Religion & Individual Rights

When national laws or rulings assert individual rights (access to birth control, abortion, gay rights) that clash with their beliefs, religi...

Justice & Enlightenment

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry throughout the United States.  Decades late in coming, thi...

Fathers & Sons

Today, Americans celebrate Fathers Day, honoring those who have stayed involved in the care and nurturing of their children.  While it is ye...

Popes & Climate Change: Round 2

Pope Francis' proclamation that global warming is real and that humans are primarily responsible is causing indigestion for Catholic Rep...

The Republican Circus

As the number of Republican Presidential Candidates approaches the census of many American towns, it seems appropriate to look at their agen...

Remembrance & Apologies

On this Memorial Day, Americans attend parades, visit cemeteries and enjoy picnics while honoring the men and women who served, or currently...

The Nature of Trust

Trust is the sense that another person or human organization has integrity and will act in our best interest.  It is distinct from love and ...

Reassurance from SeaWorld

Facing a public backlash arising from a trainer's tragic death and accusations stemming from a highly publicized documentary, SeaWorld h...

A Tradition of Exclusion

The 79th Masters Tournament begins today at Augusta National Golf Club, in Georgia.  Many Americans will tune in, attracted by the regular a...

The War on Diplomacy

Now that a framework for the Nuclear Deal with Iran has been released, militarists on all sides have condemned it; in their minds, enemies a...

A Failure to Evolve

We humans have inhabited Earth for at least 130,000 years.  In the course of our history we have spread across the planet, established vibra...

The Sixth Mass Extinction

Those who study the natural history of our planet have identified five mass extinctions since the dawn of the Paleozoic Era (see Earth's...

The Unseen

On a visit to the Great Lakes Science Center, in Cleveland, we watched an Omni-Max production of National Geographic's Mysteries of the ...

The Giuliani Syndrome

Hailed as "America's Mayor" after demonstrating calm and decisive leadership following the tragic events of 9-11, Rudy Giulian...

Closet Agnostics

It seems to me that any intelligent human with even a modest science education would dismiss the simple stories and beliefs of organized rel...

The Healing Power of Nature

In the movie Wild (based on a memoir), a young woman hikes the Pacific Crest Trail in an effort to face her poor life choices, brought on b...

Random Death

The tragic death of CBS correspondent Bob Simon in a car accident last evening reminds us that death is often random and unforeseen.  Over t...

God & Atrocities

At the White House Prayer Breakfast this morning, an affront to the separation of Church and State that has been held annually since 1953, P...

Lessons from Groundhog Day

While I have never been enamored with the spectacle of Groundhog Day, an annual rite giving credence to the forecasting ability of a hiberna...

Our Window of Freedom

It seems to me that a window of freedom is vital in our lives, a period during which we are independent of others and have no one dependent ...