The Pope Tries to Help

He's been in the news a lot lately. Appeared on my Google Homepage in 3 out of 17 stories:

The Pope urged Middle-East peace efforts (BBC)
The Pope appeals for help for the world's abused children (CNN)
Worship God not technology, Pope says (Google News from MSNBC)

The NYT, meanwhile, led of with a story about Archbishop Akinola, but its tone was less preachy. A number of American churches left the Episcopal Church after it consecrated a gay bishop. The Nigerian Achbishop Peter Akinola created a North American branch to accomodate the American churches. "In doing so, he has made himself the kingpin of a remarkable alliance between theological conservatives in North America and the developing world..."

Oh! I'm surprised I didn't make the connection sooner: It's Christmas. I guess people want some religious stuff in the news for the holidays. Maybe next time, just report: Happy Christmas, say Pope! and spare us his politics. Reminds me of the Christmas dinner in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce) where Dad, Dante, and the Uncles couldn't stop fighting over church and politics the whole meal and everyone's holiday was ruined. Let's just celebrate and forget why we do, okay? It's so much simpler.

It's the end of the year, and you know what that means. Year-end specials! Every newspaper, magazine, and periodical worth chopping down trees to publish will roll out their predictions for next year, their year-in-review, this-year-in-pictures, etc.. The Economist led off early, with its annual The World in [2007] special. Look for these wrap-ups in your favorite media source (or don't). If you find any especially interesting or informative ones, please let me know. It might be fun to put together a ranking. But why bother? And who has time?

Speaking of time, it is almost Finals season (I know many of you are on vacation now, but the European academic calendar is different (and Israel is a little different even from the rest of Europe (yes, Israel is part of Europe. Or Asia. Or Africa (but Africa less so). Or the Middle-East. Whatever that means. (Yes, I know well what the Middle East is, but it isn't its own continent, you know)) because it doesn't officially celebrate Christmas or New Year's) from the American one) so I'm going to be more busy studying and have less time to post.