Today is an historic day in the history of the State of California and in the history of the United States as a whole. Today is the day when a ban on homosexual marriage will be lifted in accordance with a decision of the California Supreme Court.

As it has circled the globe, protestors have chased the Olympic flame as it traveled to Beijing. That China has been involved in human rights abuses and untoward activities in Tibet is a fact, and a boycott of the Olympics would certainly send a signal to the authorities that the world is paying attention.

As some of you know, I also work with Faith in Public Life and this Sunday, April 13, CNN will be broadcasting a special conversation with presidential candidates* Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama. This historic Compassion Forum has been organized by interfaith leaders from across the ideological spectrum and will focus on five key issues: domestic and international poverty, global AIDS, climate change, genocide in Darfur, and human rights and torture.

Right before the Academy Awards, I settled down to listen to my almost daily dose of Bloggingheads.tv, a virtual salon of substantive punditry. Instead of libertarian principles or a debate of the presidential candidates, I was treated to a 47 min. discussion between New York's film critic David Edelstein and Alex Gibney, the director/producer of Taxi to the Dark Side.