Bits: Monk Fight Edition

-The British Telegraph newspaper has a fun article that lists 50 things you didn't know about Barack Obama. I actually knew a couple of these. Interestingly, none of the 50 involves him being a terrorist, but he did have a pet monkey at one point and has read every Harry Potter novel, so same difference I suppose.

-By popular demand, more cholera news. There is another, perhaps more serious outbreak taking place right now at a refugee camp in the Congo. As you may now, the Nation Formerly Known as Zaire is in the midst of yet another civil war, and thousands of people are being driven into small areas in these makeshift camps. There's a cease-fire in place right now, but it is apparently unraveling. There are fears that the disease will spread if the cease-fire fails and the refugees are forced to scatter. Complicating matters is a lack of the medication that cure the disease, as well as an organized method of distribution.

-The police had to be called to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, supposedly built on the site where Jesus was born, after monks from two different sects got into a violent brawl. The church has long been run in an uneasy joint arrangement between the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Coptic churches. In this case the Greeks tried to block a procession by the Armenians, "so that the Armenians could not establish a claim which they do not have." Um... anyway, violence ensued. This is the same place where there has been a ladder outside the entrance since the 19th century because the three sects can't agree on who has the authority to take it down.

-Cracked.com's latest history lesson/list/funny caption collection involves the six stupidest points people died trying to prove.

-The latest thing we're boycotting: Utah, for the Mormon Church's aggressive support of California's gay marriage ban, unique because it took away from people a right that had already been granted. As things we're boycotting go, this one makes more sense than most.

-Today's Free TV on the Internet: The Daily Show/Colbert Report election special. Not as great as it could have been, but still has Stephen Colbert delivering state electoral votes with a parrot perched on his shoulder.