… and the world would be a much better place if that obstacle was removed, regardless of what a certain bozo in a funny hat says.
BBC NEWS | Europe | Pope says family promotes peace: “‘The family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace,’ the Pope told worshippers at St Peter’s Square in Rome.
The pontiff said that ‘whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community’.
Pope Benedict has made defending the traditional family a priority.
The Vatican opposes granting legal recognition to gay and unwed couples, though the Pope did not touch on such controversies directly in his New Year prayer on Tuesday.
‘Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman… constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace,’ he said.”
I guess the people killing themselves in the streets in Kenya, Pakistan, Palestine these days are not doing so because of sectarian hatred that is very often grounded in religion. No, they must be fighting for gay marriage, evidently.
The real shame here is that Pope Ratzi can say such boldfaced lies and yet most politicians and so-called intellectuals—at least here in Italy— are applauding him. Personally, he makes me want to puke.
Photo Attorney: New Travel Restrictions Affect Photographers: “Beginning January 1, 2008, the U.S. Department of Transportation is changing how and how many extra lithium batteries we pack for our flights (such as those for cameras and computers). In sum, you may not pack extra lithium batteries in your checked luggage, but you can put them in your carry-on bags”
And so they started 2008 by making the life of everyone who travels just a little bit more miserable. Especially if one reads what the original advisory says:
Whether in checked or carry-on baggage, ensure that devices remain switched off, either by built-in switch/trigger locks, by taping the activation switch in the “off” postion, or by other appropriate measures.
If I read this correctly, it means that devices using lithium batteries (effectively almost every electronic device with a rechargeable battery made recently) must remain switched off, even if carried on. Does this mean that we cannot use laptops, cameras, iPods, etc. anymore during flight? I sure hop this is not the case.
Suddenly the prospect of traveling to the US became much less pleasant, as if it wasn’t already unpleasant enough. The sad thing is that these kind of regulations tend to be adopted all over the world very quickly (witness the scare over liquids) so we Europeans are probably not safe from lithium-induced madness either.
