ACT ONE: COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR ME! Act One, a screenwriting workshop for Christians, will be holding a conference here in DC on April 26. Highly recommended. More info here. Read more

“WILLARD”: I went to see “Willard” last week with (appropriately) The Rat. I recommend it highly, with a couple caveats. (Yes, it is a movie about killer rats, and if you don’t want to see a movie about killer rats, you should avoid it. But I really, really wanted to see a movie about killer rats, and in that particular genre, it is hard to imagine a movie better than “Willard.”) First, the caveats. Crispin Glover cannot scream. You can... Read more

Plenty of room at the Blogwatch California Any time of year You can find it here…. After Abortion: Lots of good stuff, including a story about Dorothy Day that I hadn’t heard; and a hellacious mother who “thinks I am a horrible person because I am not falling apart regretting my decision.” I wonder if the mother is reacting to something in her own life. Or maybe she’s just full of vitriol for the hell of it. Balkinization is right... Read more

“CHINESE POLICE FIND 28 BABY GIRLS HIDDEN IN SUITCASES ON BUS, APPARENTLY TO BE SOLD.” “Chinese authorities say an unknown number of children are abducted every year for sale to childless families. Older girls are sometimes sold as brides in rural areas with fewer women. “The babies found in Guangxi were all under three months old, and one died after they were found, the Beijing Morning News said. It said the smugglers might have drugged them to keep them from... Read more

I AM UP WAY TOO LATE but whatever, I have to call Ghana at 1:30 AM tomorrow so I guess I need to practice. Real posting later. Read more

YET MORE ON TORTURE: The New Republic—a mixed bag. TNR thinks messing with fingernails and electric shocks won’t work and therefore won’t happen: “But one of the surprising aspects of the ongoing interrogations of Al Qaeda detainees is that the more senior captives–like Abu Zubaydah, or Mohammed’s associate Ramzi Binalshibh–have been remarkably willing to talk. Rather, the problem when it comes to these high-ranking terrorists is what they divulge–typically, an intricate lattice of fact and fiction. In the words of... Read more

WARRIOR CODES. Really fascinating article from the Chronicle of Higher Education. “In the spring semester following the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the start of President Bush’s ‘war on terror,’ I gave an unusual assignment to my students. I asked them to write essays detailing exactly why they are different from terrorists. The midshipmen were to spell out as clearly as possible how the roles they intended to fill as future Navy and Marine Corps officers are distinct in... Read more

TWO WAR LINKS. How to pray the rosary. How to go to Confession. “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” –Matt. 25:13 Read more

EXCELLENT TNR slam against “The Pianist.” (Only available online to subscribers, but if you have Nexis, it’s titled “Schindler’s Liszt.”) I don’t agree with all of it (my take on the movie is here–I think the focus on music was not–or not only–a weasel maneuver as the TNR reviewer charges), but it’s very much worth your time even if you have not seen the movie. Read more

HOW I FOUND SALAM PAX. So there’s been a lot of talk about Dear_Raed–is it for real, is it a propaganda tool (gevalt, if either our side or theirs is faking a gay anti-war anti-Saddam weblog, either they are much smarter than I thought or the CIA is no longer screening for current drug use), etc. I can’t provide the kind of details you’d get from Letter from Gotham, but since I brought the site to Insta-levels of attention while... Read more