My Latest for Inside Catholic I wanted Fr. Tom’s sacrifice to have as broad an audience as possible, so I submitted the story to Inside Catholic. A great, great man. Please pray for him. He is reportedly bedridden now and can acknowledge, but not respond to visitors. We may lose him very soon now. Read more

Fashion Statements for the Socially Inept Git Read more

This is Freakin’ Hilarious Not only does it capture perfectly the vibe of instructional films (NOT videos) I remember from my high school years, but it also nails the curious brain-vacuum-inducing bafflement that math always created in my English-major mind whenever I tried to track the whizzing blur of formulae the teacher breezed through for the non-math-challenged. I came away from high school figuring, “If God had meant us to do math, he would not have given us calculators.” Read more

Priests are Not Theological Vending Machines In which we learn not to borrow trouble by leaping to conclusions when your priest can’t instantly spit out an answer to some obscure theological problem. Read more

The Civic Equivalent of Sedevacantism Some kook in the fever swamps is already theorizing that Obama isn’t really president because Robert muffed the wording of the oath. Meanwhile, I would like to start a national campaign demanding that Biden be recognized as the the *true* 44th President since he was already sworn in (and Obama was not) when Bush’s term expired at noon. Obama is actually our 45th president. I wonder how many other veeps were President for five minutes... Read more

Amy Welborn Applies her Typically Formidable and Sober Intellect to the Obama Hype What a gift that woman is. Read more

More for the “How Similar We Are” file A reader writes: Black liberals being as lunatic about Obama as white evangelicals were about Bush. Read more

This is soooooooo Seattle and, Even More, Sooooooo Totally Fremont A friend writes: I got this from one of my Seattle women’s writers forums. This is perfect for your People’s Republic of Washington segment. Calling all Comrades…It’s a Lenin Poetry Slam! Write your own collective couplets about the fearless leader of Fremont. We’ll all Trotsky over to see the winning entry emblazoned in Bolshevik Brass on the sidewalk. THE LENIN POEMS Having moved to Fremont, very near the Lenin statue,... Read more

Of course, politicians do lie And so, we have yet to see if Obama actually follows through on that promise to end the use of torture and prisoner abuse that is one of the main stains on the previous Administration. He has indicated he wants to, but….. Being a consequentialist like most Americans, Obama is also hedging his bets it would appear: However, Obama’s changes may not be absolute. His advisers are considering adding a classified loophole to the rules... Read more

Fifty Bazillion Reactions to the Inaugural We watched it on the computer with the kids. Not often you see dramatic American history happening before you eyes as a scheduled event. I think what struck me was how similar American rhetoric on both sides of the aisle is, when compared with rhetoric about America from anywhere else. C.S. Lewis once remarked in his introduction to Athanasius’ “On the Incarnation”: Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing... Read more