GOOD ARTICLES: Ramesh Ponnuru on sodomy laws. One gets the impression that Ponnuru always read all the instructions on the test before he started–he writes with an i-dotting, t-crossing care that approaches bravura. This is a good thing. And, via Amy Welborn, Zenit on a medical center in Congo: “Child soldiers and raped women are also given care. There are ‘very many, because rape is used as a weapon of war,’ she said. ‘In eastern Congo, seropositive men or those... Read more

“It is no small pity, and should cause us no little shame, that, through our own fault, we do not understand ourselves, or know who we are.” –St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle (with backing vocals by St. Augustine: “I myself comprehend not all the thing that I am”; and Friedrich Nietzsche: “We are unknown to ourselves, we knowers, we ourselves, to ourselves, and there is a good reason for this. We have never looked for ourselves, — so... Read more

MORE ON THE DEACONS FOR DEFENSE. OK, now I have some time to talk more about the excellent Showtime made-for-TV-movie I saw this past week (showing again this Thursday at 11 PM!). The Deacons for Defense were a black paramilitary organization founded in 1964 in Bogalusa, LA. Here are FBI records on the group. According to the movie and accompanying documentary (insert obligatory disclaimer about not getting one’s history lessons from Showtime), DFD was founded because the town had been... Read more

STUART BUCK has two really good posts–one is a roundup of cases in which Justice Thomas’s originalism has led him to take quite liberal positions, and the other seems to be a denunciation of new “citizen reporting” laws that violate our privacy. Read more

“POPULATION: DELUSION AND REALITY“: I referred to this article by Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen in my JWR column this week. Thought some might want the link. This piece by my friend Joseph De Feo is also very good, although it contains the phrase, “the grand commissar of red herrings,” which still makes me burst out laughing every time I see it. Read more

WHY YOUNG CATHOLICS LEAVE THE CHURCH. This article rings really true–although it discusses mostly people who were raised Catholic, the problems described also deeply affect converts like me, and Protestants wondering about the Church. Depressing but worth a read; keep in mind that we are promised that nothing can sink the Bark of Peter. Edited to add that I got this from E-Pression. Forgot where I’d seen it. Read more

RISKY BUSINESS: Business, failure, and government. Good stuff. Read more

“EENIE, MEENIE, MINIE, MOE” IN PAKISTAN. I report, you decide. Read more

HANNAH ARENDT’S NAZI EDITOR. Read more

WATER TURNED TO BONE: Help victims of Newfoundland’s frozen flood. Relapsed Catholic has details, and a reminder of the service Newfoundland offered America on 9/11. Read more