My friend Lisa Mladinich asked me to write today on chapter six of her beautiful new book, True Radiance: Finding Grace in the Second Half of Life. Lisa’s going to be doing a giveaway of her book for readers of this blog over at her place, and yes, I completely forgot to ask whether that will be at AmazingCatechists.com or Water into Wine, so check both! I’ll update here when I have the direct link. (I explained to her that me putting things... Read more
For those who’ve followed the news from afar, The Catholic Miscellany has some great stories posted about the flooding in South Carolina: Here’s the story of a family rescued from their home as the waters hit chest-high on the ground floor: The first two boats wouldn’t start. Anxiety built, but eventually the neighbors were able to crank a pontoon boat and steered it toward the Duprees’ front door. Emory, 8, was trying to keep her 6-year-old brother, Watson, calm as her mom and dad explained... Read more
No no, I’ve got that headline wrong. It’s all about “dignity” when you tell a mentally-ill person, “Why yes, we would all be better off without you, thanks for asking.” Nothing confers more dignity on a suffering person than affirming for them that in fact you’d rather get rid of them, too. But no one’s making anyone kill their neighbor with this kindness, are they? On the contrary: If you’re a doctor in Quebec, you’ll be expected to kill patients regardless... Read more
Building on my previous post, I want to talk some more about the clash of expectations that leads to poverty-nagging. Today we’ll look at the “But she has a smartphone!” line of welfare reform proposals. Back in the 1980’s, my parents bought an IBM PC. This was when getting a computer (of any kind) in your home was first becoming common. It didn’t have a hard drive, it had a four-color monitor (black, white, pink, green), and it most certainly... Read more
Kat Fernandez recently shared her perennial post on poverty-nagging. What caught my attention was the blouse incident: He didn’t have to say yes, he’d help me, but he did. He also didn’t have to comment that I needed to learn to save money or note that I was wearing a new blouse, but he did. Never mind the “new” blouse was actually a hand me down or the idea of a savings was laughable making barely over minimum wage. He... Read more
I received a very flattering compliment about my recent post on teaching logic to teens, and I don’t wish to quibble with the kind soul who bestowed it on me. But there’s a secret I must reveal: Teaching teenagers is easier. What we are studying is the art of identifying bad arguments and replacing them with good ones. One of the tricks used in the book, and that I use in the class as well, is to assert things that... Read more
. . . is the people you get to work with. Here’s a snapshot of the table of contents for Word by Word: Slowing Down with the Hail Mary, of interest because Sarah (the author) suggested we contributors get our names added as co-authors on Amazon. Backing up you can see just what kind of company I’m in, and that’s just page 1. Hint: If you don’t know some of these names, maybe you should. If you just can’t get enough... Read more
Point them to the internet. In class this morning, the kids got their formal introduction to Mr. Straw. We’re working through The Fallacy Detective, and the way we do most chapters is that the kids read the text at home, we discuss the definition of the fallacy, and then the kids each contribute an example they’ve either invented or endured. We do assorted exercises to practice identifying the various fallacies we’ve studied and to distinguish them from legitimate arguments. Because of... Read more
A year and some ago, I wrote this, now showing live at CatholicMom.com because it’s the 16th of the month: How often do my priorities get out of order? How often do I put needless worries ahead of my worship of God? . . . Lord, show me how to prioritize my day, my week, my month, and my year. Show me the right use of my body, and the proper care of my soul. Help me to give myself to... Read more
One of the red herrings of the culture of death is the, “What about those poor people over there?” argument. If you were really pro-life, they accuse, you’d care about orphans, and the homeless, and name-that-suffering-people-group. It’s not only a distraction, it is also a false accusation: The same people who campaign for the right of all innocent people not to be killed are also in the business of helping the not-dead-yet to live well. The distraction is likewise used by... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In