Jim McDermott

A strange fun tidbit the alignment of Venus and Mercury relative to Earth today creates a very slight upward gravitational pull which is actually just enough to be sensed Many will feel a certain lightness in their step if you get on a scale your weight will be slightly less nbsp And the real

When I ride the subway to work in the morning usually the announcements of the train conductor are either just-the-facts-ma rsquo am basics or incoherent grumbles nbsp But every once in a while if we catch just the right train we straphangers are greeted by a quiet steady voice somehow both

The Society of Jesus in Australia runs a free online magazine like America called Eureka Street which covers affairs both local to Australia and international nbsp Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ is their consulting editor and a theologian teaching at the United Faculty of Theology in Melbourne nbsp

Last week Australian news program ldquo The 7 30 Report rdquo had an extensive interview with Australian counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen Kilcullen has been an important advisor to both the Bush and Obama administrations on military policy in Iraq and Afghanistan and is considered one

nbsp In our own pages Fr Michael Czerny S J director of the African Jesuits AIDS Network has spoken in similar terms about the crisis of AIDS in Africa nbsp We learn as we go along that AIDS is very complex H I V is a virus that reduces and destroys the immune system But it rsquo s al

Yesterday in a conversation with the press the Pope was widely cited as having said that the distribution of condoms would increase the problem of AIDS nbsp This has met with expected backlash agencies ranging from the World Health Organization and the New York Times to the French government