Wallace G. Smith

The weather that we have experienced so far this winter has me harkening back to our first Missouri snowfall, last winter. Being Texans, it was a big deal to us, and since it was a very mild winter last year, it was the only accumulating snowfall that we had as a family.

Public comments that spark outrage in the Muslim world are nothing new. But when the comments come from the spiritual leader of more than one billion Catholics, the world sits up and takes notice – as well it should.

I was reading the comics today (not as much fun as it was when I was a kid, to be sure, but still a pleasant diversion in the morning) and one of the comic strips caught my eye.

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article by Andrew Higgins titled: "The New Crusaders: As Religious Strife Grows, Europe's Atheists Seize Pulpit" (subscription required for full article). Its focus is on the rise of passionately "evangelistic" atheists in Europe, describing the growing popularity of zealous and militant "godless" humanists, who are seizing the moment to shape the identity of Europe.