Babies in Pork Stew.

How could I possibly describe my world just now?  I am lying in bed listening to Radio 4.  I am in pain.  Last night whilst cooking dinner my back gave way.

That is as far as I got on Saturday morning.  After that I couldn't move and 36 hours later I have managed to get out of bed and sit at this desk.  On Friday evening after my back had given way I struggled upstairs, ate the dinner I had cooked, and went to bed.  I felt dreadful and my back was extremely painful.  In the morning, hoping it was improved, I got up, went down (two flights of stairs) collected a bottle of water (to take painkillers with) and a coffee and headed back up to my attic room.  I sat down at my desk, began to write a blog, and 30 minutes later I simply couldn't get out of the chair and into the bed.  Eventually, and with some help, I got into bed and four hours later called the doctor.  Well the NHS has funny ways of working and four hours after that two dizzy nurses turned up with more aches and pains between them than you could count.  But they covered the NHS arse by assuring themselves that I wasn't bleeding out of any orifice and no limbs had dropped off, advised me to take lots of pain killers and to phone my doctor on Monday.  That was decidedly unsatisfactory.  Several hours later I wondered if I should phone again.

Having spent the night in pain I managed, at about midday today (Sunday), to crawl out of bed and go to the loo.  I decided to challenge myself, partly out of boredom and partly to 'exercise' my back, and to head off downstairs to make a mug of coffee.  I have just achieved that and decided to finish this blog.

My suspicion is that I ate some pastry on Friday afternoon round at C's place.  I think my body, partly due to a bunged up malfunctioning gall bladder, adversely reacts to pastry.  This has been a growing suspicion and as far as I recall I had eaten pastry the night before I was taken to hospital in an ambulance.  Although this time I got severe pain in my lower back I can feel that it is related to my guts and something that is not right in there.  But maybe it will be understood one day and maybe not.  And maybe it will be resolved one day... and maybe not.  But as I sit here now I 'can' sit here but I feel ill and am quite uncomfortable.  So I have to make this short so as not to overdo my first little stint at being 'up'.

But there have been one or two things in the news worth mentioning.  The first being the Pope.  There seems to be quite a concern over the issue of the Pope resigning.  So far I have not heard anyone suggesting that it is fundamentally wrong and clearly indicative of the hypocrisy of the church.  There seems to be a lot of sympathy for the dear old chap.  Even Sinéad O'Connor apparently said something about the old man not looking too well and that he shouldn't be made to carry on working.  But I have a problem with this.  It brings to mind a song by the Rolling Stones (one of my favourites as it happens) called Sympathy for the Devil - which you can watch live here...



I happen to know a lot about Roman Catholicism and I am not, in their terms, a Satanist or anything weird like that.  But what I am is a rational and thinking person.  What I am is someone who understands the profundity of Christianity.  It is well known that the line of Popes from Peter to Benedict XVI has not been without controversy and corruption.  I am quite happy to accept that many Popes 'want' to do good and even try to do good.  But I am not willing to accept that they 'are' good by the simple fact of being Pope.  There are one or two small points which are clues that something is profoundly wrong with the Roman Catholic church and the Pope himself.  Jesus Christ, the man they elevate to a God, was born in a stable (for good reason) and died on a cross (for good reason) and in between times he was quite clear in his views on the elaborate symbols of hierarchy of the Jews.  Of the scribes and Pharisees he complained "But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues." and goes on (as God remember) to say "For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness." (All from Mathew 23 if you want the reference.)  I don't think you can get more specific than that.  The wealth of the Vatican and the Pope are abhorrent to their own God.  And, since the Pope claims (by the very role of pope let alone the individual man) to believe in this Christian God then it is unacceptable to live in such wealth and opulence.  I understand the arguments about preserving the teachings of Christ but if you have to counter the teachings in order to preserve them then the evidence is that you don't actually believe they are true because you think they wouldn't survive if you actually acted on them.  And, since the Pope is designated by God to be his representative on earth, how come the 'man' Joseph Ratzinger gets to override God's decision.  It just ain't Catholic.  I'm sure Jesus would have liked to have retired at age 32.

I don't object to the old man Joseph Ratzinger wanting to retire.  But it totally undermines the 'reality' of Catholicism.  It exposes it as a fantasy performance from which you can retire.  What I find bizarre is I like some of what I see of the man.  He has written some very thoughtful philosophical stuff.  Some of his expressed ideas are, in my opinion, brilliant insights into humanity and our perception.  But he is/was the Pope.  Of course the likely explanation for this feigned "can't cope" retirement is likely to surface at some point in the near future.  This is one thing that is good about the information revolution (evolution) and one reason 'they' (any hierarchical dominators) are so afraid of it.  Unfortunately I was not quick enough to make this point.  The first thing I thought when I heard of his retirement was "I wonder why?" and fully expected some devious machinations to surface.  I wondered if there might be some mafia involvement and some blackmail.  Well lo and behold if there are not significant rumours already.  It is being suggested that the private papers allegedly stolen by the butler, Paolo Gabriele, that contained "papal correspondence that depicted the Vatican as a seething hotbed of intrigue and infighting" may also contain information about factions "united by sexual orientation" and blackmail or "external influence" by laymen.

So it seems the Pope, given our understanding of human history, is as likely as not to be resigning for reasons, as yet, undisclosed.  What is that I hear in the wings? "False witness!"

But not to worry because there is one nice Evangelical Priest in Germany who wants to help the poor.  He has this idea that it would be silly to waste all the horsemeat tainted beef products as there are so many poor people who could eat it.  This is exactly what I worry about in our declining culture.  Lots of people (including this priest) cannot see the inherent evil in their "I'm so good" ideas.  Of course it is a good idea to give food to another human if they have none and are hungry.  But to create poverty so that you can massage your own self image by bestowing the crumbs from your table on them is heinous whether done in ignorance or by intent.  It won't be long now before this 'oh so kind' culture of ours will be taking the satirical ideas of Jonathan Swift in his "A Modest Proposal" seriously.  The idea being to reduce the burden of the poor by feeding them their own children.  "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled ... "

Of course the next thing I am waiting for is for them to find human DNA in the pork stew!  Remember - You heard it here first!