What Caught My Eye Today

Presidential Transition - Hillary Clinton is among the candidates that President-elect Barack Obama is considering for Secretary of State, according to two Democratic officials in close contact with the Obama transition team. So is this for real or just another rumor? The two Democratic officials who spoke did so on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering Obama and his staff. A Clinton spokesman referred questions to the Obama transition team, which said it had no comment. Other people frequently mentioned for the State Department job are Senator Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Senator John Kerry, D-Mass., and New Mexico's Democratic governor, Bill Richardson. In my experience stuff like this doesn't come out without reason. These officials spilled the beans because someone told them to. The real question here is who? If Obama picks someone other than Clinton for Secretary of State, there is going to be some explaining to do by somebody. Looking at this from a slightly different angle, did you happen to notice that Obama's short list to head the State Department includes candidates from both major political parties?

Nebraska - Here's an update on the safe-haven law that has been causing nothing be headaches for Nebraskan lawmakers. To Nebraska's surprise and embarrassment, more than half of the 33 children legally abandoned under the safe-haven law since it took effect in mid-July have been teenagers. But state officials may have inadvertently made things worse with their hesitant response to the problem: The number of drop-offs has almost tripled to about three a week since the governor announced that lawmakers would rewrite the law. When it rains, it pours. The safe-haven law was intended to save "Dumpster babies" by allowing desperate young mothers to abandon their newborns at a hospital without fear of prosecution. But lawmakers could not agree on an age limit, and the law as passed uses only the word "child." Perhaps I'm speaking out of turn here (big surprise, huh?), but how stupid are these legislators that they would pass a law with such an obvious loophole in it because they couldn't agree on an age limit for a freaking "baby"? Seriously, what's wrong with looking at what all 49 other states did when they passed their safe haven laws? My goodness these people are dense.

Catholicism - I'm all for sticking by one's morals but this is starting to get out of hand. A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil." The pastor said in a letter distributed to parishioners that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote. Here is an excerpt from the letter: "Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation." See that's just plain wrong. I appreciate the edicts of the Catholic faith, what with being Catholic myself, but what purpose does threatening people with eternal damnation serve. Whatever happened to those virtues of tolerance and forgiveness?

British Empire - By the time he turns 60 on Friday, Prince Charles will have spent a lifetime in line to become king. The longest-waiting heir in British history only ascends to the throne when his beloved mother dies or decides to step down. The queen won't be giving Charles the present many believe he craves most — the crown. The queen has indicated informally that she plans to keep the job for life and some people think the 82-year-old monarch intends to live forever, or at least as long as her mother, who died at 101. What is it about mother-daughter rivalries? If the queen remains in good health, Charles may be nearing 80 — or past it — when he fulfills the unique destiny that was his at birth. There is no doubt that Charles is less popular than the queen, who commands wide respect throughout Britain for her unswerving devotion to duty for more than half a century. She became queen on the death of her father George VI in 1952. Charles, the eldest of her four children, was not yet 4 years old. In the old days, things were so much simpler. If a royal in waiting got tired of waiting, he (or she) merely removed the current occupant. Usually there was a death involved, followed by a rather awkward funeral, but none of this 60 year waiting nonsense.