Sudan

Last night, at the "Rock to Save Darfur Concert-Benefit," City Councilman Eric Gioia told Talib Kweli that he'd like to replace Mos Def as the other half of Blackstar. Kweli laughed and shook his head.

Gioia was at B.B. King's Blues Club in Times Square, along with a handful of hip-hop artists and human rights activists, as one of the sponsors of a City Council resolution asking the New York City pension fund to divest from Sudan.

“I’ve been working on this for about two years, and its kind of a lonely fight,” Gioia told me backstage before he addressed the crowd.  read more »

There’s a growing genre of nonfiction that could be called “lefty paranoia about the evi  read more »

There’s a growing genre of nonfiction that could be called “lefty paranoia about the evil brilli  read more »

Daily News editor Dawn Eden writes in response to criticism of a recent piece in her section that, to me, seemed to gloss over the politics of abortion, and that led a reader to apparently discover that the profile subject was spreading misinformation:

"Moral rehab for reporters" --I like that. Thanks for the plug, Ben.

Regarding Ms. Chapman’s grievances, I stand by Colin O’Brien’s excellent story.

As the story states, abortion is not Bridge to Life’s mission. The center has helped hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women support babies whom they would not be able to support otherwise.

Regarding Ms. Chapman’s other criticism in the comments, she is correct that Yahoo Yellow Pages does not list 11 abortion clinics in College Point itself. I found that statistic via searching for abortion clinics in Flushing, Queens, which includes College Point. Here are the results of that search. To be accurate, should have said that there are 11 abortion clinics in the College Point area and the omission was my mistake. Nonetheless, the truth remains that it is easier to find an abortion clinic in Flushing than it is to find a Starbucks. But ask any one of those abortion clinics to give you diapers, clothes, food, toys, and a housing referral, and you’d have better luck asking Starbucks for a free grande mochaccino. That’s why Bridge to Life fills an important need in the community and, in my mind, deserves all the recognition it gets.

Ben, I hope that while you were searching for Big Town , you also found the very first one, on Frank Jump, a schoolteacher who has been living with HIV for over 20 years. Also, check out today’s story (which will be available here) about former slave Simon Deng’s Sudan Freedom Walk.

Recently an angel appeared to the Pope and told him that he could escape serving time in purgatory a  read more »