🇺🇸 Goodbye Benedict

Plus, the amazing impact of proper hydration.

January 04, 2023

The Flag

POWERED BY

Good morning, and happy Wednesday! If you're not excited about being back at work, here's a little pick-me-up. Spoiler alert, it's Snoop Dogg narrating Planet Earth.

FLAG POLLS

🐘 January 3, 2023: Majority of GOP voters support replacing McDaniel as RNC chair: 73% want new RNC leader, 6% want McDaniel reelected, 21% aren't sure (The Hill)

📉 January 3, 2023: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 47, Disapprove 52 (Rasmussen Reports)

📈 January 1, 2023: Brexit Poll: Two-thirds of Britons now support future referendum on rejoining the EU (Savanta / Independent)

📉 December 30, 2022: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 47, Disapprove 51 (Rasmussen Reports)

TRENDING

Right: Biden's Border Crisis Has a 2,023,441 Case Backlog (Fox News Opinion)

Right: Woke Wall St. Firms Find They Have No Allies on the Hill (Washington Examiner)

Right: Fauci Fibbed on the Day Everything Changed (Brownstone Institute)

Left: On Title 42, SCOTUS Throws Out Common Sense (Los Angeles Times)

Left: The Democrats' biggest missed opportunities in the last Congress (MSNBC)

Left: Joe Biden is in the Oval Office. So are Elizabeth Warren's ideas. (Philadelphia Tribune)

POWERED BY RX SAFETY

Hitting the Open Road? Better Get Protected

Your eyes are your window to the world. Before gassing up the hog and heading out on that next road trip, make sure your vision is properly protected. RX-Safety offers prescription motorcycle sunglasses and goggles, keeping you safe while cruising.

Investing in proper eye protection reduces the probability of accidents. RX-Safety has all the top brands, including Oakley, Wiley, 7eye, and more. They use high-quality, durable materials to ensure you'll be protected from flying debris as well as extreme impact.

QUICK CLICKS

Hamlin in Critical Condition, New State Laws Taking Effect, Wall Street Stumbles Out of the Gate

Sports: Bills’ defensive back Hamlin in critical condition after collapse on field (AP)

US: House adjourns with no Speaker (The Hill)

US: Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger cleared for extradition to Idaho (NY Post)

US: Rising wages, falling taxes: New state laws taking effect in 2023 (PBS)

World: Drone advances in Ukraine could bring dawn of killer robots (AP) + Grief and anger in Russia over soldiers killed by Ukraine strike (AFP)

US: Home price increases weakened sharply in November, posting the smallest annual gain in 2 years (CNBC)

Business: Wall Street falters at start of 2023 as Apple, Tesla shares fall (Reuters)

Economy: A recession is coming for most developed nations in 2023, and this is where economists predict the worst (Fortune)

RELIGION

Goodbye Benedict

Benedict XVI celebrates his 81st birthday with U.S. President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura. The White House, Washington D.C.

This past weekend, former Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away at the age of 95. The Vatican announced he died after becoming very sick, as his condition had worsened earlier in December.

From The Flag: Benedict, born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, holds the record as the world’s oldest pope. He resigned in early 2013, becoming the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years. Here’s more from both sides.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Benedict’s Passing Has Conservative Catholics at a Crossroads

  • Conservative Catholics now feel like they’ve lost their leader, especially given Pope Francis’s more progressive leanings.

  • Benedict’s lasting legacy is the way in which he pushed anti-abortion views, which contributed to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

  • Many will remember Benedict for his orthodoxy and inflexibility, but he was also a passionate and honest man of intellect.

“Benedict’s Death Leaves Catholic Conservatives Bereft” Jason Horowitz, New York Times: “Bereft conservatives (have) mourned the loss of a leader who championed the traditions, doctrines and church law and order they cherished. … (He) stood as the church’s pre-eminent conservative thinker and leader in the decades preceding, during and following his pontificate… Pope Francis, his successor, has a less orthodox vision, infuriating conservatives who accuse him of causing confusion as he undid a great deal of Benedict’s legacy… Francis… has expressed openness to same-sex unions, welcomed a debate on the ordination of a limited number of married men as priests and shrugged at the potential for a schism, or break with Rome by the hard right. Through it all, many church traditionalists — and also right-wing political populists — invoked the name of Benedict as the church’s real moral authority and sought to draw him into an internecine ideological war. Now he is gone.”

“Pope Benedict XVI changed politics in America” David Von Drehle, Washington Post Opinion: “Two priests who served as theological experts at Vatican II would go on to alter that dynamic and to bring Roman Catholicism to a place of prominence in American life unmatched throughout our history. One, from Poland, was Karol Wojtyla… now Pope Saint John Paul II. The other… was Joseph Ratzinger, who would serve John Paul II as chief keeper of the faith and succeed him as Pope Benedict XVI. … The defining engagement in American politics has been over the issue of abortion. As John Paul’s hammer, Ratzinger taught that ‘not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion.’ Under his influence, opposition to abortion became a defining aspect of Catholic identity here: Catholic schools bus students to protest rallies. Catholic hospitals refuse to offer certain medical procedures. Catholic churches raise money to fund antiabortion campaigns.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was more than 'God's Rottweiler' Jay Parini, CNN Opinion

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Benedict Was An Amazing Teacher, and He Spread God’s Love

  • Dismissed by many on the left as “God’s Rottweiler,” Pope Benedict was a brilliant theologian who confronted humanity’s challenges.

  • Benedict helped millions feel loved by God, as he taught that humans are not “accidents of evolution.”

  • Through his words and scholarly wisdom, Benedict made the life of faith approachable and easier to understand.

“The Quiet Genius of Pope Benedict XVI” Francis X. Maier, Wall Street Journal Opinion: “Pope Benedict XVI was one of the great religious minds of the past century. … For all the criticism he inspired, Ratzinger himself was a quiet man averse to conflict. He was a scholar of refined tastes… His greatest needs were ample sleep and silence to think and write. … Pope Benedict XVI nevertheless used his astonishing intellect in luminescent ways. His 2006 University of Regensburg lecture was widely and ignorantly trashed at the time as anti-Muslim. What he actually delivered was a superb defense of the mutually supportive roles of faith and reason and the nature of a free conscience. … His extensive collected writings on human responsibility for the environment preceded the current pontificate. His 2011 Freiburg address offered a brutally sober assessment of the challenges facing Christianity… the Catholic world has lost one of its most brilliant minds and articulate voices. His memory will endure.”

“My debt to Pope Benedict XVI” Freddy Gray, The Spectator: “Back in early 2019, my wife discovered that she was pregnant… later, we discovered that the child, a girl, had Down Syndrome. The NHS asked if we wanted to abort her. We did not. My wife, brave and stoic, soon accepted the news as a blessing. I wanted to do the same, but I felt shocked and scared… I spent a lot of time worrying. I took to praying and… a line from Pope Benedict XVI kept repeating itself in my head: ‘We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.’ … What that ‘each of us’ quote also does is show that the late Pope was nothing like the media’s ‘God’s Rottweiler’ caricature. … Joseph Ratzinger was an orthodox Catholic. But that made him kind not cruel.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: God Was Good to Us Giving Us Benedict XVI Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review

FLAG THIS

What Americans, and the World, Think of the Current Pope

A somewhat dated poll conducted in early 2021 found about 56% of respondents held a favorable or strongly favorable view of Pope Francis, who succeeded Benedict in 2013.

The same survey found 47% held a strong or somewhat favorable view of the Catholic Church as a whole (Saint Leo University).

Later that year, a survey found 83% of US Catholics view Pope Francis favorably. Among Catholics who identify as Republican or lean toward the GOP, the number dipped to 71% (Pew Research).

Do you hold a favorable view toward the current Pope?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

FLAG FINDS

Get Your Glasses, Optimal Organization, Top Notch Golf Gear

🏍️ Keep your eyes safe while cruising the open road. RX-Safety has a full line of motorcycle glasses and goggles that are also available in prescription. You can browse their collection from top brands like Oakley and Wiley – sorted by color, material, shape, and size. Ride with clear-eyed confidence by choosing RX-Safety today.

🗄️ You asked, and we delivered. If you’re looking to get organized as 2023 gets underway, look no further than the Shelving Store. They’ve got traditional shelves, wire shelving, organizational furniture, and foot lockers. Family-owned and operated since 1960, you can rely on the Shelving Store. Save 11% on select office storage right now.

🏌️ Happy Holidays from Worldwide Golf Shops! It’s a great time to upgrade your set of golf clubs. You can get up to $100 off select drivers from Callaway, Taylor Made, and Ping. Plus, featured footwear is available in a variety of styles (for both men and women) – wearable both on and off the course. Play what the pros are playing, and take up to 60% off sale and clearance items.

WATERCOOLER

The Great Society, Beware of Remote Work, Smartphone-less

LBJ is sworn in on Air Force One by Judge Sarah Hughes as Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Kennedy look on.

On January 4, 1965, in his State of the Union address, President Lyndon Baines Johnson lays out for Congress a laundry list of legislation needed to achieve his plan for a Great Society.

Today I Learned you aren’t eating oysters raw... you’re eating them alive.

Reply

or to participate.