Scrolling around... March 18, 2013

Female genital mutilation on the rise in the United States
Western news articles about female genital mutilation routinely assert that it is solely a cultural practice, not justified by any religion. Yet again and again we see Muslim clerics justifying it, and it is sanctioned in Islamic law...

CAIR tells School: Don't Criticize Hamas and the Taliban
CAIR Bullies Teacher Who Said Hamas and the Taliban Use Violence to "Bully People."

1,000 Students Riot at Catholic College
This is sad. 1,000 students at a Catholic college rioted last night. Why? It seems because they were all drunk.

Sadly, it seems that this isn't the first time University of Dayton students rioted on Saint Patrick's Day. In fact, it's happened so often that the university has worked to change the time of spring break so that students are home and not on campus for St. Patrick's Day. (That's getting to the root of the problem!?)

Why does the devil in 'The Bible' look exactly like President Obama?
We report, you decide. Actually, I watched it last night and it didn't cross my mind at the time. -PD

Disagree with Christians? That’s fine. But do not silence them
...As Canada becomes increasingly secularized, there is growing intolerance to people of faith. We see the trend prominently in recent news that the leader of the Official Opposition has publicly criticized a Christian relief agency for their moral beliefs on sexuality — something entirely unrelated to their humanitarian work. Such positions are “un-Canadian” we are told, despite the fact that millions of Christians (Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Conservative Protestants, and Evangelicals), Muslims, Jews and other religious groups in Canada hold the same beliefs. Never mind that we are Canadian citizens; insofar as we fail to conform to a set of approved public positions on this matter, we are expected to be silent...

How The New York Times Smeared Pope Francis Today
When Benedict XVI was pope, the New York Times ran a scurrilous, distortion-infested campaign intended to link the former Joseph Ratzinger with the awful abuse scandals that have so harmed the Catholic Church. These pieces were manifestly dishonest and substance-free when you read them through. But the Times editors know most people don’t read the articles — they read the headlines and the first paragraph...

The Way of Pope Francis
From the moment he walked out onto the Vatican balcony following the papal election, Jorge Mario Bergoglio forged an image all his own. Having lived a life of simplicity, the new Pope Francis wasn’t about to abandon it, even with the honor and prestige his new office brings...

For the first time since the Great Schism, ecumenical patriarch to attend pope's inaugural Mass
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I will attend Pope Francis's inaugural Mass. The Ecumenical Patriarchate Press Office informed AsiaNews about the decision, noting that this is the first time such an event occurs since the Catholic-Orthodox split in 1054, an important sign for Christian unity...

...Relations between Catholics and Orthodox have been improving since the Second Vatican Council through mutual visits, acts of friendship and theological dialogue.

Under Benedict XVI, the dialogue picked up in earnest after a lull. In trying to promote it, the pope suggested ways to express the primacy of Peter's successor that could be acceptable to the Orthodox, finding his inspiration from the undivided Church of the first millennium...

What your hotel knows about you
...What has changed, in this brazen new world, is the sheer amount of data that hotels now collect on guests, and the often startlingly personal nature of that data. With the explosion of social networking, and our increasingly unguarded presence online, profiling guests has become a lot easier, and a hell of a lot more effective...