Friday Free-for-All: March 25

Happy Feast of the Annunciation! I hope you’re all taking advantage of the solemnity to have some bacon with your breakfast. And now for a few links:

• The four New York Times reporters who went missing in Libya tell the story of their capture by Qaddafi’s forces, and their ultimate release.
• “Annulment Nation”: Jeff Ziegler notes that the United States has only 6 percent of the world’s Catholics, and yet those Catholics account for 60 percent of the world’s annulments. What’s going on here?
• Father Longenecker writes on the dangers of putting priests on pedestals — both for the faithful and for the priests.
• Can church make you fat? One Northwestern study claims that young people who are actively involved in church ministries have a 50 percent greater chance of being overweight in their middle age.
• People say The Wire is more like a Dickensian novel than a TV show; naturally, it was only a matter of time before someone actually turned it into a 19th-century novel. I particularly like the sketches of Omar.
• First it was those videos of blowing people up who didn’t want to cut carbon emissions; now this little brainwave to get people to participate in “Earth Hour” tomorrow. Seriously, why does saving the earth always have to be so scary?