Villains of the world no.6: ...and freedom for all.

It is perhaps worth pointing out that Google, who are fighting the Government of the United States for their right to direct an unreported and unchecked amount of traffic to bestiality, snuff and incest sites, have accepted the demands of the People's Republic of China to let them censor the political content of their traffic without a complaint. And the moral of the story is: porn is good enough for Westerners, but freedom is too good for Chinamen. To anyone who thought that the founders of Google were anything more than the usual run of sleazy, cowardly, porn-peddling, illiberal media magnates in the Robber Murder and Bill TeardowntheGates mold, welcome to planet Earth.

The Pope's first encyclical

Here is the link: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html. As with everything that I have read of his, it is simple in style, penetrating, full of unexpected connections, and of vast learning lightly worn. But I am rather amused to hear that some people, even in the Curia, were surprised at its "uncontroversial" content and expected something on some contemporary concern such as bioethics. I am willing to bet that the enemies of the Church, if and when they read it, will not find uncontroversial. I am willing to bet that the likes of aerynalexander or kennahijja would find it offensive in a dozen ways, some of which I cannot even guess at, but some of which (such as the calm restatement of the Catholic view of sexual love as being the link between one man and one woman) absolutely glare from the page.