Year of the Rat: Josef Ratzinger, whose tenure as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith has been characterized more by a reliance on theocratic rationalization than on theological principles (for a mind-numbing example of Ratzinger's "thinking" and his overuse of banalities and strawmen, check out the sermon he gave yesterday), has been elected Pope. Ratzinger, whose resemblance to British character acter Ian McDiarmid will no doubt be much commented on over the next month, will be known as Pope Benedict XVI.