Sen Barack Obama went up on television with his first nationwide ad buy this past weekend His choice of markets for airing the ad was instructive including the usual swing states but also including several states where Democrats have not been competitive in years North Carolina Virginia Georgi

Rocco Palmo at Whispers in the Loggia has a long post on the new translation of the Sacramentary which had been discussed at the latest meeting of the U S Conference of Catholic Bishops which oddly received almost zero coverage in the national media The media was either poped out after Be

Just when it looked like the forced departures of the Reverends Jeremiah Wright and John Hagee from the political stage would usher in a modicum of sane religious discussions in the campaign the Reverend James Dobson took to the airwaves yesterday to re-introduce an unhealthy dose of zealotry to th

This past Thursday a few friends and I went to an adult rock climbing class at the field house at Chelsea Piers Growing up in the Bronx rock climbing is not one of the extracurricular activities with which I was raised So naturally there is something unnatural about allowing myself to be strap

The news from Jerusalem where 280 orthodox Anglican bishops are meeting before the Lambeth Conference is something of a non-story There are no plans after all for a split or schism Given that the Global Anglican Future conference Gafcon started with just such a prospect on the horizon

Thanks to Cathy Kaveny at Dotcommonweal for noticing this The great church historian Henry Chadwick author of the beautifully written study The Early Church has died at age 87 in Oxford England The obituary from The New York Times is here My favorite passage from that fascinating book