Journalism

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Unnecessary advocacy on the front page

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With wonderful medical advances, humans are able to survive cancer and diabetes diagnoses that would have meant certain death not that long ago. And while these same medical advances and general economic prosperity mean there’s never been a better time to grow older, it also means that humans now have prolonged periods of demise that burden surviving family members. The average American lifespan has increased some 30 years since a century ago.


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Time to check your facts

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If a mainstream media outlet raves about a movie or a restaurant or a book, you’d expect that its reviewer did due diligence in checking it out. One would hope that the reviewer actually saw the movie or ate the meal or read the book. Why then, I wonder, does Time magazine praise a new religion website that is so essentially flawed?


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Hate preachers anonymous

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That’s what seemed to be brewing in the land of Shakespeare when it became public knowledge that British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had banned 22 people from entering the country (only 16 are named). Apparently the drawbridges against the “least-wanted” have been raised since October, but Smith only just made the decision to publish the list, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.


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Improper use of "improperly"?

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I tend to agree with my fellow libertarian Penn Jillette about people of different religious backgrounds attempting to convert me: I’d be more offended if they didn’t. It shows they care about me temporally and eternally. So I don’t personally share the disdain so many people have for the Mormon practice of baptism of the dead.


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Swine flu and the Copts

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While the rest of the world seems to understand that swine flu is not really about the swine, Egypt continues its mass slaughter of every pig in sight. It is on a national campaign to rid the country of its estimated 300,000 pigs in the name of public health.


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Seeing Thew Forrester for the trees

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Back in February, Terry noted the story of the election of Father Kevin Thew Forrester as the new bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan. Thew Forrester’s views on Christianity are less than traditional. He wondered why the story — lighting up the blogosphere — didn’t attract more mainstream media attention. And a few weeks ago Terry noted an interview Arkansas Democrat-Gazette religion editor Frank Lockwood secured with Thew Forrester.


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