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Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put his troops on alert over a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was killed or kidnapped. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez speaks at the ALBA summit in Maracay, some 100 km west from Caracas June 24, 2009. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Files) Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the army's coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him on Sunday in...

"The author is ending her marriage. Isn’t it time you did the same?” So The Atlantic provocatively introduces its July/August feature “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.” It comes at a propitious moment. This seems to be the week for TMI — too much information. South Carolina governor Mark Sanford has told more, much more, than we needed to know about his mistress (how he met her, how their relationship ripened), his views on God’s laws, on the Appalachian Trail, and on forgiveness. Why must wayward American public figures stage these auto autos-da-fé — these self-immolations on TV? Dignity, which...

LAGUNA BEACH – The American Civil Liberties Union released a statement today applauding a settlement they say they reached with City Hall in connection with a lawsuit dealing with an anti-camping ordinance. According to the ACLU, the city has now agreed not to cite or arrest homeless individuals sleeping in the city, "as long as there are no reasonable public health or safety concerns" for a period of three years. The settlement also establishes a process for sealing, expunging or destroying citations and convictions issued under the now defunct ordinance, the ACLU said. Don't forget this is the city who...

Iran has detained several local British embassy staff, sparking a new row with Britain on Sunday that underscored the hardline leadership's effort to blame post-election unrest on foreign powers, not popular anger. EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran. Iranian police stand guard during an anti-Britain protest in front of the British embassy in Tehran June 23, 2009. (REUTERS/Fars News/Files) British Foreign Secretary David Miliband demanded the release of all the staff still held and said his European Union colleagues had agreed to a...

An alarming portrait of Michael Jackson in his final months has now been sketched by the nanny who cared for his three children. Grace Rwaramba, 42, tells The Times of London that she routinely pumped out the pop star's stomach after he'd ingested a dangerous combination of drugs. "I had to pump his stomach many times. He always mixed so much of it," Rwaramba said, referring to drugs. "There was one period that it was so bad that I didn't let the children see him," she is quoted as saying. "He always ate too little and mixed too much." Questioning...

Senior U.S. official says the Obama administration sees Zelaya as the only constitutional president of Honduras after coup.

CLACKAMAS -- They came by ones and twos Friday, quietly slipping into the pews at New Hope Community Church. They smiled at the words honoring a man whose faith made him an inspiration and whose exploits in three wars made him a hero. And when the last mournful drone of the bagpipes faded, they said goodbye to Col. Kenneth L. Reusser of Milwaukie, the most decorated U.S. Marine Corps aviator in history. "He was the finest gentleman I've ever met," said Harley Wedel of Fairview, a fellow Korean War veteran. "I'm really going to miss him." Reusser flew an amazing...

WASHINGTON – A closely watched discrimination lawsuit by white firefighters who say they have unfairly been denied promotions is one of three remaining Supreme Court cases awaiting resolution Monday.The court also will say goodbye to Justice David Souter who has announced he will retire "when the court rises for the summer recess." The court intends to finish its work for the summer that day, Chief Justice John Roberts said. Sonia Sotomayor, nominated to take Souter's place, was one of three appeals court judges who ruled that officials in New Haven, Conn., acted properly in throwing out firefighters' promotions exams because...

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says soldiers rousted him out of bed, beat his body guards and arrested him in his pajamas in what he criticized as "a coup" and "a kidnapping." Zelaya told a local television station Sunday that he is at the airport in San Jose, capital of Costa Rica. He said he would not recognize any attempt to name a replacement for him following his detention earlier Sunday. Zelaya says he will be meeting with diplomats and stressed he wanted to serve out his term, which ends in early 2010. He called for talks.

Is Israel Ready? By Ari Bussel and Norma Zager “To change your circumstances you need to change your thinking and subsequent actions…” Adlin Sinclair “We wrote, Rabbi Mendele, we wrote, even special emissaries we sent to the Diaspora, to collect handouts for us, and from all there is no sound and no respondent!” Mendele Book Seller’s The Burned People, 1886 The US has earmarked $2.775b in military aid to Israel for fiscal year 2010. The money can only be spent here in the USA for defense related projects, thus contributing to local employment, taxation and technological advances. Pressure is mounting...

LOS ANGELES – Gale Storm, whose wholesome appearance and perky personality made her one of early television's biggest stars on "My Little Margie" and "The Gale Storm Show," has died at age 87. Storm, who had been in failing health in recent years, died Saturday at a convalescent hospital, said her son, Peter Bonnell. Before landing the starring role in "My Little Margie" in 1952, Storm starred in numerous B movies opposite such stars as Roy Rogers, Eddie Albert and Jackie Cooper. After her last TV series, "The Gale Storm Show," ended in 1960 she went on to a successful...

That doesn't even come from me. That comes from this Oped in the Washington Post. Still, by now it ought to be clear that the best chance to protect what Mr. Obama calls "core U.S. security interests" lies in a victory for the Iranian opposition. That may look unlikely for now. But it is considerably more probable than a turn toward detente by those now engaged in murdering young women. There may not be much that can be done to help the opposition, though some tangible steps -- more money for broadcasting into the country, for example -- are readily...

DAWSONVILLE, Ga. — The first and only Catholic college in the state of Georgia celebrated its first commencement exercise May 16. At the same time, the pioneering, lay-founded Catholic school also announced a new affiliation that could drive its future growth. Southern Catholic College is an institution of 240 students from 26 states on 100 acres in the foothills of the western Georgia mountains, about an hour’s drive from downtown Atlanta. It is so new that Michelle Bivins visited the prospective college in 2004 as a high school senior from Owensboro, Ky., and stayed with her mother in a resort...

Romans 12:14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.

There’s never been a better time to be an enemy of the United States of America. Whether you’re a trained jihadist in US custody, a diminutive cult leader starving his own people while developing nukes, or part of a ruthless regime that murders dissidents in broad daylight, you can rest assured that the United States government is unlikely to act—or perhaps even speak—in a manner likely to disrupt your daily routine. While invoking “our values,” hailing the importance of American humility, and rejecting the “failed policies of the past,” the current administration is projecting a dangerous image to the world

The Cap-and-Trade bill that passed the House yesterday will be a declaration of war on the American economy if it ever is enacted into law. It is ostensibly supposed to help the American economy transition from the old, carbon-based industrial economy to the broad, sunlit (and presumably unpolluted) uplands of a post-industrial one. According to an infomercial masquerading as an AP news story, the “climate bill may spur energy revolution.” Overlooked by the AP and other minions of the left is the fact that that revolution has been underway, largely without the federal government’s help, for more than a generation...

GREGORY: ...the potential of revisiting a second stimulus come the fall. Do you think that’s appropriate? GRAHAM: Yes, I think we should revisit it and make sure that it’s focused on jobs, not adding to the debt. If you had another vote in the Senate or the House, I think it would be redone, it would be more focused on job creation, because it clearly has not helped jobs, has added to the debt, and I think it just missed its mark. So I’d love to revisit it.(snip) GRAHAM: I can be a leader on an issue, quite frankly. I...

I don’t blame him. The “pile of sh*t” that passed the House on Friday, which even Obama pal Warren Buffett describes as a “huge tax,” already shattered The One’s pledge not to raise taxes on people who makes less than $250,000. Now that they’re in for a penny, they might as well be in for a pound:

Schedule June 28 Fr. Joseph T. Lienhard, SJ, Prof. of Theology, Fordham University

Well, that was fast. Michael Jackson hasn't been buried yet and Debbie Rowe has already opened up her no-lips to the media. In an interview with the prestigious and well-respected UK publication The News of the World, Debbie started out the interview by saying, "Where's my cashiers check?" Then she went on to say that Prince Michael and Paris are not her ex-husband's biological children. Debbie says the sperm came from a donor and not from MJ. Oh, Debbie, you should teach a master class in class and taste. Debbie could never talk about any of this before, because she...