Don't expect certain groups to change

It may be true that the new GOP chairman is Michael Steele who is black and somewhat moderate. But it seems the true leader of the GOP at the moment is Rush Limbaugh. Don't expect the party to change any time soon.


A bit more of just why Jews are annoyed with Pope Benedict bringing those renegade bishops back into the fold: Back in the early 1960s Vatican II, which brought the Catholic Church into the modern era, rejected the longtime Catholic belief in "blood libel," that Jews were guilty of killing Jesus. These bishops hold tightly to that discredited belief.

If Benedict is healing old rifts, how about the rift with liberal Catholics in America, the ones that question church teachings on birth control and gays? Either Benedict is carefully moving his church to the right, or to be welcomed back you have to split, not merely dissent.


Twenty years ago, when Papa Bush was prez. and gays were, um, involved in such organizations as ACT-UP to fight for rights and AIDS medications. Just think, in those 20 years what we might have done if we weren't busy battling for our rights and the church wasn't busy denying our rights. Just in 2008 (not to mention the other 19 years) there would have been somewhere around $78 million to spend on poverty, homelessness, and healthcare, and to nurture ideas such as fairness and tolerance. Sigh. To be sure, we've gained a great deal of ground in 20 years, But Kalamazoo just hit a wall (AKA, the AFA) with a civil rights ordinance.