Here’s a piece by a Lefty named Annalee Newitz about the insufficiently Lefty liberal power fantasy that energizes stories like Avatar: These are movies about white guilt. Our main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color — their cultures, their habitats, and … Read more
Erin Manning has some interesting reflections over at Rod Dreher’s blog on Christmas and “the struggle to live as a serious Christian in modern America.” Terry Mattingly’s review of the book Tinsel reminded her that, annual stories about the “War on Christmas” aside, the real battle against Christmas is waged within each of us: What … Read more
Erin Manning has some interesting reflections over at Rod Dreher’s blog on Christmas and “the struggle to live as a serious Christian in modern America.” Terry Mattingly’s review of the book Tinsel reminded her that, annual stories about the “War on Christmas” aside, the real battle against Christmas is waged within each of us: What … Read more
As 2009 expires, music journalists and magazines rush to anoint their recordings of the year. I have no such list, but I did take note of the British Gramophone’s December selection of the Quatuor Ébène’s CD of the Ravel, Debussy, and Fauré String Quartets on Virgin Classics (519045-2) as the recording of the year. I … Read more
Iran appears to be moving toward a full-scale revolution. If you want to follow the unfolding events, Andrew Sullivan remains the best media source for first-hand reports and video. And Stephen Walt makes an important point at Foreign Policy: [T]his is an especially foolish time to be rattling sabers and threatening military action. Threatening or … Read more
I finally got around to reading Pope Benedict’s Christmas message — it’s both concise and rich, just like everything he writes. Unfortunately, it also seems to have gotten lost in the media coverage of that mentally ill woman who attacked him. Here’s a passage I found particularly striking: The first thing we are told about … Read more
http://www.rhapsody.com/bela-fleck/perpetual-motion http://blog.naxos.com/2009/11/03/podcast-don-giovanni-for-string-quartet/ Crazy Accordian Boy
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas, and all the blessings of the day, from all of us at InsideCatholic!
In 1917, Wallace Stevens published “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” a poem now firmly ensconced in every anthology of American poetry. Generations of students have read it as a lesson in perspectivism — how the imagination can see the same thing under a variety of guises. Bart Stupak (D-MI) is not the subject … Read more
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas, and all the blessings of the day, from all of us at InsideCatholic!
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas, and all the blessings of the day, from all of us at InsideCatholic!
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas, and all the blessings of the day, from all of us at InsideCatholic!
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas, and all the blessings of the day, from all of us at InsideCatholic!
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas, and all the blessings of the day, from all of us at InsideCatholic!
On the Feast of St. Stephen, 1951, from St. Mary Magdalen College at Oxford, C. S. Lewis wrote a Latin letter to Don Giovanni Calabria in Verona (letters published with a translation by St. Augustine’s Press). Â The day after Christmas, Lewis prays for Calabria “all spiritual and temporal blessings in the Lord.” Lewis adds: … Read more
With all of the bleak news out there these days, it’s easy to get discouraged — so Catholic Vote’s “Top Ten Reasons for Hope” list seems especially appropriate right now. Some of their nominations: 7. Priests, Religious, and More Priests From Ireland to New Zealand to many dioceses across the United States, Catholic seminaries are … Read more
If you think today’s recession is bad, be glad you’re not living in Britannia at the close of the Western Roman Empire. For two or three hundred years, beginning at the start of the fifth century, the economy of Britain reverted to levels not experienced since well before the Roman invasion of AD 43. The … Read more
A poem by Christina Rosetti, published posthumously in 1904, became a favorite Christmas carol after Gustav Holst set it to music for the English Hymnal two years later. The poem underscores the harsh setting of the nativity — the first stanza reads: In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, … Read more
As I warned when I started my considerations of the Seven Deadly Sins and opposing Virtues, there will be a test. Seven of them, in fact, each inspired by Walker Percy’s quizzes in his satirical work of apologetics, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. It’s a marvelous book: I only plagiarize the best. … Read more
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Divine Child, we face some sobering numbers: There are an estimated 145 million orphans worldwide — more than enough little ones to go three times around the planet at the equator. A few years ago, the United Nations put the number of child victims of trafficking … Read more