The United Nations Special Rapporteur on toxic waste, Marc Pallemaerts, today in Geneva urged states to increase efforts to eliminate the use of lead especially in paint and toys. Even though lead poisoning is entirely preventable, lead exposure causes 143,000 deaths and 600,000 new cases of childre

Catching up on some reading in the area of innovation and education one link led me to another and I came across Steve Ballmer 39 s recent email to Microsoft employees announcing quot a far-reaching realignment of the company that will enable us to innovate with greater speed efficiency and cap

An article on science and biblical interpretation caught my eye last week Oct 13 2013 not because Dr Jason Lisle is a ldquo young earth rdquo creationist he is the director of research at the Institute of Creation Research an untenable position from my perspective but because of his claim

Last month the Jesuits of Honduras and some of their collaborators in ministry mdash staff members of Radio Progreso and ERIC a social research and advocacy organization mdash organized a march and liturgy to celebrate the life and work of Jim ldquo Guadalupe rdquo Carney S J The gathering mark

JP Morgan 39 s record fine who benefits most Zygmunt Bauman is in awe of Pope Francis Overwhelmed or underdone Obama admin acknowledges problems with ACA web registration launch Same sex couples may marry in New Jersey Remembering Father John Grange a 39 welcomer 39 in the BronxAs scandal un

We Americans would be very well served (and it is, of course, a Catholic motif) by some massive injections of Whitman's robust sense of a relational self.

Over the last few months as I 39 ve tracked the debates about the Common Core State Standards CCSS which I 39 ve written about here I 39 ve become intrigued not just by the wrangling over content but by the way the standards are spoken of or treated nbsp Whether people oppose or support th

A majority of U S Hispanics identify as Catholic 53 percent 25 percent identify as Protestant nearly evenly divided between evangelical Protestant and mainline Protestant and few Hispanics 6 percent identify with a non-Christian religion But perhaps the fastest growing ldquo religious rd

Reports of severe hardship in Middle East, Marxist and 'post-Communist' states.

This is the fifth entry in the Second Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians Bible Junkies Commentary You can find the first entry here nbsp In the first entry I discussed introductory matters such as the origin of the Church in Thessalonica its early history with Paul Silvanus and Timothy and a

The New York Times has a fun map showing the geography of the Wednesday rsquo s U S House vote to end the government shutdown and avoid a default on the national debt The vote was 285 to 144 in favor of the Senate plan Political scientist Jeff Weintraub via Andrew Sullivan is troubled by the hol

As the government shutdown snorted and whinnied on into its second week the mood accountants at Pew checked in with the American public Here 39 s a little of what they discovered Eighty-one percent say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States while just 14 percent

quot All men quot said Aristotle in the Metaphysics quot desire by nature to know quot I think Aristotle is right and I see this confirmed almost every day with my own students It is confirmed everywhere in fact Our culture centers itself around the acquisition of knowledge on mastering b

The impasse over the budget seems to have been all about 'machismo.'

The U S bishops welcomed the decision of federal government leaders to agree to end the partial government shutdown 16 days after closing many offices and suspending important programs and services The bishops also were heartened that so many who had been out of work could return to their jobs ld

Some thoughts quot On the International Day to Eradicate Poverty quot nbsp from Joe Donnelly of Caritas Internationalis The MDGs are still here They keep coming up They 39 re informing many They 39 re disturbing others They speak from people everywhere They 39 re demanding our attention Tomorro

People can be like tumbleweeds. The fastest can be the most forlorn.

Democrat Cory Booker beat Republican Steve Lonegan by about 10 points yesterday to win a U S Senate seat mdash or as Slate rsquo s Dave Weigel put it ldquo America rsquo s most-hyped mayor rdquo defeated ldquo one of the most entertaining jerks in American politics rdquo With 99 percent of pr

What happens when we disassociate love and sex?

As the media focus on the Kansas City Star article 10 12 13 continues the American public is once again watching events chillingly similar to those seen in the Steubenville Ohio rape case Matthew Barnett a 17-year-old senior and football player at Maryville High in Maryville Mo was accused