That great actor Peter O’Toole has retired. He was always a pleasure to watch, even in films that were not that great, and it is astonishing that he never won an Oscar, although he was nominated eight times. There was a gleam in his eye that gave you the sense that at any moment he would do something totally unexpected and even crazy and this made him eminently watchable. [Read more…]
I read a news report that former students in a Catholic girls school in Rhode Island had written to the Vatican urging that the school be closed because of the abuses it inflicted on the students. [Read more…]
There are further signs that atheism is on the rise. David Niose points to surveys that show that for the first time ever, a majority (54%) of Americans “would vote for a qualified, open atheist for president.” This is a substantial increase from the 45% of 2007 and a huge increase from the meager 18% of 1958. [Read more…]
One of the remarkable features of the modern Republican party and its Tea Party ground troops is their ability to spin on a dime and rally behind anyone they see as their own and defend them against all charges, even if it involves a total reversal of things they had previously held to be really important to them. [Read more…]
Several of the commenters to yesterday’s post on Pentecostal fervor had grown up in that religious tradition and raised an issue that I had not thought about, and that was what the children in attendance at these sessions thought about their parents getting caught up in the action and speaking in tongues and generally carrying on. Those comments are well worth reading. [Read more…]
If you needed more evidence of the blatant double standards and hypocrisy practiced by the US government when it comes to dealing with Israel compared to countries that it does not like, this exchange between Associated Press reporter Matt Lee and State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland should settle any doubts.
They don’t even bother to pretend any more.