Opinion
Eying the Ensign Mystery
By Mark Silk — June 18, 2009
Eighty-three years ago, Aimee Semple McPherson, the founder of the Church of the Foursquare Gospel, went for a dip in the ocean in L.A., only to emerge a month later in the Mexican desert, looking the worse for wear, with a story about having been abducted. No corroboration of the story ever emerged. It was […]
COMMENTARY: Pro-life also means being pro-girl
By Phyllis Zagano — June 17, 2009
(UNDATED) So comedian David Letterman, 62, jokes that Gov. Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter got “knocked up” by 33-year-old Alex Rodriguez during the seventh inning of a Yankees game. At the time, he didn’t specify which daughter, but the only one at the game is just 14. Not to be outdone, Calvin Klein unveiled a soft-porn […]
No More Culture War
By Mark Silk — June 17, 2009
Explaining White House opposition to a Truth Commission in her article on Leon Panetta in the current New Yorker, Jane Mayer states: Obama’s political advisers dread any issue that could trigger a culture war and diminish his support among independent voters. This strikes me as the critical lens for viewing the administration’s approach to abortion, […]
Cloud of Unknowing
By Mark Silk — June 17, 2009
How about a moratorium on punditry about U.S. Iran policy until the situation clarifies?
COMMENTARY: Character vs. credentials
By Tom Ehrich — June 16, 2009
(UNDATED) Now, on the eve of 12th grade, comes my son’s “year of the alphabet.” First the SATs, then the ACT, and then paperwork focused on IU, UNC, UC, OC, BC and other schools designated as R, T or L (reach, target or likely), all followed by a decision whether to go EA (early action). […]
SBC and GOP
By Mark Silk — June 16, 2009
Once upon a time, the Episcopal Church was known as the Republican Party at prayer. Oh, OK, it was originally the Anglican Church and it was the Tory Party at prayer. But pretty much same diff. The point is that of late the Republican Party at prayer has been the Southern Baptist Convention, and like […]
SSM comes to Washington
By Mark Silk — June 15, 2009
Massachusetts. Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire…and (in a few weeks) D.C. Black clergy notwithstanding. Bets on whether the president or his Attorney General (or his Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships) will make a statement?
Obama scrambles Iran
By Mark Silk — June 15, 2009
Now Ayatollah Khamenei says he’s ordering an investigation in election fraud. I’d say, contrary to Rubin, that the “Obama effect” has been to excite hopes for a new day in Iran; stimulate a wave of anti-regime street demonstrations; reveal the iron fist of the Iranian regime for all to see; split the ayatollahs; and force […]
Your Conservative Pundit Watch
By Mark Silk — June 12, 2009
What they will say: If Ahmadinejad wins, it will prove the failure of Obama’s outreach strategy and the irredeemability of Iran. If he loses, it will prove nothing, because in Iran presidents don’t matter, and anyway the guy who was elected isn’t real reformer. Still, it’s better if Ahmadinejad wins. Updatum: Ah, this just in […]
The World According to Grover
By Mark Silk — June 12, 2009
Dan Gilgoff’s Q&A with Grover Norquist is worth reading all the way through, but I’d call particular attention to his somewhat tendentious reading of religious right history–and its implications for the present. Norquist alleges: The religious right did not get started in 1962 with prayer in school. And it didn’t get started in ’73 with […]
Take it Away, Haskell County
By Mark Silk — June 12, 2009
Thank God for the Haskell County (Ok.) commissioners. Five years ago, at the time of the erection of a Ten Commandments monument in front of the county courthouse, one of them declared, That’s what we’re trying to live by, that right there….The good Lord died for me. I can stand for him, and I’m going […]
COMMENTARY: And the children shall lead them
By Tracy Gordon — June 11, 2009
(UNDATED) In these turbulent, uncertain times we could all use a dose of good old-fashioned optimism, confidence and belief in a better world. Mine came by way of agreeing to evaluate the senior projects of our local public school. At Orcas Island High School, each senior works on a paper and related hands-on project throughout […]
Roeder, von Brunn, Morgan…ODS
By Mark Silk — June 11, 2009
Scott Roeder (the alleged assassin of George Tiller) and James von Brunner (the apparent murderer of a Holocaust Museum security guard yesterday) are similar characters–older white men who have long nutured antipathy to the federal government, fixated on people who threaten their visions of social purity, be they abortion providers or Jews or blacks. Stephen […]
COMMENTARY: Living waters
By Cathleen Falsani — June 11, 2009
CHICAGO — One of the everyday things Vasco has enjoyed most since arriving in Chicago from Malawi five weeks ago is being able to go into the kitchen and pour a cool glass of crystal clear water. As much as he wants. Whenever he wants. That’s a new experience for this 10-year-old orphan who, when […]
