So Beloved Fearless Leader has issued a proclamation today, January 16th, 2012, that will forever enshrine this day as Religious Freedom Day. Says the edict from his royal majesty: Foremost among the rights Americans hold sacred is the freedom to worship as we choose. . . . Because of the protections guaranteed by our Constitution, each of […]
Guns and Religion: Catholics, Fire Arms, the Right to Defend Oneself, and the Second Amendment
January 15, 2013 by
Over at USCatholic.org, there’s a piece boasting the church’s dedication to completely getting rid of guns from the hands of civilians. The Catholic Church’s position on gun control is not easy to find. . . . The answer is resoundingly clear: Firearms in the hands of civilians should be strictly limited and eventually completely eliminated. But […]
Let’s Learn The Constitution! Part I: The Preamble
January 12, 2013 by
So many people in this still-great country don’t know what the Constitution actually says. Few have ever read it straight through (it’s not that long!), and it often seems that many of those few are in positions of authority to act in the name of the Constitution. (Note: this is more than just legislatures, judges, […]
The Myth of Overpopulation and the Coming Demographic Winter
January 10, 2013 by
The End is Nigh! The situation must be getting dire; Slate and the Wall Street Journal are running pieces on the problem facing the world that seems to have come from out of left field: Underpopulation. Says Slate: A somewhat more arcane milestone, meanwhile, generated no media coverage at all: It took humankind 13 years to […]
The End of New Years Resolutions
January 1, 2013 by
The ball has dropped, and a new year has begun here in the states. 2013 brings with it the promise that all years bring: a chance to start over, to build a new habit, stop an old one, and slowly work on becoming a better person. This tradition is a good one over all (other […]
4 + 1 People You Probably Didn’t Know Were Catholic
December 21, 2012 by
So Marc Barnes over at Bad Catholic just put together a great little piece (as usual): “5 people it’s easy to forget are Catholic.” Hint 1: Hint 2: #5 is a lark!
The HHS Mandate Takes A Blow – And Why That’s Good!
December 19, 2012 by
Great News from the Beckett Fund folks! Today, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. handed Wheaton College and Belmont Abbey College a major victory in their challenges to the HHS mandate. Last summer, two lower courts had dismissed the Colleges’ cases as premature. Today, the appellate court reinstated those cases, and ordered the Obama Administration to […]
Fruits, Vegetables, and the Fall of Man…and Bacon.
December 17, 2012 by
A good friend posted a link to an answer to the ultimate question: What makes a fruit, and what makes a veggie? The answer from Wisegeek was: Simply put, a fruit is the ovary of a plant, which means that it may contain seeds, while a vegetable is a plant part, which does not contain […]
Levity in the Face of Adversity.
December 15, 2012 by
Today is the feast of John of the Cross. A mystic, his famous work is called “The Dark Night of the Soul,” and it speaks of that moment we all feel at times, when it feels as if we’re getting nowhere spiritually. If every time we prayed, we got happy feelings, we would begin to […]
Book Review: Finding God in the Hobbit
December 14, 2012 by
The book up for review this month is Jim Ware’s Finding God in the Hobbit. Kurt Bruner writes the introduction, and muses upon the sadness of a childhood that didn’t involve hobbits when it could have. I have to agree. As an only child of a single mother, such fantasy books did not populate my […]