since the pope's been dead, my car is running a lot smoother.

i'll add that it's refreshing to see images of the pope's corpse pasted everywhere rather than poor terry schiavo.

Man, we are some cynical fucks.

Putting a mitre on a horizontal corpse is just not on. No wonder I'm not Catholic.

Did you know that they ceremoniously beat on his forehead with a silver hammer to make sure that he was still dead and then used the same hammer to smash his papal seal ring?

Tradition is entertaining.

do they still do that? My gf and I were arguing about that last night. I really feel like they should televise that sort of thing. Maybe the cameras could catch like, souls leaving his ring or something and then they got some converts.

I somehow totaly fogot about mr. pope over the night and walked into my work this morning like "why the fuck are all these flags at half mast for Terri Schiavo?" Guess I walked right into the bar on that one.

I think the whole thing is getting a bit ridiculous. I think he deserved to be honored, but this is becoming a reality show. The coverage should have been called 24hour Pope Death TV. At this point I am surprised they haven't created a cable station just for the sole purpose of covering his death and funeral. The other night they showed a picture of Vatican City, and the tv anchor said "somewhere in that building rests the dead body of the pope." I guess they ran out dignitaries to drag out to talk about him.

It would have been cool if he had jumped up-"Psyche, Motherfuckers!"

Absolutely. More than honoring a societal role, this is just a commercialization / commodification of the cult of personality surrounding him. Reminds me of after Reagan's death, although this is even more grandiose. Contemporary journalism is for shit.

well, gotta avoid talking about the "Iraq occupation" somehow....

Besides, you're talking about a man who is the leader for a religion which about 1.5 Billion people follow - plus, there hasn't been a new pope/popedeath in about 30 years or so, so this is kinda a big deal...

You guys are ignoring the fact that for millions of people this is an extremley significant event. I haven't watched one second of it but I still understand that.

Rather than seeing this as a "commercialization / commodification of the cult of personality surrounding him" I see it as a chance to slow.the.fuck.down. We have so much fuckin' information thrust upon us every single minute that it's impossible to absorb it all. Something significant has occured. Let people come to grips with it, take it in and think about it. Your regularly scheduled programming of whether Britany is pregnant or Ashton is going to marry Demi will continue shortly.

Jeez

Steve

as long as Ryan Seacrest is there to help the new pope i don't care how it goes down.

I hear you, and it's significant to me, but I think this borders on comedy. Now I don't mind the funeral and stuff, and I could give a shit about Britney but cable news hasn't covered anything else in 72hrs or more. If you have to show a building and say somewhere in there is the pope's dead body than you should find some other stories. I think its too much, and it's not that I don't think the pope deserves it. It's too much for anybody.

For many, it's "a chance to slow.the.fuck.down." For others, it's a chance to cash.the.fuck.in. I have the right to be tired with that, as much as I have the right to be tired with the aforementioned regularly scheduled programming that it has displaced.

I really just want to see some substance, some meaning, and maybe his forehead being smacked a little bit with that little silver hammer, too. Instead I get talking heads vomiting inconsequentia and ebusinesspeople hawking commemorative papal votive candles.

can we throw an exorcism in there or what?

CLIVE:
Did you see that TV coverage of the Pope when he was lying in state? The last Pope, you know, John Paul?
DEREK:
Yeah.
CLIVE:
Lying in state? On that catafalque?
DEREK:
Yeah.
CLIVE:
In those robes?
DEREK:
Yeah, right.
CLIVE:
Didn't half give me the horn, that. Him lying there. He looked so fucking vulnerable, didn't he? I mean, I couldn't prevent myself having a wank immediately. 'Cause he looked vulnerable, he looked at rest and somebody had gone to the trouble of plucking all that hair out of his nostrils.

(Somebody will get this.)