Former world chess champ and thorn in Vladimir Putin’s side Gary Kasparov has called it quits : He will not continue his bid for the Russian presidency as the ” Other Russia ” candidate. Kasparov has been a none-too-subtle critic of what he considers a thugocracy in the original . . . . Continue Reading »
As I pointed out in an earlier post, the syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman recently castigated President Bush for “betting on the wrong horse,” e.g., adult stem cells, in the stem cell debate. This was ignorant and ridiculous, as even casual readers of SHS know. Adult stem cell research . . . . Continue Reading »
This is becoming a constant whine among the scientific intelligentsia: Sir Martin Evans, who won the Nobel Prize for his work with embryonic stem cells, is complaining that we don’t pay enough attention to science (as if!) when making policy. From the story in the Guardian:Britain’s . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m sorry, this is a trivial matter, really, but it just set me off. The below quoted letter to the editor—reacting to a story about a man who shot a cat to keep it from killing an endangered bird— was published in today’s New York Times Magazine:I read Bruce Barcott’s . . . . Continue Reading »
After pulling a dramatic all-nighter, delegates at the U.N. conference on climate change left beautiful, lush Bali for the real world with an agreed text on their laptops. Those of us who follow these matters were not the least bit surprised at the result: U.N. officials and others who wanted an . . . . Continue Reading »
I am regularly contacted by families who believe their loved ones have been terribly mistreated in hospitals. Sometimes, it is clearly a misunderstanding and I try to set their minds at ease. At other times, the story seems to be an egregious abuse but there is little I can do. On those occasions, I . . . . Continue Reading »
If you spend more time in Starbucks than is healthy for your adrenals, read P.J. O’Rourke’s review of Taylor Clark’s Starbucked . As you might expect from Mr. O’Rourke, the critique is probably more entertaining than the book under discussion. O’Rourke gives Clark high . . . . Continue Reading »
A promising new adult stem cell treatment for breast reconstruction of women who have had lump-ectomies to treat breast cancer has been reported in the Washington Post. From the story:For the first time, doctors have used stem cells from liposuctioned fat to fix breast defects in women who have had . . . . Continue Reading »
For now we see through a glass, darkly . . . St. John of the Cross, whose feast was yesterday, would be the first to agree. But sometimes the Carmelite mystic’s poetry gives me the impression that he saw, as St. Paul put it, face to face . There are, for example, these two letrillos, superbly . . . . Continue Reading »
Michael Novak has graciously responded to my post from yesterday about his endorsement of Mitt Romney. He clarifies that he does not mean to suggest that there is a Christian duty to support Romney because his Mormonism has become a subject of the campaign. Phew! But in his clarification, Novak . . . . Continue Reading »