Santa Muerte

The L.A. home of a Mexico-based sect that attracts people on the margins, such as drug traffickers and transgender prostitutes.  Unsurprisingly, according to a photographer who has documented worship at the shrine (not the one who shot the photos in the slideshow), 'Southern California's version of the practice may contain "a little shtick"'.


LATimes: Santa Muerte in LA: A Gentler Vision of "Holy Death"

The lost Torah of Kabul

The subject of this L.A. Times article, the self-described last Jew in Afghanistan, is understandably tight-lipped about why he stayed and how he's gotten by. But I bet there's a at least a book's worth of drama on what seems to be the most painful subject- whatever happened between him and the man who was, until his death in 2005, one of the last two Jews in Afghanistan. For starters:

"As their squabbling intensified, Levy reported his housemate to the Taliban-run government...The Taliban responded by seizing the holy scroll and jailing both men. Despite extensive efforts, the Torah was never found, the cousin said. "

L.A. Times: Afghan Jew a one-man upholder of tradition

Ok...progress?

July 8, 2009:

"Above all, the intention to do good must not be considered incompatible with the effective capacity to produce goods," Benedict said. "Financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity, so as not to abuse the sophisticated instruments which can serve to betray the interests of savers."

September 24, 2009:

"Mr. Gotti Tedeschi's appointment, one Vatican official said, shows the bank is "moving in the direction of more transparency, but it's hard to predict what concrete changes will be made."

...

In the late 1980s, Italian magistrates investigated the IOR [Vatican Bank]for contributing to the 1982 collapse of Banco Ambrosiano. The Vatican, which was a shareholder in the bank, repeatedly denied wrongdoing and invoked a treaty with Italy that shields the Vatican from Italian investigations under its status as an independent sovereign state. The Vatican, denying any wrongdoing, eventually agreed to pay $250 million to Banco Abrosiano's creditors."

CNN: Pope blasts capitalism ahead of G-8 meeting

WSJ: Vatican Revamps Its Bank's Ranks