“Tell me,” the wife of one of my husband’s friends began a recent phone conversation, “that you do not start your husband’s car for him every morning.” “Oh, of course not,” I told her. “Only on cold mornings I do.” Astonished silence met my ears. The discussion that followed reminded me of one that took … Read more
Two years ago, my first column for Inside Catholic came in the form of a controversial piece about why, as a pro-life Catholic, I no longer attend the March for Life. In my newness to the format, and taking into consideration the complexity of the issue, I failed to make an argument that was balanced and … Read more
For years, I have been fascinated by the endless parade of officials that move through the Vatican offices and councils. There’s something comforting about it; I feel as though I can almost see the Church’s “always changing, yet ever the same” nature on display. And so, National Catholic Reporter writer John Allen’s blog post on the Pope’s recent appointment of Dr. Flaminia Giovanelli to serve … Read more
Krista Gesaman at Newsweek has published a story claiming younger women are missing from today’s March for Life. The problem with the story is that she offers no evidence, and in trying to disguise her lack of evidence the story becomes incoherent. Gesaman’s argument goes like this: 1. The March for Life route is shorter … Read more
Time for your Friday morning link round-up: The fallout from the Murphy Report on the sex-abuse scandal in Ireland has been so dramatic — for both laity and clergy alike — that Pope Benedict has called a special meeting at the Vatican next month with all the Irish bishops to determine the best way forward. … Read more
If you’ve lived in our nation’s capital as long as I have, which is all my life, you get used to bigness, as a fact and also as a cherished ideal. Big office buildings like the Pentagon and the grotesque Rayburn Building, where many members of the House of Representatives hang out in style. Big … Read more
The Senate’s health care reform bill is dead. So it goes. What next? Will Democrats attempt to pick off Olympia Snowe to restore their Senate supermajority? Unlikely, with moderate Dems uneasy and both liberals and moderates in the House spoiling for a fight. Will they go the “reconciliation route” and push through a scaled-down version … Read more
As readers know, I live in Michigan. And our state is in one helluvan economic slump right now, due to a number of factors. Pundits continue to talk about what caused this, taking a macro view of our economic situation. I’d like to take a micro view – what unemployment and underemployment does to the … Read more
A Canadian farmer has been found not guilty of 19 charges related to selling unpasteurized milk, according to the Canadian Press. (I wrote about this case back in May 2008.) Michael Schmidt’s farm was raided by two-dozen armed officers and government officials back in 2006: The Durham, Ont., farmer argued the charges laid against him … Read more
NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia seems to have taken a page right out of Lila Rose’s playbook by conducting an undercover investigation of crisis pregnancy centers in Virginia, presumably hoping to expose them in much the same way that Live Action has exposed shady dealings at abortion clinics: In its 39-page report, titled “Crisis Pregnancy Centers Revealed,” … Read more
Later today I will be speaking to the American Life League conference on “Personhood and Politics: From the Trinity to the Courtroom.” But though the Roe v. Wade anniversary tends to focus my mind on life issues, I watched a BBC news report this morning that reminded me of the ongoing struggle over housing in … Read more
Though it was easy to miss in the media non-coverage, last week the U.S. Department of Health & Human released its congressionally-mandated impact study on the Head Start program for the years 2002 – 2003. The results were devastating for supporters of the 45-year old, $100 billion dollar program. In the fall of 2002, researchers … Read more
It was the summer of 1993 — 20 years after Roe v. Wade — and I was teaching a seminar at the Aspen Institute in Colorado with Mortimer Adler. Adler, famous for his Great Books approach to philosophy, was in his late 80s then and had asked for my help in getting through his intense … Read more
On a recent overseas trip, I read most of Andrew Sorkin’s Too Big to Fail. Despite its length, the book is a page-turner and is worth reading to understand the background of the financial crisis. The more I read, the more it became clear to me that the crisis was not just about bad banking and … Read more
When I happened across this clip a few days ago, I immediately thought of Zoe’s recent post on the smartness (and potential “personhood”) of dolphins: For those who might not recognize the narrator immediately, that’s Sir David Attenborough. He’s the “star” of the twin BBC productions, The Blue Planet and Planet Earth. They are absolutely fantastic; I … Read more
Last week, I considered the phenomenon of Envy infecting our spiritual aspirations. Envy, as you might recall, is the one sin St. Thomas Aquinas considered entirely devoid of anything good. He defined this vice concisely as “sadness at another’s good.” Put that way, this vice seems to amount to an almost pure form of malevolence. … Read more
Matt Smith, writing at Catholic Advocate, gives the most asute assessment of the Scott Brown victory I have seen. I especially like Smith’s comment on the reaction of White House aides like David Axelrod: They must have been watching the American Idol try-outs in Chicago instead of the returns. The vote in Massachusetts was about … Read more
A group of chefs, businessmen, and civil servants in Louisiana have devised a clever plan for dealing with an invasive fish: Rename it and stick it on retail shelves and restaurant menus. Asian carp was brought to the U.S. from east Asia in the 1970s to be used to help manage ponds and lagoons. As … Read more
I know–something must be wrong; I’m writing, and it isn’t a Sunday. So. A Catholic friend and I were discussing novelists the other day, and the name Walker Percy came up. I hadn’t heard more than his name before that time, but he sang his praises to the sky. Novels like Love in the Ruins, … Read more
Zoe can stop buying those lottery tickets — turns out that (surprise!) money can’t buy you happiness. In fact, many of the things society associates with happiness — health, good looks, career success — are not as important as our relationships with one another, says Nicholas Kristoff in the New York Times: Men are no … Read more