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In yet another laser beam incident, crew on a flight carrying Pope Francis reported a laser beam sighting to air traffic control in Mexico City:
Alitalia flight AZ4000 was travelling from Havana with the Pope on board, and was preparing to land when the laser was spotted.
No crew or passengers were injured by the beam, the airline added.[...] "This is yet another incident that shows how serious and widespread the issue of laser attacks on aircraft is," said Jim McAuslan, General Secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), in response to the case involving the Pope's plane. "Modern lasers have the power to blind and the potential to dazzle and distract pilots during critical phases of flight," he told the BBC. "Shining a laser at an aircraft is illegal and dangerous and puts all those on board and on the ground nearby at completely unnecessary risk."
Aboard the plane headed from Rome to Mexico, the Pope said that contraception may be the "lesser evil" for women at risk of catching the Zika virus. In comments made on the ground, he chastised Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump for his plan to build a wall on the Mexican border.
In another story from the UK laser crime beat, Englishman Philip Houghton has been sentenced to 20 weeks in prison for admitting to shining a laser pen at a Humberside Police helicopter that was investigating a shooting.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday February 19 2016, @02:49PM
The Pope has never been primarily a left-wing activist type. His jobs prior to becoming a priest were:
- Club bouncer
- Chemist
He was actually less political than, say, John Paul II prior to his papacy.
What is true is that he sees a role for the Catholic Church as being in significant part a charity organization. There are two reasons for that:
1. Most reasonable interpretations of "Love thy neighbor" imply that you should make sure that the people around you have food, clothing, and shelter. The Catholic Church has by and large taken that to heart throughout much of its history.
2. Throughout South America and much of Africa, the Catholic Church is the largest source of charitable aid around. They often take on that role because the governments are either oppressive dictatorships (e.g. Argentina and Chile under their military governments) or simply incapable of bringing the resources to bear (e.g. Haiti).
Also, all of his rhetoric about left-wing economics is also rooted in Christianity: When you're following a guy who supposedly said things like "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." and beat up bankers, that leads you to a fairly left-wing economic platform.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.