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Last week, on October 3, 2008, President Bush signed the Child Soldiers Accountability Act into law. The Act “makes it a federal crime to recruit knowingly or to use soldiers under the age of 15 and permits the United States to prosecute any individual on US soil for the offense, even if the children were […]

Serb general Momcilo Perisic's trial began in front of ICTY late last week. Perisic served as Yugoslav army commander during the conflict. The indictment against Perisic filed by the office of the Prosecutor charges Perisic with command responsibility for failing to punish war crimes committed by subordinates, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws […]

The Presidential Town Hall Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain will air live tonight, Tuesday October 7th at 9 pm eastern time, 6 pm pacific time, on every major broadcast network and cable news network. Belmont University is the host for this debate, and Tom Brokaw of NBC News is the moderator. This is […]

In another blow to the Bush administration's authority over so-called enemy combatants, a federal judge ordered the release of 17 Chinese Muslims of the Uighur sect released from U.S. custody at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said Tuesday there was no evidence to suggest the Uighurs were “enemy combatants” […]

A couple of weeks ago, I thought I was writing on the worst the economy had to offer.  Fast forward to now – the world is involved and my local newspaper is reporting on the expected dip in non-profit donations.  The economy, coupled with the newly released Matthew Bishop/Michael Green book on Philanthrocapitalism, has me wondering […]

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting has a new article about growing international concerns that the Afghan judiciary is "composed of religious hardliners with Taleban sympathies." The article looks at two convictions that are based on violations of Islamic law and points out that "some have suggested that the cases expose what they see […]

“Every 2.2 seconds, a child loses a parent due to war, natural disaster, poverty, disease and other causes. Today, there are 133 million children who have lost one or both of their parents, and 15 million are orphaned due to AIDS.” This week is World Orphan Week (October 5-11, 2008), and in support of the […]

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin gets "mavericky" on the wars, global warming, Israel and Cuban food. Not as funny as the Palin/Clinton and the Couric/Palin skits but still pretty funny. My hat is off to Queen Latifah for her fabulous performance as NewsHour's Gwen Ifill.

This is a follow-up post to last week's post about the Vice Presidential debate, more of an experiment really. I thought it would be interesting to go back to the transcript and review the foreign policy topics that were covered and then separate out the replies from each candidate so they could be more easily […]

All the positive things I’ve described here at the blog regarding business practices, technological breakthroughs, and political developments are very much in train. They signal, in my mind, real hope for the future. I don’t, however, want to live with rose-colored glasses obscuring my vision. We’re heading into a tempest now. The world economic crisis […]

The Bush Administration's fundamental view that a “shock and awe” invasion of Afghanistan would somehow compel the Taliban into compliance has failed.  Instead the soft power of grass root initiatives are slowly taking shape. It is hard to believe that any progress for gender equality could be made in Afghanistan. An article in today's International […]

The Bible is the topic for the current World Synod of Bishops, which brings together Roman Catholic bishops from October 5-26. The goal is to encourage more interest in the Bible, and John Travis, with the Catholic News Service, has written that the decision was taken after bishops reflected on the fact that "only a […]