While most geopolitical fears are focused on the Middle East, it would be wise to also keep an eye on the Far East. There are no less than five major territorial disputes agitating the area, two of which have heated up in recent weeks, and all of ...
The two major national party conventions trotted out this year's brightest and best as if they were displaying prize pigs at a county fair. Highlights included Clint Eastwood haranguing an empty chair and Obama getting a character reference from the ...
The Grim Reaper thinned the herd of baby-boomer entertainment icons this summer. Ernest Borgnine, Andy Griffith, Phyllis Diller, William Windom, and"ahem"Scott McKenzie made up a huge chunk of 1960s entertainment. The first four were mainly ...
While the world had its eyes trained on London's Olympics, a great many were staring at the planet Mars. On August 5, workers at the JPL's Mars Science Laboratory breathed a sigh of relief. Despite the “Seven Minutes of Terror," during ...
Last year I wrote about the anti-circumcision campaign here in California, and now another chapter in the Foreskin Chronicles has opened up in Germany. Whereas the California campaign fizzled, the District Court in Cologne on June 26 banned the ...
The religious world is buzzing this week with the unusual results of the Episcopal Church's latest General Convention. That venerable institution has voted, among other things, to sanctify same-sex marriages, forbid discrimination in parish ...
Tom Cruise received a most unpleasant 50th-birthday present: His wife of five years Katie Holmes has filed for divorce. Cruise was apparently blindsided by the news. The tabloids declare that Katie felt her hubby was too controlling and she feared ...
A specter is haunting Europe"and pace Marx, it is the specter of monarchy. Whenever a ceremony of any sort is performed for or by a deposed ruling family's members"as has happened in the past few years in France, Germany, and ...
Ray Bradbury is dead. For the past twenty years I have dreaded writing those words. The effusive homages to a man who was arguably America's greatest living writer are in full flood; this is one of the few times they are deserved. Although ...
If all goes as planned, May 19 will see the SpaceX ship blast off to resupply the International Space Station, marking NASA's official opening of space to private enterprise. In SpaceX's wake, several private corporations are entering this ...
During Benedict XVI's recent trip to Cuba, the brothers Castro tumbled out to meet the pontiff. But there was another noted visitor to Cuba at the same time"one there for cancer treatment who may or may not have met with Benedict"Venezuelan ...
March 28 saw a springtime ritual that rivals or even surpasses Easter in many Americans" hearts: The baseball season opened. Despite the many differences"real and imaginary"between LA and the rest of the country, in this area we are as ...
