Pope as a metaphor

With the election of Pope Benedict XVI I see lots of parallels to other things. I'll talk about a few things. I have to first put in though that my nephew has been most stubborn! He refused to be born before my instructor had his children, he refused to be born before a Pope was chosen, and now his chosen birthday may make it difficult for me to make the Briss. I tell you . . . .

Anyway, it seems that as a former Nazi takes the throne at the Vatican (he was a Nazi albeit an unwilling one) we are pushed more and more in our society to having Big Brother follow us all the time and encouraged to report our neighbor. Bill Mahrer recently said to stop comparing everythign to the Nazis and Hitler. Yet if Hitler could have, he would ahve done exactly as the Terrorist Support Association (TSA) is doing. That is requiring fingerprints of truckers (in addition to Civil Service Agents, Teachers, and many other workesr who are already fingerprinted). The TSA is also encouraging biometrics into passports. If this isn't a violation of Fourth Amendment Rights I ask what is. As was poitned out to me, in other "radical" countries such as Lebanon, they don't even mandate a birth certificate be filed with the state. I am not saying htat I want to live in Lebanon but the government there doesn't try to catalog you the way western governments are trying.

I further belivee the Pope's election refelcts an overall conservative movement in the world. Actually not jsut conservative, but pretty conservative. I think it is interesting that Nixon would now be considered a liberal Republican and Kennedy a conservative Democrat.

- Russell Weisfield