Last week, I was in Brooklyn taping a few episodes of In the Arena, and one of the drivers, taking a route that brought us past The Green-Wood Cemetery, reminisced about Park Slope, where he had lived all his life. “We were working class, then. Our fathers were train conductors and shoe salesmen. No, we’d never be able to afford to live here. We’d cut through Prospect Park to Ebbets Field to watch the Dodgers. In the summer, they’d close... Read more
Buster says: Pray for me! For any so inclined, if you could whisper up a prayer for Buster, today. He is auditioning for a singing job that actually pays and if he gets it, it will be a big help to all of us, while he is still in school, plus it will give him some professional singing experience. Thanks! For newer readers who are unacquainted with Buster -of whom I have not written much since he went fo college-... Read more
President Obama’s National Security Advisor, retired General James Jones, with an ice-breaker: Is it offensive? Why, yes. In our easily-offended society, you might say this joke wins the Triple Crown or the Insult Trifecta: Some feel Jones has used a denigrating stereotype of Jewish people “greedy merchants” for a cheap laugh, and has therefore insulted the Jews. Some free-market capitalists note that Jones describes the Taliban member as a “warrior” instead of a guerrilla, and seems to be saying that... Read more
First Things editor Joseph Bottum has a long must-read of a piece showing over at the Weekly Standard. The day the Antichrist is ripped from his papal throne, true religion will guide the world. Or perhaps it’s the day the last priest is gutted, and his entrails used to strangle the last king, as Voltaire demanded. Yes, that’s when we will see at last the reign of bright, clean, enlightened reason—the release of mankind from the shadows of medieval superstition.... Read more
Did you know that 35 craters of the moon have been named for Jesuit scientist-priests? If you are surprised to learn that, it might be because you have trusted the mainstream press when it has told you -mostly based on their own distorted reporting- that “Christians -especially Catholics- hate science and would send us back to the Bronze Age.” The press -and more than a few politicians- like to pretend that faith and reason cannot co-exist, or that science is... Read more
In no particular order, here are the stories that are taking up space in my tab-bar today: Mary Ann Glendon: God and Mrs. Roosevelt Surprise! Obamacare is going to increase your expenses! Right on top of all the new taxes and the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts next year. I wish we had a president who realized that when people have jobs, you can collect taxes from them! Also, Kathleen Sebelius admits the administration has no idea what Obamacare... Read more
As we’ve wondered about the impact of a Great Prostration, I remembered this discussion on In the Arena, the current-events panel show produced by NET-TV in the Diocese of Brooklyn: Read more
I’ll be out of the office all day, so posting will be light, and comment moderation may hold your comment until I can get to it. Read more
I was thinking about this: The fullness of healing, of course, can only come when the victims finally feel capable of saying “I forgive you…” That moment -which cannot be compelled and does not mean forgetting- is the moment when a victim takes his life back. When a victim says, “I forgive you,” she confers her own power over the entire situation, and controls it. It is transformative; it brings a victim into his or her Royal Priesthood. Forgiveness, I... Read more
In an impromptu, and very beautiful homily, Pope Benedict XVI last week brought up the issue of penance: Penance is grace; it is a grace that we recognize our sin, it is a grace that we know we need renewal, change, a transformation of our being. Penance, being able to do penance, is the gift of grace. And I must say that we Christians, even in recent times, have often avoided the word penance, it has seemed too harsh to... Read more
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