Is Paul the Octopus out to corrupt the West?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  17 ’Av 5770 (Parashath ‘Eqev).

Today’s holidays:  Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Marty Feldman (Church of the SubGenius), Mid-Sha'ban (Islam).

Worthy cause of the day:  “CARE : Defending Dignity - Fighting Poverty :  Let Congress know you want the Haiti assistance bill passed”, “Working Families » Take Action!:  Sign our letter to NY's State Senators”, and “We want the DISCLOSE Act”.

This is a slow religion-news day, and nothing I am working on behind the scenes has come to fruition yet.  (Emphasis on “yet”.  One book I am reading now, The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patai, displays such an amazing determination to commit a type I error (seeing something that is not there) above and beyond the call of duty, despite all the contrary evidence noted therein, that I feel duty bound to write a full-fledged review of it.  But that will not be for a while.)

The alleged spawn of Satan via Wikipedia

In the meantime, at the risk of severely overthinking something, I would like to note the article “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks Octopus Paul”.  Everyone with any sgense knows there is something severely wrong with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Ahmadinejad is not merely a rabid anti-Semite who has advocated genocide.  He is not merely someone who believes that the Mahdi is coming soon and is preparing for it.  He is not even merely someone willing to risk his life and the lives of all Iranians playing a game of nuclear brinkmanship.  This article should give some idea that Ahmadinejad is really crazy:

He claims that the octopus is a symbol of decadence and decay among "his enemies".

Paul, who lives at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre, in Germany, won the hearts of the Spanish by predicting their World Cup victory.

He became an international star after predicting the outcome of all seven German World Cup matches accurately.

However, the Iranian president accused the octopus of spreading "western propaganda and superstition." Paul was mentioned by Mr Ahmadinejad on various occasions during a speech in Tehran at the weekend.

"Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values," he said.

Paul the Octopus’s alleged powers are probably grossly overstated, but clearly not his fault.  Paul, while rather intelligent for an invertebrate, is not a sentient being and almost certainly has no idea what he is allegedly predicting.  Blaming the octopus for something way over his head (or something passing for a head, at any rate) does not make any sense.  Secondly, last your humble blogger heard, there is no world leader expressing serious belief in the powers of Paul the Octopus.  No leader is calling upon Paul for advice or further predictions.  And if Iran is so great when it comes to perfection, why do they have for a leader someone who is probably going to get his country bombed by their archenemy?

Peace to all humans and octopuses.

Aaron