Bruce Schneier has an interesting write-up on the security procedures of the papal elections.
they're quite elaborate and, as he points out, quite secure. over the last thousand years, they've done a pretty good job of preventing just about any kind of voter fraud that could be imagined.
what really gets me about the whole thing is that with all of this obvious thought having been put into ensuring fairness and transparency, it's clear that the cardinals don't trust each other very far (or at least historically haven't). all of those cardinals are supposed to be holy, moral, ethical men, but if there had never been problems, no one would have bothered coming up with and codifying all these elaborate safeguards. so clearly at least a few bad apples have made it through. yet, once one of them is elected pope, he is elevated to the holiest office in the world and is considered to speak directly for god.
it reminds me of Bill Hicks' observation on the popemobile and its inch thick bulletproof plexiglass: "that's faith in action, folks."
comments
Adam - Thu 14 Apr 2005 20:48:20
It boggles my mind that people even care about the pope. Of course, the number of people who make decisions based on religion in this country also scare me. Sometimes I have to respond whenever I have the urge to dig my brain out with a rusty spoon. I blame it on TC.
TC - Sat 16 Apr 2005 09:27:07
Adam Russel? Yes... Blame it on me. The bullet proof glass wouldn't stop my kind. We would have wiped shit on pointy sticks, and stuck them in a hole we dug and covered up - waiting for the Pope to walk/drive over. Or better yet, gotten one of our troops - since most of them were little boys - to befriend the molesting fuck-wit, and given him wine with fermeldahyde in it. I have no idea how to spell that. My abacus has no spell-checker.
Adam - Thu 14 Apr 2005 21:12:03
Damned character sets. Anders, do I really have to escape left & right double quotes? :P “ Yes, I am an ass.