The Week In Review 05.02-05.08

Since this has been a very newsworthy week I have decided to something different in this post.  Instead of writing about each of these events individually in separate posts I will summarize them.  Here are the highlights of the week.

• On Sunday the entire world's gaze was on Rome for the beautification of John Paul II.   The highlight of the event came when Pope Benedict announced to the entire world, for the first time, "Blessed John Paul II." To relive this historic event in its entirety click here. 
• Pope Benedict, like usual knocked it out of the park with his homily about John Paul II.  Here was my favorite part of the homily:

"What the newly-elected Pope asked of everyone, he was himself the first to do: society, culture, political and economic systems he opened up to Christ, turning back with the strength of a titan – a strength which came to him from God – a tide which appeared irreversible. By his witness of faith, love and apostolic courage, accompanied by great human charisma, this exemplary son of Poland helped believers throughout the world not to be afraid to be called Christian, to belong to the Church, to speak of the Gospel. In a word: he helped us not to fear the truth, because truth is the guarantee of liberty. To put it even more succinctly: he gave us the strength to believe in Christ, because Christ is Redemptor hominis, the Redeemer of man."

• At the same time I was annoyed at the Obama administration for not sending a higher ranking official to the event.  Come on!  You are telling me that all you can do is send some low level diplomat!  This was an obvious snub. 
• On the same night while I was ready to write a blog post, my wife excitedly called me to watch the news.  As I rushed to find out what was the news, I couldn't believe what I heard and saw. "Osama Bin Laden was dead."   I was excited by this development and in particular I felt a sense of relief and closure for the thousands of families who had lost their loved ones on 9/11.   I felt proud for our country; we had achieved justice; good had temporarily triumphed over evil.
• I thought that Obama's speech was lackluster and I was thoroughly annoyed by his excessive use of the personal pronoun. It felt like he was taking all of the credit for this historic event.
• On Thursday night I caught about half of the Republican Debate.  Here is my ranking list on how the candidates did in order of worst to best:  

                  5. Gary Johnson
                  4. Ron Paul
                  3. Tim Pawlenty
                  2. Rick Santorum (To view his best moments click here.)
                  1. Herman Cain  (To view his best moment click here.)

• Lastly I spent a wonderful Mother's Day with my mother.  My brother's both cooked for the occasion and I as the family's de facto barrista made the espresso.  I definitely won the lottery in the mother department.  Love you Mom!