I’m not a sports fan. But like many others, I do watch the Super bowl. It’s my annual opportunity to get together with the guys, engage in some armchair quarterbacking, raise my triglycerides by eating, uh, organic dip, and LMAO at the commercials (hey, can I say “LMAO” on this blog?). Margaret blogged below about … Read more
I can only do justice to John Mueller’s magnum opus Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element (and it is “magnum,” with 470 dense pages and copious footnotes) by comparing it to Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Ludwig von Mises’ Human Action, and the wrongheaded but immensely influential General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by … Read more
Over at Whispers in the Loggia, the hard-working Rocco has an interesting post on Cardinal Wuerl’s most recent article on the issue of civil discourse, “Speaking Truth in Love”, noting that the cardinal’s high-profile (and, as head of the Archdiocese of Washington, unique) position in the American Catholic Church makes his thoughts on the matter … Read more
Pope John Paul II was a brave man. Speaking the truth in unstable and unfriendly countries, standing boldly against the popular demise of morality, traveling furiously even when weakened by sickness—no one could deny his courage. But the pope did more than just model strength for us: He called us to it. His apostolic exhortation, … Read more
If it’s Super Bowl season, it must be time to talk about what ads did — and didn’t — make the $3 million commercial cut. Last year, all the fuss was about the ad with Tim Tebow and his mom (which turned out to have such a gentle pro-life message as to be lost on … Read more
The pro-life group LiveAction released a video earlier this week where members posing as sex traffickers received advice on their “business” from a New Jersey Planned Parenthood clinic manager. Yesterday, the clinic fired that manager. Today, LiveAction released a second video that shows a similar scenario playing out in a Richmond, VA, clinic. LiveAction president … Read more
Last week, Sughar Daily reported that the U.S. government and numerous international Christian organizations are working to free two Christians in Afghanistan who have been jailed for converting from Islam. If convicted on apostasy charges, both of them could face the death penalty: The U.S. has called on Afghan authorities to respect the Universal Declaration … Read more
After years of going nowhere, economic theory in the Catholic world just got a big upgrade from none other than the head of the Vatican’s bank. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, a one-time private banker and professor of financial ethics at the Catholic University in Milan, has headed the Institute for Religious Works since 2009. Writing in … Read more
Yeah, that about sums it up: Hope any IC readers out there who got buried in this latest blizzard are keeping warm! And remember, when shoveling snow, lift from the knees. Or, you know, make your kids do it.
Last year’s congressional elections turned out better than conservatives deserved. Republicans grabbed back the power of the purse with the House of Representatives, giving them the ability — if they have the strategy and the nerve — to hobble the rest of Barack Obama’s presidency. And on most issues, they should. For instance, Republicans should … Read more
The protests in Egypt may continue unabated, but not everyone is so ready to see Hosni Mubarak removed from power. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, many of the nation’s minority Coptic Christians are concerned for their future in an unstable Egypt: Fear of what may follow the removal of Mr. Mubarak, … Read more
From the Boston Globe: A Massachusetts antiabortion group has unveiled a bill that would let individual taxpayers opt out of paying for publicly funded abortions. Under the measure, a taxpayer could choose to have whatever portion of their state taxes pays for abortion coverage directed instead to the Baby Safe Haven Law. That law allows … Read more
Last Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) had approved the unrestricted planting of genetically modified alfalfa sold by Monsanto Co. and Forge Genetics. Nevermind the protests from organic food groups and public health advocates, as well as about 250,000 citizens. The Atlantic reports: With this announcement, the Obama … Read more
Where can you find a Catholic chaplaincy at an institution of higher learning that’s looking to expand its church to seat 1,400, because the current 850 seats just aren’t enough? South Bend, Indiana, perhaps? Well, no, actually: College Station, Texas, where the Catholic chaplaincy at Texas A&M, St. Mary’s Catholic Center, is setting a new … Read more
Certainly one of the English language’s most charming grammatical dictums (okay, likely its only charming grammatical dictum) is this: “The male embraces the female.” For hundreds of years, the masculine pronoun did double duty, referring specifically to persons of the male sex and generally to persons of either sex. As such arrangements go, the “universal … Read more
One brisk, gray afternoon in London, I stood on a corner of Hyde Park with one of Frank Sheed’s old friends. “That’s the spot where he used to stand and preach,” she said with a wistful smile. Now an elderly widow, in the 1940s and 1950s she had worked in the London Catholic Evidence Guild … Read more
Many people have commented on the speed with which John Paul II seems to be progressing toward sainthood, with some raising questions about whether it’s appropriate. Over at the National Catholic Reporter, though, John Allen says that John Paul isn’t the first to travel quickly through the process — just ask St. Francis (18 months … Read more
Gerry Garibaldi, a teacher at an inner-city school in Connecticut, talks frankly in an article for the City Journal about why his kids are failing in school — and why the problem won’t be solved by more money: Thanks to the feds, urban schools like mine—already entitled to substantial federal largesse under Title I, which … Read more
A reader recently sent me the following: Somebody I know wrote: This following is about abortion, but not “is it right or wrong” or “what does the Church teach,” but “How on earth would you deal with this pastorally?” A friend of mine has a married cousin. She and her husband had a healthy child … Read more
Hollywood, despite a history filled to overflowing with brash, bravado-driven, larger-than-life personalities, has seen few directors laden by such undeniable talent and bloodied by so many self-inflicted wounds as George Orson Welles. Recently, reports surfaced that, through the painstaking work of to Danny Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, and others, we were soon get the chance to … Read more