From 2008, Atheist Susan Jacoby and Christian ministers Barry Lynn and C. Welton Gaddy show how we can all get along.

Happy Spring to all the atheists out there, and everyone else, too.

Still Crazy After All These Years
	Artist: Paul Simon

RIP to the legendary record producer Phil Ramone.

Whatcha listening to this evening?

Still Crazy After All These Years
	Artist: Paul Simon

RIP to the legendary record producer Phil Ramone.

Whatcha listening to this evening?

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Under fire for his anti-gay comments on the Hannity show the other night, Fox’s GOP savior, Dr. Ben Carson, forgot all about how he dislikes divisiveness and playing the victim. Instead of taking the personal responsibility he advocates for others, Carson blamed those who were offended for “misconstruing” his remarks that equated homosexuality with bestiality and pedophilia. And then he doubled down on them by saying he can’t think of other “examples of variations on marriage and relationships.” Right before delivering an Easter message for the Fox & Friends viewers this morning.

It was telling that while Carson and host Clayton Morris whined about those “politically correct” meanies taking offense, they never re-played those “innocent” remarks that got Carson in so much hot water to begin with. Specifically, he said:

No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality - doesn't matter what they are - they don't get to change the definition.

Jon Stewart nailed it in a scathing takedown: "It's not, you know, whether you're having sex with another consenting adult, or a horse, or a doughnut, it's all the same."

But Morris neatly mischaracterized the outcry by saying Carson is “under fire for some comments he made about marriage this week.”

By the way, much of the protest has come from medical students at Johns Hopkins University, where Carson is a professor of neurosurgery, who feel that he should withdraw as commencement speaker. But it’s not only for his comments about gays. They also feel that Carson has used his platform as a famous neurosurgeon to promote the rejection of evolution and used his platform at the National Prayer Breakfast as a partisan vehicle. They don’t want that kind of partisanship at their commencement.

Predictably, Morris didn’t go into any of that. He was too busy casting Carson as a media victim. “The media seemed to have jumped down your throat pretty quickly. ...Do you think you’ve gotten a fair shake in the media?” Morris prompted asked.

Carson didn’t quite jump through the hoop the way Morris was leading him. But he was more than willing to play the victim, point the finger at others, and then pretend that they were the ones doing the dividing:

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Abyssinian Baptist Church Pastor Calvin Butts on Sunday called on the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize same sex marriage because it was part of "the freedom God has given you."

"It's something that we don't believe in, in terms of what we have learned from the Bible," Butts told ABC's George Stephanopolous. "But in terms of men and women having their rights as citizens and human beings, we certainly affirm that."

"You should have every right as a citizen of this nation and every right as a human being to enjoy the freedom that God has given you. The choice is yours. And I should not stand in the way of you making that choice."

Butts added that even though his religion did not teach that "marriage between a man and a man or a woman and a woman is God's divine imperative," it would be wrong for him to oppose marriage equality for all Americans.

"And I think that the Supreme Court should not stand in the way of that," the pastor explained. "I have to support that in a civil society because, otherwise, I would not be a good citizen of our great nation and a participant of this great experiment in democracy."

"However, I choose to believe the book upon which I build my life."

We've decided to expand our culture coverage on C&L and one of the new features we'll be offering is recaps/reviews of popular television series. I'd like to start with Game Of Thrones, which is beginning its third season tonight. Before I started watching the HBO series, I had never read any of George R.R. Martin's books, but after a few episodes I was hooked. So much so that after season one I couldn't wait a year to see what happened next and I immediately gobbled up the rest of the books. It's a credit to HBO on how well this series has been cast, shot, written and executed that has made it such a huge hit for the network.

After the great battle in the episode Backwater that was won with wildfire and surprise reinforcements from the Tyrell's, the final episode of season two was called Valar Morghulis.

King's Landing:

After Tyrion helped lead his side to victory over Stannis, he is now laid up in bed with a severe face wound, saved by his squire Poddrick payne and is immediately notified that he is no longer the Hand to the King. His father relieved him of that job after bringing the cavalry with him to help fend off Stannis Baratheon's assault on King's Landing.

Shae begs him to leave with her, but Tyrion refuses; although he now looks like a monster his world is here--- out talking and thinking his evil family.

King Joffrey hooks up with Margaery Tyrell after his mother (Cersei) tells him it's cool to dump Sansa Stark since her father (Eddard) was beheaded for treason and her brother (Robb) is at war against him.

Traveling:

Brianne heeds the order of Catelyn Stark and leads Jaime The King Slayer across the land and back to King's Landing. She kills several interlopers along the way.

Robb betrays Walter Frey by not marrying one of his many daughters and instead marries another girl and is warned of Frey's treacherous nature by his mother.

Arya is given a valuable coin by a Jaqen (the faceless man) who has killed three men for her after he granted her three wishes. The coin he tells her should be used to contact him if she is ever ends up in Braavos looking for him. he says he can teach her to take revenge against the long list of her enemies.

Winterfell:

Brann Stark escapes Theon's clutches and is told by a dying Maester Luwin to head to the Wall to find Jon Snow with Rickon Stark, Hodor and Osha after Lovejoy's men burn down Winterfell. Theon had been knocked out by his own men who dessert his cause and leave the castle.

Quarth:

Daenerys Targaryen is chained up by Pyress Pee who tried to keep her captive and use the power from her dragons to fuel his magic for all eternity. Unfortunately for the bald warlock the dragons lay waste to him with their fire breathing breath that as usual spares Dany. She then finds Xaro Xhoan Daxos has lied to her all along and has no money so she locks him up in his big empty vault along with one of her trusted servants to die. "Thank you for teaching me this lesson." But Dany does believe she has enough jewels and whatnot lying around to maybe buy a small ship to head back home to her people.

Beyond the Wall:

Jon Snow and Qhorin Halfhand have been captured by Mance Rader's men and are being lead to their camp, but Halfhand momentarily escapes only to stage a fight with Snow. Jon is stunned by this but recognizes that Qhorin is sacrificing himself by faking Jon's betrayal. This move lets Snow kill him so that Jon could still try and protect the Castle Black.

The episode ends with Sam Tarley cowering behind his horse in the cold beyond the Wall as he sees a White Walker riding a dead horse. Is he quite possibly witnessing the beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse?

And so Season Three, Episode One begins. I'll be writing a review that will publish after the episode. Please use this thread to comment on the episode and let me know if there are other series you'd like to see covered on C&L.

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This Week with George Stephanopoulos note the passings of three service members in Afghanistan.

US Army SFC James F Grissom, 31, Hayward, CA
US Army SGT Tristan M Wade, 23, Indianapolis, IN
US Army SGT Michael C Cable, 26, Philpot, KY

According to iCasualties, the total number of allied service members killed in Afghanistan is now 3,274.

In addition, the following notable names lost their lives this week:

Mississippi state politician Jessica Upshaw
Songwriter Deke Richards
Actor Peter Duryea
New Hampshire state politician Harold Burns
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony Lewis
Screenwriter Don Payne
Musician Gordon Stoker
Actor Richard Griffiths
Documentarian John Charles Upton, Jr
Musical instrument manufacturer Robert Zildjian
Canadian politician Ralph Klein
Baseball player Bob Turley
Record producer Phil Ramone

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Cardinal Dolan joined George Stephanapoulos and ABC News this morning to discuss the new pope and his views on same sex marriage and the out of touchness most American Catholics feel towards the church. From a new poll from the NY Times: U.S. Catholics in Poll See a Church Out of Touch

Roman Catholics in the United States say that their church and bishops are out of touch, and that the next pope should lead the church in a more modern direction on issues like birth control and ordaining women and married men as priests, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Dolan said in the interview that he sees the biggest challenge for the church is to re-connect itself to Jesus.

Dolan: I think the biggest challenge facing him, George, is to reconnect Jesus and his Church. There's now a growing cleavage between Jesus and his Church. You reported some of the statistics. People will say, "I don't have any problem with Jesus. I got some problems with the Church." And probably, I think his greatest pastoral challenge is going to be – to reconnect Jesus and his church.

That's not going to be as easy as it appears, especially with not a mention of the child sex abuse scandal that has rocked Catholics and the church to its core, but what Cardinal Dolan said shortly afterwards about the gay community figured more prominently and showed no effort to get in line with what most Americans believe. You see, they can have his love and friendship, but gays are not entitled to sex or marriage. Those values are left only for child-bearing opposite-sex couples.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And you know, especially this week – because it's been at the top of the news – for many gay and lesbian Americans –

CARDINAL DOLAN: Uh-huh.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS:– gay and lesbian Catholics, they feel unwelcome –

CARDINAL DOLAN: They do.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS:– in the Church. And what do you say as a minister, as a pastor – to a gay couple that comes to you and say, "We love God. We love the Church. But we also love each other, and we want to raise a family in faith."

What do you say to them?

CARDINAL DOLAN: Well, the first thing I’d say to them is, "I love you, too. And God loves you. And you are made in God's image and likeness. And – and we – we want your happiness. But – and you're entitled to friendship.” But we also know that God has told us that the way to happiness, that – especially when it comes to sexual love – that is intended only for a man and woman in marriage, where children can come about naturally.

We gotta be – we gotta do better to see that our defense of marriage is not reduced to an attack on gay people. And I admit, we haven't been too good at that. We try our darndest to make sure we're not an anti-anybody. We're in the defense of what God has taught us about – about marriage. And it's one man, one woman, forever, to bring about new life. We gotta do better to try to dis – take that away from being anti-anybody.

So as long as the church and their defenders don't personally attack gays over marriage it's okay to deny them the right to do so. What fun would that be for homophobes? And Nicole mentioned to me that does his definition also rule out sex for opposite sex couples who can't have children? With Catholic leaders like Cardinal Dolan being a major spokesmen, not much change is apt to take place for the church in the years to come except to foster in the Reince Priebus RNC playbook of better branding being needed for their positions.

Igor Volsky writes:

Dolan has been vocal in his opposition to marriage equality, repeatedly condemning the rights of same-sex couples under the guise of love and support for the gay community. After lobbying against New York’s marriage equality law, Dolan prohibited by decree any Church personnel or property from being utilized for same-sex marriage ceremonies under penalty of “canonical sanctions,” calling the state’s law “irreconcilable with the nature and the definition of marriage as established by Divine law.”

He has also compared the “threat” posed to marriage by gays and lesbians to that of polygamy, adultery, forced marriage, communist dictatorships, and incest.

Despite his rhetoric, a majority of New York Catholics supported the marriage equality bill months before it came to a vote and still do.

(h/t Heather@Video Cafe for the video)

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From this Sunday's Meet the Press:-- shorter Peggy Noonan -- You'll take the GOP's wedge issues away when you pry them from their cold, dead hands.

TODD: You know, Peggy, what's been interesting about this week is all of the big polarizing issues of the last two generations, culturally, all popped up in one week and one of it had to do with the Supreme Court and gay marriage, with abortion, this culture wars, normally when it comes back, it's something that's helpful to Republicans. Is it good this time for the conservative movement to have these issues out there?

NOONAN: I don't know. I think all of these cultural issues, as I guess we call them, have been major issues in America for almost half a century, really. The abortion argument was going on fifty years ago. Roe came forty years ago. It is hard to resolve these issues because they're not just cultural issues. They are moral issues and Americans feel differently about them. So I think one way or another, they'll probably be bubbling out there for a long time and it's not the worst thing.

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Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday became angry and shouted at CNN host Candy Crowley over the notion that people who receive guns as gifts would have to undergo background checks.

In an interview on CNN's State of the Union, Crowley asked Graham if he would be willing to support a Democratic bill to close the gun show loophole and require background checks for private sales.

"Would you filibuster that?" Crowley wondered.

"No, if get an alternative to it," Graham replied. "I would vote against it. This idea that private individuals transferring their weapons and having to go through a background check makes no sense. Before you'd expand a background check, there are 76,000 people last year who failed a background check. And less than 1 percent got prosecuted."

Crowley noted that a recent CBS News poll found that 96 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of Republicans supported universal background checks.

"Well, if you ask the question, should a father have to do a background check when they their son a gun for Christmas, most people would say that's not necessary," the senior South Carolina senator insisted.

"This is a little different," Crowley pointed out. "This is about just if you go to a gun show."

"No, that's what the bill does!" Graham exclaimed. "The bill requires private individual transfers to through the federal system! The current system broken. I hope most Americans understand that 80,000 people last year failed a background check and only 66 got prosecuted. Why in the world would you expand that system -- if you're not enforcing the law the exists today -- to include private transfers?"

"So, I think that legislation is going nowhere."