(Any readers wanting some relgious tolerance in their posts today should look elsewhere.)

Archbishop Asshole Chimoio is the head of the Catholic church in Mozambique. There are about 20 million people in Mozambique. The CIA World Fact Book has this to say about Mozambique’s population:

Population: 20,905,585
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected; the 1997 Mozambican census reported a population of 16,099,246 (July 2007 est.)

The United States Center for Disease Control, has this to say:

Mozambique is one of 15 focus countries of the Emergency Plan which collectively represent at least 50 percent of HIV infections worldwide. Under the Emergency Plan, Mozambique received nearly $37.4 million in FY2004 to implement a comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care program in line with Mozambique’s national strategies. In FY2005, the U.S. is providing more than $57.2 million to support Mozambique’s fight against HIV/AIDS.

A 2003 CIA estimate puts the HIV/AIDs infection percentage at 12.2%. Other estimates have it as high as 16.2% (That one came from the BBC article, I will link to shortly.)

The BBC article also says that “17.5 per cent of Mozambicans are Catholic.” The CIA Factbook says 23.8% were Catholic according to a census in 1997.(Now, please note, there’s no data to correlate those two sets of numbers (percentage of HIV positive vs percentage of Catholic), and I’m not trying to imply any linkage without such data.)

This is just to illustrate that AIDs is one of the worst problems facing Mozambique, Africa and the world. It’s also to point out that Archbishop Chimoio has some amount of sway over at least 1/6th to 1/5th or more of the population.

So, what does he do? He not only continues to wave the idiotic Catholic banner against condoms, but claims that there are two countries in Europe that are making condoms that actually contain the HIV virus on purpose. He is either mentally imbalanced or willfully deceitful. Those are really the only two options I can come up with.

He also claims that the anti-retroviral drugs being used to combat HIV are also infected with the virus. So, not only is he actively enabling the spread of the disease, he’s trying to inhibit the tools that will help the already infected. So, maybe there’s another option? He’s fucking evil?

It’s reprehensible and irresponsible to attempt to stop the use of condoms in the first place. Furthermore, it’s despicable to spread such FUD about condoms and the anti-retrovirals. Lastly, it’s fucking insane to think that two European countries are involved in a conspiracy to wipe out the African peoples.

The Pope should fire his ass. Of course, we’ve seen that this new Pope is no fucking genius when it comes to PR.

So, in closing, I’d just like to say: Fuck you Archbishop Chimoio, and fuck the Catholic Church. Fuck you right in your medieval-pointy-hat-wearing heads.

About this time last year, I blogged about missing The Amazing Meeting 4.

So, it’s time for my new, unfortunate, annual tradition of bitching about missing this year’s TAM.

Unlike last year, I knew exactly when TAM 5 was coming. However, I just couldn’t make it work. I guess that is, perhaps, one step closer to actually attending. Knowing beforehand that I wasn’t going to make it was supposed to soften the blow of not actually going.

However, coverage of this year’s event is so much better than last year’s that it’s almost painful. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for all the bloggers and podcasters that are talking about it and I’m enjoying the discussions and interviews. It is, however, a stark reminder that I did not go.

So, now I vow to go to TAM 6. (This is different from last year’s statement of intent because I used the word “vow”. It’s a very strong word, you know.) I can’t believe it’s a year away.

<emo>sigh</emo>

Ok, I suppose that’s unfair. She’s been a lying bitch a lot longer than that. It’s only been 270 weeks since she accepted James Randi’s challenge to prove her abilities.

Via James Randi Educational Foundation:

On September 3, 2001, Sylvia Browne accepted the specific protocol for a definitive test for the JREF million-dollar challenge, on Larry King Live. The box shows the number of weeks since that date. And, it has been more than 294 weeks since she first agreed to be tested on March 6, 2001!

There’s a clip from the Larry King show on Randi’s site. In it, Sylvia mentions that Randi has been challenging her for a while, but she has a “day job” (I’m not certain con artist should be called a “day job”, it’s insulting to people who work for a living)… however, she does accept the challenge. Of course, that was 2001.

270 weeks and she hasn’t found a spare moment to follow through on her word?

Shocking, ain’t it?