Magical thinking

December 18, 2019 By Mark Shea

Both St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas are spinning in their graves: Ohio lawmakers are weighing in on how public schools can teach things like evolution. The Ohio House on Wednesday passed the “Student Religious Liberties Act.” Under the law, students can’t be penalized if their work is scientifically wrong as long as the reasoning is because of their religious beliefs. Instead, students are graded on substance and relevance. Every Republican in the House supported the bill. It... Read more

Talking with an atheist friend about justice

December 17, 2019 By Mark Shea

So a while back, I read yet another horrifying article about the monstrous–and intensely beloved by MAGA “prolife” Christianists–Trump policies of cruelty to children and I tweeted: “They should obey the law!” say these godless hypocrites about their victims as they cheer for Trump spitting on the Constitution. — Chezami (@chezami) November 1, 2019 When I use a term like “godless” I don’t usually mean so much “having an intellectual belief in the non-existence of God” but (which is typically... Read more

The Key to My Heart

December 16, 2019 By Mark Shea

It’s our anniversary today, so I thought I would offer this to my sweetie again: How can it be that I feel younger now, with you, than I did in grey youth? Grimly pacing the cage of my lonely hunger for love, I tested the bars and dimly saw no way I would ever feel joy’s breeze on my face. But Love–whose whimsy and light laugh was, from the deeps of time, revealed anew in your caress, your kiss, your... Read more

Since it’s Saturday….

December 14, 2019 By Mark Shea

what better to do than offer 1) an analysis of the single greatest short cartoon of all time: and 2) a look at the single greatest cartoon creator of all time: Read more

“OK Boomer”

December 13, 2019 By Mark Shea

As long time readers know, I have always referred to my own generation as Generation Narcissus. We are the most self-absorbed generation in history, scolding our parents (who only overcame the Great Depression, Hitler, Stalin, Communism and global war and created the most prosperous country in history and so cannot compare to our greatness) and scolding our children for surviving our attempts to abort them and screw them out of a future by turning into selfish Republicans who voted Trump,... Read more

A reader writes about our bizarre medical system for punishing the sick

December 12, 2019 By Mark Shea

Sez he: People are being arrested and put in jail in relation to private medical debts. Debtors prisons for the poor, free money for the rich- remember they gave billions to big agribusiness, not to mention investing firms under TARP, not to mention private corporations who profit from war. As Martin Luther King saw fifty years ago, conservatives pretend to oppose socialism. What they in fact deeply believe in is socialism for the rich. Punishing the poor for being sick... Read more

A reader writes to ponder the work of Pope Francis

December 11, 2019 By Mark Shea

Sez he: So, I was thinking the other day about Pope Francis and his relationship with that old Italian atheist reporter who doesn’t take notes during the interviews. It occurred to me that a possible explanation for his continuing this seemingly imprudent relationship is that Francis (who believes the Shepherd should smell like the sheep) is demonstrating his personal love and pastoral concern for the man by staying in his life and not abandoning him even though he risks alienating... Read more

Childlike Liberal Fool in the Vatican invents “eco-sins”

December 10, 2019 By Mark Shea

Well the liberal idiots in Rome are at it again: Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of “new” sins such as causing environmental blight. The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican’s number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils. Asked what he believed... Read more

A fascinating story of evangelization through art

December 9, 2019 By Mark Shea

From Catholic World Report: “Osamu Giovanni Micico had never read the Bible, knew nothing of the stories of Christ in the gospels, and had never heard of the apostles, when his experience studying sacred art in Italy brought him to the Catholic faith. “When I came to Italy, painting was the only street for me as far as my profession goes. Thank God, that is also where God gave me my spiritual rebirth,” Micico told CNA. Catholicism “transformed my life.... Read more

What better day than Saturday for an appreciation of Looney Toons?

December 7, 2019 By Mark Shea

My pal, Deacon Steven Greydanus, writes an encomium to the sheer greatness of these cartoons that says everything I could ever say and more. Here’s a taste, but read the whole thing: It’s hard to believe that many American children had their first experience of Sylvester and Tweety Bird in a 2011 computer-animated short, “I Tawt I Taw a Putty Tat,” accompanying Happy Feet Two. Hard to believe, first, that Sylvester and Tweety made it back to the big screen —... Read more