Sometimes it is a little sad to be an agnostic slash apatheist. Unfortunate circumstances involving a busted radiator necessitated that I make a three hour round trip that had me driving through the line of storms that caused all of those tornadoes in Arkansas and Tennessee last night. So I'm driving through crazy insane rain with my windshield wipers going as fast as possible and squinting to try and see what's in front of me. And I'm talking myself through it, all like: "This is fine!" and "This is good!" and "Oh please, God, let me get through this." And then it's like, oh wait, I don't really believe in a God who cares about my windshield wipers. It is a little depressing sometimes.

Super Tuesday was interesting. The Democratic race was about as close as close can get. Hillary and Obama split the overall popular vote 50.2%-49.8%, respectively. With 99% of the ballots tallied, Hillary and Obama are separated by a mere 50,000 votes. The shitty and archaic delegates system is difficult to predict, but the best estimate is that Obama picked up around 845 while Hillary picked up about 836.

( What does this mean? )

On a less relevant note! ( Feelings wot I have felt about Super Tuesday... )

No Catholic political leader can favor civil unions or civil marriages for gay couples, declares the Pope.

OR WHAT? I hope they start excommunicating people. I crave the entertainment.

There's a lot of other current-events stuff to talk about, buuut I just don't care enough to talk about it. Oh, world. Your stupid has finally broken my ability to care about you.

Whoa. Listen to this:

Philosophers, scientists and other intellectuals close to Pope Benedict will gather at his summer palace outside Rome this week for intensive discussions that could herald a fundamental shift in the Vatican's view of evolution.

There have been growing signs the Pope is considering aligning his church more closely with the theory of "intelligent design" taught in some US states.

Unbelievable. There really is nothing left for me in the Catholic Church any more.

+ The Republicans are trying to split my congressional district down the middle. I live in Athens-Clarke county, which is one of only semi-liberal strongholds in Georgia. It's a little bit because it's a college town, but it's mostly because Athens has a very large African-American population.

Our Congressional district is already completely wonky; we're at the top of a district that stretches down nearly to Savannah, wtf? I admit that the Republican map makes a lot more geographic sense than it did before, but there's no reason to split Athens down the middle, except for the obvious, of course.

I wish there was a real way to end gerrymandering, but I don't think there's any truly impartial system. Is it fair that the majority party gets to redraw the lines to solidify their power? Probably not. But, hey, Machiavelli had a point, and I love realist theory. Maybe it's just the way it's supposed to be.

+ Forget the pope mobile. Ratzinger has a pimp mobile. Andrew Sullivan makes a good point: not only is this totally inappropriate, it's totally gay. Yeah, you know what I'm saying!

+ Canada is having a very, very important election tomorrow. If the conservatives win, I will officially be depressed. I at least need to count on Canada as a bastion of liberal (albeit, midly corrupt liberal) power. Plz to be voting, Canadese!

From The Guardian: "Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion."

The president's brother, Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida, is organising a scheme for every child in his state to read the book.

The hatred burns.

And from sloanesomething: Susan fic. Because Susan totally got the shaft. C.S. Lewis sent her to hell for... being a girl? Ignore the Peter/Susan subtext. Unless you don't want to, of course.

Just out of curiosity, are there plans to make movies out of all seven books, or at least all of the books featuring the children? If so, what the hell is Disney going to do about ( SPOILER )? No offense to C.S. Lewis, but it's not the happiest of endings. In fact, it totally effing sucks.

Hopefully you guys have noticed that I don't rant about Fox News anymore. That's because my New Year's Resolution last year was to give up all right-wing news outlets, since they upset me and whip me into self-inflicted, self-righteous rages. And so I haven't watched it at all lately. Except I did catch some of it today because it was on the televisions at McAllister's Deli, which I frequent.

You will be amused to know that they now air a special holiday segment: The War on Christmas. (dun dun DUN!) It has a special logo with angry white font and scary music and everything. I am not making this up.

One of the guests was very concerned about the popularity of "X-mas," which is apparently disrespectful?

Okay. First of all, I don't think I've ever known anyone who says X-mas. Secondly, WHAT THE HELL? X-mas is not a slur on Jesus Christ! You know how on Palm Sunday, everyone gets their palm fronds? You know how they're folded into the PX symbol? That's because the PX symbol is a monogram of "Christ." The X is the greek letter "Chi" and the P is the greek letter "Rho." Which means that the X in X-mas? Yeah, it's Chi. As in short for "Christ." X-mas is literally a shortened form of Christmas. It is not a conspiracy by the ACLU to confiscate your nativity scenes.

And you know what else? America is 78% Christian, and American businesses are perfectly happy to help all of you spend as much money as possible buying lots of shit to celebrate the birth of a man who... didn't believe in earthly posessions. (Oops!) There is no War on Christmas except the fake one on Fox News. So would everyone please just calm the fuck down and shut the goddamn hell up?

I swear to God, sometimes I can't stand this ignorant joke of a "Christian" country. It's the persecution thing, right? Maybe Christians just can't be happy unless someone, somewhere is persecuting them so they can pretend to be all victimized. But X-mas? Not persecution. So if you're an Xtian who practices Xtianity, Merry X-mas!

I just read that the new pope wears red Prada shoes and Gucci sunglasses.

Being raised Catholic has made a few lasting impressions on my life, and one of the most important ones is my personal philosophy on materialism. Materialism is a temptation we're supposed to fight. And materialism comes in all shapes, sizes and prices, but one of the most offensive is status consumption. The Catholic church has major problems, but one of the reasons I'm proud to be a Catholic is the church's emphasis on poverty. One of the reasons I respected Pope John Paul II so much, despite multiple disagreements with him on an ideological level, was his work and focus on eradicating poverty. When he visited America, he thanked American Catholics for the generosity of our donations, but he also chastized us for the consumption and materialism he saw in our country. And I liked that.

So I don't really care if the Prada and the Gucci were gifts; the pope is not supposed to be a consumer or a celebrity. This is not my idea of Catholicism. None of what is going on in the church right now is my idea of Catholicism or Christianity. And it's not just about the shoes and the sunglasses, which are just a small symptom of what's wrong. Something is broken in the Catholic church right now. I haven't the faintest idea of how it's going to be fixed. The Vatican is too old, too stuffy, too conservative. Five years ago, there were American preists talking of a schism should another conservative pope be elected. Well, that's come to pass and I am wondering if that sort of talk was just a lot of hot air. The more I think about it, the more I think I would love to be a member of a progressive off-shoot of the Catholic church.

There are things I love about the Catholic church that I haven't found anywhere else. But that's not enough for me. Being a member of a progressive church isn't enough either, because there's only so far I can separate personal beliefs and the beliefs of my church. I just don't want to be a part of the Catholic church right now.

So this Tuesday, be ready for a showdown on the Senate floor! It will go something like this:

Bill Frist will send a judicial nomination to the floor. If it doesn't garner 60 votes (the number needed to end a filibuster) Dick Cheney will drag his ass to the Senate and declare filibusters illegal for judicial nominations. The Republican majority will either uphold that ruling or the moderates in the party will vote it down.

So it all depends on the McCains and Pryors of the party. And if they can't pull it off, then there will be hell to pay. There's a reason they call this the "nuclear option." And it's going to be close. Last I heard, the Republicans were two votes shy of the majority they need to ban the filibusters, but when it's a big vote like this there's an awful lot of... persuasion going on behind the scenes.

All I know is that it's bad news when you gotta depend on the Republicans to pull through. Either way, it's going to be awesomely fun. I don't know about you guys, but I'll be TiVoing C-SPAN.

Also of note, Ratzinger's church is getting bolder. If the Catholic church's administration thinks they're going to have a say in American politics, someone should give them a swift kick in the you-know-where. Who do they think they are? The Christian Coalition?

Fanfuckingtastic.

JESUS. Seriously, I have nothing to say. Nothing. Screw it ALL.

[EDIT] Okay, if Alan Alda wins on The West Wing, it will seriously be the last straw. The LAST straw. I cannot be on the losing side of any more elections (even the fake ones) or I will die inside. DIE. INSIDE.

I've been helping Heather browse through "personals" on the UGA roommate-match site, and there are so many people I just click off without even considering.

A.) Anyone who is rushing a sorority or thinking about rushing a sorority. (Not that I have anything against greek girls, they just tend to be uninterested in having friends outside of their sorority sisters. Plus what if she was a sorostitute!?)

B.) Anyone who mentions anything about being Christian

Isn't that awful? Being Christian isn't bad. It's just... You know what I mean, right?

Haha, I'm going to hell.

Anyway, I'm off to Asheville for the rest of the weekend. But before I go, let me just say something to all the Lost fans out there. My ship may have been literally killed off, but don't laugh. Yours is next!

Oh. KIM POSSIBLE MOVIE TONIGHT! Be there or be like, ferociously uncool and totally L-L-Lame.

So the Pope is dead? Wow. I mean, really, wow.

I didn't expect to feel sad, but I sort of do. Even though I'm a lapsed Catholic, I still feel really affected by this.

And what's going to happen now? If another conservative is appointed, there will be a rift in the church. They've been saying that since I was much younger. This is a historical moment for the church.

With the earthquake the day after Easter and the tsunamis the day after Christmas and now the Pope's death, Renita says she's feeling sort of Book of Revelationy.

It seems I'm in need of a new religion since I can't stand the Catholic church's prudery any longer and I am Pro-Choice and have utterly no intention of ever wavering from this position because I think it's the right one based on Logic and not Feeling. And I'm sorry, but Feeling has no place in the rule of law. So the Archbishops' decision to deny Pro-Choice politicians and public figures the Communion is the last straw, because I will not have my faith politicized or my political beliefs intimidated by threats from my Church.

Therefore, I'm also no longer defending the Catholic faith from hate mongers. Have fun, hate mongers.

............

I also have a queuestion. The Republicans are wetting their pants over Dylan Glenn's candidacy- he's a black Republican. Jim Wooten, Jack Kemp and Newt Gingritch have been on nonstop saying how much they support Glenn because the Republican Party "must attract diversity" if it is to remain in power. So they're all endorsing him.

Excuse me, but how is that ANY different from affirmative action? Endorsing a candidate because the Republican Party nees "diversity" and not because of his superior experience or political goals? How is that ANY different from affirmative action?

I would really like to know.

I smell a hypocrite. As usual.