What changes in your life, what happens to your soul, when you are dealing with those who have committed heinous crimes, such as those inflicted by the Nazis against the Jews in the concentration camps? In the espionage thriller The Debt, three young Israeli Mossad agents set out to find...

I vehemently believe that there is never a reason for capital punishment. Any time we reduce the value of life by killing someone, no matter how much we think that person might "deserve" to be executed, we reduce the value of life for everyone. Of course it's true that we...

More than 10 years ago, we moved to yet another horse ranch; a sprawling 20-acre spread backing up to a nature preserve, a magnificent property covered with high grass and ancient oak trees just a few miles from the shores of the Pacific. We no sooner arrived with our horses...

As women, our first love is usually our father. Then, over the course of our growing up, we experience an inevitable disillusionment: we realize that this man, who could do no wrong in our young eyes, is really somewhat less than what we believed him to be. We see his...

There's a lot of finger wagging going on these days in the news. There's Weiner of the weenie tweets. Then there's DSK, the French politico and IMF leader who is accused of strong-arming a hotel maid into oral sex. There's Arnold and his love child. And let's not forget John...

You're running so fast and juggling so many balls in the air at once that you're scared you're going to trip and fall flat on your face. Your report for work is overdue, but you've had to take time off to plan for your dad's care. Your teenager is falling...

There was a gal I knew in college -- let's call her Lola -- who delighted in sleeping with the boyfriends of other girls. Lola would get friendly with the couple, the unsuspecting gal would start to trust Lola, and wham! Lola would seduce her guy. Lola got whatever Lola...

Chances are, you know someone like me who was sexually abused or even raped.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. As someone who has experienced firsthand what sexual violence can do to a life, I make every effort to change societal attitudes on this vital topic.

Sexual...

She embraces you with open arms, then sticks the knife in your back. She praises your guacamole, then hints to her precious son that you seem to be gaining weight. She questions the way you're potty training your kid, the hours you work away...

Californians are buying up potassium iodide tablets. The Chinese are hoarding iodized salt. Russians are stocking up on dosimeters (instruments that measure how much ionizing radiation you've absorbed), seaweed, face masks and vodka. Europeans who were exposed to fallout from Chernobyl are suffering with double their normal level of anxiety....

It's hard to imagine what so many of the Japanese people -- and others living in the earthquake-tsunami area -- are going through these days. They have survived one of the largest earthquakes in modern history and a massively destructive tsunami, and they are fearful about possible radiation poisoning from...

Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, which is sponsored around the world by the United Nations. A century ago, it sprang up from women's socialist movements and early women's trade union groups. It focuses on women workers, women in politics, and women in society.

We...

It's the season of guilty pleasures: the Golden Globes, the DGA awards, the SAG awards and the mothership of all award shows -- the Oscars. It gives us all something to watch and read about aside from the news of Charlie Sheen and porn stars. Do you imagine wearing fabulous...

Reflecting on the life of Michael Jackson, one of the world's greatest superstars, on the anniversary of his death.

Amid the layers of controversy surrounding Michael Jackson's life and his sudden death one year ago today, there is at least one thing on which we can all agree: the man...

Today is International Women's Day, an interesting juxtaposition to last night's Oscar award ceremonies. Yesterday, the crème de la crème of bejewelled womanly beauty walked the red carpet in gorgeous gowns, perfectly coifed and made-up to present their radiant images to the world at large. And in a much-celebrated first,...

James Cameron, writer and director of the amazing film Avatar, has obviously plugged into our shared consciousness (Jung called it the "collective unconscious"). The film resonates with viewers because our cellular memory recalls the ancient world where we all could talk to the animals, the trees and grass and all...

Movies about incest trigger my memories and feelings about the abuse I suffered as a young girl. Precious hit me just where it hurts the most. It's difficult to say this, but Mary, the mother of Precious, really reminded me of my own mother when I was a child.

As I and all other survivors of incest know, we have to speak out in order to start healing. Mackenzie Phillips broke the silence about her long-term incestuous relationship with her father in her book, High on Arrival; Katherine Harrison did it in hers, The Kiss. I wrote about incest...

Dear MacKenzie,

I watched your "coming out" on Oprah as an incest survivor, having had a decade-long sexual relationship with your father, Papa John, and I must say it triggered a lot of my own memories. But you have one piece of your story dead wrong: it was not a...

Diane Schuler had a few tokes and who knows how much booze on the last day of her life. She then drove the wrong way on a state highway, crashed headfirst into an SUV, and killed the three men in that vehicle, along with her three young nieces, her 2-year-old...