Well, even Newton had his Einstein, and now genetics revolutionaries are showing that Mendel’s laws can be broken. Genes, it turns out, act so perversely they would have shocked the monk into a vow of perpetual silence. Mutant genes grow from one generation to the next like a sci-fi escapee, so that Grandma’s tiny and innocuous mutation becomes Grandson’s tragic birth defect. Genes costume themselves so that one inherited from Mom has a markedly different effect from the exact same gene inherited from Dad....

American Moralism? I was surprised by Michael Elliott’s article “What We Owe Them” (Special Report, June 21). Elliott takes on an extremely American moralistic tone with his view that “For two generations, West Europeans got fat and happy while their near neighbors in the communist half of the continent led stunted, fearful lives.” Also that we Europeans “should prepare to discharge a moral debt to [our] neighbors.” In this very assumption, shouldn’t we expect those Americans, who are also fat and rich, if not more so, to discharge their moral indebtedness to Latin America?...

But the long night of French democracy is not yet over. Le Pen and his ilk (including former aide Bruno Megret) have qualified to run candidates in at least 319 constituencies when France votes for the 577 members of the national assembly. While it’s doubtful the far right would win more than a small fraction of these seats, it’s got the potential to wield a lot of clout in individual races....

The man’s got a point. “Jay and Silent Bob,” or “J&SB,” as cyberfans have dubbed it, is Smith’s cinematic thank-you to everyone who helped make him what he is today: arguably cinema’s funniest writer about sex, certainly its most candid. In bit parts over four films, his twin creations have become minor heroes–like C3PO and R2D2, only perpetually stoned (hence the title, an allusion to “The Empire Strikes Back”). This time they’re the stars, clearing room for cameos by old friends from Ben Affleck to Brian O’Halloran, who played Dante in “Clerks....

But then we leave the house. We go to the health club and there’s Oprah chatting about incest on two wide screens above the treadmills. And in the club’s day-care center, where we leave our 5-year-old, the television is blasting kidvid. We take our little girl to the pediatrician’s office and find a set tuned to Special Report Television, which promotes health insurance and pharmaceuticals. When images of a violent drug bust flash on the screen (part of an anti-drug message), all the children become fascinated....

The Indonesian government doesn’t have the luxury of forgiving. The world’s largest Muslim nation is on a near-war footing, trying to track down all those involved in the Oct. 12 Bali bombing while simultaneously fighting radical Islam for the country’s soul. This two-front war is looming large over the ongoing investigation into the blasts. Indonesian police, assisted by foreign law-enforcement agencies, have thus far conducted a textbook investigation, say Western diplomats....

I don’t want to believe this. That’s the only thought my mind could form when I first found out that Kobe Bryant was involved in a fatal accident. Years later, I still have a hard time accepting it. Like many, I’ve had trouble processing the grief of losing someone I didn’t really know. But then I thought about it. As fans of the game, we all knew Kobe one way or another....

State police issued four warrants last week for the arrestor alleged cult leader Arvin Shreeve,61,a retired landscaper, on charges of sodomy and sexual assault of children. Police decided to act after gathering evidence from a number of people connected to the group. One of them, Ron Van Drimmelen, believed Shreeve sexually abused his 7-year-old son. Last May, when a refugee from the group spoke out, his fears were confirmed. In a sworn deposition in a civil case, Kori Christofferson,23,painted a disturbing picture of sex and sanctimony....

But in addition to the public school officials, administrators, religious leaders, business people, and leaders of non-profits in attendance were 30 students who were bussed to the event by their public schools. And the schools had failed to inform their parents that their children would witness a drag show. As Libs of TikTok reported, permission slips for the field trip only made passing reference to what would take place, noting that “traditionally there are songs, performances, and a food item....

In the days when the world knew him as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI expressed reservations about Turkey’s accession to the European Union, which he believed would mark the end of the EU as the political expression of a common culture. Instead, Ratzinger suggested, Turkey should be associated with the European Union in such a way that it would enjoy the economic benefits of EU membership without becoming a member, with full voice and vote, of the EU’s political deliberations....

Biology and common sense alike tell us that we are dealing with human life in its earliest form. With implantation and luck (about 40 percent of embryos fail to survive naturally) each will become a genetically unique person like you and me. The ethical questions then become clear: what value should we place on human embryos, and how should their well-being be balanced with that of the millions whose acute suffering might be alleviated through stem-cell research and development?...

President George W. Bush is now weighing how or whether the United States will re-engage to help fix Liberia–the biggest regional problem. Opponents of intervention argue that Liberia’s situation is hopelessly complicated, that U.S. forces are stretched too thin, that the United States has no strategic interests at stake and that this sort of “social work” is best left to Africans and Europeans. In fact, the United States today has a unique and unexpected opportunity to work in concert with U....

The team, the players’ union and Rodriguez’s representatives have made “quiet progress” in recent weeks on a plan to distribute the $6 million bonus Rodriguez is due for hitting his 660th home run to a variety of charities, Fox Sports reports. MORE: These are the worst MLB alternate uniforms The deal isn’t done yet, but the proposal calls for the money to be divided among several charities selected by Rodriguez and Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner....

According to a study published in the journal Science Advances, the planet may be a “super-Earth”—exoplanets with masses higher than Earth’s but significantly lower than those of Uranus and Neptune. One planet, known as Proxima b, has already been detected around the star, which is a red dwarf—meaning it has a relatively low temperature, diameter and mass (about an eighth that of the Sun’s.) “For such type of star we expect systems of low-mass planets to be common around them,” Mario Damasso, from the INAF Astrophysical Observatory of Turin, told Newsweek....

Assigning blame for the East Timor carnage–and the recent deaths of three U.N. workers in West Timor–is a tricky issue for Jakarta. Reason: the Indonesian military funded and trained the militias responsible for the crimes. Many Indonesians do not think what happened in East Timor was a big deal, given the country’s violent history, and there’s been no public outcry for a trial. If there is one, it could prove hugely embarrassing....