From June 21 to July 4, Catholic dioceses and parishes across America are observing a “Fortnight for Freedom” to protest perceived encroachments on religious liberty. This “period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action” is primarily a response to the controversial Department of Health and Human Services mandate that most employers offer insurance coverage of contraception. … Read more
From June 21 to July 4, Catholic dioceses and parishes across America are observing a “Fortnight for Freedom” to protest perceived encroachments on religious liberty. This “period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action” is primarily a response to the controversial Department of Health and Human Services mandate that most employers offer insurance coverage of contraception. … Read more
Back in the rickety old days of the original YouTube, nary a legal song could be found on the video-sharing website. (At least, that sounds about right – I don’t even remember the original YouTube.) However, over time, the music industry and its good friends at Vevo pulled together a legitimate way to bring music … Read more
The following is a transcript of a phone interview conducted with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson on June 4, 2011. Dr. Tyson is a popular astrophysicist and an advocate for increased government funding of science in general and space exploration in particular. HPR: You recently delivered a keynote speech at the 28th Annual Space Symposium in … Read more
Post-electoral bliss on Alexandria’s Corniche. Despite growing up to witness the turn of a millennium, history’s single-bloodiest attack on American soil, and the election of the first black president, it took me nearly twenty years and oceans away from home to truly take part in my first collective moment of baited breath—countdown, crowded room, grainy … Read more
Restore Our Future, American Crossroads, and Club for Growth Action – all three names kindle both fear and hatred among liberals, and rightfully so. Spawned out of a pair of 2010 Supreme Court decisions, these conservative SuperPACs, like their smaller leftwing counterparts, represent an unprecedented intrusion of private capital into politics. With the vast majority … Read more
Despite growing up to witness the turn of a millennium, history’s single-bloodiest attack on American soil, and the election of the first black president, it took me nearly twenty years and oceans away from home to truly take part in my first collective moment of baited breath—countdown, crowded room, grainy television and all. Having arrived … Read more
Part II of an on-the-ground series following the Rio+20 Earth Summit, 13-22 June in Rio de Janeiro. A mountain range, a rainforest, hours on a bus, and official pre-accreditation requirements separate Riocentro, the gigantic Rio+20 conference center, from the parallel People’s Summit in in central Rio de Janeiro: an apt allegory for the lack of … Read more
The Illusion International adoptions have an illustrious façade, conjuring images of couples saving a hungry, orphaned child and living happily ever. While imagining international adoptions as a corrupt business is abhorrent, connections to child trafficking have recently arisen. Accordingly, the State Department reports that though Americans adopted 22,991 international children in 2004, the implementation of … Read more
The College Board reported in 2010 that the United States ranked twelfth globally in the proportion of young adults holding a college degree. Recognizing the problem, President Obama announced an ambitious goal, declaring that by 2020 the United States should have the highest percentage of college graduates of any country. Higher education has taken on … Read more