There is a curious and creepy fact I have noticed. It runs through things like Heinrich Himmler’s secret address given in October 1943 to SS troops carrying out the mass murder of Jews: I also want to mention a very difficult subject before you here, completely openly. It should be discussed amongst us, and yet, … Read more
Over at his Sun Times blog, Roger Ebert has the latest in his ongoing obsession with the question of 3-D — an obsession that I share, since I seem to be in the business of collecting as many obsessions as possible. This particular time around, he posts a letter he recently received from the legendary … Read more
In case you’ve not been following it, the push to legalize doctor-prescribed suicide has renewed it efforts, and is being pushed on two fronts at the same time: Hawaii and Vermont. The Hawaii Death with Dignity Act (SB 803) was introduced on January 21, 2011 in the Hawaiian State Senate. A similar bill is expected to … Read more
Everywhere except in the field of jurisprudence, the reductio ad absurdum is accepted as a logical argument. The reductio always takes this form: If you can show that a certain premise leads to an absurd conclusion, then there is something radically wrong with the premise, and you then either have to reject the premise or at least … Read more
Big news today in episcopal appointments: Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Oregon, has just been tapped as coadjutor bishop of Santa Rosa, California. According to Whispers in the Loggia, the current bishop of Santa Rosa, Bishop Daniel Walsh, will turn 73 in October, meaning that Bishop Vasa could be taking over the reins of the … Read more
Bill Donohue at the Catholic League has just issued a press release on a situation brewing at the U.S. Air Force Academy. On February 10, the USAFA will hold a National Prayer Luncheon. Lt. Gen. Michael C. Gould, the superintendent, invited Marine 1st Lt. Clebe McClary to speak. McClary is a decorated Vietnam War veteran … Read more
In his annual speech to the Roman Rota, the tribunal that handles annulments, Pope Benedict told priests they must do a better job preparing couples for marriage. The Associated Press reports that the pope said no one has the right to a church wedding and that every Catholic bride and groom should intend to live … Read more
The story about President Obama’s support for infanticide as an Illinois state senator came immediately to mind last week when a Philadelphia abortionist was arrested on eight counts of murder. One of the counts faced by Dr. Kermit Gosnell includes the death of a woman following an abortion at his office. The other seven were … Read more
This graphic novel is one of the best I’ve ever read. Firmly in the Lewis/Tolkien tradition, it posits an odd world full of anachronisms–like armored knights using swords and wearing jet boots. Though no individual panel is especially beautiful, the artist’s overall storytelling skills–how he moves the reader from one moment to another–are as good … Read more
Once in Athens I was nearly hit by a truck as I started to cross a street. I got back in time to read the legend lettered on its side. Metaphora. One is supposed to be struck by metaphors, of course, but this seemed too literal a way to go about it. The legend meant … Read more
Since Margaret stole my “cool, historical video” for her Free-for-All, I find myself forced to fall back on my #2 OpenCulture option: “Fantasmagorie,” thought (by some) to be the first fully-animated film. It was created in 1908 by Emile Cohl, “The Father of the Animated Cartoon.” [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEAObel8yIE&feature=player_embedded#! 635×355]
What would you do if you were in the habit of eavesdropping on the most secret aspects of someone’s life, and you overheard something that was a matter of life and death? What should you do with this knowledge — knowledge that you have no right to possess, and which serves as a constant reminder … Read more
Politico columnist Michael Kinsley has a piece about the recent miracle attributed to Pope John Paul II. He questions whether the French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, really had Parkinson’s at all, and criticizes the Church’s position on embryonic stem cell research, which he believes has denied him his own miracle via science: Congratulations to Simon-Pierre. … Read more
Happy Friday morning! Just a few links to get the day started: “The Man Who Loved Women Too Much“: A profile of pro-life lawyer Harold Cassidy… in Mother Jones. The author clearly isn’t too keen on his position, but he seems to have at least a grudging respect for the man. The wild and wooly … Read more
(cross posted at my blog, I have to sit down) My heart sank when I saw this picture on Creative Minority Report: The NAACP hid a prominent statue of George Washington inside a wooden box during a MLK Day rally, offering the terminally lame excuse that the box would make a more suitable backdrop … Read more
In his autobiographical account of his youth and his conversion to the faith, Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis relates the almost inexplicable mingling of joy and sorrow he felt when he first read of the Norse myth of Balder, the handsome and large-hearted god who was slain by a trick practiced upon him by … Read more
ZENIT has published an interview with the long-time (and now-retired) director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, the recently elevated Domenico Cardinal Bartolucci. A brief journey through the Interwebs reveals the 93-year-old composer to be a feisty advocate for sacred music, particularly the “classics.” In this interview, he reveals his belief that “for sacred music, the … Read more
The philosophical map has altered. We live in a world wholly different from the world known by C. S. Lewis, or by John Henry Newman before him, or by Francis Bacon in the Renaissance or Robert Grosseteste in the Middle Ages. Whether we wish to locate the wellspring of this latter change in the eighteenth … Read more
I’m only just now reading through the full account of the charges being brought against Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who was arrested yesterday and charged with eight counts of murder. It is painful, stomach-churning stuff. As the district attorney’s office put it, “Pennsylvania is not a Third World country” — and yet this man was … Read more
Former Planned Parenthood director and new author Abby Johnson (see the banner ad for Unplanned to the right) is in the process of entering the Catholic Church. “When we went to the Catholic Church for the first time we knew that was where we were supposed to be and we have been there ever since,” … Read more