I'm like, so slow...

Pope Benedict XVI

Comment: Yeah yeah, so it took me a couple of days to update my blog so as to reflect this news item. :-) It's kind of funny, I actually slept through the media spectacle which was his election, and only found out that Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope upon arriving at our Priest's house last Tuesday for one of the little catechical "coffee talk" sessions he was holding during Lent.

Seriously though... I guess this is as good as it was going to get for the Latins, given the serious contenders that were available. Actually, I was stunned when I was told that he had been elected; I really didn't think he would ever have got the majority needed to be elected.

I have to admit, I took a great deal of delight observing the abject horror of all of the modernistas and "cafeteria Catholics" on the various radio chat shows. They were pratically having kittens. It was wonderful. They thought John Paul II was a hardliner (which he wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination) - well, I think it's fair to say that Joseph Ratzinger is just a couple of "steps to the right" of the late John Paul II. Hence, their distress. Though, objectively speaking I don't see why they're in such fits - Pope Benedict XVI is hardly a "rigid" person...he's just yesterday's liberal, as John Paul II was. But I guess unless you're on the cutting end of godlessness, you'll never keep these creeps happy. But, anything that rains on their parade cannot help but bring a smile to my face. I find their brand of practical atheism far more offensive than the overt, honest (moreso) brand you'll find in publications like Skeptical Inquirer, etc.

However, I have to admit I'm a little nervous about his avowed interest in "re-uniting Christians." Yes, I know ecumenism has long been the big thing for recent Popes, but I get the distinct impression that this is going to be an even "bigger thing" for this Pope. Given some of the things he's said regarding the terms of re-union between Roman Catholics and other "Christian confessions" (basically, it would seem that this could involve skirting dogmatic differences) in times past, I have grave concerns as to where this could all be going.

I know it's not considered tasteful to speak ill of the dead (particularly when the body is still warm), but given the preview to the Church of the Anti-Christ we got under John Paul II at his "Assisi affairs", I'm concerned that Benedict XVI is going to try and do "one better".

Here's to hoping I'm dead wrong!

What I'm reading right now

The Illness and Cure of the Soul in the Orthodox Tradition - By Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos

Comment: Select passages of this book (in fact, the majority of it) are available online at the publisher's website - however, I really recommend you try to obtain a full copy of this work, as it is (in it's entirity) very worthwhile. Perhaps without intending to do such (or at the very least, without this being the work's fundamental goal), I think this work gives definition to that fundamental (but often elusive) "something" which many come to realize fundamentally separates Orthodox Christianity from the various heterodox confessions we westerners grow up alongside (or even within). It's a very powerful little book (only 184 pages), and though I'm not finished it (I'm on page 136), I couldn't wait to share my incredibly positive thoughts about it. Definately one of the better books on the spiritual life that I've read in my (admittedly short, thus far) lifetime.

Mystery solved!

Scientists discover why some popcorn kernels don't pop: moisture pressure

(excerpt) INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Eat your way to the bottom of almost any bag of popcorn and there they are: the rock-hard, jaw-rattling unpopped kernels known as old maids. The nuisance kernels have kept many a dentist busy, but their days could be numbered: Scientists say they now know why some popcorn kernels resist popping into puffy white globes. It's long been known that popcorn kernels must have a precise moisture level in their starchy centre - about 15 per cent - to explode. But Purdue University researchers found the key to a kernel's explosive success lies in the composition of its hull. It turns out there is an optimal hull structure that allows kernels to explode, and leaky hulls prevent the moisture pressure buildup needed for kernels to pop. "They're sort of like little pressure vessels that explode when the pressure reaches a certain point," said Bruce Hamaker, a Purdue professor of food chemistry. "But if too much moisture escapes, it loses its ability to pop and just sits there." ...

Comment: Now I'll finally be able to get some sleep!