Person of the Year: The case for Vladimir Putin

Don't get me wrong: Although TIME's "Person of the Year" title is inconsequential and utterly irrelevant, it's nice that this year's honor is raising the profile of an ardent pro-lifer and confirmed Catholic.

But the National Review's Wesley J. Smith makes a compelling (and logical) case for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sadly, he's probably right:

Sad, but true: I think Russian President Vladimir Putin should be Time’s “Person of the Year.”  He wrested leadership in the Middle East away from the USA. He made Obama seem puny. He saved his Syrian client Bashar al-Assad. He may win the Nobel Prize for the seeming dismantling of the Syrian chemical weapons (which I don’t believe for a second). He gave Snowden asylum in Russia and presumably now knows all that the turncoat knows. He has turned the Ukraine away from the West back towards Russia. Plus, he works well without a shirt.

Also, there's this... whatever this is: