PREGNANT VIRGIN DRAGON. SERIOUSLY. IN OTHER NEWS, PLAGUE OF FROGS FORECASTED FOR CHRISTMAS EVE. Pregnant virgin dragon prepares to give birth By MARIA CHENGAP Medical Writer December 20, 2006 CHESTER, England — In an evolutionary twist, Flora the Komodo dragon has managed to become pregnant all on her own without any male help. She is carrying seven baby Komodo dragons. “We were blown away when we realized what she’d done,” said Kevin Buley, a reptile expert at Flora’s home at... Read more

OH HELLS:BROKEN PROMISES+PEOPLE IN NEED=ANGRY BONO Bono Slams Dems’ $1B AIDS Dodge New York Post, December 19, 2006By Ian Bishop WASHINGTON – Even with Democrats poised to control the government’s purse strings next year, U2’s Bono still hasn’t found what he’s looking for when it comes to U.S. funds to combat AIDS. The disappointed U2 frontman stormed away from high-level meetings with incoming Democratic leaders late last week without assurances that $1 billion in proposed U.S. support would become a... Read more

WINDOW IN THE SKIES: THEM’S MY BOYS Read more

GODSTUFF: MIRACULOUS NEWS — BUT A SPIRITUAL LIMP Here are two things a person who is in distress — hurting, mourning, feeling his or her worst — does not want to hear:“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”“Everything happens for a reason.” In the last few weeks, as I’ve been hurting, mourning and feeling my very worst, I’ve heard both of those familiar sayings. More than once. And each time, I wanted to turn to the well-meaning, kind... Read more

GODSTUFF: NO NEED TO LOSE FAITH, HOLIDAY SHOPPERS “Are those all CATALOGS?” I asked earlier this week, pointing to the pile, at least a foot high, of shiny periodicals balanced precariously on the dining room table. I’d been out of town for a while, and mail tends to back up, but I’d only been gone for two weeks, not two months and there was a small mountain of two-dimensional holiday-gift options threatening to topple over and crush the cat. I... Read more

GOD GIRL AND DIVINITY BOY — FORM OF: PUBLIC RADIO!TUNE IN FRIDAY . . . Our God Girl and her homey Jason DeRose (aka “Divinity Boy”), religion reporter for WBEZ radio in Chicago, will be talking religion news and all things Godstuff on the “Eight Forty-Eight” program some time afer 9 a.m. Friday, December 15. You can tune in (91.5 FM) or listen online HERE Read more

PRESIDENT GEORGE’S CHRISTMAS LIST: INSERT JOKE HERE This just popped up a few minutes ago: A CNN BREAKING NEWS ALERT: President Bush is likely to delay unveiling a new strategy for Iraq until after Christmas, a White House official told news agencies today. Perhaps that’s because President Bush is hoping Santa Claus will bring him a new (or, ya know, any) strategy, along with a pair of nifty orange Crocks (size Medium), a Fisher Price Sing and Hum Baby Elmo,... Read more

WAS IT THE STRESS? GOATBOY ON THE LOOSE? OR IS ROSEMARY’S BABY KEEPING HIM AWAKE AT NIGHT? A Canadian newspaper has run the most extraordinary column by one of its staffers about a night visitor — and he didn’t mean that in the euphemistic kind of a way that junior high school health teachers might. Read the column by The Chronicle-Herald (of Halifax, Nova Scotia) writer Peter Duffy HERE. A succubus? An incubus? Stress and anxiety? Or something even more... Read more

TODAY IN GOD . . . On December 12, 1712, the colony of South Carolina passed a “Sunday Law” requiring all to attend church each Sunday and to refrain from both skilled labor and traveling by horse or wagon beyond what was absolutely necessary. Those who chose instead to worship at the First Congregational Church of Pillow and Duvet, or who took the ol’ horse-and-buggy out for a little Sunday drive, received a fine and/or two hours in the village... Read more

WRAPPING UP 2006: STILL THE BEST THING I’VE HEARD ALL YEAR When people ask me for advice — and I don’t know why they’re so foolish as to do so, but some people do — I say, ‘Every morning look in your bathroom mirror and say three times: “It’s not about me.”‘— TOM ROBBINS It’s not about you. It’s not about you.It’s NOT. ABOUT. YOU! Read more