PUNISH, THEN FORGIVE: Good USS Clueless post on the continuing Catholic crisis. “…Cardinal George sees the possibility in there for forgiveness and reassignment of child molesters to positions in the church where they don’t deal with children. I don’t have a problem with that. I really don’t. After they’ve been released from prison, I think that the Church should accept them back if they want to come and are truly reformed.” I’d add that the Church can’t and shouldn’t give... Read more

GOOD CATCH: Ben Domenech points out, “The ‘WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY’ quote is not from Peter Parker. It is from his Uncle Ben, who was murdered by a criminal. Parker remembers it in flashback whenever Spider-man has to make some kind of critical moral choice.” And a reader notes that St. Anselm may or may not have said the quotation I attribute to him below; but St. Catherine of Siena definitely did. Read more

POETRY WEDNESDAY: From Emily Dickinson: A word dropped careless on a Page May stimulate an eye When folded in perpetual seam The Wrinkled Maker lie Infection in the sentence breeds We may inhale Despair At distances of Centuries From the Malaria– Read more

“Do you come from a land down under? Where women glow and men plunder? Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder? You better run, you better watch bloggers.” Kevin Holtsberry: Two good responses to Jonah Goldberg’s get-Saddam column. Via Unqualified Offerings, who hammers home one of Holtsberry’s points. Diana Hsieh vs. Will Wilkinson on sociobiological explanations for religious belief. You can read my thoughts on some of these explanations here and (obliquely!) here; I’ll just add two things. One:... Read more

“Are you always so chivalrous to strange women, Captain Blake?” “We’ll kick that around some other time.” –Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer, “The Big Steal” Read more

LICENSE PLATE SPOTTED ON MY WAY TO LUNCH: “NOYRSELF.” Read more

IF ANYONE KNOWS OF good homeless shelters that take single men, in or very near DC, please email me at eve_tushnet@yahoo.com. By “good” I mean a shelter that provides counseling (ideally including job counseling), help getting mental health care, and, in general, more than “three hots and a cot.” Please let me know whatever you can about local shelters. Thanks. (This is for personal use, not journalism.) Read more

“WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY”: Who said that? (Link via Pigs & Fishes.) Read more

Breakin’ rocks in the hard sun, I watched the blogs and the blogs won, I watched the blogs and the blogs won… Don’t Be A Shamed: Signs spotted at the weekend’s protests; and yet more about our adventures among the globo-nuts. Brink Lindsey: Very fun, cool post about how kids think; requiem for a (real) man of steel. Charles Murtaugh: Cloning roundup; good responses to his “libertarianism –> litigiousness?” post; and he’s fed up with Bush. For excellent reasons. Sursum... Read more

I’M PETER RABBIT!: Who are you? (This quiz is one of the better ones, though it’s not as brill as the magnificent Which Bowie Are You?… but then, what is…) Link via Tepper, who also brings us this fantastic story: Condoleezza Rice playing Brahms with Yo-Yo Ma. Read more