When are you watching? Hope you watch soon… Gonna tell you right now That I’m blogging to you… Dappled Things: Papal coronations and “Sic transit gloria mundi.” (Scroll up for a minor possible correction, but the anecdote I linked is well worth your time.) Peace in the Family/Become What You Are is starting a Lenten series looking at the papal encyclical Salvifici Doloris, on the meaning of suffering. I’m very much looking forward to this. Regions of Mind: Catholics and... Read more

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM: Recent dreams included a really hideous nightmare based partly on Misery (for my money one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen–book is extremely frightening too, but not as much so). Fortunately they also included some fun stuff; for example, my former boss sent me an enormous file on my cell phone, including a map, detailing how different jurisdictions enforced Prohibition. Now that’s all well and good, except that a) in the dream, Prohibition took place... Read more

“I can tell you truly that, wicked as I am, I have never feared the torments of hell, for they seem nothing by comparison with the thought of the wrath which the damned will see in the Lord’s eyes–those eyes so lovely and tender and benign. I do not think my heart could bear to see that; and I have felt like this all my life.” —The Interior Castle If that leaves you confused, it might help to think of... Read more

LENT LINK: Father Jim Tucker has a lot of good stuff up there now, including his Ash Wednesday homily and some thoughts on selecting Lenten penances. As for me, I’ll be back tomorrow, but no more blog today… Read more

Some 9-year-old tough watches blogs, I swear to God, I swear I never even knew what blogs were …. (Today’s blogwatch heading via Tenelux.) Amptoons: Important post about women refugees fleeing domestic violence. Grrrr. I’ve just used the send-a-letter-to-Ashcroft thing linked on his site, but if people know of more direct things to do, perhaps via nonprofits, let me know and I’ll link that here. Books For Lent: Compiled by Amy Welborn. The Volokh Conspiracy: Excellent idea re college athletics.... Read more

KILLING THEM SOFTLY. My Jewish World Review column. It’s about that fascinating NYTM story by the disability-rights lawyer who confronted Peter Singer. There are major implications for therapeutic cloning; I didn’t get into that stuff in the column (because I didn’t think of it until lunch today), but you can probably do your own legwork there. Read more

“I have just been wondering if my God could be described as the fire in a lighted brazier, from which some spark will fly out and touch the soul, in such a way that it will be able to feel the burning heat of the fire; but, as the fire is not hot enough to burn it up, and the experience is very delectable, the soul continues to feel that pain and the mere touch suffices to produce that effect... Read more

IF WAR WITH IRAQ HAS BEGUN, shouldn’t somebody, you know, tell us? Read more

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE… for Stalin. Saddening article, via Light of Reason. And: “Stalin’s forgotten victims stuck in the gulag.” Yes. Still. They can’t afford to leave–“Although Vorkuta’s last camps closed in the early 1960s, more than 300 surviving former political prisoners are stranded in the town, shackled by their pensions from the local authority.” Via Amy Welborn. Read more

MORE DC COP SUCKAGE. Read more