• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Bark louder, little dog.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

This really is a full service blog.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / The Pope

The Pope

by John Cole|  October 14, 20037:04 am| 9 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail
pope.jpg

This is not a picture that would inspire a lot of confidence in papal decrees were I a Catholic worshipper. This poor man is just in a pathetic state- do they have to serve until death?

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Funniest Post in a While
Next Post: Don’t Look Down »

Reader Interactions

9Comments

  1. 1.

    Moe Lane

    October 14, 2003 at 7:36 am

    “This poor man is just in a pathetic state- do they have to serve until death?”

    Pretty much: Popes simply don’t retire. Frankly – and forgive me for saying this, God – the absolute sh*tstorm that is going to erupt once JPII passes on is likely to be of sufficent intensity and anger that every day that it hasn’t hit yet is a bit of a relief.

    Of course, the problem just gets bigger over time. I am mordantly afraid that Pope John Paul II’s reign is going to be remembered mostly for what will happen after it’s over.

  2. 2.

    Steve Malynn

    October 14, 2003 at 8:19 am

    Moe, the public transition will be gentle, due to the reverence for the current Pope. There might be deadly politics behind the scenes, but Popo John Paul II has stacked that deck too.

  3. 3.

    Moe Lane

    October 14, 2003 at 8:32 am

    “Moe, the public transition will be gentle, due to the reverence for the current Pope.”

    Steve, that’s the only reason I haven’t really exploded -yet-; respect for the man has stayed my hand. Now, I’m just one guy, so my explosion doesn’t mean anything – but I know a bunch of other American Catholics similarly incensed, starting with my pious mom and dad and working its way across a pretty broad spectrum. -That- may be more of an issue.

    “There might be deadly politics behind the scenes, but Popo John Paul II has stacked that deck too.”

    That’s what concerns me. I want all the windows open and a nice brisk wind flowing through: behind the scenes machinations are almost guaranteed to produce business-as-usual. Business-as-usual got the American part of the Church in this mess in the first place.

  4. 4.

    RW

    October 14, 2003 at 8:49 am

    I’m not a catholic but I’m very religious & I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the assessment I gave my wife the other day during a news blurb:

    “when you’re sitting in a chair & reading from a piece of paper into a microphone and you have to stop for a while because you’re too TIRED to continue reading, you’re knocking on heaven’s door”.

  5. 5.

    Frank J.

    October 14, 2003 at 9:32 am

    The man suffers to continue on, and what’s more Christian than that?

  6. 6.

    Steve Malynn

    October 14, 2003 at 11:13 am

    Moe, the problem I have with John’s vote of no confidence is the idea that we are somehow worshipping the Pope. With John Paul II we pray together to God.

    I’m leery of an “open window”, look at the splintering Anglican church, and the constantly shifting Lutheran Synods — the result of compromising faith to be modern. [Disclosure: I was raised Missouri Synod Lutheran, converted to Roman Catholic in 1996.] The American Bishops are a completely different mess than the succession choice.

    IMHO, JP II does not have the strength to fight for the reforms necessary in the US, but has ensured that his successor will be a similar conservative reformer.

  7. 7.

    Director Mitch

    October 14, 2003 at 11:40 am

    I think the WSJ said it best:

    For nearly 25 years, John Paul II has taught the world how to live. He is now teaching it how to die. For some who gloried in the towering, robust Polish pope of days gone by, it is a difficult lesson to take. The involuntary trembling, the incomprehensible speech, the chin buried in the chest are painful sights; but to the pope such suffering is “a necessary gift” and a tool of redemption. This mystical understanding of redemptive suffering explains the impossibility of retirement. As bad as things appear, John Paul II’s papacy is not yet over. The active papacy may be ending, but the suffering, interior papacy has only begun. The twilight of his reign may be the most affecting and efficacious period of his long pontificate.

    Dying is a part of life, and we are witnessing this man going forward to his death. What better lesson can we take from this example – more than “edicts” or someone issuing “reforms” for the 3% of the world’s Catholics who reside in North America

  8. 8.

    Jaybird

    October 14, 2003 at 12:26 pm

    The world is not big enough for a Pope Emeritus.

  9. 9.

    Moe Lane

    October 14, 2003 at 12:59 pm

    “I’m leery of an “open window”, look at the splintering Anglican church, and the constantly shifting Lutheran Synods — the result of compromising faith to be modern.”

    Compromising faith for modernity is one thing; compromising -dogma- for the same is another thing entirely. I respect the church of my ancestors; my family’s been Roman Catholic for centuries (if not millenia – various activities by the English* have made record keeping a tad problematical for those of Irish descent) and it’s core teachings are a comfort to me. But there’s a lot of superstructure to Roman Catholicism that’s piled up over the last two thousand years, and it’s long past time that it be re-examined in light of what would be the wishes of God. He gave me a brain and a mouth; I expect that /He/ expects me to use both. :)

    Moe

    *I do not blame great-grandchildren for the things that their great-grandfathers have done. Just so you know.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - way2blue - SINALEI, SAMOA—RESPITE EDITION—FEBRUARY 2025.  (second of five) 7
Image by way2blue (7/13/25)

World Central Kitchen

Donate

Recent Comments

  • AlaskaReader on War for Ukraine Day 1,235: A Brief Sunday Night Update (Jul 14, 2025 @ 2:19am)
  • Chetan Murthy on Late Night Open Thread: Buyer’s Remorse (Jul 14, 2025 @ 2:19am)
  • danielx on Late Night Open Thread: Buyer’s Remorse (Jul 14, 2025 @ 2:18am)
  • Craig on Medium Cool – Navel Gazing! (Jul 14, 2025 @ 2:16am)
  • Craig on Medium Cool – Navel Gazing! (Jul 14, 2025 @ 2:14am)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!