AIDS activists are protesting the unsafe sex practices of Larry Flynt’s pornographic films. They argue that the failure to show condom use will encourage dangerous practices that allow AIDS pathogens to spread.

We live is a world of data points, sound bites (or bytes?), twitter updates and instant analysis. What is lacking is the rare combination of compassion and critical thinking, the love and respect we need if we are going to solve the global and local problems we confront.

Amidst the final days of a surreal summer and in anticipation of the election propaganda about to be unleashed, I offer the following observations for my thoughtful audience to contemplate:

America and France have a long love-hate relationship. French help was critical in our War of Independence. Many Americans were initially excited about the anti-monarchical tendencies of the nascent French Revolution in 1789. The implosion of the secular left and the rise of Napoleon cooled affections for awhile. America’s help in WWI and WWII is appreciated and resented by French elites, who consider most Americans ignorant and too religious, while we Yankees shake our heads at the arrogance of a second-rate power that will be an Islamic state in less than half a century.

Recent Obama speeches in Egypt and China have hailed “freedom of worship” as an important universal right. At first glance, this seems to be a simple reiteration of the best in American social thought. I applaud the sentiments that champion freedom, but I am appalled at the subtle and subversive change in language from “freedom of religion” to “freedom of worship.”