New York Times science journalist William Broad has scandalized the yoga world for much of the past year with his claim that yoga, while often beneficial to practitioners, can also seriously injure them. Many yogis have strongly disputed Broad's claim, including the injury statistics that Broad cites to support it....

Tara Stiles, founder of Strala Yoga in Manhattan, needs no introduction. Her first "how-to" yoga guide, Slim, Calm Sexy, which proposed a breezy merger of yoga, fashion, and "grrrl power," earned her a flattering profile in the New York Times. Since then, she's emerged...

A funny thing happened roughly half way through my viewing of two-time Oscar-winner Denzel Washington's latest movie, Flight. I suddenly realized that I wasn't watching a "typical" comedy or drama. Flight belongs to a relatively small but growing genre of films -- many of them either bombs at...

The yoga world's in a minor uproar -- again. And once more, it's training its fire on New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist William Broad. The proximate cause is the release of the paperback version of Broad's controversial book, The Science of Yoga, which now includes an...

Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults and Beliefs. By Steven Hassan. Newton, MA: Freedom of Mind Press, 2012. 242 pp.

Author and mental health counselor Steve Hassan has made hundreds of television appearances in recent years to spread the alarm about the dangerous growth...

After weeks of procedural delays amid charges that she was faking an illness to justify ducking Congress, former First Lady and outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will finally show up today to testify under oath about what she knew and didn't know about the growing security...

Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi: My Humble Quest to Heal My Colitis, Calm My ADD, and Find the Key to Happiness. By Brian Leaf. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2012. 243 pp.

Get ready for a brand new American non-fiction genre: the yoga "memoir." Or, perhaps sub-genre would be...

If, as expected, President Obama does decide to nominate former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel as his secretary of defense this week, his decision will cheer progressives that have doubted Obama's willingness to stand strong in the face of Republican opposition to his appointments.

But there's a distinct...

The mass killing of young children at Newtown, CT's Sandy Hook elementary school two weeks ago has revived the debate over gun violence and gun control. Unfortunately, that could prove to be a mixed blessing for our nation's schools. While highly publicized and horrific, of course,...

They're namesakes, it's true. Condoleezza Rice was a Stanford academic and Russia specialist with strong ties to two warring national security giants -- George Schultz and Brent Scowcroft -- and eventually parlayed those ties into top positions in the administration of George W. Bush.

Susan...

It calls itself the "Movement for Spiritual Integration in Absolute" -- or MISA -- and is reputedly the largest "yoga" movement in Europe, claiming some 40,000 members in more than a dozen countries. But it's actually a dangerous personality cult whose "supreme spiritual leader," Gregorian Bivolaru,...

With barely two weeks left before the November 6 balloting begins in earnest, most pundits have narrowed the presidential race down to just a handful of swing states, most notably Ohio and Florida. It's generally agreed that if Romney loses Florida, with its 29 electoral votes, his path...

There's bad news for President Obama even before he squares off with Mitt Romney in tonight's third and final nationally-televised campaign debate. Polls show that Romney has already pulled even with the president on the question of which man is better able to handle foreign and defense policy...

Some call it "yoga bleaching." But among industry marketers, there's a more generic term: "conceptual marketing". How does it work?

Take a trendy niche leisure practice like yoga and start promoting it as an all-encompassing "lifestyle." Brand other products and activities as part of this...

Why has Mitt Romney surged into the lead over President Obama? The mainstream media has finally admitted that Obama's pathetic debate performance has turned the race upside down, with all of the latest national polls, and some of the most important swing state polls registering a...

You've already heard the verdict: Romney is getting creamed by Obama with Latino voters. As I wrote two weeks ago, the evidence, especially from the swing states, is actually more mixed. Not only is Obama stll struggling to match his 2008 performance with Latinos in states...

In yet another sign of just how deadlocked the US Congress remains on immigration reform, a bill that would have provided 55,000 new permanent visas for foreign-born scientists and engineers was defeated in the House of Representatives late last month. It was the first time in recent memory...

It's been a prominent storyline in the mainstream media for months: Mitt Romney is failing so badly with Latino voters that it could cost him the election in November.

But is it actually true?

Not if the latest national polls are to be believed. Two recent surveys,...

"You didn't build that." A single phrase, uttered by Obama more out of frustration than prejudice, has become a rallying cry for the Republican Party, which wants American voters to believe that Obama is implacably hostile to small business.

There's no denying that Obama's poorly...

Publication last spring of William Broad's The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards provoked a storm of controversy among American yogis. Partly it was the air of sensationalism that surrounded some of Broad's highly-charged claims: first, that yoga could cause serious, even life-threatening injuries, and...