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Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila after becoming a cardinal in November (CNS/Paul Haring) One could make a pretty strong argument that nobody's chances of becoming the next pope benefit more from Benedict XVI's resignation than those of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila in the Philippines.Under ordinary circumstances, Tagle's youth would be seen as an almost insuperable bar to election. At 55, he's three years younger than John Paul II was when he was elected in 1978, so a vote for Tagle would be tantamount to a vote for another long papacy, perhaps as much as 30 years.Tagle actually looks...

This was printed in the January 29, 2013 edition of the Carteret County New-Times in N.C. The publication later prefaced the online version to read: The following Letter to the Editor, published in the Jan. 23 edition, has gone viral on the Web after a reader linked it to a Fox News Facebook page. It has received more than 4,000 comments and has been shared more than 12,000 times the [the following week].

What's on your menu? Just got off the phone with my health care provider asking them to explain why my premium jumped up. No good answer!— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) February 27, 2013 Hard to know why without knowing who her insurer is, but I can think of two possibilities. You all know the first. Force companies to make insurance benefits more comprehensive and to expand coverage to people with preexisting conditions and you'll force them to make up the cost somewhere. The only (mild) surprise in Brazile's case is that, as is so often true under Obamanomics, it's young...

On Tuesday morning, the Democrats launched an independent group called Battleground Texas, which is capable of making the Lone Star state a battleground by 2016 and a lean-Democrat state by 2024, effectively breaking the back of the national GOP and blocking a Republican path to the White House. Yes — that Texas: The state that has not elected a single statewide Democratic official in 10 years, with Republicans going 100-0; the state that has had an entirely Republican government since 2002, with current super majorities in the legislature; and the state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic president since Jimmy...

Free whitepaper – An In-Depth Guide for Data Center Transformation Seventeen years of continuous surveys covering countries around the world show that people not only do not care about climate change today - understandably prioritising economic misery - they also did not care about climate change even back when times were good. The new information comes in a study released by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago - a large, long-standing and respected non-profit. The results are based on surveys which began in 1993, back in the boom times, and “are the first and only surveys...

Father Barron will be teaming up with NBC and MSNBC to report on the events at the Vatican as Pope Benedict XVI abdicates the papacy this Thursday, February 28th. On the blog, we will keep you informed of upcoming media appearances as they are announced. Please keep the Pope—and the Cardinals who will soon elect a new pope—in your prayers during this time of transition. Look for Father Barron Wednesday (2/27) and Thursday (2/28) on MSNBC throughout the day with ongoing coverage. He will be on the national broadcast and on local NBC affiliates off-and-on throughout the morning, beginning at...

President Barack Obama's approach to the spending cut issue is like a child who suggests that if his family needs to reduce expenses it should stop buying fruits and vegetables while continuing to purchase cookies and potato chips. Obama and his playmates in Congress have responded to the issue of cutting spending by proposing elimination of essential spending such as meat inspectors instead of nonessential spending such as grants to local governments for purely local matters. Instead of trying to work with Congress to arrange some type of compromise, Obama is running around like a chicken with its head cut...

Just one week from today — Tuesday, March 5th — Damascus Countdown releases. This international political thriller is the last novel in a trilogy that includes The Twelfth Imam and The Tehran Initiative. The series focuses on David Shirazi, an Iranian-born operative for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Shirazi has been sent undercover to Tehran to identify and sabotage the Ayatollah’s top secret nuclear weapons program, a program that is being developed in coordination with North Korea. Meanwhile, even as an American President realizes he has waited too long to stop Iran, he pressures Israeli leaders not to take action...

Just one week from today — Tuesday, March 5th — Damascus Countdown releases. This international political thriller is the last novel in a trilogy that includes The Twelfth Imam and The Tehran Initiative. The series focuses on David Shirazi, an Iranian-born operative for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Shirazi has been sent undercover to Tehran to identify and sabotage the Ayatollah’s top secret nuclear weapons program, a program that is being developed in coordination with North Korea. Meanwhile, even as an American President realizes he has waited too long to stop Iran, he pressures Israeli leaders not to take action...

Recognizing his superior wisdom, President Obama has delegated all tasks that involve governing to First Dog Bo. Peace in our time is finally coming. Down, Barry! I've got work to do.Anyone with two or more family dogs recognizes that, in many ways, they are wiser than humans. When a weak dog encounters a possibly hostile strong dog, he does not fight or even try to run away. Instead, he rolls over on his back to expose his soft underbelly and may wag his tail, universally understood signs of wishful trust and hence of submission. Our new Secretary of Defense (along...

Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee finally received yesterday what they had demanded for months — and it may have turned into an anti-climax. The White House allowed access to internal e-mails of the Obama administration regarding the preparation of talking points for Susan Rice after the attack on our Benghazi consulate, which some suspected would show that the Obama administration had changed the information to downplay terrorism as the basis of the attack. According to Chad Pergram at Fox, though, the e-mails don’t show anything like that (via Kevin Glass): Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee today received a...

For Zaida Saleh, like for many observant Muslim women, manicures have long posed a religious problem. With prayers five times a day, and a pre-prayer ritual that requires washing the hands and arms, traditional fingernail polish has been mostly off limits because it prevents water from making contact with the nails. A new "breathable" nail polish by a Polish company, Inglot, is changing that. The company and some Muslims say the polish is the first of its kind because it lets air and moisture pass through to the nail. A craze has built up around it with Muslim women in...

A Texas high school student has filed a federal lawsuit against her school and her teachers after she was punished for refusing to salute and recite the Mexican pledge of allegiance. The Thomas More Law Center filed the suit on behalf of Brenda Brinsdon alleging the McAllen Independent School District violated the 15-year-old girl’s constitutional rights when she was forced to recite the Mexican pledge and sing the Mexican national anthem. Brinsdon, who is the daughter of a Mexican immigrant and an American father, refused. She believed it was un-American to pledge a loyalty oath to another country. Ironically, the...

Some members of Congress apparently don’t like to be reminded about how much debt the country continues to rack up.

Guest Post by David MiddletonFirst it was wheat and now it’s coffee. What’s next? Bacon & eggs?This is nothing but alarmist nonsense… Researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew and the Environment and Coffee Forest Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia looked at how climate change might make some land unsuitable for Arabica plants, which are highly vulnerable to temperature change and other dangers including pests and disease. They came up with a best-case scenario that predicts a 38 per cent reduction in land capable of yielding Arabica by 2080. The worst-case scenario puts the loss at between 90 per...

Folk heroes to some, villains to others, the owners of the Route 66 Malt Shop in Albuquerque have refused to abide by the city’s recently adopted minimum wage ordinance. The increase, they say, would bury their 18-year-old small business. “We had the choice to close the business and destroy 18 years of blood, sweat and tears and hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years … and fire 12 people or disobey the law,” Eric Szeman told New Mexico Watchdog after a busy lunch-time rush. “The law’s the law,” said Pat Davis, executive director of the liberal activist group Progress...

No charges are expected to be filed against a man who fatally shot an intruder trying to force his way into his residence late Saturday, Baton Rouge police said Tuesday. The resident, Kurt Anderson, exchanged gunfire with Anthony Taylor, a 20-year-old man who tried to break into the home at 3875 Topeka St., police said. Police Lt. Don Kelly said Anderson had not been expecting anyone late Saturday night and armed himself with a handgun before opening the door for Taylor. Taylor, the only person struck in the exchange of gunfire, ran and collapsed a short distance away, Kelly said....

In spite of a concerted campaign by 'anti-Zionists', the Rolling Stones have announced they have no intention of cancelling their planned concert in Jerusalem on Israel’s Independence Day, Monday, April 15. “We’ve been slammed and smacked and twittered a lot by the anti-Israeli side,” said Mick Jagger, the band’s leader and most recognizable member since 1963. “All I can say is: anything worth doing is worth overdoing. So we decided to add a concert on Tuesday.” Needless to say, tickets to both concerts, Monday night in Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem and Tuesday night in Bloomfield Stadium, Tel Aviv, have been...

Like the sun, insulin levels rise and fall in a daily rhythm. Disrupting that cycle may contribute to obesity and diabetes, a new study suggests. Many body systems follow a daily clock known as a circadian rhythm. Body temperature, blood pressure and the release of many hormones are on circadian timers. But until now, no one had shown that insulin — a hormone that helps control how the body uses sugars for energy — also has a daily cycle. Working with mice, researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville have found that rodents are more sensitive to insulin’s effects at certain...

The Senate majority leader said, “It's significant that 150 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, we are still considering in film, in photo, in art, and activism how to eradicate slavery's unsavory successors.” Reid was speaking at a ceremony unveiling Rosa Parks' statue in the Capitol...