pope

i don't feel that i can officialy enter blog land unless i have a post about the pope...i know i'm a little late on all this pope hype, but it just seems like a prereq at this point.
I have 3 points about the popela (see, like hoopla, but popela)
1. I'm not sure why the Pope deserves so much of out attention or the attention of the media. The pope really has very little influence on policy in the United States, or anywhere else for that matter. The Pope asked the US not to go to war with Iraq, the pope asked the US not to let Terry Schiavo die, the Pope asked the US to ban abortions, the Pope asked the US not to retalliate against 9/11 with violence, the pope has asked the US to end the death penalty...etc etc etc....The response of US policy makers has been overwhelmingly supportive of the Pope's position - oh, pontiff, thanks for your guidance, we will end this unjust war immediately!...um, no that's not right....as a matter of fact, the general response is "you have a very nice hat and a neat little car old man, now drive on down to south america so we can feel better about ourselves up here...besides i have a meeting with BONO!"
2. The new pope is 78 years old....the funny part about this is that the morning anchor woman on CNN was talking with a Catholic School administrative official somewhere in New Jersey...the administrator said "we think its great our students are witnessing this - its a once in a lifetime opportunity for them!"..
well, if that's the case then these present-day highschoolers have some very short life-expectancies...sucks to die in your mid-20s, maybe 30 at best.
nope, i think those kids will see at least 1, if not 2 or 3 more POPATHONS (again, its like marathon, but its popathon...um, yeah)
3. there is one theory that the catholic church elected a notorious conservative pope who was closer to death than terry shiavo in hospice was simply to allow a TRANSITION period as the church moves from old-skool to new and begins to appease the demands of centerist americans....women clergy, some allowances for abortion, gays, etc...
um, i don't buy this --> the US makes up only 6% of the catholic market...granted, they have a disproportional amount of buying power and influence....and while the catholic church is obviously business savvy%