{"id":7672,"date":"2026-04-17T07:53:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=7672"},"modified":"2026-04-17T07:53:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:53:39","slug":"picking-a-fight-with-the-pope-dumb-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/picking-a-fight-with-the-pope-dumb-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Picking a Fight With the Pope: Dumb Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>

But your flag decal won\u2019t get you into Heaven anymore<\/em><\/p>\n

They\u2019re already overcrowded from your dirty little war<\/em><\/p>\n

Now Jesus don\u2019t like killin\u2019, no matter what the reason\u2019s for<\/em><\/p>\n

And your flag decal won\u2019t get you into Heaven anymore<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 John Prine<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beloved troubadour John Prine wrote Your Flag Decal Won\u2019t Get You Into Heaven Anymore<\/em> in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War. At a live concert I listened to on Spotify, he said the song\u2019s idea came to him while he was a mail carrier in Chicago. Back then, Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em> was highly popular. Prine said mail carriers hated the magazine for its small but bulky size. One issue included flag decals that kept falling out, forcing the beleaguered carriers to repeatedly stuff them back inside before delivering the magazines. Thus the idea arose for this classic anti-war song.<\/p>\n

That song came to mind while subjecting myself to the daily torture of watching the television news, flipping between CNN and MS NOW. Faux News is a joke, a propaganda tool firmly in the oily grasp of President Orange Skin. The CNN anchor was interviewing a congressman about the illegal and ill-considered war that the United States and Israel launched against Iran, now in its seventh week. He wore a flag pin on his jacket lapel. This is apparently a legal requirement for any male politician appearing on television.<\/p>\n

Women in the POS administration tend to wear tiny gold crosses. Witness the newly fired Pam Bondi, who, as attorney general, helped turn the Department of Justice into the \"\"<\/a>personal persecution machine for POS. She always wore a tiny gold cross, even while insulting members of Congress at hearings. (To U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, a constitutional law professor for more than 25 years: You\u2019re not even a lawyer<\/em>.) Her firing is fresh evidence that loyalty to POS is a one-way street. No matter how greatly his lackeys debase themselves, their tenure is always tenuous.<\/p>\n

There should be no dispute that POS is increasingly demented. The now-deleted AI image of him \u2014 cloaked as Jesus laying hands on someone, with militaristic images in the background along with, yes, the American flag and the Statue of Liberty thrown in for good measure \u2014 is not just sacrilegious. It is batshit crazy.<\/p>\n

Speaking of foolish, the war the United States and Israel have launched against Iran is going to be a strong candidate for the dumbest American war in our 250-year history. POS threatened to destroy an entire civilization \u2014 90 million people \u2014 if Iran did not reach a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. As of now, a shaky ceasefire is being held by a thread.<\/p>\n

Both POS and his Vice POS are inexplicably picking fights with Pope Leo, who is carefully calling for peace and less war, without naming names or being overtly political. As is his annoying habit, the Vice POS lectured the pontiff on theology \u2014 the head of the denomination to which he recently converted to and is writing a book about it (can\u2019t wait to read that<\/em>!).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the least-qualified defense secretary in history, Pistol Pete Hegseth \u2014 who likely wears his lapel flag pin in the shower pinned to his tattooed chest \u2014 led a Pentagon prayer session to rally the troops for what he is calling the holy war<\/em> in Iran. Pistol Pete said his prayer was based on a Bible passage in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel. \u201cThey call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17,\u201d he said. (CSAR stands for Combat Search and Rescue, which recently successfully and admirably rescued two downed airmen shot down over Iran.)<\/p>\n

Actually, Pistol Pete\u2019s prayer was nearly identical to a monologue delivered by actor Samuel L. Jackson in Quentin Tarantino\u2019s film Pulp Fiction<\/em>, right before Jackson\u2019s character kills someone. At least Pistol Pete didn\u2019t quote from Snakes on a Plane<\/em>, where Jackson famously shouts, \u201cI have had<\/em> it with these motherf**ing snakes on this motherf**ing plane. Everybody strap in!\u201d<\/p>\n

A few days after posting the image of him as Christ laying his hand on an ill, elderly man, POS was at it again. This time it was an AI image of Jesus embracing Trump. It is either Jesus or George Harrison. I am not sure.<\/p>\n

This man has entirely too much time on his hands. Our nation and society are suffering from his dangerous, erratic behavior. As the sticker on one of our vehicles says, \u201cElect a Clown. Expect a Circus.\u201d Boy howdy, do we ever have a circus.<\/p>\n

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Print this entryBut your flag decal won\u2019t get you into Heaven anymore They\u2019re already overcrowded from your dirty little war Now Jesus don\u2019t like killin\u2019, no matter what the reason\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[85,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-85","category-columns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7672"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7675,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7672\/revisions\/7675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}