A country up for grabs
Myanmar’s military toppled the civilian government. Now the country’s diverse population is banding together in protest
Voices
Mindy Belz
Spending habits
The budget President Barack Obama delivered to Capitol Hill April 10 contained the predictable mix of the latest government spending programs masquerading as “investments” and the latest “revenue ...
The Editors
Mailbag
‘The house that Ben built’ ...
Janie B. Cheaney
The rest of the story
God loves a lot of things: just scales, righteous deeds, His creation, a cheerful giver. And another thing God must love is a good story. Picture this: The saga of the much-anticipated Mess...
Andrée Seu Peterson
Courtroom horror
My mother wanted to know what I do with myself these days, so I said I go downtown and watch a trial. Oh, that’s interesting, dear, she thought, and asked for details. Mom’s mind doesn’t work the ...
Marvin Olasky
Another Roe to hoe
We are now in the intermission of this year’s biggest judicial drama. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on same-sex marriage (SSM) in late March—Act One—and will rule by the end of June. Befo...
Joel Belz
Line drills
Through some clumsy scheduling, I ended up a couple of weeks ago with a three-hour layover in the airport at Buffalo, N.Y. It’s OK, I thought. If the clientele at a typical Walmart can respond tho...
Notebook
Houses of God
Regina Mundi church
An elderly man arrives to pray at Regina Mundi church in Soweto. The church sits near former South African president Nelson Mandela’s old residence and is known for its congregation’s involve...
Money
Bubble buster
At the end of the first quarter, the major U.S. stock market indices were up about 10 percent. The housing market, a prime suspect for those looking for the cause of the Great Recession, is improv...
Technology
Closed mikes
Churches, theaters, and the National Football League may compete for attendance on weekends, but they’re allies when it comes to wireless microphones. In a regulatory tussle with the Federa...
Science
Just warming up
Twenty-five years after he opened the climate-change debate by warning Congress that fossil fuel emissions would cause runaway global warming—and 15 years after the Earth stopped warming substanti...
Religion
Spotlight on Liberty
In recent months increasing numbers of American Christians have endorsed gay marriage, and evangelical institutions are coming under increasing pressure to affirm homosexual relationships. Two rec...
Lifestyle
Broken beauty
“I don’t think it is helpful to ignore the pain.” Sitting in a suburban home north of Austin, Texas, her five children under age 9 safely at the park with husband Andrew, sculptor Allison S...
Culture
Movies & TV
The Angels' Share
Award-winning movies don’t always live up to their billing. Such is the case with British filmmaker Ken Loach’s lastest offering, The Angels’ Share—winner of awards at the Cannes Film Festival and...
Movies & TV
Oblivion
Life on post-apocalyptic Earth is a mixed bag for Jack Harper (Tom Cruise). By day, he’s a fighter pilot/mechanic designated with protecting a fleet of drones constantly attacked by “Scavs”—aliens...
Movies & TV
Box Office Top 10
Cautions: Quantity of sexual (S), violent (V), and foul-language (L) content on a 0-10 scale, with 10 high, from kids-in-mind.com S ...
Q&A
Negative action
Stuart Taylor Jr. combines journalistic excellence and legal knowledge. He graduated from Harvard Law School, was a reporter for The Baltimore Sun and The New York Times, and is now a Brookings In...
Music
People and places
At 6 foot, the Ghana-born singer-songwriter Hiram Ring is hardly the “tallest man on earth,” but he’s a fan of the music of Kristian Mattson, the Swedish performer who goes by that pseudonym. “It’...
Books
Worth a slow read
I don’t review many literary novels, which I often find precious rather than valuable, but Christopher Beha’s What Happened to Sophie Wilder (Tin House Books, 2012) is the extraordinary exception....
Movies & TV
Reality dreams
The one thing viewers can usually rely on in reality TV shows is how little they resemble reality. The Moment, top-rated USA Network’s first foray into the reality TV phenomenon, doesn’t do much t...
Notable CDs
Notable CDs
Option One: Think of Toufic Farroukh as the Ennio Morricone of Lebanese film. Like Morricone, whose music stands (and often stands quite tall) apart from the films for which it has been composed, ...
Notable Books
Notable Books
Reporter Troy Chance is taking pictures on a frozen lake near Lake Placid, N.Y., when she discovers a body in the ice. It turns out to be her roommate’s boyfriend. Some people think the roommate k...
Dispatches
Human Race
Human Race
Awarded President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to a Korean War Army chaplain who tended to wounded soldiers in the midst of intense enemy fire and hand-to-hand combat. Emil Kapau...
Looking Ahead
Looking Ahead
New Dutch king Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands plans to abdicate the throne on April 30 and hand the crown to her eldest son, Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange. The 45-yea...
Quick Takes
Quick Takes
Nesting place A home in the Canary Islands that had been abandoned by humans was occupied by others. Millions of others. Authorities in the town of San Sebastián de La Gomera say they found...
Quotables
Quotables
‘The frustration is unbearable. The anger is rage. ... Maybe I should break out the rocking chair and reminisce on the career that was. Maybe this is how my book ends. Maybe Father Time has defeat...
News
Not in the same jungle
NEW YORK—John McCandlish Phillips, who died April 9 in New York at age 85, was a New York Times reporter who won the respect of world-renowned authors like Gay Talese and served as a mentor to gen...
News
Horror in the court
Tiny screeches. Beheadings. A flopping arm. Human remains dumped in cat food containers or shoved into a freezer. The ghastly descriptions were routine testimony as the capital murder trial...
News
What's a few zeroes?
What’s a few zeroes? The April release of President Obama’s $3.77 trillion budget claimed $580 billion in new taxes. Subsequent analysis revealed that figure was off—by nearly half. The pro...