IN WHICH I’M EITHER A MORON, OR SECRETLY BRILLIANT: Cacciaguida writes, “we aren’t who we are“….and of course, neither is Iago: “I am not what I am.” Didn’t notice that. Read more

THE SODOM AND GOMORRAH SHOW: I have a review of the Met’s show of portraits from Weimar Germany, in the current Commonweal. Click at own risk etc etc etc. Read more

THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR HAVING FUN: Notes from a weekend in New Haven. * It’s possible–I’m not saying it’s a good idea, I’m just saying it’s possible–to consider Alyosha Karamazov as a zoon politikon. This isn’t really true of the other brothers. * I seem to equivocate on the difference between “belief” and “feeling.” I’m starting to suspect that I call things feelings if I mistrust them, and beliefs if I don’t. That can’t possibly be the right terminology.... Read more

Like a blogwatch in the dark,He can leave you feeling stark… The Agitator: Your daily dose of helplessness against those with political power. It’s where theodicy meets libertarianism! Here, pregnant woman vs. the police. And then there’s this story of boy vs. dad. I’ll spoil it: unhappy endings. Amy Welborn: Saints of Selma. What an awesome picture! PBS is forgiven for Elmo. Hit & Run: I didn’t know they did an entire issue on Hurricane Katrina. I haven’t read it,... Read more

We were in Blogwatch–Let’s do it,Let’s break the law….Amy Welborn: There’s a lot of discussion and (justifiable) fretting out there about why people leave the Cathoilc Church. It’s a discussion we’ve had here, and will continue to have. But I want this thread to be something different, something I don’t think I’ve seen before. If you’re a “revert”–why? What brought you back? I’d imagine for most it will be a combination of things. And it doesn’t matter why you “left”–although... Read more

CANADA RIGHTS TEAM DECRIES CHINA “ORGAN TOURISM.” Shocker. Via Ratty. More here. Read more

HERESY TODAY, THERESY TOMORROW: It’s a cavalcade of puns in this very awesome post from Fr. Edward Oakes. Putting the “tiff” back in justification? All I can say is, the quotations from Therese fit in completely with everything I ever thought I understood about Catholic theology, so, you know, if you thought Catholics were all about rejecting a grace-centered perspective, have I got a saint for you! (I expect it helps that Augustine was always my go-to guy.) The post... Read more

I’m not in love with the modern worldI’m not in love with the modern worldIt was a torch to drive the blogwatches back to the trees… Family Scholars: “A Republican lawmaker is sponsoring General Assembly legislation that would make Virginia the first state to prohibit anonymous sperm donations.” This is one of the possible approaches I suggested in my article on “third-party reproduction” (use of surrogates, egg donors, and sperm donors), which… might be online or might not. I am... Read more

WOMEN WITH SHADOWS. Amy Welborn on pro-life fiction. [ETA: Actually, both Amy’s post and this one are more about abortion in fiction generally, not stuff that could be labeled “pro-life.”] Comments also interesting–from Spike Milligan to A.S. Byatt–and I expect Cacciaguida would agree with the name-checking of Die Frau Ohne Schatten. I’d add David Adams Richards’s novel Mercy Among the Children, and Jaime Hernandez’s short comic “Flies on the Ceiling: The True Story of Isabel in Mexico” (maybe the most... Read more

Cupid, blogwatch your bow,And let your arrow goStraight to my lover’s heart… Godstime: New blog focusing on youth ministries. From JB, old-time friend of this blog. Very awesome. Via Amy Welborn. And a review of Finder: Sin-Eater, a really excellent comic. Via Journalista. Read more