I returned from Bolivia last Saturday. It was an amazing experience, and I learned a lot. I would write more about it here, but I would rather keep my notes on my group blog site, which can be found at http://equipobolivia.org/blog.html. Please check it out, and you are welcome to leave comments on this site, or on our Contact page at http://equipobolivia.org/contact.shtml Now that I'm back in the USA, most of my focus has been on the Presidential primaries. My state, Missouri, will have its ...

I have created a KerrySpace email group for those interested. Here is the description: This group will help to organize those supporters of John Kerry, who are very interested in space policy. We will work to influence Senator Kerry's platform on space policy--by formulating ideas for space policy, which can be presented to the public for comment, and then submitted to Senator Kerry for his approval and use in debate against his opponent. We will otherwise support Senator Kerry's Presiden...

Republicans often try to discredit John Kerry by saying he is a waffler, i.e. he changes his position on issues. They often use the example that he voted "for the war in Iraq" but "against the $87 billion to support the troops". This claim is either a sign that the purveyor of this misstatement fails to understand basic government, or it is a deceptive distortion, which in plain language, we call a lie. Kerry did not "vote for the war" nor did anyone else in the Congress because there neve...

In recent decades, Catholics, making up roughly one-quarter of the U.S. electorate, have become an important swing voter group. While they have traditionally voted with the Democratic party, evidence shows that a massive swing to support Republicans in the 1980's decided the 1980 and 1984 elections for Reagan, and the 1988 for Bush. In 2000, however, Catholics split nearly evenly between Bush and Gore. Even a small shift from this balance could decide the 2004 election, especially since the p...

In my last essay, I listed the Three Big E’s of Energy, Environment, and Education as the most important issues to me in this election. In this essay, I will focus on one, Energy. I will admit that many will see it as a stretch as to how Energy policy relates to Catholic teaching, but please bear with me for at least 5 minutes, and I’ll do my best to help you see why. What Is It? As a physicist, I’ll cite one of our most famous equations: E=mc 2 (I promise this will be the only equat...

Introduction As one priest put it, “The environment is the mother of all pro-life issues.” Despite the widespread evil of abortion, war, and violence, there is no other issue that more drastically impacts life than the environment. Even President Richard Nixon, in his 1970 State of the Union Address, demonstrated that the environmental cause is “as fundamental as life itself," according to Nixon's EPA Aministrator (Train and Russman, 2004) There is also no other conflict that incites...

I care about abortion. I care so much that I called Cam Kerry a couple weeks ago. Cam Kerry is John Kerry’s younger brother, and he is the closest person to John Kerry I could contact. I called him to get the facts about John Kerry’s position on abortion. I needed to know, since we both John Kerry and I are fellow Catholics, whether abortion is an issue that is important to John Kerry personally. He assured me that the tragedy of abortion is an issue that is important to John personally, as...

In the fallout of Fr. Michael Pfleger’s recent "sermon" at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Senator Barack Obama resigned his membership there. This was the culmination of several months of political trauma for the Obama campaign, beginning with revelations in the national media that Obama's pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, has made many politically contentious statements. My intention here is not to judge Senator Obama, Father Pfleger, or Jeremiah Wright, but I do wa...