A report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis found a correspondence between national prosperity and religion — more specifically, belief in hell — Reuters reports. “‘A belief in hell tends to mean less corruption and less corruption tends to mean a higher per capita income,'” stated the report, which was based on data from the belief-in-hell findings in the World Value Series and a measure of corruption produced by Transparency International.

Religious debate, Hollywood style: “‘He didn’t – He didn’t only say “turn the other cheek,” though,’ continued [Denzel] Washington. ‘You got to read the whole book. That’s not all He said.’ ‘Oh, I do read the book,’ said [Meryl] Streep. ‘I do, too, and that’s not all He said,’ said Washington. ‘Like I said, he did go into the temple and cleared the place. Well…’ ‘Of money,’ said Streep. ‘Money’s bad.’ ‘OK, well, we’re all – we all make – make money,’ said Washington. ‘Yes, thank God,’ said Streep. ‘So does that make us bad?’ asked Washington ‘Maybe He’s talking about us.’ ‘Well, yeah, maybe,’ said Streep.” Read more? Okay…

Bill Cosby turns his scold on Christians at an event hosted by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education yesterday. Cosby, who has recently upbraided poor blacks for squandering the opportunities brought by the Civil Rights Movement, asked why Muslims could chase drug dealers out of neighborhoods, but Christians (and atheists and agnostics) could not.Forrest Valdiviez reports in The Island Packet.

“First, let’s stop calling the enemy ‘terrorism,’ which is like saying we’re fighting ‘bombings.’ Terrorism is only a method; the enemy is an extremist Islamic insurgency whose appeal lies in its claim to represent the Muslim masses against a bullying superpower.” Barbara Ehrenreich takes a lesson from Carmen bin Ladin (sister-in-law to Osama), and proposes a brand-new approach to fighting terrorism: feminism. Read more.