It shouldn't be a surprise that the "Pope" doesn't "get" something. He represents the end stage of a long line of dubious people in an authoritarian religious cult. I know it is a cult because it went to its schools for seventeen years, if you count kindergarten.

What Catholicism did for centuries was to comandeer through various means the control and perceived legitimacy of "Christianity," a divergent belief system based on the mythologized divinity of an ancient "Jewish" heretic named Yeshua, whom we now call "Jesus."

When I was growing up in Catholicism we were all told that "Jesus" is the son of "God," and that he instituted the "Catholic" church as the only true religion, i.e., the only means of getting to "Heaven." All others went to "Hell," or "Limbo" if they were lucky.

Mostly we were taught by nuns, at least until high school. It varied from order to order, but hatred of "Jews" spewed from their mouths on a regular basis. This was in the 50s and 60s, well after the "Holocaust." (As if there can be a the holocaust. To that I can only say stay tuned.)

Of course, a lot of the problem with holocaust denial is semantic, requiring that there be a the holocaust to deny. For renegade (or not so renegade) bishops, the question has to be raised of why, or to what purpose one would make such a denial. The obvious answer is that it is a recruiting tool. If "antisemitism" (A hackneyed and outdated term. There are many kinds of "Semites" other than "Jews.") can be conjured up to make people feel special or antagonistic to some perceived "enemy" group, then praise the "Lord" and pass the ammunition!

The Pope, formerly "Cardinal" Ratzinger, was a member of "Hitler Youth." The official lore is that he was forced into it. One would think that, having been forced into "Hitler Youth" that he might have developed an antagonism to everything "Nazi," or even vaguely close. He hasn't. He's at best a bigot, contemptuous of other religions, an authoritarian, and his physical appearance makes Hitler look kindly by comparison.

The root of all this controversy, and of conflict worldwide, is the self-perception and projection of difference - that one, and one's self-selecting group,is "better" and, by the way, closer to "God" than the self-defined group next door. The "Catholic" church, which means the "universal" church, believes it is universal in the sense that everyone should be a "Catholic." The "Jews" believe they are "God's" chosen people. How can this be if there is no "God" but "Allah?"

I wonder how Dick Armey is so sure that "you could never be my wife." I can think of only one reason (well, maybe two) for this impossibility.

This is playing out nicely. "Is that all they have?" will become a mantra in the coming years. Part of the great cleansing will be the "Republicans" showing themselves for what they really are. There is no real philosophy there, just cover slogans like "tax and spend," the "homosexual agenda," "feminazis," and "appeasers."

In reality, they are criminals, obsessed with money and power. True to the lower needs end of Maslow's hierarchy, they get sex mixed up and twisted too.

Thus, "I am so damn glad that you could never be my wife." Disagreeing on a talk show is not a matter of marital qualification or disqualification. If it were, women who agree with Army could be his wife. If that is indeed the case, then his wife might have greater cause to ask "How do I reload this damn thing?"

Maybe this article will inspire a deeper examination of the entire "conservative" movement. It is completely fake, a marketing scheme to cover an obsession with power, and its accompanying lust, money.

All else is window dressing, propaganda meant to fool the foolish, anger the angry, and scare the scared. The sooner we recognize "conservatism" as the con game that it is, the sooner we can actually solve real problems.

One way to render the "conservative" fakery less believable is to abandon "liberalism." For instance, advocating for something like equal opportunity is not "liberal," but something that should be a given in a functioning civilization. The same goes for living wage, protection of the ecosystem, limiting gun possession, and preventing the establishment of a state religion, to name a few. Taxes, in and of themselves, are not an evil, but a necessary revenue for a government to operate. What "conservatives" really want is for someone else to pay the taxes, i.e., the lower income sector of the population.

Ronald Reagan was a criminal, gaining office with similar machinations to our recently departed criminal president. His funding and political support for the terrorist group known as the "Contras" revealed his true nature - a hateful, antidemocratic zealot. We will keep having presidents like this if we keep taking them at face value, pretending there is a real argument between legitimate "sides" of the perceived "spectrum." There is a spectrum, but it is vertical, starting at the bottom with criminal sociopath.