The Library and the Internet

Last updated on: August 1, 2008 at 4:31 pm By jonathanjonesuiwdpt

Does anyone else feel guilty about reading too much online instead of from our own books? I am perennially behind on reading, required and otherwise, yet this could without question be alleviated by stepping away from the computer. A personal library – its tangible, textured objects – is a wonderful and exclusive thing. It is autobiographical, carrying with it the intellectual formation of its creator. Unlike the Internet, it feeds the senses. The Internet is not a massive library and... Read more

Vote For Obama Is A Vote Against Wal-Mart

Last updated on: August 1, 2008 at 8:47 am By M.Z.

Or at least this is what Wal-Mart believes. The nation’s largest employer cited several times for anti-union activities and employee abuses organized meetings in all of its stores for store managers and department heads. According to one employee who attended a meeting, a leader said, “‘I am not telling you how to vote, but if the Democrats win, this bill will pass and you won’t have a vote on whether you want a union.” What particularly touched my heart about the... Read more

Two Ways to Help Poor and Low Wage Workers

Last updated on: August 1, 2008 at 8:42 am By Edward Blackadder

Suppose that an employer pays some or all of his workers the minimum wage. If the minimum wage is raised, he might respond by raising the wages of his workers to this new minimum. But this is hardly his only option. Instead of raising wages, he might decide to move the jobs in question to a place where the minimum wage law in question does not apply. He might decide to automate the jobs, so that they are done by... Read more

American Society for Tradition, Family and Property (TFP)?

Last updated on: August 1, 2008 at 4:04 am By hejblade

Anyone know anything about this “Catholic” group? I’ve never heard of the group until today, when I read this article about Carmina Salcido. It’s a horror story. When she was three, her father went on a rampage, killed her family, and left her, her throat slit, in a ravine with her two dead sisters. She was found — and survived. Her only living relative, her grandfather, could not take care of her; she was adopted by an elderly couple, members... Read more

One down, over 700 to go…

Last updated on: July 31, 2008 at 7:10 pm By Iafrate Michael

Ecuador has told the Bush administration that it is refusing to renew the lease for the u.s. Air Force at Manta once it expires next year. Let’s pray this is the beginning of an anti-imperial trend and that we will soon see the closure of the rest of the 700 or more military bases that the united states maintains outside of its own borders. Read more

Pro-lifers, we have hope!

Last updated on: July 31, 2008 at 4:56 pm By Policraticus

I have been especially hard on Sen. John McCain for his pro-death stance on embryonic stem cell research, and I will continue to be until he changes. But does he now have a reason to change his mind (and heart)? Time magazine features potential scientific breakthroughs in reprogramming adult stem cells. Here’s an excerpt: After nearly a decade of setbacks and false starts, stem-cell science finally seems to be hitting its stride. Just a year after Japanese scientists first reported... Read more

JPII on patriotism and solidarity

Last updated on: July 31, 2008 at 3:40 pm By Iafrate Michael

In a recent article on Catholicism and patriotism, Christine Firer Hinze describes the new emphasis John Paul II gave to Catholic thinking on patriotism, rooting it in the broader Catholic notion of solidarity: In the post-conciliar era, particularly during the papacy of John Paul II (1979-2005), these teachings on Catholics and patriotism continued to be echoed with . . . notable recent emphases. First and most significantly is the development of the notion of “solidarity” as a framework for contemporary... Read more

Questions: Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and the Immaculate Conception

Last updated on: July 31, 2008 at 3:29 pm By jonathanjonesuiwdpt

Is Adam’s guilt passed forward by the conjugal act, or are all born into an environment of sin that keeps them from living as Christ lived? Does the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception minimize the element of free will inherent in Mary’s acceptance of Gabriel’s message, the voluntary action that made her an active participant in the mystery? Might she have been cleansed of sin at the Annunciation? Why or why not? Read more

Lugo granted dispensation

Last updated on: July 31, 2008 at 11:14 am By Policraticus

President-elect Fernando Lugo Méndez of Paraguay has been granted an unprecedented dispensation by Pope Benedict XVI, which makes the retired bishop’s official status that of lay. Apostolic Nuncio Orlando Antonini told reporters that Pope Benedict “recognized that [Lugo] was elected by the majority of the people to lead Paraguay for the next five years.” While Lugo will always be a bishop on account of having received Holy Orders, he will be free from any sanctions from the Holy See for pursuing governmental... Read more

The annual Augustine Blog Conference is underway!

Last updated on: July 31, 2008 at 10:32 am By Policraticus

My friend and fellow philosophy grad student Cynthia Nielsen just announced the start of the annual Augustine Blog Conference at Per Caritatem: Per Caritatem’s first annual Augustine Blog Conference is now underway! Below is the first of a series of posts bringing Augustine into conversation with philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages, Reformation, Modernity, and Postmodernity. The format of the conference is as follows: an essay will be posted for two days, then a short commentary on the essay will... Read more

Who predicted Babylon's fall?