Midday Open Thread

• More economic not-goodness:

  Home sales declined dramatically last month and housing prices posted their sharpest decline in four decades as a rapidly slowing economy discouraged many potential buyers from tip-toeing into the market.

• Adam Serwer on Rick Warren, Barack Obama, and representing black ideology.
• Ta-Nehisi Coates is also taking Warren into making a broader point about political change:

  Everybody, from the right to the left, now claims Martin Luther King--but he was certainly not a centrist. Part of that is the passage of time, but another part is the mainstreaming of ideas (at least some of them) which once were thought of as radical. Supporters of gay marriage should take heart from that. Today's radical is tomorrow's normative. Time and, to be blunt, the reaper are on our side--not theirs.

• And speaking of religious homophobia, the pope used his year-end message to church leaders to say that it's as important to oppose homosexuality as it is to protect endangered species. So that was awesome.
• The families of three Iraqi security guards killed last week as American soldiers searched a grain warehouse hope to press charges, but are unlikely to be able to do so.
• If you haven't read A.C. Thompson's major story in The Nation on Katrina's Hidden Race War, it's not exactly light holiday reading but it is a must-read. It's also an excellent example of new ways investigative journalism is being supported, with the investigation having been funded by The Nation Institute, Pro Publica, and others.
• A bit of heavy-handedness from the Center for American Progress Action Fund led to some interesting discussions on the nature of blogging for institutions. It also led to some funnies.
• Patrick Fitzgerald will not be allowing the Illinois state legislature to compromise his investigation in order to impeach Rod Blagojevich.
• Yes, yes, Barack Obama is very muscly.