THE resignation of Pope Benedict has prompted much debate about his legacy but another question also arises — why do so many people in this country continue to care about an anachronistic institution that doesn’t want them as members?

WHEN snake-oil salesmen wrongly describe products in order to inveigle customers into buying them under false pretences, consumers are entitled to arefund, but what happens when the pup you’ve been sold is a government?

AS THOUSANDS of anti-choice protesters gathered for a vigil in Dublin last week, a woman in the west of Ireland was anxiously awaiting the illegal delivery of abortifacient drugs.

NO less an authority than the Supreme Court has said that a non-custodial sentence in cases of rape should be “wholly exceptional” — so why is Patrick O’Brien still walking around today?

AS the country reeled last week, after it realised it was possible to have an informed debate on abortion that didn’t degenerate into a spittle-flecked free-for-all, Lucinda Creighton donned her assault gear and decided to hell with the détente.

THE attempt of members of Athlone Town Council to remove an exhibit from a local gallery should not be dismissed as an isolated case of parochial philistinism and should alert the public to the dangers of the Government’s plan to merge the boards of the National Library and National Museum

IT is galling of the Government to blame social media for suicides while simultaneously raiding tens of millions of euro from suicide prevention services in order to shore up the budget of the Department of Health.

SOME of you halfwits have been blaming bankers and politicians for savage cutback, but righteous truth merchant, and Fine Gael TD, Derek Keating, has finally had the courage to identify the real cause of our current woes — single mothers.

THE furious reaction to yet another iniquitous budget, in which the most vulnerable in society are again expected to make the biggest relative contribution to our national recovery, belies the fact that 56% of the population in the last general election voted for right-wing parties that ran on a platform of maintaining tax rates and cutting services — which is exactly what happened last Wednesday.

WHEN Ministers Noonan and Howlin announce Budget 2013 later today, they will be going through the motions: most of the headline-grabbing measures have been leaked over the past week.