A UK court has ruled that it would be lawful to withhold some medical treatments from the severely ill ten-month-old son of developmentally disabled parents, even the baby dies after those treatments are withheld. The baby’s name is Jake, and it’s a heartwrenching story. But is it a story about euthanasia? Read the rest at the Register. Read more
The main reason we home schooled for six years was because home schoolers don’t have to know where their shoes are. Ditto for water bottles. Need to go outside? Lie down with a manga until the feeling passes. Thirsty? Just drink directly out of the faucet like my son — or, like my son when he’s being fancy, drink out of a plate. I have failed. Anyway, now we have to be shod and watered every morning. Behold, I have some solutions for... Read more
One of two things is happening here today. Either (a) I’m launching a recurring feature sharing my family’s weekly dinner menu. While I’m no cooking jainyus, I do manage to feed twelve people, seven days a week, without spending a million dollars and without anyone getting rickets. I’ll list our dinners and include any recipes that might be interesting, and I hope readers will share their menus and recipes, too, so we can all get some good ideas from each other. If there’s... Read more
Speaking of distraction from prayer, that narthex is where parents of small children often find themselves when they’re fulfilling their Sunday obligation in the most basic way: by being bodily inside the walls, even if we can’t catch more than a second or two of actual prayer time. Our parish is pretty kid-friendly, but it’s only courteous to take a truly bonkers kid out of earshot until he calms down, so the narthex is the place to be; and that... Read more
What God is trying to tell me is, “Sweetheart, why are you making this so complicated?” Read the rest at the Register. *** photo credit: Last Supper via photopin (license) Read more
Last week, I talked about the masculine qualities of protecting the weak, and exercising self-control, sexual and otherwise. One reader responded: If an affinity for babies and not having sex is manliness or courage or masculinity then some anemic nerd virgin gamer who babysits his cousins on the weekend is literally more manly and masculine than Achilles or Alexander the Great or Gengis Khan, since they fornicated. It’s absurd, but it’s truly the best approach to manliness people can come up... Read more
Doing your back to school shopping online, maybe? Do me a big favor and use this link.It will take you to Amazon, and you’ll have the exact same shopping experience as you always do — only my code is craftily embedded in the link, and every time you buy something, I get a percentage. Easy for you, super super super helpful for us! We are still in denial about school shopping, but there are a few items that caught my eye — things that will help ease... Read more
The community fridge not only feeds the hungry, but helps cut down on waste. In the United States, recent data suggests that as much as “133 billion pounds of food … [or] 31 percent of the total food supply” is wasted in a typical year, rather than going to feed someone — a waste which Pope Francis said is “like stealing from the table of the poor and the hungry.” But food safety laws prevent communities in the U.S. from setting up community refrigerators like the one in... Read more
Was it a senseless tragedy, or was it a slice of richly deserved jungle justice when the hitchBOT, a hitchhiking “robot” (actually just a vaguely humanoid prop with a computer chip in it) got curbstomped by some jackass in an Eagles jersey, ending a sojourn over two continents? We can probably all agree that an adult who beats up someone else’s robot for no reason is a jerk. Fine. But what about when kids beat up robots? Are they just jerks in training? Or are... Read more
In great men, two traits go together: strength and control. Power, and the knowledge of how to use that power, and when, and why. There’s no merit in producing testosterone; but there is great merit, for the whole world, when men learn how to use it, and when they learn how to be in control of it, rather than letting it control them. Great men know when to hold their strength in check, and how to use it for the right things. Great... Read more
I Have to Sit Down
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