Pope Benedict XVI Resigns

Earlier today Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would be stepping down as Pontiff as of the end of this month.  Such a move hasn't been done in six hundred years.  The Pope cited the fact that he was 85 and that he was becoming increasingly frail and had concerns he'd continue to be able to fully function at his job.  Of course since such a resignation is virtually unprecedented, other speculation occurs.  It could be that the Pontiff is concerned that his theologically hard line tradionalist views no longer reflect the views of the Catholic Church at large and that many of the elector Cardinals will be of a non White complexion.  They said that 210 cardinals from all over the world would elect the next pope, and the only requirement is that the Cardinals be under age eighty.  They say a new Pope will be chosen on a two thirds vote.  I heard when he first ascended to the Papacy that "He would be a caretaker pope who would not be serving a long time".  The remark puzzled me.  Since there is no requisite nine day mourning period for the previous Pope who died, the Cardinals can get right to work on March first and hopefully elect a new Pope by Easter.  That's assuming that there no unforeseen snags in the process.  So now Pope Benedict XVI can just go back to being plain old Joseph Ratsinger.  Many are hoping the Church will now permit married Priests to serve, and that women can be ellagable to become Priests.  Many want a laxing of the no birth control stance, and allow such commonplace items as UID's and birth control pills.  I'm not even sure that condoms are permitted under current rules.  Of course some may say the current Pope was driven from office on the rash of child molestation scandals.  Cardinal Cushing will be among those 210 members of the College of Cardinals that elect the next Pope.  This is despite the fact he was forced to step down.  Keep in mind there will be pressure to pick a somewhat more progressive Pontiff since he may well serve for the next twenty years or longer and it could be late into the 2030's before his successor is chosen.  It seems to me that allowing Divorces to take place above board in the Church should be the first item on the new Pope's agenda.

Nobody is talking about the President's state of the Union speech tomorrow night, on Lincoln's birthday.  Never before has a state of the Union speech come so late in the winter.  This event is some three weeks later than it usually occurs, though the date has been creeping later.  Last year the Republicans trashed the President's speech before it was even delivered - on the strength of the previews of what would be in it.  This year we haven't gotten any heads up yet.  This morning I watched a thing on why it is essential that we get rid of this Sequestration tradition. It was pointed out that non defence discretionary spending is at its lowest percentage of GNP in over fifty years, and this will not do.  Scientific research is too valuable and other untold hardships will be felt.  But in the afternoon I watched this comittee of Ex Congressmen and Senators headed by Blanch Lincoln of Arkansas- - to the effect that we HAVE to slash the budget now or "the deficet will get completely out of control".  However their own charts reveal the fact that the crisis has "topped out" and the deficets Can be and ARE headed downward- - as of right now, based on what we have already done.  Nobody is talking about the Mideast any more.  There was another economic conference I watched today where they admitted that the economy in so many sectors is much more robust now, and that this will only improve and private industry has tons of cash waiting to be invested and that factories are only opperating at a 78 percent capacity, which is a historically low number.  Truck tonage has risen markedly and housing prices are up.  All sorts of "new energy sources" have been discovered lately in this country, particularly in the area of natural gas.  These are key indicators you look at to gauge a healthy economy.   It all depends on what the President will say tomorrow night.  As I wrote my brother, I have a fear the President is going to do a massive cave-in and basically recommend that we give the Republicans everything they want.  Knowing the Republicans however, the President will no sooner be in agreement with them then they will Up the Ante- - and demand more- - just to insure that they can label this president "A failure", which is a campaign speech they live to Make.

I reviewed that Manifesto of Christopher Dorner this afternoon.  It's an intelligently written, thoughtful piece of work.  The guy is a better writer than me, I'll tell you that.  He's also a better speller.  He was remarkably detailed in laying out his grievences.  But of course the way the Media plays it- - the thing is nothing more than the "Ramblings of a Mad Man".  Of course "Rambling' is one of those over-worked buzz words the Media loves to use to discredit people, when they have no real evidence.  Rush Limbaugh in particular has the knack of throwing gasoline on a smouldering fire.  That's what he's best at and what he lives for.  Rush Limbaugh wants to make it all a racial thing- - just like saying Collin Powell's endorcement of Obama is "all about race".  So of course Rush is going to be sure and remind us that Dorner is a Black man, and that he's also a liberal.  And that Dorner is now the new poster boy anti hero for the entire liberal community out there.  Rush Limbaugh has absolutely no sense of personal responsability as to inflaning conflicts and "being part of the problem rather than part of the solution".  Of course nobody knows where Dorner is now.  But today the Riverside Co DA announced a first degree murder charge for the officer killed in an ambush shooting there, and also the attempted murder of three others, two of which are LAPD officers.  But now there is talk of sending Drone planes out to get him, which would be some kind of a historic first.  Of course LA Mayor Viragosa spoke of the "Reign of Terror' we are all under.  On the other hand Randy Rhodes got a lot of callers today saying they were Los Angeles residents who sympathized with the plight of Christopher Dorner.  This is a late news flash.  Dorner has just crossed the US border into Mexico.

I wanted to throw in just a little E T I stuff or whatever.  Per capita there are more Federation posts in the state of Nevada than there are any other state.  Utah actually comes in second, and southern Idaho comes in at third, making California a weak fourth.  However don't venture too far downstream on the Snake river or you run into the Perseus group and they are jealous of their territory.  I have learned more about Burt Lombard in the past few years, than the previous three decades combined. It's interesting just to "let a person talk" and you learn all sorts of things about his biases and proclivities you weren't aware of.  In terms of the Fullerton PD - - the only thing we know about Fullerton is that there is a "Maginov line" of sorts- - that runs east - west along the Riverside Freeway - - between the Cortessians and regions north.  This line continues due west when the Freeway turns north and extends of that creek thing that is the County Line.  The Bajorans in Lakewood only really claim the territory "around Lincoln' and further north- - with the small land area between the two rivers as kind of a "neutral zone".  Of course if I didn't say- - and didn't know till recently - - the Bajorans and the Reigel VII people are from the same "home planet".  The name of the planet has been tagged as "Bajor' but this is a recent retro-formation based on a term introduced in Deep Space Nine or something.  The term "Bajorans" was tagged originally by outsiders.  It's a term for like a spreading blotch of black-ink stain on a white rug or something.  And technically it's not a hard "J" sound but rather pronounced as "Beige- - Or".  It's kind of got that French thing happening.