Tom Noonan

Here are some random observations from last week’s news:

• You may have heard the pope abdicated his God-given job.  As one who was raised Catholic, was an altar boy and attended a Catholic high school and college, I would have to say that selection of a successor will have less impact on me than the meteor that crashed into Russia.  While it is nice to think that the new guy will finally set the Church straight on the enabling culture of child sex abuse and rape, you would have to ignore the widespread acceptance of that culture throughout the Western world by the very people who will be electing Benedict’s replacement.  As one of Canadian ancestry, however, I was excited to see that one handicapper had a Canadian as the pre-conclave favorite.  I have an image of Cardinal Ouelett pulling cassocks over the heads of fellow cardinals and pummeling them until they give in.
• While nothing gets the mainstream media more excited that being able to speculate on something that could happen (such as the election of a pope) to save them from having to cover actual newsworthy events, they outdid themselves with coverage of Marco Rubio taking a drink of water.  The media could have covered the fact that Rubio offered no new ideas for the Republican Party to counter Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, thereby continuing to delay the reckoning that might have occurred following November’s election, but nothing beats a politician embarrassing himself, no matter the insignificance of the event.
• Speaking of embarrassing behavior, when are Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham going to realize that continually saying stupid things on Sunday talk shows does not make them this century’s version of Henry Clay?  They are delaying the approval of Republican Chuck Hagel to be Obama’s Secretary of Defense because, in McCain’s view, Hagel does not recognize the success of the surge in Iraq, and Graham wants to know more about Benghazi  –  in which Hagel had no involvement.  Graham topped it off by saying the March 1 sequester (for which a Pentagon chief would be essential) could be avoided if Obamacare were eliminated, a program that almost everyone knows, no matter how reluctantly, is happening.
• While they undoubtedly consider themselves immune from embarrassment, the International Olympic Committee has eliminated wrestling as one of the guaranteed sports in the 2020 Olympics.  Quick, name another sport that is not a track and field event that was in the Olympic renewal of 1896.
• Finally, if we thought the last two years would end sentences that contained the words “Boston Red Sox” and “embarrassing,” we have a starting pitcher hurting himself in the first 20 minutes of spring training  –  pulling a hamstring covering first base.

That’s it for now.  I just saw a snowflake fall in Saratoga Springs, raising the hope there could be enough of the white stuff to cover up all my unraked leaves.