Today it came out the Sanford actually had encounters with more females then he admitted during his "shocking" press conference last week. During an AP interview he said that he "crossed lines" with other women. He also stated that it never went too far and that he actually loved Maria Belen Chapur.

With their new advertising campaign. Scientologists are using a Joe Camel strategy to get their message across. Is it appropriate for Scientology to use sexuality and teenage girls (or at least teenage-looking girls) to market their religion?

Years ago, I sat in a quiet Italian restaurant with Kurt Vonnegut (the story of how I was fortunate enough to sup with him is a bit long for this format), laughing about the stock questions people ask authors when he said (paraphrasing, its been twenty years), "Most people who tell me my books 'changed their life' can't really explain what that means. All they know is that they had an emotional connection to my writing. It didn't really change them at all." "Oh, no," I replied. "You changed me in several ways."

North Korea, Kim Jong-Il specifically, is known for its blustery antics in the world theater, and the past few months have not been unique. The anti-Western rhetoric and threats of war tend to come at times when North Korea needs something it can't provide for itself: food, money, or other forms of aid. Less than a week remains until July 4th, where actions will speak louder than words -- will North Korea launch a weapon, targeting a region within the borders of the United States?

I've been living in Norway for just over 3 years now, and have already acquired a lot of experience with the way the national health scheme here works. I thought I would write a bit about how the system here has worked for me. My experiences with the public health system in Norway have been nothing but positive. No worrying about whether some essential item is covered or not, or whether I can afford to treat some problem or other. That said, it's not entirely problem-free, on the large scale.

Last week a new interactive book anthology was published by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Penguin Classics. Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming is unlike any publishing project I have seen because it is literally a book built from submissions from Americans of all walks of life.

Americans have a tendency to conceive of their country as an exception to the rules, or to the laws of human nature, that govern other nations.

With the passage of the climate bill in the House today it is time for us to focus on creating jobs by saving our planet. I have long believed that their are millions of jobs to be created in researching, developing, growing and refining the fuels of the future. It is not only the smart thing to do, in generational perspective it might just be the healthy thing for all.

The United States government is now permitting ten of America's biggest banks to repay about $70 billion of the capital injected into them last fall. This decision followed the banks having passed the so-called "stress tests" of their financial viability, which the US Treasury demanded, and the success of some of them in raising the additional capital that the tests suggested they needed. Many people have inferred from this sequence of events that US banks -- which are critical to both the American and world economies -- are now out of trouble. But that inference is seriously mistaken.

There was a revolution in Iran in 1979 but did the people get what they wanted? It's said that the revolution against the Shah was against the monarchy, and for communism. This never happened, and it is believed that this was due to interference from the West. Islamic Rule was established. Now there is upheaval again, with the people taking to the streets, demanding that the election be annulled. In this context it is worth reading Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis. It gives one an insight into life in Iran. It is autobiographical and she tells her story through cartoons she has drawn herself. The sketches are simple and so is the language. There is humour, drama, emotion, feminism, and the history of a people and a nation, all in one.

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