Many Americans can relate to President Barack Obama’s oft-cited “evolution” on the topic of same-sex marriage. Those over a certain age can remember when the idea of gay marriage seemed so strange as to be nearly incomprehensible.
When President Barack Obama voiced his support last week for the right of same-sex couples to marry, it had a very different feel than most presidential announcements — particularly one of such historic significance.
That Vladimir Putin is president of Russia again proves one thing: that the nation hasn't come all that far from its Soviet Union days after all.
Whether it’s because one hand is holding a cellphone or simply because our sense of common courtesy is on the blink, few of us are using our turn signals. And it’s causing twice as many accidents than distracted driving.
It’s a shame that an issue as sensitive as domestic violence has Democrats and Republicans playing election-year politics. Up until now, reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has always passed with strong bipartisan support. But this year it has become enmeshed in partisan bickering that rages on in Congress.
It's election season and so anything goes, but it would be appropriate if the standard-bearers for both major political parties put Osama bin Laden to rest, once and for all.
Five states, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and Rhode Island, will hold Republican presidential primaries today, and although there are four names on the ballot, it isn’t much of a contest. We hope people participate, because today’s primary still represents an opportunity for Republicans.
Human beings are chemical and sometimes impulsive creatures, so their behavior can defy rational explanation. Yet three recent examples of such behavior regarding employees of the federal government have even those of us with the lowest of expectations scratching our heads and asking, "What were they thinking?"
Carved by the glaciers of the last Ice Age and filled by their meltwater, the Great Lakes are one of North America’s mightiest natural features, accounting for about a fifth of the world’s fresh water. These vast bodies of water cover 94,000 square miles with a volume of 6 quadrillion (that’s 6,000,000,000,000,000) gallons, yet many people want to tinker with this massive natural resource because the lakes are a few feet — in some cases a few inches — higher or lower than suits their convenience.
The Prisoners of War/Missing in Action flag is a familiar sight to many Americans, but its significance is increasingly lost as the years pass by. But as the years go by since POW/MIA advocates successfully fought to bring the black flags into prominence, some Americans have forgotten their significance over the years.
The Supreme Court this week will consider the constitutionality of the individual mandate. But another part of the federal health reform law is the focus of intense opposition from Republicans and the health care industry: The Independent Payment Advisory Board.
Arguments began yesterday and will continue today and tomorrow regarding the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, aka "Obamacare." The implications are enormous, and in an election year at that.
As we welcome the month of March, I want to raise awareness in that March is National Kidney Month. If you have diabetes, high blood pressure or a family history of kidney problems, you could be at risk for kidney disease.
Of course, world leaders should try to let diplomacy work before its failure forces them into conflict.
It may not rise to the level of the Cuban Missile Crisis, but the current tension over Iran’s nuclear arms ambitions has taken a decidedly serious turn this week.
There’s bad news when it comes to gasoline prices, and there’s even worse news. The bad news is that the pain at the pump is probably going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Gas prices have risen nearly 40 cents in less than two weeks in some places, and the national average of $3.72 is the highest ever recorded at the end of February. Four-dollar gas is almost a certainty this year (it’s already here in some states), and many forecasters say $5 or higher is not out of the question.
The United States is trying to leave Afghanistan with as little additional loss in blood and treasure as possible after spending the last decade there. For that we need the cooperation of Afghanistan's government, its security forces, and the civilian population. That is not an opinion, but a statement of fact. You could say that the recent burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base there, even if unintentional, has done nothing to further that cause.
There is nothing more dangerous than a cornered and wounded animal, or so it is said. The world may be seeing that in the animals who run Syria and Iran. Last week, Tehran responded to ever-tightening economic sanctions from the West and to reports implicating that nation in recent terrorist attacks in Thailand, India and Georgia with a threat to cut off its sale of oil to six European nations, while boasting of its latest nuclear advance.
From a public health and personal freedom perspective, those who wish to engage in family planning should be able to do so, with the intricacies that go into that decision a fundamentally private matter. From a religious liberty view, churches and their affiliates should not be required by government to do things that violate their consciences.
A satirical campaign commercial focused on a minority character speaking broken English? Now that’s a scenario fraught with pitfalls. It would take an extremely deft touch to produce such an ad without unnecessarily offending people or muddying the ad’s message, and former Congressman Pete Hoekstra’s Super Bowl spot was far from artful.
