on the ongoing arguments taking place among bishops as the American Church grapples with the problem of health care reform. The author tends to take a black hats/white hats approach (bishops who criticize health care reforms which are calculated to support abortion are “Republican shills”) while bishops who happen to state points of Church teaching advantageous to underscoring Dem talking points are sage and saintly. (Martino was sacked for being too pro-life! Even *Rome* is on the side of the... Read more

give me hope! http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6616900&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1 The Longing TAMU- Teaser 1 from Kerygma Studios on Vimeo. Courtesy of Mary’s Aggies, where they are obviously doing good work! Read more

Here’s a piece full of the sort of plump suburban self-satisfaction that one so often finds here. We are not a Church of sinners in need of salvation. We’re a Church of self-affirming and really quite wonderful people from whom God could learn a thing or two. Aren’t we Fabulous? Read more

Check thou it out! Read more

…perhaps America’s most cuddly-looking Catholic theologian, offers his liturgy reflection for this weekend: http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6621126&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1 Sunday, September 20, 2009: Liturgy Reflection from JP Catholic University on Vimeo. Read more

A reader yesterday, complained (understandably): By repeating the denigration of the tea party movement as provided by both the liberals and by the sort of conservatives who cannot take advantage of it, you are actually helping to make the situation worse, if only just a little bit. The tea party movement could be a force for good in the current situation. It could also be a force of disruption. Hmm. I can see that. My purpose wasn’t particularly to denigrate... Read more

…that one of the anagrams upon which the plot of DVC turned was “How dark the con of man”. I couldn’t resist running it through the Anagram Generator to see what came out. Turns out you get “COW HAND OF TOKEN HARM”. How sad that Brown didn’t use that instead of his sinister-sounding phrase. Oh! And “I am Lord Voldemort” doesn’t have to come out “Tom Marvolo Riddle”. It could just as easily be “LOVED TRIM MALODOR”. Similarly, “Tom Marvolo... Read more

Judging from my brief glance at the comboxes this morning, if I want a major spike in my blog traffic from comboxers constanting returning to argue with each other or play around with a cool link, all I need to do is figure out a way to combine Glenn Beck with Anagram Generators and it’s in the bag! By the way: “Glenn Beck” = “GELB ‘N’ NECK”. Make of that what you will. Read more

Let’s all get our intellectual formation from a radical Mormon who was too weird even for Mormons and on whom the Hoover’s FBI had a 2000 page file. Because that’s what a huge number of people, directed by the latest guru, are doing: “The first thing you could do,” he said, “is get ‘The 5,000 Year Leap.’ Over my book or anything else, get ‘The 5,000 Year Leap.’ You can probably find it in the book section of GlennBeck.com, but... Read more

For those of you who don’t know, Tim Powers is a science fiction/fantasy writer whose special brilliance is in coming up with wild stories about time travel, body swapping, bizarre occult activity and the like, but which routinely include actual historical characters and events. In particular, he looks for odd anomalies in the known record about these characters and events and then incorporates them into his stories in such as a way as to offer the *real* explanation for what... Read more