Reader Carbon Monoxide has a job! He writes: I have just been offered a wonderful job in Knoxville, TN. I will be moving the whole family there at the end of the next school year (or sooner if they don’t rebel). The offer was so good, I’m almost afraid it is some perverse joke that is being played on me. I will be implementing “intelligent grid” projects in the US and Europe, helping to reduce CO2 and make a safer,... Read more

is how quickly they turn from speaking of “HOPE” to speaking of the death of the United States as a fait accompli. Even more extraordinary is that, when they cast around for a way to save the US from its certain doom, they glance at and overlook the Catholic Church (“Hmmmm… only a billion members and still growing”) and fix instead on a religious tradition whose greatest cultural achievements are Battlestar Galactica and Napoleon Dynamite. To be sure, the “family... Read more

Yesterday, I was noting that many anti-Catholics, ignorant of the interior life of the Church, tend to speak as though She is a sort of Command Economy with Rome cranking out new and crazy doctrines which she then arbitarily commands the faithful to believe and obey. So we are told that “Rome teaches” that Mary suffered no birth pangs and that, because “Rome teaches” this, Rome therefore contradicts herself in seeing the Woman of Revelation 12 as a Marian figure... Read more

A reader writes: I know I’m just a toadie and all 🙂 but I wanted to let you, and particularly your readers know that my home parish will offer a Mass for miscarried and stillborn babies at 8am central time on August 27th, which is also the memorial of St. Monica. I expect many fellow toadies have a special little someone to remember on that day. Indeed I do. Thanks. Your prayers for Julie Elizabeth would be appreciated. Read more

The Prophet Chesterton once remarked that journalism tends to give us the end of the story without giving us the beginning or middle. In his memorable phrase, newpapers are constantly announcing “Admiral Bangs is Dead!” to a world that never knew Admiral Bangs had been born. I find myself in much the same position now, announcing “A winner in the Theology of the Body script contest has been selected!” to a world that never knew the Theology of the Body... Read more

1) Camille Paglia’s latest Salon article is very Interesting, and quite sensible: 2) Albacete has written a few things on one of the CL websites (on Obama, Health care reform, etc etc.): 3) I am asking for prayers for Conor Dugan, a friend of ours who is part of John Egan’s SoC group. He has an aortic aneurysm — basically a bulging of a blood vessel — and is scheduled to have open heart surgery on August 14 to repair... Read more

Crime-fighting nuns! It would take just a nudge to turn a habit into something that looks like a super-hero costume. Also, have you ever noticed how many super-heros are celibate? It’s a natural! Read more

Bill Maher quotes Chesterton at the end of a rant that Chesterton would have taken to pieces word by word. In fact, Chesterton does take it to pieces in an essay he wrote (in response to another anti-democratic elitist named H.L. Mencken, whose sandals Maher is not worthy to untie). It is a called “Is Humanism a Religion?” and is precisely in response to the growing mood of contempt the elite are expressing for the whole untidy process of self-governance.... Read more

Today, my hunchbacked, drink-addled shuffling yes men and women, I have prepared something special: Stories in Six Words. Go. Read. Return. Write one in my combox. That is all! Read more

We’ll be talking about Volume III of Mary, Mother of the Son: Miracles, Devotion and Motherhood. You can stream it live here. Read more