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Eric Scheske

Eric Scheske

Emotion in the Culture Wars

> "Reviewing for the New York Times, Stephen Holden calls 'Brokeback' an 'epic western.' This sent me to Dictionary.com. Epic: 'a literary or dramatic composition ... celebrating heroic feats,' like 'Beowulf.' 'Brokeback' is moving, even to cultural skeptics. ... But

Wookin' Pa Nub in All da Wong Paces

School administrators are implementing 'no touching" policies in middle schools. > Schools nationwide have policies to prevent violence and sexual harassment, but some go further – such as creating a rule against touching. In March, one middle school student in Bend, Ore., was sent to detention after repeatedly defying

Aborting in South Dakota

The WaPo headline caught my eye: "S.D. Makes Abortion Rare Through Laws And Stigma [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/26/AR2005122600747.html] ." It's about the difficulty of getting an abortion in South Dakota. The state has only one abortion provider

More Christmas

Pontifications has a great assortment of passages [http://catholica.pontifications.net/] for the Christmas season (which hasn't ended, contrary to celebrate-for-four-weeks-then-grow-sullen-on-the-26th American tradition). Thanks, Open Book [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/2005/12/food_for_though.html].

Pods Set to Hit Critical Mass?

I'm assuming a similar trend is set to hit the U.S., if it hasn't already: > A new survey by The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Age Concern found that while only 4 cent of over-50s currently own an MP3 player, another 23 per

Dying for the Holidays

In case you were thinking you enjoy the holiday season: > Health experts notice a bizarre phenomenon December 25 of every year. It's the beginning of a two week spike in the death rate nationwide. > Depression is just part of this puzzle. The reason the number of

Wanted: More Babies

The Washington Times is running a 5-part series about America's aging problem. Today's paper has the first installment [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051225-115325-9987r.htm]. Excerpt (talking about paying for Social Security and other age "entitlements"): > Tough choices > The

Capping the Copts

> The State Department has launched an investigation into whether hard-line Islamic employees at the U.S Embassy in Egypt are working behind the scenes to deny visas to Coptic Christians, The Post has learned. NY Post Link [http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/59511.htm]. I guess the

The Christmas Homily

The Washington Times' recount of B16's Christmas homily [http://www.washtimes.com/world/20051225-113644-8166r.htm]: > Pope Benedict XVI, in his first Christmas address as pontiff, yesterday urged humanity to unite against terrorism, poverty and environmental blight and called for a "new world order&

The Christmas Eudemon

Whew! The smoke clears. A whirlwind 48-tour of Detroit, where I received a lot of neat gifts, including a hand-carved chess set that had to set my generous in-laws back a few bucks. The kids received an avalanche of gifts while there, as well. We came home