I don’t know about you, but when I read about the collapse of a pyramid scheme that takes down wealthy, well-educated investors and nonprofits, I shake my head and wonder how such smart people made such (in hindsight) dumb choices. The answer, in part, seems to lie in affiliation, or the cultu...

With President Barack Obama’s announcement that he will change President Bush’s policy on taxpayer funding of stem cell research that destroys embryos, expect quite a bit of media coverage. This is an area where the media have struggled to provide fair, much less accurate, reportage of t...

Earlier this week, the California Supreme Court heard arguments for and against Californians’ right to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. There are many reports about those oral arguments and almost every account says that the justices seemed inclined to uphold the votersR...

Here is an old, old story that has been bugging me for some time now, which is why it ended up in tmatt’s GetReligion Folder of Guilt. Then again, it’s an old, old story about and old, but very important news story. There is a good chance that the Washington Post team that worked on it d...

Last weekend, I poked the Los Angeles Times because it’s lede on the Dr. James Dobson retirement story went a bit too far. You may recall that it said: James Dobson is stepping down as chairman of Focus on the Family, the conservative religious group announced Friday — a change that come...

Chris Brown appeared in a LA court today to answer two felony charges stemming from his assault of Rihanna. He was granted a continuance postponing his arraignment until April 6th.  He didn’t enter a plea either. Posted in crimes, current news analysis, health issues, messed up stuff, Race, S...

Today at Obama’s Health Care Summit at the White House Senator Ted Kennedy who doesn’t appear to be ailing, declared that this time ’we will not fail’ at achieving health care reform/universal health care for all Americans. It seems Sir Ted is ready for a fight. Brain tum...

My husband and I went to see Milk , the film about the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, a few months ago. We enjoyed the movie, with some exceptions, and I predicted Sean Penn would win the Oscar for best actor — he was just that transcendentally good. And the suppo...

Brown will be arraigned today at 3.30pm Posted in crimes, current news analysis, health issues, international issues, messed up stuff, Race, Social issues Tagged: african american males and violence, black men, black superstars, chris brown and rihana, chris brown and rihanna, chris brown charged, d...

I’ve been debating whether to write about Ariel Levy’s “Lesbian Nation” essay for The New Yorker’s March 2 issue. An abstract is here. The full article is available to non-subscribers for $4.95. I’ve decided to write about Levy’s eight-page report because it...