According to ABC, a Yemeni national named Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi was stopped by airport security in Birmingham, Alabama, before boarding a flight to Chicago: …al Soofi was found to be carrying $7,000 in cash and a check of his luggage found a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle, three cell phones taped … Read more
New York recently became the fiftieth state to allow no-fault divorce — an occasion that prompted New York resident Beverly Willett to reflect on her experience fighting to save her own marriage from divorce eight years ago. It was a grueling, five-year-long battle against a husband who had cheated on her and wanted out on … Read more
Childcare isn’t what it used to be, and good thing for that. Here’s a section from James Watson’s Psychological Care of Infant & Child, 1928. Â Â The chapter was entitled “Too Much Mother Love.”
At Catholic Advocate, I’ve posted the remarks I made at the Catholic League’s rally in NYC last Thursday in front of the Empire State Building. The rally was well-attended, around 3000 people stretched down 39th street. Bill Donohue was his usual bigger-than-life self, completely in his element introducing the seventeen speakers and keeping the proceedings … Read more
In case you missed it, Deal did a brief interview Friday with the Dallas Morning News on the subject of Catholic teaching and immigration. It’s a short piece, but informative, and included this interesting exchange: [D]oes a government have a moral right to set limits on the kinds of people who enter? Kinds of people? … Read more
Over at the Catholic Key Blog, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has published its plan for reforming the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Already a year old, their CCHD plan is very convincing. I began reading it with a healthy skepticism… until I came to this: Our first decision, then, was to cease funding … Read more
It hardly needs pointing out that the Vatican isn’t always adept at managing its own PR (to put it mildly). An article in the UK Guardian today by Paul Donovan raises a good question: Is the Holy See’s press office ready for the firestorm that could very likely accompany the pope’s visit to Britain next … Read more
According to an article in The New York Times last week, there’s a debate going on in academic circles (mainly among psychologists and sociologists) as to whether a new developmental stage should be officially acknowledged. It’s called “emerging adulthood” and it covers the 18-29 age range. It could happen the same way the stage of … Read more
A press release from Human Life International: The board of directors of Human Life International (HLI) has announced that after nearly 10 years of meritorious service to HLI as president, Reverend Thomas J Euteneuer has stepped down from his position after being asked by his Bishop to return to his Diocese in West Palm Beach, … Read more
Time for some Friday morning links: As movements are being made in Congress to ease travel restrictions to Cuba, Delia Lloyd at Politics Daily says now is a good time to consider “Ten Reasons to Lift the Cuba Embargo.” CNN reports on a troubling trend in Nigeria: Children are increasingly becoming the targets of attacks … Read more
So, those end-of-life conversations we were talking about yesterday? To the list of questions to ask your doctor, you may want to add, “Do you believe in God?” Doctors who are atheist or agnostic are twice as likely to take decisions that might shorten the life of somebody who is terminally ill as doctors who … Read more
Many articles today explore the question of what technology and modern gadgets are doing to our brains. How do they affect learning? Memory? Focus? Productivity? Health? This article in The New York Times says some research shows that constantly stimulating the brain isn’t a good idea: Cellphones, which in the last few years have become … Read more
According to the Daily Caller, some popular political bloggers are receiving more than news tips from their favored candidates: In California, where former eBay executive Meg Whitman beat businessman Steve Poizner in a bitterly fought primary battle in the campaign for governor, it sometimes seemed as if there was a bidding war for bloggers. One … Read more
Have you ever purchased a fake Gucci bag, Rolex, or pair of Ray-Bans? New research suggests that wearing knockoffs makes you less honest and more cynical. Sound far-fetched? I thought so, too, until I read more details. Three psychological scientists have been studying the way fake adornment affects attitudes and behavior — Francesca Gino of … Read more
Earlier this month I blogged about a New Yorker article that discussed the sorry state of end-of-life care in America. In an effort to address that problem, New York State last week signed the New York Palliative Care Information Act into law, which would require physicians to discuss prognosis and end-of-life options with their terminal … Read more
The much-discussed new English-language translation of the Roman Missal has been issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Read the article here. The USCCB has set a date for implementation throughout all US parishes of the First Sunday of Advent, which is November 27 2011. “Cardinal George announced receipt of the … Read more
This blog post from the always fluent Lisa Graas got my attention today, given that I’ve been trying lately to make sense how the CCHD decides to give away our money. The Chicago Worker’s Collaborative (CWC) receives CCHD funding through the Chicago Archdiocese. As a part of their “Boycott Arizona” campaign, the CWC has targeted … Read more
Reading David Bordwell’s blog is a rewarding and deeply demoralizing experience. For a mostly self-taught (and self-proclaimed) film aficionado such as I, the amount of cinematic knowledge he and his fellow blogger (Kristen Thompson) have at their fingertips is a bit mind-boggling — a treasure trove of information, once I have managed to check my easily-bruised … Read more
In the coming decades, India is expected to surpass China as the most populous nation on earth. Worried local Indian governments are using soft sell tactics to reduce family size, according to this article in the New York Times. Previously charged with coercing women to sterilize themselves in some regions, government officials are using new … Read more
Good news yesterday in the fight against embryonic stem cell experimentation: U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction that prohibits the National Institutes of Health from funding the research under the administration’s new guidelines, citing an appeals court’s ruling that the researchers who had challenged the less-restrictive policy have the legal standing … Read more