Stuff below the fold

While the US was being manipulated with the two minute hate about a mom and pops type Pizza parlor ambushed by a "gotcha" reporter, you might have missed some stories.

China is destroying the reefs/shoals to take over the West Philippine sea (no outcry from Obama, of course, nor from the environmentalists).
and then there is this:

March 21, 2015:  The government ordered an end to its anti-Christian campaign which had led to the closure and destruction of many Christian churches and the arrest of some Christian leaders on questionable charges. Over 400 churches had been partly or completely destroyed. Some senior government officials were concerned with the rapid proliferation of Christianity and the loyalty of these Chinese converts. Christianity has been in China for centuries and currently is about five percent of the population. 

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In the meanwhile, the Pope is stuck in the 1970's, thinking poor people are helpless and need the elite to take care of them, ignoring how capitalism has resulted in millions being brought out of poverty, and that the socialist experiments are mostly failures...

Similarly, he is stuck in the ideas of the 1970's and wants to be nice and ignore sexual sin and it's victims... a lot of us fear that the "synod" is going to go along with the sexual revolution, and it will be hailed as progress by the elite... just ignore the million street kids from broken home, and the sex tourism...

Ironically, it is the Protestants, who teach self reliance, hard work and honesty as a way out of poverty, are booming in Latin America, and fueling the economic recoveries in these countries.

Confucius, living in the chaos of civil wars, linked the stability of the family with the stability of society. Rebuild the family and you will rebuild society. Something to remember when the elites bash moral people as ignorant theocrats...
The church traditionally protected women and children by a strict moral code that strengthened  the family, but nowadays, saying such things is taboo:

I suspect what will happen is that we will be reprogrammed to go along with Big Brother, in the same way nurses and doctors were given mandatory classes to educate them that abortion was good, and pressured into doing abortions when I was in medical school (stubborn ole me: I didn't go along, and almost got kicked out of school...)

Sigh.

Good Friday and Easter is the Christian message, that death doesn't have the final say, that the smallest least important person is important in the eyes of God, be it a street person, a druggie, or that child in your womb who interferes with your career...

Facing death, people recognize the real priorities in life.

In the meanwhile, the tech giants plan to live forever, presumably in Elysium....

Heh. The article even quotes a long lived SciFi giant  in the piece: I wonder if they knew he lived in a south Asian paradise was not so he could live forever, but so he could seduce street kids.

Is there a connection here?

and if the Pope really cared about the poor he would recognize that strong families and people living a just life would eliminate a lot of the social programs needed to pick up the pieces.

nah. The Philippine church would go broke without money from the elites, who are eager to get photo ops with the bishops (just ignore their second wives, that they use employees as prostitutes, that they are corrupt, and when their private armies shoot reporters or political rivals).

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