After a battle with cancer that simply could not be won, our friend Helen Schieber, AKA Aussiegirl, has passed at age 59. Helen was very brilliant – a wonderful writer and a real scholar. Often she simply was too smart for me to fully comprehend, but I always admired her way with a phrase. Her emails and comments were always keenly sophisticated and on the mark; she tended to see just past the edge of the rest of us, and... Read more
I posted lots of stuff today (scroll down) but blogging will now be light due to travel – in the meantime my Li’l Bro Thom sent this along and I thought I’d share it: TEN THINGS TO PONDER FOR 2007 10. Life is sexually transmitted. 9. Good health is merely the slowest rate at which one can die 8. Men have two emotions: Horny and Hungry. If he’s not chasing you, make him a sandwich. (Is that true?) 7. Give... Read more
The day before the president’s speech, I got email from some people asking me why I’m such an idiot, how I can reconcile Christianity with war, how I could reconcile the present engagement with the “Just War” musings of Aquinas, etc. The day after the speech, I had a friend urge me to perform an exercise of “reassessment” regarding my views. I found myself writing essentially the same response to several of those folk – the ones worth answering (here’s... Read more
Siggy sent this my way, and I thought it was more than worth sharing: In 1935 (to pick a date), the most common pattern in our country was for a local boy to meet and marry a local girl and to settle down and raise their children in the community in which they themselves were born, with relatives and friends forming a network of relationships that surrounded and nurtured (or harrassed) them. Divorce rates and crime rates were relatively low... Read more
By Jon Friedman’s lights, Katie Couric is not doing well. He thinks the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric is a quagmire, and cut-and-run should be the order of the day. I don’t agree. Yet. But I do think Katie should stop bringing in protective padding whenever there is a big story on the horizon. This time it’s Bob Schieffer. I can’t remember who she had backing her up during the elections, but I do remember thinking, back then, that... Read more
When I read this story my first thought was: “only super-evangelical freakshows like the Jim Phelps crew turn on a woman for not having children….” Rice appeared before the Senate in defense of President Bush’s tactical change in Iraq, and quickly encountered Boxer. “Who pays the price? I’m not going to pay a personal price,” Boxer said. “My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young.” Then, to Rice: “You’re not going to pay a particular price, as... Read more
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face in marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds;... Read more
His condition has been upgraded and he’s spending time off the ventilator. That’s great. The brain injury he suffered was serious and tough on his family to endure. This is hopeful. Were I his wife I would be very grateful. Continued prayers for the Senator and his family. Read more
The NY Metropolitan Opera, 2010-11 season. “…some of the cast for the Met’s new production of Wagner’s four-opera “Ring” cycle that Robert Lepage will direct starting in the 2010-11 season. The soprano Deborah Voigt will sing Brünnhilde, a role her loyal fans have been hoping she would take on. And the tenor Ben Heppner, who, like some fine Tristans before him, had drawn the line at tackling the vocally punishing role of Siegfried, has agreed to sing it for the... Read more
Don Surber has moved his blog here. If you blogroll him, you know what to do. Also, Jeanette is shutting down Oh, How I Love Jesus, for several reasons. She’ll still be posting at Hang Right Politics, though. I don’t know how anyone can do more than one blog. I tried posting occasionally to a second blog and found it almost impossible to juggle between the two. Tough enough just running one blog and keeping up with all the folks... Read more
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