Take one hit, next thing you know you're a thought crime addict

First, a short story from some nice Catholic guy:

As the 9/11 attack was happening, it occurred to me that the attack had to do with what was happening in the Middle East and it was time to learn what was happening there. I was behooved to work through my conditioned barrier of not wanting to look into the matter because it was much too complex to understand and find out for myself what was going on.

I learned that the Palestinians were being kicked off their land so that Jews from anywhere in the world could live there. I attended a Middle East committee meeting and said that I didn’t think this was fair, that it didn’t matter what happened in the past to the Jews, that two wrongs don’t make a right, etc. After that meeting, I was considered anti-Semitic by the experts that apply the label: the Jews that attended that meeting. Thereafter I was treated coolly by everyone associated with the parent anti-war organization. Word had gotten around.

Holy cow! I never would’ve imagined myself being considered anti-Semitic: [growing up] an altruistic Catholic boy who defended little kids every day on the playground from older bullies, the exemplary server boy, the choir boy, the kid that the nuns and teachers considered a role model for others.

But there I was. An anti-Semitic, for being concerned for justice and equal rights for the Palestinians. Little did I know that being labeled anti-Semitic was so easy. It is so easy. In fact here’s the formula: You become aware that Jews are responsible for doing something unfair, like kicking Palestinians off their land so that Jews from anywhere in the world can live there and, boom, you’re instantly anti-Semitic! You don’t even have to complain about it. The labelers just have to know you know about it. It is that easy.

Yes. And lest you think this can only happen to some regular guy with a regular job, who quickly goes from being Joe the Landscaper to that asshole anti-Semite at the bar, let me tell you this can happen to anyone! No family is immune from the scourge of thought crime. Just a few minutes on the internet and you can be lost forever to this merciless drug called Free Thought. Just Say NO, dammit!

According to World Jewish leaders, who are the self-appointed authorities on such matters, we are experiencing a world epidemic of thought crimes. This drug is destroying everything in its path. Though it's not clear exactly who asked World Jewish leaders to fight the scourge of thought crimes, they have selflessly taken on the thankless job. For one of their first sorties in the War on Free Thought, it looks like they will make an example of that disgusting addict, Bishop Williamson, by executing his career and reputation. Hopefully this will deter others from his sad fate.

World Jewish leaders told Vatican officials that denying the Holocaust was "not an opinion but a crime" when they met on Monday to discuss a bishop they accuse of being anti-Semitic.

The meetings, the first since the controversy over Bishop Richard Williamson, who denies the extent of the Holocaust, began last month, took place three days before Pope Benedict is due to address a group of American Jewish leaders.

Williamson told Swedish television in an interview broadcast in January: "I believe there were no gas chambers." He said no more than 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, rather than the 6 million accepted by most historians

You see? Any deviation what-so-ever from the officially sanctioned Holocaust narrative is a thought crime. Bishop Richard Williamson's mealy-mouthed excuse that he didn't actually inhale does not cut the mustard. He's an addict, and everybody knows it. He smoked the Thought Pipe.

"Today we strongly reaffirmed that the denial of the Shoah is not an opinion, but a crime," said Richard Prasquier, president of the French Jewish umbrella organization CRIF, using the Hebrew word for Holocaust.

Such a disgrace.

Prasquier and Maram Stern, deputy secretary of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), held talks with Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Vatican office that handles religious relations with Jews.

"We want the Vatican to realize that by accommodating anti-Semites like Williamson, the achievements of four decades of Catholic-Jewish dialogue ... will be put into doubt," WJC President Ronald Lauder said in a statement.

And now Bishop Williamson has been transformed into an anti-Semite. Just like that. He has lost all respectability. Do you see that this one gentleman has single-handedly unraveled four decades of achievements with his foolish experimenting? This drug is very, very powerful. What a shame. He looked to have a promising career, but not anymore.

"We now believe that our message has been understood. The controversial debate of the past three weeks has had a positive impact," said Lauder, who did not attend the meetings.

Catholic-Jewish relations have been extremely tense since January 24, when Benedict lifted excommunications of four renegade traditionalist bishops, including Williamson, in an attempt to heal a schism that began in 1988 when they were ordained without Vatican permission.

Among those who have condemned Williamson and the pope's decision are Holocaust survivors, progressive Catholics, U.S. legislators, Israeli leaders, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Jewish writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel.

Here are the people who understand the dangers posed by this drug. Holocaust survivors. Progressive Catholics. US legislators. Israeli leaders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel. And Elie Wiesel. You won't find these people in some Truth Crack House, conducting research on the interwebs like some filthy junkies.

A Church source said Israel's Chief Rabbinate, which had pulled out of dialogue, has decided to resume talks and will come to the Vatican either in late February or mid-March.

The Vatican has ordered Williamson to publicly recant his position. Over the weekend, traditionalist leaders said he had been removed as head of a seminary in Argentina.

Germany's Spiegel magazine on Saturday quoted Williamson as saying he first had to review historical evidence on the Holocaust before considering an apology to Jews.

"I ask everyone to believe me that I did not deliberately say something false. I was, on the basis of my research in the 1980s, convinced of the accuracy of my comments. Now I must examine everything again and look at the evidence," he said.

Williamson failed in a bid on Monday to get an injunction from a German court on the broadcasting of his views on television and the internet.

"There are no valid infringements of his rights," said the Nuremberg-Fuerth court in southern Germany.

Williamson is part of the ultra-traditionalist Society of St Pius X (SSPX), which does not accept all the teachings of the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council. It repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for Christ's death and urged dialogue with other religions.

The Vatican has said the SSPX must accept all Council teachings before they can be fully re-admitted into the Church.

He got what he deserved. Let that be a lesson to you.