Happy Friday, everyone. I am about to head to the Colorado State High School Swimming championships and spend the next two days in a whistling, whooping, chlorine-inundated building - you can pray for me. Yesterday was a busy day in the news. Chief among the most important stories was the election of the pope. Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected in rather short order (3rd vote) to be the next leader of the Catholic church. He took the name Leo XIV. There is always a lot of symbolism in the name that a Pope selects. Leo the Great was a very consequential man in the church. He once met with Attila the Hun and convinced him not to raid Rome. He was also the Pope who oversaw the 4th ecumenical council that clarified the nature of Jesus as fully God and fully Human. We will see why this Cardinal selected Leo as his name of choice, but in all likelihood, he probably recognizes the significant moment the church finds itself in. Perhaps he is asking for ancient wisdom to help guide him through the troubles.
I will save the Nicole Shanahan debacle for my post with House InHabit later today. The whole thing is sad to me and given the stakes, seems awfuly shortsighted on the part of Ms. Shanahan. I have to wonder if the new Blaze contract has something to do with it or if there are other things at play - but regardless, you will have to wait to hear my thoughts until Jessica sends it out!
Here are the other headlines that caught my attention today!
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I always enjoy reading different perspectives on things that happen in the church. As a believer, I still cling to the idea that it is the only meaningful way out of the mess we have made, and so when attention is focused back toward Christianity, I find it encouraging. The Pope stuff is interesting for its rituals and ceremony, and while I am not a Catholic, I think the Pope is still a significant voice in the church universal, and therefore needs to be discussed. I dislike the guessing about his politics. He’s from Chicago, in the United States, so my guess is that he’s not exactly the Barry Goldwater of the Papacy. However, I thought this article was the most thoughtful analysis that I read about the new pope’s election.
In a tidbit of history, the last Pope to be named Leo is the earliest-born person ever captured on film. Here is a colorized version of that event in history.
The Nicole Shanahan, RFK feud is sad to me. I have respect for both people and think that they both have a lot to contribute to the American landscape in politics and in the health of our nation. Unfortunately, the entire thing seemed to come off the rails in a very public lashing by Ms. Shanahan yesterday. I have my suspicions about all of it, and as my article will expand on, no one in government should be trusted. Ms. Shanahan has a lot of voices in her ears about the vaccines, and in all honesty, I want them gone, too. The reality of the moment is that RFK has a lot of work to do to prove the case that they are damaging before they can just be “stopped.” Here is RFK and his team last night on Fox discussing their plans for figuring out the future of health in the United States.
On the idea that he is being controlled by some other forces because of his advocacy for Ms. Means:
The controlled from afar narrative is one that continues to raise its head everywhere. I said yesterday that the “Blame Israel for everything in the ills of American politics” is a lazy and unintellectual. While I think that foreign governments, including Israel, have a say in our politics, it’s disingenuous to think or say they have more than others. I want our influences to be from the American people, so I have trouble with anyone who thinks that another place should have more than our citizens, but that is not what any of this is. Here is another member of the press, in an interview with Dr. Bhattacharya, insinuating that the NIH is under someone else’s control. Watch out for this narrative that will inevitably be pushed with louder and more direct accusations as the days go on.
In completely different news, I have been lamenting the cell phone life these last few weeks. I feel a sense of trauma around its ringing, buzzing, whirling, and demand on my attention. If I had the last twenty years to do over, I would never have gone down the path of getting one. They are not healthy devices for the body or the mind. This article is a great breakdown of what the phone has done over the last twenty years.
Finally, here is a bit of peaceful music to calm the soul heading into the weekend.
Jack's Picks: high marks for brevity, low for content:-)