OK, so this is a minor point. The aging actress Susan Sarandon -- whom I actually liked twenty years ago or more in Bull Durham and Atlantic City -- is a huge leftist politically. Now she has apparently, for no good reason other than to get titters of cheap laughter from a crowd of other privileged leftists in the Hamptons, called Pope Benedict XVI a "Nazi." The Left, of course, routinely calls people with whom they disagree Nazis; it's among the most tired tropes of liberal discourse. So, it's nothing to take too seriously. But, really... the Pope? There are only around 75 million American Catholics; in other words, about double the number of African-Americans. I can't imagine what would happen if someone as prominent as Sarandon called a beloved African-American a different "n"-word, say, Oprah Winfrey or Martin Luther King, Jr. It would be Apocalypse Now, and an immediate career-ender. But, again, apparently you can say anything about Catholics among liberals and no one has the temerity to call you a bigot.
Oh, and by the way, Pope Benedict's father was an ant-Nazi police officer whose attempts to rein in Hitler’s Brown Shirts forced the family to move several times, and resulted in demotions and transfers. The family had reason to hate the Nazis as pro-Life Catholics: a cousin with Down's syndrome was put to death under the Nazi's euthanasia program for "undesirables." Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League, reacted to Sarandon's quip appropriately: "Susan Sarandon's quip about Pope Benedict XVI being a 'Nazi' bespeaks unparalleled ignorance.... Joseph Ratzinger was conscripted into the Nazi Youth the way every other 14-year-old German boy was at the time. Unlike most others, he not only refused to go to the compulsory meetings -- he actually deserted the Hitler Youth! Which is precisely why Jews today regard him as a friend, not as an enemy."
Sarandon is a stupid, ignorant, mean-spirited, hate-filled fool. Needless to say, she won't be my girl of the day anytime soon.
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