Updated at 9 p.m. EST with more links. Dec. 1 is always a crazy day for me — how convenient that my birthday (shared by Woody Allen and the Rosa Parks bus boycott launch, among other events) falls during the holiday season and World AIDS Day! This year, it’s also the first night of Hanukkah and a…

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has officially recommended that U.S. lawmakers repeal the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, citing a Pentagon study — taking religious concerns into account — that reports allowing openly gay troops would cause only “limited and isolated” short-term disruptions to military readiness. A new poll reports that a majority of Americans now support repealing DADT, but…

I’ll always remember Thanksgiving 2008 as the one where we carved the turkey to the sounds of CNN, anxious for updates on the attacks on Mumbai’s hotels, train station, cafes and Chabad House. Fortunately, this year’s holiday weekend remained terror-free, thanks to federal investigators who caught Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a “confused” Somali American teenager accused of plotting to bomb…

I’ve just written a Religion News Service story about whether people of faith make easier marks for con artists, prompted by the news of a Ponzi scheme that scammed $30 million from Chicago-area Muslims, along with other affinity frauds that have targeted Jews (Madoff, anyone?), Mormons, evangelical Christians, etc., in recent years.  There aren’t any official stats yet on whether…

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