Someone looking for a reason to rant? i didn´t read the article, but sometimes it is important for a person to know when it is time to retire, to walk away, and let someone else do the job.

And, then there are those who stay around too long ... well beyond their "best by" date.

I´m sure we can each make a long list of people who should have been "put out to pasture" years ago.

I read the article and I suggest two things: one, it´s none of Mr. Heaton´s business what these people did and two, Mr. Heaton should follow suit. It would be a favor to the 12 people in Cleveland who still read the newspaper.

I suspect the primary purpose of the article, #1, was to take a shot at Sarah Palin and the Catholic church in that order.

Silly, stupid, superficial, vapid article, comparing Pope Benedict XVI to other people who "quit" their professions, like Roberto Duran, Brett Favre, Sarah Palin, Richard Nixon, Jim Brown, etc.

Hey, stupid. Benedict didn´t "quit." He retired or abdicated (you choose which) because he is 85 years old, blind in one eye, and in failing health. Give me break. How does Benedict´s situation compare to Richard Nixon or Sarah Palin, except that the writer likely hates all three.

hey #1 I agree,if some cannot do the job,
they should walk away. Are you with me barry?

Let´s not forget that the Dems air dropped battalions of lawyers into Alaska to slap Sarah with 15 or more slap-suit bogus ethics charges. Their intent was obviously to smear, bankrupt, humiliate, and destroy her. She was acquitted in all of them. I believe a good part of the reason she resigned was to deal with these ugly suits.

hey! I thought the motto for the day is not to judge others. Oh, I forgot, it is okay
for the liberals, the press to sit in judgement of others but it is off limit for anyone else. Give me a break.

Much of the media coverage of this story has missed the most important reason why the Holy Father resigned. When the pope steps down, all the bureaucrats in the Vatican automatically lose their jobs too. Heard of the financial and sexual misconduct scandals linked to Vatican officials? With one step, they´re all out. This was an act of moral courage and self-sacrifice for the good of the Church which Benedict loves, and he did it even though people would label him a quitter. This was a shallow, insipid attempt to be funny by someone who hasn´t a clue.

There is an old saying having to do with the futility of beating a dead horse to try and get more work out of it. Struggling at costs that exceed any potential gain, against impossible odds is the kind of feel good stuff that looks really cool in movies and makes for fascinating reading material, but in real life is nothing but a sign of sheer stubborn stupidity. It is the same kind of mental deficiency that results in gambling addiction and "Jackass" movies. Casinos thrive because of people like this.

Speaking of walking away, Heaton should be way up there. The article was poorly written and had no real point (except an axe to grind, perhaps?)

Didn´t read it. Just from the headline it appears to be an article by an immature, petty person.

Evidently, IQ is not part of the Plain Dealer´s screening process for new hires...

fun fact: Michael Heaton is brother of Patricia Heaton (the Middle), one of the only openly conservative prolife people in Hollywood.

There is no doubt that this obligatory ´Hit Piece´ is put forward by a Liberal, ´Rat backed Fish Wrapper that fancies it self a Urinalistic enterprise.
Now, Michael Heaton can get back to his regular janitorial duties.

Come on, OP, what´s the purpose? Are you and your cabal trying to run off even more Ldotters who´ve gotten tired of the snark?

I remember when posters were chided by the house for taunting and goading others. Back when Photoonist and Oriton and cap MarineTet and Barbarian Heretic and others still posted.

But congratulations - you (and yours) have successfully poisoned the board for the long term for most of us who view(ed) the salon as a place where friends gather to discuss the news of the day, not a place where the passive-aggressive can poke others in the eye to get a rise out of them . . . and there could be no other reason for posting this article, especially given your history.

Mr. Heaton failed to include his hero, Bill Clinton. Clinton walked away from his office as governor of Arkansas, turned over his duties to his lieutenant governor, Jim Guy Tucker, and continued to live in the governor´s mansion and collect his salary as governor while running for president.

It is apparently all right for those on the left to quit, walk away, whatever you want to call it, but not for someone Heaton does not like.

What about Hillary Clinton, who quit the Senate? Or Obama, himself, who failed to complete even one term in the Senate?

#13, just because Patricia is conservative, doesn´t mean Michael is. I don´t know what his political persuasion is, but this article is stupid. The Pope was right to step down, Sarah Palin´s reason´s for quitting are very easy to find, even for the laziest of reporters, and the others, I don´t care about, but I sure wish Obama and Hillary would follow suit and never be heard from again.

Sarah was driven out by democrats that would let her do her job!

#15, it works both ways. There were people who stopped posting because they were tired of being addressed as "Mitten´s Kittens," or "Giggling Teenage Cheerleader Rombots," or one or another idiotic monicker. There were conservatives from Massachusetts who got tired of being called "Massholes," and posters from California and New York who became weary of being constantly denigrated for where they lived, or of listening to people express the devout hope that either state would be destroyed by an earthquake or tsunami. No doubt the good conservative people of New York and Connecticut (and there are many) are tired of constantly hearing what idiots they are.

Hey, Mike, you idiot, anyone ever tell you that you are an a-hole? You ARE! How´s life in Cleveland? LMAO at LoMoFo Heaton´s like you! Get a real job and contribute to society, you little ignorant leech!

I wish more people would quit. Just saying...

Thanks, #20. And, just because I live in NV, I get tired of hearing that I am to blame for Harry Reid, the little worm. Everyone I know hates him, but he still gets re-elected. I think we all know how.

Yes it does go both ways, #20.

That sad fact does not, however, justify continuance of the behavior by either "side". Unless the goal is to be the last cabal standing. Which doesn´t sound like fun to me.

The fight was supposed to be the Us vs Them battle against the liberals for the soul of our country, but somewhere along the way it got waylaid when some of Us got misidentified as Them.