Year: 2005

Bells ringing in Vatican City – Smoke from the Sistine Chapel is white, signaling the selection of a new pope.

AP report
Reuters
MSNBC
ABCNews
CBSNews
FoxNews

  

Via Reuters: Black smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel, signaling that the first conclave vote did not elect a new pope.

Ann thinks so.

Via Drudge – the same TIME Magazine hired photographer who took this bizarre (Clinton “I’m a Beefcake”) photo:

Also took this recent photo for a cover featuring Ann Coulter:

Ann wonders why TIME can’t hire someone to take a normal picture of a conservative.

“Why can’t they just photograph conservatives straight?!” blasted this week’s TIME magazine covergirl Ann Coulter.

The bestselling author and controversialist slammed magazine editors for fronting a photo of her, she claims, which is so distorted “my own mother would not even recognize me!”

The photographer, Platon, appears to have used a wide “Fisheye” lense for the cover snap, stretching Coulter’s legs and feet — while shrinking the rest of her body.

I have to admit that the picture is bad. Ann is tall and very slender, and the lens effect on this photo makes her legs look rather chicken like. I’m sure that’s what’s buggin her the most.

Wouldn’t she have an agent who would be involved in making sure that the ‘right’ picture of Ann is picked for such a prominent cover?

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

Via NY Daily News

Surprise, there are two stoves in the Sistine Chapel. One is a black iron potbelly model with the dates of the last eight conclaves faintly etched on its top. The other is its backup.

Sometime next week, if all goes as expected, white smoke will curl up from one of them, rise through a new brass pipe reaching 30 feet to a stained glass window, continue through a 6-foot pipe on top of the chapel and fan out into the Rome air.

It will tell all the world there’s a new Pope.

Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger from Germany will most likely become the next Pope of the Catholic Church after the Papal Conclave meets this week. “Most likely” meaning online gambling site Popebetting currently has him as the 3-1 favorite (odds subject to change.)The only reason Papa Joe isn’t at 2-1 is his age, 77. Still, George Foreman (speakers on!) won a heavyweight title when he was in the twilight of his career which jumpstarted a lucrative gig as a grilling pitch man. Can you say “Lean Mean Sauerkraut Machine”?The top four candidates with the best odds are all from Europe; Germany, France and that papal powerhouse that is Italy.If I was a betting Uncle, I’d take the 16-1 odds on the southpaw bantamweight from Honduras, Oscar Rodriguez Maradiega. No region in the world is more dedicated to the traditions of the Catholic Church and most resistant to politically correct diversions of doctrine than Central and South America. Atheist or agnostic and still wanting to place a wager? Paddypower.com will give you 4-1 odds that Britney Spears will divorce in 2005, 8-1 odds that she’ll name her baby after her mother Lynn, and a longshot payout of 80-1 the baby’s name will be Madonna. How’s that for an ironic iconic full circle? 🙂

I wish I would have found this during The Masters, but since today is Sunday, a trackback to my almost-blog (too infrequent posting) Unoriginal Christian ‘honoring’ the worst in Christian business and culture despite the best of intentions.In the crosshairs today: ForeJesus- a golf accessories shop.

Via Reuters:

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Thursday harshly criticized his own country and other wealthy states for being stingy with foreign aid and said in rich countries “We really don’t give a damn.”

Oooh…he said the “D” word!