From an article of the same by Sandra Sutton of the Midland Daily News:

Area Hindus joined Hindus around the world last weekend to celebrate the importance of knowledge by honoring the god of knowledge, Ganesh.

Sunday was Ganesh's birthday, but Midland Hindus gathered Saturday in the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library auditorium to celebrate. Ganesh is one of thousands of Hindu gods.

Siddhesh Shevade said special attention was paid to involve children in the festivities. Little ones with American accents were guided by parents with Indian accents through each step of the "puja," or prayer ceremony...

Before the puja, images of Ganesh, who has a human body and an elephant head, were explained. For instance, Ganesh has large ears, which symbolize listening well, and a large belly, which shows the importance of digesting all that is good and bad in life.

Large ears and a large belly...I don't want to hear any jokes about what Ganesh and I have in common.

The little boy in the picture is our friend Sid and the barely-visible face in the upper right corner is our friend Madan (Sid's dad). Though it didn't make the paper, I whipped Madan on the golf course Saturday afternoon.

From an article of the same title by Ted Wendling on beliefnet:

A national coalition of Christian ministers threw down the gauntlet Monday (Aug. 28), endorsing GOP candidate Ken Blackwell for governor and challenging an IRS crackdown on political activities by churches.

Implored by the Rev. Russell Johnson of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster to "show your heart," the 28 ministers calling themselves Clergy for Blackwell said they had a legal right and moral responsibility to endorse the Republican secretary of state over Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland.

The group noted the candidates' contrasting positions on issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage and placement of the Ten Commandments in public buildings...

Asked about the endorsements, IRS spokesman Chris Kerns declined to comment. Donald Tobin, who teaches courses on tax-exempt organizations at Ohio State University, said he saw nothing improper.

He said the event was not held on church property and didn't employ church resources and the pastors emphasized they were speaking as individuals.

From an article of the same title by Amy Sullivan on Slate.com:

When Democratic Party leaders "found God in the 2004 exit polls," as Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. likes to say, no one expected instant results. Many of the party's early efforts to attract religious voters, after all, were scattershot and not a little awkward. No one knew quite what the "faith staffer"—a new breed of legislative aide—was supposed to do, and random-seeming insertions of Bible verses into floor speeches came off as Tourette's syndrome for Democrats. In the longer run, though, the new focus on forming relationships with religious communities and voters has been the right move for a party that had essentially limited its religious outreach to black churches. Democratic campaign trainings now smartly include tips for communicating with Catholic voters. Candidates are starting to appear on religious radio outlets. And Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has even stopped saying things to intentionally antagonize evangelicals.

Which is why it is startling that in the two years since this Democratic revival began, the party's faith-friendly image has dimmed rather than improved. The Pew Research Center's annual poll on religion and politics, released last week, shows that while 85 percent of voters say religion is important to them, only 26 percent of Americans think the Democratic Party is "friendly" to religion. That's down from 40 percent in the summer of 2004 and 42 percent the year before that—in other words, a 16-point plunge over three years. The decline is especially troubling because it cuts across the political and religious spectra, encompassing liberals and conservatives, white and black evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. The Republican Party also experienced a drop in the percentage of Americans who say it is friendly to religion—eight points over the past year. But that decrease occurred mostly among white evangelicals and Catholics and the reasons for it seem obvious: Two years of broken promises by the GOP.

In contrast, the Democrats' crumbling credibility on religion wasn't caused by one thing. And that may be the problem. All at once, the party needs to counter conservative attacks, change the conventional wisdom that Democrats just aren't religious, and expand the party's reach to moderate religious voters. To do that, the party will need a little more faith and a whole lot more work.

Via Boing Boing, from an article of the same title on CNN.com about the Yes Men's latest prank:

A man who pulled a hoax on Louisiana officials and 1,000 contractors by presenting himself as a federal housing official said Monday he intended to focus attention on a lack of affordable housing.

"We basically go around impersonating bad institutes or institutes doing very bad things," said the man, who identified himself as Andy Bichlbaum, a 42-year-old former college teacher of video and media arts who lives in New York and Paris.

"That would be HUD. At this moment, they're doing some really bad things."

Masquerading as Rene Oswin, an official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Bichlbaum followed Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to the lectern Monday morning at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner.

In a speech to attendees of the Gulf Coast Reconstruction and Hurricane Preparedness Summit, he laid out grandiose plans for HUD to reverse course...

In his speech, Bichlbaum said the department's mission was to ensure affordable housing is available for those who need it.

"This year, in New Orleans, I'm ashamed to say we have failed," he said.

To change that, HUD would reverse its plans to demolish 5,000 units "of perfectly good public housing," with housing in the city in tight supply, he said.

Former occupants have been "begging to move back in," he said. "We're going to help them to do that."

The government's practice had been to tear down public housing where it could, because such projects were thought to cause crime and unemployment, he said.

But crime rates in the city are at a record high and there is no evidence that people in the projects are more likely to be unemployed, he said.

The man added that it also would be essential to create conditions for prosperity.

Toward that end, he said, Wal-Mart would withdraw its stores from near low-income housing and "help nurture local businesses to replace them."

Via Andrew Sullivan's blog, from Wikipedia:

On August 29th, 2006, during a CNN broadcast of George W. Bush's speech on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (2005), Kyra Phillip's microphone was left on while she was apparently in the bathroom, leading to her audio conversation being broadcast over the President's speech (the video showed Mr. Bush's speech only). During the conversation, Phillips reveals information about how much she loves her husband and how hard it is to find a good guy. The unidentified women agrees and talks about how her family is reacting to her relationship, particularly her brother. Phillips then responds "of course brothers have to be protective. Except for mine, I gotta be protective of him. He's married, three kids, but his wife is a control freak!" The conversation continues until a CNN employee enters the restroom and tells Phillips that her mic is on. CNN Anchor Daryn Kagan then interjects and summarizes what Bush discussed during his speech. The video was posted on YouTube and caught fire amongst bloggers. Phillips later apologized for the issue with the microphone.

Here's the video on YouTube: