Who doesn't know the Pope?

So by now I'm sure everyone has seen the pictures of the dead Pope. Personally, I don't find anything creepier than taking pictures of dead people. I mean, it's one thing if you're taking the picture to raise global awareness or something, but grandpa sitting in the coffin like a senior-aged Ken doll isn't exactly a Kodak moment.

I was talking to Blakeley about how people are mourning and weeping about the Pope dying. This is obviously just for the cameras, because if these people actually stopped to THINK about the Pope's death for one second, they would realize how awesome it was for him. The Pope died at 84, a heartly age, at the very top of his profession. He died naturally as one of the most important people on the planet. I'd say that's a pretty damn good way to go out, considering there is a web site dedicated to people who die in the stupidest ways possible, and these are just the ones that get reported. What tops it all off is how freakin' simple the Pope's job was in the last 20 years of his life. I can't think of a single time I saw the Pope doing anything but standing and waving, and sometimes stuttering and drooling. Sometimes there would be a picture in a newspaper and the Pope would be standing and waving in a different spot than he usually stands and waves, but that just means the dude flew around in private jets all the time and sipped Hennessy with hot Vatican stewardesses.

On a similar topic, the religious right has been trying their damndest to get and keep the Terri Schiavo case in the news. Despite the best efforts of the various news stations to drudge up something more news-worthy, we found ourselves in the midst of a drought and so Terri Schiavo (and occasionally the MJ trial) was the only thing to report on. Once again, you saw people on TV crying and moaning over Terri Schiavo. People that didn't even know her or seen her in real life. The best part of all of this is that people were giving her husband DEATH THREATS. DOES ANYONE SEE HOW FREAKIN' INSANE THAT IS??? Who are these people? What rock did they crawl out from under to surround Terri Schiavo's hospice with their makeshift shantytown? Every time I saw someone interviewed on TV that was outside protesting it's some overweight southerner with a thick drawl inaccurately quoting the Bible while wearing a Dale Earnhardt shirt stained with chicken grease and chili. I am not generalizing or stereotyping. Everyone out there was dressed like this. It was like a freakin' redneck marching band with matching uniforms.