Papal Suspension of Disbelief

I was loitering around on the subway platform at Dekalb Avenue after seeing Mrs. Cutesome onto a D train. Out of the D game a young Orthodox Jewish gentleman who sneezed. I said "bless you", and then I wondered whether I should have done so. He didn't seem to mind, but one legacy of living in in a country with historically very few non-Christians is to not think too much about it.

I mention this only because NY1 has gone completely Pope-crazy. I guess that since its three main anchors are called Kiernan, Shaughnessy and Torre this might not strike you as too surprising. Well it won't if you're as prejudiced as I am.

Anyway, any clueless goyim that claim the Jews control the media should ask whether the arrival of the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem (Ashkenazi or Sephardic, take your pick) would cause any New York news networks to redecorate their sets and dispatch their transit reporters to Washington DC for rather nebulous reasons.

There is something exotic about seeing the world's second-biggest theocrat appear on your soil, and since the biggest, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has little pressing business on the steps of St Pats, we're unlikely to see bigger. But do we really need to hold everything to cover the man's perambulations, given that more than a few of us have a religious background that has been at odds with Papalism (not that there's anything right with that)?

Sheldon Silver would have been wise to have decided to use this week to kill congestion pricing in New york, given that NY1's ace transit reporter, Bobby Cuza, is presently in DC pondering the mysteries of the Pope bobblehead doll.

Here's Jon Stewart being sane about it: