http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/ All columnists, Morning File en-us Copyright 2012, post-gazette.com. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 05:09:38 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208559-294-0.stm?cmpid=columnists.xml One morning last fall, I signed onto my computer at work and began the process of getting rid of one after another worthless email -- delete, delete, delete, delete ... David Aschkenas. I gasped. A respite from delete. He had sent an electronic flip book of photos he took in Prague at the Old Jewish Cemetery. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208561-153-0.stm?cmpid=columnists.xml When a co-worker brought "Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master" to my attention last week, I was immediately intrigued. The letter purports to be from Jourdon Anderson, a runaway slave, to his former "owner," Col. P.H. Anderson. It was written on Aug. 7, 1865, several months after the end of the Civil War. Jourdan lived in Dayton, Ohio. The colonel lived in Big Spring, Tenn. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208418-152-0.stm?cmpid=columnists.xml At Thursday morning's National Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama delivered a fascinating address, pointing out the shared values of the world's major religions while constantly referencing his particular Christian faith. One of the shared principles he cited repeatedly but grounded in "Jesus' teaching" was this familiar verse: "For unto whom much is given, much shall be required." Mon, 6 Feb 2012 10:56:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208419-294.stm?cmpid=columnists.xml Gov. Tom Corbett delivers a budget address to the General Assembly Tuesday, touting his spending plan and policy agenda for Pennsylvania in 2012-13. Normally, The Morning File would have sources feeding us advance dope (no pun intended) about the governor's announcements. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 10:37:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1207984-109.stm?cmpid=columnists.xml Walt Whitman -- giant of Americana, author of "Leaves of Grass" and portrayed in voice by Garrison Keillor in Ken Burns' "The Civil War" -- is celebrated today as a champion of individual freedom, the pleasures of the senses and a love of nature. Yet Whitman made a much different mark on our country during the Civil War, as a nurse's aide and hospice caregiver. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 11:23:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1207967-149.stm?cmpid=columnists.xml The good news is that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation has seen the error of its way and reversed its plans to eliminate grants to Planned Parenthood. The bad news is how it lost sight of its mission to begin with. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1207974-155.stm?cmpid=columnists.xml "In retrospect,'' Bill DeWeese told me over dinner last June, "I should have been more administratively punctilious.'' That's the way Mr. DeWeese always has spoken in his 35 years representing Pennsylvania's southwest corner in the state House. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1207975-294.stm?cmpid=columnists.xml Stacy Innerst is the artist. You are the caption writer. Take part in our contest. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208167-294.stm?cmpid=columnists.xml LONDON -- Memo to Brazil: That idea of putting up a giant Jesus statue in a London park to promote the 2016 Olympic Games is not going over well. Brazil's tourist board has floated the notion of erecting a 30-foot replica of Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue -- a symbol of peace and a well-known landmark of the city -- on Primrose Hill. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500