Pope Benedict XVI...

...has to be the worst name ever. But congratulations to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, who won on the conclave's fourth ballot, and condolences to MacDuff, now that his longshot $5 bet is a bust. This is not a courageous choice at all, but that is hardly surprising, given that the Church was almost certainly going to elect somebody who would defend the doctrinal orthodoxy following John Paul's historic term (and somebody who would be out of the picture relatively soon: Ratzinger, er, Benedict, is 78). The world will have to wait for the first non-European pope, and that is a shame.