This week, the new Pope Francis raised quite a ruckus when he said:

“The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone,” the pope told worshipers at morning Mass on Wednesday. “‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!”

Francis continued, “We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

Was he really saying that atheists are not necessarily doomed to eternal hellfire? That would be … quite a change.

Or is this just a misunderstanding of the Roman Catholic terms of service?

On Thursday, the Vatican issued an “explanatory note on the meaning to ‘salvation.’”

The Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said that people who aware of the Catholic church “cannot be saved” if they “refuse to enter her or remain in her.”

At the same time, Rosica writes, “every man or woman, whatever their situation, can be saved. Even non-Christians can respond to this saving action of the Spirit. No person is excluded from salvation simply because of so-called original sin.”

Rosica also said that Francis had “no intention of provoking a theological debate on the nature of salvation,” during his homily on Wednesday.

Although the pope’s comments about salvation surprised some, bishops and experts in Catholicism say Francis was expressing a core tenant of the faith.

“Francis was clear that whatever graces are offered to atheists (such that they may be saved) are from Christ,” the Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a conservative Catholic priest, wrote on his blog.

“He was clear that salvation is only through Christ’s Sacrifice. In other words, he is not suggesting - and I think some are taking it this way - that you can be saved, get to heaven, without Christ.”

Chad Pecknold, an assistant professor of theology at the Catholic University of America, agreed with Zuhlsdorf, pointing out that the pope’s comments came on the Feast of Saint Rita, the Catholic patron saint of impossible things.

See? That’s why you always need to read the fine print.

We’ve got a new version of the LGF Pages bookmarklet today, with better browser compatibility and a new feature: when you open the bookmarklet on any page at the NPR website that has a “download” link for their MP3 audio, the bookmarklet will sense its presence and automatically create the code to embed that audio in your post.

Quite a few of NPR’s pages have this audio download link - here’s one, from All Things Considered: Pat Metheny and John Zorn: A Vivid Sound World : NPR. Opening the bookmarklet on that page will embed this audio player:

To install the new version of the bookmarklet, first remove the old one from your browser’s bookmarks bar (by right-clicking it, then choosing “Delete”), then drag that big button labeled “Create a Page” to your bookmarks bar in its place.

If you hover over the “Create a Page” button, a popup message gives you directions on installing it, and also shows the time it was last updated and the current version number:

You can see which version of the bookmarklet you have installed by opening it; the version number is now shown at the top right of the window, under the Category popup menu.

Troubleshooting: if you click the bookmarklet and nothing happens, it’s probably because your browser is set to block pop-up windows. To use the bookmarklet, you’ll have to turn off this setting in your browser’s preferences.

For those among us who speak Javascript, here’s the source code for the bookmarklet:

(function() {
	function esc(s) {
		return escape(s).replace(/\+/ig, '%252B');
	}
	function postPage() {
		var api = 'http://littlegreenfootballs.com/api/0.2/postRegex.json',
			opts = {
				url: api
			},
			ff = navigator.userAgent.match(/Firefox\/(.*)$/);
		if (ff && ff.length > 1 && ff[1] < 21) {
			opts = {
				url:			api + 'p',
				jsonpCallback:	'lgf_api',
				dataType:		'jsonp'
			};
		}					
		jQuery.ajax(opts).done(function(lgf) {
			var v = '1.0.0',
				f = a = q = w = '',
				u = esc(location.href),
				d = document,
				t = esc(d.title),
				s = esc((d.selection) ? d.selection.createRange().text : d.getSelection()),
				ob = jQuery('iframe').filter(function() {
					return this.src.match(RegExp(lgf.regex.embed, 'i'));
				});
			if (ob.length && !u.match(RegExp(lgf.regex.sites, 'i'))) {
				f = esc(ob.eq(0).attr('src'));
			}
			if (u.match(/www\.npr\.org/i)) {
				ob = jQuery('a.download');
				if (ob.length) {
					a = esc(ob.eq(0).attr('href').split('?')[0]);
				}
			}
			q = (
				'u=' + u +
				'&t=' + t +
				'&f=' + f +
				'&a=' + a +
				'&s=' + s +
				'&v=' + v
			);
			w = (
				'width=670,' +
				'height=820,' +
				'scrollbars=1,' +
				'status=1,' +
				'menubar=1,' +
				'location=1,' +
				'resizable=1'
			);
			window.open('http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/lgf-postpage.php?' + q, '_blank', w);
		});
	}
	var jqVersion = '1.9.1', d = document;
	if (window.jQuery === undefined || window.jQuery.fn.jquery < jqVersion) {
		var done = false, s = d.createElement('script');
		s.src = '//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/' + jqVersion + '/jquery.min.js';
		s.onload = s.onreadystatechange = function(){
			if (!done && (!this.readyState || this.readyState == 'loaded' || this.readyState == 'complete')) {
				done = true;
				jQuery.noConflict();
				postPage();
			}
		};
		d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(s);
	} else {
		postPage();
	}
})();

And this is what it looks like after compression with Closure Compiler; this is what you actually install as a bookmarklet:

(function(){function c(c){return escape(c).replace(/\+/ig,"%252B")}function g(){var b={url:"http://littlegreenfootballs.com/api/0.2/postRegex.json"},d=navigator.userAgent.match(/Firefox\/(.*)$/);d&&(1<d.length&&21>d[1])&&(b={url:"http://littlegreenfootballs.com/api/0.2/postRegex.jsonp",jsonpCallback:"lgf_api",dataType:"jsonp"});jQuery.ajax(b).done(function(b){var d=a=q=w="",h=c(location.href),e=document,g=c(e.title),e=c(e.selection?e.selection.createRange().text:e.getSelection()),f=jQuery("iframe").filter(function(){return this.src.match(RegExp(b.regex.embed, "i"))});f.length&&!h.match(RegExp(b.regex.sites,"i"))&&(d=c(f.eq(0).attr("src")));h.match(/www\.npr\.org/i)&&(f=jQuery("a.download"),f.length&&(a=c(f.eq(0).attr("href").split("?")[0])));q="u="+h+"&t="+g+"&f="+d+"&a="+a+"&s="+e+"&v=1.0.0";w="width=670,height=820,scrollbars=1,status=1,menubar=1,location=1,resizable=1";window.open("http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/lgf-postpage.php?"+q,"_blank",w)})}var k=document;if(void 0===window.jQuery||"1.9.1">window.jQuery.fn.jquery){var l=!1,b=k.createElement("script"); b.src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js";b.onload=b.onreadystatechange=function(){if(!l&&(!this.readyState||"loaded"==this.readyState||"complete"==this.readyState))l=!0,jQuery.noConflict(),g()};k.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(b)}else g()})();

Tech details: I can hardly believe I’m actually browser-sniffing in this code, but believe it or not it’s necessary in this case because Firefox versions before 21 had a bug in the way they handled a cross-domain protocol known as CORS. Firefox versions 20 and below would not report any error, but the call would simply fail to return anything.

So the only way to resolve this is to test whether the browser is Firefox. If it is, and it’s older than version 21, the bookmarklet falls back on the JSONP method to call the LGF API.

The CORS and JSONP methods are functionally equivalent for what I’m doing in this bookmarklet, but JSONP’s main limitation is that you can only use it with GET requests — you can’t use it for POSTing data.

The moral of the story: upgrade to Firefox 21 — it fixes bugs you didn’t even know you had!

If you have your browser’s pop-up blocking enabled, you’ll now see a message politely asking you to turn it off in order to use the LGF Pages bookmarklet, instead of, well, nothing.

So what’s the wingnut parrot’s chorus freaking out about today? A quick look at the right wing echo chamber reveals that they’re all lathered up about this idiotic story from Weekly Standard fake outrage peddler Daniel Halper:

OBAMA FAILS TO SALUTE MARINE! | the Weekly Standard

Under gray skies and intermittent drizzle, President Obama boarded Marine One at 9:30 a.m. EDT in an open press event.

A few White House regulars were atwitter (and on Twitter) when the President walked directly up the steps of Marine One without saluting the Marine on duty. He soon came out of the helicopter, walked down the steps, shook hands with the Marine and engaged in a brief conversation.

They’re all slobbering over this one: Jim Hoft, Dan Riehl, Doug Ross, Breitbart, the entire moron squad, all shrieking in unison about “OBAMA’S DISRESPECT FOR THE MILITARY!”

The fake story apparently originated with CBS’s Mark Knoller:

Pres Obama chats with and shakes hand of US Marine whose salute he didn’t return on boarding Marine One today. twitter.com/markknoller/st…

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) May 24, 2013

This right wing fake outrage has come up before, of course, and it doesn’t smell any better this time around. There is no “tradition” of Presidents saluting military members, and in fact it used to be considered against military protocol — until Ronnie Reagan decided to play soldier.

As David Alexander of Reuters noted in 2008:

Reagan’s decision raised eyebrows at the time….

John Kline, then Reagan’s military aide and now a Minnesota congressman, advised him that it went against military protocol for presidents to return salutes.

Kline said in a 2004 op-ed piece in The Hill that Reagan ultimately took up the issue with Gen. Robert Barrow, then commandant of the Marine Corps.

Barrow told Reagan that as commander in chief of the armed forces, he was entitled to offer a salute — or any sign of respect he wished — to anyone he wished, Kline wrote.

Another day, another huge outbreak of idiocy in the right wing blogosphere.

The now-recalled Russell Pearce with the soon-to-be-recalled Joe Arpaio

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has engaged in racial profiling and must not use Hispanic ancestry as a factor when making law-enforcement decisions, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Murray Snow issued the ruling Friday, more than eight months after a seven-day trial on the subject concluded. The trial examined longstanding allegations that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s emphasis on immigration enforcement led deputies to target Latino drivers based on their race, and that by doing so, they violated the constitutional rights of Maricopa County residents and the sheriff’s own policies requiring constitutional policing.

[…]

“The evidence introduced at trial establishes that, in the past, the MCSO has aggressively protected its right to engage in immigration and immigration–related enforcement operations even when it had no accurate legal basis for doing so,” Show [sic] said.

Snow was the sole arbiter of facts in the bench trial conducted without a jury. He was tasked with weighing the plaintiffs’ arguments that the Sheriff’s Office developed an immigration enforcement policy that encouraged deputies to discriminate against Latino drivers, depriving them of their Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection. A ruling from Snow late last year expanded the plaintiffs in the 41/2-year-old case to cover a class that includes every Latino driver the Sheriff’s Office has stopped since 2007. The plaintiffs were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and pro-bono attorneys from a Bay Area law firm, and were faced with the burden of proof in the case.

[…]

Read it all here: Judge: Sheriff Arpaio’s Agency Engaged in Racial Profiling

(Click below if you can’t see the MP4 video.)

We laugh at Texas Gongressmoron Louie Gohmert a lot, because he comes out with so many deliciously stupid remarks. But this story is a reminder that, comical though he may be, Gohmert is also a first class heartless Republican bastard, as he tells a woman who had a medically necessary late term abortion that she should have carried the baby to term — even though the child had no chance of surviving and would have died in agony.

Ms. Zink, having my great sympathy and empathy both. I still come back wondering, shouldn’t we wait… and see if the child can survive before we decide to rip him apart? So, these are ethical issues, they’re moral issues, they’re difficult issues, and the parents should certainly be consulted. But it just seems like, it’s a more educated decision if the child is in front of you to make those decisions.

Good grief. I tried to come up with a snarky ending, but all I can think is “what a horrible, horrible person.” There’s something seriously wrong with Gohmert — and he’s far from the only right wing Congressman with these sickening misogynist views.

Via: Louie Gohmert: Women Should Be Forced to Carry Nonviable Pregnancies to Term

Also see:
Congressman: Women Should Be Forced to Give Birth to Fetuses With No Brain Function

This morning half-governor Sarah Palin took to the Internets to spread her signature dumbassitude, getting the IRS scandal confused with the James Rosen scandal and chirping:

The IRS is closed for the day, feel free to use your phones.

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) May 24, 2013

Credit: Skagit Valley Herald

SKAGIT COUNTY, Wash. - — Both north and southbound lanes of the Interstate 5 Skagit River Bridge collapsed Thursday evening, said officials with the Washington State Patrol.

The collapse happened between south of Burlington and north of Mount Vernon just after 7 p.m.

According to the State Patrol, people and vehicles are in the water.

Via: I-5 Skagit River Bridge Collapses; People, Vehicles in Water | kirotv.com

RT @kiro7seattle: I-5 bridge collapse photo tweeted to us by @dustystarling >>> twitter.com/dustystarling/…

— Michael Rusch (@weeddude) May 24, 2013

BREAKING - photo of man on his car in Skagit River after I-5 bridge collapse: twitter.com/KING5Seattle/s…

— KING 5 News(@KING5Seattle) May 24, 2013

BREAKING PHOTO: Large crowd at site of I-5 bridge collapse on Skagit River in WA; people/cars in water -@king5seattle twitter.com/NewsBreaker/st…

— NewsBreaker (@NewsBreaker) May 24, 2013

@kiro7seattle @gina_svh here is a better one taken from my sister in law who is standing on the dike. twitter.com/hazhauler/stat…

— Josh (@hazhauler) May 24, 2013

BREAKING - photo shows man standing outside his truck in the river after I-5 bridge collapse over Skagit River twitter.com/KING5Seattle/s…

— KING 5 News(@KING5Seattle) May 24, 2013

Photo via the @komonews facebook page from viewer Molly Olsen #SkagitBridge #I5bridgecollapse twitter.com/komonews/statu…

— KOMO News (@komonews) May 24, 2013

Photo from KOMO viewer Karissa Garcia of #SkagitBridge #I5BridgeCollapse twitter.com/komonews/statu…

— KOMO News (@komonews) May 24, 2013

My buddy in Mount Vernon snapped this pic of I-5 bridge collapse. #Skagitbridge twitter.com/NickKrupke/sta…

— Nick Krupke (@NickKrupke) May 24, 2013

Rescue boats are under the bridge and near the submerged truck #SkagitBridge #I5BridgeCollapse twitter.com/komonews/statu…

— KOMO News (@komonews) May 24, 2013

Rescue boats transporting people out of #SkagitBridge collapse (Rick Lund /ST) twitter.com/SeaTimesPhoto/…

— Seattle Times Photo (@SeaTimesPhoto) May 24, 2013

Reacting to the Boy Scouts’ decision to admit openly gay youths as members, RedState founder and former CNN contributor Erick Erickson lapsed into full-on swivel-eyed fanatic speaking-in-tongues mode tonight on Twitter, culminating in this glimpse into his tortured psyche:

Yes, Christ is love, but he is also wrath, vengeance, and redemption.The modern emo Christ is a fiction.Christ could throw a punch.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 24, 2013

“Wrath, Vengeance, and Redemption” — wasn’t that the title of the last Whitesnake album? Or was that Stryper?

(h/t: The Mountain That Blogs.)

More right wing reactionary craziness:

Boy Scouts of America: Born February 8, 1910. Died May 23, 2013 #RIP

— Matt Barber (@jmattbarber) May 24, 2013

BSA now stands for Boy Sodomizers of America, because that’s what will happen. Mark my words.

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) May 24, 2013

A memorable moment in CNN’s coverage of the Oklahoma tornado disaster was Wolf Blitzer’s interview with a woman who, after Blitzer asked her several times whether she “thanked the Lord” for surviving, turned out to be an atheist. Oops, Wolf.

When the full import of this diabolical “interview” slammed into the fevered brain of Glenn Beck, bless his little stunted raving freakazoid wingnut soul, it triggered a rant about plots and the forces of darkness. SINISTER HIDDEN REASONS that only Glenn can see.

“We are not fighting against flesh and bone,” Beck said. “We are fighting the forces of spiritual darkness and it doesn’t matter what people’s intent are, but I will tell you that that was there for a reason.”

Via: Beck: CNN Interview With Atheist Tornado Survivor Was a Set-Up | Right Wing Watch