Signs and Wonders: Cosby tells Stewart to watch his mouth

Cosby speaks truth. Bill Cosby appeared in a recent episode of comedian Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.” Cosby commended Stewart for participating with him in a recent program for Wounded Warriors. But he also had a word of correction for Stewart, whom he rebuked for cursing. Stewart jokingly responded by saying what he said wasn’t profanity, but Yiddish. Cosby, however, played the mensch and respectfully held his ground, not falling for Stewart’s mishigas, for which I can only wish Cosby mazel tov and sholom. (And just to ward off a few emails: shalom is the Hebrew spelling, while sholom is the Yiddish spelling.)

Obamacare meets reality. According to Reuters, state insurance commissioners who met this week told President Barack Obama his plan to reverse the cancellations caused by Obamacare could lead to higher premiums. Obama, fighting for his plan on all fronts, met with representatives from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to discuss the heavily criticized “fix” he announced last week. The changes were designed to calm what Reuters called “the uproar surrounding millions of cancellation notices sent to holders of individual health insurance policies no longer legal under the healthcare law.” The commissioners issued a statement that “stressed their concern that different rules for different policies would be detrimental to the overall insurance marketplace and could result in higher premiums for consumers, without addressing the underlying concern of gaps in coverage.”

Costco Concedes. A buyer at the discount retailer Costco is getting the blame for mislabeling the Bible as fiction. After protests from Christian groups and individual Christians, Costco pulled the Bible off the shelf and is in the process of re-labeling and re-stocking them. Costco issued a statement that read in part: “We deeply regret the mislabeling of the Bible and meant no offense to anyone. The buyer has let us know that this was an error and the books are being pulled off the shelves to be re-marked.”

Noah runs aground. Speaking of mishigas, Darren Aronofsky, the director of the new movie Noah starring Russell Crowe in the title role, is receiving criticism for apparently failing to take into account feedback from Christians and Jews regarding rough cuts of the film. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Beyond the visuals, a major challenge has been coming up with an exciting third act that doesn't alienate the potentially huge Christian audience.” The article goes on to note that skepticism about Noah flared in the faith community after writer Brian Godawa in October 2012 obtained a version of the Noah script and summarized it under the headline, “Darren Aronofsky's Noah: Environmentalist Wacko.”