Slideshow: President Obama meets the Pope before traveling to Ghana

[BirminghamExaminer]

See the rest of the pictures here.



See the rest of the pictures here.

[Divine Discontent]

1. Since I'm a man of laughter - I prefer this -----

[BirminghamExaminer]

2. I don't know, not as bad as him massaging Chancellor Merkel

or talking with his mouth full to Tony Blair.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. I was just thinking of that when I saw Obama and Merkel together...

She seems much more comfortable with him, isn't afraid he's going to suddenly reach out and grab her... x(

[Divine Discontent]

6. hahahaha you know all the world's leaders had to be thrilled to see unstable W leave the White House

[Rhiannon12866]

8. Of course, you're right... LOL, I love that pic!

I also saw footage on MSNBC of Obama's meeting with the Pope. And the comments were the same, that even this conservative Pope seems much more comfortable with Obama than he did with Bush*. Also, Obama brought the Pope a letter from Ted Kennedy. Bush* certainly wouldn't have done that small kindness, too partisan. He even refused to allow Jimmy Carter on Air Force One to attend the funeral of Pope JP II, even though they were good friends and Carter was the only US president that this Pope had visited in the White House. Seems Bush* never passed up a chance to piss anybody off... x(


on edit: :rofl:

[Divine Discontent]

10. "Father forgive me..."

as he starts swinging it!

you know, the pic of B*sh in front of the giant door in China looks like he was a contestant on one of those silly TV Game Shows and chose the wrong door for the prize and the buzzer went off! HA

[Divine Discontent]

5. hmmm.. that's a tough call.

OR http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_7GF2kkMcTKc/SZ8oNATv1HI/AAAAAAAAY4E/Y54jkHJwIHk/s400/bush_merkel+massage.jpg

Both idiotic, but I like when he was letting the inner demon show, and when he was with Hastert in the lab coats! Seriously, you could make a 1000 page picture book with Dumbya in his most normal behavior-ed self and make a million!





And my, how beautiful the 1st Lady looked yesterday visiting with Clavius! She's so pretty.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. The caption I saw on that one

had the Pope thinking, "Oh, shit, he's dumber than I thought."

Isn't it nice to have a First Family of which we can be proud when they're out in the world, representing us?

The nightmare of the last eight years seems to be getting worse the longer we're away from it.........................

[Divine Discontent]

7. oh goodness, so true! it makes the massive ignorance of W even more clear - people who voted for him

are so "Palinish" batshit nuts that I realize how people like Hitler came to power...

So nice having someone with a brain and a heart, even if I don't agree with some stuff he's done, in charge - instead of a drunk dumbass 'Christian' warmonger who likes to torture people and claims God talks to him directly.

[BlueMTexpat]

11. A hearty amen from here!

It is so nice not having to cringe any more every time the President opens his mouth, especially when he's representing us abroad. Obama does us proud.

Now as soon as I see that there will be investigations of war crimes committed during the past eight years, closure of Guantanamo and an end to preventive detention for people who have already been cleared (WTF IS that?), and complete pullout from Iraq, instead of leaving soldiers there to prop up El Maliki's corrupt regime, I could practically become a worshiper.

But even in my moments of despair at these situations, I am SOOOO thankful that we dodged the McCain-Palin bullet last November, and never more so when I see/hear McCain on C-Span or read about Palin's latest antics. Batshit wingnuts indeed! Today's Republican Party has quite simply gone vindictively insane.

[tomm2thumbs]

9. Is he sitting on one of those booster seats to make him taller? /nt

If you saw the rest of the pics, the girls looked very respectfully dressed and elegant in all black and although the jury is still out on Michelle's veil, it was interesting in my book.

[BlueMTexpat]

12. It's interesting that she wore the head covering ... and that it was

practically an all-encompassing thing. I remember before Vatican II when all of us Catholic females had to cover our heads in church, although a simple lace mantilla was generally sufficient. I don't remember seeing women, apart from nuns, wearing such all-encompassing head coverings, or indeed wearing any headcoverings when meeting with other popes since Vatican II, but that could just be my faulty recollection.

I remember when Micheline Calmy-Rey, the Foreign Affairs Minister for Switzerland, visited Iran recently and wore a headscarf. She was mightily criticized for doing so. Frankly, the scarves worn by Michelle and the other woman in one of these photos reminded me of that situation.

While I am a believer of the adage that it is respectful that "when in Rome, ..." it is true that BOTH of these situations rankle with me because it is a reminder to me that nearly all religions, primarily as institutionalized and interpreted by male hierarchies, deliberately ritualize events and circumstances to distinguish women as being lesser than men. That is unacceptable to me and is why I no longer believe in any of them.