The other day, I thought the unthinkable.

My mama is 79. Wednesday night is her bible study. Just like Ms. Ethel Lee Lance, mama has her circle of church going elders—black women in their 60s, 70s, and 80s for whom church is home. Maybe even safer than home. Their pain was safe in the hands of this particular Jesus. Unshed tears from the Middle Passage were here. Friendships decades deep were here. Sanctuary was here. Comfort, too. Prayers unheard by a black community too often deaf to the pain of black girls and women were heard here, by this Jesus. Or so they thought.

An Iranian man was seconds away from being executed for stabbing a young man to death, when the victim's mother unexpectedly pardoned him and saved his life.

Kobra, whose son Bilal was convicted of murdering Abdollah Hosseinzadeh, embraces Abdollah's mother Samereh Alinejad after she pardoned the murderer. The last-minute pardon occurred just before Bilal was to be executed in public on Tuesday in the northern city of Nour, Iran. Image via ISNA, Arash Khamoushi/AP.

There is a great deal to ridicule about the New York Times' "Weddings and Celebrations" section most of the time, and it is right and meet for us to come together and do so.

Tomorrow, the state of Texas will kill Mark Stroman by means of lethal injection. Today, a man he tried to murder, Rais Bhuyian, is praying Texas will spare Stroman's life.

Noted fashion designer (and Jew) Donna Karan says that John Galliano's anti-Semitic rants were "blown out of proportion." She told New York magazine, "I know John. I've met John. He's a wonderful designer, a brilliant designer, and he probably needs help and support right now. To be a designer's a very taskful situation, and sometimes it can push a few limits." Yup, give it six months and he'll be fully back in the fashion industry's good graces.

The Way We Live Now: being proven wrong. It doesn't do much for our self-esteem, but then again, self-esteem and a buck fifty will get you a cup of coffee these days. And a buck fifty's nowhere to be found.

How much do we hate Chris Brown? This much: An "insider" says he used eyedrops for his recent onstage sob-fest. This is what happens when you're hell-bent on getting America to forgive you: We turn you into our whipping boy.

Albrecht is the new CEO of premium cable channel Starz! Well, looks like we finally have an answer for how long it takes Hollywood to forgive you for beating up your girlfriend in public. It's about two-and-a-half years.