“We never planned how many children to have,” he said. “We just let God guide our lives, you know, because we strongly believe life comes from God and that’s the reason we did not stop the life. “We let life come.” The family now has 10 girls and eight boys. (Canada) CTV Read more
Two human rights groups on Monday decried widespread torture of political opponents by bitter Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah, and Associated Press interviews with three victims and a doctor backed the reports of abuse. The findings emerged as the two sides carried out fresh arrest sweeps in the West Bank and Gaza — highlighting deep tensions in the Palestinian territories after a flare-up in violence over the weekend. In the West Bank on Monday, the security forces of Palestinian President... Read more
Various versions of the following commentary have appeared elsewhere. What is common to them is the looking in from the outside quality of them. While a common lament is that the Church liberalized, there is more going on than meets the eye. In the wake of Vatican II, a New York prelate was heard to have told an underling, “Now you implement it,” signaling his exasperation at the council. As many traditionalists abandoned the interior of the Church for greener... Read more
Readers of this blog will know that I have written a fair bit about gun control lately, and that I feel rather passionately about it. Some may also be aware that the debate has also raged on the What’s Wrong With the World Warblog. There at least, the arguments are a little more sophisticated, veering away from the positivist (“the second amendment says so”) and the anachronistic (“he tyrants are coming to subjugate us”), moving more in a natural law... Read more
I noticed this story today about a Catholic Iranian trying to get political asylum in Georgia (the country, not the state), and the run-around has had in the process. It looks like he might have to leave – and his will will be at risk if he does. (more…) Read more
Last Friday’s post on minimum wage laws drew a fair amount of criticism. Which is not surprising. To many people, saying that one opposes a minimum wage law is something akin to saying you support legalized slavery. The idea that such laws might actually hurt the very people they are designed to help is not one that normally occurs to most people, and it’s understandable that many folks would greet the idea, when they do encounter it, with a skepticism... Read more
I thought The Dark Knight was excellent, and that Heath Ledger’s performance was nothing short of stunning, but something didn’t sit right me with. I came out of the movie feeling rather uneasy. Having slept on it, I think I know what was bothering me. I think that the movie portrays Batman not as a hero, but as a self-centered vigilante who is is actually partly responsible for the carnage unleashed on Gotham. I ended up not liking Batman very much.... Read more
Does the faith of a major politician matter? Well, it seemed that George W. Bush’s faith played a significant part in winning over voters. John Kerry’s faith, on the other hand, seemed a hindrance since, as not a few Catholic bloggers incessantly decried, he didn’t seem all that genuine about it. In our current election season, not much has been made of John McCain’s faith since it is not altogether certain he has much religious conviction (though Oswald Sobrino will... Read more
“The [capitalist] system is vicious, both ethnically and ontologically…Capitalism degrades men to mere economic factors, to be bargained for at the lowest possible market prices… Brain and brawn workers are still treated as individuals, but not as persons, and therein lies the moral vice of capitalism. They are individual items of cost and not persons with souls, aspirations, self-determination, etc.. Human rights can be saved only by stressing the good Christian concept of person, which per se includes “individual,” as... Read more
Yesterday the federal minimum wage was raised from $5.85 an hour to $6.55 an hour. Perhaps you didn’t notice. Minimum wage laws are a strange sort of thing. They’re quite popular, yet the arguments used to support them are often of the sort that, in other contexts, hardly anyone would find persuasive. Suppose I were to argue as follows: Homeless is an injustice and a tragedy, and no one should have to beg on the streets for food or money,... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In