Beatifying a dead pope

The lathered up media and statesmen, along with millions of other suckers, want to gain brownie points in the wake of the pope's death. With all this headline news, it's sort of like beating a dead horse - or dead pope. Really, how dare three U.S. presidents get in on the glorify the pope bandwagon when three U.S. presidents might not attend the funeral of a great statesman such as Gorbechev. And what about "separation of church and state" when the current Secretary of State (Ms. Rice) attends the pope's funeral as well? It is as if, with all the light of science and reason, we are still playing charades with much darker and less enlightened ages.

Fifty years ago, the U.S. flogged the Russians for having a godless state, but that is actually our ideal as well - perhaps not a godless culture (we have some freedoms left, after all) but a godless government. We need that and should defend it even in such times as this.

More soon, including the connection to the media-driven sentiment surrounding Terry Shaivo's demise. But in the meantime, remember that polls show the public is not in favor of such life-sustaining shenanigans as occurred surrounding her hospital bed. And now the pope is being treated as a fallen god, even though he was merely a compromised hero to some.