Why is it that Charlie Sheen has not been suspended from his job on a CBS sitcom? And why hasn’t he been required both to get help and to face whatever unconscionably-delayed judicial charges may be pending from his December 25 altercation with his wife? Hanes, the undewear people, have already dropped Sheen for fear that his inveterate abuse of women is bad for their company’s image. I realize that Sheen stars in “Two and a Half Men,” which is a top-rated show on CBS. It’s...

I keep thinking about downloading Bob Dylan’s 1974 LP, Planet Waves from iTunes. With all the snow we’ve had lately, I’ve had the song, ‘On a Night Like This,’ from that collection, echoing in my brain. I remember buying and listening repeatedly to the vinyl release when it came out back then, about the same time I fell in love with my wife, snow and ice all around. Sigh. Our first date was on January 11, 1974. It was cold and icy. I wore plaid bell bottoms and black...

Blogger Ann Althouse says that Brit Hume “evangelized” golfer Tiger Woods in this clip from Fox News. Many of Althouse’s commenters seemed to agree and they didn’t like it. I have a slightly different take on the matter from that of Althouse or some of her readers. The term “evangelize” is rooted in the New Testament word euangelion, meaning good news. (The New Testament was written in Greek.) For Christians, the good news (or Godspell, Gospel, in Old English)...

Put aside any questions you may have as to whether global warming exists, is a problem, or is created by human beings. Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere isn’t a good thing for the planet, whatever your views of global warming. Nathan Myrhvold is accustomed to thinking differently about problems. The former chief strategist and technology officer at Microsoft has several plans for dealing with global warming. One scheme, which seems plausible as he explains it, would call for sucking...

Ireland’s Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, in an interview in which he urges his brother to come forward to face charges of sexually abusing his own daughter, reveals a history of sexual and other abuse in his extended family. If you watch the video which accompanies the linked article, you see the heavy-heartedness in Adams. But you can also sense that he truly feels that dealing with this horror is the right thing for his entire family. Dealing with the ravages and the multiple impacts of evil...

Senator Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, asserted himself as a major voice in the debate over health care reform almost immediately after last November’s election. He has argued for cost containment and frugality throughout the intervening months and used his powerful position to make his arguments stick. Now, we learn that the Senator isn’t nearly so frugal as he would have us believe. More details are emerging about his relationship with Melodee Hanes, one-time contender...

Was Great Britain a democracy during the War of 1812? Given that in 1812, neither US Senators or the President were elected by direct vote of the electorate, can it be argued that the United States was a democracy back then? And, given that the electorate was composed only of white males, the notion that the US was a democracy in 1812, isn’t tenable, except in relative terms. Not to put too fine a point on things, but since a democratic system involves actual direct vote by the citizens, their...

That’s what Kevin Kuwik’s story caused me to ask myself this morning. He was in Washington today lobbying for greater air travel safety, a positive response to an air crash that took the life of his fiance. And that’s just one of several adverse experiences he’s dealt with positively. Read his whole story.

Earlier today, TMV co-blogger Tony Campbell took on President Obama for his reference to “just war theory” in his Nobel speech in Oslo. “Just war theory” is generally associated with Christian theology, specifically to Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Here is a blog post by Ron Ballew from 2006, which delineates what, under the theory, constitutes a just war. Does Mr. Obama’s new strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan conform with these criteria?

My TMV colleague, Tony Campbell, wrote earlier today about President Obama’s reference to “just war” theory in his Nobel acceptance speech. Here is an interesting commentary on the speech from New Testament scholar, poet, and film and cultural critic, Ben Witherington.

While President Obama’s Nobel acceptance speech placated some of his US critics today, his recent decision to surge and withdraw in Afghanistan remains deeply controversial. Liberal critics upbraid the President for increasing US military forces there. Conservatives complain that Mr. Obama’s announcement of a date for the beginning of US military withdrawal from Afghanistan will only allow al Qaeda and its Taliban allies to wait America out. In addition, some media pundits claim the...

In the epilogue to his book, Presidential Courage, Michael Beschloss recalls that five years before being elected President, John Kennedy lamented that US politics had become “so expensive, so mechanized and so dominated by professional politicians and public relations men…[And further, because of] the tremendous power of mass communications, any unpopular or unorthodox course [aroused] a storm of protest.” These conditions, Kennedy suggested, put a higher price on political courage...

Or will 2010, based on the Republican Senate campaign strategy being pursued by Texas Senator John Cornyn, bring a resurgence of moderate Republican officeholders? It’s an uphill fight for Cornyn within the GOP, reports Todd J. Gillman of the Dallas Morning News. Of course, the Democratic Senate campaign of several years ago, under the leadership of New York’s Chuck Schumer, pursued a similar strategy for his party. The result was a heavier representation of more moderate Democrats in...

I’m a bit late on this, having just read about a religiously-themed slogan appearing these days on T-shirts, web sites, and bumper stickers. The slogan? “Pray for Obama, Psalm 109:8.” To those who don’t dig any deeper, the words and Bible citation may be anything from laudable to innocuous. But people taking the time to look up the passage are registering differing views, ranging from laughter to outrage. Psalm 109:8, not among the Bible’s most well-known passages it...

Here are two recently broadcast reports on the development of wind power and other alternative energy sources in Denmark. Steep energy taxes seem to be helping the northern European nation to both end its dependence on foreign oil and do its part to clean up the global environment. [This is being crossposted at my personal blog.]

There are questions in France about why, two years after stepping down as president of his country, Jacques Chirac is standing trial for corruption charges stemming from his time as mayor of Paris in 1977 to 1995. But the questions seem to have less to do with the substance of the charges than with an apparent French tendency to overlook bad behavior on the part of prominent people, especially if it goes back more than a few years. Chirac’s one-time opponent, Ségolène Royal, has responded...

Here.

I’m not a mainstream media basher. By and large, I have great respect for the media. But I do have a pet peeve with some in the media, particularly columnists, who, enamored of a story, fail to get all the facts. Take a trivial, but evocative example appearing in newspapers all across the country today. In Newsday, Verna Gay has a column about Soupy Sales, the comedian who passed away yesterday. (I’m not linking because Newsday is moving to paid subscriber access and a link would be pointless...

No matter what your politics, you’ve got to love this.

That’s the headline for an article in today’s Columbus Dispatch. I write about it, and the general objectification of women, in a piece called Boo-ring on my blog.

Here. The human race, generally, tends not to want to act in its long-term best interests, reacting to emergencies rather than proactively avoiding or planning for them. So, it’s anybody’s guess as to whether OxFam will be heeded. But the fact is that drought need not lead to famine, as tragically, it so often has in Ethiopia and elsewhere. [This is being crossposted at my personal blog.]

Rick Sanchez says it well: Embedded video from CNN Video I blogged about this at my personal blog, too.

for incivility. It reminded me of this: So, at least on incivility, there does seem to be bipartisan agreement in Washington. The pols like it…except when the other party does it. [This is being crossposted at my personal blog.]

Here.

as what she said next, while following the script: “I swear to God.” The Saturday Night Live skit in which Slate accidentally used the four-letter F-word involved two “biker chicks” who repeatedly use the word, “frickin’.” Slate slips and, when she does, you can see the chagrin and concern on her face as she puffs her cheeks, as if to say, “I can’t believe I just said that.” But then she goes on to her next line, apparently hitting it perfectly....