I bet you've also heard about the dust-up over gay marriage between Miss California and gossip site host Perez Hilton. If not, here you go. As for commentary on the whole mess, I liked what Brett McCracken had to say over on The Search.

And if you haven't heard about the swine flu - well, you are truly living under a rock. Just this morning I found an interesting little story about how some churches are changing their practices to combat the virus. For some additional thoughts I put together about our role in the midst of the swine flu outbreak, click here.

Amy Sullivan of Time.com takes a look at why so many people love to church-shop.

A lady anonymously gave 100,000 kronor - the equivalent of $12,200 - to her church in Sweden. You won't hear too many stories like that in these tough times. Actually, you won't hear too many stories like that any time.

I continue to marvel at just how far Starbucks has fallen. I suspect McDonald's continues to rejoice. This article is a funny one. On one hand, the fall of Starbucks seems to say we're slowly giving up our consumption of costly things we don't need. But then again, our falling back in love with McDonald's says we're not quite ready to go all the way on that change. We just want to pay less for things we don't need (or could make for cheap at home).

Here's an interesting article that examines how newfound freedom in Iraq has led to more sin.

And speaking of sin, you might want to check out Newsweek.com's "Adventures in Good and Evil." The author explores why some of us are saints and some of us are sinners - not from a biblical standpoint, mind you, but a psychological or sociological one.

In video game news, there's a new one out called "Faith Fighter". Here's the premise: "Caricatures of Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad, Buddha, God, and the Hindu god Ganesh fight each other against a backdrop of burning buildings." This is pretty much offensive on every conceivable level.

Think you're having a bad day? No. No you're not. This is a bad day.