the Argument of the Month Club out in Twinsville takes up the burning question of Harry Potter. Julian Ahlquist defends the right side and Michael Matt defends the wrong side–not that I’m biased or anything. Update: Indeed, Michael Matt’s Remnant doesn’t just defend the wrong side, but does so in a manner so spectacularly paranoid and fundamentally illiterate that you have to have a heart of stone to read their critique without laughing. Read more

…I was trying to make on Monday. Read more

are quickly passing their sell-by date. Yes. I recognize it’s easy to find obnoxious jerks in a large crowd of people and focus the camera on them. The same thing was done with the Tea Party folk. Zero in on the small clique of nutbars make that the whole story. But you know? I can’t remember any Tea Party fringe nutbars spattering blood and urine on people in a petulant fit because merchants had cut off free service to ungrateful... Read more

…(aka the Brohirrim) spent last Sunday afternoon. I have great sons! Read more

Our God King was more interested in self-aggrandizement and lies than he was in national security when his administration killed Bin Laden. Read more

…the guy who wrote The Exorcist. Read more

Update: Then again. On the other hand…. Read more

A reader writes: Please keep Deacon Rob Jergovic (Omaha) and his family in your prayers. Rob suffered a heart attack this past weekend and had a 5x bypass, but did not recover well from it. he is in critical condition and it is affecting his liver and kidneys. He and his wife have just adopted two little girls from China (less than a year ago) and were going to be leaving in a few weeks to adopt a third little... Read more

Update: Tom Kreitzberg (among others) persuades me that this particular way of criticizing those who attempt to exploit the abuse scandal to further their anti-celibacy, womenpriest agenda is, itself, a mirror image of that exploitation and therefore wrong. So, mea culpa. I will not do it anymore. Read more

offers us more musical gorgeousness: Read more