Religion

This is about the specific issue of abortion, but it nicely sums up a lot of people's dissatisfaction with Mitt Romney in general:

I've had a nice thing or two to say about the ACLU recently. Wouldn't want to make a habit of that, though, so allow me to note with distaste that organization's astonishing and repugnant claim that President Obama's decision to mandate coverage for birth control does not violate the religious-liberty guarantee of the First Amendment:

I also saw this on my vacation, a short Journal Gazette editorial and accompanying map explaining how "the reality of climate change" (an increase of two-thirds of a degree) affects us locally:

It means it’s not as cold in northeast Indiana as it used to be.

It also means that less hardy plants and trees are now more likely to survive further north.

Is there anybody who can actually argue with a straight face that this meets constitutional muster?

INDIANAPOLIS | An Indiana Senate committee on Wednesday endorsed teaching creationism in public schools, despite pleas from scientists and religious leaders to keep religion out of science classrooms.

Bet you didn't have a clue that God was a Denver Bronco fan:

DENVER (CBS Denver) — Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow is not the only one who thinks God helps him on the football field.

First we had the strange Amish beard-cutting terrorist sect, and now there are the Amish buggy fine scofflaws:

Scientists speak, so it must be true:

Earth could be entering a new Ice Age within the next millennium, but it might not, the deep freeze averted by warming from increased carbon dioxide emissions. Humans could be thwarting the next glacial inception, a new study says.

With the probability that the "Arab spring" will result in militant Islamic fundamentalism controlling all of the Mideast, we should pay attention to controversies such as this one:

TEHRAN — In the Islamic republic of Iran, the law requires women to cover their hair and bodies in public. But how to do so remains up to them, and the result is persistent confusion in the streets.

[. . .]

Honestly, isn't this one of the strangest opening sentences to a news story you've ever read?

A federal grand jury in Ohio returned a
seven-count indictment on Tuesday charging 12 members of an
Amish splinter group with hate crimes following a spate of
beard cutting attacks on fellow Amish in the state.

Wow. This takes "the world as we know it will explode if we allow any change" reactionary fear-mongering to a whole new level. Muslim scholars at Saudi Arabia's highest religious council say they have a "scientific report" that it would be dangerous to let women drive:

The report warns that allowing women to drive would