Tim Minchin On Conan O'Brien

Hilarious Australian comedian/musician Tim Minchin made his U.S. debut on Conan O'Brien last night, performing his classic Inflatable You. (A less censored version is at that link.) You may recall the last Minchin song I posted, the insanely catchy Pope Song.

NY Post Writer Quits For Priesthood

New York Post editorial writer and columnist John Wilson has quit the newspaper business to become a Catholic priest.

Wilson spent three years on the Post's editorial board, landing there immediately after graduating from Claremont McKenna College in California. "I definitely grew fond of tabloid journalism as such," he says. "I had a great time and I think I was able to do some meaningful work there." He added that the Post's reputation for racy headlines and occasionally bawdy humor had little to do with his decision to seek a life of celibacy and the spirit, and said he was able to infuse a little bit of the sacred into his work there. "The phrase you hear a lot of in priestly circles is 'Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable,'" he said. "At the very least I hope I've managed to afflict some powerful and comfortable people at the Post."

From the right-wing homophobic NY Post to the Catholic Church. That's a short walk, innit?

HomoQuotable - Andrew Sullivan

"It is worth noting, once again, how utterly hollow the Vatican is on the subject of homosexuality. It is an institution so embedded with homosexuality it makes Broadway look straight. The stories I've heard! The network of gay priests is vast in Rome, and is, in my mind, as unhealthy for those who get away with it - the hypocrisy must hollow out the soul in the end - as for those who impose it. Instead of grappling with this fact, owning it, and seeking to diversify the priesthood by ending the celibacy requirement and men-only anachronism, the Vatican clings on to denial and repression.

"And as society and the actual church evolves - as both must - the denial and repression must increase in proportion - until the sheer ridiculousness of the whole thing becomes apparent even to the most devout. Increasingly, on these issues of modernity, the Vatican of the new millennium seems like the Soviet Politburo of the 1980s. They pretend to believe what they preach while we pretend to obey them. One day, this surreality will pop like a bubble. One day." - Devout Catholic Andrew Sullivan, responding to the latest gay scandal at the Vatican.

RELATED: If you ever get a chance to sit down with our Father Tony, ask him for a few of his juicier stories from his time serving at the Vatican. "Gayer than Broadway" is putting it mildly.

Second Highest Vatican Official Blames Pedophilia Scandal On Gay Men

The Pope's number two man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, whose home archdiocese has recently imprisoned priests for molesting young girls, is blaming the Catholic Church's problem with child fuckers on gay men.

The Vatican's second-highest authority says the sex scandals haunting the Roman Catholic Church are linked to homosexuality and not celibacy among priests. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, made the comments during a news conference Monday in Chile, where one of the church's highest-profile pedophile cases involves a priest having sex with young girls. "Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia. But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true," said Bertone. "That is the problem." His comments drew angry reactions from Chile's gay rights advocates.

"Neither Bertone nor the Vatican has the moral authority to give lessons on sexuality," said Rolando Jimenez, president of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation in Chile. Jimenez also said no reputable study exists to support the cardinal's claims. "This is a perverse strategy by the Vatican to shirk its own ethical and legal responsibility by making a spurious and disgusting connection," he said. At least one of the highest-profile pedophiles in the Chilean church victimized young girls, including a teenager who became pregnant. At the time, the archbishop of the capital, Santiago, received multiple complaints about Father Jose Andres Aguirre from families concerned for their daughters. But the priest — known to his parishioners as Father Tato — continued serving at a number of Catholic girls schools in the city. Later the church sent Aguirre out of Chile twice amid abuse allegations. He was eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison for abusing 10 teenage girls.

The guilty dog barks the loudest, Cardinal Bertone. What are YOU hiding?

Tweet Of The Day - Conan O'Brien

After the debacle that was his exit from NBC, Conan O'Brien has landed a new late night show at TBS.

The Turner Entertainment president, Steve Koonin, laid out the network’s offer to give Mr. O’Brien a show at 11 p.m. weeknights, but Mr. Polone said that the Conan side had an immediate reaction: “You guys already have an 11 p.m. show.” He was referring to the current 11 p.m. late-night show on TBS, hosted by comedian George Lopez. Mr. Polone said that Mr. Koonin told him everything had been worked out and that Mr. Lopez had agreed to slide his show back to midnight to make room for Mr. O’Brien. But that script was awfully familiar to the Conan O’Brien side. “That sounded very similar to Jeff Gaspin coming to Conan and asking him to move back to midnight to make room for Jay,” Mr. Polone said.

O'Brien agreed to the new gig only after Lopez called him personally to endorse the move of his own show.

(Via - Gothamist)