That moment when your kid gripes, “Why are we even bothering having choral Benediction if we’re not singing the Rossini O Salutaris? I mean, do you want people to catch onto the idea of the Real Presence or not??” I forebore from mounting a defense of Gregorian chant. Let her wallow in youthful self-righteousness for a while. Instead, I told her she needs to get together a choral flashmob and rove about town descending on Adoration hours and unleashing the... Read more
So, about those Santa Wars going on up at the Mall of America . . . I’m pleased to see that someone has been getting the memo and kindly ranked my horrible, no-good, very bad Southern state in the top ten worst places to live in the US. It’s terrible here! Stay away! Meanwhile, newsflash: What the local shopping malls here in backwardsville term “African-American Santa” has a been fixture on the Santa-visiting schedule for as long as I’ve had kids,... Read more
Tip #1: If you wish to protest the provision in the US Constitution that’s designed to prevent mob rule, forming a violent mob is not the most convincing way to make your case. Tip #2: You are of course well aware that the egregious post-election behavior on the part of a few unsavory characters who happened to have supported your candidate is the exception, not the rule. It follows that the same is true of those bad apples on your opponent’s... Read more
Quick update: The piece below is satire (and was tagged as such from the outset), but a few people missed the memo. The Calexit ballot initiative, however, is not. You can read the detailed Q&A on the 2019 referendum initiative here. Dear Friends, I am writing to you in these tumultuous times to ask for your help with a very important work of mercy — a whole collection of works of mercy, in fact. Now before I make my plea,... Read more
This afternoon, the 5th grader comes to me for homework help after school at St. Urban’s. It’s a grammar review, and she couldn’t make sense of the directions for question #3. The directions: “Use context clues to determine the meaning of the bolded word below.” These directions were difficult to understand because the sentence is: “The hunter killed several deer in order to have enough venison to feed his family during the long, cold winter.” The idea that someone wouldn’t know what venison meant... Read more
This is a request for assistance from any readers who are knowledgeable on the topic. Please kindly refrain from answering if your knowledge of Islam consists primarily of passing around inflammatory memes on social media, thanks. Background: Yesterday in my extensive goofing off online, a friend pointed me to Wikipedia’s darkly amusing catalog of all the different ways people lie. In skimming the article, I stumbled on the reference to Taqiya, a concept that was heretofore completely unknown to me. If I... Read more
Related: Over at the Conspiracy I give instructions on how to watch the evacuation live, including the understatedly-impressive I-26 lane reversal. *** Here’s Governor Haley acting like you might hope, say, a president would act: You can like her politics or not, but at least we as a nation have hope that there are some moderately-competent politicians in the pipeline for less disastrous election years to come. Meanwhile, let’s talk about South Carolina’s habit of taking personal days every time... Read more
“You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” Leviticus 19:15 This month over at (the extremely right-leaning) Chronicles magazine, Karina Rollins is reporting on the epidemic of sexual assaults committed by migrants in Germany. To recap the situation, a few links from across the spectrum: Here’s a detailed report from the Gatestone Institute – useful because of the summary of incidents... Read more
It’s new-catechist season, and if you know such a person, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you about the book you want. It’s Classroom Management for Catechists, by me. It’s cheap, short, readable, and gives you a 101 on how to avoid all the stupid things I did as a new religious ed teacher, and instead go directly to putting together a decent class even if you aren’t a genius with magical superpowers. There’s a Spanish version, too. If you... Read more
If there were a morally acceptable candidate offered by either major party, of course you could vote for that person in clear conscience. There isn’t, and therefore many people are settling for choosing the least-bad candidate. Don’t do this. Vote third party. Why? Voting third party is the most effective way for you to bring about a change of regime. It’s more effective than a write-in campaign (barring a massive, united, nationwide campaign, which I don’t see happening). It’s certainly... Read more
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