Toadcast #33 – The Popecast
Fear not, this isn’t quite as horribly overbearing as it could have been. The ranting is actually fairly under control, and the self-important pontificating not quite as reckless as it could so easily have been, partly because I wasn’t quite as liberal with the gin as I have been in the past.
The reason it’s called the Popecast is because of this amazing little story about Catholics in the States issuing death threats to a kid who took a communion wafer out of the church with him. The hilarious PZ Myers then got involved, threatening to show them what real desecration would look like, and the pandemonium reached all new levels of shrillness.
The thing that really got my goat about all this was not so much that Catholics took offence, but more the level of the hysteria and the language of persecution. It was honestly described as kidnapping and as a hate crime by various loonies, and there was nothing like enough ‘Oh fucking grow up and get the fuck over it’ being said. People seem to be seeking all sorts of odd legal protections for their crazy superstitions these days, and I am flabberghasted that a particular kind of idea is being so fucking mollycoddled as to be deemed immune from criticism and contempt. Come on, people, fuck your religious convictions and learn to deal with the fact that most of the planet thinks they’re crazy – and that applies to atheists as well.
Anyhow, I promise this doesn’t take over too much of the podcast, and that the music is given plenty of space to breathe.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
01. Half Man Half Biscuit – Vatican Broadside (00.07)
02. Beck – Profanity Prayers (02.27)
03. Punch & the Apostles – Nouveau Gypsy (10.20)
04. I Said Yes – The Town Crier (15.07)
05. Albert Hammond Jr. – GFC (20.47)
06. Bonnie Prince Billy – So Everyone (23.51)
07. Tom Lehrer – Vatican Rag (33.53)
08. The Savings & Loan – Catholic Boys in the Rain (37.12)
09. Derek Meins – The Gin Song (42.57)
10. Holly Golightly & the Broke-Offs – Devil Do (48.47)
11. Ghostkeeper – Solid Gold (56.02)
12. Forest Fire – Fortune Teller (60.44)
13. Silver Jews – Strange Victory, Strange Defeat (70.22)
14. Sparrow & the Workshop – Magic Tricks (77.55)
15. The Just Joans – Hey Boy, You’re Oh So Sensitive (79.43)
16. Roy Zimmerman – Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual (85.41)
17. Willard Grant Conspiracy – Evening Mass (97.16)
And just for the fun, here are the two silly songs for you to download:
Tom Lehrer – Vatican Rag[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/TheVaticanRag.mp3]
Roy Zimmerman – Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/RoyZimmerman-TedHaggardIsCompletelyHeterosexual.mp3]
So does this mean that I need to return all the wafers I stole back when I was an altar boy? And what about the gallons of communion wine that we nicked? It’s long-since become kidney elixir, although I guess we stole it before transubstantiation took place. Does that get us off on a technicality?
Isn’t Beck a scientologist? Criticise Scientology loudly and see if the result doesn’t make the Catholic Mafia look like a bunch of incontinent elderly clog dancers on a daytrip to Wigan.
C&B, I think that means you are a terrorist.
Wench, I am not talking about sheer cynical aggression, but the sort of hysterical outrage that anyone would ever be less than respectful about something they hold so sacred. I’ve always had trouble seeing Scientologists as being quite so sincere, but maybe that’s underestimating their vacant credulity.
I piss in their font!
Hey – don’t criticise Scientology, they’re fucking hilarious. I love Scientology.
They’re all at it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7520149.stm
There seems to be a competition between the organised faiths to prove which is the most utterly ridiculous.
If people weren’t dying across the world at the hands of these hopeless morons it would be even funnier!
Now, I’m all for a little ritualised cannibalism in religion, but which bit of Jesus do you suppose these Catholics are eating?
Part way through and already Bonnie Prince stands out as a really top song!
The last four are superb too. Forest Fire and Ghostkeeper may lack urgency, but I really like them. Bonnie Prince Billy, though, is the obvious cherry on top, eh?
I think the quote was that it Kissinger winning the nobel peace prize had “rendered Satire obsolete”
And in so many ways he was right. How could you possibly satirise Tony Blair and his crusade in Iraq? And Bush? Satire-proof.
Bush satire proof? Then what was this?
Ahem. I mean, this:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879
I’d never seen that before. What a work of genius!
“He believes the same thing on Wednesday that he believed on Monday; no matter what happened on Tuesday.” One of the truly great lines.
There were a few in there. I had to look it up before I really believed he’d actually delivered that speech instead of just superimposing himself onto a background of someone else’s. Unbelievable. I assume that they thought he’d just show up and toe the party line, thus scuppering his credibility, but fucking hell he went for it, eh! No wonder there was so little coverage at the time.
I remember that right after he gave the speech he was criticized by some media outlets for ridiculing Bush and showing disrespect, etc., but it was all over youtube and of course everyone realized how completely withering it had been. Actually, this White House Correspondents’ Dinner has a history. Back in 1996 a comedian/radio talk-show host named Don Imus roasted Bill Clinton during the same dinner and caught hell for it, but in all truth he was much less funny than Colbert.
Don Imus of ‘nappy-headed hoes’ fame?
The very same. Here’s a transcript of his speech: http://www.imonthe.net/imus/ispeech.htm
Ol’ man Toad, am I going out of my mind or did you play “Devil Do” twice in a row?
I thought I’d edited out that version. I over-wrote the version on the server with the corrected one before I posted it – at least I thought I did. Fuck – let me check…
The great thing about Colbert is that some rightwingers can’t actually seem to tell he is being satirical – hence lots of arguing abouts edits on Conservapedia..
http://www.conservapedia.com/Talk:Stephen_Colbert
Though some smart guy belatedly noticed he has a French name – just watch that French asshole eh?
Colbert continues to get fucking interviews with these people! It’s just remarkable. He has made an entire career by exploiting the fact that conservatives have no sense of irony.
And an over-developed sense of arrogance. Half the time when people take on someone like him I bet they think that out of all the people he’s humiliated that they will be the ones to come out of it looking superior, having put him squarely in his place. Many of them probably imagine that they have actually done it too, I’d imagine.
Great podcast, though I feel you should have a look at the following:
J. Austin, ‘Lecture VIII’ in How to do things with words, ed. J. Urmson & M. Sibisa (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975), 94-108.
J.S Mill, On Liberty (Yale: Yale University Press, 2003).
They will address some of your comments.
To quote JS Mill as suggested “This conduct consists first, in not injuring the interests of one another; or rather certain interests, which, either by express legal provision or by tacit understanding, ought to be considered as rights; and secondly, in each person’s bearing his share (to be fixed on some equitable principle) of the labours and sacrifices incurred for defending the society or its members from injury and molestation. These conditions society is justified in enforcing at all costs to those who endeavour to withhold fulfilment. Nor is this all that society may do. The acts of an individual may be hurtful to others, or wanting in due consideration for their welfare, without going the length of violating any of their constituted rights. The offender may then be justly punished by opinion, though not by law. As soon as any part of a person’s conduct affects prejudicially the interests of others, society has jurisdiction over it, and the question whether the general welfare will or will not be promoted by interfering with it, becomes open to discussion. But there is no room for entertaining any such question when a person’s conduct affects the interests of no persons besides himself, or needs not affect them unless they like (all the persons concerned being of full age, and the ordinary amount of understanding).”
I think the phrase “needs not affect them if they like” is important here, there was no material loss to the fellow congregation, their reaction was disproportionate to the hurt suffered. In any case, the Catholic Church has a well used sanction of excommunication and the reaction therefore also lies without the norms set within their own greater society.
Second, whilst the wafer stealing chap may justly be punished by opinion in Mills’ view, the additional sanctions proposed by the University (a supposedly secular body) amount to further punishment by law.
I’m not sure where anonymous stands on this, its not immediately clear from the comment, but I don’t think JS Mills would be amused by the witchhunt style response.
And its always nice to have philosophy on your side. Though the somewhat Straussian undertones of the current US administration should also point to the fact that for every argument, there’s a philosopher willing to make it and that literary credentials are no substitute for exercising your noodle and expressing the outcome.