Having lived over eight years in South Louisiana I am somewhat familiar with the hype around Mardi Gras in Catholic and non-Catholic circles. I have never been part of any of the floats or have gone to the balls, but I have gone to the parades to catch some beads and plastic cups or Frisbees and they were “okay.” We used to go to the “family-oriented” parades, but they turned out to be everything but fit for the family. My... Read more
Via Stuart Buck, Andrew Ferguson has an interesting description of what’s involved in the modern presidential campaign: It’s not pleasant to think of the life they lead, these Americans who would be president, from the first hints of dawn to well past midnight, this life of endless demands, this succession of superficial sociability, in which you smile and smile and pop your eyes wide open in delighted wonder at the ever-shifting kaleidoscope of faces and places that circles before you,... Read more
On the heels of Blackadder’s post on There Will Be Blood, here is my favorite scene from the movie. Daniel Day-Lewis’ character, Daniel Plainview, is drenched with guilt, greed, sorrow and rage as he is baptized. What a remarkable scene and what mesmerising acting. As the choir leader sings “There is power,” Plainview whispers, “There is a pipeline.” Read more
Halden contributes a nice, succinct post in honor of Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the 102nd anniversary of his birth, urging contemporary Christians to remain within the discomfort of the contradictions of his life and writings: Bonhoeffer’s life, like his theology makes it harder, not easier to talk about God, and attempts to enlist Bonhoeffer’s witness in the service any theological or political agenda is bound to fail. The fact that Bonhoeffer’s untidy witness defies closure and complicates the task of talking... Read more
First off, in case you were wondering, yes, there was blood. (more…) Read more
Right before Super Tuesday… one has to wonder about her timing. It seemed to have worked in New Hampshire, but will voters buy it again? Read more
I did not want to go to Mass yesterday. We had been on a non-Catholic marriage retreat in a town 3 hours away. We had driven back on icy, treacherous roads. We hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before because we stayed up late. So by the time we had arrived home, picked up our daughter and unpacked, it was late in the afternoon. I was exhausted. We were all tired. I told my husband that I wasn’t going to... Read more
I read so often on Catholic blogs and elsewhere about the superiority of the American economic model. In this view, the European economy is squashed by a big government socialist regulated nanny state behemoth, crushing freedom and initiative, and dooming the citizens of Europe to perpetual backwardness! I want to address this point directly, appealing simply to economics. And I will take France as the comparator, as it is a large European economy, not as economically successful as some its... Read more
A while back I was talking with a friend of mine and I mentioned that I favored getting rid of the Department of Education. He seemed taken aback. “How could you be against Education!” I explained that I wasn’t against education, just against having a federal Department of Education, and the conversation went on from there. Now I mention this not because I think the Department of Education is a bad idea (I do, but that’s a separate issue). Rather,... Read more
Three legislators want to make it illegal for restaurants to serve obese customers in Mississippi. House Bill No. 282, which was introduced this month, says: Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. Leaving aside the issue of whether this... Read more
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