Decius wrote:
] flynn23 wrote:
]
] ] True. But in the same way that we can get all hot n bothered
]
] ] by a presidential candidates alleged non-toke or desk job in
]
] ] the Guard, I'm sure that this is somewhat of a judgement of
] ] character.
]
] I don't get hot n bothered about that stuff, in general. I
] don't think its constructive. Every politician has a built in
] base of enemies, and those enemies are searching for anything
] that they can use to discredit that politician. You ought to
] be focused on who the person's team is and how they are going
] to handle policy matters. Instead, any attack, no matter how
] irrelevent or dumb, is considered acceptable. And so we get
] the politicians we deserve. Bred for the job from birth and
] totally corrupted by it.
]
] As the internet age rises it will be increasingly possible to
] apply these kinds of flippant objections to anyone applying
] for any job, as so much of what we think and do will
] increasingly be a public record, such as this very
] conversation. A mere suggestion that you might have associated
] with hackers, for example, will bar you from certain
] opportunities even if the "judgement of character" implied by
] this suggestion is completely unreasonable and the evidence is
] totally taken out of context.
]
] In this case the suggestion that he was involved with the
] Hitler Youth is not really important. The question is, is he a
] Nazi? I have some degree of faith that the Catholic Church
] would not have elevated him to such a post were that the case.

I totally agree with you. I think there's some credence in "history shows us what's probable for the future" - it's certainly not avoidable. Look at the statistical evidence. But I agree that in matters of character it's much more about who you are now, not who you were. As at some point, we were all young and stupid. In some cases, we're old and stupid.

In the case of the Pope, I don't really care if he was in Hitler Youth. Although I do have issues with the fact that he was just previously head of the component of the Church which was formally responsible for the Inquisition. And he's been vocally more fundamentalist. I still like to make fun of him by calling him a Nazi Kraut though, just to get Vile all riled up.

RE: Cardinals Elect Joseph Ratzinger as New Pope