"On Wednesday, Drummer Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, a man who had served Queen and country honorably in the hell of Helmand Province in Afghanistan, emerged from his barracks on Wellington Street, named after the Duke thereof, in southeast London. Minutes later, he was hacked to death in broad daylight and in full view of onlookers by two men with machetes who crowed 'Allahu akbar!' as they dumped his carcass in the middle of the street like so much road kill."

Read more: Mark Steyn, National Review Online

"Today marks the first International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, recently designated so by the U.N. General Assembly. A world where fistula is as rare everywhere as it now is in the developed world is possible. Raising the age of marriage, ending female genital cutting, improving childhood nutrition, and increasing the number of trained birth professionals — and providing access to surgeons skilled in fistula repair — are all part of the solution. But there must also be the political will and the humanitarian drive to identify the problem and direct resources toward (often complex) solutions."

Read more: Rachel Marie Stone, God's Politics, Sojourners

"This Bloomberg story is the height of mainstream media politically correct ridiculousness. We are told that the rioters were born between 1991 and 1995, as if that is the salient point to make clear why they are rioting. Nowhere is it mentioned that they are Muslims, although in other stories this has been made clear in other stories that mention the rioters' 'spokesman,' Rami al-Khamisi."

Read more: Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch

"Saeed Abedini, the 33-year-old Idaho resident serving an eight-year prison term in Tehran's infamous Evin prison, passed the letter to family members who were permitted to visit him after several weeks of isolation. The letter was passed to Abedini's wife, Naghmeh, who is at their Boise-area home with their two children and unable to visit her husand for fear of being arrested herself."

Read more: Lisa Daftari, Fox News

"Lerner was appointed head of the FEC's enforcement division in 1986 and stayed in that position until 2001. In the late 1990s, the FEC launched an onerous investigation of the Christian Coalition, ultimately costing the organization hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours in lost work. The investigation was notable because the FEC alleged that the Christian Coalition was coordinating issue advocacy expenditures with a number of candidates for office. Aside from lacking proof this was happening, it was an open question whether the FEC had the authority to bring these charges."

Read more: Mark Hemingway, The Blog, The Weekly Standard

(H/T Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog)

". . . Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry asks, "Are we stuck with a passé traditionalism on one hand, and total laissez-faire on the other?" Is there common ground shared by the orthodox-Christian sexual ethics of a Rod Dreher and those who treat consent as their lodestar? Gobry suggests that Emmanuel Kant provides a framework everyone can and should embrace, wherein consent isn't nearly enough to make a sexual act moral--we must, in addition, treat the people in our sex lives as ends, not means. Here's how Kant put it: 'Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.' Does that get us anywhere?"

Read more: Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic

"'Reading this past week about the allegations of sexual abuse was very difficult,' he said. 'I know it is for anyone. But it is very personal for me because I was a victim of sexual abuse as a child.'"

Read more: Ted Olsen, Gleanings, Christianity Today

"There was absolutely nothing to do. The phones went dead. I sat down in a corner and waited. I knew people were being killed. I had no idea if my house or the houses of my friends were going up. The reports that were coming in over the tv were too confusing to tell. I did know that people I knew, had known all my life, were in grave danger."

Read more: Rebecca Hamilton, Public Catholic, Patheos

"If the site is to be believed, Exodus will be coming to a theatre near you on December 12, 2014 — or about a year and a half from now. And that would make it one of two Bible epics hitting the big screen next year, the other being Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, which comes out March 28."

Read more: Peter T. Chattaway, FilmChat, Patheos

"The hell he saw was harrowing, but it’s the sounds at Plaza Towers Elementary that Stuart Earnest Jr. says will haunt him forever."

Read more: Jason Sickles, The Lookout, Yahoo! News

"It was my privilege to collaborate with Chuck on many projects.The two most important ones were the Manhattan Declaration and the 'Doing The Right Thing' video series. Chuck, himself, regarded these initiatives as his 'legacy projects.' Both were his ideas. He leaves both as gifts to the Christian community, to which he dedicated his life in service, and to the Nation he loved. Both initiatives express and concretely embody a principle that was central to Chuck's understanding of the Christian faith and of his personal vocation as a Christian leader, namely, the harmony of faith and reason."

Read more: Robert P. George, CP Opinion, The Christian Post

"A judge has dismissed most of a lawsuit alleging child sexual abuse and conspiracy to cover up at a large church in Maryland. . . .

"The pastors and churches charged in the lawsuit could still face criminal charges because there is no statute of limitations on felonies."

Read more: Greta Kreuz, WJLA