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The mass-murder in Oslo last Friday was tragic. At least 90 innocents — many of them youth — are already dead, and authorities fear that the death toll may continue rising.
Evidence is mounting that a right-wing extremist, Anders Behring Breivik, carried out the attack at least in part to spark a “civil war”against Muslim migrants to Europe and the left-wing governments that, in his view, willfully enable their immigration. In his mind, the attack was a defense against immigrants who hold different values — and the start of a much bigger fight for Christianity against Islam.
In a 1,500-page manifesto, Breivik reportedly claimed, “The time for dialogue is

When Bradley Cooper signed on to play Satan in the forthcoming big screen adaptation of John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost,” he took on a far more nuanced role than you might expect.
Hollywood has portrayed Satan as everything from a bright red, cartoonish beast to a very human-seeming trickster, but he’s generally a one-note character. You may remember Al Pacino’s suave lawyer (notably named John Milton) in The Devil’s Advocate, Elizabeth Hurley’s gorgeous temptress in Bedazzled, or Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s decidedly insecure character in South Park.
But Cooper will have a tougher task in trying to bring Milton’s character to life. Milton’s portrayal of Satan has been a subject of debate and some discomfort for

On July 24, the State of New York begins allowing same-sex couples to marry.
Gay rights advocates in the state are bruised and beaten from years of fighting political and social battles, struggling to bring marriage legislation to a vote. Cultural observers predicted that if the bill ever made it to the congressional floor, it would likely pass. New York, after all, is not Texas or South Carolina or even Colorado. New York City boasts the nation’s highest population of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered

At the hastily called White House news conference following the collapse of discussions with Speaker John Boehner on raising the debt ceiling and deficit reduction, President Obama rhetorically asked: “Is there anything that the Republicans can say ‘yes’ to?” Yes, there is: his resignation or re-election defeat.
If it were not clear before, it is unmistakably clear now that the majority of Republicans in Congress are prepared to subordinate the best interests and welfare of our country, and violate their oaths of office, in pursuit of defeating Obama; at all costs.
In an earlier blog captioned “No Drama Obama” on June 30, 2011, I wrote:
“This debate boils down to a simple choice,” the president said. “We can come together for the good of the country and reach a compromise; we can strengthen our economy and leave for our children a more secure future. Or we can issue insults and demands and ultimatums at each another, withdraw to our partisan corners, and achieve nothing.” (Obama’s weekly Radio address)
Just what is the definition or concept of leadership subscribed to by Republicans in Congress?
“To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is even more difficult,” (Nietzsche). Winston Churchill stated “The price of greatness is

This week, Norway’s peace was shattered by homegrown terror; the Murdochs dodged inquiries — and a pie — in Parliament; and Michele Bachmann’s migraines gave her campaign a splitting headache. In Washington, the “Grand Bargain” on the debt ceiling fell apart, leading President Obama to lament being “left at the altar” and John Boehner to blame the failure on “different visions for our country.” But, in truth, neither side is addressing the simple mathematical reality that we will never be able to reduce the deficit unless we prioritize growth. Trying to eliminate our debt by spending cuts that will reduce consumer demand and tax revenues, and prolong the recession, is like deciding to remove the gas tank from a stalled car and hope for the best instead of restarting it with jumper cables.
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Crane.tv recently indulged in a visit to Dri Dri Gelato in Chelsea. Inspired by a small gelato shop in his native Italy, founder Adriano de Petrillo has set up three of his own establishments across London.
His aim is for high quality artisanal Italian gelato to be served up tastefully and with sophistication.
In keeping with tradition, Petrillo uses gelato making equipment from the 1960s and

Anat Biletzki, past chairperson of the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem, recently suggested in the NYT blog (“The Sacred and the Humane”) that “religion, even when indirectly in the service of human rights, is not really working for human rights.” Given B’tselem’s long history of working with organizations like Rabbis for Human Rights, I find her argument puzzling, and as a religious human rights advocate myself, I philosophically disagree with Biletzki.
Biletzki argued that there is a profound difference in the way that the secular and the religious approach the source of authority for human rights, and that, ultimately, the person of faith’s defense of human rights is inferior to that of the secular person’s. She believes that the source of authority for the secular person is, “her claim to reason, her proclivity to emotion, and her capacity for compassion … leaving us open to discussion, disagreement, and questioning,” whereas the authority for the religious person is God’s

All around the country, vacations are being ruined by this hellish heat wave.
Which is why it’s a shame that we all can’t do what Tony Award-winner Bobby Lopez and his talented wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez did. Which is take a pretty awful vacation experience and then use it as the inspiration for a really funny song.
Picture this: It’s the Summer of 2009. And Bobby is in multi-tasking mode. By that I mean: Lopez is not only working with Trey Parker & Matt Stone on “Book of Mormon,” but Bobby & Kristen have just been hired by Walt Disney Animation Studios to write some songs for “Winnie the Pooh.”
So – to celebrate – the Lopezes decide to splurge and rent a house on Fire Island for a few

I’m sitting on a tarmac in Louisville, Kentucky, waiting for takeoff clearance. A minute or so before the engines go to full throttle and we start picking up speed towards heading skyward, I’m thinking about all the people I’m relying upon to have been responsible in doing their jobs: I’m counting on the mechanic who last looked over the engines, the torque on the bolts and the air pressure in the tires. I’m trusting that the pilots got enough sleep and aren’t in the cockpit viewing the instruments through bleary eyes. I rely upon the controllers to direct the path of the aircraft away from others and any violent

There is a lot of discussion these days about the detriments of compromise. When you compromise, for instance, certain people may claim you don’t stick to your guns and decide not to vote for you. They may disparage you for refusing the black and white principles elucidated in whatever sort of “pledge” they demand, said pledge being a condition of your receiving their endorsement or even more importantly, their campaign contributions. They won’t say it (or they might), but they certainly will think you are a

Dear Members of Congress:
You keep telling us that we are broke. [We are in the sense that the Bush tax cuts, the Bush recession and the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars have put us deep in the hole, but those are all reversible with sensible policies.]
Yet, you pay yourselves a whopping $174,000 per year, provide gyms with pools and steamrooms for members, and healthcare and nice cushy pensions.
Sorry, girls and boys, but we cannot afford it anymore. We are broke.
Before you touch a hair on the chinny-chin-chin of benefits for the middle class and poor, before you reduce payments to any healthcare providers, before you cut a dime from a social security recipient’s benefits, before you mess with the citizens of this country, we ALL demand that you eliminate your pensions, past, present and future.
We are not saying that you are not good girls and boys, that you have not worked hard to get there, that we discount the suffering some of you experience looking at yourselves in the mirror, and that retired members of Congress may not need their pensions, but that we simply cannot afford

Whenever two celebrities die within a relatively short span of time, people think “Things always happen in threes” as they wait for a third death to be announced. But when one looks at three-sided geometric structures, it becomes obvious that isosceles and scalene triangles may collapse under stress. Only the equilateral triangle stands firm.
How does the concept apply to romantic triangles? When all three sides have different dimensions, the chances of a broken relationship are very high. When two sides are of the same depth, their relationship can probably withstand the lengthening or shortening of the third leg of the

Unbelievable. The scripting of this high stakes drama between House Speaker John Boehner balancing the White House on one side and the never compromise, never surrender Tea Party on the other keeps getting better and better.Reports have emerged that House Speaker Boehner told his caucus that their team needs to “provide a positive signal on a plan to avert a U.S. default by tomorrow.” That’s right, by the time markets in Asia open tomorrow. That’s right, Sunday in DC is pretty much Monday in Asia — and the roller coaster of financial shocks could start if Boehner doesn’t get his act together.Instead of August 2nd being the debt default deadline, Boehner’s tactics and now his statement to his own troops have created market expectations that will either be met — or be disappointed, possibly creating a real sell-off in American treasuries.Perhaps he should have thought about that before he stormed

John Boehner’s exit from debt ceiling talks with the president made it official. The GOP is willing to risk driving the economy off a cliff – all to protect tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, oil companies and CEO’s who fly around in corporate jets.
They’re like teenagers at a drag race — lots of preening and strutting and big talk. All ever so eager to impress the girl of their dreams that they are the coolest, toughest dudes around.
Trouble is they’ve got the girl of their dreams – in this case Wall Street and the CEO class – riding shot-gun in their ever so fast roadster – and she’s beginning to get a little

When I went through my first divorce over thirty years ago, I had two daughters, ages three-and-a-half and seven. My husband and I worked in the same business, which was definitely a boys’ club. Many of those men were his friends. I had no idea if any of them would ever hire me

It’s been a busy week on HuffPost Religion. Our political leaders seem unable to reach any agreement on the budget and debt ceiling, but we hope it wasn’t because the President was praying not to cut services to the poor. Maybe our leaders can learn something from the latest survey out of Baylor that says more Bible reading leads to more caring for the poor. Send Bibles to Congress!
For more Biblical wisdom we can turn to Shane Claiborne, who tells us what his favorite Bible verse is (hint, it’s not John:3:16) and Ruth Messinger who explained, in Two Minutes of Wisdom, the core of what it means to be a justice seeking

Why have famous musicians died at 27?
Today’s news of Amy Winehouse’s death is tragic not only due to the fact that she had so much talent, but also because she was young, and her death was most likely brought on by her addictions.
Amy Winehouse was 27 years old when she died. There are a number of other famous musicians who died at 27. Those musicians include:
Amy Winehouse
Kurt Cobain
Janis Joplin
Jimi Hendrix
Jim Morrison
Brian Jones
Robert Johnson
Joplin, Hendrix, Morrison, and Jones all died within two years of each other.
Why does it seem that young musicians have died at 27? There is a “Forever 27 Club” listing on Wikipedia, and people have created websites about a “27 Curse.”
Are these musician deaths at the age of 27 just a coincidence? Or is there really a “27 Curse”?
There is a social psychology phenomenon known as causal

What if the voices of young women in communities around the world dominated global media? How would our world be different?
I recently had the opportunity to work with eight young women from East Los Angeles in a media-training program aimed at bringing out these voices. It’s called Global Girl Media.
When I sat with the girls to talk about how they wanted to use their voices, they told me:
Most media depicts young women as vacuous, boy crazy, and obsessed with clothes and makeup. While boys and makeup might be of interest to these young women, there is a huge depth to them that the world is currently missing out on.
For starters, here is a video the Global Girls made two weeks ago about why their voices are

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Not only is that one of my favorite quotes from “The Princess Bride,” but that also happens to be one of my favorite quotes of all time. It is also one that manages to be quite fitting when we talk about one of the many new buzzwords floating around in popular Christian culture today. That word: “inclusive.”
But what is being inclusive exactly? Is it even possible or is it some high-minded utopian ideal?
We need to ask ourselves this because that is the manner in which most religious groups or organizations seem to be using it in their discussions (or ironically, and more commonly, divisive

On a two-week trip to Norway that ended on Thursday, I
decided that the country was the only sane, trouble-free place on the
planet, a gorgeous retreat, as secure and peaceful as high-walled
fjord, where people leave their laptops and car keys untended, never
lock their doors, and follow the ethic of cooperation they learned a
thousand years ago while sailing and fishing for cod in the harsh
Norwegian Sea.
In Norway I saw a country cushioned by oil money yet vividly
conscious of environmental change; communitarian if not socialist and
yet brimming with energetic entrepreneurs; concerned about
immigration, yet still suffused with an ethic of welcome.
And now, not even Norway is safe. Which means that no place is.
Which means that the society is under increasing pressure everywhere.
From what I saw, there is — or was — no more open and trusting
place left in the West, if not the world. And that made it tragically
easy for a madman or madmen to wreak havoc in Oslo this week.
Up and down the western Norwegian coast, I saw evidence of the
almost innocent openness and trust that so characterizes the culture
of the North.
In the busiest restaurant in Alesund, the picturesque capital of
the cod-fishing industry, I did in fact see a woman rush off to run an
errand — and leave her open laptop, car keys AND wallet on the bar.
When I pointed out to her that no one would be that casual in
the US, she shrugged and then smiled. “Maybe I shouldn’t here, but I

We spend so much of our time trying to get somewhere.
Part of this comes from our biological nature. To survive, animals — including us — have to be goal-directed, leaning into the future.
It’s certainly healthy to pursue wholesome aims, like paying the rent on time, raising children well, healing old pain, or improving education.
But it’s also important to see how this focus on the future — on endless striving, on getting the next task done, on climbing the next mountain — can get confused and stressful.
It’s confusing because the brain:
– Overestimates both the pleasure of future gains and the pain of future losses. (This evolved to motivate our ancient ancestors to chase carrots hard and really dodge sticks.)
– Makes the future seem like a real thing when in fact it doesn’t actually exist and never will. There is only now, forever and always.
– Overlooks or minimizes the alrightness of this moment — including the many things already resolved or accomplished — in order to keep you looking for the next threat or

As I shuttle between East Africa, where a severe drought threatens the lives of more than 10 million people, and Athens, where a financial crisis threatens Greece and all of Europe, I am shocked by the U.S. budget negotiations between Congress and President Obama.
Every part of the budget debate in the U.S. is built on a tissue of willful

People often buy brand-name products over their generic alternatives for fairly obvious reasons. They may trust high-end brands more or feel that using them conveys to others a sense of their own taste, coolness or affluence.
But the influence of brands and logos on our behavior goes well beyond the moment of product choice — when actually using the product, we continue to feel the brand’s influence. For instance, studies show that people give more creative solutions to a problem after seeing an Apple logo than an IBM

Kindness is free, it never goes bad, it has no sell by date, you can never get enough of it, and you can never give enough of it. Practice kindness!
Do you have a Chill Pill you’d like to share? Tell us in the comments below.
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