Maybe it’s the lingering effects of unaccustomed sun beating down on my fish-white neck all day yesterday as I tried to rototill a garden with my bare hands, as the bug-eyed little boy from next door snuck up behind me every time I hit my stride and shrieked, “KIN I TELL YOU SUMPIN’!!!!!!!” in my ear (what he wanted to … Read more
As many others have said, it’s impossible at this stage to know what the full impact of the Gulf oil spill will be. Some estimates say there may be as much as 200,000 gallons of oil bubbling up through the ocean per day. These waters are populated with endangered bluefin tuna and sperm whales, not … Read more
The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) is at it again. For those not familiar with AGI, it is a $30-million-a-year research group based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. Named for Alan Guttmacher, former president of Planned Parenthood, the mission of the organization is to “advance sexual and reproductive health” around the world. This makes … Read more
One of the things that has always fascinated me about baseball is the way it somehow manages to be ever-constant, yet also ever-changing. The general parameters of the game remain the same, so if I happened to stumble across ESPN Classic’s rebroadcast of Don Larsen’s shining moment, its connection to Mark Buehrle’s moment last year would be immediately recognizable. Yet … Read more
One thing we Catholics have known since almost the beginning: Most statements in the Bible can be misread, misapplied, and torn out of context to serve as the pretext for hysterical balderdash. Martin Luther famously used his private reading of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans to invent a whole new theology of salvation, … Read more
The weather isn’t the only thing that’s heating up down here on the border. As temperatures this week inch closer to the triple-digits, the repercussions of SB 1070 – Arizona’s tough new immigration law – continue to remain center stage. (If you haven’t read the law itself, the link above takes you there. Many people … Read more
A New York Times/CBS News poll released yesterday on Catholic opinions about the Vatican, the pope, and the abuse scandal is a mixed bag of results, as you might have expected. Laurie Goodstein summarizes some of the findings: A majority of Roman Catholics in the United States are critical of the way Pope Benedict XVI … Read more
A clergyman — an old friend, actually — remarked to me recently that he is inclined to view sin and hurt as synonymous. Such remarks arise, surely, from the wish to be compassionate. The idea would be that we mortals stagger along under such burdens and pains laid on us by heredity and environment that … Read more
The iPad is a technological phenomenon — a real game changer. I got mine in the mail a few days ago and was immediately impressed by its true portability: It’s a laptop replacement, no doubt about it. The basic genius of the device is that Apple has figured out the precise size, weight, and shape that … Read more
The iPad is a technological phenomenon — a real game changer. I got mine in the mail a few days ago and was immediately impressed by its true portability: It’s a laptop replacement, no doubt about it. The basic genius of the device is that Apple has figured out the precise size, weight, and shape that … Read more
This has got to win the IC prize for most heartwarming story of the week. It might even make Brian crack a smile (a benevolent one, not the evil grin he usually has going on). Seriously, this story’s so nice, it belongs on the Lifetime channel. Erik Martin, a 13-year-old boy living with liver cancer, … Read more
John McCain wants to appear tough on terror. Instead, he just looks like he’s never read the Constitution. Over at The Hill today, Michael O’Brien notes that McCain believes it would have been a “serious error” to read Miranda rights to Faisal Shahzad, the suspected Times Square car bomber. And while the years since 9/11 … Read more
The debate on the family is becoming increasingly politicized. Social conservatives propose federal programs to promote marriage and fatherhood and to enlist churches. Liberals respond that government does not belong in the family but then advocate federal programs of their own. Yet the more polarized the issues become the less willing we are to look … Read more
A finance reform bill called the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009” (H.R. 4173), which recently passed in the House of Representatives, now includes a strange addition by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA). Waxman seems to believe the dietary supplement industry should be regulated like the pharmaceutical industry. The language he wants in … Read more
Given that Mark Shea’s column this morning is on feeding the hungry, this latest video from the Population Research Institute — exploding the myth that overpopulation is behind world hunger — is pretty timely. PRI’s POP 101 series is great — informative, well-produced, and starring the most adorable starving stick figures ever: Be sure to … Read more
I’m a little late in getting to the feast of St. Catherine of Siena, one of the patron saints of Italy — certainly a poster saint for the “genius of women” and one of my favorites (even if she’s an act I could never begin to follow). As I’ve mentioned previously, part of ordinary life in … Read more
Last week, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson endorsed candidate Trey Grayson in his primary race against Rand Paul for Kentucky’s open U.S. Senate seat. Yesterday, Dobson shocked the Kentucky political establishment by pulling that endorsement, and switching his support to Paul. Dobson felt tricked by some in the Republican leadership, and let them … Read more
Norman Borlaug is not the sort of name you think of when it comes to world-historical heroism. A Norwegian Lutheran son of Iowa, he grew up on the prairie, went to college during the Depression where he studied the thoroughly unglamorous subject of agriculture, enjoyed wrestling, met his wife while waiting tables at a university … Read more
Over at The Catholic Herald (UK), Roy Peachey has an intriguing piece on a number of Catholic writers he fears are being left by the wayside — not for any fault in their craftsmanship or in their ability to be relevant, but simply for geographic reasons: Most English language studies of the Catholic novel – and, I would guess, … Read more
You know that Veggie Tales song? “We’re busy, busy, dreadfully busy”? (My life is often best illustrated by Veggie Tales songs, actually. I’m shocked how often I quote from it on a daily basis. But I digress.) Today, we leave talking heads behind and re-enter the broad physical humor that Borth was so skilled at … Read more