Bikini girls with blogwatch guns, oh Bikini girls with blogwatch guns– This stuff’ll kill ya, it’s loaded with fun, Bikini girls with blogwatch guns…. Body and Soul: Forgot to mention that Jeanne gets the last word w/r/t left-right divisions or emphases on human rights. Cacciaguida: Neat chart comparing Tridentine and Novus Ordo rites. Charles Murtaugh: “Apatheism.” Those interested in more of Jonathan Rauch on this topic can check out my Crisis piece on “Christianity from the Outside” (which also features... Read more

“Of course, all murderers and all oppressors have a long list of grievances against their victims, only most are not as eloquent as Humbert Humbert.” –Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran Read more

ASK CLINT BOLICK YOUR SCHOOL VOUCHER QUESTIONS! Neat feature, via TheAgitator. (I haven’t forgotten the “madrassa vouchers” thing, and will return to it next week–sorry for delay…) Read more

DESERT OF THE REAL: Ehhh, I was all gearing up to write a response to the half–cocked paranoia of some of the recent slams on Salam Pax, but I see Jesse Walker and Needlenose have done it for me. (And, more ambivalently still, BuzzMachine.) I’ll just say a couple things: a) Now is a good time to re-post my “how you guys heard about Salam Pax in the first place” story. Tell me if this sounds like the Mukhabarat, my... Read more

Strange… how you stopped watching blogs How you stopped needing blogs When she came along… oh, how strange… Amptoons: How to handle domestic violence charges against cops? Amy Welborn (no permalinks): Pertinent Flannery O’Connor quotes about the Christian artist’s responsibilities. My favorite: The average Catholic writer (and reader, we can assume)…”has become able to recognize nature in literature in only two forms, the sentimental and the obscene. He would seem to prefer the former, while being more of an authority... Read more

RANDOM MAILBAG: Here’s a bunch of stuff that requires little or no reply from me. Stuff requiring reply will come later. As is traditional, I am in plain text and my readers are in bold. If nothing else, this should give you some idea of the wiggy variety of topics addressed on this blog–this is the unorganized flotsam skimmed off the first three screens of my overstuffed inbox. An anonyreader, on “National Outdoor Intercourse Day”: Some more information on “National... Read more

“The two photographs [of Azar Nafisi’s underground literature class] should be placed side by side. Both embody the ‘fragile unreality’–to quote Nabokov on his own state of exile–of our existence in the Islamic Republic of Iran. One cancels the other, and yet without one, the other is incomplete. In the first photograph [of the class in their chadors], standing there in our black robes and scarves, we are as we had been shaped by someone else’s dreams. In the second... Read more

“CONFESSION GAFFES”: DID MY PRIEST VALIDLY ABSOLVE MY SINS? Your questions answered. This is an issue that became annoyingly relevant to me a few months ago, due to the shankery of a couple priests. WHY do people feel the need to inject their own personalities and little phrasings into a sacrament? It is not hard to just say the words everyone knows, so that no one is confused. Via the Old Oligarch, who is back and blogging up a storm. Read more

LATER IN THE WEEK, mailbag. Mostly legal and theological. Until then, blogging will probably be pretty light, as I have much to do. Read more

Farewell to this land’s cheerless marshes Hemmed in like a blog between watches… Body and Soul: Response to my post from last week. A few points of varying importance: a) A line that I meant as sardonic but not bitchy in fact turned out to be bitchy. Sorry! b) The right definitely does need to get more serious about corporate abuses and collusion with vicious governments. That strikes me as probably the biggest blind spot on the right w/r/t human... Read more