Spin Dry

Indymedia Italia, which is actually registered to a Brazilian company, was told by an Italian court to shut down, because of a photo montage they posted. Here's the photo montage...

I reproduce it here so:

1. You can see how badly done the image was. I mean, shut them down on grounds of artistic incompetence, not content.
2. Obviously, the Italians can't take a joke.
3. Pope Ratzo was a Nazi. There's absolutely no question about that at all.
4. The Italian court can go fuck themselves. They charged the website with "offending the Roman Catholic religion". Whatever that means. Okay. Um... bugger the Pope. Jesus was a myth. Virgin my ass. It's just bread and wine, morons.
5. If the Italians want to come after me, bring 'em on.

At least the Italian media have some balls:

Italy's largest press union, FNSI, slammed the decision as an "unacceptable attack on critical and satirical freedom".

"Indymedia publishes without any form of censorship any kind of electronic message -- that is the basis of its editorial policy," said the FNSI's secretary general, Paolo Serventi Longhi.

"I do not agree with the message's content, in fact I find it very serious, but press freedom cannot be called into question," he added.

Shades of Voltaire.

Which is more offensive? A satirical image that reminds the public of the truth about Pope Ratzo's past? Or an institution that has systematically sanctioned and protected the perpetrators of child abuse and molestation for decades, even while deigning to inform grown-ups (frequently non-Catholic grown-ups) how they are supposed to carry on their own sex lives and/or reproductive prerogatives.

In other words, the Pope (presumably a virgin, or at least celibate for a long, long, long, long time) has the arrogance to dictate the sexual behavior of others, even while allowing his own bishops to cover up the evidence of his own priests' wrong-doings. I'll take "Hypocritical Dictators" for $1,000, Alex.

If the pic fits... share it.