Entries for July 2006

Here is one pro-Palestinian take on Israel's actions: "The status of this conflict today positions one country, Israel, with overwhelming military, political, and financial power, as well as backing from the world's most powerful country (the U.S.) and community (EU), against a people without an army, living under siege, with employees not paid for months and an economy in tatters. With such overwhelming power Israel has no incentive to negotiate. It is very happy to dictate and the world community, by and large, goes along with that." That view is being echoed throughout the Arab world and is fueling recruitment drives by Hezbollah, al Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations.

Israel has long been regarded as possessing among the most competent, skilled, and capable military and intelligence forces in the world, despite its tiny population and minuscule territory. But given a week in which Israel has sustained large numbers of casualties in its campaign against Hezbollah (nine soldiers were killed and 27 wounded in intense battles with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon on Tuesday) and a public relations debacle (its accidental strike on U.N. peacekeepers), the question must be posed: Are we entering an era of Israeli military fallibility?

It's a coin toss whether the bloom is off the rose for Democrats in November. Are Democrats going to make major the electoral gains (and perhaps regain control of one chamber of Congress) they seemed destined to make several months back? Or are Republicans regaining the ground lost by President Bush when his approval ratings hovered close to that of President Nixon just before the latter resigned?

We've all heard of church versus state, but the latest twist is church versus college. The New York Times reports that more and more Baptist colleges are disentangling themselves from their state Baptist conventions in reaction to pressure from religious leaders and church-appointed board members to cloud educational freedom. Even such prominent Southern Baptist universities as Wake Forest and Furman have severed the umbilical cord to the church, often sacrificing financial support and institutional history on the altar of educational liberty. The paper reports:

This week's debate over federal funding for stem cell research leads to one clear conclusion: the so-called pro-life movement is inaptly named. I'm calling to rename it, rather than let it "live on" hypocritically. Here are some suggestions: How about the "pro-zygote" movement or the "pro-embryonic life" movement? Don't like those? What about, "pro-pre-life but anti-adult-life" or "pro-pre-life but anti-already-born-life" movement?

The long-standing feud between President Bush and the nation's pre-eminent African-American organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is about to end with the president addressing the group's 97th annual convention this week.

Once again, politics trumps progress. The Senate is considering three bioethics bills on stem cell research. Some combination of them is expected to pass; a bill on stem cell research has already passed the more conservative House. But no matter. An insurmountable presidential veto (the first of the President Bush presidency) is expected to follow.