To be recited in a John Wayne voice, with spirit (and spirits): A Texas cowboy lay down on a barroom floor, Having drunk so much he could drink no more; So he fell asleep with a troubled brain To dream that he rode on a hell-bound train. The engine with murderous blood was damp And was brilliantly . . . . Continue Reading »
I think the stories of patients being refused life-extending chemotherapy by Oregon’s Medicaid—but offered assisted suicide instead—will materially impact the I-1000 legalization effort in Washington. First, this kind of heartlessness was predicted by opponents. Second, the old . . . . Continue Reading »
Picture a Franciscan praying, and the Poverello of Assisi comes to mind: a coarse-robed friar, alone in the woods, arms outstretched to heaven. Picture a Benedictine or Carthusian, and Into Great Silence resonates: a tonsured monk, reciting psalms in a darkened choir stall. Picture a Jesuit, a . . . . Continue Reading »
Speaking of Obama , as I was walking to the grocery store last night, I noticed a fashionably dressed elderly woman wearing a shirt that read: “Obama is the New America.” The New America? What exactly are we voting for in November? A new energy policy or a new foreign policy, or a new . . . . Continue Reading »
After some occasionally over-fevered speculation , Nature magazine, in its July 31 issue, finally announced the newest findings of the research team trying to decipher the Antikythera mechanism: The mechanism is an odd ancient device, discovered in the 1902 exploration of a shipwreck off the coast . . . . Continue Reading »
Well, now we know. NPR has just reported why Bruce Ivins mailed the anthrax letters in 2001. He was Catholic, and his family was pro-life. As NPR puts it: “Bruce Ivins may have targeted Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy with anthrax-laced letters in 2001 because he saw them as bad Catholics . . . . Continue Reading »
In today’s New York Times , we read: ” Obama’s View on Abortion May Divide Catholics “: Sixteen years ago, the Democratic Party refused to allow Robert P. Casey Sr., then the governor of Pennsylvania, to speak at its national convention because his anti-abortion views, . . . . Continue Reading »
Here at the office we just received an advance copy of the upcoming Salt + Light Television production entitled, Road of Hope: The Spiritual Journey of Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan . The cardinal’s life was a powerful testimony to faith and fidelity, and now a larger audience will get the chance . . . . Continue Reading »
You never know what treasures you’re going to find in the First Things archives. In this case, it was a symposium on “The Ethics of Everyday Life” from the ancient days of 1995. The stakes were not as high nor the tensions as great as for other FT symposiums , but still the . . . . Continue Reading »
Even pigs seem to understand that meat is not . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
