John McCain believes that the government response to Hurricane Katrina was “disgraceful”. In a speech yesterday he faulted FEMA’s organization, it’s leadership, and President Bush’s response in particular. It was the kind of speech you would expect of someone who was severely disappointed in how the leadership of his own party responded to [...]

The House Foreign Affairs Committee will vote this afternoon on a resolution to declare that the deaths of over one million Armenians in Turkey shortly after World War I constitutes genocide. The Bush Administration has asked them to reject the proposal.
For once, President Bush is right.
By no means am I defending Turkey. While [...]

That’s my hometown.  The quaint local news station that whose feed CNN taps into–that’s the station my mom watches.  I’ve walked along the wreckage strewn paths.  I’ve driven over the heap of concrete and twisted steel.  I know how absurd it is for the news anchor to ask questions about pollution in the Mississippi.  (In [...]

There was a potential watershed moment yesterday in the War in Iraq: insurgents set off a series of car bombs outside of the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistak (PUK) in Kirkuk, killing eighty. This is perhaps the worst news I’ve heard come out of Iraq in months, because it could easily mark [...]

Beverly Sills, noted opera singer who’s name is practically synonymous with the New York metropolitan opera, passed away today. But I don’t know her from her work in New York, I know her from her work with the muppets. In a classic episode, the elite singer poked fun at herself, and opera in [...]

Here’s what I don’t understand. The press keeps talking about a looming humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip if Israel doesn’t allow food in, or Palestinians out.
But Gaza isn’t landlocked. It’s long and thin, and has a nice stretch of border along the Mediterranean Sea. Why can’t aid workers bring food and [...]

I’ve heard a lot about Christopher Hitchens’ new book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. I spent a good deal of time today standing in the bookstore, reading the first few chapters of it–and while I certainly didn’t read all of it, I feel comfortable enough with the book to share my [...]

In case you haven’t heard, Jerry Falwell died today, probably of a heart attack, at the age of 73.  Agree with him or not, you have to admire his ability to accomplish his goals.  Falwell was a founder and leader of the Moral Majority, one of the original flagship organizations of the political movement which [...]

J.K. Rowling recently gave a $3 million pledge to help find a little girl who went missing in Portugal. Other pledges reported in that article top $750,000 and that’s just from celebrities. The overall fund may top $5 million.
For one girl.
Muhammad Yunus won the nobel peace prize recently for developing microloans. For less [...]

The price of corn, the stable of the Zimbabwe diet, rose 700% in Zimbabwe this week. Given the poverty rates in this country, this will almost certainly lead to mass starvation, most likely riots and unrest as well. As of this morning, neither the Red Cross nor Oxfam has announced any initiatives to [...]