Pope Benedict XVI condemned the "folly" of gay marriage in Canada last week, saying Catholic politicians in Canada had yielded to "ephemeral social trends and the spurious demands of opinion polls."

Well, we do live in a democracy, Mr. Ratzinger. Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec, who visited Edmonton last week for a fundraising event, also flapped his gums ignorantly in support of the Pope’s comments, saying, "Marriage is between a man and a woman and it is so in all cultures."

Sure is, Marc. Except dozens of tribal African societies, many pre-colonization First Nations peoples in North America, ancient Greece and Rome, etc, etc...

A handful of interest for Cowtown tragi-rally

Right wing bloggers only managed to draw 10 supporters to a Calgary rally organized to remember 9/11 and "support the troops" all in one go. The dismally attended Sunday event, organized by a group of right-wing bloggers who think political correctness and Islam will ruin the free world, also drew two newspaper photographers and a single protester.

One blogger who attended later wrote that, "on one hand, it was really friggin’ disappointing that only 10 people showed up to remember 9/11, on the other hand it was a bonus that 10 people had the stones to show up and be counted." We can’t say what these folks were out to get counted for, but we’d like to reassure them that most people did just fine, reliving the tragedy on television, in the comfort of their living rooms.

Katie Couric gets cosmetic surgery

‘Twas too good to be true. CBS News makes a move towards gender equality last week by making Katie Couric the first female news anchor on a major network, then erases any of perceived gains by doctoring press photos to make her look like Twiggy, rather than the entirely average-sized woman that she is.

CBS management shrugged their shoulders at the misrepresentation, and issued no apology, despite a recent uproar over doctored photos coming out of the Reuters news agency.

Two messages the public can glean from this: 1) women have to look better than Katie Couric if they want to take a crack at broadcasting, and 2) doctoring photos is fine, as long as you’re making celebrities look better, and not making war look worse.

Habitat for inhumanity

Some residents of northeast Edmonton’s Bergman neighbourhood are all in a tizzy over Habitat for Humanity’s plan to build a 48-unit housing project in the area for low-income families.

"They're the drive-by shootings of today," resident Pat Blundell cryptically explained at a community meeting at Beacon Heights Community Hall on Monday.

Of course, Habitat for Humanity builds housing for hard-working low-income families, not drug-dealers and shiftless layabouts who are just waiting to whizz on your lawn and rip off your expensive car stereo, but that seems to have escaped opponents of the project. This kind of fearful classist nonsense is exactly why Edmonton should follow Vancouver’s example and adopt urban planning policies that effectively mix people of different income levels in the same neighbourhoods, and even the same buildings.