Awhile back, we somehow found our way onto the mailing list of "San Francisco Faith: the Bay Area's Lay Catholic Newsletter." Though we have no particular beef with Catholicism, we just can't quite understand the fervor of the folks behind this particular newsletter. Bunching their panties this month is a rumor that our local Planned Parenthood Golden Gate didn't notify the authorities of a statutory rape. The case against PPGG is overwhelming: someone said it's true on the internet! A poster on a PPGG messageboard (it's been removed, but you can read the cache here) claimed have been raped by her 17-year-old boyfriend at age 11. PPGG, the poster said, aborted her baby, and now six years later she's sitting in the very same office, writing her testimonial. Well, that certainly has a ring of truth to it; especially considering some of the other forum posts, which range from pro-PP sob stories to anti-abortion rants to sheer gibberish. Even though the story makes no claim that PPGG didn't report the rape, right-wing blogs and self-declared news agencies are all atwitter over this latest kerfuffle.

So: a random internet person posts an anonymous, unverifiable story on an unmoderated forum, and it's regarded as unimpeachable truth. Awesome! Hey, maybe if the victims of pedophile-priests had done the same, the Church would've listened to them, too.

After the jump: bloody Mary, pitching to the Pontiff (if you know what we mean), and why pedophiles are bad, but homosexuals are worse.