The Washington Post has a front page story this morning that details the intense lobbying effort that persuaded Sen John McCain to support a land swap in Arizona that benefited one of his principal fundraisers at the expense of the government A gaggle of former McCain employees worked on the deal

Have you heard about vicarious religion The phrase made me laugh out loud when I spotted it in Peter Steinfels terrific review of A Secular Age by Charles Taylor subscriber only Apparently this is a description of the penumbra of belief remaining in those for whom religion is but a

The members of Order of Malta or at least its American branches concluded their annual one-week pilgrimage to Lourdes yesterday and your intrepid Jesuit reporter was among them As in the past few years I was as a guest of and chaplain for the Federal Association of the Order which makes

The State of Israel celebrates its 60th birthday today All Americans should take a moment today and think about this anniversary and why we too should join the celebration Palestine was stuck in the Middle Ages in 1948 The Ottoman Empire had ruled the area for centuries until its collapse in Wor

Sen Hillary Clinton s campaign for the presidency had received reprieve after reprieve in New Hampshire Ohio and Pennsylvania Unable to surmount Sen Barack Obama s lead in the delegate count she needed to at least keep the narrative going he can t close the deal she keeps winning races

Cambridge MA Several months ago I mentioned that I was teaching a seminar on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali This fundamental yoga text from nearly 2000 years ago is brief -- 195 very succinct verses -- but it is the reference point for all the later yoga systems I promised to report on the res