Saturday Open Thread [1.4.14]

Pope Francis has been in the business of afflicting the comfortable recently and one of the comfortable has issues — noting that the Pope doesn’t understand American rich people and that donations by rich American Catholics might now be at risk:

At issue is an effort to raise $180 million for the restoration of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York being spearheaded by billionaire Ken Langone, the investor known for founding Home Depot, among other things.

Langone told CNBC that one potential seven-figure donor is concerned about statements from the pope criticizing market economies as “exclusionary,” urging the rich to give more to the poor and criticizing a “culture of prosperity” that leads some to become “incapable of feeling compassion for the poor.”

Langone said he’s raised the issue more than once with Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, most recently at a breakfast in early December at which he updated him on fundraising progress.

“I’ve told the cardinal, ‘Your Eminence, this is one more hurdle I hope we don’t have to deal with. You want to be careful about generalities. Rich people in one country don’t act the same as rich people in another country,’ ” he said.

or as Addicting Info summarizes it:

A poll taken at the end of 2013 by Worldwide Independent Network and Gallup organizations asked Which country do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the world today?:

The US topped the list, with 24 percent of people believing America to be the biggest danger to peace. Pakistan came second, with 8 percent of the vote and was closely followed by China with 6 percent. Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and North Korea came in joint fourth place with 5 percent of the vote.

The threat from the US was rated most highly in the Middle East and North Africa, those areas most recently affected by American military intervention. Moreover, the survey showed that even Americans regard their country as a potential threat with 13 percent of them voting the US could disrupt global status quo.

A majority of the people polled say that the US is the country they’d prefer to live in, however — which I guess is the difference between the police and the policed.

Finally, all of you rowdys going up to the Philadelphia Eagles-New Orleans Saints game need to watch who you dis today:

@PhillyPolice will be wearing @Saints jerseys & hats, be careful who you pick on @LFFStadium during @Eagles game. pic.twitter.com/VDrKaIAtc4

— 3rd District CPO (@PPDMikeDuffy) January 3, 2014

Hope you are staying warm today!