4/29/2013 General Interest

AMAZINGLY THE NEW POPE AND THE OLD CATFISH AGREE:  Beware of Ideology.

  
NAMAZU, AAB ANALYST                                     POPE FRANCIS, BIG LEAGUE CHRISTIAN

 Those of you who are regular fans of our famous 3,000 year old giant Japanese catfish commentator and analyst may remember Namazu's now famous defense of the re-employment rights of former demigods. This was the essay we published from him when elements of the Christian Right opposed our employment of "an obvious pagan". Namazu explained that as a personification of forces of nature "demigod" was not a job description that he personally chose but one thrust upon him. He then made the impeccable theological argument that as a catfish he was ineligible for baptism, or for that matter, induction into any human religion. He confessed that he personally is a mono theist and non biped and opined that his 3,000 years of observation of human societies made his opinion and insights valuable. That was the last we heard of a negative nature from the "Religious or Christian Right"about Namazu. We presume that at least some conservative Christians are among his readers today.

 As Namazu's popularity rose and readers became more interested in his various insights we published his now famous series of essays that began with NAMAZU FULLY LOADED, THE FUTURE OF AMERICA. (Visit our Index Page to find previous Namazu articles by date in the blog space). As that series neared its conclusion the big catfish warned the American people about ideologues in both parties, in the Congress and in the White House. He warned against forming public policies based on "isms" including conservatism and liberalism. He suggested that American voters start abandoning party registrations and vote independently and start looking for potential office holders who made policy and appropriations decisions based on pragmatic considerations that incorporated respect for the constitution and morals. The Namazu tests for legislation would be:
 (1) Will it work to solve the problem?
 (2) Can we afford it?
 (3) Is it constitutional?
 (4) Is it moral, honest,fair, just, and likely to remain so in implementation?
These obviously are not the tests of the dueling ideologues presently in office.

 Namazu articulated all of this months before Pope Francis was inducted into office. In the April 27, 2013 issue of the Catholic newspaper  "CLARION HERALD" the paper reported an address by the new Pope Francis to a congregation of employees of the Vatican printing press and newspaper. In that address Pope Francis warned the Vatican press employees of the dangers of viewing the Christian gospel through the eyes of an ideologue. He noted..."These ideologues cut off the road of love, and also that of beauty....". Pope Francis speaking of ideologues and the gospel also said; "Every ideological interpretation, wherever it comes from-from one side or the other -is a falsification of the Gospel. The new Pope had a harsh assessment of what ideologues become; they....."end up being intellectuals without talent, ethicists without goodness. And let's not even speak of beauty , because they understand nothing of that."

 Namazu was floored after reading the Pope's remarks. He felt the Pope had articulated exactly his feelings about ideology and ideologues but in far more elegant language. Since Namazu has been largely an observer of the Pacific Basin he wasn't too familiar with Italian saints. We had to explain to him that St. Francis whose name the new Pope invokes is the patron saint of animals who was famous for kindness to all living creatures and would preach the gospel to birds and animals when the bipeds refused to listen. Namazu was immediately taken with the idea of "a biped who sought out and spoke to non bipeds". Namazu has become a big fan of St. Francis and has asked us to ship him a St. Francis medal, and he is a big fan of Pope Francis who he regards as a "kindred biped spirit" and is working on reception of the Vatican radio channel on his hydrophones.

 Well we wanted to assure his many fans that he is still working and that we are going to send that St.Francis medal and even spring for modification of the hydrophone system. But we must ask you to stop sending those cards, letters and e-mails about hiring that cube farm of research assistants that he keeps bugging us for. We simply can not do that until advertising and sales revenues are up to the point that will sustain the costs. Only ideologues of the left engage in deficit spending in peace time. However only ideologues of the right would refuse to improve service or product performance and worker living/working conditions when they can afford to do so. Please rest assured that Namazu will get his "minions" as soon as we can afford them.

Johnas Presbyter, Editor in Chief