A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever. –Isaiah 40:6-8 Read more

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Cacciaguida writes: “For some reason I am currently unable today to access my blog ‘Cacciaguida.’ My ‘username’ appears to have been reassigned to another individual. My last post to that blog was the opera post dated Sept. 1. Until further notice, assume anything added later than Sept. 1 is by an impostor. “If Blogger can’t resolve the problem, I’ll create a new blog to continue Cacciaguida.” If you have any advice for him, please email [email protected]. Read more

FOR THOSE FOLLOWING THE SAGA of my sickness, I’m better now. Upcoming posts (maybe tonight, probably Monday): another bushel of comics reviews, more story, more stuff about formation of sexual identity. On Monday, assuming all goes as planned, I’ll also tell you if anything fun happened at the Small Press Expo! Read more

LATHER DAY SAINTS: Search requests that have brought people to my blog. In rough order from least funny to funniest: “the church of jesus christ of lather day saints email addresses in america” “bikini toga” “naked on a rollercoaster” “totality raunchy s**t” “tragedy twisted metaphysics” “objectivism x-men” “when shorthand IM makes you look stupid” (answer: pretty much all the time) “forklift icon font” “inflatable shark popped” “Who admitted stealing a copy of his girlfriend’s autobiography from an airport stand” “ratly... Read more

AND THAT’S WHERE THE TROUBLE BEGINS: Tomorrow’s excerpt from “What You Can Do for Your Country.” Read more

BETHESDA, ANGEL: Schedule for the Small Press Expo. I’ll be there. Read more

“WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY”: My next fiction project. The first installment is here. These installments will be shorter than for “Judica me Deus (Judge Me, O God),” and there will be more of them, so I will try to post at least twice a week. This is a harsh little story, although the first segment is gentle. All criticism welcomed. Read more

The Piccadilly palare was just silly slang between me and the blogs in my watch… The Agitator: PATRIOT is only the tip of the iceberg. End of post gets a bit histrionic (due process is “dead”) but basic point is right on. L. Solum: Big analysis of Miguel Estrada’s withdrawal from the judicial nominations process. Worth your time, though I am not sure whether/how much Professor Solum and I agree about the principles–I want to a) distinguish between “political ideology”... Read more

CATHOLIC TALKS SERIES HERE IN D.C. Some of these sound totally fascinating. The whole “dress code” bit is somewhat odd, but hey, at least the talks are free. I’m most likely to turn up at the movies one, and maybe the Hauerwas and architecture ones. Have heard many good things about Ralph McInerney but tomorrow is a bad day for me to go gadding about listening to lectures. You are cordially invited to the Cardinal Newman Lecture Series 2003-2004 sponsored... Read more

UNPRECEDENTED? Either I’ll wake up tomorrow with bronchitis or this is the fastest I can remember ever recovering from a cold that nasty. We shall see. For the moment I feel pretty good, though still chugging the OJ. Read more