President Barack Obama delivered a heartfelt address at an interfaith prayer service for the Boston bomb victims at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Thursday, focusing his speech on the redeeming power of grace in the face of tragedy.

Citing a poet who said Boston "is the perfect state of grace," Obama remarked: "And so we come together to pray and mourn and measure our loss. But we also come together today to reclaim that state of grace. To reaffirm that the spirit of this city is undaunted and the spirit of the country shall remain undimmed."

"The grace this tragedy exposed is the best of who we are," he added. more >>

President Barack Obama's decision not to attend or dispatch high-ranking members of his administration to the funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Wednesday was criticized in the United States as well as the United Kingdom.

Given that the White House sent an official delegation to the funeral of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, a "tyrannical socialist dictator," Obama's treatment of the funeral of the "Iron Lady" was an "amazing snub," said the website of the Tea Party News Network.

George P. Shultz and James A. Baker III, who both served as Secretary of State while Thatcher was in power, represented Obama's official delegation. Former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney and former secretary of State Henry Kissinger were also present. more >>

Bill Richard, the father of 8-year-old Martin Richard, one of the three victims killed as a result of the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday, is thanking Americans for their prayers and thoughts during this difficult time for his family.

"My dear son Martin has died from injuries sustained in the attack on Boston. My wife and daughter are both recovering from serious injuries," Richard said in a Tuesday statement, published by the Boston Globe.

"We thank our family and friends, those we know and those we have never met, for their thoughts and prayers. I ask that you continue to pray for my family as we remember Martin," the father added. more >>

Only four percent of Americans say that gun violence or gun issues constitute the most important problem facing the country today, based on our April 4-7 monthly update of the "most important problem" measure. This puts guns in the same four percent category as immigration issues, education, and the situation with North Korea.

This also puts guns -- on this measure -- well below a number of other economic and governmental issues (we'll have a full discussion of these results on Monday at gallup.com).

Trend wise, the mention of gun issues is about where it has been since December, when it jumped to four percent from virtually no mentions in November. This increase was, no doubt, a direct result of the impact of the Newtown, Conn. elementary school shootings. The mention of guns as the most important problem has stayed at about this level since December -- at four percent in January, six percent in February, and four percent in March and April. more >>

The White House announced Tuesday afternoon that President Barack Obama will be attending an interfaith vigil to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings on Thursday in Boston, Mass.

The president will reportedly cancel his scheduled Thursday meetings in Washington, D.C., as well as his scheduled talk at the University of Kansas on Friday morning, in order to speak to the family members of those killed in Monday's bombings, as well as the survivors at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

Obama's plans to speak at the interfaith service were confirmed Tuesday by the White House and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick during a press conference in Boston. more >>

It's a pity North Korea's Kim Jong-un had to spoil the party this week. Rockers at the White House should not have had to listen to disturbing news stories about rattling sabers and missile launches

Here's a satellite photograph that East Room partygoers should study, for at least five minutes. The astute reader will see in this image of the Korean peninsula by night some very interesting things. There is a sharp line between the lighted portions and the darkened portions of Korea. That line runs along the 38th Parallel of latitude. That was the Truce Line agreed to after years of bitter and contentious negotiations between North Korean and Chinese Communists and the UN. For, in those halcyon days, the United Nations was actually willing to use force to counter Communist aggression. In reality, it was the Americans who constituted the vast majority of UN forces engaged on the Korean peninsula between 1950 and 1953.

That Truce Line is better known as the demarcation for the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ). This DMZ has long been regarded as one of the most dangerous places on earth. The world's longest truce has just recently been disavowed by the new young dictator of the Hermit Kingdom of Korea, that is, Communist North Korea. more >>