it’s good for children to engage in creative play. Always good to see the triumph of common sense. Read more

Here’s a piece by Kevin O’Brien on Cardinal Newman and Flannery O’Connor and here’s something by Jennifer Pierce on Georges Rouault. Jen also has a column in the Anchor and Kevin has a blog entry on the secret love affair between lefties and capitalist fat cats. Read more

Today, my minions, you task is simple, read this article and see if you can detect the slightest hint of “railing” going on, then write a headline explaining the metanarrative of the headline writer. The Vatican is forever “cracking down“, ain’t it? I think Get Religion should do a story on the “Vatican Crackdown” trope. It would be fun. Ah!  They have!  Exxxxcellent! That is all! Read more

One last thing before I go. Barbara Nicolosi Harrington writes: My family has just received some very difficult news and I wanted to ask all of you to join with us in prayer. My younger sister, Valerie, the opera sister, was just diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. The doctors have said it is a very aggressive cancer and they are readying her for surgery on Monday. Valerie is 36 and was married in 2009, just two days before Norris... Read more

I gotta book, but I couldn’t go without offering my huzzahs to the Muslims of Egypt who have gone to Coptic Mass in order to offer their bodies as human shields against the crazies of the Umma. Well done, Egyptian Muslims! You give me hope! Okay. Now I’m outta here! Read more

Beautiful, zero Fahrenheit Minnesota! Where I will get to speak to some wonderful folk (see here for info), plus get to sponge off the kindness and hospitality of Dale Ahlquist and make his life a living hell for four wonderful days! This is gonna be fun! But (alas for us, my reading chums) it means no blogging today as I finish up stuff here and then toddle off to the plane. I will try to parachute in as I can... Read more

It’s the Rosary Robot! Read more

Rank the Coen Bros. films! Read more

I’m seeking some advice from Catholics, and I was hoping you could crowdsource this to your blog. I’m an atheist dating a Catholic, and, a week ago, I asked if anyone had suggestions for ways to explore Christianity that I ought to adopt as New Year’s resolutions. Well, I’m a college student, so my New Year doesn’t start until classes do, so I’d still welcome suggestions. If you want a quick sense of where I am now and some of... Read more

There are no Christopher Hitchens Leper Colonies or Richard Dawkins Charities. In a Darwinian world, concern for the weak and sick doesn’t tend to reach the top of the To Do list. No, that doesn’t mean “All atheists are immoral”. But it does mean that ideas have consequences and if you groom a whole population to think “If they be like to die they had better do it and help decrease the surplus population” what you will get is a... Read more