Birth control as election issue? Why?
Who says you can’t turn the clock back?
Decades ago, near the end of the Age of Aquarius, a Republican congressman from Texas argued passionately that the federal government should pay for birth control for poor women.
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Lent in a time of a Catholic culture war
It seems like Ash Wednesday came early this year; I feel like I have been swallowing ash for weeks, anyway.
The ferocious controversy engendered by the Health and Human Service department’s new contraception mandate has launched a thousand vitriolic press releases and ignited uncountable Internet flame wars and blog skirmishes. Leaving aside the moral, practical and political variables that are supercharging the “debate,” the deportment of many of the good Christians “dialoguing” about the matter should be a source of distress in its own right.
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Why we are all Catholics now
I am a proud member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but today, I call myself a Catholic. Why? Because the state is telling the Catholic Church to violate its principles and teachings. So if you are a person of faith, you must call yourself a Catholic.
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What are you giving up for Lent?
Christians mark Ash Wednesday February 22, a holy day that launches the liturgical season of Lent, the 40 days of prayer and repentance before Easter Sunday.
Traditionally during Lent, Christians fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstain from eating meat on Fridays, out of reverence for Jesus’ death on Good Friday.
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Franklin Graham questions Obama’s Christian beliefs, calls Santorum ‘a man of faith’
Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday raised questions about the sincerity of President Obama’s Christian faith.
When asked by “Morning Joe” panelists why he was willing to say that former House speaker Newt Gingrich was a Christian but expressed doubt that President Obama is, Graham said:
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Harvard Asian-American discrimination probe ends
Federal civil rights investigators have closed an investigation into whether Harvard and Princeton universities discriminate against Asian Americans in admissions, because the complaint has been withdrawn, a Harvard spokesman says.
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Liberal learning: Only for the elite?
President Obama’s American Graduation Initiative has thrown our nation into a global contest for primacy in college attainment. It also, arguably, threatens to seed a sort of class system in American higher education. Other nations already unabashedly steer students into distinct tracks: baccalaureate degrees for the privileged, and career training for the not-so-privileged. Indeed, America’s community college model now takes flak for offering both traditional collegiate fare and job training.
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College admissions: How diversity factors in
The Supreme Court just agreed to effectively consider whether affirmative action should be eliminated in college admissions via a case in which a white student claimed that she was denied admissions to the University of Texas because of race.
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Climate scientist admits duping skeptic group to obtain documents
Legislation to fight global warming has disappeared from Washington’s policy agenda, but the battle over climate science continues to escalate.
The latest skirmish culminated in the admission Monday night by Peter Gleick, a climate scientist and author, that he assumed a fake identity to obtain documents that would expose the inner workings of a climate skeptic group.
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For now, bird flu papers won’t be published
GENEVA — Two studies showing how scientists mutated the H5N1 bird flu virus into a form that could cause a deadly human pandemic will be published only after experts fully assess the risks, the World Health Organization said Friday.
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Nuclear power entrepreneurs push thorium as a fuel
One year ago, a massive earthquake spawned a tsunami that nearly destroyed Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, further frightening people who had been wary of nuclear power since accidents at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986.
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Teacher: ‘Tis a shame (that education has become so political)
This was written by Steve Strieker, a veteran social studies teacher in Janesville, Wisconsin. Here he writes about what many Wisconsin teachers see as an assault on their profession by the governor, Scott Walker, who last year tried to severely limit their collective bargaining rights and is now facing a recall campaign. A version of this post appeared on his blog “One Teacher’s Perspective.”
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Santorum’s children went to a cyber charter school
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has said some pretty provocative things about public education on the campaign trail recently, declaring that it is not the job of government to educate children but rather the responsibility of parents.
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Google, Safari and our final privacy wake-up call
Correction: An earlier version of this post reported that Google exposed “personal information to advertisers.” According to Google spokeswoman Rachel Whetstone, the application did not expose or collect personal information. This version has been revised.
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Win the Web to win the White House?
Winning the White House — not to mention any other political office — increasingly means winning the Internet.
That was the message during a Social Media Week gathering at The Post on Friday. The panel discussion, “Election 2012 and the fight for the Internet,” featured Post reporters Felicia Sonmez and Karen Tumulty alongside Democratic political strategist Joe Trippi and SocialFlow vice president of research and development Gilad Lotan.
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America, keep rewarding your dissidents
Ever since I became an academic six years ago, I have been one of the biggest critics of U.S. competitiveness policies. I documented, for example, that we had our data wrong when it came to India and China’s advantages in engineering education and R&D, that we didn’t understand how to build innovation centers, and that our assumptions about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship were wrong. I have been particularly vocal about America’s flawed immigration policies. I quantified the amazing contribution that skilled immigrants make in the technology industry and raised the alarm about the reverse brain drain that is in progress. I testified, assertively, to Congress, and have been badgering our political leaders to act on these important issues.
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A new model for career counseling
The year was 1985, and I was excited to start work as a career counselor. My father felt that what most helped him heal his Holocaust scars was his work. So, I was eager to help other people find well-suited work.
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How Jeremy Lin’s star power could go unnoticed for so long
When Jeremy Lin hit the three-pointer with half a second left on the clock to beat the Toronto Raptors Tuesday night, you could almost hear the collective sound of NBA coaches and general managers smacking their foreheads once again.
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A love note to the workaholic
As a vulnerability researcher, I’ve noticed a pattern in my conversations and interviews with leaders and entrepreneurs. Within a very short period of time, our discussions become deeply personal and there’s an evolution that moves from This is how I lead to This is who I am to These are the people I love.
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The Rolodex that redefined power
You’ve probably never heard of Pattie Sellers. But Warren Buffett has. And so have Sheryl Sandberg, Oprah Winfrey and Indra Nooyi.
It’s an enviable list, really.
They’re among the many who’ve joined Sellers at the Most Powerful Women summit. This year, from a slightly raised stage, she looks out once more across table upon table of some of the world’s most prominent female executives, artists and philanthropists. It’s the opening dinner of Fortune magazine’s annual summit on a surprisingly chilly October evening on the Southern California coastline. The 400-plus guests sit under a big, white tent on a cliff perched over the gray, choppy Pacific. Inside, the Ritz-Carlton has pulled off something that looks a lot like prom: purple sequined tablecloths and settings of pink roses illuminated by purple and pink floodlights.
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Google’s Eric Schmidt expounds on his Senate testimony
A week after Google Chairman Eric Schmidt testified before the Senate Judiciary antitrust committee, he was back in California at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View. There on September 29, Schmidt — who until this April had served as the company’s longtime CEO — sat down with Washington Post On Leadership editor Lillian Cunningham and reflected on his first time testifying before Congress, what Washington understands and doesn’t understand about regulating technology, and where the connections and disconnects are between the Hill and the Valley.
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Cyber Monday sales change game for UPS drivers
Quick, hide this from the children if they’re under the age of 7.
It is Cyber Friday and — ho-ho-ho — Santa is making his rounds.
You may know all about Cyber Monday, which comes right after Thanksgiving weekend, when online hawkers try to sell a lot of stuff by offering free shipping. Cyber Friday comes four days later. That’s when a billion and one packages begin getting delivered.
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National Guard deployment on U.S.-Mexico border has unclear results
HIDALGO, TEX. — President Obama’s decision last year to send 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border may have been smart politics, but a growing number of skeptics say the deployment is an expensive and inefficient mission that has made little difference in homeland security.
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Assessing the art of the Occupy movement
The Occupy movement is largely an impromptu one, and its camps in McPherson Square and nationwide are dotted with handmade signs, bearing information both political and practical. But this is the age of computer design, when slick images are easily produced and generally accepted. As the online gallery at occuprint.org reveals, the Occupy movement has more than a few skilled graphic designers in its informal ranks.
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John Wall back to basketball after learning more about business
In the 18 months since the Washington Wizards drafted him No. 1 overall, John Wall has received an education in the business of basketball that surpasses anything he learned in the online courses he is taking this fall toward his business management degree at Kentucky.
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At the bottom of the world, a controversial search for cosmic leftovers
The geologist who conceived it called it the poor man’s space program. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) fumed that it was a waste of taxpayer dollars. Meteorite hunter Ralph Harvey simply calls it work.
For the 35th year, the United States is mounting its annual campaign to gather space rocks from the wind-hammered icefields of Antarctica.
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