Today is also the day I learned that Palestinians observed the 55th anniversary yesterday of the naqba - the Palestinian word for “catastrophe” which in this context refers to the flight or expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from Israel after that Jewish state came into being back in 1948. Those refugees and their descendants now number about 4 million people. Palestinian leaders demand that Israel recognize the right of these people to return to their old homeland. Israelis leaders marked the naqba by seizing a town in Gaza yesterday, killing 5 Palestinians in the process, and by stonewalling Secretary of State Colin Powell’s request that they stop building new settlements in occupied Palestinian territory in the interests of peace....

It’s also the day that I learned that Britain is considering a ban on the ritual slaughtering practices of Jews and Muslims. According to a recent article in the Jerusalem daily newspaper, Haaretz, “Under European Union animal welfare regulations, all farm animals must be stunned before slaughter, unless they are killed by religious methods.... According to Jewish and Muslim religious law, the animal's neck is slit and left to bleed to death. Though some Muslim slaughterhouses allow the use of electric stunners, Jewish law is less flexible and shocking the animal first is not allowed.” A four-year study by the British government has concluded that these practices are inhumane. Researchers found that cows and poultry take up to two minutes to lose consciousness after their throats are cut, while sheep take between 14 and 70 seconds. Neville Nagler, director-general of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, protested any government moves to change things by saying that "pre-stunning is against our very long-standing religious principles. There would be a very serious outcry at interference in what has been a fundamental religious rite for thousands of years." The Jewish method of slaughter is already banned by Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway. According to Haaretz, “A compromise was reached in the Netherlands last year under which Jews are allowed to slaughter bulls, but only as long as the slaughter does not take more than three seconds”....

I also learned today that June Carter Cash has died after surgery to replace a heart valve. She was a great singer in her own right as well as the long-time wife of country music legend Johnny Cash. Last weekend Johnny asked people everywhere to pray for her at 11 a.m. on Sunday because - in the words of his manager - "June did this for him one time when he was critically ill... The recovery the next morning was something the doctors couldn't describe or imagine." I’m sorry she died, and I mean no disrespect, but it would seem from this that prayer - even when performed by millions - is no more effective than the flip of a coin....

It was on this date in 1920 that the Roman Catholic Church canonized Joan of Arc nearly 500 years after she was burned at the stake for heresy. You’ll recall that Joan was the young French girl/military leader who “heard” the voice of God and “saw” various saints. Her religious ardor helped inspire the French to repulse the would-be English conquerors during the Hundred Years’ War. The University of Maryland gave her a new trial last year, complete with expert testimony from psychiatrists. “A Maryland Court of Appeals judge presided, and a ‘jury’ of 189 doctors, lawyers and students heard the case,” according to this Discovery Channel site. “The judge instructed the jury on what modern law said about the insanity plea and when a defendant does not know right from wrong. Not guilty by reason of insanity, said 113 jurists. Guilty as charged, said 76"....

It also happens to be the feastday of St. Simon Stock. The Virgin Mary allegedly appeared to Simon in Cambridge, England in 1251. She is said to have had with her a brown scapular (a monk’s sleeveless outer garment) and to have assured him that whoever died while wearing it would be protected from eternal hellfire. These became rather popular garments. According to the Catholic Online Saints site, “The Catholic Church has approved eighteen different kinds of scapulars of which the best known is the woolen brown scapular, or the Scapular of Mount Carmel, that the Virgin Mary bestowed on Simon Stock.... There are elaborate rules governing the wearing of the scapular: although it may be worn by any Catholic, even an infant, the investiture must be done by a priest. And the scapular must be worn in the proper manner; if an individual neglects to wear it for a time, the benefits are forfeited.” One wonders what the doctors, lawyers, and students at the University of Maryland would make of that....

Finally, it’s the 91st birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel. Terkel is famous for interviewing a wide variety of ordinary people on topics ranging from the work they do, to the role they played in World War II, to what they make of death. In a 2001 interview with Rolling Stone, he said "I think of myself as an agnostic, but an agnostic is really a cowardly atheist." During a January 2002 NPR program dealing with death and dying, Terkel abandoned his “cowardly” ways and repeatedly identify himself as an atheist....

Stay cool. Ask lots of questions. Hug all you can.