On the one hand, you’ve got your Blue State Fanatics who feel they must apologize to their fellow sniffy Chattering Class members if they do something so lowbrow as mention Christmas. On the other, you have frenzied members of the Culture Warrior Right, looking for opportunities to be offended with all the zeal of Jesse Jackson in full racial offensitivity mode. Me:  I just want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas–except the Christmas Inquisitors.  Them, I will wish “Happy Holidays”... Read more

Joel was, until December 15, the very fine editor of The Catholic Anchor, the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Anchorage.  However, on that date, he was mysteriously terminated from his position in what looks like some sort of nasty bureaucratic coup by somebody in Anchorage Archdiocese.  It’s hard to tell, because nobody can pry any information out of the people in the chancery whose job, theoretically, is to serve the people of God and not build personal fiefdoms. A few... Read more

The redoubtable Stephen Gabriel has just a released a new book called Catholic Controversies: Understanding Church Teachings and Events in History It’s a whole collection of essays on various, well, controversial issues in contemporary Catholic life by a whole boatload of writer whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. My contributions are “The Mother of the Son: The Case for Marian Devotion” (which originally ran on Inside Catholic) and a piece reprinted from This Rock called, “Purgatory? Where is... Read more

please pray that my husband find a job…his company laid off 1,400 people including him…also for L’s relationship with S…he is wrong for her…ask the Lord to bring her a CHRISTian man… Father, hear our prayer for this family through Christ our Lord. Mother Mary and St. Joseph, pray for them! Read more

As a Dark Lord, I always appreciate scenes in which a helpless puppet is controlled by a malevolent intelligence: Also, I am gratified to report that our good friend and cohort in evil, Kevin O’Brien, has discovered that one of the writers of “Phineas and Ferb” is a Kevin O’Brien fan and watches his YouTube videos! He’s also a Chestertonian! Read more

to the San Juan Islands! By a lovely bit of serendipity, I’ve been invited to speak at St. Francis Parish in Friday Harbor tomorrow night at 6:30–and the folks who invited me up invited Jan and I to stay at their lovely guest house! Given that our 27th Anniversary was yesterday, we are both looking forward to this wonderful little gift and a chance to just be on Island Time for the weekend! Thanks be to God for such unexpected... Read more

this is satire. But it does remind me of the thing I read several years ago which proposed updating the corporate logo from the outdated and hard to remember 18th Century “United States of America” to “UNISAM”. And forget that whole Latin “E Pluribus Unum” jazz. Instead, let’s have “People working with people to help people”. “FreeSmart” would be right at home in such a world. Read more

After months of hard work on Capitol Hill, pro-life forces scored a victory on Friday when pro-life Senators John McCain, Mitch McConnell and others blocked the Department of Defense (DoD) Authorization bill. The bill included language allowing military hospitals and personnel to be used for elective abortions (paid for by tax dollars.) The 57-40 vote in the U.S. Senate fell three votes short of the 60 votes the bill’s proponents needed to move it forward. As a result, the controversial... Read more

A reader writes: I am writing to ask for prayers for a colleague. We have received the following email yesterday, and as you can imagine, it is a difficult choice. If she goes for treatment she could lose the baby, but if she doesn’t.. she may not be around to see the baby grow up. Thank you in advance for all prayers. I really hope and pray for a miracle. Some of you will have spoken or worked with Charlotte... Read more

Saying outlandish and un-American things about the Thing that Used to Be Conservatism and its vision of American Greatness Through Empire. Who is this enemy of the American Mission to Bring Freedom to the World? Read more