The Nobel Prize and the practice of prayer

On Friday morning, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.”


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Depicting Steve Jobs in the afterlife

Within about five minutes of reading about Steve Jobs’ death, a friend texted me, “Get ready for all the overreaction about Steve Jobs, who was obviously dying for years.” It’s also interesting (but not surprising) to see how quickly Gawker would publish a post “What Everyone Is Too Polite to Say About Steve Jobs.” How soon is too soon to start critiquing someone’s life after their death?


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The ethics of monitoring Muslims

Earlier this week I read a story in the Denver Post about Najibullah Zazi’s plot to set off bombs in the New York subway. The plot was thwarted after someone monitoring the email of a key al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan intercepted a message from Zazi, a Denver-area airport shuttle driver.


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The problem of miracles

Writing about the miraculous — apart from baseball — is a tricky task. The key to a good miracle story is its tone. If a writer is too deferential to his subject he becomes an apologist. Too harsh and he becomes an antagonist. Adopting the voice of the village atheist or a credulous devotee fails the test of sound journalism.


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