Vatican excorcist squad is go for launch

It's always the 5th century at the Vatican: "The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism." By Satanism, do they mean the worship of Satan (which would virtually require being a Catholic in order to believe in Satan in the first place)? Or do they mean Satanism as in "wavering faith in the church and its magical capabilities?"

The Vatican sees the need to place "trained exorcists" in every diocese in the world because "People suffer and think that turning to the Devil can help solve their problems. We are being bombarded by requests for exorcisms." How does one turn to the Devil? In what media is the Devil so successfully advertising his services?

I might suggest that the rise in exorcism requests is correlated with three social factors:

• Rising cost of mental health services.
• Uninsurability of mental health patients, forcing people to turn away from credible medical care out of fear that they'll lose coverage.
• Declining educational standards and the world-wide trend toward religious mysticism over scientific thinking.

I wonder how many exorcists are trained to recognize when a person needs to see a psychiatrist rather than sit through a prayer ritual.

AP violates family's wishes for no good reason.

In a story carried by ABC News, Associated Press writers Jordan Robertson and Marcus Wohlsen disclosed the names of two victims from the recent tiger attack at the San Fransisco zoo. The article notes that "Their names were provided by hospital and law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the family had not yet given permission to release their names."

These writers (and their editors) evidently felt it was worth wasting a few inches of column space for no other purpose than to wag their middle fingers at the concept of family privacy. What public interest is served by disclosing the names of these victims at this time? I, for one, don't care what their names are, but their families obviously cared enough to request anonymity. It seems bizarre that these writers, their editors, and "hospital and law-enforcement sources" would collude to disclose this information against family wishes. Perhaps they are expecting some random person to step up and say, "Kulbir Dhaliwal? I know him! I've seen him taunt tigers all the time! He just can't help himself around a tiger cage."

Actually, I hope that's exactly what happens. May these events unfold to prove my outrage frivolous (more than it is already).

Mass murderer doubts God's existence

Fox News is not exactly known for prioritizing their facts in any rational or even sane structure. Today they are reporting on the mental health history of the teenage Omaha mall shooter. The first and most significant fact in the story, according to Fox News, is that the boy was "Satanic." The article seems to clarify in the first paragraph that "Satanic" means "he is not sure if there is a God or life after death and that when he dies, he'll probably go to hell." The remaining nineteen paragraphs detail a long history of depression, suicide attempts, broken homes and other psychological challenges that the boy dealt with. Why, I wonder, does his wavering religious faith get top billing in the first paragraph? And why does the headline amplify a mere state of doubt to Satan worship? What could motivate such wild distortions of basic factual information? Perhaps the Fox News writers are no less deranged, their minds no less trapped in a delusional world of devils and demons, than the mind of a mentally ill teenager who picks up a gun in order to make sure his suicide becomes everyone else's problem rather than just his own.

Here's the first three paragraphs of the story:

The teen gunman who killed eight people and himself in a mall this month once told social workers he was satanic and acknowledged that he often acted before thinking of the consequences, according to newly released court records.

Robert Hawkins' file includes hundreds of pages of court transcripts, drug tests and letters from caseworkers, therapists and family members. They give the clearest picture yet of a young man who told a therapist in April 2005 that "he is not sure if there is a God or life after death and that when he dies, he'll probably go to hell."

More than two years later, on Dec. 5, the 19-year-old Hawkins walked into a department store in the Westroads Mall and shot 11 people, then committed suicide.