Laura Ingraham had surgery for breast cancer yesterday. While our politics could not be more different, I always enjoyed debating her during the Clinton years. I'm very sorry to learn the news and wish her a speedy and complete recovery.

[comments now closed, thread hijacked.]

Munich Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedictus XVI, has a personal history that may make some very uneasy:

Belfast Telegraph September 21, 2000 (available on Lexis.com)

The [Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith] CDF is chaired by Joseph Ratzinger, the Cardinal Bishop of Munich. Ratzinger is well-known in the Catholic hierarchy as the hammer of liberation theology in Latin America. Less well known is the fact that he once a member of Hitler Youth.

What is CDF? It oversees issues regarding faith and morals for the Vatican. According the the Belfast Telegraph article, it released a document that said:

"There exists a single Church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church." In other words, the only true Christian Church is the Roman Church....

So Protestants are now chopped liver? Evangelicals, too?

The new Pope is extremely opposed to homosexuality. He has described it as "an intrinsic moral evil." (Irish News April 17, 2003, Lexis.com)

Bump and Update: We were right - the church bells did mean a new pope has been elected. The news is just now reporting it. How ironic that the news got out faster from old-fashioned church bells than the high tech media.

The new pope is Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, "the church's leading hard-liner." He has chosen the name Pope Benedict XVI.

*****************
It's 10:09 a.m. and the cathedral bells just began ringing in Downtown Denver. Is there a new Pope? No, according to latest news articles. The smoke is still black.

It's now 10:13 and the bells are still ringing at this cathedral.

10:42: The bells just stopped ringing.
10:44: Now they are ringing again.

I didn't know Danny Faulkner, but thanks to Denver Post reporter Claire Martin, who wrote this obituary , I feel like I did.

My biker clients have always been a pleasure to represent. Unfailingly, they have been polite, non-demanding, realistic, and non-whining. Yet, it's not always easy getting others to see them the way I do. Martin's obituary of Danny shows something important - that there is something good to be said about everyone. Even outlaw bikers.

Danny, 52, was killed by a hit and run driver last week as he was finishing a shift on a street construction job. His obituary is the most prominent one in today's Post, and bears a big headline, "Harley biker loved outlaw living - and Mom." Here's some of it:

Hope you weren't planning on flying in or out of Denver today. Not a chance.

Update: It's midnight and still snowing. The wind is still strong. But since it's wet, spring snow, the roads are fairly clear.

I've never been crazy about Prince Charles, but Camilla Parker-Bowles has stuck by him through thick and thin.

And she looked glorious today. Congratulations to both of them. The wedding went off without a hitch - they earned this.

Hunter Thompson's widow, Anita Thompson, made the news official today: Hunter's ashes will be blasted from a cannon in August, as he wanted:

Hunter S. Thompson's ashes will be blasted from a cannon mounted inside a 53-foot-high sculpture of the journalist's "gonzo fist" emblem, his wife said Tuesday. The cannon shot, planned sometime in August on the grounds of his Aspen-area home, will fulfill the writer's long-cherished wish.

"It's expensive, but worth every penny," Anita Thompson said. "I'd like to have several explosions. He loved explosions."

CNN reports that Pope John Paul II has died. May he rest in peace.

Update: There will be no other stories this weekend on the cable news channels. TV Newser reports on the schedules:

by TChris

The remedy for disliked speech is more speech, not a pie in the face.

William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard and former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, was splattered by a student during a speech about U.S. foreign policy at Earlham College Tuesday. Members of the audience jeered the student, then applauded as Kristol wiped the pie from his face and said, "Just let me finish this point," the Palladium-Item reported

Earlham suspended the dissenter for his childish behavior.

Some students at Harvard are up in arms over a student-run dorm cleaning service. The Crimson has called for a boycott:

Hiring someone to clean dorm rooms is a convenience, but it is also an obvious display of wealth that would establish a perceived, if unspoken, barrier between students of different economic means," the editorial said. "It's up to each one of us to ensure that our peers feel comfortable on campus, and if that means plugging in a vacuum every two weeks, then so be it."

I disagree. I worked two simultaneous jobs all through college and I would gladly have traded a few hours' wages for someone to come in and scrub the bathroom, clean the oven and wash the floors, even if it was only once a month. Now that I think about it, I don't remember ever doing any of those things, and I'm sure I didn't own a vaccum cleaner or a mop. Maybe I traded my way out with my roomates or maybe we lived in dirt. Either is entirely possible.

Nonetheless, DormAid's owners make the better argument:

The patrons of the Woody Creek Tavern outside of Aspen have been finding new things to occupy them since Hunter Thompson's passing. One idea they've come up with: Turn Yourself In Day.

In the spirit of worthy projects, my friend Coyote called the other morning with a scheme to honor the fallen. He called it "Turn Yourself in Day" and it went something like this. On a specific day and time every pot-smoker in America would head down to the nearest police station and turn him or herself in (signed, notarized confession optional). Admitted drug felons all, these umpteen millions of people would create an unprecedented logjam. Forget the obvious cop-shops and municipal buildings - every aspect of American civilization and culture would come to a screeching halt because of the vast numbers of quiet pot-smokers. Hospitals, schools, banks and head shops would shut down for lack of employees, armies would stop marching, racers would stop running. Businesses would have no customers, no employees. The Republican nightmare come true, their worst fears confirmed.

It might even reach beyond America:

A DEA agent is giving a talk to a group of kids. He brags about how professional he is, and how he's the only one in the room professional enough to carry a glock. As soon as the words are out of his mouth, he shoots himself in the foot.

The video is here. [hat tip NORML.)