I love daylight savings time!

An amendment to an energy bill in Congress, if passed, will extend it by several weeks every year. That would be great, except there's no doubt in my mind that the same bill will also include the destruction of the Alaskan wilderness for unnecessary (but very profitable) oil drilling. If that's the case I think I'd rather see the whole thing not pass.

Pope stuff

I really don't know what prompted me to write this.

What I know of popes doesn't amount to much. I heard since the passing of John Paul II that Paul VI issued an edict (or whatever they call such things) that cardinals over the age of 80 can't vote for a new pope, apparently in order to keep old hard-line conservatives out of the top job. So next they got a theological ultra-liberal instead? If that's true, wasn't the death of John Paul I after only a month just a little suspicious?

It's very possible that everything I've ever heard about this subject has no basis in fact. My theory of why the next pope was a relatively young guy is that the conclave thing gets old fast, and nobody was in any hurry to do it again any time soon.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm no big fan of the Catholic Church, but I do understand that there are some basic core principles that must be adhered to, whether I'd agree with them or not. Recent surveys of American Catholics show strong support for priests being able to marry, the ordination of women, and increased participation in governance by lay people. The first two aren't going to happen and the third isn't going to happen anywhere near to the degree they'd like, if at all. The next pope may make some minor modernizing tweaks to church policy, but if Americans are expecting major changes, they're going to be disappointed.