Only in the last century or two has the matter of mothers – and even fathers – working outside the home become an issue. Before that, everyone was in the "workforce"– at home.

The Middle East received a major jolt with the election of a Palestinian terrorist group. Headlines shouted: HAMAS' WIN PUTS MIDEAST IN A JUMBLE (Kansas City Star); NEW EQUATION SHOCKS MIDEAST (USA Today); HAMAS ELECTION VICTORY SHOCKS WORLD (Associated Press) and HAMAS ROUTS RULING FACTION, CASTING PALL ON PEACE PROCESS (New York Times).

Numerous individuals in the news media seemed appalled by what has turned out to be a refugee-like situation in the Gulf States because of hurricane Katrina. A large portion of the population of the city of New Orleans and other gulf coast cities that have fled the area will be displaced for some time, and some even permanently.

One cable news anchor, standing amid the devastation of New Orleans, outside the Superdome, repeated over and over his disbelief that a refugee situation was taking place right before his eyes, "right here" in the United States.

In mid-September Pope Benedict XVI addressed a group of 180 student exorcists at an undisclosed location near Rome. According to the London Telegraph of September 16, the students are following a 10 week course which includes exorcism rites, how to talk to the Devil, the tricks the Devil uses to fight back and signs of the occult hidden in rock music and video games.

Saturday's hurricane headline read: "Running On Empty, Fleeing Rita, stuck in traffic." How can you flee when you are stuck in traffic? The approach of Hurricane Rita prompted nearly 3 million people—more than 2.5 million in Texas as well as hundreds of thousands in Louisiana—to evacuate their Gulf Coast homes.