Who Does the Pope Follow on Twitter?

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Every day or so I receive a "tweet" from the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church. For example, a few days ago I got this one:

That's the great thing about the internet. You can get fortune cookie messages for free. Okay, fortune cookie messages are usually free anyway. But still.

This morning I got another tweet. I don't remember what it said. But I do remember that for whatever reason I decided to click through to the Pope's Twitter page. If you haven't done it yourself, you can see what it looks like in the screenshot, above.

It's probably what you expected. The Pope has 9.27 million followers and has made 826 tweets--that's a bit less than one per day.

But the thing that caught my eye was the "Following" heading. As you can see, it reads "8." Pope Francis is only following eight other Twitter accounts.

Of course he's a busy man. And he's presumably on Twitter not to goof around with his friends or exchange #NeverTrump missives or whatever, but to enlighten his Catholic followers on matters of great spiritual import--for example, that love leads to openness and sharing. So, one would expect that he would himself follow only a relatively small number of people 

So, who is he following?

Okay, ready? Pope Francis is following . . .

Drum roll, please . . .

Himself.

And, I should add, only himself.

Now, I know what you're thinking. He must be a narcissist.

But consider: if you had a French alter ego, wouldn't you want to keep tabs on him too?

In any case, at Mahound's Paradise, we don't just snark or complain. We act.

So I reached out to him.

"Popes follow back," I lied.

"Buena suerte con tu blog," he replied. "El amor conduce a la apertura y el intercambio."

Here is the result:

My Encounter with Boy Hitler

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It was at the Chicago Museum of Modern Art about ten years ago. We walked into an exhibit room that appeared to be empty. Then we turned into another room, also apparently empty. Where's the art? Is this part of the exhibit? Finally a third room, empty except for what looked to be the figure of a kneeling boy at the far end. He had his back to us.

Three rooms for this? We walked up to the figure, though I honestly can't remember why. I suppose it was because we felt that since we had come that far, we might as well go to the end.

A few more steps to get to the front of it. Then we were there. Suddenly, my companion let out a sort of nervous giggle. The kneeling "boy" was . . . Hitler.

The entire time we were the only ones in the set of rooms. I think I had an "ah, modern art" moment, and then forgot about it.

Until today.

A few minutes ago I read that a "kneeling Hitler statue" had sold at Christie's for $17.2 million. Was it that kneeling Hitler statue? The picture confirmed that it was.

The work is called "HIM."

Apparently "HIM" has been around. A few years ago it was displayed at an exhibit on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto. Yes, that Warsaw Ghetto. Once again, consideration had gone into the manner of its display. This time it was only visible from afar, through a hole in a wooden gate. And of course it simply looked like a small boy. You wouldn't know it was Hitler unless you had read the exhibit blurb. But of course that was probably why you were at the exhibit in the first place--to see boy Hitler through a hole in a wooden gate. Or to tell your friends about it or whatever.

98% of the commentary on it has been over whether the statue is "offensive." Does it "humanize" Hitler? Is that a good thing? And so on and so forth. Even the creator of the work claimed to be conflicted and said that he had considered smashing the piece: "I wanted to destroy it myself. I changed my mind a thousand times, every day."

Yeah. Sure you did.

The "artist," Maurizio Catalan had previously been best known for a life-size rendering of Pope John Paul II being hit by a meteorite. That piece only sold for $886,000.

Whatever else one might say about Catalan, his career has tracked the myriad possibilities of sculpture as performance art.

He once created an exhibit called "Another Fu**ing Readymade," which consisted entirely of objects stolen from another artist's show. Supposedly he was threatened with arrest.

And of course, he's the fellow responsible for the giant stone statue of a a raised middle finger. It was called "L.O.V.E."

Perhaps they'll put that one in Holy Name.

Are These Chicks Hardcore Red Rover Players or What?

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Breitbart reports. I think I prefer Femen.

Man Stabs Four, One Fatally, at Munich Train Station While Shouting "Allahu Akbar!" and "You Infidels!"; German Investigators Say There is No Indication He Had Islamic Extremist Motive

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Grafing Banhof station near Munich

The Telegraph has a live news feed on this. A few minutes ago they printed this grotesque eyewitness account from Bild newspaper:

"I heard screams, I saw a man lying on the ground, begging a man who stood over him. 'I love God, I love Allah,' he was saying, obviously to save himself," the newspaper quoted the witness, who has not been named, as saying.

It is not known whether the man who begged for his life by invoking the Muslim god was the man who later died. One other man is in critical condition.

German investigators have "identified" the suspect as "Paul H," a German-born citizen with probable drug and/or psychiatric issues. During the attack he was wearing only socks, which progressively became soaked with his victim's blood. This graphic video seems to show his progress from the train:

There is as yet no word on whether he was a self-identified or practicing Muslim.

Would it be less disturbing if we found out that he was not?

Holy Name is Hellish

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"Mary" by Luca Luchetti

The other night we went inside Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago after Mass was over. There were a few faithful praying but most people had gone home. 

It was the first time I had been inside Holy Name when it had been virtually empty. And I saw things I had never before seen.

Let's not mince words. It's not that some of the the art inside is ugly. It's that it's grotesque. Horrific. Twisted. It's like an illustration from an H.P. Lovecraft story.

The picture above is the Shrine of the Blessed Mother, or rather the bronze sculpture of her at the back of the shrine. It is by an Italian sculptor named Luca Luchetti. To me, Mary looks like she is at the center of some sort of web. Is she sending out pseudopods? Or are they entwining her, perhaps to create an exact duplicate that will manifest in the morning?

My wife said it looked like Mary in Hell.

The supporting figure at the top left has a sloped and pointy head like some sort of alien. Is he an angel? A demon with bat wings? Or is it just our eyes inferring a figure out of what is really just part of the web?

Even Mary's expression does not look particularly benign.

Some of you may know I have a side gig as a fantasy and science fiction game designer. So I know a bit about the illustrations contained in some of the classic games. I was trying to place who "Mary" reminded me of. Then it hit me. It's Lolth, the "Queen of the Demonweb Pits," a spider goddess worshipped by the Dark Elves in Dungeons & Dragons.

"Lolth" by Sam Wood

No, I don't think the fact that the figure in Holy Name resembles Lolth is funny. Off course I think it's awful.

As I understand it, Holy Name was closed for a year-and-a-half in the late 1960's so they could remodel it in true Dario Argento style.

One approving recent commenter writes:

Like most of Holy Name’s art, the modern enables relatability.

No. It enables angst, confusion, doubt and even fear.

Not "relatability" but repulsion.

Holy Name is hellish.

Pope Ally: Francis JOKED About How He Would Get His Way By Not Speaking Plainly

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"And then he said: 'By the time they get wise to the whole mercy schtick, we'll be on a beach earning twenty percent.'"    

Archbishop Bruno Forte, the Pope's handpicked Secretary for the synods on the family, recently spoke at a public presentation on Amoris Laetitia. A transcript of his remarks was published by an Italian news website on May 3rd. In turn, an English translation was just posted on OnePeterFive.

Here's the stunner from the original article:

Archbishop Forte has in fact revealed a “behind the scenes” [moment] from the Synod: “If we speak explicitly about communion for the divorced and remarried,” said Archbishop Forte, reporting a joke of Pope Francis, “you do not know what a terrible mess we will make. So we won’t speak plainly, do it in a way that the premises are there, then I will draw out the conclusions.”

Reporting a joke? A joke?

That Pope Francis has intentionally used ambiguous language to advance his agenda should not come as a surprise to those who have steadily followed his pontificate with open eyes. It's perhaps not even a surprise that Francis might talk about his method with his ideological allies. What is stunning is that such a close ally would feel perfectly unabashed about reporting the Pope's little "joke" in a public forum.

These people are now utterly brazen. They brag about manipulating Catholics as Mussolini laughed about firing up the masses during his balcony speeches. But even Mussolini (as far as I know) never publicly boasted about it.

I hope they enjoy their fun while they can. Hell isn't many years off for most of them.

Read the rest here.           

Allahu Akbar! London Has a Muslim Mayor!

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Yeah, but will they get past the Beefeaters?

The results have not yet been officially announced but after the first votes were tallied, it became clear that Labour candidate Sadiq Khan would decisively beat Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith for Mayor of London. A few points:

• The first round tally was 44% to 35% with Khan reportedly winning enough second round votes--where Khan was second choice for those whose first choice was neither Khan nor Goldsmith--for him to clinch victory.
• Labour appears to be losing nationally. This is notable in that it was predicted that it would make major gains in this political cycle. the Tories now appear to be the number two party in Scotland, after the SNP (The Scottish National Party). UKIP (The UK Independence Party)--in some ways the country's real opposition on many issues--has more than tripled its Council seats (although they still have only a small fraction). The Scottish and Welsh nationalists both did very well. So did the Liberal Democrats. Basically, Labour lost and all the other parties gained.    
• The relatively new position of Mayor of London has been held by people of diverse politics and personalities--either extreme or eccentric. The outgoing mayor is a populist Conservative with goofy hair. His predecessor, the first to hold the position, was a quasi-communist.
• Khan is in many ways a typical Labour candidate with "mainstream" Labour views. So, for example, he is pro-gay marriage. His wife doesn't appear to wear a hijab.
• Some Muslims have criticized him for such "liberalism." And he has even been threatened by some extremists.
• On the other hand, he himself has had many dubious associations with extremists and extremist groups. A few years ago he called moderate Muslims "Uncle Toms."
• He recently apologized for the "racial slur" but the apology seemed more about the offensiveness of the term than the actual sentiment--there is something objectionable about "moderate Muslims."  
• Goldsmith, his opponent, cited these extremist associations in his campaign, penning an editorial a few days ago titled, "On Thursday, are we really going to hand the world's greatest city to a Labour Party that thinks terrorists are its friends?"
• Allegedly this didn't go down very well with voters and many faulted Goldsmith for "dirty campaigning". Today his sister said that this approach lost him the election and that he is actually an eco-friendly non-racist at heart. His sister used to be married to a Muslim.
• The Muslim population of London is approaching 15%. It's unclear what the proportion of Muslim voters is. I would assume it's somewhat smaller.
• Nevertheless, it's an important block and presumably at least insured part of Khan's victory margin.
• In fairness, the Conservatives have also courted the Muslim vote. Weirdly, polls showed that if the race were between Khan and Boris Johnson, the outgoing Tory, Johnson would have won. This appears to show that the Mayor's race is often more about personality than politics.    

Read about Kahn's victory here.