And while we’re engaged in this orgy of contrition, I think Muslims should collectively own up to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Previously it was thought to be from a meteorite event or possibly mischief from the House of Rothschild. Space exploration has proven the former unlikely & the latter has been exposed as anti-Semitism. Now scientists are seeing Islam written all over the event.

There is also accumulating evidence of Muslim involvement in global warming & male pattern baldness. Where will this all end!?

Aren’t there a lot of Bible quotes about how you “reap what you sow,” & “by their deeds you shall know them”? Or was that Mark Twain? Anyway, judging from the fallout of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons (increased attacks on Muslims) & the twitter-storm of racist comments after viewing “American Sniper” it’s looking like some obituaries need to be re-written. If your sorry-assed legacy is social hatred you might better have served the world in a cloistered monastery.

There is no reason in the world why those who believe in women’s reproductive rights should give Pope Francis a free pass for his comments about birth control on his trip to the Philippines. Quite frankly, he disgraced himself.

Out of all the massive problems faced by Filipino working people, including militarism & massive homelessness, the Pope chose to focus on birth control. The most ardent feminist can understand, even if they don’t accept, the scruples of some about abortion. But birth control is what they call a “no-brainer.” He was protesting the Filipino Responsible Parenthood & Reproductive Health Act passed in 2012 that gives women access to contraception (but appears to have links to the Gates Foundation & eugenics campaigns).

The Pope had the temerity to equate the population control of eugenicist practitioners (like the Gates Foundation) with reproductive rights advocates. Which is exactly what the US right-wing does to oppose reproductive rights.

He should have left well enough alone but on the plane back to Rome he ad-libbed his way to infamy when he said the Church advocated “responsible parenthood” & that to be good Catholics they needn’t ‘breed like rabbits.’ He cited a woman he recently met who had seven children by caesarean section & put her life at risk by becoming pregnant again. He said he chided her for “tempting God” & for being irresponsible. You don’t have to be a feminist to stand aghast at the arrogance.

He told reporters the Church allows natural family planning (nothing kills sexual spontaneity faster) & abstinence during a woman’s fertile period. Before he keeps pronouncing on sexual matters someone needs to send him a copy of “Our Bodies, Ourselves” so he can get educated on human physiology.

Let’s say it outright: the Pope’s comments are an outrage insulting to those many Catholics who took the birth control ban seriously but still wanted to have sex. His comments demean human sexuality & women in one fell swoop. Maybe he’d better stay put in the Vatican for awhile.

(Photo of Pope Francis stepping in horse manure on the plane to Rome by Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)

No need to do an exegesis of Obama’s speech last night–so earnest, so pompous, so absolutely meaningless. He had nothing to say on the several US wars, & less to say on Ferguson & civil rights or immigration rights. That is, he had nothing to say on the life & death issues facing millions of working people.

In an attempt to be inspirational he spoke of equality. But his words are so at odds with his deeds–& now he gets to blame it all on the Republicans. What a bait & switch operation it all is.

Let’s do a simple fact check on his claims the economy is growing. (Though, to be fair he never did say who it was growing for.) If employment levels are looking so good why are food banks around the country reporting soaring demands for food assistance? Is it because the new minimum wage jobs don’t cut it if you want to have housing & eat too? Why are schools having to deal with starving kids before they even start the day’s lessons?

A little over two years ago the government cut the food stamp program $5 billion across-the-board & are gradually implementing $6 billion more cuts through 2016. Through all sorts of new restrictions which have nothing to do with hungry kids, they expect to cut food stamp recipients by one million hungry people. Such is the character of Obama’s compassion. He could try to blame this on the Republicans too but the cuts were implemented in 2013 when Democrats were the majority. So much for that baloney.

And one last point about that speech. It was a masterpiece of xenophobia. At what point do you grow up & realize the US is not the be-all & end-all of human civilization? Or is neoliberal barbarism just not capable of making that judgement? (PS: it isn’t & it’s gotta go.)

(Photo by Mandel Ngan/AP)

Now that the furor over the Charlie Hebdo massacre has abated we can appreciate some of the comedy involved. Like people arguing with great umbrage that the satire of the cartoons is very French & not racist & xenophobic as they appear to the rest of the world. Are the French really that backward politically? Imbecility is not a flattering defense. It’s the kind of political defense you expect from Brigitte Bardot or Gerard Depardieu & that should give pause.

We can also cut the crap on that free speech stuff. The demand for free speech is something you direct at governments, not three dead gunmen. Reportedly, France is cracking down on people who make smart cracks & arrested a kid who did a satiric post about CH on FB, accusing him of defending terrorism. Is that French sarcasm too?

What’s not comical is that attacks on Muslim businesses & mosques in France have increased (60 since the CH event); that an Islamophobic march in Germany attracted 20,000 thugs; & that the Belgian police had a shootout against what they called an Islamist terrorist cell. They took them all out by claiming they were conspiring to commit acts of terror. Since when do you summarily execute people on an allegation? Why didn’t they arrest them, interrogate them, prosecute them instead of killing them all? What about that free speech thing?

This Islamophobic stuff is going to crescendo & the only way to respond to it is to build the antiwar movement & Palestinian solidarity (which both involve Islamophobia). You can’t talk people out of this rubbish. You have to answer it with power–which if it doesn’t persuade does silence the haters & intimidate the thugs.

There’s only one thing to say about Obama’s State of the Union address to the US Congress: I see dead people.