An oft-ignored lesson of 2012: the case for appeasing the base, by Steve Singiser Cowardice in the face of climate change isn't just immoral, it's bad politics, by Mark Sumner Newtown? Sandy Hook? Call it 12/14, by Greg Dworkin Sin, stigma, and syringes: the struggle for harm reduction, by Denise Oliver Velez If it is not stopped, the Republican war on democracy will tear this nation apart, by Laurence Lewis Lincoln's Heir, by Jon Perr
Reading, Writing & Religion II – a new report by the Texas Freedom Network — investigates public schools in Texas and the results are mind boggling. School kids are taught that the Bible gives scientific proof that the Earth is 6,000 years old, and the United States was founded as a Christian nation based on biblical Christian principles. At least one district’s Bible course includes materials suggesting that the origins of racial diversity among humans today can be traced back to a curse placed on Noah’s son in the biblical story of the flood.
When he launched a white dove – a traditional symbol of peace – into the air in St Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI was probably not expecting that the effect would be immediate. And certainly he would not have expected the effect to be conflict. But that is exactly what happened in the Vatican square yesterday afternoon, as an angry seagull attacked the bird as the Pope looked on. The dove, released at the end of the Angelus prayer, managed to escape the seagull's clutches and flew away.
But that is exactly what happened in the Vatican square yesterday afternoon, as an angry seagull attacked the bird as the Pope looked on.
The dove, released at the end of the Angelus prayer, managed to escape the seagull's clutches and flew away.
Stanley Karnow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist who produced acclaimed books and television documentaries about Vietnam and the Philippines in the throes of war and upheaval, died on Sunday at his home in Potomac, Md. He was 87.