The on-again, off-again repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell appears to be back on again after the House passed a stand-alone repeal yesterday; it now heads to the Senate, where advocates are more optimistic things might work out this time after last week’s defeat.
Two men accused of torching two East Texas churches earlier this year pleaded guilty. Turns out that California inmate who wanted to celebrate Festivus just wanted an excuse to get kosher meals; sounds like a Seinfeld episode to me.
A Catholic woman who worked at a Manhattan frame shop is suing after her Jewish boss told her to remove a crucifix necklace, even though male employees wore yarmulkes and Jewish women wore Star of David necklaces.
Tea Party fave Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) says keeping Congress in town to debate a nuclear treaty with Russia so close to Christmas is “sacrilegious”; Arizona’s Jon Kyle, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican accused Democrats of “disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians.”
A Youngstown priest, fed up with a crime wave that left two people dead outside his church, is working with the city to raize vacant houses that he says are a breeding ground for criminal activity. Reuters’ Ed Stoddard picks through Family Research Council’s new report that says 55 percent of teenagers don’t live in “intact” families with both their biological parents.
Those “white” and “super-white” kids out at BYU say it’s undeniable that Provo girls are where it’s at.
The EU’s Court of Human Rights has ruled that portions of Ireland‘s strict anti-abortion laws violate women’s rights, although the BBC says it’s unclear whether that will necessarily mean a change in laws. France is now reporting two civil unions for every three marriages. And God bless the Swedes — the NYT says the country won’t allow the Stockholm suicide bombing that caused minor injuries to derail the country’s embrace of tolerance.
B16, in releasing his annual World Day of Peace message, says Christians are the most persecuted religious group on the planet.
Shiite Muslims marked Ashoura, the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad‘s grandson, in one of the faith’s more bloody rituals; there was minimal reported violence across the Islamic world. A charitable foundation headed by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadafi‘s son says it will stop doing politics — especially politics that angers Israel.
An American ex-pat innkeeper in Indonesia was sentenced to five months in jail for blasphemy after pulling the plug on a loudspeaker that broadcast the Muslim call to prayer. In blasphemy of a different sort, Russian religious minorities — especially Jehovah’s Witnesses — say a new anti-extremism law makes them vulnerable to police raids.
An opulent hotel in Abu Dhabi is featuring at 43-foot Christmas tree bedecked with enough gold and gems to clock in at $11 million.
