Russell Crowe the ScientologistTM?

No, thankfully not. But in an interview, Crowe says that he did dabble with it:

"I read Dianetics by [Scientology founder] L. Ron Hubbard , I got a couple of videos, and I took it all in," Crowe said.

"It just seems like a religion that is perfect for people who feel like they need a grounding, who feel that the world has run off on them.

"With any of these religions, as long as the heart and soul is positive, then to me it's all good."

[Full Story]

Makes sense. It's not a religion for those who already have a solid grounding, because they're the ones most likely to recognize Scientology^TM for the laughable space opera garbage it is.

(H/T: Grace and the News.)

Our Lady of the Salt Stain

Oh, sheesh, here we go again with another gem from the Catholic-faithful-who-cried-wolf department:

A steady stream of the faithful and the curious, many carrying flowers and candles, have flocked to an expressway underpass for a view of a yellow and white stain on a concrete wall that some believe is an image of the Virgin Mary.

"We believe it's a miracle," said Elbia Tello, 42, of Chicago. "We have faith, and we can see her face."

Police have patrolled the emergency turnoff area under the Kennedy Expressway since Monday as hundreds of people have walked down to see the image and the growing memorial of flowers and candles that surround it. Beside the image is an artist's rendering of the Virgin Mary embracing Pope John Paul II in a pose some see echoed in the stain.

[Full Story]

Here's the "miracle":

Immediately to its right is an apparition that says "GO CUBS." Now that would be a miracle.

And the winner IS . . .

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the frontrunner in the "Name the Pope" contest, is now Pope Benedict XVI.

No real surprise, except that it only took a day.

Notes of interest: Cardinal Ratzinger is the second consecutive non-Italian pope after over four centuries of Italians. He is 78 years old (incidentally his birthday was only three days ago), so there will be no 26-year marathon pontificate like that of his predecessor.

Finally, like both the John Pauls who preceded him, Benedict XVI apparently preferring dignity over tradition, eschewed wearing a pineapple on his head when he greeted the crowd for the first time.

Postscript: My friend Warren just pointed out to me that Joseph Ratzinger's chosen name of "Benedict" is an obvious fulfillment (no doubt a self-fulfilling one) of the Prophecy of the Popes of St. Malachy, which I also mentioned in a post ten days ago.

Post-postscript: As can be expected, the usual idiots are throwing the requisite hissy fit.

No pope today

Thanks for playing, try again tomorrow.

And now . . . this - Apr. 18/05

I don't know art, but . . .

An artist who randomly vandalised nearly 50 cars as part of a project said yesterday the owners should be happy they were involved in his "creative process".

Mark McGowan, 37, will display pictures of himself scratching the vehicles in Glasgow and London in an exhibition this week.

[Full Story]

And when 50 irate car owners locate McGowan and do a little "performance art" on his kneecaps with tire irons, he should shut up and appreciate the exclusive privilege of being so intimately involved with the artistic endeavour.

(Reverse H/T: The Common Room. Yo!)

Does this actually surprise anyone?

First he was elected the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire despite having left his wife and children to "marry" his gay lover.

Then he insinuated that Jesus was gay. Of course, he denies this; he was really only pointing out that Jesus was unmarried, kept the company of men, and had a disciple whom he "loved." (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

So does it come as any surprise that Bishop V. Gene Robinson comes out in support of Planned Parenthood, stating in an interview that he "absolutely stand[s] behind a woman's right to choose" and speaks at their annual (ahem) prayer breakfast? (Who exactly do the Planned Parenthood butchers pray to, anyway? Molech?)

This "bishop," really a schismatic and a heretic, is in every way a "wolf in sheep's clothing." He has done nothing to build up even his own denomination, let alone the Church of Christ; rather, he is unmistakeably out to divide and destroy it.

(Reverse H/T: but that's just my opinion.) And Blind Mind's Eye takes to task Robinson's it-would-be-funny-if-it-weren't-so-sad statement that "those [i.e. Exodus] stories are our [i.e. gays' and lesbians'] stories," amongst other things. Thanks for dropping by!

Indigenous-language Bibles banned in Malaysia?

Apparently, a government minister in Malaysia recently made remarks in Parliament to the effect that all Bibles in the Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia languages are banned. This, understandably, has caused some consternation with the country's evangelical Christian community. Rev. Wong Kim Kong, secretary-general of the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, issued a statement which said, in part:

The remarks [of minister Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz] are also inconsistent with the Prime Minister's policy of promoting religious harmony in our nation.

Besides, such a policy is unfair to all non-English speaking Christian Bumiputras in East Malaysia who use these Bible translations.

[Full Story]

Another government minister has also requested clarification of these remarks.

It's hard to believe, sometimes, that this kind of retrograde thinking is still current in some parts of the world, particularly in a constitutional monarchy patterned after the British system. It seems doubly strange that Bibles in Malaysia's official language would be so proscribed. But, then, Great Britain itself has in the past banned translations of the Bible in the vernacular as well. Also, Malaysia is predominantly Muslim; in fact, the dominant Malays are constitutionally defined as such.

(H/T: SmartChristian Blog.)

Firefox 1.0.3 is out

I downloaded it and started using it last night. So far, so good.

The changes from the previous release are primarily for security reasons, but it does seem to fix one major annoyance: in Windows' Add or Remove Programs utility, only the current version of Firefox is now listed, whereas previously each cumulative upgrade remained. But since they pointed to the same code, uninstalling an alleged Firefox 1.0.1 actually blew away the whole thing. (By contrast, I still ostensibly have versions 0.7, 0.7.3, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, and 1.0.2 of Thunderbird installed, though really it's only the last.)

Now, if only they'd tackle a real issue: memory leakage. Leave Firefox running long enough and it will devour all your free RAM like the Blob on a rampage. Sometimes, my nice 2-gig Athlon runs like a 386 on a congested network.

Have the judges in Florida been replaced with pod people?

This just in:

A judge cleared the way for federal officials to have a feeding tube inserted in a Cuban exile who is on a weekslong hunger strike to protest his detention as a suspected spy.

Juan Emilio Aboy was at Jackson Memorial Hospital's inmate ward, hospital spokeswoman Lorraine Nelson said Friday.

A day earlier, U.S. District Judge Paul Huck agreed with another judge's order to "involuntarily administer nutrients" to Aboy through a stomach or intravenous tube, and to restrain him if he attempts to remove it.

"The decision to not eat was his choice. A court order was issued allowing the U.S. Public Health Service to take any necessary precautions in the interest of his health," said Nina Pruneda, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miami.

[Full Story]

In other words, in Florida, if your intention to starve is clearly known, the government can and will intervene to feed you through a tube against your will.

But heaven forbid that you be a 41-year-old disabled woman with no living will whose alleged wishes are known only via hearsay. No food for you.

George Felos will be taking this guy's case in a flash. Right?

(Reverse H/T: Monday Evening and View from the Nest. Hi guys!)

And now . . . this - Apr. 16/05

OUCH

The infant son of King Mohammed VI was circumcised Thursday, and thousands of Moroccans also went through the procedure in a massive show of solidarity for the prince, a news agency reported.

The circumcision of Moulay Hassan, the king’s only son, marked the start of three days of nationwide celebrations across the north African kingdom to honor the event. The boy turns 2 next month.

[Full Story]

Yeah, nothing quite says "Party!" like a knife to the genitalia. On behalf of thousands of Moroccans, my legs are crossed involuntarily in sympathy.

And you can have her license when you pry it out of her cold, dead hands

"Understatement of the day" goes to this poor sales manager:

An 81-year-old woman preparing to take a test drive at a car dealership hit her husband, a salesman, a car and a tree before running into a wall.

"She must have panicked," said Joe Sica, sales manager at Honda of Fort Myers.

[Full Story]

And, yeah, it's from Floriduh. Figures, don't it?