Secondhand Smokette and I caught the Star Trek prequel today, and I thoroughly enjoyed it as a fun adventure, but more precisely, as a loving homage to the original series (which I used to watch in the dorm in college, can you believe it?). What was fun is that the young actors playing Kirk, Spock, . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m not a musician in any real sense of the word, only an enthusiast. In good choirs I’ve sung in, my contributions have been limited to reasonably non-incompetent alto-line filler, for pieces like Mendelssohn’s Richte mich Gott. That’s one kind of good choir: the choir which . . . . Continue Reading »
Over at the New Liturgical Movement, Br. Lawrence Lew, O.P. provides a helpful, brief introduction to the theology that helped produce Gothic cathedrals. A sample: St. Thomas Aquinas famously said that “pulchra enim dicuntur quae visa placent”, “beautiful things are those which . . . . Continue Reading »
Earlier I mentioned parts I and II of Daniel Patrick Maloney’s series at Public Discourse on reducing poverty by reducing the number of poor children. In part III Maloney, a former FT associate editor, examines the Medicaid policies that result from this belief and how they could be changed. A . . . . Continue Reading »
We have discussed the suicide proselytizing in the media and popular culture here many times on SHS. But this story hits the nail! A woman with MS named Angela Harrison watched a television drama in which the protagonist went to Switzerland for suicide tourism—and then killed herself. From the . . . . Continue Reading »
This is one person’s suggestion for fixing the economy. It appeared in a Florida newspaper that had asked readers to send along their best economic ideas: Patriotic retirement: There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force . . . . Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early . . . . Continue Reading »
Amy Welborn also has some insightful things to say about E.J. Dionne and L’Osservatore Romano : One of the current memes, as we say, making its way through commentary on Obama/Notre Dame and Obama/American Catholics runs something like this: “The Pope and the Vatican don’t seem to . . . . Continue Reading »
Washington State’s assisted suicide controversy continues to burn. Articles keep coming out complaining that patients who legally qualify for help in killing themselves are being refused, while hospitals and physicians continue to exercise their right under the law to opt out. From the latest . . . . Continue Reading »
In his column today, Michael Gerson writes about a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life event at which the sociologist Robert Putnam spoke. Putnam has written, with David Campbell, a book that will be released next year, American Grace: How Religion Is Reshaping Our Civic and Political Lives . The . . . . Continue Reading »
The times in which we live can be so disheartening: The swine flu—known in its politically correct name as H1N1 Flu—appears not to have become the deadly pandemic some feared. But rather than be relieved, some are carping that the government engaged in fear-mongering. From the story: Did . . . . Continue Reading »
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