GONE AND RETURNED: I guess I am partly to blame for the disappearance of Where Is Raed, since I think I brought Salam Pax to a lot of people’s attention. Argh. His voice will definitely be missed. I hope he’s doing OK, and that he at least had a great time with the blog while it lasted. I also, of course, hope that his hiatus will eventually end, and he’ll return to blogland–like Ted Barlow. Read more

IMAGES OF MARY IMMACULATE. Plus Saint Anne teaching the Virgin to read. Read more

I like her shoes I like her hat I’d watch you better if you blogged like that… The Agitator: Lies of war. Ampersand: How many men are rapists? Powerful post. Kairos: Advent in a Nazi prison. Mark Shea: Help a Hindu. Specifically, help a Hindu understand her son’s conversion to Catholicism. All I can really think of is prayers to Saint Monica, but perhaps some of my readers can add other suggestions. Regions of Mind: Roundup of stories detailing the... Read more

20 MOVIES THAT SHAPED OUR CULTURE. I’ll probably comment once I’ve had time to read the list. Read more

IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER: I’m off to Sunny New Haven for the weekend. Back to blogging Tuesday, when I should have a whole bunch of fun stuff for you all (including a mailbag, which I haven’t done for a long time, and which will include some sharp replies to my JWR column on jurisprudence). Meanwhile, why not browse the blogroll? You know you want to procrastinate on such a snowy day. Read more

NEWS JEWS CAN USE (WITH A SIDE DISH OF SCALIA): The entire Talmud is now online. Here’s the description at Kesher Talk, where I found the link: “For the first time, the entire text of the Babylonian Talmud as it appears in the standard Vilna edition is now available on-line thanks to a website called E-Daf. “The site, conceived by Rabbi Dovid Kraus, contains all 2,711 pages of the Talmud, which are laid out using precisely the same format as... Read more

THE CATHOLIC CHEAT SHEET. Via Tenebrae. Read more

OH WOW, SNOW ROCKS. Yes, we all know snow is pretty, and snow seems to actually make the air feel softer and less utterly freezingly horrible. But snow is also an enormous pain in the neck, and it turns gray within at least a day, and blah, it gets in your boots and makes your feet very cold. So why does snow rock? Because there are little kids playing in it right outside my window. Screeching, laughing, small children. Snow... Read more

I HAVEN’T SEEN anyone blog those old “Doonesbury” strips on John Kerry recently, so here they are–from 1971, but somehow still so fresh: “Who was that?” “John Kerry.” “You’re really clicking tonight, you gorgeous preppie.” Read more

GOING BACK TO CONFESSION. Neat, neat post from KairosDude. Read more