PMS Alert!
And the New York Times. being a bigoted mouthpiece for the Lib-Dems, prints this drivel in its pages.
Have I missed anything?
Congressman Billybob
Look it up, sweetie.
Sorry, Mo the pope is Catholic. I know that's a disappointment for you and your friends.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
maureen dowd is going to find something to bitch and moan about even if they had elected ellen degeneris pope
From Brian Saint-Paul of Crisis Magazine:
Four Myths About Pope Benedict XVI
1. "Benedict XVI 'campaigned' for the papacy, outmaneuvering the liberal faction to win the job."
Unfortunately, it's a tendency of the American media to project the styles and categories of U.S. politics onto every other kind of election. Such is the case here. Following this model, the former Cardinal Ratzinger is said to have maneuvered his way into the papacy, through ehind-the-scenes campaigning and deft use of his prominence as the Dean of the College of Cardinals. His magnificent homily at John Paul II's funeral and his no-nonsense criticism of moral relativism preceding the conclave are offered as evidence.
But this is simple nonsense, and it ignores several well-established facts:
First, in the modern era at least, the vast majority of cardinals do not want to be elevated to the papacy, and the few who do are not elected. The life of the Supreme Pontiff is a difficult one. His life is no longer his own. Gone is his privacy, his freedom, his leisure, and his regular contact with friends and family.
Second, it's well known that Benedict XVI did NOT want to be pope. By his own admission, he was never completely comfortable in his role as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and tried to resign several times (John Paul II would have none of it). Furthermore, it was Benedict's dream to leave the Vatican to return to the slow-paced world of teaching. In an interview with Matthew Schofield of Knight Ridder, the pope's brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, recalled a conversation with him over Christmas where they discussed his retiring to a quite life back in Germany.
But what about his strong homily taking on moral relativism at the opening of the conclave? Much of the secular media has described it as though it were a kind of campaign event (one particularly clueless journalist referred to the homily as a "stump speech").
The truth is quite the opposite. Most informed Vatican observers recognized the homily as Benedict XVI's last attempt to avoid election to the papacy. After all, if he were actually campaigning, he would have delivered something softer that appealled to the moderates within the College of Cardinals... not the no-holds-barred assault on secularism that he delivered instead.
Even Fr. Richard McBrien recognized this, managing to get it both right and wrong at the same time. Just after the conclave opened, he noted: "If Cardinal Ratzinger were really campaigning for pope, he would have given a far more conciliatory homily designed to appeal to the moderates as well as to the hard-liners among the cardinals. I think this homily shows he realizes he's not going to be elected. He's too much of a polarizing figure."
In short, a homily is not a stump speech, a conclave is not a polling station, and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger had no ambitions to become Benedict XVI...
And the bad part is what???
So, it's a beauty contest?
When we were kids, the public health authorities lined us all up and shot us with smallpox vaccine. Since an air gun took 3 seconds a kid, and an injection took 10 seconds a kid, governments typically opted for the more efficient method, resulting in vaccination scars for hundreds of millions of children.
You think Catherine Zeta Jones thinks that it was worth it to put that big scar on her arm in order to save some faceless public health worker seven seconds? When the government makes decisions for us all, they make stupid choices like this all the time.
Ya know, Mo, those of us in our right minds only wish that Big Richard Cheney had nearly as much cosmic power as you would have us think he does. (BTW - You also vastly overrate your own intelligence and - especially - writing ability!!!)
"hoping for an unholy alliance"
Sorry Mo, you meant to say "Holy alliance".
Is this blithering idiot even Catholic?
Ping.
If only he had been pope when Cuomo made that rancid speech!
Dick Cheney is a mainstream Catholic? ;)
Well, it feels good to disdain the "if it feels good do it", so I'm disdaining it as well.
IMMUTABLE LAWS OF DOWD1. Ashcroft never deserves credit.
2. Offering constructive solutions to problems, instead of whining endlessly about them, is a sign of weakness.
3. The People Magazine principle: all political phenomena can be explained with reference solely to caricatures of the personalities involved ("Dubya" is stupid; "Poppy" is an aristocrat; Cheney is macho-man; etc.). Any reference to the common good or even to old-fashioned politicking is, like, so passe.
4. It is much better to be cute than coherent.
5. Maureen knows best. Her long years as a columnist (doing basically what your great-aunt Tillie does in the nursing home bull sessions, but getting paid for it) have given her deep insight into foreign relations, politics, welfare, the Constitution, and all other topics. To disagree with Maureen in any way is not only a sign of being wrong, it's a hallmark of pure evil...or at least membership in the NRA, which is pretty much the same thing.
6. It is usually possible and always desirable to name-drop and name-call in the same sentence.
7. The particulars of my consumer-driven, shamefully self-involved life reveal universal truths.
Explanation of the Dowd/Douglas connection: by Miss Marple- 2/11/03
Ms. Dowd was escorted around New York and DC for many months by one Michael Douglas of Hollywood fame and fortune. She got to go to all the best parties, was photographed for the tabloids, and was picking out a gown to wear at the Oscars. Of course, Michael had become interested in her during Clinton's impeachment, when she had written some very anti-Clinton columns. After a few weeks of the Michael treatment, she began to write anti-Starr, ant-Newt columns, ignoring Clinton.
Then Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. In an amazing coincidence, Michael Douglas dropped Ms. Dowd like a hot potato, and instead picked up a hot tomato, Catherine Zeta-Jones, who subsequently bore him a son and they were married.
Ms. Dowd cannot get over her tragic loss. Her columns are increasingly anti-Bush, in the hope of impressing her lost love, Michael.
In addition, we think she has a secret crush on the President and is trying to get him to pay attention to her. Ha!