Rep Earl Blumenauer from Oregon suddenly finds himself in the media spotlight because of a provision he inserted into the health care legislation that allows Medicare to pay for consultations between doctors and patients about end of life care It does not mandate such consultations nor in any way

I love the theatre and have been attending Broadway plays for decades mdash I rsquo m partial to musicals mdash and can name a string of favorites but last weekend I was nbsp ldquo blown away rdquo as a certain generation might phrase it during a performance of ldquo South Pacific rdquo at t

Political junkies like me have added the forthcoming book The Battle for America 2008 The Story of an Extraordinary Election by Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson to our reading list The extensive excerpt that appeared in the Washington Post yesterday whetted the appetite and I learned two things that

Today July 31 is the feast of St Ignatius Loyola It is also the customary time for Jesuit Provinces to publish ldquo The Status rdquo the annual announcement of changes of assignment for members of the province In days long past Jesuits would gather round the bulletin board after lunch or d

Not perhaps since the infamous 19th century fiction Maria Monk has such a fanatically anti-Catholic tract appeared as the pamphlet that circulated for the last four months among troops of the Israeli Defense Force According to a report in Haaretz the respected Israeli daily July 19 the brochure

What was accomplished by the now notorious meeting for a few beers at the White House at which President Obama and Vice-President Biden welcomed Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr and Cambridge police officer James Crowley Unlike the imbroglio over Rev Jeremiah Wright President Obama did n