Memo to TIME magazine's Jeff Israely: The Pope doesn't have an "act".

The Pope Tones Down His Act in Turkey: Long known for his rigid thinking, Benedict XVI shows new flexibility in trying to mend fences in the wake of his controversial speech about Islam

This is what comes from living and working in a bubble of superficial "diversity". White liberals, black liberals, asian liberals, latino liberals, gay liberals, straight liberals, liberals who drink regular hazelnut lattes, liberals who prefer the decaf... Outside the bubble are all those cartoonish conservatives. Rather than chortling over a presumed "gotcha", maybe Mr. Israely should consider that he doesn't know Pope Benedict XVI as well as he thinks. The media caricature of Joseph Ratzinger as a "german shepherd" ought to have been dispelled by now. If the media's been paying attention, at least. And didn't have a condescending disdain of Catholics, to boot.

Credit where credit is due: Mr. Israely allowed as how the Pope is not altogether wrong-headed, here.

Wonder if Richard John Neuhaus or J. Bottum will pick up on this.