Bush to meet Benedict at the airport, near the Alitalia baggage claim, holding a white carnation. If they miss each other they'll use their cell phones. Sure, and NOBODY was bitter during the Depression. Tell that to Herbert Hoover. Bloomberg picks gun control as way to bring himself to national attention - almost as politic a choice as that congestion pricing thing. Gawker Media is selling Wonkette. We care more than we should. Supposedly,......

Tonight, the Alamo Ritz will be holding a free screening of the award winning documentary For the Bible Tells Me So, a film that digs into the basis of this hate filled view and how five God fearing families reconcile their faith with the realization that one of their members is gay. Featuring the families of former House Majority leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, we will be led through a conversation of healing, offering clarity and understanding to a topic that is seldom spoken about sans fire and brimstone....

The Holiday season is in full swing in NYC, with holiday lights in Brooklyn, a giant snow globe in Bryan Park and Chanukah specials for ham. One citizen decided to go vigilante on annoying car alarms, a murder suspect used a fake Asian accent on the stand and a video of a man being beaten up by teenage girls on a subway shocked the city. And we interviewed soon-to-be-leaving-Gawker editor Choire Sicha, who said,......

Intelligence reports now reveal that Iran is *not* making a nuclear bomb. Remains to be seen whether this will make a difference to Bush, who just doesn't like the cut of their jib. Damn! What is it with the Senate and thirteen-year-old boys? Brad Pitt, perhaps in a contest with Angie to see who can adopt the most people, takes the entire Lower Ninth Ward under his wing. Two popular musicians were recently murdered......

Photo from AsiaTravelTips.comAccording to today's Statesman, an Austin man has filed suit against his former employer, JetBlue Airways, alleging that he was fired over his religion. Over dinner last October, 41-year-old Jerry A. Ojedis told his fellow flight attendants that he was Muslim. A little over a week later, he was terminated. The series of events that unfolded after Ojedis' declaration have led him to suspect that illegal discrimination was behind the firing. It began,......

But what if attitudes and religious memeplexes aren’t changing because adapting to social pressure is necessary? What if the new millenarianism, instead of crashing computers, will be a fight to the death with a Frankenstein version of Mother Nature? What if environmentalism is becoming the new faith? What if responsible consumerism is the new moral ethic? What if recycling, dear Green God, is the new ritual of absolution?...

Have a happy and safe Halloween! If you're headed to Sixth Street, leave your light saber/fake gun/billy club at home. Williamson County won't kick privately-run immigration detention center out of Taylor now that they aren't liable for it. Some Texas prosecutors will wait for the Supreme Court's decision next year before asking judges to set execution dates. After a soldier died in a Ft. Hood training exercise, his supervising officer is facing court martial.......

As far as ghosts and ghoulies go, we know that Austin has spooky entertainment options coming out the yin-yang, not to mention the standard trick-or-treating action. However, it has been brought to our attention that it is no longer socially acceptable for 20 to 30-somethings to beg candy off their neighbors (we have no shame), and our sexy bumblebee/sexy heart surgeon/sexy bottle of pepto bismol costumes are looking a little shabby this season. So......

Looks like Round Rock ISD is headed to court over their policies on organized prayers at school events. Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, representing six students and one former student, have filed suit against the district, saying that its policy of allowing school-sponsored prayer at graduation ceremonies violates the First Amendment principle of church-state separation. Every year, each of the four Round Rock high schools (Round Rock, Stony Point, McNeil......

Conspiracy or coincidence? You hash it out. Sure to be already spreading across the blogosphere like wildfire, a reader sent us this image of evangelical powerhouse Billy Graham on the cover of this week's TIME Magazine, standing in praying position, head slightly downward, with the two peaks of the precariously placed letter M protruding from his skull like a pair of Beelzebub's horns. Now, we understand if this were Jerry Falwell then it would......

Say what you will about Tom Cruise’s career choices, religion, or personal relationships, the man has certainly made some fantastic action movies. Witness his sweaty brilliance firsthand tonight as 101X presents this week’s Summer Movie Series classic Top Gun. Cruise plays Maverick, a Naval Aviator whose record is less than pristine due to his high-flying high jinks and general loose cannon-itude. He makes it into the elite Fighter Weapons School by the skin of his......

The final guest speaker in KLRU's "Spark" Engaging Speaker Series is novelist Anne Lamott, whose brutally honest but altogether hilarious stories are rooted in heavy and sometimes dark themes, like alcoholism, faith, and Republicanism. "The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth," explains Lamott in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. "We are a species......

In Austin, all the malt shops, arcades, bowling allies, drive-ins and wherever else the hip kids hang out these days will be empty May 13th. Instead, they’ll all be gathered at Bass Concert Hall with their hearts in hand ready to give them freely to Bright Eyes indie folk heartthrob Conor Oberst. He’s now become a coveted American musical icon, and thanks in part to the media, we have watched him mature through breakups......

The penultimate speaker in KLRU's 2007 Spark Series is the ever-fascinating Douglas Rushkoff, a hugely prolific author, teacher, and documentarian who's written extensively on new media, pop culture, religion, and technology as it pertains to society in general. Rushkoff first exposed the world to the emerging cyberculture phenomenon with his 1994 book, Cyberia, and has since published at least ten best-selling books, including Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism (2003) and Media Virus: Hidden......

University of Texas students will soon have the opportunity to learn Hindi and Urdu as part of a Department of Defense initiative that focuses on global security. The National Security Education Program has awarded $700,000 to UT’s South Asia Institute to help implement the program that will “teach languages whose knowledge is considered critical to national security.” The program kicks off next year, and university officials expect to enroll about 10 students who already have......

The surprising thing about the new documentary Jesus Camp, opening tomorrow in Austin, is how, well, un-Michael Moore it is. Sure, there are a couple of scenes in Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing's look at an evangelical kids' ministry that are already providing yet more fodder for leftist religion-haters, including this one of children praying to a large cardboard cutout of President Bush. But, on the whole, you will be amazed at the filmmakers' preternatural......

This week, ProArts Collective's Black Arts Movement Festival concludes with more amazing works by more amazing performers. Though there's a motherload of theatre open and opening in A-town right now, we think you should give these gems some serious consideration when you're planning your artful outings for the next few days. Note: Tickets are $10, door only / $35-$65 via festival pass, online only. Dance: ACC Dance, Dallas Black Dance, and UpRise! Productions We......

Jean-Marc Vallée's award-winning C.R.A.Z.Y., recipient of accolades at film festivals around the world (Gijón, Toronto, Vancouver, Boulder), recently garnered yet another laurel: the low-budget indie comedy-drama was given the "Soundpost.com Feature Film Director Award" at the 19th Annual Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF), which continues through Sunday. It's fitting that Vallée, who uses both sound and music to extraordinary emotional effect, will be receiving a $130,000 grant from Soundpost.com. The prize money......

THURSDAY [21] books • Chuck Klosterman presents Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas at BookPeople (7pm) ® books • David Oshinsky presents Polio: An American Story at Barnes & Noble, 701 Capital of TX Hwy (7pm) ® books • Ayun Halliday presents Dirty Sugar Cookies: Culinary Observations, Questionable Taste at BookWoman (7pm) music • French Kicks, The Little Ones, The Lemurs at Emo's ® music • The Yellow Umbrella......

Besides the 80 degree August weather, you probably noticed something was a little off this Wednesday. More traffic on the roads, fewer sunbathers at Barton Springs? For those of you who forgot and for those of you who just don't care, The University of Texas began its first day of classes today. A couple of weeks ago, we let you know what’s been happening around campus; now we want to let you know what’s......

Rick Perry unveiled his school financing plan yesterday and it looks like the smokers get the short end of the stick, again. In his efforts to devise a plan to fund schools and give property tax relief, Perry has suggested cutting property tax by $6 billion, the largest reduction in history, and broaden the franchise tax to apply to more companies and raise cigarette taxes by $1 a pack. Critics of the plan say......

Still developing: A woman's body was found in the road in East Austin this morning. Forgione's plan (that we mentioned in January) is rolling along: school officials are looking into turning Porter Middle School into a leadership academy for gals. Cedar Park is picking up more development, including some along what will soon be toll road. Yes, the crisis in Sudan is still going on (and getting worse). The Archbishop of Canterbury is visiting......

Boy, being fashionable is getting more expensive by the day. And more dangerous, it seems. Girl Next Door on Fifth and Lamar became the second store in the past month to be robbed for their designer jeans. (Luxe Apothetique in the Arboretum was robbed for the same product just before Christmas.) And these crooks had taste and apparently a bit of retail knowledge. They didn't go for the sale rack or the scarves, they......

Guess who is shy about having debates with challengers? Come on guess. You're right if you guessed Ricky Perry. Both Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman have declared that they would debate Ricky anytime, anywhere. You hear that Ricky? We can hold the debates at your secret meeting place where your gang plots the end the world. Our two independent candidates have to collect 45,540 signatures from registered voters who didn't vote in either......

After battling thyroid cancer since being diagnosed with the condition last October, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist passed away last night. Chief Justice Rehnquist spent 33 years on the Supreme Court, initially taking his seat under Nixon. President Regan elevated Rehnquist to Chief Justice in 1986. In his time on the court, the staunch conservative Rehnquist was very vocal when dealing with important issues. He opposed the Roe v. Wade decision. He believed religion......

Bewitched From director Nora Ephron, who brought us such sugary sweet servings as “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail,” comes this reimagining of the classic 60’s television sitcom of the same name. Will Ferrell, whom we obviously love for his comedic chops (Blue Oyster Cult sketch, anyone?), if not his fine acting skills, plays Jack, a struggling actor who is cast to play Darrin in a remake of the tv show. He gets......

That’s what Matt Skiba, lead singer and guitarist for Chicago’s Alkaline Trio wanted to call their latest release. Upon hearing that they were thinking about using "Church and Destroy" as the title, some religious groups put pressure on the band and their label, Vagrant Records. Skiba says that they changed the title to the bland "Crimson," not because of the protest, but because it didn’t quite fit the new songs they had recorded. For......

The school board in Odessa, TX has voted to add a Bible class to its curriculum by the fall of 2006. While this elective class will be taught as a “history or literature” course, the Austinist can’t help but feel hesitant, to say the least, in supporting this decision. Mike Johnson, a member of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (yes, there is such an organization, apparently), claims that the class is......