Harry Reid Bold Claim: I Prevented World Wide Depression

Harry Reid is making quite a bold claim by  telling Ed Schultz on last night that he had had prevented a world wide economic depression:

 "We were at the top and we've fallen very hard. So people have been hurting, and I understand that, and it doesn't give them comfort or solace for me to tell them, you know, but for me we'd be in a worldwide depression. They want to know what I've done for them, and that's why it's important for me, any chance I get, to say that my number one job is to create jobs." 

That's quite a claim Harry.

Vatican Declares Homer SImpson A True Catholic

Apparently , the Vatican is a big fan of the Simpsons television show since it frequently deals with religious issues frequently. But the Vatican's love for the show isn't new. It praised the television program last year:

Last December, as the television series celebrated its 20th anniversary, the paper said that "the relationship between man and God" is one of its most important themes and that it often mirrored the "religious and spiritual confusion of our times"

However, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily broadsheet, has now gone one step further and declared Homer Simpson a good Catholic: 

"Few people know it, and he does everything he can to hide it, but it is true: Homer J Simpson is a Catholic," insists L'Osservatore Romano.

 What television character do you think the LDS Church would identify as a True Mormon?

Harry Reid Debates Sharron Angle And Loses

The consensus on the debate between Harry Reid and Sharron Angle is that Harry Reid lost the debate. The best line from the debate comes from Sharron Angle as seen in the video above. She tells Mr. Reid to "Man up!" which seems to be an effective and catchy phrase female politicians are using these days. 

Even in the after the debate, Harry Reid continues to perform poorly. One of the issues that Angle and Reid clashed on was Harry Reid's statement about the U.S. losing the war in Iraq. Harry is claiming that Sharon Angle is lying about what the Mormon senator said  about the United States losing the War in Iraq. Unfortunately for Harry, YouTube refudiates the Mormon Senator's claim since it clearly shows that he said the War in Iraq is lost.

My prediction is that Harry Reid will be dethroned in the Nevada elections. He doesn't have much time to save himself since early voting starts tomorrow.  

Good luck, Harry!!

Rumor In China: Freedom of Speech Coming Soon?

It might be a coincidence. It might not be. The proverbial wall might be coming down in China soon.

Just shortly after the LDS Church announces that it is expanding in to mainland China, former Chinese government officials are demanding that the practice of censorship end in China: 

Almost two dozen former Chinese Communist Party officials and academics have signed a petition demanding that government censorship in China be dismantled in favor of the freedom-of-speech rights enshrined in the national constitution.

The open Internet letter surfaced just days after jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize and shortly before the ruling Communist Party’s central committee convenes for meetings that some observers expect to include discussion of political reform.

“We hope they will take action,” said Zhong Peizhang, a signatory who headed the news bureau of the government’s Central Propaganda Department from 1982 to 1986. “As it says in the letter: to cancel censorship in favor of a system of legal responsibility.”

The letter is seeking to appeal to the Communist leaders desires to see China's catch up with the with the modern world:

In one section, the letter says that China’s censorship system is “315 years behind England and 129 years behind France.” Farther down, it says bluntly, “Our propaganda organs have a horrid reputation within the party and in society.”

The people of China have been fighting for freedom for a very long time. The most famous example is the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest. However, if freedom comes, it will come quietly. And it might come as China finds a way to allow the Church to operate in China without it being in a legal limbo:

The Chinese government recognizes only five religious groups: Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Muslim and Taoists (the only native Chinese faith, the others all were imported).

Mormonism, which did not break off from other forms of Christianity but rather claims to be the restoration of Jesus’ original church, does not fit into any of those groups.

“As religions have become more and more common in China and as religion is more freely practiced, government officials are left with this straitjacket of categories,” Hyer said. “They don’t know what to do. Are they going to create a new category?”

Regardless of how China decides to categorize the Church, allowing the Church to regularize its operations in China is step towards freedom of speech in China since the freedom of religion requires people have the right to express their religious beliefs. The LDS Church already has a temple in China in Hong Kong and it has expatriate branches in China. And while the Church doesn't have any missionaries in China, it sends Chinese speaking missionaries to other parts of the world and converts Chinese citizens living abroad. Moreover, some people have taken it upon themselves to share the gospel online in Chinese. And as more Chinese people join the Church in other parts of the world, it will have an impact on the Chinese government at home. 

With China permitting the Church to expand into China, maybe freedom of speech will come to China sooner than we think.