chicago

God is a busy guy. I know He’s omnipotent and all that, but still, it’s gotta be exhausting to have a to-do list like His. On any given day, you can Google God under the news tab and find all sorts of claims about what the Almighty is up to. Athletes keep God especially busy. He has to make touchdowns for them, score buzzer-beaters, and win all of the mercurial Serena Williams’ matches for her. Sometimes, as we just learned from Mark McGwire, God’s work gets really tricky.

There was no shortage of drama at the nation’s Capitol Saturday as House Democrats narrowly passed their final version of the health care reform bill — and the Illinois delegation was right in the thick of it. While every Illinois Democrat supported the bill, Reps. Dan Lipinski and Jerry Costello were key backers of the controversial amendment that secured its passage but has since deeply divided the party.

When word broke that self-described moderate Republican Mark Kirk was angling for kind words from Sarah Palin for his U.S. Senate bid, the response from his rivals was savage and uniform. All three leading Democrats, as well as Kirk’s Republican challenger, accused him of inconsistency, a criticism that has nagged Kirk ever since he backed away from his vote in favor of climate change legislation in June. Kirk said he voted for the Democratic climate change bill because the constituents of his North Shore Congressional District wanted him to.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Still Life at the Lucille Lortel Theater, speaks volumes. An extraordinarily sensitive piece, it focuses on a tender love story. A talented photographer (Sarah Paulson) is suffering the equivalent of stage fright: She can’t take pictures anymore. She falls for a futurist (Frederick Weller) who is emotionally stymied. Together, they carve out, in stops and starts, a union. But he, like she, has dark demons that must be confronted. Still Life , which details the various, and often troubled relationships between men and women, rings true.

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman recently expressed concern about the level of violent discourse aimed toward President Barack Obama. Friedman likened it to the atmosphere in which Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995. Friedman’s column caused Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele to ask the question for which I’ve been dying to find an answer. “Where do these nut jobs come from?” Steele asked. I think it is a very important question at time such as this.

In the 15 years I have been working as a doctor, I have probably not treated too many white supremacists. I have worked in community health centers in Boston and in the Chicago area, and most of my patients, who are mostly uninsured, are either African American or Latino/a. But if a white guy who harbored a lot of racist sentiments came to my clinic with chest pain, I’d evaluate him and give him urgent care, without asking his political beliefs. So why are white racists so opposed to health care reform?

I am a typical mom who makes most of the purchasing decisions in my family. I cut coupons, read labels, shop in bulk, and do my best to purchase healthy products. Because I am concerned about exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA), which is used in food and beverage packaging, I’ve made a few changes to my shopping list. I bought non-polycarbonate bottles and sippy cups for my daughter, we rarely eat canned food, and I’ve given up my diet soda habit — or at least I’ve cut back.

Over 2,500 HuffPost citizen journalists have helped provide comprehensive coverage of the Tax Day Tea Party protests . Click here for the latest photos and video .To join our citizen reporting team, sign-up here . While a majority of the protesters who attended tea parties across the nation convened to oppose to taxes, many conservatives viewed these gatherings as a platform to voice their other political grievances.

CHICAGO — A man who stabbed his first wife to death more than two decades ago used a Civil War replica gun to kill his current wife and her son before committing suicide in their upscale suburban home, police said Tuesday. Richard Wiley left a 40-page, handwritten suicide note indicating he shot and killed Kathy Motes, 50, and Christopher Motes, 17, and saying he refused to go back to prison, Wilmette police Deputy Chief Brian King said.

You can start the New Year feeling indulgent and selfish by inspecting Jan. 12 Time’s ” Wasting our Watts ” and the Jan. 3-9 Economist’s ” Troubled Waters .” On land and sea, we appear equally our own worst enemy. Time’s treatise is less about conservation than it is the many technologies we could use to build more efficient cars, light bulbs, machines, you name it.