Midnight trains to Georgia
The Peach State prepares for a political frenzy as a pair of January runoffs determine the balance of the Senate—and the shape of the presidency
Lawmakers, lawbreakers
Even though churches have lost significant influence over society, they do at least retain authority over their own members.
Growing their own
ABORTION: In a bid to reverse pro-life trends among young people, pro-abortion groups are trying to recruit teen activists
So what's next?
AFTER A DECADE-LONG battle, Congress finally banned partial-birth abortion last year. Many young people, aware of aborted contemporaries...
An incomplete report card on clergy abuse?
RELIGION: Church audit of progress on reforms shows 90 percent compliance; victims' groups question the credibility of the process
Church-government structure: A neglected focus of the debate
It was A small group of New Hampshire Roman Catholics, but what they did managed to make the Associated Press news wire late last year. ...
Sports
Around the horn The split national championship became official when the Coaches Poll awarded its national championship to LSU af...
Voices
Mailbag
Excellent choice Phillip Johnson was an excellent choice for your Daniel award ("Daniel of the Year," Dec. 13). More than any other person in the last decade, he has motivated serious, resp...
Sticker shock
STARING AT THE BACK OF A CAR DURING A RED light can be a mundane experience-or it can be an opportunity to think through the logic of a worldview. I recently noticed a bumper sticker that read: "A...
Marvin Olasky
Birth defects
AS THE 31ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE SUPREME Court's Roe vs. Wade decision arrives later this month, U.S. newspapers will run a few stories about America's quietly continuing abortion plague. But in Ind...
Joel Belz
Dizzy Dean
LET ME GO AGAINST THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM here and brazenly predict that most of the political experts are wrong. Howard Dean has not locked up the Democratic nomination for president. Instead, wh...
Notebook
Culture
Culture
Cold mountain movie ...
The biggest problem with Cold Mountain, director Anthony Minghella's adaptation of Charles Frazier's much-lauded novel, is that, despite the grandiose setting -the battle between the North and Sou...
Culture
... cool mountain music
Think of Cold Mountain as the prequel to O Brother, Where Art Thou. Whereas the latter movie was a mock epic imitating Homer's Odyssey, Cold Mountain is a serious imitation of the epic, jumping ba...
Culture
Pro-life penalty
SOMEONE WHO COMMITS A MURDER, MOST people throughout history have believed, deserves to die. Someone who commits 300,000 murders, though-according to many people today-deserves to live. Nea...
Dispatches
Quick Takes
Quick Takes
Name dropper II James Paul Egan went to great lengths to conceal his identity when he allegedly robbed a Bakersfield, Calif., convenience store-at least at first. Police say he wore a banda...
Quotables
Quotables
I have yet to meet a U.S. citizen who wants to make farm labor his long-term career. Maggie Mejia, president of the Modesto, Calif., Latino Community Roundtable, on fears that President Bus...
The Buzz
The Buzz
ANTI-TERROR SECURITY Heightened U.S. security demands-particularly the new sky marshal orders-are stressing already strained relations with Europe. Philip Butterworth-Hayes, editor of Jane's Aircr...
The Buzz
Blogwatch
Deal breakers J.P. Carter (evangelicaloutpost.com) has a simple solution that goes to the heart of the "gay marriage" problem: Constrain judges who think that they are the second coming of ...