Archive for November, 2008
Wayne Holst, a Canadian colleague, has a list serve he sends out weekly with information and reprints, Recently, he included an update on the condition of Chicago’s Father Andrew Greeley, the Catholic priest and novelist, who has been in a coma as a result of a fall on a Chicago street. A second Short Take from […]
Filed under: The Human Condition | Leave a Comment
by James M. Wall The latest James Bond film, The Quantum of Solace, has a vision so different from previous incarnations, that few, if any, film critics noticed the change. Why? Because the critics for mass culture outlets focused on the film’s chases and crashes and chose to ignore the underlying political plot that reveals Bond as […]
Filed under: Middle East Politics, Movies, Politics and Elections | 1 Comment
The Obama family visited a Chicago south side Food Center at the St. Columbanus Catholic Church, where they handed out packets of food. Huffington Post ran the story on Thanksgiving Eve, complete with a slide show and a video. The Obamas wanted to show the children the “true meaning” of Thanksgiving. Tom DeFrank of the New York Daily […]
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by James M. Wall I know, I know, it sounds like a West Wing episode. (It was, once; Speaker John Goodman took over, briefly.) But it could work and it’s constitutional. New York Times columnist Gail Collins says she is serious. She makes the suggestion in her Saturday morning column. Okay, maybe not real serious. But […]
Filed under: Politics and Elections | 1 Comment
by James M. Wall President-elect Barack Obama wants the next eight years to be an era of audacious, not cosmetic changes. Do his early appointments reflect audacity or is he giving away too much to the cosmeticians? And what about Afghanistan? Is war still the answer? Do Obama’s appointments and his Afghanistan policy serve his vision? First […]
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Abbas and Livni at the 2006 World Economic Forum. by James M. Wall According to a report posted on TimesOnLine, President Elect Barack Obama has set in motion a plan that could dramatically affect the Israel-Palestinian peace track. Obama’s election gives […]
Filed under: Politics and Elections | 1 Comment
by James M. Wall The Hippocratic Oath is usually attributed to Hippocrates, a Greek physician born in 460 BC on the island of Cos, Greece, While other oaths of medical ethics for physicians have evolved, the Hippocratic Oath remains the standard […]
Filed under: Politics and Elections | 7 Comments
by James M. Wall Barack Obama’s election night victory speech included a stirring echo of Martin Luther King Jr.’s final sermon, delivered in Memphis, Tennessee, the night before he died. King spoke on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters). This was King’s conclusion: Like anybody, I would like to live a […]
Filed under: Politics and Elections, Religious Faith | 3 Comments
by James M. Wall Attracted by a Google listing the morning after the election, visitors to this blog linked to a piece I posted two weeks before the election: A Response to an Obama Victory: What an Amazing Country. Following Barack Obama’s election as our 44h president, a section of that posting bears repeating: What […]
Filed under: Politics and Elections | 2 Comments
Bruce Meets Sasha at Columbus Ohio Rally AP Photo from Huffington Post By James M. Wall (Special note: this posting was inspired by questions from readers outside the US, and by younger members of my family who are ready to get serious about the process of electing a US president.) Commentators […]
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