Are so very often skilled at urging other people to shed their blood so they can feel like men. So many of them seem to have embraced that fundamental confusion between brutality and courage, and between gambling other people’s lives and loved ones with “taking a principled stand”. Read more

Today, my craven toadies, you must memorize the screwed up lyrics of “Mack the Knife” recorded by Ella the Magnificent when she totally forgot the words in a live concert. True musical awesomeness is a nice way to divert the conversation from your glassy eyes, shuffling gait, and ragged clothes when you are at a party. Go, my pretties, and be like Ella–if you can. Tell them I made you this way. That is all. Read more

Battle w/ Police – Tehran, Iran – June 20th 2009by mightier-than It would be great if everything were going this way. But tragically the regime has had its victims, the most poignant being a young woman named Neda, who has instantly become the face of the resistance at the cost of her blood: Words can’t express the galvanizing effect this has had, not just in Iran, but around the world (and signficantly, throughout the Islamosphere). Try as they might, the... Read more

The book continues to do very well! For those of you who were wondering, my latest batch of 50 arrived from Catholic Answers today, so I will send out the orders that piled up over the last couple of days. If you’ve been hesitating about ordering because you saw that I was cleaned out of copies unexpectedly, hestitate no more! I’ve got another small boatload for sale! What are they saying about Mary, Mother of the Son? Reader SecretAgentMan declares:... Read more

It’s a cult of fear *and* a fool’s paradise! It’s a floor cleaner! It’s a dessert topping! And now, because I’ve got stuff to do (and besides, he’s more fun to read than I am), I bid you “ciao” for the weekend, go to prepare for our Scout trip east of the mountains, and leave you with the Prophet Chesterton on the curious phenomenon of critics of Christianity who are so eager to contradict it that they do not mind... Read more

…from China. A friend who has spent a lot of time there sees real hope for the Church too. Strange place. Combines all the worst features of a capitalist and communist society. The ugly materialism of a market economy with the draconian repression and hatred of religion of the commies. No doubt our elites are longing to imitate them. Read more

A reader writes: I’ve been a little confused lately by some of my fellow Catholics. I think this a topic that must influence bloggers in some way or another as well. I have been informed that acknowledging any good about Obama basically belittles the great evils he has done regarding abortion and causes scandal (because people will hear, I suppose, and think I’m down with abortion if I say Obama has the right idea about waterboarding being torture.) We would... Read more

For instance, the sin of contempt has the paradoxical effect of blinding you to person for whon you have contempt, so that you wind up not having the slightest clue who it is you are fighting. The danger of this is that, if your contemptuous words do not, in fact, describe the reality of the one for whom you have contempt, they may wind up proving to be better, smarter, cleverer, wiser and even even more just and holy than... Read more

Just copied this from the mainpage of Blogger: Become a JESUS CHRISTWith an Online Pastoral Degree. Study Online, in your spare time.Christian.EarnMyDegree.com I think it’s the “in your spare time” thing that cracks me up the most. Read more

I was in Jim Anderson’s office today at the Coming Home Network and he shared with me the books you gave him on Mary. I was raised Roman Catholic. Last September I left my Lutheran pulpit and now I work at a school in NY. I am enrolled at the seminary in Yonkers, NY and last year I wrote on Mary as theotokos. My hat is off to guys like this who, like the apostles, abandon their nets–their very livelihood–and... Read more