Stuff below the fold

Drones? We haz that... StrategyPage discusses the drones in the west Philippine sea and why they are collecting data.

no, they aren't top secret, but use ordinary commercial software.

Which is why Trump said just keep the damn thing.

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One of the pushbacks by the Pope's minions against faithful bishops asking inconvenient questions is to say: But the bishops approved of this.

Not so: Father Z points out the paragraphs did not reach a 2/3 majority 
Did all the bishops who read the documents in a language other than their own catch the subtle nuances? After a long hard day of voting on a lot of paragraphs filled with theological gobblygook that was hard to understand, could they have just said yes, not noticing the verbal trap?

and if more would have voted no if they recognized they were being manipulated?

And of course the "exhortation" of the Pope on marriage is 300 pages long and few bothered to read it let alone notice how that footnote was snuck into the document, but already liberal bishops are interpreting a foot note to destroy the dogma of the church on marriage.

This was how many who objected to the abuses in the recent church were silenced, by saying "but it was in the spirit of Vatican II", never mind it was not in the documents, because no one bothered to read the documents.

the end result of that was that lax catholics became ex catholics, wishy washy catholics just went to happy churches as social clubs, and pious Catholics became Protestant. The second largest religious group in the US is ex catholics...

ah but the press is happy, and laments the Pope can't get his "reforms" passed.

So who can correct a Pope/council of bishops?

 Bishops with backbones... St Athanasius comes to mind.

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this is not just a church problem:
Related item:

Techdirt article on Snowden. Whistleblowers get punished.

(headsup Instapundit)

Pressure to work with the system is great and don't dare find something wrong (been there done that, against the IHS deficiencies that were killing our patients back in the 1980's).

A few days ago, I posted this BBC film about Professor Feynman and the Space Shuttle disaster... watch it if you want to see how politics works to cover up problems.

and, like Bishop Burke and those nasty bishops who dare to say no, Professor Feynman is just stubborn enough to push back at the attempted coverup.