Opinion
Obama honoris causa
By Mark Silk — March 24, 2009
I’ve always thought it was dopey for Catholic institutions of higher learning to bar on-campus appearances by prominent people who are pro-choice–sort of the spiritual equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting la-la-la-la. But it’s not clear to me that giving President Obama an honorary degree, as Notre Dame proposes to do, […]
Science and Plan B
By Mark Silk — March 24, 2009
In his order reversing the Bush administration’s restrictions on federal funding of stem cell research earlier this month, President Obama received some undeserved criticism for minimizing the role of moral values in shaping science policy. Yes he did, in his signing statement, insist that promoting science “is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted […]
Did he or didn’t he?
By Mark Silk — March 23, 2009
When the pope, ah, misspeaks, the Vatican press office will adjust his remarks to express what it was that he really “said”–a move facilitated by the fact that it’s often possible to claim that the translation from whatever language he happens to be speaking at the time was not quite right. Such an adjustment was […]
Volunteers
By Mark Silk — March 22, 2009
In an interesting and possibly consequential move, the Obama administration is working to get its campaign volunteers to re-up for the coming struggle over the president’s budget as well as to work, as today’s WaPo story puts it, “for legislative reform on health care, climate change, education and taxes.” But what about the less politicized […]
Huh?
By Mark Silk — March 21, 2009
Newt, partying like it’s 1980: “I am very sobered that my grandchildren might live in a secular society that might drive God out of public schools in such a way that they are now antireligious centers of propaganda.”
From our friends at Zenit
By Mark Silk — March 20, 2009
The customary way to read the headline, “Cardinal George Meets With President, Gives Message on Conscience,” would be that the cardinal gave the president his message (on the conscience clause) at their meeting. But the conservative news service knows no such thing. The meeting and the message were two separate events.
COMMENTARY: The source and cure for what ailes us
By Tracy Gordon — March 19, 2009
(UNDATED) For more than a decade I hosted a nationally syndicated talk show. I read five newspapers a day, 30 journals a month and a few books a week. All of that helped me learn to spot certain trends, and all of them, I think, contribute to our nation’s current crisis. I’ll mention just three. […]
Hamiltoniana
By Mark Silk — March 19, 2009
Let’s put the grumbling about President Obama’s corralling of clergy to give vetted invocations at his Beyond-the-Beltway town meetings together with the grumbling over his choice of Federal District Judge David F. Hamilton to ascend to 7th Circuit. The invocations, according to Gilgoff’s sleuthing, have got to be inclusive. And Hamilton’s most controversial decision–at least […]
Bishops win one
By Mark Silk — March 19, 2009
Yesterday, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson signed legislation doing away with the death penalty in that state. The Catholic Church had lobbied strongly for him to do so, as in this March 16 letter from the USCCB citing longstanding papal opposition to the practice. Richardson’s a Catholic, and he called the decision “extremely difficult,” so […]
COMMENTARY: U2’s new fifth member
By Cathleen Falsani — March 18, 2009
(UNDATED) Without a line on the horizon, it may feel like there is no limit to how far we can go. But it also makes the seas difficult to navigate. That is, in many ways, where we find ourselves today. It’s as infinitely terrifying as it is exciting. Where do we go from here, and […]
Condominium
By Mark Silk — March 18, 2009
Many hackles have been raised by Pope Benedict’s statement that AIDS “is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems.” Not, of course, Bill Donohue’s: Anyone who thinks that condom distribution, education and/or research is going to solve a […]
Me qua Waldman
By Mark Silk — March 18, 2009
Beginning tomorrow and through next Tuesday I’ll be impersonating Steve Waldman over at his essential Beliefnet blog. I expect still to be blogging here, cross-linking and -referencing as the spirit moveth. But you’ll never know what you’re missing unless you check out both sites. Ahem.
Here we go again
By Mark Silk — March 18, 2009
David Brody, tipster of the religious right, sent out an alert yesterday that thunderclouds are gathering over President Obama’s first big judicial nomination–federal district judge David F. Hamilton of Indiana to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. The source of the problem is a 2005 ruling (Hinricks v. Bosma) in which Hamilton turned thumbs down […]
