By SCOTT THUMMA
It can't hold as many screaming fans as the football stadium in Denver, where Sen. Barack Obama is to address an expected crowd of 75,000 on Aug. 28. Nor is it conveniently located near the scenic Mississippi River, like the arena in St. Paul, Minn., where Sen. John McCain is to take the stage a few days later. But the 3,000-seat auditorium at pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., does have one notable advantage: It's a stage that Obama and McCain recently agreed to share...
By KERRY COHEN
In his new memoir, New York Times reporter David Carr describes soaking his arms, with their ''pus-filled track marks,'' in a tub of detergent, as well as other low points in his life as a junkie. But those graphic details aren't the reasons why his addiction memoir makes me nervous. It's because of what he implies about the genre of memoir itself.
By CARLOS J. MARTINEZ
I was saddened to learn that Bob Butterworth will be stepping down as the secretary of the Florida Department of Children & Families. Butterworth took a very difficult post when he assumed the helm of the beleaguered department just 19 months ago. Consistent with his reputation as a problem solver and innovator, Butterworth implemented substantial and sweeping changes, many shifting the culture of the agency. That is tough to do.
By ERIC P. LUCAS
It's time to stop the canonization of Heath Ledger. He's not a tragic hero. He's not a beautiful martyr. He's just a pretty good actor who did away with himself and broke the hearts of his family and friends, and he shouldn't get an Academy Award to memorialize his death.
By ILYA KRAMNIK
Sports might not seem a befitting subject for a military commentator, but only at first sight. In ancient times, sports originated as competitions between warriors. Running, boxing, wrestling, discus and javelin throwing, and chariot racing were all elements of their training, and the best of them demonstrated their skills once every four years during the Olympic Games. A truce was announced for the duration of the games, though it was violated on more than one occasion.
By WALTER REICH
You want to understand the evil of Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who was arrested last week for war crimes committed in the Balkans during the early 1990s? Then read the obituary that has just appeared of Dinko Sakic, who was convicted of war crimes in the Balkans during the Holocaust. And consider, too, the behaviors, beliefs and psychologies of mass murderers in other places, leaders and followers, who were no less monstrous than they were.
By POLITA GLYNN
At this month's closing session of the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium, a panel of reef scientists, ocean experts and journalists took on the daunting task of crystallizing almost 2,000 scientific presentations into four-minute summaries, while also providing the rationale of why the information was important. With so much trouble in the world, as Bob Marley would sing, why should people care about the future of coral reefs? Here's how the best minds in the world might answer that question...
By DAVID A. PATERSON and MARTIN O'MALLEY
The Bush administration announced this week that the federal deficit could reach an unprecedented high, $482 billion, next year, even as all 50 states work to balance their budgets amid an economic recession and a national mortgage crisis.
By GREGORY PENCE
Thirty years ago last Friday, Louise Brown came into the world amid alarmist predictions that her birth would end sex. Jeremiahs such as writer Jeremy Rifkin wailed that in-vitro (''under glass'') fertilization would harm the future Louise. Bioethicist Leon Kass then warned that in-vitro fertilization, or IVF, by sundering the bonds between the act of sex and conception, would damage families.
By ALEXANDER VON HOFFMAN
''The prospect of possessing one's own house,'' wrote educator George B. Emerson in 1871, ``and that a pleasant one, with a garden and trees, and room for the children to play, in safety, must be a strong motive with any man to regularity, good conduct, and economy.''
By SERA HERALD DREVENAK
If managing fisheries is like solving a Rubik's cube of fish, ecosystems and economies, then the National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing tearing all the stickers off and gluing them back on to make it look as if they've solved the puzzle.
By CLINT BREWER
America's democracy is built on a concept of checks and balances between the arms of government. The American people now need the U.S. Senate to provide a very appropriate check on the judicial and executive branches of the federal government to preserve a free press in this country.
By NICHOLAS E. HOLLIS
After years of deficit spending, economic turmoil and occupation wars abroad, which have all hollowed and dispirited the nation, we are stumbling into the most important presidential election campaign in decades.
By JAMIE BARNETT
Did you know that your safety and security depend on gay men and lesbians? An estimated 65,000 gay men and lesbians serve in the U.S. armed forces, though by law they cannot be open about their sexuality. As we fight two wars, our military is stretched thin. Those gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and members of the Coast Guard are essential.
By MICHAEL SHERMER
Our civilization is fast approaching a tipping point. Humans will need to make the transition from nonrenewable fossil fuels as our primary energy source to renewable energy sources that will allow us to flourish into the future. Failure to make that transformation will doom us to the endless political machinations and economic conflicts that have plagued civilization for the past half-millennium.
