4-in-the-afternoon1 PRESIDENTIAL PROBLEMS I really don’t think anyone should be praising a compromise that says slaves are three-fifths of a person, let alone the president of the prestigious southern Emory University. But here we are.

The New York Times provides some great context on the comments, the on-campus reaction and how Emory’s related to minorities in the past. Best of all is the Emory history professor quoted who says that, leaving aside the idea of accepting a human being less than a full person, the compromise her president was talking about wasn’t a good one, since the Civil War happened anyways.

2 HE’S ALREADY TOO OLD FOR THIS SHIT The Vatican is speaking out against reports that Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign the papacy was due to a report of a gay conspiracy within the church, instead of for age and health reasons. From the Guardian:

The Vatican secretariat of state said in a statement: “It is deplorable that as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave … that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions.”

3 BLACK POWER 2013 When the Wall Street Journal‘s Speakeasy blog asks Ted Nugent to better explain the name of his upcoming tour, can he rise to the challenge? “If my use of the term ‘black power,’ showing reverence for my musical influences, if that’s construed by anybody as being racist, then it can only be construed as anti-white,” he tells them. Eh. He could do worse.

4 SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE AND CORRUPTION In light of all the Oscar Pistorius news, Justin Peters, who heads Slate’s consistently-good Crime blog, gives a wider view of the sorry state of policing in South Africa.