[NOTE: This is a re-post of an piece I wrote in 2008. I found it yesterday while doing a search for some information I wanted for a comment, and I thought that, in light of recent news in Syria and … Continue reading →
…making the world safe* for Islamicists. I called it Obama’s Arab Spring, but that’s a bit unfair, because although he has a big role I’m not at all sure that anyone could have prevented this. The Arab world is what … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is a sequel to yesterday’s post on prayers during the tornado.] During the Moore tornado, teacher Anna Canady had a prayer [emphasis mine]: She remembered that as the tornado bore down on this school in Moore, Okla., she … Continue reading →
On the thread about the video where the woman found her dog after the tornado, commenter “Randy” wrote: there is a lot of religious blindness on this thread. we celebrate God for answering this woman’s prayer about her dog, but … Continue reading →
Anyone who’s been watching the news knows what’s been going down in Boston. I was up till very late trying to absorb it all, hoping against hope that bomber #2 would be caught. So far, nothing doing on that. Boston … Continue reading →
[NOTE: The following article actually appeared in the NY Times. But since the Times is behind a firewall, I’m linking instead to this copy of the piece. Note also that it is about Rabbi Herschel Schacter, whose last name has … Continue reading →
…to be a latino? That seems to be the burning question of the day. It’s not just a stupid conversation, it’s the sort of identity politics that’s become all-too-prevalent these days and has made race and ethnicity a greater force … Continue reading →
…Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, who has taken the name Pope Francis. Bergoglio is the first Jesuit to be pope and the first pope from Latin America. It had been widely speculated that a new pope might be chosen from … Continue reading →
…by becoming the first pontiff in 600 years to resign. It’s not because of scandal or politics, it seems. Pope Benedict has been infirm for quite some time, and he writes: After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I … Continue reading →
…is neither conventional nor wise. But it seems to be running the show lately. Case in point: you mean the Muslim Brotherhood’s not a reasonable and moderate group? Who woulda thunk it? Everyone who thought about it and did a … Continue reading →
No surprise whatsoever here: Egypt’s president on Thursday issued constitutional amendments that placed him above judicial oversight and ordered the retrial of Hosni Mubarak for the killing of protesters in last year’s uprising. Mohammed Morsi also decreed immunity for the … Continue reading →
I’ve been thinking about this poem lately. It’s really a bleak work (and very modern, despite the year it was written, which was probably around 1851). The subject is the loss of faith. Not a personal loss of faith, but … Continue reading →