Going Against the Pope

Maureen Dowd had an intersting Op-Ed article on NYTimes today about how the Catholic church is seemingly falling apart under this abuse scandal and what should be happening as a result. I believe that the priest who have been abusing kids should be punished under the fullest extent of the law, but at the same time, you shouldn't punish the Pope. He is a head of state, and loved my probably billions at this point, and charging him with a crime he has a vague connection to is wrong.

A New Textbook in Texas

The New York Times had this quite frightening article that essentially will be mixing facts and opinions into school systems in Texas. According to the article, the changes will include,

"Stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light."

I really cannot see anything positive about this. Teaching kids essentially skewed facts is just so wrong. Not only are you pushing an agenda in school, your requiring kids to accept your version to pass. And even according to this article, also on NYTimes.com, there deciding not to focus on Ted Kennedy, a pivotal figure in American politics, and have more focus on an organization such as the NRA. There even trying to push religion as a major part of the education. I just hope someone finally speaks out against this, or lord knows it will happen elsewhere.

Catholics and Anglicans

From an article on the Washington Post, it seems the Catholics are easing restrictions for dissatisfied Anglican christians to join the church. I think its fairly intersting that the Catholics are really opening up admission into the church with very little restriction, as they usually are so caught up in tradition and law that mass conversion from diffrent sects is extremely difficult. Even more interesting is that the Anglicans were the first to split from the Catholic church and can be seen as the great reformation. It will be interesting to see how this effects both churches population wise and spiritualy.