On Friday, President Barack Obama broke a campaign promise to Armenian voters to declare the 1915 massacre of Armenians an act of “genocide.” As Glenn Kessler noted in a March Washington Post story anticipating that this might happen, Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Joseph Biden for years have not minced words about labeling as “genocide” the deaths of Armenians. They regularly lambasted President George W. Bush for not using the word “genocide.” And Obama’s promise that he would use the word — compared with Sen. John McCain’s position — got him enthusiastic support among the Armenian community.
Parade's invincible ignorance
From Walter Scott’s Personality Parade, addressing a question on whether Serena Williams’ choices in clothing are appropriate for a Jehovah’s Witness:
A beheading; not an "honor killing"
The first time I read this Los Angeles Times feature story, I had some questions. However, since my questions were linked to THE major theme of the story, I kept trying to forget about them.
Got news? Unruly Britannia
In the wake of the lifting of the papal excommunication of the SSPX bishops and other flaps this past winter, the way the Vatican handles public relations and communications has been the subject of much media scrutiny.
Breaking: Fundamentalists are people too
Several years ago, when I submitted an interview article in the Evangelical Press Association’s Higher Goals Awards competition, my grim (and non-evangelical) judge dismissed the piece because it was a Q&A. Never mind that it was a friendly Q&A with Andrew Sullivan, soon after he wrote Virtually Normal, and appeared in the newspaper of the evangelical ministry Episcopalians United — not exactly Sullivan-worshipping territory.
Making that last cultural statement
Distinctions with a difference
One of the more interesting stories regarding stem cell research is one that has been woefully under-reported. Even though scientists have been performing embryo-destructive stem cell research for a decade, there are no clinically available treatments that have resulted from the research. In the past two years, however, scientists have discovered ways of inducing pluripotent stem cells that many see as more promising.
Christopher Buckley's wistful nonbelief
I’ve posted before in this space about the tensions between Catholic faith and glamour that existed in the household of William F. Buckley Jr. and his beloved wife, Pat. Now comes a tantalizing excerpt, through The New York Times Magazine, from Christopher Buckley’s memoir, Losing Mum and Pup.
Evidence of things not seen
So The New York Times covered Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s first Mass in New York. This is a good thing. Depending on when and how you accessed the article, its headline was either:
