Ryan Sayre Patrico

At the Wall Street Journal , Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein considers Benedict’s trip to Israel a Success: Pope Benedict XVI does not yet enjoy the goodwill his predecessor generated. Aspects of his past and statements he has made are arguably controversial and have generated criticism—some . . . . Continue Reading »

Reuters : New Hampshire lawmakers unexpectedly rejected a bill on Wednesday that would have made the state the sixth in the United States to authorize gay marriage. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted down the bill in a 188-186 vote, hours after its Senate approved the . . . . Continue Reading »

France’s First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has criticized Pope Benedict’s comments on Aids in Africa: “I was born Catholic, I was baptised, but in my life I feel profoundly secular. I find that the controversy coming from the Pope’s message—albeit distorted by the . . . . Continue Reading »

The Telegraph reports that HIV-AIDS activists claim “Barack Obama has broken four campaign promises on overseas aid and risks reversing the successes of the Bush administration.” . . . . Continue Reading »

But don’t take my word for it; Ben Bouwman thinks so too. . . . . Continue Reading »

First Things associate editor David Goldman will be talking about his article “Demographics & Depression” with Tom Keene this evening on Bloomberg Radio from 6-7. For those in the New York area, Bloomberg radio is found at 1130 am. . . . . Continue Reading »

As I went down to the river to pray : If Pope Benedict hoped to immerse himself yesterday in the waters of the River Jordan, where Jesus was said to have been baptised by his cousin John, he will have been disappointed: the river is now such a polluted, denuded shadow of its former self that . . . . Continue Reading »

William McGurn sums up much of what I’ve been thinking since Sunday: Seldom does dawn rise on an America where the morning’s New York Times displays a more intuitive grasp of a story than the New York Post . The coverage of Barack Obama’s commencement address at Notre Dame, . . . . Continue Reading »

Yusuf Islam, the folk musician known as Cat Stevens before he converted to Islam, was interviewed by CNN on the occasion of his first concert in Los Angeles in 33 years: CNN: Obama seems to be reaching out to people of all faiths around the world. Yusuf: I think a person like Obama has some kind of . . . . Continue Reading »

The Global Spiral has an excerpt from John Lukacs’ latest book, Last Rites . An excerpt of an excerpt: It is arguable that the two greatest intellectual achievements of the now ended age of five hundred years have been the invention (invention, rather than discovery) of the scientific method, . . . . Continue Reading »