News noted

Barbarians continue to be barbarians.  Apparently the more self-confident and energetic a religion is, the more inevitable it is that its adherents will adopt the viewpoint of the Caliph Omar.

Selfies in voting booths -- free speech, or incipient threat to democratic elections?  How much do you suppose the Koch Brothers -- or George Soros, if you prefer -- would pay for my vote?

Can the SCA and pop-culture fascination with the middle ages save Medieval Studies?

On the Ashley Madison imbroglio: 

Jennifer Weiner points out that the people who signed up for Ashley Madison's services with their real names and email addresses are just plain stupid (on top of being dishonest).  As for the people who signed up from .gov and .mil addresses -- or, so help us, the Vatican -- they're well into the realm of Idiocracy, but without the funny parts. 

More trenchantly, a DailyKos blogger points out that even before it was hacked, Ashley Madison was almost certainly a scam.  If something looks too good to be true, well, you know the rest of the saying.  And if you're going to a website for the express purpose of cheating and lying, don't be too surprised when the people you meet there are just as dishonest as you.