Official condemnation challenged as 'hostile' to Catholic teachings. A city's official condemnation of Catholic church teachings as "discriminatory," "insulting," "callous" and "defamatory" is being taken to the U.S. Supreme Court because of the Constitution's requirement that government not be "hostile" to faith.

Adam Gopnik – Three kinds of books explain why books no longer matter. When the first Harry Potter book appeared, in 1997, it was just a year before the universal search engine Google was launched. And so Hermione Granger, that charming grind, still goes to the Hogwarts library and spends hours and hours working her way through the stacks, finding out what a basilisk is or how to make a love potion.

Marilia Duffles | Has Chicken Soup for the Soul replaced Common Sense? Why has thinking gone to pasture? Have we lost our minds entirely? Common sense is 235 years old. Common Sense, that is: The 18th-century pamphlet by the Englishman Thomas Paine that argued beautifully for independence from British rule in just 48 pages.

Mark Tooley | A nice reminder of a no-holds-barred detestation. Jim Wallis' Evangelical Left Sojourners has helpfully reminded us, amid all the hagiography about Ronald Reagan on the centennial of his birth, that the Religious Left despised him. Some Religious Leftists doubtless still do.

I used to be a timid, thin man. I never got on very well in the city. When I was talking to people, they tended to drift away, or they turned to someone else and said: "Having nice weather, aren't we?" I didn't see in my job any of the heroic aspects my superiors were always glorying in, so probably I wasn't very good at it.

Chuck Baldwin – America was birthed in the spirit of liberty and baptized in the blood of patriots and tyrants. Leading the charge in America’s fight for independence was a courageous group of patriot-preachers that came to be known as the “Black Regiment.”

Roger L Simon – “Be forewarned: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled. sandmonkey.” The man who wrote those words — the witty and courageous Egyptian blogger “Sandmonkey” — is currently in hiding in his native city of Cairo, moving from one friend’s apartment to another, as supporters of Hosni Mubarak pursue him and other democracy demonstrators.

Robert Draper – The February issue of National Geographic takes an in-depth look at Afghanistan's opium wars. As writer Robert Draper discovers, a key step to securing peace in the war-torn country will be to wean Afghan farmers off growing poppies. As his report states:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Half of men would forgive their female partner's infidelity, as long as it was with another woman, according to a new study on cheating. Women, however, were less likely to forgive and forget if their boyfriend had been with another man, the University of Texas at Austin study showed.

China is planning to create the world's biggest mega city by merging nine cities to create a metropolis twice the size of Wales with a population of 42 million.

Dr Kevin Donnelly – Given the nation’s celebration of Australia Day, it’s timely to ask the question: what does it mean to be Australian and how are we different to the rest of the world?

When I "cheated" on my significant other, it did not change my feelings towards him in the slightest bit. So when the whole "strictly monogamous" rule doesn't work, is an open relationship the right answer?

Infamous for fomenting mass disobedience on bicycles during the Copenhagen climate Summit, touring the UK recruiting a rebel clown army, running courses in post-capitalist culture and falling in love with utopias, the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination exists somewhere between art and activism, poetry and politics.

Frank Salvato – Five years ago when my organization BasicsProject.org partnered in producing the first national symposium series on the threat of radical Islam, the issue was not in the mainstream.

Dan Phillips says he did what he could to help keep his 20-year-old son off the powerful prescription drugs he was addicted to. The Orlando father installed a GPS device in his son's vehicle. He bought him a new cell phone …

Features promoters of Eastern mysticism, universalism. When megachurch pastor Rick Warren decided he needed to take his health seriously, he responded in typically ambitious fashion, launching a year-long health program for his church, "The Daniel Plan," written with the help of three celebrity doctors who will appear at a kickoff seminar today.

Despite communist North Korea topping the list for the ninth consecutive year, the most dangerous countries in which to practice Christianity are overwhelmingly Islamic ones, according to the annual Open Doors World Watch List.