I like James Talerico getting a platform like Colbert's. He uses Christian language to critique conservative Christianity and people need to hear that. (Thanks, CBS, for being douchebags and making it a "THEY don't want you to hear this guy!" thing)
The Colbert interview with James Talarico was flat-out BRILLIANT on multiple levels. Certainly, Talarico had a LOT of good things to say, things that I wish some MAGA people would be willing to hear (and probably won't). The other major element was Colbert basically saying, "IN YO' FACE, CBS!!!"
I really liked the interview but J. Talarico is much too Jesusy for me. Very religious people cannot really be trusted in office because they will eventually be put in a position where they will have to choose between their job or their god (guess what they pick). Jasmine Crockett is a firebrand and she gets the job done.
It may be that he needs to be pushed on the State / Church separation issue – and I mean "pushed" a bit more than just casually – to see where he really stands. Thing is, there actually are Christians out there who endorse the principle.
I'd just like to confirm that Talarico is one of 'em.
At this point, Colbert has CBS by the short hairs. For the next 3 months, I suspect he will be able to do as he pleases within sane limits, and Bari Weiss & Co. will have to grin and bear it.
As for what happens after May, I have no doubt but that Colbert will land on his feet. I'm not certain I can say the same for what used to be the Tiffany Network.
They believe in a god with whom nothing is impossible. If they can believe that, then treating others with dignity and respect shouldn't be impossible for them. :)
No true Scotsman logic applies here: No True Christian accepts that gay people are worthy of God's mercy. All True Christians believe Jesus is their lord and savior.
It’s funny because there are no white men in the Bible. Cis and heterosexual aren’t even discussed weren’t even concepts as we know them at the time it was written.
I was in the Faroe Islands last year. My tour guide had said he was a x-tian. He took us to a beauty spot and said he sometimes came there alone if he had a problem to think over, or felt stressed. Then his next sentence amused me. He said, pointing at the sky, And of course I always ask my foreign friend up there to guide me!' I want to try that sometime on any'white-jesus' folk I come across..
The Catholic Church probably has the furthest way to go, as it comes to how they treat their parishioners, never mind the criminal actions they've been guilty of. And the fire-and-brimstone approach that evangelicals seem to lean on does no one any favors, yet it continues to be a go-to for them.
I wonder if someone might suggest to them that you get more flies with honey than with vinegar.
I love how you can look at those graphs and immediately see which major events affected which professions. For example:
Doctors and nurses both get an upward tick during the early pandemic, but it reverses as the right-wing propaganda machine screams into overdrive after Chump leaves office.
Funeral directors take a dive around the same time. Who'da thunk the bereaved don't like getting price-gouged on funeral expenses when people around them are dropping like flies, eh?
Trust in teachers declines as the wingnut war on education escalates...
Police get a big bump in the '90s and early '00s as the glut of procedural copaganda shows takes off, then their approval rate abruptly sinks as reality repeatedly slaps TV audiences in the face.
I find it mildly encouraging that trust in unions has been steadily rising, although it's still depressingly low after decades of anti-labor propaganda.
Bankers take a 𝘣𝘪𝘨 dive right around the '08 crashout (oddly, though, accountants don't share the same downward trend).
...and clergy, of course, rape and steal their way right down into the gutter, lying all the way.
Don't forget: ENABLERS! This shit would have stopped a LONG time ago if higher-level clergy had taken positive action to stop the depredation of priests who groom and abuse their charges. The monsignors, bishops, archbishops and cardinals who sweep this shit under the rug are at least as guilty as those committing the original crimes.
And, lifelong atheist that I am, I have to admit there are a few earnest and honest believers among the clergy. I think we saw one this week when Stephen Colbert interviewed James Talerico. But, I honestly don’t think there is a single one of those among the talibangelicals.
Talarico is impressive as all get out, and I wish we didn't have two such stars as he and Jasmine Crockett competing against each other for the same Senate seat. The one GOOD thing is that I would expect the campaign to be a civil and informative one.
And I wish I could say the same for the other side of the aisle.
Even though I’ve known a few members of the clergy that I liked and thought were decent people, I think I was born with an instinctive mistrust of the clergy. I couldn’t articulate it as a child, but I was always uneasy around people who view the world through the fog of magical thinking and special pleading. It didn’t take me long to realize the clergy does not speak with anything close to a consistent voice.
I've said many times what a decent and engaged guy the pastor at my church in Illinois was, and I know nothing of him to the contrary. How sad is it that there are others of his ilk who are not so motivated.
I wonder: if the good ones got more attention, would that inspire the not-so-good ones to clean up their act? Worth a thought, at least.
The Church of Scotland is, on average, closing two churches per week. It isn't that the Scots see religious leaders as unethical, it is just that there is little or no interest in religion.
I remember the Borders book store that I used to go to. It had a coffee shop attached to it, and though I never patronized it, I always thought that was a nice touch.
At least when the Borders went belly-up, we still had a Barnes & Noble nearby, and while I'm not 100% certain, it may have had a coffee shop associated with it as well. Down here, there's another B&N next door in Canton, which is a good thing.
We still have independent bookshops, particularly funnily enough, in smaller provincial towns. I always buy something from them when we go on holiday, for my holiday reading.
A bit tricky with this one, it is huge. I suspect that it will probably end up like this Gothic monstrosity in Lancashire, on the market since 2006 and gradually falling into dereliction.
Small churches do get repurposed, in Scotland they become village halls or holiday lets amongst other things. In England, I have seen them used for architectural studios, artists workshops and even antique shops.
Good, all religions are a bane to humanity! Religions have tried and still trying to slow down or stop any progress that humanity makes. Religions would like to go back to an era where the religious institutions are the ones that dictate to society what the social norms are, and are the ones that punish anyone who breaks the rules (clergy and the leaders are exempt). That is what the religions miss the most the complete and total control over every aspect of society, and are fighting to get that power back!
It's certainly true that the Scots, like others in Western Europe, have lost interest in religion. In 2000, about 12% of the population regularly attended church, by 2016 this had dropped to 7%.
When it comes to religion, the true Scotsman appears to be apathetic.
I was in a church yesterday, to attend the funeral of a friends father. It seems that funerals are the only reason I have visited churches for the last 30 years.
"It seems that funerals are the only reason I have visited churches for the last 30 years."
I have attended a number of funerals over the years, the only religious ones were for my aunt, who was a devoted Catholic and an elderly friend who was Methodist.
For the rest, they have all been effectively secular, no religious celebrant, few if any hymns, and mostly a celebration of the person's life. A series of friends speaking, a quick cremation, and then off to the pub.
Every time a powerful evil asshole goes down, it's always about what they did to other powerful evil assholes- hardly ever about the harm they caused to those beneath their station. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful to think that even one of these pricks might actually spend some time in the pokey, but... wouldn't it be nice, for once, if the victims who suffered more than the loss of a few percentage points on a balance sheet could see some justice?
It should in theory be easier for us, we're not Britain, the Royals aren't around all the time reminding sentimental old people that we need them. And we don't have to think too hard about what to replace them with, we already appoint our head of state, the Gov general who has very few powers thank God.
Same for us in Canada, yet too many people see the ROYALS through rose tinted glasses. If king Chuck thinks I am going to address him as my lord or master, well king chucky is more brain dead, inbred than I thought. I will tell chucky to go and take his homeopathic crap while fondling a sea sick crocodile!
I am very anti-monarchy, in this 21st century; humanity doesn’t need kings, queens, sultans, or Emirs or any of that nonsense! People should be able to choose their leaders without any restrictions!
I noticed in the second chart that even Republican leaning folks have a 36% rating on honesty/ethics of clergy. Though not quite as low as Democrat leaning at 21%, even Republicans are finding clergy a skeevy bunch. Can’t imagine why. 🙄
Looking at the graph, the steep slide began ~late 90s. About the time the internet was taking off for the public at large. So not only news about scandals getting out but also information that so much of what clergy have to say is just bullshit.
There was in my youth a comic book hero called The Tiger of Kashgar. He operated in colonial India. His sidekick was a guy called Clikki Ba ... because he used a cricket bat wound with copper wire as a weapon. It would never fly today, but back in the day we thought it was the bees knees. Oops got it wrong. It was the Wolf of Kabul. Six of one.
In the TV series "The Walking Dead" (based on a comic book), a character named Negan used a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. He called it "Lucille" (named after his deceased wife).
Barbed wire-wrapped baseball bats are also used in pro-wrestling.
As what amounts to a can opener for knights wearing armor, I'd say that the bec de corbin isn't really a blunt weapon strictly speaking. I would also note, however, that anyone who has had one used against them probably doesn't much care about that distinction.
Given the endless religious scandals and the fanatigelicals siding with Trump the Cancerous Lump, 27% is WAY too high.
Kind of hard to take moral advice seriously from people who fail (and have failed) the easiest moral questions in history.
Telemarketers were at 5%. They strike me as more trustworthy.
I thought the same.
Way TOO HIGH !
𝐶𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡?
Every day, there is a story somewhere about a member of clergy doing horrible things to children. Every day there are other clergy covering up for those misdeeds.
The first step to regain trust? 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗮𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗸𝗶𝗱𝘀. The second step? Turn in ALL of the abusers to secular authorities. In-house punishment is part of the cover-up.
Certainly, "Stop abusing kids" would be a monumental first step, considering that it's pretty clear that the RCC hasn't done anything substantial to reduce its predilection for molesting the youngest of its members.
I would say that the second step would be: "UTTER TRANSPARENCY," which would include cooperating with local law enforcement in the investigation into child sex abuse or abuse in general, making themselves TOTALLY AVAILABLE to scrutiny.
Would be nice. STILL not holding my breath on that one.
They should be mandatory reporters. A proposed law where I live would have done that. The RCC of course defeated it. You may recall that.
I shudder to think what the response would be if clergy mandatory reporting were signed into law. The RCC would lose its shit!
While a great comment, the worst part of what you've written here is that there's no way to tell where you're talking about because it's happened so @#($*&% often.
Hi Whitney. Seattle. It all started because of the LDS church. The RCC jumped in and shut it down. It wasn't even about the RCC, but, you know.
The crash in the polling of trust in clergy is as welcome as it is overdue. From the Spotlight reportage on predator priests in the Boston archdiocese to the multiple posts on the topic that Hemant has made since he first started his blog, the word is getting out that there are men of the cloth who take advantage of their position and authority to manipulate and abuse their congregants or parishioners.
Ordinarily, I'd say that maybe this news might spur them on to clean up their act, yet I saw no such action after either 60 Minutes or the Boston Globe did their work. No, it's going to take a lot more such news articles and A LOT MORE PRESSURE before churches clean up their act.
Start with taxation. That ought to get a rise out of them.
And follow with investigations and ARRESTS!
Call it underaged taxation. Then it will REALLY get a ‘rise’ out of thrm.
That certainly lit a fire under the Bobby Jones segregation academy. Unfortunately, it spurred them to use abortion as a ruse to get their flock to the polls to vote against sanity.
Still can't find my shocked face.
Try this one ... :-|
Well, there are a lot of progressive clergy out there condemning the actions of their conservative brethren, but their reach is generally a lot smaller than the conservatives.
Which is why, win or lose the primary, I like James Talerico getting a platform like Colbert's. He uses Christian language to critique conservative Christianity and people need to hear that. (Thanks, CBS, for being douchebags and making it a "THEY don't want you to hear this guy!" thing)
The Colbert interview with James Talarico was flat-out BRILLIANT on multiple levels. Certainly, Talarico had a LOT of good things to say, things that I wish some MAGA people would be willing to hear (and probably won't). The other major element was Colbert basically saying, "IN YO' FACE, CBS!!!"
Genuinely epic!
I really liked the interview but J. Talarico is much too Jesusy for me. Very religious people cannot really be trusted in office because they will eventually be put in a position where they will have to choose between their job or their god (guess what they pick). Jasmine Crockett is a firebrand and she gets the job done.
It may be that he needs to be pushed on the State / Church separation issue – and I mean "pushed" a bit more than just casually – to see where he really stands. Thing is, there actually are Christians out there who endorse the principle.
I'd just like to confirm that Talarico is one of 'em.
It's not like CBS can fire him twice.
At this point, Colbert has CBS by the short hairs. For the next 3 months, I suspect he will be able to do as he pleases within sane limits, and Bari Weiss & Co. will have to grin and bear it.
As for what happens after May, I have no doubt but that Colbert will land on his feet. I'm not certain I can say the same for what used to be the Tiffany Network.
Bari will posture and try to reel him, in but will fail.,
And he'll will wind up on The Daily Show or something like and he'll be just fine!
He is so rich, he could do whatever he wants. With the ego it takes to be a TV star, we will see him somewhere.
To regain trust, the clergy is going to have to rein in their fire-and-brimstone approach in dealing with LGBTQs.
And stop treating women, POCs and children like second class citizens while they're at it.
You want them to see people who are not cis-het white men as 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦? That's a tall order.
They believe in a god with whom nothing is impossible. If they can believe that, then treating others with dignity and respect shouldn't be impossible for them. :)
"But, but, why do you hate jesus?"
I might turn that around and ask, "Why do you hate people who are doing you no harm?"
Watch 'em squirm at that one!
The easiest way to get people to do what you want is to give them someone else to hate.
Which Jesus? The commie, hippie Jesus who was all about loving your neighbor and not judging.
Or the narcissist who couldn't stand you loving your family more than him.
Just rethuglican Jeebus…
No true Scotsman logic applies here: No True Christian accepts that gay people are worthy of God's mercy. All True Christians believe Jesus is their lord and savior.
Now get the fuck out of my church.
Because they have had to swallow the shame of being secretly gay or bisexual their whole lives.
It’s funny because there are no white men in the Bible. Cis and heterosexual aren’t even discussed weren’t even concepts as we know them at the time it was written.
Jesus is the whitest person ever!
Jesus is just all right with me.
Jesus is just all right, oh, yeah ...
Fun fact: In Norway Jesus was for centuries called "Kvite Krist". In English it would be app. White Jesus.
I was in the Faroe Islands last year. My tour guide had said he was a x-tian. He took us to a beauty spot and said he sometimes came there alone if he had a problem to think over, or felt stressed. Then his next sentence amused me. He said, pointing at the sky, And of course I always ask my foreign friend up there to guide me!' I want to try that sometime on any'white-jesus' folk I come across..
The Catholic Church probably has the furthest way to go, as it comes to how they treat their parishioners, never mind the criminal actions they've been guilty of. And the fire-and-brimstone approach that evangelicals seem to lean on does no one any favors, yet it continues to be a go-to for them.
I wonder if someone might suggest to them that you get more flies with honey than with vinegar.
Then they won't be the destructive, patriarchal, organization we all abhor!
I love how you can look at those graphs and immediately see which major events affected which professions. For example:
Doctors and nurses both get an upward tick during the early pandemic, but it reverses as the right-wing propaganda machine screams into overdrive after Chump leaves office.
Funeral directors take a dive around the same time. Who'da thunk the bereaved don't like getting price-gouged on funeral expenses when people around them are dropping like flies, eh?
Trust in teachers declines as the wingnut war on education escalates...
Police get a big bump in the '90s and early '00s as the glut of procedural copaganda shows takes off, then their approval rate abruptly sinks as reality repeatedly slaps TV audiences in the face.
I find it mildly encouraging that trust in unions has been steadily rising, although it's still depressingly low after decades of anti-labor propaganda.
Bankers take a 𝘣𝘪𝘨 dive right around the '08 crashout (oddly, though, accountants don't share the same downward trend).
...and clergy, of course, rape and steal their way right down into the gutter, lying all the way.
There's also something telling when trust in the Congress is in the cellar right next to car salespeople.
Both are manipulating you into spending money you don't have for something that doesn't work.
Clergy=pedophiles, rapists, liars and grifting scum.
Don't forget: ENABLERS! This shit would have stopped a LONG time ago if higher-level clergy had taken positive action to stop the depredation of priests who groom and abuse their charges. The monsignors, bishops, archbishops and cardinals who sweep this shit under the rug are at least as guilty as those committing the original crimes.
And they deserve the same level of judgment.
And, lifelong atheist that I am, I have to admit there are a few earnest and honest believers among the clergy. I think we saw one this week when Stephen Colbert interviewed James Talerico. But, I honestly don’t think there is a single one of those among the talibangelicals.
Talarico is impressive as all get out, and I wish we didn't have two such stars as he and Jasmine Crockett competing against each other for the same Senate seat. The one GOOD thing is that I would expect the campaign to be a civil and informative one.
And I wish I could say the same for the other side of the aisle.
Even though I’ve known a few members of the clergy that I liked and thought were decent people, I think I was born with an instinctive mistrust of the clergy. I couldn’t articulate it as a child, but I was always uneasy around people who view the world through the fog of magical thinking and special pleading. It didn’t take me long to realize the clergy does not speak with anything close to a consistent voice.
How could they in a religion with over 45,000 sects?
I've said many times what a decent and engaged guy the pastor at my church in Illinois was, and I know nothing of him to the contrary. How sad is it that there are others of his ilk who are not so motivated.
I wonder: if the good ones got more attention, would that inspire the not-so-good ones to clean up their act? Worth a thought, at least.
Nope.
We drove through a village called Caputh on the way home the other day. It has quite a pretty church, dating back to 1798.
If you like it, then it is for sale - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87282174#/?channel=COM_BUY
The Church of Scotland is, on average, closing two churches per week. It isn't that the Scots see religious leaders as unethical, it is just that there is little or no interest in religion.
EDIT: Missing word
For irony's sake alone, had I the money, I would buy a defunct church.
I'd turn it into a library. With a telescope dome in place of the steeple.
Religious texts could still have their own little corner, of course... in the fiction section.
Maybe turn a portion of it into a coffee house ... "with REAL good music and organic refreshments?" 😁
All one of those bookshops you have in the US with a coffee shop attached – that sells nice cake.
I remember the Borders book store that I used to go to. It had a coffee shop attached to it, and though I never patronized it, I always thought that was a nice touch.
Now you have a better chance of finding a drive-in movie theater than a bookstore. With or without coffee shop.
At least when the Borders went belly-up, we still had a Barnes & Noble nearby, and while I'm not 100% certain, it may have had a coffee shop associated with it as well. Down here, there's another B&N next door in Canton, which is a good thing.
Then, too, I just plain like bookstores!
We still have independent bookshops, particularly funnily enough, in smaller provincial towns. I always buy something from them when we go on holiday, for my holiday reading.
We have bookstores aplenty where I live, both of The Big Chain (B&N) and independent varieties.
I used to use their coffee shop when I wanted to get into something I just bought.
Very cool!
A bit tricky with this one, it is huge. I suspect that it will probably end up like this Gothic monstrosity in Lancashire, on the market since 2006 and gradually falling into dereliction.
https://ibb.co/gZtvnJL3
Small churches do get repurposed, in Scotland they become village halls or holiday lets amongst other things. In England, I have seen them used for architectural studios, artists workshops and even antique shops.
Good, all religions are a bane to humanity! Religions have tried and still trying to slow down or stop any progress that humanity makes. Religions would like to go back to an era where the religious institutions are the ones that dictate to society what the social norms are, and are the ones that punish anyone who breaks the rules (clergy and the leaders are exempt). That is what the religions miss the most the complete and total control over every aspect of society, and are fighting to get that power back!
No true Scotsman, then?
It's certainly true that the Scots, like others in Western Europe, have lost interest in religion. In 2000, about 12% of the population regularly attended church, by 2016 this had dropped to 7%.
When it comes to religion, the true Scotsman appears to be apathetic.
Whew! Talk about the US being behind the curve! 😝
I was in a church yesterday, to attend the funeral of a friends father. It seems that funerals are the only reason I have visited churches for the last 30 years.
"It seems that funerals are the only reason I have visited churches for the last 30 years."
I have attended a number of funerals over the years, the only religious ones were for my aunt, who was a devoted Catholic and an elderly friend who was Methodist.
For the rest, they have all been effectively secular, no religious celebrant, few if any hymns, and mostly a celebration of the person's life. A series of friends speaking, a quick cremation, and then off to the pub.
Mood Whiplash OT- The Andrew Formerly Known as Prince gets a shiny new pair of steel bracelets: https://apnews.com/article/britain-epstein-andrew-former-prince-arrested-fb0b9e738bf7ede10651914ee3f3583d
...and 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 it's about the money, not the serial rape of teenage girls.
"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 “𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨” 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯-𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘱𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘯 2010, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯’𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘯𝘷𝘰𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦."
Every time a powerful evil asshole goes down, it's always about what they did to other powerful evil assholes- hardly ever about the harm they caused to those beneath their station. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful to think that even one of these pricks might actually spend some time in the pokey, but... wouldn't it be nice, for once, if the victims who suffered more than the loss of a few percentage points on a balance sheet could see some justice?
Excellent. Time we became a republic, and this will probably help a little.
I wish Norway would transfer from kingdom to republic in my lifetime. But I will not hold my breath.
It should in theory be easier for us, we're not Britain, the Royals aren't around all the time reminding sentimental old people that we need them. And we don't have to think too hard about what to replace them with, we already appoint our head of state, the Gov general who has very few powers thank God.
Same for us in Canada, yet too many people see the ROYALS through rose tinted glasses. If king Chuck thinks I am going to address him as my lord or master, well king chucky is more brain dead, inbred than I thought. I will tell chucky to go and take his homeopathic crap while fondling a sea sick crocodile!
I am very anti-monarchy, in this 21st century; humanity doesn’t need kings, queens, sultans, or Emirs or any of that nonsense! People should be able to choose their leaders without any restrictions!
He will not ever see the inside of a prison. My bet is if he is found guilty, he just has to stay home.
I noticed in the second chart that even Republican leaning folks have a 36% rating on honesty/ethics of clergy. Though not quite as low as Democrat leaning at 21%, even Republicans are finding clergy a skeevy bunch. Can’t imagine why. 🙄
Grifters don't like competition?
Lol, that’s probably it
Looking at the graph, the steep slide began ~late 90s. About the time the internet was taking off for the public at large. So not only news about scandals getting out but also information that so much of what clergy have to say is just bullshit.
A long time ago, ThunderF00t opined that the internet is where religions go to die. That statement continues to prove out, time and time again.
https://ibb.co/tPkQkcNC
Some of those doesn't look blunt.
To be blunt, they're all deadly.
None of them look like a blunt.
But they could smoke you.
Does a baseball bat count as a cudgel?
It does. I have one by each of our 3 doors into the house.
Wood or aluminum?
Old wood ones from my parent’s house. Ours when we were kids. Each lovingly cleaned with linseed oil. Ready if needed.
There was in my youth a comic book hero called The Tiger of Kashgar. He operated in colonial India. His sidekick was a guy called Clikki Ba ... because he used a cricket bat wound with copper wire as a weapon. It would never fly today, but back in the day we thought it was the bees knees. Oops got it wrong. It was the Wolf of Kabul. Six of one.
In the TV series "The Walking Dead" (based on a comic book), a character named Negan used a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. He called it "Lucille" (named after his deceased wife).
Barbed wire-wrapped baseball bats are also used in pro-wrestling.
"Barbed wire-wrapped baseball bats are also used in pro-wrestling.
"
Er ... OK. Sidles away, looks for exit.
Aw, I thought he named it after B.B. King's guitar.
As what amounts to a can opener for knights wearing armor, I'd say that the bec de corbin isn't really a blunt weapon strictly speaking. I would also note, however, that anyone who has had one used against them probably doesn't much care about that distinction.
No particular preference, but round here the claidheam-hmor would be favourite - https://fitz-cms-images.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/m.2-1949_lrg.jpg
Used to great effect at the Battle of Killiecrankie, which is 3 miles down the road from where I live - https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/killiecrankie/highlights/battle-of-killiecrankie
Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
Yup
https://ibb.co/Y4FzJ6HL