Word: sin
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...Protestant churches seem obsessed with sex these days. Not that their interest in the subject is new. Puritan disquisitions on sex were so plainspoken that early 20th century editions of them had to be bowdlerized. But the terms of today's discussion are revolutionary -- not Why do men sin? but Why shouldn't they party? Traditional strictures against homosexuality, premarital sex (once called fornication), even adultery, are up for theological debate. The Presbyterians in conclave assembled gave thumbs down to the new morality; the Episcopalians gave thumbs sideways; the United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will...
Since becoming independent from Britain in 1961, Kuwait has enjoyed the greatest democracy and freest press in the gulf region -- which is not saying much. The last parliament, elected in 1985, was suspended by the Emir in 1986 largely because it began to act like the U.S. Congress. Its sin: investigating the financial affairs of senior government officials. The Emir also imposed a press censorship that continues to this day. Pressure against the government's autocratic tendencies began to rise in 1990, so the Emir created a National Council, an assembly that could question policy but not legislate. The council...
...profile of Simpson and Bruckheimer is not flattering, but hardly devastating. Although portrayed as busybodies on the set (Top Gun director Tony Scott recounts how they pressured him to make co-star Kelly McGillis look less "whorish"), their main sin is fuzzy-minded self-importance. After calling themselves a "right brain-left brain" team, they trade sappy compliments. Simpson on Bruckheimer: "He is uncommonly smart ((and has)) the ability to hold the entire equation of moviemaking in his mind at one time." Bruckheimer on Simpson: "Don is very intelligent . . . He's a real big- picture guy." Uh-huh. Which...
Whenever a news organ disciplines a reporter, cynics suggest that management is seeking a public relations gesture, a formal rooting out of sin. But the issue is the First Amendment bond with the public. Plagiarism imperils that bond, not because it involves theft of a wry phrase or piquant quote, but because it devalues meticulous, independent verification of fact -- the bedrock of a press worth reading...
...while the author's geniality shades into coyness. But it is also true that the South of France has been a favorite stamping ground for British vacationers for generations now; many of the intelligentsia have bought houses. It just may be that Mayle has committed the unpardonable sin of making money out of simple material that was available...