LOOKING FOR GOOD SENSE ON THIS WHOLE VATICAN GAY PRIESTS THING? Read more

MICHAEL YOUNG: On Sunday evening, I was invited to be part of the audience during the taping of a CNN talk show titled “Voices of a New Generation” that will first appear on CNN International Tuesday evening at 6:00 pm GMT. The show is part of the Eye on The Middle East series that the station is filming this week throughout the region. The idea was that a panel of young people, two from Lebanon, an Iraqi, a Saudi, a... Read more

JUS IN BELLO: ABC reveals CIA interrogation techniques: …The CIA sources described a list of six “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” instituted in mid-March 2002 and used, they said, on a dozen top al Qaeda targets incarcerated in isolation at secret locations on military bases in regions from Asia to Eastern Europe. According to the sources, only a handful of CIA interrogators are trained and authorized to use the techniques: 1. The Attention Grab: The interrogator forcefully grabs the shirt front of... Read more

What the world needs nowIs another blogwatcherLike I need a hole in my head… Lots o’ links, because I went to earth for a while there. But now I’m back (and badder than ever). Amy Welborn: In honor of St. Cecilia: “Post your most memorable spiritual/musical moments here. Not just your favorite hymns, but, if you can, a real moment in time in which music has revealed something to you about God, life and truth.“ From Nazi-occupied Austria to the... Read more

I FELL INTO A BURNING GOBLET OF FIRE (INSTEAD OF SEEING THE JOHNNY CASH MOVIE): Review here. Not only filled with spoilers, but likely incomprehensible to non-fen a.k.a. the Legions of Sanity. Short version: worst of the four. Cacciaguida disagrees, here, although I actually agree with many of his substantive points. I’ll add other interesting reviews to this post if and as I find them. ps: So far, I don’t think I’ll see “Walk the Line.” I realized that I... Read more

I submit that, in addition to other dramatic and mythic roles that she plays, Thetis is an “imaginary companion” such as has sustained many in extreme danger and deprivation. –Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam Read more

KITCHEN ADVENTURES: I EAT THE AIR, BACON-CRAMM’D. OK, lots of stuff here. I’ll try to keep it brief. An appetizer/hors d’oeuvre, entrees, and a salad. 1. Bacon-Wrapped Enoki. Enoki are these odd little mushrooms, thin white stalks that stick together at the bases and have flimsy caps at the ends. You chop a few inches off the bottoms and use the rest. What I used: Bacon, enoki, scallions, aluminum foil, toothpicks. What I did: Heated oven to 425. Cut the... Read more

I’ve got a theory–it could be blogwatch… Balkinization: Advice for Thurgood Marshall, on the eve of his confirmation hearings. Heh. And yeah. Anti-smoking stupidity alert…. Via The Corner, I think. And Michael Young offers a status report: “The U.S. has lost momentum in opening up Middle Eastern societies.” …Blogwatch! Blogwatch! It must be blogwatch! Read more

Modern American English makes soldiers’ love for special comrades into a problem, because the word love evokes sexual and romantic associations. But friendship seems too bland for the passion of care that arises between soldiers in combat. Achilles laments to his mother that his philos, his “greatest friend is gone.” (18:89f) Much ink has been spilled over whether this word (and the abstract noun philia) and all its linguistic relatives should be translated under the rubric of “friend, friendship,” etc.... Read more

Let’s take a ride,and watch with the blogs tonightin suburbia… Only three links here, but they’re all must-reads. Sed Contra: A reader’s memories of Dorothy Day. Lots of awesome stories. Reason piece on A Clockwork Orange and the Paris riots. And: a beautiful idea–maybe an idea you should take up in your own area: …Koleszar, with five of his St. Ignatius High School classmates, carried her casket into the funeral service and later bore it across a cemetery lawn to... Read more