Is there something religious behind the superstition that famous people die in threes?
While appreciations of Christopher Hitchens and Vaclav Havel continue to pour in, news came on Sunday that North Korean despot Kim Jung-il has died of a heart attack.
While Hitchens and Kim were ardent atheists, Havel, the former Czech president, was something of a transcendentalist, according to CT.
The AP says that 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI seems worn out, raising questions about whether he will resign if he can no longer do the job.
Newt Gingrich represents a new kind of Catholic politician, the NYT reports, suited to an era in which secularism, abortion and same-sex marriage are the church’s chief political concerns.
Social conservatives in Iowa, however, are still not sold on whether they can trust him, according to Reuters.
In fact, evangelicals are still pretty divided on whom to support, WaPo reports. Actually, they do have a favorite, but he ain’t running.
Rick Perry spent Sunday urging Iowa churchgoers to defy the “politically correct police” who seek to separate church and state.
Later in the day, a teenage bisexual asked Perry why he believes gays are unfit for military service. “This is about my faith, and I happen to think that there are a whole host of sins, homosexuality being one of them,” Perry answered.
A Forward analysis of campaign donations shows President Obama losing no support among elite Jewish donors.
Some 50 OWS protesters, including a retired Episcopal bishop, were arrested on Saturday in an ongoing dispute with Trinity Wall Street, which was once a hospitable ally to the movement.
Continuing the dispute over “All-American Muslim,” about 100 people protested outside a Lowe’s in Dearborn, Mich., one of the country’s largest Arab-American communities.
Last week, I reported on why some Jews celebrate Christmas. Little did I know that some Muslims and Hindus also mark the holiday in unique ways.
Meanwhile, a number of atheists celebrate a different birthday on Dec. 25.
Hear Ye All Parents of Young Children: Thomas the Tank Engine is kosher. Batman and Spider-man, not so much.
Finally, Tim Tebow lost yesterday. Perhaps because Jesus took Sunday off to go birthday shopping?
Yr hmbl aggregator,
Daniel Burke
