The Vatican wants to sue a clothing company over an ad.
“It is a serious lack of respect for the Pope, an affront to the feelings of the faithful and an evident demonstration of how, in the field of advertising, the most elemental rules of respect for others can be broken in order to attract attention by provocation,” Holy See spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement about the ad.
“The Secretariat of State is examining the steps that may be taken with the competent authorities in order to guarantee adequate protection for the figure of the Holy Father,” Lombardi said, referring to the Vatican’s secretary of state.
Odd…I wouldn’t have even noticed the ad, and certainly wouldn’t have thought to put up a blog post about it, except for the fact that the Vatican is popping blood vessels all over the place over it. So here you go, free advertising for Benetton!
Misuse in an ad is something for which they have to sue.
And Benetton probably knew that, playing catch 22. Greed is their game.
No reason to praise either side of the 1%.
Glen Davidson
What it comes to bring disrespect to Pope, nobody does it better than the Pope himself. The problem is that he has not noticed.
It is a serious lack of respect for the Pope
Not illegal, or something to sue over.
an affront to the feelings of the faithful
Not illegal, or something to sue over.
and an evident demonstration of how, in the field of advertising, the most elemental rules of respect for others can be broken in order to attract attention by provocation
But breaking the most elemental rules of respect for differences of opinion about a cracker can result in a blogger receiving death threats. And breaking the elemental rules of respect about the bodily autonomy of women in children is A-OK.
Scumbags.
I think the ad is cute and funny, and fits in with the long-running theme of unity that Bennetton has long used in their advertising.
If the Catholic Church doesn’t want people to rib them for being such douchebag hypocrites for condemning gay marriage while one of their priests kisses men. then maybe they should stop, you know, kissing men where they can be photographed, eh?
“It is a serious lack of respect for the Pope, an affront to the feelings of the faithful and an evident demonstration of how, in the field of advertising, the most elemental rules of respect for others can be broken in order to attract attention by provocation,”
–>He says that like it’s a bad thing.
If the pope doesn’t want to be photographed, maybe he should stop appearing in public.
Libellous! That papal homoerotic encounter was blatantly photoshopped… unlike this one!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rbxov7CVi8
I nearly choked when he almost got up, thought better of it and sat back down again. Never a bible about when you need one is there?
According to the linked article, this is a doctored photo – seems the Pope did not kiss (this particular) dude, some Muslim poobah or something.
The Vatican will finally get to grips with the workings of the Internet in about four centuries time, thanks to an innovative modernization program implemented by Pope Pedobear II.
Not Photoshoped :)
Any former military out there…. Fox article on a cross at Camp Pendleton.
http://radio.foxnews.com//toddstarnes/top-stories/military-investigates-memorial-cross-at-camp-pendleton.html
Wouldn’t mind seeing some actually intelligent comments made in the comments section. Yea, I know, it’s like trying to bail against the Atlantic Ocean.
That photo is the most positive thing I’ve seen about the pope. Ever.
The threat, however, is the same old evil self-aggrandizement we’ve come to expect from the Vatican. If the pope is ashamed about smooching in public, he should stay home.
Uh-oh. We know what “protection” means to RC clergy: wearing an altarboy as a condom.
I find this ad hilarious. I wish the pope would make out with imams. It would be a better use of time for each of them, than their religious pursuits.
They might have a case for a lawsuit — unlicensed use of a personal image with implication of commercial endorsement or some such rot. I’m not a lawyer, so I’m just guessing.
Still won’t enable prior restraint nor prevent the Streissand effect. Also won’t help in the wider arena of society if they have to indicate any dislike for Benneton’s “brotherhood of all mankind”, try to say there should be an exception made about that for teh icky gay, or admit that the picture can be taken out of cultural context to raise questions about the sexuality of two guys smooching on the lips while wearing dresses.
Re: the pic.
Aawww. True love my heart just melts.
What’s wrong with making money? Money is awesome!
My primary reaction to this photo is, “Gross! Why would anyone want to kiss Papa Ratzi?!”
Their sweaters fit large on me, but their ads fit just right.
I’m interested, though, in how the Vatican City State actually thinks it can sue someone over the unflattering use of the pope’s image. Does the Vatican realise that it has just pulled a ‘don’t draw Mohammed card’ as well as a Streisand effect card? And, really, is a flattering picture of that heinous man even possible?
Is the Pope, and thus the current incarnation of the Pope, a registered trademark that’s recognised anywhere? I somehow doubt it. I suppose they’ll try the defamation route. It would be very funny to see the Vatican have to try to show how using Ratzinger’s photo to insinuate a male to male kiss -it might even be sexual, but of course, that interpretation would say more about the Vatican than of the photo, given it’s apparent intent- is somehow defamatory. Is there something wrong with two men kissing? Let the Vatican decide. The Vatican: pleasantly antiquated.
The imam doesn’t seem to enjoy it.
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
whaat! since when ??
@madbull:
You may have triggered a bad word?
I don’t which side of the story I abhor most. The Pope or Luciano Benetton and his family?
This time, I think I’ll root for the Pope (yuk barf).
Blasphemy, sacrilege, impiety and disrespect of religion and religious leaders are great and wholesome. But Benetton – a self-serving, greedy, narcissistic piece of filth if there ever was one – is doing it purely for profit, to sell f*****g sweaters, crappy sweaters at that.
Mocking the Pope simply to bring in some moolah (**drum-roll**) gives blasphemy a bad name.
The pope is not playing his cards right. Instead of suing, he should be making as many public appearances in clothing from the United Colors of Benetton. Because I am sure that having an 80-year-old-child-rape-enabling-ex-nazi as a spokesperson would do wonders for the sales department.
Sasquatch Jesus
Oh, and the Streisand Effect doesn’t work for the Pope. Everybody already knows where he lives and you can even visit the place :-)
More seriously, the campaign has already gotten its full exposure. So suing Benetton won’t make it more visible. Here, it looks like the Vatican means to inflict substantial damage on Benetton. May both sides lose their money in lawyers fees.
Ratzi’s just annoyed that it’s Benetton. He’s more of a Prada guy.
They’re so cute when they pretend to be a real country!
Friakel Wippans, concern is noted. Sad smiley.
For fuck’s sake, of course it’s a bloody marketing ploy! Everything a commercial enterprise does in media is a marketing plow. Why should this marketing ploy seem so egregious? Because it’s overt and may actually be successful? I can think of other concerns, not the least of which is why the Vatican can act butt-hurt about an ad, but can’t be arsed to do anything substantive about the child rape in the Catholic Church and it’s affiliated organisations, like, I don’t know, do anything substantive.
Seriously, Benetton might be a ‘self-serving, greedy, narcissistic piece of filth if there ever was one,’ but even a ‘self-serving, greedy, narcissistic piece of filth,’ can take the pope down a notch (though, there ought to be nothing wrong with that ad at all). It doesn’t mean anyone, even you, has to like or appreciate Benetton, either the man or his company. I, at least, think the ad is great independent of its obvious marketing motive and the fact that a silly attempt at branding do-nothing feel-good ‘social responsibility’ is apparently an end-point; Benetton isn’t selling his crappy sweaters to me. Besides, it’s so fucking easy to piss off the Pope, I can’t imagine how anyone could even avoid it. I would it were I had the money to effect an international ad campaign to upset the child rape apologist and protector myself (more than upset, really).
First it was Prada… now it’s Benetton – is there any fashion brand the Pope wouldn’t whore himself out to for a quick buck.
I said BUCK, ok? BUCK… oh forget it.
I assumed it was just a pope look-alike model. So that’s really the pope? Then I suppose that’s a Kiss of Peace. Over which the pope declares war, ha-ha-ha!
More seriously, the campaign has already gotten its full exposure. So suing Benetton won’t make it more visible.
I’d never seen it before today. Specifically, here.
What, they’re just kissing. Did I miss something?
I suppose it would be a LOT less offensive if it were a 10-year-old boy.
A priest kissing someone who is clearly not underage, the Vatican should be ecstatic. But seriously are they really that dumb? The people in the other ads in the series (Netanyahu kissing Abbas, Obama kissing Hugo Chavez) kept their mouth shut and hardly anyone seen these while the poop made a big stink and now his picture is all over the internet and seen by millions who otherwise would have never heard of it.
Kiss of death?
Hawt!
… No, wait. The opposite. Yuck.
The pope might have a point if he were a model selling his image for cash; but he’s a public figure.
You know what makes you look worse than a goofy shopped photo? Institutionalized rape of young boys…
The guy who made it official policy to support and protect child rapists has forfeited any claim for respect. When he was Head of the Inquisition, Benny Ratzi* decided the prestige and dignity of the Church were more important than the welfare of children. And then he has the chutzpah to claim his organization is the moral authority on Earth.
*He was Joey Ratzi at the time.
Benetton still exists? Congratulations Vatican, you just brought back to the limelight a company that I thought had disappeared around 20 years ago. Makes me want to dig through the boxes in my closet and see if I still have my Swatch. Ooh! And my Life’s A Beach boardshorts.
Whether it is photoshopped or not, the Vatican is hella dumb. Why give this stuff a massive amount of publicity? Publicity has been around for 1000s of years, it is not like it is a new concept that the Church has yet to grasp. Jesus Fucking Christ the Catholic Church is run by morons.
unhate–now that’s advertising!
BURN! Vatican got told, yo!
We certainly don’t need to explain the Streisand Effect to Bennetton; it’s very likely they were counting on it. Who could blame them? Religionist offence is like an acid/base reaction – entirely predictable and always creating the gas of outrage & the precipitate of free PR.
In other news, Jesus Christ is suing the Vatican for damages over unauthorised use of his image, libel and slander, and seeking an injunction against further use of his image or name. Speaking at a recent press conference, Joshua ben Joseph, known to Christians around the world as Jesus Christ, tearfully claimed that the association of his image with the Catholic Church, and Christianity in general caused him “unending pain and mental anguish” and “made [him] want to vomit at the sound of [his] own name”.
“Imagine someone made a likeness of you while you were being tortured, and then sold it to billions of people to use to adorn their houses, cars, and places of worship,” he told reporters, “imagine people spoke to you of eating your flesh and drinking your blood in order to live forever. It would be bad humour if they were joking, but they’re dead serious and it’s terrifying,” adding that his fear of Christians, whom he referred to as “anti-semitic cannibals”, has kept him “basically heaven-bound during the best years of [his] eternal existence” before breaking down and sobbing. Holding on to an unidentified female for support, he recovered to say that claims that he suffered from dissociative identity disorder are “totally unfounded. Why anyone would accept the word of a fifth century Celt as authoritative on matters of mental health is beyond me, and I’m omniscient, for my sake!”
Neither Mr. ben Joseph nor his lawyer would disclose the amount in damages they were seeking from the church except to note that, should their suit be successful, the world could expect to see a “massive scale-back of their stupid gilded hat budget” among Roman Catholic clergy. Further, Church officials and Church laity would be unable to refer to themselves as ‘Christians’ in the future. “We don’t care what they call themselves, as long as the words ‘Jesus’ and ‘Christ’ aren’t involved. Frankly, I’d love to see all billion of them come together to agree on a new name, but I don’t think it’s likely,” Jesus’ lawyer said, referring to schisms and sectarian in-fighting.
Vatican officials declined to comment on the case other than to say that they were waiting for definitive proof that the plaintiff was the actual Jesus of Nazareth, whom they claim is their god and messiah. “This fellow, whoever he is, has dark curly hair and brown eyes and has none of the Teutonic features we know Our Lord to have,” a spokesperson for the Church said. However, an anonymous source close to the Pope said that Benedict XVI wept tears of joy when he first saw the plaintiff on the news, though his joy reportedly turned to disappointment when he learned that the man identifying himself as ‘Jesus’ was not “a Mexican with more of that Aztec gold.”
Typical of the morons at the Vatican – make a huge fuss about nothing, pretty much ensuring the wide exposure of the very thing they are trying to suppress due to the inexorable logic of the Streisand effect – and then try to intimidate people into silence by snarling only to reveal that the Catholic lion has shrunken into a toothless, incontinent domestic moggy. Threats of hellfire just don’t cut it with anyone who isn’t a committed fundie or a small child, and with the Inquisition having gone the way of the dodo, threats of a mythological hot lava spa in the basement really is all that they have got.
It didn’t work when they tried to firghten people into not watching Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and it won’t work now.
This is the first I’ve seen of this particular ad. I did see another one of this series, which features Kim Jong-il locking lips with the PM of South Korea. A South Korean co-worker of mine has it on his office door. Many were his laughs.
I don’t care for Benneton’s clothes (don’t fit me, not my style), but this ad campaign is brilliant.
I also think they were counting on the Streisand effect. I mean, like they WEREN’T expecting this response?
Ramen.
@ Brownian – Now you mention it, the last time I visited Rome the Vatican giftshop was selling a fantastically kitsch hologram postcard portrait of Jesus which morphed into an image of the Virgin Mary when you turned it 15 Degrees.
I think it’s quite progressive that they’re promoting transexual messiahs on the Vatican’s own doorstep – I can just picture the Rocky Horror mashup of Jesus Christ Superstar now:
“I’m just a sweet transexual,
transvestite,
from Judea-ah-ahhaaaa”
@Brownian #41
I’m stealing that. That has got to be the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time!
Reacting to this only make it more noticeable. Also more tongue.
Who is the Pope is kissing? He looks like a Persian Santa Claus.
They could send the Benneton people to hell but they got rid of it! Cut backs really suck.
Cheers!
Or maybe a Turkish one.
‘United Colours of Benetton’. So that’s where Ratzi got his shoes.
Well done Brownian, well done!
I’m not so sure that making a fuss about this is a bad move for the church. Remember, a large fraction of their followers appear to love claiming to be on the receiving end of some of that persecution they were promised. Sure, non-Catholics will smirk, but we do that already. It’s a cheap way of putting a little fire in the bellies of some of the church’s increasingly demoralised followers.
Brownian, that was… awesome.
I saw a piece of news about it on the ultra-sycophantic news on Italian public channel RAI1. They did not show the very picture they were talking about.
For the trivia lovers, the Italian expression for that translates as “asslicking”.
Wait -what?
I can see why the pope was offended. Now if the picture was of him kissing a small boy…..
Yes, it’s Photoshopped, but the big problem is that in the photo, they made the Pope look like a bottom and we can’t have that.
Let’s not forget the ice cream company whose ads were banned in England because they bothered the Catholic Church:
http://www.examiner.com/atheism-in-philadelphia/catholic-church-upset-over-ice-cream-advertisement
Isn’t the pope’s boss everywhere, including up my ass. So the photoshop pope is just emulating the big boss. Explains the pedo stuff.
I’ll just leave this here.
(I shopped the ad stuff out with content-aware fills, so it’s ready to be captioned.)
Hey, Vatican, don’t worry – it’s not real, it’s just some made up nonsense. Don’t get worked up about it, no sane person would believe it. It just plays on people’s prejudices to extract money from their wallets and corrupt their kids.
Also, there’s a Benetton advert.
@Jemima Cole
I see what you did there.
Dear Catholic Church: time to go home now, shows’ over.
You’ve just been Brownian’d, see. Ain’t no comin’ back from that.
this Brownian fellow has brightened the cosmos again. bravo Brownian bravo!
Fucking misplaced apostrophes can go hang
Brownian wins one internets.
– I Do not see any issues with the photo, its “cute”. It suits the promotion of Peace between Christianity and Ragheads.
I certainly agree with it as a atheist.
You can’t win.
Well boo-fucking-hoo.
That’s clearly photoshopped. That guy is way too old for the pope.
Dear Bob:
Fuck off, you racist shit.
@Katherine #19
I said ‘imam’, prolly thats why :P
Pedobear disapproves!
Oh good. people disrespect the pope.
More disrespect, more disdain and more dislike for the Pope and everything he stands for.
Why sue? If the pope is god’s special bloke on earth, why not get god to say, strike ’em down with lightning, 40 days and nights of bleach raining from the sky or even anything which may suggest the fraudulent god thing is real? That’s called evidence.
Brownian….
your #41 tells me you really should apply to write for the Onion, for your sake!
Because the Pope is so important we must save it for a good occasion?
I don’t think you understand.
Here’s my solution for Benetton:
Move the ad to a different billboard or different magazines, then issue a statement decrying how “normal” this sort of thing was in the 1970’s.
Problem solved.
Killed By Fish
Molly Alert on aisle 41!
Thank you, Brownian.
Brownian has already had a Molly inflicted on him.
Poor Popsey, his little tizzy reminds me a little bit of Falwell~vs~Flynt.
Good for laff anyway.
Madbull, #18: If you post a comment with more than two links, it automatically goes into moderation in case you’re a spammer.
lag, #58: That first ad. GUH. WANT. And I don’t mean the ice cream.
‘Tis, #66: Actually, Brownian wins all the internets.
Ms Daisy: You are a lesbian?
Bob: You are a dumbass.
@Ing
You agree it’s a marketing ploy, a way for Benetton to get tongues awagling and get free advertising? And it worked.
The problem is that there are actual, urgent and important reasons to beat on Ratzi.
So it annoys me to no end to see those knitting pieces of @#$# from Benetton polluting important issues and giving Ratzi an opportunity to cast himself as an innocent victim of “anti-catholic vindictiveness”, all of that in order for !#*($&ing Benetton to sell more cheaply-made, overpriced sweaters.
In public relations, contrast matters a lot and you want the background noise to be as low as possible around an issue or a target. That kind of Benetton crap DOES weaken the impact of legitimate actions. They get lost in the blur and dismissed as just yet more “knee-jerk, opportunistic, ill-spirited pope bashing”.
The paradox is that Ratzi himself may well do us all a favor if he manages to extract a chunky pound of flesh off the rear-ends of those Benetton jerks and deter them and others for-profits opportunists from raising the background noise.
I’m also old enough to remember Benetton’s “socially conscious” advertising campaigns from 25 years ago. It did wonders for Benetton’s name recognition but not a single darn positive thing for the issues they were using to promote their name. So, I’m always happy to see those @$#*bags on the receiving end.
So, for once … Go Ratzi!!!
(barf)
BigDumbChimp, that is the problem with people like you, walking around insulting people for no reason. Get a life and learn to shut up rather then insult people eh? Get a Life and Grow Up!
An impressively incoherent stream of non-sequiturs.
[meta]
Bob, the truth hurts you, doesn’t it? :)
YOUR STUPID MINDS!
For a second there, I read “United Cocks of Benetton” in the bottom right corner of the picture.
*shiver*
♪
If the cocks are united, then we’ll never be divided
♪
Benneton fixed:
Ratzi meet Porcupine, Porcupine meet Ratzi. (Linky … reposted from TET)
walking around insulting people for no reason
no reason?
uh, YOU seem like a pretty good reason to pile on insults to me Bob.
oh, and consider that an insult with a reason.
Bob, do you actually not realize that “raghead” is a slur and asking “you’re a lesbian?” when a woman expresses (implicitly sexual) interest in a heterosexual implied sex scene is very difficult to take a positive view of?
Friakel Wippans
I disagree. The title of the adverts was “unhate” – and the crux of them was anti-homophobia, and anti-tribalism (including religious tribalism).
two messages that are very, very important in the world today. Normally the fashion industry has all the social conscience of a psychopath but in these ads it puts forward a message which is controversial because it actually says something important, rather than its usual simple trolling.
I like where this is going. Giggidy.
Say, why don’t we have some fun with this? Let’s turn this into a meme: Gay Pope! r/atheism is going to have some fun with this…
I don’t really see what’s wrong with the ad though. Surely Papa Razi knew that he was being photographed when he met that guy, so he can’t really blame anybody but himself.
Classic advert. Love it.
Typical Catholic Shock! Horror! shitting themselves response.
Protecting the Pope’s figure? Well putting him on a strict diet and making the old blighter jog and excercise generally a lot more should help there right? Not that he’ll ever be much of a looker at least to most folks eyes. Besides I though it was the Poops mind they thought was worth respecting not his scrawny old body – although the Poops mind could use a lot of remedial repair work too.
@Ragutis : 18 November 2011 at 3:00 pm :
Well, the Formula One team :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benetton_Formula
disappeared many years ago and doesn’t exist anymore. Apparently some other company thing going under that name exists and does something though.
@41.Brownian : 18 November 2011 at 3:13 pm
Awesome work. Classic.
Alright guys, here is his holiness: Hypocritical Pope!
Have fun, repost, and share if you feel like it!
I really do need to get some sort of hobby…
@8.dumbname : 18 November 2011 at 1:52 pm
Dude, when it comes to picking your battles this is definitely NOT a good one to choose!
This particular Cross was /is a heartfelt emotional, symbolic memorial to fallen comrades – carried up there by marines themselves – NOT an attempt to shove religion in people’s faces.
This is a non-denominational memorial cross. Please note that in the comments on that one news item you linked a considerable number of Jewish, agnostic and even atheist commenters have pointed out that they have no problem with it and, in fact, support its continued presence because ist about tehFallen Marines NOT religion.
Protesting about and taking umbrage at this particular cross strikes me being petty, mean-spirited and seriously missing the flippin’ point. I think whining about this Camp Pendleton Memorial to Fallen US Marines gives atheists a bad name and brings them into disrepute with the wider community.
Even if there is some technical merit – and I’m not saying there necesssarily even is – to the objecting atheists arguments here note that there is a time to pick and choose your issues and fights and picking this one is just apallingly bad judgement.
Let the Fallen Marines Memorial stand. Let this particular (non)issue go throught to the keeper as they say. Let’s be smart and compassionate here; virtues us atheists and agnostics are keen to demonstrate we hold to a religious majority that already thinsk we’re bastards without needing this sort of proof.
Thank you Brownian, that was so good … Damn, I’m just going to have to take a(nother) number, amn’t I?
Hat-tip also to feralboy12 #78.
“It is a serious lack of respect for the Pope”
Job done.
ZK
@100 StevoR
This particular Cross was /is a heartfelt emotional, symbolic memorial to fallen comrades – carried up there by marines themselves – NOT an attempt to shove religion in people’s faces.
Ok, so let’s substitute the cross for a crescent moon, a hammer & sickle, or perhaps a swastika then? It’s just a lump of stuff, a symbol after all, it’s not sending out any message or shoving an ideology at anyone. Oh no.
Pfffft.
ZK
I notice that the white house aren’t happy with the campaign which includes the President and the president of China as well http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-slams-benettons-obama-kissing-ads-180832880.html
Bravo 41, I will steal this as well. It deserves it’s own posts.
To answer the question in the title of this post: I sure hope not! The longer Pope Ratzi remains in blissful ignorance, the more changes there will be for him to perform Streisand Effect-ogenic acts of utter, burning stoopid.
Sally, #90:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=docking
Bruce, #96: I disagree with Friakel that the ad shouldn’t have been made — the Vatican needs all the mockery that can be thrown at it — but let’s not pretend the campaign was purely high-minded. Shock value sells.
Speaking as a lawyer, the Pope has every right to sue. Use of a public figure’s image in advertising without permission is illegal under U.S. law.
There is a pretty good discussion of the use of public figures in advertising at http://www.reelseo.com/public-figures-video-marketing/
Brownian, #41
That was priceless. :)
I heard it said once that if Jesus ever did return, it would be the worst day in the existence of the Church.
Difav, #60
You asked for captions? Here’s one…
“No tongue!”
CBLF,
Unfortunately neither party is under US law.
MM,
IANAL, but similar laws can be found in other jurisdictions, for example in Germany. But top politicians usually know what the Streisand effect is and usually do not sue…
It is an offense! A terrible offense!
The Pope would never kiss a man that old!
(If he kissed any part of an adult male, that would be teh gay! Ewwwww! [makes repeated panicked rapid crosses in the air])
What offends them is not what the picture shows, but what it doesn’t show. At least the imam has one of his hands visible. We can see by the Pope’s shoulders that his hands are engaged below. Stirring up the nether regions. Harrowing, you might say. (Ahem.)
Makes no difference, since the advertisements are run in the U.S. by an American company.
It reminds me of that quote
“It’s interesting to speculate how it developed that in two of the most anti-feminist institutions, the church and the law court, the men are wearing the dresses.”
–Flo Kennedy
Probably needs to be updated to include the mosque.
So Benetton are trolling the Vatican now? They must be desparate. I’m another person who thought that they’d faded away years ago.
Still… it’s pretty funny, but I’m not sure about how much it will do for their sales.
*desperate
My spelling has been getting worse the older I get. Not great.
Says the stupid, lying, hypocritical bigot who refers to homosexual people as “faggots” and Muslims (or perhaps Arabs) as “ragheads”.
You really are scum, Bob.
Awesome advert, pity about the sweatshops.
Who cares? Both are photoshopped delusionals, and whether they are photoshopped or not does not alter their delusional status one iota.
But it’s so much FUN to watch ’em oscillate! (As well as osculate…)
It’s hard to figure religion. In the eastern orthodox church, kissing a cleric is a way to receive the church’s blessing.
There’s something incongruous about the very idea of the Vatican suing anybody. It’s like “We’ve got God on our side, but we’re going to get secular law involved.” Serve two masters, anyone?
Such a lovely message. I don’t understand why it makes them angry.
Kieran @ 104, for bizarre values of ‘slams’.
From your link:Blockquote>“The White House has a longstanding policy disapproving of the use of the president’s name and likeness for commercial purposes,” spokesman Eric Schultz told AFP”
[…]
An earlier use of Obama’s image for commercial purposes angered the White House in January 2010, when a jacket manufacturer put up a large billboard in New York’s Times Square featuring the president wearing the company’s dark jacket while on a visit to the Great Wall of China during an official trip.
“A leader in style,” the ad said.
The White House complained, and the ad was removed days later.Seems like a very reasonable and consistent response to a question from the press.
Also note the source is AFP, one of the worst newspapers in the free world.