<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>washingtonpost.com - Eugene Robinson</title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/opinion/columns/robinson?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><description>Eugene Robinson</description><language>en-us</language><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>washingtonpost.com</title><width>140</width><height>20</height><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com</link><url>http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/image/wp_web.gif</url></image><item><title><![CDATA[Adoration's Price]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7898-2005Apr21.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7898-2005Apr21.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  If half of what the prosecution witnesses say about Michael Jackson is true, he deserves to go to jail. But so do some of those witnesses. Once the whole lot is behind bars, the rest of us ought to work on taming the monster of celebrity before it devours us all.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Conclave's Remote Reach]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64470-2005Apr18.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64470-2005Apr18.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  The cardinals meeting beneath Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment" to choose the next pope are seeking divine guidance, but I doubt there's a man present who doesn't realize he's at the heart of the best political story in the world right now. Will they choose a Third World pope and recognize demographic reality? Return to tradition and name an Italian? Will it be a conservative or a progressive? Would a black African pope play well to the faithful?]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Terror Suspect With Connections]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55031-2005Apr14.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55031-2005Apr14.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  An accused mass-murdering terrorist has sneaked into the United States illegally and is skulking around. He is suspected of blowing up a civilian airliner in flight, directing a string of hotel bombings and plotting to kill a head of state. He's already escaped from prison once. You'd expect the Bush administration to ramp up to Threat Level Red, set the whole Homeland Security Department's hair on fire, rush Dick Cheney back to his lonely bunker, scour the countryside until the bad guy is found and then advise the warden at Guantanamo to expect a new guest.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Art vs. the Church Lady]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45306-2005Apr11.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45306-2005Apr11.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Art is by definition artificial, yet it tells truths. Here in Washington we're fortunate that a truth-telling art exhibit has arrived like a blast of fresh air, just when the pall of religiosity hanging over the city was reaching gas-mask stage.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Prince of Wails]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35741-2005Apr7.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35741-2005Apr7.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Imagine you're a 56-year-old man, famously unemployed. Your mother is a domineering executive consumed by her work, your father a dour martinet who inhabits a little surviving time bubble of the 19th century. Your first marriage was such a royal disaster it nearly brought down the venerable family firm. But you escaped with a divorce, and then your first wife tragically died, and finally you were free to marry your mistress, the true love of your life. But "Mummy" disapproved, and Mummy  --  as she often reminds you  --  is still the boss.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Whence the Next Pope?]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26529-2005Apr4.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26529-2005Apr4.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Will the princes of the Roman Catholic Church, meeting beneath Michelangelo's sublime frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, send up a puff of white smoke announcing a black pope from Nigeria? Or will they choose a smooth, experienced Brazilian? What about the charismatic rising star from Honduras? Or will they decide the church needs a breather and go with a consensus-building Italian?]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[In the Flow, but Against the Tide]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22007-2005Apr2.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22007-2005Apr2.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  In all that will be written about Pope John Paul II, one of the most remarkable men of the last half-century, the word "compassionate" will often appear. But the word "sentimental" probably won't. He was as clear-eyed and purposeful in the pursuit of his goals as any chief executive, and it would dishonor him to be any less clear-eyed in reviewing his life and work.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Defense Rests]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17356-2005Mar31.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17356-2005Mar31.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  I guess now I won't be killing anyone. My plan, if I ever did, was to call Johnnie Cochran, but, sadly, his number is no longer in service.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Trial of the Century: 'Got to Be There']]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8330-2005Mar28.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8330-2005Mar28.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Finally, Michael Jackson has had the sense of occasion to inject the race issue into his Trial of the Century. He told the Rev. Jesse Jackson, in a celebrity-to-celebrity radio "interview," that he is among a string of "black luminaries" to face trumped-up charges. He compared himself to Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali and Jack Johnson, and warned ominously of a grand conspiracy against him. In fact, he said, "a lot of conspiracy is going on as we speak."]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Life and Death in Florida]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58467-2005Mar22.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58467-2005Mar22.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Does any glimpse, any shadow of the consciousness once known as "Terri Schiavo" still exist? That question is hard to answer, though most doctors who have examined her say no. The problem for me, though, is that even if we could be certain one way or the other, we still wouldn't be sure what to do. It's possible that if there is a glimmer of Terri Schiavo left, the right thing for her parents to do is to let her die. And it's possible that if she's gone forever, the most humane thing for her husband to do is to let her continue to lie in that hospice bed.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Remember Huaycan]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55430-2005Mar21.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55430-2005Mar21.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   "When elephants fight," says the African proverb, "it is the grass that suffers." So, as the Bush administration goes tusk to tusk with Old Europe to install the architect of the Iraq war as president of the World Bank, let's not get so engrossed that we forget the billion people underfoot  --  the "grass" that the World Bank is supposed to cultivate out of desperate poverty.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[An Inspiring Story's Loose Ends]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45509-2005Mar17.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45509-2005Mar17.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   It's no surprise that the tragic courthouse slayings in Atlanta have drawn a swarm of Hollywood producers to the hub of the South. The story is simple, powerful and profound: a rampage of pure evil followed by an act of pure redemption.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Race to Dream About]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35350-2005Mar14.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35350-2005Mar14.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  So did she jump or was she pushed? Back from the brink, I mean.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sum of Our Fears]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25615-2005Mar10.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25615-2005Mar10.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Today we eschew both cotton-candy indulgence (the Michael Jackson trial) and eat-your-peas sobriety (whither Social Security?) to tuck into more starkly existential fare: If you're the worrying kind, what do you choose from the smorgasbord of dread laid out upon the table of modern life?]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Oh, For Cryin' In the Buttermilk]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15522-2005Mar7.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15522-2005Mar7.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   "We used to say that if a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a handgun."]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[So Now Bush Cares?]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5697-2005Mar3.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5697-2005Mar3.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   I have to assume that President Bush's sudden concern for my life expectancy, and that of my homies, is just breathtaking political cynicism,  nothing more. He isn't sincere. If he were, it would mean a road-to-Damascus transformation as profound as his earlier conversion from jejune,  fun-loving frat boy to sober, responsible man of God.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Oscar's 'Ray'  Of Hope]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61637-2005Feb28.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61637-2005Feb28.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  "What straight black man sits there and watches the Oscars?" comedian Chris Rock impishly asked, a few days before hosting the show. Well, I did, and I saw three straight black men play starring roles -- Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman, who won the two awards for male actors, and Rock himself. I'm probably too optimistic, but maybe, just maybe, it will turn out to be a cultural milestone, the end of an era in which black men on celluloid had to represent either pathology or salvation.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Prozac to My Ears]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51784-2005Feb24.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51784-2005Feb24.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Next time you take a walk, count how many faces are framed by skinny white wires that descend in a languid "y" before vanishing into pocket or bag. Innocent though they look, those wires -- which connect ears to iPods -- are like portable IVs dispensing a powerful antidepressant. They are the new Zoloft. To self-medicate, the patient just brushes a thumb across the iPod's selector wheel and it answers with a soft tattoo of clicks, a whisper that promises nirvana.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Same Old Stereotyping]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42610-2005Feb21.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42610-2005Feb21.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Self-appointed defenders have rallied around Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard University's besieged president, vowing to save him -- and academic freedom itself -- from the baying, torch-wielding mobs of political correctness. Sorry, but I won't be joining those Summers soldiers at the barricades. Not since I read the speech that got Summers in trouble.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Price  of Low Prices]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33568-2005Feb17.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33568-2005Feb17.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/robinson</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:26:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   I spent a morning this week walking up and down the aisles of a local Wal-Mart, and I have to confess that I never once glimpsed the face of pure evil.]]></description><author> Eugene Robinson</author></item></channel></rss>