Less Papal Bull, Please

Amy Welborn says the press needs to get better at covering Benedict XVI:

[A]n over-dependence on …  in the present context, the “God’s Rottweiler softens his image and preaches about Jesus and stuff” meme [is] tired, overused and not useful for exploring the complexities and realities of this papacy and the response to it.

It’s worth talking about those who disagree with Pope Benedict. But it’s also worth, in the reporting of those differences, pushing those who disagree to account for the specifics of their reasoning, in the context of an understanding of what the role of the papacy actually is vis-a-vis Catholic teaching.

It would be great to take it to the next elevel, which means re-opening and making more accessible the real debates about the Second Council, that are still unresolved.

Bob Barr’s Contradictions

Chris Crain questions Bob Barr’s libertarian credentials:

When Bob Barr was a Republican congressman from Georgia, he authored and was the chief sponsor of the Defense of Marriage Act, which blocks any federal recognition of gay couples married by the states, as well as allowing each state to refuse to recognizes marriage licenses issued to gay couples by other states.

Barr has always been a walking contradiction, defending the institution of marriage from gays even as he divorced his first two wives and is now on his third; he is also an ardent foe of abortion rights even though he supported a decision by his wife at the time to terminate a pregnancy. There are individual rights Barr does care about — he’s a longtime board member of the National Rifle Association.

Stalled Uprising

The situation in Burma is still dire:

It was hard to imagine a Burma worse off than it was in September 2007 but it has come about because all of the frustrations that drove the demonstrators on to the streets last year have redoubled. Food and transport prices are higher than ever, political oppression is greater and the violent treatment of the country’s revered monks has increased popular contempt for the regime.

But, for all their bravery, opposition activists in Burma are in disarray.

Their figurehead and icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, has spent 12 years under house arrest and, after the crackdown in September, the remaining senior leaders have nearly all been arrested.

Those who remain at large are in hiding, their networks broken or in the hands of young and inexperienced activists. And having been physically crushed they face the danger of being politically outflanked after a remarkable move by Than Shwe’s government — in February it announced a national referendum will be held on a new constitution, to be followed by a general election in 2010.[…]

It is expected that it will guarantee 25 per cent of parliamentary seats to the military and to disbar Ms Suu Kyi from politics on the basis that she was married to a foreigner — Michael Aris, the late, British academic.