Benedict XVI a Straussian? Asks Ken Masugi. He quotes an article in French about a debate between Habermas and then-Cardinal Ratzinger, where the latter cited Strauss. He also provides this link to the opening statements in German. I’ll read and translate bits of the latter when I finish all my grading. All of this persuades me that Karl Rove--who I am said (at least by bibulous Oglethorpe alumni in a bar in Austin, Texas) to resemble--is behind the election of Benedict XVI. The next step is for Paul Wolfowitz to convert to Roman Catholicism, win ordination (I hear the church needs priests), and be appointed Cardinal so as to be in line for succession. Update: My, er, I mean our, plot has been revealed by the self-admitted oenophile Win Myers, who confesses to drinking wine from a country at least nominally (perhaps only nominally, if George Weigel is to be believed) Catholic. Post by Joseph Knippenberg  |  Link to this Entry  | 5/4/2005  11:41 PM

Comment 1 by Shawn Lee [E-Mail] I think I remember hearing on the news this last time around that any Roman Catholic male was eligible for the papacy. Of course, that could be entirely wrong having come from the MSM. Link to this Comment  | 5/5/2005  2:33 AM

Comment 2 by PJC Joe: Your Wolfowitz idea is way too exoteric. Who do you think you’re dealing with here, "the many"? The real plan is for Wolfowitz to remain conspicuous by his absence from the College of Cardinals, in much the same way that dinner, through the act of never being eaten, becomes so conspicuous in "The Republic." And isn’t it true that you and Karl Rove never seem to be in the same room at the same time, sort of like Clark Kent and Superman? Has Lois Lane noticed this about you two yet? Link to this Comment  | 5/5/2005  7:40 AM

Comment 3 by Joe Knippenberg [E-Mail] PJC, Yes, when Rove is present, I am present by my absence. Link to this Comment  | 5/5/2005  9:06 AM

Comment 4 by wm And yet, Derrida would argue, even your presence-ing conceals, so that there can be no determinative or final presence. Cake, Clark Kent, Benedict XVI, and Joe Knippenberg are all texts open to endless interpretation. If No Left Turns insist on an imperialist reification of the concept "Joe Knippenberg," I will continue to problematize him with a hermeneutic of radical pundi-scepticism. Link to this Comment  | 5/5/2005  9:45 AM

Comment 5 by Tony Williams WM must be up for tenure at a research university! Link to this Comment  | 5/5/2005  10:36 AM

Comment 6 by wm wm hasn’t got a snowball’s chance, but he is writing a dissertation! Link to this Comment  | 5/5/2005  10:54 AM

Comment 7 by Michael Meckler [E-Mail] FYI, the phrase cited by Benedict was the famous dictum, "If all values are relative, then cannibalism is a matter of taste." Link to this Comment  | 5/5/2005  2:25 PM