Writing for the Catholic Advocate, Matt Smith reports that 39 of the 106 cosponsors of a House bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act are “self-identified” Catholics. Smith, a former associate director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, warns that same-sex marriage activists are trying to bring H.R. 3567 — ironically, … Read more
From todays’s New York Times comes a story by Jodi Kantor about Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI). It contains the following very interesting tidbit: (Mr. Stupak says he urged the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to toughen its stance on the legislation; representatives from the conference and the National Right to Life Committee did not return calls.) … Read more
The answer to this question may, at first glance, seem simple, but it requires its own discernment. We’re not wrestling here with a simple polarity of Sloth versus Diligence. If that were true, then questions of how much energy to put into pursuing natural and spiritual goods would end with the simple answer: “More is … Read more
In the most recent edition of Dappled Things, Jeffrey Tucker — a regular, lively InsideCatholic contributor and a must-read on all things related to Catholic liturgical music — has a piece entitled simply “A Fix for Catholic Music.” In it, he identifies the three “crucial” components he believes are missing in efforts to reform the … Read more
We’ve known for a while that dolphins are smart creatures. Now it appears they’re even smarter than we thought. According to the Times Online, research suggests dolphins have “individual personalities, a strong sense of self, and can think about the future.” Dolphins can also recognize themselves in a reflection, and have figured out how to … Read more
By now most people know Fox News’s Brit Hume recommended Tiger Woods consider what Jesus Christ has to offer him in his difficult situation. Tiger Woods will recover as a golfer. Whether he can recover as a person I think is a very open question, and it’s a tragic situation for him. I think he’s lost his … Read more
I’m trying to imagine something like this happening in the United States: In South Korea, dozens of doctors held a press conference where they publicly asked for forgiveness for performing illegal abortions. “We sold our soul for money,” said Dr. Choi. “Abortion was an easy way to make money.” In a country where abortion is … Read more
In the current opposition to abortion on moral grounds, the “right to life” principle has attained an indisputable hegemony. But numerous exceptions to this principle are admitted, even by those who stand firmly by the general rule. Self-defense in the face of unjust aggression or threats to life is almost universally approved; just war … Read more
[This article was posted today at Catholic Advocate.] Four Things the President and Congress Can Do Right Away On Health Care Reform By Matt Smith Congress returns to work today to begin the second session of the 111th Congress. Here are four things the president and Congress need to do this week on health care reform. President … Read more
[This article was posted today at Catholic Advocate.] Four Things the President and Congress Can Do Right Away On Health Care Reform By Matt Smith Congress returns to work today to begin the second session of the 111th Congress. Here are four things the president and Congress need to do this week on health care reform. President … Read more
Another amusing entry for the “Same, Yet Different” file: A new species of crab that looks like a strawberry has been discovered in Taiwan. Marine biologist Professor Ho Ping-ho found two of the creatures while researching the environmental impact of a shipwreck on Kenting National Park. There is already a Strawberry Crab, apparently. Sometimes known as … Read more
When I think of the Vatican Secret Archives, I pretty much have in mind the warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark. (If anyone has the Ark of the Covenant hidden away in a box in the basement, it’s going to be them.) So when news came that the Archives has recently published a book … Read more
BBC News published a heart-breaking piece just before Christmas about what has become of Romania’s orphans. You may remember reports from the early 1990s detailing the horrific orphanage conditions there. (Deal and his family can attest to this first-hand, from the experience of adopting their son.) Tragically, most of the children from that period went … Read more
Culturally deprived and TV-less laggard that I am, I’ve been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD lately — for the very first time. First impressions: Joss Whedon can write rings around everybody else. Second impression: Dickens lives! By that, I mean that Whedon seems to have hit on Dickens’s formula: Create a character … Read more
This TimesOnline (UK) story — detailing a recently-completed parent survey on the ages at which their children learned to speak — caught my attention for several reasons. Firstly, because the “raw numbers” themselves are quite interesting — 3 seems disconcertingly late for speech to me, though that was a relatively small percentage of responders. And the gender splits … Read more
I have found myself in a brisk correspondence in recent weeks with a Calvinist friend from my school days 60 years ago. The topic touched on in our correspondence entails the redrawing of the moral map of the universe, which has been undertaken in the West since the 1960s. That redrawing arrived on the crest … Read more
Tony Judt writes in the latest New York Review of Books about his struggles with Lou Gehrig’s disease, the motor neuron disorder that results in the eventual loss of voluntary muscle movement. At this stage, Judt is effectively a paraplegic, a state he has come to manage (with help) during the day — but being … Read more
It’s almost as if WholeFood’s CEO John Mackey enjoys ticking off a large percentage of his customers. He was recently profiled in The New Yorker and said plainly that there was no consensus that climate change is mostly man-made: …One of the books on the list was “Heaven and Earth: Global Warming–the Missing Science,” a … Read more
The present standoff over abortion funding in health-care reform pits two sets of Catholics against each other: The bishops, supported by pro-life leaders, zealously oppose abortion funding, while prominent Catholic members of Congress just as zealously promote it. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi leads the pro-abortion Catholic pack pushing hard for abortion funding … Read more
This final installment of “The Jumble Shop” has a unique idea: making your own marionette! That project looks amazingly fun! It’s easy to see how one could build a whole troupe of marionette actors and actresses this way. (And it sure beats paying $80+ for a single puppet!) Next week: The start of a new … Read more