Good morning! Today’s links are all odds and ends that wouldn’t fit anywhere else this week — feel free to drop your own news items in the comments: Why you’ve never really heard The Moonlight Sonata. Don’t miss the clips. The story of the British POW who snuck into Auschwitz: “I knew in my gut … Read more
A fresh embarrassment in Rome: The Vatican was today rocked by a sex scandal reaching into Pope Benedict’s household after a chorister was sacked for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting. Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, was caught by police on a wiretap allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old … Read more
To Begin the World All Over Again: Lawrence of Arabia from Damascus to Baghdad John Hulsman, Palgrave Macmillan, 256 pages, $27.95 Â Those of us who try to keep up with developments during the Iraq War find that there are many basic facts about the region that don’t get answered in the daily coverage by … Read more
As Hollywood’s “silly season” draws to a close — only 4 more days before we can put all these “For Your Consideration” ads behind us — here’s the most entertaining visual summary I’ve seen on the season thus far. From LocateTV.com, it’s entitled simply “Everything you wanted to know about the Oscars.” (The “lowest grossing” vs. “highest grossing” tidbit might … Read more
Big news from the Archdiocese of Washington this week: Catholic Charities announced that they would no longer be offering spousal health-care benefits for employees, rather than be forced to acknowledge same-sex partners under DC’s new law. In a statement on Tuesday, Archbishop Donald Wuerl justified their decision: “The Catholic Church teaches to pay a just … Read more
The Washington Examiner reports that yet another top government aide has moved over to K Street — the lobbying and consulting corridor in Washington, D.C. Damon Munchus, former aide to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, will now work for Cypress Group, which counts among its clients some of the nation’s largest banks. I’ve written before about … Read more
“Cardinal Pell is an inspiration to all Catholics in Australia,” says Cory Bernardi, a pro-life Catholic senator from South Australia. Bernardi, along with his wife Sinead and two young sons, attends the traditional Latin Mass in his hometown of Adelaide. I spoke with him a few months ago in Washington, D.C., as I was preparing for my trip … Read more
No, really. All kidding aside. I mean it. I know it may be hard for some of you to accept. (For others, it might seem too good to be true.) But, barring the Second Coming, it’s absolutely certain: Someday, the Zmirak supply will simply run out. Sure, it will be for some the end of … Read more
Over at The Daily Mail (UK), there’s a fantastic post on NASA’s recently-released Update Blue Marble images — the most detailed outer-space images of the Earth we have to date. (I’m not quite sure what “recently released” means. The NASA website can be a bit tricky to navigate, and while their Visible Earth section is … Read more
Almost exactly 50 years after President Kennedy’s landmark address to the Protestant ministers at Houston Baptist University, Archbishop Charles Chaput gave a presentation in the same place on the role of Christians in political life — calling Kennedy’s own view of church and state profoundly wrong: [Kennedy] needed to convince 300 uneasy Protestant ministers, and … Read more
A few weeks ago, a young man I’ll call David dropped in to see me. David has been working with me discerning a vocation to the priesthood, so it was with some interest that I heard him announce that he had acquired a girlfriend. We discussed the possibilities and prospects for the future, and … Read more
Brenda Steele here: Deal is just now arriving in Melbourne, Australia, after a marathon flight. He seems no worse for wear, though I’m sure he’s excited to feel the earth beneath his feet after 25 hours in the air. Deal’s trip will keep him in Melbourne, visiting old friends of InsideCatholic, Michael and Karen Hall, … Read more
The human costs for such tragic events as the recent quakes in Haiti and Chile are incalculable. There is so much suffering, it is difficult for many of us to comprehend. (I was taken aback a few days ago to recognize my relief at early stories placing the Chilean death toll in the 700’s. Tragically, that number will surely … Read more
Slate.com’s Timothy Noah offers a fascinating piece on why they think Pelosi will have a very hard time getting enough votes to pass the Senate version of the health care bill. However, in the process, Noah trots out a claim I can’t reconcile with reality: Why not resolve the dispute by putting the Stupak amendment … Read more
Children can now find their sperm donor fathers thanks to science and the Internet, and sperm banks are rethinking their policies as a result. Over at Slate, Rachel Lehmann-Haupt tells the story of a mother who went in search of her child’s biological father because she wanted to learn more about his health and genetic … Read more
Last year, Seth Grahame-Smith altered the face of classic lit forever by releasing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Knock-offs multiplied faster than… well, zombies, and the reading public was quickly introduced to Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Mansfield Park and Mummies, and Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter. Now, Grahame-Smith is back with his latest, Abraham … Read more
It was bound to happen: A survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project has revealed that more Americans now get their news online than they do from any other source. Not only that, but close to 75% say they learn of a news item first from either email or one of the social … Read more
Sufferers from Mariaphobic Response Syndrome have certain passages they love to bang away at in order to make sure that nobody thinks Mary is special or anything. Indeed, so zealous is the tendency of some Christians to diminish Mary that some even like to bang away at things Scripture does not say about Mary. … Read more
As the blog’s resident “harbinger of doom,” I couldn’t possibly let this story pass by unnoticed: Nothing lasts forever. So it will be said about the University of Michigan Library’s card catalogs when they are removed from their home in the bowels of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library on March 8. Twelve and a half million … Read more
In 1901, archaeologists outside of York, England, discovered a series of graves dating from 4th century Roman Britain. One skeleton of a wealthy young woman of 18 or 19 was particularly intriguing: She was buried with several expensive items of jewelry, including an unusual pair of intertwined bracelets — one made from white African ivory, … Read more