NEWS
March 7, 2009
Animals are "put down" to humanely end their pain and suffering. Why do we show more compassion for animals than we do to our family members, friends and citizens of this state and nation who are suffering unendurable pain and who feel they can no longer go on ("2 accused of roles in suicide network," Feb. 27)? On what rational basis can the right to die with dignity be denied to those who are in great pain, who are debilitated or facing a devastating end-of-life illness? When will we be civilized enough as a nation to pass legislation in support of the individual's right to die when he or she has suffered enough and cannot endure anymore pain?
NEWS
By Leonard Pitts Jr. | May 4, 2008
The Rev. James Lawson is out of step with modern Christianity. Take gay marriage. Speaking in support of a proposed state constitutional ban on same sex unions in Florida, one Rev. Hayes Wicker of First Baptist Church in Naples, Fla., was recently quoted by the Naples Daily News as saying, "This is a tremendous social crisis, greater even than the issue of slavery." As asinine as that remark is, it is perfectly in step with much of modern Christianity, which has spent years demonizing gay men and lesbians.
NEWS
By Richard C. Paddock and Paul Watson | January 28, 2008
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Former President Suharto, an army general who rose to power in Indonesia with the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people and ruled for 32 years during an era of rapid economic growth and extraordinary graft, died yesterday in Indonesia. He was 86. Suharto's unyielding opposition to communism won him the backing of the United States during the height of the Cold War, although he was one of the most brutal and corrupt rulers of that era. He governed the world's fourth-most-populous nation with a combination of paternalism and ruthlessness from 1965 until he was ousted in spring 1998.
NEWS
By Jacques Kelly | November 25, 2006
Dr. Paul McHugh, psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1975 to 2001, is teaching and imparting the advice he gathered during his many years in medicine. These days, he is a University Distinguished Service Professor and remains an active member of the Hopkins community. He teaches across the university, including students in the psychiatry residency program at the medical school. While making ward rounds, McHugh will lead talks about drug addiction among the patients. "Occasionally these discussions can be confrontational," he said, adding, "I'm trying to get them out of Dante's hell and into purgatory.
NEWS
By Stephanie Shapiro | September 19, 2005
In 1984, a 30-year-old local news personality left Baltimore's WJZ-TV to try her hand at hosting a morning talk show in a bigger market, Chicago. Within a year, A.M. Chicago was renamed for its new host, and by 1986 it had begun national syndication. Today, The Oprah Winfrey Show marks its 20th anniversary, and its star is one of the most powerful women in the world, a 51-year-old media mogul and billionaire whose influence reaches into nearly every nook and cranny of contemporary life.
NEWS
By Stephen Kiehl | April 4, 2005
The public nature of Pope John Paul II's suffering - from the trembling of his hands brought on by Parkinson's disease to his final appearance at St. Peter's Square last week, when he tried tobut could not speak - was an extended lesson in the dignity and value of the lives of the most frail among us, theologians say. The pontiff did not hide his many ailments as he grew more infirm. Though his speech was slurred and his head often slumped to his chest because of the Parkinson's, he appeared in public frequently and rejected seclusion.
NEWS
By Ron McClamrock | January 16, 2005
IN THE WAKE of the disaster in the Indian Ocean, something interesting has arisen: Commentators have turned to philosophical consideration of the bearing of such events on belief in God and in what kind of God can be reconciled with such events. In the political context of today's United States, it's hardly shocking to see issues of religion in the public dialogue and debate. But religion usually arises in the context of issues of fairness to various religious views, entanglements of law and religion or how often religious themes do or don't occur in contemporary entertainment.
NEWS
December 25, 2004
Marijuana should be legalized for medicinal use because it provides many suffering patients relief that they do not get from other medications. Granted, there are serious possible side effects, including dependency and impairment of memory, concentration and motor coordination. However, many legally prescribed sedatives, painkillers, cough suppressants and tranquilizers have similar and other serious and undesirable effects. If unintended harmful effects are not reason enough to prohibit the use of codeine, morphine and other beneficial drugs, why should similar effects be reason to prohibit marijuana?
NEWS
By Arthur Hirsch | June 21, 2004
POOLESVILLE - Nam Gyal has work to do under the gaze of more than 1,000 Buddhas. The tall man in maroon robes takes his time in the still of night emptying 204 identical brass water bowls, one by one, into a plastic bucket - all the while praying, praying, praying. It is nearing 2 a.m., the beginning of a new day in an unbroken string of days: more than 19 years of nonstop prayer, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, conducted by members of Kunzang Palyul Choling, a Tibetan Buddhist temple in western Montgomery County.
NEWS
By Mary Cogar | May 21, 2004
WE HAVE HEARD much about torture since the 9/11 terrorist attacks - debates about the moral, legal and ethical reasons for and against using it to obtain information. More than 100 countries use torture, according to Amnesty International, and governments go to great lengths to hide it. The debates seem to be about concepts and the theoretical implications of using torture, and what other countries do, not what the United States does. Now we are faced with whether the U.S. government used torture.