We look at three recent TV programs that have attracted the attention of the Eye of Sauron, a.k.a. Catholic League president Bill Donohue, whose job it is to manufacture outrage anytime anyone makes fun of the Church or offers sharp criticism of it. Sarah Silverman’s video “Sell the Vatican, Feed the World” appeared on the season finale of Real Time with Bill Maher. The Simpsons mock the Eucharist in their annual “Treehouse of Horror” special with the segment “Don’t Have a Cow, Mankind.” And Curb Your Enthusiasm auteur Larry David accidentally splashes urine on a portrait of Jesus in the episode “Dealing with the Midriff.” Bottom line: if it makes the Eye apoplectic, it warms our hearts.
Speaking of TV, Muslims have yet to riot or issue any fatwas over a controversial commercial by German lingerie company Liaisons Dangereuse.
A few days ago I posted a link to a bootleg copy of the episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! in which they excoriated the Vatican. If you didn’t get a chance to watch it before Vimeo and YouTube pulled it down, you now have an excellent second chance, thanks to the Eye of Sauron himself! The Catholic League’s Bill Donohue has vowed to get DVD copies of this “Nazi-like assault” into the hands of “religious and lay leaders across the United States.” Meanwhile, he’s posted the complete episode on the CL’s website. Oh, the irony.
I don’t know how long this video will be up, so watch it sooner rather than later. It’s the latest episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, in which they take on the Vatican, holding nothing back:
After I posted my last note about the Catholic League’s Bill “Eye of Sauron” Donohue whining about Penn & Teller, I zipped over to CNSNews.com to read Brent Bozell’s review of Herr Donohue’s new book Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America. Nevermind about the book: notice the banner ad hovering just above the title “Secular Saboteurs”–it’s the Eye of Sauron himself! Run, run while you can!!!
Oops. My bad. It’s just an ad for a Lord of the Rings online game. Still, it’s a pretty funny coincidence.
The Eye of Sauron has once again turned his baleful gaze on magicians/freethinkers Penn & Teller. This time around Catholic League president Bill Donohue is unhappy about P&T’s treatment of the Vatican in an episode of Bullshit! that hasn’t even aired yet. (TiVo check: Showtime, Thursday, August 27, 10PM. Got it?)
By now you’ve probably read that Dr. George Tiller was gunned down on Sunday as he attended church in Wichita, Kansas. Police have arrested a suspect named Scott Roeder. The picture is rapidly developing, but it appears that Roeder was known within the anti-abortion movement as well as the so-called “Freemen” movement as “obsessed with abortion” and that his motivations were religious.
You can’t turn on the news lately without hearing multiple items involving gay marriage: Maine’s legislature passes (and its governor signs) a bill legalizing same-sex marriage; former NYC mayor and failed Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani skips the wedding of the gay couple who put him up (and put up with him) during his messy divorce; and Miss California USA Carrie Prejean puts foot in mouth in support of “opposite marriage” (and here I thought that was the definition of divorce).
University of Central Florida student senator Webster Cook, who sparked a furor a few weeks ago by making off with a Eucharist during an on-campus Catholic Mass, has been removed from office after a committee hearing. While I hate to hear pinheads like Blowhard Bill Donohue and His Catholic League crowing over this “victory”, I have to conclude that Cook kinda had it coming. I agree with Cook’s objection to university-funded religious services being held on campus, but I do not think that disrupting such meetings is the way to fight it.
Webster Cook, the University of Central Florida student at the center of the Eucharist controversy, gives his version of events on Freethought Radio. Here’s the link.
PZ Myers – We talk to the University of Minnesota Morris biologist and author of the popular science blog Pharyngula [scienceblogs.com/pharyngula]. Dr. Myers is an atheist whose outspokenness often raises the hackles of fundamentalists. His recent missives on the controversy centering on University of Central Florida student Webster Cook’s “stealing” of a Eucharist wafer has brought him to the attention of Blowhard Bill Donahue and his Catholic League.
We look at three recent TV programs that have attracted the attention of the Eye of Sauron, a.k.a. Catholic League president Bill Donohue, whose job it is to manufacture outrage anytime anyone makes fun of the Church or offers sharp criticism of it. Sarah Silverman’s video “Sell the Vatican, Feed the World” appeared on the season finale of Real Time with Bill Maher. The Simpsons mock the Eucharist in their annual “Treehouse of Horror” special with the segment “Don’t Have a Cow, Mankind.” And Curb Your Enthusiasm auteur Larry David accidentally splashes urine on a portrait of Jesus in the episode “Dealing with the Midriff.” Bottom line: if it makes the Eye apoplectic, it warms our hearts.
You can’t turn on the news lately without hearing multiple items involving gay marriage: Maine’s legislature passes (and its governor signs) a bill legalizing same-sex marriage; former NYC mayor and failed Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani skips the wedding of the gay couple who put him up (and put up with him) during his messy divorce; and Miss California USA Carrie Prejean puts foot in mouth in support of “opposite marriage” (and here I thought that was the definition of divorce).
PZ Myers – We talk to the University of Minnesota Morris biologist and author of the popular science blog Pharyngula [
Penn & Teller do the Vatican
Monday, August 31st, 2009I don’t know how long this video will be up, so watch it sooner rather than later. It’s the latest episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, in which they take on the Vatican, holding nothing back:
Penn & Teller: Bullshit – The Vatican from Stian Solberg on Vimeo.
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Tags: bill donohue, bullshit, catholic church, catholic league, eye of sauron, penn and teller, pope, vatican
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