NIGER AND THE FREE MARKET: …In Niger specifically, the controls of a command economy are still very visible. The second-poorest country in the world derives almost half its income from international aid, and another substantial chunk from uranium exporting companies controlled by Niger’s former colonial overlord, France. This is hardly a solid base for a free market. Price controls and government intervention in the grain market stopped only in the last decade, meaning a free market has not yet developed... Read more

UP, UP, AND OY VEY! Question from Relapsed Catholic: My oldish article “Up, up, and oy vey” originated as a Toronto Star piece, and is my most reprinted article. It also just got me a job, editing a NY rabbi’s book about the Jewish influence on comic books, particularly Golden Age superhero comics. No, I’m not Jewish (although I get that a lot) and no, I don’t own a single comic book. Just another day (or in this case, couple... Read more

RELAPSED CATHOLIC’S MUST-SEE TV. Read more

EDITH STEIN AND NAGASAKI. Read more

MORE ON PLUMPYNUT, OTHER PLACES TO DONATE: Since apparently Doctors Without Borders promotes birth control and abortion. ARRRRRGGGHHHH. (Yes, I should have checked first. I am naive.) Anyway, here is a link to many other relief organizations working in Niger; more here. Read more

HUNGRY CHILDREN: At this epicenter of Niger’s latest hunger crisis, Plumpy’nut is saving lives… Plumpy’nut, which comes in a silvery foil package the size of two grasping baby-size hands, is 500 calories of fortified peanut butter, a beige paste about as thick as mashed potatoes and stuffed with milk, vitamins and minerals. …Since the packets came into the hands of relief organizations during the Darfur crisis in Sudan, they have been revolutionizing emergency care for severely malnourished children who are... Read more

MOTHER’S LITTLE HELPER: NANCY HASS has a really good, eye-opening, and admirably non-sensationalist article in the September Elle (“Whose Life Is It, Anyway?” p. 430), about couples who conceive via egg donation, and who don’t tell their children the truth about their genetic roots. It’s not online as of this writing, but if (like the Rat) you’re interested in the myriad ways our fear of death leads us to punish women for getting older, get it at the newsstand. (more) Read more

KITCHEN ADVENTURE: SWEET CORN SOUP: In which I regain my cook-fu! What I used: A can of extra sweet corn kernels. (Recipe called for actual corn on the cob, and you were even supposed to scrape the “milk” from the cobs into the soup, but I am lazy, and anyway this tasted great.) Butter. About half a sweet onion. Salt, pepper, cayenne, half a medium-large jalapeno (could’ve used more, definitely), heavy cream, chopped fresh chives and cilantro (would leave out... Read more

AT THE LATE-NIGHT DOUBLE FEATURE PICTURE SHOW: (In the back row!)–movie reviews. In chronological order. “CLOSET LAND“: This is a movie about torture, starring Alan Rickman and Madeleine Stowe. What I’ve said just now is either enough to convince you that you need to find this movie now, or that you want to avoid this movie at all costs. There are things about this movie that shudder toward greatness. The movie is highly stylized; the sets are anti-realistic, genre-movie sets.... Read more

CHOIRBOY AND TERRORIST: Must-read. “LET’S GO FOR A WALK,” SHANE PAUL O’DOHERTY SAYS. The Long Corridor at St. Patrick’s College, Ireland’s last remaining seminary, is a vision out of Harry Potter’s school, Hogwarts, dark and slightly foreboding. The oak walls are lined with solemn portraits of clerics who have educated more than 11,000 Roman Catholic priests since 1795. Inside College Chapel, heels click on the marble mosaic floor, under the gaze of a procession of saints and angels painted on... Read more