Monthly Archives: February 2010

by John Adams You know the 2010 Winter Olympics are almost complete when the average fan can hum four verses of the Olympic theme song and the local ice rinks are packed with curling wannabes. With more than half the … Continue reading →

by Ali H. Mir Do we want to call Joseph Andrew Stack III a terrorist or just a really angry upper-middle-class white tax protester with an airplane? Stack purposely crashed his Piper Cherokee PA-28 into a federal building in Austin, … Continue reading →

In 2009, the Gaza conflict took a terrible toll on the battlefield; now, a year later, casualties have spilled into the newsroom. The sacking of a progressive political leader from her spot as a columnist at one of Israel's prestigious … Continue reading →

by Courtney Bender In the weeks before Christmas the culture-blogs were all atwitter over a Toys'R'Us advertisement for a pink microscope that had less magnification power than the blue or black models featured on the same page. “Girls need less … Continue reading →

by Evan Pondel The mayor of Lancaster, CA says his city is “growing a Christian community,” but after reading myriad wire stories and the handful of local features regarding this topic, I still have no sense of what life (religious … Continue reading →

Reporting in the Science section of the New York Times on Tuesday, John Tierney probes the paper's most popular pieces. They're not breezy bits about sex, pets, diets or relationships. Rather, they're long, “intellectually challenging” articles that elicit an emotional … Continue reading →

by Judith Weisenfeld On February 3, 2010, the Yavapai County, Arizona Sheriff's Department arrested self-help counselor James Arthur Ray, charging him with three counts of manslaughter for the deaths that took place in the course of his October 2009 “Spiritual … Continue reading →

by Meghan McCarty There may be no atheists in foxholes, but apparently there are a few Wiccans. Stories broke this week concerning a Wiccan stone-circle established at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs–that bastion of evangelical Christianity. But what … Continue reading →

by Tom Pfingsten Only Pat Robertson could offhandedly twist a natural disaster to make it sound like a divine slap in the face to some of the world's poorest people. Whether he intended to or not, Robertson instantly became a … Continue reading →

by Rebecca Wanzo As movies like “Legion” and TV shows such as Supernatural make clear, angels are once again pop culture commodities, though the kinder, gentler sort (think Roma Downey or Michael Landon) are definitely passe. Our era's closest facsimile … Continue reading →