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Well, since it's my blog, I suppose I'm best suited to comment on what I wrote.

Frankly, those of you who complained that my hoping that the new pope would die an early death was a tasteless sentiment to express were right. I fully agree. I let my anger at Pope Benedict's past policies get the better of me, and I lashed out with a bit of hyperbole. I assure you that I don't actually wish death on the pope. Despite my disagreements with his policy stands, I respect the fact that he's dedicated his life to serving God. But I inartfully expressed my opinion that he wasn't the best man for this particular job, and I've since revised that post.

And for the record, I am not a godless, freedom-hating liberal. Well, some may disagree with the former, given my sexual orientation, but I can at least aver that I don't hate freedom. Most liberals don't, y'know. Perhaps we should all tone down the hyperbolic rhetoric a bit.

I respect the fact that you went to the trouble of joining FR, responding in a reasoned way and acknowledging that your original comments were over the top.

I can't agree with your notion that most liberals don't hate freedom. At the least I'd say they have an aversion to it. Whereas conservatives believe in limiting the power of the state and preserving maximum freedom for the individual, liberals want to empower the state, and that can only come at the expense of individul freedom.

As to your disagreements with PB's policy stands and your view that he wasn't the best man for the job: since I'm not a Catholic, I don't have any particular stake in his policy positions.

But as an intellectual matter, as a question of logic, I don't understand how you can expect a church which sees itself as the purveyor of eternal, unchangeable truths to pull a Roseanne Rosannadanna and suddenly proclaim: "all that stuff about abortion and homosexuality - never mind."