As one matures, the existentialist question intensifies, "Why am I here?" This question becomes most fierce when I am shoveling snow -- over 12 inches, all alone at my home near Boston. I am ready for the rapture. Take me away.

Like other New Englanders, I face the elements with...

Extreme polemics are anti-peace and they further a cycle of violence. Rabbi Lerner's San Francisco home was defaced by political posters permanently glued on by whom he suspects to be right wing Zionists critical of him and Richard Goldstone, who led a 2009 fact finding mission and authored a...

The regenerative power of youth can heal violence. Kids just have to be empowered to do so. Since 2000, 36-year old Craig McClay has been a program coordinator for The Center for Teen Empowerment. He knows firsthand how teens will choose non-violence over aggression if they have hope in their...

Actress Lisa Rinna, implants, bee(hive) stung lips and all, thinks Heidi Montag, reality star of The Hills, has gone too far. To resemble a Nordic goddess, Montag, at age 23, underwent ten plastic surgeries in one day. Rinna's disgust compelled her to tear Montag's cover off her home copy...

Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees is a mythical beast. At least he thinks so. The champion third baseman has a painting of himself as a centaur hanging in his bedroom, according to a tattletale ex-fling. Thanks to Twitter-mania, a curiosity among kids has been sparked in Greek...

The power of prayer amazes famed boxer Micky Ward. Actor Mark Wahlberg portrays him in The Fighter, a Paramount movie being filmed in Lowell. Christian Bale plays his brother, Dickie Eklund. Separately from the movie's scriptwriters, sports anchor Bob Halloran of Milton wrote a biography, Irish Thunder: The Hard...

Few music artists mark the coming of age for different generations. For example, there are the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson.

In 1969 the King of Pop was a pipsqueak when I heard the lead singer of The Jackson Five belt out "I Want...

Christian buying power can change business for the better. Integrity, excellent products and wholesome advertising beget loyalty from a demographic that spends $1.5 trillion annually. For shortsighted companies that dismiss the Christian market, there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.



Nationally, 231 million Americans (77 percent) describe themselves...

Real faith is not a one-trick pony. Faith is not an exclusive club membership. One does not grow stronger in love of the Lord by rejecting others. Yet this is the message that Mary Ann Glendon, former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, sent when she rejected the University of Notre...

Spring is my favorite hunting season: mules, slingbacks and peep-toes, but I roam the store aisles to no avail. Size five shoes are increasingly elusive prey. I'm told more shoe manufacturers are starting their lines at size 6 and have dropped size 5 completely. For people like me, it's a...

The human touch is a powerful source of healing. Witness that when a child cries, our first impulse is to hug. We put our arms around grieving friends. After long absences, we embrace. Often, holding hands can convey much more than mere words.

The healing in human hands...

President Barack Hussein Obama has indeed unified a nation with the "audacity of hope." His name is audacious. Being the first bi-racial U.S. president is audacious. Aiming to pull our country out of the quagmire of debt, war and disrepute are audacious undertakings.

The new leader of...

A plastic surgeon can nip. He can tuck. But he can't fuel a Lincoln Navigator with human fat. But thumbs up for trying to "go green," Dr. Craig Alan Bittner!

Apparently, his Beverly Hills patients provided enough human blubber to power two SUV's. And he bragged about...

Holiday relief was mine when my friend, "Annie," wrote:

"Let's break the chain of giving gifts for Christmas. I really think spending time together is the best gift we have."

I'll admit that shopping does weigh me down like a clanking Jacob-Marley set of...

The heroes of Thanksgiving are the family cooks. They chop, slice, dice and roast. Like mathematicians, they figure out how to stagger five roasting pans over eight hours using one oven.

They make it look so easy, greeting guests with a breezy, "Come on in!" even as they tick off...

President Barack Obama -- not since the 1960's has such a youthful and creative exuberance changed society. I was in San Francisco, my old hometown, on election night where young men and women shouted victory, waved signs and danced in the streets. Collectively determined to break the mold (and I...

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Watch out. Wearing the wrong logo can land you in jail or cause such labeled property to be seized. A gang-related insignia of a Mongolian warrior sporting sunglasses has been prohibited for wear, licensing, sale or distribution by an injunction signed by Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the U.S. District Court...

Hosting the Olympics is the ultimate commercial for China, showcasing its ancient history and the country's amazing ascent into modernity. Global cameras zoom in on China's rich culture and the can-do power of its people. Chinese food is one of the world's greatest cuisines and exotic foods do play...

"Sorry" just won't cut it. Tomatoes are seeing red at being wrongly blamed as the contamination cause of a national Salmonella outbreak. Now jalapeno peppers have replaced tomatoes as the possible culprit, according to investigation updates by the FDA.

But the boycott resulted in a sales loss of an estimated...