Politics of the Altar  —  GOP leaders are putting gay marriage back on the agenda.  Will voters respond?  —  June 12, 2006 issue - Back in 2004, suburban Seattle pastor Alec Rowlands watched with dismay as gay couples in Massachusetts flocked to courthouses and churches, exchanged vows and walked away legally wed.

Details Emerge About Suspects in Canada Bomb Plot  —  MISSISSAUGA, Canada, June 4 — Several of the people arrested by Canadian authorities in a huge counterterrorism sweep over the weekend regularly attended the same storefront mosque in a middle-class neighborhood of modest brick rental townhouses and well-kept lawns.

Tehran warns of fuel disruptions  —  Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that fuel shipments from the Gulf region could be disrupted if the US makes a "wrong move".  —  In a speech on state TV, Ayatollah Khamenei also said accusations that Iran intended to make a nuclear bomb amounted to a "sheer lie".

The Truth, John Kerry, and The New York Times  —  Kate Zernike's story on the front page of the Memorial Day Sunday New York Times, "Kerry Pressing Swift Boat Case Long After Loss," is an unfortunate reminder of the Times's embarrassingly poor coverage of Kerry in the face of the Swift Boat Veterans …

Paul Bass  —  Seasonal Memory Lapses  —  Medical researchers have identified a host of causes for amnesia, from encephalitis to traumatic brain injury.  —  I've discovered another cause: political campaigns.  —  Exhibit A: The current campaign in Connecticut for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.

For Deals, Jefferson Built Web Of Firms  —  On May 12, 2005, over dinner with business partner and FBI informant Lori Mody, Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) furtively scrawled the letter "c" on a sheet of paper, and next to it wrote some numbers indicating that he was demanding …

Students gunned down  —  GUNMEN have dragged 24 people, mostly teenage students, from their vehicles and shot them dead in the latest wave of violence in Iraq.  —  As Iraqi leaders appeared deadlocked overnight on naming new interior and defence ministers seen as critical to restoring stability, the relentless killings continued.

GOP buttons on their shirts and faith on their sleeves  —  Republican convention draws religious conservatives  —  SAN ANTONIO - Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell offered a greeting to delegates to the Republican convention.  "It's great to be back in the holy land," the Fort Worth native …

The Americans, Seriously  —  In his polo shirt, pleated pants and loafers, Bruce Arena might have been an executive exhorting the troops on a corporate retreat.  Instead, he was pacing the tiny locker room at the SAS Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. On this April night, the United States men's national team …

State, U.S. would be far better off without flood of illegal immigrants  —  "To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub"  —  Fact: America is the most generous legal-immigrant-receiving country on Earth, admitting more immigrants each year than are admitted by all the countries of the world combined.

Mass Natural  —  "Elitist" is just about the nastiest name you can call someone, or something, in America these days, a finely-honed term of derision in the culture wars, and "elitist" has stuck to organic food in this country like balsamic vinegar to mâche.

Gaza militant shootings kill five  —  Five Palestinians have been killed in two outbreaks of violence in Gaza.  —  A car carrying a Hamas militant and members of his family was fired on in the southern town of Khan Younis.  —  Two people were killed in the attack, which Hamas has blamed …

Palestinian support 'crashes' in Europe  —  New public opinion surveys conducted among "opinion elites" in Europe show that support for the Palestinians has fallen precipitously, according to a leading international pollster, Stan Greenberg, who has been briefing Israeli leaders on his findings in the past few days.

GEORGE BUSH MADE ME HAVE SEX  —  Well, not literally.  —  Bush has been blamed for most of the world's ills over the past five years.  He has been blamed for tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, obesity, a rise in global temperatures, and the pimple on Duncan Black's posterior.

Haditha: If Bush isn't responsible then the terrorists have already won  —  I wrote about this a few days ago so I won't rehash the argument, but there is something in the Times's editorial today that bears mentioning: … Neat trick, that.  If the investigation doesn't implicate anyone …