At a press conference Wednesday, Tucson Superintendent John Huppenthal declared the district's Ethnic Studies/MAS Program to be out of compliance with the state's controversial ban.
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As a young, Japanese-American child, I was held in an internment camp out of prejudice and war hysteria. America can't make the same mistake again.
In anticipation of the 2012 elections, Southern legislators are reducing early voting opportunities and imposing unprecedented identification card rules. This could have a disparate impact on young voters, voters of color, voters for whom English is a second language and voters who work shifts.
The internationally renowned activist talks to Katha Pollitt about women and driving in Saudi Arabia, a feminist Islam, and the chances for a “Saudi Spring.”
As contradictory as the gospel truths of California's digerati are the dogmas of West Coast evangelicalism, a melding of Jefferson and Jesus.
Republican superstars gathered in Washington this weekend, invited by the formerly disgraced Ralph Reed.
Newt finds a new worry: that atheist Islamists might seize control right here at home.
Activists challenging Walker administration assaults on public education and on college students from immigrant families disrupt Wisconsin legislative hearing with a reading from the Declaration of Independence.
Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole's Sacred Trash offers a precious meditation on how the discovery of hidden hoards of history can transform our worlds.
Herman Cain’s candidacy is a cautionary tale against the simplistic racial reasoning that has dominated American political discourse.
The article presents five political cartoons reflecting on news stories of 2005. Topics covered include former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, intelligent design, gay priests in the Catholic Church, and U.S. President George W. Bush's declaration of victory in Iraq.
Presents the author's views on how world leaders, political issues and news events of the day are often compared the leaders, issues, and events of the past. Review of comments made by Senator Dick Durbin comparing the Guantánamo Bay prison facilities to Nazi detention camps and Stalinist gulags; Analysis of the criticisms made regarding the American facilities in Guantánamo Bay made by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights; Discussion of the case of former Ku Klux Klan member Edgar Ray Killen links current and past issues in American politics and society; View that Americans and American politicians need to better understand their own fear and the ethical dilemma's inherent in the global war on terrorism.
Comments on the media coverage of Michael Jackson's child molestation trial as of May 9, 2005. View that Jackson's trial has not been subject to the same kind of media attention as other celebrity trials; Argument that perceived oddity in Jackson's behavior and the graphic nature of his alleged crimes makes the case unappealing to reporters and to the general public; Comparison of Jackson's trial with the investigation of child molestation by priests in the Catholic Church; Opinion that Jackson is emotionally immature and in need of psychological treatment; Comments on the racial, sexual, and cultural significance of Michael Jackson's public persona.
Offers a look at the papacy of Pope John Paul II. Role of John Paul in condemning exploitation, violence, globalization, war and the death penalty; Criticism of John Paul's views on women and gays; Way in which John Paul dealt with the liberation theology movement in Latin America; Role of the Catholic Church in the development of the American welfare state; Discussion of the opposition of the U.S. Catholic Church to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
Discusses the sentencing of Paul Shanley, a priest convicted of child sexual abuse in Massachusetts. Details of Shanely's conviction for sexually abusing Paul Busa twenty years ago; Potential risks to Shanley's safety in prison; Accusations the Shanley was a founding member of the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), a controversial organization of pedophiles; Details of a review of the Catholic Church's investigation into Shanley's conduct; View that Shanely's conviction is based on sufficient evidence.
Discusses the newly elected Socialist government of Spain, which has been enacting an ambitious social reform agenda that will give new rights to women, homosexuals and immigrants, and limit the role of the Catholic church in public life. Observation that such reforms, along with the government's foreign policy alliances with Germany and France, will put the new Spain to the left of the U.S.; How Spain's Socialist-led government is upsetting centuries of control by the Catholic Church that were upheld through its alliance with General Francisco Franco; Passage of laws by Parliament to combat violence against women; Overview of gay-marriage and immigration laws.
This section presents a fictitious conversation between God, Pope John Paul II, the pope's secretary, a fictitious lawyer named Finkelstein, and comedian Lenny Bruce, who was recently posthumously pardoned by New York Gov. George E. Pataki, 39 years after being convicted of obscenity for using obscenities in a Greenwich Village nightclub act. Lenny Bruce: Man, you know the pardon that took the longest? That was the Catholic Church springing the Jews for killing Christ. Yeah, the Pope finally admitted it was a bad rap and apologized. The Inquisition? Big mistake. "Sorry, guys, but conditions were different in the 1400s. The Jews didn't have a lot of smart lawyers to get them off like today." Finkelstein: I am handling the case of Original Tribes of Israel, LP, v. Church of Simon Called Peter, Inc. My clients believe they have been deeply hurt, injured, libeled and otherwise persecuted as a result of anti-Semitic doctrines propagated with malice and reckless disregard of the truth by defendants and specifically that said defendants accused plaintiffs of crucifying the said Messiah a k a Jesus Christ a k a Our Lord and Savior, on or about Easter Sunday 1 Anno Domini... Pope: Ooh, that's pretty rich. Can't we settle out of court? How about if I pardon you all. I'll even go to Israel and do it personally. I'll say, Boy, when we make a mistake it's a doozy.
Reviews two books. "Catholicism and American Freedom: A History," by John T. McGreevy; "The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice," by Philip Jenkins.
The death penalty is being vigorously touted as the best way to deal with child molesters. And as the world knows, the Roman Catholic Church has sheltered many a child molester. Montana and Louisiana have already put death for molesters into their statute books, and when Alabama lawmakers convene again next year they will press forward into legislation, after an overwhelming vote from the state's House of Representatives last year in favor of molester executions. The Montana law allows a person previously convicted of "sexual intercourse without consent" with someone under 16 in any state to be sentenced to death if convicted of the crime in Montana. Since 1995 Louisiana has had a law allowing the death penalty for people convicted of raping a child under 12. Alabama's bill would authorize the death penalty for people convicted a second time of having sex with someone under 12.
The article focuses on multiculturalism in the U.S. with reference to several books. In the book, "God Changes Everything," Katha Pollitt mentioned the degeneration of the Roman Catholic Church. She also instanced the way in which Judaism has become prostituted to uses of messianic colonialism in Palestine. H.R. Haldeman's diaries of the Watergate years, published in 1994, gave an account of a conversation between Richard Nixon and Billy Graham that included some heated talk about Satanic Jews. "The Ornament of the World," by Maria Rosa Menocal, has been published at the perfect moment. It is a history of medieval Andalusia, a culture where there was extensive cooperation and even symbiosis among Muslims, Jews and Christians.
