whatstars, Yes, to some extent I was referring to their intractable dogma concerning those issues, which has done more to alienate people from the Catholic faith than almost anything else. I tend to think that the Pope's abdication is as much the result of years of infighting within the papal hierchy regarding the ped...more

Perspective, This Pope's legacy, with its successes and its failures, will one day gain some clarity with the hindsight of historical perspective. It is probably safe to say that his decision to step down has as much to do with serious internal strife between himself and his papal constituency as it does any age or he...more

The Oil Barons, Perhaps all consumers of gasoline and petroleum products should be reminded that today's largely unregulated and tacitly corrupt petroleum industry began with one of the biggest professional thieves to ever grace the American landscape, John D Rockefeller. His vast Standard Oil Company of the late 19th...more