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The 2009 quintennial session of Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia represented 220 religions and featured 675 programs, 37 movie screenings, and 84 off-site events. Read More »
Huffington Post 
Holocaust Memorials DEFACED With Anti-Semitic Slurs
WARSAW, Poland — Vandals sprayed anti-Semitic graffiti on Holocaust memorials at a former Nazi concentration camp in Poland, desecration that authorities discovered Saturday and are investigating. Read More »
Taylor Marsh: Poll: Democrats Slipping on National Security
Here we go again . Democrats are once again losing the narrative to Republicans on national security, according to a poll released by the Democracy Corps . The backdrop to this was V.P. Joe Biden’s trip to Israel that ended in Sect. Read More »
Texas Textbook MASSACRE: ‘Ultraconservatives’ Approve Radical Changes To State Education Curriculum
AUSTIN, Texas – A far-right fof the Texas State Board of Education succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade. Read More »
James Zogby: Degrading Citizenship
There is one largely unreported aspect of the recently completed Iraqi elections that I find deeply troubling, and that is the fact that polling places were set up across the U.S. providing Iraqi-Americans the opportunity to vote. Read More »
Dan Persons: Mighty Movie Podcast Interview: The Exploding Girl and Tales from the Script
So actress Zoe Kazan slips into the room, gives director Bradley Rust Gray a hug, and lingers a minute to answer a couple of questions. Quite unanticipated, obviously. Very welcome, actually. And pretty much fitting for the film being discussed, The Exploding Girl , which itself has a low-key, idiosyncratic structure and a spare, spontaneous feel. Read More »
Jacob Heilbrunn: Hillary Clinton and Israel
Not since George H.W. Bush tried to stop Israeli settlement activity has an American president openly confronted Israel. Now Barack Obama, first through vice-president Joe Biden, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is admonishing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about expanding settlements. Read More »
Texas Education Board Approves Conservative Curriculum Changes By Far-Right
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas State Board of Education agreed to new social studies standards on Friday after the far-right fwielded its power to shape the lessons that will be taught to millions of students on American history, the U.S. free enterprise system, religion and other topics. Read More »
Rory O’Connor: Second Mistrial for Shock Jock Hal Turner
Internet shock jock and F.B.I. confidential informant Hal Turner beat the rap again when his second federal “Death-Threat Trial ,” ended in yet another mistrial. Read More »
Clinton Slams Israel’s Settlement Plans: ‘Deeply Negative Signal’
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday delivered a stinging rebuke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his government’s announcement this week of new Jewish housing in East Jerusalem. The State Department said Clinton spoke to Netanyahu by phone to express U.S. Read More »
MJ Rosenberg: The US-Israel Crack-Up
I can’t help but think of the Buffalo Springfield lyrics: “There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.” That is how I feel about Vice President Joseph Biden’s just-concluded visit to Israel. I can’t understand what the Israelis were thinking. Read More »
Robert Siciliano: Biometrics: To Be or Not to Be?
New Hampshire , USA . “Live Free or Die,” baby. The official state motto emblazoned on every NH license plate has always intrigued me. The thought of someone from NH might bring to mind revolutionaries or America militia sympathizers. Read More »
Sara Hurwitz’s ‘Rabba’ Title Sparks Orthodox Jewish Condemnation
ReligionDispatches : Just six weeks after Sara Hurwitz was granted the title of “rabba” — a feminized version of “rabbi” — that title is in jeopardy as Orthodox Jews condemn what they see as a departure from tradition. Read More »
Johann Hari: Enough. The Palestinians Should Now Declare Independence
Could the Israeli government make it any more obvious they have no intention of sharing the Over-Promised Land with its other inhabitants? This week the Obama administration – who give Israel $3bn a year, more than they dole out to any other nation Read More »
Israel’s Gaza Blockade Criticized By UN Humanitarian Chief
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. humanitarian chief says Israel’s blockade of Gaza is not helping its security or weakening Hamas’ hold on the territory. Read More »
Louis Belanger: Gaza Unplugged – The electricity crisis in Gaza sometimes means life or death
Daily power cuts in Gaza resulting from the Israeli blockade mean that Palestinians must now use cheap generators in their attempt to carry on with daily life. Read More »
David Finkle: The Scottsboro Boys: New Kander-Ebb Musical, Old Kander-Ebb Formula
Time was, audiences went to musicals–more often called musical comedies then–to see famous entertainers sing great songs written by first-rate lyricists and composers. Ticket buyers wanted to indulge in the fun of mild social satire, disregard inane plots and have themselves a gay (in the unaltered sense of the word) time. Read More »
SaraKay Smullens: I Am Jewish and I Am Appalled
This blog will be short and not so sweet. I am Jewish and I am apalled at the disgraceful lack of any semblance of decent manners and political stupidity of Israel Interior Minister Eli Yishai. Read More »
Abraham H. Foxman: After Biden’s Israel Contretemps, Stepping Back
On some level, it couldn’t have been worse. We have a situation where the most trusted member of the U.S. administration, Vice President Joe Biden, is in Israel seeking to win over the hearts and minds of the Israeli public which, according to the polls, is highly suspicious of the Obama government. Read More »
Michal Lewin-Epstein: Could Israel Be the First Fur-Free Nation?
In February 2009, an investigation by Israeli TV Channel 10, in cooperation with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel, revealed that two top retail fashion chains in Israel were selling coats, sweaters, and accessory items Read More »
David Finkle: Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers is Important Stage Documentary
For better or worse — but mostly for better — we’re living in the age of the stage documentary. It’s been pelting us like a hailstorm ever since Anna Deavere Smith introduced Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities , which examined an inflammatory New York City inter-racial incident. Read More »
Eboo Patel: Rev. Otis Moss at Obama’s Faith Council
I’ve been to enough policy briefings in DC to know that moments of inspiration are few and far between. Earlier this week, I was lucky enough to witness an exception. Read More »
Netanyahu Publicly Apologizes To Biden, But Refuses To Scrap Settlement Plan
JERUSALEM — Vice President Joe Biden attempted to soothe tensions with Israel on Thursday in a speech extolling the countries’ close relationship, signaling the U.S. wants to move beyond an embarrassing diplomatic spat over settlements that tarnished his three-day visit. Read More »
Keli Goff: Redefining “Racist” in the Rather Complicated Age of Obama
racism: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race (Source: Merriam-Webster dictionary) If I had a nickel for every time someone has Read More »
John Perkins: Politicians Will Not Change The World
Many of you have asked how I feel about the Obama administration . . . In short: the fact that we moved from a conservative Republican oilman from Texas to a liberal Democratic African American from Illinois, and yet change plods along at a snail’s pace – if at all – is a confirmation of what I discuss in detail in my book Hoodwinked . Read More »
Mark Goulston, M.D.: Just Listen — Ray Tye, Boston Philanthropist, Dies At 87
In my prior blog, I offered a tribute to my long time friend and mentor, Ward Wieman . My sadness and gratitude this week finds yet another person who has passed away. Ray Tye was my father’s boss for over 30 years and had been generous to my family, especially my mother, after my dad died in 1995. Read More »
Rev. James Martin, S.J.: In Defense of Religion
Everybody seems to be spiritual these days – from your college roommate, to the person in the office cubicle next to yours, to the subject of every celebrity interview. But if “spiritual” is fashionable, “religious” is as unfashionable. This is usually expressed as follows: “I’m spiritual but just not religious. Read More »
Paris Fashion Week’s Catwalk Locks: Which Are Hair DOs? (PHOTOS, POLL)
The hair at Paris Fashion Week was as statement-making as the clothes themselves. From fauxhawks at Gaspard Yurkievich to teased cavewomen manes at Chanel, we rounded up images of our favorite catwalk locks. Read More »
Mike Papantonio: GOP Mocks Own Donors in Document
Two weeks ago the folks who run Republican fundraising made a sloppy mistake. They left the blueprint for their party fundraising plans at a posh resort where they had hosted a GOP retreat. That document is now in the hands of the media. RNC Chairman Michael Steele is having to put a good light on that pathetically cynical document. Read More »