The exciting news of the the day does not come from Pennsylvania, but from Rome, where it was announced that John Henry Cardinal Newman will be beatified. A leader of the Oxford Movement, a catholic reform movement in the Anglican Church, Newman later converted to Catholicism and founded the . . . . Continue Reading »
I submit, it is my hypothesis, that medicine is devolving from a profession with firm standards of excellence and ethics, into a technocracy—still possessing excellence—but with a very fluid concept of ethics. Case in point: A law that would require “good moral character” as . . . . Continue Reading »
In October, I wrote about dying languageslanguages whose use is decliningand why they are worth saving. In today’s New York Times , there was a small article on Syrian villages where Aramaic, the language probably spoken by Jesus, is still used, but by increasingly fewer people. . . . . Continue Reading »
Ian Wilmut was an enthusiastic human cloner, and indeed, had obtained a license from the never-say-no UK Embryo Authority to create cloned embryos from the DNA of motor neuron disease patients, known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease in the USA. Then Shinya Yamanaka invented Induced Pluripotent . . . . Continue Reading »
That’s the title of a recent article in MercatorNet by Maggie Gallagher . Gallagher, the President of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, is quite simply the most effective spokesperson making public arguments in defense of marriage today. Not surprisingly, she’s also a First . . . . Continue Reading »
A sensible word from the Wall Street Journal on the Pope and how his celebration of immigration is the right and Christian thing to do, in contrast to virulent rumblings from the some corners of the American political scene: “You know the restrictionists have gone head-first into the fever . . . . Continue Reading »
As I keep saying, most biotechnology is not controversial. This is amazing: Scientists have restored site with a bionic eye. From the story:Surgeons have carried out the first operations in Britain using a pioneering “bionic eye” that could in future help to restore blind people’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Arguably the most literate, witty, and truly “adult” Britcom ever broadcast was Yes, Minister and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister . Like any good satire, it skewered both right and left, as this ongoing saga of British political hijinks is told from a bureaucrat’s point of view, . . . . Continue Reading »
Oh brother: PETA claims to be about ending all human use of animals, but its first priority is grabbing attention. The newest gimmick is a contest that will award $1 million to the scientist who first develops in vitro meat that can be sold to the public in place of steak or bacon. From the . . . . Continue Reading »
Last week Jonathan Last pointed to an article on Church music in the Washington Post . It’s a great find, all about the generational change from the older Catholics to the new. The ” Swallows of Capistrano ” are what I’ve come to call this younger generation of Catholics, . . . . Continue Reading »