Pope Benedict: Happy Trails or Good Riddance?

English: Pope Benedict XVI during general audition (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pope Benedict XVI rode off literally into the sunset Thursday, leaving behind a mostly undistinguished eight-year run as pontiff and designated father figure to millions of Catholics.  The most dramatic moment of his papacy turned out to be getting out alive, which is something that hasn't happened in 600 years.

Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, was a tough act to follow.  John Paul was a relative rock star, a Polish pope who survived an assassination attempt, boldly went where no previous pontiff had ever gone, and presiding over the fall of the Soviet Union.

Benedict, who's 85 and in ill health, was chosen to continue the conservative policies of John Paul II following his death.  Policies that have chafed at every devout Catholic, particularly in the Western world, such as no birth control, no married or female priests.  It makes you wonder how the Catholic Church has managed to survive in the 21st century with 12th century values.  Or with any religion, for that matter.

What's worse, Benedict leaves behind a trail of broken lives among those whose priests may or may not have taken sexual liberties with them as children, which the Catholic Church has been slow to deal with.  If they dealt with it at all.

The next pope, those who follow what goes on in the Vatican believe, will not be much different from either Benedict or John Paul in terms of policies.  He (and it will be a he) will just stubbornly stick to his rosaries as more and more rank and file Catholics head for the exits in disgust.

Watching Benedict (who will now have the Pope Emeritus title bestowed on him) take off from the Vatican in a helicopter to start a new life in retirement was certainly an historic moment.  To some people, he will be admired for leaving the papacy the way he wanted.  To others, he's a reminder of another leader who resigned under a cloud of controversy and rode off into the sunset.  His name was Richard Nixon.

Sequester This!

079 Capitol Hill United States Congress 1993 (Photo credit: David Holt London)

Whoever it was that said "you can't fix stupid" must have been talking about Washington, which is in yet another contrived budget crisis that threatens to grind a struggling economy to a halt.

This time, $85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts are scheduled to go into effect March 1, a provision made possible by the 2011 Budget Control Act.  The cuts, known as sequestering, affect everything from air traffic safety to unemployment benefits to educational programs to national defense.  Everything the government does, that is, except for Social Security and Medicare.  Dire warnings of layoffs, inconvenience and threats of security lapses have all been bandied about, mostly by the White House.

This sequester is supposed to force Congress and President Barack Obama to come up with some kind of plan to save the country from this terrible plight.  So far, it's not happening.  Neither side is even close to a new budget deal.  When the going got rough, Congress chose to take President's Week off.  Seriously.

The Republicans have been hollering for federal spending cuts for years, so you would think that the automatic cuts would be right up their alley.  Not so, because of what it would do to national defense, which they don't want cut at all.  A national defense that's already bloated beyond belief, and even the Pentagon says they don't need all that stuff Congress continually earmarks for them.

The President is proposing spending cuts coupled with a raise in taxes for the highest-earning Americans, which is something the polls show seems to be the way to go.  But the GOP doesn't want to hear about taxes.  Instead, they want the ability to decide which programs to cut and for how much.

This is what's called governing in crisis.  Ever since Obama became President, the Republicans have been going into Bruce Springsteen mode.  That is, "No Retreat, No Surrender" when it comes to taxes and spending, without so much as a thought as to how their actions would affect the rest of the country.

Whether the predictions of gloom and doom comes to pass or not, we know this:  Extreme politics on both sides--Republican and Democrat--is taking a major toll on this country.  How is anything supposed to get done when Congress resembles a glorified daycare center full of spoiled brats, while the economy tanks and people are hurting?  They need to grow up.

The Oscars: Ergo, "Argo"

English: Ben Affleck at the premiere for He's Just Not That Into You. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At the 85th Academy Awards, Ben Affleck more than made up for getting shut out of a nomination for Best Director.  The film he directed about a CIA attempt to get Americans out of 1979 Iran under the guise of a Canadian movie production, "Argo", won Best Picture.  The film itself had been gaining momentum during Hollywood's awards season pretty much as a reaction to Affleck's Oscar snub.

The Academy spread the wealth in passing out their awards, resulting in winners that were expected and not-so-expected.  Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for "Lincoln".  Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress for her role in "Silver Linings Playbook".  Anne Hathaway got a Best Supporting Actress nod by singing her way through "Les Miserables".  Best Supporting Actor went to Christoph Waltz for "Django Unchained".  And Ang Lee won in the category Affleck wasn't even nominated in, for directing "Life of Pi".

Other notable awards went to Adele, who added to her warehouse full of trophies with the Best Original Song for "Skyfall", from the James Bond movie of the same name.  And Quentin Tarantino won for Best Original Screenplay for "Django Unchained".

Seth McFarlane, best known these days for voicing a foulmouthed teddy bear in "Ted", hosted the Academy Awards.  His opening skit with William Shatner reprising his Captain Kirk role certainly nailed it about his ability to host such a high-profile show--it was mediocre.  Most of his jokes fell flat, and some were patently offensive to the point where he was booed.  Still, there have been worse Oscar hosts.

A couple more Oscar moments:

• There was a salute to the 50th anniversary of the James Bond films, which resulted in Dame Shirley Bassey belting out "Goldfinger".  She's still got it.
• Barbra Striesand sang "The Way We Were" as a tribute to songwriter Marvin Hamlisch at the end of the "In Memoriam" segment.  She came on without an introduction--maybe it was in her contract, which would have made sense way back when.  But not now.
• First Lady Michelle Obama announced the winner for Best Picture, and not Jack Nicholson.  Won't this add more fuel to the fire for those who think Hollywood is in the tank for her husband, the President?

"Getting It Done" In a Divided Country

English: Cropped version of File:Official portrait of Barack Obama.jpg. The image was cropped at a 3:4 portrait ratio, it was slightly sharpened and the contrast and colors were auto-adjusted in photoshop. This crop, in contrast to the original image, centers the image on Obama's face and also removes the flag that takes away the focus from the portrait subject. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

President Barack Obama's first State of the Union address of his second term made headlines before he even made it to the House chamber, with the word that 34,000 more military personnel were being withdrawn from Afghanistan within the next year.  That falls in line with his goal of wrapping up the war there by the end of 2014.

As for the rest of the one hour speech, it can be summed up in four words:  "Let's get it done".  That was the President's message to Republicans who mostly sat on their hands the entire evening while his fellow Democrats stood up and cheered his every word, challenging them to allow his proposals on everything from the economy to the budget to gun accessibility to go through, knowing full well that they probably won't be.

The president also made mention of North Korea launching another test nuclear warhead and Iran's alleged nuclear program, denouncing them both.   This sounds kinda curious in light of reports that the Obama administration is seriously considering launching drone attacks on American citizens who plan terrorist activities from abroad.  Left unchecked, drone attacks could be coming to a neighborhood near you.

As has become standard practice during these SOTU spectacles, various invited ordinary folk representing the President's pet causes were trotted out.  There were soldiers who were wounded in battle.  A person who benefited from Obamacare.  And a 102-year old African-American woman who waited in line on Election Day for what seemed like an eternity, just so she could vote.  We presume she represented election reform.

But toward the end of the speech, the President turned his attention to the guests who just happened to represent victims of gun violence, his latest pet project.  He called on Congress to give Gabrielle Giffords (also in the audience) and the victims of Newtown, Columbine, etc. a vote in favor of controls on guns.   However, his efforts are in trouble because even Democrats are reluctant to let go of their second amendment rights.

President Obama may have won a new four-year term, but he realistically has only two years for anyone in Congress to take his proposals seriously before the 2014 midterm elections.  Then again, his proposals haven't been taken seriously by the GOP ever since he took office.  So this is really his last chance to just get it done.

Saturdays Marked "Return to Sender"

United States Postal Service (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 1863, the Civil War was raging.  President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.  And the United States Post Office began delivering mail six days a week.

In 2013, the U.S. is winding down their war in Afghanistan.  An African-American named Barack Obama enters his second term as President.  And the United States Postal Service announces it is dropping Saturday mail service.

That's correct.  Starting in August, you'll have one less day to get bills, pre-approved credit card offers and other forms of junk mail.  Packages will still be delivered, though, and post offices will remain open on Saturdays.

It's no big secret that the USPS is in financial trouble, and is fighting to stay relevant in an era where you're more likely to be using e-mail and text messaging instead of sending letters.  They've been begging and pleading Congress for years for increases in their funding, and usually getting it.  Problem is, the more cutbacks there are and the higher the postage rate goes (they just raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 46 cents), the worse the service gets.  The USPS is, according to their estimates, currently $16 billion in the hole.

With Saturday delivery no longer in the picture, this means there's going to be a backlog of mail going out on Friday and in your mailbox on Monday.  That's why the USPS is actually hiring more people to handle deliveries, just as soon as the people who work there now take retirement.

Compared to the Internet, UPS and FedEx, the Postal Service seems rather quaint to most of us now.  We can send correspondence, pay bills and ship packages much more quickly than with dear old 'snail mail'.  But the USPS still has its uses--they're the only ones who can legally deliver mail as an organization that has the backing of the federal government.  And they have history on their side:  Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general, just before the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain.  The Pony Express ran the mail from Kansas City to California in a matter of days.  Mail was delivered twice a day up until 1950.

Technology marches on.  No matter how much postal rates go up and the number of days letter carriers work goes down, a piece of American history will try to deliver the goods to your doorstep or mailbox for as long as it can.