Some selected items for your enjoyment, from the lunchtime scan of the papers:
- From the “You Think They Would Learn From Bar Mitzvahs” Department: The LA Times has an article on how the Catholic Church has issued a new booklet to provide a more specific religious ceremony for quinceañeras. The article notes how the aim is to ensure religious meaning in what is often just a lavish celebration. Perhaps they should talk to a rabbi. That problem has been a big one on the bar/bat mitzvah circuit. There was even a movie about it.
- From the “I don’t want to hear about your one God because my one God’s the one” Department: Speaking of religion, an article in USA Today notes that most religious groups in the US are losing members (except, perhaps, for the muslims). Specifically, the percentage of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. In fact, so many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists. Additionally, nearly 2.8 million people now identify with dozens of new religious movements, calling themselves Wiccan, pagan or “Spiritualist,” which the survey does not define.
- From the “Are You Going Out Like That?” Department: USA Today is also reporting that retailers are starting to introduce more modest clothing for teens. The reason is not religious (so they claim) but economic: In these markets, one cannot turn away customers, and most parents don’t want the revealing stuff that is marketed to teens these days. Further, most parents know that such revealing stuff can’t be worn to work.
- From the “Do You Really Want Us To Add to the Job Losses” Department: The tanking economy is influencing many things. One thing it is affecting is the debate about cutting defense contracts. Sure, they are wasteful, but they employ people. So (the argument goes) in this economy, do you really want to add to the unenemployed. This isn’t a joke argument. The NY Times is reporting that it is being used by Congress to reduce defense contract cutbacks. After all, by building fewer F-22 fighters (which even Bush 43 didn’t want), you put people out of work. Lockheed Martin says 25,000 jobs depend directly on the F-22, and perhaps 70,000 more indirectly. According to the article, some potential cutbacks include parts of the $10 billion missile defense programs, a radar-evading $3.3 billion destroyer that even the Navy says it can no longer afford, and cutbacks in the Army’s sweeping $160 billion modernization plan.
