I was reminded a few days ago of the Magdalene laundries, a charming institution whereby Catholic women and girls were, sanctioned by the Church, imprisoned and enslaved in industrial laundries run by the Sisters of the Magdalene Order. The girls' offenses ranged from having children out of wedlock to...flirting too much. Or being too pretty, thus endangering their souls. The laundries and the women are the subjects of a new movie; the last of these laundries just closed in 1996, and survivors say that the movie, horrific though it is, doesn't really do the experience justice.

The Catholic Church has not commented. Not even a weak shadow of an apology.

This comes after the news of the installation of the new Archbishop of Boston, placed there to clean up the mess left by Cardinal Bernard Law, one of many Church leaders who somehow decided, repeatedly, that the appearance of the Church was more important than children being raped. Of course the Catholic bishops, when they got together to talk about it, couldn't quite bring themselves to say that molesting children is unacceptable.

Motherfuckers. I hope they get screwed to the wall.

Sometime soon I'm going to start testing some of my stock market ideas, now that I've got a steady job. It was suggested that, among other things, I read about the psychological consequences of wealth.

I had some fun today reading horrifying reviews of Gigli at MetaCritic and RottenTomatoes. It's difficult to detail everything wrong with this movie; a good start would be the reviewer who said it was "all premise". The trailers looked incredibly awful.