Of course, because it’s still winter. I think what makes it look kind of odd (sorry), is that the fur trim is too wide. In the paintings I’ve seen of previous popes wearing it, the trim is much thinner. But, ah well, little things. Because the pope has more important, newsworthy things to do like, as the shocked headline-writer at MSNBC would have us know, "affirm that he sees embryos as "complete" humans – (their quotation marks). Shocker, that. Text from AsiaNews.

The subhead on the MSNBC article reads "Roman Catholic Church stance against abortion, embryo research stressed." Well, no, not exactly, if I might disagree with the gods of journalism. What was stressed was the passionate, all-embracing love of God for the human beings he creates. But I guess that doesn’t translate into a headline. Especially your senses screen out anything non-political when you process information.

Oh, and if you want a sense of what we’re up against, read this thread at the Huffington Post. First, note how the Pope’s Christmas message is spun. Very funny – as if the Pope was condemning intellectual and technological progress. And then proceed to the comments,which take the spin at face value, and combine that with virulent hatred. It is, as usual, a scary little corner of the world.

The more I think about it, the angrier this HuffPost business makes me. It is just like the stuff you find on Daily Kos, of course, but as risible as HuffPost is to a lot of us, it is widely linked and an official blog of Yahoo News, I think, featured there. Why should this bigotry be allowed to stand?