With the reversal of a few percentage points in voting patterns, there has been a veritable tectonic shift in American attitudes toward the Iraq War. The punishment inflicted on U.S. President George Bush and his Republican party has opened up the potential for real progress.

The campaigns that precede U.S. general elections are always wonderful events. Speeches ring with high melodrama and gaudy patriotism, every pundit with anything to say (and many with nothing to say) are continuously paraded in front of television's bright lights. Accusations of villainy fly from every corner, and every candidate presents himself or herself as the saviour of a nation descending into ruin.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Valueless values

I ask myself at times why I react so negatively to a word often used these days, the word "value." The reason for my negative reaction seems to lie in the fact that the talk of values strikes me as very neutral. The word admits that for someone else my value may be quite valueless. The term communicates, in fact, our acceptance that what we take as valuable may be quite meaningless in somebody else's eyes. In other words, I react negatively to the word simply because it contains a possibility of relativism and meaninglessness.

The controversy over Madonna's adoption of a one-year-old Malawian orphan, David, raises important questions about adoptions of African orphans to Europe and North America. Our concern here is not the morality or legality of the adoption of baby David, even though these have some implications for his future happiness, fundamental rights, stability and cultural integration. Our concern is whether adoption of African orphans to Western countries offers any meaningful answer to the challenges that the high number of African orphans pose to African societies.

In an age of polar opposites – right vs. left, science vs. religion, rich vs. poor, orthodox vs. heterodox, radical individualism vs. community rights – can we ever really hope to find common ethical grounds for how we order society? For ethicist Margaret Somerville, the answer to that question is yes.

Is Canada facing legalization of euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide by stealth? Recent court decisions and strategies used by euthanasia lobbyists suggest this is happening even though the law as it is written still bans both types of killing.

On Monday, Nov. 13, Ontario voters will go to the polls to choose their representatives for local governments. Top of mind for Catholic school supporters should be the selection of school board trustees.

Public protests against globalization — vociferous, often tumultuous affairs — gained momentum from the mid-1990s onward, peaking around the turn of the new millennium. Then, for reasons that are imperfectly understood, the potential Great Cause of a generation of young activists simply fizzled.

TORONTO - John Dubeau still remembers the pain he felt when he and his wife divorced more than 30 years ago.

U.S. President George Bush made a startling admission last week. He agreed with a journalist that the war in Iraq is bearing an alarming resemblance to Vietnam. Now if only his administration would learn how not to repeat history’s mistakes.