Major Bosshardt, who is well known and loved by every Dutch person, has died at age 94. Boshart was a Major in the Salvation Army and dedicated her life to the poor and addicted. She first became famous because she regularly visited the red light zone in Amsterdam, to talk to prostitutes, to listen to their stories, and to be there for them: she did not condemn them, she loved them.| MORE ›

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a religious group in Turkey called the Dönme, after reading an article about them at Forward.com (Jewish news). Before reading that article, I had never heard of the Dönme, but after reading it, I was fascinated and wanted to find out more about them. Little over a week ago, a person who wishes to remain anonymous, sent me a lot of articles about them, hoping that they would help me understand the Dönme better.| MORE ›

The Times reports that Republican consultants predict that John McCain will drop out of the race in September, if his poll numbers have not gone up by then and if his fundraising dries up (which they seem to consider a very real possibility).

Such a move would not truly surprise me – I have to say. McCain has – in my opinion – simply no real chance of winning the Republican nomination.| MORE ›

Fareed Zakaria wonders the US is “losing the war on terror.”

Consider the news from just the past few months. In Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world, the government announced that on June 9 it had captured both the chief and the military leader of Jemaah Islamiah, the country’s deadliest jihadist group and the one that carried out the Bali bombings of 2002.| MORE ›

Good news for Hillary Clinton and Fred Thompson (who has yet to officially announce his candidacy): the two of them lead the polls in Nevada. The results (Republicans):
Fred Thompson, 25 percent

Mitt Romney, 20 percent

Rudy Giuliani, 17 percent

John McCain, 8 percent

The results (Democrats):
Hillary Clinton, 39 percent

Barack Obama, 17 percent

John Edwards, 12 percent

Bill Richardson, 7 percent

Obviously a very, very easy lead for Hillary Clinton.| MORE ›

A fascinating series at The Boston Globe about Mitt Romney (h/t Hollyrob). It is incredibly interesting to read these articles and to watch the videos. Sadly, the Globe only published 2 installments yet: the other five installments will be published later.
Installment 1 can be found here.
Installment 2 here.

Part 1 is called “The Son”
Part 2 is called “The Missionary”

The New York Times reports:

In a new video, kidnapped British journalist Alan Johnston appears with what he says are explosives strapped to his body and warns that his captors intend to set them off if rescuers attempt to free him by force.

The tape, called ”Alan’s Appeal,” was seen Monday after it was put on a Web site used in the past by militant groups to post messages.| MORE ›

To say that Tom Friedman does not exactly like the energy bill that recently passed the US Senate would be quite an understatement:

When you watch a baby being born, after a difficult pregnancy, it is so painful and bloody for the mother it is always hard to tell the truth and say, “Gosh, that baby is really ugly.” But that’s how I feel about the energy legislation passed (and not passed) by the Senate last week.| MORE ›

It seems that Hillary Clinton has learned from the health care debacle in the 1990s:

As first lady in the early 1990s, she tried to reshape the nation’s health care system — an audacious effort that collapsed under its own complexity, Republican opposition and the Clintons’ unwillingness to seek compromise with lawmakers.| MORE ›

The Washington Post published the second installment of a four-part series about US Vice President Dick Cheney. The title of the second chapter is “Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power,” and provides some insight into how Dick Cheney encouraged the executive to adopt a quite radical theory of executive power. At the very start of the installment, the two authors write:| MORE ›