A happy announcement for carpetbagging opportunists everywhere: You have a new king, and his name is Harold Ford, Jr. You may remember Ford as the former five-term Congressman from Tennessee, where his voting record — and campaign rhetoric — marked him as a moderate Democrat. But political winds rarely blow in one direction for long, … Read more
Three Virginia Catholics are leading the resistance against the encroaching power of the Obama White House. As reported in the Washington Post, legislation has been introduced to curb federal power over health insurance, interstate commerce, and gun regulation. Three of the leaders behind this effort are pro-life Catholics: Robert G. Marshall, a delegate to the … Read more
It was Easter in 2006 and I was attending a Maronite Catholic Mass in the Middle East. I was (somewhat cockily) celebrating the Risen Lord with my new found ability to read Arabic. The Liturgy was beautiful, the music angelic (with everyone singing), and the Mass really, really long. I guess I shouldn’t have been … Read more
So much for genetically modified (GM) foods being ‘absolutely safe.’ The Huffington Post reports that a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences shows that GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats. The study looked at three varieties of big agribusiness Monsanto’s GM corn — all three were approved for human … Read more
The full extent of the damage from the earthquake in Haiti yesterday is still unknown — the death toll has been estimated in the thousands already. Tragically, among those confirmed dead is the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Joseph Serge Miot, along with perhaps hundreds of priests and seminarians throughout the region: “Port-au-Prince is totally devastated. . … Read more
If you haven’t read The Screwtape Letters, you should. In fact, click over there right now and buy it. C. S. Lewis’s harrowing look inside of the mind of a “designated tempter” (he’s just like a guardian angel, except . . . the opposite) isn’t just insightful entertainment; it’s more like reading an intercepted copy … Read more
The full extent of the damage from the earthquake in Haiti yesterday is still unknown — the death toll has been estimated in the thousands already. Tragically, among those confirmed dead is the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Joseph Serge Miot, along with perhaps hundreds of priests and seminarians throughout the region: “Port-au-Prince is totally devastated. . … Read more
Starting a business is hard, but one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done in the last 24 years (yeah, and there’s this “lapse in the blog thing”–again. Mea maxima culpa.) Anyway, the very nature of my job is to create economies in a global environment, but through local resources and talent. While the … Read more
This is wild. The Catholic University of America has unveiled a Rembrandt etching in a new exhibit that went up this week at the school — but the real story is how they acquired it: “I went into the restroom in Nugent Hall and opened a cabinet there,” [CUA president Father O’Connell] notes. “I found … Read more
Among political consultants in Washington, DC, there are a few who are principled, most are pragmatic, and a few crawl out from under a rock to go to work. Bob Shrum, consultant to the losing presidential campaigns of Gore and Kerry, emerged from beneath his rock recently to post a tirade against Bart Stupak and … Read more
On Christmas day, a Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit narrowly escaped catastrophe when an intended suicide bomber who had passed through security could not get the plastic explosives he hid in his underwear to detonate. The attempt occurred as the plane was on its final descent, 20 minutes from landing, with 289 people … Read more
Today, while browsing YouTube in an effort to keep a 3-year-old-boy with an unknown-but-unfriendly stomach ailment amused, I happened across this intriguing video clip: My boys have several of the Superman comic book compilations from the 40’s and 50’s, and there are a handful of Superboy stories in there, so I’m familiar with the overall … Read more
Thanks to the American Papist, I came across this post on “The Anglo-Catholic,” translating the summary of a study done by La Croix about the “de-Christianization” of France. Father Anthony Chadwick has the grim numbers: Whilst, in 1965, 81% of the French declared themselves as Catholics, they were no more than 64% in 2009. More … Read more
Last week, Phases of Womanhood posted a column by Mary Hasson about a heated same-sex custody battle that reached Virginia’s Supreme Court. While Hasson and I agree on some of the fundamental issues involved, I disagree with both the tone and content of her commentary. First, the case: Two lesbians — Lisa Miller (on the … Read more
Over the past decade, the mysterious epithet “neo-Catholic” has been tossed around now and then. I first encountered it courtesy of Rev. Joseph O’Leary, the famed “Spirit of Vatican II” combox denizen who seems to have endless amounts of time to troll the net on behalf of gay causes and no time to, like, … Read more
I’ll admit, I thought Brit Hume’s “Tiger should convert” moment on Fox News the other week was a bit jarring, even if the backlash against him was over the top. In the New York Times, Ross Douthat says that, if we want a healthy debate about religion in this country, we all need to get … Read more
For Christmas, I received a copy of Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures, written by then-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. (I was also given some new shirts, in case anyone might think Schall is a one-dimensional man.) In the last section, Benedict questions whether, logically, a man can be an “agnostic” — someone … Read more
Remember all that talk about how the Bush and Obama stimulus packages were going to create jobs with new public works projects? Well, it hasn’t quite turned out that way. The infrastructure projects are lined up, sure — along with their sizable price tags — but the new jobs are nowhere to be found. … Read more
The Catholic Health Association, readers will recall, recently insisted there was no “disagreement” between its position on abortion funding and the bishops’ conference. CHA had appeared to endorse the Senate version of the health care bill containing unprecedented federal funding for abortion but was forced to backtrack in response to criticism. Now an article … Read more
I’m working on a longer post at the moment and I expect it to get the comments moving. But let’s first get the week started with a little fun… an a cappella singing group that doesn’t sound anything like an a capella singing group. The performers appear to be lip-synching, but the recording is authentic … Read more
