“HIGH NOON”: Saw this last week at the American City Diner. Good movie (and good music, which is still stuck in my head). Very strange to watch right now, since it plays like a pro-invading-Iraq tract. The situation actually seems much more analogous to US vs. Iraq than to the Cold War context in which the movie was originally made. You can find slams on the UN, the US Council of Catholic Bishops (or any other Christian group that can... Read more

FUN STUFF FROM THIS WEEK’S REGISTER: Did you know this about Archbishop Fulton Sheen? “As bishop of Rochester, Archbishop Sheen fought for jobs for minorities and ministered to the black community, despite having a cross burned on the front lawn of his residence and a car vandalized. He also opened the first black hospital in Mobile, Ala., offering prenatal and maternity care.” And, from an interview with the author of How Not to Share Your Faith: The Seven Deadly Sins... Read more

“Kiss? What is kiss?” –Scantily-clad island woman to washed-ashore sailor, “Pagan Island” Read more

WOW. If you’re Catholic, Amy Welborn has some hilarious comments for you…. I want these shows now!!! I nominate Zorak to play the “Scully” figure on “The SSPX Files.” “Refute Me Or Be Kicked” is also really great, Zorak could do that too. Read more

MUSLIM COUNTRIES: NEWLY OPEN TO CHRISTIAN EVANGELIZATION? Via Telford Work, who has interesting comments. Read more

IF YOU COVER YOUR BOOBIES, THE TERRORISTS WILL HAVE WON. “Gore criticized Attorney General John Ashcroft for his attitude toward civil liberties. He got laughs when he mocked Ashcroft for spending $8,000 on draperies to cover the bare breast of a statue called The Spirit of Justice at the Justice Department building. “‘He put Lady Justice in a burqa,’ Gore quipped.” Read more

“The survival command center at the Pentagon has disclosed that a ghoul can be killed by a shot in the head. …Officials are quoted as explaining that since the brain of a ghoul has been activated by the radiation, the plan is: Kill the brain and you kill the ghoul!” –TV newsman, “Night of the Living Dead” Read more

YEAH!!! “It’s an Embarrassing Business. Let’s be honest: The so-called independent ‘alternative press’ died sometime during the Reagan administration. There are well over 100 weekly newspapers in the United States today, but just a handful that don’t take marching orders from the Democratic Party. The exceptions are rare, such as the San Diego Reader (whose owner is pro-life!), S.F. Weekly and Washington’s City Paper.” (NY Press) Read more

SO I’VE READ 37 of the el cheapo “most-challenged” books, 34 of the “most-challenged classics,” and 47 or 48 of the GRE “recommended reading” list (see below). Classy. Notes: 1) What on earth is the point of trying to ban Finnegans Wake??? “I’m offended by novels that begin in the middle of a sentence!” 2) Interesting that the American Library Association thinks Gone With the Wind is a classic. So do I (a classic of popular lit anyway), but still….... Read more

PEOPLE UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT: Eugene Volokh offers libel advice to a student newspaper that runs satirical copy, unlabeled as satire, on its back page. Boy does that sound familiar! (Click here for the YFP‘s most recent back page ad–it’s great.) Volokh’s points are all quite reasonable, so I won’t talk about them. I just want to relate some fun/scary anecdotes about the phenomenon of the back-page ad. In two cases that I can think of, somebody Didn’t Get The... Read more