In the World

Mark Silk notes an interesting moment at the Republican presidential debate Monday night in New Hampshire: Rick Santorum's take on religion in public life sounds an awful lot like the one then-Senator Obama articulated in 2006.

A friend posted this to Facebook the other day: "'Burial at sea is a weird choice, and only invites suspicion, but I really don't want to have to see the photographs, either.'" - Martin Luther King, Jr."

Pundits have been praising Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House budget committee, for the courage displayed in his 2012 budget proposal. But their definition of "courage" must be different from mine.

Much of the most delightfully silly online humor follows a particular formula: a single good idea that alters or plays on a pop-cultural artifact; execution that relies on computer technology, but not too much (some simple Photoshop work, a couple lines of code); loads of nostalgia.

It's great to see David Beckmann convince Mark Bittman to join the fast against attempts to cut federal programs that help the poor and the hungry. Bittman's dismissal of the religious element of the effort by Bread for the World and others--"I doubt God will intervene here"--betrays his unfamiliarity with Christian thought. (I'm tempted to send him one of my ELCA "God's work, our hands" fridge magnets.) But thanks to Bittman's involvement, now even the Nation is giving the progressive evangelical effort positive coverage.

Tuesday on the CBC interview show Q, Jian Ghomeshi talked to actor Ed Begley Jr., Hollywood's leading environmental activist and green-lifestyle enthusiast. Discussing Living With Ed, the reality TV show in which Begley and wife Rachelle Carson clash over his carbon-footprint obsession, Begley observed that Carson is the sort of person who cares about the earth but doesn't go to extremes.