The Null Device
2002/1/29
The World's Oldest Multinational Corporation: Speaking of unswerving religious sanctions, Pope John Paul II has instructed Catholic lawyers to refuse divorce cases. How binding is his decree? Are Catholics still absolutely required to subordinate their consciences to the Church in all matters or face excommunication?
(This reminds me of how the Catholic church has been taking over hospitals, often dominating entire regional markets, and eliminating services which the Vatican doesn't approve of, for patients of all cultural persuasions.)
In the Great Hall of the Justice Department building in Washington DC, there stand two Art Deco statues representing the Spirit of Justice and the Majesty of Justice. The Spirit of Justice is represented as a female figure, draped in a toga-like garment with one breast exposed. Now the US Attorney General John Ashcroft, a hardline Christian Fundamentalist, has ordered the statue to be covered up and made chaste, with US$8,000 worth of drapes manufactured for the purpose. Well, at least he didn't have it dynamited like those other religious whackos. Though you'd think that covering up nude statues was a cause that only attracted doddering crackpots.