To start, a disclosure: a little under two years ago, I was most definitely an “early adopter” of mask-wearing, even to the point of sewing several dozen for the staff at Mom and Dad’s assisted living community. Since then, I have not seen a study demonstrating the cloth masks are effective, and I have seen studies that mask-wearing proponents claimed to be solid evidence, turn out to be deeply flawed, with results that do not reach statistical significance thresholds or... Read more
What is the most appropriate book for middle schoolers to read to learn about the Holocaust? My own sons read Elie Wiesel’s Night when they were in 8th grade. I also have the impression that Anne Frank is a very popular choice though it seems to me decreasingly so, perhaps because of the recognition that her story doesn’t cover the concentration camp experience. Were I to choose, I might recommend Clara’s War by Clara Kramer, a sort of “Anne Frank... Read more
As regular readers may know, I am in the middle of a master’s program in Economics, so these past two weeks have been more of a “real vacation” than usual, and, rather than working on a puzzle, as I do occasionally, I created a “fabric art” project. I am by no means an artist, and the end result is by no means perfect, but I wanted to write out exactly how I did it, for what it’s worth, and to... Read more
It’s Elizabeth Ann Seton’s feast day today. You know her — first American-born saint, founder of what became the Catholic school system in the United States, widow and mother. What follows is something of a re-write of my blog post from a couple years ago, with a bit of a different take in light of Cardinal Cupich’s new actions against the Traditional Latin Mass. First, a mini-biography. Elizabeth Ann Seton was raised as an Episcopalian, devout but also happy to... Read more
Earlier this week, Cardinal Cupich announced that henceforth the Traditional Latin Mass in the Archdiocese of Chicago would be prohibited on the first Sunday of the month as well as the holiest days of the year for Catholics: Christmas, the Triduum, Easter Sunday, and Pentecost, ostensibly in the name of “unity” and in order to see the wisdom of the superior novus ordo mass. (See my prior blog post for more particulars.) Since that news came out I have been... Read more
Yes, this irritates me enough to prod me to write after a long break. Well, that and the fact that it’s Christmas break in my graduate program and we’re all relaxing this evening. I am not an attendee of the Traditional/Tridentine Latin Mass. I’ve gone, a few times. I get the concept, at least I think I do — that it’s not about the Latin per se but about the mass being, at least in part, an opportunity for silent... Read more
Hey, everyone — I wrote the following on that first weekend when the collapse of Kabul was underway. I may or may not write up some reflections on September 11th itself, but in the meantime, I’ll click publish on this piece. I’ve been following the reports on Afghanistan: the collapse of the Afghan army as the Taliban gains more and more territory (and more and more American military equipment), the desperate attempts of the American government to evacuate American personnel... Read more
So I’ve been doing some COVID math — the sort that isn’t really good enough to put myself forth as an expert but which I want to write down, in a bloggy fashion. It starts with this: two weeks ago, in a CNN interview, CDC director Rochelle Walensky said that for “every 20 vaccinated people, one or two of them could get a breakthrough infection.” A White House staffer said, “If 10 vaccinated people walk into a room full of... Read more
Let’s start with a one-paragraph review of the Reconstruction Era, shall we? In the period immediately following the end of the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination, former Vice President Andrew Johnson favored leniency toward the rebellious states, but the Radical Republican faction gained control over Congress in 1866 and pushed for civil rights, protections, and social-welfare efforts for the freed slaves, overriding Johnson’s vetoes. In 1868, President Ulysses S. Grant replaced Johnson and continued the Radical Republicans’ policies, including combatting... Read more
Yeah, this is another one of my little blog posts in which I write based on memory rather than pulling up links, but here’s the question: what is Juneteenth about? Yes, the date commemorates the arrival of the Union Army in Texas proclaiming the liberation of the slaves, on June 19, 1865, some two months after the surrender of Lee and the end of the Civil War, and some two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. And I’ve been reading a... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In