Daily Links, Dec. 1: Quarterbacks, immigrants, and closed parishes

I can't believe it's already December! December 1 is World AIDS Day - it's worth taking a moment to remember [1]all those who are suffering and who have died from this disease.

On a lighter note, picking up where yesterday's Daily Links [2] left off, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers quotes St. Francis [3] in what to me explains just why Tim Tebow mania is so annoying. And former NFL great Kurt Warner weighs in as well [4], a little more bluntly.

56 years ago today [5], Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. These days, Alabama is back in the news for its anti-immigrant policies which to many appear to hearken back to days of extreme racial prejudice. Next up? Florida, which looks to deny in-state tuition [6] to lifelong residents of the state if they can't prove their parents are legal citizens. In other "immigrant" news, that word will now replace [7] what is usually translated as "stranger" or "alien" in the Common English Bible.

The U.S. economy has seen better days, and everyone is feeling the pinch, including Catholic health organizations [8]. The city of Detroit, often a symbol of the economic crisis, is closing and consolidating many parishes [9], though it cites a priest shortage rather than financial difficulty as the reason. Bryan Cones asks [10] if this is really a good justification.

Happy December!