There’s a new Holy Father in Rome, and while his biography doesn’t please everyone, I find that I’m somewhat encouraged that they actually elected a Catholic for the job. As for the Hitler Youth thing, I think there are two points. One is that it was mandatory to join the Hitler Youth in 1936, and Ratzinger should have joined in April, 1937 on his tenth birthday. The second, is as PapaScott points out, I don’t think anyone who did not live as a teenager in a wartime dictatorship is in any position to judge whether that was right or wrong.
Overall, I don’t think he that much of a change from John Paul II, and that’s probably just fine for an organization as conservative as the Catholic Church. Yes, he was probably on the wrong side of the sexual-abuse issues the Church has been wrestling with, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a candidate for the job who wasn’t in a state of denial at some point. That doesn’t mean I excuse it, but people fuck up, even some who end up being pope.
On the home front, yesterday was cool and wet. It should have been a super-productive day for work, but I’m bumping against a particularly tricky problem I need to solve, and spent most of the day pondering it and scratching my head, rather than making any real progress. There are going to be days like that, I guess, but I was hoping yesterday wouldn’t be one of them.
Today, I’m looking at more work. Hopefully my brain will decide to wrap itself around the problem I’m wrestling with, but if not, I think it might be a good day to get to some of those outside tasks I’ve been putting off. Like finishing getting the trike ready for the summer, and putting on some miles. Or buying some gas for the lawnmower, and giving the lawn that first once-over of the spring. Or sticking some onions and garlic into the garden. It’s supposed to be around 60° and breezy, which is just a fine temperature for me to be doing anything more strenuous than sitting in a lawn-chair outside.
- If you want to
Discover What the World Thinks About U.S.
, Watching America might be a good option. It looks like they do a pretty good job of translating foreign news articles. There’s almost certainly some slant in which stories they choose to translate, but I haven’t checked in often enough to be sure. - Hey cool! The Good Eats Fan Page has fan-generated transcripts of most of the shows. Handy if you’re trying to remember some of Alton’s explanation. [some guy]
- The State left door open to driver data online, and if you renewed the tabs for your car online, your credit-card or check-routing numbers may be compromised. The bonus is that they don’t even know if any were or not, since they didn’t have any detection systems in place, either. The St. Paul paper says the Tab site [was] troubled from start and has been at risk since 2000, when it was introduced. [strib and press-patch]