A last, lost weekend with the reptiles, but who's counting?

 

At last it's here ... the pond's last weekend for the year with the reptiles. 

Or should that just be thought of as the culminating lost weekend in a series of lost weekends?

Never mind, the pond is always up for a movie reference, and this last lost long weekend is going to be tough, and some might think of turning to the demon drink just to get through it, but don't ... not unless you want to end up like Ray Milland ...

First up in this long lost weekend is the dog botherer, doing the usual, and bothering dogs ...

Meanwhile, on another planet ...the collective punishment and ethnic cleansing of the gulag, apartheid ghetto if you will, continues apace ...

But this is Xmas, and so sturdy Xians cheer on mass starvation and the killing fields ... it's the reptile way ... the truly Xian 'western civilisation' way ...

Around this point the pond usually notes other material for reading, such as Katharine Murphy's Ted O'Brien's fact-free nuclear cheerleading is cover for the same old climate vandalism ...

There's more at the link, and it's much more interesting than the dog botherer ...

Note how easily and blithely the dog botherer slips from bog standard climate science denialism to attempting to walk on the wild side with Assange ... but speaking of climate there was that other story, Gina Rinehart says renewable energy could use one-third of Australia's prime agricultural land ...

And so on, and so forth, but at least it got the pond to the final dog bothering gobbet, with bonus ticks, fleas and lice ...

Oh dear, there he goes again, pretending he's a genuine human bean, when really his bizarro mission is to comprehensively fuck the planet ...

And so to this day's Everest, and relax, the truly awesome Everest, nattering "Ned", won't emerge until tomorrow ...

But this one is pretty awesome, and it involves that old joke about the lizard Oz being the Catholic Boy's (and the occasional Girl's) Daily ...

And so we come to the Angelic one ...

Here the pond must protest. Why didn't the lazy remnants of the lizard Oz graphics department drum up a decent celebratory image or two for the Angelic one?

 

She could have done with being reminded of pagan celebrations of the winter solstice...

Not to worry, without a pagan snap, it means the Angelic one can be swallowed in a couple of quick bites ...

Well you wouldn't expect the Angelic one to rabbit on about Saturnalia and the way that Xians routinely ripped off ancient customs and passed them off as their own, in much the same way that the Vatican ripped off lots of great marble from ancient Roman buildings to deck out assorted areas of the Vatican ...

And so to the final gobbet, and this entrée will be done ...

Yeah, yeah, all that jazz, but the Angelic one was just a warm up for the main Catholic Boy's Daily event ... the bromancer in full fundamentalist tyke mode ...

Actually the planet is on fire, and we're burning ourselves to a crisp, and as for the subject at hand, we've been there before, as students of Father Coughlin will know ...

Frankly any showboating priest who hangs around with the likes of Jordan Peterson, John Anderson and the rest of the clowns and loons that turned up in London to do a fundamentalist party down is deeply suspect ... and so it came to pass ...

It turns out that the message is just the standard bigotry ...

And so on and so forth, and naturally to be celebrated by the bromancer ...

Speaking of prize loons, the reptiles then slipped in a reminder of what we'e dealing with here ...

The pond is over Peterson and his addictions and his stint in Russia, but regarding this barren addiction to his causes, is it any wonder that after a nanosecond's digging, the pond turned up a story back in June 22 headed Multiple resignations at Bishop Barron's Word on Fire after allegations into staffer's personal life ...

And so on and on ... the worst always attract the worst, and so the bromancer is naturally attracted to Barron ... it's what armchair generals do after a busy day in the armchair ...

The trouble with cults and cultists and personality magnets is that inevitably details are inclined to get messy ...

Barron also struck a sympathetic tone for Gloor, telling those on the companywide call that the investigation had also been "a difficult period" for Gloor, who Barron said "loved Word on Fire with his whole heart and soul." Barron added that protecting Word on Fire "was paramount in his mind."

As for the women who came forward with their allegations against Gloor, Barron referred to them as "accusers" who had had every opportunity to be heard. During the meeting, Barron mentioned one of the alleged victims, who had known Gloor for several years, by name.

"This was not like some one-off thing, they've known each other for over 10 years," said Barron, who emphasized several times that "nothing criminal" had happened.

"These took place within the context of consensual relations between adults," said Barron, who parsed Gloor's alleged behaviors as "unwelcome" sexual advances in the context of consensual relationships.

After one employee asked Barron "[h]ow can we say that these things are not criminal?" the bishop responded: "You know, bottom line is, if the accusers feel it's a criminal matter, then bring it to the attention of the courts. So, it's not for Word on Fire to adjudicate criminality."

"I'm not a policeman," said Barron, who told the employees that "every legal person" the organization had spoken to had said that they would have disregarded the women's letters because "they have no legal status or bearing."

"But hey, everyone knew, given our unique situation as a Catholic ministry, that there's a PR, it's a PR issue, it's a public relations issue," Barron said, claiming that there was "never a question of any sort of legal implications or ramifications."

The Word on Fire spokesman told NCR that Barron's statements attributed to him in the transcript "do not represent his personal opinions concerning the legal characterization of the interactions between Gloor and the victims."

"Rather, those were the conclusions reached by the independent, third-party investigator based on her experienced and professional assessment after extensive interviews and analysis of the evidence provided by those involved," the spokesman said.

And so on ... while the bromancer swallows it whole ...

What's interesting is this notion of a persecuted religion, when it would be hard to think of a religion that has managed to match the Catholic church in terms of its persecutions, its bigotry and its promotion of sundry hatreds, fears and loathings ... and not just the Inquisition or notable tools, such as book banning via the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ...

Up close, the way the cleansing of past sins is easy enough to track ...

According to Word on Fire's 990 tax filing for the tax year beginning July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, Gloor was the organization's highest-paid employee with a $135,657 annual salary. He earned more than Word on Fire's development director, John Barron, the brother of Bishop Barron, who had a $127,975 salary, according to tax documents.

Bishop Barron's Word on Fire salary for the tax year beginning July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, was reported at $37,694. Grunow, the priest-CEO, had a $58,904 salary, while Sean Lee, the senior director of operations who is currently serving as the interim CEO, had a $116,029 salary, according to the documents.

Founded by Bishop Barron and incorporated in 2007 as a nonprofit in Illinois, Word on Fire in the tax year beginning July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, reported $9.2 million in revenue, $3.6 million in operating expenses and 28 paid employees. The organization had since grown to the point where 58 staff members participated in last October's companywide meeting.

Since that internal Google Meet videoconference last October, at least six Word on Fire employees have resigned. Four of the resignees spoke to NCR; two others announced their decisions publicly.

Gloor appeared on MTV's "I Used to be Fat" television show in the 2000s and was also a fitness model and bodybuilder as well as a theater and English teacher in Los Angeles. He joined Word on Fire in 2016 after he said he experienced a life-changing religious conversion, according to a 2019 article by Bishop Barron.

Most articles and videos of Gloor talking about the Catholic faith and his role at Word on Fire seem to have been removed from the organization's website and social media channels. For example, one Reddit thread referring to a video of Gloor talking about his spiritual journey is still available, but the video itself has been removed from YouTube. The Internet archival tool Wayback Machine also has captured references to Gloor on Bishop Robert Barron's YouTube account that are no longer available.

There you go, disappeared, and off to the corn fields with him ... while the bromancer remains infatuated ...

Is there a problem with meddling, self-promoting priests, who use their religion to achieve personal fame and glory?

Shouldn't the pond just allow devotees of frock wearing to go about their business?

There is of course nothing wrong with wearing frocks, though the pond wishes that someone would remind the church there's all kinds of drag and drag lovers in the world ...

But meddling, meddlesome priests can do harm ...

Barron made a great show of deploring the attack on the Capitol, and so on, and yet, when it comes to self-promotion, he's always been handy, and so Trump, Barr, Barron speak at National Catholic Prayer breakfast ...

Talk about an unholy, unnatural trinity ... but at least it brings the pond to the final gobbet ...

Eternal truth?

Luckily there's an actual infallible Pope, and he evokes some current truths ...