SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE Is it just me, or does it feel like a giant, cosmic gauntlet has been thrown down from on High? Like in this Lenten season, leading up to Easter, the Christian nations are being put to a test – the test being, as Mark Steyn asks in his outstanding and brave column, Will We Stick Our Necks Out for His Faith? The answer is very important, I think. The fragile Afghan state is protected by American,... Read more
Dr Sanity takes a long hard look at the rescued peace activists and their disdain and ingratitude toward their rescuers and reaches some conclusions in a long and thoughtful piece. She applies it to others, too: Think of it this way–these are people (both my patient and the peace activists) who not only are incapable of looking directly into the eyes of evil and recognizing its guilt; but they are equally incapable of looking into the eyes of the good... Read more
Very interesting post from Eagle and Elephant – a look at some writings by then-Cardinal Ratzinger, part of a some retreat preaching he did before John Paul II, in 1983. The Eagle and the Elephant has excerpts and thoughts on what he is reading. Very interesting and yes, provocative. He made of his death an act of prayer, an act of adoration. … [H]e cried “with a loud voice” the opening words of Psalm 21, the great Psalm of the... Read more
I don’t often remember to turn the TV on for American Idol – I think Chris Daughtry is pretty exciting, and certainly charismatic, and I caught Elliot Yasmin (who looks a lot better with his hair growing out) doing “Teach Me Tonight” last week, and he was pretty dang impressive on so difficult a song. Yasmin seems to make a habit of choosing very tough, very sophisticated tunes, though. Someone clued me in to this performance of Moody’s Mood for... Read more
Thanks to The Curt Jester, I found this terrific piece on some Utah folks who found their way back to church via the death and funeral of John Paul the Great. Including a seminarian candidate. Tilley marveled over the devotion of the crowds in St. Peter’s Square and arose in the night to watch the live funeral broadcast, even though he had long before stopped attending the Roman Catholic Church with his mother, immersed himself in the Baptist and FourSquare... Read more
This season cannot start soon enough. And in anticipation of it, I am adding this terrific-looking book into the bookshelf. Many years ago, George Plimpton was a “Paper Tiger,” training with a football team and writing about his experiences therein. Here, Sam Walker of the Wall Street Journal enters his first Fantasy Baseball Tournament. From the Publisher’s Weekly review at Amazon: He figures that because he can get to the ballparks in his journalistic capacity and talk to the players... Read more
This is very troubling. If you can’t win elections the right way, change the rules. The question of how we elect a president is up for debate again, with advocates of a majoritarian philosophy having invented a new device for moving to a direct popular vote for the chief executive. Rather than going through the labors of amending the Constitution to replace the electoral college system with a national tally for president, which has failed every time it has been... Read more
I didn’t pay much attention when the Washington Post brought Ben Domanech into their paper as a columnist from the right. I thought it was good of the WaPo to make the gesture, but I wondered why they had chose him, especially, when the rightwing blogosphere is so chock full of writers who seemed quick with an interesting topic or pithy turn of phrase. Turns out, I was right to be only “whelmed” by Domanech’s pearls – they look now,... Read more
Supposedly these are real kids answers to Sunday School quizzes. Awfully cute. When I remember that my nephew came out from his first confession and announced, “I gotta recite an Act of Nutrition,” I figure they might be real. I like 12 and 14 the best. 1) In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, God got tired of creating the world, so he took the Sabbath off. 2) Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. Noah’s wife... Read more
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