Duke University President Richard Brodhead said about his decision: “I am, I know, taking a risk in reinstating men’s lacrosse ... [but] if we did not allow these players the chance to take responsibility for creating a new history for their sport at Duke, we would be denying another very fundamental value: the belief in the possibility of learning from experience, the belief in education itself.”
Truthdig contributor Steven Kotler describes in The New York Times Magazine how the mere act of going surfing pulled him out of a near-suicidal battle with Lyme disease and kick-started a quest to explore the nexus of surf, science and spirituality.
Democratic strategist Joe Trippi writes that the rise of the Netroots-based organization Unite08 may be the harbinger of the end of the traditional two-party system in American politics.
According to some reports, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had veto power over the journalists admitted to Namibia. “What gives two Hollywood actors the right to shut down an African nation so that they can have a special experience?” Curious?
That’s the call from Michael Tomasky in a cover story for the American Prospect. He means republicans with a small ‘r’--defenders of the idea of a republic that serves the common good. Tomasky writes: “What the Democrats still dont have is a philosophy, a big idea that unites their proposals and converts them from a hodgepodge of narrow and specific fixes into a vision for society.”
Yet more evidence that the abstinence-until-marriage crowd is deluding itself into believing that virginity pledges have any real value. (Above, virginity pledgers and their fathers at a so-called purity ball.)
Newsweek anonymously quotes a friend of the president’s as saying, “I think it was purely political. I don’t think he gives a s--t about” gay marriage.
As the commencement speaker for a small Illinois college, satirist Stephen Colbert told the graduates, God wrote [the Bible] in English for a reason: So it could be taught in our public schools.
Jake Gyllenhaal’s kiss with Heath Ledger beat out real-life couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s kiss for the ”Best Kiss” award at the MTV Movie Awards. Gyllenhaal also won best actor on the awards program, where viewers vote for winners. The program airs on June 8th.
Fatah has links to the milita forces in the West Bank while Hamas has forces on the ground in Gaza. Tensions between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Fatah) and Hamas (click here for profiles) continue to mount in the small and economically devastated Palestinian territories.
Organic food is about to go mainstream. Michael Pollan explores what the globalization of organic food means, and finds it hard to separate the good from the bad. Also, see our interview with Pollan.
Soccer fans mocked with monkey noises and spit on Nigerian forward Adebowale Ogungbure as he left a soccer field in Germany in late March. It sounds like a story from another decade, but this type of violent racism might just destroy this year’s World Cup. The NYT offers a must-read piece about the recent surge in racist sentiment among European soccer fans.
Iran has rejected an offer by America and five other world powers to extend a series of rewards in exchange for Iran’s abandonment of its nuclear program.
President Bush, having alienated the country on almost every other possible issue, has now resumed his push for a gay marriage ban, in the hopes that his base will rally once again.
The five media heavies who shamelessly promoted the government’s lies about the Los Alamos scientist chose to settle today rather than reveal their government sources.
Lee was savaged by a media fueled by government rumors that he was spying for China, an accusation he was never officially charged with. Lee was imprisoned in solitary confinement for nine months in 1999-2000 and ultimately received an apology from the judge who heard his case. Truthdig says: The media was not defending freedom of the press but their own right to operate as a megaphone for government agents with an agenda to slander an American citizen. The media went to bat for government agents who broke the law. When will those agents be held accountable?
Weak employment gains in May (only 75,000 net new jobs) may be a sign of a faltering economy. According to NYT: “Anything below about 150,000 net new jobs a month is regarded as too slow to keep up with population growth, so in effect, workers are losing ground.” (story | job report)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revisits the 2004 election and finds evidence of massive electoral fraud. Kennedy writes: “After carefully examining the evidence, I’ve become convinced that the president’s party mounted a massive, coordinated campaign to subvert the will of the people in 2004.”
Even though the U.S. and five other countries have offered Iran a series of rewards for giving up its nuclear program, Bush and Cheney have given the world ample reason to be skeptical that the White House has any intention of settling this issue diplomatically. (And we’re not alone in this sentiment.)
The Federal Election Commission, acting on a report by a watchdog group, found that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist failed to disclose a $1.44 million loan that made it appear as though he had significantly more money than he did.
The U.S. military has said that four people died during a military operation in the town of Ishaq in March, but this tape may prove that U.S. forces in fact deliberately killed 11 innocent Iraqis.
This comes in the wake of the separate alleged U.S. massacre of 24 civilians in Haditha in November.
The Iraqi prime minister issued the sharply worded criticism in the wake of rising outrage over the massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November.
The California Assembly passed a measure to pledge the state’s Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote (as opposed to giving its Electoral College votes to the winner of the California popular vote).
This would come into effect only if enough other states passed similar measures. But if it happens, it will mean the end of the electoral college as we know it.
Bush’s top domestic policy aide, Karl Zinsmeister, changed his quotes in a Syracuse newspaper’s profile on him and then re-posted the article on his website. One of the quotes he changed was originally published as: “People in Washington are morally repugnant, cheating, shifty human beings.” The editor of the paper says she is consulting a lawyer.
Chevron in the White House
