The purpose of higher education is the pursuit of truth, and throughout history men and women have devoted their lives to it. One such man was Mohandas Gandhi. Born in 1869, the son of uneducated parents, he was a mediocre student and a self-described coward who feared ghosts — into adulthood, he slept with a … Read more
According to Dahlia Lithwick at Slate, Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision to overturn California’s Proposition 8 will be difficult for the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse. That is because Walker appears to have written his opinion with one specific Supreme Court justice in mind: I count — in his opinion today — seven citations to Justice … Read more
Clergymen used to be a healthy and long-living bunch. But over the past few years, studies have shown that pastors are in worse health than other Americans. Their rates of obesity, hypertension, and depression are higher, and their life expectancy is lower. As The New York Times reports, experts don’t agree on any single explanation … Read more
In his recent article “On Handguns and the Constitution,” Ronald J. Rychlak touched on the subject of private gun ownership and regulation in the United States. The occasion was the Supreme Court ruling McDonald v. Chicago, which established that the Second Amendment, like all the other items in the Bill of Rights, recognizes and protects … Read more
The prudential arguments Catholics have on subjects such as immigration, welfare programs, and government spending all too often descend into mutual, willed incomprehension — in which each side holds fast to its caricature of the other and insulates itself against learning a scintilla from the “enemy.” While this is counterproductive, it’s also kind of fun. … Read more
How did I miss this? Jay Kennedy, an historian and philosopher of science at the University of Manchester, claims to have made an unusual discovery in the works of Plato. In short, he argues that the philosopher was a closet Pythagorean, and that he left numerous textual clues to that effect. [Kennedy] used a computer … Read more
Danny Seidemann is an Israeli attorney and the region’s leading expert on land and property rights. An immigrant to Israel as a young man and a committed Zionist, Seidemann insisted to me today that the only real pro-Israel position is one that fully supports a two-state solution to the conflict with Palestinians. “There is still … Read more
The latest issue of the New Yorker has an excellent piece on the current sorry state of end-of-life care in this country — and not because of politics, or insurance companies, or any of the usual culprits. Rather, Dr. Atul Gawande says that, however good modern medicine has become at prolonging life, we are more … Read more
Eighteen months later and billions of dollars spent have not resulted in the new jobs that the stimulus program was intended to create. Private-sector employment has actually declined an estimated two million additional persons since the inauguration of the program. The elusive goal of creating private-sector jobs is the subject of much commentary among economists, … Read more
The “Mosque at Ground Zero” controversy has been simmering (even boiling) for some time now, and a number of excellent (if a trifle vehement) points have been made in recent weeks, culminating in today’s decision to allow the project to move forward. This editorial from The Wall Street Journal’s Bill McGurn relates an interesting story about … Read more
Over at the National Catholic Register, Matt Warner looks at a study of how churches (of all denominations) and their members use social media. A few of the findings: 61% of churches use social media. 62% of churches post homilies/sermons to a website as text or audio (podcast). 28% of church pastors have a blog. … Read more
Archbishop Elias Chacour of the Melkite Church in Israel is a remarkable man. Nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, the author of three books on religion, and now in his early 70s, he’s an internationally recognized leader in the effort to find a peaceful solution to the hostilities between Jews and Arabs. “We … Read more
Distributism teaches that ownership of the means of production should be widespread (there’s got to be a way to say that without so many prepositional phrases!). In other words, it opposes our current form of capitalism (the means of production in the hands of very few; a near-oligarchy) and also opposes socialism (the means of … Read more
The Democrats don’t seem to have much of a strategy for winning the 2010 midterms, and the one approach they’ve been using isn’t working. The National Journal reports: Dems have tried repeatedly to tie the GOP to Bush’s economic policies, which remain highly unpopular. But so far, that hasn’t worked, according to officials at the … Read more
One of the sillier things one sometimes hears about the Catholic Church is communicated in jokes like the one about the guy who gets to the Pearly Gates and is ushered inside by St. Peter. As Pete’s showing him around the Elysian Fields, they pass by a little gothic structure and hear voices inside praying … Read more
Why do so many celebrities make sex tapes? It’s weird. It seems a clear sign that porn has infiltrated so many lives, and technology has made it easy. The “embarrassing” sex tapes may not be so accidental, according to Mary Elizabeth Williams of Slate who says these tapes are often publicity stunts to pave … Read more
I had to run out to the Walmart to buy ketchup, and was arrested by a strange new product on the shelves: It’s called Wrecking Balm– “a unique, devastatingly effective tattoo fade-removal system.” I don’t even want to know how it works, but a stroll down Main Street, Anytown, USA will show you why … Read more
As a highly-if-not-quite-exclusively visual person, this story from the University of Villanova really caught my attention: A team from Villanova University has made touring the Sistine Chapel a reality with just the simple click of a mouse. For the last two years, students and faculty from Villanova have been granted rare clearance to photograph some … Read more
There is much to catch up on for your summer listening pleasure. Faithful readers will recall how often I choose the Classical period for musical refreshment. And so it is again with the Symphonies Op. 3, Nos. 1-4 of Franz Ignaz Beck (1734-1809) on a new budget Naxos release (8.570799). I seemed to recall an … Read more
Words of encouragement for Steve and all parents juggling family and writing (or any other creative pursuit): Frank Cottrell Boyce, author of Millions and father of seven, says that, in spite of the number of people who reproach him with Cyril Connolly’s aphorism that “There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the … Read more