Welcome to the brand new InsideCatholic! Almost exactly three years ago, we launched the initial version of the site. While we’re proud of that effort, it was very much a first step. This is our second. As Deal mentioned in his morning column, we’ve designed this next iteration of IC to take full advantage of … Read more
Imagine one body with two heads. The twin giants of the Catholic literary revival of the early 20th century, G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, were so much associated in the eyes of the reading public that they together became the butt of the caricaturist’s humor and the satirist’s wit. Most famously, George Bernard Shaw, in … Read more
It’s a pretty well-established fact that the new social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) have permanently changed the way we think about on-line privacy. But I’m not sure I had thought about it in terms as stark as those Jeffrey Rosen uses in his New York Times Magazine article, “The Web Means the End of Forgetting” (my emphasis … Read more
Over at The Hermeneutic of Continuity — best “inside Catholic joke” blog name ever, by the way — Father Tim Finigan links to a very unusual Twitter account: @summatheologiae. The account’s author, whose project is described as “tweeting one article a day for your amusement and edification,” has quite a job on his hands. So far, there are … Read more
When it comes to the promotion of ridiculous ‘threats to our children,’ no-one beats the mainstream media. Take this latest civilization ender, the pastime known as i-Dosing. Here’s how it works, as described by Wired: i-dosing involves donning headphones and listening to “music” — largely a droning noise — which [Web sites] peddling the sounds … Read more
I’ve always been a sucker for those online IQ tests that ask you a bunch of fun, mostly visual/spacial questions, and then proclaim you a genius. (I’ve never enjoyed real IQ tests, though; they’re much more grudging in their endorsements.) This “Face Memory Test” from the “Science and Nature” portion of the BBC’s website has … Read more
“You see, I am not a Christian,” said the young man at lunch, chilling the conversation in an instant. He was exceptionally good looking, and obviously intelligent, but also obviously sad. His father, a former Protestant minister who was essentially driven out of his church for his faithfulness to the Scriptural directives regarding human sexuality, … Read more
One of the biggest problems with Distributism–the idea that economies should not be based on corporations (pure capitalism) or on the State (pure socialism), but on individuals and families–is the question of how to achieve that goal. Frequent commenter R.C. pinned the tail on the donkey when he wrote: “Is there anything we can do … Read more
Last week I made melancholy tribute to the shrinking cadre of men who heed the call to serve Christ’s Church as priests, and tried to think of ways we can offer them human support while they go about God’s business. Whenever I think about the question of calling, I’m reminded of my own brush … Read more
This is cool: According to the BBC, astronomers have discovered a star “so big and bright that it stretches the boundaries of what scientists believed was possible”: The star, known so far only as R136a1, has an observed mass 265 times greater than our sun, and modeling suggests it was once 320 times bigger… But … Read more
Yes, I’m turning 40 this year. And I realize that this past year – the last one in my 30’s – I have gone through a minor midlife crisis. Lacking the funds to purchase a sports car and being too in love with my wife and kids to start flirting with anything that would cause … Read more
Lots of talk recently about Shirley Sherrod, the USDA employee who was fired yesterday after a video clip was released that purported to demonstrate her “reverse racism” in a speech she gave to an NAACP meeting. Andrew Breitbart, who released the tape, essentially said that the NAACP “started it” with their accusations of racism against … Read more
Lots of talk recently about Shirley Sherrod, the USDA employee who was fired yesterday after a video clip was released that purported to demonstrate her “reverse racism” in a speech she gave to an NAACP meeting. Andrew Breitbart, who released the tape, essentially said that the NAACP “started it” with their accusations of racism against … Read more
On June 28, in the case McDonald v. Chicago, the United States Supreme Court held that cities and states cannot interfere with the right of individuals to keep and bear arms. The city of Chicago had tried to ban handguns, but Chicago resident Otis McDonald challenged the law, arguing that it made him less safe. … Read more
For someone always interested in the issues of religion and morality in comic books, today’s visit to the comic book news websites was a definite payday. First up is a self-contained graphic novel just released earlier this month, Ghostopolis, by Doug TenNapel. He’s the writer/artist who wrote some of my favorite Christian comics, including Earthboy Jacobus, … Read more
The LA Times’ Jacket Copy blog — tagline “Books, Authors and All Things Bookish” — recently alerted me to one of the most enjoyable “quickie time-waster websites” I’ve found in quite some time: I Write Like. Based on “a Bayesian classifier” — the programming backbone for a number of ordinary, run-of-the-mill spam filters — the website is disarmingly … Read more
Richard McGuire is the nom de guerre of a father who is trying to document the crimes of his four children for a hearing at the human-rights tribunal of The Hague. These are some of the lighter moments he captured over seven years — with no help from the NSA — that can be revealed … Read more
Today, Patheos launches a week-long symposium on the “Future of Catholicism.” Numerous articles have been posted by various Catholic thinkers and writers, including Deacon Greg Kandra, Fr. James Martin, S.J., Thomas Peters, James Hitchcock, Barbara Nicolosi — and, coming later this week, the IC blog’s own Joseph Susanka. If I have time over the course … Read more
Last month, Governor Bobby Jindal signed House Bill 1272 into law, which gives houses of worship in Louisiana the authority to allow concealed handgun carry in their congregations. Catholics are out of luck, though: The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops nipped that one in the bud. “We don’t think it is appropriate to have guns … Read more
First, Belgium banned the veiled burqa, then two months later, France followed. Spain is considering a ban as well, and while the British government has no interest in joining them, most of its citizens wish it would. But the most interesting development in the Great Burqa Debate came Sunday, when Syria’s Minister of Higher Education … Read more