Church, State, Christmas

This article in today's local paper, the Philippine Star, caught my eye. One, because its such a classic example of how unseparate church and state are here. Not that the film industry can at all claim to be part of the government but my hunch is that the type of censorship described in that article would not be permitted in the States given that thing we call a First Amendment. (Although I have to admit I'm not government/history/politics expert by any stretch so I'm probably toeing the line of informed discussion here who knows). Two, I'm really amused that something reported via text message is considered legitimate enough to be publishable.

Back in 2009, I wrote a little about the Catholic church's role in the Philippines. I mentioned the Reproductive Health bill. As it was mentioned in that article today ("RH Bill" - in the cartoon) I'm guessing it hasn't been passed. There are a lot of things I could comment on about this, but it's pretty standard liberal politics and I feel like it's enough to say "hey check this out."

And just now, I was google searching for the picture I have at the top of this post, and discovered another interesting article. Upon seeing the headline I thought it was going to be an article about something really absurd, but you know I think what the dude is saying is legitimate. I'm pretty ok with someone pointing out that Christmas has been taken over by consumerism. Except I don't think Santa is to blame for that.