Click right over to Mary Valle’s latest at Killing the Buddha on “A Kinder, Gentler Apocalypse.”  Of the May 21 fake-out she writes:

Apparently God was playing more of his “I’m gonna pretend to high-five you, then pull my hand away at the last minute and say ‘Psych!’” games with all of us.

Look out Jews.  Here comes Chrislam!

Mother Jones lists some of the better entries in the #HermanCainPizzaJams flourish that occupied twitter earlier this week.  Our favorites are of course:

“Give Pizza Chance” –Daudig

“Cheese Crust is Just Alright by Me” –JElvisWeinstein

“Cheesus Chrust Superstar” –AriVABeerGuy

As a culture, we’ve apparently got Zombies on the brain.  At The Scoop, Jennifer Hahn asks why.

What happens when a Catholic hospital merges with a non-denominational one in a state where Death with Dignity is legal?

The three-legged stool that is the GOP has been balancing just fine thank you very much on the points (or amusements) of economic conservatives (starve the government beast) and social conservatives (discipline the citizenry).  But there must be an election coming!  The Neocons are back and, according to Leslie Gelb at The Daily Beast, they want Iran. Gelb may prefer to describe their cunning and blood-thirstiness, I’m more interested in how they sell their policies; a formula that relies on compelling stories of fear, American exceptionalism and a hefty dose of religious othering.

Nicole Greenfield on Argentina’s passage of La Ley de Matrimonio Igualitario (the Equal Marriage Law):

Even in those magical hours of July 15, 2010, when the Senate passed the bill, Vero and other activists could feel a hint of despair nagging within the thrill of victory. Still raw were the emotional wounds of discrimination and hostility, of being called sick and mentally ill, of being labeled child abusers and of being publicly humiliated, most recently at a protest organized by the Catholic Church just days before the scheduled July 14 vote.

The World Would Be Better Off Without Pink Good & Plenties, er, Religion.

Naomi Wolf on her arrest on Hudson Street Tuesday night: “Obviously if DHS now has powers to simply take over a New York City street because of an arrest for peaceable conduct by a middle-aged writer in an evening gown, we have entered a stage of the closing of America, which is a serious departure from our days as a free republic in which municipalities are governed by police forces.”

“The smallest religion people bother to loathe.”