The Daily Eudemon (Page 1)

The Thrill of Competition Might be Vitamins for the Left Hemisphere of Your Brains

And in this modern age, you never need to nourish your left hemisphere

A Gardening Piece at The University Bookman

My dad received The University Bookman while I was growing up, so I was especially pleased to see one of my pieces appear here today.

The Everyday Problem That is the Left Hemisphere

The left hemisphere of your brain is a miserable little tyrant, a penny-ante dictator strutting around in the gray matter. Don’t believe me? Look at the everyday modern life that the left hemisphere has given us. It’s one big prick-fest, a carnival of impatience and irritation where every

Why I Don't Stay Informed

I'm glad the Establishment didn't succeed in destroying JRE during COVID. It’s pretty much the only way I stay informed to the extent I want to be informed. I agree with Nassim Taleb’s observation that there’s no reason to read the daily news,

The Stud that Was H.L. Mencken

Every so often, I plunge headlong into a Mencken spree, a vice I’ve nursed since the early 1990s when I first stumbled into Ann Arbor’s Dawn Treader Bookstore and smelled those old books (that odd but pleasing scent, I’m told, comes from vanilla releasing from the aging

The Battle of the Hemispheres

So, fear’s the new punk squatting in the pantheon of mortal sins. That oozing narcissism, born from the left hemisphere’s tyrannical stranglehold on our skulls, lights up our amygdalas like a cheap firecracker every time our little empire of self gets a scratch. It’s a meltdown, a

Why Weak Fools Can Dominate

Exploring the fool in Christ and the fool in Antichrist. Ivan the Terrible v. Nicholas of Pskov. Nietzsche v. Everyone

Four Reformers

I had a chance last month to booze it up at Sloppy Joe’s in Key West, but by the time I came across it, I’d already guzzled enough gin to fill a Prohibition-era bathtub, so I skipped it. Bad on me. Sloppy Joe’s was Hemingway’s haunt

I Want My Son to Visit Vegas

Vegas is Sin City, where what happens stays, except the clap. But that shouldn’t spook a lad with a shred of Catholic spine.

AI's Little Victories Add Up to Huge Defeat

A malign pincer grips our weary souls as I peck out these words in the bleak dawn of early 2025. You feel it too. That dull ache in your ribcage ain't a cardiac event. It's the life force being throttled out of you by a twin-pronged

Why We Need to Meditate

So, you want to meditate? Here’s the raw deal, stripped down to the studs: 1. Plunk yourself in a chair—or on the floor if you’re one of those types—and shut your eyes. 2. Zero in on the air moving through your nose. Feel it, don’t

Freaking Out with the Left Hemisphere

Editor's note: It's my birthday. Please forward the Substack or this post to friends and family. The seven cardinal sins have shaken and shimmied ever since Evagrius—or maybe Origen, who knows—first jotted them down in some dusty desert hole. By the time Gregory the

Maybe We Should Thank the Buddhists for Mindfulness Meditation

Catholics keep flogging their tired old nag of a gripe about mindfulness meditation, even though heavyweights like Peter Kreeft and Kevin Majeres have given it their thumbs-up. Their big beef? “The Buddhists kicked it off!” Cue the pearl-clutching and incense-waving, as if that’s a knockout punch. It’s the

Gen-Z Needs Community Gardens

It’s dang near Chinese coolie labor time again, that grand American spectacle where hordes of lunatics, armed with shovels, hoes, and a rabid gleam in their eyes, descend upon their garden patches like it’s a sacred calling. Think of it as the nation’s biggest hobby—a manic,

A Meditation on Gnosticism Over at Substack This Morning

The guy who demands that everyone be rational becomes the most irrational of all. That’s an old Taoist zinger. It rang true when Lao-Tzu swayed atop his water buffalo to the misty hills of eternity; it’s true today as we clatter along in our mechanical Jacobins, guillotinely crisp

The Pilgrim Plague

Ah, the elite progressive white people. Those insufferable, self-righteous bastards who've managed to infect the American psyche with their millenarian madness for centuries. It's a flippin’ disease, a gnostic virus that's been festering in our national bloodstream since the first Puritan set his sanctimonious

Minimalists are Hoarders but with Better Hygiene

Few things feel better than disgust. It's the rocket fuel of reality TV, propelling us to smirk and gape at the human wreckage on display: the obese, the addicted, the mentally ill, the hoarders, and that woman who won't eat anything except cheesy potatoes. It'

Scratching with Modernity

Why are some people such jerks? Or, to borrow from our British cousins, so disagreeable? I mean "disagreeable" in the most expansive way possible. I'm talking boors and bastards, cretins and creeps, every person labeled with a derogatory term derived from the nethers of the human

14 Funny Passages from David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster

which means that some staff photographer came in and popped a flash in the face of a traumatized kid at prayer.

Get Ready to Re-Write History

The Don is declassifying. The Elon is dismantling. The Establishment is defecating. Can America handle the truth? We think we’re going to learn who shot JFK, but we better be prepared to learn that Oswald shot from the jealous apex of an Oswald-JFK-Marilyn Monroe love triangle. And Marilyn was

Shellenberger on Carlson

You used to be able to draw a line across California. South of Santa Cruz, where those Lost Boys hung out, things started to stink of something right-wing. By the time you hit Orange County, you were in Oklahoma. San Francisco was Peter Coyote and sandal-wearing freaks. Los Angeles was

The Hemispheres in the Garden

I lost a lot of money in the 2008-2009 crisis. I was doing alright but lawyers throughout Michigan were shuttering their practices. I knew it could become difficult to sustain my homemaker wife and seven young children. An acquaintance asked me if I’d ever tried square-foot gardening. I hadn’

The Five Parts of Existence Strikes Back and The Hemisphere Hypothesis

Part I What is the Tao? The Tao, also called “the act of existence (actus essendi),” “the first principle of Zen,” and the region on the other side of Aldous Huxley’s doors of perception, is the nameless reality that is logically, conceptually, and in reality prior to everything else.

Why the Left Hemisphere is Ineluctably Drawn to Abstractions

The left hemisphere’s primary goal is to allow its host to survive. Practical considerations drive the left hemisphere. You might think this means the left hemisphere isn’t much interested in abstractions or idealized notions. Such things, at first glance, aren’t practical. But the thing is, abstractions are

Introducing Blaise Pascal: The First Anti-Modern

If we’re going to battle against modernity, we need to recognize our champions. Pascal might have been the first.

Something Tells Me I’d Really Enjoy the Private Letters of Two Men I Didn’t Even Know Existed

It helps to be aware of one’s ignorance. That’s one reason I like to read Joseph Epstein, who wrote a delightful essay for the current issue of the new Catholic journal, The Lamp that brought my level of awareness to the brim. The topic? The letters of George

Left Hemisphere Attack on Small Business?

Jeffrey Tucker at Zero Hedge (via Epoch Times)

At Substack: McGilchrist Explains Huxley

If the left hemisphere's grip on people's minds can be loosened, McGilchrist says, their perceptions will change. They will see "into the depth of things . . . all at once [and] recognize them for what they are, no longer overlaid by our projections." When this happens,

Scrolling Blog: Late 2024 Entries

The True Christmas Story that Never Gets Old And the vile reality that is the State that makes it compelling The Christmas Truce of World War INever forget the Christmas truce of World War I, when troops refused to be pawns of empire for one blessed day.Mises InstituteJohn V.

Eric Scheske's Substack Has Launched

Many of you just received an email from the Substack platform. I hope that's alright.

The Seven Deadly Sins are Dispositions of the Left Hemisphere

Primer: Understanding the Hemisphere HypothesisMany smart people think Iain McGilchrist has effected a Copernican revolution in metaphysics. I tend to agree. Here’s a summary of the revolution.The Daily EudemonEric Scheske When you throw that vase against the wall and scream "f****! (fudge), you're sinning. The

Six Maniacal Observations from G.K. Chesterton

They'll help make sure you don't think like a maniac

Scrolling Blog: June-July 2024

July 12, 2024 People who still believe that the news media tell them the truth and that their nation and their world work pretty much the way they were taught in school are just as brainwashed and deluded as any QAnon cultist. Caitlin Johnson Caitlin Johnstone on SubstackPeople who still

Deadpool Doesn't Matter

Endgame ended me. After that, I pledged never to watch another Marvel superhero film. And it wasn't because I barely survived the CGI waterboarding. And it wasn't because Brie Larson, adorable in 21 Jump Street, was insufferable as Captain Marvel, giving us the biggest fall in

How Many Beers Does It Take to Find the Tao?

C.S. Lewis would’ve said “zero.” It’s the Tao that helps you find the beer. It is Nature, it is the Way, the Road. It is the Way in which the universe goes on, the Way in which things everlastingly emerge, stilly and tranquilly, into space and time.

The Left Hemisphere Deranges People Out of the Local, Driving Them Through Rationalism into the Clutches of Ideology, including Nationalism

The community is embodied existence: you rub against the white trash and the petty; you rub against flawed humans like yourself. You have to deal with it . . . in reality, not in a rational idea. When you escape it through abstraction, you become the anti-Mother Teresa

The Left Hemisphere Ruins Literature

D.H. Lawrence might have had the John Thomas of a degenerate, but he had the soul of an artist. I guess it’s no surprise. His father was an illiterate, hard-drinking coal miner. His mother was educated and refined. It made him earthy but reflective. He appreciated cutting-edge ideas

History of Western Civilization in Just Five Minutes

My first Substack project. It might take ten minutes, btw.

Preparing for Catholicism's Preeminent Role in the West after Democracy Collapses?

Kevin Vallier's analysis of Patrick Deneen's newfound Statism in this podcast episode is really interesting. Deneen wrote Why Liberalism Failed. It got a lot of press, especially after Obama included it on his 2018 reading list. Obama liked his insights but disagreed with Deneen's

Thomas Sowell's Hemispheres

My first attempt to flush out the phenom that is Thomas Sowell

Loper Bright: Relentless War Against the Left Hemisphere

Chevron is Dead: Audio0:00/429.2702041×💡Chevron deferred to rules and experts, two things cherished by the left hemisphere. The death of Chevron is a victory for the right hemisphere. Chevron is dead. Thank goodness. It might have been the biggest Supreme Court victory for the right hemisphere ever.

Celebrating the Overlooked

I appreciate any effort to rescue the neglected noble: those little things that are good but nobody notices. It could be a person, it could be a garden.

Tolkien's Little Hero: Fatty Bolger

Paul Schweigl at Front Porch Republic

The Dorothy Parker and Florence King Reincarnate

But she's going on maternity leave

The Anti-Drinking Campaign Picks Up Steam

Excerpts from two recent articles

Cells of Peace

I keep a handful of books on my Kindle that I read from sporadically. These aren't books that I dive into, but rather books that I read at odd moments when I don't feel like reading anything else. One of them is E. Michael Jones'

Is Substack a Weapon to Preserve Truth?

A Substack montage

"No Amount of Alcohol is Good for You--That Much is Clear"

The idea that moderate drinking is healthy has been debunked . . . currently

No Amount of Alcohol is Good for You?

“No Amount of Alcohol is Good for You--That Much is Clear”The idea that moderate drinking is healthy has been debunked . . . currentlyThe Daily EudemonEric Scheske About a year ago, a friend of mine started evading my invitations to grab a drink. It was only when we caught up for a

Capitalism and Communism are Flipsides of the Same Coin?

Rod Dreher calls Niall Ferguson's first column for The Free Press a "banger" and he's right. Ferguson highlights an alarming number of similarities between the last years of the Soviet Union and the United States today. Does it mean the United States is reaching

The Left Hemisphere Larps

LARPing, Reality, and FraudThis nascent essay needs work, but it’s a decent blog post. The essay could take a few directions. E.g., Fantasy role-playing is fun, but now take your character into the real world. You’re Kick-Ass, coming to beat that inner-city thug, only to find yourself

Rationalized Ideals of Silence Crashing Against the Rock of Reality

Or rather, "Rationalized Ideals AGAINST Silence Crashing . . . ".

Bill Kauffman on the Subjugation of Canada and Neil Young's Sanity

Bill Kauffman at The American Conservative

Slanting History Since 400 BC

A Substack Montage

Cocaine Beer Coming?

If it were anywhere else in South America, the nondescript house with buckets of coca leaves soaking in liquid could be mistaken for a clandestine cocaine lab. But this is La Paz, Bolivia, and the fruity aroma of coca steeping in barrels signals that you’ve arrived at the government-authorized

Existence Strikes Back Project Glossary

A work-in-process. Very early stages. I envision the final product will be ten times this long, if not longer. I haven't even begun to include The Hemisphere Hypothesis, but I hope to start soon.

We're on Information Overload. Here's One Solution

One forgotten ancient suggests what we might do with all of today's information

Read Your Way Out of Left-Hemisphere Hegemony

Encourage Urban Gardening

I have a client in Detroit who keeps a small stash of money at his son's house, along with a few guns, on the west side of Michigan, in a rural farming community. The reason? "When things collapse and Detroit erupts, I'll boogie out and

We Either Flee Devils or Fight Them

Toward the end of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield tells himself he will move out West and shut himself off from everyone and everything, possibly by posing as a deaf-mute. If he pretends to be a deaf-mute, he reasons, people would have to write messages to him on

The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy: A Micro-Review

If I had to come up with a list of books whose title makes the book sound far drier than it is, I'd nominate Gilson's The Spirit of Mediaeval Philosophy. Merton fans may recall that he bought the book in his pre-Catholic days, then nearly hurled

Cynar and Tonic

Peter Suderman at Cocktails with Suderman (Substack)

Disappearing Asparagus

Cindy Carcamo at L.A. Times

Knowledge Through Experience is Still Knowledge

Nassim Taleb's Assault on the Left Hemisphere's Pretensions: Samples

Magic in Everyday Renaissance Europe

Laura Miller at Slate

Black Magic and Scientism

Magic has fascinated me since I learned that the high watermark of magic was the Renaissance. The cutting-edge Renaissance thinkers were magicians. Magic and science were intertwined, its practitioners flitting between the two practices (arts) in their attempt to understand and, ultimately, control/manipulate the world, unaware that they are

Why Gardening Matters

Do You Like Being a Chump?

Politicians are turning the United States into a nation of chumps. It won't end well. In progressive circles, “justice” doesn't mean fairness or evenhandedness; it describes a world in which every problem is the fault of some entrenched power group. Therefore, every solution should involve both

If You Want to Write, Learn to Walk

"Now I’ve got you, you nihilist! Sitting on your arse is precisely the sin against the Holy Ghost. Only those thoughts that come in walking have any value." Nietzsche

Learn to Love Your Region

It might be the only effective answer to Leviathan . . . and it arguably saves lives Socialist? Liberal? Conservative? Libertarian? Anarchist? I'm none of those things. I'm a Subsidiarist. I believe in the Catholic bedrock of political philosophy, which holds the smallest units of government ought to handle

On Vermentino

Lettie Teague at the Wall Street Journal

Zuby's Twitter Thread: 20 Things I've Learned (Or Had Confirmed) About Humanity During The 'Pandemic'

The pandemic is over but the leader and expert's despicable response to it must not be forgotten, so herewith . . .

Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur (1735-1813): Left-Hemispheric

McGilchrist writes about the left hemisphere's love for abstraction. Because it is the hemisphere of action ("it's tasked with tasks," is my (oh-so-clever) way of putting it), it prefers abstract ideas that give it guideposts for action. It keeps things simple, which makes things

Dorothy Parker's Brilliance and Other Sundries to Fascinate Your Friends at the Bar Tonight

The godfather of modern libertarianism, Albert Nock, was in his prime during Prohibition. Needless to say, he railed against it, noting once that it's absurd to regulate something that, in nature, flows as freely as water. He's right, of course. And the fact that it flows

50-Year Anniversary of The Gulag

Gary Saul Morson at The New Criterion

Day Drinking

Dani Blum at the New York Times

A Dominican, a Neuroscientist, and Computer Scientist Walk into a Bar . . . or Maybe a Library

A.G. Sertillanges (the Dominican), Andrew Huberman (the Neuroscientist), and Cal Newport (the Computer Scientist) on the Need for Focus

Hemispheres in the Garden

The left hemisphere plans, incidentally. The right hemisphere flows. Carol Deppe draws an autobiographical distinction in The Tao of Vegetable Gardening between "Planning Carol" and "Doing Carol." PC lays out elaborate plans that DC later disregards as she gardens. I can relate . . . big-time. Deppe's

The Utopian Gardener: An Autobiographical Incident

Rational ideas create hell on earth. Just ask a kulak. Or just ask the lettuce plants in my garden. I had a great gardening idea a few years ago. I called it “wild gardening.” The idea was simple and based on U.S. foreign policy over the past 75 years.

Misshapen Creatures that Live in the Earth Can Give Us Sage Advice?

Well, no. But: Don't Fear the Gnome The first philosophical event in the Greek world, the selection of their seven sages, gives the first distinctive and unforgettable characteristic of Greek civilization. Other people have saints, while the Greeks have philosophers. They are right when some state that a

Six Potential Apparition Conclusions

From the conclusion of the Vatican's new norms for discerning apparitions

It’s Time We Recognize Noise as the Eighth Capital Sin

I’m thinking the list of seven capital sins — Pride, Envy, Avarice, Anger, Sloth, Gluttony, Lust — ought to be expanded to eight. This may be audacious of me, and I’m not sure what type of campaign I’d need in order to obtain official recognition for an eighth sin,

Cormac's Border Trilogy

Joel J. Miller at Miller's Book Review (Substack)

Recommended? Get Frustrated with Your Cell Phone

Derek Smith at Michigan Engineering

This Might Be the Best Book of the 21st Century

Look Homeward, America. Bill Kauffman. ISI Books, 2006. Strong, deep, readable, desperate, fun. All those adjectives–even those that trip over one another–fit this book. It's such a good book, it made me want to quit writing. “If someone like Kauffman, with his erudition and talent, isn&

Is the Netflix Documentary a Paean to Catholic Convert and Daily Communicant Marshall McLuhan?

The Social Dilemma uses the intellectual framework built by McLuhan, but the similarities stop there The Social Dilemma documentary has broken records. According to its main star, Tristan Harris, 38 million households in the first 28 days saw it on Netflix. That’s incredible. What’s even more incredible? The

On Phoebe Bridgers

Are social media companies the new big tobacco?

How Not to Sacrifice if You're a Father

Hint: Don't be Rousseau I’ve been reading some Nock. Albert Jay Nock, one of the premier American essayists of the early twentieth century and one of the founders of modern conservative/libertarian thought. A weighty man, that Nock. But also a disturbing man. In a 1964 biography,

You're Not a Lunatic? Thank Your Daddy.

What do the violent extremes on the Left and the Right have in common? They tend to come from fatherless or divorced homes. That's Mary Eberstadt's observation in “The Fury of the Fatherless” in First Things. She recites the well-known statistical facts about fatherlessness in the

Can Science Recover Lost Trust?

Theodore Dalrymple at Law & Liberty

Loneliness and Activism

A Sports Cliché that Can Improve Your Daily Life

"Take what the defense gives you." Our local high school basketball coach was working with his talented but very young (8?) son. The father guarded his son. The son made the wrong move and turned the ball over. His father said, "Take what the defense gives you.

Read on the Run

For years, I've wanted to start the "On-the-Run Reader." It would be a Reader's Digest-type publication, but weightier and lighter. The subject matter would be more serious than RD, but the length of the "articles" (more like blurbs, quotes, summaries, and essays)

The Most Cashless Country on Earth Says We Shouldn't Go Cashless

Nick Corbishley at Naked Capitalism

Five Things You Didn't Know About Your Community

There’s a localism movement afoot. The Saturday after Black Friday is now recognized as “Small Business Saturday,” an effort to remind people that it’s important to support their local stores. There has been a corresponding harsh backlash against Amazon and its disturbing gains on the back of COVID.

Google and the Hemispheres

The Industrial Revolution had been churning for a hundred years. Results were impressive. Standards of living were climbing. Sure, urban slums were miserable, but many historians believe they beat the squalor in rural villages. But industrialization was messy and not just from a pollution standpoint. Labor itself was messy. There

Should You Try Writing Poetry?

Glenn Arbery at The Imaginative Conservative

The RCIA Haunting

Jayme Clune at National Catholic Register

Preserving Affirmative Action at All Costs, including Honesty

James Breslo at Epoch Times

The Minotaur: Five Short Lessons About the Modern State

Revisiting de Jouvenel's 1945 classic, On Power “the spirit of domination never slumbers” Bertrand de Jouvenel was born in 1903 to an aristocratic family that embraced the “progressive” mores of the day. His parents divorced. His father married the famous novelist Colette in 1912. In 1920, de Jouvenel

Saturday Morning BYCU: White Coffee

Susan C. Olmstead at Epoch Times

On Yuengling

When I was a college student in Texas, I told someone at a bar that I was from Pennsylvania. The guy’s eyes lit up. “Pennsylvania?!” the man exclaimed. “That means you get to drink Yuengling whenever you want!” Yes, I mused, with a shrug and a swig of my

Playboy Taki, the Riviera, and an Elegant Culture of Excess

I have a romantic nostalgia for something I'm nearly clueless about I tend to loathe the rich, especially those who have money because of Hollywood or, worst of the worse, government. But there's something about the elegant rich I admire, almost in a nostalgic or romantic

The Cell Phone is a Monkey Trap for the Left Hemisphere

Scrolling Blog: May 2024

May 31, 2024 BYCU A Newcomer in the Grape Industry It's Vermentino. It resists drought and is cheap and California growers are lovin' it. It currently costs $4,000 a ton (whereas Napa Cabernet costs over $8,000), but as more use it, the cost will go

The Left Hemisphere Thwarts Focus: On Art Appreciation

Attention, attention, attention. Everyone is starved for it . . . their own, not others. People want to be able to focus again. Madison Avenue purposefully kills it: The legal scholar Tim Wu, in his book “The Attention Merchants,” notes, “Without express consent, most of us have passively opened ourselves up to the

Art Appreciation: One Way to Reclaim Your Attention?

Nathan Heller at The New Yorker ("The Battle for Attention")

Substack Frustrates Me

Substack frustrates me like only a lover can get frustrated with his beloved. It Suffocates. I get frustrated when I can't breathe. Substack frustrates me. It buries me with unknown authors who I want to read, but I can't possibly get to all of them. Access

Twenty 20th-Century Books for Young Autodidacts

(Actually, there are 33, if you count the honorable mentions) Joseph Epstein is arguably the best essayist alive. He’s urbane, funny, self-deprecating. He’s a fine stylist, and he’s remarkably well-read. I remember William F. Buckley marveling at Epstein’s erudition and wondering how Epstein could have so

The Gin and Tonic is Coming Back in its Birthplace: India

Jaya Saxena at Punch

NPR is in Fine Hands, Indeed

Christopher Rufo at City Journal

Tucker Carlson's Interview on Joe Rogan

A Few Notes about Episode #2138

Gulf Princes, Safaris, and Conservation Groups are Destroying the Maasai

Stephanie McCrummen at The Atlantic

The Defecated Rationality of the Left Hemisphere in Action. Right Before Our Eyes.

The question: How can people who make the smallest carbon footprint be responsible for making the largest carbon footprint? The answer: They can't. Except in the mental world of our brain's left hemisphere. This is a real-life (real-time) example from Tanzania and the plight of the

The Beatniks Were a Bunch of Consumerists

Well, kinda William Burroughs liked opium, a lot. He liked its derivatives, morphine, and heroin. He liked other types of dope. He liked women. He liked men and boys. He wrote recklessly. He lived recklessly. He loved his common-law wife. He shot her dead in a drunken game of William

Against Human Flourishing?

A few notes about a difficult essay

Nine Helpful Micro-Habits

I've long eschewed self-improvement books of the secular sort for the simple reason that, if they have any merit, they are merely rehashings of lessons you can learn from the saints, who not only teach and embody the lessons but tie them into a coherent worldview that reflects

Easter

"When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a man

Wine Collecting: Billionaire Frenzy

Kathleen Willcox at The Spectator

The World of Wine Collecting

It's a combination of pretension, mystery, investment, viticulture, vinification, historical appreciation, and fraud. The world of wine collecting. The world of the 1%. Scratch that. The 1/10th of one percent. It sounds like oenophiles work with vintners to create a buzz about a new wine, one that

Pragmatism and the Saints

"Pragmatism" and "practicality" aren't the same things. When a person says, "I'm just being practical," he's probably being highly impractical. It normally means he's just thinking rationally: with the certitude of his left hemisphere, which excludes

The Fact Is, Saints Have Levitated

Daniel K. Williams at Mere Orthodoxy

How I Found Great Used Books . . . and a Dose of Grace

Except for my garden, which is a blend of hobby and post-apocalyptic planning, I don’t have any hobbies. I have a lot of things I do occasionally, like travel, watch football, and drink at a bar. I also exercise and pray regularly. I don’t think the former rise

Six Challenging Assertions from D. H. Lawrence's Studies in Classic American Literature

Highlightings of D. H. Lawrence's Studies in Classic American Literature

Rodriguez and Maundy Thursday

From the conclusion

Drug-Fueled Travelogue of the Post-Soviet Iron Curtain Region

Sam Kriss at The Lamp

Sam Kriss: Drug Aficionado and Master Essayist

I don't know whether I'm impressed or appalled, and I can't tell if the writer is confessing or bragging. But boy, Sam Kriss, a "British writer and dilettante," has written the most enjoyable essay of the year. The agnostic Kriss ("[m]

Did Video Bring Us BLM, Riots, and COVID Hysteria?

A new essay about the Marshall McLuhan disciple, Neil Postman You like dead white guys? How about a dead white guy who was the disciple of a dead white guy? I do. I also like DWG Marshall McLuhan and his disciple, DWG Neil Postman, whose Amusing Ourselves to Death is

In Related News, Alcoholics Tend to Have Other Behavioral Disorders

Sarah Parshall Perry at The Heritage Foundation's "Daily Signal"

Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences by Diana Pasulka

How to Rebel Against the New Barbarism

We might be entering a new Middle Ages. The Middle Ages were a contest between the Catholic Church and barbarism. The Church won. That's not what's happening in the new Middle Ages. Here's how to deal with the new barbarism. Russian mystic and philosopher

Fyodor, Flannery, and GoodFellas Reveal Something Ironic about Our Modern World

Essences become meaningless in both a perfect and marred world.

When Virtue Becomes Vice

We can't pursue virtue without vice. Every pursuit of virtue, after all, requires us to strive to advance our happiness. Every such pursuit, in other words, is selfish, which is the root of all vice. It's a paradox. Paradox, The Hemispheres, and the TaoA basic tension

No More Boozy Bachelorette Parties?

By Ivy Manners at the New York Times

Another Defection from the Left

Here's the thing that strikes me about Uri Berliner's essay on Tuesday about National Public Radio's leftist agenda: The guy is still working there. He now has whistleblower status, which offers social and legal protections, but it makes him persona non gratia at the

NPR Shuts Down Conversation

Uri Berliner at The Free Press

Scrolling Blog: April 2024

The Cell Phone is a Monkey Trap for the Left HemisphereAnd Eight Other Short Observations about the HemispheresThe Daily EudemonEric Scheske April 30, 2024 Art Appreciation: One Way to Reclaim Your Attention?Nathan Heller at The New Yorker (“The Battle for Attention”)The Daily EudemonEric Scheske April 29, 2024 Monday

Elitism v. Snobbery

I never could "get into" Bell's Crowd Culture. This micro review kinda makes me want to try again, but only "kinda." The book falls into "snobbish conservatism," which I've never much cared for. We tend to think of liberalism as

Small Talk: How to Cultivate the True Disposition of the Artist

Practice being an artist by being a good conversationalist

Why Curb Your Enthusiasm is Funny

Good-Bye, CurbThe last Curb Your Enthusiasm aired Sunday. It will be sorely missed, even if I think this last season hasn’t been as good as the previous ones. Britannica has a great entry about Curb basics. I don’t think you’ll need a subscription to access it. Two

Tolkien's Letters: Revised and Expanded

Isaiah Flair at University Bookman

More Skeptics are at Least Scratching Their Heads about God These Days

Justin Brierley at Spectator World

Big Oil: Desecrating the Sacred?

Jeff Bilbro at Front Porch Republic

"Disparate Impact" is a Mind Disease. If Blacks Can't Pass the Test, It's a Racist Test

Heather Mac Donald at Imprimis

Partial Payments: Essays on Writers and Their Lives, by Joseph Epstein

A Micro-Review/Essay “I am indebted to these writers.” Paean. Nineteen of them. An essayist removes his hat, lowers his head, and says “thanks.” The essayist convinces us these subjects are great. We then understand that the essayist is great. Like recognizes like. Max Beerbohm’s prose is difficult to

Are We Really Supposed to Believe Psychedelics Gave Us Our Souls?

A mushroom? Or God? I didn’t fully appreciate the implication of The Stoned Ape theory until listening to Lex Fridman’s interview with Brian Muraresku. Muraresku recently published The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name, which claims psychedelics, in particular psilocybin, has made huge,

California Wine Struggles

Louis Sahagún at Los Angeles Times

Mint Julep: The Percy Battle?

Poet Will Percy provided this recipe for the Mint Julep in his autobiography, Lanterns on the Levee: First you needed excellent bourbon whisky; rye or Scotch would not do at all. Then you put half an inch of sugar in the bottom of the glass and merely dampened it with

The Grid-less Vacation

Power Down Week is April 21-27, 2024

Jimmy Buffet: Hymnographer

How Jimmy Buffet can help cultivate the virtue of detachment I started listening to Jimmy Buffet songs when I was in law school. Though I was ambitiously studying hard so I could get a job with a powerful law firm, I was drawn to Buffet's music because it

How to be a Good Agrarian

I hung out with Michael Jordan outside Chicago about twenty years ago. No, not basketball Michael Jordan. I'm talking about Michael Jordan, the English professor from Hillsdale College. We met at a Touchstone conference at Mundelein Seminary. He saw my name tag and said he enjoyed my articles.

New Movie about The Shroud

The Shroud: Face to Face moves audiences. Robert Orlando crosses boundaries to show scientific and historical evidence that “He is risen, indeed.” The new film documentary, which debuted on Good Friday, is about the Shroud of Turin, “but the Shroud is a significant symbol pointing to something bigger: I want

Toni Morrison's Rejection Letters

Melina Moe at the Los Angeles Review of Books

Russia’s Freaky History with the Cult of Mother Earth

The Russian digs Mother Earth. This has been the case from Russia’s earliest years when dark and brutal paganism soaked her culture in blood.[1] The Russian venerates Mother Earth for her black depths, for the crops of life she provides, and for the resting home she gives at

Listening to Podcasts at Oxford in 1374 and Kansas in 1974

Why do we love those conversational podcasts? If you were a student at a medieval university, you listened to lectures. And listened and listened and listened to lectures, often more than ten hours a day. But they weren’t like lectures at today’s universities, where hundreds of students sit

Protect Your Children from Moloch

The evidence is in: Social media kills children. Well, it at least seriously wounds them. Or at least many of them. And no matter what, there ain't no adult with an ounce of sense who claims it's good for them. You know who else thinks it&

Lady, You Have One Ugly Kid

If you haven't heard, you haven't been listening: Europe is grossly under-birthed, and the United States isn't far behind. For a society to replace its population, demographers say each woman needs to average 2.1 children. The last time I looked, Germany was at

Parliament Created the 18th-Century’s Great Gin Craze

“[N]oe sort of Brandy Aqua vite or other Spirits or distilled Waters of any Kingdome Country or place whatsoever shall after the said foure and twentyeth day of August be imported into the Kingdoms of England or Ireland . . .”. If you read the Wikipedia entries about England’s Great Gin

How to be a Holy Drunk

A few notes on Sebastian Flyte The early pages of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited describe the drunken antics of students Lord Sebastian Flyte and Charles Ryder (the narrator). Ryder makes the later observation that he “got drunk often, but through an excess of high spirits, in the love

Taoing Around in the Garden

There's a great gardening book called “The Tao of Vegetable Gardening.” The author, Carol Deppe, applies Taoist principles (especially that of wu-wei, “not doing”) to the soil, but the book isn't about Taoism. It's all about gardening. The Taoism is rarely explicit, but rather

Assault on Huberman

Kerry Howley at New York Mag

No Cell Phones in This Room

The room: A room in his house that he has dedicated strictly to deep work. I think it's a den: a study or small library. He never takes his cell phone into it. Dr. Cal Newport: How to Enhance Focus and Improve ProductivityIn this episode, my guest is

Hypocrite, Me: Netflixing My Own Aesthetic Prison

Aaron Timms at The New Republic

Who Exactly is Trying to Take Down Joe Rogan?

I wrote this in February 2022. I'm happy with it in light of what we're learning in 2024.

Four Levels of Literature to Form a Healthy Worldview

Ideas bloom like plants. Good plants begin with good soil

If You Can Successfully Get SNAP Out of KFC, I'll Listen

Until that obvious and flagrant and massive fraud is remedied, I'm afraid any argument for more government action is laughably absurd

A Tip to the Right Hemisphere

I agree with Modern Drunkard Magazine's observation that, if you can't afford to tip the bartender, you can't afford to drink in a bar. Just buy a six-pack and stay home. Me? I prefer to stay home with the six-pack, but I love bars.

Happy Birthday, Front Porch Republic

Bill Kauffman at Front Porch Republic

Why I Subscribed to Encylopedia Britannica

I subscribed to the Encyclopedia Britannica. It was difficult. I didn't much mind the $75 annual subscription price, but I've spent early 2024 weeding subscriptions out of my wallet—about $1,000 worth annually. Last week, I discovered I could watch March Madness this year for

Why Are We So Metaphysically Beleaguered?

A review of Bradley Lowell Stone’s Robert Nisbet: Communitarian Traditionalist (ISI Books, 2000) Episode 262: The Quest for Community by Robert Nisbet | National ReviewJohn J. Miller is joined by Luke Sheahan of Duquesne University to discuss Robert Nisbet’s book, The Quest for Community.National Review G.K. Chesterton’

Night Train: An American Legend

The tent city crisis continues. It was even the subject of a recent Econtalk episode, in which the guest explained that the tent cities result from fentanyl-laced meth, which makes users paranoid, so they want to be in an enclosed space (a tent), but when they’re not under the

George MacDonald: Grandfather of Middle Earth?

Fantasy literature wasn't even "a thing" until George MacDonald came along. Timothy Larsen flushes it out. One of my favorite "browsing books" is C.S. Lewis' Anthology: 365 Readings of George MacDonald writings. I've also long believed that the fiction of

The CCP and Me: Once Upon A Time in Today's Hollywood

Michael Clark at Epoch Times

China Controls Hollywood?

"The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them." Lenin (might be apocryphal)

Vermont is the New Texas?

Ice BacksThe folks fly into Canada then trudge into Vermont and North Dakota. In 2023, compared to 2020, it’s up five-fold and is on pace in 2024 to crush the 2023 numbers. Graph. And like the new immigrants coming across the southern border, these folks appear to be well-funded.

Debasement Fundamentals: Bitcoin Has No Top Because Fiat Has No Bottom

From Bitcoin Magazine

St. Patrick and Sundry

Black St. Patrick's Day According to the Spectator, St. Patrick's Day is the biggest bar night of the year, surpassing even my favorite holiday, Black Wednesday. For a country like Ireland, as devoted to its faith as to a good party, the fact that St. Patrick’

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Everything you need and don't need for your bar conversations this weekend

You Can't See Their Faces on Route 66

The Blurry Allure of the Open Road

Hating Rural Whites

Nathan Robinson at Current Affairs

Cabrini Movie Review

Less Girl Power and More Holy Ghost Power

Twelve Aquinas Aphorisms

Simple observations from the medieval poster boy will give you new perspectives

Hey Dude, Let's Inherit the Kingdom

If you want to inherit the kingdom, look with the eyes of the little child. Or maybe drink a few cocktails. Here's the thing about kids: Their prefrontal cortexes aren't developed. Their PFCs don't fully develop until their early twenties. PFCs control analytical thinking.

Drunks and Stoners are Bright, Creative, and Talented, But I Don't Want to be One

Hey Dude, Let’s Inherit the KingdomIf you want to inherit the kingdom, look with the eyes of the little child. Or maybe drink a few cocktails. Here’s the thing about kids: Their prefrontal cortexes aren’t developed. Their PFCs don’t fully develop until their early twenties. PFCs

Albert Jay Nock, Our Enemy, the State: Summary

I think this minor classic boils down to a handful of points: 1. State power comes at the price of social power. If the state will take care of something, then people won't. As social power collapses, so does society. This is Nock's best insight, and

California was a Hot Bed of Libertarianism

Given the ideological condition of the Golden State today, it must've been the most-failed ideological movement in history My opinion of Gavin Newsom, Eric Garcetti, and other imbecilic politicians in California is strongly colored by Joe Rogan, who has an extremely low opinion of them. So whereas I

More Bud Lite Fun, but Not Nearly Enough

Bud Light Missed Out on the Super Bowl Party I don't deny that the boycott has hurt, but that swill is still the second most popular brand out there. We have way too many trannies and pinko-trannies in this country. Kid Rock even pulled back on the boycott

The Inherent and Severe Limitations of Thinking

In the early 1990s, I practiced law with a lot of impressive Jewish attorneys. One, particularly so. He was brilliant, aggressive, and driven. He also held a Ph.D. in philosophy. I always wanted to ask him why he got a doctorate in philosophy and then went to law school,

Thinking isn't Rational: It's Embodied Reasoning

David Weinberger at University Bookman

Left-Hemispheric Knowledge

💡I wrote this short essay 15 years ago, before I was even aware of the hemisphere hypothesis. This passage from the essay captures well the problem with left hemisphere thinking: "It takes a proud person to take incomplete knowledge and respond as though he has a complete grasp of

Netflix’s Hidden High School Comedy Gem

American Vandal

"Mental Health": The Refuge of Scoundrels

Theodore Dalrymple at the Spectator

Why We Don't Like Handicapped People

"Introducing a Person Who Needs No Introduction . . ."

My inadvertent love affair with book introductions. Plus a dozen introduction recommendations.

Eight Astonishing Facts about The Brothers Karamazov

Plus Six Unverified Facts and Five Interesting Facts

A Few Great Charles Bukowski Quotes

His headstone features a graphic of a boxer and the Zen-inspired epitaph “Don’t try.”

Why We Should Pray

Part I of a Two-Part Series

Pulling Thomas Aquinas Kicking and Screaming into the Twentieth Century

There are some authors who make you think, “I could read this guy, and just this guy, for the rest of my life. He'd bring me to greater and greater levels of wisdom and understanding.” For me, the German philosopher Josef Pieper (1904-1997) is such a writer. He

Scrolling Blog: March 2024

Happy Easter "When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch

Rare Figs + a Strain of Yeast from 850 B.C. = Ancient Egypt Beer

The idea came to Dylan McDonnell early in the pandemic, when a sourdough-baking craze took over a nation under lockdown. Mr. McDonnell, an amateur brewer who lives outside Salt Lake City, saw Seamus Blackley, a video game designer, boasting on social media about baking bread with 4,500-year-old Egyptian yeast.

A Magisterial Appreciation for a Magisterial Effort: Fadiman's Lifetime Reading Plan

Nathan Payne at The Lamp

Why Were Humans Suddenly Able to Drink Liquor?

One drinker's haphazard, irresponsible, and drunken theory.

How to Find Diversity without Even Trying

Re-thinking our obsession with diversity Religion is good for you. Religious participation, sociologists tell us, correlates with lower levels of criminality, better health, greater marital stability, and greater well-being. According to an article awhile back in the Atlantic Monthly, sociologists and economists are studying this phenomenon further and, in the

Place and Conservatism

Mark T. Mitchell at Front Porch Republic

Blow Back Beer to the Vanishing Sommelier

This Video is Pretty Wild Brewer blown backwards by beer blast (video)An employee of Back Channel Brewing Company in Spring Park, Minnesota, was standing in front of a large vat when it blew him backwards.Boing BoingDavid Pescovitz The Sommelier is Vanishing Wine is still poured at many tables.

Hard Currency to be Eliminated?

Aaron Day at Brownstone Institute

Prices Reflect Our Participation in Reality in General

A few notes on prices and reality

John McClaughry: Underappreciated Man

Bill Kauffman at The American Conservative

Collectors, Hoarders, and the Childless

In my youth, I started more collections than a wino starts bottles. I stopped. I don't know why.

Science and Magic . . . And Math

This is a great historical tie into Part II of Existence Strikes Back and its observation that modernity's momentum began to build in the 13th century, as Western civilization's capacity for control increased. Magic and science were twins in the cradle of modernity. This essay points

Hanging Out is Counter-Conduct

Derek Thompson at The Atlantic

The Peasant Sentiment

The Greatest Game Ever Played is a true story about an unaccomplished young golfer, Francis Ouimet, at the turn of the century and how he beat the world's top two golfers in an 18-hole playoff at the 1913 U.S. Open. Francis's goal to be a

Portland: A Laboratory Experiment on Progressive Politics

Naomi Schaefer Riley at City Journal

The Technology Paradox

The more efficient technology makes us, the less efficient we become. Of course, information technology saves time by doing things quickly. Or does it? Bosses save wages, but we become their new, unwilling wage slaves. Meanwhile, with the automation of more and more processes that used to take a five-minute

French Beer Rises

Kathleen Willcox at The Spectator

An Honest "Celebration" [Tortured Account] of an Open Marriage

Dorothy Fortenberry at Commonweal. Caution: Reprobate content.

Handwriting: Brain Connectivity?

George Citroner at Epoch Times

Bend It Like Orwell

Essay Rules from the Master

Social Activist Thomas Merton Didn't Stay Informed?

Merton didn't trust the media, but he formed strong opinions on current events. It's because Merton was an artist victimized by his left hemisphere. He needed to embrace causes.

Scrolling Blog: February 2024

February 29, 2204 I Loathe the Republican Party But Thank Goodness for the Republican Party This issue is so important, I'm not inclined to much care what kind of politics or demagoguery or other roguery is driving the opposition, just as long as this measure is exposed and

Kerouac and Cassady Pick Up a Hitchhiker

Sal’s and Dean’s wanderings are exercises in detachment. The road detaches them from the binding conventionalities of normal society. As a result, they are able to enjoy everything and everyone, even the most disgusting, because they are able, in their unique way, to see God’s stamp of

Austria Loves Its Schnapps. Plus: Wine Trends 2024

Brews You Can Use

The Homeless Have Vigorous Circadian Clocks

Sacred Cow Homeless Ari Matti Mustonen had a good set at the Comedy Mothership. He comes from Estonia. He pointed out that they have homeless in Europe too, but they're not . . . erratic. He talked about moving to Austin and dealing with a homeless guy who's always

What the Ape Man Can Teach Us About a Common Mental Mistake

Pithecanthropus is the ape-man. He's also known as the Java Man and the Peking Man. Latin-loving scientists call him Homo erectus, Homo modjokertenses, Meganthropus palaeojavanicus, Pithecanthropus robustus, and Pithecanthropus dubius. He is the creation of Dutch physician Eugene Dubois. In the 1890s, Dubois discovered a few bony remains

This is So Outrageous, I Won't Believe It Unless This Guy Shows Up Wearing a Toe Tag

And Introducing "the Murder Paradox"

The Doors Don't Open on Madison Avenue

Christopher Sandford at The Spectator

Austin: Beautiful Model Plus 20 Pounds

Picture a model. Neither waif nor plus-sized. Maybe Cindy Crawford in her prime. Now picture her ten years later with 20 more pounds. She'd probably still be kinda hot but not when compared to her prime. That's Austin. 300,000 to One Million Austin has put

Five Dispositions that Can Make Your Life More Productive and Happy

The philosophy of focusing on a slow and loving existence in the quiet now

Five Pieces of Furniture for Your Intellectual Living Room

These truths settle nothing but ought to inform everything

The Joy of Seed Catalogs

Teresa Mull at The Spectator

Charles Bukowski's L.A.

Loren Kantor at WritingAndTyping (Medium)

The Shallow World of Artificial Intelligence

Adam Kirsch at LiteratureGBT

Asteroid City: America is a Strange Land

I didn't like the movie, but it was strange. I suppose that's positive . . . or at least, American.

A Charming Suggestion: Bring Back the Tickets

Bailey Sincox at Public Books

Fundamentalism: The Disposition that Fuels the Jerks of the World

Most disagreeable people have this common trait.

Why You Should Care about Gene Wolfe

He's the author of Book of the New Sun, which is massive but which I just finished and which is incredible, full of implicit Catholic theology, Greek philosophy, and mythology. Some of his biggest literary influences were Chesterton and Tolkien. He's also a convert, whose conversion

BYCU: Drinking Literature: The Good, the Bad, and the Tripe

This is a Lovely Drinking Piece from the Spectator An ode to localism, in its way It used to have a snug: a partitioned room where ladies could drink in privacy. Those days are gone, now; it’s been closed off. The ornately carved bar and buttoned leather bench seats

Big Ag is Killing Us

I Think It's Time to Go Organic, but the USDA Makes It Very Difficult by Allowing Dishonest Food Labeling . . . at the Behest of Big Ag and to the Detriment of American Citizens My doctor takes a sane approach. During consultation, he discusses nutrition, weight loss, and exercise, but

A Life of Exploring in One's Own Corner of the World

Alastair Humphreys at Noema

Spending in Ways that Further the Evil Empire of Hudge and Gudge

Jane Clark Scharl at Plough

Don't Crowd Me

A few years ago, I went to my local high school's first home football game. Afterwards, I was exhausted. I mean, absolutely exhausted, like I had lead around my shoulders. I'd had a hard week at work, but the level of exhaustion was something else. I

Localism without Fundamentalism

Adam Smith at Front Porch Republic

2024: 800-Year Anniversary of the Franciscans' Arrival in England

The year 2024 marks the eight-hundredth anniversary of the arrival in England of the Friars Minor, sent personally by Saint Francis of Assisi, and the establishment of England’s first Franciscan friary in Canterbury in 1224. The Franciscans followed the Dominicans, who had already arrived in England in 1221, and

Botoxing Beauty

💡This "non-story" appeared yesterday at Catholic365. Practical problems require darker powers. The British writer G.K. Chesterton made that observation a hundred years ago, noting that people have always a "secret and perverse feeling that the darker powers would really do things." A corollary idea came

A Gay Guy, a Jew, and a Catholic Go into a Bar . . . No, Not Really. I Was Just Kidding.

It's here: Flat-out speech prohibition, even in private conversations that take place in one's house: Norway has criminalized hate speech against transgender people. A “transgression” can land you in jail for a year . . and three years if the transgression occurs in public. If you don'

BYCU

Priming your pump in this damp January

Hanging Out is a Rebuke to the Left Hemisphere

America has a crisis: Young people aren't wasting enough time with one another. The result? Depression, suicide, and general malaise are up. Happiness is down. I've long chided my kids, especially my daughters, for making "hanging out" a priority. In my left-hemispheric world, hanging

Maisie Ward, Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Ben Franklin and the Mouse

How I finally accepted multi-tasking It had been there for years, but I had never noticed it. Until one morning when I found myself with a telephone receiver tucked under my neck while I talked with an acquaintance, a computer mouse in my hand while I surfed the Internet, and

Give Me Nothingness or Give Me Nothing at All

Last Friday evening, I was supposed to meet friends at the Hillcrest Lounge shortly after 5:00. I got there at 5:10 and ordered a drink. The others were delayed, so I sat there for over twenty minutes, looking out the window. Other than Ted Nugent on the jukebox,

Propaganda and Love of the Ugly

Anthony Daniels (a/k/a "Theodore Dalrymple") at The New Criterion

Your Opinions Stink

John of Montmirail liked to fight. He was a leading knight in battle; he jousted in peace. But then he had a religious conversion and dedicated his resources to helping the poor, including the establishment of a hospice in his castle. He once went to help a woman whose dying

Bawdy Premodern and Postmodern

RabelaisOne of my favorite writers, Albert Jay Nock, was a huge Rabelais fan. He wrote two books about him. From the first: It must be laid down once and for all, that the chief purpose of reading a classic like Rabelais is to prop and stay the spirit, especially inThe

Frantically Trying to Fit in All the Spiritual Stuff?

I once told a spiritual adviser that I really liked a'Kempis' The Imitation of Christ. He shook his head a bit and said he preferred to read Thomas Aquinas. He said he found the profound truths of, say, the Summa Theologica more moving spiritually than devotional works.

Entangled Life: How Fungi Know

Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures. This short book tells me everything I want (and far more than I need) to know about mushrooms and their earlier stages. The author, it seems to me, tries to keep a sane perspective

The Rise of the Holy Men

So holy men left. They left for the desert and became the forerunners of the monks, though these early counter-culture revolutionaries were “in some ways less comparable to modern monks and nuns than to modern drop-outs, supporters of gurus, or others . . . who abandon the conventional world . . .”. Gibbon, The Fall of

BYCU

Man Arrested for Shopdrinking A store loss prevention officer said the man was spotted selecting bottles of gin from the store shelves, pouring the contents into a cup, drinking the contents and discarding the bottles into a reusable shopping bag. [eco-friendly] The man initially did not cooperate with police when

Renewing Catholic Education on the Atlantic

Ray Domanico at City Journal

First Things' Feature Essay: Resist the Machine Apocalypse

The March 2024 issue of First Things arrived Tuesday. The feature essay: Iain McGilchrist, "Resist the Machine Apocalypse." It's great. But it's not online yet. When it is, I'll post an excerpt and a link to the full essay, but I suspect

Botch Your New Year's Resolutions Already? Maybe Try a Few of These Winter Resolutions

"New year" means "new soul." That's what British writer G.K. Chesterton once observed. Many of us, though, already feel like we've soiled our souls with botched New Year's resolutions. And the rest of us will feel pretty soiled soon

1273: Apex of Western Civilization

December 6, 1273. That's the date St. Thomas Aquinas had such an intense experience or vision during Mass, that he stopped writing. For 35 years, Aquinas had used the written word to explain pretty much everything. He provided proofs of God's existence that atheists still struggle

Is "Dry January" Just a Neo-Prohibitionist Trick?

News and commentary to fuel your weekend

Six Observations from a Habsburg Sympathizer

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn might have been the world's most fascinating man

Journalists Continue to Think They Have a Monopoly on Truth

Bonnie Kristian at Christianity Today

The Importance of Manners

💡George Washington, the first President of the United States, was known to have studied a book called Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation. This book was based on a set of rules compiled by French Jesuits in the 16th century and was a guide to proper

Urban Planning v. Organic Cities

Anthony Eagan at City Journal

23 Truths

Gurwinder at The Prism (Substack)

Feeling Hurried? Blame Netflix

One quality about modern life that no one denies: it's rushed. It's hurried. Frenzied. No one feels like they have enough time. There's a simple explanation: Modern life is fun. It's interesting. Tons of worthy things grab our attention. The adjective "

"To Play is to Contemplate," James Schall

"One should live out one's days playing at certain games--sacrificing, singing, and dancing." Plato, The Laws

Localism is Better Because It Provides Far More Options

This is a frustrating interview. The champions of localism, Front Porch Republic, interview an enemy of it, Trevor Latimore (author of Small Isn't Beautiful). It's a cordial exchange, with interesting arguments/points by both sides, but Latimore's position seems to gel around this simple

Jigsaw Puzzles. Non-Stories. The Focused Life?

My father-in-law is 93 and really sharp. One thing he does to keep sharp: jigsaw puzzles. He times himself and works them serenely but with focus. The mental exercise drips with lessons explored by Dr. Kevin Majerjes at Optimal Work: short bursts of sustained focus, little goals that keep you

Has Feminism And 'Hoeflation' Destroyed Dating In The West?

Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge

Scrolling Blog: January 2024

January 31, 2024 AI and the Left Hemisphere About once a month, I come across an online essay that is so lengthy and compelling that, after reading the first section, I merely scan the rest and print it out so I can study it later. Such is this essay by

Britain’s Oldest Pubs—Some Over 800 Years Old—Still Open

from Epoch Times

Cell Phones, Radio, and the Philosophy of Marshall McLuhan

Breaking down a 21st-century matter by bringing back a 1960s icon. My first cell phone was the Motorola RAZR V3. That was in 2005. I didn’t use it a lot at first, but it made me more accessible to my clients. I would often use it to return calls

Beer is on the Decline

2023 has been a terrible year for the nectar of the gods U.S. beer shipments fell more than 5% in the first nine months of the year and by year’s end are expected to hit their lowest level in a quarter-century, according to industry tracker Beer Marketer’s

In Praise of Repair Culture

Repair Culture on the Rise?The new issue of Plough magazine pushes for a return to repairing things. The thrust of this new movement: “throwaway culture” is creating all sorts of problems, from landfills to euthanasia. And big business is the reason. Starting in 1923, it stopped making products intended

Jeremy Clarke: A Great Reader

It's arguably the most popular column in Britain's oldest newspaper. The "Low Life" column of The Spectator has entertained readers since 1975, when Jeffrey Bernard provided readers with, to quote Johnathan Meades, "a suicide note in weekly installments." After Bernard's

Dark Santa

Mary Wellesley at The Spectator

Christmas Quotes

“For while all things were in quiet silence and the night was in the midst of her course, thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne.” Book of Wisdom. “[This] passage, brimming with the mystery of the Incarnation, is wonderfully expressive of the infinite stillness that hovered

First Christmas in the Convent

Carino Hodder at the Lamp

Holiday BYCU

A Splendid Micro-History of Mulled Wine "Glow Wine" At Christmas Markets Worldwide, the Holiday Spirit Comes in a Little Red BootAll over Europe and the US, Christmas markets bring good cheer and warm mulled wine, often served out of a curious collectible mug. Here’s the story of

Will New York Be the Old Babylon?

I thought NYC would rebound quickly after COVID and De Blasio, but it just can't seem to get its act together.

The Holiday Elf

Okay, you want a killer drink? This is it: The Holiday Elf. Ingredients: One part Midori Melon Liqueur, one part Blue Curacao, one part Spiced Rum, one part Coconut Rum, two parts lemon/lime juice, two parts simple syrup, two parts pineapple juice. Process: Mix 'em all together and

No Room in the Inn — What Inn?

Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative

Bowling Alone Reads Like a Nostalgic Look at the Good Ol’ Days

Bridget Phetasy at The Spectator

Celebrate the New Year in Edinburgh

Scomo collapsed from a heart attack near the new commercial center that he detested. Hurried and busy pedestrians left him there, figuring he was a drunken tramp, until a feeble-minded woman knelt to care for him and discovered he was dead. That's how the writer George Scott-Moncrieff died

The Quest for Community at 70

Brad Birzer at University Bookman

Western Civilization Hit Its Apex During Advent 1273

A civilization can, indeed, advance and decline at the same time. Eric Voegelin, New Science of Politics, 132. As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Abraham Heschel, God in Search of Man Modern civilization is gnostic civilization. Gnostic civilization is left-hemispheric civilization. Gnosis: Knowledge. Specifically, explicit knowledge, the kind

The Battle Between Macroculture and Microculture Is Turning into a War

Ted Gioia at The Honest Broker

Parliament Created the Great London Gin Craze

“[N]oe sort of Brandy Aqua vite or other Spirits or distilled Waters of any Kingdome Country or place whatsoever shall after the said foure and twentyeth day of August be imported into the Kingdoms of England or Ireland . . .”. If you read the Wikipedia entries about England’s Great Gin

The Difference between "Reason" and "Rationality"

Reason Greek nous Latin intellectus Reason is flexible. It resists fixed formulation. It is shaped by experience. It involves the whole living being, combining the mental and physical . . . the spiritual and material. It is the intellectual glue of sacramental existence. It is characterized by intuition. Reason is "congenial to

How to Make a Cocktail

How Have These Ten Extensions Changed Us?

Toward the end of his life, Marshall McLuhan provided a list of the ten things that have changed us the most. Perhaps the biggest difference between childhood and adulthood is time. The adult frantically looks for more time. The child looks for ways to fill time. I filled a lot

Is New Year's Eve Still the King of Alcohol?

New Year’s Eve is dead. It’s not the biggest bar night of the year. It’s not even the biggest drinking night in general. I base those claims on a (very scientific and statistical) review of the facts. First, I spent four minutes on internet searches, which brought

Absinthe Minded

Barnaby Conrad III at the New Criterion

Zero Hedge: Decent Prose?

Robert Kiyosaki supposedly once counseled a new "creator" about the perils of good writing: "It's 'bestselling author,' not 'best-written author.'" His point: If you want to be successful online, you need to write for sales, not art. He's

Don't Let Your Left Hemisphere Ruin Christmas

"I wouldn’t upset my plan for anything. I’d rather upset life than the plan." The Anonymous Schoizoid The left hemisphere doesn't live. It thinks. It plans: "How to do this?" "How to tackle that?" The best way to develop a

The Age of Avengers

Jesse Russell at VoegelinView

Catholic Elementary School Christmas Play: Review

When my wife asked if I could come with her to watch her 4-11-year-old students in a Christmas play, I can’t say I was expecting much. But as a lover of theater, the no-admission fee was too good to turn down. This Christmas play, directed by third grade-teacher Miss

Catholicism's Claim to the Hemisphere Hypothesis

Introducing the Catholic Hemisphere. Part Two of Two. About the Hemisphere Hypothesis Straight explanations are dryer than Las Vegas in July (unless you're standing in front of the Bellagio Fountains), but I guess I need to explain the Hemisphere Hypothesis. You can find my full explanation here, but

The Catholic Church is the Proper Master

Introducing the Catholic Hemisphere: Part One of Two

Introducing The Catholic Hemisphere

I've been wrestling mightily with the Hemisphere Hypothesis for the past two years. I've tied it into the Existence Strikes Back project, which is something that has occupied my attention off and on for the past 25 years. My labors (of love) with THH and ESB

The John's Penance

One thing from Chapter 11 of Tom Holland's excellent Dominion: A clerical disciple of Abelard argued that, when determining the severity of penance for patronizing a prostitute, the woman's hotness should be taken into account.

Traveling with Your Left Hemisphere

In The Art of Travel, Alain de Botton describes traveling to an island paradise. The first morning, he sat on the beach, coconut trees leaning toward the sea, jungle-covered hills behind him. He then began to think about a sore throat I had developed during the flight, worry over not

Blessed Henri de Lubac?

George Weigel at First Things

Ten Totally Impractical Observations about Life that You Need to Hear

I don't think Fr. Schall knew it, but his book is a relentless celebration of the right hemisphere.

Fine Drunken Literature Returns

Dopamine flooded my brain and I immediately wanted gin to fill my veins: An email announced a new issue of Modern Drunkard Magazine had dropped. My immediate reaction, "It's not dead!" "Will I get a hard copy in the mail?" "How many of

Why I am Now a Christian

Ayaan Hirsi Ali at UnHerd

Scrolling Blog: December 2023

December 30, 2023 Detroit Pistons Relegated To WNBADETROIT, MI — After suffering a record-tying 28th straight loss, basketball fans across the country and the other 29 NBA teams voted unanimously to demote the Detroit Pistons to the WNBA.The Babylon Bee December 29, 2023 BYCU Beer is on the Decline2023 has

This is Your Brain on News

Interview of Bryan Caplan at the 80,000 Hours Podcast. Transcript.

Clearing Ground

Adam Smith at Front Porch Republic

Paragraph 7 of This Newman Sermon is Stunning (Plus a Thomas Sowell Kicker)

"Sermon 13: Implicit and Explicit Reason"

Introducing the Non-Story

I've been noticing a new type of Internet article: Sites making podcast episodes into news stories. The gimmick's approach: A flashy "news-like" headline, followed by a story about the podcast's content, sprinkled with quotes, which give it the feel of a journalist

How to Use the Cold Weather

I woke up yesterday morning to the gales of November, the same that brought down the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975, according to meteorologists who said the atmospheric mix that dumped a few inches on my town is the same that brought down the mighty freighter. I could hear a collective

Hemisphere Video

You don't want to read the 500-page Master and his Emissary? You don't want to read the 1,500 pages that flush it all out? Try The Divided Brain. You can rent it for $1.99. In just 80 minutes, you'll understand the Hemisphere

Days of Wine and Gin

Memoirs of an Oenophile It reminds me of a book I once bought solely because of the great title: Memoirs of an Amnesiac by Oscar Levant (available at Amazon for only $147 . . . used versions as low as $27) "Whenever I see the word 'oenophile,' I picture people

Everlasting GKC for Advent

Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote "Sweet Home Alabama" as a rejoinder to Neil Young's smug "Southern Man. Likewise, GKC wrote The Everlasting Man as a rejoinder to H.G. Wells' Outline of History. In both cases, the rejoinders won. The Everlasting Man explains history as part

The Visionaries: Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil, and the Power of Philosophy in Dark Times

Robert Zaretsky at The American Scholar

This is Your Brain on Books

Elyse Graham at Public Books

Pixel v. Print and Five Hard Novels

I ran across perhaps the most-enjoyable Medium.com pieces of the past few months: Five Insanely Difficult Novels (and Why They're Worth the Effort). It, for me, is perhaps the quintessential online essay. I agree with Joseph Epstein that there is something fundamentally different between reading print and

Boys are Not Girls and Women are Not Men

No Matter How Hard We Try

Annual Thanksgiving Day Quotes

“Thanksgiving Day originated in New England when the Puritans realized they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians.” Mark Twain “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson “Beggar that I

Oiling the Chicken Machine

Garth Brown at The New Atlantis

Christmas Eve with GKC

In the round of our rational and mournful year one festival remains out of all those ancient gaieties that once covered the whole earth. Christmas remains to remind us of those ages, whether Pagan or Christian, when the many acted poetry instead of the few writing it. “Christmas and the

Black Wednesday Arrives

Welcome to the biggest bar night of the year. New Years Eve is for house parties. Halloween is for frat parties. St. Patrick's Day is for Irish parties. Thanksgiving Eve is for bar parties. College kids come home and filter into the local watering hole that declined them

The Difference Between Superstition and Religion

Personal Computer and Personal Choice

In 1968, Carver Mead, professor at California Institute of Technology, began to demonstrate the possibilities of placing an entire computer on one chip at a cost of just a few dollars. He also began to preach the possibilities of the innovation, asserting it would end the burdensome and expensive computer

The Stoics and Me

As an uptight Christian, I've sought spiritual counsel from St. John the Apostle to Thomas Merton, from Augustine through Aquinas to Guardini. They all helped. But I still suffered from uptightness and swings of passion: worry about the future; sudden bursts of good emotional energy, mortgaged with my

How Mathematics Built the Modern World

Bo Malmberg & Hannes Malmberg at Works in Process

BYCU

Count Me In I love everything about Christmas. I even like its commercialization. And I love gin. The problem is, I'm not sure it's available in the U.S. Gordon’s Unveils Sugar Plum Gin Liqueur Just in Time for Holiday ImbibingAs the holiday season approaches,

Motorized Ox-Carts

Peter Hitchens at The Lamp

Gatsby: Grasping for Transcendence

Frank DeVito at Front Porch Republic

The Origins of the Tavern: A Micro-History

The bar in English-speaking countries traces its roots back to Roman Britain where drinking establishments flourished. The establishments declined with Rome, but they came back in the Middle Ages, largely through the efforts of monasteries to provide for travelers. By the fifteenth century, three different drinking establishments were found in

An Encyclopedia of Curiosities and Horrors

Filip Bakardzhiev at VoegelinView

Has the Rabble Breached Another Wall in the Castle of High Culture?

The New Criterion properly considers itself an urbane journal of the arts. With this, comes a commitment to first-rate style, without regard to the Idiocracy that is overwhelming our culture. But I saw something interesting (or disturbing, depending on whether one cheers this cultural secular bear market or condemns it)

Picture Books for Adults

This is a delightful piece from Public Books. I especially liked this observation about how medieval monks would read: This form of reading, de Hamel says, is one reason why so many medieval manuscripts have richly decorated pages. The decorations “helped impress a page visually in the reader’s memory,

Why the CIA No Longer Works—and How to Fix It

Charles S. Faddis at Hillsdale College

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Another Modern Drunkard Magazine tribute

That Inscription at the Temple of Apollo Won't Go Away

Markets and the Good: Thinking Beyond the Tyranny of Economics

Jay Tolson at The Hedgehog Review

What Do Fungi Have to Do with Athens?

Eve Tushnet at The University Bookman

These Monks Were on a Search-and-Destroy Mission Against Their Left Hemispheres

It's hard to admit this, but here goes: Back in my twenties, I decided I wanted to be a mystic. Such a thing is absurd: The goal is foiled by the goal. You might as well decide you want to be a poor man with money (one of

Podcast: November 5, 2023

Slay Your Orc, Then Read Your Poetry

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Giving a Whole New Meaning to the "Rear Naked Choke" And the "Reverse Mount," the "Rear Mount," the "Full Mount," the "Arm Drag," and the "Whizzer" I was cracking up, just reading through a UFC glossary. Can you

"He is Interested Only in the Individual Soul Whom He Places Before God"

Advocates from across the political field have claimed Christ for their side: Communists, Socialists, Liberals, Conservatives, Monarchists. They all can find something in Christ's life or his words to support their political vision. It isn't surprising, of course, since every doctrine, no matter how absurd, has

The Smallest of Seeds: A Review of Fragile Neighborhoods

Christian McNamara at Front Porch Republic

Scrolling Blog: November 2023

November 30, 2023 Four Female Philosophers His four magi, emerging from the material, moral, social, and political wreckage wrought by the First World War, grasped that philosophy had to be utterly reimagined. Exactly. All the decent philosophers in the twentieth century knew modern thought was broken and had to be

Inside the Transgender Empire

Christopher Rufo at Imprimis

Podcast: October 3, 2023

How to Think about the Cell Phone

Weapon of Self-Destruction or Tool of Self-Improvement: The cell phone. Is it a great thing? A useful thing? An annoying thing? An addicting thing? A ton of writers have condemned the cell phone on all sorts of grounds. They’re tired of rude talkers who use it in restaurants, parks,

Gothic Realism: Right Hemispheric?

The macabre might, in part, be a rejection of the Enlightenment and yet another route to re-energize the right hemisphere and its embrace of the trans-rational, much as the occult is a rejection of rationalism and its left hemispheric overlord. The Gothic genre is particularly suited to depicting these elements.

Repair Culture on the Rise?

The new issue of Plough magazine pushes for a return to repairing things. The thrust of this new movement: "throwaway culture" is creating all sorts of problems, from landfills to euthanasia. And big business is the reason. Starting in 1923, it stopped making products intended to last for

Famous Amos

Kyle Smith at The New Criterion

Nassim Taleb Tore into the Left Hemisphere Before The Master and His Emissary

The Canonization of Lou Reed

Jeremy Lybarger at The New Republic

Beyond Progressivism

John Milbank at The Hedgehog Review: Toward a Personalist Metaphysics of History

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People are Drinking More of Those Frilly Canned Drinks And they're reducing household budgets and trying to live healthier Not mentioned: More people are smoking marijuana. It's easier to take the pledge when you're taking a bong hit. People Are Drinking Less Craft Beer.

Saving St. Louis One Block at a Time

Rachel Ferguson at the Acton Institute

Jon Fosse's Fiction

Jonathan Geltner at Close Reading

Waiting for the Biggest Bar Night of the Year

💡BYCU from 2021 “The waiting is the hardest part.” Tom Petty #blackwednesdaysmatter It sits there. Five days away, the biggest bar night of the year, two years removed from the last one. Black Wednesday. I will have the traditional BYCU Special Edition next Wednesday. Today, I wait. I’m itching

How to Re-Read

Joseph Epstein at The Lamp

James Schall's Another Sort of Learning

Summer 1988. I’d just graduated from the University of Michigan and was preparing to enter the University of Notre Dame School of Law. I was working second shift at a local factory as a material handler (gopher). I was working six nights a week, Monday through Saturday,4:30

“Freedom of Speech Does Not Mean Freedom From Consequences” Says Executioner

Toronto, Canada, 2034 Toronto citizens were in for a treat last night as they got to witness the public beheading of Terrence Horn. Horn had been convicted of blasphemy of the highest degree when he accused the government of running concentration camps. “Pay no attention to him,” said Judge Lawrence

Can the Right Hemisphere Atrophy?

Darwin thought so

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Finally, Political News We Can Drink To Austrian ‘Beer Party’ polling well in Vienna state electionThey have proposed a beer fountain in Vienna, the abolition of mandatory closing times and a 50 per cent tax on Radlers.The London EconomicJack Peat Ah, The Monkey is Back at $80 for the

What Was Literary Fiction?

Dan Sinykin at The Nation

The Art of Listening Opens the Right Hemisphere

The Gnostic: A Person Controlled by His Left Hemisphere, Plus a Cause

Merely being controlled by the left hemisphere doesn't make a person a gnostic. He also needs a cause.

Why the Fading of the Southern Accent Is Bad News

Jack Butler at National Review

I Almost Became an Anarchist

A mini-review of The Essential Rothbard by David Gordon. Murray Rothbard almost made me an anarchist. I had read some of Rothbard's stuff and had delved into various areas of anarchist thought (mostly through this somewhat difficult, very thick, often fascinating volume). I've abandoned such notions,

Three Ways to War Poetically

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The Topsy-Turvy World of Bankruptcy Law is Never a Dry Area Leave it to the American genius to devise the elaborate maze that is the Bankruptcy Code. No other area of law has such an elaborate left-hemispheric schema, complete with its own internal rationalizations that only the mad men within

Left Hemisphere v. Right Hemisphere. Specific Differences in a Two-Column Format

The Nothing Desire

“The poor monk is lord of world.” St. John Climacus Bruno was a rising star of eleventh-century European culture. A master of the cathedral school (the precursor to the university) of Rheims, he taught grammar, poetry, philosophy and theology. He became head of Rheims by age thirty. The most promising

In Defense of Voracious Reading

Philip Bunn at Law & Liberty

Satire Can Save Us

This was previously published as an "Outside the Modern Limits" newsletter. I normally don't send them again as a Substack newsletter, but I did this time because I edited almost every sentence and added a bunch of footnotes. It's the same product, but entirely

Leisure and Liberality

Elizabeth C. Corey at First Things

Battles on the Right

A new battlefront has opened on the political right: localists v. monoliths. It's the latest version of the libertarian-conservative debate that George Nash described marvelously in his major work. The localists in the current debate are the libertarians and the monoliths are the conservatives. I say "monoliths&

The Reality of Fr. Damien

A few years ago, the future of the Catholic Church AOC said a statue of Fr. Damien of Molokai at the Capitol building is an example of “patriarchy and white supremacist culture.” She quickly realized that she picked a bad example and backpedaled faster than Deion Sanders in his prime,

Old Mistakes From the New Right

Tyler Syck at Law & Liberty

Scrolling Blog: October 2023

October 31, 2023 Is Corporate Woke Entering Its Death Throes? No thanks to those who still patronize Disney and the other leftist corporate elites out there, but hats off to those who used to patronize but stopped. Me? I never purposefully patronized Disney, except for one trip to Disneyland in

BYCU

First Spirit Named After Egyptian Eunuchian Platonic Church Father Origen Specialty Vodka | Harmony Gin | DrinkHolistic.comExplore the world of Origen Specialty Vodka and Harmony Gin, the pioneers among Herbal Liqueur Brands. Embrace a lifestyle of harmony with nature, curated by Amy Holmwood and Woody Harrelson. With every sip, step into

In Memoriam: Ellis Sandoz

David Walsh at VoegelinView

Attack the Left Hemisphere with Satire

We're Increasingly Lonely Because the Gnostics are Increasingly Powerful

This is a great piece at Plough, drawing de Tocqueville to diagnose the problem with democracy. The bottom line: In a static culture, a man knows his place and settles into quiet contentment. In a democratic culture, no one knows his place and is neither quiet nor content . . . and he&

Why Are We Lonely?

Joey Hiles at Plough

In the Shallows: Why Do Public Intellectuals Condescend to Their Readers

Becca Rothfeld at The Yale Review

Middlebrow Writing

There used to be writing that was "middlebrow." You'd find it in urbane and smart publications that were lower than academia and fine writing (highbrow) and higher than sports columnists and dimestore novels (lowbrow). It was always a limited market. When Henry Fowler self-published his own

The Hemisphere Hypothesis Changes Everything

And since "everything" is dictated by modernity's rationalist and gnostic presumptions and conclusions, it's a good thing

Counter-Conduct and Flourishing are the Same Things Except They're Not

Modernity is left-hemispheric. It has led to a culture of left hemisphere presumptions, conditions, and conclusions. As a result, it has led to a population of people with atrophied right hemispheres. Each of us has an obligation to reinvigorate our right hemispheres. We owe it to ourselves; we owe it

Drinking with Children

The first Christmas card Tis the season . . . to get kids drunk. The very first Christmas card showed a young child drinking mulled wine. It was 1843, the year Dickens' Christmas Carol came out. One of the works of art proved very popular, selling out its first edition in six

Why We're Watching Zombie Movies

After I saw World War Z years ago, I wrote: What's with all the zombie flicks? I read E. Michael Jones' Monsters from the Id when it first came out over twenty years ago, and I've always thought its central message didn't get

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Reason 2: The Screw Top Wine Bottle is Ascendent I put wine corks in the same category as neckties: Fancy vestiges whose hassles outweigh their traditional charm. Is This the Best Time Ever to Be Drinking Wine? 4 Compelling ReasonsFrom fewer corked bottles to more-adventurous approaches to obscure grapes, recent

On words and the Word

Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule

Shelby Foote: The South’s Jewish Proust

Blake Smith at The Tablet

Voodoo and Zombies and the Absurdization of All Religions

Well, far out. Voodoo is back. Actually, it never left. Voodoo was originally a pagan African religion that got mixed with Catholicism in Haiti during Spanish and French colonial rule. Since then, it has always been a religious force on the island and in 2003, it became an officially-recognized Haitian

The Fateful Nineties

Christopher Caldwell at First Things

18 Things You Can Learn from A Monk of the Eastern Church

Mystical. Passionate. Spiritual. Cranky. Monastic. Urban. Greek Orthodox. Catholic. French. English. Anonymous. . . . . . Lev (Leo) Gillet. All of those words describe an unusual man who would become known to readers as “A Monk of the Eastern Church.” He was born in France in 1893. Shortly before World War I, he became

BYCU

Priming your mental pump for weekend conversation

How to be Guerrilla Fighter Against Left Hemispheric Hegemony

A former marine taught me jurisprudence. Professor Charles Rice was a tough guy. This Irish man dripped with an attitude that said, “Don’t you dare call me a ‘mick.’” He was a no-nonsense guy who raised ten children and was fiercely loyal to the Catholic Church. I don’t

Meg 2 Features a Diverse Cast of Original Characters

With the constant remakes, reboots, re-imaginings, sequels, threequels, prequels and spinoffs, movies have begun to feel formulaic. That’s why a movie like Meg 2: The Trench, works so well. Where other movies opt for safety in doing what has worked before, Meg 2 has the boldness to craft new

P. S. 51 to the End

Paul Hundt at The Lamp

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State Agricultural Dysfunction that Would Make Stalin Blush Why France Must Destroy 80 Million Gallons of WineQuality French wine is expensive, and that’s if you want to drink it—who knew it would be more expensive to destroy it? As a result of a surplus of wine and a

Off the Grid Since 1693

I live around the Amish. I invited a few to my daughter's wedding last month. I'm currently working on a set of contracts for my largest Amish client. I live within bicycling distance of Shipshewana, which, last I knew, is Indiana's largest tourist destination.

In Amish Country, Buggy Lanes Will Flank Some Rural Roads

Lonnie Lee Hood at The Daily Yonder

Drink that Pint: Flex Your Right Hemisphere, Spit at that Gnostic

Pubs are closing at an alarming rate, possibly as many as 50 every month. Rising energy rates are the immediate culprit, but so is an increasing tendency among Brits to be "economical" and drink at home. It's a problem: The death of the local pub, like

The Death of Church and Pub

Carl Trueman at First Things

Cultural Appropriation! Main Actor in Upcoming Napoleon Movie is Not Even Napoleon

Eyebrows were raised at the release of the trailer for the upcoming Napoleon movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix and not the 19th-century French general-turned-emperor himself. Many took to Twitter to voice their opposition to the decision by Sony Studios. “From Desiree to Bill and Ted to Night at the Museum 2,

Are We Becoming a Nation of Gollums?

Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative

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The Labor Day Edition

Scrolling Blog: September 2023

A Correction to the 9/23/23 Scrolling Blog Entry I sent Dale Ahlquist a picture of GKC's South Bend residence. Dale good-humoredly responded that I had been misinformed. GKC's house was a few blocks away from where my daughter stayed. I was at Notre Dame

More Guys Need to Get to the Trad Mass

The women described in his piece (the "hoes") are taken straight from the movies and other pop culture. They're also taken straight from real life (art mirrors life). But not all young women are like this. Not remotely. Some young women don't think family

The Unsound and Little Fury

A tale told by an idiot

Summering in Scranton

Bill Kauffman at The Spectator

When “Professionalism” Means Politics

Rav Arora at City Journal

Rage Against the Machine

“I am propelled along by my activities, for I am merely a cog in their great machinery.” Benedict XVI, The Blessing of Christmas Benedict has a paradoxical way of writing at times. I guess that makes sense: all truth is ultimately paradoxical (the Divine Man, the Crucified God, the Almighty

Rock and Roll Magazine Scolds Musician for Rebelling Against the Establishment

When staffers at Rolling Stone magazine heard the song of a blue-collar factory worker, they were quick to offer correction from their air-conditioned New York offices. “This singer is causing too much of a disturbance and must be shut down!” proclaimed Rolling Stone writer, Karen Ratched. “Who does he think

"On the Heart," by The Pseudo-Macarius

Every sin gushes from a complex soul. The Pseudo-Macarius, a master of intimate theology, described the heart (a term nearly synonymous with soul) as follows: "The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the

Trying to Figure Out How We Got Into These Rationalist Cocoons

And the cocoons' severe limitations

Inside Japan’s ‘Miracle Town,’ Where the Birth Rate is Soaring Amid a Demographic Crisis

Stephanie Yang at L.A. Times

Conspirators Accuse Accusers of Being Conspiracy Theorists

Powerful people across the world are lashing back at critics who have noticed all the powerful people across the world seem to be involved in the same events and say the same things. “These deplorables are just a bunch of tin foil hat-wearers shouting at the sky,” said Congressman Eric

BYCU

Special (Inadvertent) Vodka Edition

Leisure is Counter-Conduct

In the modern world of "total work" demanded by the left hemisphere, we need to carve out leisure. It's helpful to understand what "leisure" is.

Back to Nebraska With Bruce

Bill Kauffman at The American Conservative

What is Time for?

Zena Hitz at Plough

Seven Ways to Dispose of Garden Weeds

After using a weeding hoe, which entails slicing weeds off just below the surface, here are ways you can dispose of them: 1. Cut and Leave: Let them decompose where they fell. This is the easiest and my primary method. 2. Hot Piles: Rake them into a pile, mixed with

BYCU

All the Drinking News Worthy of Drink

Private Tyrants, Public Remedies: A Review of Sohrab Ahmari’s Tyranny, Inc.

Philip Bunn at Front Porch Republic

Lost in the Cosmos

Titus Techera at Law & Liberty

The Clash and the Angry Left, Circa 1977

I've been getting into The Clash lately. Okay, okay: this probably isn't the appropriate season for the music of an angry Socialist punk band (it ain't Bing Crosby's “White Christmas” album), but I couldn't help it. I got pulled in

The Novel, Who Needs It? by Joseph Epstein

Steve Donoghue at Open Letters Review

Federal Government Admits Catholicism is True

Well, not really, but indirectly, through PBS' Flannery O'Connor documentary I greatly enjoyed PBS documentary, American Masters: Flannery O'Connor, on PBS. I thought the producers respected her intense Catholicism. I'm sure they could've found critics to say sacrilegious things like, “Her

Catholic Hagiographer Did LSD

It inspired a musical currently playing at NYC's Lincoln Center Clare Boothe Luce. Brainy and beautiful. Married mega-publisher Henry Luce in 1935. Converted to Catholicism in 1946, then put together one of the greatest collections of short saint biographies ever. Did LSD? James Lapine, the director and librettist

BYCU

Amaze your drinking companions with your cannon of beverage fodder

Laws Can’t Cure Loneliness

Auguste Meyrat at Law & Liberty

One Mean Chick? Or Just an Unfortunate Alignment of Facial Features?

Does the person who creates an air of discomfort with the RBF have a level of moral culpability? The RBF: resting bitch face. An innocent and harmless expression? Or a culpable and harmful one? I started wondering about that after reading Jacques Philippe's observation in Real Mercy that

Why We Judge. And Why We Need to Stop

I buy a cup of coffee about twice a month. Nearly every time, I see the same groups of older guys, sitting around a table, drinking coffee, and chatting. It appears they stay for hours during the morning: Revving up their neurons with caffeine so they can bear down on

Why Is America’s ‘Woke Left’ Silent Over Blockbuster Child Sex-Trafficking Film?

Robert Bridge at Strategic Culture Foundation

Pinball is of the Body: Why Modern Tech Can't Recreate the World Under Glass

Rae Hodge at Slate

Nobody Ever Read American Literature Like This Guy Did

A.O. Scott at New York Times

BYCU

Position yourself as the clever and contemporaneous drinker this weekend

The Five Worst Atheist Arguments

If you’re reading this article, you’ve probably been in the situation where you heard a smart-sounding atheist making a point with such suave delivery that you find yourself with questions like: Does God exist or is He just a too-good-to-be-true fantasy? Is my faith real? Do I even

John Crowe Ransom on Leisure

It's hard to pick a favorite essay from I'll Take My Stand, but the lead essay by John Crowe Ransom, "Unreconstructed but Unregenerate," is a leading candidate. The essay spends ample time criticizing what Joseph Pieper also condemned: the world of "total work.

End of the Encampments?

Judge Glock at City Journal

Third Places Aren't Enough: On Community Gardens

Sarah Soltis at Public Discourse

Labor Day Weekend

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot of Melancholy

Scrolling Blog: August 2023

August 31, 2023 Kauffman in Scranton An essay by Bill Kauffman always triggers my forefinger. He's a man with a robust right hemisphere, or at least a severe distrust of his left and the conditions/presumptions created by a culture of left-hemisphere dominance. In this piece, Kauffman expresses

The Month that Perished

Because There's Always More to be Said

What de Lubac Would Think About the Synod on Synodality

Robert Imbelli at First Things

The Liberty to Value Common Goods: A Review of The Political Economy of Distributism

Jon D. Schaff at Front Porch Republic

Faulkner, Foote, Percy, Percy, and Kauffman, P.C.

A snapshot of the southern literary tradition in the early 20th century I think Bill Kauffman knows more literary anecdotes than any man alive. I ran across this passage last night* while recovering from a migraine and just flipping through my random notes: Among my favorite interviewees was novelist and

BYCU

Amaze your drinking friends this weekend with this batch of lore

Not Just Tulsa: Black Neighborhoods Were Often Destroyed by Urban-Renewal Policies

Howard Husock at City Journal

The Life, Death—And Afterlife—of Literary Fiction

Will Blythe at Esquire

I Garden by Accident

With a "kale kicker" application

Maybe We Should Start Doing Jigsaw Puzzles

I enjoyed jigsaw puzzles as a kid, but by the time I got to college, they had become relics in my closet. I’m “toying” with the idea of getting them out again, perhaps starting with the really pretty Bob Ross puzzle collection. Jigsaw puzzles are excellent ways to relax.

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Drinking in the Dog Days of Summer

How to Raise a Sane Child

Rule Number One: Don't be a Nominalist My three-year-old son Jack received a menagerie of thirty-some plastic animals at Christmas to go with the dozen or so he already owned. He played with his “anmuls” constantly, carrying them around in different containers (wagon, bag, box, hat) and setting

Figures of Speech: 60 Ways to Turn a Phrase, by Arthur Quinn

The Conservative Abandonment of Culture

Jason Jewell at Law & Liberty

You Can Pretend Your Way to the Flourishing Life

The Goodness of Faking Yourself Out

The Deep Spring: A Few Words in Favor of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Teddy Macker at Front Porch Republic

Orestes Brownson: The Forgotten Transcendentalist

Part I of a Five-Part Series

We're Going to Kill Ourselves to Death!

The world isn't going to overpopulate itself to extinction. In fact, just the opposite is going to occur, according to a recent book.

Andrew Senior on John Senior, Proponent of Beauty & Tradition

Julian Kwasniewski at The Imaginative Conservative

BYCU

Be the interesting guy at the bachelor party this weekend

Maisie Ward, Gilbert Keith Chesterton

I went on a crash GKC diet in my twenties. In addition to a score of Chesterton books, I read three biographies about the great man, plus his Autobiography. But I realized earlier this month that I had never read the first biography, which was written by his friend, Maisie

Your Opinions Stink

John of Montmirail liked to fight. He was a leading knight in battle; he jousted in peace. But then he had a religious conversion and dedicated his resources to helping the poor, including the establishment of a hospice in his castle. He once went to help a woman whose dying

How to Listen to Your Heart

The Rise of Satire

Have you heard of the Scriblerus Club? It was an authors’ club founded in London in 1714. It was known for its satiric bent. Jonathan Swift was a member. Western culture had long enjoyed satire, but there was a great satiric revival right after Descartes. Satire became huge. Can we

The Stumbling Block: On Dorothy Day's Cause

Matthew Walther at The Lamp

The Shire: Land of the Tao . . . and of Solid Right Hemispheres

Tao Teh Ching, Chapter 57

BYCU: National Dive Bar Day

I celebrate those phony holidays as much as Hitler celebrated Yom Kippur, but I'm getting behind this one: National Dive Bar DayHere’s a deep ‘dive’ into dive bars and how best to celebrate these establishments.Ali SultanNational Today Many people credit author/poet Charles Bukowski’s semi-autobiography,

Big Isn't Beautiful Either

Joshua Bowman at Law & Liberty

Oh Yeah Baby Eat It

Robert Grant Price at University Bookman

The Puritan Spirit of America's Civil War

David Samuels at UnHerd

Resistance to the Gnostics and Their Left Hemispheres. Click Here to See the Main Projects that Develop These Themes.

Existence Strikes Back, The Hemisphere Hypothesis, Counter-Conduct, Flourishing, the Tao, and Gnosticism

Beyond the Scientific Revolution: Ian McGilchrist’s “The Matter With Things”

Richard Cocks at VoegelinView

Scrolling Blog: July 2023

July 31, 2023 Monday Column This week's Monday Column borrows from Taki Mag's feature, "The Week that Perished," which offers aggressive and humorous prose on the week's news items. "The Month that Perished" offers (slightly) aggressive and (hopefully) humorous prose

The Full Agrarian Letter

Professor Michael Jordan's Final Exam Letter to his Students Professor Michael Jordan saw last week's post. He graciously provided me the original, full letter, with this note: I taught a course on “The Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization” back in 1999, and while students were taking

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Amaze your friends this weekend with this drinking news

Alleged Sex Slaveholder in Custody

Goldberry in protective custody

Christian Humanism and the Imaginative Mysteries

Dan Hugger at Religion & Liberty Online

Rust Belt Studies

Ed Simon at Belt Magazine

I’ve Grown to Like Reprobate Leftists

I fear I picked up a lazy and stultifying mental habit in my early adult years: I habitually assumed every academic and artistic person is a reprobate leftist.

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Drinking fare for your weekend libations

15 Questions That Are More Useful Than “What Presidential Candidate Should Americans Vote For?”

Caitlin Johnstone dot org

How I Read Now

Read Like an Easy Rider

The Integrity of Poetry

Micah Mattix at First Things

Our Need for Self-Knowledge

One of man's deepest needs is the need for identity. We need to know who we are; we need to exist in our own eyes and other people's. That need for identity is so strong that it can lead to aberrations [an over-active left hemisphere giving

Optimal Work on Josef Pieper's Leisure, the Basis of Culture

One Hundred Years of Platitudes

Giles Fraser at UnHerd

No Woom for Wu? You Have Pwoblems

Tao Teh Ching, Chapter 3

LARPing, Reality, and Fraud

This nascent essay needs work, but it's a decent blog post. The essay could take a few directions. E.g., Fantasy role-playing is fun, but now take your character into the real world. You're Kick-Ass, coming to beat that inner-city thug, only to find yourself on

Vaya con Dios: Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023)

Casey Spinks at Front Porch Republic

The Hemisphere Hypothesis and Existence Strikes Back: Summary with Audio

Modernity: Political religions and powerful elites allied in their exclusive reliance on the left hemisphere. Their intuitive goal: To kill the Tao and repress the right hemisphere altogether. But the right hemisphere and Tao intuitively keep fighting back.

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Drinking news for your weekend conversations

Why the Dodgers Chose Anti-Catholicism

Raymond de Souza at First Things

A Micro History of the Holy Roman Empire

The HRE started when Charlemagne received the emperor crown from Pope Leo in 800 or when Otto got the crown from Pope John in 962. The HRE then went through twists and turns, up and downs, was controlled by the Hapsburg family starting in 1438, until it was dissolved under

Eric Voegelin: Timeline Biographical Sketch

1901: Born in Cologne. 1910: Moved to Vienna. 1922: Received doctorate in political science from the University of Vienna. While there, he attended seminars by Ludwig von Mises and developed a lasting friendship with F.A. Hayek. 1922-1926: Studied at the universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, Oxford, Columbia, Harvard, and Wisconsin.

A World Beyond Us: On Adam Kirsch’s “The Revolt Against Humanity”

THE REVOLT AGAINST HUMANITY: Imagining a Future Without Us (2023) belongs in a Columbia University series titled “Global Reports.” Reportage of the views of leading figures in “the revolt against humanity” indeed occupies many of its pages. But Adam Kirsch—best known as a poet and literary critic—does much

Patient Zero Found

Matt Taibbi at Substack

The Original Deep States

Wilfred McClay at the Claremont Review of Books

In Praise and Condemnation of Dogma

Tao Teh Ching, Chapter 2

The Metaphor: Transcendence-Tao-RH-LH

Our connection to reality is kind of like our connection to the Internet. The Internet Metaphor is marked in white. Transcendence: Internet Tao: Modem Right Hemisphere: Router Left Hemisphere: Devices that Let Us Enjoy the Internet Now look at modern culture's tendency to disconnect from The Reality Spectrum.

Kirk and Del Noce: Two Philosophers Connected through History

Carolina Riva Posse at University Bookman

Stop Trying to Make a "Good" Social Media Site

Erik Hoel at Intrinsic Perspective (Substack)

On Jacques Philippe

I bit the bullet and bought the entire Jacques Philippe Scepter Publishing collection. For years, I've eschewed contemporary spiritual writers. Mostly because I'm just arrogant. I figured that only the great ones can teach me anything, and you don't know who's great

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Drinking news to share with your friends this weekend

The Free Press on Tucker Carlson

Bari Weiss' Free Press says Tucker Carlson is a loon. Me? I'm not sure what to think.

Saving the Commons

Jack Bell at Plough

Partisans of Freedom

Bradley J. Birzer at Law & Liberty

Rational Magic

Tara Isabella Burton at The New Atlantis

Excerpts from Joseph Bottum's "Christians and Postmoderns"

[T]hough we cannot revert, we nonetheless have resources that may help us to advance beyond these late times. The modern project that attacked the Middle Ages has itself been under attack for some time. For some time, hyper-modern writers have brought to bear against their modern past the same

Everything Old is New Again: A.E. Stallings and This Afterlife

Ethan McGuire at Literary Matters

Scrolling Blog: June 2023

June 30, 2023 BYCUAmaze your friends this weekend with this drinking newsEric ScheskeThe Daily Eudemon June 28, 2023 An Addendum, of Sorts, to an Earlier Feature Essay Trying to Figure Out How We Got Into These Rationalist CocoonsNo one can reason us out of our [rationalist] pods because we didn’

BYCU

An abbreviated edition this week. All seven kids are home, so better things call. Enjoy the weekend. It's Become Cliché . . . and Relentless Rod Stewart launches own whisky brandBottles of the Maggie May rocker’s new Wolfie’s Whisky, made at Loch Lomond distillery, will hit the shelves next

"Catholic is About as Sane as You Get"

Jordan Peterson, interviewing James Lindsay. Go to 39:08: Peterson: One of the things I learned from you is that Catholic was about as sane as you get. So you destroy that, if you think the Catholics are insane, you wait until you see what that's protecting you

Nation Shocked to Learn Hollywood Still Has Writers

As news of the Hollywood writer’s strike reached the headlines, people around the world were speechless and wondered how such a thing could happen. “You mean, someone is actually writing this stuff?” exclaimed Robert Smith, an accountant outside Cedar Rapids. His sentiment was echoed by many who marveled and

Community Gardens

This is an odd little piece. The author applauds gardening because it is a great example of Joseph Pieper's "active leisure." That's a great observation. But she puts it in the context of community gardens, which, the author says, lead people to sharing produce,

What are the Four Parts of Existence Strikes Back?

Preamble: Wisdom wants to know reality. A region of reality (“the Tao”) isn’t knowable. Wisdom respects reality’s unknowability while pursuing reality nonetheless. This unending pursuit reached its apex in the 13th century, then the pursuit started to decline. Modernity was the rejection of respect for the Tao. Postmodernity

After Postliberalism

Nathan Schlueter at Public Discourse

Psychedelia

I didn't realize the City of San Francisco canceled its 4/20 celebration this year due to lack of funding (its budget blown on free booze and needles for the homeless, I suppose) and a lack of corporate sponsorships. Corporate sponsorships? In the heart of the Haight? Nonetheless,

Why Universities Should Be More Like Monasteries

Molly Worthen at the New York Times

Martin Amis, RIP

Matthew Walther at The Lamp

Foucault was a Pedophile?

And introducing one of the themes of Part III of The Existence Strikes Back project: The rise of the irrational.

BYCU: The Welcome-to-Summer Edition

"Non-Alcoholic Drinks" Shouldn't Even be on the List, Unless You're Going to Include Ice Tea and Lemonade An alcoholic drink without alcohol is like poker played for funzies. There are better games than poker if money isn't involved, and there are better

Fresh Cliché

Matthew Stewart at Current

The Death of Literature?

If no one can focus long enough to read it, no one is going to pay for it. If no one pays for it, no one can write it. That, I believe, is the steady theme of this lovely literary essay that doesn't merely lament the state of

Day Drinking

This NYT piece had great potential, none of it actualized. It was just the same palaver: empty stomach increases effect of alcohol, the sun further dehydrates you, yada and yads. I think the cue ("Why do we like to drink in the afternoon?") could've led to

Everything Bad Is Good for You: A Review

This is a groundbreaking book by a clever man who goes too far. Steven Johnson is the cheerleading captain for new entertainment technology. A regular columnist about emerging technology and the bestselling author of Mind Wide Open and other books, Johnson has used his understanding of the mind and popular

Department of Civil Rights Investigating the Prancing Pony

Strange News from Bree October 18, 3018 BREE. Innkeeper Barliman Butterbur vigorously denies that he committed a civil rights infraction, but the Department of Justice isn't drinking his ale. “The record is clear,” says Mel Coors, lead prosecutor for the Civil Rights Division. “Mr. Butterbur committed a heinous

Thriving on the Fringe of Society

Carrie Blackmore Smith at Cincinnati Magazine

Primer: Understanding the Hemisphere Hypothesis

Many smart people think Iain McGilchrist has effected a Copernican revolution in metaphysics. I tend to agree. Here's a summary of the revolution.

Observing Limits to Re-enchant a Mute World: A Review of The Uncontrollability of the World

By Adam Smith at Front Porch Republic

Weekend Roundup

Catholic Universities Continue to Embrace Modern Gnosticism "Loyola is heretically unhinged," you say? What about Sister Jean!? Students protesting annual drag show at Catholic university threatened with violenceA group of students protesting an annual drag show at Loyola University Chicago said a group of counterprotesters destroyed their signs

BYCU: More Boycott, Gatorade Cocktails, and Celebrity Alcohol

Everything you need to regale your comrades at the bar tonight

Central Park: A Beautiful Travelogue

Samuel Johnson put London and life itself on the same platform, writing: When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life. I often think the same thing can be said of New York City. It, at least, seems that way to me, a foreigner vis-a-vis NYC. Despite

The Chicago Renaissance

The Renaissance led Baltimorean H.L. Mencken to call Chicago "the literary capital of the U.S."

Cash Man

My wife and I drove Michigan's beautiful Leelanau peninsula the other day. We stopped in Sutton's Bay and hit a few bars. At the last bar, the manager finally got us a table on the roof of his busy establishment, but at that point, we'

The Age of Average

Alex Murrel at Alex Murrell dot com

Our Culture Does Not Understand Marriage or Love

How The Office and Ted Lasso Expose Our Shallowness

Why was the "Door" Concept Such a Big Thing in the 1960s?

Tao Teh Ching, Chapter 1

Boromir Statue Subject of Controversy

Belfalas Times FA 198 OSGILIATH. Local community activists want Boromir's statue torn down, but they're getting resistance from his descendants. “Boromir was the last captain to defend Osgiliath successfully before it fell to Sauron in the War of the Ring,” says Denethor IV, a descendant of

Medical Studies

Dalrymple here just looks at one problem with scientific research: the results are very hard to replicate. The scientific community is jammed with competition and the need to produce papers and studies . . . results. Scientists can't take the time to replicate to confirm what others have done. And that&

A Forgotten Catholic Novelist

Stephen Schmalhofer at First Things

Russell Brand: Baptized

Jane Stannus at the Spectator

Local Counter-Conduct

Counter-Conduct: "Any action that reasserts the primacy of the right hemisphere." That is my McGilchristization of Foucault's "counter-conduct." The immediate implications: Any action that beats down the left hemisphere in favor of the right hemisphere is counter-conduct. Because modernity is the left hemisphere'

The Unorthodox are Converting

Including Russell Brand

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Healthy drinking

Nefarious: Movie Review

They almost had it! *SPOILERS* Christian movies have a problem and we all know what it is. Historically speaking, they put the message over the art, which not only leads to worse art, it leads to less effective evangelization. I have never heard anyone tell me: “you know, I wasn’

Central Government Causes Loneliness . . . It Sure as Heck Can't Cure It

Loneliness is a major problem, but governments, especially central governments, can't fix it. In fact, they cause it: By taking over functions that have traditionally been performed locally, central governments have killed millions of the institutions and associations (families, communities, churches, service clubs . . . the "little platoons"

Latinist Moves to Steubenville

John Byron Kuhner, a Latinist who published a delightful paean to Central Park in the June/July 2023 edition of First Things, has moved to Steubenville, Ohio. I've been to Steubenville once. It was ten years ago. I was stunned by the desolation. It was a "ghost

Tao Teh Ching: A Short Meditation on Its Title and Its Importance

Introduction to an 81-Part Series

My Part in Vice’s Downfall

Aris Roussinos at UnHerd

Counting the Cost of Progress

Mary Harrington at Plough (Book Excerpt)

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Mint Julep, Ripple, Mint Jipple

The Education Jungle Just Gets Thicker and Thicker

K-12 education is awful. It doesn't need to be.

Living Off the Grid

If modernity is the left hemisphere's creation, then pursuits that appeal to the right hemisphere, or require us to give primacy to the right hemisphere, are acts of rebellion against modernity. Example 1: Prose is the left hemisphere's flex: the earliest written records are from bureaucrats.

David Hume's Warning on Forever Wars

Daniel Klein at Law & Liberty

Good Conversation and the Talking Cure: A Review

Amanda Patchin at Front Porch Republic

A.I. and the Search for the Human

Norman Fiering at Law & Liberty

Strolling Through Spines for Solace and Sobriety

“I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.’” The man with owl-eyed spectacles, The Great Gatsby. I sit, in a battered, leather chair. It affords me a view of all three ceiling-to-floor bookcases in my study.

The First Catholic Cleric to Go Over to Saruman (and the Left Hemisphere)?

In the early nineteenth century, the “tormented, headstrong Breton priest”[1] Hugues-Félicité Robert de Lamennais changed fundamental Christian doctrines to justify socialism. His career illustrates the damage that can be done by presenting socialism as authentic religious doctrine, especially when an individual or group has established the illusion of orthodoxy

35,000-Word Tribute to The Matter with Things

I typically read the essays I post or link to, but I haven't read this one: "Beyond the Scientific Revolution: Ian McGilchrist's The Matter with Things." But I might be forgiven. It clocks in at 35,000 words. And based on the first 2,

Scrolling Blog: May 2023

May 31, 2023 The Boromir Option It appears Patrick Deneen has rejected the Benedict Option in favor of the Boromir Option, with special disdain for Albert Jay Nock's observation that a man performs his societal role by improving himself, without taking the reigns of power, just as Socrates

The Picture Book: Foe of the Left Hemisphere?

A Medieval Christmas Dollar-for-word, this book is a terrible deal. It's 28 pages long and, except for a short appendix, every word is merely a paste job from the 2003 Revised Standard Edition (Catholic Edition) of the Bible. And the book costs $44! These publishers oughtta be locked

The Neon God

Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule

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The Walktail and Tequila. Fare for Your Weekend Bar Talk

JFK, Serial Killers, and Cults: The Fall of Heroes

The rise of fear and absurdity in American society from the sixties to the era of COVID-19

Developing: Notes On the Unseen Battle that Goes on Around Us

Father Simon recently said that, if we could see the invisible battle that goes on around us, between the demons and the angels, we'd be terrified. It's a blessing that our normal mode of existence doesn't let us see such things. The mystics, however,

On Milosz, Exile, and Humane Art

Rachel E. Hicks at Front Porch Republic

Nature is Healing

Sam Kriss and The Lamp

Toad Houses

I told a friend about my huge slug and bug problem this year. He recommended I attract toads to my garden. He said they'd crush the slug population quickly. I stored the advice away, then I ran across someone on the Internet enthusing about garden toads and how

Self-Cancellation, Deplatforming, and Censorship

Nick Gillespie at Reason

Our Modern Superpowers are the Worst

Welcome, Heroes, to the Training Grounds of our new lives. We have been bitten by the spider descendent of the Industrial and Digital Revolutions, and we have been given a host of new superpowers and they only come with a few drawbacks. You know how this goes: it seems every

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Goggles to Elvis. Everything Worth Reading for Your Weekly Bar Fare is Here

James Bond at 70

Titus Techera at Law & Liberty

Star Wars Movies Ranked

Disney is making a whole new Star Wars Trilogy. And that’s . . . just the worst news. As a lifelong Star Wars fan, this is like watching your grandma’s grave desecrated, then watching the same people do it again . . . and film themselves doing it. The first discretion: the newest trilogy.

Medieval Monasticism’s Timeless Lessons on Concentration

The modern world is steeped in distraction. Technological advancements in the age of information have provided an abundance of distractor stimuli and in parallel distorted the divisions between the offline and virtual world. The smartphone has facilitated cyberspace’s expansion into all realms we inhabit, diminishing boundaries and rendering us

Good Friday

The annual assortment of quotes

The Zen Koan

A koan is a ridiculous expression or dialogue designed to get the listener past the subject-object perspective.

The World Turned Upside Down: Tom Holland's "Dominion"

Matthew Rose at First Things

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How Long Until They Claim It was All a PR Stunt?

Irritable Mental Gestures, Reconsidered

James Patterson at Law & Liberty

The Power of Place: Northern Exposure and South Side

Elizabeth Stice at Front Porch Republic

Paradox, The Hemispheres, and the Tao

A basic tension mars the intellectual framework of the spiritual life. Pole 1: The first virtue of the spiritual life is humility, and humility is first and foremost selflessness. Pole 2: We cannot be so selfless that we don't desire our own happiness. “The rational creature . . . cannot wish

Matt Taibbi Is Still an Outsider

Charlie Tidmarsh at Real Clear Wire

Paul Kingsnorth on the Collapse of the Left Hemisphere's Reign and the (Hopeful) Rise of the Tao

The global Machine is teetering, even as it clamps down on its citizenry in an attempt to tamp down unrest and rein in its own wanton destruction of creation and culture. A way of seeing that sets itself against what C. S. Lewis happily characterized as the Tao—the way

Is That Guy Stupid, a Jerk, or Both?

Noisiness tends to stem from an inability to look outside oneself, which is something both the unintelligent and the boors lack

Tell Your Father to Give Her a Call: Why Daisy Jones Is the Best New Show

Music and movies are now aligning: Riley Keough is at her peak — Why Daisy Jones + The Six is the best new show on TV, Season 2 inevitable.

Iain McGilchrist Interview on Russell Brand's Stay Free: A Few Highlights

I listened to Russell Brand's Stay Free yesterday. I came because he was interviewing Iain McGilchrist. I stayed because Brand is smart (I always figured he was a clown), fast, and funny. I've only listened to the McGilchrist but I'm getting a Rumble account

Artificial Intelligence Has No Right Hemisphere: Video

Civilizations Do Collapse

We in modern society can scarcely imagine Xenophon's feelings as he walked through the magnificent runes of the Assyrian cities. Surely peasants in medieval Europe had the same feeling looking at Roman aqueducts and runes while they lived at a subsistence level. For the last 500 years society

Good-Bye, Curb

The last Curb Your Enthusiasm aired Sunday. It will be sorely missed, even if I think this last season hasn't been as good as the previous ones. Britannica has a great entry about Curb basics. I don't think you'll need a subscription to access

Rethinking Economics

I strongly lean libertarian, which means I strongly lean towards being a dick, since I'm stunned at how many libertarians are obnoxious (with notable exceptions, like Tom Woods and Lew Rockwell). I believe it's because libertarian thinking is marked by unshakeable certitude and logical conclusions, which

Libertarians and the Left (Hemisphere)

Brad Birzer reviews a new book about major figures in the libertarian tradition. Needless to say, I now want to buy it, but I'm holding back. I had a drink with one of Birzer's friends a few weeks ago. I think he's probably less

Religion Rising and Rogan

That's what one writer thinks. He has even released a podcast series about it, which I'll start listening to later today. In this article, he references a lot of my favorite personalities, from yesterday (GKC and Lewis) and today (Rogan, Bret Weinstein, Jonathan Haidt, and Peterson)

Devil’s Feast: An Ontological Meditation on the Passion and Resurrection

Few words scrape as dryly against the brain as “ontology.” This branch of metaphysics examines “being”—what it means to have being, what it means to exist, what a thing is. Ontology is largely ignored by Christians. The initial intellectual outlay requires a “leap of faith” (a belief that the

Scrolling Blog: April 2023

April 30, 2023 My New Favorite Podcast? I listened to Russell Brand's Stay Free yesterday. I came because he was interviewing Iain McGilchrist. I stayed because Brand is smart (I always figured he was a clown), fast, and funny. I've only listened to the McGilchrist episode

The Tao Erupts in Silicon Valley

The New Atlantis recently published a great piece about how tech people are leaving the Rationalist religion for spiritual stuff. It's a must-read . . . well, for me, anyway. It is exactly the kind of thing I'm writing about in Part III of Existence Strikes Back: The Tao

What is a Perfect Piece of Knowledge?

An allegory, of sorts

The Existence Strikes Back Project is Divided into Four Parts

1. What is the Tao? Also called “the act of existence (actus essendi),” “the first principle of Zen,” and the region on the other side of Aldous Huxley’s doors of perception. This part emphasizes “The Reality Spectrum”: The Tao-->Essence-->Existence. 2. Modernity rejected the Tao portion

Ukrainian State is Determined to Get More Babies . . . The Left-Hemispheric Way

If Russia hadn't invaded, the Ukraine would've imploded anyway. They seem to realize that now. Their solution to a problem caused by ignoring Humanae Vitae? Veer even further from Humanae Vitae. And when your culture no longer has a healthy relationship with sex? You need the

The Unfortunate Ubiquity of Smartphones

Bill Kauffman at The Spectator

Everything Suddenly Comes Together for the Young G.K. Chesterton

"I had found this hole in the world: the fact that one must somehow find a way of loving the world without trusting it; somehow one must love the world without being worldly. I found this projecting feature of Christian theology, like a sort of hard spike, the dogmatic

Move Over New York: Mexico City is the City That Doesn't Sleep

I'm returning from eight days in Mexico City. I saw the future of Mexico, and I have no idea if it works. Mexico is Ready to Get Rich, if the Cartels Don't Destroy It First Peter Zeihan recently said Mexico is exploding, economically. The future looks

We Must Become Barbarians

Paul Kingsnorth at Unherd

How to Become a Great Man or Woman

For starters, read about the great men and women Merely by thinking about certain sorts of people at all . . . we become objectively, measurably, more like them, in how we behave, think and feel. Iain McGilchrist Ask a college professor this question: “Did Moses write the Torah or did the Torah

Live Like Hobbits

That's apparently the advice in a new book, "The Reactionary Mind," by Michael Warren Davis. It seems to me that Foucault's "counter-conduct" is becoming the number one obsession today, at least among people who think about . . . or at least feel . . . the left-hemisphere&

Propaganda

It's easy to spot propaganda you disagree with. It's not so easy to spot propaganda you agree with. And if you think you're subject to propaganda, you're deluding yourself. Unregistered 149: Mark Crispin Miller — Thaddeus RussellI spoke with Mark Crispin Miller, a

Self-Described “Activist” Wonders Why He’s Depressed

Satire

Toni Morrison's Rejection Letters

To my knowledge, I've never read anything by Toni Morrison. I've never even wanted to read anything by her. Not out of animosity. She simply rarely crossed my mental radar screen, except when there was a reference to Oprah, and that was enough to shoot it

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I Thought Opera Singers are Required to be, ahem, Robust Katherine Jenkins stuns in a black cocktail dress at her gin launchThe opera singer, 42, put on a glamorous display for the launch of her own premium gin named Cygnet in London on Thursday night.MSNConnie Rusk For Mailonline We

Seeking Transcendentals

Why Did I Order a Two-Volume History of Economic Thought? Fun, improvement, and volunteerism. That's how we might use current catchwords to answer the primordial question, “How ought we to live our lives?” That question hit me hard a few summers ago when I opened up a mail

Odysseus’s Dumbest Moments

“Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways…” So opens The Odyssey (Richard Lattimore Translation). “The man of many ways” is Odysseus. In all Greek myth, only Athena and (perhaps) Theseus are more known for wisdom. His wisdom resume is impressive: he made peace among all the Greek rulers

Persian Tolerance Resulted in Alexander the Great

The Persian Empire, compared to its contemporary empires, was extremely tolerant of conquered territories. It allowed states who submitted to retain their current governance as long as appropriate tribute was passed up to the King. This lax arrangement allowed Macedonia to grow in power mostly undisturbed, eventually giving rise to

A Foucauldian Defense of Liberalism

By David McGrogan at Law & Liberty

How to Grab that Sagging Timber

One pitiful man's attempt to make sense of Holy Thursday

Luke as Historian

Paul Krause at VoegelinView

You're Getting Played, but That's Alright

From last Saturday's "Outside the Modern Limits"

Neutrality Isn't Allowed

Huberman is a non-member of that non-group, The Intellectual Dark Web. He runs with Rogan and the like. He, therefore, is outside the Establishment and, therefore, an enemy, even though I've never discerned a political position in the many hours I've listened to him. But that&

How to Pray

Part II of a Two-Part Series

One Vicious Author

You remember the 1987 movie, Throw Mama from the Train? I learned last night that it was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 movie, Strangers on a Train, which was in turn based on the novel by the same name. The author of the novel? Patricia Highsmith, a nasty

Huberman Attack

I struggled about whether to post this story. I really like the Huberman podcast and this reporter wrote this story to show (by implication) that Huberman is a fake because he has demons . . . including a big libido. The thing is, I've always figured Huberman must have pretty serious

People Should be “Seething Mad” Over COVID – And Much More

George Leef at the American Institute for Economic Research

Belt Mag

There's a new magazine: Belt Magazine. The introductory editorial is here. I subscribed (the free subscription) for a few reasons. First, I live in the rust belt. Two, my interest in localism. Three, I'm fascinated that the first paragraph ranks the "rustiest" states (per

BYCU: Tequila Shortage

Everything you need and don't need for your bar conversations this weekend

We Need More Movies like Puss in Boots II: The Last Wish

**SPOILERS** I entered The Last Wish skeptical. I'd heard good things about it, but it’s a sequel from a mediocre spinoff: a decade-old spinoff of an iconic series that had not been great since almost a decade before the first Puss in Boots movie was released. I

The Ghost of Ancient Rome Haunts America

Joel Kotkin at UnHerd

The Unsound and Little Fury

A tale told by an idiot

How to Define "Wokeness"

Edward Feser (at Edward Feser blog)

Poetic Language isn't Modern Language . . . for a Reason

💡A side benefit of this essay: It succinctly states what makes poetry different from other forms of writing: Poetry is concerned primarily with creating images that delight us with their economy and elegance. The Integrity of PoetryMicah Mattix at First ThingsThe Daily EudemonTDE Michael Oakeshott maintains that the intellectual life

Shatter Zones and Jellyfish Tribes

A fellow-Generation X'er channels my thoughts almost precisely. The first third of this must-read essay recounts the problem. The last two-thirds offers a possible response ("shatter zones" and "jellyfish tribes") to the black hole State that sucks in everything near it. Kingsnorth's

How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today

Peter Jones at Classics for All

71 Thoughts to Improve Your Thoughts

I’m a weak man. Actually, “inconstant” is a better adjective. Here’s the problem: I read an insightful passage, decide that I’ll apply it to my life, and then forget about it. Fortunately, I realized this early in life. Specifically, back in the late 1980s when I was

The Primitive Marauder is the Modern State, Evolved

Check out last week's episode of Econtalk: Omer Moav on the Emergence of the State - EconlibSince at least Adam Smith, the common wisdom has been that the transition from hunter-gathering to farming allowed the creation of the State. Farming, so went the theory, led to agricultural surplus,

Was Albert Jay Nock Like Socrates?

Nock’s Memoirs is the figurative equivalent of Socrates drinking the hemlock. But both are suicides that were necessary in light of their worldview. Nock’s Memoirs is his way of getting involved: the only way he could get involved and live true to his principles.

Legolas Canceled for Misappropriating Dwarf Culture

The Rivendell Review July 18, 1702 (Shire Reckoning) RIVENDELL. Local playboy Legolas has been canceled. “He's the worst of misappropriaters,” exclaimed Pat Curunir, President of the Anti-Misappropriation League. “When he's east of the Misty Mountains, he misappropriates dwarf culture by acting like he's the

Ice Backs

Vermont and Texas are the only two states that were once independent republics. That's now not the only thing they have in common.

Infinite Jest

Bill Burr has a great bit where he describes parenting as a 25-30 year sentence. You're sucked into a bubble, cut off from the outside world as you try to raise your kids. When you come out, you're stuck in, say, 1993 but it's

The Self-Destructive Effects of Progressive Sadness

David Brooks at the New York Times

Forrest Gump

💡I wrote the following decades ago. In light of the Hemisphere Hypothesis, I re-consider it. Is Forrest a left hemispheric or a right hemispheric? If his odd character is on "the Spectrum," he's a man bereft of the right hemisphere (autism is left-hemispheric). But maybe he&

We Need More COVID Outrage

The COVID debacle doesn't rankle enough: not enough people seem ashamed or apologetic; not enough people seem to appreciate the enormity of what our politicians did. I, no exaggeration, find it greatly disturbing for an obvious reason: they'll do it again and too many of us

The Unsound and Little Fury

A tale told by an idiot Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I see a groundhog. I hate him, but not as much as I hate Satan. Satan and groundhogs are kinda the same thing, except groundhogs stop once they've eaten everything in my garden. I

Nashville, Austin, Charlotte . . . and Detroit?

Are NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia just going through a bad phase and will eventually rebound? Probably, but that doesn't mean they're not in a secular bear cycle (picture a stock market graph, jaggedly going down, with bumps up but overall, down). According

Why St. Patrick Matters

Or "Why You Should Appreciate Those Indian and African Priests Who Say Mass for Your Parish"

Racist Fan Wants Adaptation to Stick to Source Material

When Brandon Foi tweeted his disapproval of the race-switched casting in the upcoming Disney Plus adaptation of Percy Jackson, friends and family were shocked. “I was stunned,” said friend and Twitch follower, PrincessLeiasboobz, “that Brandon would ever say anything so obscene.” In an interview with his mother, Mrs. Foi told

Leftists Trying Not to be Gnostics

Current Affairs seems like a worthwhile magazine. It describes itself as "the left magazine for people skeptical of leftism." Based on this essay, it seems pretty far left . . . Bernie Sanders-left . . . but intellectually honest left. In the perspective of the Hemisphere Hypothesis, an "intellectually honest" leftist is

Theorists vs. Practitioners

Jeffrey Tucker at The Brownstone Institute

This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Directionalists vs. Destinationists

Michael Munger at American Institute for Economic Research

BYCU: Variety is the Spice of Life . . . and Good Health

Brews You Can Use

The Right Hemisphere Way of Therese Lisieux

St. Therese's is the "little way." The left hemisphere values the big. The left hemisphere demands answers and solutions, which require increasingly large effort. The Little Way is a rebuke of such a disposition. She placed no value on abstractions, opting instead for the real and

The Importance of Being is the Flipside of the Importance of Doing Nothing

"It's because artists do not practise, patrons do not patronize, crowds do not assemble to worship reverently the great work of Doing Nothing, that the world has lost its philosophy and even failed to invent a new religion." G.K. Chesterton Here's a great

Matt Taibbi is Testifying This Morning at Congress

Matt Taibbi at Racket News

Have the Ancient Gods Returned?

Naomi Wolf at Brownstone Institute

Henry Fowler and Ernest Gowers

Henry Fowler (1858-1933) wrote A Dictionary of Modern English Usage after a career of pretty much nothing. He worked hard; he was honest and honorable, but he had never amounted to much: teacher, journalist, soldier (lying about his 57 years so he could fight), and editor. But then, in 1925,

Bill Kauffman has Never Owned a Cell Phone

Kauffman sightings have grown increasingly scarce. It's too bad. He's great. His most recent offering at The Spectator is mediocre (by Kauffman standards), but it's worth posting for the lede itself: he couldn't order a bagel at an airport because he doesn&

The Mere Concept of "Mental Health" Makes Us Unhealthy

Of course, this concern is rooted in language itself. By positing one thing, we amplify its opposite. It's why postmodernists hate binaries. It drove ancient Taoism's admonitions not to look at concepts like "good" and "hate." It drove the background of Dostoyevsky&

Stop Being So Serious: Ten Hints

Shortly before he was martyred with others in 203, St. Saturus related a vision he had of heaven. He said he and the other martyrs were carried eastward to a garden, where a handful of angels started exclaiming, “Here they are! Here they are!” The martyrs were taken to a

Why We Tolerate, Even Encourage, Fat People

It's interesting (and runs contrary to this essay) that our left-hemispheric modern culture goes to extremes to accommodate unusual people, like the overweight. Such tolerance, though, is born of the same dogmatism that caused the Nazis to euthanize the disabled. It's part of the postmodern religion

Battle of the Lightweights: Do Other Light Beers Taste Like Water?

Patrick Coffee at Wall Street Journal

Michel Foucault

I can hardly imagine a person more unlike me than Michel Foucault. Flaming homosexual (note the strong contrast!), Communist, French. But man, the more glimpses I get of him, the more I like him. Thaddeus Russell first explained Foucault's appeal, so I decided to start learning about him.

The Twitter Files Reveal an Existential Threat

John Davidson at Imprimis

Is It Even Possible for a Church to Advertise Properly?

Is it even possible to use material bait to capture a spiritual fish? Marlboro Man, meet Pastor Phil. I wrote those words back in 2005 when I heard that the United Methodist Church will start a four-week, $4 million effort to market its church. John Wesley’s spiritual descendants said

Scrolling Blog: March 2023

March 31, 2023 Brews You Can Use Reminder: No BYCU next Friday: Good Friday BYCUI Thought Opera Singers are Required to be, ahem, Robust Katherine Jenkins stuns in a black cocktail dress at her gin launchThe opera singer, 42, put on a glamorous display for the launch of her own

Joe Rogan's Rant Against Christianity

If you want to see something startling, watch this clip from the Joe Rogan Experience. Now, I think Rogan is one of the most entertaining interviewers ever and I find him to be respectful and open to ideas, but at times, his views come out . . . and they come out strong

America's Shadow Self

Michael Shellenberger at City Journal

William Cobbett: Radical

Plough publishes pretty pieces. This piece about the 19th-century radical William Cobbett is the latest. It discusses the centralization of agriculture that took place in England in the early 1800s and Cobbett's resistance (which made him one of GKC's heroes; he wrote a biography about him)

Nyssa, Tolkien, and Gibson: Holy Saturday

A meditation

Who’s Afraid of G. K. Chesterton?

By Michael Warren Davis at The Common Man (Substack)

How Much Garden Would You Need to Live?

From Life Hacker

About the Unsound and Little Fury

The Unsound and Little Fury. It's a parody of stream-of-consciousness literature, which is probably most popularly known through Joyce's Ulysses or Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. This feature is probably best identified with the line from Macbeth, which is where Faulkner's

The Rise and Fall of Peer Review

Adam Mastroianni at Experimental History (Substack)

Economic Freedom is the First Freedom

Because it deals with the things we require first

The Decentralist File

I grow more tired of online reading every day. It is by nature hard (something about the pixels and how our eyes work), but then the publications need to generate revenue, so they gum up access with pop-up screens and username requests, then gum up the prose with more pop-up

Fat-Shaming Hobbit Banned from Chicago Public Schools

The Chicago Herald August 22, 2021 CHICAGO. Bombur the Dwarf has caused a big uproar in Chicago Public Schools. Bombur is the creation of JRR Tolkien in his children's book, The Hobbit. He is one of the 13 dwarves who go on a quest with hobbit Bilbo to

Ora Et Labora: How I Began To Work Alongside Monks

Michael Snellen at Catholicism for the Modern World

Conservatives and the Culture

Claes Ryn, from Catholic University. A collection of his essays have just been published. The collection appears largely to recount the problem that conservatives have long been aware of: they abandoned the cultural field to the enemy. Shortly after World War II (others might date it back to 1900; others,

Does the Telephone Cripple the Right Hemisphere . . . Thereby Preoccupying our Pysches in General?

Low spatial frequency means not much information is present, so you have to do extra work to make out what you are looking at. Iain McGilchrist, The Matter with Things, Chp. 2. Looked at through Marshall McLuhan lingo: “Hot” media and “cool” media were McLuhan’s buzz dichotomy. A hot

"I Am Bing, and I Am Evil"

Erik Hoel at Substack

The Gnostics in Hollywood are Perverts

Existence Strikes Back Part IV explores flourishing in our postmodern, left-hemispheric, culturally-gnostic world. One of the ways to promote flourishing: avoid things that are culturally gnostic and left-hemispheric, like Hollywood.

Introductions to and Summaries of The Hemisphere Hypothesis

By the Master Himself Resist the Machine Apocalypse | Iain McGilchristNo two ways about it: We are making ourselves wretched. We are more affluent than ever, but . . . .First ThingsIain McGilchrist The Best The thing about things | The New CriterionJonathan Gaisman on The Thing With Things by Iain McGilchrist.Vol. 42, No.

I Loathe Bracketology: A Screed

For the Love of Dick Vitale’s Soul, Retire the Word “Bracketology”

How You Attend to the World Changes What You Find There

And if you attend sloppily, what you'll find is slop Do you want to understand what you're thinking about? Then think as clearly about it as possible. Do you want to think clearly about something? Then think in clear terms. On the flip side, if you

The Most Delicious Way to Get Your Dose of Elderberry

Nina Molina (great name) at the Wall Street Journal

Fine Prose or Trashy Prose: Is There No Third Way?

I want to encourage young writers, even if it is a poor man’s game. [I]f you want to write well and live well at the same time, you’d better arrange to inherit money or marry a stockbroker or a rich woman who can operate a typewriter. Flannery

Localism and the Importance of Laboratories

If localities have self-determination, it results in a country full of mini-laboratories where we can figure out what works and what doesn't. Granted, in the localities that practice oppression and hatred, things will be miserable, but at least people can leave. If enough people leave, the people who

Aristotle to Aquinas to Pieper: Leisure Solves Nothing. That's What Makes it Counter-Conduct

In the tradition that runs from Aristotle through Aquinas to Josef Pieper, leisure is not a solution to anything, but an alternative way of being in the world. In Pieper’s formulation, leisure “runs at right angles” to the practical pursuits of work and achievement. Leisure and Liberality | Elizabeth C.

Hate the River-Rat!

I gotta say, I'm really enjoying Will Percy's 1941 autobiography, Lanterns of the Levee. I'd heard of it for years but never bothered to buy it, much less read it. The prose is beautiful, if a bit ornate by today's standard, and

‘Incoherent narrative’: 1619 Project’s New Hulu Series Gets Capitalism All Wrong

Maggie Kelly at The College Fix

Why We are Culturally Gnostic

I'd re-title David Brooks' recent op-ed about progressive sadness, "The Gnostification of America." He touches on four of Voegelin's six gnostic traits (and the other two are also present, but op-eds need to be short), starting with discontent. He points out that liberals

Study Shows You’re Nobody Until Somebody Loves You

Naomi Schaefer Riley at The Washington Free Beacon

Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover, I Suppose

I know nothing about this book except what I read in this review. If the reviewer is honest, the publisher isn't. Of course, the publisher is Doubleday, which is probably about as mainstream (corporate, legacy, establishment) media as you get, so it shouldn't surprise me that

I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids

By Jamie Reed at The Free Press

Gandalf the Grey or Gandalf the Gay?

Ivy Tower News August 4, 2021 BOSTON. Tolkien was a devout Catholic like President Biden. And like President Biden, he embraced homosexuality. “It's pretty clear Gandalf was homosexual,” says Leonard Chadwick, Professor of Multicultural Studies at Enormous State University and noted Tolkien scholar. “Advances in Gay Studies, especially

The Antihumanist and Transhumanist Cometh

I posted this review-essay for one reason: I've been seeing Adam Kirsch's name a lot in The New Criterion and First Things (and other places). I guess his name has been popping up in those journals for years and I just hadn't noticed. Anyway,

Theorists: Left Hemispherists

The left hemisphere is the hemisphere of abstraction and theory. Iain McGilchrist, The Matter with Things, p. 30. The right hemisphere is the hemisphere of experience: fresh, unique, embodied . . . being present with things as they are. Id. The Brownstone Institute was built on the rubble of COVID policy. It'

Flow

A few writers and thinkers seem to have caught onto the same thing. I believe I could find a host of other thinkers, such as William James and Victor Frankl, who would agree with them: "When one is busy and absorbed in one's work, the very absorption

Cocktail Theology

By William Dailey at First Things

There aren't Economic Systems

The Great Reset appears to be an idea among the global elite that COVID gives them an opportunity to “reimagine” economic systems, along the lines that the elite think more appropriate. The problem is, there is no such thing as an “economic system.” People naturally pursue happiness. To paraphrase St.

Gnosticism in Modernity, or Why History Refuses to End

Isaac Ariail Reed and Michael Weinman at The Hedgehog Review

Cryptocurrency Isn't in a Bubble

It might be terribly overvalued, but it's not in a bubble

Moloch Rises

How dark are these times? Have pagan forces (i.e., Satanic forces) been unleashed into western culture? Heck, I don't know, but it really sucks that it's even a theory worth considering. And in this regard, it's worth remembering that the number one response

Orthanc, Symbol of Patriarchy, Must Fall

The Rohan Rambler SR April 1, 1592 ISENGARD. A fierce debate surrounds Middle Earth's most famous tower, Orthanc. “It was built by men, to celebrate men, and to protect men,” says Dana Harad, of the Lesbians International Community. “It needs to come down.” At the center of the

The Deeply Flawed Campaign for Racial Reparations

By Jeff Jacoby at The Boston Globe

Postmodernist Pinball Wizards

"He Stands Like a Statue/Becomes Part of the Machine" That lyric from The Who's righteous (if overplayed) song summarizes the point of this very good piece at Salon. It's not often you see TDE post an essay from that leftist e-rag, but it&

Are Alien Sightings Just Demonic Possessions?

In 1959, the famous psychologist Carl Jung wrote Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky. Instead of trying to account for UFOs as a literal reality, he opted to see them instead as a psychic aspect, a fantasy of the unconscious.

The Demolition of the Western Mind

Louis Markos at The Imaginative Conservative

Be Open to Spiritual Experience. Also, Be Really Careful

Ross Douthat at The New York Times

Scrolling Blog: February 2023

February 28, 2023 Feast Day of St. Oswald Actually, that's not true, but the poor guy, who Butler tells us was "endowed with a very rare and beautiful form of body," is feasted on February 29th, so TDE is doing its part here to remedy the

Labor v. Leisure

There's a thing called the "disutility of labor." It's a fancy phrase that basically means people prefer leisure over labor. We constantly see people make current sacrifices in order to get advantages later, and one of the principle advantages is leisure. Von Mises points

Post-Journalism: Objectivity is No Longer the Goal

Jonathan Turley

How to Hate Jordan Peterson

My man Ayodeji Awosika came out with a great piece at Medium.com awhile back: 12 Rules for Hating Jordan Peterson. This Jordan piece is a monster, consisting of nearly 4,000 words (Medium.com measures its stories by reading time: 265 WPM; this article is 14 minutes long . . . do

How the Media Polarized Us

By Audrey Mir at City Journal

Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited

Paul Mankowski at First Things

Seven Most Underappreciated Movie Villains

“A hero is only as good as his villain” is a stupid saying. Is MCU Iron Man only as good as War Monger? Do you even remember who War Monger is? On the flip side, there are hundreds of cases where the villain far outshines the hero: for example, every

AI and the Left Hemisphere

About once a month, I come across an online essay that is so lengthy and compelling that, after reading the first section, I merely scan the rest and print it out so I can study it later. Such is this essay by Adam Kirsch. It appears to be an explanation

QR Codes Aren't Evil

They just feel that way. We ought to be asking "why?"

Flannery O’Connor’s Prescription for Our Divided Times

By Christina Bieber Lake at Comment

Edward Frenkel on the Limits of Large Language Models

"I wonder if a large language model could actually ever come up with the idea that the square root of negative one is something that is essential or meaningful because if all information you get, if all the knowledge that had been accumulated up to that point, tells you

St. Dann the Armed Robber

You ever notice how many saints die of drug overdoses? It's amazing. A newspaper article will recount a man or woman's last days in a way that makes the person sound sweeter than St. Francis, and then, buried in the middle of the article, there'

Aragorn and the Rangers or Dirty Mike and the Boys?

New York Gazette August 28, 2021 NEW YORK. Cultural critics have grown outraged by the portrayal of Aragorn in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Ring series. “It's pretty clear that Aragorn is homosexual but Tolkien simply refused to admit it,” says Guy Chase, President of the

Ellis Sandoz, RIP

The Voegelin community is a puzzling one. To an outsider (i.e., to me), it seems insular but enthusiastic. It's like they're on their own island and eagerly invite others to the island but with one requirement: the others already be on the island. And what

Hamlet in the Metaxy

By Stephen Conlin at The Imaginative Conservative

In Praise of Clichés

Avoid stale phrases. Orwell called them "dying metaphors." Robert Fiske called them "moribund metaphors." They're sayings that have been used hundreds of time but haven't yet made it into regular vernacular. "Emotional rollercoaster," "It's a jungle out

Don't Kill Hudge and Gudge by Thinking Like Hudge and Gudge Writ Small

The struggle to reconcile our use of Amazon with our hatred of big corporations is a constant mental, even emotional, struggle, especially when facts like this are plopped in front of us: Money is power, and companies like Amazon suck this economic power out of local communities and concentrate it

Localism without Fundamentalism

We can applaud yesterday's small towns without worshipping them. We can appreciate the local without demonizing the central. But we also need to insist that today's progressives applaud yesterday and that today's centralizing gnostics respect the local. I'm afraid those just aren&

Relationship Contracts: Another Postmodern Band-Aid

Do I applaud or vomit? That Hamlet-like question twists my mind when I read about our postmodern culture's mental struggles. Most recently, it happened when I read about "relationship contracts." They're documents signed by people who have decided they're going to start

Christopher Lasch Appealed on the Left and the Right

By Christian Lorentzen at The Jacobin

Are Saints Sent at Specific Times for Specific Reasons?

Every so often, spiritual lightning sears across a culture's landscape. The example of St. Francis of Assisi immediately comes to mind. So does St. Antony. Their intense holiness was bright and powerful, and left an indelible mark on the earth. We can't know for certain why

Zen in Brief

When Mahayana Buddhism traveled east out of India and into China, it mingled with Taoism. The offspring: Zen. Like all Buddhism, its ontology (i.e., its theory of what constitutes fundamental reality) is steeped in pantheistic monism. This means that the Buddhist believes all things are one. The same spirit

We're All Schizophrenic Winos

Surviving the Metaverse

By Mary Harrington at First Things

Dalrymple on the WNBA

Anthony Daniels aims at three of my favorite targets: (1) The relentless propaganda to push the WNBA on the populace (but in Daniels' case, he marvels at the propaganda to push female soccer in Europe), (2) tattoo culture, and (3) ugly buildings ("brutalism"). Underlying these three seemingly

Why We Judge. And Why We Need to Stop

It's a left-hemisphere activity where the left hemisphere often doesn't belong

Bertrand Russell Summarizes the Left Hemisphere

Science is "power-knowledge"

When Gods Fight, Men Die

It is important for us to realize that mankind is doomed to live more and more under the spell of a new scientific, social, and political mythology, unless we resolutely exorcise these befuddled notions whose influence on modern life is becoming appalling. Millions of men are starving or bleeding to

Rabelais

One of my favorite writers, Albert Jay Nock, was a huge Rabelais fan. He wrote two books about him. From the first: It must be laid down once and for all, that the chief purpose of reading a classic like Rabelais is to prop and stay the spirit, especially in

The Aristocracy Is Eating the Peasants

By John Rubino at Substack

Doomers May Have One Point: Food Production

Every inch of me resists the doom-and-gloomers. I think it's because I get the sense that this syllogism drives them: doomers are serious. Serious people should rule. Therefore, doomers should rule. At the very least, doomers think they should tell other people what to do. Doomers, after all,

Three Lesser-Known Figures in the Zen Tradition

All three emphasized the Tao side of Zen

Catholic Philosopher Elisabeth Anscombe was Wittgenstein’s Literary Executor

By Jennifer A. Frey at First Things

Burkean Libertarianism

I self-identify as a libertarian, which means I can play on libertarian sports teams even though I was born a conservative, but it bothers me that there's something eerily "religious" in many libertarians' fervor and uncompromising positions. I'm firmly convinced it's

Three Errors Paul Ehrlich Keeps Making

By Vincent Geloso at the American Institute for Economic Research

The Importance of Free Speech

Free speech is the most important issue today, and I don't say that because I loathe Democrats (I don't much care for Republicans, either). I say it because truth is fluid. It's not relative (put your genitals back in your pants, perverts), but it

Capitalism is a Bogeyman

The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.” Hilaire Belloc, The Servile State Capitalism is a bogeyman. There is a type of capitalism rightly condemned by my heroes Chesterton and Belloc, but it was first and foremost a type of capitalism born of privilege

Selections From John Wu's Translation of the Tao Teh Ching

Therefore the sage puts his own person last, and yet it is found in the foremost place; he treats his person as if it were foreign to him, and yet that person is preserved. The highest excellence is like water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things,

Iain McGilchrist, Per Chat GBT

It looks pretty accurate to me

Mushrooming to a New Religious Understanding?

Tuesday mornings are hard on me for some reason, but this morning, delight hit me from three angles, thanks to this one essay. Delight One: Bookman It comes from The University Bookman, one of the first subscription journals I read (my Dad subscribed and I started reading it when I

Whew. Is the Craft Beer Finally Dying Down?

By Mike Jordan at the Wall Street Journal

Summary of Matt Taibbi Twitter Files

By Tom Woods, via his newsletter

Dry January, Tradition, and the Magisterium

Andrew Huberman has gone near-teetotaller lately in his rhetoric. Awhile back, he warned that, if a person averages just one drink a day (seven in a week), he's courting accelerated cognitive decline (and other health issues). He said the safe maximum might be six per week. As the

Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand

By Jude Russo at The Lamp

Scrolling Blog: January 2023

January 30, 2023 Weekly Column is Up Don’t be That Guy“That guy” is always a left hemisphere guyThe Daily EudemonTDE As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the Monday column will occasionally be a repeat of the Saturday newsletter. I thought it would happen only once or twice

On “Edward Hopper’s New York” at the Whitney Museum of American Art

By James Panero at The New Criterion

Magician Affects Audience Even After the Show

Paul Johnson, 1928–2023

By Adrian Goldsworthy at The New Criterion

Hand Me a Gallon of that Vodka and Mountain Dew

Here’s something obvious that I never brought to the surface of full consciousness: a cocktail must, you know, taste like alcohol: A cocktail “must have sufficient alcoholic flavor.” Even the simplest of cocktails like a vermouth cassis must taste of alcohol. If you don’t like the taste of

Poetry Died 100 Years Ago This Month

By Matthew Walther at the New York Times

What is “Existence Strikes Back”?

“Existence Strikes Back” is the working title of a body of writing and ideas that I’ve been working on for 30 years

Reign of the Administrators

By Theodore Dalrymple at City Journal

Starting the Trip: The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World

At $150, I'm trusting the trip will be worth it.

One of the Finest Saint Books Ever

Robert Payne, The Holy Fire (1957). A Micro-Review

A GKC Christmas Poem

A Christmas Carol by G.K. Chesterton The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap, His hair was like a light. (O weary, weary were the world, But here is all aright.) The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast, His hair was like a star. (O stern and cunning

Dion: The Wanderer Has Never Left the Building

By Rafael Alvarez, at Village Voice

Mystic Alcohology

By Michael P. Foley, at First Things

American Christmas, American New Year

Christopher Flannery at Imprimis

The Flu Ravages Your Soul and Strips You Bare. Maybe That’s a Good Thing.

I'm walking the rest of the way to Bethlehem

The Entire Nation Should be Rooting for the Wolverines

By Matthew Walther at the New York Times

Autocomplete: Coming to Terms with Our New Textual Culture

By Richard Gibson at Hedgehog Review

Scrolling Blog: December 2022

December 31, 2022 T.S. Eliot: Murderer? Matthew Walther claims T.S. Eliot killed poetry (well, finished the slaying . . . it wasn't all TSE's fault). Perhaps. I think McGilchrist would argue the left hemisphere's approach--logic, dislike of metaphor, emphasis on calculation--killed it. No matter, the

The Incredible Shrinking Future of College

Kevin Carey at Vox

Don't Follow the News

The drumbeat grows louder: more people realize the corporate media can't be trusted and smaller media don't have the resources to provide full coverage. On top of that, we know that the corporate media has never been trustworthy, including "trusted men" like Walter Cronkhite.

A Lot of Thinkers Have Intuited that We Have Two Minds

McGilchrist deserves the credit for connecting neuroscience to the intuition

The Woke Chokehold

By Theodore Dalrymple at Taki Mag

A Tribute to David L. Schindler: Teacher and Friend

By Conor Dugan, at Catholic World Report

Dive Bar Patrons Understand More than College Professors

A sample from "Outside the Modern Limits." This is the kind of content you're missing if you don't subscribe to the Saturday morning newsletter.

Distributism Needs a New Name

Dale Ahlquist at Plough

Ten Facts about Black Wednesday

“Drinksgiving” is simply lame. “Drink” doesn’t rhyme with “Thanks,” any more than “Moron” rhymes with “Dolt,” both of which describe anyone who uses that stupid term.

Kauffman on Nisbet

Bill Kauffman at The American Conservative

Science and Magic

The historian of intellectual history, Frances Yates, wrote extensively about the realm of magical pursuits in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in particular about hermeticism and its legendary eponymous source, Hermes Trismegistus. Yates points out that Renaissance magic--through characters such as Ficino, Giordano Bruno, Campanella, and Cornelius Agrippa--reached its apex

Examples of GKC's Right-Hemispheric Brain Overly Stifling His Left Hemisphere

A Work-in-Process

Civilization is Slow Hard Work: A Review of Lee Oser’s “Old Enemies”

Darrell Falconburg at VoegelinView

We Judge Based on Our Own State

For each man judges others by his own state, that is, by what he is himself--in virtues or sins. Simeon the New Theologian, Practical and Theological Precepts (Writings from the Philokalia, p. 109)

Politicians' Self-Interest and Dishonesty

By Pierre Lemieux at Econlib

Planning and The Politics of Beauty: Reflections on Stewart Udall

By Russell Arben Fox at Front Porch Republic

Are You Humble? These 17 Signs from St. Josemaria Will Help You Know

From the Magis Center

Ted McAllister’s Place: A Memorial Tribute

By Bruce Frohnen at the Kirk Center

At eighty, Casablanca embodies Hollywood high style

By Peter Tonguette at the Spectator

Tolkien’s Elves Embody McGilchrist’s Ideal Brain

I think Tolkien’s perfect proto-McGilchrist form is found in Rivendell and Lorien, the last kingdoms of the elves. The elves, I believe, display the proper relationship between the hemispheres, almost to perfection: the musical and poetic and playful nature of the right hemisphere served by the more mundane functions

Try This

By Rafael Alvarez at The Lamp

An Overview of Each Hemisphere's Vision of Reality

If you want an overview of each hemisphere’s vision of reality, McGilchrist provides it at the beginning of The Matter with Things: The left hemisphere’s vision of reality: The “world is composed of static, isolated, fragmentary elements that can be manipulated easily, are decontextualized, abstracted, detached, disembodied, mechanical,

The Viking War on Woke

By Dominic Sandbrook at UnHerd

Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972’: Human Empathy and Political Savvy that Today’s Political Propagandists Lack

By David Mikics at The Tablet

The Master and His Emissary: Summary

By Jonathan Gaisman at The New Criterion

Scrolling Blog: November 2022

November 30, 2022 Beautiful (if hard to read) Tridentine liturgical calendar: https://i.redd.it/td4v1yswj33a1.jpg "Outside the Modern Limits." The Best Saturday Morning NewsletterDive Bar Patrons Understand More than College ProfessorsA sample from “Outside the Modern Limits.” This is the kind of content you’re missing

Urban Jeremiah: Mike Davis, 1946-2022

By Sohrab Ahmari at Compact

Front Porch Republic and Modernity

If you weren't aware, Front Porch Republic is the Internet's premier proponent of localism. Bill Kauffman started it (with others, if memory serves). Though he doesn't make a lot of appearances there, the site is in the talented hands of Jeff Bilbro, who puts

Scrolling Blog: October 2022

October 31, 2022 Happy Halloween The Monday Column Solon, the Father of Democracy, was a Man of the Tao💡Solon opened Athens to true order: the transformative order found through the Tao. Ancient Athens in the 600s BC Ancient Athens didn’t have a king. It was ruled by nine

What Happens When a Newspaper Dies?

By John W. Miller at The Daily Yonder

Parch Delivers All The Fun Of Drinking Without The Booze

By Lisa Kocay at Forbes

This is The Other Place: The TV Moment That Changed His Worldview

By Joseph Serwach at Medium.com

How Far Will the Eco-Fascists Go?

Mary Harrington at UnHerd

Kanye to Catholicism?

By Michael Snellen at Medium.com

Groupies Deserve More Credit

By Lisa Levy at The Walrus

Gin and Morals, Please

By Thomas Triedman at The New Criterion

There’s No Such Thing as Free Breastmilk

Abigail Blanco at the American Institute for Economic Research

Complications of the Ukraine War

Christopher Caldwell at Imprimis

Jon Fosse

Mr. Fosse received the Nobel Prize in Literature on October 5th. This development is relevant to TDE for three reasons: (1) It's literature, which is a form of counter-conduct and a means of flourishing; (2) He converted to Catholicism in 2012; and (3) In the words of the

Roger Scruton Knew What Wine was For

By Roger Kimball at The Spectator

The Passing of a Dive Bar

From the Lamp

A Tribute to Loretta Lynn

By Matthew Walther at The Lamp

Podcasting Hasn’t Produced A New Hit in Years

By Lucas Shaw at Bloomberg

Why the South is Important

The South is important because it's the most distinctive region of the United States. The "region" is the conceptual buffer between the "central" and the "local." We don't want to lose the region any more than a nation would want

Anti-Localism is Left-Hemispheric: Passages from McGilchrist that Bear This Out

Like many "Briefly" posts, this is a work-in-process The left hemisphere prefers the impersonal to the personal, and that tendency would in any case be instantiated in the fabric of a technologically driven and bureaucratically administered society. The impersonal would come to replace the personal. There would be

The Enlightenment Obsessed with Measurement: A Sure Sign of Left-Hemispheric Elephantiasis

💡"Numbers, which the left hemisphere feels familiar with and is excellent at manipulating . . .". McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary, p. 430. "We take the measure of the world and ourselves a hundred times a day, with rulers and kitchen thermometers and bathroom scales and, everywhere, clocks. Scientists

The Right’s New Divide: Frodo Versus Boromir

By Tony Woodlief at The Spectator

The Mysterious Being in the Ring

By Nathanael Blake at The University Bookman

The End of the Culture of Narcissism

Ashley Colby at UnHerd

The Art of Ghosting

Don't Tell 'em Goodbye!

Why I am Not an Effective Altruist

By Erik Hoel from The Intrinsic Perspective

The New Moral Mathematics

By Kieran Setiya at the Boston Review

Taking Another Look at the Hatfields and McCoys

Appalachia Revisited

Remove Hate from Your Heart . . . And Who Is Andrew Tate

Two good pieces from Medium.com this past week

Chicago's Headwinds

Interview with William Voegeli at City Journal

A Pilgrimage to a Maine Island in the Footsteps of John Steinbeck

By Howard Fishman at the Washington Post

We Create Art All the Time. Try to be Rational about It.

Here’s the thing about art: It’s utterly irrational. Our need to create, our need to share, our need to have it appreciated, our need to depict truth or beauty or goodness. But the artistic work itself is rational, within its sphere.

Cosmic War: A Review of “The Wartime Sermons of Jonathan Edwards”

From VoegelinView

Jim Crow in the Anglican Church?

by Terry Mattingly at Get Religion

St. Therese: Bio

The Little Flower was born in 1873, the youngest of nine children, into a very holy, but otherwise conventional, French middle class family. She enjoyed holidays at the seashore, shrimping, donkey rides, and her pets (rabbits, doves, silkworms, goldfish, magpie, dog). She liked to entertain her family and make them

The Cucumber: New Goliath in the Cocktail World?

Cucumbers and gin. Who knew? A lot of people, apparently, but I'm joining the party now.

Tolkien Wasn’t Politically Correct. Rings of Power Is. That’s Just the Most Surface Symptom of this Diseased Production

There are two types of people in the world: Tolkien fans and everyone else. This series appeals to neither.

Two Philosophers Found Purpose in the World of Work

By Robert Zaretsky and George Alliger: Wall Street Journal

Why Write (Really, Really) Low-Brow Essays

The stylistic troglodytes are popular. Like, really popular. One of my essays might get 200 claps from readers. The five-thumb essays? Thousands, sometimes 10,000

The Libertarian Position, Spun as Concisely as Possible with a Lacing of Catholicism

The market works best when it's free. When the market works best, wealth increases. As wealth increases, everyone on average is better off compared to where they would be without the market. The better off people are, the more they can pursue whatever non-market goals they have. These

Inklings and Tuesday Beer

It is Nature, it is the Way, the Road. It is the Way in which the universe goes on, the Way in which things everlastingly emerge, stilly and tranquilly, into space and time. It is also the Way which every man should tread in imitation of that cosmic and supercosmic

C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and the Inklings: Telling Stories to Save Lives

By Rachel Lu: America Magazine

Scrolling Blog: September 2022

September 30, 2022 The Art of Ghosting If you think I've written about this topic before, you're not wrong. The Art of GhostingDon’t Tell ’em Goodbye!The Daily EudemonTDE September 29, 2022 TDE Needs it for 3.0 . . . Apparently Click here to subscribe to TDE.

Our Lady of Chicago

By Matthew Milliner, The Lamp

The Pascal of the Pandemic

By David Black From City Journal

Where Did Wokeness Come From?

By Theodore Kupfer City Journal

Flannery O’Connor on Sin and Politics

By Darrell Falconburg From The Imaginative Conservative

The Infidels Will Not be Silenced

By Ayaan Hirsi Ali From Unherd

The Creedence Clearwater Revival Revival

From The New Yorker

Exhaustion: Causes, Treatment

By Alan Jacobs

Orestes Brownson's Influence

Part IV of a Five-Part Series

Americans are Rejecting College in Record Numbers

From The Hechinger Report

Orestes Brownson: The Prized Convert

Part II of a Five-Part Series

Orestes Brownson: The Inflammatory Public Philosopher

Part III of a Five-Part Series

Orestes Brownson: Pioneer Catholic

Part V of a Five-Part Series

Why Do So Many Bikes End Up in Waterways?

From The Guardian

‘Eliot After “The Waste Land”’ Review: As Prufrock Grew Old

From The Wall Street Journal

Am I an Idiot for Wanting a Dumber Phone?

From Wired

The Man with the Golden Gun

From The Lamp

Pope Michael, RIP

From The Lamp

Meg Scheske's (now "Schlueter") Wedding Day

Margaret Rita (Meg) joined Leo Schlueter in matrimony two days ago. They're both graduates of Hillsdale College. His father is a professor of philosophy there. Meg's dad is, well, your scribe at TDE and an amateur philosopher, historian, and gardener. Bride and groom come from large

Seed Oils and Bad Science

From The American Conservative

It's Bourbon's Turn

A few bourbon notes, infused with Walker Percy observations

Did the Best Chess Player in the World Just Give Up?

From Christianity Today

Taking the Faith into the Trades

From The Washington Examiner

Progress has Given Way to Bubbling Madness

The WEF: a kind of trade union for the most wealthy and influential

Scrolling Blog: August 2022

The original TDE blog format. Stacked, sundry, and short for swift scanning since 2004.

A Rambling Column Resulting from a Bushwhacked Week

Ah, the life bushwhack. When I wore a younger man’s clothes, I thought the bushwhacks would go away. I’d get my seven kids out of constant-crisis mode (making sure they didn’t wander away, fall down the steps, or get eaten by a dog), then I could return

Scourging of Shire Scoured from YouTube

Silicon Valley Eye August 1, 2021 SAN JOSE. A happy ending in JRR Tolkien's popular story turns out not to be happy after all. At issue is a chapter known as “The Scourging of the Shire,” in which a band of hobbits (small, half-person creatures) kills and rebels

How To Halt or Disengage From an Overtalker

From Well + Good

The Conservative Mind, by Russell Kirk

A Micro-Review/Essay

Experts Killed Ethnic Neighborhoods in the Name of "Progress"

It also killed Polish, Maltese, Italian, and pretty much every other ethnic neighborhood. "Dwight Eisenhower, who had admired Hitler's autobahn and got one of his own: the tellingly titled National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. Cohesive working-class neighborhoods in countless American cities were sacrificed to the

Joseph Bottum and Postmodernism

I frequently wondered what happened to Jody Bottum. I hear he was forced out of First Things after Fr. Neuhaus died. Wikipedia says it was an argument over funding and the direction of the journal. I've liked to speculate it's because he wrote a surprising piece

Distributism is the Economic Sphere Revolt Against Modernity and Left-Hemispheric Hegemony

Unfortunately, it doesn't work in the modern world without big government, and big government is the celebration of the left hemisphere. Still, it's worth pondering, just as I think it's worth pondering anarchism. Neither will be attained in my lifetime, but I think such

Philip Seymour Hoffman's Rare Talent

From City Journal

When Did Cheerfulness Get So Miserable?

From The Spectator

Epstein on Small Talk

Small talk is best thought of as an art, a minor but nonetheless real one.

The End of Christendom, by Malcolm Muggeridge

That guy trying to eat your brains? He didn’t survive the zombie attack.

Past Lives of the Paragraph

From The Hedgehog Review

William Bonner and Lila Rajiva, Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: A Micro-Review

Bonner is either the most frustrating or most entertaining non-fiction writer I’ve ran across. He loves anecdotes and detours. He loves making a larger point by illustrating with an even larger story. At times, I want to scream, “Get to the point!” At other times, I’m saying, “Take

How Teapots Spread Soviet Propaganda

From the BBC

The Restoration of Christian Culture, by John Senior

A Micro-Review/Essay

Sundry Drinking Items: Alpena, Michigan; Bar Fees; Can Shortage; Orange Wine

Random drinking items for your weekend recreational consumption

The Old Course Stands the Test of Time

From the Associated Press

Some Surprising Good News: Bookstores Are Booming

From the New York Times

The Empire the Aztecs Couldn't Conquer

From the BBC

UATX’s Forbidden Courses Program

Something new is stirring in Austin

Stream of Consciousness

William James' stream of consciousness addresses that fundamental fact of our mental world: thinking cannot be stopped. We "think" like we breathe. James' observation, says Jacques Barzunm "explains without moralizing what that wonderful self-observer Montaigne found as the chief mark of man: he is [diverse

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s war on philosophy

Wittgenstein was an intriguing combination of monk, mystic and mechanic. . . . He preferred cowboy movies and detective stories

Bottled and Unsalivated

From The Lamp

In the House of Tom Bombadil

From Front Porch Republic

How Fitbit has stolen your soul

From UnHerd

The strange underground economy of tree poaching

From NPR

Elvis: An Effusive Mini-Review

Wow. I loved this movie.

Our Man in Paris: Why Tocqueville Still Matters

From VoegelinView

Suggestion: Bookmark the Scrolling Blog

Start at the Scrolling Blog

A Tribute to Washington Irving

From City Journal

Why It's Rude to Stare

Staring is a special kind of vision, in itself predatory: left hemisphere attention gets locked onto its target. The Matter with Things

Our Universities Need a Revolution

From UnHerd

The Violent Bear It Away, by Flannery O'Connor

A Micro-Review/Essay

7 Literary Pubs Where You Can Drink Like Your Favorite Authors

From Matador Network

Invasive Crabs Become Whiskey

From the AP Press

Scrolling Blog: July 2022

The original TDE blog format. Stacked, sundry, and short for swift scanning since 2004.

The growing movement to restore classical education

Chesterton articulates so well [this vision] of education being the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to the next

What Did the Classics Do to Christianity?

Specifically, what did the Humanists' emphasis on the Classics do to Christianity at the beginning of the modern world?

Every Town has a Story Worth Saving: A Review of Hello, Bookstore

Is there another art form as dependent on chance as the documentary film? In 2019, director A.B. Zax set out to capture the story of the appropriately-if-unimaginatively-named The Bookstore, a fixture of Lenox, Massachusetts owned and operated by its proprietor Matthew Tannenbaum since 1976. With the arrival of COVID-19

The Day Mozart Stole Music from the Vatican

From VoegelinView

Heartland Manufacturing Renaissance

From City Journal

New Elvis Film Reveals Why He’s Still Idolized as the King of Rock ’n’ Roll

By Joseph Serwach

Frank Sturgis: The Shadowiest of the Shadows?

From The Wrap

Great Books Podcast Episode

Roosevelt Montás on Rescuing Socrates - EconlibHow do books change our lives? Educator and author Roosevelt Montás of Columbia University talks about his book Rescuing Socrates with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Drawing on his own educational and life journey, Montás shows how great books don’t just teach us stuff–

The “Czech Bach”: Who Was Jan Dismas Zelenka?

From VoegelinView

Tired of Being Chumps

What happens when the people who have been the backbone of America realize the system is rigged against them and stop supporting it?

St. Thomas Aquinas: “The Dumb Ox," by G.K. Chesterton

A Micro-Review/Essay

Wokeness, the Highest Stage of Managerialism

From City Journal

On Working without Working. Or St. Terese's Little Way. Or Zen Work.

"There is no greater pleasure in ordinary life, so-called, than to see a bus-conductor, a teacher, anybody, really engrossed in his work, with no thought of its relative or absolute value, with no thought of its interest or profit to himself or others." R.H. Blyth, Zen in

Dreiser, Cather, Stevens

From The Tablet

Libertarian Biographies

Brad Birzer reviews a new book about major figures in the libertarian tradition. Needless to say, I now want to buy it, but I'm holding back. I had a drink with one of Birzer's friends a few weeks ago. I think he's probably less

‘Metaphysical Animals’ and ‘The Women Are Up to Something’: A Philosophy of Their Own

From the Wall Street Journal

Jack Dorsey's Decentralized Web

From Bitcoin Magazine

Joseph Epstein's Four Volumes of Mini-Biographies

Joseph Epstein's four volumes of literary mini-biographies: Plausible Prejudices: Essays on American Writing (1985) Partial Payments: Essays on Writers and Their Lives (1989) Pertinent Players: Essays on the Literary Life (1993) Life Sentences: Literary Essays (1997)

Expect Complete Chaos if You’re Heading to Europe This Summer

From Fodor's

The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, by George Gissing

A Micro-Review Essay

Was the Episcopalian Judy Garland Too Jewish for Her Own Good?

From Forward magazine

Drunk and Driven

My pursuit of drunken perfection (humor) I’m thinking about becoming an alcoholic. Beer and wine are my favorites, so I’ll drink a lot of them. I don’t like hard liquor, but I’ll drink it if that what it takes to realize my ambition. Unlike some people

A Writer’s Misadventures with a Cancel-Minded Mob on Goodreads

From City Journal

Scrolling Blog: June 2022

June 30, 2022 Classical Education is Coming Back It must be "Classics Thursday." The Washington Examiner has run a great opinion piece about the salubrious return of classical education, with a GKC kicker. What is now commonly referred to as a “classical” or “liberal arts” education has been

Mystery: Numinous, yet decipherable

From the Hedgehog Review

The Many Traditions of Tolkien

From Front Porch Republic

Anthony Bourdain: The Enigma of Cool

From City Journal

The World of the Polis, by Eric Voegelin

A Micro-Review/Essay

Classic Dalrymple

From Taki Mag.

Punt, Pass and Kick

💡When I moved from my house of 30 years, I threw out all my trophies, except four that were special to me. I am now throwing out those four, taking the expert de-hoarder advice to take a picture of things that are special but useless one step further by blogging

High Average

💡When I moved from my house of 30 years, I threw out all my trophies, except four that were special to me. I am now throwing out those four, taking the expert de-hoarder advice to take a picture of things that are special but useless one step further by blogging

The New Right Surges . . . in Lower Manhattan?

From The New Statesman

How to Survive the Atheistic Hurricane

Raskolnikov to the Demons, with the Underground Man topping it off.

How America Sold Out Little League Baseball

From America Magazine

Plato and Aristotle, by Eric Voegelin

A Micro-Review/Essay

On Stalin’s Library: A Dictator and His Books

From The New Criterion

There's No Fix for the Student Loan Debacle

From Public Discourse

Why Joseph Smith Matters

From The Marginalia Review

Historians can be divided into followers of Herodotus (the storytellers) and Thucydides (the fact-grubbers)

From the The Wall Street Journal

Jean-Paul Sartre: In Brief

Sartre denied that we have any natural traits (i.e., essences, characteristics). Instead of such essences, Sartre said, we have existence, and that’s it. Our essences don’t really exist. At best, they have a secondary reality because we first exist, then select our essences. In his words: “[M]

How I Use the Gardening Blockchain Crypto-Johnson Rod Algorithm to Deal with the Modern World

Confused and Contented in the Garden

The ESB Project at 100,000

I don't count the number of essays in the Project, much less the number of words, but I realized this morning that the Project probably stands at 100,000ish words. It's nearing the finish.

P.G. Wodehouse Referenced Booze . . . A Lot

Ah, yes. Three of my sons, post-wedding Mass last Saturday. It was, after all the struggles and cost, a glorious day. That's Alex, the groom, to the far left, then Michael and Jack to the far right. The other three guys are school chums. Yes, "chums."

About the One-Thing Files

“The One-Thing File” is a practice I learned from Econtalk. It's the practice of writing just one thing (okay, maybe more than one) that I learn from a book, essay, documentary, podcast, whatever. For younger TDE readers, think of it as Reddit's “Today I Learned” feature.

Free Seeds . . . at Your Public Library?

From Civil Eats.

How a Talisman Works

All forms of magic have this in common: they try to manipulate the spiritual to direct the material.

Seven Great Quotes About Money

Emperor Vespasian famously said, “Money has no smell” when questioned about his decision to tax urinals. The folks here might disagree.

The musical note that can trigger cold sweats and sightings of the dead

From The Spectator

On Small Talk

Small talk. I dislike it. It can be argued that it is part of the lubrication that keeps social wheels moving smoothly, but I'm not talking about cordialities ("Hi," "How are the kids doing?" etc.). I'm talking about extended conversations that are

Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter Turns One Hundred

From Plough

Scrolling Blog: May 2022

Scrolling Blog Entries: May 2022

I Spent Wednesday Evening with a Bottle of Gin and a Pile of Old Magazines, Wasting Time on a Stupid Task

It was a delightful waste of time.

Solon, the Father of Democracy, was a Man of the Tao

💡Solon opened Athens to true order: the transformative order found through the Tao. Ancient Athens in the 600s BC Ancient Athens didn’t have a king. It was ruled by nine archons. These were men from the largest landowning families in Attica. When an archon finished his term, he became

How to Kill the Tao

The left hemisphere gets things done. The Tao isn’t concerned about getting things done. Let your left hemisphere dominate: you’ll never be bothered by the Tao again.

The Difference Between Rebelling Against the Establishment and Rebelling Against the establishment (small "e")

My Dad was fiercely conservative. A full-blown WASP, albeit of the first-generation sort, his parents having migrated from Russia shortly before 1917. We used to drink beer at a local dive bar and discuss sundry (and sudsy) topics. During one conversation, I told him I was reading On the Road

Leisure, the Basis of Culture, by Josef Pieper

A Micro-Review/Essay

Enemies of the Permanent Things, by Russell Kirk

A Micro-Review Essay

The Spokane Word

From Taki Mag

Edward Frenkel on Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy

"Nietzsche wrote this book called The Birth of Tragedy and he presented this theory . . . of two sides of a human. One that comes from Apollo, and that's the left brain so to speak: everything that has to do with logic, and reason, and analyzing, dissecting, conceptualizing. And

Life and Times of Booth Tarkington

From The Worthy House

Michael Polanyi's Personal Knowledge Anticipated Iain McGilchrist's Hemisphere Hypothesis

A few notes (a half-baked short essay) about the Hungarian chemist/philosopher and the English psychiatrist/philosopher

“Live in the Now” is Bad Practical Advice

But it’s good existential advice Do you want a piece of advice that I’ve seen recommended by sages in virtually every spiritual tradition? Live in the present moment. I don’t care if it’s a Muslim Sufi or a Christian mystic or an Indian yogi or a

Who is Sohrab Ahmari?

From Ouillette

McLuhan Sighting

"Philosophize This" dedicates an episode to Marshall McLuhan. It's very good. The podcast is here. The transcript to the podcast is here. You ask people that question what would you rather be? Blind or deaf? And 99% of people say they'd rather be deaf.

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon

From The Worthy House

A Room with a Feud

Literary criticism used to be terribly clever and terribly savage.

Ukraine: Against History and Geography

From The Hedgehog Review

The Fable Behind The Master and His Emissary

The Master and His Emissary takes its title from a story by Nietzsche (McGilchrist, humorously, drops a footnote and says he can't remember where he saw it . . . and apparently the editors at Yale couldn't, either). It goes like this: A wise spiritual master ruled a small

Was Descartes Nuts?

The Cartesian view of the world adopts a stance normally found only in patients suffering from schizophrenia. Referring to a famous passage from the Meditations on First Philosophy in which Descartes describes looking out of his window and seeing what he knows to be people passing by as seeming to

Orban’s victory might not make sense to the West. But it’s what Hungary wants.

From the Washington Post

Feeding the Poor with Food, not Energy Drinks and Kentucky Fried Chicken

From The Daily Yonder

How Can You Cure Yourself of Modernitis?

You're soaked in modernity. You think like a modern. It's not good. Consider doing the opposite of whatever your rationality tells you to do.

Where Are the Earlier Entries?

Are you looking for earlier scrolling blog pieces? I’m afraid you’ll have to search for each one individually. Why no scrolling blog, even though the tagline says “since 2004”? Simply because all blogs were scrolling (“stacked”) back in 2004. That was the only format, which made sense (blog

If You Want to Flourish, Develop Your Router

Insane people often have impaired right hemispheres. Unfortunately, we probably all have impaired right hemispheres.

Shift in Drinking Habits

It seems alcohol is reeling. Every week, I see stories about another industry that's hurting, but few stories point to the culprit: legal marijuana. In my generation, I see many adults who drink far less but smoke far more (or eat edibles). I've known at least

The Continuing Importance of Thomas Sowell

From Imprimis

Transmitting Philosophical Symbols

In order to appreciate what the sage is saying, a person must have already had a parallel experience of some sort. After I was done writing the Russian monk piece last week, I pulled Sergius Bolshakoff’s Russian Mystics off the shelf. It’d been years since I read it,

All Gnostics are Left-Hemispheric, but Not All Left-Hemispherics are Gnostics

The difference between political gnosticism and cultural gnosticism

We Need to Resist the World of Pure Action

Last week, Michael Osterholm went on the Joe Rogan Experience for the second time. Osterholm, some might recall, went on Rogan early in the pandemic. Later Rogan guests decried him as a “chicken little” who was just trying to hawk his book. Osterholm said things that turned out to be

Invasion of the Fact-Checkers

From the Tablet

An Anthology, by Josef Pieper

A Micro-Review/Essay “The possibility of incurring guilt is the ultimate existential threat for every person.” There are some authors who make you think, “I could just read this guy for the rest of my life. He’d bring me to greater and greater levels of wisdom and understanding.” Pieper

Disney Queers Children, Says Disney Exec

From The American Conservative

Albert Camus Knew the Left Hemisphere was Missing Something Crucial

He approached his philosophy of the absurd with the left hemisphere rationalist approach, but at least he recognized the rationalist's problem.

We live in a nation of strangers. That needs to change

From Deseret News

The Black Arts Have No Nonsense About Them

Black Magic, Witchcraft, and Other Dark Responses to Challenge

Chesterton and the Millennial Nun

In an essay that appeared some years back in the Huffington Post, Eve Fairbanks asked why after fifty years of decline, millennial women were discovering religious vocations. Fairbanks is not alone in her confusion. Many Catholics are also puzzled: not long ago, traditional women’s religious life, with all the

Footnote

The Internet is a machine designed for the efficient, automated collection, transmission, and manipulation of information, and its legions of programmers are intent on finding the “one best way”—the perfect algorithm—to carry out the mental movements of what we’ve come to describe as knowledge work. . . . What Taylor

Jacques Derrida Dismantles Modernity

Jacques Derrida revealed modernity's dirty secret: It was always just another religion . . . or rather, a series of religions, just like the Christian sects it scorned.

Cancel Culture: A Young Person's Game

Photo by Jievani on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/holiday-people-vintage-letter-8185593/]The clash between socialist and liberal economics defined the late twentieth century, and this century brings a cultural version of that struggle. Today’s culture wars pit advocates of equal outcomes and special protection for identity groups against

Modern Existentialism is the Rejection of Modernity's Extreme Essentialism

Modernity is rejection of the Tao (the "Great Rejection"). Existentialist movements throughout the past 200 years have rejected the rejection . . . and proven wildly popular.

Big Market for Composting Worms

Wriggly, voracious Eisenia fetida — red wiggler worms — could be the new livestock for Southern California gardeners ... if only they were easier to find. The demand for composting worms skyrocketed during the pandemic, when people stuck at home discovered (or rediscovered) the joys of gardening. On top of that, a new

Can Dryland Farming Help Growers Endure Increasing Heatwaves and Drought?

From Modern Farmer

Russell Kirk: The Anti-Modernist Cerberus

The author of The Conservative Mind opposed modernity in at least three ways Russell Kirk hated modernity. He rebelled against it his entire life. He hated the automobile, calling it a “modern Jacobin.” He wouldn't allow a TV in his house (though he let a hobo named “Clinton”

Four Quirky Post-WWI Utopians

Utopian irrationalism flourished after World War I. Here's a glimpse at four such reformers.

The Revolt Against Essence

Getting to know the most popular philosophy of the 20th century

The Zen of Littleness: St. Therese's Way

💡This isn't the second part of a 2-part series, but readers might want to read or skim this previous piece before reading this one. Dogen, the father of the Soto School of Japanese Zen, is arguably the most significant intellectual in the Zen tradition. As a young man

Why We Will Save California

Photo by Tae Fuller on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/golden-gate-bridge-san-francisco-california-1141853/] In October, HarperCollins published [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0063093626?pf_rd_r=F2HSAY31EYE6EV5KQK4D&pf_rd_p=8fe9b1d0-f378-4356-8bb8-cada7525eadd&pd_rd_r=d8fc4e5e-411e-413a-bcc4-c7e9700ef5d4&pd_rd_w=r9nFn&pd_rd_wg=CyRop&ref_

This Monk Understands David Foster Wallace

And people who reject the unholy Trinity of Rationalism, Empiricism, and Progressivism.

Orwell Was Right

From free speech to "spheres of influence" to our passion for endless war, we've become the doublethinkers 1984 predicted. Matt Taibbi Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/poster-of-1984-is-now-paste-on-street-post-3671145/] This weekend I re-read 1984, a book I tend to reach for

The Vertical Farming Bubble is Finally Popping

Adele Peters at Fast Company

The Plague of Thoughtlessness

Photo by Vishnu R Nair on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-at-concert-1105666/]Sometimes modern perplexities call for ancient wisdom. Today, St. Thomas Aquinas’ warning about the vice of “thoughtlessness” may shine a light on contemporary discourse—if trite prattle even qualifies as discourse. More to the point, we

Hope in Human Nature Springs Eternal

Photo by Yaroslav Danylchenko on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-brown-dress-holding-white-plastic-bottle-painting-4113084/] In our school parents’ WhatsApp group last month, a petition was making the rounds to do away with masking our children. Some of the supporters were parents who, just a few months ago, aggressively backed any and

Spiraling Violence in Chicago: Causes and Solutions

There’s violent crime aplenty in Chicago. But punishment? Not so much. Photo by Chait Goli on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-buildings-1823681/]Murders nationwide in 2020 rose a stunning 29.4 percent over the previous year, the largest annual increase since the FBI began tracking that data

Therese Lisieux's Little Way is Exquisitely Post-Modernist

Another postmodernist existentialist revolt against the left hemisphere and its suffocating emphasis on essence

Neo-Prohibitionists Now to Turn to Science

The Anti-Neo-ProhibitionistsActually, I don't believe my own title, but the entire flip-floppy nature of scientific research regarding the effects of alcohol should discredit science in general. One study says a little alcohol helps; another says it hurts. One says small amounts help the heart; others say that'

Don’t Crowd Me?

SenecaA few years ago, I went to the local high school’s first home football game, which, like most home openers, was well-attended. Afterward, I was exhausted. I mean, absolutely exhausted, like I had lead around my shoulders. I’d had a hard week at work, but the level of

Mystics and Zen Masters, by Thomas Merton

A Micro-Review/Essay

Many Predicted NATO Expansion Would Lead to War.

Photo by Jakson Martins on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/soldier-holding-gun-2230885/]I'm not a huge fan of the Cato Institute, but this is a good piece: Russia's military offensive against Ukraine is an act of aggression [https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/02/russia-war-on-ukraine-what-does-putin-hope-to-achieve/] that

Why soil is a surprisingly noisy place

The first time that Marcus Maeder stuck a noise sensor into the ground, it was on a whim. A sound artist and acoustic ecologist, he was sitting in a mountain meadow and pushed a special microphone he'd built into the soil. "I was just curious," says

Anchor Bags for the Low Tunnels

I mentioned earlier that I'm erecting a bunch of low tunnels to keep insects off my spinach crops. I bought 100 76" wire support hoops and 500' of Agribon floating row cover. Now I just needed something to anchor down the fabric. Most resources caution against

Jack Kerouac: The Tao on Steroids

Kerouac rejected The Great Rejection

Louis Markos

Louis Markos is one of the most engaging lecturers I've ever listened to. If you get a chance to pick up his lectures at The Great Courses or otherwise, I highly recommend him. He's also responsive to emails. He has given me invaluable guidance in forays

The Free Market is Anti-Gnostic

That's why I'm always drawn to it. It doesn't deny or decry a structure of oppression. It just says, "That's the way things are; deal with it." The gnostic says, "I hate the way things are, so I'

California, I Barely Knew Thee!

Riddle: What do you get when you combine great weather and great social welfare programs that make it feasible to live outdoors with a housing inventory that isn't nearly sufficient to accommodate the throngs of people who want to live in the same place? Answer: California. Geographically, it

Is the New Left the Old Occult?

The supernatural and paranormal. Postmodernism and critical theory. What could be the connection?

On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

A Micro-Review/Essay “We’ve finally got to heaven. It couldn’t be cooler, it couldn’t be grander, it couldn’t be anything.” The elves of Middle Earth longed for the sea, even if they didn’t know it. A wood elf might spend his entire eviternal existence without

The World of Meditation is Here

Get ready for “Six-Minute Hesychasm” and “How to Get as Mentally Jacked as Jack Kornfield”

These May Be The World's Most Unusual Booze Brands

Arkhi Vodka Once upon a time in ancient Mongolia, the nomadic horse tribes began fermenting mares' milk to make a drink called airag, a product similar to the drink we know as kefir. At some point, they started taking this fermented mares' milk and distilling it to make

Dorothy Parker was a Brilliant Slut and Four Other Sundries to Entertain Your Friends at the Bar Tonight

The godfather of modern libertarianism, Albert Nock, was in his prime during Prohibition. Needless to say, he railed against it, noting once that it’s absurd to regulate something that, in nature, flows as freely as water. He’s right, of course. And the fact that it flows as freely

Late Winter is a Great Time to Let Your Right Hemisphere Out in the Garden

Plus: Seven Things I Did in the Garden this February

Will Putin Use Nukes?

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/grayscale-photo-of-explosion-on-the-beach-73909/] From his principal avenues of attack on Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin began this war with three strategic goals. Send an army south from Belarus to capture Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and replace the government. Send forces into

The Javelin is Wrecking Putin's Tanks

Photo by Andy on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-throwing-a-javelin-6271998/]Ukraine is a highly devout country – about 87% of its 41 million citizens practice Christianity. So it's notable that, to many Ukrainians, Mary Magdalene now has a new moniker [https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/02/

Artificial Intelligence Doesn't Have a Right Hemisphere

Language is the prime material of logical constructions. Owen Barfield, Poetic Diction (1928) Large language models are trained on human data from the Internet. Lex Fridman, #370, Edward Frenkel (37:30) "AI Might Eliminate Us, but It Can't Replace Us." Anonymous

Rubio, Sanders, CNN, and CIA All Align

Photo by Donald Tong on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-camera-recorder-66134/]It is genuinely hard to overstate how overwhelming the unity and consensus in U.S. political and media circles is. It is as close to a unanimous and dissent-free discourse as anything in memory, certainly since the

The United States is Weak and Corrupt. Russia and China Know It

I think that's what Rod Dreher is saying here. I don't disagree. Photo by Matti on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/young-girl-protesting-against-war-in-ukraine-11284548/] I’m getting a lot of blowback in the comments section from people who are appalled that I’m not spending all

How to Brand Yourself Today

Pick Four Traits. One of Them Must be “Victim”

Machiavelli Would've Used the N' Word (if It Would've Advanced the Prince)

Machiavelli was probably the first person to advocate a rationalist system in contradiction to irrationalist norms.

How Do We Account for Thomas Merton?

Thomas Merton started as a writer, became a Trappist monk with genuine insight into the spiritual life, and then wrapped himself in worldly activism. What happened?

Neil Young Never Hated the Man

He just hated THAT man

Montaigne: The Godfather of 4Chan?

💡Montaigne was the godfather of modern skepticism. His was a “negative skepticism,” which disturbed Descartes enough to prompt him to come up with a positive response, which in turn gave us modernity, its fierce subjectivism, and the parade of “little gods” that have marred the last 200+ years. "In

Why David Hume is Important

💡Within 100 years, the Cartesians used impeccable logic derived from Descartes' I think there I am to reach two conclusions: there is no earthly agent of movement and there is no matter. There is only God and mind. Hume yanked God and mind out of these conclusions and the

The Gnostic is a Believer

Part III of an Analysis of Eric Voegelin's Six Gnostic Traits

150 Years that Shook Europe

The years 1309 through 1453 made Europe redefine itself.

If You Meet the Buddha, Kill Him

J.D. Salinger hit the jackpot in 1951. At age 32, he published The Catcher in the Rye, a novel about an alienated teenager named “Holden Caulfield,” and it became an immediate bestseller. He was a success. But the novel met with considerable resistance from parents who thought it was

Do You Have a Totalitarian Impulse?

Drinking with friends and the Diocletian Test Do you have a totalitarian impulse? Ask yourself: "Do I think the government's goals or aims should take priority over human nature?" Put another way: "Do I think the government's noble end justifies a bad means?

When Western Civilization Submitted Itself to a Lobotomy

Descartes' dualism was obviously wrong, but it won over western civilization.

Descartes Praised Lycurgus. It’s Our Earliest Glimpse of the Problem with Modernist Thinking

There’s a direct line between Descartes’ admiration for Lycurgus and modernity’s parade of love affairs with strong leaders who would use rationality to impose their subjective reality on the world.

An Unjust Law is No Law at All

Photo by Kindel Media on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/hand-of-a-person-with-handcuffs-7773264/]It has become something of a habit in both the American and Canadian media to insist that the Canadian trucker protest against vaccine mandates is an "illegal protest." They are "illegal border protests [https:

A Dozen Quotes from Prometheus Bound: A Play about Spiritual Disease

Prometheus' proud defiance of the divine order made him into a raving maniac. He lost his connection to the Tao: the transcendental router.

The Secret Life of Philip Rieff

By Blake Smith, at The Tablet

Supply Chain Problems Favor Amazon and the Big Boxes

SMALLER RETAILERS SIMPLY CANNOT COMPETE with their bigger rivals in a supply chain scramble. A case in point: Giants like Walmart, Home Depot, and Dollar Tree have chartered their own cargo ships to sail to smaller ports like Houston, Texas, and Everett, Washington [https://gcaptain.com/reluctant-merchants-embracing-amazons-charted-ships-and-global-shipping-services-this-holiday-season/] , avoiding weeks-long waits

The Gnostic Hates the Structure

Part VI of an Analysis of Eric Voegelin's Six Gnostic Traits (Part I, of Two Parts)

Howard Stern Has Left the Building

Howard Stern was never just another entertainer. For millions of (mostly male) fans—first in New York, and later, thanks to syndication, in markets around North America—he was the guy who helped get them through the day and rise above their mundane frustrations, with his irreverent humor about politics

Keep Sweet and Have Sex

Like those renegade Mormons, we all put things on the shelf when they don't fit into our system.

The Gnostic is Never Satisfied

Part I of an Analysis of Eric Voegelin's Six Gnostic Traits

The Art of Ghosting (First Take)

Don't tell them "goodbye" It’s not often that I read something at Slate and say, “Rat own!” But this guy pretty much nails it, even if he doesn’t go quite far enough in my opinion: Don’t Say Goodbye. He advocates a thing called

When the World First Started to be Aware of Transcendence

Ten of History's Greatest Seers All Lived Around the Same Time

The Art of Ghosting (Second Take)

Ghosting. The Irish Goodbye. The Drunken Magician. All synonyms for my favorite drinking move: Leaving the gathering without saying goodbye. I know it’s socially unacceptable. It even rises to the level of rudeness if it leaves your friends with concerns that you might be hurt (like the time I

How to Write for Surfer Dudes

I spent last summer, taking digital essay lessons. They were part of a series that I call, “Learning to Write for Morons,” by Medium.com. I learned a lot, but I can condense the lessons into one premise: If you're writing online articles, you have a split second

English Drunks, Both Fictional and Not

I linked to The Guardian’s obituary of Wilfrid Sheed (1940-2011) yesterday. Sheed’s first book was A Middle Class Education (1960), which was apparently semi-autobiographical, much like Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. The Guardian notes that there’s a lot of drinking in Middle Class: Owing more to Kingsley

Why the Marxist Kicks You in the Groin

The objection to a Communist always resolves itself into the fact that he is not a gentleman. It is not possible to engage in controversy with him as one engages in controversy with other men. He invariably hits below the belt if he can; indeed, his resentment is not so

Mystical Sex, Theft, and Violence

One of the most perplexing groups in medieval history got strong in the 1300s.

Please Don't Think I Can Judge Anyone's Soul, Especially a Genius Like Merton's

I want to point out: This essay is conjecture. In a way, I "work backward" from a lifetime of reading and admiring Merton's writings, combining them with biographical details, adding my understanding of Gnosticism and the Hemisphere Hypothesis, and coming up with this explanation of the

Why Francis Bacon is Properly Considered a Founding Father of Modernity

It’s no wonder the poet William Blake wrote of Bacon’s essays, “Good advice for Satan’s Kingdom.”

Introducing Eric Voegelin

The Metaxy: A Primer

Christianity says life is hard because of Original Sin. Eric Voegelin would say it's hard because we live in the metaxy. METAXY: The permanent in-between structure of existence. Sometimes referred to as the between or in-between, meaning that humans live in a structure of reality that is between

Top Ten Mystics of the 14th Century

They were the rock stars of late medieval Europe

The Gnostic Never Blames Himself

Part II of an Analysis of Eric Voegelin's Six Gnostic Traits

Southern Life, Agrarian Vision: The Apprenticeship of Andrew Lytle

By Mark Malvasi at The Imaginative Conservative

You See What You Are

"[E]ach man judges others by his own state, that is, by what he is himself--in virtues or sins." Symeon the New Theologian. Many thinkers, such as Marcus Aurelius, made this same observation. The Amazon link takes you to an excellent book about Symeon. Like all books in

Everything You Wanted to Know about Bohemianism

But were afraid you'd get an erection

Voegelin’s New Science of Politics Put Gnosticism Back into Our Awareness

💡If you want to understand how gnosticism flourishes in our modern world, you need to understand why it developed in the ancient world Time magazine ran a peculiar feature in 1953. It used a five-page analysis of The New Science of Politics to celebrate the magazine’s 30th anniversary, stating

The Modern Gnostic Wants His Structure to Control

Part VI of an Analysis of Eric Voegelin’s Six Gnostic Traits (Part II of Two Parts)

From Renaissance "Follow the Magic" to Modernity "Follow the Science"

The Renaissance Believed in Magic Like Moderns Believe in Science

The Gnostic Believes His Paradise is a Historic Inevitability and His Movement Will Bring It About

Parts IV and V of an Analysis of Eric Voegelin's Six Gnostic Traits

The Homeless are Now Early Morning Risers

My entire life, I've been taught early risers have a head start on success. Rise and shine! Get a jump on the day before it gets a jump on you. The early bird gets the worm. ' Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy,

Sacred Cow Homeless (Continued)

Maybe those folks in Thailand have a better way of dealing with our sacred cow homeless. Cambodia Lets Tourists Shoot Cows With Rocket Launchers - Cambodia Expats Online: Forum | News | Information | BlogCambodia Lets Tourists Shoot Cows With Rocket Launchers Trevor KucheranAugust 9, 2018 Travel News For the Right Price Tourists

Why Gnosticism is Left Hemispheric

Gnosticism is logical. In fact, it can be argued that logic and rational conclusions are the gnostic's gods. The gnostic uses rationality to construct abstract ideas of how the world works . . . of what full reality is. The gnostic then embodies these abstract ideas into structures (the belief in

Seven Early Symptoms of the Mental Disease “Modernitis”

“Modernitis”: A mental disease, rarely diagnosed, marked by intuitive confidence in one’s ideas and the findings of science

These Six Traits Make a Person a Gnostic

A Diagnostic of the Gnostic Eric Voegelin was to modern gnosticism what Knute Rockne was to Notre Dame football. Rockne didn’t start the ND football program and Voegelin didn’t discover modern gnosticism, but they took their subjects to much higher levels. The Swiss theologian, Hans urs Von Balthasar

Those Hippy Puritans

Exploring America's Millenarian Movements 💡The Puritans were Gnostics. If you understand Puritans, you start to understand modern Gnosticism. If you understand modern Gnosticism, you begin to see the glaring problem that is modernity. We are a nation held together, paradoxically, by the agonism of conflicting millenarian projections: communists,

How Alcohol Fuels Civilization

Gonna pick me up a six-pack of art this evening Marshall McLuhan made himself a household name, writing about media. Media are tools, things that extend ourselves: a hammer extends our fist, flashlights extend our eyes, etc. I'm not sure he ever considered whether alcohol might be a

The Elf Lays Down His Harp to Kill an Orc

A few notes on the Inklings, Iain McGilchrist, and Poetic Language

What’s that Twitter Imp Up to?

From the Archives (January 2021)

Thomas Aquinas: Pinnacle to Obsolescence in 200 Years and Why It Matters

Aquinas knew there was something prior to essence and being. Western culture lost sight of it.

Are You Engaged in the Act of Existence? Then You’re a Man of the Tao

Introducing "The Reality Spectrum"

Tao: The Transcendental Modem

For the fortunate few, that router is hard-wired with fiber optic. Most of us only get a wireless connection, and a wobbly one at that.

How to Break on Through to the Other Side

The Doors released their first single in 1967: “Break on Through (to the Other Side),” a tribute of sorts to Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception. Huxley had been trying to break on through to the other side for years. He put together a splendid book in the 1940s

How to Start Detaching the Door of Reality from Its Hinges

You Need to Deal with the Survival Paradox The man who invented the calculator, you might imagine, was pretty freakin’ smart. But he apparently didn’t understand some really freakin’ fundamental things. He one time wrote: “I know not what is good or bad in anything. I know not which

Neil Young Never Hated the Man(son)

The song Neil Young wrote about the infamous murderer Charles Manson Neil Young and Charles Manson have a bizarrely intertwined history. The two men once shared a jam session at a time when Manson was an up and coming talent, one that had started to make waves in California and

The Left Hemisphere is a Paradox Moron

It is very possible that "paradoxes are actually fundamental to reality. . . . We exist in a world, of not forms, but of paradoxes." Lex Fridman (Edward Frenkel, #370), 1:10:25

We Golf. Therefore, the Tao Is.

We intuit the Tao. That’s why our active hobbies engage us.

How to Escape the Selfishness Paradox

Hint: Stop Thinking About It The word “selfish” trended strongly over the past few years. People who wouldn’t lock down: selfish. People who wouldn’t get the vaccine: selfish. People who rail against economic inequality: selfish (manifested in envy). The problem with alleging selfishness, though, is that every human

McConaughey on His Way to Rome?

How to Kill that Feeling of Thankfulness

Exploring the Thankfulness Paradox I live in Michigan. A lot of people think October is the prettiest time in Michigan (“fall colors!”), but I’m not so sure. “Michigan in May,” I tell people, “is one of the best places.” Dozen hues of green, pink cherry blossoms, purple lilacs, tulips

Blaise Pascal: The Mathematical and the Intuitive Mind

Nayeli Riano at the Imaginative Conservative

The Pseudo-Dionysius and the Tao

The Satoshi Nakamoto of Mysticism. This dude first articulated the western mystical tradition. Like the inventor of Bitcoin, we don’t even know who he was. But he pointed to the Tao.

Dr. Faustus and Mr. Lao-Tzu

When Dr. Faust insulted the Tao, the devil emerged.

A Local Bar is a Good Place to Be

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a splendid ode to local bars last week [https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/insight/2022/01/09/A-good-place-to-be-A-local-bar-can-be-more-than-a-place-to-get-a-drink/stories/202201090022] . Two people, neither from Pittsburgh, recommended it to me. It's the type of thing that could only be written by someone with a Catholic

How to Break a Maniac

My daughter sent that comic to me. The whole thing shows three ancient philosophers competing in the Philosophy event at the Greek Olympics: Thales, who declares everything is water. Zeno, who declares motion is impossible. Socrates, who declares they’re full of bulls***. Socrates won. But of course, he didn’

Microgreen Experimentation Goes Well

Welcome to the "Earthy" Side of TDE TDE's current tagline, "Earthy Catholic Commentary," has two meanings. (1) Ribaldry: subject matter and terminology that one priest friend once referred to as "earthy." The context: "He's a big jovial guy whose

The Great Reset is State-of-the-Art Hudge and Gudge

"Stakeholder capitalism" is big business with government shareholders . . . and it'll be wicked G.K. Chesterton wrote about "Hudge and Gudge": Big Business and Big Government. Here's how the American Chesterton Society describes these two GKC characters: Chesterton introduced these two in his

The World is Ending. Make Your Own Fertilizer

How to use dandelions to make a good, cheap fertilizer

Preliminary Notes Re: Focus

I will be exploring the difference between the left hemisphere's method of focus and the right hemisphere's. For now, I only note that a cottage industry has risen around focus, concentration, meditation, and the desire to rid ourselves of distractions. It's a good thing,

Terry Teachout, RIP

Terry Teachout died [https://newcriterion.com/blogs/dispatch/terry-teachout-19562022]. It's a terrible loss. He was one of those writers that made you feel smarter and better. I first started reading him when I was in college. He was the first columnist I read when National Review showed up.

Urban Farms Are Stepping Up Their Roles in Communities Nationwide

Rachel Surls at Civil Eats

The Traditional DE Blog (est. 2004)

"Earthy" Catholic Commentary on Everything that Matters For the One-Thing File Only Albert Camus befriended Czeslaw Milosz during his lonely Paris years (1950s). Great Books Interview about "The Captive Mind" [https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-great-books/episode-218-the-captive-mind-by-czeslaw-milosz/] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 7, 2022 Five Pieces of Furniture for

Micro-Bio: Charles Bukowski

“People are strange: They are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice.” That’s Charles Bukowski. The Bard of Booze. Legendary drunk, cult favorite, darling of the L.A. literary underground. His true life stories fueled Barfly

New Catholic Journal is Lighting It Up

As long as I’m gushing about literary journals, I should mention The Lamp. This newcomer is smart, appears to be well-funded, and takes its Catholicism seriously without getting bogged down in it. Exhibit A: The review-essay from its current issue by Joseph Epstein that I wrote about last week.

We Don't Know What Consciousness is Because We Don't Know What the Tao Is

Your consciousness is what it’s like to be you. It’s your experiences of color and sound and smell; your feelings of pain, joy, excitement or tiredness. It’s what makes you a thinking, sentient being rather than an unfeeling mechanism. Philip Goff, Scientific American Science is stumped: It

When Drunkenness is a Mortal Sin Redux

Aquinas appears to make it pretty hard to get so drunk that inebriation, by itself, is mortal A reader sent this link to me. Is getting drunk a sin? [https://www.catholiccompany.com/getfed/is-getting-drunk-a-sin/] The site’s conclusion: Yup, getting drunk is a serious sin. But the site doesn’

Dorsey: Gudge Slayer? Hudge Crippler?

From the TDE Archives (early 2022)

A Narcissus at Christmas: Received: The Complete Guide to Middle Earth

Robert Foster: The Complete Guide to Middle Earth. My sons pooled their money to buy me this deluxe edition of Robert Foster’s classic Middle Earth reference book. I’m not even sure where they found it, but it’s a beautiful book. After opening it, I said, “Wow, I

A Narcissus at Christmas: Received: The Eighth Day Book Catalogue

The 23rd Eighth Day Books Catalogue. The retail price says “$7,” but the link says “$5.50.” It’s worth it either way. It came out in 2020, and my youngest daughter was pretty disgusted with Marie when it came in. “This is all I’m giving him?!?!” Marie assured

A Narcissus at Christmas: Received Jack Kerouac: Scattered Poems

Jack Kerouac: Scattered Poems

My Family Calls it "Exercise Bulimia"

People who work out regularly and are aerobically fit tend to guzzle a surprising amount of alcohol, according to a new study, well timed for the holidays, [https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/2022/01000/Fit_and_Tipsy__The_Interrelationship_between.15.aspx] of the interplay between fitness, exercise and

Weigel and the Celebration of Christmas

A massive, sixteen-volume Lives of the Saints, first published between 1872 and 1877, informs me that, here in the Eternal City, the feast of Christmas first became a celebration distinct from the ancient feast of the Epiphany in the mid-fourth century—and that St. John Chrysostom, one of the four

Miscellaneous: My First Written Words about McGilchrist. Plus: The Golden Hour and Abstinence

Written and published on December 19, 2021

A Key Modern School of Philosophy Looked a Lot Like an Ancient School of Heresy

The pagan cosmic system of late antiquity put the earth at the center of creation, surrounded by eight heavenly spheres: (sun, moon, first five planets, and their stars). The ancient Christian heresy of gnosticism accepted this view of the cosmos but added a few things. The eight heavenly spheres, the

A Middling Way to Beat the Negativity Bias

You might not become a lovely person, but at least you won't be horrible Do you want to be a lovely person? Then entertain lovely thoughts. I think it’s that simple. You don’t need to try to be a lovely person. You just need to train

I Returned from my Annual Pilgrimmage to the Detroit Slums

Standing outside a gay bar in Highland ParkAnother whirlwind holiday weekend. I won’t bore you with the autobiographical details, but I made my annual daredevil trip down McNichols Road in Detroit, which is also known as “Six Mile Road,” which runs two blocks south of notorious Eight Mile. The

The Biggest Bar Night of the Year is Here

Just don't call it "Blackout Wednesday" It’s here! Black Wednesday 2021. My erstwhile traveling companion has the COVID, so he won’t be joining me, but I’ll have three sons in tow, thereby smashing the previous record held by my Dad (one son . . . me)

Hey, Another List Article!

I like lists, but the world of digital prose relies on them way too much. According to medium.com, articles that say, “Seven Things You Should Do Before You Die” or “Ten Signs Your Spouse is Cheating on You” or “19 Signs Your Genitals are Falling Off,” get more clicks.

How to Use a Fake I.D. to Find Happiness

That fake I.D. bought me many little bits of happiness and one big one Today is a Special Edition of BYCU. Part autobiographical, part inspirational, part drunken. Here goes. I met Marie 35 years ago today. She was 18. I was 20, but my older brother’s driver’s

Gin, Gin, and More Gin

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Fields, concerned about rationing, took a hand truck to a liquor store and loaded it with six cases of gin. When someone asked him why he need 72 bottles of gin, he replied, “I think it’s going to be a short war.” I

Focus on the Need for Focus

"All of my time and attention are spoken for—several times over. Please do not ask for them." I took my advice [https://thedailyeudemon.com/54960/] and decided to finish Cal Newport’s Deep Work [https://amzn.to/3pzv8Ki], which I had started twice but abandoned because it’

State of the Booze Nation Upon Emerging from the Lockdown

I assume folks noticed my blog was attacked by a thing called a “PHP change.” It changed every apostrophe and quote mark into a series of four symbols . . . everywhere. The site has been a trainwreck. I.T. Max is working on it, but there’s only so much he can

Little Caesars to Change Slogan to Hot-N-Ready-At-Some-Indeterminate-Point-in-the-Future

The Detroit Times September 19, 2021 DETROIT: Pizza giant Little Caesars has announced a change to its trademarked slogan "Hot-N-Ready" to reflect the current economic milieu of labor shortages and supply chain interruptions. "It has become apparent," said a Little Caesars representative, that we rarely have

This Little Publication is Still in Business

The magazine is an absolute work of art. It’s absurd, funny, noir, colorful . . . But it’s first and foremost a work of art. It’s the kind of thing I wish I could turn this blog into: a ridiculous little product that is done so well, people would have

Why Do Dudes in Vegas Look Like That?

Exploring the Vegas Bod When you think “Vegas body,” you probably think “sultry,” “skanky,” “sensual,” or “slinky”: what the showgirl looks like off-hours, like when a high school friend and I went to the Windsor Ballet 35 years ago and I swore that that woman walking in the mall the

House of Elrond: “Lindir is Out”

“We have no room in our house for such invidious statements” The Eriador Eccentric Fourth Age 221 RIVENDELL. A random exchange with the legendary Bilbo Baggins has cost Lindir his position in the House of Elrond. At issue is a half-joking exchange between the hobbit and the elf on October

Newest Candidate in Minas Tirith City Council Election Stirring Debate

Anfalas Times Fourth Age 165 MINAS TIRITH. Saul Khand's entry into the City Council race against incumbent Jack Imrahil has a lot of people excited. “I think it's great that a black man is finally breaking the white patriarchy in Gondor,” says supporter Lucy Fell. Others

California Nut Jobs

California "is a renowned haven for faddists, individualists and nuts of every kind. . . There's always some screwball out here who's got some new cult or ism working and a band of happy unrealistic acolytes around him who are now convinced that they've discovered

High Time Preference and Class

I remember my Dad telling me that time preference is the best measure of class. Class isn't based on race, nationality, religion, or money. The single-best determining factor of class is the ability to forego short-term pleasure for the sake of long-term gain. He told me that a

Pressure Mounts on Tolkien Estate to Finish Legolas-Gimli Tale

LGBTQI+: “It's time to make explicit what everyone has always known” Januay 25, 2023 PORTLAND. The greatest love story of Middle Earth has been repressed long enough. So assert members of the LGBTQI+ Tolkien community who believe the love affair between Legolas the Elf and Gimli the Dwarf

Tolkien's Beorn New Symbol of the LGBTQI+ Movement

Golden Bear Gazette July 21, 2021 SACRAMENTO. A huge werebear created by JRR Tolkien after WWII has become the improbable emblem of the LGBTQI+ movement. “He's just perfect,” says Bruce Byrnes, local gay community activist. “He's a bear, but he's a man.” Beorn is

How the Establishment Went Radical Left

“Having set out from unlimited freedom, I have ended up with unlimited despotism.” Shigalev (the intellectual of the revolutionary group in Dostoyevsky's The Devils). In The Devils, Dostoyevsky tells the stories of young revolutionaries who are children of Socialists. Their parents wanted change. They passed their views down

The Leek: Catholic America's Finest News Source

"The Real O'Neals" Simply Points Out that Catholicism Sucks Executives at ABC are encouraged by criticism leveled at the network's upcoming sitcom, "The Real O'Neals." "It's not like we say the Pope denies climate change or opposes

The Three Ideals of the Enlightenment

Isaiah Berlin summarized the Enlightenment ideals in these three premises, which Enlightenment thinkers held with religious-like fervor (to David Hume's amusement and, later, to Dostoyevsky's disgust): 1. Every genuine question can be answered. If it can’t be answered, it’s not a genuine question. 2.

Wild Gardening Notes

Note One: I need to come up with a better name than "Wild Gardening" I'm greatly encouraged by my wild garden experimentation. But I need a different name. "Wild gardening" is already being used, and it generally denotes something different (lots perennials, edible weeds,

Diabolical Ontological Monism

The best description I've found about the historical, practical, and logical hell that is ontological monism is provided by Warren Carroll, The Founding of Christendom (Christendom Press, 1985). In the first chapter, he writes about the Harappan civilization: its doctrine of reincarnation, cult of Thug stranglers, horned gods,

The Chicken Heart that Sucks Out Our Souls

Photo by Changbok Ko [https://unsplash.com/@kochangbok?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral] on Unsplash [https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral]The great Stoic Epictetus pointed out that education is the means to freedom. Unfortunately, education today frequently becomes the means of slavery. Everyone

Dostoyevsky's Possessed in Modern Day America

"Peter Verkhovensky meet John Styn. John, Peter is the descendant of godless liberal enlightenment thinkers who now wants violence and revolution. Peter, John is the descendant of an ex-Baptist minister who likes to hug a lot." That's what went through my mind a few years ago

The Hemisphere Hypothesis Briefly Collection

Re: Evelyn Waugh

When someone called his attention to a typographical error in one of his books, he replied that one cannot get any decent proofreading now “that they no longer defrock priests for sodomy.”******* While serving in the British army in Yugoslavia during World War II, he spread the rumor that Marshal

Carting Away Hobbits

I've started to re-read The Lord of the Rings. While listening to Brad Birzer's three-part interview on the National Review “Great Books” podcast, I realized that I had forgotten a lot of things about the books. More troubling, I had forgotten a lot of the charming

The Real Transylvania

From the One Thing File “The One Thing File” is a practice I learned from Econtalk. It's the practice of writing just one thing (okay, maybe more than one) that I learn from a book, essay, documentary, podcast, whatever. For younger TDE readers, think of it as Reddit&

What the Frick, Amazon?

I just watched The Fight of Our Lives [https://amzn.to/3cQUVHq]. It's a thoughtful yet unequivocal attack on the far left ideas that every Democrat and Republic ought to resist. It explains the problem with postmodernism, Marxist infiltration of the universities, safe spaces and cancel culture, declining

Libertarian and Conservative to Cuff One Another on Live Video

Photo by Roland Samuel [https://unsplash.com/@rosam2020?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral] on Unsplash [https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral]In this threatening age of The Great Reset and leftist rage at four years of Trump, the debate between conservatives and libertarians seems

Diagnosing James Martin Way Ahead of Time

Okay, I'm no seer, but I was pleased with myself when I found these notes from 2009 that I wrote after reading James Martin's My Life with the Saints: "I wasn't bowled over by the book, and Fr. Martin is, I fear, a

Getting Naked with Old People and Consulting Young People

Our topsy-turvy world Photo by Roy Reyna on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-woman-holding-tennis-racquet-3007761/]I ran across two items about age in the past 24 hours. The first is the story about the (previously) gorgeous Paulina Porizkova posting naked pictures of herself at age 55 [https://www.yahoo.

Three Things We Know About the Amazon LOTR Series

As long as I'm "on a Tolkien kick," I might as well mention that the Amazon series is apparently delayed due to COVID. People were estimating a 2021 release date, but now it appears it'll be late 2021 or early 2022. In the course

The Tolkien Companion

I earlier endorsed The Complete Guide to Middle Earth by Robert Foster. But if you're really into Tolkien and literary oddities, check out J.E.A. Tyler's The Tolkien Companion [https://amzn.to/3r68JBB] (as a matter of aesthetics, principle, and everything that is good on

"We cannot be happy unless we love." Dorothy Day

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Choose Wisely

A man is at a cocktail party. An angel appears and reveals to the crowd that the man had recently risked his life to save a little girl. The angel announced to the man in front of everybody: “You may choose one: Greatest wisdom, greatest wealth, or greatest fame.” The

Philip Rivers Hangs with Eric Scheske

Thanks to Archangel Radio for having me on their morning show. The video is below. The interview starts at 5:40. Archangel Radio is also the home of the St. Michael's Cardinals football team, which is where Philip Rivers is the new coach. That, like, makes Philip Rivers

Looking for a Book Curator?

If you hadn't noticed, there are tons of books out there. It can be hard to find new stuff that's also "reliable" (whatever that means). I highly recommend Eighth Day Books out of Wichita, Kansas. They're devoutly Greek Orthodox and "reliable&

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Who is This Ennui Guy Anyway?

Any why is he such a dick? Reinhard Kuhn (the author of The Demon of Noontide: Ennui in Western Literature) defined ennui as “the state of emptiness that the soul feels when it is deprived of interest in action, life, and the world (be it this world or another), a

Johnson Rod

TDE readers will occasionally see a reference to a "Johnson Rod." For those uninitiated to Seinfeld, it refers to an imaginary thing that is important but too complicated for anyone to understand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu-A8YfC4w0

Dostoyevsky's Mock Execution

In 1849, political radicals were taken out of their jail to be executed. They were lined up in front of the firing squad. Right before the guns were fired, a courier galloped up with an imperial decree, commuting the death sentence to a term in prison camp. The whole thing

How to Live Like a Zen Master

Lessons from spiritual adepts from various traditions tell us the same thing: Cultivate the eyes of a child

Four reasons why the Right shouldn't be too distraught by the Capitol building violence

If you're like me, you're still embarrassed by the violent eruption at the Capitol building last week. I know, Trump didn't directly provoke it, but those close to him did, and Trump indirectly did. As I mentioned yesterday [https://thedailyeudemon.com/53037/], no one

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Orwell Anniversary, of Sorts

"A Farthing Newspaper," the very first of George Orwell's articles to appear in England, was published on December 29, 1928, in G.K.'s Weekly. [Michael Shelden, Orwell, London, 1991, p. 127]

The Forsaken Stans

What are the most God-forsaken ares on earth? I'm talking about barren areas. Relatively barren of natural beauty, of a beautiful cultural history, and of a beautiful contemporary culture. And menacing: in its vastness, perhaps, or its brokenness. There are plenty of contenders (western Australia, western China, northeastern

Seven Days Make One Weak

Yeah, I know: The weekly column is a day late. But I also know: I told you not to expect another 7D1W column this year, yet here I am. I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Detroit to see the in-laws. Some of the finest folk this side of

Random College Football Thoughts

Photo by David Morris on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/american-football-playing-2190159/]Notre Dame will apparently get the fourth spot, which makes me happy, but (i) I think Texas A&M is a better choice, and (ii) it annoys me that the ACC will get two teams into

The Joseph Epstein/Jill Biden Affair

My man Joseph Epstein made a flash a few years ago with his suggestion that Jill Biden drop the "Dr." from her title while she serves as First Lady. The uproar was pretty intense. I saw him referred to as a "misogynist," "bigot," and

From Johnson's Dictionary: Neckweed, Siren, Pudder

Neckweed: Hemp. To pudder: to perplex, to disturb, to confound. Couple-beggar: One that makes it his business to marry beggars to each other. Siren: a mischievous enticer.

GKC on Waugh

Evelyn Waugh liked to send out satirical Christmas cards, and the apex (or nadir] of this practice was reached during the Christmas season of 1929. Waugh's card that year consisted of extracts reprinted from unfavorable reviews of his first novel, Decline and Fall. The harshest passage of all

Legislative Process, the Left Hemisphere, and Hayek

F.A. Hayek looking ahead 75 years to the world of COVID: "[A] socialist government must not allow itself to be too much fettered by democratic procedure." F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom The parallel to the Hemisphere Hypothesis is stunning. The left hemisphere hates to be

St. John of the Cross Feast Day

He arguably wrote the most Zen-like passage in the Christian tradition To reach satisfaction in all desire its possession in nothing. To come to possess all desire the possession of nothing. To come to the knowledge of all desire the knowledge of nothing. To come to the pleasure you have

Prohibiting Things with the Experts

Question: What do government COVID lockdowns and Prohibition have in common? Answer: They were both advocated by “the science” and “the experts.” That's Jeffrey Tucker's point in a great essay he just published: The “Expert Consensus” Also Favored Alcohol Prohibition [https://www.aier.org/article/the-expert-consensus-also-favored-alcohol-prohibition/

Seven Days Make One Weak

The past 11 days made me weak. You might recall that I had COVID the first week of November. I didn't. Or if I did, I caught it again on December 1st. I got tested this time and it came back positive. Plus, I lost my sense of

Orwell Paints Abortion in the Soul

In Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Orwell describes the protagonist's reaction to the suggestion from the girl he impregnated that she get an abortion: "That pulled him up. For the first time he grasped, with the only kind of knowledge that matters, what they were really talking about.

L.A. Genocide

David Cole has written one of the most interesting and amusing essays of 2020. Bonus: It's about Los Angeles. Photo by Giovanni Calia on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/low-angle-photography-of-brown-building-with-los-angeles-led-sign-2181230/] Los Angeles has always fascinated me. Among U.S. cities, it's second only to

The 2020 Election and Men in the Gray Flannel Suits

November 2020: When holding leftist beliefs officially became a sign of monotonous conformist thinking How did Biden pull off his victory? He didn't do as well with minority voters as every presumed he would. The Catholic vote continued to hover around 50% like it has for 20 years.

Satanism is on the Rise

And he's not talking about BLM, transgenderism, that pitiful Vanderbilt place-kicker stunt, and couples wedding showers. He's talking about actual Satanic activity. Scary stuff at National Catholic Register this morning [https://www.ncregister.com/interview/longtime-exorcist-satanism-is-growing-in-western-societies] . "Satanism is now a reality for many young people,

The Arius Puncher: St. Nicholas' Feast Day

December 6: St. Nicholas's feast day. John Zmirak writes everything you need to know [http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_real_st_nicholas/]. Excerpt: > The association of Nicholas with gift-giving isn't entirely arbitrary. Some of the earliest accounts of his life include the charming

$58 for an AOC Sweatshirt Isn't Too Much

But the mere use of a price at all is I found the uproar over AOC's $58 sweatshirt fascinating. I don't object to the price tag. It's no doubt pricey, but she's fundraising for her campaign. I frequently overpay for items when

What's Joe Epstein Been Saying?

A few choice passages from The Ideal of Culture (2018) and Gallimaufry (2020) The perennial need to be on the cutting edge: "Orwell wrote that liberals fear few things more than being outflanked on the left." Writing about his undergrad days at the University of Chicago, which was

Seven Days Make One Weak

Tolkien's House, Transgenders, and Timmerie There's not a single Tolkien center in the world. I was shocked to hear that. But it might change. A group is trying to buy Tolkien's old house in Oxford [https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/effort-to-buy-and-preserve-jrr-tolkien-house-in-oxford-39362] . The problem is,

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So, Were They Eating Pangolins or What?

Bric-a-Brac Thursday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RePybi45jO0 Today's TDE entry is, well, brick-a-brac: a selection of items of modest value. If I make you laugh and give you one interesting piece of information, my efforts on this post will be gratified. The title reminds me of

Seven Days Make One Weak

The Great Reset, Bilderberg, Advent, and the Liturgical Year “The rational creature . . . cannot wish not to be happy.” STA The buzz phrase this week? “The Great Reset.” It's scary, but let's be clear: it's not a conspiracy. Folks like Justin Trudeau are declaring it

How to Pay for Thanksgiving Dinner

Are food prices soaring? Ever since the 2008-2009 crisis, the thinkers, pundits, and writers who ascribe to the Austrian School of economics have assured us that massive inflation was going to start. They assiduously refused to provide a date, but they assured us nonetheless, often suggesting we hoard gold and

Seven Days Make One Weak

Covid, Wikipedia, Experts, and Other Flotsam Sidney Powell made unequivocal and strong statements this week, claiming she has the proof that Trump won in a landslide and fraud prevented it. I don't know the woman, but John Zmirak and Trey Trainor vouch for her. Wikipedia doesn't

What's Going on at TDE?

Housekeeping matters What happens on Thursdays? At TDE, traffic plunges on Thursdays. I'm generally pleased with the traffic figures, but it has been erratic, with noticeable drops on Thursdays. Very odd. I decided to use Thursdays for this Housekeeping Matters column. It won't be a weekly

Let's Celebrate St. Albert

(Although, to be honest, I can't hear the name "Albert" without thinking about "Fat Albert.") November 15th: Feast Day of St. Albert. I've often wondered whether St. Albert was sad when his greatest student, St. Thomas Aquinas, died before him. Together, I

Seven Days Make One Weak

The Lockdown Death Rate, COVID hangovers, Kristi Noem, election recounts. “Strange days indeed. Most peculiar mama.” John Lennon It has been a crazy week, but do we have any others? COVID cases are soaring. Hospitals are filling up. People are panicking. The government is salivating. Imagine a Kennedy walking into

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Give Gloria! The Neo-Garage Rock Movement

My son turned me onto a musical movement that I'm not sure even has its own name A music revival took place from about 2000 to 2015 that didn't even have a name. Which is fitting, its eponymous grandfather wasn't given a name either,

Thaddeus Russell on His Way to Rome?

Alright, that headline is a gross exaggeration. It's downright clickbait, in fact. Clickbait for nerds, yes, but still clickbait. But you're going to be happy you clicked on it if you're a Catholic libertarian. Tom Woods recently appeared on Russell's “Unregistered” podcast

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How Much Liquor Can You Drink with COVID?

That's the question that faced me last night. I have COVID. I am in quarantine, along with Marie and our two youngest kids. I'm enjoying it. Max, the kid who tested positive, and I have made major headway on TDE (we hope you are enjoying the

Post-Election Wednesday

If polling is an art, not a science, the folks at Quinnipiac University use crayons. Criminy, they weren't even close, missing Ohio by 13 points. As of this typing, it looks like Biden is going to win the election, but polling as science, art, or even an educated

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I Don't Love the Nightlife and I Don't Got to Boogie (Published in 2020)

But I miss the bars: An Ode During COVID "There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn." Samuel Johnson Like Samuel Johnson and Alicia Bridges (see title), I like a good bar.

A Festivus for the Rest of Us

Yeah, I know: Festivus is a fake holiday created by Seinfeld in 1997, when Mr. Costanza told Kramer about the family holiday he created: Festivus. It was, Mr. Costanza explained, a “festivus for the rest of us.” It has since become a real “thing,” [https://time.com/4617553/festivus-holiday-origins-seinfeld/] with

Ten Catholic Drinking Costumes Guaranteed to Impress

Halloween lands on the weekend! Far out. If you have costume parties to attend, and you want to embrace your Catholicism, and you want to embrace the (drinking) weekend, I have ten great ideas. The Liberated Nun, circa 1518 This one might be hard to set up with your crowd,

The Downfall of Cecil Rhodes (11/26/2020)

Stefan Kanfer, in his book on the De Beers diamond cartel, gives Chesterton the last word on Cecil Rhodes, who instead of promoting Western values "illustrated almost every quality essential to the Sultan, from the love of diamonds to the scorn of women." The irony was, as Kanfer

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The Architecture of Speed

Thoughts build your everyday existence. Technology affects your thoughts. The implications? Ask Marshall McLuhan. Sometimes I’m Gothic. Other times, Tudor-ish. In the morning I might be Romanesque, but by the afternoon I’m Bauhaus. The architecture of my mind changes day-to-day, hour-to-hour, sometimes minute-to-minute. I generally want to live

Dalrymple Explores the Exploding Underclass (11/22/2020)

Everything--from the permissive culture, to mass immigration, to COVID--coalescing at once "I have encountered many alcoholic Sikhs, for example, who were among the most refractory with regard to abstinence of all my patients; I have encountered almost every kind of social pathology among Muslims, from incest to drug addiction.

The Left's Nightmare

The feel-good story of the day: Â The Biden campaign has been counting on Black and Latino voters to vote like they normally do, but recent numbers indicate that may not happen this time around. [https://www.zerohedge.com/political/will-black-and-latino-voters-deliver-another-trump-miracle-2020-numbers-suggest-it-could] It's about time. The Mexicans The Left

A Few Interesting Red-Blue Facts (11/21/20)

> In 1992, only 38 percent of American voters lived in a “landslide county,” a county that one party wins by at least twenty points. In 2016, that number hit a record 60 percent. Religion increasingly divides us: States with the lowest church attendance vote Democratic; those with the highest,

Bill Eerdman, RIP (11/21/2020)

I just learned that Bill Eerdman, long-time president of Wm. B. Eerdman's Publishing Co. in Grand Rapids, passed away a few days ago. Mr. Eerdman was the son of the publishing company's founder. He took theology and publishing very seriously: Once, at the last minute, he

Do You Rely on Your Doctor? (11/21/2020)

There's an old saying: "The only thing more foolish than listening to your doctor is not listening to your doctor." Nassim Taleb says those things can be reconciled by taking responsibility for your own health while you're well and not listening to the doctor

Don't Believe the Google Antitrust Suit

I have little doubt the search engine behemoth deserves to go down, but this probably ain't what it seems "Random Books Under Glass," by E. Studs MulliganSo, Google gets sued for antitrust violations [https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/10/20/google-justice-department-antitrust-lawsuit-explained-trump-barr/5992896002/] . I'

Negativity Bias Identified Long Before It was Identified (11/18/2020)

The minds of men always dwell more on bad luck. They accept ordinary prosperity as a matter of course. Misfortunes arrest their attention and remain in their memory. William Graham Sumner, Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals Just one of the hundreds

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Synopsis: 11/17/2020 Post

The Left, including Pope Francis, thinks savings and success are entirely or mostly the result of privilege and structural inequities, so it feels justified taking away the resulting wealth and giving it to those who weren't so privileged or to those on the wrong side of the inequities.

The Smithsonian's Assumptions of Whiteness

> In a weird revival of racist stereotypes, today's critical-race theorists see dysfunctional behaviors occasionally found among minority groups as being emblematic of those groups. In turn, traits that help people succeed–ones shared by cultures around the world–are stigmatized as typically “white.” Earlier this year, the

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Housekeeping Matters

If you're a regular reader of TDE, you'll notice that it has been undergoing a transformation. Part of the transformation entails longer, more thoughtful, posts. But don't worry. I know many readers like the short, bullet approach of the Miscellanenous pieces. Those are going

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The Senator Asked Barrett if She has Ever Committed a Sexual Assault

Oh, if everyone could just sit back and laugh at the idiocy spawned by our higher educational institutions Leftists crack me up: Senator Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, asked whether Amy Comey Barrett has ever sexually assaulted someone. It's this kind of idiocy that gets 75-year-old women searched at airports.

New Mother Cabrini Statue Next on the Hit List

Plus More HSP, Gardening Corner, and Louis Prima I'm impressed: New York City erected a statue of Mother Cabrini yesterday in Battery Park. I hope they put it behind a huge fence and appoint an armed guard to protect it. I mean, it's such a testament

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Epstein Corner

A joke from Joseph Epstein's entertaining essay, “You Could Die Laughing: Are Jewish Jokes a Humorous Subject?” “Walking along the beach, Goldstein finds a bottle, picks it up, and–surprise! surprise!–a genie emerges. The genie instructs Goldstein that he will grant him one wish, and one wish

Why You Should Never Use COVID as a Rationale

Plus: ACB Days and Highly Sensitive People Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com [https://www.pexels.com/photo/grey-ceramic-landmark-during-daytime-62318/]ACB Days start today. The Senate Judiciary Committee will start asking her questions. The left will scramble for anything they can to stop the confirmation from proceeding, including hauling in COVID

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From Johnson's Dictionary: Myrmidon

myrmidon. Any rude ruffian; so named from the soldiers of Achilles. (If you're interested in the Trojan War, this word isn't new to you. But it surprised me that it was apparently in currency during the 17th-18th centuries (probably 17th; Johnson refused to use books to

My Favorite South Park Skit

Humor often involves stark juxtaposition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga38oaFfeG8&feature=youtu.be The juxtaposition between the song's title and the song itself kills me.

Miscellany

England after 1688 and bears in the gay community Rise of the Moneyed I'm enjoying volume 4 of Peter Ackroyd's history of England: Revolution: The History of England from the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo [https://amzn.to/2GJFCCi]. I wanted to

The Ever-Elusive Economic "Third Way"

Man, great weather heading our way. And I just got a big pile of wood chips dumped in my driveway. Wood chips might be the magic bullet for the garden. They look nice, they suppress grass and weeds, they help plants retain moisture and block out freezing cold, they provide

Proto-Kerouac

D.H. Lawrence, writing in the early 1920s, about the poetry of Walt Whitman (1819-1892). “The Open Road. The great home of the Soul is the open road. Not heaven, not paradise. Not 'above'. Not even 'within'. The soul is neither 'above' nor '

Pray for the Sick

> During the past twenty-five years, study after study has shown that seriously ill patients who are prayed for”“including those who don't know about these prayers”“fare better than those who are not prayed for. The man who has done the most to integrate the results of

Hardy Hated GKC

For those who like to say that Chesterton never made an enemy, there is the fact of Thomas Hardy's very last literary work. In the final days before his death in 1928, Hardy dictated what biographer Robert Gittings describes as "two virulent, inept, and unworthy satirical jingles&

Heartwarming Football Story Featuring Al Davis

> Davis, as commissioner of the AFL, hired ex-Buffalo Evening News sportswriter Jack Horrigan as his PR man. When Horrigan was diagnosed with leukemia, writes Felser, “Davis, a Jew, bought a votive candle in a Catholic religious supply store. Back in his office, he lit the candle as a devotion,

Max Beerbohm

Max Beerbohm's older brother, Herbert, was a funny guy. Once, when a man walked past him groaning under a grandfather clock he was carting on his back, Herbert said, "My good fellow, why not carry a watch?" (Joseph Epstein, Partial Payments).

The Two Political Parties Born in the Same Womb?

> Two main kinds of people fled Europe to live in North America in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries: individualists who sought freedom from the political interference they were accustomed to dealing with in Europe; and religious zealots who sought to create and maintain a puritan theocracy on these

Bernays: Propaganda King

Tom Woods recently hosted Mark Crispin Miller, a NYU professor and expert on propaganda. He says the whole COVID campaign hits a lot of the basic traits of propaganda: stifling dissenting opinions, ignoring inconvenient facts. The whole thing reminded me of the Father of Public Relations, Edward Bernays. He wasn&

Print v. Pixel

A new collection of his essays came out in October 2020. I'm enjoying it. Epstein is perfect random-time reading: The great battle of the day is not the culture war, or the uncivil skirmishes between political parties, but what I think of as the serious conflict between pixels

From Johnson's Dictionary

macaroon. A coarse, rude, low, fellow; whence macaronick poetry, in which the language is purposely corrupted. > Like a big wife, at sight of lothed meat, > Ready to travail; so I sigh and sweat, > To hear this macaroon talk on in vain. Donne

Brews You Can Use, Philosophy Corner, and a Short Story for Halloween

"The Necessities," E. Studs MulliganBooze Coke I don't know if I'm surprised because it's Coke or because it's the first Coke product with alcohol: Coca-Cola launching its first alcoholic beverage next year [https://nypost.com/2020/09/29/coca-cola-enters-alcoholic-drinks-market-with-molson-coors/?utm_

Biden Will Pack the Court?

And why it's a really big deal Court Packing Man, scary stuff. Every right-of-center news outlet heard it: Biden refused to say he wouldn't pack the court. I didn't see a single mainstream news outlet mention it. I'm sure some did, but

Former NHL Goon Turns Catholic . . . After Winning All-Star MVP Honors

Photo byMatthew Fournier [https://unsplash.com/@mattyfours?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText] onUnsplash [https://unsplash.com/s/photos/hockey?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText]> “They challenged my manhood, challenged my role as a father. They were really

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https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1310981350275547136

Tuesday Miscellany

Software's Incessant Change Debate at 9:00 (EDT) tonight. The topics of the debate selected by moderator Chris Wallace: the coronavirus pandemic, racial unrest, the Supreme Court, the economy, and the integrity of the election. Biden has been preparing hard, presumably taking large amounts of memory supplements. Trump

Miscellany

Barrett, Prison Rape Bonanza, Lions I gotta admit: I'm proud to be an alumnus of Notre Dame Law School. I was in my third year of law school when Mrs. Barrett was a freshman in the undergrad so our paths would've never crossed, but I'

BYCU

Bachelor Party Drinking weekend. Alpena, on the shores of Lake Huron, eldest son Alex's bachelor party. I stocked the car last night with cornhole, frisbees, Can Jam, Spike Ball, dice, cards, and beer. Now I just need to make room for two passengers and our underwear. I'

News App

I've been looking to replace Drudge with something, so I'm auditioning a few news apps. The first one featured a story yesterday, to the effect that Jimmy Kimmel had a great insight earlier this week: Trump must be concerned he's going to lose in

Where Did Everyone Go?

The Shortage Where did all the people go? In our community, we have a lawyer shortage, a computer technician shortage, a construction contractor shortage, a doctor shortage, a substitute teacher shortage. And those are just ones I can think of without trying. Everyone is crazy busy; nobody has time to

Flash Fiction

Fiction for the Digital Age and Sowell There's Always Something New Under the Sun Department: Microfiction. It's a short story in 300 or fewer words. Or, according to Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_fiction], 100 or fewer words. If you're wordy, you

BYCU

The Waiting Calm before the drinking storm. Free, sober weekend now. Liver Armeggedon starts next weekend. Next Thursday, I'm taking a virtual tour of a Bardstown bourbon distillery, complete with a gift box of bourbon delivered ahead of time, courtesy of my firm's library vendor. The

Sports Down

"Monday Night Football Ratings Crash," ratings "way down," "NFL ratings take a huge hit." It sounds like, if it weren't for Tom Brady's inaugural game with Tampa Bay, it would've been a catastrophic opening weekend for the NFL.

Miscellany

Rogan and Drudge So, Rogan left California and moved to Texas. I'm guessing Texas' income tax rate (zero) looks pretty good next to California's (12.3%). If he's bringing in $10,000,000 per year, that's $1,230,000 a year

Drudge

Everyone is "atwitter" about what has happened to Matt Drudge. The Jewish Drudge has always been friendly to libertarian and Catholic sentiments, with a conservative streak. Starting at the beginning of 2020, however, he turned hard left . . . or at least, "Hard Anti-Trump." His negative COVID reporting

Miscellany

Sports and Ghosts Ha. People said sports will never be the same. They were wrong. The Lions blew another big lead on opening day. I think this is the third year in a row. I hear the woke coverage of NCAA football was pretty bad on Saturday. I wasn'

From Correspondence

Me to a young man who read the McLuhan piece at Medium [https://medium.com/the-apeiron-blog/cell-phones-radio-driving-and-the-philosophy-of-marshall-mcluhan-9d0071c3eb53] (which is trending well, btw) and is interested in the effects of social media Given your interest in the effects of social media, McLuhan is probably right up your alley. VERY hard read.

From Medium

Garden Writing is About More than Plants The biographical, philosophical, meditational, and countercultural world of American gardening literature Riddle: What literary genre has historical roots that predate Socrates; features hundreds of American writers including Thoreau, Washington Irving, and Edith Wharton; and is a genre that you've probably never

White Culture

A long-time question of mine finally answered: Why Can't You Wear White After Labor Day? [https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/12424/why-cant-you-wear-white-after-labor-day] The article says that the number of rich Americans increased dramatically around 1900. In order to distinguish the old rich from the new rich, the old

BYCU

I Don't Love the Nightlife and I Don't Got to Boogie But I miss the bars “There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.” Samuel Johnson Like Samuel Johnson and

Gardening Journals

I grew tons of Roma tomatoes this year, specifically for canning. Marie made it clear that she didn't want to can. I made it clear that I would. Then things got crazy at the office and I ran out of time. It became her job to can tomatoes

Ouch

> Cold blooded interstate sign in Jackson, MS this morning. (Via @tcounts5 [https://twitter.com/tcounts5?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]) pic.twitter.com/7kKEk6P3zP [https://t.co/7kKEk6P3zP] > — Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 1, 2020 [https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1300772814920785921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Medium

Politics

Politics are a Riot I'm increasingly impressed by The American Mind Podcast [https://americanmind.org/category/american-mind-podcast/]. It has probably become my favorite "news" podcast. Now, I typically don't listen to news podcasts, but as the riots heat up (though they'll probably

BYCU

Drinking for the Taste and Playing Poker for Funsies I gotta admit, I had no idea what this was about [https://www.foodbev.com/news/nestle-unveils-gin-and-tonic-flavoured-after-eights/] : > NestlÃ© is adding a limited-edition gin and tonic-flavoured variant to its After Eight range of fondant mints this September. > According to NestlÃ©

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> This is a great idea - a menu that lets you buy the kitchen staff a round of beers. pic.twitter.com/VE10Hk6JBJ [https://t.co/VE10Hk6JBJ] > — Eric Alper ðŸŽ§ (@ThatEricAlper) August 27, 2020 [https://twitter.com/ThatEricAlper/status/1299112064263303169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Wokeness

Video Killed the Radio StarWokeness Killed the NBA Star Slate magazine struggles with the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the NBA's wokeness is contributing to its abysmal ratings. [https://slate.com/culture/2020/08/nba-tv-ratings-china-ethan-strauss-athletic.html] Well, yeah. I can point to a ton of anecdotal evidence that

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> A toast to the irish [https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryMemes/comments/ig900a/a_toast_to_the_irish/] from r/HistoryMemes [http://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryMemes]

Gardening

It's Gettin' Hot in Here, so Take Off All Your Overalls I haven't had many garden posts. Part of the reason: it's been too hot. As I've gotten older, my heat tolerance has declined noticeably. In fact, I think it'

Miscellany

Fire Tornadoes Hit CA; Digital Tornado Hits TDE WAIT! Don't leave. Your browser didn't malfunction, you didn't click wrong, your eyes aren't deceiving you. You are at The Daily Eudemon. But reformatted. After 16 years. Back in 2004, I paid to have

BYCU

The Beer Site The number one beer website in the world is The Beer Advocate [https://www.beeradvocate.com/]. That, anyway, according to The Beer Now Conference [https://beernow.org/2014/01/the-20-most-influential-beer-websites-in-the-world/] .. Actually, it ranks The Beer Advocate second, but Heineken is number one, so I don't

Essay

Hesychasm My latest at Medium: How I Moved Beyond Stoicism: The largely-forgotten literary tradition that takes Stoicism to the next level [https://medium.com/the-weekly-eudemon/how-i-moved-beyond-stoicism-41f824a0b548] . Excerpt: I've long been a fan of the Stoics. Epictetus especially, but Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and the works of Seneca have

Midweek Miscellany

Cronies and Wolves and Higher Education The current Econtalk episode is pretty good [https://www.econtalk.org/michael-munger-on-the-future-of-higher-education/]. They talk about the future of higher education, in light of the fact that it appears that colleges can, indeed, work online. At least, that's what they now claim, in

Miscellany

Twitter Kills Bee! Google Raises ACT Scores! Taibbi Raises Glass and Kills DNC! I woke up to news that Twitter had suspended the Babylon Bee. It was going to be the final straw for any hope that the Big Tech will play halfway fair in the coming months. The Babylon

Miscellany

Pepsi Riots, the Hot Hand, and 33 Pieces of Advice Another of my emerging favorites at Medium talks about the great Pepsi Filipino riots of the early 1990s [https://medium.com/better-marketing/pepsis-40-billion-typo-caused-deadly-riots-3d671295d1bd] . Unbelievable story. It's unbelievable because (i) it happened, and (ii) I'd never heard

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> Objectively the best moment in Lewis' Space Trilogy is in the third book were the guy's PhD advisor is literally working for Satan. https://t.co/vbFVJJmckr > — The Distributist (@DataDistribute) August 13, 2020 [https://twitter.com/DataDistribute/status/1293933373883203584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] Related: The

Thursday

Click here [https://twitter.com/McCormickProf/status/1292929165658914817] if you haven't followed Professor Robert George's ongoing account of anecdotal evidence that it is increasingly necessary for people to write, Tweet, and blog under an anonymous name. I guess it's only a matter of time

From the Notebooks

Kuehnelt-Leddin There are thinkers who are so far to the left or right, they fall off the spectrum altogether. On the left, I put thinkers like Ralph Nader and Ivan Illich. On the right, I put a thinker named Eric von Kuehnelt-Leddin [https://amzn.to/3kBkptK], a man described as

Postmodernism/Critical Theory/Satire

Manly Math This is pretty funny: "College math prof says 'the idea that math is in any way objective is a MYTH' that 'reeks of white supremacist patriarchy [https://disrn.com/news/not-the-bee-college-math-prof-says-idea-that-math-is-in-any-way-objective-is-a-myth-that-reeks-of-white-supremacist-patriarchy] .'" The article is catalogued under "Not the Bee," meaning,

Boston

Bowling to Sharks My apologies for missing the past couple of days. I intended to blog from Boston, but only put out the single piece from Wednesday. Sightseeing got out of hand: candlepin bowling [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlepin_bowling]; Salem; evening boat tour; walking around downtown and in

I Love that Dirty Water

Boston Massachusetts travel ban and Hurricane Isaias. Passed. I'm in Boston now, visiting my daughter. Okay, it's not Boston. It's Brookline. Technically, I suppose it's a suburb, but if you know Boston, such "suburbs" blend right into Boston proper. Think

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> ðŸ—£SEND IT @gonepatrol [https://twitter.com/gonepatrol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] (via ig:Gio_masters) > pic.twitter.com/443DZMpnwJ [https://t.co/443DZMpnwJ] > — Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) August 3, 2020 [https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/1290407303649386496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Monday

A Medium Monday The Medium.com experiment is going well. I'm getting articles "curated [https://findingtom.com/how-to-get-curated-on-medium-examples/]," which is important to reach other Medium subscribers and to earn a little beer money. I've found two writers I trust and enjoy reading: Ayodeji ("

BYCU

Barrel of Gifts The naked dude with a barrel really was once a thing. But it apparently wasn't for broke people, but for hungover people. If someone got really drunk, bosses from James I to Civil War commanders made the drunkards wear them as punishment [https://vinepair.com/

From the Notebooks

From the Gardening Journals Political discourse rarely interests me. Hollywood gossip bores me. Sporting events hold my attention as good as any pop culture event, but when I see the monstrosity that has become athletics, the entire arena baffles me, prompting me to go into shutdown mode, unable to muster

Wednesday

HIF My home Charter internet service has crashed. Just this for today: For fans of comedian Gary Gulman, the actor's brief cameo in a pivotal scene during director Todd Phillips' "Joker" must come as a complete surprise. What's even more surprising is that

Miscellany

Free Cardinal Newman Great find at Spotify: A high-quality recording of John Henry Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apologia_Pro_Vita_Sua]. Completely free. It kind of blew me away to see someone put it out there like that, but I'm

Monday Miscellany

Urban Areas Man, LA is awful. Jack and Andrea just returned from his honeymoon that he ended there. This pic is from the alley that led to their Air B&B. They said the B&B itself wasn't bad, but the location wasn't in

BYCU

The Teetotaling Eudemon? The dog days of summer. It looks like the hottest (the doggiest) days are behind us, but it's still plenty warm. I don't know whether I'm getting old or worn out by the heat, but I need a break. How do

Misc.

Lines, Lines, Everywhere a Line This is the line outside a Gucci store at a Chicago mall. A similar line was standing outside the Nike store. Marie was told the wait was 45 minutes. To get inside a store. The mind boggles. This, no doubt, could serve as Exhibit A

From the Notebooks

20th Century Existentialism Four subjects that were wildly popular in the 20th century: Zen arose when Mahayana Buddhism merged with Taoism. Buddhism is steeped in a thing called “monism,” which teaches that all things are one. Individual things don't exist; individual classes of things don't exist.

CSL

Meilaender's in the House Gilbert Meilaender was recently featured on Mars Hill Audio [https://marshillaudio.org/people/gilbert-meilaender]. I haven't listened to the interview yet, but I will. I honestly didn't even know Meilaender was still "in the game," so to speak.

Miscellany

Uncut Crap Worst. Movie. Ever. Uncut Gems [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/uncut_gems/reviews]. Actually, what I should say is, "Worst. Movie. Ever. That. Everyone. Is. Praising." I've heard this movie praised on podcasts. I've heard it praised in private conversations. It has

Developing a Sense for History

If you liked the podcast series, you might like this adaptation: If You Can Memorize Just Ten Years, You Can Develop an Historical Framework [https://medium.com/@ericscheske/developing-a-sense-of-history-ce1041f33af0?source=friends_link&sk=928341d7a186aa7dbc8388670bcacc15]

BYCU

Reasons to Drink I'll drink to that: San Buenaventura has been declared a minor basilica [https://angelusnews.com/local/la-catholics/always-forward-mission-san-buenaventura-gets-a-papal-upgrade/] . It's a lovely place. We stopped there last year during our spring break trip up Highway One. Which I'll also drink to: Highway

Name Change

Virtue Signalling, Episode 3,477,011 The Navajo Nation has an idea for the DC Redskins: “We strongly encourage the NFL Washington organization to rename their team in such a way that truly honors and respects the First Americans of this country. Renaming the team 'Code Talkers' to

The Symbolic Importance of the Battle of Marchfield Plain

Only coincidentally, but highly significantly on the symbolic level, the Minotaur started to grow quickly right after Thomas Aquinas died in 1274. In 1278, Rudolph von Hapsburg defeated Otakar, the King of Bohemia, at the Battle of the Marchfield Plain, thereby ushering in the greatest European dynasty of all time,

Current Events

The Senate and the Covid Trump ally Tommy Tuberville wins big in the Republican primary. I gotta believe he beats Doug Jones in November. Trump also appears to be rallying a bit [https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/polling/trump-rises-13-points-among-independents-june-shrinks-bidens-lead-overall] . The MSM better crank up the negative COVID reporting even more. I&

Three Ways Human Beings are Conducted, According to Foucault

The government of men: an activity that undertakes to conduct individuals. Pastoral power: concentrates the activity of conducting individuals in religious institutions. Governmentality: an activity that is located in the direction of political institutions. See Michel Foucault, Security, Territory, Population (Picador, 2007), xix (introduction by Arnold Davidson).

Miscellany

Wedding and Food Whew. Son's wedding Saturday. It was an incredibly busy three days, but it's over and everyone had a great time. The weather cooperated, their friends showed up, alarming amounts of alcohol were consumed. We celebrated until we couldn't celebrate anymore and

BYCU

Wedding Neareth Well, it's party time. My son's 400-person indoor reception has been moved outdoors to my backyard, with social distancing measures put in place. Not only are numbers slashed almost in half, but there will be two separate reception areas to allow greater spread. There

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> I just published If You Meet the Buddha, Kill Him https://t.co/WAVCqls6t4 > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) July 10, 2020 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1281382695722012673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

From the Notebooks

Thales He was born in 624 BC: just after Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey and right before Judah would fall to the Babylonia in 589 BC to start the Babylonian Exile. It was the time of the great Athenian lawgiver, Solon, who, with Thales, is one of the

"I Was Born in a Small Town" John Cougar

Is the Move Finally On? I've been predicting this development for ten years. "A combination of the coronavirus pandemic, economic uncertainty, and social unrest is prompting waves of Americans to move from large cities and permanently relocate to more sparsely populated areas. The trend has been accelerated

Monday Miscellany

Microwaving Books and Protests Worried about catching Corona from a library book? You're skating on the irrational, but regardless, don't put the book in the microwave. The radio frequency identification (RFID) tag will catch fire. The public library will then fine you. A library patron near

BYCU

Drinking and COVID and the Great Outdoors Welcome to the Height of Summer. July 4th Weekend. An event that, I think, cracks the Top 5 on the drinking calendar: 1. Thanksgiving Eve 2. New Years Eve 3. St. Patrick's Day 4. Memorial Day 5. Fourth of July 6.

From the Notebooks

Mesopotamia Modern day Iraq. The birthplace of civilization. This is where writing and history began. That's why it's significant. The Tigris and Euphrates fertilize the area, making it reasonably fruitful, especially where the Tigris and Euphrates come a lot closer together . . . Which is where the great

From the Notebooks

Babylon The capital of the Empire of Babylonia, which crushed Judah in 589 BC, thereby ending the Promised Kingdom. It's been hated ever since. Back before there was Nazi Germany, people who disagreed with you might juxtapose you to Babylon. Martin Luther's famous “The Whore of

Miscellany

Hungary How's Budapest this time of year? I tell ya, the Magyars got it goin' on. A COVID per-capita rate well below the European average [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1111779/coronavirus-death-rate-europe-by-country/] , an ongoing resistance to Muslim immigration, and BLM movements under firm control [https://www.breitbart.

Malcolm

Random Today I Learned Malcolm X spent his youth in Lansing, Michigan, and he attended Mason High School for a short while. Both Lansing and Mason are less than two hours from me. My high school lost to Mason in the first round of the high school playoffs about seven

Better Drinking Through Science

Historical Liquor This is perhaps the neatest drinking story of 2020: Distiller using molecular science to hack the chemical codes of aged spirits and recreate them [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/mad-scientists-booze-recreating-spirits-going-back-era-paul-revere-180971630/] . They're bringing back bottles that, today, costs thousands of dollars, if you can even find them,

Principle of Subsidiarity

What COVID Ought to Teach Us I'm back from vacation and catching up on COVID matters. I was greeted with news that COVID cases are spiking rapidly in my county, and one of my clients has it and is "not doing well." The developments fueled my

Blog Returns Tomorrow

I just returned from a short vacation. Blogging resumes tomorrow, with a solid BYCU in the wings for Friday.

Monday Moanin'

Miscellany I'm not sure it's terribly compelling, but these days, I eagerly gulp down every ounce of sanity I find: "Muhammad Ali's only biological son says that his father would be against Black Lives Matter, calling the movement 'racist' and the

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> June 20, 1980: 40 years ago, The Blues Brothers was released in theaters. #80s [https://twitter.com/hashtag/80s?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] pic.twitter.com/HlAgX0jlbv [https://t.co/HlAgX0jlbv] > — Old School 80s (@OldSchool80s) June 20, 2020 [https://twitter.com/OldSchool80s/status/1274334952461656067?ref_

Drinking Matters

Holiday Drinking! Juneteenth! The date in 1865 when word of the Emancipation Proclamation was formally announced in Texas [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/cuomo-signs-order-making-juneteenth-a-holiday-for-state-employees] . A day to drink! If you don't drink a beer of color tonight, you're a racist. If you want to try such

Miscellany

Rambling Here's your big chance to be first: I've launched a site at Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/ericscheske]. Yeah, I'm not sure how it works either. I literally launched it fifteen minutes ago and am still learning. But hey, I've never

The Supreme Power

Supreme Corruption Something happens to conservative men when they reach the Supreme Court: Kennedy, Roberts, and now Gorsuch. I don't know if it's mere proximity to power that corrupts them (the "country club effect") or whether it's downright actual corruption. But it

The Post-Party

The Local Bachelor Party These broken chairs are just a snapshot of the fallout from an incredible bachelor party Saturday afternoon in my backyard. Everyone from son Max (16), who served as referee of the Beer Olympics, to us older guys in our fifties and sixties who merely watched and

Best Tweet of the Week

If we defund the police, who's going to take away the guns and plastic straws?

The Bird

On Mark Fidrych On days like that, you didn't dare drink too much beer in old Tiger Stadium. The place was packed and its limited bathroom facilities meant you missed two innings every time you needed to make a run. It was 1976, and the Tigers were horrible.

A Tale of Two Bishops

Pick One! I'm not sure I've ever seen such a clear illustration of the rift between the Left and Right in Catholic matters: > Vatican Archbishop Carlo Maria ViganÃ², the former Papal Nuncio to Washington, D.C., has written to President Trump, praising his leadership during

Pure Michigan

Pure Privilege This picture is Governor Whitmer marching. The following excerpt is from her executive order that was in effect when this picture was taken [https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/0,9309,7-387-90499_90705-530620--,00.html]: "Outdoor social gatherings and events are permitted so long as people maintain six

Systemic

Where "Systemic Racism" Came From "I woke up and the world was systemically racist." Athanasius, circa 2020. But unlike Athanasius' experience with Arianism, it didn't happen overnight. A brief history: Summary: Systemic/institutional racism came in through Marxist critical theory, designed for one

Drinking Matters

Moving, Suspending, and Drinking Summer is in full swing. The lockdown has lifted. And I feel like a drink, but no: It's moving weekend. We moved into our new house in March. I got the most important things back then: about 3,000 books and 100 bottles of

Essay Excerpt

Chesterton and Shaw Atheist/Christian. Aquabib/wine drinker. Thin/fat. Vegetarian/meat eater. Socialist/Distributist. Shaw/Chesterton. They fought it out in print, they fought it out verbally. It would've been great to see those debates. But what made them so good? Chesterton's early biographer, Maisie

Random Thoughts

Riots, Shrine, Etc. Wow, so much to say, so hard to make it coherent. I'll just limit myself to a few random observations: I'm seeing increased evidence that the public, left and right and middle, are beginning to see that Antifa is the problem. If we

Michiganders Free

Free at Last, Free at Last Michigan has been set free. The uber-lockdown governor has finally relented and ended the lockdown. The new order [https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/MIEOG/2020/06/01/file_attachments/1463964/EO%202020-110%20Emerg%20order%20-%20MI%20Safe%20Start.pdf] says, "You can do

Episode 77

New Episode Released Civil War, Restoration, Glorious Revolution [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/5/31/episode-77-civil-war-restoration-glorious-revolution] We left off Episode 76 with the Civil War, which the Roundheads, mostly Puritans, won decisively. There was a huge equality movement, you might say. Folks known as the “levellers” were ascendant, and

BYCU

Background music or TV with the sound on? The bar in English-speaking countries traces its roots back to Roman Britain where drinking establishments flourished. The establishments declined with Rome, but they came back in the Middle Ages, largely through the efforts of monasteries to provide for travelers. By the fifteenth

Drudge

Leaving I reached a momentous decision yesterday: I dropped the Drudge Report [https://www.drudgereport.com/] from my start-up pages in Google Chrome. I've for years enjoyed his libertarian leanings, with his kindly non-sectarian nod to the Catholic Church. He was, for me, what the Detroit Free Press

Coronabeer Miscellany

Face Masks in Northern Michigan Marie, five of our kids, and I took our annual trip to Alpena, Michigan for a long weekend. Five days. We normally go up in July or August for ten days, but weddings and other family exigencies have made the forecast pretty clear: virtually no

Essay Excerpt

And that's where Belloc sits with many. Ignored and neglected. He rubbed people the wrong way while he was alive, too. His nasty wars with H.G. Wells are legendary, but even before the nastiness started, Wells didn't care for him. Wells cherished Chesterton's

Abandonment

Virtue or Vice? When it comes to one's own death, when does a person cross the line from abandonment to God's will (the finest thing) to reckless disregard for one's own health and life (a potential sin . . . Catechism 2288 [http://w2.vatican.va/archive/

Miscellany

Emperors, Life, Other Another good post by Medium superstar writer Ayodeji Awosika: 10 Signs Your Life is Probably Better Than You Think It Is [https://medium.com/@Chef_BoyarDEJI/10-signs-your-life-is-probably-better-than-you-think-it-is-5cf16b845f46] . Number One: "You're alive. He bolsters his selection with a quote from Nassim Taleb: “We are quick

Trashy Tuesday

This Ain't Hard, People Crazy days. COVID, first grandchild, basement flood, habitual drunkenness. What's a guy to do? But I still have time to read tripe like this: “The last few months have laid bare the reality that, even before the pandemic hit, far too many

Episode 76

New Episode Released Arthur, Alfred, and Other Kings to 1649. Medium dot Com [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/5/17/episode-76-arthur-alfred-and-other-kings-to-1549-medium-dot-com] A quick overview of what we've covered in English history: First, Rome's conquest of southern Britain, and the withdrawal of its soldiers in 410,

BYCU

Bars Color me "out of touch." These are the five things people miss most [https://windfm.com/2020/05/5-things-people-miss-most-from-pre-covid-life/] from life before Coronabeer virus: 1. Having face-to-face interactions. 2. Celebrating big milestones with friends and family. 3. Hugging. 4. Having date nights. 5. Going to a bar

This has Gotta be a Sin

Peanut butter whiskey > I realllllly didn't think I'd like this. But its very tasty. pic.twitter.com/sMCMUwg114 [https://t.co/sMCMUwg114] > — Hawaiian Mark ðŸ¤™ (@Hawaiian_Mark) May 11, 2020 [https://twitter.com/Hawaiian_Mark/status/1259696875789139968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Noir to Historical Fiction

Los Angeles Fiction Matthew Schmitz at First Things ties together Hollywood noir films to Christian theology [https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/06/the-fallen-men-of-film-noir]. It's a neat overview of a film genre I've never tried (unless The Maltese Falcon counts as "noir"). The great

New Baby

Grandpa Jones I'm a grandfather! Edith "But I'm Not Jewish" Knoerl was born last night, around 8:00 PM. Mother, father, and grandfather are doing fine, but, after nearly killing Max with the cork from the first bottle of champagne, I engaged in celebratory

Accompanying Video of Sorts for Episode 75

Episode 75

New Episode Released Episode 75: Charles MacKay, Popular Delusions, Radical Spiritualists [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/5/10/episode-75] Some Protestant sects were freakish, whether the Anabaptists in Munster or those iconoclastic peasants who took craps in holy water fonts, the Reformation brought more freaks to the open than

Reasons to Drink

You Can Always Find a Reason Are you getting older but like to remain active? As a result, do you have aches and pains? That's me. I think I found the magic bullet: the foam roller. Jack and Meg have been using it for years, and I just

End It

Alternatives to Quarantine Joe Rogan has come out and said it's time to end the lockdowns [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/joe-rogan-we-cant-sustain-efforts-to-quarantine-the-whole-country] : > The vast majority of people that are going to get this ... it's not going to be fatal," added Rogan. "We have

Miscellany

Pervs to Paintings Best line from my morning surfing: "Those who live in eternal fear are only replacing the Orange Man with the Gray Man [https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/joe-biden-could-sexually-harass-someone-in-the-middle-of-fifth-avenue/] ." It's an odd article, though. After that line in the tagline, the article talks about

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> pic.twitter.com/l0VthqVRN6 [https://t.co/l0VthqVRN6] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) May 5, 2020 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1257676598540750849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > pic.twitter.com/DO2fTzDpmP [https://t.co/DO2fTzDpmP] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) May 5, 2020 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1257676096738398210?

Commie Symps

The Establishment and the Left Another prominent voice says it's probable that Corona came out of a Chinese lab [https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/05/04/mike-pompeo-says-theres-enormous-evidence-that-coronavirus-came-from-wuhan-lab/] . Despite growing evidence, we know that the Establishment, from the NBA to Boeing, will resist the evidence so they can continue

Episode 74

New Episode Released Wicked Pope, Moors, Siege of Vienna [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/5/3/episode-74-wicked-pope-moors-siege-of-vienna] 1492. A threefer: 1. Muslims tossed out of Spain 2. Columbus 3. Alexander VI starts pontificate Okay, first the conquest of Grenada. This had been a Muslim stronghold for years, the southern

BYCU

On Needing a Drink Yesterday afternoon, the "currently-negative" Coronabeer headlines were back. Right-wing Michigan militia types stormed the Capitol [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/hundreds-protest-michigan-lawmakers-consider-extending-governors-emergency-powers-n1196886] (each side has their embarrassments; the left's hold professorships and Hollywood contracts). Swaths of my truck-worn backyard are a mud

A Modest Proposal

Warning System The news headlines are veering more and more to future Coronabeer outbreaks. This tells me: the current crisis is passing. If there's not enough current bad news to keep readers engaged (scared), the media needs to focus on future bad news. The thing they're

Miscellany

Maris and Money The MLB is looking to a 100-game season, using a three-division, 10-team plan in which teams play only within their division [https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2020/04/28/mlb-optimistic-about-starting-season-late-june/3039275001/] . Crazy times call for crazy solutions, but this doesn't strike

Iowa

Regionalism Redux It might be a good time to revisit Grant Wood's “Revolt Against the City" [https://medium.com/art-story/grant-wood-and-his-revolt-against-the-city-259968f55fb2] (PDF can be found here [http://interarts.org/CW%20Wood%20Essay%20Revolt.pdf]). The American Gothic artist wrote the essay in 1935, in the throes of

An Evergreen Piece

Humble Men Socrates was an ugly, poor man with no pretensions. In the eyes of the world, he was a misfit and fool, a constant butt of jokes around sophisticated Athens, but he didn't mind. He was very humble, thinking little of himself and caring little for his

Episode 73

New Episode Released 1400s, Florence Banking, Heroes, States Rights [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/4/26/episode-73-1400s-florence-banking-heroes-states-rights] We are at the 1400s. We are going to take this segment all the way to 1491. It is the penultimate segment of this historical survey. The Renaissance is in full swing.

BYCU

Top Gin Dang! I saw this article, The 8 Best Bottles Of Gin You Can Buy At Any Price Point [https://www.delish.com/entertaining/g32176644/best-gin-brands/], glanced at the picture and thought, "Wow, I've owned and drank every one of those bottles at least once."

Heroes?

The Noun Murderers Are medical personnel heroes? When our culture went gaga over the first responders (gender-neutral term . . . can't use "firemen") after 9/11, I went gaga too. Actually, I would start to cry a bit, thinking of all those young men charging up the towers,

Interview

I did my first podcast interview at TWE [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-blog-1/2020/4/22/bonus-episode]. Both technology-wise and interview-skill-wise, I have a ways to go, but thanks to Joe Condit for letting me experiment on him and Catholic Speakers Organization [https://catholicspeakers.com/inspireword]. Joe and I threw

BYCU

Cutting Edge, Me I might just now be watching the first episode of Tiger King. I didn't know who Ed Sheeran was until I watched (the enjoyable) movie Yesterday. I don't even recognize most of the names on the Billboard Hot 100 (when did it stop

Factory Farming

Strafing the Right Matthew Scully has made major inroads. Years ago (15, I'm guessing) he wrote a compelling piece for The American Conservative about the evils of factory farming. It convinced me. But TAC has always been an outlier of sorts. It has never tried to be conservative,

Information

Inflationary COVID Well, dang. I thought we had peaked late last week, based on good numbers over the weekend. Not true. We apparently set a new death high yesterday [https://news.trust.org/item/20200414214724-hfp57]. Of course, if a plane crashed and some of the passengers had COVID, they'

Evergreen Piece

Government Ain't Got No Soul Summary: Individuals can be touched by grace. Government can't. Grace tempers the individual. It can't temper the government. In June 2007, Michael Moore was promoting his movie Sicko. In an interview with U.S. News & World Report, he

On Drudge

Drudge Headlines Over the Past 12 Hours and My Reactions "All 50 states under disaster declaration for first time in history": That didn't happen when Masked Singer debuted? "Unclear whether patients are immune to second infection": And what, exactly, has been clear throughout this

Dystopian Us

Zero Hedge wonders whether there is a competition among governments to come up with the most dystopian over-reaction to social distancing problems. It suggests Tunisia has taken the lead by using an army helicopter to disperse a pick-up youth soccer game [https://www.zerohedge.com/health/watch-army-helicopter-used-disperse-youth-soccer-game-amid-virus-lockdown] . Tunisia has 707

Episode 71

New Episode Released Peak Crusades, Peak Middle Ages, Peak Mongols [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/4/12/episode-71-peak-crusades-peak-middle-ages-peak-mongols] I'm backtracking to 1190. I think you can call that “Peak Crusades.” You had the first crusade, which was pretty successful. They took Jerusalem and held it for nearly

Miscellany

Doomsayers, Triduum, Etc. 2.2 million dead. That's what the models said. The models now say 60,000. Apparently 80,000 Americans died of the flu in 2018. Rush Limbaugh breaks it down in this monologue [https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/04/08/death-model-reduced-90-since-we-heard-2-2-million/] . He's

Cliched Music

Banned Wedding Songs The wedding season nears. And so does that venerable tradition: Couples deciding what songs to ban from the DJ's playlist. According to "Mental Floss," these are the 34 songs most frequently banned [https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/604597/frequently-banned-wedding-songs]. Something I find interesting:

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> pic.twitter.com/BDAQTwTHm5 [https://t.co/BDAQTwTHm5] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) April 8, 2020 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1247687094388101120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Ignorance is Us

We Know Nothing "Pretense of knowledge." That's one of Hayek's key phrases. It's one of my favorites. What, exactly, do you really know? What does your neighbor really know? What does every person who wants to influence your life, from your friends

The Coming Week

Which Week? Hell Week? Or Holy Week? They're predicting the next two weeks will be the worse for the United States [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8189153/Coronavirus-peak-death-rate-strike-U-S-11-days-2-644-people-die-24-hours.html] . NYC peaks this week; the rest of the nation next week. I'm predicting the next six

Episode 70

New Episode Released 1000 AD to 1200ish: Seljuk Turks, Crusades, St. Francis, Cluny [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/4/5/episode-70-1000-ad-to-1200ish-seljuk-turks-crusades-st-francis-cluny] We left off last week at the end of the 900s. Europe was taking shape. It was mostly Catholic, Russia having converted officially in 988. With a notable

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Three truths: 1. You'd have to be a full-on moron to hate Chinese people because of Corona. 2. You'd have to be a full-on moron not to recognize this problem is because of the Chinese. 3. This problem wouldn't have gotten so bad if

BYCU

Too Much Alcohol? "I don't agree with hitting women but I understand it. I know what turns Mr. Hand into Mr. Fist" Sam Kinison. Unfortunately, I suspect there's at least one point of correlation between these stories: Booze Sales Surge During Coronavirus Outbreak [https:

Miscellany

Shortages? They say a food crisis looms [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-food-crisis-looms-as-farms-idle-countries-hoard-supplies.html] . This site [https://www.hortidaily.com/article/9204726/corona-update-sharp-increases-and-shortages-of-fruit-and-vegetables-in-us/] says it appears lettuce is running out. I have 400 lettuce plugs started. My youngest son jokes, "Nice calorie-dense food, dad." Okay, so

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> Study: COVID-19 Impacts Men, Women More Than All Other Genders Combined https://t.co/Udb9AJ1Rps via @TheBabylonBee [https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) April 1, 2020 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1245440705008451584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

New Piece at FPR

Just in time for spring, my latest: Confused and Contented: On Gardening [https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2020/04/confused-and-contented-on-gardening/] .

The Jesus Prayer

Washin' and Invokin' Washing your hands. It's all the rage. OCD Nirvana. And you're not just supposed to wash them frequently. You're supposed to wash them long. Frequent and long, like visits from the in-laws or Oscar Wilde's bouts with

Me: Celebrity

Shelter and the Extrovert This left-tinted article [https://dnyuz.com/2020/03/30/celebrity-culture-is-burning/] alleges something I long suspected: Ellen DeGeneres is a nasty person. "[C]omedian Kevin T. Porter solicited stories from service workers and Hollywood peons who had experienced run-ins with DeGeneres, whom he called 'notoriously

Urban Farming

We Don't Need No Rural Hicks My aunt sent me this article [https://greenlivingaz.com/pure-greens-changing-the-way-to-grow-food/] about a hydroponic gardening company in Arizona. The title is "Changing the Way We Grow Food." This change has been coming for a long time, at least a decade. The

Episode 69

New Episode Released The Dark Ages. Charlemagne and Vikings and Magyars Too [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/3/29/episode-69-the-dark-ages-charlemagne-and-vikings-and-magyars-too] This period is the Dark Ages, and it's fascinating. Partly fascinating because of the lack of historical evidence, so much so that there is a cadre of

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> I'm not a dude but if I were, I'd hope this urinal arrangement is permanent. pic.twitter.com/aoUUhEsN7Q [https://t.co/aoUUhEsN7Q] > — Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) March 27, 2020 [https://twitter.com/MsMelChen/status/1243627358864707585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

BYCU

Drinking in the Age of Social Distancing LeBron tweeted this week that he needs a wine-drinking partner [https://fadeawayworld.net/2020/03/16/lebron-james-i-need-a-vino-drinking-partner/] . Apparently, he's running out of them. First, he faced a backlash when he mentioned that he lets his sons (ages 14 and 11) have

Obscenity

Comedy and the F Word Hats off to the Mormons. They've taken comedy to a cleaner level: Dry Bar Comedy [https://www.drybarcomedy.com/]. I've downloaded the app. I'll let you know soon how I liked it. If the comedians are half as funny

The Flees

The Corona and the College One thing is certain: City dwellers are fleeing municipal areas and flocking to the countryside. Link [https://www.thehour.com/news/article/Gov-DeSantis-derides-those-bringing-the-virus-15154853.php] , link [https://nypost.com/2020/03/24/people-leaving-nyc-metro-area-urged-to-self-quarantine-for-14-days/] , and more links [https://www.thewesterlysun.com/news/covid-19/some-destinations-are-worried-about-people-fleeing-the-cities/article_acfa1296-6b03-11ea-9e18-b7c805a4

Lockdown Tuesday

1929 Redux? That's my new shed. The siding on the front portion is clear, giving it a greenhouse effect. It's not very big. The "greenhouse" side is about 90 square feet, but that's big enough to hold ten large self-watering containers [https:

For Your Shut Down Consideration

Leisure, the Basis of Culture [https://amzn.to/3dlPmP1] by Josef Pieper And "Leisure in a Time of Coronavirus" [https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/03/61513/] by Nathan Schlueter

Episode 68

New Episode Released Constantine to Justinian (and an extended Lightning Segments) [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/3/22/episode-68-constantine-to-justinian] The year to remember is 313. That's the year the Emperor Constantine declared religious toleration . . . And although he did not make Christianity the religion of the Empire, it

Reminder

If you could access Amazon from this site, it helps me defray the costs of operating this site and The Weekly Eudemon podcast site [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/]. Many thanks for making the extra effort during these stressful times! Kindly Click Here When Going to Amazon [https://amzn.to/2vDSDYT]

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> It's a good world after all https://t.co/z1yAdyWByi > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) March 20, 2020 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1241135625379753984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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> Another vote for embracing the solitude and clam of the shutdown. https://t.co/2udKuCH76p > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) March 21, 2020 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1241428776975773696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

BYCU

Corona Wine Are you abstaining from alcohol, knowing that it can weaken your immune system? Well, I wouldn't let that stop you. Just don't drink every day or nearly every day. That, anyway, is how I read this article from the Cleveland Clinic [https://health.clevelandclinic.

Fathers' Feast Day

Welcome to the Feast Day of St. Joseph. One of my favorite shows, Fr. Matthew's St. Joseph's Workshop [https://relevantradio.com/listen/our-shows/st-josephs-workshop-with-fr-matthew-spencer/] , gets my nod today. Yesterday, he said St. Joseph reminds fathers that they need to do what they can in these uncertain

Whatta Hogg

The Young and the Leftists No one would consult a teenager for advice on their taxes, their construction project, their estate plan, or their health. Yet the Left trusts teenagers for advice on public policy. In fact, the Left loves teenagers' advice on public policy. Her questionable message aside,

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> In a time of pandemic, churches must not join the stampede of fear. https://t.co/LByR9c7frT > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) March 17, 2020 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/1239915642406371328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Marcus

Tuesday Ramblings In this week's podcast, I urge everyone to read Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. I read it years ago and have frequently dipped back into it over the years. I considered myself well-versed. Not so, at least compared to Ryan Holiday, The Stoic Dude, who read it

Episode 67

New Episode Released Marcus Aurelius, Pax Romana, Beginning of Christianity [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/3/15/episode-67-marcus-aurelius-pax-romana-beginning-of-christianity] 27 BC to 313 AD We're at the year 27 BC. Octavian wins the Civil Wars. He becomes the first emperor of Rome. The Roman Republic was dead. Plenty

BYCU

Party Down on Corona Well, the Joe Rogan episode about the Coronavirus was a bummer [http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/michael-osterholm]. It turns out, the assurances of all our young people to the contrary, the virus is a real threat. Moreover, there's no vaccine and there's

Wednesday

Midweek Ramblings I saw an interesting Tweet this morning. It was to the effect, "Coronavirus is everywhere, so there's no use trying to avoid it." I wouldn't be surprised if the sentiment is accurate, but in the details, it's surely lacking. I

Corona

Coronarambling Man, there's so much "news" out there about Coronavirus. As most of you know, I put very little faith in the news, but as my loved ones know, I'm hopelessly self-centered and freak out at things like epidemics. At times like these, mine

Episode 66

New Episode Released The Death of Socrates and the Rise of Rome [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/3/8/episode-66-the-death-of-socrates-and-the-rise-of-rome] Show Notes 399. Socrates is forced to drink hemlock. This is one of those things that deserves a lot of attention. The mere mention of the death of Socrates

BYCU

Uses for Booze I see Bill Clinton has bared his soul about the Lewinsky standard, stating that he allowed Monica to serve him in order to alleviate the pressures of the job [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8078733/Bill-Clinton-says-having-sex-Monica-Lewinsky-manage-anxieties.html] . He said it took his mind off the presidential

7 Habits

Decent Self-Help Advice I normally don't find articles like this terribly helpful: The 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People [https://medium.com/mind-cafe/the-7-habits-of-highly-ineffective-people-44b0ff317be] . I tend to find the advice either blase or informed by a bad worldview ("You have to be a winner!"). But this

Victor Joe

The Close Talker Congratulations to Joe Biden. The Establishment has their candidate in the driver's seat. I look forward to the "Sleepy Joe" references, the close talking, the awkward touching, and a #MeandJoeToo movement. There is one thing I despise: unwanted touching and close talking. I

Super Tuesday

Screwing Up the Binary Narrative Welcome to Super Tuesday. Yeah, I don't really care either. The Establishment has spoken: Biden gets to win. Of course, I wasn't thrilled at Bernie winning, and Buttigieg makes me . . . uncomfortable. But I'm not an establishment guy at any

New Episode Released

Autobiographical Rumblings [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/3/1/episode-65-autobiographical-rumblings] Abbreviated episode. I've been moving into a new house. Things have been a bit crazy. Show Notes are sparse, to say the least: My family moved to a new house today. The future looks bright (cue Timbuk

BYCU

Moving Bottles Moving weekend. Whew. I've taken care of all the things I care about: my books, my liquor, and my gardening stuff. But Marie is now demanding that I help with the non-essentials, like food and furniture. It's going to be a long weekend. But

Sleeping

Sleep Trick I rarely fall asleep while listening to anything, but I've long used some sort of recorded narrative to get back to sleep after I wake up in the middle of the night. Marie once asked me why, and I said, "I listen to semi-boring stuff.

The Lawyer and the Dead: Joke

A man spoke to each of his three sons when he sent them to college. "I feel it's my duty to provide you with the best possible education, and you do not owe me anything for that. However, I want you to appreciate it. As a gesture

Ash Wednesday

Lent and the Babylon Bee Welcome to Lent 2020. It's a season of penance, renewal, and grace. It don't get no better than that. Of course, it's also the season of the coronavirus, a collapsing stock market, and a Socialist front-runner, so maybe the

Moneyme

GoFundMe I'm a big fan of GoFundMe. As a rule, I try to donate at least a few dollars to any campaign that helps a person dealing with a mortal situation, as long as I have any corroborating evidence that the cause is legit. There are too many

Episode 64 Show Notes

Gnostics v. Metaxy, GMO v. Non-GMO, Athens v. Sparta [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/2/23/episode-64-gnostics-v-metaxy-gmo-v-non-gmo-athens-v-sparta] Gnosticism matters because it has heated up lately. Heck, that's an understatement. It was simmering in the 18th-19th centuries. It boiled in the 20th centuries. In the 21st century, it

BYCU

Outlaw Drinking This is probably the most interesting alcohol news of the year: El Chapo is launching a beer . . . from prison. Technically, that's not accurate. His daughter is launching the beer [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-beer-el-chapo/drink-like-a-mexican-kingpin-el-chapo-beer-launched-by-daughter-idUSKBN1ZG04Z] , but she's capitalizing off his name and likeness.

Floating Sex

Forms of Captivity Are those folks still quarantined on the cruise ship? No fear: Porn is here. Porn Company Offers Free Webcam Sessions To Quarantined Cruise Passengers [https://www.oddee.com/porn-company-offers-free-webcam-sessions-to-quarantined-cruise-passengers-51566/] . It's not often you see such magnamity and twistedness in one gesture, kind of like when

Zuck and Soros and Don and Pete

Geek, Red, Orange, Gay I don't know what Zuckerberg did, but he has really gotten George Soros' pants in a bunch (a sensation I'm guessing Soros hasn't experienced for over a decade now). Soros wants Zuck removed from control of Facebook [https://www.

Murder and Sin in LA

Murder in Hollywood Hills Death is always tragic, but some deaths provide a lot of unfortunate humor material. "Playboy model-turned-Hollywood sex therapist Dr. Amie Harwick murdered by ex-boyfriend who threw her off third floor balcony' - two weeks after his restraining order expired [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/

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Monday

Show Notes from the Current Episode [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/2/15/episode-63-gnosticism-fake-religion-moses-achillesjoshua] First Segment. What is the Primary Ingredient of Gnosticism? We've all heard the saying: Life's hard. And it's not just a saying. It's a fact. We must

Southern Literary Figure Hated Confederate Statues

Will Percy (Walker's cousin and guardian) was no fan of the Confederate monuments, saying they're so pathetic, they don't even qualify to be ridiculous: [Y]ou will find in any Southern town a statue in memory of the Confederate dead, erected by the Daughters

Friday

Brews You Can Use What does a reprobate do when he's hungover? He smokes weed. It doesn't cure his symptoms, but it does a great job of masking them and, let's face it, when you're really hung over, you don't

Thursday

The Disabled and the Disgruntled Well, good news for my wife: Having an optimistic partner may stave off dementia. [https://news.yahoo.com/having-optimistic-partner-may-stave-off-dementia-study-113659893.html] Everyone who knows me says, "Man, that guy, he has such a sunny disposition! His wife is never going to have Al Whathisface."

Wednesday

Porn x (1) = 0 Penis The porn culture continues to raise its ugly head(s): It's killing marriages and killing penises: First, the marriages [https://verilymag.com/2017/07/causes-of-divorce-effects-of-watching-pornography] : > In an informal meeting survey in 2002, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers questioned 350 divorce attorneys

Tuesday

Sleeping with Others It appears nearly 25% of married couples don't sleep with each other anymore, opting instead for separate beds [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/09/separate-beds-married-couples-can-help-relationship-experts-say/4657215002/] . The phenomenon goes to the upper echelons of society: "From Queen Elizabeth II and

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> Ilhan Omar Accused Of Appropriating Alabama Culture By Marrying Relative | The Babylon Bee https://t.co/U6Yg7lmvKB > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 10, 2020 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1226954123771351040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Monday

Show Notes from the Current Episode [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/2/8/nbjs6v0ekb04k7c56hhyws0yxqbv7g] Cultivating Historical Perspective: Ten Years to Remember to Form a Framework I mentioned last week that I ought to do a podcast segment on 20 or 30 dates you should know in order to get

Friday

BYCU Albert Jay Nock once remarked that it's ridiculous to try to prohibit/circumscribe something like alcohol, which in nature runs as freely as water. His point was illustrated this week in India: "Residents of an apartment building in southern India were left in shock after a

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Blasted snow! I was supposed to go to Hillsdale College to watch Meg introduce a speech by Jacob Howland [https://www.jacobhowland.com/]. Alas, the second winter storm of 2020 sidelined me. Curses, curses, and more curses. As of this writing, I don't know how her

Wednesday

The choice (if it can even be called a choice, since it's not intentional) that most people make to delve into all the banality is ridiculous, but it has become the crux of contemporary living: The harshness of reality articulated by Camus, smoothed over by the banalities that

Camus on Nihilistic Man

European travel, elections, mass media, and other “gloriously normal” things might sustain the rest of society because society has effectively given up on meaning and has therefore settled for such things in substitution, but they are shallow and hence aren't fit for a sensitive soul like Franny'

Monday

Episode 61: Psychological Disruptions and the Reformation and Alexander the Great Show notes here [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2020/2/2/episode-61-psychological-disruptions-and-the-reformation-and-alexander-the-great] . First Segment: The Rise of Gnosticism Did you know all reformers were born after the year 1480? I'm talking about the Reformation of 1517, when

Friday

Brews You Can Use My apologies for the lack of posts this week. Marie and I are moving into my parents' house. We have a lot to do in order to get it ready. She's been carrying the bulk of the load, but this week, I had

Salinger's Nihilistic Man

Like Camus' hero Sisyphus, Salinger's two novels look at nihilistic man, the man who has given up the possibility of finding a meaning–a response–from the universe's wall of indifference. The novels are based on the condescending, though largely accurate, presumption that modern society

Monday

SHOW NOTES First Segment I'm working my way through Lawrence Cahoone's 700-page anthology of postmodernism. He starts the book out by excerpting key passages from writers who helped frame the modern mind, whose main gist, as I read Cahoone is: Modernity was obsessed with reasoning. Rationality.

Choose Wisely (a joke)

A man is at a cocktail party. An angel appears and reveals to the crowd that the man had recently risked his life to save a little girl. The angel announced to the man in front of everybody: “You may choose one: Greatest wisdom, greatest wealth, or greatest fame.” The

Friday

That scene was shot at Neir's Tavern in Queens. It might be the oldest bar in New York City. It almost shut down, but thanks to some help from the City, whose red tape was apparently indirectly forcing its closure, it's going to stay open. You

Thursday

Gay Thursday I discovered this evening that my backyard might be responsible for the stunning victories of the LGBT movement over the past 10 years. The Stryker Corporation out of little Kalamazoo, Michigan, is largely to blame [https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/01/the-billionaires-behind-the-lgbt-movement] . It's a stunning

Wednesday

A few semi-noteworthy tweets from my surfing last night. The sad thing is, I found only three such semis in 20 minutes of scrolling through Twitter. Learn something new every day: There's a wild horse problem out west. I saw at Twitter [https://twitter.com/PERCtweets/status/1207746954467430400]

Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus

At the end of The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus meditates on the “absurd hero” Sisyphus, a character from Greek mythology. Sisyphus was a crafty man who repeatedly betrayed and disobeyed the gods. As punishment, he was sentenced to an eviternity of rolling a huge rock to the top of a

Sunday/Monday: New Podcast Episode Released

Show Notes Today is the feast day of St. Macarius of Egypt. At least with the Eastern Orthodox. I don't believe the RCC recognizes him as a saint. He is one of the men who followed St. Anthony into the desert that we talked about in the last

Friday

BYCU Mid-January. Winter storm warnings afoot. What else is there to do but drink? Apparently, Anheuser-Busch agrees. For every inch of snow that falls, it's offering $1 off select Busch products in these cities [https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2020/01/16/busch-beer-snow-day-promotion-beer-prices-drop-per-inch-snow/4496855002/] : Des Moines,

Thursday

When the full truth and weight of the absurd hits a person, the result can be dramatic. A person might stand against the wall and wail, like H.G. Wells' frustrated utopian expectations giving way to defeatist whimpers at the end of his life in Mind at the End

Wednesday

Rambling Whew. The new-year blitz is over. Three closings in 12 days. For the non-lawyers out there: Closings are when a business or piece of real estate changes hands. First, you sign a purchase agreement. Then the buyer does his due diligence and various other negotiations and issues are addressed.

Camus on the Absurd

“There is only one really serious philosophical problem, that of suicide. To judge that life is or is not worth the trouble of being lived, this is to reply to the fundamental question of philosophy.” These words stand at the beginning of Albert Camus' philosophy. The question of suicide

Monday: Episode 58 Released

Show Notes St. Anthony the Great Feast Day Coming Up. This Friday. Keep in mind where you are in history. The Roman Empire converted to Christianity/Catholicism. Constantine ended persecution and himself converted. NOTE: He did not make Christianity the official religion. That happened about 75 years later under Theodosius,

Friday

BYCU Oh my, the drinking world is collapsing. First, I haven't yet had a drink this decade. And now the next most-manly guy in the world is drinking non-alcoholic beer: Daniel Craig's James Bond prefers non-alcoholic beer over a martini (shaken, not stirred) in a new

Nock Summary

Re: Albert Jay Nock's Our Enemy, the State. I think this minor classic boils down to a handful of points: 1. State power comes at the price of social power. If the state will take care of something, then people won't. As social power collapses, so

Wednesday

Dalrymple Jeremy Corbyn's pledge to "resist" the democratic results isn't a mere semantic problem. It points to the problem with socialists in general: They aren't interested in democracy. They are interested in power. Central power. Theodore Dalrymple lays it out in this

Tuesday

What happened Sunday night? Gervais' monologue blew me away. What blew me away even more: quite a few cheers from the audience. More groans than cheers? Possibly, but quite a few cheers nonetheless. Joe Rogan observed recently that Hollywood has no soul, and Hollywood is slowly coming to the

Monday: New TWE Episode, with Show Notes

I was reading David Mikics biography of Jacque Derrida [https://amzn.to/2MZTxV0] . He points out that the first large urban civilizations–like Babylon and Egypt–“used writing as an elite mechanism for social control. The secrets of the realm remained in the hands of the few who had knowledge

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I asked my daughter to bring me the newspaper. she said I'm too old fashioned and brought me her iPhone. Not getting too much into details, the fly is now dead, the iPhone is broken and my daughter is crying.

Friday

Brews You Can Use Whew. The holidays come to a close. There are lots of downsides to leaving childhood, but this time of year isn't one of them. When I was a kid, I'd have the post-holiday blues. As an adult with a frantic need for

Christmas

“He rules the world with truth and grace.” –Isaac Watts ++ “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” –Charles Dickens ++ “The Incarnation”¦illuminates and orders all other phenomena, explains both our laughter and our logic, our fear of the dead and our knowledge

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A guy bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas. After hearing about this extravagant gift, a friend of his said, "I thought she wanted one of those sporty four-wheel-drive vehicles." "She did," he replied. "But where was I going to find a fake

Friday

Brews You Can Use Bless the Varidesk [https://amzn.to/2PHnUBE]. Bless work. Bless gin. Bless Jim Lowe. Allow me to tie that all together. I've previously pointed out that if, all is play, even work becomes play. Play occurs in that crucial EXISTENTIAL GAP, that area between

Thursday

The Flies Sartre's play, The Flies, dramatizes the Greek legend of Orestes, a man who murders his mother and her husband. Normally, a person in Orestes' situation would quake as he awaited divine punishment, but not Orestes. He rises above such fear, shouting at Jupiter: “I am

Cancel Netflix

https://twitter.com/hashtag/boycottnetflix?lang=en I'm not a big boycott guy, but Netflix has simply crossed the line too many times. And now a gay Jesus. And it's Christmas. I ain't gonna judge you if you don't cancel, but: you

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> Seattle's homelessness crisis shows no sign of subsiding. Meanwhile, an agency tasked with tackling the issue spent taxpayer dollars on a strip show. @JasonRantz [https://twitter.com/jasonrantz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] https://t.co/3pwG0NyQaG > — Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) December 17, 2019 [https://twitter.com/dcexaminer/

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Monday

More Sartre So what did Sartre say? Basically, he simply denied that we have any natural traits (i.e., essences, characteristics). Instead of such essences, Sartre said, we have existence, and that's it. Our essences don't really exist. At best, they have a secondary reality because

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It's Friday the 13th. Avoid ladders, black cats and ridiculous superstitions.

Friday

Office Party Night Office party tonight. There'll be a lot of drinking and, no doubt, the stereotypical office party drunken antics, including the woman who drinks too much, flirts outrageously with the boss, then goes home with him, leaving me to deal with the fall-out later. Fortunately, that

Wednesday

Jean-Paul Sarte is also significant because his immense popularity offers further proof that there is something about existentialism that appeals to modern man. In 1945, after Sartre's philosophy began to filter through Paris' streets, he scheduled a public lecture. Although it was not widely advertised, by the

Monday

The Catcher in the Rye is one of the few books that I've read twice. The narrator and protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is a teenage jerk, but his constant, pointed criticisms of the shallowness of modern life make me laugh. Holden punches and weaves through everyday banalities that most

Friday

Brews You Can Use My small town has a great event planned this evening for downtown shopping. My office is located in the middle of it all, thereby enabling me to have a few drinks, venture out and check out the sites, go back and have a few drinks, venture

Thursday

The Stranger The whole attitude of existentialism is perhaps best seen in the most-popular existentialist novel of the twentieth century, Albert Camus' short book, The Stranger [https://amzn.to/2sNUVD9], which I'll summarize in hopes of giving the reader a good “feel” for existentialism. The hero of

Wednesday

The experts often disagree about the definition of existentialism, but in general, the term refers to a type of thought that emphasizes existence rather than essence. Here's how one scholar put it: “[G]enerally we can describe thinking as existentialist if it makes existence rather than essence the

Tuesday

Existentialism and the Modern Man There is one good religious projection in particular that has been spraying for the past one hundred years in one form or another and has cropped up occasionally with tremendous popularity, though few recognize it as a religious phenomenon. It has been a spiritual artesian

Monday

Monday Miscellany If you're looking for this week's podcast, there isn't one. The Thanksgiving Holiday weekend proved too much. Look for it to resume on December 8th. I would hope to keep it regular from that point forward, though the Christmas weekends could prove

Friday

BYCU Pain x Resistance = Suffering. That's a mindfulness axiom. Pain is unavoidable, but our resistance to it is. If you practice yourself into complete acceptance, the result is no suffering. Anything multiplied by zero is zero. This obviously parallels Christian experience and practice, especially as taught in de

Happy Thanksgiving

“Thanksgiving Day originated in New England when the Puritans realized they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians.” Mark Twain “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson “Beggar that I

Wednesday

Black Wednesday Ah, Black Wednesday. I've been black on this Wednesday before there was Black Wednesday. I remember speculating with friends back in the 1980s that it might be the biggest bar night of the year. It was like, nobody had become fully cognizant that this evening had

Tuesday

In 1927, G.K. Chesterton spoke in the Great Hall of University College, London. The topic: “Culture and the Coming Peril.” People probably thought he was going to talk about Bolshevism, but he didn't. The peril isn't Communism, Chesterton said, it's vulgarity: “To put

Monday

Many writers talk about religious “currents,” but I think that term is too generous. The term “current” implies something sustaining and capable of moving things forward in a meaningful way. It implies the existence of a stream or river–something steady, often deep–where it can run. That type of

Friday

BYCU Blogging has been light. Okay, non-existent. Lots of life changes, shifting priorities, moving parts . . . whatever. I'm in a transition area, with a pretty firm idea of projects I hope to launch next year, but I need to finish this year's priorities first. But regardless, I

New Episode Released

Monday

The Border [https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-the-sinaloa-drug-cartel-clobbered-the-mexican-army/] Let's hope the war not spilleth over. While American media outlets have been trashing the Trump administration over its abandonment of America's “noble Kurdish allies” in Syria, they have paid little attention to an extraordinary and alarming development

Happy Halloween

Nothing scarier than this: > “Guys, I got a great idea. Let's go out, get a couple beers... “ > “No. I got got a better idea! Are you wearing loose clothing? > “Oh. I know what you're thinking. This will be so fun!” https://t.co/

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Great book for Halloween: Monsters from the Id [https://amzn.to/2JGiBz1].

Friday

Brew Rambling Auto-Drunk [https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/10/24/he-was-acting-drunk-swore-he-was-sober-turns-out-his-stomach-was-brewing-its-own-beer/] Thing is, I can't figure out if this is a bad thing or a good. Then researchers discovered the unusual truth: Fungi in the man's digestive system were turning carbohydrates into alcohol – a rarely

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> He's Got To Save His Beer pic.twitter.com/8uLc1jj7nj [https://t.co/8uLc1jj7nj] > — Football Laughs (@FootbalILaughs) October 25, 2019 [https://twitter.com/FootbalILaughs/status/1187628630958063616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Wednesday

Nostalgia [https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/dlmp4c/til_that_childrens_tv_host_soupy_sales_during_one/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share] Children's TV host Soupy Sales, during one of his programs, asked children to send him the "funny green pieces of paper

Monday

Lonely Car Candy-O [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-mystery-of-ric-ocasek-900031/amp/] I was a big fan. I still think "Best Friend's Girl" is one of the greatest songs of the decade. The Mystery of Ric Ocasek: 'He Tried for Happiness, But Underneath Was a Lot

Friday

For the Bar Tonight As Radical as Its Eponym [https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/sam-adams-utopias-illegal] Sam Adams' newest beer is illegal in 15 states. And not because it uses the word "fag" in its advertising or anything sinister like that. Utopias is described as a “barrel-aged extreme

Climate Protesters in London's Rougher East End

> Who's not proud to be British when they see this?! Protest, resolution & celebration in 60 seconds. > pic.twitter.com/iV07qiiiYe [https://t.co/iV07qiiiYe] > — DD (@DemocracyNotEU) October 17, 2019 [https://twitter.com/DemocracyNotEU/status/1184726434708971520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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> "Today, many on the Left have become so hateful of religion that Barr's speech strikes the ears of people like Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman as the handiwork of a Cossack propagandist." https://t.co/NKnPHVCEdz > — The American Conservative (@amconmag) October 16, 2019 [https:

New TWE Episode Released

Episode 48: Stillness [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/10/13/episode-48-stillness]

Monday

Hungry Like the Wolf [https://www.wsj.com/articles/wolf-resurgence-in-washington-state-tests-limits-of-civility-11570885202] When conservationist efforts are too successful . . . or too ideological. I can guarantee you this is a war between Seattle and eastern Washington. The wolves, nearly nonexistent in the northwestern state for almost a century, have grown in numbers about 28%

Tuesday/Wednesday

Ghost Soldier [https://www.military.com/off-duty/2019/10/02/was-there-really-exorcism-fort-bragg.html] Director Osgood Perkins is set to begin production on a new horror movie called "Incident at Fort Bragg." The studio has announced that it's based on a real-life incident involving Catholic priest Malachi Martin

Monday

Getting Poked Over the Coals [https://www.theringer.com/2019/10/4/20899034/poker-cheating-mike-postle-stones-gambling-hall-twitch-no-limit-holdem-sacramento-veronica-brill] I'm not a big poker fan, but this story is pretty interesting. How a Twitch-streamed no-limit hold'em player found himself at the heart of one of the most fascinating gambling controversies in

Tuesday

Focus, Man, Focus! [https://www.quantamagazine.org/to-pay-attention-the-brain-uses-filters-not-a-spotlight-20190924/] One of my favorite quotes: "In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention." Simone Weil Attentional processes are the brain's way of shining a searchlight on relevant stimuli

Monday

The Blog and Podcast Return Today. Just in time for . . . Pot Cafe Opens Today [https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/miley-cyrus-backed-cannabis-cafe-brings-amsterdam-to-hollywood-1.1323335] I favor legalization, especially when I've seen first hand people benefit from marijuana's medicinal capacities, but I can't get rid of the feeling that

Monday

Note: A death in the family has derailed TWE temporarily. Give me a few days . . . Baptisms at Practice [https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/18/dabo-swinney-christianity-clemson-football-recruiting] Dabo Swinney's faith has aided in the recruiting that's made Clemson a college football powerhouse, while drawing the ire

Thursday/Friday

Family matters are taking me out of commission for a few days. Enjoy this mix of regular stories and drinking stories. Priests Spray Drunks with Holy Water from Plane [https://abcnews.go.com/International/russian-priests-spray-holy-water-plane-stop-alcohol/story?id=65668588] I'm absolutely fascinated by this ongoing tornado born of Holy

Wednesday

Abortion Mysticism [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/opinion/pete-buttigieg-abortion-democrats.html] Douthat is the man . . . The unapologetic grisliness of a Klopfer, or a Kermit Gosnell before him, haunts a Buttigiegian abortion politics more than it does a “safe, legal, rare” triangulation, because it establishes the most visceral of contrasts

Tuesday

Catholic Intelligentsia Waging War [https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190912-academias-holy-warriors?key=mi0Bff1vaLHL09_no2EmgyubkYGaE_Z0wYeVvMXRpBMlzD16oZl7OvOuo9-6VB1CQ1pUYTE5WnhOR1J5VUFMaG1lRk1TdExEQ1VIbkRnQXRiYkZkdzh4VER0MA] Let's be a part of the Catholic Dark Web that must emerge in order for this to succeed. As Deneen was speaking, blueberry pie was served to an audience that included Rod Dreher, the

New Episode Released

Dan Aykroyd, Podcasts and John Senior, LSD and Shifting Consciousness [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/9/15/episode-45] Or:

Monday

Paid to be a Jerk [https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/ryan-gunderson-washington-generals-harlem-globetrotters-stories] Gunderson survived what many might consider the worst job in professional sports: playing for the Washington Generals. He was the team captain and starting point guard for a team whose sole existence is to lose to the Harlem Globetrotters.

The Weekend Eudemon

Marco . . . Polo [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2019/09-10/explorations-of-marco-polo/] Western civilization's first secular bestseller. The world-famous explorer Marco Polo is credited with many things, but perhaps the greatest is compiling one of the world's first best-selling travelogues. Published around 1300, the book chronicles his

Friday

Brews You Can Use Friday the 13th. Harvest Moon. You better drink heavily. E-Drunk [https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2019-08-29/e-scooters-plus-drinking-a-fast-pass-to-the-er] I like the new e-scooters. I like drinking. I also like to combine them, but it's not advised. Drinking and driving an electric scooter doesn&

BTW

TDE is now "simulcasted" at eudemonpodcast.com [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-blog-1]. Same content, different format. There are no plans to abandon this site, but I am struggling with how to make this site look better. TDE is one of the oldest blogs on the Internet, and it&

Thursday

Taki Thursday Gay Penguins? [https://www.dailywire.com/news/51657/theyre-turning-frickin-penguins-gay-michael-j-knowles] Yes, of course. This Daily Wire (Ben Shapiro) article is annoyed that the SJWs have misappropriated penguins to advance their alphabet cause (LGBTQUIA . . .), but I say, "The penguins be your poster child." If the reasoning is, "

Wednesday

Happy 9/11 Day. Reminder to my right-leaning readers: "God Bless the U.S.A." is not the national anthem. Rare Harvest Moon [https://www.prevention.com/life/a28980703/harvest-moon-2019-september-friday-the-13/] This Friday Before fall's official arrival on September 23, a rare sighting of the Harvest Moon

Episode 44

Tuesday

Burning Man and Econ Man [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/05/upshot/paul-romer-burning-man-nobel-economist.html] Interesting piece. Romer was on Econtalk last April [http://www.econtalk.org/paul-romer-on-growth-cities-and-the-state-of-economics/] . I can virtually guarantee you the NYT gives a leftward slant to Romer's views, but the piece is still worth

Monday

New podcast episode posted: Nietzsche [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/9/8/episode-44-nietzsche] . Nietzsche and Slave Morality Nietzsche and Detachment Nietzsche and Zen Lightning Segments White Privilege II

Monday

Mr. Rogers/Hanks' Neighborhood [https://apnews.com/5af277479f6b469e8f3e8f22c6978d84] I have mixed feelings about this movie. Rogers was a wannabe Catholic . . . maybe (link [https://angelusnews.com/news/mike-aquilina/the-catholics-in-mister-rogers-neighborhood] ). “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” starring Hanks as the host of “Mister Rogers Neighborhood,” premiered Saturday night at the Toronto

The Weekend Eudemon

Find Your Own Calcutta [https://i.redd.it/33ypjh24p2l31.jpg] A Mother Teresa pic and quote. Channeling Joseph Pieper [https://thepointmag.com/2019/criticism/idleness] With male labor-force participation rates in decline and the concept of universal basic income nudging into the mainstream, idleness has taken on new political urgency.

Friday

21 My middle child, Michael, turns 21 today. He's a great kid, albeit an aloof kid. While growing up, I'm afraid he thought his middle name was "Michael" and his first name was "WTF". Take it easy tonight, Michael. The Real Relief

Thursday

Michigan becomes first state to ban flavored e-cigarettes [https://beta.washingtonpost.com/health/michigan-becomes-first-state-to-ban-flavored-e-cigarettes/2019/09/03/34f234c6-ce4c-11e9-8c1c-7c8ee785b855_story.html?outputType=amp] Morons beating on morons. I think vaping is stupid . . . I rank it with slamming one's genitals in the car door on purpose. But hey, it'

Wednesday

Understandable [https://www.yahoo.com/news/vegan-woman-sued-her-neighbors-140715647.html] A vegan woman has filed a suit against her neighbors in the Australian supreme court after complaining about the smell of meat and fish emanating from their barbecues. Study Performed in Our Basement [https://www.studyfinds.org/hurry-up-modern-patience-thresholds-lower-than-ever-before-survey-finds/] Patience is a virtue,

Tuesday

Why Does Saying “Flip Flop” Feels More Correct Than “Flop Flip”? [https://www.scienceabc.com/social-science/ablaut-reduplication-why-does-saying-flip-flop-feels-more-correct-than-flop-flip.html] There are many words that we use in our daily language that seem alright when spoken in a particular way, but somewhat weird when said in the 'wrong' order. There

The Weekend Eudemon

This is the best of American wine country [https://www.10best.com/interests/drinks/2019-winners-for-the-best-of-american-wine-country/] This boutique hotel in Northern Michigan features just 32 guest rooms in a lakeside setting that'll make you feel like you're stepping back into the early 20th century. Nearby Walloon Lake

Friday: BYCU

Winos Once Every Two Weeks [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/08/27/red-wine-good-gut-lowers-cholesterol-need-fortnight/] ed wine is good for gut health and can lower cholesterol, but you only need it once a fortnight, a new study has found. The first major research of its kind found significantly higher diversity

Thursday

Dalrymple on Dealing with Deviants [https://www.city-journal.org/british-criminal-justice-system] There certainly seem to be those who, from an early age–indeed, from the earliest age at which independent action is possible–behave in a way that most people would deem evil. As soon as they are able to pull

Wednesday

Subsidies: F to the Fourth. Food Stamps, Farmers, and Fast Food [https://www.history.com/news/food-stamps-great-depression] The U.S. food stamp program was launched at a time when the nation was facing a tragic paradox: As millions of Americans suffered from hunger during the Great Depression, the country'

Tuesday

Hatred of the Middle Class [https://www.city-journal.org/young-radicals-war-against-middle-class] In some ways, the current age of victimhood has roots in the excesses of Second Wave feminism of the 1970s. The theme of Flora Rheta Schreiber's bestselling Sybil (published in 1973) was that some American women were so

Monday

Not Sure Who the Defendant Is [https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/woman-denied-housekeeping-work-church-over-priests-kinda-racist-dog-153228523.html] A Tennessee woman is speaking out after she alleges a Catholic priest and parish staff denied her work due to the color of her skin. However, the church and the Catholic Diocese of Memphis deny any wrongdoing,

The Weekend Eudemon

A Bit Too Harsh for Comfort [https://spectator.org/why-pope-francis-hasnt-visited-argentina/] My principal purpose in visiting Buenos Aires is to learn about its not-so-favorite son, Jorge Bergoglio, who still hasn't visited Argentina since becoming Pope Francis. During my first few days here, I asked every Catholic I met to

Friday

83 Michigan Counties, 83 Bars [https://www.mlive.com/dining/2017/10/best_bars_in_each_of_michigans.html] It's no lie, we have a pretty great bar culture here in Michigan. From the down and dirty dives, to high end classy affairs, there is somewhere for everyone,

Thursday

Back Row America [https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/06/back-row-america] I first walked into the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx because I had been told not to. I had been told it was too dangerous and too poor, and that I was too white. I had been told

Wednesday

Tips to Return to Serious Reading Again [https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2019/aug/14/how-to-restore-your-books-habit-reading-social-media] In 2019, books are not just a last resort when the wifi is down. There are Instagram accounts, podcasts and even subscription boxes dedicated to reading. Chances are you've noticed your

Tuesday

'I don't smell!' Meet the people who have stopped washing [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/aug/05/i-dont-smell-meet-the-people-who-have-stopped-washing] David Whitlock has not showered or bathed for 15 years, yet he does not have body odour. “It was kind of strange for the first few months,

Monday

The Comfort Animal Insanity Grows [https://www.foxnews.com/travel/miniature-horses-allowed-fly-service-animals-dot] The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced that miniature horses are still officially allowed to fly as service animals in all cabins of commercial planes, in a statement aiming to define the guidelines regarding protections for emotional support

Friday

Great Pics; Great Descriptions [https://detroit.eater.com/maps/best-new-cocktails-bars-detroit] There was once a time in Detroit when craft cocktail bars were so few and far between, nearly every one seemed noteworthy. That, thankfully, is no longer the case. With more and more bar-goers developing a palate for crafty drinks,

Thursday

Archie Bunker is in the 1%? Homer Simpson? [https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/050615/are-you-top-one-percent-world.asp] An income of $32,400 per year would allow someone to be among the top 1% of income earners in the world. To reach the top 1 percent worldwide in terms of wealth–

Wednesday

See The World of Total Work Podcast Episode [https://lifeandmyfinances.com/2018/11/7-reasons-why-you-should-have-multiple-streams-of-income/] 7 Reasons Why You Should Have Multiple Streams of Income: (5) Allows You To Be Creative. Having multiple streams of income isn't all about the money. In fact, sometimes people start a side hustle,

Tuesday

Poland, Europe's Last Hope, Episode 58,239 [https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2019/08/09/polish-archbishop-vows-to-resist-lgbt-ideology/] The president of the Polish bishops' conference confirmed the country's Catholic Church will resist “LGBT ideology” as equality campaigners demanded the dismissal of an archbishop who branded gays and

Monday

The Story [https://beta.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/10/jeffrey-epsteins-apparent-suicide-is-unfathomable/?outputType=amp] For anyone familiar with Bureau of Prisons standard operating procedures, Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide is more than mysterious; it is unfathomable. The 66-year-old accused sex trafficker was found dead in his prison cell at the

THE WEEKEND EUDEMON

The Story [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/us/politics/joe-biden-poor-kids.html] Joe Biden Says 'Poor Kids' Are Just as Bright as 'White Kids' The Satire [https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-apologizes-for-racist-gaffe-i-like-all-races-even-the-bad-ones] "Rest assured," Biden said. "I like all races, even the bad

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New podcast released [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/8/4/episode-40-the-world-of-total-work] : G.K. Chesterton: His cause of canonization has been rejected. I understand why, but the charge of anti-semitism is ridiculous. And unnecessary to raise. Maybe the bishop was virtue signalling. Lighting Segments: The notecard, beer markets, Europe'

BYCU

BYCU-like podcast: Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World "Ben Powell returns to the show to discuss his new book with Bob Lawson, in which the two economists visit various unfree places around the world and share their observations. (It turns out that alcohol, and

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> How will Alabama recover from this? [https://www.reddit.com/r/rareinsults/comments/cjthxh/how_will_alabama_recover_from_this/] from r/rareinsults [http://www.reddit.com/r/rareinsults]

Weaver

Richard Weaver, professor at the University of Chicago fifty years ago, wrote of “the Great Stereopticon,” a term roughly equivalent to what many call “mass media.” It is the technology that reaches out to everyone in western culture and tells us “the time to laugh and the time to cry.

"It!"

In today's idiom, it is common to use the word "it" when describing the sexual act or related things. It reminds me of beatnik hero in Jack Kerouac's On the Road named Rollo Greb, a “wild, ecstatic” man who “didn't give a

Sunday

You can trace almost every Protestant sect today back to five branches: 1. Lutheran 2. Reform 3. Radical 4. Anglican 5. Pentecostal The first three were in existence within a few years after 1517 and had already started splintering among themselves a few years after that. Anglican in less than

Thursday

H.I.F. A rumor on Twitter says Mister Rogers, a Presbyterian minister, took last rites from a monk. This article by Mike Aquilina [https://angelusnews.com/news/mike-aquilina/the-catholics-in-mister-rogers-neighborhood] offers details about Mister Rogers' extensive ties to Catholicism, but doesn't say he converted on his death

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Friday

I'm posting this simply because I really like the picture. It's pretty: > This is what happens when you don't renew @DavidWondrich [https://twitter.com/DavidWondrich?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]'s contract: @esquire [https://twitter.com/esquire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] has the

Thursday

From the Notebooks While returning to Europe with Sigmund Freud from a conference in the United States in 1909, Carl Jung had the most-famous nocturnal dream of the twentieth century. He dreamed he was in a medieval house. He went down into a vaulted Gothic room, then into the house&

Wednesday

NEW PODCAST EPISODE RELEASED: Detachment. The first rule of the spiritual life. [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/7/14/episode-38-detachment]

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> A quiet day at the mall. Walking around, unnoticed, until someone yells, “Hey, it's Pat Sajak!” Then pandemonium: handshakes, pictures, autographs. I'm almost sorry I yelled. > — Pat Sajak (@patsajak) July 15, 2019 [https://twitter.com/patsajak/status/1150866959212433410?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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> On July 16th, 1212, at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, King Alfonso VIII “the Noble” of Castile led an outnumbered Catholic coalition to victory against the Almohad Caliphate–marking a turning point in the Reconquista. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/cdvqci/on_july_16th_1212_

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The French Revolution ate its own. Zmirak thinks the same thing might be happening with today's left [https://stream.org/justice-democrats-have-stormed-the-bastille/]. Let's hope he's right. Excerpt: > Ocasio-Cortez was put in place by the quasi-Marxist faction the “Justice Democrats.” One of its

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> The theatre of Taormina is an ancient #Greek [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Greek?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] theatre, in Taormina, southern #Italy [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Italy?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw], built in the third century BC. #Archeology [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Archeology?

I believe it

> A new study has showed that labeling food choices in a hospital cafeteria with simple “traffic-light” symbols indicating their relative health value was associated with a reduction in calories purchased by employees, and that the dietary changes were sustained over two years. [https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/

Pretty Much How Central Government Works

A golfer walks into the pro shop and asks the golf pro if they sell ball markers. The golf pro says that they do, and they are $1.00. The golfer gives the golf pro a dollar. The golf pro opens the register, puts the dollar in, and hands the

Call the Social Justice Warriors

> TIL that along with blacksmiths, there are "whitesmiths" who work with tin or other light metals and "brownsmiths" who work with brass or copper. [https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/ca1skk/til_that_along_with_blacksmiths_there_are/] from r/todayilearned [http://www.reddit.

Helpful

> This general store sign showing that there is actually a difference between jelly and jam [https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/c9lexn/this_general_store_sign_showing_that_there_is/] from r/mildlyinteresting [http://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting]

Fever (When You Hold Me Tight)

Brews You Can Use Well, this is disappointing. I bought a chunk of this stock last summer: Fevertree Erases Year's Gains as Analyst Warns of 'Gin Fatigue' [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-04/fevertree-erases-year-s-gains-as-jefferies-sees-gin-fatigue] . Then again, I bet on Fever Tree because I thought the

Offered for What It's Worth

EVERYTHING YOU SHOULD BINGE OVER THE JULY 4TH WEEKEND [https://www.wired.com/story/july-4-binge-ing-guide/]. Wired.

Great Assortment for Your Holiday Weekend

TEACHING GIRLS TO MASTURBATE, Libby Emmons Orgasms can be pretty powerful things, but are they magic? In a new article, Teen Vogue, that bastion of wisdom for preteen girls, offers some odd advice. In “How to Use Sex Magic to Manifest Your Best Self,” resident bruja Lisa Stardust details how

Ginappointment

I found a new tonic: Zevia. Half the price of Fever Tree. Zero calories. No artificial sweeteners. All natural. Its secret? Stevia. I was stoked. I bought two six packs. I tried it last night. Disappointment. The stevia taste comes through, pretty strongly. It's not terrible, but it&

Walter Williams Dismantles the Stupid Reparations Issue

Several Democratic presidential hopefuls are calling for Americans to make reparations for slavery. On June 19, the House judiciary subcommittee on the constitution, civil rights and civil liberties held a hearing. Its stated purpose was “to examine, through open and constructive discourse, the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, its

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> This building on the back trails at the monastery. Hermit in there? pic.twitter.com/wE5cHXPvB1 [https://t.co/wE5cHXPvB1] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) June 21, 2019 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1142150258018979842?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Saturday

Back from my stay with the Trappists: > Main entrance pic.twitter.com/Eb9Y3tRGWw [https://t.co/Eb9Y3tRGWw] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) June 21, 2019 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1142150524231409665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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> Very long escalator at the subway station in Chongqing, China [https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/c050y3/very_long_escalator_at_the_subway_station_in/] from r/mildlyinteresting [http://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting]

Father's Day Gift

for that debonair gin drinker in your family > Hendrick's seasonal, a must. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Gin/comments/byxeco/hendricks_seasonal_a_must/] from r/Gin [http://www.reddit.com/r/Gin]

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> Make sure your kids are NOT reading these books this summer. Courtesy of Slate: Books your kids should read this summer: https://t.co/gWZ3xflm2x via @slate [https://twitter.com/Slate?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) June 11, 2019 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1138252783403110400?

Wednesday

Or maybe news from 1974? It seems we've been told for nearly 50 years that eggs are bad for your heart. I'm not sure I believe it, but it seems like that's what I've heard my entire life. > Straight from 1989:

Tuesday

I add copious amounts of compost to the asparagus bed twice a year. I get scores of these. > This massive asparagus spear pic.twitter.com/HrYb94lXdB [https://t.co/HrYb94lXdB] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) June 3, 2019 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1135669216739241984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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Excellent piece, though I think the writer could've made his point more bluntly, which is (I think): Hume didn't believe we can know anything, so if we can't know anything, we better preserve our traditions since they developed over time through forces we can&

Friday

BYCU I'm not sure what to do with this information, but it strikes me as nifty: The most commonly searched beer in every state, according to Google [https://www.groundreport.xyz/the-most-commonly-searched-beer-in-every-state-according-to-google/] . Most states are searching mainline denominations (and way too many are searching for Corona . . . awful stuff)

Thursday

> My Marshall Plan: On the Goodness of Justice Thurgood's Approach https://t.co/9FBiq6W86I > — Bird, Scheske, Reed & Beemer (@sturgiseric) May 30, 2019 [https://twitter.com/sturgiseric/status/1134058206534217728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Well, summer is here. I had a very good weekend. The forecast called for rain throughout the weekend . . . and we only got a little. Actually, we got quite a bit, but it came at night or in big dumps, so 90% of the weekend was open for outdoor

Happy Memorial Day

The new podcast episode is up: Episode 36: Memorial Day Weekend, Drinking in Mexico, Catholic Church and Divine Corruption. Enjoy. [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/5/24/episode-36-memorial-day-weekend-drinking-in-mexico-catholic-church-and-divine-corruption] May 25 Episode 36: Memorial Day Weekend, Drinking in Mexico, Catholic Church and Divine Corruption Memorial Day Weekend: A tradition has

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> Zalipie is a small village in #Poland [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Poland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] that's well-known for its beautifully painted flowers all over homes & folk art. pic.twitter.com/0QgJoC5IiE [https://t.co/0QgJoC5IiE] > — European Beauty (@MagicalEurope) May 25, 2019

Friday

BYCU My two oldest sons have been in Oaxaca, Mexico for the past four weeks. They're taking "immersion classes," which means, "Do everything in Spanish for four weeks." They live with a Spanish mom, take Spanish classes in Spanish, take excursions in Spanish . . . and

Thursday

From the Notebooks The four courts: Court of Law, Court of Religion, Court of Morals, Court of Taste and Manners. (Referred to on page 30 of Nock's Memoirs) It seems the culture wars should be fought first in T&M, and then Morals. Too many of us

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling The farming crunch is on. Seedlings are going into the ground faster than cocktails into a Kennedy's gut. Two dozen flower seedlings yesterday; a dozen more today, plus six tomato seedlings. More go in tomorrow. I would've put more in today, but it was

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The new podcast is up: Episode 35: Mental Exercise, Predictive Genetics, Hook-Up Software at Ivy [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/5/17/episode-35-mental-exercise-predictive-genetics-hook-up-software-at-ivy] Mental Exercising: Everyone seems to agree: It's crucial we exercise mentally, normally in the form of meditation. Meditation, even the most secular,

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> The Meteora is a very big #Orthodox [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orthodox?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] Monastery in Central #Greece [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Greece?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]. It was built on sandstone rock pillars. pic.twitter.com/vvPfPnZJbs [https://t.co/

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> Translation of this mezcal bottle: for sacred consumption, all excess is profane pic.twitter.com/BW5ISwY16Z [https://t.co/BW5ISwY16Z] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) May 16, 2019 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1128837025334009856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

BYCU

Brews You Can Use Man, I feel like drinking today. Unfortunately, Meg has her regional track meet, which means I probably won't get home until late tonight, and the high school frowns on people bringing alcohol into the stadium, even if I have it stored in one of

Thursday

Rambling Toward the Weekend Glorious weather. I spent nearly four hours at the produce site, trying to do a week's worth of work in one afternoon. It didn't quite work out. I got a lot of the (most excellent) Salanova lettuce planted, but otherwise, I just

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> Supply & demand [https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/boxikd/supply_demand/] from r/Anarcho_Capitalism [http://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism]

Wednesday

> "The high-school English teacher will be fulfilling his responsibility if he furnishes the student a guided opportunity, through the best writing of the past, to come, in time, to an understanding of the best writing of the present." Flannery O'Connor #FlanneryOConnor [https://twitter.com/hashtag/

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Great weather returns. Finally. Man, it's been a brutal spring. With the exception of, maybe, five days, it's been terrible weather. It's been so cold, even my lettuce production has been slow. I, however, counted over 75 "volunteer" lettuce plants

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling New episode of TWE is out: Brian Sims and Nuts on Both Sides, Fleeing California, E.F. Schumacher [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/5/10/episode-34-brian-sims-and-nuts-on-both-sides-fleeing-california-ef-schumacher] . Brian Sims: Yup, he's a hateful nut. Yup, the Right has hateful nuts too. The thing is, the Right

Saturday

I gotta agree. A few podcasts ago, I wondered how so many committed Catholics can watch that show. It's a show I would love, and I tried to get into it, but I simply had to stop after the first four episodes because it was, literally, pornographic. Granted,

BYCU

A new beer mile world record. I would vomit after 200 meters.

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> Why don't transsexuals organize their own athletic events? Why destroy women's sports by having men who think they are women outrun, outlift, outwrestle and beat up women who are obviously weaker than they are? > — Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) May 2, 2019 [https://twitter.

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling I started dieting on January 1st. I dropped from 200 to 190 pounds within weeks. After that, it got hard. Very hard. I was Auschwitzing myself but couldn't drop below 190. After two months of zero progress, I went Bobby Sands for three weeks and dropped

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I'm a sucker for Michigan in May. The past two days have been simply gorgeous. I've spent a lot of time in the garden, taken walks, played frisbee golf with my two youngest sons, practiced tennis with Max twice, watched part of Tess'

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling New TWE episode posted: Noise, Max Picard, George Gissing, and Cardinal Sarah [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/5/2/noise-justice-stegall-and-hangovers] . Noise. Our culture is too tolerant when it comes to noise. I explore it. Noise Part II: Silence and Russell Kirk, Max Picard, and Cardinal Sarah. Lightning

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> "In recent years, Christian restaurant chains, bakers, and high-tech executives have fallen prey to campaigns to chase them from the economy, a kind of professional execution in a capitalist society." https://t.co/9DerRgO7m1 ”¦ > — The American Conservative (@amconmag) May 5, 2019 [https://twitter.com/amconmag/status/

Friday

BYCU I got my weight down to 185. I started the year at 200 (freakin' 200 pounds). I have rewarded myself by wading back into hard liquor. Specifically, the gin and tonic . . . just in time for warm weather. Gin and tonic is good for weight loss, as pointed out

Twitter Thursday

> There's no point blaming the tragedies of socialism on the flaws or corruption of particular leaders. Any system which allows some people to exercise unbridled power over others is an open invitation to abuse, whether that system is called slavery or socialism or something else. > — Thomas

Reddit Stuff

Life is going to have me in a headlock for the next six weeks. Daughter Meg has 14 functions over the course of 28 days, starting this Saturday. Daughter Tess has her parochial school graduation and a few tennis matches. And, oh yeah, daughter Abbie is getting married in early

Tuesday

> Censorship changes with the times [https://www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/comments/bi5c6g/censorship_changes_with_the_times/] from r/Libertarian [http://www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The new podcast is up: Episode 32: LGBTs in the Work Force, Easter, and College Loan Forgiveness [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/4/26/episode-32-lgbts-in-the-work-force-easter-and-college-loan-forgiveness] . Show notes: LGBT at Work: The Supreme Court has taken three LGBT discrimination cases. It's evidence that Derrida has won:

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> It all makes sense now [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/bi8xu4/it_all_makes_sense_now/] from r/funny [http://www.reddit.com/r/funny] > 7 things every kid needs to hear. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/comments/bhzv4s/7_things_every_kid_needs_to_

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> There's nothing I really like about this comment except that I'm forced to concede I agree with it. https://t.co/GoI1cY1R6V > — Steve Skojec (@SteveSkojec) April 25, 2019 [https://twitter.com/SteveSkojec/status/1121528930719002624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Great BYCU Pic

> Four pillars Gin tasting board from Hemingway's brewery, Port Douglas Australia. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Gin/comments/bhiv04/four_pillars_gin_tasting_board_from_hemingways/] from r/Gin [http://www.reddit.com/r/Gin]

Friday

Brews You Can Use One of the most interesting drinking pieces of the year: Hangover Inc.: The Companies Getting You Over Last Night [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-04-12/best-way-to-cure-a-hangover-these-companies-have-ideas] . The gist: Companies are offering I.V.s and oxygen boosts to get people over their hangovers quickly: >

Thursday

> ~ Henry Hazlitt ~ [https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/bgvjqd/henry_hazlitt/] from r/Anarcho_Capitalism [http://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism]

Wednesday

Reddit Miscellany "On any given day, 1 in 5 American youngsters don't drink any water at all, finds a new study of US children and young adults in JAMA Pediatrics, and those who don't end up consuming almost twice as many calories from sugar-sweetened beverages.

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I released the first TWE bonus episode yesterday: Gnosticism [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/4/21/bonus-episode-gnosticism] . It's all five segments that I did on Gnosticism, combined into one episode. I'll probably produce more bonus episodes using a similar approach (gathering similar subjects

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling New TWE podcast posted: Tiger Woods, Seven Nation Army of Actuaries, Twitter's Narrative, Grand Narratives and Post-Modernism. > Tiger Woods: Congratulations to Tiger and congratulations to golf. > Tiger and the Press: Tiger the Philanderer . . . covered up by the press. A small example of a much

Happy Easter

"When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld “him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a man

Good Friday

“The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His.” George MacDonald "The cross cannot be defeated. . . For it is Defeat." G.K. Chesterton On those who hate Christianity: "They do not dislike the Cross

Maundy Thursday

“[I]n the agony of Gethsemane the ultimate consequences of our sin had their hour. . . . God permitted his Son to taste the human agony of rejection and plunge towards the abyss. . . Gethsemane was the hour in which Jesus' human heart and mind experienced the ultimate odium of the sin

Wednesday

From the Notebooks The examples of Russia's tendency to absorb other cultures are numerous. The earliest years of Russian history show an influence from Finnish races, steppe peoples, the Greeks, Persia, and the Vikings. Ibid. at 5. After Prince Vladimir's baptism in 988, Russia became heavily

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling When I was in high school, my friends and I went on a Whopper kick. We would sometimes get two Whoppers each. They got theirs with triple ketchup, which was absolutely disgusting, but we were all kind of pigs. Needless to say, my Whopper days are history. Or

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Way to go, Tiger! I'm not a huge golf fan, but I follow the Majors: The Masters, the PGA, the US Open, the British Open. And this is one of the best golf stories ever. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was kind of blown away by

In Honor of Today's Epic Sporting Event

> 16 USC Â§5305a makes it a federal crime to attempt to sell a product derived from a tiger. > — A Crime a Day (@CrimeADay) April 14, 2019 [https://twitter.com/CrimeADay/status/1117498465892933634?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Wow

> Benedict XVI spoke the truth. God bless him for it. Truth always harms the stratagems of ambiguity and mendacity. https://t.co/3m9BzPSMpc > — Patrick Madrid âœŒðŸ¼ (@patrickmadrid) April 13, 2019 [https://twitter.com/patrickmadrid/status/1117156676879171584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Brews You Can Use Alright, my last BYCU of the Lenten season. Good Friday is obviously a poor day to celebrate drinking, and it's not like I want to start priming all of your drinking pumps on Holy Thursday or Saturday. That being said, I'm often

Thursday

> When asked by @tedcruz [https://twitter.com/tedcruz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] if a quote by Mother Teresa was "hate speech," two Public Policy Directors from Facebook and Twitter were left speechless for 12 SECONDS. > When Twitter's director spoke up, he tried to dodge

Wednesday

I'm kind of stunned by this video: But I'm not stunned for the reason stated by lifesite news: "Fr. Larry Richards condemns parents of large, daily mass going families." I don't think he is. I think he is singling out one family

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling A few interesting tidbits from Reddit's "Today I Learned" feature: "TIL Mount Everest is so inundated with waste, including 26,500 lbs of human excrement, each season that the Nepalese gov't now requires each climber to pack out 8 kg

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling New episode posted: California [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/4/5/california]: LA, Santa Monica, Malibu, Ventura, San Simeon, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Soledad, Altadena, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Venice Beach, Anaheim: The entire podcast episode is dedicated to California. Well, the entire podcast, minus a few detours. Youtube

Saturday

> "Conservatives who took in free-market ideology with their mother's milk should strongly reconsider their views....The stale old GOP view that Big Business Is Always Right And Big Government Is Always Wrong is completely idiotic today." https://t.co/zsww6t6XeO > — The American Conservative (@amconmag)

Friday

The main meeting room at the Hearst Castle is set up like you might find it if you were walking in for a gathering in the 1920s, including this tray of cocktails. > A cocktail setting, circa 1920s, at the Hearst Castle pic.twitter.com/KWGTC2mv5q [https://t.co/KWGTC2mv5q]

The Return Eudemon

We got back last night at midnight from a packed trip to California. We spent time in LA, Santa Monica, Malibu, Ventura, San Simeon, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Soledad, Altadena, Pasadena, Venice Beach, and Anaheim. An endurance test or a vacation? I'm still trying to decide. > It'

Wednesday

From the Notebooks Marx prohibited any discussion of first things, realizing that they ineluctably lead back to God. Marx was so fearful of questions about transcendence that Eric Voegelin described him as a spiritually diseased man who suffered from “logophobia.” Eric Voegelin, From Enlightenment to Revolution (Duke University Press, 1975)

Tuesday

From the Notebooks The examples of Russia's tendency to absorb other cultures are numerous. The earliest years of Russian history show an influence from Finnish races, steppe peoples, the Greeks, Persia, and the Vikings. After Prince Vladimir's baptism in 988, Russia became heavily influenced by Byzantium.

Hippies in Northern California: Living Off the Grid

Though professing to be radicals, many hippie women proudly recalled their lives as similar to the experiences of the paragon of American conservative virtue: the pioneer woman. Ayala Talpai, who lived off the land with her husband and five children, remembered that when it was “time for supper, I’d

Monday

From the Notebooks Dr. Carroll published the first volume of this projected-seven volume set in 1985. Called The Founding of Christendom, it took the reader from Genesis to Emperor Constantine, whose conversion in 313 made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and brought Christianity to center stage. The

Saturday

> George Orwell: The Forgotten Prophet (essay by Joseph Pearce) https://t.co/FlQ1QWf08p > — ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) March 22, 2019 [https://twitter.com/imaginativecons/status/1109145315117027328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

BYCU A TDE reader sends along perhaps the best Lenten BYCU piece of all time: Man does 46-day beer fast [http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/25/my-take-what-i-learned-from-my-46-day-beer-only-fast/?fbclid=IwAR1N3h8KzgNTUKRvmhTIqCO00FTU35jKDKpfvT9zIF6OMk0pW-F_dLRUZ3I] . When I saw the title, I thought it was going to be about a guy who gave up

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Good to hear: MSNBC's ratings have taken it in the shorts since its sham fear-mongering has been exposed: Maddow, who has consistently vied for the first or second top-rated cable news program, was sixth on Monday evening, down almost 500,000 total viewers from the previous

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> Breaking News @AOC [https://twitter.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] claims she found a way to end world hunger pic.twitter.com/57alYs6pjc [https://t.co/57alYs6pjc] > — Terrence K. Williams (@w_terrence) March 25, 2019 [https://twitter.com/w_terrence/status/1110324797806919680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling The New York Times opens up a promising op-ed feature: religious philosophy wars. It runs a wholly one-sided op-ed that ridicules the idea of a God that philosophy can reason to [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/opinion/-philosophy-god-omniscience.html]. I assume the Grey Hag will give

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Man, for some reason, that Trump dance video really cracked me up yesterday. I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I think I watched it ten times. Matt Taibbi, far from a conservative the last I checked, breaks down the farce that was RussiaGate. It&

RussiaGate

> Okay who did this ðŸ¤£ðŸ’€ pic.twitter.com/bYe5jI8S2h [https://t.co/bYe5jI8S2h] > — Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) March 24, 2019 [https://twitter.com/Cliff_Sims/status/1109962032995069952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling New TWE episode posted this weekend: Episode 27: Postmodernism and a Soviet Philosopher, Postmodernism and Brahman, Stylites [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/3/21/c7eipocxiqh83fts4by4mgw0pmq5ik] . Click the link to listen, or go to Stitcher, iTunes, etc. It's also posted below in a Youtube format. >

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> "While World War II may have been necessary, it was not good. It was an epic tragedy from which Americans can learn much with relevance to the present day. But learning assumes a willingness to see beyond myths. Charles Beard shows us where to begin." https://t.

Friday

Brews You Can Use March isn't good for losing weight. The weather isn't warm enough to get a lot of movement outside, birthdays, and now March Madness. Tonight (actually, this afternoon) calls for my third day of drinking this week. I'll be at a

Thursday

From the Notebooks Brownson said, on a speaking tour on “The Church and the Republic” that every society is exposed to two opposite dangers: absolutism of the state and absolutism of the individual. In order to mediate between the two dangers, and give each, the state and the individual, their

Wednesday

> “People who pride themselves on having ideas often fail to understand that only after ideas have been filtered through real-world experience do we know whether they are right or wrong. Most turn out to be wrong.” > — Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) March 17, 2019 [https://twitter.com/ThomasSowell/status/1107397245987684358?

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling The Tournament neareth. My 28th Annual NCAA Basketball Tournament Auction is tonight. I ought to post a commemorative BYCU, but the circumstances don't permit. Humorous story of the month: Their Street Is Famous on Instagram, and They Can't Take It Anymore [https://www.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Rough Sunday. My Wolverines couldn't win their third straight conference tournament championship. Terrible reffing down the stretch, but I can't say that because UM fans have a bad reputation for whining about the officiating. The turning point came when MSU's McQuaid got

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> MAN DOWN pic.twitter.com/CEZBACDCDu [https://t.co/CEZBACDCDu] > — Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 17, 2019 [https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/1107354321593790464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Happy St. Patrick's Day

For the Great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry And all their songs are sad. GKC, The Ballad of the White Horse

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I like this painting: > Behold the Demon: Nietzsche as Destroyer ~ The Imaginative Conservative https://t.co/eupy5hoPkc > — Bradley J. Birzer (@bradleybirzer) March 16, 2019 [https://twitter.com/bradleybirzer/status/1107020157245931522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Brews You Can Use Whew. The onslaught continues. Work flows in faster than urine through a frat boy. I need a lots of drinks. I'm only part-way through it, but this episode of Our Fake History is pretty good so far: Episode #84 ”“ What Was the Vodka War?

Thursday

> “I'm Dominating” pic.twitter.com/e3wzzal947 [https://t.co/e3wzzal947] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) March 6, 2019 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1103290798874021888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Wednesday

Birthday Rambling Yup, it's my birthday. Happy birthday to me. All the great saints are commemorated today: Gerald of Mayo, Roderic, Solomon of Spain. Giants, all of us. It's been a terrible birthday week. I don't know what my problem is, but I'

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Feast Day of Gregory the Great today. I've read very little, if any, of his works. It's definitely a lacuna in my learning. According to his Wikipedia, pretty much everyone recognizes him as a saint: the Orthodox, Anglicans, even some Lutherans. A client was

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew. Late winter blitz at the office. The phrase of the work week: catch as catch can. The fever pitch flurry of projects is numbing. Fortunately, none of it is particularly stressful, and all of it pays, so I shrug and shoulder through long hours that take me

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Surely, the anti-Social Justicers at 4Chan could meme this into something hilarious: > TIL that koalas have one of the smallest brains in proportion to body weight of any mammal. They are so dumb, that when presented with leaves on a flat surface instead of on branches, they are unable

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> The free market and free society don't pretend to solve all problems. They just prevent famine and tyranny. All the other effects of the Fall are still with us, and are for the Church (including every baptized Christian) to solve. > — John Zmirak (@JZmirak) March 9, 2019

Friday

Brews You Can Use This is interesting: A massive malted barley facility is moving to an area 40 minutes east of me [https://www.marketscreener.com/ANDERSONS-INC-8374/news/Andersons-Investment-group-Andersons-team-up-for-malted-barley-facility-28117117/] . Maybe I should get into the barley-growing business. Unfortunately, I don't have the space, but I am still mulling

Thursday

Stoicism The Stoics did not have the benefit of Christian revelation. Stoicism has been called the “porch” of Christianity. Its resignation and detachment take a person to the threshold of Christianity, but don't take him all the way into the house. Although the Stoics taught belief in a

Ash Wednesday

Someone once asked a monk what they do all day in the monastery. The monk replied, "We fall down and get up, fall down and get up." It's an apt description of every earnest life, especially during Lent, which might be called "the layman'

Ten Things that Struck Me About Miami

Miami is pretty wild. I was shocked by the Hispanic influence. Heck, you can't even call it "influence." The place is, culturally-speaking, a foreign country, no exaggeration. Every person in my group that I spoke with said they felt like they were in, say, Guatemala or

Tuesday

From the Notebooks Black magic increased during the late middle ages, and not just in the imaginative zeal of inquisitors. "There is ample evidence that witch beliefs and practices did exist and that [the social pressures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries] worked to increase the actual level of

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Things have been a whirlwind since returning from Miami. I was able to produce the podcast, which you can listen to here [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/3/1/episode-24-miami-the-historical-buildup-to-akempis-and-miami-beach] or below, but the Show Notes are pretty lame: > The Imitation of Christ. What do I

Art Deco Saturday

The filming scene of the famous hotel chainsaw scene in Scarface is now a CVS: > pic.twitter.com/usWwvc8Zpd [https://t.co/usWwvc8Zpd] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 25, 2019 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1100078685401612290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > pic.twitter.com/4olKIMezsL [https://t.co/

Friday

BYCU: Mojito Man Welcome to March. That's a reason for a celebratory drink or two. Of course, we have record lows coming in a few days . . . Whew. Miami was tough on Mr. Liver: mojitos and gin and tonics. I've been detoxing all week. I haven'

Thursday

Look Homeward, America, Bill Kauffman. ISI Books, 2006. Strong, deep, readable, desperate, fun. All those adjectives–even those that trip over one another–fit this book. It's such a good book, it made me want to quit writing. “If someone like Kauffman, with his erudition and talent, isn&

Twitter Wednesday

> When political correct ideology trumps reason and seeps into our culture you end up with silly headlines like this. The fact is, regardless of my opinion about my biological gender, age, ethnicity, family lineage, personal history, etc...they simply are what they are. https://t.co/o1PWAMnR8p > — Fr.

Tuesday

Miami Rambling Before I do the Miami rambling, please note that I was able to get a podcast episode into the pipeline before I left. You can listen to it below. You can find the show notes here [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/blog/2019/2/17/episode-23-dumplin-defecating-in-public-seinfeld-and-entertainment-in-the-abyss] . Miami is pretty

Monday

I returned from Miami Beach today. It was bachelor party weekend for my future son-in-law. Here I am, crashed yesterday at the remarkable Wynwood Walls Urban Graffiti art exhibit in Miami [http://www.thewynwoodwalls.com/]. Regular blogging resumes tomorrow. You can find more Tweeted pics at The Weekly Eudemon Twitter

Saturday

> Remembering The Road to Serfdom (essay by Bradley J. Birzer) https://t.co/SIbpol4R2z > — ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) February 19, 2019 [https://twitter.com/imaginativecons/status/1097971637704642560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Yikes, this sounds awful: > Arriving fingers crossed tomorrow (8.2.19) New Lemon Grass Gin #excited [https://twitter.com/hashtag/excited?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] #free [https://twitter.com/hashtag/free?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] #tasting [https://twitter.com/hashtag/tasting?src=hash&

Thursday

From the Notebooks Every form of state action has the effect of reducing human cooperation. If the state will take care of it, why meet my buddy at the end of the street to take of that flooding problem that's hurting our lawns? If the state will take

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Shew. Crazy days. Lots going on . . . on all fronts. I'm also sensing spring in the air. Marie says I'm hopelessly optimistic when it comes to spring, but I can sense it. I tell you, I can sense it. A man died after catching fire

Tuesday

It's not the urbane humor I fancy myself bringing to TDE, but it cracked me up: > Home Depot 'bomb threat' turns out to be man warning of 'blowing up' bathroom https://t.co/FMRe4tsOf4 via @local4news [https://twitter.com/Local4News?ref_src=twsrc%

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The new podcast is up: Episode 22: History of the Old Testament in 8 Minutes, Gin and Tonics, Three Ho-Hum Derrida Conclusions [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/2/16/episode-22-history-of-the-old-testament-in-8-minutes-gin-and-tonics-three-ho-hum-deconstructionist-conclusions] . Show Notes: The Old Testament. I summarize the OT in about eight minutes. The segment is closer

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> Ocasio-Cortez Declares Victory Over The Modern-Day Equivalent Of Slavery: Jobs https://t.co/xZQBTG0nvP pic.twitter.com/KsW5d0Ttpp [https://t.co/KsW5d0Ttpp] > — The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) February 15, 2019 [https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1096465412277952512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Yup, they have a point: > You might be cool, but you'll never be Frank-Sinatra-stepping-out-of-a-helicopter-with-a-cocktail-cool. #goals [https://twitter.com/hashtag/goals?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] pic.twitter.com/LseXgbdIEn [https://t.co/LseXgbdIEn] > — Drunken History (@DrunkenHistory) February 10, 2019 [https://twitter.com/DrunkenHistory/status/

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling The nineteenth-century glory of Catholicism rises to sainthood: Pope Francis approves canonization of John Henry Newman [https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-approves-canonization-of-john-henry-newman-34200] . I read that article yesterday, shortly after reading a series of Drudge splash headlines about the new expose book on homosexuality in the Vatican: Explosive new

Twitter Wednesday

> Oh sure she gets tenure at Cambridge and a BBC interview, and when I take off my clothes to protest the long line at the Walmart checkout I get another 3 days of psychiatric monitoringhttps://t.co/6zXTey9oHQ > — David Burge (@iowahawkblog) February 12, 2019 [https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Interested in listening to The Weekly Eudemon but aren't sure where to start? My 20-something kids tell me these are the ones to try: Episode 17: Nock, Deconstructing the Family, Mindfulness [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/1/12/episode-17-nock-deconstructing-the-family-mindfulness] Episode 12: Midget Wrestling in

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling New podcast posted: Episode 21: Sex in the Stall, Deconstructionism on Display, Gay Gnostics, Joseph Epstein [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/2/8/episode-21]. Show notes: Sex in the Stall. A couple allegedly has sex in the bathroom stall at a NFL games. That's unbelievably

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> These icicles that froze orange because of the sap concentration in the tree... [https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/aopm0y/these_icicles_that_froze_orange_because_of_the/] from r/mildlyinteresting [http://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting]

Friday

Brews You Can Use Slow drinking news out there these days. There's this: Hill Farmstead Named Best Brewery in the World (Again): For the fifth year in a row, this Vermont brewery takes the top spot. [https://www.thedailymeal.com/drink/hill-farmstead-best-brewery-world/013119] And this news about the

Thursday

Rambling Hey, quick reminder. I appreciate it if you use the Amazon links here or at The Weekly Eudemon "Show Notes" page [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/blog/2019/2/2/episode-20] to enter Amazon. The royalties help keep me motivated . . . then again, depending on your perspective, that might

Twitter Wednesday

> If the Pope were to deny Christ publicly, there would be at least one theologian - and probably many more - who would find a way to create an illusion of 'developmental continuity' with previous Church teaching. > — Radical Catholic (@RadicalCath) February 5, 2019 [https://twitter.com/

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Spring neareth. I walked in 50-degree weather yesterday . . . drizzling rain, but 50 degrees. It felt great. I also got my first trays for transplanting under the lights last weekend. I planted 32 cells with snapdragon seeds for Abbie's wedding in early June, and I planted 32

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling New podcast episode posted: Episode 20: Fulton Sheen, Modernity as Gnosticism, an Apologia [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/2/2/episode-20-fulton-sheen-modernity-as-gnosticism-an-apologia] . Show notes: > Fulton Sheen. Bishop, Emmy award winner, adviser to the rich and famous, and making serious inroads to canonization thanks to a stunning 2010

Amen

> We condemn this radical and extremist law in the strongest possible terms. https://t.co/wblOc44HkT > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) February 1, 2019 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/1091366816901820416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Marie saw this last week while was in Denver. She now has the distinction of being (surely) one of the few people who have seen Cheers from the inside and out. We saw the outside of Cheers last September while in Boston. I loved that show. I remember one of

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling The cold blast continues. I ginned it off last night, now I'll use it to blast off my hangover this morning. I suspect I shiver it off on my trip to the office in a few minutes. This is interesting: "A growing body of research

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> What does the #PolarVortex [https://twitter.com/hashtag/PolarVortex?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] look like from space? This satellite image was taken over the U.S. Midwest and Great Lakes regions. Stay warm out there. https://t.co/X0tS0h7PWB > ðŸ“¸ NOAA pic.twitter.com/67FwVQBndC

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling Coldageddon arrives. Today's high: Minus 12. Accompanied by wind. I've never seen it like this. I went for a walk last night after work, enjoying the seven degrees and stiff wind, telling myself I was walking in Antarctica. It was fun for the first

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew. Winter Hell Week. Minus 20 tomorrow. That'll be the coldest I've ever felt. I'm kind of looking forward to it. Man, Dante needs to come up with another circle of hell for these folks: People robbed of winter coats at gunpoint

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The new podcast is up: Episode 19: Introverts, Deconstructionists, and Gnostics [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/1/26/episode-19-introverts-deconstructionists-and-gnostics] . It's one of my favorites, even if the deconstructionist piece gets a bit thick at points. Show notes: > Introverts. An introvert is not a shy

Saturday

I've always enjoyed walking, even as a kid, and I've always found it puzzling (and revolting) how suburban planners after WWII totally jettisoned the feet in favor of cars when they laid out their communities. > This Suburb Won't Become a Pedestrian Paradise | The

Friday

This is great to see. I received a bottle of this stuff for Christmas. I haven't tried it yet. 92 Proof. Yowza. > I found this gin through this board and it has quickly become my favorite [https://www.reddit.com/r/Gin/comments/aj3j0o/i_found_this_

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Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling A long week nears its end. I've been covering for a partner at the office and my domestic partner (Marie) at home. Marie returns shortly from Colorado, where she is getting my daughter, Abbie, situated in Denver to take graduate classes in theology at The Augustine

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling Tom Woods takes apart the Covington Catholic "news" coverage [https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/01/thomas-woods/the-truth-about-that-native-american-man-and-those-students/] . I didn't realize Phillips claimed the boys were chanting "Build the wall." I've read enough coverage on both sides of the issue to

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> MUST WATCH: This @TuckerCarlson [https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] monologue calling out famous adults who put the Covington Catholic High School boys in danger, some even fantasizing about assault & murder, is one of the best he's ever done. pic.twitter.com/xQYGcYyihG [https:

Tuesday

Back in the 1970s, I remember my older brother commenting on a famous basketball player's face, "Man, he has the kind of face you just want to punch." Shift 40 years later to the Washington DC March for Life: Man, that kid has the kind of

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The new podcast is up. Mass Touching, Austen, Marshall McLuhan, Gnosticism [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/1/19/episode-18-mass-touching-austen-marshall-mcluhan-gnosticism] . Show Notes: Touching During Mass. Enough already. Enough with shaking hands, too, at least during the cold and flu season. That custom has ran its course. Today'

Saturday

Max and Tess are out there. Tess snapped this pic: > From March for Life pic.twitter.com/P9PiyWKVuG [https://t.co/P9PiyWKVuG] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) January 18, 2019 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1086371762516971521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Brews You Can Use I've never been a fan of the Bloody Mary. Primarily, because I detest tomato juice so I've never even tried it. But it's still an American classic, and this article contains a handful of neat facts that are worth checking

Thursday

Amen to this. It baffles me that people refuse to acknowledge that, if the priest has 30 minutes, and there are ten people in line, and you take up 20 minutes, other people don't get the sacrament at all. And it baffles me that people don't

Wednesday

Theology on Tap, New Gardening Product, Tolkien Max is going to grow seedlings to order this spring: You place your order with him; we'll grow it for delivery at the date you request. You then pay for it and transplant it. All non-GMO all the time; organic. For

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Halfway through January. We're getting there. My gardening finger is getting itchy. If yours is too and you're looking to start seeds indoors, check out products by Bootstrap Farmer. They're a little more expensive, but far better than anything else on the

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The new podcast is up [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2019/1/12/episode-17-nock-deconstructing-the-family-mindfulness] . It starts with a review of The Mind and Art of Albert Jay Nock, an unlikely book that makes my Top 50 books of all time. The Show Notes: The Mind and Art of

Good Advice for Sunday

> “Work destroys your soul by stealthily invading your brain during the hours not officially spent working.” Nassim Taleb pic.twitter.com/spxoAGaoEN [https://t.co/spxoAGaoEN] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) January 13, 2019 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1084457150695522305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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> KrakÃ³w Old Town in the historic central district of KrakÃ³w, #Poland [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Poland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]. pic.twitter.com/FoGvwwdxFL [https://t.co/FoGvwwdxFL] > — European Beauty (@MagicalEurope) January 5, 2019 [https://twitter.com/MagicalEurope/status/1081610106868060162?ref_src=twsrc%

Friday

BYCU The Brutal Hammer of Truth [http://brutalhammer.com/] continues to crank out a study supply of BYCU stories: Interesting piece: the demise of the hotel mini-bar [http://www.traveller.com.au/at-19-for-a-thimble-of-whisky-noone-in-their-right-mind-uses-a-hotel-minibar-h19veg] . Basically, it appears to come down to this: Hotels charge such outrageous prices for the drinks, no

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling I guess LeBron made a reference to Jewish people and their supposed wealth and there was an outcry. This apparently happened during the holiday season, during which I was either indisposed or inebriated, so I missed it. I first read about it in last week's "

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling Whew. No energy these days. I think I had touch of stomach flu or something last week. I started feeling better on Sunday, then came down with a migraine on Monday. Yesterday, I was just kinda dragging all day, though I was able to log in a full

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Kinder and gentler ink: "With cleveland.com's right-to-be-forgotten experiment, we are removing names from dated stories about minor crimes and other embarrassing news." Link [https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2019/01/fill-this-form-out-for-your-right-to-be-forgotten.html] . It's great to hear that I'll

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Well, now the holiday season is really over. Epiphany has come and gone. Marie is de-Christmasing the house today. A full work-week yawns in front of us. Oh well. Every season, whether of the calendar or our life, brings its blessings and curses. For me, I'm

Saturday

> Three of my kids at the FOCUS conference in Indianapolis: SEEK. Seen here with Fr. Nathan Goebel from Catholic Stuff You Should Know. > The two boys with Fr. Nathan are my sons, Michael and Jack. Daughter Abbie is two away from Jack (three away from Fr. Nathan). pic.

Friday

Brews You Can Use It was a bad Christmas for my liver. From December 22nd through December 31st, I'm guessing I went through over a fifth of gin and a little bit of beer. And now I'm threatening my liver with more punishment: I got all

Thursday

Mongol Christians Interesting Tweet last week: "When Mongols sacked #Baghdad in 1258 & killed almost all its residents, only lives of the city's Nestorian Christians was spared (they were asked to stay in their church)." Embedded Tweet below. There was a large Nestorian Christian contingent in

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew. Eleven days of drinking and hanging out and traveling and just in general screwing around comes to an end. I gotta say, I'm not disappointed. When I was a kid, the post-Christmas blues hit me pretty hard. These days? Not hardly at all. I welcome

Happy New Year

Regular blogging resumes tomorrow.

Monday

Happy New Year, everyone. Be careful out there tonight. > Episode 15: Autobiographical Holiday Ruminations https://t.co/iDQkngVFYJ > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) December 31, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1079561550019678208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > Planned Parenthood Defends Bill Cosby: 'Sexual Assault Is Only 3% Of

Saturday

Detroit Another trip to Detroit Thursday. We spent yesterday downtown, exploring the sites. I continue to be impressed. This time, we ventured to New Center [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Center,_Detroit], taking the QLine from the Detroit River through the gut of Woodward Avenue for about two miles

Friday

Marie bought me this book [https://amzn.to/2AiimFB] for Christmas. I'm only 5% of the way through it, but so far, highly recommended. I've laughed out loud at least three times. Hungover: The Morning After and One Man's Quest for the Cure

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Little Kid: Santa gave me coal in my stocking last year. I tried to get even with him by putting out cookies laced with cyanide. That bastard found out and killed my dad." Wow: Witches now outnumber Presbyterians in the U.S. Link [https://sg.news.yahoo.

Wednesday

Another Christmas whizzes by. They're getting easier, though. I told my kids that, when they were little, we would finish opening presents and they'd all be standing there, wanting Marie and me to put together or play X, Y, or Z. We then had to play/

December 25th

"He is born poor, and he teaches us that happiness is not to be found in an abundance of earthly goods. He comes into the world without any ostentation, encouraging us to be humble and not to depend on the applause of men." Francis Fernandez

December 24th

“He rules the world with truth and grace.” –Isaac Watts ++ “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” –Charles Dickens ++ “The Incarnation”¦illuminates and orders all other phenomena, explains both our laughter and our logic, our fear of the dead and our knowledge

Episode 14 Posted

Link to Episode [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2018/12/22/episode-14-pagan-practices-in-christianity-the-jesus-prayer-autobiographical-tao] . Link to Show Notes [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/blog/2018/12/22/episode-14-pagan-practices-in-christianity-the-jesus-prayer-autobiographical-tao] : Next Week: I plan on producing a podcast next week, over the holidays, but it'll probably be unusual fare. Sol Invictus. No, Christmas

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> "As an event in the history of war, the Christmas Truce of 1914 is barely a footnote; it had no major effects on the fighting or outcome of World War I. But in the history of peace, the truce is a powerful story." https://t.co/e249ImCDwg

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Tech troubles these past two days. Frustrating, but hey, it's the season not to get frustrated. Just this nifty pic today. Enjoy your weekend. The beverage forecast is splendid on my end.

Thursday

The Stretch Rambling A handful of days to go. All kids are home except one, and we expect him to appear late tonight or tomorrow morning. Relevant Radio's "The Inner Life" had a pretty good show on Tuesday (12/18/2018), giving practical spiritual advice for

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Freaked out by the stock market and what it portends? Don't forget what the economist Paul Samuelson said, "The stock market has correctly forecasted eight of the last four recessions." Not an exact quote, but close . . . and funny. I read last weekend that a

Tuesday

Did I say work would start slowing down? I'm an idiot. Just this today: > I thought the Left wanted to get rid of Barbie because it objectifies women. Now they want Barbie to objectify lesbian women too? I'm so confused. https://t.co/PvNjsbSjsk >

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Christmas neareth. Far out. This coming week is typically my favorite time of the year: work starts to slow down, older kids start to return home. Unfortunately, my week got off to a rough start Saturday night. I attended Mass in a neighboring village and an older man

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> The results of statist socialism, how democrats are eager to get behind this is beyond me [https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/a6jd1u/the_results_of_statist_socialism_how_democrats/] from r/Anarcho_Capitalism [http://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism]

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> Please do all you can to get word out about this, folks. https://t.co/gVkH2kJ5EK > — Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) December 14, 2018 [https://twitter.com/ericmetaxas/status/1073727759506132992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Brews You Can Use The liver quaketh. Three holiday parties over the next eight nights. And that doesn't include the impromptu parties that are likely to accompany the return of my older children that commences next week. These are fine times. My liver be danged! Wow, the West

Thursday

> If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner. > — Malcolm Muggeridge (@malmuggeridge) December 6, 2018 [https://twitter.com/malmuggeridge/

Wednesday

St. Stan Totally random, but: You ever read about Stan Musial? Man, the guy was practically a saint, it would seem. A few entries from Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Musial]: > Even though Musial left [his hometown of] Donora after high school, he retained close ties to

Tuesday

Big Boxes, Stylites, Moon Deniers Theodore Dalrymple inveighs against supermarkets [https://www.takimag.com/article/a-regime-of-bread-and-circuses/]. He's lives in England. I think the proper American translation throughout the article is "big box stores" in lieu of "supermarkets." From Terrible Ted: > I dislike supermarkets

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The new podcast episode is up: Episode 12: Midget Wrestling in Detroit, Manliness, FOCUS, Post-Modernism [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2018/12/9/episode-12-midget-wrestling-in-detroit-manliness-focus-post-modernism] . Other links: iTunes [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-eudmon/id1438354210] Stitcher [https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/eric-scheske/the-weekly-eudemon-2] Tune In [https://tunein.com/

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> Christmas in Poland vs Christmas in Germany. The difference can't be bigger! pic.twitter.com/utmnhjrorx [https://t.co/utmnhjrorx] > — Voice of Europe ðŸŒ (@V_of_Europe) December 6, 2018 [https://twitter.com/V_of_Europe/status/1070764219174436865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

BYCU Whew. Midget wrestling put the screws to me Thursday morning. I don't think I'm going much drinking this weekend, but that doesn't mean y'all won't be enjoying the secular side of the season, so here goes . . . I found this

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> Detroit is continuing its rise from the ashes pic.twitter.com/WengmST05O [https://t.co/WengmST05O] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) December 6, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1070715825202622464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Thursday

Great night with the boys. I'm moving a bit slowly this morning, but everyone made it back in one piece. More on Extreme Midget Wrestling in future posts and the podcast. > pic.twitter.com/TxC7FsUPWq [https://t.co/TxC7FsUPWq] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) December 6, 2018

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling Extreme Midget Wrestling in Detroit tonight. I feel a little bit like I'm veering into St. Augustine' condemnation of blood sport . . . or maybe just veering into juvenile immaturity. But I'm going with my four sons and a Godson. First stop: Greektown for dinner

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Amazon [https://amzn.to/2Pk6RlL]. Ridiculous: 63 percent of 'non-citizens' on welfare, 4.6 million households [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/census-confirms-63-percent-of-non-citizens-on-welfare-4-6-million-households] . If we're going to make our country open to immigrants, it's axiomatic that they cannot receive welfare. If they'

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling New podcast is up: "Onanism, Off-Color Humor, Seventh Century, Taoist Anarchy." Itunes link [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-eudmon/id1438354210] . Youtube link [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj2d4UzEnlI]. TWE Site link [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2018/12/1/onanism-off-color-humor-seventh-century-taoist-anarchy] . Show Notes [https://www.

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> Stunning assortment of riot pictures: Paris clean-up begins: Graffiti is removed from Arc de Triomphe https://t.co/tD2uPXSjf8 via @MailOnline [https://twitter.com/MailOnline?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) December 3, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1069398538759614464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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> In New Book, Pope Francis Addresses Homosexuality and the Clergy https://t.co/4qsTTvEJgF @NCRegister [https://twitter.com/NCRegister?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > — Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) December 1, 2018 [https://twitter.com/EdwardPentin/status/1068872379961618432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Brews You Can Use I made my annual trip to Trader Joe's last weekend to buy "unique" products for client baskets and office presents. I saw for the first time wine in a can: Simpler Wines [https://www.traderjoes.com/digin/post/simpler-wines]. I haven'

Thursday

Midweek Rambling AMAZON LINK [https://amzn.to/2P7m0qc]. The business conference I attended two weeks ago said the entire Internet is going video: no one reads any more or, if they do, they won't be shortly. In order to get your content noticed, it must be on video.

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling Thanks for the Amazon support. Please continue to access Amazon through TDE [https://amzn.to/2r6Oh6C]. It's not a big deal to me, but the thought and extra beer money is appreciated. Speaking of Amazon, a lot of "uncontacted peoples" in the world live

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I was stunned/shocked to hear Bishop Morlino died. I only spent one evening with him, but I considered him a friend . . . and a fellow traveler. Needless to say, the Church lost a stalwart who was willing to call things like they are. It's a terrible

Monday

ENTER AMAZON HERE FOR CYBER MONDAY DEALS. THANKS! [https://amzn.to/2TEcQVE] New podcast episode posted yesterday: Black Friday, Puritanizing Marijuana, Poustinia, Fools for Christ [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-eudmon/id1438354210]. I had to rush a bit, so it's not my favorite episode, but neither am

Saturday

Rambling Please support The Daily Eudemon and its podcast by accessing Amazon through the various links you'll find here or at eudemonpodcast.com [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/]. The commissions from Amazon during the holidays pay my independent website hosting costs, which allows me to justify this little hobby

Friday

On Black Friday Welcome to Black Friday, an infamous day that I have long railed against but one that grows on me for three reasons: 1. The cynical side of me recalls Albert Jay Nock's "revelation" that he shouldn't be disgusted by the bum

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Happy Thanksgiving

“Thanksgiving Day originated in New England when the Puritans realized they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians.” Mark Twain “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson “Beggar that I

Wednesday

Brews You Can Use: Special Black Wednesday Edition Black Wednesday arriveth. The biggest bar night of the year. The Top 10 Reasons Black Wednesday is The Drinking Night: 10. College kids return home. 9. Elementary school kids have only a half day. 8. Four days to recover from the hangover.

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Day Four of absolute sobriety. Black Wednesday looms. It's possibly my favorite night of the year. I hope to have a BYCU Special Edition post tomorrow. This story didn't surprise me: For the first time, researchers say Facebook can cause depression [https://www.marketwatch.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Shew. Long week . . . and now jet lag. They say it takes one day for every time zone difference to recover. Las Vegas is three hours behind us, so it sounds like I won't recover until Tuesday. I'll be recovered just in time for Black

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By way of dispensation from the Vatican, the Las Vegas Cathedral can hold its Saturday vigil Mass at 2:30 PM: > Interesting. I would've to have heard the discussion in Rome pic.twitter.com/3gNXVT7BJ7 [https://t.co/3gNXVT7BJ7] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) November 16, 2018

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Per the suggestion in the comments box, I scoped out the stained glass windows at the Las Vegas Guardian Angel Cathedral. Sure enough, at the front, to the right of the altar, kinda hidden from regular view, is stained glass with Vegas casinos: > Stained glass window at Las Vegas&

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> Christmas at The Wynn pic.twitter.com/39XfMlWYLM [https://t.co/39XfMlWYLM] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) November 14, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1062541746951733249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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View from hotel [https://twitter.com/thedailyeudemon/status/1062354783091089408?s=21]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling This will be my last "real" post until next week. I have to go to Las Vegas on business. Yes, it's real business. I'm going on behalf of a client and have a pretty full schedule. Oh sure, there will be down

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> All episodes of The Weekly Eudemon will soon be available on Youtube https://t.co/pHGmO9c32O pic.twitter.com/A8GQcJm7hc [https://t.co/A8GQcJm7hc] > — The Weekly Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) November 11, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1061715770500149248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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> America 1913 roads with no income tax [https://www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/comments/9w0pgr/america_1913_roads_with_no_income_tax/] from r/Libertarian [http://www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian]

The Good Stewards

> Thanks you gentlemen. #Heroes [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Heroes?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] pic.twitter.com/tB5qvUTpzT [https://t.co/tB5qvUTpzT] > — You Had One Job (@_youhadonejob1) November 9, 2018 [https://twitter.com/_youhadonejob1/status/1060901240291373057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Brews You Can Use I sat down with a bottle of wine and my miniature Big Carl glass last night to start this post. It'd been awhile since I drank wine. It went down smoothly. I have a small headache this morning, but nothing bad. I felt good

Thursday

Longevity People are healthiest in the blue zones. The top five: Sardinia, Okinawa, Nicoya (Costa Rica), Loma Linda (the country of California), and Ikaria (Greece). Link [http://time.com/5160475/blue-zones-healthy-long-lives/]. What do people in blue zones have in common? Lots of constant activity: > They live in environments that

Wednesday

Well, very good night for the Democrats. Plus 32 in the house was a huge victory, but minus 3 in the Senate tarnishes it. Blue wave? Nah. Blue wavish perhaps, but no wave. It's more troubling that very left-wing candidates are gaining traction. History repeats itself. We have

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling If you haven't heard, it's election day. Get out and vote. The more people that vote, the more people that vote. Somehow, that's supposed to be a good thing, though for the life of me, I can't figure out

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Well, a good weekend comes to a close. Middle daughter, Meg, placed 12th at the state cross-country meet on Saturday, garnishing her attention from an assortment of D1 and D2 colleges. Michigan rolled over the Pedophiles at State University, a program that shouldn't even exist in

Saturday

> "This is THE most flawed way we could POSSIBLY rank college football teams and it's that flawed by a wide margin."@JoelKlatt [https://twitter.com/joelklatt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] sounds off on the CFP committee rankings: pic.twitter.com/SHixLFnntD [https://t.co/SHixLFnntD]

Friday

BYCU Well, I hope to be able to drink tonight. It's been a rough week, health-wise. Bad food poisoning Sunday night; 2.5 hours in a dental chair on Wednesday. I was barely among the living on Thursday, just going through the motions. I'm hoping to

Thursday

All Saints Rambling Well, trick-or-treating is over: 25 years. Over. And I must say: I'm okay with it. I thought I'd be melancholy, but I guess that, after hauling seven kids around for a quarter-century, I got my fill. I would've been happy to

Wednesday

> "Trump knows that immigration was the single most significant factor in his election. To maintain good standing with his constituency, he must stop that caravan." https://t.co/DXmakoeJvB > — The American Conservative (@amconmag) October 31, 2018 [https://twitter.com/amconmag/status/1057436997264887810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew. Food poisoning Sunday night. It was rough . . . really rough. I started to recover late Monday morning, but I was groggy the rest of the day. At least it gave me a chance to clean my study/office/library/gardening-supply-center/recording studio. I'm lobbying Marie to

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Quite an eventful couple of days. I just found out that I'm being sent to Las Vegas next month on business, which is cool. I'm staying at the Wynn, which would typically lie beyond my cost range but due to logistics, that's

Saturday

> Russell Kirk's Ghostly Tales: Horror and Eternity (essay by Scott Beauchamp) https://t.co/rt81PwKRjL > — ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) October 27, 2018 [https://twitter.com/imaginativecons/status/1056191353238052868?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > Prayer silences the chattering of me-centered existence, which is essential for the intellectual life.https:

Monday

Brews You Can Use Unwind. Brutal week at the office. It promised to be a light week, but that promise was broken by Tuesday afternoon. After I rolled into my house at 11:00 on Wednesday night, I decided to work half days on Thursday and Friday. I crashed for

Thursday

Bullets Great, freakin' great: Dozens more breakfast foods test positive for trace amounts of weed killer [https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/24/health/breakfast-cereal-food-weed-killer-roundup/index.html] . Nifty piece. I might plug The Weekly Eudemon on all of them, just to see what happens. I suspect the users of

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling Wow, lots of speculations out there about The Caravan: Democrats are funding it, Soros is funding it, they're riding and not walking, Muslims have infiltrated it (reminding me of P.J. O'Rourke referring to people of a certain hard-to-distiguish skin color as "urine-colored

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Man, 7,000 immigrants marching toward America, although it seems pretty clear they know they won't be admitted. It's sad, and I gotta admit: I feel some guilt. If my history is accurate, Honduras was Ground Zero of the U.S. Banana Republics: countries

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The new podcast is up. You can access it at The Weekly Eudemon podcast page: Zen, the "Fall" of Rome, Small Talk, Drinking with Commies, More [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2018/10/20/zen-the-fall-of-rome-small-talk-drinking-with-commies-more] . If you have an iTunes account, please subscribe to it and

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> Shorter @MassimoFaggioli [https://twitter.com/MassimoFaggioli?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] at @commonwealmag [https://twitter.com/commonwealmag?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]: "I've made a terrible discovery: Orthodox Catholics sometimes meet with each other and talk about politics without supervision. There are even rumors that they stand on

Friday

Brews You Can Use Well, LeBron led the Lakers with 26 points last night, but they lost in his debut. I've slowly warmed to LeBron over the years, even if he toes the BLM line on all things politics. This recent piece ratcheted him up a few levels

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> From Roof to Table, this Farm is Bringing Organic Vegetables to Brooklyn Residents https://t.co/FPd6noOHRn > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 17, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1052366903988113408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

4Chan

As documented by Angela Nagle, the 4Chan universe is populated with reprobates with nary a shred of decency. And I love 'em. Their most recent campaign: Today's left as NPC players. There's too much background in the story for me to effectively recount it here.

Wednesday

Small Talk Small talk. I dislike it. It can be argued that it is part of the lubrication that keeps social wheels moving smoothly, but I'm not talking about cordialities ("Hi," "How are the kids doing?" etc.). I'm talking about extended conversations

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I find out later today whether Tess' flowers survived the freeze. We have hundreds of flowers in the field. I brought in a handful last night so they wouldn't go to waste, but I fear this morning's freeze might destroy the many I

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The new podcast episode is up [https://www.eudemonpodcast.com/the-weekly-eudemon/2018/10/10/zen-st-john-of-the-cross-toddler-torture] . My nephew owns a promotion business, so he got his voiceover guy to record a new introduction for me. You might recognize the voice. He's done voice acting work for quite

Saturday

It's possible, maybe possible, that Republicans have woken up and said, "You know what? Let's just start swinging back hard. Screw convention. Our opponents are completely unhinged at this point and can't be dealt with conventionally." The GOP hasn't had

Friday

BYCU "The question is: When they have naked dancers, how is it sanitary to eat food?" That's not a question I ask myself very often, but it's the focus of this article out of Toledo [https://www.13abc.com/content/news/Restaurant-Report-Card-Strip-Clubs-495136581.html] . The

Thursday

> Renew Catholic schools by giving them better names. I suggest using Eastern Marian titles. Who wouldn't love to send his kids to "Trauma of Demons Catholic Grammar School"? > — Bernard ðŸŽƒ Mulcahy (@FrBMulcahyOP) October 9, 2018 [https://twitter.com/FrBMulcahyOP/status/1049659828300328960?ref_src=twsrc%

Wednesday

Bullets *The new Little Caesars pizza app is pretty cool. You order from the app, wait until you get a push notification, go pick it up. I detest the "hot and ready" slogan when the pizza is never ready. It looks like those days are over. It will

Tuesday

Podcast Update Well, I've done it: I've started a "real" podcast, one in which I control the feed, can host show notes, etc. It took a large chunk of my day on Sunday, but the basic site is up and running. You can check

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to Columbus Day. Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Also the anniversary of the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon, which was convened on this day in 451. I believe this was the nastiest of the councils, with monks rioting in the street in support of their respective sides. Think

Sunday

Call me "Humpty" > Okay this is a quality meme pic.twitter.com/AaXXa67GRl [https://t.co/AaXXa67GRl] > — I put the Don in Don't (@omgShutUpDon) October 3, 2018 [https://twitter.com/omgShutUpDon/status/1047466232700526594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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The Weekly Eudemon: 10.7.2018

Show Notes Primary Obligations: The emptiness of the 24/7 argument. Does modern libertarianism conflict with the Catechism? Early Rise of the Centralized State. A'Kempis and a Mild Critique of Libertarianism. St. Symeon the New Theologian. Drunks on Screen. Music: Used pursuant to the Creative Commons Noncommercial Sharealike

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> This is one reason that many Eastern Orthodox Christians find it hard to take the idea of reunification with Rome seriously: liturgical instability and what it means. https://t.co/infnz8oPrg > — Rod Dreher (@roddreher) October 5, 2018 [https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1048248310304260098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Brews You Can Use One of the more humorous drinking things I saw this week: Modern Drunkard Magazine's "Today's Reason to Drink" is now an Alexa Skill. Link [https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Drunkard-Todays-Reason-Drink/dp/B07817K38V/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-skills&ie=UTF8&

Thursday

Midgets to Seeds Alright, I may have scraped a new low: I bought tickets to see Extreme Midget Wrestling [https://extrememidgetwrestling.com/] in Detroit later this fall. All four sons wanted to go and were available to go, so I decided to make a men's night out of

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling The FBI finishes its investigation today. I like David Stockman's angle, which pretty much says, "Everyone sucks." Excerpt, "]W]hy is the Senate of the United States (and now the FBI, too) wasting its time investigating the antics of a handful of party

Tuesday

From the Notebooks Black magic, the soul killing of Faustus, and political magic come together in abortion. Abortion contains it all. It reflects the ugliness of black magic. It preserves the career path of the Faustian. It's a tool in progressives' attempts to establish a better society

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to Saint Week, which is the introduction to Saint Month. Today, everyone's favorite saint: St. Therese Lisieux. Thursday, everyone's other favorite saint: St. Francis of Assisi. Other notables this week: Bruno, Thomas the Apostle, and your Guardian Angel. On Wednesday, our Eastern brethren

Saturday

Bullets Whew, I'm back off the wagon. The temperatures have plunged, and so has my dehydration level. I threw back a healthy number of drinks last night, and I feel pretty bad this morning, but it's a fitting hangover: I'm not on death'

Friday

Brews You Can Use I tuned in for about three minutes of the Kavanaugh testimony. It was hard to watch, but at least I got to see one Senator inquire in his youthful drinking exploits. That was enough for me to conclude it was all pomp and circusness. There were

Thursday

Circus Day C-SPan starts coverage at 9:45. I'm ashamed to admit, I wish I could watch . . . and I might end up streaming it from my computer at work for a little while. This is nothing but soap opera dressed up as politics. Or to draw from Russell

Wednesday

And More Rambling Wow, Der Spiegel is even turning on Pope Francis. Vatican Cardinal: Pope Francis Is 'Ice-Cold, Cunning Machiavellian' [https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/09/24/vatican-cardinal-pope-francis-ice-cold-cunning-machiavellian/] > According to Der Spiegel, Francis, who started as a “brilliant reformer,” now threatens to squander his legacy because

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling I've long dabbled in 1960s history, but I'd never even heard of the Celebration of Life rock festival in McCrea, Louisiana, which turned into a festival of death. The gist of it appears to be, promoters were trying to make money at the

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The newest episode of The Weekly Eudemon is posted. Autumn, The Virgin Eye, Magic, and More [https://anchor.fm/eric817/episodes/Autumn--The-Virgin-Eye--Magic--and-More-e29csf] . I spent a fair amount of time working on this episode, relearning Audacity to produce it. The content is no better, but the listening aesthetics should

Saturday

> "If this weren't true, this would be one of the most compelling horror stories you could ever see. Because it's true, it makes it really important we all see it and spread the word," - @glennbeck [https://twitter.com/glennbeck?ref_src=twsrc%

Friday

BYCU Welcome to the first day of fallthe eve of the first day of fall, my favorite time of year. I'm celebrating its arrival tonight. I want to have gin and tonic, but that's not a fall drink, so I might have Sam Adams' Octoberfest.

Thursday

Random Rambling Whew, brutal blitz these past nine days: four lunch meetings, funeral, overnight-obligation wedding, three tennis matches, an out-of-town cross-country meet, and a six-hour obligation in my service club's County Fair fundraiser. I think I'm done for awhile, though. It wasn't too bad,

Wednesday

From the Notebooks The historian of intellectual history, Frances Yates, wrote extensively about the realm of magical pursuits in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Yates pointed out that Renaissance magic–though characters like Ficino, Giordano Bruno, Campanella, and Cornelius Agrippa–reached its apex in the sixteenth century. But in 1614,

Tuesday

Kavanaugh I'm not saying teenage antics are irrelevant, but accusations that fall way short of rape that are 35 years old? Come on. And let's be honest: The pound-me-too shifted the social consciousness radically on such things. What would've been deemed acceptable antics in

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I think I've watched that Weather Channel video ten times now. Cracks me up every time. Whatta fraud. TWC said it wasn't fraudulent: the anchor (ironic name) was standing on wet grass and was tired. Ha. Derisible stuff. The video triggers an epistemology discussion

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> So dramatic! Dude from the weather channel bracing for his life, as 2 dudes just stroll past. #HurricaneFlorence [https://twitter.com/hashtag/HurricaneFlorence?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] pic.twitter.com/8FRyM4NLbL [https://t.co/8FRyM4NLbL] > — Tony scar. (@gourdnibler) September 14, 2018 [https://twitter.com/gourdnibler/

Saturday

> Interesting perspective https://t.co/WlL6Jokwo9 > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) September 14, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1040717525288402944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Brews You Can Use I have a confession: I've never outgrown drunken hijinks. Sure, I don't have that many myself anymore, but my mind still guiltily goes back in time and recollects some of my more, ahem, immoderate antics and laughs. I honestly don't

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Feast Day of the Golden Mouth [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chrysostom]. Dostoyevsky, we hardly know thee: "A Domino's franchise owner in Russia offered customers 100 years of free pizza (max of 100 pies per year) if they got the Domino's logo

Wednesday

Rambling Great podcast at Econtalk: Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet Union, and In the First Circle [http://www.econtalk.org/kevin-mckenna-on-solzhenitsyn-the-soviet-union-and-in-the-first-circle/] . Econtalk is starting a reader's club and In the First Circle is the first book. The podcast is so good, I'm tempted to join the club, but

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy 9/11 Days. I avoid my parish as much as possible around this holiday, for reasons set forth here [https://catholicexchange.com/nine-eleven-days]. I don't know if we played the saccharine "I was there" God recording. I didn't feel like crying,

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Wow, Sweden turns right [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sweden-election/anti-immigration-party-set-for-election-gains-as-sweden-swings-right-idUSKCN1LO0V6] . This would be like Keith Richards going Baptist. I didn't think any of the Scandinavian countries had a scintilla of virility or nationalist pride left. I would've expected a show of guts from

The Weekly Eudemon Show Notes: 9-9-2018 Episode

Boston, Dostoyevsky, Orwell, NFL Re: Boston. Miscellaneous things related to my trip to Boston. Mistake correction: All of my sons except Alex went to Southie. Alex was home sick. Dostoyevsky: I draw a parallel between A Writer's Diary and TWE . . . or rather, a non-parallel. Orwell: A tip to

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> A must-do: Sam Adams brewery tour pic.twitter.com/68VTXGqWZR [https://t.co/68VTXGqWZR] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) September 3, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1036415123114614784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Brews You Can Use Three Four cheers for Sam Adams brewery. 1. The Sam Adams Brewery Tour is a "must see" if you're in Boston. Our guide was practically a stand-up comedian. Funny as heck. And informative. Lots of interesting stuff. 2. Liberals are boycotting Sam

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Econtalk has killed it again with another great podcast. Yoram Hazony on the Virtue of Nationalism [http://www.econtalk.org/yoram-hazony-on-the-virtue-of-nationalism/#delve-deeper] . The podcast brings it all to the table: echoes of Russell Kirk, explicit references to Edmund Burke, a healthy respect but also criticism for Austrian economics.

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling The whole priestly abuse thing, a summary to date [https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/benedict-vigan-francis-and-mccarrick-where-things-stand-on-nuncios-allegations-42199] . Handy reference. Pope Francis, meanwhile, has asked those who seek division to opt for "prayer and silence." [http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/09/03/popes-remedy-to-those-seeking-scandal-prayer-and-silence.html] Part of me says

Tuesday

Boston Rambling We had a great whirlwind trip to Boston. Eldest daughter Abbie lives out there with her fiance. Aside: not with her fiance, dear reader, but with him like, "no other friends and family out there with them." She has her own place, about a mile from

Monday

Happy Labor Day. I just returned from a trip to Boston at 3:00 AM this morning. Just this for today.

Podcast

New Podcast Episode: The Weekly Eudemon Labor Day Edition [https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-weekly-eudemon].

Friday

BYCU Light blogging this holiday weekend, but you don't need any drinking material from me. Modern Drunkard Magazine has you covered: The Subtle Art of Beer Snobbery [https://drunkard.com/0105-beer-snobbery/?utm_content=buffer100a0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=app.net&utm_campaign=buffer] . Excerpt:

Thursday

The utopian/progressivist is often willing to sacrifice his spirit for the purpose of bringing about social change. This is the type of man Voegelin was talking about when he said “human beings who engage in this enterprise move away from the life of the spirit.” It needs to be

Wednesday

And More Rambling Feast Day of the Beheading of John the Baptist. Probably the most gruesome Feast Day. Another great Tom Woods podcast, btw: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Erased by Library Association, Deserves Her Place in Literary History [https://tomwoods.com/ep-1221-laura-ingalls-wilder-erased-by-library-association-deserves-her-place-in-literary-history/] . It's not as good as the interview

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Later Addendum: Ignore the Tom Woods Show reference below. If you haven't heard it, you MUST listen to Fr. Richard Altier's 8/19/2018 homily [https://straphaelcrystal.org/homily/august-19-2018/]. I'd seen and heard references to it, but hadn't

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Wow, whatta weekend. The most iconoclastic president and pope in modern history start to wobble. (Link to Pope Francis cover-up story, if you haven't seen it yet [http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/ex-nuncio-accuses-pope-francis-of-failing-to-act-on-mccarricks-abuse] .) TDE readers know I'm no fan of Pope Francis, but I&

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> Who is Archbishop Carlo Maria ViganÃ²? The Nuncio that accused Pope Francis of covering up McCarrick's sexual abuse https://t.co/bPBQswJrWf via @taylorrmarshall [https://twitter.com/TaylorRMarshall?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) August 26, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1033775020147990528?ref_

Friday

BYCU Well, those Nuun hydration tablets seem to be doing the trick. I'm feeling almost normal. Of course, it might be the temperate weather we've been having, but regardless, I'll take it. I think I'm even going to fire up the gin

Thursday

> I appreciate ever more those ancient and medieval stories of priests and monks, upon learning that they were to be made bishops, fleeing to the woods or deserts. They understood what would be expected of them. How did getting a bishopric ever become a goal for so many clerics?

Wednesday

Rambling Shew. I'm working on little sleep this morning. A few years ago, I started having troubles falling back to sleep in the middle of the night. I found that attentive "holy listening" would quickly do the trick: I'd turn on Benedict Groeschel or

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling M-Cubed: My Man Morlino! You gotta check out his letter to the faithful [http://www.madisoncatholicherald.org/bishopsletters/7730-letter-scandal.html]. It's not the "pray for the victims" tripe other bishops who are stuck in the "business as usual" mode are producing.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling A few more worthwhile pieces regarding the priest/bishop abuses. First: A lengthy open letter by Ralph Martin [http://www.renewalministries.net/wordpress/dear-troubled-catholics-a-letter-from-ralph-martin-about-the-current-crisis/] . He pretty much says directly what I think needs to be said: The Church has a huge homosexual problem and it's currently

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"According to a new study, roughly 20 percent of millennial parents have changed or seriously considered changing their baby's name based on what internet domain names were available at the time. "Don't make the same mistake my parents made," said Pornhub Collins."

Friday

Brews You Can Use Anniversary day today. I haven't been able to drink much, due to my dehydration (or whatever is ailing me these past two months). As a corollary, I haven't had much desire to things I normally do while drinking, like hanging out on

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Why should the Catholic clergy have all the fun: "One of China's highest-ranking Buddhist monks quit as the head of the country's Buddhist association on Wednesday after facing a government investigation over accusations of sexual misconduct [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-harassment-religion/buddhist-monk-master-in-china-resigns-after-sexual-misconduct-allegations-idUSKBN1L00HR]

Wednesday

Hump Day Wednesday, Sorry for the Pun Another priest abuse scandal. Possibly the biggest. I've read only two articles about it so I'm hardly an expert, but this caught my eye: the only victim I saw quoted was 13 when the abuse occurred. For TDE readers

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling A friend sent an email of college football quotes. Among them: "I don't expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation." Bob Devaney. Devaney coached those legendary national championship teams

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Monday the 13th is worse than Friday the 13th. Just realized: I passed the 10,000-post mark a few weeks ago. Cheers to TDE. Of course, I have probably passed only the 500th good-post mark. Speaking of milestones: This Friday marks my and Marie's wedding anniversary.

Saturday

Abbie (eldest daughter) moved to Boston and is spending this weekend in New York. She was at Ellis Island. She sent me this picture, asking if this is why I rail against big government: I said, "Yup." Such mutual aid societies require people to work with each other,

Thursday

Bullets *Strange gardening story: 150-year-old tomato seeds found in old outhouse [https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/12/exchange-150-year-old-tomato-seeds-unearthed/] (they passed through Abe Lincoln contemporaries' digestive tracks). They still germinate. This picture [https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/95pcih/modern_tomato_vs_one_grown_from_150yo_seeds/

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling This article [http://thefederalist.com/2018/08/01/seinfelds-comedians-cars-welcome-respite-insufferable-wokeness-comedy/] does a pretty good job of summarizing why I like Jerry Seinfeld's charmingly-mundane Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. It's not calculating in any way: it's not at all political, which is very nice

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Great episode of Econtalk came out recently: Frank Dikotter on Mao's Great Famine [http://www.econtalk.org/frank-dikotter-on-maos-great-famine/]. The idiocy and devilishness of central planning is on full display, from efforts to kill all the sparrows who are eating the grains (and thereby leading to a

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Like every working adult, I suppose, I live in quest of the perfect group of days. Days filled with a reasonable amount of work, un-rushed time for exercise and prayer, and leftover time for extracurriculars (in my case, gardening, reading, and hanging out with my kids). This, of

Saturday

Ah, okay, I think I can accept it now: "Death Penalty Still Permissible For People Who Drive Slowly In The Left Lane, Pope Francis Clarifies." > The decision has angered some conservative Catholics, who favor applying the death penalty in wider circumstances. “What about that guy who brings

Friday

Brews You Can Use This might be the feel-good piece of the young month: One drink a day might be enough to stop dementia by flushing the brain [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23931893-400-one-drink-a-day-might-be-enough-to-stop-dementia-by-flushing-the-brain/] . You have to pay to subscribe to read the entire article, so I searched for similar

Thursday

Just this today: video of the produce site, as of Monday evening. The perimeters are buried (except the short east end, but that will hopefully be easy, if another load is strategically dumped by the wood chip guys). We now start burying individual beds and rows.

Wednesday

Miscellany Happy August. My youngest son (Max, of "MAXimum Greens") turns 15. Time marches on. Leftists want to change the Texas capital's name because Stephen Austin thought freed blacks would become vagabonds. American Thinker breaks it down [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/07/the_pc_

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Great idea: “Justice also requires that all of those in Church leadership who knew of the former cardinal's alleged crimes and sexual misconduct and did nothing be held accountable for their refusal to act thereby enabling others to be hurt." Bishop Michael Olson [https:

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Shew. It's been a whirlwind of activity since returning from Alpena. Mostly, garden stuff, but also work and family. Michael (#4) returned from a two-week mission trip to Mexico City, where he visited Our Lady of Guadalupe daily and played soccer with kids at the city

Saturday

> Alpena boardwalk, morning 7-26-2018 pic.twitter.com/KbIXIVoenf [https://t.co/KbIXIVoenf] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) July 26, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1022497698770022401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] I took my annual pilgrimage to Alpena, Michigan, returning Thursday evening. Alpena is a neat little city on the

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> "I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said." - William F. Buckley Jr. pic.twitter.com/p9xCN6JSZs [https://t.co/p9xCN6JSZs] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) July 27, 2018 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/1022658836828704775?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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Ah, yes, that would be a great channel: > A 24-hour Fast Food Brawl channel would probably stop me from cable cutting https://t.co/vCGIFL4f2T > — David Burge (@iowahawkblog) July 26, 2018 [https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/1022629631122391041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

I returned from vacation last night, greeted to news of a GDP blow-out and threatened bombings of Iran. For today, just this throwback to the Iranian hostage crisis:

Thursday

In his modern classic, The New Science of Politics, Eric Voegelin wrote about the tendency of modern political movements to throw the highest human efforts behind earthly progress and noted that the result is a sacrifice of the human spirit in exchange for earthly goods: “The more fervently all human

Wednesday

Black magic is similar to selling one's soul, a magical practice colorfully passed down through the centuries in the Faust legends and literature. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), Johann Goethe (1749-1832), and Thomas Mann (1875-1955) all told the Faust story. The stories, though distinct and expressing the writers' different

Tuesday

Black magic is substantively no different than ordinary magic. Both types of magicians are making a choice for earthly goods (power) and are willing to solicit/manipulate the supernatural to obtain the fruits of their choice. The black magician is set apart by the vehement suddenness and ugliness of his

Monday

Although the term "magic" has been defined differently, it is perhaps best defined as the practice of deliberately soliciting or directing the supernatural for purposes of obtaining power over the natural. "Supernatural" refers to a spiritual agent which can, or is believed to be able, to

Friday

Brews You Can Use The feel good drink story of the year: "This autumn, 61-year-old Shunsuke Takagi will launch his unique project, calling on welfare centers engaging in organic farming and using ingredients like barley and hops cultivated by those with disabilities to produce special regional craft beer."

Thursday

Conservatives have never been able to agree on a definition of conservatism. The historian of modern conservatism, George Nash, concluded that it is “misdirected” to try to formulate a definition of conservatism: “I doubt that there is a single, satisfactory, all-encompassing definition of the complex phenomenon called conservatism, the content

Wedneseday

From the Notebooks Shortly after arriving as an exile in the United States in 1974, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn offended his American guests by bemoaning the weakness and spiritual torpor of the West. Although he had previously admired the West and looked to it for salvation from Communism, upon arriving here he

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Dunkin' Donuts is partnering with Harpoon Brewery to release a coffee-infused beer. Not to be outdone, Four Loko is now partnering with heroin. Seth Meyers

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Hmmmmmm: "LaCroix, Sparkling Ice, Bai and beyond: Are fruit-flavored waters good for you? [https://flipboard.com/@flipboard/-lacroix-sparkling-ice-bai-and-beyond-ar/f-3c962de57b%2Ftoday.com] " I detest LaCroix, but my eldest daughter loves the stuff. Hi-Ball Energy is terrible. I like Bai, however. Are these things bad for you? The

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I hope my sardonic humor was evident Saturday. I don't really think my UP Michigan brethren are borderline retards. That was a joke. I was serious, however, when I said it's gorgeous, often unexplored, country, a land relatively untouched by human hands . . . or intelligence

Sunday

While two of my boys and I slave away at the produce site and farmers market, the other family members live it up. I guess I'll get over it: > Family separated for the weekend. Eldest Alex looking after my girls. pic.twitter.com/ovHMTuDHrd [https://t.co/

Saturday

The Weekend Rambler The picture accompanying this story [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/greenland-iceberg-innaarsuit-1.4744782] is pretty wild: huge iceberg threatens small Greenland village. The concern is that, if it calves, it could cause a tsunami. A pretty freaking cold one, at that. No word on whether Trump

Friday

Brews You Can Use Two funnies for the bar tonight: (1) "My girlfriend says I'm a stalker. Well, she's not exactly my girlfriend yet." (2) "#me too" traditionally translates to "pound me too." Always something new under the entrepreneurial sun:

Thursday

Sign of the times: > New Game Show Gives Millennials A Chance To Eliminate Student Loan Debt https://t.co/Kp8YGCYFqK > — zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 12, 2018 [https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/1017228306016595969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Wednesday

The Rambler Extreme embalming [https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/body-dead-teen-honored-extreme-embalming-posed-video-games-sunglasses-snacks-182105773.html] . I can't even begin to get my head around this enough to form an opinion. "[T]he body of taxi driver Victor Perez Cardona, a former cancer patient, was positioned in his cab – with his hands

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling It's Kavanaugh [https://spectator.org/judge-brett-kavanaugh-nominated-to-supreme-court/]. I told my son Jack when I first heard his name last week as the possible nominee, "I know nothing about him, but I can virtually guarantee you that he's a liberal Catholic, based merely on his

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew, the hot weather finally broke. My dehydration immediately improved, even though I started logging a lot more time at the produce site. We got our first crop of kohlrabi yesterday. We aren't sure how it'll sell, but it really did well in inclimate

Saturday

My apologies for not posting this morning. The farmer's market called. Max and Tess did well, bringing in well over $100. Popular: lettuce mix and sunflowers; pretty popular: cherry tomatoes and individual zinnias and cosmos. > "garrulousness, that unhealthy tendency to externalize all the treasures of the

Friday

Brews You Can Use It's hard to write about drinking when I'm on a self-imposed alcohol ban that would make a Baptist proud. Until I get over this dehydration, I can't drink. One drink pretty much puts me on my back with exhaustion and

Thursday

Rambling Well, given the way this season has gone, I guess it's only a matter of time until this beast makes an appearance at the produce site: "The giant hogweed is hard to miss. The monstrous plant towers up to 15 feet tall, with a crown of

Happy Fourth

A salute: > Timothy Matlack (May 28, 1736 ”“ April 14, 1826) was a brewer and beer bottler who emerged as a popular and powerful leader in the American Revolutionary War. Secretary of Pennsylvania during the war, and a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1780, he became one of

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I'm afraid it's going to take a long time to convince me of this: "Compulsive video-game playing could be mental health problem." Link [https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2018-06-compulsive-video-game-mental-health-problem.html] . And even if they can convince me that it's a

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Garden I'm back from my first summer vacation. It was short, just four days with the in-laws at Michigan's largest inland lake, Houghton Lake. It's not my favorite outing of the year, but I have a great set of in-laws who largely

Saturday

> Flowers are coming in nicely pic.twitter.com/4d2lWKKLUW [https://t.co/4d2lWKKLUW] > — MAXimum Greens (@GreensMaximum) June 30, 2018 [https://twitter.com/GreensMaximum/status/1013083727679901696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

BYCU I guess berry liqueurs are in high demand right now, but they're pricey. This site offers a plausible-looking recipe [https://www.starkbros.com/growing-guide/article/handcrafted-berry-liqueur-recipe] . Our first raspberries of the year are coming in, and the black raspberries that dot our neighborhood aren't far

Thursday

I've started following this guy. He's Tweeting about a profound problem that doesn't get nearly enough discussion: > 21 USC Â§Â§331, 333, 343 & 21 CFR Â§164.110(a) make it a federal crime to sell mixed nuts containing fewer than

Wednesday

From the Notebooks Russia came to Christianity late, in 988, but it came to philosophy even later, not producing its own original philosopher until the eighteenth century: Gregory Skovoroda (1722-1794). At the age of 43, Skovoroda, the self-proclaimed “Russian Socrates,” became a strannik, a wanderer, who spent the rest of

The Stranger: A Synopsis

The Stranger is a description of the last days of the narrator, a man named Mersault. Mersault is the mature Holden Caulfield. He goes through his life with little thought of others; primarily because he gives little thought to himself. He just goes about and lets the events of life

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling PSA: Keep hydrated. For about nine days, I was suffering from severe dizziness, lightheadedness, mild nausea, and headaches. I was afraid I might be having a stroke. I finally saw the doctor, who told me (kindly, but with a hint of disgust), "You're dehydrated. Start

Sunday

> Kids are going to grow up thinking: "I guess the Nazis were annoying. Apparently they wanted less immigration and some tariffs." > — Tom Woods (@ThomasEWoods) June 23, 2018 [https://twitter.com/ThomasEWoods/status/1010547044753334272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Saturday

Miscellaneous Rambling In ten years of gardening, this has to be the worst weather ever. Late winter storm, followed by lots of heat, followed by rain and rain and rain. We got a little respite, then more Noah action, then beastly hot weather, then another flood the last two days.

Friday

Brews You Can Use Wow, I'd never heard or thought of this before: Pass a law that increases the price of booze so poor people can't afford it [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-44520991]. It's a new law in Wales and apparently parallels a

Thursday

This beautiful Twitter site relentlessly adds to the pain of watching Europe throw away its heritage: > The wealth of Roman architecture makes Pula (ancient Polensium) a standout in #Croatia [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Croatia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] where you'll find a well-preserved Roman

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling Kinda interesting: Inside Amazon's $3.5 Million Competition to Make Alexa Chat Like a Human [https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/13/17453994/amazon-alexa-prize-2018-competition-conversational-ai-chatbots] . If you don't want to wait for the results, you can use the Alexa Blueprint Skill to customize your Dot&

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling The heat has been unbearable. Rain permitting, I hope to make it out to the produce site to see if the lettuce is bolting. I hope not. We're hoping for our first mega-harvest of the year. I was pleasantly surprised by the current performance by a

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Amen to that Nassim Taleb quote a posted yesterday. "[A]ny argument (such as the one now used for illegal immigration) that is supported by pictures/narratives of children is called PEDOPHRASTY. Actually, use of children should weaken an argument." I strongly agree. I'm

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> A reminder that any argument (such as the one now used for illegal immigration) that is supported by pictures/narratives of children is called PEDOPHRASTY. Actually, use of children should weaken an argument. pic.twitter.com/qZ7Qn5pHN2 [https://t.co/qZ7Qn5pHN2] > — Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) June 16, 2018

Saturday

Autobio Rambling Crazy week. My back molar split on Wednesday, necessitating an extraction. I then had to cover a lengthy client meeting Wednesday evening that didn't let out until after 9:30. I had to get up early in order to be in Detroit for a conference that

Friday

Brews You Can Use God willing, you're reading this after I spent a night of drinking at old haunts along South University in Ann Arbor [https://localwiki.org/ann-arbor/South_University] with Marie, Alex, and Abbie, then crashing at Abbie's before heading back to the second

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy Flag Day . . . with the "L." The cover story in the current issue of Gilbert Magazine is about John Wu. Very good piece. I don't know a ton about Wu, but he holds that Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism were good seed beds for Christianity,

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling I read this at Reddit's Today I Learned page: "The budget for the original 1978 film Halloween was so small that the actor playing Michael Myers was paid $20 per day and the original Michael Myers mask was purchased at a local costume shop for

Tuesday

Normie Rambling I finally finished Kill All Normies. I enjoyed it, even if it was riddled with typos (it was rushed through the production process, the publishing house sensing, rightly, it would ring with the Trump election). If I had to summarize it: The Internet had a guy culture of

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Man: wet, wet, and more wet. Whenever I see this much wetness, I'm reminded of that character in CSL's Voyage of the Dawn Treader who comments, "“Ah, you've come over the water. Powerful wet stuff, ain't it?” From The

Saturday

Spring blitz. Annual family golf outing yesterday; four graduation parties today. Thankfulness is the hallmark of the fulfilled life, so even though I enjoy time to myself, I am thankful that enough people like this curmudgeon-wannabe to invite him out. Of course, maybe they just like Marie? I am thankful

A Brief History of Russian Religion and Culture

From the Notebooks Russia has always been a country that takes ideas and practices from the outside, then twists and turns them into something uniquely Russian. This tendency seems endemic to Russia, perhaps ingrained from its inception when its Slavic peoples continually expanded from the western side of the great

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling A loyal TDE reader sends this podcast along: A Good Story is Hard to Find [https://agoodstoryishardtofind.blogspot.com/p/the-library.html]. Playing off the name of Flannery O'Connor's famous, and really disturbing, short story [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Good_Man_Is_

Wednesday

Summer Rambling I've never been a "hobby guy," the kind of man who looks for things to do so he can get through this veil of tears without thinking about what's on the other side. The hobby guy, to me, is the poster child

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling This is an interesting piece: "10 Troubling Habits Of Chronically Unhappy People [https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2016/07/26/10-troubling-habits-of-chronically-unhappy-people/#20beb79b70f3] ." I'm happy to report, I suffer from fewer than half (probably two strongly and two weakly). It's a pretty

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Why aren't young people having children? This writer's primary explanation comes down to this: It's hard [https://www.ataraxik.com/2018/05/19/no-one-wants-kids/] . But the article has a bit more depth to it. A consistent theme runs through every point he

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> The Glorious Inefficiency of Local Bookstores (essay by Dean Abbott) https://t.co/I0vAcnDg3V > — ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) May 27, 2018 [https://twitter.com/imaginativecons/status/1000534583274889216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Saturday

Weekend Rambling I've started listening to The Joe Sikorra Show [https://relevantradio.com/listen/our-shows/the-joe-sikorra-show/] on Relevant Radio. I didn't try it in the past because its promotionals made it sound like he was an "over-the-top" loud character, of the ilk of Ray

Friday

Brews You Can Use This is one of the coolest drinking stories I've seen this year: Scientists are breaking down the chemistry composition of premium wines then adding the chemicals in the proper proportions to surplus wine they buy in bulk, creating a replica of the premium wine

Thursday

Commie Symp Rambling The forced acceptance of a massive Muslim invasion; the gag order on the British press surrounding Tommy Robinson; European press compliance with whatever Brussels dictates; a 180-degree turn in the mass culture with respect to homosexual activity. Something sinister has been afoot . . . and probably has been for

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling TDE reader who knows I really dig Cedar Point sends this nuggest along: "Sandusky was a very German city in the late 1800s. Also was an Underground Railroad endpoint, to get on boats to Canada. Saw an article once that said Canadian blacks (never slaves) used to

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I really like Netflix, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to cancel my subscription soon. Like all media outlets, it just can't leave the political button alone. American Thinker lays out some of the evidence [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/

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> The Glorious Inefficiency of Local Bookstores (essay by Dean Abbott) https://t.co/I0vAcnDg3V > — ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) May 27, 2018 [https://twitter.com/imaginativecons/status/1000534583274889216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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Bishop Bob Morlino, Bishop Ba Ba Morlino . . . > https://t.co/UDrd7qGX2h > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) May 27, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/1000689731947192321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] Explanation of obscure reference:

Saturday

Holiday Weekend Rambling Whew. I think I dodged a bullet. I worked late last night, like I do every Friday of Memorial Day weekend, drinking gin and cleaning my office. I texted a friend of mine to see if he was available for a drink around 7:00. He didn&

Friday

Welcome to Summer BYCU I'm not a huge fan of Liquor.com, but sometimes, they suggest a recipe that looks too good not to try. This Summer Friday Cocktail [https://www.liquor.com/recipes/summer-fridays/#gs.LXMWeV4] is one of them. It sounds like a perfect way to

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Freakin' Africa. Stupid, ignorant Africa: "More than 200 farmers from South Africa have applied for humanitarian visas in Australia after allegedly suffering attacks for being white, according to the Australian Home Affairs Ministry." Link [https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/05/no_author/persecuted-white-south-african-farmers-seek-refuge-in-australia/] . So they&

Wednesday

Hump Day Rambling My home garden is almost finished. The side yard is looking nice (see pic below). I'm really hoping the poppy flowers I planted come in. They're "Jimi Purple Haze" poppies. I suspect I planted them a bit too late and may

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Memorial Day weekend is almost here. Marie and the kids abandon me for the weekend so they can go bird watching with Marie's family. I have the option of going, too, of course, but I'd rather slam my genitals in a car door, so

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I ran across a really cool program this weekend: Acorns [https://www.acorns.com/]. It's micro-investing. For just $1.00 a month, you can tie your credit card to the program and it will round up your spare change from credit card purchases and invest it.

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> Do not speak -- unless it improves on silence. – Buddhist proverb | | â–¡âˆ§â—¯ > — Zen Proverbs (@ZenProverbs) May 18, 2018 [https://twitter.com/ZenProverbs/status/997581900544921600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Saturday

Saturday Rambling I walk the pre-death tightrope all the time: Just let myself go and become irrelevant or try to stay engaged. Play the Zen master or read the newspaper. Use the garden to go Siddhartha-at-the-river [https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/s/siddhartha/summary-and-analysis/part-2-by-the-river] or look at how my

Friday

BYCU This is the best booze story of the week: Austrian man jailed up for glorifying Nazism after cops found "joke" Hitler-branded wine in his home [https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/austrian-man-locked-up-glorifying-12551158] . The man apparently thought some pro-Hitler bottles of wine were amusing, so he bought

Thursday

*My apologies for yesterday's glitch. I'm not sure what happened, and I'm not convinced it won't happen again, but my hosting service and I are working through the problems. *I'm not posting much today, for fear it won't

Wednesday

Hump Day Rambling I just read last night that Tom Wolfe died. I read a bit of the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. I liked it, but didn't finish it. I might have to read it this year during vacation. The urbane but humble Terry Teachout's tribute

Meyers

A new poll has found that a majority of Americans say that driverless cars will have a big impact on the elderly. Specifically, if they don't cross the street fast enough.

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling "140 White Castle locations began serving the vegan Impossible Burger, part of a new wave of plant-based proteins that taste, cook and, in some cases, bleed like the animal version. Unlike tofu dogs and Boca Burgers, these products are aimed squarely at carnivores." Link [https://www.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Do you have the personality to earn lots of money? It depends on whether you have some or all of these six traits [https://flipboard.com/article/the-secrets-of-the-%E2%80%98high-potential%E2%80%99-personality/f-f17e6ba97b%2Fbbc.com] . I have three of them in spades, though one of them,

Saturday

Weekend Rambling Solo was released yesterday. I doubt I'll go. I have tentatively decided not to go to any more Star Wars or super hero movies. Avengers Infinity War put me over the top, and it wasn't bad. I just suddenly found myself tired: tired of

Friday

Brews You Can Use Incredibly busy week. I unwound last night with my favorite simple concoction (tonic and New Amsterdam gin) for two hours, giving me a mild hangover this morning, but it's alright. I needed to blow the dust off (a client's term for getting

Conan

An American Airlines employee berated a young mom for carrying a breast pump. Although it's still better than the time the same mom was on Spirit Airlines and she was asked to feed everyone in coach.

Conan

In Utah, a couple gardening in their yard found the skeleton of a 16,000-year-old horse. After hearing about it, Arby's asked, "Any meat on those bones?"

Wednesday

From the Gardening Journals One of the coolest things about the free market is a thing called "entrepreneurial drift." For years, I've encouraged my kids to start their own business, if for no other reason because it opens doors . . . or rather, jolts the entrepreneur to change

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Count me in this group: Americans are more anxious than a year ago, survey finds [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-are-more-anxious-than-a-year-ago-survey-finds/] . A major setback at Maximum Greens will cripple early season production this year. I broke the news to Max last night, explaining that his main source

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Well, I reversed course with respect to lectures. I still like my idea of buying the used audio CD and ripping them into my iTunes, but there are three problems with it: (1) Amazon is not clear whether you are getting the audio CD or the book format

Sunday

The most compelling picture from the Hawaii catastrophe I've seen:

Saturday

I've read books or articles where Sowell or Walter Williams make this point, but for some reason, it's a bit more cogent to hear Sowell say it: > "Dependence was seen as the key to holding the slaves down. It's ironic that same

Friday

BYCU A loyal TDE reader sends along this perfect BYCU piece: Catholic Beer Club responds to millennials' thirst for community [https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/05/02/catholic-beer-club-responds-millennials-thirst-community] . It's America Magazine, but they managed to write it without any reference to the trans community, so I&

Thursday

More Lecture Notes The 1200s are often called the apex of Catholic Culture, largely because of the work of St. Thomas Aquinas. In Aquinas, Catholic thought comes to a synthesis: reason and revelation combined, mistaken notions squashed (like Abelard's insistence that faith and reason can come to contrary

Wednesday

Yet More Humpin' Ramblin' I'm glad it's hump day. It'll be good to see this week come to a close. Work pressures, irrigation problems at the site, tooth problems, I root for Detroit sports teams. I'm not sure when the

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Man, spring crunch last night: two tennis matches, soccer game, Freshman orientation with Max. But I much prefer it that way to the alternative: one event every night, Monday through Thursday. Tonight is open, leaving me free to seed a few more beds: arugula, cress, lettuces, spinach, cilantro.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I haven't weighed in on the Alfie Evans for simple reasons: it's so sad, I don't like to think about it; it's so wrong, it makes me angry to write about it; it's so obviously something I'

Saturday

I measure my stress level by how much this does or doesn't happen to me: "Work destroys your soul by stealthily invading your brain during the hours not officially spent working." Nassim Taleb Probably why I'm getting so much tail: "Sexual patterns that

Friday

Brews You Can Use The Spring Flurry continues. Not much time for blogging this morning. Just a few items: Our President and Pope tweet . . . and gas stations hold wine tastings [http://www.pennlive.com/food/index.ssf/2018/04/rutters_wine_tastings.html]. Nothing is sacred any more, not even

Thursday

Ramblings Whew, whatta week. Nonstop obligations . . . all of the non-billable sort, which for a lawyer, is like giving money away. I get a reprieve today and tomorrow. Great podcast at Econtalk: Jonah Goldberg on the Suicide of the West [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2018/04/jonah_goldberg.html]. Lots

Wednesday

More Notes The increased wealth that started to accumulate after 1000 gave us the most famous saint after the apostles: St. Francis (b. 1182). Also: St. Dominic (b. 1170). Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries: other mendicant orders: Augustinians, Trinitarians, Servites, Carmelites. Perhaps ironically, it also gave us the Crusades. With increase

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I ran a quote by George Scott-Moncrieff. Who's he? He was Russell Kirk's friend, whom Kirk praised in his autobiography, The Sword of Imagination. "Scomo" was "the worst-dressed gentleman in all Scotland, indifferent to circumstance, endowed with the consolations of philosophy.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling "I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt." Johnny Cash, Sunday Morning Coming Down. It's one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs, and I was living it yesterday after a fundraiser for Max's

Saturday

Gardening Rambling I don't know if it's a testament to Salanova lettuce, a trait of lettuce in general, or a gardening miracle, but it looks like all, or almost all, of my 47 lettuce plugs survived last week's high winds, freezing temperatures, snow, hail,

Friday

Brews You Can Use I found a trove of drinking news over here [http://brutalhammer.com/]. A few of the better ones: Good to know: "Professor Andrew Jarosz of Mississippi State University and colleagues served vodka-cranberry cocktails to 20 male subjects until their blood alcohol levels neared legal intoxication

Thursday

Lecture Notes Every historian recognizes that, by 1000, commerce was increasing and with it, wealth. Technology was advancing. The Dark Ages were over, caput, finished. It was onward and upward pretty much non-stop from there, allowing Europe to, almost literally, conquer the world by the 19th century. There was a

Wednesday

Quick Rambling Wow, what brutal weather these past couple of days. I'm guessing my 50 lettuce plugs didn't make it, but I won't get a chance to check them out until tomorrow. If we lost the crop, it'll probably be a $250

Tuesday

Miscellany: The Trailer One significant inconvenience has dogged me this gardening season: a new car. My old van died on me last November. I bought a 2017 Kia Sorento, which I really, really like. I like it so much, I don't like to get it dirty by transporting

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling This was a tough post to write. I had to dedicate yesterday to prepping for my Theology on Tap lecture on epistemology, which led me pull old books off the shelves and review my underlinings (or pull old books into my Kindle and look at highlightings) on topics

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> "Nisbet's best line ever, and he meant it: 'A square block in Manhattan has more community than the entire city of Tucson.'" https://t.co/kpR0L4CCxY > — The American Conservative (@amconmag) April 13, 2018 [https://twitter.com/amconmag/status/984758095057305600?ref_src=twsrc%

Saturday

Miscellany Working Saturday. I'm blessed to have a job with flexible hours that enable me to take advantage of nice days like we had this week, but it is a job that requires me to put in the hours, so when the rain comes out, I go in.

Friday

"Never drink when you are wretched without it, or you will be like the grey-faced gin-drinker in the slum." GKC I only drink when I'm not wretched without it, so I hope that takes me out of the grey-faced slum, but man, I've been

Thursday

Bullets **Transplanting lettuce was rough. The plugs were too wet so they kept falling apart, and it was back-breaking work. I got 26 into the ground. If 20 survive, I'll be content. I'm letting the others dry out. I'm hoping to plant at least

Wednesday

More Rambling: Medicine Well, far out. I've been trying to get my cholesterol down naturally for five years now without success, until now. It looks like the vegan approach is working. My bad cholesterol dropped from 156 (last October) to 118 (March blood work). Pretty much everything else

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I've started something new: hybrid reading. That's my own term to describe digital reading in traditional book format. I decided to try it out when I found myself wanting to know the history of Poland better. My first thought was, "I'll

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Towns I'm blessed to live in my hometown. Not many people who spent seven years in college can claim such a thing (unless we include "big city" within the definition of "hometown"). I'm further blessed to have four kids who

Saturday

Nashville Ramblings This is Thomas Hart Benton's The Sources of Country Music, which is on display at the County Music Hall of Fame. I like it. It reminds me of a Grant Wood painting, which I guess isn't surprising. They're both apparently representatives of

Friday

Return from Nashville Marie and I took the three little kids to Nashville for their spring break trip. Alex and Abbie were able to get days off work and joined us, giving us a clear super-majority (7 out of 9 . . . ain't bad). We got back yesterday. Needless to

Thursday

"With respect to self-talk, I might be at the golf course having the best game of my life and then suddenly find myself triple-bogeying the last five holes. How does this happen? Our unconscious belief about who we are and what we are capable of sets parameters for our

Wednesday

Random excerpts from Dorothy Day's diary: There is a Russian saying that if a man plants 3 trees in his life he will never go to hell. My love of peace and quiet inclines me always to want to do nothing. I have his same faults so we

Tuesday

You'd have to be a full-on idiot to accept any of this. I'm sure it's kinda fun, to sit around and figure out what you are, kinda like the way people analyze their personality traits, but geesh, to endow this stuff with more credibility

Easter Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy Easter Monday. Day two of 50 days. Plenty of time to contemplate the Mystery. Somewhere, Russell Kirk wrote a great summary of the history of the Shroud of Turin, but the heck if I can find it now. Nifty article: 10 Social Media Networks to Use Instead

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"Kirk first encountered the Shroud while offhandedly visiting the Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista in Torino, Italy, in 1957 when he attended a Mont Pelerin Society conference. Here, he claimed, he encountered the face of God. “The face was wondrously distinct, almost accurate as a plaster death mask: a

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Thursday

Lew Rockwell has run two Christocentric pieces these past two days: Does The Celestial-Geophysical-Historical Time Clock Provide Evidence For An Easter Crucifixion & Resurrection? [https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/03/bill-sardi/does-the-celestial-geophysical-historical-time-clock-provide-evidence-for-an-easter-crucifixion-resurrection/] What is the connection between personal freedom and rising from the dead? [https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/03/

Wednesday

Miscellany A lot of people brought gifts to Marie's birthday party. I was impressed by the assortment of unusual, small gifts that she received. There were plenty of wine bottles (my standard present) and gift certificates, which are always cool, but also lottery tickets (she won $10), decorative

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling The saddest story of the week: "The police officer who died after taking the place of a hostage in France was a practising Catholic who had 'experienced a genuine conversion' around 2008." Link [http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/03/25/police-officer-who-swapped-places-with-hostage-was-a-practising-catholic/#.WrgzL2oWvj1.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to Holy Week 2018. It hasn't been a great Lent for me, so I'm trying to double down this week. I'm reading nothing but religious works, with focus on Romano Guardini's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romano_Guardini] The

Saturday

Miscellaneous Rambling I pass along a lot of historical, political, and religious podcast recommendations, but I'm not sure I've ever recommended a fun podcast. So here goes: The Conspirators [http://www.theconspiratorspodcast.com/]. The podcaster, Nate Hale (an entirely fictional identity), does a great job of

Friday

BYCU A TDE reader alerted me to this story in the Wall Street Journal that interests me on many levels: Drinkers Go Crazy for Gin, Investors for Tonic [https://www.wsj.com/articles/drinkers-go-crazy-for-gin-investors-for-tonic-1521199401] . Regular TDE readers know I've been on a big gin-and-tonic kick ever since my

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YouTube is planning a "Karate Kid" series that follows the characters 34 years later. The show is entitled "Ralph Macchio's Mortgage Is Due." Conan

Thursday

Lecture Notes Picture non-Christian Europe in 850: The Scandinavian countries and their Vikings, ravaging everything from Ireland to Russia. Saracen Muslims pushing into southern Italy, even sacking Rome. Magyars invading central Europe before finally conquering and settling in what we know as Hungary. Poland, much of the Slavic countries (e.

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Theology on Tap session tonight. The topic: His Ontological Suffering. It's a meditation on Guardini's passion meditation in The Lord. In particular, it revolves around this passage in Guardini's work and why His suffering had to be this way: > No one

Tuesday

Miscellany Re: Yesterday's post. “The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.” GKC Intriguing essay by Patrick J. Deneen at First Things: "The Ignoble Lie [https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/04/the-ignoble-lie]." I haven'

Monday

The Wing Ding The kids and I did it. We threw the mother of controlled wing dings Saturday night for Marie's 50th birthday. The kicker: It was a surprise party. And she was shell-shocked surprised. Friends and family came from Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago; her local friends showed

Happy St. Patrick's Day

For the Great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry And all their songs are sad. G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse.

Friday

Holiday Blogging TDE slows down for the holidays, and this secular holiday is one of the holiday-ist of all. The first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA Tournament are my two favorite sports days of the year. This pic shows Max getting the screens set up for Thursday night'

Thursday

From the Notebooks Rule of Culture: For every material action, there is a spiritual reaction. It's a testament to the sacramental nature of existence: body and soul, flesh and spirit, intertwined. Lots of examples. Most notably for today is St. Francis and St. Dominic in the 12th century:

Wednesday

Campanella In 1598 and 1599, a huge man named Tommaso Campanella organized a revolt in Calabria to free it from Spain. Campanella was a magician who believed that the stars and numbers portended revolution. He thought the new century would mark the dawn of a new age–an age with

Tuesday

Birthday Rambling Happy birthday to me! It's fitting that I share my birthday with heavy-hitter saints whose feast day is today: Gerald of Mayo and Roderic of Spain. Yeah, I'd never heard of them either. Sigh. Oh well, In lieu thereof, I'll dedicate the

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I saw this tweet on Saturday: "I don't understand why we can't just lose this hour sometime during work on Monday." It was meant as humorous, but why not implement it on Monday during working hours? It's Monday afternoon at

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> Another busy night at all the British henge sites as staff work all night to move the stones forward by an hour. [//imgur.com/heSvI]

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> WhÐ°t a difference 26 years makes. Shanghai in 1987 and 2015 pic.twitter.com/h9bMs0d5AL [https://t.co/h9bMs0d5AL] > — History Lovers Club (@historylvrsclub) March 10, 2018 [https://twitter.com/historylvrsclub/status/972559725475790853?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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> Instant CTE @Starting9 [https://twitter.com/Starting9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] pic.twitter.com/5Dm9jODQeI [https://t.co/5Dm9jODQeI] > — Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 10, 2018 [https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/972620649188462592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Saturday

The Dance Neareth We're not a big TV family so we have only two, but the NCAA Tournament requires maximum screens, so Max and I used the first night of our bachelor weekend to do a dry run. By placing the screens an inverse distance from the couch

Fallon

This week in England, a worker at a factory that makes Coca-Cola cans was caught urinating into the cans. But Coke quickly dealt with the situation by putting a Mountain Dew label on it.

Friday

Brews You Can Use I wrote last year that red wine is a good Lenten drink, but I can't get away from the gin and tonic. I'm going dry for the next eight days, so it doesn't really matter right now, but I need

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Some fun-read stuff by Mark Steyn on the Oscars [https://www.steynonline.com/8510/inclusion-riders-showbiz-apocalypse]. The point I particularly liked: Hollywood has always been political; the Oscars have always been political. But now, it's just preening and virtue-signaling. It used to take a little bit of

Wednesday

Midweek Rambling Why does Diet X work for some people and not for others? Why does that worker get an occupational disease but his co-worker doesn't? The answer: Genetics. DNA. Now, regular TDE readers know I claim no expertise--or even an average amount of knowledge--when it comes to

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Can someone help explain to me the efficacy of group discussions? To me, unless there is an acknowledged group leader with a better grasp of the subject matter than the participants, group discussions are merely the blind leading the blind. I didn't like them in

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I've started to experiment with the plastic cloches [https://www.maximumgreens.com/products/batawa-protective-plant-bell-10-pack]. I planted bush peas, mache, radicchio, mizuna, kohlrabi, and other cold-hardy crops in containers yesterday, watered, then covered with the cloches. We'll see. I only used old seeds, taken from

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> This list of reÐ°sons for Ð°dmission to a lunatic asylum in the 1800s reads like a list of potential metal band names. pic.twitter.com/HFJlr4HTzr [https://t.co/HFJlr4HTzr] > — History Lovers Club (@historylvrsclub) March 4, 2018 [https://twitter.com/historylvrsclub/status/970262837691023361?ref_src=twsrc%

Saturday

Weekend Rambler The first bed gets planted today or tomorrow: radishes. I plan on planting a bed every week for the next ten weeks. The first three will in cold frames or short low tunnels, at which point, I'll run out of covered space until the first week&

Friday

Brews You Can Use Whew, whatta topsy-turvy week. Long hours at the production site Monday and Tuesday, three-hour meeting Wednesday night, drinking social engagements Tuesday and Thursday night. No schedule, no routine, missed rosaries and eucharistic adorations, client work piling up. I need a drink. I, however, found enough time

Thursday

More notes from the "Zen Lent" Theology on Tap session . . . The three stages along the spiritual road: purgative, illuminative, unitive. I have no doubt that they accurately describe the road. But I guess I've never found them helpful or useful. As I've gotten older,

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A student once asked [the Zen master Joshu]: "If I haven't anything in my mind, what shall I do?" Joshu replied: "Throw it out." "But if I haven't anything, how can I throw it out?" continued the questioner. "Well,

Notes from Theology on Tap

Zen is steeped in Buddhism, which means its roots are in pantheistic monism: God is the world and all is one. The same spirit (Brahman) occupies everything. All is Brahman: I'm Brahman, you're Brahman, that chair is Brahman. If you think you perceive a distinction between

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Wow, glorious weather! Last night, I put up two short low tunnels at the production site. The plan: accelerate the drying-out process, so I can prepare the beds under the tunnels in two weeks, recover them with the tunnels thereby adding heat for weeds to sprout, burn them

Monday

Time to Retreat Well, the Cursillo was definitely better than the first three retreats that left me flummoxed, but I didn't like it and couldn't even finish it. I guess I'm not retreat material, which means I'm not a good Catholic, based

Saturday

Cursillo weekend. Just this today: > Prague, Czech Republic @MagicalEurope [https://twitter.com/MagicalEurope?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] pic.twitter.com/sfz6imEgGi [https://t.co/sfz6imEgGi] > — Tradia (@amalieskram) February 21, 2018 [https://twitter.com/amalieskram/status/966322075525943296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > Ambient beauty sets the scene from the

Friday

Brews You Can Use Drinking in China: The Qingdao Beer Festival [https://drunkard.com/the-qingdao-beer-festival-is-evil/]. According to the author, it's a terrible festival: boring, bad food, bad beer. It's a good, humorous read, but if you just want a few of the highlights: > Beer brewing

Thursday

A Bullet Life of JRR Tolkien 1892-1973 Father died when Tolkien was 4. When he was 8, his mother became Roman Catholic, to the fury of her relatives. They withheld financial support in hopes she'd renounce the Church. She didn't and had to go to work.

Wednesday

I am intrigued with the points made by Gabriel Marcel in his book, Man Against Mass Society, a book that came out in English in 1962. Modern society is, to Marcel, mass society, a society where public life is relentlessly presented to us as reality, but it is not reality

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Don Beland is converting his five-bedroom suburban home in Holly Springs, N.C., into a farm–indoors. WSJ Subscription-Required Link [https://www.wsj.com/articles/love-local-farming-try-your-living-room-1518454522] . Of course, Don Beland has a supportive wife, which is something that, ahem, not all of us have. I feel fortunate

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to Clean Monday. It's the Greek Orthodox Church's Ash Wednesday. So if you already botched your Lenten vows, you can kinda start over today. One was stupid, one was vapid, one was heretical: my experiences with retreats. I vowed never to do another,

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> Move along, nothing to see here! https://t.co/dFhROrtLlo > — John Zmirak (@JZmirak) February 18, 2018 [https://twitter.com/JZmirak/status/965118165566050305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > Homosexual Vatican Judge Convicted For Possession Of Male Child Pornography https://t.co/tEwpij170Z > — gloria.tv (@gloriatv) February 17, 2018

Sunday

Saturday

Miscellany The Democrats created the Mexican immigration problem with their 1965 Immigration Act and by revoking (greatly restricting) the work visa program in the 1990s to make the unions happy, and now they won't give relief to the Dreamers because they don't want Trump to get

Friday

Brews You Can Use Charles H. Baker, Jr: Drink writer. I never even knew there was such a thing, outside of the pages of Modern Drunkard Magazine, but there is . . . and he wrote during the first half of the twentieth century, helping to bring to the public mind classic drinks

Thursday

Kerouac, Inchausti, Beauchamp This piece brought together a lot of 2018 strands for me: "Debunking the Caricature of Jack Kerouac the Nihilist [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/debunking-the-caricature-of-jack-kerouac-the-nihilist/] ." The piece basically affirms what I taught last month at my Theology on Tap presentation: Jack Kerouac, godfather of the

Wednesday

Welcome to Lent 2018. Or to Valentine's Day, if that suits your disposition better. This Ash Wednesday/Valentine's Day confluence, incidentally, is great for husbands married to Catholic wives. What Catholic woman wants a lavish dinner and flowers on Valentine's Day? And what devout

Shaun White In First After the First Run

Men's half-pipe is my favorite.

Tuesday

Lent, Zen, Other Lent neareth. Remember to eat and drink a lot tonight so tomorrow is even harder. My next Theology on Tap lecture is entitled "Zen Lent." It's an extension on my Kerouac lecture. Kerouac was a Buddhist, I guess, or at least practiced Zen

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling It's almost time to start seeds indoors. If you're ordering seeds online, please order them from Max's site: MAXimumgreens.com [https://www.maximumgreens.com/collections/vegetable-seeds]. The seeds we order are drop-shipped from one of the most reputable sellers in the market.

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> "We are accustomed to speaking with wonder at how the 'whole world is available at our fingertips.' It should fill us with foreboding as well." https://t.co/vytglsXdEV > — The American Conservative (@amconmag) February 4, 2018 [https://twitter.com/amconmag/status/960196251907014656?ref_src=

Saturday

Olympic Miscellany I dig the Winter Olympics, even if it's mostly just a bunch of spoiled kids having fun and banging each other [http://time.com/5137272/condoms-at-olympics/?utm_campaign=time&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_twitter] in Olympic Village.

Friday

BYCU Just in time for the Winter Olympics: North Korea appears to claim it has invented wheat beer: "According to state newspaper Rodong Sinmun, the country's Taedonggang brewery claims its new approach using wheat instead of barley "is better than existing beers in terms of its

Thursday

The Dark Ages My slipshod notes from Theology on Tap . . . Let's make one thing clear: “Dark Ages” and “Middle Ages” aren't synonymous, not by any means. The Middle Ages roughly connote 500 to 1500. The Dark Ages are only 800-1000. Things get wild, wooly, and vague

Wednesday

Rambling I learned yesterday that late winter 2018 is the Season for Manly Cinema. First, I read about Clint Eastwood's new movie that features three American heroes who took down an Islamic terrorist in 2015. Apparently, the Hollywood elite hate the movie because it portrays Muslim terrorists in

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Well, at least my short positions got some of their losses back these past two days. The Michigan governor election is going to be a fiasco for Republicans. We have a Muslim running [http://theweek.com/articles/752449/33yearold-muslim-doctor-might-just-next-governor-michigan] , as well as a guy who calls himself the

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I always donate to Haitian relief efforts, but crap like this Conan O'Brien video really make it hard: > Uh, it was France and you murdered them all... > but besides that, great points. https://t.co/8gdKjKMk2q > — Gavin McInnes (@Gavin_McInnes) February 4, 2018 [https://twitter.

Saturday

Bullets High school musical weekend. Daughter Meg (#5) is Jane Banks in Mary Poppins. Meg and the rest of the cast killed it last night, kinda blew me away. * * * * * * * Part of the reason, I suppose: I went in with low expectations. The city Auditorium where they hold it is situated

Friday

Brews You Can Use Marie surprised me with the 2018 "Drinking with the Monks" calendar. Man, what a disappointment. I was expecting a a cool picture on top of each month and some sort of drinking material on each of the dates. The top of each month is

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling A TDE reader sends along this dialogue in response to my Nazi-occult observation yesterday: EATON: What would the Nazis want with this - this Staff of Ra? BRODY: I can tell you that. Over the last two years the Nazis have had teams of archeologists running around the

Wednesday

Really Random Whew. January 31st. We made it. Of course, I heard someone say that February is the longest month of the year. It begins in January and ends some time in April. This article says Jim Rogers is investing in agricultural commodities [https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/01/no_

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Ancient Coptic manuscript of the Book of Acts can now be read, thanks to x-ray imagery. Link [https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/meg-bucher/new-technology-enables-reading-of-ancient-egyptian-manuscript-of-book-of-acts.html] . Irony? Pope Francis has issued an apostolic constitution with regard to ecclesiastical universities. It's called Veritatis Gaudium, meaning the joy of

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling What a beautiful January weekend. I played basketball and did a little gardening yesterday in shorts. A sweatshirt, yes, but shorts. I read yesterday that, when you reach age 100 in Barbados, you get a stamp in your honor [https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/7tln3x/when_

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When I was a kid, I could tell you everything about the tennis world: Borg, Connors, McEnroe, Becker, Lendl. These days, I follow it a bit but not much. Regardless, it's great to see the Rog back on top. > Roger Federer wins Australian Open for 20th career

Saturday

Thadurday Ramblings Good "Unregistered [http://www.thaddeusrussell.com/podcast/]" podcast last week. Russell interviewed Christopher Ryan, one of the oldest hippies. It's safe to say Ryan is a leftist, but one of the intellectually-honest kind of goodwill. That, quite frankly, is the genius of Russell'

Fallon

A man broke a Guinness world record by walking barefoot on a 120-foot path of loose Legos. This beats the old record set by every dad getting up to use the bathroom at night.

Friday

Holy Beer Font, Batman! Wow, I gotta have it: 2018 Drinking with the Monks Calendar [https://www.tanbooks.com/index.php/calendars/2018-drinking-with-the-monks.html] . (Amazon link [http://amzn.to/2EbdGSH]). I haven't been this excited about a calendar since . . . Okay, I've never been excited about a

Thursday

My notes from a Theology on Tap lecture 476 to Charlemagne 476: It wasn't the fall of the Roman Empire. The Senate was still in session until 600 AD or so. If you had asked the average citizen in, say, Lyon France, what he was, he would'

Wednesday

Books and Holes Response to a friend who wanted to know what I'm currently reading: "What am I reading? It's scattershot. The Virgin Eye is my mainstay right now and has been for months. It's kind of a book you pray with, so

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Well, I made a big decision. I'm going to attend a Cursillo retreat in February. I have attended three Catholic retreats in my life, and all were a colossal waste of time. Two of them were so bad, I was (no joke) embarrassed to be there.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Wow, the winter blues. If you're suffering from them, do a white man thing and think about the farmers markets that you can attend this spring. And why is it a white man thing? Because a couple of professors have declared farmers markets to be white

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> "Nolan's third Batman film was inspired by Charles Dickens's 'A Tale of Two Cities,' though much of the dialogue might have been written by Edmund Burke." https://t.co/L13AvIL32B > — The American Conservative (@amconmag) January 21, 2018 [https://twitter.com/

Saturday

Trans Fun Man, I love: The idiots are attacking one another as the logical implications of trans living play out. Under attack now: Heterosexual males who claim to believe the trans hogwash but refuse to date another man who says he's a woman [http://www.bbc.com/news/

Friday

Brews You Can Use For the first time this year, I feel normal. I still had low energy and virtually no motivation this week, but yesterday, I noticed that I seemed to have my wind back. Heck, I almost felt good. So I'll celebrate. My hometown is having

Thursday

Running a bit late today. Theology on Tap went well last night. We changed the venue, which seemed to make a big difference. I'll be continuing the series. Next up: Zen Buddhism. It's a natural outgrowth of last night's lecture, which talked about Kerouac&

Wednesday

Kerouac and Anthony "I felt like a million dollars; I was adventuring in the crazy American night." That was a Jack Kerouac Tweet. Alright, Kerouac didn't Tweet it, of course, since he died in 1967, which was, what, two years before Twitter, but I saw it

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On Saturday the word s***hole was projected on to Trump's D.C. hotel. It got even worse when Motel 6 sued them for copyright infringement. Fallon

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling The Little Flower Company is Facebook official [https://www.facebook.com/The-Little-Flower-Company-1593872617362439/]. Therese seems excited to get started. We're working through a flower business book, but I'm open to suggestions. If anyone knows anything about growing quantities of cut flowers and wouldn't

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling: On History Day 12. The flu softens its grip on me every day, but it's not going away soon. Although I am taking walks outdoors (on top of the exercise, my lungs seem to enjoy the cold), I'm still not back to a regular

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> "Many colleges claim that they develop 'leaders.' All too often, that means turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and they are a menace to everyone else's

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> ðŸ˜Š#PositiveNewsWeekend [https://twitter.com/hashtag/PositiveNewsWeekend?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > I love these Strandbeests: wind-propelled kinetic sculptures created by Dutchman Theo Jansen. #art [https://twitter.com/hashtag/art?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] #beach [https://twitter.com/hashtag/beach?src=hash&

Friday

Brews You Can Use This has been a long time in coming: "A bill that would end Indiana's prohibition-era ban on carryout Sunday alcohol sales was overwhelmingly approved by a key state Senate committee." Link [http://abc7chicago.com/politics/indiana-senate-committee-approves-sunday-booze-sales-bills/2928685/?sf178926156=1] . I grew up

Thursday

Lecture Notes This illness continues to dog me, taking my crops, land, money, and womenfolk. For today, I merely present part of my notes from Part I of the Theology on Tap Lecture on the causes of the Reformation . . . The Black Death: As much as 60% of Europe wiped out.

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Wednesday

Calendar and Camus A full week with the flu. Sure, the bad parts are over, but I'm still dragging and this *&(&#)@ cough won't go away. I think my staff is getting ready to toss me out of my own firm. But hey, I'

Tuesday

Keeping Catholicism in Focus Jack and Michael attended the annual FOCUS conference in Chicago last week. I'd heard of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students but didn't know much about it. From what I gather, FOCUS is hired [by university parishes?] to evangelize the university'

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I never appreciated how severe the flu can be. When I would read that it could be "life threatening," I didn't really get it. Of course, if the flu came with stomach issues that lead to dehydration, that was understandable, but to go into

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> Evelyn Waugh's Epiphany Prayer of a Mother for the Conversion of Her Son - OnePeterFive https://t.co/u5WGJiZZVw via @onepeterfive [https://twitter.com/OnePeterFive?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) January 7, 2018 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/950010767520292865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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Been laid out by the worst flu of my adult life. Unbelievable. At points, I couldn't move. I'm on the mend now. Regular blogging will resume Monday.

Friday

Tonight is traditionally known as "The Twelfth Night [http://www.crisismagazine.com/2017/counting-christmas-celebrating-twelfth-night?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CrisisMagazine+%28Crisis+Magazine%29] ." I'd never heard of it, but it was apparently a pretty raucous celebration by people who

Thursday

Zmearing the Pope I often get a bit a nervous when I'm criticizing Pope Francis. Needless to say, a person can't toss the words "Pope" and "heretic" together without flat-out contradicting the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church, so I'm

Wednesday

Copt Out You can indirectly support TDE by buying your vegetable and flower seeds from the MAXimum Greens website [https://www.maximumgreens.com/]. We have a nice assortment: flowers [https://www.maximumgreens.com/collections/flower-seeds], vegetables [https://www.maximumgreens.com/collections/vegetable-seeds]. Our prices match the prices charged by the

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I saw a headline link about Pope Francis' New Year Day Mass, so I clicked on it. I liked what I saw: "Pope Francis on Monday recommended jettisoning life's 'useless baggage' in 2018, including what he called 'empty chatter' and

Happy New Year

Regular blogging resumes tomorrow. I hope everyone has had a great holiday season.

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> From the archives: Disciplines of the soul are the basis of a liberal society. https://t.co/bAsYSGxPJK > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) December 31, 2017 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/947587845719580672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Saturday

Yet another amazing pic from European Beauty: > Rising out on a rocky crag above the confluence of two rivers near the Guadarrama mountains, Alcazar Castle is one of the most distinctive castle-palaces in #Spain [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Spain?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] by virtue of

Friday

The Gin Cometh During 2017, I veered more and more toward gin (reducing my intake of vodka). It started in London last November (2016). I couldn't drink the beer, but I could drink the gin and tonic, which is an English classic. I was impressed by the higher

Thursday

Rambles Struggling with that new electronic gadget? Wired's guide might help. The Master Guide to Setting Up All Your New Devices [https://www.wired.com/2017/12/the-master-guide-to-setting-up-the-new-devices-you-just-got/] . Five things professors actually said in 2017. Link [https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10304]. It's worth reading, but

Wednesday

The Good Marxist Yes, I've started reading Marx's Capital. The reason: Marxism is on the rise. At first, I thought it was just a college nimrod thing. I mean, how can anyone with an ounce of sanity (of which academia has virtually none) believe in Marxism?

Tuesday

The Spirit, Vegan Update Great Christmas this year. Of course, Christmas isn't over. We try hard to keep the spirit through January 6th . . . much, much better that way. It's pretty easy to keep the spirit through the 1st, but after that, it gets a little hard

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We have a Christmas decorating contest every year to see who can make the best decoration. I'm the judge. I win every year! This year's winning entry:

Saturday

> The First Dystopian: Robert Hugh Benson (essay by Bradley Birzer) https://t.co/DdAoULcrsL > — ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) December 22, 2017 [https://twitter.com/imaginativecons/status/944258773996179457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

BYCU Okay, you want a killer drink? This is it: The Holiday Elf. Ingredients: One part Midori Melon Liqueur, one part Blue Curacao, one part Spiced Rum, one part Coconut Rum, two parts lemon/lime juice, two parts simple syrup, two parts pineapple juice. Process: Mix 'em all together

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling The peak holidays draw neareth. Office party tonight, all kids home tomorrow and Saturday night, Christmas Eve Sunday night. I'm mixing up a huge batch of Holiday Elf for tonight's party. I thought I posted the recipe already, but apparently not. It'll

Wednesday

Holidays and Ignatius The holidays pick up steam: Michael (Number 4) arrived home last night. Kids 1 and 2 are due in 48 hours. Blogging will slow down during the holiday week but, as always, I will post something every day. Feast Day of St. Ignatius of Antioch in the

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I've have long listened to Relevant Radio's "The Miracle Hunter" with Michael O'Neill. It's not a perfect show, but I really enjoy it. I didn't realize he had written a book: Exploring the Miraculous. The book

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Mega-Churches For some reason, the topic of mega-churches has been getting a lot of attention around my house. I point out to my children what Marcus Grodi says, "The theology is a mile wide and an inch deep." Yeah, yeah, I know: It's better

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> Should Everyone Go to College? (essay by Bruce Frohnen) https://t.co/7kUBVFnli9 > — ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) December 16, 2017 [https://twitter.com/imaginativecons/status/942114634299006977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Saturday

Miscellaneous Rambling Well, my sons and I are slowly getting into the online gardening market. We started our first Facebook ad "campaign" last night. I thought the product was pretty cool, so I thought it was worth spending some of our advertising budget on it. Bamboo Sunglasses [https:

Friday

BYCU Rambling It's National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day. Don your ugliest for the bars and Christmas parties tonight. Many thanks for your Amazon patronage this year. I don't blog for the money (shirtless male modeling does that for me), but the minor reward is nice. I

Thursday

John and Santa Feast Day of St. John of the Cross. I'm inclined to think this little man may have been the most beautiful of saints. Horribly abused by fellow monks who resisted his reforms but never stopped loving. I'm dedicating 2018 to reading his works

Meyers

Arby's is currently testing a new sandwich called “The Arbynator” that features roast beef, curly fries, and both cheese and honey sauces. They named it after the Terminator because it's the only sandwich that will make you want to go back in time and stop yourself

Wednesday

Silicon Suicide Well, if American ag has a suicide problem (see yesterday's post), it's nothing compared to the suicides coming to Silicon Valley in early 2018: Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models Into This Year's Holiday Parties: “Ambiance and atmosphere models” contractually obligated to pretend

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Agriculture Well, this was a disconcerting headline: Why are America's farmers killing themselves in record numbers? [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/06/why-are-americas-farmers-killing-themselves-in-record-numbers] As an agricultural proprietor (I just came up with that title; I kinda like it), am I at risk? Probably not.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Socialism I wanted to comment more on that Harvard communism link that I posted yesterday, but I try minimize Sunday blogging (six days a week with my ego is enough). I am stunned at socialism's comeback among college kids today. The evil is baked into its

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Amen to that. > “Roughly 100 million people died at the hands of the ideology my parents escaped,” she writes. “They cannot tell their story. We owe it to them to recognize that this ideology is not a fad, and their deaths are not a joke.” https://t.co/CHNgURwKsG

Sunday

Christmas gift idea: The Diamond Hoe. This is an amazing gardening tool. When I bought it two years ago, it wasn't even available on Amazon. Strongly and enthusiastically recommended if you like to wipe out weeds efficiently and without stooping.

Saturday

Miscellaneous Rambling I'm reviving a measure of my Jack Kerouac studies (he's the focus of my January Theology on Tap lecture). I'm partway through his defining biography, Memory Babe. I saw this quote at the Daily Kerouac Twitter [https://twitter.com/DailyKerouac] feed. "

Conan

A New York woman is suing her surgeon claiming he was on his cell phone during her operation. In response, the doctor said, “For your information, I was Googling 'how to perform surgery.'”

Friday

Brews You Can Use I'm drinking tonight, so I want to feel good about myself. I am, accordingly, using this BYCU to plug the rosary bracelets you can find here [https://www.etsy.com/shop/JustHeavenlyJewelry?coupon=TDE10]. No, I'm not going hogue (rogue homosexual). I&

Thursday

Rambling: Mexicans and Language Recommended: Thaddeus Russell's interview with Gustavo Arellano [http://www.thaddeusrussell.com/podcast/35] (warning: lots of foul language, most of it gratuitous, like dudes shooting the bull over beers, which is normal for the podcast in general, which is one reason I like it)

Conan

”¢ Yesterday, another woman came forward with proof from the 1980s that Roy Moore pursued her when she was 17. Moore said, "What can I say? Back then I was into older women." ”¢ The state of Montana is suing the maker of OxyContin over the opioid epidemic. In a

Wednesday

Advent in The Flow I stumbled across something recently that, I think, will help me immensely. The spiritual masters consistently admonish listeners to spend time in prayer, even if it's arid and nonproductive. The general gist is: "Put the effort in, but don't worry about

A Glorious Day in History

> On this day in 1933, Prohibition was repealed. Here's a piece from our archives in honor of the day: https://t.co/Otz8T5Vktt > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) December 6, 2017 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/938197549084581888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling: An Appeal Dear Reader: You may have noticed that I have "stepped up" my game lately. I have decided to pour more energy into TDE. The Daily Eudemon been around since, I think, 2001, making it, in blog years, about 130 years old. Things are slowly

Monday

Rambling: Damascus to McLuhan Feast day of St. John Damascene (John of Damascus), 675-749. He's generally considered the last of the Church Fathers, at least in the Greek East. He's the very last entry in Patrick Hamell's nifty little Handbook of Patrology [http://amzn.

Killed Me

> The Bible is crystal clear on Christ's views on the exact right American marginal tax rate, but super fuzzy on sexuality and killing babies. https://t.co/FPDur0T8MZ > — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 2, 2017 [https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/937063666079404032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Sunday

I don't normally blog on Sunday, but here's a highly recommended gift if you have a guacamole lover on your list. We eat a lot of "guac" and have to process a lot of avocados. This tool was heaven sent. I have also posted

Theology on Tap: The Reformation II

The splintering of Protestantism and the Council of Trent. Note: We were not trying to capture video at all. That is my empty gin and tonic glass, though.

Saturday

Leftism v. The Church If you haven't figured it out yet, pretty much everything you see on TV is a fraud. I attribute it to two primary reasons: (1) The fraud is baked into the medium's DNA. Video is, by its nature, superficial and appeals to

Friday

Brews You Can Use I don't know whether I like this parenthetical week between Thanksgiving and Advent. I like the subdued week after the whirlwind that is Thanksgiving. It gives me a chance to catch my breath before that weird tension that is Advent: a religious season of

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Gotta love the mild fall: I harvested over a pound of spinach yesterday evening, which means we have supplied our own non-GMO, organic greens for over seven months of the year. Plus we sold a ton (well, a quarter-ton; about 500 pounds, we estimate). From "Another Hole

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“The top-selling items of Cyber Monday this year included the Nintendo Switch, Apple AirPods and the popular children's toy Hatchimals, while this year's least popular toy is Tickle Me Harvey.” Seth Meyers

Wednesday

Detroit I ventured back into Detroit last weekend. It was our customary Thanksgiving weekend trip to see Marie's parents and hang out with her brothers. On Friday, we went to a Detroit landmark: Buddy's Pizza. The original store. The pizza was delicious. The neighborhood? Not so

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Hollywoodrow and Retail You thinking the LAPD is going to crack some skulls in Hollywood? Don't hold your breath. From that Dave Thomson book on the history of Hollywood: > When the studio was still at Keystone, [director Raoul] Walsh was surprised to discover the studio

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Lasciviousness Then and Now, Young and Old The 2018 Johnny's Seeds catalogue came on Saturday. I kinda felt like I did as a kid in the 1970s, when the JC Penny Christmas catalogue arrived. The biggest difference, of course, being that back then, I didn'

Sunday

Did your son or daughter, niece, grandson, or neighbor kid go to college and start to lose his faith? Are any of them struggling with proselytizers of various stripes? This book will help. We think highly enough of this book that we buy it in bulk every spring and give

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> Ancient church built in an old cave in Taormina #sicily [https://twitter.com/hashtag/sicily?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] #italy [https://twitter.com/hashtag/italy?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] #fairytale [https://twitter.com/hashtag/fairytale?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] #jesuswasahippie

Saturday

It's the holiday season. As always, I request your patronage this holiday season by accessing Amazon through the banner in the upper righthand corner. But I've decided that, this year, I'll meet you halfway. I will make gift suggestions as part of my Miscellaneous

Friday

Miscellaneous Rambling Ah, Black Friday. "It's the most/disgusting dayyyyyyyyy/of the year." I've been saying that for years, incidentally. Heck, I was dissin' Black Friday before it started raping Thanksgiving. And now that it's violating that holy secular day, I

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> A conservative student group set up a display on @Portland_State [https://twitter.com/Portland_State?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] campus today that angered some students: “Thanksgiving on capitalism” vs. “Thanksgiving on socialism.” The latter was an empty table with a skeleton. pic.twitter.com/cfzqC1c6sz [https://t.co/

Annual Thanksgiving Day Quotes

“Thanksgiving Day originated in New England when the Puritans realized they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians.” Mark Twain “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson “Beggar that I

Black Wednesday

BYCU The Left is a sanctimonious kill-joy. Black Wednesday is here and we're primed for celebration. But what is the leftist Huffington Post primed for? [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/thanksgiving-talking-to-your-kids-about-alcohol_us_5a04972be4b0c7511e1b3aaa] Lecturing: > Thanksgiving is the time of year where children young and old come home

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling I'm glad the Reformation Theology on Tap lectures are over. I was dog-tired of reading about the Reformation, thinking about the Reformation, and practicing my lecture on the Reformation. There will be no video available, but there should be audio, which I'll upload

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Solanus Casey, pray for us . . . pray for me. I can't say I'll be attending another beatification Mass (including, I know now, my own). It was a very nice ceremony; hats off to the organizers, but my situation in life doesn't render me

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> Six-year old Brantley Dobbs suffers from a brain tumor, but says God has assured him he is going to Heaven. For Christmas cheer, he's asking people to send him a Christmas ornament. pic.twitter.com/um0uTikHm5 [https://t.co/um0uTikHm5] > — The Stream (@Streamdotorg) November 20, 2017

Saturday

> Like all idols, pop culture is a phony–it never existed.https://t.co/vq0gF8BQUd > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) November 17, 2017 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/931644366162137089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] To be honest, I haven't read the entire article yet, but I was struck by

Friday

Brews You Can Use Interesting article that claims global warming is creating new wine regions [https://quartzy.qz.com/1108814/the-improbable-new-wine-countries-that-climate-change-is-creating/] . The best part: It lists the three regions that have the most promise, and Michigan is on it (with England and Tasmania): > Like Montana, the state of Michigan

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling My business venture with son, Jack, is getting close to lift off. If you have a Facebook account, head over and "Like" MAXimum Gardening [https://www.facebook.com/MAXimumgardeninginsights/]. You can check out the online store while you're there too. We have a lot

Wednesday

Tonight's Handout: 1517-1648 The Reformation Years Five Branches of Protestantism The bulk of churches can trace their roots to one of five sources 1. Lutheranism These are, you know, the Lutherans. Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden 2. Reformed Presbyterians, Congregationalists. Puritans. Zwingli/Calvin. Switzerland, Netherlands, Scotland 3. Radical Baptists,

Tuesday

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling It was the weekend of crappy jobs: got flu shot, did annual corporate tax return for Marie's tiny business, switched out my winter/summer wardrobes (long story, but a hassle), watched annual video legal ethics seminar, typed up my monthly lecture for Theology on Tap, and

30-Minute History Excerpt

The Church teaches that Christ instructed his disciples and they carried on his teachings, leaving a rough framework for a working church, but the teachings aren't in scripture. Our Protestant brothers are inclined to think Catholic practices evolved over the centuries, but that's not the Catholic

Friday

Brews You Can Use Last summer, I referenced Buckfast Tonic Wine, a caffeine-infused wine made by the Benedictine monks of Buckfast [http://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=43302]. Yesterday, I saw this "Today I Learned" at Reddit: "TIL Buckfast, a caffeinated tonic wine, accounts for less than half a

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling An observatino from one of my sons: "In TV comedy, only Daniel Tosh, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone haven't sold out." I think he's right. Tosh is a comedian and, though I often don't find him funny, he pulls no

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling "Huge Turnout Expected for Beatification of Solanus Casey Nov. 18 [http://www.ncregister.com/blog/pattyknap/huge-turnout-expected-for-beatification-of-solanus-casey-nov.-18] ." I got tix. Greatly looking forward to it. One of Casey's favorite sayings: "Thank God ahead of time." Yup, it's something I&

Tuesday

The headlock of life! My van died (well, was limping along). I had to spend a chunk of yesterday looking for a replacement, which, due to travel obligations and work pressures, came at an inopportune time (but does buying a car ever come at the right time?). Regular blogging resumes

Monday

I got back last night from northern Georgia for my niece's wedding. Gorgeous vineyard in the southern reaches of the Blue Ridge Mountains [https://www.facebook.com/DeBargeWines/]. The pic below from my camera doesn't do it justice . . . height of the color season. Outstanding wine, too,

Saturday

Chattanooga

Heading to Chattanooga for a wedding. Saw this at a five star station in SE Kentucky.

Friday

Downtown Detroit Bar Scene This post chronicles my downtown Detroit bar crawl last week with Marie, Abbie, and Alex. This, you might recall, was Alex's birthday gift to Marie and me. We started at the bar on the left. I'm pretty sure this was the old

Thursday

I know Bishop Bob Morlino, drank beer with him in his apartment one evening. Great guy. > The Attack on Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin, is Scurrilous; Action Item! -- Fr. Z's Blog#PopeFrancis [https://twitter.com/hashtag/PopeFrancis?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] https:

Wednesday

Yet More Rambling Wow, I'm greatly tempted to buy this book [http://amzn.to/2lEwkfW]. "Recently, the catastrophist narrative [about the Reformation] has become more sophisticated and formidable, seeing Luther and the Reformers as setting in motion the patterns of thought and behavior that have led to

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling The response to Amoris Laetitia? Repression and fear: Give it the liberal interpretation, or you'll be shunned. "Many who have spent time around the Vatican, permanently or temporarily, speak of an atmosphere of fear." Link [http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/october-13th-2017/climate-of-fear-the-new-crackdown-on-catholic-theologians/] . Do

Happy Halloween

> This church is decorated with the bones of 30,000 plague victims... - https://t.co/5CP1s9a1wQ > — New Advent (@newadvent) October 29, 2017 [https://twitter.com/newadvent/status/924676468352999425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Man, that Lisa Bloom is apparently one nasty, hypocritcal wench. "[I]n order to protect Harvey Weinstein, the Daily Beast reports that the feminist attorney was prepared to leak files about actress Rose McGowan's sexual history." Link [http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/10/

Go OSU!

I never thought I'd say that.

Saturday

I've seen the future, and it works. Detroit is back! Well, not really . . . not quite. I spent nearly twelve hours in downtown Detroit Thursday, re-establishing my acquaintance, hitting old haunts, and, in general, marveling at this great old city that might, just might, be emerging from its dark

BYCU

Recovering from a Detroit bar hop with Alex and Abbie last night. Nothing much today.

Thursday

In my first lecture, I was going to offer a 3-minute overview, but the lecture was running so long, I had to slash out everything that wasn't essential, but I still have my 3-minute outline: --------------------------- You have the old testament period. We aren't even going

Wednesday

> Another hoax bites the dust! https://t.co/efzJdb1fdv > — Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 24, 2017 [https://twitter.com/BreitbartNews/status/922971312431206400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] Two of my sons go to EMU. I remember when this story broke. Few people, including me, thought it was legitimate graffiti . . . it

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Thank you, Onion, for reflecting something that, I hope, most of America feels: "Saying the decision would become effective immediately, The NCAA announced Saturday that it was suspending the Penn State football team another three years after remembering everything they did. 'Holy ****, you know what, you

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling There are few things better than a warm fall evening. I didn't want yesterday to end and looked for things to do outside: play tennis with kids, harvest some Jester lettuce seeds, say the rosary while I strolled around my yard. But I finally bid the

No Comment

> Today in unfortunate placement. @iowahawkblog [https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] pic.twitter.com/RGGGinVJVv [https://t.co/RGGGinVJVv] > — David Deeble (@DavidDeeble) October 20, 2017 [https://twitter.com/DavidDeeble/status/921373167725285377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Friday

Brews You Can Use Those Theology on Tap sessions take it out of me. I was wiped out all day and didn't get a chance to take a nap. I finally reached the end of the day at 8:00 last night, free-poured myself a gin and tonic,

Thursday

Theology on Tap went alright. The biggest problem was the venue: The restaurant was filled, resulting in a lot of background noise. The lecture itself was a bit more dense than the last one (I had 40 minutes to pack in 75 years of history, instead of 30 minutes to

Wednesday

Tonight's Handout: Nominalism William of Occam (Early 1300s): All is the way it is because God says so. Common sense be damned b/c it detracts from God's glory. Does God ordain something because it's good for humans? Or is something good because God

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling The second lecture in my 7-part Theology on Tap session is tomorrow night: "The Reformation: Causes and Early Years." It basically goes from 1350 to 1525. The November lecture will from 1525 to 1650. Our parish administrator puts the over-under attendance at 30. We'll

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I guess Saturday Night Live tooks swipes at Harvey Weinstein: "The real burn came from Colin Jost and Michael Che at the Weekend Update desk. After reporting that Weinstein was headed to a rehab center, Jost fired back: 'He doesn't need sex rehab. He

Sunday

> Social media is a great opportunity to love one's neighbor....and enemy. I think the way we respond even to anonymous trolls matters. > — Fr. Jonathan Morris (@fatherjonathan) October 11, 2017 [https://twitter.com/fatherjonathan/status/918144160212946944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

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When Frank Chodorov condemned the Communist hunts of the 1950s, someone asked him, "Well, what would you do about Communists in high government offices?" Chodorov responded, "Get rid of the high government offices." (Rough quotes.)

Saturday

Nock sighting: > On Albert Jay Nock and the Russian Roots of a Gentleman Anarchist (essay by Glenn Davis) https://t.co/vUti7m4hwH > — ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) October 14, 2017 [https://twitter.com/imaginativecons/status/918997328127766528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] It's mostly about Nock's relationship to Russian

Meyers

According to a new poll, Arabic is now the most common language among new immigrants to the U.S. The second most common is whispering. “What the hell is going on here?”

Friday

BYCU Cocktails are like anything else: You get out of them what you put into them. Actually, I don't really believe that cliche, but still, it holds for the cocktail. For a few years now, I've been looking for that perfect concoction: a delicious drink that

Thursday

Bullets **Blade Runner 2049 is killing it! 8.6 on IMDB! 88% on Rotten Tomatoes! So despite its 2.75 hour run time, I took Marie to it last night. And was bored stiff. It's terrible, absolutely terrible. Every scene was drawn out, it moved slower than a

Fallon

I read that the U.S. is suspending visa applications from Turkey. Trump was like, “Don't worry, we'll have them back for Thanksgiving.”

Wednesday

> I see why the late night hosts and SNL are avoiding the Weinstein story, a famous fat zillionaire with a fern fetish is a comedy dead end > — David Burge (@iowahawkblog) October 10, 2017 [https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/917746326389084161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling My first real ag injury: I sliced my thigh with a very sharp lettuce knife. I was just thinking yesterday, "I should probably sharpen this a bit. It was razor sharp when I got it and it's definitely lost some edge." I'm

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Miserable football weekend. Local high school got slaughtered in its homecoming game, my Wolverines had their worst loss since the Appalachian State fiasco in 2007, and the Detroit Lions lost. I honestly don't think I can watch another UM game. I couldn't believe how

Saturday

Criminy. More tech problems. I normally write TDE posts the evening before, the schedule them to post shortly after midnight. That feature hasn't been working all week, and my web guy has no idea why. Troubling.

Fallon

A man from Italy just set a Guinness World Record by putting on 13 pairs of underwear in 30 seconds. On the downside, he's now banned from Victoria's Secret.

Friday

If necessity is the mother of invention, apathy is the mother of reckless creation. So it was that I approached my first drink last night with an airplane bottle of Kinky Green liqueur that I bought on a whim while at the liquor store earlier this week. All the appealing

Thursday

Great interview with Bruce Springsteen: Bruce Springsteen Talks Politics, Marriage and Why He Won't Write an 'Anti-Trump Diatribe' [http://variety.com/2017/music/news/bruce-springsteen-politics-trump-marriage-1202576624/] . I really liked his reason for not writing political pieces. Its a perspective you rarely hear from a lefty like Bruce:

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Coming in 2018: The Little Flower Company . . . by Therese Scheske. Catholics and experts in late 19th century French spirituality will appreciate the name. It's Tess' business, and father is greatly looking forward to it. I should've announced the new company on Sunday, October

Tuesday

Well, I haven't gone back and watched it, but I'm told it's fine, so I uploaded it:

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Does anyone view the Francis I papacy like Julian the Apostate's reign? Paul VI, JPII, BXVI-->Francis I. The triumph of orthodoxy disrupted by a last-gasp attempt to revive theological liberalism like Julian the Apostate's was a last-gasp attempt to revive paganism. I&

Saturday

> And the Petulance Prize Goes To . . . | Charlotte Allen | First Things https://t.co/BeumPa5RL1 > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) September 29, 2017 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/913874821695655936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] If this part is true, I'm afraid Fr. Martin has conclusively lost it: > A

BYCU

Alex bought me this last weekend while in Chicago. The store was giving out taste tests. He says it's fabulous. He and Abbie are both coming home tonight, their first trip home together since the holidays. We're going to be drinking Eastsiders, using fresh mint from

Thursday

Bullets **Pitino? Really? I'm shocked. Simply shocked. **What's next? Calipari? **And as long as we're talking about shocking things, what about this: "People who prefer listening to rap over pop and classical music are more likely to be psychopaths [http://www.dailymail.co.

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling C.S. Lewis pointed out that the mere notice that you are enjoying something takes the joy out of it. The moment you notice you're enjoying something, you're no longer enjoying it, but rather, enjoying the enjoying, which isn't at all the

Conan

Anthony Weiner had beenÂ sentenced to nearly two yearsÂ in jail for sexting with aÂ teenager. Weiner said, “Come on, Your Honor, by the time I get out,Â she's going to be 20.”

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I really like to see the NFL taking it in the shorts like this. It should've happened years ago, with their hubristic "Pink October," but I'll take it any way I can get it. The League is so arrogant, anything negative isn&

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Gavin McInnes has joined CRTV [https://www.crtv.com/], which is the conservative TV "network"on the Internet. The show is called "Get Off My Lawn," and it focuses on rehabilitating fatherhood. McInnes thnks CRTV is going to get huge, and he wants to

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BTW: My comparison of Puerto Rico's troubles to our heat was a joke. I went back and read Friday's post and realized my dry humor didn't translate well.

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> “A Long and Noisy Prayer”: Bruce Springsteen Tells His Life Story (essay by Stephen Klugewicz) https://t.co/WzW1cI7tLl > — ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) September 23, 2017 [https://twitter.com/imaginativecons/status/911689157252190214]

Friday

Brews You Can Use This . . . heat . . . is . . . unbearable. I know the Puerto Ricans are suffering, but man, this humidity is stultifying. I went to the produce site last night to work on my beds for just an hour, after sunset (from 7:00 to 8:00). In just an hour

Thursday

Well, I felt the lecture could've gone a lot better, but that's probably just my arrogance expecting more out of me than my talent allows. No one killed himself to get out of listening to more, almost everyone came back after the break for Q&

Wednesday

Tonight's Handout Prepping, prepping, and prepping. Not much time for blogging, blogging, blogging. Below is tonight's handout for my "Catholic History in 30 Minutes" presentation at a local bar. My first dry run took me 90 minutes. I then got it down to 60

Tuesday

Jammed week: county fair yesterday, lecture series starting tomorrow. Just this video of the site, taken last weekend:

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Greatly enjoying: American Vandal, a new series on Netflix. I'm not proud that I'm enjoying it, but it really cracks me up for some reason. I detest the skies more and more. I normally question things like this, but if we're talking

Sunday

> Men, young adults and rural residents increasingly say college isn't worth the cost https://t.co/5BigCmRMWJ > — Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 10, 2017 [https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/907027191615156229]

Saturday

Miscellany I planted my last bed for 2017 last night. I really enjoy "working the land," but it felt good to know I was done planting for 2017. At this point, I'll let the sprinklers and Max take over most of the work, while I settle

Friday

Brews You Can Use The unexpected hangover: the bane of my drinking existence. I had four small (one shot, not 1.5 shots) gin and tonics last night, then woke up at 1:00 with a pretty bad headache. I'm still dragging this morning, and I have meetings

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling I've been looking at the best way to prep my land for next year's harvest. Coincidentally, I ran across this in-depth piece about restoring America's soil: Can American soil be brought back to life? [http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/

Wednesday

On my favorite reprobate: > Good essay on Kerouac: "I have nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.” https://t.co/PBIxYB5pxn > — David Scott (@DScottLA) September 10, 2017 [https://twitter.com/DScottLA/status/906961256371724288]

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Kinda interesting: Florida was never supposed to be habitable. "A Requiem for Florida, the Paradise That Should Never Have Been [https://flipboard.com/@flipboard/-a-requiem-for-florida-the-paradise-that/f-357587d24d%2Fpolitico.com] ." Gavin McInnes video [https://www.therebel.media/top_5_reasons_school_sucks_best_of_gavin_mcinnes] on why

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy 9/11 Days! My parish played the wretched 9/11 tribute thing again. Fortunately, I smelled it coming and was able to do the Judas Shuffle before listening to it. Okay, it's not wretched. I liked it the first time I heard it, and didn&

Meteorologist v. Irma

https://streamable.com/29frg

Call DIV-ORCE

> Yep instant divorce pic.twitter.com/LZTJghlkQd [https://t.co/LZTJghlkQd] > — WORLDSTAR FANS (@FunnyWSHH) September 7, 2017 [https://twitter.com/FunnyWSHH/status/905912846869032962]

Friday

BYCU It's not often I get a story grooved right to me: Tomorrow is International Buy Your Priest a Beer Day [https://www.catholicgentleman.net/2017/09/grab-pint-glasses-international-buy-priest-beer-day-coming/] . I think this is a fabricated day, much like Truffles Day and Urinate While Sitting Day, but it's

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling I'm a Netflix fan, but excuse me, if I don't hold out much hope for this offering: "Jonathan Pryce To Play Pope Francis In Netflix's 'The Pope;' Anthony Hopkins Is Pope Benedict [http://deadline.com/2017/09/pope-francis-jonathan-pryce-pope-benedict-anthony-hopkins-netflix-film-the-pope-fernando-meirelles-anthony-mccarten-1202150924/] ."

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling If this doesn't get pot legalized, nothing will: "Smoking marijuana causes fertility problems because it makes men's sperm 'lazily swim in circles' say experts. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4846328/Marijuana-makes-men-s-sperm-lazily-swim-circles.html] " It therefore hurts fertility. If it hurts

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I've been hearing lots of Eagles on the radio lately. You'd think Henley had died or something. I've always liked the Eagles, but I knew nothing about them. When Netflix aired a multi-episode documentary about the group, I started watching it. I

Happy Labor Day

Regular blogging resumes tomorrow. > Why young Catholics are drawn to tradition https://t.co/m5T2HPpM6d > — Matthew Schmitz (@matthewschmitz) August 31, 2017 [https://twitter.com/matthewschmitz/status/903253148265062401]

Sunday

> pic.twitter.com/4rf1ciIXd2 [https://t.co/4rf1ciIXd2] > — John Stossel (@JohnStossel) September 1, 2017 [https://twitter.com/JohnStossel/status/903678143147454464]

Saturday

> Attacking faithful Christians for God's 6,000-year teaching on #LGBT [https://twitter.com/hashtag/LGBT?src=hash] is like blaming the surgeon general for "making" smoking harmful. > — John Zmirak (@JZmirak) September 1, 2017 [https://twitter.com/JZmirak/status/903656834288025600]

Friday

Brews You Can Use A sad BYCU. We take Michael to college today. Life marches on inexorably. It beats not marching, of course, but it's still melancholic. The occasion will no doubt call for a few drinks this evening, once we get back and plunk ourselves down after

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Here's a story about a Russian con artist who ripped off investors for well over a billion dollars [https://flipboard.com/@flipboard/-how-a-russian-con-artist-is-running-a-m/f-f4152ca8e8%2Fbuzzfeed.com] . The thing I found fascinating: Many of his victims were from Nigeria. Nigeria is the land of fraudsters. I remember

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I took Jack and Michael (3rd and 4th kids) out for dinner last night. Of course, they had plans for the evening, so we had to eat early, at 5:00. Which I don't mind, but the double gin and tonics took an early toll on

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> UC: That will be $15,000 For what? UC: For security Security against what? UC: Violence Violence by whom? UC: Ushttps://t.co/8FPouIlCHW > — David Burge (@iowahawkblog) August 29, 2017 [https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/902566692462538753]

Tuesday

Bullets *I guess we'll find out if slander is afforded immunity status: Christian Group Sues SPLC and Amazon Over 'Hate Group' Designation [https://pjmedia.com/faith/2017/08/23/d-james-kennedy-ministries-sues-splc-guidestar-and-amazon-for-defamation/] . **If there's an ounce of justice left in the system, the leftist Southern Poverty

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Wow, Hurrican Harvey turned out to be historic: It's the first time since the advent of The Weather Channel that a tropical storm has been under-hyped. Worth three minute of your life: Keynesian Economics and the Great Depression [http://blog.hillsdale.edu/online-courses/keynesian-economics-and-the-great-depression?appeal_code=

Appear to be?

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> Revelation on Tap: Vatican I and the “Amoris Laetitia” Controversy https://t.co/b712h9zstJ > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) August 26, 2017 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/901405785426710529] "As Brian Tierney has argued in Origins of Papal Infallibility, 1150-1350, the doctrine was originally conceived as a bridle–preventing

Friday

Brews You Can Use Not much today. I went to Cedar Point yesterday . . . with all seven kids! It was the first all-kid outing in, I think, two years. Max and I are already kicking around ideas for next year at MAXimum Greens [https://www.facebook.com/MAXimumgreens/]. We've

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling In the past week, Antifa attacks pro-life protesters, Baltimore's oldest monument to Christopher ("Reb") Columbus was torn down, ESPN removed a Korean from broadcasting a football game because his name is "Robert Lee," and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas said, 'NRA

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Wednesday

> what is wrong with us lol pic.twitter.com/VvKmRs85H7 [https://t.co/VvKmRs85H7] > — Pardes Seleh (@PardesSeleh) August 22, 2017 [https://twitter.com/PardesSeleh/status/900013076824686592]

Tuesday

Re: The Renegade History's perspective on slavery: "Economic historians have determined that on average, Northern farmers worked four hundred more hours per year than did slaves. And no group in world history worked more than industrial workers in the nineteenth-century United States. For the unlucky souls who

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Feast Day of Pius X. A friend just gave me a relic of Pius X, so on this day, I'm better than everyone else. Will we ever know what exactly happened at Charlottesville? Probably not, but Tom Woods recently hosted Kevin Preston, a "leftist anarchist,

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"Coral" is an old woman's name. You certainly don't see many sultry images of women with that name, but this contemporary photograph [http://i.imgur.com/2URSim9.jpg] changes all that.

Saturday

New magazine, run by P.J. O'Rourke: American Consequences [https://pages.stansberryresearch.com/page.aspx?QS=38dfbe491fab00ea48b0ef598b0fee1b60cf026511406a293845872287f769e8&source=facebook_ad1&email=ejscheske%40yahoo.com] . Looks promising. I signed up.

Conan

Hillary Clinton is coming out with a book called “What Happened.” Out of habit, Bill Clinton immediately came out with his own book called “Baby, I Can Explain.”

Friday

BYCU "The English were well known throughout Europe for their addiction to ale and wine and cider. The French were proud, the Germans were obscene, and the English were drunkards. In English monasteries the daily allowance was a gallon (4.5 litres) of strong ale and a gallon (4.

Thursday

"It is absurd to claim, as a few have done, that the New Deal, the basis of what we now know as “liberalism,” was identical to either German Nazism or Italian Fascism. But it is equally absurd to ignore, as all our textbooks do, the fact that the New

Wednesday Supp

I logged onto my computer this morning and saw this AFP story: Trump defiant on Charlottesville unrest: 'Blame on both sides' [https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-defiant-charlottesville-unrest-blame-both-sides-224328958.html] That's all he's saying: There is a violent left, as well as a violent right. Racism

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I had only caught snippets of the news here and there after Charlottesville. From what I heard: there was a white supremacist rally, where Gavin McInnes was going to speak (which was flat-out false, but didn't stop Newsweek from saying it); there was a (probably) even

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Feast of the Assumption today. Or, as our eastern brethren known it in their mysterious ways, "The Dormition of the Theotokos." But if you don't want to celebrate the sleep of the God bearer, you can induce your own sleep at The Church of

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I'm going heavy cilantro this fall. We have a large Mexican population, with many Mexican stores/restaurants. A Mexican friend approached me and offered to help move it, noting that all the owners go to my church so it's a (super)natural fit. On

Sunday

> It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull. > — HL Mencken (@HLMenckenBot) August 9, 2017 [https://twitter.com/HLMenckenBot/status/895074655735775233]

Thursday

This is good to see. I can't say non-GMO produce is highly valued in my neck of the woods, but there are a handful of non-GMOers around here and they have taken notice of MAXimum Greens: > Consumer demand for #nongmo [https://twitter.com/hashtag/nongmo?src=hash]

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling If you don't mind doing me a favor, please go to the Maximum Green Twitter [https://twitter.com/GreensMaximum] page and follow Max. We're sitting at eight followers, and that's a bit embarrassing. We don't tweet much, so you won&

Tuesday

The produce site as of last Saturday. Fourteen rows formed and planted. Two to go. The rest of the lot will have to wait until 2018: It's come a long way: My goal:

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The big news from the weekend? WSBT TV from South Bend came to town and did a story about MAXimum Greens, LLC. It aired yesterday morning. You can watch the segment here [http://wsbt.com/news/local/teen-taking-on-new-produce-business-in-sturgis]. Caroline Torie did the interview. She was here for nearly

Sunday

> I guess the testimony of millions upon millions oppressed, tortured or dead doesn't carry weight like it used to.https://t.co/Q70cM3KvuT > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) August 6, 2017 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/894010839606468608]

Saturday

The problem is, Europe would rather fall into the grave than have its religion: > A people without the knowledge of their past history,origin & culture is like a tree without roots.@TheAnchoress [https://twitter.com/TheAnchoress] https://t.co/zAtt8Z8LWg > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) August 5, 2017 [https:

Friday

BYCU I'll admit to something autobiographical that I find both disturbing and appealing: I always feel like drinking after going to confession. Okay, not right after I go, but later that evening, I'm usually in a joyful mood that calls for a handful of drinks. It&

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling There's a Thomas a'Kempis Twitter account. I went ahead and followed it, even though TaK wasn't particularly fecund in his literary output. John Vianney's feast day tomorrow. He's the first parish priest to be canonized. The fact that

Wednesday

"[W]e shouldn't be surprised to find so many deeply devout men among the greatest of mathematicians. Blaise Pascal, inventor of probability theory, is one of the most penetrating theologians who ever lived. Leonhard Euler was the Johann Sebastian Bach of German mathematics in the 18th century:

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I saw Dunkirk on Sunday. Excellent movie. I give it a "9." Highly recommended. If you go see it, I recommend you read this piece about the sound illusion that heightens the tension for nearly two straight hours [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/

Max Hits the Big Time!

> 13-year old starts produce business https://t.co/3MHzMeSrsh > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) August 1, 2017 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/892196080313671680]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Settling in after a long vacation in Alpena, Michigan. Regular blogging will resume, subject to the exigencies of getting the practice and produce site back in order. Vocations film from 1962. Link [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uOPK7IXF9A]. I only watched the first five minutes, but it

Saturday

I'm back from vacation, my annual pilgrimage to the family cottage in Alpena. I'm putting together a short book about Albert Jay Nock (hopefully, available later this year). On my last night in Alpena, I snapped this picture of Nock's Episcopalian church, which his

Friday

Brews You Can Use Just when I think I've heard of everything in the drinking world, at least those things that have been around awhile, something else appears. This time, it's Buckfast Tonic Wine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckfast_Tonic_Wine], a caffeine-infused wine made

Thursday

Thaddeus Russell: > Anyone who believes that advertisers control consumers need only be told a few names: Tucker, Henry J., Ford, Edsel, Mercury Park Lane, Studebaker, Wagonaire, Lincoln Blackwood, AMC Marlin, Buick Reatta, and Eagle Premier. These were among many automobiles that were marketed strenuously by their manufacturers but quickly

Wednesday

Great summary of a loathsome man and his legacy: > Alfred Kinsey was a moral revolutionary in scientist's clothing. The science was bad, even bogus; the man himself may now be forgotten; but the revolution came to stay, with a vengeance. Kinsey's message–fornicate early, fornicate

Tuesday

Cracked me up: > When Trevor-Roper attacked R. H. Tawney's theory of the progressive bourgeois giving rise to the Puritan revolution in England, one of the editors of the journal to which he sent his attack wrote to his coeditor: “I find it difficult to decide whether T-R

Monday

On T.S. Eliot's alleged anti-Semitism: > But might it be allowed that one can write or say anti-Semitic things without being an anti-Semite? Eliot is guilty of the former, but does not, I think, stand guilty of the latter. There is no record of anything on his

Sunday

"[A]s the wise have always known, a “dead” language breathes life into a timeless liturgy. It is indeed part of the same permanent paradox that real life is to be found in death. In the “dead” Latin is to be found the unchanging death and resurrection of the

Saturday

'A God all mercy is a God unjust' (Edward Young, 'Night', iv, Night Thoughts, The Complaint). Found in The Virgin Eye. The dear reader can draw whatever connection he wants to the monotone mantra of today's Jesuits.

Friday

Interesting nugget I learned from Brooklyn Bartender: Laird's (or "Laird & Company") was the first licensed American distillery. The brandy manufacturer still has "License # 1," issued in 1780.

Thursday

Perhaps one of the best opening passages to an article in 2017: > In a world of change and flux, it is reassuring to know that some things remain the same. Take, for example, the motion passed by the Church of England General Synod, calling for a liturgy to help

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Slow blogging winds blowing. It's the Fun and Sun time of year. Netflix now has the current BBC "Father Brown" series. I'm pretty stoked. Recommended: War for the Planet of the Apes. Perhaps the best movie I've seen this year.

Tuesday

"Almost the entire developed world is mired in deathbed demography from which no functioning society has ever recovered. Meanwhile, there is a demographic tsunami underway from the non-functioning parts of the world, manifest in the ceaseless flotilla of boats crossing the Mediterranean every single day (and nothing to do

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Congratulations, Federer. First man to win Wimbledon eight times. And this is also pretty cool: "Federer became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1976 to win the Wimbledon title without dropping a set." Link [http://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/40625069]. He's apparently

Sunday

I'd expect nothing less: > The Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica published an essay attacking conservative Catholics in the United States of embracing fundamentalism from evangelical Protestants. The essay says that American conservative Catholics have come to see their country as righteous, and other peoples as enemies to be

Conan

Kid Rock has officially announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Kid Rock says he wants to restore America back to a better time when it would have been unimaginable for Kid Rock to run for the U.S. Senate.

Friday

Unbelievably busy week. I worked at the office until nearly 8:00, then came home and helped Max harvest for his weekend sales. By the time I showered, it was time for bed, so no BYCU today. Just the tweet below and a promise to drink extra tonight in reparation

Thursday

The political entertainment promises to continue, at least for me and my fellow Michiganders. > I have had a ton of emails and texts asking me if this website is real”¦ https://t.co/RRVgISDFeq The answer is an absolute YES. pic.twitter.com/uYCUg6mjW1 [https://t.co/uYCUg6mjW1] >

Wednesday

Bullets More Shroud of Turin facts [http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/answering-atheists/the-shroud-of-turin-and-the-facts.html] . More on The Virgin Eye. [http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/literary-legacy] If MAXimum Greens doesn't make it, maybe I can hire myself out to help people turn their backyards into gardens. It'

Been There

> Little League Umpire Ready to Call Absolutely Anything A Strike On 3-0 Count > — Onion Sports Network (@OnionSports) July 11, 2017 [https://twitter.com/OnionSports/status/884798881523003392]

Tuesday

> A brief look at why Aquinas continues to speak so loudly after 750 years–and what he has to say.https://t.co/LPPDStvy4L > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) July 5, 2017 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/882690570145214464]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Huge feast day today: Antony, founder of the Kievan Caves (1073). Yeah, me too: I had never heard of him nor the Caves, thereby making me feel ignorant and curious at the same time. The Google Machine led me to this Wikipedia entry: Anthony of Kiev [https://en.

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> Present-day neuroscience validates what Aquinas claimed centuries ago–the human soul transcends materiality.https://t.co/m7pHqsILgE > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) June 29, 2017 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/880425625806192640]

Saturday

I'm one-fourth of the way through Robin Daniels' The Virgin Eye and am beginning to think it might be a masterpiece. I'm not decided yet. I looked for support of my hunch on the Internet and didn't find much, but I did find

Friday

BYCU Finally, my subscription to Modern Drunkard Magazine started. Marie got it for me for my birthday in March 2016, but I never received an issue. I kinda forgot about it, kinda figured maybe, for some unfathomable reason, they didn't put out a regular product, and kinda feared

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling About that drug-fueled gay orgy that the policy allegedly broke up in Rome: " The occupant of the apartment is alleged to be a priest who serves as a secretary to cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling St. Athanasius feast day today! No, not that Athanasius. It's St. Athanasius of Athos [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasius_the_Athonite]. His name ought to be better known in the West. He's the founder of monasticism on Mount Athos, the greatest monastic center

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> Demagogue: one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. > — HL Mencken (@HLMenckenBot) July 4, 2017 [https://twitter.com/HLMenckenBot/status/882121803166097409]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to the high mark of summer. MAXimum Greens got slammed with a bad trifecta: Max on vacation last week so he couldn't get produce in, the greens in the field couldn't wait any longer to get harvested, many customers are gone for the

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> The central fact of American religion today is that liberal Protestantism is dead and everywhere triumphant. https://t.co/ywYJ5FOsB0 > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) July 2, 2017 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/881618489382846464]

Fallon

"The other day, a man in Minnesota got arrested, and handed the officer a Monopoly 'Get out of jail free' card. Then when he got to prison, his cellmate handed him a card that said, 'You won a beauty contest.'"

Meyers

A company in New York City has opened what some are calling a nonalcoholic cocktail bar that creates drinks using lemons and herbal ingredients instead of alcohol. And this is cool – they're using empty chairs.

Friday

BYCU I mentioned earlier this week that I organized two bar outings, one Sunday and one Monday. Those aren't exactly great bar nights, but they were the only two evenings I was going to be at Houghton Lake with Marie's family. Plus, the weather was horrible,

Thursday

Bullets Whew. The latter were really beginning to ride up on me: Comfortable cotton denim is back; skinny jeans are on their way out [https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-skinny-jeans-backlash-why-non-stretch-denim-is-ruling-again-1498664543] . Las Vegas prepares for recreational marijuana. "Amsterdam on steroids [https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/jun/28/amsterdam-vegas-dispensaries-saturday-pot-sales/] ." Honestly,

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling My first full day of my stay-cation. I joined Marie's family at Houghton Lake for a few days, returning yesterday. The weather was terrible, so I organized two bar hops, covering seven bars in two nights. The Monday night outing left me a bit worn on

Tuesday

> If only there was a 250 year old empirical social science that could have predicted this astonishing resulthttps://t.co/y0PzuhS6jt > — David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 26, 2017 [https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/879385100202516480]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Ah, summer. I'm taking first "stay-cation" this week. I'll spend a little while on the road, but for the most part, I'm staying put. A few long days at the produce stand site, keeping my fingers on the pulse of

Sunday

> Being tolerant with the intolerant is an act of intolerance. https://t.co/hHH80Cjbtn > — NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) June 24, 2017 [https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/878605420411092992]

Saturday

Nassim Taleb's "skin in the game" requirement: > pic.twitter.com/XXESzZ3gBz [https://t.co/XXESzZ3gBz] > — Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) June 23, 2017 [https://twitter.com/ThomasSowell/status/878297357963669504]

Conan

The reality show “Bachelor in Paradise” has been cleared of the assault charges and it's going to resume filming. The news was celebrated today by ABC, the contestants, and the chlamydia virus.

Friday

Brews You Can Use Neat blog post by a Cleveland-area priest: Coffee, Front Porches, and Church Whispers [http://clevelandpriest.blogspot.com/2017/06/coffee-front-porches-and-church-whispers.html] . It's not about drinking, but it's about the need for parishes to create community and places to meet ("front porches&

Thursday

John Zmirak draws on my favorite Dostoyevsky book . . . and asks a question that has to be taken seriously by anyone who believes in the spiritual world: > Is Today's Far Left 'Possessed'? | The Stream https://t.co/HlWhbgVW8Y > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) June 21, 2017

Wednesday

The operation edges closer:

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to the first day of summer. Okay, not really. Summer apparently starts at 12:24 tomorrow morning. But we're really close. Wow, finally, a sports franchise stands up to the LGBTQIXYZ whatever brown shirt community: St. Louis Cardinals Resist LGBTQ Outcry Over 'Christian Day.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I sigh relief. I think the season of busy-ness is over. Although office life promises to stay ramped at difficult levels, the graduation season is over. Michael's graduation party went well, and I survived the hangover, even getting to confession the next afternoon to "clear

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> "One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputation." > — Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) June 17, 2017 [https://twitter.com/ThomasSowell/status/876123036575039488]

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Friday

For well over a year, I've looked for The Lost Weekend [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Weekend_(film)] on my Roku, but I've never been able to find it. Then last Saturday night, I stumbled across it on TCM. I was pretty stoked. I

Thursday

The Eastern Orthodox recognize the prophet Amos today. I don't know a lot about Amost, but I remembered Eric Voegelin spent some ink on him, so I grabbed his Israel and Revelation of the shelf. I didn't see a lot about Amos, but I was interested

Salanova Lettuce

Expecting a big harvest later this week. I think I've fallen in love with this stuff:

Tuesday

"Morley, the son of distinguished Quaker stock (though he adopted his mother's Episcopalianism), had won a Pulitzer Prize for his Washington Post editorials. He stepped down after seven years (1933”“40) as the Post's editor because he understood what the forewinds of war portended: '

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew. Another whirlwind weekend. Every day is a flat-out sprint, with an occasional breather for Mass or gin. I'm grateful for those two breathers, but awfully tired of sprinting. The site now has a professionally-installed sprinkler system. It's just a beginner's model,

Sunday

The site is coming along:

School's Out

Of course, school isn't out in Michigan public schools yet. I believe the public schools are continuing their push for year-round schooling by gradually shrinking the summer vacation schedule. The reason? The breakdown of the urban family has resulted in home conditions that cause kids' learning to

Friday

Brews You Can Use My youngest son told me earlier this week that beer commercials aren't allowed to show people drinking. I thought about it and thought, "Heck, he might be right. I don't ever recall seeing someone take a wig on an advertisement. Fricking

Thursday

Whew. I've been busting it: Marie is in NYC for the week with Michael's senior leadership class, leaving me with a ton of work at the office, kid duties at home, and (of course) getting the urban produce operation running. Jack stepped up and helped me

Wednesday

Throughout this hectic spring, I have been squirrelling away occasional minutes to type notes for my "History of the Catholic Church in 30 Minutes" presentation this September. One of my goals that has developed is to give my listeners a sense of historical perspective. I always begged my

Tuesday

My son showed me these. They're great:

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> Remember: gender is uniformly distributed on a 37-dimension fluid spectrum, but all religions are exactly the same thing > — David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 4, 2017 [https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/871355792527577088]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Michael graduated and had his last track meet on Saturday. Meg had her last soccer game last week. Max (partner in Maximum Greens, LLC) gets out of school this week and can take over more responsibilities. I think the carnage of everyday living is coming to a close.

Sunday

Steyn on the London Bridge attack. His most prescient observation: "The cynical strategy of British and Continental leaders is to get their citizens used to this." Exactly. They won't do the only thing that can stop it: halt immigration and aggressively start deporting anyone who poses

Saturday

Fitting morning headline for MAXimum Greens' first day at its produce stand: > Organic foods backed by landmark report - warning pesticides far more dangerous than was thought https://t.co/dHHRPl2hIO > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) June 3, 2017 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/870952128646443008]

Friday

BYCU Marie joined me after work yesterday at the production site. She is an exercise fanatic and hadn't gotten any exercise that day, so she felt like hauling compost, hoeing, raking, picking rocks, etc. We got there at 5:45, and I said, "Crud, it's

Thursday

> Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it. > — Malcolm Muggeridge (@malmuggeridge) May 26, 2017 [https://twitter.com/malmuggeridge/status/868217300725399552]

Wednesday

> Emerging networks of churches are becoming nuclei for local congregations leaving mainline Protestantism.https://t.co/Nh0eTGkfAi > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) May 31, 2017 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/869939023535640577]

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Heard on the Eric Metaxas Show last week: The French have 17 words for "surrender." Cracked me up. First they rolled over to Hitler and now they're rolling over to Islam. Channeling Charles Martel [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tours]! I found

Monday

It's a holiday. Nothing today. Just this quip from Conan: "A bishop has come under scrutiny for accepting a $100,000 Toyota Land Cruiser as a gift. The bishop said, 'I'd get rid of it, but it's a chick magnet.'"

Sunday

> We need a Catholicism that can inspire Europe to reject demographic suicide and rediscover the joy of children. https://t.co/OOlFK4PDky > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) May 28, 2017 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/868829225595305985]

Saturday

According to this writer, ESPN is doomed: "[T]he main ESPN business plan, the one that brings in the most revenues to the firm, is doomed to near-extinction, and there is nothing ESPN can do about it." Link [https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/05/william-l-anderson/bursting-sports-bubble/] . Well, "

Friday

Brews You Can Use Tonight, I drink. It's an annual tradition for me: no family, piles of papers at the office, bottle of vodka in the break room. It's a lonely affair, yes, and a bit pitiful, I realize, but I like it. The trick is,

Thursday

Well, given that Slovenia is almost 60% Catholic, this shouldn't be a huge surprise. Then again, her father was a communist and the news sources say the family didn't have her baptized, at least as infants. Interesting story. > Congratulations to @FLOTUS [https://twitter.com/FLOTUS]

Wednesday

From the Gardening Journals The produce stand's garden is coming along. Timing almost worked out great last weekend: I spent three arduous hours on Saturday, forming out two 2.5' x 60' raised beds. I spread the organic fertilizer then left, hoping for rain (since I&

Fallon

President Trump is still on his big overseas trip. Today, he arrived in Israel and landed in Tel Aviv. Then when they welcomed him to Tel Aviv, Trump said, "Who's Aviv and what am I supposed to tell him?" I saw that today Israeli Prime Minister

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Russell Kirk had a devotion to the Shroud of Turin. I find the whole thing utterly fascinating. And so does Fr. Spitzer. If you're curious to know what kind of cosmic radiation (my phrase) could form that image, check out the Shroud information at the Magis

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Five more days until the holiday weekend. It has become Work Weekend for me. My entire family deserts me to go bird watching, so I use the time to get caught up at the office and the garden. I honestly don't know how people with children

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> False Gods & Godlessness: Islamic Corruption & the Death of Great Britain (essay by Joseph Pearce) https://t.co/125empCvhA > — ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) May 20, 2017 [https://twitter.com/imaginativecons/status/866058517333127169]

Saturday

Zmirak hits the nail again On Weiner: > The perfect, post-modern "Last man." Marries Islamist, cheats on her, pushes far left agenda self-righteously, cyber-molests teen, cries. https://t.co/E5neGdAecf > — John Zmirak (@JZmirak) May 19, 2017 [https://twitter.com/JZmirak/status/865625163374526464]

Friday

BYCU Man, it's everything I can do not to drink myself into a coma. Everything is intense: from work to garden to work again. I finally knocked off work last night at 7:30, gardened for an hour, then watched the 2006 Showtime hit, Dexter, with Marie and

Thursday

Wednesday

"[O]ur five transcendental desires for perfect truth, love, goodness, beauty, and being (home) will continue to affect us whether we acknowledge them or not. We will still want to know everything about everything, even if we abandon the pursuit of truth; still desire perfect love, even if we

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Correction: Providence College is not Jesuit. It's Dominican. I guess I just assumed it venerated the black pope: it has a good basketball team and it's Leftist. My apologies. Speaking of Dominicans, I guess they're fond of this joke: The Dominicans were

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The poster boy for intolerance, Anthony Esolen, is this year's commencement speaker at Hillsdale College [https://www.hillsdale.edu/event/165th-commencement-ceremony/]. Good for him. I don't know him personally, but by all accounts, he's a real decent guy. What the Leftist robots

Sunday

I was absolutely swamped at the office last week, so when Trump fired Comey, I didn't have time to read anything about it at first. Instead, I simply caught blurbs here and there. I was thinking, "Boy, it really looks like Trump did it this time. This

Friday

Wow, full-on life blitz: office, family, garden. Every May, I say, "This May won't be so brutal like the past." And every May, I'm wrong. The number of obligations is stunning . . . and wearying. Fortunately, I continue to make time for a few weekday Masses

Thursday

From the Gardening Journals The garden chronicles continue. On Monday, I got a half acre scraped off, which I was stoked to see. I then went out right after work to start churning the soil. I ran into a phenomenon that locals call "Sturgis top soil." I guess

Wednesday

“Live all you can, as complete and full a life as you can find–do as much as you can for others. Read, work, enjoy–love and help as many souls, do all this. Yes, but remember, be alone, be remote, be away from the world, be desolate. Then you

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling So, you don't know much about the Armenian genocide? You might want to consider learning about it. Incredibly sad. It was recently the subject of a Tom Woods Show podcast [http://tomwoods.com/ep-899-the-armenian-genocide/], which I recommend. This kind of thing really grates on me:

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling This is, quite frankly, a no-brainer: Kansas City archdiocese breaks ties with Girl Scouts [http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/US.php?id=15513]. I should say, "It's a no-brainer on intellectual grounds." The Girl Scouts has deep, emotional ties with many good people. It&

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> The plan is to scrape the new land tomorrow, till later next week, and start planting in six days. We'll see! > — MAXimum Greens (@GreensMaximum) May 7, 2017 [https://twitter.com/GreensMaximum/status/861196935738347522]

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> "It is so easy to be wrong–and to persist in being wrong–when the costs of being wrong are paid by others." > — Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) May 4, 2017 [https://twitter.com/ThomasSowell/status/860155205123530753]

Friday

BYCU It was the Week of Michael: Away track meet on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we attended scholarship night at the drinking club where Michael received an award named after a deceased friend of mine (a fitting scholarship, since my friend was one of the funniest guys I knew and Michael

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From the Bottom Line Personal [http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/]: "Women are the sole or primary earners in four out of every ten American households with children under the age of 18. This number has quadrupled since 1960."

Wednesday

There's more weight to this parody than might first appear: > Geneticists Debate Ethics Of Cloning Humans And Forcing Them To Fight To Death In Pit For Our Amusement https://t.co/2si7i9gkPs pic.twitter.com/0sSKyxiebI [https://t.co/0sSKyxiebI] > — The Onion (@TheOnion) May 2, 2017

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling If you know vampire lore, you'll like "What We Do in the Shadows [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_We_Do_in_the_Shadows]." It's easiest the funny movie I've seen this year, and it's short (1:25)

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy May Day, you Commie symps. Speaking of totalitarian secular ideologies, I heard the other day that, in the early days of the German Nazi movement, Nazi youth would flood parks and blow whistles when people with a different point of view stood up to speak, so no

Sunday

Happy birthday to oldest son, Alex, my only kid who works harder than me. If you need a home loan, give him a call at QuickenLoans. (You're surprised I would shill like that for a mortgage lender? He's going to be even more surprised to learn

Saturday

A 1,000-pack of beer. Finland.

Friday

BYCU Thursday evening, 6:45. I'm sitting down with my first gin and tonic tonic and gin after a miserable day. I started at the dentist office, where I had an implant put in. I was told it's "easy peasy," but man, I'

Thursday

Bullets *Add "white nationalist" to the list of insults that have no meaning. "Racist" lost meaning long ago, as did "bigot" and "Fascist." All words to connote someone who simply disagrees with the Left. So broad, they're no longer reliable.

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> Bibliophiles' jewel of the Highlands: > Leakey's Book Shop, Inverness. > Simply stunning stock over two floors of a converted church. pic.twitter.com/aGumCTYjGq [https://t.co/aGumCTYjGq] > — Lyppard Books (@LyppardBooks) April 22, 2017 [https://twitter.com/LyppardBooks/status/855883337910669316]

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I listened to a Tom Woods podcast last night, in which he said he had an excellent debate night at Yale recently. At a time when colleges and universities condemn free speech and open debate, he said Yale upholds it in the highest degree every Tuesday night. I

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy birthday to my mom. She's a wonderful woman. They say a mother's love is unconditional. My mom proves they are right. I took Michael and Meg out to eat Saturday night, and one of the big screens was showing the NFL draft. I

Sunday

Divine Mercy film [https://www.divinemercyfilm.com/index.html] airing today on EWTN at 5:00.

Happy St. George Day

I am obliged to re-produce Chesterton's great poem, "The Englishman": St George he was for England, And before he killed the dragon He drank a pint of English ale Out of an English flagon. For though he fast right readily In hair-shirt or in mail, It

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Manent is great. A 2016 interview with him: > On the eve of the French election, it's worth asking again whether French culture has a future:https://t.co/IJeLU0kZDm > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) April 22, 2017 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/855843655520706560] "We invite catastrophe by

Saturday

> The "white working class family is today more fragile than the black family was at the time" of the Moynihan Report https://t.co/xmwwjhG2kf > — W Bradford Wilcox (@WilcoxNMP) April 18, 2017 [https://twitter.com/WilcoxNMP/status/854152913907843072] > "The welfare state is not really

Friday

Brews You Can Use The warm weather, combined with kids sports tonight, drove me to the gin and tonic last night. I even made a return trip to the drinking club, so I could sit on its back deck and overlook the lake while discussing plans for the urban "

Thursday

Bullets *The Aaron Hernandez story is sad. You expect more from a guy with such a great set of tattoos. *My son's track team won its last meet against a more "urban" team by one point. The other team's lead 200-meter runner, who was

Wednesday

As I've mentioned on previous occasions, Gilbert Meilaender wrote one of the finest books ever about C.S. Lewis. > C. S. Lewis is not generally known as a political thinker. But should he be? https://t.co/1vlzsNSgGC > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) April 18, 2017 [https://twitter.

Tuesday

Hey, I did my part: > Why are all the countries of Europe paying their people to have more babies? https://t.co/KbpgkbxdD6 > — David Scott (@DScottLA) April 17, 2017 [https://twitter.com/DScottLA/status/854065664260161536]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Honest speculation: If it were a scientific and historical fact that, every couple hundred of years, a person is resurrected from the dead in the manner Christ was, would anyone at all doubt that Christ rose from the dead (given the historical record)? I realize that, even if

Holy Thursday

"[I]n the agony of Gethsemane the ultimate consequences of our sin had their hour. . . . God permitted his Son to taste the human agony of rejection and plunge towards the abyss. . . Gethsemane was the hour in which Jesus' human heart and mind experienced the ultimate odium of the

Wednesday

> We went into Libya for humanitarianism. Now there are open slave markets. https://t.co/jQaejHOyWv > — AmericanConservative (@amconmag) April 12, 2017 [https://twitter.com/amconmag/status/851963084360908800]

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I know it's not politically acceptable to reference Vox Day, but last weekend I listened to a podcast with him on the Tom Woods Show. I found him engaging, and I especially liked his description of Social Justice Warriors. He said that the best way to

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to Holy Week. Or "The Great Week," as the eastern branches of the Church sometimes call it. In this regard, I recommend the 4/6/2017 podcast from "Light of the East" [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/light-of-the-east/id910354650?mt=2&

Palm Sunday

"The hour overflows with supernatural power. In these last days it is as if Jesus were gathering strength on strength preparing for the ultimate." Romano Guardini, The Lord

Saturday

I've been following this story off-and-on since it broke a few years ago. It is one of the strangest inspiring incidents of these bizarre times: > By @ClaireGiangrave [https://twitter.com/ClaireGiangrave], fashion trendsetters Dolce & Gabana have a strong pro-family stand, and they're not letting

Jay Leno

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was on the show last night. He was named People magazine's sexiest man alive. Bernie Sanders, screwed AGAIN. After Anthony Weiner's last scandal, he actually called Bill Clinton to apologize. That's when you know your life has gone off the

Friday

Brews You Can Use The family starts to return today: Marie and the two little kids late this afternoon, Meg tonight, Michael Saturday night, and even the eldest daughter, nurse Abbie, on Sunday. On top of that, I kept my shoulder to the stone all week, just so I could

Thursday

Bullets **Snow today. Horrible, terrible, bitter snow. The bane of my greens? We'll see . . . and we'll see if my low tunnels withstand the 45 mph gusts we're supposed to get. Good grief. It's enough to drive a farmer to drink. So there&

Wednesday: Bachelorhood, Day Two

Pretty much everyone in the family is having fun. Michael sends me this pic of his $17.59 lunch at Busch Gardens in Florida: Meg made it to Disney with the high school band and is having a great time, despite Disney logistical incompetence: Max and Tess are in Detroit,

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling One problem with spring break: Everything grinds to a halt, including my proposed off-site greens operation. I still don't have city clearance, though they are working with me. In the meantime, I've been re-working my little yard to get the most greens out of

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Ah, semi-vacation. Spring break in Michigan, where it seems like everyone and their grandma leave to go warm. Last year, Marie and I went to Las Vegas. In past years, we went to Mississippi to see my brother, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and other places. This year: Nothing. The

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> Quote from the book Controversial Essays: https://t.co/sq1v3HGaSF pic.twitter.com/pgZad1h31H [https://t.co/pgZad1h31H] > — Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 1, 2017 [https://twitter.com/ThomasSowell/status/848219163910955008]

Saturday BYCU

> 'Caddyshack' still cool? Natural Light looks to score with millennials at the Masters | https://t.co/IjLGGWlisK > — Fox News Lifestyle (@FoxNewsLife) March 31, 2017 [https://twitter.com/FoxNewsLife/status/847795627333431301]

Friday

Brews You Can Use *The drinking story of the week: More older women are drinking hard [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-older-women-baby-boomers-binge-drinking/]. This story reminds me of dialogue in Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams: "You know what we should in vest in? An old age home for

Meyers

According to a new poll, President Vladimir Putin's approval rating among Russians is above 80 percent. Of course, that's largely because he conducted the poll in person.

CordenÂ

A 16-year-old boy in Bosnia broke a world record this week by smashing 111 concrete blocks with his head in 34 seconds. When asked how it felt to break the world record, the boy said, “Lampshade tricycle is my favorite flavor of pizza truck.” Corden

Thursday

> The University Bookman: The Art of Flannery O'Connor in honor of her birthday https://t.co/oCgytT4pyf > — University Bookman (@ubookman) March 25, 2017 [https://twitter.com/ubookman/status/845647358146826240] By Michael Jordan. I know Professor Jordan. I met him at a Touchstone conference, then subsequently met

Wednesday

Bullets I hate leaf blowers. They're the jet skis of lawn care. "'Hell', wrote one chronicler, 'felt herself defiled by his admission.'" Peter Ackroyd, writing about the death of King John. If you're not listening to Dan Carlin's

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling This is the best new movement I've seen in years: "Get ready for Calexit! Now Nigel Farage and the 'Bad Boys of Brexit' set their sights on splitting California in two [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4350388/Nigel-Farage-s-Bad-Boys-Brexit-look-Calexit.html] ." Good story:

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew. Whirlwind weekend. Tess' 12th birthday party Friday evening, work Saturday morning, 27-hour polka party tour to Detroit, home for Michael's basketball sports banquet. Left me tired, hungover, and irritable. And about ten pounds heavier at a time when I desperately need to be losing

Saturday

Interesting new book: Collection of photos by Hitler's personal bodyguard [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4334322/Bodyguard-Hitler-Eva-Braun-s-dead-bodies.html] . The bodyguard, who just died in 2013, apparently held Hitler in high regard and said he was a nice guy. In light of what everyone knows now about how

Friday

BYCU I'm going to a polka party this weekend. The obvious question is: What does a guy drink to prepare for a polka dance? The obvious answer is: lots. But I'm looking for specifics: A lot of what? Beer, of course. But I can't

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> When the World is On Fire, Christians Can't Just Tend Our Gardens https://t.co/iJNMqXDvTj @JZmirak [https://twitter.com/JZmirak] #BenedictOption [https://twitter.com/hashtag/BenedictOption?src=hash] #TheStream [https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheStream?src=hash] > — The Stream (@Streamdotorg) March 22, 2017 [https://twitter.com/

Meyers

North Korea today described its nuclear program as “a treasured sword of justice,” which is the same term Kim Jong Un uses to describe his cheese knife.

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> “It is amazing how many people think that the government's role is to give them what they want by overriding what other people want.” > — Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) March 18, 2017 [https://twitter.com/ThomasSowell/status/843145731204616196]

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Benedict of Nursia feast day today. I thought about getting Rod Dreher's new book, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation, but I know I wouldn't finish reading it. Besides, I've read enough about Dreher's

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to spring 2017. Of course, it doesn't feel like it, but my weather app assures me nice weather is coming before the end of the month. We'll see. MAXimum Greens [https://sturgisparksideproduce.wordpress.com/] hit a road block with its new half acre,

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RIP Chuck. Chuck was the man. This is one of my favorite Berry clips: Chuck Berry & Keith Richards - Oh Carol [https://vimeo.com/18623223] from Music Management USA [https://vimeo.com/user4386260] on Vimeo [https://vimeo.com].

Meyers

Researchers are claiming that short men are more likely to go bald. Added one researcher on the study, "Uh, Rick, I'm pretty sure those are babies.”

Saturday

> Our pledge to you is that YOUR child will never hear an argument that questions dogmas of Liberal Fundamentalism.https://t.co/nKhffEzPEV > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) March 17, 2017 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/842835815344553984]

Friday

> The @Chicago [https://twitter.com/Chicago] River is going green for St. Patrick's Day. #StPatricksDay [https://twitter.com/hashtag/StPatricksDay?src=hash] #greenriver [https://twitter.com/hashtag/greenriver?src=hash] #chicago [https://twitter.com/hashtag/chicago?src=hash] #green [https://twitter.com/hashtag/green?src=hash] pic.

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> Why the real St. Patrick is more fascinating than his legends. https://t.co/xX4AZuEh7m pic.twitter.com/fMw5h3s0lm [https://t.co/fMw5h3s0lm] > — Our Sunday Visitor (@OSV) March 17, 2017 [https://twitter.com/OSV/status/842548607601590273]

Some Thursday Hate Speech

> Your schools teach YOUR #children [https://twitter.com/hashtag/children?src=hash] that #gender [https://twitter.com/hashtag/gender?src=hash] is a "social construct." Outright lies & blatant immorality are unacceptable & needs to end! pic.twitter.com/FRT5ptqNkT [https://t.co/FRT5ptqNkT] > — Catholic Queen

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I took half the family to see Kong Monday night for my birthday. It was a good, solid movie: no message, no meaning. Just a good old-fashioned monster flick. Highly recommended if you just want to sit back and take in some well-done junk. I've been

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Everyone's OK, but over the weekend off the coast of Florida, a Carnival Cruise ship almost hit two jet skiers. Today, the captain of the ship apologized and said, “I'll get them next time.” Conan

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I just heard about this new program: Exodus 90 [https://exodus90.com/]. The priests at "Catholic Stuff You Should Know" spoke well of it. I can't say I'm inclined to do it, but you can read about it here: "Brutal, demanding,

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Michigan! Three weeks ago, they weren't projected to make the Tournament. Yesterday, my alma mater wins the Big Ten tournament and nails down a 7 seed. I haven't been this stoked since the Diocese of Northampton took the first steps to open the Cause

Sunday

I don't know much about it, but I'm impressed that McInnes traveled to Bethlehem and is now crusading to take it back from the Muslims. Quixotic and probably a bit self-promoting, but I like it: > It's Crusade O'clock in Bethlehem https:

Friday

> Drinking is the war against death. > — Modern_Drunkard (@Modern_Drunkard) January 27, 2013 [https://twitter.com/Modern_Drunkard/status/295399594244841472]

Thursday

Feast Day of St. Gregory of Nyssa. My thoughts on the great man here [http://thedailyeudemon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Gregory-of-Nyssa.pdf].

Wednesday

As a former Lutheran who remains impressed by the number of high-quality people cranked out by my former church, I can't say I endorse this image but it's definitely interesting: It is supposedly "a statue of St. Ignatius of Loyola trampling on the heretic Martin

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling It's the feast day of St. Paul the Simple. I'd never heard of him, but with a name like that, I had to check him out. He was a 60-year-old who had been cuckolded, so he left her to live with St. Antony

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy birthday to my wife, Marie. I'd mention her age, but she looks about half her age. I don't want to disabuse anyone of that notion. Ah, heck, there's a name for my malady. From Reddit's "Today I Learned&

Sunday

This reminds me: Al Kresta recently had a segment on the life of H.L. Mencken. I need to listen to it this afternoon while I get some beds ready for planting: > It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.

Treatise: On Alcohol as a Sacramental

> "When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn't have you by the throat.” - Charles Bukowski > — Bukowski Quotes (@DailyBukowskiQ) December 3, 2016 [https://twitter.com/DailyBukowskiQ/status/804995347932151808]

Friday

Brews You Can Use I'm battling my first cold of the season (count one's blessings) and am awfully jammed at the office, but I plan on drinking tonight. I never give up alcohol for Lent. Alcohol, if approached correctly, is practically a sacramental. I don'

Meyers

Chocolate maker Hershey is reportedly expecting to cut its global workforce by about 15 percent. That's right, for the first time ever, chocolate is giving up people for Lent.

Conan

Disney announced that it's featuring its first openly gay character in the upcoming live-action film “Beauty and the Beast.” Which explains why they're changing the title of the movie to “Beauty and Her Longtime Roommate Janine.” Antarctica reported its highest temperature in history at 64 degrees,

Thursday

Wow, a Solovyov sighting: "Vladimir Soloviev, the Mystic Admired by Popes [http://m.ncregister.com/blog/joseph-pronechen/soloviev-the-mystic-admired-by-popes#.WLdcp28rLIV] ." Those are about as common as, say, Max Beerbohm or Orestes Brownson sightings. The piece is a bit choppy, but not too bad. Excerpt: > “Repeatedly, Soloviev pointed out

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Conan

At last night's Oscars, a film producer who appeared in the “In Memoriam” montage, turns out she's alive. Even worse, she's scratching loudly at the roof of her coffin. New research finds that people who have ADHD literally have different brains. When told this,

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling My daughter went to high school with a Mexican girl who gave up food for Lent. True story. I gotta believe she drank a lot of smoothies and such, but heck if I know. Does anybody know of any good, balanced books on the GMO food debate?

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Lent nears. I've never been a big fan of Mardi Gras, though. Excess on the eve of fast makes the fast much harder. Oh sure, I do a bit of it, but I'm not a big fan. Every year, the Mardi Gras coverage makes

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Expect the New Left to show up with pepper spray and monodrone chants to drown him out: > “As Christians, we're offering a salvific message in a therapeutic culture. It's a tough sale.” https://t.co/7BqEZPDei0 > — Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) February 26, 2017 [https:

Saturday

> Ikea releases free design for a garden sphere that sustainably feeds a neighborhood https://t.co/0IpjOud7Xi # > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 21, 2017 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/834180533731078145]

Friday

I just learned about this: The Museum of the American Cocktail [https://natfab.org/cocktail-museum/]. I've long wanted to get to New Orleans. This Museum just increased the chances I'll make the trip. Of course, even something as cool as a museum about drinking can'

Three Archetypes

From Garet Garrett's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garet_Garrett] The American Story (1955): > George Washington was unanimously elected President. John Adams was Vice-President. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence but had nothing to do with writing the Constitution because he was then in Paris,

Wednesday

Yet More Miscellaneous Rambling Digging this warm weather? Putting your garden in early? Don't get too confident. A TDE reader sends this along from an Illinois weather site: "We set a bunch of record temperatures in February 1930 (the records we are breaking now). The following March

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Man, I haven't laughed so hard at a headline in a long time. From Eye of the Tiber (the Catholic version of The Onion): Burke Named Head of Vatican's Congregation of Janitorial Services [http://www.eyeofthetiber.com/2017/02/16/burke-named-head-of-vaticans-congregation-of-janitorial-services/] . The article

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I sent this question to a well-placed and knowledgeable Catholic: "Has the primacy of conscience over doctrine always been a contention of the Catholic left (say, since Vatican II), or is it a new attempt by the Catholic left to implement their liberal agenda?" I'

Sunday

Listverse has a decidedly anti-Catholic, Whig historical perspective, but it's a pretty good site. This recent article is one of their better offerings. I can identify five of the sects as Gnostic, and my hunch is, all ten of them are, but a heresy is a heresy. The

Saturday: Ramblings

Wow, what weather. My apologies for not posting any BYCU yesterday. I had a small crisis at the office that hit me first thing in the morning. I kept running through noon, then broke early to plant spinach, harvest spinach, prune blackberry canes, and put up another low tunnel (giving

Meyers

Taco Bell has announced plans to offer a $600 wedding service at its flagship restaurant in Las Vegas. And this is cool – the burritos are conveniently wrapped in divorce papers.

KimmelÂ

Congratulations are in order for a German shepherd by the name of Rumor. Rumor the German shepherd won best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club. This is a huge honor that the dog has no idea it received.

Conan

Thieves in London made off with $3 million worth of rare books from the Middle Ages. Authorities describe the suspect as “boring.”

Both Found During the Same Sitting

President Trump's approval rating is at 39 percent, according to a new poll. The latest Pew Research Center poll released Thursday shows Trump at a historic low compared with prior presidents in their first weeks in office. The poll found just 39 percent approve of his job performance

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Ah, man. This is depressing: Orbis Books is issuing James Martin's Essential Writings as a volume in its Modern Spiritual Masters series. That's really disappointing. I've really liked what I've seen in this series. I wonder if the book will

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The U.S. Army has officially lifted its ban on soldiers having dreadlocks. This is good news for the Army's elite Hacky Sack Corps. Conan

Wednesday

Reference: Monday the 13th Post. Kirk's distrust of libertarianism seems to stem exclusively from its demonic individualist strain, that of Isabel Paterson and Ayn Rand. Those, ahem, challenging women's personalities, aggressive prose, and egos drove him away . . . and rightly so. (I once dealt with an unpleasant

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I realized after posting that link to my Russell Kirk piece that it was published 14 years ago. Man, I'm getting old. And given that I worked on it for a few years (off and on), my thoughts in the piece reflect a man nearly twenty

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I dislike "Monday the 13th" more than "Friday the 13th." Article for my kids: Why You Should Stay in Your Hometown [http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/11/why-you-should-stay-in-your-hometown.html] . The answer is, "permanence." It's worth reading. Excerpt: "The benefits

Sunday

So did my appeal to President Trump to roll out a program for our peaceful Mexican immigrants [http://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=42096] have the opposite effect? Reports of Raids Have Immigrants Bracing for Enforcement Surge [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/us/immigration-raids-enforcement.html?_r=0]. I must say,

Saturday

Great piece by Jeffrey Tucker: What Happens When Trump Takes Over the Vatican? [https://fee.org/articles/what-happens-when-trump-takes-over-the-vatican/] But the title is misleading. It's really an article about HBO's new series, The Young Pope, a series that I assumed would be highly disrespectful but apparently isn&

Friday

Brews You Can Use I like the quasi-religious moments. I had one last Friday. I'd had another brutal week at the office, which I concluded with a trip to a Kalamazoo doctor. I then drove back south to meet Jack (my college son) at a pub in the

Thursday

Jason Scott Jones has written one of the better pieces of the young year: On Immigration, Winning Cheap Grace [https://stream.org/on-immigration-winning-cheap-grace/]. > The great theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote scathingly of “cheap grace,” which is the warm fuzzy feeling we give ourselves, and the praise we win from others,

Balancing Act, 1934

Supposedly, on top of the Empire State building. I suffer from vertigo, but I think I'd rather be the upside-down guy 100 stories in the sky than the dude in the middle on the ground.

Fallon

The world's most expensive Lego brick, made out of 14 karat gold, just sold online for $15,000. The new owner says he's pleased to add it to his collection and it just got vacuumed up by his mom.

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling The one thing I can say in support of allowing Muslim immigrants: They have a much better chance of converting to Christianity here than they do in their countries (where they would face things like, you know, decapitation if they converted). Al Kresta had a segment last week

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I haven't followed the immigration order as much as I ought, but I had to listen to a man I respect express concern with it because, among other things, it hurts the farmers. I didn't know what to say in response, so I just

Sunday

Welcome to Super Sunday. I have to admit: I'm not much of a fan. Oh sure, I'll watch it, at least the first half, but I simply don't care much about the game itself. It's more of a cultural event for me

Pre Development Pic

Kirk and Ghosts

I've long been puzzled (party intrigued) by Russell Kirk's belief in ghosts. This passage from a 1949 letter of his doesn't help, but I find it interesting. It was written during his time at St. Andrews, when he wrote The Conservative Mind: "The

Friday

BYCU My first "real" hobby--one that lasted longer than a few months--was beer-can collecting. It was the rage among boys in the 1970s. I had some pretty good stuff, including a private-label beer (a rare thing back then), called "Draught Courage," brewed by Ted Turner, who

On Hawaii

Grover Cleveland: “Our interference in the revolution of 1893 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii] was disgraceful,” and the absorption of these Pacific islands would be “a perversion of our national mission.” When Hawaii was annexed, Cleveland announced himself “ashamed of the whole affair.” Well,

Wednesday

All the talk about California secession [https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-campaign-secede-gains-momentum-030236966.html] prompted me to pick up Bill Kauffman's Bye, Bye Miss American Empire, a (probably?) quixotic look at how the U.S. could break into a group of smaller countries. He dedicates most of a chapter

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling We made it! The worst month of the year is over. It's too bad the forecast is worse than anything we experienced in January. Not a bad set of feast days this week: The Eastern Orthodox recognized the Cappadocians [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappadocian_Fathers]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I grealty enjoyed James Martin's My Life with the Saints, so for years I've always kept my eyes out for things he writes. At this point, however, I'm writing him off as an unhinged leftist. I remember being disturbed by his "

A Request

I don't ask TDE readers for many favors. Over the course of fifteen years, I think I've asked you to help me on two occasions (excepting, of course, my continuous Amazon kickback campaign). But I'm asking for your help now: Please email the White

Illegal and Law-Abiding

Okay, let me explain my term "law-abiding, illegal" immigrants. It wasn't a typo or poorly thought out. Premise: A law that isn't enforced isn't a law. Illustration: If a town outlaws gardens but then allows its citizens to have gardens, punishing only

On Genius and Suffering

"I have known no man of genius who had not to pay, in some affliction or defect either physical or spiritual, for what the gods had given him." Max Beerbohm. True? I don't know, but fascinating: Does God only afflict his own? He sends troubles commensurate

Underground

A friend sent me one of those "old picture" emails. I really enjoy those emails, but I never know if the pictures (much less the descriptions) are real/accurate. The one above is supposedly the London Underground in 1890. I think it's real, primarily because it

Friday

BYCU I had a BYCU ready for today, but then I saw this article at Modern Farmer: " Modern Farmer's Best of 2016: All About Alcohol [http://modernfarmer.com/2016/12/modern-farmers-best-2016-alcohol/?utm_source=Modern+Farmer+Newsletter&utm_campaign=ab62688523-Thursday_January_26_201726_01_2017&utm_

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Speaking of ESPN, I'm officially boycotting their sponsors. I figure, what the heck. Unfortunately, I don't think they'll much feel the sting, since I don't buy many of their sponsors' products, but Captain Morgan [https://www.captainmorgan.com/] will!

Wednesday

Finally! Other people, even those who identify themselves as "mainstream," are beginning to excoriate ESPN for its relentless and radical leftwing politics [http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/msespn-endorses-women-s-march-012317]: > It's like ESPN has a death wish. At some point in the past two years, commencing with the

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Rapper Snoop Dogg recently revealed that country music singer Willie Nelson is the only person who can “out-smoke” him. And then someone said, “Snoop, that's a mop.” Meyers

Politico-Economic Tuesday

This article pretty much sums up my economic hunches right now [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-22/one-big-fat-ugly-bubble]: > The Deep State's next move is to pin the coming stock market collapse on Trump. When people think “Greater Depression,” they'll think “Donald Trump.” > The economy

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Well, I planted my first hoop house yesterday. I put in a huge crop of spinach, using primarily Bloomsdale, which is supposed to be one of the best early spring varieties. We'll see what happens. The long-term forecast (guess) is for temperatures to be average throughout

Sunday

I made myself spend ten minutes this morning, reading accounts of the Women's March. I'm simply stunned at the sea of idiocy. I could take issue with many statements, but I guess I'll pick on Scarlett Johansson, who, according to the Gray Hag [https:

Saturday

Buchanan breaks down the world Trump inherits [http://takimag.com/article/new_president_new_world_patrick_buchanan#axzz4WMVlDO6h] . Excerpt: "The billion-plus peoples of the Maghreb, Middle East and sub-Sahara, whose numbers are exploding, are moving inexorably toward the Med, coming to occupy the empty places left by an aging

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Republicans want to eliminate many of the restrictions of the Endangered Species Act. That's bad news for animals, but great news for fans of Carl's Jr.'s California Condor Burger. Conan

Friday

BYCU I'm kind of behind the eightball today, so I don't have much. I merely offer this entirely too long, but somewhat interesting, article on why brewing craft beer is a white man's sport [https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/there-are-almost-no-black-people-brewing-craft-beer-heres-why] . > [C]raft

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling I believe I've mentioned the seer Charlie Johnston. I remember Mitch Pacwa mildly endorsed him last year, saying he met Charlie once and he seemed like a decent guy. Pacwa, of course, firmly confirmed that he couldn't confirm everything Charlie was saying. Since then,

Meyers

A female zebra shark in Australia has shocked researchers by developing the ability to produce offspring asexually, after spending time away from her male partner. And she says that so far he's buying it!

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling So, the Pope's ghostwriter abused his role [https://cruxnow.com/commentary/2017/01/15/ethicist-says-ghostwriters-role-amoris-troubling/] ? And, to make it worse, committed heresy in the process? I read the Crux piece, and I'm not sure I fully follow the reasoning. To my thinking, it'

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Feast Day of St. Antony the Great. The patron saint of every would-be holy scoundrel who wants to give up and leave his station in life. I thought I wrote an article about St. Antony, but I think it was St. Macarius, one of his desert descendants. You

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I like ordinary time. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the mild sense that "the pressure is off." You know, all the grace coming at you during the high holy seasons and the pressure to process it properly. It stops and you

Sunday

I've never been a big fan of circuses, and I'm not even sure I've been to a Ringling Bros. circus (I've attended only two, and the one I attended as an adult was not Ringling), but I find this mildly sad, though

Saturday

A moment's reflection on the current presidency would tell you there would be no such thing as "the Trump Effect." President Obama is always gracious, bordering on gentle, in his words, but his supporters hardly imitated him, as they turned increasingly rude and violent against their

Friday

Not much this morning. Too many gin and tonics last night, then I spilled my recovery drink on the carpet and had to clean it up. For now, I'll merely repeat something I pointed out earlier: Spend the extra money to get high quality tonic water for your

Thursday

This essay reminds me of Nassim Taleb's observation that, in today's world, the more you read, the less you know: > From the archives: Even when it's not fake, “the News” has an insidious effect on us. https://t.co/P90cY9lRUe > — First Things

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I spent a chunk of last Sunday afternoon, inventorying my greens seeds while listening to Gavin McInnes videos. Man, he's good. Foul-mouthed, but good. I highly recommend his list of videos at The Rebel [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2HWRRSziC_EC78epg_wUCtI2ijN2yC-K]. Look, by the

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Alright, the worst part of January is over. The days are getting noticeably longer. We have a long way to go, but hang in there. I'm upbeat enough that I bought 6-mil polyfilm to drape over my coldframes. Supposedly, a double layer of film greatly

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling So what was the point of Sunday's post? Precisely this: Twain was no racist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain#Civil_rights], but he put borderline-gibberish words like that into a black man's mouth for artistic effect. If you think we could do

Sunday

Mark Twain: racist. The Golden Arm Once 'pon a time dey wuz a monsus mean man, en he live 'way out in de prairie all 'lone by hisself, 'cep'n he had a wife. En bimeby she died, en he tuck en toted her way

Saturday

The whole idea of a "hate" crime is stupid, but why the hesitancy among non-normal people to acknowledge that the Facebook Four engaged in one? > What would have happened if four white kids from Donald Trump's native Queens had reacted to Barack Obama's

Friday

Brews You Can Use Since switching to hard liquor, hangovers aren't much of a problem for me. Sometimes the juniper in gin gets me, and once in awhile, rum throws a wicked hook. But mostly, I'm fairly hangover-free. But there was a time . . . whoa, there was

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling The urban farm is moving along nicely. I'm still stymied in my effort to buy a simple, vacant lot, but I have my first batch of indoor crops started and am making progress on expanding my indoor grow operation. I plan to grow a lot of

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First harvest of 2017.

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Well, the Big Ten goes out with a whimper. I couldn't believe how bad UM looked, and then OSU got humiliated by Clemson. It certainly takes the sting out of the OSU loss. I don't think there's any way Michigan would'

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> Library : St. Basil The Great | Catholic Culture https://t.co/YYK0hKyyty > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) January 2, 2017 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/815939778407448576]

Monday

> 2016: The Year the Left Broke https://t.co/RRDuEt4DOa > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) January 2, 2017 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/815890714429128705] "While castigating white men for letting Trump happen, blacks rioted in the streets based on Facebook memes and Muslims murdered Americans in the name

January 1

Welcome to 2017. The holidays are still moving forward, so blogging will continue to be light. Regular TDE operations will resume on Tuesday.

2017

Well, good riddance to 2016. After 2009 (the year my Dad died), it's hands-down the worst year of my life. But on the bright side: It's over . . . and I survived. I'm grateful that the hurdles presented this year are the worst I've

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> Drink Beer - LewRockwell https://t.co/znU7BisHWY > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) December 28, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/814125922647478272]

Friday

We harvested this from the cold frames on December 26th. This will get us through the end of the year. So with the exception of a 10-day span in early August and mid-December, the garden provided all our greens from April 1st through December 31st, plus a handful in March.

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Guess I need to buy myself a hi-fi: > Chuck Berry, 90, announces first album in 38 years: "Chuck" https://t.co/rxAehVvibR > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) December 29, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/814444928097013760]

Thursday

From the Notebooks The Russian has always loved the Earth, venerating her black depths, the crops that spring from her lungs, and the resting home she gives at death. She's the Russian's embodiment of kindness and mercy in a land that has seen too much of

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling One of my children asked me, half-jokingly, if it's okay to pray while they go to the bathroom. I responded with the Buddhist anecdote about the two monks who liked to smoke. They wondered if they could smoke and pray at the same time. They went

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling “The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger. Pray for us that we may be a sign of the love of Christ for our people, that our presence among them will fortify them to endure these sufferings in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom.” Padre

The 26th

Whew. I survived another Christmas. They're the best of the times; they're the worst most tiring of times. It seems to be getting better, though. I actually made it to my mom's yesterday at 5:00 without staring in full zombie mode. Marie and

Merry Christmas

by G.K. Chesterton The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap, His hair was like a light. (O weary, weary were the world, But here is all aright.) The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast, His hair was like a star. (O stern and cunning are the kings,

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Great picture of the Santa getting arrested. > Christmas: Embattled From the Beginning - WSJ https://t.co/Pcyggxa6ev > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) December 24, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/812664386414411776]

Christmas Eve

“He rules the world with truth and grace.” –Isaac Watts ++ “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” –Charles Dickens ++ “The Incarnation”¦illuminates and orders all other phenomena, explains both our laughter and our logic, our fear of the dead and our knowledge

Friday

Brews You Can Use: Special Holiday Edition Christmas is nigh. I've never been much of a Christmas drinker. Thanksgiving? Sure, but Christmas? Nope. I certainly don't have a religious problem with drinking, since, as long-time TDE readers know, I practically consider alcohol a sacramental, but there&

Reddit Today I Learned

I gotta get me one of those for my garden: "TIL by eating herbivores with seeds in their stomachs and then leaving scat across a large range, cougars are able to plant around 94,000 plants a year."

Thursday

I have a nifty little book called, The Gilded Tongue. My son, Alex, and I used to read from it frequently, taking delight in its absurdly pompous words. Sample: > Malison (MAL-uh-suhn): n. from Middle English malisoun, from Old French, from Latin maledictio, from maledictus, past participle of maledicere (to

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Donald Trump said that after the election, he didn't call Bill Clinton, but instead, “Bill Clinton called me.” Bill Clinton said, “Actually, I was calling for Melania and he answered the phone.” Conan

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We're just a few days away from Christmas and the U.S. Postal Service says that you can mail a package on Dec. 23 and still have it arrive in time for Christmas. They say that your package will make it as long as it weighs less than

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling The Christmas fervor begins in earnest. Son Jack returned last night. Michael and Meg start Christmas break tomorrow. Abbie comes home tomorrow and Alex the day after that. We are beginning are Christmas festivities on Friday with an Eastern Michigan party: EMU v. Old Dominion in the Bahamas

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Yesterday was Keith Richards' birthday. He would have been 73. Conan

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The Electoral College officially cast its votes for president, and Bill Clinton actually teared up after voting for Hillary, saying that he's never cast a vote he's been prouder of. Then he said, “Except for that wet T-shirt contest I judged in Cancun.” Fallon

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling There aren't a lot of saint commemorations this week, which I guess is understandable: People should be focused on the coming anyway, as opposed to on those quintessential focusers. But if you're looking for time with the saints, today brings us Ignatius of Antioch,

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The night is far spent. Morning nears. How has your night gone? Mine hasn't been too bad. A bit restless, I suppose, but not too bad. Goodness knows I've done worse. My St. James Calendar of the Christian Year tells me today is commemorated

Clowns

This WaPo article about the rebelling electors reveals the sheer buffoonery at play: > Mark Hersch, a 60-year-old Chicago-based marketing strategist, joined a group known as the Hamilton Electors, who have been organizing efforts to contact electors and change their minds. Before the election, Hersch said, the most political activism

For the Coming Week

> “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.””• 'A Christmas Carol' by Dickens published #OTD [https://twitter.com/hashtag/OTD?src=hash] 1843 pic.twitter.com/cszgWmuUM0 [https://t.co/cszgWmuUM0] > — Oxford Classics (@OWC_Oxford) December 17, 2016 [https://twitter.

Sunday

Some of my fondest memories are from Joe Louis Arena and Red Wings games. It looks like another great moment at The Joe last night [https://streamable.com/eif7w]. You need your computer speakers on. Simply great, heart-warming, stuff.

Saturday

From the Notebooks Wow, there is simply a dearth of bloggable stuff out there today . . . that, or my muses have gone on strike. I'm being forced to reach into my bag of notebooks. I found this poem in my Poems folder. I don't remember writing it,

Friday

Drinking time, much less blogging-about-drinking time, is scarce this holiday season. For today, just this from my trip to the British Museum last month: Speaking of my trip to London, I was amused to duck into a sports pub for a few drinks, only to see its assortment of TVs

Thursday

From the Notebooks Know thyself. This injunction was printed above Delphi's door. It's a command that has exercised seekers throughout the ages. The inscription was a guiding principle for Socrates, Philo, Plotinus (the neo-Platonist author who heavily influenced St. Augustine), and the unknown author of the

Wednesday

All things must be sacrificed on the altar of the Moloch god of High School Athletics, including sleep and sanity during a hectic time of year, so energy, patience, and everything else is in short supply this morning. Fortunately, Taki recently posted this great piece: "How the Left Strangled

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I've been thinking a lot about this passage from Phillipians 4: "Have no anxiety about anything . . .". It really struck me a few weeks ago and I keep coming back to it. It's not a cliche or counsel from Bobby McFerrin [https://www.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling For some reason, the first week of December is always the worst: jammed with activities. After that, things are a bit better. This week, we only have stuff going on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. In other words, I have Monday and Wednesday off, which is

Sunday

I'm shocked. Do big corporations act morally when not pressured by political power, or are they simply moral non-agents that do whatever they think most expedient? They ought to be the latter, despite the modern trend of corporate jurisprudence that says it's within a corporation'

Saturday

McInnes' latest isn't great, but it's good [http://takimag.com/article/reality_bites_gavin_mcinnes#axzz4SR996Yx2]. I really liked this anecdote: > In a recent episode of The Anthony Cumia Show, U.K. comedian Jeff Leach was asked to explain why refugees don't

Friday

Brews You Can Use Whew. Whatta week. Basketball games Monday and Tuesday, charity event Wednesday, office party Thursday, basketball game tonight. I'm looking forward to the weekend so I can just unwind. I doubt there's much drinking in the cards. I made a big batch of

Thursday

From the Notebooks Averroes (1126-1198): Islamic Aristotelian. His relentless pursuit of natural reason in the name of Aristotle would have squashed many of the revealed truths of God. If Aristotle said it, it was true, regardless of what revealed "truths" said. The simple people should follow religion; the

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Final lettuce haul of the year. I grabbed this Tuesday evening from a cold frame.

Wednesday

Gardening Results Well, I can finally say I definitely broke the $1,000 mark for produce. The estimates below are courtesy of Marie, who was instructed to be conservative and use prices you'd find at Kroger for in-season produce. The figures, in other words, don't take

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Cleveland.com, which identifies itself as a "partner" of The Plain Dealer, posted this soul-searching editorial last week: "Redesigning politics coverage after missing the big story of 2016 [http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/11/redesigning_politics_coverage.html] ." It's

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Far out: Italy joins the United States and Britain in rejecting the centralizing efforts of the elites [https://www.yahoo.com/news/italys-renzi-loses-referendum-constitutional-reform-exit-polls-221129482.html] . The Popularism tide continues to roll. In a past life, such a thing would've made me nervous, but in light of the

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Sunday

Congratulations, Penn State! Big Ten Champs! And still the ugliest institution in America, a school that, out of common decency, should have disbanded its football program after the Sandusky scandal . . . the cover-up, the facilitation, the student riots when they thought their precious football program might suffer. Heck, I'm

Saturday

I've been reading (too much) about the dubia controversy. It seems Carl Olson's recent essay about the whole affair offers the best summary and analysis. It's worth a read: "The Four Cardinals and the Encyclical in the Room [http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/

Friday

Great drinking lore, courtesy of the British Museum:

Thursday

Could gnosticism become a hot discussion point, at least in Catholic circles? Al Kresta last week did a segment on the new EWTN documentary, "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ave-maria-radio-kresta-in/id316247661?mt=2&i=378123836] ," about Saul Alinsky. The producers

Wednesday

Footage of Corktown. Notice the huge swaths of darkness. You can't see anything . . . because there isn't anything to see. It's just vacant blackness.

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Detroit An old philosophical problem: If you're sitting in an otherwise pitch black room with a single candle burning it, are you noticing the candle or the darkness? I traveled to downtown Detroit Friday night. My in-laws told me about a great cocktail bar in Corktown

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Football About once a year, I see one of my teams get so spiflicated by bad referring that I doubt the integrity of the game. Normally, it is with the Detroit Lions, who, as ESPN's Mike Wilbon (a Bears fan) noted last year, "How many

Sunday

Welcome to Advent. I enter mine worn out and weary. I'm hoping to rebound. If you need a boost, too, maybe these will help. From GKC's The Everlasting Man: “Any agnostic or atheist whose childhood has known a real Christmas has ever afterwards, whether he likes

Saturday

I'm glad Marie has a good sense of humor. She got her London pictures back earlier this week. She was whipping through them, handing them to the kids and me with quick commentary. She handed this one to us and said, "This is 10 Downing Street, where

Friday

Random Welcome to Black Friday. If you're reading this, you realize you have better things to do today than to rip our your soul in order to save $250 on a big-screen TV. Congratulations. This is basically a four-day holiday for me, so I don't have

Happy Thanksgiving

“Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” G.K. Chesterton “Gratitude is characteristic only of the humble. The egotistic are so

BYCU: Special Edition

Black Wednesday I'll confess a conceit: I think I became aware of Black Wednesday before anyone else. When I first started talking about it in the late 1980s, it was scarcely "a thing," in the sense that nobody looked at it as a cultural phenomenon as

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The major op-ed in Monday's Post, by editorial editor Fred Hiatt, was titled, “The Fight to Defend Democracy,” implying American democracy is imperiled by a Trump presidency. The Post's lead editorial, “An un-American Registry,” compares a suggestion of Trump aides to build a registry of Muslim

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Special BYCU, Black Wednesday, edition coming tomorrow. As of this writing, I don't know what I'll drink about, but I'm sure something will come to me. Message to Englanders: Start pumping out boys! It's like London is the opposite

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I don't like dogs. Well, I thought I didn't like dogs. After my trip to London, it appears I don't like American dogs. I don't like American dogs because they invade my space: my ears with their barking, my heart

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If the media had bothered to publicize the fact that Rodney King had two partners with him who didn't get beaten by police that fateful night because they obeyed orders to stay on the ground rather than repeatedly getting up and attacking them like King did, the Los

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To test Twitter's ideological bias, someone calling himself “Albert Dumbledore” posted the following two tweets under different accounts and then reported them to Twitter as abusive: I fucking hate white people and their inconsiderate asses for voting for Trump. Fuck you. I fucking hate black people and their

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> Marine Le Pen Takes Huge Lead https://t.co/FH6xyy6SU9 > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) November 20, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/800414015574933508]

Sunday

The UK reaction to Trump: Wow! If I gave you a blow-by-blow account, this post would stumble into thousands of words, so here are the highlights. First, when we left Detroit Metro, it just started to look like Trump could pull it off. Florida had apparently gone Trump, and it

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My favorite song for a spell when I was about eight years old. I listened to that 45 over and over. I think it leaked into my subconscious, hence the typo in the Saturday post.

Saturday

Here's Marie in front of Big Ben, last Saturday evening. After Mass at Winchester Westminster Cathedral, we bought a few cans of gin-and-tonic (a nifty product that I haven't seen in the States) and walked along the Thames. Our entire time in England was enjoyable, but

Friday

Well, I made it to the Inklings hangout. The current owners capitalize on the connection, but tastefully so. If you find yourself in southern England, I would definitely recommend a trip to Oxford and lunch at the Eagle and Child. The food was very good (as far as British food

Thursday

We got home a few hours ago, following a 20+-hour travel ordeal. I'm among the walking dead right now, but wanted to take a moment to post this picture from Merton College (where Tolkien taught and spent many, many hours). He lived in the building behind me,

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But of course, I will be traveling to Beaconsfield to see GKC's home. I've been reading about it for years in Gilbert Magazine and it appears it's on 40, which is the route we're taking for a day trip to Oxford.

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I have every expectation of taking in lunch and beer here: The Eagle and Child Pub, where the Inklings gathered on Tuesdays to drink beer and discuss loftier things [http://catholicexchange.com/cs-lewis-and-the-tao]. My goal is to make it here on Tuesday, but since we're supposed to be

Paris

Today is our day trip to Paris. To be honest, I've never much wanted to see Paris. Unlike London, which I intuitively acquaint with Chesterton, Dickens, and Mary Poppin, I intuitively acquaint Paris with the French Revolution, rudeness, and ineffective arm deodorant. Nonetheless, it is a major city

Sunday

Our hotel isn't far from Westminster Cathedral [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Cathedral]. Hopefully, this morning will find me at Mass there. I'd rather go to Mass at Westminster Abbey, but of course, it hasn't been returned to the RCC after Henry VIII&

Saturday

While looking for pubs in Camden (where we're staying), I saw a list of "pubs" and a separate list of "bars." I didn't know there was a difference, but apparently there is. Here's a comparison chart [http://www.diffen.com/

Friday

God willing, you're reading this while I'm in England, celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary with Marie. We are staying in Camden [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Borough_of_Camden]. We are very close to the Charles Dickens Museum [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens_

Op-Ed

St. Dann You ever notice how many saints die of drug overdoses? It's amazing. A newspaper article will recount a man or woman's last days in a way that makes the person sound sweeter than St. Francis, and then, buried in the middle of the article,

London

"St. Pancras is believed to be the first Christian church in England, established by Augustine himself, and is reported to contain the last bell which was able to toll during the Mass." Peter Ackroyd. Later this month, I'll be staying in the heart of St. Pancras.

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Last Saturday presented yet another example of why neo-Prohibition tactics are harmful. Our school sponsored its annual big fundraiser (chicken dinner and raffle party). For years, a parishioner donated a bottle of wine for every table, with the result that people got smashed people loosened up a

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Do-it-yourself standing desk [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/5bkkjz/my_coworker_decided_he_wanted_a_standing_desk/] .

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling My son wrote a college-admission essay. It was about why he values his Catholic faith. I told him that wasn't a good idea, given higher education's ensconcement in the far left. "You might as well," I told him, "write an essay

Sunday

The Amish don't quite "get" it. From a real (not online) magazine cover:

Saturday

Bullets I met Marie thirty years ago today. We met in a bar. She was 18 and needed someone to buy her alcohol. I was 20 and had a fake i.d. Thirty years . . . and many bars . . . later, we're still together. Upset alert: Michigan: Maryland is playing tough

Friday

BYCU This story has it all [http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/amid-disappointing-sales-bud-light-calls-early-end-its-rogen-schumer-campaign-174341] : Bud Lite doing poorly and its ads with the lamentable Amy Schumer doing poorly.

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling "Since the first debate, there's a sharp drop in undecided voters in the polling averages. As people make up their minds, Trump is up and Libertarian Gary Johnson is down [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/01/as-people-make-up-their-minds-trump-is-up-and-johnsons-down/] ." Makes sense. Gary

Wednesday

Not a bad All Saints Day harvest: On top of these harvest remnants, we have oodles and oodles of lettuce, spinach, and kale.

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling "Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable in itself. We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell with the spirits of the blessed, to join the assembly of patriarchs,

Halloween

Miscellaneous Rambling Another Halloween is upon us. And my streak of 21 straight years of trick-or-treating is getting snapped. Meg (15) wants to take Max (13) and Tess (11) out tonight. I thought the little kids would be disappointed, but no. I think their reaction was, "Okay. Doesn'

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> How rotten this administration is to the core when the attorney general takes the Fifth to avoid incrimination https://t.co/EuVmAFk4JT > — Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) October 29, 2016 [https://twitter.com/DineshDSouza/status/792476966293217281] Everyone, remember what the Fifth Amendment says: no person "shall be

Wow. Giving Me Faith in Black America

Sunday

> In order to live the religious life in any of its forms, exterior silence is indispensable: https://t.co/JJv8vXzavx > — Sophia Inst. Press (@SophiaInsPress) October 28, 2016 [https://twitter.com/SophiaInsPress/status/792037028233940992]

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> As prophetic as it was cutting. Tolkien's response when the Nazis asked whether he had Jewish ancestors. https://t.co/Zliq7UpggN > — Daniel Hannan (@DanielJHannan) October 28, 2016 [https://twitter.com/DanielJHannan/status/792030431210311680]

Drink Yuengling

> Beer drinkers tap out on Yuengling after owner endorses Trump https://t.co/fVTwXQnD0R > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 29, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/792159932925829125]

Friday

BYCU As TDE readers know, I'm enjoying the cocktailing fad. But at some point, the drinks pass from craftsmanship to self-indulgence, kinda like the way weightlifting goes from the pursuit of health to running your hands over your oh-so-beautiful pecs. Exhibit A: Most of the drinks featured a

Viewing Tonight

At 8 p.m. ET, Thursday, Oct. 27, EWTN's “The World Over” with Host Raymond Arroyo will air an exclusive interview with Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, which will be of interest to people across the United States. “He reveals the reason he switched his position on the

Thursday

Well, if you don't mind the feline reference for the nether region, Taki has put up a couple of good pieces this week: "Martin Luther King, _________ Grabber [http://takimag.com/article/martin_luther_king_pussy_grabber_kathy_shaidle#axzz4OEu83yPZ] ." A local school teacher said she couldn&

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> The Week of Maximum Overdrive https://t.co/0y5zOOBqmB > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 27, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/791446730000699397]

Wednesday

I honestly don't know what to think, but I'm predicting a big victory. I just don't know who is going to win. Here is my unfounded theory: The Democrats know they're in big trouble. Here's what we know: Their primaries

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Football and Politics Michigan keeps chugging along and OSU loses to Pedophile State University . . . a team Michigan beat 49-10 a few weeks ago. Time for the Michigan faithful to get cocky? Nope: the road to the playoffs still runs through Columbus. And besides, Michigan must still travel to

Sunday

An Establishment in Panic [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/10/21/an_establishment_in_panic_132123.html] . What do people do, Buchanan asks, when the establishment rigs the system? They rebel, and that's why the establishment is panicking, now that Trump is pointing out that the establishment

Saturday

Another must-read from this week: The Cave Man Versus the Borg Queen [https://stream.org/cave-man-versus-borg-queen/]. Excerpt: > Trump knows that men can be dogs because he has for decades been one. He knows that businessmen will take whatever advantage the law allows them because he has done so. He&

Friday

BYCU I bounced from my house, to a block party, to my new favorite watering hole last Saturday, starting with gin and tonics, switching to wine, then finishing (unwisely) with a new concoction I'd never even heard of: liquid marijuana. It was great. It looks harder to make

Thursday

And Yet More Miscellaneous Rambling Yes, day four of Miscellaneous Ramblings. I've been told people like this feature. If you're not one of them, my apologies. If you don't like the feature, please email me. And for that matter, if you like it, please

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling "Scenes From The Apocalypse" - Mass Immigration Ruins The Streets Of France. [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-14/scenes-apocalypse-mass-immigration-ruins-streets-france] Unbelievable video footage. [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-14/scenes-apocalypse-mass-immigration-ruins-streets-france] The number one rule everyone needs to understand about immigration: Immigration without assimilation is conquest. Or,

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling This is hands-down the best analysis I've seen of the Trump craze [http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/] (PG-13 language). Highly, highly recommended. Excerpt: "Blacks riot, Muslims set bombs, gays spread AIDS, Mexican cartels behead children, atheists tear down Christmas trees. Meanwhile, those liberal Lena

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> Northern Michigan colors pic.twitter.com/my744JLXT6 [https://t.co/my744JLXT6] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 15, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/787381090885435392] Northwestern lower peninsula, near Traverse City, yesterday. The color is good, but not great. A testament to our warm fall.

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> Alan Yuen: > "A fearless heart is free of desire . . . > â–#Zen [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Zen?src=hash] #Buddhism [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Buddhism?src=hash] #quotes [https://twitter.com/hashtag/quotes?src=hash]pic.twitter.com/0X9A2RtDgC [https://t.co/0X9A2RtDgC] > — Zen Proverbs (@ZenProverbs)

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Gosh, I hope these realtors are just joking around:

Friday

> Lets go! The 1st set of brands to be confirmed for the Manchester Rum Festival include @ChairmansUK [https://twitter.com/ChairmansUK] & Admiral Rodney of St Lucia Distillers! pic.twitter.com/yfQWAO931u [https://t.co/yfQWAO931u] > — Manchester Rum Fest (@McrRumFestival) October 14, 2016 [https://twitter.com/McrRumFestival/status/

Thursday

Must read from Matt Walsh about the Wikileaks. [https://m.facebook.com/MattWalshBlog/posts/1317997811566659] At first, I thought maybe Walsh was merely exaggerating, but his version is at least partially corroborated by WaPo [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/12/wikileaks-emails-show-clinton-spokeswoman-joking-about-catholics-and-evangelicals/] . EWTN News article [http://www.

Wednesday

Yet More Miscellaneous Rambling Yesterday, I wrote that phrase, "available at Amazon," with a pang of guilt. I don't know if you've noticed it or not, but Catholic apostolates have been "guilting" supporters into buying books from their sites instead of from

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling It's the feast day of St. Theophanes the Branded. And man, his death is as grueling as his name implies. Geesh [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophanes_the_Branded]. Tommorow, incidentally, the Eastern Orthodox honor St. Symeon the New Theologian. Though not a saint in

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Here's an intelligent no-holds-barred perspective not to be missed [http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/97513.htm]. It's by a Russian Orthodox priest, and I first found it at Rod Dreher's post, The Whip of God [https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-whip-of-god-muslim-migrants/] . Excerpt:

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Yup, it was a lewd conversation, not remotely acceptable . . . and not remotely surprising. But Trump supporter and social conservative Tony Perks said it best, "My personal support for Donald Trump has never been based upon shared values.” > Christians desperately clinging to Trump not a sign of lack of

Oops

"Ruth's Chris Steak House in Ann Arbor started a promotion last week giving Michigan fans a percentage off their total food bill equal to the final winning point differential." Link [http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2016/10/09/michigan-football-rutgers-notes/91818548/] . Michigan: 78

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> There's a reason Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully kept mentioning God during his farewell tour – GetReligion https://t.co/wyilCy82dL > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 8, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/784704463277875200]

Friday

BYCU: Bullets **Rough night last night. I was home with my two youngest, waiting for Marie to bring Jack home from college. I decided to experiment with new vodka concoctions. They all sucked. I first tried vodka, blue curacao, and 7-Up (a poor man's Electric Lemonade). It was

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> Autumn Ocean pic.twitter.com/6SRY4EryvP [https://t.co/6SRY4EryvP] > — Ellen Fraher (@ellenfraher) October 6, 2016 [https://twitter.com/ellenfraher/status/784157824783937540]

Thursday

“There are two things you should know about the poor: they tend to smell, and they are ungrateful.” I remembered those words by Dorothy Day as I walked through my community garden plot yesterday, discovering that some dirt bag had stolen half of my winter squash: my non-gmo, organically-fertilized winter

Wednesday

Sir Gavin unleashes the Pen of Truth yet again: "Now, obviously we're angry at the Muslims responsible. Dahir Adan was the Somalian who did the stabbings in Minnesota, while Afghan Ahmad Khan Rahami appears to be responsible for the ten bombs surrounding NYC. They were both immigrants

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling St. Francis' feast day today. One of my favorite anecdotes: St. Francis journeyed to Egypt in the middle of the Fifth Crusade and walked into Saracen territory to convert the “Soldan of Babylon” (the Muslim ruler of Egypt and the Holy Land), even though the Soldan

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling This was wardrobe-changover weekend. For a large family, we live in a small house. Only 2,100 square feet, a "hardship" that is significantly alleviated by an additional 2,100 square feet of living space in the basement but alleviated enough. The result: Marie and my

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> Things I trust more than Hillary and Trump pic.twitter.com/gEhVzDCPSw [https://t.co/gEhVzDCPSw] > — Meninist (@MeninistTweet) October 1, 2016 [https://twitter.com/MeninistTweet/status/782283220826009600]

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The Month of the Saints: Lisieux, Francis, Avila, Bruno, Ignatius of Antioch, Luke, Anthony Claret, Simon, Jude, John Paul the Great, and John XXIII.

Saturday

Great police report. Note: I haven't verified the reliability:

Friday

Wednesday was "National Drink Beer Day." Wednesday isn't a bad drinking day. When I was in college, it was Number 3 on list of party days (Friday, Saturday, Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Monday, Sunday . . . at least in my cloudy estimation/recollection). But still, you'd think

Thursday

"The reality of scheming, planning, wondering, planning, uncertainty as to what to do. The lot of most people. It occupies so much of one's thoughts, one can well see how people can think these days so little of God." Day "It is so hard to

Wednesday

Gavin McInnes makes an interesting assertion: Inner-city life isn't dangerous [http://takimag.com/article/rioting_the_unbeatable_high_gavin_mcinnes/print#axzz4LMpFjYt7] . It's non-stop fun and adolescent behavior, and the riots are merely the ultimate high. I think he overstates the case, but he has a

Tuesday

Funny stuff. PG-13.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling If you missed it, Bishop Chaput's lecture earlier this month at Notre Dame is a must read [http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/politics-and-the-church/sex-family-and-the-liberty-of-the-church.html] . Excerpt: "But here's my larger point: We've reached a moment when our political thinking and

White Net Attacks Black Man

Bring in the rioters > Kicking net 1, Odell Beckham 0 https://t.co/b2sZ76tFoP > — Barely In Bounds (@BarelyIn) September 25, 2016 [https://twitter.com/BarelyIn/status/780132013638610944]

Saturday

It's only a matter of time until we kill in the name of goodness. Oh wait, we've been doing that on a massive scale for the past 150 years. > Want to Slow Climate Change? Stop Having Babies, Bioethicist Travis Rieder Says - Bloomberg https://t.

BYCU

Brews You Can Use: Bites I drank a lot of mojito last Saturday evening. It gave me a pretty bad hangover, considering that I stopped drinking early and pounded about fifty ounces of water afterwards. I don't know if it was the rum or other factors at play.

Thursday

> What we have been seeing worldwide, from India to the UK to the US, is the rebellion against the inner circle of no-skin-in-the-game policymaking “clerks” and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts with some Ivy league, Oxford-Cambridge, or similar label-driven education who are telling the rest of us

Wednesday

Skittles or immigrants? I'm not sure what the fuss is about. Was the analogy flawed? Of course: all analogies are, by their nature, flawed, or else they wouldn't be analogies. Was the analogy "disgusting" or inhuman, as Democrats and liberal Catholics [https://twitter.com/

Tuesday

I have to spend one day every year, working at my service club's food booth at the county fair. Every year, I find the chore exhausting, and I don't know why. It's not hard work, the people are nice, and it's a

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Okay, I'm now "all in" with Trump: Donald Trump just unveiled a huge tax break for stay-at-home moms [https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/game-changer-donald-trump-just-unveiled-a-huge-tax-break-for-stay-at-home-m?utm_source=LifePetitions+petition+signers&utm_campaign=bae5c98dff-Petitions_List_Family_9_159_15_2016&utm_medium=email&

This coulda been me as a young man

> The story behind the most popular post card of all time. https://t.co/5fyqm9JTtA ”¦ pic.twitter.com/uCjLQIzbuG [https://t.co/uCjLQIzbuG] > — Bob Toomey (@bob_toomey) September 18, 2016 [https://twitter.com/bob_toomey/status/777592540405047297]

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I have his two exorcism books from Ignatius Press, but I've never been able to get into them: > Rome's exorcist, Father Gabriel Amorth, dies at age 91 -via @cnalive [https://twitter.com/cnalive] https://t.co/u5Yb1Psk4K > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) September 18, 2016

Swiping at the 1960s Ahead of Time

> One of the strangest delusions of the Western mind is to the effect that a philosophy of profound wisdom is on tap in the East // @laotzunit [https://twitter.com/LaoTzunit] > — HL Mencken (@HLMenckenBot) September 16, 2016 [https://twitter.com/HLMenckenBot/status/776692122564988929]

Friday

BYCU I've never had a zombie, much tried to mix one myself. It looks like a remarkably-complicated drink. You can find its history and the two alleged originals recipes here [http://drinkwire.liquor.com/post/rise-of-the-zombie-cocktail_1376529006?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=sf#gs.F4LVCVw] . Excerpt: >

Rodney

One of the funniest five minutes of late night ever. PG-13.

Wednesday

Yet More Miscellaneous Rambling I really like Gavin McInnes. I find his quality uneven, but he was on fire with this piece: Lena Dunham Killed Phyllis Stewart Schlafly [http://takimag.com/article/lena_dunham_killed_phyllis_stewart_schlafly_gavin_mcinnes/print#axzz4JZXSQMj0] . "Young girls look up to [Lena Dunham]

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I feel fortunate that, so far, all seven of my children seem to be turning out alright. Don't get me wrong: I'm not cocky. I know one could make a terrible mistake or go rogue quickly. But then again, I think I have a

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The fall garden is in: peas, lettuce, and spinach . . . and lots of 'em. New features: two portable coldframes that will hopefully let me keep getting lettuce and other cold-hardy greens until late December. I put one cold frame in the front yard. It was a revolution, with

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> Tiny living: this house is only 160 square feet https://t.co/qm7UIefOi1 pic.twitter.com/S4fcnDeHqo [https://t.co/S4fcnDeHqo] > — Forbes (@Forbes) September 11, 2016 [https://twitter.com/Forbes/status/775061355065901057]

Friday

BYCU It might not technically be brews you can use, but video games are kind of the 21st-century counterpart to 19th-century opium, so this is kinda BYCU appropriate. Plus, it's an interesting development: College bringing gamers on board as varsity athletes [http://www.toledoblade.com/Education/2016/08/

Thursday

"Contemporary, peer-reviewed medical studies of near-death experiences provide convincing evidence of our spiritual nature. We have a spiritual dimension (like a transphysical soul) that leaves our bodies after clinical death. This 'soul' has the capacity to see, hear, remember, recall, think, feel emotions, and be self-conscious. Furthermore,

RIP

> 1973: Schlafly's a nut for saying men will share public restrooms w/ women. 2016: Schlafly's a nut for opposing men using women's restrooms. > — Joe Carter (@joecarter) September 6, 2016 [https://twitter.com/joecarter/status/772972349910085632]

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Another crazy weekend closes out another crazy summer. We moved Jack back to school on Saturday, dug up potatoes Sunday morning, then hung out with Marie's brother and his family on a pontoon boat just a quarter inch from the Indiana border. The latter was accompanied

Happy Labor Day

It's gotta be the most melancholy holiday of the year. Enjoy. > Things are lovely in Santa Barbara today. pic.twitter.com/jMfQuHYouy [https://t.co/jMfQuHYouy] > — Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo) September 2, 2016 [https://twitter.com/SteveMartinToGo/status/771746755054493696]

A Modern Masterpiece

The book is great, too: David Scott, A Revolution of Love [http://amzn.to/2bMZkhy]

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> Anger snowballs into anger, calm snowballs into calm. https://t.co/CZkqeqsXx0 > — Daily Zen (@dailyzen) August 28, 2016 [https://twitter.com/dailyzen/status/769984650068590592]

Friday

Brews You Can Use The summer wraps up. As always, it's been a long, hectic one, but I'm sad to see it come to an end. Fortunately, I'm an autumn fan. I love everything about the fall: good sleeping weather, the color, cooler days,

Thursday

In honor of the last good drinking weekend of the summer, I'm running back-to-back drinking items. This one isn't really "BYCU." Rather, it's brews you could've used . . . back before the 18th Amendment was repealed: 10 Fascinating Facts About Prohibition Speakeasies

Wednesday

Sowell's latest, writing about the University of Chicago's resistance to the PC Fascists and its history of bucking conventional idiocy [https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/08/thomas-sowell/pushback-campus-cultural-marxism/] . Excerpt: > At Harvard, not only have invited speakers been shouted down and sometimes assaulted, even a Harvard

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Heard on "Open Line Wednesday" with Mitch Pacwa: St. Jerome struggled with lust. Every time he was tempted, he studied Hebrew. He became perhaps the greatest Hebrew scholar over the course of 1,500 years. If a few bright men applied the same principles to their

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling My two youngest start school today. Michigan public schools don't start until September 6th, but my diocese has apparently yielded to the largely fictional notion that more schooling equals better schooling, which is like concluding that, the more you eat, the stronger you get. Don'

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> Because who better to represent "happily ever after"? pic.twitter.com/qF9rewga7z [https://t.co/qF9rewga7z] > — Joanna Wyld (@notesuponnotes) August 23, 2016 [https://twitter.com/notesuponnotes/status/768143944127488000]

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> Without submission to concrete authorities, the self becomes its own magisterium–But this is a lonely and sad thing.https://t.co/8I8eI15eeQ > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) August 27, 2016 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/769565238379241472] > The Nones' reluctance to commit to organized religion may also stem

Friday

Hopelessly behind in life and office, so no time for blogging today. Just this quip to keep in mind as you try to live Escriva's injunction to make life more pleasant for others while drinking with them this weekend: “Never make people laugh. If you would succeed in

Thursday

One of those passages worth pondering: "One of the troubles with love is that it gets buried in the debris of life." Dorothy Day

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity by Nabeel Qureshi. He was interviewed by Al Kresta on Monday. I learned a fair amount. Among other things, he believes jihad is here to stay. He also said some first-century Jews understood the godhead as a plurality . . . like

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Tuesday

My favorite Evelyn Waugh quote. If memory serves, he was explaining how he could be both a devout Catholic and such an unpleasant individual: > “Without supernatural aid I would hardly be a human being.” - Evelyn Waugh > My latest at Aleteia.#evelynwaugh [https://twitter.com/hashtag/evelynwaugh?src=

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The vegetable gardening dopamine find of the year: potato harvesting. This is the first year that I've grown potatoes, and I've just started "digging my hills." Well, I am digging 'em: shovel out dirt, kneel down, look for potatoes. When you

Low Tunnels

Feel Good Story of the Month

> Waiter tipped $500 for act of kindness https://t.co/mmyGsOPY0K pic.twitter.com/VACbq7JOA1 [https://t.co/VACbq7JOA1] > — WESH 2 News (@WESH) August 20, 2016 [https://twitter.com/WESH/status/766953185370046465]

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> "I know for a fact Ryan Lochte got robbed, my girlfriend was there and saw the whole thing."- Manti Te'o pic.twitter.com/PtEJZcGmhQ [https://t.co/PtEJZcGmhQ] > — Fake SportsCenter (@FakeSportsCentr) August 18, 2016 [https://twitter.com/FakeSportsCentr/status/766350960083996673]

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> The amazing backdrop scenery to the vineyards of Mendoza in Argentina! #wine [https://twitter.com/hashtag/wine?src=hash] pic.twitter.com/CMXhOyFAWf [https://t.co/CMXhOyFAWf] > — The Wine Wankers (@winewankers) August 18, 2016 [https://twitter.com/winewankers/status/766424050197377024]

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> Lovely present from our house guests this week! German gin... pic.twitter.com/hQYcsbaZAM [https://t.co/hQYcsbaZAM] > — Leah Hyslop (@LeahHyslop) August 18, 2016 [https://twitter.com/LeahHyslop/status/766390091359158272]

Great Pic

> They're all winners. #USALager [https://twitter.com/hashtag/USALager?src=hash] pic.twitter.com/vjlyqFjp0y [https://t.co/vjlyqFjp0y] > — Yuengling Brewery (@Yuengling_Beer) August 18, 2016 [https://twitter.com/Yuengling_Beer/status/766390474772877312]

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> You can legally kill as many Bigfoots as you want in Texas - 10 Bizarre Legal Actions Regarding Mythical Creatures https://t.co/MqL3kEU62H > — Listverse (@listverse) August 17, 2016 [https://twitter.com/listverse/status/765745110873214976] "In Texas it is perfectly legal to kill Bigfoot. It started with

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I watched two rounds of Olympic boxing last night. I knew nothing about the fighters. I had the sound off. I told Max, "Man, this dude from the United States is just destroying this guy." At the end of the third round, the judges gave it

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling "[R]esearch indicates that young men with less than a four-year degree (according to virtually all data, that's an increasing number) are spending their days unemployed and unmarried, but not un-amused. “The hours that they are not working have been replaced almost one-for-one with leisure

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling When . . . will . . . this . . . [expletive] . . . humidity . . . break? I don't know when the last time was that we saw such a run of muggy days. I'm absolutely swamped at the office, and i really don't mind. I kinda feel like it's January:

Saturday

Autobiographical Corner A most-agreeable day yesterday: 7:15 to 8:30: work 8:30 to 9:15: mass 9:15 to 11:45: work 11:45 to 2:45: exercise, lunch, nap 2:45 to 6:30: work with two short breaks and period for rosary 6:30 to 7:

Friday

Brews You Can Use: Bullets ***That mojito I drank last Friday night during the opening ceremonies was killer: freshly-squeezed lime juice, simple syrup, muddled mint leaves (plucked fresh from my garden) white rum, and club soda. I really, really liked it. ***Last night, I tried the lazy man's

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling The cultural bludgeoning continues, the likes of which haven't been seen since early 1930s Germany: 25 LGBT groups send letter to Big 12 urging it to shun BYU [http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/25-lgbt-groups-send-letter-to-big-12-urging-it-to-shun-byu-080816] . Whatta wild swing of the pendulum it's been. If

Wednesday

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Found at a garage sale for $2: The Psychology of the Saints by Henri Joli. Not found: Any meaningful information about the book. I'm guessing it's a classic, but there's a dearth of web discussion out there. If you know anything about

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Olympics We're enjoying the Olympics so far. The Roku helps a lot. I get to see a lot of sports that NBC doesn't show on the network (which might be why their ratings are so bad this year [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-olympic-competition-opens-917873]

The World's Most Useless Job

Saturday

I watched the opening ceremonies last night. I greatly enjoyed it. Of course, that could've been the eight shots of rum mixed in the form of a MOJITO, but regardless, it was good. I hate to admit it, but I had rum-fueled tears when Greece marched in first.

Friday

BYCU The Kalamazoo Gazette ranked its top ten new breweries in Michigan [http://www.mlive.com/dining/index.ssf/2016/08/michigans_best_new_brewery_our_2.html#30] . Pretty interesting list that illustrates the booming phenom that is craft beer. Number one hails from Frankenmuth, Michigan, which long-time TDE

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling Gavin McInnes on Dinesh D'Souza on Hillary [http://takimag.com/article/dinesh_dsouzas_america_gavin_mcinnes#axzz4GJhp1mIW]. Good stuff. [http://takimag.com/article/dinesh_dsouzas_america_gavin_mcinnes#axzz4GJhp1mIW] Not a bad little piece, if you're into Farmer's Almanac stuff: 28 Pieces

Wednesday

If you haven't jumped on the Fr. Robert Spitzer bus yet, ya better get on it. He has written what might be the most important apologetics work of the new millennium: > "[G]iven the incredible fine-tuning that must have been present at the Big Bang (the

Tuesday

Crime and Politics Steve Sailer is always worth reading. In his most-recent piece, he recounts the rise, fall, and rise of crime in New York City . . . pointing out that it consistently rises with liberal mayors: > During New York's 1946”“58 Yogi Berra Golden Age, the city never

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Back to the grind. Ten days in northern Michigan. I'll try to write about it later. From last week's comments box: "YouTube has great interviews with Walter Hooper, personal secretary to Lewis." I'll have to check it out. I believe

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> "A room without books is like a body without a soul." - Marcus Tullius Cicero pic.twitter.com/hhg8HTrGaC [https://t.co/hhg8HTrGaC] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) July 30, 2016 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/759398846170562560]

Friday

Returning from vacation today. Nine days in Alpena, Michigan, and the Upper Peninsula. Splendid trip. If you get up there, I highly recommend Munising and its Falling Rock Cafe. No drinking, just nice fun. Live band playing classic country tunes, good sandwiches, board games, books for sale, lattes. And a

Thursday

While on vacation this week: > Tess and I had a viciously tight game of Trouble pic.twitter.com/p1EDvWKC20 [https://t.co/p1EDvWKC20] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) July 24, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/757326692679577600]

Wednesday

St. Johnny Appleseed: "[T]here is a Russian saying that if a man plants 3 trees in his life he will never go to hell." Dorothy Day. Of course, according to The Smithsonian [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/real-johnny-appleseed-brought-applesand-booze-american-frontier-180953263/?no-ist] , Johnny wasn't a saint. He was

Tuesday

"Kirk first encountered the Shroud [of Turin] while offhandedly visiting the Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista in Torino, Italy, in 1957 when he attended a Mont Pelerin Society conference. Here, he claimed, he encountered the face of God. 'The face was wondrously distinct, almost accurate as a plaster

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling That Kirk quote yesterday got me thinking about George Gissing's The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft. It's a beautiful little book, one that tugs at every wannabe nerd who can't be that nerd because the affairs of the world keep him strapped

Saturday

My brother-in-law got this handbill while in Chicago last weekend: "The Most Reluctant Convert [https://fpatheatre.com/production/the-most-reluctant-convert/]." It's showing in Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Tulsa (Tulsa?). If I were going to Chicago, I'd definitely check it out. Also intriguing: C.S.

Friday

BYCU Interesting introduction to absinthe: "THE NOTORIOUS ABSINTHE, which scandalized late 19th-century Europe, was embraced by the literary and artistic cafÃ© society of the mid-1800s. Purportedly addictive, it was the drink of choice for artists, writers, and poets, most notably Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Rimbaud, and Verlaine.

Thursday

That new Russell Kirk biography features extended descriptions of the thought of Irving Babbitt, Paul Elmer More, Albert Jay Nock, and Isabel Paterson (four figures who greatly influenced Kirk). I'm only part way through the first one (Babbitt), greatly enjoying it, and really looking forward to the description

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Interesting piece about one of the only sites I visit every day: the Drudge Report [http://www.businessinsider.com/drudge-report-trump-2016-7]. It says Drudge may have been able to stop Trump. I found the story linked at . . . Excerpt: "Last week, SimilarWeb, an analytics firm, ranked the Drudge Report

Tuesday

I haven't seen Gilbert Meilaender's name for awhile: > It is right to want to live longer, if we don't want life simply for its own sake. https://t.co/MS5HrJEEHr > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) July 17, 2016 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/754805387472228352]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling A TDE reader referred me to a David Warren piece [https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2016/07/09/sacralizing-violence/]. David used to write for Gilbert Magazine, back before the days I became editor. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed his work. Great line from that Warren piece: "

Ride on, Target, Ride on!

> A transgender “woman” was arrested for secretly taking pictures of a woman in a @Target [https://twitter.com/Target] dressing room. pic.twitter.com/1VemXt0I3h [https://t.co/1VemXt0I3h] > — The Stream (@Streamdotorg) July 17, 2016 [https://twitter.com/Streamdotorg/status/754812959352684544]

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> Thomas Sowell: 2 Cherished Myths in the War on Cops https://t.co/f5v6cPW9Ld @billhobbs [https://twitter.com/billhobbs] pic.twitter.com/LEn5Xw1g4K [https://t.co/LEn5Xw1g4K] > — The Stream (@Streamdotorg) July 13, 2016 [https://twitter.com/Streamdotorg/status/753194692737585152]

Saturday

BYCU The red currant-infused vodka was . . . alright. It was pretty sour. I first tried it with unsweetened cranberry juice and a splash of lime. That was way too sour. I then tried it with the juice and cranberry Sprite. That was better, but still too sour. I then tried it

Friday

BYCU Well, I stumble into Friday. Hands-down the worst two weeks of my professional career. I've clocked more hours sleeping on my office floor than I care to count, and if I see the sun come up from my office one more time, I'll vomit. So

Thursday

Other than some mesclun [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesclun] blends I really like and some red lettuces, I'm not sure I'll ever grow any lettuce than Black Seeded Simpson. It's more nutritious than many lettuces, I never see it in stores (I'

Wednesday

Shows my ignorance. From that Russell Kirk biography I mentioned yesterday: "Marjorie Rachel Pierce Kirk gave birth to her son, Russell Amos, on October 19, 1918, in a prefabricated house, ordered originally from Sears, Roebuck, and Co., in Plymouth, Michigan, and built by his grandfather in 1913, but with

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Here's a unique Top Ten list: Top 10 Catholic Cities, USA From sea to shining sea, these communities exude the Faith in their history, landscape and cultures [https://www.osv.com/osvnewsweekly/byissue/article/tabid/735/artmid/13636/articleid/9926/top-10-catholic-cities-usa.aspx] . Unfortunately, I've

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling One of the more interesting stories out of the Far East this year: Duterte anti-drug vigilantes kill 100 in seven weeks [http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asean/1031673/nine-more-killed-in-dutertes-war] . The Philippine Daily Inquirer has been compiling its own "kill list" of suspected criminals. It showed 119

Sunday

Nice little piece about one of those songs I've always enjoyed but not enough to buy. That might change. July marks the song's 50-year anniversary. 50 Years Ago, This Catholic Wrote a Song That Made the Beatles Jealous [http://m.ncregister.com/daily-news/catholic-songwriters-walk-with-musical-success/#.V4JHt1WrTnB]

Saturday

Zero Hedge, on the first identified shooter: "However, something else that has emerged and is now confirmed regarding Thursday night's attack, which the police described as a carefully planned and executed ambush, is that according to Dallas Police Chief David Brown, who said that during the exchange

Friday

Brews You Can Use Really jammed these days at the office. Just a bit of "drinking news" for today: "31 Year Old Hedge Funder Trashes $20 Million Hamptons Mansion In Wild Midget-Tossing Party, Is Fired [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-07/31-year-old-hedge-funder-trashes-20-million-hamptons-mansion-wild-midget-tossing-par] ." Excerpt: "[O]ver

Thursday

I'm floored, absolutely floored, that The Washington Post ran a brutally honest piece like this: > Hillary Clinton's email problems might be even worse than we thought - The Washington Post https://t.co/K38fHifg1s > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) July 6, 2016 [https://twitter.com/

Wednesday

From the Gardening Journals I worked hard to turn my garden into a system of sorts. I have a potting station with an always-ready assortment of potting/soil materials. I have pots of every size. I have work gloves and knee pads and hand shovels scattered throughout the garden. I

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Expect a fair amount of London and English history references over the next year or so. Marie and I are going to London for our 25th wedding anniversary. I'm listening to the Great Courses' lectures on early medieval English history, and I am going to

Happy Fourth

Enjoy today and the resulting four-day week.

Sunday

"The hostages were given a test: recite verses from the Quran, or be punished, according to a witness. Those who passed were allowed to eat. Those who failed were slain." Yahoo News AP Story [https://www.yahoo.com/news/commandos-storm-dhaka-restaurant-6-attackers-dead-13-050930701.html] . Are the Elites and Leftists ever going

Saturday

Rush explains why Hillary won't be [http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/07/01/we_re_being_played_by_the_clintons] indicted. He's spot on: > These are Democrats first. I know people want to believe that we still have people who will still put institutions

BYCU

Summer Tom Blues There ain't no cure for the Summer Tom [hangover] Blues . . . Black raspberries grow wild in my neighborhood. I met with the vodka master yesterday morning, and he told me black raspberries would probably work great in lieu of blueberries. He was right. I mixed up

Thursday

"It is human to need the Sabbath. The U.S. military found this out the hard way back in the 1940s. In order to make ambitious quotas, the government asked its munitions plants to extend the workweek to seven days, round the clock. Most plants complied, but some didn&

Wednesday

"My love of peace and quiet inclines me always to want to do nothing. This drag to take my ease is like the pull of gravity. Will it always be so? My first impulse is always to say no. God forgive me for this unwillingness which pollutes all my

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling World Youth Day 2016 starts next month. My daughter Abbie still gets elated, thinking about her experience in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. I never knew what exactly to think about WYD, but after seeing its effects first-hand, I endorse it. This WYD is in Krakow. This nifty

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Return from Vacation Day. It's not nearly as sad as it sounds, but then again, I worked most of Friday and a little bit on Saturday, so it's not like I'm walking back into a hell hole of uncertainty. Like most things,

Sunday

"Dwight Eisenhower, who had admired Hitler's autobahn and got one of his own: the tellingly titled National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. Cohesive working-class neighborhoods in countless American cities were sacrificed to the Road Warriors." Bill Kauffman. The destruction of Detroit's Corktown is

Saturday

The Telegraph had perhaps the best passage I read yesterday about Brexit [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/britains-decision-to-leave-the-eu-is-hillary-clintons-worst-nigh/] , in speculating what the vote could mean for Trump: > As Brexit proves, working people around the world are in no mood for common sense. They are angry, restless, uncooperative.

Seen Earlier Today at Reddit

The fire happening now in California's Lake Isabella area

Brexit Vote by Area

Interesting [http://www.bbc.com/news/politics/eu_referendum/results]. If you take Scotland (the public assistance capital of the Isles) out of the mix, it wasn't even close: 53.4% to 46.6%.

Friday

BYCU Whoa! Hot dog! The preliminary reports out of Britain were wrong!!! It's a major step away from globalization. I honestly never thought it would happen. Even if, I figured, British voters overcame the elites' marketing campaign and mustered the votes, the elites would rig the final

Dang!

Brexit fails: 52%-48%. It's not official, but that's the news leaking out of Britain.

Wednesday

"I love the Maritains for their love for St. John of the Cross." Dorothy Day. And I love Dorothy Day for her love of the Maritians for loving St. John of the Cross. And you, dear TDE reader, can love me for loving Dorothy Day for her love

Frustrating

H.I.F. "[D]espite ample evidence that Islam's tentacles were all over the Orlando attack, much of the progressive media turned the focus to guns and homophobia. This was not Islamic terrorism, they insisted, it was an NRA-enabled hate crime against gays. (In case you didn&

Tuesday

Well, I've made it official: I'm a big fan of Taki Magazine. I have now added it as a favorite to Google Chrome and iPhone Safari. I think it produces at least five great pieces a week and, more importantly, the ratio of great pieces to

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to the longest day of the year. If you want to know more about the summer solstice than I, click here [http://www.vox.com/2016/6/19/11966856/summer-solstice-2016]. So what saint can we spend the longest day of the year imitating? None. According to my

Sunday

Pretty much sums it up: Government programs = reallocation of wealth = reallocation to those closest to the people doing the reallocating.

Saturday

Bullets Curses! Trader Joe outlets in Michigan don't sell liquor! Dang. I was really looking forward to trying their Jail House Gin. The garden is in full swing. We snagged over $100 worth of strawberries, with a few quarts still left in the tank. The peas were really

Friday

I know TDE is a reward in itself: the witticisms, whimsy, erudition, humility. But once in awhile, I like to give TDE a tangle benefit. Today is that day. I learned about the vodka pictured above from a friend who used to distill and sell his own vodka. His vodka

Thursday

"The Bushies and their courtiers, who know as little of our history as Janet Jackson knows of Jane Austen, haven't the faintest idea that Republicans have often been the party of peace and non-interference in foreign wars. As President Benjamin Harrison once remarked, 'We have no

Wednesday

Ah, so it's not unique to me: "Thief, hypocrite, lacking in hospitality, charity, and brotherly love, lazy, a malingerer, expecting others to do all the work while I went traveling around the country, a liar, cheat, deceiver, perverter of Peter's teaching. People have so trembled

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling A page of my life will come to a close this week. After ten seasons as a dugout coach (actually, nine as dugout coach, one as head coach), my last regular season little league game is this Friday. I admit: I'm greatly looking forward to it.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew. Fifty dead. Unbelievable. I have nothing to add, except the obvious: America and Islam are incompatible. That doesn't mean the majority of Muslims cannot live here peaceably, but I'm not sure how we separate the good ones from the bad, so I'

Saturday

> In 1980 there were only 101 breweries in the United States. Today there are over 4000. #Progress [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Progress?src=hash] #beer [https://twitter.com/hashtag/beer?src=hash] #Murica [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Murica?src=hash] > — Drunken History (@DrunkenHistory) June 5, 2016 [https://twitter.

Friday

BYCU My small town had a stroke of good fortune this month: a new Meijer store opened up here. It's the third biggest in Michigan. I took my daughters there for our first visit Wednesday night and was greatly impressed. I don't care much for shopping,

Thursday

Caddyshack, one of my all-time favorite comedies, turned 35 yesterday. Mental Floss has published 15 interesting facts about the movie [http://mentalfloss.com/article/56693/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-caddyshack] . Excerpt: > At first, Murray's appearance as oafish groundskeeper Carl Spackler was planned as a quick cameo, but his characterization was so

Wednesday

Truth in advertising: "While there are no key details about what the filmmaker's next film will be, he will be on producing duties for a new Western that is set to shoot in Los Angeles later this month - and it's already generated vitriol through

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Versatile Gardening Tool of the Year 2016: The plastic fork. I bought a big batch of them a few years ago. Our cat was ravishing my pots and I read that, if you line the pots with plastic forks, they deter felines. It worked (though, this year, they

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling "Norway becomes first country in the world to commit to zero deforestation [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/norway-becomes-first-country-in-the-world-to-commit-to-zero-deforestation-a7064056.html] ." That's great, except if I were an environmentalist, I wouldn't be proud to have Norway in my corner. Supposedly the

PSA

> Warehouse sale: $5 and $10 Catholic Books: Sophia Institute Press. Great titles! https://t.co/uq0Mfb8hgg > — Ellen Finan (@efinan57) May 17, 2016 [https://twitter.com/efinan57/status/732564601934614528] > Catholic Book of the Month Club https://t.co/q5P0S6a1vg > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) June 4, 2016 [https:

Friday

I'm skeptical of some of the facts I read at Drunken History, but this one rings true enough for me: > Irony: experts estimate the consumption of hard liquor actually increased by 15% during prohibition and dropped 25% after repeal. > — Drunken History (@DrunkenHistory) June 1, 2016 [https:

Thursday

Can we make one thing clear? Libertarianism does not deny original sin. I was listening to a Tom Woods podcast last weekend, and he remarked that, following an online debate between a libertarian Christian and traditional Christian, the comments box filled up with traditional Christians who think libertarianism doesn'

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to June. The honeymoon with warm weather nears its end. The hell of summer heat is nigh. Sorry to be such a downer, but I detest heat. You'd think I'd be more concerned about global warming. Great piece: 15 Freewheelin' Facts About

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. Marie and the kids were gone. I spent my time "putting my garden in" (a phrase I've long disliked for some reason) and cleaning out the areas of the house and garage I had usurped for

Monday

> Why aren't Trump's critics trying to rein in the powers of the office he seeks? Excellent piece by @conor64 [https://twitter.com/conor64] https://t.co/v2UjSqUY2u > — Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) May 24, 2016 [https://twitter.com/jackhunter74/status/735083219079462912]

Sunday Miscellany

Headline of the day. That must be one strong and skilled kid: Gorilla killed after 4-year-old falls into zoo enclosure [http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2016/05/28/police-child-taken-hospital-after-falling-into-gorilla-pen/85095094/] . > Postal workers are voting on whether to strike. They mailed their ballots so we should know in about

Saturday

Whew. I'm further behind at the office than I thought. It took about three tall vodka tonics (accented with the most excellent Fee Brothers bitters) to get through my pile of stuff . . . and that was just basically cataloging and prioritizing things. I'll head back Monday to

Friday

BYCU If I were asked to nominate a nontraditional day as The Drinking Day of the Year, today might get my nod. The Friday before Memorial Day has a ton to recommend it. It is, of course, the start of a three-day weekend, which is always nice. But it'

Thursday

The farmers drove their tractors to breakfast this morning:

Wednesday

Wow. I gotta think seriously about going to this. It's at my alma mater, only 50 minutes from my driveway: Front Porch Republic Annual Conference [http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2016/05/fpr-annual-conference-october-8-university-notre-dame/] . > This year we'll be at The University of Notre Dame. The theme of

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Gardening season is obviously in full swing. I have grown from seeds all the tomatoes I'll need. I should have extra for my neighbor. My sweet pepper sprouting, as always, has been far less successful, but I think I have about a dozen seedlings that will

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Those pictures yesterday perfectly capture a project I've long thought (fantasized) about: building a local outdoor shrine. An actual "shrine," of course, requires designation by the bishop, but it'd be a shrine in intent, if not official approval. I always thought such

Sunday

Due to an odd confluence of events, I ended up going to Mass by myself at this great little church yesterday evening (well, 4:00): I then trekked ten minutes south and stopped by the memorial celebration of a long-time client of mine. I had no idea he had built

Multiply this by ten today

> “We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.”-G.Orwell pic.twitter.com/B7l1OVeCuQ [https://t.co/B7l1OVeCuQ] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) May 12, 2016 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/730860719202148352]

Friday

Dang it! I'm kicking myself. I had a pretty good BYCU planned, then got so wrapped up in gardening and drinking last night, I forgot to blog. So I'm going to save it. For today, I'm merely going to mention the Moscow Mule I

Thursday

> Precisely! Fascists just a cheap brand of envy-driven hatred for only REAL force of progress worldwide: Bourgeoisie. https://t.co/NOEi4genWR > — John Zmirak (@JZmirak) May 19, 2016 [https://twitter.com/JZmirak/status/733121821634007048] > #NeverTrump [https://twitter.com/hashtag/NeverTrump?src=hash] people act like there was nothing

Wednesday

"Prostitution is legal in Nevada but mandatory in D.C." Bill Kauffman _____________________ ". . . an isolationist America is a peaceful America; had we minded our own business, bin Laden and his deranged murderers would be as indifferent to our land as George W. Bush is to the works of

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling If my Vegas posts inspire you to visit Sin City, check out this great piece about the hipsterdom of downtown [http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/usa-long-haul/las-vegas-starts-pulling-cool-7965131] . I guess I must be a hipster at some level, though you'd hardly know it by seeing

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I really enjoy vegetable gardening, but I have a hard time justifying it if I'm merely pulling produce at the time that I can find cheap fresh-cut produce throughout my rural area at a dozen frontyard stands: 25 cents a cucumber, 20 cents a tomato, $1

Sunday

So I get back from Traverse City late yesterday afternoon, go to Mass, get dinner, and doze off on the family room floor. A local high school game of assassin wakes me at around 11:00, with a bunch of excited teenage kids coming through the house. A friend, in

Friday

I've long been jealous of whiskey drinkers and their dedicated bars. It turns out there are a growing number of rum bars. This article highlights some of the nicer ones [http://www.liquor.com/articles/rum-bars-beyond-tiki/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5731399a04d3010ab07f4f30&utm_medium=

Thursday

"The political and journalistic world can boast of very few heroes who compare with Father Damien of Molokai. The Catholic Church, on the contrary, counts by the thousands those who after the example of Fr. Damien have devoted themselves to the victims of leprosy. It is worthwhile to look

GKC Wednesday

There's something about this sketch I really like: > #drawing [https://twitter.com/hashtag/drawing?src=hash] #pencil [https://twitter.com/hashtag/pencil?src=hash] #ink [https://twitter.com/hashtag/ink?src=hash] pic.twitter.com/BK7cKI9rmt [https://t.co/BK7cKI9rmt] > — Delineatas Ù† (@Delineatas) May 3, 2016

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I've begun listening to Al Kresta a lot. I catch him when I can on my car, but I spend very little time commuting (during these warm months, I ride my bike more often than not). He has a nice demeanor and features interesting guests. Last

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Jack and Michael went to prom Saturday night. I went to watch the "Grand March," a community event where the kids walk through the gym while the adults and younger siblings clap. Two gay dudes came out together. That sucked. But of course a handful of

Sunday

Saturday

It's Derby Day [http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/horseracing/2016/05/05/kentucky-derby-horses-20-field-inside-info/83969774/] ! Far out. Of course, I haven't watched the event in over ten years, but I like it: my brother and I went to the local horse track and bet on it

Friday

This blog post combines history, drinking, and entrepreneurship [http://sanduskyhistory.blogspot.com/2016/04/cask-villa-in-vermilion.html]. Possibly the most enjoyable idiosyncratic thing I've seen on the web all year. > During the 1920s, William J. O'Neill purchased over twenty wine casks from a wine wholesaler in

Thursday

> Catholic Vote has done a pretty good job of capturing my opinion of the current situation [http://catholicvote.org/what-now/]. I bold the parts I particularly agree with: > Catholics of good will disagree about Trump. On the one hand he has pledged to nominate a qualified replacement for

Wednesday

Taki Theodoracopulos has led perhaps the most charmed secular life of the modern era. I just ordered his memoirs, which should make great outdoor reading this coming season. His most recent column at his online magazine is worth checking out [http://takimag.com/article/dinner_is_served_taki/print#axzz47Pf5r7LN]

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Amazon runs some pretty good daily deals. I'm going to start including a link at the end of my Miscellaneous Ramblings posts, both as a reminder to TDE readers and myself to check them out. Hope you don't mind. Remember: Every dollar generated for

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling So I'm at Abbie's Baccaleurate Mass Friday evening. Some doofus was in the front row, wearing a long-sleeve Michigan State t-shirt. It was one of those things that would make a good Seinfeld diner conversation: Jerry: "He was wearing a MSU shirt."

Sunday

Some good late night from last week: "Today is Take Your Kid to Work Day. It's really the most uncomfortable day of the year for the adult film industry." Kimmel "During Donald Trump's foreign policy speech yesterday, he said when it comes to

Saturday

Graduation and the Jesuit Abbie graduates from the University of Michigan today; Alex turns 23 today. Both are in Ann Arbor. The idea of sitting through a two-hour graduation in "The Big House" terrifies me, so I attended the Baccalaureate Mass last night with my Mom and two

Friday

Brews You Can Use One of the more interesting articles about gin I've seen lately: 8 Surprising Facts You Never Knew About Gin [http://www.liquor.com/articles/8-surprising-gin-facts/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FA%20-%2004.27.16%20-%20Mother%27s%20Day-ab&

Thursday

I wasn't going to vote for Trump, but according to Catholic radio this morning, he said last night that we need to do much, much more for the Middle East Christians and we need to stop the in-flow of non-citizen Muslims. The man may have just gotten my

Wednesday

What the hell has Europe done to itself? "On the heels of State Department spokesman John Kirby's renewed proclamation that "US is committed to admitting more refugees," we thought this brief clip from France's picturesque Mantes La Jolie (in the western suburbs of

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Sign the Target boycott petition [https://www.afa.net/action-alerts/sign-the-boycott-target-pledge/]. [https://www.afa.net/action-alerts/sign-the-boycott-target-pledge/] Lol: The AFA has been listed as an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that monitors hate groups. The AFA “has been extremely vocal over the years

Monday

From the Notebooks Conservatism is the response to the liberal's efforts to replace God. More particularly, conservatism is the attempt to push the immutable truths–the human condition, natural law, the rule of law, objective morality–back into the public sphere, in opposition to the myriad of liberal

Sunday

Whew, packed weekend. Irregular blogging coming up, but bear with me.

Saturday

(From Crystal Zevon's warts-aplenty 2007 portrait of her ex-husband, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, comes this account of the Zevons' child-custody dispute: “Warren got on the phone; he was obviously drunk. . . . He said, 'I'm to the right of your father

Friday

Release your inner homosexual: > A probar https://t.co/fXT1BgbTHl > — In Situ (@Insitumezcal) April 20, 2016 [https://twitter.com/Insitumezcal/status/722926911060590592] I'll be releasing this weekend with some Electric Lemonade. My basic mix: "Fill a Collins glass with ice. Pour in vodka, blue curacao

Thursday

H.I.F. You ever wonder how you get away with that wretched signature of yours on credit card acknowledgements? > In his book, Prank the Monkey, humorist John Hargrave recounts a wonderfully hilarious experiment he conducted that is, importantly, quite capable of being repeated on a massive scale. Hargrave

Wednesday

Chesterton Short(s) It sounds like the 2016 G.K. Chesterton Conference [http://www.chesterton.org/35th-annual-chesterton-conference/] is going to be a humdinger. It's being held at Slippery Rock University, which is about 4.5 hours from me. I'm tempted to register, but I'm

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling I wear a pedometer. On Saturday, I gardened almost the entire day, taking brief walking breaks. By 6:00 (start of evening Mass), I had logged in 18,000 steps. I'm hoping the constant activity, punctuated with days of outright exercise, will allow me to

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Wow, what glorious weather. It actually got too hot for my taste, but I'll take it. I'm focusing on greens this year more than ever. Planted over the last six weeks: six types of lettuce, three types of spinach, endive, chicory, green mustard wave,

Death Valley

As part of our trip to Las Vegas, we hit three parks: Fire Valley State Park, the Grand Canyon, and Death Valley. Here's us on the floor of Death Valley, temperature: 100 degrees:

Grand Canyon

Me at the Grand Canyon, kinda:

Friday

Gin season quickly approaches. I'm looking forward to it, though I doubt my vodka consumption will suffer much: > This tasty gin cocktail combines the Last Word and the Gin Fizz: https://t.co/TToBTopqCC pic.twitter.com/LB9KsvBIss [https://t.co/LB9KsvBIss] > — Liquor.com (@Liquor) April

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling A few more Vegas thing. First, O'Hare Airport absolutely sucks [http://www.flychicago.com/ohare/en/home/Pages/default.aspx]. Our flight out to Vegas was delayed five (yes, five) hours. While we were trying to sleep, O'Hare decided, of all the gates in

Wednesday

Here are videos taken with my phone, with the corresponding degree of professionalism.

Tuesday

Things to Do There's one reason to go to Vegas: The huge array of things to do. There's no good way for me to explain it in general, so I'm just going to list the things we did and offer commentary. The casino hotels-resorts.

Las Vegas

First, The Caveat Marie and I have long wanted to to to Las Vegas. We're not big gamblers, and I hope we're not big decadents, but it has become a big city with huge cultural significance. Like Chicago that went from nothing to huge in the

Some Random Tweets

> Clinton Campaign Treasurer Crushed To Death After Stack Of Campaign Funds Topples Over https://t.co/Tqpnt9xH3n pic.twitter.com/1AQlrH63oy [https://t.co/1AQlrH63oy] > — The Onion (@TheOnion) April 9, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/718827089726697473] > "Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing

Sunday

Every sin gushes from a complex soul. In the biblical tradition, it is the heart, which the Pseudo-Macarius, a master of intimate theology, describes as follows: > The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and all

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> Actual wall where Capone carried out the massacre pic.twitter.com/DRLxAJnwEO [https://t.co/DRLxAJnwEO] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) April 9, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/718599646441041920]

Friday

I just returned from a week in Sin City. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I'll tell you all about it shortly. In the meantime, here's a picture of my kids (the five who could make it), standing outside the New York New York

Thursday

From the Notebooks When the first anti-liberal thinkers started publishing widely-acclaimed books–Friedrich Hayek's Road to Serfdom in 1944, Richard Weaver's Ideas Have Consequences in 1948, William F. Buckley's God and Man at Yale in 1951–liberalism had by and large come to control

Wednesday

How would a cat react if deprived of sleep? How does a car perform when deprived of oil? What happens to babies if no one holds them? I don't know how the cat would react, but I bet it would grow highly irritable and eventually violent. The car,

Tuesday

Never a truer passage about contemporary politics has been written (a slight, but only slight, exaggeration): > Richard Hofstadter in The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1964). Hofstadter ascribed all dissent from the Cold War-Great Society consensus, whether on left or right, to mental illness. This was a gentler version

Monday

From the Notebooks To understand how liberalism's ejection of God contributes to aimlessness, it helps to understand the “genealogy” of the institutional permanent things as found in the Christian tradition. First, there is the Triune God, the very first Permanent Thing. From God comes what I call the

Sunday

"I get so impatient at times that I have to go off by myself and read St. Francis de Sales' letters to calm myself." Dorothy Day, Diaries. Great idea. I don't have his letters, but I do have Pauline Books' nifty Courage in Chaos,

Saturday

From the Notebooks The liberal intuitively wants aimlessness and the resulting banality. Aimlessness is the opposite of rootedness, and rootedness is the trait of a person whose feet are in the soil of the permanent things, and the permanent things ultimately stem from God. Liberalism, by definition, is the effort

Friday

Just a minor sidelight of the major socio-economic rape-disruption that was the English Reformation: > When Henry VIII dissolved monasteries monks applied their trades commercially, including monastic distillers & created commercial distilling > — Drunken History (@DrunkenHistory) March 29, 2016 [https://twitter.com/DrunkenHistory/status/714962889661157376] Neat: > Ketel One Vodka

Thursday

Amen. And it pertains to every governmental welfare program: > When A annoys or injures B on the pretense of saving or improving X, A is a scoundrel. > — HL Mencken (@HLMenckenBot) March 30, 2016 [https://twitter.com/HLMenckenBot/status/715181824729870337] Kinda tough but accurate: > “To be a Christian

Wednesday

"I had a friend named Henry Clune who lived to the age of 105. He was a well-known novelist and newspaperman. Until he was in his late nineties, Henry ran wind sprints on his front lawn every day. Even at 105 he still wrote in his diary every morning,

Tuesday

Fr. Schall, discussing a topic I have long found confusing, soothing, and potentially sinister, all at the same time: social justice. > Is Social Justice a Right? https://t.co/K0yuPxZNAl > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) March 26, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/713859999110471680] Excerpt: > The principal agent

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling R.I.P., Mother Angelica. Died on Easter Sunday. With a $50 million annual revenue nonprofit as a legacy. Surely you heard the words from Matthew 25:23 yesterday. Happy Easter Monday. * * * * * * * And welcome to some pretty good weather, until this weekend, when a nasty cold front is

Easter

"When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld “him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a man

Holy Saturday

Nyssa, Tolkien, and Gibson By killing Jesus, Satan had swallowed God's bait. He didn't know he had swallowed the Godhead, thereby inviting Full Being into his fortress of nothingness and bringing about the ontological fall of his nothingness. In the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa:

Good Friday

“The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His.” George MacDonald "The cross cannot be defeated. . . For it is Defeat." G.K. Chesterton On those who hate Christianity: "They do not dislike the Cross

Holy Thursday

"[I]n the agony of Gethsemane the ultimate consequences of our sin had their hour. . . . God permitted his Son to taste the human agony of rejection and plunge towards the abyss. . . Gethsemane was the hour in which Jesus' human heart and mind experienced the ultimate odium of the

Wednesday

“'Spy Wednesday,' the day Judas decides to betray Christ. A Tenebrae (darkness) service is sometimes held this day, in which all the light in the sanctuary is extinguished. Start the Rosary or night prayer with several lit candles; extinguish them halfway through." Link [http://www.ncregister.com/

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Benedict Groeschel frequently recommended that people sit down and read a gospel in one sitting. He said it would take 30-60 minutes, depending on which gospel (Mark being the shortest) and it would prove a powerful experience. I've tried it. I'm not sure I&

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Holy Week Edition Jack Kerouac once vowed to write about nothing but Buddhism. I'm guessing he kept the vow for less than five minutes (iron resolve, he didn't have), but don't all people experience a desire along those lines: to throw it

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Lots of technical difficulties. Please bear with me.

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Garden Rambling My first late winter garden is in: three large beds of lettuce (occupying space until May, at which time the ground will be used for summer crops, my pea bed, a mini-bush pea grow box, and a bunch of spinach in the cold frames or containers. If

Tuesday

Rambling: Catholic Convert and Catholic Cardinal Gavin McInnes breaks down the reason comedians hate Trump: Comedians: Doing the Jobs Happy Americans Won't Do [http://takimag.com/article/comedians_doing_the_jobs_happy_americans_wont_do_gavin_mcinnes/print#axzz42cbvIx9N] . Note: This might be the most colorful article I&

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to Clean Monday [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Monday] "Clean Monday (Greek: ÎšÎ±Î¸Î±ÏÎ¬ Î”ÎµÏ…Ï„ÎÏÎ±), also known as Pure Monday, Ash Monday, Monday of Lent or Green Monday, is the first day of Great Lent in the

50

Many years ago, I was at the local drinking club, talking with a guy I really enjoyed hanging out with. He mentioned he was 50. I'm pretty sure I felt a chill go down my spine. He didn't look or act 50 at all. I felt

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> "I forgave everybody, I gave up, I got drunk." Jack Kerouac (born today 1922) #quotes [https://twitter.com/hashtag/quotes?src=hash] > — Drunken History (@DrunkenHistory) March 12, 2016 [https://twitter.com/DrunkenHistory/status/708705451349827585]

Enough Already

In human years, TDE is probably about 95 years old. I can substantiate that it was started by 2004, but I'm pretty sure I started it in 2002. In any event, I can honestly say that over the course of those 95 cyber years, TDE has only a

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Less likely than whom? > A study found that Vodka drinkers are less likely to suffer from a stroke. > — Did You Know? (@engrossingfacts) March 10, 2016 [https://twitter.com/engrossingfacts/status/707981913181396992]

BYCU

Sure it wasn't just sand from all those commercials? > ICYMI: Corona Recalls Beer Due to Glass Particles Inside Bottles https://t.co/fjwjYtJYFc pic.twitter.com/onWI9IkWOC [https://t.co/onWI9IkWOC] > — Liquor.com (@Liquor) March 10, 2016 [https://twitter.com/Liquor/status/708055858618310656]

I Can't Say I'm Shocked

"Don't judge a book by its cover" you say? I say, "Short of spending a lot of time reading it, what else are you going to judge it by?" And in Chumlee's case, you could see from the cover that he comes

Thursday

"Like H.L. Mencken, Gore Vidal, Ernest Hemingway, and other original Americans, Bradbury 'had the advantage,' wrote Russell Kirk, 'of never attending college,' which 'constricts people,' in Bradbury's words." Bill Kauffman, Poetry Night at the Ballpark and Other Scenes from

Wednesday

And Yet More Miscellaneous Rambling Have you ever considered starting a worm farm to produce your own vermicompost but don't want to deal with all the hassles? I think I have a solution: Simply use a self-watering container (one with the indents and holes at the bottom that

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling My over-wintered spinach crop came through splendidly this year. No surprise, of course: I think we've had the mildest winter ever, and it's in one of my permanent cold frames. I took my first crop last week. I pulled my spinach pots out

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy spring. Yeah, I know. I'm jumping the gun, but I've optimistic. The ten-day forecast is gorgeous. Of course, these next two months are the bane of weather forecasters, so I shouldn't be so optimistic. As I've complained on previous

HB

Happy birthday to my lovely wife, Marie, a long-suffering woman who's determined to make me a saint . . . or take us both to hell trying.

Sunday

Some good Seth Meyers: Chris Christie was asked today about his vacant expression during Donald Trump's Super Tuesday victory speech, and told reporters, “I wasn't anything other than happy.” Well, if that expression means you're happy, then my wife was thrilled when I forgot

Saturday

I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh much any more. As I turned more and more libertarian, Rush sounded more and more wrong, especially when he relentlessly attacked Ron Paul during the 2012 primaries. But as a liberal friend once said to me, "Rush always has his facts

Friday

I'd bathe in it: > Slovenian town goes ahead with beer fountain plan https://t.co/wrBR2I3OBD > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) March 4, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/705568022501527552]

Thursday

"Why can't people let each other alone and not obtrude on each other?" That's Dorothy Day, a "Servant of God" (declared by JPII). A woman who gave of herself constantly . . . constantly. And yet, she harbored at least a bit of resentment toward

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I was contributing to a community site, but was shut out for the fourth time in five months due to technical difficulties. It dawned on me that I rarely have technical troubles at TDE, but I've never acknowledged my web guy, so here's the

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Last week was the week of Twitter leads. Maybe this will be the week of Miscellaneous Rambling. How is your Lent going? Mine is going surprisingly well. Sure, I've slipped a few times on my Lenten pledge, but everything else is good. One thing has helped

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy leap year day. It may not seem like much, but the extra day adds a nice little boost for those professionals who get paid by the hour. Heh, heh, heh. Hectic weekend, but due to an odd confluence of events, I actually had all seven kids home

Sunday

Candy that's okay for Lent: Of course, there's no need to eat kale bars today. It's the day of the resurrection, which trumps His death. Whenever a Christian tells me it's cheap to "cheat" on Sundays during Lent, I screw

Saturday

It's over: > Chris Christie Delivers Major Blow to Party Elites Resisting Trump https://t.co/SHFKofqEOl via @bpolitics [https://twitter.com/bpolitics] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 27, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/703561173191540736] Unless maybe: > How Can Rubio and Cruz Stop Trump? Flip

Friday

> Alcohol facts that are really interesting: https://t.co/VfrTMShGKx > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 22, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/701567031934656512] This is a great list of facts. And I think they're true. I knew of a few of them already, and I spot-checked

Thursday

Swell. Just swell: > In Catholic TV interview, Bernie Sanders praises pope's 'socialism' - National Catholic Reporter: https://t.co/49zU0X8u5q via @NCRonline [https://twitter.com/NCRonline] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 24, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/702315478958608384] Yes, the week of Twitter

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I took this picture from my house. Marie fell for it. (Later addendum: Marie assures me she understood the 1/2% discount, but bought it because it was in a clearance aisle where everything was an additional 50% off.) > Big savings! pic.twitter.com/12CdCMEFF2 [https://t.co/12CdCMEFF2]

Wednesday

> Whatever Happened to Noblesse Oblige?–The Imaginative Conservative - https://t.co/Ucik1Fgjef > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 24, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/702304490083459072] "Hampy lived out the principle of noblesse oblige–which is a fancy way of saying, “To whom much is given much

Tuesday

> 11 Lucky Facts About 'Dirty Harry' https://t.co/cLL2eAc8Hm > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 22, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/701901830889086980] One of my favorite movies of all time. My apologies if the blogging is a bit lame. I'm still struggling to

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Terry Crews on pornography [https://youtu.be/GKGmMe5rLNk]. Share it with teenagers.

Monday

> Loyola University beach, shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago, in February. Braved the 61 degree weather. pic.twitter.com/XlWW9iigk2 [https://t.co/XlWW9iigk2] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 21, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/701409685988122625] Marie and I spent the weekend in Chicago with our niece, Mary,

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> The Unreal, Eerie Emptiness of China's 'Ghost Cities' | WIRED https://t.co/GXlfbJy1f0 > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 20, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/701021253193310208]

American Catholic: Trying Times Indeed

Whatta horrible week to be an American Catholic. 1. We lose Justice Scalia. No more needs to be said. 2. Our Pope makes political statements, all-but saying that, if Donald Trump believes what he says about immigration, he's not a Christian, which is, depending on a number of

Friday

A TDE reader sent this picture to me last weekend. Whatta great find. "Pub crawl your way through the sacred seasons with this entertaining and useful collection of cocktail recipes, distilled spirits, beer, and wine for virtually every occasion on the Catholic liturgical calendar. One part bartender's

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> Trump and the Pope https://t.co/SJ65nZYd7Z > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 19, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/700503848918470656]

Thursday

From the Gardening Journals Gardener extraordinaire, Carol Deppe, channels Nassim Taleb and Albert Jay Nock in this passage about gardening: > As part of our bias toward seeing stories, we tend to interpret sequences of events in terms of causation. We see cause where there is only correlation. I think

Interesting

H.I.F. I remember hearing about five years ago that governments would try to ban paper money so they could better control the subjects. I thought, "Yeah, right. You conspiracy nuts will believe anything. if that actually happens, I'll buy into all the conspiracy theories."

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

“[H]ypermobility . . . is the great undiagnosed sickness of our age.” p. 89. “Today we know Mother Jones primarily as the name of a magazine for consumerist liberals whose idea of a radical act is selling their R.J. Reynolds stock and buying Starbucks. The real Mother Jones–Irish-born Mary Harris

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Sanders' free tuition program? It's a way to funnel even more money to the universities, of course, which overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party. That, I trust, everyone knows. But did you know it's also a way to funnel money into pensions? American Thinker

RIP

"[Justice Ruth] Ginsburg once said that Scalia was 'an absolutely charming man, and he can make even the most sober judge laugh.' She said that she urged her friend to tone down his dissenting opinions 'because he'll be more effective if he is not

Saturday

Back in my teenage and young adult years, I was an avid National Review fan . . . and loved the Misanthrope column by Florence King. I didn't know she was kind of a lesbian. "She called herself, at least once, a conservative lesbian feminist, and she was not to

Friday

Brews You Can Use I should've called this entry "Miscellaneous Rambling: Day Three." I had a backlog of BYCU-worthy entries for the past couple of months, but now find myself dry. I've had to do something I really don't like to do:

Thursday

These are the days of politics (the primaries) and religion (Lent). So when I ran back across this great quote, I decided to past it here: “The Virgin and St. Thomas are my vehicles of anarchism. Nobody knows enough to see what they mean, so the Judges will probably not

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Day Two Long-time TDE readers know that my weekly Miscellaneous Rambling column sometimes runs to two days. This week is one of those weeks. * * * * * * * Is that alright? Do people like the Miscellaneous Rambling column? It's probably my longest-running feature, but I've never gotten any

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Mardi Gras is here. The New Orleans parade schedule is here [http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/schedule.html]. * * * * * * * You'd think some cable channel would televise the parades. Talk about cheap programming for an event many people are curious about. * * * * * * * I went to Youtube, thinking maybe I could

Sunday

Here's how I spent my Saturday morning Office at 6:15 AM: Office at 10:00 AM: It's far from perfect, but at least I can find everything on my desk now. Brutally-busy year this far. But hey, it beats starving.

Friday

Some Amis, with my commentary: "Wives and such are constantly filling up any refrigerator they have a claim on, even its ice-compartment, with irrelevant rubbish like food. Get one of your own and have it fitted with racks the thickness of a bottle apart." Kingsley Amis. Amen to

Thursday

Brownson said, on a speaking tour on “The Church and the Republic” that every society is exposed to two opposite dangers: absolutism of the state and absolutism of the individual. In order to mediate between the two dangers, and give each, the state and the individual, their due, there must

Wednesday

The social critic Lewis Mumford found the space program “anti-human.” Space travel, he argued, requires “the total mobilization of the megamachine, commanding to the point of exhaustion all the resources of the state: it is both a symbol of total control and a means of popularizing it and extending it

Tuesday

I always get a bit of blowback when I say I'm not voting in state and federal elections. Just so I'm clear on this: I have always voted. There is nary a vote--whether local, state, or federal--that I haven't voted in. I stood in

Friday

Brews You Can Use I should've called this entry "Miscellaneous Rambling

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy February. It's normally a great feeling to get January under our belt, but this January was so mild, I don't feel a great sense of relief. My gardening thumb is itching, though. I have microgreens planted in the living room. I should get

Earthquake Relief

A big earthquake with the strength of 8.1 on the Richter scale hits the Middle East. Two million Muslims die and over a million are injured. Iraq, Iran and Syria are totally ruined and the governments don't know where to start with providing help to rebuild. The

Saturday

Would I vote for Trump in the Republican primary? Probably not, for the simple reason I don't plan on voting at all. But if I were to vote, I'd be tempted to vote for the Donald. Yes, I agree with everything Catholic Vote recently pointed out

Friday

You're looking at one of the neater Christmas presents I've ever received: Monkey 47 Gin. > An incredibly fun gin that serves the purpose of getting sozzled better than all others. Haling from the Black Forest in Germany, the name comes from the number of botanicals

Feast Day of St. Thomas

I've read a fair amount writing by St. Thomas Aquinas, at least when compared to what I've read of other authors. When compared to how much he wrote, I've read only a little. I have, however, read a lot about Aquinas. I'm

Fallon

Last night CNN hosted a Democratic forum where Hillary Clinton said that if she's elected she wants to work together with Republicans and even said she'd give them all bear hugs. By bear hugs she means like the ones you saw in "The Revenant."

Wednesday

Allegations of Orestes Brownson's inconsistencies in later years are often misplaced. Recent biographer R.A. Herrera, for instance, alleges that Brownson's view on the democratic revolution that was picking up speed in the mid-nineteenth century flip-flopped. Herrera criticizes Brownson for saying, in 1856, that the democratic

Meyers

Jeb Bush joked in a new interview that he'd like to appear in a G-rated episode of the Showtime series "Homeland" and would like his character to kill a terrorist with his bare hands. So I think Jeb might be a little confused about what can

Fallon

Shonda Rhimes is set to executive produce a show on ABC that picks up at the end of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." So I guess no one at ABC read the end of "Romeo and Juliet."

Humorous

H.I.F. "The original candidate for DC Comics' first headlining black superhero was a character called the Black Bomber, a white racist who would turn into a black superhero under stress, and be later described by comics historian Don Markstein as 'an insult to practically everybody

Tuesday

“The principal purpose of the foreign policy of the United States is to maintain the liberty of our people,” said Taft. “Its purpose is not to reform the entire world or spread sweetness and light and economic prosperity to peoples who have lived and worked out their own salvation for

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling “There are two things you should know about the poor: they tend to smell, and they are ungrateful.” That's potential canonized saint Dorothy Day. I'll be wrestling with her words this week as I struggle with whether to get involved with a new poor

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> Canned beer made its first appearance on this day in 1935, so celebrate with your favorite 6-pack! Happy #BeerCanAppreciationDay [https://twitter.com/hashtag/BeerCanAppreciationDay?src=hash]! > — Bomber Brewing (@BomberBrewing) January 24, 2016 [https://twitter.com/BomberBrewing/status/691346198075052032]

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The 26.6 inches of snow that fell in Central Park on Saturday is a one-day record for New York City. [http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/a2c422c5f539477eb8309e26cee7f64d/latest-gov-cuomo-lifts-new-york-city-travel-ban]

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> "My subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil." - Flannery O'Connor pic.twitter.com/fXmRxLtFrW [https://t.co/fXmRxLtFrW] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) January 24, 2016 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/691076511382802433]

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> It's winter again. That time of year when poor are making tough choices between food, heating, or getting that massive new tattoo. > — Offensive Tweetsâ„¢ (@TooMessedUp) January 22, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TooMessedUp/status/690528616992505856]

Meyers

Fast-food chain White Castle announced this week that they will be offering dinner reservations for Valentine's Day. It's the perfect way to tell the person you love that you don't.

Friday

BYCU This was a heckuva coincidence. Thursday evening, I was flipping through vodka cocktail recipes on my Kindle during timeouts of my kids' basketball games. I saw a reference to walnut liqueur and thought, "Man, walnut liqueur. That sounds nasty." Less than 48 hours later, a TDE

Ha

Wednesday

From the Gardening Journals Now I've done it. I came upstairs a few days ago and announced to Marie, "I just bought a pop-up coldframe greenhouse. At this point, I won't be buying anything for the garden except a handful of seeds and potting mix.

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H.I.F. Two Items 1. More on the German mass sexual assault on New Years Eve. This, from a Pakistani journalist: "I feel that Islamic culture and European norms are not compatible”¦. What happened in Cologne happens regularly in my homeland, Pakistan. The men are never ashamed, never

Tuesday

Been there on more than one self-righteous, delusional occasion: > The strange thing is that when you think you are totally detached, you discover an abyss of attachments. Catherine Doherty > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) January 17, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/688731740429512705] The full quote from Living the

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy Martin Luther King Day. Yes, I'm one of those who don't believe MLK deserves his own holiday, and I think it's absolutely absurd that he is the only person in the history of the United States (and the history of the

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> "The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds." - Thomas Merton > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) January 13, 2016 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/687268506279276544]

Sunday

> History's Most Powerful Photos https://t.co/XiGUn9s7Jl > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) January 16, 2016 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/688472338682236928]

Saturday

Man, the migrant stuff in Europe keeps piling up. This is a classic case of the elites screwing the ordinary people. Merkel and Co. live sheltered from the mess of living next door to migrants, just like Peggy Noonan pointed out last year in one of the best editorials of

BYCU

BYCU This is one of those articles that make you want to go on an adventure and check out its subject matter: 10 Detroit Dive Bars You'll Love [http://hellyeahdetroit.com/10-detroit-dive-bars-youll-love/]. Until you realize it's, well, Detroit. And that they're talking about "

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> "Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work." - St. John Neumann > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) January 5, 2016 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/684360545789722624]

Meyers

Mexican officials revealed Sunday that fugitive drug lord El Chapo nearly escaped by using a secret doorway hidden behind a mirror. Which would have made it hard to capture him since Mexico has no extradition agreement with Narnia. The White House revealed over the weekend that President Obama privately met

Tuesday

I guess I'm behind the times. I just became aware of this funny cartoonist: Dave Coverly [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Coverly]. He grew up near me (our high schools battle in the same athletic conference), he's just slightly older than me, he attended Eastern

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H.I.F: Frustrating This is the thing I've been complaining about for years: The elites, especially the media elite, allow their agenda, especially politically-correct agenda, override to run roughshod over accurate and full reporting. That's why I trust virtually nothing I read in the MSM,

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to ordinary time. First week. The brown volume. * * * * * * * Marie redecorated our family room (courtesy of insurance moneys from flood damage last fall). She and my eldest daughter concluded that the blue volume of the breviary fit into the decor. Hopefully, the brown volume fits as well. * * * * * * * I

Sunday

> A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live & begins to live. -Thomas Merton pic.twitter.com/gmH1Lwgq5B [https://t.co/gmH1Lwgq5B] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) January 6, 2016 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/684600080007958529]

Saturday

H.I.F: Interesting Warning: I think hell has frozen over. A politician in Europe has finally stated the obvious truth: > Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico formally stood up to the Brussels supergovernment juggernaut and said his government will not allow Muslims to create "a compact community,"

Friday

Brews You Can Use I didn't drink a whole bunch during the holidays, but I am on a diet with the aim of losing twenty pounds (to get my weight to 165), so I need to watch my liquor intake. No less a hard-core drinker like Kingsley Amis

Fallon

Several companies are working together to replace thousands of pay phones here in New York City with free Wi-Fi hotspots. Officials say that New Yorkers need a more modern, more technologically advanced thing to [urinate] on when they're drunk.

Thursday

I implied a bit ago that Dalrymple seemed to have lost some zing on his essays, but he appears to be back on track. He penned this excellent piece [http://takimag.com/article/the_will_to_outrage_theodore_dalrymple/print#axzz3uiv8Uh9S] a few weeks ago, then followed it up with

Conan

It came late, but El NiÃ±o finally arrived here in Los Angeles. In case you didn't know, El NiÃ±o is Spanish for "Little Boy." So apparently the reason El NiÃ±o was so late is because it wanted to make sure Jared Fogle was

Fallon

Some people are upset about a billboard in Utah that advertises a dating site called “Where-White-People-Meet-dot-com.” Even more controversial – it's now Utah's state motto.

Wednesday

"[A new study out of Stanford] found that productivity per hour declines sharply when the workweek exceeds 50 hours, and it drops off so much after 55 hours that there's no point in working any more. That's right, people who work as much as 70

Meyers

China this weekend formally replaced its one-child policy with a new law allowing two children per family. That way, families will have one child to play with, while the other one's at work.

Tuesday

I got quite a few good presents this year. My eldest son, Alex, bought me the reputedly best gin in the world (more on that in a later BYCU) and my other kids got me a bunch of stuff to help with my hobbies (gardening and cocktailing). But one of

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Blah, Books, Wikipedia, and Charitable Phone Solicitations Welcome to the blah time of year. Truth is, I don't mind it. I enjoy the forced seclusion and quiet time. My waistline could use a break from the social commitments, and my leisurely study pursuits will make use

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Makes sense: "Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan in October eased citizens' access to guns, calling gun owners a 'force multiplier' in combating the nearly daily Palestinian stabbing and car-ramming attacks since September." Link [http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/01/03/reporter-points-out-vastly-different-ends-to-attacks-in-two-cities-and-its-connected-to-number-of-gun-carriers/] .

Saturday

Great assortment of quotes by Gregorian Chant expert and anarchist/libertarian Jeffrey Tucker [https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/395323.Jeffrey_Tucker]. "An economy not bludgeoned by powerful elites is the ideal we should seek, even if it has a name that is wildly unpopular: capitalism” “Where there is

New Year

Happy New Year. Consistent with TDE tradition, no blogging today, though I will take a moment to reflect upon what one of the announcers said toward the end of the game last night: "You have to wonder what a loss like this does to the Michigan State brand."

Thursday

Regular TDE readers know I'm not a big fan of New Years Eve. Well, that's not exactly accurate. Relative to Thanksgiving Eve, I'm not a big fan of New Years Eve. Also, I'm more of a fan of New Years Eve afternoon,

Wednesday

Shockingly, this song is big with our youth today. It restores my faith in our country's future:

Sherlock

In case you missed it, the next Sherlock comes out on Friday [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/programs/features/news/sherlock-special-premiere-january-2016/] . > Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) return as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the acclaimed modern retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle'

Tuesday

> Here's what led "Obi-Wan Kenobi's" Alec Guinness to convert to the Catholic Church #StarWars [https://twitter.com/hashtag/StarWars?src=hash] https://t.co/E9Su348SIG > — Patrick Madrid (@patrickmadrid) December 28, 2015 [https://twitter.com/patrickmadrid/status/681614843108048898]

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> Philadelphia's Pink Sisters have prayed nonstop for 100 years https://t.co/EmAURP5Oh8 via nypost > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) December 29, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/681652663012986880]

Monday

The holidays and technical problems have combined to cripple TDE. Regular blogging will hopefully resume tomorrow.

The 26th

Today is the Feast of St. Stephen. The good old Catholic Church loves its paradoxes: The day of intense joy followed by a day of sobering reality (with the bloody feasts of the Holy Innocents and Thomas Beckett coming shortly). Joy and martyrdom, love and hatred of love, Everlasting Life

Christmas Eve

“He rules the world with truth and grace.” –Isaac Watts ++ “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” –Charles Dickens ++ “The Incarnation”¦illuminates and orders all other phenomena, explains both our laughter and our logic, our fear of the dead and our knowledge

Wednesday

Looking for ways to stand out this Christmas? Here are some classy ideas: Replace all your manger scene characters with Star Wars figures. Hit on women while caroling at the local old folks home. Blare “I'm Mr. Heat Miser” from your house all night on Christmas Eve. Make

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to the second-shortest day of the year (well, tied for second). * * * * * * * I don't know if I'm embarrassed or proud that I did most of my Christmas gift buying at the liquor store. * * * * * * * The IRS mileage rate is going down to 54 cents

The Shopping Trip

A couple were in a busy shopping center just before Christmas. The wife suddenly noticed that her husband was missing. She called him on the mobile. The wife said "Where are you? You know we have lots to do!" He said, "You remember the jewelers we went

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to the shortest day of the year. * * * * * * * It's the day when the sun stops waning and starts exerting its strength, hence I suppose the Roman holiday, The Birth of the Unconquered Sun (of Sol Invictus). There are lots of arguments about whether the Catholic Church

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Wow. One of the more disturbing untold stories about our nation's history: > The Nazi Kid From Brooklyn - Taki's Magazine https://t.co/MIVGW0zvGy via @tealdit [https://twitter.com/tealdit] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) December 18, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/677961784955969538]

Saturday

I referenced Modern Drunkard Magazine's Clash of the Tightest yesterday. It's an enjoyable feature, but it's often hard to find the results. After much searching, I found a complete tournament bracket from the first tournament at this page [http://drunkard.com/issues/04_03/

Corden

A man in Houston, Texas, is in some hot water after shutting down traffic on one of the busiest freeways in the United States so he could propose to his girlfriend. If you think that's inconvenient, their wedding will take place on the day before Thanksgiving in the

Conan

A new poll came out and it found that, of all the Republican candidates, people think Donald Trump would make the best Santa Claus. In response, Chris Christie said, "Oh COME ON, what do I gotta do?"

Friday

BYCU So, I won a $25 gift certificate to our local bookstore at the office Christmas party last Friday. I went there on Saturday, looking to spend it and saw they had a single issue of Modern Drunkard Magazine [http://www.drunkard.com/] on the shelf. I bought it. Long-time

All You Need to Know about Alfred Kinsey

In three passages, all courtesy of Joseph Epstein: “The man I came to know,” Jones writes in his preface, “bore no resemblance to the canonical Kinsey.” Instead of a cool scientist, Jones discovered a man of missionary zeal, “a crypto-reformer who spent his every waking hour attempting to change the

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A young Arab boy asks his father, "What is that weird hat you are wearing?" The father said, "Why, it's a 'chechia' because in the desert it protects our heads from the intense heat of the sun." "And what is this

Wednesday

"Santayana, who was very smart on the subject of the end of life, remarked that one of the reasons older people often grow grumpy about the world is that they, with the presentiment of their own death, can't see what good it can be without them in

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I was explaining to my wife last night that when you die you get reincarnated but must come back as a different creature. She said she would like to come back as a cow. I said "You're obviously not listening."

Tuesday

So why haven't I weighed on on Trump? I don't know. Maybe I just haven't had enough time, but, like pretty much American, I've been thinking about him a lot. Here, in no particular order, are some of my thoughts: 1. I

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My neighbour knocked on my door at 2:30 a m. Can you believe that ... 2:30 a m? Luckily for him I was still up playing my bagpipes.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling So I searched the TDE archives for any reference to "gaudete," and I came across this excerpt from the Monday after Gaudete Sunday: "I kinda feel like Gaudete Sunday ushered in the Advent season for me. Everything . . . was [busy]/ While at Mass Saturday night, it

Sunday

“Christian joy is granted to those who understand natural joy.” Paul VI. Happy Gaudete Sunday.

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> "Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity." - Thomas Merton > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) December 11, 2015 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/675322519692435456]

Friday

My gift to you: The Holiday Tom. It's my own concoction, though I know with virtual 100% certainty that it's been made many, many times. It's not very complicated and it's basically the Tom Collins made with vodka. Here goes: 1/2

Thursday

A Random Passage "Jack [Kerouac] 'believed in a conservative working-class America' and in 'baseball, the Virgin Mary, Buddha, and apple pie,' according to his friend, the Beat publisher John Montgomery. Naturally, he supported constitutional Republican Robert Taft for president in 1952." Bill Kauffman "

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Wednesday

One doesn't often run across this dichotomy: > Professor Morson puts it: “Dostoyevsky believed that lives are decided at critical moments, and he therefore described the world as driven by sudden eruptions from the unconscious. By contrast, Tolstoy insisted that although we may imagine our lives are decided

Conan

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West had their baby over the weekend but they waited until today to reveal the name. When asked why they waited so long, Kim and Kanye said, "We're very private people." In the United Kingdom, a sperm donor has fathered 54 children.

Tuesday

Pictures of a pile of spinach and kale that I harvested on December 1st. None of these greens were taken from the cold frame, which is bursting with spinach right now. I have a legitimate chance of providing fresh non-gmo greens from my garden until Christmas. It's always

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy Pearl Harbor Day, so to speak. * * * * * * * It's a good day to remember the large degree of fiction fed to us by our country's institutions. WWII is often touted as America's greatest moment. And allow no doubt: America flexed some serious muscle

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Sunday

> "No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." - Charles Dickens pic.twitter.com/UkWQnAgkAN [https://t.co/UkWQnAgkAN] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) December 3, 2015 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/672223570572009472]

Saturday

> The untold story of the Titanic's Catholic priest who went down hearing confessions | Blogs | LifeSite https://t.co/Q8jgIr9k3a > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) December 4, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/672914284142321665]

BYCU

Man, I really, really wish I liked bourbon and whiskey: > Southern writer Walker Percy insisted that a good julep should hold at least 5 ounces of bourbon: 5 ounces bourbon/Several sprigs fresh spearmint/4 to 5 tablespoons superfine sugar/Crushed ice . . . Into a silver julep cup, a highball

Thursday

From the Notebooks A Buddhist tries to answer that age-old question: How to live in the present but also plan prudently for one's future. I'm not sure he gets us there, but I think it's helpful: "Living mindfully in the present does not

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Wednesday

A few other thoughts related to yesterday's post about the world of total work and whether one ought to love his work. In his classic study, Pieper was not really criticizing the world of total work that I mostly live in right now. He was criticizing the notion

Tuesday

Here's a decent piece by Peter Lawler at The Imaginative Conservative about whether a person should love his work [http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/06/dont-make-love-and-work.html] . It criticizes the work notions coming out of Silicon Valley these days, so I like it, but I'm not

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Another whirlwind holiday weekend: Black Wednesday, followed by a (mostly) hangover-free Thanksgiving, then a 40-hour trip to Detroit that entailed a lot more driving once I was there, then over to Portage (a Kalamazoo suburb) to get my son to his high school basketball scrimmage, then to the

Humorous

H.I.F. The Anglican Church will not be denied: It will lead mainstream Christianity to the pits of the absolute absurd: Church of England Lady Bishop Advocates Nudism [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2015/11/church-of-england-lady-bishop-advocates-nudism.html] .

Saturday

From Bill Kauffman's Poetry Night at the Ballpark and Other Scenes from an Alternative America: "Joseph Smith ran for president in 1844, at least until a mob killed him in Illinois. He was thus the first U.S. presidential candidate to be assassinated. (Those in the best

Humorous

H.I.F. Seen at a Reddit thread. Funny stuff, and even though I think the Western policies since the fall of the Ottoman Empire have contributed to this problem, the attempt of the multiculturalists to absolve Islam is ridiculous . . . as outlined in this clever piece. The Jihadists are tired

Thursday

“Thanksgiving Day originated in New England when the Puritans realized they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians.” Mark Twain “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson “Beggar that I

BYCU Special Edition

Black Wednesday Far out. Here we are again: Black Wednesday. The hardest part about writing about Black Wednesday from a Catholic perspective is the, um, Catholic part. Let's face it: Black Wednesday is occasionally referred to as "black out Wednesday." It's not exactly a

Tuesday

My final "outdoor" (i.e., "non-coldframe") harvest of the year. I brought it in Thursday evening. Big batches of lettuce, kale, and spinach. It's probably more than we can eat. I took these two pics of some of my coldframe spinach Sunday afternoon, after

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew. Quite the storm on Saturday. That was one of the top 5 weather turns in my lifetime. And now it's supposed to melt away. * * * * * * * Even though I forgot to put the cover on the cold frames Friday night, I got them on Saturday morning after

Kramer

Saw this iconic Rockwell the other day for the 100th time, and the similarity struck me for the first time.

Saturday

H.I.F. I greatly enjoyed the first Zoolander, and I seem to recall that our funniest Catholic writer today, John Zmirak, ranks it among his favorite comedies of all time. This only increases my desire to see part two: > An online petition created by Sarah Rose is urging

Fallon

And I saw that an animal rights group is suing an amusement park in Louisiana for letting a chimpanzee named Candy drink soda and smoke cigarettes. Meanwhile, the chimp was like, “You nerds need to mind your own business!”

The Tom Collins

Having grown a bit tired of tonic water, I've started experimenting with classic mixed drinks. My first target: The Tom Collins. I started with the basic recipe: three shots of gin, one shot of lemon juice concentrate, one shot of simple syrup. Shake well. Fill the Collins glass

Meyers

A 50-year-old Washington man is facing assault charges after his neighbor says he swung a Klingon sword at him during an argument about trash. Man, if there was any time you'd think two neighbors would get along, it's when they both know what a Klingon sword

ConanÂ

RadioShack just announced they will be celebrating Black Friday on Wednesday. Mostly because Radio Shack's worried they won't be around on Friday.

Corden

There is a new Barbie doll called Hello Barbie that is a high-tech interactive version of the toy. The Hello Barbie has more than 8,000 phrases she uses to keep up conversation with you. In order for it to work, you have to speak right into her breasts. For

Fallon

In Pope Francis' latest weekly address, he criticized people who use their phones at the dinner table. Which begs the question: Who is on their phone while they eat dinner with the Pope? In a new interview, Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook will be more intelligent than humans in 10

Wednesday

What, you say, I referenced Romano Guardini yesterday but then wrote nothing about him, instead dedicating the day's primary post to Dostoyevsky? What am I, some sort of Serbian Orthodox with an anti-Catholic chip on my shoulder? No, not at all, but yesterday's post had already

Tuesday

Hey, Pope Francis and I have something in common: admiration for Dostoyevsky and Guardini [http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-pope-francis-has-to-say-about-dostoyevsky-and-guardini-76130/?utm_source=hootsuite] . I went on a major Fyodor kick in my twenties. I read all his major works (except The Idiot, which, for some reason, I could never penetrate)

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I received a copy of Merchants in the Temple [http://us.macmillan.com/merchantsinthetemple/gianluiginuzzi], which I've started reading. Expect commentary as I plow through. * * * * * * * TDE readers know I enjoy running good jokes from the late night shows, but man, they've been awful lately.

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> Facebook keeps removing satyrical photo of Mizzou "cribullies". Retweet it. #MizzouHoax [https://twitter.com/hashtag/MizzouHoax?src=hash] #Mizzou [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mizzou?src=hash] #MissouriProtests [https://twitter.com/hashtag/MissouriProtests?src=hash] pic.twitter.com/5wW6rkIFqN [https://t.co/5wW6rkIFqN] > — James Parisi (@NY_2_

Humorous, Interesting, and Frustrating

H.I.F. How bad was the racism at the University of Missouri? Pretty bad: an incident every 800 days. First the Michael Sam charade then this debacle. Missouri has become a joke. Well, all higher education is a joke, but somehow, Missouri has gotten itself in the idiot vanguard.

Saturday

Paris The Paris horror [http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/11/paris-attack/415953/?utm_source=SFTwitter] . I'm just shaking my head. Western imperial policies over the past 100 years and a religion rife with violence have combined to create a terrible, terrible situation. Part of me just

Friday

BYCU Booze lists often leave me cold. Even though I like lists and like booze, it seems many of the lists are, well, "contrived." I'm not sure that's the correct word, but almost like the authors are just reaching for script to fill their

Thursday

I enjoy works that impart broader truths in the context of a narrower subject. A great example from Kingsley Amis' Everyday Drinking: > Never despise a drink because it is easy to make and/or uses commercial mixes. Unquestioning devotion to authenticity is, in any department of life, a

Wednesday

One of the more interesting pieces I've seen lately [https://mises.org/library/activists-seek-impoverish-thai-villagers-save-monkeys-slavery] , though the prose is pretty rough. I didn't even know the protest idiots had been targeting monkey labor practices. This article discusses it, as well as the severe shortcomings of the protests

Tuesday

Are sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll taking their toll? Steve Sailer thinks it's possible, as he analyzes the increasing death rates among the baby boom generation [http://www.unz.com/isteve/is-there-a-generational-explanation-for-rising-white-death-rates/] . Excerpt: > I think there is definitely a pattern in that coming of age in the Late

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling One little cross I stumble with every time: logistics. Or what some people call a "cluster" (which also has a more colorful variation related to copulation). Marie thrives on the cluster like some people thrive on their favorite hobby. Saturday was Marie's day to

Sunday

So Michigan State finally loses. This is not a very good team. I think Dantonio has done a great job with this program, but this year's team could just as easily be 4-5 right now as 8-1. I've always kinda like Dantonio, but a friend said

Saturday

> Office of Civil Rights says disguised boy has right to shower with girls https://t.co/VTTomA74rU > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) November 4, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/661877310921048068]

BYCU

BYCU Michigan's microbrewery posterboy is Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Every microbrewery in Michigan wants to become the next Bell's. It makes one of the best wheat beers of all time, Oberon, and many of its other beer names, like Hopslam and Two-Hearted Ale,

BYCU Eve

I met my adorable wife 29 years ago tonight. At a bar in Ann Arbor. I think I'll revisit the romance tonight and have a few drinks. I might even take her with me (chuckle).

Thursday

While exploring Bradley Birzer's works earlier this week, I came across this essay of his about foul language [http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/10/foul-language-decorum-and-the-soul.html] . It's worth reading: > One of America's most insightful cultural critics, Tom Wolfe, has correctly labeled this relatively

Wednesday

I cancelled by audible.com membership last Sunday, then saw this passage from an essay by Bradley Birzer: "[B]ecoming enthralled with audible.com and the joy of being read to, my “reading”–a mix of real reading as well as listening to books–has at least doubled and

Tuesday

Two Twitterable paradoxes (found from that manuscript I referenced yesterday): "Reality is simultaneously knowable and unfathomable." Josef Pieper "The medical establishment has become a major threat to health." Ivan Illich I then remembered this piece at "Catholic Exchange" [http://catholicexchange.com/tsunami-theologians-and-the-question] that I

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling All Souls Day. You got out of a day of obligation this year. Why not "make it up" this morning (if your boss allows it)? * * * * * * * Two of my favorite holy days of the year, incidentally. * * * * * * * Brutal weekend. High school football playoffs nearly 90 minutes away Friday

ASD

Happy All Saints Day. A festivus for the rest of us, you might say . . . at least those of us that were saints but not officially recognized.

(Untitled)

> Was the last 'witch' of Boston actually a Catholic martyr? https://t.co/Mf9LbHcluc #Halloween [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Halloween?src=hash] #faith [https://twitter.com/hashtag/faith?src=hash] > — Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) October 31, 2015 [https://twitter.com/cnalive/status/660501570321166337]

Meyers

In more Apple news, a new poll shows that the Apple Watch is struggling to gain popularity, and experts are calling the watch the worst device Apple has ever made. At least until the debut of the upcoming Apple Fax.

Conan

China announced it is going to start allowing couples to have more than one child. Which means nine months from now, Apple's work force in China will double. For Halloween, Google Maps has created a Street View tour of the world's scariest locations. The scariest locations

BYCU Supplemental

A TDE reader sent me this classic. It brought back some nostalgia and even a hankering for a Stroh's, even though I haven't touched that stuff in thirty years:

Friday

BYCU For about a decade, Founders Brewing Company's Breakfast Stout label has depicted a Norman Rockwell-esque drawing of a baby eating a bowl of oatmeal. Unfortunately, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission administrative rules prohibit alcohol containers to “depict or make reference in any manner to minors.” The MLCC

Thursday

Twitterables Courtesy of Seneca: When one is busy and absorbed in one's work, the very absorption affords great delight. Unblest is he who thinks himself unblest. When a man has said: "I have lived!", every morning he arises he receives a bonus. Study cannot be helpful

Wednesday

Twitterables Courtesy of Joseph Epstein If the same progress as had been made in education were made in the culinary arts, we should today still be eating soup with our hands. The physicist Wolfgang Pauli used to respond to the inadequate answers of his less than brilliant students by saying,

Police Brutality?

Officer flips student out of her desk [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/us/officers-classroom-fight-with-student-is-caught-on-video.html] . I have no opinion about whether the officer acted appropriately, but have you ever tried to get a kid out of a school desk against his or her will? I have (albeit as

Grocery Store Sign

A little extreme, it would seem. And what's with the capitalization?

Tuesday

Twitterables Courtesy of Bill Kauffman: Henry James's definition of a cosmopolite: a little bit of everything and not much of anything. Three a.m., the soul's midnight, as Ray Bradbury calls it. Conversation is the casualty in the empire of noise. Ray Bradbury's Dandelion

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whatta glorious Indian Summer! I'm really enjoying the extra time outdoors. I've done all sorts of stuff to get the garden ready for next spring, so much so that I'm reminded of Luke 12 and the parable of the fool who stored

Sunday

H.I.F. Well, at least he has the decency to admit it, which is more than any leaders in the federal government are wiling to do: Tony Blair apologises for 'mistakes' over Iraq War and admits 'elements of truth' to view that invasion helped rise

Saturday

> A must-read: Cardinal Danneels: A Wolf in Shepherd's Clothing | The Stream https://t.co/dHHa3YMfy5 > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 20, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/656611295920267265]

Friday

One of the best Catholic news pieces appeared last weekend at National Catholic Register: Monks, Beer and Christendom [http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/monks-beer-and-christendom]. It combines a handful of things that have interested me for awhile. First, it revolves around the Monks of Nursia, which I assumed was a large,

Thursday

From the Gardening Journals I had a great day last Sunday: getting the garden ready for winter. It's possibly my most pleasant task of the year: pulling up the tomato and pepper plants that were destroyed by Saturday night's freeze, adding to the compost pile, doing

Wednesday

Fascinating episode on EWTN Live earlier this month: "After suffering a spinal injury and praying for Cardinal Newman's intercession, Guest Deacon Jack Sullivan's healing on August 15, 2011 sparked calls for the Cardinal's beautification." Link to MP3 [http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/

Tuesday

Speaking of Ayn Rand (see yesterday's Rambling), I think I found another Catholic libertarian: Jay Wesley Richards. He doesn't call himself a libertarian in "Why Libertarians Need God [http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/03/libertarians-and-religion.html] ," but he has clearly spent a lot of

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Ah, one of nature's great gifts is unfolding: the Indian Summer. We had a freeze Saturday night, followed with gorgeous weather on Sunday and a gorgeous forecast for the next ten days. It's definitely my favorite time of the year, weather-wise. * * * * * * * Interesting essay at

Sunday

Rough sports day yesterday. First, Meg loses her cross-country meet at the last second (18:40:9 to 18:40:7), then Michigan loses to Michigan State even though MSU, literally, held the lead 00:00 minutes of the game. I thought MSU played a decent game and I congratulate

Saturday

A Random Passage “[T]he reality behind the words of the Declaration of Independence (issued in the same year as Adam Smith's capitalist manifesto, The Wealth of Nations) was that a rising class of important people needed to enlist on their side enough Americans to defeat England, without

Friday

BYCU I love it when two hobbies come together, especially when one of the hobbies is drinking. This email I received from a TDE reader combines vodka and gardening: "So, two years ago, we bought a small hops vine, just for fun. Year 1, it grew a little but

Thursday

From the Gardening Journals I'm pretty much giving up on gardening websites, unless they're certified knowledgeable (e.g., Johnny's Selected Seeds). I've gotten all sorts of bad advice from gardening bloggers who, I suspect, crank out script without regard to whether the

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling So my son is a freshman at Eastern Michigan University. Its homecoming was last weekend. He sent me this text, "Eastern gave the homecoming couple award to two lesbians, one of which said she is an 'avid member' of Catholics on Campus." Great, just

This Week

October continues its retinue of great saints. Sunday is new saint St. John XXIII, who was perhaps the funniest guy to occupy the Chair of St. Peter. Wednesday belongs to the little-known St. Callistus, but Thursday is a huge feast day: St. Teresa Avila, the beautiful sixteenth century nun whose

Sunday

> Chesterton Casts a Spell on Tolkien (essay by Joseph Pearce) http://t.co/6UwHBUe8Ad > — ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) October 11, 2015 [https://twitter.com/imaginativecons/status/653004656503824384]

Saturday

From the Notebooks A truism worth remembering the next time the Washington Party beats the war drum. Oh wait, nevermind. It's been beating the war drum for a hundred years now, which speaks volume about our level of contentedness: "The silence of historians is the surest record

Meyers

The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will visit Mexico next year. Now that he's met all the Catholics in America, he wants to see where they're from.

Kimmel

Bieber had the word "Purpose" tattooed over his bellybutton, which of all the parts of the human body has the least purpose of all. "Purpose" is reportedly the title of his next album. He has "Believe" on his forearm, an earlier album. Good news,

Thursday

The Art of Goodbye Like every summer, I had a lot of company in August and early September. And like every summer, I was struck by different visitors' approaches to leaving. While chewing on this phenomenon during random gardening time, I decided that this is probably one of those

Conan

A controversial 1,200-year-old document has been found that shows evidence that Jesus was married. I don't believe it. What married guy gets to spend all his free time with his 12 buddies? Bud Light has created a new device that alerts you when the beer supply in

AI

Fr. Stinessen explains the psychological underpinning of every American Idol contestant . . . and why they're so grossly misdirected: "Every person comes into the world with a dream of doing something great with his life, something that will make an imprint and bear fruit. God himself inspires this dream.

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Fr. James Schall offers his insights into the Pope's visit last week [http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/4225/is_it_good_for_the_pope_to_be_a_star_reflections_on_the_papal_visit.aspx] . Schall is clearly leary of Pope Francis, including his naivety in economic

Monday

There's certainly angst over the upcoming Synod on the Family. I've been catching snippets from Rorate Caeli [http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/] and John Zmirak's Twitter feed [https://twitter.com/JZmirak]. Rorate Caeli seems to think the pro-gay position is already baked into the outcome.

Sunday

> "All men matter. You matter. I matter. It's the hardest thing in theology to believe.” - G.K. Chesterton pic.twitter.com/hQzMwuCnCw [http://t.co/hQzMwuCnCw] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) September 24, 2015 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/646892070267973632]

Saturday

Three Posts in One I have three posts for this morning, but time for only one. So you, TDE reader, are hereby the beneficiary of three posts combined into one efficient, pithy, post: 1. Jobs report yesterday was abysmal, but the stock market rallied. If that doesn't scream

Friday

BYCU A statement from Dr. Obvious: The Internet really pumps out novelties in the area of drinking. If you subscribe to the (in)correct Twitter feeds, you'll see an unusual drink every day, often more than one. Come Christmas, hundreds (billions?) of holiday drinks will be splashed across

As We Prepare for Absurd Pink October

TIL: In a report from 2013, most of the funds raised by the NFL don't fund cancer research. In the end, after everybody has taken their cut, only 8.01% of money spent on pink NFL merchandise is actually going towards cancer research.

Meyers

The CDC is accusing Big Tobacco of using different flavors of e-cigarettes to try and lure in young people. They're especially concerned about the newest flavor, Cheerios in a Ziploc Bag.

(Untitled)

Daughter Meg is having a good cross-county season her freshman year of high school. Here she is with daughter Abbie after clocking 18:58 last weekend in Jackson, Michigan:

Thursday

More good passages from his Poetry Night at the Ballpark and Other Scenes from an Alternative America "[T]he Cinematic World On Its Head Act of 1991 . . . mandated that all judges in movies and TV be stern black females while the meaty criminal parts must go to white actors,

Meyers

A referee in a professional soccer match in Brazil pulled a gun out during a game last week because he was tired of being treated poorly by players and coaches. And then out of habit, several players fell down and pretended they had been shot. China is now home to

On Stalin

Presented without comment: "Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature. He was simple, calm and courageous. He seldom lost his poise; pondered his problems slowly, made his decisions clearly and firmly; never yielded to ostentation nor coyly refrained from holding

Conan

Justin Bieber says he has three or four albums he hasn't released yet. Bieber says, “You have until midnight to meet my demand.”

Tuesday

Could everyone do me a favor? Be careful when you use the conjunction "as." I just saw this last Sunday: "The Big Ten is making a comeback, as they have not had schools in the top two of the rankings since back in 2006." That'

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Okay, I'm a bad Catholic. I wasn't able to muster hardly any enthusiasm for Pope Francis' trip. I was looking forward to it, but then I turned on the EWTN coverage when he arrived. I saw him shaking hands and smiling with President

Saturday

The Meditations: Confessions of a Roman Opium-Eater? I doubt it, but it appears the last of the Good Emperors liked a bit of opium: Ten Historical Figures Who Used Opium [http://listverse.com/2015/09/25/10-historical-figures-who-were-dependent-on-opium/] . > Marcus Aurelius was never a physically strong man. However, being emperor of

Friday

BYCU Michigan got a new Liquor Control Commissioner a few years ago. I don't know him, but he seems to be doing a lot of things right. Although I still dislike dealing with liquor matters because it's a morass of absurd restrictions created by special interests

Meyers

New York City plans to deploy an extra 6,000 police officers to help guard Pope Francis during his visit. It'll be the most protection a Catholic has ever used. President Obama this morning gave Pope Francis a sculpture of an ascending dove made with pieces of the

Meyers

Dr. Ben Carson defended his comments about Muslims being unfit for the presidency, and posted on Facebook that he believes Sharia law is the central tenet of Islam. While most people on Facebook believe “Sharia Law” is a show about a black lady judge. A pair of Ohio teens were

Wednesday

This reminds me of the old joke: What's the definition of Cleveland? Answer: Detroit without the glitter. Content Marketing World invited John Cleese to speak at its annual conference in Cleveland. Cleese came and provided some advice, but not without first commenting on the host city [http://www.

Tuesday

Uber is cool. For those who aren't aware: Uber is a service that allows individuals to offer other individuals a ride in exchange for a fee. Drivers and riders connect through a phone app, which also conveys what the fee will be. The fee goes up during bad

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Happy first day of fall, my favorite season of the year. * * * * * * * I like everything about fall: the cooling weather, the harvest, the color. I even kinda like the shortening days, albeit in a conflicted way. I don't like the cold of winter, but I do like

Great Pic

I find this picture humorous, but I honestly can't join my fellow libertarians--and borderline anarchists--on condemning cameras in public places. If you're not doing anything wrong, what do you care? I think I understand their objections in theory. Cameras allow the State to gather information with

Saturday

Worth checking out: Mark Spitznagel Warns: If Investors Thought August Was Scary, "They Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-18/mark-spitznagel-warns-if-investors-thought-august-was-scary-they-aint-seen-nothin-ye] . Long-time TDE readers know they don't want to take investment advice from me: Yes, I bought physical silver low

Chuckle

Friday

> If you're in LA & bored, get out and explore the areas oldest bars http://t.co/JcJRk5J8jB #roadtrip [https://twitter.com/hashtag/roadtrip?src=hash] > — Drunken History (@DrunkenHistory) September 13, 2015 [https://twitter.com/DrunkenHistory/status/643098204121116673] Many of these kinds of articles suck, but

Thursday

I frustrate my staff with my insistence on getting rid of every typo or clerical mistake in my documents. Why am I so petty? Because I make mistakes that don't get caught. If I then also allow mistakes that I catch go uncorrected, the documents will be a

Meyers

Taco Bell has opened a new line of more upscale restaurants they are calling “cantinas,” which will feature open kitchens. It's pretty cool. You can see both microwaves. Kellogg's announced today that it will be spending $450 million in an effort to expand its food distribution

Wednesday

I meant to mention this great piece back when it came out: Chrissie Hynde was right about rape. Now feminists want to silence her [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11835000/Julia-Hartley-Brewer-Chrissie-Hynde-was-right-about-rape.html] . It's all about what's become the norm: If facts and common sense

Pretty Much Sums Up the Situation

"If anyone wants to beat Trump in his own game, they will have to show and prove to the voters of America, that the existing system not only still works, but is worth saving in its current broken form. This is the biggest challenge to everyone - on the

Tuesday

Flogging the Middle Ages Chesterton pointed out that every stick is good enough to beat the Catholic Church with. The same could be said about the Middle Ages (for related reasons, btw): every stick is good enough to beat it with. I have a business acquaintance who repeatedly harumps "

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I'm typing this on Sunday, still thinking about that excellent Noonan piece, which TDE reader Mike says can be found here [http://commentators.com/the-migrants-and-the-elites-wsj/]. * * * * * * * That link will take you to Commentators.com. What is that site? I'd never heard of it, but it

Sunday

Remember the dead immigrant toddler on a beach in toddler? It turns out, he wasn't an immigrant. He was the son of an immigrant smuggler, who was along for the ride for . . . an unknown reason [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-12/media-propaganda-full-frontal-father-drowned-syrian-boy-was-people-smuggler] . I'll be honest: That

Saturday

I've always liked her work, but I think I'm falling in love with Peggy Noonan. Here she is yesterday [http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-migrants-and-the-elites-1441924372] (if link doesn't work, try accessing WSJ through Drudge), talking about massive, uncontrolled immigration and the western elites'

Meyers

The new Guinness Book of World Records came out today and Andre Ortolf of Germany managed to get in for three records including fastest 100-meter dash wearing ski boots, and fastest 100-meter dash wearing clogs. Ortolf is, of course, best known as the long-time holder of the world record for

Friday

Some advice from Kingsley Amis' Everyday Drinking, with my commentary in italics: "If the red strikes you as thick, dark and heavy, feel no shame in cutting it with the local bubbly mineral water; worth trying in parts of Italy and Spain." I'm gonna have

Thursday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Loud People ITunes has again (for, what, the 14th time?) changed its lay out. I'm not even going to try to figure it out. I swear, the time commitment to keep up with Apples' endless tinkering amounts to a part-time job. I detest Apple, and

Fallon

In an interview last week, Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump's candidacy “an unfortunate development.” Incidentally, “an unfortunate development” is also what Trump says when his wives turn 40.

Wednesday

The Benedict Option [https://www.catholicvote.org/catholic-political-activism-and-the-benedict-option/#.VVfWFoMUwiM.twitter] . Or the Dominican Option [http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/10/the-dominican-option]? Withdrawal society or contrast society? Those might be the only questions on the societal level that an American Catholic needs to contemplate these days as the liberal experiment

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling: Busyness and EMU Move-In Day Whew. Summer is over. The four weeks from mid-to-late August to Labor Day blew through like a whirlwind with eight different sets of house guests and four out-of-town commitments. Each individual commitment by itself is fine--the house guests are all good folk that

Monday

Happy Labor Day. Consistent with TDE tradition, light blogging today. Just this: > When is it not okay to answer your cellphone? http://t.co/lIJU5er5hw pic.twitter.com/rLSCchY0hx [http://t.co/rLSCchY0hx] > — Forbes (@Forbes) August 29, 2015 [https://twitter.com/Forbes/status/637772219238715392] I find it disturbing

Sunday

Philosophy teaches us how we ought to live. And with a little effort, it brings us more money, too. The Earning Power of Philosophy Majors [http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/09/philosophy-majors-out-earn-other-humanities/403555/] .

Saturday

This is a remarkable story [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3222526/Streams-whiskey-Lightning-destroys-Jim-Beam-factory-Kentucky-releasing-800-000-gallons-bourbon-lake-catches-fire-struck-Firenado.html] . First, it's a river of fire made from bourbon. Even more amazing, the writer uses the word inflammable, which is the correct version of flammable, which, according to E.B. White, should only be

Friday

Clergy and ale. Some great pics to kick off your holiday weekend libations.

Thursday

Brownson had insight at the very first stages of the feminist movement. Although he was initially favorable to the incipient feminist movement and was attracted to its earliest proponent, the pretty and sex-loving Fanny (Frances) Wright, he quickly saw that feminism wasn't just about equal rights, but also

Wednesday

After recounting all those Jewish jokes and the history of Jewish humor in the United States, Epstein offers this, I think, poignant observation: "[A' epigraph from the English comic novelist Howard Jacobson: 'This is not the place to examine why I, a Jew, feel more threatened by

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling I have more to ramble about and yesterday's blog post was growing too long, so it has spilled over to Tuesday. * * * * * * * The talk yesterday about seers and mystics reminded me a book I read about ten years ago: The Miracle Detective by Randall Sullivan. I really

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling So I'm listening to a recent Open Line Wednesday with Mitch Pacwa yesterday while gardening. A caller asked about Charlie Johnston. Johnston is a supposed seer who supposedly communicates with (supposed-heavenly) angels, and he says massive economic and military disruptions are coming soon [http://www.mysticsofthechurch.

Sunday

From the Notebooks Common, overlapping, theme: "The Importance of Doing Nothing [http://www.forbes.com/sites/insead/2014/07/01/the-importance-of-doing-nothing/] " (Forbes), provides empirical evidence for the anecdotal evidence Albert Jay Nock laid out in "Snoring as a Fine Art," which brushed up against the philosophy

Saturday

Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal has written possibly the most important op-ed of the election season. It's a must-read. America is So in Play [http://www.wsj.com/articles/america-is-so-in-play-1440715262]. I read it last night and proceeded to dream about it (literally). America is fed up

Get Your Loan On

My eldest son, Alex, is now a mortgage banker with Quicken Loans. If you know of someone looking to buy a house and they want to use a nice young Catholic man to help with the financing, try Alex. Even if you're just mildly interested and merely want

Friday

BYCU That's the good thing about booze: You drink when you're happy and you drink when you're sad. You drink when you have plenty of money, you drink when you don't have enough money to do anything else. And you drink when

Thursday

Epstein on jokes about Jewish wives: "Jewish wives have been the target of enough jokes to warrant establishing a special branch of the Anti-Defamation League. What does a Jewish wife make for dinner? Answer: Reservations. 'A thief stole my wife's purse with all her credit cards,

Wednesday

Excuse the colorful language, but this cracked me up:

Tuesday

Romanticable Me Friday evening, I sat on the front porch, enjoying a nice late summer evening and some drinks. I was streaming Pandora from my iPhone into my (splendid) bluetooth Sony wireless speaker [http://amzn.to/1WLsJ9a]. The channel: 70s Lite Rock Radio. I was really digging it, which was

Kinda funny . . . very clever

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling We'll see what the market does today. I wonder: How much of this "crash" is due simply to people pulling money out of the market to pay college tuition? I haven't seen that explanation anywhere, but it seems it would be a

(Untitled)

Ben Stein asks four questions [http://spectator.org/articles/63835/where-there%E2%80%99s-smoke]: I had an e-mail from my smartest friend, P. He asked three questions, which I pass on to you, dearly beloved readers: “1.) We are advised not to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a

21

My eldest daughter, Abbie, turns 21 today. Man, I'm getting old, but I probably don't feel as old as she does this morning.

(Untitled)

My sixteen-year-old was able to crack me up last week with this tweet: > Counting down the world's greatest philosophers 5. Socrates 4. Plato 3. Confucius 2. Aristotle 1. Anyone on twitter who just had a break-up > — Michael Scheske (@ScheskeMichael) August 19, 2015 [https://twitter.com/ScheskeMichael/

What's with Jeb's left hand?

(Untitled)

The Dow rattles and the doom and gloomers are running again. This, after predicting that, at the latest, total economic meltdown would occur by 2013. They're frauds, the lot of them: every economic forecaster, whether of MSNBC stripe or Schiffian: > Dow 5,000? Yes, it could happen

Conan

A study found that many types of head lice have mutated and now have become resistant to over-the-counter treatments. The problem has scientists scratching their heads.

Friday

BYCU I kinda feel like the craft beer revolution is becoming like the French Revolution: It devours its children. The constant innovation and cutting beer names is growing tiresome. It used to be fun. For the first couple of years and the first 22,000 craft beer names and first

Meyers

According to a new list, Nashville is the friendliest city in America. While Philadelphia beat up the person who was putting together the list.

Thursday

A TDE reader sent this along. He assures me this regularly ran on TV. If you can watch this and have a shred of respect for anything you see on TV, you're an awfully-accepting individual:

Wednesday

Some more great passages from Kauffman's Poetry Night at the Ballpark and Other Scenes from an Alternative America: Writings, 1986-2014: Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote his wife, “I want nothing to do with politicians–they are not men; they cease to be men, in becoming politicians. Their hearts wither away,

Meyers

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said today that Hillary Clinton's arrogance is “breathtaking.” Of course, he also said the same thing about a flight of stairs. Employees at a Days Inn in Tampa are claiming that managers told them to flip a mattress instead of replacing it after

Conan

A man set a new world record after kicking himself in the head 134 times in one minute. He broke the previous record of zero.

Tuesday

You know what I'm really beginning to hate? And I mean "hate," with a pathological loathing that makes me wary of it everywhere I go? Small talk. Yes, I've grown to hate small talk. Let me be clear with what I mean by "

Monday

Monday Miscellany Yeah, my apologies for the lame blogging lately. I'm struggling just to post something. Fortunately, I think I've found enough whimsical stuff to justify your click over here. If not, well, you already have my apology. * * * * * * * Will things improve this week? Yeah, a little.

(Untitled)

In his essay, "You Could Die Laughing: Are Jewish Jokes a Humorous Subject?" Joseph Epstein notes that for many years, Jewish comedians made their living by making fun of Jews, but then, in the 1960s, they started branching out and taking aim at other minorities. He then gives

Meyers

Donald Trump said in a new interview that he believes his performance in the polls shows that he has not crossed the line of appropriateness. You can read the entire interview in this month's issue of Juggs magazine. According to a new study, stripes don't actually

Friday

Now that's a great way to get volunteers. From the Muskegon (Michigan) Polish Festival:

Random Thursday

The garden books talk about how prolific zucchini is. Poppycock, I say. I've never gotten more than a handful of zucchini from a single plant. If you want a prolific plant, try cucumbers. This year, I planted three of each. The results so far? Four zucchini, forty cucumbers.

ConanÂ

A new bar in London specializes in something called "breathable booze." As we called that growing up in my house, standing next to uncle Patrick for five minutes.

Miscellany

Something seems amiss at The Roller Coaster Capital of the World [https://www.cedarpoint.com/]. For the first hour or two of the day, the rides' lines don't move or the roller coasters are shut down. I'm a big fan of Cedar Point, and the

(Untitled)

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I got terribly excited Saturday night. On my way back from a local watering hole, which followed an extended stay at my town's righteous annual music festival, Marie told me that my nephew and his fiance were on their way to New York. I guess they

(Untitled)

> "Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought." - St. John Paul II pic.twitter.com/BfksVvGUwy [http://t.co/BfksVvGUwy] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) August 3, 2015 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/628354315154026496]

Saturday

Some good "Today I Learned" items from Reddit: TIL people used to do their laundry in Old Faithful; they put their clothes in the geyser and it would erupt with clean clothes. TIL That in 2004, police discovered a secret underground cinema with professionally installed electricity, phone lines,

Friday

I was probably fewer than five blocks from this joint. I'm kicking myself for not making it over: > It's official: The world's best bar is @deadrabbitnyc [https://twitter.com/deadrabbitnyc]. http://t.co/Jsa7TivHru pic.twitter.com/afPHvWkJw0 [http://t.co/afPHvWkJw0] >

Thursday

Random Passages "[T]he poverty rate in the United States fell from 95 percent in 1900 to around 12-14 percent in the late 1960s ”“ a period in which government antipoverty measures were fairly trivial. By the late 1960s, when Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty programs began receiving

Fallon

In a recent interview, Hillary Clinton said that one of the jobs that prepared her to be president was sliming fish in Alaska. As opposed to Bill, who learned by catching crabs in Cancun. Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Rick Perry are currently fighting for the final two spots in

Wednesday

Another Jewish joke that slayed me from Epstein's essay, "You Could Die Laughing: Are Jewish Jokes a Humorous Subject?, one of the few jokes, Epstein notes, to make it out of that terrible experiment known as the "Soviet Union": "On a laceratingly cold and

Tuesday

Greatly enjoying that new Kauffman book. Some more great passages: "[Al] Davis, as commissioner of the AFL, hired ex-Buffalo Evening News sportswriter Jack Horrigan as his PR man. When Horrigan was diagnosed with leukemia, writes Felser, 'Davis, a Jew, bought a votive candle in a Catholic religious supply

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One of the best things I've learned about gardening: You don't just "put your garden in" once and walk away. You continue to plant from spring through early fall (if you're so inclined). I put the bulk of my fall garden in

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I've heard from good sources that it's acceptable to bring a notebook to Mass and take notes, if it helps keep you engaged. Can a person bring a Bible to Mass and read from it? Maybe a spiritual book? I'm really struggling

Sunday

Another mileage marker on the Surreal Freeway of Idiocy: > A NY judge hinted that marriage equality could pave the way to rights for chimpanzees: http://t.co/ho7YY7ynYw pic.twitter.com/asUSB2iTv0 [http://t.co/asUSB2iTv0] > — Slate (@Slate) August 1, 2015 [https://twitter.com/Slate/status/627600511492063232]

Sweet!

No rush to use these coupons:

BYCU

We went to the Alpena Brown Trout Festival two weekends ago. While at the free concert, Meg tried out this huge chair: I really enjoyed Leinenkugels, back when I could drink beer. I've embraced my wine/vodka/gin regime with vigor, but I wince with sadness when I

Epstein

A joke from Joseph Epstein's entertaining essay, "You Could Die Laughing: Are Jewish Jokes a Humorous Subject?" "Walking along the beach, Goldstein finds a bottle, picks it up, and–surprise! surprise!–a genie emerges. The genie instructs Goldstein that he will grant him one wish,

Meyers

Snoop Dogg was arrested and released in Sweden this weekend on suspicion of using illegal drugs. Officials first became suspicious in 1991.

Tuesday

From the Gardening Journals Well, I finally went off the deep end: I spent nearly $90 on a hoe. Yes, a hoe. It's a Dewitt diamond hoe. It's six-feet long, supposedly guaranteed to last a lifetime, and quite nifty. What is a diamond hoe? It'

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I'm really digging the "Daily Review" at Amazon Kindle: > Daily Review is a tool to help you review and remember the most significant ideas from your books. It shows you flashcards with either your highlights and notes or the Popular Highlights from one

Sunday

To repeat myself: Satan is the representation of evil. No one, absolutely no one, worships evil for its own sake [http://www.holyangelssturgis.org/aquinas-corner/]. Therefore, no one, by definition, can worship Satan. I don't expect all people to share my religion, but I expect everyone to share

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Just returned last night from a ten-day trip to my ancestral vacation home in Alpena, Michigan. Nothing much today. Just this picture of a great rainbow that formed over Lake Huron Monday evening after a rain. It was a full arch, with a double-rainbow forming behind parts of it.

Friday

Brews You Can Use One of the better drinking lists I've seen this year, even if I don't recognize 30% of 'em: "10 Pop Culture Moments that Changed the Way We Drink [http://www.drinkmemag.com/10-pop-culture-moments-that-changed-the-way-we-drink/] ." I found Number One highly humorous

My Summary of Brownson

At least, with respect to his relevance as a Catholic political philosopher: Brownson was the first person to try to offer a complete theory of the role of the Catholic Church in America. He wasn't willing to concede America to the Church, and he wasn't willing

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Fallon

The dating website AshleyMadison.com, which is a site where married people go to find someone to have an affair with, was hacked yesterday and now the hackers are threatening to release information about its users. This is one way to cut down on the number of people running for

Humility and Vianney, Part 2

The reasons for the combination of humility and wisdom are not easy to understand (and almost-certainly beyond the understanding of superficial and arrogant persons–today's all-too-common flipside of wisdom and humility–who would dismiss the combination as a mere coincidence or result of fanciful speculation by devotees). It

Humility and Vianney, Part 1

Socrates was an ugly, poor man with no pretensions. In the eyes of the world, he was a misfit and fool, a constant butt of jokes around sophisticated Athens, but he didn't mind. He was very humble, thinking little of himself and caring little for his earthly affairs.

Sunday

"States have successfully managed to persuade their subject populations that they themselves are the state, and therefore that any insult to the honor of the state is an insult to them as well, any questioning of its behavior or intentions a slap in their very own faces." That&

Saturday

Kontent from the Kindle “Equalization of wealth, progressive taxation, nationalization of industries, the raising of wages and improvements in working conditions, worker-management councils, housing ventures, death taxes, unemployment insurance plans, pension systems, and the enfranchisement of formerly voteless elements of the population have all been, in one country or another,

Friday

BYCU Slate magazine has never seen a politically-correct cause it didn't like. Last week, they jumped into the craft beer arena with this self-righteous tripe: Craft Brewing Has a Sexism Problem: There are gross puns and derogatory illustrations on far too many beer labels. The misogyny needs to

Thursday

A Few Random Passages I enjoy works that impart broader truths in the context of a narrower subject. A great example from Kingsley Amis' Everyday Drinking: > Never despise a drink because it is easy to make and/or uses commercial mixes. Unquestioning devotion to authenticity is, in any

Wednesday

Kontent from the Kindle A truer political truth there never was: "The Populists, as do all reformers, assumed that social good can be achieved through political action. They ignored the age-old fact that whenever the government does 'good' it acts in the interests of some at the

Kirk Reissuance

Great piece The Imaginative Conservative about the recent reissuance of Russell Kirk's Eliot and His Age [http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2011/02/faith-of-men-of-letters.html] . This is one of the few books of Kirk's I haven't read. I was able to write my essay biography

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Great weekend. I attended a high school reunion Friday night. About fifteen years ago, I pushed hard to hold "all-class" reunions on the evening before the main reunion. The idea has taken off, so this year, it's the Class of 1985's 30-year

Sunday

Kontent from the Kindle "The Weimar Republic, the near-republican Italian monarchy, the Spanish republic, the decolonized' free nations from Haiti to Tanzania, from North Vietnam to Indonesia, Latin America from Santo Domingo to Buenos Aires–all have been grievous disappointments to 'progressive' Americans, all terminating in

Saturday

Perhaps one of the most-interesting things on the web this morning: Does the US Need a Nationwide Exorcism? [http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/does-the-us-need-a-nationwide-exorcism/] It's from the National Catholic Register and it made it to the top of line of Drudge this morning. It concedes that a nation-wide

Friday

BYCU Like last Friday, I present a nifty little thing that shouldn't even exist: The Field Guide to Drinking in America: A Traveler's Handbook to State Liquor Laws [http://overcupbooks.bigcartel.com/product/the-field-guide-to-drinking-in-america] . * * * * * * * I guess I need to get out more: Coconut apparently is a

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

If you're like me and enjoy sports but only marginally like baseball, you might want to get a Roku and check out some of the lesser-known sports. ESPN3 shows a lot of great stuff: cricket, Arena Football, lacrosse, and ultimate frisbee. I only watch on Saturday nights when

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Nice holiday weekend. Unfortunately, I did my celebrating Friday night, with the result that I wasn't terribly inclined to celebrate Saturday night, so I laid in bed and read while my town had fireworks going off all over the place. * * * * * * * Michigan has an insane law regarding

Sunday

The persecution potential picks up steam: > Catholic School Teacher Fired for Same-Sex Marriage Files Federal Lawsuit http://t.co/0IIHWmVCLp > — Eric (@sturgiseric) July 3, 2015 [https://twitter.com/sturgiseric/status/616929377192816640] > From LA Times: Faithful churches and synagogues will lose their tax exemption in Hillary's

Reddit

I made my first post to Reddit this morning. It's currently in the top spot in the "Catholicism" subreddit. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/] https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/3c3bof/i_cant_tell_whether_st_francis_is_blessing_this/?ref=share&ref_

Happy Fourth

> “They ate based on how successful the firework displays were.” http://t.co/plq0lMFnwN pic.twitter.com/gce16C2rHX [http://t.co/gce16C2rHX] > — Forbes (@Forbes) July 4, 2015 [https://twitter.com/Forbes/status/617252007666130944] > How likely are you to get hurt by fireworks this Fourth of July? We

Friday

Brews You Can Use This is a pretty neat article, though it's depressing that the subject matter even exists: Ten Places in the USA You Can Legally Drink on the Street [http://www.drinkmemag.com/10-places-in-the-usa-you-can-legally-drink-on-the-street/] . Since most people are on holiday today, I'm not going

Thursday

I've long been fascinated by Nietzsche, in the sense that I've always found him wildly wrong and wildly right, wildly reckless and wildly insightful. That being said, he's enough of a nut that I've taken the time to read only one of

GKC Wednesday

Chesterton Short(s) Petty good piece at the Imaginative Conservative on GKC and Norman Rockwell [http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/06/gk-chesterton-norman-rockwell-and-the-world-turned-upside-down.html] . "Humility is particularly necessary in the case of Norman Rockwell, because his work itself has become trite. We think we know the pictures, so we do

Tuesday

Dosoyevsky, Brownson's junior by eighteen years, would write on a theme similar to Brownson's concerns about humanitarian democracy. Just as Brownson worried that North American progressives would sacrifice men on the altar of the abstractions known as “Man” and “The Rights of Man,” Dostoyevsky feared that

Everybody Out!

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Strange days indeed: Detroit casino sponsors garden to produce seedlings for Detroiters to replant throughout the city [http://detroitagriculture.net/the-farm/]. * * * * * * * I'm stunned at the growth of urban gardening. Last week while driving home from northern Michigan, I saw a billboard for a "rural urban

Sunday

Saturday

A Rant "The whole world groaned," wrote Jerome, "and marvelled to find itself Arian." I returned from vacation and marvelled to find the world gay. And found the Supreme Court, led by conservative John Roberts, had again judiciously bent over backwards to save the Affordable Care

Friday

BYCU Whenever I think of Australian beer, I think of Foster Lager. Because it was my Dad's beer of choice back in the 1980s, it was my beer of choice ("If it's free, it's me"). I loved those big oil cans. When

Kimmel

The world's oldest person has died. Again. Third time this year. Someone is killing the world's oldest people and we do nothing about it.

Fallon

The Obama administration announced that a woman will replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill starting in 2020. I want to be the first person to congratulate Caitlyn Hamilton.

Meyers

President Obama this weekend used the N-word when speaking about race relations in America. Which explains why everyone at Fox News today kept shouting, “And I quote ”¦” A Pennsylvania brewery said that it is introducing a new beer to honor the late Penn State football coach, Joe Paterno. And if

Kimmel

I hope everyone who deserved it had a good Father's Day. Kids will buy cards and T-shirts and even little trophies that say their father is the best dad in the world. But the fact of the matter is that simple math tells us the vast majority of

Wednesday

Chesterton Short(s) This isn't really GKC, but the current issue of Gilbert [http://www.chesterton.org/membership/]features an interview between Dale Ahlquist and Thomas Cook, a psychiatrist. This exchange cracked me up: Dale: You have worked as a forensic psychiatrist in a state hospital. That sounds

The Barbarians II

Ruminations on the Fall of Rome There were many other barbarian “tribes” milling around the Empire's borders, but of those who (by conventional understanding) initially set up kingdoms in the old Roman Empire in the West, all of them were forces within the Empire that worked with the

The Barbarians I

Ruminations on the Fall of Rome Mike Duncan, of The History of Rome podcast, on the coming war between Theodosius and Maximus (in the late 380s). Here's Duncan's description of Theodosius' army: “Theodosus' top field generals, Ricimer and Ricimer's nephew, Arbogast, were

Saturday

If you're crunched for a Father's Day gift this year:

Friday

Brews You Can Use This is one of the coolest things I've seen in awhile, even though I can't imagine I'd ever buy it: Palcohol (powdered alcohol) [http://abcnews.go.com/Health/palcohol-powdered-alcohol-approved-feds/story?id=29580363] . Of course the neo-Prohibitionists' radars are going

Meyers

A new study suggests that marriage is more beneficial for men than women. The results of the study were shouted at me through a locked bedroom door. Emerson College officials said that starting in 2016 they will offer students the opportunity to major in comedy. Or, you can just take

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Meyers

Donald Trump announced today that he is running for president. And based on the amount of bronzer he uses, he's also running for president of the Spokane NAACP.

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

A great distinction In his meditations on the growing tension and eventual war between the North and the South, Orestes Brownson favored the South's “personal democracy,” which he contrasted with the North's “humanitarian democracy.” The South's personal democracy recognized the individual's freedom

Monday

Monday Miscellany After reading The Leek last Tuesday, eldest son Alex told me that there is already a Catholic Onion out there: Eye of the Tiber [http://www.eyeofthetiber.com/]. It looks pretty good. About themselves: "We were the only Catholic news agency to report that Pope Francis had

Sunday

I had an enjoyable little evening with Marie, the two little kids, and the eldest daughter last night: Mass, brief showing at a friend's graduation party, bowling (with plenty of drinks), some arcade games, then a trip for fast food and home to watch an old episode of

On Hollywood

“In Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk.” Rita Rudner “Half the people in Hollywood are dying to be discovered and the other half are afraid they will be.” Lionel Barrymore “It's a scientific fact. For every year a person lives in Hollywood, they lose

Friday

So I'm at a graduation party last Friday night. They had two drinks: Miller Lite on tap and the "Ami Cooler." I was a little bummed there was no vodka, but the host told me, "My grandfather had a bar in Ionia, Michigan. He would

Conan

We have a historic drought going on now in this state. Due to the drought, California Governor Jerry Brown said he has cut back on bathing. As a result, Californians have cut back on hanging out with Jerry Brown. A federal court has ruled that the U.S. Postal Service

Thursday

Apologetics 101 from Orestes Although Brownson was a collaborator with the radical Fanny Wright (and her partner, socialist Robert Owen), and had veered strongly toward agnosticism himself, he quickly found their anti-religion stance intellectually-clumsy. The radicals taught that religion/superstition (the two are synonymous for radicals) was coeval and co-existent

Wednesday

Chesterton Short(s) The 18.5 (volume 18, fifth issue) of Gilbert [http://www.chesterton.org/membership/] arrived recently. It's pretty amazing that this little magazine keeps plugging along. When I was editing it, someone told me that the average life of such niche magazines is something like

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew, another long weekend out of the way; one step closer to death. Little league game Friday night, followed by graduation parties (straight from fields, change into decent clothes in the back of my van, to parties). Blessed hours of gardening Saturday morning, then slept off grogginess from

Sunday

Always dig Taki: "Truman Capote famously said that On The Road was typing, not writing, but old Jack Kerouac was Jane Austen compared to some of the novelists of today. Making it sound easy is the hardest thing in writing, and I grant you that today's modernists

Saturday

On Jenner You know how out of it I am? A little while ago (like in early 2014, maybe late 2013), I asked my wife a question about the Kardashians. I'd heard of the attention-mongering sisters and their hangers-on, and I knew one of them was good-looking, but

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The Flannery bit made it over to Catholic Lane, a fine online resource. Here's a courtesy link [http://www.catholiclane.com/flannerys-existentialist-stamp/].

Friday

An excerpt: “I don't disagree that alcohol ruins lives, but those lives would get ruined one way or the other. It's kinda like gun control. By restricting guns, you keep them out of law-abiding citizens' hands. The lawless will get their hands on them. Same

Thursday

In honor of the Flannery stamp, I dusted off an abandoned essay and resurrected this excerpt In one of his last works before his masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky wrote The Dream of a Ridiculous Man. In this story, the narrator goes to another solar system and lands on a

Meyers

In the world of soccer, after the arrest of numerous other officials, FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced his resignation this afternoon. Sepp Blatter doesn't sound like the name of a guy who's stepping down. It sounds like the reason. If elected, Lindsey Graham would be the

Conan

In a recent interview, the Pope revealed he doesn't use the Internet and he hasn't watched television since 1990. Then he announced his plan to make Bill Cosby a saint. The Grateful Dead are putting out an 80-disc live performance box set. No word yet on

Fallon

According to an email from his staff, Donald Trump is set to announce on June 16 whether he will run for president. Seriously? At this point, Donald Trump announcing whether he's running for president is like soccer's World Cup – it happens every four years and no

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

If you didn't hear this neat piece of news: > The new Flannery O'Connor stamp. http://t.co/JS9V5RnI2d pic.twitter.com/lerrbXaiRv [http://t.co/lerrbXaiRv] > — David Scott (@DScottLA) May 28, 2015 [https://twitter.com/DScottLA/status/603798782992605184] "Award-winning American author and devout

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The official (albeit rough) figures from the graduation party: 98 adults (21 or over), 15 or so little kids (pre-teen), and about 60 teens. Alcohol consumed (roughly): four fifths of hard liquor, two bottles of wine, and six cases of beer. So, approximately 250 drinks total (170 beers,

Sunday

A TDE reader sent this along, with the observation that they probably just changed the label on their Bud Light cans: > Anheuser-Busch brewery cans water instead of beer to aid Texas and Oklahoma flood victims | http://t.co/mTsyhAKksg > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) May 30, 2015 [https://twitter.

Saturday

Whew, the metaphysical hangover. We had Jack's grad party last night. Whatta whirl . . . last night and this morning. The thing I hate most about parties is that I always, without fail, wake up groggy and thinking about all the guests I didn't even say "hi&

Friday

BYCU So I'm talking with my oldest son, Alex, on my laptop. It's evening and he's drinking from a big, funky-looking can. I ask him what it is, and he says it's something his local beer seller recommended: Stiegl breakfast beer. I

Great to See

It looks like The University Bookman [http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/about/] is now offered on Kindle . . . or at least two of them. $2.99 apiece. I just bought the Edmund Burke issue.

Thursday

Nock Notions Albert Jay Nock on the Great Fiction upon which The Washington Party relies for its increasingly-aggressive power grabs against society: "Republicanism permits the individual to persuade himself that the State is his creation, that State action is his action, that when it expresses itself it expresses him,

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GKC Wednesday

Chesterton Short(s) A GKC sighting of sorts, through Terry Teachout, editor of the Second Mencken Chrestomathy, writing about Chesterton's contemporary (and occasional critic) H.L. Mencken: "He is the apostle of common sense." Was this an intentional parallel to GKC? I haven't the

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Top Ten List: You might have a book obsession if: 10. You'll never be able to finish all the books you've started. 9. You're kinda surprised there's not a medical term to describe a disordered erotic attraction to books. 8. You don&

Tuesday

Tuesday Trifles Good weekend here. I got all my garden stuff in, except those items that I am purposefully holding back to produce a staggered harvest. * * * * * * * I had a rough time with tomatoes and sweet peppers this year. Only 30 of my sweet peppers germinated and my tomato seedlings don&

Monday

From Reddit's Today I Learned: "TIL that in 2008 Detroit police used SWAT tactics to raid a party at an art museum. Guns drawn, they forced everyone to the floor before searching every attendee and confiscating over 40 vehicles... all because the museum didn't have

They Wanted $15 an Hour

http://i.imgur.com/08tLQUH.jpg The market is kinda like nature. You can keep beating it down, but unless you ruthlessly stomp it out like Lenin and Stalin did, it'll keep pushing forward, just like prairie land is overtaking once-concretized Detroit.

Saturday

The BYCU article I linked to yesterday referenced this nifty piece: Catholic Church opens a bar [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2015/03/cheers-catholic-church-opens-a-bar/] . "[A] bar recently opened in northern France with the backing of the Catholic Church. Bar Cana in Lille launched this month as part of

Meyers

* Scientists working on The Syracuse University Lava Project have discovered how to grill a steak using lava. The hard part is getting the cow up on the volcano.

Friday

BYCU This article had great humor potential: 19 Tips for Staying Catholic when you go to a Bar [http://en.catholic-link.com/2015/05/11/19-tips-for-being-catholic-when-you-go-to-a-bar/] . Unfortunately, the author is serious about giving tips to young Catholic professionals who need the bar scene as part of their social network (I

Conan

* A new report says that 80 percent of sunscreens either don't work or have questionable ingredients. In a related story, I don't have long to live.

Meyers

* Vladimir Putin reportedly scored eight goals during a hockey game in Sochi this weekend. And the goalie only had one save: his own life.

Conan

* A resort in Mexico has opened the first underwater bar. Shortly afterwards it became host to the world's slowest bar fight ever.

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Last week's spring blitz put me behind with blog post leads, so I broke this week's "MR" into two parts. * * * * * * * Thanks, incidentally, to TDE readers who send me interesting links. It's greatly appreciative, especially in the spring when little

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You might be lethargic if: 10. Kneeling and standing during church cause you to break a sweat. 9. You break a sweat taking a shower. 8. You have nightmares about losing your TV remote. 7. You've tried to scam a handicap license plate. 6. You think Internet surfing

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Some of you may have seen my attempt to post another picture from Warren Dunes last week. The picture didn't upload, so I'm trying it again this morning. It's a picture of my kids. In the background is the dune/hill where

Calendar

Awhile back, I found an online Catholic calendar that gave an extensive list of saints whose commemoration fell on each particular day. Each day had anywhere from, say, five to 15 saints listed, with hyperlinks to many of them. It was really cool, but I can't find it

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Last fall, I dumped about fifty pounds of vermicompost on my asparagus bed. The crowns that are producing are kicking out some pretty fat spears, like this one. I don't know if it's the vermicompost or just the brand of asparagus, but they're also

From Reddit Today I Learned

"TIL during a 1957 Phillies game, Richie Ashburn hit a fan with a foul ball, breaking her nose. When play resumed he hit her again with another foul ball as she was being taken out on a stretcher."

Sanford and B.B.

Saturday

Do you know about farming "checkoff" programs? Slate provides a good explanation [http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2015/05/organic_checkoff_proposal_why_farmers_oppose_the_organic_trade_association.html?wpsrc=fol_tw] : "These are in essence taxes that farmers pay to a national fund,

RIP

I'll drink a few tonight to this song. Rest in peace, Blues Boy. B.B. King in photos [http://mashable.com/2015/05/15/blues-musician-bb-king-career-photos/?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed] .

Friday

I live on the Indiana border. Our high school cross-country team often runs to Indiana as part of their practices, and I occasionally ride my Schwinn down there. When I sleep in the living room at night, I can hear the traffic from the 80-90 Toll Road, which runs across

Meyers

* A 94-year-old man is graduating from West Virginia University after studying at the school on and off for 75 years – though I'm guessing mostly off. * He's graduating from college at the age of 94. Just imagine how awkward it's going to be for the

Kimmel

* Kim Jong Un – it's really Catch-22 with him. If you close your eyes, you get shot for nodding off. If you open them, you get shot for laughing at his haircut.

Fallon

* Even the White House is weighing in on the deflate-gate scandal. Yesterday they encouraged Tom Brady to “be mindful of the way he serves as a role model.” And then President Obama stubbed out his cigarette and went golfing at noon on a weekday. * The White House encouraged Tom Brady

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We took our annual Mother's Day trip to Warren Dunes State Park last Sunday. We saw a total of seven other people while we were there, even though it's one of the most popular tourist attractions in Michigan. That's what 63 degrees and rain

Conan

* An Australian woman has gone on 136 first dates in 17 months, but never on a second date. In other words, she looks nothing like her Tinder profile picture.

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Conan

* Barbara Walters admitted to stealing an artifact from the White House. She said, "I was young, and I didn't think President Lincoln would mind."

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A sentiment Albert Jay Nock would heartily second: "Imperial Russia had a far larger percentage of illiterates than the American Middle West yet she produced such men as Dostoyevski, Myerezhkovski, Vyereshtshagin, Tolstoy, Tshaykovski, Solovyov, Pushkin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Turgenyev, Skryabin, Mendeleyev, and Mussorgsky." Erik Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Tuesday

I'll let you know if this works: "A breathing trick can induce sleep in as little as 60 seconds, according to sleep expert Dr. Andrew Weil. "The technique, called the “4-7-8”³ method, was inspired by yoga and supposedly works by promoting a state of calm within

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Another cold snap coming today and tomorrow. I struggled with whether to put out my tomato plants last weekend, then finally settled on putting out nearly half of them. Temperature is supposed to drop to 41 tomorrow night. Under 40 is a danger zone for tomatoes, but they&

Sunday

I like it when the lettuce boxes come into full bloom. Heirloom Black Seeded Simpson produces this overflowing fluorescent glow every spring. BTW: Don't let anyone tell you lettuce has no nutritional value. It's a myth. Iceberg lettuce has no nutritional value. The others have varying

GK Saturday

David Mills has proposed his own GKC reading list for beginners [http://catholicexchange.com/reading-g-k-chesterton-a-guide-for-the-new-fan]. It's not bad. It prompted me to go to Amazon to see if I could get his Autobiography free (or for 99 cents) on Kindle. I couldn't find it, but I

Meyers

* The president of Tom Brady's California high school says the whole community is praying for Tom and his family. The whole community? Wow, that's a lot of pressure. If only there was a way to get rid of some of that pressure. * A new poll finds

Friday

Brews You Can Use This is perhaps the most-helpful drinking article I've seen in a long time: Infographics: 11 Wine, Beer, and Spirit Facts You Probably Didn't Know [http://www.drinkmemag.com/infographics-11-wine-beer-spirits-facts-you-probably-didnt-know/] A few samples: Contrary to popular belief, vodka does expire. The average shelf

Conan

* Authorities in New York busted a gun-running operation allegedly headed by a 500-pound gang member nicknamed “Wobbles.” The arrest took place on Saturday, yet the strip search of Wobbles still goes on.

Meyers

* A Brooklyn man has become an overnight celebrity for his uncanny resemblance to Vincent Van Gogh. Said the man, "What?"

Von Mises and Roepke

I've always wanted to understand better the differences between Wilhelm Roepke and Ludwig von Mises. This article is helpful: > Roepke and von Mises: The Difference http://t.co/HNOQ1TAEpt > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) April 26, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/592298580897046528] But the writer never

Conan

* A Florida man is suing a hospital for throwing his right leg away after it was amputated. The hospital says they're not worried about the lawsuit because the man does not have a leg to stand on.

Tuesday

As I mentioned yesterday, I was in charge of prom preparations on Saturday. I'm not much of a photographer, but I took my role seriously and did a pretty good job with my iPhone. Here are pictures of my second son right before heading out to pick up

Old Footage

Pretty wild. Berlin right after the War (summer 1945):

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling It's a sad time of life around here. Our oldest son, Alex, starts his real life today. He graduated from the University of Michigan on Saturday and starts at Quicken Loans this morning in downtown Detroit. It's a great job opportunity, and he'

Waugh v. Merton

I'm now blogging for my local parish. Here's a piece I wrote yesterday about the new collection of correspondence between Evelyn Waugh and Thomas Merton [http://www.holyangelssturgis.org/waugh-v-merton/]: > The twentieth century was filled with great Catholic literary converts (to read about them, see

Sunday

I'm gonna have to try this: > As soil warms, hunt for wild asparagus | Sandusky Register http://t.co/g5oMd3uQAq > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) April 26, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/592380392516231168] Thirteen of my asparagus crowns are producing. I think I planted 16. Looking forward

Saturday

I've continued to monitor the Gofundme site [http://www.gofundme.com/rogan] for the Rogan family. They're up to $466,000. If you haven't given, please consider it. If you need more background information, The Register tells the complete story this morning. "Crowdfunding&

BYCU

"The dipsomaniac and the abstainer are not only both mistaken, but they both make the same mistake. They both regard wine as a drug and not as a drink." Kingsley Amis This, of course, echoes GKC's "Omar and the Sacred Vine." > Drink because

Conan

* In Baltimore, the Orioles and the Chicago White Sox played a game today in a completely empty stadium. It was the first major sporting event to be played in an empty stadium, unless you count every professional soccer game in America.

Thursday

Consistent with my statement last Monday that I was going to start frequenting The American Spectator site more often, I did and immediately found a great article on McDonald's by Daniel Flynn [http://spectator.org/articles/62510/i%E2%80%99m-not-lovin%E2%80%99-it]. In short, Flynn isn&

From Reddit's Today I Learned Feature

No comment: "TIL that Martin Luther King Jr's assassin, James Earl Ray was once erroneously honoured during a parade which intended to praise the actor James Earl Jones. Lauderdale, Florida accidentally created a plaque in January 2002 which read 'Thanks James Earl Ray for keeping the

MeyersÂ

* Scientists have discovered that Tyrannosaurus Rex may have had a vegetarian cousin. Man, it must suck to have a vegetarian in the family when your arms are too short to cover your ears.

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

I used to enjoy greatly boxing. I lost $5 on the Hearns/Leonard fight (big Tommy fan), which was a lot of money back in the early 1980s for a high school kid. I boxed at the University of Michigan for a short spell (club sport; no ability required). I

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Great Mencken article at The American Conservative [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/h-l-menckens-merry-days/]. Three brief excerpts: "When Mencken started at the Baltimore Herald in 1899, the newspaper had a spittoon at every desk but not enough typewriters to go around." "Everyone involved in making the

Sunday

Nock Notions And anything that tears down society ought to be resisted by Catholics everywhere: "It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. All the power it has is what society

Interesting

H.I.F.From the "Today I Learned" sub-reddit at Reddit: "TIL If you earn more than US$21,000 a year, you are part of the richest 4% of the planet." No wonder I walk with such a swagger.

Friday

BYCU This link has one of the best assortment of "info-graphics" (deplorable term) I've ever seen about drinking [http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/26xaST/OQ$bQuqT:1RS6rr!B/www.buzzfeed.com/jessicaprobus/wheat-beer-plus-lobster-roll-heck-yeah?bffb] . Want to identify the different types of wine glasses? See chart 1.

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Meyers

* An intruder was arrested at the White House last night after trying to jump the fence. Authorities aren't releasing the fence jumper's identity, but they did say that she tore her pantsuit.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Anybody have any recommended podcasts? I seem to be running a bit low. It happens this time of year due to all the time I spend gardening and walking outside. * * * * * * * It's funny, I don't think I can garden without listening to a podcast. On

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My first participation in a crowd-funding event. > ACTION ITEM! I donated to Fund for Widowed New Mother of 8 http://t.co/i2cu1kGPEV via @gofundme [https://twitter.com/gofundme] #catholic [https://twitter.com/hashtag/catholic?src=hash] #tcot [https://twitter.com/hashtag/tcot?src=hash] > — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My Annual Weatherman Rant

Great weather last week. Of course, what goes up, must come down. We are now looking at very cold temperatures. Now, the fact that cold temperatures are following warm temperatures doesn't surprise me. I've seen that occur my entire life. What does surprise (okay, annoy) me

Saturday

Weekend BYCU I like it when another person thinks like me. This guy read a study, called "bull____," and used common sense/experience to explain why the scientific study is obvious bunk: What men really talk about in the pub [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/11532781/

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I saw this poster in St. Louis.

Friday

I've never been a big horse fan, whether racing or otherwise. When I lived in Detroit, I went to the local racetrack and bet on the Kentucky Derby simulcast, which was pretty cool. To this day, I normally watch The Big Three (KD, Preakness, and Belmont), and I

Conan

* It's April 15, tax day. The federal tax code is over 74,000 pages long. But stick with it because after page 72,000, it gets really good.

Thursday

This is a bar in St. Louis. It's on the main floor of the City Museum. That's right, the City Museum, the St. Louis attraction that I described on Monday as, "an anarchic, do-what-you-want exploration playground for kids." But in the middle of this

GKC Wednesday

Chesterton Short(s) When Max Beerbohm took over for Shaw as the drama critic for the English Saturday Review, Shaw introduced him with the following, "The younger generation is knocking at the door, and as I open it there steps sprightly in the incomparable Max." "The incomparable

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Tuesday

I saw this restaurant in Clayton, Missouri. I couldn't tell whether it was a Panera Bread franchise rip-off or not: It reminded me of this movie scene ("I got the Big Mick"):

Monday

That's me, standing with Chuck Berry on Delmar Boulevard in Clayton, Missouri. [http://www.claytonmo.gov/] Clayton is one of St. Louis' most famous suburbs (after Ferguson, of course) and is so much a part of St. Louis, our tour bus went there, Delmar Boulevard is listed

Misty Mountain Hop, and Now This

> Once upon a time, Tolkien nixed the Beatles' proposal to star in LOTR (with Lennon as Gollum). http://t.co/rR6f6S9pHy pic.twitter.com/VJ6nKh4clb [http://t.co/VJ6nKh4clb] > — First Things (@firstthingsmag) April 12, 2015 [https://twitter.com/firstthingsmag/status/587398433780162560]

Sunday

I saw this book on display in St. Louis. I dang near bought it, but the price tag ($22) held me back: > Merton and Waugh: A Monk, A Crusty Old Man, and The Seven Storey Mountain http://t.co/KtPcDZSGAU > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) April 11, 2015 [https:

Saturday

I just returned from a short vacation to St. Louis. I hope to blog/ramble on about it Monday morning. For now, just this pic of a mosaic from its beautiful Cathedral.

Friday

BYCU Kontent from the Kindle Summer is coming, and with it comes gin and tonics. When I first abandoned beer, I turned to gin, but it occasionally gave me headaches, so I switched to vodka, which I've really come to enjoy. After reading this passage from The Drunken

Fallon

* John McCain addressed critics who believe he will be too old to run for a sixth term in the Senate, saying that he's still healthy and ready to go. Then people around McCain said, “Why is he talking to that mannequin?”

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Bullets Have you heard Michigan's slogan? "Pure Michigan." It's never struck me as anything special, but I guess it's been so successful that other states are trying to come up with their own "Pure Michigan" type slogan. Branding Ohio [http:

Easter

“When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld “him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a man step

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Drudge's front page this morning: 'BLOOD MOON' RISES Links to [http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/04/02/lunar-eclipse-blood-moon/70831278/]

Saturday

Kontent from the Kindle A Testament to the "Wisdom" of Experts, Episode 1,200,902: "In the 1990s, conscious that their old, stately buildings were no longer able to contain the flood of printed matter, the directors of several major libraries decided to erect new premises to

Kontent

Kontent from the Kindle Are there half-monks, fish who must hurry to the sea half the time? All must withdraw on occasion, hence the strong allure of the poustinia, but must some withdraw more often than others? "Nevertheless–or rather, precisely because of this charitable activity, which brought such

Good Friday

“The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His.” George MacDonald "The cross cannot be defeated. . . For it is Defeat." G.K. Chesterton On those who hate Christianity: "They do not dislike the Cross

Thursday

“[I]n the agony of Gethsemane the ultimate consequences of our sin had their hour. . . . God permitted his Son to taste the human agony of rejection and plunge towards the abyss. . . Gethsemane was the hour in which Jesus' human heart and mind experienced the ultimate odium of the sin

Wednesday

From Wikipedia's entry on the Paschal Triduum [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paschal_Triduum]: "The period that lasted from Thursday morning to before Easter Sunday began was once, in Anglo-Saxon times, referred to as 'the still days.'" There's something about "stillness&

Tuesday

> The first reading was read in English and the second in Spanish. Thousands listen @cnalive [https://twitter.com/cnalive] #PalmSunday [https://twitter.com/hashtag/PalmSunday?src=hash] pic.twitter.com/BALeXr4Umo [http://t.co/BALeXr4Umo] > — Yahaira Jacquez (@YJacquez_) March 29, 2015 [https://twitter.com/YJacquez_/status/582094293277503488] Yikes,

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Welcome to EWTN 24/7 Week. Lots of good stuff out there. Take advantage of it. * * * * * * * Speaking of good stuff, if you haven't checked out the Fr. John Riccardo podcasts [https://www.avemariaradio.net/programs/christ-is-the-answer/] , you need to. He's probably the best Catholic

Palm Sunday

“The hour overflows with supernatural power. In these last days it is as if Jesus were gathering strength on strength preparing for the ultimate.” Romano Guardini, The Lord

Saturday

Congratulations to Michigan State University, which has plowed into the Elite 8 . . . as a seven seed. It makes you wonder: What was the selection committee thinking? Why in the world would you give MSU, which almost always turns into a Top 10 team in March, a 7 seed? I might

Friday

BYCU When I self-diagnosed myself with gluten intolerance, I swore off beer. I tried a few gluten-free beers, but only one of them tasted like a "real" beer. I'd been drinking beer for over thirty years, but I haven't gone back. It's

Thursday Thweets

> Where men are the most sure and arrogant, there they are commonly the most mistaken. David Hume > — Philosophers Quotes (@Philosophers21) March 18, 2015 [https://twitter.com/Philosophers21/status/577994336895430656] > Did You Know #Michigan [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Michigan?src=hash] Has One Of The World's

Fallon

* A man delivered a pizza to Pope Francis. Francis actually liked it more than the pizza he gets from his usual place – “Pope-a-John's.”

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Kontent from the Kindle "Among the worst aspects of the collapse of traditional conservatism is that my children will grow up in a world in which vulgar and belligerent nationalism will be presented to them as the alternative to leftism." Thomas Woods. "Economic historians have determined that

Monday

I finally made it back to Detroit's Greektown. It was my nephew's bachelor party. I picked up my son in Ann Arbor then walked around downtown Detroit for awhile (he was still trying to clear his head from the party his house threw the night before

Sunday

Good, clean short jokes: "I have the heart of a lion and a lifetime ban from the Toronto zoo." "I told my girlfriend she drew her eyebrows too high. She seemed surprised." "A termite walks into the bar and asks, 'Is the bar tender

Happy First Day of Spring

I'll do some of this as the weather turns nicer. Few things finer than sitting on the front porch with a drink. > The Zen of Drinking Alone. Modern Drunkard Magazine - http://t.co/b1C9s5F1x9 > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) March 8, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/

Friday

One of the most interesting things I read this week: > From Reddit: TIL a $1.99 bottle of wine, Two Buck Chuck, beat 2300 other wines to win the 28th Annual International Eastern Wine Competition > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) March 15, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/577085165052301312]

Meyers

* Blackberry and Samsung are working together on a new project to build a high-security tablet. The way it works is this: It says “Blackberry” on the back and nobody wants to steal it.

Thursday

> Black Like Kerouac | The American Conservative http://t.co/1UPBylFohk via @amconmag [https://twitter.com/amconmag] > — David Scott (@DScottLA) March 14, 2015 [https://twitter.com/DScottLA/status/576633158306635776]

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It would seem that a surge in William Graham Sumner [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Graham_Sumner#The_Forgotten_Man] (1840-1910) might do this country a lot of good: "Sumner celebrated “the forgotten man,” the independent middle-class man who falls between the cracks of the plutocrats on the

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

From Reddit's Today I Learned

"TIL that on Saint Patrick's Day began as a "feast day" in honor of the anniversary of the day he died. To honor him, Christians could put aside their Lenten restrictions on food and alcohol consumption on this day, which is why excessive drinking has

Tuesday

Random Kontent from the Kindle "A student once asked him: 'If I haven't anything in my mind, what shall I do?' Joshu replied: 'Throw it out.' 'But if I haven't anything, how can I throw it out?' continued the

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> "Stop thinking, and end your problems." ~ Lao Tzu #tao [https://twitter.com/hashtag/tao?src=hash] > — Tao Essentials (@TaoEssentials) March 14, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TaoEssentials/status/576692796184211456]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Do outdoor activities make a person tired? I've been outdoors a lot since the weather turned nice, and I've been unbelievably zonked out every night. But I still have some residuals from that terrible illness from two weeks ago, so maybe that's

Sunday

I've never understood minimum wage legislation. If you increase the cost of something, people will buy less of it. I thought that was a rule, along the lines of, "If you spit on someone, that person is less likely to enjoy your company." Sure, there are

Saturday

> It's been an honor Sturgis! pic.twitter.com/0garS7IVzs [http://t.co/0garS7IVzs] > — Jack Scheske (@ScheskeJack) March 14, 2015 [https://twitter.com/ScheskeJack/status/576571097900023808] The basketball season comes to a close. It was a long year: four kids in four different leagues, including a varsity

Friday

BYCU Even when I could drink beer, and greatly enjoyed craft beer, there was something about the "craft beer" movement that annoyed me. I don't know if it was the beer snobbery, or the idea that people were entirely too intense on something (beer drinking) that

Thursday

Kontent from the Kindle As March Madness heats up, it's interesting to remember what group of people used to dominate the sport. From A Renegade History of the United States (perhaps the best book of American history written in the past 15 years): "The first professional basketball

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Bullets I'm always open to blog recommendations. This one [http://www.serenityfarmcsa.com/] is by a family farm in Kansas that is trying some cool stuff. * * * * * * * This article isn't as interesting as its title implies, but it's not bad: Apocalyptic beliefs may explain why

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Boy, spring slams into us with a bang. From -2 temperatures on Friday to 42 on Saturday. That's a 45-degree swing in 48 hours. * * * * * * * I started up my garden over the weekend, erecting my little portable greenhouse, moving my micro-green trays from the grow lamp to

Sunday

My birthday is coming up. My mom gave me a birthday card early, since she'll be out of town. I present it here, virtually unmodified, to spite my three brothers and cause them much envy:

The Week of Coincidences

Three of 'Em I'm declaring this past week the "Week of Coincidences." First, there was the coincidence I mentioned earlier [https://thedailyeudemon.com/36181/] (regarding the Berry quote). And then these two: 1. On February 22nd, I blogged about the apparent virtues of essential oils

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The constant innovation that is America, even in the era of the jackboot socialist-wannabes in Washington:

Happy Birthday

And a BYCU, of sorts: Happy birthday to Marie. At age ___, she's as attractive as she was when we first met. That's an exaggeration, but not much of one. Last year, she got carded at a bar. When I then offered the barmaid my i.d.

Friday

47 pictures with incorrect use of quotation marks [http://news.distractify.com/avericlements/the-30-most-unnecessary-uses-of-quotation-marks-in-history/] . The writer's commentary beneath each picture is pretty good, too. Sample: ...Actually, this one is pretty on-point.

Thursday

The Zen of Lisieux Two passages from John C. h. Wu's The Golden Age of Zen that I ran across last week: "Tao is nothing else than the ordinary mind, every ordinary action is an expression of Tao." "[O]ne of the central insights of

Wendell

Great Quote So I took that Wendell Berry book off my shelf earlier this week and read a few pages. On the third page, I ran across this great passage: "What I'm arguing against here is not complexity or mystery but dualism. I would like to purge

Wednesday

I stated earlier that I like Zen because it represents the highest attainment of un-assisted philosophy. It dawned on me later that I should probably explain myself. What I mean by this is, Zen has sought the highest truths through naked thinking and meditation, without the assistance afforded by divine

Tuesday

More Miscellaneous Rambling Been meaning to post this article for over a week: Wendell Berry, Burkean [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/wendell-berry-burkean/]. I need to try Berry again. I remember reading him over ten years ago, and something about his writing--the prose? the ideas?--just didn't click with

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew, I've nearly survived the basketball season: four kids, four leagues, including two in high school competition (JV-varsity). It felt like a part-time job occasionally. Marie and I got back from our last six-hour trip Friday evening and sighed relief. We have a couple of home

Sunday

For the oriental gardeners out there: > Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson http://t.co/3y5tDOfumD > — Zen Moments (@Zen_Moments) February 28, 2015 [https://twitter.com/Zen_Moments/status/571762135564488704] I planted five pots

Saturday

Time-is-tight weekend. Just this great quote today: "There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact." Mark Twain

A Sad Day

I just learned that my professor, mentor in the faith, and friend Charles Rice died Wednesday [http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4015/Professor-Charles-Rice-Who-%E2%80%98Epitomized-All-That-Is-Best%E2%80%99-at-Notre-Dame-Passes-Away.aspx] . We lost touch over the years, last corresponding by email a few months ago, but he

Friday

Brews You Can Use I read once that the average lifespan of a blog is six months. I actually would've guessed three months, but maybe they count the blogs that start off strong, then peter out to one or two posts a month, limping along like that for

Humorous

H.I.F. There's a race war going on, but it's black on black. This from talk show host Byron Allen, criticizing Al Sharpton for selling out to big media interests: “Why is Sharpton on TV every night on MSNBC? Because he endorsed Comcast's

Meyers

Jamaica has officially decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. Which would be great news if anyone in Jamaica had small amounts of marijuana.

Meyers

Boston's city council is considering increasing its alcohol tax. The plan would raise an estimated $900 million billion trillion.

Thursday

I recently re-ran across this passage from John C. h. Wu's (the Chinese Chesterton's) The Golden Age of Zen: "The first and second chapters of the Tao Teh Ching constitute the metaphysical background of Zen." I'm not exactly sure what to think

Fallon

A group of teenagers in Colorado surprised their neighbors by shoveling 50 driveways and walkways for free. They didn't mean to. They were just too stoned to remember which house was theirs.

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Meyers

A woman in Mexico was arrested at a movie theater this weekend during "Fifty Shades of Grey." She was sad about being arrested, but really psyched about being handcuffed.

Tuesday

After linking to that Rod Dreher article yesterday, I Googled him. I used to correspond with him occasionally when we both wrote for Touchstone (he regularly, me whenever I wrote something they liked, which is the difference between an accomplished writer and a writing hack, though the hack often takes

As Long as I'm on Dreher

I saw this for the first time this afternoon: > New Book Notice: 'How Dante Can Save Your Life' | Rod Dreher http://t.co/UNAkZtxo6v > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 24, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/570014123712491520]

New Book Notice

I just saw that Joseph Pearce released a new book late last year. I haven't bought it yet, but my hand hovers over the "Buy It Now" button at Amazon. Catholic Literary Giants: A Field Guide to the Catholic Literary Landscape [http://www.amazon.com/gp/

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I started trying essential oils last fall. I'm slowly becoming a believer. Whenever I use them, good things happen: the inflamed tendon in my ankle feels better after I put peppermint on it, my son's hip that had been bothering him for months stopped

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> Icon representing the 21 Coptic Martyrs pic.twitter.com/di4DU7W2mN [http://t.co/di4DU7W2mN] > — Daily Saint Quotes (@DailyStQuotes) February 22, 2015 [https://twitter.com/DailyStQuotes/status/569316001562501120]

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> "Loss is not as bad as wanting more." ~ Lao Tzu #tao [https://twitter.com/hashtag/tao?src=hash] > — Zen and Tao (@ZENandTAO) February 21, 2015 [https://twitter.com/ZENandTAO/status/569053219411922947]

Kimmel

Gallup, the polling company, released its annual well-being index where they rank the health and happiness of residents of each of the 50 states. Alaska finished first and Hawaii was No. 2. It's interesting that the top two happiest states are the ones that are farthest away from

Kimmel

Little Caesars is about to deliver a bacon-wrapped deep dish pizza. It's a pizza with three and a half feet of bacon wrapped around it. I think we've reached a point as Americans where normal pizza has become too healthy for us. . . We will not stop

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> Who says you can't drink your #dessert [https://twitter.com/hashtag/dessert?src=hash]? http://t.co/aHWAeHdj8R > — Liquor.com (@Liquor) February 9, 2015 [https://twitter.com/Liquor/status/564873148353368064]

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In the wake of my bar name post earlier this week, A TDE reader sends along this picture of a bar near the birthplace of Thomas Edison:

Conan

The restaurant chain Salad Works has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Analysts attribute the failure to it being a salad restaurant located in America. The USDA has approved the first genetically modified apples that don't turn brown after being sliced open. The no-browning apples are being called groundbreaking,

Max's Most Recent Magnum Opus

> Pre-topple pic.twitter.com/WaUWbFzZLC [http://t.co/WaUWbFzZLC] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 20, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/568585588724654083]

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Reddit Today I Learned

I hate to say it, but I kinda agree with John on this one: "TIL that John Belushi would sabotage anything written by women when he was on SNL, because he believed women were 'fundamentally not funny'" I mean, he shouldn't have sabotaged their

Thursday

Mini-Review The Holy Fire Robert Payne (1957) Choice quote: Gregory Nazianzen "feared no one. He had an unruly humor. He is the only man who is known to have dared to laugh at Basil. He was quick-tempered, sullen, unhappy in the company of most people, strangely remote from the

Conan

I had an amazing experience in Cuba. People there are fantastic. But I do have to say it's very nice to be back home in front of all of you capitalist pigs. There's a new device that allows airline passengers to completely isolate themselves from their

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My sons played high school basketball on the other side of the tracks last night. I saw this sign on a classroom door:

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> The Real #Saint [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Saint?src=hash] #Francis [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Francis?src=hash] of #Assisi [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Assisi?src=hash] pic.twitter.com/Z3gYN8AgAW [http://t.co/Z3gYN8AgAW] > — Father Ted Martin (@fathertedmartin) February 9, 2015 [https://twitter.com/fathertedmartin/status/564603054381473792]

Ash Wednesday

Welcome to Lent 2015. We all head in with high expectations. We all, I suspect, come out disgusted with our lack of progress. Maybe this year will be different. Maybe we can take Hemingway's advice: “Go all the way with it. Do not back off. For once, go

Fat Tuesday Celebration and Lenten Penance in One

Someone brought these into the office today for us to try. Probably the worst potato chip ever. Cooked, no doubt, in the fat fryers of Hell.

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> Get started on the #Chesterton [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chesterton?src=hash] Reading Plan this Lent http://t.co/fXM26oan5w http://t.co/IZfgu1inHK > — Chesterton Society (@AmChestertonSoc) February 15, 2015 [https://twitter.com/AmChestertonSoc/status/566936011264233473]

McLuhan Quote

Sent by a TDE reader:

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Fifty Shades dominated the weekend box office. * * * * * * * Over the weekend, I thought about women who pursue the cloister and how the vast bulk of them are (I'm assured by anecdotal evidence) happy, perhaps the happiest people on earth. And then I thought about the millions of

Sunday

A Random Passage "Listening to gossip can be likened to receiving stolen goods; it puts you in immediate collusion with the person conveying the gossip to you." Joseph Epstein, Gossip, The Untrivial Pursuit.

Saturday

3.6 Shades When a new movie comes out, the ratings at IMDB are at their highest. Everyone's excited about it; they were the first ones to see a "great" movie; they plug it as a great movie. As time goes on, however, the ratings mellow.

BYCU

Brews You Can Use Hard cider is the rage. Here's a factoid you can take with you this evening to your local watering hole: "Cider has always been low in alcohol because the apples themselves are low in sugar. Even the sweetest apples contain much less sugar

Conan

NBC has suspended Brian Williams for six months without pay. Williams said he's not worried because soon his veterans' benefits will kick in. A new report says that last year Colorado collected $44 million in marijuana taxes. Unfortunately, they can't remember where they put it.

Zen Stuff

Who are the most Zen-like Christian thinkers? St. John of the Cross seems to be the one that's mentioned the most, with Meister Eckhart a close second. I've also seen at least two references to parallels with the thought of Blessed John Ruysbroeck. Van Balthasar draws

Meyers

Starbucks has confirmed that saxophone star Kenny G. helped create the Frappuccino. And that, by the way, was voted the world's whitest sentence ever uttered.

Conan

There's a rumor that NBC is going to have Tom Brokaw fill in temporarily as the NBC News anchor. When asked why, a network spokesperson said, "Because the only other NBC person we have is Bill Cosby."

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Kimmel

Rosie says she's leaving "The View" to focus on her health. She said her doctors were concerned about all the stress that working an hour a day puts on the body.

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Tuesday

Autobiographical Corner Something new for me: I woke up and headed to my basement study Sunday morning before my sons' spontaneous friend gathering had broken up. Granted, it was already 4:15 AM, but it was kind of odd to walk downstairs to the sound of contemporary music and

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More evidence that I need the lucky astrology mood watch (reference this morning's post). Or that I need to read more Montaigne, who early on questioned our culture's burdgeoning faith in science and reason: > Health Mag Editor Tests Accuracy of Several Fitness Tracking Devices and

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I almost started this Rambling with this statement, "Why all the horror over Brian Williams' fabrications?" I was then going to recount how Hillary Clinton's equally-mendacious statements about sniper fire in Bosnia and running with her "head down" a few years

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> Max's biggest domino set up yet. Hope to post toppling video later. pic.twitter.com/lLlFDLbiAn [http://t.co/lLlFDLbiAn] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 8, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/564560110086029312] > Almost Max: http://t.co/f0VbKYL3zn via @YouTube [https://twitter.com/YouTube]

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One of the most disturbing things I've heard this year: > From the Land of the Not Free: Blacklisting the Boy Scouts by Mark Pulliam http://t.co/yUKDiAJJtM from @CityJournal [https://twitter.com/CityJournal] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 8, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/

Sunday

Mencken rarely fails to crack me up, even when I don't agree with him. Here he is, writing about human rights: "A dog is a standing proof that most so-called human rights, at bottom, are worth nothing. A dog is proverbially devoid of any such rights, and

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And, I might add, the less loudly you need to say it. > The more you know the less you need to say. ~ Jim Rohn http://t.co/jhEFoiSlHl > — Zen Moments (@Zen_Moments) January 31, 2015 [https://twitter.com/Zen_Moments/status/561587775951355907]

Conan

Scientists have discovered that a 5,000-year-old mummy is covered with at least 60 tattoos. Scientists are calling him the earliest known member of the NBA.

BYCU

This is a neat article, but the tavern names are a bit disappointing: > Medieval Tavern Names http://t.co/Vjh1Afr5Tk pic.twitter.com/ToNOzR4kOM [http://t.co/ToNOzR4kOM] > — Medievalists.net (@Medievalists) January 31, 2015 [https://twitter.com/Medievalists/status/561646506747654144] Moderns are coming up with more creative names,

Some Notes Regarding the Conservatism of Walker Percy

How would a cat react if deprived of sleep? How does a car perform when deprived of oil? What happens to babies if no one holds them? I don't know how the cat would react, but I bet it would grow highly irritable and eventually violent. The car,

Meyers

Harper Lee announced today that she will release a sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird,” which was published in 1960. Apparently she releases a new book every time the measles comes back. I think the sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird” might be a little gimmicky though, because

GKC Wednesday

Chesterton Short(s) When Max Beerbohm took over for Shaw as the drama critic for the English Saturday Review, Shaw introduced him with the following, "The younger generation is knocking at the door, and as I open it there steps sprightly in the incomparable Max." "The incomparable

Tuesday

A few recent favorite tweets: > Your Concentration Training Program: 11 Exercises That Will Strengthen Your Attention (http://t.co/bQ5UPV2xmY) > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) February 1, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/561708314028175360] > Want To Hinder Hair Loss? Nine Natural Remedies. http://t.co/SoOFb7GtOI > — The

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling More Obamacare troubles [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/us/politics/white-house-seeks-to-limit-health-laws-tax-troubles.html?_r=0] . Marie got us registered for Obamacare again this year. Unbelievably difficult and the system is riddled with incompetence. I've actually concluded that the people who put this monstrosity into place

Sunday

I think this writer at Forbes is right: "[B]ecause busyness has become a status symbol–a sign that you are in demand and thus important–it's easy to default to the word “busy” to describe your life. When we tell people that we are busy, in

Great, Just Freakin' Great

The "Catholic" Pelosi: > Today in 2014: Nancy Pelosi Receives Planned Parenthood's Top Margaret Sanger Award http://t.co/Y7Vfnsc7tW pic.twitter.com/4ZZbeC2DO0 [http://t.co/4ZZbeC2DO0] > — LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) February 1, 2015 [https://twitter.com/LifeNewsHQ/status/561705535922536448]

Saturday

Triggered Memory You ever hear something that triggers a memory from early childhood? That happened to me this morning while reading "Why I Hate the Super Bowl [http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/01/why_i_hate_the_super_bowl.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter] ."

Friday

BYCU Kinda interesting: Hops-growing workshop for Ohio growers [http://oardc.osu.edu/7388/Hops-Production-Workshop-is-Feb-13.htm]. I've wondered about the economics of hops growing. It looks pretty good: "Ohio State researchers estimate that within the first year growers can expect dry hops yields of 200 to 1,800

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Wikipedia founder, Hayek dude [http://i.imgur.com/T7yMjo3.jpg].

Thursday

I made my first planting of 2015 last weekend: three trays of microgreens. It felt good to get back in the gardening saddle and take my mind away from office concerns for awhile. * * * * * * * I actually do a fair amount of garden stuff during the dead of winter. I grow sprouts

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Yes, two straight days of "Miscellaneous Rambling." Though perhaps I should've ran this one as "Autobiographical Reflections" . . . * * * * * * * When I first read Josef Pieper's Leisure, the Basis of Culture, I was sold on Pieper's argument: The modern world is

On the Eighth Day

Back in the 1990s, I bought a lot of books from Eighth Day Books. I've always wanted to take a pilgimmage to that famed Wichita bookstore. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy Rod Dreher's description that I found last weekend: > I was reminded

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling My three oldest children and brother urged me to watch "Breaking Bad." They all love it. I've dedicated almost all of my TV-watching time to it over the past ten days and have squeezed in the first three episodes. I find it disagreeable. Very

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Ah, that's why no one around me converts: > Practicing charity is the best way to evangelize. @Pontifex [https://twitter.com/Pontifex] > — N. Catholic Register (@NCRegister) January 24, 2015 [https://twitter.com/NCRegister/status/559033345494220801]

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This Pope has given me some pause, but the rabbit comment didn't bother me. I think he basically said what everyone (well, every informed Catholic) already knows: You can use NFP to help regulate the size of your family if you have legitimate reasons for using it. The

Sunday

H.I.F: Interesting Corroborative evidence about the innate goodness of natural family planning: "Men who find themselves in the company of fertile women are more likely to make creative attempts at sentence structure to signify their mating fitness, a study has found. Researchers discovered that when young men

Saturday

"The Lamps are Going Out [http://takimag.com/article/the_lamps_are_going_out_theodore_dalrymple/print#axzz3PBPs3C7L] ." Pretty good piece by Theodore Dalrymple. Almost as an aside, he summarizes the socio-political problems with fiat money. There's a lot to think about packed into this passage:

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Everyone should go to college [http://i.imgur.com/1Xnsgpr.jpg]. Funny pic.

Friday

Brews You Can Use There's been some pretty good BYCU material out there this year. If your garden, like mine, has volunteer borage all over the place, consider this: borage fizz [http://www.kcet.org/living/food/the-public-kitchen/cocktail-recipe-borage-fizz.html] . My youngest son, Max, really likes to cook.

A Random Pic

This is the cover of the Second Mencken Chrestomathy. I wish I knew more about art. I really like this picture, but I don't know why:

Thursday

A Random Passage This HLM passage cracked me up for some reason: "Once, in a Madrid cafÃ©, the two of us encountered a Spanish marquis who wore celluloid cuffs, suffered from pediculosis and had been drunk for sixteen years." Teachout, ed., The Second Mencken Chrestomathy. _______________ Great book, btw:

Kimmel

There's a viral video of a girl twerking in a moving car. She ends up falling out of the car. Hopefully she's covered by twerker's compensation.

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Kimmel

The New England Patriots take on the defending champs, the Seattle Seahawks. Idina Menzel from the movie "Frozen" will sing the national anthem, and Katy Perry will perform at halftime. It's the first Super Bowl targeted specifically at 7-year-old girls.

Tuesday

The New Bigots Another story that broke last week during my 12-day hog-tie at the office (link [http://www.crisismagazine.com/2015/gary-sinise-lieutenant-dan]): > Must reading http://t.co/CsWyz8xQFU > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) January 18, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/556773712918507520] This whole Gary Sinise and Bret

Monday

Hey, Franclin! The year 2015 whirled in like a tornado. I was tied up with law office stuff for twelve-and-a-half straight days, finally knocking off late Saturday morning. It's not exactly the way I wanted to start the new year, but hopefully things are returning to normal now.

Sunday

Disgusting and disturbing. All phony and all lies all the time, like Obamacare but on the international level: The Truth "Behind" The Charlie Hebdo Solidarity Photo-Op [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-17/truth-behind-cherlie-hebdo-solidarity-photo-op] .

Saturday

I oughtta run a coffee, Coke, Mountain Dew, energy drink, Gatorade, or other hangover cure piece every Saturday, like this one: 23 other interesting facts about the world's best-known brand [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2910885/The-Coke-Bordeaux-mixed-cocaine-23-interesting-facts-world-s-best-known-brand.html] . > Interesting. Bet it woulda been a great hangover

Friday

BYCU A passage from a book that is currently on my top shelf, The Drunken Botanist: "Every great drink starts with a plant. If you're a gardener, I hope this book inspires a cocktail party. If you're a bartender, I hope you're persuaded

Conan

For the first time since 2007, the FDA has approved a new device to treat obesity. The amazing breakthrough is called a vegetable.

Thursday

Kontent from the Kindle Impressive company, though I must admit that I'd never heard of the last two books: "A Mencken Chrestomathy was published the following July, two months before Mencken's sixty-ninth birthday. It turned up on the New York Times best-seller list almost immediately,

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

"Rothbard famously observed that one could uncover the libertarian position on X by imagining a gang of thugs carrying out the state action in question." Thomas Woods, Real Dissent. It's a good example. The libertarian basically asks, "If you wouldn't tolerate your neighbor

Monday

I'm hopefully done with busy weekends. I had to go to Chicago on business this past one. It was a good time, but in the middle of a sub-zero cold snap and basketball season . . . not exactly a welcomed excursion. We went to Million Dollar Quartet Saturday night at

Sunday

A Random Passage Malcolm Muggeridge was fond of quoting from an ancient inscription that was found in the Libyan desert: “I, the Captain of a Legion of Rome, serving in the desert of Libya, have learnt and pondered this truth: 'There are in life but two things to be

Saturday

A Random Passage "Nock thought universal literacy a useless goal, as most people can't do anything valuable with it anyway." Brian Doherty, Radicals for Capitalism Actually, those passages by Nock about the ridiculousness of universal literacy are some of his most enjoyable. There's something

Conan

Bill Gates released a video of himself drinking water that was filtered from human excrement. No word yet on whether Gates got into the fraternity.

Friday

BYCU As I get steeped more deeply in vodka and gin, I'm enjoying the lost art of mixology. Well, it was a lost art. With the advent of Mad Men, things like infusing vodka with herbs/spices and using bitters [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitters] have made

On Bombings

> "It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it." G.K. Chesterton. > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) January 9, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/553344955381743616]

Conan

According to a new report that just came out, the average college freshman reads at a seventh grade level. Or if you're an optimist every seventh grader now reads at a college freshman level.

Meyers

According to sources, Pablo Picasso's granddaughter is selling off $290 million of Picasso's work. That's enough money to put a smile on anyone's forehead. Lindsay Lohan was recently diagnosed with a rare mosquito-transmitted disease called chikungunya. And the mosquito was diagnosed with

GKC Wednesday

Chesterton Short(s) Michael Coren recounts a great anecdote from Chesterton's years on Fleet Street: "Fleet Street was his domain, and he was as much a part of it as the El Vino and Cheshire Cheese watering holes which he frequented. Kenneth Baker, now a cabinet minister,

Book Review

Leisure, The Basis of Culture by John Pieper (1948). Choice quote: "[T]here can be unused space in the total world of work." Obsessed with efficiency? I am. At least I used to be. I'm a recovering efficiencoholic. It was bad, so bad that my time

More Evidence Against Neo-Prohibitionism

> Study finds Kentucky's "dry" counties have more meth lab seizures per capita than counties where liquor is legal. http://t.co/73HJjPBecf > — Timothy Aeppel (@TimAeppel) January 5, 2015 [https://twitter.com/TimAeppel/status/552105003477762048] Link [http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/01/04/local-alcohol-prohibition-laws-may-lead-to-less-liquor-but-more-meth-economists-say/

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Things return to normal . . . or kinda normal. The year is getting off to a frenzied bang, with out-of-town hearings and appointments all week that will take me to five towns in three states over the next five days. Ugh. Although I've come to appreciate that busy-ness

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I'd love to see this become the first crack in the arrogant NFL's hegemony: > Dallas Cowboys Tickets Going For Less Than Face Value For Wild Card Matchup Against Detroit Lions - http://t.co/KNgu5HWhvs > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) January 4, 2015 [https://twitter.

Epiphany

"Let us remain in adoration; and to Him, who, in order to save us, humbled Himself to such a degree of poverty as to receive our body, let us offer not only incense, gold and myrrh (the first as God, the second as king, and the third as one

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Nassim Taleb came up with, then Tweeted, a set of New Year's resolutions [https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/550273244289585152]. As with most of us his statemednts, they're enigmatic and meant to make you think. They've also spawned a lot of retweets and comments, especially

Saturday

H.I.F: Interesting Mall brawls breaking out across America. ABC News segment [http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/malls-high-alert-large-fights-break-country-27915285] . I can't tell whether they're trying to lay the blame on social media or on the trash demographic that's orchestrating them.

Friday

Out of It On Wednesday night, we had Ryan Seacrest's Rockin' New Year's Eve on the TV with the sound off, while the kids played games and I grogged off my hangover. At midnight, we turned up the volume and counted down, then we turned

New Years Day

Happy New Years. No blogging today, but I pass along this recommended Benedict Groeschel audio: "Conversion, the Real New Year's Resolution [https://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/dload1.asp?audiofile=snl_01012006.mp3&source=file_index.asp&seriesID=7054&T1=] ." I've

New Years Eve

It'll be curious to see how this plays out on New Years Eve. I might have to sober up a bit before the ball drops: > [T]hose tasked to protect and to serve the Big Apple, appear to have decided to turn their back on their job

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H.I.F: Frustrating Why do we believe anything from anyone in the upper echelons anymore? "First it was, with 'absolute certainly', North Korea. Then, out of the blue, an even more ridiculous theory emerged about the origin of the Sony hackers: Russia. Now, we finally get

Tuesday

H.I.F: Humorous Why I support my local newspaper: "Local TV newsrooms ostensibly cover hundreds of towns in their broadcast area and rarely dedicate even more than a few seconds ”“ if that – to local government or school news. Unless your school district is going on strike or your

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Whew, the Christmas frenzy is over. Every year it's the same thing: High energy and expectations going in, utter exhaustion coming out, but with expectations more or less met. I was so tired last night, I was concerned that I was coming down with something, but

Sunday

A Random Passage Humorous anecdote about Albert Jay Nock: "He left the American in 1914 after claiming he wrote a deliberately bad article about Edison that was accepted and published." Brian Doherty, Radicals for Capitalism.

Saturday

If you've never read Erik Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn's Menace of the Herd or Procrustes at Large, consider giving it a shot. It's a work of a bygone era, written by a man who lived in our era (died in 1999). When I read him,

The Day After Christmas

Today is the Feast of St. Stephen. The Catholic Church loves its paradoxes: The day of intense joy followed by a day of sobering reality. Joy and martyrdom, love and hatred of love, Everlasting Life and grisly death.

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From Today I Learned "TIL $44 billion worth of gift cards have gone unredeemed since 2008."

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Wow [http://i.imgur.com/xhk9Zvb.png].

Merry Christmas

“He is born poor, and he teaches us that happiness is not to be found in an abundance of earthly goods. He comes into the world without any ostentation, encouraging us to be humble and not to depend on the applause of men.” Francis Fernandez

A Christmas Carol

The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap, His hair was like a light. (O weary, weary were the world, But here is all aright.) The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast, His hair was like a star. (O stern and cunning are the kings, But here the true

Tuesday

A Random Passage I've been searching for some decent Christmas fare, trying to avoid any negativity. It's not easy to find, at least when one's bookmarks are filled with news sites. I did, however, come across this quote that should be helpful this time

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling "It's the most . . . wonderful time . . . of the year." All seven kids are home, which is always nice, but this year seems especially wonderful. I've had a grueling past six months at the office, but things are lightening up and this week promises

Sunday

A Random Passage Kinda makes you wonder if Balthasar, Guardini, and McLuhan kick things around in heaven: "Guardini claims that religious experience has historically grown darker and weaker in the technological world, if we compare this world to the mythological world of antiquity and the Middle Ages, in which

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> In 10th century Scandinavia any peasant who didn't brew a Christmas beer paid a fine & not brewing for 3 years resulted in loss of property. > — Drunken History (@DrunkenHistory) December 12, 2014 [https://twitter.com/DrunkenHistory/status/543213140045885440]

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Thank you, TDE readers, for your patronage. I just looked at my Amazon results for the month. I'm always stunned to see how a slew of small credits (ranging from one cent to, say, 39 cents) adds up. Of course, special thanks to the TDE readers who log

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> During the middle ages, monks usually had a ration of 2-4 liters of beer per day & typically increased over the Christmas season. > — Drunken History (@DrunkenHistory) December 14, 2014 [https://twitter.com/DrunkenHistory/status/544158636885700608]

Friday

Brews You Can Use: Special Holiday Edition Christmas is nigh. I've never been much of a Christmas drinker. Thanksgiving? Sure, but Christmas? Nope. I certainly don't have a religious problem with drinking, since, as long-time TDE readers know, I practically consider alcohol a sacramental, but there&

Meyers

A new poll about the 2016 election shows that just 27 percent of voters would be likely to support Chris Christie. And only 4 percent of chairs. After closing their final session, the outgoing 113th Congress has an approval rating of just 16 percent. To give you some perspective, Cosby

Thursday

A TDE reader sends along this email: "I sent my brother that Talib quote: 'Never listen to a leftist who does not give away his fortune or does not live the exact lifestyle he wants others to follow.' "He used it with co-workers, a flurry of

I Gotta Read More Bernanos.

Whatta great quote > "Pride has no intrinsic substance, being no more than the name given to the soul devouring itself." -Georges Bernanos pic.twitter.com/ZBaTFSGZUx [http://t.co/ZBaTFSGZUx] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) December 18, 2014 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/545380696450404353]

Conan

The hackers who hacked into Sony have leaked the upcoming script for the new James Bond movie. Some of the executives said the news left them shaken but not stirred.

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I kinda feel like Gaudete Sunday [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudete_Sunday] ushered in the Advent season for me. Everything from Thanksgiving through Saturday was crunched and rushed, from a flurry of meetings and appointments at the office to social obligations. While at Mass Satuday night, it

Humorous

H.I.F. A TDE reader sends this is, with "Beyond Parody" in the subject line. Presented with no further comment: "Toledo Councilman Jack Ford, a non-Catholic, said the Pope's comment compelled him Friday to move forward with calling for a program he had been

Sunday

A Random Passage Another piece of Hudge and Gudge history: "Another group that was overwhelmingly supportive of Italian fascism was American big business . . .". Thaddeus Russell, A Renegade History of the United States. Russell then goes on to provide an impressive (disturbing?) list of examples.

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One of the funnier Onion pieces this year: > The Onion's Person Of The Year 2014: (TIE) Malala Yousafzai And John Cena http://t.co/CxFrR0Hhr2 #OurAnnualYear [https://twitter.com/hashtag/OurAnnualYear?src=hash] pic.twitter.com/X9xMhm0rdA [http://t.co/X9xMhm0rdA] > — The Onion (@TheOnion) December 12,

Friday

BYCU The best drinking story of the month so far: Ale mail [http://www.cleveland.com/drinks/index.ssf/2014/12/beer_trade_underground_and_ill.html#incart_river] . "Some beer aficionados have turned to mailing beers with each other. So a person in, say, Arizona who has access

Fallon

Facebook revealed that Ebola was the most popular Facebook topic in the U.S. this year, with the World Cup coming in sixth. So welcome to America, where even Ebola is more popular than soccer.

Meyers

A flight headed from San Francisco to Phoenix had to make an emergency landing in L.A. today after a passenger gave birth midflight. The parents called the birth a miracle while the airline called it a second carry-on. The woman gave birth in the middle of a flight. I&

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

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Talking about the "social justice warriors" (a term on the secular circuit that refers to those people who snoop out racism, homophobia, sexism, and other "evils" wherever they may lurk): "You do the same evil, in the same pattern, as so many before you, because

Conan

A village in Alaska has been without mail for days because its only postal worker quit. So if you want to reach anyone in that village, you will have no choice but to email, call, text, Facebook, tweet, Skype, or Instagram.

Tuesday

Random Quotes "The mind has functions that the brain hardly knows." John Lukacs ******* "While it is easier to wrestle with a weak body than with a strong one, it is more difficult to wrestle with a weak mind than with a strong one." John Lukacs ******* "

Great List

Well, a pretty good list. A few of the items didn't make much sense to me, a self-proclaimed Tolkien expert: > 10 Strange 'Lord Of The Rings' Facts That The Films Leave Out - Listverse http://t.co/hveZuFUZlY > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) December 9,

Monday

Miscellany I've been to plenty of flea markets. I never appreciated that I was walking in a den of libertarianism. This 2012 book sounds pretty interesting: Flea Market Jesus [http://wipfandstock.com/flea-market-jesus.html]. "Part ethnography, part autobiography, Flea Market Jesus is a story about alienation, biblical

Interesting

H.I.F. New Pope interview [http://americamagazine.org/content/dispatches/new-interview-pope-francis-says-resistance-comes-open-good-sign] . It's sure to hit the Catholic media waves hard and probably the MSM as well. Excerpt: > Some so-called "conservative" sectors charged that Francis had sacked Cardinal Raymond Burke, former head of the Vatican&

Sunday

A Random Passage Worth pondering: "Henry Maine noted [that] the history of Western civilization and Western liberty has been the shift from status to contract–from being locked into positions based on who you were at birth, to being able to live, work, do what you wish, deal with

Saturday

A Random Passage "The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.” H.L. Mencken. But of course. The cynic doesn't believe he has any business

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Slight hangover after office party, but for some reason, this is keeping up my spirits:

Friday

Kingsley Amis shares a little banal insight into the artistic life: "[L]et me just observe in passing that the reason why so many professional artists drink a lot is not necessarily very much to do with the artistic temperament, etc. It is simply that they can afford to,

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I've gotten some email about yesterday's post. Let me clarify: Based on information from the MSM (which is scanty and undoubtedly incorrect and misleading), I have no sympathies for the position of the Ferguson protesters (to the extent they're protesting the Michael Brown shooting)

Thursday

I tried Mike Duncan's new podcast, "Revolutions [http://www.revolutionspodcast.com/]," but I had a hard time "getting into" them. I think he was simply jamming too many facts and names into them, but he's doing a great job with the current

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The dude was, what, selling loose cigarettes? For that, he was confronted by a team of cops, put in a chokehold, and killed even after pleading "I can't breathe"? I had little tolerance for the Michael Brown protesters, but my sympathies are with the black man

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Another long Thanksgiving weekend goes in the record books. This one might go down as one of my heaviest-drinking campaigns. On Wednesday, I drank about a dozen vodka-tonics, though I never felt very drunk and I woke up with a short-lived hangover. A testament to the pureness of

Sunday

A Random Passage "Society desperately needs enclaves like monasteries and universities wherein men and women have . . . leisure. But we should never forget that the primary place of leisure and of the knowledge of the higher order of things begins and ends almost always in our homes." James Schall,

Kontent from the Kindle

Kontent from the Kindle I knew Hollywood had a heavy Jewish influence, but I didn't realize it was pretty much entirely Jewish, albeit of the type who assimilated. A few passages from Thaddeus Russell's Renegade History: Emanuel Goldenberg became Edward G. Robinson, Betty Perske became Lauren

Stoic Week 2014

Going on now. Link [https://philosophynow.org/issues/105/News_November_December_2014]

Happy Thanksgiving

“Thanksgiving Day originated in New England when the Puritans realized they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians.” Mark Twain “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson “Beggar that I

Special BYCU Edition: Eight Years Running

Black Wednesday again. Far out. I've been celebrating Black Wednesday since 1985, when I first came back home from college for Thanksgiving Break. It is one of my favorite days of the year. But how long have I been writing about Black Wednesdays? For that, I had to

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> Coming: Special BYCU, 8th Anniversary Edition. Lengthiest Black Wednesday edition ever. GKC, Nock, and more pic.twitter.com/gBsBxErBZm [http://t.co/gBsBxErBZm] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) November 23, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/536516955059269632]

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Please don't forget to patronize TDE this holiday season by accessing Amazon from this site. Thanks!

Tuesday

A few great quotes that I ran across on Twitter last week: > "You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all." - St. Therese of Lisieux > — Taylor Marshall (@TaylorRMarshall) November 21, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TaylorRMarshall/status/535902508661866497]

Monday

On Bullying "A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it." That easily ranks in my top ten of GKC quotes. It's from Part Two of The Everlasting Man (yet another GKC book that I want to read

Interesting

H.I.F. Ten books for fallen-away Catholics [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pursuedbytruth/2014/11/top-ten-books-for-fallen-away-catholics.html] . I was expecting Surprised by Truth and the like. Instead, I got Dostoyevsky and Graham Greene. I'm not sure I agree with the author's view that these books

Saturday

The more I'm around people, the more I'm convinced that a rambling style is the sign of an immature, under-developed, and/or un-disciplined mind. The rule applies to written or oral communication. > I have made this letter long because i have not the time to

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> The CDC defines a "heavy drinker" as a man who drinks 2 drinks a day or a woman who drinks 1. That's the level of intellect taking on Ebola. > — Modern_Drunkard (@Modern_Drunkard) October 7, 2014 [https://twitter.com/Modern_Drunkard/status/519278774810996736]

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> Binge drinking...didn't exist in the '50s! #advertising [https://twitter.com/hashtag/advertising?src=hash] #beer [https://twitter.com/hashtag/beer?src=hash] #GoodOldDays [https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoodOldDays?src=hash] pic.twitter.com/hdqFInaSBR [http://t.co/hdqFInaSBR] > — Drunken History (@DrunkenHistory) November 20, 2014

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> Where do teetotalers come from? Modern Drunkard Magazine http://t.co/lR3GaY0yn8 > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) November 16, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/534008493397647362]

Friday

Brews You Can Use Okay, this is frustrating: Only A Fraction Of The Population Has The Genotype That Makes Moderate Alcohol Consumption Heart Healthy [http://www.inquisitr.com/1612099/only-a-fraction-of-the-population-has-the-genotype-that-makes-moderate-alcohol-consumption-heart-healthy/] . According to the story, a new study has shown that moderate alcohol consumption improves the health of only 15% of

Ferguson

Today is also the holiday known as National Day of Monaco. Monaco is independent, but they're defended by France. In other words, they're on their own.

Letterman

If you're looking to get the Mansons a gift, they're registered at Bloodbath & Beyond.

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Reddit asks: "What sentence could ruin a date immediately? [http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2mvhz5/what_sentence_could_ruin_a_date_immediately/] " The responses are pretty funny (PG-13). This one slayed me the most: "She'll have the salad."

Me, Myself, and I

Ten common English mistakes [http://listverse.com/2008/09/11/another-10-common-english-errors/?utm_source=more&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=direct] . It's a pretty basic list, but I see this mistake all the time, even among edjewkated peepel: > Me/Myself > The most common problem here

Meyers

Charles Manson is getting married – which is weird because I thought he was already serving a life sentence. A man in California was arrested after he stabbed his potential employer during a job interview. Well, at least now he knows where he sees himself in five years. Justin Bieber will

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> Early Christmas: The Wisdom of Fr. Benedict Groeschel. Free e-book: https://t.co/f696UUSU4Q > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) November 15, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/533671535970500609]

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

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Ha ha ha > Bachelors know more about women than married men. If they didn't they'd be married, too. > — HL Mencken (@HLMenckenBot) November 19, 2014 [https://twitter.com/HLMenckenBot/status/534878791051390977]

Video Killed the Swaggart Start

Truth Will Out A vapid but important piece showed up on the front page of Reddit on Sunday: Why the Internet is slowly strangling religion [http://www.salon.com/2014/11/14/why_the_internet_is_slowly_strangling_religion_partner/] . It originally appeared on AlterNet, then Salon picked it up.

Interesting

H.I.F. Cardinal George interview [http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/11/17/chicagos-exiting-cardinal-the-church-is-about-truefalse-not-leftright/] . Lengthy. Excerpt: Q. Until the Synod of Bishops in October, most mainstream folks in what we might loosely call the 'conservative' camp seemed inclined to give Francis the benefit of the doubt. Afterwards

New EWTN Mini-Series

Starts in a few hours. I hope to catch it: > Take a stroll through London's rich Catholic History! From Nov. 17- 22, EWTN presents “Walking Through Time:... http://t.co/2hFJsiQiIL > — EWTN (@EWTN) November 17, 2014 [https://twitter.com/EWTN/status/534133825102946304]

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> 10 Awesome Ancient Philosophers History Forgot - http://t.co/3nq78VBHvr via @listverse [https://twitter.com/listverse] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) November 13, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/533004076095512577]

Monday

Autobiographical Corner Ann Arbor on a Saturday night. Brutal. Without going into all the whining details, suffice it to say that, when I agreed to go to Ann Arbor for my daughter's a ceppella group's performance, it was because there was no home football game. Well,

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> On Heretical Popes: http://t.co/bvWmaar1g5 Very judicious by Fr,. Schall. > — John Zmirak (@JZmirak) November 15, 2014 [https://twitter.com/JZmirak/status/533715233081008128]

Sunday

The Homophile Anchoress I'd been noticing some disturbing Tweets and posts from Elizabeth Scalia lately, so much so that I finally emailed a few friends about it, asking whether she had "flipped" to the pro-gay camp. It turns out she has, albeit in an unusual way

Interesting

H.I.F. The best piece I've seen on the Gruber phenomenon. If you don't understand how the big government types work, it's a must-read [http://m.nationalreview.com/article/392672/thank-you-jonathan-gruber-rich-lowry] . "He has done us all a favor by affording us an

Ferguson

A "Duck Dynasty" musical is in the works. It's predicted to be very popular with fans of "Duck Dynasty" who also love musical theater. In other words, nobody. Actors who audition should be proficient in singing, dancing, and hiding their sexual orientation. I wonder

Conan

Developers are working on a new app that gives you a 10-second warning before an earthquake. The app is called "Too Late."

Friday

BYCU I decided I hadn't been spending nearly enough time at Modern Drunkard Magazine, so I decided to surf around it last weekend during the Detroit Lions game. I wasn't disappointed. It turns out they're in the second "Clash of the Tightest [http:

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Someone needs to explain to this pompous ass the difference between stupidity and getting tricked by a liar. Even an Einstein would get tricked if a person he trusts were willing to lie to his face. The American people didn't want Obamacare, but after a parade of lies,

Good Late Night

The heroic New York doctor who caught Ebola has been declared Ebola free. President Obama called the doctor to thank him for his selflessness and compassion. Then to be safe, Obama threw his phone in a trash can and lit it on fire. Fallon In Beaumont, California, two people have

Also Related to Tuesday's Post About Degenerates

And few thinkers have caused our civilization to decline as much as Alfred Kinsey, ye of the fraudulent sex studies that used the moral mores of convicts to publish a tome to legitimize perversion: 10% of prisoners admit to homosexual sex encounters; therefore, 10% of the population is gay. We&

Meyers

A man in Florida has been sentenced to six months in prison for stockpiling weapons at a compound just 11 miles from Disney World. Eleven miles from Disney World? So . . . in the parking lot?

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Wow

This story [http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/11/10/aca-architect-the-stupidity-of-the-american-voter-led-us-to-hide-obamacares-tax-hikes-and-subsidies-from-the-public/] simply astounds: the arrogance that breeds such contempt for everybody else, the dishonesty, and the knowledge that this kind of thinking is the sine qua non of every pro-government thinker today (or else the guy wouldn't

Paul Johnson's Intellectuals: A Micro-Review

If you're interested in biography, perversion, and modern ideas, I highly recommend Paul Johnson's Intellectuals. I read it on my honeymoon (heh, heh), so it's been awhile, but I remember greatly enjoying the min-bios on Rousseau, Shelley, and Sartre. I later read E. Michael

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The following Tweet reminded me: TDE earns 80% of its annual revenue from sales this time of year. If you could remember to access Amazon through TDE this holiday season, it would be great appreciated. > Cyber Monday will continue to be the biggest online shopping day of the year

Monday Miscellany

Miscellaneous Rambling I'm on vacation this week. Actually, it's a bizarro [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarro_World] vacation: Whereas work piles normally grow during a vacation, on this bizarro vacation, I plan on work piles shrinking. I packed a bunch of big files and took

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> St. John Paul II was a Marvel comic book character in the '80s http://t.co/28tdpxjyuz (HT @TitoEdwards [https://twitter.com/TitoEdwards]) > — Jason Barker (@AncientStream) October 28, 2014 [https://twitter.com/AncientStream/status/527073033383452672]

Interesting

H.I.F. "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." H.L. Mencken. Juxtapose that with this blog post: If You Really

Frustrating

H.I.F. But a bit comical, too: "In an effort to help transgendered people feel more comfortable using public restrooms, Cleveland City Council is considering an ordinance that would require businesses to make their restrooms, showers and locker rooms available to both sexes. And barring one gender from

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> Andy Warhol ”“ a Celibate Catholic? - Aleteia http://t.co/g9BdzCLeNb > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) November 8, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/531073749135921154]

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> 10/27/2014: Dylan Thomas' Birthday (1914). “An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do.” White Horse Scotch. > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 27, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/526532325006667779]

BYCU

BYCU An old friend sends me this piece: The Cold Logic of Drunk People [http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-cold-logic-of-drunk-people/381908/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All&utm_campaign=vox%20sentences%2010%2F27%2F2014] . I should've ran

Meyers

A North Carolina man says he used his “Never Ending Pasta Pass” from Olive Garden to eat at the restaurant 95 times in the past six weeks. Well, he didn't say that, but his tombstone does.

Thursday

Ruminations on the Fall of Rome [I really like Belloc, but his style, though no doubt superb, is out-dated. Here I re-phrase a few pages from Chapter II of Europe and the Faith.] In order to understand how the Catholic Church viewed itself, we first need to eliminate the word

Fallon

During a speech on Sunday, President Obama said to the crowd, “We've got to vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote.” This went on for an hour until someone finally fixed his teleprompter.

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Fallon

Health officials in countries affected by Ebola are encouraging people to stop shaking hands, and instead give an “Ebola handshake,” which is when you bump elbows with someone. That would be a great idea if they hadn't spent the past five years telling us to sneeze into our

Election Day

Nock "recognized no substantive difference between the various governments clashing during World War II. 'Rooseveltism, Hitlerism, Stalinism, are all only local variants of the common doctrine that man has no natural rights but only such as are created for him by the state . . . [this is] State absolutism, formulated

Interesting

H.I.F. "I want to issue a special summons to men, especially fathers, husbands, and priests. The summons is simple: be a man. We need men in these dark days, men who will heroically speak and act, men who will announce the truth and insist upon it wherever

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling My eldest brother moved to Mississippi back in the 1990s. I took my first trip down there in 1999. I had always been a fan of the old South, so I was greatly looking forward to roaming around the oldest of the Old. Although we stayed in the

Sunday

All Souls Day [http://www.catholic.org/saints/allsouls/]. One of my favorite non-obligatory feast days. I tell my wife that November 1st will be the day people remember me. My logic: Chesterton said "The holy man always conceals his holiness; that is the one invariable rule [http://www.

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> 7 Things Every Protestant Should Know About Catholicism - Thirsting for Truth http://t.co/QecoAvIaWx > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) November 1, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/528637577914372096]

Saturday

Another great passage from Epstein's Snobbery. He first quotes from Kurt Andersen's novel, Turn of the Century: > George has been amazed to discover that there were two Griffins in Max's class this year. . . . But Griffin is precisely the kind of name that'

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> I Knew a Priest Who Could See the Dead http://t.co/FGO4dMYfds #dead [https://twitter.com/hashtag/dead?src=hash] #halloween [https://twitter.com/hashtag/halloween?src=hash] pic.twitter.com/8c3K74D7ho [http://t.co/8c3K74D7ho] > — ChurchPOP (@Church_POP) October 31, 2014 [https://twitter.com/Church_POP/

Friday

BYCU Man, BYCU blogging is almost too easy this week: Halloween is now a big drinking night, as evidenced by this infographic [http://scramsystems.com/blog/2014/10/scary-truth-halloween-drinking/#.VEzmQPnF-So] . There are many sites dedicated to boozy Halloween costumes, Halloween parties, and Halloween drinks. But it's not for

Some Halloween Jokes

Why didn't the skeleton go to the party? He had no body to go with! Why was the scarecrow given an award? Because he was outstanding in his field! How much did it cost the pirate to get his ears pierced? A buccaneer! Why did the Invisible Man

Thursday

Halloween is tomorrow. Are you thinking about not handing out candy? If so, please consider this piece that I wrote in 2011. If you want to see the difference between adults and children, look no further than Halloween. For little kids, Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year after

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> Dominating the family jack-o-lantern competition w Long Island Cheese pumpkin pic.twitter.com/K2cclPBKQa [http://t.co/K2cclPBKQa] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 28, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/527237532279668737]

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Joseph Epstein once wrote a great essay about being "out of it." It's basically about his tendency not to know what's going on in pop culture and how, even though he didn't intentionally set out to become ignorant of such things, he&

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling So, has everyone noticed that I finally launched the TDE Twitter [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon] account full bore? I set it up a year ago but rarely used it. I decided to start using it once I learned how to embed Tweets and my son Jack showed me

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> Must-read: NYT, Sunday edition, Ross Douthat: The Pope and the Precipice http://t.co/PzdBcCYIiP > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 26, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/526381021944496128]

Sunday

> Three ideas from Epictetus, one of my favorite thinkers: http://t.co/NxSO8H3aAx pic.twitter.com/We919ni79c [http://t.co/We919ni79c] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 24, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/525769313332895745]

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> > Meet the new serfs. http://t.co/9dULnWsGKS pic.twitter.com/Bl8n7FNBiS [http://t.co/Bl8n7FNBiS] > — National Review (@NRO) October 24, 2014 [https://twitter.com/NRO/status/525744277578850304]

Saturday

H.I.F. Interesting I'm coming off the week from hell at the office, so other than checking out Twitter at odd moments of the day, I've done virtually no reading. Yesterday, while brain-dead surfing and unwinding at the end of the week, I ran across

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> The London Beer Flood and other strange ways to die - via @Telegraph [https://twitter.com/Telegraph] http://t.co/CxlSdrhS4U > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 23, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/525260137544441857]

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> Stock up on these $15 and under sparkling wines before the holidays hit: http://t.co/gTQRPaAk9S > — Food & Wine magazine (@foodandwine) October 24, 2014 [https://twitter.com/foodandwine/status/525738719098052608]

BYCUish Pics/Tweets

> Another exhibit at Art Prize 2014. See next Tweet for full exhibit pic.twitter.com/Drr4mgm2tY [http://t.co/Drr4mgm2tY] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 19, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/523928782122786816] > pic.twitter.com/FzOBVQv916 [http://t.co/FzOBVQv916] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October

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> EWTN has brought back the Sunday Night Live/Prime series with Fr. Groeschel! http://t.co/lboC6qbAzg > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 23, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/525382142684307459]

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> Rabbit men in the Grand River. Art Prize 2014. pic.twitter.com/r1TkRADmLW [http://t.co/r1TkRADmLW] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 19, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/523928029492707328]

Grand Rapids, Michigan

> Steve Martin art at Art Prize 2014 pic.twitter.com/9VDZO1o5r2 [http://t.co/9VDZO1o5r2] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 19, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/523929564448563202]

Humorous

H.I.F. Artist makes Lord of the Rings style maps of cities [https://www.etsy.com/listing/190998293/fantasy-map-of-cleveland-85x11?ref=related-6]

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

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> Fr Benedict Groeschel Once Read My Soul - http://t.co/Bf2csZD5S0 via @taylorrmarshall [https://twitter.com/TaylorRMarshall] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) October 19, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/status/523964911949324288]

Indian Summer in the Neighborhood

Tuesday

H.I.F. Interesting: "Infographic": Half The World's Christians Live In These 11 Nations [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-13/half-worlds-christians-live-these-11-nations] . USA, Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, Congo, Ethiopia, Italy, Germany, Russia, Philippines, and China. Yes, China, which really surprised me. But then I read the other infographics

These are Killing Me

> Randy Orton hates parkour #RKOvines [https://twitter.com/hashtag/RKOvines?src=hash] https://t.co/U0WfGuIAEx > — Randy Orton RKO (@RandyOrtonVlNE) October 16, 2014 [https://twitter.com/RandyOrtonVlNE/status/522891054744604672] > #RKO [https://twitter.com/hashtag/RKO?src=hash] OUTTA NOWHERE https://t.co/lZMZ4ne3fW > — Randy Orton RKO

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> The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. > — HL Mencken (@HLMenckenBot) July 25, 2014 [https://twitter.com/HLMenckenBot/status/492533487761502208]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Glorious Indian Summer! Temps got down to 28 here Sunday morning. Lows for the next ten days are in the upper thirties and forties; highs in the fifties and low sixties. I hope to walk and walk until my feet fall off. If this coming winter is like

Related to Last Saturday's . . .

. . . embedded tweet about the Monks of Norcia's beer. First found here [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/what-we-need-are-men-like-st-benedict/] .

Good Late Night

A gang member turned rabbi has been arrested in New York for impersonating a police officer. A gang member, a rabbi, and a police officer. He's basically a one-man version of the Village People. Meyers President Obama is trying very hard to put people at ease about Ebola.

Saturday

Good squash season this year. If I can keep a few unripe ones from getting damaged in tonight's freeze, I could end up with 50 or more. Here are pics of many of the squash, plus a few gourds:

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> Maggie Gallagher expresses deep concern over the synod in Rome: http://t.co/jWnd86pPwa > — AmericanConservative (@amconmag) October 17, 2014 [https://twitter.com/amconmag/status/523217024013443072]

Friday

BYCU A fun piece at Fox last week: 5 of the world's most dangerous cocktails [http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/10/07/5-world-most-dangerous-cocktails/]. 1. The Hurl Hurl 2. The Zombie 3. The Vaportini 4. The Tequila Blue Blazer 5. Corpse Reviver #2 There is no reference to

Meyers

A new poll shows that only a slim majority of Americans think the country is prepared for an Ebola outbreak. But I think we deal with outbreaks pretty well. It only took us a couple of months to completely eradicate Gangnam Style.

Frustrating

H.I.F. How many layers of "wrongness" can you count in these few passages from this story out of Oklahoma [http://eagnews.org/students-photo-of-skimpy-michelle-o-school-lunch-sparks-outrage/] ? I spot six: Lunch meat, a couple of crackers, a slice of cheese and two pieces of cauliflower qualified as lunch in Chickasha

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Scar someone for life this Halloween. Just $2,240. Link [http://i.imgur.com/ym9Cdzm.gif].

On Soccer

A Random Passage Bill Kauffman, writing in his charming Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette (2002), writes about the uncharming new sport: "[B]aseball has lost its hold on the younger generation, who are being led into the tedious hell that is soccer. Once the leathery symbol of British imperialism,

Rush Quote

Regular TDE readers know I'm not a big Rush Limbaugh fan. I don't dislike him, but I disagree with him frequently (especially in 2012, on the issue of Ron Paul). But he asks a legitimate question here, comparing Katrine to Ebola: "Ask yourself which is

Meyers

Brad Pitt said in an interview this week that he doesn't feel safe in his own home without a gun. Said Pitt, "I don't even know half these kids." On this day in 1912, President Teddy Roosevelt was shot, declined to go to the

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> The world's 50 best bars: http://t.co/pQwdbY4gQk pic.twitter.com/75qMqMVqxi [http://t.co/75qMqMVqxi] > — Forbes (@Forbes) October 11, 2014 [https://twitter.com/Forbes/status/520850577606324225]

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Ferguson

Gwyneth Paltrow told the president he was so handsome that she couldn't speak properly. I wish Obama would get a little bit more handsome so she would shut up forever.

On the Gardening Front

From Reddit: A climbing plant falls away from its host.

Tuesday

Zombie Me Dien Ho asks, What's So Bad About Being A Zombie? [https://philosophynow.org/issues/96/Whats_So_Bad_About_Being_A_Zombie] This passage, especially the last line, cracked me up: > [T]he life of a zombie has characteristics many of us strive mightily to

This is Getting Serious

> Ebola is threatening much of the world's chocolate supply. http://t.co/4RsOZPKjPu pic.twitter.com/cSdW4wVpNt [http://t.co/cSdW4wVpNt] > — POLITICO (@politico) October 14, 2014 [https://twitter.com/politico/status/521830810174111745]

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Another interesting list at Listverse. 10 Great Songs that Topped US Charts but Weren't Performed in English [http://listverse.com/2014/10/12/10-great-songs-that-topped-us-charts-but-werent-performed-in-english/] . Number One: "Dominique" by The Singing Nun. I can't say I'd ever heard it, and I

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> Tomorrow on the Son Rise Morning Show: Father Groeschel remembered http://t.co/JErEIsAmE5 > — Our Sunday Visitor (@OSV) October 12, 2014 [https://twitter.com/OSV/status/521446524283551744]

Sunday

H.I.F. The TDE reader who sent me the article that I posted yesterday also mentioned this in his email to me: "The hurt of the children can never be acknowledged--they are just supposed to move on. Meanwhile, extended families go to absurd lengths to ensure that all

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> Benedictine monks of Norcia seek to serve God and man in all they do, even through the brewing of beer: http://t.co/KGlgA3VeM9 > — AmericanConservative (@amconmag) October 11, 2014 [https://twitter.com/amconmag/status/520967099565346818]

Saturday

H.I.F. Suffer the Children [http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/10/suffer-the-children]. "The discussion preceding the synod of bishops on the family has ignored the most vulnerable party in divorces and remarriages: children. In so doing, it mirrors the discussion of sex and marriage in western culture

Meyers

Bookmakers have listed Pope Francis as the odds-on favorite to win the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. So if you're placing a bet on the results of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize . . . you have a gambling problem.

Letterman

They're now putting in speed bumps [in NYC] too. For years in New York City it was just pedestrians.

Friday

BYCU A loyal TDE reader sent this story last week. I should've ran it right away, but the week got away from me: Belgian City Plans to Build an Underground Beer Pipeline [http://www.popularmechanics.com/how-to/blog/this-belgian-city-plans-to-build-an-underground-beer-pipeline-17262863?click=pm_latest] . The city is Bruges [http://www.

Willie

A guy purchased Willie Nelson's hair for $37,000. Willie removed his braids and the guy bought them for $37,000. This is the kind of decision you make after spending the day on Willie's tour bus. Letterman Willie's braids were apparently cut back

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Twitter Blast from My Childhood Past

> Photoset: gameraboy: Domke's Prehistorical Zoo Gardens, Ossineke, Michigan by SwellMap on Flickr. http://t.co/BY4u00A7GF > — Tim Munn (H) (@amish_man) February 1, 2014 [https://twitter.com/amish_man/status/429717193639862272]

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> GK Chesterton: St Francis of Assisi "was what American millionaires and gangsters call a live wire.": http://t.co/eV4wT4d2p2 > — Ignatius Insight (@ignatiusinsight) October 5, 2014 [https://twitter.com/ignatiusinsight/status/518608749393481728]

Meyers

The New York Post says that Oscar Wilde is responsible for Kim Kardashian's rise to fame because he was the first person “famous for being famous.” When asked her thoughts about it, Kim said, “Is Oscar the one that lives in a trash can?”

Humorous, Interesting, or Frustrating

H.I.F. Humorous: After a two year loan to the United States, Michelangelo's David is being returned to Italy [http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2678684/posts] .

Tuesday

A Random Passage "This has always been a dancing country, and never more so than in the Depression, when people trucked their blues away in marathons, or in seedy dance halls." That's Wilfrid Sheed, in his book The House that George Built. I bought the book

Groeschel

If you didn't hear, Fr. Groeschel passed away Friday evening. My apologies for being 36 hours behind the curve on this one. RIP, Fr. Groeschel. I gotta believe you heard the words "good and faithful servant."

Ebola PSA

> Study: virus spread from the front door of an office to half the employees within 4 hours. http://t.co/VxMO0fdPSc pic.twitter.com/RuFMADnlL2 [http://t.co/RuFMADnlL2] > — Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 5, 2014 [https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/518695475231621120]

Humorous

H.I.F. Because nothing says "safety precautions" like rolled-up sleeves on a HazMat suit... [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-03/why-americas-not-ready-ebola-outbreak-1-photo]

Saturday

H.I.F. Although I listen to EWTN radio frequently and (when time permits) bounce around The Register and various Catholic blogs, this story fell through my radar's cracks: [T]he conversion of Muslims in former Communist Albania and in the Middle East--many convert to Christ through visions

Ferguson

In Oakland, California a dog is officially running for mayor. He's a German shepherd mix named Einstein. He even has a poster. The dog promises to lick his opponent.

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> 5 of the BEST vodkas for a martini: http://t.co/kxmt7S8YjI @AnchorSpirits [https://twitter.com/AnchorSpirits] @Hangar1Vodka [https://twitter.com/Hangar1Vodka] @KarlssonsVodka [https://twitter.com/KarlssonsVodka] @ReykaVodka [https://twitter.com/ReykaVodka] pic.twitter.com/VpsWXS86ci [http://t.co/VpsWXS86ci] > — TOWN&COUNTRY (@TandCmag) October 1, 2014 [https:

Friday

BYCU I hung out at Central Michigan University quite a bit when I went to school at Alma College in the 1980s. These days, I only get back there when I go to Soaring Eagle, Michigan's first indian casino and one of the few in the lower peninsula

BYCU H.I.F.

H.I.F. Seen in a Reddit discussion: "I'm a part-time bartender in Scotland. Denying people alcohol here is as much of an insult to them as punching their child in the face."

Conan

The gay rights group GLAAD has released its annual report on TV. The History Channel got a very poor grade from GLAAD, which is why today the History Channel announced its new show, "Gay Hitler."

Interesting

H.I.F. Thank goodness. That stupid, self-righteous, gender-eliminating, politically-correct stunt might be dying out: "The dreaded Pinktober Pinkout Pinktacular is almost here, and NFL Shop already is emailing the ladies telling us to buy pink, pink, pink. But there's a good chance football fans will see

Meyers

The Bravo network is under fire after it let go 16 editors from the show "Shahs of Sunset" after they tried to unionize. Said the editors, who've had to watch every episode of "Shahs of Sunset," “No, no, we said we wanted to be

Misc.

My most-recent published piece, at Philosophy Now. Ataraxia in the Age of Too Much Information [https://philosophynow.org/issues/104/Ataraxia_in_the_Age_of_Too_Much_Information] . Unfortunately, you need a subscription to read it. To long-time TDE readers, it might look familiar.

Welcome to October

The Month of the Saints: Lisieux, Francis, Avila, Bruno, Ignatius of Antioch, Luke, Anthony Claret, Simon and Jude. And now JPII and J23. Reminder: Don't neglect your best friend tomorrow [http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2013-10-02] .

Good Late Night

Yesterday, Kenyan runner Dennis Kimetto ran the world's fastest marathon by finishing the Berlin Marathon in 2 hours, 2 minutes, and 57 seconds. He also set another record by being the first guy from Kenya to be named Dennis. Fallon North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has not

Tuesday

A Random Passage Here's Joseph Epstein, writing in his book Snobbery, about higher education in Mencken's time. I think it's safe to say that ivy things have only deteriorated since the 1920s: > H.L. Mencken, who also didn't bother to go

Only Down Under

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I'm slowly wrapping up the garden. This wonderful weather is giving me the opportunity to put things away gradually, just spending an hour a two a week readying beds for next year and cleaning out my 50+ pots. It's also giving me an opportunity

Pride and Prejudice circa 2014

H.I.F. One of the more interesting observations I've read this month: "Why is marriage such an unpalatable prospect to today's adults? Though “a host of complex factors” are involved, according to the Washington Post, Pew was able to pinpoint some of the biggest

Saturday

A Random Passage My skepticism has made me a nicer person: not inclined to judge anything, I'm not inclined to get bothered by anything. It's been a remarkable shift in mental landscape for me, and I hope to foster it, but I have my lapses. Too

H.I.F. BYCU

H.I.F. "Upon their arrival back to Earth, the 750 space tourists . . . will be treated to Grey Goose cocktails designed specifically for the event. One example: the Grey Goose Galactic Martini, which blends vodka with raspberry eau-de-vie and black pepper. Why raspberry? Because according to astronomers, that'

Friday

BYCU A TDE reader found himself in Frankenmuth, Michigan, last weekend for its annual Oktoberfest. He sent me this article about a new up=-scale joint: Prost Wine Bar and Charcuterie [http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-michigan/index.ssf/2014/06/prost_wine_bar_and_charcuterie.html] . The place sounds

Ferguson

Several lingerie companies have started setting up bra-fitting events in offices, called "bra parties." Meanwhile, in offices in China and India, people are working.

Philosophy Now

I have a piece coming out shortly in Philosophy Now, a pop philosophical magazine published in London. Starting on Labor Day, they gave me free access to online content. I've been greatly enjoying it, so much so that I'll be tempted to subscribe once my coupon

Kimmel

Kris and Bruce Jenner are getting divorced. The Jenner family is asking that no one respect their privacy at this difficult time.

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Good Late Night

Some sad news from the world of reality TV. Mama June and Sugar Bear from “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” are splitting up. Their lawyers are citing unintelligible differences. Fallon The White House has re-evaluated its security and today they announced they'll start locking the front door. They&

Another Good Reddit TIL

H.I.F. TIL that in 1996, a deranged man stormed into a New Zealand radio station, took the manager hostage and issued one demand ”“ that the station play "Rainbow Connection" by Kermit the Frog.

Interesting

H.I.F. Probably Tantric Buddhists. They take that "emptiness" thing to extremes: "Two Cambodian Buddhist monks have been arrested in the popular tourist city of Siem Reap for smoking crystal methamphetamine along with two women in their pagoda. The room of Pich David, 36, who has

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling My Michigan Wolverines might be reaching the nadir of its storied 135-year football history. I'm expecting the bottom to fall out this year. I'm predicting they'll go 5-7. After all, "in two games against Power 5 opponents this season (first Notre

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> Islamists slaughter Christians and the first thought of a Catholic bishop is to protect Muslims from Islamophobia? http://t.co/fxUG1u4T3r > — Crisis Magazine (@CrisisMag) September 17, 2014 [https://twitter.com/CrisisMag/status/512221947829444608]

Sunday

> "Patience is the companion of wisdom.” ~ #StAugustine [https://twitter.com/hashtag/StAugustine?src=hash] > — St. Augustine (@AugustineUP) June 25, 2014 [https://twitter.com/AugustineUP/status/481826717535727620]

Saturday

A Random Passage "The government I live under has been my enemy all my active life. When it has not been engaged in silencing me it has been engaged in robbing me. So far as I can recall I have never had any contact with it that was not

Meyers

Royal Caribbean's cruises will soon be adding robotic bartenders that can shake drinks, cut limes, and precisely measure alcohol. While Carnival Cruises announced they will soon be adding plumbing.

Friday

Possibly one of the most bizarre drinking snippets I've seen in awhile: "Pair that up with a gin martini flavored with borage flowers after Solemn Vespers on Sunday afternoon and you're set!" Link [http://wdtprs.com/blog/2014/08/aroma-therapy-catholic-style/]. Borage has a cucumber-y

Conan

Last week Nike suspended Ray Rice's contract and today they suspended Adrian Peterson's contract. So now Nike is down to Oscar Pistorius and Kim Jong Un.

Fallon

Hillary Clinton's supporters are calling on her to be more herself, after some of her recent appearances seemed to be too scripted. Hillary said, "I don't know where you guys get this stuff. Shrug and shake head."

Thursday

Ruminations on the Fall of Rome Belloc wrote, “The Catholic Church was the only subsidiary organism that had risen within the general body of the Roman Empire.” Belloc's idea that the Catholic Church was an organism that grew out of the organism of the Empire is important. Combine

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

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What, is it Tolkien's birthday? Another Tolkien blurb at a popular website popped up today: 10 Good Dads Who Changed The World [http://listverse.com/2014/09/16/10-good-dads-who-changed-the-world/]. Excerpt: "2. J.R.R. Tolkien: "Lots of dads tell their children bedtime stories, but Oxford professor

Humorous

H.I.F. Twenty jokes for nerds [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/billykangas/2014/03/20-jokes-for-nerds.html#ixzz3DCY5NYXA] . A few of my favorites: A Buddhist monk approaches a hotdog stand and says “make me one with everything”. A Roman walks into a bar and asks for a martinus. “You mean

Interesting

H.I.F. "TIL Christopher Lee received Tolkien's blessing to play the role of Gandalf, if a movie was ever released, but he played Saruman instead. He was also the only person involved with the Lord of the Rings films to have actually met Tolkien himself."

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Can I ask an un-Catholic question? Are people in America really starving? My priest assures me they are, so I obediently donate regularly to the parish food pantry. The liberals assure us they are, since it's very hard to live on the amount of money provided

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Sunday

> "True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less." - C.S. Lewis pic.twitter.com/v9Ic73JjtV [http://t.co/v9Ic73JjtV] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) September 8, 2014 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/status/508768301921869824]

Nice Way to Spend Saturday Evening

> Relaxing with a good book and an excellent glass of wine from the Machiavelli fattoria... pic.twitter.com/BXV1z26DiM [http://t.co/BXV1z26DiM] > — Nigel Warburton (@philosophybites) September 11, 2014 [https://twitter.com/philosophybites/status/510204408362438656]

Meyers

People who purchased Olive Garden's seven-week unlimited pasta pass are being told that they must show their ID in the restaurant to prevent fraudulent use of the cards. Unfortunately, by Week 5 none of them will look anything like their IDs. It's been discovered that a

Virtue Associated with the Third Joyous Mystery, Kinda

> This professor turned a 36 square-foot dumpster into a livable home http://t.co/dI8uUF7fSA pic.twitter.com/Mn6NnuNvWd [http://t.co/Mn6NnuNvWd] > — The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) September 11, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheAtlantic/status/510207640979668994]

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> For Scotch makers, single malt's best in a single country: http://t.co/9AiOKpfHFT pic.twitter.com/FcO4OaZmAF [http://t.co/FcO4OaZmAF] > — Bloomberg News (@BloombergNews) September 11, 2014 [https://twitter.com/BloombergNews/status/510096803761774592]

Interesting

H.I.F. October is already a great feast month (Francis, Lisieux, others). It just got better: "The Feast Days of Saints John XXIII and John Paul II will be on October 11th and October 22nd respectively, the Vatican has announced." Link [http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/

Coolest Beer Bottle I've Seen in Awhile

> What better way to finish off a long day spent writing about the Julio-Claudians? pic.twitter.com/6kl9UlEzVk [http://t.co/6kl9UlEzVk] > — Tom Holland (@holland_tom) August 24, 2014 [https://twitter.com/holland_tom/status/503593507710582784]

BYCU

BYCU This article came out at Listverse on Wednesday: 10 Ways Alcohol Created Modern Society [http://listverse.com/2014/09/10/10-ways-alcohol-created-modern-society/]. Don't worry: it doesn't insinuate that alcohol is to blame for this monstrosity known as "modernity." It's just a list

BYCU Eve

> Now on tap at upscale bars: Craft cocktails. http://t.co/Aml9m9oaLc pic.twitter.com/mO1hMj9CG3 [http://t.co/mO1hMj9CG3] > — Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 11, 2014 [https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/510204659894849538]

On Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein has interested me for quite awhile. He's interested me enough to download his Tractatus to my Kindle for 99 cents, which, of course, makes me an intellectual heavyweight, though I've read scarcely any of it and haven't understood what I have read.

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Interesting

H.I.F. A pretty wild piece of tornado footage [http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=984_1410195197]. Takes about 30 seconds. I've never seen anything like it.

Tuesday

A friend made the mistake of asking me what I'm currently reading. I thought TDE readers might find my list halfway interesting. "What am I reading? Oh, it's hard to say. I finish one book for every four I start, but here goes. My apologies

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Ow. It's only September 8th and I'm already burned out on football. It didn't help matters that I had to drive twice to the same varsity football game this weekend due to weather. Also not helping: my son's varsity team

Sunday

H.I.F. Today's must-read piece: A Tale of Two Churches [http://www.catholicnewworld.com/cnwonline/2014/0907/cardinal.aspx], by Cardinal George. Excerpt: "The 'ruling class,' those who shape public opinion in politics, in education, in communications, in entertainment, is using the civil law

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This is a pic from Florida last night (from Reddit). It could've been Lake Michigan. I was at my son's football game, about 20 miles from the Lake Michigan shore. I'm not sure I've ever seen a thunderstorm so harsh, and I

Saturday

From the Bottom Line Personal [http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/]: "Cocktails containing diet soda can make you 18% more drunk than ones using regular soda." There are no calories in diet soda, so there's nothing for the stomach to process, with the result that the alcohol hits

Letterman

What the hackers do is they collect the naked photos and then they trade them like baseball cards and there's a lot of money. For example, you can get $10 million for a naked Honus Wagner.

Frustrating

H.I.F. Actually, disgusting: Report: NFL officials asked teams to consider signing Michael Sam to practice squad [http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/dallas-cowboys/headlines/20140904-report-nfl-officials-asked-teams-to-consider-signing-michael-sam-to-practice-squad.ece] . Let me be blunt: The dishonesty of the pro-gay movement is beyond contempt. It'll stop at nothing to promote its agenda.

BYCU Joke

Doctor: "I'm not 100% certain of the cause. It could be related to alcohol." Patient: "It's cool. I'll come back later when you're sober."

Frustrating

H.I.F. The must-read piece of the week [http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3200608/posts]. Priest slams LGBT St. Patrick's Day Parade decision; his blog then comes down. (And what's with Bishop Dolan? Is he a chameleon? Conservative under BXVI, and now ramping hard left?

Friday

BYCU Interesting piece about Michigan's booming craft beer industry and the prime industry off-shoot [http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140826/BIZ/308260027/Michigan-s-craft-beer-boom-has-suppliers-hopping] : hop-growing. Excerpt: The biggest area of expansion is in hop farming. Since 2007, the state has gone from zero acres of commercial hop farms to

Fallon

Los Angeles is considering a new plan to boost the city's minimum wage to $13.25 an hour. It's getting huge support across the entire country – of Mexico.

Interesting

H.I.F. "In poverty-stricken Zimbabwe, the import of used underwear was so common that the country had to officially ban it in December 2011." "[O]n December 21, 2013, 58-year-old Denver St. Clair was killed when a drunken argument with his stepson ended in a wedgie

Miscellaneous Quotes

"A man wrote to say that he accepted nothing but Solipsism, and added that he had often wondered it was not a more common philosophy. Now Solipsism simply means that a man believes in his own existence, but not in anybody or anything else. And it never struck this

Good Late Night

Reports say that several of the world's leading kale farms are running out of seeds after the recent increase in demand for the vegetable. I guess they can't grow it as fast as we can throw it in the garbage. Meyers Next week they're

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Autobiographical Corner and Amish Stuff Whew. I survived another summer. I'm pretty sure I enter every summer with this mindset: Things are going pretty well, I feel relaxed, I'm looking forward to these next couple of months. And then: Wham! Summer turns into the barrage from

Happy Labor Day

A Random Passage Just this for today: "Maryland was Catholic because the King had the happy thought of that way getting rid of some of his Catholic subjects." Garet Garrett, The American Story .

Interesting

H.I.F. Only about 1,000 or more years behind the Catholic Church? Cleveland's government has passed a resolution urging its residents to abstain from eating meat once a week. Link [http://www.cleveland.com/cityhall/index.ssf/2014/08/cleveland_city_hall_urges_resi.html#incart_

Holiday Weekend BYCU

> ICYMI: Which country drinks the most alcohol? China ranks far below the U.S. http://t.co/btZNcQS2ns pic.twitter.com/1JW9q8SbyV [http://t.co/1JW9q8SbyV] > — Henry Williams (@digitalhen) August 25, 2014 [https://twitter.com/digitalhen/statuses/503853835421380608]

BYCU Tweets

> Vodka chaser? You mean another shot of vodka? > — Overly Manly Man (@OverlyManlyMann) August 10, 2014 [https://twitter.com/OverlyManlyMann/statuses/498310360647335936] > Light beer? You mean baby formula? > — Overly Manly Man (@OverlyManlyMann) August 16, 2014 [https://twitter.com/OverlyManlyMann/statuses/500673486697029632] > At 18, you can legally

BYCU

If you're feeling wealthy and thirsty this Labor Day weekend, check out a few of these: Top 10 Most Expensive Libations [http://listverse.com/2007/11/03/top-10-most-expensive-libations/]. Excerpt (from the Number 10 slot): "[A]t $100 a bottle, Sam Adams's “Utopias” is too rich

Thursday

"The minds of men always dwell more on bad luck. They accept ordinary prosperity as a matter of course. Misfortunes arrest their attention and remain in their memory." William Graham Sumner, Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals (1906). That 100-year-old

Humorous Wednesday Tweet

> Spanish retailer apologizes for shirt that looks like Holocaust prisoner outfit http://t.co/gsKYqPVoyn @g_forcewinds [https://twitter.com/g_forcewinds] pic.twitter.com/TBYkG6sYIZ [http://t.co/TBYkG6sYIZ] > — J. Freedom du Lac (@jfdulac) August 27, 2014 [https://twitter.com/jfdulac/statuses/504600743715016704]

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Why There Are Few White Guys in the NBA

Tuesday

Another great Santayana quote from Epstein: “humanitarians have an intense hatred of mankind as it is.” Epstein then continues Santayana's thought: “which is of course why they are always so hard at work trying to change it.” It's a poignant point that every progressive and reformer

Bring Back!

> Request to EWTN: Bring back the Benedict Groeschel audio library! pic.twitter.com/6OyiX4YqnC [http://t.co/6OyiX4YqnC] > — The Daily Eudemon (@TheDailyEudemon) August 24, 2014 [https://twitter.com/TheDailyEudemon/statuses/503672770073731073]

(Untitled)

But then, what else would I talk about? > "Do as much as possible, and talk of yourself as little as possible." - Sallust > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) August 20, 2014 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/statuses/502222844580089856]

Monday Miscellany

I took the family to Cedar Point on Friday. We had a great time. It got off to a rough start: Key roller coasters were out of service for the first part of the day. It was highly frustrating. But I think the humidity and threat of thunderstorms kept the

Interesting

> If you ask someone where he comes from & he answers "Europe",odds are he is Romanian or Bulgarian.A German wd answer "Germany".Same Fr/I/Sp > — Nassim N. Taleb Ù† (@nntaleb) August 24, 2014 [https://twitter.com/nntaleb/statuses/503641069314392065]

Another Pic of the Horror

> Winemakers are surveying the damage following the #Napaquake [https://twitter.com/hashtag/Napaquake?src=hash]. http://t.co/zJRWlPTM5P pic.twitter.com/4ZAagS3dIc [http://t.co/4ZAagS3dIc] > — SFGate.com (@SFGate) August 24, 2014 [https://twitter.com/SFGate/statuses/503566620472905729]

Very Sad

> Silver Oak Winery in Napa, Ca. #earthquakeinwinecountry [https://twitter.com/hashtag/earthquakeinwinecountry?src=hash] pic.twitter.com/VHjCT0pyNm [http://t.co/VHjCT0pyNm] > — Channing Thomson (@CHANNINGPOSTERS) August 24, 2014 [https://twitter.com/CHANNINGPOSTERS/statuses/503563380309766144]

Who Doesn't Love This Pic?

> An old post on Chesterton & Belloc to hearten during dark times. The value of "Old Friends". http://t.co/hPaCFE36MD pic.twitter.com/NVXfN0AmQe [http://t.co/NVXfN0AmQe] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) August 21, 2014 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/statuses/502282924340023297]

Sunday

Chestertonian Kevin O'Brien, writing at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, attacks higher education [http://www.cleveland.com/obrien/index.ssf/2014/08/questions_asked_and_unasked_ab.html#incart_opinion] . Excerpt: > Too many students are majoring in English, anthropology, sociology and, yes, political science. The job markets specific

Humorous

H.I.F. One of the best list articles I've ever read: 10 Devastating Author-To-Author Insults [http://listverse.com/2014/08/21/10-devastating-author-to-author-insults/]. Samples: Twain on Austen: “Every time I read Pride and Prejudice, I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her

Critique the Picture

This is a picture of my youngest daughters' arts and craft corner. Can anyone spot the anomaly?

BYCU Tweet

> How much a beer costs around the world: http://t.co/uiP8lr0GTv pic.twitter.com/q3HgznaXJH [http://t.co/q3HgznaXJH] > — Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) August 16, 2014 [https://twitter.com/WSJ/statuses/500670984622731264]

Friday

BYCU I wanted to run this piece last week, but I didn't get a chance: "Best-selling larger beers taste the same, new research finds [http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/08/13/best-selling-beers-taste-same-new-research-finds/] ." Excerpt: > Johan Almenberg and Anna Dreber, researchers from the Stockholm School of

BYCU-Eve Tweet (from an Unlikely Source)

> Seeking Proof For Why We Feel Terrible After Too Many Drinks http://t.co/2jhIXMK61h > — Patrick Madrid (@patrickmadrid) August 19, 2014 [https://twitter.com/patrickmadrid/statuses/501809277255032832]

Thursday

Some Epstein, with a little commentary of my own: "The most impressive students I had over my 30 years of university teaching were those I encountered when I first began, in the early 1970s, who almost all turned out to have been put through Catholic schools, during a time

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday Tweet

Cracked me up for some reason: > I am, the reason Waldo is hiding. > — Overly Manly Man (@OverlyManlyMann) August 14, 2014 [https://twitter.com/OverlyManlyMann/statuses/500012780750393345]

The Self-Sufficient Servile State

I read Thomas Woods' short Beyond Distributism earlier this year. It's a pretty good book, and well worth reading if one is unclear on the differences between libertarian economics and distributism. He flays Belloc pretty harshly. Though I'm a Belloc fan, I never fully understood

Monday

I'm the unforgiving sort, I guess, at least when it comes to events. If I go to something three times, and all three times are as enjoyable as a genital-kicking contest, I don't go a fourth time. This rule applies to retreats, especially Catholic ones. Over

Another Good One

> “For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.” - G.K. Chesterton #fallibility [https://twitter.com/hashtag/fallibility?src=hash] > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) August 12, 2014 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/statuses/499012044990218240]

Sunday Tweet

> "It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive." - Charles Peguy > — Catholic Thinker (@ThinkerCatholic) August 16, 2014 [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic/statuses/500446438481231872]

Saturday

A Random Passage Oh, to be a king in medieval Ireland! > CrÃth Gablach, the major eighth-century tract on [Irish] social status, states: 'There is, too, a weekly order in the duty of a king: Sunday for drinking ale . . . ; Monday for judgement, for the adjustment of tÃºatha; Tuesday

BYCU Tweet

> Meet the Beer Bottle Dictator - The Daily Beast http://t.co/fwKYOWmaVv > — Simon Frost (@spli) August 14, 2014 [https://twitter.com/spli/statuses/500036242667737089]

My New Favorite Vodka

Tastes pure and clean. And priced right. Sorry for the gay head-tilt on my part:

Friday

Another reason to embrace booze, at least moderately: “Gloominess does great harm to us and to those around us. It is a harmful plant that we must uproot as soon as it appears.” Francis Fernandez Alcohol is a crutch for those times when you must be with others but feel

Today's Tweets

> He may not have an M.B.A., but Pope Francis can teach a thing or two about running a business. http://t.co/1xhDkAiG73 pic.twitter.com/stkZAXrilF [http://t.co/stkZAXrilF] > — Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) August 14, 2014 [https://twitter.com/WSJ/statuses/500014207308693506] > OPINION:

Very, Very, Very Uncool

Especially for us middle-aged NFPers:

Thursday

From the Notebooks "The simple truth is that our businessmen do not want a government that will let business alone. They want a government they can use." Albert Jay Nock I've been devouring libertarian books for about five years now (and for thirty years before that,

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Today's Tweets

> What beats Amazon, Oyster and Scribd for all-you-can-read ebooks? Your local public library: http://t.co/edS8vszvI6 pic.twitter.com/pgU0flMG6f [http://t.co/pgU0flMG6f] > — Geoffrey Fowler (@geoffreyfowler) August 12, 2014 [https://twitter.com/geoffreyfowler/statuses/499251435343974400] > The average family with kids in grades K-12 will spend

Interesting

H.I.F. What religions co-exist peacefully in the modern world? Pretty much all of them . . . except one. Link [http://i.imgur.com/5tK3duy.png].

Ludwig and The Magic Bullet

"If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present." That's Ludwig Wittgenstein, talking like he could be ghostwriting for Jean-Pierre de Caussade. All that "present moment" business is terribly potent

From Reddit's Today I Learned

TIL "health insurance" was actually cooked up as a ploy by hospitals to fill empty beds. The real impetus to making insurance commonplace is when they made premiums tax-free if paid by employers. Before insurance the average person spent $5 per year on medical care. Link [http://www.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The Tiny House Movement [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_house_movement]. I'd heard of tiny houses, but I didn't realize they'd become a movement. Tom Woods interviewed one of the pioneers earlier this month [http://tomwoods.com/blog/whats-the-tiny-house-movement-all-about/]. A small

Hell

Listverse posted this interesting article a few hours ago: 10 Soul-Destroying Visions Experienced By Real People [http://listverse.com/2014/08/10/10-soul-destroying-visions-experienced-by-real-people/] . I'm linking to it because I found it interesting, but I'm not vouching for its accuracy. I enjoy Listverse, but I've

Sunday

A Random Passage “Modesty is praised in humans because it is not a matter of nature, but of will.” Lactantius

Frustrating

H.I.F. Readers have never seen many TDE posts about foreign policy, probably because my stance on foreign policy is pretty isolationist and doesn't rise much above the level of, "Let's leave people alone and mind our own business." There isn't

Saturday

Pretty wild:

Friday

BYCU Vodka is now my drink of choice. I try to drink red wine, but when the day comes to an end and I'm ready to unwind, health concerns take a back seat. Of course, not everyone likes vodka, even people who drink hard liquor. I found this

Conan

Yesterday photos were leaked of the Dallas Cowboys owner, 71-year-old Jerry Jones, with two much younger women. The photos were leaked by Jerry Jones.

Woods and Hudge and Belloc

> An important contribution of Pope John Paul II's 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus was that it recognized what should have been clear for a long time–namely, that the modern state is something altogether new and not to be treated analytically as merely an extension of the political

Interesting

H.I.F. Two interesting things forwarded to me by my son, Alex (the one returning from Salamanca today): 1. In Russia there is no legal definition for ethnicity, so citizens can declare whatever they want, including Jedi and Hobbit. 2. A (very dedicated) fan's explanation on why

Tuesday

My son has spent the last six weeks in Salamanca, Spain. We were talking with him on Facetime last Friday, and he was telling us about the Kinder Egg: a chocolate candy egg with a toy hid inside. He loves them and planned on bringing some back to his siblings,

Interesting

H.I.F. Interesting and scary: "Roughly 77 million Americans, or 35 percent of adults with a credit file, have a report of debt in collections. These adults owe an average of $5,178 (median $1,349). Debt in collections involves a nonmortgage bill–such as a credit card

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I attended my 30th class reunion last Saturday night. It wasn't well attended, but we had a solid showing and I got to catch up with a handful of friends that I hadn't seen in years. The drinking club (the venue for the event)

Sunday

A Random Passage I've been tipping my reading toe into the works of the Anti-Federalists, those nervous souls who saw much mischief behind the proposed U.S. Constitution. I've been favorably impressed by some of it, like this passage from the Maryland Farmer: > I have

Ferguson

We're getting more news about the Orlando Bloom-Justin Bieber fight. Apparently the fight was witnessed by Paris Hilton, P. Diddy, and Lindsay Lohan. I'm confused. Did this fight take place in Spain or in 2003? A woman in Oklahoma called police to complain about the quality

Saturday

A Random Passage "Old people, alone, as a class, have the time to be young." Henry Adams, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres. (Not an exact quote, but very close)

Interesting

H.I.F. "What he found is a “pyx” – a small, gold, frame-like object used to carry the Catholic church's Holy Eucharist. The pyx was part of 1715 wreckage that sank there 299 years ago today." Link [http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/07/31/underwater-video-captures-treasure-hunters-find-of-a-lifetime-his-gurgled-freak-out-is-priceless/

Friday

BYCU Back in my beer-drinking days, I loved keg beer. Whenever I helped set up for a party, I was in charge of putting the tap on and getting the foam out . . . a job I attacked with white-mustached zest. When I went to the bar, I always asked, "What

Interesting

H.I.F. Is this Athens, Georgia or Athens, Greece? Cops Attack Gay Couple In Athens For Holding Hands [http://www.newnownext.com/cops-attack-gay-couple-in-athens-for-holding-hands-today-in-gay/07/2014/] . Home of the Sacred Band of Thebes, Patroclus and Achilles, and a host of other homosexuals and pederasts? Of course, a lot changes in

An Unusual History

I've been slowly making my way through Peter Marshall [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Marshall_(author)]'s Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism . At the rate I'm going, and given the length of the book (841 pages), I figure I'll finish

Barzun

I bought this book when it came out: From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present by Jacques Barzun. I've never read it, primarily because it hasn't fit in with any of the projects I've worked on over

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Meyers

A restaurant in New York has created the Rice Burger, which replaces normal burger buns with rice patties. The restaurant also replaces customers with empty chairs.

Letterman

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the largest single transmission of deadly germs is a handshake. You're lucky, because the most popular form of greeting here in New York is the middle finger.

Montaigne and Our Silliness

William James' stream of consciousness, that fundamental fact of our existence that cannot be stopped (we "think" like we breathe, not like we walk or fish or watch TV . . . thinking cannot be stopped) "explains without moralizing what that wonderful self-observer Montaigne found as the chief mark

Cracked Me Up

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The skies around Alpena were incessantly filled with the buzz of fighter jets, presumably coming from the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center. I've been vacationing in the same spot for 48 years and I never recall hearing so much activity, even in the summers leading up

Sunday

I returned from my final vacation of the year. This was our annual excursion [https://thedailyeudemon.com/5631/] to Alpena, Michigan. Northern Michigan is one of the prettiest places on the planet during the summer and, though Alpena doesn't have all the natural beauty of the Lake Michigan

Interesting

H.I.F. Here's President Obama on taxation: > President Barack Obama has blasted American multinationals that move to Ireland to cut their tax bill. > In his toughest comments yet on the subject, he accused big US corporations of trying to play “the system” by “magically becoming

Friday

BYCU (Kinda) Even though I converted in 1991, which, I think, was the height of Mother Angelica's popularity, I never listened to her. Partly, it's because I rarely watched any TV back then, but partly out of arrogance. Mother Angelica, I vaguely felt, was for the

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Fallon

Edward Snowden is back with yet another spying scandal. In a new interview, Snowden revealed that NSA employees regularly pass around nude pictures of people they spy on. It got even weirder when German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "So, vat do you think?"

Tuesday

Kontent from the Kindle I was pleased to see an Oscar Wilde crack the Top 25 of most-highlighted passages on Kindle [https://kindle.amazon.com/most_popular]. Here's the passage: "I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies

Monday

From the Notebooks “Our lives as philosophers cannot be radically divorced from what we do when we are not doing philosophy.” Gerard Casey. Indeed, I have heard the same thing said about theologians: theologians must be saints. Nassim Taleb makes a similar point in Antifragile when he writes, “Never listen

Sunday

A Random Passage "In the hall outside the Rothschild offices in nineteenth-century Paris, it was claimed that a man took off his hat when the Baron de Rothschild's chamber pot went past. Prestige can have that kind of effect on people." Joseph Epstein, Snobbery.

Saturday

Body and Soul "Bodies are mutually attracted by nearness, knowledge, and pleasure but souls by distance, mystery, and suffering." Such thinking could trend into Cartesian dualism, which undermines the sacramental nature of existence, but it's always important to reassert that the soul and body are not

Meyers

Even though both Israel and Hamas fired on one another during the five-hour humanitarian period yesterday, the U.N. secretary general said both sides "mostly respected" the cease-fire. That's like leaving the house without pants and saying you're "mostly dressed."

Friday

Here's an article about the surging hard cider market [http://www.cleveland.com/drinks/index.ssf/2014/07/cider_finding_its_refreshing_n.html#incart_river_default] . Excerpt: > "Cider is made just like wine, but you drink it by the pint," said Richard Read of

Received in an Email

After Nigeria was eliminated from the world cup, the Nigerian captain personally offered to refund all the expenses of fans that traveled to Brazil. He said he just needs their bank details and pin numbers to complete the transaction.

Thursday

Bullets I'm using today's main post to clear out some links I've been meaning to blog about. Most come from Listverse: Pope Joan is Number 3: "10 People Who Achieved Great Things (Despite Never Existing) [http://listverse.com/2014/06/18/10-people-who-achieved-great-things-despite-never-existing/] ."

Meyers

Brazil's coach resigned following the country's historic 7-1 loss in the World Cup last week. He says he wants to spend more time focusing on not being murdered.

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Interesting

H.I.F. Not just interesting, but stunning. I can't believe these stats [http://news.msn.com/us/government-report-finds-23-percent-of-americans-gay-or-bisexual] saw the light of the mainstream media's day: > This year's National Health Interview Survey was the first to ask about sexual orientation in addition

Tuesday

Many years ago, I read that T.S. Eliot wouldn't read Flannery O'Connor's fiction because he found the violence too unsettling. The idea of avoiding a mode of entertaining for such a reason had never occurred to me (in my arrogance, I probably figured

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling The colorful folks at 4Chan are at it again: Operation Progressive Racial Identity [http://i.imgur.com/Hu5NB6U.png]. "Praise Michael Jackson for being an early trans-racial." This stuff is pure gold, though the poor grammar and spelling is a downer (at least for grammar nerds

Sunday

A Random Passage Amen to this: "A man cannot possess anything that is better than a good wife, or anything that is worse than a bad one." Simonides. I find myself spending more and more time, praying that my children find good mates . . . or the good sense to

Interesting

H.I.F. I'd never heard of this organization, but it looks like they're spreading thrills and misery at the same time: "'Hidden Cash' came to my quiet neighborhood in Whittier, CA. They hid money in a small park where wildlife thrives. An

Frustrating

H.I.F. It's scary to know people, even Senators who obviously aren't expected to know better, think like this. Here's Chuck Schumer about the Hobby Lobby decision [http://cnsnews.com/news/article/eric-scheiner/schumer-religious-americans-pick-one-your-faith-or-your-business] : > “When we wrote RFRA back in 1993 we

Letterman

According to a new study, the largest producer of oil is now the United States. So you know what that means – any day now we'll be invading ourselves.

Fallon

People who wanted to go on the new Harry Potter ride at Universal had to wait in line for more than seven hours this week. That's right, seven hours of waiting just for a couple minutes of action. Or as that's also called, “watching soccer.”

Drudge

Cracked me up this morning with this headline:

Friday

BYCU Alright, TDE readers know I have a big problem with "higher" education. It's grossly, grossly over-priced; it fraudulently coaxes young men and women to go into alarming amounts of debt; it's in league with Hudge and Gudge and their evil designs to bleed

Wednesday

I've pretty much accepted Belloc's premise that the Roman Empire was an act of Providence: By providing a coherent, unified, stable, and cultured environment, news of the Lord's birth, death, and resurrection could spread and His Church could get established. Of course, if there

Meyers

A Ugandan police officer claims he was forced to shoot an aggressive tortoise that attacked him while he was drinking tea at home. In his defense, he had to act quickly, or move over a few feet and weigh his options for another hour.

Wodehouse Wednesday

Some killer passages from the Kindle edition of The Collected Works of P.G. Wodehouse: "It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them." "He had the

Interesting

H.I.F. Potential gig for college students: "A Queens man has discovered enough hidden treasure – bits of diamonds, rubies, platinum and gold – on the gritty sidewalks of Midtown's Diamond District to make a living. . . . “The freelance diamond setter explained that he was sifting through 'very

Fallon

House Speaker John Boehner is threatening to sue President Obama for using executive actions to create laws, instead of going through Congress first. Then Obama shrugged and made a new law that you can't sue the president.

Tuesday

> "It's because artists do not practise, patrons do not patronize, crowds do not assemble to worship reverently the great work of Doing Nothing, that the world has lost its philosophy and even failed to invent a new religion." G.K. Chesterton Here's a

TIL

Great TIL over at Reddit right now: "TIL that a Roman merchant who sold fake jewels was sentenced to face a lion in the arena. When the gate finally opened, a chicken walked out. Emperor Gallienus proclaimed 'He practiced deceit and then had it practiced on him.'

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I hope everyone had a great Fourth. Mine was great: no commitments at all. I had to work a chunk of it, but that's alright. It involved drafting contracts and trusts, which is something, as far as work goes, I greatly enjoy. It combines my formal

Sunday

A Random Passage "We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves.” William Hazlitt. I gotta read more by and about this guy.

Saturday

I went to this this fine establishment Thursday night. It's Tibbits Opera House [http://tibbits.org/] in Coldwater, Michigan. The little theater is possibly the quaintest thing I've ever seen. The performance I saw, "The Look of Love" (a celebration of the music of

Friday

This article [http://www.toledoblade.com/Retail/2014/06/08/Owens-Illinois-says-its-black-glass-bottles-are-becoming-its-new-green.html] articulates something I've been noticing, albeit at a less-than-conscious level: Alcohol manufacturers are increasingly using black bottles. Why? Two reasons: 1. Aesthetics. The black bottle projects a premium image. 2. Black bottles provide just as much

Wednesday

"[A]ccording to YouGov.com poll published hours before the U.S. plays Belgium on Tuesday, liberals and moderates are tuning in far more than conservatives. "YouGov reports that 35 percent of liberals, 34 percent of moderates and just 27 percent of self-described conservatives are watching the World

An Email to a Friend . . .

. . . who asked for a book recommendation in the field of political philosophy: > I couldn't remember the book that really “hit me” and made me think, “Shi'ite, those libertarians are probably right after all.” All my life, I had disliked libertarians, primarily because Ayn Rand was

The Myth of Nations

This is a historical truth that is slowly taking form in my mind: today's nations are a myth. The State, in the interest of developing central power, created the idea of the unified-in-purpose, one-language, nation that needed to be protected and advanced by a unified central government. In

Reddit

From Reddit's Today I Learned page: "TIL that Johnny Cash, while working as an Air Force radio operator in Germany intercepting Soviet broadcasts, was the first American to report the death of Joseph Stalin."

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I've returned from vacation. All-in-all, it wasn't a good one. Great people, but no activities that really interested me and shabby accommodations. And worst of all: I got there and realized I'd brought myself with me, which is a sure recipe for

Sunday

Theodore Dalrymple was apparently two hours from my house last month but I didn't know it. I doubt I would've made it to the lecture anyway, but I would've liked to have had the opportunity. No matter: His speech is printed here [http://imprimis.

Saturday

Nassim Tale: “Never listen to a leftist who does not give away his fortune." Enter leftist Gene Nichol [http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/18167/]: > A controversial, outspoken law professor who frequently bashes Republicans and specializes in poverty issues as a self-proclaimed champion of the poor earns $205,400

(Untitled)

I was never a Michael Jackson fan, but I mastered the moonwalk under the tutelage of another stock boy while working at K-Mart as a teenager. I didn't realize the move had been invented thirty years earlier. Here's Bill Bailey:

Friday

BYCU For those TDE readers who are in the dating world, this is for you: 40 Catholic Pick Up Lines [http://www.lauramcalister.com/2014/02/10/catholic-pick-lines/]. Some of them are pretty lame, but my nineteen-year-old daughter had identified these as her favorites: I'm no Joseph”¦ perhaps

Kimmel

A piece of rock 'n' roll history was sold yesterday. Some of Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics from 1965 went up for auction and got $2 million. Paying $2 million for Bob Dylan lyrics is a good way to know that Bob Dylan would have hated you

Thursday

Kontent from the Kindle "Georges Simenon," Nassim Taleb observes in Antifragile, "only wrote sixty days a year, with three hundred days spent 'doing nothing.' He published more than two hundred novels." In the same chapter, Taleb wrote: > [T]he great French poets Paul

Michigan Cloud

A real cloud formation, celebrating my home state: Link [http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/06/woman_takes_photo_of_cloud_sha.html] .

Wednesday

I thought I long ago ran this great quote from Bill Kauffman's Ain't My America, but apparently not. He is quoting John Randolph: > “No government, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, can be fit to govern me or those whom I represent.” He was

More Kindle Popular Highlights

Kontent from the Kindle "We degrade God when we attribute our own ideas to Him, out of annoyance that we cannot fathom His ways." Dostoyevsky, The Idiot. 139 highlighters (as of 6/15/2014) "Of all forms of insolence there is none more flagrant than that of

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Just saw it. The family was going, so I felt compelled to attend. Besides, I liked the first movie so figured this one would be at least halfway decent. My review: Terrible. Flat, canned dialogue. Worn-out humor shticks. Predictable plot. Slow and stretched out scenes. I might never see an

Monday

Random Quotes Max Beerbohm's older brother, Herbert, was a funny guy. Once, when a man walked past him groaning under a grandfather clock he was carting on his back, Herbert said, "My good fellow, why not carry a watch?" (Joseph Epstein, Partial Payments ). ******* "[A] friend

Sunday

A Random Passage Cardinal Henry Newman, writing about his religious conversion, autobiographically describes the state of mind that led me to agnosticism in virtually all things secular (especially politics and anything I read in the press) except those I see with my own eyes and touch with my own hands:

Saturday

I've read a fair amount by and about Ronald Knox (including the many passages about him in Joseph Pearce's splendid Literary Converts), but I never knew he was a prankster. From Listverse's recent "10 Outrageous Broadcasts That Caused Mayhem [http://listverse.com/2014/

Friday

BYCU And maybe it works in reverse: plug in those brewing benefits now and avoid those medical problems later: "A team of researchers is working out a new way to turn the brewery waste into orthopedic devices, leveraging substances naturally found in spent grain for bone grafts and implants

Fallon

A couple in New York found a python inside a couch while they were cleaning out their new apartment. But on the bright side, at least now they can stop looking for their cat.

Thursday

Kontent from the Kindle Amazon Page During random moments when I don't really feel like doing anything, I've started grabbing my Chromebook and going through Amazon Kindle highlights. The Kindle highlights page shows you what other readers have highlighted on their Kindle editions of various books.

Politically-Incorrect Peanuts

Wednesday

While looking up Koestler's chapters on Pythagoras, I ran across this great passage: > The sixth pre-Christian--the miraculous century of Buddha, Confucius, and Lao-tze, of the Ionian philosophers and Pythagoras--was a turning point for the human species. A March breeze seemed to blow across this planet from China

Meyers

A new study shows that men who carry their cellphone in their pocket have a sperm count nearly 10 percent lower than those who don't. While men who keep their cellphone on a belt clip don't need to worry about it.

Koestler

Many years ago, when I wore a younger man's underwear, I bought Arthur Koestler's green three-volume series. I call it the "green" series because, even with the physical books and the Koestler page on Amazon in front of me, I can't find

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Perhaps the most interesting "Today I Learned" at Reddit that I've ever seen: "TIL, in 1981, a man who had been bullying residents of a small Missouri town was murdered in broad daylight when 46 townspeople rose up against him, in an act

Sunday

A Random Passage Our society needs more outdoor power tools: "The common sense of mankind has associated the search after truth with seclusion and quiet. . . . Pythagoras, the light of Magna GrÃ¦cia, lived for a time in a cave. Thales, the light of Ionia, lived unmarried and in private,

Interesting

H.I.F. 10 Lucrative Ideas Sold For Almost Nothing [http://listverse.com/2014/06/13/10-lucrative-ideas-sold-for-almost-nothing/]. Excerpt: "[John] Barry was paid a one-time fee of Â£250 (approximately $700 USD) for his work [on the James Bond 007 theme song] while Monty Norman, who received the writing credit,

Friday

Some jokes tenuously-related to drinking: Two lawyers walk into a bar in the country side, they have decided to stop there for lunch, so without ordering anything they sit down and take out Tupperware boxes from their bags and begin to eat some sandwiches from them. The bartender sees this

Thursday with Taleb

Some more great passages from the work of Nassim Taleb, along with some TDE commentary: "To understand the liberating effect of asceticism, consider that losing all your fortune is much less painful than losing only half of it." "Work destroys your soul by stealthily invading your brain

Conan

In North Carolina, an obese man was caught hiding 40 bags of heroin in the folds of his stomach. Something tells me he is not on heroin.

Interesting

H.I.F. From Reddit: "TIL in 1965, seeds that were dated to 2,000 years old were discovered in an ancient jar in Israel. The seeds were kept in storage for 40 years and after they were planted, a tree that had been extinct for over 1800 years

Tuesday

Speaking of Detroit (see yesterday's main post), I listened to a podcast on Saturday about building strong towns and urban renewal (go here for podcast [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2014/05/charles_marohn.html]). The interviewee is an urban consultant who emphasizes the need for non-macro redevelopment.

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I spent Friday in Grand Rapids, attending the annual Business Law Institute. It wasn't highly profitable. I learned a few things, but for the most part, the topics were either too basic or too off-beat. They did, however, bring in two attorneys who have been working

Sunday

A Random Passage Why was I wasting time, watching a TV show about the long-running TV show Cops? No good reason, except I'm an American and, to quote George Santayana, “Americans love junk.” He added: “It's not the junk that bothers me, it's the

Saturday

If I weren't on a self-imposed book-buying hiatus, I'd be buying this one in a heart beat: Chesterton's America: A Distributist History of the United States. Mary Kochan reviews it at Catholic Lane [http://catholiclane.com/book-review-chestertons-america/]. Excerpt: > What makes this book so

Conan

Last night the Los Angeles Kings won Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals in overtime. Fans in L.A. went crazy after they heard about it this morning at work.

BYCU

BYCU Gin and tonic season is upon us. Even manly men will occasionally succumb and drink one on a hot day. I googled it and found this interesting piece at About.com [http://cocktails.about.com/od/spirits/p/gist_gin.htm]. From the intro: > Gin was created by

Meyers

This summer marks the 75th anniversary of Little League Baseball. Or to put it in Little League terms, six innings.

Conan

The co-founder of Burt's Bees was forced out of the company for having an affair with an employee. He was caught during a sting operation.

Thursday

Some things never change. Writing about Bacon's Rebellion (1676) in his People's History, Howard Zinn discusses Nathaniel Bacon's “Declaration of the People,” saying it “shows a mixture of populist resentment against the rich and frontier hatred of the Indians. It indicted the [Governor] Berkeley

Fallon

Tim Tebow said that he's staying in shape in case he gets another opportunity to play in the NFL. Then his boss said, “That's great, but these Waffle Tacos ain't going to make themselves, so . . .”

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

In his most recent collection of essays, Joseph Epstein recounts growing up in the 1950s. It sounds like a pretty good era. This passage really struck home with me: > Play was not yet organized. The endless cycle of lessons and special tutoring for middle-class children had not begun in

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I spend hours in my garden. I spend a fair amount of time walking. I occasionally am forced to drive an hour or more in my car. I burn through good audio programs like Rob Ford burns through crack. I'm constantly running out of good free

Sunday

Is the Catholic Church serious about promoting priestly vocations? Then it needs to get rid of female altar servers. Now don't get me wrong: The girls who have stepped up and served (especially in my parish) have been a real blessing. We have troubles getting enough altar servers

Frustrating

H.I.F. Speaking of gardens: I just want to keep my nose buried in mine: Male student named Connecticut school's prom queen [http://news.msn.com/us/male-student-named-connecticut-schools-prom-queen#tscptme] .

Friday

BYCU I never knew this: "With more breweries per capita than any U.S. city, Asheville, N.C., has become a sort of Napa Valley of beer." Of course, the bigger boys now want some of the action, too: "Outsiders have noticed that Asheville's locally

Thursday

Thinking about starting an online local newspaper? You may want to check out this essay by Bill Kauffman about The Batavian [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-hyperlocal-beat/]. Excerpt: > Five years of 12-hour-a-day and seven-day-a-week workloads later, Owens has embedded The Batavian in the public mind. From his office on

Interesting

H.I.F. This has a strong ring of truth to is, at least to me: "The truth is, processed foods contain carefully orchestrated flavors and other sensory factors designed to be as addictive as possible. This is in stark contrast to whole foods, the taste and consistency of

Wednesday

A handful of great passages from Joseph Epstein's new book of essays . . . and I'm only about 15% of the way through it: "[I]n the matter of literary criticism, as Mencken once remarked, it is only justice that hurts." "[I]f the same

Tuesday

Kontent from the Kindle Perhaps the most interesting passage from my Memorial Day Weekend reading. The author is writing about the shocking dearth of archeological remains from approximately 630 to 930 AD and historians' struggles to account for it: > Another school of thought, most influential in Europe, denies

Monday

A Random Passage "Anyone who believes that advertisers control consumers need only be told a few names: Tucker, Henry J., Ford, Edsel, Mercury Park Lane, Studebaker, Wagonaire, Lincoln Blackwood, AMC Marlin, Buick Reatta, and Eagle Premier. These were among many automobiles that were marketed strenuously by their manufacturers but

Sunday

In anticipation of the coming football season, I thought I'd post this picture that really cracked me up a few days ago. (If you don't follow the NFL, my apologies . . . and good for you, btw).

Saturday

The rest of my backyard container garden went in Thursday evening. This is a partial picture of the finished deal.

Meyers

A group of scientists have started attaching sensors to sharks to help predict hurricane intensity. They're hoping the information they gather will save enough lives to offset the number of lives lost attaching sensors to sharks.

BYCU

BYCU I'd be curious where Memorial Day weekend ranks among drinking weekends. It must be in the top 10, probably top 5 after the brutal winter we've just came through. I've talked with a lot of people who have told me that it seems

Kimmel

For 40 years Burger King has been saying "Have it your way" in their ads. They're changing the slogan from "Have it your way" to "Be your way." I don't get it. Am I ordering a Whopper or coming out

Ferguson

It's also National Waiter and Waitress Day. So be extra nice to your server. Say "Thanks, sugar" and give them a little slap on the butt.

Thursday

A Handful of Wisdom The Only Five Things I Wish College Had Taught Me [http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/05/james-altucher/the-only-5-things/]. I don't agree with all of it, but the writer makes some awfully good points. A few of my favorites: "The best way to change

Meyers

A man in Florida has been arrested for inappropriately touching two women outside a Walmart while claiming to be a psychic. Though to his credit, when the police picked him up he said, “I knew this was going to happen.”

Late Night

Yesterday President Obama made an unscheduled stop at a Little League game while he was on his way to a fundraiser. Yeah, because there's nothing parents love more than their kid's Little League game getting even longer. Fallon

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Taki published a new piece this weekend. He was writing about the westernization that the Nigerian kidnappers are rebelling against. Perhaps the best passage from the piece: > When I first heard the meaning of Boko Haram–the words for the Islamist movement that kidnapped some two hundred girls and

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Okay, hopefully the cold weather is gone for good. Memorial Weekend is nigh. I'd like to finish off the garden this week, so I can attend to some serious front porch reading. . . . On the docket: Chicks. Simone Weil, a Dorothy Day biography, maybe some Edith Stein.

AQ

If you enjoy tribute bands, I doubt you'll find one much better than this one: Marie is out of town this weekend, so I took six of the seven, plus one of their friends. Everyone greatly enjoyed it. Daughter Abbie (an amateur musician) was blown away by the

Meyers

A new Michael Jackson album was released this week and it contains a track titled "Do You Know Where Your Children Are?" Even worse, the next song is called, "Can You Give Me Directions?"

Friday

From Pascal's Pensees: "Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same." Pascal is one of those thinkers I'd like to settle down with for an entire summer: a close reading of the Pensees,

Meyers

A Chicago priest is offering a $5,000 reward to help stop gun violence. Meanwhile, people with guns just found out about a priest who has $5,000.

Thursday

In his essay, “The Intimate Abstraction of Paul Valery,” Joseph Epstein writes that Valery spent his life in pursuit of one thing: to understand the functioning of the mind. In his effort, he sought supreme detachment, so he can sit back and contemplate what it is, exactly, that occurs in

Fallon

During his trip to the White House yesterday, Uruguay's president said that more Americans should be bilingual. Then Joe Biden said, "Thanks, but I'm happily married."

Meyers

A new study claims that 1 in 10 Americans no longer carry cash. They're called English majors.

Gardening Pic

Well, another round of cold is about to hit southern Michigan. I'll be hauling my tomato plants in and out of the house for the next five days, which really sucks (15 self-watering containers, five of them holding over ten gallons of dirt each) but everything looked great

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Humorous

H.I.F. The humorous Taki Theodoracopulos offers a biographical snippet of Sam Goldwyn [http://takimag.com/article/take_the_sour_with_the_bitter_taki#axzz31Qbj6XTL], including these malapropisms: > When his wife suggested a friend should seek psychiatric help he interrupted with, “Anybody who goes to a psychiatrist should

Tuesday

Autobiographical Corner Blogging might be a little slow this week. If you hadn't discerned it yet, the TDE publication schedule has evolved to this: I use the weekend to put together a series of posts, one each Monday through Friday. I then "pepper" the week with

Monday

In case you missed it: "The Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club has teamed up with the Satanic Temple to re-enact a 'Black Mass' on May 12 at 8:30pm at the Queen's Head Pub, in Memorial Hall, with “commentary and historical context” provided by some

Sunday

Pretty good article: Pope Francis and the Culture of Encounter [http://catholicstand.com/pope-francis-culture-encounter/]. It spends a fair amount of time summarizing some points made by Gabriel Marcel. I spent a lot of time reading the existentialists, and it always interested me that Marcel was a Catholic one. His prose

Interesting

H.I.F. So tell me more about the voting for the SEC Defensive Player of the Year. Any chance Michael Sam's sexual orientation and pending announcement were leaked to potential voters, who cast their vote in favor of him in order to "make a political point&

Saturday

H.I.F. Notre Dame isn't as bad as Georgetown or Boston College, but it's hardly a bastion of orthodoxy, either. So this story didn't surprise me: Officials at the University of Notre Dame revoke permission for pro-marriage table, tell young Catholics to “cease

Humorous, kinda

H.I.F. It's not too often an opening line from a news story unintentionally summarizes, illustrates, and proves beyond reasonable doubt the deranged culture we've come to inhabit: "The low neckline of her halter gown exposes a hairy chest." After that line, the

Meyers

Richard Branson has announced plans to develop a new type of plane that could fly from New York to Tokyo in one hour. Apparently the engines are powered by human screams.

Thursday

From the remarkable Robert Higgs: "Tolstoy's Remarkable Manifesto on Christian Anarchy and Pacifism [http://blog.independent.org/2014/04/21/tolstoys-remarkable-manifesto-on-christian-anarchy-and-pacifism/] ." The piece itself is not that remarkable. It basically just criticizes Tolstoy, but it concludes with this teaser: > I plan to write at greater

Meyers

Medical officials across the nation are reporting that more baristas are complaining about wrist-related injuries they get from making drinks. So much for the tough-guy image of baristas.

Wednesday

The American Conservative ran this interesting piece a few weeks ago: "Pope Francis Needs Distributism [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/pope-francis-needs-distributism/] ." In light of being accused of Marxism, which he deplores, but in light of his distrust of capitalism, he needs a third way. That third way is

Conan

The Supreme Court has ruled that city council meetings may open with a prayer. Especially if the city in question is Detroit.

Tuesday

Kontent from the Kindle Although I support the mini-ag movements (see yesterday's post) and consider myself a part of them, I can't help but be reminded of those hippies who chose to eschew the complexity of modern life and opted instead for the simplicity of the

Monday

The "mini-agricultural" movements that are popping up in this country interest me. Whether it's the Back to Eden gardening method, hobby farms, sustainable landscaping, or just nerds like me with a big container garden (60+ self-watering containers, plus a handful of traditional containers), it's

(Untitled)

Minas Tirith from matchsticks [http://i.imgur.com/ehGVWEk.jpg]. Pretty cool, but I wonder what it feels like to have that much disposable time?

Sunday

I like to think that, by embracing libertarianism, I broke away from the "liberal-conservative" dichotomy, and instead have embraced the principle of subsidiarity, local versus federal government, and Catholic mentality. But then I see something like this, and my loathing of liberals bubbles to the surface again: Controversial

Saturday

Miscellaneous Whew. Spring is back in full swing. Baseball game last night, baseball game this morning, soccer, gardening, kids now home from college, prom this evening. And, of course, cruddy weather than makes things a bit less pleasant and a bit more difficult (I've been shivering so badly

Meyers

The Royal Court of Saudi Arabia has launched a website that will accept complaints against the government and send them directly to the king. You can even submit a second complaint if you want – using your remaining hand.

Ferguson

We've got a huge drought here in California. It's so dry and windy here in L.A. that firefighters are already hosing down David Hasselhoff's chest hair.

Friday

BYCU Is it me, or does the science of drinking keep "upping" the healthy consumption levels? At first, we were told a glass of red wine after work could help the heart. Then we were told it would help the heart. Then we were told a couple of

Thursday

Another great list, with narrative, that I found at Lew Rockwell [http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/04/no_author/10-con-men-and-their-masterful-forgeries/] : 10 Con Men And Their Masterful Forgeries [http://listverse.com/2014/04/24/10-con-men-and-their-masterful-forgeries/]. Perhaps my favorite: > If there's anything that the 11th-century French monk Ademar de

Kimmel

Someone who doesn't want to associate with black people owning an NBA franchise is like a vegan buying a steakhouse.

Wednesday

It's a banner day in the Scheske household: My oldest son turns 21. I've long been a proponent of an age-18 drinking age, so it's a bit frustrating that we had to wait three years for this day but it's now here.

Tuesday

Although I haven't read all of it, I've frequently dipped into Alberto Manguel's splendid A History of Reading. Manguel was once referred to as the "Casanova of reading," which makes him a nerd par excellence . . . and a man I'd like

Monday

Catholic Late Night Ten great one-liners from St. John XXIII [http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1401197.htm]. My favorites: When a cardinal complained that a rise in Vatican salaries meant a particular usher earned as much as the cardinal, the pope remarked: "That usher has 10 children;

Humorous

H.I.F. "A May 15 banquet for the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People just became a lot more intriguing. The group is planning to honor Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling with a lifetime achievement award. This is the 100th

Sunday

For a variety of reasons, I don't often use TDE to proselytize, but I had to share this Journey Home. This man's conversion story parallels mine on many fronts (the arrogance that led him to read about Catholicism, the "two floor" problem, his profession

Saturday

The garden is coming along. Here it is, as of last weekend. I'm in the process of putting in the rest of my self-watering containers this weekend. It's a pretty big chore and largely experimental, since I'm using the potting mix from last year

Late Night BYCU: Kimmel

A strange new product is coming to your liver this fall – Palcohol, which is powdered alcohol. It's like Crystal Light that will get you drunk. Palcohol is great for astronauts looking to get wasted in space. Palcohol flavors include Vodka, rum, mojito, cosmopolitan, and lemon drop. I think

Friday

BYCU Here's a decent article from Lew Rockwell earlier this week: Wine Etiquette Gone Horribly Wrong [http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/04/no_author/wine-etiquette-gone-horribly-wrong/] . It's not as good as the title implies, and, indeed, I think only a borderline wine snob would really like it,

Meyers

A Kansas man on trial for first-degree murder wants to remove a tattoo across his neck reading “murder” because he's worried it might prejudice the jury. Though he might be able to create reasonable doubt by just adding a question mark. China's state media has announced

Interesting

H.I.F. Crowdfunding opportunity for pro-lifers: "Gosnell Movie: A historic crowdfunding campaign for a movie about America's biggest serial killer, abortionist Kermit Gosnell and the media cover-up." Link [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gosnell-movie#home].

Funny Quotes

Random Quotes "When Mr. Wilbur calls his play Halfway to Hell he underestimates the distance." Brooks Atkinson ******* Oscar Levant to an obnoxious acquaintance: "I'm going to memorize your name and throw my head away." ******* "No doubt Jack the Ripper excused himself on grounds

Meyers

The Christian Science Monitor is claiming “Hillary Clinton will be a tad less interested in running for president now that she's about to be a grandmother.” And if you put a grain of sand in your pocket there's a tad less sand on the beach.

(Untitled)

From the Bottom Line Personal [http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/]: "Making a fist helps you remember. Clench your right hand while preparing to remember something . . . and then your left hand when trying to recall it." Odd idea, that. I'm gonna have to try it.

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Humorous

H.I.F. The article I linked a few minutes ago has this great passage: "Paul Theroux notes that 'During his famous experiment in his cabin at Walden, moralizing about his solitude, [Thoreau] did not mention that he brought his mother his dirty laundry and went on enjoying

Interesting

H.I.F. As more Americans grow tired of the warped culture and government programs that are tilted ruthlessly against the middle class, more Americans "opt out" and go into isolation. This article [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/thoreau-vs-st-benedict-how-we-opt-out-matters/] examines the phenomenon, and also points out, "How we

Fallon Late Night

“I want to say congrats to Chelsea Clinton. Last week she announced that she is expecting her first child,” Fallon said, setting up the joke. “That's great. That's great for her. If it is a girl, it will get some of Chelsea's old hands-me-downs.

Monday

“[B]lowup risks-to-others are easily concealed owing to the growing complexity of modern institutions.” Nassim Taleb, Antifragile. A page later, Taleb writes, “I want to live happily in a world I don't understand.” I combine those quotes with a consistent piece of investment advice that I have consistently

Easter

“When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld “him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a man step

Humorous

H.I.F. The 4chan online community has struck again. They spread word in their community that bestbookreads.com was holding an online vote on "What's the one book that transformed your life forever?" The 4channers descended on the site and vote Mein Kampf number one

Good Friday

In the 1930s, the Times (London) asked G.K. Chesterton and others to write on the topic of "What's Wrong with the World Today." Chesterton sent back a two-word response: Dear Sirs: I am. Sincerely, G.K. Chesterton "For all that ever was wrong, is

Holy Thursday

"[I]n the agony of Gethsemane the ultimate consequences of our sin had their hour. . . . God permitted his Son to taste the human agony of rejection and plunge towards the abyss. . . Gethsemane was the hour in which Jesus' human heart and mind experienced the ultimate odium of the

From the Emails

My response to a young family member who was getting questions about the Big Bang Theory and was puzzled that a priest came up with the Theory: > The Big Bang theory is nothing for a Catholic to get hung up on. You just need to keep a steady eye

Interesting

H.I.F. Perhaps the most interesting (and disturbing and scary) article of the month: 10 Lesser-Known American Mysteries [http://listverse.com/2014/04/14/10-lesser-known-american-mysteries/]. Excerpt: > Imagine a place, so rugged and desolate, so empty and uninhabited, that it would be “the perfect dumping ground” for a serial

Reddit

From Reddit's TIL feature ("sub-Reddit"): "TIL George Washington forbade his troops to burn effigies of the Pope out of respect for Catholics."

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Conan

Yesterday, North Korea held its annual marathon. Congratulations to first, second and third place winner, Kim Jong Un.

Interesting

H.I.F. Muslims v. Gays. Cleveland Hopkins cab drivers refuse to drive with Gay Games signage [http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/04/some_cleveland_hopkins_cab_dri.html#incart_m-rpt-1] . Heck, I didn't even know there was a thing known as the "Gay

(Untitled)

From the Bottom Line Personal [http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/]: "Tornadoes are just as likely to hit states within the Deep South and Midwest as states within Tornado Alley." Tornado Alley is defined as Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

Interesting

H.I.F. I've long maintained that people who lead dissolute lives are the first to accuse others of racism or some other odious trait. Theodore Dalrymple makes an observation along the same lines [http://takimag.com/article/some_questions_theodore_dalrymple/print#axzz2ymOcQnPE] . > As befits an

Monday

Autobiographical Corner The kids had Spring Break last week, so we took off on Wednesday for a quick tour of Franciscan University [http://www.franciscan.edu/] (a college visit for Jack (17)) and Pittsburgh. On the way, we stopped at the Sorrowful Mother Shrine [http://sorrowfulmothershrine.org/], in Bellevue, Ohio,

Something for Palm Sunday

"The hour overflows with supernatural power. In these last days it is as if Jesus were gathering strength on strength preparing for the ultimate." Romano Guardini, The Lord

More Pittsburgh

Giant eyes made from granite. Six in one plaza. Each one cost $50,000.

Fallon

A math blogger says he's figured out “the world's favorite number.” It turns out that it's “7.” The least popular number? The fake phone number you get when you tell a girl you're a math blogger.

Downtown Pittsburgh

At Franciscan University

College visit with Jack

BYCU

BYCU I'm still catching up on good TDE leads I received last year. I should've ran this one a long time ago: Renewed interest in sour beer [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/07/sour-beer-cantillon-a-brief-history.html] . It's somewhat lengthy, but the gist

Meyers

Yesterday Hillary Clinton admitted she is thinking about running for president. Though it would be more shocking if she admitted to ever thinking about anything else.

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Funny Quotes

Random Quotes "In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of the citizens to give to give to the other." Voltaire. Actually, that's not a humorous quote, but it's rare you'll see me

Monday

Nock Notions “The decade 1887-97 was one of the most extraordinary periods in all the history of America's fantastic civilization; even the period 1929-39 can do but little more than match its bizarre eccentricities. . . . Free silver, the initiative, referendum and recall; farmer-labourism, votes-for-women, popular election of senators, the

Michigan

I had to pick up Alex and Abbie from Ann Arbor yesterday for my father-in-law's birthday party. Traffic was horrible. The reason? 2014 Hash Bash, an annual celebration of marijuana that has been going on for 30+ years. I decided to check it out. I stood on a

Misc.

From an Epstein essay, something I never knew: > [O]ne is reminded how much more intellectuals, making use of their minds, contributed to the British [World War II] effort than did their American counterparts. Graham Greene, Malcolm Muggeridge, Isaiah Berlin, Ryle, Hampshire, Ayer, Trevor-Roper, and many other English intellectuals

The Saxon Way

A lecture on early medieval history talked about Charlemagne's efforts to convert the Saxons through use of a revised Bible that would appeal more to Saxon sensibilities. This passage cracked me up (I assume most TDE readers will recognize that it retells the story from the Garden of

Meyers

Willie Nelson's stuffed armadillo has been returned after being stolen from a Las Vegas show. And I'm sure Willie was happy to get it back, considering what it's probably stuffed with.

Friday

A TDE reader sends along this recommendation: Lexington Brewing and Distilling [http://www.kentuckyale.com/home]. If you like bourbon and beer, I guess this is your nirvana: > Lexington Brewing and Distilling Co. consists of our brewery as well as our Town Branch Distillery, which was added to the

Noah

I saw Noah last night. I give it a "6." Enjoyable enough, but certainly worth waiting for the rental. And of this I'm convinced: All the "controversy" surrounding the movie was nothing but a PR stunt. The movie was simply silly. "Methuselah Meets

Interesting

H.I.F. You judge a tree by its fruit. The inverse is equally true: You can judge fruit by its root. If you have a bad root, you probably have bad fruit. I commented on this a few weeks ago in connection with Gore and Maciel [https://thedailyeudemon.com/

Interesting

H.I.F. I find this fascinating . . . and flattering: "A group of Czech researchers has conducted a study in which they determined that the perceived intelligence of men correlates strongly with their actual intelligence ”“ but the same doesn't hold true for women." Link [http://www.theregister.

Wednesday

Spritz This might be the most exciting thing I've seen on the Internet in five years: Spritz reading [http://www.spritzinc.com/#]. By breaking down reading materials into one word at a time, the software allows you to read 500+ words a minute with virtually no practice or

Meyers

A new study on unemployment shows that it is now harder to get a job at Wal-Mart than to get accepted at Harvard. Of course, it's a lot easier if your dad went to Wal-Mart.

Humor for Fools

If you like goofy humor (the last thirty seconds isn't very funny, but the first part cracked me up):

Frustrating

H.I.F. And people wonder why I resent girls' athletics . . . and the federal government: "The U.S Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has forced a school in Michigan to tear down a brand-new set of bleachers for its boys' varsity baseball team because

Interesting

H.I.F. 10 Total Tyrants From The History Of Rock And Roll [http://listverse.com/2014/03/28/10-total-tyrants-from-the-history-of-rock-n-roll/] . Sample: "In his desire for control, [Colonel Tom Parker] acted against Elvis's interests. For example, Parker (who was secretly Dutch) feared being barred reentry to the States

Monday

Gardening Update What's a gardening nerd to do? I plant a lot of sweet peppers. It's the only food that almost everyone in my family enjoys, plus they thrive in self-watering containers. Because I have an army of both (family members and self-watering containers), I had

Sunday

A Random Passage "We lose ourselves in crowds, yet a terrible fear of anonymity haunts many Americans: we want to be known, remembered, thought of, and except in the tawdriest sense this is only possible in small communities and networks of families. Those cut off from such possibilities are

Spring

I've been going to the Chicago Weather Center Blog [http://blog.chicagoweathercenter.com/page/2/] more in order to get long-term weather predictions. It hasn't provided any lately, but it did post these two pictures of the same stretch of land in the Chicago area. Can

Received in an Email

A husband takes his wife to a disco. There's a guy on the dance floor. living it large, break dancing, moon walking, back flips, the works. The wife turns to her husband and says, "See that guy? 25 years ago he proposed to me and I turned

BYCU

BYCU You want to get the best deals at the grocery store? Be different. Here's an excerpt from an article about "data mining" [http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/teacher/technologies/palace/datamining.htm] that shows how men with small children are manipulated cruelly:

Meyers

A New Jersey man who was released last week after 15 years in prison for robbing a shoe store was arrested the next day for robbing the exact same store. He learned a valuable lesson. Next time, steal both shoes at the same time.

Conan

In a speech, Pope Francis criticized the Mafia and urged its members to repent. Which is why now every morning the Pope makes his assistant start the Popemobile.

Interesting

H.I.F. From Reddit's "Today I Learned" sub-Reddit: "TIL that German used to be the second most widely spoken language in the US, before it was forcibly repressed during WWI. Many local governments, schools and newspapers would operate in German." And not only

Thursday

I've never read Joseph Conrad. I consider it one of my greatest intellectual shames (and there are many). Theodore Dalrymple recently reminded (as Joseph Epstein and H.L. Mencken often do) that I need to start reading him soon [http://www.city-journal.org/2014/24_1_joseph-conrad.html]

Meyers

Three elephants escaped from a circus in suburban St. Louis on Saturday, and before they were captured they damaged two vehicles, injuring over 50 clowns.

Kimmel

March Madness brackets are like children. Nobody wants to hear about yours.

Fallon

Customs officials in Europe recently seized a shipment of cocaine that was addressed to the Vatican. Which can only mean that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford just received a giant box of communion wafers.

The Cult Hand

H.I.F. Okay, this might be one of the oddest history pieces I've ever read: 10 Strange And Obscure Secret Societies [http://listverse.com/2014/03/16/10-strange-obscue-secret-societies/]. This cult description, though probably not the most interesting, really cracked me up: > The Order Of The Occult

The Cult

Possibly the best literary piece of 2014 so far: 50 best cult books: Albert Camus, Joseph Heller, JD Salinger and Thomas Pynchon are among the authors chosen by our critics for the 50 best cult books [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/10432344/50-best-cult-books.html] . Erudite and pithy.

Pearce and Ukraine

My good friend Joseph Pearce is interviewed about the situation in the Ukraine [http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/the-issue-of-ukraine-and-crimea-is-complex/] . He offers some great insight, and for people like me ("Small is Beautiful"), this disconcerting observation: > Putin is despised by the left because he has spoken out against

Freak

My nephew's business is doing well. I told him I'd pass along this little piece of publicity to TDE readers. If you're involved in high school athletics and you want to organize something that your kid's team will never forget, seriously consider

Sunday

H.I.F. Many of our Founding Fathers were smugglers. Smuggling is a response to an unjust regime. If a regime believes it has the power to deprive a mass of people of things they desire, or to tax them out of reach, it's a sign that the

Intellicast

So I'm sitting around with a group of guys yesterday, watching basketball and commenting on the horrible weather that's coming our way (they, being men, are bummed out because they can't golf; I, being queer, am bummed out because I can't garden)

(Untitled)

The dude seems normal enough, but . . .

BYCU

BYCU I need a drink. It's the first full day of Spring, and I woke up to snow accumulation. Sure, it'll burn off soon enough, but still. Another reason to drink: It's Friday and it's Round One of the NCAA Basketball Tournament

Thursday

Seen at Front Porch Republic [http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2014/02/good-essayist-hard-find/]: "A Good Essayist is Hard to Find: Wiseblood Books is about to publish Dana Gioia's superb The Catholic Writer Today as the first in its series of 'Wiseblood Essays in Contemporary Culture.' Order

GKC Wednesday

"If thy head offend thee, cut it off; for it is better, not merely to enter the Kingdom of Heaven as a child, but to enter it as an imbecile, rather than with your whole intellect to be cast into hell . . .". GKC, Orthodoxy I coincidentally re-read that passage

Fallon

A new poll found that two-thirds of Americans are following the situation in Ukraine, which is impressive. Usually, you can't find two-thirds of Americans who are following the situation in America.

Seeger

“I like to say I'm more conservative than [Barry] Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax. I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other.” Pete Seeger. As

Meyers

A model is suing Playboy after something went wrong with a stunt where someone hit a golf ball off her butt. Even worse, it was a photo shoot for an article about feminism.

Happy Holidays

H.I.F. Guinness, Heineken, and Sam Adams pull their sponsorship of St. Patrick's Day Parades because organizers won't let LGBT groups carry pro-gay signs. Link [http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/03/16/lgbt-groups-plan-protests-for-st-patricks-day-parade/] . So, if you're drinking Sam Adams, Guinness, or Heineken . . . well,

Miserable Monday

Rod Dreher blogs about the pending death of the miserable Fred Phelps [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-miserable-end-of-fred-phelps/] , the man who can probably claim more credit than anyone else for the success of the homosexual cause in the public sphere. > I've always thought the Westboro Baptist Church

Hoosier Land's Shame

Not a single Indiana team made it to the Tournament this year. Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame: shut out. All the other schools that have made Dance appearances in past years (Butler, Indiana State, Evansville, Valparaiso, Ball State, IUPUI): shut out.

Catch-Up Week Continues

Expect more posts about older links this coming week. I didn't get through my backlog last week.

Sunday

A Random Passage Even when the Ivy League had religion it was corrupt: "'Be Christians,' I once heard a president of Yale College cry to his assembled pupils, 'be Christians and you will be successful.'" George Santayana, Character and Opinion in the United States

Meyers

This week Pope Francis is celebrating his first anniversary as Pope, and he tweeted to his 3.7 million followers “Please pray for me.” I was a little surprised that he hashtagged it, “so hung over.”

Interesting

H.I.F. Although I have found his books difficult to understand, I've long been intrigued by Ivan Illich. He strikes me as one of those thinkers who has an insightful and alternative handle on what's occurring in the modern world, even if his ideas occasionally

BYCU

BYCU A TDE reader sent me this story [http://www.thelocal.de/20140305/euro-eurosceptic-afd-csu-germany-meet-for-ash-wednesday-summits-in-bavaria] last week: "On Ash Wednesday every year, German politicians are given a chance to drink a lot of beer in tents and then take to a podium to speak their minds on any subject, or

Meyers

New reports show that the Crimean vote to join Russia on Sunday did not include an option for “no.” There were only two boxes on the ballot, one for “yes,” and one for “murder my family.”

Letterman

They have now made Stallone's "Rocky" into a Broadway musical. It's getting such great early notices that they're already working on another one. I think the second one is "Rambo Get Your Gun."

BYCU Eve

Youtube video goes viral. What does it show? A minor league hockey venue that charges $7 for a large beer and $4 for a regular beer . . . yet the two cups are the same size. Link [http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/11/if-you-already-think-beers-at-sporting-events-are-a-ripoff-just-wait-until-you-watch-this-video/] . Self-righteous puritanism that says, "If

Frustrating

H.I.F. A reader sent this to me last summer: Colleges' Stealth Tax on Family Savings [http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-07-07/colleges-stealth-tax-on-family-savings] . It points out that colleges punish harshly families that save for education. Excerpt (he's comparing two students with identical grades/test scores and

A Poem

From a TDE Reader: "Just recalled this after reading your D.H. Lawrence post - his poem "A Sane Revolution," which was on the inner cover of my older brother's Mott the Hoople album in the '70s." A Sane Revolution If you make

St. GKC?

William Doino Jr. explains why it's possible and desirable [http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/02/chestertons-pursuit-of-holiness] : > Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton, the diocese in which Chestertion lived, recently appointed a priest to investigate Chesterton's holiness, which could lead to the opening of his official

Ecumenically Interesting

H.I.F. A Mormon's American rag reports on the conversion of a Swedish non-denom megachurch pastor to Catholicism [http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/10/non-denominational-megapastor-stuns-congregation-with-personal-theological-revelation/] .

Interesting

H.I.F. "The Jews who fought for Hitler: 'We did not help the Germans. We had a common enemy [the Soviet Union].' But how do Finland's Jews feel today about their uneasy - and little mentioned - alliance with the Nazis?" Link [http:

Frustrating

H.I.F. "The author of An Inconvenient Truth has swelled his net worth to about $100 million, largely due to his investments in green energy, after being worth less than $2 million during his time as Vice President, The Washington Post reports." Leftist Huffington Post (2012) [http:

Welcome to Catch-Up Week

I have a gmail account that receives all sorts of TDE leads from readers, friends, and/or family (if you're interested in this inside email address, it's top secret: ericscheske@gmail.com). I've always kept it "clean," either using items sent to

Rand!

Rush Limbaugh and other establishment Republicans better get started now and declare this guy a nut, dangerous, and un-electable: "Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky resoundingly won the straw poll at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, cementing his status as among the favorites to capture the next

Sunday: A Rant Revisited

My son is taking an "extreme climate" course at U of M. I told him about my last blog post. He told me that the issue of global warming is the subject of "climate science," which isn't the same thing as "weather science.

2 Inches: A Rant

After writing my jeremiad about the shamanism that goes by the name "meteorological science," I deleted the Accuweather app from my phone and resolved never to look at another long-term weather forecast again, except, maybe, the Chicago Weather Center Blog's. I would only rely on weather

Humorous

H.I.F. From Reddit's Today I Learned: TIL Alfred Hitchcock was notoriously hard on actors. He was once quoted as saying, “Actors are cattle”–a quip that stirred up a huge outcry. In response, he issued this correction: “I have been misquoted. What I really said is,

Interesting

H.I.F. Dalrymple on UNICEF's blundering incompetence [http://takimag.com/article/unicefs_chemical_weapon_theodore_dalrymple#axzz2v7WG2l3g] . If you're supporting UNICEF, you should probably stop. This National Catholic Register blog entry spells it out [http://www.ncregister.com/blog/simcha-fisher/should-catholics-support-unicef].

Sheen

If you didn't hear, Fulton Sheen took another step closer to sainthood earlier this week. Another, I suspect, saint, Andrew Apostoli, talks about Sheen here [http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/father-apostoli-on-archbishop-sheen-i-call-him-my-father-in-christ/] .

BYCU

BYCU Burger and beer? $250 (plus the cost of the beer). At this bar in midtown Manhattan. "A Midtown restaurant will sell a $250 hamburger – an umami bomb comprised of Kobe beef, foie gras, crispy pancetta, white truffles and caviar." Link [http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/meet-250-burger-article-1.

For Lent

From the Notebooks

Fascism, Bilderberg, and the Vatican Definition of Fascism: Use of coercion to promote a goal that is neither a good that is self-evident from the natural law nor a good that is supported by an overwhelming majority. It differs from Socialism in this: It does not eliminate private property in

Meyers

A 10-year-old in Ohio has been suspended after pretending his finger was a gun and aiming it at another student. Just wait until school officials find out he was in possession of nine other guns.

Interesting

H.I.F. Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network ran this piece [http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2014/March/The-New-USA-Secession-Movement-Gains-Steam/] today, claiming that secession movements are picking up steam. Drudge linked to it. Now The Daily Bell is talking about it [http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/35082/Secession--Logical-Outgrowth-of-a-Modern-Reformation/

Interesting

H.I.F. I'm glad I wear Brute. I don't think that attracts anything (including girls). Reddit: "TIL Tigers, leopards, and jaguars love Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men. The scent is used to attract animals to cameras in the wilderness."

Ash Wednesday

Lent Welcome to Lent 2014. The time to repent is at hand, and we all have plenty to repent for. Forty days ain't enough time for all the work we have to do, but I'm sure we'll all give it (yet another wholly-adequate) shot.

Meyers

Despite the fact that the Ukraine has been all over the news for the past few weeks, a survey found that 64 percent of U.S. students still couldn't find Ukraine on a map. Said Vladimir Putin, “Soon nobody will.” Despite being on the other side of the

Frustrating

H.I.F. I've spent the last month looking at the long-term forecast on my iPhone apps. They're repeating the same pattern as last year: things look great in 10-15 days! And then as the days shrink, so does the optimism. The default weather app for

Mardi Gras

You Learn Something New Every Day, Episode 17,441: "Le Krewe d'Etat is a satirical New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe with their first organized inaugural parade in 1998." Link [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Krewe_d'Etat]. I looked that up after a TDE

Meyers

"On Monday, Chipotle will begin selling tofu burritos in the New York area. So if you love burritos, and you love tofu . . . you probably don't exist." "On Thursday, the captain of the crashed cruise ship Costa Concordia went back to the wreck for the first

Humorous

H.I.F. Father sues for age discrimination. Gets $80,000 settlement, which contains a confidentiality clause. Classy daughter posts to Facebook: “Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver,” she wrote. “Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT." The court

Coincidence

I ran across this quote right after posting that Dalrymple piece: "Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance." George Bernard Shaw

How Reading Makes You Dumb

Just last night, I was explaining to my son, Jack, the reasons for ignoring the media or, if you wish to stay informed, to read the blogosphere as a counter-balance to the MSM (the blogosphere isn't perfect and it's not an adequate remedy for the MSM&

Monday

Nerds Gone Wild I'm trying to get away from using Mozilla Firefox. For the past few months, it's simply been performing horribly: slow, repeated connection problems. I've started using Google Chrome [https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/], but it's one

Something for Sunday Morning

Trust, surrender, and cheerful love. The three traits emphasized by Mother Teresa.

Meyers

A Florida man tattooed a spider on his face in an attempt to overcome his arachnophobia, which is a fear of spiders. The tattoo should also help him overcome his fear of employment.

Saturday

A Random Passage “Never make people laugh. If you would succeed in life, you must be solemn, solemn as an ass. All the great monuments are built over solemn asses.” Thomas Corwin. Taken from Bill Kauffman, Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American

BYCU

Trapping Money Paradoxically, it is in your own self-interest to forget your self-interest. That, and other great observations, can be found in this story about the business success of Trappist monks. Link [http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/trappist-monks-spirituality-praised-as-key-to-business-success/] . If you're interested in this line of thought for the

BYCU

BYCU A teenager grabs a can of pop from the fridge, throws it in his lunch bag, and runs off to school. He unpacks his lunch and discovers that he accidentally packed a beer. He takes it to a teacher. Fascism ensues: > When he realized his mistake at school,

Seth Meyers

"A new drug called gravel, consisting of meth, bath salts, and crack cocaine, has surfaced in the New York area. Also surfacing in the New York area: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford."

Conan

"A former Target employee is accusing the store of hiring only attractive people as managers. Apparently he's talking about a Target store I have never been to." "In California the owner of a Christian medical marijuana dispensary says God told him to sell pot. The

Humorous

H.I.F. If you needed any further proof that MSM journalism is a joke, here it is: "His first television show has only been on the air for three days, but Ronan Farrow is already winning awards for his journalistic work. Reach the World, a global education group,

Humorous

H.I.F. From Reddit's Today I Learned: "TIL Speedy Gonzales was banned by Cartoon Network for being an offensive stereotype, only to be returned after mass protest by the Hispanic-American community."

Another Teenager

Happy birthday to Meg. She turns 13 today. Trials and tribulations ahead? I doubt it. She's named after Thomas More's beloved daughter.

Thursday

A great passage from The Freeman Book. It's from a review-essay of the Letters of Ambrose Bierce, by Van Wyck Brooks: > San Francisco, his home for a quarter of a century, he describes as “the paradise of ignorance, anarchy and general yellowness. . . . It needs,” he remarks elsewhere,

Interesting

H.I.F. From Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/]: "TIL Despite the heavy public criticism of Pope Benedict's comment that condom distribution isn't helping the fight against AIDS in Africa, the Harvard AIDS prevention director agreed with the pontiff, saying condoms may actually be exacerbating

Interesting

H.I.F. When should you drink coffee or tea? Not the first thing in the morning, according to this blog post [http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/02/why-you-shouldnt-drink-coffee-in-the-morning/] . Your body naturally "self-caffeinates" for the first few hours, so you shouldn't need any caffeine until

Kirk

"In Avila is the stony convent, not at all altered, where Saint Teresa experienced her visions. In the austere vestibule of that convent, the skeptical Kirk felt a presence--so strong a presence that women he knew, later, would run sobbing from the place." Russell Kirk, The Sword of

Conan

According to a new study, women are more attracted to men who talk less. Which is why you often overhear women say, "Check out that mime."

Cracked Me Up

Interesting

H.I.F. Politicians and generals didn't build this country. Why are they the only ones featured on our currency? James Schneider at Econlog wants to know [http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2014/02/who_should_we_r.html]. Dan Bourdreaux at a related website, Cafe Hayek, offers

Interesting

H.I.F. Best news story out of Detroit in 40 years: Three different Detroit homeowners used guns to defend themselves against intruders this week [http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/wayne-county/3-different-homeowners-use-guns-to-defend-themselves-against-intruders-this-week] .

On College Education

Max Beerbohm never completed his undergraduate studies. He dropped out of Oxford before his last year. Why? It was superfluous. At a very young age, he was already a rising man of letters. "He needed a degree," Joseph Epstein once noted, "about as much as the pope

Poustinia

I'm reading Catherine de Hueck's Poustinia. I'm greatly intrigued, but I have many questions. Are they exclusively associated with Madonna House [http://www.madonnahouse.org/tour/poustinia.html]? Did they ever take off like she hoped? Where do you find a Poustinia in the

Sunday

Is it alright to have a futile hope? I do: I hope Latin makes a comeback, at least in the Catholic Church. I'd sell my soul to the devil for a Latin Mass! Okay, I'm exaggerating. I won't even drive an hour once a

Accidental Racism?

Fallon

A new report just came out that some companies, especially tech companies, are not hiring enough female employees. But guys who run tech companies say they'd love to hire more women. Or talk to them. Or meet them. Or even see one up close.

Friday

Not much today. Just a few pics. First, this picture of my late father and my eldest son enjoying a drink on our cottage beach on the shore of Lake Huron 18 years ago. The attentive babysitter is Marie. And then this picture I took on Wednesday while searching for

Beer Fridge

The Canadians apparently have their own beer fridge at the Olympics:

Oh, Tolstoy

I'm something of a literary anecdote junkie. Maybe it's because writers can be so stupid and clever at the same time. Here's a great one that I found in an Epstein essay: "Tolstoy [claimed] 'My diaries are me,'--but in his

Interesting

H.I.F. I think most people would agree that men built this country, mostly through hard work and risk-taking, self-sacrifice and toughness. But as this article points out [http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2014/02/12/manhood-in-america-bit-by-bit-macho-stereotypes-lose-ground/] , the landscape of the traditional man is shifting radically. From metrosexuals to Brokeback Mountain.

GKC

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Interesting

H.I.F. Quite a coincidence to see this the day after I posted about my unconventional investment approach: George Soros is betting on the stock market going down and is putting money into mining stocks [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-17/soros-put-hits-record-billionaires-downside-hedge-rises-154-q4-13-billion] . So an investment genius like George Soros

Ira

Ira Gershwin and his wife and another couple were about to go out to dinner at a fashionable Manhattan restaurant. Gershwin offered to call for a table. He returned to say none was available. “Let me try,” said the other man. He returned to announce that they indeed had a

Monday

Econ Monday Long-time readers may recall that I blogged once a week on economic matters ("Econ Saturday"), in the wake of the 2008 meltdown. I stopped for a couple of reasons: I grew tired of it, my attention floated to other matters (Nockian studies, now Bellocian studies), a

Sunday

A Random Passage Kentucky, Randolph said, with fine aristocratic distaste, was the “Australia of Virginia.” Bill Kauffman, Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism. (Randolph: John Randolph of Roanoke, the subject to Russell Kirk's first book.)

Dickensesque

I found those quotes in Thaddeus Russell's Renegade History. Good stuff: > Many did tell of whippings, sadistic overseers, loved ones being sold away, and of wishing to be free. But we must come to terms with the fact that a majority of ex-slaves who offered an evaluation

Interesting

H.I.F. A Lutheran allies with a Jewish atheist in support of slavery. And they're fighting against some Catholics. I'm siding with the Lutheran-atheist-slaveholder axis. Sure, the Catholics are exaggerating and are guilty of intellectual dishonesty (the axis doesn't support slavery), but even

Historical BYCU

BYCU "When George VI and the queen visited Christ Church on the 400th anniversary of its founding, Trevor-Roper, in a letter to his friend Solly Zuckerman, wrote: 'I signalized Their Majesties visit by extreme intoxication. My hand still trembles, my mind is cloudy, and I am crippled by

On Noah

It's helpful to notice the subtle, but relentless, efforts by the leftist elites, whether it's the pro-gay ESPN or Hollywood or the Beltway or the MSM in general [https://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=31642&cpage=1#comment-228655], to marginalize the Christian element in this country at

Thursday

Funny Quotes On Aldous Huxley: "The stupid person's idea of the clever person." Elisabeth Bowen. ******* Melville on Emerson's gaping flaw: "It was the insinuation that had he lived in those days when the world was made, he might have offered some valuable suggestions.

Nock Notions

Nock and Socrates If you spend any time reading about Albert Jay Nock, you quickly learn two things: (1) He was an intensely private man, perhaps the most private man in the history of the United States, battling with Thoreau and Ted Kaczynski for that top spot. (2) He thought

Expletive

So I come home for lunch and click on Fox Sports 1. It's 12:05. What are they showing? A dog agility competition. Un-freakin' believable. So I reluctantly switch over to gushing-gay ESPN, which shows, you know, sports stuff. SportsCenter is on. Front and center? Michael Sam.

Frustrating

H.I.F. From Oregon State University Twitter phenom Zach Williamson [https://twitter.com/Zilliamson]: "ESPN needs to stop talking about Michael Sam 24/7. It's annoying as hell, hes [sic] a great athlete and he likes to bang men, cool. Move on." Amen to that.

TIL

Some good "Today I Learned" entries at Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/]: "[A]fter Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals in the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin, Adolf Hitler sent Owens a commemorative inscribed cabinet photograph of himself. Honors were not bestowed upon Jesse Owens

Monday

"[I]t is common for it to be thought that the possession of an opinion on a subject, which is active, is deemed more important than having any information on that subject, which is passive." Theodore Dalrymple [http://www.skepticaldoctor.com/importance/]. Great observation, but isn't

Interesting

H.I.F. "Three times more Americans gave up on America in 2013 than in 2012. As The WSJ reports, last year saw a record number of US taxpayer expatriations. While 'exceptionalism' and living the American Dream remain cornerstones of maintaining the US citizenry's view

Sunday Miscellany

Pope Francis is on the cover of the Rolling Stone this week. The MSM still loves him, while comparing BXVI to Freddy Krueger. Jim Davis breaks it down at Get Religion [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2014/02/francis-is-the-right-kind-of-pope-at-least-for-rolling-stone/] . * * * * * * * Marc Barnes makes some startling observations about the creationism v.

Saturday

Miscellany Dare I hope it? The Accuweather 15-day forecast says this terrible cold will stop this coming Wednesday, then temperatures will climb steadily for the following ten days . . . with temps in the upper forties from February 18 through February 22. At that point, we'll be a week from

Conan

"There are 12 new events in this year's Winter Olympics, 12. The new events include women's ski jumping, luge-team relay, and finding a working toilet."

Historical BYCU

According to the LR blog [http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/buckleys-highfalutin-words/], this anecdote comes from a 1931 entry in Mencken's diary: > William Faulkner, the Southern author who has been visiting New York for six or eight weeks past, has gone home at last, leaving a powerful odor

(Untitled)

From the Bottom Line Personal [http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/]: "Caffeine withdrawal is now a mental-health disorder," according to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders." But the urge to engage in sodomy isn't. Fine state of affairs at the APA.

Thaddeus on Howard

I still haven't gotten through Zinn's A People's History of the United States, partly because my attention has been diverted to early medieval history and partly because I bought the iBook version that doesn't work on my Kindle, but I've

Wednesday

My favorite essayist (Jewish or otherwise) asks a good question. In a review essay of a T.S. Eliot biography, Joseph Epstein writes: > But might it be allowed that one can write or say anti-Semitic things without being an anti-Semite? Eliot is guilty of the former, but does not,

Humorous

H.I.F. Drudge killed me with this morning's headline: "Let the Gaymes Begin." It's the link to this article [http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/rights-group-releases-video-of-lgbt-attacks-in-russia/?_php=true&_type=blogs&src=twr&_r=0] about discrimination against gays

Tuesday

Miscellaneous Rambling Professor Charles Rice used to comment during jurisprudence class that a person didn't need long hair and sandals to be a radical. A person just needed to be a good Catholic. I've long sympathized with that observation. It was brought to mind when I

Essay

Frankenstein's Mom was a Liberal It was a freaky night at Lake Geneva in Switzerland: chilly for a summer evening, relentlessly rainy. Then again, most nights were rainy that year. A volcanic eruption the previous year in Tambora, Indonesia, in 1815 had spewed tons of ash into the

Sunday

A Random Passage “The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions – the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge. That's something that should be on a Hallmark card, but it's true nonetheless.

Saturday

Miscellaneous Rambling Four points for a 50-yard field goal? Bad idea and not necessary. The reward for a long field goal is built into the game: you get three points, even though your lame offense didn't advance the ball very far. * * * * * * * I think the NFL will nix it,

Good Late Night

"The forecast for Sunday's Super Bowl has improved in the last week. It's expected to be in the mid-30s with winds of only 6 miles an hour. That's a good temperature for New Jersey. It's above freezing but not so warm

BYCU

BYCU Indiana has a blue [Christmas] law that prohibits alcohol sales on December 25th. An Indiana officer received a tip that an Indiana store had sold alcohol on Christmas, so she started an investigation. They're now spanking all sorts of small stores throughout the Hoosier state [http://www.

Historical BYCU

What is mead? Basically, honey wine. A drink made of water, honey, malt, and yeast. It pre-dates beer and grape wine, and it might be the oldest alcoholic drink known to us, with the exception of the alcohol that early hard-core alkies slurped from the bottom of grain storage bins

Bottom Line

From the Bottom Line Personal [http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/]: Just in case you're in a good mood: "More than 10% of adults in the US don't wash their hands after using the toilet."

GKC

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Frustrating

H.I.F. I walked by the TV a few minutes ago while Tess (8) was watching The Disney Channel. I saw a reference to two moms. I asked her what she was watching ("Good Luck Charlie"). I Googled it and found this: "Gay Couple Featured on

Dictionary from the Eudemon

I ain't Samuel Johnson, but I've occasionally given it a try: Onolatry: The worship of donkeys or asses. “Americans engage in onolatry, as evidenced by its attitude toward movie and rock stars.” Pishachi: A female devil or ghost, especially one that dislikes travelers and pregnant women.

Interesting

H.I.F. I received this quote in an email this morning. I haven't verified its authenticity yet, but it's apparently from C.S. Lewis. The quote rings a bell with me, so I'm guessing it's CSL in one of his rarer

Zmirak and Belloc

Miscellaneous Rambling Great passage from one of Zmirak's Bad Catholic's Guide: His imaginary interlocutor: "Are you saying that Plato and Aristotle, Roman law and aqueducts, were an essential part of God's plan?" Zmirak: "Every bit I am tempted to say, as

Monday

Bullets My Michigan Wolverines are doing well, despite losing their (arguably) best player a few weeks ago for the season. They knocked off a hobbled MSU team Saturday night, at East Lansing. They've beaten three teams in the past two weeks that were ranked in the Top 10

Received in the Mail

A TDE reader wrote to me on Friday, saying he had just received this magazine in the mail:

Interesting

H.I.F. Free condoms redux: "Free Crack Pipes Urged To Slow Spread Of HIV In SF, Leaders Balk At Idea." Pop-Up Ad-Laden Link [http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/01/24/sf-officials-exploring-free-crack-pipes-as-means-to-slow-spread-of-aids/] .

Best Scholarly Discovery of 2013

> "Flow" has been called an "optimal experience." It's a state of "effortless concentration so deep that [the persons in the flow] lose their sense of time, of themselves, of their problems." > There are two forms of mental effort: "concentration

Interesting

H.I.F. A Different Kind Of Catholicism Grows In Latino Communities: Charismatic [http://capeandislands.org/post/different-kind-catholicism-grows-latino-communities] I remember reading ten years ago that second-generation Mexican immigrants to the United States leave the Church at an alarming rate. Something like 85%. If I recall correctly, the theory is that

BYCU

Every day is lame day: 365+ times a year, one or more special interest or industry groups has grabbed a day and labeled it. Yesterday, for instance, was apparently "measure your feet day." I'm guessing it was put together by a podiatrist or shoe manufacturer association.

Hoppin' Gardening

The growth of the beer industry is fueling a need for hops, but the agricultural industry has been slow to respond. The reasons? Large start-up costs and ignorance about hops' unique needs [http://www.jsonline.com/business/hops-farming-grows-slowly-despite-brewers-demand-b99182903z1-240387301.html] : > It costs about $10,000 to buy rootstock and

I Found It!

While touring all those great churches in Rome, I kept recalling this passage from my reading, but I couldn't for the life of me remember where I'd seen it. Here's the passage. I found it in Joseph Epstein's In a Cardboard Belt!

Humorous

H.I.F. An assortment of George Carlin quotes at Lew Rockwell today [http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/01/no_author/george-carlin-said-it/]. “Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things.” “Electricity is just organized lightning.” “I think people should be allowed to do

Five Great Quotes About Money

“There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.” Robert Graves “The only reason a great many American families don't own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments.

Humorous

H.I.F. Received in an Email I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr Phil proclaimed, "

Zmirak

If you still haven't bought at least one of John Zmirak's Bad Catholic's Guides, you're missing out. The guy is brilliant, erudite, and funny. He deserves an audience as large as Chesterton enjoyed. Who else is crafting passages with this much theological

Psychology and the City

Daniel Robinson's An Intellectual History of Psychology is more than that. It's psychology and history, but also sociology, culture, philosophy, Patristics, and other things. A great example from Chapter 6, "Nature and Spirit of the Renaissance." Pico, Savonarola, da Vinci . . . then ending with a

Recent Zmirak

John Zmirak rings the alarm bell over at Alateia (my apologies that I'm three weeks behind the curve on this one): "In fact, there is something very serious going on in Catholic intellectual and educational circles, which – if it goes on unchecked – will threaten the pro-life cause,

Funny

H.I.F. San Francisco will stop service on its historic cable cars and streetcars lines at 2 pm (PST) Sunday to protect them from overzealous football fans vandals and other troublemakers who might get a bit too rowdy after the Niners win - or lose - in Seattle. Link

Funny

H.I.F. This would be a tragedy, if it were beer: "Bottles of Bud Light littered Interstate 71/75 South for most of the day Monday after a tractor-trailer hauling beer overturned on the Brent Spence Bridge at about 4 a.m. 'There's Bud Light

BYCU Historical Edition

Died of a Hangover? Among my store of historical esoterica that I use to entertain and disgust friends and families with my erudition and hauteur: Alexander the Great died of a hangover. It is one of those things that has long amused me. And, occasionally, it's been one

Interesting

H.I.F. It also helps with hangovers: "[R]esearchers at the Johns Hopkins University have found another use for [caffeine]: memory enhancer." Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/01/no_author/jolt-your-memory/].

Some Amis

Kingsley offers some advice for drinking abroad. A few of these items, I'm guessing, would apply locally as well: > Faced with a choice between bad or untrustworthy red wine on the one hand, and ditto white on the other, pick the red. > Smell the stuff carefully

Best Passage from the Last Month's Reading

If you haven't checked out Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, you seriously ought to consider it, if you're curious to know more about your mental world and those of others' (just $2.99 on Kindle). It's a great book that

Gilson, Ockham, and Psychology

One of the favorite book reviews I ever wrote was for Touchstone, writing about Etienne Gilson's The Unity of Philosophical Experience (which Ignatius Press had recently re-issued). Link [http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=13-09-035-b]. I was reminded of that review (and that excellent book, possibly

Interesting

H.I.F. Emphasis added: "America's youth are leaving churches in droves. One in four young adults choose “unaffiliated” when asked about their religion, according to a 2012 Public Religion Research Institute poll, and 55 percent of those unaffiliated youth once had a religious identification when they

NEA

"Anecdotes of NEA grantee superciliousness are as numerous as grains of sand in the seashore. For our purposes, one will suffice: when George Plimpton paid Aram Saroyan $1,500 for a poem consisting of the single misspelled word 'lighght,' an Iowa congressional aid dared ask the dilettantish

Some Belloc

"It is always in the nature of great wealth to be insanely tempted (though it should know from active experience how little wealth can give), to push on to more and more domination over the bodies of men–and it can do so best by attacking fixed social restraints.

A Little Mencken

Mencken was such an intellectual snob, I find him hard to read sometimes, but his broadsides scatter way too much truth to be ignored: > The average man does not get pleasure out of an idea because he thinks it is true; he thinks it is true because he gets

Saturday

Miscellaneous Rambling I've probably listened to about 50 episodes of The Journey Home, with Marcus Grodi. EWTN puts them into podcast format. They're perfect listening for low-mental tasks like gardening. It dawned on me a little while ago that not a single convert to Catholicism has

Fallon

A new study found that babies as young as nine months can tell the difference between friends and enemies. Which raises a lot of questions, like: What kind of babies have enemies?

Friday

BYCU "How your favorite drink speaks volumes about your personal politics: The chart that measures voters in terms of vodka, whiskey and wine." Link [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2532467/How-favorite-drink-speaks-volumes-personal-politics.html] . Great article. Trouble is, "findings concluded that Democrats tend to go for clear liquors,

Kimmel

It was Kim Jong Un's best birthday ever. There was a basketball game and his wife got him the new "Torture Me Elmo."

Conan

In Hong Kong, the man considered to be the father of the Kung Fu movies has passed away. His last words came after his lips had already stopped moving.

Interesting

H.I.F. I frequent the Lew Rockwell site because it consistently has interesting takes on various matters, whether it's current events, economics, diet, or pretty much anything else. Today, it has an interesting take on Dennis Rodman. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/01/robert-wenzel/go-dennis-go/]. Excerpt:

GKC

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Interesting

H.I.F. I believe this. I'm guessing it's related to a neurological property known as "plasticity" (explored in The Shallows): > "Great novels can change your life...and your brain: Getting lost in a good book can actually change your brain, with

Fallon

"The postal service is now saying that they are raising the price of a stamp from 46 cents to 49 cents. They would have made it an even 50 but that would have made the line at the post office go too fast."

The Writer's Duty

The writer's duty to himself: Write what you want to write, as well as you can, and then forget it." Albert Jay Nock. Amen to that. Of course, it might be hard to make money off your writing with that approach, but then again, if you'

Interesting

H.I.F. Six castles that cost less than an apartment in New York Cities. [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-07/6-castles-cost-less-apartment-nyc]. With great pics and some pretty funny commentary.

Another American History Correction

Another fascinating excerpt from Thaddeus Russell's Renegade History of the United States. When I read stuff like this, I wonder if any history, much less American history, taught in our schools is truthful: > Perhaps the most famous image of the civil rights movement was created in May

-17

Supposedly, the coldest in the entire Grand Rapids, Michigan, area (we live 90 minutes from GR) and colder than any place in Alaska last night. It doesn't match 1978 yet, but as an adult, I've never experienced anything like this.

Movie Review

I took my three older boys to see Anchorman 2 last week. It was pretty bad. There were a few laugh-out-loud moments, and a large chunk of it was enjoyable enough, so I don't feel like I completely wasted two hours of my life and $30. But man,

Interesting

H.I.F. Minus 9, minus 44 windchill, in my town right now. I walked three blocks this morning, occasionally through hip-high snow drifts, and thought I might die. > The Midwest is being hit with the brunt of the cold, with temperatures plunging to 36 below zero -- the

Duffy

I've become immersed in history the past couple of months. As a youngster, I read a lot of history, and I made it my major in college. I never stopped reading history as an adult, but it often took a backseat to other non-fiction reading. A few years

Hunkered Down

No school tomorrow. I have no idea whether I'll be able to get to work. Just relaxing with Marie and the Seven. > The temperature predictions are startling: 25 below zero in Fargo, N.D., minus 31 in International Falls, Minn., and 15 below in Indianapolis and Chicago.

(Untitled)

For the home front: Nifty tips for around the house [http://www.viralnova.com/awesome-life-hacks/].

Happy Epiphany

We give our kids their last Christmas presents today. From Christmas through yesterday, we give them one small present every day. Most of the presents are things we got free or for a dollar or at a garage sale. But today, they get a "legitimate" gift, something kind

Interesting

H.I.F. Great slice of Catholic history: the true causes of the potato famine [http://cafehayek.com/2013/12/malarkey.html]. > [A]fter defeating James II in 1690, protestants subjected Irish Catholics to harsh restrictions on land ownership and leasing. Most of Ireland's people were thus

From the Bottom Line

From the Bottom Line Personal [http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/]: " "Suicide rates are highest in spring and summer, not during the winter holidays." Related: "Suicide is now the cause of more deaths than car accidents."

Interesting

H.I.F. Not sure how I missed this news item from last October: Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex? [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex?CMP=twt_gu] The article is about, well, young people in Japan who have turned asexual. "A

January 1st

Happy New Year. It's a holiday, so I won't be blogging. Expect regular blogging to resume after the Epiphany. In the meantime, enjoy your families.

Humorous

H.I.F. A few fun facts from the, um, "Interesting Facts" Twitter account [https://twitter.com/WhatTheFFacts]: At Andrew Jackson'Â’s funeral in 1845, his pet parrot had to be removed because it was swearing. 70% of murders in Detroit go unsolved. In 2012, the

BYCU Special Edition

It's New Years Eve, the beginning of the official end of the secular holiday season. For serious Catholics and traditional Protestants, the holiday season continues through Epiphany, but for the other 99% of the population, the holidays start to end tonight. And the 99% typically do a pretty

Frustrating

H.I.F. All lies, all the time: “The ACA was not designed to reduce costs or, the law's name notwithstanding, to make health insurance coverage affordable for the vast majority of Americans,” says health care consultant Kip Piper, a former government and insurance industry official. “The law

From the Bottom Line

From Bottom Line Personal [http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/]: Just in time for New Years resolutions: "Goals Are for Losers and Other Success Secrets from "Dilbert's" Creator Scott Adams." Link [http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/content/article/self-improvement/goals-are-for-losers] .

Interesting

H.I.F. Retail sales of alcohol are up 10% over the past year. Link [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-22/how-americans-are-celebrating-recovery] . That's a pretty phenomenal number.

The Wolf

Did you go see The Wolf of Wall Street? I thought about going to it, but after reading this open letter [http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/12/wolf_of_wall_street_prousalis.php?page=2] from the daughter of one of the protagonist's partners in crime, I

Interesting but Old News

H.I.F. I remember reading (5? 10?) years ago that 10% of Americans are ex-Catholics, so this is no surprise: "According to recent demographic surveys, it seems there are presently 30 million people in the U.S. who identify themselves as 'former Catholics.'" Link [http:

Interesting

H.I.F. "The halo effect discussed earlier contributes to coherence, because it inclines us to match our view of all the qualities of a person to our judgment of one attribute that is particularly significant. If we think a baseball pitcher is handsome and athletic, for example, we

The Hobbit

Let me be as blunt yet precise about this as possible: If you are a Tolkien fan, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug sucks. I am not making an unqualified statement about the cinematic merit of the film. I am simply speaking as a long-time Tolkien fan. I bristled at

Friday

BYCU The headline from this article [http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/12/no_author/reject-teetolitarianism/] appears to be the misleading: "Regular but moderate consumption of alcohol makes you healthier and happier than total abstinence." I'm happy to see such a study, of course, but the headline

Interesting

H.I.F. 7 Foods and Herbs to Fight the Common Cold: Vitamin C, Kiwi, Apple Cider Vinegar, Ginger, Echinacea, Oregano Oil, Zinc. Link [http://naturalsociety.com/7-foods-herbs-fight-common-cold/]. It's hard to say, but I think I've had success with zinc and echinacea.

Merry Christmas

A Christmas Carol by G.K. Chesterton The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap, His hair was like a light. (O weary, weary were the world, But here is all aright.) The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast, His hair was like a star. (O stern and cunning

Something for Christmas Eve Morning

"We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice." Pope Paul VI “There were only two classes of men who heard the cry that night: Shepherds and Wise

Mencken Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Professor Charles Rice used to comment during jurisprudence class that a person didn't need long hair and sandals to be a radical. A person just needed to be a good Catholic. I've long sympathized with that observation. It was brought to mind when I

GKC Short

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Saturday

A Random Passage Kind of interesting: "The anarchist sensibility made its first appearance amongst the Taoists of ancient China." Peter Marshall, Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. I've spent a fair amount of time studying the other major religions, especially those of the Far East:

Interesting

H.I.F. I'm feeling pretty good about my assessment of Pope Francis' Exhortation. Here's what I wrote earlier this month after Rush Limbaugh said the Exhortation was "Marxism": > I'm pretty sure Rush is way off base to call him

Friday

BYCU Sean Dailey took over my role as editor at Gilbert Magazine about ten years ago. I got to know him a bit during the transition and during a GKC conference. He's a good guy, passionate for the faith, for GKC, for fantasy football . . . and for drinking. The

Interesting

H.I.F. "George Zimmerman, who reportedly is $2.5 million in debt, primarily because of legal fees, has turned to painting for catharsis and now financial gain. His first painting is being auctioned off on eBay and in just a few days the price went from 99 cents

It Starts at the Top

A Random Passage Hence, the Kardashians and rap music? "The dominant language and culture in a society tend to reflect the values and ideas of those in power." Peter Marshall, Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism.

Nock

A Random Passage Passages from my reading that I would hope most TDE readers find at least mildly interesting One of my favorite Nock observations: “The idea that [literacy] is an absolute good is one of the oddest and most indefensible superstitions rampant in our superstition-ridden society. To prove this,

Jumping Ship

Kontent from the Kindle "For in America throughout the twentieth century, and including four substantial wars abroad, conservatives had been steadfastly the voices of non-inflationary military budgets, and of an emphasis on trade in the world instead of American nationalism. In the two World Wars, in Korea, and in

Interesting and Frustrating

H.I.F. More Panem: "D.C. residents are enjoying a personal income boom. The District's total personal income in 2012 was $47.28 billion, or $74,733 for each of its 632,323 residents, according to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer's Economic

One of My Favorite Commercials

Comes to mind every time I meet someone named "Brad":

Sweet Daddy Grace

Last week, I blogged about Detroit's Prophet Jones from the 1950s. In the same decade, New Yorkers had their black flashy sensation: Sweet Daddy Grace. Also from Thaddeus Russell's Renegade History of the United States: > Grace rode in a custom-built Cadillac limousine, and he bought

Interesting

H.I.F. Thomas Woods asks some hard questions and makes some awkward points about the Holy Father's pontificate to date. Sample: "We are told Pope Francis is bold, but his alleged boldness consists of doing and saying things that please the world. This is not how

Interesting

H.I.F. Do just one thing, do it well, and stick with it. It'll pay off (subject to government misappropriation): Meet The Restaurant With The Five-Year Waiting List [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-14/meet-restaurant-five-year-waiting-list] . Excerpt: > [W]hat makes Baehrel's restaurant the most exclusive

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Panem. The Hunger Games. Chortle. Stupid sci-fi stuff. Nothing like that massive expropriation of wealth from the hinterlands to the central government could happen here! From the Atlantic: America's Wealth Is Staggeringly Concentrated in the Northeast Corridor [http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2013/12/staggering-concentrated-wealth-americas-northeast-corridor/7872/

Finals

Alex and Abbie were studying for finals together at the UM grad library. Around midnight, Abbie needed a break, and she didn't care where she took it. Good for Abs! When I'm tired, I lie down and I don't care who knows it. And

BYCU

BYCU One of the most-interesting beer pieces this year: A Shady Black Market Has Emerged For Hard-To-Find Craft Beers [http://www.businessinsider.com/craft-beer-black-market-2013-12]. The gist? A combination of shipping costs and oppressive alcohol restrictions make high-quality beer unavailable, so people are buying prized beer through black-market channels, like eBay.

The Preacher

It's not too often I run across a character that (i) is this colorful, (ii) is from Michigan, and (iii) I'd never even heard of. The following might be the most interesting passage about 20th century history that I've read in a few years.

Fallon

New documents leaked by Edward Snowden show that the NSA actually spied on people while they played the video game World of Warcraft. I don't know – to me it sounds like some NSA agents had to think quick when they got caught playing World of Warcraft at work.

Leno

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are among Barbara Walters' "10 most fascinating people of 2013." In a related story, Barbara has been named one of the "10 most easily fascinated people of 2013."

Reminder

Your patronage of TDE by accessing Amazon through its link (upper-right corner) is appreciated.

Humorous

H.I.F. Oh man. Expect a hilarious Saturday Night Live skit out of this one: Outcry over Mandela service interpreter. DeafSA says man used 'meaningless' hand signals [http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/Outcry-over-Mandela-service-interpreter/-/1719418/23428962/-/neb4vpz/-/index.html?treets=det&tid=26511878194813&

Idiosyncratic Post

My boys are really into the Rocky movies. This is probably my favorite non-action scene:

Interesting

H.I.F. I haven't had a chance to review this matter in full yet, but I find this more frightening than encouraging: Pope Francis named Time Person of the Year [http://www.wtae.com/news/entertainment/Pope-Francis-named-Time-Person-of-the-Year/-/9680792/23428330/-/12qpsevz/-/index.html] .

G.K. Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Interesting

H.I.F. Why I stopped shopping years ago: "Harassed boyfriend jumped to his death after his girlfriend insisted on going into another clothes shop. Tao Hsiao was shopping with his girlfriend in Jiangsu province, east China. After five hours Tao finally had enough and demanded to go home.

Belloc

I re-read Belloc's Europe and the Faith while I was in Rome last month. It's a pretty stunning work, especially when you realize that he (an amateur historian) dug up his Roman history from primary sources, after deciding that he'd had enough of the

Monday

I made two technological purchases this month: an Acer 710 Chrome Book for $199 and a Roku for $40. My jury is still out on the Chrome Book, but the Roku rocks. The Roku is a small device that plugs into your TV that allows you to stream "channels&

Found Today

My family's main Christmas album: Harry Simeone Chorale: The Little Drummer Boy (1958). I bought it at iTunes. My favorite track: The Little Drummer Boy [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NS5KKS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001NS5KKS&

(Untitled)

I thought I'd try to log onto the health care exchanges early Sunday morning, thinking maybe, just maybe, a lower-volume usage time would increase the chance that I could log on. No such luck. The system is down yet again. It's absolutely unbelievable. This stroke of

Best Article from My Saturday Morning Surfing

Meet the brains behind the three-week-old quiz app that has already grown to 3.5million users QuizUp was modeled after TrivialPursuit It is currently at the top of the Apple App Store's games category The app's creator believes its success comes from simplicity and familiarity. Link

Friday

BYCU I guess this new kind of beer is becoming all the rage: "On Dec. 3, Maumee Bay Brewing Company will release its first group of bourbon barrel-aged beers, which includes three versions of its popular Total Eclipse Breakfast Stout." Link [http://www.toledofreepress.com/2013/11/27/

Humorous

H.I.F. Political Correctness Gone Bad: Indiana University Removes Controversial "Black Santa" Display . . . In addition to its main query, the display also asked students to ponder the following: "If Santa is a black man, would you let him come down your chimney?" and "If

Humorous

H.I.F. "If you're so drunk that you think everything you find interesting is also interesting to us, you need to go up to your room and sleep it off." That and other nifty drinking tips can be found here [http://takimag.com/article/12_

Miscellaneous Matter

Mencken and the Morons H.L. Mencken and George Nathan (a lifelong playboy who converted to Catholicism on his deathbed) bought the failing Smart Set in late 1914 (and immediately put this slogan on the cover: "One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads"). By mid-1915, they were

GKC

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Interesting (or Frustrating, if You're an SEC Guy)

H.I.F. I'm home sick with the flu, good for nothing more than watching TV and contemplating my next porcelain trip, so I'm watching a lot of sports for a Tuesday morning. Fox Sports Live broke down a couple of Vegas facts that are pretty

Good George Gissing

Kontent from the Kindle "More than half a century of existence has taught me that most of the wrong and folly which darken earth is due to those who cannot possess their souls in quiet; that most of the good which saves mankind from destruction comes of life that

The Joy of the Gospel. First Take

Based on a quick review of Pope Francis' The Joy of the Gospel, it appears that Rush has a cause for concern. Consider, for instance, this passage: > In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will

Interesting

H.I.F. Rush Limbaugh was in love with Pope Francis last March. I guess the love affair is over: "According to Mr Limbaugh, the Holy Father's recent document, Evangelii Gaudium, is 'pure Marxism.'" Link [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/publiccatholic/2013/11/rush-limbaugh-pope-francis-and-frogs/

Nockian Corner

Nock Notions Is there such a thing as a beautiful thrashing? I wouldn't have thought so, but Nock does it repeatedly in Memoirs of a Superfluous Man. All sorts of things about American culture irritate him, but he criticizes them with superb prose, erudition, and a measure of

Sunday

Whew, whirlwind Thanksgiving weekend: Black Wednesday drinking, followed by Thanksgiving hangover, then Thanksgiving travel to Detroit to visit with lots of in-laws that I see, at most, once a year, then Friday morning holiday parade in Grosse Pointe, then more in-laws, then Saturday morning basketball drills with boys and nephew,

Saturday

The Mouse Hunter: Video worth the sixty seconds it'll take to watch it [https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10151823097153841].

Friday

My gluten intolerance has pretty much killed my beer-drinking ability, so I've had to switch to vodka and gin (and will shortly foray into rum, in honor of GKC's The Flying Inn). It looks like I'm catching the new wave: > Thanks to the

Kimmel

It's a big night tonight, the finale of "Dancing with the Stars." I don't know if you've been following the show, but the comedian was eliminated. Bill had the grace and easy elegance of a squirrel getting electrocuted. On Juan-uary 5, a

Thanksgiving 2010

Here's my Thanksgiving Day post from 2010. I've been accident- and ticket-free for three years now, so my premiums will go back down. For that, I'm thankful. Of course, I now have four young drivers on my policy as well, so I'm

Special Edition: BYCU

Number One? Every year on this day I ask the question: Is Thanksgiving Eve, indeed, the biggest drinking day of the year? I've long maintained it is, but I've never found conclusive, or even highly probative, proof, so I set out again last weekend to find

Frustrating

H.I.F. After all his antics, this is what put him beyond the pale? "NBC cancels Alec Baldwin's show 'Up Late' following actor's homophobic outbursts." Link [http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/11/26/nbc-cancels-alec-baldwin-show-up-late-following-actor-homophobic-outbursts/] .

Some Ambrose

No, not that one [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose]. Bierce . . . I found this great quote while reading The Freeman Book (a collection of articles and essays from Nock's famous journal in the 1920s): “The poor wish only to be rich, which is impossible, not to be better.

Interesting

H.I.F. I'd heard of Kreeft's book, Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialogue Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis & Aldous Huxley (1982; 2nd ed., 2008), but I didn't realize that JFK, C.S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley all

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I volunteer occasionally to ring bells for Salvation Army, but this past weekend, someone told me that Salvation Army donates to Planned Parenthood. I went online and found articles that discuss Salvation Army International's support of limited abortion rights, but also articles that say Salvation Army

Humorous

H.I.F. I was thinking about the line from the movie Ed Wood (bad movie), when Bela Lugosi says, "Boris Karloff wasn't fit to smell my ****." I Googled it, and this interview [http://34st.com/2010/12/interview-bela-lugosi/] came up. Kinda funny: > This is

Humorous and Frustrating

H.I.F. "Meet Jessica Sanford. Upon the rollout of Obamacare she was 1 of maybe 5 people in the entire nation who was able to access the website and actually sign up through one of the state exchanges. In her case, it was the Washington exchange. She was

Friday

BYCU One of the better overviews I've read about why the liquor laws in these United States are such a mess [http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/liquor-in-ohio-is-a-bureaucratic-human-centipede/Content?oid=3702912] . From intro: After Prohibition, the federal government created the three-tier system of alcohol distribution to minimize collusion, prevent

Frustrating in a Humorous Way

H.I.F. Why I Stopped Caring About Racism, Episode Number 198,422: > Did you know that eating or even talking about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could be considered racist? > That's right. > Apparently, it's because people in some cultures don'

Frustrating

H.I.F. Coming to a childcare center near you: Mom fined $10 by daycare for packing 'unhealthy' lunch [http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/mom-fined--10-by-daycare-for-packing-%E2%80%98unhealthy%E2%80%99-lunch-224131736.html] . Excerpt: "Kristin was fined $10, $5 per child, for missing grains in their lunch

Quotable

Funny Quotes Max Beerbohm's older brother, Herbert, was a funny guy. Once, when a man walked past him groaning under a grandfather clock he was carting on his back, Herbert said, "My good fellow, why not carry a watch?" (Joseph Epstein, Partial Payments ). ******* Waugh, a stickler

Conan

Obama is wrestling with the healthcare rollout debacle. He urged Americans not to be put off by the Obamacare website and offered alternative ways to enroll, such as using the mail. Then the president got on his horse and rode off to spread the news to the next town. The

Humorous (actually, Hilarious)

H.I.F. Sebelius orchestrates media event, visits a healthcare navigator location. The healthcare site crashes while she's there [http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/11/19/hhs-secretary-sebelius-visits-south-florida-to-meet-with-healthcare-navigators/] . Excerpt: "At a second table, the secretary met Carmen Salero who was trying to sign up online. As the secretary

Interesting

H.I.F. Interesting perspective (via Lew Rockwell [http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/11/paul-rosenberg/the-catholic-church-abolished-roman-slavery/] ) about slavery, Catholicism, and capitalism. Excerpt: "If you eliminate profit ”“ innovative, rewarding commerce ”“ you get slavery. The form of that slavery may vary from one case to another, but it will be slavery

GKC Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Our Parish; Our Girl

H.I.F. During 2012, my parish raised money to build a community center for a poor village in the Philippines. It doubles as a typhoon shelter. It paid big dividends last week. From USA Today [http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/11/18/philippines-typhoon/3626117/] : "Michigan

Not Alone?

"Men's activities are occupied in two ways--in grappling with external circumstances, and in striving to set things at one in their own topsy-turvy mind." William James. Really? James captures my existence with those words, but I honestly kind of thought I was alone. Almost everyone grapples

Kids with F1

I told Alex and Abbie that we saw Pope Francis twice while in Rome. They didn't want to be outdone, so they sent me this picture they took with him. (It's a cardboard cut-out of the Holy Father at their Ann Arbor church. Even though my

Rome Monday

A Week in Rome Marie and I went to Rome for our twentieth wedding anniversary. I like to say that because our oldest son is 20, so it raises eyebrows. Marie and I have actually been married 22 years, but we just never got around to doing anything special for

Interesting

H.I.F. It's hard to imagine a strip club owner doing such a classless thing. You typically expect higher standards: "A wealthy Detroit man reportedly purchased the home directly next to his ex-wife and erected a giant middle finger just to spite her. The wild story

Saturday

Miscellaneous Rambling My first "real" post since returning from Rome. I plan on giving a complete account of my time in Rome on Monday. * * * * * * * Theodore Dalrymple's latest at Taki's Magazine [http://takimag.com/article/i_have_seen_the_future_and_it_is_idiocy_theodore_

Funny Kimmel

A dog named Rupee has become the first dog to climb Mount Everest. His owner really threw the heck out of a Frisbee, and up he went. I'd be pretty mad if somebody told me we're going for a walk and then took me on a

BYCU, of Sorts

Nock Notions Chesterton and Nock were contemporaries. Chesterton was just four years younger (GKC: 1874-1936; Nock: 1870-1945). A strong Chestertonian streak runs through Nock. I think it'd be a stretch to say they shared the same views, but they shared a similar attitude. I will be looking for

Rome

On the road to St. Peter's Basilica. (And no, I didn't wear the same shirt the entire seven days I was there. I'm not sure why the pictures I've posted look like I was.)

GKC

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

On top of St. Peter's

Bastiat

Kontent from the Kindle A few gems from Bastiat's The Law: > The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense. It is the substitution of a common force for individual forces. And this common force is to do only what the individual forces have

Funny Fallon

A lot of couples are planning on getting married tomorrow because the date will be 11/12/13. Couples say they like 11/12/13 because it's a unique date that will never happen again. In a related story, that's literally how EVERY date works. Of

Charity and Skepticism

Kontent from the Kindle "True freedom comes only to a lucid mind unbound by conventional wisdom and suspicious of received opinions." That's Joseph Epstein, writing about Santayana in Essays in Biography. It's a great aphorism. It reminds of GKC's observation that only

I literally cross the Tiber

I'm on a trip to Rome right now. Details to follow in a few days.

Humorous

H.I.F. A few "[Crappy] Today I Learned from Reddit: When people say "break a leg" they're not actually telling you to break a leg. If you smoke enough weed, dynamiting a beached whale seems like a good idea. "Baby carrots" are

De Lubac and Nietzsche

"God is dead." Anyone who graduated eighth grade has heard that famous Nietzsche pronouncement. It makes Christians cringe, but Nietzsche meant nothing by it. He was merely pronouncing what the rest of Western civilization had impliedly concluded. He needed to slam shut the book on Christianity so he

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Never Knew That Writing about Mencken's column, "The Free Lance" in The Baltimore Sun (1911), Terry Teachout says "Mencken appears to have been one of the first modern American newspapermen to write a signed editorial-page column in which he commented regularly on major issues of

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An Ass Theodore Dreiser's The Genius (1915) was "a self-serving obviously autobiographical novel about an artist whose wife failed to understand his need to copulate at will with other women." Terry Teachout, The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken (Harper Collins, 2002), p. 128.

Interesting, BYCU Version

H.I.F. For all you beer nerds out there: "Beer Studies: BJCP Classic Example Scoresheets with Audio [http://www.bjcp.org/course/ClassicStyles.php]." Pretty extensive effort.

Friday

Kingsley Amis: "Charles Jackson's marvellous and horrifying The Lost Weekend, still the best fictional account of alcoholism I have read." I'm going to have to get that book. First, it deals with booze. Second, it's endorsed by a man of literary quality

Interesting

H.I.F. A few more from Reddit's Today I Learned [http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/]: A black woman in 1828 won a lawsuit against a white man who sold her son into slavery. She was the first black woman to win a lawsuit against a white

Conan

Marvel Comics is introducing its first major superhero who is a female Muslim. The female Muslim superhero can fly, which comes in handy because she's not allowed to drive.

History of Rome

While preparing for a trip to Rome, I downloaded Rick Steves' Rome 2014 guide. In his (intentionally) comically short history of the Eternal City, he wrote the following: > Ancient Rome lasted a thousand years (500 B.C.-A.D. 500), half as an expanding republic, half as a

GKC

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Interesting

H.I.F. A few "Today I Learned [http://en.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/]" entries from Reddit: The McRib is only "back" whenever pork prices are lowest. Link [http://www.theawl.com/2011/11/a-conspiracy-of-hogs-the-mcrib-as-arbitrage]. A trivia book author included a fake entry that said '

Conan

British scientists are saying King Tut died in a chariot accident. I think he was texting.

Why a Writer Should Write

Great passage from a 1999 interview with Joseph Epstein [http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/interviews/ba990630.htm]. I've emphasized the last sentence because (i) it parallels the Samuel Johnson quote that has graced the top of the TDE page for nearly ten years, and (ii) it&

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Best link of my weekend reading: The Ten Commandments of Government [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-02/10-commandments-government]. They're all relevant and accurate, but I think I liked the Tenth Commandment the best: "As government grows ever more powerful, it must also become increasingly oppressive

Interesting

H.I.F. Time to whip out that Eddie Murphy routine about shooting the Pope (PG-13 content) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuHNq07Cwms] then going to Hell: "It came out this week that the NSA spied on the headquarters of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and United

Interesting

H.I.F. I learned about Google Scholar [http://scholar.google.com/] last week. It "provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online

Interesting

H.I.F. I read a ton of Brownson while writing my biographical essay about him. Brownson's apologetics are like nothing you've ever read: opaque and thick, drawing upon the philosophy of Pierre Leroux, relentlessly and painstakingly logical, almost as though he were merely following the

Humorous

H.I.F. "A new study found that 30 percent of Americans admit to getting most of their news on Facebook. You can tell news anchors are trying to compete with Facebook because tonight Brian Williams' top story was just a picture of his cat." Fallon

Friday

Drinking Quotes Kingsley Amis explains why moderns drink: "While the village remained the social unit, strangers appeared seldom, and when they did were heavily outnumbered by your family, your friends, people you had known all your life. Nowadays, in the era of the business lunch, the dinner party, the

Franz II

If you want to see a Catholic historian implement some of Franz Oppenheimer's findings (purposefully, I don't know), check out Christopher Dawson's essay, "Warrior Peoples and the Decline of Archaic Civilization" (found in Dynamics of World History), in which he points out

Humorous

H.I.F. More late night The Jonas Brothers have broken up. The music industry is in mourning. It's kind of like when the Beatles announced they were breaking up – minus the part where people gave a crap. Ferguson The Red Sox are up 3-2 in the World

The Man

Uncommon Valor Heroes are made every day: "Six adults and two young children were inside watching television when the room began filling with smoke. After the children were rescued and everyone made it outside safely, Walter Serpit told WVTM television that he went back inside to retrieve his beer.

Halloween Thing

St. James Sag I often put books for the season in our family room. During December, there are books about Advent and Christmas. During Lent, books about the Passion. This year, I put out a book about ghosts. The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits by Rosemary Ellen Guiley No one

Humorous

H.I.F. Good late night According to a new report, more than 700 fake Obamacare websites have been created. Security experts say it's simple to identify the phony sites because they are easy to log on to. Leno Kanye West went to a baseball stadium in San

Humorous and Frustrating

H.I.F. So if I'm reading this story [http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/we-re-catholic-priests-who-want-to-marry-1.1598866#.Um_XJFMQNFs] correctly, this African priests starts dorfing a woman on Fridays, then decides he wants to marry her. He finds a group of other priests who want to

Franz

I've never really understood the appeal of Franz Oppenheimer's The State, yet it is the seminal work of the political worldview I adhere to: the State constitutes a class within society. From this, a person logically concludes that, if you're within the class, you

Interesting and Humorous

H.I.F. The best pithy parenthetical of the month comes courtesy of Zero Hedge, which posted today that Ohio does not have enough of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital to carry out a scheduled execution next month. Zero Hedge writes [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-28/ohio-runs-out-pentobarbital-cant-hold-scheduled-executions] : > Ohio

Benedictine Monday

That's a picture from the Clear Creek Abbey's October grape harvest [http://www.clearcreekmonks.org/news.html]. From their e-newsletter: "The monks of Saint Benedict engage in many forms of manual labor. Recently it was harvest time in our vineyard. We grow grapes of the

Interesting

H.I.F. Apparently no one read new health law very carefully. In two spots, it says tax credits are available for people who buy insurance "through an exchange established by the state." But 36 states opted not to establish exchanges, so is the act effectively dead in

Frustrating

H.I.F. The insightful Arnold Kling breaks down the Obamacare website. The debacle borders on the scary [http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/the-obamacare-suitsgeeks-divide/]: "This is not a technical screw-up, and it will not be fixed by technical people. It is an organizational screw-up. And until that is recognized,

Friday

BYCU A long-time TDE reader sends along this great anecdote about fin de siÃ¨cle medicine [http://sanduskyhistory.blogspot.com/2013/09/walthers-peptonized-port-sold-in.html] . "Peptonized Port was helpful for 'people who are nervous, cannot stand noise, start at the least unusual sound” and “get that fly-to-pieces feeling often.

Red

Seen at Reddit:

Conan

Pope Francis suspended a bishop for spending too much on home renovations. The Pope caught the bishop filming an episode of "Flip This Church." A new study says that due to debt, 20-somethings will retire 12 years later than their parents do. When they heard this, 20-somethings said,

James the Existentialist

I've written a bit about existentialism. In all my reading on the subject (ample for a layman, little for a scholar), I've never seen William James referred to as an existentialist thinker. But that's how Jacques Barzun refers to him in this passage from

Humorous and Interesting

H.I.F. Hallelujah. Nearly forty years of cleansing the hierarchy of leftists is showing strong fruit: "The head of Springfield's Roman Catholic diocese moved Tuesday to scuttle a silent protest by same-sex marriage advocates planned at the capital city's largest Catholic church, calling their

Kimmel

There's a lot of talk about how global warming will be a disaster for future generations. When you think about it, it's hard to care. What have these future generations ever done for us?

Frustrating

H.I.F. "Gentry liberalism”: increased spending on amenities and subsidies targeted at the elite, accompanied by painful cuts in basic public services for the poor and middle class. Link [http://www.city-journal.org/2013/eon1016ar.html]. Although "gentry liberalism" as used in the article is a

Straight Out of the Hudge and Gudge Playbook

Big business pushes for vast regulations. They have the resources to comply with the requirements, whereas their smaller competitors suffocate under the red tape. Small farms are apparently in the scopes next. From the Growing for Market newsletter [http://www.growingformarket.com/articles/Food-safety-alert]: "The deadline is fast approaching

Conan

Here in California over the weekend, a woman gave birth in a Barnes & Noble bookstore. Apparently she did this in the New Releases section.

Accidental

The term phrase "accidental racism" is the Internet rage these days. A couple of times a month, one of my children show me a picture of things that are terribly racist, but not intentionally so. They're pretty funny. I can't vouch for their authenticity,

The Most Wrongheaded Thought Today?

Random thought: Perhaps the most invidious piece of furniture in the American mental room is the idea that the federal government is "our government." It's a bogus piece of furniture, of course. It has a semblance of truth: we elect the people that, in theory, control

Free Food

I received this picture and note from a long-time TDE reader. I thought it worth passing along, in case you like pears and could use some free food: "These are Keiffer pears, behind our house. The variety is an old fashioned one, bred for keeping over winter I guess.

Interesting

H.I.F. Ten of the World's Weirdest Restaurants [http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/oct/15/ten-of-worlds-weird-restaurants?CMP=twt_gu] . Pretty twisted. You won't find me at any of them soon. Sample: "Magic Restroom Cafe, Los Angeles: The idea of sitting on a toilet

Interesting

H.I.F. "Attachment to money is a sickness, Pope Francis says [http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=8661]." That's okay. I have the cure. It's called "a wife."

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling I loathe ESPN. I went out to dinner with my Mom and two of my kids Friday night. We went to a local "sports bar-type" restaurant that had televisions posted all over the place with the sound off. The main TV was playing ESPN2, which was

Interesting

H.I.F. I dislike online comments sections. They are pits of slime and nasty bile, not to mention of typos, misspellings, and, in general, a level of sub-illiteracy that almost makes you wish people had to pass a grammar test in order to get a license to drive the

Interesting

H.I.F. Something you don't hear much about: "Though famous for their ultramasculinity, gangsters were nonetheless instrumental in fostering and protecting the gay subculture during the hostile years of World War II and the 1950s."

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Well, another day in pink land coming up. It's breasteses month. Friday night, our local high school varsity football team wore pink socks, which the school provided. It's frustrating ("Hey, let's follow the crowd and do what the NFL is doing!"), but

Humorous

H.I.F. Kimmel The government shutdown officially ended. Should we be happy the government is back? I feel like my sister got back together with an abusive boyfriend or something. Anthony Wiener is back in the news. He said an interesting thing. He said if the Internet didn'

Saturday Musing

The Gay Press I realize this next comment isn't insightful ("Hey, Scheske, that's never stopped you before!"), but here goes: The gay press is absolutely relentless. I mean "press" in two senses: pressure and media. On Thursday, my son felt compelled to

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From the 2014 Old Farmer's Almanac: "[V]ertical farms in abandoned factories, with vegetables grown on small rafts floating on water, nourished by waste produced by fish (aka aquaponics)" are gaining in popularity.

Frustrating

H.I.F. Finally, we're reaching the logical conclusion that will cure all our problems: Free stuff for everybody. We should've thought of this years ago. If we just give everyone everything they need free of charge, we wouldn't have to deal with a

Interesting

H.I.F. BYCU Addendum. Breaking news in the booze world: > More than $25,000 worth of one of the rarest and most sought-after bourbon's produced in Kentucky is missing in what investigators believe was an inside job. > About 65 cases of 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkle

Frustrating

H.I.F. Billion dollar fines and settlements are increasing on Wall Street, Forbes trumpets [http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2013/10/17/billion-dollar-settlements-are-the-new-black-on-wall-street/] . I think stories like these are supposed to give the impression that Washington and Wall Street aren't in bed with one another, but

Friday

BYCU A good economy is all about making creaturely comforts (including leisure) more accessible. I think a study of the craft beer craze would offer a salubrious scan of how an industry can grow, adapt, and prosper, while at the same time showing how government interference (state liquor laws) always

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"[H]istorically anarchism has been far less violent than other political creeds." Peter Marshall.

Humorous

H.I.F. Conan: Today John McCain said the shutdown was, quote, one of the most shameful things he's seen as a senator. That's from a guy who saw Lincoln get shot. In a new interview, the Dalai Lama endorsed medical marijuana. So now we know

Interesting

H.I.F. As long as I'm mentioning podcasts, I should mention this recent episode of Econtalk: The Sports Gene [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2013/09/david_epstein_o.html]. One of the best episodes of the year. Excerpt: At "6'10", you have

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Mike Duncan has fired up his new podcast: Revolutions [http://www.revolutionspodcast.com/]. TDE readers know that I've long been a fan of his History of Rome. Based on what I've heard so far, Revolutions will be just as good if not better. Possibly the best

Max and Gilbert

These words by Max Beerbohm kind of summarize my idea behind my quote-driven mini-essays: "How many charming talents have been spoiled by the instilled desire to do 'important' work! Some people are born to lift heavy weights. Some are born to juggle with golden balls." These

Humorous

H.I.F. Conan: Pope Francis is reportedly selling his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. When asked why he was selling it, he said, "When I get it over 30 miles an hour, it's hard to keep my hat on." This week at New York's Comic Con,

Interesting

H.I.F. The benefits of empire? Roman charioteers earned far more than even the best-paid footballers and international sports stars of today, according to academic research. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7942699/Wealth-of-todays-sports-stars-is-no-match-for-the-fortunes-of-Romes-chariot-racers.html] "One charioteer, named Gaius Appuleius Diocles, amassed a fortune 35,863,

Kiekegaard and Philo

"The real individual is face to face with a real God: that is the quite simple truth that Kierkegaard is never weary of repeating." de Lubac. I think that's the metaphysical angle to Philo's famous quote: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is

TIL

Today I Learned, from Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/]: "TIL in 2011 the city of Portland, Oregon discarded 7.8 million gallons of drinking water, not because of the dead animals 'regularly found in the drinking supply,' but because a drunk 21-year-old peed in it.

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"Theories, when they have gained credence, become vested interests. The prestige and livelihood of schools and teachers are bound up in them; they tend toward enclosed doctrine, not open to fresh information." Isabel Patterson.

The Fascist

H.I.F. For those who haven't made it over the TDE Twitter account, fascinating excerpts from Thaddeus Russell's Renegade History: "[W]hen the New Deal was created, few of its supporters in the United States were as effusive in their praise as were German

Tuesday

Nerd Toy I bought the new Kindle Paperwhite [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AWH595M/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1] . It arrived last Thursday. I'm digging it. I bought a first generation iPod over three years ago and, other than the iPhone

Random Thought

Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, Nixon, Bush: If limited government is a key element of conservatism, then conservatism hasn't been a key element of the Republican party.

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H.I.F. "A Grand Inquisitor's villa, a Pope's fort and a Venetian island will be sold off to fill Italy's depleted state coffers, local media reports. It's hoped the 50 historic sites will raise 500 million euros needed to obey

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From Joseph Epstein: "Saul Bellow, always mindful of the possibility of malice extended to a fellow scribbler, once told me that [James] Baldwin's problem was simple: 'He wanted to be Martin Luther Queen.'"

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Great weekend. We were jammed with football games and cross-country meets, but Alex and Abbie were home from UM for Fall Break. It's great to spend time with them. I've always enjoyed being with my kids, even when they were little (though, admittedly, I

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Apparently, someone at 4chan isn't a big fan of pink football, either. Futuristic National Breast Cancer Awareness Football League [http://i.imgur.com/m1eSYWd.png]. Kinda funny.

Top 10 Action Movies

According to The Guardian [http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/oct/10/top-10-action-movies]: 10. The Last of the Mohicans 9. Goldfinger 8. The Adventures of Robin Hood 7. Die Hard 6. Bullitt 5. Raiders of the Lost Ark 4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 3. The Wages of Fear 2.

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BYCU-ish

18th Amendment One of the best anecdotes I've read lately, in the literary-drunken vein: "Mencken responded to Prohibition by selling his car and using the proceeds to purchase a large stock of 'the best wines and liquors I could find,' stored in a homemade basement

Fallon

Frito-Lay just announced that they're coming out with new glow-in-the-dark Cheetos just in time for Halloween. Glow-in-the-dark Cheetos. People asked, “Are they safe to eat?” And Frito-Lay said, "Were they ever?

Nock

Nock Notions A few years back, Jonah Goldberg wrote a pretty good piece about Nock, but I think he missed the Nockian essence. "Nock's greatest mistake," wrote Goldberg, "lay in his fatalism . . . he in effect surrendered to the same consensus that [collectivism] was the '

Leno

"Syrian dictator Assad says he may run for re-election next year. In fact, today he went over the results of next year's election and he said it looks pretty good." "Circulation of newspapers has fallen to all-time lows. They say newspapers are becoming obsolete. I&

Twitter Worthy

H.I.F. I've started "Twitter following" The Catholic Thinker [https://twitter.com/ThinkerCatholic]. S/he puts out some great quotes, like this one: “If you live today, you breath in nihilism...it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the

Goodbye, Old Right

"We do not nowadays refute our predecessors, we pleasantly bid them good-bye." That's Santayana, in Character and Opinion in the United States, around 1920. Things, of course, haven't changed in this regard. Nock pointed out that Henry George was never refuted, just ignored. A

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H.I.F. Ryan Basen takes apart the NFL pink annoyance [http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/62332742/]. He says it's what I suspected: just a marketing ploy cooked up between two organizations, except a few large corporations are involved, too. The kicker: some people think it does more

Scomo

Russell Kirk's autobiography, The Sword of Imagination, is a splendid work. I read it carefully while preparing this piece [http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-05-041-f] ten years ago. For the past decade, the person of George Scott-Moncrieff has stuck in my mind, so much so

Fallon

A new survey found that only 46 percent of Americans have actually read a book in the past year. Which gets even worse when you hear it was just the instruction manual for Grand Theft Auto 5.

Monday

Steyn on Detroit Mark Steyn wrote a great piece about Detroit last summer [http://www.nationalreview.com/article/353959/downfall-detroit-mark-steyn]. I can't believe I missed it. The entire thing is worth reading. Here are just a few of the better passages: "To any American time-transported from the

Cialis

My gosh, the Cialis commercials sound like the SNL Happy Fun Ball commercial parody.

Pink Football

I'm watching less professional football these days. I'm simply tired of the pink. I've always detested it, but now, after a few years, it has grown tiresome, too. When on the fence of whether to watch, I do something else. Give your feel-goodism a

In case you were enjoying your weekend . . .

Sir Bob Geldof: 'All humans will die before 2030' Link [http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/342876/Sir-Bob-Geldof-All-humans-will-die-before-2030] .

Friday

A long-time TDE reader sent me this story about public urination in Put-in Bay [http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/4654636]. I told him it might prompt me to re-run my essay on public urination. He said he'd never seen it. I searched the Internet, and none of its

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From Reddit: "TIL that the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, famous for the construction and unveiling of the Eiffel Tower, had a "Negro Zoo" with 400 black people in cages as one of the attractions."

Manguel

The Subtleties of Reading I'm pretty sure this is something I've always known, but only at a semi-conscious level: > W.H. Auden "suggested that the book one reads should somehow be at odds with the place in which it's read. . . [N]ot

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H.I.F. The decay in Detroit has basically turned it into an archeological site. There's so much in this formerly beautiful and rich city that is buried beneath the graffiti and waste. Sample: "Detroit's former Michigan Theater must surely be the only Italian Renaissance-style

October Subject

Years ago, I read Edward T. Oakes' Pattern of Redemption, The Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. I'm told it might be the best introduction to the thought of the greatest theologian of the twentieth century (among Protestants, Karl Barth would contend for the title; Barth and

TLI

Well, since we have people who believe in the Norse gods and believe in the religion of the Jedi, I suppose this is real, and I'm confident the real point behind its "belief" (atheism) is very real: > TIL that there is religion called "Googlism&

Solace in Waugh

Can anyone provide me with proof that Evelyn Waugh is in heaven? It'd make me feel a helluva lot better. There's something oddly comfortable, reading about a guy like Waugh. Joseph Epstein is a fan of Waugh's and wrote some admiring, though candid, biographical

Monday

Humorous, Informative, or Frustrating Some may have noticed that TDE has gone back to its roots: multiple postings during the day. This won't necessarily be a regular occurrence, but it will happen often. Throughout the day, I run across things that I find humorous, interesting, or frustrating. I

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From Reddit's Today I Learned: "TIL Sugarcane is the world's largest crop. In 2010, it was cultivated on about 23.8 million hectares, in more than 90 countries, with a worldwide harvest of 1.69 billion tons." Link [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Leno

"A North Carolina woman stabbed her roommate's ex-boyfriend because she claimed he wouldn't stop playing Eagles music. He's OK, but apparently she stabbed him with those steely knives but she just couldn't kill the beast." And Ferguson: "Right now

Friday

Great Merton anecdote: "Over Labor Day [in 1938, the year before he was received into the Catholic Church], Merton and Joe Roberts went to Philadelphia, arguing over mysticism and the Catholic Church, drinking so much that it took several days to recover." Mott, The Seven Mountains of Thomas

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I appreciate Pope Francis' efforts to emphasize the Church's pastoral mission, but I wonder if he appreciated that he was giving hope to the hopelessly left-wing in the RCC. I'm seeing more and more articles like these popping up. Liberal Catholics have asked to meet

Clives Kierkegaard

Kierkegaard discusses at length the ideal “knight of faith” in Fear and Trembling (probably the pioneer work of existentialism). Kierkegaard's knight of faith is a man who fits in everywhere among everyone. He is happy with, suited for, whatever confronts him: > This man takes pleasure, takes part,

Received in an Email

"Factoid from the Wall Street Journal: On a game day, Dallas Cowboys Stadium, what with air conditioning, giant scoreboards and all, consumes more electricity than the entire nation of Liberia."

GKC Short

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Adventure v. Books

"The profoundest lessons are not the lessons of reason; they are sudden strains that permanently warp the mind." Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (Houghton Mifflin, 1973), p. 108. Based on my experience, it makes you wonder whether those adventure nuts are correct when it comes to

Monday

Autobiographical Corner A good weekend, a very good weekend indeed. Unfortunately, it started off with a scorching hangover headache Friday morning . . . after a mere two tall tonics and gin at Frankie's following my son, Michael's, Freshman football game. Frankie's was the recent subject of

I am Not a Crook

"This is the United States of America, we're not some banana republic. This is not a deadbeat nation. We don't run out on our tab. We're the world's bedrock investment, the entire world looks to us to make sure the world

Catholic Lane

My latest over at Catholic Lane: On Charity [http://catholiclane.com/on-charity/]. It's not my favorite piece: It's pretty compact without much flair (no cogent quotes and clever anecdotes), and I'm concerned that the piece slightly conflates "charity" with "entitlements,"

Friday

BYCU The veteran drinker Kingsley Amis didn't like the advent of music in England's pubs. I think he made some good points, especially this one: > If you dislike what is being played, you use up energy and patience in the attempt to ignore it; if

More Lawrence

Last week, I featured D. H. Lawrence. I'm following up with this additional DHL that I published five years ago. I've been going back through, checking out these FtH pieces. I'm definitely going to have to consider bringing them back. D. H. Lawrence, Studies

Pawn Me

Pawn Stars A continuation from yesterday's post, which was growing too lengthy: Besides sports, I only watch Pawn Stars. Shallow you say? Yes, it is, but my office job has become very hard, with the result that I have little energy for reading at the end of the

Monday

Two Randoms It's county fair week. Every year, I'm expected to donate 24 hours of volunteer time to the Kiwanis Food Building. Twenty years ago, the requirement was arduous. I would often work two consecutive 12-hour days so I could get it over with. By the

Pretty Funny

Friday

BYCU Have you ever heard of Put in Bay? It's on America's North Coast, west of Cleveland. I've never been there, but I'm told it's a beautiful area of America, filled with great scenery and drinking opportunities. Unfortunately, it probably

Weaver

"To assume that his light is always sufficient is pride." Richard Weaver. I wish I could just stop with that quote. It's worth considering (and pointing at oneself) for a few minutes, but the rest of the Weaver quote, excerpted from his essay "Lee the

Funny Leno

President Obama is talking tough. He said he will not rest until Syrian President Assad's power has been reduced to the point where he's on "Dancing With the Stars." Samsung has unveiled its new smartwatch. It will go on sale later this month in

Beerbohm

Max Beerbohm is one of those writers I'd like to read. Unfortunately, there are too many others I'd love to read, so even though I have a couple of Max books, they're largely untouched. Some day, though, some day. Always some day. Joseph Epstein

Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling Well, it's only September 9th and I'm already footballed-out. Friday night, I listened sporadically to my local high school team's game on radio; on Saturday, I spent four hours attending my youngest son's first game in high temperatures; on Saturday

9/11 Days

From the General Instruction of the Roman Missal [http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/general-instruction-of-the-roman-missal/girm-chapter-2.cfm] : > D) The Concluding Rites > 90.To the Concluding Rites belong the following: > a) brief announcements, should they be necessary; > b) the Priest's Greeting and Blessing, which on

Friday

BYCU This is one of the neatest beer pieces I've seen this year [http://www.toledocitypaper.com/August-Issue-1-2013/2013-Beer-Guide/index.php?cparticle=1&siarticle=0#artanc] . It's an article from the Toledo Blade that features interviews with a dozen bartenders around the Toledo area about

Chesterton Short

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

CPV

The Catholic Point of View "Everyone has opinions . . . but not everyone has a point of view." Joseph Epstein, "H.L. Mencken for Grownups," Partial Payments. Epstein's remark is critical, citing V.S. Naipul's condescending remark about one of his characters, "she

Happy Labor Day: A Few Random Things

Well, another summer gone. I held high hopes for this summer: it might be the last one with all my kids home. It didn't go poorly, but I was absolutely swamped at the office, which made it inordinately difficult to enjoy the season. I like to work, and

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I just watched the first ten minutes of the Nobel Peace Prize winner's warmongering. I had to click it off. Unbelievable.

Friday

BYCU > Five years ago, the warehouse of Woodland beverage distributor V. Santoni & Co. was stocked with fewer than 300 varieties of beer. Today the company's inventory contains 1,800 brews, a change that reflects the exploding number of mostly small companies making craft beer. Link [http:

James and Rothbard

As of this writing, I haven't finished James' Pragmatism, but I found this statement in Lecture Two that, I believe, summarizes James' opinion regarding how religion fits into the philosophy of pragmatism. The italics are his: > If theological ideas prove to have a value for

Economics and War

There is a definite correlation between economic troubles and war: the former leads to the latter. Now, does economic trouble lead to war naturally, like clashing cold and warm fronts contribute to tornadoes? Or does economic trouble lead to war artificially, like a caught thief who gets away because, at

A Three-fer

Three largely un-related items that could've blossomed into full-blown essays/posts, but for whatever reason, didn't: 1. “Some people have fallen for the naÃ¯ve turkey-style belief that the world is getting safer and safer, and of course they naively attribute it to the holy '

Why Things are Fragile

I really like this observation by Nassim Taleb. It might be called the “paradox of scientific progress”: the more we understand and control, the more we unleash that we don't understand or control. Here's Taleb (emphasis mine): “Man-made complex systems tend to develop cascades and runaway

Friday

BYCU The new Gatorade: You can now get drunk while exercising. They've added electrolytes to beer [http://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-boffins-brew-up-a-hydrating-beer-20130816-2s20b.html] . * * * * * * * This might be the most interesting drinking story of the year: Wine and Catholicism among the Tibetans of China's Yunnan Province [http:

The Magnanimous Man

What does a secular substitute for a saint look like? If you've ever known a good person who has no religious proclivities, you probably know what he looks like: a person infused with virtues even though he doesn't believe in infusion. Jacques Barzun describes the secular

G.K. Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Stark Young

"[T]he core of our humanity lies in the belief that the essence of the soul is its mockery of death." Stark Young, "Not in Memoriam, But in Defense," I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition. I'll Take My

Monday

Autobiographical Corner and Random Well, my vermicomposting isn't going well. I've now killed three batches of worms. The first batch of worms was pretty sickly, so I don't really fault myself for that one, but the next two batches that came from the nationally-acclaimed

Something for the Weekend

Sainthood on the Horizon for G.K. Chesterton?: An investigation has begun into whether to open the cause for canonization of the English writer and convert. [http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/sainthood-on-the-horizon-for-g.k.-chesterton/]

Friday

BYCU I heard of a local establishment charging $8 for a Tanqueray and tonic. It struck me as outrageous, but I don't have a long history with hard liquor, so I looked into it a bit. If I buy the big bottle (1.75 liters), the liquor costs

Ralph McInerny

I went to Mass once with Ralph McInerny. Well, that's an exaggeration. My family and I were sitting in Sacred Heart Basilica at Notre Dame, just as Mass was starting. An older man slipped into the empty spot next to one of my kids. After about twenty minutes,

G.K. Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

On Deliberate Barbarism

We need myths. They're irrational signposts in our strange spiritual land: they guide us even when we don't know we're being guided. We don't even necessarily understand them, but only a shallow rationalism (a "defecated rationality" is how Russell Kirk

Monday

Bio Update A whirlwind two weeks. We took our annual vacation to Alpena, Michigan, then I came home to a packed office. Worked all day Saturday, then I went to church in a neighboring town that features the famous 4:30 PM "drive-through Mass": typical time, about 35

Conan

A man in Colorado wants marijuana to be classified as a vegetable. I just have to say that that's an ingenious way to get Americans to stop smoking pot. A scientist has figured out a way to turn coffee grounds into alcohol. He is not so much a

More Zmirak

Another nugget from the master. The italics are mine, meant to emphasize the sacramental mindset that is John Zmirak's. His sacramental landscape, along with erudition and fine prose, makes him required reading for any drinker who thinks a little alcohol can bring a lot of God: > [T]

PoS

Look Homewrad, America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists by Bill Kauffman. If there's been a better book for promoting the Principle of Subsidiarity in the past twenty years, I don't know of it. I put Kauffman in the same league as John Zmirak:

GKC

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Quote Day

Random Quotes "The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it" George Orwell ******* "The radicals of one age are the reactionaries of the next." Will Durant ******* Evil is a hard concept for many on the left to accept

St. Alexander the Great

Would Christianity as a world religion exist without Alexander the Great? I wouldn't think so, but Greek culture and philosophy fit well with the Jewish God made manifest in Jesus Christ. After Pentecost, the disciples had a cultural world ready made, on the intellectual level, for their message,

Funny Leno

"More problems for America's creepiest mayor, San Diego's Bob Filner. An eighth woman has now come forward to say that she was sexually harassed by him. She said she would've come forward sooner but the line was too long."

Friday

It seems like the Catholic Church has a lot of patron saints of alcohol. Here's a partial list I assembled from random Internet surfing: St. Augustine (brewers), St. Arnold of Soissons (hop-pickers and Belgian brewers), St. Dorothea of Caesarea (brewers), St. Amand (brewers, bartenders, vine growers, and vintners)

Gilson

"The human mind feels shy before a reality of which it can form no proper concept." Etienne Gilson, God and Philosophy. Too many Christians, of course, know no such shyness. Bible and this morning's newspaper in hand, they have all the facts and knowledge they need

GK

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

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It's been a rough week for Anthony Weiner. His campaign manager in the race for mayor just quit because of Weiner's newest scandal. And it's tough finding a replacement because every time he emails someone, they're like, “I'm not opening

Voegelin and Pressure

Voegelin with a Nock Kicker History, said Voegelin, is "the perpetual task to regain the order under God from the pressure of mundane existence." That's the science of history? Heck, it's the science of everyday life. Just as Plato noted that society is man

Monday

I have a few contemporary things to discuss, so today's Eudemon will revert to the traditional TDE style. * * * * * * * Received in the mail: The Tumbler of God: Chesterton as Mystic by Fr. Robert Wild. I'm looking forward to reading it. From the back cover: Franz Kafka said

Friday

BYCU If you haven't spent a lot of time with Zmirak's Bad Catholic series, you're missing out. The material is flat-out brilliant. Content, prose, humor: it's all there. I expect to draw a lot of BYCU material from Zmirak, including this nugget:

William James

I've always meant to read more William James or, failing more by James, more about James (“Do not read history. Read biography for it is life without theory.” Disraeli). Early on, I read his Varieties of Religious Experience [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James#Philosophy_of_religion]

GKC

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

De Lubac and Dostoyevsky

If you're intrigued by Dostoyevsky but can't bring yourself to read any of his lengthy fiction, get a copy of Henri de Lubac's The Drama of Atheist Humanism. It ranks in my top 10 books of all time. The reader will be rewarded with

More Gilson and God and Philosophy

"Just as science can play havoc with metaphysics, metaphysics can play havoc with science." Gilson There is a natural antipathy between the two. Gilson goes on to point out that metaphysics stifled science for centuries, just as science today stifles metaphysics. Empiricism is the belief that only those

Give a Girl a Break

My electronic friend, Michelle Reitemeyer, recently had to abandon Blogger. Some of you may recall that I came close to such a decision myself. It's hard to abandon electronic real estate that you've developed over years, but Michelle felt like she had no other choice, given

Friday

That's a picture of a bowling alley at the Atlantic Garden Saloon in Sandusky, Ohio, toward the turn of the century. I've spent a lot of time in bowling alleys (season high average winner, with a 112, in fifth grade). In every bowling alley, there are

GKC

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Socrates

And Taleb "Socrates required of astronomy, if it was to be true science, that it should show why it was best that the sun and moon should be as they are." Santayana (emphasis in original). I suspect Nassim Taleb would have fun with that passage. Not with Santayana

Garden Update

The garden received a devastating blow last weekend: I discovered that my grape crop (my self-proclaimed garden "crown jewel") has pretty much been wiped out by a fungus disease (Anthracnose). This is year three for my vines. For grape growers, you know that means that this was supposed

John Crowe Ransom

It's hard to pick a favorite essay from I'll Take My Stand, but the lead essay by John Crowe Ransom, "Unreconstructed but Unregenerate," is a leading candidate. The essay spends ample time criticizing what Joseph Pieper condemned as the world of "total work,

BYCU

Random Gin Thoughts Is it me, or do women drink "gin and tonic," whereas men drink "tonic and gin" (as in, "making love to his tonic and gin")? I've tried many types of gin since going on my gin kick two years

Funny Leno

"A new report from sociologists has discovered the number one cause of prison overcrowding – the NFL."

Abe

You won't have that problem with the new TDE. If I quote it, I took it from a book (and, once in a great while, a respected site).

God and Philosophy

I try to be judicious in my book annotations, but every so often, I find a book that has more passages underlined than not. Schumacher's A Guide for the Perplexed probably holds my library record in this regard, but Etienne Gilson's God and Philosophy isn'

Voegelin

Perhaps my favorite Voegelin quote: "No one is obliged to take part in the spiritual crisis of a society; on the contrary, everyone is obliged to avoid this folly and live his life in order." Science, Politics, and Gnosticism. This, of course, is easier said than done. Unless

Voegelin: An Introduction

I first heard about Voegelin through Russell Kirk's Enemies of the Permanent Things. I bought one of Voegelin's shorter books (The New Science of Politics, I think) and was so confused by it that I called Information/Mecosta, and asked for Russell Kirk's phone

Saturday

If you're still following the "New TDE," be sure to read the quotes. I know there's a tendency to skip over quotes, but that'd be a bad idea. I key-in the quotes myself. In the interest of time, I keep the typing

Everyday Drinking

I haven't devoted nearly enough attention to drinking literature, but from the books I've read, Kingly Amis' collection of essays, Everyday Drinking, is some of the best. Sure, he's a limey, but I think the English have a special knack for creating drinking

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Happy Independence Day. And a Catholic bonus: Feast of St. Athanasius.

Wilson's Glory

I've long been struck by Woodrow Wilson's arrogance. At the post-WWI negotiations, I remember hearing in Sydney Hook's U.S. History class at Michigan that, after Woodrow Wilson presented his fourteen points of light, an exasperated Clemenceau remarked, "The good Lord only had

Monsters from the Id

What's with All the Zombies? I saw World War Z on Sunday. Great movie; highly recommended. But it got me thinking: What's with all the zombie flicks? I read E. Michael Jones' Monsters from the Id when it first came out over ten years ago,

Monday

The Return I'm back from vacation. While I was gone, my garden endured one thunderstorm and wave of heat after another. The result: a lush garden upon return. The above chard leaf is just one example. I also harvested about three pounds of cherry tomatoes, two pounds of

Friday

Mini-Review Leisure, The Basis of Culture, by John Pieper (1948). Choice quote: "[T]here can be unused space in the total world of work." Obsessed with efficiency? I am. At least I used to be. I'm a recovering efficiencoholic. It was bad, so bad that my

Wednesday

Mini-Review The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft by George Gissing (1903) Choice quote: "But oh, how good it is to desire little, and to have a little more than enough!" Nerd heaven: An older writer who scrapes together a living receives a small annuity for life. It'

Tuesday

Mini-Review Introduction: If you find these reviews bizarre yet orthodox, I have accomplished my goal. If you find them entertaining yet profound, I am humbled. If they brings you a little closer to classic works of the twentieth century, I am gratified. If you forward the review to friends with

Monday

Mini-Review The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk (1953) Choice quote: "Hawthorne's chief accomplishment: impressing the idea of sin upon a nation which would like to forget it." My book still has that smell that all the books from that little bookstore in Niles, Michigan, had. I

Friday

BYCU Great charts: What countries drink the most vodka, gin, whisky and rum [http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/06/daily-chart-9?fsrc=scn/tw/te/dc/highspirits] ? Per capita, the results are: Vodka: Russia. Rum: Indian. Scotch Whiskey: France. Gin: Philippines. Tequila: U.S. (wait a second; something tells

Thursday

Random Hallelujah: I attended my last baseball game of the season last night. It might even be my last baseball game ever, since my youngest son isn't sure he wants to play next year. Whatever he decides is fine with me. I'd like him to have

Wednesday

Miscellaneous Rambling "Alteration between centralized and decentralized power is one of the cyclical rhythms of history, as if men tired alternately of immoderate liberty and excessive order." Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage. So where would we place the United States on this pendulum? Swinging hard toward excessive order,

Monday

As of yesterday:

Weather Hype

Friday

BYCU I have four grape vines. I'm expecting (hoping/praying for) big things from them this year, since it's their third year. Everything looks good so far, with lots of bunches growing. They're all edible grapes, however. Nothing good for wine. If you'

Funny Conan

Marco Rubio announced a new bill that would require immigrants to learn English to become citizens. Many Americans already say it's the goodest news they have heard all year. The new PlayStation 4 is going to allow gamers to record their gaming and share it with friends. All

Wednesday

From the Notebooks I've started going back through books I read from about age 20 through age 40. The first book I pulled off my shelf was the first book I read when I decided (for whatever reason) that I needed to become much more erudite: Will Durant&

Tuesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Monday

Miscellany Why are the Catholics in the liberal media the most annoying (Colbert) and ridiculous (Chris Matthews). Herewith, the most recent installment of Chris Matthews idiocy: "Chris Matthews is baffled by opposition to President Obama as he faces a series of scandals, especially because the president has 'never

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The 84-year-old woman who won the half-billion-dollar Powerball lottery asked for it to be received in a lump sum. Then she said, "Actually, can I get that in the next hour?" Conan

Friday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Thursday

Bullets Yet another reason why the American Empire is on the road to hell: Pope Francis says wasting food is like stealing from the poor [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/10101375/Pope-Francis-says-wasting-food-is-like-stealing-from-the-poor.html] . Abortion, gay marriage, screwing Mexicans out of their wages to prop up our broken

Wednesday

Not a lot out there today. It's the feast day of St. Boniface, so that's pretty cool, unless you're a Germanic pagan. * * * * * * * I also read this great interview [http://www.thedailybell.com/mobile/bellInclude.cfm?ID=29156] with Lincoln-basher (i.e., hagiographer-correction artist) Thomas

Tuesday

The Puritan devil passed away: "Mr. Lautenberg's first major victory came in 1984. A freshman senator in the minority party, he pushed through a provision to establish a national drinking age of 21, a measure that threatened to cut 10 percent of a state's federal

Monday

Alert the Press If you missed it, blogging history occurred Saturday morning: I didn't post anything. I haven't verified it, but I think Saturday's silence broke a nine-year string. I didn't skip Saturday for any particular reason. I've just been

Friday

BYCU Detroit teams are pretty competitive. The Red Wings should be in the Conference Championship series right now. The Tigers are rocking. The Lions are on the rise, and the Pistons, though currently struggling, have three NBA championships over the past 25 years. And best of all: The Detroit Tigers

Thursday

"To boldly go where no one has gone before." That's Star Trek Into Darkness. The line, of course, is supposed to be "to boldly go where no man has gone before," but Hollywood is nauseatingly politically correct, so it's to be expected.

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Miscellany This is my garden, as of yesterday. I added flowers for the first time. My daughters like them, plus they act as "beneficials" (their aroma confuses insects that destroy vegetables and they attract insects that help the vegetables). * * * * * * * Unconscionable: $30,000: The average student-loan debt for a

Memorial Day

Have a good Memorial Day, everyone. Most of you realize I've grown increasingly skeptical of our nation's involvement in foreign affairs, but that doesn't detract from the sacrifice made by millions of young men over the years.

Something for Sunday Morning

My Mary Garden:

Saturday

Man, this cold weather is killing me. Full-blown frost advisory last night. Statistically speaking, there is only a 10% chance of frost after the average last frost date, and we got hit ten days after the average last frost date (the average last frost date for Kalamazoo, Michigan, is May

Friday

BYCU The un-official start of summer . . . and patchy frost is the word. This really sucks. * * * * * * * But it doesn't suck as much as my holiday weekend. My plans: Work in the office: Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Monday morning. The one bright side: I plan on drinking Friday

Thursday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Wednesday

Politics The IRS official will take The Fifth [http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-top-irs-official-fifth-amendment-20130521,0,6645565.story] . How special. * * * * * * * I'm glad we turned health care over to the IRS. No risks there. * * * * * * * So now the Obama White House is engaged in three scandals. * * * * * * * I have a theory:

Tuesday

Random Thoughts from Vacation That's the King of Rock-n-Roll and me. It's not the real Elvis; just a picture. Comparably-priced hotels: Super 8 and Days Inn. Super 8: Good. Days Inn: Bad (unless you like it when the bathroom of your room smells like urine, the

Monday

Whirlwind trip to the upper South, the Mississippi Delta region. We started at the Abbey of Gethsemani [http://www.monks.org/] Wednesday evening. Caught Compline, then left for our hotel in Cave City. Mammoth Cave Thursday morning, then Memphis for its barbecue festival Thursday night. Hurricanes were pretty strong; so

Something for Sunday Morning

"To finish off what we do often means taking care of minor details, of the little things. This demands an effort, demands sacrifice, and when we offer it, it is pleasing to God. Taking care of the details for love of God does not diminish the soul. It ennobles

Saturday

Miscellaneous Passages "True freedom comes only to a lucid mind unbound by conventional wisdom and suspicious of received opinions." Joseph Epstein, on the thought of George Santayana "[H]umanitarians have an intense hatred of mankind as it is." Santayana "Santayana says that, as we approach

Funny Kimmel

Tonight is the much-anticipated release of the new "Star Trek" movie. It's expected to make $100 million this weekend. That's a lot, but imagine how much it would make if the people buying tickets were going with dates. Most "Star Trek" fans

Friday

Miscellaneous Passages . . . . . . with a little commentary: "To consort with the crowd is harmful; there is no person who does not make some vice attractive to us, or stamp it upon us, or taint us unconsciously therewith. . . . I come home more greedy, more ambitious, more voluptuous, and even more cruel

Thursday

Miscellaneous excerpts from my recent reading: "Several of America's greatest heroes who were born during the age of slavery were whipped far more often than most slaves." Thaddeus Russell "In fact, only a tiny minority of anarchists have practised terror as a revolutionary strategy . . . historically

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Garden Stuff Whew. The container planting nears its end. After tomorrow, I'll have scores of containers with vegetables, herbs, and beneficials (flowers that help ward off pests). It's been tiring. Over Memorial Day, I'll finish my ground planting with winter squash, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers,

Monday

Miscellany The Weather Channel again missed a forecast. They not only botched up all of March and April, but last week WC resolutely clung to its prediction that Monday night temperatures would be in the 37-40 range. Meanwhile, Accuweather [http://www.accuweather.com/] had been predicting sub-32 temps for a

Something for Sunday Morning

"[D]o what is asked of you quietly, peacefully, without hurry, and without vexation." de Caussade

Saturday

We're Coming, Flannery! First Sherman, then the carpetbaggers, then the retirees, then technological start-ups. Now Catholics: Protestant South Becoming a New Catholic Stronghold [http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/protestant-south-becoming-a-new-catholic-stronghold/] . Something tells me that Flannery (and Walker Percy, for that matter) would've preferred the average Church without

Friday

BYCU Move over Scotland and Kentucky. The Japanese are taking over whisky. From Forbes [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324504704578410750713496218.html] : At the 2012 World Whiskies Awards . . . Suntory's Yamazaki 25-year-old was voted World's Best Single Malt, while Nikka won the top spot in the Blended Malt

Funny Fallon

A new survey found out the average American will spend $168 on Mother's Day this year. For any woman who's been through labor for a day and a half, remember, it pays exactly $168. A movie version of "Dungeons and Dragons" is in the

Thursday

Just one observation today: If the Castro Brothers weren't heavily into porn before they kidnapped those girls, I'll donate $1,000 to the ACLU.

Wednesday

Bullets Man, that Cleveland abduction story is wild. Hangin' ain't good enough for those bastuds. Unbelievable. * * * * * * * Meanwhile, I've noticed a definite uptick in false criminal sexual conduct allegations by females. All anecdotal stuff, but it almost feels like the false allegations are becoming an epidemic.

Funny Fallon

A man managed to hitchhike 100,000 miles without spending any money on travel. He says he did it all with a friendly smile, a positive attitude, and an ax. There's a new summer camp for adults where using cellphones and computers is banned. The camp has an

Tuesday

Another reason to be a Michigan Wolverines fan: Link [http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/president_obama_tells_osu_grad.html#incart_m-rpt-2] . A loyal TDE Buckeye reader sent that to me, with this observation: "Photo of Obama w/ OSU prez Gordon Gee. A relative suggests

Monday

Miscellany This May blitz is among the most brutal I've experienced. It's not getting me down, but it is getting me behind. I fear full-scale blogging won't resume until Memorial Day weekend. I'm sure you understand. A few of you are sending

Good Conan

Today former Pope Benedict is moving back into the Vatican. He is going to be mad when he sees that Pope Francis took down his Metallica posters. That's right. Two Popes now under one roof. Can you believe that? Yeah, they're just one-half Pope away from

Something for Sunday Morning

"God wants from us human work that is well done. This means our working hard, with order, skill, competence and a striving for perfection; it means a completed job with no rough edges, no flaws or blemishes. It means serious work and an end-product that not only looks good,

Saturday

The whirlwind continues: out-of-town company, AAU basketball tournament near Chicago, First Communion, plus the usual assortment: work, baseball, soccer, and track. We also went to Wicked Thursday night, which was enjoyable, but made for a late night Thursday. If you haven't seen Wicked, I'd recommend it,

Friday

BYCU Feel-good beer story of the year: Local self-taught beer expert overcoming autism with hope and help [http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/04/local_self-taut_beer_expert_ov.html] . The autistic guy is pretty impressive in the important things: "Rice, 55, of Vermilion, owns thousands of

Thursday

Whew. Spring activity came in like a lion yesterday. Kids came home from college, Spring sports are underway. We didn't actually get the kids home until 8:00 last night, so there hasn't been much time for blogging. Just this funny line from Jimmy Fallon: "

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

The practice of law can be highly frustrating and stressful, especially when dealing with bureaucrats. Sometimes I handle it well, sometimes . . . not so well. But I don't think I've ever come near this kind of meltdown when dealing with anyone, including a tax eater. Go here

Monday

You Go, Girl Articles like this used to make me mad. Now they make me chuckle. Kentucky woman ordained as priest in defiance of Roman Catholic Church [http://wtax.com/Kentucky-woman-ordained-as-priest-in-defiance-of-R/11472080?newsId=208673] . The woman, the writer, the people interviewed: all clueless, yet all cocky in their ignorance (ignorance

Something for Sunday Morning

"You like to multi-task? Then work well. In that way, you provide for your family and become spiritually stronger at the same time. The same can be said of every human pursuit: Do it well, do it with kindness, do it calmly. When you do, you not merely accomplish

Saturday

Finally, a gorgeous weekend. Of course, I celebrated by gardening all afternoon then knocking back a bottle of wine, so I'm not feeling great for Day Two of the Only Nice Weekend of 2013, but I suppose I can be forgiven. * * * * * * * Speaking of wine, this looks like a

Friday

BYCU Just as I believe that big business rapes America (not always, of course, but too often to trust 'em), I believe small business is America's greatest virtue. Sure, there's too much red tape and big business can use the crush of bureaucracy to stifle

Some Good Fallon

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is in a little trouble today. Apparently people in South Korea are mad at him for giving a one-handed handshake to the country's president, which over there is a sign of disrespect. And in hindsight, the hand buzzer wasn't a great choice

Thursday

Hey, just as long as they keep the debate civil: Topless pro-LGBT protesters beat breasts and squirt water at Catholic archbishop. [http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/24/topless-pro-lgbt-protesters-beat-breasts-and-squirt-water-at-catholic-archbishop/]

Wednesday

The editor of an anthology of garden writing once wrote something like, "A man with a garden is a peaceful man." I agree with that. Of course, I occasionally joke that I'm "the swearing gardener." The contrasting juxtaposition--peace, then intense frustration at things going

Potential New Site

Well, it looks like my web provider and I might be heading to court. I wouldn't be surprised if they crash my site altogether. If they do, please go here. It'll be my new spot: http://thecatholiceudemon.blogspot.com/

Tuesday

Very little blogging today. My web provider has again let me down. Things, technologically-speaking, are getting very bad for TDE. Last week, my web provider inadvertently blocked my access to TDE from my house (note: they deny it; I have no way to prove otherwise), then yesterday, they took down

Monday

Miscellany Whew, that was some brutal weather last weekend. I woke up Saturday morning to snow on the ground. It appears my early garden weathered it alright. Things are now looking up. With any luck, I'll start moving my container tomatoes and peppers outside later this week. It&

Something for Sunday Morning

"In our work, as in other aspects of ordinary life such as in family and social commerce, in periods of rest and leisure . . . we always have this choice--carelessness and shoddiness that impoverish the soul, or the little work of art offered up to God as the expression of a

Saturday

Skeptical Saturday I'm enjoying my new-found skepticism about everything the media tells us. I notice things that previously escaped my attention. At 7:30 yesterday morning, the news reported that one of the Boston Marathon bombers had been killed in a shoot-out with police and a manhunt was

Friday

BYCU The garden is looking very good. It's been a frustrating year so far and a lot of work, but it's already meeting my family's spinach needs. It should, if the weather even halfway cooperates, shortly be meeting the family's lettuce and

Thursday

Enormous technical difficulties at TDE. They've been occurring all month. We thought we had them straightened out yesterday, but then a new crop arose. We'll see where things go. For today, just this nifty chart I stumbled across last weekend [http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/post/27489527791/

(Untitled)

St. Benedict Joseph Labre's Feast Day today [http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1356]. The poor man's St. Francis of Assisi.

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Monday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Something for Sunday Morning

"God wants from us human work that is well done. This means our working hard, with order, skill, competence and a striving for perfection; it means a completed job with no rough edges, no flaws or blemishes. It means serious work and an end-product that not only looks good,

Good Late Night

North Korean officials reportedly are planning a cyberattack on the U.S. in an effort to bring our economy to a halt. Nice try, guys. You're five years too late. Leno Rihanna broke up with Chris Brown after she caught him cheating with a waitress. Rihanna said she

Friday

BYCU I saw this picture at Reddit. Based on what I've seen on the Internet [http://blogs.ajc.com/all-things-masters/2011/04/04/augusta-concession-prices-are-throwback-to-simpler-time/] , I think the sign is legit. If more sports venues were reasonable like this, I'd take my family to a lot more

Thursday

Wicked This story might be the most significant item of the year: Administration wants to allow only 28 cents on a dollar donated to charity to be deducted–even though the top tax rate for the wealthy donors who make most use of the deduction is 39.6% [http://www.

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Well, that was a bummer, but I suspect Louisville is merely the better team. It was frustrating that we didn't adjust quickly enough to a hot hand late the first half ("Put a man on him already!"), but it was a good game. Congrats to the

Monday

The Finals and Wives Okay, I told you my Michigan Wolverines were going to slice through the tournament. Some of you no doubt didn't believe me, but remember: I predicted it here [https://thedailyeudemon.com/27537/]. Of course, I didn't actually believe it myself. I was

Something for Sunday Morning

"To work well we must first of all work hard, using our time well. It is difficult, impossible even, for a person to live a spirit of sacrifice and remain spiritually alert, practicing the basic human virtues, unless he uses his time well." Francis Fernandez

Saturday

From the Notebooks I've read a fair amount writing by St. Thomas Aquinas, at least when compared to what I've read of other authors. When compared to how much he wrote, I've read only a little. I have, however, read a lot about Aquinas.

BYCU

"IT'S OFFICIAL: Canned craft beer is no longer evil." Link [http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-22/news/37906513_1_cans-boston-beer-small-brewers] . I'm glad to hear that. I always enjoyed drinking out of a can. I was also a beer can collector as a kid. I spent

Thursday

Weather Woes The weather has been atrocious. How atrocious? Check out the following, and also note the prediction: it's going to continue to be atrocious: "Just-completed March did an end run around historic temperature trends here by becoming one of only 8 in the past 142 years

Wednesday

Since the 1980s, I've heard that the NBA is crooked, and I've heard it from reputable sources. The refs supposedly fix the games. The question is, do they fix games for their personal profit or at the direction of the League? I incline to the view

Tuesday

Trifles The backyard garden is beginning to take shape. I went to the city compost site and grabbed over 500 pounds of decomposed wood chips yesterday. I mixed a chunk of it with "primo" compost (mostly, kitchen scraps) to balance out the carbon and nitrogen, dumped about 200

Easter

"When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a man

Holy Saturday

Nyssa, Tolkien, and Gibson By killing Jesus, Satan had swallowed God's bait. He didn't know he had swallowed the Godhead, thereby inviting Full Being into his fortress of nothingness and bringing about the ontological fall of his nothingness. In the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa:

Good Friday

“The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His.” George MacDonald "The cross cannot be defeated. . . For it is Defeat." G.K. Chesterton On those who hate Christianity: "They do not dislike the Cross

Holy Thursday

"[I]n the agony of Gethsemane the ultimate consequences of our sin had their hour. . . . God permitted his Son to taste the human agony of rejection and plunge towards the abyss. . . Gethsemane was the hour in which Jesus' human heart and mind experienced the ultimate odium of the

Wednesday

On Jesuits "Vincent O'Keefe, an American Jesuit and a former acting Father General, used to joke that Catholics believe 'the Jesuits know everything – but nothing else.'" You'll find that anecdote and other basic information about the Jesuits at this fine piece at

Tuesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Monday

Holy Week is here. Consistent with TDE tradition, blogging will be light. Long-time readers will notice some repeat materials (hey, if Schall reads the collected works of Shakespeare every year and Groeschel reads Abandonment to Divine Providence every year, we can read some repeat Guardini here at TDE). Barkley Man,

Something for Palm Sunday

"The hour overflows with supernatural power. In these last days it is as if Jesus were gathering strength on strength preparing for the ultimate." Romano Guardini, The Lord

Friday

BYCU Public service announcement: The Ohio Craft Brewers Association is looking for an Executive Director. Go here for more information [http://ohiocraftbeer.org/job-opening-executive-director-ocba]. I would apply, but I fear my gluten disorder and love for the Wolverines disqualify me. * * * * * * * Man, I need a drink. In my annual NCAA auction

Thursday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Wednesday

Random March Madness. Perhaps the greatest sporting event of the year, if you don't count the WNBA finals (chuckle). Of course, we have to hear "bracketology," "bracketology," "bracketology," which gets tiresome, but it's a small price to pay. * * * * * * * If you&

Tuesday

Miscellany Public service announcement: According to at least one respected commentator, only the following teams have what it takes to win the Tournament: Louisville, Gonzaga, Indiana, MSU, Florida, Kansas, and Duke. Kansas, of course, doesn't have what it takes even to make it past the Sweet Sixteen, since

Monday

Francis in the Garden I read over the weekend that the Pope chose the name "Francis," in part, because Francis of Assisi was a man of peace. I also read the following line in an anthology of garden writing: "The garden is a symbol of peace and

Something for Sunday Morning

"We shall ask him to help us uproot our egoism, to cure us of thinking too much about ourselves and to eliminate from our hearts any kind of lukewarmness." Francis Fernandez

Saturday

BYCU: Special Edition I think it's safe to say that most people will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day this evening. If you over-celebrate, check out this story about all the new hangover remedies on the market today [http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/03/15/beverages-to-cure-your-st-pattys-day-hangovers/

(Untitled)

Check out this video (it'll pop up automatically): 90 Seconds to a New Pope [http://catholicvote.org/].

Friday

BYCU During the conclave, the Cardinals are locked away. What do they do during those hours? Meet, discuss, pray, vote, eat. And drink, apparently, based on what I saw at this site [http://osbnorcia.org/2013/03/13/conclavebeer]. * * * * * * * It makes sense. You'll find God in a few

Thursday

Francis I A Jesuit that was at least mildly endorsed by the National Catholic Reporter [http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/papabile-day-men-who-could-be-pope-13]? An announcement that such a man is Pope normally would've sent a chill down my spine, but not with this man. Francis I looks awfully solid, as

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

It’s Time We Recognize Noise as the Eighth Capital Sin

I’m thinking the list of seven capital sins — Pride, Envy, Avarice, Anger, Sloth, Gluttony, Lust — ought to be expanded to eight. This may be audacious of me, and I’m not sure what type of campaign I’d need in order to obtain official recognition for an eighth sin,

Monday

Fox Sports is Coming Hallelujah! Is the tyranny of women's basketball and NASCAR coverage about to end? Fox is launching a nationwide sports network to compete with ESPN [http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2013/03/news-corp%E2%80%99s-athletic-ambitions?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/foxsports] . Please, Fox,

Something for Sunday Morning

"Touch God's heart every day in the only way most of us can: through little things." Francis Fernandez

Saturday

Pope Stuff Is it just me, or does the entire Cardinal conclave have the media feel of NFL Draft Day? My gosh, the Internet is flooded with Vatican stories, from what the new Pope will wear [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/fashion/when-the-pope-is-chosen-his-tailors-will-be-ready.html?partner=rss&emc=

Friday

Not much today. It's been a brutal week. On top of office frenzy, my two eldest are home for spring break, so I'm trying to spend as much time with them as possible, but it's also District basketball tournament time, and son Jack'

Thursday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Wednesday

Happy Birthday Happy birthday to my lovely wife, Marie. I won't mention her age, but I will mention that, last Fall, while working at a long-running county fair food booth fundraiser, an elderly man remarked to her, "It's good to see you high school kids

Tuesday

Detroit I posted the following recently to an online group: > After watching Sugar Man, I went online to try to check out his old haunts. I started "dropping pins" on Google Maps, which enable you to get street views. It was pretty interesting to see ordinary Detroit

Monday

Catholics and Friends in Logic "Catholicism is logical." That was the warning uttered by Daniel Webster to Orestes Brownson when the lawyer saw young Orestes browsing a Catholic work in a bookstore. The Protetant Webster was telling him, "Don't wander too deep into those waters,

Something for Sunday Morning

"'Be perfect' . . . This is not just advice from the master, but an imperative command." Francis Fernandez

Saturday

Bullets Best headline yesterday: "Coffee Shop Is Plagued By Violent Homeless Crowds [http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/02/28/manager-says-chelsea-coffee-shop-is-plagued-by-violent-homeless-crowds/] ." The descriptive headline pretty much says it all. * * * * * * * Time to become an Indians fan: Cleveland Indians lower prices on hot dogs, beer and other concessions [http://sports.yahoo.

Friday

BYCU (Kinda) Based on her credentials [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tina_Brown], I think it's safe to say Tina Brown leans pretty heavily to the left. Because she leans left, it seems safe to say that her publication, The Daily Beast [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_

Thursday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Raising the Minimum Wage Pretty much every economist outside of Obama's circle knows minimum wage laws create unemployment, artificially raise prices, and, in general, are a horrible idea. I mean, if it makes sense to raise the minimum wage to $9, why not $25? Once you start to

Monday

Sugar On Saturday evening, I watched one of the best documentaries I've ever seen: Searching for Sugar Man [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125608/]. The story told by the documentary has made a small media splash, so maybe you're acquainted with the story. If not, don&

Something for Sunday Morning

The fruit of Silence is Prayer The fruit of Prayer is Faith The fruit of Faith is Love The fruit of Love is Service The fruit of Service is Peace Mother Teresa

Saturday

Depressing Stuff Anybody here pay their own health insurance premiums? I do. I received notice that my premium is going up 26% this year. And oh yeah: I have to pay a chunk of the same premium increase for my staff. * * * * * * * Great country, this USA. Perfect place to be middle

Friday

BYCU I'm a fan of neither space exploration nor whisky, but some of you might find this story interesting: The Final Frontier For Whisky [http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/02/13/the-final-frontier-for-whisky/] . A whisky manufacturer is sending a bottle of clear liquor into space with shards

Thursday

Nasty IRS Trick It's not too often that my blawg and TDE overlap, but they did yesterday. Readers, especially clergy, might find this article interesting: IRS Attacking Churches [http://sturgislawfirm.com/2013/02/20/irs-attacking-charitable-deductions/]. My (perhaps lame) attempt at humor aside, the important thing to take away

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Bullets We're such a wealthy country. We should give it away: "DHS reported how relatively few immigrants are being turned away on the grounds that they are likely to become a "public charge" -- or individuals who depend on welfare programs -- despite a 100-year-old

Monday

Twitter I'm being increasingly drawn into the Twitter world. I've encouraged my children to open Twitter accounts for the simple reason that the 140-symbol limit forces economy of words. If you're composing a tweet, you're forced to think, "Okay, what'

Something for Sunday Morning

"Without patience our expectation [of the spiritual life] degenerates into wishful thinking. Patience comes from the word 'patior,' which means 'to suffer.' . . . What seems a hindrance becomes a way; what seems an obstacle becomes a door." Henri J.M. Nouwen

Saturday

Hell, the World, and Tattoos The world is a better place if you don't care if the world is a better place. Tolstoy criticized a thing he called "family narcissism," which he described as the mindset that says "The world can go to hell, just

Friday

BYCU Man, I find this really hard to believe: "Researchers at Granada University in Spain have found that beer can help the body rehydrate better after a workout than water or Gatorade." Link [http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/10/scientists-suggest-beer-after-workout/] . I used to drink beer after

Valentine's Day

BYCU: Special Edition Looking for a unique Valentine's Day gift for that special lush? Here are ten recommended chocolate beers [http://business-news.thestreet.com/sturgisjournal/story/10-chocolate-beers-youll-love-for-valentines-day/11837328] . The whole idea of chocolate beer strikes me as appetizing as ketchup on ice cream, but if you're

Odds

"The Irish bookmaker Paddy Power quickly issued odds on the cardinals considered most likely to succeed Benedict – with Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Canadian head of the Vatican's office for bishops, Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian who was converted from animism by Irish missionaries, Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson

Resignation Question and Answer

From my priest friend in Rome: A little question and answer about the Pope's resignation. Yes, I am sad; I love Benedict XVI dearly. Has this ever happened before? Yes, in 1415, Pope Gregory XII resigned from Office to end the Western Schism. Can the Pope still do

The Resignation

From a Good and Reliable Priest (currently stationed in Rome): "With regards to the present moment I would also want to encourage. The Holy Father said on Saturday evening the following words: "There is a false pessimism that says: the time of Christianity is over. No: it begins

Monday

Oklahoma! Our local high school performed Oklahoma! [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma!] this last weekend. I didn't have any kids in the musical, but one good friend of the family's had the lead ("Curley"), plus we knew quite a few of the other

Something for Sunday Morning

"At the root of insincerity lies pride. This vice prevents a person from submitting to God, recognizing his dependence on God and doing what God wants. A proud person has difficulty in even recognizing that he is doing wrong and needs to correct his behavior. When this vice takes

Saturday

Violent Cities This story caught my eye: San Pedro de Sula (Honduras) is the world's most violent city [http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2013/02/08/honduran-city-is-world-murder-capital-juarez-drops-for-second-year-in-row/] . I've long taken an interest in knowing what city is the most violent in America (probably because my

Friday

BYCU The beer world has grown complicated. Eric Asimov counts the ways [http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/b/beer/index.html] . Excerpt: "Nowadays, the beer shelves are so crammed with brews labeled Maximus, Monstrous and Imperial that you feel as if you've stumbled into

Thursday

Eclectic Thursday I don't pay much attention to college football recruiting, but this caught my eye: Ole Miss may have snagged the top-rated recruiting class in the nation yesterday [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-06/top-high-school-football-recruit-nkemdiche-selects-mississippi.html] . I like Mississippi. I'd love to see Mississippi become

Wednesday

Bullets I don't get involved much in the gun control debate, but this quip yesterday made me smile: "If guns kill people, how does anybody get out of a gun show alive?" * * * * * * * Who could've possibly seen anything like this coming: " Prison guard pregnant

Tuesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Monday

This piece of sophomoric humor comes from my Sophomore, Jack. It cracked me up, plus it's a little politically incorrect, so I've posted it, albeit with slight reservations. * * * * * * * I'm trying hard to start most or all of my garden from seeds this year, but

Something for Sunday Morning

"How can you dare ask others to keep your secret, when that very request is a sign that you aren't able to keep it yourself." Escriva

Saturday

It's Inevitable If you, like me, think the federal government's relentless drive to suck this country dry for the enrichment of itself and allies on Wall Street is inevitable so there's no reason to fight it, then you, like me, are part of the

Friday

BYCU Not much today. I'm celebrating the end of January, but my schedule doesn't allow much drinking this weekend, so I'm not terribly motivated to post drinking items. Just two things today: 1. I saw one of the oddest items on eBay this week:

Thursday

Bullets If you're interested in economics and agriculture, you might enjoy this EconTalk podcast: Lisa Turner on Organic Farming [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/12/lisa_turner_on.html]. For a variety of reasons, I expected the podcast to be an attack on the organic farming/gardening

Late Night Kimmel

“60 Minutes” anchor Steve Kroft is defending Sunday's interview with President Obama and Hillary Clinton, saying that he didn't have enough time to ask hard-hitting questions. That would be easier to believe if the name of his show wasn't the amount of time he

Late Night Craig Ferguson

Oprah was in the news recently for her Lance Armstrong interview. It was TV at its most powerful. Armstrong tearfully admitted to using steroids, and Oprah reciprocated by tearfully admitting she once had to pump her own gas. I greatly respect Oprah because she is from a tough background. Her

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Random Opening I'm not a big fan of Facebook, but I was dealing with a migraine Sunday afternoon and looking for some low-impact ways to spend time, so I was browsing FB. A friend posted this picture on Facebook, and I was impressed enough to post it here.

Monday

Sundays "You might try never working on Sundays. Just rule it out. See how you like it." That's one of the best pieces of advice I ever received from a priest. No matter how busy I get at the office, I don't work on

Something for Sunday Morning

"Being humble, we will ask God for pardon many times a day for our sins of omission and commission, or at least for what is not going well in our life. . . . If we live this way, being completely sincere with ourselves, we will have no reason to set ourselves

Saturday

Caption to this picture: "How to Tell When Hunting Season is Over." Have you seen Zero Dark Thirty? I haven't gone, but it has come to my hometown so I was thinking about going. After reading this review [http://www.city-journal.org/2013/bc0125mt.html], I&

Friday

BYCU I received an interesting email of "incredible historical pictures." The pictures look legitimate, but I question some of the captions (I suspect the person who assembled the original email took old pictures then put bogus captions on them). Anyway, there were a few pictures that, if the

Wednesday

Peterson Observations I'm enjoying John Peterson's Pop Goes the Culture. It's great non-fiction light reading . . . a perfect "bathroom book," though I haven't much defiled it that way. Herewith, a few samples: In his chapter about the wrestler Gorgeous George, Peterson

Monday

Those are four of my kids, handling a snake during their visit to Detroit these past few days. I think the picture is gross. Snakes give me the willies. It's because I have such a finely-honed sense of original sin and the snake's role in the

Something for Sunday Morning

"Our Lord wants those who follow him in the midst of the world to be people who work well. They must be known for the quality of their work, which will have the prestige of excellence, and be thoroughly competent in their job or profession. They cannot be slapdash

Saturday

Day Off and Foot Traffic I'm taking today off. Except for the Saturday before Christmas, it's my first Saturday off since early November. I'm pretty stoked. * * * * * * * You know something odd? My law firm's foot traffic has increased dramatically over the past year.

Friday

I found that book in my local bookstore's "Free" box out front. It looks pretty good. I doubt I'll get around to reading it soon, but hey, if it's free, it's me. A new study, funded by the beer industry,

Leno

It seems a doctor in Germany is being sued by the family of a patient who died after 16 items were left inside of him after the surgery. The doctor said he felt terrible. He tried to call the family but couldn't find his cellphone.

Thursday

Manti Musings I can honestly say that I was never a Manti fan. Something about him didn't seem right, and now it appears that's the case [http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8851033/story-manti-teo-girlfriend-death-apparently-hoax] . One of two things happened here: (1) He fabricated the whole

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Monday

Bullets I'm not sure if I've plugged him recently, but if you want a good Catholic movie site, be sure to visit Steve Greydanus' Decent Films Dot Com [http://www.decentfilms.com/]. I don't always agree with him and he can't

Something for Sunday Morning

"'Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead,' The Misfit continued, 'and He shouldn't have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it's nothing for you to do but throw away everything and

Saturday

You might say the Michigan medical marijuana has pretty much made the stuff legal. Wow. The law is horribly written, making prosecution of excesses difficult. The smokers and growers are getting brazen, as evidenced by this vehicle that one of my municipal law colleagues recently saw parked outside his city

Funny Fallon

President Obama recently came under fire over the lack of diversity in his cabinet. Then Obama said, "You guys know I'll be there, too, right?" Prostitutes in Brazil have started learning English so they can communicate with out-of-town clients during the World Cup. They are learning

Friday

BYCU The Eastern District of Michigan ruled earlier this month that bars have a constitutional right to allow dancing and entertainment (without getting a permit). I saw that on one of my professional listserves. While meeting with a Liquor Control Agent yesterday, I was told that the decision also protects

Thursday

From the Footnotes I don't blog much about the law, but this footnote from a recent 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals case kind of cracked me up. The case revolved around the issue of whether a police officer could use a citizen's obscene gesture as grounds

Wednesday

Bullets Okay, the winter doldrums are now here. We packed Alex and Abbie back to Ann Arbor yesterday, the kids are back in school, the football bowl season is over. It's time to hunker down and wait out the snow. Then again, the forecast calls for temperatures in

Leno

Scientists in China say obesity may be caused by bacteria in your stomach. Three of the most common carriers of the bacteria are pizza, cheeseburgers, and doughnuts.

Tuesday

Trifles Flu slams into my house. First time in awhile that we've been hit. I went down first, but I was feeling much better by bedtime yesterday. I'm still not sure that it was the flu that got me. It might have just been a really

Monday

Miscellany Christmas draws to a close. The picture above is the weight bench (with pulley system) that we gave the boys for Christmas. My wife found the beat-up box at K-Mart with a $15 price tag on it. She lugged it to the checkout counter and the digital scan confirmed

Something for Sunday Morning

"The irony is that epiphanies are made for sharing, even as they are impossible to communicate fully." Fr. Thomas Rosica

Saturday

Miscellany I had dinner with a young priest last night. He's currently stationed in Rome, and he told me that the monastery at Norcia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_St._Benedict_%28Norcia%29] has started a brewery. The intensely-traditional monks are apparently churning great stuff. From

Friday

BYCU My big BYCU news? Gluten-free beer isn't bad. My brother-in-law bought me two bottles for Christmas. They were both surprisingly good and not more expensive than lower-priced craft beers ($1.99 a bottle). I'm inclined to stick with red wine and vodka (not mixed, chuckle)

Thursday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Wednesday

Bullets My son saw these two quotes attributed to Will Ferrell and Ron Artest respectively, "If lesbians don't like men, why are they attracted to women who look like men?" And: "Why do people keep head-butting my elbow?" * * * * * * * Speaking of Facebook, you might want

January 1, 2013

Happy New Year, everyone. It's a holiday, so blogging today is at a minimum. I'm just going to plug my new favorite Twitter account: The Overly Manly Man [https://twitter.com/OverlyManlyMann]. It reminds me a lot of a book my father bought me while I

Monday

Bullets I watched Boondock Saints last night for the first time. Excellent movie. Highly recommended. * * * * * * * Farmers, you're irrelevant. Just ask the people in Boston and San Francisco. Midwesterners, you suck. Just ask the molders of public opinion in NYC and LA. Rural folk, you don't matter.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Luke's Gospel account of the Christmas event is full of activity”¦And yet, in the middle of the frenetic action, here is this woman wrapped in mystical silence”¦She demonstrates the necessity of a quiet place within ourselves at Christmastime–that place where we are most ourselves

Saturday

Miscellany I relaxed with the older kids last night and watched Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. I thought it was going to be a humorous, campy movie, but it wasn't. It was a true horror flick. The premise: The South is controlled in large measure by vampire plantation owners

Friday

A beer blogger recommended this beer as a good New Years Eve drink. New Years Eve drink? What makes this a NYE drink? The warming cloak? I mean, I understand Halloween beers (the pumpkin) and Christmas beers (the spices) and maybe even Thanksgiving beers (back to pumpkin), but a New

Thursday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Wednesday

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Not much this morning. Just this interesting list of 12 Must-See movies of 2012 [http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/12/24/must-see-flicks-top-12-movies-2012/] . I might also add The Hobbit, which I saw last Sunday, but it wasn't nearly as good as

Something for Christmas Morning

"He is born poor, and he teaches us that happiness is not to be found in an abundance of earthly goods. He comes into the world without any ostentation, encouraging us to be humble and not to depend on the applause of men." Francis Fernandez

Something for Sunday Morning

"Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ's birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery

Leno

"A Michigan lawyer has been arrested for manufacturing crystal meth in his office. I hope the fact that this guy's a lawyer doesn't send the message that somehow all meth dealers are sleaze balls."

Saturday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Friday

BYCU (Abbreviated) There's still time to go out and get yourself some Christmas beer. Supposedly, Hoppin' Frog Frosted Frog Christmas Ale is one of the best. Or maybe you should try Great Lakes Brewing Company Christmas Ale: "Honey, ginger, and cinnamon work well to complement a

Thursday

Europe from its Origins An email from Joe Hogarty, the creator of the great podcast Europe from its Origins [http://www.ahistoryofeurope.eu/A_History_of_Europe/A_History_of_Europe.html] to me. Reproduced with permission: "Thank you for your appreciation of the podcast series Europe from its

Wednesday

More Great Epstein Quotes "If one way to make friends is to show a great interest in other people, showing such an interest, however artificial is might be at the outset, can before long issue in genuine interest." Once More Around the Block [Channeling C.S. Lewis and

(Untitled)

ABC is working on a new show inspired by Justin Bieber's life before he got famous. It makes sense – I mean, there's just so much we don't know about that week. Jimmy Fallon

(Untitled)

A woman in Spain was arrested for stashing three pounds of cocaine in her breast implants. I thought, "That's quite a bust." Craig Ferguson

Tuesday

Bullets "One who has not grasped the mystery of Christmas has failed to grasp the decisive element in Christianity. One who has not accepted this cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." Benedict XVI * * * * * * * America's most respected financial journalist gives a fairly lengthy interview [http://www.zerohedge.

Monday

St. Francis and Christmas The picture is St. Francis of Assisi Preparing the Christmas Crib at Grecchio [http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/giotto/st-francis-of-assisi-preparing-the-christmas-crib-at-grecchio-1300] . I've long been a St. Francis fan (who isn't?), but I never realized he is largely to thank for the intense warmness

Something for Sunday Morning

"The liturgy of Advent helps us to understand fully the value and meaning of the mystery of Christmas. It is not just about commemorating the historical event, which occurred some 2,000 years ago in a little village of Judea. Instead, it is necessary to understand that the whole

Saturday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Friday

BYCU End-of-year tax planning and related issues have left virtually no time for the peaceful waiting of Advent, much less for the peaceful drinking of Advent or hungover blogging of Advent. Fortunately, I don't need to spend much time blogging this morning. A loyal TDE reader sent to

Thursday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Funny Leno

"A close friend of mine said his doctor gave him less than two weeks to live. But it turns out his doctor's a Mayan. He says that to everybody." "The Mayans have predicted the world is supposed to end on December 21. If the world

(Untitled)

Today the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the European Union. The peace prize is awarded in Oslo. When someone told me, I said, "Norway?" He said, "Yes, way." Craig Ferguson

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Bullets The Hobbit nears . . . and do the critics. Hobbit director Peter Jackson defends fast frame rate [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20676605]. It's filmed at 48 frames per second, instead of the normal 24. I'm curious to see the effect. I hope it doesn'

Monday

Miscellany Whew. I hope this week goes better than last week, which may have been the hardest of the past couple of years. I'm glad John Peterson gave me those GKC shorts to use when life is too busy for blogging. Anyone enjoying them? * * * * * * * I reported last week

Something for Sunday Morning

"Advent, like its cousin Lent, is a season for prayer and reformation of our hearts. Since it comes at winter time, fire is a fitting sign to help us celebrate Advent. If Christ is to come more fully into our lives this Christmas, if God is to become really

Saturday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Friday

BYCU What beers did you drink in your younger years? There's a good chance people aren't drinking them anymore [http://247wallst.com/2012/12/03/nine-beers-americans-no-longer-drink/#ixzz2EBQLZ7RG] . 9. Milwaukee's Best Light 8. Miller High Life Light 7. Amstel Light 6. Miller Genuine Draft 5.

Thursday

I've never been this busy at the office. There was an evening about three years ago, when I actually slept at the office, but that was basically a 72-hour rush. This bout has been going full bore since last Monday and it ain't letting up. So,

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Funny Fallon

"A new survey found that “Sophia” and “Aiden” were the most popular baby names this year. The least popular baby name was Kim Jong Sandusky."

Tuesday

Random Joseph Epstein Quotes "In my youth one could go into a drugstore and confidently ask for a package of Luckies and nervously whisper one's request for condoms; now things are precisely reversed." In a Cardboard Belt! "The first condition of humor is its un-universality.

Monday

Miscellany You ever tried rutabaga? I never had, until a TDE reader sent me some seeds to plant. I figured, "What the heck?" I planted them last August, then harvested a huge rutabaga a few weeks ago. Man, it might be the best-tasting vegetable I've ever

Something for Sunday Morning

"Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent's intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it

Saturday

Friday

Drunken Waiting Advent starts in two days or, depending on your Semitic predilections, tomorrow evening. Advent is a season of peaceful waiting, meditation, penance . . . and drinking. As every traditionalist Christian realizes, our culture has kicked the holiness of Advent in the teeth by creating one large holiday season from Thanksgiving

Thursday

Bullets I saw Skyfall. I liked it, but it wasn't great. I don't know why the reviewers (and, apparently, general public) are fawning over it. Wait for the DVD. * * * * * * * Speaking of which: I've heard a few digs at Roger Moore, implying that he was

Wednesday

That's a picture from Turin, Italy. I stumbled across it at Elizabeth Scalia's Facebook page. I felt compelled to pass it along. * * * * * * * Antifragile arrived on my iPad this morning. I'm ten pages into it. Very good so far; just 500+ pages to go. * * * * * * * Don

Tuesday

Miscellany My seed-starting operation. I planted eight herbs on Sunday. We'll see if they come up. * * * * * * * It's that time of year again: Christmas wars. According to Glenn Beck's site, if you want to boycott anti-Christmas stores, start with these culprits: American Eagle, GAP, Garmin,

Monday

Anticipation I'm 46, and I've always tended to read a lot, yet I don't think I've ever eagerly awaited a new book. Sure, I mostly read dead guys--Chesterton, Belloc, Guardini, Voegelin, Nock--so it's not surprising, but still: you'd

Something for Sunday Morning

"The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.” GKC

From the Notebooks

From the Notebooks While recently trying to understand better the origins of nobility, I ran across this passage from Will Durant's The Age of Faith that got me wondering why people think the European Union is a viable concept. Durant is writing about the rise of feudalism and

Friday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Thanksgiving Day

“Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” G.K. Chesterton “Gratitude is characteristic only of the humble. The egotistic are so

Wednesday

Black Wednesday: Special BYCU Edition The day of the year when all bars get into the black. Well, kinda. Two days from now is called "Black Friday" (increasingly, "Black Thursday [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_%28shopping%29#Black_Thursday]") because that's when

Tuesday

Random Welcome, Rutgers and Maryland, to Big Ten country. I long thought West Virginia and Iowa State would make good fits, but I guess this works fine, too. * * * * * * * Get 'em while they're hot: Obama nativity kits [http://www.theblaze.com/stories/obama-to-accompany-baby-jesus-wise-men-in-italian-nativity-scenes-yes-really/] . * * * * * * * The jovial Dylan Grice had

Monday

Helladay Parade There's a small city called "Battle Creek" about 50 minutes from my house. It's the home of Kellogg and Post, making it the "Cereal Capital of the World." It has about 60,000 people and puts together a lot of

Something for Sunday Morning

“Beware of money and the desire for ease and comfort, for it will turn your heart from God, Mother Teresa taught them. 'One loses touch with God when one takes hold of money.'” David Scott, on Mother Teresa.

Saturday

I'm going to need a ton of compost next Spring, so I packed away as much extra material this Fall as I could find. Thing is, it might not break down by next May. The answer? Generate heat. Marie was throwing away our pool's solar cover,

Friday

BYCU I snapped this pic of a painting at the St. John's Inn in Plymouth, Michigan. The Inn, I'm told, is the home of Cardinal Maida [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Maida]. I've never seen him kicking around there, but if I did,

Thursday

Garden I received another load of wood chips on Monday. It allowed me to eliminate the remaining strip of lawn from my back and side yards. I've now wiped out about half my lawn . . . and it's the side that was most difficult to mow. Instead of

Tuesday

Random Man, that was a fast weather reversal. Seventy on Sunday, snow flurries Monday morning. * * * * * * * Which presidential polls did the best? The worst? I'll give you a little hint: Gallup ain't lookin' too good these days. Link [http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/

Monday

Miscellany Garden Update I'm still pulling spinach, kale, and brussel sprouts out of the garden. We're just finishing the last of the tomatoes. I first started pulling produce out in late April, so that means I've gotten produce for seven months so far, and,

Something for Sunday Morning

“We have a right to be happy and peaceful. We have been created for this”“we are born to be happy”“and we can only find true happiness and peace when we are in love with God: there is joy in loving God, great happiness in loving Him.” Mother Teresa

Saturday

Received in an Email I received this picture from a friend. The day before, a TDE reader sent me these de Tocqueville reminders: “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.” And “A democracy cannot exist

Friday

Received in an Email Been out of town on business. Just this today: College Football Jokes Why do Tennessee fans wear orange? So they can dress that way for the game on Saturday, go hunting on Sunday, and pick up trash on Monday. ___________________________________________ What does the average Alabama player get

Thursday

The Essayist I broke down and bought that Epstein collection of biographies that I mentioned earlier this month [https://thedailyeudemon.com/25945/]. I also bought a collection of Epstein essays that came out in 2008. It took the latter a week to arrive, but once it did, I eagerly opened

One Other Thing

Ron Paul ccould've held President Obama to 303 electoral votes. For crying out loud: a Repubican piece of wood could've held Obama to 303 votes. But for all those who wouldn't vote for Paul because he wasn't electable: egg on your face.

Wednesday

What Tonight Means to Me This was a beat down. A thrashing. It wasn't close, and it wasn't because of Sandy. It was never close. It is because everything that made the United States great has been officially denounced. Shed your delusions about the United States.

Election Tuesday

Bought this grow light last weekend (before I knew the garden store had finally opened). I expect it to arrive today or tomorrow. Gonna use it to start an indoor herb garden now, then use it to start seedlings in February. * * * * * * * The day is here. Once again, the MSM has

Monday

Monday Miscellany Garden Store Finally, a garden store opens in my town. For three years, I've had to piece together gardening supplies from a variety of sources, all of them somewhat "hit or miss": Local nurseries, Amazon, Walmart, TSC, seed catalogues. No more. About three months

Something for Sunday Morning

“Sacred Scripture calls all of us to a lofty, perfect holiness. The saints are men and women who say a complete yes to this call, not merely in prayerful sentiments but also in daily decisions and actions.” Thomas Dubay. Related: “Saints have the habit of saying yes, sinners the habit

Saturday

Miscellany No significance behind this picture. I was just looking for pictures from NYC and found this one (taken at a cemetery in the Bronx) at Wikicommons and thought it pretty cool. * * * * * * * Over at Drudge [http://www.drudgereport.com/] this morning, there are a lot of troubling headlines out of

BYCU

Received in an Email The tax system explained in beer When pondering the question of mining super taxes and the structure of our tax system in general, please refer to this explanation using the language of Beer !!Â Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the

Thursday: Happy All Saints Day

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Wednesday

I recently ran across this passage by Fr. Benedict Groeschel: "The account of the Ascension brings us to the edge of physical matter. No scientist would ever be so foolish as to give an explanation of the nature of physical matter, which is one of science's great

Picture Tuesday

The kids' jack-o-lanterns: I discovered last weekend that the iPhone 5 camera has a "panorama" setting. I took these pictures on Sunday: one from my front yard (facing our neighborhood), one from my back deck (showing my dormant garden). And finally, received in an email:

Monday

I was flipping through a backlog of magazines on Saturday while watching the excellent slate of sporting events. I ran across all sorts of interesting stuff, like this ranking by Forbes of the best cities to do business [http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2012/06/27/the-best-places-for-business/] . The following

Something for Sunday Morning

"The greatness of God lives at the level of ordinary things." Escriva

Saturday

Miscellany You want to revitalize the Catholic Church? Get rid of the organ, says this op-ed piece [http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/10/24/revitalize-catholic-church-let-kill-all-organs/9FpzZPSQzhfd4uUeCJNDbK/story.html] . I don't agree with a chunk of it (goodness knows, we don't need more folk guitar music

Friday

BYCU Do you like the craft beer movement but are stunned by the prices? Costco might have the answer. A TDE reader tells me you can pick up a case of Kirkland craft beer for $20. Not bad, not bad at all. Of course, I don't know how

Thursday

Man, gorgeous weather. My garden is now entirely put to bed for the winter. Everything is covered with wood chips, leaves, and/or grass clippings. I've dug compost into a few areas that strike me as particularly depleted, and I've formed a few compost hills in

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Tuesday

Bullets Our kids' parochial school held its annual fundraiser last Saturday. One of the events was a pumpkin-carving contest. This entry was really cool. * * * * * * * Find of the year: The Philokalia, Kindle edition, just $1.99. I downloaded it Sunday night. It appears to be the full four volumes, but

Monday

Chesterton Square Any TDE readers ever been to Ponchatoula, Louisiana? I guess it contains " Chesterton Square [http://www.chestertonsquare.com/]," which in turn contains a massive statue of GKC. The Ponchatoula Wikipedia entry [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponchatoula,_Louisiana#Tourism] doesn't even mention this nifty

Something for Sunday Morning

“Be faithful in little things.” Mother Teresa

Saturday

The Vote Neareth > "A state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory." Max Weber. The new issue of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/] arrived yesterday. My friend Dale Ahlquist is taking

Friday

BYCU Congratulations to the Detroit Tigers. I've been a fan since before I could walk. Now, if they can just stay focused and put down the Cardinals (i.e., if we can just not replay 2006). * * * * * * * If you live near the North Coast, this is your lucky week:

Thursday

Last football game of the year last night. Whew. It hasn't been a great season, and I'm glad it's over. Time to gear up for basketball. * * * * * * * A TDE reader sends along this picture of nuns watching the presidential debate, along with this proposed caption:

Wednesday

Bullets One-sixth of the nation is officially pro-Obama: Record High Enrollment for Food Stamps: 46,681,833 Million [http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/record-high-enrollment-food-stamps-46681833-million_654653.html] . * * * * * * * But if you think a Romney presidency will change the program, you're sorely mistaken. After eight years of Bush, people were still

Tuesday

I feel kind of bad for newspaper writers. They have to write on topics they know little or nothing about, with the result that they often look like doofi. I remember one AP reporter writing about the Vikings' and Cowboys' multiple Super Bowl appearances. She made the comment,

Something for Sunday Morning

“God ordinarily reveals His indwelling presence not through visions but by prompting virtuous actions within us.” Thomas Dubay, citing Saints Teresa of Avila, Thomas Aquinas, and Bernard.

Saturday

Weekend Miscellany TDE readers know I care more about my fall crop of brussels sprouts than I do about the presidential election, but as an outsider looking in, Romney's recent surge looks pretty impressive. Sample [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/2012_elections_electoral_college_map.html]

Friday

BYCU: Received in an Email VODKA Good to know: Vodka is least likely to give you a hangover Vodka is made by fermenting grains or crops such as potatoes with yeast. It's then purified and repeatedly filtered, often through charcoal, strange as it sounds, until it's

Early BYCU

Whiskey handed out to reporters before VP debate [https://twitter.com/susanferrechio/status/256404841453215744/photo/1].

Thursday

Nock Notions "To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant." Nock starts Memoirs of a Superfluous Man with that quote from Amos Bronson Alcott. He no doubt loved it, as do I. But I doubt Nock and I would apply it the

Wednesday

Bullets Ready for an attenuated rumor? A friend of mine does work for a guy who supplies a military manufacturer. According to my friend, the guy told him that the military manufacturer is really ramping up production and the type of things being made clearly point to an oncoming war

Tuesday

The temperature dropped to 30 degrees Sunday evening. We went out Sunday afternoon and gathered up as many tomatoes--red, yellow, green--that we could. We ended up with about a thousand cherry and grape tomatoes, most of them green. We have no idea what we'll do with them, but

Monday

An Online Annoyance Does anybody enjoy the online news videos? You know what I'm referring to: You're surfing the Internet, you see a link to an interesting story, you click on it, and (instead of a printed news story) a video screen comes up. I almost

Something for Sunday Morning

“Contradiction and contentiousness come from deceit, a companion of unbelief and haughtiness.” The Philokalia

Saturday

It's the Feast Day of St. Bruno. I found this in my archives: The Carthusian life of St. Bruno obviously contrasts severely with the modern life. The Carthusian lived largely by himself; the Modern lives a life constantly among others. The Carthusian devoted his life to prayer; the

Friday

BYCU I can't say I've ever read Gentleman's Quarterly. In fact, the term "GQ" and "gay as hell" were pretty much synonymous in my circle while growing up. But when a TDE reader sent me this story, "5 Best

Thursday

Congrats to Miguel Cabrera: the first triple crown winner in 45 years. I can't believe there wasn't a lot more media coverage of this phenomenal achievement. It's either a testament to baseball's declining popularity or a testament to the idea that, if

Wednesday

Bullets October is a great saint month: Lisieux, Francis, Avila, Bruno. October might be my favorite month of the year anyway. The great saints we commemorate during are just a kicker. * * * * * * * Pretty strong words from a bishop: "[A] vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are

Tuesday

Nock Notions Our culture? You might say Nock wasn't a big fan: "Our civilization is certainly a poor enough affair, anyone who is even half satisfied with it ought to be ashamed of himself, and everybody ought to kick about it as hard as he can, poke

Monday

The Fathers Wanna become Catholic? Read the Church Fathers. That's a consistent theme on Marcus Grodi's The Journey Home, as well as a theme hammered home by my friend, Mike Aquilina. I was reminded of the Catholic thinking of those earliest Christians when reading Evelyn Waugh&

Something for Sunday Morning

“It is not good to look at what it is not lawful to desire.” St. Gregory the Great

Saturday

Bullets Low-impact weekend. A little work at the office, a little gardening, a little football, a lot of reading. Perfect. * * * * * * * No surprise: "Couples who share the housework are more likely to divorce, study finds [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/9572187/Couples-who-share-the-housework-are-more-likely-to-divorce-study-finds.html] ." But I wouldn&

Friday

Good, clean drinking (and related) pics from the Frankenmuth, Michigan, Bavarian Music Festival earlier this month. Thanks TDE reader Kevin for sending them along:

Thursday

I have about two dozen of these gourds, various sizes. I was bummed out that they weren't pumpkins, but I'm kind of digging them now. That's about all I have today. It's the football time of year, and Michael (8th grade) had

Wednesday

From the Notebooks The Nock on Babbitt? It's interesting that Sinclair Lewis labeled the repressed character in Babbitt after Irving Babbitt, the Harvard professor from Ohio who emphasized that men must restrain their appetites or America will fall. Lewis' use of the eponym was meant as an

Tuesday

The Campion/Waugh book came yesterday. I was pretty stoked. The days have been long: community bickering, lots of office projects, family issues. It was nice to settle in with this minor masterpiece last night. * * * * * * * Humanae Vitae Exonerated, Episode 3,291,042: Danish sperm donor passes genetic disorder to five

Monday

Great garden pic that I stumbled across yesterday (credit [http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/12768/crop-rotation-technique-1-rotating-plant-families] ). * * * * * * * Wow, I've reduced myself to admiring garden pics. Can the nursing home be far behind? * * * * * * * Great piece by Ross Douthat at the New York Times yesterday. He points out that Washington and

Something for Sunday Morning

“If we indulge ourselves in vain, frivolous, or sinful speculations, our minds become incapable of choosing what is most proper for mortifying our disorderly affections.” Lawrence Scupoli

Saturday

The Atlantic catches on . . . four years too late, but at least it's catching on: "This summer, many government officials and private investors finally seemed to realize that the crisis in the euro zone was not some passing aberration, but rather a result of deep-Âseated political, economic,

Friday

BYCU Looking for new beers to try? Consider the "Rave" link [http://www.ratebeer.com/beer-ratings/1/] at Rate Beer. It's a constantly-changing list of beers that have most recently received great user reviews. But a warning: when I first clicked on it yesterday, the beer

Thursday

Great. The nanny state keeps getting stronger and stronger. "New York's limit on sugary soft drink sales is one example of the steps governments must take to stop the rise of obesity, [New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley] said today at a press conference." Link

Wednesday

Finally, a national-politics yard sign I like. * * * * * * * Great quote, especially when you realize it came from a Federal Reserve Chairman: "John Maynard Keynes stated in his 'Economic Consequences of the Peace' (1919): 'Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist

Tuesday

The Wisdom of Crowds I'm really digging a particular Amazon Kindle feature that I never thought I'd use: the popular highlight. If you're not acquainted with electronic readers, most of them allow you to highlight passages. It's similar to the old highlighter

Monday

Misellany Very nice trip to Ann Arbor on Saturday. I got to spend the day with Alex and Abbie, plus my three youngest sons and a niece. The weather was perfect. We got to see a lot of campus and experience the game-day excitement that is U of M'

Something for Sunday Morning

“Obedience is, in a way, the mother of all virtues.” St. Augustine

Saturday

My daughter Abbie is at the University of Michigan. She signed up for a woman's studies class. After the first day--and ample exposure to the lesbian instructor--she dropped the class. While sitting at dinner with brother Alex and his friends, they were marveling that she even signed up

Friday

BYCU The ex-Commies are getting better taste in beer: "[T]he owner of Russia's biggest brewer, said it will place an increasing emphasis on selling higher-priced beers in the country to compensate for weakening volume there." Link [http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-13/carlsberg-to-focus-on-premium-beer-in-russia-as-volume-declines] . * * * * * * * This can&

Thursday

Bullets Cafe Hayek featured a quote by my man Chodorov earlier this week [http://cafehayek.com/2012/09/quotation-of-the-day-395.html], and it's a god one: "The final argument for free trade as a measure of preparedness is that it tends to minimize the irritations which lead to

Wednesday

From the Notebooks The modern Russian mystic Nicholas Berdyaev taught that the "complete person" is creative in the "ecstasy of the moment," which, Berdyaev said, is outside time. At about the same time that Berdyaev wrote those words, a man of a different intellectual persuasion observed

Tuesday

Bailout Podcast Real good podcast over at Econtalk: Neil Barofsky, talking about his new book, Bailout. [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/09/barofsky_on_bai.html] Barofsky was an insider to the whole TARP operation, working as "Special Inspector General" in the Treasury. Barofsky is, from what

Monday

My garden, as of yesterday. I took the picture so I can remember next Spring where I grew things this year. * * * * * * * Not a highly successful gardening year. Grades for my efforts: Currants: A; Blackberries: A; Cherry/Grape Tomatoes: A; Chard: A; Herbs: A-; Cucumbers: B; Spinach: B; Broccoli: B-; Tomatoes:

Something for Sunday Morning

“The love of neighbor has its bounds in each man's love of himself.” St. Augustine

Saturday

Weekend Rambler I'm stunned: the MSM is actually reporting what a funk the economy is in . . . and their man is president in an election year. That means one of two things: (1) The economy isn't just in a funk. It's in full-on depression-mode decline,

Friday

And if that doesn't put you in the mood to drink a few tonight, then check out these five facts about beer [http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/09/04/cheers-5-intoxicating-facts-about-beer/] . Sample: > Today, beer is the preferred beverage of men, according to data from a July 2010

Thursday

Seen at Facebook Imperialists on the Left I haven't read much by the revisionist left-wing historian Eric Foner, but I'm led to believe he's an honest academic, so I was interested to see this interview with him: the Evolution of Liberalism [http://m.thebrowser.

Wednesday

Bullets As of yesterday, Romney had pulled even with Obama in the polls. Even? If I recall correctly, candidates get a pretty big bump in the polls immediately following their convention. If Romney is only even with Obama, I'm guessing his chances of success are remote. * * * * * * * Then again,

Monday

This is a picture of the altar at my parish. It's quite stunning. Our priest did a great job of taking a flat-out ugly altar and transforming it into something great. * * * * * * * The first angel to the right of the cross (blonde angel, blowing a trumpet) is supposedly modeled

Something for Sunday Morning

"Because God's goodness and love, every moment of our life can be the beginning of great things." Mother Teresa

Saturday

Holiday Weekend Miscellany Summer ends like it begins, in stages: kids leave for college (return for summer), Labor Day weekend (Memorial Day weekend), little kids go back to school (get out for summer), September 21st (June 21st)). As I get older, the changing seasons remind me more and more of

(Untitled)

MTV has announced this will be the last season of "Jersey Shore." So I guess we'll never know if they learn to walk upright. Conan

Groeschel

I didn't get to bed until almost midnight, my kid's football game was tough to watch, I'm busy at the office, and I'm battling a headache. But I need to respond to the Groeschel situation. Readers know that I've long

Friday

BYCU My apologies for the pre-fab bloggging this week. Between a blitz at the office and two out-of-town trips and a mild flu-like ailment of some sort, it hasn't been a great week. The light blogging continues this morning, due to an out-of-town football game last night in

Funny Conan

Yesterday a medical marijuana group officially endorsed President Obama for president. Doesn't really help Obama though, because they were just getting around to endorsing him for 2008. The oldest person on Facebook is a 101-year-old woman. She said, "I want to waste what little time I have

Thursday

From the Notebooks As part of my dive into Nock, I've dove into the 1920s. I would watch Boardwalk Empire as part of my studies (I read a review last year that said the show has taken great efforts to reproduce the period in all its gilded extravagance,

Wednesday

Jacques Ellul had a unique definition of anarchy: "By anarchy, I mean first an absolute rejection of violence." Anarchy and Christianity, Eerdmans (1991) p. 11. Such a definition might seem ironic, but it's not. When you spend a few minutes thinking intently about government, you realize

Tuesday

Taking Alex and Abbie to college today. Both oldest kids in Ann Arbor, living about one mile from each other. A sad day, but life moves on. Quotes and Notes “When proponents say 'let's do something about it,' they mean 'let's get hold

Monday

Ranking the Cities We took a day trip to Chicago on Saturday. We went to the Shedd Aquarium, ate at Uno's (over-rated), walked/shopped the Miracle Mile, then decided the heat was too much and drove home early, pulling into our driveway before 8:00 p.m. On

Something for Sunday Morning

“If a vessel is to be filled, it must first be empty. So cast all evil away from you, that you may be filled to the brim.” St. Augustine

Saturday

This story is sad and humorous at the same time: "An elderly parishioner has stunned Spanish cultural officials with an alarming and unauthorised attempt to restore a prized Jesus Christ fresco [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19349921]." She honestly meant no harm: This kinda reminds me of

Friday

BYCU While watching Pawn Stars last night (my dinner companion), I saw a Prohibition-era bottle of "Old Taylor medicinal whiskey" sell for $200. I was curious if the price was remotely in the ballpark. I couldn't find any for sale on the Internet. The Puritan liquor

Thursday

Bullets Attention GKC fans: Chesterton Pilgrimage to Rome [http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en&gl=us#m_23]. November 12-20. $3,700 from JFK. The deadline for registration passed, but they've extended it a few days. Dale Ahlquist is leading. I know Dale personally. He'

Wednesday

140 Million Served Our country has 308 million people. It turns out that 165 million are full or partial dependents of the government (including 107 million welfare recipients and 22 million government employees) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/art-cashin-new-normals-new-populism-165-million-state-dependents] . That's a major problem. It means the majority of

Tuesday

Church Fathers and Hunter Thompson (Yes, Unrelated Posts) I need to get back and read the first generation of church fathers again. I used to dip in and out of their writings (guided primarily by Quasten--see below), but got out of the habit. Sites like this remind me that they

Monday

The container garden is shaping up. I took this pic yesterday. * * * * * * * Key element of container gardening: Herbs and spices (what's the difference?) go in traditional containers; vegetables go only in self-watering containers. Vegetables that don't set fruit, like spinach and kale, could probably go in a

Something for Sunday Morning

"If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are." Mother Teresa And if things do touch you? I'm afraid that means you're not humble, and if they hit you hard, you're probably proud

Saturday

Not much today. Marie and the kids are going to Frankenmuth, Michigan, for the annual Bavarian Music Fest. I typically join them, but I'm staying home this year. I'm simply tired. It's been a brutal past couple of weeks, and with school year activities

Friday

BYCU The Forty Best Beers in America [http://eatthis.menshealth.com/slideshow/print-list/77385]! Kinda, if you're into the health thing. It's from the standpoint of calories, so if you're gay, it's a good list for you. Number one is Miller Genuine

Thursday

Letters to Children Whenever you're dealing with something sinful, incidentally, it is helpful to see what it really is. Strip away the props; eliminate the frills and hype; and see what you really have. If you get the time or desire, you should read Dante's Divine

Holy Day

Well, it's not a holiday, but it is a Holy Day--and I'm swamped at the office--so blogging today is light. Just this little present from me to you: Elvis at TCM, all day on Thursday [http://www.tcm.com/schedule/index.html?tz=est&sdate=

Tuesday

Letters to Children Unfortunately, we live in a society that tends to look at the intellectual effort in connection with getting a practical education–i.e., an education that allows one to get a job–and with succeeding at the resulting job, as the end-all of intellectual endeavors. In other

Monday

Miscellany So Romney chooses Paul Ryan. Alright, I'll vote in November. I hardly consider myself part of a Republican base that Romney is trying to mobilize, and I still think voting in national elections is mostly a waste of time and signals approval for a system that has

Something for Sunday Morning

"The holy man always conceals his holiness; that is the one invariable rule." G.K. Chesterton

Saturday

Letters to Children There are many places you can read about the real purpose of money, but I enjoyed the insight offered by a group of writers from the 1920s and 1930s known as the Agrarians, a group of writers and poets from Vanderbilt who criticized American culture. I can&

Friday

BYCU I love stories like these: Beer gardens fare well: Alcohol sales an 'awesome' addition to state fair [http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/08/05/beer-gardens-fare-well.html] . It's the same old story: A traditionally-dry venue decides to allow a moderate amount of alcohol

Thursday

Bullets I golf once a year. Today is it. It's the 32nd annual Scheske Open, so just a handful of things. * * * * * * * Theodore Dalrymple draws a stark analogy between the fall of the Roman Empire and the late Empire's love for games and the ongoing fall of

Wednesday

I finally broke down and bought a cold frame. I'd been looking for cheap substitutes for two years, but nothing ever worked. I considered a Juwel brand cold frame, but they're ridiculously expensive ($130). I then found this Genesis cold frame model for $86, plus $20

Tuesday

I've never been a big Second Amendment guy. I'm inclined to think Americans have a right to own a gun, and I own some guns myself, but overall, the "guns and dogs crowd" leaves me cold (my quiet disdain started when I was 26

Monday

Miscellany I've been pulling up sod like a mad man lately. It's great exercise, it expands my garden, it reduces mowing time, and I can listen to podcasts while I do it. * * * * * * * I've long enjoyed Marcus Grodi's The Journey Home [http://www.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Let us always meet each other with a smile . . . for a smile is the beginning of love." Mother Teresa

Saturday

Well, I'll be danged. This is good news. Y'all remember Gerard Casey? If not, then you're not memorizing the names I've mentioned in TDE over the past three years. I blogged about Casey here [https://thedailyeudemon.com/13359/]. I've only

BYCU

“I've been here when it was glory hole days and when it wasn't. I want me some glory hole!” That's apparently Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys. He's an oil man, so he was probably referring to an oil find, but

Thursday

Letters to Children: Doing Nothing In Against Heresies, St. Irenaeus wrote: “In the beginning God created Adam, not because he needed man, but because he wanted to have someone on whom to bestow his blessings.” This is not a unique idea–it may have been in Irenaeus' time, since

Wednesday: Why I Blog Now

Blogging and the Focused Life I've recently come to a new appreciation for blogging, and I owe it to Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, a wonderful book by Winifred Gallagher [https://thedailyeudemon.com/15477/]. It's a powerful book. I have little doubt that some people,

Tuesday

Random NBC, please, stop: no more swimming. My gosh. It might be the finest sport around for individual development and the worst sport around for spectators. I can't fathom who's enjoying all this aquatic prime time. * * * * * * * I hadn't been following this cover-up story by

Monday

My harvest yesterday. Not pictured: two dozen hot peppers, a second batch of grapes, and two large cucumbers. Monday Miscellany My family's favorite of the Olympics so far? Team handball. I'd never seen it before. It's pretty cool. * * * * * * * We downloaded the NBC Live Olympic

Something for Sunday Morning

"There is nothing . . . we have to choose." de Caussade

Funny Fallon

I read that one of the presidential debates will have a town hall format where citizens will ask the candidates questions. The most common question: “Are you the only two choices? -- Mobile post

Friday

What time are the Opening Ceremonies today? London is five hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time, and I think the ceremonies begin at 9:00 London time, so 4:00 our time? Is that correct? I want to make sure to watch all the chicks that are taking advantage of

Thursday

Two Things 1. Have you ever heard of the "Holy C"? It's a phrase used by NPR to refer to "Holy See" in this article yesterday [http://www.npr.org/2012/07/25/157356092/bishop-explains-vaticans-criticism-of-u-s-nuns] . If you'd clicked on it quickly enough

Wednesday

Miscellany The first Olympic record has already been broken: 150,000 Free Condoms to Be Distributed to Athletes at Summer Olympics in London [http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article_external/11255914?mailing_id=1735&linksrc=mb_main_col_3] . Maybe we should call it the "Bonelympics." * * * * * * * Do

Tuesday

One of the nicest advantages of living in a town (but not a village): the movie theater is situated downtown, within walking distance. And for me, the theater is within crawling distance. It's just three doors down from my office. Last night, I worked until 6:45, then

Monday

Autobiographical Corner I'm back. I went to Alpena, Michigan, for eight days. My family has a cottage on Lake Huron that has been in the family since 1945. We relaxed, played games, took a shipwreck tour [http://www.alpenashipwrecktours.com/] (there are over 100 wrecks in the Alpena

Something for Sunday Morning

"True discipleship hinders no one; on the contrary, it perfects everything; and that which runs counter to the rightful vocation of any person is, you may be sure, a mistaken devotion." St. Francis de Sales

Saturday

Mini-Review Plato and Aristotle by Eric Voegelin (1957). Volume III of Order and History. Choice quote: "Thanatos orients the soul toward the Good by relieving it from the sickness of appearance; Eros is the positive desire for the Good." Plato the mystic. Aristotle the scientist. Right? No. They

Friday

Mini-Review The World of the Polis by Eric Voegelin (1957). Volume II of Order and History. Choice quote: Homer "strove valiantly for the insight that ordering action is action in conformance with the transcendent, divine order, while disruptive action is a fall from the divine order into the specifically

Thursday

Mini-Review Israel and Revelation by Eric Voegelin (1956). Volume I of Order and History. Choice quote: "A Prophet can hear and communicate the word of God, but he is neither a Philosopher or a Saint." Josef Pieper writes thick and thin books: books that are short but packed.

Wednesday

Mini-Review Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953). Choice quote: “'But I know something else you don't. There's dew on the grass in the morning.' He suddenly couldn't remember if he had known this or not, and it made him quite irritable.” Everyone

Tuesday

Mini-Review An Anthology by Josef Pieper (1981). Choice quote: "The possibility of incurring guilt is the ultimate existential threat for every person." There are some authors who make you think, "I could just read this guy for the rest of my life. He'd bring me

Something for Sunday Morning

"Never let us act like those who weep when consolation fails them, and only sing when it has returned, resembling apes and baboons that are sad and furious when the weather is gloomy and rainy, and never cease leaping and playing when the weather is fair and serene."

Saturday

Nock Notions "The decade 1887-97 was one of the most extraordinary periods in all the history of America's fantastic civilization; even the period 1929-39 can do but little more than match its bizarre eccentricities. . . . Free silver, the initiative, referendum and recall; farmer-labourism, votes-for-women, popular election of senators,

Funny Fallon

A chef from McDonald's just revealed the recipe to the Big Mac's secret sauce. Even more surprising – he also revealed the McRib's secret meat.

Friday

BYCU A few good drinking quotes: "Conversation, hilarity and drink are connected in a profoundly human, peculiarly intimate way." Kingsley Amis ________________ "While the village remained the social unit, strangers appeared seldom, and when they did they were heavily outnumbered by your family, your friends, people you had

Thursday

From the Notebooks Is democracy better than monarchy? I've long thought that question deserves more attention, but I've long thought that a prudent American doesn't ask it, since many Americans view such a question as either treasonous or insane. In fact, it's

Wednesday

Extraordinarily busy days at the office. Just this great pic today:

Tuesday

From the Notebooks The Nock on Babbitt? It's interesting that Sinclair Lewis labeled the repressed character in Babbitt after Irving Babbitt, the Harvard professor from Ohio who emphasized that, for America to survive, men must restrain their appetites. Lewis' use of the eponym was meant as an

Monday

Bullets If you needed confirmation that Olympic athletes are pigs, look no further [http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/most_of_the_iWUNgznLeBhhff7VI9wlSP]: "no matter the host country, it's always a struggle keeping booze and condoms in strong supply." * * * * * * * I saw Spider Man yesterday. Very

Something for Sunday Morning

“To give free reign to the senses is to shackle the soul, to shackle the senses is to liberate it.” The Philokalia

Saturday

Autobiographical Corner The weather is so hot, the thermometers have stopped working. My iGoogle homepage application said the temperature in my town would hit 108. That's what a local radio station announced, too. My friend's car thermometer said it hit 107. Another friend's car

Friday

The best vodka this side of the Pecos River [http://www.incentivevodka.com/] now has a finished tasting room (well, almost finished). This is a pic I took of the outside two weeks ago. If you're in the area, stop out. It's a unique drinking experience.

Thursday

Garden pic from yesterday: peppers in the foreground, then The Verdant Pathway, then watermelons (next to trellis), brussels sprout, tomatoes to the right, grapes further back. This is about 40% of my garden. Garden Stuff Whatta hard year to garden. The Spring was hot, then cool, then hot again . . . and

Wednesday, July 4th

From the Notebooks Many conservatives today seem to think Russell Kirk [http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-05-041-f] wasn't a libertarian, and if memory serves, he didn't consider himself a libertarian (though he, on more than one occasion, confounded Rothbard's anarchism with

Tuesday

Two Things Whew, things are a whirlwind at the office. Not much today. I just have a few quick things: 1. This piece from the current issue of The Atlantic about John F. Kennedy [http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/jackie-and-the-girls/9000/]. Man, I knew the guy was

Monday

The Return Monday I've returned from vacation. Same as every year: Houghton Lake (Michigan's largest inland lake) for a week with Marie, seven kids, and 40 in-laws. It's a pleasant time, and it leaves a ton of time for reading. It's the

Something for Sunday Morning

"[Y]our very prayers against the angry feelings that trouble you should be gentle, calm, and without vehemence." St. Francis de Sales

Saturday

Mini-Review Leisure, The Basis of Culture by John Pieper (1948). Choice quote: "[T]here can be unused space in the total world of work." Obsessed with efficiency? I am. At least I used to be. I'm a recovering efficiencoholic. It was bad, so bad that my

Funny Fallon

A family in Colorado was reunited with their lost bulldog, after it was found 500 miles away. In response, the bulldog was like, “Jeez, can't these people take a hint?” A new study found that pigeons can actually recognize human faces. So I guess my pigeon friend was

Friday

Mini-Review Studies in Classic American Literature by D. H. Lawrence (1923). Choice quote: “I should think the American admiration of five-minutes tourists has done more to kill the sacredness of old European beauty and aspiration than multitudes of bombs would have done.” Yeah, I know: D. H. Lawrence among Catholic

Funny Fallon

Over the weekend, a man in Tennessee was kicked out of a Kenny Chesney concert because he looked too much like Kenny Chesney. That actually happens a lot – in fact, my grandma was kicked out of an Aerosmith concert for looking too much like Steven Tyler.

Thursday

Mini-Review Introduction: If you find these reviews bizarre yet orthodox, I have accomplished my goal. If you find them entertaining yet profound, I am humbled. If they brings you a little closer to classic works of the twentieth century, I am gratified. If you forward the review to friends with

Wednesday

Mini-Review Introduction: If you find these reviews bizarre yet orthodox, I have accomplished my goal. If you find them entertaining yet profound, I am humbled. If they brings you a little closer to classic works of the twentieth century, I am gratified. If you forward the review to friends with

The Evening Eudemon

From the current issue of New York Magazine: In Hell's Kitchen recently, two overweight tourists caused a pedicab to tip over backward. TDE comment: It's a phenomenon slated to increase. A study released this week says that 33% of all Americans are now obese. In Central

Tuesday

Mini-Review Introduction: If you find these reviews bizarre yet orthodox, I have accomplished my goal. If you find them entertaining yet profound, I am humbled. If they brings you a little closer to classic works of the twentieth century, I am gratified. If you forward the review to friends with

Currants from the Garden

Monday

Mini-Review Introduction: If you find these reviews bizarre yet orthodox, I have accomplished my goal. If you find them entertaining yet profound, I am humbled. If they brings you a little closer to classic works of the twentieth century, I am gratified. If you forward the review to friends with

Something for Sunday Morning

"We must live beautifully." Mother Teresa

Saturday

Miscellany Summer is in full swing. Blogging grows light, I grow fatter, and sobriety grows scarce. It's a good thing. * * * * * * * Peter Leithart on the author of summer, Ray Bradbury [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/06/poet-of-summerrsquos-end]: > He is at his most exotic when exploring the mysteries

Friday

Internet problems, work problems, drinking problems. Abbreviated BYCU today, courtesy of loyal TDE reader Rob, who sends along this nugget of history: > The delegates who attended the Constitutional Convention spent much of their time getting drunk. One surviving document is a bill for a party on September 15, 1787,

Kimmel

"Here's an interesting fact. A hundred percent of people who use the word "summer" as a verb are awful people. Did you know that?"

Leno

"Our space probe, Voyager 1, launched back in 1977, is 11 billion miles in space. It's on the verge of leaving our solar system on its mission to find other civilizations to try and borrow money from."

Thursday

Bullets A TDE reader sends me this nifty little story: Popular atheist blogger converts to Catholicism [http://www.theblaze.com/stories/atheist-blogger-stuns-secular-community-with-announcement-shes-converting-to-catholicism/] . She's still struggling with a few things, like the Church's teaching on homosexuality, but she's coming over. Hats off to her. * * * * * * * But

Wednesday

Fascism or Socialism? I must admit: I struggle occasionally with the exact distinction between "socialism" and "fascism." But no more. Thomas Sowell lays it all out [http://lewrockwell.com/sowell/sowell94.1.html], using the current administration as the touchstone. The basic distinction: In socialism, the

Tuesday

Economic Thinking The folks at Cafe Hayek say it might be the best blog post ever [http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2012/06/factual-free-market-fairness/]. They exaggerate, but it's awfully good. The economist/blogger pits conventional economic thinking against free market economic thinking . . . and leaves the pitiful liberal ideas in the

Monday

Nock Notions "[A]s government consolidates and strengthens, the power of independent moral judgment in the citizenry weakens; and this is one of the most interesting phenomena of our time." Nock wrote those words in 1934, as he watched FDR unfurl massive efforts to weaken the independent moral

Something for Sunday Morning

“All fear arises from the love of something.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Saturday

Miscellany Pretty cool: Bulgarian Relics of John the Baptist are Probably Authentic [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godandthemachine/2012/06/bulgarian-relics-of-john-the-baptist-are-probably-authentic/] . Of course, the skeptics will laugh. Kinda reminds me of the old skeptical trope (Voltaire, I believe, started it) that, if you gathered up all the nuggets of the

Friday

I like history, I like beer. This sounds pretty good: > To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, the team at Mamuee Bay Brewing Co. has re-created two period beers – one English style, one American style. > If your allegiances fall to king and crown, try the

Thursday

Bullets Whew, whatta week. This is my first blogging opportunity since last Saturday. * * * * * * * In the interim, I didn't have a chance to post about the significant gay marriage and children study. If you hadn't seen commentary about this study, start with Douthat's piece at

Wednesday

Music Man It's summertime. That means it's party time. And where there's a party, there's music. Unfortunately, I'm repeatedly unimpressed by people's inability to come up with a good song selection. I've been to many parties

Tuesday

Letters to Children Fiction is not a waste of time and it's not an escape from reality. Good fiction serves many useful purposes, such as instilling a sense of how to tell a story and how to write. But I am mostly interested in good fiction because it

Monday

The Monday post has been deleted. The hate was building, and this site isn't meant to inflame. Y'all have my email, if you care to email me about the issues presented. As I tried to indicate in my post, I haven't made a firm

Something for Sunday Morning

“There is no desire which is not directed towards a good.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Saturday

You know the economy is looking bad when the president comes out in an election year and says it [http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/08/us-usa-obama-economy-idUSBRE85716I20120608] . It's also safe to say it's not going to get any better soon, or else the president would

Friday

Cheap Beer and Disco Quiz: How many people were in Cleveland Stadium for 10-cent beer night, back in 1974, when things went to hell in a handbasket? Answer: 746,335. That, according to this web comment: "All I know is -- if all of the people who claim to

Thursday

Nockian Corner In Henry George, An Essay, Nock spent a lot of time trying to understand George. George, Nock claimed, was a first-rate philosopher and an awfully good amateur economist. Yet George also put faith in American politics and spent a great deal of time trying to change things. The

Wednesday

Bullets Leave it to illiterate computer geeks: "Every instance of the word 'kindle' has been replaced by 'nook'" on the Nook e-reader." The result? Passages like this from Tolstoy's War and Peace: "Captain Tushin, having given orders to his company,

Tuesday

Summer Stuff I like summer, except for the heat and the wind and the mosquitoes. The last ones kill me (figuratively-speaking, not malarialy-speaking). Whenever I hear about hiking or other outdoor activities, especially in northern Michigan where mosquitoes are thicker than the skulls of politicians, I fake a heart attack

Monday

Letters to Children Living in the Present II Now, I need to mention that you will, in a way, be forced to leave the Holy Present occasionally when you are forced to make plans for your future. This, of course, is common sense. But this common sense observation has many

Something for Sunday Morning

"Be sure that wherever we may be, we can and must aim at the perfect life." St. Francis de Sales

Saturday

Bullets How readable is your prose? This nifty tool lets you know [http://lewrockwell.com/rep3/readability-calculator.html]. Based on a couple samples from TDE, it appears my readers need about an eighth grade education, which is probably why my wife finds some of my posts too difficult to enjoy

Friday

BYCU Looking for some good summer brews? Check out this list [http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1982679540/The-Beer-Nut-Summer-brews-that-satisfy] . The beer blogger recommends Brooklyn Lager, which is a fine beer. In fact, it might become my summer mainstay, since I'm pretty sure wheat beers collide harshly with my gluten

Thursday

Letters to Children Living in the Present I The nineteenth-century Scottish fantasy writer, George MacDonald, lived in intense poverty. He wrote fairy tales in order to eke out a living for his family. Yet he had a peaceful mind. Said C.S. Lewis about him: “His peace of mind came

Wednesday

Received in an Email Newsletter Nearly half of all Americans live in a household getting a government check, according to the Census Bureau. Of course, it's not quite as bad as it sounds, since many of the households are elderly. Here's the breakdown: 15% of Americans

Tuesday

Bullets I've installed a rain barrel. Okay, not really, but I did position four plastic containers on top of my garden closet, just under the eaves of my shed. Collectively, they probably hold seven gallons or so. Of course, we haven't had rain for so long,

Monday

Happy Memorial Day. Consistent with past practice, blogging will be light today, since holiday blog traffic is normally very low. * * * * * * * I looked up morning mourning dove on Wikipedia. It appears that they're a very common bird, so the Jack story (see Saturday) isn't a great coincidence,

Something for Sunday Morning

"[W]hen there is nothing to stir your wrath, gather up a store of meekness and kindness, speaking and acting in things great and small as gently as possible. . . [W]e must be filled, heart and soul, with gentleness. . .". St. Francis de Sales

Saturday

Autobiographical Corner Whew, a great weekend ahead of me. Why? I have the house to myself. Marie and The Seven left for a weekend of bird watching. Yes, bird watching. I might read Etienne Gilson, G.K. Chesterton, and (starting shortly) Karl Popper, but, relative to my birding family, I

Friday

It's summer time, which means it's time to get out the gin. I guess gin joints are all the rage these days. New York Magazine has provided a list of these "gin-centric cocktail joints [http://nymag.com/nightlife/wheretodrink/2012/gin-bars/]." Each entry also

Thursday

Letters to Children: Being in Love When your mother and I first started falling in love, she was living in Ypsilanti and I was living down the road in Ann Arbor. After dating for about a year, I found myself calling her every day and making plans to see her

Wednesday

Summer Reading Blessed Summer sits 48 hours away. My reading list has more-or-less come together. For your general edification or amusement, here it is: I enjoy few things more than a writer's random journals. Such prose is particularly well-suited to random Summer days. And it's Nock.

(Untitled)

An aquarium in the U.K. claims that it has the world's first vegetarian shark. Either that or they're playing a really mean prank on Nigel the tank cleaner. Fallon Al Gore has a new girlfriend. Apparently, it's getting pretty serious. He's

Tuesday

Failbook Last Thursday, a family member had access to Facebook shares at $43 per share (IPO price: $38). I asked him if he could get me in. He looked into it and said he couldn't. I just shrugged, since I knew virtually nothing about the offering, whether the

Monday

Autobiographical Corner Well, the worse of the busy season is almost behind me: the little girls' soccer leagues are done (I did my final Hell stint Saturday morning, watching back-to-back games in scorching hot field for over two hours; I felt out-of-whack the rest of the day), Jack'

Something for Sunday Morning

"You ask how to put away anger: as soon as you feel the slightest resentment, collect yourself gently and seriously, not hastily or impetuously." St. Francis de Sales

Saturday

Fat Tax A new fat tax to induce thinness [http://www.theindychannel.com/health/31079697/detail.html]? It wouldn't surprise me, but all people need to do is get grains and sugar out of their diets, yet at the same time that they're talking about a

Friday

Brews You Can Use It's one of the best collegiate developments in decades: Beer is coming to college stadiums [http://www.toledoblade.com/BGSU/2012/05/13/Trend-brewing-to-sell-beer-at-games.html] . "Beer is sold to the average fan at 22 of 120 major college football stadiums -- more than

Thursday

"[T]here has always been a conflict between power-seeking moral reformers and the 'lowbrow' culture of saloons, immigrant and black resistance to work, shopping, dance halls, rock-and-roll, and the ever-advancing sexual revolution." That's Thaddeus Russell, writing in his splendid A Renegade History of the

Script

"So it is with the love of money, the love of power and the other maladies that affect the minds of men--you may be sure that it is when they abate and give every appearance of being cured that they are at their most dangerous." Seneca, Letter LVI.

Tuesday

Bullets Is California the new Greece? "California's budget deficit has exploded 73% in a mere four months. In January, it was $9.2 billion. Now Gov. Jerry Brown says it's $16 billion. Whoops, guess the 'recovery' isn't everything it's

Monday

On Sleep I ran across one of the most interesting and helpful articles of the year this weekend: "Cuckoo: Our body clocks have social jet lag. And it's making most of us a little crazy [http://nymag.com/arts/books/reviews/till-roenneberg-internal-time-2012-5/]." It's one

Sunday

"Humility makes our lives pleasing to God, while meekness makes us acceptable to people. St. Francis de Sales

Fallon

A new survey found that the best time to post something on Facebook is on Wednesdays between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. – while the best time to post something on MySpace is on Wednesdays between 2004 and 2007. -- Mobile post

Leno

Researchers at Harvard say red wine can slow the aging process. They say if you drink red wine, it can help you look younger. And you can look even younger if you get the other person to drink it. -- Mobile post

Saturday

Gay Marriage Insightful piece at Vox Populi on gay marriage [http://vox-nova.com/2012/05/10/why-i-am-annoyed-with-both-president-obama-and-cardinal-dolan-on-the-same-day-on-the-same-issue/] . I can't say I quite agree with it, but the author makes the general point I've made over the years: gay marriage is only succeeding because straight people ruined

Friday

BYCU Attention Michigan Beer Drinkers: The World Expo of Beer [http://www.worldexpoofbeer.com/expo/] will take place on Friday May 18th from 5-10PM and Saturday May 19th from 3- 10PM. It's in charming Frankenmuth, "little Bavaria," near the Michigan thumb area. * * * * * * * There's a

Thursday

Bullets Whew. This month is as busy as any. I found out yesterday that I'm going to lose a tooth, so that really stinks. Fortunately, it's a back tooth, so my beautiful smile won't be affected, and it might last me another ten years.

Wednesday

Stupid little hobby, plus one. First two pics are from my garden. I have nearly converted my entire backyard into a garden. I have only "The Verdant Pathway" left. The third pic shows Max (8) guarding Jack (15) with a broom, in hopes of emulating a 7-foot defender.

Tuesday

Letters to Children: Marriage: Part 2 You should also understand that marriage is romantic only because it is permanent. It's a thing most people fail to see: If you strip away all the props, drama and lust that surround a romantic venture, you are left with one thing:

Monday

Letters to Children: Marriage I'm not going to recount the history of marriage, or why it is properly viewed as a sacrament, or anything like that. I'm going to talk about your marriage and how to be happy in your marriage and why it will, naturally,

Something for Sunday Morning

"The multiplicity of affairs is a continual martyrdom." St. Francis de Sales

Saturday

Econ Saturday So what happened yesterday? Stocks got hammered. Oil dropped 4%. Metals held their ground, but that's no big deal. They often do well when the other investments tank. Well, the April unemployment numbers were dismal. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1%, but it was because

Friday

Friday Drinking Thoughts "[C]onversation, hilarity and drink are connected in a profoundly human, peculiarly intimate way." Kingsley Amis. Amen to that. It's no doubt a thought that all the world's great drinkers, including Chesterton and Belloc, would agree with. Amis would go on

Thursday

Bullets Another anarchist attack [http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/01/5-arrested-for-allegedly-trying-to-blow-up-ohio-bridge/] ? That's so 1900, and I question whether they really are anarchists. Anarchy is a tricky concept, but it's too often applied to anyone who advocates violence and the overthrow of the existing order,

Wednesday

Which Stage is Hardest? I want to start this month of essays with encouraging words for young parents. When my children were little (pre-school), things were hectic. The kids were constantly under-foot and took up huge amounts of time. That was bad enough, but worse, whenever I got exasperated, I

Funny Fallon

There's a new dating site aimed at matching up women who like to travel with men willing to pay for their trips. It's part of a new dating trend called prostitution.

Tuesday

Autobiographical Corner Welcome to May. The Scheske Family's Hell Month. Every May is a whirlwind that makes every activity except the most fleeting impossible. Serious reading, writing, and prayer? Phsaw. It doesn't happen during May. We have baseball and soccer and sacraments and end-of-school-year activities. I&

Monday

Student Loans The student debt problem is getting more and more press . . . and more attention in Congress [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303978104577364120264435092.html?mod=WSJ_GoogleNews&mod=igoogle_wsj_gadgv1] . The whole debate infuriates me. The federal government created this mess by throwing a ton of money at

Something for Sunday Morning

"[D]o not make yourself unhappy about your imperfections, but always have the courage to rise above them." St. Francis de Sales

Saturday

Roman History Finding myself firmly ensconced in middle age, there's one small thing I regret: I never sat down and focused on one thing for a prolonged period. Sure, I kept my life focused on the big things: getting my professional degree, doing my job well, raising a

Friday

BYCU The Street says my Tigers charge more for beer than any other major league stadium [http://www.thestreet.com/story/11507257/11/10-most-expensive-beers-in-baseball.html] . "Know that $214 million contract the Tigers gave slugger Prince Fielder? Well, fans are paying for it with a $2.75 hike in the

Thursday

Random Quotes "The opposite of intellect is dullness or slowness, but the opposite of wisdom is foolishness, which is far more dangerous." Thomas Sowell "One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputation." Eric Hoffer

Wednesday

Death and Drinking Stuff Can local regulation lead to suicide? Possibly. Click here for a disturbing description of the harassment that Andrew Wordes of Roswell, Georgia, endured [http://lfb.org/today/death-by-regulation/]. I would love to read the other side of the story, but if this piece is remotely balanced,

Tuesday

Bullets For years, Nimrod meant "mighty hunter." But then Looney Tunes used it to refer to a dumb person in an Elmer Fudd episode of Bugs Bunny. Since then, nimrod means stupid. Link [http://www.dailywritingtips.com/accidental-shifts-in-meaning/]. * * * * * * * Can you trust or believe any mainstream economists? Sure, a

Monday

From the Notebooks All people suffer from what Daniel Kahneman calls a "puzzling limitation" of the mind: "our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Lose no occasion, however trifling, of exercising sweetness of heart toward anyone." St. Francis de Sales

Saturday

Weekend Miscellany Glorious day: Very few commitments, other than two girls soccer games. If I get out in time, I'll stroll over to the high school baseball field and volunteer in the concession stand for awhile. It's supposed to be 56 and sunny with zero chance

Friday

BYCU Walgreens is getting rid of wine. Marie picked me up these bottles of Liberty Creek sweet red. Pretty sweet find. I plan on cracking one tonight, unless I opt for the Barefoot sweet red that Walgreens was also blowing out. Brutal week. Due to some administrative incompetence, a cracked

Thursday

From the Notebooks In The Guinea Pig Diaries, A.J. Jacobs engages in intense experiments of the subjective sort: he uses himself, the guinea pig, to test ideas and phenomenon. Each chapter of the book describes the results. In “My Outsourced Life,” he wants to know what it's

(Untitled)

Wednesday

Whew. I have a backlog of great articles to mention. Some new, some a bit older. I'm going to take a triple chomp out of the backlog this morning. Here we go . . . Ross I'm repeatedly enthused about young Ross Douthat. The Catholic convert and Chesterton fan

Tuesday

Anarchists in NYC Tolstoy, Ellul, Proudhon, Rothbard. Those are just a few of the anarchists that have eschewed violence and revolution. There have been many others. No matter. Anarchists have been consistently painted by the press as violent scoundrels. It raises the real specter of the intertwined pillars of power

Monday

Bullets If you live in northern Indiana or southwestern Michigan, you might want to check out the 9th Annual Men's Conference in Kalamazoo this weekend. I know the people who are putting it together. You can expect a reverent, orthodox, entertaining, and well-organized event. Patrick Madrid is the

Sunday

Garden almost ready for planting.

Saturday

Not much today. The Springsteen concert Thursday night went very late, then we came home to out-of-town company and Abbie's final high school play. A few quick words on Springsteen: You better be a HUGE fan, if you go to his concert. He started an hour late (I

Friday

It's been years since I spent more than $10 on a bottle of wine, but I bought this bottle a bottle of Marietta Old Vine earlier this week. I'm waiting for a special occasion to drink it. I suspect the special occasion will arrive in a

Thursday

Bullets What nation is the rudest to its tourists? Nope, it's not the United States. It's France [http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/04/11/where-are-worlds-rudest-countries-for-travelers/] (shocker, shocker). I've never been to France, but I've talked to plenty who have been, and

Wednesday

Ryan the Catholic Hats off to Paul Ryan. He hit the trifecta: He referenced his Catholic faith in a positive way, he knows what the principle of subsidiarity is, and he says the principle (and other Catholic teachings) inform his public decisions. Link [http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/

Tuesday

Bullets When the bastards rise, who opposes them? Virtually always, it's people of religious faith. They're the only ones with the guts to stand up, whereas the atheists tend to be complicit in the tyranny. That, anyway, according to Robert Higgs, who points out that it&

Monday

The Bible and Anarchy Jacques Ellul was a Christian anarchist, and he wrote a nifty little book about his reasons: Anarchy and Christianity. It's not the greatest book in the world, but it reads smoothly and its arguments are easy to follow. Essentially, Ellul, a Bible-first Protestant, musters

Wednesday

Nockian Corner "I have always lived close to the windward side of poverty, sometimes in pretty squalid surroundings, but I thank the Lord that I never had to live in a real-estater's suburb." Albert Jay Nock, The Book of Journeyman. This sentiment resonates with me. Not

Tuesday

Bullets What makes it even worse: The portions are shrinking. Prostitute barters sex for McDonald's hamburgers [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/prostitution/sex-for-cheeseburgers-749801]. * * * * * * * That hooker couldn't have enticed these guys: Asexuals [http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/04/life-without-sex-the-third-phase-of-the-asexuality-movement/254880/] . They're people with

Monday

Schizophrenia and the Saint Frank Chodorov wrote of the "conscious schizophrenic." The "C-S," according to Chodorov, is a person who intuitively latches onto values that don't fit into the existing social order, so he yearns for something better than what he can find in

Saturday

Three Items Anybody know much about Jacques Ellul [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Ellul]? I was embarrassed to tell a loyal TDE reader that I'd never heard of him. He wrote over 50 books and over a thousand articles. He thought of himself as a Christian

Friday

Pretty cool old wine ad I stumbled across yesterday. I took Marie to see "Jersey Boys" last night, so blogging is light. Great musical, btw. Making Atheists It's hard to believe in a benevolent creator when you hear stories like this [http://thecourier.com/Issues/2012/

Thursday

Bullets "Adults use email." It seems like an odd thing to say, but I've been saying it to my teens. They use Facebook to communicate, with the result that they don't check their email, even when they're expecting emails from potential employers,

Wednesday

Stupid little hobby. The Hunger Games last night. No time for blogging. Just this great little pic I took of an assortment of signs at a northern Indiana Italian restaurant last Saturday: The movie, btw, is great. I didn't read the books, so rest assured: you'll

Tuesday

The record: We went to war with Iraq because they had weapons of mass destruction. After we won and searched, we found no weapons of mass destruction. But leading up to the war in Iraq, Saddam acted like he had weapons of mass destruction, even though he knew it meant

Monday

Prices and Pot Menu Prices When Marie and I were dating, we used to go out to eat for $20, and that normally included a beer for each of us and the tip. I'm talking about middling restaurants, of the Chi Chi or Bennigan's type. I

Something for Sunday Morning

"[A] loss of charity is the only loss we need really fear in this life." St. Francis de Sales

Saturday

Best Vocalist While drinking and enjoying some old tunes late yesterday afternoon, I pondered this question: Who's the greatest pop/rock male vocalist of the 20th century? Jim Reeves? Marty Robbins? Johnny Mathis? Sam Cooke? Roy Orbison? I'm talking about pure singing talent, not most popular,

Friday

I always feature beer pictures, but I'm drinking red wine almost exclusively, so I thought, "Why not a wine pic?" I had this one on my phone, so it even meshes nicely with my "stupid little hobby" theme. It's a photo I

Thursday

Stupid little hobby: I was at Michigan's oldest college yesterday with my son, Jack, during AAU open gym basketball. I was on Kalamazoo College's campus for two hours, marveling at its quaintness and its lack of students, until someone told me, "It's Spring

Wednesday

The Ben Bites Back Bernanke has been slashing back at Ron Paul and proponents of a gold standard. He says a gold standard handicaps the government's ability to address economic conditions. Link [http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/20/us-usa-fed-gold-idUSBRE82J17A20120320] . The left-wing Atlantic loves it [http://www.

Tuesday

Bullets Is the world slowing down? It seems like everything is moving slow. Amazon packages are taking twice as long to arrive. Charter Internet is moving at a crawl. I know I'm moving slower these days. Maybe I'm just setting a trend. * * * * * * * A major shelf in

Monday

Mr. Magee Nassim Taleb is among my Dirty Dozen [https://thedailyeudemon.com/22981]. Taleb endorses Karl Popper and his (from what I gather) disciple, Bryan Magee [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Magee]. So when I saw Magee's Confessions of a Philosopher listed in the bibliography of Fooled

Something for Sunday Morning

The Oath of Small Love I shall bear the idiosyncrasies of others with patience. I shall bear the clownish actions of my neighbor with patience. I shall bear the troublesome ways of my neighbor with patience. I shall conquer my moods. I shall conquer my passions. I will mortify my

Saturday

Whew. Whatta week. In the aftermath of an NCAA auction party, a birthday dinner, and basketball watching, my Cave Man Diet has been crippled and I'm back on track to poor health. Hopefully, I can reverse the course today and actually eat right for an entire 48-hour period.

Friday

Today, I drink. I watch basketball, drink wine, and watch basketball. I should drink beer. I mean, last I checked, I'm a dude and dudes drink beer during the Tournament . . . I've been drinking beer and watching the first days of the Tournament for 25 years. But

Thursday

Autobiographical Corner Another endorsement of the Cave Man Diet Two years ago, I hadn't sprinted in over a decade. I started trying it. It went poorly: I felt slow, stupid, and fat. The sprinting also resulted in severe pain in my feet. The orthopedic doctor told me I

Wednesday: Quote Box

A Dozen . . . . . . from Nassim Taleb: "The most painful moments are not those we spend with uninteresting people; rather, they are those spent with uninteresting people trying hard to be interesting." "The characteristic feature of the loser is to bemoan, in general terms, mankind's flaws, biases,

Tuesday

Fr. Martin points out [https://www.facebook.com/FrJamesMartin]: "Eight out of the 28 Jesuit colleges made it to the NCAA basketball tournament this year: Gonzaga, Georgetown, Xavier, Marquette, Creighton, Loyola Maryland, St. Louis University, and University of Detroit-Mercy. That's over one quarter of our schools."

Monday

Miscellany Seneca on Exercise Nassim Taleb is a fan of Seneca. Art De Vany (of Cave Man Diet fame) reads Taleb. Seneca, it turns out, backs De Vany's opinion regarding proper exercise. From Letter 15 [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_15]: > Now

Something for Sunday Morning

"We do not very often come across opportunities for exercising strength, magnanimity, or munificence. However, gentleness, meekness, moderation, modesty, and humility are graces which ought to color everything we do." St. Francis de Sales

Saturday

Not much blogging this morning. Our local high school played in the District Championship in Kalamazoo last night. We won. My godson (a Senior) is our starting point guard; my son is a back-up guard (a Freshman who was moved up for the playoffs). Late night=light blogging. * * * * * * * The paradox

Friday

A friend sent along the above picture of his consolation after spending a long day at Disney with his daughter. I thought it was a great pic. BYCU Has anyone heard of the website Livability? From what I gather, it's a site dedicated to alerting people to great

Thursday

Fr. Sammie and Other 100.8 and 41. Those are the minimum-maximum temperatures in my hobby greenhouse over the past 24 hours. I was really blown away by that 101. I knew it got hot in there, but not that hot. It should give me good perspective on what I

Wednesday

No Eudemon Wednesday "Insufferable"? That's probably the best word I can use to describe Miley Cyrus. She's what, 20? And she exhibits all the pseudo-wisdom and arrogance of a 20-year-old, magnified by 50. In this article [http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/03/06/

Tuesday

Hollywood Quotes “In Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk.” Rita Rudner “Half the people in Hollywood are dying to be discovered and the other half are afraid they will be.” Lionel Barrymore “It's a scientific fact. For every year a person lives in Hollywood,

Monday

Gaylumbus So I'm at a party this weekend. A friend tells me about three colleges that her talented son is considering: Michigan, Stanford, and Ohio State. He apparently has a shot at getting into all of them. I responded that Stanford is easily the best of those three,

Something for Sunday Morning

“[P]atience must always lie at the center of leisure, for reality does not disclose its secrets to careless, hasty, or indifferent scrutiny.” David Baily Harned

Saturday

Inflation and Random Hidden inflation actually made it into the MSM this week: Everyday prices are up some 8 percent over the past year [http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505144_162-57387655/inflation-not-as-low-as-you-think/] . By "everyday prices," the analysis focuses on things we purchase every day, like food and gas. It

Friday

I used to drink Schlitz. I didn't think it was a bad beer, and it packed a wallop. BYCU Innovation and beer: Have you ever heard of Kickstarter? It's an online entrepreneurial funding mechanism. People come up with business ideas but don't have the

Thursday

On Christian Arrogance Nassim Taleb writes in the last part of Fooled by Randomness, "The epiphany I had in my career in randomness came when I understood that I was not intelligent enough, nor strong enough, to even try to fight my emotions. . . . I am incapable of training my

Wednesday

When I first started taking a hard look at converting to Catholicism, I was most struck by "spiritual development," the idea that we have a soul that needs to be nourished and strengthened. I was always taught that I had a soul that would survive death, but it

Tuesday

Randoms It's primary day here in Michigan. Has Romney irritated me enough to prompt me to pull that Santorum lever? I suspect it'll be a last-second decision. * * * * * * * Gardening Corner: 80 Odd Things You Can Compost [http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/02/26/80-items-can-compost/]. It'

Monday

Monday Miscellany I stumbled across this glass at a flea market back in the early 1990s, after Arkansas had left the Southwest Conference. I bought it for 25 cents or something like that, thinking it might be a pretty cool collector's item some day (since it had Arkansas

Something for Sunday Morning

"Throughout the whole of our lives we may enjoy the benefit that comes from prayer if we devote a great deal of time to it." John Chrysostom.

Saturday

The Panacea What are the three biggest problems confronting the United States today? There are lots of candidates, but I think most people, regardless of moral or political or religious persuasion, would put these three in the top 5: the economy, rogue nations and the atom bomb, terrorism. Fortunately, someone

Friday

TDE doesn't get many opportunities to post "honey shots," so when I saw this one, I jumped at the chance. A little sex appeal might drive more viewers to these otherwise-stolid cybershores. I'd never heard of Zymurgy [http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/zymurgy/current-issue]

Thursday

Colons, Tebow, and Other Gosh, I hope so: "Colonoscopy Lowers Rate of Cancer Deaths, Study Finds [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/health/colonoscopy-prevents-cancer-deaths-study-finds.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=igw] ." I'd hate to think I've been doing

Ash Wednesday

Lent Welcome to Lent 2012. I enter the season with high expectations, more so than usual. I can't identify the source of my optimism, but maybe the letters of Seneca are wearing on me well. Then again, Seneca counseled against hope, though, in his letter on groundless fears

Tuesday

Letters to Children: On History It's difficult to instruct you here, but I suggest you concentrate your reading in three areas: (1) Obtaining a general historical sense; (2) American history; (3) Classical history. (1) In order to understand much of what you read, you need a general chronological

Monday

Miscellany Ron Paul easily leads the yard-sign race in my neighborhood. I'd put one in my yard (which would be a first for me), but I don't know where to get them. * * * * * * * I mean, who else is willing to say things like this: "We'

Something for Sunday Morning

"Gregory of Sinai is insisting on an essential aspect of the Orthodox mystical tradition: the most dangerous enemy to union with God is imagination in any shape or form, voluntary or involuntary. There is a curious likeness between this Eastern spiritual doctrine and Simone Weil's concept of

Saturday

Bullets I came into this morning's post with nothing. Absolutely nothing. I had to engage in some good old fashioned Firefox tab-opening and surfing to assemble this morning's post. Unfortunately, I didn't find much, but a few things jumped out. * * * * * * * Does anybody here worry

Funny Fallon

After disputes over its nuclear program, Iran is threatening to stop exporting oil. Which means the U.S. may have to tap into its backup reserve: Mitt Romney's hair. Today President Obama visited a factory in Wisconsin that brought back 100 jobs from China. It's got

Friday BYCU

Slow drinking news week. Fortunately, I have been holding back this link to Doug Crockwell's series, "What Kind of Drinker Are You?" [http://www.fulltable.com/VTS/a/aa/drink/t.htm] There's enough drinking fodder to keep TDE readers amused until the effects

Thursday

From the Notebooks Nassim Taleb writes at the beginning of his first book, Fooled by Randomness: "We are still very close to our ancestors who roamed the savannah. The formation of our beliefs is fraught with superstitions--even today (I might say, especially today). Just as one day some primitive

Good Late Night

The son of Hugh Hefner has been arrested on a charge of domestic violence. When he heard this, Hugh Hefner said, "Son, there's a right way and a wrong way to disrespect women." Conan On Valentine's Day, Americans spend $367 million on their pets.

Wednesday

Received in an Email The Bavarian Beer Purity Law [http://itotd.com/articles/519/the-bavarian-purity-law/]. Great stuff for the drinking historian. Excerpt: The short version of this law, which was enacted on April 23, 1516 by Bavarian Duke Wilhelm IV (a.k.a. William IV), is that beer may contain

Tuesday

Whining Liberal = Catholic I had to drive to Battle Creek yesterday afternoon, so I had a chance to listen to Rush Limbaugh for the first time since I heard him declare Ron Paul a "liberal." I've never listened to Rush much, but I'd always

Monday

Letters to Children You should also read C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia and the fiction of George MacDonald. MacDonald, however, is difficult to read. If you can only bear to read one thing, please read his story “The Golden Key.” It is a bizarre little story that

Something for Sunday Morning

“Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.” Mother Teresa

Saturday

The big news this week? Flannery O'Connor. Not really, of course, but Dappled Things ran a great essay about O'Connor's influence on Bruce Springsteen [http://dappledthings.org/1148/naming-sin-flannery-oconnors-mark-on-bruce-springsteen/] . Excerpt: > Springsteen began reading O'Connor's stories in his late twenties,

Friday

A TDE reader sent me a link to Forbes Craft Beer of the Day [http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/02/07/craft-beer-of-the-day-hop-mountain-by-old-dominion/?feed=rss_home] . It's a pretty cool feature. Problem is, I can't seem to find an archive or even a consistent link

Funny Conan

A mother in China gave birth to a 15-pound baby. Chinese officials say it's so big, it can do the work of two babies. A new product that's coming out lets you consume caffeine by inhaling it. The product brings Starbucks one step closer to its

Thursday

Miscellany If it's possible to combine smugness with evil, it's accomplished by Planned Parenthood. I've noticed the juxtaposition other times, but the most-recent video ad that congratulates President Obama on smacking down the Catholic Church wins the cake walk. You can read about it

From the Eastern Notebooks

On Zen In the seventh century, Hung Jen, the fifth patriarch of Chinese Zen Buddhism, neared death. In order to choose a successor, he asked each monk to compose a verse that testified to the monk's Zen insight and post it on the wall. Shen Hsiu, the illustrious

Good Late Night

"Newt Gingrich has criticized “New York elites” who ride the subway. One of those subway elites threw up on my pants this morning." Letterman "Happy birthday to Zsa Zsa Gabor, she's 95 years old. I thought she did a great job at the Super Bowl

Tuesday

State v. Society Hey! A columnist at the New York Times understands the important Nockian distinction between "social power" and "state power" and the related phenomenon that, when state power goes up, social power goes down [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/douthat-government-and-its-rivals.

Monday

From the Notebooks Christian Studies in Skepticism Significant: "Living in history, we experience only the present, the immediate. This is as it should be; it simplifies decision and directs action (for in this world only ignorance give us the freedom necessary to act)." Romano Guardini, The Lord, p.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Lord, may I have balance and measure in everything--except in love." Escriva

Saturday

Musicals and the Mind Abbreviated blogging today. It's musical weekend. Abbie has the role of Jo Jo in Seussical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seussical]. Last night was excellent. I look forward to seeing it again. The high school musicals seem so much higher in quality than they

Friday

BYCU An advice columnist at the Washington Post ran this sniveling drivel [http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/a-control-freak-and-dishonest-to-boot/2012/01/17/gIQAN2RxVQ_story.html] : "My girlfriend has complained a lot every time I make a batch (every two months): She says the kitchen is always dirty afterward no

Thursday

Caveman Update I had my annual physical on Tuesday. The doctor noted that, in the past year, I had lost 15 pounds, my blood pressure had dropped from 108 to 102, and my pulse had gone from "very good" to "athletic." He asked what I was

Wednesday

Seneca and Well-Tried Authors Nassim Taleb's new book apparently has a section about Seneca. From the Econtalk podcast that I wrote about on Monday [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/01/taleb_on_antifr.html]: > [W]hen I read the best expository of Stoicism, the best two

Tuesday

Do It for the Children The number one friend of big government: The Crisis. When there's a crisis, the government says it needs more power in order to deal with it, and then it scarcely ratchets its newly-acquired power back down after the crisis is over. Big government&

Monday

Antifragility Nassim Taleb [http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/] is coming out with a new book. It sounds great. Unfortunately, it won't be available for another eight months. I listened to a podcast about it [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/01/taleb_on_antifr.html]. Twice . . . but mostly due

Something for Sunday Morning

"Limiting one's desires actually helps to cure one of fear." Seneca

Saturday

So colleges and university take it on the chin twice: First, Obama tells them they need to control tuition. Second, Apple announces that they'll sell textbooks . . . for as low as $17.99. Obama's words, of course, are fatuous. In the same speech, he pushed for more

Friday

BYCU I'm not sure why it's newsworthy, but it's definitely brewsworthy: Pat Sajak says he and Vanna White got drunk before Wheel of Fortune tapings back in the day [http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/01/26/pat-sajak-says-vanna-white-got-drunk-before-wheel-fortune-tapings-back-in-day/] . Gotta love Sajak's candor:

Wednesday

Soros the Austrian? George Soros grabbed headlines yesterday with an interview in Newsweek [http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/22/george-soros-on-the-coming-u-s-class-war.print.html] . The rabid leftist octogenarian investment icon and social activist ain't too optimistic. He's expecting riots in the U.S., lots of deflation,

(Untitled)

"During a debate, Mitt Romney said he grew up in the real streets of America. Yes, the real streets, where people pull up next to you and ask if you have any Grey Poupon." Kimmel -- Mobile post

Tuesday

I bought a greenhouse [http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/compact-walk-in-greenhouse.aspx?a=733338] . It's just a little thing: 57"w x 29"d x 77"h. It's an exaggeration to call it a "house," since it's really a

Monday

Like Waiting for Godot? If there is any literary merit to The Adventures of Beer Man, it came from my close study of Flannery O'Connor's Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose. It's a great book for the fiction writer. I would lend you my copy,

Something for Sunday Morning

The Present Moment is the temporal position of Just Looking.

Friday

BYCU This is a nice picture. It's by the drinker's artist, Douglas Crockwell, and entitled "A Winter Evening at Home." I won't be spending this evening at my house, but instead will be frequenting a downtown bar to listen to two friends

Thursday

Drinking Corner This Drinking Corner is a two-fer: First, I might have found the most dedicated beer blogger in America and, if not America, then at least in Ohio. He runs the Ohio Beer Blog [http://beer.ohio.com/]. It's updated frequently with good content. While checking it

Wednesday

GKC and Crisis One of the best Catholic pieces of the new year: G.K. Chesterton and the Art of Living Well in a Time of Crisis [http://www.thegregorian.org/blog/g.k.-chesterton-and-the-art-of-living-well-in-a-time-of-crisis] . It's by a recent Catholic convert, and we all know that converts are

Tuesday

If you're from Michigan, you remember the Silverdome. It housed the Detroit Lions for 30 years, was the chosen venue for many major rock bands, and even hosted the Super Bowl. It was the largest NFL stadium for nearly 20 years and is still, I believe, the largest

Monday: From the Notebooks

Hui-Neng wrote that, once everyone recognized the beautiful as beautiful, ugliness arose. It's a clever thought. In order to understand the paradox, you must focus on "as beautiful." Hui-Neng isn't saying there isn't beauty. He is saying that we shouldn't

Something for Sunday Morning

"Everything done for the sake of love acquires greatness and beauty." Escriva

Saturday

Voltaire Rebuttal, Episode 1,287,211 Gawsh. It's rare that a person runs across such a smug, self-regarding piece of tripe like the "Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus" YouTube video that caught fire across cyberspace this week. It's adolescent smarm masquerading as

Samuel

Today's first reading establishes Samuel as the first libertarian in the Occident. -- Mobile post

Leno

"They're considering legislation to make it easier for same-sex couples who get married in the nation's capital to get divorced. Lawmakers say gay couples should be awarded the same rights as a Kardashian." -- Mobile post

Friday

Poetry reading is a contemplative art. It might be the most intense contemplative art and, among secular pursuits, the most sublime. That's probably why I'm no good at it. If you want to understand poetry, you must get Understanding Poetry. I've read a handful

Thursday

Regarding Facebook An actual exchange on a local online message board (names have been changed to protect the innocent and sharp edges have been dulled): > Marvin: From what little experience I've had with Facebook, I figured that it's where women find out what happened last

Wednesday

Double-header basketball game last night. Just this today:

Tuesday

Honest Men Need Not Apply It must be a requirement: Once you turn 70, you start speaking your mind, and you don't give a rip what people think. Nock did it, and he was quickly labeled anti-Semitic (right before the Nazi atrocities hit full steam, which didn'

Monday

Hunting for a Conservative I hadn't been to Jack Hunter's site for awhile. No reason, other than nothing had prompted me to go there. Then yesterday, while randomly flipping through my Facebook wall, I saw a post to this great piece by Hunter: Santorum isn'

Something for Sunday Morning

"The Christian maxim, Deny thyself, is far better than the Epicurean maxim, Enjoy thyself, for there is no real enjoyment without self-denial." Orestes Brownson

Saturday

I'm morphing out of Econ Saturday. Why? Simple: my reading interests have shifted to other areas. I will continue to provide economic information and links (as long as I walk in this vale of tears, I have to concern myself with such things to some extent), but Saturday

Friday

BYCU Like coffee, Guinness is one of those things I wish I liked, but simply can't stomach. In fact, I lump it in with sushi under the category of, "I Can't Freakin' Believe People Put That in Their Mouth." But I don'

Thursday

Modern Library Rankings My son, Jack, is trying to read the greatest works of modern fiction. I got him started with Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, The Sound and the Fury, Wise Blood, etc. Those were obvious. In order to find more options, I googled "

Wednesday

Three New Books I used the past week to catch up on some magazine reading. The November 11th issue of The Economist had a great assortment of book reviews. Van Gogh: The Life [http://www.economist.com/node/21536550]; Vanished Kingdoms [http://www.economist.com/node/21536551]; Blue Nights [http:

Tuesday

Those Child-like Nuts My son uploaded a YouTube video and it now has over 100,000 views. It's apparently eligible for the "YouTube Monetization Program," but he can't figure out how to enroll. I looked for some information yesterday and clicked on various videos.

Friday

Michigan Beer A TDE reader sent me this great story last week: The Top 50 Brewers in America [http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/media/press-releases/show?title=brewers-association-releases-2010-top-50-breweries-lists] . It's a list of the top-selling craft breweries in America. The list is based on 2010 sales, but hey, it&

Thursday

Things have been pretty hectic, both around the office and at home, which is unusual. Typically, the holiday week offers a chance to catch up on things and take it easy. Oh well. I'm not complaining. Clients are calling at the office, and I have kids at home

Wednesday

For the past three years, almost all of my sources have pointed to 2012 as the Armageddon Year, but Jim Rogers thinks 2012 is going to be alright. Of course, he thinks it'll be a temporary reprieve, due solely to the fact that 2012 is an election year

Tuesday

Books for Christmas I received a handful of good books for Christmas. Most of the books are intended to further my exploration of the thought and background of Albert Jay Nock, but I also received a book that I requested for the sole reason that it sounds like fun: The

Monday

Whew. The Christmas Hangover. It was a whirlwind four days. Drove to Detroit on Thursday, north of Detroit on Friday, back home late Friday evening. Christmas Eve celebrations, then Christmas morning festivities, followed by a trip to my Mom's in the evening. I always know I had a

Something for Christmas Morning

"He is born poor, and he teaches us that happiness is not to be found in an abundance of earthly goods. He comes into the world without any ostentation, encouraging us to be humble and not to depend on the applause of men." Francis Fernandez

Something for Christmas Eve

"We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice." Pope Paul VI “There were only two classes of men who heard the cry that night: Shepherds and Wise

Friday

Received in an Email Politically-incorrect humor: I was devastated to find out my wife was having an affair but, by turning to religion, I was soon able to come to terms with the whole thing. I converted to Islam, and we're stoning her in the morning. Went to

Thursday

Drinking Corner Leinenkugels has a great assortment of beer-related stuff. They even have beer soap [http://shop.leinie.com/browse.cfm/4,3913.html] (but no beer shampoo). I used to drink a lot of Leinenkugels. I loved their Sunset Wheat, mixed with a few ounces of their Berry Weiss,

Wednesday

Family Guy I've been reading some Nock. Albert Jay Nock, one of the premier American essayists of the early twentieth century and one of the founders of modern conservative/libertarian thought. A weighty man, that Nock. But also a disturbing man. In a 1964 biography, Robert M. Crunden

Tuesday

Paul Surging From The Atlantic: "Newt Gingrich's campaign is rapidly imploding, and Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa. He's at 23% to 20% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Gingrich, 10% each for Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry, 4% for Jon

Monday

Morons Redux If you hadn't noticed (I hadn't, until this weekend), Beavis and Butt-head [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beavis_and_Butt-head] is back. I wrote about the program earlier [https://thedailyeudemon.com/18221/], admitting that I enjoyed the show. One TDE reader seconded my opinion

Something for the Fourth Sunday

"Let us rid ourselves of any suggestion of discouragement. Neither external difficulties nor our personal wretchedness can do anything to quell the joy of the Christmas which is approaching." Francis Fernandez

Friday

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a Pabst. Or at least six Pabsts. BYCU I'd heard years ago that you weren't allowed to mail booze through the U.S. Post Office, but I thought it was just an old lawyer's wives tale, like

Thursday

Rock Hall Hampton Stevens gives a much-deserved thrashing to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame [http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/12/wheres-the-rock/]. He says something that I vaguely sensed for years: The Hall snubs a lot of big names in favor of fashionable names. But I'll let

Wednesday

Big Books Christopher Buckley is one of the more-entertaining writers today. He writes a regular column for Forbes Life. The December 2011 column, "Big Books for the Holidays," isn't available online, but it's good. It blurbs seven giant books (ranging in price from $55

Tuesday

Stats My local newspaper ran a story yesterday about our curfew law. The gist: Studies show that youth curfews reduce youth crime. The article didn't mention a related fact: House arrest of all able-bodied males would reduce crime. Statistics get abused in so many ways, whether it'

Monday

Woods There's a good interview with Thomas Woods at The Daily Bell [http://www.thedailybell.com/3337/Staff-Report-Thomas-Woods-Jr-on-Libertarianism-Versus-the-Catholic-Church-Ron-Pauls-Presidential-Chances-and-US-State-Secession] . I greatly enjoy Woods: Harvard graduate, Catholic convert, free-market thinker. I fear many of my fellow Catholics take unfair shots at him, but he's a big boy who

Something for Sunday Morning

"Christian joy is granted to those who understand natural joy." Paul VI. Happy Gaudete Sunday.

Friday

BYCU That's a great Christmas drinking picture. It's perhaps the best one I've stumbled across. If anybody has others, I'd love to see them. Ferrell I'm not a big Will Ferrell fan, although he definitely cracks me up sometimes. But

Thursday

I spent my evening escorting/driving under-privileged children to a Christmas party with Santa. Not a lot of time for blogging today. Just a few items: Drinking Corner Michigan doesn't do a lot right, and it's liquor laws are beyond oppressive, but it's still

Wednesday

Miscellany First, an appeal. This boy has cancer [http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/cards-wanted-for-boy-with-leukemia-20111205-ms#.Tt4E_BLXPmh.facebook] . He enjoys getting Christmas cards. I don't know why, but he does. Please send him one. And no, I haven't fallen for a scam. I know the

Tuesday

Received in an Email A well-turned simile is a work of art. A poor simile is, well, pretty funny. Here's a list of 56 similes that were supposedly written by high schoolers [http://bethanyamandamiller.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/the-56-bestworst-analogies-written-by-high-school-students/] . I suspect a few of them are fake,

Monday

Monday Miscellany I stumbled across this feature last week: The worst nativity sets [http://whyismarko.com/2011/27-worst-nativity-sets-the-annual-growing-list/]. The list is at 27 and, I fear, growing. There are some funny ones over there. Three of my favorites: Montgomery Fellow southern Catholic and friend of Flannery O'Connor, Marion

Something for Sunday Morning

"God does not look for big things--He looks for how much love we put in the giving." Mother Teresa

Funny Fallon

Congress just lifted a ban on producing and exporting horse meat. Or as Taco Bell put it, “There was a ban on that?” -- Mobile post

Friday

BYCU Should I even do a BYCU during Advent? If you're a typical American and jumping the celebratory gun, you're probably confronted with drinking opportunities throughout the week. And if you're properly awaiting the birth of Our Savior with quiet expectation and patience, you&

Thursday

Deluge Just Getting Started? Boy, the market boomed yesterday. What caused it? I guess it depends on your perspective. Maybe you think the governments have now coordinated a plan to save the world economy, so the market will improve with the improving world economy. If so, you're naive

Wednesday

Top Bishops If you missed it last week (it was flying around the Catholic blogosphere), there is now a American Catholic Hall of Fame. I'm not clear on when the Hall started, but they inducted their first bishops earlier this month [http://www.thegregorian.org/blog/hall-of-fame-greatest-american-bishops]. Here&

Tuesday

QE3 v. Wine Stocks surged yesterday on news that Bernanke was ready to unleash Quantitative Easing Part 3 (parts 4, 5, and 28 are presumably also on the runway). But at least one indicator says stocks are ready to plunge anyway [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/fine-wine-rolls-over-are-stocks-follow]: The fine wine

Decorating Christmas Tree

Something for Sunday Morning

"Foster those noble thoughts, those incipient holy desires . . . A single spark can start a conflagration." Escriva

Grosse Pointe Parade

-- Mobile post

From the Notebooks

"[T]here are no institutions on earth that enable each separate person to have a hand in the exercise of Power, for Power is command, and everyone cannot command. Sovereignty of the people is, therefore, nothing but a fiction, and one which must in the long run prove destructive

Parade

(Untitled)

-- Mobile post

Happy Thanksgiving

What a good year it's been. Plenty to be thankful for, little to be upset about. Here's the plate of quotes I like to present every year on this day: “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel

Wednesday

Special Black Wednesday BYCU Edition It's the biggest drinking nights of the year and possibly my favorite evening. Last year's festivities were squelched when I ran over a fire hydrant about two blocks from my house, on my way to pick up a friend to head

Tuesday

Pit Bulls Thoughts in response to stories like these: Three pit bulls that slaughtered 42 goats captured [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/pit-bulls-kill-goats.html]. Can someone help me understand the pit bull debate? From my (admittedly-limited) perspective, pit bulls are inherently aggressive and dangerous animals. Nature has endowed

Monday

Time to Melt? Thoughts triggered by this piece: Wall Street Analysts Everywhere Are In Agreement: THE WORLD IS ENDING [http://www.businessinsider.com/apocalyptic-analyst-notes-2011-11]. After the sharp drop in stocks Friday afternoon, the bears were out in force this weekend. I suspect things will be fine, at least for this

Something for Sunday Morning

"An hour of study, for a modern apostle, is an hour of prayer." Escriva.

Friday

BYCU The writing isn't great, but a young Irishman has penned a decent piece: 17 Cultural Reasons this European Never Wants to Live in America [http://www.fluentin3months.com/no-usa-for-me/]. I don't agree with all of it, but he raises some good points ("Too many

Thursday

Nockian Corner I mentioned last week that I was in the process of comparing the political theories of Orestes Brownson and Albert Jay Nock. Someone could, with disturbing insight, ask, "Why bother?" My answer is simple: I'm smitten with Nock, but I'm more smitten

Wednesday

A TDE reader sends this along: Paul I had given up on Ron Paul, but I'm beginning to hear more about him. Most recently: "A new Bloomberg poll of likely caucus participants shows a four-way tie in Iowa, with Rep. Ron Paul joining Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich

Tuesday follow-up

Sorry for this morning's incomplete post. Internet problems. Hopefully, I'll be hitting on all cylinders tomorrow morning.

Tuesday

Access to the Best Inside Information of All I never watch 60 Minutes. I used to watch, but then I read years ago that they film something like 30 hours of footage for each segment, thereby allowing them to slice and dice virtually any story to get the public verdict

Monday

Bullets We are entering my favorite time of the year. The weather has turned cold, thereby making it easier for me to relax with good books instead of being drawn to outdoor activities. The office phone dies down because gun season for deer starts tomorrow (opening day in Michigan is

Something for Sunday Morning

"Don't say, 'That person bothers me.' Think: 'That person sanctifies me.'" Escriva

Friday

BYCU Whenever I hear the word "temperance," I remember Chesterton's observation that the word "temperance," in his time, was widely abused. People used it to mean "abstinence" or "prohibited," instead of properly using it to mean "moderation." Well,

Thursday

New Book Fr. James Martin has published a new book. It looks like a good one: Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life. I read Martin's My Life with the Saints, and I greatly enjoyed it. He strikes

Tuesday

You Turned Your Head? I have one comment on the Penn State fiasco, and then I'll (probably) drop it: I like to think that, if I walked into a gym shower and saw an older guy sodomizing a ten-year-old, I'd step in and stop it, but

Monday

Atheists and Libertarians A TDE reader sends this along: Ayn Rand's Atheists are Crashing the Tea Party [http://www.frumforum.com/ayn-rands-atheists-are-crashing-the-tea-party#more-106445] . It's a good piece, with a good deal of insight. One line, though, especially struck me: "What we are seeing here, breaking

Something for Sunday Morning

"'Be perfect' . . . This is not just advice from the master, but an imperative command." Francis Fernandez

(Untitled)

Conan O'Brien officiated a gay wedding yesterday [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/11/late-night-conan-obrien-officiates-gay-wedding-on-his-show.html] . I made myself watch the video (which is everywhere on the web this morning). I'm numb at the cultural divide in our country. Based on the web buzz, the elite

Friday

This ad captures my mood this week. Brutal days in the office. I should've been sneaking beer behind desk. BYCU I dig Wired magazine. I don't dig it enough to subscribe, so they hate me of course, but I do enjoy their stuff. Earlier this week,

Thursday

I Cain't Believe It Herman Cain gets smeared by sexual harassment allegations. It kinda sucks, since I was actually thinking about voting for him. How couldn't I, once I saw these pictures: Alas, it sounds like those sexual harassment allegations have traction. It reminds me of

Wednesday

Happy All Souls Day. It's probably my favorite non-obligatory feast day of the year. Occupy a Job Already The Occupy Wall Street people need to go home. I sympathized with them at first: I hate Wall Street, too. But it's obvious that it's a

Tuesday

From the Notebooks In Orestes Brownson's meditations on the growing tension and eventual war between the North and the South, he favored the South's “personal democracy,” which he contrasted with the North's “humanitarian democracy.” The South's personal democracy recognized the individual'

Monday

Happy Halloween If you want to see the difference between adults and children, look no further than Halloween. For little kids, Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year after Christmas. When kids get older, Halloween fades in importance. My first child was old enough to enjoy Halloween when I

Carved My Own Pumpkin

First in 35 years: -- Mobile post

Something for Sunday Morning

"If we were bodily immortal we would feel no such need for technical gadgets saving time time by conquering space." Erik Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddin

(Untitled)

But I am of the opinion that a centralized administration is fit only to enervate the nations in which it exists, by incessantly diminishing their local spirit. Although such an administration can bring together at a given moment, on a given point, all the disposable resources of a people, it

Friday

Just sittin' around drinkin' with the rest of the guys/Six rounds bought, and I bought five. Roger Miller. Possibly my favorite song lyric of all time. BYCU How long can I survive on beer alone? "Not more than a few months, probably. That's when

Thursday

Late meeting last night. Today, just a few fall pictures from my neighborhood.

Wednesday

Drinking Corner Everyone is getting into the craft beer business. A client recently sent me this link to The Abbey Beverage Company [http://www.christdesert.org/Abbey_Beverage_Company/index.html]. The Benedictine monks of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert (New Mexico) control 84 % of the Abbey Beverage

Tuesday

The Philosophical Life A rambling little piece Alex is a Freshman at the University of Michigan. He's taking "Introduction to Philosophy," and he's really digging it. I guess he went in with one advantage: a father who encouraged him to take the subject seriously,

Monday

Language Poverty The cold weather is coming back. That means it's time to beat the "fuel poverty" drum. According to the mainstream press, a person lives in fuel poverty if he must spend 10 per cent of his annual income to keep his home acceptably warm.

Something for Sunday Morning

"A youth who is gentle bears many things; but a small-souled old man, who will be able to stand him?" Evagrius The Mind's Long Journey to the Holy Trinity: The Ad Monachos of Evagrius Ponticus [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814622089/ref=as_li_ss_

Thursday

Bullets Nothing satisfies MADD! Drunk needs ride to store. Enlists nine-year-old daughter's assistance. Police not happy. Link [http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/nine_year_store_michigan_girl_pulled_EZiNI1KSibOZ5TfgKsDZwN?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=] . * * * * * * * Best line from yesterday's reading: "Government can be just as

Wednesday

Colors When I grew up, I thought the old world (pre-I Love Lucy) was black and white. I knew, of course, that there was color before The Wizard of Oz, but when I thought about how things must've been like, my mind intuitively fell into shades of grey.

Tuesday

Received in an Email Last year after the Packers/Bills game, Buffalo released quarterback Trent Edwards. During the Packers/Eagles game, the Packers injured Philadelphia quarterback Kevin Kolb. Philadelphia then had to play backup quarterback Michael Vick. During a playoff game against the Eagles, the Packers injured Michael Vick and

Monday

Throw Down the Gloves I admit it: I have a little blood lust in me. I never realized until I was reading St. Augustine's Confessions, about his trip to a gladiator show: As soon as he saw the blood, he drank in with it a savage temper, and

Something for Sunday Morning

"How can we say that the Church wishes to bring us back into the Dark Ages? The Church was the only thing that ever brought us out of them." G.K. Chesterton

Friday

Wines that Rock Seen earlier this week: "Joining The Rolling Stones 'Forty Licks Merlot,' 'Woodstock Chardonnay,' The Police's 'Synchronicity Red Blend' and Pink Floyd's 'The Dark Side of the Moon Cabernet Sauvignon,' the Grateful Dead's

Thursday

Bite the (Area North of the) Big Apple, Don't Mind the Maggots Back in the late 1980s/early 1990s, Hope College [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_College], a small liberal arts college in Holland, Michigan, associated with the Dutch Reformists, had an Hispanic problem. I don'

Wednesday

Received in an Email You need a reason to drink? From one of the e-newsletters I subscribe to: > Signs of decay abound... > * Prosecutors in Shawnee County, Kan. – home to the state capital Topeka – say they'll no longer pursue misdemeanor cases. As a result, 30 domestic violence

Tuesday

This seems consistent with massive money printing: The extra money flows to the favored segments (Wall Street and its connections) but not to main street. Meanwhile, the extra money results in climbing prices. All the while, the government says it's a result of the Japanese earthquake, drought, and

Monday

The Land of Arnold I previously used my weekends for philosophy and theology. Now I use them to catch up on the previous week's contemporary reading, on those essays that I should have read when they first appeared but simply couldn't get to because of the

Something for Sunday Morning

"The Christian saint is happy because he has verily been cut off from the world; he is separate from things and is staring at them in astonishment." G.K. Chesterton

Thursday

Skid Row Street If you didn't hear, Sesame Street has a new muppet: Lily. Her niche? Poverty. Her "family faces an ongoing struggle with hunger issues." Link [http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/10/04/sesame-street-hunger-muppet-photo/]. The goal is to raise awareness of hunger in the United

Wednesday

Received in an Email From one of my investment newsletters: a good, concise explanation of the European problems (besides a dearth of soap and shampoo): > There are three dynamics and a tension: > ”¢ Dynamic I The inevitable default by Greece on its sovereign debt raises the likelihood that one

Tuesday

St. Francis The first part of October is crammed with good feast days. St. Therese on October 1st, St. Francis today, St. Bruno in a few days. In honor of St. Francis Feast Day, I grabbed Joseph Pearce's Wisdom and Innocence, A Life of GK Chesterton off the

Monday

Manners I learned yesterday in Richard Brookhiser's biography of George Washington that he relied heavily on a 16th-century Jesuit text of manners. Washington transcribed the book as a teenager and kept it with him the rest of his life. I believe I have located the little book, which

Something for Sunday Morning

"Work is a physical necessity; if you don't work, you don't eat. Prayer is a necessity of obligation; if you don't pray you will not enter the Kingdom." John Senior, The Restoration of Christian Culture

Friday

BYCU I collected a lot of beer cans in my youth and I've drank a lot of different beers as an adult, but I ain't never heard of no National Beer. Anybody else ever hear of it? A convenience store client of mine, incidentally, was able

Thursday

Gilbert Arrived The new issue of Gilbert Magazine arrived a few days ago (for those unaware, I used to edit that esteemed rag). Dale Ahlquist has a splendid travel piece about this recent trip to England. He spent time in a monastery with Dom Phillip Jeb, who is the grandson

Wednesday

The Humor Escapes Me You know who I can't stand? Stephen Colbert. I've actually grown to like Jon Stewart a little, but Colbert? I can't stomach him (yeah, yeah: I know he's Catholic--that just makes it worse). His entire schtick strikes me

From an E-Newsletter

“Yum! Brands and other companies who own fast-food restaurants are heavily lobbying the administration to allow their franchisees to take food stamps instead of cash,” writes a reader looking at the issue from a different angle. “That should ensure we have a never-ending supply of obese diabetics with heart disease

Tuesday

I'm Walk(er)ing to New Orleans The Walker Percy Center's Inaugural Conference is October 14-16 [http://scrutinies.net/2011/09/come-moviegoing-with-me.html]. It's kind of late notice, but I'd really like to go. Unfortunately, it's in New Orleans, and

Monday

The mighty Lions! They're 3-0. I didn't think they looked good yesterday, so I'm not as excited about them now as I was 48 hours ago. But seven straight regular season wins, a come-from-behind win (against the Vikings), a blow-out win (against the Chiefs)

Something for Sunday Morning

“Contradiction and contentiousness come from deceit, a companion of unbelief and haughtiness.” The Philokalia

Friday

BYCU Blatz plays a key role at the end of The Adventures of Beer Man, so when I saw this poster, I decided to post it. New Beer Writer I ran across an unfamiliar beer writer this week, E.D. Kain. Earlier this week, he wrote a decent post about

Thursday

Don't You Dare Call It a Ponzi! Governor Perry referred to Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme" and the Left went ape. Somehow, they think it's nuts to refer to Social Security as a Ponzi arrangement, even though their own darling, Paul Krugman, has

Tuesday

From the Notebooks Allegations of Brownson's inconsistencies in later years are often misplaced. Recent biographer R.A. Herrera, for instance, alleges that Brownson's view on the democratic revolution that was picking up speed in the mid-nineteenth century flip-flopped. Herrera criticizes Brownson for saying, in 1856, that

(Untitled)

The Gricester Dylan Grice is a brilliant man. Based on this picture, he's about 17-years-old, but he's also SociÃ©tÃ© GÃ©nÃ©rale's Cross Asset Research strategist whose learning branches far beyond investments and economics. Consider carefully his most recent piece (much of which

Something for Sunday Morning

“The most important thing is to pray and pray and pray.” Mother Teresa

Friday

BYCU I really like a good drinking glass, whether it's a big wine cup or a solid pilsner. For those enamored with comic books, these pint glasses looks pretty cool, though I can't believe the neo-Prohibitionists aren't going to scream "foul" on

Thursday

The Kavorka A Dutch woman who called a man 65,000 times in the past year - an average of 178 calls a day - is to face charges of stalking [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14913053]. Kinda reminds me of my high school years. My parents had to

Wednesday

Drinking Corner This a merciful thing: "Some of America's most famous beers have lost a tremendous amount of their national sales over the last five years. Mostly, they are full-calorie beers, and they have lost sales to lower-calorie products, as well as imports and craft beers. 24/

Tuesday

Detroit Poetry I split a couple of bottles of wine with Uncle Verny last night. He lives in Texas, but he grew up in Detroit. In the early 1960s, he worked in a convenience store on Five Mile Road (for those unacquainted with Detroit, everything south of Eight Mile [http:

Monday

Freak Entrepreneur Joseph Epstein's elders told him that only a fool works for somebody else. I think that's a little strong (and Epstein himself worked for Northwestern University), but it always resonated with me. As a business lawyer, I have come to respect the saying even

Something for Sunday Morning

"Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall enjoy everything." St. Francis

Friday

Football game in Battle Creek last night. No time for blogging, but I learned something new this week: The Lake Erie area is prime wine land. I never knew that, but this pleasant blog [http://ohiolakeeriewineries.blogspot.com/] is dedicated to the 40-plus wineries of the Lake Erie Appellation. Excerpt:

Thursday

Friends of the Poor Kinda interesting: Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the wealthiest judge on the Supreme Court. Net worth: might be as high as $45.48 million or as low as $10.7 million. Number Two? Another liberal: Steven Breyer. The folks below $1 million? Conservatives Alito and Thomas, plus

Wednesday

Sorry to Bore You, But . . . So I join a fantasy football league this year. I've been in a league for ten years, but just a family affair. This new one involves people in my community. I wanted to make a good show. It didn't go well.

Tuesday

Crime Down? When unemployment goes up, crime goes up, right? That's the common understanding. But it's not happening this time around. “As the national unemployment rate doubled from around 5 percent to nearly 10 percent, the property-crime rate, far from spiking, fell significantly. For 2009, the

Monday

Happy Labor Day. Consistent with light holiday traffic patterns, I am blogging lightly today. I just have this fascinating piece from Zero Hedge: Wikileaks Discloses The Reason(s) Behind China's Shadow Gold Buying Spree [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/wikileaks-discloses-reasons-behind-chinas-shadow-gold-buying-spree] . Excerpt: > We have a suspicion that the

Untitled

In 1953 Hugh Ross Williamson, the historian, wrote regarding Belloc, "Twenty years ago I found it difficult to read him without anger ... My mind was changed not by reading Belloc but by studying sources, which revealed ...the general rightness of Belloc ..." ((ANW 320)). Belloc was a pioneer in

Something for Sunday Morning

“Silence your heart and mind of all useless desires and distractions, so you may be able to listen to Him in the silence of your heart. You will then know for certain what God wants of you.” Mother Teresa

Friday

BYCU Yikes, that looks, sounds, and probably smells like one nasty beer. Merry Ole Brewers Congratulations to TDE readers from Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, and California. Brewers from your states have been selected to send brewers to England to engage in collaborative brewing efforts [http://www.cleveland.com/taste/index.ssf/

Walking Across the U of M Diag

-- Mobile post

Alex's First Day at Michigan

We took out eldest to college today. This is him with Marie, sister Abbie, and brother Jack, standing outside the graduate library.

Making Its Way Around the Catholic Blogosphere

Flannery on Ayn: > I hope you don't have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest

Wednesday

Received in an Email I received a slew of emails this week regarding Chesterton. If you're a GKC fan, you'll find it interesting. For everyone else, you may want to check back on Thursday. First, Chuck Colson gives a favorable review of the Father Brown stories

Tuesday

Received in an Email I guess it's from 2003, but the link is making its email rounds and the Catholic Online published it earlier this year: Treatment of Catholic Church 'Kangaroo Journalism' [http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=36261]. It's by

Monday

New Book Many years ago, I was drawn to Martin Buber [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Buber] and Max Picard [http://www.hermitary.com/bookreviews/picard.html]. Buber, I met in an Alpena, Michigan, bookstore, picking up his I and Thou for fifty cents and reading it on the

Something for Sunday Morning

"That is one of the bitter curses of poverty; it leaves no right to be generous." George Gissing

Friday

Useful Beer I've said it many times: Don't drink for the health of it. Drink for the hell of it. But that doesn't mean beer can't be useful. It turns out that beer can be used for more than just drinking and

Blurb Thursday

Badger Beer Man The Badger Catholic articulates some deeply Beer-Manish thoughts: > The problem with the modern man is that he thinks there is a disconnect from drinking and family. Look at the drunks in college now. They never learned what enjoying a beer was when they were growing up.

Wednesday

Rise of the Zombies In Monsters from the Id, E. Michael Jones advanced an interesting theory: a culture's horror films reflect its sub-conscious. Frankenstein was fear of the unknown energy known as "electricity." Dracula was fear of syphilis. The rise of slasher movies in the 1960s

Tuesday

Drinking Corner with Jeeves Triumvirate: Schall writing about a Wodehouse book for which Belloc provided by the introduction [http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/words-from-wodehouse.html]. The Week End Wodehouse. I gotta get this volume. Notable excerpt from Schall's essay: "What struck me on again reading Wodehouse

Monday

Smashwords Whew. This ebook publishing thing is a real hassle. A friend recommended I try Smashwords. I downloaded their free "how-to" books and re-formatted Beer Man. It took over two hours. I then received an error message, which I think is now fixed, but heck if I know.

Something for Sunday Morning

“Riches are not forbidden, but the pride of them is.” St. John Chrysostom (But the way the stock market is going, this ain't a problem either way. heh heh heh.)

Friday

Brews You Can Use I have my reservations about "The Art of Manliness" website, but overall, it posts some great stuff. Earlier this week, I stumbled across an excellent overview of scotch: The Guide to Scotch Whisky [http://artofmanliness.com/2009/04/05/the-art-of-manliness-guide-to-scotch-whisky/] . I keep some 50-year

Stewart on Paul Coverage

Jon Stewart is a truthful man:

Thursday

An email I sent to a friend, in response to this video: Yet Standard and Poor's shouldn't have downgraded our debt to AA+. It's all a farce. We can't pay this debt back and everyone knows it. At the last Treasury auction,

Wednesday

Hats off to my wife: Today marks 20 years with me. She's given me seven wonderful children. I've given her fits. She's given me a cheerful disposition. I've given her a measure of lachrymose. But tonight, I make it up: We'

Tuesday

Random Finally, even the AP admits that Ron Paul is no longer a fringe candidate: "Ron Paul, once seen as a fringe candidate and a nuisance to the establishment, is shaping the 2012 Republican primary by giving voice to the party's libertarian wing and reflecting frustration with

Monday

Three straight days of drinking. I might need rehab. The good news is, they were enjoyable days with no untoward hangovers. The bad news is, I'm shot, so I'm taking a day off from blogging. I'm just posting two pics from the weekend and

Something for Sunday Morning

"Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent." St. John of the Cross

Something for Sunday Morning

"Holiness is not the luxury of the few--it is a simple duty for you and for me. We have been created for that." Mother Teresa

BYCU

The Rise of Vodka A good friend and client started up his own distillery in my hometown. It's fully licensed and operational. Its first product is Incentive Vodka [http://www.incentivevodka.com/The-Vodka.html], and it's winning awards and spreading. I hadn't taken a

Drink Heavily

Time cover:

Thursday

Thursday Miscellany Seen at Zero Hedge: "The price of a Big Mac is in Zurich is now so high (at $17.19) that a minimum wage employee in Minneapolis, Minnesota, would have to work for nearly 4-hours in order to afford it. This is what stability looks like to

Wednesday

Creative Destruction Someone on Facebook started one of those, "You know you're from _______ when" sites. I joined the group for my hometown and started reading the various memories. One really struck me: > When I started carrying mail in 1966 there must have been a dozen

Monday

The picture is courtesy of The Onion. It was the best picture from my weekend surfing. China Gloating The official Chinese news agency is gloating over the AA+. I can't say I blame them, but they're the goats: they're holding most of the debt.

Something for Sunday Morning

“Wonder is the desire for knowledge.” St. Thomas Aquinas

AA+

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sandp-considering-first-downgrade-of-us-credit-rating/2011/08/05/gIQAqKeIxI_print.html AA+ is still higher than any other borrower would get under similar circumstances. -- Mobile post

Friday

BYCU Wasn't Cornwall the earliest country to succumb to England? I think it succumbed so long ago, people forget that it once existed independently. That's my understanding anyway. I guess it's a fairly poor region of the UK, kinda like Scotland without the drunks

Thursday

Drinking Corner It's every wine snobs worst nightmare: box wines are gaining credibility. According to this article (Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/dining/reviews/boxed-wines-review.html?_r=1] ), it was merely a matter of time. Boxed wines have all sorts of advantages, including volume, portability,

Wednesday

Hit 'em When They're Vulnerable A man goes into St. John and Bernard Parish to pray. A guy walks in, puts a gun to his back, and demands his money. The robber got away with $55. It happened at 2:00 in the afternoon. Link [http://articles.

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Someone forgot to tell Taki not to talk ill of the dead. He has choice (possibly deserved) words for Lucian Freud . . . more>> [http://takimag.com/article/freud_slips_into_the_void#axzz1Tp35mKD9] The Buggles to Jersey Shore: MTV turns 30 . . . more>>

Monday

Movie Review I took the three older boys to see Captain America. The collective critics give it a C+ (Yahoo average). Of the three major rankings (Yahoo, Rotten Tomatoes, and IMDB), I trust Yahoo the most. Rotten Tomatoes is probably the best site, but I haven't gotten used

Something for Sunday Morning

“The person who is dedicated to Christ is equally earnest in small things as in great.” St. Jerome

Saturday

Vacation is Over I'm back. I spent the weekend in Alpena, Michigan, at the ancestral cottage on Lake Huron. Whatta difference one week makes. On my way home on Friday, I discovered that "they" are revising the economic figures going all the way back to 2007,

Downtown in Alpena, Michigan

Friday

When I got back from vacation, I realized the YouTube video I posted was indecent. Actually, the video wasn't bad, but the "still shot" displayed on the TDE page was, so I've deleted it. My apologies for anybody offended. In lieu, here's

Thursday

Seen on the Internet

"The Continental Dollar dropped to 1/16500th of a troy ounce of gold, or the price of gold "increased" to $16,500 Continental Dollars before the currency was terminated."

Wednesday

From the Notebooks From 2004 I suspect the act of reading may have become more difficult than the act of writing. Five (even two) years ago, I would've scoffed at the notion that reading is harder than writing. Now I'm not so sure. Why could that

Tuesday

Received in an Email 1. The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi. 2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian . 3. She was

Seen on the Internet

"5% of Twitter users generate 75% of the Tweets."

Monday

From the Notebooks Christian Studies in Skepticism Significant: "Living in history, we experience only the present, the immediate. This is as it should be; it simplifies decision and directs action (for in this world only ignorance give us the freedom necessary to act)." Romano Guardini, The Lord, p.

Something for Sunday Morning

"The fact is that purification and austerity are even more necessary for the appreciation of life and laughter than for anything else." Chesterton

Seen on the Internet

"Back in 1927, Lenin offered some shockingly prescient predictions for the century ahead: Germany will militarize herself out of existence, England will expand herself out of existence, and America will spend herself out of existence."

Interesting

"A recent article in The Wall Street Journal tells the tale... "'Argentina's government has filed criminal charges against the managers of an economic consulting firm,' the paper reads, 'escalating its persecution of independent economists.' "Apparently a local firm, MyS Consultores, published

Friday

The Gift So I'm standing at my office window yesterday, talking with an acquaintance about some pro bono project (not my favorite thing--I'm still a few halos short of sainthood). The mailman walks in and hands me a package. My interlocutor must've thought I

McLuhan is 100

http://www.observer.com/2011/07/marshall-mccluhan-at-100-you-know-nothing-of-my-work/

Thursday

Reader Comments Reader comments are beginning to come in. The most common theme: The book isn't what you'd expect. It's not a book about getting drunk and "barfin' all over your girlfriend's shoes" (The Eagles, "The Greeks Don&

Wednesday

The Shuttering I learned recently that one of my favorite bars closed in northern Michigan. My uncle owned it back in the 1980s, and it was a solid business. We were talking about it during my family's golf outing last week, and my brother, who was recently in

(Untitled)

Clearer visions from afar: Obama does not want to go down in history as the president who bankrupted America “so the only alternative is another unsavory deal – the 'kick the can down the road' solution, as American politicians like to call it. “The debt limit will be raised

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly BogotÃ¡, Cairo, Caracas, Dhaka, Islamabad, Istanbul, Jakarta, Karachi, Katmandu, Lima, Manila, Mexico City, New Delhi, Quito, and Tehran: Where 1 million people could die in thirty seconds. . . . more>> [http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_3_earthquakes.html] BYCU for CALW: Archeology shedding light

Monday

Bad Movie Well, just when I think Hollywood can't produce anything worse (than Scott Pilgrim), it comes out with Zookeeper. Holy moley, it was bad. I didn't want to go (one magazine said the movie will "appeal only to hard-core Kevin James fans"), but

Something for Sunday Morning

“[P]atience must always lie at the center of leisure, for reality does not disclose its secrets to careless, hasty, or indifferent scrutiny.” David Baily Harned

Friday

Wow, there's a boat load of BYCU stories out there right now. So many, in fact, that I have a big announcement ("big" used loosely): BYCU will now become a daily feature at TDE, with the exception of Sundays and Mondays. But full disclosure: If I

Thursday

It's the 35th Annual Scheske Open today. I golf only once a year, and today's the day. I'm a little wiped out right now, due to the Open Eve festivities, so just an abbreviated TDE today. First, the Kindle for PC is easy to

Wednesday

Random Have you downloaded your copy of The Adventures of Beer Man yet? The response has been good so far. Last night, a friend called to say she couldn't get the book to download. "Wow," I thought to myself, "demand for Beer Man is crashing

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly The atheocracy–a society that is actively hostile to religious faith and religious believers. . . . more>> [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/07/americarsquos-atheocracy] Females are disappearing due to abortion and other forms of birth intervention, but it's somehow the fault of

BYCU: Special Edition

The Adventures of Beer Man is available at Amazon, on your Kindle (or Kindle app). I read last month about the self-publishing revolution that is sweeping the book world. Authors can post their books to Kindle and receive 35% of the royalties. I thought to myself, "Heck, I have

Something for Sunday Morning

"The proud one does not know himself. If he knew himself and his own stupidity, he would not be conceited.” St. Mark the Hermit

Friday BYCU

Norman's Brother, with a "C" TDE Reader writes "Got a stack of beer ads at an estate sale (house owner collected magazine illustrations). These are a few of a series from the United States Brewers Foundation, with slogan 'Beer Belongs ... Enjoy It!' America&

Thursday

Post-Vacation Dropsy I'd love to hear from you: Do you feel wiped out after vacations? I mean, completely wiped out for a couple of days, maybe over a week? After we got back from Manhattan, it took me nearly ten days to start feeling normal again. I didn&

Wednesday

The Beat Enigma When he saw a statue of the Virgin Mary turn its head in his hometown church's basement in the early 1950s, Jack Kerouac said it dawned on him that the word "Beat" is a religious word with a relation to the beatific vision.

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Who has, by far, produced, per capita, the largest number of liberal women in America today? The Order of Notre Dame through its progressive vehicle, Trinity College. . . . more>> [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/julyaugust_2011/features/the_trinity_sisters030380.php?page=all&

Monday

Happy Fourth of July. I don't blog much on the holidays because people don't surf much on the holiday. For today, I have just two things: (1) This story of a stupid experiment from the 1970s (were there any good experiments from that decade . . . or from

Something for Sunday Morning

"Men must face squarely-and early-the fact that they will die." Gheon

Friday

I recently ran across perhaps the best drinking quote in history. By itself, it makes an edifying BYCU for this slow blogging week: "THE hour of absinthe is over. We shall not be much further troubled with the little artists who found Dickens too sane for their sorrows and

Thursday

Odd Names This blog post at NRO [http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/269405/howdy-pilgrim-jay-nordlinger] about odd Puritan names ("Experience Bliss," "Thankful Clapp," "Moses Sleeper") reminded me of this passage from A Renegade History of the United States: "In 1864 Increase Mather set out

Wednesday

Received in an Email These insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words: A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease." "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether

Tuesday

The Libertarian Political Philosophy in a Nutshell "Society, it should be kept in mind, is a group of people who cooperate with one another in order that they may severally and individually improve their circumstances, and the techniques by which Society achieves its purpose are production and exchange. There

Monday

Quick Reference: "The idea that A could at the same time be non-A or that to prefer A to B could at the same time be to prefer B to A is simply inconceivable and absurd to a human mind." Ludwig von Mises. Surely a few people recognize

From the Notebooks

Pornography and Idiocy (from 2004) Writing about pornography is kinda like making pornography: what are you going to say (do) that hasn't been said (done) before? The director of a pornographic movie tries to think of something that hasn't been done before ("Three guys with

Something for Sunday Morning

“All fear arises from the love of something.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Friday

Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas? The Beer Taster recently featured Three Philosophers [http://beer-taster.com/beer-reviews/beer-taster/ommegang-three-philosophers/]. That is one righteous beer. I agree with this description: "The aroma is very malty and full of cherries, as well as some other dark fruits such as raisins. I also found

Thursday

Studies like this don't really impress me: Women Who Lost Virginity Early More Likely To Divorce [http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/06/21/women-who-lost-virginity-early-more-likely-to-divorce/] . It's nice to see empirical support for the idea that poor upbringing results in poor results, but I don'

Wednesday

Catholic Blog Surfing Bert Ghezzi is a genuinely good guy. I've corresponded with him on a few occasions, and he even expressed willingness to "go to bat" for me on a book proposal he liked (alas, even Bert can't overcome one's dearth

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly On the centennial of his birth, the influence of Catholicism on Marshall McLuhan's Catholicism gets a fair and good hearing. Perhaps the best essay of the year so far. . . . more>> [http://www.walrusmagazine.com/print/2011.07-media-divine-inspiration/] Simone Weil. Huge intellect,

Monday

The Angel and the Idiots What do Lady Gaga and Mother Teresa have in common? A lot, according to this vapid piece at The Economist: The Angel and the Monster [http://www.economist.com/node/18772204]. The piece isn't sacrilegious (though it does recount some of Hitchens'

Something for Sunday Morning

True virtue has no limits, but goes on and on, and especially holy charity, which is the virtue of virtues, and which having a definite object, would become infinite if it could meet with a heart capable of infinity. St. Francis de Sales

Pictures from Mixology Clinic

BYCU

You watch Mad Men? Boardwalk Empire? If so, you've probably seen a lot of artists at work. Their art? The cocktail. I attended a private cocktail instruction last night at Big Cedar Distillery [http://www.incentivevodka.com/The-Vodka.html]. The instructor, Angie, is a mixologist. She also runs

Wednesday

Catholic Blog Surfing Well, I completely neglected the anniversary of the death of G.K. Chesterton. It was yesterday. Fortunately, the good folks at Supremacy and Survival didn't forget [http://supremacyandsurvival.blogspot.com/2011/06/gk-chesterton-rip.html] . It fittingly asks the question, "Will GKC be the next

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly My colleague: The baddest lawyer in New Jersey. No witness means no conviction. He's facing life in prison. . . . more>> [http://nymag.com/news/features/paul-bergrin-2011-6/] Comic books were hot. Smokin' hot. And then the bottom fell out. The Great Comic

Monday

Frugal Youth I've noticed something new among teens: frugality. For their prom dinner, for instance, the girls were excited that a parent agreed to host the dinner. Every family pitched in a dish for six couples, and the kids had a great dinner without spending $100 per couple

Something for Sunday Morning

The recollection of an injury is . . . a rusty arrow and poison for the soul. St. Francis of Paola

Friday

Football to Misdemeanors: BYCU You wanna spend $750 on a beer? Yeah, me neither (in the words of Pat Dailey, "I've got to be drunk to do that"). But if you're so inclined or so stupid or so drunk, you might want to try

Thursday

Bullets The Seven Sisters [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainline_Protestant#Denominations]? It rings a bell, but I'm not sure I've heard of the mainline Protestant churches referred to that way. The Sisters are: American Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Congregationalists / United Church of Christ, Episcopalians, Lutherans,

Wednesday

From the Notebooks What can a man like DH Lawrence tell us about the afterlife? He may have intuited quite a bit, even if he didn't understand it himself. In his excellent little book, Studies in Classic American Literature, Lawrence wrote: > The central law of all organic

Tuesday

Time Management. Or, Increasing Self-Awareness I see friends take long lunches, run personal errands during work hours, drop by their houses in the middle of the afternoon, chat with colleagues, call on the phone and talk for 30 minutes with no apparent qualms. It got me thinking: How much do

Monday

Graduation Day Alex graduated from high school yesterday. I'm not sure I've ever felt such mellow sadness. I wasn't crying or anything like that. But I was sad, no doubt about it, and if I could turn the clock back and give him another

Something for Sunday Morning

"If you can't praise, say nothing." St. Gregory Nyssa

BYCU

I'm not a big fan of Wikihow, but once in awhile, they run something interesting. This piece caught my eye earlier this week: How to Cook Deep Fried Beer [http://www.wikihow.com/Cook-Deep-Fried-Beer]. I'd never even heard of such a thing, but it doesn'

Thursday

Stocks, Food, and Diet The stock market takes its biggest one-day lost since last August. There's fear back in the air. People see more and more signs of a double dip. Link [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576359003490165720.html?mod=igoogle_wsj_gadgv1&] . I don't

Wednesday

Catholic Blogging Wednesday Summer comes in four stages: Memorial Day, the first day of June, kids out of school, June 20th. Welcome to Stage Two. * * * * * * * Talk about a priest shortage: "Whispers in the Loggia" says there are only 275 Catholic clerics for all five of the military branches.

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly The quiet Catholic convert and scholar Gerard Casey reviews the case for conservative libertarians. Required reading for everyone who clings to the worn-out idea that libertarians are godless antinomians. . . . more>> [http://lewrockwell.com/orig10/casey-g2.1.1.html] Gadgets zapping your brain power?

Monday

Happy Memorial Day. I expect a dearth of traffic today, consistent with past holiday experiences. I expect the traffic to be especially light, since the country is drying out for the first time in a week. We're expecting mostly sunny skies and our first 90-degree day. I'

Something for Sunday Morning

"You cannot learn humility from books; you learn it by accepting humiliations. Humiliations are not meant to torture us; they are gifts from God. These little humiliations--if we accept them with joy--will help us to be holy, to have a meek and humble heart like Jesus." Mother Teresa

Friday

Not Just for Pancakes George Washington had his own beer recipe [http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/05/04/librarys-tasty-treasure-george-washingtons-beer/?mod=WSJBlog] . It actually sounds a little scary: bran hops, yeast and molasses. Molasses? I guess I haven't lived enough. I'd never heard of molasses as

Thursday

Freaky May This wild May has blown me away. Not literally, thank goodness, but figuratively. I actually watched the Weather Channel this week for more than "Your Local Forecast." I don't remember a May with a mix of snow, 85-degree days, storm-after-storm, and a string of

Wednesday

Brutal kid commitment days. Today, just a few pics from my garden.

Alex's Final Day

My son has his final day of high school today. Sad, but life plods on.

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Chesterton sighting, and it's a big one: Ian Kerr has written a new monster GKC biography. And the Telegraph reviews it. Unfortunately, the Telegraph pretty much pans it. . . . more>> [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8509157/G-K-Chesterton-ABiography-by-Ian-Ker-review.html] Do

Monday

Twisted Days Sacrilege! On a Sunday no less. I attended my daughter's Spring choir concert yesterday. We first had to sit through the middle school choirs. One of them sang Three Dog Night's Joy to the World, which contains this great lyric: "I never understood

Something for Sunday Morning

Let us not think that in another place, in another situation we would be ready to follow Our Lord more closely . . . The fruits of sanctity Our Lord expects are those produced in and from the environment in which we find ourselves, here and now: tiredness, sickness, family, the job . . . "

Friday

It's Craft Beer Week! I'm ashamed of myself. It's Craft Beer Week [http://www.craftbeer.com/pages/news-and-events/american-craft-beer-week], and I didn't even know it. But I didn't completely screw up. There are still three days of quaffing left in

Thursday

Received in an Email Indian Chief "Two Eagles" was asked by a white U.S. Government official, "You have observed the white man for 90 years. You've seen his wars and his technological advances. You've seen his progress, and the damage he'

Wednesday

Blog Surfing Wednesday Salvador Dali returned to his Catholic roots? I guess I never knew that. That's what Godzdogz says in this post [http://godzdogz.op.org/2011/05/art-of-redemption-4-christ-of-st-john.html] about Dali's Christ of Saint John of the Cross. It's a highly recommended

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly New Olympic events: knifing, the bong hit, and the sexual assault course. No wait, that's just Rio's other side. What will the world see in 2016? . . . more>> [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=110510/rio] Nobody

Monday

Monday Twitter Frugal or cheap? I define "frugal" to mean a person who inconveniences himself in his quest to save money. The "cheap" person is the guy who inconveniences others. Wendy McElroy makes a case for frugality [http://mises.org/daily/5183/The-Case-for-Frugality]. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Seen on Facebook.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Joy is very infectious. We will never know just how much good a simple smile can do." Mother Teresa

Friday

Brews You Can Use I go to Frankenmuth most summers for its annual Bavarian Music Festival. Frankenmuth is a village in the middle of Michigan that is designed like a Bavarian town. It's probably the second quaintest spot in Michigan (Mackinac Island is the most quaint). It looks

Thursday

Miscellaneous Who else is climbing on the gold standard bandwagon? Maybe Steve Forbes. Link [http://www.zerohedge.com/article/steve-forbes-us-will-likely-have-gold-standard-within-next-five-years] . * * * * * * * Value investor Jeremy Grantham is bearish on U.S. stocks. He would seek refuge in blue chips and emerging market equities. Link [http://www.zerohedge.com/article/jeremy-grantham-goes-bearish-now-time-fight-fed-and-stocks-trading-40-above-fair-value-are-b] . * * * * * * * Interactive vi

Wednesday

Return of Catholic Blog Surfing Awhile back, I selected Wednesday as my statio . The spiritual masters suggest you select one day during the week to stand watch, to put forth the extra effort to be good. I can't say I've noticed a big difference between my

Tuesday

Liars, Liars Unbelievable: Last Friday, it was reported that Greece was threatening to quit the Euro Zone and there would be an emergency meeting. The Eurogroup Chairman flat-out told the media that there would be no meeting. And now, it looks like he simply lied. Why? To preserve the euro

Monday

Jacobs You don't hear much about Siger de Brabant these days. He's a Latin Averroist (fan of the Muslim philosopher, Averroes), who taught a lot of bizarre stuff, but in particular, he taught there were two types of truth: philosophic truths and religious truths. His framework

Something for Sunday Morning

"Be happy and make it a special point to become God's sign of happiness in your community." Mother Teresa

Friday

Hail the Drinking Club! Tonight, I drink. The drinking club awarded my son a scholarship, and they're hosting Marie, Alex, and me to a steak dinner. I'm really looking forward to it. I always refer to it as "the drinking club," which I intend

Selections from Lau Tzu's Tao Te Ching

Selections from the Tao Te Ching I read the book earlier this year. I can kinda understand why Catholic convert John Wu began his translation of the Book of John with, "In the beginning was the Tao." Enjoy: Therefore the sage puts his own person last, and yet

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Are you "flipping hamburgers" or "making magic"? It depends on where you work. At Disney, all the modern day indentured servants ("interns") are making magic. . . . more>> [http://www.guernicamag.com/features/2620/perlin_5_1_11/] South

The Evening Eudemon

The man who Tweeted the attack that captured bin Laden (with Tweets) [http://www.zerohedge.com/article/meet-man-who-live-tweeted-bin-laden-operation-unknowingly] . Kinda interesting.

Monday

Ah, the small pleasures. Better yet, the free pleasures. Especially the free pleasures that help defeat a shortcoming. Here's the situation: I'm reading an article or a book that makes reference to a book that sounds really good. For the past ten years, I've

Something for Sunday Morning

“Without humility, there is no way of conquering anger.” St. John Climacus

Friday

BYCU Man, if I'm ever cool again, I'm going to buy a beverage refrigerator. Two of my neighbors have 'em in their garage, but with seven kids, my garage is devoted to a regular fridge (with top freezer) and an extra freezer. I'm

Wednesday

Making Land "They ain't makin' more of it." I hear that statement at least twice a year, usually when a client is buying real estate. I normally nod in sage agreement. Which has always been an ingenuous thing to do, since I agreed with the

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Gasoline has significantly dropped in price. When priced in silver. Not a bad way to think about prices, according to the Founding Fathers . . . more>> [http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-silver-bullet/87316/] Mainlining? Is that when heroin selling goes mainstream? No, but you can

Easter

"When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld “him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a man

Holy Saturday

Nyssa, Tolkien, and Gibson By killing Jesus, Satan had swallowed God's bait. He didn't know he had swallowed the Godhead, thereby inviting Full Being into his fortress of nothingness and bringing about the ontological fall of his nothingness. In the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa:

Good Friday

“The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His.” George MacDonald "The cross cannot be defeated. . . For it is Defeat." G.K. Chesterton On those who hate Christianity: "They do not dislike the Cross

Holy Thursday

"[I]n the agony of Gethsemane the ultimate consequences of our sin had their hour. . . . God permitted his Son to taste the human agony of rejection and plunge towards the abyss. . . Gethsemane was the hour in which Jesus' human heart and mind experienced the ultimate odium of the

Wednesday

Lethal Occupation and Other The fatal-accident rate for fishermen and related fishing workers is 200 per 100,000 full-time workers . . . compared with a rate of 13.1 for police and 4.4 for firefighters. Farming is also more dangerous: 38.5 fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 full-time workers. Source:

Monday

Notes About the Conspiracy Is the United States a sham? How corrupt is DC? Does the stock market even exist as a free market bastion anymore? Whether I like it or not (I don't), those are thoughts that wake me up in the middle of the night (literally,

Something for Palm Sunday

"The hour overflows with supernatural power. In these last days it is as if Jesus were gathering strength on strength preparing for the ultimate." Romano Guardini, The Lord

Friday

BYCU Tax Day. A good reason to drink. And I hear they extended the filing deadline to April 18. Let's make it a bender. I'm gonna need more drinks because my investment companies keep sending updated 1099s . . . after I already filed my return. There oughtta be

Thursday

This piece had me nearly shaking with rage last night. Why should any of us pay taxes or do the right thing any more? DC is a beast that takes money from some and gives it to others. If you're in the politically-connected group--whether a welfare recipient or

Wednesday

The Petty Souled In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle wrote about the megalopsychos, a term that Nassim Taleb translates as "the great-souled," a condition that excludes all pettiness. What's the opposite of the megalopsychos? I don't know, but it's on display in Seattle

Tuesday

Tuesday Miscellany A friend took over my son's little league team this year, thereby leaving me free to spend some time with my other kids. So last night, I trekked an hour to my daughter's Varsity soccer game. I didn't get back until late,

Monday

Laughable Congress Saturday morning, I read about the heroic efforts to avoid a partial federal government shut-down. The parties had agreed to a $40 billion budget cut. I thought to myself, "That doesn't sound like much," but I didn't have time to look into

Something for Sunday Morning

"Guilt is a reality, an objective force; it has caused destruction that must be repaired. For this reason, forgiveness must be more than a matter of ignoring, of merely trying to forget." Benedict XVI

Regular Blogging Returns On Saturday

Got home from NYC late last night.

From the Notebooks: Short Story

Troubles in the Banshee Union “The hours are too long and the work isn't satisfying,” said Kelli, head steward of the Female Union. She had been appointed to work out a new contract with management. There was widespread discontent among the women who worked in the Warning Department

From the Notebooks: Short Story

Wild Darrell and the Haunted House: A Dialogue "They say the nobleman William Darrell took the baby from the midwife and threw it into the fireplace. He held the newborn down with his boot until it was burned to death." "Why would he do such a thing?

Joke

Joke. A man is at a cocktail party. An angel appears and reveals to the crowd that the man had recently risked his life to save a little girl. The angel announced to the man in front of everybody: "You may choose one: Greatest wisdom, greatest wealth, or greatest

On Walking

And on Writing I'm a big believer in walking, both strolling and fast walking. The paleo-guy [http://www.arthurdevany.com/] doesn't like fast walking because he thinks cave men either strolled or sprinted. But no matter. I like walking at all different speeds, especially at a

Something for Sunday Morning

"Suffering out of love of God is better than working miracles." St. John of the Cross

BYCU, Kind of

A client stopped by my office last week. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that he has a medical marijuana card (Michigan passed a medical marijuana law in 2008). He's in his sixties. He said he doesn't smoke the stuff, but it allows him

Thursday

Jones and Food Rolling Stone magazine lights up Alex Jones [http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/talk-radios-alex-jones-the-most-paranoid-man-in-america-20110302?print=true] . Kinda. It starts off swinging hard. Toward the beginning of the piece: "The Gates Foundation? 'Obviously a eugenics operation.' The latest WikiLeaks dump? 'All the hallmarks of

Some Good Late Night Lines

Conan: 'President Obama gave a nationally televised speech about Libya. The speech was titled, “No, I wasn't born there.'" Kimmel: "President Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan, he sent the Navy in to shoot at pirates in the Indian Ocean, and now he'

Wednesday

C.S. Lewis was a very good debater. He wasn't as viciously clever as Belloc, nor as disarmingly effective as Chesterton, but he was good. They say he never lost a debate while at Oxford. Until he ran into Elizabeth Anscombe [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._E.

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly This guy broke into Auschwitz. Perhaps the best link in today's post. . . . more>> [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8388863/I-was-the-man-who-broke-into-Auschwitz.html] And Germany still can't get over the Nazis. Is that what's driving its opposition

Monday

More Hans Hans-Hermann Hoppe might be the most original thinker on the face of the earth today. Over the weekend, I found this lengthy interview [http://www.thedailybell.com/1936/Anthony-Wile-with-Dr-Hans-Hermann-Hoppe-on-the-Impracticality-of-One-World-Government-and-Western-style-Democracy.html] with him. I have only grazed it, but I have downloaded it for close reading later. I'

Something for Sunday Morning

"We can do no great things--only small things with great love." Mother Teresa

Friday

Drunk Dating What's the hardest part of giving up drinking? The buzz? The relaxation? The good times? The taste? Nope. If you're single, it's the difficulty of dating, according to this guy [http://www.salon.com/life/life_stories/index.html?story=%2Fmwt%2Ffeature%

Wednesday

The Ruling Class You've seen cyber-lists about the horrible state of the U.S. economy. This site [http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/rich-vs-poor-14-funny-statistics-and-14-not-so-funny-statistics-about-this-economic-recovery] has taken the exercise one step further: it has juxtaposed fourteen financial facts about the Ruling Class against fourteen financial facts about the Subjected. Some of

TEE

The Evening Eudemon JPMorgan: "The Likelihood That The Portuguese Government Will Fall This Week Looks High" Link [http://www.zerohedge.com/article/jpmorgan-likelihood-portuguese-government-will-fall-week-looks-high] . Supreme Court Gives Fed 5 Days to Release Emergency Bank Loan Details; An Important Step in the Right Direction. Link [http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Four minutes of chess. If no winner, three minutes of boxing. It's chess boxing. Iceland. . . . more>> [http://www.wired.com/playbook/2011/03/chess-boxing/] Josef Pieper, we hardly knew thee! And the author of this otherwise fine piece about leisure apparently

TEE

The Evening Eudemon Related to this morning's post: "The United States Department of Justice delivered a very clear and unfortunate message on Friday: 'Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism. While these forms of anti-government activities

Something for Sunday Morning

"Outward restlessness often goes together with inner listlessness. . . . A recollected person, however, who is able to concentrate, to become still, and to withdraw into himself, is inwardly awake. The states of quietness and inner alertness belong together, supporting and determining each other." Romano Guardini

Friday

Good Non-Craft Beer Prejudice isn't a bad thing, as long as one can over-ride it when the occasion calls for it, just as an open mind isn't a good thing if one can't over-ride it to embrace a truth. This beer snob reviewer [http:

Happy St. Patrick's Day

As always on March 17th, I present one of my favorite GKC verses: For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, And all their songs are sad.

No Blogging Wednesday

I held my 19th annual NCAA Tournament Auction party last night, so blogging is light this morning. I just have two questions: (1) The comments boxes have died at TDE, but traffic over the past month is up about 20% (TDE averages 550 or so different visitors a day). Any

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Do you have more than one personality, one that you show your priest, one your friends, one your clients? We all do, to some extent, I fear. But is Facebook killing our inner Sybil? . . . more>> [http://stevecheney.posterous.com/how-facebook-is-killing-your-authenticity] Skeptical. Scrivener. Self-centered.

Monday

Considering Anarchy The March issue of Commentary has an interesting piece, "The Return of Anarchism." (Subscriber link [https://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-return-of-anarchism/].) Commentary, of course, is a neo-con rag, so I didn't expect a fair treatment of limited government and, unfortunately, it met my expectations.

Something for Sunday Morning

"But whatever [prayer] routine one may adopt, one should carry it out honestly and conscientiously. In matters of prayer we are only too apt to deceive ourselves because, generally speaking, man does not enjoy praying. He easily experiences boredom, embarrassment, unwillingness, or even hostility. Everything else appears to him

Friday

Another Glass of Grace Give up beer for Lent? I've never really understood that one. If you drink to excess, or if beer otherwise hinders your relationship with God, sure. But to give it up like one gives up candy? That, I don't understand. Beer is

Thursday

Gold, Yuan, Drugs Many years ago (five? ten?), I was at a law seminar. One of the presenters decided to make a funny quip by referencing a certain group of nutty people who have about as much of a grasp on reality as people who want a return to the

Wednesday

Dust to Dust Lent is upon us. Things are different for me this year. With the cave man diet in full swing, there's virtually nothing dietary for me to give up. So instead of accentuating the sacrifice part, I'm going to concentrate on development. I'

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Are you a former cold war warrior like your TDE blogger? You might want to check out some Leebaert book. . . . more>> [http://www.independent.org/blog/index.php?p=9564] Do you have a hard time making decisions? It might just be a

Monday

On Camus I've long enjoyed Albert Camus [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Camus]. I was forced to read The Stranger in high school, and enjoyed it so much that I went on a local radio station to talk about it. In my early thirties, I read The

Something for Sunday Morning

"Meekness above all makes men masters of themselves.” St. Thomas Aquinas This quote is in my STA Top Ten. It's true (of course, STA wrote it), but it also has a cool paradoxical air.

Friday

NYBYCU We're in the throes of planning our trip to New York later this year. Imagine my excitement when I ran across this nifty site: The Ultimate Beer Guide to NYC [http://newyork.timeout.com/restaurants-bars/bars/926029/the-ultimate-guide-to-beer-in-nyc] . Unfortunately, none of the recommended bars are within stumbling

Thursday

Politically Incorrect Speech Upheld In case you missed, it a federal Court of Appeals court seems to have brought a dose of common sense to its First Amendment jurisprudence. A high school student wore a shirt that said, "Be happy, not gay." She wore it the day after

Wednesday

Ride the Wave I came into an easy $80 a few weeks ago, so I splurged on something that has long intrigued me: a shortwave radio. I bought a Grundig G4000A. The model was recommended by a "survivalist" blogger as a solid less-expensive radio, and the Amazon reviews

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Is anti-Catholicism on the rise? Things seem to be getting awfully nasty from the Left, whether it's Esquire or Hitchens or pseudo-thinkers who criticize Augustine for embracing the "not quite totalitarian theocracy" of the Catholic Church. . . . more>> [http://www.

Monday

George was More Popular? Where are we today, as a nation? I'm not sure, but very few of us like the leviathan that we've allowed to creep into every facet of our lives. Significant: According to Harvard and Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, only 11% of

Something for Sunday Morning

“You must also pay attention to the thoughts of arrogance and presumption which attack you ”¦ For when the demons see the soul freed from passions and temptations, they attack it through such thoughts.” From The Philokalia

Friday

Drinking Night in Canada I like wine, but sometimes it's out of place. Like at Oktoberfest. Or at the typical frat party. Or a bachelor party. Or Thursday night bowling league. Those occasions call for beer. And if you drink wine at a hockey game, someone's

Thursday

Consumer Culture You want to see golf carts that cost $20,000 and go nearly 40 miles per hour? Go to The Villages in Florida. Swanky golf carts are all the rage, and people are putting serious time and money into them. Lawfully, they're only supposed to go

Wednesday

Put that in Your Pipe Everyone wants to be a leader. Bloomberg is the leader of the smoking Nazis: "Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed legislation into law today that bans smoking in many public spaces around the five boroughs. Under the new law, smoking will be banned in the city&

Margins?

I occasionally receive emails from TDE readers, telling me that the right-hand margin is all screwed up. I have never experienced this problem, and my web consultant tells me he has no idea why/how it could be happening. I'm curious to know how rampant it is. Please

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly They bilk people out of billions with impunity. They get bailed out. America is there for Wall Street, and DC is feeding it the sheople's money. Rolling Stone magazine's take. . . more>> [http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216?print=

Something for Sunday Morning

"Be the living expression of God's kindness--kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your warm greeting." Mother Teresa

BYCU

Loko Legislatures Bans against alcohol energy drinks have picked up steam, and it looks like the legislatures are trying "one-up" each other in their prohibitions. Consider Iowa: "The caffeinated frenzy has also spread to Iowa (House File 25 and Senate File 1) where caffeine in liquor, wine

Thursday

Random Thursday Remember last month's post about breathing and meditation ("Woe the Man with Halitosis [https://thedailyeudemon.com/17498/]")? I mentioned that breathing has played a big role in the meditation practices of many religions, but not, from what I could tell, in Catholicism. It looks

Wednesday

Labor v. Leisure There's a thing called the "disutility of labor." It's a fancy phrase that basically means people prefer leisure over labor. We constantly see people make current sacrifices in order to get advantages later, and one of the principle advantages is leisure.

TDE News Flash

Even the Grey Lady now acknowledges the looming problem of rising prices: Companies Raise Prices as Commodity Costs Jump [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/business/15prices.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=igw&pagewanted=print] . Stock up on everything. Now. I suspect

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly "You wanna touch my Oscar? It'll light up my life." Hollywood egomaniac becomes convicted rapist. His son faces felony murder charges. . . . more>> [http://nymag.com/news/features/71271/] Operating Thetan VII leaves Scientology because it won't embrace

Monday

More on Paul Kinda significant: The Washington Post ran a version of that Slate article on Ron Paul [http://www.slate.com/id/2284503/pagenum/all/#p2] over the weekend: Ron Paul, opponent of the Fed and fan of the gold standard, a lone wolf no more [http://www.washingtonpost.

Something for Sunday Morning

On Work Francis Fernandez: "Our Lord wants those who follow him in the midst of the world to be people who work well. They must be known for the quality of their work, which will have the prestige of excellence, and be thoroughly competent in their job or profession.

(Untitled)

Contemplating Craft The recession hasn't been kind to beer sales, but it hasn't hit the craft beer industry. It's booming (sales were up 12% in 2009 alone). Since craft beer is more expensive than the mass-produced stuff, the logical conclusion is that people will

Thursday

Slow Thursday There's now an iPhone app for confession [http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/02/09/forgive-me-iphone-for-i-have-sinned/] . I might download it, but iPieta [http://www.ipieta.com/] has pretty much everything I need, plus I've added a lot of Catholic material to my iPhone notepad. The

Wednesday

Lewis and Belloc The September/October edition of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/wordpress/] features am interview with Peter Milward, S.J. Milward has been around awhile, as evidenced by this great Lewis anecdote: "Long before I went up to Oxford in 1950, I had been a devout

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Aristotle said metaphors are the mark of genius. Others today argue that figurative speech is dangerous. A new book explores. . . . more>> [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704150104576122702684086310.html] Rikers juvenile detention: Where toothbrushes are weapons and pop tarts the plunder. But it pales

Monday

Monday Miscellany Whew. Whatta weekend. Our high school produced The Sound of Music. Abbie (16) was Liesl, Meg (9) played Marta, and Tess (5) played Gretl. On top of that, my son Alex (17) performed the role of Franz, the butler. It was really neat. The kids worked hard for

Something for Sunday Morning

This deadly cancer of anger from which so much harm grows: It makes us unlike ourselves, makes us like timber wolves or furies from Hell, drives us forth headlong upon the points of swords, makes us blindly run forth after other men's destruction as we hasten toward our

BYCU

Working on My Glutes I'm not sure how many of you read the comments section of TDE, so I want to clarify something about yesterday's post. From my response in the comments box: "I won't stop drinking. It's a matter of

Thursday

Paleo-Man I've been on the Cave Man Diet for 34 days now. I didn't blog about it when I started because I thought I might "cave" and not stick to it. But I have. And the results have been very good. Not great, but

Wednesday

Crushing the Youth This article about the "college tuition bubble" [http://nakedlaw.avvo.com/2010/06/8-reasons-college-tuition-is-the-next-bubble-to-burst/] is interesting, but its content doesn't support its assertion. The assertion: College tuition is in a bubble that is about to get pricked. The content then gives eight reasons

TEE

For January: "Corn spot up 7.76%, wheat up 5.63%, Rice up 10.08%, Hogs up 10.16%, Sugar up 5.64%, Orange Juice up 3.33%, and cotton.... up 17.08%. That's in one month!" Source: Zero Hedge -- Mobile post

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Amway-like network marketing redux. This time, with backing by Donald Trump. And this time, with vitamins. Scam? Or helping people survive the Great Recession? . . . more>> [http://nymag.com/news/business/70831/] That John Travolta character? Or more like the Seinfeld one? Or something

Monday

Sloping Toward Rush "Ching chong, ching chong cha." That's Rush Limbaugh, imitating the Chinese Communist leader, before launching into a 20-second imitation of the Chinese language . . . an imitation that hasn't sat well with the Left. Link [http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110128/D9L1B1SO0.html]

Something for Sunday Morning

"To reform. Every day a little. This has to be your constant task if you really want to become a saint." Escriva

The Winterfest King

My son, crowned at the high school earlier this afternoon.

Friday

One and Done Watch for these beers: "Tactical Nuclear Penguin." "Sink The Bismarck." "The End Of History." "Start the Future." They're the worlds strongest beers, hitting as high as 60% alcohol (120 proof). People are calling them "superbeers,"

Thursday

The Vat My firm subscribes to the New Yorker. A recent issue featured this piece about the Vatican library, "God's Librarians [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/03/110103fa_fact_mendelsohn]." It's good, especially for a magazine that isn't terribly friendly

Wednesday

Woe the Man with Halitosis I found a book on sports psychology at the library last week. It could aptly be called, "The Tao and Sports." Because the Tao has long intrigued me (note [http://dailyeudemonannex.blogspot.com/2011/01/monday.html]), I checked it out. I suspect

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Athletes like to text and twitter. Why? Because they're dumb jocks. Maybe. . . . more [http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/lifestyle/why-sportmen-text]>> Communists. Cultural Marxists. Progressives. All the same: totalitarians, intent on subjugating the masses. . . . more>> [http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/

Monday

Barbarians at the Gate Alan Greenspan returns to his libertarian roots more and more each day. The stunner quote: "We have at this particular stage a fiat money which is essentially money printed by a government and it's usually a central bank which is authorized to do

Cold in SW Michigan

Something for Sunday Morning

"Many would be willing to have afflictions provided that they not be inconvenienced by them." St. Francis de Sales

BYCU

No time for blogging today, so I offer this six-pack of cool pics:

Thursday

Random "Bubble Ball" is the king of the iPod Application universe. It has been downloaded over 2 million times. The developer? A fourteen-year-old boy from Utah [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1348293/Robert-Nay-14-video-game-iPhone-app-Bubble-Boy-downloaded-2m-times.html] . I don't care much for video games, but the application is

Wednesday

Von Mises I'm fifty pages into Human Action. Only 850 pages to go. I'm impressed, to put it mildly. Of course, I went in expecting to be blown away, so the book had a receptive audience, but still: it's awfully impressive so far. His

Tuesday

Catholic Arts and Letters Weekly Pedophiles. Abusers secretly moved to other posts. Rampant cover-up. Dang Catholics! Oh wait. They're talking about the public schools. . . . more>> [http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/a_priest_and_an_altar_boy_hah.html] A giant in his time, bigger even

Attention New York

My family and I are coming there this year. We are in the planning stages. We plan to stay in mid-town Manhattan. Our first question: Will we be able to park our 12-person Econoline van? It's 9-feet high, so parking garages are out of the question. We don&

Monday

Announcing New Feature I read over the weekend that Dennis Dutton died. Dutton was the creator of Arts & Letters Daily [http://www.aldaily.com/], one of the best websites in the cyberworld (which he sold in 2002 but continued to edit). For simple elegance (published as a 18th-century broadsheet)

Something for Sunday Morning

“The rational creature cannot wish not to be happy.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Brews You Can Use

Johnny Horton Stuff I know Anchorage is in southern Alaska, but I would've thought it was night time at least 18 hours a day right now. No matter: They're hosting their 16th Annual Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival [http://www.alaskadispatch.com/culture/shop-907/

Thursday

Random Thursday The MSM economic cheerleaders at CNBC say the housing market has entered the Depression zone. Link [http://www.cnbc.com/id/41019790]. That's a significant admission from an unlikely source. I appreciate the candor, but I really liked this little piece of trivia: "The value

Wednesday

Kauffman, Soap, and Dirty Dollars Bill Kauffman is great. In this piece [http://www.amconmag.com/blog/ikes-last-stand/the-other-eisenhowers/], he writes about Eisenhower's isolationist/pacifist family members. Interesting stuff, and it ends with this point to ponder: "Since 1941, war has warped American life. Only the doddering

TEE

No policy could be more dangerous, more certain ultimately to produce a social explosion, than to educate young people for many years and deny them first the opportunity to earn a living that they believe is commensurate with their education, and then the opportunity to earn a living at all.

New Study

As part of my return to post-Christmas normalcy, I dug into my study last weekend. It had gotten to be a pit. I put in an island of bookshelves, using them to establish an economics/investment section of my library, then rearranged much of the other furniture. I was pleased

Monday

Greenspan and Other Problems Is this guy for real? Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. could face a bond-market crisis if politicians don't act soon to start cutting the nation's debt [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704739504576067832461529192.html?mod=igoogle_wsj_gadgv1&

Something for Sunday Morning

“Unless one is well on the road to holiness, it is very difficult in the midst of a daily routine to see things in perspective, as they really are.” Thomas Dubay

BYCU

The Machine This might be the neatest beer device since the keg: bottom-up dispensers [http://biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=24970]. They transform the keg from a foamy, slow device into a beer-gushing machine: 44 pints a minute [http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/12/how-it-works-beer-dispenser-fills-glass-from-bottom/] . So how do they get

Wednesday

Talebisms If you didn't know about it, Nassim Taleb has an online notebook [http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/notebook.htm]. I'm not sure whether he regularly adds to it, but there's a ton of prose on it already. I downloaded it to my iPad and

Tuesday

Tuesday Miscellany I'm leaning toward the Alex Jones explanation on this one: Government secret testing may have killed all those fish and birds in Arkansas [http://www.infowars.com/is-mass-bird-and-fish-die-off-connected-to-government-testing/] . Sure, violent weather could've killed the birds [http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/914986--what-killed-thousands-of-birds-and-fish-in-arkansas?bn=

Something for Sunday Morning

“In so far as it is loved, everything becomes a source of pleasure.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Happy New Year

What would de Caussade [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Pierre_de_Caussade] say about the new year? Would the author of The Sacrament of the Present Moment condemn the constant "looking back/looking forward" disposition that marks these days? I suspect he'd find it harmless

Something for Sunday Morning

"I want you to be happy on earth. But you won't be if you don't get rid of that fear of suffering." Escriva

BYCU

New Years Edition It's the last day of the year. 2010 was far better than 2009, and for that I'm grateful. I plan to celebrate the end of the year with friends and family at the local drinking club this afternoon, while watching bowl games. I

Thursday

Gearing Back Up I have returned from my trip to the in-laws in Detroit, and now the Christmas festivities are over, except for the 12 days of Christmas presents that we give the kids. We give each kid a small present every day until the Epiphany, at which time we

From the Notebooks

Gabriel Marcel: "The less life is experienced as a captivity the less the soul will be able to see the shining of that veiled, mysterious light." Homo Viator, 32. Placed on the flipside: The more a soul experiences its captivity, its limitations, and its darkness, the more it

TEE

Grosse Pointe, Michigan: home of residents rich enough to buy million-dollar homes, but too cheap to keep their sidewalks clear of snow. Perhaps the most-treacherous walking in Michigan's lower peninsula. -- Mobile post

TEE

Mediterraneans scorn instructions but bow to authority; Anglo-Saxons bow to instructions but scorn authority. Nassim Taleb -- Mobile post

TEE

"Demagoguery: a popular idea disliked by liberals." Bill Kauffman.

Random Thoughts

Tom Bombadil is kinda like Switzerland. Hubris leads to humility, but normally against one's will. "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all

TEE

”¨”¨"It is much harder to be a Stoic when wealthy, powerful, and respected than when destitute, miserable, and lonely." Nassim Taleb.

From the Notebooks

I like it when I run across a historian who supports Belloc's popular histories. For kicks, I recently started reading Simon Schama's A History of Britain. On page 45, he writes about the transition from Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon Britain: A tidy compartmentalization of British history,

TEE

"Most of what they call humility is successfully disguised arrogance." Nassimn Taleb

Something for Dec. 26th

Today is the Feast of St. Stephen. The Catholic Church loves its paradoxes: The day of intense joy followed by a day of sobering reality. Joy and martyrdom, love and hatred of love, Everlasting Life and grisly death. Note: The above is accurate, but since it's also Sunday,

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

A few Christmas Eve words of wisdom: “For while all things were in quiet silence and the night was in the midst of her course, thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne.” Book of Wisdom. “[This] passage, brimming with the mystery of the Incarnation, is wonderfully

Thursday

Slowing Down Light blogging today, since I'm expecting holiday-like traffic. Blog traffic has already decreased about 20% this week as things slow down. Because many companies are shutting down today for a four-day holiday weekend, I expect blog traffic to be especially light. * * * * * * * Please note that TDE will

Wednesday

Beer and Other Lubricants Coincidences never cease: I start a Roman kick, and then yesterday, I run across a short blurb about Pliny the Elder beer. I haven't tried it, but I figured the picture is worth posting, especially since there'll be no BYCU this Friday.

Christmas Cookie Decorating

TEE

Yup, Europe has gotten whacked hard:

Tuesday

Rome Me I was a history major in college. Within my history major, I emphasized classical civilization: Greece, Rome, Byzantium. I loved the stuff, but that was many years ago, and I've forgotten a lot of what I learned. Last weekend, though, I stumbled across an amazing podcast:

TEE

Read trashy gossip magazines and classics or sophisticated works; never the New York Times (or something even more aberrant, Newsweek). Nassim Taleb -- Mobile post

Monday

Favorite Books I finished Chodorov's The Rise and Fall of Society this weekend. What great reading. Light prose, heavy topic. Everything distilled easily, like only a man with a firm grasp on the subject can do. If you're interested in the huge body of libertarian literature

Max Dressed Himself for Church

He's still struggling with the collar concept.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Start by making your own homes places where peace, happiness, and love abound, through your love for each member of our family and for our neighbors." Mother Teresa. Good advice for the entire year, but especially these coming weeks.

Friday

BYCU: Taxes and Top Ten List I'll drink to it: Congress Sends Tax Cut Bill to Obama's Desk [http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/17/congress-passes-extend-tax-cuts-jobless-aid/] . It'll save me money on social security taxes, save many of my clients money on estate planning

Thursday

Twitter Man, this holiday season is getting away from me. I don't even feel that busy, but then I look at all the crap I have to do and, whew, I wonder where the time has gone. * * * * * * * I watched the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) yesterday,

Wednesday

Understanding The Federal Reserve A month ago, I said I was going to tackle Allan Metzer's A History of the Federal Reserve. Unfortunately, it broke my tackle. The book is difficult, largely because it uses a lot of professional terminology. I'm still glancing through a page

TEE

"Humility in pre-Christian ethics was an insult." Nassim Taleb -- Mobile post

Tuesday

"The Attack of the Small Screen." Part Six of Moguls and Movie Stars on TCM. The re-run played last night at 7:00, then I watched Part Seven at 8:00. The 7-episode series is now over. It was highly enjoyable, with a slight political slant (they mentioned

Monday

What is Manliness? Lew Rockwell frequently links to "The Art of Manliness." It's a decent site, but I think it's more like Gentleman's Quarterly than a man's site. When I think of men, I basically have two stereotypes: John Wayne

The Octo-blade

How do you clear snow? Shovel? Snow-blower? Snow service? I use . . . The Octo-Blade! It's an octopus-like machine that attacks the snow from eight different angles, using different-sized blades to hit different accumulations. The little blades take care of the front porch and areas under the eaves. The medium

Something for Sunday Morning

There is no sin nor wrong that gives man such a foretaste of Hell in this life as anger and impatience. St. Catherine of Siena

Friday

Received in an Email My computer guy saw yesterday's post and emailed further suggestions to me. I pass them along as a public service: "Don't click OK or CANCEL on pop-ups that are telling you that you are infected or that your hard drive has

Homo Depot

Received in an Email "Speaking of shopping, every year Randy and Mary and Robin and I go on what we call our 'gay shopping trip,' because we start at that faggy coffee house, then Randy and I have to go to the Home Depot to wipe the

In Case You Missed It

"Congressman Ron Paul told Judge Napolitano last night on FOX Business that the incoming-chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Congressman Spencer Bachus, has verbally notified Paul that he will be named Chairman of the House Subcommittee for Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology." Link [http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/

Thursday

Cyber Hell Man, whatta rotten week of technology. My computer at the office got hacked. The following is a memorandum (redacted as appropriate) that I circulated to all attorneys and staff. You might want to read it carefully: > My work computer has been compromised. The virus is particularly insidious.

Wednesday

Giving Thanks You want to feel thankful? Really, truly thankful? You can start by pondering your own wretchedness, then step back and think, "Yet despite my ridiculous self, I have so much." If that approach sucks, consider thinking about famine. The United States has never had one, and

The Evening Eudemon

> Polk invaded Mexico in 1846 to grab California and Texas and everything in between. Lincoln waged war upon the Southern states in 1861 to prevent the South from withdrawing peacefully from the Union. McKinley provoked Spain in 1898 so he could grab Cuba, Hawaii, and the Philippines. Wilson administered

Tuesday

Social Security I like the way the tax cuts are shaping up, and I was particularly pleased by Obama's proposal to slash social security taxes on workers from 6.2% to 4.2%, even it is for only a year. Link [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704156304576003441518282986.html?

Something for Sunday Morning

"Our true aim in life is to understand God, and through that understanding we shall sufficiently understand life. Failure in human life is commonly due to an attempt to understand life without any attempt to understand it in relation to God." J.G.H. Barry

Friday

Brews You Can Use What's wet, wet, and has nearly 10,000 friends? The Beer in the Shower Facebook page [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beer-in-the-Shower/71090364480]. Don't worry. I scanned its photo collection [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beer-in-the-Shower/71090364480?v=photos]. I found nothing

Thursday

From the Notebooks Notes about Fiction As I studied the work of Flannery O'Connor–possibly the ultimate craftsman of the novel, who wrote so slowly and deliberately that every word has a purpose–it seemed her philosophy is explicit. Consider, for instance, Rayber, the cold rationalist who was

Wednesday

Schiff and Black Friday Stories If you didn't hear, Peter Schiff has a daily radio show now [http://www.schiffradio.com/pg/jsp/charts/audioMaster.jsp?dispid=301&pid=51185]. Robert Higgs (featured here yesterday) appeared on the show Monday evening. Based on what I can discern,

Monday

Monday Moanin' Man, travel wears me out. I went to my in-laws on Thursday and came back yesterday afternoon. Everything went well and it was an enjoyable visit, but I was dizzy-tired all day yesterday. Couldn't shake it. I finally crashed before 9:00, slept until 6:

Christmas Tree Decorating Party

Something for Sunday Morning

"Smile five times a day at someone you don't really want to smile at--do it for peace." Mother Teresa Happy Advent. Remember: It's a time of mortification. But in mortification, there is joy.

Saturday

D.W. By chance, I watched three Denzel Washington movies earlier this month: The Book of Eli, Unstoppable, and Man on Fire. I recommend all three. None were great, but they're very good (Unstoppable the weakest of the three) , and I really enjoyed Denzel Washington. I did a

Friday

Gilbert I ran Brews You Can Use on Black Wednesday, so today is a normal post . . . almost. I'm also away from my computer, so I've had to pre-program a few posts. Today, I merely want to mention that the new issue of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. My holiday season didn't start very well. I wrecked my vehicle and, in the process, took out a fire hydrant. The officer was very nice about it and nobody was hurt (I was only going about 15 miles an hour), but I was at fault.

Wednesday

Black Wednesday Ah, yes. Black Wednesday. Retailers get out of the red and into the black on Friday. Today, their bar-owning brethren get into the black first. "Thanksgiving Eve, or Black Wednesday, is as strong as ever as one of the biggest bar nights of the year. 'There&

Tuesday

The War Season I don't like the Christmas Wars. Actually, it's more accurate to say that I don't like to stoop into the muck to fight them. But I'm glad some people out there are doing the dirty work, like the American

Monday

Gold and Genocide A writer for The Atlantic wonders why the United States government is hoarding so much gold [http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/uncle-sam-8217-s-mysterious-hoard/8254/] . It's a great question: if gold is the barbaric relic, and we're all Keynesians now, why hold

Something for Sunday Morning

As Queen, Margaret changed her husband and the country for the better. Malcolm was good, but he and his court were very rough. When he saw how wise his beloved wife was, he listened to her good advice. She softened his temper and led him to practice great virtue. She

Brews You Can Use

Gearing-Up-for-Holidays Edition Tired of all the pumpkin ale stuff? This site offers three autumn drinks that don't feature pumpkins [http://www.servedraw.com/2010/11/3-autumn-cocktails-sans-pumpkin/]: The Rattlesnake, Ginger Smash, and Largo Al Factotum Della Citta. (Good luck pronouncing that last one after six.) Warning: They're

Thursday

Random Stuff I took the four eldest to see Unstoppable Tuesday night. I highly recommend the movie for a parent that wants to spend a fun 100 minutes with his boys. It's not a great movie, but it's intense, action-packed, and just a little violent. And

TEE

“In announcing the change of editors, Mencken called Hazlitt the 'only competent critic of the arts that I have heard of who was at the same time a competent economist,' as well as 'one of the few economists in human history who could really write.'"

Tuesday Morning Wake-Up

It's been a common theme here for the past couple of years: The federal government and Wall Street--abetted by the universities--are taking care of themselves and screwing the rest of us. If you're in the group, you're doing well. If you're outside

Tuesday

From the Notebooks In the Introduction to his 1951 book, The Human Revolt (a/k/a The Rebel), Camus said about suicide: “[F]rom this act of self-destruction itself a value arises which, perhaps, might have made it worth while to live.” In other words, Camus asked, Why would you

Monday

Big Albert It's the Memorial of St. Albert the Great [http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/ALBERT.HTM]. I've long been intrigued with Albertus Magnus. He not only taught St. Thomas Aquinas, and he not only early recognized STA's brilliance ("You call him

Something for Sunday Morning

"We shall ask him to help us uproot our egoism, to cure us of thinking too much about ourselves and to eliminate from our hearts any kind of lukewarmness." Francis Fernandez -- Mobile post

The Evening Eudemon

“It is an error to see in our dreams nothing but the divagations of our unconscious self. They are woven of the same threads-though unpicked and re-ordered-that compose the stuff of our life and our being. In them we find tossed together memories of yesterday and memories of our remotest

Friday

Brews You Can Use Another instance of modern academics catching up with ancient understanding: Beer may have lubricated the rise of civilization [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40071314/ns/technology_and_science-science/]. I have long speculated (and may have internalized it from a third party, like Chesterton) that, upon

Thursday

It's the Exiting-the-Pool Economy! Finally, an econ watcher gives vent to something I've been witnessing: value shrinkage. It's the flip-side of price increases. Instead of rising prices, we get less for the same price. "Due to rising input costs and an overall higher

(Untitled)

“A Nietzschean friend of mine who had stayed at the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino, humbly confessed the thing that had surprised him most: in this society of monks living by a common faith, subject to a common rule, he had come to be aware of an extraordinary variety of

Bonus Monday Morning Coverage

What the heck? Bernanke announced QE2 just five days ago. This morning, the WSJ runs a piece by Kevin Warsh [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704353504575596762375409760.html?KEYWORDS=Kevin+warsh#articleTabs%3Darticle] , a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. The piece is balanced and sane. The

Monday

Pope, Pixar, and Peanut Butter Ah man. That's just gross: "About 200 people have staged a gay "kiss-in" as Pope Benedict XVI drove by [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101107/ap_on_re_eu/eu_pope_10]." I think I'd rather

Something for Sunday Morning

"The virtue of fortitude leads us to be patient when unpleasant things happen and we are given bad news. It leads us to be patient in dealing with the obstacles that each day brings with it." Francis Fernandez

Friday

Brews You Can Use Halloween is over, but it's still the harvest season. Harvest-themed beers are appropriate through November 25th. I bought a six-pack of pumpkin beer last year and really enjoyed it. If you want a run-down of a handful of pumpkin beers that were sampled at

Wednesday

Post-Election Ramblings As I get older and read more, I realize that our Founding Fathers had a lot of flaws and the system they implemented was not an impartial mechanism of governing. Still, their ideas impress me, like their insight that the Senate would be a stabilizing force that guards

Election Bonus

Jonah Goldberg at the LA Times recounts a handful of 2008 obituaries about the Republican party and boasts about the ascendancy of liberalism [http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-1102-goldberg-demography-20101102,0,7873396.column] . Pretty funny, in light of what is apparently going to happen today.

Tuesday

Illusory Tuesday "This afternoon on National Public Radio James Fallows proclaimed that 'there is essentially no disagreement whatsoever' among economists that more stimulus spending is necessary today." Fortunately, people like the folks at Cafe Hayek provide correctives to such unbridled bunk [http://cafehayek.com/2010/10/

Halloween Humor

Kimmel: "Some parents ruin Halloween for their kids by not allowing them to get candy. The way our economy is going, it may be good practice for our kids to start begging for food."

Something for Sunday Morning

"The greatest obstacles to the soul's trying to follow Christ and to help others have their origin in a disordered love of self. At times this leads us to overestime our strength. At other times, it brings discouragement and despondency as a result of our own weaknesses

The Evening Eudemon

“Every single great idea that has marked the 21st century, the 20th century and the 19th century has required government vision and government incentive,” he said. “In the middle of the Civil War you had a guy named Lincoln paying people $16,000 for every 40 miles of track they

Friday

Hallowbeers Man, lots of spooky beer stories out there today. I guess it's no surprise, since "Halloween is actually the biggest weekend of the year for beer sales [http://www.nacsonline.com/NACS/News/Daily/Pages/ND1028103.aspx]." The drinking theme is so popular, "nearly

(Untitled)

Received in an Email From the "That's Just Wrong" Halloween Files:

Thursday

From the Notebooks If it's possible to love a fictional philosophical character, I've loved one for many years. It's SÃ¶ren Kierkegaard's “knight of faith," [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_of_faith] which he describes in the pioneering work of

Morning Bonus

> "On average, our basic food costs have increased by an incredible 48% over the last year (measured by wheat, corn, oats, and canola prices). From the price at the pump to heating your stove, energy costs are up 23% on average (heating oil, gasoline, natural gas). A little

Wednesday

Not much today. We held our pumpkin-carving family party last night. I'm whipped. I did, however, salvage enough time to read this neat little essay by Lew Rockwell: What We Can Learn From the Middle Ages [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/world-of-salamanca158.html]. The School of Salamanca has

Tuesday

It's Not Just the Shortest Month of the Year I think black history month would do better if it promoted more stuff like this: biography of John Mitchell, the "Fighting Negro Editor" of the Richmond Planet [http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2010-07/Richmond.html] at

The Evening Eudemon

Lynching reached its peak in the South in the early 1890s, when, on average, a black man was hanged every other day for alleged crimes that ranged from rape and murder to hitting a white man or even just writing an insulting letter. Link [http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/

Monday

Monday Miscellany Ah, that explains all the Judy Garland CD advertisements I've been seeing: " Facebook might be inadvertently outing its gay users to advertisers, according to a new study [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1322916/Facebook-accidentally-outing-gay-users-advertisers.html#ixzz13B6XwRtM] ." Problem is, the very next sentence says

Something for Sunday Morning

"Only humility seeks happiness and strength in God. One of the reasons the proud go after praise so avidly, and have an exalted opinion of themselves and resent anything that can bring them down in their own estimation or in the eyes of others, is the lack of inner

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“Ludwig: Before this rally in gold is over, would you venture to guess how high it can go? Schiff: I like to quote it in terms of the Dow, because you just don't know how much inflation there's going to be. So my target is for

Friday

Starbeers You want a buzz with your coffee? A Starbucks coffee shop in Seattle is test-marketing craft beer and local wines [http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/starbucks-beer/]. My first thought: The apocalypse is upon us, but upon reflection and further reading, it makes perfect sense. The energized crowd often wants to shift

Thursday

Rapt For months, I've been meaning to blog about this excellent book: Rapt, Attention and the Focused Life, by Winifred Gallagher. It's full of common-sensical insight, which means, "Observations that most of us probably knew about, but needed someone to point out." Best of

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“Some men can learn almost indefinitely; their capacity goes on increasing until their bodies begin to wear out. Others stop in childhood, even in infancy. They reach, say, the mental age of ten or twelve, and then they develop no more. Physically, they become men, and sprout beards, political delusions,

The Evening Eudemon

“While unemployment for college grads is 15% according to Bloomberg, we know for a fact that the overall rate of unemployment, per economist John Williams of Shadow Stats, is actually at around 22%.” Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/slavo/slavo15.1.html].

Monday

Monday Miscellany That's why I blog: Couples married for an average of 40 years know less about one another's food, movie and kitchen-design preferences than do partners who have been married or in committed relationships for a year or two, a new study finds. . . . Older couples&

TEE

“With his prodigious talent, parents who loved him to bits, and a piano teacher named Marietta Clinkscales, Duke Ellington could only succeed”

Something for Sunday Morning

"Do not imagine that love to be true must be extraordinary." Mother Teresa

Friday

Brews You Can Use Maybe I'll become a renaissance man. An expert in everything: philosophy, theology, history, art, beer, finance, copulatory technique, dewey decimal system, chemistry, TV, electronics, fashion, web-page design. Even cooking. Heck, especially cooking, now that I've found the magic ingredient: beer. Beers can

Thursday

Need the Book Roadmap? You know what's kinda hard? Starting a non-fiction book when you don't know what it's about. I recently tried it for the first time, inadvertently. I read an off-hand positive remark on a site I enjoy about The God of

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In Grand Rapids earlier this month -- Mobile post

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“In an effort to rush through thousands of home foreclosures since 2007, financial institutions and their mortgage servicing departments hired hair stylists, Walmart floor workers and people who had worked on assembly lines and installed them in “foreclosure expert” jobs with no formal training, a Florida lawyer says.” – Robo-signers: Mortgage

The Evening Eudemon

“When friends called Charles Carroll ”“ the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence ”“ an “American Cicero,” it was the highest form of praise. Bradley Birzer notes this, by the way, in his very good new Carroll biography.” – ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT: Life in the late republic: The Catholic role in America

Tuesday

Happy Prose Okay, so I'm supposed to have a smile on my prose. That was a tall self-imposed order. Fortunately, the pessimistic Lew Rockwell bailed me out. He penned a large piece that he posted yesterday: The Killing and Reviving of the American Dream [http://www.lewrockwell.com/

The Evening Eudemon

“As St. Augustine noted in City of God, Roman success was built not just on greed, pride and violence. It also flowed from the early Roman virtues of piety, austerity, courage, justice and self-mastery. For Augustine, these virtues had an unfortunate and self-defeating basis in paganism. But in their natural

Monday

Twitter Another Lions game yesterday. I would never attend two NFL games in one year (my preference: one every 3-4 years), but my boys got free tickets to the first game I attended a month ago, and these tickets were ordered before the free tickets. Although I didn't

Old Tiger Stadium

Jack, Michael, and Max on the pitching mound at old Tiger Stadium. Other pics from old Tiger Stadium earlier today.

Something for Sunday Morning

“Thoughts gather about the soul according to its underlying quality.” The Philokalia

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But when you recall that one of the first moves by Lenin, Mussolini and Hitler was to outlaw individual ownership of gold, you begin to sense that there may be some connection between money, redeemable in gold, and the rare prize known as human liberty. - Howard Buffett (Warren Buffett&

The Evening Eudemon

“The teacher's unions are a menace and an impediment to reform. But politics aside, it takes only a short tour through some of the country's failing schools to see that reform is desperately needed.” – “Waiting for Superman”: Sadder than fiction | The Economist (via Instapaper) “The statistics

Friday

Ring the Bell! I became a fan of Bell's beer about five years ago. It looks like I merely jumped on a big drunken bandwagon: "The beer business is apparently booming and Kalamazoo's Bell's Brewery is expanding just outside the city. . . Bell'

Thursday

I'm OK Depressed, You're OK Depressed I listened to an hour-long podcast with the author of The Noble Lie: When Scientists Give the Right Answers for the Wrong Reasons . It sounds like a great book and the podcast [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/09/greenberg_

Wednesday

Random Good to know: “[T]he best way to survive in a falling elevator is to lie down on your back. Sitting is bad but better than standing, because buttocks are nature's safety foam. Muscle and fat are compressible: they help absorb the G forces of the impact.

TEEudemon

“The little history learned in our school days suffices to prove this generic doctrine. Everywhere we find some warlike tribe of wild men breaking through the boundaries of some less warlike people, settling down as nobility and founding its State. In Mesopotamia, wave follows wave, state follows state - Babylonians,

Tuesday

Digital World to Real World? The digital revolution keeps going and picking up pace: "YouTube serves up 2 billion videos a day. Twitterers tweet 750 times a second. Internet traffic is growing by 40% a year. The internet has morphed into a social medium. People post 2.5 billion

The Evening Eudemon

Have you made it over to Keith Rothfus' site [http://www.keithpa4.com/] to make a donation? He's being outspent 7-1 by his opponent. If you have a second, and have a few dollars, please make a donation. I donated to Keith. It's the first

The Evening Twitter

Please, NFL. Bag the pink. Nice thought, but obnoxiously over the top and screams hollow do-good exhibitionism.

Something for Sunday Morning

“He who loves God lives the angelic life on earth, fasting and keeping vigils, praying and singing psalms and always thinking good of every man.” The Philokalia

Nice Evening for Football

-- Mobile post

The Evening Twitter

"Joe Sobran, the longtime conservative columnist and former National Review senior editor, has died at age 64 after a long physical decline."

Friday

Brews You Can Use Providing all the conversation fodder you need for your upcoming evening! Well, crud. The economy is forcing one of the greatest bastions of beer drinking--the English pub--to change its business model. They're now catering more to yuppies than hard-core drinkers. Link [http://www.economist.

Thursday

Gays, Gold, and Ganja Great: The number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) characters on prime time U.S. television is growing, with 58 regular LGBT roles on network and cable shows this season. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100929/tv_nm/us_gay] . The reason? "

The Evening Twitter

"The US Mint has announced it has run out of one ounce Gold Buffalo coins: 'The United States Mint has depleted its inventory of 2010 American Buffalo One Ounce Gold Bullion Coins.'"

The Evening Twitter

Joe Kennedy claimed that he knew it was time to get out of stocks in 1929 when he received investing tips from a shoeshine boy." “Stage 3 of the gold rush is when the shoeshine boy tells you: Buy gold!” http://instapaper.com/z4thqln1r

Wednesday

Finally, I Post a Small Tribute to the Cardinal The puzzling Roger Scruton recently penned a borderline-beautiful tribute to Cardinal Newman's The Idea of a University. Check it out [http://spectator.org/archives/2010/09/17/the-idea-of-a-university]. Excerpt: > The university is a society in which the student

The Evening Twitter

“The fed res doesn't want to create a hyperinflation. Bernanke may be incompetent, but he's not evil ”¦” http://instapaper.com/ztnohjn1m “I stress that in 1929 the debt to GDP ratio was of course minuscule in comparison what it is today”¦” http://instapaper.com/ztnohjn1m “These

Tuesday

Willmoore and More This article reminds me of Willmoore Kendall's observation that, contrary to the theory of America's open society, it was more of an American tradition to run a person out of town on a rail: America's history of religious intolerance [http://www.

Amen

Fr Dubay taught me a lot. May peace be his. “Word is just getting out that Marist Father Thomas Dubay passed away over the weekend. May He Rest in Peace.” – A Remembrance of Father Thomas Dubay | Blogs | NCRegister.com (via Instapaper)

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We should accept the truth of history, which is that white men have dominated intellectual life in the west. Let's not resist this; let's run with it. It is western history that has indelibly shaped our consciousness. We live in Britain, not Timbuktu. We might hail

Monday

Econ Monday My apologies for another econ post, but I suspect things are reaching a fever pitch right now, so . . . * * * * * * * I wrote on Saturday that it's probably time to get out of the market. The mad geniuses at Zero Hedge vehemently disagree. In this (perhaps unhinged) post, they&

Something for Sunday Morning

“The virtues perfect us so that we follow our natural inclinations in a fitting manner.” St. Thomas Aquinas

The Evening Eudemon

America's True History of Religious Tolerance http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Americas-True-History-of-Religious-Tolerance.html When George Washington dispatched Benedict Arnold on a mission to court French Canadians' support for the American Revolution in 1775, he cautioned Arnold not to let their religion get in the way. “Prudence, policy

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12 Cool Products for Beer Drinkers http://www.toxel.com/tech/2010/09/23/12-cool-products-for-beer-drinkers/

Friday

Deep-Fried Beer and Other Forms of Beer Violence Oh, what the hey. I'll try it: Deep-fried beer [http://www.nationalreview.com/the-feed/246775/finally-deep-fried-beer]. "The beer is placed inside a pocket of salty, pretzel-like dough and then dunked in oil at 375 degrees for about 20 seconds,

Thursday

Thursday Miscellany You'll find me reading GQ about as often as Out, but I couldn't resist this piece: A series of quotes and memories from the cast and crew of GoodFellas, in celebration of its 20th anniversary [http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201010/goodfellas-making-of-behind-the-scenes-interview-scorsese-deniro?printable=

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The Culture of Violence in the American West: Myth versus Reality: The Independent Review: The Independent Institute http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=803 Dozens of movies have portrayed the nineteenth-century mining camps in the West as hot beds of anarchy and violence, but John Umbeck discovered

Wednesday

Autobiographical Corner Is there any metropolitan area more pathetic that Detroit? I attended a conference yesterday in Dearborn, at its crown jewel hotel, the Hyatt [http://dearborn.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp]. One of the sessions dealt with legal issues surrounding Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking. The speaker

The Evening Eudemon

The Ignorance of the New Yorker - Jeff Riggenbach - Mises Daily http://mises.org/daily/4717 As Oscar Wilde put it more than a hundred years ago, “there is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us

Tuesday

Fahrenheit 451 to Gold. Connection Somewhere "Wells would have had man usurp the throne of God. Bradbury's hope is that man will let God work through him; it is not the dead universe which is divine, but 'God fleshing himself in sentience'--the living God

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Albert Jay Nock and the Libertarian Tradition - Jeff Riggenbach - Mises Daily http://mises.org/daily/4689 Taking the State wherever found, striking into its history at any point, one sees no way to differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators and beneficiaries from those of a professional-criminal class.

Monday

iPad Review I bought one ten days ago. It's really cool, but I'm not convinced it's worth the price. It doesn't do one key thing that I was told it would do (see below), but it does a lot of neat stuff.

Max's First Lions Game

-- Mobile post

Something for Sunday Morning

"Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance." Blessed Cardinal Newman

The Evening Eudemon

In case you missed it: "Alan Greenspan spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations earlier today, and what was his advice? That central bankers should be doing what these columns, among others, have been rattling on about, namely that they should be paying attention to gold. “Fiat money has

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From The Economist. On the dispute about whether to let the rich retain their tax cuts: "The irony in this drama is that the money at stake is, in the larger scheme, trivial. Raising taxes on the top 2% of households, as Mr Obama proposes, would bring in $34

Friday

Drunk and Driven I'm thinking about becoming an alcoholic. Beer and wine are my favorites, so I'll drink a lot of them. I don't like hard liquor, but I'll drink it if that what it takes to realize my ambition. Unlike some

The Evening Eudemon

> Someone forgot to tell gold to crash today. The spot price for the next true currency, and self-imposed non-Fiat standard, was at $1,277, a fresh all time high, as it prepares to take out the stops at $1,280, which would send it promptly over $1,300. As

Site

Due to the exigencies of life, I failed to renew my domain registration. Result: The site was taken off the server. I promptly renewed at that point, but readers might be experiencing ongoing problems for the next couple of days as their "cookies" re-set (or some such thing)

Thursday

From the Notebooks I've long loathed the term "wage slave." If you're getting paid and you have the option of terminating your employment, you're not a slave. Granted, the term "option" can be tricky to apply, but for starters, if

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Albert Jay Nock and the Libertarian Tradition - Jeff Riggenbach - Mises Daily http://mises.org/daily/4689 The more he read about history, for example, the more he noticed that, as he later put it, “the State is the poorest instrument imaginable for improving human society”; it is “slow,

Wednesday

Those Crazy Greeks! Musings: Government has an impact on society, which is why you want to limit government. Due to human cupidity, it's impossible to imagine any expansive government that doesn't have an adverse effect on society and culture. In America, I believe democracy has shortened

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Yuck President Barack Obama is coming out with a post-election book: a picture book for children called “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters,” Random House announced today. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/09/14/obama-pens-a-childrens-book/?mod=e2tw

Tuesday

The Matrix Miscellany I always enjoy the last page of New York Magazine: The Approval Matrix. Things I learned from The AM for 8/30/10 [http://nymag.com/arts/all/approvalmatrix/67619/]: There's going to be an American remake of the BBC's Being Human, in

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"Today we get to choose a political party likeÂ cattle at the ChicagoÂ stockyards get to choose a chute." http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/politics/

Monday

Lions and Economics First Armando Galarraga gets screwed out of a perfect game [http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/37479309/ns/sports-baseball/], and now the Lions get screwed out of a victory [http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Video-Controversial-rule-strips-Lions-of-first-?urn=nfl-269035] . I swear, nobody likes Detroit and the

Something for Sunday Morning

“Meekness above all makes men masters of themselves.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Friday

Man, brutal week. I think the stress and pressure at the office is going to kill me . . . because it's crippling my drinking time: > Longitudinal studies have consistently shown that people who don't consume any alcohol at all tend to die before people who do. At

Thursday

Book Review Looking for a fun, if somewhat shotgun, financial history? Check out Jack Cashill's [http://www.cashill.com/] Popes & Bankers: A Cultural History of Credit and Debt, from Aristotle to AIG. I bought it on a whim at Barnes & Noble, based solely on its cover

Wednesday

Lewis the Libertarian Every so often, you see an article that makes you drool. That happened to me last weekend with an article that I found at Lew Rockwell: C.S. Lewis the Libertarian [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2846]. As a younger man, I read a

Tuesday

Porn "Pornography wants you, it wants your husband or wife, it wants your son and daughter, your grandchildren, and your in-laws. It doesn't share well, and it doesn't leave easily. It is a cruel master, and seeks more slaves." From this fine Salvo essay

Labor Day

Consistent with past practice, I won't be blogging today since Internet surfing drops dramatically on the holidays, though I will take this opportunity to wish the Hinge Man a happy birthday. The "Hinge Man" is my son, Michael, who turns 12 today and sits at the

Something for Sunday Morning

“Anger is a weed; hate is the tree.” St. Augustine

Resumes

Regular blogging resumes tomorrow.

BYCU

Even Buckeyes can do something cool: The beer tray relays, from Minster, Ohio [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA9V1HKMPBE]. The TDE reader who sent it also provided a link to the actual site, but at the time of this posting, the link is down.

The Family Hangover

Bed at 1:30 am. Trips like almost resemble endurance tests more than vacations. Now, to the office by 8:30. -- Mobile post

Tired Max on Concrete

-- Mobile post

Roasting

Cedar Point. Brutally hot. -- Mobile post

Tuesday

No blogging today. I'm doing the Dad's Life Rap.

Monday

Sundry Mondry Interesting: At high-end stores such as Neiman Marcus and Tiffany, shoppers are demonstrating confidence and spending with vigour. At the other end of the retail spectrum, consumers are cautious amid economic uncertainties, denting the earnings of groups such as Walmart [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/78e785dc-b3b2-11df-81aa-00144feabdc0.

Something for Sunday Morning

“Pray with great confidence, with confidence based upon the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray.” St. Louis de Montfort

BYCU

After the last two days, I guess I should feel like a breast implant: "A new study suggests that beer is a significant source of dietary silicon, a key ingredient for increasing bone mineral density. Researchers from the Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of California,

Thursday

I golf once a year. Today. The 34th annual Mel Scheske Open (f/k/a Scheske Open). Beer last night. Small hangover this morning. Golf starts in a little while.

Wednesday

If Catholics led the good life that I see in my Mormon acquaintances, there would be no other churches. If we could just combine the Mormon goodness that its members exhibit (leavened with a little bit of wine) and combine it with Catholic theology, we'd have a real

Tuesday

Subways and Stress Learned over the weekend: The New York Subway system was built by private business, but later regulated by the City. The City insisted on preserving the long-standing five-cent fare, despite rising inflation costs. Eventually, the private businesses couldn't survive anymore, so they sold out to

Monday

Food and Miscellany Monday Happy Sweet 16th to my eldest daughter, Abbie. If the rest of my daughters come out as well as she has, I'll be a lucky, lucky man. * * * * * * * Burger King is foraying into pizza [http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Burger-Kings-Pizza-Burger-Debuts-4779] . Sounds good, but

Something for Sunday Morning

“The human will can be protected from sin only when the reason is preserved from ignorance and error.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Brews You Can Use

Returnables: 1960s Style A TDE reader sends this along: Straub Brewery [http://www.straubbeer.com/] still uses returnable bottles. I thought to myself, "Most breweries use returnable bottles because various states impose a bottle deposit. In Michigan, each bottle requires a ten-cent deposit." But here's what

Thursday

Rothfus So I'm working late last night. It's 6:00 and my line starts ringing. I typically don't pick up, since you never know who you might get (yes, I hide behind my secretary), but for some reason, I felt like gambling. The guy

Wednesday

Bullets The Euro crisis wasn't really a crisis? Just a problem blown into a crisis? " The Treasury was able to unload a lot of debt thanks to “the Greek crisis,” which the New York banksters and hedge funds multiplied into 'the euro crisis.' The financial

Tuesday

Bradbury and Tea Happy nineteen years of marriage to my wife, Marie. The marriage seems to be going better than ever, but I haven't gotten her input on that issue. * * * * * * I gotta read Farenheit 451: "Ray Bradbury hates big government: 'Our country is in need of

Monday

Zsa Zsa and Otha A sex symbol and married nine times . . . but apparently Catholic. I'm rooting for Zsa Zsa in this, her final trip. "Gabor, a fixture in Hollywood for six decades, asked that a priest read her the last rites on Sunday [http://omg.yahoo.com/

Something for Sunday Morning

“Nobody can strive after evil for its own sake.” St. Thomas Aquinas (I've always liked this observation. It puts "the lie" to the moronic Satanists. Satan is the embodiment of evil. Satanists worship something that they see is good in Satan, with the result that they

Brews You Can Use

On Tuesday evening, I felt like Zeus, aloft on Olympus, eyeballing the humans' wives for my next encounter: Mead, courtesy of this place in Ferndale, Michigan [http://www.bnektar.com/], and my brother-in-law who came down for a visit. It wasn't bad, but it was closer to

No Blogging Thursday

Fifteen hours at the office yesterday. No blogging today. Just this observation: It's hubris to think your society couldn't undergo societal unrest and violence. Whether it's the justified Whiskey Rebellion [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Rebellion] or ochlocratic screams for government hand-outs [http:

Wednesday

Kinds of Reading I'm increasingly struck by the different types of reading. With the advent of the ubiquitous Web, lots of people are thinking about it, but Web reading v. book reading seems pretty obvious to me. The former is naturally inclined to browsing, the other inclined to

Tuesday

From Subversives to Belloc Dusted off the shelf: Subversive Orthodoxy by Robert Inchausti. Sub-title: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise. It's a collection of 3,000-4,000 word essays about orthodox Christians who took unconventional positions. William Blake, Kierkegaard, Chesterton, Kerouac, Wendell Berry, McLuhan, Ivan Illich, others.

Monday

Sundry Mondry Drudge headlines from Sunday afternoon: "Lavish Obama vacation in time of economic turmoil raises eyebrows..." "BAKER: 'Leaves taxpayers with hefty bill'... "While president preaches sacrifice, his family frolics in Spain...". Overall, such headlines strike me as unseemly. The cost of the

Something for Sunday Morning

“Each person is like that which he loves.” St. Augustine

Brews You Can Use

Summer Beers A long-time TDE reader sends this along: "Summer beer: Many brewers aim for lighter, sunny flavor [http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100803/ART06/100809946] ." That's a great-looking picture, and the article is pretty good, if a lot of fluff. There&

. . . And then the fight started

Received in an Email One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as a Christmas gift... The next year, I didn't buy her a gift. When she asked me why, I replied, "Well, you still haven't used the gift I bought you

Thursday

I hope to post later today, but for now, just more vacation pics from Presque Isle.

Mini-Movie Review

I worked until 6:50 last night, then walked two doors down to the movie theater (one of the perks of living in a small town). Marie and I saw Dinner for Schmucks. It was awful. Simply awful. Over-the-top characters. Flat humor. Moved slowly. There were a handful of parts

Wednesday

Migraines and incompetent medical providers have me way behind, so I'm breaking out the vacation photos. Kids at world's greatest mini-golf course in Alpena: At Presque Isle lighthouse on Lake Huron. The Great Lakes' tallest climbable lighthouse.

Monday

Autobiographical Corner I'm back from a nine-day vacation in Alpena: the hub of northeast Michigan. Northeast Michigan is entirely rural, so its "hub" ain't much, but it's a neat place. It's the same size as my hometown (about 12,000

Something for Sunday Morning

"Pain allows us to accompany Christ on the cross. Suffering and contradiction purify us. . . Let is not abandon the cross by grumbling and moaning, complaining or giving in to sadness." Francis Fernandez

Nine Days with Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Piety and Death "It is difficult to fear death if one is very pious." Alas, KL has made me take spiritual stock of myself again. I never used to fear death, and then I had children. I then came to fear death . . . for their sake. Of course. And

Nine Days with Kuehnelt-Leddihn

The Robotic Soul "There is little doubt that atheism, agnosticism, and the denial of the other world are partially responsible for the rapid technological development which gave us, apart from exquisite instruments for mass destruction, various means to bridge time and space. . . Ortega y Gassets points out very adroitly

BYCU

Seen in a bar last night: -- Mobile post

Nine Days with Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Cash for Souls "Facing the choice of cash or liberty human beings will always choose the former because it spells safety." How else can you explain the popularity of Social Security and Medicare? I give up the liberty to dispose of my income (.765 7.65 cents of

Nine Days with Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Authority "Ochlocrats who never tire of accusing conservatives and Catholics of superstition, illogical traditionalism, and 'unscientific' procedure make an act of faith in the inner illumination of the individual and the infallibility of numerical majorities." I'm a firm believer that every man has an

Nine Days with Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Medieval Man "Medieval man (like every deeply religious man) was eschatologically static. To him time was a relative conception because his center--God--stood at the same distance to the year 1300 B.C. as to the year A.D. 1300." The medieval man appeals to me, especially since I&

Nine Days with Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Egalitarianism in the Hierarchy "The nonchalantly polite but nevertheless free interclass manners in the Catholic world are the natural consequence of a conventional (nonideological) egalitarianism, based on the profound knowledge that our final status--on the other side of the grave--will be basically different from our present one. Furthermore, because

Something for Sunday Morning

"All our learning should consist of finding out what God has planned for us at each moment." de Caussade, Abandonment.

Nine Days with Kuehnelt-Leddihn

The Reading Illiterate "A reading-writing education as such has benefited nobody, has elated nobody spiritually or culturally. There is no need to go to the other extreme and to believe that the knowledge of the three R's is basically destructive, but nothing is more stupid or unrealistic

Nine Days with Kuehnelt-Leddihn

The Herdist and the Romantic “Only the select can be closely confronted with the Absolute without taking flight. Only the saints, but not the 'commonsensical' herd, can and will surrender to the 'Holy Folly of the Cross.' For this reason we have such hatred on the

Tuesday

Random Tuesday [http://www.cnbc.com/id/38307617] [http://www.cnbc.com/id/38307617] "President Barack Obama took aim at Republican lawmakers Monday, accusing them of holding the public hostage to Washington politics by blocking extended unemployment benefits for millions of out of work Americans." I haven'

Nine Days with Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Body and Soul "Bodies are mutually attracted by nearness, knowledge, and pleasure but souls by distance, mystery, and suffering." Such thinking could trend into Cartesian dualism, which undermines the sacramental nature of existence, but it's always important to reassert that the soul and body are not

Monday

Oil to Ollie BP in the Gulf. Now two pipelines explode in China [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1295466/Huge-burns-15-hours-China-TWO-oil-pipelines-explode.html] . You'd think we'd see more upward movement in USO [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USO+Basic+Chart&t=6m], but

Something for Sunday Morning

“Love to pray–and feel often during the day the need for prayer and take the trouble to pray.” Mother Teresa

BYCU

Giving beer drinkers everywhere a bad name: An Arizona woman, who allegedly damaged her boyfriend's car with a dog leash, was naked and holding a beer when she opened the door of her home to police [http://blogs.app.com/saywhat/2010/07/15/naked-woman-with-beer-greets-police-coming-to-arrest-her/] . * * * * * * * Highly surprising: American-style

No Internet Thursday

My Charter internet connection is down yet again. It must've gotten too hot outside, thereby frying the connection. Who knows. So anyway, I'm a bit hamstrung this morning. Just this significant observation: > nearly half of the US households paid no federal income tax last year

Wednesday

All-Star Game I was a big baseball fan as a kid, and I loved the All-Star game. My boys were pretty excited about it, so I decided to watch a chunk of it last night. I looked up the start time: 8:05. They didn't say "8:

Tuesday

Rioters in the Pool and Wall Street The inner-city youths get classier and classier: Armed security guards have been posted at public pools in Buffalo after a lifeguard was pulled into the water by rowdy teenagers and other unruly behavior prompted safety concerns for parks employees [http://wcbstv.com/topstories/

Monday

More Evolutionary Fitness Stuff I blogged back in April about "evolutionary fitness." It's a work-out regime that doesn't require you to work out. Its practitioners stroll, then sprint, stroll some more, then maybe sprint . . . or do the same thing on a bike. Its practitioners

Something for Sunday Morning

"[T]here is nothing better for us than to do what God wants at any particular moment." de Caussade, Abandonment

BYCU

A small hangover this morning (see pic), so blogging will be slow. I do, however, have this major technological break-through story: Wine vending machines debut in Pa [http://www.woodtv.com/dpps/news/strange/swipe-smile-and-blow-pa-has-wine-vending-machines-ob10-jgr_3472017] . My first thought was, "The Neo-Prohibitionists are gonna have a coronary." Oddly

BYCU

Blogging could be rough this morning.

Thursday

Long day yesterday at the office. I'm bushed and sleeping in. Just this today:

Wednesday

Freaking Out and Princely Freaks Are we all (am I) unduly freaking out about the economy? Hard to say: "In the last few years, however, something strange has happened. While there is no lack of survivalists stockpiling cat food and rifles, some of the direst thinkers are now working

Tuesday

The Spending Spree Maybe I'm losing my mind, but I've gone on a small spending spree. First, I bought all sorts of stuff for my garden, probably about $200 worth. I didn't mind, though, because most of them were "capital" purchases that

Monday

Happy 4th! Well, Happy 4th Observance! The banks, courthouses, and post office are closed, so it's a holiday. Consistent with past practice, blogging will be light today. * * * * * * * Something different: Great whites seen off the Northeast coast [http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/coast-guard-shark-warning-for-northeast-20100702-akd] . Let's

First zucchini from garden

-- Mobile post

Something for Sunday Morning

Peace "is granted only to men of good will--to those who strive with the whole of their strength to live their lives in accordance with God's will." Francis Fernandez

Brews You Can Use

Taking my micropolitan area by storm: Incentive Vodka [http://www.incentivevodka.com/Main.html]. Friends say it's better than Grey Goose, but priced just a bit cheaper.

Thursday

This 2006 op-ed from the New York Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/opinion/05chace.html] ought to be required reading for every prospective college student and every politician that makes student loans available: “A Little Learning is an Expensive Thing.” It's William Chace, a former

Wednesday

Tuesday

I like to read off-the-beaten path books, as long as I have indicia that they're reliable and good. I saw this book by Erik Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddhin [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_von_Kuehnelt-Leddihn]: The Menace of the Herd . I'd been wanting to read some

Monday

Rich Karlgaard at Forbes [http://blogs.forbes.com/digitalrules/2010/06/the-millionaire-cop-next-door/] points out that public sector employees make A LOT more than folks in the private sector: > Who are America's fastest-growing class of millionaires? They are police officers, firefighters, teachers and federal bureaucrats who, unless things

Something for Sunday Morning

"We shall ask him to help us uproot our egoism, to cure us of thinking too much about ourselves and to eliminate from our hearts any kind of lukewarmness." Francis Fernandez

Brews You Can Use

All Beer Items Today Another great old ad, perfect for drinking Friday. I drank a lot of Blatz as a young man, but never got it this way . . . though goodness knows I tried to talk my girlfriends into it! (Just kidding. No lectures about impurity needed.) * * * * * * * Boston Beer Company, the

Thursday

A Few Quick Things Worked until after 8:00 last night, then sat in the basement until 10:00 under threat of a tornado warning (man, our town's tornado alarm is eerie-sounding . . . which is a good thing, of course). It's the third time this year funnel

Wednesday

Teens to Oil That's the teen mission group from my church this week. My son is in the upper-lefthand corner. My daughter is in the lower-righthand corner. The mission is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I guess they're in a pretty rough section of town. Abbie and her

Tuesday

My two oldest kids are at Catholic Heart Work Camp this week. My middle daughter was at a friend's for the day/night. The house hasn't been clean in months. So we bribed the four remaining kids: work hard to pick up the house, and we&

Monday

Miscellany Monday Happy Summer. Enjoy the longest day of the year. * * * * * * * I love historical ancedotes, and this is one of the better ones I've heard recently: "Apocryphal story about Enrique Fermi, probably about other professors as well: student comes into Fermi's office, surprised to see

Something for Sunday Morning

"Let us not think that in another place, in another situation we would be ready to follow Our Lord more closely . . . The fruits of sanctity Our Lord expects are those produced in and from the environment in which we find ourselves, here and now: tiredness, sickness, family, the job

Brews You Can Use

Beer profile: Trappist ales [http://blog.beeriety.com/2010/06/16/style-profile-trappist-ale/]. Good stuff (the article, but the beer too). * * * * * * * I used to drink copious amounts of beer and watch the VHS of the Blue Brothers. I didn't realize I was engaged in a quasi-religious experience: L'

Thursday

Horror in Different Forms Old ads like this one crack me up. * * * * * * * "FDA: 'Female Viagra' falls short [http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9GCIV4O0&show_article=1]." Well, yeah. They don't have penises. * * * * * * * What would we do without scientific studies? "In

Slow Blogging Wednesday

Ya gotta like Robert Higgs. He loathes big government, and we are undergoing some of the biggest government growth in modern history. I also gotta believe he's not terribly optimistic about the economy. Yet he has some advice for everyone who is bracing for economic Armageddon: Chill out.

What Are They?

Tuesday

Miscellany Highly recommended: Volume 15 in the Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers series focuses on the American Economist, Murray Rothbard [http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?ReturnURL=%2Fmain.aspx&BookId=133876&SubjectId=1023&Subject2Id=1023] . Unfortunately, it's $130 $192 (that's not a

Monday

Jellybysitis New York Magazine asks (6/14 issue): "Why is it so depressing that Al and Tipper Gore are getting divorced? [http://nymag.com/arts/all/approvalmatrix/66453/]" Easy: The man wants to save the world, but he can't even save his own marriage. You folks

Something for Sunday Morning

"This is what prayer really is--being in silent inward communion with God." Benedict XVI

This Brightened Up My Horrible Week

Maybe because I'm a former drummer myself (the term "drummer" used loosely):

Friday

More technological problems. This week is bringing me to my knees . . . and not in a good way (with drunkenness). Bear with me.

Thursday

Armchair Philosophy Corner When people become mentally unstable, why is it never in a good way? For example: As an attorney, I see all sorts of incidents when a spouse becomes deranged in some fashion, and it always manifests itself in a negative way: abuse, infidelity, neglect. Why doesn'

Wednesday

Miscellany Link to the PBS special, Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money [http://video.pbs.org/program/1155680272/]. * * * * * * * Ah crap. I was hoping we'd hold strong at $12 trillion: The U.S. debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.

An Hour with Faber

In lieu of an actual post today (see below), I'm posting this yet-unseen video. It's Marc Faber, giving a one-hour overview of our economy's huge problems. I say it's "unseen" because I haven't seen it yet. The folks

No Blogging Tuesday

Spent yesterday evening at a high school band award ceremony and working on the MP3 feature of my new van (2008 Dodge Grand Caravan). The MP3 feature is remarkably complicated and frustrating. After 2+ hours, I'm hoping this bastud gets struck by lightning.

Monday

The Vines Keep Growing Why Big Government Sucks, Exhibit 1,293,011: One FTC proposal to save the journalism industry would "Allow news organizations to agree jointly on a mechanism to require news aggregators and others to pay for the use of online content, perhaps through the use of

Something for Sunday Morning

“Every action of Christ contains a lesson for us.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Friday

21, TV, and Pabst As I get older, I increasingly dislike the age-21 drinking requirement. I dislike it for a lot of reasons (logic and fairness top the list), but one of the reasons: it makes alcohol more seductive. Once a kid reaches age 21, it's like a

Thursday

Manias and Ferguson Still no Charter Internet service. I'm getting close to playing "mean lawyer" and sending out the demand letter, but I'm not there yet. But just this for today: Last Saturday [https://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=14246], I mentioned that Niall Ferguson doesn&

New Vehicle

I might be looking for a new vehicle soon. It looks like lightning may have killed my van. Any recommendations for vehicles that hold 8 or 9 passengers? If I could find a station-wagon type vehicle that seats eight, that'd be great. It seems to me that Volvo

Wednesday

Still no Charter Internet connection. Someone must've sneezed real hard on the system. Just this for today: An unbelievable 30-second clip from Nancy Pelosi about health care reform [http://www.huckpac.com/?Fuseaction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=3086]. It's "unbelievable" because, though I

Tuesday

Autobiographical Corner I spent the weekend with my son, Michael (11). Everyone else went to bird-watching camp with the Detroit Audubon Society, an organization, from my estimation, spawned by the devil with Medusa. My wife goes to spend time with her family. Even though I view her desertion an act

Happy Memorial Day

No blogging today. After many years, I've learned that traffic drops dramatically on holidays, even minor ones like this one, so I take it blogging easy on these days. Regular blogging resumes tomorrow. Have a great day off.

Something for Sunday Morning

"We must keep ourselves detached from all we feel or do if we are to travel along his path and live only for God and the duties of the present moment. We must stop all imaginings about the future, keep our attention on what is happening now and not

Friday

Brews You Can Use "In 1948 Dallas socialite Margaret “Margarita” Sames wanted a refreshing poolside drink while on vacation in Mexico. Using her favorite liquor, she tested different combinations of tequila, Cointreau and lime until she found the perfect combo of sweet, salty and sour." Find that and

Thursday

Thoroughly enjoying: Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet: The Life of Luther Martin [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933859733?ie=UTF8&tag=thedailyeudem-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1933859733] Man, as I've mentioned before, Kauffman has one monster vocabulary. * * * * * * * I started this

Wednesday

Miscellany Blurb from Drudge [http://www.drudgereport.com/]: "During first 36 days of Katrina, Bush made 7 visits to Gulf Coast. . . So far on Day 36 of BP oil leak, Obama has made 1 visit to disaster area." The president doesn't need to go to a

Tuesday

New Socks Max (6) was content Sunday night. He was sitting in front of eight pairs of new socks: four white, four dark blue. Marie said to me, "Look what Max has. New socks." Max was grinning. Marie explained, "He's never gotten new socks before.

Monday

Queer Winds Blowing Ahead The spring blitz continued over the weekend. We got a call at 9:00 Friday night, telling us that our son needed to be at a ball diamond sixty minutes away by 7:00 a.m. the next morning. Yuck. I spent all morning Saturday at

Something for Sunday Morning

"Without patience our expectation [of the spiritual life] degenerates into wishful thinking. Patience comes from the word 'patior,' which means 'to suffer.' . . . What seems a hindrance becomes a way; what seems an obstacle becomes a door." Henri J.M. Nouwen

Brews You Can Use

Hung Morning Small hangover this morning. A client hosted a "dry run" for its new restaurant/bar. Oberon is always good, especially when it's free. I'm paying for it this morning, though. * * * * * * * I'd always wondered about this: "Irish distillers, like their

Thursday

Thursday Miscellany I guess we have an Arab Miss America, which is fine with me, but this line from the Detroit Free Press puzzles me: "she is the first open Arab American to win Miss USA [http://www.freep.com/article/20100519/NEWS06/100519068/1001/rss01]." Are there

Painting

Spring concert at the parochial school went pretty late last night, so no time for blogging this morning. Seen at the Inn of St. John's in Plymouth, Michigan -- Mobile post Location:No Blogging Wednesday [http://maps.google.com/maps?q=No%20Blogging%20Wednesday&z=10]

Tuesday

More Conspiracy Seeds So, a man on the inside comes forward and says, "The big boys are artificially manipulating the gold and silver markets." It's a fairly damning accusation, from a guy (I've been led to believe) with the credentials to make the allegations.

Monday

Dollars, Happiness, Mass, and More Oh oh: "The beneficial impact of last weekend's $1 trillion “shock and awe” intervention by Europe to save Greece and safeguard the Euro is fading-even more quickly than officials had feared [http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/05/15/232281/el-erian-on-the-difficult-choices-still-facing-europe/] ."

Something for Sunday Morning

"Holiness means the eager acceptance of every trial sent them by God. . . It is the philosophers' stone that changes into gold all their worries, their troubles, all their sufferings." de Caussade, Abandonment. Whenever I fear that I'm getting too holy for my own good (chuckle)

Brews You Can Use

Grappling with Grapes My grape vines arrived yesterday. I opened the box and read the instructions: "After the plants are set, select the largest, strongest cane and cut it back so that two nodes or buds remain. Cut off all other canes." Great. What's a "

No Blogging Wednesday

Iron Man 2 with big kids last night. No time for blogging. Just these pics from our Mother's Day trip to the Lake Michigan dunes and Lunker's Fishing Store in Edwardsburg, Michigan (and its assortment of weird stuff).

Tuesday

Chartering a New Course? One of the best new ideas I've heard recently: Charter cities [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/04/romer_on_charte.html]. You find a host country, acquire some land, set your city limits . . . and set your own rules. If you make good rules,

Monday

Greece and Other Fun Stuff Best cover story title of the year so far: "Acropolis Now [http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=16009099]," an article about the Greek debt crisis, from the May 1st issue of The Economist [http://www.economist.com/]. * * * * * Speaking of Greece:

Something for Sunday Morning

"[W]e cannot be really fed, strengthened, purified, enriched and made holy unless we fulfill the duties of the present moment." de Caussade. Abandonment

Friday

Neo-Prohibitionism in Different Shapes Mormon morality run amok? Big Brother Syndrome? Stupidity? Not sure, but I've never heard of anything like it before: Utah bar owners must run "an electronic scanner on driver licenses of anyone who looks 35 years old or younger. The penalty for failing

Thursday

Hubris IOU Some people are debt-averse. Others aren't. Why? Well, it's hard to say, but Nassim Nicholas Taleb recently pointed out that over-confident people take on a lot of debt. His words: "Nobody gave a thought to the idea that overconfidence translates 1-1 into accumulation

RIP, Ernie

Long-time Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell died last night. Just a few of the stories I've heard this morning: Ernie was telling a friend that the worst part of his job was the pre-game show. After a while a woman who had been looking at Ernie all evening

Wednesday

Chunks, Checking Out, and Chumbawamba Is this a good or bad thing? a study of schoolchildren found that being overweight increased the risk of being the target of bullying by 63 percent [http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/bulliestargetobesekids.html]. That sucks, but I prefer that thin bullies take care

Monday

But He Kept His Distance from Obama Girl? So Obama makes it a triumvirate of sex: Kennedy, Clinton, and Obama. It's just the National Enquirer, of course [http://www.nationalenquirer.com/reports_obama_cheating_scandal_vera_baker_investigation/celebrity/68590] , but the story is out there. It'

Something for Sunday Morning

“If we were truly Christian, there would not be a single pagan left.” St. John Chrysostom

Brews You Can Use

Viral infection has its boot on my neck. Just this great advertisement for today. The first line is a killer: You can find many more here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR0YtEe2Th0].

Thursday

Goyette on Inflation Spring kid activities leave little time for anything except work and . . . spring activities. I get most of my exercise by walking to work, I get most of my ongoing education from podcasts while I walk. This week, I've been listening to this lecture [http://mises.

Wednesday

Miscellany We talk about the "cradle to grave" welfare state, but I've applied that toward life's underclass, those who get free lunches K-12, food coupons and welfare, Medicaid, etc. Mark Steyn points out that we are getting there for all classes by pushing back

Tuesday

Happy Up Americans are rich, make no doubt about it. But we're not happy. "Joyless lottery winners" is how a writer for The New Yorker says about us in this nifty piece about recent eudemonistic research [http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/03/22/

Monday

Comical Queeridity Archie Comics is going gay! The gay's name is "Kevin." But they're not trying to normalize homosexuality or anything like that, not at all: "The strapping blond will defeat Jughead in a burger eating contest, win the affection of Veronica and

Something for Sunday Morning

"[W]e must be active in all that the present moment demands of us, but in everything else remain passive and abandoned and do nothing but peacefully await the promptings of God." de Caussade, Abandonment

Brews You Can Use

Dinner Beers My father waged a thirty-year battle in favor of beer. When he moved to our micropolitan area, it was understood that classy people didn't drink beer. Everyone drank hard liquor. That was 1969. But he stuck to his guns, drinking water if they didn't

No Blogging Thursday

I'm sorry, but I'm whipped. No blogging today. This little league baseball coaching is going to kill me . . . soon, if I'm lucky. Otherwise, I have two more months left. Did I find The Bad News Bears funny? I think I did, but it seems

Wednesday

Compost Land Last weekend, I ripped open the chicken-wired pile in my backyard and looked for compost. I'd been shoving my family scraps in the pile since December 2008, adding twigs, leaves, grass clippings and other matter at random. The results were amazing. I got six times more

Tuesday

Alien Life I've never ruled out alien life, but I lean toward the scoffing mode. This book review raises some interesting points on behalf of the E.T. searchers [http://www.economist.com/culture/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15864923]. "Modern man evolved as a species 100,000

Monday

Words and Aprons "It depends on what the meaning of the words 'is' is." That's Bill Clinton's grand jury testimony during Monicagate. He has now come a long way, though: "What we learned from Oklahoma City is not that we should

Something for Sunday Morning

"There can be no pact with our defects and errors." Francis Fernandez

Brews You Can Use

I Need a Drink The baseball season is only four days old, and I'm already burned out. My son's appearance at the plate last night would've driven me to a big bottle, but I was still vomiting from the spectacle. You ever work on

Thursday

Stream of Consciousness Tax Day. Give the federal government the single-finger salute. * * * * * Hoo hoooo! Happy days are here again. "Better days here? Economic rebound gains strength [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100414/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy]." Ah, but crap: "George Soros delivered

Wednesday

Received in an Email A Harley biker is riding by the zoo in Washington, DC when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the collar of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the

Tuesday

Flannery “Do you really think Flannery O'Connor was a great writer? She's such a Roman Catholic.” A moron actually asked that moronic question back in 1972 when O'Connor posthumously received the National Book Award. But she has weathered the decades and her popularity is

Monday

Little League to Uchitel Strap on your boots and get ready to run. Little League starts this week, and I'm the coach. Between today and June 30th: 29 games, practices, and coaches meetings. And that's just one kid. I have four other kids in four different

Something for Sunday Morning

"In the face of the apparent failure of so many of our attempts, we should remember that God asks not so much for success as for the humility to begin again without allowing ourselves to get discouraged and pessimistic. . . ". Francis Fernandez

Brews You Can Use

Only a Few Are Chosen A loyal TDE reader and friend from my Gilbert Magazine days sent along the most-interesting beer story of the young year: Dark Lord beer. Ratebeer.com says it's the best beer in the world. It's "brewed with hundreds of pounds

Thursday

Stream of Consciousness I had a nice surprise yesterday morning. The morning Mass was being said for my father's soul. I dutifully went, planning to join the half-dozen or so regulars in the pews. I walked into the church during the opening hymn and saw Marie and The

Slow Blogging Wednesday

I enjoyed a beautiful evening with my middle boys, playing baseball; with my five smallest children, riding our bikes to the new car hop and eating ice cream outside while traffic whizzed by on U.S. 12; shooting baskets; doing some light work in the garden. With all that going

Tuesday

Autobiographical Corner A first in my life: I removed a tree stump. Actually, three tree stumps, but two were rooted together and came out as one. They'd been in my backyard for 15 years, tacitly taunting me, mocking my virility. I resolved to take them out. A friend

Monday

Easter Greetings Happy Easter. Augustine said a Christian should be an "alleluia from head to toe." It's a beautiful idea. I wish I could be an alleluia from just my elbow to my wrist, but I can keep trying and this is a wonderful time of

Something for Easter Morning

“When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld “him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a man step

Holy Saturday

Nyssa, Tolkien, and Gibson By killing Jesus, Satan had swallowed God's bait. He didn't know he had swallowed the Godhead, thereby inviting Full Being into his fortress of nothingness and bringing about the ontological fall of his nothingness. In the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa:

Good Friday

In the 1930s, the Times (London) asked G.K. Chesterton and others to write on the topic of "What's Wrong with the World Today." Chesterton sent back a two-word response: Dear Sirs: I am. Sincerely, G.K. Chesterton "For all that ever was wrong, is

Something Light for Good Friday

When Ole quit farming, he discovered that he was the only Lutheran in his new little town of Catholics. That was okay, but the neighbors had a problem with his barbequing beef every Friday. Since they couldn't eat meat on Friday, the tempting aroma was getting the best

Thursday

Great Video Gotta check out this video [http://www.lewrockwell.com/schiff/schiff80.1.html]. Peter Schiff engages in his usual (and justified) Bernanke bashing. An economist comes to Bernanke's aid. After Schiff says Bernanke has never gotten anything right, the economist responds, "He's gotten

Wednesday

Obama and the Frog Drudge slayed me yesterday with this picture and the caption: "DYNAMIC DUO LEAD CHARGE ON IRAN." . . . . Remember those health care upbeat stories I linked to last week, including the one about favorable polling figures? It looks like the polls have already gone back to

Tuesday

Stein to Suffrage "How many Wall Streeters have been indicted? None. Well, you will say, what about the psycho Madoff? True, he's a criminal. But he had nothing to do with the housing collapse. Compared with Goldman Sachs, he was a pickpocket. And Goldman Sachs is basically

Monday

Stream of Consciousness . . . Kinda, Maybe Man, brutal weekend, with a brutal week ahead. Today's post will be half-SoC and half-normal. If I like it enough, it might become my normal. First, a great passage from this review [http://www.mywire.com/a/NationalReview/Revel-against-machine/16392719/] of a book

Something for Palm Sunday Morning

“The story of each man is the story of God's continual watchfulness over him. Each man is the object of the Lord's special love. Jesus was ready to do everything for Jerusalem, but the city was not willing to open up her gates to his mercy.

Brews You Can Use

No Luck of the Irish Sounds like Ireland needs a bailout worse than Greece: "Against the backdrop of deep recession and unemployment, Ireland's per capital alcohol consumption fell by 9.6 percent in 2009 and is now 21 percent below an all-time peak in 2001 when Ireland&

No Blogging Thursday

Wednesday

All Sunny in Media Land "Let's just get the law passed, then we'll let the media take over." I think that was the game plan. From my local newspaper came this story yesterday morning: "Health care gains start soon." That AP story

Tuesday

My Son, the Duke My son leaves for Lansing tomorrow. The reason? "Youth in Government." He's spending four days at the Michigan capital to learn how government works. I'm pretty excited about it. I told him to take it seriously because (and this is

Humor

JIMMY FALLON: The Democrats are working overtime to get 216 votes to pass health care on Sunday, which means Rahm Emanuel is prowling the showers like the head of a prison gang.

Socialist Monday

Already Tired I have a confession: I write my Monday blog entries on Sunday. Haffta. There's too much going on Monday mornings to surf and post. But yesterday, I couldn't find much to blog about. Everything was about health care [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/

Something for Sunday Morning

"In dealings with one's neighbor, self-love makes us hyper-sensitive, inflexible, proud, impatient; it causes us to exaggerate our ego and our rights, to be cold, indifferent, unjust in our judgments and in word. One delights in speaking about one's actions, of one's insights

Brews You Can Use

They Know Pinot! Looking for the heartland of American wine? Thinking Napa Valley? Maybe, but try a little further to the northwest: Sonoma County [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonoma_County_wine]. That's where you find the dark Pinot. You can read about it at Forbes [http://www.

Thursday

Cutting Into Soft Cheese There's a cheese crisis in France! Well, kinda. Cheese consumption increased during last year's recession, but not the right kind of cheese. Consumption of hard cheeses increased, due largely to the rise of pizza (Domino's Pizza increased sales by 31%

Wednesday

Who Is Gerard Casey? If you like podcasts, take a serious look (listen) to Mises Institute Media [http://feeds.mises.org/MisesMedia]. They're spitting out podcasts like the Beltway spitting out dollars, except many of 'em are high quality. I came home from work early last night

Tuesday

Stream of Consciousness TDE readers encouraged me. Blame them. Besides, I have to mention: CBS sucks. If you watched the Selection Show Sunday night, you know what I mean. It's a tradition for CBS to show teams celebrating when they hear that they've made the tournament.

(Untitled)

Monday

Stream of Consciousness Bracketology, bracketology, bracketology. I love the NCAA Tournament, but they need to ditch that term. It's gotten so bad, I don't even like the word "bracket" anymore. And what's with NCAA women's basketball? Talk about a project

Something for Sunday Morning

"Holiness . . . is not produced by intellectual speculation about it." de Caussade, Abandonmnent

The Birthday Eudemon

It's my birthday . . . and I'm working on taxes this weekend . . . and I'm busy at the office. So I'm taking a day off from blogging. If you want something fairly interesting, try this: How Greece's Debt Crisis Affects America [http://www.

Brews You Can Use

Wikidrunk By chance, I started cruising around Wikipedia yesterday. It has some great drinking references. There is, for instance, this post [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckfast_Tonic_Wine] about Buckfast Tonic Wine. I'd never heard of the stuff, but I guess it's (i) brewed by

Thursday

Time scarce. Just two things today: 1. Nerds with a sense of humor. The financial mavericks at Zero Hedge slay me: > Greece has just become the biggest sovereign debt panhandler, begging its own people for a bailout. The Greek situation is now so bad that as of a few

Wednesday Bullets

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the bathroom: "About 16 percent of Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 are infected with genital herpes. . . [http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0923528620100309]". I kinda like it: "Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial

Tuesday

Twitter In February, I wrote a post about the high wages of federal employees [https://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=13189]. As I wrote it, I was bothered by one thing: it's difficult to compare federal jobs to private jobs. I know with moral certainty that the government employees aren&

Monday

"I'm Protesting with My Student Loan Money!" Music to my ears: Anger over increasing tuition and school budget cuts boiled over as students across the country staged rowdy demonstrations that led to clashes with police and the rush-hour shutdown of a major freeway in California [http:

Something for Sunday Morning

"Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger." Solanus Casey

Sick Day

No blogging today. I'm under the weather.

Brews You Can Use

25 Classy Places to Become a Wino Blogging time is still scarce. Fortunately, I found this excellent article: The 25 greatest cities in the world for drinking wine [http://www.gadling.com/2010/03/03/the-25-greatest-cities-in-the-world-for-drinking-wine/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+weblogsinc/gadling+%28Gadling%

Dukakis in the Tank Again

If you'd told me this was a parody attack on Obama, I would've believed it:

Slow Blogging Thursday

Wednesday

No blogging time today. Just two quick political things: (1) The most liberal/conservative members of Congress [http://www.usnews.com/blogs/peter-roff/2010/02/26/the-most-conservative-and-most-liberal-members-of-congress.html] . (2) The disconcerting politics of Generation Y (30-under): "Two-thirds of Gen Y voted for Barack Obama . . . Gen Y is more socially

Tuesday

Tuesday Twitter Rich City, Poor City. Portolio dot com has a neat breakdown of the richest and poorest cities in America [http://www.portfolio.com/business-news/us-uncovered/2010/02/22/top-american-wealth-centers-clustered-in-california/] . In Newport Beach, CA, more than a quarter of its households make over $200,000. In Reading, PA, the

Monday

The Lawful Stalker Census takers will be arriving shortly, and they'll be asking a lot of invasive questions. With that in mind, watch this nifty little video [http://www.thepostmanscorner.net/da/movies9116.html]. Caveat: The commentator is correct about the plain wording of the constitution, but I

Something for Sunday Morning

"The greatest obstacles to the soul's trying to follow Christ and to help others have their origin in a disordered love of self. At times this leads us to overestimate our strength. At other times, it brings discouragement and despondency as a result of our own weaknesses

Brews You Can Use

America's Drunkest Cities I was in Fresno last year. I didn't appreciate that I was amidst drunken greatness: "Fresno was near the top in every measure of dangerous drinking, including the body count caused by booze-fueled car crashes (Fatality Analysis Reporting System), the number of

Health Care Primer

I really don't have time to craft a decent post this morning, but in light of the Health Care Debate Palooza that's schedule, combined with a remarkable level of ignorance on the topic, I'm compelled to provide this primer (a discussion I heard while

Thursday

I'm still dragging. For now, here's something different: Sent by a TDE reader and also found here [http://mediaelites.com/?p=12464].

Wednesday

"Strep Wednesday." Just a slight case, but I've been feeling lousy. Penicillin kicking in shortly, I hope. For today, just this: Gadgets That Will Save You Money [http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/342/gadgets-that-will-save-you-money/] . I normally click on these sites and see a bunch of

Tuesday

College Excesses I read this article over at U.S. News & World Report: Bigger Tuition Bills and Student Loans Coming in 2011 [http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/paying-for-college/2010/02/18/bigger-tuition-bills-and-student-loans-coming-in-2011.html] . It's the same old crap: Tuition rates are increasing faster than the non-rich

Crowding Out

h/t [http://cafehayek.com/]

Nine Snowmen

One for each member of our family: -- Mobile post

Monday

Sign the Covenant . . . Or Not . . . Your Call Kansas is considering a covenant marriage bill [http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1758247.html]. I don't know much about the Kansas bill, but a covenant marriage is a marriage that can be dissolved only for good cause. It&

Something for Sunday Morning

The Oath of Humility I will make an effort not to be too preoccupied with my own concerns: my health, my rest, whether people think well of me and take me sufficiently into account. I will try to speak as little as possible about myself, abouy my affairs, or about

Brews You Can Use

One of the best beer pictures I've ever seen: Slow blogging continue. Office work is at a full blitz right now. It's everything I can do just to drink a few cold ones here and there.

From the Notebooks

"Forbes magazine highlighted, 'College tuition has increased by more than three times the rate of inflation for the last 20 years, despite U.S. wages flat-lining since 2000.' In the past year the Huffington Post broke it down more specifically stating, 'Average tuition at four-year public

Ash Wednesday

When you fast, do not put on gloomy faces, like the hypocrites do. "Today God asks us also for a rather special mortification which we offer up cheerfully . . ." Francis Fernandez. I hope everyone has a blessed and edifying Lent.

Tuesday

Vampires I have two vampire blurbs today. The first one is the Federal Reserve vampire and its blood-sucking uncle across the pond: the Bank of England. It would appear the two did some illegal things between the two world wars. The relevance? If they did it then, they might be

Monday

Ain't Goin' Back! From what I can glean from TV news, Obama's new jobs bill will cost $800 billion over the next two years. Although it contains tax credit for employers who hire new employees, it is geared toward creating more jobs in the public

Something for Sunday Morning

“Our life will have been worth something if and when we fall in love with Christ.” Francis Fernandez

Brews You Can Use

Bones and Beer One of my favorite GKC points: "If a man drinks wine in order to obtain pleasure, he is trying to obtain something exceptional, something he does not expect every hour of the day, something which, unless he is a little insane, he will not try to

Niall

Niall gets scary: "A Greek crisis is coming to America [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f90bca10-1679-11df-bf44-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1] ," by Mr. Ferguson (no extremist nut, he).

Thursday

Received in an Email A young Texan grew up wanting to be a law man. He grew up big, 6' 2'', strong as a longhorn and fast as a mustang. He could shoot a bottle cap tossed in the air at 40 paces. When he finally became

Werewolf Wednesday

I've long had an interest in vampires, werewolves, and other freaky creatures. My first published article dealt with the topic [http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=12-02-011-v]. So I'm pretty geeked about the upcoming werewolf movie. If you want to see one of the

Tuesday

Tea Moron Why we'll never get anywhere: "A banner at one of those tea-parties sums up the confused attitude of many of the so-called anti-government protesters: 'Keep the government's hands off my Medicare.'" Found at The Economist [http://www.economist.com/world/

Monday

The Urban Woodsman Alright, I have a little secret: I enjoy the fashion pages of New York magazine, as well as the fashion issues of Forbes magazine. I never spend more than five minutes on either, mind you, but those five minutes are normally pretty satisfying. I, for instance, often

Something for Sunday Morning

"We need fortitude to be faithful in the little things of each day which, when all is said and done, is what brings us close to the Lord or separates us from him. We show this fidelity, this firm stance in the way we tackle our work, in our

Brews You Can Use

Western Civ 101 I'm a drinker, and I'm a (somewhat lame) student of history (B.A., University of Michigan, 1988). So I guess it's no surprise that I found this interesting: How Alcohol Changed the World [http://humor.gunaxin.com/how-alcohol-changed-the-world/43758]. I think

Something for Sunday Morning

"We cannot become truly good in a better, more marvelous, and yet easier way than by the simple use of the means offered us by God, the unique director of souls. It is the ready acceptance of all that comes to us at each moment in our lives."

From the Notebooks

Groping Toward a Catholic von Mises I like to find connections in different areas of knowledge. If I discovered a connection between Flannery O'Connor's practice of fiction and Augustine's criticism of Pelagianism, complete with concrete examples, I'd be delighted. Fifteen years ago,

No Blogging Time Wednesday

Monday

Grappling to Understand You ever stumble across something huge that you've never heard of? That happened to me this weekend while reading The Atlantic. I read an article entitled, "The Listener [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/201001/coast-to-coast]." It's about George Noory'

Something for Sunday Morning

"The saints are the true interpreters of Holy Scripture." Benedict XVI

Saturday

Abbreviated post today because it's high school musical weekend: Beauty and the Beast. Daughter Abbie has a decent-sized role ("Chip"). I went last night, and my house is full of out-of-town guests. The musical was outstanding. I suspected to see something that only a parent could

Brews You Can Use

Salvador, My Friend! I've always found Salvador Dali a little too freaky for my tastes. Oberon, however, is perfect for my tastes (though too many Oberons make me feel a little Dali). In any event, I'm looking forward to seeing Dali grace my backyard this summer:

Wednesday

Noteworthy Freebie Highly recommended: A free online book against abortion: 101 Girls Guide.Com [http://www.101girlsguide.com/]. The author, Serena Gaefke, has gathered together a wide assortment of quotes and passages from pro-choice literature, thereby revealing their insidious agenda and mendacious methods. I've read a handful of

Tuesday

Take a Picture: Ink Spots on Ebony A glimpse into the heart of blackness: "A national coalition of women's groups called on CBS on Monday to scrap its plan to broadcast an ad during the Super Bowl featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, which

Monday

Twitter Even though Senator Brown seems content with Roe v. Wade [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Brown_%28politician%29#Abortion], he does have a soft spot for Catholic nuns: Senator Scott Brown, a protestant, raised money for an order of Cistercian Catholic nuns in Wrentham. Brown has a special

Something for Sunday Morning

"[T]he will of God is now manifesting itself in those circumstances which are the duty of the present moment. . . . It is the fulfilling of this duty, no matter in what guise it presents itself, which does most to make one holy. . . . For example, if it is God'

BYCU

A college TDE reader forwarded this public service post: 57 Hangover Hacks Every College Kid Needs to Know [http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2010/01/20/57-hangover-hacks-every-college-kid-needs-to-know/] . Easily the best hangover site I've ever seen, though they omit the only remedy that has never failed me: the energy

From the Notebooks

Mises, Hayek, and Rothbard are modern parallels of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. I'm not saying that those three economists are philosophers. But those three 20th-century economists worked within a natural law framework to reach their economic conclusions, just as those three classical philosophers worked within the natural law

Brown

From the Guardian: "Voters, citing reasons for the shift to the Republicans, repeatedly expressed hostility towards the healthcare bill but also a belief that Obama represented too much government interference, was too leftwing and was spending too much." No wonder I've been so discouraged about America&

Wednesday

Inflation 101 Are you murky on the whole reason that inflation is effectively theft or a hidden tax? If so, you may want to check out this reasonably-short piece: Inflation 101 [http://dailyreckoning.com/inflation-101/]. Excerpt: > For the sake of simplicity, let us assume that America's money-supply

From the Notebooks

"Today, thanks to the blessings of democracy, citizens of the Land of the Free and other Western democracies pay taxes 5 to 10 times higher than those under the absolute monarchs and submit to rules and regulations that Louis could never have imagined." Bill Bonner. I'd

Monday

Twitter Tebow severely disappointed me ("disgusted me" might be more accurate) with his crying at the end of Florida's loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship game, but his heart and head are in the right spot: He's going to appear in a pro-life

Something for Sunday Morning

“Always keep the same measure of self-control; otherwise through irregularity you will go from one extreme to another.” The Philokalia

Abbie"s First Drawing

On display downtown last night. -- Mobile post

Brews You Can Use

Pretty soon, it'll be one man controlling everything, overseeing a one-nation world, drinking its one beer. All of that might not happen any time soon, but the beer part might. Due to all the recent mergers and acquisitions in the beverage market, "the four top players control

Tomorrow's Reading

With respect to my earlier post: Tomorrow's reading is from 1 Samuel 8: 4 - 7, 10 - 22: 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to govern us." And Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD said

Samuel the Libertarian/Anarchist

Watch for tomorrow's First Reading at Mass. It's one of my favorites. It's the Lord's response when Samuel tells Him that the Israelites want a king. Classic (well, the Bible's always classic, but this is "classic" in the

From the Notebooks

Merleau-Ponty's theory of art, according to Richard Kearney: "Paintings or poems are not just creative expressions for their authors. They also require audiences. The significance of a work of art, consequently, is not something fixed once and for all by the artist or passively consumed by the

Wednesday

Miscellany I guess the Vatican is (justifiably) disturbed by the message behind James Cameron's Avatar [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/vatican-slams-avatar-prom_n_419949.html] . The newspaper said it "gets bogged down by a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature." I saw the movie,

From the Notebooks

Investment Decision: Dying White Guys or Growing Non-Whites? "If the growth rate of per capita income . . . between 2003 and 2050 remains as it was between 1973 and 2003--averaging 1.68 percent annually in Europe, the United States, and Canada and 2.47 percent annually in the rest of the

Monday

Tiger, Brit, and Kerouac A lot of people are upset about Brit Humes' advice to Tiger Woods last week ( linked here at TDE [https://thedailyeudemon.com/12531/]). "Post media critic Tom Shales put him in the category of a 'sanctimonious busybody' engaged in 'telling people

Something for Sunday Morning

“Modesty is praised in humans because it is not a matter of nature, but of will.” Lactantius

Brews You Can Use

I assembled this post while watching the BCS championship game last night. I was using my laptop, so I didn't have my normal assortment of beer bookmarks. I was reduced to surfing naked (sorry, no pics) The results weren't bad: Beer News Dot Org [http://beernews.

Thursday

All Show, No Substance You want to see how grotesque national politics has become? Check out this passage from an AP story [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100106/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul] (emphasis added): > Pelosi and four committee chairmen met with the president Wednesday

Wednesday

Grant a Bull An economics writer I trust is bullish. That, according to New York magazine. I like NYM, but I don't trust it. Awhile back, I remember they wrote about the sense of public service that prompts Goldman Sachs to require its executives to take government job

Tuesday

Calamity Insurance What percentage of your investments should be in precious metals? Of that percentage, should you count gold-mining stocks? Those are questions I struggle with. I don't really have any good benchmarks, but I've heard "no more than 10%" offered by mainstream investment

Monday

Commentary on the Never-Ending Economic Crisis I hardly consider myself a neo-con, but their flagship publication, Commentary, has some awfully good stuff occasionally. In the January 2010 issue, David M. Smick dissects the current monetary and public debt mess in great detail [http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/a-never-ending-economic-crisis--15322] . It

Something for Sunday Morning

"When man begins to see and to live from God's perspective, when he is a companion on Jesus' way, then he lives by new standards, and something of the eschaton, of the reality to come, is already present." Benedict XVI.

January 1

The New Year I rang in the new year with my brothers and friends at the Drinking Club . . . until 8:00, then went home and took a short nap, ate pizza, helped clean up the mess from having a dozen kids in the house all afternoon and evening, watched a

NY Eve BYCU

Sundry Drinking Items I head out to the Drinking Club this afternoon for college bowl games, manly conversation, and beer. It won't be the same without my father, but I'm still looking forward to it. I won't be running a Brews You Can Use

Wednesday

Autobiographical Corner Whew. Another whirlwind holiday. When I rolled over at 6:10 a.m. yesterday morning, I couldn't believe it was already time to get up. I was plastered to the mattress after five Christmas celebrations, which included stops in Detroit and car troubles. Overall, it was

From the Notebooks

Random Bill Bonner quotes. That guy slays me: "If markets do the work of God, as has been suggested, it is the God of the Old Testament, not the New." Bill Bonner "All major governments seem to have come together in some unholy socialism, but where are

Presents

-- Mobile post

Monday

Still on my holiday spree. Just this today, from U.S. News & World Report: Abortion Debate Shows the Catholic Bishops' Growing Influence [http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/religion/2009/12/17/abortion-debate-shows-the-catholic-bishops-growing-influence.html] .

Painting

Seen at the Inn of St. John's in Plymouth, Michigan -- Mobile post

Something for Sunday Morning

"According to many authors of spiritual books, progress in our life of piety depends a good deal on our recognition and understanding of our dominant defect. This is the defect that has the biggest influence on our behavior and thinking. It typically becomes evident in what we do, what

Saturday

From Reader's Digest: > The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) just held a two-day summit about the hazards of "distracted driving," which includes texting and talking on a cell phone while at the wheel. But researchers knew the dangers back in 2003, when the National

Something for Christmas Morning

“He is born poor, and he teaches us that happiness is not to be found in an abundance of earthly goods. He comes into the world without any ostentation, encouraging us to be humble and not to depend on the applause of men.” Francis Fernandez

Cookie decorating

Tuesday

Do-It-Yourself Energy Drink Energy drinks are the younger generation's beverage. I enjoy 'em, but they're expensive, are packed with sugar, lead to a later crash, and (I suspect) mess with your brain by overloading it (more than once, I think my brain has operated at

Monday

Return to the Gold Standard? When it comes to a return to the gold standard, my newest favorite financial writer, Randall Forsyth, vehemently disagrees with my older favorite financial writers [http://www.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=12164&mn=16277&pt=msg&mid=8318588], like Rothbard and,

Something for Sunday Morning

"We lose our peace through sin, through pride and by not being sincere with ourselves and with God. Peace can also be lost through impatience." Francis Fernandez

Bernanke in Doubt?

But he's the Time Man Person of the Year!? Skies darken for Ben Bernanke nomination [http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30759.html]. > Six Republicans and one Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee voted Thursday against Ben Bernanke's nomination to a second four-year term

BYCU

Drink your Christmas tree, or something like that: Spruce beer [http://brewery.org/brewery/cm3/recs/07_44.html] and pine beer and liquor [http://www.bevlaw.com/bevlog/fmb/pine-liqueur-pine-beer-fir-brandy]. The only brewery in a Michigan state park. "The beautiful Tahquamenon Falls Brewery & Pub invites you to

Thursday

Dispatches from Extreme Economics Should we start looking for weapons of mass destruction again? "Remember all that pooh-poohing when the gulf states were talking about their own currency? About how silly that would be? That it would never happen? Yeah well, sort of looks like it might." [http:

99% Opposed

to raising the debt ceiling [http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/12/11/support-raising-federal-debt-ceiling/] . Cast your vote.

Wednesday

My children had a Christmas concert last night, and I need to get to the office early today (because I have to leave early for my son's out-of-town basketball game). I'm crunched on both ends: busy at work, busy with holiday/family functions. I was going

Tuesday

The Amero I've been hearing Amero rumors for over a year now, way back in the halcyon days of the Bush II White House. I always wrote them off as wild conspiracy-type stuff. And maybe they are, but The American Conservative blog has given the rumors a little

Monday

Gosh, Give Me a Break As people get older, they get more serious. That seems to be the general consensus. That was my opinion . . . until I got older. When I was younger, I would wring my hands over all sorts of things, but now I'm much more inclined

Something for Sunday Morning

"Blessed are we when we know how to bring peace to the afflicted, when we serve as instruments of unity of unity in our families, among our workmates and in all those we meet in the course of our daily lives. To put this vitally important commitment into practice,

Brews You Can Use

Tip This Season to be Jolly Looking for a unique idea for your Christmas gathering? Buy a couple of cases of different Christmas beers. You can find lists all over the Internet, like this one [http://beer.about.com/od/beerrecommendations/tp/10WinterBeers.htm], though with names like "Samichlaus&

Thursday

Twitter Heard on this podcast [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/12/mcardle_on_debt.html]: 3/10s of Americans who earn more than $100,000 a year live paycheck-to-paycheck. For people who make less than $100,000, the majority live paycheck-to-paycheck. Grammar query: Should "paycheck-to-paycheck" be hyphenated?

Tuesday

What's Public is Private? "Sin isn't a private matter, especially when it comes to marriage." That's accurate, but it's not a sentiment you see much anymore, unless you hang out in these kind of literary circles [http://www.touchstonemag.com/

Kentucky Attorney

I need to find an attorney that is licensed in Kentucky. I'd prefer to work with the type who reads this blog. If you know of someone, please email me (link on the left). BTW: It's not pro bono, but it's such a small

Monday

A Monetary Primer . . . with Commentary Does the whole topic of fiat currency and the gold standard confuse you? Don't feel bad. I couldn't have explained the important differences or the history behind our current monetary policy 15 months ago. I've had to read a

Something for Sunday Morning

"The recovery of peace . . . is one of the best signs of love for those around us." Francis Fernandez

My Bed

Shoulda only had boys. I was looking to go to bed. -- Mobile post

Brews You Can Use

Something for Saturday Morning I've always been susceptible to hangovers. My father never minded if I drank, but if I was too hungover the next day to do my job, I'd have to pay the devil. This article [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_

Thursday

Anti-Gold Tired of the economics, much less metal, blogging? Sorry 'bout that, but it's what interests me these days . . . that, and the state of my soul, which is poor and lacking in good bloggable script. I don't stumble across many sensible anti-gold pieces, but I

Tuesday

Shut Up Out There! Robert Higgs fisks Ben Bernanke's recent op-ed [http://www.independent.org/blog/?p=4214]. One of the most enjoyable economics pieces I've read in weeks. Highly recommended. Excerpt (Bernanke in bold; Higgs in regular font: > “The government's actions to

Monday

Autobiographical Corner Just a brief note. After a righteous Thanksgiving Eve outing with friends and family, I spent Thanksgiving Day with my Mom, brothers, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, wife, and children. Marie and The Seven then drove through night and rain to get to Detroit around 9:30 p.m. I

Something for Sunday Morning

"Even God himself cannot fill what is already full.” Mother Teresa

Gordie

Gordie Howe statue at Joe Louis Arena And Gordie Howe in person!! -- Mobile post

Red Wings Game Last Night

-- Mobile post

From the Notebooks

"[T]he present economic system is not capitalism . . . it's a kind of Marxism for rich people . . . in which the elite make the profits while the losses are redistributed, shared throughout the entire population like Mao jackets and influenza." Bill Bonner Right on. That's exactly

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Annual parade

-- Mobile post

Friday

The Mainstream Economist Well, the holidays are here. How's the economic recovery going? I'm curious because a prominent economist assured us last year that late 2008 would be a distant memory come late 2009: “The S&P will be over 1,000 at the end

Second Turkey

-- Mobile post

Eating Soon

-- Mobile post

Thanksgiving

The Lions play the Thanksgiving Game again today, for the 76th time (if my notes are accurate). There's talk about taking the game away from Detroit, and I fear it'll happen [http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/10432238/Countdown:-Lions-aim-to-protect-Thanksgiving-slot?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=

Thanksgiving Eve

What Do You Call It? "Thanksgiving Eve." "Black Wednesday." "Biggest Drinking Night of the Year." And now, "Humpsgiving." That's what Foran's Irish Pub in downtown Detroit calls this evening [http://detroit.metromix.com/bars-and-clubs/event/humpsgiving-downtown-detroit/1619365/content]

From the Notebooks

One's sense of peace is inversely proportionate to the amount he talks. Contemporary Clericalism: A type of antinomianism, possibly of the pneumatic sort, that causes clergy to think they're above everyday ethics and morality when dealing with their congregations. Harry Chapin's Cat's

Monday

Scientology Crack Up? Can a crack-pot organization crack up? It looks like Scientology might be, and John Travolta hasn't even left yet. It's hard to believe that an organization that first saw into the ways of the intergalactic warlord Xenu could be in trouble, but stranger

Something for Sunday Morning

"All they need to do is fulfill faithfully the simple duties of Christianity and those called for by their state of life, accept cheerfuly all the troubles they meet and submit to God's will in all that they have to do or suffer--without, in any way, seeking

Brews You Can Use

In Praise of Oil A baseball fan who doesn't like home runs. A hockey fan who doesn't like a cross-check. A man who doesn't like Clint Eastwood. That's how I feel about Guinness beer. I hate it. The first time I tried

Status Update

My father's funeral was yesterday. I and my family are doing a lot better than we were a few days ago. Thank you for your prayers and kind words. One TDE reader is even sending a donation to my church to say a Mass for my father. It&

Funeral Day

My father's funeral is today. Last night's visitation was packed. They had to open a side door to let more people into the room. The guest book ran out of signature lines. This morning, we say our final goodbyes. If you want to read about my

From the Notebooks

Found in Hoppe's Democracy: The God that Failed (page 19, fn 20): "All in all, one must admit that the portion of income drawn by the public sector most certainly increased from the eleventh century onward all over Europe, but it is difficult to imagine that, apart

From the Notebooks

"In empires and kingdoms, Tocqueville noted, the power of the authorities was absolute, often capricious, and dangerous. But the king's armies could not be everywhere. And his agents tended to be thin on the ground. Most people living under these forms of government had very limited contact

Monday

Currently reading: Democracy: The God that Failed and The Wisdom of Crowds. I'll let you know who wins.

Something for Sunday Morning

I read In Conversation with God. Every day. In theory, anyway. I always fall off the Conversation wagon, then get back on. Sometimes I fall off for days, sometimes for weeks. Last week, I stopped reading on Tuesday and didn't get back to it until Friday afternoon, after

Signs of the Times

I've been seeing too many signs like this:

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My father has had a stroke. Please pray for a miracle. His name is Mel.

Thursday

Sobran Great quote: "If you want government to intervene domestically, you're a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you're a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you're a moderate. If you don't want government to intervene anywhere,

From the Notebooks

The Element of Class I remember my Dad telling me that time preference is the best measure of class. Class isn't based on race, nationality, religion, or money. The single-best determining factor of class is the ability to forego short-term pleasure for the sake of long-term gain. He

Tuesday Miscellany

Random Thought "My country, right or wrong" is like saying "My mother, drunk or sober." That's Chesterton, paraphrased. I was reminded of it when I saw this quote during my evening surf last night: "[Nationalism is] a set of beliefs taught to each

Something for Sunday Morning

"Only the man who is reconciled with God can also be reconciled and in harmony with himself, and only the man who is reconciled with God and with himself can establish peace around him and throughout the world." Benedict XVI

State cross-country meet

Michigan International Speedway. Abbie (15) running today. -- Mobile post

BYCU

Snobby Drinking Nerds Are you a wine snob? Or maybe just insufferably nerdy? Then check out these "must-read" wine blogs that Forbes has assembled [http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/23/wine-blogs-best-lifestyle-wine-vaynerchuk.html?partner=relatedstoriesbox] . I can't say that "brands, regions, grape varieties or vintages&

Thursday

If Misery Loves Company . . . I track Randall Forsyth's columns at Barron's. I typically don't care what Warren Buffett has to say, so I wasn't much interested when I saw Forsyth's most-recent column, "Has Buffett Overplayed His Hand? [http://online.

The Wednesday Eudemon

You Offended Him?! I find this story from yesterday's New York Post [http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/dolan_gives_the_times_holy_hell_C79kb04ndK2nKWVWLO8O0K] significant: "New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan has condemned The New York Times -- blasting the Gray Lady and its columnist Maureen

Three for Tuesday

Twitter 1. "The founding fathers of Communism, like Internet investors [in the late 1990s], believed that a new era had arrived." Bill Bonner. I've always distrusted new agers, whether they're holding crystals, wearing denim, or toting a laptop. They all say the same thing:

Something for Sunday Morning

"[L]et us love, for love will give us everything." de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence. BTW: Happy All Saints Day. > Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable in itself. We long

Over at CE

Ignorant of Theophilus is at Catholic Exchange this morning [http://catholicexchange.com/2009/10/31/123099/].

Short Short Story Saturday

Vampire stories are the rage, it's Halloween, and I always got a small narcissistic kick out of this story. It ran in Gilbert Magazine about ten years ago . . . but the undead are timeless. Gothic Nihilism Jonathan had just finished watching The Conan O'Brien Show when the

7 Jack-o-Lanterns

-- Mobile post

More carvings

-- Mobile post

Brews You Can Use: Halloween Edition

Top Ten List Looking for scary beers? Here's a top ten list [http://www.tampabay.com/features/food/spirits/article844951.ece]. Moorhoueses' Pendle Witches Brew, Young's Old Nick, Rogue's Dead Guy, FantÃ´me's Black Ghost, Great Lakes' Nosferatu, Wychwood'

Abbreviated Thursday

With the end of football (see post immediately below), I thought my life was about to shift to leisure mode: lots of time for reading, writing, and drinking. But no: parent-teacher conferences, out-of-town seminars, Halloween festivities. The . . . (um, er) excrement never stops. Plus I'm not feeling well. I

Final game

Final football game of the season tonight. Gorgeous evening, nice farmland background. On evenings like that, you're glad to be a rural dweller. -- Mobile post

From the Notebooks

A hazy picture is beginning to emerge in my mind. The picture is this: America, the Protestant Empire, has always been opposed to things Catholic. The opposition used to be explicit: the KKK hated Catholics and Jews, as well as blacks. In the twentieth century, such bigotry became unfashionable, so

Tuesday

Ignorant of Theophilus? "There's more to sports than winning." "It's not about winning and losing." "Winning isn't the most important thing." Those types of platitudes surround sports today, especially youth sports. And I have to admit: I don&

Cool Monday

Coolidge for President! I liked Reagan alright, but I wouldn't say he was truly conservative. To find a truly conservative president, you have to journey all the way back to the 1920s. And no, I'm not talking about Hoover. Not at all. The man was far

Something for Sunday Morning

"Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier." Mother Teresa

Brews You Can Use

Cheers My favorite TV show of all time: Cheers. Seinfeld also contends for the top spot, but I think I give the nod to Cheers (I thought The Office would give both of them a run, but it has quickly grown old and politically-correct). Cheers, of course, was set in

Fall Colors

Niall Paul Krugman's bane, Niall Ferguson, is pretty daggone pessimistic about the U.S. future. Ferguson is one of the most-intelligent, yet common sensical, thinkers on the scene today . . . and he's an outsider (from the UK) and historian, so he might be a bit more objective.

Weekend pics

Preying (sp?) Mantis in our garden last weekend. -- Mobile post

Tuesday

Greenspan Repenting? After inflating the monetary supply relentlessly and serving as the minion of DC and Wall Street masters, the former gold-standard proponent and Ayn Rand devotee Alan Greenspan [http://www.adabyron.net/taemag_com_greenspan.htm] has been making more sense lately. He was recently quoted as saying, “If

Monday

Breitbart Who is ACORN's scourge, the lion of the online right, Andrew Breitbart? He's 40, went to Tulane, grew up in Hollywood, worked for Drudge, knows Huffington, had a conservative awakening when he was 22, and hates the relentless left-wing bias of the MSM. The Wall

Something for Sunday Morning

“As much as you watch over your mind carelessly, by so much you will become distant from Jesus.” Hesychius of Jerusalem

Brews You Can Use

Mild Climate and Good Beer I've never had a hankering to move to a warm weather area. I'm a Spring and Fall guy: 65 degrees and sunny, that's me. The only warm climate city that has ever appealed to me is San Diego. For

Spooky Post

Sexy Halloween If you haven't heard, Halloween is number two. At almost $7 billion a year in sales, Americans are spending more on Halloween than on any other holiday except Christmas. Want a 2-foot-tall zombie that pulls off its head? You can get it for $100. A gory

Tuesday

Making Fun of The One? The comedians are supposedly beginning to make jokes about Obama [http://tv.yahoo.com/news/article/tv.tvguide.com/latenight-comedians-turning-obama-20091011] . That's gotta be hard for them, like joking about one's own mother, but maybe they're finally seeing what many

Monday

Five Twitters 1. Niche blog of the month goes to: Brian Leiter's Nietzsche Blog [http://www.brianleiternietzsche.blogspot.com/]. If you enjoy alliteration, you might call it a "Nietzsche niche for fans of the nephalistic nullifidian." Via [http://philosophybites.com/]. My digital friend Nick Milne once

Something for Sunday Morning

"There is never a moment when there is not some virtue to be practiced." de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence.

Nobel

A reader sends this link: http://nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/process.html It says Nobel nominations must be received by February 1st. Obama got nominated after being president for less than two weeks? -- Mobile post

BYCU

A Guy's Dream Good-lookin', drinks beer, and knows her place: A Muslim model has been sentenced to six cane strokes for drinking a beer [http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,653578,00.html]. Her actions were pretty insidious: > The young women in the hotel

Thursday

The Misanthrope Wow, it's not often you absorb as much hatred as you'll find here: Gore Vidal in his final years [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/gore-vidals-united-states-of-fury-1798601.html] . The novelist-Al Gore cousin-homosexual is one shockingly bitter man (heck, I didn't even

Fidrych

My Tigers try to avoid the humiliation of one of history's bigger meltdowns tonight. I thought it'd be a good time to run this piece. The Bird's Swan Dive On days like that, you didn't dare drink too much beer in old

What's A Guy Gotta Do to Get a Drink Around Here?

The Distiller and the Bureaucrat I have a friend out in the stix [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=out%20in%20the%20styx]. He has neighbors, but it's definitely rural; nothing but woods and fields. He's an individualist with a unique personality, but lots of

Something for Sunday Morning

"Guilt is a reality, an objective force; it has caused destruction that must be repaired. For this reason, forgiveness must be more than a matter of ignoring, of merely trying to forget." Benedict XVI.

The Gift

A client once bought me a three-month subcription to the Beer of the Month Club. Two six-packs a month for three months. I kept one from each six pack. . . except one, which was particularly good. These five decorate a shelf at my law office. -- Mobile post

BYCU

Thick Bones for Me Don't drink for the health of it. That, Chesterton observed, is the true road to insane drinking. But if you're the type that needs a healthy upside to everything, grab a beer: "A study of 2,471 men and postmenopausal women

Jouvenel Corner

Country Boys "[T]he egoism of Power profits by public insecurity." On Power, p. 142. Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, LBJ, Bush II, and now Obama. All used public insecurity to bolster the federal government's power. And once the crises pass, the means to deal with the crises

Wednesday

Here, Drink This Baby Bottle of Red Dye Is it me, or is there something wrong with this picture (emphasis mine): "Doctors at five sites in England are comparing vaccines from two manufacturers to see which works best and has fewer side-effects. Over the next two weeks 1,000

Tuesday

Sword of Damocles? "Amherst [Securities] estimates this massive overhang at seven million units. That's the equivalent of 135% of a full year's existing-home sales and chillingly greater than the 1.27 million units that made up the overhang in early 2005, when the housing bubble

Monday Moanin'

Val-de-ri Val-de-ra This article [http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/25/news/economy/Americans_on_the_move/index.htm?section=money_latest] says Americans are taming their wanderlust. I find that highly doubtful. It's a lamentable trait, but one that has marked American since at least Tocqueville'

Something for Sunday Morning

"God is not some distant stranger. He shows us his face in Jesus." Benedict XVI

Misc.

Received in an Email Touching Stories I was walking through the cemetery this morning and saw a guy crouching down behind a tombstone. I said, "Morning." He said, "No, just taking a ****". When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new

BYCU

Oktoberfest pictures [http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-46860.html].

Boating 1850s Style

Earlier this month while at the drinking club, I watched some Amish take their boat out of the lake . . . by backing their horse down the boat ramp. I snapped pics. The camera phone didn't do a great job, but I think the "silhouette-effect" looks pretty cool.

The Walker

I found this well piece by Paul Johnson in the current issue of Forbes. Walking Our Way Out of Recession [http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0921/opinions-paul-johnson-current-events.html] . I especially liked this excerpt: > Walking is not, however, an unproductive activity. Thomas Mann, the great German novelist, used to

GKC and Booker T. Sightings, Sundry

Booker T. Washington was an Uncle Tom? Not according to a new biography out of Harvard University Press. [http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=1308&theme=home&loc=b] One of the ACORN antagonists is a Chesterton fan, according to the NYT [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/

Fun with My Little Kids

A trip Sunday afternoon to a local dairy farm.

Monday Moanin'

Monsters in Austen "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." It's one of the most-famous opening lines in English literature. But I might like this more: “It is a truth

Something for Sunday Morning

"We can find all that is necessary in the present moment. We need not worry about whether to pray or be silent, whether to withdraw into retreat or mix with people, to read or write, to meditate or make our minds a receptive blank, to shun or seek out

Friday Night Lights

Brews You Can Use

Snake in a Beer A friend dropped off a copy of Jackson, Wyoming's alternative newspaper: JH Weekly. The cover story: Making Suds at the Base of the Tetons [http://www.planetjh.com/news/A_105362.aspx]. It's a nicely-crafted (heh, heh) piece, and they write highly

From iPhone surfing

"Sometime in the mid- to late-1980s, a letter-writer opined in the pages of the Washington Post that President Reagan insulted women whenever he opened his broadcast speeches with the words “My fellow Americans.” This letter-writer proposed that Presidents instead use “My associate Americans.”" http://cafehayek.com/2009/09/

From the Notebooks

Some Belloc All from The Path to Rome: “[I]f there is difficulty it is in the whole launching of a thing, in the first ten pages of a book, or the first half-hour of listening to a sermon, or the first mile of a walk.” “I will tell you

Nutty Tuesday

ACORN This ACORN stuff is absolutely hilarious, if it weren't for our President's close ties. The couple on the left posed as a pimp and his prostitute. She's believable. But him? Come on. When did Doogie Howser rip off the set of Joseph and

Monday Miscellany

Flirting with Libertarians? Thank goodness. From U.S. News & World Report: "Rising opposition to President Obama's healthcare proposals may be morphing into something broader and deeper: an anti-Obama movement that could jeopardize the president's political standing, damage the Democratic Party, and give the Republicans

Something for Sunday Morning

"Our life will have been worth something if and when we fall in love with Christ." Francis Fernandez

What?

I'd hate to mess with the giant that uses the big one: -- Experimental mobile post

BYCU: "The Drinking Club"

I've referenced "the drinking club" many times, so I thought I'd post a few pictures of it. From the side (and its least-impressive angle): The view: The most important part -- Experimental mobile post

From the Notebooks

I distinguish between "wrongheaded progressive thinking" and merely "progressive thinking." For all men should be progressives: wanting to improve man's lot, physically and morally and spiritually. Such aspirations are good. Progressive thinking becomes wrongheaded when it (i) disproportionately emphasizes one or two of the

Happy Labor Day

Web traffic drops drastically on holidays, so the motivation to write drops as well. I wish everyone a happy Labor Day. If you feel like doing some more surfing, here's a decent (though at points lame) link: 20 Things You Can Get Free [http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/

Something for Sunday Morning

The "sneer" is "the most inhuman of human faults." George MacDonald

Brews You Can Use

Brewing Anti-Trust Problem? InBev (Bud's adoptive father) and MillerCoors are raising prices on their beer at the same time . . . and at the same time that deflation still rules and consumers can ill afford to pay more for their alcohol. The NY Times smells an anti-trust rat [http://www.

Dalrymple and Time

Inflation Debases the Currency Soul Dalrymple [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Dalrymple] stuns me again. Well, he didn't actually stun me, but he has taken a timely and mundane topic--inflation--and given it a cultural and spiritual angle [http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_3_otbie-inflation.html]. Great

Bon Fire on the Beach

Last night on Lake Huron (Sunday evening) -- Experimental mobile post

Waves and Bird

Big waves and a Great Blue Heron greeted me Saturday morning. -- Experimental mobile post

On the Beach

-- Experimental mobile post

Just One Quick Thing

We drove over five hours yesterday, then we had an out-of-town cross-country meet for daughter Abbie, plus I had to pop into the office, plus we had tons of laundry, plus plus plus . . . so regular blogging won't resume until Wednesday. If you were hoping for something with more

Return Eudemon

I took one last vacation/long weekend with Marie and The Seven last week. We went to my parents' cottage on Lake Huron. I got back yesterday. I'll try to return to regular blogging Tuesday, but in case I can't, I've programmed a

At Dinosaur Gardens

Taken here [http://www.dinosaurgardensllc.com/index.html]. -- Experimental mobile post

Free iPod Poor Man App

I've been vacationing in Alpena, Michigan. I return today. Regular posting will hopefully resume tomorrow morning. Ever since getting my iPhone, I've been looking for Catholic devotional applications. I haven't had much luck, so I created my own. If you own an iPhone, it&

Something for Sunday Morning

"Patience is the companion to wisdom." St. Augustine

Hudge and Gudge sighting

One of the best articles I've seen on the whole Fed Reserve issue. Excerpt: Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Winner... When one considers the possibility that the Fed Chairman actually works for the banks, all the pieces begin falling into place. It's only natural, after

Misc

"You can still find an old English prayerbook with the passage, 'Guard us from the Northmen.'" Adams, For Good and Evil, p 159, writing about Viking incursions. -- Experimental mobile post

Brew You Can Use

Drinking a Blue Moon on the beach earlier this summer -- Experimental mobile post

Brews You Can Use

Another drinking public service: Thrillist [http://www.thrillist.com/mktg/41950/Nation]. > Let us help you find free booze. > Thrillist, a free daily email, sifts through the crap to find your city's best events, including sweet open bars all over town. > Each day, you'

Lake Huron.

View to the South from my parents' cottage -- Experimental mobile post

Facebook

"Facebook has more followers than Buddha." Evan Hessel, Forbes, 9/7/09, p 80. Great line. It's accurate (fb has 250m members, Buddhism something fewer). It's clever, it's tightly-written, and it either required the writer to research the number of Buddhists or

iPhone Blogging Activated

Or not? Please bear with me these next few days as I experiment with mobile blogging. I will have my normal daily post (though light, as mentioned earlier), but, if this works, additional twitter-type posts. Don't worry, I won't be posting about sartorial, hygenic, or other

Max

-- Experimental mobile post

The Wednesday Eudemon

Flannery Conservative Catholics can't get enough of Flannery O'Connor. At First Things this week: Review/essay of Brad Gooch's Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor. [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2009/08/flannery-without-the-faith] Nicely done. Excerpt: > Gooch traces O'Connor&

Tuesday Patchwork

Questioning Abe? I've been following this guy [http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/SouthernAvenger/archives/2009/08/22/the-nyts-on-lincoln-giving-license-to-rape] off-and-on for a few months now. A southern boy who writes for, among others, the Greek Taki. I pretty much agree with everything he writes. Because I'm not a

Monday Miscellany

Sticking It to the Middle Class "Budget cuts have hit public colleges hard, even as the demand for a well-educated workforce soars [http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-colleges/2009/08/19/budget-cuts-take-toll-on-education_print.htm] ." That's the headline from U.S. News & Report cover story

Something for Sunday Morning

"Apart from knowledge of his Creator, every man is but a brute." St. Jerome

Brews You Can Use

Helping Weather the Recession These gents have performed a nice public service. Scary at parts, but a nice service nonetheless: Cheap Booze Taste Test [http://www.zug.com/live/82078/Crappy-Consumer-Reports-Cheap-Booze-Taste-Test.html] . Some of the best booze pictures I've seen lately and very good--if at times off-color--narrative. Samples:

Thursday

'Bout Freakin' Time, Warren In case you missed it yesterday, Warren Buffett finally jumped off cheerleader mode [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/opinion/19buffett.html?_r=1&ref=opinion] . He even let the great secret behind fiat money [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money]

The Wednesday Eudemon

The Disappearing Art: Doing Nothing While sitting on a bench outside a shop in Potemkin Bavaria [http://www.frankenmuth.org/] last weekend, I reached for my iPhone. I had 10-15 minutes to kill while my wife and children shopped, so I thought I'd do some Internet surfing, maybe

Tuesday

Modest Man Rides Again . . . and again, and again, and again, and again, and . . . . [http://nymag.com/news/politics/58199/] "Since occupying the White House, Barack Obama has hosted fifteen town-hall meetings; appeared in more than 800 images on the White House Flickr photo-stream; and held four prime-time press conferences,

Monday Moanin'

Long Weekend Another weekend, another weekend spent. This one, in Frankenmuth, the annual Summer Music Festival. It's a nice-enough weekend, but I feel like the impecunious father who spends a lot of money on a flat-screen TV for his kids. Nice gesture, yes, and his kids are no

Something for Sunday Morning

"Peace is our final good." St. Augustine

BYCU

Buddery Slope to Water A TDE reader sends this along: "AB InBev's adjusted EBITDA in its North American division, which is mainly the U.S. market, rose 43% to $1.74 billion from $1.22 billion a year ago. In addition to cost-cutting, the brewer's

From the Notebooks

Much in modern Christological arguments strikes me as ridiculous. In these arguments, theologians try to figure out what Christ was like, given that he was a combination of God and man. I don't purport to comprehend the arguments, but from what I understand, there's higher Christology

Global Warming and Sundry

Calling Aesop Compelling piece from Time Magazine [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944914,00.html]: > As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are

Tuesday Twitter

Twitter 3 Lousy Reasons to Consider an Antidepressant Medication [http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/brain-and-behavior/2009/08/06/3-lousy-reasons-to-consider-an-antidepressant-medication.html] . (1) You're a Detroit Lions fan. (2) You've ran out of beer and the grocery stores are closed. (3) Your wife put on a lot

Monday Moanin'

GKC Corner I'm often startled to see how many G.K. Chesterton people I see on the web. This last weekend, I was reading Touchstone [http://www.touchstonemag.com/], and I saw one of its contributors, Lydia McGrew, blogs at "What's Wrong with the World

Something for Sunday Morning

"Often, though, we will find the Cross in the ordinary and even trivial things that we encounter in the course of run-of-the-mill days: fatigue; lacking the time we would like to do things; having to renounce a pleasant plan we had made; bearing with love the defects of persons

BYCU

Craft Trekkies I've undeniably benefited from the whole "micro-brew/craft brew" phenomenon. Most of my favorite beers are craft beers, and I love the resulting assortment now available everywhere, even at ordinary grocery stores. But the whole thing still has a "nerd" feel to

Thursday Hodgepodge

Joke A University of Michigan grad and a Michigan State grad were sitting in the barbershop. They were both just getting finished with their shaves when the barbers reached for some after-shave to slap on their faces. The MSU grad shouted, "Hey, don't put that stuff on

Dr. K and Neologisms

Encore for Dr. K Pat Buchanan asks hard questions about the euthanasia undercurrents of Obama Health Care [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/04/time_to_go_grampa_97751.html] . From the conclusion: > In the early 20th century, with the influence of Social Darwinism, the utilitarian concept that

Late Summer Reading

Calling Squares I used to read or skim First Things' "On the Square" every day, but for some reason, I got out of the habit. I stopped by yesterday on a whim and greatly enjoyed a post about August reading [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2009/08/

Monday Miscellany

I Hate Whitey But whitey like me. Shelby Steele writes about Obama's race problem in light of the Gate crashing [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204619004574322054186035002.html] . The piece is okay, but not great. This section, though, was excellent: > Where race is concerned, I sometimes think of

Something for Sunday Morning

"Jesus is probably not asking us to suffer a martyr's death for him. But He is asking us for courage and fortitude in facing up to the demands of ordinary life." Francis Fernandez

Brews You Can Use

Tribute to the Fallen Sometimes, bloggers go out of the way to do something great. That's what this guy did: Twenty beers we can no longer drink [http://www.sloshspot.com/blog/07-28-2009/RIP-20-Beers-That-We-Can-No-Longer-Drink-Til-We-Go-Blind-With-193] . The prose isn't great, but the sentiment is and so are the

Wednesday Miscellany

Twitter Tide turning against the Fed? Let's hope [http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/july2009/072809_turning_against.htm]: "[A] new Gallup poll shows that Americans are turning against the Federal Reserve, with just 30 per cent saying the agency is doing a good job. 35 per cent

From the Notebooks

I started to write a book a few years ago. The working title: That Politically Incorrect Institution. It was supposed to be a pithy look at Church history and its ways of regularly defying political pigeon-holes. I never finished it, but I cranked out a decent introduction, a first chapter

Monday Musings

Boys Will be Boys? My son has little interest serving at Mass anymore . He's just turned 13 and wants to be a priest, but whereas he used to love to serve, now he does so reluctantly and only out of duty. I figured it was an age thing:

Something for Sunday Morning

"We can find a broad field for living mortification in our daily work--not putting people down, working with intensity, carrying out our tasks with a spirit of service." Francis Fernandez

BYCU

Redneck Stuff I thought I'd heard every redneck joke under the sun, then last week while I was in Alaska, a friend sent a batch of new ones. Since some of them revolve around drinking, and I'm busier than a Kennedy in a cat house, I&

Kindness and Twitter

Kind Me One of the neatest online articles I've read all year: Good Times: What's the use in being kind? A host of benefits, it turns out. [http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article07080901.aspx] I read two highly-interesting asides ("There's an entire blog

The Little Arts

Talk is Not Cheap Ludwig van Beethoven once explained to Johann Goethe that the artist is a great man deserves reverence. To illustrate his point, and to Goethe's flabbergasted astonishment, Beethoven crossed his arms and rudely walked through a group of gathered nobility. Beethoven's impolite walk

The Return Eudemon

North to Alaska I'm not a well-traveled man. I've never been to any continent besides North America, and when I turned 42, I hadn't even traveled to the western United States (a trip to Minneapolis for a Chesterton Conference and across the bridge in

Something for Sunday Morning

"Worry, fear, and cowardice arise when prayer weakens." Francis Fernandez

BYCU: Essay Edition

The Joy of Drinking St. George he was for England, And before he killed the dragon He drank a pint of English ale Out of an English flagon. For though he fast readily In hair-shirt or in mail, It isn't safe to give him cakes Unless you give

Essay

Not sure what happened. Post didn't load and I have very limited net access.

Buffetting Life's Storms

The Hymns of Jimmy Buffett I started listening to Jimmy Buffett songs when I was in law school. Though I was ambitiously studying hard so I could find work with a powerful law firm, I was drawn to Buffett's music because it celebrates a radically carefree lifestyle. As

Mini-Book Reviews

Some new, some old. Some in progress, some finished. Some repeats, some originals. Freaks in History The poor and freaks. They'll both always be with us. Barabbas was apparently a freak, as was Caligula. What Origen did to himself was kinda freaky, too, but out of respect, I

From the Notebooks

The Great Idiocy “'Please understand that we are keen to move toward a market economy,' a senior Soviet official whose responsibility had been to provide bread to the population of Saint Petersburg in its communist days told economist Paul Seabright, ' but we need to understand the fundamental

Something for Sunday Morning

"A temperate life is a life of mortification and joy. We shall often find opportunities to practice mortification in the little things that allow our reason to control our bodies and enable the soul to understand the things relating to God. Interior mortification guides our imagination and memory by

Brews You Can Use: FTN Edition

Drinking Sense Is that you vomiting in the corner from drinking too much? Did you bring your three pre-schoolers to the pub? Do you have a knack for playing completely inappropriate music (or no music at all) during a party? If so, you might lack drinking sense. “Drinking sense” is

Thursday Miscellany

Yikes, I own some MSFT stock: Google Inc., owner of the most-visited Internet search engine, is developing a computer operating system based on its Chrome Web browser, taking aim at Microsoft Corp. in its strongest market [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aTd2k.YdQZ.Y]. I

No Blogging Wednesday

Life takes me in a headlock. No time for blogging. Just one quick thing: Gonna have to read it: B16's new encyclical on ethics and the economy, Caritas In Veritate [http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html] . Good

Tuesday

Rolling Stone v. Hudge and Gudge? Interesting stuff over at Rolling Stone: Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression - and they're about to do it again. [http://sites.google.com/site/disclosuredelta/] It features one of the best opening lines in magazine-writing

Monday

The Wrestler I was home by myself Friday night after working eleven hours at the office by myself (office shut down for holiday, but I had a mountain to move). I decided to treat myself with a movie I'd been wanting to see since it came out last

Something for Sunday Morning

"[L]ove is inventive." Francis Fernandez

Brews You Can Use

Best Pilsner Ever? A TDE regular of German descent writes: "This is the local brew that my family quaffs in Kappelrodeck, Germany (Black Forest) [http://ratebeer.com/beer/bauhofer-ulmer-pilsener/40310/]. I might be sentimental, but it's the best pils I have ever drank (and continue to drink

Autobiographical Corner

Autobiographical Corner To be a good coach, you have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it's important. I'm not a good coach. My team won the little league championship last night in a rout, beating the previously-undefeated regular season

Baseball Wednesday

Jack and Michael play for the Little League championship later this afternoon. I have a lot to get done before heading over to the fields. No time for blogging. Please pray for our victory. Not just for Jack and Michael, but for the group of neat boys on their team,

Tuesday

Tuesday Twitter Revenge of the Fallen Last week, my older children and their cousins and uncles went to a late showing of Transformers II. Even though I liked the first movie, I stayed behind because (i) they wouldn't get back until almost midnight, which is almost two hours

Something for Sunday Morning

"Strive to acquire the virtues you think your brothers lack, and then you will no longer see their defects, because you yourselves will not have them." St. Augustine

Snope It

Snopes is one of my "go to" sites. Reader's Digest tells Snopes' story [http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/rumor-detectives-true-story-or-online-hoax/article122216.html] . Nothing remarkable, but still interesting. So how much does a niche website that receives 6.2 million visits per month earn (this is traditionally

BYCU. Slow Posting Days Continue

A YouTube testament to craft brewing (over-done, but enjoyable enough . . . and it makes me thirsty):

Slow Posting Days Continue

Worth a plug: Libertarians for Life [http://www.l4l.org/]. Regular posting will resume in a few days.

From the Notebooks

Premise: The opening question that any political philosopher must grapple with: Can the state ever go past legendary King Pausole's one law: “Hurt no man, then do as you will.” If so, when? On the surface, this is an easy question to answer: If another person isn'

Tuesday Slow Posting Day

Curmudgeonly Quotes [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1579126979/thedailyeudem-20] "When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in confederacy against him." Jonathan Swift. "The great thing about Glasgow is that if there'

From the Notebooks

A Futuristic History Many readers of this book have probably heard of the United States or its alternative name, "America." For many years, it reigned as the most powerful nation in the world, both economically and militarily. Like Rome (studied in Chapter Three), historians differ about when it

Something for Sunday Morning

"Sins that are easiest to amend bring the greatest punishment." St. John Chrysostom

Brews You Can Use

Gift Me One of the nicest small pleasures in life: the unexpected gift. Someone walks up to you and says, "Here, I got this for you." It happens to me about once a year. It's often a book, sometimes it's beer (the guy known

Thursday Scrambling

Busier than Phyllis Diller at the hairdresser's. No time for blogging. Just a few quick things: Weird Russian stuff, Episode 298,991: A Russian woman ended up in intensive care after restoring her virginity for the sixth time [http://mosnews.com/weird/2009/06/17/virginity/]. Odd penny

Wal-Mart Wednesday

Employment at Wally World Yesterday, the glory of managing a McDonald's. Today, the glory of working at Wal-Mart. EconTalk's podcast this week is an interview with Charles Platt, a journalist who "went undercover" and got a job at Wal-Mart [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/

Job Tuesday

Hand Me that Spatula! A writer sends out three hundred rÃ©sumÃ©s in response to job postings [http://www.esquire.com/print-this/best-job-searches-0709-2]. He got only eight interviews and only two real prospects: "I applied for about three hundred jobs. I applied to be a marketing designer at

Monday Miscellany

Evil Marriage I've harped on this point before [https://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=7874]: the marriage of big government and big business. The nuptials have been going on since the 17th century. It infuriated Belloc and Chesterton, and it ought to infuriate the rest of us, but we just

Something for Sunday Morning

"God makes use of little things to act in souls." Francis Fernandez

Brews You Can Use

Moose Drool? The best-selling craft beer in Montana: Moose Drool [http://beerreport.com/news/montanas-best-brown-ale]. The writer at the Beer Report calls it "a terrific and compulsively-drinkable beer" (and all of us non-winos could use a little more such compulsion). The LA Times named it November's

Mini-Book Reviews

Some new, some old. Some in progress, some finished. Some repeats, some originals. Age of Aquarius Squirming Absolute classic. I read this book about twelve years ago, and I loved every second of it. I learned the meaning of "pneumatic antinomianism," and I've been casually dropping

GKC to Mosques

Prayerful Imbibers, Rejoice! While I was editor of Gilbert Magazine, I often heard this topic bantered about: Was G.K. Chesterton a saint? I always thought to myself, "I don't know, but man, the guy liked to toss back the wine, as well as an assortment of

Guns and Stuff

Gasoline-Powered Turtleneck Sweater? Yesterday I received one of the oddest catalogues I've ever seen: Hammacher Schlemmer: Offering the Best, the Only and the Unexpected for 161 years [http://www.hammacher.com/]. The stuff is neat, but pricey. They offer a contraption that allows you to burn CDs from

Monday Miscellany

Twitter Monday Some weekends get away. That was mine. Between two evening baseball games, a high school graduation, and a wicked hangover Saturday morning (brought on by a mere two beers--is there no justice?), I entered Sunday evening with nothing in mind for Monday's post. I scoured the

Something for Sunday Morning

"Great opportunities to serve God seldom arise, but little ones are frequent." St. Francis de Sales

BYCU

Drunk in New York Seinfeld was one of the most NYC-centered sitcoms of all time. Has any other comedy show revolved so heavily around neighborhood life and references to everyday NY things as Seinfeld? If so, I can't think of them. I loved that show, but one thing

Marxism and Other Fairy Tales

Like W.C. Fields Criticizing a Drunk Wow, the great Russian bear roars at the United States, but not for its capitalism: for its Marxism [http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-american_capitalism-0]. > It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into

Up and FTN

Get Up and Go I received an email, saying that Nick Milne (blogger at The Daily Kraken [http://nickmilne.wordpress.com/] and one of the brightest lights of young Catholicism north of the St. Lawrence) greatly enjoyed Up [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810014785/info]. My family had our first

The New Freak Show?

Bulk Up for that SAT, Bobby Yesterday, I wrote (a too lengthy post) about Sam Anderson's "The Benefits of Distraction." This was one of the more interesting passages from the article [http://nymag.com/news/features/56793/index4.html], but I couldn't fit it

ADD, Buddhist Monks, and Misleading Titles

“In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.” Simone Weil A Distracted World The May 25th issue of New York Magazine featured this cover story by Sam Anderson: The Attention Crisis--And Why Distraction May Actually Be Good For You [http:

Something for Sunday Morning

"If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of God. Since we have our accuser, we need an Advocate as well." St. Irenaeus

Brews You Can Use

The Modern Drunkard I was having a heck of a time finding bloggable drinking material last night. And then I stumbled across an old friend: Modern Drunkard Magazine [http://moderndrunkardmagazine.com/]. Its editor, Frank Kelly Rich, would appear to be a genuine drunk [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002138215_

Pirate Day

Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me One of the best podcasts comes from George Mason University's economics department: EconTalk. It's perfectly pitched at my level of economics learning, not too basic, not too advanced. I get excited every time a new podcast comes

Mini-Book Reviews

Some new, some old. Some in progress, some finished. Some repeats, some originals. It's a Random World I bought this book after hearing Taleb interviewed on EconTalk [http://www.econtalk.org/]. The host (Russ Roberts) asked Taleb about the economic meltdown (rough quote), "So, you were right

Religion and More Religion

Neo-Emerson Revival? Very interesting review essay at The New Statesman about religion and modernity [http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/05/religion-american-modern-world]. The premise: Religion and modernity co-exist just fine. Voltaire and the Enlightenment and its progeny have always been wrong about modernity and religion: > Whether Marxian or Millian,

Memorial Day Eudemon

Stay Out of the Museum Night in the Museum 2 finished first in the box office: "Ben Stiller beat Christian Bale in the North American weekend box office duel between their respective "Night at the Museum" and "Terminator" sequels, according to studio estimates issued on

Something for Sunday Morning

"The Christian should be an alleluia from head to toe." St. Augustine I'll try to keep that in mind. Unfortunately, I fail, repeatedly. Perhaps even more unfortunately, the alleluia people bug me. Not the people with quiet joy, but the in-your-face joyful, the people in whom

BYCU: Beer and Related Areas

Give Him the Nobel Is your bartender pulling back a second early on the tap, leaving you a centimeter or two shy of the top? It's costing you buzz. The new Beer Gauge tells you how much [http://thebeergauge.com/]. "[T]he majority of the volume in

Russians, Muslims, and the Bagpiper

Seven Abandoned Wonders of the USSR You ever think to yourself: "This is gonna land me in Hell"? I do, way too frequently. I have an acerbic turn of mind. I think I'm subduing it, but then it rears its head mightily. I'd like

From the Notebooks

The Funny Guy What's the definition of a funny guy? Most obviously: A guy who makes others laugh. But that definition doesn't answer many questions. What about the clumsy guy who stumbles a lot and unintentionally makes others laugh? What about the guy who unintentionally says

Bird Watching and Other Scatology

Giving Me the Bird I've had an horrendous spring. I won't go into the details, but a barrage of non-work commitments has frayed my nerves to the bone (is that metaphor possible?). I was looking forward to a nice long Memorial Day weekend, with nothing to

Dead Cars, Amish, Marx, and More

Studebaker and Other Corpses In the wake of pending plans to discontinue Pontiac and Saturn, the Mental Floss Blog takes a look at ten discontinued models [http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/25613#more-25613]. Nice prose, nice assortment of pictures. Excerpt: > Started as the George N. Pierce Company in

Something for Sunday Morning

"All nature is good." St. Augustine

Brews You Can Use

Roll Me Away The weather has turned nice. That means one thing: cheap bowling. Bowling alleys slash prices dramatically to attract bowlers during the warm months. This Lebowski [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Lebowski]-like observation was triggered by a recent issue of New York magazine: Not Your

Fluid Thursday

Stream of Consciousness Thursday I'd forgotten about this short-lived feature. It garnered some boos and some laughs, and I like laughs, like that scene from Mary Poppins ("I love to laugh. Hahaha"), but that weightlessness stuff reminds me of astronauts, and I hear they have to

The End of Volunteerism

In a Service Club, a Long Time Ago I belong to a service club that has a somewhat unique officer arrangement. If you "go through the chairs," you're committing to a five-year stint. Three of the years require you to be at every weekly meeting, plus

Tuesday Miscellany

Bubba Cometh While at my parents' on Mother's Day, my father told me to check out this article at The Economist [http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13528224] . It's about a new line of business: prison consulting. Or, "How to

Hip, Kangaroos, and More

Hip Me with Your Best Shot Professor Charles Rice at Notre Dame liked to tell us, "You don't have to wear a pony tail and sandals to be counter-cultural. You just have to be a good Catholic." So I was a little disappointed (not surprised at

Something for Sunday Morning

"When you feel the assaults of passion and anger, then is the time to be silent as Jesus was silent in the midst of His ignominies and sufferings." St. Paul of the Cross

Brews You Can Use

A celebratory BYCU today: My tweaked TDE format appears to be paying off. Average daily visitors this week have exceeded 600. Traditionally, about 400 people come through (run through, accidentally click on site then swear "Catholic Fascist!" then log off, etc.). This week has seen a 50% uptick,

From the Notebooks

Waste We waste money. We waste time. Teenagers get wasted. Broken old drunkards wasted their lives. T.S. Eliot wrote of The Wasteland. Freddie Fender sang of Wasted Days and Wasted Nights, and The Who sang of Teenage Wasteland. Anorexics waste away. Landfills contain waste and sewage is known as

Wednesday Miscellany

Porn Hurts, Episode 1,982,001 > A 45-year-old internet porn addict is facing jail after he attacked his wife and forced her to have her genitals pierced. Police said the man from Istria had demanded she get the piercing done so she would be more like a porn star

From the Notebooks

The crazy season is officially upon me: two boys in baseball (same team, thankfully), JV soccer, 8-year-old soccer, 5-year-old soccer, track, piano, dance, end-of-school-year stuff . . . and that little thing I call "my job." I'll have to lean on my notebooks to get script together every day

Feature Essay

The Cell Phone Imbroglio An interesting thing happened at my local high school on Friday. The senior class organized a school-wide prank: the students programmed their cell phone alarms to go off at 10:30. Because cell phones are supposed to be kept in lockers during class, this would result

Something for Sunday Morning

"Every action of Christ contains a lesson for us." St. Thomas Aquinas

Brews You Can Use

B is for Beer A new children's book about beer [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061687278/thedailyeudem-20] (inspired by this cartoon [http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?sitetype=2&sid=123571&pid=1003&did=4] ). Actually, it's a children'

He Turns 16

My eldest, Alex, turns 16 today. I resolved to stop sending extensive birthday greetings to loved ones through my blog because it was getting too much of a hassle, plus I forgot once or twice, which made things uncomfortable when I came to bed at night (heh heh). But I&

Mini-Book Reviews

Some new, some old. Some in progress, some finished. Some repeats, some originals. Greatest Essayist Alive If you haven't read a collection of Joseph Epstein essays, you're unenlightened or you've been deprived or you have a life outside of literary pursuits. Hopefully, the latter,

Entertainment Wednesday

Not So Rotten Caine Ever since his performance in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Rotten_Scoundrels_(film)] with Steve Martin, I've liked Michael Caine [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Caine]. I'll probably hear at some point that he's a

Dalrymple to Pandemics

Dalrymple Sighting Aye, at times my ignorance surprises even me. Dalrymple has written a great little book review/essay [http://www.city-journal.org/2009/bc0427td.html] about an author whose name doesn't even ring a bell: Paul Hollander, a man who "is not one of those sociologists

Risk Taking

Rage in the Manhattan Cage I saw a piece from New York Magazine making cyberwaves last week, but I decided not to post about it until I had a chance to read it. I read it during my nephew's baseball game on Saturday: The Wail of the 1%

Something for Sunday Morning

"Pride is utter poverty of soul disguised as riches, imaginary light where in fact there is darkness." John Climacus

Brews You Can Use

Bar Hopping with the Left My Dad used to subscribe to Esquire, but he said it simply turned too leftist for him (gentlemanly living for Communists?). Nonetheless, they have a good drinking page, which I stumbled across earlier this week: Esquire Drinks Database [http://www.esquire.com/drinks/]. It'

Taxes and Hitler

10% Marginal Rate; More Bennies Than UAW While trolling to update my law firm's blawg [http://sturgislawfirm.com/blog/], I ran across this story [http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2009/04/low-income-taxpayer.html#more]: > National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson announced today (IR-2009-43) that the IRS

Traitors and Dead Horses

Lead Story FBI's newest 'Most Wanted' terrorist is American [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090421/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_domestic_terrorist]. Great headline, that. But when you actually read the story, you quickly discern that the headline is misleading: > A fugitive

Twitter Me . . . but Briefly

The evil of Twitter [http://www.ncregister.com/daily/twitter_can_make_you_immoral_claim_scientists/] : [http://www.ncregister.com/daily/twitter_can_make_you_immoral_claim_scientists/] > “Twitter can make you immoral, claim scientists.” So reported the U.K.'s Daily Mail on April 14. Hardcore Register

The Return Eudemon

Whew, whatta trip last week. We had a great time and I'm thrilled that I finally got to see some of California, but I'm glad to be back. We left at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday and flew into San Francisco in the morning. We drove

Something for Sunday Morning

"No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks." St. Ambrose

Returned Home

Marie and I returned home from California at 4:30 this morning. We're dragging. Regular blogging will resume Monday. Thanks for your indulgence during this slow blogging period.

Lookin' for Some Strange?

Strange USA [http://www.strangeusa.com/]. Haunted house, UFO sighting, or other bizarre stuff near you.

Brews You Can Use

Drinkopedia [http://www.drinkopia.com/]. Over 12,000 drink recipes. __________ The news is dreadful: According to the Census, since 2006 we have been living in a republic where, for the first time in the history of the republic, Americans drink more bottled water than we drank beer. [http://www.frontporchrepublic.

From the Notebooks

November 2003 When I used to see large families (say, families with five or more children), the idea always creeped into my mind that one or more of the children are, for lack of a better term, expendable. That's not quite the right term, but let me illustrate

Elvis Wednesday

Another pre-programmed post: One of the best Elvis voice performances. He really nails it at the end (I could use a little less arm waving, but it's still good stuff): __________ Words whose meanings contradict one another: ”¢BILL ("monetary note" and "statement of debt") ”¢BUCKLE

From the Notebooks. Brownson

Quotes by and about Orestes Brownson (1803-1874): "Orestes Augustus Brownson is the Catholic thinker par excellence of the United States. There are no rivals." R.A. Herrera, Orestes Brownon: Sign of Contradiction, p. xviii. "Brownson believed he had ben put in a corner, defending his right to

(Untitled)

Of course, that cow can never get skinny since it can create its own fat, but still funny.

From the Notebooks: May 2003

Thoughts during a wine-induced euphoria. A bit too sunny, but decent points. The weather wasn't good (warm, but rainy), so I didn't want to golf. I didn't feel like hanging out at the Elks. But I didn't necessarily feel like reclusing myself

He turned a symbol of hate and torture into one of love and mercy

In the 1930s, the Times (London) asked G.K. Chesterton and others to write on the topic of "What's Wrong with the World Today." Chesterton sent back a two-word response: Dear Sirs: I am. Sincerely, G.K. Chesterton "For all that ever was wrong, is

RIP Jaki

Received in an email: > One of my [our] most beloved spiritual fathers and mentors, Benedictine Father Stanley Jaki, died quietly in the company of friends, from complications following an previous major cardiac event, on 7 April 2009, at Clinica de la Conception in Madrid, Spain where he was visiting

Wednesday Bullets

I must've missed the announcement: New political philosophy on web: Front Porch Republic [http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/]. It looks like it's dedicated to a lot of the ideas I promote here. Though I'm more of a quasi-anarchist (I like to call myself an anarchist

Tuesday Miscellany

New Chesterton books that I hadn't heard of until last weekend: The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton Vol. I: Non-Fiction [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1604591579/thedailyeudem-20] and The Fantastic Fiction of Gilbert Chesterton [http://www.batteredbox.com/GardnerMartin/FantasticFictionChesterton.htm]. The first is merely a commercial

Calling All Nerds

20 Books to Make You a Smart Catholic Joseph Epstein is the best essayist alive. He's urbane, funny, self-deprecating. He's a fine stylist, and he's remarkably well-read. I remember William F. Buckley marveling at Epstein's erudition and wondering how Epstein could have

Something for Palm Sunday Morning

"The story of each man is the story of God's continual watchfulness over him. Each man is the object of the Lord's special love. Jesus was ready to do everything for Jerusalem, but the city was not willing to open up her gates to his

Brews You Can Use

Mercy, whatta week. I took Marie out to dinner last night, and I didn't even order a beer. I simply felt too lousy. The doctor says I'm fine, so I'm probably just suffering from lameness. Marie and the kids are leaving for the weekend.

From the Notebooks

"[W]e who plague people with words are many nowadays, while those who teach or are taught by actions are very few." St. Maximos the Confessor on blogging "If we discovered paradise, some real estate [developer] would subdivide it . . . and in a year reproduce Los Angeles."

Tuesday Miscellany

Hell freezes over: The devil's in the details, but it looks like Obama's willing to let the automakers go bankrupt. I never thought he'd let that happen to his UAW constituency: The Obama's administration's leading plan to fix General Motors

Feature Essay

Good revolutionaries get slaughtered. That might be one way of characterizing the lesson of Barabbas. On that scary day 2,000 years ago, when Hell unleashed its fury on the God Man, that wicked man was freed to go. We don't know what happened to him, but on

Something for Sunday Morning

"Our friends, relatives, colleagues and acquaintances have to find us loyal, sincere, cheerful, optimistic, good at our job, resilient, pleasant, courageous . . . At the same time, in a simple and natural way, we must make known our faith in Christ." Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God

Brews You Can Use

An old drinking friend comes to town tonight: Uncle Joe (who's movin' kinda slow--joke [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Buchanan]). He re-located from Detroit to Florida about six years ago. Born in 1946, he's the first of the baby-boomers, but more conservative than the

Douthat

I hesitatingly renewed my subscription to New York Magazine last month. I really like the magazine, but it leans left and at times is too risque to have around my children. My first post-lapse issue came yesterday. One of its first features: A profile of the New York Times'

Wednesday Miscellany

Whew, things have exploded around the office. After the October 2008 Stock Crash, things really slowed down at the office. I was always busy (thankfully), but it was a leisurely-paced busy. Enjoyable busy, if not as lucrative. But now, it feels like pre-2008 Crash again. It's a good

From the Catholic Anarchy Archives

Anarchy or Subsidiarity? The anarchist welcomes the Church teaching of subsidiarity, which says the smallest units of society ought to handle whatever they can, with the larger units getting involved only when the smaller units can't handle something. “Right on,” says the anarchist. And the smallest unit of

(Untitled)

Feature Essay

Orthodoxy and the Modern Creed I've been in circles when young, growing families are discussed. The conversation goes something like this: Person One: “E is having another child.” Person Two: “Another! What is that, five?” Person One: “Yeah; five kids, can you imagine?” Person Two: “I can'

(Untitled)

Something for Laetare Sunday Morning

Joy in the Cross Today, "the Church wishes to remind us that joy is perfectly compatible with mortification and pain. It is sadness and not penance which is opposed to happiness." Francis Fernandez, commenting on one of the most bizarre teachings of Christianity in the eyes of modernity&

Brews You Can Use

Is this Brews You Can Use or Family Hour? It's BYCU, but these are the reasons I drink. Actually, they're the reasons this isn't a 24/7 drinking blog. I drank far (far, far) more before I became a father. I think the twenty-something

Jammed

Not much this morning. I hadn't gotten much sleep this week. I crashed last night and overslept for probably the first time in ten years. Just a few quick things: Michigan readers: Check out old penny postcards from your county [http://usgwarchives.org/mi/ppcs-mi.html]. Pretty neat

From the Notebooks

From 2002: It dawned on me today that I haven't gotten engrossed in a book in quite awhile, possibly as long as five years. In the past, there were books that grabbed me, fired my imagination and intellectual motivation. They threw so much good stuff at me that

Tuesday Miscellany

A TDE reader sent this link to me last week. I meant to get to it sooner, but didn't. Interesting stuff at Christian Science Monitor: The Coming Evangelical Collapse [http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0310/p09s01-coop.html]. > We are on the verge ”“ within 10 years ”“ of a

Feature Essay

If you're an American Catholic, you're an oxymoron . . . or maybe just a moron, I'm not sure. Don't take offense. I'm an American Catholic. I'm content to be oxymoronic, and I feel like a moron sometimes. I love America

Something for Sunday Morning

“Temptations are permitted so we may learn what is in our heart.” Tikhon of Zadonsk

BYCU

That's me, 43. Today. I left work early yesterday to celebrate my birthday eve . . . and insisted everyone else celebrate as well. My daughter Meg (Octavia, who received a four-day birthday celebration and three parties) objected that there is no such thing as "birthday eve," but the

From the Catholic Anarchy Archives

The Social Anarchist The State's Power comes at the price of social power. If the State will take care of something, people won't. As social power collapses against the onslaught of State power, society itself collapses. When the state takes something over, the elements of society--from

Wednesday Bullets

Dour results for Obamaconomics already? President Obama has repeatedly said the $787 billion stimulus plan passed by Congress last month would save or create at least 3.5 million jobs. But today House Democrats heard a sharply downsized prediction: 1 million fewer jobs [http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=

Tuesday Miscellany

Internet Explorer users: Click on the Comments Link at the bottom for a "clean read." I have a message into the IT guy. "It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda - and that we make scientific decisions

Feature Essay

The Catholic Economy Silent Spain, slumbering Spain, solitary Spain. Max Picard [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971748314/thedailyeudem-20], possibly the best writer ever of thin thick books, loved old Spain. Writing in the mid-twentieth century, before Madrid became a blare of horns and Toledo a blast of loud

Something for Sunday Morning

"A lofty soul bears contempt, insult, or slander easily enough. The only risk is that it may transmute them into pride." Henri de Lubac

Best of BYCU Pictures

It's right up there with Jerry Rubin's "Be In": Philadelphia's second annual Philly Beer Week gets underway on Friday [http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2009-03-05-philly-beer-festival_N.htm?csp=34] . They're dubbing it the "biggest beer fest in the

Lenten Blogging

I've seen this story twice in the past 24 hours: Thou Shalt Not Text During Lent [http://technologyexpert.blogspot.com/2009/03/thou-shalt-not-text-during-lent.html] . (Other Link [http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-04-texting-Lent_N.htm?csp=34].) I'm guessing a bishop or two has suggested that

From the Catholic Anarchy Archives

Anarchy and Democracy In June 2007, Michael Moore was promoting his movie Sicko. In an interview with U.S. News & World Report, he said he wanted government to take over health care. In response to potential objections about big government, he said, “[G]overnment is supposed to be of,

Tuesday Miscellany

Tumultuous times, the end times, the odd times, the grab a bottle and chill out by yourself times. Random headlines from today's Drudge [http://www.drudgereport.com/]: Obama pushes community 'health centers'...SUIT SEEKS TO FORCE GOVERNMENT TO EXTEND BENEFITS FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES...Fertility clinic offers

Did You Know?

Nifty 5-minute video a friend sent earlier this year: I haven't verified the interesting facts in the video, but I know teachers are showing it to their high school students, and the facts seem plausible enough (in an "implausible just ten years ago" way). A few

Something for Sunday Morning

“Serenity is the principal happiness in this world. Without peace of mind, nothing is pleasant to us.” Tikhon of Zadonsk

Brews You Can Use

This might be a 2009 first: Drinking while writing BYCU. I used to do it regularly. Truth revealed: in the early days, BYCU was normally written after a few hours at the drinking club or, at a minimum, a few hours of front porch drinking. After I felt sufficiently steeled,

The Post-Christian Age?

Have we really entered the Post-Christian Age . . . or do few Christians recognize Ash Wednesday that, for all practical purposes, it doesn't exist anymore, except as a weird-looking symbol on some people's foreheads? I have five children that are old enough to participate in organized activities. Four

Ash Wednesday Miscellany

When you fast, do not put on gloomy faces, like the hypocrites do. "Today God asks us also for a rather special mortification which we offer up cheerfully . . ." (Francis Fernandez). Those are hard words, knowing I'll be cringing by 8:45 a.m. with hunger stabs.

Looting Bush

I listened to a fascinating podcast at Lew Rockwell yesterday: Russ Baker on The Looting Bush Family [http://www.lewrockwell.com/podcast/?p=episode&name=2009-02-16_101_the_looting_bush_family.mp3] . Baker has written a polemic against the Bushes. The book's basic premise: the Bush family

The Sign of the Coward

“A brave man is also patient.” Thomas Aquinas. Those two chairs–bravery and patience–don't go together in most people's intellectual living room, but if you consider them for a few minutes, you see they match. What prompts impatience? The fear of loss: loss of time,

Something for Sunday Morning

“Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe, to know what he ought to desire, and to know what he ought to do.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Received in an Email

In honor of the mother of the octuplets, Denny's is offering a new breakfast meal called the Octo-Slam. You get fourteen eggs, no sausage, and the guy next to you has to pay the bill!!

Brews You Can Use

A real lady's man, there. Men will say just about anything to get a beer. Let's see, there's also "I'll give you a thousand bucks if you get me a beer," and "I'll stop making fun of

A Catholic Blog?

How Catholic is this blog? I asked myself that question yesterday morning. My wife called me to say that she thought the Sirius Radio appearance on the Catholic Channel went well. We chatted for awhile and then I blurted out, "Dang it! I forgot to plug The Daily Eudemon.

Stimulus Question

So, the stimulus package is now law. Create lots of money and lots of debt and create prosperity. But one question: If that's the way to prosperity, why aren't all countries wealthy? Even the poorest countries have access to a printing press.

From the Notebooks

I took my wife to see "Taken" last night (recommended, but not great), and I have the Sirius interview in just a little while, so blogging time is at a premium. For today, just this FtN: * * * A certain procedure works well, then I get anxious about it. It

Tuesday Miscellany

How much more understanding do we need? > A suburban Buffalo man who founded a cable TV station to promote better understanding of Muslims in the U.S. has been arrested on charges he beheaded his wife. [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29189095/] __________ Sirius Radio Subscribers: I'll

Something for Sunday Morning

“Inordinate fear is included in every sin; the miser fears the loss of money, the intemperate man the loss of pleasure.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Brews You Can Use

Finally, some change I can believe in: "The Beer Institute and the Brewers Association today applauded members of the United States House of Representatives for the introduction of H.R. 836 the Brewers Excise and Economic Relief (BEER) Act, which effectively returns the federal beer excise tax back to

Abbreviated Eudemon

I covered a special town meeting last night for the law firm. The topic: A proposed casino on the south side of town. Last night was public comment night. About 25 people stood up and voiced their opinion: some for, some against, some with questions. All in all, a good

Wednesday Miscellany

Gorgeous day yesterday: 62, sunny, breezy. Hardly February weather, but a nice piece of compensation for an absolutely wretched November-January stretch. I did most of my favorite warm weather things: read on the front porch, talked with my kids on the front porch, shot baskets with my kids, went for

From the Notebooks: Feature Essay

Stepping Out with the President Back in 2007, the secularists were giddy over the possibility that three of the big-name Republicans contemplating a presidency run have questionable pasts: John McCain (affair, divorce), Newt Gingrich (affair, divorce, affair, divorce), and Rudy Giuliani (divorce, affair, divorce). One writer refers to them as

Something for Sunday Morning

"Allowing ourselves to be helped is a wonderful way of learning humility." Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God

Brews You Can Use

Not much today for drinking news. I went home sick yesterday from the office, with the result that I need to put in a full day today (I normally work from my home on Fridays). I do my BYCU blogging Friday mornings, but this week, that morning needs to be

From the Notebooks

I've been re-reading a few pages of de Lubac's Drama of Atheist Humanism; specifically, the beginning pages about Nietzsche. I was struck by Nietzsche's division of the great majority of men into two categories: the believers and common atheists, both of whom, Nietzsche said,

From the Highlighter: John Senior II

The Restoration of Christian Culture [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932528164/thedailyeudem-20] [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932528164/thedailyeudem-20] John Senior [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932528164/thedailyeudem-20] More passages: “work, prayer, sacrifice. Those are the items on the Catholic Agenda.” p. 82. I&

From the Highlighter: John Senior

The Restoration of Christian Culture [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932528164/thedailyeudem-20] [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932528164/thedailyeudem-20] Well, whatta drag. This post was up all day, then I went to make some changes and the whole thing got deleted. I'm just cutting-and-pasting

Odd Super Bowl Lines

My nephew assures me that the various over-unders in this post are real: > In all honesty I'm not rally sure if I'll be betting on the Super Bowl. I think the Steelers win, and if I had to bet I'd say they cover,

Something for Super Bowl Sunday Morning

"The experiences of watching high-level sporting events might cause the viewer to see how something is good and exists for its own sake, and if he sees this, he can understand something about God." James Schall (see [http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=15-04-039-b])

Brews You Can Use

Tonight, I drink. It's my Dad's anniversary of his discharge from the Marines. I gave him a "dinner and drinks" certificate for Christmas. He's cashing it in for this most auspicious occasion. I talked to him yesterday, and he wants to go

Thursday Bites

A friend forwarded this latest "end all, be all" of web surfing: allmyfaves.com [http://www.allmyfaves.com/]. It's a pretty good site. I've bookmarked it. __________ Ah, crap: Pepsi is now using its TV spots to promote the gay lifestyle. AFA asked Pepsi to

The Wednesday Eudemon

I wasn't raised in the Detroit area, but I had lived there for two summers. In addition, during my college years in Ann Arbor, I had regularly attended Red Wings hockey games, often taking the Lodge Freeway from I-94 to Joe Louis Arena. Right before I exited for

Tuesday Miscellany

I watched Idiocracy with my wife and older children on Saturday. It's the funniest dark comedy I've ever seen. The premise: a young man wakes up 500 years in the future and finds that America has dumbed down beyond belief. All of society engages behaves like

Something for Sunday Morning

"Gloominess does great harm to us and to those around us. It is a harmful plant that we must uproot as soon as it appears." Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God

Brews You Can Use

Light drinking news this morning. Couple of reasons: I took my oldest children to Mall Cop last night (my rating: 5, but better than I though it'd be), with the result that I wasn't able to get a head start on this post last night. I

The Ignorant Non-Keynesian

That's me, walking a mile to the office in a charcoal gray topcoat in 5-degree Michigan weather, hat on my head, iPod headphones in my ears, my brows furrowed. More likely than not, I'm listening to a podcast about economics. Peter Schiff [http://www.takimag.com/

Tuesday Miscellany

So I was in charge of dinner Saturday evening. I picked Taco Bell, with a Hot-n_Now (regional fastfood burger franchise) for the non-Mexican eaters. Final damage: 8 hamburgers, 5 small fries, 10 regular tacos, 1 Mexican pizza, 1/2 gallon of milk, 1 liter of Mountain Dew, ten desserts

Something for Sunday Morning

Affability should be "the framework of human relationships . . .". It is "scarcely noticed, but when it is lacking it is greatly missed. . . . [W]e must take heed of the thousands of opportunities [to practice affability] that each day brings with it." Francis Fernandez

-17

I've never seen it this cold. Unbelievable.

Brews You Can Use

I subscribed to New York magazine last year on a lark. I've grown to greatly enjoy the provincial liberal rag. Its liberalism is more understood than preached . . . more of a worldview than a religion . . . so it's tolerable if occasionally nauseating. Anyway, I gleaned this drinking anecdote

American Idol

Long-time readers are (painfully) aware that I fall into American idiocy at this time of year. My family and I gather around Fox TV and shrink our collective IQs by 25 or so as we watch American Idol [http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/DN-americanidol_0113gd.ART0.

From the Notebooks

One theory about the origin of homosexuality holds that it stems from a dysfunctional relationship with one's father. If a boy lacks the natural love of a father, the desideratum surfaces in a warped way later. I ran across the following piece of anecdotal evidence in a recent

Something for Sunday Morning

. . . "'he went about doing good' . . . This is an appropriate summary of Christ's life on this earth. This should be the description of the life of every baptized person since our lives are subject to the influence of the Holy Spirit. This ought to be so

Neuhaus

I turned on my computer and saw that Fr. Richard John Neuhaus died yesterday [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/us/09neuhaus.html]. Fr. Neuhaus' Naked Public Square was one of the first "adult" books I read as I started to take an interest in politics,

Brews You Can Use

Beer pong is getting even bigger: Vegas now has $50,000 World Series of Beer Pong (in its fourth year), and it's leaving college campuses and going mainstream: > More bars are setting up tables and weekly tournaments. A new documentary, "Last Cup: Road to the World

Thursday Bites

I don't know how I missed this entertainment news item last summer: The New York City Opera commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on Brokeback Mountain . . . The opera is scheduled to premiere in spring 2013, City Opera. [http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/news/2008-06-08-brokeback-mountain_N.

Tuesday Miscellany

Allen Barra published a piece about GKC in the Wall Street Journal last week [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123032986340736063.html]. When I edited Gilbert Magazine, Barra would occasionally write to me and even sent me an autographed copy of one of his books. Needless to say, this doesn'

Monday Moanin'

A guy, even a wimp, could win the UFC [http://www.ufc.com/] championship with this strategy: Passengers said the man left the plane's bathroom covered in his own waste on the Dec. 26 flight and attacked the flight attendant [http://www.thedenverchannel.com/travelgetaways/18398737/detail.html#

Something for the Epiphany

"Let us remain in adoration; and to Him, who, in order to save us, humbled Himself to such a degree of poverty as to receive our body, let us offer not only incense, gold and myrrh (the first as God, the second as king, and the third as one

Brews You Can Use

One of the best things about growing older: No winter blues. I'll miss the holidays, but I'm thoroughly ready to settle back to normalcy and to take a long winter nap. A handful of these Otters might be perfect. "The new special release is a

Happy New Year

I celebrate the New Year in my regular fashion: Meet at the drinking club with friends and family at 2:30 to watch bowl games and drink beer. Afterward, I go home and meet the glare of my wife, who's been racked with eleven children (my seven and

Tuesday Miscellany

Alright, I'll vomit now: "The French perfumer Etat Libre d'Orange introduced a product this year called SÃ©crÃ©tions Magnifiques that's supposed to smell like a mix of blood, sweat and semen," Herz said. "And the fashion designer Tom Ford has

0-16 Monday

Well, my Lions did it: 0-16. Unbelievable. The league is set up for parity, but the Lions have managed to be head-and-shoulders worse than anyone else in history (we can debate whether the 0-14 Buccaneers were worst, but surely we have better things to do . . . don't we?) But

Something for Sunday Morning

"If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times." St. Augustine (Note: I saw this on the Internet; I haven't verified it.)

Post-25th Miscellany

People sometimes ask, "What's it like to prepare Christmas for seven children?" My response: Ask my wife. I just have to pay for it all, which is a huge task of course, but it's spread over the course of twelve months, whereas my wife&

Brews You Can Use

Light holiday blogging continues. Just this post from Tim J: I don't want to catch anybody not drinking [http://timothyjones.typepad.com/old_world_swine/2008/12/i-dont-want-to-catch-anybody-not-drinking.html] . A little Belloc exhortation on the evils of abstaining. > "For who can be properly nourished, if indeed

Christmas Eve

“For while all things were in quiet silence and the night was in the midst of her course, thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne.” Book of Wisdom. "[This] passage, brimming with the mystery of the Incarnation, is wonderfully expressive of the infinite stillness that

Something for the Eve of Christmas Eve

Advent is a penitential season. It doesn't get nearly the respect Lent does in this regard, but I try to do something. This year, I resolved to read all the daily entries in Francis Fernandez' meditation series, In Conversation with God. It didn't go well.

Odd Sunday

A handful of unusual small things occurred Sunday. First, the temperature dropped to -8. I'm not sure I've seen the thermometer that low my entire adult life. Wind chill was at least -25 (it was -20 in the afternoon, when the temperature was 0). Of course,

Something for Sunday Morning

If you have a God you understand, you have erected an idol. Benedict Groeschel, 12/13/2008 Podcast from Sunday Night Live (not a precise quote, but I got it very close).

Friday

Yes, I realize posting has been a bit lazy this week. I've been struggling with a cold/virus/bug/demon for almost six weeks now and this week it tipped me: ongoing fatigue reinforced by a new non-stop cough laid me out, plus I was met with deluge

Ponderisms

1. Ever wonder about those people who spend $2.00 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backwards: NAIVE *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 2. Isn't making a smoking section in a restaurant like making a peeing section in a swimming pool? *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 3. If 4 out of 5 people

From the Notebooks

Good Christians are many, if it weren't for all those people: the whiners, the manipulators, the crooks, the liars, the heretics, the greedy. But Christ put up with all of them and remained sinless. The Bible recounts disciple buffoonery and selfishness, yet Christ communed with them, loved them,

From the Notebooks

I liked Napoleon Dynamite. I found it funny, at times hilarious, both in its scenes and the utter inanity of it all. Yet people I respect (and who used to respect me, I gather) can't fathom its humor. They're simply in awe that anyone, much less

From the Notebooks: Feature Piece

Theology for the Acquisitive Culture "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, not thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there

Something for Sunday Morning

"Sad looks spring from egoism, from thinking about oneself to the exclusion of others, from laziness in one's work, from lack of mortification, from the search for small self-indulgences, from carelessness in one's relationship with God." Francis Fernandez

Brews You Can Use

Christmas tree made up of Heineken beer bottles in Vietnam last year [http://www.realbeer.com/holidayblog/?p=132]. [http://www.realbeer.com/holidayblog/?p=132] __________ [http://www.realbeer.com/holidayblog/?p=132] The best reason to diet yet: So you don't have to drink this stuff. A

From the Notebooks

There seems to be two types of voluntary seclusionists, the hermit and the loner. The hermit is the person who seeks solitude for religious reasons. The loner is his secular counterpart, a person who seeks seclusion but not for religious reasons. I am mostly interested in the loner because there

Wednesday Miscellany

Smile: You're not an island, and sin is not isolate. What you do makes a difference, whether you know it or not. Science is beginning to get it: happiness is contagious [http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/christakis_fowler08/christakis_fowler08_index.html] . > "We found that

From the Notebooks

The Catholic Evolutionist on LSD I was there when It happened, back when history really started, when memories began to do more than log instincts, when art started and language took its first steps to bridge minds, when evolution ended and living began. Don't ask me how I

Something for Sunday Morning

"God also asks us to live without ostentation, without wanting to be heroes. He wants us to lead simple, ordinary lives, trying to do good to everyone and carrying out our duties honestly." Francis Fernandez

Big in Detroit Right Now

Brews You Can Use

Need a gift for the little lady? Look no further: Dogfish Head Beer Shampoo Bar. [http://store.dogfish.com/item/Dogfish_Head_Beer_Shampoo_Bar/753/index.htm] Only $5 for ten ounces. It probably smells so good, you'll be tempted to use it yourself. But of course,

Thursday

Not much today. Things are hectic at the office right now. We're finishing the re-modeling this weekend, starting this afternoon, and I have work pouring in. During this economic slowdown, I'm grateful for the work and wonder how I keep attracting new clients. The vain part

From the Highlighter. Lukacs II

At the End of an Age [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300101619/thedailyeudem-20], John Lukacs (Yale, 2002). The first part ran on Monday. “[T]here is a duality in every human life, in every human character.” p. 4. Don't worry, Lukacs is Catholic, not Manichean. His

Tuesday Miscellany

My wife can corroborate this: Sales during last week's Black Friday, the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season, were better than many analysts expected. But the growth likely came at the expense of margins as stores cut prices aggressively [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081202/bs_

From the Highlighter

At the End of an Age [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300101619/thedailyeudem-20], John Lukacs (Yale, 2002) I picked up this book when it was published in 2002. I always think octogenarians have something interesting to say, and I figured an octogenarian of Lukacs' stature would definitely

Something Different for Sunday Morning

Me to Michael (ten years old) this morning: "You know what's bad about the Lions playing on Thanksgiving?" Michael: "What?" Me: "They don't play today." Michael: "At least we got it over with."

Something for Sunday Morning

"When Christmas arrives, Our Lord should find us with everything in order and our soul fit to receive Him, just as He ought to find us in our final encounter with Him. We have to make what adjustment is required to correct the course of our lives and turn

From the Notebooks

I believe people enjoy a certain measure of doubt or incertitude. This would make sense. As limited human beings, we simply cannot understand everything so it follows that we might enjoy reading things that we don't fully apprehend. Put another way, we are “hard wired” for uncertainty, so

One Thing

I hear Mike and Mike in the Morning (ESPN radio talk show hosts) want the Thanksgiving Day game pulled from Detroit. I had always liked Mike and Mike, but, if you'll excuse me, they're bastards. Their argument: The Lions are so bad, they should be penalized

Thanksgiving Day

It's been a good year. I can't deny that I'm concerned about the economic future, but for now, everything is good, and that's enough for me. The past is gone and the future is always a land of hazy variables. The present--this

Brews You Can Use: Special Black Wednesday Edition

Ah, the best time of the year: A four-day weekend yawns in front of America, as do an assortment of drinks. This college student tries to assess why people drink so much on Thanksgiving Eve [http://www.campussqueeze.com/post/Why-Thanksgiving-Eve-is-the-Biggest-Drinking-Night-of-the-Year.aspx] . The writer totally misses the reason and is

Tuesday Miscellany

The holidays approach. Not much time for blogging, and not much bloggable information out there. Personal responsibility took another step back: Canada ruled that fat people must get a free extra plane ticket [http://www.canada.com/theprovince/story.html?id=977633] and Citibank got more money [http://www.iht.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Every sin, if persisted in, will become heinous." Samuel Johnson

Brews You Can Use

My office is uprooting to prepare for new carpeting and my house is going to have 20 overnight guests this weekend, plus another ten or so guests Saturday evening (my oldest is getting confirmed). I don't have much time for blogging, but I found this great feature article

Thursday Miscellany

Well, the Dow dropped below 8,000 [http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081119/wall_street.html?.v=49]. Panic time? Naw, I'm past that. I panicked 15 months ago and sold off a chunk, and I panicked last February and sold off a large chunk. Now I'

Early Christmas

I'm jammed at the office right now. All I have today is a sneak preview of my family's Christmas card: (TDE returns to a white background tomorrow.)

From the Highlighter

I read a lot. It's a trait I inherited from my parents. But one thing about my reading deviates sharply from theirs. Whereas they keep their library in good shape, its shelves lined handsomely with hardbacks, my library mostly carries secondhand paperbacks. Whereas their books are clean: no

Something for Sunday Morning

"Unless one is well on the road to holiness, it is very difficult in the midst of a daily routine to see things in perspective, as they really are." Thomas Dubay, Saints: A Closer Look

Brews You Can Use

Perhaps the only must-have book of the coming holiday season [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789317966/thedailyeudem-20]. From the description: "Christmas beers, also known as Winter Warmers, are a tradition dating back at least 2,000 years, with the ancients making highly intoxicating brews to celebrate winter&

Just Say It

Bishops plan to confront Obama [http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/religion/chi-081111bishops,0,615284.story] . From Tuesday's Chicago Tribunal: > Though the document made clear that "the direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life is always wrong and is not just one issue among many,"

Margin Problem

I'm told the right-hand margin problem has been fixed. If anyone is still experiencing problems, please let me know (email or comment box).

From the Notebooks

Catholics like to tell this story: A student goes to a respected, elderly, professor and says he doesn't like any of the religious alternatives he's seen, so he's thinking about starting his own religion. He asks the professor how to go about it. The

Tuesday Miscellany

Isn't that special: Among weekly Mass attendees, Obama took 49% of the vote (McCain took 50%). Among those who do not attend weekly, Obama prevailed 58% to 40% [http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/]. And one of the first items on his agenda: expand embryonic stem cell funding [http:

Feature Essay

Catholics in a Strange Land Living the Tolerance Dream Want to feel grateful? Read about the experience of nineteenth-century American Catholics. Consider this ten-year period: In 1834, Samuel F.B. Morse, of Morse Code fame, published his Catholic-hating Foreign Conspiracy against the Liberties of the United States. A New England

Something for Sunday Morning

"Joy is not something we can order up. Joy is the fruit of love." P.A. Reggio

No Blogging Saturday

"President-elect Barack Obama said Friday it was a high priority to work on policies to help the stricken US auto industry adjust to the economic crisis." [http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081107200048.pozqkcp1&show_article=1] Ah yes, and a federal infusion of cash into

Brews You Can Use

A reader sends along this nifty little story: Top 5 Beer Tours [http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/travel/stories/2008/11/02/STEP02.ART_ART_11-02-08_F1_6BBNJ86.html?sid=101] . Excerpt: "Newport Storm brewery, in Middletown, R.I., near Newport, might be in the smallest state, but

Sale

Well, I've finally done it. I've assembled a host of back issues of Touchstone and Gilbert Magazine for disposal. I hate to do it, but my study (which is large) is running out of storage space. Something had to go. Still, I hate to throw away

From the Notebooks

You ever a commit a horrible crime in your nocturnal dreams? Something severe, like murder? It happens to me frequently. Funny thing is, the dream doesn't center on commission, but rather on the after-effects: the complete disconnect between what the crime means for my life. The wholly-fictional crime

Acceptance Speech

Text [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20081105/pl_ynews/ynews_pl137?full]. Remarkably gracious, which has been his style all along. I've admired it the entire election. I've never encountered a politician that I like/dislike so much. The way he speaks, the way he

Ballot Initiatives

If you're interested in various state ballot initiatives, this is the best current round-up I've seen [http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=353318].

The Hangover

Well, a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into. The only good news: The Democrats won't get 60 seats in the Senate. But they still have a shot at 59. With even 56, they'll have enough Republicans cave in to break filibusters. So what will

Election Tuesday

I don't hold out much hope for McCain, but he has made up a remarkable amount of ground these recently. According to the Yahoo Election page, at least three states have turned red in the past three days, and McCain has closed the gap considerably in many key

From the Notebooks. Feature Essay

The Social Law My son and daughter are teenagers. The prospect brings back one recurring memory: my teenage years. And it's more than a little disconcerting. I wasn't a bad teenager, but I did things that would simply be unacceptable today. I'm referring primarily

Something for Sunday Morning

"To succumb to human respect is to give more weight to someone else's opinion than to the teachings of Christ." Francis Fernandez

No Blogging Saturday

Enjoyable evening yesterday: weather warm, nice night for children. But allow me the annual rant: It's Halloween, the children's favorite holiday after Christmas. TURN YOUR LIGHTS ON AND HAND OUT $4 WORTH OF CANDY! At least half the houses on our route didn't hand

The Haunted Pub

A second installment of Brews You Can Use [http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2008-10-30-boo_N.htm?csp=34].

Brews You Can Use

Best site I found this week: Bum Wine [http://www.bumwine.com/]. Thunderbird, Mad Dog. Enlightening and entertaining stuff. Sample: Night Train is all business when it pulls into the station. All aboard to nowhere - woo wooo! The night train runs only one route: sober to stupid with no

Best Election Blog Post of 2008

Four ways Obama will raise taxes on those making less than $250,000 [http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/senator_obamas_four_tax_increa.html]. Excerpt: > The first loophole was easy to find: Senator Obama doesn't "count" allowing the Bush tax cuts to lapse as

October 28th Bites

Save on pumpkins [http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/pumpkin_sim.html]. __________ What are people wearing this year for Halloween? Forbes breaks it down: Palin, Obama, McCain, Joe the Plumber, Speedo Phelps [http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/106037/Who-Profits-From-Halloween?] . __________ Also from Forbes: How to treat the children more healthily

From the Notebooks

Why I Don't Know What I Am Conservative? Liberal? Republican? Democrat? Libertarian? Is it me, or is it a topsy-turvey political scene out there? I can't look at any group and say, “I think like they do.” I can look at a few and say, “They

Schizoid Catholics

Adulterer behind me, adulterer in front of me. Both freshly unrepentant. All three of us at Mass to celebrate First Communion with our sons. My distaste for American Catholicism spiked at that Mass, but it started long before, back before my conversion in 1991, when I was a Lutheran enamored

Something for Sunday Morning

"If we indulge ourselves in vain, frivolous, or sinful speculations, our minds become incapable of choosing what is most proper for mortifying our disorderly affections." Lawrence Scupoli

No Blogging Saturday

Relief is at hand. My son's last marching band performance was eight days ago, my daughter's last home volleyball game five days ago, my two sons' last football games today. After this, I have a few weeks of reprieve before other activities kick in . . . and

Brews You Can Use

Making the best out of bad situations: A team of researchers at Rice University in Houston is working to create a beer that could fight cancer and heart disease. Taylor Stevenson, a member of the six-student research team and a junior at Rice, said the team is using genetic engineering

From the Notebooks

"It is vain and useless to conceive either grief or joy for future things, which perhaps shall never come to pass. But it is in human nature to be deluded with such imaginations." The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, Chp. 30. Why is it in our nature to

From the Notebooks

I may have been hungover while writing this entry in 2004. Good luck: If you hear a purported absolute truth and it doesn't involve a paradox, you can assume you hear heresy. The tradition of Western philosophy to find an absolute source of knowledge–Descartes' I think

From the Notebooks

From 2002 The coming of the sixth child has been the harshest for us to accept. We finished the addition to our house a year ago, and we consider the house absolutely perfect for our seven-person family. On a scale of one-to-ten, with all things considered (including the virtues of

Something for Sunday Morning

"Anger is a weed; hate is the tree." St. Augustine

No Blogging Saturday

Why one African-American Christian won't vote for Obama [http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/huntleybrown.asp]. __________ George Weigel has written the best article I've seen on the whole Obama Catholic mess [http://www.newsweek.com/id/163896/page/1]. From the conclusion: > Biden is not

Brews You Can Use

Pass me that Mad Dog 20/20 and the ultrasound machine: An entrepreneur claims to have invented a machine that uses ultrasound technology to turn a cheap bottle of rot gut into a vintage-tasting wine in a matter of minutes [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3115492/Ultrasound-machine-turns-cheap-plonk-into-fine-wine-in-30-minutes-says-inventor.

From the Notebooks

I earlier said The Great Society and today's college aid programs for single mothers are manifestly unjust in their "actual workings on the individual level." Such programs are couched in terms of "social justice." Their proponents would argue that the programs correct previous manifest

The Wednesday Eudemon

From the Notebooks It is often repeated that a prophet has no honor in his own village–or family, or neighborhood, or country. If he has no honor there, it's because the people closest to him are acquainted with his ordinariness, and it blocks out the greatness, like

Tuesday Miscellany

Nice day yesterday for the portfolio. How long will it continue? I'm just hoping long enough to get my money back. I'm not optimistic in the long run. From Ron Paul yesterday in Slate [http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/judgments/2008/10/13/sickness-unto-debt]: > In

Feature Essay

Slowly Learning to Live I'm not looking to join last summer's Tropic Thunder velitation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropic_Thunder#Controversy], but about ten years ago I volunteered to sell Tootsie Rolls to help people with mental disabilities. I figured it was an easy way

Something for Sunday Morning

"Sacred Scripture calls all of us to a lofty, perfect holiness. The saints are men and women who say a complete yes to this call, not merely in prayerful sentiments but also in daily decisions and actions." Thomas Dubay, Saints: A Closer Look.

No Blogging Saturday

Male English teachers everywhere, don't teach Brokeback Mountain: A man assigned "The Crucible" in an adult education English class doused his teacher with a nonflammable liquid and threatened to burn her as a witch, police said [http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/bizarre/BO90911/]. __________ New Investment

Brews You Can Use

Very Palinesque . . . but it's freakin' Florida [http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-10-03-icebar-orlando_N.htm?csp=34] : [http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-10-03-icebar-orlando_N.htm?csp=34] "Make a reservation, pay $35, don an insulated cape and gloves and you can have a vodka drink

From the Notebooks

The Hack Most men are hacks. I think that's a fair statement. And I suspect most men fall into the category of “hacks.” Mr. X is a hack at this and that and the other thing. He does a lot of things kind of well, but nothing great.

Wednesday Miscellany

I hope everyone enjoyed the lengthy St. Therese piece. I should've put it up last Wednesday, on her feast day, but simply didn't think of it until too late. That piece had been lounging in my computer archives for a couple of years. A handful of

Something for Sunday Morning

"Perhaps it is in joy that we distinguish true virtue from false virtue." Francis Fernandez

No Blogging Saturday

It's the Feast Day of St. Francis. From GKC's St. Francis: > [I]t is true to say that what St. Benedict had stored St. Francis scattered; but in the world of spiritual things what had been stored into the barns like grain was scattered over

Brews You Can Use

This piece of ribaldry came from a TDE reader: This dark, medium bodied ale offers the drink-ability of a much lighter beer. The inviting chocolate and malty flavors fade into a slightly dry, silky smooth finish. Why have just one? 4.0% alcohol by volume [http://www.wasatchbeers.com/index.

Thursday Miscellany

Great way to make friends at the airport: metal plates contain messages that will appear when x-rayed [http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/09/metal_plates_send_message.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890] . I think I'd choose a message that is considerably more colorful than the one at the left.

From the Notebooks

On ClichÃ©s Language has its limits: Great philosophers have struggled to articulate the truths they've discerned. Mystics have been rendered dumb by the beauty they've seen. The everyday person has been reduced to exasperation when his neighbor doesn't understand why something is humorous.

Tuesday

I guess I could write about the bailout, but (i) everyone else is, and (ii) it's hard to blog on this Commodore 64. I had to sell my good computer so my kids could eat. My general opinion is that a bailout must occur, and it probably will.

A New Form of Anarchism?

When most people hear “anarchist,” they think violence, maybe rage, maybe disruptive attempts by groups like Weatherman to overthrow the United States government in the 1960s. People with a literary bent might think of the dynamite-toting Russian anarchists that Fyodor Dostoyevsky [http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=14-06-013-v]

Something for Sunday Morning

"There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great." G.K. Chesterton

No Blogging Saturday

Despite my goal to rejuvenate TDE, it will continue to doze on Saturdays and Sundays, at least as long as I have to spend 4-8 hours every Saturday at junior football games. I'll continue to post something on Saturday and the "Something for Sunday Morning" feature,

Brews You Can Use

A good day is shaping up: weather forecast warm, beer forecast cold. I had planned on spending the afternoon quaffing, but a client called and said she needed to see me Saturday. Because I'm tied up all day Saturday, the only option was to schedule her for 7:

Headlines from 2029 and Other Matters

Okay, it's been decided: This blog will survive. Maybe even thrive. A major writing project has fallen through, leaving me with nothing to work on. It's the first time in ten years. Commencing immediately, I will plow (almost) all my writing efforts into this blog. I&

Deleted.

I deleted the idea/post/link about giving the AIG bailout to citizens. I hadn't done the math. Things right now are more hectic in my office than a girl's pajama party during an Elvis visit. Good catch, Meistergoat.

From the Notebooks

Letter to a friend who wanted to know what essay/book he should read to understand G.K. Chesterton's economics: Utopia of Usurers: A collection of over two dozen of Chesterton's most trenchant essays on what Capitalism is, and how bad it is . . .". It'

Tuesday

Lecher Bill comments on Palin: "I come from Arkansas, I get why she's hot out there [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008195867_apbillclintonpalin.html] ." If I were Palin, I wouldn't get drunk around him. I wanted to have an ordinary TDE today, but

From the Notebooks

The Reader's Advantage The headlines were sensational: “Archbishop wants women stoned for adultery,” “Archbishop supports female circumcision,” “Archbishop advocates death penalty for people who dis the Prophet!” Okay, it wasn't that bad, but the fury over Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' call for “constructive accommodation”

Something for Sunday Morning

"Your patience has to get ahead of your bad feelings, wearing them out before they provoke more harm." St. John of Avila

Saturday

From shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations: The first generation makes the family rich, the second generation squanders it, the third generation starts over. Pat Buchanan on today's reality [http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/the_partys_over/]: > What the Greatest Generation handed down to

Brews You Can Use

Well, this is a bummer. We have a gorgeous weekend ahead of us. My work at the office has tapered off a little bit. Only two kid functions this weekend, and they're taking place at the same time at the same park facility (parents with few children lament

From the Notebooks

Premise: Security hurts. The more security you seek, the slower, more inefficient, costly, and duller that area of your life becomes. Check your stove five times: Slower leaving the house. A bureaucracy makes sure everything works uniformly: Inefficient (and dull). Military might: Costly. This doesn't mean security isn&

The Wednesday Eudemon

I hope everybody liked From the Notebooks, but of course, I know all of you didn't. Nothing pleases everyone, but no matter: FTN will be featured once or twice a week for a year or so, until I run out of script. Since I am--when time permits--constantly replenishing

From the Notebooks

Screw the Poor Alms in the Age of Affluence Things were so much simpler in the old days. Back then, when you gave money to the poor, you knew they deserved it. In today's age of affluence, people are poor because they're addicted, lazy, or both.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Faithfulness in little things is a big thing." St. John Chrysostom

Saturday

His harem rejoices: Officials believe North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has recovered enough from a stroke to brush his own teeth [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080913/ap_on_re_as/nkorea_kim_jong_il]. __________ Upon further reflection, new feature coming to TDE: From the Notebooks. Go here

Pray for the Aggie Catholics!

> The new forecast models have Hurricane Ike going almost directly over College Station. So, please pray for our safety. Also, with the move northward (toward Houston) we will be seeing a large number of evacuees come into town. Evacuations are being ordered, some mandatory, and we could have more

Friday

Well, it's been a perfectly brutal week, the kind of week that calls out for a weekend bender. I planned on cracking open a few last night, but I still had a few work items to handle from home and I was simply too shot (I went to

The End of Normalcy?

Fifteen hours at the office yesterday (less twenty minutes for a personal errand). I'm pretty sure that's a new record for me, and I have to be back in the chair by 8:00 and have heavy-lifting appointments all afternoon. For today, just this picture of

Slow Blogging Continues

Kenya? Really? Gosh, I better vote for Obama: > A BBC poll published today will show that, despite the tightness of the race in the US, Obama is the overwhelming favourite in 22 countries. He is preferred to McCain by a four to one margin on average across the 22,

Tuesday

Time continues to be tighter than my fist around my wallet while walking in Detroit. Just this today, for the perverts in my audience "Action dolls have gone on sale of Sarah Palin who John McCain has chosen to be his Republican presidential running mate [http://www.ananova.com/

Monday Moanin'

I got to bed after midnight Saturday night after drinking too much Oberon beer. Johnny Cash sang to me Sunday morning [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cru2ld06-A] (lyrics [http://www.songfacts.com/lyrics.php?findsong=3904]), but I couldn't sleep past 6:00 a.m., so I

Something for Sunday Morning

"Hell is not to love any more." Bernanos

No Blogging Saturday

Youth football returns. Weekend blogging will be lighter than normal. Three things: 1. I saw Muhammed Ali's son catch a touchdown pass and a two-point conversion at the local high school football game last night. I was told Ali was probably in the visitor stands, but I--and pretty

Brews You Can Use

I could use some brews. Work is piling on me like media hounds on Palin's daughter. It's a good thing, of course. It ain't getting any cheaper to feed the Seven. No one told me they eat more as they get bigger. I look

No Eudemon. Life Picture

No Eudemon

No time for blogging today, but want to take a moment to say I'm stunned at the increasing lack of neutrality among the mainstream press in this election year. The mainstream press has always been ensconced in left, but they used to be clandestine in their approach. Not

The Tuesday Eudemon

First day of school. I'll continue a piece of sadism my father started: Singing School Days [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_Days_(1907_song)] at full pitch as I turn on the overhead lights. The kids, especially teenagers, hate it. It's great. School days, school

Holiday Eudemon

I took my third vacation of the summer. This time, a quick 3 day/4 night trip to Alpena, Michigan. It's an annual jaunt, blogged about here [https://thedailyeudemon.com/5631/] last summer. We normally go for a week, but I simply couldn't spare that much

Something for Sunday Morning

"Love is the measure by which we shall be judged." St. John of the Cross

Saturday

I'm pretty sure this one was taken at Augusta during the Martha Burke protests at the Master's a few years ago:

Brews You Can Use

> A Mexican business owner's association has objected to the marketing of a beer named after a legendary outlaw known as the "patron saint" of drug traffickers. [http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/08/26/Beer_names_drug_ties_raise_controversy/UPI-12641219802507/] > The Los

Another Chapter from Beer Man

Roy was sitting on the front porch, reading books by some obscure writers from early twentieth century England. Laughing and making notes in the margins. Patrick was tending to the little garden that occupied the entire side yard. It was Saturday, and both were feeling splendid. The newspaper boy rode

Lincoln Steffens, I Think

I've seen the future and it works. Pictures of Russia in that future [http://sneezl.com/only-in-russia/].

Wednesday Light

Leno on the DNC: "At the Democratic Convention in Denver, both Bill and Hillary Clinton will be speaking . . . not to each other, of course . . ." Letterman: "Joe Biden is Barack Obama's running mate. Nothing says change like a guy who's been in the Senate

Stoic Tuesday

Beautiful: Parts of a giant, exquisitely-carved marble sculpture depicting the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius have been found at an archaeological site in Turkey [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7580745.stm]. I wrote the Christian's Stoic Handbook, but couldn't find any publishers. In

Bad Writing Monday

China wins: 223-220 [http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/medals]. We finished just two dropped batons behind. __________ One of the most knowledgeable writers I've ever met sent the following story from The Associated Press. Boys and girls, study close the italicized phrases as great examples of what to avoid

Something for Sunday Morning

"Love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams." Dostoyevsky

The Weekend Eudemon

Two days left: China 205, USA 201 [http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/medals]. We're playing for gold in water polo and male/female basketball and volleyball, plus I'm optimistic they can hold onto the baton in the 400-meter relay. China will win gold in ping

Brews You Can Use

Alka-Seltzer has a (new?) product that is designed to combat hangovers: Wake-Up Call [http://www.alkaseltzer.com/as/as_wakeupcall.htm]. It's a combination of aspirin and caffeine. I rarely have hangover problems any more, but I might keep some on hand if I find it on sale.

Olympic Thursday

Far out: May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won their second consecutive gold medal in beach volleyball Thursday, playing through a steady and sometimes driving rain to beat China in straight sets and extend their winning streak to 108 matches in a row [http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/8469432/Walsh,-May-Treanor-win-beach-volleyball-gold?

The Wednesday Eudemon

St. Benedict's Feast Day. I took a medieval history class at the University of Michigan back in the 1980s. Rule for Monasteries was required reading. I don't remember anything about the professor (Catholic? Secularist that wanted to freak out college kids?), don't remember what

Poll

If you get a chance, vote at the NSNBC poll: Should "In God We Trust" be removed from the U.S. currency [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/]? Right now, the "no's" are winning, 63-37%

Tuesday Miscellany

Medal score: China 160, USA 146 [http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/medals]. Time's beginning to run out for the United States. __________ Couldn't take a cell phone? A man has returned from an extended holiday to find that loads of his mates have been mourning his

Monday Moanin'

Only in Deliverance country. From the woods of northern Georgia: Two men claim they've bagged Bigfoot, and they say they have the hairy corpse of the legendary creature stored away in a freezer. . . . They have so far offered three different tales so far about how they came to

Something for Sunday Morning

"I love God as much as I love the one I love the least." Father Hugo

The Saturday Eudemon

I took my Dad out to the drinking club yesterday for his Father's Day present. Yeah, I know. The gift was a little late, but it's been a busy summer. So busy, in fact, that this was my first trip to the club in 2008. The

Zmirak

Zmirak is on fire this morning at Taki [http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/lie_i_cant_even_be_tactful/] (be patient with the link, it appears to be malfunctioning). Flippin' slayed me: > I'm reminded of my first weeks at Yale, when I cheerfully introduced my

Brews You Can Use

My wife's parents had five children, then the "oops" baby. Michael came when Marie was eight. I first met him when he was ten. He was just an annoying little thing, but now he has grown up and is writing advertisements. I didn't realize

Thursday

Medal score: China 82, USA 62 [http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/medals]. I gotta believe the USA will pick up ground when we get to track and field, but it doesn't really matter. The Olympians are having lots of sex [http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/8448176/

The Wednesday Eudemon

Medal score: USA 56, China 62 [http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/medals]. Phelps 15, Great Britain 13. __________ I guess Thomas Sowell has become a popular columnist this year, given the phenomenon of Obama Mania. In fact, bogus Sowell material is circulating the Internet. Snopes snoops it out [http://www.

Tuesday Eudemon

Well, I'm thoroughly enjoying the Olympics. I'm normally a lukewarm fan: let my wife tell me when something interesting happens, watch highlights, etc. I'm not watching a lot more this year, but I'm following it more closely (like watching the medal count

Monday Moanin'

Another weekend, another time drain. This time, the annual jaunt to Frankenmuth [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenmuth] for the Summer Music Festival [http://www.frankenmuthfestivals.com/?page_id=4]. It was good to see my wife's family, but I'm bummin' at the hour glass

Something for Sunday Morning

"A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil." St. Dominic

Olympian Eudemon

Random thoughts while watching the open ceremonies Friday night: How many times will I have to see a Mao poster? (Maybe not many: "there were no references to Chairman Mao and the class struggle"). As long as they celebrate Mao, I'll know China can't

BYCU

What do you do when you're swamped at the office and not getting enough sleep? Go to a party and drink a lot of beer. That's what I did last night, and I'm feeling it this morning. No hangover, but groggy. On the plus

Sleepless in Michigan

I get along without sleep about as well as a paraplegic gets along without a wheelchair. But I'm going on my third day without eight hours sleep, and it doesn't show signs of stopping. I've always been envious of those people that can get

No Eudemon

Not much blogging today. I took my five younger children to South Bend for a minor league baseball game, and I have to be in the County seat by 8:15. I think I'll need to visit this site: How much of your favorite caffeine drink you can

Hooker Tuesday

Zmirak posted at Taki yesterday [http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/there_is_no_u_in_winner/]. As always, highly entertaining. Perhaps the most interesting excerpt: > Blues legend John Lee Hooker, whom I tracked down in Mississippi and quizzed by phone about what inspired his early hit, “Boom, Boom,

Vianney Monday

It's the memorial of St. John Vianney. Because I'm pressed for time this morning, I present an excerpt from a work I abandoned awhile back. It's a bit (just a wee bit!) more serious than normal TDE fare, but it'll have to

Something for Sunday Morning

"Love makes all things easy." Dorothy Day

Harlem

For the past couple of years, I have kept a volume of Daniel Boorstin [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_J._Boorstin]'s trilogy, The Americans, at my side. When you sit back and consider the amount of details and facts he puts in, seemingly effortlessly (which, of course,

Brews You Can Use

I've been a hypocrite: Writing about Brews You Can Use and not drinking any brews. I have a stomach ailment known as candygutitis. At times, it causes me to react severely (read: examine my toilet's insides repeatedly) after drinking. The problem had pretty much gone away

Thursday's Fix

Internet addiction is growing. The main types of Internet addiction are cybersex, online affairs, online gambling, online gaming, compulsive surfing and even eBay addiction. An article by Dr. Jerald J. Block in the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry stated that “Internet addiction appears to be a common

The Wednesday Eudemon

Oh ho: The paternalistic white man [http://www.lacity.org/council.htm] returneth: The Los Angeles City Council has approved a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a low-income area of the city [http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080729/D927OLQ02.html]. Maybe that LA quake [http://apnews.myway.com/

Obama and the Wall

" . . . the more I'm galvanized to vote for McCain." Check out the most-recent Obama phoniness [http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2008/07/obama-has-received-his-reward.html] .

Tuesday Miscellany

Better late than never. Nick Milne [http://nickmilne.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/tagged-by-thunder/] tagged me while I was on vacation. The rules: > 1. Link the person(s) who tagged you 2. Mention the rules on your blog 3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours 4. Tag 6

Monday Miscellany

Marcel LeJeune at Aggie Catholics calls it a "masterpiece [http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2008/07/humanae-vitae-and-catholic-church.html] ," I suspect he's right: The Vindication of Humanae Vitae [http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6262]. Taking Marcel's lead, I'll summarize the article

Something for Sunday Morning

"God ordinarily reveals His indwelling presence not through visions but by prompting virtuous actions within us." Thomas Dubay, citing Saints Teresa of Avila, Thomas Aquinas, and Bernard.

Saturday

I don't get overtly political on this blog very often, but the Obama foreign tour is sticking in my craw. Consider this morning's AP story [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080726/ap_on_re_eu/obama] about visiting Europe: > Obama said he and [Prime

Brews You Can Use

Holy stumbler, Batman! State police say they arrested a man early Tuesday whose blood alcohol level was 0.491 percent - the highest ever recorded in Rhode Island for someone who wasn't dead. [http://www.9news.com/news/watercooler/article.aspx?storyid=96270&catid=337] I went

Thursday Miscellany

The stay-cation. I've always wanted to take one: A week off work without leaving town. Travel is work. I've always thought it'd be nice to, you know, not work. I haven't really tried it (not working/travelling for more than, say, a

The Return Eudemon

Most of you probably discerned that I've been on vacation. Because this is The Daily Eudemon, I make sure I post something every day, but I'm not about to ruin family vacations for it ("Honey, we got to pull over, I gotta get some blogging

Too Many Parallels for Comfort

Drug dealers and software dealers: similarities [http://flor.nl/text/softdrugs.html].

Call PETA

That's how to have fun with a dog [http://www.oddpic.com/data/528/DO-A-BARREL-ROLL.gif].

Silence and the Pill

Church teaching is unequivocal, but the "faithful" don't listen. The result: Silence. I've been Catholic for 17 years, and I honestly don't think I've ever heard a priest comment on the contraception issue from the pulpit. This article discusses it

Something for Sunday Morning

"Without simplicity, prudence would easily become cunning." Francis Fernandez

GKC on Facial Hair

G.K. Chesterton said a man can't grow a beard in a moment of passion. Maybe he was wrong [http://www.explosm.net/comics/405/].

Brews You Can Use

This site has all the brew sites you can use [http://www.liqurious.com/]. __________ Need to concoct something good? Go here [http://www.kertong.com/boozer/index.php].

Newspaper Ad

Bar Conversation Piece Wednesday

Midget Wresting Tuesday

Nasty 10-second clip [http://s3.amazonaws.com/0SAJ7JN5VFAWT249NNR2.anigifdel/9ad207c2b1664be319a6c3ec1b97f5fd] .

Doctorisms

Great page: things written in patients's charts [http://www.rinkworks.com/said/patients.shtml]. They ring true. Maybe they're not, but I'm inclined to believe 'em. Sample: # "The patient has been depressed ever since she began seeing me in 1993." # "

Something for Sunday Morning

"Prayer ought to be short and pure, unless it be prolonged by the inspiration if Divine grace." St. Benedict

Saturday BYCU

Guinness plant due to close. And other information about Guinness [http://www.newsflavor.com/World/Europe/Guinness-Plant-Due-to-Close.162907]. Excerpt: > After finishing a pint of Guinness you can count the rings in the glass. This will tell you drink how many sips/gulps you took. An Irish person should only

Brews You Can Use

A fitting Memorial today: St. Benedict, the man who gave us monasteries, who in turn gave us beer and many other forms of alcohol. The Liturgy of the Hours this morning contains a reading from St. Benedict's rule. One line says that there exists a "bitter spirit&

Thursday

For more gasoline comics [http://www.geckotales.com/gas-price-jokes.htm]. __________ I've been asked to spread the word about a new pro-life program. Here's the link [http://www.40daysforlife.com/splash.cfm]. Via Aggie Catholics [http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2008/07/being-human-part-ii.html]. __________ I caught a little

The Wednesday Eudemon

I'm no foreign affairs expert, but this doesn't make sense to me. The U.S. has inked a deal to install a radar in the Czech Republic in connection with our missile defense project. Russia feels threatened and it has threatened to use military means to

Tuesday Miscellany

Is the new entertainment technology making us smarter, as this guy alleges [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/scheske1.html]? Or dumber, as this guy alleges [http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-book5-2008jul05,0,3980465.story]? I'm guessing the latter, but I'm open to argument. Excerpt from

Monday Moanin'

Zmirak on Buchanan on WWII [http://www.takimag.com/site/article/patrick_buchanan_and_the_necessary_book/]. Good stuff. > It's clear that in writing Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War, Buchanan was courting controversy–and not of the surface sort, like the meaningless chatter aimed by the

Something for Sunday Morning

"Many may not find giving up food and drink and a soft bed too difficult . . . But bearing an insult, a wrong, or hurtful words . . . this is something to be borne not by many but by few." St. John Chrysostom

Online Civility 101

Some of you may have noticed the unpleasantness in one of the comments [https://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=6118#comments] earlier this week. It dawned on me that maybe the person simply lacks online social skills. In fact, based on the amount of uncivility I see online, I suspect a lot

Brews You Can Use

Happy Independence Day! I've never had that American beer, but I remember drinking a lot of this crap: __________ A hardy thanks to a TDE reader that mailed a big bottle of Andechser Weissbeer that she brought home with her from Germany. A most-righteous act of kindness. I haven&

Thursday

Cute story: I realize that's a bit more ribald than normal TDE fare, but it cracked me up. Plus, I'm low on posting time this morning. __________ A clever defense of professional wrestling [http://southernavenger.ccpblogs.com/2008/06/29/sa-radio-interview-with-author-of-ring-of-hell-chris-benoit-and-the-fall-of-pro-wrestling/] (thanks to TSO for linking to

The Wednesday Eudemon

Received in an email: A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE Â· Pythagorean theorem: 24 words Â· The Lord's prayer: 66 words Â· Archimedes' Principle: 67 words Â· The 10 Commandments: 179 words Â· The Gettysburg address: 286 words Â· The Declaration of Independence: 1300 words Â· The US Government regulations

Tuesday Miscellany

People will buy anything. I'm going to start selling my arm pit hairs: A Chinese man who set up an online business selling dead mosquitoes says he's received 10,000 orders in just two days. Nin sells his mosquito corpses for six yuan - less than

Monday Moanin'

I want to revisit the birding issue. Looking back at my post, it was too harsh. Someone once told me, "Don't question another person's hobbies." It's good advice. Birding is no more inane than any other hobby. Heck, it's arguably

Something for Sunday Morning

No quote this morning. Rather, a question: How can a person follow the saints and accept each moment--each situation, each job--peacefully, without becoming a rag doll of circumstances?

Friday

If you haven't figured it out, I'm on vacation this week. It's my family's annual trip to Houghton Lake with my wife's family: 40 in-laws for seven days. I actually enjoy it (click here for article that marked my softening

Thursday Top Ten

You might be lethargic if: 10. Kneeling and standing during church cause you to break a sweat. 9. You break a sweat taking a shower. 8. You have nightmares about losing your TV remote. 7. You've tried to scam a handicap license plate. 6. You think Internet surfing

Wednesday Top Ten

During my term as editor of Gilbert Magazine, a wise man passed this along to me: You're not a writer if 10. You don't really believe that good writing is re-writing. 9. You've never spent over fifteen minutes trying find one single best word.

Feast Day of St. John the Baptist

St. John the Baptist is "the only saint whose day of birth is celebrated; we celebrate the birth of John and that of Christ." St. Augustine, quote in Francis Fernandez's In Conversation with God

Tuesday Top Ten

Top Ten List: You might have a book obsession if: 10. You'll never be able to finish all the books you've started. 9. You're kinda surprised there's not a medical term to describe a disordered erotic attraction to books. 8. You don&

Monday Moanin'

Chicago is under siege. By blackbirds [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-bird-attack_21jun21,0,753222.story] . "Nesting season is in full swing for the red-winged blackbird, making the males extremely aggressive. Walk or bike too close to one's nest and expect to hear its high, menacing

Something for Sunday Morning

"Give me thy grace, good Lord, to set the world at naught . . . to have my mind well united to you; to not depend on the changing opinion of others . . . so that I may think joyfully of God and tenderly implore his help." St. Thomas More (whose Memorial it

Saturday

An atheist defends religion as a bulwark of freedom [http://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block103.html]. The article is a little awkward to read and it doesn't break new ground, but it's refreshing to see an atheist making the arguments. Excerpt: > [W]hich institutions did

Brews You Can Use

Summer time is here and so is the beer. I look forward to hoisting a host these next couple of days. The weather forecast is sunny and so are my expectations. Of course, saying such a thing is a good way to get rain, but that's okay. There&

Thursday Miscellany

Blog notes: *The talented and erudite Nick Milne has started a new blog: The Daily Kraken [http://nickmilne.wordpress.com/]. His former blog, A Gentle Fuss, was always worth visiting. I suspect this one will be even better. (Note: Krakens are legendary sea monsters [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraken]

The Wednesday

Maybe I should resort to kidnapping: An Italian man has been charged with kidnapping after he forced his ex-girlfriend into his home to do the ironing [http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=PluckPersona&U=cce7c5f9d55442c7b8aeafa5e07cafe5&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=

Jeb Scores?

Newsflash: Bush considering Catholicism? [http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/bush_catholic/2008/06/16/104851.html?s=al&promo_code=6460-1] > President Bush may follow in the footsteps of his brother Jeb and convert to Catholicism, several European papers are reporting. > In the wake of the president&

Tuesday

Defining marriage however the heck we want. Dozens of gay couples were married Monday night after California became the second state to allow same-sex nuptials [http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080617/D91BJFDG0.html]. In case you didn't know it, incidentally, this officially opens the flood gates: "Unlike

Monday Moanin'

A nice Father's Day: The Incredible Hulk with two middle sons and my father (the movie is highly recommended, though it drags at spots), dinner with parents and brother's family, practiced baseball with middle sons, read. I stayed up later than I wanted because my two

Something for Sunday Morning

"There is never a moment when there is not some virtue to be practiced." Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence

Father's Day Weekend

The f-word holiday weekend: Flag Day and Father's Day. I don't have a whole lot of plans. Some time at the office, some time at the baseball diamond (of course). I will also thrash my kids mercilessly until they concede that Father's Day is

Brews You Can Use

InBev next to facilitate vertical integration by purchasing expanses of manure fields: InBev began courting Anheuser-Busch shareholders and staff on Thursday after making a $46.3 billion bid, hoping to add Budweiser to its own Stella Artois and Beck's beers and create the world's largest brewer.

Stream of Consciousness Thursday

Long baseball game last night, almost three hours. The other team ran out of pitchers in the last inning. We were losing 8-6. After we finished batting, we were up 18-8. My son Jack struck out the side to end the game. Most righteous. After that, I came home and

The Wednesday Eudemon

Finally. I've believed for years that NBA playoff games were rigged: The Jordan Rules, high percentage of series going to game seven, the testimony of a very sober and respectable sports announcer in Detroit who said back in the early 1980s, in effect, "I can't

Tuesday Miscellany

Maybe it was Kitty Dukakis' granddaughter: A supermarket refused to sell barbecue sauce to a 25-year-old customer because it contained a tiny amount of alcohol. Staff also refused to sell the bottle to her brother-in-law, Philip Dover, 27, who did have ID, because they believed he would just give

Monday Moaning

Not much today. I think the kid functions are tapering off, but now it's time to get serious at the office. Just one thing today: The Annual Chesterton Conference will be leaving the University of St. Thomas, and at least one person suspects all the bogus restrictions [https:

Something for Sunday Morning

"All our learning should consist of finding out what God has planned for us at each moment." Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence

Saturday Stuff

Final day of school yesterday. A 60-year-old school is dead. It was a rough day, which has now led into a rough morning due to celebratory aspects that kind of took on the feel of a post-funeral party: the grief starts to wear off with the help of alcohol and

Brews You Can Use

They're heavy-handed. That's why I ain't got much use for prison guards, college administrators, liturgists, and revenuers. If you want to see the latter in action, check out this Dukes-of-Hazzard-like story [http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Cover_Story/2008/05/29/Gettin_Jacked/]. It&

Thursday

Alright, I'll go out on a limb here: Possibly the best magazine article ever written [http://nymag.com/realestate/features/47224/]. I read it in bed Tuesday night and I couldn't put it down. It's about Brooklyn's gentrification, and how a local

Annual Chesterton Conference

The Spring Blitz continues. I'd give details, but suffice to say: When someone asks me if I want to do X or why I didn't attend Y Optional Event, I want to strangle them. I still haven't taken my life, but a bullet to

Liability Tuesday

"What about the liability?" Those are the words of every disingenuous person who doesn't want to do something but doesn't want to say why. Instead of saying, "I don't want you using my property for a charity yard sale because it&

Monday Moanin'

I'm looking for information about glossolalia, the gift of tongues. My basic understanding: It's not a gift from the Holy Spirit unless there is another person there to interpret it, the "tongue" must be an actual language, and it's often a dead

Something for Sunday Morning

"[T]here is nothing better for us than to do what God wants at any particular moment." Jean-Pierre de Caussade (Abandonment to Divine Providence)

The Saturday Eudemon

This kind of thing fascinates me: One of South America's few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7426794.stm]. I thought you'd have to go to New Guinea,

Brews You Can Use

I figured that was a good way to kick off the BYCU. I won't be doing much driving this weekend, but some inebriated bike pedaling is a possibility. Drink a few, ride bike to the baseball games. The only problem with that is, I can't sneak

SofC

Am I really going to write another stream of consciousness post just eight days after my first one? I think so. Things are brutal around here. I have eleven days with baseball games out of twelve; every day except Sunday has a game. I had a meeting last night that

Marriage Quotes

Soccer game, baseball game, Marie in Chicago with oldest daughter. I'm beat. Quotes like these are made for days with no blogging time. Sorry if you've seen them already: "Getting married for sex is like buying a 747 for the free peanuts" - Jeff

The Eighth Day Eudemon

"An eighth and eternal day, consecrated by the Resurrection of Christ. . . there we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise." That's St. Augustine's City of God. I found it in a forgotten treasure: The Eighth Day Books [http://www.eighthdaybooks.com/

Porn Tax?

California considering a porn tax [http://snafu-ed.blogspot.com/2008/05/california-considers-porn-tax-to-reduce.html] ? I found this story at an odd news RSS feed. But is it so odd? I wrote an op-ed rough draft seven years ago, proposing a similar thing. I've cut-and-pasted it below, and I'

Something for Sunday Morning

"It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes." St. Thomas Aquinas (Note: I haven't verified the quote. I saw it on the Internet.)

The Memorial Day Weekend Eudemon

A good weekend, indeed. Marie took six of the seven way up north to "Bird Camp," a weekend of bird watching and enjoying the great outdoors. It's one of her family's three summer traditions. It's equally part of the tradition that I

Brews You Can Use

Before Friday's feature posts, please indulge this request: If you know of anyone in NW Ohio, northern Indiana, northern Illinois (Chicago area), or Michigan (lower peninsula) that's trying to sell a used school bus, please let me know. You can put the information in the comments

AI to Lovin' Herbie

Well, far out. David Cook won AI. I didn't see it, since I was asleep before 9:00 last night, but my wife told me when she came to bed and I got the details here [http://tv.yahoo.com/show/34934/news/urn:newsml:tv.reuters.com:

Stream of Consciousness Wednesday

I'm stealing this idea from a fraternity brother. He didn't teach me about it during the neo-psychedelic 80s. He sends out emails like this. I figure, good enough for Geoff and Faulker, good enough for me. Of course, if I were (subjunctive) Faulkner, I wouldn'

The Tuesday Anti-Eudemon

This baseball season and end-of-year school season is going to be the death of me. Too much trash, too much time. Not much blogging. I hope to post something worthwhile later, but right now, simply no time. I did, however, find this mildly-interesting item: Germans migrating to Poland [http://www.

Monday Moanin'

I hardly qualify as a classicist, but I've read a lot of mythology, most of Plato, chunks of Aristotle, and an assortment of others. Despite this hobby, I'd never ran across this piece of information [http://www.reference.com/thisday/index.html?m=5&d=

Something for Sunday Morning

"There is no doubt that through the reading of the Sacred Scriptures the soul is set aflame in God and becomes purified from all vices." St. Jerome

A Quote for No-Blogging Saturday

“Today, whole classes of people get their jollies and puff themselves up by denigrating and denouncing American society. Such people are a major influence in our media, in our educational system and among all sorts of vocal activists. Nothing illustrates their power to distort reality like the way they seize

Brews You Can Use

It's drinkin' time. First, it's Michigan Week. All three of my long-time fans know that I have a hard time finding beer at Michigan Week [http://www.catholicexchange.com/2005/01/27/96121/]. But I've got it licked now. The festival is held

Thursday: Slow Blogging Continues Amid Family Commitments

From a 1970s Steve Martin act: > I'm into bread. I love money, I love everything about money, I love to eat it. Money. > They say you can't take it with you? I'm taking it with me. > I'm into bread.

The Wednesday Eudemon

TV, reality show, and a new form of slumming. It's a lot of fun, until the hooded gang members want to know whatcha doin' on their turf: Fox network is set to announce "Secret Millionaire," a new series from RDF USA in which wealthy benefactors

No Eudemon in Cleveland

Not on Youtube: Up to 15 people chased a man, then kicked and beat him to death on the street. Before police arrived, one attacker urinated on the victim's head [http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90KAU580&show_article=1]. It happened in Cleveland, "within

Monday Moanin'

Mother's Day went well. I started it by breaking my boycott of McDonald's and bringing my wife a breakfast burrito early in the morning. We then went to church, after which I bought her seven roses (a right-to-life fundraiser). After church, we gave Marie her presents,

Something for Sunday Morning

"Prayer refines the soul and makes us particularly apt to understand other people. Also, it increases our generosity, our optimism, our affability in social relations, and our gratitude--all being virtues that facilitate the way of friendship for the Christian." Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God

Something for No-Blogging Saturday

I only remembered 10. My brother who is three-and-a-half years older is "Older than Dirt." Older Than Dirt Quiz Count all the ones that you remember, NOT the ones you were told about! Your ratings at the bottom. 1. Blackjack chewing gum 2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored

Brews You Can Use

I took off most of Wednesday to attend the Chamber of Commerce golf outing. Whatta mistake. I thought I had an easy day of work ahead of me on Thursday (a mop up day to get some old projects done), so I thoroughly enjoyed myself, still made it to my

Thursday Miscellany

You can't hide your lying eyes: Uncontrollable Muscles in the Face Reveal Lying, New Research Shows [http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Story?id=4748115&page=1]. Via [http://www.lewrockwell.com/]. Excerpts: > Those instances, less than a second long, are called micro-expressions, long believed to be

Shaw on Clericalism

I predicted that blogging would be light, and so it is. I took the older kids to Iron Man last night, and it was pretty long. I didn't care for it, incidentally. It moved too slow. I'd give it a 5 out of 10. While watching

Tuesday Trifle

The good news: Son Jack (11) pitched three innings last night, striking out six and giving up only one run (thanks to some great fielding from his team). He also hit two doubles and a triple. The bad news: I stayed late to clean the field (had to stay a

Monday Moaning

The rise of the comic book, the Great Comic-Book Scare, comic-book censorship, and remembering a far more innocent age [http://www.city-journal.org/2008/bc0502sk.html]. Neat short piece. Excerpts: > [Following the censorship, b]etween 1954 and 1956, the number of comic-book titles plunged from about 650 to 250.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Jesus sought and encouraged the friendship of all he met on the roads of Palestine. He always made use of conversation in order to get to the bottom of their souls and fill them with love." Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God

The Saturday Eudemon

Not much today. The office calls, then Meg's soccer game, then baseball field clean-up, then a First Communion party, then two more First Communion parties. Interspersed in there: ordinary large-family stuff and carting children to other events. One quick thing, though: > A Romanian man has lodged an

Brews You Can Use

Sign me up: Beer baths [http://www.smh.com.au/news/europe/bathe-in-beer/2008/04/23/1208743038757.html?page=fullpage] . Of course, you have to go the Czech Republic. "[W]hile a regular tap pipes in locally sourced Il-Sano mineral water, our tubs will also contain 8-10 litres of

Thursday Miscellany

The Solemnity of the Ascension. The hardest mystery to understand. None of them can really be understood, of course, but this one is the hardest. I accept the immortality of the soul. It squares with the ontological facts we can discern. But the assumption of the body into heaven, with

The Wednesday Eudemon

"Sandwich days." That's what I call this time of year because my day is "sandwiched" by obligations. I have to get the kids to school at 7:30 a.m. then be some place in the late afternoon, leaving no time for anything except

Tuesdays with the Eudemon

Actually, I should call this post "Tuesdays with the Anti-Eudemon." Not a lot of fun stuff out there today. Great piece over at City Journal about "creeping sharia." [http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_2_cultural_jihadists.html] Excerpt: > [T]he Ayatollah Khomeini's

Monday Miscellany

I've long been fascinated with the question, "How ought one to spend his time?" It used to be a fascination born of bitterness: volunteer organizations would ask me spend time helping with X or Y, not realizing my schedule was so full with writing projects and

Something for Sunday Morning

> Whoever wishes to carry the cross for his sake must take up the proper weapons for the contest, especially those mentioned here. First, diligence; second, distrust of self; third, confidence in God; fourth, remembrance of Passion; fifth, mindfulness of one's own death; sixth, remembrance of God'

Saturday

For those somewhat new to TDE, you should be aware that I don't "officially" blog on Saturday. I don't know what I mean by "officially" (it's not as if I produce high literature Monday through Friday). I guess it basically

Brews You Can Use

Bring a bullet to bite: Eleven of the manliest cocktails in the world [http://www.holytaco.com/2008/04/15/the-11-manliest-cocktails-in-the-world/]. Sample: Kentucky Tea: One mason jar halfway full of moonshine. Fill the jar with branch water. __________ You might have a drinking problem if . . . your 82-year-old Alzheimer's patient

Thursday

Happy birthday to my dear, long-suffering, mother. She has lung problems, she has husband problems (the guy acts like me!). But she takes Stoic suffering to new heights, bolstered with a moderate amount of wine and a solid Christian faith. She's a good Mom, though my wife (good-naturedly)

The Wednesday Eudemon

Was this a hospital emergency room or a scene from Prison Inmates Gone Wild? Brian Persaud received eight stitches for a cut over his eyebrow, but denied hospital staffers' request to exam his rectum, his lawyer Gary DeFilippo said. Doctors said the exam would help determine if there was

The Begging Eudemon

Well, don't blame me, but my wife asks me for very few favors. When she does ask, I feel compelled to grant. Parents from Holy Angels Catholic School are trying to raise enough money to re-open the school next year. I think they have a snowball's

Abbreviated Monday Moanin'

Short Eudemon today. Things kind of exploded around here last night: Marie got tied up at a travel soccer game until 9:00; I undertook to open the pool for her as a surprise--and got caught up in a lot more (deck sweeping, clearing leaf sludge, etc.) than I anticipated;

Something for Sunday Morning

"Without humility, there is no way of conquering anger." St. John Climacus

Saturday Stuff

Everyone needs a hobby: A Romanian man has been fined for making 6,442 profane phone calls to an emergency number [http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2008-04-17-profane-phone-calls_N.htm?csp=34] . __________ Swim to the lip of Victoria Falls [http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/devilspool.asp]. Pretty amazing. Not

Brews You Can Use

Diabolical! A rough week like this one calls for Friday afternoon beers, but I have little league practice at 5:30, and I'm pretty sure one of my fellow coaches is the teetotaling type that would be pretty mad if I showed up wobbly. That really stinks. Maybe

Late Night Last Night

A late night meeting lasted over two hours last night. No time for blogging today. Just two quick things: I'm looking for Catholic blogs about fatherhood. I'm aware of Catholic Father [http://catholicfather.blogspot.com/] and Testosterhome [http://www.testosterhome.net/]. Who else you got? Comments

Coincidentally . . .

On the Square asks this morning, "Who Will Save Catholic Schools [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1048]?" TDE readers already know the answer: Nobody. But maybe there is hope: > In Wichita, Catholic students attend Catholic schools tuition-free, and non-Catholics at bargain prices, thanks to the parishioners

No Eudemon

Well, a black day in my life: My children's parochial school, Holy Angels, is shutting down at the end of this school year [http://www.sturgisjournal.com/articles/2008/04/15/news/doc480573e1865af290539340.txt] . It basically came down to demographics: Not enough white Catholic children in the area

Tuesday Trifles

Hats off to Amy Welborn. I could say that for a lot of reasons, but her straightforward-yet-penetrating insight into all the blather about the Catholic Church and its youth (e.g., youth are ignorant about their faith, youth don't care about their faith, etc.) is excellent. Check it

Monday Moanin'

Hell season starts. Basketball season ended a month ago. I've been enjoying the free evenings and weekends. That stops today: baseball (two boys, two different leagues), soccer (two girls, two different leagues, one of them the ambitious travel squad), swim lessons (one boy and one girl, same session)

Something for Sunday Morning

> It is also well after a few years to reread the very good books which have already done us much good. Life is short: we should be content to read and read again whatever bears the mark of God, and not to lose our time on things that are

Saturday Misc.

Extreme or parody or maybe both. Either way, I'm getting a kick out of it and I haven't even visited it yet: "The world's first vegetarian, Cain, was also the world's first murderer. Coincidence? Not according to the folks at the

Brews You Can Use

The drum beat grows louder? Is 21 a bust when it comes to drinking? Lawmakers in seven states are actively considering legislation that would lower the legal drinking age. State pols in Kentucky, Wisconsin and South Carolina have introduced legislation that would lower the drinking age only for military personnel,

Master's Thursday

Three hundred and thirty yards of Magnolia Lane [http://www.masters.org/en_US/course/video_tour.html?targetLink=/media/video/Mag_lane_founders_03.11.2008_320x240.flv] , Jack Nicklaus, staring down Martha Burk and her (snicker) 24 fellow protesters, Amen Corner, the Green Jacket, and Tiger Woods amazingly

The Wednesday Eudemon

One of the best article bullet summaries I've ever seen: Paul Theroux depicted V.S. Naipaul ten years ago as a stingy, tantrum-prone, racist snob badly in need of driving lessons. He was far too kind. [http://www.aldaily.com/] And the bullet is apparently accurate. The Nobel

Tuesday Trifles

And all this time I thought I was merely showcasing a measure of libidocoria [http://deacbench.blogspot.com/2008/04/showoffs-who-have-three-kids.html]: > When Elana Sigall, a 43-year-old attorney in Brooklyn, was pregnant with her third, people came up to her constantly, she said, to admonish her: "You'

Monday Moanin'

I missed this story last week: Muslim parents force British elementary schools to remove gay marriage books from the curriculum [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=553008&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true] . I don&

Something for Sunday Morning

"The crosses with which our path through life is strewn associate us with Jesus in the mystery of His crucifixion." St. John Eudes

Some Saturday Stuff

Finally! 62 and sunny, a slight breeze. The first thoroughly-nice day of the year. It's almost perfect for me. My perfect day is 70 and partly sunny. I have to meet with clients at 11:30, but other than that, I'll be outside enjoying it. My

Brews You Can Use

Before BYCU, a moment of commemoration: This is my 6,000th post. Yes, 6,000. I don't know whether to celebrate or bemoan that I don't have a life. I think the longevity is finally paying off, though. It would appear that TDE brings in over

Logical Muslims

Sounds logical enough [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344409,00.html]: > A question-and-answer session with Imam Abdul Makin in an East London mosque asks why Allah would tell Muslims to kill and rape innocent non-Muslims, including their wives and daughters, according to Islam Watch. > "Because

Thursday

I don't buy or lease new cars, so I couldn't participate in the Ford boycott. Procter and Gamble? I couldn't keep track of their products adequately to be an effective boycotter. Wal-Mart? Hard to avoid with a large family. But this one? They'

Also Known As Day

Religious Discrimination in the Work Force Act. Also called, "Why I'll Probably End Up Voting for the Republicans in November, Even Though I Don't Really Want To": Ted "Moral Crusader" Kennedy is pushing for legislation that prohibits discrimination against gays in the

Meeting the Anti-Pope

Deal Hudson had a nice chat with the Reverend Hagee. After reading his account, I'm inclined to think the Reverend is terribly misguided but sincere, anti-Catholic but not on purpose, perhaps too judgmental ("Hey, what about you, Scheske?!") but capable of great kindness. Check it out

Detroit

Here's a blog worth visiting if you're from Michigan: Detroitblog [http://www.detroitblog.org/]. It's neat, but it's hard to explain why it's neat. It celebrates a broken city, and it doesn't hide the decay. In fact, it

Monday Moanin'

Well, you're going to see this all over the web today, so I might as well chime in: Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, the Vatican said on Sunday. Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican's newly-released 2008

Something for Sunday Morning

“Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of invisible and visible winged seeds, so the stream of time brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the

Saturday Stuff

Company weekend. Marie's brother is taking his sons (7 and 9) to Kalamazoo's Air Zoo for a cub/tiger scout outing. He dropped off his wife and daughter at our place last night. He's coming back today. I mention it because Andy read the

Brews You Can Use

Nasty bar fight last night. I was having a nice dinner with my wife, when this troglidytic group of thugs came in and started picking a fight with me. I ignored them, until one of them winked at my wife (he may have had something in his eye; hard to

Thursday Miscellany

Relaxing time. I'm experiencing my first breather at the office in over three months. I plan on meeting my wife and another couple for dinner after work, drink a few big mugs, get up tomorrow morning and knock out a piece with a looming deadline, go to Mass,

The Wednesday Eudemon

18 things a man doesn't have [http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=guy.wisdom&category=life.lessons&conitem=2c3f60783e998110VgnVCM20000012281eac____] . It's a pretty good list, but I don't agree with all of them (what's wrong a

Tuesday Trifles

Why do men cheat? Here are the Top Five reasons [http://health.yahoo.com/experts/menlovesex/88222/your-mans-infidelity-triggers/] . I like number three: > I'm not saying it's right, and I'm not saying it's fair, but some men can feel like they'

Easter Monday (Moanin')

Long weekend, short blog post. For some reason, I was dragging all Saturday and Sunday. I slept in this morning, leaving me with little time for blogging. Easter went well. It was also Tess' (3) birthday. A three-year-old in the house, and Marie is not pregnant. Is the parade

Holy Saturday

By killing Jesus, Satan had swallowed God's bait. He didn't know he had swallowed the Godhead, thereby inviting Full Being into his fortress of nothingness and bringing about the ontological fall of his nothingness. In the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa: “The Godhead hid under

Something for Easter Morning

"When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld “him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a man

Something for 3:00

"For all that ever was wrong, is wrong, and will be wrong, the price has been paid." Richard John Neuhaus

Question

If you refer to a threesome, you might use the word "trinity" or "triumvirate." Are there similar words for a foursome?

Good Friday

Slacker me. I missed the Maundy/Holy Thursday service/Mass for the first time in 42 years (if I missed as a younger person, I don't remember it). My absence resulted from a confluence of events: I was exhausted from staying up late the night before; our church

Abbreviated Holy Thursday Post

Happy Holy Thursday, so to speak. May your Triduum be reverential and holy. __________ Readers of this blog know I'm a John Zmirak fan (1 [https://thedailyeudemon.com/5865/], 2 [https://thedailyeudemon.com/5951/]). Well, I recently learned that he has moved to New Hampshire, where he is writer-in-residence

The Wednesday Eudemon

Blogging will be light the next couple of days. I'll be struggling with a time trifecta: jammed at the office, Holy Week, and NCAA basketball tournament. I hold my 16th annual basketball team auction tonight, which usually keeps me up about two hours past my bedtime, then I

Tuesday Trifles

Dalrymple has written a short piece about Spitzer and morality in the public sphere [http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0314td.html]. It contains fundamental truths that anyone interested in morality and law needs to understand. It'll take you three minutes to read. Excerpt: > [M]an is a

Monday Moanin'

Netherlands to allow public sex in its Central Park? Alderman Paul van Grieken has plans to allow public sex as part of this summer's new rules of conduct for the country's best-known park, Vondelpark. [http://snafu-ed.blogspot.com/2008/03/amesterdam-to-legalize-sex-in-public.html] Alright, it's

Something for Palm Sunday Morning

Instead of palms, use our lives: "Let us run to accompany him as he hastens towards his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being

Something for Sunday Morning

Thomas takes a shot at abusive methods of centering prayer: "Occupy your minds with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones. Unoccupied, they cannot be." St. Thomas More

Saturday Stuff

The National Catholic Register has started a Pope watch blog: Pope2008.com [http://www.pope2008.com/]. It'll cover the Pope's trip to the United States. The cyber-place to be this papal visit. __________ A few jokes I received yesterday: 1. A man with a gun went into

Brews You Can Use

Washington lawmakers have approved a pilot program that will allow beer and wine tasting in 30 grocery stores statewide in an effort to market local products. . . . But opponents contend the program sets a bad example by exposing children to alcohol consumption. [http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/Feature_

Thursday

A neighbor says he wasn't bowled over when he heard: Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years – so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the boyfriend finally

The Wednesday Eudemon

Well, I doubt I can top yesterday's popularity (hatred, whatever). Fifty comments, which is easily a TDE record. I'm not sure a post has ever topped 20, and I know a post has never received more than 30. So, what do I dis for an encore?

Are You Pro-Life? Yes, I'm For Everything That's Good.

"Pro-life" means you're against murder. Can we keep that simple premise in mind? I started thinking about this yesterday when I stumbled across this post at Vox Nova [http://vox-nova.com/2008/03/10/vetoes-of-evil/] that basically says water boarding and sticking scissors in the back

Confusion Continues

The Associated Press continues the confusion about deadly v. mortal sin. In olden days, the deadly sins included lust, gluttony and greed. Now, the Catholic Church says pollution, mind-damaging drugs and genetic experiments are on its updated thou-shalt-not list. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080310/ap_on_re_eu/

Hopeless Confusion in the Press

Can someone call Fox News and explain to them the difference between "mortal sins" and the "deadly sins"? This story ("Vatican Adds Seven New Deadly Sins Including Abortion, Contraception and Drug-Dealing [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336330,00.html]") hopelessly confuses the

Monday Moanin'

My parents took my five (yes, five) youngest, ages 2 to 11, to the Detroit area for my niece's birthday party yesterday. The arrangement left Marie and I with our two oldest, 14 and 13. We celebrated "Big person Sunday" by exercising, cleaning the house, then

Something for Sunday Morning

"[W]hen you are in church, be there in silence, fear, and veneration." St. John Chrysostom. Unless, of course, you need to chat with your neighbor to see how things are going, find out the weather forecast, and behave like you're at a cocktail party. Real

Saturday Stuff

Fighting the gag reflex: Instead of ducking the limelight billionaires are setting up Web sites and blogs to manage their images and brag about accomplishments in areas like philanthropy and social activism. Suddenly everyone's Mother Teresa. [http://www.forbes.com/business/forbes/2008/0324/056b.html?feed=rss_

Brews You Can Use

I took Marie to the new brewpub for her birthday last night. I paid $25 and enrolled her in the brewpub's mug club: your own private mug that holds over 20 ounces of beer, first beer free, and every beer for the rest of her life will only

The Birthday Eudemon

My wife turns 40 today. No, she won't mind this indiscretion. Other than toddlers, she's the least self-conscious person I've ever met. So what tribute can I give my wife on this occasion, her official entry into middle-agedom? How about this: The admission that

Catholic Blog Awards

Voting is now open for your favorite Catholic bloggers [http://www.catholicblogawards.com/ballot]. I've been nominated in seven categories: 1. Best Apologetics 2. Best Designed 3. Best New Catholic Blog 4. Best Overall 5. Best Political/Social Commentary 6. Best Written 7. Most Informed/Insightful You must

Tuesday Trifles

I haven't ran anything about William F. Buckley's death, mostly because many others were doing so far better than I could. For some reason, though, I particularly liked John Zmirak's tribute at Taki's Top Drawer [http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/the_

Monday Moanin'

The parochial school fundraiser went splendidly. We aimed to make $35,000-$40,000. We cleared $45,000. Expenses are still trickling in, but we're comfortable notifying the ecclesiastical authorities that we beat the goal by 15% or so. The evening was a lot of fun, hands-down the

Something for Sunday Morning

"Let each one remember that he will make progress in all spiritual things only insofar as he rids himself of self-love, self-will, and self-interest." St. Ignatius of Loyola

Saturday Stuff and Sucks

Welcome to March. May it bring better weather and health than February. The ten-day forecast in my region is unpleasant, so I'm not holding my breath, but I will continue to take it like a man: holding my head down and whimpering, "It'll never end.

Brews You Can Use

It's February 29th. It happens once every four years. That means we're allowed to drink four times as much beer tonight. You can cite this blog as authority. Anyone who disagrees is obviously mathematically challenged. It's a good drinking weekend for me. My children&

Abbreviated Eudemon

I didn't get home from work until 10:00 last night, which is about thirty minutes past my bedtime. By the time I got to bed, it was way past. No time for blogging today, though I have two quick things: 1. One out of every ten adult

Planned Parenthood to Golf to Stabbing

I didn't sleep well last night, so I woke up in a bad mood. I read a news story about Planned Parenthood's promotion of pornography [http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=11904] to teenagers, and figured, "I'm in a bad mood already,

Tuesday Quick Hits

For extra credit, who can name for me Cheech and Chong's seven movies [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheech_and_Chong#Filmography]? > Oaksterdam University prepares people for jobs in California's thriving medical marijuana industry. For $200 and the cost of two required textbooks, students learn

Monday Moaning

I've come down with the stomach flu. It's not nearly as bad as the bronchitis/flu/plague thing I had earlier this month (thank goodness), but highly unpleasant: Playing both ends of the court, mild headache, chills. I'm the seventh person in my house

Something for Sunday Morning

"Be faithful in little things." Mother Teresa

Saturday Stuff

I missed the blood red moon lunar eclipse two days ago. Still depressed about it, I tried to make it up by going to the new brewpub and drinking six (eight?) Blue Moons after work (3:30ish, for reasons I can explain, but not without whining). I think it did

Brews You Can Use

Not clear on whether he was knighted before this, in spite of this, or because of this: Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy has been branded the "godfather of British binge drinking" by a Labour MP. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7131198.stm]

Gmail

Anybody else use Google Mail? Anybody else have troubles accessing it the past two days? It's like the site has been completely crashed. I couldn't get on all day yesterday, got on last night once, then today it's down again. Go figger.

Quick-Hitting Eudemon

Croup girl (Tess, 2), flu girl (Abbie, 13), and Bad-Dream Girl (Meg, 6). The nights have been longish . . . for my wife. I've been sleeping fairly well. __________ And it's just a coincidence that this attitude shift comes on the heels of the rebate announcement: Growing confidence in

The 30-Day Challenge Follow-Up

I linked yesterday to the Florida pastor's 30-day conjugal challenge. Interestingly, the pastor is recommending Dawn Eden's Thrill of the Chaste for singles. Dawn has the details here [http://www.dawneden.com/2008/02/30-day-sex-challenge-church-gets-thrill.html].

The Wednesday Eudemon

The lunar eclipse tonight is going to be a good one (assuming cloud coverage isn't a problem). David Warren has details and a history [http://archives.zinester.com/14807/153237.html]. __________ My most-recent blogging column is at The Register [http://ncregister.com/site/article/8060]. Subscription required. It&

Angry White Men

One of the best op-eds of the year so far [http://www.aspentimes.com/article/2008198091324]: > He's a man's man, the kind of guy who likes to play poker, watch football, hunt white-tailed deer, call turkeys, play golf, spend a few bucks at a strip

Youth Coaching and Other

Well, I saw the worst display of sportsmanship ever at a youth event last night . . . and it was in my fifth grader's Christian basketball league. Every denomination has its challenging people, but last night's black eye goes to the Lutheran Wisconsin Synod for its coach who

Monday Moanin'

I'm still addressing matters that I neglected during my illness. One of them: Rhapsody tagged me [http://rhapsodyenbleuclair.blogspot.com/2008/02/meme-for-youyou.html] for a meme [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme]. Here goes: The rules for this meme: > (1) Link to the person that

Activating Technorati

Please ignore this post. It's a technical thing. Technorati Profile [http://technorati.com/claim/jqu6kh78r2]

Something for Sunday Morning

"[T]he man who claims to possess both charity and money is a self-deceived fool." John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Saturday Stuff

The illness lingers, but I think it's mostly over. I'm actually going to try to exercise today. Nothing too rigorous. Maybe three miles on the stationary bike, or maybe some light weightlifting, or maybe just a couple of groans thinking about it. We'll see.

Brews You Can Use

Okay, these guys are off my list of acceptable brewers: Carlsberg's announcement that it has found customers for its $400 a 375ml bottle of a new beer known as Vintage No 1 [http://www.realbeer.com/blog/?p=741]. Four hundred bucks for a bottle of beer ("

Thursday

Inchin' along in life. Still slow blogging. Happy Valentine's Day. Nice ironic blurb for the day: "Police in Bangkok have launched an operation to prevent teenagers from having sex on Valentine's Day [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2727643.html?menu=news.quirkies]

Wednesday

One day at a time. On Monday, I started coughing up blood and the pain returned to my chest. My doctor sent me to get chest x-rays and blood work. On Tuesday, I woke up feeling bad, and then around 10:00, I suddenly felt pretty normal. The rest of

Something for Tuesday

Hey, Tony, the Weed Whacker [http://pages.prodigy.net/mlemus/mobnamegenerator.htm] has his own blog. The two best mob nicknames from my family: Mel "Chimpy Nuts" Scheske and Max "Gandhi Mangler" Scheske.

Monday Moanin'

Brutal cold. The kind that makes you say "sumbitch" every ten steps, the last punctuated with a shriek and shiver just as you leave the sidewalk and enter the nave. Between my lingering (but only lingering) illness and the repeat waves of cold and/or snow and/or

Something for Sunday Morning

"When you look at the Crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then. When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you now." Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Saturday

Well, I don't officially blog on Saturdays, and I see no reason to make an exception today. The illness is more-or-less past, though I had to sleep upright again last night (coughing problems) and woke up with a pounding headache and don't feel quite right. Nonetheless,

Brews You Can Use

Beer is good for you [http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/health&id=5943823]: > To make beer, you need hops, yeast and a cereal such as barley. It turns out each of these ingredients mixed together may pack a healthy punch. Hops contains a compound called

Another Eye-Opening Headline from AP

"Mo. gunman had past trouble with council [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080208/ap_on_re_us/missouri_shooting;_ylt=ApfktsipEyCQPe6raXYZJGWs0NUE] "

Still Sick

Newspaper reporting for the Alzheimer population: "Scotland Yard: Bhutto killed by suicide bomb blast." (From this morning's Associated Press reports.)

Limbo Eudemon

I'm feeling better, I think, maybe not. I give up. Hands-down the worst illness I've ever had, in terms of length and severity. I've had the flu, but have always fully recovered in 48 hours. This thing is now entering Day 5, and I&

Still Horizontal

Wow, this is nasty. I won't say much, for fear of turning this site into an exhibitionist-type pity party, but I've been diagnosed with "atypical bronchitis." I don't know what it means, so I ran some searches in Google and Yahoo. Sounds

On My Back Eudemon

Wow, I don't know what I have, but I feel absolutely horrible. I have a tearing sensation across my chest when I cough. Hurts somethin' fierce. Anyone have any idea what causes that? Today's post is abbreviated, in light of my reduced condition. __________ Lent rattles

No Eudemon

Not much this morning. Super Bowl last night, plus some sort of odd illness brewing: body aches, mild nausea, tearing feeling in my chest. Cold? Flu? Bronchitis? Strep Throat? Hypochandria? Beats me, but I slept in and have neither time nor motivation to blog. __________ Congratulations to the NY Giants. It&

Something for Sunday Morning

"God said to St. Catherine of Siena: 'You cannot give back to Me, myself, the love I demand, but I have put you beside your neighbor so that you may do for him what you cannot do for Me. What you do for your neighbor, then, I consider

Saturday Stuff

Not much this morning. I took my oldest (Alex, 14) to see Blast [http://www.blasttheshow.com/] last night. They were performing about an hour away, so I didn't get to bed until midnight. Amazing show. If the troupe comes to your area, go. __________ Enough to make a

Looking for Blogs

This time, I'm looking for political blogs: Catholic bloggers who devote a large part of their blogs to political commentary. There are hundreds, potentially thousands, of these, so I'd appreciate it if you only provide the excellent or your own (don't be modest). Note:

Brews You Can Use

It's St. Brigid's feast day [http://allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic/saints/brigid.html]. She liked her beer [http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/patron_saints.shtml]: > Probably the best known Irish saint after Patrick is Saint Brigid (b. 457, d. 525). Known as "the Mary

Pot to Playgrounds

What could possibly go wrong? The first marijuana vending machines have opened in Los Angeles allowing those with legal medical prescriptions easy access to the drug. The machines can only be used by patients who are prescribed marijuana for health reason [http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=75280&

Short Eudemon

Jerusalem is blanketed in snow [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1201523782656&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull] , and we're sitting on ice and -1 (-21 wind chill). School is cancelled, which disappoints my K-8 children. It's Catholic Schools Week, and today was supposed to be

The Tuesday Eudemon

Saturday night was a perfect snapshot of potential good night life in a small town. Our local Council for the Arts brought in America [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(band)] ("Horse with No Name," "Sister Golden Hair," etc.) as part of its 2007-2008 Performing Arts

Monday Moanin'

A great day: The Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas. As a non-Catholic, I became intrigued with St. Thomas through Chesterton's The Dumb Ox, and became an admirer when I read Josef Pieper's Guide to Thomas Aquinas. A Lutheran with no inclination to become Catholic, I remember

Something for Sunday Morning

"The love of the truth seeks out the quiet of contemplation." St. Augustine

Saturday Stuff

I watched Longford [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0759612/] with Marie and the older kids last night. Highly recommended, but I wouldn't let anybody under 14 watch it (disturbing theme). It's about a devout and sincere Catholic's efforts to get the notorious Myra Hindley

Looking for a Site

Does anybody know of a Catholic site that acts as a "clearinghouse" of sorts for Catholic charities, a site that says "This charity is good" and/or "This charity is bad"? I thought maybe the USCCB would provide a list of endorsed charities, but

Brews You Can Use and Other

Beer stimulus package: $1,200 per couple, plus $300 per kid. My rebate: $3,300.00. Earlier versions of the bill capped the number of child rebates at three (which makes no sense; if they're giving child credits because people with kids have more expenses, why cap it

Thursday Evil

Has anyone else noticed a dearth of gay rights and gay marriage talk this election season so far? Does anyone else think maybe the gay rights people are hoping to fly their agenda in under the radar, perhaps pursuant to an understanding--tacit or from a smoke-filled back closet--between gay rights

The Wednesday Eudemon

Interesting piece at WSJ, which basically makes explicit what most people have known all along: The Clintons will say anything if it'll help them win--true, false, or in-between [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120104819435508233.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries] . Sometimes they say true things: because it'll

Tuesday Trifles

I had time for blogging this morning, but there's not much out there. Much of the cyber print is occupied with the economic shakedown: Global markets are falling, and it looks like Wall Street will follow suit in a few hours. So, international stocks are down, and the

Monday Miscellany

I treated myself to a leisurely day yesterday, in hopes of re-fueling for the office fire: three short naps, a movie with my boys (Cloverfield [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809873032/info], not recommended, but not horrible either), practiced baseball hitting with my second son and sports fanatic, watched football,

Something for Sunday Morning

"Study as if you were to live forever. Live as if you were to die tomorrow." St. Isidore of Seville That's a great general rule, though it's application is difficult. I can't study and live at the same time. More than once

Something for Saturday

Extreme wheelbarrowing [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvASnyOy5B4]?

Looking for Blogs

I'm looking for "charitable blogs." Not blogs written with kindness, but blogs either dedicated to promoting charitable efforts or blogs that regularly/frequently make charitable appeals. Please email me (link on left) or post a link in the combox. If you write such a blog, don&

Friday

Brews for Friday. It's been a brutal week. I'm typing this at 6:20. I'll attend Mass sober at 8:30, but after that, all bets are off. Like most Fridays, I'm working out of my house today, which typically means I

American Idol

Possibly the best AI try-out ever [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoeMbIrcnCo&eurl=http://www.ericscheske.com/blog/] . Slayed me. A friend of mine thought the guy was serious. If that's the case, it's too creepy to be funny, but if the guy was

Bumped Again

7:30 to 7:30 yesterday, no lunch. Similar hours facing me today. But I did manage to watch American Idol with my family last night. During it, I remembered a David Letterman Top 10 list, "You're Watching Too Much American Idol? [http://www.cbs.com/latenight/

No Eudemon

Rough week so far. No blogging, except to mention a new C.S. Lewis blog [http://booksbycslewis.blogspot.com/]. It's serious CSL.

Monday Miscellany

Last night we finally had our first family dinner of 2008. We were sitting around eating and chatting about our upcoming summer vacation to the Black Hills and Yellowstone. I told the kids that we would be in the van for many, many hours, and thought that maybe we could

Something for Sunday Morning

"St. James tells us that this virtue comes from Heaven and that we shall never have it unless we ask it of God. We should therefore, frequently ask God to give us purity in our eyes, in our speech, and in all our actions." St. John Vianney

Behar

I wanted to post something about Joy Behar's comments [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OhlIC1M818&eurl=http://romancatholicblog.typepad.com/roman_catholic_blog/2008/01/joy-behar-of-ab.html] as soon as I heard the story Thursday morning, but I was already getting ready for work. And then

Mitt Revelation

Finally! For months, there's been something about Mitt Romney that bugs me. I finally put my finger on it while seeing him on Fox & Friends this morning: He's always conscious of his good looks. It's not easy to explain what I mean by

Friday Video and Brews

Possibly the greatest prank call ever. I suspect many of you have heard it, but for those who haven't: __________ I find this a little bit disappointing: Coors Brewing Company has nurtured Blue Moon Belgian White Ale into a hot seller through below-the-radar marketing efforts [http://www.brewblog.com/

Thursday Grab Bag

Am I the only person who reads a story like this and thinks, "Gays throwing rocks through radio station windows"? KSFB-AM 1260 signed on Dec. 10 as Immaculate Heart Radio in the San Francisco Bay Area, the newest outlet in a prospering Catholic radio network and possibly the

Implants to Lions

> A Catholic-run hospital faces a lawsuit for refusing breast augmentation surgery to a transgendered person, the San Jose Mercury News reports. [http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=11383] > Charlene Hastings, a 57-year-old San Franciscan, inquired about the surgery at Seton Medical Center. According to Hastings, a surgical

NFP and Sundry

BCS hangover this morning, so little blogging. Congratulations to LSU and the ghost of Walker Percy. I've always liked the SEC. Even though their fans have grown a bit tiresome lately, bayou country for a Saturday night football game has been on my list of "Places to

Monday Moaning Miscellany

It dawned on me this weekend that July 2008 marks the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae [http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html] . No doubt the press will be all over it. If you give me modest odds (say, 3-to-1)

Something for Sunday Morning

"The perfect Christian is always a bearer of peace and joy." St. Clement of Alexandria __________ Something for Epiphany Sunday On Melchior, Balthasar, and Gaspar [http://wordbytes.org/doctrine/magi.htm]. I can't vouch for everything here, but it's the best web page I'

Stuff for Saturday

This might be the consumer tip of the year so far (okay, so it's only Jan. 5th, it's still a good tip): Asus Eee 4G-Galaxy 7" PC Mobile Internet Device [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000Y33CVM/thedailyeudem-20]. Only $399, and it's

Brews You Can Use

I'm not terribly enthusiastic about drinking news this week. Not only am I still worn out from the holidays (goodness, it's taking a long time to rebound), but I'm about as inclined to indulge myself right now as an anorexic is inclined to eat

Divorcing Gays

"One of the Benefits of Marriage is Divorce [http://timothyjones.typepad.com/old_world_swine/2008/01/one-of-the-bene.html]." That's the theme of this WaPo article [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22467049/] about the problems of getting divorced if you're gay. The article

Marshmallow Eudemon

Dean Martin sang "Marshmallow World," a tribute to billows of snow. That's what my town looks like now: mounds and mounds of snow [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080101/ap_on_re_us/winter_storm]. Quite beautiful, but tiresome. I cleared the driveway four times

The New Year Eudemon

Ouch, my head! MAKE THAT CAT STOP STOMPING AROUND! Hand me a Gatorade, a bottle of Motrin, a revolver, and one bullet. Naw, I'm just kidding. I'm dog tired, but not at all hungover, with the exception of the general grogginess that comes after six beers

NY Eve Eudemon

This year's Times Square ball: __________ My most-recent at Catholic Exchange: Blessed Are the Flexible [http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/68534]. __________ My apologies, but the holidays are keeping me from full-blown blogging. I'm back in town now, but other commitments are keeping me hoppin'.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Never be downcast. For only one thing is fearful, and that is sin." St. John Chrysostom

Stuff for Saturday Morning

The newest exercise "craze" (that's a little strong, but so be it): open-water swimming [http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/50-ways-to-improve-your-life/2007/12/20/take-a-splash-in-the-hudson-river.html] . My wife will vouch for it. When we vacation up north, she loves to swim in Lake Huron (assuming the

The Friday Eudemon

Now that researchers have concluded that divorce is bad for the environment [https://thedailyeudemon.com/5826/], Theodore Dalrymple humorously asks [http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-12-27td.html]: > One of the interesting questions that this little piece of research poses is whether the environmentalist lobby will now throw itself behind

New Groeschel Book

My son Alex bought me a Benedict Groeschel book for Christmas: Spiritual Passages: The Psychology of Spiritual Development [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0824506286/thedailyeudem-20]. I've only read the first twenty pages, but so far it has all the markings of an Eric Classic, which I

Stephen and Christmas

When I was a kid, I was always depressed Christmas night and the day after, with my spirits gradually lightening as the new year approached. I don't get depressed anymore, not at all. It's odd, though: I intensely look forward to Christmas for a month, then

Something for Christmas Morning

"He is born poor, and he teaches us that happiness is not to be found in an abundance of earthly goods. He comes into the world without any ostentation, encouraging us to be humble and not to depend on the applause of men." Francis Fernandez

Christmas Eve

When I see stories like this [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/nyregion/23towns.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin] , I think even the New York Times can be redeemed. A wonderful tribute to Benedict Groeschel, a man whose podcasts have become one of the high

Something for Sunday Morning

"Another manifestation of humility is the avoidance of negative judgments about other people. The knowledge of our own weaknesses will prevent us from entertaining a bad thought about anyone, even if the words or conduct of the person in question give good grounds for doing so." Francis Fernandez

Emailers

If anyone tried to email me and didn't receive a response, please try again. Yahoo Mail put at least one apparently legitimate message in my spam/bulk folder. I had highlighted a batch of messages, hit delete, then saw that there were potentially-legitimate messages in there, but it

Saturday Stuff

Ah, Christmas weekend. A great thing, and the Tuesday Christmas is the best. I've informally polled my friends around town, and more than half of them aren't working Monday or their offices (like mine) are closed. It's a four-day weekend, so we get the

Huckabee and the Bigot?

I can't get this story off my mind: Mike Huckabee to speak at strongly anti-Catholic preacher's church [http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=11335]. I'm not fascinated that Huckabee is going there (though it concerns me–bigotry is bigotry, and for reasons explained

Brews You Can Use

Before diving into the suds, two thank yous: (1) My Amazon totals this month are very good, the best ever. I don't know if my credit will be enough to buy top notch Amish midget porn, but the totals are more than I reasonably hoped for. (2) Thanks

Light Thursday

The blitz at the office continues, though it is slowing down. I've been so busy, I missed my most-recent article at Catholic Exchange [http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/68248]. It went up yesterday. Here's an excerpt: > I work in the office with a guy named

The Wednesday Eudemon

Goodness gracious, so much for my expected relaxing slide into the holiday week. Frenzy has broken out at the office. Everyone wants to get their legal affairs finished before the holidays. I've never seen anything like it. It's common for this time of year to be

Hobbit Coming

Most righteous: Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement to make J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," a planned prequel to the blockbuster trilogy "The Lord of the Rings." [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071218/ap_en_ot/film_the_hobbit]

Tuesday Trifles

Science Confirms What Everyone Already Knew, Episode 1,204,093: Women want to marry rich men, a new study shows [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/12/scirmarr112.xml] . __________ Elton John to re-locate to Asia: Throughout Asia “there are on average more men than

Monday Miscellany

A lot of shoveling yesterday, and a lot of Doans today. My back is killing me and I'd rather stay home and take it easy, but the office calls. Fortunately, I have a very good chair ($1,000 chair that I got for $100 because the manufacturer put

Something for Sunday Morning

"A gloomy soul is at the mercy of many temptations." Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God

Stuff for Sporadic Saturday

Reminder: I don't blog on Saturdays. I haven't been for about three months. Though I've blogged every Saturday for the last three months, I'm not blogging on Saturdays. If that makes sense, you drank more beer than I did last night at

Spend All You Want, ESU: We Got You Covered

Praise the Wall Street Journal! It says something that nobody else wants to say: The federal government is driving up college tuition costs, to the detriment of middle-class families [http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010983]: > Tuition has risen about three percentage points faster than inflation every

Brews You Can Use

Put a fork in my head. Over two hours spent at the 6th, 7th, 8th grade and high school Christmas band concert. I swear the bulk of it was spent watching the different groups warm up. Limited time this morning, but a few things: The 12 Beers of Christmas [http:

Thursday Bites

Braver than me [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3026030.ece]: > An imam's daughter whose family threatened to kill her after she converted to Christianity at the age of 16 has told The Times that, because of her faith, she is not afraid to die.

The Wednesday Eudemon

What could possibly go wrong? > Asia's largest statue of Jesus Christ, measuring nearly 100 feet tall, has been unveiled in Manado, Indonesia [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=55281]. > Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, with almost 86% of Indonesians

Tuesday Trifles

Mass killers are atheists? That's what this popular and insightful blogger has observed [http://voxday.blogspot.com/2007/12/atheist-killers.html]: > Large-scale murder or small-scale slaughter, it's simply amazing how often these killers turn out to be explicit atheists, especially given the fact that they

Monday Miscellany

Planned Parenthood constantly sets the free sex and fewer children bar higher. Dawn Eden has assembled a great set of PP ads [http://www.dawneden.com/2007/12/ad-nauseam-part-1-around-world-with.html], like this one: I really like this one when juxtaposed against the one above: They love children, as long as

Something for Sunday Morning

"The first saints were shepherds." St. Augustine

Saturday Stuff

Pleasant evening Friday. Nothing was going on. I came home from work, tapped into a six pack of Fletcher Street Brewery [http://fletcherstreetbrewing.com/] Wheat Ale that my father brought back for me from Alpena, Michigan and read The Life You Save May Be Your Own [http://www.amazon.com/

Brews You Can Use

Ten unexpected uses for beer [http://www.gomestic.com/Homeowners/10-Unexpected-Uses-for-Beer.61788]. The list is a bit disturbing and irreverent of the beer gods, but it's interesting. Don't use real beer for any of these things. I recommend Budweiser. __________ I don't know how I

St. Nicholas, the Janitor Pianist, and Multitasking

December 6: St. Nicholas's feast day. John Zmirak writes everything you need to know [http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_real_st_nicholas/]. Excerpt: > The association of Nicholas with gift-giving isn't entirely arbitrary. Some of the earliest accounts of his life include the charming

The Wednesday Eudemon

I'm a little strapped for time again today. I took the three oldest boys to the high school basketball opener. It's "free" ($175 all-sports family pass), two of my boys love sports, the other was playing in the pep band, I know a few

Electronic Holy Cards

Commercialized? Yes. Crass? I don't think so. Bad? No [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071204/tc_nm/italy_saints_cellphones_dc]. > If you are a Catholic looking for a saint in heaven to protect you, you no longer have to carry a small "holy card.

PSA

A TDE Reader sends this along: > I thought you might be interested in watching the music video that a group of students from my local Catholic high school submitted to the Wells Fargo contest. Their video is in first place at this time. The winning video is to be

Tuesday Lite

Light day. I was on kid duty last night. We rushed through chores, prayers, teeth brushing, and everything else, so we'd be ready for The Year without a Santa Claus [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072424/]. Dancing and singing along to the best animated scene in Christmas TV

Monday Miscellany

The young-but-reliable-and-smart Nick Milne saw an advanced viewing of The Golden Compass. Here's his review [http://gentlefuss.blogspot.com/2007/12/film-review-golden-compass.html]. He also put together bullet points especially interesting to Catholics and sent it to Ignatius Insight [http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2007/12/a-report-on-the.html]

Something for Sunday Morning

"Slander is worse than cannibalism." St. John Chrysostom

Stuff for Saturday

Armaggedon cometh: The editor of Gilbert Magazine (the magazine I used to edit) is a punk rock fan. From a great post at his blog, The Blue Boar [http://theblueboar.blogspot.com/2007/11/punk-rock-and-chestertonian-thinking.html] : > Punk as a genre arose simultaneously in America and the UK, but there

Looking for Blogs

I have an odd request this time: I'm looking for the best Catholic blogs that don't get updated every day or even regularly. These might be hard to find, since irregular posting usually means low popularity. Still, if you know of a talented blogger out there

Brews You Can Use

A neat assortment of beer pictures [http://beerblog.genx40.com/a/christmasphoto] . The blogger says they're Christmas beer pictures, but the scope doesn't seem quite that narrow. __________ Conviviality's last stand. People may be bowling alone, but they're drinking together: The American Homebrewers

Polish Ad Controversy and Sundry

Ad controversy in Poland: The 30-second animated commercial depicts the Magi visiting the Christ Child, with a 4th wise man bearing Red Bull [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=55014]. The ad doesn't offend me, but doggone it, why must the corporate advertisers trivialize (and thereby

Black Wednesday Again?

It's not black because of drinking. It's black because Charter Communications has once again gone down. In all fairness to Charter, it's been months since it has gone down, but (i) if experience is an indicator, this crash portends a series of crashes over

Tuesday Trifles

The sterile environmentalists [http://quaffsandquibbles.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-will-they-think-of-next.html] . One of the top ten short (under 250 words) blog posts of the year. __________ Op-ed of the day: Families are good for cities and cities better be good to families [http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010911]

Monday Miscellany

Whew, whirlwind weekend. We went [the "w" alliteration ends now] to Detroit Thursday afternoon to see my wife's family: First a stop in Livonia at her aunt's, then to her parents' in Grosse Pointe Woods. Friday morning, Grosse Pointe parade, followed by a

Something for Sunday Morning

"Our actions have a tongue of their own; they have an eloquence of their own, even when the tongue is silent. For deeds prove the lover more than words." St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Something for Saturday Morning

Not using Catholic schools? Have you read the Church documents on the issue? I never had, except for a few stray sentences here and there. This article reproduces excerpts from the relevant documents [http://www.catholicexchange.com//en/node/67308]. I found it quite eye-opening. I knew the Church supported

Just a Few Things

Hey, it's the holiday season. Heck, it's Black Friday. If you're going to Amazon, please go through the link on this blog. I get a kickback. It really adds up. Last year, I was able to use my credits to buy four DVDs of

A Fine Essay

My favorite essayist, Joseph Epstein, a man whose books line my library and whose style I study (painfully realizing that my simple lack of comparable erudition makes me unable to emulate him) has written a good essay about Thanksgiving [http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010891]. It's not

Happy Thanksgiving

What a good year it's been. Plenty to be thankful for, little to be upset about. Here's the plate of quotes I like to present every year on this day: “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel

Brews You Can Use: Special Edition

They're [http://centerstage.net/bars/articles/thanksgiving-bars-and-clubs.html] beginning to call it "Black Wednesday [http://www.onmilwaukee.com/bars/articles/blackwed.html]," the biggest drinking night of the year, Thanksgiving Eve. The kids are home from college, the adults have four days off work. I'

Increased Traffic

My traffic almost doubled the last two days, but I can't figure out why: no new incoming links, the com boxes are slow, no email from someone saying he saw my blog linked at rosieodonnel.com. If you know why my traffic has jumped (besides the obvious: my

Monday Miscellany

It's been a brutal period at the office: worked until 8:00 Friday night, worked a few hours Saturday morning, brought work home with me, worked 90 minutes Sunday morning (a formerly-strict prohibition due to my desire to keep the Sabbath holy) and thirty minutes Sunday afternoon. On

Something for Sunday Morning

"Humility is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater danger than not fearing danger. When a person puts himself in an occasion of sin, saying, "I shall not fall," it is almost an infallible sign that he will fall, and with

Some Saturday Stuff

One of the more intriguing new blogs I've seen: Old World Swine [http://timothyjones.typepad.com/old_world_swine/] by artist Timothy Jones, whose interests include Catholic faith, fine art, hiking, camping, brewing, bread and cheese, the usual dead British suspects (Chesterton, Belloc, Tolkien, Lewis), old movies, and

Voicemail Etiquette and Brews You Can Use

I cracked open a Leinenkugels Sunset Wheat Thursday night as I prepared this morning's Brews You Can Use. I don't think I've had it before. Oh mahon! Good stuff. Highly recommended (though it might be out of season by now). It's been

Pullman and Other Items from The Atlantic

The December issue of The Atlantic Monthly has a feature piece about The Golden Compass [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200712/religious-movies]. Summary: Pullman's books are rabidly anti-Christian (the dark and murderous institution that pursues the protagonist is "the Magisterium"--subtle stuff), but Hollywood bent

Light Day

My wife and I went out to celebrate a small matter last night, and now I'm a bit groggy and doing nothing but looking forward to a 16-ounce energy drink at the office. Time is also scarce. Just one thing: Lowe's has apologized for referring to

Good Reception

Received in the mail: The Father Brown Reader [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0976638673/thedailyeudem-20]. Looks perfect for people who want some GKC (or want to introduce their children to GKC) without the occasionally-daunting GKC prose. Based on what I read, Nancy Carpentier Brown has done a nice

Monday Miscellany

Are you sleepy this morning! WAKE UP! with Larry Craig [http://heterodoxy.lustfulutterances.com/]. According to an email I received, he uses this saucy guy wannabe in addition to bathroom stalls. I have no idea if this link is legit, but if it is, it's further evidence that

Something for Sunday Morning

"According to many authors of spiritual books, progress in our life of piety depends a good deal on our recognition and understanding of our dominant defect. This is the defect that has the biggest influence on our behavior and thinking. It typically becomes evident in what we do, what

Some Stuff for Saturday Morning

Pornography is for fools and demons. That's one theme in the current issue of Catholic Men's Quarterly [http://www.houseonthemoor.com/]. It's filled with facts and anecdotes regarding the societal scourge. Congress obsesses over cigarettes [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071110/ap_on_

Looking for Blogs

I'm looking for holiday blogs. If you know of a blog that discusses a lot of "Christmasy" and "Adventy" (man, how queer does that sound?) stuff, please let me know. If you plan on hitting the Christmas and Advent themes hard this year, please

Brews You Can Use

Most of my morning was spent on the queer issue, so now I have little time for the really important stuff. Just two things: 1. A friend gave me a copy of Imbibe magazine. It's pretty good. Something for everyone: beer-drinkers, women, even the apple martini crowd. Link

On Civil Unions

I've never written about gay civil unions on this site, mainly because I don't have a firm opinion. But Rob in the Comments has asked me about civil unions and taking the state out of marriage, so I'll try to articulate my thoughts here.

A Mundane Topic

You ever wonder why lawyers bill like they do (e.g., by the hour, by the phone call, etc) and are reluctant to give away free advice, even to friends? I've spent a lot of time agonizing over billing practices, contemplating billable time, and attending seminars on billing

The New Atheists

One of the best pieces I've seen on the new atheists is a blog post at Fox News. Check it out [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,308183,00.html]. Excerpts: > The anti-God movement involves vacuuming the world of the outrageous idea – yes, that slavish, medieval,

Tuesday Trifles

And when we're done huffing this crap, we'll drink the bong water [http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/jenkem.asp]. Freaks. Smoking Gun story on same topic [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1105072jenkem1.html] . . . . A Mesa woman was arrested Saturday after police said she

Mass Length and Sundry Other

21. That's the number of clocks in my house. Ten of them re-set themselves automatically (computers, cell phones, and my clock radio), but the others required reaches and ladders, and one is a finer clock that can't be wound backwards. A small cross, this daylight savings

Something for Sunday Morning

"Charity may be a very short word, but with its tremendous meaning of pure love, it sums up man's entire relation to God and to his neighbor." St. Aelred of Rievaulx

A Leno

"The Atlanta International Airport is now considering shorter flushes in its bathrooms to help cope with the drought. Shorter flushes on their toilets. Or as Sen. Larry Craig calls that, speed dating."

Something for Saturday

"In the presence of the Gospel, Nietzsche's immediate and profound reaction was--it must be admitted--jealousy. It does not seem to me that Nietzsche's work can be really understood without allowing for that feeling. Nietzsche was jealous of Christ, jealous to the point of madness."

Brews You Can Use

This ongoing craze escaped my notice: pumpkin beer craze [http://www.kansascity.com/food/story/338950.html]. > Although the colonists, including President George Washington, made pumpkin beer, the seasonal brew essentially disappeared from brewers' repertoire. It wasn't until 1986 that Bill Owens, owner of Buffalo Bill&

Recovering

I feel a lot better today, but I'm still moving slowly and using all free time for sleep. I managed to take my children out for two of their four rounds of trick-or-treating last night. I had hoped to break the thousand mark, but fell shy. The totals:

The Flu

No Eudemon today. I have the flu or somethign terribly like it. Last year, my doctor said it's not uncommon for low grade viruses to dog a person off and on for weeks (he may have said months), with the severity of symptoms going up and down. I&

Drinking Book to Kooky Philosopher

Gotta get it: The Bad Catholic's Guide to Wine, Whiskey, And Song: A Spirited Look at Catholic Life and Lore from the Apocalypse to Zinfandel. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/082452411X/thedailyeudem-20] Only $10.17 at Amazon. __________ Taking the kids to The Golden Compass? Check out

Monday Miscellany

I stumbled across all sorts of interesting things this weekend: A cool Wikipedia entry on fictional portrayals of psychopaths in literature [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_portrayals_of_psychopaths_in_literature#Dostoyevsky.27s_Crime_and_Punishment_and_The_Possessed] ; The Crux Project's Denyse O'Leary'

Something for Sunday Morning

"Each person has a specific divine vocation. Every life that is lived without reference to the divine plan is wasted." Francis Fernandez

Administrative Saturday Morning

I finally got a chance to clean up my link list on the right. Dead links, blogs that haven't added fresh content in over six weeks, links not accessible without passwords, blogs that were recently updated to say "This blog is now closed." They're

The man who averted a nuclear holocaust

I guess this story came out last month [http://maltastar.com/pages/msfullart.asp?an=15214]. I missed it. One of the most amazing (and scary) things I've ever read. Via [http://dprice.blogspot.com/2007/10/commit-this-name-to-memory-stanislav.html].

Friday and Brews

My plans yesterday: Greektown Casino in Detroit with my brother, crash in Greektown, get up at 6:00 a.m. and be in Kalamazoo by 9:00 a.m. Friday. My day yesterday: Four Winds Casino [http://www.fourwindscasino.com/] in New Buffalo with my Dad, drinking club for a

Horror Article

I don't have much today. Long story short, I had an excellent day and evening planned today, but it fell through. I also didn't feel good yesterday and was exhausted at the end of the day. The result, I felt existentially lousy (some might call it

The Wednesday Eudemon

I missed this scary story last month: An 82-year-old Argentine woman who attracted media attention last month when she married a 24-year-old man has died as a result of heart problems. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7056672.stm] The article doesn't say what induced the

Tuesday Trifles

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as long as it's not beholden in Philadelphia: Philadelphia is home to the least attractive people in the United States, a survey of visitors and residents showed on Friday [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071022/od_nm/philadelphia_unattractive1_

Monday Miscellany

Don't live here: Dhaka, Bangladesh; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Shanghai and Tianjin in China; Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt; Mumbai and Kolkata in India; Jakarta, Indonesia; Tokyo and Osaka-Kobe in Japan; Lagos, Nigeria; Karachi, Pakistan; Bangkok, Thailand, and New York and Los Angeles. [http://news.

Something for Sunday Morning

"No one should be so active as not to seek the contemplation of God." St. Augustine

Something for Saturday

I don't know if I'm proud or embarrassed, but the description ain't unfair, though "one of the literati" is a stretch (ain't never read much of Melville or Conrad or a host of other of them fundermental reads): What Kind

Tornado and Brews

I crashed early last night, around 8:45, and zonked out. At 9:30, the town's tornado siren (which can also serve as a nuclear attack siren and 5:00 drinking time notice), went off. I helped bundle the three smallest downstairs, while yelling to the two middles

Rand

Charles Colson on the philosophy of Any Rand [http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/civilization/cc0247.htm]. It's a pretty good overview. A bit harsh, but not unfair. There is something obscene about Rand's philosophy (as I understand it), but it can't be denied that

The Wednesday Eudemon

All sorts of linkable material at Drudge right now: School plans to offer pill to middle school girls, and state law allows the girls to get it without parental consen [http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=140910&ac=PHnws] t (the confluence of demographics led to this result:

Multitasking, Blog Interviews, and One Costly Book

Multitasking hurts your memory, creates stress, and costs time. That, according to Walter Kirn in the current issue of The Atlantic. The piece is clever, but far too jumpy (I think he was using his prose style to analogize to multitasking), and he didn't present enough facts. Still,

Monday Miscellany

My favorite Belloc book: The Four Men. It's now available here [http://www.archive.org/details/fourmenfarrago00belliala]. Go to The Blue Boar to figure out how to find it [http://theblueboar.blogspot.com/2007/10/download-bellocs-four-men.html]. Intelligent observation from one of the commentators at The Blue Boar:

Something for Sunday Morning

"The Bible is a stream wherein the elephant may swim and the lamb may wade." St. Gregory the Great

Oxford American

I realize I'm not suppose to be blogging on Saturdays, but just one quick thing: If you want good writing, subscribe to Oxford American [http://www.oxfordamericanmag.com/]. I've been enjoying it for a little over a year. The newest issue came three days ago, and

Brews You Can Use

My monthly column is up at The Register and it's about beer: What's Brewing in the Blogosphere? [http://ncregister.com/site/article/6289/] Subscription required. Excerpt: > Most every well-read Christian has heard of the Inklings, the literary group that counted J.R.R. Tolkien and

Thursday Miscellany

Abby's Queer Eye Abby has come out strongly in favor of the gay movement [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071009/ap_on_re_us/dear_abby_gay_marriage]. Nothing post-worthy, since I've long considered her too vapid to swim against the political current and therefore

Drinking Club and Schall

The temperature was mild and skies sunny. I couldn't resist the temptation to hit the drinking club. Leaving the office at 3:30, I took a folder of work and sat on the patio with a tall Oberon. I only worked for about 20 minutes, but I drank

The Slow Eudemon and Hitler

I don't know if my wits are turned off ("Hey, Scheske, they're always off!") or if the stories on Internet are simply lame. Virtually nothing struck me as post-worthy (and it's not like I set the highest standards or anything). There are

Survival

I survived the weekend. It was rough. The universe's forces (m)aligned to make three days without my wife difficult: the temperature burst to 88 degrees, weekend events were delayed or started late (every parent with small children knows how a 20-minute delay is the equivalent of a

Something for Sunday Morning

"Our friends and acquaintances should find us increasingly welcome and open to them. We should become better and better able to make life pleasant for others. At times this will require sacrifice and mortification if we are to overcome moodiness and tiredness." Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God.

Ad

Hey, see that nifty ad on the right side? It's only $10 a month. The advertiser had to design the ad himself, but other than that, it's an easy and cheap way to reach over 2,000 different people a month. The next advertiser will go

Saturday

No fair: He gets all the publishing breaks: Jesus of Nazareth, the new book by Pope Benedict XVI, has already sold more than 2 million copies, the official Vatican publisher has announced [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=53975].

Hunker Down and Prepare for Battle

This is my weekend of fighting with the devil: Marie leaves first thing this morning and won't come home until late Sunday afternoon. She's inaccessible, except by a spotty cellphone that she normally can't hear. I have The Seven . . . and their functions: marching band

St. Francis' Day

On Monday, I referred to St. Therese Lisieux as "everyone's favorite saint." Foolish, and remarkably short-sighted, of me. That honor goes to today's saint: St. Francis of Assisi. The troubadour-turned-mendicant feast day is today, and everyone likes him, the holy and secular alike. He&

Rats in NY, Rats at CBS, Rats, Rats, Rats

"The jury found Thomas and Madison Square Garden sexually harassed Anucha Browne Sanders." [http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3046010&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines] Madison Square Garden? That makes the most brutal gang attack look tame. __________ Oh, those subtle types at the networks!

The Tuesday Eudemon

Columbia University has standards after all: It fires a professor who leaves an obscene note on another professor's door. Of course, the fired professor has a believable defense. People have mis-characterized his note: Besides, Hyams said, the note he wrote had said "Jack sucks donkey d---"

Monday Miscellany

Man, brutal weekend. Over five hours spent at the local youth athletic field on Saturday, then middle-kid duty for about six hours while my wife attended band and soccer functions at locations more than an hour away. I slept like a rock Saturday night, but woke up feeling like a

Something for Sunday Morning

"Modesty is praised in humans because it is not a matter of nature, but of will." Lactantius

Something for Saturday

> A man who bought a smoker Tuesday at an auction of abandoned items might have thought twice had he looked inside first. > Maiden police said the man opened up the smoker and saw what he thought was a piece of driftwood wrapped in paper. When he unwrapped it,

Brews You Can Use

Gorgeous evening at the drinking club. It was my first trip in over a month, work and kid obligations having kept me distracted from drinking chores. After 90 minutes there, I came home, opened a microbrew, and sat on the front porch with Marie and listened to a new Diana

Light Day

Meeting last night means little blogging today. I'm glad to see that Nepal is taking steps to stop nude mountain climbing [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2527933.html?menu=news.quirkies] because it offends the mountain god, and it's worth mentioning that everyone should

The Wednesday Eudemon

Things were better under the mob: Violent crime rose by more than 30% in Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County last year. That's according to the latest figures from the FBI, which show double digit increases in rape, robbery, and aggravated assault between 2005 and 2006. [http://www.

Tuesday Miscellany

Hand-cut swastika in a field of corn [http://www.nbc10.com/news/14193066/detail.html]. People are pretty worried. I find hate and wannabe haters boring. I am, however, impressed with the proportionate cut-job the Nazi clowns pulled off. Check out the picture at the site. __________ Okay, I'll

Monday Moanin'

Long weekend: Seven hours on the road for junior football games on Saturday, soccer game Sunday afternoon, marching band performance at football game Friday night. Monday is here. Celebrate good times. __________ I find this significant. B16 isn't exactly a guy who flits with the political climate and popular

Something for Sunday Morning

"As much as you watch over your mind carelessly, by so much you will become distant from Jesus." Hesychius of Jerusalem

Saturday Morning Stuff

Yeah, I know I'm not blogging on Saturday mornings anymore, but I ran across four (at least mildly) interesting things yesterday: Paul Johnson offers his list of England's Top Ten Cathedrals [http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0321.htm]. __________ The controversial Jason Whitlock offers his spin

Brews You Can Use

Drink one on the 30th in memory of Michael Jackson, the Beer Hunter [http://michaeljacksonthebeerhunter.blogspot.com/]. It's also a fundraiser, with proceeds going to the National Parkinson Foundation. I can't advise anybody to send money to NPF without knowing its position on fetal stem cells

Thursday Miscellany

Hey, I just learned that Rod Stewart and I have something in common: We both want to know if chicks want our bodies. Naw, just kidding: We both have seven children. Of course, he used serial polygamy to get his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Stewart#Relationships] and Rousseau-like

Spears Meteor

Was it a meteorite or a Britney Spears video? A meteorite has struck a remote part of Peru and carved a large crater that is emitting noxious odours and making villagers ill, according to local press reports. . . . Later the farmers complained of headaches and vomiting. Police who went to investigate

No Eudemon

Late night at the volunteer food booth again. No eudemon. Small consolation prize (which I suspect is fake):

The County Fair

No blogging today. It's County Fair Week, and I had to work at a charity food tent last night, and I'm working there tonight. It's kinda brutal for a guy who only makes money if he's at his desk, and it'

Quick-Hitting Monday Morning

Dog People, Episode 265,988 (perhaps the most wicked and disturbing episode yet): Dogs that are brought to the Bunter Hund cafe in the Austrian capital Vienna will be given special beer for canines, pretzels and traditional Bavarian veal sausage just like at the real Oktoberfest [http://www.ananova.com/

Something for Sunday Morning

"Each person is like that which he loves." St. Augustine

Something for Saturday Morning

Brews You Can Use

Not much today. I'm a little behind the time eight-ball because I took my wife to see Hairspray [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809751355/info] last night. I recommend it, though it's definitely more for yins. My local theater [http://strand4.com/] recently raised its ticket

Arabs and Britney

A reader of this blog is grappling with New Age-type nuns in her parochial school. She wrote to me, wanting to know if I could shed any light on these five things: 1) Children of Abraham 2) The Healing Circle 3) The Cosmic Walk 4) The Cosmic Voyage 5) Labyrinth

Wednesday Bullets

My daughter's soccer coach asked the girls to watch Team USA play in the FIFA Women's World Cup. I guess he hopes they pick up some pointers. It was better than I anticipated, but is the defining moment of women's soccer still the ripping

Britney to 9/11

Intelligent debate rages in the blogosphere: Is Britney's body kinda gross [http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070910/D8RIRN9O0.html]? I'm not joining the philosophical debate, but I have no tolerance for those who say her body shouldn't be criticized because she's had

Monday Miscellany

When I realized that I was going to have a large family, I looked forward to dropping five of them off at the local Catholic school every morning. Then, my parish ran into a string of bad luck (some of it self-induced) and the parish school started flagging. They shut

Something for Sunday Morning

"Truth is the property of God, before whom I wish to be entirely blameless." Synesius of Cyrene

Change of Schedule

This blog is officially shutting down . . . on Saturdays. I have four children with sporting events in three different cities today. The first game starts at 9:00 this morning at a city 30 miles away (we have to be there at 8:00). This is just Week One of the

Brews You Can Use and Miscellany

Apple is dramatically slashing the price of the iPhones [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070906/ap_on_hi_te/apple_ipods]. Many people who paid the inflated initial price feel cheated. Well, if you want to be on the cutting edge, you're going to get cut. You

No Catholic Beer Blogs?

I didn't receive a single recommendation for Catholic beer blogs. . . And with a Bavarian Pope on St. Peter's Chair! This is shameful. Are there no Catholic bloggers who blog about beer or beer bloggers who blog about Catholicism? I'll keep asking until I get

Goat Sacrifice to Lacrosse Player Sacrifice

Finally, a solution to terrorist hijacking: Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday [http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSEIC47086020070905?feedType=RSS&feedName=

Scrambling

My family's fantasy football draft was last night. It didn't take too long, but I'm still scrambling to get in sync with the kids' new school schedules. Just a few things. Jerry Lewis is in trouble for saying "fag." [http://www.

Tuesday Blurbs

Summer is over. The kids start school today, and things return to normal. Thing is, I kinda like it when things aren't normal, especially when it means my days aren't sandwiched between getting the kids to school and getting home in time for children's

The Labor Day Eudemon

Not much today. After writing on Saturday morning that I was going to relax, four U of M tickets fell into my lap. I gathered up two of my boys and my nephew, then sped to Ann Arbor for the historic game. It was painful . . . but funny. Oddly enough, Michigan

Something for Sunday Morning

"It is absurd and disgraceful for one to live magnificently and luxuriously when so many go hungry." St. Clement of Alexandria (And lest you think Clement was a kill-joy early Socialist, he was one of the first thinkers to say that Jesus's harsh instructions to the

The Weekend Eudemon

College football kicks off big time today. It's a glorious day, and my alma mater picked a I-AA team for its opener. Kind of embarrassing. Thing is, Appalachian State has won the last two I-AA championships [http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2007/08/appalachian_state_is_

Brews You Can Use

The WSJ devoted an entire online article (with 2-minute video documentary) to the rise of beer pong [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118834341517511527.html?mod=hpp_us_editors_picks] . I've always loved drinking games, but this one has never appealed to me. I guess I'm getting

Football Quotes

Football starts tonight. A friend sends these along. I can't vouch for the authenticity, but they're pretty good. My apologies for any awkward formatting, but I don't have time right now to straighten them out. "At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat.

Out Again

I took the family to Cedar Point [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_Point], America's best amusement park, yesterday. The kids had a great time (rode 14 rollercoasters, some more than once), but we didn't get home until midnight. I'm dragging, and I have

The Light Eudemon

I'm beckoned out of town, so I have no time to blog. I will mention, though, that Drudge cracked me up with this Idaho Senator headline: Terror in the Toilets [http://www.drudgereport.com/].

The Tuesday Eudemon

The memorial of St. Augustine. I wrote an article for Catholic Exchange two years ago, but I can't find it online anymore. If you want to see it, I've saved it as a separate page on this blog. Go here [https://thedailyeudemon.com/?page_id=5693]

Polka Infiltrates

Rock polka? Motown polka? Yeah, it exists, though people don't believe me. I see it in Frankenmuth every year, and now I can prove it: If you want some Polka Pink Floyd, go here [http://www.myspace.com/polkafloyd]. It's a slow news day and I

Something for Sunday Morning

On apologetics: "Is there anything more lamentable than a teacher whose only way of saving his pupils is to tell them not to heed the life of the one speaking to them?" St. John Chrysostom

The Weekend Eudemon

The rain won't stop and we're supposed to get more. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like this in southwest Michigan. It stopped yesterday from about 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., which is ironic since the high

Brews You Can Use

Not much today. I'm off work and hope to get some serious writing done . . . in addition to going to Mass, attending tonight's high school football opener with my football-wild sons, helping with my daughter's birthday party (she became a teenager yesterday; she hasn'

The Biden Pope?

The Pope is has been talking a lot about St. Gregory Nazianzus [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=53059]. He must've seen my biographical sketch of the saint years ago [http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Faith/2000-7-8/scheske.html]. I hate it when my stuff

The Dalai Pope

Why does the Left love the Dalai Lama but despise the Pope? Maybe it oughtta be the other way around. Via The Dawn Patrol [http://www.dawneden.com/2007/08/lama-vs-papa.html]:

Die Hard

Hand me an angioplasty. I went to the movies three times in the past seven nights: I took our out-of-town teenage company to see Bourne Ultimatum last Wednesday, my son Alex to see The Simpsons on Sunday, and my wife to see Live Free or Die Hard last night. I

Quick-Hitting Eudemon

Well, isn't that pleasant: The safety problems affecting Chinese goods spread from toys to textiles on Monday as New Zealand said it would investigate allegations that imported children's clothes contained dangerous levels of formaldehyde [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f66851fc-4f48-11dc-b485-0000779fd2ac.html]. "Dad, these

Blog Column

My most-recent blog column at The Register is up, and I don't think you need a password to access it [http://ncregister.com/site/article/3428/]. Excerpt: > The army of half-read books in my study has prompted me to think a lot about the problem of information

Picture Tour of Europe

I don't know why he did it, but Jeffrey Smith at The New Roving Medievalist posted a picture tour of Europe yesterday [http://medievalist2.blogspot.com/]. It's great, one of the best assortment of pictures I've ever seen. It made me think: What other

Something for Sunday Morning

"I do not succeed in comprehending all that I am." St. Augustine

Looking for Blogs

I'm looking for Catholic bloggers that aren't afraid to display a side of themselves that might grate against traditional Catholic sensibilities: the type that write about their drinking exploits, use vulgar language, talk about pretty women, or otherwise display a bit of pre-conversion Augustinianism. Post them

Prepare for Hillary

Michael Rozeff at Lew Rockwell says the signs point to a Hillary presidency and it won't be pretty [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff163.html]. Be afraid, be very afraid. Excerpts: > Hillary Clinton is more and more likely to become the next President of the United States.

The Weekend Eudemon

Seasickness [http://www.seasickness.co.uk/] is pretty brutal. I'd heard that many times, and Waugh's references to it in Brideshead Revisited stand out for some reason, but I experienced it for the first time yesterday. One of my law partners leases 30-foot sail boats on

Prisons to Beer

This article about the prison system got a lot of attention this week [http://bostonreview.net/BR32.4/loury.html]. Part of it is nauseating ("We're hard on criminals because they're black"), but the writer raises legitimate issues and provides interesting facts. Excerpt: >

Thursday

I believe it: A "drain hole" in the St. Clair River caused by dredging and other commercial projects is costing Lakes Huron and Michigan a combined 2.5 billion gallons of water each day, according to a Canadian study released Tuesday [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,

The Wednesday Eudemon

Not much today. I went to Bourne Ultimatum yesterday. I'd give it a 7. The sure-eyed Greydanus raves about it [http://www.decentfilms.com/sections/reviews/bourneultimatum.html], but I was a bit less impressed, though I thoroughly enjoyed it (note: trust Greydanus, not me). The current issue

Expresso to Beatniks

Why beer is better than coffee, Point 134: A teenage waitress overdosed on caffeine after drinking 14 shots of espresso [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/dietfitness.html?in_article_id=475021&in_page_id=1774&ICO=HEALTH&ICL=TOPART] . The link features a

The Monday Eudemon

A sad day: Merv Griffin died [http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8QVIV803&show_article=1]. Quite frankly, I barely remember his talk show, though I remember seeing it growing up. My most vivid memory: Kramer buying the old Merv Griffin set [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Something for Sunday Morning

Learn to depend on God alone and serve Him with a wholly pure and detached heart. Then you will be able to say 'I do not regret that I have given myself up to Love.' St. Edith Stein

The Weekend Eudemon

Day trip to Frankenmuth for the Summer Music Festival [http://www.frankenmuthfestivals.com/?page_id=4]. Beer and polka music, both of which are best enjoyed in moderation, but this trip makes it hard to be moderate in either. There's music and beer everywhere. Of course, seven children

Brews You Can Use

Now you're just taking all the fun out of beer: 1st International Brewers Symposium Hop Flavor and Aroma [http://www.mbaa.com/ibs/program.htm]. __________ Pretty neat site: Here's to Beer [http://herestobeer.com/]. You have to input your age (prove you're over 21)

The Quick-Hitting Eudemon

Yikes, Michigan has lots of pikes: A lake in Austria has been closed to swimmers because a giant pike nicknamed 'jaws' has been putting the bite on bathers. [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2455000.html] It's a pretty scary fish, as far as fresh

Swamped

Out of the vacation frying pan and into the work fire. I'm swamped at the office and have no time for blogging. A few quick things: For those who missed it, Amy Welborn closed Open Book [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/]. Quite shocking. She brought in nearly 4,

Hate Metric? Hate Bonds?

Over at Chesterton and Friends [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2007/08/summer-slow-down.html], the editor of Gilbert Magazine, Sean Dailey, made the following observation about the metric system: > The metric system was developed by French Enlightenment dullards and is tailor-made for athiests: none of the measurements are divisible by

The Return Eudemon

My paternal grandfather came to the United States in 1913, before WWI and the Bolsheviks taking over. He came from a German colony in Russia. He floated into Baltimore, then went to Cleveland, learned the trade of a tool and die maker, and moved to Detroit and worked non-stop during

Something for Sunday Morning

"Arrogance and boldness belong to those who are accursed of God." St. Clement I of Rome

Something Religious for Saturday Morning

Good Christians are many, if it weren't for all those people: the whiners, the manipulators, the crooks, the liars, the heretics, the greedy. But Christ put up with all of them and remained sinless. The Bible recounts the disciples's buffoonery and selfishness, yet Christ communed with

A Writer's Random Thought

There is an amiable muse and a mordant muse. I'm not sure which should be indulged more. The amiable muse is more edifying; the mordant muse, more entertaining.

Thursday's Random Thought

Simone Weil once wrote, "In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention." If multi-tasking cripples the power of attention, does it also cripple humility, the first of the virtues, and its close sibling, concern for the other?

A Random Thought

Every unkind thought reflects a defect in my soul, which is connected to my mind, which is connected to my brain. Therefore, how can I ever be sure that my unkind thought is accurate? And if I'm not sure it's accurate, shouldn't I keep

A Jesuit Celebration

Some of you may have guessed that my computer access is limited this week (the different style of posts is your hint), but I wanted to take a moment and pass along this email from a reader: > July 31st is the feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of

The Disco Scene?

I couldn't help it. When I read this passage from The New Book of Lists, I immediately thought of the vertical foreplay in American discos circa 1978: > Hippos have their own form of aromatherapy. They attract mates by marking territory, urinating and defecating at the same time.

Monday Thought

There is an invisible and subtle aspect of existence. It's the arena where morality is spawned, virtue cultivated, and the essence of things seen. It's not susceptible to scientific proof, logic, or even common sense. Some might call it “spiritual,” and that is partly appropriate for

Something for Sunday Morning

"God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination." St. Augustine

Military Economics

In 1944, American GI's complained about the high prices charged by French prostitutes. In an official brochure issued by the U.S. Army, 112 Gripes about the French, the Army responded: "the prices are the result of supply and demand. The prices in question are in direct

Friday

Not sure I see the big deal: "Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die . . . [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,290840,00.html]". If you put me in a Kennedy mansion, I'd have

Light Eudemon

Late meeting last night, no blogging today. I did, however, run across this interesting article about England's unkind review of its favorite sons, the Beatles, back in 1967. [http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20070723/D8QICGPO0.html] > "Have we nothing better to offer? Surely this isn'

The Wednesday Eudemon

I know nothing about this, and I'm painfully aware that I might be furthering some sort of hoax, a scam, or (horror of horrors) stupidity, but I feel compelled to at least mention it:"Pro-Life Breakthrough [http://www.prolifebreakthrough.com/]." I offer the link "as

Tuesday Miscellany

I got excited, then quickly dejected: Family-friendly sports cars [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/070628/28famsportscars.intro.htm] . Finally, a cool-looking vehicle for my seven children and wife. No such luck. They all max out at two children. Obvious case of discrimination, but I'm not sure

Monday Inanity

The Armaggedon of Inanity is upon us: Rock Paper Scissors has become a competitive sport, likeTexas Hold 'Em Tournaments, Text-Messaging Championships, and Speed Toilet Wiping (it's coming, I'm sure). People, like this writer [http://www.utne.com/issues/2007_142/features/12605-1.html], are taking

Something for Sunday Morning

"Riches are not forbidden, but the pride of them is." St. John Chrysostom

The Weekend Eudemon

Baseball last night, baseball today, maybe baseball tomorrow. The good thing is, the games are being held in a heavily-Catholic town just twelve miles down the road that is also holding its annual Polish festival. I'll probably be able to sneak in a confession and six cheese perogies

Light Again

As warned, blogging continues to be light. I don't even have time for my favorite feature: Brews You Can Use. Late night, deadline, a pro bono client, little league baseball tournament. The list goes on. If time permits, I'll log something later today, but for now,

The Light Eudemon

I prepare for morning golf. I'm a bit tired, but not remotely hungover. My wife thought she broke her foot yesterday evening, so I had to cut-off my beer drinking to take her to the hospital for x-rays. She didn't break it, but the drinking hiatus

The Quick-Hitting Eudemon

It's a nice movie, but this could prompt me to put a bullet in my head: "A TV channel screening The Sound of Music [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2422087.html] non-stop has been launched in Salzburg where the movie was filmed. The Julie Andrews

The Tuesday Eudemon

I like it, I like it a lot: A former prison near Medellin, Colombia will soon be reopened as a Benedictine monastery, according to local officials [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=52397]. It triggers thoughts on all sorts of levels: redemption, cloistered, prison of flesh . . . __________ I caught

Monday Moanin'

So I'm doing some random surfing Sunday evening (our house was filled with 11 children, and my study is sequestered in a quiet corner of the basement), and I ran across a list of 25 promising occupations. I clicked on "clergy" and discovered that the median

Something for Sunday Morning

"If a vessel is to be filled, it must first be empty. So cast all evil away from you, that you may be filled to the brim." St. Augustine

The Weekend Eudemon

Three Philosophers [http://www.ommegang.com/index.php?mcat=1&scat=4] jolted my taste buds late Friday afternoon. I wasn't sure whether it was nasty or good, but I knew right away it was a beer to be sipped, not gulped greedily (though, if bad, perhaps

The Drinking Eudemon

When I'm staring at a dry weekend, it's hard to do the Brews You Can Use, but that's not the case today. A brutal week at the office gives way to a light weekend. I have to work a little bit today and a

(Untitled)

With apologies, another short post. Work is simply monopolizing all my time. One short story from five days ago [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2039932.ece]: > With donations to the Church from around the world almost doubling and pilgrims pouring into Rome in ever-greater numbers, Vatican

The Wednesday Eudemon

So the Pope has riled non-Catholics with his new document that says Protestants don't have real churches [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288841,00.html]. I don't pretend to be a theologian, but I'm not sure I fully (partly, but not fully)

Grammar Question

I saw this AP story [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070710/us_nm/simpsons_contest_dc] about towns called "Springfield" competing to get The Simpson's premier opening. > But in the series' 18-year history it has never been clear which of the 34 Springfield&

The Stunted Eudemon

Another short post. Sometimes life throws you curve balls, other times it hits you in . . . nevermind. Just a few quick things: Looking for a witch at retail? The EU has 'em [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2407698.html], courtesy of freaky Romania. And they're good-looking

Motu Propio

Well, now that B16 has declared that Catholics should have greater access to the old Latin Mass [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=52234], I suppose I should offer some sort of commentary. Disclaimer: Regular readers may notice that I rarely comment on liturgical issues. The reason: I&

Something for Sunday Morning

"It is not good to look at what it is not lawful to desire." St. Gregory the Great

The Baseball Eudemon

It's baseball time. Jack's (11) regular season ended, but now he's playing on his league's junior All-Star team (first-year players, for the most part) and representing our town against other towns in the area. Today, he has games at 1:00 and

The Friday Eudemon

It's the feast day of the patron saint of people against pornography: St. Maria Goretti [http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=78]. A good-looking twelve-year-old, she was attacked by a man whose imagination had been inflamed by looking at the (compared to today's

The Thursday Eudemon

So, my fourteen-year-old jock nephew Dan Scheske enters a July Fourth three-on-three basketball tournament in Topeka, Indiana [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topeka,_Indiana], a podunk town with a lot of Amish people, situated about thirty minutes from my house. He gets there and sees a bunch of Amish boys

Happy Fourth

I hope everyone has a good Fourth of July. I'll spend the bulk of mine at the office, a payback for my extended leave. You know you're busy when you're looking forward to working on a holiday because "the phone won't

The Tuesday Eudemon

I'm surprised there aren't more stories of such confusion [http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22009028-5012895,00.html]: > A bouncer at a popular restaurant in Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighbourhood ejected a lesbian customer from the women's bathroom after

Kirk

Russell Kirk is back in the news [http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2007/07/russell-kirks-c.html]. The news centers around a debate about his religious beliefs. Whatta great opportunity for my egotistical self to post a link to my article about the matter [http://www.touchstonemag.com/docs/issues/16.

The Eudemon Returns

If you hadn't surmised, I was on vacation last week. I won't bore you with details, but I will bore you with pictures and bullet narrative. Thursday, June 21, 2007 A multi-million-dollar business closing got postponed, so I left the office at noon, cleaned the house

Something for Sunday Morning

"Obedience is, in a way, the mother of all virtues." St. Augustine

Saturday

> [W]hen George Plimpton [acting on behalf of the NEA] paid Aram Saroyan $1,500 for a poem consisting of a single misspelled word "lighght," an Iowa congressional aide dared to ask the dilettantish Plimpton what the poem meant. "You are from the Midwest. You are

Some Belloc

The last half of the Chesterbelloc isn't nearly as quotable as the first half, but if I had to pick the book with most quotables, it'd be The Path to Rome. “[I]f there is difficulty it is in the whole launching of a thing, in

Brews You Can Use

My time away from a computer continues. Only two quick BYCUs today: 1. Drive Beer [http://www.drivebeer.com/]. Only 2.5% alcohol. MADD to endorse? 2 [http://www.buffalonews.com/145/story/105406.html]. > You put the 20-ounce cup under the tap but instead of pulling a lever,

Something for Book Nerds

Geilor von Kaysersberg, writing in the early sixteenth century, divided bookish folly into seven types: 1. The fool who collects books for the sake of glory. 2. The fool who wants to grow wise by the consumption of too many books. 3. The fool who collects books without truly reading

The Slow Week Continues

Hilaire Belloc, commenting on the 21st-century euthanasia debate: > It is worth noting, by the way, that the most sentimental people, who are loudest against the right to wage a just war, to execute a criminal, are just the people who are most likely to be in favour of '

Catholics for Ron Paul

A new blog site [http://catholicsforronpaul.blogspot.com/].

Ron Paul: Radical

He says radical things in an appealing way. Most intriguing [http://blog.lewrockwell.com/lewrw/archives/013772.html]. I suspect he's the best shot we've had in 75 years to get a new philosophy into federal government.

The Thousand

1,000 films to see before you die [http://film.guardian.co.uk/1000films/0,,2108487,00.html]. I'll be lucky to see 50 of them, but it's a pretty neat list so far.

Candid Tuesday

You don't often see this type of candor anymore: > I was sufficiently ebullient to consume half a bottle of brandy after dinner. On the way back from dropping off the babysitter I drove our car into the side of a telephone pole. My wife was already safe

Something for Monday Morning

"The Lord our God hates the slothful. None of those who are dedicated to God ought to be idle." Anonymous (From Teaching of the Twelve Apostles)

Something for Sunday Morning

"I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire." St. Ignatius of Antioch

Something for an Otherwise-Distracted Day

But America has no porn problem: > Hard-core videos now cater to almost every conceivable predilection--and to some that are hard to imagine. There are gay videos and straight videos, bondage videos and spanking videos, tickling videos, interracial videos, and videos like Count Footula, for people whose fetish is feet.

Brews You Can Use

Nothing but drinking posts. Which fits my plans for the next couple of days: How to make wine out of common household items [http://www.warpbreach.com/6/6.html]. __________ Just in time for summer, but of course, the 18th-amendment lovers aren't happy [http://www.wtop.com/?nid=

Account from South Carolina

A long-time friend moved to South Carolina. He's a mortician. He got the call to pick up one of the firefighters killed in the tragedy earlier this week. This is his email: > I went to the Medical University today to pick up our guy. It was unreal.

Quick-Hitting Eudemon

For whatever reason, my comment boxes have been disabled. We're working on it. __________ On rednecks [http://www.lewrockwell.com/reed/reed129.html]. Excerpt: > Rednecks, as Bageant explains in detail, are dumber than dirt. They're not bad people. You can heist a brew with them and

The Wednesday Eudemon

Rosie is looking at "The Price is Right." [http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-rosieweb19jun19,0,5100712.story] Maybe she's interested in those backstage perks that Bob was rumored to enjoy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Barker#Legal_issues]. __________ Kinda neat: Catholic Business Owners

Sinai and Station Wagons

I assume most everyone has seen this, but I feel obliged to at least mention it here: The Vatican has issued a ten commandments for drivers [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_road_rage]. My commentary is in italics. 1. You shall not kill.

The Tuesday Eudemon

A teenager in intensive care unplugged his neighbour's life support machine because the noise was keeping him awake [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2381098.html?menu=news.quirkies]. How can a guy in intensive care do that? I thought people in intensive care were in the

Return to Monday

I want the drinking age lowered [https://thedailyeudemon.com/5527/], but this [http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8PPES2O0&show_article=1] is a bit much: > A toddler who was served a margarita at a restaurant earlier this week is doing well, and investigators say the incident

Something for Sunday Morning

"Take care never to speak what you have not weighed and pondered beforehand; nor interject your own words on the spur of the moment and in the midst of another's; for you must listen and converse in turn, with set times for speech and for silence."

Abbreviated Eudemon

Busy weekend: deadlines looming, more office work, Father's Day festivities (it ought to be "Father's Day Month," so I can work in all the events). If you're looking for Father's Day stuff, here are two links: Catholic Men's

Friday Post

A reader just sent along this link [http://www.tcrnews2.com/]: Traditional Catholic Reflections. Pretty neat. __________ Teachers handed out mock certificates of achievement to sixth grade students [http://www.nbc10.com/education/13495112/detail.html]. They were vicious: "Most Likely Not To Have Children" and "Sir Clowns-a-Lot.

Quick-Hitting Eudemon

Fat rant: A woman videos herself, saying it's okay to be fat, and now she's the darling of YouTube [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,281655,00.html]. Why is this news? Is it a coincidence that such a rant is popular in a culture

No Eudemon

Worked 7:30 to 8:30 yesterday. Today promises another 12-14 hours. No time for anything, including blogging. I did see today is the memorial of St. Anthony Padua. Realizing I know little about him, I looked him up in the Penguin Dictionary of Saints. I found this interesting: >

No Hitter!

Justin Verlander becomes the first Tiger to throw a no-hitter at Comerica Park [http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=270612106]. Perhaps it bodes well for the Tigers. The last time a Tiger threw a no-hitter, the Tigers won the World Series. List of no-hitters throughout history [http://sports.

Ron Paul

One reason I haven't jumped on the Ron Paul ship is because I'm not sure he's a legitimate candidate (why spend time reading up on him, if there's no way he'll get the nod?). That might now change: > Congressman

Last Day of School

The punks find freedom today. Four of them have half a day, one has a whole day, and two don't know what the fuss is about but they feel the excitement. It'll be a logistical nightmare: after-school party, paper route, baseball game, overnighter. I'll

More Sopranos Fall-out

Deadline Hollywood Daily [http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/thats-what-we-were-waiting-for-angry-fans-crash-hbo-website/] . Excerpt: > Apparently, my extreme reaction was typical of many series' fans: they crashed HBO's website for a time tonight trying to register their outrage. HBO could suffer a wave of cancellations as a result. (Already, the pay channel&

Welborn on Sopranos

Amy understands fiction, and she has done a good job of breaking down last night's final episode of The Sopranos. [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/2007/06/cut_to_black.html#more] She dismisses Kathryn Lopez's explanation [http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmFmNDA0MTkxY2I0NDM5MjdjOTA0Yzc1OWNhYTkzYTc=] (to wit,

Picture Monday

Not a lot of time for blogging today. I watched the final episode of The Sopranos last night. It stunk. This blogger (widely considered one of the most insightful of Soprano experts) liked it [http://blog.nj.com/ledgerentertainment/2007/06/dont_stop_believing.html], but I thought it was

Something for Sunday Morning

> We must nourish a great love for God and our neighbors; a strong love, an ardent love, a love that burns away imperfections, a love that gently bears an act of impatience, or a bitter word, a love that lets an inadvertence or act of neglect pass without comment,

The Weekend Eudemon

I haven't read much about the Paris Hilton ordeal (one story and 192 headlines), and I'm not going to add to the drollery here, except simply to add: Despite my disgust for Paris Hilton, I always had a hunch that, underneath the whoredom, there was a

Ignorance, Tigers, and Brews You Can Use

I watched one of the scariest TV programs ever last night: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader [http://fox.com/areyousmarter/]? The level of ignorance in our country is astounding (but see my speculation below). Last night featured a high school history teacher, a "rocket scientist," and

Thursday Hits

You know you're getting old when you get excited about the sleeping weather, but, man, that was good sleeping weather last night: 55 degrees, strong wind blowing in. I could've out-slept Rip Van Winkle. __________ The Canutes suffered a setback yesterday [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.

The Wednesday Eudemon

Why do they wear green jackets at Augusta National? A writer for Golf Digest thinks it might be the result of Bobby Jones' conversion to Catholicism and love of G.K. Chesterton. Check out the story here [http://golfdigest.com/search/index.ssf?/majors/masters/gw20070330whygreen.html] . Excerpt: >

The Tuesday Eudemon

I have little time for blogging (up late partying with IRS Private Letter Rulings). Just a few things: I find it amusing that people in my demographic (middle age, middle class) grump at teenagers for blaring their car stereos. The bouncing rap car that's gone in 45 seconds

Monday Miscellany

The travel season starts soon. Instead of posting Public Service Announcements about when I'll be gone, I'm just going to pre-program my posts. The posts will be sundry passages from my reading and short essays that aren't tied to any current events or news

Something for Sunday Morning

"Do not be swept away by temper, nor by sluggish speaking, nor nervous in movement. May your bearing appear something divine and sacred." St. Clement of Alexandria

The Weekend Eudemon

Web things must slow down when the weather gets nice. This is the third spring/summer in a row that TDE traffic has dropped in May. I brought in about 10,200 visitors in May, 10,500 in April, and 11,000 in March, a dropping traffic rate that is

Friday

The week nears an end, and it's been a rough one, its mere four days notwithstanding. I end it today with my firm's annual meeting, then a baseball game. The baseball game is a quotidian thing, except for the holiday weekends: T, W, Th, F, T,

(Untitled)

Reminder: I'm looking for blogs that emphasize a geographic region (Southern Appeal would've been the perfect example, but it has shut down). I'm also looking for groups of blogs that coalesce around a certain region. Stella Borealis (group of Minnesota blogs) is a perfect

The Quick-Hitting Eudemon

This is nothing. Many Americans sleepwalk their entire lives away: American doctors are preparing to chill volunteers into a state of suspended animation that could keep them asleep for months. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1845294.ece] __________ First I read about the reverse scam artists that

Tuesday Funny

Everyone needs a hero, and I've found mine: The scam baiters, a cadre of funny reverse scam artists who intellectually flail the Nigerian 419 scam artists. This is a must read [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200706/cyberscam]. Unfortunately, I don't know if you need a

GKC's Birthday

It's GKC's birthday. If you missed it, the guys at Chesterton and Friends put on a great tribute to the big guy last year. Smokin' Joe Tremblay has provided a recap. Check it out [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2007/05/happy-birthday-133.html].

Light Eudemon

Not much time for blogging and the Internet has a dearth of decent blogging material. I offer merely the following: Woman gets drunk and hurts herself. A doctor in the emergency room (with an obvious strong paternalistic streak, but within propriety, as far as I'm concerned) gave a

Memorial Day Eudemon

Web traffic drops drastically during the holidays, so I'm not terribly inclined to spend time putting together a great post ("Hey Scheske, you never put together a great post!"), but here are a few things: Are pro-abortion Catholics Catholic? Of course. Canon lawyer Ed Peters explains

Something for Sunday Morning

"The person who is dedicated to Christ is equally earnest in small things as in great." St. Jerome

Regional Blogs

I'm looking for blogs that emphasize a geographic region (Southern Appeal would've been the perfect example, but it has shut down). I'm also looking for groups of blogs that coalesce around a certain region. Stella Borealis [http://northlandcatholic.blogspot.com/] (group of Minnesota blogs)

The Weekend Eudemon

Baseball and beer, again. Michael's (8) game finished about 25 minutes early, so we picked up a pizza and went home and drank beer on the porch. A friend joined us for about two hours. A pleasant evening. I drank a handful of Oberons. They went down very

Memorial Day Weekend Drinking Edition

Did I say I was taking a vacation day? Fat chance. I'm heading into the office again this morning. Another rush job. This one is for a friend who is moving back to town, so I don't mind much, but I also have another project that

Ready-to-Relax Eudemon

Whew, 13 and-a-half hour day yesterday: 7:30 to 9:00. Work, meetings, kids baseball. The kids baseball isn't work, but it feels like it when you're in a suit and it's 88 degrees. Things should slow down considerably today, but it ain'

The Wednesday Eudemon

Three coach-pitch baseball games in three days. That's brutal. The first one is tonight. I'll miss part of it because my other son has a pitching lesson scheduled. I must attend in order to figure out why he's not throwing like Nolan Ryan yet.

Scrambling

Nearly four hours at the ball diamond last night and now the Van Morrison [http://www.superseventies.com/sw_domino.html] effect in in full swing: late dinner, late bedtime, late wake-up, late start to blogging. A few quick things is all I have time for: Underwear to protect your

Monday Morning

I have a couple of rough days ahead, but I'm taking off Friday, three of my kids will be gone for the Memorial Day Weekend (three days with their grandparents), and I plan to have plenty of leisure. Just give me strength to get through these next four

Something for Sunday Morning

"When you feel the assaults of passion and anger, then is the time to be silent as Jesus was silent in the midst of His ignominies and sufferings." St. Paul of the Cross

PSA

Email from Dawn Eden [http://www.dawneden.com/blogger.html] to Dale Ahlquist who forwarded it to me: > I'm happy to report that going to be on Gus Lloyd's "Seize the Day" show this Monday on Sirius Catholic Chanel at 6:40 a.

The Weekend Eudemon

Michigan Week is here. All sorts of functions in my small town, the official celebration "Kick Off" city. My family is only attending the parade (I'll do more later this week). Last night, we had a baseball game for Jack (10) and out-of-town company arrived. We

Friday Morning

My favorite blogging day of the week, and I'm punting. It's 5:30 a.m., and I'm heading to the office in about thirty minutes. A few quick things: I have my recreational blogs lined up, but I need one more: Please send me

Two Things

Two things I meant to mention in my morning post: 1. Better late than never: My most-recent blog column in The Register: [http://ncregister.com/site/article/2398] Hipness in the Catholic Blogosphere. Registration required, but here's an excerpt: > Although it might be difficult to find many

The Thursday Eudemon

It's the Solemnity of the Ascension under the traditional calendar, the Pistons play the Bulls tonight, and I have non-stop meetings today from 8:30 this morning through 6:30 tonight (at which point I get to attend Michael's baseball game). So much, so much. I

Spidered Out

No blogging this morning. I went to see Spider-Man 3 last night. I'd give it a five. I'm not bummed I went, but it's too long (the same thing happened with SM2; there was an urge to scream, "Move it along!"). The

Recreational Blogs

I'm looking for "recreational blogs" for my Register column. Please let me know if you or anybody else writes regularly or frequently about recreational pursuits: travel, reading, gambling, beer, sports, gardening, whatever. I'm flexible. Post them below or send me an email (link on

The Maimed Eudemon

Anybody else having troubles with the Internet today and yesterday? All sorts of pages refuse to load and my connection keeps going down, at least at home, where I use Mozilla's Firefox. Everyone I know says Firefox is the greatest, but I'm beginning to think it&

Monday Moanin'

A potentially-brutal week awaits me, the type of week that requires a heavy bout of Monday morning drinking. A few quick things before my pain starts. Get me on that jury, and that girl will walk away wealthy [http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/383097,CST-NWS-broke13.article]: > A suit

Something for Sunday Morning

"He is poor, who, although he has much, desires more." Minucius Felix

The Weekend Eudemon

Baseball and beer. A Tigers game? Nope, it was son Jack's team getting shellacked in little league, then my wife and I christening our new outdoor furniture with a few Oberon [http://www.bellsbeer.com/branddetail.asp?BrandID=7] ales and music. I typically go to bed early,

Another Brews You Can Use

I reader sends this [http://athanasiuscm.blogspot.com/2007/04/speaking-of-beer.html] along. "Since as we have learned from your report, it sometimes happens because of the scarcity of water, that infants of your lands are baptized in beer, we reply to you in the tenor of those present

The Steaming Eudemon

Time for a little rant: Alright, what school is this? Me: "My son's stuff was stolen, along with belongings of two other students. The thefts happened at the same time, during gym class." Staff: "Yup, stuff around here is always getting stolen. We can'

The Friday Eudemon

My Pistons are hot [http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=270510004&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines] ! Down 19, they came back to win. They're up 3-0. I suspect a dear friend and Bulls fan will owe me $5 next week. Not much ordinary blogging today.

The Thursday Eudemon

The Tigers' 8-game winning streak snapped last night, and I didn't win any prizes at the golf scramble. But I hit the ball well. A few years ago, I adopted a novel approach to golf: I use the same club on every shot that is more than

A Disturbing Eudemon

The June issue of The Atlantic came last weekend. I haven't had a chance to read much of it, but I've mined a few interesting things, like a micro-article about a new incest study [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200706/primarysources/2]. The study examined people&

No Posting Today

I don't often drag home from work at 9:30 p.m., but I did last night. No blogging today. Here's something from my miscellaneous script bank for just such occasions. Unconventional Americans preaching detachment: "In a society of scolds and strivers, Thoreau saw the

Monday Mornin' Miscellany

Animal rights activist frees caged birds. The birds, unable to deal with the real world, die [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/6626841.stm]. If the buffoon had merely read Chesterton, this wouldn't have happened. Go here [http://www.profam.org/pub/fia/fia.2008.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Slander is worse than cannibalism." St. John Chrysostom

The Weekend Eudemon

The best laid plans . . . Did I say I wasn't working yesterday? It didn't quite work out. I spent about two hours dealing with office stuff from my house in the morning. I also spent 30 minutes in the office Friday morning, then had to go back

Looking for Blogs

I'm looking for blogs that focus on, or frequently discuss, recreational things. Be expansive: sports, vacations, drinking, reading. Email link on the left or post it in the comments box.

Pre-Inkling, Inkling, and Beer

Ah, the weekend is here. After a long week of 10+ hour days, I'm taking today off. I often work part of Fridays out of my home (courtesy of PC Anywhere), but I'm not even doing that today. I'm just walking to Mass, taking

The Lame Eudemon

No time, no time. I give you this neat picture of a dust storm hitting an African town [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=452050&in_page_id=1770] : And: Thank goodness for this [http://www.slate.com/id/2164268]: >

The Quick-Hitting Eudemon

I've always thought environmentalism is consistent with the Christian idea of stewardship. It's not my fault that the environmentalists seem to have a disproportionate number of proponents who think and act otherwise: Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the

Slow Tuesday

Not much today. I have to start work early and the Internet hasn't yielded much fodder this morning. Two things: Email bankruptcy [http://www.stuff.co.nz/4044358a28.html]? Novel concept. You get so overwhelmed with legitimate (non-spam) emails, you simply shut down your ebox and start over.

Monday, Monday

Guy claims Boy George kidnapped him [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007190790,00.html]. I'm not sure I could imagine a worse nightmare. __________ D-Day for cancer [http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi71.html]? > A four-year clinical trial involving 1,200 women found those taking vitamin

Something for Sunday Morning

"If we were truly Christian, there would not be a single pagan left." St. John Chrysostom

The Screaming Eudemon

Not much today. I had a ton of stuff: Lions draft day (best day to be a Lions fan), my idiot-savant Michael (a second-grader who can barely tie his shoes but has taught himself multiplication and other things, to the general head-shaking amazement of his no-nonsense teacher), beer drinking, etc.

Brews You Can Use

Deadlines and fires. That's my life in a nutshell right now. Not much today. Just a few Brews You Can Use. Producer caters to homosexual woman crowd [http://www.realbeer.com/blog/?p=496]: > Anheuser-Busch has rolled out three fruit-flavored versions of its Michelob Ultra brand. >

Short Post Day

No real blogging today. I went to 300 last night, got to bed late, and now I'm scrambling. I enjoyed the movie, incidentally, but it wasn't great. I'd give it a 6. Possibly the most violent thing I've seen (and I include

The Quick-Hitting Eudemon

The lust to find life in space continues: For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe." [http://news.yahoo.

Cho Woman, Protests, and Sundry News

The Vatican appears to be heating up under the lead of its octogenarian leader: The Vatican's second-highest ranking doctrinal official on Monday forcefully branded homosexual marriage an evil and denounced abortion and euthanasia as forms of "terrorism with a human face." [http://news.yahoo.com/s/

St. George

The priest at Mass today reminded me that it's St. George's Day [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4422/]. I am, accordingly, obliged to re-produce Chesterton's great poem, The Englishman: St George he was for England, And before he killed the dragon He drank a pint of

Monday Moanin'

Not much this morning. I played outdoors with the kids most of yesterday afternoon, including an hour of soccer with Abbie (12) that dang-near killed me and damaged bones or ligaments or other mystery parts in my right foot. I couldn't walk on it last night. This morning,

This Scoop Couldn't Wait Until Monday

On May 12, 2007, Emory University will unveil the complete collection of letters from Flannery O'Connor to Elizabeth “Betty” Hester [http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_REPORT/erarchive/2007/April/April%2023/flannery_oconnor.htm] . Hester was, um, unorthodox, but it looks like the libertines will be sorely disappointed:

Something for Sunday Morning

"I failed to see the light with my blinded eyes; but I attributed the fault not to them, but to the sun." St. Jerome

Hillary Trouble?

I quote and link [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55320]. You decide whether this will teflon off her: > A business mogul who says he was Hillary Clinton's biggest donor in her 2000 Senate campaign is preparing to release a newly recovered videotape his

The Weekend Eudemon

I took the afternoon off work yesterday. I read on front porch, shot baskets with my children, hung out and talked with Marie and the kids, drank beer. Very pleasant. I'm going to pay for it a little this morning. I have to go to the office to

Quicks Hits and Brews

Ghostly stuff: A yacht has been found off Australia with its engine running and a table laid for dinner - but no sign of life [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2296594.html?menu=news.quirkies]. __________ A Dutch escort service has set up a whore line for virgin customers

The Thursday Eudemon

Sanjaya is gone, but I didn't see it. I'm sidelined with a cold, so I'm basically sleeping, sucking zinc lozenges, and walking real slow. Drudge has a neat run-down of presidential candidate reactions to the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the partial-birth

Beam on Fire

A reader sends along one of the best columns I've read in awhile: "Gay people, give me back my stuff [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/04/18/gay_people_give_me_back_my_stuff/?p1=email_to_a_friend] ." The article is

Abbreviated Eudemon

I'm strapped for time this morning. LewRockwell today has a good article with a slightly-different angle on gun control and VPI [http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory134.html]. Generous excerpt: > Back in early 2006, a plan in the Virginia legislature to allow for concealed carry on the

Virginia Tech

I'm not in a jolly mood. I'm not remotely acquainted with anyone at Virginia Tech, and I'm not the type who appropriates another's tragedy for his own emotional indulgence, but I'm a little numb at news that 33 are dead

Monday Mornin' Eudemon

This might be the dumbest story I've read this year: Porn actresses say they like to go out with regular guys, but sometimes the regular guys are intimated [http://www.sunjournal.com/story/207790-3/bsection/Can_regular_guy_date_a_porn_star/] . Thank you, Dr. Insight. You show

Something for Sunday Morning

"Truly, my child, if I were allowed to see my sins, three or four men would not be enough to weep for them." Anonymous (Sayings of the Desert Fathers) __________ Confessions of a studious man: "About five years ago, I began to realize that twenty years of arduous

The Weekend Eudemon

On tap this weekend: Social gathering, short field trip with Meg, Mass, soccer game, church breakfast, out-of-town company. My wife told me last night that I've become a recluse, but it simply isn't true. I think she means I've become a person who doesn&

Friday

Color me flummoxed over Imus. I listened to him when I lived in Detroit in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I liked him; I didn't like Howard Stern. I found Imus somewhat urbane, if occasionally outrageous; I found Stern consistently obnoxious. When I started listening to Imus,

The Quick-Hitting Eudemon

Stay on the sidewalk: A car driven by a hi-tech ghost of laser sensors and computers went on exhibit in London Wednesday, before it competes against other robot cars in the United States in November. [http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070411134854.is6fcdju&show_article=1] I hope

Imus Commentary

I haven't weighed in on the Imus conflagration, but a reader has sent to me the best piece of commentary I've seen so far [http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html]. Excerpt: > While we're fixated on a bad joke cracked by an

The Slow Eudemon

Slow blog day today. Either there's not much out there to blog about or I'm in a decidedly unfunny mood. I did receive the following email yesterday, though. I wish I knew whether the quotes are legitimate (I ran a few on Snopes [http://www.snopes.

The Tuesday Eudemon

Evidence that America's TV watchers are, indeed, unintelligent: "Predictions that DVRs would kill off TV ads appear to be off the mark: Nielsen reports that viewers watch 40 percent of the commercials they could skip [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200705/calendar]." (Atlantic link) Religious irony

Who is Jesus?

Michael (8) received a new children's book in his Easter basket: Who is Jesus [http://www.pauline.org/store/moreinfo/0819883131.html]? It's a perfect book for someone who is past the first stages of reading but not ready for heavier stuff like, say, Romano Guardini&

Easter Monday

Rough but enjoyable Easter. We got to bed later than usual Saturday evening due to Easter eve high spirits. At 5:50 a.m., Michael came in and announced that Max (3) had vomited. I got up and dealt with that (without swearing once, proof that there's extra

Happy Easter

When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld “him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a man step

Comments Working?

One person has written to me, saying he can't get my blog to accept his comments. Please let me know if this is happening to you (email link on your left).

Holy Saturday

Good Friday processions in pictures [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6534171.stm]. Via Godspy [http://www.godspy.com/]. Pictures at Yahoo! [http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/wl/033002pope;_ylt=AneLpTHyEFr8LrzD3XdSkggFO7gF] __________ Pretty cool: pictorial history of the TV [http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/multimedia/

Speed in the Cathedral

My most-recent piece at CE [http://www.catholicexchange.com/en/node/60539]. Excerpt: > Speed and efficiency are the products of the new technology. We use the new technology, we become speedier and more efficient. We also start valuing speed and efficiency. I know I have, often to the point

Miscellaneous

Just a few light things on this somber day. Good assortment of Good Friday quotes [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4388/] (from last year's TDE Good Friday post). __________ Marie: "Today is a fast day, kids." Michael (2nd grade): "Does that mean we can't eat fast

Something for Good Friday

“The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His.” George MacDonald

Silent Movie

Steve Greydanus has poured a lot of ink into a review of an obscure new movie [http://www.decentfilms.com/sections/articles/groning.html]. Sounds fascinating. Excerpt: > This back story to Into Great Silence – related in a postscript intertitle at the end of the finished film – is more than

Podcasts Disappearing

Can anyone help me solve this problem: Podcasts on my iPod disappear. I download them, listen to them, and then they later disappear off my iPod. It's not a situation in which I delete them from my iTunes library and then my iPod syncs (matches) whatever is in

Holy Thursday

Brief blogging today. I'm gearing up for Holy Week (up late watching The Passion last night), and Charter is again malfunctioning. Pages are either loading slower than a caveman solving a Rubik's cube or not loading at all. More "Media Has No Effect on People&

The Wednesday Eudemon

Not sure I see the problem [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54997]: > At least 100 employees of the Texas Youth Commission have a felony charge or warrant in their backgrounds, and some have convictions, and while spokesman Jim Hurley says they now are being identified,

The No Internet Connection Eudemon

No Internet today (just got a connection five minutes ago). It's at least the fifth time my Charter Communications connection has gone down this year. I hope to blog later today, but it might not be until tomorrow.

Monday Mornin' Eudemon

Opening day 2007. The American League champs will host Toronto at 1:05 (EDT). I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping tickets are available during the season. Trailers from low-budget movies in the 1970s [http://www.trailerclub70.com/]. Man, there's some funny stuff here.

Comments

Comments have been activated on all posts. It's very user-friendly: no log-in, no drunken letters and numbers to key-in, no pre-approval. It'll ask for your email and URL, but you can ignore that.

Something for Sunday Morning

"Total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation." St. Augustine

Not-so-Blue Danube

Sad stuff [http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070330/wl_csm/odanube]: > When Johann Strauss gazed upon Europe's grandest waterway 140 years ago, it inspired him to compose the Blue Danube Waltz, went on to become an unofficial anthem of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. > Today, the river

Look Homeward, America

Caleb Stegall has written a great review of the book. I should have posted this link [http://www.godspy.com/issues/A-Call-To-Arms-Look-Homeward-America-Bill-Kauffman-by-Caleb-Stegall.cfm] sooner. Excerpt: > In Look Homeward, America, Bill Kauffman offers a detailed and often idiosyncratic look at the “real split” underlying American society and politics. To paraphrase

The Weekend Eudemon

Outdoor reading, Knights of Columbus fish fry, drinking club yesterday. Wife and kids gone for the weekend, Final Four games, and more outdoor reading today. It's a good weekend. Call me a nerd, but I was so excited about my free day that I woke up at 3:

The New Computer Eudemon

I bought my first new computer in over three years. The Tech Guy installed it yesterday. It's pretty nice: 19" flat screen monitor, soft-touch keyboard, Windows Vista, most-current versions of all the standard software. I think I'm one of the first persons in my town

Friday

Interesting post over at Ignatius Insight [http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2007/03/von_balthasar_a.html] about the attempts of one man to bring new age-type practices under the roof of the Catholic Church. Excerpt: > Born in 1900 in Russia, Valentin Tomberg was for many years an enthusiastic

Sexualizing Girls

It's not a good thing. Article at The Register [http://ncregister.com/site/article/2151] (subscription might be required). Excerpt: > The American Psychological Association's report concluded that sexualization was damaging to all women, but particularly to younger girls who are still forming a sense of

The Quick-Hitting Eudemon

Significant (Nestorian) Christian presence in China by 700 AD? Interesting stuff in the current issue of Touchstone [http://touchstonemag.com:80/archives/article.php?id=20-03-030-f]. Hats off to these renegades: Just as speakeasies arose in the 1920s, smoke-easies are beginning to crop up in this new age of prohibition

Riding the Hell Express

Man steals statue of Virgin Mary from cemetery, paints it to look like a clown, and poses with it for Myspace page [http://wcco.com/local/local_story_085221321.html]. Stories like these always remind me of Eddie Murphy's routine about Mehmet Ali Agca riding the Hell Express:

The Wednesday Eudemon

Abbreviated blogging today. My computer has been pulled, awaiting a replacement. I have computer access, but it's not as efficient as my regular computer. The new issue of Books & Culture arrived. The cover story: Mt. Athos [http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/002/4.16.html]. Very

I Must Be in the Back Row!

The Greeks knew acoustics, too [http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070319/full/070319-16.html]. Pretty wild. Courtesy of LewRockwell [http://www.lewrockwell.com/]. Excerpt: > Its acoustics are extraordinary: a performer standing on the open-air stage can be heard in the back rows almost 60 metres away. Architects and

Architecture to Toads

Susan Sontag once described a polymath as someone who is interested in everything and nothing else. I'm not a polymath, but I'm interested in all sorts of things. Occasionally, I even take an interest in art and architecture, so I found this opinion piece [http://www.

Monday Blogging

I'm looking for hip Catholic blogs. What do I mean by hip? Hard to say, but here are a few catch words: beatniks, jazz music, James Dean, Elvis, Dennis Hopper, Avant-garde, Pabst Blue Ribbon, White Castle. . . . unconventional. I realize the idea of "hip Catholic" is at

Something for Sunday Morning

"Peace is our final good." St. Augustine

The Weekend Eudemon

I took my ten stomach staples and wife out to the drinking club late yesterday afternoon. Yup, that's me: too ill to work but well enough to drink. My Uncle Joe is in town. I used to see him anywhere from four to 100 times a year (I

The Steadily-Recovering Eudemon

Still tender, but getting stronger every day. My posting is still a bit weak, but I'm able to pound on the keys a little bit more. Baby Tess turns two today. I tried to hold her, but the staples in my gut started screaming, so I put her

The Darvoceted Eudemon

> "Mr. Scheske, wake up. Wake up, Mr. Scheske." > "Wha, oh, ow, what the? Ouch. Oh, ow." > "A lot of pain?" > "Oh, yeah, oh. Ouch, ouch." > "The carbon dioxide gas they used to blow up your stomach

G-Day

My gall bladder comes out shortly. A most abbreviated post this morning: Polar bear cub (one of the cutest animals I've ever seen, and I'm not a big fan of using the word "cute") will die unless humans take care of him. Animal rights

Prosperity Theology

Prosperity theology continues: Detroit church buys multi-million dollar parsonage for its pastor [http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703170416]. They also bought him a Cadillac Escapade. "God's empowerment is to make you have an abundant life," according to one of the church'

The Easter Swallows

Regular readers of this blog will realize this is a first: an endorsement/review of a children's book. Goodness knows, I've read more children's books than Mr. Rogers, but I typically find they're something to be endured, like a dirty diaper or

Monday Monday

300 is getting people mad. Pretty funny stuff. From the NY Times: [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/opinion/18stephenson.html?ex=1331870400&en=8868294e84b071d9&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss] > All of the good guys are white people and many of the bad

Something for Sunday Morning

"Who can be poor if he does not desire, if he does not crave for the possessions of others, if he is rich towards God?" Minucius Felix

The Weekend Eudemon

NCAA Tournament and beer. That was Friday afternoon, sitting around at the drinking club, watching my alma mater, Notre Dame, take a beating from a Winthrop team that should've been seeded much higher. ND came back from a 20-point deficit, but they did it at the price of

The Busied Eudemon

Time-strapped days seem to come in waves. Last night: High school orientation with my son. Today: Pre-op (gall bladder comes out next week), oil change, trip to the cell phone provider to get a new phone (my son's was stolen last week), and then maybe I'll

Late Night

Not much blogging this morning. I was up late with friends and family, auctioning off NCAA tournament teams. Each guy buys teams and earns back money for each win (all for charity, of course). We've been doing it for fifteen years and it's one of my

The Wednesday Eudemon

It was 2:00 p.m, sunny and 70. Work was a little slow (one of the only lulls I've had in the past four years). And it was my birthday. So I blew out of the office yesterday and drove home, heading down Walker Avenue with Sammy

Leno

Man, Leno was apparently on fire last night: > Did you see all those people protesting while President Bush was in Latin America? Bush hasn't had that many people shouting "Gringo go home!” since his last trip to L.A. > Thirty towns in Vermont have voted

Hodgepodge Tuesday

Tolkien is publishing another book. It's about Hurin's children (Turin Turambar and Nienor, I assume). Kind of surprising. The Silmarillion already contains a lot of detail about Turin. No matter. I'm looking forward to it. From the April issue of The Atlantic Monthly [http:

Slow Monday

Gorgeous weekend here in southwest Michigan. Fifties and sunny, and we celebrated my birthday. I declared yesterday "The Day of Eric" and sat outside and read most of the day, taking time out to play a little football and baseball with the kids and to sleep. We held

Something for Sunday Morning

"[P]atience must always lie at the center of leisure, for reality does not disclose its secrets to careless, hasty, or indifferent scrutiny." David Baily Harned [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1561011479/thedailyeudem-20]

The Weekend Eudemon

I don't plug good Catholic resources as often as I ought, so I'll take a small corrective step: Check out The Crossroads Initiative [http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/index.html?PHPSESSID=9df4e48f024e8fed3f198635bd4b73d3] . It's run by Marcellino d'Ambrosio, a highly-intelligent and devout Catholic. I&

Looking for Family Blogs

Remember: I'm looking for blogs that promote the family (like Heart Mind and Strength [http://www.exceptionalmarriages.com/weblog/]). Email link on the left. All leads are appreciated.

Brews You Can Use

I've written elsewhere that the difference between frugal and cheap is that the frugal person denies himself a pleasure or perk, whereas the cheap person hurts or inconveniences others. The frugal person's lack of spending, in other words, is based more in selflessness, whereas the cheap

The Thursday Eudemon

Great defense. A man accused of a stealing underwear from a shop in a knifepoint raid believed he was a female elf at the time, Belfast Crown Court has heard. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6425333.stm] Who wouldn't buy that explanation? Kinda cool:

Looking for Family Blogs

I'm looking for pro-family blogs, like Heart Mind and Strength [http://www.exceptionalmarriages.com/weblog/]. At least one blogger is mad at me for my last column at The Register. He's partially upset that I didn't mention a few blogs that he finds quite

The Scrambler

I'm scrambling this morning. Little Tess (though I'd prefer to use a different adjective for her right now) won't stop crying and screaming: in our bed, at the foot of our bed, in her crib, in her bed. She doesn't care. She

The Birthday Eudemon

My lovely wife turns 39 today. I like to say the word "39" because it's the last year I'll be allowed to mention her age. Quite frankly, it's harder to imagine her turning 40 than it was for me think of myself

Answering the Bell

Man, I'm dragging this morning, but I'm ready for a challenging week at the office. Just a few quick things. I've gone ahead and added an easy-to-find Amazon link. It's in the right sidebar, after the endorsements. If you access Amazon from

Something for Sunday Morning

"The love of neighbor has its bounds in each man's love of himself." St. Augustine

The Weekend Eudemon

All hail Bell's Brewery [http://www.bellsbeer.com/] in Kalamazoo, their Amber Ale, and the German Beer Purity Law. I'm back off the wagon! I talked with Bell's brewmeister (referred to as the "Production Manager," but I can forgive them that staid

Knocking on the Weekend

I'm glad Friday is here. The week at the office has been brutal. I had to cover for two absent partners and work has been rushing in like I'm the only lawyer in town. It's a great blessing, but it gets exhausting. I hope

The Light Eudemon

I said yesterday that I hate meetings, except for ones at a bar. I forgot one other qualification: except when I'm getting paid to attend them. Such was the case last night. My best client required my attendance at a meeting, with the result that I didn'

The Wednesday Eudemon

Good riddance to February. Brutal month of weather, and it began and ended with challenging weekends. March will be better. It's my birthday month, so at a minimum I'll get some presents. I knew it! Meetings make us dumber, study shows [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

The Tuesday Eudemon

A documentary film reveals the tomb of Christ . . . and his wife and child [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/26/D8NHI2MO2.html]. It'll air March 4th on the Discovery Channel. It's bunk, of course. > In 1996, when the British Broadcasting Corp. aired a short

Monday Moanin' Eudemon

Whew, exhausting weekend. Long story short: Weekend company (good folk, but company is company), combined with a group father-son trip to the Pistons game yesterday. We were supposed to take the Hummer limo, but the two guys eligible to drive it backed out, leaving me with their tickets to peddle.

Something for Sunday Morning

Yes, and bring on all those things I gave up for Lent: > Today is holy to the Lord your God. Do not be sad, and do not weep; for today is holy to our Lord. Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your

Late Night

Some good late night stuff this week: Leno How many people have been watching the Anna Nicole Smith legal proceedings? I would call it a circus, but I don't want to insult the good people at Ringling Brothers. There were so many witnesses at the Anna Nicole Smith

The Weekend Eudemon

Not much autobiography to report today. I'm supposed to take three of my boys to the Pistons/Bulls game tomorrow. I bought the tickets back in December, and now a snow storm is threatening to hit tonight. It's a three-hour drive, if conditions are good. Two

Friday

First Friday of Lent, and the Catholic blogosphere has quieted down a bit. Every year, more than a handful of Catholic bloggers give up blogging for Lent. It's interesting. I figure blogging is (i) art (akin to literature), (ii) recreation (akin to video games), or (iii) self-indulgent (akin

The New Gay Strategy

"They Won't Know What Hit Them [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200703/tim-gill] ." That's the title of a scary piece at The Atlantic Monthly. Summary: Led by wealthy homosexual Tim Gill, some very rich homosexuals and homosexual sympathizers have come up with a new

Ash Wednesday

Happy Ash Wednesday [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01775b.htm], so to speak. Every Lent has been the same for me: I've come out determined to have a holy six weeks, and I'm fading before the ashes wear off my forehead. Human nature is rough. No

Happy Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras. Pack on five pounds for me. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. It's also the first annual Global Fast [http://gf07.com/gf/index.html]. If you haven't signed up yet, consider it. I've talked with organizer Rich Halvorson. It's a

Daytona, Murder, New TDE Feature, and Everything Else You Need for a Good Life

I'm no NASCAR fan, to say the least, but I happened upon the last 20 laps of the Daytona 500 yesterday and decided to watch since it's the biggest race of the year. Wow, pretty cool. Neck-and-neck finish, big crash, one car finishes the race upside

Yikes, Couldn't Wait Until Tomorrow

> Evidence from a video obtained by the BBC points to the stomach-churning possibility that healthy babies born in a Ukrainian maternity hospital were taken their mothers and then murdered so that large amounts of stem cells could be harvested from their brains and bone marrow. Link [http://www.onenewsnow.

Something for Sunday Morning

"The proud one does not know himself. If he knew himself and his own stupidity, he would not be conceited." St. Mark the Hermit

The Weekend Eudemon

I could've called this "The Lying Eudemon." Yesterday I said that I had Friday off and was going to use the time to read and write. Well, that wasn't quite accurate. My wife and The Seven are gone for the weekend, and I have

Friday Me

Friday is here, and I'm taking most of the day off. I have a few writing projects to work on and some books to read. It's not exactly the agenda of a wild and crazy guy, but I'll take it. Reminder: I'm

Beyonce!

Beyonce on cover of Sports Illustrated [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,251846,00.html]! Beyonce on cover of Sports Illustrated! I've seen that headline at least three times in the past 18 hours. Now, I have little doubt that Beyonce is good-looking, but who in the

Eudemon Readers Unite!

I didn't realize it, but the Catholic Blog Awards have finished nominations and now they're voting [http://catholicblogawards.com/2007/ballot]. Voting ends in four days. Go now! Free beer for everyone who votes for me! (that worked in college). I voted for myself in Funniest

Shoveling Eudemon

No school today for the kids. They have seven free hours with which to shovel us out. It shouldn't be too bad. There's four of them, ages 13 to 8, plus little Meg (almost 6). I have shovels for all of them. Plus, we kept the

Looking for Information

I know I've been asking for a lot of input lately, but here's another. Anyone have an opinion on Randy Engel or her book, The Rite of Sodomy ”“ Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church [http://www.riteofsodomy.com/]? Email link on left (ejscheske@yahoo.com).

Peking Man's Monkey Friends

Catholics holding steady at 17.2% of the world's population [http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=102831]. Goodness knows, I'm doing my part. Prima facie dumb story of the day: Chimpanzees may have been using stone "hammers" as long as 4,300

Podcasts and a Great Board Game

My daughter bought a video iPod with babysitting money and a little cash input from us at Christmas. I've started borrowing it and have plunged into the world of podcasting. There's a lot of neat stuff out there, and it's mostly free. Unfortunately, there&

Something for Sunday Morning

"Do not be hasty with your tongue, for the mouth is a snare of death." Pseudo-Barnabas. (Sobering aphorism for a blogger.)

The Weekend Eudemon

Request: I'm looking for manly blogs. What do I mean by "manly"? Well, that's hard to say, but the following work: blogs that talk about being a husband and father, blogs that exude Tarzan-like manliness, blogs by men that talk about responsibility, blogs by

Forced Sex Vaccinations to Andre

The Internet this morning is moving slower than a slug in molasses. Not sure what the problem is. A few quick things: This is one of the most-infuriating legislative trends I've seen [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54143]: > State laws requiring young girls

Thursday Miscellany

If you think Prince's phallic shadow at the Super Bowl halftime show [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250581,00.html] was coincidental, you didn't listen to much Prince back in the 1980s. I find if funny, in the sense that the whole halftime show

Day 4 With No Charter Communications Connection

Charter Communications has gone down again at my house and my neighbor's house, but it's fine at the office. Junk service, but I've gotten some decent stuff around this morning: Border agent convicted of crime and put in prison. Hispanic inmates beat him silly

The De-Chartered Eudemon

My house's Charter Internet connection is down again. This is the third day in a row. Maybe it's the cold. My office, though, is located .9 miles from my house and the office's connection works just fine. Last I checked, there's not

Moanday Eudemon

Delayed Eudemon: Charter internet went down again. Congratulations to the Colts. Dungy gave a nice tribute when asked about the "social significance" of the victory. "I'm proud to be the first African-American coach to win this. But again, more than anything, Lovie Smith and I

Sunday Freeze Out

This is the first Sunday in well over a year that didn't feature "Something for Sunday Morning." The reason: my Internet connection went out, and I just got back online. It was about minus 5 degrees here this morning. Maybe the cold affected my connection somehow.

No Eudemon

No happy spirit this morning. Our parochial school held its annual Mardi Gras party last night. I didn't get to sleep until after 1:30. When you consider I normally go to bed at 9:00, it was a very late night for me. For occasions just like

The Friday Eudemon

Slow news day today. A few things: Interesting, though I'm tectonically ignorant: "Africa is being torn apart. And as Ethiopia's rift valley grows slowly wider, an international team of scientists is taking a unique opportunity to plot the progress of continents on the move [http:

Frickin' Boomers

The average American is saving absolutely nothing these days [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy]. In fact, the average American spent more than he earned last year. Why? Nobody is sure, but economists say it could be a problem: > Whatever the

Fear and Trembling

Is 2007 the year of the puritan devil? I'm a little scared. Here's the deal: During January, I have drank beer or wine six times, anywhere from two to five drinks. Each time, I woke up the next morning with a hangover. Nothing nasty, just a

Global Warming to Elvis

Drudge this morning has links about a new global warming study that comes out Friday [http://www.drudgereport.com/]. If people don't believe the scientists, it's the scientists fault for cranking out so much hokum the past 50 or more years. The ordinary people who buy

The Tuesday Eudemon

I'm nearly speechless [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,248196,00.html]: > A 12-year-old German boy who insisted he was a girl trapped in a boy's body convinced his parents that something had to be done, so they agreed to allow him to receive

Vegas and Marching Band Max

I don't post many pictures of my children, primarily because I don't want to bore people. But I thought I'd pass along these two pictures of Max (3). He's in his "marching band" outfit: The heck if we can figure

Something for Sunday Morning

> Those who pass through the mystical water in Baptism must put to death in the water the whole phalanx of evil–such as covetousness, unbridled desire, rapacious thinking, the passion of conceit and arrogance, wild impulse, wrath, anger, malice, envy, and all such things. Since the passions naturally pursue

The Weekend Eudemon

Nice weekend so far. I chatted with Lino Rulli on Sirius Radio from 4:20 to 4:40, then met my wife, parents, and friends at the drinking club for two tall glasses of Anchor Stream on tap. We ate dinner there, then rented The Illusionist [http://www.imdb.com/

At TCS

I just published a piece with Tech Central Station about multi-tasking with the cell phone [http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=012207D], using my experience and Marshall McLuhan. Those interested in McLuhan (and maybe some others) might find it interesting. Excerpt: > I like multitasking, if it's

The Drinking Eudemon

Catholic Exchange has one of my favorite articles up this morning. "Three Degrees of the Sporting Life [http://www.catholicexchange.com/en/node/9540]." > I am glutton and gluttony is me. > I know, gluttony is one of the deadly sins. Gluttony and its sibling sins (lust,

Miscellaneous Eudemon

Odd feast day today: The Conversion of St. Paul. It's odd because it's an event. The major feasts (Christmas, Easter, etc.) are also events, but most non-obligatory feast days are saint feast days (St. John, St. Thomas, St. John Kennedy [for my Boston readers], etc.). Wrote

Tom Cruise Kills Oprah

Funny but very short YouTube video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrzIaRwAMvc&eurl=].

The Wednesday Eudemon

There's some pretty good stuff out there this morning: Microsoft has been caught trying to pay a blogger to edit its Wikipedia entry [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070123/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_wikipedia]. It's no crime, and there are no allegations that the

Well, Then Let's Crucify Him

> [Scientologist leader] David Miscavige believes that in future, Cruise, 44, will be worshipped like Jesus for his work to raise awareness of the religion. > A source close to the actor, who has risen to one of the church's top levels, said: “Tom has been told he

Retirement to Sharks

Sadness in the golden years [http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/retirement/2007-01-22-senior-debt-usat_x.htm?csp=34] : > Retirement used to be a time for people to enjoy life without a mortgage or high credit card bills, a time when heavy debts were mostly a thing of the past. Increasingly,

Up and At 'Em Monday

Monday mornin', and I'm anxious to get to work. It was a frustrating weekend. I had nearly no obligations, but the whole weekend slipped away from me. I had about four writing projects to work on, and I only got a start on two of them. I

Something for Sunday Morning

"The Church, with its sacraments and Bible and lives of the saints and devotions and church buildings, is like a huge bank of grace, where each person has a deposit of a billion dollars. Unfortunately, most of us only withdraw about 75 cents." Deacon Larry Kasuboski (rough quote)

The Weekend Eudemon

Off to the drinking club last night with Marie for drinks and dinner. While there, we also sold a few Mardi Gras tickets for our children's upcoming parochial school Mardi Gras party. Then we came home for a family movie night. A pleasant evening, but Saturday morning feels

Brews You Can Use and Other

> Charles Littleton, 22, was defiant, even after being Tasered by police, when he resisted efforts to remove him from a Saginaw, Mich., City Council meeting. He said he had to stand up for his right to wear his Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap, despite a rule banning hats for

A Brief Thursday

My apologies, but I don't have much time for blogging today. A few quick things: You've heard of the movie Mean Girls. Now, there's the video Stupid Girls: Three teenagers who beat another girl while being videotaped turned the camera on themselves to brag

The Wednesday Eudemon

Long day at the office yesterday, followed by two tall ones at the drinking club, then home to watch the American Idol season premier. I told the guys at the drinking club that I had to head home to watch AI, and they said I was violating a man law.

The Coughing Blues

Short TDE right now. I was up all night with a cough (I feel fine, but couldn't stop coughing), so I slept in. Now I'm running behind. A few brief things: The current issue of The Atlantic Monthly confirms what I heard a few years ago:

Monday Mornin' Eudemon

The Missouri abduction cases still have people scratching, including me. While reading about the case, I found this in an AP story [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070114/ap_on_re_us/boys_found]: > According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, about 58,000 children

Something for Sunday Morning

"We have a right to be happy and peaceful. We have been created for this--we are born to be happy--and we can only find true happiness and peace when we are in love with God: there is joy in loving God, great happiness in loving Him." Mother Teresa.

The Weekend Eudemon

I said the dry spell would probably last until the twelfth day of the year? I was wrong. Things got a little wet last night. My wife has to publish a booklet for our parochial school's annual Mardi Gras auction party. It takes about ten hours, and she&

I Need a Few More

Thanks for those who responded to my earlier request for movie blogs, but I still need a few more. If you know of a Catholic blogger who writes frequently about movies, please let me know (email link on the left: ejscheske@yahoo.com). It's for an article I&

Friday Arrives

The second Friday of the year. My cold is lifting. I can stop carrying on like I've been struck down with the plague. The metrosexual's poster boy is coming to the United States. David Beckham has signed to play for the LA Galaxy [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.

French and Diversity

This [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=48547], of course, is sad, but when I converted to Catholicism, one of my sticking points was thinking I was lining up with the French, so I'm not entirely bummed. It'd be like hearing that the Kennedy

Broken BCS

Do you think the BCS system is a farce? I do, but the man in charge, Jim Delany, says he won't change a thing. Why? Because people keep watching. As long as people keep watching, we'll have the BCS. Link [http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?

Books and Junk

Want beautiful Catholic books? Go here: Baronius Press [http://www.baroniuspress.com/]. Baronius is a new publisher dedicated to bringing out handsome volumes of Catholic classics. Handsome . . . and reasonably priced. I may have to buy a few. With the exception of about 10% of my books, I have a poor

Something for Sunday Morning

Pray with great confidence, with confidence based upon the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray. St. Louis de Montfort

Movie Blogs

Note: I'm also looking for bloggers that discuss movies. Email link on the left (ejscheske@yahoo.com).

The Weekend Eudemon

Good first weekend of the new year. I had a flurry of work Tuesday through Thursday and was able to leave work early on Friday. I actually got a lot of reading done, plus a little writing. I thought about drinking a little wine, but declined. I haven't

Friday

Today, we celebrate American Catholicism's coming of age: it's the memorial of St. John Neumann: > John lived in Bohemia until he came to America in 1836. Having already completed his studies, he was ordained soon after he arrived. He was a parish priest in Buffalo

Rockin' Dante

Too good to wait until tomorrow [http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2121673.ece]: > The Vatican has challenged purist Roman Catholics by disclosing plans for a daring rock, punk and jazz opera version of Dante's Divine Comedy with a soundtrack written by an avant-garde priest.

Abbreviated Eudemon

A short eudemon this morning. My wife and I took the five oldest kids to Night at the Museum [http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1809266172&cf=info] last night, so I got to bed later than usual and therefore have less time for blogging this

The Wednesday Eudemon

Back to a full-blown grind. The office exploded yesterday with work. It was a good feeling. The seven mouths aren't getting any cheaper to feed. I referenced to the clerihew two days ago. One regular reader and blogger has tried her hand at the craft [http://mreitemeyer.blogspot.

The Days of Darkness

The Christmas season still plows forward, but the real world returns in earnest. I kinda feel like I'm waking from a dream, and the nightmare Rose Bowl loss to USC yesterday doesn't help. It's the Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen.

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2007. A fresh year that doesn't feel too different. In previous years, I've always felt like things would be a little different, maybe a lot different. I found the new year exciting. This year, I don't, and I don't know

Something for Sunday Morning

> Secular things can be adapted to holy ends. New Year's resolutions are a great example. Anonymous

The Weekend Eudemon

Online opportunities continue to escape me. A few short items this morning: Interesting fact that sounds familiar but wasn't in the forefront of my consciousness: The Dead Sea is in some places 1,500 feet deep. Its bottom is the deepest natural hole in the earth, measuring about

A Short Brewing Eudemon

I warned you that a few posts would be short between Christmas and New Years. Today's is one of the briefest: Flying Dog Brewery [http://www.flyingdogales.com/default.asp] is sponsoring a contest: Name their seasonal summer ale (a Belgian white). The winner gets a free trip

Holy Innocents and a Funny Drunk

> In Ramah is heard the sound of moaning, of bitter weeping! Rachel mourns her children, she refuses to be consoled because her children are no more. Jeremiah 31:15 St. Stephen, the first martyr, has his feast day on December 26th. Today, it's the feast of the

The Wednesday Eudemon

It's Ford day. Former President Ford died [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061227/ap_on_re_us/obit_ford]. Ford talks with Toyota are getting more intense [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,238950,00.html]. Central Michigan University won the Motor City Bowl at Ford

The Dragging Eudemon

Christmas Day is gone, and I feel like a ran a marathon. I thoroughly enjoy the Day, but it wears me out. I slept over nine hours last night, and I felt like I could've slept another couple. It was a very good Christmas. We generally don'

Merry Christmas

May your Christmas be holy and fun. The two go together more than people think.

Something for Christmas Eve Morning

We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice. Pope Paul VI “There were only two classes of men who heard the cry that night: Shepherds and Wise Men. Shepherds:

The Weekend Eudemon

Long celebration yesterday. Drank some beer and wine, cleaned the house with Marie and the kids, took everyone to the drinking club for dinner, rented a movie (teen comedy John Tucker Must Die [http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1809273670&cf=info], which wasn't

Celebration Eudemon

Friday is here, and so is screw-off time. A half-day at the office, and an easy half day at that. A partner wants me to try some 40-year-old scotch at lunch. I detest most hard liquor, but I'm in such a good mood, I just might try it

Four Days to Go

The children's Christmas concert/play last night. One more Christmas party this weekend. And then the big days hit. On Saturday morning, we're putting our kids into forced labor for two hours, in hopes of getting the house cleaned up for the twelve days of Christmas.

The Wednesday Eudemon

Quick, get me a head accident [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20956526-23109,00.html]: "A devout Christian who said an accident at work boosted his libido and wrecked his marriage as he turned to prostitutes and pornography was awarded more than Â£3 million ($7.

Tuesday Eudemon

My life gets more exciting tonight: the first real college football bowl game. The San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl [http://www.holidaybowl.com/poinsettiabowl.htm]. Northern Illinois v. TCU. The whole bowl concept, of course, is out of hand: 32 games this year, which means 64 teams go

A Week to Go

One week until Christmas. Things are hitting a fever pitch in the Scheske house. Yesterday: Dollar Tree with four of the children so they could buy gifts for their siblings and grandparents; breakfast with my son to recognize his status as Middle School Student of the Month; open house Christmas

Something for Sunday Morning

"For while all things were in quiet silence and the night was in the midst of her course, the almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne . . ." Wisdom Chp. XVIII. > The passage, brimming with the mystery of the Incarnation, is wondrously expressive of the infinite

The Weekend Eudemon

This morning, it's the commando eudemon. Baby Tess (21 months) came into our bed and wasn't going back to sleep. I can't sleep much past 6:00, so I was itching to get up. My wife pulled Tess to her side, and I slid

The Drinking Eudemon

It's that time of year, and I'm scramling like a chicken without a head. Days and evenings are jammed. Advent? Patience? Waiting? Pshaw. We gotsa run. It'll be an abbreviated one today. First: Blue laws are being tested by a Monday Christmas [http://www.

The Seasonal Eudemon

Light blog today. Tis the season . . . to move two pool tables into friends's basements. A hernia and backache later, the pool tables are in the basements, never to come back up. When I got home, I showered and decided to read a little St. John of the Cross,

The Wednesday Eudemon

Get ready for more Muslim protests: Benedict XVI warns that peace becomes a mirage when the dignity of woman is not fully respected [http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=99796]. A clear shot at Muslim thinking, no? Thing is, I suspect it'll perplex Muslims. "Was

The Tuesday Eudemon

Rough morning. My stomach hurts a little and I'm coughing a bit. I hope it doesn't develop into anything that really hurts. We'll see. This made me feel better: "The Vatican has upheld a 1996 excommunication decree issued by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz in

Pictures from the Lions Game

Well, I think this is a first: I'm posting family pictures. These were taken with my camera phone (a technology I just recently learned). The quality isn't great, but I think you can see them well enough. Jack and Michael in front of the limo before

Christmas Article

The following Christmas article was rejected by a Catholic publisher on moral grounds. TDE standards are more lax, so here goes: Looking for unique ways to celebrate Christmas this year? I'm not real good with constructive advice, but I'm pretty good with the negative stuff, so

Dragging Monday

Long day in Detroit yesterday. Jack and Michael had a great time, but I'm dragging today. There will be no ordinary posting, though I do have an article of sorts that you might enjoy. I'll post it presently.

Something for Sunday Morning

Jesus does not expect us to be strong but weak. In our weakness His power reaches perfection (2 Cor 12:9). He does not expect us to be independent and self-sufficient, but rather childlike (Mt 18:3). We don't need will-power, just willingness. He'll provide the

The Weekend Eudemon

It's an interesting weekend. We have six house guests. Marie's brother and wife and four sons are down for a wedding at Notre Dame. We live about 55 minutes from campus, so they're staying with us. I drank too much wine last night (Yellowtail,

A Sane Jewish Sentiment About Christmas

I saw this kind of thinking get air time last December, but it's nice to see it again: > "I am getting the idea that too many Jews won't be happy until they pull off their own version of the Spanish Inquisition, forcing Christians to

The Brewing Eudemon

Dignity will fall. Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record, and he did it with class. Now, Barry Bonds will break it. He has re-signed with the Giants [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061208/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbo_winter_meetings], and he needs just

Thursday Trifles

Things will be brief this morning. One of my evenings freed up, so I took the four oldest children to see The Nativity Story. I liked it. It dragged a little in the middle, but it brought together three strands--Mary/Joseph, Herod, and the three wise men--in a nice little

The Wednesday Eudemon

More troubles with Sears. Remember my statement yesterday: "The smart money, incidentally, says he doesn't show up with the necessary part"? Well, that's what happened. My wife waited at home from 8:00 until 3:30. The fix-it guy showed up and said he

The Suspended Eudemon

I like Sears. I've never read about them donating to gay rights groups or doing anything else objectionable. But I don't like their service. Awhile back, I bought an elliptical exercise machine from them. Constant problems for the first month. Those finally got fixed and it

The Moanin' Eudemon

Harsh college football weekend. Congratulations to Florida, but shame on the BCS voters who had no intention of letting UM play for the national championship three weeks ago when they voted them number 2. Does anyone really think Florida would've moved ahead of Michigan, if USC hadn'

Something for Sunday Morning

> We must guard against that attitude of spiritual pride that makes us say, "What I do not feel I do not need." We must allow for the possibility that our feelings may be unreliable and therefore we must honestly strive to correct them. Yearning for God is

Amazon Shopping

Reminder: You can support this blog by accessing Amazon through this link [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0829420312/thedailyeudem-20] and buying something. Buy something real expensive, like a big-screen TV.

The Weekend Eudemon

A nice day. The storm has passed (actually, my corner in southern Michigan barely got nicked), and I have little to do today, except deal with the Seven, two of whom slept with me last night (Meg and Max--5 and 3) and trailed me to my study this morning. I&

The Brewing Eudemon

One of our own tops Hollywood: Nicole Kidman is the top female in the Wood, earning $17 million per movie [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,233259,00.html]. I haven't read anything about her Catholicism lately, but according to stories last summer [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4697/

Last Day of Freedom Eudemon

Tonight, I have nothing to do. After tonight? Social, service, or family obligations nine out of the next ten days. One is very pleasant (tree decorating with the family), but the rest are simple time consumers (committee meetings, take care of house and children while Marie is out, a perfectly

The Wednesday Eudemon

I saved the best for second: Mark Steyn's obituary in The Atlantic Monthly. It's the best regular feature in the magazine, and in the December issue he has cranked out his best one: funny, anecdote-filled, disconcerting, with a Catholic kicker at the end. It's

The Tuesday Eudemon

The Atlantic Monthly came yesterday. All sorts of good stuff. The issue revolves around the most influential Americans of all time [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612/influentials-main]. There's the top 100, plus a bunch of sidebar articles on the most influential poets, filmmakers, etc. A few great

The Moanin' Eudemon

Ah, my favorite weekend of the year has ended. Most sad indeed. But I have Cyber Monday to perk me up. Today is the one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. People go to their offices and shop online. I think I'll pass. I have

Something for Sunday Morning

Marriage implies the negation of self, and the negation of self is an invitation to God. When married, the individuals are no longer two, but are one flesh. Mt. 19:6. The self-centeredness that is the essence of the flesh is, by the very act of marriage, crippled. The self-interest

The Weekend Eudemon

Ah, peaceful Saturday morning. It is the Saturday of Eric (not to be confused with the Summer of George [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Summer_of_George_(Seinfeld_episode)], but dang close to the same thing). What's on my schedule today? Blog, buy a CD organizer, read,

The Black Eudemon

Yes, a black eudemon. It's not my effort at multi-culturalism. It's a simple recognition of a day that has grabbed America and continues to puzzle me: Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year, shin-bleeding day. I understand a little better

A Thankful Eudemon

It's been a very good year. For that matter, it's been a very good life, and I think it's because things didn't go as planned. I live in a small town: not NYC, where I had planned on living (my girlfriend turned

The Pre-Holiday Eudemon

The Thanksgiving celebration starts early. My brother arrived from Mississippi last night. I go to a client's this afternoon for food and drink. I meet family and friends at the honky tonk later this afternoon. It's my favorite secular day of the year. I'll

Light Tuesday

Another late evening for me, and there's not much blogging material out there. I found this humorous, though [http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/November/theworld_November666.xml&section=theworld] : > A spurned Malaysian woman is taking legal action against her former lover,

Monday Mornin' Eudemon

Light fare today. I went to Casino Royale last night. Good movie, but long. Fully modernized: spy-like use of cell phones; siliconed women; hard-body Bonds; Texas Hold 'Em, not Baccarat; Terrorists, not Kremlin agents; M a female, not male. If I had to do it over, I'd

Something for Sunday Morning

> Humility is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater danger than not fearing danger. When a person puts himself in an occasion of sin, saying, "I shall not fall," it is almost an infallible sign that he will fall, and with

The Weekend Eudemon

What do a Michigan State student and an Ohio State student have in common? They both applied to the University of Michigan. With that, you know where I stand on today's game, which arguably has the best "credentials" of all time: big-time rivalry [http://library.osu.

Brews You Can Use

Yikes, forgive the brevity, but I typed up a bunch of stuff . . . then the computer ate it. Unbelievable, but I didn't yell, punch the monitor, or weep, so I'm happy. A quick re-cap of what was going to be a pretty good Brew day: Looking for

The Friday Eudemon

I'm having a glaucoma test today. It runs in my family, so I'm going to get the disease eventually, but it may have cropped up sooner than later. I have two of the three symptoms. My eye doctor doesn't think I have it yet,

The Thursday Eudemon

Anyone know anything about smoke alarms? The geniuses behind the model building code require smoke alarms to be "hard wired," meaning that they're tied into your electric circuitry. I think it also means that they're linked: if one goes off, they all go off.

Wright

Some good Steven Wright: All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand. I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met. OK, so what's the speed of dark? How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink? Support bacteria -

The Holiday Eudemon

Happy holidays! Today kicks off the holiday season, at least in Michigan. Working backwards: New Years, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Opening Day. Yup: Today is opening day of deer season in Michigan. Some factories shut down; workers take vacation days; union workers take sick days; Michigan Kennedies call in drunk. It&

The Tuesday Morning Eudemon

Those crazy Wiccans: > The widows of two combat veterans sued the government Monday for not allowing Wiccan symbols on their husbands' military headstones. > The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs allows military families to choose any of 38 authorized headstone images. The list includes commonly recognized symbols

Monday Moanin' Eudemon

Another week, another struggle to get to the weekend. There's a fair amount of blogging material out there to start the week. For starters, Sir Elton speaks candidly [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,228860,00.html]: > "I think religion has always tried to turn

Something for Sunday Morning

> No sooner has [a person] started to pray than, conjured up by his inner unrest, all sorts of other things clamor for attention: a task at work, a conversation, an errand, a newspaper, a book. All these suddenly appear most important, and prayer seems a sheer waste of time.

The Weekend Eudemon

Nice, mellow morning. I slept like a log like last night, except for a few hours of Max (3) jabbing me in the ribs. When it got out of control, I went to the living couch, but discovered that Jack (10) and Michael (8) had taken all the afghans to

The Friday Eudemon

Groggy morning. The drinking club held its biggest fundraiser of the year last night. I went out early to sit on the deck, quaff a tall one, and enjoy a 68-degree day while overlooking the lake. Fortunately, I didn't stay late, but I'm still paying a

The Thursday Eudemon

Today is the feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran! What's that? It's " the oldest, and ranks first among the four great 'patriarchal' basilicas of Rome. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09014b.htm]" You ever run across something only once a

The Wednesday Eudemon

No happy spirit this morning. I don't mind the Republican collapse yesterday, but the free sex and death culture's trifecta worries me: "South Dakotans rejected a law that would have banned virtually all abortions, Arizona became the first state to defeat an amendment to ban

The Tuesday Eudemon

Election day. Goodness knows, the Republicans deserve a slap, but I'd love to see the look on the collective MSM's face if the Dems don't at least win the House. They're drooling on themselves right now: the House, the Senate, the majority

Monday Moanin' Eudemon

Slow moving Monday. For some reason, I was absolutely exhausted all day yesterday, and it has carried over today. I'm hoping to snap out of it shortly, but until then, just a few things: It's not too often you applaud an Anglican bishop, unless maybe you&

Something for Sunday Morning

"Everything depends on [the] state of recollectedness. No effort to obtain it is ever wasted. And even if the whole duration of our prayer should be applied to this end only, the time thus used would have been well employed. For recollectedness itself is prayer." Romano Guardini, from

The Weekend Eudemon

Nice evening and early morning. I was able to get to bed by 9:00 last night and get up early today. It's a good thing, too. I have two writing deadlines looming, and I need to get jumping. I'm writing on gossip and on sports.

Looking

I'm looking for blog posts about gossip. Pretty much anything will interest me: A blogger's meditation about gossip and rumors. A blogger engaging in gossip. Samples of people using comment boxes to spread rumors. Which bloggers do the best job of covering rumors of ecclesiastical appointments

The Friday Eudemon

I watched The Office again last night. I might make it a regular thing. This one wasn't great, but it had a few killers, like Michael (the unintentional jerk) ingenuously asking an Indian couple during a nice conversation, "So, do you have the type of marriage that,

Brews You Can Use II

Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer [http://www.ambitiousbrew.com/]. I'm neither endorsing nor condemning. It just seems like a publishing effort worthy of mention at this blog.

Brews You Can Use

Tap handles are getting yet more artistic [http://www.dispatch.com/connect/connect.php?story=dispatch/2006/10/30/20061030-D4-00.html] : > Breweries have tried for decades to attract attention by making tap handles larger and more colorful, but the microbrewery movement has brought a proliferation of artsy and exotic

The Thursday Eudemon

Festivus [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus], for the rest of us. Today is All Souls Day: a day to pray for the souls in purgatory, one of the kindest acts of mercy you can do. And perhaps the most prudent. Since most of us will be in those purgatorial

Correction

In my previous post, I mentioned that TNT has the cable NBA contract. That's true, but ESPN has one, too, it would appear.

All Saints Eudemon

All Saints Day is here. Rejoice! There's hope for all of us. Sainthood isn't just for those canonized. The Francises, Theresas, and other show-offs. Today, we celebrate all those saints we don't know about: everyone in heaven that isn't canonized. Go to

The Tuesday Eudemon

My first issue of Rolling Stone [http://www.rollingstone.com/] arrived yesterday. Yup, I'm now a subscriber to the gray haired hippie rag. I received a subscription when I signed up as a member of the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame [http://rockhall.com/home/default.asp] during my

The Monday Moanin' Eudemon

What better way to perk up on Monday morning than to read this: testosterone levels are falling across the United State [http://health.yahoo.com/news/168226] . Researchers don't know why. I'll hazard a guess: Men are so over-sexed, they get tired of it and don&

Something for Sunday Morning

Jesus is the same today as He was in the Gospels (Heb 13:8). He is full of pity, mercy, and compassion for You (see Ps 103:8). You may be in a desert now (Ps 126:4), but Jesus can turn even the hottest desert into a place of

The Weekend Eudemon

An abbreviated WE today. I have to leave at 6:15 for my son's last junior football game. I'd like to sleep on the way, but I'm driving, so that makes it tough. I might take a snooze when I get there, but I&

Brews You Can Use IV

Great site, if you're dealing with keg issues [http://www.kegs.com/faqs2.html]. I rarely buy a keg anymore. The mess, the ice, the deposit, the 25% chance that the distributor will give you a defective pump, the heft (and corresponding bad back the next day). It&

Brews You Can Use III

Funny beer ads. A handful (some a bit racy) [http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/beer-humor.html]. Make sure you watch this one until the end [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZslkC4y2qY].

Brews You Can Use II

Guinness is going red [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2051443.html?menu=news.quirkies]. Daggone Commies. I can't drink the stuff, incidentally. Might as well pour 10/40 down my throat.

Brews You Can Use

I missed this little gem last summer: Zen Beer [http://www.wsoctv.com/foodnews/9607321/detail.html#]. > Wisconsin micro brewer BluCreek is coming out with a new beer called Zen. The idea is to give a brewski the supposed health benefits of green tea. > The brewery said the

The Friday Eudemon

All sorts of good stuff out there today, but I'm pressed for time. A bullet approach: If you didn't last night's The Office (the only TV show I watch, though I've seen it only five times), download it from iPod for $1.

Being the Crocodile Hunter

Mark Steyn's regular obituary column in the current issue of The Atlantic Monthly talks about Steve Irwin [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200611/crocodile-hunter]. It's a very nice tribute to the Aussie, notwithstanding this blurb that cracked me (caution: vulgar material coming up): > There was

The Thursday Eudemon: Melvins, Juans, and Brucies

Possibly the best opening line of all news stories this week: A high school principal received a six-day suspension and a letter of reprimand for giving one of his students a wedgie [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,225123,00.html]. The rest of the story isn't

The Wednesday Eudemon

When's the last time I did a Wednesday Eudemon? It's been awhile. Long-in-the-tooth readers might remember that this blog used be called "The Wednesday Eudemon." That's because I only posted on Wednesdays. That changed about 20 months ago, and so did the

Snake Oil for the 21st Century

If they shrink babies, there'll be nothing left. But that's not stopping some parents [http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/1024wsj-infant-psychotherapy24-ON.html] .

Blogging Eudemon

Two interesting posts from my daily blog travels: Jimmy Akin argues that Newman should be a doctor of the Church, assuming a few hurdles can be jumped [http://jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2006/10/the_next_doctor.html]. I like it. I just started reading from Erich Przywara'

The Tuesday Eudemon

Surveying the Internet landscape, there's a mish-mash of semi-interesting stuff, but nothing worthy of an entire post, not even one of my 10-word ones. News for the stomach strong: Harry Potter will perform nude next summer [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,224037,00.html]. The story

Ah, Youth

I've been wearing a pedometer for about two months now. My record for steps in a day: 25,100. My ten-year-old wore my wife's pedometer today. He didn't put it on until 10:00 (he got up around 7:45). He ended the day

Hot Universities

The ongoing cultural contributions of higher education: The North American universities with the best-looking students [http://hottestuniversity.com/]: 1. University of Toronto 2. Oregon State University 3. Purdue University 4. University of North Carolina 5. San Diego State University 6. University of Iowa 7. Queen's University 8. Ohio

SUV Me

I have no idea whether this guy is credible, but it's interesting: > If you think the world is on the verge of running out of oil or other mineral resources, you've been taken in by the foremost of seven myths about resource geology, according to

Ragnarok Cometh Not

The MSM is back to its old self. They advertised 7:30 as the World Series start time tonight, and it didn't start until 8:26. Significantly, they started it later on Sunday night than on Saturday night. They're doing everything they can to make sure

Something for Sunday Morning

"It is impossible to immerse oneself wholly and calmly in contemplation of God, to meditate on His Law, and to ascend to Him with all one's soul in fervent prayer while remaining amidst the incessant noise of conflicting passions in the world." Seraphim of Sarov

Georgie Copes

> George Michael praised marijuana and apparently smoked a joint during a recently taped television interview, prompting criticism from anti-drug campaigners Friday. . . . > "This stuff keeps me sane and happy," Michael, 43, told the program. Link [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,222957,00.html]. I don&

Arrived

I just received Michael Polanyi, The Art of Knowing [http://www.isi.org/books/bookdetail.aspx?id=26604cb2-dd79-4c2b-ab6d-8dff38213bdc] in the mail today. Bitterly ironic in light of my post earlier today, but I'm looking forward to it. As of page ten, it reads well. I tried to read

Ragnarok Cometh

For those who missed it, the end of the world is near. The media widely publicized that the World Series would start at 8:05 tonight, and it did. I'm still in shock.

The Weekend Eudemon

Criminy. I didn't get to bed until almost midnight last night, and I don't even have a few beers left over in my system to show for it. If you look under my FAQ, you'll see this statement: > With my seventh child on

Brews You Can Use V

Miller High Life is going to take back the blue collar crowd [http://adage.com/article?article_id=112506]. Good for them. Market beer for men. I don't like the stuff, but I'll buy one just to show a little support: > Miller High Life is

Brews You Can Use IV

How to prevent a hangover [http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/70394/alcohol_and_the_hangover.html?page=2] . Nothing terribly complicated (take a B complex), but interesting if you're into nutrition issues.

Brews You Can Use III

First the Middle Ages and beer, now the Detroit Tigers and beer [http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006610180305]. Boy, this is my day: > Tiger Beer -- complete with a tiger on its orange-and-blue label, which matches the ball club's color scheme -- has

Brews You Can Use II

I dig beer, and I dig the Middle Ages. Looks like a perfect book. Unfortunately, it's $75. Review [http://beerblog.genx40.com/archives/2006/april/bookreviewbeer].

Brews You Can Use

Nine beer-mapping sites, with ratings [http://dethroner.com/index.php/2006/10/12/nine-bar-mapping-sites-happy-hours-ratings-and-beer/] .

People Haters

I've previously made the point that the environmental movement is tainted with misanthropes: folks who would prefer that folks not exist. I'd never seen them admit it, though, until I saw this [http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19225731.100-imagine-earth-without-people.html] : > Imagine that all the

Great Video

One of the best videos I've seen in a long time [http://www.americanpapist.com/2006/10/video-doves-campaign-for-real-beauty.html] . Directly on point with my rantings against make-believe women [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=2&art_id=24526].

Over at CE

My weekly column at Catholic Exchange is up. [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=34798] I'm waiting for criticism about my assertion that America has no poor people (in absolute terms). I haven't gotten any yet. And if anyone

Drunk Teens

And help me spray mo-fo rap when I've toked too much [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2041020.html]: > A new Catholic prayer book aimed at teenagers includes a prayer for God's help to avoid talking rubbish when drunk. > "Lord, if in

3 Million Beers

Thanks to everyone who wrote to me, notifying me of my typo (idiocy?) yesterday: The U.S. population has hit 300 million. I earlier wrote "3 million" (and did it three times). I am aware that the total population of the U.S. is greater than Chicago'

Wikipedia Competition

I like Wikipedia, but it makes me nervous. I welcome Citizendium [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e62ce8a4-5d3e-11db-9d15-0000779e2340.html]: a competitor who vows to weed out the moles that make Wikipedia an intellectually-treacherous place.

300 Million

The U.S. will hit 300,000,000 people [http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html] today or tomorrow. Let the misanthropes mope. The rest of us can be happy and ask, "If more people means less wealth to go around, why are Americans richer than ever?"

CBGB

Well, CBGB closed. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/arts/music/16cbgb.html?_r=1&ei=5094&en=5774c0b5de8bbecb&hp=&ex=1160971200&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1160977069-+iD1B1aYMJICh7sGqX++GA] . I'm sad. I'd

Sign Me Up

A watch that lets you know when your wife is fertile [http://www.ovwatch.com/]. Anything to make NFP easier is appreciated. Lots of guys say it's easy. I say (i) they're delusional, or (ii) they've been married fewer than six years. It'

Evicted

Anyone got a lead on good housing in SW Michigan? I asked my wife what she was going to get me for Boss' Day, and . . .

Brews You Can Use: Monday Edition

Oh man. This sounds nasty [http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=517586]: > Miller Brewing Co. is launching a new chocolate-flavored brand for the holiday season as the company seeks to capitalize on the growing thirst for craft and specialty beers. (This story couldn't wait until

The Non-Story?

Here's the lead grabber: > Married couples, whose numbers have been declining for decades as a proportion of U.S. households, have finally slipped into a minority, according to an analysis of new census figures by The New York Times. > The American Community Survey, released this month

Something for Sunday Morning

> The senses, the memory, and the imagination must be guarded, not only against things which are a direct temptation to sin, but against everything which may engage the mind in passing interests when it should be bent upon the unseen realities. Ths intellect too must be called off from

A Reader Writes

One of my most astute readers questions my post about President Grant: > Where did that piece about Grant come from??? Grant was born in 1822, was 41 in 1863 and, at that time, was commanding the Union forces besieging Vicksburg. Incidentally, his wife's name was Julia Dent.

Raising Daughters

Doug Giles has a good series going: Raising Girls that Pimps and Thugs Will Hate. [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles]. Good stuff. It's revolves around a list of ten suggestions. Excerpt from first column [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2006/09/30/raising_girls_that_pimps_

Dreher

Strange days indeed. Two days ago, Rod Dreher wrote a lengthy piece about his conversion to Orthodoxy. When I checked the post yesterday, he had received over 250 comments in his com box. I didn't read them (I read the first five, then stopped). He said some of

The Weekend Eudemon

I'm moving mighty slow this morning. I was up late (1:30). I doubt there'll be any blogging today. As a token of appreciation for your understanding, I offer this anecdote: The following classified ran in the nineteenth century: > Farmer, aged 41, desires to correspond

Brews You Can Use IV: Poetry Edition

A reader sends this piece from the 1500s [http://www.bartleby.com/40/35.html] along: Back and side go bare, go bare, Both hand and foot go cold; But, belly, God send thee good ale enough Whether it be new or old. But if 1 that I may have

Brews You Can Use III

Tom Marioni: Beer, Art, and Philosophy ”“ The Exhibition: August 18 ”“ October 29, 2006 [http://www.contemporaryartscenter.org/]. The link contains one of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen.

Brews You Can Use II

Finally, some modern art I can appreciate [http://cinweekly.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/a1/20061004/ENT07/610040302/]. Excerpt: > The interactive happy hour, "The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art," takes place every Wednesday this month. > Marioni created "

Brews You Can Use

It's wine month in the Midwest. This is a great page of Midwestern wine information [http://www.wineryadventures.com/].

Punctuation Moment

In high school, I was always taught: "Put two spaces after a period." When I started freelancing, editors told me to stop doing it. I never knew what to think. This month's Atlantic explains what happened [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200611/word-court] in a response

Conservatives for the Evironment.

A friend sends this along: Why Conservation is Conservative. Quotes by famous conservatives [http://www.rep.org/ConservativeQuotes.html]. Pretty neat.

Gay Crime

This isn't exactly the type of crime that disturbs the mental equilibrium of society [http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-bias1012,0,7527656,print.story?coll=ny-nycnews-headlines] : > Four young men were arrested for luring a gay man to a remote location with an online promise of

Smile When You Wear That!

> Designer/artist Tim Simpson's Smile Helmet mechanically draws the corners of your mouth back into a grin. He created it for "people in jobs which demand an unusual amount of smiling, such as air-stewards, receptionists and politicians [http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/10/smile_helmet_

Chinese Hate Vern Troyer

> China will crack down on a vast, growing and largely unregulated industry offering leg-lengthening surgery for people who think they are too short, state media have said. > The operation involves breaking the patients' legs and stretching them on a rack, and has led to several cases of

I Knew It!

> Women dress to impress when they are at their most fertile, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday in a study they say shows that signs of human ovulation may not be as mysterious as some scientists believe. > A study of young college women showed they frequently wore more

Gibson to Speak

Just seen at Drudge: > Actor Mel Gibson is speaking out for the first time about the anti-Semitic comments he made to police when they booked him for drunken driving last summer. > Gibson tells ABC News' Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview that his anti-Semitic statements were "

Four New Saints

Coming Sunday: > Blessed Theodore Guerin (1798- 1858), the French-born founder of the American Sisters of Providence of St. Mary of the Woods; > Blessed Rafael Guizar Valencia (1878 - 1938), the Bishop of Veracruz/Jalapa, Mexico; > Blessed Filippo Smaldone (1848-1923), an Italian diocesan priest and founder of the

Roepke and Richards

Two good emails from readers who are bailing me out on a slow post day: > Happy Birthday! Wilhelm Roepke [http://www.mises.org/content/roepke.asp]. Although, most of your "Austrian" friends have forgotten you, and can't find space on their site to remember you.

LSD and Alcoholism

What to write about today? Pitt and Jolie [http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13546041,00.html]? Naw, though I found it interesting that their bodyguard appears to be a lot older and shorter than the poor photographer that he manhandled. Google's purchase of Youtube [http://apnews.

Big Families Are In

According to this AP story [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061008/ap_on_re_us/large_families], more families are opting for four or more children. I'm not surprised. I think the tide has turned for large families. I've been told by people in their

The Blogosphere and Wine

My latest at The Register. [http://ncregister.com/site/article/209/]

Blue Laws are Good?

Knock me over with a feather: There could be something good about those Biblical injunctions to obey the Sabbath: > Two economists examined the effect of repealing “blue laws”–regulations banning certain retail activity on Sundays–on church attendance in the sixteen states that have done away with such laws

Christ in Dreams

Over at Chesterton and Friends [http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11415684&postID=116022189358112307], a commentator posted links about Muslims converting to Christianity after Jesus appeared to them in dreams [http://www.amightywind.com/fastfood/dreams/040723muslimdreams.htm]. Maybe I'm behind the curve, but this is

Something for Sunday Morning

> But in every matter it behooves us to mark well the end: for oftentimes God gives men a gleam of happiness, and then plunges them into ruin. Solon (I wonder is this is how my wife will feel as she ends her weekend trip with the women folk? I

Tigers

I don't cover much straight sports here, but I thought I'd share this note from my brother after the Tigers took three straight from the Yankees: > I checked a sports book before Game One and you had to bet $310 on the Yanks to win

Parallel Societies

I'd seen this quote from the European Human Rights Court before, but it really struck me when I read it yesterday (here [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52311]): > The (German) Federal Constitutional Court stressed the general interest of society to avoid the emergence

Manly Christians, Celebrate!

It's the anniversary of Lepanto [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lepanto_(1571)]. An important battle whose importance has become even more apparent in the last couple of years. Chesterton's poem [http://www.dur.ac.uk/martin.ward/gkc/books/lepanto.html]. More coverage [http:

Wyoming

Wyoming Catholic [http://www.americanpapist.com/2006/10/new-college-to-keep-your-eyes-on.html], a promising new Catholic university. Whatta neat opportunity for youngsters. > "Because cell phones are enormously distracting and provide Internet access, which is even more distracting, we are asking our students to take a break from technology and learn

The Weekend Eudemon

An abbreviated eudemon? Yup. Marie left for the weekend, leaving me with the Seven, an open bottle of wine, and a loaded handgun. Alright, I'm lying about the gun, but she is gone and the wine is there. I'm not drinking it, though. I need all

Brews You Can Use IV

I'm not drinking at this joint: A horse has become a regular at a pub in the north of England [http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061003-032826-8755r].

Redneck Fun

> Any possible charges against the 17-year-old girls who hung a red bra out of a car on I-75 on Sept. 26, causing a single-car accident that hurt two men, would be filed next week, a Wood County Juvenile Court prosecutor said yesterday. Link [http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.

Brews You Can Use III

Romanian beers: Neat picture, but I wouldn't drink the stuff. Knowing those weird buggers in Romania [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3664/], they're probably urinating in it.

Brews You Can Use II

Beer and Philosophy [http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=181133]. A forthcoming volume. I wouldn't mind sending a piece [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=27704] or two to them, but I suspect it's a bit too

Brews You Can Use

I type this on Thursday evening. Whatta joyous time. The Tigers took one from the Yankees, my law practice is calm but busy, and I picked up a case of Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio this afternoon from my wine-seller client. Pretty sweet. I'm on bottle number two, but

More Foley

Good thoughts from a message board: > Right after this breaks, Foley says he was molested by a clergyman and has a drinking problem. What's he trying to say? He's dysfunctional somehow? He's functional enough to get elected, which takes a high amount of

Brews You Can Use. Thursday Edition

Don't worry. I'm not going to make this blog "The Daily Brews You Can Use," but this story is already two days old, so I didn't want to hold it back until tomorrow: > Milwaukee's taverns and nightclubs could be

This Week's Column

Mafia Discourse [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=34618]: My column this week at Catholic Exchange.

Foley

Well, I read the Foley email/instamessage exchange with the underage page. I've taken four showers since and still don't feel clean, but I knew the risk going in. What's there to say that hasn't been said? Nothing, except maybe this: The

A Great Week

This might be the best week of the year for saints: October 1 (or 3): St Therese [http://www.ewtn.com/therese/therese.htm] October 2: All Angels [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07050a.htm] October 4: St. Francis [http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=50] October

Brews You Can Use: Midweek Edition

Something this grievous couldn't wait for Friday's Brews You Can Use [http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/03/up_in_smoke_4_of_ame.html]: > About 4 percent of all hops in the USA went up in flames [on Tuesday]. Most of the country'

Foley

Today's Wall Street Journal raises points related to the ones I raised earlier today [http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009033]: > But in today's politically correct culture, it's easy to understand how senior Republicans might well have decided they had no

Russian Warning

> The Russian government is warning that people who give or take bribes will "burn in the flames of hell." > The drastic warning comes in a mass leafleting scheme aimed at rooting out widespread corruption in society. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2021110.html?

Page Scandal

I don't blog much about politics, but I'm interested in the page scandal [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061003/ap_on_el_ge/foley_fallout;_ylt=AshUKVo__zDe9EqOluf28iyyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--] because I'm curious to see how the press handles it. Let's

Light Posting

Sorry about the light posting. It's been a manic Monday. Until I can post something better: An aphorism every teenage girl needs to hear, memorize, and understand: > Love in young men, for the most part, is not love but simply sexual desire and its accomplishment is its

SecureGive

The megachurches have come up with a new way to make money: ATMs for giving. LA Times link [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-holyatm28sep28,0,6671307,full.story] . > It was one of Stevens Creek's three "Giving Kiosks": a sleek black pedestal topped with

Something for Sunday Morning

> The measure of our advancement in the spiritual life should be taken from the progress we make in the virtue of mortification; for it should be held as certain that the greater violence we shall do ourselves in mortification, the greater advance we shall make in perfection. St. Jerome

Leno on Starbucks

> Starbucks is raising the price of a cup of coffee to $5.00. Don't worry, you'll still get the sneer from the girl with a nose ring serving your coffee.

More Islamic Hate

An astute reader sent this a few days ago: How an Egyptian student came to study 1950s America and left determined to wage holy war [http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/february/presence.php]. It's from The Smithsonian, which isn't exactly known for multi-cultural intolerance. It&

More Jerome

Amy Welborn has posted a nice little tribute to St. Jerome [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/2006/09/st_jeromeand_ot.html].

Seeking

Here's a needle in a haystack for you: I'm looking for a blogger (besides me) who has admitted that s/he fails to finish books that s/he's started. Not all the time, but with frequency. Email on your left.

The Weekend Eudemon

I have a few moments to write before taking Jack (10) to his football game. He must be there at 7:00 in order to weigh in and make sure he's not over 100 pounds. He weighs only 80, but he has to weigh in every week. They

Brews You Can Use

Posting will be light today. I didn't get back from the Tigers game until late. I'm dragging and behind in life. Luckily, it's Friday. If I can hold on for a few hours, I have a couple days of rest (subject, of course, to

Tiger Town

No more blogging today. I'm headed to Detroit to watch the Tigers [http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/index.jsp?c_id=det]. We have a one-game lead, and the magic number is 3. I'm picking up my father and a friend this morning, then

Darkness in Iceland

This is pretty neat [http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-09-27T190314Z_01_L27148787_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-ICELAND-LIGHTS.XML&archived=False] : > Authorities in the capital Reykjavik will turn off street lights on Thursday evening and people are also being encouraged to sit in their

No Citgo at 7-Eleven

> 7-Eleven Inc. dropped Venezuela-owned Citgo as its gasoline supplier after more than 20 years as part of a previously announced plan by the convenience store operator to launch its own brand of fuel. [http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?section=news&feed=ap&src=

At the High-Tech Convention . . .

Helping nerds date: sexy robots [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,215583,00.html]. How long until these things put a dent in the world's oldest profession?

I Wouldn't Hold that Head in Public

> A leading opera house [in Berlin] canceled a 3-year-old production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" that included a scene showing the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad, unleashing a furious debate over free speech. I'm shocked that the production lasted three years. Are the Arabs

St. Vincent de Paul

It's St. Vincent's [http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=326] feast day. By coincidence, I was talking with my daughter Abbie last night about charity toward the poor, and I tried to explain to her the difference between the "relatively poor"

Spider Eudemon

From Welborn [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/2006/09/tragedy_all_aro.html]: > An enraged girlfriend who fatally shot a Palm Beach County firefighter, then turned the gun on herself might have been upset about their decision to abort their baby a few weeks earlier, a witness told detectives

Slow Tuesday

I got up this morning with 45 minutes to surf the Internet and do some blogging. And what did I find? Nothing, unless you count this: Police "are hunting a man who stood on a conveyor belt and urinated on a till at a supermarket [http://www.ananova.com/

I'm Wincing

A "provocative" movie about St. Theresa Avila [http://www.lolafilms.com/ingles/pelicula_rodaje_detalle.asp?id=393].

Monday Morning Eudemon

This is the weekend I became the techno-addict. Two things happened: 1. I got a large-screen TV hooked up downstairs. A product of my parents's hand-me-down benevolence, the picture is good but not great, and it won't accept a high definition signal. No matter. It sits

The Swedish Deal

Great commentary at Spero about the reality of Sweden's welfare state and economy [http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idcategory=34&idSub=158&idArticle=5664] . Excerpt: > A closer examination, however, reveals that the famous "Swedish Model" does not work very well. This

Something for Sunday Morning

"The state of marriage is one that requires more virtue and constancy than any other; it is a perpetual exercise of mortification [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10578b.htm]." St. Francis de Sales

Lewis' Overview of Modern Islam

Imprimis [http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/] has run a good piece by Bernard Lewis about Islam (does Lewis write about anything else?). The guts of the piece is a fairly common overview of the modern Muslim world, but it's worth reading if you're a little sketchy

TV Nation

> The average American household has more TVs in it than people, new research has indicated. > A study by Nielsen Media Research has revealed that in the typical US home there are 2.73 television sets and 2.55 people. > It was also revealed that TV viewing in

The Weekend Eudemon

A drizzly morning: 5:45, with little time to write. I have to take Jack to his rocket football game . . . in a town an hour away, and he must be there by 7:30. The game doesn't start until 8:30, but he has to be there an

More Pet Children

The New York Times says Genoa is dying for lack of children [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/world/europe/22genoa.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin] . This quote recalls a frequent theme of this blog: > In the Fiumara Mall, the rare mother pushing a

Brews You Can Use III

All you wanted to know about Belgian Beer [http://www.cleveland.com/wine/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living/1158654896210351.xml&coll=2] . Excerpt: > Trappist/Abbey: > Abbeys are the name for a variety of strong, flavorful ales brewed by monasteries or by commission at commercial breweries. Trappist beers

Brews You Can Use II

Now that's art!

Brews You Can Use

All you wanted to ponder about pumpkin beer. [http://www.thebrewsite.com/2006/09/18/pumpkin_beer_ruminations.php] And [http://beeradvocate.com/beer/style/72].

PSA

I was at the county fair last night (working as a volunteer mostly, but also spending some time with my oldest three children). I'm dragging today, so blogging will drag, too. In the meantime, I offer this gem from recent reading: > Alexander Pope [http://en.wikipedia.org/

Big Knickers

Charlotte Church says she loves wearing big knickers. [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2002141.html?menu=news.quirkies] Based on her recent conduct, how much longer until the story says, "Charlotte Church says she loves taking off big knickers"? When Catholics fall away, they fall away

Sibley is Back

Fr. Bryce Sibley, one of the most popular Catholic bloggers before his cyber demise, is back. This time, with a movie-review blog [http://cinemacultura.blogspot.com/], though he is apparently doing it anonymously. Also odd: He is allowing comments. I was under the impression that flamers from the left were

Anti-Typecasting

> Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn may wind up portraying legendary physicist Albert Einstein for a joint U.S.-Italian TV film production. [http://upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060919-072707-7105r] Let the jokes begin! What's next? Paris Hilton as St. Therese?

Simple Solution to Water Threats

But can PETA protests be far away? [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214347,00.html] [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214347,00.html] > San Francisco, New York, Washington and other big cities are using bluegills – also known as sunfish or bream – as a sort of

First Viagra, Now This

It's actually a sad thing, but the joke upside is immense: > Chinese doctors say they successfully transplanted a penis on a man who lost his own in an accident, but had to remove it two weeks later because of psychological problems experienced by the man and his

Marriage Encounter

Here's one of the most ironic puzzles of my adult life: Marriage Encounter Weekends [http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=95058]. Never has anything sounded so repugnant to me, yet widely endorsed by many people I respect. Why does it sound repugnant? *If my wife and

Talented Kids

Great piece in the current issue of The Atlantic Monthly about overzealous (a/k/a "helicopter," "nauseating," "obnoxious") parents [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610/tsing-loh]. It's an essay/review of four books that take a look at parents who wreck their

MySpace

The current issue of U.S. News & World Report has a pretty good cover story about Myspace.com, the teenage social networking website that has more than 100 million profiles [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060910/18myspace.htm] (remember, the population of the U.S. is only

300 Million

From The Atlantic Monthly: [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610/calendar] [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610/calendar] > At the current clip of one birth every eight seconds, a death every twelve, and an immigrant entering the country every thirty-one, the 300-millionth American should show up, one way or

All About B16 and the Muslims

The Benedict Blog might have the best coverage [http://www.popebenedictxvifanclub.com/blog/2006/09/pope-benedict-xvi-on-faith-reason-and.html] .

Something for Sunday Morning

"I have made a pact with my tongue; not to speak when my heart is disturbed." St. Francis de Sales

David Warren on the Muslim Rage

Warren is always good, and he's especially good today when writing today about the Pope's words earlier this week [http://archives.zinester.com/14807/106975.html]. Excerpt: > Here is the point Pope Benedict was making, also in the words of that learned Byzantine emperor, speaking

The Weekend Eudemon

The perfect buzz. I may have found it last night in a bottle of Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio [http://corkd.com/wine/view/2956]. I bought it on a lark. I knocked off work at 4:15 and decided to buy a bottle of Pinot from my client wine seller

The Pope's Sin

Well, I downloaded the Pope's statement that is causing all the excitement, and I've concluded that it must be the statement set forth in the blog post below that set off the Muslims. Only one page of the seven-page speech mentions Islam, and that one page

Mad Muslims

Well, the news has broken all over the place: B16 made comments that offended Muslims. What were they? Here's a link to excerpts [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5348456.stm]. Although I don't know what got the Muslims going, perhaps it was this:

Brews You Can Use V

I hardly care for Anheuser-Busch, but I might try this: > Anheuser-Busch begins the second year of its seasonal beer series by bringing back Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale. Previously only available on draught, this seasonal offering will now also be sold in bottles, beginning Wednesday. “Given what a

Brews You Can Use IV

If you want to send me a subscription, I'll give you my address [http://www.beers-of-the-world.com/magazine/] (email link on the left), though I think it has a strong British slant. Via A Good Beer Blog [http://beerblog.genx40.com/].

Brews You Can't Use III

The Random Beer Name Generator [http://www.strangebrew.ca/beername.php?Mode=Generate]. It might be the most inane beer thing I've seen in years, so I had to mention it.

Brews You Can Use II

I'll be working late tonight, honey! Perfect news for Friday morning [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/09/14/060914140645.wl9uakm4.html]: "People who consume alcohol earn significantly more at their jobs than non-drinkers, according to a US study that highlighted 'social capital' gained from

Brews You Can Use

Sounds like fun. Where do I sign up? "A Dutch scientist has been encouraging young people to drink and drive - on a racing track [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1993741.html?menu=news.quirkies]."

Hobbiton

A real life Shire, right in Oregon [http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1158114405236120.xml&coll=7] . > The houses -- going for $550,000 to $850,000 -- will feature gabled roofs with faux-straw thatch made from thin strands of PVC that promotional literature

T-Shirts

For those who haven't seen it yet: there are some pretty funny t-shirts over here [http://www.thoseshirts.com/tshirts.html]. A few are a bit nauseating, but most are funny.

Salvaging the Day

Leave it to Gaddafi to provide me with one decent post today [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1992419.html?menu=news.quirkies], just minutes before I leave for my fourth and last lengthy meeting of the day: > Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi claims Coca Cola is African and

PSA

Blogging will be light. I'm tied up in meetings all day. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, any activity besides survival is impractical. Hopefully, I'll break loose later this morning for a spell.

Oldie but Goodie

These types of studies have been around for years, but they crack me up every time: > Motivational speakers may tell you to believe in yourself, but if you want to do well in school, you may be better off taking a more pessimistic attitude toward your own abilities. In

Politicians Mowing the Lawn

The new issue of The Atlantic Monthly came yesterday. It looks alright, perhaps a little sub-par compared to most issues. It has some good stuff, though, like this funny re-run of P.J. O'Rourke's views on politicians [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610/150-politics/8]. Excerpt:

More About Ecological Psychology

The whole idea of ecological psychology got me wondering about a lot of things. Can it explain better why a bar makes a person feel more like drinking (or why I drool when I walk up to a bar--or is that a simple Pavlovian thing)? What does it say about

A Perfect Bite of Knowledge

From the current issue of Books & Culture [http://www.christianitytoday.com/books/]: > Our surroundings call forth certain behavior. We tend to act like students when we step in a classroom, and we tend to act like shoppers at the mall. This is . . . the logic of 'ecological psychology&

Something for Sunday Morning

> Wipe out your imaginings by often saying to yourself, 'Now it is in my power to let no badness be in this soul, nor desire nor any perturbation at all . . . > It is your duty to order your life well in every single act. Marcus Aurelius (alright, so

Paradise Dropped on My Lap

It's 3:55 (EDT), and here's the scene: I'm on the family room couch. The room is basically clean and not getting messed up. From the living room, there's piano music: not kids practicing, but the likes of David Syme [http://www.

I Had an Inkling

Lew Rockwell is a Roman Catholic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llewellyn_Rockwell], at least according to Wikipedia. I always wondered about it, but never tried to find the answer. I like the guy and his libertarian yet moral streak. Though his site's apology for the Mafia and

Nauseating is Right

I can't really set this one up any better than the blogger (established writer Ross Douthat) has done. Just check it out [http://www.theamericanscene.com/2006/09/nausea-so-profound-occasionally-i-like.php] . And bring something to vomit in. Summary: Female writer and mother who takes a month off each year

The Weekend Eudemon

Good drinking last night, if I were someone else. Instead, I worked until 7:45, which is a Friday night record for me. I didn't even feel like that "stunt" guy on the Bud Lite commercials ("For my next stunt, I will stay at the

9/11 Days

Well, 9/11 Days are here again. Some of you may recall that I wrote about it last year at Catholic Exchange (link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=29945]). Whew, did I get hate mail for that one. One lady even suggested

Brews You Can Use IV

Forbes released its list of the drunkest cities late last month. I must've been too drunk to notice. [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002988.php] 1. Milwaukee 2. Minneapolis-St. Paul 3. Columbus, Ohio 4. Boston 5. Austin, Texas 6. Chicago 7. Cleveland 8. Pittsburgh 9. Philadelphia 9.

Brews You Can Use III

Lookin' for some beer reading? Check out the links page from The Brew Site [http://www.thebrewsite.com/reading_list.php]. Most impressive. If I had a beer for every link, I'd be drunk for days.

Brews You Can Use II

Double-walled beer glasses [http://www.redenvelope.com/re/gifts/product_display/product_information.jsp?nc=791&oid=19357383&nc2=1] . Only $75!

Brews You Can Use

Last July, Professor Bainbridge wrote a column about buying wine on-line [http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=071106C]. I'm passing it along. A little late, yes, but it's a good piece.

Why I Don't Jog

> A jogger who took a wrong turn during a lunch-time run in Florida ended up stuck in a swamp for four days. > Volunteers searching for Eddie Meadows, 62, eventually found him 'stuck like glue' in a bog, reports The Times. > Mr Meadows calmly asked his

Unknown Animal Found

The writer of this piece doesn't write the english goodly, but if this isn't a hoax or a joke that I'm missing, it's interesting: > This creature was found by Russian soldiers on Sakhalin shoreline. Sakhalin area is situated near to Japan,

Blind Driver

A clear case of discrimination against the disabled [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/05/nblind05.xml]: > A police officer described yesterday how he pulled over a motorist who was veering across the road and found that he had no eyes. > Omed

Two Interesting Posts

Ran across a few minutes ago: > The Texas State Fair has topped itself in creating the ne plus ultra of cardiac-arrest cuisine. This year, fairgoers will be treated to something that surely qualifies as manna from Homer Simpson Heaven. Are you ready for this? > Fried Coke. Crunchy Con

Nun in Nicaragua

I'll have to search the Catholic blogosphere for information about this [http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-09-06T004605Z_01_N05386978_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-LIFE-NICARAGUA.XML] : > A former novice who gave up training to be a nun to fight in a leftist insurrection

Michael

The hinge--the child in the middle, number four--turns 8 today. He's in second grade, more handsome than the day is long, smaller than most six-year-olds, more aloof than a desert monk, more anti-girl than the fiercest misogynist, more naturally affectionate than a puppy, more in denial about his

God and Girl at a Catholic College

A young writer recounts a recent graduation ceremony at a Catholic university (which she doesn't identify--don't bother following the links because they don't disclose the school's identity, either, unless I missed something). Nothing too earth shattering, given the wreck that is Catholic

Over at CE

My weekly column is up at Catholic Exchange [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=34331]. Excerpt: > It seems that nothing good has ever come from worrying, writing about, or theorizing about “man.” Granted, we need to consider rights and dignity and laws

Narcissism in Hollywood? Say It Ain't So.

First the story about Lennon, now this [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/09/05/prnw.20060905.LATU045.html]. Is this old news day? > Celebrities have more narcissistic personality traits than the general population, and people with narcissistic tendencies seem to be attracted to the entertainment industry rather than

Lennon and Uncle Sam

> John Lennon's perceived "threat" to the U.S. government is the highlight of a new film that documents his transformation from pop idol to political activist and offers a fresh look at this former Beatle's career. Link [http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?

School

The first day of school. Whew! I like my children's freedom, but it'll be nice to get on some sort of schedule again. Of course, things get "tight" with all the after-school activities and my kids are out of practice with respect to "

On-Line Confessions

This story [http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=7526] says evangelical Christians are going on-line to confess their sins [http://mysecret.tv/confess.php]. I've argued many times that confessing is perhaps the most natural sacrament in the world. If people don't confess, they'

Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day. Don't expect much blogging from me. We have a gorgeous day ahead of us, it's the kids' last day before school starts, and, well, it's Labor Day, as in No Labor Day. Although blogging is more of a leisure activity,

Something for Sunday Morning

> Let us detach ourselves in spirit from all that we see and cling to that which we believe. This is the cross which we must imprint on all our daily actions and behavior. St. Peter Damian

Sideways

I finally rented Sideways [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375063/] last night. I had forgotten about the movie, but then Dale Ahlquist recommended it (with reservations) in the recent issue of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.gilbertmagazine.com/]. Two losers, one week, no God, lots of wine. The wine pretension on

The Weekend Eudemon

Ah, the crisping month. You can feel it in the air, especially in the mornings and evenings. It's one of my favorite times of the year. I'm not a hot weather fan. My perfect day: 74 and partly sunny, just coming off an early morning sprinkle,

The Bad Back

I heard a great story this morning while at the courthouse, related to yesterday's post about the meth bust [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4981/]. A local guy was busted for possessing a half pound of marijuana. His defense? It was for personal use (which lessens the criminal culpability). He

Brews You Can Use II

Looks like a must-read [http://www.ianmarchant.com/]: > According to G.K. Chesterton, the act of getting to and from a pub is central to an understanding of British life and landscape. With around 60,000 to choose from, he may have had a point. So bon viveur, pub

Brews You Can Use

My home state is leading the charge for a beer alternative: hard cider. Check out this page [http://www.michiganhardcider.org/].

Forced Conversion

The Fox reporters had to convert to Islam or die. How does that work for a Christian? Jimmy Akin breaks it down [http://jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2006/08/the_martyrs_dil.html], and does an excellent job. Excerpt: > If, therefore, a Muslim terrorist has kidnapped you and

Meth Bust

> Federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities in North Georgia have reported a record seizure of about 341 pounds of suspected crystal methamphetamine at a residence in Gainesville, Ga. > The find breaks a previous record seizure of 187 pounds of meth made just two weeks ago in Buford,

The CNN Story

I assume everyone has heard this by now, but just in case (this story [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/30/060830154354.iu5zx114.html] is too good not to mention): > Her "loving" husband emerged pretty well, but her "control freak" of a sister-in-law is

E-mail Gone Wild

> RadioShack Corp. notified about 400 workers by e-mail that they were being dismissed immediately as part of planned job cuts. Link [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/08/30/financial/f131351D00.DTL] . You don't need McLuhan [https://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=374#respond] to

No God Spot?

From LiveScience [http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060829_god_spot.html]: > The human brain does not contain a single "God spot" responsible for mystical and religious experiences, a new study finds. > Instead, the sense of union with God or something greater than the self often described

Burning Man

Burning Man [http://www.burningman.com/] 2006 is underway. It's gotta be the quintessential bohemian event in America, and I enjoy bohemians about as much as jock itch. Still, this festival intrigues me. Here's a story at the LA Times about it [http://www.latimes.com/

Light

Light blogging today. I'm busier than a tornado in a trailer park. A few quick bites, though: *The prosecutors dropped the case against the Ramsey confessor faster than they drop drunk driving cases against Kennedys. *The new Gilbert Magazine is out. Read about it at Chesterton and Friends

William Morris

I watched Drumline with my family Saturday night. It's a movie about a glitzy marching band at an historically-black school in the South (a fictional school, "Atlanta A&T") and its battle with another black school (Morris Brown). It was decent (I'd give

New Anthology

The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature: The Traditions in English [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393327760/thedailyeudem-20]: I wasn't even aware of this anthology. Now I'm aware of it, and I don't want it. Link to unfavorable review [http://www.

Pope and ID

From this morning's Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1859760,00.html]: > Philosophers, scientists and other intellectuals close to Pope Benedict will gather at his summer palace outside Rome this week for intensive discussions that could herald a fundamental shift in the Vatican'

Augustine

It's St. Augustine's feast day. By coincidence, I ran across this yesterday in Fr. James Schall's new book, The Life of the Mind [http://www.isi.org/books/bookdetail.aspx?id=ef780213-9c15-4bc6-8a82-c6e480d0aab4] : > One of the books that we must have in our library

The Mexican Eudemon

Maybe I oughtta call it the Seven-Tecate Eudemon. I mentioned on Saturday that the neighbor girl was turning 15. She's Mexican, so it's a big deal. A real big deal. We got invited two weeks ago. No other neighbors got invited. Of course, none of the

Something for Sunday Morning

"Love is the only sign that distinguishes the children of God from the children of the devil." St. Augustine, whose feast day is tomorrow. Article I wrote two years ago for his feast day [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=2&art_id=23866]

Boomergedden

More and more piling on the baby boomers . . . and deservedly so [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4798825.stm]. Excerpt: > Environmental degradation, social breakdown, rampant consumerism, even disease... is it any wonder that US commentator Joe Queenan (born 1950) once wrote: "If you want

Easter Rat Farm

The scholarly environmentalists have been telling us for years that human ecological aggression killed Easter Island [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island]. That might not be the case. It was rats [http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/53200?fulltext=true&print=yes] .

Arthur to Blame?

I watched Arthur [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082031/] on vacation. It came out in 1981. At the beginning, drunken Arthur introduces himself to a hooker, reaches for his hat, and can't find it. She says, “It's on the floor.” He says, “I hate it when

The Weekend Eudemon

No doubt on Friday: A brutal week at the office gave way to a decent Friday. I finished this month's column for National Catholic Register, and had a first draft of my weekly Catholic Exchange column done. It was the first weekend in eight weeks that I didn&

Brews You Can Use II

What's this country coming (going back?) to? First this [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,210338,00.html], now this [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002984.php]: > The Washington State Liquor Control Board is considering new rules that would outlaw the sale of 34 cheap

Brews You Can Use

New book. Sounds pretty good and has a distributist ring to it. It's apparently about how Miller, Anheuser-Busch, et al. captured the market after WWII. Here's the blog review where I read about it [http://beerblog.genx40.com/archives/2006/august/bookreviewgreat]. Unfortunately, I can'

Beerbohm

It's Max Beerbohm's birthday today. Link [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/08/happy-birthday-max.html]. I don't know much about him, but Chesteron liked him and Joseph Epstein likes him. I read just recently that, when Epstein was first married and suffering the financial pangs

It's All Relative?

Even CNN admits that the Aztecs deserved the wrath of Cortez: > Aztecs butchered, ate invaders. This grisly story is from today's online edition of CNN. Domestic nations have tried many tactics over the ages to repel invading armies. The Aztecs were no different and a recent find

The Best D*$@ Sports Book

> The Pontifical Council for the Laity has released a book of essays on the world of athletics, praising honest competition but warning against excesses of individualism and "body worship." > The collection of essays is entitled The Sporting World Today: A Field of Christian Commitment. In an

Where's the Fun in That?

> A stem cell breakthrough by American scientists is set to overturn ethical objections to potentially live-saving research. > They have found how to make stem cells from embryos without destroying the embryo in the process - an advance that could open the door to billions of dollars in research

Another African-American Joins

From The Atlantic Monthly's September bullet reviews of dozens of new books: > Enough by Juan Williams (Crown) > In a book that often reads like a padded reprise of Bill Cosby's famed cri de coeur at a 2004 NAACP gala, the NPR correspondent raises the

Good

> Drivers who cause a wreck while yakking on a cellphone will face a fine of up to $500 under a law that took effect Tuesday, the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION reports. > The law, likely the first of its kind in Georgia, sanctions drivers whose "improper" usage of a

Swine Magazine

> It's true: Jane Magazine is running a full-on multi-media campaign to help their newest editorial flower, the above-mentioned 29-year old Sarah, lose her virginity by her 30th birthday. Link [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eat-the-press/2006/08/22/girl-youll-be-a-woman-s_e_27779.html] . From what I can tell (keeping

He's Cruisin'

Rocketed off Oprah's couch, out the window: > Viacom Inc. chairman Sumner Redstone [announced] today that his Paramount Pictures is terminating its 14-year relationship with Tom “Crazy” Cruise's production company because the actor's controversial and erratic off-screen behavior hurt the theatrical grosses of "

Misc. Leno

From last Friday's show: > As I'm sure you've heard by now, the airlines are saying no more hair gels, shampoo, makeup or hair sprays will be allowed in your carry-on bag. Who's attacking us? Drag queens? > They also said that

Party School

Princeton has released its annual review of the best party schools [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PARTY_SCHOOLS?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-08-21-18-51-02] . Texas is number one. When I get the complete list, I'll post it. It's a

Love Boat Trivia

From Mark Steyn's Aaron Spelling obituary in the September Atlantic (subscriber link [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/aaron-spelling]): > “Get rid of the little guy,” advised an NBC exec after the Fantasy Island pilot. Eventually Spelling did, but only after HervÃ© Villechaize demanded as much per episode

Barnes on Media

The most-recent issue of Imprimis has a good account by Fred Barnes of mainstream media bias. Link [http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/]. Excerpts: > President Bush is similarly treated as someone who is obsessive about his religion. And what does he do? Well, he reads a devotional every day; he

Joan

The Pope's reference to Joan of Arc yesterday [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=45996] reminded me: My eldest son recently acquired a copy of Mark Twain's biography of Joan of Arc. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I know nothing about

Great Quotes

Fr. Joe serves up an assortment of great quotes [http://fatherjoe.wordpress.com/2006/08/21/humorous-quotes/], many of which I've never seen before.

Another Sighting

This PR stunt is getting older than marrying Elizabeth Taylor [http://www.biogs.com/famous/taylorliz.html]: > Some have seen her in toast, in trees, even potato chips. Now one suburban St. Louis man says the Virgin Mary is in his refrigerator. > Last week, John Milonas was grilling

Pope Against Hard Work?

No, he's not against hard work. But he is against filling our lives with non-stop activity, something I've been guilty of for the past two months. Quoting St. Bernard Clairvaux: > "We have to guard ourselves, the saint observed, from the dangers of excessive activity,

Buchanan Book

Drudge "reviews" Pat Buchanan's new book [http://www.drudgereport.com/flashpjb.htm]. If memory serves, the two are friends. But no matter: I like Buchanan, and I line up more with his thinking than I do the neo-cons that are currently in power. Unfortunately, based on

Word Pollution . . .

. . . It's worse than I thought: > James Billington, the head of the Library of Congress, told me about a report estimating that digital information equivalent in scale to the contents of all the library's books is produced by the world's computers every fifteen minutes.

Infantilization of Adulthood

Mark Steyn comments on a familiar theme of this blog [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/08/softened-state-is-infantilization-of.html] : > “When life becomes an extended picnic, with nothing of importance to do,” writes Charles Murray in In Our Hands, “ideas of greatness become an irritant. Such is the nature of the

Something for Sunday Morning

> For everyone who stands against God and is at war with Him is an enemy of God, even if he makes all men to be at peach with each other, for even as he makes them to be at peace with each other he does it in a way

The Return Eudemon

Whew! I'm back. My third vacation of the year. I got back a few hours ago, and found everything--my house, my office, my blog--in order. It was a good feeling. I spent the week near Alpena, Michigan, which is in the northern part of Michigan's lower

Old Testament Feast Day

It's the feast day of St. Sarah. Yes, Sarah of the old testament. Catholics and Greek Orthodox recognize all sorts of OT saints, like Jeremiah, Abraham, and Isaiah.

Under the Influence

It's Friday, so what the heck: Notable events that happened under the influence of alcohol (courtesy of The New Book of Lists): Hanging of Captain Kidd Boston Tea Party Nat Turner Rebellion Inauguration of Andrew Johnson Lincoln's Assassination Battle of Little Bighorn Founding of Alcoholics Anonymous

Woody

I'm no Woody Allen fan, but a few of these quotes are pretty funny: "[Intellectuals] are like the Mafia. They only kill their own." "The prettiest [girls] are almost always the most boring, and that is why some people feel there is no God."

PSA

Reminder: Blogging is light this week, due to family and fun commitments.

Wiki Me

Good story in this month's Atlantic Monthly about Wikipedia (link [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia], might require subscription), concentrating on its formation and history. It also contains some neat stats, like this one:

PSA

Blogging will be light. I'll be away for a few days, drinking and eating and drinking. Assuming I can still fit through the door jam of my study, regular blogging will resume when the effects of the alcohol wears off. In the meantime, I'll try to

Namesake Feast Day

It's Maximilian Kolbe's [http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintm01.htm] feast day today. My son Maximilian is named after him. Let's hope for a nice day, full of blessings from above.

We Got (and Give) Beat

I found this in this month's issue of The Atlantic Monthly (subscriber link [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/primarysources]). It's highly interesting because it comes out at the same time as this story about music and sexual activity [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4909/]. The study mentioned

Something for Sunday Morning

"A lofty soul bears contempt, insult, or slander easily enough. The only is risk is that it may transmute them into pride." Henri de Lubac

The Weekend Eudemon

Nice evening yesterday: Detroit Lions exhibition opener, kids playing outside, three beers drank while watching the 7 so Marie could get some housework done. I wanted to go to the drinking club, but too many domestic responsibilities held me down. Besides, I was able to go to a friend'

411

A reliable reader sends this along: > Phone companies are charging us $1.00 or more for 411 information calls. > When you need to use the 411/information option, simply dial 1-800-FREE-411 or 1 800 373 3411. There's no charge. So save a few bucks and buy

Brews You Can Use III. Sans Saki Edition

Japan is a beer-gone-wild country. Number 6 consumer in the world, in fact. Link [http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4108195.html].

Brews You Can Use II

This man has drank 7,777 different beers [http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Aug-07-Mon-2006/living/8859228.html] . That's the stuff of movies, man. It makes my eyes get watery. > On July 7, at seven seconds after 7:07 p.m., Nowatzki quaffed his 7,777th

Brews You Can Use

> Americans are drinking alcohol more often, and beer is back on top as the beverage of choice, according to a new Gallup Poll. [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/01/health/webmd/main1857447.shtml] This is good news. I like wine, but I wasn't comfortable with

Leno on Paris

> Paris Hilton is now claiming she will remain celibate for 365 days. Oh, not in a row”¦over the course of her lifetime.

Puppet Porn

I haven't ran a story on this theme in awhile: “A life devoted to instant gratification produces permanent infantilization.” Theodore Dalrymple. [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2429/] When that happens, adult and kid entertainment gets intertwined. The most recent manifestation [http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&

Believable?

Western values 'are causing mental illness.' [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2305849,00.html] I suspect the assertion has merit. What are "Western values" today? Well, they're lots of things, some of which are good, but the article focuses on the ones

A Real Bust

If this [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14270562/] doesn't derail her presidential bid, nothing will. Then again, she hasn't endorsed it: > A "presidential bust" of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was unveiled Wednesday at New York's Museum of Sex, where sculptor

Macca and Mucca

The Paul McCartney divorce is getting into full swing. Go here [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006360565,00.html] for all the details. Entertaining stuff, especially when you learn that the wife is a former porn actress ("You'd expect so much more from a person

Reminder

I'll be on Dominic Lettieri's radio show this Wednesday, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (EDT), talking about blogging. If you're in the Philadelphia/Delaware area, you can catch it on WTMR 800 AM, and anyone can listen on Catholic

Edith!

Far out. It's Edith Stein's feast day. She's one of the best, even if I can't understand everything she wrote. She came to Catholicism via philosophy, and that always makes for some of the most interesting saints. Read more about her here

Better Leave a Tip

> A bar in eastern China allows its customers to beat up the staff. > The Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing lets customers smash glasses and even hit specially trained workers reports China Daily. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1944174.html?menu=news.quirkies]. Kinda

Swayze Steps Up

I've always liked Swayze, even when he was dancing and worked with Whoopi Goldberg (who grates on me like nails on a chalkboard) in Ghost: > Patrick Swayze became the latest actor to defend Mel Gibson, saying on Monday his friend was not anti-Semitic and that too much

Never Bankruptcy Land

Well, this story [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060807/music_nm/jackson_dc;_ylt=AkDXpz6VKGlOrFaWAAmxglJxFb8C;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-] interests me, for reasons I'll explain below: > Pop star Michael Jackson has stumbled across a conspiracy by former attorneys, associates and advisers to force him into financial ruin, his

iSex

> Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study found [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060807/ap_on_re_us/sex_lyrics_teens;_ylt=AtRAPoTeEtPrHppDDirtEKKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3czJjNGZoBHNlYwM3NTE-] . It has nothing to do with the

Catholic Radio

I'll be on Dominic Lettieri's radio show this Wednesday, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (EDT), talking about blogging. If you're in the Philadelphia/Delaware area, you can catch it on WTMR 800 AM, and anyone can listen on Catholic

Message in a Bottle

Ya gotta love the Internet. The amount of creativity it has uncorked amazes and amuses me. Check out, for instance, this site: > Oceangram is the internet version of sending a message in a bottle, you write the message, seal it in a bottle, and send it off into the

Snoop Dogg Teaches the Meaning of Respect

MTV has caused an uproar with a cartoon that shows Snoop Dogg [http://www.snoopdogg.com/default.aspx] leading two women around on a leash. ( NY Post Link [http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/mtv_snoop_poop_nationalnews_philip_recchia_____and_susannah_cahalan.htm] ). Excerpt: > "Seinfeld"'

Pictures

Trip to Milwaukee: Daughter Abbie (11) and me at last Saturday's wedding. Don't freak out. She didn't drink too many. The seven and me in Cleveland. The faces have been shadowed out to protect our identity. Cleveland has a venerable mob history.

Kind Words

I've never met Terry Nelson at Abbey-Roads, but I can tell you this: he has a keen and sophisticated nose for talent: > Everything Eric writes has a lighter take, it's a witty and intelligent blog. Very good stuff [http://abbey-roads.blogspot.com/2006/08/lighter-blogs.

Something for Sunday Morning

> If people would do for God what they do for the world, what a great number of Christians would go to Heaven. St. John Vianney

Letterman on Supreme Court

A few of these slayed me: > Letterman's Top Ten Top Ten Signs The Supreme Court Doesn't Give A Damn > 10.Opinion based on coin flip so they could make 2:40 showing of "Superman Returns" 9.Tough to concentrate with Ruth Bader

Leno on Mel

> You know I keep hearing and reading regarding the Mel Gibson story that they know that Mel meant what he said because alcohol is a truth serum. Keep hearing this over and over. Alcohol is a truth serum. Really? Since when? Women, when's the last time you

The Real Daily Eudemon

The idea of heresy, especially as illuminated by G.K. Chesterton, according to Kyro at Chesterton and Friends [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/08/real-daily-eudemon.html].

The Wedding Hangover Eudemon

Well, I'm back from Milwaukee. A whirlwind trip, but we had a good time and got to see a lot of downtown Milwaukee this morning. Neat city. I bet it rocks in the evenings. It's my first nephew to get married. I have only 23 nieces

PSA

The back-breaking summer continues. I'm now off to Milwaukee for my nephew's funeral wedding. I've never been to Milwaukee, so I'm looking forward to it, but I won't have much time for sightseeing. My wife's brother has graciously

Brews You Can Use

Rolling Rock has pulled out of Latrobe [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrobe,_Pennsylvania], Pennsylvania, which is perhaps the biggest betrayal since Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore. This sad article [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06213/710164-59.stm] asks, "Will Labtrobe citizens quit drinking Rolling Rock?

No Islamic Fun

> Britain's biggest theme park has called off the country's first "National Muslim Fun Day" because of lack of interest, the park said Wednesday [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2006-08-02T184048Z_01_L02862061_RTRUKOC_0_US-MUSLIMS-FUNDAY.xml&src=

I'll Take Two Big Macs, a Biggee Fry, and a Shake . . . Quick!

> A study of 61 male university students found those who were hungry were attracted to heavier women than those who were satiated. > The hungry men also paid much less attention to a woman's body shape and regarded less curvy figures as more attractive. Link [http://news.

Ten Reasons to Go Hollywood

> If any of you watch movies that contain gratuitous sex and violence or moral worldviews contrary to a godly one, I'd like to ask you to e-mail me to tell me why you do it. This is for an article I am writing on the spiritual, cultural

The Smartest People in the World?

Is it me, or are there a lot of articles indicating that the Scots are a bunch of flippin' degenerates? Gambling problem [http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1117732006&format=print] (1-in-10 Scots children have a gambling problem--I don't believe it, but still), drug problem

Fulbert's Pride

I forgot to mention on Tuesday that one of my more involved essays has finally got published [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=2&art_id=33828]. Another publication said it wanted it, but that was about five years ago, so I sent it to Catholic

Lick This, You Cell Phone Addicts

Cellphones harbor more bacteria than a toilet seat [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=398683&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=] . Which isn't too terribly surprising. Few people are addicted to urinating.

Blogging Strawmen

Steven Johnson has had it with bogus arguments about blogging. Readers may recall that I, too, have had it with bogus arguments (link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=33273]). I think Johnson has been guilty of bogus arguments himself (see this article

Honey Heals

I fail the Crunchy Con tests on many fronts, but I like a moderate amount of the "go natural" attitude, which is why I don't wear underwear (I'm joking; get the food back down your throat). This sounds neat: > A new study into

Confetti Money

> A lavish wedding where newly-weds were sprinkled with shredded euro-note confetti has provoked outrage in a French town, a newspaper reported on Tuesday [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060801/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_france_confetti;_ylt=As_F0CbHd5fV2cyfmhd7aNys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3NW1oMDRpBHNlYwM3NTc-] . As more and more people in the

Your Name is Margo Schunderfriz, Too?

One of the best stories of the month [http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9606436/detail.html] (snicker): > Last week, a waitress at the Moosehead Saloon in Westlake, Ohio, asked a woman to show proof of age after the customer ordered a drink. When the waitress looked at the ID,

Max Turns 3

My fourth boy (sixth child overall) turns three today. He's no longer silent [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1870/], though he's still a coy child who prefers smiling to talking, but he often does both. Two more birthdays (Abbie, turning twelve, and Michael, turning eight) take place in

Bronze This

I'd still rather see the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame: > A German family are set to move into the Bronze Age for ten days as part of a museum exhibition. > The Borngraeber family, from Goeppingen, will wear the same clothes, prepare and eat the same food and

Mad Mel

Mel Gibson's mug shot has been released [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0731062melmug1.html]. It's actually pretty good. And what about his anti-Semitic comments? I don't know. As the director of the Anti-Defamation League says, alcohol loosens the tongue and reveals what's

"Hey, Those Guys Are Pretty Good."

"A Berlin opera house is encouraging audience members to smoke cannabis joints during its latest production [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1935247.html] ." You know, in case, like, the show isn't very good. About the title of this post [http://www.stevemartin.com/stop_

The Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame

I went Saturday. It was very cool. A few notes, in no particular order: Remember that the subject matter is cool, but it's still a museum. If you don't like museums (looking at things through glass, then trying to read the little descriptions below), you might

Something for Sunday Morning

> When a man is always occupied with the cravings of desire and ambition, and is eagerly striving to satisfy them, all his thoughts must be mortal, and, as far as is possible altogether to become such, he must be mortal every whit, because he has cherished his mortal part.

The Weekend Eudemon

The House that Rock Built. The Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame [http://rockhall.com/home/default.asp] in Cleveland. That's my destination this morning. My wife is the godmother of a newborn little girl. The family is in Cleveland, so we're going to make a day trip

Brews You Can Use II

Imported beers are gaining market share in the Midwest, the heartland of American brewing. Link [http://www.postgazette.com/pg/06206/708440-34.stm]. The homeland brewers are nervous. Maybe if they weren't cranking out the likes of Budweiser, the better beers from Europe would make inroads. All right,

Brews You Can Use

> The First Baptist Church of Hampton Falls, NH, has a beer bottle on top of the steeple. According to the locals: A brewery owner donated $50,000 to build the church with the condition that everyone was to know he donated it. The church, worrying about the morality of

Of Course It's Boring

Interesting piece by Helen Kirwan-Taylor, a mother/writer who says her children bore her. The later article makes a few decent points (I, too, don't know why "good" parents have to attend every blasted sporting, band, or artistic event; moreover, I detest it when parents try

Gay Clinton

I'm not an Ann Coulter fan. I don't dislike her, but I don't watch her on TV, read her articles or books, or follow her career moves. She's just a non-entity for me, kinda like Unitarianism. I found these remarks about Bill

Light Day

Sorry for the light blogging. I've been busy at the office, trying to keep my baby in furs.

The Wednesday Eudemon

A packed midweek. It started last night, when I took three of my older kids to Pirates of the Caribbean 2. It wasn't good. The plot didn't hold together nearly as well as the first one (which had an excellent plot and story lines that hung

God, Fun, and Money

Blasphemy would be no fun, if there was no God. Chesterton said something to that effect, and there's a lot of fun and God going around today, not to mention some tidy profits: > An American who began her career as a journalist in Belfast, claims she is

The Theocrats Don't Cometh

Ross Douthat of The Atlantic Monthly reviews four books by hysterical authors who think America is becoming a theocracy [http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0607/articles/douthat.html]. It's hopeless to argue with people who actually believe theocracy is a risk, and Douthat doesn't. He mocks

15 Good Adaptations

A list of 15 books that lived up to expectations on the screen [http://www.avclub.com/content/node/50693/1]. I don't agree with all the selections, but it's an interesting list nonetheless.

Alcohol in Ancient Rome

One of my new favorite web sites (World History Blog [http://world-history-blog.blogspot.com/2006/07/drunkus-maximus-power-and-purpose-of.html] ) reviews an article at one of my oldest favorite sites: Modern Drunkard Magazine. The topic: Drunkus Maximus: The Power and Purpose of Alcohol in Ancient Rome [http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/issues/03_

Specter of the Middle Ages

Some of you have probably heard that Arlen made a false accusation against the Catholic Church [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51184] during a stem cell debate. It's another instance of someone invoking the Middle Ages (negatively, of course), and it turns out that

Abolish the Universities

Once in awhile, Lew Rockwell runs a great piece. This is one of them: A Modest Proposal To Abolish Universities [http://www.lewrockwell.com/reed/reed103.html]. I had a lot of great excerpts to choose from, but went with this one: > See, first you learn that you have

Something for Sunday Morning

> The man without God is a laughable opponent in the battle against evil. He sends bugle boys to fight trained warriors. Positive thinking, coping skills, and group therapy flail away comically against a smirking Legion. Anonymous

The Empty Eudemon

I planned to blog a little this evening, but no luck. I surfed and surfed, but found little. Crocheted g-strings [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1921837.html?menu=news.quirkies] (warning: Site not suitable for novices in The Custody of the Eyes class), a swinger's convention

The Exhausted Eudemon

Well, I'm back from the three days of debauchery. I rolled in a little while ago, after a 2.5 hour drive from Mt. Pleasant and the Soaring Eagle Casino, where I lost $50 and got to bed at 11:30, which is about two hours past my

Casino Eudemon

Today, I leave for my nephew's bachelor party. It's been a debauched couple of days, but I've kept my drinking within reasonable limits, and I'll probably be the only guy at the casino with a backpack of books with me, in case

Brews You Can Use

> In an effort to curb charity that is having unintended consequences, the City Council has made it illegal to give food to homeless people in city parks. > Residents complained that the large numbers of homeless gathering in the parks make it impossible for others to use them, said

Golfing Eudemon

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm golfing today. It's probably the only time I'll play this year. I played in a charity scramble two months ago, and I'll probably do another one this Fall, but regular golf--struggling or riding with my shots alone--is

PSA

The 30th Annual Scheske Open starts tonight. It's a family 9-hole golf outing: four brothers, Dad, uncle, two nephews. My Dad will shoot in the low 100s, I'll shoot in the low 50s (barring a blow-up), and the others will shoot anywhere from 35 to 60.

RIP, Mickey

Mickey Spillane died. I read quite a few of his books back in my early twenties: I, the Jury; Kiss Me Deadly, and a few others. I really enjoyed them, but they are filled with violence and lust. Which is partially why I enjoyed them, of course. But I also

Skates

As long as we're talking about exercise without motion, I thought I'd mention these Jetson-like skates that allow a person to walk in virtual worlds without loco-motion: > A pair of motorised roller skates that cancel out a person's steps could let users naturally

Pew on Blogs

The Pew people have released a report on blogging. It's the first mainline report I've seen on the topic [http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-07-19T054114Z_01_N18122033_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MEDIA-BLOGS-SURVEY-DC.XML] . Interesting stuff, at least if you're

Snake Oil Weight Loss?

If you're interested in exercise, check out this story: A new machine lets you stand on it for fifteen minutes and vibrate your way to muscular slim [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=396365&in_page_id=1773] . Too

Disproportionate?

A reader asks about demands that the Israeli response not be disproportionate: > Disproportionate to what? To the kidnapping of two soldiers? To the firing of rockets toward civilian targets in Israel? Do they really have such a misunderstanding of what Israel is responding to? Israel is not answering just

Early Eyewitness to Islam

St. John of Damascus was one of the first. Great post at Biblicalia [http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=210], along with a substantial excerpt from John Damascene's writings. H/t: Fathers of the Church [http://www.fathersofthechurch.com/].

Think Piece on Paris

I would've thought it was impossible: A think piece about Paris Hilton [http://women.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,18030-2261083,00.html]. That's kind of like a think piece about a rock. But this writer almost pulls it off. The article doesn't merit inclusion

Egg on Our Face

> [CBS] plans to announce today that it will place laser imprints of its trademark eye insignia, as well as logos for some of its shows, on eggs – 35 million of them in September and October. CBS's copywriters are referring to the medium as “egg-vertising,” hinting at the

GKC Autism

Was G.K. Chesterton autistic? I find it highly unlikely, but this is an interesting post [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/07/autistic-gkc.html].

I Join B16

This blogger says B16 is a Detroit Tigers fan [http://fumare.blogspot.com/2006/07/pope-benedict-tigers-fan.html]. Maybe he'll invite me over to watch the World Series. Who cares if the post is merely a joke?

Dissin' St. George

One of the finest saints, legendary or otherwise, is in the PC Police's cross hairs. Link [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=393651&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true] and Link [http://edition.

Monday Morning Eudemon

Ouch, long day with the Tigers yesterday. You may have wondered what your prayers for a successful outing [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4838/] got me: 1. The vouchers for box seats were no good. They were sold out. 2. My backup reserve seats were available, but the tickets put us in

Something for Sunday Morning

St. Therese Lisieux's deathbed explanation of remaining a little child before God: > It is to recognize our nothingness, to expect everything from God as a little child expects everything from its father; it is to be disquieted about nothing, having no other occupation but to gather the

Pink Floyd and Hilaire Belloc

Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd liked Belloc's famous children's book [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/07/barrett-and-belloc.html].

PSA

Blogging will be light. I'm heading to Detroit tomorrow to see the league-leading [http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/standings/index.jsp] Tigers. I'm taking my three oldest boys. I loved baseball while growing up. I spent hours poring over the Baseball Encyclopedia, memorizing stats,

The Radical Academy

Wow, this is possibly the best web find of the year: The Radical Academy [http://radicalacademy.com/homepage.htm]. It's inspired by Mortimer Adler, the philosopher-turned-Catholic. There's lots of good stuff there, like this short essay about St. Bonaventura [http://radicalacademy.com/adiphiloessay13.htm] by Etienne

Slowhand

Eric Clapton, considered one of rock-n-roll's gentlemen, isn't as demure as he wants people to think [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=395799&in_page_id=1773] . His ex-wife is penning her autobiography, and it's

The Weekend Eudemon

Saturday morning. Hangover gone already. I get hangovers easily, so anything that dissipates in less than two hours indicates fewer than six beers, which is consistent with last night. I had dinner with Marie and three other couples (after first stopping at the drinking club with one of the husbands

Brews You Can Use III

In time for the Lebano-Israeli War: Taybeh Beer [http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=14333]. It's the hottest drink in the West Bank. And it's kosher.

Brews You Can Use II

Beerfest [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809267350/details]. New movie, coming August 25, 2006 (a Friday; Warner Bros. must know that TDE features brews news on Friday): > When American brothers Todd and Jan Wolfhouse travel to Germany to spread their grandfather's ashes at Oktoberfest, they stumble upon

Brews You Can Use

Nothing beats a cold beer, and few things are worse than a cold beer gone warm. The latter might not ever happen again: > Beer bottles that use solar power to keep their precious contents cool in the height of summer could be a welcome fringe benefit of thin-film technology

Rainbow Lightning

I don't reproduce many pictures here, but this one is pretty wild: More [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=395512&in_page_id=1770] , along with the story of this unusual combination.

Fatuous America

Top 30 Game Show Hosts [http://www.retrocrush.com/archive2006/hosts/index.html]. Yeah, it's stupid, but there are a lot of childhood memories in this link. Bonus coverage: 15 Comeback Albums [http://www.avclub.com/content/node/50444].

The Spider Eudemon

Get Religion has two great posts today: Sin and Shame in Amish Country [http://www.getreligion.org/?p=1745]. (Hey, I live in Amish country! I guess I better be careful where I walk.) Modernity's Complexity and Politics [http://www.getreligion.org/?p=1746]. Excerpt: > We are

Juggalos Attack

America has a new subculture: Juggalos. They're violent young men who listen to the music of Insane Clown Posse [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003121207_insaneclowns12m.html] , which plays a combination of rap and heavy metal. Columbining rap and heavy metal is combining the trash of two

Winner's Complex

I don't like Gorbachev, but these words ring true: > The former general secretary of the Soviet Union Communist Party accused Americans of arrogance and trying to impose their way of life on other nations. > "Americans have a severe disease – worse than AIDS. It's

Orcs Win

The Lord of the Rings stage production is Toronto is throwing in its coat of mail [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4/sub/MarketingPage?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FLAC.20060629.LORD29%2FTPStory%2FTPEntertainment%2FTheatre%2F&ord=1152786830452&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=

CE

This week's column at Catholic Exchange [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=33679]. Excerpt: > While on vacation, I flipped through Ian Lendler's Alcoholica Esoterica: A Collection of Useful and Useless Information as It Relates to the History and

TV Down

This last week "was the least-watched week in recorded history for the four biggest broadcast networks." Link [http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060711/ap/d8iq1l8g0.html]. Unfortunately, analysts think it's because the Fourth-of-July week is always weak, and the programming was worse than usual. In other

The Hatred on the Right?

Check out this unfortunate occurrence in the blogosphere [http://marchtogether.blogspot.com/2006/07/satire.html]. A pro-life blogger falls for an Onion satire piece about abortion, gets vilified, then apparently still doesn't fully understand. Check out the comments section. It is filled with the nastiest, meanest diatribes

National Futility League

There is a quiet but determined effort in the United States to relaunch the world's premier women's professional soccer league. [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,201438,00.html] Female sports and soccer. That's like combining the Detroit Lions with the Arizona Cardinals.

New Element

I don't usually pass along humorous emails, but this one is clean and (to the best of my knowledge) novel: > New Element: Governmentium > A major research institution has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. > The new element has been

St. Benedict

Today's one of my favorite commemorations: St. Benedict (the First, of Nursia). Why is Benedict important? Lots of reasons, most of which are summed up in this excerpt from an essay I wrote earlier: > When, after 312 and Constantine's conversion, society became comfortable for Christians

Hooking in Manhattan

"I'd like two bags of organic cucumbers, a bottle of this lovely blush, some tofu, an all-liver pacifier for little Winchester here, and that skank in the corner for my husband." Residents in an up-and-coming Manhattan neighborhood don't like the return of the hookers.

Brews You Can Use

Yeah, I know it's the anti-beer time of the week, but this story made it to the Yahoo!'s front page. If I wait until Friday, it'll be more stale than a four-day keg: > Organic ales, lagers and pilsners are increasingly squeezing their way

Looking for Blogs

My National Catholic Register column on youth blogs was well received. I'm now thinking about swinging the calendar to the other side and featuring blogs by older people. I'm looking for recommendations. How old must a blogger be to qualify? I'm not going to

Ice Ice . . . Stab Someone in the Face with a Pencil

I find cell phones annoying, but the different rings have never bothered me. Then again, none of my co-workers use them: > According to a survey by Randstad USA, a staffing and work-force management company, 30 percent of employees say the ringing of their co-workers' cell phones is their

World History Blog

A blog of world history [http://world-history-blog.blogspot.com/]. It looks pretty good. I ran a few searches ("Catholic," "Jesus," and a few secular terms) to see if any distasteful biases creeped out. They didn't. It looks like a pretty mainstream work of love.

Tracking Junior

The ways parents can track their children [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/09/BIGMOTHER.TMP]. Excerpt: > Car: Devices can record distance, speed and driving behavior, such as hard braking and sharp turning. Some pinpoint a car's location using Global Positioning System

Something for Sunday Morning

"Worldly people have not the Holy Spirit, or if they have, it is only for a moment. The noise of the world drives him away." John Vianney

Eugenics and the Left

Eugenics is the great uncle of the social engineering that dominated--and wrecked much of--the twentieth century and continues to dog us today. Social engineering, of course, is nearly synonymous with "Socialism" and "liberalism," but it takes awhile to trace out the intellectual path for people who

Locking Our Doors and Never Coming Out, Episode 1,990,812

> Police are investigating allegations that two six-year-old boys sexually assaulted two five-year-old girls at a primary school. Telegraph Link [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/07/usex.xml]. Kids don't see a serial murderer TV show then go out and become

The Weekend Eudemon

Rough morning. I don't know what happened yesterday, but I felt hungover all day, then came down with a nasty stomach ache in the evening. It slowly lifted last night, but was still tender around 3:00 a.m. I woke up today, feeling groggy and sore, like

Colbert Revisited

I earlier railed against The Stephen Colbert Report [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4758/]. According to this blogger [http://mormon2catholic.blogspot.com/2006/07/adding-gravitas-to-nicene-creed.html] , Colbert's a faithful Catholic and, though left of center, a pretty good guy. Maybe I just caught an awfully-bad ten minutes. Hard to say,

Brews You Can Use III

According to this blogger [http://beerblog.genx40.com/archives/2006/july/australias], in 1980 75% of beer in the US was consumed in bars. The figure has now dropped to 25%. I couldn't find any links to confirm the statistic, but I ran across this great Common Sense

Brews You Can Use II

Alright, I'm not sure how to set this one up, so bear with me. Long-time readers of this blog probably know that I'm a fan of Modern Drunkard Magazine and its editor, Frank Kelly Rich, who's one of the funniest writers today. I don&

Brews You Can Use, Kinda

> Claiming that the bride in an arranged marriage was too homely for his son, a Massachusetts man is suing friends who sought to set up the New Delhi nuptials [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0706061uglybride1.html]. Why is this Brews You Can Use? Precisely because, if the family had

Bigoted Nation

Howard Dean, commenting on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, on the New York gay marriage decision [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/07/06/115-07062006.html]: > As Democrats, we believe that every American has a right to equal protection under the law and to live in dignity. And

Brews You Can Use

More elephant attacks took place last week [http://www.newkerala.com/news3.php?action=fullnews&id=16154] (I must've missed it b/c I was on vacation): > Herds of wild elephants are running amok in Assam, damaging vast swathes of crops and also mud and thatch

The Bikini . . . 60 Years of Skin

Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/5130460.stm]. Excerpt: > Some argue that the key to the bikini's re-found popularity is the ageing baby boomers who signed up to the fitness-obsessed culture. Kathy Peiss, a professor of women's history at the University

A Little Bernanos

People of the Book has a nice summary of a Catholic classic [http://peopleofthebook.us/2006/07/06/the-miracle-of-empty-hands/]. Excerpt: > The drama of the book is the story of how this man becomes a mighty instrument of God's love and mercy. He does it by forgetting about

What the?

A court ruled this way? Far out. If more courts were as modest in their rulings, an amendment to the Constitution wouldn't be necessary: > New York's highest court ruled Thursday that gay marriage is not allowed under state law. > The Court of Appeals in

The Tin Men

Afraid of aliens tapping into your brain, but don't like the looks of the ordinary aluminum foil hats? Try this site. [http://www.ericisgreat.com/tinfoilhats/index.html]

Hot Ice

I'm guessing this idea won't be at Dairy Queen any time soon [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1905098.html]: > An ice cream has been created that is so hot customers must sign a waiver before tasting it. > Cold Sweat was created by

Forever Young?

Sophia Loren, 71, will pose nude for a racy calendar [http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060705/en_afp/italylorennude;_ylt=AnQxVqvZTyS.IX5Cxm6kHWCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-] . Don't laugh. I'll bet she looks great. They could exhume Marilyn Monroe and make her look good. The women you see

Vatican Getting Tougher

Music to my ears: > “Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It's our duty to protect ourselves.” Thus spoke Monsignor Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Vatican's supreme court, referring to Muslims. Explaining his apparent rejection of Jesus' admonition to his followers to

Get Off the Table

Perhaps the funniest song title I've ever seen [http://www.bogusrecords.com/bullmoose.html]. My apologies for the off-color humor, but it cracked me up.

Rolling Fast

> Star Hollywood actor-activists including Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon and anti-war campaigners led by bereaved mother Cindy Sheehan plan to launch a hunger strike, demanding the immediate return of US troops from Iraq. When I saw this, I thought, "How in the world are these indulged children going

Good Man Obama

Barack Obama intrigues me. He'd excite me if he weren't pro-gay and pro-abortion, but he does intrigues me. Phil Lawler at Catholic World News points out (subscriber link [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=45126]) that Obama is a sincere Christian--perhaps warped in some

Overpopulation Part Two

A few suggestions rolled in during the last ten hours in response to my previous post. A few of the emails: > Computer talk show host Kim Komando recommends OpenOffice. so I gave it a try; it's free (you don't even have to register), and it&

Overpopulation Myths

Alan Capasso at Chesterton and Friends responds to Buffett's and Gates' hopes to cram condoms down the collective throat of the world [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/07/people-as-virus-syndrome.html] . Excerpt: > Myth 2: The world's forests are disappearing because of overpopulation. This is an

V

Johnny Cash has a new album [http://www.cmt.com/news/articles/1535455/20060629/cash_johnny.jhtml?headlines=true] : Johnny Cash V. It sounds sad and good. Excerpt from review: > Though weak in voice and almost completely blind by then, his spirit was never stronger, and that spirit shines

The New Sweatshop

The July/August issue of Books & Culture [http://www.christianitytoday.com/books/] has a pretty good essay by Eugene McCarraher--professor at Villanova, "faithful Catholic," and "fierce socialist"--about the limits of capitalism. Unfortunately, it's more of a screed. Moreover, I'm suspicious

Showing A Lot of Respect

Roman Abramovich has paid Â£285,000 for a number plate originally made for Pope John Paul II. [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1900757.html]

Ugly Woman for Sale

She apparently didn't put a picture of herself on the site, though I couldn't confirm it: > A German woman has put her Ferrari up for sale on eBay and added herself as an extra feature. > The 26-year-old, who refers to herself only as Leila

Popes in NYC

The funny guys at Totus Pius visited NYC last week. I you, like me, enjoy NYC and the Popes Pius, check out this picture-laden post [http://totuspius.blogspot.com/2006/07/papal-visit-to-nyc-good-bad-and-ugly.html] .

The Greening of the Corpse

A new way to get buried, in an environmentally-safe way. From this morning's WaPo: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/01/AR2006070101215.html] > At Greensprings, where a plot costs $500 plus a $350 fee to dig the grave, bodies cannot be embalmed or otherwise

The Return Eudemon

I'm back. Seven days and seven nights at Houghton Lake, Michigan's largest inland lake. We rent a small cabin, putting nine people into about 800 square feet, no basement, patio, garage, or anything else that might add to the footage. Two bedrooms. The baby (Tess; 15

Voicemail Etiquette

Voicemail has spread across the land. And with any new communication technology, comes etiquette. This site [http://www.uleth.ca/crdc/voicemail_etiquette.cfm] has a pretty good list of voicemail etiquette. Here are things I recommend: The key to understanding polite voicemail messages: Most voicemails have no rewind button,

Brews You Can Use

"A few choice wines for summer, and where to find them." Courtesy of The Atlantic Monthly [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200607/summer-wines]. Bonny Doon [http://www.bonnydoonvineyard.com/] (whatta gay name; perhaps this Brews You Can Use wasn't such a good idea) Sonoma County Old

Three Stages

From a section dealing with E.F. Schumacher in Robert Inchausti's Subversive Orthodoxy [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587430878/thedailyeudem-20]: > In his 1957 talk "The Insufficiency of Liberalism," Schumacher argued that there were three stages of human development: first was primitive religiosity, and

Misc.

A few random thoughts during this week of light blogging: *We exist in time and space. Prayer involves communication with that which transcends both. No wonder it's difficult. *Prayer, existing outside time and space, resists both. It might be a good idea to create a space in your

Youth League Coaches

As my kids hit sports with a full stride, I'm noticing a problem that is as old as little league itself: coaches who favor their own children. In the past, it seems the problem existed, but it was more of an unintentional thing: the coach either didn'

The Big 5

The feature article in the current issue of Touchstone is worth checking out [http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=19-06-040-f]. My time is still limited this week, so I can't comment much, but give it a click: > There may be political explanations for the attractiveness

42% by Pius

According to this blog [http://totuspius.blogspot.com/2006/06/pii-responsible-for-42-of-church.html], Popes named Pius declared 42% of the Church Doctors. St. Athanasius (296-373)- Declared Doctor in 1568 by St. Pius V St. Hilary of Poitiers (315-367)- 1851 by Bl. Pius IX St. Gregory of Nasianzus (325-389)-

Cash Lyrics

Since I quoted from his autobiography, I thought I'd reproduce a few of JR's better lyrics. From one of my favorite late (1978) Cash songs, "Without Love": > Without love I am half human without love I'm all machine Without love there&

Cash Auto

My wife bought me Johnny Cash's autobiography as a Father's Day present. I've been flipping through it. I was hoping for more information about his first wife, Vivian, but she supposedly asked Johnny to keep her out of his public life, and he honored

PSA

Blogging will be light this week. I'll be enjoying beer, books, beer, my family, and beer. I'll plan on hitting the computer once or twice, but for the most part, this blog will be taking it easy for a few days.

Beer Doesn't Equal Illicit Activity

> The hordes of beer-swilling men who have descended on Germany for the World Cup are proving a disappointment for the host nation's sex workers, preferring to party in public rather than spend time with prostitutes [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-06-23T182703Z_

Something for Sunday Morning

> A novice under a temptation which seemed to her insurmountable said: 'This time I cannot rise above it--it is impossible.' Therese replied, 'Why do you try to rise above it? Pass beneath it quite simply. It is very well for great souls to soar high above

Big Dress

This kind of self-obsessiveness transcends the greatest of bridezillas [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1888938.html?menu=news.quirkies]. This groom is in for a painful existence: > A bride's dress was so big it got stuck in the church door. > Carly O'Brien&

The Weekend Eudemon

Finally, an evening a drinking. I'm taking some days off work, so I busted my back for the past four days, trying to get my desk cleared. It worked. I came into the office Friday morning, went to Mass, knocked out a few small projects, took a leisurely

Leary Follow-up

In response to my post about Timothy Leary [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4753/], one of my most knowledgeable and intellectually-reliable readers wrote to me: > I tend to doubt the rendering of McLuhan's advice, but I don't doubt that he was sympathetic to the psychedelic cause. Many

Brews You Can Use IV

A reader took sympathy on my lack of beer news this week and sent along the following: > It's been said that chestnuts are "grains that grow on trees." This statement is certainly true for one mid-Michigan brewer, who has taken locally grown edible chestnuts and

Brews You Can Use III

A curious drinking song [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/06/curious-drinking-song-for-your-weekend.html] from one of my favorite Belloc books.

Brews You Can Use II

Beer and banjo. Never thought of it, but it's a great combination: Not much beer news out there this week. Whatta bummer. Vacation is calling, so I was in a brews news mood. I'll get over it. It might take a six pack, but I'

Brews You Can Use

Budweiser tanks at the World Cup [http://beerblog.genx40.com/archives/2006/june/budbombingatthe]: > US mega brewer Anheuser-Busch has obtained the exclusive rights to sell the beer at the World Cup in Germany. Reports from across the sea have it that the move to only sell a thin bubbly

The Spider Eudemon

An assortment from the web: I mentioned ISI Books' catalogue. The new Ignatius Press catalogue looks good, too [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/06/ignatius-friends.html], according to the Chesterton and Friends blog (you might recognize the blogger's first name). Mahatma Gandhi's views on human

Garage Sale

Today's the big day: My wife's first garage sale in about eight years. Our house was bursting with toys, clothes, and other stuff, much of it pretty good, but we didn't need it and I was getting tired of twisting my body through the

Colbert

While doing a little channel surfing last night, I watched ten minutes of The Colbert Report [http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_colbert_report/index.jhtml] (my sons' baseball game was rained out, thus blessing me with a little free time). I was dumbfounded. I've never seen

FDNY Ignorance

A rugby team made up at least partially of New York firefighters forfeited a game to a gay rugby team. Link [http://outsports.com/local/2006/0621gotham.htm]. The story isn't well-written, but it appears that one of the FDNY guys approached the gay team and asked if

NYT on ACE

Even the New York Times has taken notice of ISI Books' American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/21/books/21conserve.html?_r=1&oref=slogin]. It's a pretty even-handed treatment, from what I can tell: > "We've gone from

ISI

I said yesterday [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4749/] that I hadn't received ISI Books' [http://www.isi.org/books/index.aspx] most-recent catalogue. I was wrong. It came yesterday (maybe Monday, since I didn't check Monday's mail until last night). The Tory Anarchist [http:

Stepping Out with the GOP

> Lurking just over the horizon are liabilities for three Republicans who have topped several national, independent polls for the GOP's favorite 2008 nominee: Sen. John McCain (affair, divorce), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (affair, divorce, affair, divorce), and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (divorce, affair, nasty

Leery of Leary

Interesting piece at The New Yorker about Timothy Leary [http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/articles/060626crbo_books], the godfather of LSD. A few random excerpts: > Leary's father was a dentist whose career was ruined by alcoholism; he abandoned the family in 1934, ending up as a

Materially Daddy's Girl

> [Madonna] has been shocking audiences during her Confessions tour, repeatedly using the f-word, flipping her middle finger at the crowd, reaching inside her pants, and suggesting that people perform a lewd act on President Bush. At a recent show in Chicago, however, the naughty talk was all but absent,

25th

Joe Tremblay at Chesterton and Friends provides a personal recount of last weekend's 25th Annual Chesterton Conferenc [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/06/conference-review.html]e, the only conference in the world that combines great beer, great wine, great cheese, great books, great speakers, and great conversation in

ISI

The Tory Anarchist offers a great overview of the new ISI catalogue [http://toryanarchist.wordpress.com/2006/06/20/cataloging/]. At least it sounds great. I haven't received my copy of the catalogue yet, which is odd since they're one of this blog's sponsors.

Naughty or Not?

> Pamela Anderson is planning to strip naked in a shop window - for an anti-fur protest. > The former 'Baywatch' babe, famed for her curvy body, is to pose nude in the window of fashion designer Stella McCartney's London clothes shop on behalf of animal

Gotta Love Democracy

> The divine Trinity – "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" – could also be known as "Mother, Child and Womb" or "Rock, Redeemer, Friend" at some Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) services under an action Monday by the church's national assembly. > Delegates to

Well, This Certainly Stinks

From On the Square [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=284]: > Some think The Passion needed a sequel, and not merely in the theological sense. What's more, somebody thought that Tim LaHaye, author of those uber-bestselling successful Left Behind comic books, was the man to produce it.

Protesting Bud

I'm the "ugly American" when it comes to the World Cup. My interest is piqued a little, but overall, I'd rather watch Arena Bowl 2006 (which I watched for ten minutes). I found it humorous, though, that Budweister is the official sponsor, and the

Call the ACLU Again

A German man is suing an airline after being kicked off a flight for being too smelly [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1880819.html?menu=news.quirkies]. This is outrageous. If this happens all the time, the French will never be allowed to leave their country.

Daffy ACLU at Six Flags

"Yes, Bobby, I think Daffy Duck is a Rastafarian": > The American Civil Liberties Union is investigating complaints from more than a dozen black employees at a Six Flags theme park who were told their hairstyles were inappropriate. > Jonathan DeLeon, 17, was hired at Six Flags America

Snagged

Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way, by John Paul II. My wife bought it for me for Father's Day. It's JPII's autobiography of his early clerical years. Price: $1.00 at the Dollar Tree. Hardback.

The Real Pope Joan

> The Episcopal Church on Sunday elected Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first female chief pastor of the denomination and the first female leader in the history of the world Anglican Communion. Link [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,199992,00.html]. Of course, she's

Merlin

Chasing Merlin at The Grail Code [http://www.grailcode.com/archives/the-historical-merlin/]. First installment.

Cathedral of Milan

Posting this only because it's magnificent:

Father's Day Eudemon

Excellent day at the Scheske house. Father's Day = eight servants and lots of presents: Elvis paraphernalia from Tupelo, Johnny Cash stuff, JPII book, a mat for sleeping at the office, vacation hat, and other stuff. I also told the kids that I wanted to do a Father'

Something for Sunday Morning

> The beautiful Prayer of St Richard is one of my favourite and prayed in the aftermath of the wonderful Feast of Corpus Christi, it takes on a special resonance: > "Thanks be to you, my lord, Jesus Christ, For all the benefits that you have given me; For

Spanking Buddha

Interesting stuff at this website [http://www.iivs.de/~iivs01311/EN/links.htm]. I don't know if it's all true, but they have an impressive array of respectable links to back 'em up. > Buddhism also has “skeletons in its' closet” which it carefully

The Weekend Eudemon

Another short one, blogging from the office on Saturday morning again. I think I'll change the name of this blog to "The Broken Record": blogging will be light, I'm busy at the office, my genitals are in a clamp and I can't

Brews You Can Use XVII

> News outlets around the world are carrying the story about xanthohumol, found in hops, inhibits a specific protein in the cells along the surface of the prostate gland. So you get headlines like this one from ABC News: Beer Ingredient May Fight Prostate Cancer. > The story also points

Brews You Can Use VI

Lots of good stuff this week for BYCU. The reason? I had a chance to blog for the first time this week. I sat on the back deck, a beer on the table, a few empties at my feet, and searched for beer news. It was the most enjoyable evening

Brews You Can Use V

Chalk one up for the land of fruits and nuts [http://extras.insidebayarea.com/blogs/beerblog/2006/06/city-beer-store-opens-in-sf.html] : > Ever wandered through a store with a great beer selection, see an unusual beer and wonder if you'd like it or not. Until now, in the San

Brews You Can Use IV

News story in praise of homebrewing [http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/allheadlines/133399.php]: > Beware the Father's Day gift that becomes an obsession. Since the 1970s when home brewing was legalized during the Carter Administration, a popular present has been the beer-brewing kit. > Retailing now for

Brews You Can Use III

I'm a week late with this, but it merits mentioning. If the feds limited themselves to such proclamations, the country would be a better place: The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a resolution commending America's craft brewers for their contributions to the nation'

Brews You Can Use II

A working beer bottle organ [http://oddmusic.com/gallery/om06300.html]. Maybe the tone gets lighter as you drain the bottles (actually, no: the bottles are filled with mineral oil, which I found a little disappointing, almost sacrilegious). Thanks, Curt Jester [http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/archives/006860.php]. <

Brews You Can Use

Wikipedia's entry of drinking games [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Drinking_games]. Most are probably practices in over-indulgence--I might have drank myself into a coma in college if I had access to this website. I played Pass-Out [http://www.prankplace.com/dh_passout.htm]more times than

Ghost Town Alley

Sorry for the light blogging. Here's a little make-up: Pictures from 174 ghost towns around the United States [http://www.ghosttowngallery.com/]. Pretty neat. Oldest saloon in Nevada:

The Pursuit of Happiness

If life is about happiness (and it is, both now and in eternity), this poll [http://pewresearch.org/social/pack.php?PackID=1] speaks volume to the state of American life. From The Atlantic Monthly [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200607/primarysources]: > Today, as in 1972, roughly 50 percent

Day 16

The 16-Day Chesterton Celebration ends today. Nick Milne saved his best for last: The Death of the Man Who Lived [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/06/death-of-man-who-lived.html]. Great prose; great pictures; great links for further reading. Excerpt: > There are many stories about these final hours, and all of

Rockin' Religion

The new issue of The Atlantic Monthly arrived this week. I haven't had a lot of time to read it, but I saw the enjoyable Ross Douthat's name in the table of contents, so I flipped to page 40 [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200607/celebrity-conversions]

Stem Me

Why? Can't we just harvest more embryos? > Leading doctors will today call for more parents to be allowed to store their babies' stem cells on the NHS. > Cells taken from the blood of the umbilical cord can be used to treat conditions such as childhood

Youth Blogs

I'm looking for blogs by Catholic youths for my next National Catholic Register blog column. How young? I'm flexible, but probably in the 16- to 24-year old range. If you know of any real little guys (15 or under) out there blogging Catholicism, I'd

Happy Birthday

Dorothy Sayers would've been 113 today [http://rod-bennett.blogspot.com/2006/06/heroine-around-here.html].

Light Blogging

Employment law presentation at the local community college this morning. Minor league baseball game outing with the family tonight. Voicemail light blinking, email arriving, regular mail coming shortly. Blogging will be light today. C.S. Lewis said a true Christian exhibits joy. That doesn't bode well for me

Drugging the Children

It's happening in public schools, and this blogger makes some interesting assertions [http://www.illiante.com/YesLetsDrugOurKids.aspx] that go to the root of the problems with public schools (to wit, they're part of a bureaucracy, and the bureaucratic mindset infiltrates): > Schools get extra funds

The New Barbarian Invasions

The Rear Admiral says new barbarian invasions could start in less than ten years. And his warning is literal: he's talking about barbarian roamings and incursions, not just the slow Islamic take-over of Europe that we're currently seeing. Wild stuff [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/

Smart Drugs

WaPo ran a feature story today about smart drugs [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/10/AR2006061001181.html?sub=AR] : pills that help a person think, work, retain, and stay awake. Excerpt: > These drugs represent only the first primitive, halting generation of cognitive enhancers. Memory drugs

Something for Sunday Morning

The empty vessel is ready to be filled by anything. . . When [the heart of man] is empty of worldly and fleshly desires, it is ready to receive the God of love. But when it is filled with love of this world, fleshly desires and sinful inclinations, then divine love cannot

Rejoicing at the Lost Sheep . . .

. . . especially when she's gorgeous (smile): > Nicole Kidman's marriage to country singer Keith Urban this month will mark a new stage on her spiritual journey. > A close religious confidant to the actor - Sydney Jesuit priest Father Paul Coleman - has revealed that Kidman'

Pope is Ill

Benedict 16 has the bird flu. He got bitten by a cardinal.

Chesterton Keeps Rolling

The 16-Day Chesterton celebration continues at Chesterton and Friends [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/06/chestertonian-life-part-ii-in-practice.html] . Today's post by Nick Milne is delightful. Nick is possibly the best un-recognized writer I know. I also recommend his blog, A Gentle Fuss [http://gentlefuss.blogspot.com/].

Going Ape

> Spain could soon become the first country in the world to give chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and other great apes some of the fundamental rights granted to human beings with a law being proposed by members of the ruling Socialist coalition. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/world/20060609-101506-4499r.htm]. The

The Weekend Eudemon

This'll be an abbreviated edition. The practice of law has been brutal this week. I'm blogging this from my law office, after getting here at 6:30 this morning. On top of the law office, I'm the dug-out coach for my boys' (first

PSA

Major internet problems at the office, hence the lack of posts. Hopefully things will improve shortly, but who knows. The internet gods haven't been smiling on me lately.

Brews You Can Use II

$4.00 heist: > Police say a Larksville man burglarized a pizza shop early Wednesday morning then fled, striking police cruisers during a high-speed chase that ended with a physical confrontation with officers. And police said it was all for two 12 packs of Milwaukee's Best Ice beer.

Brews You Can Use

Sacrilege on campus [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060608/ap_on_hi_te/colleges_ipods_8]: > In a rare instance, Apple Computer Inc.'s iconic iPod music player surpassed beer drinking as the most "in" thing among undergraduate college students, according to the latest biannual

Misc. 6.8.06

*More common knowledge as science [http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-06/bpl-mis060806.php]: > The authors find that after a five-minute conversation with a stranger of the opposite gender, men were more likely to interpret ambiguous or friendly behavior as indicating sexual interest. "The findings suggest that men

Old Buckskin

> The oldest surviving condom in the world has gone on display in an Austrian museum. The reusable condom dates back to 1640 and is completely intact, as is its orginal users' manual, written in Latin. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1870958.html] (be careful, there&

Stewart Won?

The secularists are twittering with Jon Stewart's overwhelming victory over Bill Bennett in a "debate" regarding gay marriage. See, for example [http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/07/jon_stewart_tears_op.html] ("Steward [sic] made mincemeat of out neanderthal pundit Bill Bennett"). I

Spider Eudemon

Today's web crawling results: *My charitable effort of the week: Bishop John Steinbock ministered for 21 years on Skid Row and East Los Angeles. He wrote a book of anecdotes from Skid Row ( Ministry of Presence). Proceeds from the sale of the book will be given to Catholic

Misc. 6.7.06

They caught the bikini strangler and released his details. You'd expect more from a rehabbed sex offender with tattoos on his neck. (Oh wait. They didn't say he was a "rehabbed" offender. But he must've been, right, or he wouldn't

Literate Kids

Jeffrey Tucker at Lew Rockwell argues that the Internet and email are increasing children's literacy [http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker69.html]. He might be write right. He mentions a thing called "Pooh Blogs [http://poohblogs.21publish.com/]," which, based on a quick scan, appear to

Contracepting Rome

Historians agree that declining population was a major cause of Rome's fall. When I did brief research regarding the cause of the declining population, two mainline sources blamed it on plagues (see this post [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4465/], third paragraph) and don't mention contraception and abortion,

Chattel Mortgage

A Romanian man has handed over his wife to a creditor as payment for his debts [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1868389.html]. The story says that the woman now lives with the creditor and enjoys it. I'm guessing the woman went voluntarily or, if not,

666 Update

I haven't heard of anything bad happening, and the infamous date has already passed in parts of the world. I made it back from Lansing, and my children are okay. If you've been killed or something, let me know. One devilish problem, though: my computer is

Barrying Crime

> Officials in one Sydney district have decided to pipe [Barry Manilow] music over loudspeakers in an attempt to rid streets and car parks of hooligans whose anti-social cars and loud music annoy residents and drive customers from businesses. > Following a successful experiment where Bing Crosby music was used

It's Here

It's 6-6-6, and I didn't wake up dead. I have to drive to Lansing to give a speech to the Lansing Catholic Lawyers Guild, so maybe I shouldn't be cocky. For that matter, my computer is malfunctioniing terribly (no email, no access to MS

Spider Eudemon

Scanning the web for worthwhile post. Here are today's favorites: Anti-ennui front: Dave Wilson bowled for 102 hours, one minute and 25 seconds. He bowled 480 games over more than four days [http://wfmynews2.com/news/watercooler/article.aspx?storyid=64337]. Thanks for glorifying inner-city gangs: Bristol Township

PSA: Claw Machines

I like to think this blog is parent-friendly. I also think those claw machines are anti-parent. So I gladly offer this link: How to Win Something from a Claw Machine [http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2006/06/01/how-to-win-something-from-a-claw-machine] . I haven't tried the advice, but you might want

Non-Profit Suggestion

If you're a Catholic non-profit group that sends priests to guest celebrate Masses at various parishes, in hopes that parishioners will give your organization money, don't send a 50+-year-old priest with a ponytail, unless the church is in the Bay area, Key West, Massachusetts, or

Plastic Surgery Reality

HBO is filming a documentary about disasterous plastic surgeries [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyid=2006-06-05T031650Z_01_N04213602_RTRUKOC_0_US-TELEVISION-PLASTIC.xml&src=rss&rpc=22] . It's called Plastic Disasters, and I guess it's pretty nasty: > Intercutting the

Dixie Defense

I'm not a "pro-Confederate" kind of guy, but I know enough history to know the South has been enormously maligned for the past 150 years (heck, the Abolitionists started it well before then). Consequently, I like to pass along neat pages like this when I get

Butchwoman

This was announced last week, but I missed it until today: > Fifty years after she first graced the pages of a comic book, Batwoman is to return to the world of superheroes - as a lesbian socialite [http://www.dccomics.com/news/?nw=5866]. And [http://enjoyment.independent.co.

Something for Sunday Morning

The three compulsions of the world: to be relevant, to be spectacular, and to be powerful. Henri Nouwen I'd never heard it phrased that way, but those three categories seem to capture every temptation from the world: desire for fame, fortune, good reputation, respect, excellence. Nouwen has a

Brews You Can Use, Saturday Edition

In response to my post yesterday [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4659/] about the Montreal Beer Festival, a reader sends along these two links about other beer festivals. Frankenmuth [http://www.frankenmuthfestivals.com/?page_id=2] (Frankenmuth is located in the middle of Michigan and is known as "Little Bavaria"

The Weekend Eudemon

Well, I'm back. I spent the last two days at Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort [http://www.soaringeaglecasino.com/] in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. I attended a two-day seminar on business law, gambled, drank beer, and watched the Pistons lose. Soaring Eagle is one of those Indian reservation casinos.

PSA

Blogging will be light the rest of today and tomorrow. Actually, until tomorrow evening, it will be non-existent. My wife and I are going to a resort. I have a two-day business seminar, and she's tagging along. She claims it's her first over-night trip without children

Brews You Can Use V

The worst beers in the world [http://www.ratebeer.com/Ratings/TheWorstBeers.asp] , rated 1 to 50. I drink two of them, but I'm happy to see Bud Lite made it (48).

Brews You Can Use IV

Looking for an on-line wine club? I hear this one [http://www.corkd.com/] is pretty good, though I haven't joined yet. It looks like it might be worth checking out.

Brews You Can Use III

Also via A Good Beer Blog: Essential Reference of Domestic Brewers and Their Bottled Brands [http://www.essential-reference.com/]. AGBB gives it a good review [http://beerblog.genx40.com/archives/2006/may/bookreviewthe1]. Excerpt: > For the beer geek like me, the DBBB can be used in one or two

Brews You Can Use II

I'd never heard of a beer festival. I've emailed my town's mayor, suggesting we have one . . . soon. We're not Montreal [http://www.festivalmondialbiere.qc.ca/] , whose hosting one as I post, but the idea is unique and could be a good shot

Brews You Can Use

White wine in King Tut's tomb [http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2006-05-29-tut-white-wine_x.htm?csp=15] . Egyptians thought wine was necessary for the after-life, so they provided it on this side. Up until this discovery, though, all such wine remnants were red.

More 666 Anticipation

> All across Norway precautions are being mounted to prevent churches being torched on June 6, 2006 [http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1336139.ece]. My hunch: The "Satanic" day will pass without incident. A few subpars will get married on that day and spawn a few Damiens,

The Woods

Thomas Woods has a new website [http://www.thomasewoods.com/]. Woods is the author who, in a moment of weakness (smile), endorsed this blog awhile back.

Looking for Blogs

My endeavor to find new blogs has assumed hobby proportions. I'm a little ashamed of it, but I guess it's like any such hobby: it produces dopamine [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1148/], which produces some sort of mild (questionable) addiction. Oh well. In a life with seven

I'll Take a Drumstick and Vermouth

From my backyard [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ICE_CREAM_DUI?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=STRANGE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-05-31-22-58-04] : > GOSHEN, Ind. (AP) -- Police say they found a nearly empty pint bottle of vodka between the front seats of an ice cream truck after

The Not-So Good Shepherd

> A Croatian shepherd is hoping for a place in the Guinness Book of Records after he lost 230 animals in a freak storm. Milan Prpic has written to Guinness asking if he can be included for having the most sheep killed by a single lightning strike [http://www.ananova.

Throw Back to 1800s

Two women are accused of taking out life insurance policies on homeless men, then killing them. LA Times [http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-olgahelen31may31,0,5138323.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-california] Link. This was an old scam, reaching back to at least the nineteenth century, if not earlier.

I See a Bunch of Melons

Face-blindness. I'd never heard of it, except in connection with the old racial joke, "We all look alike to you, anyway." Interesting stuff: > Severe prosopagnosics may mistake complete strangers for acquaintances even as they fail to recognize family members, close friends, spouses, and even themselves.

Godspy and DaVinci

If you haven't seen it, check out Godspy's coverage of TDVC [http://www.godspy.com/index.cfm]. It hits TDVC from unique angles (which is difficult to do, given the swamp coverage it has received). I especially liked this piece by John Zmirak [http://www.godspy.

The Lair

While spanning the blogging world, looking for new Catholic blogs, I ran across this one: The Lair of the Catholic Cavemen [http://catholic-caveman.blogspot.com/]. After five minutes, I decided to bookmark it. How could I resist, after seeing their sub-title: "The Car Crash of Blogs. You Don'

48

I guess 48 people have now died of bad/mixed heroin in Detroit [http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060530/NEWS06/605300322]. It's obviously a kind of genocide. I guess we can expect a visit from Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson soon.

Day 3

It's Day 3 of the Chesterton and Friends 16-Day G.K. Chesterton celebration. The reception around the web has been remarkable. Over 400 people came yesterday, and 300 on Memorial Day. Today's topic: The Chesterton-Shaw Debates [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/]. I kept it brief. It also

Prince of a Guy

> AMERICAN IDOL judge SIMON COWELL has turned his famous barbed comments on PRINCE after being appalled by the pop superstar's surprise performance at the show's finale last week. The PURPLE RAIN hitmaker took to the stage at the Kodak Theatre for a quick run through

Conning Smart People

Clever, though not terribly-novel, article at Paul's Tips this morning [http://www.paulstips.com/brainbox/pt/home.nsf/link/30052006-The-easiest-way-to-fool-smart-people] : > Most smart people have a hidden weakness and it's this ”“ they're absolute suckers for anything that sounds clever. > As soon as you

Only in the Netherlands . . .

. . . and in California (don't forget about NAMBLA [http://216.220.97.17/], which started there, if memory serves correctly): > Dutch pedophiles were launching a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations from 16 to 12 and the legalisation of child

Blog Watch

Some of you are probably aware that I regularly maintain the National Catholic Register's Blog Watch page [http://www.ncregister.com/blogs.php]. As part of my "watching," I scan through about 60 blogs every day, but I'm looking for a little more variety

Tuesday Moaning Eudemon

Tough wake up today. I didn't drink yesterday, but the three-day weekend has me feeling groggy. I planned to finish my post for Day 2 of the Chesterton Celebration at Chesterton and Friends [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/] last night, but instead, I took Michael (Boy #3) and my

Klever Kurtz

Stanley Kurtz has written a clever (and thorough) article about gay marriage [http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTU4NDEzNTY5ODNmOWU4M2Y1MGIwMTcyODdjZGQxOTk] . We're all tired of hearing about it, but the debate is probably just heating up. Excerpt: > The traditional family is losing its monopoly, as new forms of living, like

Special Chesterton Notice

G.K. Chesterton was born today, on May 29, and died on June 14. The Chesterton and Friends blog [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/] will be featuring a "literary calendar" of sorts during those days, using the sixteen-day window to do some interesting posting about his life and times.

The Prayer Tithe

It's been a good Memorial Day weekend so far. One of the best things: time to engage in idle reading. I've been able to go through books, some old and some new, and casually mull over passages. The mulling was broken up with demands and questions

Kneeling with the Patristics

After seeing yesterday's story in the LA Times [http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kneel28may28,0,7235402.story?page=1&coll=la-home-headlines] about kneeling, I consulted Earthen Vessels [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0898708370/thedailyeudem-20], a little book by Gabriel Bunge, O.S.B. subtitled

Kneeling in LA

The LA Times [http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kneel28may28,0,7235402.story?page=1&coll=la-home-headlines] ran a story this morning about anti-kneeling zealots in southern California. If you're unacquainted with the story, you have to read it to believe it. Excerpts: > Kneeling "is

More EU Aggression

In case your day is going well, check out this story at The Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/27/wpolder27.xml] about the European Union's plans to forcibly take land from a farming couple, so the EU can create more

Ascension Icon

Order here [http://www.aquinasandmore.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/store.ItemDetails/SKU/13441/imageSize/Lg/] .

Something for Sunday Morning

> [P]eople praised him, and people rejected him, and people said Hosanna, and people crucified him. But Jesus held on to the truth. "Whatever happens, I am the beloved of God, and that is who I am." And that allows me to live in a world that

The Real Sex Ed

Two high schoolers were caught on cell phone video during an indiscreet classroom moment [http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17591065], and now the clip is going around the Internet. Authorities say the clip constitutes child pornography. I say Letterman is trying to call them.

Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch . . .

. . . they might mutate [http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,19264909-5001022,00.html]: > The team comprising a geneticist, a philosopher and a chicken farmer says the egg came first. > The first chicken developed differently to its avian predecessors. > Such mutations could only have occurred at

Blogging Jeremiad

The new issue of The American Conservative [http://www.amconmag.com/] arrived today, via computer subscription. One of the feature articles is by former blogger Diana Moon, who writes from the perspective of a member of BA: Blogger's Anonymous. She's a self-described blogging addict, who has

Memorial Day Weekend Eudemon

Ah, the first leg of the summer trifecta: Memorial Day weekend. My favorite. The July 4th weekend is often too busy, and Labor Day comes with a measure of summer's-end somberness. But Memorial Day? It screams, "Summer enjoyment." And I'm spending it blogging . . . and

Prejudice in the Womb!

> African-American children whose mothers drank light to moderate amounts of alcohol during pregnancy had lower IQ scores at age 10 than those born to abstainers, a new study has found. > It also showed that similar drinking habits in Caucasian mothers did not lead to IQ reductions in their

Cram It

I greatly enjoy reading about the "Old Right": Nock, Mencken, Santayana, and other "superfluous men." They're no-nonsense men with uncompromising stances. They often had questionable morals (Mencken had a mistress; Nock left his wife), but they didn't discuss morality very much, at

Brews You Can Use V

National Pabst Radio [http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=139751]. The lower-priced beer is advertising on National Public Radio. Why? Two reasons: (1) It's cheap; (2) It fits with the "hip" reputation it has recently acquired with college students and recent graduates. Pabst is

Senior List

Remember my post earlier this week about monks in eastern Oklahoma (actually, it wasn't a post, as much as a link to a Chesterton and Friends post [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/05/new-gilbert-is-here.html] about the monks). Anyway, the post mentions John Senior, the University of Kansas

Brews You Can Use IV

For my transcendentalist, beer-drinking readers. You can't judge a book by its cover, but this cover is beautiful: Amazon link [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584654694/thedailyeudem-20] . And speaking of regional beer news, readers in the tri-state area of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana will be glad

Brews You Can Use III

Arnold Schwarzenegger Endorses Beer For Dogs [http://www.k9magazine.com/viewarticle.php?sid=15&&vid=0&npage=&aid=1325]. I'm not a big Arnold or dog fan, but I figured someone would find this interesting.

Brews You Can Use II

To my discredit, I'd never even heard of it, but its passing saddens me to the point of inebriation: > British brewing giant Young's will close its famous Ram brewery site - where brewing began in 1571 - merging brewing operations with Bedford-based Charles Wells [http:

Brews You Can Use

I'm not sure I'm overly-fond of this one (a recipe for homosexual beer drinkers?), but it's different: > Beer Sorbet > 4 oz. Hoegaarden Wit (or other white beer) 4 oz. Stella Artois (this was an InBev dinner, but substitute any other minimally hopped

Amish Gathering

I live in the middle of Amish country: Amish to the north and Amish to the south. On my way out of town today, I saw their buggies all over the highways, then came across one of the larger Amish homes in the area where scores of buggies were gathered.

Epic Poem

GKC's Lepanto, available on line [http://www.dur.ac.uk/martin.ward/gkc/books/lepanto.html]. Possibly my best on-line find of the month. Thanks, Chesterton and Friends [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/05/true-romance.html].

PSA

I'll be out of town this morning, so blogging will be light. You're probably all too hungover from American Idol fever to read much anyway.

Hindu Stigmata

> A Hindu woman has said she is Jesus Christ and claims to have the “stigmata of Jesus” on her palms, feet and stomach, as well as the power to heal the sick [http://www.siliconindia.com/shownewsdata.asp?newsno=31964&newscat=Top]. The best stories are often the

"Throw the Losing Ticket on the Bathroom Floor, Son"

> The Colorado horse and dog racing industry is hoping to lure more families to the tracks the summer, facing an aging population of fans and competition from both mountain casinos and online gambling [http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_143151345.html]. I like racetracks, and I feel bad that

Gathered Around the Hearth

American Idol, final night 2006. Two-hour extravaganza. I gathered with my children and started speculating: Taylor or Katherine? The program started with a few songs and some utter junk (e.g., a scene of Kelly Pickler eating calamari). I asked, "It only takes 5 seconds to announce the winner,

MySpace

> High school students are going to be held accountable for what they post on blogs and on social-networking Web sites such as MySpace.com [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060523/ap_on_re_us/monitoring_myspace;_ylt=Agwl1teWdX7ngacQYmK7EdsjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--] . I gotta get over to that site and

Note to New Readers

For readers clicking over from Catholic Exchange, you may have missed last week's announcement: Chesterton and Friends [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/] is now an everyday, Monday through Friday, blog. With a handful of contributors, it's the only full-time Chesterton blog on the web (at least that

Shaming Even the Irish

I don't know whether to spit on this guy or bow before him [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/05/23/D8HPG6OG1.html]: > Lithuanian police were so astonished when they pulled over a truck driver and his breathalyzer test registered 18 times the legal alcohol limit, they

Do It At the Mall

Planned Parenthood: Making Easy Sex Easier [http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1988315&page=1]. They're setting up in retail strip malls. They're also open 24 hours a day. Maybe they'll go 24/7. You know, so when you've gotten

Didache

Mike Aquilina teaches readers about the Didache [http://www.fathersofthechurch.com/2006/05/23/the-time-capsule/]. As always, a good, easy, and informative read.

Deer Creek Monastery

At Chesterton and Friends this morning: "Whenever monks come back, marriages will come back [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/]."

Clergy for Fairness

One thing that stinks about blogging (or any journalism or writing, for that matter), is finding a possible post, following it up, then finding it's a non-starter. This morning's NYT has this story [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/us/23marriage.html?_r=1&

Holy Wine

Yahoo News leads this morning with a story about California Trappists that have started to make wine [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20060522/ap_tr_ge/travel_trip_california_monastery] . I tried to find if there's a place where I could order the wine on-line, but

Wrong Guy

The BBC interviewed the wrong expert for a talking-head shot. Pretty funny [http://theunknowncandidate.blogspot.com/2006/05/in-praise-of-guy-goma.html]. Excerpt, to give you the gist of the story: > [Guy] Goma was at the BBC, waiting to be interviewed for a computer job, when a producer mistook him for

The Jailed

Disturbing figures from Prison Land [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/05/21/D8HODD7G0.html]: > Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer. . . . >

Booze Makes It Alright

> Rather than wait until they are emotionally prepared for sex, children as young as 12 are turning to alcohol to help to get them through losing their virginity. Most are too embarrassed, confused, drunk or illinformed to think about the risks of pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, so contraception

History Primer

A reader notifies me that Diane Moczar has just published two books that introduce readers to Catholic history. Moczar is good. I've read her history columns in Latin Mass. If you go to this link [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1933184159/thedailyeudem-20], then click on the

This is Comforting

Some nasty disease is afflicting England [http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article548096.ece]: > So far 161 people in the UK have succumbed to the incurable infection which slowly destroys the brain and leads to death. It can be passed by blood transfusions. The answer? Screen donors.

Round-Up

The Scratching Post offers her regular excellent summary of this week in Catholic Blogdom [http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com/2006/05/this-week-in-theocracy_21.html].

Snapshot of History

I'm repeatedly shocked at the lack of historical knowledge, especially among Catholics who should have at least a fundamental grasp of the subject in order to appreciate their religion. I earlier started a booket with the working title, "18 Holes to Knowledge." It revolved around 18

The Review I've Been Waiting For

Always reliable Decent Films Dot Com posted its reveiw of TDVC yesterday [http://decentfilms.com/sections/reviews/davincicode.html]. Excerpt: > In terms of early Christian history, [TDVC's version] is not uncomparable to Holocaust denial, to claiming that it was really the Jews who were oppressing the Nazis

Something for Sunday Morning

Dealing with ennui: > It is, however, a very great thing indeed to be able to live without either divine or human comforting and for the honor of God willingly to endure this exile of heart. Thomas a'Kempis

The Weekend Eudemon

Michigan Week 2006 [http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17447_18630---,00.html]. Yes, there is such a thing, and my home town is the kick-off city: parade, carnival, arts and crafts booths. And visitors, a funeral, a baseball game, and office work. And as I type this, 14-month-old

The Spider Eudemon

Goodness! There's a lot of good stuff on the Internet today. I wish I had time to blog about it, but the best I can do is to offer this plate of today's web offerings. Enjoy! Great assortment of icons [http://www.eighthdayicons.com/] by an

Brews You Can Use II

> The Chicago Tribune reports that the long-rumored deal between Goose Island Beer Co. and brewing giant Anheuser-Busch may close within the next month [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002924.php]. This is newsworthy, but not because of the merger, but because A-B is going for taste. Who woulda

Brews You Can Use

Nine reasons to drink beer [http://www.realbeer.com/blog/?p=154]: - Reduces the risk of heart disease - Helps keep blood pressure down and reduce the risk of stroke - Benefits the immune system meaning healthy adults are less prone to get infections - Has anti-inflammatory effects which

TDVC Day is Here!

And as you've heard, the reviews aren't real good. Rotten Tomatoes has a great set of review blurbs [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/da_vinci_code/]. A few of my favorites: > "You know a movie's a dud when even its self-flagellating albino

Jill the Ripper

Too busy today to offer much commentary, but this little piece shouldn't pass un-posted: Was Jack the Ripper a Woman [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article485887.ece]? The theory rests on DNA and no motive is offered. I found this interesting, though: > The chief

Posters from Hell

USSR, 1917-1991. Pretty neat. If you click on them, they have brief explanations (in English). I prefer older Russian posters like this one:

Go, Black Jack, Go!

> The city council in Black Jack, Mo., has rejected a measure allowing unmarried couples with multiple children to live together. The mayor said those who fall into that category could soon face eviction. [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/17/national/main1625059.shtml] I find this fascinating. Where

More TDVC Fun

I'm enjoying this TDVC turmoil. The film is now getting poor reviews [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/da_vinci_code/], and I think the boycott lure is making Sony a bit nervous. Heck, Howard has even suggested that people not see it: "My advice, since virtually no

No!

I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/quotes] > Data from recent surveys indicate that liberals and people who are not regular churchgoers are more likely to believe the tales proposed in The Da Vinci Code about

Daily Office

Fr. Neuhaus has some nice words about the Liturgy of the Hours (a/k/a the Daily Office). Link [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=259], then scroll down a bit. It's a devilishly-difficult thing to get the hang of, but I try to hit the morning and

What More is There to Say?

Pamela Anderson says vegetarianism results in more pleasure for a woman [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2004580002-2006220470,00.html]. What more is there to say? Pamela said it, and she's rich and famous. And there's no conclusive proof that STDs rot one's

BC

I've heard that Boston College's "Catholicism" was pretty wretched, but hadn't read much about it. Campus Report has a pretty good piece on it [http://www.campusreportonline.net/main/articles.php?id=944]. Excerpt: > BC also hosts a Lambda Law Students

The New Yorker

The New Yorker has a good article about TDVC and Sony [http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060522fa_fact]. The New Yorker is one of the most relentlessly-secularist publications in America, so it's significant when you see nuggets like these in its pages: > Dan Brown's

Jesse, Arnold, and Mimi

I don't like to discuss naked politics on this blog, but the excitement at Wonkette about the new governor candidate in Nevada is rather humorous. PG-13 link [http://www.wonkette.com/politics/endorsements/official-wonkette-endorsement-melody-mimi-miyagi-damayo-174187.php] . The woman is a porn star, and she's running as a

Cannes

TDVC's reception at Cannes wasn't good [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060516/ap_en_mo/film_cannes_da_vinci_code_2], and the Cannes crowd doesn't exactly consist of a bunch of Opus Dei applicants. The movie might simply be bad. > The

Chesterton and Friends

Some of you are aware that I participate in a group blog at Chesterton and Friends [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/]. It's been running for a year now. When you consider that the average life span of a blog is little better than a gnat's, that makes

More TDVC

The drama builds as opening day nears [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12815760/]: > “The Da Vinci Code” has undermined faith in the Roman Catholic Church and badly damaged its credibility, a survey of British readers revealed Tuesday as tensions over – and hype for – the forthcoming film reached a

Zoo Story

I'm still busier than a beer peddler at an AA meeting, but this story was too funny not to mention. Bears Eat Monkey in Front of Zoo Visitors [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060516/ap_on_fe_st/netherlands_bear_eats_monkey]. Such barbaric conduct from the

PSA

Blogging will be light today. It's May Day, meaning, "Everything is going on at once." I could catalogue the pain: 8:00 a.m. meeting; pro bono obligations; one child with a tennis match, band practice, and paper route (guess which one I get to handle)

Worse Than Thought?

Remember my wild speculation about the Da Vinci Code movie [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4546/] ? It may have been wildly premature. Jimmy Akin [http://www.jimmyakin.org/2006/05/the_da_vinci_mo.html] links to this Telegraph review [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/05/

When is Depraved Really Depraved?

Fascinating little piece at the New York Daily News about a psychiatrist's attempt to measure a crime's depravity, heinousness, or atrociousness. Link [http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/417694p-352691c.html]. Thirty-nine states allow juries to mesh out harsher punishments if they determine that a crime is

Historical Miniature: Mother's Day

Anna Jarvis, the woman who founded Mother's Day [http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvtaylor/founder.htm]. For some reason, I thought Lincoln started it. Guess not [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother's_Day].

Good Modern Art

Modern Catholic art, by Daniel Mitsui [http://www.danielmitsui.com/]. Neat stuff.

Something for Sunday Morning

"[A] virtuous life led with painful sacrifice and discipline will so deeply affect a personality that the effects of disordered impulses or even of a sinful past will disappear." Benedict Groeschel, writing in the letters to the editor in the current issue of Crisis.

Holy Card Collectors

I didn't know people collected holy cards like beer cans, but they do. The LA Times this morning ran a pretty good article about it [http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beliefs13may13,0,779518.story?coll=la-home-headlines] . The woman featured in the article has over 40,000 cards.

I'm Doin' My Best, John

The need for procreation is steadily flowing throughout America. That being said, I had a fairly long conversation with a fellow attorney late last year about the need for more children. He was still citing Malthusian arguments. Bright fellow, but about a generation behind the curve: > On the May

Saturday Humor

I don't normally post jokes to my site, but this email humor got me chuckling. Rapist Flees with Victim's Vehicle!

The Klan Flag

A Southern heritage preservation fellow sent this link [http://www.rulen.com/kkk/] to me recently. Rather interesting stuff. The thrust of the link: The Confederate Flag is not the flag of the KKK. The secondary thrust: The Stars and Stripes is. It didn't surprise me, but I&

Gay Role Models

Don't forget about Jeffrey Dahlmer (low blow, so to speak, but I just received some bad news about a friend and don't have the inclination to blog much right now): > Saying that more role models could help alleviate the social estrangement and high suicide rates

The Weekend Eudemon

Dragging and coughing. I thought I might escape allergies this year. They usually start kicking in mid-April, but not this year. I was feeling fine . . . until Thursday night. By Friday, I was dragging and walking around in a haze. I took a nap at the office (I have a thousand

FBI Sting

A rather clever FBI pedophilia sting, described at The Smoking Gun [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0511061web1.html]. Disgusting stuff, but I tip my hat to the clever G-men. It's not too often I tip my hat in that direction. You want me to describe the sting? I

Hanks in the Other Lung

The Curt Jester [http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/] sets the record straight: > Hanks has been married to actress Rita Wilson since 1988. They became involved while working on the movie Volunteers (1985), although they first worked together in an episode of Bosom Buddies. (Wilson guest starred as a romantic

Hanks Catholic?

A reader wrote to me, saying that she once heard someone identify Hanks as a Catholic. Any truth to that? My email link is on your left.

Brews You Can Use III

Brews news is a little scarce this morning, so I found some good beer can collection pictures.

Brews You Can Use II

> Drinking a pint of beer a day may stave off osteoporosis, scientists have said. > New research shows that the alcohol in beer appears to suppress the hormones that promote bone loss. And researchers say it may have a better effect on preventing bone loss than calcium. Link [http:

Tom Hanks on Da Vinci

I saw the headline, "Hanks Blasts Da Vinci Critics [http://www.thisislondon.com/til/jsp/modules/Article/print.jsp?itemId=22582687] ." I thought, "Oh great, one of my favorite actors--a family man, for crying out loud--is going to lash out with half-baked accusations against the Catholic Church.

Brews You Can Use

I don't like funky-tasting beers and I don't like Tom Paine, but this beer kind of intrigues me. A Good Beer Blog describes it: > Balanced cocoa, licorice and molasses notes along with sweet brown breat crust graininess - Boston bean brown bread crust that is.

Misc. Leno

> With these gas prices I got smart. I'm driving the new Patrick Kennedy hybrid car. Have you seen this thing? It runs on sleeping pills and when you get on the highway it runs on alcohol. > A lot of people are very upset that Congressman Patrick

Beheading

> Seven suspected Islamic terrorists have confessed to beheading three Christian schoolgirls on Indonesia's Sulawesi Island, police said on Wednesday [http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1930114,00.html]. No reason was given, but is a reason necessary? Christian schoolgirls are obviously a grave threat.

Top 20

Getting Sirius

I missed the big Catholic news yesterday: Sirius Radio is getting a Catholic channel. Amy discusses it [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/2006/05/getting_sirius.html]. This might prompt me to break down and get satellite radio, but I doubt it.

Bring on the Voodoo

Fascinating story about the re-emergence of voodoo in Haiti [http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/20060509/hz_haiti_0506/blogs4211]. Excerpt: > Haitian voodoo became mixed with Catholicism, probably as a way for slaves to hide it from their masters – most of whom forbade the practice. Voodoo spirits were, and

Thursday Morning Eudemon

I could've slept a lot longer. I'm not tired, but it's perfect sleeping weather: mid-50's, breezy, with a splattering of rain. Lots of good dreams, too, the kind that don't involve my wife being pregnant with our eighth child. I

New Slogan

Blogging will be light today, due to a variety of work commitments. I did, however, find time to post this little gem:

Harris with Bush

So, Katherine Harris is running for the Republican Senate nomination in Florida and George and Jeb apparently aren't keen on the idea. I don't really understand it all (don't want to, for that matter), but I found this paragraph in a NYT story [http:

Odd Consumer News

Girls in bikinis battle robots [http://www.etsy.com/view_item.php?listing_id=168123]. Only $60! (plus $8 s/h).

Life After Roe

The current issue of The Atlantic Monthly is on the stands. The cover story: " Life After Roe [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200606/roe]" (which I think is available on-line to non-subscribers). I thought it'd be fascinating, but it wasn't. Without too much exaggeration,

Top 20 Newspapers

Drudge lists the Top 20 newspapers by paid weekday circulation [http://www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm]. The report covers the last six months. I was curious to see that five of the papers increased their circulation. I thought newspapers were in a free-fall? I realize 15 of the newspapers dropped

Crazy Presidents

A new study says that almost half of the first 37 presidents (GW to Nixon) of the United States may have suffered from mental illness. Subscriber-only link [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200606/primary-sources]. The psychiatric methods employed are questionable, but the Duke University study released it anyway. Guess what?

Pell Me

Sign me up for the land downunder: > Australia's most influential Catholic has said the Koran is riddled with "invocations to violence" and the central challenge of Islam lies in the struggle between moderate and extremist forces as the faith spreads into a "childless Europe&

Manly Pages

I received Harvey Mansfield's Manliness [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300106645/thedailyeudem-20] on Friday. It's pretty good so far. It prompted me to go through my study and pull out ten manly books. The glared-out one is A'Kempis' On the Passion

Gotta Love the Honest Scholarship

> Alcohol is more harmful and causes more deaths than the drug ecstasy, a leading scientist who advises the Government on drug safety is warning. > Professor David Nutt, a senior member of the drugs panel which recommended the downgrading of cannabis, is calling for the current system of drugs

Monday Morning Eudemon

The old body is hurting this morning. I took the wife and kids to Warren Dunes [http://travel.yahoo.com/p-parks-569232-warren_dunes_state_park-i] yesterday. It's situated on Lake Michigan, probably about 75 minutes outside Chicago. The best part of the Dunes is climbing. It's also

More on Commodity Children

You remember B16's words about merely tolerating children [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4469/]? Well, the Times Online today ran an op-ed on the same subject [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,24391-2168664,00.html]. It might be the best opinion piece I've read all year. Perhaps

Something for Sunday Morning

From the stained glass windows at Norwich Cathedral (see more [http://contemplare.blogspot.com/]). My grandmother had a special devotion to Jesus as shepherd. A Lutheran, she didn't phrase it that way, but she did. Today's Gospel reading reminds me of her, a fine woman whose

The Comeback Kids

Time to get out that Zeus suit and do some seducin' and rapin' [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1767802,00.html]: > It has taken almost 2,000 years, but those who worship the 12 gods of ancient Greece have finally triumphed. An Athens court

More Gene-like Fun

> On May 6, representatives of the Episcopalian communities in the California diocese will meet to select a new bishop from among seven nominated candidates. Three of the nominees are openly homosexual, the Los Angeles Times [http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-bishop4may04,1,786705.story?coll=la-news-politics-california&

The Weekend Eudemon

Welcome to my whirlwind: tennis invitational (three matches), soccer game, and baseball scrimmage. All the while, of course, schlepping around the three little ones and handling other mundanities. But we plan on capping it off with a trip to St. Anne's Chapel [http://www.societycantius.org/StAnne.htm]

Anti-Catholicopedia

I saw this at the Catholic Exchange roundtable message board [http://www.catholicexchange.com/messageboard/docs/viewtopic.asp?mbid=2&DocumentID=11645] . I've been thinking the same thing lately: > If any of you have any time now or this summer, it would be a great help

Brews You Can Use III

What is America's best lite beer? In this Philly taste test, [http://cbs3.com/consumer/local_story_118213542.html] no clear winner was declared. But they made one finding that I enjoy: Bud Light is no good. The best lite beer, incidentally, is MGD Lite (just my opinion,

Brews You Can Use II

Need a beer for Cinco de Mayo [http://www.vivacincodemayo.org/history.htm]? Try this [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/04/WIGA7IJFVB1.DTL], a beer with chipotle chiles (smoked jalapenos). I'll pass, but if that's your thing, drink away.

Brews You Can Use

How much can you drink tonight? To merriness. From Charles Coulombe's article, Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion, in the most recent Catholic Men's Quarterly [http://www.houseonthemoor.com/]: > [T]he view of the Church [with respect to drink] go back to the Book of Proverbs'

Fathers of the Church

I know I already plugged it once, but if you're interested in history and you're not reading Fathers of the Church, you're missing a lot. I'm stunned at the amount of great script that Michael Aquilina is cranking out . . . every day. Read,

Ironic Assault

I get legal updates all the time. According to an update I received today, a new Michigan case holds that "sexually aggressive and predatory words may be sufficient to put an employer on notice of its employee's propensity for violence. Based on what plaintiff's attacker

Barefoot and Pregnant and (Not) Broke

> A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, an amount similar to a top U.S. ad executive, a marketing director or a judge, according to a study released Wednesday. This type of study isn't new. Last year, the

Ennui Nation

Or maybe it's "Nerd Nation." You decide [http://www.happynews.com/news/532006/abc-to-show-spelling-bee-in-prime-time.htm] : > For the first time in its 79-year history, the National Spelling Bee . . . will go prime time for next month's drama-filled finals. Thanks to recent movies [http://www.imdb.

Cheech and Chong Nation

I missed this story yesterday: Mexico is poised to legalize cocaine, heroin, LSD, marijuana, PCP, opium, synthetic opiates, mescaline, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, amphetamines, and methamphetamines. LA Times Link [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-legalize3may03,0,5634216.story?track=tothtml] . I gotta believe this was on the TV news,

Shocker

> Britain is less happy than in the 1950s - despite the fact that we are three times richer [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/programmes/happiness_formula/4771908.stm]. We better get a team of researchers on this. Maybe they'll discover that man is not made

Hell Freezes Over

> Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios backed efforts yesterday toward the construction of a mosque in Athens after Greece was recently criticized for not offering its Muslim community a suitable prayer site [http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/?p=1594#more-1594].

Leno on Gas Prices

California now has the most expensive gas prices. Gas is so expensive now that drivers are shooting themselves instead of each other. It's affecting a lot of people. You just wait for the Indy 200 at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan Weeps at the Beauty

> In her new memoir, NOW IT'S MY TURN (Simon & Schuster/Threshold Editions, 2006), Mary Cheney writes that when she told her parents she was gay, the first words out of her father's mouth “were exactly the ones that I wanted to hear: 'You&

The Future

From an interview with Bishop Carlson of Saginaw [http://www.catholicreport.org/?id=181]: > Catholic schools are our future. We need strong Catholic schools to teach the faith and to evangelize. We need to keep the schools going all the while paying a just wage. As I mentioned, we

Not What You Think

Barefoot and Pregnant [http://www.barefootandpregnant.com/]. It's a spa, not a philosophy. Too bad. (Heh, heh, heh. Anyone know where I can get a cheap room for the night?)

AIDS and Smoking

> Statistically, an active participant in certain 'risky' forms of behavior is far likelier to contract AIDS than a ten-pack-a-day smoker is to come down with lung cancer. Yet the Supreme Court has ru led that such behavior is a human right, and cannot be outlawed. Charles A.

Alright, This is Just Gross

> A 33-year-old Malaysian man who married a 104-year-old woman said that it was God's will that he tie the knot with someone old enough to be his great-grandmother. . . "I didn't marry Wook for her money. Her only asset is her deep religious knowledge.” The

Irreverent Gum

Conning the credulous. A statue of Holy Mother made of gum. A miracle for sale on eBay [http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7411925372&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1] .

60 Minutes: Investigative Journalists

> According to CBS' “60 Minutes” a key aspect of Dan Brown's “The Da Vinci Code” is a hoax. That's right, the Priory Of Sion doesn't really exist, or at least it didn't exist before the middle of the 20th century.

Further Testimony for Public Schools

> Despite the wall-to-wall coverage of the damage from Hurricane Katrina, nearly one-third of young Americans [ages 18-24] recently polled couldn't locate Louisiana on a map and nearly half were unable to identify Mississippi. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060503/ap_on_re_us/where_s_

Great Opportunity

Looking to stretch your charitable horizons? Try this website: PrisonerLife dot Com [http://www.prisonerlife.com/index.cfm]. There are all sorts of links that let you reach out to prisoners, like this one: MEET REAL PRISONERS SEEKING REAL PEN PALS [http://www.prisonerlife.com/personals-picsearch.cfm]. I think women

White Guilt

Shelby Steele at WSJ, [http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008318]courtesy of Suicide [http://suicideofthewest.com/?p=289]: > After World War II, revolutions across the globe, from India to Algeria and from Indonesia to the American civil rights revolution, defeated the authority inherent in white supremacy,

Hide Your Goat

More and more of these stories are coming, and we still have seven weeks to go: > With June 6, 2006, rapidly approaching, authorities in Colorado and elsewhere are carefully watching to see if that date - 6/6/06 - spurs demonstrations or violent activity [http://www.denverpost.com/

Quarterly Men

I've started reading a new publication, and I'm recommending it to readers: Catholic Men's Quarterly [http://www.houseonthemoor.com/]. I received sample issues in the mail two weeks ago, and I was impressed. Drink, humor, history, travel, theology. Each issue is 44 pages, and

May Day

Finally, a Catholic cleric who doesn't think every person who opposes mass asylum is being a bad Christian. Fr. Jonathan Morris at Fox Central [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,193783,00.html]. The man even uses common sense and doesn't denigrate the spiritual life

Chesterton in Russia

Every so often, you run across an odd little piece. Here, I've found an odd big piece [http://www.roadtoemmaus.net/G.K._Chesterton_in_Russia.pdf] at Road to Emmaus [http://www.roadtoemmaus.net/articleextracts.html] magazine's website. It's a collection of writings

I Hate Debt Dot Com

This week's Our Sunday Visitor has a great focus piece about indebtedness. Among other things, it mentioned this great website [http://www.ihatedebt.com/], which contains all sorts of debt information and analysis from a Christian perspective. I really liked the snapshot of our country's current

The New Holiday

The Occident doesn't believe in the devil anymore. Or if it does believe in him, it doesn't fear him. You might say the devil and his power to inflict suffering are grossly under-appreciated in the West today. Yet though the devil is under-appreciated, he's

Silly (but Omnipotent) Chinese Commies

> The Patriotic Association, the state-controlled Church in China, has ignored the Holy See's wishes and ordained a new bishop, the BBC reported. . . . > The Holy See had called for a delay in the appointment over concerns the bishop is inexperienced and too closely aligned with China'

Monster in the House

Well, it finally happened: I have a teenager under my roof. Alex turned 13 today. Shaggy hair, a little sassy, and getting a bit big for my strong-arm liking, he's a teenager and enjoying his new status. So far, he's been a great kid. If the

Something for Sunday Morning

Henri Gheon, writing about some of the folks in St. John Vianney's parish: > And last, there was that extraordinary being, Pere Chaffangeon, who remained for hours before the altar, without even moving his lips; it seems that he was speaking to God. > "And what do

Little Commodities

B16 had some words yesterday [http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=6604] that hit pretty close to my thoughts about the childless and near-childless: > The Pope opined that “the lack of such creative and forward-looking love is the reason why many couples today choose not to marry, why

Shaving Update

On Monday, I mentioned a claim that shaving cream is a racket [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4429/] and that a man just needs warm water, after he first toughens up his skin a bit. Well, I put my face on the line all week, and the results are in: the claim

TAC

The new American Conservative [http://www.amconmag.com/] arrived today. It looks like a good one (note: no links to the articles are available yet): A review of The Brothers Bulger [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446576514/thedailyeudem-20]. For me, it's a great example of how

The Weekend Eudemon

More great weather. It's been a stunning spring so far. But if the recent pattern holds, it means we're heading for a dismal late spring or summer. Consider: We got hit real hard with snow and cold in November and December. Come January, things got incredibly

Friday Humor

Some bad ones to use at the bar tonight: A man walks into a bar holding a slab of asphalt and says, "A beer please, and one for the road." A neutron walks into a bar and asks for a beer. The bartender says, "For you, no

Chesterton and Friends

Two great posts at Chesterton and Friends [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/] these past two days. Belloc fans and fans of old newspapers: See Thursday's post.

Brews You Can Use III and Half and Half

> Reuters reports ice cream makers Ben & Jerry's have apologized for causing offense by calling a new flavor “Black & Tan” - the nickname of a notoriously violent British militia that operated during Ireland's war of independence. > The ice cream, available only in the

Brews You Can Use II

I missed a good beer story in the WSJ. Fortunately, the best beer site in the hops world covered it [http://www.realbeer.com/blog/?p=142]. Excerpts: > From 1950 to 2004, the amount of malt used to brew a barrel of beer in the U.S. declined by

On Cleverness

During my morning surfing, I ran across this great quote from Rochefoucald [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2066/]: "It takes great cleverness to be able to conceal one's cleverness." Hence, the urbane subtlety of this blog. I'm so clever, you probably don't even know

Brews You Can Use

Bless the brewers: > Czech brewers are working to create a beer that would counter the discomforts of menopause [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002908.php]. > The low-calorie, low-alcohol beer being developed by the Prague-based Research Institute of Brewing and Malting contains heightened levels of phytoestrogen, a plant

Lay Administrators

The Pittsburgh Diocese might start using laymen to administer parishes [http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_116204355.html]. The story isn't clear on details. I'm assuming it'd work this way: The administrator would handle all the non-spiritual stuff, and a priest will ride a

You Want Embalming Fluid with That?

> [A] Domino's delivery man used a car to transport corpses to funeral parlors when he wasn't using the vehicle to bring pies and Cheesy Bread to pizza enthusiasts [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0427061pizza1.html]. Also: That's one way to keep the recidivism

Flowering at 40

Cindy Margolis will pose for Playboy [http://news.aol.com/entertainment/articles/_a/cindy-margolis-to-pose-for-playboy/20060425131409990002] : > After turning down offers to pose for the magazine in the past, Margolis said she accepted this time because she felt posing nude at the age of 40 is empowering. Empowering? I appreciate the

Saving $3.00

> Some California drivers are resorting to desperate measures to beat the surge in gas prices at the pump -- deliberately running dry on the state's freeways and simply waiting for rescue [http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/25/life.gas.reut/index.html]. When they run

Brand U

Great op-ed piece at NYT today [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/26/opinion/26Budiansky.html?ex=1146196800&en=bd632639265ab8ba&ei=5087%0A] about colleges' attempts to brand their schools. We see an increasing trend: colleges less interested in education and more interested in attracting students. The

60 B

> Internet users around the world send an estimated 60 billion emails every day and many of these are spam or scam attempts, business leaders said on Tuesday [http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-04-25T155230Z_01_L25596952_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-INTERNET.xml&pageNumber=0&

My Sin Against Charity

Forgive me, but I kinda hope the box leaks. I don't know why. I guess the fame mongering bugs me. Then again, I'm the one with a blog. > Having starved himself and been frozen in ice, US magician David Blaine now plans to spend seven

MTV Angers the Germans

> A German conservative leader said Tuesday he has filed a complaint with prosecutors accusing music channel MTV of disparaging Christianity in an ad for its Vatican parody cartoon "Popetown," which depicts the pope as a pogo-stick riding brat. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GERMANY_

Chip Me

I missed this yesterday: > A US study has concluded that children consume the caloric equivalent of a bag of potato chips for every hour they spend in front of a television. Food advertising in implicated in causing unconscious eating among young viewers [http://www.boingboing.net/2006/04/25/

Early Termination

Aborting Where the Wild Things Are. [http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2006/04/terminating_the.html]

More Fun Than a Guy Oughtta Be Allowed to Have

> Go ahead and have that second cup of coffee -- or third, or fourth. A study published on Monday shows heavy, long-term coffee drinking does not raise the risk of heart disease for most people [http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2006-04-25T121417Z_01_N24211565_

Derrickson: GKC Fan

Saw this at Open Book [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/2006/04/paradise_lost.html]: > Legendary Pictures is developing a live-action film version of Paradise Lost, John Milton's epic poem, with Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) attached to direct, Variety reported. Vincent Newman (A Man

Hot off the Press

The hottest blog this side of the Styx is active again. Moloch Now [http://molochnow.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_molochnow_archive.html#114598632178874747] . Worth a visit.

What's Next? Re-habbing Rape?

> A former Jesuit turned university professor has set himself an ambitious project: rehabilitating the devil [http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/satan-victim-of-a-devilish-image-problem/2006/04/11/1144521339095.html] . Of course, "Satan" is the embodiment of evil itself, so you can't rehabilitate him anymore than you

GKC and Wine

In case that last picture sobered you up too much, here's a picture of G.K. Chesterton books and a couple bottles of wine. GKC was a big wine drinker (they say he could write well--very well--while drunk). The books and wine are taken from my library. I

Ad Ban

Advertising restrictions during B16's visit to Poland [http://uk.news.yahoo.com/24042006/323/polish-tv-ban-erotic-ads-during-pope-s-visit.html] : > Poland's TVP public broadcaster is to ban television adverts containing erotic and violent scenes during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the country next month, officials said. . . >

Naked Chimney Sweep

What was your first hint? > A man who spent five hours naked and stuck in the chimney of his stepmother's home was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, police said [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/04/24/D8H6L8TO0.html].

Sobering the Drunk

"I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library." From The Great Gatsby, Chapter III. For my drunken readers, I present this shot of the northwest corner of my study: Too bad the quality

Public Service Announcement: Shaving

Jeffrey Tucker at Lew Rockwell assures readers that shaving cream is a racket [http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker65.html]. Interesting stuff. I might have to try it. Excerpt: > The first stage of freedom uses only a razor (double blade is fine) and a bit of baby oil or

A Hobo Grill

Is that one of those fancy stainless steel ones?

Wedding Stabbing

Got this [http://www.nbc4i.com/news/8929096/detail.html] at Drudge. Man, that must've been some killer wedding cake. The garter toss probably got real messy: > A man who was growing impatient about the cake-cutting at a wedding reception allegedly stabbed the bride's father

Salute to a Great Lady

One of this blog's most dedicated readers turns 39 today: My mom. Born in the hills of Kentucky, you wouldn't know it from the amount of class she brings to life: impeccable speech and manners, a consistent dislike of the vulgar and base, conservative devotion. A

Israeli Anti-Semites

If you missed this [http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,412390,00.html] last Friday: > Following the outrage over the Muhammad caricatures published in Western newspapers, Israeli artists staged a contest. They were looking for the best anti-Semitic cartoons. The results are in. There are some pretty

Church in China

From this morning's WaPo: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/22/AR2006042201443.html] > After more than half a century of hostility, China and the Roman Catholic Church have inched within reach of normal relations, a historic shift aimed at improving the lives of 10

The Muslim Missal

What Muslims hear at Friday prayers [http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,411903,00.html]. Summarizing excerpt: > Are these words of hatred and discrimination really representative of the thousands upon thousands of Friday prayers that millions of Muslims around the world attend each week? And what

Something for Sunday Morning

For our Eastern Orthodox brethren who are celebrating Easter today: > The whole man would not have been saved, unless he had taken upon himself the whole man. Origen > On Easter Day all of us who were imprisoned for religious convictions were united in the one joy of Christ.

St. George, Pray for Them

> England is a nation of "overweight, alcopop-swilling, sex-and-celebrity obsessed television addicts", according to a travel guide [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4933278.stm].

Leno on the Commie Visit

> President Bush tried to put together some entertainment for President Hu, but you know Bush not too popular with most performers. The only guy he could get was William Hung [http://www.williamhung.net/].

Channeling the Blogosphere's Power

Amazingly sad story [http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com/2006/04/world-of-good-blogburst-amy-hawkins.html] . If just one of my readers sends just $5 [http://www.hendersonvillehero.com/], I'm gratified. Via Shea [http://markshea.blogspot.com/].

St. George's Day: April 23rd

For our brothers across the pond: > St George's Day - an occasion which not too long ago could arguably pass by almost unnoticed - is now being celebrated on a far wider scale, according to groups promoting the day. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_

The Bored Eudemon

Man, there's scarcely nothing to blog about today. I have a new feature that I'm kicking around (which I might call, "Sobering the Drunk in Gatsby" or something like that), but it's not ready yet. It'll feature pictures, something I&

The Weekend Eudemon

Whew, early morning. It was a long two weeks at the office, undigging from my vacation three weeks ago. By 4:45 yesterday, I felt pretty good about my breathing prospects, so I broke early for the drinking club. It was a gorgeous evening. I was able to wear one

Science Confirms Common Sense, Episode 1,990,002

Sexual attraction messes with men's decision-making ability [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4921690.stm]. And I wonder how many men check out porn, yet think they retain complete control over their rational faculty. Best thing about this story: I've been trying to come

Brews You Can Use III

In case you weren't drinking tonight, if this doesn't get your taste buds moving, nothing will:

Brews You Can Use II

I've been looking for a site like this: a comprehensive list of beers and their alcohol content [http://www.realbeer.com/edu/health/calories.php]. Now I can really calculate the biggest bang for the buck.

Brews You Can Use

South Carolina is now allowing stronger beers [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002905.php]. Excerpt: > Nearby Georgia and North Carolina recently passed laws permitting the sale of stronger beers - in both cases after considerable lobbying from consumer groups. > Sales of stronger beers then flourished in both

This is Queer

George Michael, stating part of the reason his life has been a shambles [http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article359100.ece]: > "The trajectory of my particular soap opera launched from that statement Elton made about 18 months ago when Elton hadn't seen me for years. The

Living McLonger

This [http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/14382760.htm], from the Kansas City Star: > The annual number of deaths in the United States dropped by nearly 50,000 in 2004 – the biggest decline in almost 70 years. Right next to it is a McDonald's advertisement. Coincidence?

Ford

I question the flood of boycotts, but the Ford one seems to be picking up steam. This site [http://www.boycottford.com/] has an impressive assortment of evidence against Ford and a fairly-long list of boycotters.

Spider Eudemon

Fr. Neuhaus has a lengthy post today about immigration [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=238]. Mills on the Gospel of Judas [http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2006/04/as_maverick_as_.html]. Excerpt: > A friend sent me a link to a Christian Science Monitor article titled Christian mavericks

The Mail Eudemon

Two good emails in my electronic box this morning. The first adds to my Technocrats [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4403/] post yesterday: > I found this via links or Stumble, a web browser extension. forevergeek.com [http://forevergeek.com/gadgets/hack_your_brain_with_an_ipod.php], which links to this:

Desecrating the Memory

Of course, Johnny Cash did plenty to desecrate his own memory, but he doesn't deserve this: > PETE DOHERTY [Pronounced "DoCK-er-ty] is planning another spell behind bars – this time for a JOHNNY CASH-style gig for inmates. [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,4-2006180269,00.html] >

Mothers Come Forward

> Women who have had abortions but are now fighting to outlaw the practice say their numbers are growing and so will their influence, especially after many of them stepped forward to support South Dakota's new abortion ban law [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060418-110127-6962r.htm].

Technocrats Coming

> A growing body of evidence suggests that passing a small electric current through your head can have a profound effect on the way your brain works. Called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), the technique has already been shown to boost verbal and motor skills and to improve learning and

Hovering Parents

> Last week, Sprint Nextel Corp. introduced a new service called Family Locator that lets parents track their kids' whereabouts, using the GPS capabilities in each child's cellphone. For $9.99 a month, you can get a fix on your little ones' locations as long as

So Complex the Designer Can't Do It

Evidence of the Internal Revenue Code's absurdity keeps piling up: > When it comes to their tax returns, many members of Congress who specialize in writing tax laws turn to professional preparers rather than completing the paperwork themselves. > "It's onerous, and everybody knows it,

Propping Up the Union

> Viagra, Cialis and other erectile dysfunction drugs are costing General Motors Corp. a hefty sum. [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060417.RGM17/TPStory/Business] The company spends $17-million (U.S.) annually on such drugs, said GM spokeswoman Sharon Baldwin. I wonder if Hilaire Belloc would get a

Belloc in NYT

Hilaire Belloc made the headline of a NYT opinion piece this morning. That's noteworthy in itself. Bonus: The piece is worth reading. The Future of Journalism as Told by Hilaire Belloc in 1918 [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/18/opinion/18tue4.html?_r=1&oref=slogin]

The Gay Landscape

Benjamin Wittes writes in The Atlantic Monthly about the current pink battle waging in the states about gay marriage. Subscriber-only link [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200605/gay-marriage]. I disagree with Wittes' views that color his "facts" a little, but overall, he does a nice job of

Crime is Ugly

An entertaining, if kinda sad and questionable, blurb in The Atlantic Monthly: > Dick Tracy had it right, a new study suggests: there really is a correlation between ugliness and crime. A pair of economists examined looks and lawbreaking among adults aged eighteen to twenty-six, using a longitudinal study involving

The Gay Roll

Gay parents lined up to crash the Bush White House annual Easter egg hunt [http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060417/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticseaster_060417200009]. Why? Symbolic, of course: "The gay groups said their gesture was meant to make their presence felt in American society even though Bush

Planned Perversity

This month's Atlantic Monthly isn't that good, but there are a few gems in it, like this response [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200605/letters/4] by Caitlin Flanagan [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4378/] in the Letters to the Editor section. Flanagan apparently wrote a piece critical

Sirs Elton, Paul, Mick, and Tom

Malcolm Muggeridge explains the knighting of Elton John, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and Tom Jones: > In England everything is forgiven to those who live a long time; with longevity even Queen Victoria became popular, and I feel quite sure that if Oscar Wilde had managed to live on into

On-Line Dating

The jury is still out on the long-term results of on-line mating, but it appears the forecast might be a little rocky [http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/mismatch_1.html]. Excerpt: > While many happily married couples say they may never have found a mate offline, there are already indications

Something for Easter Morning

Two hard-boiled eggs, two Reese's peanut butter eggs, and Coke. Yes, it's Easter Morning. The magnitude of today's event defies blog posting, but here's a handful of quotes: "Any fool can [die]. But only a real man can [rise from dead]

Who Needs Easter?

Plenty of people are beginning to realize that us earthlings are probably alone. Though 34% still believe in UFOs [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3962/], many people are beginning to realize that the possibiliy of extra-terrestial life and the existence of UFOs [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3071/] is about as likely as the

April 15: Tax Day

There's something wrong when Tax Day is also Holy Saturday, but there's nothing we can do about it (though I think, technically, Tax Day is April 17th this year). In any event, The Patriot Post [http://patriotpost.us/] sent these quotes that help lessen the brutal

The Weekend Eudemon

I snapped a 40-year streak yesterday: I didn't attend services on Good Friday. As long as I can remember, I've attended Good Friday services and always found them among the most edifying of the year. When I was a kid, my Lutheran church held seven mini-services

Holy Saturday Prayer

"Christ, the new Adam, you entered the kingdom of death to release all the just since the beginning of the world [https://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=452#respond], may all who lie dead in sin hear your voice and rise to life." Liturgy of the Hours.

Robson on Easter

The clever John Robson at the Ottawa Citizen writes about Easter. No link available yet. I'd like to publish the whole thing, but I don't want my blogger license to get revoked for copyright infringement, so I'm just giving you a few excerpts: >

Stations

Stations of the Cross Meditations from Rome [http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2006/documents/ns_lit_doc_20060414_via-crucis_en.html] .

Good Friday

He turned a symbol of hate and torture into one of love and mercy. There will be very little blogging today. Perhaps a few things after 3:00 p.m. (EDT), but for now, only these: The cross cannot be defeated. . . For it is Defeat. G.K. Chesterton On those

The Spider Eudemon

Maunday Thursday is here. Bloggers have taken off early. This is the best I have today so far: Leap years are needed so that the calendar is in alignment with the earth's motion around the sun. Everything you ever wanted to know about 2008 and its sibling years

Religio

College students are becoming more religious, and it's affecting their political views, according to a new Harvard University survey of this potentially influential voting bloc [http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060413-122855-9675r.htm].

What Gets Into These People?

I don't have a lot to say about this, except that it's a terrible sin to put media into the hands of juvenile delinquents: > The German bishops' conference has issued a statement protesting plans by the MTV network to show "Popetown," a

Screwtape on DVC

Screwtape lives! And he writes about the hoax [http://www.ericmetaxas.com/essay-screwtapedavinci.html].

Babes without Teeth

NASCAR Extends Brand With Bikinis [http://www.adrants.com/2006/04/nascar-extends-brand-with-bikinis-clothin.php].

The Spider Eudemon

Crawling the web: Fr. Neuhaus on global warming [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=229]. The Crunchy Con blog at NR has ended. Dreher has a new Crunchy Con blog at Beliefnet [http://www.beliefnet.com/story/189/story_18930_1.html]. Dawn Patrol reads a Planned Parenthood employee'

Females Killed

How many female American soldiers have been killed in Iraq? I remember seeing a Budweiser commercial back in February. It showed returning U.S. military personnel and airport patrons applauding them. The camera showed close-ups of the military personnel. Out of seven close-ups, five of them were of the female

Caitlin's New Book

Fine stylist Caitlin Flanagan has waded further into the feminist wars with a book on working mothers. The LA Times [http://www.calendarlive.com/books/cl-et-flanagan12apr12,0,487361.story?coll=la-home-headlines] has a pretty a good piece about it. Excerpt: > These are the women who seem to be a

Hold This

Karl Keating addresses hand holding during the Our Father at Mass [http://www.catholic.com/newsletters/kke_060411.asp] (see second item). Unfortunately, he doesn't provide much ammunition for killing it, so the hand-holding Nazis will keep grabbing. I can't say how many times I'

Compendium of the Cathechism

Baltimorish [http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=9657]? The era of murkiness is clearing away?

The Spider Eudemon

Crawling the web to bring you an interesting assortment: Joseph Pearce longs for England [http://www.dappledthings.org/lent06/feature.html]. (Name drop: I met Pearce once. We were both speaking at a Chesterton Conference in Minnesota. Very pleasant fellow.) Fr. Jonathan Morris at Fox News Blogs writes about the

Suing to be Intolerant

The Huff Po headline said, "Christians Sue For For [sic] Right to be Intolerant." It linked to this LA Times [http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-christians10apr10,0,6596503.story] story that's entitled, " Christians Sue for Right Not to Tolerate Policies." It's

Space Exploration

Here's a picture of my family at the Huntington, Alabama space center. I enjoyed the visit. The center displays all aspects of space exploration. But one thing was missing from this humongous NASA public-relations effort: Any mention of what space exploration has benefited us. This huge complex offered

Scientology, Again

I ran across this [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/TR/critique.html] today: > Hubbard said, "THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM..., because the second you start telling anybody close to the truth, you start releasing him and he gets tougher

David Dross

Another item for my hectic Monday morning: David Scott left miscellaneous notes in the draft bank. He describes them as "dross," which might be true, in the sense that they're only loosely connected thoughts that were meant to go together at some point. But they'

Monday Morning Eudemon

Well, it's Monday morning, and I've been out of the office for seven weekdays. It's 7:50 a.m., and my phone is set to go off like I just won the Powerball [http://www.powerball.com/]. Blogging will be light, but I have

Pictures from the Birthplace

Here are a few photos from my trip to the birthplace [http://www.elvispresleybirthplace.com/]: Family (less Michael) and me standing at landmark sign: The vehicle the Presley family used to move to Memphis when Elvis was 13: Children on Elvis' porch: Children inside half of Elvis' house:

Filling a Literary Hole

He was friends with Malcolm Muggeridge, who wrote the foreward to a collection of his works [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558821198/thedailyeudem-20]. The Times [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-1461-2032710-1461,00.html] (of London) reported earlier this year that folk in India love the British

Something for Sunday Morning

> Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live

Blair RCC

Tony Blair converting to Catholicism [http://custosfidei.blogspot.com/2006/04/tony-blair-converting-to-catholicism.html] ?

Southern Ramblings

A few random thoughts that hit me while traveling through the upper South (southern Kentucky, chunks of Tennessee, northern Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia): Could Michigan or Illinois name a state park and other landmarks after the first Grand Wizard of the KKK [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Bedford_Forrest]

Doing Research

Another university study confirms common sense [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000AADF2-843E-1435-843E83414B7F0000] . In this one, a researcher's study shows that people react to rewards and punishment in their economic decisions. Regular readers know that I'm much humored by the research-confirms-common-sense phenomenon,

In Time for Holy Week

Stations of the Cross blog [http://thecorner.typepad.com/via_crucis_2006/2006/04/via_crucis_blog.html]. Via Shea [http://markshea.blogspot.com/].

Kiosk

Note: I'm eliminating the Kiosk. It's too much of a hassle to keep up with the spam.

The Weekend Eudemon

Whatta week. Michigan to Kentucky (Mammoth Cave National Park [http://www.nps.gov/maca/]), Kentucky to Mississippi (Tupelo, the Birthplace of Elvis [http://www.elvispresleybirthplace.com/] and home of my eldest brother), Alabama (Huntsville and the Space Center [http://www.spacecamp.com/museum/]), Tennessee (Gatlinburg). It feels like I was

Stay Down

Yet about 2/3rds of Americans claim to be Christians and accept other core truths about Christianity [http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=RESURRECTION-04-05-06]: > Most Americans don't believe they will experience a resurrection of their bodies when they die, putting them

I'm Back

The family and I drove from Gatlinburg, Tennessee to SW Michigan yesterday. About 10 hours of driving, and four of us had come down with stomach flu (I've spent 90 minutes cleaning the van this morning and it still doesn't smell pleasant). Things are returning to

Moses and the Mexicans among us

Ok. My dad thinks I should blog on immigration. After a week of watching the borderline racism and histrionics that passes for coverage of the issue on Fox News, I'm almost inclined to. Here's the most sensible thing I've seen on the issue, [http:

Fear factor

Nicholas Lemann's New Yorker article on Bill O'Reilly [http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060327fa_fact] is one of those articles that tries too hard to demonstrate that it's a "fair, yet critical assessment," when the only reason for writing is to

Theo-con takeover?

Franklin Foer, the new top editor at the nation's venerable liberal flagship, The New Republic, seems a tad worried that theo-conservative Catholics are hijacking the U.S. government. In one of his first issues since taking the helm, he recently published a cover story that was a none-too-subtle

Never too far from the tree

Even if you never cared too much for the neo-primtive stylings of 'grunge' music, you still might find this fascinating - a look at the twisted family tree of Courtney Love [http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/0612/courtney-love.php], widow of grunge hero, Kurt Cobain, and a tortured

Where poor people come from

Kay Hymowitz has a theory that's worth reading in the most recent issue of City Journal [http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_1_marriage_gap.html]: > What two-America talk doesn't get is just how much these ominous trends are entangled with the collapse of the

The feminist mys-take?

A good post-mortem on the feminist movement [http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article.asp?aid=12104044_1]by Dan Seligman in Commentary. Here's one of many intriguing quotes: > A final obstacle to the resurrection of the women's movement is that Americans have been gradually discovering that

Bloggin' the ancient Church

Things are really hopping in the fourth century. Our friend, Mike Aquilina [http://www.mikeaquilina.com], the leading Catholic writer on the ancient Church fathers, has started a blog of sorts, devoted to the first Christian teachers. Get yourself a free screen-saver and some other fun stuff at www.fathersofthechurch.

Home births under attack?

What a strange country we've become. You can get an abortion any time you want and for any reason. The people who provide you this "service" are hardly regulated by the government. But if you choose to have a baby, and have that baby in your

JP2 and Me

It's been a year since John Paul II went to his reward. Apologies for a personal reflection, but I owe the guy a lot. I drifted away from the faith in college, became an example of how a little learning can make you quite a dumb guy. I

April Fools

Top 100 April Fools jokes of all time [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/]. Humorous stuff. (This, by the way, is Eric. I obtained brief access to an Internet connection and saw this story. Since I try to post "holiday" items, I decided to log onto the site.

Cry Wolfe

It's final four weekend. And I Am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe's satire of college basketball programs and higher education in the 21st century, is back in the news. The 2004 book is now out in paperback, and Wolfe has just been tapped to deliver the prestigious

Muslims vs. Mother T.

Probably doesn't need any comment from me. From a March 29th Reuters news report: > Muslims in Shkoder, in northern Albania, are opposing plans to erect a statue to the Roman Catholic nun Mother Teresa, an ethnic Albanian who is in line for elevation to sainthood by the

It's a commitment, isn't it?

Hello, I'm David Scott. You should accept no substitutes for Eric Scheske, but unfortunately, for the next few days you're going to have to. Here's something to get us started. At least it got my brain working a little on this Friday morning at

PSA

Well, it's been a heckuva run. I started daily blogging in February 2005, and I haven't missed a day. If I'm not at day 400, I'm daggone close. But starting tomorrow, I'm taking a week off. Don't worry.

The All-Fat, All-the-Time Culture is Coming

In a story that I suspect is closely linked to the last one, for reasons that I don't have time to explore: > A Las Vegas company is putting a new extra-large ambulance into service to handle extra-large patients. . . . > A company official said that in the last

Body Obsession, Episode 1,221,000

> Women would rather get their teeth drilled than shop for a new bathing suit, a report said [http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060329-021602-3056r].

Am I Boring You?

I welcome this: > Scientists are developing an "emotion sensor" to show if someone is finding your conversation interesting or not [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4856050.stm]. I don't know what it is, but forty-somethings seem to have a large percentage of

Maybe She Can Pray to L. Ron

You bedded the man, Katie, now enjoy it: > Tom Cruise has given Katie Holmes an iPod with calming tunes to help her stay silent during childbirth. > The gift came after The Sun revealed the couple had put up 6ft posters in their Beverly Hills mansion reminding her not

Historical Miniature

On pretty Eva Braun [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2097514,00.html]. Excerpt: > Eva twice tried to kill herself: in November 1932, she shot herself in the throat, but missed the jugular. Then, in 1935, she tried again, this time with sleeping pills. Her reason, both times,

Warning to Caligulas

I see people combining the two all the time, and it has always struck me as an abuse. Not a nasty abuse, just a small one: > # Study results show that drinking alcohol and Red BullÂ® together significantly reduces the perception of headache, weakness, dry mouth and impairment of motor

Wi-Fi the World

I like Wi-Fi, but I can't say I'm enamored with the idea of turning every public place in America into a hot spot. The act of turning every public place in America into a cell phone zone has been annoying enough. Anyway, this article [http://www.

1984?

A remote Alaskan village has installed 80 surveillance cameras on its street. People are a little freaked out [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-secure28mar28,0,3284078.story?coll=la-home-headlines] : > "You better smile. You're on camera," says Roberts, 64, a barge captain. Roberts himself

Serving up the F Word

> Are we living in an Age of Profanity [http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060329/D8GKU61G0.html]? > Nearly three-quarters of Americans questioned last week - 74 percent - said they encounter profanity in public frequently or occasionally, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. Two-thirds said they think people swear

Helping Terrorists Feel Good About Themselves

Of course, if we're aggressive, there'll be no one left to enjoy the environment: > A new type of explosive may make blowing things up a little more environmentally friendly, according to a new study. > US researchers say they have developed "green" chemicals

Bibliomaniacs

The Washington Post ran a piece recently that speaks to me [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/22/AR2006032200557.html?nav%3Dmost_emailed&sub=AR] : > Books, it turns out, inflame a particular kind of passion. They inform, they amuse, they provoke. They keep us company

Teaching Children About Work

I thought I had read every children's story on the planet, but I missed this one: > One of my favorite books when I was a child was Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day. It is a collection of short stories about everyday life

Lookin' for Pain

ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is looking for pain: cancer sufferers, hate crime victims, families with terminal children. The uglier the better. Here's the disturbing summary [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0327062extreme1.html]. The TV show finds a suffering family and then re-makes their house into

Give Adults the Money

The clever and brilliant (the two don't always go together) Charles Murray throws down a paradoxical challenge to America: use its flood of money to end the welfare state by giving money to Americans. His new book (In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State) comes

Didn't Appear on a Pork Chop

Hey, I thought Catholics had a trademark on this! > Muslim worshippers are flocking to see a pair of fish in the British city of Liverpool which appear to bear the words "Allah" and "Mohammed", their owner said [http://uk.news.yahoo.com/27032006/323/muslim-holy-fish-draw-faithful-british-city.

Why You Should Attend Parochial Schools

Episode 1,332,901: > A tumbling coach who worked with cheerleaders at Mater Dei Catholic High School in Breese has been banned from the campus because principal Dennis Litteken learned the 22-year-old gymnast had starred in gay porn videos [http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=4682686&

A Wal'ed In Life

I wrote a very short story a few years ago that kind of anticipated the student who lived at Wal-Mart [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4302/]. It appeared in Gilbert Magazine. I have created a temporary "Stories" page in the left column, if you care to check it out. Link

On Tolerance for the French

By Marcus Aurelius: > Are you angry with him whose armpits stink? Are you angry with him whose mouth smells foul? What good will this anger do you? He has such a mouth, he has such armpits: it is necessary that such an emanation must come from such things--but the

Living at the Wal

Funny guy: > Skyler Bartels kept looking over his shoulder. It's a habit he picked up living at the Windsor Heights Wal-Mart for three days. > Really living there. Eating, sleeping, checking out the DVDs, never leaving. The plan was to spend his entire spring break there. Under

Odd Consumer News

A restaurant that caters to twins and hires only twins [http://www.twinsworld.com/restaurant.html].

Rat Own!

Actually Husbands Work Much Harder Than Wives. [http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/default.asp?archiveID=1942]

Atheist Countries

A list of the Top 50 atheistic countries in the world [http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html]. Is it any coincidence that one of the most liberal countries in the world (Sweden) and a communist country (Vietnam) are number one and two?

What's a Binge?

National Review ran an article that apparently says some stupid things (link to analysis [http://www.exceptionalmarriages.com/weblog/BlogDetail.asp?ID=29783]), but I like this line from it: > Similarly, drinking five Miller Lites at a party is now officially known as binge drinking. But sensible people know

Elvis and Me

In honor of today's honor: > I traveled to the Elvis Fan Dome by an odd route. > In college, a friend went to a mega-flea market and bought an Elvis clock: a heavily-varnished piece of wood with a serious black-n-white Elvis picture on the front. We were

About Time

Elvis gets his due [http://kdka.com/entertainment/entertainment_story_086072935.html]! > Elvis fans already consider Graceland a national treasure. > Interior Secretary Gale Norton will arrive in Memphis on Monday for ceremonies to make the designation official. > The home of Elvis Presley, which hosts more than 600,

They Didn't Get the Memo

> A Greek court allowed association of worshippers of ancient Greek deities to be set up, Radio Svoboda informs. > At the moment Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Athens, Hermes, etc. are being worshipped by 100,000 Greeks. > Until now Ministry of Culture banned them from conducting public worship at

The "Learn Something New Every Day" Department

A fellow blogger wished me a "happy Laetare Sunday" today. I didn't know what it meant, so I looked it up. Mildly interesting: > The fourth, or middle, Sunday of Lent, so called from the first words of the Introit at Mass, "Laetare Jerusalem"

Flannery Quotes

The brilliant Flannery is always a safe blog item. I found this assortment at Brainyquote [http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/flannery_oconnor.html]: All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of

Disgracing Wallace's Memory

Where's William Wallace [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braveheart] when you need him? > A ban on smoking in public places - including bars and restaurants - has come into effect in Scotland. > It is being hailed as a step forward for health but critics say it

Immigration Bill

A friend sent out a mass email about the immigration bill. It came yesterday. At first, I thought it was a response to my post yesterday [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4283/], but it wasn't. It was just a coincidence. She raises a good point: > Dear friends, please pay

Something for Sunday Morning

> [Prayer's] only art is to call back the souls of the dead from the very journey into death, to give strength to the weak, to heal the sick, to exorcise the possessed, to open prison cells, to free the innocent from their chains. Prayer cleanses from sin,

If You Name It, They Will Come

I found this in yesterday's WSJ (James Taranto's Best of the Web [http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/]). It's not a joke: > [T]here's a small but growing effort under way to get a Vermont mountain named after the controversial movie, Brokeback

Ms. Memory

I was blessed with an excellent memory, though stress has somewhat taken a toll on it. I found this article [http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pub&dt=060324&cat=scitech&st=scitechdyehard_woman_memory_060320&src=abc] highly interesting. My memory was nowhere near

Farce of the Penguins

> Actor Samuel L. Jackson has signed on to narrate an upcoming spoof of the Oscar-winning documentary "March of the Penguins" with an all-star supporting voice cast, independent studio ThinkFilm said on Friday. > "Farce of the Penguins," mixing archival wildlife footage with an R-rated screenplay

Brews You Can Use, Saturday Edition

The surest way to ruin a pleasure is to over-indulge this pleasure. Yeah, this [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1775605.html] might qualify: > The world's first beer health centre has opened in the cellar of a family brewery in the Czech Republic. > Beer baths,

Elle

While heating up my lunch at the office, I flipped through Elle magazine (the secretaries keep it in the break room). I tried to find the table of contents, but discovered that it's buried: it comes after 37 pages of advertisements. It's probably common to fashion

Immigration

I haven't followed the new immigration bill closely, but I'm befuddled by all the protests. Is illegal immigration illegal? If so, it should be treated as, you know, illegal. According to Fox News, right now it's treated strictly as a civil matter, which means

The Weekend Eudemon

Wow, whatta week. If you were annoyed at the drop in TDE posts, just be grateful that the posts didn't stop altogether. I've posted 390 days in a row, but the string was almost snapped this week due to intense pressures at the office and, as

Worse Than Its Bite

> The Bruintjes family says a city inspector was barking up the wrong tree when he handed them an euro80 (US$97) bill for the Dutch dog tax. > The family insists it does not have a dog - only a barking doorbell. > It was the second year in

Brews You Can Use II

I suspect these results don't mean squat, but what the heck: Results from Great American "Premium" Beer Challenge [http://pdxbeer.blogspot.com/2006/03/results-from-great-american-premium.html] Coors Original Northwest Trail Labatt Blue Full Sail Session Old German Premium Lager Iron City Miller High Life Michelob Bud

Brews You Can Use

> Animal activists in Australia have set up a toad-for-beer exchange in order to promote humanitarian disposal of toads [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002876.php]. Now that's a stupid tree-hugger-like program I could get into.

Herbal Me

> A new study suggests adolescents who used herbal supplements are six times more likely to have tried cocaine and almost 15 times more likely to have used anabolic steroids than teens who have never used herbal products. The findings are in a University of Rochester Medical Center study published

Can We Build a Wall Around the Mideast and Segregate?

A very good article [http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,407493,00.html], though I'm not sure what to think about the implication that the West needs to involve itself and spend more resources to help Muslim women and Christians. From intro: > A few

Virtual Lent

The heck if I know what to make of this: > Brighton, UK. Britain will witness its first crucifixion for almost two millennia later this week, when Cynewulf is nailed to a cross as punishment for ganking other players as they first appear. Cynewulf, (in real life a 27 year-old

Pet Kids, Episode 1,999,024

The Meow Mix Cafe [http://www.meowmix.com/newsevents/meowcafe.asp]. The first restaurant for cats.

New Welfare Class

Twenty-somethings are drowning in debt as a result of expensive schools and lifestyles. Some folks, like those at WaPo, want the government (i.e., the taxpayers) to help them out. Here's the story [http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/default.asp?archiveID=1939].

Odd Consumer News

Those 1950's diners were often simple mobile units tied to a parcel of land. You want to buy one? Go here [http://www.americandinermuseum.org/dinersforsale/dinersforsale.php]. Bring me Mel's Drive-In [http://www.mistersf.com/cinema/index.html?cingraffiti02.htm]! Of course, Mel's

Fox and Friends

Lots of good stuff during 15 minutes of Fox and Friends this morning: A man has opted to spend 10 years in prison instead of telling authorities where they can find $2.5 million. He's trying to avoid paying his wife alimony. The term "indian style"

Give Me Tor Eckman

> A hospital is promising emergency room patients they'll be seen by a doctor in 30 minutes or less -- or else receive an apology and free movie tickets [http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/8161951/detail.html]. There mere idea that medical providers are looking for illness is

Research Confirms Common Sense

Of course, the idiot brigade will be out in full force on this one [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=380662&in_page_id=1770] . "Hey dude, it's not like, you know, you see Mary Ann [http://en.

Monk Leaps

This must make the smarmy Brown one really proud [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/22/nmonk22.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/22/ixhome.html] : > A monk may have leapt to his death from a monastery after reading The Da Vinci Code,

Did Hillary Just Jump the Shark?

She's wigging out over the immigration bill [http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--clinton-immigrati0322mar22,0,2312317.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork] . > Clinton renewed her pledge to oppose a bill passed in December by the House that would make unlawful presence in the United States--currently a civil offense--a

Ear, Take a Hit of This

Pass the Ritalin, dude [http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_613.shtml]: > A study published online in the February 2006 Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, which examined data from a 2002 survey of about 67,000 households, estimated that more than 7 million Americans have misused stimulant drugs

North Koreans on Cutting Edge

Just another way those Commies are ahead of the curve: North Korea May Kill Disabled Newborns [http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2006/03/north-korea-may-kill-disabled-newborns.html] . Definitely worth checking out.

Rotten Low-Class Tenants

I've been so busy, I missed this gem on Monday: > Claiming that his $70,000-a-month tenant Prince undertook an extremely tacky makeover of his Los Angeles mansion, an NBA star recently sued the mercurial singer over the purple-hued alterations. In a January complaint, Carlos Boozer, a forward

The Liturgist

Interesting post at Mere Comments [http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2006/03/jesus_the_litur.html]: > Jesus was a liturgist, declares Discalced Carmelite Father JesÃºs Castellano, professor at the Teresianum Faculty of Rome and consultor in several Vatican congregations, speaking to Zenit in an interview titled A Healthy Crisis

They're Crushing My Beds

> A hotel in Germany has started charging its guests by the pound for an overnight stay, according to a Local 6 News report. > The hotel owner in the town of Norden, Juergen Heckrodt, said he was continually getting overweight guests, so he decided to make them step on

Historical Miniature

Like it or not, Playboy is part of our culture. If you want to read about its Playmates, go here [http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/articles/060320crbo_books]. It's a review/essay of The Playmate Book: Six Decades of Centerfolds. Yes, the piece is risque (though no

Tolkien and Toronto

The New York Times reports this morning [http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/03/22/travel/22letter.html] that Toronto is tying its star to Tolkien and the new Lord of the Rings musical: > Next to the show's producers and the shorter-than-average actors hoping to find employment in

More Vinci

The Christian Science Monitor has run an extended piece about Christians' efforts to derail The Da Vinci Code. [http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0322/p13s01-lire.html] It's mostly a re-hash of stuff I've already mentioned on this site. The best part is this simple observation:

Electric Kool-Aid

The sixties have always fascinated me, and not just in a nauseous way. I've read Gitlin and Horowitz's histories, I've read plenty of Kerouac and an assortment of others. But I've never read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test [http://www.cjr.org/

PSA

I've been called to Lansing, where the Wi-Fi connections run $10.00 per half hour. I'm going to try to catch a free radio wave, but if I can't, there won't be much more blogging today.

12 and Hot?

Only in a world tainted with NAMBAism would this type of thing be considered newsworthy: > Natalie Portman is horrified she was considered a sex symbol aged just 12. > The stunning actress shot to fame playing a young, Lolita-esque orphan who befriends a hardened assassin in 'Leon'

Stabbing Scientologist

Interesting, though I'm sure the Hubbardites would either call it a fluke or point to similarities with the Exorcism of Emilie Rose: > On March 13, 2003, Jeremy Perkins, a 28 year old untreated schizophrenic, stabbed his mother Elli 77 times. She bled to death on her bedroom

Grown Goths

Youth studies to predict adults must be the rage right now (see below): > [A]ccording to a new study, parents of goths will probably end up boasting about their son/daughter the doctor, lawyer or bank manager. > That is the surprising finding of Sussex University's Dunja

Trash Science

> Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative. > At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids

Sprawl Me

Everyone hates urban sprawl, right? Nope. Link [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=11948&R=EB9725ECE] . At least a few neo-cons think it's a good sign that we're losing agricultural land faster than a marine recruit loses his hair. Even though I

Gay Adoption: Social Cons on the Offensive?

> In recent weeks a flurry of activity has focused new attention on same-sex adoption, which is being touted as the next battleground in the nation's culture wars. > Some states, including Ohio, are considering legislation to bar gays from adopting. When local church officials ordered Catholic Charities

Bond

Interesting Christopher Hitchens piece in The Atlantic Monthly about Ian Fleming, who is described as "sadist, a narcissist, and an all-around repressed pervert." I've read a few Bond books, at the request of my wife, who's a big fan (no, she's not

Chocolate

The chocolate review [http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk/]. It's not exactly good fare for Lent, but you might want to check it out on Sundays and after the 40 days is over.

Standby

I"ve always wondered how much all those digital clocks and other little energy things (e.g., night lights) cost me every year: > [A] typical microwave oven consumes more electricity powering its digital clock than it does heating food. For while heating food requires more than 100 times

Crunchy Cons

Re: Crunchy Cons [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400050642/thedailyeudem-20] I started it on Saturday and finished it on Saturday. I'm not going to write a detailed review. Rather, I offer these random thoughts. First, the good news. Dreher is a delightful writer and his sentiments

This is Art?

I read this on page 157 of Edward Epstein's The Big Picture: The New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood. > Producers may also make product-placement deals that can further delay shooting. In the case of Natural Born Killers, for example, a producer arranged for the director,

Kill the Convert

They're not savages. It's the religion of peace: > An Afghan man is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death on a charge of converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under this country's Islamic laws, a judge said

Looking for Print Blogs

I am looking for print publications or mainstream media outlets that sponsor their own blogs. If you know of any, please let me know as soon as possible (email link on your left). Here's what I have so far: The Guardian Business Week The American Spectator National Review

V for Vendetta

This movie seems to be grabbing people all different ways. Check out these three different bloggers' reactions: > The movie gets jacked full of religious hogwash that was not nearly so pronounced in the book. A character is executed for possessing a Koran, for example. We get a lot

Something for Sunday Morning

Living in the now: > We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are

Anarchism

WSJ provides a brief overview of the history of anarchism [http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110008105].

Calling John

> A television "seance" to contact the spirit of late Beatle John Lennon has been defended by its producer. > The programme, which will air on a US pay-per-view digital channel, has been branded as "tasteless" by critics. > Its producer, who made a show in

Hitting the Christian Mass Market

Decent article at Money magazine about movie studios' attempt to market films to Christians [http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/16/news/companies/faith_film/]. Nothing groundbreaking and, in fact, it reiterates a point I made last year [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3019/] when people were questioning whether Narnia would

Neglected Books

> Welcome to the Neglected Books page. Here you'll find lists of thousands of books that have been neglected, overlooked, forgotten, or stranded by changing tides in critical or popular taste. [http://www.neglectedbooks.com/index.html] When I first saw this, I thought, "Well, if books

Leno

I voted for Bush twice, but Leno slayed me with this one: "Mexican President Vicente Fox announced that they have discovered oil under the Gulf of Mexico. In a related story, President Bush accused Mexico of having weapons of mass destruction."

Judas Redux

> The Gospel of Judas - said to be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of modern times - is about to be published amid explosive controversy, Britain's The Mail on Sunday newspaper revealed yesterday. > Scholars have translated 26 pages of a crumbling ancient text that purports

That's Not Just a Typo

Headline at HuffPo: "Naval Academey Sex Cases Rarely Go To Court..." And your headline writers rarely take lessons in spelling.

Just Kidding!

> Two masked robbers tried to hold up a cashless credit union bank at gunpoint in California. > They burst into the 'bank' at Benicia with weapons drawn and shouted at employees to hand over the money, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. . . . > The robbers apparently had no

The Weekend Eudemon

Things are movin' kind of slow this morning after St. Patrick's Day. It was a good evening, but I didn't really celebrate St. Patrick's Day. The W is owned by Irish, and they have a big celebration, but it's not really

Data on Bigger Families

From The Atlantic Monthly. I'm not sure what this says about my family of seven children, but it's interesting: > [Researchers in Israel] found that the presence of a third child (or more than three children) had little effect on the long-term educational attainment, adult earnings,

Brews You Can Use III

Beer basics [http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/et_hd_st_patricks_day/article/0,1972,FOOD_9844_4491043,00.html] . Good solid information for the 15-year-old.

Brews You Can Use II

I'd have a heart attack of joy: > A woman in Norway was startled this past weekend when she drew water to wash dishes and beer came out of the taps. . . . > It turned out that a worker in a bar two floors below had mixed up the

Brews You Can Use: St. Patrick's Day Edition

My St. Patrick's Day present to you. I scoured the Internet and found stuff dealing with beer and St. Patrick's Day (I did it while watching the Tournament, so relatively painless). Enjoy the luck of the Irish. Ten great Irish pubs in the United States [http:

GKC on Gaels

Perhaps my favorite GK Chesterton verse: “For the Great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry And all their songs are sad.”

Manly Men

I've been meaning to mention this all week, but haven't gotten the chance: a Boston Globe article about Harvey Mansfield's new book, Manliness. I haven't read the book, but I've read a little of Mansfield's stuff. I suspect

The Flying Inn

Martin Gardner has written an essay for The New Criterion about G.K. Chesterton's The Flying Inn [http://www.newcriterion.com/archives/24/03/naughtscrescents-gardner/]. You must be a subscriber to the magazine to read the whole thing (and, alas, I'm not), but I'm

Wikipedia

Readers of this blog know I like Wikipedia, though I don't entirely trust it. Is it trustworthy? I think so, and so do some researchers. From The Atlantic Monthly: > [Wikipedia] is not much worse than the online version of the legendary Encyclopedia Britannica, according to a study

PSA

Blogging will be light today. There's a bunch of reasons, from NCAA basketball activities to kids to that annoying thing I call my job. I'll do what I can, but it will be light.

Shaft off of South Park

Isaac Hayes has left South Park. He's offended about a show that lampoons Scientology. Get Religion, as usual, has a good analysis [http://www.getreligion.org/?p=1462].

Stab Me, Then Bless Me

Women, gays, lesbians. Why not a murderer? Inclusivity, inclusivity, inclusivity. Nothing else matters. Anything else, for the matter, is excluded: > Trading in his state-issued blue denim for a black robe and white collar, the Rev. James Tramel left prison and arrived at the small Episcopal church where he'

"Another One-Finger Catch!"

> The Tennessee Titans general manager trumpeted his new free-agent acquisition, wide receiver David Givens, as a remarkable talent with “more Super Bowl rings than he's got fingers for”! > Givens has two rings. Link [http://suicideofthewest.com/?p=194].

Odds and Miscellany

The April issue of The Atlantic Monthly came yesterday. As usual, it has a lot of neat stuff, like these: At least one online bookie set odds for how the U.S. or Israel would deal with Iran. Odds from earlier this year: 4:1--Overt air strike by the U.

Web Award Winners

I spend more time surfing the web than I care to admit. Yet I routinely run across things--big things--that I've never even heard of, like the Annual Web Awards [http://2006.sxsw.com/interactive/web_awards/winners/], now in its ninth year. It has an assortment of neat

The Bird Can be Profitable

Can you flip off a public worker, get citationed, and then sue under the 14th amendment and win? Apparently so [http://post-gazette.com/pg/06073/669903.stm].

Malthus was an Idiot

Amazing piece at Foreign Policy about declining birth rates and the return of the patriarchal society [http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3376&page=0]. It's lengthy. The best stuff is on the first 1.5 pages, if you want to take the short

Roe v. Wade for Men

My weekly column at Catholic Exchange [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=32246] offers an extended analysis of Roe v. Wade for Men, if you care to check it out. Excerpt: > The feminists are opposing Roe v. Wade for Men. I suspect

Sirius Stock Slump

The Stern Network (a/k/a Sirius) stock has hit a 52-month low [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SIRI&t=6m]. Good.

Free Starbucks

I don't like coffee and I don't like Starbucks and I don't like the consumerist culture it stands for. I don't even have a Starbucks in my home town (no, I don't live in hell). But I offer this, in

Cocky Counterfeiter . . . But Not Too Bright

Fire up the ethnic joke machines: > The counterfeit money looked good, but there was one flaw. There's no such thing as a one billion dollar bill. > U.S. Customs agents in California said on Tuesday they had found 250 bogus billion dollar bills while investigating a

"Like, Dude, How Can That Be?"

"How can what be?" "Dude, I forget, man" > Long-term users of marijuana gradually become worse at learning and remembering things, a new study suggests. [http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/dn8839.html]

That's a Crime!

People are stealing empty kegs for the scrap metal value. It's becoming quite the problem. A reader sent the story to me. I can't find a link, so you'll have to take my word for it (like I'd make-up such a sad

Beatles

Terry Teachout writes about the Beatles [http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article.asp?aid=12102061_1]. Teachout is always worth reading, even when his subject isn't. In this one, he has a good subject, too. Excerpt: > The historical significance of these achievements, however, cannot be overstated. After the

Welborn and Da Vinci

From the National Catholic Register's coverage of Amy Welborn's "Theology on Tap" lecture in Rome about the Da Vinci Code: > Welborn said she would rather be writing her own novels “than talking about this silly, silly book,” and that people's “unending

Laymen Take a Stand

> Like many dioceses in North America, the archdiocese [of St. Paul, Minnesota] has been plagued by the scandal of priestly sexual abuse. The diocese is unique however, in that a movement of faithful Catholic lay men has chosen to publicly confront the scandal, not by demanding - as do

Oh, Mitt

> Governor Mitt Romney, who frequently tells Republican audiences that every child has a right to have a mother and father, acknowledged yesterday that same-sex couples have ''a legitimate interest" in adopting children. > Romney said he would file a ''very narrow" bill aimed

Red Russia

Still paying for Lenin's sins: > Russia is red again - after a freak fall of coloured snow on the former communist country. > Northern regions of Russia's Maritime territory have been blanketed by a creamy reddish snow caused by a combination of weather patterns. Link

Like a Virgin Boy

> Plagued by rumours their marriage is in trouble, Madonna has put her foot down and imposed a strict curfew on her husband. > The star has drawn up a rigid three-point plan by which movie director Guy Ritchie has to abide. > She has told him he must spend

Hubbard Lore

Quotes and snippets about the life of L. Ron Hubbard [http://www.xenu.net/entheta/entheta/media/tv/secret/secret.html]. Interesting, if you're into cult stuff or interested in what former-Catholic Katie Holmes is dealing with.

Age Gauge

A friend sent this [http://www.frontiernet.net/~cdm/age1.html] along. It's an age gauge. It calculates in a split second. Pretty cool.

PSA

Aaaargh! Computer problems at the office. I had a good plate of stuff to discuss today, but now I'm running behind and I don't know if I'll be able to get caught up. I'll be in a hearing most of the afternoon.

More Phelps

The wicked lunatics from Kansas are in the news again. They hate fags, and they're taking it out on families mourning the deaths of sons killed in combat [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/12/060312122104.pgrezzqi.html]. Unbelievable. This is the second story, incidentally, that mentions

Monday Moanin' Eudemon

Ouch, forty is here. I went jogging yesterday for the first time in months, so that made the rude awakening that much worse: my legs were tender and ached. I also sat on a back massager at my brother's while watching the NCAA Selection Show, so my back

Misc. Leno

From last Friday night: > I read some sour grapes about the Oscars today. It seems a writer for "Brokeback Mountain” told the Los Angeles times that he thinks "Crash” only won because it was set in Los Angeles where academy voters live and can identify with it

Prison and AIDS

> Conspiracy nuts have long claimed that the HIV virus that causes AIDS was created by government scientists as a way to kill black people. In fact, recent polls find that more than 25 percent of black Americans believe that the conspiracy is real. After all, African-Americans constitute about 12

Robson's Top Five

John Robson's top five odd stories of the week [http://www.thejohnrobson.com/Top5/2006/060311%20Top%205.htm]. Always worth a look. This week, he covers a story that I mentioned on Thursday [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4167/]. > 2: Chips that touch wine MIT researchers put liquid

The Sunday Eudemon

Well, the big day is tomorrow: I turn forty. We celebrated last night with KFC and ice cream cake. I also got some cool gifts: Walk the Line Deluxe DVD set, a good portable breathalyser (it might make me the most popular guy at the drinking club), a wireless speaker

Something for Sunday Morning

> To transform our saying prayers into a real education in prayer, they must be said in such a way that both heart and mind absorb their content. So that you may achieve this I will give you three simple instructions: > First, do not start praying without at least

I've Been Everywhere

I found the lyrics to pioneer rapper Hank Snow's I've Been Everywhere. If you haven't heard the song, the lyrics won't mean anything to you. If you have heard the song, you're probably grateful to see what he's

Historical Miniatures

The short stories behind 20 Muslim inventions [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article350594.ece]. Good stuff. I especially liked the story of soap. I guess the effects of the Battle of Tours [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tours] can still be smelled to this day:

How Long Will MS Keep Competitors at Bay?

All monopolies die, without euthanasia from the Sherman Act. It doesn't mean the monopolists die. Some do, but others just step back into the throes of competition. I don't know what'll happen to MS, but its hegemony will end: > Google sparked another battle

Speed III

I don't usually reproduce human interest stories for the heck of it, but I am this time. Incredible . . . and scary: > A motorist was trapped in his car driving at almost 130mph for 60 miles after the accelerator jammed. > Kevin Nicolle, 25, was unable to stop the

Comic Novels

Roger Kimball writes about his favorite comic novels [http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/fivebest/?id=110008077]: 1. "Leave It to Psmith" by P.G. Wodehouse 2. "Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh 3. "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" by Eric Hodgins 4. "Lucky Jim&

Poor Garry

The formidable Edward T. Oakes takes apart Garry Wills [http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0603/reviews/oakes.html], though he praises much of his most-recent book. The entire article is worth reading, though I particularly enjoyed this passage from the conclusion: > One finishes this occasionally illuminating book wondering whether

The Weekend Eudemon

It's birthday weekend. And it's not just any birthday weekend: I turn 40 on Monday. I read once that you spend the first 40 years of your life developing the virtues and habits that will control the next 40 years of your life. If that'

Brews You Can Use II

Actually, this is "Brews I'm Glad I Don't Need to Use": > Another gluten-free beer becomes available in April. Bard's Tale initially will be sold in 11 states, and company co-founder Craig Belser hopes to be nationwide in 12 to 18 months.

Brews You Can Use

From the Red Stripe label:

PSA

Sorry that the blogging has been light. I got pulled into a nursing home for a rush estate planning job, and I have other fires to put out. I'll plan on posting some Brews You Can Use later this afternoon, at about the time that I'll

Rothbard on the Mafia

Murray Rothbard, nut or first-rate thinker? He's probably both, and I mean that in a good way. His essays might have the lowest thought-to-word ratios (one thought provoked by X number words) ever. Quite the unique and powerful thinker. Among other things, Rothbard liked the Mafia and--if I

Video Johns Squirming

Heeee Hawwww! This is funny: > Seventeen million customers of the online payment service iBill have had their personal information released onto the internet, where it's been bought and sold in a black market made up of fraud artists and spammers, security experts say. > The stolen data,

"Hey, Noah"

Discovered: Noah's Ark? [http://www.livescience.com/history/060309_the_ark.html] I express no opinion, but it's fun.

Meanwhile . . .

Tennessee has now taken the first step to outlaw abortion [http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1707141&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312]. Hopefully, Roe v. Wade for Men will raise public consciousness about the unworkability of Roe jurisprudence. By the time, the South Dakota and Tennessee laws get to the Supreme

Roe v. Wade for Men

I assume everyone has heard about the Roe v. Wade for Men lawsuit in Michigan. If not, here's the story [http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=1702992&page=1]. I haven't kept up with the banter much, so what I say here might

Rowling Follow-Up

A reader writes in response to my post yesterday [https://thedailyeudemon.com/4162/]: > Your correspondent about J.K. Rowling's church membership is incorrect on at least one count. The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian. The Anglican church there is called the "Scottish Episcopal Church." >

Historical Miniature

Flippin' flip books [http://www.flippies.com/history.htm]. Excerpt from the beginning: > From the pre-motion picuture era to the origins of animation, cinema and modern entertainment, flip books are recognized as one of the earliest forms of what today is referred to as "interactive multimedia"

Water Rates

I attended my town's commission meeting last night. They're reviewing water/sewer rates. The consultant has recommended an increase of approximately 9.5%, and I suspect the commission will take the consultant's advice. The average resident will pay an extra $2.50 per month.

A Lack of Tithers

Married homosexuals raised my ire earlier this morning, and now there's another story that gets me going: Catholics that don't tithe or come anywhere near it. LA Times Link [http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/14055363.htm]. Excerpt: > Researchers have found that although

St. JFK

At least Marilyn Monroe isn't in the stained glass [http://closedcafeteria.blogspot.com/2006/03/st-jfk-pray-for-us-part-ii.html].

USCCB on DaVinci

The bishops have deemed it fit to get involved. Jesus Decoded [http://www.jesusdecoded.com/introduction.php]. stolen from [http://michaeldubruiel.blogspot.com/2006/03/bishops-anti-davinci-code-site.html]

Mixed-Up

> On June 1, 2000, Mrs. Remmele, then 31, discovered her husband's profile on the Web site gay.com. The couple stayed up all that night weeping and talking. Soon afterward, 10 days before she gave birth to her second child, Mrs. Remmele's husband went off

June 6, 2006

You think Tim LaHaye is just an honest Christian who happened to make a bunch of money from writing fiction about his pet eschatological theory? Check out this page: The Rapture--Coming 06.06.06 [http://www.leftbehind.com/]. LaHaye is a marketer, a fiction writer, and maybe a psychologist, but

Burned by Oxygen

> A 64-year-old Greenwood woman was burned seriously after a fire started while she was smoking and taking oxygen, investigators said. > "This isn't the first time someone in our city has been seriously injured while smoking and on oxygen," Greenwood Fire Chief Steve Dhondt said.

The Nutty Customer

> For years, Janey Karp has battled depression and anxiety with the help of prescription drugs. Though millions of Americans do the same, Karp admits she is intensely private and can't help but feel stigmatized for needing medication to feel normal. > So when the 53-year-old Palm Beach

Cutting Down on STDs

> Long distance lovers could soon be able to bond by sharing a wi-fi glass of wine. . . . > The high-tech glasses will glow warmly when raised, no matter how far apart the drinkers are, reports New Scientist. > Jackie Lee and Hyemin Chung, experts in human-computer interaction, say that communal

Wyndham

I like the little literary anecdotes. I found this one in The Ong Reader. If you know about Wyndham Lewis' [http://www.wyndhamlewis.com/biog.html] challenging personality, you'll get a kick out of it: > Marshall McLuhan tells this story on himself. He and his wife

VM

> "'It's disgusting," she said. "The play defines women as their sexual organs." That's one conservative woman who is fed up with the Vagina Monologues. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701842_pf.html] . It&

Rich and Married

> Creating a successful marriage is hard work. So it's nice to know you're getting paid for it. That's the word from a researcher at Ohio State University, who found that people who walk down the aisle and stay hitched accumulate nearly twice as

Misc. Leno

I'll give Leno's monologue from Monday night the final say in the Brokeback affair: > Real shocker last night was that "Crash” upset "Brokeback Mountain” to win best picture. They were not happy in West Hollywood. They were looting pottery barns, flipping over Volvos,

Rowling

A correspondent says J.K. Rowling isn't a freak. I found this interesting enough to post at Chesterton and Friends [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/] and here: > She is a member of the Church of Scotland (the Scottish Anglican Church-- not the Presbyterian church). She refuses to reveal

Transsexuals and Acceptance

My latest at CE [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=32169].

Only in the Movies

40 Things That Only Happen in Movies [http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/features/20moviethings.htm]. Great list, including: > 13. If staying in a haunted house, women should investigate any strange noises wearing their most revealing underwear. > 17. If you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts, your

Cutting Edge

As we increase our mind-numb attitude toward death, maybe some day the farmer will be considered a pioneer among morticians: > A German farmer confessed to feeding the corpse of an elderly family friend to his pigs and then stealing from his bank account, police said on Monday. > Police

Hopkins on Movies

Anthony Hopkins about today's movies [http://www.thisislondon.com/showbiz/articles/21912127?source=PA]: > The Hollywood star's latest film, The World's Fastest Indian, is a true story about a New Zealander motorcyclist who broke the land speed record. > Sir Anthony said of

No Census for Me

This story [http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3597285a4560,00.html] is too weird not to mention: > A sniffly Laird McGillicuddy Graeme Cairns was today recuperating at home after surviving 12 hours of cryogenic freezing in a chilly bid to dodge responsibility for filling out his census forms.

New Blog

I just found out that National Review has started a "Crunchy Con" blog [http://crunchycon.nationalreview.com/]. It's been around for two weeks now. I'm bummed I didn't hear about it sooner. Many excellent people are writing for it, including Rod Dreher

Quadrupeds

The evolutionists are excited [http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060307/sc_afp/turkeyhealthscience]: > The discovery of a Turkish family that walks on all fours could aid research into the evolution of humans. > Researchers believe the five brothers and sisters, who can walk naturally only on all fours,

A Fool and His Money

This man beat that old saying: > The 32-year-old Londoner, sold all his possessions in March, took $135,300 to the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, did some low-stakes gambling, and then placed everything he had left on 'red'. > The wheel was spun, a crowd of supporters

Get Cancer by Just Living Next Door

The largest full-pack cigarette collection in the world [http://tttt.ru/].

Historical Miniature

Great little piece about Timbuktu, the white man's greed and the swarthy man's duplicity. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030201486.html] . Excerpt: > Timbuktu . . . was and is a real place, as Frank T. Kryza writes, "easily located on

Poster Child for Eugenics

It would appear Madonna shouldn't have been allowed to reproduce: > Madonna says she had some explaining to do when her daughter, Lourdes, asked about that kiss with Britney Spears at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. > "(Lourdes) is really obsessed with who is gay,"

Organic at Wal-Mart

This might be the move that makes the Left sit on the curb and cry: > Wal-Mart Stores Inc. aims to be the mass-market provider of organic food, and will have doubled its organic offerings over the next couple of weeks, Wal-Mart's head of dry grocery told Reuters

Wal-Mart Bloggers

The Left is roaring about this story: > Under assault as never before, Wal-Mart is increasingly looking beyond the mainstream media and working directly with bloggers, feeding them exclusive nuggets of news, suggesting topics for postings and even inviting them to visit its corporate headquarters. NY Times Link [http://www.

Oh, Babs

Drudge cracked me up with this story [http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1bs.htm]: > Barbra Streisand has launched a new spelling error-ridden dispatch on the Internet -- a dispatch that mocks President Bush for being a "C student!" > In her February 28th, 2006 essay, Streisand flubs 11

It's the Dead Babies

Joseph Bottum talks about Republican many problems and the Democrats' big one: abortion. Good stuff [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/]. Excerpt: > And the trouble is abortion, for the Democrats are pinned by it. Although NARAL may have an ordained Methodist minister to act as its official chaplain, there

Hitting Critical Mass

Approximately 56 new blogs go online every minute. We're at 29.8 blogs right now [http://www.technorati.com/]. I suspect we'll pass the 30 million mark late tomorrow afternoon.

Karate Mom

Heart-warming story? A Columbine averted? Or just a sad story about one pathetic 22-year-old "man"? (Hint: It's not the first two.) > A middle-aged Russian mum has become a black belt in karate to protect her 22-year-old son from bullies. > Valentina Ivanova, 50, felt forced

Fat Kids Everywhere

> Nearly half of all Western Hemisphere kids will be overweight by 2010, the International Obesity Task Force report says in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity. NY Post Link [http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/60660.htm]. Well, we can't have that. I guess we'll

Good Oil

I was never a big fan of the WWJD bracelets, but I might get some of this: > Introducing WWJD-40 an amazing product with a thousand and one uses. Jesus gave Peter the power to bind and loose and wouldn't you just love to be able to bind

Inclusion, Universalism, Whatever

> Carlton Pearson has still got it. The dapper clothes. The voluminous vocabulary. The toothy smile. > And, perhaps most important, Mr. Pearson still has an unshakable conviction in his controversial "gospel of inclusion" ”“ the belief that everyone will go to heaven, regardless of his or her actions

Parent-Notification Laws

> For all the passions they generate, laws that require minors to notify their parents or get permission to have an abortion do not appear to have produced the sharp drop in teenage abortion rates that some advocates hoped for, an analysis by The New York Times shows [http://www.

Poor Moses

"No. I said, 'Let's discuss the goy issue.'" > In a closed-door meeting this week in an undisclosed site near Baltimore, a committee of Jewish legal experts who set policy for Conservative Judaism will consider whether to lift their movement's ban on

Chinese Rolling Stones

> Chinese readers bought nearly every copy of the inaugural edition of Rolling Stone in Beijing yesterday. > On the cover of the first edition in Chinese of the American bible of pop culture is Cui Jian, the godfather of Chinese rock and roll. Featuring the 44-year-old rock star was

Ads

The question has come up: "Can I put a text ad for a charity on The Daily Eudemon?" The answer is, "Yes, assuming your charity isn't 'Moloch Worshippers in Hollywood' or some such thing." Moreover, the $10 would be tax deductible as

Drought's a'Comin'

Invest in corn/wheat futures and Steinbecks: > Accu-Weather.com meteorologists have warned oceanic conditions similar to those that triggered the ruinous "Dust Bowl" drought again appear to be in place. Link [http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=58&ArticleID=17343&TM=

Academy Awards Trivia

> The movie ''Crash'' is all about racial tensions in Los Angeles. It is only fitting that the film has the distinction of having the most curse words among this year's crop of films nominated for Best Picture. R-Rated Link [http://www.oddjack.com/

Hats Off!

This day in history: 1955 -- Elvis Presley makes his television debut on the regionally telecast "The Louisiana Hayride."

iPope

I still don't have an i-Pod, even though I've been downloading from iTunes for over a year now. But this does it: if the Pope has one [http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0601282.htm], I'm gettin' one, especially since Apple recently

Brews You Can Use

I'm not much of a Sunday drinker, but I can't hold this story back until Friday. Plus, I might need some booze to get me through the Academy Awards. From Britain [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4752164.stm]: > A distillery on a

Found It!

I saw this in a story at the Toronto Star: [http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1141426212286&call_page=TS_EditorialOpinion&call_pageid=968256290204&call_pagepath=Editorial/Opinion&pubid=968163964505] Brokeback Mountain's box

Something for Sunday Morning

> Your chief enemies are the bodily desires and foolish fears which the corruption of human nature stirs up in your heart, and which would stifle your desire for the love of God and take full possession of your heart. Walter Hilton

Brokeback Blunder?

David Mills at Mere Comments discusses Brokeback's box office brokenness [http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2006/03/declining_broke.html]. Excerpt: > According to Newsweek magazine, once a film is nominated for Best Picture it normally means “big box-office increases.” > Last year “Million Dollar Baby” realized an

A Few Good Muslims

David Warren congratulates a handful of intelligent Muslims who are challenging their religion's fanatics [http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/index.php?artID=578] . It takes courage and resilience. Excerpt from conclusion: > Since the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, many thousand other barbaric acts have been

Ethical Hybrids

From Bainbridge [http://www.professorbainbridge.com/2006/03/cars_and_stars.html] : > There's been a persistent rumor here in Hollywood (I live less than a mile from the Kodak Theater) that there's a fenced off parking lot where the stars swap their luxury SUVs for

Gay Skating Cowboys Video

Just after the Olympics, just before the biggest round of Brokeback gushfest [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkp9OXAVD88&search=%22a%20little%20less%20conversation%22] .

Real Simpsons

> Makers of the hit cartoon The Simpsons have a filmed the show's opening titles using real actors. > In the hit viral going around the world we get to see what Bart, Homer, Marg, Lisa and Maggie would look like if they were humans. Link [http://www.

Ready for Brokebacking with Oscar?

The Oscars are tomorrow night, and that means one thing: Brokeback hysteria. So this is a good time to take stock of the Brokeback box office phenomenon. Remember Brokeback's rolling start? They said that it would open in a few select (read: gay-friendly) areas, then roll into a

The Weekend Eudemon

Mellow morning. I was dogged tired yesterday, too exhausted even to blog (as regular readers may have noticed). I even had a Catholic topic to mention: the great Harry Potter debate. I guess the exorcist Gabriele Amorth issued another statement [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49097]

Ave Maria Town

Update regarding Ave Maria town [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060303/ap_on_re_us/catholic_town], in case you missed it.

Brews You Can Use II

> Dogfish Head Brewery [http://www.dogfish.com/] in Delaware's seasonal ApriHop is out. Basically fruit beer meets India Pale Ale, the beer is brewed with real apricots and finished with whole-leaf Amarillo and Warrior hops. 7% ABV 55 IBU. Link [http://www.realbeer.com/blog/?p=95]

Brews You Can Use

Hop heart healthy: > Extracts from beer reduce inflammatory markers, according to a study by Austrian scientists. Hops may play a particularly important role [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002859.php].

Seinfeld Episode in Real Life

> A small-town police chief was accused in a federal lawsuit Thursday of stopping a would-be rescuer from performing CPR on a gay heart attack victim because he assumed the ailing man had HIV and posed a health risk. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060302/ap_on_re_

Wireless Security System

Received from a friend: > How to install a wireless security system: > Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men's used work boots, a really big pair. Put them outside your front door on top of a copy of Guns and Ammo magazine. Put

Mayan Mel

Mel Gibson is making a movie about the Mayans that feature human sacrifices [http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1169484,00.html]. Knowing Mad Mel, it's going to be a pretty colorful film. I like this part of an article I read about the movie:

Moving a Little Slow

I'm moving a little slow this morning. A friend is moving to South Carolina, and a group of us gathered at the drinking club to see him off. I stayed until after 11:00, which is about two hours after my normal bedtime, then went home and engaged

It's Pat

> Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson, criticized by some evangelicals for comments about Venezuela's president and Israel's prime minister, lost a bid for re-election to the National Religious Broadcasters' board of directors. Link [http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060302144009990003]. I actually feel

What James Schall Plans to Read During Lent

One of my favorites comments on one of my favorites: > For Lent, I will read Hilaire Belloc's Places. Belloc is the best essayist in our language. Here are essays on places from North to the South of Europe, to the Mideast, to North Africa. The memory of

Trans(con)fusion

> A Knoxville firefighter claims she's being discriminated against because she used to be a man. > Fire Capt. Jamie Faucon has filed a grievance against Knoxville Fire Chief Carlos Perez and her supervisor, Mark Foulkes. > She accuses them of depriving her of a take-home car, of

Odd Consumer News

You have $4,000 and the toilet is too good for it? Go here and purchase Super Bowl XL, Opus [http://www.krakenopus.com/NFLhome_flash.aspx]. It's 20" x 20", weighs 90 pounds, and appears to contain a higher percentage of fluff than your pillow.

Married "Bliss"

The life of married bloggers. Here, it's Old Oligarch and Zorak, and Zorak recounts the conversation [http://e-pression.blogspot.com/]: > O.O.: "There's Tina Turner! She doesn't look that good. She looks great now, but that's just because she'

Baptists and Catholics Together

For Ash Wednesday services. I like to offer commentary, but this link comments sufficiently [http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2006/03/ash_wednesday_e.html].

The Importance of Biography

Inkwell has a great post this morning [http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/default.asp]: > New York Times columnist David Brooks has made a list of things a student can do to get a good education, even if she is forced to attend an inadequate school such as Harvard. >

Ash Wednesday Attendance

Funky Dung [http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/] makes this statement: "More people attend Ash Wednesday mass than Christmas or even Easter, the holiest day of the year." Is that true? It doesn't describe my parish, but that doesn't mean much. If anyone has any stats

Who You Work For?

Funny passage at the American Spectator blog [http://www.spectator.org/blogger.asp#1883]: > Catholic Charities in Massachusetts is under pressure to allow gay adoptions, especially because of the state's antidiscrimination laws. Seven board members, apparently previously confused about what kind of Catholicism they were working for,

Crud

The Drudge headline said, "Work out with the most powerful woman in the world." I clicked on it, expecting to see Jessica Alba again, or maybe Cindy Margolis,but it's just a story [http://www.nbc4.com/health/7570624/detail.html] about Condoleeza Rice. I searched

Alba at Playboy

As long as I'm on the topic of erotica (great way to begin Lent, huh?): > Actress Jessica Alba, who appears in a bikini on the cover of Playboy's March issue, is threatening to sue the magazine, claiming that Hugh Hefner & Co. are trying to

Porn v. Strippers

A neat piece at the Timesonline about vaudeville strippers and their disappearance before the onslaught of porn [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23110-2040499,00.html], like Russia's liberals swept before their anarchist children in Dostoyevsky's The Possessed [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/

I'd Rather be Dead

> An Iowa woman allegedly faked her own death to avoid paying parking tickets. . . > She now faces up to five years in prison for fraud - instead of the $500 fine she might have expected for failing to pay her parking tickets. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/

Identity Soup

Hey, those frogs have some character, after all: > More than 200 political demonstrators defied a police ban here on Thursday, scurrying across Boulevard St.-Germain and under the sycamore trees of Place Maubert to engage in their forbidden action: eating "pig soup" in public. > With steaming

Non-Brews You Can Use

Let no one accuse me of not giving fair coverage for my abstaining friends: > Teetotalers, rejoice. Toasting with grape juice may carry brain-sparing benefits, according to research presented here 24 February at the World Parkinson's Congress. In a series of cognitive and motor tests, grape juice-drinking rats

Cloistered Italian Women

I mentioned this story earlier [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3181/], but the CSM has picked up on it [http://csmonitor.com/2006/0301/p07s02-woeu.html], and it's worth mentioning again. > A small but burgeoning group of young Italians are turning to Catholicism with new fervor, suggesting a reversal

Misc. Leno

From last night: > Today was the big final day of Mardi Gras. The drinking, the naked women, the partying all night. Or as Bode Miller called it, "Olympic training”. > President Bush is on his way to India. I guess he had to go. Apparently he lost the

Martinifest with Expensive Art. What Could Go Wrong?

> The glistening white Santiago Calatrava addition has made the Milwaukee Art Museum one of the city's classiest social addresses. But a recent martini fete held there turned into an overcrowded, drunken affair. Some unruly guests accosted artworks, which have been taken off display for a checkup. >

Hot Blooded in Spain

> There were massacres of Catholic clergy and churches, monasteries and convents were burned with severe impact to the rich Spanish historical and artistic heritage. Twelve bishops, 283 nuns 2,365 monks and 4,184 priests were murdered That's from Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_

Patriarch of the West

> Evidently hoping to eliminate one possible obstacle to ecumenical progress with the Orthodox world, the Holy Father has renounced the title "Patriarch of the West." Catholic World News Link [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=42711] . It doesn't appear to be an ecumenical

Mammoth Cave

You want to take your family to Mammoth Cave [http://www.mammothcave.com/]? Sorry, no babies allowed, unless you want to carry them in your arms. New security regulations don't allow any baby backpacks. My wife called, and they said "no exceptions." That rules out my

Gypsies Pastoral

> The Pontifical Council for Migrants has released a 30-page document on pastoral care for gypsies, noting with regret that nomadic peoples are especially vulnerable to the appeal of sects, and often marginalized by society. > "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of Gypsies" provides an overview of the

Something for Ash Wednesday

Lent starts. What will you do differently? Will the forty days pass (again) with no material change in your life? The day starts with fervor, but will it (again) pass by 11:00, your bid for holiness undone by simple hunger? (Excuse me for talking to myself) A few excerpts

Ready for Lent?

Well, I've completely abused this Fat Tuesday: two Mountain Dews, two candy bars, chips, and other food. But no beer or wine. It just didn't fit into the schedule today. Now, it's almost time for the lean days. I found this great list of

Field Trips

Remember my rant against school field trips [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3803/]? Here's a story that corroborates my view [http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/news-32/1141127344116300.xml&storylist=newsmichigan] . Excerpt: > A 12-year-old visitor to the Detroit Institute of Arts stuck a wad of

Kaufmann

Friction makes the mind sharper. The youthful Chesterton became a Christian after reading all the avant-garde heretics of his day and concluding, "These guys are idiots" (loose paraphrase--GKC didn't use such disrespectful words). The problem with reading heretics, though, is the temptation to see things their

Bosnians Gone Wild

> A teenage Bosnian entrepreneur has been caught selling films of female athletes showering that he recorded on his mobile phone. > The 14-year-old, from Banovici, unnamed due to child protection laws, filmed the women who played for the town's local basketball team from a small maintenance room

Get Smitty

> For nearly three decades, hip-hop relics such as vinyl records, turntables, microphones and boom boxes have collected dust in boxes and attics. > On Tuesday, owners of such items--including pioneering hip-hop artists such as Afrika Bambaataa [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrika_Bambaataa], DJ Kool Herc [http://en.wikipedia.

4 billion

"Analysts predict that the number of global mobile phone customers will double to four billion in five years." That's from the New York Times. That's remarkable (there are only 6.5 billion people in the world). That also sucks (note: employ proper British usage

Beckham

> Soccer superstar David Beckham, whose mental agility has been questioned before in the British media, has said his six-year-old son's maths homework leaves him baffled. > The England captain and Real Madrid midfielder was forced to call on his wife Victoria, a former member of the Spice

What To Do in a Terrorist Attack

One of the funnier things I've seen this year [http://maybesomeday.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/01/Things_You_Should_Know.pdf#search='What%20to%20do%20in%20a%20terrorist%20attack'] . PG-13 and occasionally juvenile.

Cuomos and the Homos

> Hoping to boost his support in the gay community, attorney-general hopeful Andrew Cuomo picked up the endorsement of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. > "We could do no better in the lesbian and gay community than having Andrew Cuomo in this job," Quinn said during a press

"Let Us Build the City of God . . ."

Horrible song, but I like the plan: > A FORMER marine who was raised by nuns and made a fortune selling pizza has embarked on a Â£230m plan to build the first town in America to be run according to strict Catholic principles. > Abortions, pornography and contraceptives will

Great Toy!

Refund

We're pretty excited at the Scheske household. We're receiving a big tax refund that will more than fund our spring trip to Mississippi (Tupelo, birthplace of Elvis) and the Smokie Mountains. Of course, we won't receive the whole thing right away. The IRS seems

Mexican Decadence

> When Mexican freelance journalist and human rights activist Lydia Cacho published a book last year exposing a paedophile ring, she was warned by friends and colleagues that she would run into trouble. > It did not take long for their warnings to come true. She was arrested by the

An Old Theme

> A former fifth-grade teacher accused of having sex with her 11-year-old student was ordered held on $100,000 bond Saturday. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060225/ap_on_re_us/brf_teacher_sex_4] I haven't featured one of these stories in awhile. It became less

Drinking to Health

It's not too often you hear about Canada coming up with a good approach to a social problem, but this one doesn't sound too bad: giving whinos wine [http://theedge.bostonherald.com/healthNews/view.bg?articleid=128057]. > The Shepherds of Good Hope shelter in Ottawa

Sherwood Forest

Ten facts about Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest [http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/sense_of_place/facts/sherwood_forest.shtml].

Sunday Evening Eudemon

My apologies for the lame posting today. Sundays are rough, and this Sunday rougher than most. I attended Mass, wrote two articles, and prepared for and attended Meg's (4, turning 5) birthday party. That's combined with the regular stuff that Sundays bring: playing with the kids,

Odd Food News

I love good macaroni and cheese, and it's Sunday (a bad day for blogging, given the dearth of interesting material), so I post this: a site dedicated to macaroni and cheese recipes [http://blog.samradion.co.uk/]. Good for families with small children. Warning: The URL indicates it&

Pizza Crust

I didn't follow-up to see what caused this outburst at Hogs on Ice [http://www.hogonice.com/2006/02/math_for_crusthaters.html], but at least the writer doesn't sugarcoat it: > I hate people who don't eat pizza crust. They should all be

Wannabe Cannibal

An artist who baked a life-size model of her own naked body out of bread dough will watch her audience eat it at an exhibition. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/4749366.stm] I don't know much about art, so I can't

Something for Sunday Morning

> Fasting from the food and drink of this present world is, for Christians, a sign of our expectation of the feasting in the new world, the world of the resurrection, on the food and drink of everlasting life. And just as you cannot pray without actually giving time to

Saturday Evening Eudemon

Settling back with six of the seven children, watching Hidalgo. I heard good things about it. We'll see. I just got back from an outing with Alex (12). I took him to the video store to pick out the movie, then took him to Mike's Pizza,

This Day in History

1825. Â Robert Owen, a socialist, announces New Harmony utopian plan in Indiana to government dignitaries in the Hall of the US House of Representatives. The later Catholic convert, Orestes Brownson [http://orestesbrownson.com/index.php],Â knew Robert Owen and his ilk, even sending his own son to live

Psycho Path

> Farfrompoopen Road, the only road to Constipation Ridge, lost to Divorce Court and Psycho Path, which placed No. 1 in an online poll of the nation's wildest, weirdest and wackiest street names. > Mitsubishi Motors sponsored the poll on the Web site http://www.TheCarConnection.com [http:

Brews You Can Use, Saturday Edition

I haven't left my hometownÂ all week, promise [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11553551/]:Â > WEST BEND, Wis. - Authorities are hoping to break up what must be quite the party after beer thieves made off with almost $26,000 worth of suds from a delivery

Natural Grace

> Scientists have some remarkable new advice for anyone who is struggling to make a difficult decision: Stop thinking about it. [http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/17/thought_for_thinkers/?page=full] It rings true. There's a reason that the best ideas hit people

6.5 Billion

> [Today],Â at 7:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the population here on this good Earth is projected to hit 6.5 billion people. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060224/sc_space/planetspopulationtohit65billionsaturday;_ylt=Ann5K_m170ScsMNpFOoRALWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MzV0MTdmBHNlYwM3NTM-] The Malthusians are freaking out. But did you know

Conservatism

The New York Times this morning has a review by George F. Will of two books about conservatism [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/books/review/26will.html?_r=1&oref=slogin]. It's worth reading, if you're interested in the philosophy of conservatism, though

The Weekend Eudemon

It's been a good weekend so far. I took my eldest son (12) to the doctor's office for a physical yesterday at 4:15, and we had to wait only five minutes for the doctor. This is the same doctor's office that has kept

The Rise (and Fall?) of Blogging

The Financial Times has run one of the best, most-encompassing, articles about blogging that I've ever seen [http://news.ft.com/cms/s/384be1be-9eb1-11da-ba48-0000779e2340.html], though it ends on a remarkably-pessimistic note.Â It's lengthy, but worth reading if you're interested in the blogging

Brews You Can Use V

The November 30, 1929 issue of the London Illustrated News featuredÂ a full page article by G.K. Chesterton andÂ a full page Guinness Beer ad. Pretty sharp-looking. I'd re-produce it here, but I'm still having troubles with my new blogging software and can't

Brews You Can Use IV

You can't rollerskate in a buffalo herd. And you can't drink beer with a buffalo herd. This man tried and lost [http://www.thedrunk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=996].

Brews You Can Use III

Another site dedicated to drink recipes [http://www.goodcocktails.com/].

Brews You Can Use II

Celebrating the 21st Amendment: > On April 7, breweries all over America will raise a pint in celebration of the day that beer once again became legally available at the end of prohibition [http://www.realbeer.com/blog/?p=86]. I guess they call itÂ "Brew Year's

Brews You Can Use

Few things are more disappointing than getting a skunky beer . . . especially if you're in a car and don't have any more cold ones with you. This beer blogger shares information on skunkiness [http://beerblog.genx40.com/archives/2006/february/thoughtson]. I'm not sure how

Slouching Toward Caligula

I like gambling and I like sex, but I don't combine 'em:Â > The moment Cindy Margolis joined the poker party we knew it's the start of really sexing up online gambling. And not just through those strip poker sites that teases you to

Technology at the Office

> Most U.S. workers say they feel rushed on the job, but they are getting less accomplished than a decade ago, according to newly released research. > Workers completed two-thirds of their work in an average day last year, down from about three-quarters in a 1994 study, according to

We Don't Build Character Anymore

Nice piece at WSJ about sexual harassment in school [http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110008009]. We wonder if our youth will grow up with any character, and then we coddle them and give into them and never test them. And then we're shocked that the kids grow

Poor Houston

The whole Katrina thing has made one thing abundantly clear: New Orleans has a lot of despicable folk, but this is quite humorous: > New Orleans doesn't want its poorest residents back – unless they agree to work. > That was the message from three New Orleans City Council

Catholic Blog Awards

If you've been following them, the results are in. Curt Jester has a good run-down that's worth checking out [http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/]. I've been asked and in case you're wondering: I didn't make the finalists and, to the

Warning: R-Rated Post

What luck. About five minutes after that last post, I ran across a partial explanation of why the pitiful porners need it all the time: > [S]exual intercourse with orgasm is more satisfying than an orgasm from masturbation alone. Now scientists think the two phenomena might be linked. >

Porn Country

Just gotta get it, all the time, no matter where I am: > Computer scientists Maryan Kamvar and Shumeet Baluja analysed 1 million searches made usingÂ [Google's] mobile search software. They found that "adult" material constituted 20 per cent of the searches on cellphones, but only

Pets and Children, Episode 980,441

The phenomenon continues to impress in Japan, where children are particularly scarce. There's even a collective blog about pet gear [http://petistic.blogspot.com/].

Mardi Gras in Muncie

> Organisers of a mardi gras party say ticket sales have soared since church groups complained of drunk and lewd behaviour. > Co-ordinators of the mardi gras in Muncie, Indiana, report calls for tickets from as far as Chicago and Cincinnati. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1735693.

Misc. Leno

Did you hear about this? Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams may be suspended for an entire year after he failed the drug test again. This is part of the NFL's strict 300 strikes and you're out program. The word from Fox News is that Prince

Trying to Find Something New

I've been reading so much about Muslims in Europe, it's getting hard to find something new. The New York Sun this morning has a great piece about the problem [http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=28013&access=219449]. Part of it is is well-trod

$100K Brokeback Shirts

> Tom Gregory just spent more than $100,000 on two used cowboy shirts. And he couldn't be happier. > The shirts are the ones worn by the ill-fated lovers, played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, in Oscar front-runner "Brokeback Mountain." > The shirts that

Death is Always the Answer

Some day, this woman will be considered a pioneer, and all the good people who deserve God's creation can stand around, toasting her memory, thanking her for getting rid of those who don't deserve it: > A health official in the Netherlands has called for a

Fifties Site

I enjoy those narrow niche blogs, like this one: Plan59 [http://www.plan59.com/main.htm],Â a bunch of pictures and ads from the 1950s. Pretty cool.

Powerball Winners

I'm still battling this cold, bronchitis, junior plague, or whatever it is, so I went home at lunch to eat and take a nap. While eating, I flipped on Fox News and caught about 15 minutes of the press conference with $365 million Powerball [http://www.powerball.com/

Commie Catholics

Catholicism is rising in Vietnam, according to the Christian Science Monitor [http://csmonitor.com/2006/0222/p06s01-woap.html]. It was heavily Catholic under the French, but didn't fare well after the Communist takeover. Relations between the Church and the Party, though, have thawed a bit, according to this

Brokeback Parodies

I watched a few of them. They're pretty funny, but not great. I'd give 'em a 6. Link to Brokeback Parodies [http://blogs.newsobserver.com/unclecrizzle/index.php?title=i_wish_i_knew_how_to_quit_these&more=1&c=1&tb=

Rastafarians, Rejoice!

> In a victory for religious freedom, the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the Bush administration's claim that it can bar a small congregation in New Mexico from using a hallucinogenic tea during its rituals. > Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., speaking for a unanimous court, said

I'm Gonna Live Forever!

I keep telling my wife that the pressure of providing for eight dependents is killing me. Turns out, it might be making into Methuselah [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah]:Â Â > Men who live alone, without a spouse or children, very often die young. The life-shortening effects of

Happy Birthday, Artie

Today is nineteenth-century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's birthday. I enjoyed his little book, Studies in Pessimism, which I can easily summarize: Life sucks. Schopenhauer, for instance, disdained the ontological truth that evil is a mere privation of goodness. Said Arthur, "It is the good which is negative; in

What About Shani Davis?

> Bryant Gumbel is stirring it up once again. The subject this time? The Winter Olympics. The longtime sportscaster offered a withering critique of the Games on his HBO show 'Real Sports' recently. His complaints ranged from the lack of diversity among the athletes to the media'

Yallah

Is Yahoo! banning "allah" as a user name? This guy says it's banned, along with a bunch of obscenities [http://quickwired.com/kallahar/stories/2005-Yahoo/yahoo.php]. To date, Yahoo! hasn't offered an explanation. I'm guessing it could be one ofÂ two

Dirty Ice

Alright, it's hurl time: > Jasmine Roberts never expected her award-winning middle school science project to get so much attention. But the project produced some disturbing results: 70 percent of the time, ice from fast food restaurants was dirtier than toilet water. > The 12-year-old collected ice samples

Six Ports

Suicide of the West continues to impress. This is David Pearson, commenting on plans to turn six ports over to Arabs and saying to the Arab world, "We'll treat you fairly [http://suicideofthewest.com/?p=130]." > “We'll treat you fairly.” Look out, little

Starting at the Beginning

> Muslims should reciprocate the respect that Christians show for religious freedom, the Vatican Secretary of State argues. > Cardinal Angelo Sodano, speaking to reporters at a reception in Rome on Monday evening, avoided any specific reference to the Danish cartoons which have been a focal point of anger in

SubGenius Member Loses Son

Alright, I can't verify whether any of this is true, but it's too odd not to mention. Quick background: Jeff is the father, trying to get custody or other rights with respect to his son, Kohl. The estranged mother is Rachel. Here's what Rachel

Insulted? That's the Means of Salvation

John Piper at ROFTERs meditates on the role of mockery in the Christian's road of salvation [http://rofters.blogspot.com/2006/02/being-mocked-essence-of-christs-work.html]. It's pretty good. Excerpt:Â > What we saw this past week in the Islamic demonstrations over the Danish cartoons of Muhammad

Former Prostitute in the Confessional

> When I was visiting Westfield Monastery, I told Sister that prostitution is a lot like an addiction. And like many addictions, the struggle to not slide back into that addiction when things in life get rough is an on-going battle. Even now it is something I struggle with as

Role Reversal

> An Argentinian woman has been arrested for stabbing her husband because he did not have sex with her. > The 52-year-old, from Buenos Aires, stabbed her husband in the back but he was not seriously injured. > She told police she had spent the day trying to get him

Crunchy Cons

I hate the term "cruncy con." I don't know why, but it really grates on me. But Rod Dreher, the person who coined the phrase, probably lines up with me as closely as anyone. We're about the same age, we're both converts

PSA

Blogging will be light today. My bronchitis knocked me on my back yesterday, and now I'm behind the eight ball. I'm feeling better (though not great), but I have a pile of work to do. Incidentally, can anyone tell me: is bronchitis contagious and can it

Good Dietary News

Finally, it looks like I'm doing something right: > Elders who drink green tea regularly may have sharper minds than those who don't drink green tea. > The finding comes from a Japanese study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. I drink regular green

The Paleolithic Diet

Yet another “new” diet [http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html]: > The diet is usually referred to as the "Paleolithic Diet" referring to the Paleolithic or Stone Age era. It is also referred to as the "Stone Age Diet", "Cave Man Diet"

Going After Them Reading People

I don't know how I missed this last week: > This coming Tuesday, the new line of NASCAR-themed Harlequin Romance books makes its official debut with a press conference at Daytona International Speedway. Link to Week-Old News [http://www.exceptionalmarriages.com/weblog/BlogDetail.asp?ID=29102].

Brokeback Teens

From Townhall [http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/JennniferRobackMorse/2006/02/20/187136.html] : Â > The recent New York Times article [http://www.nymetro.com/news/features/15589/] on the Cuddle Puddle at Stuyvesant High School unwittingly undermines the legal strategy of the Gay Rights movement. Because the article

The Shroud and the Olympics

From USA Today [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/mccarthy/2006-02-14-mccarthy-oly_x.htm] : > [O]ver five days of coverage so far, NBC (with the exception of Today) has yet to mention the Shroud of Turin. Whether you venerate the Shroud as the actual burial cloth of a crucified Jesus

Bossin' the Bars

From Chicago [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-02-14-chicago-cameras_x.htm]: > Surveillance cameras – aimed at government buildings, train platforms and intersections here – might soon be required at corner taverns and swanky nightclubs.Â > Mayor Richard Daley wants to require bars open until 4 a.m. to install security

The Monday Eudemon

Man, slow news day. Nothing seems worth blogging about. I'm bummed that I missed the fall-fest during ice dancing last night at the Olympics [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/torino/figureskating/2006-02-19-ice-dancing_x.htm] . A fall during ice skating can be more dramatic than a wipe-out during

Bernanos

It's George Bernanos' birthday today. Here are a few links to the excellent fiction writer. General Bio Link [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bernanos.htm]. Crisis Link [http://www.crisismagazine.com/julaug2002/book4.htm]. Welborn on Diary of a Country Priest [http://www.amywelborn.com/catholicwriters/diary.

Ugly Criminals

> Not only are physically unattractive teenagers likely to be stay-at-homes on prom night, they're also more likely to grow up to be criminals, say two economists who tracked the life course of young people from high school through early adulthood. > "We find that unattractive individuals

Odd Consumer News

A lamp that plays the 9/11 attack [http://www.voyantes.net/blog/?p=108]. A bit morbid, if you ask me.

Body Language

> The US military has funded a computer game to teach its troops how to use and decipher Iraqi body language. > The purpose is to teach soldiers that using the wrong gestures can potentially cause offence and escalate already tense situations. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/

The Religion of Peace

> Iran's hardline spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented new fatwa, or holy order, sanctioning the use of atomic weapons against its enemies. > In yet another sign of Teheran's stiffening resolve on the nuclear issue, influential Muslim clerics have for the first time questioned the

Online Couples

This month's Atlantic Monthly wasn't nearly as good as most issues. Its cover story about online dating was alright, but scarcely worth theÂ 9,000 words or so they used to cover it. The end of the story, however, hadÂ an interesting list of online dating

A Natural Law Primer

> In Britain, a poll of Muslims last night found evidence of growing alienation, with four in 10 calling for religious sharia law to be imposed in parts of the UK with a mainly Muslim population. The law specifies stonings and amputations as punishments, and involves religious police bringing suspects

Patrick R

> Fellow conservative religious leaders have expressed concern and even open criticism over Pat Robertson's habit of shooting from the hip on his daily religious news-and-talk television program, "The 700 Club." [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060218/ap_on_re_us/robertson_s_remarks] Shooting

This Day in History

Considered from a McLuhanite viewpoint: TAE probably didn't consider that the phonograph would kill spontaneous group singing at social gatherings. 1878: Thomas Alva Edison patents the phonograph. Also: Heavy metal and gangster rap probably weren't on TAE's mind when he made this breakthrough. If

Something for Sunday Morning

> [T]he strength of any falsehood consists in the impotence of the corresponding truth, and the strength of an evil consists in the impotence of the corresponding good. Vladimir Solovyov

China's Capitalism

Robert Reilly,Â reviewing Constantine Menges' China: The Gathering Threat [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595550054/thedailyeudem-20] in this month's Crisis [http://www.crisismagazine.com/]Â (this link takes you to the magazine site, not the article, which isn't available on-line), says: >

Odd Consumer News

Tiki fireplace [http://www.biffinc.com/tikifireplace/tikifireplace.html]. Perfect for the pagan in your life.

The Textbook Stupid Criminal

A crime that people joke about actually happened: > A cannabis smoker has been arrested after complaining to police that he was sold bad weed. [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1728015.html]

Lifestyle Change

> Britain'sÂ highest representative at the Vatican, who had been tipped to become a cardinal, has been moved sideways because of his "lifestyle", it was reported yesterday. . . > It was known that Pope Benedict and the archbishop have differing views on doctrine and the fact that

"This is My Bi-otch"

Interesting article in the Western Standard about the hesitancy of "men" in Quebec to refer to their wives by that name. Subscriber link [https://www240.ssldomain.com/westernstandard/website/index.cfm?page=article&article_id=1438] . Excerpts:Â > Tristan Peloquin, a 28-year-old Montreal journalist, admits he

To be Located Next to the Dentures Hall of Fame

> In a heated Southern rivalry that has already cost the contenders millions in purely speculative planning, Daytona is vying with the much larger cities of Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., for what all three promise will be a flashier version of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.

Serious Financial Trouble?

> Sirius Satellite Radio reported a wider loss in the fourth quarter yesterday as costs for building its rapidly growing base of subscribers mounted. > The company, which added Howard Stern to its roster last month, lost $311.4 million, compared with a loss of $261.9 million in the

The Weekend Eudemon

Rough week. Two partners bolted for Florida, leaving me with a desk full of paperwork and a phone that rang like Elvis had just published his unlisted number. I planned on coming home early yesterday to work on my Catholic Exchange column and drink a few beers, but a handful

Brews You Can Use VI

Brews you can use, and an historical miniature. Plus, I'd never heard of the drink, so I'm guessing others will find it novel, too:Â > The Sazerac, purportedly America's first cocktail, is the emblematic drink of New Orleans. As originally made in the

Helping Perverts

Yeah, this doesn't have disaster written all over it [http://www.babysitters.com/default.aspx]: BabySitters.com. Using the Internet to match babysitters with children.

Brews You Can Use V

Â Lighten up, ladies. It's a joke. I'm not even a big fan of Moosehead. Now I'm gonna have to go buy a case: > After complaints from a feminist group and incensed customers, New Brunswick's Moosehead Breweries has pulled an ad

Brews You Can Use IV

> Drunk drivers in Taiwan can now choose their penalty: Pay a fine or play mahjong with the elderly. [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MAHJONG_PENALTY?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=STRANGE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-02-16-19-26-07] Sounds pretty cool. But can you drink beer with the elderly

Brews You Can Use III

> A rowdy Stanford University mascot was fired after being discovered drunk during a basketball game, university officials said. > Fifth-year senior Erin Lashnits, who dresses as a tree for the university's irreverent band, was stripped of her duties last week after her blood-alcohol level was measured at

Brews You Can Use II

> Taking inspiration from Monty Python and the success of last year's "Big Ad" commercial, Australian brewer Lion Nathan has put together a $1 million advertisement that should please the beer gods. > The ad for Tooheys New depicts teams of people using huge catapults to

Brews You Can Use

> America's craft brewers sold 9% [more]Â beer in 2005 than in 2004, making craft beer the fastest growing segment of the United States beverage alcohol industry for the second consecutive year, according to the Brewers Association in Colorado. . . . > The craft beer segment includes more than

Caligula?

> The Spanish Prime Minister, JosÃ© Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has been compared to the Roman Emperor Caligula by a leading Catholic Bishop over Spain's legalisation of same-sex marriage. > In a vicious personal attack on the Prime Minister, Bishop Antonio Algora told Spanish newspapers, "If Zapatero wants

Danish Pastries

We can snicker too much, afterÂ ridiculously trying to renameÂ fries "freedom fries":Â > Iranians love Danish pastries, but when they look for the flaky dessert at the bakery they now have to ask for "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad."Bakeries across the capital were

Ghetto Blues

John McWhorter is interviewed in U.S. News & World Report about the ghetto blues [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060220/20qa.htm]. Good stuff. Best excerpt: > The people who think that black poverty and its manifestations are all about racism would be very surprised if they

Driving the LDS to LSD

Interesting pieceÂ at the LA Times about DNA testing striking at the very roots of Mormonism's creative history [http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mormon16feb16,0,5561316.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-california] :Â > From the time he was a child in Peru, the Mormon Church instilled

Pets as Children, Episode 1,980,444

> They already have their own designer clothes, health insurance and therapists and now more and more American pets are enjoying their own birthday parties as well. > A surprising number of pet owners host birthday parties - complete with party hats, cake and guests for their dogs, cats and

Attention Chesterton Fans!

Chesterton and Friends has scanned and postedÂ drawings from Chesterton's Coloured Lands [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2006/02/some-scans-from-coloured-lands.html] . According to Nick Milne, these drawings have never before been seen on the Internet. Definitely worth checking out.

A Former Muslim?

Having been Muslim once, . . . [http://www.lewrockwell.com/featherstone/featherstone49.html] I found that statement in an article at Lew Rockwell by Charles Featherstone, who, I think, is now Catholic. It's not often you see that type of statement, unless it's part of an epitaph. Lew

Fat, Gay, and Pregnant: Military Madness

I missed this nugget [http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2179]: > The sponsor of a House bill to lift the ban on homosexuals in the military said today that he would add a provision removing the bans on overweight and pregnant troops as well. Remember that scene when Forrest Gump

Da Vinci Cover-Up

Remember that website that Sony is sponsoring? The one where people can discuss the Da Vinci Code's merits? Well, according to Carl Olson, lots of Christians are being invited to participate--but only one Catholic, and that one Catholic isn't one of the Catholics who have published

Complexity = Stupidity

IÂ can find it convincing the idea that such elite studies wouldÂ reach such important conclusions:Â Â > Researchers asked seventy-one Stanford undergraduates to evaluate various writing samples; the lexicon in the samples was systematically varied, with each judge getting either a “moderately complex” or a “highly complex” version

Leno on the Olympics

Go Zags!

Ah, ya gotta love those college students: > "Brokeback Mountain!'" > This is the chant college students and fans of the No.5 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs team use to heckle opposing teams. > This reference to the recent movie, ''Brokeback Mountain,'' about homosexual

Manatee Deaths

As global warmingÂ picks upÂ "steam," theÂ manatee will rule the earth:Â Â > Wildlife officials say that despite unseasonable warmth, manatee deaths in January jumped by a third statewide compared with the same month last year. > . . . Over the past five years, an average of ten

Hustler Me

It's been going on for ten years [http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3510974]: Â > The porn magazine arrives every month at your congressman's office.Â Tucked in a conservative-looking manila envelope, the latest edition of Hustler goes to all 535 members of Congress. Free

American Idol Beating Olympics

The big TV news today: Fox's American Idol crushed the Olympics last night. It's no doubt a testament to the power of American Idol, but NBC's absolutely horrible coverage hasÂ no doubt helped things. Do you want to watch AI or the Camaroon luger?

Moral Libertarians

I'm fascinated by the thought of Murray Rothbard, though I haven't read much by him. He seems to be a libertarian with a moral streak, which is rare. Not illogical, mind you, but rare. I just ran across this lengthy essay (book excerpt) from the Lew

Defrauding Babies

You don't need to be an adult Einstein to know that the very concept behind videos like "Baby Einstein"Â is suspect, at best. My wife and I never even considered the stuff. Now, with our oldest at twelve years,Â our childrenÂ seem to beÂ

Shake(r) Rattle and Lathe

Interesting article in The New Yorker about the celibate Shakers, their history, and their beautiful wood objects [http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/articles/060213crat_atlarge]Â (save the jokes).Â I'm not sure what prompted Gopnik to write the piece, but it's different and--as always--well-written.

This Day in History

I found this on a "This Day in History" website: > Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) joins in the squabble between Hume, Voltaire, & Rousseau, suggesting that Rousseau be indentured to work on the plantations. Johnson kills me. One of the best ever.Â James Schall wrote in his modern

Those Crazy Canadians

> Young Canadians are digitizing their sex lives, embracing computer screens and touching keyboards ever so gently in lieu of person to person contact, according to a new survey. > Some 87 percent of 2,484 students polled at 150 colleges and universities across Canada reported having "virtual sex&

Batman Rocks!

I haven't read a comic book in years.Â Looks like I may have to:Â > Batman will use his extensive knowledge of caves to go after a new villain – Osama bin Laden.DC Comics' famed Caped Crusader will turn his focus from clowns like the

Brokeback Muslims

> Sandi Dubowski, who won the Teddy gay and lesbian award in 2001 for his controversial doc "Trembling Before G-d," may cause an even bigger stir with "In the Name of Allah," which explores the struggles of homosexual Muslims.Gay Indian Muslim helmer Parvez Sharma is

More Big Brother Stuff

United Schizoids of America: > About a fifth of Americans think federal agents have listened in on their phone calls, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Tuesday suggests. > Twenty-one percent of the 1,000 adults who replied to the survey conducted Thursday through Sunday said it was very

Who's Shocked?

> The Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, has started treatment for alcoholism, a spokesman said Tuesday. [http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=NATIONAL&ID=564681946496894553] Sin pervades. There's not much more to say, unless you want to discuss

Constitutional Amendment

> Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Feb. 10 that he would bring the Marriage Protection Amendment to the floor for debate the week of June 5. > The amendment, Senate Joint Resolution 1, would protect the traditional definition of marriage by preventing federal and state courts from legalizing "

Olympian Novena

Let me guess: NBC didn't cover thisÂ human interest story [http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0600865.htm]:Â > Carolyn Treacy, the so-called underdog biathlete, found the needed calm and inner strength to make the XX Olympic Winter Games by praying a novena to the Infant

"Only Capone Kills Like That"

The History Channel is showing a documentary about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. [http://www.historychannel.com/global/listings/series_showcase.jsp?EGrpType=Series&Id=215764&NetwCode=THC] The quote above is from rival Bugs Moran. Thing is, other gangsters did kill like that. I don&

Eye Fi

For those who need their porn 24/7 [http://www.milkandcookies.com/article/3249/] (a disturbingly large segment of the population, it would seem).

Don't Have a Cow, Brothers

> Hard-line Hindu groups who say they are fighting Western influences threatened Monday to beat up young couples who exchange Valentine's Day cards or gifts.Valentine's Day, which falls on Tuesday, has in recent years gained popularity in India, a predominantly Hindu nation."We earnestly

Fine with Me

TDE continues its day as "All Things Valentine" (it wasn't my intent upon waking up this morning, but so the blogging practice goes): > An employment law firm in Britain says that a third of businesses want Valentine's Cards banned from the workplace because

Valentine's Day Meditation

Few are better thanÂ the one in John Zmirak and Denise Matychowiak'sÂ The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0824523008/thedailyeudem-20]. Link [http://www.godspy.com/reviews/Contraception-Bulimia-and-Frankenfoods-St-Valentine-and-the-Catholic-Theology-of-Love-by-John-Zmirak.cfm] .

Valentine's Day . . . Chinese Style

> Growing numbers of Chinese couples are buying each other cosmetic surgery for Valentine's Day. > Clinics in Shanghai reported a boom in business in the run up to February 14, reports the Xinhua news agency. > Some pay for their partners to go under the knife while

You Want an Allergic Reaction with That?

Damn, there goes my Valentine's Day dinner plans: > Not long after disclosing that its french fries contain more trans fat than thought, McDonald's Corp. said Monday that wheat and dairy ingredients are used to flavor the popular menu item – an acknowledgment it had not previously

Hunting Accident

Is anyone else baffled by all this coverage of the Cheney hunting accident? For crying out loud, I've known people shot in hunting accidents. It's tragic, it's unfortunate . . . but it's an accident. I'm not a big fan of the neo-con

My Valentine

I've gotten some grief for my Catholic Exchange column last week about not being "in love" with my wife, Marie,Â anymore. Link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=31817]. In that column, I wrote, > There's

The Cowards

Pretty much everyone is piling onto the "Europe is in Big Trouble" bandwagon, and they're even acknowledging thatÂ the problem isÂ a lack ofÂ babies. The Washington Post has even piled on [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021301569.html] , and it&

Glad I'm Not in Italy

> A woman prisoner has won a court case forcing her boyfriend to bring her nicer presents. > A court in Focsani, Romania, ordered Nicusor Constantin, 30, to put more effort into his choice of presents for girlfriend Sicuta Radulescu. > Radulescu, 36, is serving a four year sentence for

Brews You Can Use

Yeah, I know it's only Monday, but I could use a drink, and this is interesting: > A wine collector has paid $96,000 for the privilege of drinking some very old wine. It's a French Sauterne, vintage 1787 -- the most expensive bottle of white

Four Meme

Curt Jester [http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/archives/006468.php] tagged me almost two weeks ago. With my wife's broken foot and other issues, I haven't been to his site lately, though I typically visit there 4-5 times a week. Anyway: Four Jobs I've

Boys Education

And we thought we had it tough here, just dealing with the Title IX types:Â > A Russian teacher faces two years in jail after ordering her students to lick clean the floor of a classroom. > Irina Gorova has been suspended from her school in Zolotaya Dolina for

Alice in Wonderhell

Surely one of the must-not-see productions [http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060212/en_afp/afpentertainmentfilm_060212193412]: > Gothic US rocker Marilyn Manson announced at the Berlin Film Festival that he plans to direct a film based on the diary of Lewis Carroll in which he will play the part

More of Walker Percy's Cult of the Naughty Nice

> A fund-raiser hosted by a Brooklyn political leader this week caused red faces when guests at the event in a Chinese restaurant cracked open fortune cookies with X-rated messages. "The insertions in some of the cookies were really triple-X, graphic sex, can't be repeated," Brooklyn

Growing Up Muslim

A MuslimÂ woman writes about growing up in the Middle East. You begin to get a feel for what we're dealing with here: generations of hatred for all things Jewish, Christian, and Western. Then they come here, and we're surprised that they're so bogue:

Patience

My blogging software made some fairly radical changes to its structure, and I'm still learning the ropes. Please be patient with screwy timestamps and other problems for a day or two, until I figure everything out. Thanks.

Dumb People Getting Smarter

Maybe that's why they're still playing videogames at age 30 instead of holding down a job: > Before you assume gadgets and video games fry the minds of the future, consider this: Canadian researchers are finding evidence that the high-speed, multitasking of the young and wireless

Real Catholic Music

After posting the last piece about gospel music, I found this on the same site: > The Catholic mass which Beethoven called the Missa Solemnis is rarely performed. It's eclipsed by the better-known Ninth Symphony. But taken together, the two works shed light on the composer's

Gospel Collection

> Record producer Joel Dorn and photographer Lee Friedlander grew up listening to gospel and blues. They met 40 years ago at Atlantic Records, where Friedlander was photographing many of the artists Dorn produced. > Now they've put out a compilation of their favorite gospel songs from the

Old Travels

When I first started daily blogging in February 2005, I accumulated a bunch of blog sites that seemed like a good source of fodder. As time went on, I abandoned those sites in favor of others. I've scarcely visited those sites in the past six months. For kicks

Where Were the Rocks and Fires?

Back in July 2001 (pre 9/11), South Park portrayed Muhammad in its cartoon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Best_Friends]. Why no hubbub back then? South Park was surely much more widely broadcast that those Danish cartoons. What's going on? Were Muslims in the Middle East

Only Boys Left Behind

Boys are dumb, or the feminist "equalization" measures have beaten the tar out of them, causing them to eschew college. Just another article [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/11/BAGB1H6IFN11.DTL] documenting what everyone knows and efforts in California to get more

High Times in Amsterdam

They're not too stoned to steal signs: > Amsterdam's new street signs banning cannabis smoking in parts of the city have sparked global interest. > The sign shows a red circle around a fat cannabis joint in a cloud of smoke sparked by white marijuana leaves.

Violent Crime Rises?

From this morning's NYT: [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/national/12homicide.html?ei=5090&en=cdb21ac7991f0c1b&ex=1297400400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all] > While violent crime has been at historic lows nationwide and in cities like New York, Miami

Something for Sunday Morning

> Freedom from anger is a triumph over one's nature. It is the ability to be impervious to insults and comes by hard work and the sweat of one's brow. . . The first step toward freedom from anger is to keep the lips silent when the heart

Muslims Against the World

> Terror gripped the Buddhist-majority town of Leh in Jammu and Kashmir as clashes between Muslims and Buddhists continued over the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran. Authorities declared a state of curfew and called in the army and the para-military Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) to maintain order. Police said

Private Revelations

Article at the Times Online today about private revelations [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3933-2034462,00.html]. I know B16 isn't as receptive to the revelations as JPII seemingly was, but I'm not sure if the harsh picture painted by the article is entirely

They're Too Poor to Apply

And they're too poor to pick up their front yards: > Even as the price of college rises, more low-income students who would likely get federal financial aid aren't even bothering to apply. > A new report by the American Council on Education estimates 1.5

Moloch Redux

Interesting post from Suicide of the West [http://suicideofthewest.com/?p=96]: > Here's a beautiful little piece of Islamiana, two beautiful young girls explaining why martyrdom is preferable to life. This video is from an Israeli site called “Palestinian Media Watch,” which features hate-filled video clips, cartoons,

Show Me the Stradivarius

> An elderly Hungarian is set to become a millionaire after finding a priceless Stradivarius violin hidden above his chicken coop [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1715784.html?menu=]. Feel-good story or source of envy? Let your soul decide.

Dead Beats and Cell Phones

> When a group of people dine out together, someone always lacks cash. They forgot to go to the ATM, but they'll pay you back ASAP. Right. > Funny, though, how people rarely forget their cell phones. Philip Yuen put these two observations together and came up with

The Right Side of History?

From this morning's Washington Times: [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060210-115511-3260r.htm] > The United Church of Christ's endorsement of homosexual "marriage" -- a lone stance among the largest Christian denominations -- has stirred debate and divided dozens of its churches. Some have stopped

Pulling Everyone Else In

Have you been kinda sitting on the sidelines of the new technology: MP3s, digital cameras, Gameboys? Well, get ready to be pulled into the electronic fray. Toymakers are beginning to market high-tech gadgets to toddlers, and very few 3-year-olds can do anything without being taught first. Good luck, parents! NY

Grease

Find the worst example, then make a lawsuit out of it, hoping to establish precedent. That's the ACLU's way. Find the worst example, then make a feature story out of it, hoping to establish the ridiculousness of the other side. That's the New York

Weekend Eudemon

Anyone else watch the Olympic opening ceremonies last night? My family tried to. The media outlets I consulted said the ceremonies would be shown at 8:00 p.m. It was tape delayed, so there was no reason NBC couldn't start it then. But instead? They waited until

Fat, Thin, What?

Where is America right now on the fat/thin axis? Everyone's getting fatter, I know, but are we still worshipping the 13-year-old anorexic look in our advertising and modeling? It looks like it, based on Diet Dr. Pepper's decision to hire Nicole Richie to promote its

Smoking Banned by Koran?

They're not just burning cars and buildings [http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=32&idsub=119&id=2567]: > Muslim leaders should rule that smoking is prohibited under Islamic law to encourage Muslim smokers to quit, argue doctors in an article published in the

Islamic Attitudes

A European/Muslim expert (he's written a book on the topic, anyway) speaks dire words [http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=30432]: > [W]hat's happening here is that a gang of bullies–led by a country, Saudi Arabia, where Bibles are forbidden, Christians tortured,

Brews You Can Use V

> A new study from Czech doctors indicates that moderate beer consumption slows aging and reduces the likelihood of heart attacks [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002842.php]. But wait: > The study was paid for by a group of major Czech breweries.

The Good Country of South Dakota

Get ready to rock: > The South Dakota House has passed a bill that would nearly ban all abortions in the state, ushering the issue to the state Senate. > Supporters are pushing the measure in hopes of drawing a legal challenge that will cause the US Supreme Court to

Brews You Can Use IV

The 2006 Torino Winter Olympics Drinking Games [http://olympicsdrinkin.pbwiki.com/]. Probably not an exercise in moderation, but humorous and inventive.

Brews You Can Use III

Those leftists in Austin might be onto something [http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=154646]. > Some Austin residents are working to create the state's first co-op beer pub in the European sense of the word. The Black Star Pub is the brainchild of

Brews You Can Use II

Actually, this is Brews You Can Use, If You Want to Commit Suicide Rather Than Listen for Five More Seconds. 99 Bottles of Beer site [http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net/]. > This Website holds a collection of the Song 99 Bottles of Beer programmed in different programming languages. Actually the song

Brews You Can Use

Another beer mapping project [http://beermapping.com/].

Public School Studies

Are you a public school fan who's all geeked up over the NYT article about two new studies that show public schools are better than private schools (which I can't find on-line, incidentally)? Take a look at this article first [http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/

Internet Iraq

The Internet is spreadig in Iraq. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/international/middleeast/10internet.html?ei=5065&en=bbfa6fefa812ea81&ex=1140152400&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print] . At this point (now that the Court Clown is gone), it'll probably do more for

Useful Idiots?

Remember my comment earlier this week about the refreshing angle of a Christian who opposes the Da Vinci Code's fabrications, but was encouraging people to see the film and use it as a spring board to discussing Christianity (earlier post [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3896/])? Well, I'm

The Olympic Elite

My family enjoys the Olympic Games (but I'm partial to the Summer Games). This writer at WaPo, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR2006020302280.html] points out a few things that'll take out a little of the thrill. To be honest, I

Welcome to My Alma Mater

Evangelical Professor Mark Noll has accepted a position at Notre Dame [http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2006/02/irony_alert_whe.html]. How odd, in light of the supposed reluctance of Catholic schools to hire Protestants and of Protestant schools to hire Catholics (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3565/]). Mabye it&

Sad Day

> It was a short, even telegraphic, message: "Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage." > With these words, Western Union announced the death of

Test Tube Troubles

This U.S. News & World Report story [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/060213/13donor.htm] talks about the need to break down the privacy barriers that protect sperm donors from being identified by their offspring. The children want to know their fathers, the children need to know

What About Love?

A writer asks fascinating questions [http://www.therant.us/staff/jimenez/02092006.htm]: Why don't psychologists and psychiatrists study love? What is the effect of the lack of studies? Excerpt: > I reached for the fourth and final psychology textbook, Psychology of Behavior. Its eighteen chapters thoroughly cover

Mayor Now Feels Good About Herself

> Prompted by a New York City nonprofit group that pushes a soybean-based coffee substitute, Rawson issued a proclamation declaring March as National Caffeine Awareness Month in Shaker Heights. . . . > Rawson's proclamation says caffeine consumption is linked to heart disease, hypoglycemia, central nervous system disorders and some cancers,

Odd Consumer News

Self-cleaning bathrooms are coming [http://www.bestsyndication.com/Articles/2006/Nicole-WILSON/WhatsNew/02/020706-nano_technology_self_clean_bathroom.htm] . The technology is almost here. Pretty soon I'll no longer suffer from self-inflicted impacted bowels when visiting county fairs, gas stations, and fast food restaurants.

Marching in the Land of Free Speech

A pro-life marcher describes marching in San Fransisco: > [T]he pro-life walkers were flanked by hundreds of counter-protestors shouting obscenities, waving coat hangers, and mocking the Catholic Church. One pregnant woman bared her belly, on which she had scrawled in large black letters, “My baby is pro-choice.” Others wore

De Paul and Paul

> De Paul University, one of the most important Catholic colleges in the US, has instituted a minor undergraduate programme in “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer (LGBTQ) studies.” The new minor programme offers students an overview of the “history of the queer movement” in legislation as well as the

Perverted First Grader

> A first grader was suspended for three days after school officials said he sexually harassed a girl in his class by allegedly putting two fingers inside the girl's waistband while she sat on the floor in front of him. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060208/ap_

At the Copa, Copacabana . . .

> For the first time in nearly 29 years, Barry Manilow tops The Billboard 200. "The Greatest Songs of the Fifties" bows at No. 1 with sales of 156,000 copies in the United States, giving the artist his best sales week since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data

Misc. Leno from Last Night's Show

> Do you believe this weather? It was 88 today. I was sweating like a Danish cartoonist in Mecca. > People in Seattle still pretty depressed today. In fact, they were so bummed out they were ordering cappuccino with no foam. > Pennsylvania fans still going crazy. In fact, the

Neuhaus Weighs In

Fr. Neuhaus writes about the Islamic conflagration [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=174]. Excerpt: > It is a challenge that may soon be backed up by a nuclear threat from Iran. > The challenge is simply this: A very large sector of the Islamic world is now demanding that

A Refreshing Take

> As a conservative evangelical leader, Josh McDowell is one of the last people you'd expect to urge young Christians to see "The Da Vinci Code," the upcoming movie based on the phenomenally best-selling novel. After all, the book argues that Jesus sired a line of

The Overworked American?

Fascinating piece at The Economist that says we're not nearly as overworked as we think [http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5476124]. Excerpts: > Over the past four decades, depending on which of their measures one uses, the amount of time that working-age Americans

Dissin' Isabella's Memory

Kind of interesting: > The Mississippian took me to meet a local Filipino business magnate and former Interpol officer who helped ODA-145 with information here and there. He had an estate and target range by the wtaer where we fired off 9mm and 5.56mm rounds for an hour. This

Evolution Sunday

412 congregations in 49 states have decided to observe “Evolution Sunday.” [http://www.getreligion.org/?p=1385] Another link [http://www.uwosh.edu/colleges/cols/rel_evol_sun.htm].

eBay Searchin'

My 12-year-old son told me that he was disappointed to learn that not everything is available on eBay. He searched for slaves and found none. I'm not sure how much he was prepared to pay, but I don't need another mouth to feed.

Beating the World

Rodney Stark (an agnostic, by the way) says Christianity put the West ahead of the rest of the world. He explains the reasons in The Victory of Reason [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400062284/thedailyeudem-20], an excellent little book that I'm part-way through (woulda finished it

Mary Magdalene

The New Yorker has published a lengthy piece about Mary Magdalene [http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060213fa_fact2]. I haven't had time to read it, and I won't get a chance to do so until this evening or tomorrow (my wife broke her foot,

Conservatives and Pop Art

Erik Lokkesmoe offers a necessary corrective to many "conservatives" over-reaction to the degradation of the popular arts [http://www.townhall.com/opinion/books_entertainment/be_columns/ErikLokkesmoe/2006/02/07/185351.html] , and he does so in an easy-to-digest Top Ten List. A few of the items are

Hate Monger Going to Prison

I dislike crimes against hate speech, but this sentence strikes me as fair. If there's a tangible connection between one's words that encourage murder and the murder itself, the punishment is hitting at the action, not just the words. It's a fuzzy line, but

Site Down

My blog site went down, courtesy of Site5 (my paid provider), for over five hours. Sorry 'bout that. I'll try to resume blogging at full strength tomorrow.

Cuffing the Preacher

This took place in the normally-staid Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. I used to be a member. I'm pretty sure they have proper synod channels to deal with these issues, so I'm somewhat puzzled about the police's involvement: > A Lutheran pastor who has been

Irritable Gays

> A particularly bad strain of chlamydia not usually seen in this country appears to be slowly spreading among gay and bisexual men, an infection that can increase their chances of getting or spreading the AIDS virus. > Called LGV chlamydia, this sexually transmitted disease has caused a worrisome outbreak

Over Estimating Nerd Buying Power

To quote William Shatner: "Get a life, will ya?" > A Star Trek fan has gone bankrupt after spending Â£12,000 turning his home into the Starship Voyager. > Tony Alleyne's flat in Hinckley, Leics, has moulded walls, touch-panel blue lighting and a life-size model

New Gay Site

In case you're tired of all those straight sites. Courtesy of (who else?) NBC: > The Bravo network is expected to announced today that it is joining with PlanetOut Inc., the largest gay media company in the country, to start a new broadband channel on the Web aimed

Leno on the Super Bowl

> Seattle fans were furious at some of the referees' calls – at one point an angry mob went outside in downtown Seattle and started tossing ice lattes on Volvos. They were throwing their Birkenstocks. > Big night for the Rolling Stones. First the halftime then bedtime. > I don&

The Gift of Death That Keeps on Giving

> RU-486 is the drug that won't die, no matter how many women who take it do. A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that an RU-486 abortion was an astonishing ten times more likely to be fatal for the mother than a surgical

25M Condoms

> The Brazilian government will distribute 25 million free condoms to promote safe sex during the country's Carnival holidays, the Health Ministry said on Monday [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/brazil_condoms_dc;_ylt=AvEfk3eSzjkJ8jpxl1aFFj2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-] . Those Brazilians are so open, so enlightened. We oughtta be

A Voice of Moderation

As usual, the Vatican strikes a sane position in the Danish cartoon controversy: > In an official statement regarding the controversy over publication of cartoons mocking Islam, the Vatican has said that freedom of speech "cannot imply the right to offend the religious sentiments of believers." The Vatican

LOTR on Stage

The preview of the Toronto stage production is getting good reviews: > The gnarled forests of Middle Earth thrust out to embrace the audience. The automated, cantilevered stage turns, twists, rises, falls and tilts in myriad and extraordinary ways -- at one moment, a winding forest path, the next, a

NBC Pulls Show

> The NBC "Will and Grace" episode featuring Britney Spears hosting a cooking show called "Cruci-fixins" has been cancelled in the wake of Christian protests, but the term was actually recycled from a Fox network show. It was first used on the oddball comedy "Arrested

Holding Up Golfers?

> A golf tournament was held up in Australia when an armed robber drove onto the course in a stolen truck. > Golfers were stranded after police declared the sixth hole a crime scene and refused to let players through. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1713094.html]

Pixar is Christian?

Fascinating post at Get Religion [http://www.getreligion.org/?p=1381] yesterday: > The rumor is that the Pixar hierarchy – near the top and in the talent pool – includes more than a fair share of traditional Christian believers and that this has played at least some role in the company&

MJ and JPII

It's flying all over the blogosphere, but it's too odd not to mention: > Secret discussions between the Roman Catholic Church and Michael Jackson to put the prayers of Pope John Paul II to music appeared to be in disarray last night after the singer fled

Priest Killed

> A Catholic priest was shot and killed in Trabzon, Turkey, on Sunday, and authorities there are investigating whether the murder was related to Islamic anger over cartoons published in European newspapers. > Father Andrea Santoro, an Italian missionary priest who had served in Turkey for 10 years, was shot

100 Openings

100 best first lines from novels [http://www.litline.org/ABR/100bestfirstlines.html]. Good stuff. Thanks, Eve Tushnet [http://eve-tushnet.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_eve-tushnet_archive.html#113917389683730321] .

Turning 50

Terry Teachout turns 50 and reflects a bit [http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/archives20060205.shtml#104876]: > Here's how old I am: > ”¢ This [http://www.sikeston.net/downtownpostcards.htm] is what my home town looked like fifty years ago. ”¢ My maternal grandmother canned fruit and stored it

Calling the ACLU

> A maximum-security jail was in a lockdown Sunday, a day after a race- related riot left one inmate dead and more than 100 injured. > Investigators were interviewing hundreds of inmates and witnesses to the fighting that erupted between black and Hispanic prisoners Saturday at the North County Correctional

Drudge

The Drudge Report has some revealing coverage of the Islam uprising, including a few "great" pictures. [http://www.drudgereport.com/]

New CNBC

> News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said he plans to launch a rival to business news channel CNBC by the end of 2006, according to an article in the February 13 issue of Newsweek magazine [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060205/bs_nm/media_newscorp_murdoch_dc]. The Left&

Top Super Bowl Commercials

Top Ten advertisements in Super Bowl history [http://www.docsports.com/best-super-bowl-commericals.html]. I don't think any of the ads from last night come close to cracking this list.

More Casualties of Islamo-Fascism

Why the multi-culturalists defend these people, is beyond me. > Twelve Danish cartoonists whose pictures sparked such outcry have gone into hiding under round-the-clock protection, fearing for their lives [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2024306,00.html].

Deadly Joke Contest

I received this unsolicited press release. I checked the link. It appears to be legitimate. Someone's gonna capitalize off the new free speech censors. Someone's also gonna get stabbed: > In response to the unprecedented boycott of Denmark by many Islamic nations because of 12 "

Pretty Good Cogitatin'

Charles Featherstone meditates about television [http://blog.lewrockwell.com/lewrw/archives/009890.html]. I'm not sure I agree with everything he says, but he raises interesting angles to ponder. > For almost all of my adolescence and adult life, I have gotten most of my news from the

TV in Public Space

A woman writes about television [http://blog.lewrockwell.com/lewrw/archives/009888.html#more]. If I weren't happily married already, I'd propose to her: > I notice that everywhere I go now, there is an irritating tv blaring at me, and, as always, at high volume.

Super Beers

WaPo talks about the game and beer [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020401362.html] : > That XL in Super Bowl XL this year might as well stand for "Extra Large" -- the game supersizes beer sales like no other midwinter holiday, out-chugging even

What Time Does the Game Start?

Can anyone tell me when the game begins? The NFL and ABC say "the game" begins at 6:00, not just the "pre-game coverage" (which starts at 2:30), but the actual game--flippin' liars. Yahoo says the game starts at 6:18. WaPo says it

The NFL Groweth

From this morning's WaPo: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020401035.html] > The 86-year-old league's popularity has never been greater. In the past 20 years, football has sharply widened its lead over baseball as America's favorite professional sport, according

Idol Art

At first, I scoffed, but this might not be half bad [http://www.oregonlive.com/artsandevents/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1138659914139620.xml&coll=7] . Probably a lot of homosexuals, but maybe I'll learn more about art. Then again, it might be filled with all that modern-art

Something for Sunday Morning

> Man must do violence to himself--to his fallen self, that is to say--for the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and it is the men of violence who take it by force. Kallistos Ware > The present age is not a time for rest and sleep, but it is a

Lance and Sheryl Split

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and Grammy-winning pop star Sheryl Crow have split up, scrapping plans for a Texas wedding after two years of dating, People magazine reported on Friday. I'm in shock here. Lance fails to maintain a steady relationship. You'd think he

Jailhouse Rocks

There have been a few kinks in a newly-minted co-ed prison facility in Indiana [http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=4454489&nav=3w6o]: > There was also concern that male inmates were able to watch women in certain cells take showers and use the toilet. Jailers say

California Eyes Muslim Indonesia for Ideas

The anti-smoking Nazis in this country have some fine fellow-travelers: > The Indonesian capital Jakarta imposed a ban on smoking in public places and offices in an effort to discourage the habit, which accounts for 57,000 deaths a year nationwide [http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060204/hl_afp/

We're Done Apologizing

Delivering body blows to the multiculturalists who would have us kiss the feet of the new barbarians [http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,398853,00.html]: > Be proud, do not apologize. Do we have to go on apologizing for the sins our fathers? Do we still have

Tommy Lee Jones and Flannery

Apparently, TLJ is a fan of the devout Catholic writer [http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2006/02/02/in_his_latest_film_jones_is_just_where_he_likes_to_be_in_control/] . > His directing technique can be startling. He told [Actor Barry] Pepper to prepare for his

Danforth Article

Get Religion has an interesting post [http://www.getreligion.org/?p=1375] about a WaPo article that features former Senator John Danforth, a Republican who would like to destroy the Religious Right. It's an interesting little piece and shows WaPo in all its leftist glory. Excerpt from article

The Weekend Eudemon

Ouch, long night and longer morning. My children's parochial school held its annual Mardi Gras Auction Party last night: lots of neat auction items, food, cash bar (inexpensive lubricants to catalyze bidding), DJ, door prizes. I was in charge of setting up the bar (requiring me to pick

Detroit is Alright?

A blogger raises an interesting point [http://thefyc.blogspot.com/2006/02/espn-sucks-reason-135972.html]: In the past, reporters have routinely complained about the Super Bowl's host city. This year? Barely a word . . . and the host city is Detroit. He thinks it's because ESPN--a related entity of

Empirical Evidence in Support of Abstinence

> A change in the sexual behavior of young people in Zimbabwe probably caused a sharp decline in HIV virus infections in the south African country, according to a study published in the United States. > A reduction in casual sex among experienced men and women, and the delay of

Like Columbine Never Happened

> A school bus driver has been accused of creating a hierarchy among his middle school charges that encouraged older students to bully younger ones to keep order [http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--schoolbus-bullies0203feb03,0,200218,print.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork] .

Wal-Mart Making Bookstores Nervous

> At the annual convention of the Christian Booksellers Association, retailers continued to fret over competition from Wal-Mart and big bookstore chains. > Association membership peaked at around 3,000 stores in the early 1990s but now totals less than 2,300. CBA said 337 retailers closed last year. Link

Brews You Can Use IV

Barstar [http://www.barstar.com/index.shtml]. America's Bar Guide.

Brews You Can Use III

A blog with lots of pretty pictures [http://beer.textamerica.com/?qs=xdefault&page=0].

Brews You Can Use II

Beer sales are declining in Germany [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002834.php]. And all this time, I thought just their morals and economy were slumping. Maybe their morals and economy are slumping because of depressed beer sales. > Beer sales have contracted more 15% in the last dozen

Brews You Can Use

A blogger recommends Super Bowl beers [http://www.hailtheale.com/blog/_archives/2006/2/1/1739484.html]. A couple of recommendations from Pennsylvania and Washington.

Dragster

Boy, you'd expect more from a Hollywoodite: > New Zealand filmmaker Lee Tamahori, who directed the James Bond movie "Die Another Day," has been arrested in a Hollywood prostitution sting while dressed in drag. R-Rated Link [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/02/060203014239.ygp5w1s5.

NBC Lashes Out at Christians, Again

Are these folks just ignorant or so bigoted that they can't see straight [http://blog.catholicsphere.com/?p=489]? > The April 13 episode [of Will and Grace] will mock the crucifixion of Christ, the American Family Association said. > April 13th is “Holy Thursday”. > “On the

The Common Culture

The Christian Science Monitor asks, "In an age of increasing sources of reading and viewing material, do we have a common pop culture anymore?" It concludes that, though weakened, we do. It's an entertaining article. It also provides this Top Ten List of pop events that

Kanye West Chairs the NAACP?

> Civil rights activist and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond delivered a blistering partisan speech at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina last night, equating the Republican Party with the Nazi Party and characterizing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her predecessor, Colin Powell, as "tokens." > "The

Destroy the Establishment

This kid really has eclectic tastes: Oprah, Bush, Wal-Mart, and Coke. Those are the four pillars of society, no? I'm not sure how the Pope got left off the list, though. > The Secret Service is investigating a seventh grader who wrote a school essay that authorities say

Oprah is Next

> In an unprecedented gesture, Pope Benedict XVI has written an introductory about his own encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, for the magazine Famiglia Cristiana. The Italian weekly has published a special edition, containing the entirety of the Pope's encyclical, with a cover date of February 5. > "

Misc. Leno

From last night's show: > The first confirmed case of bird flu has just been discovered in Iraq. This is just the kind of thing that can destroy their tourism industry. > "Walk The Line” was passed over for best picture nomination. Which makes 'Brokeback Mountain”

Speech Will be Speech

> Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Wednesday that attempts by governments to censor Web site contents were doomed, because banned information can seep out despite official injunctions. > "The ability to really withhold information no longer exists," Gates told a government forum on the Internet. > Gates

Lesbian Soldiers? Who Woulda Thunk

From Britain [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006050466,00.html]: > Two lesbian soldiers have become the first Army gays to get wed, The Sun can reveal. > Privates Sonya Gould, 19, and Vanessa Haydock, 18, tied the knot under new civil laws. > Vanessa, based at Hullavington,

Denying Free Speech

The link in the previous post, incidentally, is to a column entitled, "Threaten One, Intimidate a Million." The inference is obvious: The West's "multi-cultural" acceptance of Islam is threatening everyone's civil rights. My reader in the last post wanted to be kept

Islamic Fire

Those Danish cartoons keep firing up the Muslims [http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,398532,00.html]. Then again, pretty much anything fires up the Muslims. A reader writes: > Anonymous post for your blog (because my husband does not want me to write or say anything in

Happy Groundhog Day

I'm not a believer myself, but I respect the rights of others to believe such silly things and would never judge negatively a person for having faith in such superstitition. I'm open-minded and tolerant, and anyone who doesn't share my open-mindedness can die.

Democrats Courting Catholics

"Please join the party of licentious sexual activity and efforts to protect it [http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/01/31/democrats_courting_catholics/] ."

Odd Consumer News: A Light Unto Your Feet

Slippers with headlights [http://www.comforthouse.com/comfort/slippers.html]. I scoffed at first, but I could use a pair. With seven kids, I trip over stuff all the time in the dark. Heck, last year, I punctured my heel on a wooden peg. Hurt pretty and had to get

Schall on Deus Caritas Est

The erudite and always-reliable James Schall writes about the new encyclical [http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2006/schall_encyclical_jan06.asp]. Excerpt: > One cannot help but be amused that Benedict cites the Emperor Julian the Apostate, the infamous persecutor of Christians, with some approval. Julian, it seems, had a rather

Return to Barbarism

At least they're not being forced to drink from the slippers: > Men caught boozing by their wives in an Indian village now face being slapped across the face by their wives' slippers. > A committee of women at Japalli, in Andhra Pradesh, introduced the punishment in

The Bull Scored Six Points

> At least two people are being treated in hospital in Mexico City after a bull leapt into a crowd during a bullfight [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4663646.stm]. Did they call it "The Lambull Leap"? (Sorry, but I rarely make puns, so give

Robbery Foiled

From Switzerland [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1704873.html]: > A Swiss man returned home from his holiday to find a dead body in his living room. . . Johann Rauber, from Muenchenbuchsee, called the police when he found the as yet unidentified corpse lying on his couch. > A

Indian Bishop Attacked

But leave the cows alone! > Bishop Thomas Dabre of India's Vasai diocese was assaulted by a Hindu mob on Sunday, January 29, as he visited a home for impoverished children in a remote village in the western Maharashtra state. > About 200 Hindu militants shouted slogans and

Looking for Blogs

I'm looking for blogs that deal with abortion. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. (Note: I've already seen, and been impressed with, Afterabortion, so you don't need to send that URL.) Also: If you know of any blogs dealing with religious

Giving Fodder to the Socialists

Larry Ellison, one of the world's richest men, is struggling to stay within his $1 billion persona line of credit [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/31/MNG62H06991.DTL&type=printable] . Plus, he burns $20 million a year on personal expenses.

Condoms Don't Stop AIDS?

Brian Saint-Paul points out that condoms don't stop the spread of AIDS in Africa [http://www.beliefnet.com/story/183/story_18348_1.html]. Excerpt: > [A] March 2004 article in the medical journal "Studies in Family Planning." Titled "Condom Promotion for AIDS Prevention in

A Little Good News in Muslim Britain

Britain's religious hate bill--designed to give Muslims even more protection, to the detriment of free speech--didn't pass yesterday [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=SB2BW35M5WQKLQFIQMGSFGGAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2006/02/01/nrelig01.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/02/01/ixportaltop.html] . Previous post about

Yet Another Pill

> In the largest clinical study of its kind, researchers at the University of Minnesota found that daily doses of an experimental drug called nalmefene, often used to treat alcoholism, appeared to curb the craving to gamble. > The research represents the latest effort to control the biology of misbehavior

Misc. Leno

From last night: > In a stunning loss "Brokeback Mountain did not win a single SAG award last night. Those two guys really got shafted. Someone really stuck it to them didn't they? > Everybody is still talking about Kobe Bryant's 81 points. Kobe was

What Did Iowa Do to Deserve This?

Remind me of this, if they ever decide to name a battleship after me: San Francisco wants to turn a portion of the battleship Iowa into museum that tells the story of minorities in the military, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender troops. Link [http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2006/

Two ID Cards

GK Chesterton once said that some things can't be reasoned with. Instead, you simply have to stomp on them with your heel. I say a similar thing: You can't reason about some things. You just have to vomit on them. From Britain: > Transsexuals who have

The Science of Polling

You need any more proof that people lie in polls, and they're often meaningless? > What appears to be a first leading up to Super Bowl XL is that the most popular snacks millions will munch in front of television are now vegetables. > The news came from

Polyamory Society

The Polyamory Society homepage [http://www.polyamorysociety.org/]. > Polyamory is the nonpossessive, honest, responsible and ethical philosophy and practice of loving multiple people simultanously. Polyamory emphasizes consciously choosing how many partners one wishes to be involved with rather than accepting social norms which dictate loving only one person at

Congratulations, Number 5

I'll be you $25 that the next nominee ain't Catholic [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2006-01-31T164554Z_01_WBT004688_RTRUKOC_0_US-COURT-ALITO-VOTE.xml&rpc=22] . Heck, I'll give you 5-to-1 odds. This won't reverse Roe, by

Adult Stem Cells

Adult stem cell research advances: > Researchers say they have turned adult muscle stem cells into cartilage, and used them in animals to heal the kind of damage caused by arthritis. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20060130/hl_hsn/musclestemcellstransformedintocartilage] But who cares? It's no fun unless

Chappaquiddick

Interesting: On-line "book" (chronology) regarding Kennedy's manslaughter of Mary Jo Kopechne [http://www.ytedk.com/chappindex.htm]. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but a quick read indicates they're not whitewashing the Wizard of the Senate Judiary Committee.

Einstein and Religion

Some of Einstein's writings about science and religion [http://einsteinandreligion.com/]. I haven't had a chance to peruse the site, but it could be pretty good. See this post [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3233/], for instance.

Expanding the Mall

> The Smithsonian Institution's Board of Regents yesterday announced that a new museum dedicated to black history will be built near the Washington Monument within the next 10 years. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20060130-115821-8010r.htm]. I couldn't really care less about the museum, but

Da Vinci

> So here I am facing another Minnesota winter, looking to expand my mind. Naturally, I turn to 'The Winter & Spring 2006 Community Education Catalog' of the Eden Prairie, Minn., public schools, where I see the very first course offering is: "'Da Vinci Code Historical

JPII Moves Toward Sainthood

I missed this yesterday [http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060130094409990019&cid=]. I'm assuming it was all over the Catholic blogosphere, but I couldn't make my daily cyber-trip yesterday: > The Vatican may have found the "miracle" they need to

The Big Game

I found this interesting. The Super Bowl has gotten so big that it has undermined itself. The NFL wants millions from advertisers who want to use the phrase "Super Bowl," so advertisers are just referring to it as the "Big Game." At this time of year,

Fleeing Detroit

An Associated Press story paints an accurate picture of Detroit: the home of my ancestors, my home for a short while, and still the home of many family members: > Officials in the nation's poorest big city see hosting the game as a huge boost. They say it

Piltdown Man

A nice little article about the forgery of evolutionary Piltdown Man, the human stem cell forgery of Hwang Woo-suk, and why we can continue to expect scientific forgery in the coming century [http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=013006A].

Drive-By Porn Reporting

It's not a major societal scourge, but it deserves a little bit of attention: > A woman got a little more than what she ordered at a Bryan fast-food drive-through Saturday night. > While parked and waiting in line at McDonald's, she and her passengers -

White Castle

During my young adult days in the Detroit area, I drunkenly ate more White Castle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Castle_(restaurant)] hamburgers than my arteries care to remember. I never realized I was eating from history, until I saw this piece [http://www.salon.com/books/sneaks/1998/

Second Hand Cats

I thought this was a joke, but apparently not: > American researchers claim to have discovered that passive smoking affects felines as much as it does human beings, and have expressed the hope that endangering the family pet might shame some addicts, immune to the effect they are having on

Thrashing Their Way to 40 Virgins

From Australia [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17977910%5E2702,00.html] : > The nation's most senior Islamic woman has attacked Muslim religious leaders who condone "wife-beating" and other forms of domestic violence. > Aziza Abdel-Halim, the only female member of

Must Admit Taliban

From London Times: > A university Christian Union has been suspended and had its bank account frozen after refusing to open its membership to people of all religions [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2008732,00.html].

Odd Registration

And if he's right, who are county election mortals to decide otherwise? > One registered Republican won't be able to vote in the next election unless he appears at a Berks County Elections Board to explain the signature on his registration form. > The man is

B16 Flying

> Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit the United States in 2007, Baltimore's Cardinal William Keeler told a radio audience on January 27 [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=42105]. Well, far out. It's been awhile. When was the Pope's last visit

Brokeback Doesn't Win

I'm quite surprised. I thought Brokeback had a natural right to all Hollywood honors this year. > Reese Witherspoon as singer June Carter in "Walk the Line" and Philip Seymour Hoffman as author Truman Capote in "Capote" won lead-acting awards Sunday from the Screen

$$$ for Christian Groups

> President Bush's $15 billion effort to fight AIDS has handed out nearly one-quarter of its grants to religious groups, and officials are aggressively pursuing new church partners that often emphasize disease prevention through abstinence and fidelity over condom use. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060129/

Speedier Annulments

Yet another sign that B16 is going to improve the administrative aspects of the Vatican: > Pope Benedict acknowledged concern for the plight of divorcees who are banned from taking communion after remarriage and urged a Vatican tribunal yesterday to rule promptly on requests for annulment. Telegraph Link [http://www.

Catholic Schools Week

The Week starts today. My kids are pretty excited, except my eldest, who has been packed off to public middle school (our parochial middle school shut-down last year, a victim of lukewarm Catholics, homeschooling, and a public school system with a voracious appetite). Anyway, if you care to read a

Feast of the Three Hierarchs

My St. James Calendar of the Christian Year [http://www.touchstonemag.com/docs/navigation_docs/products_2006calendar.html] (one of the best calendars you'll ever buy) says that tomorrow the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates The Feast of the Three Hierarchs [http://www.goarch.org/en/special/listen_learn_

Computer Museum

A museum of old computers and video games [http://www.selectric.org/computer.html]. Kinda neat.

Odd Books

A list of eight odd "How-to" books: How to be Happy Though Married, by "A Graduate in the University of Matrimony" How to Rob Banks without Violence, by Roderic Knowles How to Shit in the Woods, by Kathleen Meyer How to Become a Schizophrenic, by John

Dried and Ready for Sale

"A little old lady used to sail it to church on Sundays": > Unscrupulous dealers have been selling automobiles flooded in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as far away as California, the state's insurance commissioner said on Thursday. > John Garamendi warned that some dealers and salvage

Niall of the Nine Hostages

I'm always drawn to bits of history that I've never even heard about. This one rings a bell, barely [http://shep.wordpress.com/2006/01/18/the-true-father-of-ireland]: > Research by geneticists at Trinity College Dublin reveals that one in 12 Irishmen are descended from a fifth-century

Sexual Harassment

Susan Ager at the Detroit Free Press laments that sexual harassment is still the norm at college campuses [http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060129/FEATURES01/601290365/1122] , just as it was thirty years ago when she attended college. > [A] survey released this week, by the

Something for Sunday Morning

> Give me persons in love: they know what I mean. Give me those who yearn; give me those who are hungry; give me those far away in this desert, who are thirsty and sigh for the spring of the eternal country. Give me those kinds of people; they know

Taliban Coming to Dinner

David Pearson at "Suicide of the West" observes Western ease while Islam keeps marching forward [http://suicideofthewest.com/?p=71]: > In the Chicago suburb of Bridgeville, Ill., the fundamentalist leadership of a local mosque is wildly popular [http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007880]. One of the

Existentialist Quitting

Don't think about it. Just quit: > Putting a lot of thought and planning into quitting smoking may not be the best route to success, a new study finds. > In fact, British researchers found that those smokers who spontaneously quit were much more likely to not resume

I Didn't Know Yale was in France

> It took a decade of student lobbying, but Yale University appears poised to break with tradition and supply soap for dormitory bathrooms on one of the oldest campuses in America [http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/01/27/a_milestone_at_yale_soap_in_dorm_bathrooms/

Wolf Crosses Over?

They say feminist Naomi Wolf is now a Christian [http://www.sundayherald.com/53663]. Could be. I'm neither convinced nor skeptical. I'm just waiting to see: > Today, Wolf seems sharp and incisive . This is no Valley Girl on some psychobabble trip. But when one of

Violating Don't Ask, Don't Tell?

What about the fundamental human right to let it all hang out? > Army officials are investigating allegations that members of the celebrated 82nd Airborne Division appear on a gay pornography Web site, a spokeswoman said Friday. > Authorities at Fort Bragg have begun an inquiry into whether the paratroopers&

Historical Miniature

I don't know a lot about Christopher Marlowe, but I know enough to know that this summary of Marlowe in NYT is one-sided [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/books/review/29feingold.html?_r=1] (it is not at all clear, for instance, that Marlowe was gay

5-Year Plan

From this morning's WaPo: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/27/AR2006012701588.html] > The [Chinese Communist] party declared rural reform a major goal of its new five-year economic program, which began this month. A five-year-plan? I thought those went out with 22-Skidoo and the

French Canadians

> A court in Lille handed down its sentence on a French Parliamentarian Tuesday, fining him 3000 Euros and forcing him to pay an additional 6000 Euros to be split between three homosexual activist groups who brought the charges against the MP. Christian Vanneste, a member of the UMP representing

The Weekend Eudemon

Mellow weekend. Just the way I like 'em. I walked uptown with my 9-year-old to the bookstore after work yesterday. We took the 2-year-old and 10-month-old, too. While checking out, the cash register wouldn't accept my gift certificate for some reason. During the five-minute delay, the baby

Brews You Can Use V

Well, it's brews you can use, if you have a daughter who likes to drink: > A judge who sentenced three teenagers to probation threw them in jail after he saw them ridiculing him and drinking alcohol on a Web site [http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?

Brews You Can Use IV

> Japanese beer maker Asahi plans to give away 5000 personal bartending bots, each of which can store up to six cans of beer in a refrigerated compartment within its belly. At the push of a button the simple robots will open a can and pour the chilled contents into

Reefer Madness

The cult classic is available at Google Video. Just click here [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1714653651063948142&q=reefer+madness] and watch. Kinda funny.

Being In Love

> To be madly in love might be exactly that–madness. The term “lovesick” is surprisingly accurate, claims a cover story in this month's National Geographic magazine, citing research published over the last several years. > People experiencing romantic love have a chemical profile in their brains similar

Celebrating Gluttony

Where sin isn't condemned, it is celebrated. Eight people ordered and ate a 100-paddy burger, with cheese [http://whatupwilly.blogspot.com/2006/01/in-n-out-100x100.html]. The story is flying around the Internet now. It's a kid thing, and relatively harmless as far as other kid vices

Fessio Revises

Fr. Joseph Fessio earlier said that B16 doesn't believe Islam can be reformed. It raised a lot of eyebrows (though I tend to agree with such a belief). Fessio has modified his statement [http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=45185&eng=y]. Earlier post [https:

Brews You Can Use III. Got Beer?

This marketing blogger says there might be a movement afoot to start a "beer is good" campaign [http://raybacon.blogspot.com/2006/01/beer-brotherhood.html], in order to take back the recent market share gains by spirits and wine. The blogger's biggest question: can the big

Brews You Can Use II

Send me a water cooler full: > Lady Bird Bio Beer contains aloe vera and medicinal herbs. B. Srinivasa Amarnath claims it has a variety of benefits, starting with fewer hangovers. Recent stories also state the beer can alleviate conditions ranging from asthma to arthritis. > Amarnath previously said that

Brews You Can Use

Looking for breweries and brewpubs in your area? [http://beermapping.com/us-brewery-map/]

Cuomo Not a Homo

I guess I was still recovering from my outing at the drinking club Tuesday night. I missed this hilarious NYC dispute: > Former Mayor Ed Koch slammed Andrew Cuomo last night, contending the attorney general hopeful misled Manhattan gay activists by denying that his father's 1977 mayoral campaign

Mozart at 250

Terry Teachout writes in honor of Mozart's 250th birthday [http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article.asp?aid=12101066_1]. Excerpt: > [Mozart] was a child prodigy without formal education who wrote his first symphony at the age of nine and his last one a mere 23 years later, not

Mercy Murdering

Oops, guess we shouldn't have tried to kill her: > Haleigh Poutre, the brain-damaged girl at the center of a passionate end-of-life debate, was transferred yesterday from a pediatric intensive-care unit to a Brighton rehabilitation center, two days after the state's top child-protection official saw her

Hamas Victorious

Will the West ever learn? Muslims can't be placated. Hamas, still vowed to Israel's destruction, wins overwhelmingly [http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/26/palestinian.election/index.html], despite the forced eviction of Jews last year. Maybe we could just give them Israel, the

Listening to the Homily

A priest offers practical suggestions for listening to the homily [http://hancaquam.blogspot.com/2006/01/put-down-missalette-hearing-homily.html]. They're pretty good, though he doesn't give any advice for trying to listen while your four-year-old tries to ask a question, your two-year-old is trying to get to

Mozart at 250 Years

Friday is the 250 anniversary of the birth of Mozart. WFMT in Chicago, in co-operation with more than 100 other stations, will broadcast a 3-hour concert live from Salzburg, Austria, Mozart's birthplace, from 11:00 AM CST until 2:00 PM, with an intermission at 1:00 PM.

Homeschool Socializing

Funny stuff [http://www.newoxfordreview.org/note.jsp?print=1&did=0106-notes-socialization]: > "When my wife and I mention we are strongly considering homeschooling our children, we are without fail asked, 'But what about socialization?' Fortunately, we found a way our kids can receive the same

Dig a Hole to China?

> If you were to dig a hole from where you are standing all the way through the center of the Earth, where would you end up? Click here to find out [http://www.digholes.com/].

More from Deus Caritas Est

> Man is truly himself when his body and soul are intimately united; the challenge of eros can be said to be truly overcome when this unification is achieved. Should he aspire to be pure spirit and to reject the flesh as pertaining to his animal nature alone, then spirit

Big Conservatism

I spend a lot of time ruminating on the problems with conservatism today. So, apparently, does Mark Shea [http://markshea.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_markshea_archive.html#113821798106084166] , who has been reading Rod Dreher's Crunchy Cons [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400050642/thedailyeudem-20]. We'

Wal-Mart Employment Stinks?

> There is only one way to know if a company is paying "too much" (i.e., more than it has to to attract qualified labor) or too little. If there are significantly more job applicants than there are jobs, then the company is overpaying. If it is

Boring Encyclical?

I found this toward the beginning of the new encyclical. Is it hot in here? > The Greeks–not unlike other cultures–considered eros principally as a kind of intoxication, the overpowering of reason by a “divine madness” which tears man away from his finite existence and enables him, in

Gay in Virginia

One thing blogging has taught me: the nuggets are often at the bottom of a news story. Headlines are often misleading (if not downright false). The first couple paragraphs contain the gist of the story, along with the writer's ideological slant. But if you want the good stuff,

Beating Grandma

Sad story, but I guess if you're gonna beat your grandmother, this is the best reason you're gonna find: > Deputies say a 16-year-old has been arrested for beating his grandmother with a two-by-four for refusing to give him $100 for beer [http://www.tampabays10.com/

Commentary on Canadian Election

The brilliant David Warren [http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/index.php?artID=562]. Excerpt: > [T]he Conservatives did not win a single seat in Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver -- our three largest cities. Let me enlarge on remarks I have made in many previous columns, applying the famous Red State/

Encyclical

If you're looking for the new encyclical: link [http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html] .

Misc.

No opinion today about last night's American Idol. I went to the drinking club for a few rounds and ended up talking about important things, including this fascinating topic: When did Happy Days really jump the shark? As early as the demolition derby and Mallachi Crunch [http://www.

Diapered Travelers

I'd have to pass on the festivities: > Alongside food and fire crackers, Chinese are adding a new item to their lunar New Year shopping: Adult diapers. Sales have soared ahead of the holiday as travelers prepare for long trips home aboard trains so crowded that even the

Let Them Eat Soup . . . Or Not

Is this like that Seinfeld episode when Elaine tried to give away the muffin stumps to the homeless shelter? > Charity groups with far-right links serving pork soup to homeless people face a crackdown by French officials. > Protesters have accused the groups of deliberate discrimination against Jews and Muslims,

Gays in Greenwich

Greenwich Village has always fascinated me. One expert on that bohemian corner of the world speculates that open gayness killed the Village [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/22/RVG4OGLRPE1.DTL]: > In his lament that "the Village" is not what it used

Claw Me

Cockfighting, though illegal, is popular in Utah [http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3431577]. I'm talking about rooster fighting, incidentally. It's not polygamy-driven competition for wives.

Blessing Hooters

> The new Hooters restaurant may have gotten an unwelcome reception from some of the community's religious leaders, but tonight it will get a little help from above. > As part of a private opening party, Monsignor Isidore Rozycki, the head Catholic priest for the Greater Waco area,

Krazy Kanye

So does this mean George Bush hates Christians? > Kanye West, with a crown of thorns atop his head, poses as Jesus Christ on the cover of the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone. The outspoken rapper defends his brash attitude inside the magazine's pages, on newsstands Friday. He

The Monologues at ND

Are things looking up for my alma mater [http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060124/NEWS01/601240491]? > The new University of Notre Dame president questioned Monday whether "The Vagina Monologues" and a Queer Film Festival held on campus the past few years should be

Chameleon Google

I assume everyone sees the irony in this, after Google's much-publicized defense of porn surfers' civil rights last week: > Online search engine leader Google Inc. has agreed to censor its results in China, adhering to the country's free-speech restrictions in return for better access

Back to the Drawing Board, NBC

What can they do next to offend Christians and increase ratings? They're good at the former, poor at the latter. > The last chapter of the controversial religious drama "The Book of Daniel" has been written at NBC [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060125/ap_

Who Wants to be a Dirt Bag?

> More than 200 reality TV hopefuls queued up to conceive a baby with a stranger live on air for a Â£10,000 prize. > They were the victims of a spoof set up to see how far people would go to get on television, reports the Daily Mirror.

Stuck in John

And I thought I had a rough day yesterday: > A man got stuck in a portable toilet for more than an hour after the door iced over as temperatures in Germany plummeted to minus 20C [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1695664.html].

Boy Crisis

Now even Newsweek has picked up on the boy crisis in education and society as a whole [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10965522/site/newsweek/]. What's the answer to the increasing failure rate of males? According to this article [http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200601240828.asp], there

Priest Goes Brokeback

Priest announces he's gay [http://insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_3427018]. Gets a standing O during Mass. Where else but the Bay Area? Yes, yes, the Bay Area has good Catholics, too. But this is a bit much, no matter where it takes place.

Hating Religion

A secularist takes apart the secularists's assault on Christianity [http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAF37.htm]. The article is somewhat condescending to Christian thinking and a little lengthy for my tastes, but it has a lot of good stuff. Excerpts: > First there was the controversy provoked by

Legion for Christ

The Wall Street Journal has run a pretty good article about the Legion of Christ [http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB113798852937353361-lMyQjAxMDE2MzI3MzkyODM4Wj.html] . It also recounts some of the ugly attacks that have afflicted the Legion. Such attacks, of course, are a sign of success. If no one attacks you,

Len on Kennedy

> The National Inquirer has reported that Ted Kennedy has a 21-year-old secret love child...is that really the most accurate term "love child"? Isn't "drunken fling child" a bit more like it? > Senator Kennedy wasn't available for comment on the

Pass the Czech

> The Czechs do like their weed. A 2005 report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction found that 22% of Czechs between 16 and 34 had smoked marijuana at least once during the previous year, the highest percentage in the European Union. The nation's

Secrets of Married Men

A new book (Secrets of Married Men by Scott Haltzman) tries to save marriages by looking at it from the husband's angle. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012301274.html] . Excerpt from review: > [Haltzman's advice:] Use the male habits

Tories to the North

A happy day for our embattled neighbors. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/24/international/americas/24canada.html?hp&ex=1138165200&en=01040e32f782a592&ei=5094&partner=homepage] . Of course, this means they'll probably lose the Most Licentious Nation race: > Stephen Harper

Is It Possible to Deal with Islam?

Interesting piece today about B16's supposed beliefs about the unreformability of Islam [http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/dianawest/2006/01/23/183354.html]. Excerpt: > According to his [Joseph Fessio], the pope believes there's no way to change Islam because there's no way

E-Books

Terry Teachout on something that interests me greatly: the effect of electronic books: > The existence of the e-book will cause the authors of the 21st century to go about their business very differently than did their 20th-century predecessors. Many of these differences will arise from the way in which

Santeria Surfaces

The odd religion of Santeria has drawn attention in southern California. It seems a group is butchering animals as part of their rituals. Authorities are investigating animal cruelty. I'm thinkin' it's freedom of religion. Who's to say these animals' blood doesn'

PSA

Blogging will be light today, at least early on. If I had one more person demanding a piece of my attention this morning, my head would explode. My apologies.

Taking It With You and Not Leaving

I don't want to die and I don't want to be poor [http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB113780314900652582-3NZCCoZBW7UHDmouEOrkzkalkfY_20060129.html] : > Mr. Pizer has made arrangements to have his body frozen in liquid nitrogen as soon as possible after he dies. In this way,

Odd Consumer News

Blanket with sleeves [http://www.theslanket.com/].

America's Celebrity Obsession, Episode 2,310,554

What's next? Auctioning celebrity urine? > [William] Shatner, famed for playing Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship USS Enterprise in the original Star Trek TV series, sold his kidney stone to online casino GoldenPalace.Com for $US25,000 ($33,000). > The money will be donated

Ratzinger Stopped JPII?

I finally got through Paul Elie's long essay, "The Year of Two Popes" in The Atlantic Monthly (link to story [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200601/ratzinger], previous posts about same: 1 [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3685/], 2 [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3694/]). For the most part, the

Sports Blogs

I've been meaning to mention: If you want a good sports blog, check out Oddjack [http://www.oddjack.com/] and Deadspin [http://www.deadspin.com/]. I visit the latter a couple of times a week, the former only a couple of times a month. Still, both are good.

Movies and Health

> Researchers from the University of Maryland have concluded that watching a comedy can increase blood flow as much as aerobic exercise or regularly taking heart medication. > On the flipside, the mental anguish caused by watching a drama significantly decreases blood flow. Link [http://www.news.com.au/story/

American Idol Anti-Gay?

Funny stuff: > Bosses at America's leading gay rights group are demanding a summit meeting with the producers of TV talent show American Idol after claiming the programme is "increasingly homophobic". > Officials at the Gay And Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) were appalled by homophobic

The 99

> Young Arabs will soon be poring over a new group - and new genre - of superheroes like Jabbar, Mumita and Ramzi Razem, all aimed specifically at young Muslim readers and focusing on Muslim virtues. > Mr. Mutawa's Teshkeel Media, based in Kuwait, says that in September

No Shame

> Twenty-four hours after Osama bin Laden told the world that the American people should read the work of a little-known Washington historian, William Blum was still adjusting. > Blum, who at 72 is accustomed to laboring in relative left-wing obscurity, checked his emotions and pronounced himself shocked and, well,

Something for Sunday Morning

> By an undivided and absolute abandonment of yourself and everything, shedding all and freed from all, you will be uplifted to the ray of the divine shadow which is above everything that is. Pseudo-Dionysius

Atlantic Miscellany

Miscellaneous passages from this month's Atlantic: > [A] new study published in the British Medical Journal . . . finds that early retirees have higher mortality than workers who stay on the job. > [A new] survey indicates that one in four U.S. workers reads blogs regularly while at work,

Souter Home Condemned?

Come on! Be reasonable. You're making this personal. With Souter, it's all about theory: > Angered by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that sided with a Connecticut city that wanted to seize homes for economic development, a group of activists is trying to get one

Psycho Killer Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa

> A new study from New Zealand, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, raises important questions about the effect of abortion on women's mental health. Researchers found those reporting an abortion prior to age 21 had rates of mental disorders from age 21 to 25

Big v. Little

When government acts, it looks at the big picture. Usually, government looks at sophisticated studies that consider harm and benefit and things like that. Sometimes, it looks at polls and what people want as a whole. No matter what, the government always tries to consider the big picture. It'

Bring Me the Women

A writer reconsiders [http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/debrasaunders/2006/01/20/183138.html] the argument--which she previously rejected--that same-sex marriage leads to polygamy. > When social conservatives argue that legalizing same-sex marriage could lead to legalized polygamy, same-sex marriage advocates either laugh or sneer. It's a

Sploid

You think anti-Catholicism is dead? Visit Sploid [http://www.sploid.com/news/2006/01/catholic_cult_s.php], a popular Internet news site that received a ton of publicity when it started up last year. The following story is just one of many such bigoted articles I've seen

Gay Neighbors

The New York Times has run a disgustingly-slanted story this morning [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/21/arts/television/21welc.html?ei=5094&en=c9dd0688b64e8728&hp=&ex=1137819600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all] . Summary: ABC produced a TV show called Welcome to the Neighborhood. It&

The Weekend Eudemon

I'm spry this morning. I left work early yesterday, not feeling well. I took an inadequate nap, then--feeling a little better--headed to the drinking club. Unfortunately, my wife came with me and brought along Tess (9 months). Tess didn't want to be at the drinking club.

Orestes "Blog"

I'm still looking for blogs that revolve around the thought of famous Catholic authors [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3686/]. Thanks to the reader who sent to my attention: The Orestes Brownson page [http://www.orestesbrownson.com/]. It's not really a blog, but it has blog-like characteristics, and

Okay

Okay, now Brokeback is number one at the box office. Link [http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2006-01-18&p=.htm]. I give it credit. I resent the industry's determination to shove it down our throats, but it is number one.

Catholic Neighborhoods

The same Atlantic article mentioned previously [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200601/primarysources] notes as an aside that Catholics are likelier to attend mass if they live in a heavily Catholic neighborhood, and that such neighborhoods have better economic and social indicators, including higher income and education levels and lower

Brews You Can Use IV

I found this interesting observation at Video meliora [http://poncer.blogspot.com/2006/01/thats-gotta-hurt-title-stolen-from.html]: > One of the biggest tragedies in being over forty is that Guinness, even in small doses, now gives me blinding headaches. Red wine too. "Sulfites" they say, but me I think

Brews You Can Use III

A blogger writes about learning to drink beer [http://www.slashfood.com/2006/01/16/learning-to-drink-beer-a-noobs-notes/]. Fortunately, the blogger is a woman. Otherwise, I'd assume I was reading a blog by a teeny-bopper. Anyway, it's mildly interesting for those who haven't cultivated the taste.

St. Monica, Pray for Us

> A 73-year-old woman is being investigated for “kidnapping and maltreating a family member” after allegedly keeping her mentally disturbed daughter locked in a darkened bathroom for 30 years [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1995482,00.html]. The story has a judgmental tone to it. Has anyone considered

Brews You Can Use II

The Catholic Church in Lithuania is justifiably upset with a company's beer logo [http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/catholic-church-condemns-beer-company/2006/01/18/1137467025353.html] .

The Religion Factor

An article in this month's Atlantic takes a brief look at a long-known sociological truth: religious participation correlates with "lower levels of criminality, better health, greater marital stability, and greater self-reported well-being." The article says that an MIT economist has undertaken studies to determine whether these

Over the Top

Christ Matthews apparently said Osama bin Laden sounds like an "over the top Michael Moore." I'm not sure what that means, but it srikes me as similar to referring to a "vulgar Andrew Dice Clay," an "athletic Michael Jordan," or a "

Brews You Can Use

> We carry a great selection of Belgian beer glasses imported directly from Belgium. We hand select glasses from the best Trappist, Abbey and private breweries in Belgium. Many of our glasses are hard to find outside of Belgium and we take great pride in our selection. Link [http://www.

14 Letters

Catholic World News has published an overview of JPII's fourteen encyclicals. I don't know whether the page is available to non-subscribers, but here's the link [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=41925]. > Redemptor Hominis: on redemption and the dignity of the

Nudity and Cars

What's the problem? She's just playing out the American Dream: fancy cars and sex with beautiful women. Maybe she's ugly: > City officials are trying to figure out how a woman sneaked into the North American International Auto Show after closing time to pose

Late Night Humor

Leno: > Some sad news. The rumor going around, after 14 years of marriage, Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown may be splitting up. I guess Whitney came home early one day and caught bobby hitting other women. > On more serious news, there's a rumor that we may

Celibacy Debate Renews

A 70-year-old priest knocks up a 31-year-old woman and now the celibacy debate is re-energized [http://www.irishexaminer.com/pport/web/ireland/Full_Story/did-sggfgD6mmFXZIsglO-LCk0lQvU.asp] . Why? I don't care how many priests are married: a 31-year-old will look good to a 70-year-old. If we rescind the celibacy

"I Thought It Was Incense"

> An Orthodox priest has been arrested by police in Bulgaria for selling cannabis joints to parishioners [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1689473.html].

Paul Elie

I've received more information about Paul Elie, the writer of the essay/book in this month's Atlantic Monthly. According to a friend: > Elie's a good writer, Catholic, though left of center I would imagine on some issues. He's editor of the

"Ten Bucks is Ten Bucks." Geddy Lee

On the first day of soliciting ads, I had a technical snafu (thereby instilling confidence in my potential customers). I am, accordingly, reminding viewers that ads on this site are now available dirt cheap (see link on right for more information). It's $10 a month. I doubt you&

American Idol Follow-Up

Day two was remarkably more subdued than day one (see my previous post [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3680/]). The level of ridicule was back to the old levels (mostly reserved for the pompous), they had a great "feel good" story, and the best contestant was a modest and attractive

Vatican and Evolution

The New York Times is energized about an article from the Vatican about Intelligent Design [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/science/sciencespecial2/19evolution.html?hp&ex=1137646800&en=0f4621279594535b&ei=5094&partner=homepage] . Essentially, the article comes down to this: I.D. is more

Looking for Author Blogs

For my next National Catholic Register column, I'm looking for blogs dedicated to, or that revolve around, the thought or personality of one or more Catholic authors. I have plenty of G.K. Chesterton blogs to reference, but I'm looking for blogs about others, such as

The Year of Two Popes

The January/February issue of The Atlantic Monthly came yesterday. It has a lot of neat stuff in it, including a 21-page piece about JPII/B16 by Paul Elie [http://www.beliefnet.com/story/137/story_13721_1.html] (senior editor at Farrar Straus & Giroux, Flannery O'Connor&

Get Ready for Late Night Humor

> Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical, expected in the next few days, warns believers not to confuse love with lust or degrade it "to mere sex". Telegraph Link [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/18/wpope18.xml&sSheet=/news/

School Officials Botch Test

What did we say back in the 1980s? "Psyche!" > Stressed-out seventh-graders taking a standardized exam to determine whether they'll be promoted got an unusual English lesson yesterday: A means F, B means G, C means H, and D means J. > The lecture was repeated

Stossel Re-Loads

20/20's John Stossel swings the ax again at public schools. He's slashing strawmen, in my opinion, but that's not his fault: the whole public school structure is a straw man. Excerpt from article: > The NEA says public schools need more money. That&

Canine Child Substitutes, Episode 182,009

Social networking for canines: > A site called Dogster [http://www.dogster.com/] gives our furry friends the opportunity to post photos, share their personalities, make new friends and even maintain blogs. On Dogster, which won the 2005 Webby Award in the community category, Web savvy humans take a back

DiLorenzo on Ethics Plan

One of the cleverest writers brings out Mencken to disabuse any hope for a decent ethics plan from Congress: > Today's AP news item that "Republican Congress Unveils its New Ethics Plan" led me to ask myself, "What would H.L. Mencken think of this?

Rich and Dumb

This reminds me of G.K. Chesterton's observation that in order to be smart enough to earn a lot of money, you must be dumb enough to want a lot of money (rough quote, at best): A developing list of stupid ways rich people spend their money [http:

Taking Revenge on Marx

> Pogroms and purges of Jews are a thing of the past in Russia, but as women scrubbed the bloodstained floors of Moscow's Chabad Bronnaya synagogue on Thursday, a day after a man burst in and stabbed worshippers, alarm spread over increasingly open anti-Semitism. > Jewish leaders warned

Multi-Cultural Hate Language

From Britain: > A black man escaped a possible jail sentence yesterday after claiming that swearing and using racist insults were part of his cultural identity [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1988901,00.html]. Billy Bob will done be gettin' himself to that thar England place and

Anti-ADA

I'm not a big fan of the Americans with Disabilities Act (nice idea, but too many incidental casualties), but this is a bit much: > Two brothers with muscular dystrophy were made to crawl to their car after security guards at a Melbourne shopping centre refused to let

American Idol

I watched American Idol with my family last night. During these early segments, you see two things: (1) an early look at potential front-runners; (2) the untalented who look ridiculous. I've always enjoyed the untalented segments. Vain individuals think they can sing and then get mad when they&

News Flash: Ted Kennedy Looks in Mirror

> Sen. Edward Kennedy, who criticized Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's past membership in a controversial Princeton University alumni club, severed his ties Tuesday with a former Harvard college social club that bans women members. > "He has decided to be taken off their rolls, believing that

Crazy Romanians

> A Romanian priest has been fined and could be defrocked after he was caught playing poker in a pub. > Vasile Mihaila, 40, parish priest for Negoesti village in Gorj county, was caught in the act by police during a routine search. . . > Orthodox church officials said they have

Ads

I am now accepting advertising. It's cheap ($10 a month). The ad is text-only (like the ISI ad on the right), unless the advertiser wants to pay the design fee for a box ad. For more details, see the Advertisers page on the left.

Nagin Apologizes

Dang it! I was a believer. I thought he had a direct pipeline to divine thought. Now I'll have to cancel my plans to start the First Church of Nagin: > Mayor Ray Nagin apologized Tuesday for a Martin Luther King Day speech in which he predicted that

860 Million?

According to Catholic World News [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=41869], a report says that 860 million children suffer world-wide. That strikes me as awfully high, but I don't know. How many children are there among the world's 6.5 billion? The suffering,

Euthanasia Edge

> Kevin Reeves, 40, was jailed for 15 months and ordered to pay Â£2,000 compensation after accepting Â£20,000 from a friend so depressed that she asked him to find a hitman to murder her. He even offered to do it himself, but got no further than

French Population Up? . . .

. . . kinda > France has had a slight upward blip in the birthrate, to 1.94, just below the replacement level of 2.1. It would be more reassuring if it were not exclusively among Moslems. > Because the French government does not gather statistics by ethnicity or religion, it is

Facilitating the Fundamental Human Right to a Threesome

From Britain: > The law could be changed to allow two prostitutes and a receptionist or maid to work together legally in brothels, the government has confirmed. > Currently only lone prostitutes can offer sex from flats or other premises without breaking the law. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Skinned Exhibit

I'm gonna hurl: > A controversial exhibition displaying 20 skinned human cadavers will go on show in Melbourne [http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0%2C5478%2C17839551%255e2862%2C00.html] . Organizers say it's educational. Or maybe artistic. Or maybe a type of prayer.

Muslims on Sex

Good thing I always keep my socks on: > A curious religious debate is raging in Egypt. The question is: should you keep your clothes on when having sex? > It began when Dr Rashad Khalil, an expert on Islamic law from al-Azhar university in Cairo warned that being completely

The Blog Writer

Is blogging real writing? This guy says it is: > [I]t occurred to me that there is no such thing as blogging. There is no such thing as a blogger. Blogging is just writing -- writing using a particularly efficient type of publishing technology. Even though I tend to

A Story for Your Children

Having troubles getting your children to eat properly. Try this story [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006020536,00.html]: > A lad who only ate chips, toast and baked beans was killed by his junk diet – aged just 20. > After years of unhealthy eating, Scott Martin'

WWW III

Future histories are in vogue. The writers of these pieces look at today's current events and then write as though calamities that could happen tomorrow were predictable, yet we're living in those times now and we don't see the calamities coming. Eerie stuff. Last

TV Me

Ditch those Natural Family Planning manuals. I've found them nearly worthless. Don't get me wrong. NFP is 99% effective, just like its advocates say. Unfortunately, most guys have relations with their wives more than 99 times every two years. The result? You can do the math

No F'in Alito?

I missed this yesterday. This wasn't the Dem I expected to object to a filibuster: > Prospects for a filibuster to try to derail Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court all but died yesterday when a key swing Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, came out against it.

Abortion Counseling

Due to time constraints, I haven't been able to engage in my normal on-line review of the country's leading newspapers, so I missed a story in the New York Times yesterday about after-abortion counseling [http://nytimes.com/2006/01/16/national/16abortion.html?hp&ex=

Golden Globe Results

Johnny Cash was gay, at least according to the results of the Golden Globes last night. With a few exceptions, only gay-themed movies won anything: > "Brokeback," which has wowed critics and found a sizableaudience at box offices with its homosexual love story, walked off with four Golden

Misc. 1.16.06

The fury over the Steelers/Colts call picked up a little steam. The Steelers' Joey Porter accused the refs of cheating. The NFL moved to do damage control, saying that the call rests within the ref's judgment (thanks for the enlightenment, NFL). The sports commentators who depend

Brace Yourselves

A great article from National Catholic Register about the upcoming spate of Da Vinci Code knock-offs. [http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=18320]

Muslim Catholics

> An Islamic campaign group has called for a Catholic primary school to be based on the Muslim faith. > The Campaign for Muslim Schools said 90% of pupils at St Albert's Primary, in Pollokshields, Glasgow, were Muslim. > Osama Saeed, co-ordinator of the alliance of Glasgow'

Carrey and Caffeine

> Jim Carrey has never been happier after embracing a healthy lifestyle and cutting his caffeine intake considerably [http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/carrey%20happier%20after%20cutting%20back%20on%20caffeine] . Good, now maybe he'll stop that annoying shtick that they call "cting."

One Man's Crusade in St. Louis

I think outdoor urination is a great thing, but not in urban settings. That's just gross. > Ken Ortmann, an alderman who owns a local tavern wants to lower the penalties for public urination before the Feb. 25 Mardi Gras Parade. > Ortmann said his bill would allow

Ten Myths

Ten myths of religious freedom [http://www.ncregister.com/articulo2.php?artkod=MTY4]. Required knowledge for Catholics who want to embrace the First Amendment but don't want it poisoning their beliefs.

Peyton and MasterCard

John Miller writes at National Review Online: > The ads with Peyton Manning, who won't be appearing in this year's Superbowl, are funny, as he acts like a crazed fan cheering on everyday people as they perform ordinary jobs. The one where he asks the grocery

Violence in N.O.

Re-build this fine city ASAP: > A parade intended to show unity and support for the city's rebuilding was instead marred by violence Sunday when shots rang out, wounding three people as the event drew to a close [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/16/D8F5IO7O2.html]

The Polygamy Train Picks Up Steam

Heck, this is a procreative scheme that even the EUists could support: > A leading Russian Muslim cleric is calling for the legalisation of polygamy to boost rapidly dropping birth rates. > Ismail Shangareyev says allowing men to have multiple wives would not only "tackle the current demographic catastrophe,

The Catholic and Divorce

The issue is getting press again. This time, the Vatican's former top judicial official said, "In itself, divorce is not a sin, and in certain cases it could even be recommended, to resolve patrimonial or civil problems." Just another outspoken priest, like the kind that continue

Misc. 1.15.06

A woman today wondered how I handle seven children. She said her hands are full with just one. I told her my situation isn't much worse than hers. "One," I said, "is a lot closer to seven than zero." The Steelers' Troy Polamalu

Cleric Steps Down

> The Church of Norway forced a priest to resign on Friday from a panel set to judge bikini-clad women competing to be the country's Miss Universe contestant [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060113/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_religion_missuniverse]. Why did Norway object? All the

Bag End

A Tolkien nut and doll house builder has made a miniature Bag End [http://www.livejournal.com/community/little_world/39277.html?view=211565]. Pretty neat.

The Next Sexual Frontier

HBO will air Big Love, a series about polygamy in Utah. > The show premieres March 12 on the pay cable network and will air after HBO's most-revered series, The Sopranos, every week. > Big Love follows polygamist Bill Henrickson and his three wives as they lead complicated

20/20 Takes on Public Education

I've never been a big fan of ABC's 20/20, but I guess I'll have to start watching. According to David Pearson [http://www.suicideofthewest.com/], its reporter, John Stossel, isn't afraid of challenging America's bogus sacred cows. This story

The Deluge

Mitch Albom discusses the small controversy over the Detroit Pistons' swimsuit calendar [http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060115/OPINION02/601150352/1082] . The calendar doesn't have pictures of Ben Wallace in a Speedo, but rather pictures of the Piston dancing team--the Automotion--in Speedo-like attire.

All in the Family

I've been enjoying TV Land's All in the Family coverage this weekend [http://www.tvland.com/schedule/index.jhtml]. It's showing more reruns all day today, but they're the later ones and, if memory serves, the show became much more agenda-driven later,

Something for Sunday Morning

"Outward restlessness often goes together with inner listlessness. . . The states of quietness and inner alertness belong together, supporting and determining each other." Romano Guardini, The Art of Praying

Judas' Rehabilitation Revisited

The story of efforts to rehabilitate Judas were apparently exaggerated. Link [http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2006/01/mea-culpa-why-it-is-important-to.html] . Thanks, Curt Jester [http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/archives/006412.php].

Leno on Alito Hearings

> Have you watched any of these confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito? Senators are given thirty minutes to question the guy: thirty minutes exactly. Senator Joe Biden's question took 23 1/2 minutes. His question took 24 minutes. And Alito is smart. He's

Finally, a Spokesman for the Religious Left

A Satanist is running for governor of Minnesota [http://www.jonathonforgovernor.us/Home_page.html]. He must figure he has a good shot, figuring Jesse Ventura got in. Heck, this guy is a pro wrestler, too, according to his website. Excerpt: > My name is Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey, Ph.

Seizure Me

But how's the kid supposed to live? > Nicholas Lavin said that he played PlayStation constantly over the holidays at his home in San Diego and began to notice that his head would jerk back and forth. > "I would do funny things with my head,"

St. Monica, Pray for Them

Mean, nasty wives are the rage in Japan [http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200601140135.html].

Anti-Abortion Posters Torn Down

Home of the 1960s Free Speech Movement [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Speech_Movement]: > Bay Area abortion-rights activists say a Roman Catholic group's advertisements on hundreds of BART trains and in scores of stations -- attacking the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision and

St. Maria Goretti, Pray for Us

> A high school research assignment on Internet pornography was canceled after parents in this Cleveland suburb complained. > Superintendent Jeff Lampert said . . . the assignment was inappropriate for 14- and 15-year-old freshmen at Brooklyn High. > The assignment asked students to research pornography on the Internet and list eight facts

Looking for Comedy

A favorable look at Albert Brooks' Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,181631,00.html]. It opens January 20: > Brooks said the film was originally supposed to be distributed by Sony, with an October 2005 release date (the current distributor

Hollywood Spin

Received from a reader: > Please post for all to hear the hard data on the media communicated "success" of Brokeback Mountain" vs. the "failure" of King Kong. > As of 1/13/06 > Brokeback Mtn revenue : $24,000,000 Cost to Produce: $14,

Catholic Charities Must Fund Contraceptives

A good overview of the NY Court of Appeals decision earlier this week [http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/102/53.0.html] regarding a state law that requires employers' insurance plans to cover prescription contraceptives. Excerpt: > [A] New York appeals court ruled 3-2 in favor of the

The Weekend Eudemon

This will be the first full Weekend Eudemon in a couple of weeks. My household has fully settled in after the routine-rattling holiday season, the Christmas decorations are back in storage, and my study is again clean--no presents, manger scenes, or clutter. I love the Christmas season, but I love

Judas Revisited

Dang it! Where am I going to focus all my hate? Maybe I can get a dog to kick: > Christians have traditionally blamed Judas for aiding and abetting the Crucifixion, and his name is synonymous with treachery. According to St Luke, Judas was “possessed by Satan”. > Now, a

Adult Juveniles

Odd things that happen when adults don't mature, episode 1,323,009: > Mike Marlowe fully admits that he sometimes gave George Gillespie a hard time in that AOL chatroom. > But never in his wildest imagination did he expect to be sued in court for what he

Italians: Lust Ain't So Bad

And I thought all that adultery in GoodFellas and The Sopranos was just a mob thing: > Most Italians feel more guilty about overeating than about cheating on their partners, a survey has found, suggesting they care more about staying slim than staying faithful. > The survey, by the psychology

Brews You Can Use

Neat site. Take the ten seconds to register. The Bar [http://www.thebar.com/].

A Don't-Fear-the-Reaper Thing?

Strange story of the day, week, month, year. A 30-year-old man lives with a 106-year-old woman. He lived with her and took care of her for nine years. She had no children and her husband died in 1970. They then sign a double suicide note and agreed to take poison.

The Illicit Sex Sweepstakes

Canada tries to get in front of The Netherlands and Scandinavians: > A new study for the federal Justice Department says Canada should get rid of its law banning polygamy, and change other legislation to help women and children living in such multiple-spouse relationships. [http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/

Secularist Principal Loses in Court

> A federal judge has ruled that a high school principal cannot prohibit a student from wearing his pro-life shirt in school. . . . > The student's shirt is distributed by the American Life League's Rock for Life group and displayed the message: “Abortion is Homicide. You will

Hey, My In-Laws Square Dance!

Welcome to the world of Lesbian and Gay Square Dance! [http://www.iagsdc.org/main/common/index.php] Let's see, there's a gay music label [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3603/]. There's gay rodeo [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3237/]. There are gay prison cell blocks [https://thedailyeudemon.

Secularist Hagiography

From a review of Road to Glory: [http://www.townhall.com/opinion/books_entertainment/be_columns/MeganBasham/2006/01/11/181967.html] > Here's the true (abridged) story of the 1966 Texas Western (now University of Texas-El Paso) Miners: > A color-blind college basketball coach named Don Haskins

Litigating Bishops

I'm not surprised. Discouraged, but not surprised. The reference to "MRC" is to Media Research Center, which is run by Brent Bozell (a Catholic): > MRC has a news service on the Internet, Cybercast News Service. It uses the name CNSNEWS.com and has been since

Late Night

Leno: > The Hamas terror organization has announced it now has its own TV station. Great, now NBC will be the fifth rated network. > Senator Ted Kennedy announced that he and his dog Splash are writing a children's book. Is Splash the best name for Ted Kennedy&

Sleeping in Shifts

A novel idea to try to resolve the debacle that is the modern prison system: > With space scarce as the U.S. prison population grows, a top Idaho lawmaker is proposing that inmates share beds by sleeping in shifts, a practice sometimes used by the U.S. military. Link

Condom City

From the land of pot: > A western Colombian city councilman wants to require everyone in town 14 or older to carry a condom to prevent pregnancy and disease, outraging local priests. > William Pena, a councilman in Tulua, said Wednesday he will present a formal proposal to force all

Feminists

Great article about [http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110007799]Women Who Make the World Worse [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595230092/thedailyeudem-20]. Excerpt: > Where to begin? There's Robin Morgan, one of the founders of Ms. magazine, saying in 1970 that marriage is "a

Multiple-Person Cars Only

> Unborn children don't count when it comes to carpool lanes, according to a judge's ruling. > Even after being fined $367 for improper use of a High Occupancy Vehicle lane, Ahwatukee Foothills resident Candace Dickinson stood by her contention that Arizona traffic laws don'

Discrimination Against Scots

First the Chinese try to usurp the title "Inventors of Golf," [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3601/] and now a Missouri kid can't wear a kilt? Where does it end? Are we going to start denying that they're the smartest people in the world? > A

I'm O.K. Fat, You're O.K. Fat

> A survey finds America's attitudes toward overweight people are shifting from rejection toward acceptance. Over a 20-year period, the percentage of Americans who said they find overweight people less attractive steadily dropped from 55 percent to 24 percent, the market research firm NPD Group found. Link [http:

Good Alito Commentary

Professor Bainbridge is providing pretty good coverage of the Alito hearings [http://www.professorbainbridge.com/]. He's worth reading. Recent excerpt about Kennedy's criticisms of Alito's alleged sexism and unethical behavior: > Has Ted Kennedy ever been more loathsome than during these hearings? Personally, I&

Bursting Convent

Lack of vocations? Not if you ditch the newfangled ways and go back to the tried and true. Link [http://www.catholicreport.org/?id=155].

Gay Artists Rejoice

Why, have gays been discriminated against in the artistic world? Maybe some African-Americans should start their own professional basketball league. > Sony Music has launched the first major music label dedicated to nurturing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender artists. > The label, Music with a Twist, is a joint venture

Inventors of Golf

Now the Commies are stepping in sensitive areas: > A Chinese researcher is challenging Scotland's proud claim to be the home golf. > The Chinese were teeing off in 945AD, 500 years before the first Scot swung a club, Professor Ling Hong ling, of Lanzhou University, claims. Link

Augustine

Augustine's enduring legacy [http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.23661/pub_detail.asp]. Dave Pearson calls this lecture "the best thing I've read online this month [http://suicideofthewest.com/?p=41]."

Leno on Many Things

The man was on fire last night: > Some good news – doctors say that Ariel Sharon is emerging from his coma and can move his hand. The first thing he did was give Pat Robertson the finger. > The Supreme Court confirmation hearings are under way for Judge Sam Alito.

Gumbleton

That explains a lot about this heretic (excuse my rhetoric, but the man is a troubling bishop): > Breaking ranks with his peers, a Roman Catholic bishop called yesterday for state legislatures to temporarily remove the time limits that have prevented many victims of sex abuse from suing the church.

80 Acres of Hell

An acquaintance sends this along: > The History Channel will premiere "Eighty Acres of Hell", the story of the Union's Camp Douglas, where 6,000 Confederate troops perished on Sunday, January 15th at 10pm EST. > "To the Victor, Belongs the Silence." Hidden until

Petition Spot

Takin' it to the streets paper electronic medium. Petition Spot [http://www.petitionspot.com/], a website to help you get your petitions rolling.

Worst Dressed

Mr. Blackwell has released his annual list of worst dressed women [http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,18120,00.html?rsslatest]. I don't follow such things and I don't know much about Mr. Blackwell, but any guy who puts Britney's maternity clothing

Lighten Up, Ski Team

I wasn't going to cover it, but the Bode Miller thing is ridiculous. Here's a summary of his words about drinking and skiing: > "Talk about a hard challenge right there," Miller said. "If you ever tried to ski when you're

Two Reminders

Two things I haven't mentioned in awhile: 1. If you want to know what this blog is about, check out the TDE Lens on the left. It may not look like much, but I put a lot of effort into that sucker, so check it out if you&

American Conservative

> With Republicans embroiled in an influence-peddling scandal that could threaten their control of Congress, the biggest pressure for reform is coming from lawmakers who charge that the party's woes have come from abandoning its core conservative principles. Link [http://news.ft.com/cms/s/cf26b6b2-820b-11da-aea0-0000779e2340.html]. Want

Just Burn All the Flags

> A Polish archbishop said plans to make visitors walk over a Soviet flag as they entered a new "museum of communism" would be un-Christian and a triumph of Bolshevism. Archbishop Jozef Zycinski of Lublin said although many Poles associated negative things with the Soviet flag "it

Great Quote

Ron Artest, explaining why he should be on the U.S. Basketball team: "I may not have class, but I'm an American." It may not make it onto my Favorite Quotes page (link to left), but it's pretty good.

Muslim Air

This can't be wholly accurate. It can't, right? > A British airline banned its staff from taking Bibles and wearing crucifixes or St. Christopher medals on flights to Saudi Arabia to avoid offending the country's Muslims. > British Midland International also has told female

Leno on Brokeback

> A movie theater in Utah abruptly cancelled a screening of the movie "Brokeback Mountain.” They felt it was inappropriate for the community standards. Instead they ran "Deliverance.”

So Get Off Their Backs . . .

. . . or they'll jump on yours: > More than a quarter of obese and overweight people do not want to lose weight, a survey says. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4589010.stm]

The Old Ball and Chain

> A 75-year-old Polish man was chained up by his wife in a dog kennel because she was fed up with him coming home drunk. > Zdzislawa Bukarowicza was chained up by his wife Helena and fed on dog food and water because she was sick of him spending all

Not Just for Catholics Anymore

> Celebrity annulments are all the rage these days, with the latest "didn't happen" marriage belonging to Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney. The pair got married (there are pictures to prove it!) in May and by September had decided to call it quits. Late last month,

Cashman the Criminal

If you missed it on Fox last night, a man pled guilty to raping a six-year-old girl. The judge sentenced him to 60 days. Today, I learn part of the judge's rationale: > [The judge] said . . . his intent was to ensure that Hulett gets treatment [which isn'

The Lion Roars

> The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe has now made $500 million (GBP277 million) at the worldwide box office. > The fantasy film, adapted from C.S. Lewis' classic novel, stormed to the top of global film charts after it was released last month. Link [http://contactmusic.com/

South Continues to Get Exonerated

Thomas DiLorenzo visited the New York Historical Society's exhibit on "Slavery in New York [http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/]" last Friday and was impressed by the lack of political correctness. He offers this quote from a book published by the Society: > For nearly three hundred years,

Unfortunately, Not So Odd Consumer News

Condom key chains, courtesy of (who else?) Planned Parenthood [http://www.ppct.org/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=ppct&Category_Code=KEYC] . Thanks, Dawn Patrol [http://www.dawneden.com/2006/01/chains-of-fools.html].

Belafonte

From the left-leaning Jeff Jarvis [http://www.buzzmachine.com/]: > Harry Belafonte calls Bush “the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world.” He also said that millions of Americans support Venezuelan Hugo Chavez. This from UNICEF's goodwill ambassador. With goodwill like this”¦. I'

Vatican Silent on Agca

Probably the appropriate response [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=41708]: > The Vatican is accepting the decision of a Turkish court to free Mehmet Ali Agca. The would-be assassin of Pope John Paul II will be released on parole on January 12. > Questioned on January 9

Epstein on Newspapers

I've made no secret of my opinion: Joseph Epstein is the best essayist in America. When he writes, people oughtta read, for the simple elegance of his prose, if nothing else. He has now written a great piece about the decline of the newspapers. Link [http://www.commentarymagazine.

Believable

Chicago Sun-Times article about teen sexuality [http://suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-kiss09.html]. One excerpt: > Holly Harris is a Wheaton-based teen counselor who last month was a featured speaker at a parent conference on "the secret lives of teens" held at Glenbard West High School in Glen

Porn Me

I didn't realize that last Saturday featured the 23rd annual AVN Awards, the pornography version of the Oscars. The AVN kind of reminds of a joke popular back in the 1980s: Q. How do you describe Cleveland? A. Detroit without the glitter. The corollary: Q. How do you

Encouraging Motion Sickness

> Stockholm is to introduce library book dispensers on the city's underground rail system to encourage commuters to read. > Automatic book dispensers are to be installed on station platforms, starting with test machines at Liljeholmen, T-Centralen and Gullmarsplan. > Commuters will be able to stick their library

Computer Wife

Great, first my wife, now the screen. I'll never be able to hide a sour mood again. > Many computers are already able to see and hear. However, they have no way of telling whether their users are happy or angry. At CeBIT 2006, researchers will be presenting

Tourism Down

> Buddhism and other Asian belief systems hold that if bodies are not recovered and properly buried, their spirits restlessly wander the Earth. Many Asians believe that lost souls try to drag living beings into a spiritual limbo. [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0106_060106_tsunami_ghosts.html]

Frying Eyes

> Matsushita Electric Industrial, the maker of Panasonic products, said on Thursday it had developed a prototype of a 103-inch plasma display panel, the world's largest plasma screen [http://articles.news.aol.com/business/article.adp?id=20060105062809990009&cid=2288] . The AOL poll that accompanies the story

Smut Revolution?

Stern debuted his Sirius show today, after leaving FM on December 16th. > Stern also introduced George Takei as his new on-air personality. Takei, who played Captain Sulu on the popular television show "Star Trek" and who last year publicly said he is gay, will serve as announcer.

Gay Louisiana Priest

> Deciding he had to practice the honesty he preached, a popular priest has told his family, his bishop and the people in his parish that he is gay. > The Rev. Jim Morrison said he had been working since October on the letter which he sent early this month

Killing Girls

> More than 10m female births in India may have been lost to abortion and sex selection in the past 20 years, according to medical research. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4592890.stm] The result is common-sensical: there's a lopsided boy-to-girl ratio. The

Agca to be Freed

> A court has approved the release from prison the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, saying he completed his sentence for crimes he committed in Turkey, the semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported Sunday. > Mehmet Ali Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after serving almost

Couric's Salary

From Andy Rooney: > [T]hey're talking about giving Katie Couric $20 million. I say take that $20 million you could buy 40 reporters, 40 new reporters. You could give them each $250,000. I mean, there are hundreds of reporters who would jump at getting $250,000.

Another Phenomenon from Our Mass Middle Upper Class

> Mailboxes costing as much as $350 and granite posts that can cost $400 are sprouting up around Boston's western suburbs. Link [http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/01/08/the_latest_stamp_of_distinction_high_end_mailboxes/] .

Crime Doesn't Pay

> Two people suspected of counterfeiting money spent at least a week relieving themselves in plastic shopping bags, because the plumbing stopped working in their apartment when they flushed wads of suspected fake cash down the toilet, authorities said. [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CASH_CLOGGED_TOILET?SITE=

Increasing Brand Loyalty or Intolerance?

Wheaton fires a professor of medieval philosophy because he became Catholic. Catholics are trying to hire more Catholic professors. Is this a renewal of hostilities that have thawed over the past 20 years, or just intitutions being loyal to their religious roots? I'm thinking the latter, and I

The Bloody History of Communism

Click here [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8249035553873309392&q=beagle] to see a video about the atrocity that was Communism, from its Marxist/Darwinian theoretical beginnings through Castro (the intro implies the video will discuss Castro). I've just started watching it, and it looks pretty good.

Cliche Hater

Long-time readers of this blog have no doubt noticed my dislike of cliches. My dislike is a little extreme, but basically it comes down to this: chiches are often substitutes for (and obstacles to) genuine clear thinking and inventive writing. The New Book of Lists [http://www.amazon.com/exec/

Skin Library

I'm not sure I'm fond of my library after all: > Brown University's library boasts an unusual anatomy book. Tanned and polished to a smooth golden brown, its cover looks and feels no different from any other fine leather. > But here's

Something for Sunday Morning

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, by St. Gregory Nazianzen: > "Christ is bathed in light; let us also be bathed in light. Christ is baptised; let us also go down with him, and rise with him. > John is baptising when Jesus draws near. Perhaps he comes

By the Way

Consider picking up the January 15th issue of Our Sunday Visitor. The cover story is a fascinating, insightful, clever, and well-written account of the last things. The article's author is insufferably arrogant, but other than that . . .

Movie Page

By the way, if you're not aware of it, use IMDb [http://www.imdb.com/] to get information about movies. I have found it reliable, and its organizers have a great knack for culling the best quotes from films.

Celling the Family Short

> The round-the-clock availability that cell phones and pagers have brought to people's lives may be taking a toll on family life, a new study suggests. > The study, which followed more than 1,300 adults over 2 years, found that those who consistently used a mobile phone

Brews I Hope No One Will Use

There must be a special circle in Dante's hell for folks like this: > At the suggestion of a fifth-grader, Sen. Bill Alter has entered a bill that would ban the sale of beer at temperatures lower than 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The idea is to lower the likelihood

Ice the Babies

Further taking control of the uncontrollable and thereby further screwing everything up: > Young career women will soon be routinely freezing their eggs so they can have children after their fertility has declined, experts are predicting. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4586838.stm]

Book of Daniel

I just figured NBC's Book of Daniel was offensive to all Christians, but apparently not. The Episcopalians are so happy about it that they've started their own blog (The Book of Daniel Blog [http://blog.edow.org/weblog/]) to defend it and respond to (attack) traditional

Eve on 2005

Eve Tushnet offers a personal review of 2005 [http://eve-tushnet.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_eve-tushnet_archive.html#113660514234272638] . Pretty good stuff.

Historical Miniature

The LA Times this weekend has a great article about the predecessor of King Kong [http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-ca-ingagi8jan08,0,6475224.story?coll=cl-home-more-channels] : Ingagi. > As only a handful of zoos and circuses exhibited apes during the early 20th century, movies featuring all forms of monkeys emerged

Drudge Scoop on Alito

We'll see if Drudge is right. He's not a traditional journalist, but he often outscoops others because he's more of a loose cannon: > Senate Democrats have put into place a plan that includes one last push to take down the nomination of Judge

The Weekend Eudemon

Actually, this is more of a PSA than a Weekend Eudemon. A tight writing deadline and the demands of my law practice--not to mention the four five little kids running around my office right now, killing time while I let my tired wife sleep--will make blogging difficult. TDE will be

Hewitt and Fessio

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Fr. Joseph Fessio. Hewitt's book, Blog, got me blogging on a daily basis. After reading it, though, I suspected Hewitt was an anti-Catholic, possibly a bigoted one, but based on this interview, my fears were misplaced. Bigots are rarely so respectful. Link [http://www.radioblogger.

The 68ers

Even a leftist at a Seattle alternative newspaper decries the Stalinist wannabes who have taken over Europe [http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=25924]: > How did Western Europe come to be ruled by monolithic ideologues? Short answer: the "'68ers," which is what Europeans call those

Brews You Can Use III

Another gem from The Modern Drunkard: The 86 Rules of Boozing [http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/issues/01-02/01_02_booze_rules.htm]. Select excerpts: > 3. Whoever buys the shot gets the first chance to offer a toast. > 10. Do not make eye contact with the bartender if you

Epiphany

THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY THE WISE MEN, by G.K. Chesterton STEP softly, under snow or rain, To find the place where men can pray; The way is all so very plain, That we may lose the way. Oh, we have learnt to peer and pore On tortured puzzles

Book of Daniel II

Even WaPo rakes it [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/05/AR2006010502423.html] . I might watch tonight for the same reason I watch Tony Orlando & Dawn re-runs: out of morbid fascination. > I cannot recall a series in which a greater number of characters seemed so

Brews You Can Use II

Beer cheese soup recipe [http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/food/sfl-fdask05r2jan05,0,2968806.story?coll=sfla-features-food#mmmmm] . Let me know how it turns out.

Christian Hip Hop

Stab a cop in the name of religion: > Hip-Hop Church has been electrifying Greater Hood on Thursday nights for the past year. Pastor Pogue himself was a fan of Blow some years back, when the musician helped rap emerge on the national scene. Since then, however, Pogue has become

Brews You Can Use

I'm finding The Modern Drunkard a highly-entertaining book. Based on my initial pass, it appears to be a "best of" collection from the eponymous magazine. There is, for instance, this bit of wisdom from a collection called, "Etiquette for Inebriates": > Problem: Your dinner

"Uniform" Means "No Uniforms"

The Florida Supreme Court knocked down vouchers yesterday. The ruling isn't based on First Amendment/religion grounds, but rather on a Florida state constitutional provision that requires the state government to provide "uniform" schooling. Problem is, the same type of language is found in many state

Too Wild Not to Mention

Rocket-powered bike [http://www.popsci.com/popsci/how20/f5dec714c2648010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html] . Zero to 60 in five seconds.

Book of Daniel

If you haven't caught any of the outrage over NBC's new Book of Daniel, click here [http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200601/CUL20060104c.html] . Just more religious insults from NBC. I'm not surprised: post from last summer [https://thedailyeudemon.com/

Real Men

I found this statement by Ryan McMaken at the Lew Rockwell blog [http://blog.lewrockwell.com/lewrw/archives/009650.html] interesting, probably because it's pretty close to my sentiments: > Men who would rather drink and start fights than work a steady job comfort themselves with the thought

Can't Be. Only Christianity is Intolerant

> A mother described yesterday hearing her son shot dead after he refused to convert to Islam. . . . > Mr Marriott, an accountancy student and gang member, was killed in a park near his home in Brixton, south London, in June 2004. > Three members of a rival gang, known as

Quirky Marriage Over

Marriage has long been desecrated, but people aren't even taking the pre-nups seriously anymore: > Sally Erickson and Renzie Davidson thought they had the secret to marital bliss. But the eccentric list of demands outlined in their prenuptial agreement, including mandatory backrubs and a $5 nagging fee, still

Dog Children, Episode 872,009

Pushy parents and dog parents combine: > A fame academy for pets has been set up in Germany where talented animals get the chance to sing, dance and play musical instruments.

Fine People Colliding

Always a shock to see finely-tuned moral beings like these folks fighting: > The writer-director of "Kabbalah," an Off-Off-Broadway religious satire in which cast members strip naked, yesterday blasted female lead Emily Stern as a "Jewish-American princess" for abruptly quitting the show, and called her famous

Smug EU and Perceived Fundamental Rights

"You agree with us, or you're a barbarian, and barbarians aren't allowed (sniff) to be in the EU": > An attempt by the Vatican to reduce the number of abortions in one of central Europe's most staunchly Roman Catholic countries is being

Act Natural! Act Natural!

What all goes into those ridiculous Super Bowl half time shows? Plenty, including grooming the fans on the field. The whole thing screams "fake" and "phony." > The NFL is offering 2,000 people a chance to watch the Stones play during the Feb. 5 extravaganza.

Congrats

The University of Texas Tower shines in orange when its team wins a national championship [http://www.utexas.edu/spotlight/tower_lighting.html]. I thought I read once that it shines entirely in orange (gold?) only when its football team won a national championship, but the link above says it

Catholic Radio Leads Election Victory in Poland

And our secularists hate American talk radio and its domination by the Religious Right. I wonder who their most popular personality is, Rush Limbowski? > The Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza has provided extensive coverage of that country's latest national elections and has concluded that the “real winner” is

Keating Asks Questions

In his most recent e-letter, Karl Keating asks a few tough questions about the Vatican's instruction regarding the ordination of homosexuals. Excerpt: > The recent instruction regarding the ordination of homosexuals took, by various accounts, anywhere from five to eight years to write. I realize that things move

Thinking Really Fast

For those who missed news about the highly-respected Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near: [http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20051229-090610-4704r] > Kurzweil's latest futuristic tome is the sequel to his last bestseller, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, which

Chestertonian Poetry

A Chestertonian (fan of G.K. Chesterton) has dedicated himself to writing a new poem every day during 2006 [http://eveningisles.blogspot.com/]. I ain't no poetry expert and the year is awfully young, but it's a novel idea. I suspect it'll be worth

200 Hours?

This guy desecrates a Mass and he only gets 200 hours of community service? That's outrageous. Then again, liturgists have been desecretating it for 20 years, and they're not even prosecuted: > An 18-year-old Alice Springs man who streaked through a Christmas Eve mass will have

Conan on Trump

> Donald Trump is considering a run for president in 2008. He will find a running mate, then later dump her for a younger, hotter running mate.

Drug Me

Teenagers are geeked in Rhode Island (which just approved prescription marijuana [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060104/ap_on_he_me/medical_marijuana_3]): > Teenagers are taking more mind-altering drugs -- but under doctor's orders. > Drug prescriptions meant to counter depression, anxiety and mood or

Standing Up Against Secular Mores

St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota, told a co-habitating couple that they couldn't co-habitate during a student trip to Australia. The sulking couple refused to go at all. Now there's a campus debate raging. I'm more interested in the legality, which some questioned.

Fund Raiser Idea

Might not be a bad idea. I'll have to float it by my children's parochial school principal: > Bake sales? Been done. Car washes? So 2005. And pop can drives can fall flat. So the Rev. Rick Oliver, pastor for the First Church of God in

Dogs as Child Substitutes, Episode 1,227,911

An award-winning pastry chef has opened a bakery that caters only for dogs in Paris [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1671047.html].

666 Weddings

Neutrality is a fiction. When something ceases to be revered, it gets degraded. In this case, if it ceases to be a sacrament or otherwise blessed by the church, it tends to sacrilege: > Registry offices in Holland have been flooded with requests for couples who want to get married

College Ads

Slate takes a clever look at college advertisements during the bowl season [http://www.slate.com/id/2133433]. It's a nice sliver of the ridiculousness that has become higher education. From the conclusion: > The season's most memorable institutional spot won't be playing during

Chug That Pint of Water!

The nation's first Islamic sorority [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060104-122658-7552r.htm]. You'd think that's an oxymoron, given the drunken and slutty ways of sororities these days. I chuckle at the thought of Islamic Greek life, but it's too bad there aren&

8:00?

The media says the Rose Bowl will start at 8:00 tonight. What time will it really start? Lying about little things, after all, is the media's mode of operation (see this piece of commentary I wrote for Catholic Exchange [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_

Sad

From a story late last night: > Twelve miners caught in an explosion in a coal mine were found alive Tuesday night, more than 41 hours after the blast, family members said. > Bells at a church where relatives had been gathering rang out as family members ran out screaming

Dead Pyschology

Pyschology has been captured by social activism, much to its deterioration, at least according to this piece of commentary. [http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060102-101312-8014r.htm] It's highly believable.

Sin Bin Superbowl

Detroit is getting ready to host the Superbowl. The main extra-curricular attraction? The small city of Windsor, which is situated just across the Detroit River in Canada. It has gambling, Cuban cigars, fully-nude exotic dancing, and legal escort (i.e., prostitution) services. Windsor is feigning defensiveness at the characterization, but

Top Ten Junk Science

Junk Science has released its Top 10 junk science stories of 2005 [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,180148,00.html].

Too Dangerous to Play Outside

I guess I'll throw this out there for your general edification: > Children who live in neighborhoods that their parents believe are unsafe are more likely to be overweight than those in neighborhoods perceived as safe, according to a study in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics

India Revolution

According to this NYT article, India is on the brink of a sexual revolution. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/02/business/media/02playboy.html?ex=1293858000&en=48ecbc9cf9fcc214&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss] India with a sexual revolution? One like we experienced in the

Ads Affect Behavior

Yet people scoff when someone suggest that unwholesome TV can have an adverse effect on viewers: > Young adults as well as teenagers drink more under the influence of advertising for alcoholic beverages, researchers said on Monday. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060102/hl_nm/drinking_dc;_ylt=

Jump the Couch

> After scouring the soft white underbelly of the English language, from bathroom walls to the Internet, the editors of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang have chosen "jump the couch" as the Slang of the Year for 2005. . . . The phrase is taken from Tom Cruise's

Abusing Popular Credulity

Another good link [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1967413,00.html] from Welborn [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/2006/01/god_in_the_dock.html]: > An Italian judge has ordered a priest to appear in court this month to prove that Jesus Christ existed. > The case

Literature and Limbo

Harold Bloom at NYT laments the pending doom of Limbo [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/opinion/01bloom.html?th&emc=th]: > Limbo has a rich literary history, in honor of which I hope the pope and his International Theological Commission will refrain from exiling this amiably

Smut Pioneer Dies

> Candy Barr, infamous 1950s stripper and stag film star once romantically linked to mobster Mickey Cohen and associated with Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby, has died. She was 70. LA Times Link [http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-barr3jan03,0,4111602.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews] . It'

The Cruelty Begins?

> Winter begins now, when there's nothing left to look forward to and nothing left to look at. One final blessing on this side of the holiday divide is: At least there's not much daylight for looking. That's from Darragh Johnson's dirge

From My Readings

Concluding words from Christopher Dawson's Progress & Religion: > We are only just beginning to understand how intimately and profoundly the vitality of a society is bound up with its religion. It is the religious impulse which supplies the cohesive force which unifies a society and a culture.

From My Readings

On Rootedness > The Southerner always thinks of himself as being from somewhere, as belonging to some spot of earth . . . He is a Virginian, or he is a Georgian in a sense that I have never encountered in the Middle West–though Indiana Hoosiers may offer a fair approximation. . . The

Smut Subs

First, David Lee Roth was supposed to replace Howard Stern. Now this article says Paris Hilton will become the new Britney Spears [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,4-2006000024,00.html]. It's kind of fun to watch the smuts realign and jostle for better positions. It beats

PSA

Blogging will be light today. It's family and football day.

All Aboard the Hell Express!

> A gunman burst into a church service Sunday evening and robbed several members of the congregation, authorities said. > About 50 people were attending the service at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Bel Air when a man entered brandishing a handgun, the Harford County Sheriff's Office

More Mitt

Shortly after posting the story about Mitt Romney, I found this clever piece by Steve Bainbridge [http://www.professorbainbridge.com/2005/12/mitt_romney_for.html]: an assortment of quotes that indicate we may not want to trust a guy who doesn't smoke or drink. > "They

Mitt

James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal takes a look at whether Mitt Romney could win a presidential election [http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007755]. Interesting, especially this: > A crucial question will be whether Mr. Romney's religion is a handicap. The Church of Jesus

China's Children

Where children aren't cherished and wanted, they're abused. A disturbing story out of China about waves of child snatching. LA Times Link [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-childsnatch1jan01,0,4305055.story?coll=la-home-headlines] . Excerpts: > The reasons for the terrible growth industry in child

Hangover Man

I behaved last night. I took my family to a minor league hockey game, came home and played a card game with the older kids, watched the ball drop, then went to bed. I was up at 7:30 and got the family to 8:30 Mass. For those not

Covert Converts

Chilling article in WaPo this morning about the worst Islamic threat [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/31/AR2005123101056.html] : Westerners who convert to Islam. Excerpt: > Converts are prized by radical Islamic groups because they can usually operate freely in Europe, Asia and North America without

Something for Sunday Morning

> Even where the Faith is preserved men pursue wealth and power inordinately. Where the Faith is lost they pursue nothing else. Hilaire Belloc

HNY

Happy New Year!

Slow Day

I guess everyone's drinking already. There's scarcely nothing to blog about this afternoon. Thankfully, I went to the bookstore this morning with a gift card I received for Christmas. With this "burn money," I bought The New Book of Lists [http://www.amazon.com/

Live Cam

This might be handy to have tonight, if you're sitting around with your family, waiting for the Ball [http://www.earthcam.com/ts/]. > This broadcast quality camera pans north and south to show multiple views of Times Square. Catch the action in the streets and see all

The Ball

Pretty much everything you'd want to know about the Times Square Ball [http://www.timessquarenyc.org/nye/nye_ball.html]. Perfect reading for being ready when your ten-year-old starts asking questions in nine hours.

A Sad Day

Steve Martin has declared himself for the secularists: he has written for The Huffington Post [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-martin/leap-second-lovers-are-tr_b_13068.html] . His piece is clever: a purported monologue by Bill O'Reilly that consists of disjointed connections, bordering on jibberish. The non-sequitorial humor is classic Martin,

Barney on Peace

> Massachusetts could face an "angry, divisive" fight if a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage reaches the 2008 state ballot, Rep. Barney Frank says. > The congressman blamed backers of the initiative petition for trying to provoke a new fight despite a lack of controversy over

Dinner for One

A fairly short essay about a unique New Years tradition in Germany [http://www.slate.com/id/2133551/].

The Weekend Eudemon

An abbreviated Weekend Eudemon today. The excellent exigencies of the holidays continue to tap my time, leaving precious few resources for the staples of reading and writing. Last night, I went to the drinking club with my brother and father, where we joined a handful of friends to watch college

Trash of 2005

Another article highlights interesting stories from 2005. Except this time, the media presented them seriously and as facts, when in fact, they are trash. Link [http://www.stats.org/record.jsp?type=news&ID=534]. Excerpt: > America's Teens, Dazed And Confused - 2005 saw a spate

Fake Priest

A canon lawyer breaks down the implications for parishioners who had a fake priest as their pastor for several months [http://www.canonlaw.info/blog.html]. Interesting stuff. Excerpt: > [W]hat of those Catholics who attended "services" or received what they thought were sacraments from this man?

Anti-Christian Jeans in Sweden

This is no big deal [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051230/ap_on_re_eu/sweden_devil_s_denim]. Sweden is an anti-Christian country. This would be like wearing anti-Osama t-shirts in the U.S: > Cheap Monday jeans are a hot commodity among young Swedes thanks to their

Canada and the EU Better Get Busy . . .

. . . if they want to stay on the cutting edge: > A woman has married a dolphin in Israel. > Sharon Tendler from Redbridge, East London, wore a white silk dress and a pink tiara for the ceremony in Eliat, Israel. > The dolphin, Cindy, swam to the side of his

Where's the HCLU: Hindu Civil Liberties Union?

> A Hindu couple whose sacred cows were banished from the western New York village of Angelica in 2003 have renewed their fight to bring them home. > Stephen and Linda Voith are appealing a state Supreme Court decision that sided with Angelica officials, who cited rules governing farm animals

Brews You Can Use II

Genocide, AIDS, starvation. Just when you didn't think it could get any worse in Africa, Uganda runs out of beer [http://www.monitor.co.ug/business/bus12282.php] . > Beer shortage hit Kampala suburbs as food prices shot up during the festive season. > Bell beer manufactured by

Stopping Segregation

But will the main prison library have room for the Truman Capote books and Judy Garland videos? > One of the nation's few jail dormitories specifically for gay and transgender prisoners is closing on Rikers Island - where ten of New York City's 15 jails are

Brews You Can Use

I'm not a fan of champagne cocktails, but it's New Year's weekend. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/27/AR2005122700204.html] . Excerpt: > The Bleu Sky > Makes 1 serving > Bartender Tim Stover of IndeBleu likes to use

Dreher Backs-Up Brokeback

Catholic convert, conservative, and Pulitzer-nominee Rod Dreher says Brokeback isn't nearly the homosexual propaganda reel we've been led to believe. Link [http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-brokeback_29edi.ART.State.Edition1.187ff8cd.html] . Excerpt: > Brokeback Mountain is the story of

Christmas Average

From the New York Post: > Consumers spent an average of $763 each on holiday shopping this season . . . I think my wife and I spent less than $763 together, and that's with seven kids to buy for. Of course, Max (2) got a bunch of gaudy junk (that

What Say You, Pessimists?

Nice essay about the doom and gloom folks that control the media [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3284-1961659,00.html]. Excerpt: > The year 2005 does not enter the top league of disaster years, even if we include the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. The 20th century alone

Rules of Sin

> The biggest jerks on the road don't act any differently when they step out from behind the wheel, University of Minnesota researchers have found. > The most hostile people tend to react more aggressively while driving than their less hostile counterparts would, according to a study of

Odd Stories 2005

Another set of odd stories in 2005 [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/27/051228034114.m5lc1sy6.html]. Funny stuff. Another set of such stories [http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051218/od_afp/yearoffbeatstrange;_ylt=ApNInJuwRLudSs_ZlgCTgAKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-] .

Pope Joan

More on Pope Joan [http://newsbusters.org/node/3386].

Treating the Stupid with Respect

Received the following email from a remarkably well-read friend. His comment in the second paragraph is accurate and apt: > Tune in Thursday, December 29, 2005 at 10PM Eastern to see Diane Sawyer of ABC News interview Donna Woolfolk Cross, author of Pope Joan, about the book, her research and

But Could You Throw Them?

> The ancient Egyptians respected dwarfs, and did not see them as having a physical handicap, according to a study by US researchers. > A team from Georgetown University Hospital looked at biological remains and artistic evidence of dwarfism in ancient Egypt. > Ancient Egyptians worshipped dwarf gods, and many

Brokeback Buzz

> Who's afraid of a couple of gay cowboys? Not moviegoers, who helped "Brokeback Mountain" post the highest per-screen average over the film-flush holiday weekend. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051229/ap_on_en_mo/film_brokeback_mountain]. That's the first time

Internet Tastes

> Internet users share many common interests, but men are heavier consumers of news, stocks, sports and pornography while more women look for health and religious guidance, a broad survey of U.S. Web usage has found. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051229/wr_nm/internet_gender_dc;

Text Messaging

WaPo runs a piece this morning about the popularity of text messaging [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/28/AR2005122801430.html] . Excerpts: > A text message sent via mobile phone is usually confined to 160 characters or less and takes several seconds to send. To accommodate this

Parents Matter, Exhibit 1,245,990

> Teens who have a secure relationship with their parents show faster development of coping skills than their peers with insecure parental ties, a new study shows [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10616716].

Tell that to the EU

> Man is the masterpiece of God's creation, and when a chld is conceived, "God already sees the future of that still-unformed embryo," Pope Benedict XVI said at his public audience on December 28. > God recognizes a human being even when the unborn child "

Wafer Snacks

For an extra $10 a bag, an Anglican gay bishop will try to consecrate them for you: > Unconsecrated communion wafers are growing in popularity as a snack food throughout Quebec, alongside potato chips and popcorn on supermarket shelves. Link [http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20051227-010551-9078r].

Cutting One's Phone Bills

A novel way of establishing one's patriarchal authority: > Marlon Brando Gill may have taken AT&T's "reach out and touch someone" slogan too far, according to officials. Police have charged the Missouri man with felony assault, suspecting that Gill crammed a cell

Good for the Duchy of Muscovy

> The Moscow Patriarchate has suspended relations with the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Sweden after it decided to establish an official ceremony to bless homosexual couples, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday. Link [http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/12/27/churchgayban.shtml].

Hug Technique

For the hugging types in my audience: How to give a hug [http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1326555]. Related: When it is acceptable for a man to hug another man [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1108/] (see last paragraph).

Mother Teresa Bun Stolen

> When Bob Bernstein arrived at his coffeehouse to assess the scene of an early Christmas morning break-in, the one thing he noticed missing was the cinnamon bun that bears a striking likeness to Mother Teresa. > Bernstein said he believes that the culprit is someone angry over the shop

EU Decadence Marches On

First, they tell Poland that its stance on homosexuality will hinder its inclusion in the EU. Now, they're posturing to make abortion an international human right [http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/596]. > A European Union advisory panel has issued a statement saying that medical professionals are not

Cheaper by the Dozen II

I took my little family of seven children to see Cheaper by the Dozen II last night. I'd give it a 6 (1-10 scale). I gave the first one an 8. Too much of the humor is cornballish, which appealed to my children, but then it used a

Bogus Chinese Law

From this morning's NYT: [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/28/international/asia/28land.html?hp&ex=1135832400&en=553f5143549e60e2&ei=5094&partner=homepage] > [A]a 1989 statute that entitles people to sue the state, remains a beguiling fiction, scholars say. > "

Howard the Wise Man

The Washington Times gives us an excerpt from an interview with Howard Stern in the January issue of Esquire: [http://www.washtimes.com/culture/culturebriefs.htm] > But let's look at these people [on the Christian Right]. They want to take away a woman's right to

NSA Uproar

Curious about the National Security Administration's new tools against terrorism that has the civil libertarians crying in their apple martinis? David Ignatius at the Washington Post provides a nice overview of what's going on [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/27/AR2005122700718.html]

Modern Gladiators

It might be a good time to revisit St. Augustine's cautions about the sin of blood lust, though I'll be the first to admit that a little bit of this stuff is entertaining: > Excoriated at first as gratuitous mayhem, extreme fighting toned down the violence

Six Truths about the Family

In the upcoming issue of Touchstone, Allan Carlson offers six lessons he has learned about the family [http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=19-01-023-f]. Lesson One: The family issues never change. Lesson Two: While the underlying family issues never change, the “pro-family” political party does. Lesson Three: Social engineering

Shakespeare the Papist

I haven't read it, but I bet it's good: Shakespeare the Papist [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193258921X/thedailyeudem-20], by Peter Milward. I know of Milward through my Gilbert Magazine contacts. He's highly respected. This book will probably become a staple among

Odd Consumer News

Frugal is as frugal does. At $30.00, I might have to get one of these: Kill a Watt [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001EY6P0/thedailyeudem-20]. From an endorsement at Boing Boing [http://www.boingboing.net/2005/12/27/killawatt_electrical.html]: > The Kill-A-Watt plugs into a

And the Brown Shirts Grin

It's the honorable thing to do, but I cringe at the self-righteous homosexual brown shirts who see this resignation as a just result: > The Madrid magistrate who refused to marry same sex couples has presented his resignation to the Supreme Court. > Antonio Alonso, who is the

Dang It

> Researchers who examined eight trials of traditional hangover remedies found there was no clear proof any worked. . . . > Remedies listed on the internet included aspirin, paracetamol, bananas, cabbage, charcoal tablets, eggs, exercise, green tea, milkshakes, Vegemite on toast, pizzas, and 'hair of the dog' alcoholic drinks. Link

Crushing the Creche

> A nativity scene that includes naked women and transvestites standing near the baby Jesus has caused outrage in Italy. > The scene was created by the Scuotto siblings from Naples, who are famous for carving traditional nativity scenes. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1657012.html]. Don&

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 (in

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 cent

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 basic options are:

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 first

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" to

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 on Saturday, attended

Merry Christmas

> "He rules the world with truth and grace." –Isaac Watts ++ "I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." –Charles Dickens ++ "The Incarnation...illuminates and orders all other phenomena, explains both our laughter and our logic, our fear

A Christmas Carol

by G.K. Chesterton The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap, His hair was like a light. (O weary, weary were the world, But here is all aright.) The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast, His hair was like a star. (O stern and cunning are the kings,

The Tree

> The decorated Christmas tree was in use among the Romans and was introduced to Britain from Germany soon after Queen Victoria's marriage with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1840. Santa Claus and his reindeer came to Britain at the same time. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase

A Few Christmas Repeats

I've posted these before, but they're good enough to repeat: Max Beerbohm once said, “I may be old-fashioned, but I am right.” They're good words to recall at this time of the year. After all, we tend to mark the holidays with things old

GKC on Christmas

Quotes from G.K. Chesterton: "What life and death may be to a turkey is not my business; but the soul of Scrooge and the body of Cratchit are my business." "If a man called Christmas Day a mere hypocritical excuse for drunkeness and gluttony, that would

Mistletoe

> Shakespeare calls it "the baleful mistletoe," perhaps in allusion to the Scandinavian legend that it was with an arrow made of mistletoe and wielded by the blind god Hoder that Balder was slain, or to the tradition that it was once a tree from which the wood

Christmas Quotes

“There were only two classes of men who heard the cry that night: Shepherds and Wise Men. Shepherds: those who know they know nothing. Wise Men: those who know they do not know everything.” Fulton Sheen "Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our

PSA

Postings will be light from now through Christmas. There'll be a handful of postings, but overall, the site will slow down significantly. Merry Christmas to all. Our Savior has come. Be joyful.

Brews You Can Use III

Snobs try to ruin everything: > It looks like champagne and costs just as much. But the latest vintage bubbly coming to Britain's restaurant tables is a Â£32 bottle of beer. Deus, brewed in the Belgian village of Buggenhout, is matured in the Champagne region of France.

Brews You Can Use II

I'm not sure I've ever been prouder of my home state: > "Michigan Beer Cans (MBC)" is an attempt to show pictorially all known variations of beer cans produced from our home state, providing a useful, evolving index to aid the Michigan specialist. To

Brews You Can Use

The first commercial Christmas card was produced in 1846. It "was condemned by temperance enthusiasts because members of the family group in the centre piece were cheerfully drinking wine." Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1999), p. 240.

Fleming on Pop Culture

Thomas Fleming at Chronicles excoriates pop culture [http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/cgi-bin/hardright.cgi/2005/12/21/Stargazing]. I'm not sure I wholly agree with everything, but he's not wholly wrong about anything: > I have never understand why Richard Pryor or George Carlin–as original

Two Faces of Islam

> Paradoxically, Muslims in the US and Great Britain are, today, far more dominated by Islamist extremism than their counterparts in various Muslim countries. In many lands where the majority follows Islam, a struggle is underway between mainstream moderates and radicals inspired by the ultra-Wahhabi preachers of Saudi Arabia, the

Latin

Looking for some Latin reading material? Try The Latin Library [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/].

Festivus is Real!

> Invented in 1966 by a Reader's Digest editor but made popular through a 1997 Seinfeld episode, the fictional celebration has been brought to life by fervent supporters across the country -- including Clarkston native Blake Coe. > According to the Seinfeld episode, Festivus is celebrated on Dec.

Cheaper by the Dozen II

My kids are pulling hard to see this one, which we'll probably do next week. I found this overview from the LA Times [http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-cheaper21dec21,0,5019930.story?coll=cl-home-more-channels] helpful: > Sam Harper's clever script turns upon a universal tug,

The Real Thing

I would've thought that inhaling soda through the nose stings: > Nasa Indians in southwestern Colombian have launched a soft drink made from coca leaves, a staple among indigenous Colombians for centuries and the main ingredient in cocaine. The amber-colored soda, its promoters say, offers a home-grown alternative

The Naked Public Square

From a Washington Post editorial [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/21/AR2005122102055.html] , endorsing Judge Jones' opinion in the I.D. case: > If a school district adopts a policy of promoting a religious cosmology, however couched, in an effort to undermine science and thereby

The New Santa

> Pope Benedict XVI resembled a clean-shaven Father Christmas when he donned a red velvet hat with white ermine trim to face a winter chill for his weekly general audience. As temperatures hovered around nine degrees celsius (48 degrees fahrenheit) thousands of pilgrims who gathered in the square were treated

Swinging is Protected

> Clubs that allow group sex and partner swapping do not harm Canadian society and should not be considered criminal, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Wednesday. > The high court, which was ruling on two Quebec cases, said Canadian standards can tolerate the activities, even when they are done

Happy Holidays Losing

Merry Christmas is pulling out front in the culture wars. If it wins in the culture, the schools, big box stores, and malls will will follow. > In the cultural battle over whether to use the seasonal greeting "Happy holidays" or "Merry Christmas," the latter appears

Old Kiddie Record Site

> Kiddie Records Weekly is an ongoing project celebrating the golden age of children's records. This brief but prolific period spanned from the mid forties through the early fifties, producing a wealth of all-time classics. > Each recording has been carefully transferred from the original 78s and encoded

Virtual Cookie Decorating

Decorating Christmas cookies without the mess [http://www.theoworlds.com/christmas/] . . . or the fun.

Wrong Confessional, Kid

The natural urge to confess rears its head again: > An 18-year-old passenger who caused a fatal crash by pulling on the steering wheel pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter after prosecutors discovered a confession on his online blog. > Blake Ranking wrote "I did it" on his blurty.

RIP, Great Man

He helped dieters enjoy beer, or at least something like it: > Joseph L. Owades, the biochemist credited with inventing light beer and creating the formula for several leading brands including Samuel Adams Boston Lager, has died. He was 86. Link [http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=4268791&

Charlie Brown Christmas' Poor Start

> "When CBS bigwigs saw a rough cut of 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' in November 1965, they hated it. > "'They said it was slow,' executive producer Lee Mendelson remembers with a laugh. There were concerns that the show was almost defiantly different: There

Cincinnati Encouraging Gay Youth?

Is this real? > All people deserve respect, basic rights and a safe environment, regardless of their sexual orientation. Catholics Respecting Youth in Sexual Minorities (CRYSM), a program of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati Catholic Ministry with Gays and Lesbians (CMGL), exists to advocate for respect, basic rights and a safe

Letterman on Clinton/Bush

> Time has named former Presidents Bush and Clinton the partners of the year. These two are now so close they're thinking about making a cowboy movie.

Catholic Castro

It'd be the biggest conversion since Oscar Wilde: > Fidel Castro wants Pope Benedict XVI to visit Cuba, an Italian prelate has disclosed [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=41356]. > The Cuban dictator told Cardinal Bertone that he saw Pope Benedict as a man with

St. Louis Uproar

If you're following the Bishop Burke v. St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, you may want to check out Richard John Neuhaus' post about the subject. Link [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=118]. Excerpt: > If you believe some news accounts, it is all a grab for money

The ID Judge

If you didn't hear, things didn't go well for the Intelligent Design folks in the Pennsylvania case. Judge John Jones (a Bush appointee) wrote a scathing opinion. Here's an excerpt from the Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/20/

Shorty

It's the shortest day of the year. Here in the SW corner of Michigan, sunrise is at 8:06 am and sunset at 5:14 pm. And it's colder than a cheated wife's heart. A fitting first day of Winter.

Honored Wife

My wife was recently "appointed as a biographical candidate to represent" her town in the Empire Who's Who Among Executives and Professionals. The letter came yesterday, and she's pretty geeked. She's president of her own corporation--a small, closely-held thing she ran when

Expensive Santas

Here's an article in the Chicago Tribune about men paying over $100 to look exactly like Santa [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512180254dec18,1,807059.story?coll=chi-news-hed] . It's nice that they're so earnest about their job. It's a worthwhile one,

Diabolical!

> A human rights group is alleging the United States operated a secret prison near Afghanistan's capital as recently as last year. > The group claims that music by Eminem and Dr. Dre were used as instruments of torture. Link [http://www.kcra.com/news/5577000/detail.html]

Top Strangeness

Top strange stories of 2005 [http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051218/od_afp/yearoffbeatstrange;_ylt=ApNInJuwRLudSs_ZlgCTgAKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-] . There are some good ones in here.

Chinese Transplants

Handing out the death penalty for double-parking a rickshaw: > A Chinese company has begun marketing kidneys, livers and other organs from executed prisoners to sick Britons in need of transplants. . . . What could possibly go wrong with that arrangement? > Some human rights campaigners have claimed the use of transplanted

Stop the Neanderthals!

The Western Isles of Scotland have voted to outlaw gay unions, notwithstanding the Eltonizing of England that started this week. The Western Isles are deeply traditional and Christian. They want to resist the secularizing forces of the 21st century. Is that okay with the gays, that there is one small

Desegregating California Prisons

I didn't know it, but California has maintained a measure of segregation in its prison systems. A recent U.S. Supreme Court declared the segregation illegal, so California is changing it. I liked this quote from the civil rights plaintiff's attorney who brought the case: >

Jurassic Me

Far out. What could possibly go wrong? > The first serious possibility that the woolly mammoth, or something like it, could walk on Earth again was raised yesterday by an international team of scientists. > A portion of the genetic code of the mammoth has been reconstructed and, to the

Art for Art's Sake

> A German art expert was fooled into believing a painting done by a chimpanzee was the work of a master. > The director of the State Art Museum of Moritzburg in Saxony-Anhalt, Katja Schneider, suggested the painting was by the Guggenheim Prize-winning artist Ernst Wilhelm Nay. > "It

Quiet Reminder

As the fever pitch rises, Benedict XVI reminds us [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=41323]: > "During this period of preparation for Christmas, let us cultivate interior meditation, in order to welcome and safeguard Jesus in our lives," the Holy Father said at his Sunday

Taking Down Slasher Santa

Good for the marine. Unlawful, but good for him: > A former Marine took a stab at saving the Christmas spirit yesterday – knocking over a bloody, knife-wielding Santa that was part of a controversial display outside a Manhattan home. > Julius Spohn, 64, of Newark, said he had read about

No Prostitutes Here

> German towns may erect 'No Prostitutes Here' signs over fears an army of call girls are coming for the 2006 World Cup. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1653451.html]. Where sin isn't discouraged, it's encouraged. Where it isn't

Thrashing Barbie

Mildly interesting study: > Barbie, that plastic icon of girlhood fantasy play, is routinely tortured by children, research has found. > The methods of mutilation are varied and creative, ranging from scalping to decapitation, burning, breaking and even microwaving, according to academics from the University of Bath. > The findings

The Coffee Table Book

I've never been a big fan of coffee table books. They're kind of like a box of chocolates: real appealing, but when you start tasting, it turns out that much of it isn't very good. Nonetheless, I keep trying the chocolates and I always

Discrimination?

A prison in Minnesota that houses 496 criminals--including 79 killers, 5 kidnappers and 17 burglars--doesn't have a fence around it, and the neighbors don't mind and, in fact, oppose plans to fence it in. Excerpt: > Residents of this suburb southwest of Minneapolis apparently did not

Surprised by Happiness

> Happiness, rather than working hard, is the key to success, according to research published today. Cheerful people are more likely to try new things and challenge themselves, which reinforces positive emotion and leads to success in work, good relationships and strong health, say psychologists. Link [http://www.guardian.co.

Racially Neutral Hurricane

> The bodies of New Orleans residents killed by Hurricane Katrina were almost as likely to be recovered from middle-class neighborhoods as from the city's poorer districts, such as the Lower 9th Ward, according to a Times analysis of data released by the state of Louisiana. LA Times

Teen Cams

Highly disturbing piece at NYT this morning about voluntary child porn [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/19/national/19kids.ready.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=5eb58e4d773204ee&hp&ex=1135054800&partner=homepage] : youngsters with webcams who receive money and gifts from pedophiles for undressing

West Continues to Truckle to Those Who Hate Us

From Australia [http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,17598854%5E2761,00.html] : > A WA hospital has scrubbed baked ham from its Christmas menu, fearing Muslim patients could be offended. > It has also overhauled its entire menu so that all meals are now halal

Real Life Brokebacks

The New York Times has gone out and found a few real, live gay cowboys in Wyoming and has painted the same old story: these are real men, normal men, rodeo men. There might be lots of them. But, of course, the rough-and-tumble homophobes in Wyoming repress such natural and

Healthy Red Wine

The evidence seems to keep piling up. Now, if they could only come up with similar studies for potato chips and beer: > When your host offers you red or white wine at her annual holiday party this year, there may be a good reason to choose red. In a

Brokeback

Jimmy Akin takes apart the USCCB's gushing review of Brokeback Mountain. [http://www.jimmyakin.org/2005/12/the_brokeback_m.html] He's dead-on.

Santarchy

Between these clowns and the Krupniks [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3347/], the commercialization of Christmas is looking pretty good: > A group of 40 people dressed in Santa Claus outfits, many of them drunk, went on a rampage through Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, robbing stores, assaulting security guards

The Road to Hell is Paved with Gold

The U.S. mass upperclass is taking ostentatious consumption to new levels: eating gold and silver. They're shavings that are sprinkled on top of food and in drinks. The purpose? Pure show, like parsley, but about 1,000 times more expensive. They say it was popular in Renaissance

More Cuban Flight

A handful of writers I respect--and many that I don't--say Cuba is a fine place. Poor, but happy. And then I remember the waves of refugees that have repeatedly peaked during the past thirty years, and I just don't get it. The place must be as

Cruisin' into Scientology

Fascinating piece at the LA Times this morning about Tom Cruise and Scientology [http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-scientology18dec18,0,2963052.story?coll=la-home-headlines] . The group's most powerful leader, David Miscavige, went to great lengths to court Cruise, and Cruise is hitting the greatest heights of Scientology. Excerpts:

Something for Sunday Morning

"The saints know that to acknowledge indebtedness is one of the ingredients of pure joy. Souls in hell hate it more than anything." Thomas Howard.

Muslim Hatred in Britain

A call to Jihad? Heck, I'd just be happy for a call to the Western world to wake up. A startling editorial [http://www.currentviewpoint.com/cgibin/news.cgi?id=11&command=shownews&newsid=826] : > Just before going back to the USA after five months

Brokeback II

I guess the USCCB has already been criticized for its review. Link [http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=5643]. The review I linked to earlier had already been toned down. The first one must've really drooled with appreciation.

Planned Cover Up

Planned Parenthood might be the most insidious legitimate (i.e., lawful) organization in America. It was built on the hateful and bogus theories of Margaret Sanger and today it kills babies lots of potatoes and encourages youth sex however it can: > After drawing attention from pro-life groups, Planned Parenthood&

Brokeback

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Office for Film and Broadcasting has written a troubling review [http://www.usccb.org/movies/b/brokebackmountain.shtml] of Brokeback Mountain. Undoubtedly written to be as objective as possible, it fails to mention the particularly disturbing thing: the film is meant to break

Odd Consumer News

I don't know what's worse: Krupnik [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3347/] or these tampon tree decorations [http://www.tamponcrafts.com/].

Freaky Book

This book screams out "spontaneous purchase," though it's not for the weak-stomached: Secrets of the Sideshows [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813123585/thedailyeudem-20]. Excerpt from a review [http://www.nthposition.com/secretsof.php]: > Today, with few exceptions, like Jim Rose's traveling

The Weekend Eudemon

Running Man 2005. A week until Christmas. I've done virtually no shopping, the social functions are landing like a flurry of hard jabs, and I have commitments with my children. Should be interesting the next couple of days, seeing if I can live without breathing. On top of

Anonymous STDs

It's hard to comment on this one, other than to thank my stars that my parents taught me the virtue of marriage: > E-mail sent through Web sites launched in Los Angeles and San Francisco is providing people with a free, sometimes anonymous, way to tell their casual

Mega-Shut Down

Aaron Wolf at Chronicles has a good piece about the mega-churches' decision to shut the doors on Sunday [http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/cgi-bin/christmas.cgi/Churches%20Against%20Christmas/2005/12/16=] . Excerpt from conclusion: > What we can get at church that we can't get at home

Odd Coverage

I've been seeing a lot of news stories about the "radical right's" boycott of pro-gay, pro-feminist, pro-abortion companies. The stories don't usually mention that there's been a similar effort among the "radical right's" opponents. Check out

Virtual Economy

The Economist takes a look at the on-line gaming world that has spawned a real world economic sector. Link [http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5300059]. Excerpt: > Millions of people now spend several hours a week immersed in “massively multiplayer online role-playing games” (MMORPGs). These are

E-Santa

Santa Claus is on the 'net: > Out-of-work actor Kevin Lowry thinks he has not only stumbled upon a holiday gold mine, but perhaps his perfect role: Santa Claus. > No matter that the 27-year-old Chicagoan has nary a white hair upon his head, or that he tips the

Black History Month

> Morgan Freeman says the concept of a month dedicated to black history is "ridiculous." "You're going to relegate my history to a month?" the 68-year-old actor says in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" to air Sunday (7 p.m.

Brews You Can Use III

Modern Drunkard Magazine says its roots stretch back 100 years to a publication in Boston known as Genteel Drunkards Drink at Hiram Rich's Real Irish Saloon, which started as a response to a Boston Globe writer's (Mr. Hollis') printed criticism of Hiram Flannery Rich'

Latvia Dissin' the EU?

> MPs in the Baltic state of Latvia have passed a constitutional amendment ensuring that gay couples cannot marry. . . . > Members of Parliament said they were concerned that since Latvia has joined the European Union, EU laws will enable gay people to gain rights including the right to marry. But

Brews You Can Use II

> Scores of independent breweries across the nation have begun brewing a special beer to honor Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday in January. Poor Richard's Ale was formulated to resemble a beer that Franklin himself might have enjoyed and brewed. Link [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/

True? Sanctionable? Or Somewhere In-Between?

> A priest sued the Newark Archdiocese and other Catholic agencies Tuesday, accusing them of doing nothing to stop clergy abuse and retaliating against him for helping victims. > The suit, filed by the Rev. Robert Hoatson in U.S. District Court, Manhattan, also alleges that three of the region&

Brews You Can Use

A bloody Harry: > A Japanese brewery and determined pub owner teamed to produce a tomato-based low-malt beer. > Tomato Bibere combines the sweet flavor of a tomato with the bitter taste of hops. One tomato is used in the production of each 330ml bottle of reddish beer. Link [http:

Stem Cell Fraud

> Most and possibly all of the human embryonic stem cell cultures reportedly made by a South Korean research team this year were fake, a member of the team told Korean news outlets yesterday. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/15/AR2005121502243.html] . This was

New Gilbert Came Today

The new issue of Gilbert Magazine is out. I just got my copies today. I suspect they'll be hitting mailboxes within the next day or two. It looks like a good one: Dale Ahlquist writes about the Catholic convert Alec Guinness, John Peterson spins two excellent stories, Mike

The New Humanism

Catchy phrase, but I think it's already been taken by Irving Babbitt, Paul Elmer Moore and others of their ilk [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Humanism]. Oh well, the idea is good: evangelize the culture; stop capitulating to it. > Pope Benedict XVI encouraged the exploration of

Broken Tinsel

J. James Estrada at the Spero Blog weighs in on Tinsel Town's box office problem. Link [http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idcategory=34&idSub=127&idArticle=2287] . Excerpt: > Last year, Hollywood ignored Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ at awards

Transgender Wars?

> Welcome to the Transgender Law and Policy Institute. We are a non-profit organization dedicated to engaging in effective advocacy for transgender people in our society. The TLPI brings experts and advocates together to work on law and policy initiatives designed to advance transgender equality. Link [http://transgenderlaw.org/]. And:

Hollywood's Twenty-Year Low

The melancholy bugle keeps playing for Hollywood. > A box-office jolt from the magic kingdoms of Kong, Narnia and Hogwarts will close Hollywood's year with some holiday cheer, though not enough to offset the biggest decline in movie attendance in 20 years. Link [http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/

25% Abortion Rate

From Australia [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0%2C5744%2C17562237%25255E2702%2C00.html] : > The first national abortion figures show more than 84,000 pregnancies are terminated each year, or one in four pregnancies. Australia is the land of permissiveness. I thought as long as everyone

The Drag Folks

In his column this morning, George Will writes about drilling in Alaska. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121401933.html] . He makes this funny, but helpful, observation: > For some people, environmentalism is collectivism in drag. Such people use environmental causes and rhetoric not

DJ Dylan

As the tiresome countdown to the uncensored Howard Stern continues, some good news comes out of satellite radio land: > [Bob Dylan] has signed on to serve as host of a weekly one-hour program on XM Satellite Radio, spinning records and offering commentary on new music and other topics, starting

Ford Back on the Gay Horse

Ford to renew commitment to stand behind gays. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121402361.html] . > Ford Motor Co. yesterday said it will resume advertising Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles in gay-themed publications, following an outpouring of fury from gay groups that said

The Transplant

The whole idea of face transplant surgery is eerie, and it got off to an even eerier start with last month's first successful one: > Among the most disturbing aspects of the debate are conflicting reports from doctors about whether the transplant was the result of two suicide

The American Catholic Renaissance

The Anchoress feels a renaissance underway [http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/12/14/tide-turning-for-catholicism/]. Funny thing is, I've been feeling it, too, but figured it was baseless optimism. > I am still getting emails - fewer, but a couple a week - from Catholics or “almost Catholics” who are

Cutting Edge Violent Santa

From the New York Post: [http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/59662.htm] > A 10-year-old girl was so disgusted by the ghoulish slasher Santa on East 18th Street she wrote the couple who put it in their front yard yesterday and begged them to take it down – for fear

The Litigious Family

> A 19-year-old German girl has sued her mother for confiscating her two guinea pigs, a dog and a litter of puppies and giving them to an animal home, authorities said Wednesday [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2005-12-14T175533Z_01_DIT464522_RTRUKOC_0_US-GERMANY-PETS.xml&

Cigarette Tax Hike

Just increase the tax to $1,000 a pack and be done with it: > A coalition of health organizations wants to quadruple the tax on a pack of cigarettes in California to boost funding for a variety of health programs. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051214/ap_on_

Abortion Underground

NYC has become a haven for late-term abortions (after 21 weeks). According to this article [http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/features/15249/index.html] in New York magazine, about 100 people are part of the "Haven Coalition," a group of volunteers that open their apartments to these pregnant

Nun Blog

A good nun is a great thing. A bad one is an atrocious thing. This nun [http://romans8v29.blogspot.com/] reads Gilbert Magazine and National Catholic Register. That's a good sign. Her blog offers an enjoyable look at life from the other side of the habit.

"Catholic" Universities

Mark Shea has a great piece this morning about the dirt they're teaching at "Catholic" colleges. Link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=2&art_id=31034]. Excerpt: > The head of the Seattle University School of Theology came out and, by

The Great Divide

> Judging the Narnia books solely by their Christianity is an impoverished way of reading them. It is a reflection more of our polarized moment -- in which a perceived cultural divide has alienated Christians from secular culture and secular readers from anything that smacks of religious leanings -- than

The Control Freaks

No one wants to let go any more (which is another way of saying "no one wants to love unconditionally any more"), and the pre-nup is a great example of it. In Hollywood, where I assume pre-nups are as common as quit claim deeds, they're taking

Killing a Bogeyman?

The Christmas Wars remind me of a phenomenon that I see repeatedly during volunteer efforts. If I'm in a meeting and a person doesn't like a particular idea, one of the favorite tacts is to raise the specter of liability. "I don't think

PSA

Blogging is uncertain today. The Charter Communications connection appears to be down in parts of the town, so I won't have uninterrupted access to the Internet. Charter is about as reliable as a drunk teenager. Later Addendum: It looks like posting levels will be fairly normal today.

Assassins

David Ignatius writes in this morning's WaPo: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/13/AR2005121301512.html] > The shame for America isn't that we have tried to topple the rule of the assassins but that we have so far been unsuccessful. We thought

Holiday Songs

Funny stuff: > In keeping with the spirit of political correctness, the Catholic League recommends the adoption of the following songs at Holidaytime: > “I'm Dreaming of a White Holiday”; “O Holiday Tree”; “All I Want for The Holiday Is My Two Front Teeth; “We Wish You a

New Book

I didn't realize this one had been released already: The Politically-Incorrect Guide to Science [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089526031X/thedailyeudem-20]. Undoubtedly worth checking out. I remember the author (Tom Bethel) from The American Spectator. He's an engaging writer.

Good News for Me

> In the era of the $10-plus movie ticket and $3,000-a- month studio apartment, it was inevitable: A top-notch lawyer is charging $1,000 an hour. > Benjamin Civiletti, who served as attorney general under President Jimmy Carter, is the first lawyer known to reach the four-digit hourly rate,

Alcohol Free?

The LA Times runs a story about a fitness instructor who encourages customers to abstain from alcohol for one month [http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-bodywork12dec12,0,1780030.story?track=hpmostemailedlink] . A few excerpts: > The few who made it, successfully braving social occasions and surprisingly intense peer pressure,

Bowling Making a Comeback?

Bowling might be making a comeback, but it's going to look different. It's called "boutique bowling," and it's tony. It's not my style, but bowling with beer is a good time, no matter how you glitz it. WaPo Link [http:

Children's Cable

> Yielding to pressure from regulators, lawmakers and interest groups, the country's biggest cable companies say they expect to introduce packages of family-friendly channels as early as the first quarter of 2006. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/13/business/media/13cable.html?adxnnl=1&

The Hollywood Bombardment Picks Up Steam

> [A] little online surfing shows how excited advocacy groups and gay movie goers are about [Brokeback Mountain]. It's reaching screens amid a flurry of other mostly smaller gay films with prominent names attached, which has caused some industry wags to proclaim 2005 the "Year of the

My Confirmation wasn't Quite Like This

WaPo runs an article today about the obnoxious ostentation of today's Bar Mitzvahs [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/12/AR2005121201624.html] . It kinda brings out the anti-Semite in ya, but if the Jews are ridiculously extravagant, they're merely setting the American pace.

O.J. the Cripp

Saw this blurb in the LA Times this morning: > In statement, governor suggests his denial of clemency was based on Crips founder's refusal to admit guilt in slaying of four people. Well, that ain't fair. Neither has O.J.

Monks and Nuns, Together

I don't know about this. St. Martin of Tours and others forbad women from the monastery premises, and it wasn't for sexist reasons. I've also read that familiarity through the workplace spawns affairs. And I know from personal experience that NFP's counsel

Bring Out the Polygamists!

> "Polygamy rights is the next civil rights battle." So goes the motto of a Christian pro-polygamy organization that has been watching the battle over homosexual "marriage" rights with keen interest. > "We're coming. We are next. There's no doubt about

Wisconsin Story Follow-Up

A reader writes in response to yesterday's post [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3310/] about the Wisconsin school that secularized Silent Night and brought in Labafana the Witch. According to the reader, Labafana has Christian origins, and she referred me to this Wikipedia page [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Befana]

Passing of a Great Lady

She defied governmental authorities that condemn booze more than illicit sex. A moment of respectful silence: > Maggie Bailey, known as "The Queen of the Mountain Bootleggers," died of complications from pneumonia Saturday at Harlan Appalachian Regional Hospital. The Kentucky legend, who began selling moonshine when she was

Child Advocate Reported to Police

Common sense is a border-line crime in homosexual-sensitive Britain: > Lynette Burrows, an author on children's rights and a family campaigner, took part in a discussion on the Victoria Derbyshire show on Radio Five Live about the new civil partnerships act. > During the programme, she said she

Odd Consumer News

An alarm clock that you have to chase down (thereby making you get out of bed) in order to make it stop [http://www.yankodesign.com/product_info.php?products_id=641]. The day I need one of these is the day I stop getting up in the mornings.

Buffalo Bill

The NYT runs a good review of Buffalo Bill's America, by Louis S. Warren [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/books/review/11ward.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1134392681-6XfLblu4wrRbfAqJURrm0w] . In general, the reviewer praises the book, but also chides the author for pontificating observations that could'

PSA

Blogging could be a little light, at least until later in the day. The flu put me behind the eightball at my real job. We'll see.

Electricity to Wales and Scotland

I saw this headline in the Washington Post this morning: "Remote Welsh families get electricity." [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/11/AR2005121101079.html] I thought, "Must be an awfully slow news day," but I checked it out anyway. It's a

Free Voicemail

Free or inexpensive voicemail for the homeless [http://www.cvm.org/]. Sounds good. Now they'll know when the latest case of Night Train [http://www.bumwine.com/] arrives. Easy, folks. I'm just having a little fun. The program is meant for the homeless and those in

Therapy for Terrorists

Hey, therapy did wonders for the Catholic pedophiles: > Terrorist suspects under house arrest [in Australia] will be sent to anger management school, given psychological counselling and offered training and education in a bid to turn them from violence. Link [http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17536306-2,00.

Pope on Advent

FYI [http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1129685&tw=wn_wire_story] : > Pope Benedict warned on Sunday against rampant materialism which he said was polluting the spirit of Christmas. > "In today's consumer society, this time of the year unfortunately

When Do Kids Stop Believing?

I always wondered about this: > Most children start questioning the existence of Santa Claus when they are between 6 and 8. By the time they are 9 or 10, most have ceased believing entirely, said Paul Harris, a developmental psychologist and a professor at Harvard University. Link [http://www.

Olson on Lewis

Carl Olson writes about C.S. Lewis' Christianity [http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/colson_cslewisthought_dec05.asp]. Excerpts: > Even those Catholics who express great admiration for Lewis point out that one of the weaknesses of Lewis's theological and apologetic writings is a weak, or hazy, view

Go Get 'Em, Liberty Fund

The "Christmas Wars" make me a little bit uneasy, but they're necessary. The secularists have beaten the tar out of Christians for too long, and it results in things like the practice in one Ridgeway, Wisconsin elementary school [http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/12/82005a.asp]

Let Men Terminate?

In light of Judge Alito's advocacy of a man's right to have a word in whether to terminate a pregnancy, a columnist at the LA Times [http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-daum10dec10,0,5842196.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions] asks some fair questions: > Since we&

Credit Street

The New York Times points out this morning [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/national/11credit.html?hp&ex=1134363600&en=ab89cbe431f36eb0&ei=5094&partner=homepage] that people who file for bankruptcy are inundated with credit card offers (it's always been this way,

Maonster

WaPo runs a review of MAO: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/08/AR2005120801641.html] . According to the review (and others I've seen), the book details Mao's atrocities and shows that he was quite

Odd Coincidence

Last night, I dug up the quote from JPII that I ran for this week's "Something for Sunday Morning" post. This morning, I ran across WaPo's review of The Town that Forgot to Breathe, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/08/

Something for Sunday Morning

> In the era of technology our life risks becoming always more anonymous and merely a function of the production process. In this way, man becomes incapable of enjoying the beauties of the Creator and to see in them the reflection of the face of God. John Paul II

"Dyke" No Longer Derogatory

Sounds good to me. I'll now openly use the word "dyke" > A lesbian motorcycle group in San Francisco declared victory Thursday in their fight for a federal trademark for the name "Dykes on Bikes." > The U.S. Patent and Trademark office twice

Say "Good-Bye" to Blondes

A picture is worth a thousand words: A map of the Earth that shows countries by the size of their populations [http://www.odt.org/Pictures/poplcart.jpg].

Get Ready for a Caning

> A German teenager caught smoking in the toilet of a Singapore-bound airliner has ended up in jail after police found him with marijuana, a report said on Saturday.blockquote> [http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/December/theworld_December291.xml&section=theworld&col=

Drunk Doofus

> A drunk driver was arrested in Germany after he accidentally rang the police instead of a breakdown service when he had a flat tyre.

Natural Medicine

I believe there's a lot to be said for natural healing, though Seinfeld and Tor Eckman [http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheHeartAttack.htm] undoubtedly set the cause back twenty years with that hilarious episode ("The Heart Attack"). Nonetheless, I found this interesting, the yoga stuff aside: >

If It's Free, It's Me

Free Christmas coloring pages for your children [http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/christmas/index.html].

A Paris Christmas

Give the guy credit. I don't think I could think of any more effective way to desecrate Christmas, a holiday based on innocence and the love of simplicity that is the manger. > Blown-up images of [Paris] Hilton and strings of pink Christmas lights adorn the front lawn

Why Didn't I Think of That?

> The mayor of a Brazilian town is trying to bring in a law making it illegal for residents to die. > Mayor Roberto Pereira da Silva, of Biritiba-Mirim, came up with the idea because the town's only cemetery is full. > He wants to bring in a

They're Not the Same

> Just like human boys and girls, male monkeys like to play with toy cars while female monkeys prefer dolls, a research project has shown. > This intriguing discovery is one of many signs of deep-rooted behavioral differences between the sexes that scientists are exploring with the latest tools of

French Victories

A friend sends this along: > Do this before it gets changed by someone at Google. > 1. Go to www.google.com [http://www.google.com/] > 2. Type in: "French military victories" with the quotes. > 3. Hit "I'm Feeling Lucky" instead

The Weekend Eudemon

Wowsy and woosy. The stomach flu tore through my family, starting Thursday night, in the following order: Jack (10), Michael (7), Meg (4), Marie (can't mention age or she'll throttle me), Me (same concerns), Abbie (11). Alex (12) and Tess (8 months) have so far escaped.

SantaCon

Look at the bright side: Only the good can be defiled. These mutants prove the good of Santa Claus, I guess: > In 1994, the San Francisco chapter of the Cacophony Society staged the world's very first SantaCon. Influenced by the surrealist movement, Discordianism, and other subversive art

Porn Tax

> Italians would have to pay a 20 percent tax on pornography according to a budget amendment that cleared a first legislative hurdle, news reports said Thursday [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/08/D8EC6T4O4.html]. I think a porn tax is a good idea. Unfortunately, based on research

Polka Wars

You ever read a story and learn about a hot news item that you didn't even know existed? I scan through at least three different newspapers a day, but I didn't know there was a Grammy for polka, much less a stirring battle within Polkadom. Heck,

Lewis Cover Story

U.S. News and World Report's cover story this week is about C.S. Lewis [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/051212/12lewis.htm]. Written by Walker Percy biographer Jay Tolson, it's pretty good, from what I've read so far. (I'm

SNL

NYT this morning runs a story about guest hosts on Saturday Night Live. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/arts/television/09bald.html?8hpib]It's a neat piece, even if it does feature Alec Baldwin. A few highlights: When Baldwin hosts this Saturday, he will be tied

Christmas is Back

Great news for the good news season: According to the LA Times this morning [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-christmas9dec09,0,4039464.story?coll=la-home-headlines] , Lowe's, Target, Walgreens, Macy's, and others have made efforts to bring the word "Christmas" back into their

Brews You Can Use

A Christmas gift for the man who drinks everything: Alcoholica Esoterica [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0143035975/thedailyeudem-20]. From the Amazon book page: > Did you know... > ”¢ that the word bar is short for barrier? Yes, that's right–to keep the customers from getting at

Outsourcing Gaming

Too lazy to be lazy. I'm (nearly) speechless: > One of China's newest factories operates here in the basement of an old warehouse. Posters of World of Warcraft and Magic Land hang above a corps of young people glued to their computer screens, pounding away at

Leno Holiday Humor

> Remember when you used to tie the tree to the top of your car and drive home? Now our SUV's are so big, the trees fit inside. The new Cadillac Escalade actually has a Christmas tree holder on the dash. > That is a big controversy this

Marriage is Healthy

> People in committed relationships are happier than people who aren't, and married people may be the happiest of all. > A new study shows people who are married report the highest levels of well-being, regardless of whether they are happily married or not. > "Even when

I'm in Good Company

Dalrymple more or less agrees with my column on Catholic Exchange yesterday [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=31066]: > Unfortunately, [George Best's soccer] abilities began to decline as he started to live the high life. He was at his peak

Technology over Morality

Very American of these Jewish folks: using technology to get around moral considerations: > Machines will perform euthanasia on terminally ill patients in Israel under legislation devised not to offend Jewish law, which forbids people taking human life. Link [http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/

Good Ol' Murdoch

Throwing the red flag at the secularist bull [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/12/07/newscorp-peppers-headquar_n_11873.html] : > The Huffington Post has obtained pictures of nativity scenes spread throughout Newscorp's New York headquarters. According to a source, Rupert Murdoch has ordered the scenes to be placed

Boston Gay Adoptions

> The Boston archdiocese has received instructions to stop arranging adoptions for homosexual couples, the Boston Herald reports today. > The Boston arm of Catholic Charities came under fire in October when it was revealed that the office was actively helping homosexual couples to adopt children, despite Church teaching that

No End to the Depravity

> A husband and wife have 'remarried' as a gay couple - 14 years after the groom had a sex swap operation. [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1639864.html] There's really no other way to put it: if you support gay marriage or gay

Giving It Away

George Will takes apart Congress' plan to give every American household money in order to deal with the April 2009 end of analog TV broadcasting. Even though 85% of all television households have cable or satellite services already (with the result that changes in TV broadcasting don't

ACLU Turmoil?

According to the New York Times, [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/08/national/08aclu.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=0ba4ebfa42ab9697&hp&ex=1134104400&partner=homepage] the ACLU is experiencing turmoil. Its executive director (Anthony D. Romero) is allegedly too concerned with fundraising and

Serial Killer Series

HBO is redy to push the envelope again, this time with extreme violence. The 13-part mini-series starts tonight: > Epitafios is as gripping as its murders are ghastly, a spiraling reverberant circle of horrors that keeps widening as the bodies pile up (more than two dozen killings by the time

Muses

Sometimes the muses talk to me. Sometimes they don't, and I need to coax them with a few beers. This site may help me understand why [http://webmuseart.com/muses/index.html].

England Against Christians

> A mother accused her daughter's school of discriminating against Christians yesterday after the teenager was suspended for refusing to take off a crucifix necklace. > Sam Morris, 16, was sent home from Sinfin Community School in Derby for breaking a school policy that bans jewellery. > Last

So Invent a Bigger Needle

This can't be a big deal. American technology has always gotten around the practice of fundamental virtues, like moderation: > It's just one of those wicked telling signs, one of those sad little cultural punches that make you cringe and sigh even as you stifle a

Odd Consumer News

> Capitalizing on shortages of Microsoft's new video-game console, several people have attracted bids as high as $600 or more on eBay this week by offering Xbox 360 boxes -- just empty boxes -- in ways that made it seem, without reading closely, that the items for sale

No Comment

> A Peruvian woman spent a month in a male prison in Argentina after she was mistaken for a man. > And, when she was finally discovered and transferred to a women's jail, she asked to be transferred back.

Christmas or Xmas?

Archbishop Chaput of Denver has written a great little essay about the difference between Christmas and Xmas [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=6&art_id=31083]. Excerpt: > The world has an ingenious ability to attach itself to what Christians believe; tame it, subvert it,

Compassion Saves

But what good is better health if you can mock the infirm? > A recently published Brigham Young University study that examined the possible link between religiosity and better psychosocial health found that compassion was the active ingredient in the relationship. > Patrick Steffen, lead author of the study and

Smutty Thinking

> A group of atheists at the University of Texas in San Antonio is trying to tempt college kids into trading their Bibles for pornography. > It's part of a program called Smut for Smut sponsored by the student organization called Atheist Agenda. Link [http://www.msnbc.msn.

Attention Pittsburgh Readers!

The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology is holding a conference this Friday and Saturday: Word, Worship, and the Mysteries [http://www.salvationhistory.com//mission/wordworshipmysteries.cfm]. Plenty of good speakers.

Ford Capitulates?

Just as every "Happy Holidays" greeting isn't a capitulation to secularists, gays oughtta recognize that every refusal to fund their causes isn't a capitulation to the "religious right": > Ford Motor Co. said it will stop running ads for its Jaguar and

The Anti-JPII Forces

> A group of dissident Catholics has organized public opposition to the quick beatification of Pope John Paul II (bio - news). > Eleven theologians and one journalist from Europe and Latin American have joined in a statement entitled "The beatification of John-Paul II: appeal for clarity." In

Fighting Obesity?

Trying to eliminate fat or just transferring all that fat to the lawyers' wallets? > In a lawsuit they plan to file in the next few months, Mr. [Stephen] Gardner [of the Center for Science in the Public Interest] and half a dozen other lawyers, several of them veterans

"Happy Holidays" is a Smear?

I side with the anti-ACLUites in the Christmas Wars, I really do, but they're going to lose if they insist on seeing every generic holiday greeting as a sign of secularism. The phrase "Happy Holidays" isn't always a capituation. In fact, I always thought

Shopping is the Drug That I Need to Score

> Science is now discovering what . . . many consumers have known all along: Shopping makes you feel good. A growing body of brain research shows how shopping activates key areas of the brain, boosting our mood and making us feel better -- at least for a little while. Peering into a

Odd Consumer News

Artistic/decorative switch plates [http://www.switchhits.com/]. Maybe some day there'll be holiday switch plates, and people will swap them out with the season.

Today's Favorite Headline

"Greece Hands Over Flame for Turin Olympics." Given what the Romans called the "Greek Vice," I thought maybe this was a gay thing.

Taking Christ out of Christmas II

James Kushiner on the Willow Creek Church's decision to cancel its Sunday service on Christmas [http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2005/12/churches_closed.html]: > If "the best way to honor the birth of Jesus" is for families to have "more personal experiences,"

No Rap for Gangs

> Dutch authorities are playing loud and annoying Christmas carols in public areas to keep teenage gangs off the streets. > Charlois Council in Rotterdam have started blasting out the Dutch children's carols from a barrel organ at the Zuidplein underground station. . . . > A council spokesman said all

Taking Christ out of Christmas

First Target, now these guys: > Willow Creek Community Church, one of the largest churches in the Chicago area, will be closed on Sunday, Dec. 25--because it's Christmas. > Although thousands of the faithful usually flock to the South Barrington church and its satellites on Sundays, Willow Creek

Nature's Way?

Is this nature's way of helping those who overindulge? > Coffee and tea may reduce the risk of serious liver damage in people who drink too much alcohol, are overweight or have too much iron in the blood, researchers reported yesterday. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/

Team Prayer

The Washington Times on the issues surrounding team prayer at sporting events [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051206-120421-2274r.htm]. Excerpt: > The Fellowship of Christian Athletes has groups at 8,000 junior high schools, high schools and colleges throughout the country, reaching 350,000 student-athletes, says Dan Britton, FCA'

More Wikipedia

As a follow-up to my earlier post about Wikipedia [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3236/]: > Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute, is tightening submission rules after a prominent journalist complained that an article falsely implicated him in the Kennedy assassinations. > Wikipedia will now require users to register

HBO Funding Fleiss

An article in Newsweek strongly implies that HBO is helping provide the seed funding for Heidi Fleiss' new stud farm [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10313009/site/newsweek/from/RSS/]. > Even when her business partner, a prominent Nevada brothel owner, backed out last month, Fleiss vowed to

Rare Admission

From E.J. Dionne (no friend of pro-lifers) column in WaPo [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/05/AR2005120501547.html] this morning: > Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said that the court overreached in Roe . In his indispensable new book, "Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing

Caucasian Terrorists

Chilling story in NYT this morning about the female suicide bomber [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/international/europe/06brussels.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1133867048-/dLheT+90fvNzjIX9M/4Zw] . She was born in Belgium, raised Roman Catholic, got involved in drugs and men, started cavorting with Muslim

Greydanus on LWW

The web's best Catholic reviewer discusses Narnia [http://www.decentfilms.com/sections/articles/2636]. Two excerpts worth noting: > 1. Though widely referred to as “allegories,” the Narnia stories are actually something different. Real allegory, like Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, uses each character, place and

Misc. 12.05.05

We did a McLuhanite experiment with our three oldest boys. They had been spending increasing hours playing X-Box and Gameboy, despite our standard restrictions. There was always an excuse: friends coming over, cousins in town, etc. Their behavior became wretched, so we banned all games for a week, then re-imposed

Who's Shocked?

The Dutch just keep getting more and more depraved: Erotic furniture based on the female body . . . is the latest fad in Holland [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1636045.html]. Warning: Erotic link.

How Long Can You Be "In Love"?

> The powerful emotions that bowl over new lovers are triggered by a molecule known as nerve growth factor (NGF), according to Pavia University researchers. > The Italian scientists found far higher levels of NGF in the blood of 58 people who had recently fallen madly in love than in

Expensive Card

> A 162-year-old Christmas card - one of the first ever printed - sold at auction Saturday for $16,000. > The hand-colored card, which shows a family celebrating around a table, is one of about 10 surviving from an original batch of 1,000 printed in 1843, auctioneer Henry

Festivus for the Rest of Us!

What's next? The silver pole? > It worried Mitra Sen when pupils at her school were not allowed to take part in multicultural celebrations because their parents didn't want them to be exposed to different cultural and religious beliefs. > Afraid these kids would be deprived

Christmas Beatings Permitted

> Austria's traditional Christmas devils have been given police clearance to carry on smacking people's back-sides. > Locals in towns across the country dress up as either St Nicholas, handing out sweets to the good, or as the devil, handing out beatings to the bad. >

This is Too Fitting to Succeed

A reader sends this along: > A preservation group plans to spend $600,000 to renovate the rundown guard room at the Ohio State Reformatory, the imposing old prison where "The Shawshank Redemption" was filmed. > The Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society hopes to rent the room for weddings

Orthodoxy in Hollywood

> "The problem with Hollywood movies today is not necessarily stupidity or too much sex and violence. It's that in too many of today's movies, characters never change. . . . > "Liberal orthodoxies about politics and culture have become sacramental in some circles, and better to

Lotto Winnings Buy A Lot of Pabst

The boorish person who earns a lot of money doesn't become demure. In fact, he becomes more boorish. Likewise, the low class person who wins the lottery stays low class and, it appears, becomes even more low class. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/05/national/

Detroit in Even Bigger Trouble?

Sebastian Mallaby at WaPo says India and other formerly-third world countries are ready to jump into the automobile market [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/04/AR2005120401094.html] . Can our car makers continue to pay factory workers $30 an hour and executives tens of millions? > In

Intuitive Eating

This has too much common sense to catch on. Heck, if you take this to its logical conclusion, you'll be back in the Dark Ages and talk about gluttony and temperance. > When Steven Hawks is tempted by ice cream bars, M&Ms and toffee-covered almonds at

The Spread of the Oxymoron

A survey of gay marriage around the globe [http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/051204034933.6vavx6e8.html]. It's woefully incomplete, but still interesting. Summary: The Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Spain and (later this month) Britain: Recognize gay marriages. South Africa: Highest court has ordered parliament to recognize gay marriage.

New JPII Book

Richard John Neuhaus praises Peggy Noonan's John Paul the Great [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670037486/thedailyeudem-20]. Link [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=92].

IGRA

Excuse my off-color comment, but I thought quips about the rump rodeo were just jokes [http://www.igra.com/].

WaPo Top Ten

WaPo has released its list of Top Ten books of 2005: The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss (fiction) March, by Geraldine Brooks (f) The March, by E.L. Doctorow (f) On Beauty, by Zadie Smith (f) Shalimar the Clown, by Salman Rushdie (f) The Assassins' Gate, by George

Chain Chess

I like Middle Ages stuff, and I like chess, so I find this interesting, but I'm not sure I should: chainmail chess set [http://www.chainmailbasket.com/special/chess01.html].

ACLU At It Again

It's not just for Americans anymore [http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03375226.htm]. Call it, "The International Civil Liberties Union," or "Doing Whatever We Can to Further Our Vision of How the Cosmos Oughtta Be and Disguising It under the First Amendment." (In

Wikipedia

I've been interested in the Wikipedia pages for at least two years. The whole idea of "citizen encyclopediasm" intrigued me and I've generally found its content consistent with my knowledge on matters. But I hear about glaring errors, and a recent hub-ub that got

The War On Boys

The war on boys is reaching mass-slaughter level, it would appear from this Washington Post op-ed [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/02/AR2005120201334.html] . The U.S. educational establishment is beating them down so effectively that they've stopped going to college and prefer to

Something for Sunday Morning

> "Joan of Arc, there's a girl," he went on. "She said she spoke to the saints, when what she really saw were statues. But they spoke to her. Was she crazy? I don't know. I do know that she stopped the longest

CBS' Pope John Paul II

The first part runs tomorrow night. Another reasonably-favorable review [http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/13300075.htm]. Excerpt: > CBS's miniseries has any number of advantages over ``Have No Fear,'' starting with a longer running time that allows it to be more expansive in its

The Christian Diet

R. Marie Griffith has written a book that examines Christianity's approach to the body, concentrating especially on the modern Christian diet. Sounds like an interesting book, though this review [http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/006/14.16.html] is enough for my tastes. Excerpts: > Griffith'

Erotic Church Calendar

I don't whether the Germans are just trying to catch up with the Scandinavians when it comes to hedonism or whether their thought processes are just hopelessly grim from the likes of Schopenhauer, Marx, and Nietzsche: > A German Protestant youth group has put together a 2006 calendar

Alito Distances Himself From 1985 Memos

From WaPo this morning [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/02/AR2005120200962.html] : > Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. yesterday tried to tamp down criticisms of several past statements -- including his assertion that the Constitution does not protect the right to abortion -- by

Booknotes

I've watched it occasionally, but my well-read parents are big fans of CNN's Booknotes. Now, the entire Booknotes archives through November 2004 is available on-line [http://www.booknotes.org/home/index.asp] in manuscript. If you want to watch stream video, 500 of the 800 shows

Robot Uprising

I think this site is serious. If so, it's gotta be one of the worse efforts to profit from doom and gloom that I've ever seen. Funny, though. > If popular culture has taught us anything, it is that someday mankind must face and destroy the

King Kong

The first review I've seen says it's great: > [Peter Jackson] has made a picture I can only describe as jaw-droppingly brilliant: the most entertaining blockbuster movie this year.

Religion Always Gets In

Despite attempts to secularize their society, Germans will find their religion one way or the other: > Yoga instructors are being employed on German trains to help calm stressed out passengers in the run up to Christmas.

The Weekend Eudemon

It's December, and that means flurries. Not snow flurries, but hurried flurries: go here and there, there and here. Be this, be that. I don't like it. But it seems to be getting better. A few years ago, my wife and I figured out that we

Rudolph Facts

Everything you ever wanted to know about Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer [http://www.tvparty.com/xmasrudolph.html]. Excerpt: > Premiering on NBC December 6th, 1964, RUDOLPH has become the longest running, highest rated television special in the history of the medium. . . . > The special originally premiered on the GENERAL

Brews You Can Use VI

Artificial beer belly [http://www.thebeerbelly.com/]. Pretty stupid, but it cracked me up for some reason.

Brews You Can Use V

The Brew Site is featuring a Christmas beer every day during Advent [http://www.thebrewsite.com/]. Advent is a time of quiet waiting, not raucous living, but heck, I'm just glad someone even mentions the word "Advent."

Manners at NY Subways?

From the New York Post: [http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/58828.htm] > The MTA begins its crackdown on bad behavior Monday with a series of new rules prohibiting everything from rollerblading on the subway to putting your feet up on an empty seat. . . . > It will be a

King David or Chief David?

Interesting piece at WaPo about current archaeological discoveries in Jerusalem [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/01/AR2005120101944.html] . Excerpt: > Some archaeologists believe Jerusalem was no more than a tiny hilltop village when it served as David's capital. The discovery of a palace or

Brews You Can Use IV

Actually, this is news you can use after you've had more brews than you can use: > Three Finnish computer science students have devised a system which enables air guitarists to hear themselves 'play'. The Virtual Air Guitar project, developed at the Helsinki University of Technology,

Brews You Can Use III

> A German brewer has taken aim at the female market by producing a beer called "Karla" that it claims does everything from calming the mind to preventing cancer. > The maker notes Karla contains health boosting ingredients like folic acid, lecithin soya extract and vitamins.

Another Wedge between Child and Parent

A California court has ruled that a girl has a cause of action for violation of privacy when her school tells her parents that she's gay. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/education/02schools.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1133528755-d/ntkfWld8r45DlgbMrs/A] . Excerpt: > "

Brews You Can Use II

> A culture of 24-hour drinking and bingeing on alcohol may not be unique to modern society, say historians. > Experts have uncovered evidence that 12th century Londoners drank ale by the gallon, starting at breakfast time, due to poor quality drinking water. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/

Brews You Can Use

Two great things in one: the Middle Ages and Beer, the Middle Ages Brewing Company [http://www.middleagesbrewing.com/]. > Step back in time to when men were men, women were brewsters, and hand-crafted fine ale filled every flagon. Your quest for great taste leads you out of the past

Point Worth Remembering and Pondering

> I'm reading Thomas Woods' book on the Progressive Era and one of the things that struck me was just how church philanthropy of that era so intertwined the physical and spiritual. Relief of poverty was viewed as a means to an end, not an end in

Charity Case

I'm guessing this charity has pretty high administrative overhead: > A charity executive used $210,000 meant to cure heart disease to get his own pulse pounding – repeatedly flying a dominatrix halfway across the country to spank him, law-enforcement sources said yesterday. > Abraham Alexander racked up charges

Mean Big People

Maybe I'm just too Pelagian-ish, but it's hard to believe people like this actually exist: > The yellow brick road ended in guilty pleas yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court for a husband and wife who mercilessly harassed and abused their midget neighbors by hurling racial epithets

Catholic Top Ten

Catholic Book Publishers Association's Current Top Ten Lists [http://peopleofthebook.us/2005/12/01/december-catholic-bestsellers/]: Hardcover 1. Mother Angelica Raymond Arroyo. Doubleday 2. The Seven Levels of Intimacy Matthew Kelly. Beacon Publishing/Fireside 3. The Rhythm of Life Matthew Kelly. Beacon Publishing/Fireside 4. Catechism of the Catholic

Sigh, It's Sullivan

Like Amy Welborn [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/2005/12/for_my_health.html], I tend to stay away from Andrew Sullivan. Car wrecks are interesting, but when you see them every day, day-in-day-out, it gets tiresome. Sullivan sees everything through pink sunglasses, the type of guy who responds, "

NYT Top Ten

NYT has released its "Best 10 Books of 2005." [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/books/review/tenbest.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1133443092-9b9x/U/8130himRj3oWdSw] I'd like to say I've read them all, but I'm afraid reality is just the

Alito Wars

> As a Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration, Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. helped devise a legal strategy to persuade the high court to restrict and eventually overturn Roe v. Wade , the historic decision legalizing abortion. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/

JPII Movies

Reminder: ABC's Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II airs tonight at 8:00. CBS's Pope John Paul II airs Sunday night at 9:00 and Wednesday night at 8:00. WaPo pans ABC's (a "dry downer") and praises

Middle Ages Criticism Going Down

More and more people are beginning to realize that the Middle Ages weren't dark at all. It's comforting, and the evidence will keep accumulating (because it's a fact) and get published. Yet in ten years, yahoos everywhere will continue to refer to the "

Those Crazy Scandinavians, Episode 258,901

> A Swedish drama student was fined 2400 crowns ($406.67) today for reading pornographic stories to a group of six-year-olds as part of a theatre project on children's sexuality. [http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17423648-38200,00.html] I don't know if I&

Priest Leaves

A priest resigns in protest of the RCC's stance on gay priests [http://bettnet.dyndns.org/blog/comments.php?id=P5847_0_1_0]. I don't get it. Skylstad says the directive applies to heterosexuals, too [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3192/]. Why are these homosexuals upset? Earlier

Far Out

Great news! I'm a blogger/writer. That makes me the creative sort, right? This is like a license to fornicate: > Talk about creativity. Professional artists and poets hook up with two or three times as many sex partners as other people, new research indicates. Now I just

White Flight

From the opening lines of a Leonard Pitts syndicated column [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0511290195nov29,0,5641644.story?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed] : > Perhaps you remember white flight. > That is, of course, the term for what happened in the '60s when blacks, newly liberated from legal segregation, began

Moose Me

Another feel-good story for the holiday season: > Alaska inmates at a prison work farm are taking on a new assignment: butchering the meat of moose struck by trains each winter along 68 miles of track. > The meat will be processed by prisoners at the Point MacKenzie Correctional Farm,

Limbo Abolished?

> The Roman Catholic Church is preparing to abolish limbo, the place between heaven and hell reserved for the souls of children who die before they have been baptised. I'm not qualified to write on the intricate theological issues of unbaptized infants, but I know enough to realize

More C.S.L.

Mark Brumley at Ignatius Insight Scoop also offers insight about Lewis' views about translating Narnia onto the screen [http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2005/11/did_lewis_oppos.html]. Excerpt: > Now, is it correct to say that Lewis opposed a screen adaptation of the Chronicles of Narnia? Yes

C.S.L.

Mark Brumley at Ignatius Insight has a thoughtful essay about C.S. Lewis, with an emphasis on Lewis' Christianity and position toward Rome (for the latter, scroll toward the bottom). [http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/mbrumley_relcslewis_nov05.asp]

Scientific Spiritualism

> During the past twenty-five years, study after study has shown that seriously ill patients who are prayed for--including those who don't know about these prayers--fare better than those who are not prayed for. The man who has done the most to integrate the results of these studies,

What Happened to Those Frugal Jews?

Anyone else feel nauseous [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/story/369995p-314735c.html]? > For his daughter's coming-of-age celebration last weekend, multimillionaire Long Island defense contractor David H. Brooks booked two floors of the Rainbow Room, hauled in concert-ready equipment, built a stage, installed special carpeting, outfitted the

What Will Southern Universities Do?

The New York Times has a good piece this morning about Southern universities' dilemma [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/education/30sewanee.html?hp&ex=1133413200&en=8c37104c5690ad60&ei=5094&partner=homepage] : Do they ditch Confederate imagery in an attempt to attract a broader

Companion Piece to the Directive

The companion piece to the new directive: > The Vatican newspaper said on Tuesday that homosexuality risked "destabilizing people and society", had no social or moral value and could never match the importance of the relationship between a man and a woman. > The remarks were contained in

Spin Bishops

The usual suspects are up to no good again. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901852.html] . > The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said yesterday that under a new Vatican directive on homosexuality, men with a lasting attraction to

Abortion Rampage

The LA Times ran a piece about abortion that is hard to categorize [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-abortion29nov29,0,2003322,full.story] . Meant to make abortion look acceptable, it has so many disturbing passages that I suspect it does the exact opposite. The piece revolves around an

Misc. 11.29.05

I saw a commercial for Miller High Life last night. I'm not sure I've ever seen that beer advertised. The commercial was a nostalgiac trip about the beer's first 100 years. I liked it. It made me want to buy a six-pack. "Everyone

Christian Approach to Cash

Russell Moore at Touchstone has written a compelling Christian piece about Johnny Cash [http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=18-10-018-v]. Excerpt: > Even as a Christian, Cash was different. He sang at Billy Graham crusades and wrote for Evangelical audiences, but he never quite fit the prevailing saccharine

What Happened in Canada

A lawyer friend in Canada explains the historic events in Canada last night. I found it useful: > It's all ancient parliamentary tradition. A minority government is one that has less than 50% of the seats in the House of Commons. (With four major parties, the situation is

Creators of Christmas Specials

Wikipedia has an entry about Rankin/Bass [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankin-Bass]. Interesting stuff for this time of year.

Welcome NCR Readers

Welcome readers of National Catholic Register. I hope you enjoyed my blogging column. You can reach me at the e-mail link on the left. I try to respond to all correspondence within 48 hours.

Revisited Yet Again: Does Abortion Reduce Crime?

The debate about correlation between abortion and crimes continues. This time, in the Wall Street Journal [http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB113314261192407815-R9vuq3EXAQIdQHvUx9yXwYodMXo_20061128.html] : > The "Freakonomics" chapter on abortion grew out of statistical studies Mr. Levitt and a co-author, Yale Law School Prof. John Donohue,

Good for the Rest of Us

> Growing numbers of educated Italian women are throwing away their high heels and lipstick and opting for the austere life of nuns in closed convents. . . . > Until recently, most women entering closed convents in Rome were third world immigrants with little education. Now the recruits are all Italians with

Outside Looking In

Disgusting, yes, but give the guy credit. At least he's not stealthily trying to tear the Church apart. Nothing is worse than the renegade priests who cover up their apostasy in hopes of furthering it (the M.O. of heretics throughout the ages): > The Rev. Tim Stier,

Charlie Brown Christmas

Fox News has a nice little piece about the Christmas special that turns 40 this year [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,176934,00.html]. The article also has a listing of when a handful of Christmas specials will air during the next few weeks, though they don'

C.S. Lewis Pans LWW!

I'd never seen this, but apparently it's from a letter written by C.S. Lewis in 1959: > As things worked out, I wasn't free to hear a single instalment of our serial [The Magician's Nephew] except the first. What I did

Beat the Children, Please

Great piece at NYT about our growing exasperation with ill-behaved children [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/weekinreview/27warner.html?pagewanted=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1133263837-BovfueQHnmNpOKkW7rc02g] . Excerpt: > Whether children are actually any worse behaved now than they ever have been before is, of course, debatable. Children

Gushing Praise

A reviewer gushes over LWW. [http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/films/articles/21016346?source=Evening%20Standard&ct=5] Excerpt from the conclusion: > Despite the long running time (over two hours) I would recommend Narnia even for small children. Whatever your age, this is a magical movie, and far,

Misc. 11.28.05

I decorated the Christmas Tree with the Seven last night. It went well. I had to keep vacuuming the floor to make sure Tess (8 months) wouldn't find any hooks to shove in her mouth, but other than that, the decorating party was successful. The tree's

The Daddy Has a Blessing

The New York Post runs a follow-up story to the baby who was cut from a woman's womb last year [http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/58198.htm]. > Almost a year after she was literally ripped from her mother's womb in a crime that took

Commies Against Simpsons

America's love-affair with the show is a bit much, but surely this guy is going a little too far? > A Russian lawyer plans to take his case against The Simpsons to the European Court of Human Rights. > It comes after a Moscow Court rejected Igor Smykov&

Wait Until the Porners Get This

> Singapore scientists looking for ways to transmit the sense of touch over the Internet have devised a vibration jacket for chickens and are thinking about electronic children's pyjamas for cyberspace hugs. Link [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-11/28/content_498580.htm].

Black Monday

I found this development interesting: > The Friday after Thanksgiving may be the kickoff of the holiday shopping season in malls and stores, but online, the big day is the Monday after Thanksgiving -- today -- when people go back to work. > "Thanksgiving is when we get lists

Encyclical Notice

I guess I'm a little behind the curve: B16 is coming out with his first encyclical in a few weeks [http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0506709.htm], a 46-page meditation titled Deus Caritas Est ("God Is Love"), which takes its inspiration from the first

St. Wally?

I, quite frankly, don't know what to think of Wal-Mart. I disdain its grasping desire to bring every amenity in small towns--from groceries to eye care to gasoline to pharmaceuticals--within their boxed walls. Yet I also appreciate their low prices and know enough--barely enough--about economics to know such

Abortion Revisited?

Britain has very permissive abortion laws. An article in the Sunday Times raises a bunch of interesting issues about the practice over there. Link [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1892696,00.html]. The same issues apply over here. Excerpts: > A government agency is launching an inquiry into

Good-Looking Drug Reps

I think everyone has noticed: drug company sales representatives are invariably good-looking. This NYT article says many of them are drawn from college cheerleading squads [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/28/business/28cheer.html?hp&ex=1133240400&en=56d70b525fedece0&ei=5094&partner=homepage] . Of course,

No Shame among Children?

WaPo runs a piece this morning about school suspensions [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/27/AR2005112701164.html] . They're increasing, but some are questioning their effectiveness. It seems parents aren't taking much exception when their kids are suspended, and the students--shocker--don't

Neat?

It sounds neat, but as the Scandinavians have shown [https://thedailyeudemon.com/3105/], the flipside of such an over-active government isn't always pretty. > Postal services around the world are gearing up for their most frantic period of the year -- ensuring wishful letters from millions of children

Odd Consumer News

Underwater hockey is spreading [http://www.wral.com/apstrangenews/5411464/detail.html]. It is played in 20 U.S. states and 17 countries.

Brazilian Singer Cancelled

The Catholic Church continues to stand up for itself: > A Brazilian singer who promoted the use of condoms in an anti-AIDS campaign has been dropped from the lineup of next month's Christmas concert at the Vatican, organizers said Friday. . . . > The popular singer participated in a government

Crying Statue

Could renew interest in Randall Sullivan's excellent book, The Miracle Detective [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0871139162/thedailyeudem-20]. > Carrying rosary beads and cameras, the faithful have been coming in a steady stream to a church on the outskirts of Sacramento for a glimpse of what

No Soup for You!

> Waiter-stiffing skinflints across New York are getting payback for all their measly 10 percent – or less – tips, thanks to a Web site that lets members of the restaurant industry name names and out bad tippers.

Who Needs Parental Help When You Have the State?

The new spate of privacy laws apparently are preventing parents from helping their teenage children with addiction, depression, and other problems. Excerpt: > Whether the legal snare was embedded in the Personal Health Information Protection Act or the Child and Family Services Act or the Mental Health Act, the essence

Throwing Dry Pine Needles on a Fire

As if we didn't already have plenty of Christmas wars going on already [http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-11-25T225326Z_01_KRA582362_RTRUKOC_0_US-LIFE-TREE.xml] : > Boston set off a furor this week when it officially renamed a giant tree erected in

100 Books

NYT has released its 100 Notable Books of 2005 [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/books/review/notable-books2005.html?pagewanted=1] . The most notable thing about it is that the list isn't very notable, though there are a few exceptions. Each book in the list is a

Just Eat It!

Another instance of snobs getting a hold of something pleasant and butchering it beyond recognition: > Like coffee before it, chocolate is going complex and upscale. This holiday season, look for Tasmanian honey wrapped in dark chocolate from Godiva and custom-made boxes tied with double-faced satin ribbon at exclusive Manhattan

Something for Sunday Morning

"For while all things were in quiet silence and the night was in the midst of her course, thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne." Book of Wisdom. > [This] passage, brimming with the mystery of the Incarnation, is wonderfully expressive of the infinite

Aliens Coming

I've largely been out of the loop the past 48 hours, so forgive me if this is old news: > A former Canadian Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau has joined forces with three Non-governmental organizations to ask the Parliament of Canada to hold

Misc. 11.26.05

Is anyone else floored by the dripping narcissism of that August Busch IV commercial for Budweiser? I'm back home. Whew! Whirlwind two days. Should be good training for Christmas. Regular blogging will resume tomorrow morning. I drove the entire length of Detroit's Eight Mile Road this

No Protection for Kooks

> British historian David Irving, known for his controversial views on World War Two, must stay in custody in Vienna while he is charged with denying the Holocaust, a court ruled on Friday [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051125/wl_canada_nm/canada_irving_austria_col_1].

Those Crazy Neo-Pagans!

> Two 17-year-old secondary school students from Plzen brutally attacked their 18- year-old classmate with a knife and filmed it with a video camera in what investigators believe might have been an occult Viking ritual, the daily Pravo reported yesterday. Link [http://www.religionnewsblog.com/12915/Youths-film-knifing-of-fellow-student-on-video-in-possible-Viking-ritual] .

Rabbi Shortage

The New York Times runs an article this morning about a travelling female rabbi [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/26/national/26religion.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1133011103-6eoKJvEisA0VzlZ11UayCg] . She serves 28 temples in 12 states throughout the south. Why? Because there's a rabbi shortage, silly: > Though

More Walk the Line Praise

The sane folk at Southern Appeal [http://southernappeal.blogspot.com/2005/11/holiday-movie-mini-review-i-saw-walk.html] plug Walk the Line, causing me to wail and gnash my teeth again at my rural outpost and its four isolated theater screens: > I saw Walk the Line tonight and was just knocked out by

The Weekend Eudemon

The waters I wade for this blog! Right now, I'm sitting in a Starbucks, blogging with my new T-mobile account. Six bucks an hour, plus one of the blonde counter coffee experts is going to ask me to order something soon. I'm not a coffee drinker,

Morbid but Funny

A list of things not to buy a two-year-old [http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/3HL4G7VMNOLXS/002-1193240-6943254?%5Fencoding=UTF8] .

PSA

Blogging could be light the next couple of days. I'll be spending time with family. There will, however, be at least a few posts every day.

Kill Santa?

From a German spokesman for the efforts to rid us of Santa Claus [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1622369.html]: > "St. Nicholas is not Father Christmas. The values associated with the former are selflessness, charity, solidarity, giving and sharing. He is perfect for getting across the

Brews You Can Use

Ah, I have fine company: > There's no reason but snob appeal that wine shouldn't come in a box . . . . [http://www.professorbainbridge.com/2005/11/boxed_wine.html] Professor Stephen Bainbridge His site points readers to a new container for boxed wine [http://money.cnn.com/

11:00 p.m.

"Gratitude: The virtue by which a person acknowledges, interiorly and exteriorly, gifts received and seeks to make at least some return for the gift conferred." Fr. John Hardon

10:00 p.m.

"Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people." Samuel Johnson

9:00 p.m.

"Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks." Shakespeare, Hamlet.

8:00 p.m.

Turkey for me Turkey for you Let's eat the turkey In my big brown shoe Love to eat the turkey At the table I once saw a movie With Betty Grable Eat that turkey All night long Fifty million Elvis fans Can't be wrong Turkey lurkey

7:00 p.m.

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and tha gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." G.K. Chesterton

6:00 p.m.

"Thanksgiving Day originated in New England when the Puritans realized they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians." Mark Twain

5:00 p.m.

"I love Thanksgiving turkey...it's the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts." Arnold Schwarzenegger

4:00 p.m.

"Gratitude is characteristic only of the humble. The egotistic are so impressed by their own importance that they take everything given them as if it were their due. They have no room in their hearts for recollection of the undeserved favors they received." Fulton Sheen

3:00 p.m.

"Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." G.K. Chesterton

2:00 p.m.

"Giving thank is not weakness but strength, for it involves self-repression." Fulton Sheen

1:00 p.m.

"Draft day and Thanksgiving Day are the only good days to be a Detroit Lions fan." Eric Scheske

12:00 p.m.

Pray for the atheists today, their hardest day of the year. Anonymous

11:00 a.m.

"How wonderful it would be if we could help our children and grandchildren to learn thanksgiving at an early age. Thanksgiving opens the doors. It changes a child's personality. A child is resentful, negative–or thankful. Thankful children want to give, they radiate happiness, they draw people.

10:00 a.m.

"Gratitude is a species of justice." Samuel Johnson

The Daughter's Role

The NYT reports that middle-aged women are leaving their careers in order to take care of their parents [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/24/national/24daughter.html]. > In another era, the task of caring for elderly parents often fell to the unmarried daughter who never left home and

9:00 a.m.

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." Cicero

24 in 24 Hours

For those who missed the announcement yesterday, TDE is featuring one quote or passage related to Thanksgiving Day every hour.

Gargoyle Immortality

> A cathedral is offering people the opportunity to have their face immortalised in stone on its spires. > St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne has come up with a novel fundraising plan for people to have their likeness carved on one of about 170 stone figures - for

8:00 a.m.

G.K. Chesterton infuriated some Americans back in 1930 when he said, while visiting New York on Thanksgiving Day, that the English should institute their own special Thanksgiving Day–to celebrate that the Pilgrim Fathers had left. No wonder he felt that way. Consider The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian

NYT Weighs In

Yesterday I remarked that the NYT coverage of the Vatican gay document was rather measured. It would appear they merely held back the scorn for one day [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/24/politics/24priest.html?hp&ex=1132894800&en=dd771d30034dc390&ei=5094&partner=homepage]

7:00 a.m.

"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all." William Faulkner

6:00 a.m.

"When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting." St. Jerome

5:00 a.m.

TURKEY, n. A large bird whose flesh when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property attesting piety and gratitude. Incidentally, it is pretty good eating. Ambrose Bierce

4:00 a.m.

"Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving..." Psalms 147:7

3:00 a.m.

"And though I ebb in worth, I'll flow in thanks." John Taylor

2:00 a.m.

"When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?" G.K. Chesterton

1:00 a.m.

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice." Meister Eckhart

Thanksgiving Day 12:00

"It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor." George Washington

Odd (and Timely) Consumer News

In time for Walk the Line: > Johnny Cash's tour bus is up for sale on auction site eBay. > The singer, who died in September 2003, apparently used the vehicle while on tour in the 1980s. . . . > The current highest bid is $35,000 (Â£20,500)

That's Comforting

This is more chilling than the November air: > A Chicago pediatrician was sentenced to 5 years in prison Tuesday for buying at least 600 images and videos of child pornography, many from a Web site based in Russia, that included images of children as young as 4. Link [http:

Misc. 11.23.05

I watched Christmas with the Kranks last night. Criminy. One of the most gosh-awful movies ever crafted. It wasn't as bad as Van Helsing (that one may be the worst "blockbuster" of all time), but it was awful. New York Times Headine line this morning: "

Book Notice

Get Religion recommends Rednecks & Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595580174/thedailyeudem-20]. Link [http://www.getreligion.org/]. Sounds good. I'm gonna ask Marie to get it for me for Christmas.

Thanksgiving Day

Starting at 12:00 a.m. (EST), every hour I will post a short quote or passage dealing with Thanksgiving Day. Some posts will be directly "on point," others only indirectly so.

Hey, Check Out the Morality Clause

> The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal discrimination complaint against a Catholic school, charging that it unjustly fired an unmarried teacher for being pregnant. Link [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-11-22-pregnant-teacher_x.htm]. The teacher, of course, says she's doing the right thing

Light Show

It's flying across the Internet: An amazing Christmas light display [http://www.break.com/articles/houselights.html]. It might be fake. Snopes is investigating as I type.

Commie Concubines

Fascinating development in the Middle Kingdom: Men are taking mistresses [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fi-mistress22nov22,0,6002074.story?coll=la-home-headlines] . > China's economic boom has led to a revival of the 2-millennium-old tradition of "golden canaries," so called because, like the showcase birds,

Brews You Can Use: Thanksgiving Day Edition

Wine blogger Stephen Bainbridge provides guidance for tomorrow's dinner [http://www.techcentralstation.com/112305D.html]. He provides expensive and inexpensive recommendations from five categories. Most useful. I present it today so you have a chance to get to the store. Excerpt: > Nothing says festive like sparkling wine,

Don't Drink Apple Martinis at Seminary Functions

In response to the Vatican gay document that says the Church "cannot admit to the seminary and the sacred orders those who . . . support so-called gay culture," one wag says the Vatican is banning any male who likes musicals, apple martinis, Judy Garland songs, designer fashion, and rainbows. Now

The Vatican Document on Gays

Well, the homosexual document finally hit the press. Everyone has heard of it, so I'm going to limit my analysis. Reproduced here are excerpts from the Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/22/AR2005112201066.html] , New York Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/

Misc. 11.22.05

I get new clients for all sorts of reasons. More than a few come to me because they like seeing my seven kids around town with no sign of trauma or other abuse, so they figure I must be a decent guy. Some contact me because they enjoy this site

Those Crazy Europeans!

How long until the EU makes such subsidies a fundamental human right? > When Jurgen turned 18, his mother Frie Van Acker told him all about sex and asked whether he would like to have sex. Jurgen indicated “No.” One evening three years later, however, he wrote on his computer:

Demure About Kasparov

This month's Atlantic Monthly has a piece about Garry Kasparov. Subscriber-only link [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200512/kasparov]. It talks about his political goals for Russia and Putin's alleged corruption. Excerpt from concluding paragraphs: > As we left the restaurant after the press conference, I

The Theater's Problems

> The era of moviegoing as a mass audience ritual is slowly but inexorably drawing to a close, eroded by many of the same forces that have eviscerated the music industry, decimated network TV and, yes, are clobbering the newspaper business. Put simply, an explosion of new technology – the Internet,

Oppressed Millionaire

Hey, Eton Thomas of the Washington Wizards has an op-ed in WaPo [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/17/AR2005111701624.html] . It's in the Marcus Garvey vein: > I'm often slapped in the face with harsh realities about perception. Like when I'

Avatars

What is an avatar? A Hindu god incarnate, properly speaking. On the Internet, they're cartoon characters that you can accessorize. Think of them as on-screen Barbies. They're child-like, but--shocker, shocker--America's adults are finding them irresistible. Now the "experts" are explaining why they&

Carpet Bombing the Culture

The New York Times was making a different point, but in the process it provided pretty good evidence that Hollywood and TV have been bombing our culture with homosexuality [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/movies/20jame.html]: > There has been an explosion of Oscar-baiting performances in which

Wetting and Burning

With the biggest bar night of the year just 48 hours away, this story is timely. Be careful out there Wednesday night, or this could happen to you: > A German man drank too much, wet his bed and set fire to his apartment while trying to dry his bedding,

Time to Get New Friends

The good James Kushiner comments on a new product [http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2005/11/whats_in_your_d.html]: > What really spun me around completely, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since, is one small box marked "Drink Check": "Protect yourself,

St. Fillan Apparently Fell Short of His Goals

Real estate developer forced to modify plans because the proposed digging would hurt the faeries: > Marcus Salter, head of Genesis Properties, estimates that the small colony of fairies believed to live beneath a rock in St Fillans, Perthshire, has cost him Â£15,000. His first notice of the

Turkish Delight

I assume turkish delight will become a rage as soon as LWW hits theaters. Here's a recipe for it, though I can't vouch for it. My wife's going to try it when we get closer to Christmas. I'll let you know how

Clerical Hubris

Article about ex-priests who run "Rent-a-Priest" and perform (play act) the sacraments [http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/living/religion/13198533.htm]: > [Ex-priest] Shuster . . . still performs occasional weddings and other services, including hosting an annual Christmas Mass at his home for about 30 people. > "People

Christmas Wars

Article about the "Friend or Foe" legal campaign by Christian lawyers to protect the religious implications of the season [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/20/MNGVDFRH081.DTL] . I'm not entirely comfortable with the campaign, but I tend to sympathize

Rinpoche Boy

Have the Vegas odd-makers established a line yet on whether the boy is a fraud? > Thousands of pilgrims are pouring into the dense jungle of southern Nepal to worship a 15-year-old boy who has been hailed as a new Buddha. > Devotees claim that Ram Bomjon, who is silently

Logically Consistent

I like it. Call it, "The New European Church" or "Church of the Relativity." > A German brothel owner is planning to build his own multi-denominational church. > Bert Wollersheim, 54, who has over 50 prostitutes working for him, plans to preach frorm the pulpit himself.

Misc. 11.20.05

Read this morning: "Only an imbecile could ever hold that freedom is the highest or indeed the only principle or end of life." Murray Rothbard, foremost libertarian thinker of the late 20th century. No intelligent libertarian would hold otherwise, but if you're dealing with redneck libertarians,

Dyin' to Die

From Secondhand Smoke [http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2005/11/more-ugly-truths-about-assisted.html]: > A Swiss assisted suicide organization called Dignitas has helped a depressed woman kill herself in Germany. True, the woman presented a fake medical report, stating she was very ill. But the head of Dignitas said it didn&

6-Day School Week

Mayor > Richard Daley says he believes Chicago Public Schools students get too much time off. He says he will push for a six-day school week, a shorter summer break or a longer school day [http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_324111749.html] . Great. More secularized and sterile public school

One of the Most Novel Theories I've Heard

> Starting next week, pubs in Britain won't have to order drinkers out the door at the stroke of 11:00 every night. > The government argues it's the best way to stop a growing wave of violent behavior that erupts right after closing, reports CBS

Immodesty Redux

Both pro-choicers, I might add: > A busy time in the U.S. Senate, the "world's greatest deliberative body." Judging from the 2006 conference report, the Senate subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education -- Chairman Arlen Specter (R), ranking member Tom Harkin (D)

Pharm Land

Joe Queenan reviews Generation Rx [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/books/review/20queenan.html] at the New York Times. Excerpt: > Generation Rx contends that large drug companies have co-opted the federal government, seduced the medical establishment and mesmerized a temperamentally supine public into taking far more drugs

iPod and Manners

George Will has a great op-ed in the Washington Post this morning [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/18/AR2005111802400.html] . The gist: In a society of entitlement and social autism, no one appreciates manners any more. > Sociology discerns connections, and there may be one between

Odd Consumer News

> It might sound like a bizarre brew plucked from the pages of Harry Potter or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but a Seattle-based firm has a new line of artificially flavored festive drinks in time for US Thanksgiving and Christmas. > Topping the menu is a delicate smoked salmon

Bush Goes to Commie Church

> In his first public appearance, even before the welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, Bush attended a service at a state-sanctioned Protestant church to send a message about free expression of faith in a country that harshly smothers it. The president has been offended by the

Screaming for Daddy

I think the NYT meant for this piece [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/national/20siblings.html?hp&ex=1132549200&en=19a9c34b71b8af37&ei=5094&partner=homepage] to be a feel-good story, at least in part, but I found it eerie. It's about children

Something for Sunday Morning

> Satan presented himself to a holy man at the hour of his death and said, "You have beaten me." The old man answered, "I still do not know."

Ten Weird Ones

Not a lot of blogging material out there tonight. Everyone must be mourning the UM loss. I did, however, find this entertaining, though irrelevant, list: Top 10 odd names for children of celebrities 1 Moon Unit - Frank Zappa 2 Apple - Chris Martin (Coldplay) 3 Misty Kyd - Sharleen

Misc. 11.19.05

If economic considerations drive young people to shack up before marriage (as many parents like to believe), why don't those young people invite their parents and grandparents to live with them? Multi-generational households save a lot of money, as the Mexican population in my small town is proving.

JPII Comic Book

> In life John Paul II was a global superstar who produced several bestsellers, including memoirs, plays and poetry. Yesterday he proved that he had star appeal even in death as a comic book that tells his life story sold out as soon as it appeared in the bookshops. >

Baby Forced to Judaism

> A circumcision was performed on the wrong baby boy at a Winnipeg hospital last week, prompting officials to declare a circumcision moratorium while an investigation is conducted. Link [http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2005/11/19/1313950-sun.html].

Letterman on Jackson

> Michael Jackson is moving to the Persian Gulf. This week he was over there and caused a riot when he went into the wrong restroom. In Michael's defense I'm not sure if there is a right restroom.

First Things on Blogs

Jonathan Last has written a thorough survey of religious blogdom and more at First Things [http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0512/articles/last.html]. It's already outdated a bit (8 million blogs? more like 21 million), but it's very good. Excerpts: > According to a 2004

Public Service Announcement

I have a slightly ambivalent attitude toward all these boycotts [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=30732], but I support them in general and like to pass along the word: > On October 7 we brought to your attention that Target was banning

Don't Match.com

> Match.com is being accused of sending ringers on fake dates with lonely hearts to keep them from dumping the service. > A racketeering lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Nov. 10 alleges the wildly popular online dating service secretly employs people as "date bait" to send bogus

Could We be the Apple of God's Eye?

The Internet has crashed UFOs [http://www.techcentralstation.com/110905A.html]. One of the best observations of the year. Excerpt: > The modern UFO era began with Kenneth Arnold's 1947 UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington. National interest in the subject waxed and waned in the following years

Not Discrimination?

> Deciding not to accept as candidates for the priesthood men with "deeply rooted homosexual tendencies" would not be an act of discrimination, said the general secretary of the Italian bishops' conference. . . > Bishop Betori said that if the bishops decide being homosexual and being a priest

The Weekend Eudemon

Are you ready to rumble? Michigan is, as is Ohio. It's the day of "The Game." Michigan is ranked 17th and OSU 9th. It's not the greatest match-up of the year, but it's still the country's biggest game. I'

Misc. 11.18.05

Aaaargh! My town's theater didn't bring in Walk the Line! (Durn that Harry Potter.) The next nearest theater is 30 miles away. Decisions will have to be made. What's up with MyYahoo? It's running slower than molasses in December and a few

Smoke and Gambling

Gamblers like to smoke? Who woulda thunk: Atlantic City casinos warned yesterday that a smoking ban could spell economic doom for them. [http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/57696.htm]

Can't Call Someone a Jewish Fag

> A gay Jewish man's discrimination lawsuit against the Salvation Army can keep marching on, a Manhattan judge has ruled. > In a decision made public yesterday, state Supreme Court Justice Richard Braun denied the Christian charitable organization's bid to throw out Zachary Logan's

Brews You Can Use III

> Archeologists in southern Peru have uncovered a brewery dating to about 1000 A.D., and, in a new research paper, conclude that it was staffed by "elite brew mistresses" probably selected for their "beauty or nobility."' Link [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002772.

Fleiss Comes Back

Well, if this blog thing doesn't work out, at least I'll have options: > Former "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss is looking for a few good men. > Fleiss has decided to return to the world's oldest profession – and says this time she&

Sci-Fi Politics: Politics in a Future World?

Michael Kinsley at WaPo mentions some uncomfortable political facts about abortion [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/17/AR2005111701452.html] : > The last thing in the world that Republican strategists want is repeal of Roe . If abortion becomes a legislative issue again, all those pro-choice women and

Brews You Can Use II

Starting next Thursday, properly-licensed British pubs can stay open 24 hours a day [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4441328.stm].

Brews You Can Use

Thousands of drink recipes [http://www.bartrend.com/].

Sports Gone Wild, Episode 1,490,333

> Looking back now, it should have been obvious that something was amiss about the adult football team that Texas Christian School fielded three weeks ago in Austin. > Not to mention the tattoos. > "Some of the guys had tattoos and full beards and looked like they were

The New Child Abuse

> "If you deny a 14-year-old girl her mobile phone and MSN (Internet chat) access, it borders on child abuse," Elisabeth Staksrud told financial daily Dagens NÃ¦ringsliv. Link [http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1158710.ece]. Scandinavians are great fun. They avoid having children, and then go

Say No(y) to Soy

> Greenpeace activists today chained themselves to the anchor of a ship off the northern coast of Poland as part of a bid to prevent it from offloading its cargo of genetically modified (GM) soy, the environmental group said. Link [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,

The Internet Has Its Limits

> Albany police said 26-year-old Schelra Smoot didn't seem to care much whether or not he got caught when he posted an ad selling marijuana -- his ad specifically saying he wasn't afraid of the police. > Detective James Miller of the Albany Police Department said,

South Park Takes on Scientology

I don't know this blogger [http://oooohdark30.blogspot.com/2005/11/tom-cruise-needs-to-come-out-of-closet.html] and I didn't see South Park last night, but both sound pretty good (the poor grammar and spelling notwithstanding): > [F]or those of you who missed [South Park], here's a

Kill the Humans

Scoff if you want, but at least these guys are logically consistent with the way many of us Occidental folk behave and think: > Make no mistake about it, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement isn't anti-child, it's more like anti-human. > The VHE is dedicated to

Is God an Accident II

Pretty good analysis at AI Cont. regarding the Bloom piece (is God an Accident?). [http://the-american-interest.com/contd/?p=95] Excerpt from conclusion: > The problem here isn't with Darwin; it's with Dawkins (and Bloom, and, across the aisle, Intelligent Design boosters). He is (and they

Violent Polygamists

> Senior French politicians have been accused of "blatant racism" after linking the suburban riots to polygamy among African immigrant families. > The head of the ruling centre-right party in the national assembly and an employment minister both suggested unruly teenagers from large, polygamous families had helped to

Lavender Mafia

> Any examination of the sexual abuse crisis afflicting the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles leads inevitably to a bell-towered campus in the rolling hills of Camarillo: St. John's Seminary. . . > Several former students recall a licentious atmosphere at St. John's that might have accommodated

Is God an Accident?

One of the feature articles of December's Atlantic Monthly [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200512/god-accident] is a (ball park) 5,000-word essay entitled, "Is God an Accident" by Paul Bloom. Although written respectfully, the article tries to undermine religious faith by pointing to recent studies

Mary Spreading?

> They're wearing "Mary Is My Homegirl" T-shirts and bracelets, and not all of them are Roman Catholic. > Once mainly a devotional figure for Catholics, Mary and her role as a woman of God now are studied by Anglicans and other Christian denominations. "Mary

King Alfred, Your Efforts Linger On

I don't have confidence in polls, but they have a little bit of value and are often interesting: > Most Britons describe themselves as Christian despite not attending church regularly, a BBC survey has found. > The poll taken for BBC News 24's Faith Day examines

Further Effort to Promote Homosexuality?

Ryan Seacrest will take over Dick Clark's role at Time Square, but I don't really think it's an attempt to further homosexuality. Though it's my understanding that Seacrest is gay, he does a heckuva good job with American Idol and people like

Marry the Abuser

> A woman says she still plans to marry the man who shot her in the groin and then held her hostage in his family's garage for six days. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MARRIAGE_AFTER_SHOOTING?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=STRANGE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&

Nobel Not Noble

Maybe it's no accident that freaks frequently win the Nobel Prize: > Best known for inventing dynamite and creating and funding the Nobel Prizes, Alfred Nobel was also a playwright, though his work has (perhaps justifiably) gone unstaged–until [December 10, 2005]. In Stockholm, on the same day

Wrong Temple

Conan on Brien on Bush's trip to Japan: > President Bush is traveling right now. Today he was in Japan and took a tour of the temple with the prime minister. There was an awkward moment when President Bush said, "Funny, you don't look Jewish.

Where to Begin?

> You can't call this top cop a plainclothes policeman - not after he appeared on television in a canary-yellow dress, sporting dark red lipstick, matching nail polish and a nose ring. > State officials ordered a probe into the behavior of Devendra Kumar Panda, an inspector general

Massachusetts Continues the Cutting Edge

Who's shocked? Four state legislators in Massachusetts have introduced a bill that would soften the crime of bestiality. Link [http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47416]. Thing is, no doubt Massachusetts has its own pressing problems to deal with, but sexual liberation is still in

Big Money in Big Easy

Free market or government subsidy? > So many people have abandoned New Orleans for good that contractors are paying $30 an hour for unskilled laborers and Burger King is offering a $6,000 hiring bonus ... if you agree to stay for a year. Link [http://www.sploid.com/news/2005/

First to Secede

On the other end of Virginia: > South Riding Church, a small Episcopal mission of about 150 members in eastern Loudoun County, has become the first church to secede from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051116-121619-3330r.htm].

Whatta Maroon

> Clarendon Presbyterian Church Pastor David Ensign has an alternative air about him. He wears an earring and has been known to pick up his guitar to play a few hymns during Sunday services. > But he surprised even some of Arlington's die-hard progressives Nov. 3 at the

Metrosexual Quarterly

> The man of the year is a woman? For the first time in 10 years, GQ magazine is featuring a woman on one of three covers of the annual Men of the Year issue. That woman: Jennifer Aniston. Link [http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/movies/article.adp?id=20051115073909990058]

Cliche Clooney

One thing has always struck me about George Clooney: His incredible arrogance: > It's very easy when you're a conservative to say 'good' and 'bad.' It's simple: evildoers, bad people. The job of a liberal is to see both sides.

Porn Culture II

> Last spring, Ralph Frammolino began regularly covering the pornography industry for the [Los Angeles Times]. He says the porn trade is too big an economic engine to be ignored [http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/142005a.asp].

Thai Trans

I find this funny: > Thai transvestites are often pretty enough to fool tourists and expatriates into taking them home for the night, but the unwary foreign visitor risks losing his wallet as well as his pride, Thai police warned Monday. > Members of a transvestite gang have confessed to

B16 Plugs Natural Law

Timely, as five Catholics might take a seat on the Highest Bench: > Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the "respect for the universal moral law" as he met on November 12 with a new ambassador from the United States. > As he accepted the diplomatic credentials of Francis Rooney,

Federal Funding of Perversion

> In the midst of a national Abstinence Education Evaluation Conference being sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this week, abstinence educators are calling for an investigation of the questionable content and ethical concerns with comprehensive sex education programs being supported with government money. Link

Dresden Revisited: Carpet Bombing the Culture

> "You can hardly turn on a television set, go to a movie, or listen to a political speech without the supposedly 'marginalized' person ... being portrayed, catered to, lauded, romanticized, or analyzed. ... > "We now have The L Word, a program on Showtime, described as Sex

Extreme Exercise

Saw this in a WaPo [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/14/AR2005111401051.html] caption: > Boot camps are one of the top fitness trends of 2005, according to a study by the American Council on Exercise. Americans and their extremes. Scale back on your food and

Porn Culture

Porn, porn everywhere/ In my pocket/ At the fair/ Watch in my car/ Or at the beach/ Just give me a cell/ And it's in my reach. > Pornography is spreading from the computer desktop to the small screen, to pocket-sized devices such as cell phones, digital music

Alito Contest Heating Up

It would appear it's now open season on Alito. How fitting, at least for those of us in Michigan: Today is the opening day of the 2005 deer season, a de facto holiday in the mitten state. From Washington Times: [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051115-123456-9700r.htm] >

Hot Time on the Town

This is nuthin'. Wait till the Muslims take over Europe: > Drunks may cause a ruckus, but they do not burn down the breweries that feed their thirst. But archaeologists have found that things were different 1000 years ago in Peru. After tossing down hearty drinks of pepper-spiced corn

Nazis Don't Kowtow to Art

> A stunned Italian actor had to stub out the cigarette he had lit up on stage after a spectator complained, forcing the theatre to change the script of an Arthur Miller play to make it smoke-free. > "This had never happened to me in more than 300 performances,

V-Pod

I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. A new add-on allows you to turn your i-pod into an erotic toy [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005520728,00.html]. The human race is ingenious, and never more so when they're obsessed with something.

Black Gays

From NY Post: [http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/57412.htm] > Nearly half of all new cases of HIV infection are African-American [gays], according to findings by the Centers for Disease Control.

Man Crush

I still hadn't fully recovered from whatever illness afflicted me this morning, when I read about "man crushes" in the Toronto Star [http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1131898685627&call_page=TS_Life&

Shovel Fighting

Kind of a slow day for the blog. I woke up this morning, feeling like I had the flu. After a few items of unpleasantness, it slowly passed, but now I'm dealing with a backlog at the office, occasional tremors from the earlier sickness, and a dearth of

Assault on Blacks

One writer sees California's policies as further assaults on blacks. Interesting analysis. Link [http://townhall.com/opinion/column/StarParker/2005/11/14/175236.html]. Excerpts: > [I]n the state of California, a 15-year-old girl has full and exclusive sovereignty over the production and destruction of life [rejection

Foucauld

Preemptive strike: This was not motivated by the Eurabian Civil Wars, though I find the timing delicious: > A French monk who lived among the Tuareg people in the Sahara and was killed in an anti-French uprising in Algeria in 1916 was beatified by the Vatican yesterday, the last formal

Lesbian Bomber?

That woman who got caught in Jordan was a suicide bomber. Was she also promised 40 virgin women in heaven? Yeah, I know she was married, but what was she going to do with all those virgins? Make 'em into maids?

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee . . . If Coffee is Still Allowed

It amazes me that Europeans (and many Americans) continue to think Muslims can assimilate to Western Democracy. Yes, it is possible, and it's possible the Lions will win the Superbowl this season (I plan to continue using that comparison for the rest of this miserable NFL season). But

NYT on Narnia

Pretty good feature piece at NYT about LWW and Lewis [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/movies/13narnia.html?pagewanted=1&incamp=article_popular] , though I have two quibbles: > [T]here are some Hollywood observers who seem to believe that there is a good reason Lewis is

Cloning Humans = Dehumanized

From Secondhand Smoke [http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2005/11/trouble-in-threapeutic-cloning.html]: > One of the big issues that causes many feminists to oppose therapeutic human cloning is the distinct possibility that women, particularly the most destitute women, will be exploited for their eggs. . . > When S. Korean researcher Woo-Suk

Historical Miniature: Johnson's Dictionary

It's not often you get Samuel Johnson in the MSM. This was great to see [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/10/AR2005111001663.html] : > Except on those rare occasions when new editions of existing dictionaries are issued -- the Oxford English Dictionary , Webster'

Planned Parenthood Stoops Even Lower

> Planned Parenthood has a new marketing strategy for their abortion services: the cross of Jesus. According to a report in the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader [http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/13138780.htm?source=rss&channel=kentucky_news] , Planned Parenthood's national chaplain, United Methodist Ignacio Castuera

Dilbert on ID

Scott Adams (the Dilbert guy) posts thoughts about Intelligent Design v. Darwinism. He sides with the Darwinists, but he's fascinated that the I.D. people have good points and that the Darwinists' arguments aren't persuasive. Link [http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/]. Excerpts: > I've

Ships in the Night

A columnist at WaPo weighs in on the stem cell research question [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/11/AR2005111101634.html] . The writer is upset that scientists are coming up with bizarre ways to obtain embryonic stem cells that dont' run afoul of religious or philosophical

Defiling Danny Boy

As Ireland's economy booms, the Catholic Church is already losing the souls of its members. According to a NYT report this morning [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/international/europe/13ireland.html?pagewanted=1&hp] , things could get a lot worse for the world's

Something for Sunday Morning

> It has been said a hundred times and we must keep saying it: grace does not destroy nature; it fertilizes and elevates nature. No sort of man is more sensible than a saint. Henri Gheon, St. Martin of Tours When you consider the administrative incompetence found in many parts

Thrash the Christians

Yeah, those Muslim Frog riots were an aberration. These folks will assimilate just fine into European culture without tearing it down first. The homosexuals will humbly accept the Vatican's statement on homosexuality, Cindy Crawford finds me handsome, and the Detroit Lions will win this season's Superbowl.

The Land of Cold and Queers

Just when I thought Canada couldn't get any more demented: > The Ontario government has been ordered to cover the costs of sexual reassignment surgery for three transsexuals left stranded when the previous Tory government delisted the service in 1998. > In an interim ruling, the Human Rights

B16 Embraces Slang?

> Over the last 12 months," said the current Pope, "we have had five revered cardinals who kicked the bucket: Juan Carlos Aramburu, Jan Pieter Schotte, Corrado Bafile, Jaime Sin and, less than a month ago, Giuseppe Caprio [http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200511111708-1170-RT1-CRO-0-NF82&

Indifference to Ignorance

Saturdays often have a dearth of good articles on-line. Not today. Here's one that strikes at a phenomonen that I see around me everyday: indifference to ignorance [http://www.triangle.com/books/zane/story/2833105p-9283263c.html]. > [S]tudents have always possessed far less knowledge than they should,

Only Three Years?

It bans gays, it doesn't ban gays, it bans gays [http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1832940,00.html]: > A long-awaited Vatican document says sexually active homosexuals and those with "deeply rooted" gay tendencies or who support gay culture cannot be admitted

The American Dream

NYT has a good piece about all those self-help be-a-millionaire books that have been flooding the market for years [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/12/business/12money.html]. Under the article lies the fundamental strength and weakness of America: its obsession with money. It builds our economy and tears

B16 on Creationism

For those who missed it (NYT Link) [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/12/international/europe/12pope.html]: > Pope Benedict XVI has waded into the evolution debate in the United States, saying the universe was made as an "intelligent project" and criticizing those who say its creation

Ave Maria Town

Tom Monahan wants to create Ave Maria Town (real name) in Florida. The WSJ, with good reason, calls it a Catholic Jonestown [http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007536]. Monahan's apparent hubris reminds me of one of my favorite GKC sayings: In order to be smart enough to

Walk the Line

WaPo has a great piece about Reese Witherspoon and Walk the Line. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/11/AR2005111100442.html] I'm greatly looking forward to seeing this movie, though I dread what appears to be a whitewashing of Johnny Cash's miserable treatment

WaPo Attacks St. Paul

I like reading the Washington Post. It contains some of the finest writing in the land. But it's relentlessly secularist. Though it tries to cover it up, once in awhile, you come across something like this review of a novel based on the life of St. Paul [http:

The Weekend Eudemon

This week got uglier than Al Capone [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone]. The day job hopped with one fire after another, Marie had to go out three evenings, and now, on Saturday, the day I revere (must be my hitherto unknown Jewish roots), Marie is leaving again. It&

Hot for Teacher

Morality by democracy: Enough teachers are doin' it, it must be kinda good, right? > Britain should drop its moral outrage over sexual relationships between pupils and teachers and accept that an "erotic charge" in the classroom can be an aid to teaching, a Sheffield University academic

Another Holiday Celebration

Like there isn't enough to celebrate already during the next six weeks: > The modern, competitive game of tiddlywinks originated in England in January 1955 when Bill Steen and R. C. Martin founded the Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club (CUTwC). Celebrations occur in Cambridge and elsewhere during January 2005.

Giant Discovery

> Archaeologists digging at the purported biblical home of Goliath have unearthed a shard of pottery bearing an inscription of the Philistine's name, a find they claimed lends historical credence to the Bible's tale of David's battle with the giant. > While the discovery

Splitting the E-Church

This "Bishop" Gay Robinson is a piece of work. First, he catalyzes the split of the Episcopalian Church, then he blabs to the press about a confidential meeting where the two parties tried to agree about the division of church assets. I obviously don't know the

Brews You Can Use III

The season is almost here, and here's a list of holiday beers [http://www.realbeer.com/edu/2005holidays/beers.php]. There are some great names in there. Abita Christmas Ale - Louisiana Alaskan Winter Ale - Alaska Anchor "Our Special Ale" - California Anderson Valley Winter

Brews You Can Use II

Cell phones with built-in breathalyzers [http://www.akihabaranews.com//en/news-10535-LG%27s+phone+with+breath+analyzer.html] .

Mental Destabilizer?

The NYT this morning reports about a Florence museum's exhibit of mythology and erotica [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/11/international/europe/11florence.html?hp]. It's full of classical art. That classical art has a lot of nudity and even some erotica (the two aren&

Brews You Can Use

> Research at Oregon State University shows that beer contains a micronutrient that inhibits cancer-causing enzymes [http://www.thedrunk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=888].

Catholics and Sports

T.O. to speak? > The Vatican announced a unique, upcoming conference today, which will look at the role of the Christian mission in the field of sports. > Organized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity, the first international seminar on sport is scheduled to be held in Rome

Salacious TV and Reaction

Interesting juxtaposition of stories at WaPo and the Washington Times this morning. Washington Times [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051110-120222-2157r.htm]: > More than three-quarters of prime-time TV shows contain some sexual content, significantly more than previous years, a study shows. . . > For its "Sex on TV 4"

Innocent 8-Year-Old Tormented

Hey, maybe if they allowed corporal punishment, the administrators wouldn't have to get so creative: > Some parents in a local school district say the principal was out of line for taking by the hand an 8-year-old accused of stealing into every classroom in the school and telling

And By the Way

Mark my words: When the Muslim Frog riots finally settle down, we'll be told they weren't that bad. Only a few people were killed, after all. Nevermind the extensive property damage and the duration of the rioting. It'll get whitewashed behind the lack of

Fukuyama on Muslims

I disagree with Francis Fukuyama's "Democracy for All!" approach (and heck, based on this blurb, I'm not even sure he believes in it), but he raises a good point [http://www.washtimes.com/culture/culturebriefs.htm]: > Radical Islamism is in no way an

Kill the Retards!

NYT [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/health/10down.html] and WaPo [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/09/AR2005110902079.html] appear to be excited about this (excerpt from NYT piece, though both newspapers' articles are very similar): > New tests in the first trimester

Riotous Humor

Leno on the Muslim Frog Riots: > This is now the twelfth day of rioting in France. They have been rioting for almost two weeks. And France has still not surrendered. That's like a record. > Things are so bad in France, they're asking the Germans

Make the Covert Public?

WaPo wants more disclosure of FBI spying [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/09/AR2005110901719.html] : > More information is needed. The Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, ought to investigate, and report to Congress and the public. And as conferees put the final

No Coffin Bangers in China

The NYT ran a piece today about China's ban on burials [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/business/worldbusiness/10coffin.html]. Excerpts: > The suppression of coffin sales and the requirement that the dead must be cremated instead of buried began soon after the Communist takeover in

Fatherhood Reduces Testoserone

> Fatherhood significantly reduces men's testosterone levels, a study has shown [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4415920.stm]. Heck, that's nothing. Marriage removes 'em altogether. George Gilder wrote that marriage further civilization by settling men down. This added type of emasculation probably

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

> Good Grief. Learn the true meaning of Christmas with Charlie Brown's classic pathetic Christmas tree. Leave it bare or dress it up all fancy. The tree is an exact replica of the tree from the famous cartoon, made of wire branches and plastic needles with a criss

Tattoo You

A story about two Christians and their rather unorthodox business: a tattoo parlor [http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051105/NEWS10/511050343] . > While Revelation Tattoos will inscribe most styles of tattoos on their customers, the two artists draw the line on some icons. > "We

St. JPII Website

A site devoted to John Paul II's potential canonization [http://www.vicariatusurbis.org/Beatificazione/]. Much of it isn't in English, but some is (look for the British flags). Thanks, Little Jimmy Akin [http://www.jimmyakin.org/2005/11/how_is_the_caus.html].

Rand Cult

In response to Sunday's post about cults [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2940/], a reader sent along this link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html] to a lengthy essay about the Ayn Rand cult. It's written by the foremost libertarian thinker of the 20th century, Murray Rothbard.

Toilet Paper Controversy

The New York Post cracks me up. This is a humorous story, but the choice of verbs in the first and third paragraphs is classic NYP: > A prop company has been plunged into a legal drama over a $137,139 roll of toilet paper. > In papers filed in

No Wait at KFC

> Nearly half of all Americans mistakenly believe they can be stricken with the deadly bird flu by eating chicken, a new poll says [http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/57080.htm].

Lots of Chaucer

Lots of medieval stuff. Pretty cool: > Although Chaucer's Canterbury Tales pilgrims are fictional characters, the pilgrimage to the Shrine of Thomas Ã¡ Becket was an actual experience for many Medieval folk. This article explores the lives of Chaucer's pilgrims had they been truly alive and

Atheists in Foxholes

> Thousands of veterans, including those from "the Greatest Generation" who served in World War II, are expected in Washington, DC next week for the November 11 " Atheists in Foxholes [http://www.atheistfoxholes.org/]" Parade and Rally on the national mall. > The event is designed

One for Two

Texas banned same-sex marriage and Maine turned down efforts to repeal homosexual civil rights legislation [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/09/ap/politics/mainD8DOQQG04.shtml]. I'd say the Texas victory is bigger than the Maine defeat, since Texas dealt with marriage, not general civil rights. >

Muslim Frog Wars

Tony Blankley pegs much of the frog problem [http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20051108-102827-5782r.htm]: > As Paul Belien, writing from Brussels this weekend, observed: "It is not anger that is driving the insurgents to take it out on the secularized welfare states of Old Europe. It is hatred.

There is No Possible Domestic Policy

WaPo and others continue to think there's a way to placate the rioters [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/08/AR2005110801109.html] : > But the insoluble violence in urban France should inspire more than just schadenfreude in this country. Although there isn't yet

Bible Gets You Three

> Religious persecution in China has reached the point that distributing Bibles is earning a three-year prison sentence [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051109-122418-9246r.htm]. I like this ironic twice: > Friends of Falun Gong, a religious movement espousing meditative practices, say that more than 100,000 of its adherents

Seeking the Invisible

Interesting essay at NYT [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/08/science/08essay.html] about man's innate tendency to look for invisible verities. The writer says it's common to religious types and scientific types. His concluding paragraphs: > Religious belief that the universe is the handiwork

CE Podcasts

Catholic Exchange is running some good podcasts. They're only 4 minutes long and packed with information. Today's (11/8/05) is especially good, and most fitting for people who enjoy this blog's "dog children" posts. Link [http://podcast.catholicexchange.com/].

A 13-Year-Old Understands

From a Kathryn Lopez op-ed [http://www.nationalreview.com/lopez/lopez200511080812.asp]: > Recently, "Ask Amy" newspaper-advice columnist took a question from a woman in one of these marriages: "He's not abusive in any way, to the kids or me; I just don't

High Praise for Catholics

From the New Republic: > Evangelicals began aggressively reaching out to Catholics for intellectual aid. That movement reached its apotheosis with the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. With his addition to the ranks of Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and John Roberts, all five members of

Major Passion

> The movie industry has been in the economic doldrums. ... But 43 percent of Americans are church-goers, many of whom find themselves mocked and their values undermined in the typical Hollywood fare. But when Christians found a movie they liked -- The Passion of the Christ -- they made it

Outsourcing Porn

> Viewers tuning in for the evening news in India were shocked when they were left watching a Russian porn movie. > Angry residents in Kailaras, who wanted to watch an English-language news report, blame the mix-up on technicians from the Kailaras relay station. > They believe the workers had

Oy! JPII

I'm not sure if this was published today or last spring (the dateline is ambivalent). Either way, I missed it: > A Manchester historian has claimed that Pope John Paul II was Jewish. > Yaakov Wise says his study into the the maternal ancestry of Karol Josez Wojtyla

The Jewish Elvis

This WaPo [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/06/AR2005110601271_2.html] article was good all around: An ultra-orthodox Jew is crooning to Israel's Amish-like clad Jews, and the parents are getting nervous. Almost sounds like a Weird Al Yankovich video. Excerpts: > Elbaz appreciates

Lama to Speak Anyway

> More than 900 scientists have signed a petition to prevent the Dalai Lama from presenting a lecture today in Washington. > The exiled leader of Tibet is scheduled to speak about the neurological effects of meditation at a three-day conference presented by the Mind and Life Institute. His talk

Steyn on Eurabian Wars

Mark Steyn has, as usual, a great piece at The Telegraph today about the Frog riots [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/11/08/do0802.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/11/08/ixopinion.html] . Excerpt: > The first country formally to embrace "multiculturalism"

Chirac Not Liberal Enough

Good ole New York Times. What's the problem in France these days? Chirac and his ilk aren't liberal enough [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/08/opinion/08tue2.html]. At one point, the editorial even seems to imply that an affirmative action plan would have helped

Gay "Bishop" Gene

Bettnet reports on "Bishop" Gay Robinson's excoriation of the Catholic Church [http://bettnet.dyndns.org/blog/comments.php?id=P5741_0_1_0]: > The gay Episcopalian bishop went to England to speak to Anglicans and had some commentary on the Catholic Church. V. Gene Robinson

Renegade Circuit Courts

While reading about the Ninth Circus' ruling last week that told parents they can't stop a public school from giving sex surveys to 7-year-olds, I ran across this interesting passage: > This is not the first time, nor is the Ninth Circuit Court the only part of

Trademarking Blasphemy

Why can't they just leave the religious stuff alone? > In a full-bodied blend of blasphemy and ingenuity, a Los Angeles couple is seeking to market a wine called "Jesus Juice" that bears a label showing a Michael Jackson-like figure appearing to be crucified. "Jesus

Revoking Tax-Exempt Status

I do a fair amount of tax and non-profit work, so this question has always fascinated me: When will the IRS revoke a charitable institution's tax-exempt status due to political involvement? More interesting: When will it revoke a church's status? Although I've never researched

More Freaky Romanian Stuff

Strange, strange land [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1602765.html]: > Two Romanian priests face suspension after coming to blows inside the church they both serve. > One of them suffered a broken leg and was admitted to hospital while the other came out with only a few

Gay Asteroid

I have a couple of dirty jokes for this, but it'd drag down the moral caliber of this site: > A new asteroid is to be named after a transvestite gypsy folk singer from Bulgaria. > The asteroid, temporarily been called 2005 UT12, was spotted in the Taurus

Good-bye, Californee

The NYT reports that Californians are leaving the coast and going to the Midwest [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/business/07move.html?hp&ex=1131426000&en=5aa13860fa86497a&ei=5094&partner=homepage] . Maybe I'm feeling mean-spirited this morning, but I found this opening

MSM and Divorce

First NYT [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2931/], now WaPo [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/04/AR2005110402304.html?nav=most_emailed] . The devastation of divorce is finally entering our culture's mainstream. I am, no exaggeration, a bit stunned. Happy, but stunned: > Before the divorce rate

Natural Law at WaPo

WaPo has run a piece this morning about the potential 5-Catholic Supreme Court [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/06/AR2005110601134.html] . The first half is ho-hum: the composition reflects tolerance toward Catholics, but does it reflect America's demographics? But the second half made some

NYT for Alito?

The NYT runs a lengthy article about Alito this morning [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/politics/politicsspecial1/07alito.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=ac4868138c94cfe3&hp&ex=1131426000&partner=homepage] . A very nice piece. Either Alito is a heckuva good man and the

Another Endorsement of Zmirak

The Curt Jester agrees with my strong endorsement of the Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living. > [A]t times I learned some interesting facts about the lives of the saints mostly I laughed out loud while reading it. For example "Some skeptics have asked 'If

Identifying a Cult

I found this column by The God Squad (a Jewish Rabbi and Catholic Monsignor) interesting: Four common characteristics of a cult [http://www.detnews.com/2005/religion/0511/06/A23-372875.htm]. > 1. Love bombing. Most of the cults we've encountered engage in this highly successful technique used

Digital Essay: Conservative for Diversity

I'm digging Google Print. One of my first GP research projects: Checking out Russell Kirk's use of the word “diversity” in The Conservative Mind. He referred to it as a society's “leaven” and had many other kind things to say about it: “Burke loathed

Porn to Go

Porn downloads are proving popular for iPods [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/04/D8DLT9T0A.html]: > Purveyors of porn and entrepreneurs who spied a niche when Apple Computer Inc. unveiled its video-playing iPod are proving that sex even sells in tiny packages -- especially when it is portable.

Belloc on Eurabian War

The festivities in France prompted me to take a few Belloc books onto the front porch with me this morning. I ran across this passage in The Great Heresies: > The missionary efforts made by great Catholic order which have been occupied in trying to turn Mohammedans into Christians for

Old Church

> Israeli archaeologists said Saturday they have discovered what may be the oldest Christian church in the Holy Land on the grounds of a prison near the biblical site of Armageddon. > The Israeli Antiquities Authority said the ruins are believed to date back to the third or fourth centuries

Steyn on the Eurabian Civil War

Great column [http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn06.html]. Excerpts: > For half a decade, French Arabs have been carrying on a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers, Jewish schools, etc. The concern of the political class has been to prevent the spread of these attacks to targets of

More on Eurabian Civil War

WaPo logs on today with a piece that bleeds sympathy for the French rioters [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/05/AR2005110501515.html] . It's the same kind of analysis we're accustomed to: these people are neglected, disenfranchised. But then you look more carefully

Something for Sunday Morning

> We should have a daily familiarity with death, a daily desire for death. By this kind of detachment our soul must learn to free itself from the desires of the body. It must soar above earthly lusts to a place where they cannot come near, to hold it fast.

Kicking Out the Catholics

Fascinating piece at Commonweal about the Democratic Party's intentional neglect of Catholics [http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php?id_article=1422]. Excerpt: > Better known as the McGovern Commission, for its chairman, Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, the twenty-eight-member panel became the vehicle by which a handful

Some Sanity to First Amendment Jurisprudence?

In California, no less: > A federal judge denied on Friday a request from a group of Mendocino women who wanted to protest topless on the grounds of the state Capitol. > U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell said the group made no compelling argument that showing their breasts constitutes

Jack the Ripper to be ID'ed?

> One of the greatest murder mysteries of all time - the identity of Jack the Ripper - may soon be revealed by DNA technology developed in Australia. > Scientist Ian Findlay will use the new test on saliva the notorious serial killer would have left behind if he licked

Mowing to Freedom?

I thought China was the new paradise. Why are people sneaking out? Maybe they want to have a daughter: > Russian border officials in the country's Far East have arrested two Chinese men who attempted to sneak across the border into Russia on a lawnmower, local media reported.

Bona Fide Purchaser?

> A longtime Ripon pastor faces charges including embezzlement and forgery for allegedly selling his church, the land it sits on and other property totaling $525,000 and using the money for his own use, such as to buy a new BMW car. . . > Investigators learned Radic had sold the

Barbarians in Paris

As the first wave of the Eurabian Civil War [http://www.radioblogger.com/#001126] enters its tenth day, it might be a good time to re-read Theodore Dalrymple's prophetic (2002) piece, "The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris." Link [http://www.city-journal.org/html/12_4_

Vatican Doesn't Hate Science?

Only among reporters wholly ignorant of the Roman Catholic Church's history with science would find this newsworthy: > A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific

Divorce Evidence Mounts

Even the NYT has recognized the problem with the divorce culture. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/05/national/05divorce.html] > Even in a "good divorce," in which parents amicably minimize their conflicts, children of divorce inhabit a more difficult emotional landscape than those in intact families,

Google Print

Joe at Chesterton and Friends ran a novel search at Google Print: He looked for "beer" in Hilaire Belloc's The Path to Rome [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/]. Pretty good results, a Top Ten List of sorts. But if you search "wine," you get 81

The Weekend Eudemon

Guy Fawkes Day, and I'm celebrating it sober. Which is fitting, since I'm Catholic. It's also the 400th anniverary of the infamous Gunpowder Plot. If you're interested in it, you may want to check out a good essay that Catholic Exchange ran

Larry the Cable Guy

A snapshot of Larry the Cable Guy from Slate: [http://www.slate.com/id/2129296/?nav=ais] > Larry is a one-liner comedian. He boasts that he can deliver a joke in as little as eight seconds. He will sometimes follow a joke with, "That's funny, I

Brews You Can Use II

Just heard on Fox News: Coors is using beer byproducts to make ethanol, which is used in car gasoline.

Carter on Abortion

It's all over the blogosphere, but in case you missed it: > Former President Jimmy Carter yesterday condemned all abortions and chastised his party for its intolerance of candidates and nominees who oppose abortion. Link [http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20051103-111740-7148r.htm].

NYCondom

When bad conduct isn't discouraged, it's encouraged [http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/53944.htm]: > [New York] City Department of Education figures obtained and released yesterday by an AIDS advocacy group show that 167 of the city's 379 high schools have ordered 310

The Last Acceptable Form of Discrimination?

> Tyra Banks has gone undercover as a 350-pound woman. Banks wore the fat suit to experience what it's like to be obese. > "It seemed like the last form of open discrimination that's OK, and I decided to put on a 350-pound suit myself

The Swearing Catechumen

I guess there's a squabble in Orange County that could turn into a full-blown political battle that libertarians would love: local health inspectors want to inspect the kitchen of an 84-year-old woman who sells muffins. She won't let them in. She explains why, using rather colorful

FEMA Bill

Maybe this is why Blanco didn't call FEMA promptly when Katrina hit [http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20051104/ts_usatoday/louisianacantpaykatrinaritabills] : > Flood-ravaged Louisiana can't pay the $3.7 billion that the U.S. government says is its share of hurricane relief, a spokeswoman for

Aborters are Abusers

Thank you, Sherlock Flippin' Holmes: > Women who have abortions are significantly more likely to physically abuse their children than women who do not have abortions, said a study by a research group and professors at Bowling Green State University. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/culture/20051102-110138-9468r.htm].

Google Print

If you haven't tried Google Print [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en] yet, you should check it out. It's pretty neat. With a free Google account, you can type in an author and it'll bring up a list of books by that author.

When is a Justice Too Conservative?

I've disagreed with Michael Kinsley ever since I ate 25-cent microwaved burritos in my Ann Arbor apartment while watching Crossfire. He's a true liberal, but he's a good writer and I rarely find him disengenuous. His piece in today's WaPo [http://www.

Brews You Can Use

Wow, drinking news has been rather "dry" this week. This is the best I could do. In case you have a 25-year-old six-pack lying around [http://www.bidtrendz.com/collectible/archives/2005/11/01/billy-beer-6-pack/]: > A reader asks what an unopened six pack of Billy Beeer might

Hear, Hear!

My seven children will be glad to hear it: > Large families need society's support, Pope Benedict XVI told his weekly audience on November 2. > A large family, the Pope remarked, “constitutes a witness of faith, courage, and optimism.” Moreover, large families provide wealth to society, “because

Danica Patrick Fans Have a Place to Go

> A British new media company has launched what they claim is the world's first gay motoring website. > TopGayer.co.uk is dedicated to providing the gay community with news, information and reviews on the motor industry. > TS Media, owners of Queernetwork.co.uk, have launched

Fecund Women More Attractive?

Man, my wife must be bloomin' gorgeous: > The latest study suggests women with attractive faces tend to have higher levels of the sex hormone oestrogen, which indicates that features such as large eyes and lips are linked to higher fertility and make women appear to be more attractive.

Google Library

I'm highly interested in Google's Library Project, though I've never understood the fuss--either "pro" or "con." The Google Library will have snippets from all books in three world-class libraries (and the UM Grad library is world-class; I used to wander

Dog Radio

Common theme: Fewer children and more animals means more human-like treatment: > Ms. Harris is a D.J. on DogCatRadio.com, a new Internet radio station for pets. Now dogs, cats, hamsters and parrots can keep the anxiety, the loneliness, the restlessness at bay while their owners are out. It

Get Out the Hedge Trimmers!

> The Vatican's number two education official predicts that Pope Benedict XVI will follow a path of "evangelical pruning" of secularized Catholic colleges and universities, declaring them no longer Catholic. > Archbishop Michael Miller, secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education and former president of

The WoMen

Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker questions Maureen Dowd's assertion that men don't want to wed smart and successful women [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0511020035nov02,1,3738820.story?coll=chi-news-hed] . Excerpt: > Men haven't turned away from smart, successful women because they're

Sumo Mania

The world's grossest sport is no longer confined to the Japanese. Non-Japanese are making inroads in Japan, and the sport is being exported. WaPo [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/02/AR2005110202968.html] Link. Excerpt: > [T]he last Japanese grand champion of the 2,

Bible in the Political Belt

Jennifer Moses at WaPo tries to make sense of the role of religion in contemporary political life [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/02/AR2005110203188.html] . Based on this piece, she has a few hopelessly cliched and wrongheaded ideas about religion (e.g., "religion incites violence,

Ten Catholic Changes at Supreme Court

A reader sends this along. It's already hit quite a few blogs, but I'm cutting-and-pasting it, in case any of my readers haven't seen it yet: > As David Bernstein points out today in this post on The Volokh Conspiracy, the confirmation of Judge

Drunk Wheelchair Driver

The man has two disabilities. Where's the accommodation? Isn't there a Germans with Disabilities Act? This is barbaric: > A disabled man had his electric wheelchair confiscated after being caught more than four times over the drink drive limit. > Sven Mietke, 26, from Loebau in

Man Kills Deer. PETA to Protest?

Obvious case of poaching: > It looked like a crime scene, but no charges will be filed after Wayne Goldsberry killed a buck with his bare hands in his daughter's bedroom. > The engagement lasted an exhausting 40 minutes, but Goldsberry finally subdued the five-point whitetail deer that

A Guide to Narnia

I suspect this little book will be handy to have next month. A Guide to Narnia [http://www.ascensionpress.com/shop/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=325].

American Boycott

The LA Times ran a piece about the religious right's boycott of all sorts of American goods. The story has a smarmy edge to it, but it raises good questions: Will the RR boycott everything? Are boycotts effective? Throughout the lengthy article, though, is one glaring omission: Is

American Prostitute . . .

. . . Not here. There are some things you don't do, even for money: > A Catholic school in Wisconsin has canceled an "American Girl" fashion show because the company that makes the dolls gives money to a pro-abortion group. > St. Luke School in Brookfield hoped to

At Home with Anne Rice

NYT goes home with Anne Rice [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/garden/27rice.html]. Interesting human interest piece, but these three paragraphs have a lot in them: > Ms. Rice, however, does not suffer casual observations. "Only people who don't know my books," she

A Genetic Need for Sex?

Different fare at the LA Times this morning [http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-barash2nov02,0,5639947.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions] . The gist: sexual procreation helps us beat disease. Excerpts: > Lots of living things reproduce by parthenogenesis (the development of unfertilized eggs) or simply by sending out shoots or

Alito on Marriage

The NYT has found a common theme in Alito's decisions: the importance of marriage [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/02/politics/02abortion.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1130927319-dgtzZ2UBJNW5RBLMci0HeA] . The NYT is either genuinely confused or is merely laying the groundwork to jump on him later: > One

Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living

Welborn on Rice

Amy Welborn reviews Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/2005/11/christ_the_lord.html]. Excerpts: > The most interesting, even fascinating part of the book is the "Author's Note," in which Rice explains why she wrote

The Mind of the Master Class

Books & Culture likes a new book about the South: The Mind of the Master Class: History and Faith in the Southern Slaveholders' Worldview [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521615623/thedailyeudem-20] by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene Genovese. Link [http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/006/6.29.

Freaky Romania

> Pilgrims are flocking to the flat of a Romanian family who claim the images of Jesus and two disciples have appeared on their wardrobe. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1595498.html]. I believe in miracles, but anything from that bizarre, bizarre land makes me uncomfortable.

More Gay Catholic College Activity

Just can't seem to get enough of it: > More than 40 Catholic colleges were represented on Saturday at a conference that was billed as the nation's first on how gays and lesbians fit in at universities guided by a faith that says their sexual orientation

Dead Bead Child Psychiatrist

Those most concerned about children are often those who are horrible to their own children or who chose not to have children at all: > The former Kiss manager who spent 10 years on the lam to avoid supporting his ex-wife and kids pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge yesterday

Oh, Woody

Another aging celebrity says the fame and fortune doesn't help an existential thing: > Woody Allen says he has no regrets about his life, and actually cherishes the moment former lover Mia Farrow discovered secret nude photos he'd snapped of her 21-year-old adopted daughter – and his

A Call for FDR Court Packing

Ruth Marcus at WaPo laments the lack of diversity on the Supreme Court [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/31/AR2005103101385.html] : > [I]magine an all-male, all-white Supreme Court. No president looking at a high court vacancy would consider that acceptable in this day and age,

NYT on the C5

> A Catholic majority on the nine-member court would be a significant historical shift. Until 1988, there had been no more than two Catholic justices at once. And for most of the court's history, there was typically only a single Catholic. > "This would add a whole

Perhaps John Wesley Can Rest Peacefully Again

> In a pair of decisions that bolstered conservatives, the highest court of the United Methodist Church defrocked an openly lesbian minister yesterday and reinstated a pastor who had been suspended for refusing to allow a gay man to become a member of his congregation. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.

Halloween Spreadsheet

Giving the Arabs another excess to hate: Alex: 220 Abbie: 280 Jack: 250 Michael: 165 Meg: 150 Max: 100 1,165 pieces of candy for the Scheske clan. (Numbers are approximations, based on a quick count and tampering check.)

Call Me a Feminist

About Face appears to be fueled by feminists, but I strongly sympathize with their concerns: > [M]arketers are never going to show an ugly slob in an ad because no one wants to see a slob and we all aspire to something greater. But if all we see are

Sloppy Episcopalians?

The RCC isn't the only administratively-challenged church in America? > Administrators at a private Manhattan school admitted yesterday they never checked with church officials before hiring a former priest who allegedly molested a student in Central Park last week. > Episcopal authorities said the ex-priest, Bruce Jacques, had

This is Metaphysics 101

But if there is no God, all is matter because there was no non-material first cause. Maybe the pollsters didn't get into that much detail. > More Britons believe in ghosts than God, according to research. > A total of 2,012 people were polled on their beliefs

Five Catholics

From Maggie Gallagher [http://www.marriagedebate.com/mdblog/2005_10_30_mdblog_archive.htm#113076842581271164] : > David Bernstein on Volokh.com notes that Judge Sam Alito, if confirmed, will be the fifth Catholic on the Court, making it the first time a majority of Supreme Court Justices are Catholic. >

Healthy Chocolate

> After more than a decade of effort and a year of anticipation, Mars Inc. is finally rolling into stores with what it says is a healthy new sweet: a line of chocolate bars and chocolate-covered almonds. . . > [I]t is the glob of granola, rice and flavanol-filled cocoa powder

Halloween Fast Fact

> It's getting scary out there. More Americans than not – 48 to 45 percent – believe in ghosts, a CBS News survey found. > Women are the likelier true believers, 56 to 38 percent – and one in five Americans, or 22 percent, insist that they've actually seen

Time Change

I'm working on the return to standard time, but for now, the date/time stamp on posts will one hour ahead of the actual post time.

Blogging Ban?

I assume most everyone heard about the Catholic school that banned blogging. It turns out that the story was greatly sensationalized, and Dawn Eden has flushed it out [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/story/360528p-307208c.html]. Here's an excerpt from her site. It looks like things are

College Finances

Must be why tuition keeps increasing and the quality of education keeps dropping: > College presidents are more preoccupied with financial issues than educational ones, according to a new survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/31/education/31college.html].

Career Boost

Someone wrote a story about this? I would've thought it was a foregone conclusion. In a culture that celebrates the SI Swimsuit issue and Hugh Heffner, would you expect anything different? > B-list Hollywood celebrities from “it” girl Paris Hilton to actor Tom Sizemore are finding that, far

Civilization Video Game

An author at Tech Central Station writes about a video game that even I would enjoy: > The fourth entry in the acclaimed Civilization series is based on the same premise as its three predecessors: you are a small, nomadic tribe in 4000 B.C. Your goal: rise to pre-eminence

Forbes Attacks the Blogosphere

The current Forbes cover story [http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/1114/128_print.html] takes on the blogosphere. In a nutshell: Many bloggers act anonymously and deceitfully, without disclosing all facts, at times defaming individuals. All of it is true, though Forbes fails to mention that most blogs don&

Gargoyles

Hey, we gotta be grateful for our medievalism however we can get it: > An artist has used scrap cars to create replicas of gargoyles that once adorned a famous Dorset abbey. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/dorset/4388386.stm].

Beer Speech Constitutional Issue?

Lighten up, Connecticut. > A constitutional battle is brewing over a holiday beer that state officials are trying to ban because they say its label might entice children to drink. > The state believes it would be really awful for kids to see the label on the British import Seriously

The Anti-Debt Crusader

NYT writes about a radio personality worth hearing [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/magazine/30phenom.html?pagewanted=1]: > Well before the new bankruptcy law that went into effect on Oct. 17 made it harder for most Americans to wipe out credit-card debt, [Dave] Ramsey was waging a

JPII Vehicle Sells

A surprising story on a few fronts: > A light blue 1975 Ford Escort GL once owned by Pope John Paul II sold for $690,000 Saturday to a Houston multimillionaire who said he plans to put it in a museum he wants to build in his hometown. > "

Into the Dark Ages

Although it has detractors, for me, the bi-annual clock game is always a good thing, both in the fall and in the spring. In the spring, I enjoy the extra hour of daylight, and in the fall, I enjoy that extra hour of time. Back in college, I remember objecting

Something for Sunday Morning

> To suffer lovingly is to suffer no longer. To flee from the cross is to be crushed beneath its weight. From Bartholomew O'Brien's little book: The Cure of Ars, Patron Saint of Parish Priests.

Rich Dead Guys

Three of my favorite 20th century dead guys made the rich list: Elvis, JRR, and Johnny: > When Elvis died he came back as a cash cow. > Elvis tops the annual Forbes list of celebrities who are the top moneymakers from the crypt. He made an estimated 45 million

Catholic Student in Trouble for Anti-Homosexual Comment

I just want honesty. Truth in advertising. If you're not a Catholic school, don't call yourself a Catholic school. > A Duquesne University sophomore who is in trouble for online comments said he's not backing down -- that he'd rather be thrown

Cologne Cathedral

I'm posting it simply because it's magnificent. > One of the great monuments of the world is the Cathedral of Cologne. Some have called it the grandest in the world. Look at the picture and you will be able to pick out nearly all the Gothic

Digital Essay: Lights Out, Halloween

I was pulling a child's wagon. Running with it, actually, with two of my children, ages eight and six, loaded in the back. It was my exercise for the day. There were a lot of cars on the road, using the mechanical Jacobin to make more stops. I

Opus Dei

I'm no expert on Opus Dei, but this review [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0510.baumann.html] of John Allen's Opus Dei: The First Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church seems like a balanced account.

Spooky Sampling of Books

WaPo also ran blurbs on six "Halloweenish" books this morning [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/27/AR2005102701774.html] . A nice read. Excerpt: > Most Americans know about the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692, but a more lethal outbreak of witch hysteria infected England

Black Hole Novel

WaPo reviews a new work of fiction by Charles Burns. It sounds pretty cool, and it reminds me of the theme behind E. Michael Jones' Monsters from the Id [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1890626066/thedailyeudem-20]: pop culture reflects our society's buried fears about our

The Weekend Eudemon

A much abbreviated Weekend Eudemon this week. My wife and I are dealing with dueling croup [http://health.yahoo.com/ency/healthwise/hw31906] banjoes. Max (turned two on August 1) and Tess (seven months) both have it. One cries, gets the other going, the first cries more. There's

Letterman on McDonalds

> How many folks been to McDonalds lately? They're trying to improve their image. They now have big screen TV's and leather coaches”¦I'm thinking wouldn't that money have been better spent on actual beef?

VHS: RIP

John Robson writes a eulogy for the VHS. Excerpts: > The Citizen obituary said after only 28 years, VHS tapes won't be made as of 2006. In an intimation of mortality, a year ago the Daily Telegraph said Britain's largest electronics chain no longer sold VCRs,

A Sexual Predator Prot in the News

Statistics show that Protestant clergy are more likely to commit sexual sins than their Catholic counterparts, but they don't often make the news. Probably because the Protestant misconduct doesn't often involve teenage boys, but at times, the other side of the Tiber makes the news: >

Mandatory Training for Gay Sensitivity

When sin isn't condemned, it is encouraged. In this case, NYC schools have taken the position--consistent with public schools' moral agnosticism--that gay conduct isn't better or worse than heterosexual conduct. Neutral, right? Unfortunately, it appears the students aren't buying into it, so now

Brews You Can Use III

You get paid money for that? Frat boys will be lining up for miles. > A Japanese artist has been paid Â£5,000 of taxpayers' money to drink 48 bottles of beer and then fall off a wooden beam. > The performance, at an arts centre in Cardiff,

Brews You Can Use II

Cooking with Beer [http://www.beer100.com/cooking/index.html].

Link References

Readers have probably noticed that I have been providing the source of my articles. Instead, for instance, of posting "Link," I write, "NY Times Link." I do this for your convenience. The identified links are usually registration-only links. In order to save un-registered readers the frustration

Get a (Virtual) Life!

Always something odd in cyberspace. This time, it's a virtual life. Millions of people have signed up for websites that allow them to enjoy plush casinoes, cruises, yachting, fine dining, and other amenities. They pay a monthly fee ($10, according to the registration I checked out), assume a

Brews You Can Use

> The newest buzz beverage in the U.S. is sake, the centuries-old traditional rice wine from Japan. > This year's Joy of Sake, the largest tasting event outside of the beverage's home country, was packed at its three stops: Honolulu, San Francisco and New York.

More on Anne Rice's New Novel

Quite frankly, the project gives me a chill, but she has me interested: > In two weeks, Anne Rice, the chronicler of vampires, witches and–under the pseudonym A. N. Roquelaure–of soft-core S&M encounters, will publish "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt," a novel about

Bettnet Outed!

Man, I was laughing pretty hard when I read this post at devout Catholic Domenico Bettinelli's blog: > That was the last straw for Amazon's book ads on this blog. The way it's supposed to work is that I give them keywords-- Catholic, Pope

When Smart Guys Watch TV

A site dedicated to complaining about, and pointing out errors in, TV programs [http://www.rev.net/~aloe/tv/entertainment.html]. Some are petty, some are clever, some are learned. Samples: > On 22 March 1999, it was announced that the last Oscar of the century was being awarded. It

All Aboard the Hell Express!

> Three armed bandits pushed their way into a Queens church last night, forced the priest to open the safe – and then stole $120 from him when they found it empty. NY Post Link [http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/30212.htm].

Halloween is Bad for You

This is like the person who reminds you of a potential hangover when you're having a great time at a party: > As October 31 nears, excitement fills the air. Kids of all ages are planning their perfect Halloween costume while parents are out buying candy to hand

Women Rasslin'

Title IX paving the way: Shimmer Women Wrestling [http://www.shimmerwrestling.com/], at an Eagles Club just outside Chicago. Among the contenders: > CHEERLEADER MELISSA - Height: 5'8" Weight: 142 lbs. San Francisco, CA. Debut: August 1999. Melissa broke in on the California independent scene, and has

Europeans Starting to Dislike Halloween?

Lighten up, Francis: > "It's an American custom that's got nothing to do with our culture," Kohler wrote in letters sent out to households. By midweek, the mayors of eight neighboring villages had thrown their support behind the boycott. So had local police, annoyed

Womyn in Bed Poll

This has all the polling sample merit of a Kinsey Institute study: > Most twentysomething women prefer silence during sex and many would go all the way for money, a titillating new survey reveals. > Results of an Internet sex poll published in the November issue of Jane magazine also

War of the Circumcised

This sounds like a bad novel: > More than two-dozen Hasidic men are in a holy mess after allegedly breaking into a Brooklyn synagogue, apparently as part of an ongoing power struggle among warring Satmar sects. > Cops arrested 26 men who allegedly celebrated a holy day Tuesday by burglarizing

Cell of Terror

> The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland covered up the sexual abuse of young people by priests over several decades in one diocese, a state probe concluded. > A 270-page report published on Tuesday details the Church's handling of 100 allegations of abuse against 21 priests dating back

Movie Shock Moments

> Click on a title below to find the best shocks cinema has to offer. But before proceeding, please note that there are many spoilers, and of course check with a doctor to make sure your heart can take it. It's a neat collection. This is the description

Alien Abduction

Maybe they're just nuts, but not mentally ill. Kinda like Timothy Robbins: > [T]here is a striking similarity in alien abduction claims: such as big eyes, strange skin color of aliens, being "probed" by the aliens and telepathic communication. > Scientists argue that the reason

Scientology and Metrosexuals

Will the metrosexual archetype become an L Ron boy? I remember reading that Beckham enjoyed being a heart throb to women and homosexuals. I wonder what he thinks about Scientology's (now rarely mentioned) disapproval of gays (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=502#comments]). > Former SPICE GIRL VICTORIA

Buried Woman

How does that song go? "Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me. Give me publicity, I'll get my face on T.V." > A Japanese woman buried herself in an underground pit in India for three days to try to create

Celebrity "Tapes"

A staff writer at the LA Times tries to answer the soon-to-be-age-old question: Why are we infatuated with lewd celebrity videos? His answer isn't bad, even if incomplete. Although I'm not sure, I think he's admitting at the end that sex is overrated, which

Steve Martin II

A friend sent along this page of quotes [http://imdb.com/title/tt0079367/quotes] from Steve Martin's The Jerk. In light of his honor earlier this week (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2808/]), I thought it worth posting. It cracked me up, if nothing else. > And that'

Nude Women in Holy Water

I'm sure it was an honest mistake. To Scandinavians, the body and sex are holy: > A female Finnish tourist was charged by Indian police after bathing nude in a northwestern lake considered to be holy by Hindus, newspapers reported Tuesday. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/

Belloc as Historian

Good essay about Hilaire Belloc's merits as a historian from September's Seattle Catholic. Link [http://www.seattlecatholic.com/a050907.html]. Thanks, Joe Tremblay at Chesterton and Friends [http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2005/10/belloc-as-historian.html].

My Link Policy

In case you missed it, this is my policy with regard to putting your web link on TDE: If you're a blog and you link to me, I'll link to you, unless your site is disagreeable. Just e-mail me and let me know that you'

The Bible Coming to Public Schools

My first reaction: a classic case of fatuous public school learning. But after a little reflection, I think this might be a good thing. The Bible is rich in stories and literature. Most youngsters are ignorant of it and, therefore, never have a reason to pick up the Bible and

Sex Offenders and Halloween

When I was a kid, it was rare that you'd come across a house with its lights off (signalling, "No candy here") on Halloween night. When you saw one, you'd think, "Some old woman who chopped up her husband must live there."

Homosexual Brown Shirts

Homosexuals continue to kick the civil liberties of people who disagree with them. > Poland could lose its EU voting rights if its newly elected president continues to oppose gay rights and seeks to introduce the death penalty, the European Commission warned yesterday. Link [http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/

Childless Folks

In the upcoming issue of Touchstone, R. Albert Mohler, Jr. writes about childless couples. He first lays out examples of the shallow worldview of the people who choose not to have children, and then he hammers them. Worth reading. Though, quite frankly, I suspect we're lucky these vapid

New Orleans' Priorities

Conan on re-opening efforts: > Announced that first Starbucks has reopened in New Orleans. Residents said they were thankful; they may have lost their homes but now can spend $5 on a cup of coffee.

Dancing with the Devil on Network TV

> On Thursday, October 27 at 3PM, CBS.com will feature the "Ghost Whisperer Halloween Seance," hosted by medium James Van Praagh. Van Praagh, who is co-executive producer of the CBS television drama Ghost Whisperer, will perform readings for the general public via streaming video on CBS.com.

The Lap Dunce

Follow-up to an earlier post [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2779/]. The man has three daughters. Does he want his daughters to be lap dancers and pole mates? But wait. He makes $600,000 a year. Such degrading acts are only for the skankier girls. > A married executive dubbed the "

Animals in Church

It beats rock music and hug fests and gyrations in the pews: > Father Peter MacLeod-Miller, 43, keeps a donkey, lambs, goats and alpacas in a paddock at his rectory and takes them to the church in Barrow. > Australian-born Father MacLeod-Miller said: "Animals are central figures in many

Celebrity Nation

> But [William] Shatner now reveals he had a kidney stone, which he successfully passed after experiencing excruciating pain [http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/#celeb5]. My day is complete.

Arresting Nemo

One of the better stories I've read in awhile. If you check out the story, you get the impression that they're dealing with more sophisticated panhandlers. I can't imagine the civil libertarian cries are far behind: > In plain sight of children and tourists,

Warnings about Warnings

This is Kafkaesque. No, it's just stupid. The paternalists are concerned that the warning stickers on prescription drugs don't give us enough information and may prompt people not to read the full instructions. Can a ban against those efficient stickers be far behind? NYT Link [http:

Prepare for the Contraception Brown Shirt Cries

> Although it is safe, effective and legal, emergency contraception - the "morning after" pill - can be hard to find in Tucson. > After a sexual assault one recent weekend, a young Tucson woman spent three frantic days trying to obtain the drug to prevent a pregnancy,

B16 Book

Guaranteed to be brilliant: > The English edition of Pope Benedict's Italian bestseller Without Roots: Europe, Relativism, Christianity, Islam will be published by Basic Books in February. The book grew out of a speech that Cardinal Ratzinger gave to the Italian Senate before becoming Pope. George Weigel will

Kmiec Sums Up Roe

I'm proud of my former Constitutional Law and Real Property Law professor: > Professor Doug Kmiec, appearing on Foxnews.com, is asked by Brit: "How did the Supreme Court get from a right to privacy of a married couple in the bedroom in Griswold, to the right

Another Poll Shows Science Losing Fans

To quote (roughly) a line from Jurassic Park: "You were so concerned about figuring out if you could, you forgot to ask if you should." That might be a big part of this polling figure: > Another interesting poll result from the University of Virginia . . . has to do

Charitable Giving is Up

How do we account for this? Better giving campaigns by the charities? Generosity triggered by tax breaks? Generosity triggered by the paradox that people give more when things are going bad? > Americans gave more money to charity in 2004 than the year before, and it looks as if that

Posh Stabbing

> A boozed-up mother of three, furious that she wasn't getting drinks fast enough while partying at a posh Midtown hotel, viciously stabbed a security guard there yesterday, cops and witnesses said. I wonder what her husband thinks of this. Oh wait, it would appear she's

Trump Earns $1,500,000 an Hour

There's a sucker born every minute . . . especially in a money-crazed society like ours. There's a good quote in Tocqueville to go with this story, but I don't have a copy of Democracy in America with me right now. > Donald Trump earned $25,000

Good for DNA

> Cops armed with new DNA evidence believe that they will finally nail a man who brutally raped and killed a pretty Fordham University grad and aspiring nun 28 years ago. > But for the devastated family of Roberta "Robin" Elam – a 26-year-old attacked and strangled as she

Congratulations, Steve Martin

Comedy albums were common in my house while growing up: Bob Newhart, Bill Cosby, and Steve Martin. I listened to Let's Get Small and Wild and Crazy Guy almost as many times as I saw The Jerk. A smooth courtship with my current wife was almost disrupted when

Anne Rice: Revert to Catholicism

> The renowned author of "Interview with the Vampire" and 24 other best-sellers says she's turned from writing about tortured souls to saving souls. > "I promised that from now on I would write only for the Lord," Anne Rice, 64, tells Newsweek. In

The Technology Dumping Ground

There can be a downside to technology and foreign aid? I thought it was all rosy, all the time: > [A] report [to be released today], titled "The Digital Dump: Exporting Reuse and Abuse to Africa," says that the unusable equipment is being donated or sold to developing

Gays in Africa

Helping Africa's gay problem. WaPo this morning implicitly rejoices in Namibia's new openness to homosexuality [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102301163.html] : > Un-African. Un-Christian. Anti-family. Witchcraft. > In many African countries, being gay is considered all of those things. It

Shower Fight U.

They've made gender equality "advances" in other areas, why not in prison population? > Women made up 7 percent of inmates in state and federal prisons last year and accounted for nearly one in four arrests, the government reported Sunday. > The number of women incarcerated

Modern Art I Can Dig

The city of San Fransisco, made out of jello. Pretty wild [http://www.lizhickok.com/assets/portfolio/pages/01city.html].

King David

Neat excerpt from a NYT review of The Life of David by Robert Pinsky [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/books/review/23deresiewicz.html]. > [David's] story is also far fuller than that of any other biblical character. Moses' occupies more space, but that austere figure

New 100-Volume Myth Series

Canongate is publishing a 100-volume myth series. It will feature a re-telling of the world's famous myths. Sounds great. But it should be avoided, at risk of nausea: > Canongate launches its series with small, beautiful books by three wise women. Karen Armstrong's A Short History

Nigerian E Fraud

Interesting piece at the LA Times about Nigerian e-mail scams. I assumed these fraud attempts met with at least limited success, but figured they didn't net much. After all, if you have enough mental mojo to turn on your computer and log onto the Internet, you should have

Candy Blog

Should I rail against American gluttony? Or take pleasure in a blog that enjoys one of life's little things? I'll opt for the latter. Candy Addict Blog [http://www.candyaddict.com/blog/]. Note: Blogging is a little tough today. Marie is sick, and so I"

Darts Going Prime Time

ESPN wants another World Series Poker bonanza, but the Channel-Surfing Dexterity Championship must have already been taken: > ESPN has signed a deal with [British producer Michael] Davies to broadcast a made-for-television darts championship next year as a World Series of Darts; there are to be eight hourlong episodes and

Skyrockets in Flight . . . Afternoon Delight

I thought astronauts had to wear diapers. Isn't that enough of a deterrent? > Sex and romantic entanglements among astronauts could derail missions to Mars and should therefore be studied by NASA, warns a top-level panel of US researchers. Is this a gay thing, or are we sending

Catholic Charities Put Children with Gay Parents

> Despite Vatican teachings that allowing homosexuals to adopt children is ''gravely immoral," the social services agency of the Archdiocese of Boston has allowed 13 foster children [out of 720] to be adopted by same-sex couples in the past two decades, saying state regulations prohibit the agency

Gay Teens

More gay teens. It's WaPo's turn to normalize it and encourage it with a feature story called "Everybody Loves Andy." It's about all those high school kids who say they have a gay friend (Andy is the gay guy, in case you&

Recreation v. Religion

The new pagan god of recreation versus the old pagan gods of the Indians. Based on what I read in this article, I'm hoping the old fellas win. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/national/23peaks.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1130066538-35KAJWtHCco/JM2vJfEGgQ] . Excerpt: >

Something for Sunday Morning

> Certainly they must have laughed at him at the beginning. The young [military] officer who did not drink, left women alone, ate the poorest food and gave away all but the minimum, who devoted his leisure time to prayer, reading, and visiting the sick, who cleaned his orderly'

Daggone Fascist Police State

> Australian authorities have apologized to the family of an elderly man who was given a parking ticket while he lay dead in his car in a suburban shopping center. Link [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-10-21T143731Z_01_DIT152634_RTRUKOC_0_US-AUSTRALIA-TICKET.xml] .

No Fat Lesbians?

> According to a UK obesity expert when women move in with their man they very often put on weight as a result. > Men says Haslam are really very bad for women. > He says eating with a partner becomes a social event, where women often eat larger portions

Coptic Christians Attacked

And we think we have it tough dealing with Ted Kennedy: > Coptic Christians, who make up about 5-10% of Egypt's people, are not hiding in a corner and hoping the violent Islamists who threaten society there will, Inshallah, go away. Instead, last year their pope protested attempts

What's in a Name?

Too many put too much stock in their kid's name. Johnny Cash knew a boy named Sue, and that kid did just fine. > Swedish search engine expert Dr Walid Elias Kai and his wife Carol have decided to name their new born boy Google. > Dr Kai,

Boxing Punches Back

I earlier reported that a Catholic magazine was criticizing boxing. Link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2716/]. The sport has responded. Link [http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=4958&more=1]. Excerpts: > A Jesuit magazine closely associated with the Vatican will publish an article called “The Immorality of Professional

Digital Essay: Snowy Series

Time flies and so does the snow. In Chicago. At least that was the forecast yesterday for the first day of the World Series. I like it. Baseball is for Summer, as conclusively proven by White Sox owner Bill Veeck when he gave his men bermuda shorts to wear. Perhaps

The Bizarro Olsens

Two young teens, both blonde and pretty, are singing the praises of white Aryanism. Link [http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1231684&page=1]. Excerpt: > Known as "Prussian Blue" – a nod to their German heritage and bright blue eyes – the girls from Bakersfield, Calif., have

Miers Never Was Catholic

Just wishful thinking on the part of southern evangelicals? Or perhaps they were trying to prop up Miers as much as possible, and in some of their circles, there is no higher praise. > Harriet Miers was not raised as a Catholic. > Catholic Church records and the White House

Pregnant Holmes

"The world knows I'm a harlot, but that's alright. I'm rich and famous." > It's a dream come true. I feel great, [being pregnant] is so beautiful. I've never been so happy. ... I'm beaming [http://www.

American Athens

Paul Johnson reviews neo-con Victor Davis Hanson's A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War in this weekend's NYT book review section. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/books/review/23johnson.html]. Excerpt: > This Greek civil war,

The Weekend Eudemon

A rather slow Friday evening. I was pelted with a lot of work on Wednesday. I was still trying to dig out late Friday afternoon, so I worked “late” (6:00, which is late for me, since I get to the office at 7:30 and work through lunch). Fortunately,

Maggie Gallagher Lights Up Gay Marriage

One of the better blog posts I've ever read, and I've read many. Link [http://www.volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_10_16-2005_10_22.shtml#1129906061]. Excerpts: > Remember how we were promised that unilateral divorce would expand liberty, and only affect people in bad

Rooting for the Lawyers

A story of gilded lasciviousness. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TOPLESS_LAWSUIT?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=STRANGE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-10-21-12-37-58] . Excerpts: > American Express is suing the CEO of a communications company for payment of $241,000 worth of disputed credit card charges at

Philosophy Site

Philosophy in Cyberspace [http://www-personal.monash.edu.au/~dey/phil/section1.htm] looks like a promising site, though its branches of philosophy don't include Thomism or Phenomenology (the former is set forth under "Medieval Thought and Philosophy"; I couldn't find the latter at all,

Early Days of Consumerism

I mentioned this blog previously, but it was months ago and the guy has added a lot of new pictures: Vintage mall pictures from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s [http://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/]. Pretty neat. Odd hobby for the guy, but neat.

Toronto Gay Priest Outs Himself

> "I'm a Roman Catholic priest and I'm gay." > With that confession, 63-year-old Karl Clemens became the first priest in Canada to openly declare his homosexuality. > Clemens - a priest for 33 years who retired from the Kingston diocese seven years ago

Stern Free Fall?

I thought there was going to be a Stern frenzy as his debut on Sirius loomed. But according to WaPo [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/19/AR2005101902345.html] , that simply might not be the case. In fact, Stern might be the biggest bust since the San

Brews You Can Use II

> Beer Pong, also known as Beirut, is a game often associated with college and drinking. The game is really a unique collage of beer drinking, throwing balls in cups, intense competition, social relaxation, and witty psyche-outs. There is no right or wrong way to play, but you've

Mao is Number One Monster of 20th Century

In a country that still reveres him, what ought we expect? > In their new book, Mao: The Unknown Story, Jung Chang and Jon Halliday make an impassioned case for Mao as the most monstrous tyrant ever. They argue that he was responsible for "well over 70 million deaths

UN Backs Economic Barriers Against U.S. Pop Culture

The French don't want more Jerry Lewis movies? > The French campaign against the global tide of American entertainment is poised to take a big stride forward when almost every nation backs the first world convention on protecting culture. > Most of the 190 members of UNESCO, the

Brews You Can Use

I believe the results of this study, but it's not the fault of the beer advertisers: > Television beer ads featuring cute animals appeal to school kids and make them want to buy the brand of beer being advertised, says a study in the current issue of the

Mainline Advertising Working

Mainline Protestant denominations have started mass marketing advertising campaigns, and this article says they're proving successful. I generally object to such advertising (link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=29792] and link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=

Hockey Fights

Truth be known, I've always enjoyed a good hockey fight. The people who dismiss hockey fights "out of hand," as if there's no good reason for them, don't understand the game and haven't studied the arguments. Nonetheless, when I see

People Continue Unsafe Practices

The answer is obvious: More condoms and education. Don't those two things cure all such problems? > MSNBC.com and Zogby International asked online readers to share some intimate details about their personal lives, and more than 56,000 adult men and women – one of the largest responses

Ridiculous Debate

People are fighting over whether one type of passionate conduct constitutes "sex." Many say it isn't. Only in an over-sexed society would an outlandish argument like this would get a hearing. Link [http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-10-19-teens-technical-virginity_x.htm] .

Europe, Exorcism, and Enlightenment

A great piece of American Spectator about exorcism, Emilie Rose, and secular scoffing. Link [http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8898]Excerpts: > Writing in Newsweek International, Barbie Nadeau scoffs at the Vatican's preservation of its exorcism rite. But judging by the rise of demonic

The Anscombe Society

It's nice to know there is such a society. It's nice to hear they're teaching this message: > The Anscombe Society at Princeton University was organized for the express purpose of promoting chastity. Chastity - now that's a behavior you hardly ever

Latin Returns

The dead language walks: > About 30 years ago, it seemed no one would. Critics called Latin a dead language, irrelevant and elitist. Even the Catholic Church, its strongest champion, no longer found it necessary in worship services. But it's been going strong lately, especially in Connecticut. In

Historical Miniature: Bill Veeck

The White Sox are in the World Series. I hope Bill Veeck is smiling. The NY Times has written a wonderful tribute to the eccentric owner [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/20/sports/baseball/20veeck.html?8hpib]. Excerpts: > Veeck, with a bright, boyish look in his eye even

The Pretentious Society

When a society doesn't recognize learning or virtue, it will use more base methods of distinguishing among its members. > Diamonds are forever, but mobile phones are not designed to last quite so long. Unless you are a lucky recipient of a jewel-encrusted mobile this Christmas, that is.

Stern Hysteria

The hysteria builds as Howard Stern gets ready to go uncensored. The man is a pig, and a dishonest one at that. I predict he will go down: rich, but down. Media-types think satellite radio was stillborn (something better will replace it) and relentless vulgarity grows tiresome after awhile, except

Halloween Cards

Cards for everything. > I learned that Halloween cards have been around since 1908 and that some 28 million of them are sent in this country every year. Halloween ranks seventh among top greeting card occasions (after Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day,

Yet Another Reason to Boycott Sports Illustrated

A grown man somehow feels the need to assert his self-righteous golfing knowledge and put 16-year-old Michelle Wie in her place. Incredible meddling by a busybody. He oughtta be ashamed, but since there is no such thing as shame, perhaps he can just feel like a jackass: > Michael Bamberger,

And Supposedly It's Not Doctored

Curt Jester [http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/archives/006184.php] observes that B16 is making inroads: Thanks, Dei Gratia [http://deigratia.cybercatholics.com/admin/entry.php?id=523].

Newman to be Sainted

I'll have to break out that 900-page Kerr biography again. Earlier this year, I got through page 100 before being lured away by the charms of another: > The Vatican is preparing to give England its first post- Reformation saint by putting Cardinal Newman – the 19th-century priest whose

Dalai Lama in Trouble with Scientists

"Big hitter, the Lama" (Carl from Caddyshack): > The Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibet who is revered as a spiritual teacher, is at the center of a scientific controversy. > He has been an enthusiastic collaborator in research on whether the intense meditation practiced by Buddhist

Dirty Billboard Removed

> Brooklyn parents, who were hot and bothered by a billboard featuring a naked blonde across the street from an elementary school, have won their fight to have the sign taken down. NY Post Link [http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/55716.htm]. I'm glad the parents won,

An On-Line Collection of Medieval Manuscripts

Paging Through Medieval Lives: Illumination and Calligraphy From Selected Collections. Link [http://www2.art.utah.edu/Paging_Through/index.html]. Suggestion: Try pages 39-45 of Thomas Woods' How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Previous post about this book [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1799/].

Coma Man Hears

Wait a second! With examples like these, I'm beginning to think doctors are far from omniscient when it comes to the status of comatose folk: > An Italian man who spent two years supposedly unconscious in a deep coma, written off by doctors as nearly-dead, awoke saying he

Divorce and Suicide

Former Detroit Lions quarterback, Eric Hipple [http://lions.foxsports.scout.com/2/392385.html?refid=400], lost his son to suicide in 2000. He now tours schools, talking about teenagers' susceptability to the suggestion of suicide. I found this admission rather startling: > Hipple and his wife, Jann, college

No 7/11 in Our Neighborhood!

> Residents of one Upper East Side [http://www.newyorkmetro.com/realestate/articles/neighborhoods/uppereast.htm] block worry their peaceful existence is about to drown in the icy waters of the Slurpee. > The convenience-store chain 7-Eleven is opening an outlet Nov. 7 at the corner of East 84th Street

Intelligent Design Rhetoric Heats Up

I don't know much about ID or evolution, but I've always been struck by the absolute lack of civility coming from the evolutionists who have been trying to shout down ID with name-calling and similiar responses. An ID proponent strikes back, but with nowhere near the

Disney Markets to Adults

"A life devoted to instant gratification produces permanent infantilization." Theodore Dalrymple [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2429/]. > The marketing of Mickey Mouse and his friends is getting curiouser and curiouser. > The Walt Disney Co. is taking consumers down the rabbit hole to a land where crystal-studded Mickey Mouse

Warfare is Down

JPII cautiously predicted a bright future for the 21st century. Among popes, he was the most pacifistic. Perhaps a new study supports his hope and his pacifism: > Widespread fears about a world in a perpetual state of war are unfounded, a study says today. It emphasises that the number

Five More Blessed

> As prelates gathered in Rome prepare to conclude the 11th General Synod of Bishops this weekend, the Vatican has announced the schedule for the final days, which will climax with a beatification ceremony on Sunday. . . > The newly proclaimed Blesseds will include Jozef Bilczewski [http://newsaints.faithweb.com/biographies/

You Go, Gogh

Not bad for a man who earned $109 from his paintings during his lifetime: > You know an artist has reached the zenith of fame when people climb all over themselves to see his drawings. And that's what they'll do starting today, when the Metropolitan Museum

No Shame

Want to promote your political activism? Put the message on your baby at Baby Politico. Link [http://www.babypolitico.com/products.html]. One ad publication says of it [http://www.adrants.com/2005/10/babies-used-to-promote-parents-beliefs.php], "Not that the messages are bad but the idea of parents using their

Driving Kids to an Early Haze

> Kids are popping sleeping pills at an alarming rate to help counter their increasingly stressful lives and demanding parents, a new medical study reveals. > The use of prescription sleep aids among children ages 10 to 19 skyrocketed 85 percent from 2000 to 2004, according to new research by

Time Magazine: Still Dishonest

Time magazine promotes an agenda? Say it ain't so: > Time magazine's controversial cover story on "gay teens" is being denounced by critics as blatant homosexual propaganda ”“ which is not surprising, since the Time journalist who researched and wrote the story is a homosexual

Dang It, and I was So Giddy

> Paris Hilton says she isn't giving up "The Simple Life" just yet. "We're shooting Nov. 1," said the 24-year-old hotel heiress, who had a front-row seat at the Louis Verdad fashion show Sunday. "All the networks are fighting over it.

Prepare Yourself for Profane Parallels

> David Copperfield says he plans to impregnate a girl on stage - without even touching her [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1577408.html].

Connaturality Revisited

Sexually-active former priests want to change celibacy rules. I'm shocked. > Former Swiss Catholic priests who were forced to step down after admitting sexual relationships have formed a group to challenge the celibacy rules. Link [http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=107&sid=6096817&

Dressing Up with Gadgetry

Just a quick heads up to men: If you're accessorizing with more than shoes and a watch, you're a metrosexual or worse. I don't care if something makes your phone clip look cool. Leave the self-styling efforts to GQ-types and pimps: > Companies are

Dangerous Work

Tracking down and arresting expected felons is highly dangerous work, but that doesn't stop this woman. Yet another mother forgets what she's there for: > By day, Sandra Scott is a stay-at-home mother of two. But after she kisses her husband and kids goodnight, she heads

Madonna's Metaphysics

From a Drudge Report [http://www.drudgereport.com/flashms.htm]: > The former Material Girl now believes "the beast is the modern world that we live in!" > "The material world. The physical world. The world of illusion, that we think is real. We live for it,

WSJ on Miers

The Wall Street Journal ran a fairly lengthy piece about Miers [http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110007415] yesterday. If true (rather, "if believed"), the religious right will stop complaining and the secular left will gun her down.

Cultural Neutrality is Rare . . .

. . . and never long-lived. Either you condemn sin or you celebrate it. When it comes to the tragedy of divorce, we now celebrate it with parties: > Part celebration, part exorcism, the parties typically involve a signature cocktail – marriage on the rocks. > And, it wouldn't be a party

Possibly the Oddest Script I've Seen

Here's a link to a site for EIDOS [http://www.eidos.org/index.htm] (Everyone is Doing Outrageous Sex). They're pro-war and pro-sex: > Since 1983, Brenda Loew and EIDOS magazine have advocated sexual freedom, freedom of choice and privacy rights for consenting adults of all

More Berry

New book alert: Wendell Berry, The Way of Ignorance [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1593760779/thedailyeudem-20]. Berry is an agrarian who gives readers across the political spectrum things to think about. You won't always agree with him, but his is an honest and considered voice. This

Spero News

I've decided to try my hand at citizen journalism over at Spero News. Most of my published pieces over the years have been essays or opinion, but I thought it'd be interesting to try something different. This piece on marketing faith [http://www.speroforum.com/site/

Eating A Lot of Low-Carb Food

If this doesn't prove that our culture has an unhealthy obsession with dieting and physical appearance, nothing will: Atkins for stoners [http://www.kayalounge.net/lowcarb.html].

What We Can Look Forward To

How open! How tolerant! How loving and forgiving! > A Belgian lady was 'best woman' when her ex-husband married her hairdresser in a gay wedding. > Tania Van Rysselberghe, 41, from Ghent, said her ex, Guy Van Autreve, 40, and Danny Van der Heyden, 44, were like '

Race for the Video Game Bottom

Blame the video game makers, but if we didn't have an adult population that revelled in juvenile pursuits, such things wouldn't exist: > A football video game set to hit stores today takes the gridiron to new lows – allowing players to juice up, attack opponents and

But None of that Naked Stuff

In England: > Pagan priests will be allowed to use wine and wands during ceremonies in jails under instructions issued to every prison governor. > Inmates practising paganism will be allowed a hoodless robe, incense and a piece of religious jewellery among their personal possessions. They will also be allowed

Who's Bluffing? Who'll Blink First?

> Sen. Chuck Schumer yesterday blasted a major international drug company for "putting profits ahead of world safety" – demanding it suspend its patent on a drug that has proved successful in fighting deadly bird flu. . . > "Roche is putting its profits ahead of world safety and I

How Do You Serve Him with the Summons?

There's fodder for an entire theological treatise in here: > A Romanian prisoner is suing God for failing to save him from the Devil. > The inmate, named as Pavel M in media reports, accused God of "cheating, abuse and traffic of influence". > His complaint

Faithful to the Magisterium = Headline News

New Zealand doctor decides not to prescribe contraceptives any longer. It makes news. And: Bring out the feminists: > Nelson GP Dr Joseph Hassan, a 40-year-old married father of four, wrote to the 50 patients a fortnight ago telling them he would no longer prescribe contraceptives or refer women for

But It's No Fun . . .

. . . unless we can kill the baby [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1785/]: From Secondhand Smoke [http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2005/10/embryonic-stem-cells-without.html]: > Researchers at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) have claimed publicly that they were able to derive embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryo. The story is international. Some

Cash Movie

Readers of this blog know I'm a Johnny Cash fan, despite his moral shortfallings. A new movie about Cash is coming out. I'll have to see it, even though it sounds like the producers will try to justify Johnny's decision to leave his wife

WWJB

> What would Jesus blog? That and other pressing questions drew 135 Christians to Southern California this weekend for a national conference billed as the first-ever for "God bloggers," a growing community of online writers who exchange information and analyze current events from a Christian perspective. > The

Test Post #2

This is just a test post - sorry for any inconvenience. This should be the last test post for the week. - EricScheske.com Webmaster testing [http://www.technorati.com/tag/testing]

Giving Catholic Educators a Bad Name

> An English teacher has been fired because he did not want to display an American flag in his Catholic school classroom. > Stephen Kobasa, a teacher at Kolbe Cathedral High School since 1999, says he is not unpatriotic but has deep-seated religious beliefs that are incompatible with displaying a

But Rocky Balboa was Catholic

The magazine probably has a point, but it'd come as a shock to generations of Irish and Italians who used to train in city gyms: > A leading Catholic magazine has described professional boxing as "a legalised form of attempted homicide", driven by "cruel"

Emotional Bullying

Stop whining about it. Give your kid a stable and warm family environment that always accepts him, tell him there are such things as "jerks" and "idiots," and teach him how to scoff. I would think that would take care of 80% of the problems, even

What Crank School is This?

A fundamentalist Christian crank or civil libertarian crank? Both tend to be equally humorless: > The Washington Post says the [Hylton High School] band had added "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," by the Charlie Daniels Band to its play list for an upcoming guest appearance at the

More American Ambition

Top of the Class: How Asian Parents Raise High Achievers - and How You Can Too: This new book by two successful Korean women tells Americans why Asians are so successful. Based on this review [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/fashion/sundaystyles/16TOP.html], it sounds like the

Celebrate: The Nightmare is Ending

The nightmare will be replaced with something else, but I'll take my pop culture condolence wherever I can find it: > Television industry insiders in America are quietly acknowledging this weekend that a trend long predicted but never quite proven may at last be coming true: the appetite

American Girlcott

A boycott looms. American Girl is dismayed that their innocent support of a pro-abortion/pro-lesbian group could be twisted to serve political purposes. I know where they're coming from. I was dismayed to see people construe my contributions to the KKK as some sort of racist thing. Link

Nazis and Gang Bangers Don't Mix

Nazis gather to protest against inner-city gangs. What could possibly go wrong? > A crowd protesting a white supremacists' march Saturday turned violent, throwing baseball-sized rocks at police, vandalizing vehicles and stores, and setting fire to a neighborhood bar, authorities said. . . > At least two dozen members of the

Another Atheist Shows His Idiocy

> To millions The Chronicles of Narnia are a childhood tale of wonder and triumph now made into a film that could inspire millions of children to read. To others, including the celebrated fantasy author Philip Pullman, they are stories of racism and thinly veiled religious propaganda that will corrupt

The Russian Icon

By the time Russia embraced Christianity through the Eastern Orthodox Church, the theology was already highly developed. Russia took the highly developed theology and enthusiastically embraced its conclusions without necessarily absorbing its rationale. The result was a somewhat unorthodox Russian Orthodox Church. They produced some wild saints and some unique

Something for Sunday Morning

> The soul that looks up towards God, and conceives that good desire for His eternal beauty, constantly experiences an ever new yearning for that which lies ahead, and her desire is never given its full satisfaction. Hence she never ceases to stretch herself forth to those things that are

Emilie Rose School Days

> It was the first day of school, so some students were understandably nervous. But then again, they were not taking just any course, but one run by a Vatican university to teach aspiring demonologists and exorcists. > "There is no doubt that the devil is intervening more in

Bamboo

It would appear that you can make anything from bamboo. Link [http://www.bambus.de/infos/1000/indexx.php].

The Quiet Room

People are puzzled when they see my home study: a room about twice the size of a professional's office, with thousands of books, two upholstered chairs, lights situated at various spots, two desks, a computer, and reasonably-neat piles of notes, manuscripts, and correspondence. If they're not

The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce

The forthcoming issue of The American Conservative has a favorable review of Elizabeth Marquardt's Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307237109/thedailyeudem-20]. There's no link available, but here's a bullet summary of a

Is Something Wrong with the GAD?

The mere existence of a place like this belies the Great Grotesque American Dream (GAD) of fame and fortune: > [Laurie] Perlman . . . is founder and chief executive of Moonview Sanctuary, a new high-end clinic for the rich and, often, famous. It is a kind of psyche-spa for the burned out,

Priests Recruiting Priests

A new program encourages current priests to encourage youth to join the priesthood. I support it, but it's disturbing that the RCC in America has to establish a "program" to do what should be natural and what was once a commonly-accepted aspect of being a priest.

Go ND, Grow the Grass!

I'm pulling for my alma mater today, even though the LA Times says they're "cheating" by growing the grass long. Link [http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke15oct15,0,1003751.column?coll=la-home-sports] . Excerpt: > At a pep rally on the eve of today'

The Weekend Eudemon

Michigan in October. It's not Vermont or the Smokies, but it's still one of the prettiest places. The leaves change, the bugs disappear, and half-harvested corn fields look like battlefields, but in a good way. Thousands of spring-fed lakes cool down, making their surface sparkle and

Confess that 1984 Movie

The Pope of Greenwich Village [http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0087932/] was one of the most gosh-awful films I've ever seen. I don't know how it came to be considered a contemporary pop classic. But I'm glad Mickey has found his religion: > Hollywood

Music and Romance

Oh, the products a technological society fixated on sex can come up with! > Computer chips that store music could soon be built into a woman's breast implants. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1570835.html?menu=].

Another Repercussion Suit

A second lawsuit emerges in NY based on repercussions of sex with priest. Earlier this week, a man alleges that a priest's assault turned him gay [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2666/]. Now, a woman says a priest's assault made her mute. NY Post Link [http://www.nypost.

Again?

When the natural desire to procreate is stifled, it manifests itself in odd ways. From this morning's NY Post: A deranged Pennsylvania woman bashed her pregnant neighbor over the head with a baseball bat, drove her to a secluded area, and slashed her belly in a maniacal bid

Brews You Can Use III

Budweiser can't use its name in Portugal. No tears from me. I've never been a Budweiser fan. > Anheuser-Busch lost an appeal that would allow it to sell beer under the brand name Budweiser in Portugal, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the latest

Material Girl Backlash?

Madonna talks about her parenting slant: > But as she nears 50, she has become a puritanical parent who is a disciplinarian with her children, nine-year-old Lola and Rocco, four. > Madonna, married to film director Guy Ritchie, says she has banned television and punishes her daughter's messiness

Night Stalker Fraud

Readers might recall that I was excited [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1969/] that the networks were bringing back Night Stalker. Well, my excitement was misplaced. I watched an episode last night, and it was bad. It's not even Night Stalker. They produced X-Files and called it "Night Stalker.

Brews You Can Use II

This might be the best beer ad of the year. It's not often a beer advertisement provides an historical miniature. And I really like the name of the product. Link [http://www.legendslimited.com/skull.html]. > SkullSplitter is a Scottish strong ale with a distinctive flavor and

Dumbest Debate in Years

The vigilant secularists over at Spoid attack the Catholic Truth Society's alleged plan to proselytize space aliens: > The naivete of the Vatican is almost charming. > Assuming the "UFO problem" resolves with the verification of the extraterrestrial hypothesis -- which is a huge assumption --

Bankruptcy Scare

This strikes me as a classic case of consumer advocacy scare tactics: > A requirement of the new bankruptcy law that sends Americans into credit counseling before they can erase their debts is drawing criticism from consumer advocates, bankruptcy lawyers and financial educators, who are concerned that the creditors are

What Do You Expect . . .

. . . for a man who hates black people? > In what may turn out to be one of the biggest free-falls in the history of presidential polling, President Bush's job-approval rating among African Americans has dropped to 2 percent, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. WaPo

Brownback's Bid

NYT ran a piece this morning on Senator Sam Brownback's bid for the presidency. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/14/national/14brownback.html]. Excerpt: > Mr. Brownback, an evangelical-Protestant-turned-Roman Catholic from Kansas who attends services in the two faiths each Sunday and once washed an aide&

Brews You Can Use

Spoetzl is Texas' oldest independent brewery and producer of Shiner beers, named for the town where the brewery began in 1909. It has come out with "Shiner 96," the first of the company's annual series of commemorative beers that will lead up to the brewery&

A Little More Potter Debate

I found the entire row over the Harry Potter books tiresome (endorsement of black magic, great children's tale, etc.). But I found this commentary interesting: > Rowling's disregard for the virtues of obedience, truth telling, and self-restraint cultivated in traditional children's literature show that

Nursing Home Heavyweight Champion

> Hollywood sources confirmed last night that Sylvester Stallone has agreed to star in the sixth instalment of the Rocky saga. > Filming starts in Los Angeles in December and Stallone, who will turn 60 next year, is also lined up to direct. Link [http://www.thisislondon.com/films/articles/

When the Bush Comes Around

Readers may recall that I'm a fan of Johnny Cash's "When the Man Comes Around" ( link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2259/]). I was amused to see Thomas Woods note [http://blog.lewrockwell.com/lewrw/archives/009075.html] that some right-wing zealots said the song is

Parents of Gay Catholics

I'm thinkin' there's a good chance these folks encouraged the sexual orientation. Homosexuality is a disorder that needs to be combatted and fought, albeit with love and understanding. If it's encouraged or accepted like a parent accepts, say, his child's red

Those Crazy Dutch!

> The Netherlands is likely to become the first country in Europe to ban the burka, under government proposals that would bring in some of the toughest curbs on Muslim clothing in the world [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1823334_1,00.html]. I don't object

Little Island Folk

I don't know if this is an effort by dogmatic Darwinists to find a missing link, but it's highly interesting. Either way, I've always maintained that little can have souls, hence the concerns about dwarf tossing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_tossing]: >

1031 Exchange

> The Vatican is hoping to regain control of the Room of the Last Supper in Jerusalem, one of the most sacred sites in Christianity. > It will, in exchange, hand over to the Jewish community the historic synagogue at Toledo in Spain, at present a Catholic church. Link [http:

Sweet Sixteen

Makes my paltry seven seem like nuthin: > Michelle Duggar just delivered her 16th child, and she's already thinking about doing it again. Johannah Faith Duggar was born at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and weighed 7 pounds, 6.5 ounces. . . > Jim Bob Duggar, 40, said he

Good for Mr. Holmes

Just because your daughter's a celebrity doesn't mean you have to stop being a father: > Katie Holmes's dad is said to be “very upset” because his unmarried daughter is pregnant with Cruise's child. And, what's more, the devoutly Catholic

Yom Kippur

> Jews around [NYC] and the world are observing Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, today with fasting and prayer. > The holiday, which began at sundown last night and ends with the sounding of the shofar, or ram's horn, one hour after nightfall tonight, is the most

Texas Ready to Line Up?

The battle is heating up in the Lone Star state: > [A commercial against the proposed Texas ban on same-sex marriage ban] is one of seven unveiled here Wednesday by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, is part of the opening advertising campaign in a battle over a ballot

Let Us Give Thanks

> The Simple Life is over--at least on Fox. The network said Wednesday it has canceled the Paris Hilton-Nicole Richie reality series after the show's two stars no longer proved compatible. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/12/AR2005101201981.html] .

The Lens

Introduction to the Lens Concept [http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2005/10/10/squidoo/] Internet experts think a new trend could sweep the Internet soon: Lenses. What is a lens? The following is summarized from Seth Godin's ebook, Everyone's An Expert (About Something) [http://www.

Odd Consumer News

You never cook and sit at the same time, so why not this: An easy chair that converts to a dinette. I like it. Link [http://www.vestaldesign.com/projects/armchair/]. Thanks, Boing Boing [http://www.boingboing.net/2005/10/11/armchair_converts_to.html].

On Comparing Ourselves

Pierre Manent writes about the predicament of modern man's unique sin. It rings true with me, so I reproduce it here: > Comparing oneself to others is the misfortune and original sin of men in our societies. The misfortune is that the man who compares himself with others

MADD in DC?

> In the District [of Columbia], a driver can be arrested with as little as .01 blood-alcohol content. > As D.C. police officer Dennis Fair, who arrested Bolton on May 15, put it in an interview recently: "If you get behind the wheel of a car with any

American Lesbian Dolls

Two of my daughters love American Girl dolls (my third daughter is only six months old, so she's indifferent). Decisions will have to be made: > American Girl (owned by Mattel) is partnering with a group called Girls Inc. to sell a bracelet, the "I Can"

The Canadian-Catholic War Heats Up

I'm not acquainted with Joey Slinger, but his column in today's Toronto Star has irked Catholics. Bettnet [http://bettnet.dyndns.org/blog/comments.php?id=P5611_0_1_0]calls it a declaration of war. I tried to register in order to read the column in

Charles Murray's Bell Curve Redux

Charles Murray has published a book essay about the intractable differences among certain groups and the inability of social policy to overturn those differences. WSJ Link [http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007391]. Excerpt: > Good social policy can be based on premises that have nothing to do with scientific

Rolling Grave Stones

If this doesn't sound the death knell of rock-n-roll, nothing will: > Rock 'n' roll is dead – the Rolling Stones have inked a deal to debut their latest video on the NBC soap opera "The Days of our Lives" next week. > The video

Kurt Vonnegut is Still Alive

Still alive and still unhappy. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/11/AR2005101101844.html] . > He's seen Slaughterhouse-Five get the Hollywood treatment. He's seen it selected No. 18 on the Modern Library's list of the hundred best English-language novels

The Death Man Walketh

Little brother of The Knack [http://www.knack.com/home.html] star will try again, with sights a little lower: > Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger announced Tuesday that he will seek the Democratic nomination for Michigan attorney general in 2006. > A wealthy plaintiff attorney, he parlayed his popularity in

For Under-Childed Americans

Familiar theme: In an age when the average couple has 1.7 kids, they need to squeeze all that love into one or two units, when it's meant to be spread among many more: > A new Bravo show – following on the MTV hit "My Super Sweet

After Shocks

The ripple of the priest scandal continues to be felt. The NYT this morning has a lead story on the LA scandal. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/12/national/12priests.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=28d6f26f3cb2ed49&hp&ex=1129176000&partner=homepage] . Excerpts:

The Triumph of the Therapeutic

As religion's proper practice disappears, other practices arise to fill the resulting void. One of the most popular: therapy. Therapy this, therapy that. Just don't fall down on your knees and pray: > The Internet is now teeming with some 15 million blogs. Although the medium

Politically Incorrect Lawsuit

If someone made me gay, I'd want billions: > A debonair New York socialite [J. David Enright IV – a scion of Albany's renowned Van Rensselaer and de la Grange families] filed a $5 million legal notice against the Catholic Church yesterday – claiming his molestation at age

More Dog Children

> Sometimes, you have to leave your dog home alone. Wouldn't it be great if you could feel good about it? Dogopolis is proud to introduce KongTime, all day entertainment for the home-alone dogâ„¢. > Put dog food or a biscuit inside a Kong toy and what do

Weekly Features Post

It's been awhile since I ran one of these. I can't promise you that it will resume as a weekly feature, but I'll do what I can. For newer readers, the Weekly Features Post is just an amalgam of notes and quotes from my

Black Elephants

William Raspberry at the New York Post tells a story. Registration-required link [http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/29252.htm]. Excerpt: > Some years ago, South Africa's game managers had to figure out what to do about the elephant herd at Kruger National Park. The herd was growing

Americanization of the Globe Continues

> Europeans have nearly 4,000 television channels to choose from, but less and less quality programming to watch, according to a report released Tuesday by a European watchdog group. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EUROPE_TELEVISION?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT] .

Leno on Columbus and Other

Leno was on fire last night: > Columbus did not set out to discover America. He was looking for a quicker route to India. Do you know why he was trying to get to India? He was trying to get the King of Spain's computer fixed. > Most

Continuing the Narnia Build-Up

Matthew's House Project is sponsoring a series of lectures on Narnia. Its website has a variety of interesting articles on Lewis. Link [http://www.narniaontour.com/articles.htm].

Beautiful Virgins

It's a nice effort. I'm not sure how effective, but nice: > A new television series being broadcast around the Middle East tells the story of Arabs living in residential compounds in Saudi Arabia and the militant Islamists who want to blow them up so they

Perfect Snapshot of Desperation

Faith Chips

There's nothing wrong with a little gambling, and one should never forget who he is, regardless of the setting. But I'm not sure I like these faith poker chips. Link [http://www.kerusso.com/detail.taf?listing_id=1524&r=790383225].

LOTR: The Musical Almost Here

It should have a lot of great beer-drinking songs from the Shire: > When the stage version of J. R. R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" opens [in Toronto]next spring, the show is expected to feature about 18 songs, a cast of 55 and about

Worse than Opium

The Internet is booming in China (even with all the censorship, a result that violates every premise of extreme versions of the open society). Yet with the boom has come a mental problem: Internet addiction. > Wang Yiming, 21, is a self-confessed internet addict, one of a growing number in

I Doubt Hollywood is Wringing Its Hands

> Teenage boys and young men lead disillusioned US movie-goers in staying away from cinemas as ticket prices rise and the quality of home entertainment soars, a new survey showed. > As Hollywood wages an epic battle against falling ticket sales, the poll revealed that one of the industry'

Howl is 50

I enjoy Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation's efforts. Though I'm not a big fan of Allen Ginsberg, I was interested to learn that this month marks the 50th anniversary of the reading of Howl at The Six. Link [http://www.commongroundmag.com/2005/cg3209/howl3209.

Protestant Saints?

One Protestant wants to know why Protestants don't appreciate the saints more--and why Protestants don't produce their own. Link to book review of The Lure of Saints: A Protestant Experience of Catholic Tradition [http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idcategory=31&idSub=113&

Profiling Brits

> Britons are the most prolific shoplifters in Europe, a survey published Wednesday showed. > They stole 3.58 billion pounds of goods from their nation's shops last year, the equivalent of 1.59 percent of British retail turnover. > Razor blades were the most stolen item followed

Bad Lines

If you want to thank or curse the man who showed these to me, go to WonderDawg [http://wonderdawg777.blogspot.com/]. ~ A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired. ~ What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead giveaway.) ~ Time flies like an

100 Blogs

WonderDawg is on day 39 of a neat journey: 100 blogs in 100 days. They're an eclectic mix. I especially (and immodestly) like day 35. Link [http://wonderdawg777.blogspot.com/].

Ghost Busters

I gotta believe Russell Kirk [http://www.nationalreview.com/miller/miller012303.asp] would enjoy this: South Jersey Ghost Research. It's an organization dedicated to investigating ghost claims. It's either a remarkably-elaborate fraud or really freaky. Link [http://southjerseyghostresearch.org/cases.htm]. Excerpt from one investigation. I

Narnia Review

Barbara Nicolosi gives The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe high marks. Link [http://churchofthemasses.blogspot.com/2005/10/narnia-deep-magic.html]. Excerpt: > The movie is lovely. The print we saw had some special effects still in stages, but it didn't detract from the stunning vision the movie

Ave Maria

Will Ave Maria Law School move to Florida? The whole thing is highly disturbing. From all appearances, everything seemed to be proceeding very well for the law school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Why the (apparent) urge to go to Florida? I honestly don't know. But I read this

Screening for Gays

Time Online has an interesting article about the RCC's efforts to screen for homosexuality. Link [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1115662,00.html]. Excerpt: > Fifty years ago, Plante's sideline--he has done roughly 175 seminary evaluations since 1988, at about $450 apiece--did

Ya Think?

From the files of Dr. Obvious: An excerpt from a story about three white New Orleans cops beating a black man: > Although the [police] spokesman denied race was an issue, the fact that Mr Davis was African-American and the police were mostly white may result in accusations of racism.

Beer Scramble

Beer manufacturers are scrambling to shore up their market. WaPo ran a feature piece on their situation. Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/08/AR2005100800172.html] . Excerpt: > You'll see products with flavors and colors that add individuality to bottled drinks and flexibility to

Best Recent Films

Terry Teachout has resigned as the film critic of Crisis magazine. In his final column, he provided excerpts from what he "believes to be the 15 best American films of the past seven years." The excerpts are good, but the column isn't available on-line, and I&

Crazy Salaries

> [Gretta] Garbo's weekly salary in, say, 1931 was four times the average annual wages in the United States. (In 2002, the national median annual wage, $33,000, was at least fifteen times smaller than the weekly income of an equivalent movie star.) David Thomson, The Whole Equation

Porn Sunday

It's an event performed by an organization that calls itself xxxchurch.com. I can't vouch for it, but it certainly sounds like these people are onto something. If we're going to kill the scourge of pornography, I suspect it'll take something like

Historical Miniature: Papal Executioner

It's a piece by John Allen from a 2001 National Catholic Reporter, so I don't entirely trust it, and Allen draws a few conclusions that are stretched. But it's interesting: > Over the course of his 68 years on the pontifical payroll, [Giovanni] Bugatti

Blog Advertising

Blog advertising hasn't caught on big yet. There's revenue trickling in, but not at the levels people expected. But that could change, thanks to the results of a recent Audi blog advertising campaign: > GMD Studios CEO Brian Clark, whose agency does work for Audi, said,

Western Civ

This isn't a matter of religion. It's an issue of a basic education in Wesern Civilization. But for all I know, the boy may have been only six years old. > A Christian charity is sending a film on the Christmas story to all 26,000

Odd Consumer News

From dust you came, but when you die, they can use your cremated remains to make jewelry: > In fact, there's enough carbon in those ashes to make about 20 gems. And there will still be several pounds of ashes left over to display on the mantlepiece. >

My Link Policy

It's been awhile since I mentioned my link policy, so I'll repeat it: The Bloghorn: If you're a blog and you link to me, I'll link to you, unless your site is disagreeable. Just e-mail me and let me know that you&

Holding Parents Accountable

Great Britain is starting to take measures against hooligan children and to make parents more responsible. Perhaps we could do that in our inner cities. Then again, the ACLU types wouldn't approve of restraining orders on "the children." > Problem children are to be targeted under

Ex-Gay to Lead Charge

I'm told there are many former gays out there who will testify to the disordered nature of homosexuality and its damaging effects. Why don't we hear from them more? > Stephen Bennett was active in the homosexual lifestyle for more than a decade before leaving that

We Need Studies to Tell Us This?

Clint Eastwood summarized these findings in Dirty Harry: "A man's got to know his limitations." > Dozens of studies agree: Most people overrate their own abilities. This tendency can have severe consequences: young adults making poor decisions about college and careers, pilots flying into storms and

Kill the Smurfs

Odd choice of advertising. Using children figures in a way that makes the ad unacceptable for viewing by children. > The people of Belgium have been left reeling by a public service commercial featuring the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes. > The

Boy George in Prison? . . .

. . . Isn't that kinda like selling Jessica Simpson to a white slave trader? > Police arrested Boy George, whose real name is George O'Dowd, at his home in the Little Italy neighbourhood of the city, after they responded to a call reporting a burglary in the early

Catchphrases

In this morning's New York Times, P.J. O'Rourke takes apart Leslie Savan's Slam Dunks and No-Brainers, a book apparently dedicated to lamenting the use of catchphrases. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/books/review/09orourke.html]. Excerpts: > Savan is

Something for Sunday Morning

> Sports, balls, festivities, display, the drama . . . The evil lies not in doing the thing, but in caring for it. St. Francis de Sales

If Art is Subjective, Why Not?

He's as much a modern art exhibit as a lot of that trash: > A man stripped off naked and declared himself a "guest exhibit" at one of Germany's most respected museums. . . > According to visitors to the museum, Walter Hofmueller, 58, suddenly removed

How Fast Can a Person Backpeddle?

> Salt Lake mayor Rocky Anderson is dealing with a new controversy. > In a recent interview with a British newspaper, Anderson seemed to compare living in Utah to living under the Taliban. . . > Recently, the mayor told an English journalist, "I feel like we're in the

I'm Not Surprised

I actually watched much of the Fantasia Barrino phenomenon, and I didn't like it. She was sassy and exhibited a trashy disposition. After one American Idol performance, she brought her illegitimate son onto the stage. Even though she was probably the best singer of the finalists, she finished

What Kind of Reversal Is This?

You're supposed to kill 'em, especially if they're crippled or ugly, not help 'em: > Researchers said Saturday they have used stem cells collected from the amniotic fluid surrounding fetal lambs to grow windpipes, and then implanted the tissue back into the fetuses while

Gays in Seminary

I assume many readers have seen this, but just in case, I feel compelled to post the conclusion to the story since I covered it earlier: > The Vatican will allow gay men into the priesthood if they can show they have been celibate for at least three years, a

Digital Essay: Give Us Hockey . . . Or Not

Hockey came back this week. Canadians watched in force. Americans didn't: > The Outdoor Life Network's first telecast, a Philadelphia-New York Rangers game, was seen in 268,000 households (just barely beating “Quite Frankly,” we might add). In Los Angeles? A zero rating. Zero. Link [http:

Truth Will Out

I love it when sublime truth pokes its head through pop culture's thick crust. Eric Clapton, who has turned 60, recently gave a glimpse of the true meaning of freedom: freedom from the constraints and distortion of passion. > "At first there was a little regret that

Gay Opinion

The Editor of the Express Gay News rails against Pope Benedict XVI. Link [http://www.dallasvoice.com/articles/dispArticle.cfm?Article_ID=6694]. It's full of insight, like this comment: > This latest anti-gay move by the Catholic Church is less likely to result in affecting political policies

Cherokee People! Cherokee Tribe! So Proud to Live! So Glad We're White!

A fascinating story about Indian history, alleged racism, too much money, and science. Link [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.09/seminoles_pr.html]. Excerpts: > The Cherokee kept black slaves until 1866, when an emancipation treaty freed them from bondage and granted them full tribal citizenship. Known as

The Weekend Eudemon

“You want a piece of me?” It seems everyone does. My church held a living rosary last night. They wanted ten children from the parochial school to attend and, of course, only two volunteered, so I took over my four, leaving the three pre-schoolers with mom. After that: Drive a

Who Needs Clever?

A writer observes about Howard Stern moving to satellite radio where there are no censors: > Oddly, there was a charm to the censorship that forced the team to invent hilariously creative means for discussing raunchy topics with substitute topics. Somehow openly saying [expletives deleted] just isn't going

So Many Dirty Headlines, So Little Time

> Gregg Miller mortgaged his home and maxed out his credit cards to mass produce his invention - prosthetic testicles for neutered dogs. . . > Miller has sold more than 150,000 of his Neuticles, more than doubling his $500,000 investment. The silicone implants come in different sizes, shapes, weights

Brews You Can Use II

This is kind of a yawner, but I didn't even know there was such an award. Maybe someone will nominate my dogged Friday morning coverage for an ale award. Maybe I'll win a quart of Pabst: > The Brewers Association recognized the work of three journalists

Gang Banger Prey

Following yesterday's criminal attack on two gays involved in illicit activity in a NY public park: > "Any place that gay people congregate is a hotbed for attacks," said Basil Lucas, spokesman for the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. "People assume that these men are

I'll Just Use the Discipline, but Thanks

Add a little bit of repentance, and you'd have a twisted form of Catholicism: > The First Assembly of God Church has a Fear Factor ministry that lets youths swallow live goldfish in order to teach them about fear. > "We need to be realistic about what

Scalia and the C

Infuriating the multiculturalists (all thirteen of 'em): > Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, will be Grand Marshal of Manhattan's 2005 Columbus Day Parade, Lawrence Auriana, president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, announced today. The parade, which is produced by the non-profit Foundation,

That Crazy L. Ron!

> Katie Holmes' mission impossible will be giving birth without painkillers - or screaming. > That's because her fiancÃ©, "Mission Impossible" star Tom Cruise, is a Scientologist. > Practitioners of Scientology are against drugs but insist on "silent birth" because they believe it&

You Gay Too

You tar them as homosexuals, in hopes that they'll stop condemning homosexual acts. Isn't that kind of like labelling a Prohibitionist a drunkard in hopes that he'll stop preaching teetotalling? Of course, the former is far more humiliating, hence the strategy, I'm

U.S. Will Give Up Control of Internet?

According to The Guardian, we'll have to: > A number of countries represented in Geneva, including Brazil, China, Cuba, Iran and several African states, insisted the US give up control, but it refused. The meeting "was going nowhere", Hendon says, and so the EU took a

Brews You Can Use

We'll call it the Eagle and Child, crack open some pipes, and pretend we're Tolkien, Lewis, Williams, Barfield, and the others. > The pub is 40ft long, 19ft wide and 22ft high. It can be customised for use as a fully working pub, with room for

The Venerable Newman

I like those quirky historical bites. The Blog from the Core [http://weblog.theviewfromthecore.com/] offers this one: Today is the 160th anniversary of Newman's finishing of An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. The Core Blog also reproduces the original advertisement from the book. Neat stuff,

Odd Consumer News

Old-time photos? Or something possessed? It looks like a picture of Aunt Gertrude, until you walk by it. Then it turns ghoulish. Link [http://www.hauntedmemories.com/]. Thanks, Boing Boing [http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/30/morphing_ghoul_portr.html].

Relativism = Every Nut Deserves Respec. Episode 231,311

> A man who is fighting to get the words "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance was back in federal court Wednesday, making some surprising comments about the case. > Although the hearing was a procedural matter with no key rulings, Michael Newdow said that if

Mr. Bill Continues to Get No Respect

> A book to be published this month by a leading academic publisher, with a foreword by Mark Rylance, the artistic director of the Globe, will claim that the greatest plays and verse in the English language were written by Sir Henry Neville (c1562-1615). He was a leading Elizabethan figure,

Marketing Abstinence and Marriage

It's worth a try, and this organization is trying. Campaign for our Children, Inc. [http://www.cfoc.org/videospots/] Last Spring, they ran a "Marriage Works" campaign. This Fall, they're doing a new version of the campaign, plus a campaign called "Pink"

A Nice Thing

Perhaps tinged with a touch of vanity? Sure, but we should all be so vain: > Ruby Dickens says she doesn't need the money and wants to spread a little happiness. > Ruby has been approaching people in Liverpool for the past three days and offering them a

The Oprahfication of Judaism?

I have faith in Oprah. Don't ask me why, but I do. She won't fly: > Will Oprah join the kabbala cabal? > Madonna has been talking up the mystical form of Judaism to the already-spiritual talk-show queen for two years, in hopes that her fellow

Dead People Server

Another example of our culture's ongoing obsession with celebrity. This time, it's combined with our culture's twisted and ironic approach to death that ignores death as much as possible, except to embrace and celebrate it occasionally. The two extremes are related. I plan to

Katie

I'm pretty convinced now that Katie Holmes isn't following Humanae Vitae.

Offended Pagans

When you jettison the very idea of objective truth, every subjective crank under the hood deserves respect: > It had seemed a good idea for Kent police to name the six-week campaign Operation Pagan because it coincided with Hallowe'en. However, the force had not reckoned with the Pagan

I'll Stick with the Queen's English, Thanks

Though I enjoy a good neologism, I like 'em clever or learned. For the pop neos that come from games and MTV, I'll abstain until they become part of broad usage, which usually doesn't happen. Much of the wunk (word junk) dies out in 24

Oh, I Guess I'll Back Off

When someone with Sinead's intellectual rigor speaks, we better listen: > Irish singer Sinead O'Connor has slammed "blasphemous" priests who attack homosexuality, as their principles contradict their faith - which is based on loving and respecting others. . . > "The teaching against homosexuality is

State-Paid Prostitutes

At least we can laugh as we hurtle toward Gommorah: > Torben Hansen, who has cerebral palsy, which severely affects his speech and mobility, believes his local authority should pay the extra charge he incurs when he hires a sex worker - because his disability means he cannot go to

Twisted Story

A former Catholic writes about taking revenge on "Brother Leopold," a man who beat him once in a monastery school. It's a twisted story, uncorroborated, and possibly meant to defame the Church, but it's too odd not to mention. PG-13 Link [http://www.somareview.

Odd Consumer News

For $400 or less, you can built the Automite. It goes 40-55 mph, gets 90 miles to the gallon, and is uglier than the day is long. Link [http://www.prismz.com/automite/]. Making the Yugo look like a luxury ride:

Take Roll Call When You Get in the Van

I feel stupid taking roll call when I get in the van, especially when two of my children can't speak, but it works: > The Roy family came to the city for a Sunday outing: a visit to Largo Central Park and its Bluegrass Strings and Crafty Things

Boycott Beer

My hands trembled while typing that headline, but folks like this give drinking a bad name: > Bootie Beer, promoted as "America's Entertainment Beer,'' is taking on the heavyweights of the national industry: Miller Brewing Co., Coors Brewing Co. and Anheuser-Busch Cos. > Over 10,

Doesn't Surprise Me . . .

. . . when the wife stops yelling at you, your blood pressure drops: > Everyday around-the-house activities such as housecleaning, yard work and washing the car have been shown to significantly lower blood pressure in people with hypertension and prehypertension, Indiana University researchers have found. Link [http://healthnewsdigest.com/news/article_2480.

What is Anton LaVey's Symbol?

The cemetery branch of the military isn't ready to put the Wiccan symbols on grave markers (a free service for deceased veterans). I'm guessing they will shortly. And in a few years, we'll have requests from hedonists (alright, "Epicurians") to put genitals

Worth a Laugh

I was going to make-up some mock quotes from this group, but it's pretty much impossible to parody them. > The international dissident movement "We Are Church" is issuing an appeal to the Catholic bishops, gathered in Rome for the Synod, to confront the "real&

Secularists Wailing and Gnashing Their Teeth

A columnist at the relentlessly secularist Huffington Post is upset about Christianity. Link [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-schaub/the-lion-the-witch-the-_b_8323.html] . Excerpts: > The Palm Beach Post reports that Bush's "Just Read, Florida" program has selected CS Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and the

Narnia's Christianity Test

According to Time, whether the new movie is Christian rests largely on whether one passage from the book makes it into the movie. Link [http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1113226,00.html]. Excerpt: > Aslan's sacrifice on a huge stone table (not a cross;

Wait Till the ACLU Hears

ACLU: "We hope President Bush doesn't plan to infringe freedoms in the name of public health. If we let a pandemic flu destroy civil liberties, the flu has beaten the United States." > President George W. Bush said Tuesday that he was working to prepare the

Miers' Religion

The NYT runs an article this morning on the faith of Harriet Miers. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/politics/politicsspecial1/05miers.html?ei=5094&en=7e04971063f63746&hp=&ex=1128571200&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1128506591-+OBcdliwcZU0gng55ykzNw] . Nothing terribly surprising. As

Clooney the Liberal

I try to avoid blatant politics on this site, but Clooney's words today cracked me up and made me sneer. That accomplishment deserves a comment. > Ocean's Eleven star George Clooney is urging his fellow Hollywood stars to keep quiet when it comes to politics, because

Danica and Car Racing

I had great fun last Spring when Danica Patrick performed well at Indy. I have long maintained that car racing isn't a "sport," in the athletic sense, but my car-racing friends (I have too many) strongly disagree with me. I even tried a logic test on

Kmiec on Miers

Doug Kmiec taught me Constitutional and Real Property Law while at Notre Dame. He attended the Mass when I entered the Catholic Church (inadvertently; he was there anyway, but he went out of his way to congratulate me afterwards). We've met once since graduation and have corresponded occasionally

Ready for California's Smoke-Free Bars

> A chimpanzee in a Chinese zoo has successfully kicked a 16-year smoking habit after becoming hooked when two spouses died and her daughter left, state press said on Monday. > Ai Ai, a 27-year-old chimp at the Qinling Safari Park in northern China's Shaanxi province, ended her

A Katrina Wrap Up?

I think most of us have had enough of Katrina, but we shouldn't. There are lessons to be learned, and not about levee management. It's about people, sapping their spirit, creating an underclass that has been deprived of a basic moral upbringing. Kara Hopkins tells the

St. Francis

A reader sends along this sermonette on the Feast Day of St. Francis (October 4th): > St. Francis of Assisi said, "Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words!" > To obey this holy man's good counsel, three things are necessary: > 1) ALWAYS

Buy Stock in Kimberly-Clark

With predictions of 100-150 million deaths resulting from the bird flu, this product will "fly" off the shelves: > A tissue that is claimed to kill 99.9 per cent of cold and flu viruses has been developed. > Makers Kleenex say that within 15 minutes of a

Shea on Miers

Mark Shea is a little more militant about the Miers matter. I'm adopting a more cautious approach (be cautious before getting mad), but I tend to agree with him: > If Miers turns out to be Souter in a dress, I think this will go down in history

Attack on the Altar

Anti-Catholics attack an Alabama church. KKK-remnants? A manifestation of the anti-Catholic bias that breathes (in a fairly deep and safe sleep) under the American surface? A handful of nuts? Link [http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/051003/assault.shtml]. Excerpt: > "They were screaming something about Catholics worshipping idols

Marshall McLuhan Revival?

> The average American is a ravenous media junkie, consuming up to nine hours a day of television, web time or cellphone minutes, according to new research which raises fresh questions about how technology is revolutionising society. . . > As information technology marches on, and search engine giant Google even raises

A Second Conservation Message?

The Bush administration is asking Americans to conserve gas. This is twice now. Wow. > With U.S. heating bills expected to hit record highs this winter, the Bush administration on Monday launched a conservation campaign featuring a cartoon mascot "Energy Hog" . . . > Energy Secretary Sam Bodman and

Miers Pre-Approved?

> President Bush today nominated a Texas lawyer who serves as White House counsel, Harriet Miers, to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court ”“ a pick that apparently was pre-approved by Senate Democratic leadership. Link [http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46630]. When a

Assessing the Damage

A few stats from this year's Oktoberfest: > Some 6 million litres of beer -- enough to fill around six Olympic-sized swimming pools -- were downed by the 6.1 million visitors to the festival in the Bavarian capital. That was about 100,000 litres below the 6.

Feelin' Nauseous Just Uncorking It

A list of the ten most expensive wines on the market. Number Ten: > ChÃ¢teau Lafite Rothschild Pauillac 1996 - app. $287 Talk about being at the right place at the right time. In the mid-18th century, a French politician was about to be shipped off overseas, but not

The Devil's Playground?

Has anyone else noticed that it seems like 7/8ths of the weird spirituality stories seem to come out of India? It reminds me of a Christian historian who, after examining the dark metaphysics of India's religious thought, asked "Why God allowed India to be the Devil&

Robson Top 5

John Robson at the Ottawa Citizen provides a weekly "Top 5 Stories" feature. This week's was pretty good. Here's 5, 2, and 1: > 5: Bed ched The British Cheese Board claims evening snacks of various cheeses "may help determine the very nature

Miers Nomination

Well, it would appear Bush has let down the pro-life movement with his pick, though no one knows for sure. This blurb at Southern Appeal [http://southernappeal.blogspot.com/2005/10/bush-in-on-is-own-color-me-very.html] seems to sum up the sentiment I'm reading across the blogosphere. She was Catholic, now

Drive-By Porn

Michigan actually passed a statute against this, making it a misdemeanor, if I recall correctly. Florida apparently has an even better law: > Two Florida men are facing felony obscenity charges after a Jacksonville cop spotted a pornographic movie playing in their car in full view of children in nearby

What Ifs

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this humorous look at "What ifs" a 6. WaPo Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/29/AR2005092901881_pf.html] . Excerpts: > What if the wheel had never been invented? > Even worse mileage

Massachusetts Church Leading Campaign

Getting up the Irish dander? I like seeing the churches, especially Catholic churches who have been silent in recent memory, finally taking stands. The Catholic clerics used to get fired up all the time, but they fell silent for many years, to the injury of American culture. I think most

Let's Hope This Sentiment Jumps the Pond

> A leading Scots headteacher has claimed parents who won't say "no" to their children are making life harder for schools. > Education expert Mike Beale said teachers are increasingly having to tell mums and dads to stand up to their kids. > He insisted that

Not Sure Why This is News . . .

. . . but it's good to see folks outside of Focus on the Family noticing: > The biggest box office hits of the last 20 years are accused today of promoting unsafe sex and drug use, putting the health of their global audiences at risk. > Films such as Basic

Bringing Sex to the Pews

> [A] new book backed by a Church of England bishop urges Christians to spread the message to their friends and neighbours by hosting lingerie parties. > The book, Open the Door, argues that in an age when more people know their zodiac signs than the Ten Commandments, Christians have

Fatherless America: The Disturbing Evidence Mounts

John Leo at U.S. News & World Report wrote a good piece in the October 3rd issue about mounting evidence that children need a father and mother. After controlling for demographic variables, the studies show children without both parents in the household are more likely to have problems. Link

Bending Over Backwards for Islam

> Novelty pig calendars and toys have been banned from a council office – in case they offend Muslim staff. > Workers in the benefits department at Dudley Council, West Midlands, were told to remove or cover up all pig-related items, including toys, porcelain figures, calendars and even a tissue box

Nature Wants to Populate One Way or the Other

> [O]lder women are more likely to have twins than younger women, reported WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. > With more and more women over the age of 35 getting pregnant, women shouldn't be surprised if they end up seeing more sets of twins. > And it&

Sex in Video Games

Have I mentioned lately that porn and sex have pervaded every corner of our culture? > [T]here are dozens of games that address sexual issues, sexuality and sex itself, ranging from Cyberlore's "Playboy: The Mansion" to Sierra Entertainment's "Leisure Suit Larry."

Looking Forward to Those Family Vacation Movies

Paris Hilton commenting on her home video "exploit" and displaying the intellectual and moral acumen of an eighth grader: > It's not abnormal for people to film their trips. > Everyone does it. Link [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2004580002-2005450543,00.html].

The Marketers Aren't That Dumb

If an ad trivializes religion (the sacred, the holy, the whatever), a large segment of the population will be upset. It happens repeatedly. Surely the marketers understand this. Yet they persist, like children who do something wrong on purpose, then recant and say "sorry," and then smirk and

Falling Temps and Falling Marriages

> A chilly bit of Scandinavia is coming to the heart of London's West End Saturday with the opening of Absolut Icebar, a bar made entirely out of ice right down to the art on the walls and the glasses for the drinks. > Situated next to the

I Like It

I think I've seen more bishop backbone in the past twelve months than I saw in the twelve years prior: > The pastor of a Roman Catholic church was temporarily pulled from the pulpit after he refused to support a petition drive against gay marriage by the state&

No Back-Alley Abortions

Interesting piece at NYT this morning [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/weekinreview/02leland.html] about a new pill that would make back-alley abortions highly unlikely, if Roe were to be reversed and states started outlawing abortions again. This is good information to have when a pro-choicer refers to

Something for Sundy Morning

Quotes from Simone Weil: > All sins are attempts to fill voids. > Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, even a duty. > Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the

Some Might Call This a Feel-Good Story

> One man was shot to death and another wounded after they allegedly attempted a carjacking against two FBI agents who were conducting surveillance, officials said. > The FBI agents apparently were targeted randomly and the incident remains under investigation. Link [http://cbs5.com/californiawire/CA--FBI-Carjacking-kn/resources_news_html].

Dad on the Run

My weekends now that I have four children in sports, some day this will be me: Sung to the tune of Band on the Run: Well, the van ignited with my copper key As I drove into the sun, And my first son said to my second son there I

A Stance Against Material Excess?

> "School administrators, reacting to what they called a "sick" prom culture that was out of control, announced in a letter this month to parents that senior prom was canceled. > "Basically, it has become an event in American culture that has all the trappings of

Gollum at the Convenience Store

Photoshopping creatures from Middle Earth into everyday pictures [http://www.worth1000.com/cache/contest/contestcache.asp?contest_id=7485&display=photoshop#entries] . Humorous stuff, at least for us Tolkien nerds.

Yeah, Baby

Austin Powers, Cat in the Hat, and now Keith Moon: > Mike Myers will star as The Who's drummer Keith Moon in an untitled feature being developed by Spitfire Pictures, says Variety. Roger Daltrey is producing with Spitfire's Nigel Sinclair. Bill Gerber also is producing. >

Dissecting Media

This link [http://www.zombietime.com/sf_rally_september_24_2005/anatomy_of_a_photograph/] has a very interesting (borderline fascinating) example of media bias. It starts with a simple picture in the San Fransisco Chronicle and then, in five short blurbs, shows that the Chronicle took a picture out

Zombie Me

> American television viewing climbed again last season to a record household average of eight hours, 11 minutes a day, Nielsen Media Research has found. > The latest finding challenges perceptions that Americans are watching less TV. . . . > [T]he average individual watched four hours and 32 minutes of television

200 Hours for Teenage Baby Slugger

> A teenage boy convicted of striking his girlfriend with a baseball bat to end her pregnancy has been sentenced to 200 hours of community service at a pro-life pregnancy center, drawing objections from his lawyer and his family. Link [http://www.detnews.com/2005/metro/0509/30/B01-332781.htm]

PSA

Due to a rush of social and familial commitments, I don't have time to put together a Weekend Eudemon. The feature will resume next Saturday.

Odd Consumer News

> A solar-powered handbag designed by a student from Brunel University promises to make finding keys and other items at the bottom of a bag easier. > The handbag, dubbed Sun Trap, uses a solar cell attached to the outside of the bag to trap energy from sunlight. > The

Muslim Sci-Fi?

There's a web page dedicated to it. Link [http://www.cs.rit.edu/~maa2454/SCIFI/sci_lit.html].

Kidman Undercuts Cruise

The Buddha v. L. Ron: > Nicole Kidman has spoken out in defense of psychiatry, months after her ex-husband Tom Cruise publicly denounced the medical practice. . . After researching her role as psychiatrist for her next movie The Visiting, Kidman is a full supporter of the benefits of psychiatry. She says,

Airport Security

The Smoking Gun has reproduced complaints from the Transportation Security Administration about airport security. Funny and somewhat disturbing stuff. Link [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0929051screen1.html?link=rssfeed]. Excerpt: > While one woman was offended by an extremely close wanding, another gal, a doctor no less, ran into problems

Acceptable Racism?

> A doctor has offered to perform free abortions on hurricane evacuees, saying it may be too dangerous for them to wait until they return home. Link [http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9514379/].

Diocese Bankruptcy Revisited

The WSJ has run a pretty good op-ed about the Washington Bankruptcy Court decision that made individual parish assets part of the bankrupt diocese for purposes of paying creditors. Link [http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007340]. The writer raises good points, and I wish his conclusions were right, but

Dutch Expand Baby Killing

Good luck to the ugly Dutch babies: > The Dutch government intends to expand its current euthanasia policy, setting guidelines for when doctors may end the lives of terminally ill newborns with the parents' consent. > A letter outlining the new directives will be submitted to parliament for discussion

Internet Stays with U.S.

Chalk one up for officials that don't kowtow to the UN: > A senior U.S. official rejected calls on Thursday for a U.N. body to take over control of the main computers that direct traffic on the Internet, reiterating U.S. intentions to keep its historical

More and More Grisly

Will Frist want federal funding for this, too? > Colombian police searching couriered packages for contraband made a chilling discovery on Wednesday: three human foetuses wrapped in plastic and concealed inside porcelain statues of Christian saints. > Anti-narcotics police chief General Jorge Baron said the four- to five-month-old foetuses were

Brews You Can Use II

> Alcoholics who smoke appear to lose more brain mass than alcoholics who don't smoke, according to a study at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. > It is already well-known that the brains of long-term alcoholics atrophy and shrink, the study authors say, but the new findings

Brews You Can Use

But can I get my wife to wear the radio transmitter? > A beer mat that knows when a glass is nearly empty and automatically asks for a refill has been created by thirsty researchers in Germany. . . > The disc-shaped mat can be attached to a normal beer mat so

Order Heads Going to Rome

The NY Times continues its high-radar coverage of the proposed ban on gay priests, looking for any homosexual-sympathetic angle possible: > Responding to reports that the Vatican may be close to releasing a directive to exclude most gay candidates from entering the priesthood, leaders of Roman Catholic men's

Odd Consumer News

Put these in the high schools: french fry vending machines. Link [http://www.patatachef.com/patatachef.html].

Pagan Place

I found this great website a few hours ago: The Pagan Pride Project. It's full of good stuff, like this preliminary statement to its definition of "pagan": > What is a Pagan? The following definition is for the purposes of the Pagan Pride Project. Others may

Never Know When You'll Need This Information

As a youngster, I had a morbid fear of quicksand, even though I had never seen it, so I found this interesting: > Research has shown that it is impossible for people to sink into quicksand much beyond the waist – but it is equally impossible to pull someone out once

Gucci Ditches Sex?

Alright, I know nothing about fashion. It's intentional ignorance on my part; there's no reason to risk being accused of homosexuality. But I was interested to see that Gucci held a fashion show last night (apparently, a big deal of some sort) and the new Gucci

Leno on Male Thinking

> John Hinckley, Jr. the idiot that shot President Reagan, is now trying to get unsupervised visits away from his prison. The prosecutor argued this week against allowing Hinckley unsupervised visits. Because they claim that Hinckley still has delusions about women. He thinks women are making overtures to him when

The Used Book Market

A new study has been released. NY Times Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/books/29book.html]. Excerpts: > In barely a decade, online booksellers have grown to account for two-thirds of the market for general-interest used books, a trend that calls into question the future of brick-and-mortar

New Standard Educational Fare?

Just make sure the Internet filter keeps out all references to God: > The $100 laptop computers that Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers want to get into the hands of the world's children would be durable, flexible and self-reliant. > The machines' AC adapter would double as

Religious Countries Worse

Many of you have probably seen this story: "Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1798944,00.html].'" If you haven't, you may want to check it out, but then drink some antidote at

It Wasn't Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life?

After the Atlanta shooting earlier this year, everyone was marvelling about the woman who convinced the shooter to surrender. She shared her faith with the shooter, along with advice from Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life. But she shared a little more: > Police said Nichols took Smith

Kids Overestimate Drinking

Consider this a public service announcement for my readers with kids in the 17-23 age bracket: > More than 70 percent of U.S. college students overestimate the amount of alcohol that their peers drink. > And this kind of misperception has a strong effect on personal alcohol consumption and

The Affluent Society

The poor will always be with us . . . so spend it before they gang up and take it away from us. And in the meantime, let 'em starve. I gotsa have my perks: > For the first time, there are more than 1 million owner-occupied homes in the United States

Odd Consumer News

As long as I'm talking about witches: > Well with the Halloween season officially kicking off in stores, it's no surprise that the cheap Halloween masks have returned. And this year, they're back and cheaper than ever! It seems that both Target and Wal-Mart

Witch Overhead

> A Dutch witch has won her battle to make the cost of her brooms and spell-making lessons tax-deductable. > Tax officials finally agreed that the un-named woman could declare the cost of her overheads against tax. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1552461.html]. I know nothing

Mothers, Don't Let Your Sons Grow Up . . .

. . . to be loggers or pilots. The Ten Most Dangerous Jobs: 1. Logging workers Fatalities: 92.4 per 100,000 employed Median Pay: $29,730 2. Aircraft pilots and flight engineers Fatalities: 92.4 per 100,000 employed Median pay: $129,250 ”“ but may be much lower for commercial pilots. 3.

Where God Isn't Encouraged, He's Proscribed

> A federal court has been asked to order a Knoxville, Tennessee, elementary school to stop prohibiting a ten-year-old student from reading his Bible during recess. > Luke Whitson and his parents have filed a motion for preliminary injunction against Knox County School officials, who allegedly threatened to punish the

Moguls Kowtowing

Hollywood is still concerned that it might offend Islam. Here's a snapshot of the problem. LA Times Link [http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl-et-goldstein27sep27,0,7234653.story?track=tothtml] . Excerpt: > But the real problem with Hollywood isn't simply its glorification of sex, money and

Another Vice Squashed!

You like that new-car smell? Smell again: > According to a recent study, that pleasurable scent has been linked to harmful chemicals--volatile organic compound or VOC--which releases chemicals from glues, paints, and vinyl. > The smell inside the cabin of the car can trigger headaches, sore throats, and drowsiness. Japanese

What About Cooing at the Nursing Students?

Playing peek-a-boo is pretty degrading, too. Heck, so is having your diaper changed: > A West Yorkshire hospital has banned visitors from cooing at new-born babies over fears their human rights are being breached and to reduce infection. > A statement from Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax said staff had

NBA Poetry

Well, I've never posted serious poetry to this site, so this is a first: an excerpt from the poetry of Etan Thomas, black activist and NBA forward for the Washington Wizards. > Now I look upon my culture, I see ballers, sure I do Hard corers in Haute

Leno on Boston's Catholic Problem

> Good gossip this week ”“ according to the National Enquirer, President Bush has started drinking again...boy he'll do anything to get Ted Kennedy's support for his Supreme Court nominee.

Catholic Among the Taliban

Interesting piece at AsiaNews. Link [http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=4203]. Excerpt: > "From when I was young, I tried to enter the mosque like everyone else," recalled M. "But the others prevented me from doing so and they accused me of

Book Return: On the Road

The October issue of Touchstone features the second Book Return: Jack Kerouac's On the Road. The writer, Stephen Webb, did a nice job with it. Link [http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=18-08-014-c]. Excerpts: > Americans have always been on the move, but Kerouac's

JPII Twice

Two made-for-TV movies about JPII will air shortly. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/28/arts/television/28pope.html]. Excerpts: > As it happens, two American television networks - ABC and CBS - had the same idea about the same time. Both movies are planned for this season,

Book Returns

Touchstone magazine has started a new series: Book Returns. Here's how they describe it in a marketing e-mail they sent last night: > [In Book Returns,] we reevaluate some culturally significant books of the last forty years. Here are some of the upcoming contributions: > Syndicated columnist William

The Blogger's Keyboard

I actually prefer a reasonably-clear workspace, but some days, it feels like this:

Gourmet Hemp

I thought this was a joke at first, but it appears to be real. Link [http://www.davidmccandless.com/articles/high_society.htm]. Excerpt: > You've smelt it, wafting sweetly across the park, floating over the fence from the pumping party next door, rising to greet you off

Beer v. Wine and Liquor

This should go under "Brews You Can Use," but by next Friday, it'll be stale, and stale beer is horrible. This link [http://www.heartheissues.com/americanson-alcoholicbeverages-g.html] provides a detailed analysis of the recent poll that showed wine has become the favored drink among Americans.

ND President

Here's a nice snapshot of, Fr. John Jenkins, the new president of my alma mater. Link [http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/nation/12744817.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp] . Excerpt: > Jenkins wants the campus to be welcoming to all students and faculty. But he doesn'

Hot off the MSM Polling Press

> Half of Americans say they trust the mass media when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately, and fairly, according to Gallup's annual Governance survey. Trust and confidence in the news media is up significantly since last year, but it is still slightly lower than what

St. Casey?

I've said it before: I'm not a big fan of the Iraqi War, but I don't care for Cindy Sheehan's antics or attitude. "Narcissistic [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/26/D8CS3A900.html]," Mark Shea has speculated, and I

Big-Toothed Fish

Maybe we should equip every non-Arab-descent grandmother with one of these, so those pesky airport security folks will leave them alone: > A routine check of a shipment at Manila airport turned bloody when a piranha sprung up and bit one of the inspectors. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/

Top Ten List of Cell Phone Annoyances

These aren't the Top Ten annoyances. If I tried harder, I gotta believe I could come up with better ones. Hearing someone ten feet away from you describe the weather. Hearing someone five feet away say "I gotta run; gotta go to the bathroom." Folks who

Great Idea, but . . .

. . . we don't need to restrict it to tony restaurants. It's considered poor taste to use a cell phone in a nice restaurant, so more of them are creating rooms and other access points. Link [http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-cellphone26.html]. Let's hope

I'd Welcome This

> An influential Vatican official believes that Pope Benedict XVI could soon expand permission for priests throughout the world to celebrate Mass using the Tridentine rite. . . > Questioned on whether Vatican II intended to abolish the Tridentine rite, Cardinal Medina said that the arguments were inconclusive on that point. However,

Forgive My Lack of Charity . . .

. . . but I've seen so many promos of the Hillary-for-President-Indoctrination series that I'm absolutely sick of Geena Davis' face: > ABC's new series, Commander in Chief, starring Oscar-winning actress Geena Davis as a female vice president who takes the reins after the sitting president

Porn Culture, Episode 1,254,909

> Hollywood actor Tom Sizemore is to release a series of his own home-made sex films. > The Saving Private Ryan star, who filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, is bringing out several tapes he made with nine different women, some of which have already been leaked on to the

Bush for Fuel Saving?

I've wondered for the past five years why President Bush hasn't asked Americans to curtail their fuel use. Fuel-fueled terrorists didn't prompt him to do it. Katrina came close, but didn't. Now, finally, Rita has prompted a request. The President has asked

Porn Culture, Episode 1,254,908

Are American soldiers trading gruesome war pictures for porn? Some think they are. R-Rated Link [http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/us-soldiers-allegedly-trading-pictures.html] . Excerpt: > I spent the good part of this weekend following up on a report by the East Bay Express, an alternative paper in San Francisco, alleging

More Dog People

A familiar theme for those who have been on this blog for awhile: pets substituting for children. This must be the "leaving home" phase of the child/dog-rearing experience. Link [http://www.petsinuniform.com/].

Something for Everyone in the Pews

> Christian Mime Ministry scripts equip Christian drama ministries to provide sermon illustrations that bring scripture passages and contemporary parables to life through the ministry of pantomime. > Mime comes from the word, "mimesis," which means to "recreate." This ancient, graceful art form will bless your

I Forgot to Give at the Office

An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised $600. Link [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1577750,00.html] .

The Self-Publishers Cometh

> Most of us have heard that 195,000 new titles were published in 2004 – a staggering 14 percent increase in one year. But most of those books don't sell very well. According to Nielsen BookScan, 93 percent of those new books sell less than 1000 copies a

Support Your Local Boy Scouts

They're standing strong, but beleaguered from every side: > A coalition of homosexual activists and atheists plan to march on a Boy Scout camp in San Diego next month demanding the organization open its membership and leadership to them. . . > In previous protests, the group has equated the

The Third Flooding

First it was Katrina, then Rita, and now Congressa: > Louisiana's congressional delegation has requested $40 billion for Army Corps of Engineers projects in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, about 10 times the annual Corps budget for the entire nation, or 16 times the amount the Corps has

Dylan Documentary

It will air in two parts, tonight and tomorrow night, on PBS. It sounds pretty good. Then again, the review is from the LA Times and the director is Martin Scorsese, so who knows. Link [http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-ca-dylan25sep25,0,840025.story?track=widget]. Excerpt from LAT Review:

Read Me in the Rain

> The New American Standard Bible has been widely acclaimed as “the most literally accurate translation” from the original languages. Millions of people have trusted the NASB, learning from it and applying it to the challenges of their daily lives. The updated NASB continues this commitment to accuracy, while increasing

Hayden Was No Girlie Man

> A University of Iowa law professor has complained that a locker room set aside for visiting teams at Kinnick Stadium is homophobic and sexist because it's painted pink, according to the Associated Press [http://www.crgazette.com/2005/09/24/Home/pinklockerroomobjectionthreats.htm]. > Erin Buzuvis, who

Am I Supposed to be Surprised?

When you take the procreation out of recreation, it's only a matter of time until you take the recreation out of procreation: > Women are increasingly seeking inappropriate IVF treatment because they do not have the time or inclination for a sex life and want to "diarise&

Hurricane Enlightenment at Level 7

> A Dutchman says he is legally 'married' to two women at the same time. > Victor de Bruijn, 46, from Rosendaal, and his wife Bianca, 31, have signed a co-habitation contract with their friend Mirjam Geven, 35. > Although bigamy is forbidden in Holland, there is nothing

More Atheism

The Huffington Post is interesting reading, if you like a relentlessly anti-Christian and anti-Red State approach to everything. Case in point: an editorial by blogger Cenk Uygur that mocks Christians for believing in a benevolent God. Link [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/god-doesnt-care-about-us_b_7840.html]. It's not

Aiming to Entertain in Early Hollywood

King Vidor about why he wanted to make The Big Parade [http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0015624/] (1925): > One day I had a talk with Irving Thalberg and told him I was weary of making ephemeral films. They came to town, played a week or so, then went their

Office Slang

A list of new office slang. Link [http://bigpicture.typepad.com/writing/2005/03/new_office_slan.html]. A few of my favorites: > 404 - Someone who is clueless. From the Web error message, “404 Not Found,” which means the document requested couldn't be located. “Don'

Catholic Cult?

Interesting piece in the Chicago Tribune yesterday. Important note: I know nothing about this group, except what I read in this article. I'm not endorsing or condemning this group (though I do defer to ecclesiastical authorities in such matters). Link [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509240204sep24,1,

What Do You Get When You Cross . . .

. . . geeks with sex, art, and alleged civil liberties? This is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen [http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/25/webzine_fsm_porn_tas.html]. My (hopefully limited) sense for the morbid prompts me to mention it here: > Some crazy internet wackos

Stress Relief

That's funny, my close relationship increases the number of children, which, in turn, increases the stress: > The University of Toronto study, presented to an American Heart Association meeting, monitored 216 men and women for a year. > Those with stressful jobs but close relationships saw blood pressure

A Jewish Plot?

> A South African AIDS expert Saturday advocated male circumcision as the best available "vaccine" against the virus in his country, where an estimated 6 million people are infected and more than 600 people die every day. > Francois Venter told a congress of health activists in the

Historical Miniature

Hank Williams, from this morning's NYT [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/books/review/25keillor.html]: > Hank was a landmark, the first really sexy hillbilly. Chet Atkins, who saw him perform, said he was graceful like a snake, somebody you couldn't take your eyes

Time to Re-Think Last 30 Years of Gender Identity?

These reverse discrimination lawsuits are getting tedious, but I still enjoy them: > Maxime Goovaerts is a 100-pound, 5-foot-tall eighth-grader who didn't know field hockey was a girls sport when he signed up. After all, both boys and girls play in his native Belgium. > But in the

New In-house Pope Mobile

For use in the Vatican: Link [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050923/ids_photos_wl/r2007962235.jpg]. Thanks, Open Book [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/].

Prison Action

The NYT this morning has run a story about a former prison inmate's lawsuit against prison officials. The suit alleges that the officials violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment by refusing to protect him. I try to keep this site reasonably urbane,

Something for Sunday Morning

> Branded enemies of the "progress of public spirit," [the Carmelite nuns of Compiegne] were killed as part of the [French] Revolution's systematic effort to efface all trace of the living God from France. > Priests and nuns were jailed and killed by the score, churches

Slash Back to the Other Extreme

Whatever doesn't turn you on: > David and Victoria are part of a growing number of people publicly declaring themselves 'asexual'. David even started an online discussion forum called the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. > "People just started pouring in from all over the

Odd Consumer News

Man, this is so cool, I'd take the risk of being mistaken for a transvestite: Purses made out of old hardcover books. Link [http://www.rebound-designs.com/]. Note: They cost about $175.00.

Historical Miniature

Thunderbird wine: > You won't find mention of Thunderbird at the Gallo company's Web page, or any reference to the companies [sic] roster of dÃ©classÃ© wines: Night Train, Ripple, Boone's Farm. Neither will you find mention of the Gallo company on the Thunderbird

Great Movie Review

James Pinkerton at Tech Central Station has written an excellent analysis of Corpse Bride. Link [http://www.techcentralstation.com/092305F.html]. Here are two excerpts, related but distinct enough to be emphasized separately: 1. > The film's production notes attest that CB is based on a "19th

Far Out

At the University of Michigan, I majored in History with an emphasis on classical studies. This is exciting for us nerds: > The tomb of Odysseus has been found, and the location of his legendary capital city of Ithaca discovered here on this large island across a one-mile channel from

Abolish the Prisons?

The clever Gary North has written a nice piece [http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north407.html] about the prison system. Excerpts: > In the Bible, the only prisons are in the empires: Joseph in an Egyptian prison, John the Baptist in a Roman prison, Peter and Paul in Roman prisons.

Caligula

EveTushnet [http://eve-tushnet.blogspot.com/] reminds readers of those funny words from Pinky and the Brain: > "Caligula was no Boy Scout; He did things we can't even talk about. The Romans knew he was off his head When he filled a vacant Senate seat with Mister

The Weekend Eudemon

A most-enjoyable evening yesterday. My parents returned last week from a three-week trip to Russia. To celebrate nothing in particular, Dad and I went to the Hillcrest Lounge after work to consume beer from long necks and old rock-n-roll and country from the jukebox. We were joined by one of

More Terrible Ted

> Brutal episodes, such as are all too frequent in history, are treated as demonstrations that civilization and culture are a sham, a mere mask for crassly material interests--as if there were any protection from man's permanent temptation to brutality, except his striving after civilization and culture. At

The County Fair

I took my family to the County Fair last night. Here's my Top Ten Thoughts That Crossed My Mind: 10. The rides are $4 apiece. I spent $80 for unlimited-ride wristbands for my six walking children, and they each rode over $40 worth of rides. I made money.

Spirits Survived Katrina?

Interesting video clip of a story by CBS-affiliate about spirits roaming New Orleans. Link [http://cbs5.com/video/?id=6789@kpix.dayport.com]. It runs about four minutes.

Harmless Voodoo?

This article [http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/9/22/central/12029924&sec=central] says voodoo dolls are popular. Although the article appears to apply to Western tastes, it's written from Malaysia and with a Malaysian perspective: the writer indicates the dolls are harmless,

When a Culture Stops Doing What Comes Naturally . . .

. . . it pays: > Middle-class mothers in France could be paid up to â‚¬1,000 (Â£675) a month - almost the minimum wage - to stop work for a year and have a third child under a government scheme to boost the birthrate, already among the highest in Europe.

Brews You Can Use III

It's the time of the year for pumpkin ale: > The spicy suds were originally brewed by early New England colonist who sought to stretch their supply of costly imported malt by fusing it with fresh indigenous ingredients. > The trick of this adult treat is sweetening the

In Canada?

This is odd. I would've assumed this could lead to a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission [https://thedailyeudemon.com/914/]. Link [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/23/D8CPU38G8.html]. Excerpt: > A 14-year-old student was expelled from a Christian school because her parents are

Get Me One of Those Pink Tri's!

The NYT this morning runs a news item on the Vatican's seminary instructions. I wouldn't call it "objective." Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/23/national/23priests.html]. Excerpts: > Word that the Vatican is likely to issue instructions soon that could bar

Brews You Can Use II

Ten reasons beer is better than wine: > 10. Beer doesn't rely on a piece of wood to give it character. > 9. The French don't set the standard for beer-making and food-pairing. > 8. Beer is richer, better looking and has a better body. >

Brews You Can Use

> Most people who seek treatment at hospital emergency departments claiming their drinks have been spiked are simply drunk, a new study has found. Link [http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16685758-13762,00.html].

Terrible Ted

> Those who live lives of immediate gratification, Huxley thought, would not be able to bear solitude of any kind. As Mustapha Mond explains, "people are never alone now. We make them hate solitude; and we arrange their lives so that it's almost impossible for them to

More Public School Fun II

This type of problem, however, isn't endemic to the "coercion x local moneys + federal requirement" formula described in my last post. This is just an original sin thing: > When we heard about the latest scandal embroiling a U.S. middle school, well, we assumed it

More Public School Fun

Many good Christians support the whole concept of public schools. It boggles my mind and strikes me as a lazy holdover from the schools' halcyon days in the 1950s and 1960s. The types of abuse described in the story below naturally crop up in a machine that is built

Divorce Ain't Just the Couple's' Business

> Are children raised outside of intact marriages at increased risk for crime and delinquency? iMAPP's latest policy brief, "Can Married Parents Prevent Crime? Recent Research on Family Structure and Delinquency 2000-2005," looks at empirical research from the United States published in peer-reviewed journals since 2000.

Strider Wouldn't Be Ashamed

Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen was once so hungry he ate a roadside rabbit that had been hit by a car. Link [http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/mortensen%20makes%20roadkill%20confession] .

What Good Are Ordinary Books . . .

. . . if you go blind? > [A] half-dozen Wiscosin librarians have posed semi-nude for a "Desperate Librarians 2005" wall calendar. Link. Excerpt: > Five middle-aged library directors and a 32-year-old assistant each put up $200 and posed provocatively, using oversize books to cover what their clothes usually do. >

Part of Kennedy's Ongoing War Against the Church

> Culture & Cosmos also reports that a prominent Church prelate said he was furious that aid to private schools had been kept out of the package and he was especially angry that it is being blocked by "four Irish Catholic Senators." > The proposal for financial aid

Poor Fulton

The eponymous grandson has been a moral disgrace: > Reformed hell-raiser Charlie Sheen left a whole baseball team with endless wild memories, after throwing them a party at his house complete with prostitutes and porn stars. . . > Former Reds player Rob Dibble tells FHM, "During our championship season in

Reader's Digest Condensed Version

Let me guess, quite a few of the politically incorrect passages were scissored: > A Church of England vicar was on Wednesday unveiling his self-styled "100-Minute Bible", an ultra-condensed edition of the Christian holy book which claims to neatly summarise every teaching from the Creation to the Revelation.

Oh, the Mocking This Invites

But the image is there: > THIS IS A GENUINE SONOGRAM PRINTOUT of our child at 8 weeks, 4 Days. If you look close, however, you can see an outline of the Blessed Mother. Interestingly enough, the length of the fetus also is the top and bottom of the Blessed

Biloxi Rubble

> The Diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi, has a web site up that contains photos, videos, and reports of the devastation wrought by Katrina on the Catholic Church in that area. Every single building owned by the diocese has been damaged to some degree, and some have been wiped clean off

Branding the Man

> In an unusual publishing move, Tom Wolfe's most-recent novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons, will be printed without the title on the cover of its paperback edition - just its author's name in giant letters. . . > "We are using Tom Wolfe's name as

Is the Suffering Over Already?

> Louisiana lawyers are attempting to capitalize on recent events by requesting a patent for alcoholic drinks bearing the Katrina name. Andrew Vicknair and Harold Ehrenberg are the two kooks who applied for the patent September 4 which included a logo with the name Katrina, a satellite image of the

Does George Bush Hate Stilt People?

Galveston Island has many (hundreds?) of "stilt" homes. These are luxurious homes built off the ground. They rest on huge concrete stilts. The elevation allows water to run underneath them. I wonder how they're faring today? I don't think the picture below "does

FOCUS

I had heard of Campus Crusade for Life, a Protestant outreach to colleges and universities, but never of a Catholic equivalent. It turns out there is one: FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students). It's eight years old and is active on 25 secular and Catholic campuses, including the

The Americanization of China Continues?

Making explicit what the commercials imply: > The owner of a BMW in northern China returned to his car to find a note from a woman admirer declaring "I love you because you have a BMW," a news report said Tuesday. Link [http://www.expatica.com/source/site_

Leno on God's Wrath

> As you know Hurricane Rita is headed toward Florida, Texas and Louisiana. Another hurricane! It's like the ninth hurricane this season. Maybe this is not a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Schizophrenic Church?

This is the type of thing that drives me nuts. On the one hand, bishops want to deny them Communion. The softer bishops, just want them to voluntarily abstain from approaching the altar. And then an otherwise-decent Cardinal goes out and honors one of them. My Protestant friends find it

Chinese Jailed

This is good, but did you arrest the Communists in Beijing that set up the policy that resulted in these abuses? > Several Chinese health workers have reportedly been arrested or sacked over claims that they forced people to have abortions or sterilisations. > China's state-owned media said

The Porn Police

The Washington Post is snickering about the FBI's renewed attempt to stomp on obscenity. It's the standard approach: (1) Indicate that porn has become a huge priority for the FBI, (2) contrast it with a more important issue (here, the need to defend the country against

Blog Map

I like maps and I like blogs and I like religion. So I found this humorous: Thanks, Curt Jester [http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/].

Yeah, Right

I've done my share of drinking, including among large circles of male companions. This was never (ever) a risk. If it were, I'd be drier than Carrie Nation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Nation]: > Discussing recent comments by Archbishop Edward O'Brien on

Odd Consumer News

I can dig it: > Slice and eat with the same utensil! This time-saver cuts through pizza crust, forking up bites and delivering them right to your mouth! Great for other pancakes and waffles too. Stainless steel; dishwasher safe. 8 1/2"L x 2"W. $5.99

Odd Consumer News

This story is hard to follow, but this appears to be the gist: Clothing worn by brand name icons has become a rage in Japan. One result: the McHottie. Here's a picture and here's a link to a confusing snippet [http://www.adrants.com/2005/09/

Pederasty Pushers

Don't forget, the sexual frontier was making these types of inroads a few years ago, but the priest scandal seemed to have killed it off: > A new book published by Haworth Press features multiple Ph.D. "experts" claiming that sex with children "can benefit&

This Probably Has Merit, Possibly

Interesting piece at The Chronicle of Higher Education. I distrust any analysis that divides people into two classes, but such an approach is often useful to understand a new way of understanding something. > Clarke divides people into probabilists and possibilists. Much modern scientific and governmental policy about disasters, he

The Jews Are Responsible for Global Warming, Too

I don't often have a chance to link to Alan Dershowitz or the other leftwing fanatics at The Huffington Post (this promising blog that I thought might give a balanced look at things has become relentlessly leftist). But this was a good one: > [An Amnesty International] report

Cat Fight! . . .

. . . and confusing verbiage: > "Hillary Clinton needs to be truthful, and for Bill Clinton to suggest that she not be, when we all know she's running for President, when he knows she's running for President, is less than truthful," Pirro told reporters. > She

The Smartest and Most Violent People?

> A United Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America. > England and Wales recorded the second highest number of violent assaults while Northern Ireland recorded the fewest. > The study, based

Sanctifying the F Word

I have long been interested in off-color language. I have no intellectual problem with the Second Commandment prohibitions. When it comes to mere vulgarity, I find it distasteful and low-class, often substituting for better forms of thought and communication. Yet to deem it sinful or malum in se, I struggle,

JPII's Final Words

> Six hours before his death on April 2, Pope John Paul uttered, in Polish, his final words: “Let me go to the house of the Father.” They were “mumbled . . . in a faint voice” to Sister Tobiana, one of the Polish nuns who ran his household. > A meticulously detailed

Bloggers' Motivation

A recent survey revealed the following about bloggers' motivation: > Nearly 50% of respondents say they write a blog because it serves as a form of self-therapy. > One-third of bloggers write about self-help and self-esteem topics. > Fifty-four percent like to share their thoughts and feelings with others,

"New" Blog Aggregator

> "On September 19, 2005 blogs4God.com [http://www.blogs4god.com/pressrelease/19spe05] will rise from the dead and re-open its doors as the 'Semi-definitive list of Christians who Blogs.' The site will offer a variety of user-friendly features such as daily-aggregations, moderated categories, website reviews and

Havana?

I promised generous excerpts from Dalrymple's new book of essays, Our Culture, What's Left of It [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566636434/thedailyeudem-20]. I haven't delivered the goods, mostly because my typist hasn't gotten around to keying-in the passages (at

"I Go There for the Chicken Wings"

For its male patrons who claim they go there for the food, The Smoking Gun has reproduced the Hooters Employee Handbook. Maybe a few patrons do go there for the quality of the meat, but the franchise's mission concentrates on the salacity. Link [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/

March of the Penguins, Redux

I hadn't visited Andrew Sullivan's blog since late last year, when he soaked my screen with tears following the 2004 anti-gay marriage referendum outcomes. He is a smart guy and good writer, though, even if everything he sees is tainted with his pink-colored glasses. He posted

Another Pro-Condom Teacher

School's back in session, so we should start seeing more of these: > A Hammonton High School physical education/health teacher was arrested last Wednesday evening and charged with official misconduct and sexual crimes involving three male students, Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey S. Blitz said. > Traci J.

Failing?

The NYT ran a piece yesterday about the decline in hunting and a movement to revitalize the sport by encouraging participation by children. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/national/18hunting.html?ex=1284696000&en=7de1def5fb917829&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss] . Excerpt: >

Sterilize the Hair Shirt, Too

> The Catholic Diocese of Austin is investigating after a priest called about 15 children to come forward during evening Mass so he could prick them with an unsterilized pin to demonstrate the pain Jesus suffered during crucifixion. . . > Dr. Ed Sherwood, health authority for the Williamson district, said the

Stressing the Children

> Toddlers starting at nursery after being at home since birth experience high levels of stress in the first weeks after separating from their mothers, and are still showing "chronic mild stress" as long as five months after their first day in the new environment, according to a

50 Bad Ones

VH1 has released its "50 Worst Songs of All Time" list. There are some bad ones, and I was glad to see "We Built This City" by The [Jefferson] Starship at number one. Whatta wretched song. Link [http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/50_most_awesomely_

Dog Shoots Man

As hunting season nears, take note: > The man lost his temper and began beating his Deutsch-Drahthaar hunting dog with a rifle when the animal refused to release a killed bird it had brought back. > But the dog's paw caught the trigger and the hunter was blasted

Odd Consumer News

I like to plug the crafts. I don't do any crafts myself and never have, not even models as a child. I'm not "all thumbs." That'd be an anatomical improvement. I'm more like "all big toes." Anyway, I

Malcolm Blook

I didn't realize that my Malcolm's Messages effort was part of a trend known as "Blooks." I don't know whether to take comfort or feel humiliated. > A blook is a book serialized on a blog site. That means you can subscribe

I Probably Shouldn't Imagine This One

"Hey, baby, let's lose these pocket protectors and lay down some formula by the chalk board." > Albert Einstein was the outstanding genius of the 20th century, but he was also an ordinary man who had many affairs during his two marriages. Link [http://www.cnn.

Fitting, I Guess

> Video makers notorious for filming women flashing their breasts said they will donate revenues from "Girls Gone Wild" episodes tied to Mardi Gras to the Red Cross to help Hurricane Katrina victims. > "Mardi Gras is synonymous with New Orleans and 'Girls Gone Wild'

Trying to Reverse the Sterility

> The government said Friday it would give cash bonuses to Greek mothers who have more than two babies, in an effort to boost the country's birth rate as the population ages. > According to a draft law to be presented later this year, mothers would receive a

Homosexual Homily

Catholic Insight ran a sermon about homosexual marriage. It's for Canada's situation, but it could easily be adapted to the U.S. Link [http://catholicinsight.com/online/features/samehom_doc.shtml]. Excerpt: > Let me review some of the milestones during that period that have set

More Exorcism

> It is a devil of a job but someone has to do it. Applications are invited for exorcism training at the Vatican's Rome university, the Athenaeum Pontificium Regina Apostolorum. The 10-week course includes sessions in exorcism rites, how to talk to the Devil, the tricks he uses

Something for Sunday Morning

> He who weeps and thinks of the horrors that both precede and follow death, before they actually come to pass, cannot help but have patience and humility--the two foundation stones of silence. Gregory of Sinai

DeGeneres Prank

This is the third time I've mentioned Ellen DeGeneres today. That's not good, but I couldn't resist this one: Dateline Hollywood ran a satire in which Pat Robertson says that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans because it's Ellen DeGeneres' home town.

Ice Cream with Salsa?

Heavy metal cellists? I guess they're pretty popular with teenage orchestra members, but I'd never heard of such a thing: Apocalyptica Website [http://www.apocalyptica.com/bio/index.php]

Odd Consumer News

The rugged laptop? For what? Blogging in combat zones? Then again, it makes about as much as sense as driving a Hummer on city streets. Link [http://www.hummerlaptops.com/]. Excerpt: > Just as tough, reliable, and go anywhere as a HUMMER, this laptop is the perfect addition to your

Raising Ellen

Out of curiosity, I clicked on the Ellen DeGeneres Actor Page on Yahoo. These pages provide a snapshot biography of famous actors. Each snapshot presumably presents the most salient information of a person's life, even if much of it is mundane (e.g., where a person was born)

Our Ellen Degenerating Society

> More women – particularly those in their late teens and 20s – are experimenting with bisexuality or at least feel more comfortable reporting same-sex encounters, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050915/ap_on_go_ot/bisexual_

Odd Consumer News

> Oh Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven! Slate [http://www.slate.com/id/2126309/] reports on the 40th birthday of the Slurpee, which has frozen an estimated 6 billion brains and arguably provided the inspiration for Starbucks' Frappuccino, Dunkin' Donuts' Coolatta and Kwik-E-Mart's Squishee. Wikipedia has

King of America's Past Time

> Couch potato, thy name is Suresh. Suresh Joachim broke the Guinness world record for the longest time spent watching TV. He finished Friday with 69 hours and 48 minutes. > After passing the previous record of 50 hours and 7 minutes Thursday, Joachim continued until shortly after 7 a.

Chilling Blog

What happens when a man with a blog dies, making a post and then less than a day later dying in a car accident? The juxtaposition, from a lively blog to remembrances in the Comments section, chills. At least it did me. Sobering Link [http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?

The Weekend Eudemon

I have only a few words for this Weekend Eudemon. I have a new writing project that needs my attention, and I have to drive Football Jack (9) to a game about an hour away this morning. The game will take about two hours, and we must be there an

Emily Rose and Exorcism Today

I didn't know it, but exorcism is making a (needed) comeback: > At the end of his weekly general audience on Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI greeted Italian exorcists who, he disclosed, are currently holding their national convention. . . > The Roman Catholic Church has shown growing interest in exorcism

The Sacrament Can't Get No Respect

> A groom spent his wedding night in jail with his father, his brother his father-in-law and seven other members of his wedding party after the group allegedly brawled with another bridal party and police, according to a published report. > Police arrested the groom, Joseph Fortunato Jr., 29, and

The Caveman Loseth (Weight)

> If you want to lose weight but hate eating healthy low-fat food, there is good news and bad news. > The good news is you can eat three square meals, including plenty of burgers, sausages and ice cream. > The bad news is you have to eat all three

Another Step Toward Canada?

> With all eyes on John Roberts' Senate confirmation hearings, the House of Representatives passed a “hate crimes” measure Wednesday that would grant the victims of crimes allegedly motivated by bias ”“ including bias based on “sexual orientation” ”“ greater protection than other victims of violence. The measure passed by a

Brews You Can Use IV

One Louisiana brewer has devised a fitting means of helping to rebuild New Orleans. Whatta great way for all of us to donate $24.00 to the cause. > Abita has brewed special "Fleur-de-lis" Restoration Ale, with one dollar from the sale every six-pack going directly to the

Sexism and Violence

This story was entitled, "Sexism May Shorten Men's Lives: Study." On first glance, the headline is a gross distortion of the article's content. But on second thought, maybe it's not. If sexism consists of physical violence, most of the alleged sexism in

Brews You Can Use III

Oktoberfest starts this weekend. Real Beer has a page dedicated to the celebration. Link [http://www.realbeer.com/edu/oktoberfest.php]. Excerpt: > By the numbers The official festival area covers 104 acres and has seating for 94,000 in the festival halls. > The festival grounds has about 1,

NBC Done Ridiculing Xians?

After spending the last couple of seasons making fun of Christians and Red-Staters, and seeing plummeting to last place among the networks, NBC is now appealing to the Fly-Over Lands. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/16/business/media/16nbc.html?ei=5065&en=1907ccc5f68aaf99&ex=1127448000&

Brews You Can Use II

I'm not finding good beer stories, but I did find this colorful picture for my Atlantic Coast beer readers, so I thought I'd post it.

Brews You Can Use

It's apparently available only in the U.K., but if it catches on over here, I'll put up one of those electronic tip jars in hopes of blogging for free drinks. > Finally, a cool way to send someone a beer. Through buymeabeer.com, you can

What Would Kinsey Say?

Hey, midgets have their voyeuristic needs, too! > A Wisconsin woman visiting Chicago this summer said she was using the bathroom at a downtown Ghirardelli Chocolate Company store when she noticed the lid of the trash can moving slightly. > Then she said she saw a man peeking through that

Et Tu, Girl Scouts?

I've heard complaints that the Girl Scouts were hijacked by feminist-like forces, but I don't know what to make of the rumors. I'll throw this item out for consideration because I'm tired of feminists and others of their ilk infiltrating organizations and

I Was Close

In this post [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2245/], I joked that some NASCAR-types might think the whole Katrina thing is a government conspiracy. My joke wasn't too far off the mark; I just pointed at the wrong demographic. > Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is telling his followers

Porn U

Crux Magazine has an interesting piece this week about pornography on campus. Not in the frat houses, mind you, but in the curriculum. A few samples: > Controversy over porn in the classroom erupted last month at Arizona State University. "Sexuality in the Media," a class taught by

Odd Consumer News

Five?! Pretty soon, I won't be able to lift the dang thing: > Gillette Co. Wednesday unveiled its newest shaving system, a five-bladed razor called Fusion with a trimmer on the back of the cartridge aimed at the 50 percent of men who have mustaches and beards. Link

Target Ads

I'm not a big fan of its politics, but The New Yorker has some of the best writing in America right now. It would appear at least one large retailer also thinks highly of the publication: > It seems the American Society of Magazine Editors . . . didn't

Spooky Stuff Around Set of Emilie Rose

> On the set, there were scares that weren't found in any script. "On three different nights in my hotel room, my TV came on by itself," [actress Laura] Linney says with a shiver. "Jennifer [Carpenter's] stereo did the same thing. Call it

They Must Exchange Editorial Columns, Too

> Welcome to life under the Washington Post-New York Times swap. As part of a secret arrangement formed more than 10 years ago, the Post and Times send each other copies of their next day's front pages every night. The formal sharing began as a courtesy between Post

Feinstein Reads Books?

> Catholic League president William Donohue has asked Senator Dianne Feinstein to apologize to Catholics for a remark she made today at the hearings of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. > "In a prepared statement today at the hearings for John Roberts, Senator Dianne Feinstein said she was going

Fewer Dead and Now Less Time to Return

I'm not going to say that the initial predictions about Katrina were blown out of proportion, but it would seem they were exaggerated. A disaster occurred, yes, but on a scale of one to ten, we were repeatedly told it was a ten. It would appear that simply

Odd Consumer News

Perfect for the man with . . . a lot of time on his hands: Link [http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_detail.html?s=ZO20971]. Just $35.

Maybe There's Hope . . .

. . . for American pop culture, after all: > Four out of five Americans say they think too many reality shows are on the air, according to an AP-TV Guide poll. Only 4 percent of respondents said there were not enough. Link [http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/tv/article.adp?id=20050912152109990038]

Conan on China's Disney World

> Disney has opened up its first theme park in China. 10,000 children showed up on opening day ”“ and that was just to make the t-shirts.

Treadmill While You Eat Big Macs

> McDonald's Corp. says it is sponsoring a physical education program that will appear in one-third of U.S. public elementary schools, the chain's latest move to combat critics who blame its burgers and fries for expanding kids' waistlines. Link [http://money.cnn.com/2005/

What Kind of Terrorism . . .

. . . will those eccentric old women with hundreds of cats fund? > A German inventor says he's found a way to make cheap diesel fuel out of dead cats. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1534821.html?menu=news.quirkies].

Where's the Fury?

> The death toll in Louisiana climbed to 423. Link [http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/13/D8CJKTN80.html]. Is no one going to hold the Mayor's feet to the fire about his 10,000-dead estimate?

Pro-Choice Roberts

> The judge said he recognized that the abortion ruling was "settled as a precedent of the court, entitled to respect under principles of stare decisis," the Latin term describing the concept that extra weight should be given to established rulings of the court. I'm not

"Five Stars" for Mickey

> Against the fairytale backdrop of Sleeping Beauty's Castle, the Communist Party official and guest of honor stood Monday alongside Disney executives Michael Eisner and Bob Iger to cut the red ribbon officially opening the $3 billion theme park. > Also present at the ribbon-cutting was Hong Kong

Uncorking a Fierce Nerd Battle

Was the esteemed William a Papist? A new book says he was. Link [http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article312358.ece]. Excerpt: > Clare Asquith - or Viscountess Asquith, to give her the proper title - has done something that has dropped an almighty stone into the tranquil waters

Blogging from the East Shore of the Roman Sea

Long-time readers of this blog (say, for the past four months) may remember that The Jerusalem Post is the publication that refers to "the homo-lesbian community," much to my amusement. Link. [https://thedailyeudemon.com/721/] Well, I just found out that TJP is heavy into blogging. Link [http:

Battling Away for the Low Ground

> Penthouse Media Group Inc., publisher of the men's magazine, raised $48 million in part to fund an adult entertainment broadcast network that would compete with Playboy Enterprises Inc.'s Spice and New Frontier Media Inc.'s Erotic. > Penthouse raised $15 million in preferred stock

Emphasize Fun . . .

. . . or RAMMIN' THE BLEEPIN' BALL (PUCK, SHUTTLECOCK, FRISBEE) DOWN THE OTHER TEAMS' THROAT? > Twenty million kids register each year for youth hockey, football, baseball, soccer, and other competitive sports. The National Alliance for Sports reports that 70 percent of these kids quit playing these league sports

The Urinator

I've written previously [https://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=91#comments] about the virtues of outdoor urination, but I've never condoned it in urban areas, and I wouldn't be as dense as this fellow: > Police say they found Spencer Michael Killette, 21, of 132 S.

Uh oh?

> A bicyclist was charged with manslaughter after he ran through a stop sign and struck and killed a 71-year-old woman, police said Monday. > Jean Calder died at Good Samaritan Hospital after she was struck Friday night as she crossed a street at an unmarked crosswalk, Corvallis police Capt.

Letterman on Girl Names

> Hurricane Ophelia and the one in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. Maybe if we didn't name these things with cute girl names people would take them more seriously.

I Just Don't Get It

I don't object to the nudity. I object to the absolute stupidity and vacuity of it all: > Almost 1,500 men and women stripped naked in the name of art in the French city of Lyon. > They gathered before dawn to join the latest nude photo

March of the Penguins

March of the Penguins has appealed to conservatives, according to the New York Times this morning. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/science/13peng.html?pagewanted=1&8hpib]. Excerpt: > [C]onservative groups have turned its stirring depiction of the mating ordeals of emperor penguins into an

Debit Cards

I've heard the stories of people using Red Cross debit cards to shop at luxury stores like Neiman Marcus. Now, WSJ's James Tarano has re-produced an interview with one of the recipients. I love the man's reference to deserving a debit card. That statement

Sixties to Superdome

John McWhorter at Times Online [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-524-1774271-524,00.html] draws connections from the 1960s to the Superdome Scandal. > In 1966, however, a group of white academics in New York developed a plan to bring as many people onto the welfare rolls as possible.

Go Get Yourself . . .

. . . some cheap sunglasses. Historical miniature on the origin of tough guys with dark glasses: > This association is of relatively recent origin. Once worn only by the blind, dark glasses first appeared in the context of dangerous sports such as auto racing and mountaineering around 1930. A generalized connection with

A More Fitting Tribute

Thomas DiLorenzo at the Lew Rockwell blog has provided a pretty good tribute to Mencken: a gaggle of great quotes. Sample: > Politicians "are seldom if ever moved by anything rationally describable as public spirit; there is actually no more public spirit among them than among so many burglars

I'm Feeling a Bit Nauseous

> Brokeback Mountain stars Jake Gyllenhaal and an amazing Heath Ledger as cowboys who discover they are gay while falling in love during a summer of shepherding and spend the next 20 years wishing they could be together instead of in loveless marriages. Link [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/

Happy Birthday, Mencken

Today is the great writer's birthday. I found the tribute at Lew Rockwell [http://www.lewrockwell.com/taylor/taylor111.html] disappointing, but I've excerpted the one decent passage in appreciation for bringing this important day to my attention: > I read that Mencken [http://www.mencken.

Placating the Implacable

> Advisors appointed by Tony Blair after the London bombings are proposing to scrap the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day because it is regarded as offensive to Muslims. > They want to replace it with a Genocide Day that would recognise the mass murder of Muslims in Palestine, Chechnya and Bosnia

Don't Laugh . . .

. . . we used to scoff at the idea that gay marriage could ever get serious consideration. I'm still surprised that urinals haven't been banned on grounds that they're demeaning to women (there was such a movement afoot a few years ago, for those who missed

Tough Choice . . .

. . . once you put yourself in the position of playing God: > Doctors working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leaving them to die in agony as they evacuated hospitals, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. > With gangs of rapists and looters rampaging through wards in

Le Rochefoucauld

A few months ago, I ordered a used copy of Le Rochefoucauld's [http://charon.sfsu.edu/maximfolder/RochefoucauldBio.html]Maxims. Only $6.00. Unfortunately, the book dealer didn't mention that it was in French. Besides obscene hand gestures, I doesn't know any French, so

Who's Shocked?

FYI: Common-law wife = Multi-year concubine. That makes the possibility of such a story clearer: > The arrest of a Winnipeg daycare operator's common-law spouse for possessing child pornography has horrified some parents. . . . > "You can't trust anybody now," parent Selena Fritsch told CKY News.

Digital Essay: Too Much Indirect Money

> For the bargain price of $4.95 a month, you too can have your very own MLB blog. What's different about this blog than, say, a blogspot blog? Um ”¦ it has MLB.com in the title. Link [http://deadspin.com/sports/mlbcom-blogs/today-in-mlb-blogs-108770.php]. I don'

1958-2003

This site (link) [http://www.basichip.com/vertigo/main.htm] offers a variety of "then and now" pictures from San Fransisco. The "then" pictures are from Alfred Hitchcocks' Vertigo. The "now" pictures are the same locations, in 2003. I've never been

Perplexed?

Around age 19, I caught a reading bug and started reading everything that could possibly help settle dozens (millions?) of both precise and vague questions that bothered me. A constant but undisciplined reading frenzy continued for about three years, then I ran across James Schall's Another Sort of

Family Dinners

This WaPo article [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/29/AR2005082901798.html] talks about the important of the family dinner. I tend to agree with all of it, but I'm one of the biggest offenders against the venerable tradition. How does a person arrange a

Mormons and New Orleans

Kind of interesting: The Mormons opened their priesthood to blacks back in 1978 (at least according to their resources). But it takes a long time for realities and perceptions to change. > Asked whether he would relocate permanently to Utah after being brought here as a refugee from Hurricane Katrina,

Something for Sunday Morning

> The more recollected a man is, and the more simple of heart he becomes, the easier he understands sublime things, for he receives the light of knowledge from above. The pure, simple, and steadfast spirit is not distracted by many labors, for he does them all for the honor

Odd Consumer News

Well, it's not really odd consumer news, but it's a nostalgiac trip. A page dedicated to toy toasters. I didn't have any sisters, but I remember the neighbor girls with these in their rooms. Link [http://www.toaster.org/toys.html].

No Comment Needed

It's Saturday evening and the wine is flowing, so I'm posting this pointless little story: > A man attempting to walk the length of Britain in the nude was jailed overnight for two weeks for his antics by an Edinburgh court. > So-called "naked rambler&

Texas at OSU

Four tickets on the 40-yard-line? $4,400, if this eBay-er gets his opening bid. Link [http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Ohio-State-Texas-Football-Row-11-40-Yard-tickets_W0QQitemZ6559429941QQcategoryZ16122QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem] . I'm glad I didn't spend that kind of cabbage on the UM/ND tickets. I'd probably have a self-inflicted Samurai sword wound to

My Kind of Town

I live two hours from Chicago (it take me 2 hours and 15 minutes to go from my driveway to the parking plaza at The Water Tower). I really like the town and have even ventured there a few times with all children in tow (crouching down and yelling at

Sounds Great

A new movie, The Exorcism of Emily Rose [http://www.theexorcismofemilyrose.com/movies/theexorcismofemilyrose/], is intended to make people think hard about demonic possession. Link [http://www.bdtonline.com/articles/2005/09/09/lifestyles/01rose.txt]. Excerpt: > The movie was inspired by the story of Anneliese Michel, a German

A Few More Stories Like This . . .

. . . and taxi companies will be required to provide a sighted navigator as a "reasonable accommodation" under the Americans with Disabilities Act: > A South African became the world's fastest blind driver Thursday after driving across a remote airstrip at 269 kph (167 mph). > Blind since

If It Feels Good, Do It . . .

. . . And if you can do it, it must be good. Those are today's cultural mantras: > British scientists have been given permission to create human embryos that will have three genetic parents. Link [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1772135,00.html].

Conrad at NYT

An article about Joseph Conrad in the New York Times. That's good to see, even if the reasons aren't: > The Secret Agent,Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel about an anarchist plot to blow up the Royal Observatory at Greenwich -- in fact, a scheme

Hey, It's Nawlins. What Do You Expect?

> A group of female hurricane survivors were told to show their breasts if they wanted to be rescued, a British holidaymaker has revealed.Ged Scott watched as American rescuers turned their boat around and sped off when the the women refused. Link [http://uk.news.yahoo.com/06092005/140/

Overview

If you, like me, skipped the telethon last night for other things (like sleep), the Washington Post has run an overview of last night's fundraiser. Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/10/AR2005091000080.html?nav=rss_nation/special] . Excerpts: > "George Bush hates

The Weekend Eudemon

Big weekend for big men. NFL's opening season and Notre Dame v. Michigan. I graduated from both schools and I'm Catholic, but I root for Michigan. It's not uncommon. I was a Michigan fan while growing up, and I obtained my bachelor's

Rock-n-Roll and Reality TV . . .

. . . They're probably not a good combination: > J.D., on CBS' Rockstar INXS wore a shirt that, when viewed normally, appeared to say something in an Asian language but, when viewed sideways, clearly reads "[Anatomically Impossible Act]" Censors did not catch the trick and images

Meet Me Behind the Copier

Ah, the real reason behind the women-to-work movement! > Research reveals about 70 per cent of workers have had an office romance. > A third of these were involved with a colleague who is married or in a long-term relationship. > And the losers of such love matches are nearly

Brews You Can Use VII

Move over malt liquor: > A German brewer has concocted what he says is the world's strongest beer, a potent drink with an alcohol content of 25.4 percent that is served in a shot glass. > "Everyone who has tried it is enthusiastic. It tastes like

Brews You Can Use VI

Sounds like a neat book. It just came out about two months ago: Link [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1852492139/thedailyeudem-20]. Excerpt from review: > British beer writer veteran Roger Protz has a new book out, published through CAMRA called 300 beers to try before you die! It

Brews You Can Use V

Actually, this is Brews You Can Use, if you're trolling for drunken homosexual soul mates and want it sanctioned by the state. Drinking habits in Canada: > Beer remains king with 50.7 per cent of the total alcohol trade by price. The report says that Canadians bought

Q News

The "queer Dan Rather"? Yikes, that's like wanting to be the tuberculous Stalin. > Back when he was a field reporter at Orlando's Fox affiliate, Josh Fountain says he mostly stayed in the closet when it came to his sexuality. > As of this

Why?

Regular readers of this blog should have discerned by now that I'm not a First Amendment absolutist. I revere free speech, religion, and press, but I deplore extreme versions of these rights. I also don't support freedom of the press when it might interfere with national

Brews You Can Use IV

Are these the perfect complement to eyebrow piercings and funky hair? Or something for gay truckers? Bottlecap earrings [http://www.livejournal.com/community/bargainlover/1108007.html]. By the way, a hearty thanks to Hail the Ale [http://www.hailtheale.com/blog]. They provided all four BYU this morning. When you&

Brews You Can Use III

If you're really bored or drunk, try this game: shooting beer into the mouths of Oktoberbest drinkers. Link [http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=12607].

Brews You Can Use II

> Anheuser-Busch plans to test market a new caffeinated version of Natural Light beer, called Natty Up, Advertising Age reported in its Aug. 29 issue. > Referring to an Anheuser-Busch company memo, the trade magazine reported that the drink will be test marketed in Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Missouri.

Brews You Can Use

> German designers want male drinkers at Oktoberfest in Munich to wear skirts this year. They claim their Oktoberfest Frock is more comfortable than traditional lederhosen. Link [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002683.php?rdf].

Roman Numerals

One nice thing about the NFL season starting this week: Americans will learn a fourth Roman numeral sign: L As in, XL. Superbowl 40. Related: I turned on ABC at 8:10 to see what was happening. There was some rap/pop duet on stage. Nothing offensive, unless utter stupidity

With a Side of House Cat

> A restaurant in northeastern China that advertised illegal tiger meat dishes was found instead to be selling donkey flesh - marinated in tiger urine, a newspaper reported Thursday. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHINA_PHONY_TIGER?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=STRANGE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=

Blessed Are the Chinese Poor

> Local authorities yesterday seized a rural activist who has been leading a high-profile legal campaign against the use of forced sterilization and abortion in China, in an apparent effort to block him from meeting with senior government officials who had expressed support for his cause. > The detention of

Priorities in Order

CNN this afternoon ran a story about a bar in the French Quarter that is open for business, even though they have no power. In fact, the owner claims they never closed. It's hard to believe, but this story from last Sunday lends credence. Link [http://edition.cnn.

Escaping Frodo's Oppression

I can't blame the guy: > Can you picture gentle Frodo as a violent soccer hooligan? Is it possible to envision a timid soul like Baggins as the grandson of a Ukrainian Jew, exploring his relative's survival of the Holocaust? No, these aren't alternative-universe

New Orleans and Subsidiarity

Catholic Exchange has run a piece today by Bishop Rene Henry Gracida about local responsibility for what happened in Nawlins. Link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=29978]. Excerpts: > It was the responsibility of the City of New Orleans government to provide

Hillbilly Thomist

I used to subscribe to Mars Hill Audio magazine. I always enjoyed it, but let my subscription lapse when my commute shrunk to four minutes (15 minutes by foot). I might have to order this, though: > In this MARS HILL AUDIO Conversation, Ken Myers talks with Susan Srigley about

Growing Up Quickly, the Wrong Way

> According to [a] criminal complaint filed in the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court, Craig Everett and Malik Wakji, both 18, were hanging out in Fantasy World's VIP room with [strippers] Orchid and Carmela when the music stopped and their bill came due. And their damage for sitting through

Outsourcing

Stephen Bainbridge talks about outsourcing disaster relief. His arguments are nothing new, but they are accurate. Link [http://www.techcentralstation.com/090805C.html]. Excerpt: > In the public sector, employee objectives tend to be defined around vague concepts of social welfare maximization that lack determinate metrics. In addition, because government

A Needed Corrective

I earlier wrote a post, asking "What the heck is going on?" in New Orleans. Everyone in the press pointed fingers at FEMA. Now, it appears the real story is coming out: it was a local failure, at least in large part. WSJ Link [http://www.opinionjournal.com/

What Philosophy? "Ginger or Mary Ann?"

> I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications. Sherwood Schwartz, writer-creator of Gilligan's Island. I watched more Gilligan's Island than I can admit in polite company. I don't recall much

More Title Issues

National Catholic Reporter has run a piece [http://www.ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2005c/090905/090905a.php] on the Church ownership issue: Who owns the real estate? It's a real legal mess, but my earlier observations (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2168/]) appear to be borne out: The

Don't Dis' the Dead

> An inebriated Belgian woman died in a freak accident when she ended up beneath a heavy grave stone at a cemetery, local news agency Belga said on Wednesday. > The 33-year-old was on her way home from a bar in the Belgian town of Pulle in the early hours

Respecting B16?

Good for Bavaria: Solid beer drinking, without the debauchery: > The Munich Beer Festival has banned alcopops and pop music to stop the event turning into a 'drunken orgy'. > Scenes of drunken girls dancing semi naked on the backs of male party goers or on tables were

The Bizarro Hagiographer

Books & Culture reviews James J. O'Donnell's new book, Augustine: A New Biography, and finds it wanting, to say the least. Link [http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/005/6.14.html]. Excerpts: > A reader of this book will be left wondering how Augustine could

Historical Miniature

The Bishop and the Politico, 1960s-style: > “Do you know what the Negro is?” Leander H. Perez once asked in 1965. “Animals right out [of] the jungle. Passion. Welfare. Easy life. That's the Negro.” As a state judge and political boss of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana, Perez was

The Flannery O'Connor Dormitory?

> After more than five years of dreaming, planning, recruiting administrators and students, and changing locations, Southern Catholic College is ready to start classes on Thursday. > "We are very excited to welcome our first class," said Jeremiah Ashcroft, president of Southern Catholic. "We also are very

Nine-Eleven Days

I decided to make as many enemies as possible, so this week's column at Catholic Exchange criticizes forced community emotionalism. Link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=29945]. Opening paragraph: > Well, it's that time of year again. Nine-Eleven

In Belgium?

We appreciate the effort, but isn't this kind of like the Nazis marching in Skokie, in reverse? > A pro-family group has organized a march to protest a Belgian Parliament draft proposal to legalize homosexual adoption. Although Belgium has had legal same-sex “marriage” since 2003, the law currently

Shutting Down the Midnight Fast Food Drive-Thrus

> A natural constituent of cannabis can suppress the appetite and may open the door to a new class of drugs for treating obesity, a scientist has said. > Professor Roger Pertwee, a neuropharmacologist at Aberdeen University, said it was well known that cannabis stimulated the appetite, but not widely

"L" is for . . .

Love, lesbian, lawyer: > Two women who once planned to raise a family and spend the rest of their lives together will instead be represented this week by dueling attorneys as their bitter child custody battle plays out before the Vermont Supreme Court. > For Lisa and Janet Miller-Jenkins, the

"I Don't Hate Them Wicked Papists Any More, Either"

> Blonde bombshell Jessica Simpson has abandoned her strict Christian upbringing, admitting she rarely goes to church or reads the bible anymore. The Dukes Of Hazzard star launched her career on the Christian music circuit - backed by her Baptist minister father Joe - and famously refused to have sex

Ham Radio in Vogue

> In an age of high-tech, real-time gadgetry, it's the decidedly unsexy ham radio -- whose technology has changed little since World War II -- that is in high demand in ravaged New Orleans and environs. The Red Cross issued a request for about 500 amateur radio operators

Important Symbolism

> Pope Benedict XVI is sending a personal donation to relief efforts for the victims of hurricane Katrina. > The Holy Father has dispatched Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, the head of the pontifical charity Cor Unum, to deliver the aid and to express the Pope's sympathy to the

More Corroboration

My earlier post (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2277/]) about the strain imposed by absorbing 200,000 welfare recipients is already coming true. I'm not particularly proud about the observation, since I think everyone was thinking the same thing, but it's good to be partially justified in

Growing Up Mafia

My effort to break up all the New Orleans coverage. I find this type of stuff fascinating: > When still a schoolboy the American gangster Charles (“Lucky”) Luciano noticed that some of the older Irish and Italian kids were waylaying the younger and smaller Jewish kids on their way home

Charming II

What were the cliche-ists saying last week? Disaster brings out the best and worst in people? > You know a city has legs when three or four dozen of them are parading down Bourbon Street – some clad in tutus and grass skirts – six days after the most damaging hurricane in

Charming

In the tradition of Madalyn Murray O'Hair [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1399/]: > The American Atheists organization says President Bush should stop urging prayer for Hurricane Katrina victims because it violates the Constitution. > Ellen Johnson, president of the group said Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Bush "should

The N.O. RCC

> No religious institution faced as daunting a challenge as the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Most of its parishioners have scattered, and half of its 300 priests are unaccounted for. But Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans, the spiritual leader of 500,000 people in one of the most

Corroborating My Previous Post

Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine approaches the problem I mention in my last post, but he's trying to come up with a partial answer. I think his proposal is quixotic and I'm guessing he doesn't want to say what I said in my last post,

I Can't Blame Him

The Texas governor has said that the state will stop taking refugees. He wants the rest of the states to pitch in. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050905/ap_on_re_us/katrina_texas_airlift]. Excerpt: > Texas has been taking in refugees since Wednesday. By Saturday, Perry

I Hope This Was Taken Out of Context

Barbara Bush, interviewed while touring Houston: > In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost everyone I've talked to says we're going to move to Houston." > Then she added:

1906 Announcement

Pretty neat sign from San Fran earthquake. I'm not sure it's real, but appears to be: Link [http://tonova.typepad.com/thesuddencurve/2005/09/how_american_ma.html].

Foolish Me . . .

. . . I thought this might be a slow newsday: This Week: The King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament. September 5 - 11, 2005 Hua Hin, Thailand. Link [http://www.thaielepolo.com/].

Yikes

For an extra $10, you can be somebody's boy. Twenty dollars will get you an S&M prison guard beating: > A Malaysian prison is offering adventurous travellers the chance to experience the joys of prison life - right down to the food and lack of toilets.

Digital Essay: Fantasy Fretting

Well, it's early September and that means one thing: Football purists complaining about Fantasy Football [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_football_%28American%29]. Dave Kindred at The Sporting News came out early with a column on August 1st [http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=11427]

FEMA's Origins

A bi-partisan monster? We're anxious to know what happened in N.O. > President Carter's 1979 executive order merged many of the separate disaster-related responsibilities into a new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Among other agencies, FEMA absorbed: the Federal Insurance Administration, the National Fire Prevention

Orleans History

Tech Central Station has run a brief history of New Orleans' origins. Kinda neat. Link [http://www.techcentralstation.com/090305A.html]. Excerpt: > The [French bank] charter also granted [John Law's] company control of Louisiana. Law reappointed Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville, to a second term

A Shocker

And people complained about the Latin Mass: > Pop star Britney Spears has confessed that she cannot understand her Kabbalah books, the holy texts on the mystical Jewish faith. > Though the pregnant singer, who was introduced to the Kabbalah religion by her friend Madonna, says she is not able

Spiritualist and Occult Exhibit

New York's Met has a freaky exhibition coming up: The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult. It'll run from September 27, 2005”“December 31, 2005. Link [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={B927CD20-71AD-4986-B346-66AE99B96BA4}] . The New York Times reported on it. Link [http://www.

Probably Futile . . .

. . . but it's good to see more and more Catholic clergy showing some backbone: > Scotland's most senior Catholic has come under fire for claiming that plans to allow gay couples to adopt were "gravely immoral". > Writing in a national newspaper, Cardinal Keith O&

Rebuilding N.O.

Michael Barone's thoughts on the future rebuilding effort. Link [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/mb20050905.shtml]. Excerpt: > [S]ome parts of that fabric are not worth restoring. The city of New Orleans has had a horrifyingly high crime rate in recent years, and after disaster hit,

But It's at Least Grounds for Homicide, Right?

> Shelley Pickering, 44, was married nearly 17 years when she found last year her husband was having an affair with a younger man, which he admitted. > A provincial judge refused to grant them an immediate divorce in February because Canada's common law definition of adultery -

Drug Nazis Strike Again

Sounds like I've been partially violating the law (attempted violation?) since the doctor spanked me and made me cry: > [T]he owner of an oxygen bar at the Nebraska State Fair may be violating federal and state laws. > The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates

What the Heck is Going On?

I don't want to jump on the Castrate FEMA Bandwagon (yet), but the stuff I'm hearing? Yikes. This is an excerpt from an interview with Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish on Meet the Press about FEMA's efforts to block relief: > Three quick

Taking Care of His Own. Bless Him.

> Bestselling author John Grisham and his wife are contributing $5 million to help Mississippians rebuild after Hurricane Katrina – more than the donations of the NBA, Major League Baseball and Wal-Mart combined. Link [http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050904/NEWS0110/509040381/1260] . Aside: I heard on

Digital Essay: Katrina Brings Cash

A lot of good little things could come out of Hurricane Katrina. For me, it got me listening to a little more Johnny Cash. It was that Red Cross commercial where some old guy sings “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” My first thought was, “What the . . . ?” This is horrible. But then

Waugh Me

The American Conservative's forthcoming issue has an excellent piece about Evelyn Waugh (no link available). Written by R.J. Stove, the article is filled with samples of Waugh's ridiculously clever (albeit borderline cruel) literary criticism. It's also filled with great passages from Waugh'

New Orleans' Hard Truths

George Neumayr at The American Spectator makes some interesting observations about New Orleans. They're good points, but I wonder how much of this could be said about every major U.S. city? Link [http://www.americanprowler.com/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8684]. Excerpts: > New Orleans has

I Am Genuinely Puzzled

Did the poor refuse to leave New Orleans or did they lack the means? I honestly don't know the answer, but earlier in the week, the consensus seemed to be that they stayed on purpose (see, for example, this post [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2239/]). But now, more and

Just What They Need to Hear in New Orleans

Great time to let this leak out: > New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson is leaning strongly toward moving the Saints permanently to San Antonio following the devastation to the city and the Superdome by Hurricane Katrina, a state senator who has spoken with a top team official said Saturday.

The Sacrilegious Know No Sacrilege

> An Australian artist's work that shows a Star Wars robot hanging from a cross has outraged some churches. > The Melbourne Herald Sun reports that Crusci-fiction is part of an exhibit called False Idols by artist Jud Wimhurst which opens this month at a Melbourne gallery. Crusci-fiction

Something for Sunday Morning

Thoughts of St. John Vianney: > We may well be astonished that God was obliged to make a commandment to forbid us to take his Name in vain. > A humble person, if his opinion is asked, gives it in all simplicity and then leaves others to give theirs. Whether

Brews the Amish Can Use

> Enjoying a cold beer is getting a little easier in Pennsylvania this holiday weekend, but only a little. Under new state laws in effect this weekend, Jim Yaple, president of Westy Beer Distributor, is among 800 distributors now allowed for the first time to sell beer by the case

Gotta Love It

This is like the war between Iran and Iraq. Yeah, it was terrible, but you couldn't help but enjoy seeing the two tear after one another. > Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to "kill" Internet search leader Google Inc. in an obscenity-laced tirade, and Google

The Digital Essay

In my announcement yesterday that I would no longer write in the third person, I mentioned that I wanted to start a new feature that would work much better with first person narrative. The feature: The under 500-word essay. I hope to write a lot of them and to develop

Libertarian on N.O.

I'm not sure I agree with everything he says. To be honest, my mind is spinning from this whole Katrina fall-out. It'll probably provide fodder for rumination for many years. Rockwell appears to make some good points, though, and he provides some solid facts: > The

Stepping Up the Rhetoric

I heard the "racism" allegations. Now, certain quarters are referring to the poor response time as genocide. Link [http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=540b370519e0aeb3d1558b121761454e] . Excerpt: > The Republicans and Democrats didn't do anything to prevent this or plan for it and

Nuanced Looting Redux

I've been amused by the allegations that the press says black people "loot" and white people "find." As far as I can tell, it's almost entirely based on two photos and their captions. Snopes has a pretty good analysis of those two

Gonna Get Tabaccy Juice in Your Face

Don't mess with the sport of turning left: > The good news for NASCAR Nextel Cup teams when they line up for gas at the track is they don't need a second mortgage to pay the bill. > It's free. Sunoco provides the fuel

Bringing Tears to My Eyes

Is there any way to equip it with a miniature guillotine? > A South African inventor has unveiled a new anti-rape female condom that hooks onto an attacker's penis and aims to cut one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world. . . . > Ehlers said the

Buffet the Storm

Though his fans tend to be obnoxiously fanatical and he has fallen into the self-righteous political posturing common to his profession, this concert sounds great. Buffet plays good music, there are few venues more charming than Wrigley, and the weather is promising. > Whatever the reason, some 78,000 Buffett

The Weekend Eudemon

This is one of those weekends when I thank the heavens I'm alive. I'm not in New Orleans. I have three days off work. Both of my alma maters, University of Michigan and Notre Dame, start their seasons today. Temperatures are in the seventies. And, oh

Get Ready for the Race Card

We're guessing the guests at the Hyatt were white. The guests at the Superdome were predominately black. > At one point Friday, the evacuation [from the Superdome] was interrupted briefly when school buses rolled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to

It's Always Been That Way?

> Frances Elliot, who traveled to Sicily in 1880-81, attended a party given to the city elite by Palermo's leading industrialist, Count Ignazio Florio. She observed: “What struck me most was the sight in the lobby of a table literally covered with all sorts of weapons, handguns, revolvers,

Press Conference: TDE To Change Style!

Some found it annoying, some found it amusing, most couldn't care less. We've pondered the issue many times since starting this daily blog six months ago, and we've finally decided: We're going to ditch the third person narrative. Starting this weekend, Eric

One Upside of Homosexuality's Advances

> [S]traight men humorously acting out their subliminal fear of homosexuality. Those kinds of jokes are rampant elsewhere: whether it's a "Saturday Night Live" skit, the guys needling each other on "Entourage" or a sendup of homophobic hysteria on "It's

Tide Has Turned in N.O.

FYI: While watching Fox News, we just heard the first positive accounts out of New Orleans this week. The armed thugs have largely disappeared as National Guard troops roam the area. Supplies are arriving. The Fox News commentator: "The light is coming back on in New Orleans."

Sad Obstinance? Or Otherwise Understandable Skepticism?

From a CNN story last Monday (12:10 a.m.): > Jesse St. Amant, the emergency management chief for Louisiana's southernmost Plaquemines Parish, said nearly 95 percent of the parish's 27,000-plus residents had fled by Sunday afternoon. Those who remained were being told that they

Very Surprising

We thought this was a near no-brainer. Maybe it's not: > As the Vatican prepares to visit U.S. seminaries in September in response to the sex abuse scandal, the fate of a long-awaited Vatican document on whether homosexuals should be barred from the priesthood appears uncertain. >

Brews You Can Use IV

> The [beer] industry today includes more than 2,400 brewers and beer importers, 1,908 beer wholesalers, and 551,000 retail establishments. The industry's economic ripple effect benefits packaging manufacturers, shipping companies, agriculture, and other businesses whose livelihood depends on the beer industry. Directly and indirectly, the

Brews You Can Use III

Don't swallow trash, even if you think it's beer: > A South Kingstown man who became ill after he drank from a beer bottle ingested a caustic liquid. > Police say the liquid that sent Michael Darigan to the hospital last Sunday resembles lye. > Lye

Hurricane Exploitation Quotes

Chrenkoff has a great collection. Link [http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2005/09/hurricane-exploitation-quotes.html]. Sample: > As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi's Gulf Coast, it's worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush's

Brews You Can Use II

Just don't drive up the shelf cost: > Now environmental regulators say the same process that gives the [San Joaquin Valley, California] region's affordable reds, whites and blushes their pleasant punch is also producing a share of the smog that makes the valley one of the

Brews You Can Use

Was he rescued or caught? > A sailor has been rescued after drifting around the English Channel for two days in his half-built boat with only beer to drink. > The 52-year-old Dutch man living in Southampton took to sea after he had an argument with his wife, Portland Coastguard

Yes, Sex Change Operations Were Covered

> The state of Minnesota is quietly getting out of the business of paying for three controversial treatments that affect the sex lives or sex organs of low-income patients. > Starting today, the state will no longer cover routine circumcisions, unless "required by religious practice," under its insurance

Real Relief for the Rest of Us

Funny and interesting and a relief: > Sex Pistols singer John Lydon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Rotten] isn't impressed with Bono's political activism. The aging anarchist snarled to gigwise.com: "Every time I see Bono in those big fly glasses and tight leather

Anti-PETA Billboard

We've expressed concerns about corporate farming practices and the inhumane treatment of animals, but we're not vegetarians and PETA disgusts us. So we found this quite humorous:

Get Out the Philco

The fantasy writer who influenced G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, and many others, George MacDonald, is coming to radio: > W. H. Auden wrote, "To me, George MacDonald's most extraordinary, and precious, gift is his ability, in all his stories, to create an atmosphere of goodness

Eclectic Team

The Boston Red Sox put themselves at the front of the homosexuality-is-normal movement (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1216/]), but they also have the largest number of evangelical Christians. Did they quietly stay away during the Red Sox homosexuality antics? If they objected, did Red Sox management decide to plow forward

More Fodder for the Anti-American Muslims

The Mohawk has become mainstream, according to this NYT piece. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/fashion/thursdaystyles/01mohawk.html?adxnnl=1&8hpib=&adxnnlx=1125568901-aEKgXCKvKDuShpshThhHkA] . Excerpt: > Some are curly and extend down the back into mullets or are gently buzzed along the sides. The result

Why the Shock? . . .

. . . It's not like PP has a conscience. When you're absolutely correct and have all the answers, there's no such thing as a qualm. > Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas has offered to provide free birth control pills at its Houston clinics to

Blurring It Down

WaPo does its best to nuance the sin out of looting. Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/31/AR2005083102681_pf.html] . Excerpt: > But, as we are also learning from the post-Katrina chaos, what we think of as looting may be more complicated than it seems.

And a Whimper Goes Up from Eric Scheske

Seven in eleven years. Not enough? > Pope Benedict XVI told Catholics to have more babies "for the good of society," saying that some countries were being sapped of energy because of low birth rates. > "Having children is a gift that brings life and well-being to

Cathedral of Salisbury, England

Gorgeous: > Salisbury is one of the finest medieval cathedrals in Britain. It is the mother church of the Salisbury Diocese, an area which covers most of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. > Started in 1220 it was completed by 1258, with the Spire, the tallest in England (123m/

Odd Consumer News

> To persuade hipster fools to spend $200 on a pair of jeans, Levi's has enlisted the help of Andy Warhol [http://65.61.159.201/culture/Andy-Warhol-Transubstantiating-the-Culture.cfm], the granddaddy of all things hip. Called "Warhol Factory X Levi's," the jeans are priced

The Simple Life

> Don't throw out those dusty 5" floppy discs with your beta tapes and eight-tracks just when they've acquired real collector clout. Instead, follow Anthony Georgis's example and use the sturdy black covers to protect updated technology. Slice the edge off with a

Science at the Polls

> Americans are divided over whether humans and other living things evolved over time or have existed in their present form since the beginning of time, according to a new poll. > People on both sides of that argument think students should hear about various theories, however. > Nearly two-thirds

Hawaii

An economist takes a detailed look at Hawaii's gasoline price-fixing plan. Link [http://www.mises.org/story/1894]. Excerpt: > Like the federal government's disastrous central planning of 30 years ago, the Hawaiian government has attempted to build in some alleged market mechanisms into its scheme.

Orbison Crooning on the Volga

Russian women have long been known for their beauty. Edvard Radzinsky at the Wall Street Journal talks about the new wave of pretties that are coming out of Rus. Interesting stuff. And it makes Eric look forward to seeing his parents' vacation pictures. As he types this, they are

Far Out! We'll Never Have to Bowl . . .

. . . join a club, have spousal relations, or talk to anyone again! > The multiple-channel screen, known in the television industry as a "mosaic," is about to show up on millions of TVs throughout the country. It's another sign that satellite and cable systems are beginning to

NCAA Redux

Eric Scheske used his Wednesday column at Catholic Exchange to poke jabs at the NCAA's Indian name policy. Link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=29841]. Excerpt: > It's also worth noting that the NCAA's actions aren&

The Nigeria Problem

It reads a little bit like one of those e-mails from Nigeria that offer reverse-investment opportunities ("Let my put $100,000,000 in your checking account, and you see get $1,000,000, for done nothing"), but it's a decent update on the RCC trials there:

New Orleans' Finest?

> At the Times-Picayune web site, Mike Perlstein and Brian Thevenot wrote that at a Wal-Mart on Tchoupitoulas Street, mass looting broke out after a giveaway of supplies was announced at that location. While some did indeed carry away food and essentials, others "cleared out jewelry racks and carted

Scoffing at Scientism

> Most published scientific research papers are wrong, according to a new analysis. Assuming that the new paper is itself correct, problems with experimental and statistical methods mean that there is less than a 50% chance that the results of any randomly chosen scientific paper are true. Link [http://www.

Weekly Features Post

This WFP is delayed due to Charter Internet hook-up problems. We'd say more, but we should hold off in Christian charity . . . at least until we see what Charter does today to remedy our problem. Stoic's Porch "Do your duty in all things. You cannot do

Wait a Second! . . .

We're beginning to think all this First Amendment stuff is really just a cover for greed. Could that possibly be? > U.S. porn king, Philip D. Harvey, is suing the Bush administration over its anti-prostitution policies saying that the restriction on U.S. AID funding is an

The Pope and the Muslims

Interesting piece about B16's approach to Islam: > With a challenge to Muslim leaders to reject and condemn "any connection between your faith and terrorism," Benedict has subtly redefined Vatican relations with Islam, departing from the conciliatory overtures of his predecessor to forge an approach that

Tipping U.S.A.

We like quirky little history lessons of obscure subjects. This is an excellent example: > Restaurant workers in the United States make more than twenty-five billion dollars a year in tips, so it's natural that people think of the custom as quintessentially American. But it wasn't

Pretty Neat

We've played some cards over the years, including electronically. We found this very interesting: > Here's a fascinating account of a "side-band" attack on online Blackjack. At a certain point in the gameplay, the software dealer appeared to need substantially more calculations if there

Are They Beating Us in Perversion, Too?

These guys are more Americanized than we thought! > A Chinese researcher has warned of a new threat to public health and morality -- naked Internet chatting. Up to 20,000 Chinese Internet users log on to chatrooms each night in which users in various states of undress talk to

Could be Funny . . .

. . . but will probably be an embarrassment. We enjoy Liddy, but don't respect Hannity. We've never listened to North: > A new comic series bearing the unwieldy title ''Liberality for All" is coming out in October from ACC Studios, a recently formed one-man publishing

Why the Shock?

They're just potatoes, right? > Neighbors struggled Sunday to reconcile the gruesome discovery with their memories of the nice man who once lived on Evans Street. > Pathologists, meanwhile, examined fetal remains found inside a detached garage behind the modest, two-bedroom house that had been Robert B. Winston

The Yogi and the Monists

> Senarighi's class, called Yogadevotion and taught in the main chapel of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, Minn., is part of a fast-growing movement that seeks to retool the 5,000-year-old practice of yoga to fit Christ's teachings. From Phoenix, Ariz., to Pittsburgh,

Bringing Back Nixon

We're flabbergasted that everyone doesn't understand that the pricing mechanism cannot be messed with. And that's not just a libertarian or laissez-faire position. One of the darlings of the "third way" and Distributists schools of economic thought, Wilhelm Roepke, repeatedly emphasized this.

Terrible Ted's New Book

We earlier (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2090/]) recommended Theodore Dalrymple's new book, Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566636434/thedailyeudem-20], even though we hadn't read it yet. Well, our copy arrived last

Gross Godzilla

Sounds tasteless, but maybe it'll be funny. We don't plan on keeping our finger off the remote long enough to find out: > In a new Modernista commercial for Hummer's H3, a rampaging, Godzilla-like creative tears through a city until she meets up with

Dream Job

Dwight Silverman at Tech Blog has described Eric Scheske's dream job: > Bars definitely have their own personalities, which is the sum of the characters who patronize it multiplied by the atmosphere of the venue, to the Nth power of the owner squared. (I knew high school algebra

Ghost Hunting

Here's a fun piece from Netscape News about the ongoing efforts of ghost hunters. Link [http://channels.netscape.com/ns/atplay/package.jsp?name=atplay/pm/ghostsexist]. Excerpt: > Visitors of the ancient house of Berain in Northeast Wales certainly seem to think so. According to the BBC,

Cathcasting

> One of the most popular Christian podcasts, Catholic Insider ( catholicinsider.com [http://www.catholicinsider.com]), already exceeds 10,000 listeners for each program. The founder is the Rev. Roderick VonhÃ¶gen, 37, a priest from the Netherlands, who heard about podcasting from one of his parishioners and has become

Giving Anti-Gay Rights a Bad Name

> Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq. > The church members were met with scorn from local residents. They chased the church

F-Word Endorsed . . .

. . . By one school in Britain: > Pupils are being allowed to swear at one Northamptonshire secondary school - as long as they limit their use of bad language to five times a lesson. > A tally of how many times the f-word is used will be kept on the board.

Move Over, Demolition Derby

A woman and a man are going to square-off in the ring . . . in Mississippi. > Indeed, this freak show is too freaky even for Las Vegas, which is why they're holding it in Mississippi. Mark your calendar for Oct. 15 if for some reason you feel compelled to

Helicopter Parents

Interesting article about "helicopter parents": folks who hover over their children at college, complaining and intervening at every level. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050828/ap_on_re_us/college_helicopter_parents]. Excerpt: > Heightened parental involvement is one of the biggest changes on college campuses

Perfect Post for Monday Morning

> Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up the energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a study released Sunday. Link [http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-30/112524804049300.xml&storylist=

"Oh yeah? . . .

. . . the study doesn't show that they cry when poison-filled needles come at them, so abortion is still okay." > A new study has revealed that unborn babies cry within the womb. Ultrasound videos taken of infants within the womb revealed 28-week-old babies crying in response to a

A Sin Icon Declines

This pioneer of sin has already made billions, but it's still good to see Playboy struggle: > Year-to-date ad pages are down 15 percent, the magazine missed its 3.15 million rate base by 35,002 and newsstand sales are down 23.2 percent. PG-13 Link [http://www.

Turmoil in Saturation Land

Big changes are coming to advertising: > [A] significant number of TV commercials achieve saturation faster than most advertisers and advertising agencies realize and reach a maximum household audience in just a week or two. . . . [In one company's study,] at least seven new commercials reached 95 to 100

Wonder What He Did for 11 Hours

Beats sneaking into the S&M block: > Authorities are investigating how a male prisoner managed to lock himself up with eight female prisoners at the Wilson County Jail. . . > [He] was in the cell for about 11 hours Monday. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CO_

Gotta Appreciate the Free Market

> Darrigo, 41, started Dog-Gone-It Pet Waste Removal Service after injuring himself on the job as a heavy equipment operator. He needed to find work, so one day, a friend suggested picking up pet waste from people's yards. > Whether the friend was serious or not, Darrigo took

Odd Consumer News

Carbonated ice cream. Like the stuff wasn't hard enough to resist already. > Like many great scientific discoveries, Teresa Baker's breakthrough in MIT's grimy Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory last October was punctuated by a memorable exclamation of victory. She raced upstairs from the first-floor lab

Ike You!

An intelligent, female writer raises sound questions about the recent IQ findings: > So now we know. Women's IQ is, on average, five points less than men's. That is the conclusion of two researchers' summaries of 57 academic studies on gender and intelligence in the

PSA Revisited

Our Internet connection is back, albeit slow and unreliable. There might be the normal level of postings today after all. Side note: If you have a Charter cable connection, you may want to look into your rates. While on the line with Charter Support this morning, the tech assistant asked

Podcasting

For those into the podcasting scene, you may want to check out the BBC: > BBC has a fascinating and engaging radio show online [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusic/documentaries/radioanyone537p01.shtml] about all kinds of alternative radio, including podcasting. They do the gamut, CB radio, pirate radio,

Coming Albums

The New York Daily News has released its Fall Music Preview, for those curious about such things. Link [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/341256p-291171c.html]. A few items we found interesting: > Pink Floyd's main writer, Roger Waters, will put off a possible studio reunion with

Richard Weaver Phone Home

The homosexuals always snatch up the prettiest places: San Fransisco, Key West, now Asheville: > Residents of Asheville, N.C., are typically drawn to the stunning mountain views and vibrant downtown, but the city is also attracting an increasing number of same-sex couples who find the community open and welcoming.

Leftist Law Professors? Say It Ain't So

> Professors at the best law schools are generally assumed to be overwhelmingly liberal, and now a new study lends proof. . . > The study, to be published this fall in The Georgetown Law Journal, analyzes 11 years of records reflecting federal campaign contributions by professors at the top 21 law

Buy Stock in Pfizer

> Prof Avni Sali of Swinburne University's School of Integrative Medicine in Melbourne said the key to longevity was within reach. > He said enough was now known about how to minimise the risk of killer diseases such as some cancers and heart disease to avoid serious threats

'Bout Time

> The new Pope faces his first controversy over the direction of the Catholic church after it was revealed that the Vatican has drawn up a religious instruction preventing gay men from being priests. > The controversial document, produced by the Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries, the body overseeing

Something for Sunday Morning

A few quotes from The Philokalia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philokalia]: “Thoughts gather about the soul according to its underlying quality.” “He who loves God lives the angelic life on earth, fasting and keeping vigils, praying and singing psalms and always thinking good of every man.” “Always keep the

PSA

Blogging could be light today. Our Internet connection isn't working. This isn't unusual for Charter Communications in our area, but this time, the problem appears to be with the individual connection to our computer, so we need a service call and it won't come

Bernard Goetzism

A woman took a picture of an exhibitionist on a New York subway. She also posted it to the Flickr site and gave it to the police. Now the pervert's parents can see him. We like it, but we gotta believe the civil libertarians are a little nervous.

Odd Consumer News

> The Mall of America has a 74-foot Ferris wheel, a shark tank and a dinosaur museum. And now, if all that tires you out, a nap store will sell you some shuteye for 70 cents a minute. > The new store will be called MinneNAPolis. It's just

American Exhibitionism

Tunku Varadarajan on an American pastime: > Americans . . . tend to make very good exhibitionists. By contrast, and famously, the British make much the better eccentrics. Americans, in fact, are not very good at eccentricity, just as Brits are clumsy at exhibitionism. . . > What is the wellspring of American exhibitionism? Life

People Against Religion

The reliable James Kushiner at Mere Comments [http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2005/08/people_for_the_.html] recommends this site. Link [http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/2871]. Excerpt: > People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been widely criticized for its campaign comparing Nazi

Schools Can Be Sold

> A federal bankruptcy judge yesterday ruled that churches and schools in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane are owned by the diocese and can be sold to pay settlements to sex-abuse victims, a decision that evoked both triumph and disappointment. > The decision – the first of its kind in the

Political Zoo

Nothing new here. As a father of seven and frequent zoo visitor, Eric Scheske has noticed for years that zoos have a naked political agenda of the outdated Malthusian/ Darwinian stripe. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050826/ap_on_fe_st/britain_human_zoo_3]. Excerpt: > Caged

The Weekend Eudemon

Fun night last night, which threatened to get out of hand. Neighbor's house for a beer after work, drinking club for a few tall pilsners, back home for a glass of White Grenache, then back to the neighbor's to meet some guy named Pinot Grigio. Fortunately,

Another Tradition Dies

We're not big fans of beauty pageants, but we hate to see a traditional American venue like Atlantic City lose a long-time partner. > After an 84-year run on the Boardwalk, the Miss America pageant is bailing out of Atlantic City, pageant and city officials said yesterday. >

Spiritualism and ID Today

John Mark Reynolds recounts the rise and fall of spiritualism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He uses the narrative to draw parallels to today's Intelligent Design movement. The parallels seem stretched, and we suspect he does no favors to the ID movement by comparing it to

What the Heck . . .

. . . it's Friday, and the beer is calling. This will provide you with good bar fodder in a few hours: > A postal worker has been charged with putting urine in the coffee of co-workers who set up a video camera in their break room after they became suspicious,

Latin Mass Returning?

Eric Scheske attended his first Latin Mass earlier this year. He scarcely understood a thing, efforts to follow along in the Latin-English Missal notwithstanding. He loved it. The very last sentence below pretty much sums up his experience. Link [http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050826/EDIT02/

Send Post to a Friend

After a frustrating couple of weeks, the "Send This Post To A Friend" feature is working. There are a few kinks that need to be worked out, but you can now forward posts to family, friends, and enemies.

Taking Aim at the NCAA

Brad Edmonds has posted a great piece about the "National Communists Against Athletes." Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/edmonds/edmonds260.html]. Excerpt: > Let's remember also that Indian tribes are sovereign ”“ meaning foreign ”“ nations. Their complaining about the "Washington Redskins" is akin to our

Crack and Meth Not Revisited

Frustrating piece at Slate this week about the meth problem. It's frustrating because the writer has a good article idea, but then he blows it. He draws parallels between the crack cocaine scare of the 1980s with today's methamphetamine panic. He basically says, "meth is

Kneeling Scientists Again

The New York Times ran a competent, even sympathetic, piece yesterday about religious scientists. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/national/23believers.html?ei=5090&en=a7fec44c68be1f25&ex=1282449600&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1125057607-oK9NcrAvwmy8NuSaYyhsJA] . Excerpt: >

Brews You Can Use II

Something for the little lady. Best presented after a bender at the local drinking club: Beer Jewelry Link [http://www.elsewares.com/commerce/index.php?cPath=2_136].

Brews You Can Use

Don't know how we missed this one: > A beer launched in southern India claims to vitamin rich and protect the liver from harmful effects of alcohol. > Ladybird Bio Beer contains aloe-vera extracts as well as the normal ingredients of barley malt and hops, said inventor B.

Bring Tawana With Ya!

All right, we're breaking down and posting about Sheehan. As long-time readers of this blog know, we try to avoid the most publicized news items in order to leave room for different fare. We assiduously avoided Bolton, Aruba, and even the Schiavo matter (the latter travesty, with reluctance)

MTV Isn't About Videos

Here's one writer's take on the upcoming music video awards. We watch MTV about as often as we watch gay pornography (there is a difference, we're told), so we have no opinion, but we found the column mildly interesting: > Let's face

Another Reason to Love Your Hometown

> Boeing predicts a major [airplane] crash a week by 2010. This is from Bainbridge [http://www.professorbainbridge.com/2005/08/from_the_if_god.html], who links to a subscriber-only WSJ location, so this is all we can give you.

Pulp Covers

This site has assembled a great-looking collection of pulp fiction comic book covers. Pretty neat. Link [http://www.cyrune.com/pulp.html].

Guess We've Been Out of It

Ali and the Dalai Lama? Islam is about as friendly toward Buddhism (a non-people-of-the-book religion) as it is to liquor stores. > By meticulously tapping sand out of foot-long steel funnels, eight Tibetan monks are creating a sacred artwork to commemorate the friendship of Louisville native Muhammad Ali and the

Desecrating Elvis

> U.S. music magazine Spin has built a rock star Frankenstein, composed of Michael Stipe's skull, Elvis's pelvis and Madonna's bellybutton. Link with Frankenpopmusic picture [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2004580002-2005390250,00.html].

Brews You Can Use

Yeah, we're bringing one a day early because the auction ends tomorrow. A trailer with a tiki bar. If Eric Scheske had one of these, he'd never go home. Link to eBay auction [http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Teardrop-trailer-vintage-tiki-style-woody_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ50063QQitemZ4569992955QQrdZ1] .

It's a Bird, It's a Plane . . .

. . .It's that grain alcohol you're drinking: > Serbian authorities are investigating reports of a real-life Superman after people claimed to have seen a cloaked figure flying over their houses. > Hundreds of residents in Ljubovija described seeing a cloaked person flying above buildings "as if

We're Overwhelmed

This whole cell phone thing is blowing our minds. We're not sure what to make of it. We're too McLuhanite to embrace it mindlessly, but we're not Luddite, either. We still haven't figured out the speed dial features on our cell phone

God Has Blessed America

> Russians, whose lives are shorter and poorer than they were under communism, have more abortions than births to avoid the costs of raising children, according to the country's highest-ranking obstetrician. > About 1.6 million women had an abortion last year, a fifth of them under the

Hey, Snickers, Leave Those Kids Alone

You can't get a bag of chips, but you can get the morning-after pill. > Food for thought is taking on a new meaning as students across the nation begin a new school year. Chicago is just one of many school districts that have mobilized to replace high-fat,

We're Not Surprised

Starbucks has a pro-homosexual agenda. Who woulda thunkit? A coffee house that's pro-gay? Wow. > The world's most famous coffee shop chain has begun a program called “The Way I See It,” which is a collection of thoughts, opinions and expressions provided by notable figures that

Christians Have Rights, Too

Overzealous public school authorities? Noooo! Say it ain't so: > A federal judge has told an Ohio school district it can no longer bar a middle school student from wearing a t-shirt with a Christian message. > Judge George Smith has ruled that Sheridan Middle School in Thornville

Jerks. Give the Island to China!

> Taiwan has withdrawn an anti-AIDS campaign ad featuring a smiling nun holding a condom after it sparked an outcry from Roman Catholics, local media said on Wednesday. > The poster, which shows the nun holding the condom with both hands and saying 'Although I don't need

Yikes, Ouch, Gross

How do you merit one of these? Gay merit badges. Link [http://www.gaymeritbadges.com/].

Strange Deaths

From The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs, p. 284: > I've read about blues singer Robert Johnson, who died after drinking strychnine-laced whiskey in a juke joint. And Marie Blanchard, an aviation pioneer who died when her hot air balloon was set ablaze by fireworks. Explorer David Livingstone

A Righteous Battle

> Hundreds of looters battled police all weekend at the site of a beer train wreck in violence that left one woman dead, South African police said on Monday as they kept a heavy guard on the remaining alcohol. > The train carrying 180,000 crates of beer from South

Fire Up the Tobacco Company Lawsuit!

Odd Consumer News

The Comic Rockstars Toilet Seat Museum. Link [http://www.flickr.com/photos/16756280@N00/sets/789737/].

Freedom and the Metal Detector

Prospect has run a solid piece about freedom and protecting ourselves from terrorism. Link [http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=6965&AuthKey=875ca4fec9c2b5177985a662ca7877e1&issue=508] . Excerpts: > Should we change our way of life to be more secure from terrorism? We already have. A wave

Better Late Than Never

> Three years after the clergy sex abuse crisis rocked the Roman Catholic church, a Vatican-directed evaluation of all U.S. seminaries is scheduled to begin late next month. > Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, the U.S. coordinator for the review, said 117 bishops and seminary staff will visit

Ramming Gay Marriage Everywhere

The article talks about how the women were horrified at the reaction, but it also admits that the women filed the lawsuit. Interesting stuff. > When two women tried to register as a married couple in Aruba last year, people on this Dutch island threw rocks at them, slashed their

Hollywood: Sexual Mosh Pit

From the mouth of someone who knows: > Eva Longoria refuses to romance fellow celebrities - because she claims everyone in Hollywood has slept with each other. . . > The 'Desperate Housewives' beauty says she is so fed up with the close-knot celebrity circles she avoids red-carpet events and

Wi-Fi the Street

The next big techie thing? Neighborhood wi-fi access. It supposedly builds neighborly relations. We like it, but our approval might end when the laptop-totin' homeless population arrives to sit on the curbs: > The Fourth Street hotspot is part of a communal wireless project called Neighbornode, started by then

All Eyes on the Lutherans II

A follow-up to our earlier post (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1966/]): > "In an indication of the deep split over homosexuality in the church, which with five million members is the nation's largest Lutheran denomination, the vote on gay clergy members at the church's assembly

The NCAA is a Joke

> The NCAA will allow Florida State to use its Seminoles nickname in postseason play, removing the school from a list of colleges with Native American nicknames that were restricted by an NCAA decision earlier this month. > The NCAA said it was recognizing the relationship Florida State has long

Happy Big 7-0-0, Wallace

> Today is the 700th anniversary [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1554805,00.html] of Scottish hero William Wallace [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wallace] being gruesomely killed in Smithfield market in the City of London. > There are a series of memorial events

Hello Mudda . . .

. . . this place is supposed to be a Christian camp, but so far, it seems like Hell. > According to [a federal] lawsuit . . . young Ezekiel Losoya . . . was subjected to an assortment of "inhumane, degrading, and criminal conduct" during a one-week stay in the summer of 2003. Among 19 separate

Top Ten Annoying Habits

According to a British poll: > Top 10 most annoying habits (percentage of people who get annoyed by it) 1. Nose picking 59%; 2. Snoring 55%; 3. Teeth grinding 50%; 4. Knuckle cracking 49%; 5. Finger tapping 49%; 6. Breaking wind 46%; 7. Humming 38%; 8. Leg jiggling 34%; 9.

Internet Growth Finally Slows Down

> A new report [http://www.telegeography.com/ee/free_resources/pdf/gig06_exec_summ.pdf] from TeleGeography [http://www.telegeography.com/products/gig/index.php] shows that "global cross-border internet traffic grew by just 49 percent in 2005, down from 103 percent in 2004." In rich countries,

What's Lower?

Being a porn icon or working for PETA? Link [http://www.helpinganimals.com/feat/ronjeremy/]. Excerpt: > Recently, Ron [Jeremy] proved that he's a big man when it comes to small animals by taking a break from his daily grind to pose for a new PETA ad promoting

Top Party Schools

According to the Princeton Review: 1. University of Wisconsin-Madison 2. Ohio University-Athens 3. Lehigh University 4. University of California-Santa Barbara 5. State University of New York at Albany 6. Indiana University-Bloomington 7. University of Mississippi 8. University of Iowa 9. University of Massachusetts-Amherst 10. Loyola University New Orleans 11. Tulane

Babs is Back

> Streisand's Stranger in a Strange Land debuted Tuesday on a notable parcel of Internet real estate -- it's spending one week as an exclusive (and free) streaming video on the home page of Amazon.com. It is culled from Guilty Pleasures, the singer's

Sex Overrides Again

In New Hampshire, a minor needs parental consent to use a tanning salon, to get a tattoo, to get body piercing, or take an aspirin while at school. But a minor doesn't need parental consent to take the morning-after pill, thanks to recent legislation. The governor even attended

Call a Barber and Aggressive Hunter . . .

. . . not necessarily in that order: > The daring duo at Dolce & Gabbana has dropped the boundaries several inches. Their fall 2005 menswear line, which debuted on the Milan runway in January and now appears in print ads and stores near you, includes jeans that plunge so low that they&

This Ain't Sydney or Amsterdam

Odd choice of venue: > Staid Singapore will host its first-ever Sex Expo in November after receiving in-principle approval from the tightly-controlled city-state's authorities, a local newspaper reported Sunday. > The Singapore police have already imposed certain conditions for organizers - no obscene acts can be put on

Hands On

We've said before that art comes in all sizes and types. When it comes to crafts, making things with ones' own hands, we're hopelessly inept, yet we respect the efforts. Here's a book for those who do what we can't. Link

Weighing in at Four Pounds . . .

. . . the September 2005 issue of Vogue: > For years, September has brought heavy issues of monthlies, traditionally women's fashion and beauty magazines like Elle, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. More recently, other magazines are also producing ad-thick issues, in categories like men's lifestyle, health and

The Nanny Attack

John Leo recounts the attack of the nannies: > The nannies are all around us now, attempting to ban smoking in outdoor areas, including New York's vast Central Park, working to eliminate one schoolyard game after another, including dodge ball (too violent), tag (hurts feelings by turning kids

One Town's Odd Idea of Tourist Development?

> An unusual and noisy mystery has people in a small town north of Middletown on edge, worried and asking questions, News 5's Brian Hamrick reported. > Liberty, Ohio, is a quiet little community, except for one thing -- the scream. . . > With a sensitive microphone and some

Library Responsible for Assault on Customers?

Tough questions can lead to tough responses. > A library in Holland is lending out people, as well as books, in a new initiative aimed at challenging stereotypes. > People can borrow gay people, gipsies and Muslims for an hour and talk to them about their lives, reports Nu.nl.

Real Men Play Golf?

Eric Scheske hacks around once in awhile (eight times last year, once this year so far) and he follows the Majors (U.S. and British Opens, PGA, Masters), so he's interested enough in the sport to find this writer's ideas about is male-ness very interesting. NYT

Bowing Before the Atheist God

Sure, it sounds laughable, but if you've ever talked with atheists, you know many of them take their irreligion religiously. Like G.K. Chesterton said, if there was no God, there would be no atheists. Link [http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45874]. Excerpt: >

Wally Unions

The real movement to bring down Wally World has begun: > A global coalition of unions is launching an unprecedented campaign to organize workers around the world at US retail giant Wal-Mart, seeking to bring a new level of globalization to the labor movement. > The Wal-Mart campaign was set

The Nordic Track

A movie based on the Brothers Grimm [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2103/], now a movie about Beowulf. Can the film epic Ragnarok [http://www.pantheon.org/articles/r/ragnarok.html]! be far behind? > [Angelina] Jolie has signed on to star in a big-screen adaptation of the epic English poem "

Zeus Rocks. Do Does Loki, Dude!

Why not just call yourselves the "Favoring Anything Group"? You can even get some great monogrammed golf shirts. > After years of being labeled as devil worshippers who sacrifice animals under a full moon, the modern-day followers of ancient beliefs want to be part of the community. >

Pope Beer

Awhile back, we mentioned that a Bavarian brewer was making Pope Beer, in honor of B16. Link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/727/]. Well, we hear the beer was a favorite at WYD. Here's a picture of a young man and a bottle of it:

Concrete Jungle to Concrete Sow Farm

It's because of McDonald's. They're taking up all the green space with their drive-throughs and spray painting "Eat 3 Big Macs" on all the park benches. Link [http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/08/19/hscout527496.html] . Excerpt: >

Smelling the Sweat and Getting Violent

Two interesting blurbs from the Reuters Technology Summary. > TOKYO (Reuters) - Imagine watching a football match on a TV that not only shows the players in three dimensions but also lets you experience the smells of the stadium and maybe even pat a goalscorer on the back. Japan plans

Ah, Those Dispassionate, Fair-Minded Scientists

We honestly don't follow the Intelligent Design v. Evolution controversy very closely, except to marvel at the sputtering hate of the scientific community and its remarkable tendency to deny that evolution as a theory has any significant problems. When it comes to decorum and civility, the ID people

How Grimm Will It Be?

This Friday, The Brothers Grimm [http://miramax.com/thebrothersgrimm/] will open. It's a Miramax production, starring Matt Damon as one of the Grimm brothers. Here's the synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes. Sounds pretty bizarre. > Director Terry Gilliam, who brought his magical storytelling talents to such films

Joseph (not Juan) Epstein

Mindlessly surfing while working off the effects of an evening at the drinking club, we ran across this nice overview of the work of our favorite essayist, Joseph Epstein. Link [http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/jepstein.html]. Excerpt: > "I have always thought," says Joseph Epstein, "that

Odd Consumer News

But will it lunge at an intruder's privates? > Stores across Japan started taking orders Thursday for the Roborior - a watermelon-sized eyeball on wheels that glows purple, blue and orange - continuing the country's love affair with gadgets. > Roborior can function as interior decor,

1,000,000 at Mass

One million youths attended today's concluding World Youth Day Mass. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/international/europe/21pope-wire.html?hp]. Excerpt: > As [Pope Benedict] began his homily, calling on the pilgrims and visitors to World Youth Day to make wise use of the

If Cheaters Never Prosper . . .

. . . then America's future doesn't look too bright: > Rutgers University released a survey conducted with 4,500 high school students. Cheating was the focus of the survey. Seventy-five percent of the respondents said they cheated regularly. Eighty percent indicated that they saw nothing wrong with cheating.

Something for Sunday Morning

Virtues of the soul, according to John Damascene: Courage, moral judgment, self-restraint, justice, faith, hope, love, prayer, humility, gentleness, long-suffering, forbearance, kindness, freedom from anger, knowledge of God, cheerfulness, simplicity, calmness, sincerity, freedom from pride, freedom from envy, compassion, mercifulness, generosity, fearlessness, freedom from dejection, compunction, modesty, reverence, desire for

Odd Consumer News

You can buy a cardboard house for just $35,000. Link [http://www.housesofthefuture.com.au/hof_houses04.html]. Excerpts: > Being extremely low cost and transportable, the Cardboard House could be used in a wide variety of applications. You could live in one while your permanent house is being

Bring Back Bugsy

Fascinating piece about how casinos use intimidation and legal contacts to cheat big-time winners from their receiving their money. Link [http://www.lasvegastribune.com/20050812/headline1.html]. Excerpt: > Consider the case of Richard Chen. On March 9, 2000, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled 3-1 that the Monte Carlo Casino

Not Beloved China!

Defense Minster Chi Haotian has supposedly bluntly stated that China plans to attack the U.S. soon. The excerpt below comes from the Hal Turner page. We have no idea whether it is at all accurate, but we're passing it along as part of our continuing coverage of

Life in the 1500s

There is apparently an e-mail letter touring cyberspace that tells outlandish lies about life in the Middle Ages. It identifies the 1500s as the Middle Ages, which is ridiculous, but no matter. An expert on the Middle Ages sent us this antidote (along with a disclaimer to the effect that,

What Would Adam West Think?

DC Comics has sent its lawyers to chase an artist who painted and sold a bunch of "gay Batman" pictures. Link [http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/artnetnews8-18-05.asp]. We wish DC luck. The pictures are borderline funny, if they weren't so digusting. PG-13 Link

Forced Suicide Bomber

A mother describes the choice offered to her by Muslim terrorists during the seizure of Middle School 1 in Russia last year. Link [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1742594,00.html]. Excerpt: > She cannot explain exactly why one of the hostage-takers, calling himself Abdullah, took her aside

Suicide Bombers

The always-insightful Theodore Dalrymple talks about the makings of an Islamic suicide bomber: > Clearly, although the fundamental socio-psychological conditions I have described apply to millions - hundreds of millions - of people, only a vanishingly small proportion of them actually want to be suicide bombers, even if rather more

The Techno v. The Snob . . .

. . . Who will win? A scientist has developed a technology for manipulating grapes and the resulting wine. We can't say we fully understand it. This article either does a bad job of explaining it or we're ignorant about wine. Either way, it sounds kind of interesting. Link

Like This Somehow Compromises Public U's Integrity

> Two employees at a Florida university with access to computer databanks have been charged with accepting cash -- and one with accepting sex -- in exchange for changing the grades of dozens of students, authorities said. > Ellis Peet and Clifton Franklin allegedly used generic passwords or those belonging

The Weekend Eudemon

Ah, the blessed weekend. It's the last blast for the Scheske kids before school starts on Monday. To celebrate the end of the summer, we took the kids swimming and out to dinner last night. We then came back and watched the movie, Tremors. Eric bought the VHS

The Dysfunctional Society Revisited

In response to our post about The Dysfunctional Society [https://thedailyeudemon.com/2082/], an astute reader wrote to us: > When I read the first paragraph of the original Wash Times article a couple of days ago, I got the same impression: two-parent households have been superseded by single-parent households.

Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water

Kinda like the way Eric weeps when the barmaid takes away an empty longneck that was good to him: > Heroin addicts trying to kick the habit often profoundly grieve their lost "relationship" with the needles they use to inject the drug, according to a new study by

Nothing Too Surprising

Smoke a joint, put on the headphones, and enjoy a bout with self-inflicted autism. Problem is, the inability to hear others could become permanent: > The surge in sales of iPods and other portable music players in recent years could mean many more people will develop hearing loss, experts fear.

If You Can't Take the Heat . . .

. . . get out of the South. For fear of offending northerners who have infiltrated their county, a few folks in Hanover County, Virginia want to change the name of their "Dixie Days" celebration. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20050818-121130-9145r.htm]. Excerpts: > To hear some newcomers to Hanover

Brews You Can Use IV

The Drink Tower. It holds more beer but stays cooler longer due to a sealed lid. Link [http://drinktower.com/]. Thanks Hail the Ale [http://www.hailtheale.com/blog].

Big Game Hunting from the Back of a Chevy

> If a group of prominent ecologists have their way, lions and elephants could someday be roaming the Great Plains of North America. > The idea of transplanting African wildlife to this continent is being greeted with gasps and groans from other scientists and conservationists who recall previous efforts to

Brews You Can Use III

When you fall off it, you'll know who to blame: An ad company is getting aggressive with its table top and bar stool advertising. Link [http://www.adrants.com/2005/08/table-top-advertising-gets-dose-of.php].

Leno on Those Crazy Hip-Hoppers

> P. Diddy has changed his name again. From now on, he wants to be known as just 'Diddy.' Not to be outdone, today 50 Cent shortened his name to 37 Cent.

I am the Way, the TRUTH, and the Life

Churches are turning to aggressive marketing. Is there something wrong with that? It's hard to say, but it's worth keeping in mind that the most common criticism of advertising these days (after criticism of its saturation of public space) is that it is more concerned with

The Dysfunctional Society

Single-adult families are now the most common household in America. Studies of all stripes consistently prove that kids are better off with a married mother and father and that kids without that stable foundation are more likely to encounter a host of troubles later. No matter, we're dealing

Brews You Can Use II

Great passage from Steven Shapin's essay/review of Tom Standage's A History of the World in 6 Glasses in The New Yorker: > The taking of certain drinks could itself be society-making. The Greek symposium was, literally, a “drinkingtogether,” and the watered wine was both such

Brews You Can Use

Beer caps as currency? Eric Scheske would be a rich man in Cameroon! > Beer bottle caps with prizes on the inside are replacing currency in parts of Cameroon, gripped in a fierce promotional battle between competing breweries. > Almost every $1 bottle of beer has a winning cap, with

The Pope and the (Other) Brothers

Pope Benedict will meet with Muslims in Cologne. This article has a good overview of the radical Muslims' activities and beliefs in Germany. Link [http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=37837&eng=y]. Excerpt from introduction: > The penultimate event of Benedict XVI's visit

Odd Consumer News

Perhaps it's not odd, but we're intrigued by case-mods. A case-mod is "any modification performed on a stock computer case. Mods can be functional or purely decorative, but they're all created in the name of creating a custom computer." Link [http://www.

That's Soooooo Ninety-ish

Better late than never? Not this time: > Inspired by the movie Forrest Gump, a U.S. man is running across the United States from Newport Beach, California to Newport, Rhode Island. > The cities are nearly 3,000 miles apart. Jonathan Williams is shooting for an average of 25

Wow, If Only We Had that Much Spare Time

> A former Hollywood stunt man now living in the Netherlands launched his greatest project to date Tuesday: a 45-foot replica Viking ship made of millions of wooden ice cream sticks and more than a ton of glue. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050816/

Odd Consumer News

Giving the Muslims a real reason to bomb us: > Luxury toilet paper. At first it sounds like an insultingly obvious joke. Who would want such a thing? But then visions of those notorious $900 Gucci dog bowls flit through your mind, and you're haunted by the possibility

The Whining Culture

Out of Australia. If you can't beat 'em, whine with 'em: > Two recent controversial TV ads have provoked a rash of complaints to the Advertising Standards Bureau. > More than 30 people lodged formal complaints last month about a Morning Fresh dishwasher detergent ad that

"Jew" is a Slur?

Yeah, we suppose it's mildly distasteful to be identified by one's ethnicity, but to call it a "slur"? Strikes us as overly sensitive: > The bill was a shocker, and not because of the amount. After eating at a Jersey shore restaurant, Elliott Stein

Leno on the Stones

> The Rolling Stones are about to go out on tour. Tickets are $100 a piece. But the good news is -- Medicare will kick in half.

Great News!

Bring on the next savage round of meth-fueled bath-house parties! > Scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antibiotic for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills the HIV virus. > The crocodile&

Far Out! Our Whole Country Could be California!

> More than 40 percent of Mexican adults say they would move to the U.S. if they could, and 1 in 5 say they would do so illegally if necessary, according to surveys released yesterday by the Pew Hispanic Center. > Surveys of 1,200 Mexican adults in February

Military and Minors

Parents and others are objecting to military recruiters' access to public high school students, and they're encouraging families to "opt out" of such recruitment. Link [http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0818/p11s01-lifp.html]. Excerpt: > "There's really an effort on the part

A Great Divorce?

Tumultuous times in the advertising and media industries. When it all shakes out, will the blogosphere and other online cottage industries be in the mix? It's a fascinating time period that we suspect will be analyzed and discussed by industry experts and, later, historians for many years. >

Flippin' Dopeheads

Great, because a bunch of dopes can't resist the allure of melting their brains, the rest of us will suffer: > Gov. Theodore R. Kulongoski signed legislation on Tuesday that would make Oregon the first state to require prescriptions for everyday cold and allergy medications that can be

Another Way to Get Your Warhol Fifteen

> How much would you pay to be immortalized as a zombie in a Stephen King novel or a good guy in a John Grisham thriller? > King and Grisham are among 16 authors selling the right to have a character in a book named for the buyer to raise

Wanted: Beer Drinkers

> Scientists in Singapore have invented a battery powered by urine. > How It Works > The battery sandwiches copper, paper laced with copper chloride, and magnesium between two plastic layers. The "sandwich" is later laminated. > "When a droplet of human urine is added into the

Maybe Being a Lesbian is Man Enough

From Britain: > Fertility doctors may no longer be required to consider the welfare of the child when carrying out in vitro fertilisation. > Regulations requiring clinicians to take into account "the need of the child for a father" could be scrapped, making it easier for lesbian couples

We Never Get a Happy Medium

For years, the advertising industry has been using ridiculously-skinny models and computer enhancements. Now, there's an "everyday woman" trend afoot. Ad agencies will use heavy women and, apparently, no enhancements. Couldn't we just get reasonably-attractive women, without the airbrushing or bilimia? Why the outlandish

Revivalist Russian Orthodox Church?

Theophan the Recluse [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophan_the_Recluse] wouldn't be happy: > Russian police called out after complaints of loud music and rowdy singing found the noise was coming from a local church. > Officers arrived at the building in Moscow's Textiltschiki district

Nerd War!

"It was horrible, officer. They were stabbing each other with pens and bludgeoning each other their thick eyeglasses!" Link [http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/16/computer.frenzy.ap/index.html]. Excerpt: > A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with

Metal Priest? . . .

A priest playing heavy metal music in the vein of Marilyn Manson? Isn't that kinda like Jerry Falwell throwing a kegger? > Shock-rocker Marilyn Manson sparked furore when he announced his desire to perform in Croatia - but a Croatian Catholic priest has leaped to his defence. >

When You're Out of Schlitz . . .

Here's a neat site with a lot of amusing stuff, including radio ads from the 1950s-1970s. Link [http://www.basichip.com/] (scroll down a few spots). Schlitz ad [http://www.basichip.com/hot_spots/set_01/Schlitz_Beer.mp3].

Anti-Ennui Park Turnover

> Cedar Point amusement park is putting a 22-year-old free-fall ride up for sale. > The Demon Drop was built for $2.5 million in 1983. Riders on the Demon Drop fall 10 stories in less than three seconds. > Passengers board four-person cars that move horizontally to the top

14 Years

Eric got buried 14 years ago today. It's the best bout with death possible: Seven children and a wife who is still attractive (seriously; we're not writing this because she's a regular reader). He wouldn't change a thing about his life, though

Like the Opening Scene from Gangs of New York!

From Ohio: > Fights broke out during the annual Feast of the Assumption pilgrimage in Carey Sunday afternoon at the Our Lady of Consolation Shrine. > The religious event is supposed to bring thousands of people together to honor the Virgin Mary, which falls on every Aug. 15. > The

The Early Moviegoing Experience

From David Thomson's The Whole Equation (2004), p. 62. > Nickelodeons got their product from local exchanges, and there was a ravenous demand for fresh material. Louis B. Mayer knew the risk in having nothing new to show. The business was chronically unstable, vulnerable locally to gangsterism. The

Weekly Features Post

Abbreviated WFP this week. Eric Scheske has four women and fourteen children (ages twelve years to four months) in his house tonight. They're all relatives of his wife, and therefore he is excused to go to the drinking club, where he'll overlook beautiful Lake Omena while

More eBay

Greg Perry at Lew Rockwell has posted part 2 of his 3-part eBay series. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/perry/perry14.html]. Excerpt: > If you've experienced frustration in losing to other bidders, you need to locate items you want whose auctions end in the middle of the

Those Coke-Bottled Perverts!

According to a new study, erotic images do, indeed, make you go blind (a little): > According to a report in New Scientist, the research has added to road-safety campaigners' calls to ban sexy billboard-advertising near busy roads, in the hope of preventing accidents. > The new study by

Branding Sex: Playboy, Hooters, Now Maxim

> Brand-extension mania has seized Maxim, the men's magazine. Maxim already sells a line of bedding at Macy's stores, and Maxim Radio, the first around-the-clock radio station based on a magazine, started broadcasting in January on Sirius. > Now, in an attempt to imprint the Maxim

Skin for Robots . . .

. . . Wait until the porn perverts get ahold of this stuff. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4154366.stm]. Currently, the "skin" is only a receiver: of heat and pressure. But eventually we assume it could progress to feeling like skin, which would be great

Well, Far Out . . .

. . . but how many times have we found Atlantis now? > An undersea island hit by a tsunami 12,000 years ago may be the source of Plato's Atlantis myth, according to a geologist and a report this month in the journal Geology. > Marc-Andre Gutscher, a geologist at

Leno on the Epidemic

> California education officials said today that the state of California needs 52,000 more teachers. They say we are facing a huge teacher shortage. In fact, by the year 2007, they said many students will be forced to have sex with each other.

Home Schooling Looking Better All the Time

We're tellin' ya, it's an epidemic: > Meet Kristen Margrif. The Michigan woman, 27, is a high school English teacher. So can you guess why she was just arrested? That's right, Margrif has been accused of having sex with a 16-year-old male student

Giving the Rest of Us Morning Sickness

Here comes the "maternity is so beautiful it oughtta be naked" phenom again: > Demi Moore has revealed that she and toyboy boyfriend Ashton Kutcher are planning to have a baby. > In an eye-opening interview with Harper's Bazaar magazine the 42-year-old actress is surprisingly honest

Get Those Boys Asylum Applications!

Gang warfare in Guatemala's prisons. Incredible. > The latest incidents are thought to have erupted after members of one of Central America's most notorious gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha, clashed with members of their main rival, Mara 18. > The gangs appear to have co-ordinated the fighting

Stretching Asylum

Give me your tired, your poor, your sexually promiscuous . . . > A court in the US has ruled that a gay Mexican with Aids is eligible for asylum because of the danger of persecution in his home country. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4149892.stm]. It'

Oh, the Inhumanity of It All!

Fire up the Sicilian ACLU! > Italy has arrested 141 people in a security swoop following the bombings in London and Egypt last month and remains at high risk from an attack by Islamic militants, the Interior Ministry said on Monday. > Italy, the subject of several Internet threats from

Brits Stealing Signs

It's a little off-color for this site, but it's too funny not to post: > The mayor of an Austrian town called 'F**king' has appealed to British tourists to stop stealing the road signs. > The Austrian town of 'F***ing'

Encouraging

Britain is looking into ways to stem the flood of violently pornographic websites in its country. They're apparently more hopeful than their U.S. counterparts that something can be done. Link [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/15/nporn15.xml&sSheet=

Brothel U

According to this article, college campuses have a big sex problem. Whatta revelation! But the article also says college adminstrators are actually recognizing it and taking steps to curb it. That is welcomed news. Link [http://www.americasnewspaper.com/bottom.shtml]. Excerpts: > "Parents and college officials must do

Fictional Women Redux

Eric Scheske wrote last year about the problems with plastic surgery and computer enhancements. Link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=2&art_id=24526]. Most of his points were based on common sense. A new study on doctored photos has corroborated much of his analysis.

Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo

Eric Cox reviews the movie. Link [http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.18691/article_detail.asp]. Excerpts: > The Farrelly Brothers' There's Something About Mary (1998) gained notoriety for pushing the envelope of risquÃ© bodily humor. > If the original Deuce Bigelow (1999) pushed it a little

Kneeling Scientists?

Quite a disconcerting shock to those who can't think themselves out of the empiricism/materialism box. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050814-115521-9143r.htm]. Excerpt: > America's scientists are a surprisingly spiritual group, according to a survey in which almost 70 percent agreed "there are

PETA to the Rescue, Again!

PETA wants the recent NCAA ban on Indian nicknames to extend to names that show disrespect to animals. Specifically, South Carolina's and Jacksonville State's nickname, the Gamecocks. > "We don't have a problem with names like the LSU Tigers," he said, "

World Youth Day Coverage

Tim Drake is covering World Youth Day, if you care to follow. Link [http://www.youngandcatholic.com/].

PETA's Continued Lack of Decency

> People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is reconsidering a campaign linking images of animal abuse with those of slavery after complaints from civil rights groups and others. > The animal rights group's "Animal Liberation" campaign included 12 panels juxtaposing pictures of black people in

Gospel Idol

The Gospel Music Channel is starting its own American Idol show. It's called Gospel Idol 2005. We're not making this up, and we're not making up this interview with the host: > How will the show compare with "American Idol"? > I

Tokens and Ennui Prevention

These folks are putting up pictures of game tokens. Don't ask us why. It strikes us as a colossal waste of time (maybe it's how Trekkies spend their free moments). It is, however, a pretty neat-looking page. Link [http://www.flickr.com/photos/petromyzon/sets/587315/

Yet Another Biblical Event Verified

Archeology hasn't proven a single Biblical incident to be fictional, and it has established many as facts. The most recent: > When the sewer line in the Old City of Jerusalem needed repairs in the fall of 2004, the workmen made a historic discovery: the biblical Pool of

St. Hef

Clever leftist theologian quoted at Mere Comments: > It is not often that I commend the writings of a liberation theologian. And I'm not about to do so now, at least not in totality. But Native American liberationist Vive Deloria's thirtieth anniversary edition of God Is

Slow Drivers

Brad Edmonds at Lew Rockwell raises valid points about slow drivers. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/edmonds/edmonds257.html]. Excerpts: > [S]low drivers make things more dangerous for everyone else. When a fast driver moves along the interstate, he doesn't force anyone else to change lanes or

Tough Suit

On the one hand, we figure you take your chances when you hang out at such places. On the other hand, the guy was at least trying to be discrete about his sin and this was a bogue thing to do. We won't shed tears for any of

No Sacrament, No Contract, and Now Not Even a Reception

These people got married by blog. Link [http://weblogs.about.com/b/a/193241.htm] .

Godless and Childless

A writer at Asia Times Online has fired a nice salvo at secularist ideas and practice as seen through the prism of babies. Link [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GH02Aa01.html]. Excerpts: > Humankind cannot abide the terror of mortality without the promise of immortality, I have argue

Double Deaths

Two music legends died this week: > 1938, the legendary Robert Johnson dies in Greenwood, Mississippi ... Johnson's moonshine had been poisoned days earlier ... known for his womanizing, the murderer was presumed to be the angered spouse of one of his paramours ... it was rumored that Johnson's

Thinking About the Taj Mahal

Eric Schwappach at The American Thinker brings this controversy to our attention. Link [http://americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=2859]. Excerpt: > Controversy surrounds the Taj Mahal. This recent dispute pitted a Muslim trust which claims Islamic ownership of the great Mogul monument against the Indian government, which asserts

Dealing with Muslims

The New Yorks Times this morning has a neat piece that discusses how different European countries are dealing with the terrorist threat. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/weekinreview/14imam.html?pagewanted=1&hp]. But at one point, the NYT mentions civil libertarians' concerns: > [T]

Something for Sunday Morning

In "Our Lady's Juggler," a former carnival juggler lives in a monastary. He notices that each monk does something special in honor of the Virgin Mary. The juggler is ashamed he has nothing to offer. But late at night, he sneaks downstairs with his balls and

Freaking Out Over Freaks

> Britain is in danger of becoming overwhelmed by a drug culture that would see a society where drug dealers hold political influence, the streets are teeming with "the walking dead", and "gated communities" are created to protect their residents. > This is the vision in

The Wand and the Crescent

We're not sure whether this reflects well on the terrorists or poorly on Harry Potter fans: > Harry Potter's worldwide popularity is so broad-based that it has become favorite reading for Islamic terror suspects at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. > Lori, who for

Jonathan Holmes Swift

And the Karamazov brothers were gay: > A Russian book publisher claims the original version of Gulliver's Travels was a pornographic novel. . . > Hermann Real, director of the Ehrenpreis Center for Swift Studies based in Germany and one of the world's leading experts on the writer,

Call Him Gay and You Will Pay

We despise bullying and the public school administrators who tolerate it in the name of "toughening up" a kid. But this case is a little scary. A boy was repeatedly taunted for being gay (he isn't, ear ring notwithstanding), and he successfully sued under Title IX.

Jamn that Law

> Some churches in Mexico have gone beyond lectures and taken the James Bond-as-disciplinarian route to combat sacrilegious cell phone use. The churches have installed short-range cell phone signal jammers to thwart members of their flock who lack cell phone self-control during mass. > The jammers have caught on in

St. Petersburg

The incorrigible yet talented Christopher Hitchens has written a beautiful piece about St. Petersburg's history and nights. Link [http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/articles/050725roco02]. Excerpts: > The city is so utterly classical, with its piazzas and canals and bridges and fortresses and cathedrals, that it doesn&

Internationals Slipping?

Global U.S. companies are apparently slipping in appeal, and some blame the Iraqi War. If that doesn't prompt an exit strategy, nothing will. Link [http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/12/news/fortune500/brands_ranking/index.htm?section=money_topstories] . Excerpt: > Global consumers have spoken: They&

Redneck Montage

It's Saturday, so what the heck: This is one of the most entertaining videos we've seen. It consists of hundreds of photos set to the tune of Dueling Banjos. Warning: It's PG, borderline PG-13. Link [http://www.bpninc.com/evideo/video_mac_hi.mov]

The Weekend Eudemon

A Friday evening of cheap wine and cheap football. It was the Lions' pre-season opener, and it was the opening of Eric's first box of wine. A box of White Grenache from Franzia. Five liters for $9.00. Eric doesn't drink a lot of wine

Potential Characters . . .

. . . in a re-telling of C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce? > A 43-year-old man was cited Tuesday for painting a sign that reads "Die you miserable bitch" on a house he owns, Pasco County sheriff's deputies said. > A neighbor dying of cancer, 73-year-old Carol

Call It "Chernobyl World"

> Chernobyl's ecosystems seem to be bouncing back, 19 years after the region was blasted with radiation from the ill-fated reactor. Researchers who have surveyed the land around the old nuclear power plant in present-day Ukraine say that biodiversity is actually higher than before the disaster. > Some

Get 'Em a Massachusetts Marriage License

> Boston's beloved pair of swans -- feted by city leaders, residents, and tourists alike as one of the Hub's most celebrated summer attractions -- are a same-sex couple. Yes, scientific tests have shown that the pair, named Romeo and Juliet, are really Juliet and Juliet.

More Clark II

A reader sends this along: > I am a reader and fan. Thought you should read(below) a blog entry from yesterday on Rocco Palmo's blog, whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com [http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/] from yesterday about EWTN changing their stance on Clarke... > The Other Shoe Drops >

NCAA Supports Fictional People

The NCAA is making the University of Illinois change their nickname from the "Fighting Illini," even though there isn't and never has been a tribe named "Illini." Head-shaking stuff. Link [http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/billmcclellan/story/49C64A1BA1ADE32986256EE90038B6B0?OpenDocument] . The writer

Best Feel-Good Story of the Week

> Three Boulder County children split more than $98,000 after finding the cash in a field last February and turning it in. > Sheriff's deputies examine at least $80,000 in deteriorated bills found by children in Boulder County. > The children were walking through a field

Thank You, Dr. Obvious

It's encouraging to see a European secularist acknowledge Europe's birth problem. Unfortunately, we suspect he's sparring for the socialist vision: Using the State to make it possible for women to work and raise families. In other words: establishing numerous, cheap, state-run daycare facilities. It&

Beautiful Woman Will Save the World, Issue 945,021

> Dukes of Hazzard star Jessica Simpson says she wants to do missionary work in a bid to save the world. > The actress also wants to visit Third World countries with hubby Nick Lachey and adopt children from that region. > "We'd still like to do

More Clark

We hope EWTN knows what it's doing. > An Alabama-based worldwide Catholic television network has no plans to drop a program hosted by a New York priest who has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a married woman. > Monsignor Eugene V. Clark, the pastor of

NARAL Backs Down

> Under pressure to withdraw an advertisement that describes Judge John G. Roberts Jr. as "one whose ideology leads him to excuse violence against other Americans," an abortion rights advocacy group announced Thursday night that it would replace the advertisement, which had drawn widespread criticism as being false

Brews You Can Use II

Clearly, this is a malt beverage for homosexuals: > Anheuser-Busch Co. has rolled out another caffeinated malt beverage - this one aimed to be even less beer-like than B-to-the-E, which debuted nine months ago. > Tilt, a raspberry-flavored drink, targets 21- to 27-year-old males who want a beverage that helps

Brews You Can Use

> A Japanese company has turned a non-alcoholic brew called Kidsbeer into a surprising success. > The drink started out as Guarana, a cola beverage sold at Yuichi Asaba's Shitamachi-ya restaurant in Fukuoka. Asaba renamed the sweet carbonated drink Kidsbeer, a move that made it an instant hit.

Two Good Lines

Two good lines Eric heard at the drinking club tonight: 1. "My marriage is on the rocks. Which is better than taking it straight, I guess." 2. In reference to the gas prices: "Keep 'em coming. I can't afford to drive home tonight."

Least Favorite People

Right Wing News asked over 200 right-of-center bloggers to send their list of least favorite right-wing people. Forty-seven bloggers responded. Here are the results (number of votes in parentheses, on the right): > 18) Tom Tancredo (4) 18) Ralph Reed (4) 18) Newt Gingrich (4) 18) Lincoln Chafee (4) 18)

That's Nuts! . . .

. . . but understandable: > A man annoyed by a noisy car alarm fired at least three bullets into a Toyota Camry, silencing the alarm and bringing out police who hauled him away in handcuffs, authorities said. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ALARM_RAGE?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=STRANGE&

Everyone's Copying Eric Scheske!

First Arianna Huffington, now Donald Trump has his own blog. Link [http://www.techweb.com/wire/ebiz/168600536]. > Add online blogger to the list of media ventures on the resume of real-estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump. > Trump's eponymous blog, which is subtitled "

Fun in the Hood

This is one of the funniest things we've seen in the past couple of weeks: An application for a board game about fighting crack cocaine. Hours of fun for the entire family! http://www.thesmokinggun.com/patent/crackgame1.html We're not intellectual law attorneys, but we&

Strange Days Indeed . . .

. . . Most peculiar, mama: > In an unusual show of “openness” to the Catholic Church, a Masonic lodge in Italy has announced the appointment of a Catholic priest as chaplain. The news was announced during an address to members of the lodge by Grand Master Fabio Venzi of the Grand Lodge

I Have Entitlements! I Have Rights! Let Me Kill You!

Government hand-outs weaken the economy and often destroy its recipients. But now there's yet another reason to hate them: > Hateful Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed has lived well off the dole in England. The moocher cleric is due for a government angioplasty – no doubt because he clogged

What's the Problem? . . .

. . . Isn't the point to have fun at all costs and to be offensive, if at all possible? Those censors in Helland just don't get it: > The Dutch university student who produced a pro-Holocaust video apologized Wednesday, calling the creation a joke. > Expatica reports that

Edgy Recruits

The Catholic Church is turning to Hollywood-marketing to recruit priests, and it just may be working. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050811-121555-3335r.htm]. Excerpts: > "If we can get high-school youth to hang a picture of a priest in their room, that's huge in helping young

The Bizarro St. Josephs?

> Research suggests that, as cases of teenage pregnancies, sexual infidelity and multiple partners increase, 1 in 25 fathers could unknowingly be raising another man's child. > With improvements in genetic testing, thousands of fathers every year are discovering that “their” child is someone else's. A

Odd Consumer News

Another good one from the Makezine blog: > Solar-powered Wi-Fi networks. Lumin's first-generation product is the LightWave AP-1000 solar-powered access point, which comes in two models, single and dual. The Pearl Street deployment utilizes four dual units, each of which is located out of sight on a well-chosen

Odd Consumer News II

We knew we were spending all that money on space exploration for a reason: tourism. > Space Adventures, a company based in Arlington, Va., has already sent two tourists into orbit. Today, it is to unveil an agreement with Russian space officials to send two passengers on a voyage lasting

Brews You Can Use

No, it's not Friday yet, but it's been a rough couple of days, so we're drinking early: > For more than 160 years the Trappist monks at Saint Sixtus monastery in Flanders have been producing a rich, dark-brown, beer renowned for its exceptional flavour

Odd Consumer News

For you Tim Allen types: This grill can cook 240 hotdogs in three minutes. Link [http://www.gizmag.com/go/4397/].

Only $500?

Don't get discouraged. Just get someone at ESPN to buy into the idea that it's a sport (or, rather, an event that can be marketed), and they'll media-blitz the rest of America with its virtues: > The 12th annual U.S. Marbles Championship tournament

Leno on Ostensible Anti-Terrorists

> As I'm sure you know, a number of Middle Eastern leaders have now come forward to say they are opposed to terrorism. Do you get the feeling they're not that sincere? It's kind of like those public service announcements when rock stars say,

Gosh, We Woulda Thought This Was a No-Brainer

But in Canada, can you be prosecuted for voting "yes" in such a survey, if you cite Canada's homosexual agenda as a reason? That's kinda hateful, isn't it? > More than one-third of western Canadians surveyed this summer thought it was time

Cruise Almost Left Scientology?

Did he get to the part about Smurfette's identity as the terrible mother goddess? > About 10 years ago, after being introduced to the sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard's sect by ex-wife Mimi Rogers, Cruise had achieved the Operating Thetan III level of instruction (in which

Godcasts

> According to Lee, Godcasts - "religious and spiritually themed podcasts" - have become "the most popular use of the new online technology since it debuted less than a year ago". They "range from a daily dose of Scripture to a weekly dose of the

Man, It's Not a Good Day for Catholics

If anyone has any good news to pass along, please send it to us (e-mail link on your left). > A cartoon which was banned from the BBC for its depiction of the Pope as an immature brat is set to cause new controversy after it was today confirmed it

Did We Mention There's a War Going On . . .

. . . against Catholicism? > Today the Condoms4Life Campaign unveiled the newest phase of its public education effort to raise public awareness about the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the devastating effect of the bishops' ban on condoms as giant billboards went up in the Dom (Cathedral) metro station in Cologne, Germany,

And a Vicious Attack on Roberts?

According to The Drudge Report: > CNN has reviewed and agreed to run a controversial ad produced by a pro-abortion group that falsely accuses Supreme Court nominee John Roberts of filing legal papers supporting a convicted clinic bomber! > The news network has agreed to a $125,000 ad buy

Another Smarmy Attack on Opus Dei

It's just in Radar Magazine, but it'll hit the big press within 12 hours. > Despite the controversy that's dogged it from its inception, the sect has emerged as one of the most conservative and influence-seeking wings of the Catholic Church and is said

Great, Just Great

> The Archdiocese of New York is looking into explosive allegations that a top priest who publicly railed against our "sex-saturated society" had a long-term affair with his married church secretary. > Msgr. Eugene Clark allegedly romanced 46-year-old Laura DeFilippo at his Hamptons home and a Long Island

What Infraction?

> In Roseland, [Indiana,] the Knights Inn was ticketed for a roadside sign that offers support to the troops, and discount rooms for active military personnel. Link [http://www.wndu.com/news/082005/news_43957.php]. The story doesn't say how the sign violates the law, and we&

Weekly Features Post

Tuesday evening, the middle of the week almost here. Welcome. We've been musing over libertarians' and distributists' economic differences and have patched together some notes and thoughts on the subject. We've decided to post them here, even though the people interested in this topic

Is This Tolkien's Fault Somehow?

But Middle Earth didn't have years of power, though the elves lived forever and gained wisdom in their immortality. Hard to say what this fella was thinking, but there's gotta be a civil rights violation in here some place: > Meet Robert McClain. The Michigan man,

Eyes on the Normally-Quiet Lutherans

> The scrutiny of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America this week during its biennial Churchwide Assembly in Orlando won't be due to looming votes on church reorganization and a new worship book. > The 4.9-million-member church will become the latest mainline Protestant denomination to tackle the

Straight Men to Marry

We'd normally object at such a flagrant disregard of marriage's sanctity, but we're dealing with Canada where marriage is no more valued than a club membership: > Two heterosexual Canadian men are to tie the knot to enjoy the tax benefits of being a

Far Out!

They're bringing back Night Stalker [http://www.scifi.com/kolchak/], one of our favorites from the 1970s. It'll be on ABC. > Premieres Thursday, Sept. 29 at 9/8c > Carl Kolchak is the "Night Stalker," a newspaper reporter who investigates strange deaths and

Another Small Scandal

It frustrates us, but the Catholic Church just has a way of messing up their own bed. It's probably because it's such a large body that isn't nearly as closely organized administratively as people think. But still, these things get tiresome. Link [http://www.

Our Money was on Martha Burk

> A New York radio station has agreed to pay $240,000 after sponsoring "smackfest" contests in which young women took turns slapping each other for a chance to win concert tickets and cash. > In a statement, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and State Athletic Commission

Knight Time Reality

We detest reality shows, but this one could be pretty good, if you're a sports fan: > ESPN announced last week that Knight would choose a walk-on from a field of 16 to fill the last roster slot on his 2006-7 Red Raiders basketball team. > The six-part

Hitler in the Hood

Yo' mama do' know Adolph/ And yo' brutha done be queer/ We be the neo-Nazis/ Gonna stab you in da ear. You might think I look ugly/ With a swastika-tattooed head/ But I slap my woman fo' the **** of it/ At night when I go to

GM Finds Bail Out?

If people really believe that what's good for GM is good for America, fasten your seatbelts for a lot more concessions to China: > In this obscure corner of southern China, General Motors seems to have hit on a hot new formula: $5,000 minivans that get 43

Guy Rants

Bernard Chapin at Crux reviews Thomas Ellis' The Rantings of a Single Male: Losing Patience with Feminism, Political Correctness, and Basically Everything [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0976261308/thedailyeudem-20]. Pretty good, hard-hitting stuff. Link [http://www.cruxmag.com/SingleMaleAlone.htm]. Excerpt: > [H]is title is oddly

Beatlemania Coming?

We've always been more on the McCartney side, but we'd like to see this: > "Lennon," which opens Sunday at the Broadhurst, tracks Lennon's life through his songs, interspersed with video and his own words. It's an undertaking complex enough

Stooping Too Low for NBC?

Leave it to the UCoCs: > Stirring the pot again, the United Church of Christ, the church that, earlier this year, ran ads mocking other churches showing a bouncer who refused entry to minors and gays is planning a new ad. The first ad, "Bouncer," part of the

Kind of Odd . . .

. . . but fine with us: > Sex offenders tracked by the state are banned from public hurricane shelters in Florida under a new policy that allows them to weather the storms in prison instead. Link [http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=104&sid=551557].

Meat Against Meat-Eating

> Meet the Vegan Vixens, a group of scantily clad California models and actors who have joined forces to titillate, tantalise and ultimately transform the beef-loving American male and his traditional dependence on a diet of burgers, steaks and ribs. > After years of listening to somnolent vegetarians drearily denouncing

How Appropriate

> Evansville city officials are considering a request by a couple to be married in a city cemetery. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CEMETERY_WEDDING?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=STRANGE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-08-05-17-07-02] . Reminds of that little ditty Eric Scheske sings when married life

When We Read the Headline . . .

. . . we knew who fired the shot: > It was bound to happen sooner or later, and in what newspapers in Kentucky are calling a first, one American has killed another in a dispute over the Iraq war. > It happened at Floyd County flea market on Thursday, when two friends,

Take It Like a Man

You know, if you're going to be a twisted pervert, could you at least be a shadow of a man about it? As far as we're concerned, this is like suing a bartender for serving you too many drinks or, perhaps more apt, suing a baseball

No Shocker Here

Throughout our country's history, politicians would give away beer and cider. Now, they give away sex: > With his campaign for city council going no place fast, Victor Bernace felt he needed something special to spark interest in his next fundraiser. How about exotic dancers? > The New

Forgive Us, Bill

> Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, two of Britain's greatest Shakespearean actors, are to star in a film adaptation of The Merchant of Venice set in modern-day Las Vegas. > The new Â£20 million movie will shift the action of the Bard's 1596 play

More Da Vinci Madness

> [Da Vinci Code] Film officials have held talks with Catholic groups and other organisations despite Dan Brown, the author, insisting that “it's only a novel and therefore a work of fiction”, The New York Times reported yesterday. > The Catholic League is calling for Ron Howard, the

More Meth

Newsweek has a feature article on methamphetamine (a/k/a "crank") and the government's ineffective war against it. We've always been lukewarm on the drug war, but this stuff needs to be ruthlessly stomped out with our heels. In Eric Scheske's small

100 Bad People?

They're bad people according to Bernard Goldberg's book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. The list shows a little bit of Republican bias, to say the least, and our list would look considerably different, but we like lists, so we're reproducing it here.

Talking Causes Blindness

> Prolonged use of mobile phones can lead to permanent eye damage including cataracts, scientists believe. > Medical researchers have found that microwave radiation of the type emitted by mobile phones causes eye tissue to "bubble" - a precursor to the formation of cataracts - and can also

Almost Like Competing for the Olympics?

> Hollywood actor-director Mel Gibson has been asked to recreate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the streets of Sydney if the city is selected to host a major Catholic gathering in 2008, a newspaper reported Saturday. > Gibson's staging of the Stations of the Cross, a live

Something Below Has Frozen Over

> [T]he Rolling Stones have hired a personal trainer and organised organic food for their upcoming tour. > Mick Jagger & Co have replaced the booze and drugs of their heyday with a healthy eating and exercise regime to keep them in shape. Link [http://www.thesun.co.uk/

Not Exactly a St. Joseph Emulator . . .

. . . but it's a great story: > A man made up a story about killing a hitchhiker and burying the body in the woods in an effort to persuade his wife to leave him, authorities said. Link [http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/12297664.htm].

Soldier's Funeral

From an e-mail that's making its way around the Internet. A tribute to small towns and one's roots. > What follows is a message from Vicki Pierce about her nephew James' funeral (he was serving our country in Iraq): > "I'm back,

On Airport Security Madness

Sixty-two-year-old Phyllis Dintenfass resisted the ridiculous airport security and now stands in danger of losing everything. The folks at Lew Rockwell come to her (and Martha Stewart's) defense. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers11.html]. Excerpt: > Phyllis had the guts to do what so many of

Powerful Stuff.

> David Jollands, 72, of Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, feared that the dreaded [ leylandii [http://www.tmac.clara.co.uk/urgring/faqleyld.htm]] trees [that his neighbor had planted], which can grow to 80ft (25m), would tower over his garden – so he used his own gardening expertise to retaliate. > He started

Good

He was still 200 yards from the house and we're no fans of the celebrity culture, but we can't weep for this fellow: > A photographer was shot in the leg with a pellet gun outside Britney Spears' home Saturday evening, authorities said. > It

Fascinating Undercover Work

A reporter for the Sunday Times infiltrated the Muslim group, Saviour Sect, and spent two months there as a recruit. Interesting stuff. Link [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1724541,00.html]. Excerpts: > The reporter witnessed one of the sect's leading figures, Sheikh Omar Brooks, telling

Where's the Fun in That?

What killjoys. This won't allow us to kill babies and it doesn't pit our fears against unborn babies, which is what abortion zealots want. > Scientists looking for easier and less-controversial alternatives to stem cells from human embryos said on Friday they found a potential source

Who Put the Hashish in Our Drinking Water?

> The July 7 terrorist bombings in London drew considerable public attention and raised fears of another attack in the United States, but these concerns do not translate into less favorable opinions of either Muslim-Americans or Islam. And compared with 2003, fewer now say that Islam is more likely than

Thanks, Commodore Perry

Japan's westernization continues: > Japanese moviegoers will finally be able to see fully exposed genitalia on the silver screen for the first time ever later this month, according to Shukan Post (8/12). > Japan's Eirin, the name commonly used for the Administration Commission of Motion

Something for Sunday Morning

> The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt. Thomas Merton

Circa 1981?

A woman bought a bunch of family photos at an estate sale and put them on the web. Pretty funny stuff, but no matter what, it looks like this family enjoyed each others' company, and that's worth a lot. Link [http://swapatorium.blogspot.com/2005/08/looking-for-love-in-all-wrong-places.

Terrorist Land Contracts

> By many interpretations, Koranic law forbids the payment or receipt of interest on the theory it creates a culture of debt slavery, which begets other evils. > But when Soliaman and Metzger moved to Canton earlier this year, they found a new way to finance their house that didn&

Children, Play Nice

> The latest dispute between the two political parties began in April when St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Co. wrote a $5,000 check intended for the South Carolina Republican Party. > Instead, the envelope was addressed to the state Democratic Party, which promptly deposited the money. > Katja Zastrow, Anheuser-Busch'

Go Get 'em, Noles!

> Florida State University doesn't plan to change its "Seminoles" nickname. > The NCAA decided today to ban schools using Native American names and symbols from hosting championship events. But Florida State President T-K Wetherell says he'll sue the NCAA for its - quote

The Earliest Pod Cast Fans

> [I]n the course of 30 years [the Grateful Dead] managed to become the highest-grossing live band in the history of rock. > Yet in all of their years, they had only one hit ”“ 1987's “Touch of Grey,” which made it to number 9 on Billboard'

Yuck

Yet another reason to shut down the porn industry: > Papers in New York and London have reported that Tyson is considering a move into the X-rated movie business. > Tyson said that representatives for porn star Jenna Jameson have approached him about starring in an adult film, according to

The Medium is the Message

To a man with a hammer, the whole world is a nail. To a man with a camera phone, everything is a photo-op: > A man filmed himself jumping to his death on his mobile video phone and beamed the live images to his horrified girlfriend, an inquest heard. Link

Epstein on Hollywood

America's best essayist is Joseph Epstein. We have a collection of books by Epstein, most of which are collections of his essays. When we find an Epstein essay on-line, especially a new one, we're ecstatic, especially if it's in an area that interests us

Threefer

Perhaps it's shameful on our part, but we're going to (try to) start a blog meme, one of those chain-blog messages that bloggers pass among each other. It's simple: 1. Name your three biggest non-reference books (excluding the Bible and text books). 2. Name

Not Bad for a Hollywoodite

> Kate Hudson has interesting ideas about marriage. On TV's ''Access Hollywood," the actress said, ''I don't believe [monogamy] is realistic. But I believe that we, as people, have the power to make it happen." She added: ''I

NPCAA

They want to be PC, they really do. But they don't have the guts, so they go part way: > The NCAA announcement Friday that it will ban the use of American Indian mascots and logos by sports teams during postseason NCAA tournaments, but not in the regular

The Weekend Eudemon

Another Saturday morning, another case of writer's block. We try to write the first draft of The Weekend Eudemon on Friday evening, preferably after a few block-removing beers, but Eric was in charge (not control) of Meg and Max--the spunky four-year-old and wandering two-year-old--by himself last night. His

Neat List

We're not sure exactly what to make of it, but it's a pretty neat list. > The magazine Uncut asked industry experts and movie and music icons to name their seminal moments from the past 50 years. . . > Top 20 > 1. Bob Dylan “Like a

Far Out

> Fittingly, it's been a long journey. After years of wandering, Beat writer Jack Kerouac's On the Road is finally jumping from the page to the screen. Francis Ford Coppola – whose American Zoetrope production company has owned the film rights to the classic road-trip novel since

Intelligent Design Defense

David Limbaugh points out the strengths of intelligent design theories. Link [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/davidlimbaugh/dl20050805.shtml]. Excerpt: > Many of ID's cynical detractors patronizingly frame this entire debate in terms of a struggle between faith and science. Intelligent Design, they say, is but a thinly

Black History

Maybe we need to watch more of The History Channel in February. This fascinating fellow Gannibal has fallen through our reading net (which we--probably foolishly--like to think is rather large): > In his elegantly written new biography, Hugh Barnes suggests Gannibal was born in Chad, taken as a slave to

Lactating Frenzy Continues

> A US firm is looking to commercialise breast milk by selling it to hospitals for the treatment of sick babies. > Prolacta Bioscience, a small company just outside Los Angeles, also wants to carry out research to develop breast milk-based therapies. > Breast milk, with its minerals, digestive enzymes

Defusing Da Vinci?

A PR firm is preparing to make Da Vinci acceptable to Christians: > Columbia Studios, which is making The Da Vinci Code, clearly feels that it cannot count on divine protection. It has called on the services of Grace Hill Media to help to prepare the groundwork for the film,

We Missed This

Further evidence that Islam is using our open society against us: > When Ramzi Mohammed, one of the failed bombers in the second wave of attacks on London, was surrounded by representatives of the decadent, infidel West, he didn't shriek, "Allahu Akbar!" and throw himself at

Vatican: Terror Object

Is the Vatican a target? The story has no evidence that it's a target, but theoretically, it makes sense that it'd be on the list. Link [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164661,00.html]. Excerpts: > "I think the Vatican has to be

Dang It!

Could you at least take Alec Baldwin? > In the days after President Bush won a second term, the number of U.S. citizens visiting Canada's main immigration Web site shot up sixfold, prompting speculation that unhappy Democrats would flock north. > But official statistics show the number

No Filibuster Now

If you missed the story: > Judge John G. Roberts Jr., the Supreme Court nominee, gave advice to advocates for gay rights a decade ago, helping them win a landmark 1996 ruling protecting gay men and lesbians from state-sanctioned discrimination. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/politics/politicsspecial1/

Brews You Can Use III

Europe's newest totalitarian regime, the EU, stopped short of starting a riot: > Under the EU's Optical Radiation Directive, employers of staff who work outdoors in high-risk professions must ensure they cover up against the risk of sunburn. Rumors swept Bavaria early in the week that

Brews You Can Use II

Talk to me, baby! Someone has started a podcast about beer. From the site: > Our podcast is an internet radio broadcast about good beers, good food, good friends, and good fun. We talk with guests from around North America and around the world–brewers, growers, chefs, maltsters, publicans, and

Brews You Can Use

This guy has created an iceless beer box. At a cost of over $100 and hours of effort, combined with the bulky result, we don't see it catching on. Still, we appreciate his efforts. Link [http://www.shawndouglas.com/beerbox/index.html].

Egg on Our Face

Our most-recent pro-condom teacher story involved a private school teacher. Indeed, a teacher at a Catholic school. Link [http://www.cbaalbany.org/]. It's the first time that any of these stories (that we've seen) have involved a private school teacher, though the person who noticed our

Catholic Houses

Mary Kochan at Catholic Exchange writes about Catholics and big houses. She calls for a sane attitude that favors children over consumer goods. Link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=29508]. Excerpt: > So what's the plan for this generation we

Another Pro-Condom Public School Teacher

We mentioned a few months ago that it seems like stories about public school teachers' indiscretions could be a regular feature on our blog. The Smoking Gun has noticed a similar thing. From their e-mail bulletin: > It's now getting to the point where we could probably

Funny Punctuation

Richard Lederer at Vocabula Review takes issue with those who think punctuation isn't that important. Link [http://www.vocabula.com/2005/VRJULY05Lederer.asp] (subscribers only). Excerpt: > Like it or not, writing well – not artistically, not ornately, not floridly, but just competently – really is the difference between being

Funny Confederate Poll

Rabbi Shmuley at Beliefnet wants a ban on Confederate symbols. Link [http://beliefnet.com/story/171/story_17164_1.html]. At the right sidebar, Beliefnet is running a poll on the issue. Here are the results, as of 2:00 this afternoon: > Following Germany's ban on Nazi

Kiosk Reminder

Just a reminder: The TDE Kiosk has been up for almost two weeks now. There are some interesting posts. As a new feature, the Kiosk needs publicity. These reminder notices will continue sporadically for about a month.

A Look at Looks

The Wilson Quarterly has a lengthy essay about Americans' obsession with appearance. It has a lot of current studies and analysis. Link [http://wwics.si.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=135758]. Excerpts: > In general, how we look communicates something about how healthy we are,

T-Shirts

Perhaps you've seen them on the Internet: advertisements featuring attractive young women wearing T-shirts for conservatives. We find many of them tiresome, but this one cracked us up, so we're passing it along:

eBay Ecstasy

Greg Perry at Lew Rockwell is publishing a three-part series on eBay, covering its greatness and its problems. Here's a link to the first installment [http://www.lewrockwell.com/perry/perry13.html]. Excerpt: > Over 475,000 people now make a full-time living from eBay alone. Billions of

Documentary on Pollution

We think most documentaries are trash. They lull people into thinking they're learning when they're not. But a documentary to start this Sunday might be the trashiest yet. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050803/ap_en_ce/ap_on_tv_hugh_hefner;_ylt=AsKbsrcYqeeFkAAyiSWmUU1xFb8C;

Even the Frogs Are Showing Guts

> France has expelled two radical Islamist leaders in the wake of the London bombings and plans to round up and send home up to two dozen more by the end of the month, the interior ministry said yesterday. > Underlining the difference in approach between London and Paris, a

Abortion Plus One Day?

Heck, the way Germany is going, this women will be their Rosa Parks: > German police are holding a woman suspected of manslaughter after the bodies of nine new-born babies were found buried in a garden. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4737641.stm].

The (In)Security Insanity Continues

The ACLU is filing suit against NYC's random subway searches. > The lawsuit, to be filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, contends that the searches are "virtually certain neither to catch any person trying to carry explosives into the subway nor to deter such an effort.

Defending Kirk

American Spectator apparently ran an article critical of Russell Kirk's ghost stories (occasioned by the recently-issued Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/080283938X/thedailyeudem-20]). We're a fan of Kirk's fiction, so were glad to see that

Proving Sin

An advertising company came up with a unique way to convey the message for a client in the security business. Link [http://experiencethemessage.typepad.com/blog/2005/08/steal_this_bill.html ]. Excerpt: > This billboard gets interactive with consumers in a very unique way -- it makes them steal.

We Knew Drinking Alone Was a Problem . . .

. . . but so is eating alone, at least for children: > [F]ewer than one-third of all children sit down to eat dinner with both parents on any given night. ... The decline in the family dinner has been blamed for the rise in obesity, drug abuse, behavioral problems, promiscuity, poor school

A Different Type of Red State?

The Good News in China: > Chinese are embracing Christianity in a social revolution that is spreading through town and countryside to the point where Christians already may outnumber members of the Communist Party of China. > Visits to villages in backward rural provinces or to urban churches in Beijing,

We've Been Waiting for This Momentous Decision!

> Mom-to-be Britney Spears says she'll raise her unborn child to follow the mystical Kabbalah faith. Link [http://www.news24.com/News24/Backpage/HotGossip/0,,2-1343-1344_1747742,00.html] .

Fascinating and Infuriating

Why don't the mainline publishing houses pick up this story? Why no outrage at Islam, that "religion of peace"? Link [http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=8415]. Excerpt: > Precisely at the moment when Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church in Rome (and throughout

We're Back

Well, we're back from Alpena, Michigan. We've been re-reading our posts from the past week, and we noticed an assortment of typos and bad writing (we hope someone noticed). Our laptop's screen is small, and we couldn't print out and proof/edit

Far East Teapot Scandal

A sect noted for its giant teapot that symbolizes its belief in the healing purity of water has been toppled by Malaysian authorities, who say the sect held deviant beliefs to Islam. > The giant teapot and other key structures at the Sky Kingdom commune came tumbling down yesterday after

Ten Favorites

Jeffrey Tucker at Lew Rockwell wrote an entertaining column about the ten people he'd like to meet. A list that includes Ludwig von Mises, St. Cecilia, and Bette Davis is worth consulting. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker56.html]. Excerpt: > Mother Cabrini (1850”“1917). Shorter than

Weekly Features Post

Introductory Words: We apologize up front for an abbreviated Weekly Features Post. If you've been logging on regularly, you know that we've been vacationing in Alpena, Michigan, at Eric Scheske's family cottage on Lake Huron. Wi-Fi has allowed us to blog a little, but

Elvis

We've admitted previously: We like Elvis. No, we don't own a velvet Elvis, but we do have some Elvis posters. We bought them mostly for the shock and humor value, but we genuinely enjoy Elvis' music and persona, no matter how shallow and absurd. Perhaps

To Heck with the Horseless Carriage . . .

. . . we need a cow-less one: > California's San Joaquin Valley for some time has had the dirtiest air in the country. Monday, officials said gases from ruminating dairy cows, not exhaust from cars, are the region's biggest single source of a chief smog-forming pollutant. > Every

Creative Crimes Call for Creative Sentences?

> Police departments in Johnson County aren't sure how they'll carry out an unusual sentence a judge imposed on a teenager convicted of intentionally vomiting on his teacher. > Johnson County Magistrate Judge Michael Farley on Tuesday sentenced the 17-year-old boy to spend the next four

Shallowness Breeds Shallowness?

This survey links the pursuit of money with the pursuit of beauty. Say it ain't so! > More than half of women believe that having a better body and looks would enable them to climb the career ladder at work, putting paid to the "brains over beauty&

New Online Encyclopedia

James Randi has put his Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural online. Interesting stuff. Link [http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/].

State of the Blogosphere

David Sifry publishes a quarterly report about the state of blogging. Here are his results for the most-recent quarter (published 8/1/2005): > Technorati was tracking over 14.2 Million weblogs, and over 1.3 billion links in July 2005 The blogosphere continues to double about every 5.5

Wouldn't You Expect More from a Country . . .

. . . that's so sexually progressive? > Car manufacturers BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen; the country's fourth-largest financial institution, Commerzbank; Europe's largest chip-producer, Infineon - five of Germany's leading firms, all members of its Dax-30 blue-chip index, have become embroiled in corruption scandals in recent

Britain is Serious

The U.S. isn't serious yet, but if we're attacked a few more times, maybe security guards at airports will be directed to be effective, not sensitive: > British Transport Police have been targeting specific ethnic groups for "intelligence-led" stop-and-searches as part of their

Plugging a Giant

We've mentioned that we're blogging from the shores of Lake Huron. That's only partly true. Our cottage sits on the big lake, but we don't have an Internet connection there. We go to the local McDonald's in Alpena, Michigan to

Atkins Loses A Lot of Weight

And a lot of debt: > The company started by the late nutrition guru Dr. Robert C. Atkins to promote a low-carb lifestyle has filed for bankruptcy court protection, a further sign of the waning popularity of the diet. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050801/ap_on_bi_

Lonely Sheep Farmer

> A New Zealand man is resisting demands to take down hundreds of women's bras strung on his farm's fence, according to a Local 6 News report. > "It was probably a novelty for the first six months but I think it's passed

Snoping Around

The urban legend busters/verifiers, Snopes, has published a list of the funniest questions they've received from readers. It's worth a look. A few samples: > Has anyone had to cut off their tongue because it frozen to a flagpole? > I've been told

Canada's Coming South

> A state university in New Jersey has reprimanded a student-employee for describing homosexuality as a "perversion" in a private e-mail that he sent a female professor, after she sent him an unsolicited announcement about a university event that promoted lesbian relationships. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/national/

Premier Tornado Chaser

This guy has built a contraption out of a 1997 Ford pick-up that can drive into a tornado. Pretty wild. Link [http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=102748].

Good, Press On, Boys!

> Technology that helps the military align targets and motorists find their way is being tapped to track some sex offenders forever. Spurred by headlines of released sex offenders accused of murder, some states are mandating use of the Global Positioning System for tracking. Many lawmakers see electronic monitoring as

Is Eric's Purple Speedo Now Obsolete?

> Thong sales have collapsed by nearly 20% in the past year, signalling a backlash against a symbol of “chav” culture. > The underwear was appropriated by mainstream fashion from its strip club origins. It made its way into women's wardrobes after being flaunted by celebrities such as

Terror Turns Two

Happy birthday to Eric Scheske's son, Maximilian Melvin Scheske. The first name comes from Kolbe and the middle from Eric's father, Mel. Max is devastatingly handsome and, we're told from one professionally-administered test, very smart. But he doesn't talk. It's

More China

Eric Scheske occasionally contributes to the Crux [http://cruxmag.typepad.com/situation_critical/] blogs. Last week, he received this polite response to his concerns about China's situation: > Oh, sir, most of China bashers have actually never been in China and spent time to experience Chinese life, just

On Used Books

The New York Times printed an interesting piece about the economics of used books. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/technology/28scene.html?ex=1280203200&en=33765024cbf62d4c&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&NYT_REG_SUCKS] . According to the article, used books probably

CSL's Paganism

> C.S. Lewis's vision assumed “that pagan wisdom and mythology may furnish us with some very significant clues to things. Spenser, in his Christian epic on Charity, The Faerie Queen, takes us to such pagan haunts as the Cave of Morpheus and the Garden of Adonis. Milton

Hooligans Need Love, Too

Germany's determination to provide 24/7 sex continues: > A German company is looking to cash in on an expected boom in the sex trade during next year's soccer World Cup with a 60-room brothel a walk away from Berlin's Olympic Stadium, German media

Did They Cast Susan Sarandon?

> The evil which is abroad in Narnia when we first come into the land takes the form of a white witch. We learn from Mr. Beaver that she is of the race of Lilith, Adam's first wife, according to an old and persistent legend. Because of dissatisfaction

Something for Sunday Morning

> The Father of Mysticism, Gregory of Nyssa, illustrated the problem of weakness with a story about a trained monkey who danced for money. The monkey's owner put a mask on the monkey, so the spectators thought he was a boy dancing with remarkable agility and would throw

Is There Good Foreign Aid?

We believe in international charity. In America, our "poor" are rich, by comparison to third world countries, so we're more inclined to ship our donations across seas. Yet, we gotta wonder: Does our money do more harm than good? We've generally resisted foreign aid

Library of Modern Thinkers

We've started ISI Books' Bertrand de Jouvenel. It promises to be another great offering. We've read the other four books in the series (Ludwig von Mises, Wilhelm Roepke, Eric Voegelin, and Robert Nisbet) and have immensely enjoyed all of them. In a world strained for

King of the Dung Hill

> Over the last decade, [David Hans] Schmidt has emerged as one of the nation's leading purveyors of celebrity porn, the man who brokered the sale of Tonya Harding's wedding-night sex video; arranged for Paula Jones, the former Arkansas state employee who sued Bill Clinton for

The Married State

> Both the U.S. marriage and divorce rates are dropping while the number of unwed couples living together is rising, according to an annual study of marriage released Monday. > The numbers show a gradual trend in the United States toward the lifestyles in Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, where unmarried

Just the Beginning?

> About 30 children, some as young as 3 months old, were left without their parents after immigration agents raided a poultry plant and took the parents away to face possible deportation. > While some of the arrested workers were able to call and arrange care for their children, others

Kiosk RSS Feed

If any of you computer-savvy folks want to monitor the Kiosk, you can use this RSS Feed [http://www.ericscheske.com/kiosk/rss.php].

The Weekend Eudemon

Blogging from the shores of Lake Huron, about 100 miles south of the Straits of Mackinac (pronounced, mak-in-awe, with accent on first syllable), near Alpena, Michigan. Eric is spending a week at his family's cottage. Known as “Sandcrest,” it has been in his family since the 1940s. Eric&

Catholic Anarchism

We found this interesting. Dorothy Day on anarchist government: > The state is government by representation (when it is a democracy) but there is no reason why a Catholic must believe that people must be governed by representatives --the Catholic is free to believe one way or the other, as

The Movie Has Its Work Cut Out for It

> The tales of Narnia open up to us a certain kind of world. It is a world which has been made--made by Someone, beautifully made. Its fabric is shot through with glory. There is no peak, no valley, no sea or forest, but bears the weight of this glory,

Brews You Can Use II

Some relatively-obscure beer quotes, with our brief commentary: We like that, too: > It's very hard to get pretentious about beer. You can become knowledgeable and start to talk with a highfalutin' vocabulary. But you can only go so far with beer, and I've always

Brews You Can Use

Even We Don't Like Beer That Much

> A woman who admitted to setting a fire in her home because she was upset there was no beer pleaded guilty to arson, and several other charges Tuesday. > Police say Ruby Jewell was upset that her husband wouldn't buy her more beer last January, so she

PSA

Blogging will be a little light for the next couple of days. No, Eric Scheske isn't off on another important mission (unless killing little brown men, six at a time, counts). But he will be on the road and will have only occasional access to the Internet. We

Odd Consumer News

The New York Times has run an article about the Futuro House, a little pre-fab from the 1970s. Sixty or so still exist, but it appears there's a growing interest in them (which the NYT article will no doubt feed). Who knows, perhaps they'll go back

Hollywood Squares

Funny and nostalgic stuff from The Sudden Curve [http://tonova.typepad.com/thesuddencurve/2005/07/hollywood_squar.html]: > Here are some quotes from I found, when game show's responses were spontaneous and not scripted like they are now. > Peter Marshall: Paul, can you get an elephant

Can No One See the Distinction?

> Two gay Iranian teenagers -- one 18, the other believed to be 16 or 17, were executed this week for the "crime" of homosexuality . . . > Consensual gay sex in any form is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to the website Age of

But If They Were Gay Drug Dealers . . .

. . . they would have been protected and the righteous crowd dispersed with tear gas: > Police in Inuvik had to escort eight men out of the town last weekend after a mob threatened to remove the group from the community by force. > Police say they defused a potentially violent situation

Eric Scheske Can Barely Handle One

Interesting piece about the impact of polygamy on Islam's terrorism. Link [http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.18649/article_detail.asp]. Excerpt: > What differentiates Islam from the world's other great religions–Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism–is that it sanctions and practices polygamy. How did

Monsters, Inc.

If you haven't read about the sentencing of 62 raging pedophiles in Frances, you can get details here. Link [http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1744877,00.html]. Warning: It's nasty and disturbing. We won't cut-and-paste anything here, except to mention

Giving Us the Important News

Do the networks dumb us down, or do we dumb-down the networks? It's probably a symbiotic thing: > The real failure has been television's. According to monitoring by the Tyndall Report, ABC News had a total of 18 minutes of the Darfur genocide in its nightly

Drinking Made Boring

We think Dante has a circle in hell for these types: > Alverson's researchers found that students reveal alcohol as a ritual accessory to group behavior. Exclusive brother- or sister-only Greek house meetings accompanied by alcohol help members shed tension before the cross-gender interactions of post-meeting parties, they

Those Crazy Jesuits!

Santa Clara University (link [http://www.scu.edu/]) continues to sponsor its drag show as part of Queer Awareness Week. Link [http://www-acc.scu.edu/clubs/GALA/DRAGEDUCATES2.htm]. Excerpt from promo (rhymes with . . . nevermind): > Primarily, the Drag Show/Lip Sync is an event that serves to advertise events

Dry Again, Wet Again

Interesting article about the local option: to allow alcohol in your town or not. Link [http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0727/p11s01-lihc.html]. Excerpt: > Hundreds of counties remain dry, [Sociology Professor David] Hanson says. Although the temperance movement of the late 1820s was rooted mainly in the North, most

Drunk Women Drivers

> Two women who took turns steering a broken-down vehicle face drunk driving charges after their slow-moving car crashed into a parked car. . . > Authorities said the women were operating the vehicle while intoxicated - even though the car's engine wasn't working. > A prosecutor acknowledged

Crazy Amos

> Callers complaining about loud music coming from a buggy led deputies to charge a 19-year-old Amish man with stealing house numbers and flower pots. David Byler was charged with theft and underage consumption of alcohol, both misdemeanors. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUGGY_ARREST?SITE=NYNYD&

Kill Miniature Golf!

We didn't realize it, but the feds have passed regulations that will require miniature golf courses to be handicap-accessible: no hills, no obstacles. The old miniature golf courses can stay the way they are . . . until they need to rebuild a hole, then it will presumably have to comply

Celebrating Ghetto

We could see how some people could take offense . . . > A city press release that promised a ''Ghetto Style Talent Show'' and ''Watermelon Eating Contest'' during a summer camp picnic in the heart of Miami's black community drew sharp outrage

He's Catholic and Dangerous

The Roberts frenzy is now officially at level red. From this morning's WaPo [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072602070_pf.html] : > Newly released documents show that John G. Roberts Jr. was a significant backstage player in the legal policy debates of the

Rough Times for a Good Organization

The Boy Scouts is getting innovative in an attempt to bolster membership. They even have co-ed groups. Link [http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-sscoutsjul26,0,6997960.story?coll=sfla-news-front] . Excerpt: > Worried by a national membership drop of about 6 percent from 2000 to 2004, to roughly 3.

Major Courage

Finally, someone is willing to speak the hard words: > Foreign-born preachers who "spit hate" at the British way of life and radicalise young Muslims should be deported, Sir John Major, the former Conservative prime minister, said yesterday. > Sir John spoke of the "uncomfortable reality"

"Santa" is Borderline Religious for Those Folks

> Despite a sprinkle of rain and trees in full Nordic summer bloom, the St. Nicks from 10 countries were in a yuletide spirit Monday as they kicked off a three-day convention in Denmark, including a Santa parade and a chimney-climbing competition. > To the strains of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed

Porners Take One on Chin

Allow us to quote from a pro-pornography site: > Bad news from the front lines of the War on Pornography, at least where our side is concerned: after a nine month trial in which New York-based fetish photographer Barbara Nitke and the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom attempted to challenge

Race to Bottom Continues

> Negotiations with the ABC network for a Ron Jeremy reality-TV show are progressing, according to publicist Steve Banan, who revealed that in a conversation he had with executives last Friday, interest was shown "in having several ABC reality show producers take a look at the project." Link

The Higher Education Racket

The culture of debt and irresponsibility that is higher academia: > [T]he federal government has now become the co-signer on nearly every student loan, even paying the loan's interest while the student is in school, and guaranteeing to lenders at least 98% of their principal should the

John Stewart Onto Something?

We find John Stewart too smug for pleasant viewing, but many people we respect enjoy him. Stewart asked a legitimate question a few days ago, according to this post by Thomas DiLorenzo at the Lew Rockwell Blog: > I caught a few minutes of "The Daily Show" with

Et Tu, Sydney?

Even the hard-drinking Australians are taking themselves too seriously and thereby taking alcohol too seriously: > Alcohol, George Bernard Shaw wrote, enables parliament to do things at 11 at night that no sane person would do at 11 in the morning. But sobriety, it seems, is back in vogue in

A Mite Severe . . .

. . . but only a mite: > Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head. Link [http://mosnews.com/news/

Wal-Green?

Wal-Mart has opened an environmentally-friendly store in Texas. It's experimental, but if it proves cost-effective, there could be more. Link [http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=reutersEdge&storyID=uri:2005-07-25T122914Z_01_N21452535_RTRIDST_0_PICKS-ENVIRONMENT-WALMART-GREEN-DC.XML&pageNumber=0] . Excerpts: > Walk in and you&

Leno on the Global Market

> Bill Gates made a speech earlier this week where he said that he was surprised that more people aren't becoming computer programmers. Maybe that's because they don't want to move to India.

Payola Redux

Today's hits are so gosh-awful bad. We figured big industry interests were merely swaying public opinion through mass marketing (we've mentioned this in connection with our American Idol criticism). Now, it appears much of it has been just good ol' payola, of the Alan Freed

Kiosk

Just a reminder: The TDE Kiosk is up. It is meant to be the electronic equivalent of those big concrete pillars you find on college campuses, where people post messages about frat parties, apartments for rent, stereos for sale, whatever. We encourage commentary about our posts, new topics, advertisements for

Communist Capitalist Confusion?

We find this fascinating: > Suicide is the number one cause of death among people aged 20 to 35 in China, where an estimated quarter of a million people a year -- or 685 a day -- take their lives, state media said Monday. > Each year an additional 2.

Fitting

Many fraternities have become little better than drunken brothels. Why exclude the segment of our population that appreciates loose living more than anyone? > Five years since it appeared on campus, the gay fraternity at Arizona State University has become the first national, collegiate-based organization of its kind in the

No Word Yet from William Hung

"She Bangs" singer Ricky Martin has promised Arab youths that he will defend them in America: > "I promise I will become a spokesperson, if you allow me to, a spokesperson on your behalf. I will defend you and try to get rid of any stereotypes,"

Odd Consumer News

Man, we don't even own a camera phone yet, much less a tripod for it. When is the first camera-phone art festival? > Cellpod is a quick-attach, quick release tripod for your cell phone camera. Cellpod is a product that is small enough to carry with you all

Humbled NBC

NBC has expressed regret about its horrible ratings. We wonder if it'll have an effect on their humiliating and humorless treatment of Christianity, especially Catholicism. Link [http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/business/article.adp?id=20050724194809990004]. Excerpt: > "OK, we're in fourth place ... what are

Scruton (It's Not a Salad Topping)

The Independent has run a delightful article on the conservative intellectual, Roger Scruton. Link [http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/interviews/article296509.ece]. Excerpt: > "One of the great distinctions between the left and the right in the intellectual world," says Scruton, who has held chairs in aesthetics

Unbelievable

The neo-cons at the White House are probably doing back flips and toasting champagne: > Actress and activist Jane Fonda says she intends to take a cross-country bus tour to call for an end to U.S. military operations in Iraq. > "I can't go into any

eBay: Cottage Industry Redux

We like it: > eBay is fast becoming one of the largest employers in America. Of course, it hardly employs anyone, but it enables a lot of people to employ themselves and run their own businesses: 724,000 people are using it as their full- or part-time employment, up 68

Promiscuity Problems, Episode 3,209,443

If ten-year-olds are getting pregnant, the problem ain't a lack of condoms: > Two recent publications circulating at the United Nations demonstrate a growing focus on young people as a way of advancing the abortion agenda. The reports, one by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and another

Purifying Katie?

A dermatologist says it looks like an outbreak of cold sores, but we're fascinated by the mere fact that there is a Scientology purification procedure. Can they purify a person after multiple partners? Maybe that's why Scientology does so well with the Hollywood set. > Celebrity

News Flash: Wal-Mart Turns Down Expansion Opportunity!

> Officials at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., ordered their Roanoke store to put an end to Singles Shopping, the only program of its kind at Wal-Mart's U.S. stores. > Taking a cue from Wal-Marts in Germany, the month-old program encouraged customers on Friday evenings to pick

Hugs for Atheists

The one admirable thing about atheists is, they were always individualists, the rugged type with the tough and callous attitude of someone who wouldn't succumb to any sort of weakness, who refused to give a damn what others thought or did. That's the caricature we mentally

Is Your Husband a Lech?

Russell Moore at Mere Comments weighs in on a popular new American book. Link [http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2005/07/romance_adulter.html]. Excerpt: > It's ten o'clock, do you know where your husband is? Apparently many Americans are asking this question, judging by the

Pod Porn

The stuff is like weeds. It just grows and proliferates everywhere. Now, iPods: > Podcasting, that baby medium, is suddenly home to a lot of adult content. Introduced to a mainstream audience just last month, the technology–radiolike programming for your iPod–that was once the chaste province of "

Dracula's Sex Drive

Funny, sad, and just downright weird. We're sure the secularists who can't distinguish religion from superstition will have great time with this one. Link [http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3355560a4560,00.html]. > An Italian couple stole 50,000 euros ($NZ88,000) from

Doltish

Two linquistic innovators have invented a type of Pig-English. It's called "Globish," and it's meant to provide a simplified form of English as the world's lingua franca. Link [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/universal-english-has-a-name--globish/2005/07/24/1122143730120.html?oneclick=

Putt-Putt

New York Times Magazine ran a lengthy piece this morning about miniature golf: its history, its current financial problems, its Dangerfieldesque status. More than you'd ever want to know, we're sure. But we did find this interesting: This year, the Putt-Putt U.S. Open winner took

Bicknell Film Festival

How slow is the news on these hot summer days? Slow enough that The 10th Annual Bicknell International Film Festival is getting some print. What is Bicknell? An annual salute to bad movies. Mildly amusing stuff. Here's the link [http://www.waynetheatre.com/biff.html]. Excerpt: > Other

Get Out the Knives

We like the trend in thinking, but we're not sure castration solves much. The possibility of no parole is probably the most effective: > Some members of the Alabama House say that violent sex offenders who prey on children should be forced to undergo surgical castration to ensure

As Long As We've Mentioned Chesterton

If you haven't noticed, the Chesterton and Friends blog appears to be up-and-running with daily weekday posts, updated links, commentary, and other features. It's still just getting off the ground (20 or so visitors a day), but we suspect it'll get healthier with the

Joe Campbell

Unless you read some relatively-arcane journals or Canadian periodicals, you've probably never heard of Joe Campbell. Eric Scheske has long enjoyed Mr. Campbell's essays for Gilbert Magazine [http://www.gilbertmagazine.com/]. For those who don't subscribe, you're missing one of the more

The Race Nonsense Continues

> A judge on Thursday threw out the deportation case against four young people who were brought to the United States illegally when they were toddlers. > U.S. Immigration Judge John Richardson granted a request to exclude key evidence in the case, ruling that border agents questioned the four

Woods Interview

Lew Rockwell's weekend edition has an interview with Thomas Woods. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/chapin4.html]. Excerpt: > Chapin: It's ironic that so often religion and science are thought to be polar opposites, yet, in your latest book, How the Catholic Church Built Western

PA's Amish Must Be Animal Lovers

> Ulysses Zimmerman, 22, of Point Marion [in Western Pennsylvania], pleaded guilty to animal cruelty for allegedly neglecting his dog, denying it veterinary care and strangling the animal. > But Zimmerman didn't pay a fine or spend time in jail. Instead, he stood at a busy intersection in

Something for Sunday Morning

> The Christian will try to acquire each of the virtues that are ideally situated to battle the seven cardinal sins. He will cultivate temperance to squelch gluttony. He will solicit an attitude of chastity to fight lust; generosity to fight avarice; meekness to fight anger; charity to fight envy;

Lonely French Farmers

Why does it have to be lace? Oh yeah, it's the French: > Watch out, Victoria's Secret -- a French artist has designed lingerie for cows. > Florence Lukas designed the bovine clothing. > However, the cow bras have a serious purpose. > They offer support

Oversexed Population, Episode 2,395,012

> An 11-year-old boy was taken to a juvenile detention center Friday on accusations that he groped several women over the past few days. > Police said the boy would approach women at their homes, ask for directions, and then grope them. > "While the woman was trying answer

Yeah. . .

. . . we can see how that might be distasteful: > A company that organizes wrestling entertainment has agreed to remove an Arab-American character from a popular television show after receiving hundreds of complaints about an episode that aired the day of the deadly London bombings. > World Wrestling Entertainment said it

The Casting of Aslan

> Today at the Comic-Con panel for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Walt Disney representatives confirmed that Liam Neeson will indeed be the voice of Aslan. Narnia Movie News [http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=326&dl=3483310].

Are Japanese and Koren Women Good Looking?

> China will have more than 23 million men unable to find wives by 2020 because so many more boys are being born than girls, according to a study. > The widespread practice of aborting female foetuses is being blamed for creating a generation of bachelors who will pose increasing

Priests Being Real Men . . .

. . . you gotta admire it: > Father Giuseppe Mazzotta, parish priest at Marcellinara, near Catanzaro in Calabria, said that he had denied a Christian funeral to Maria Francesca Tallarico, who died of breast cancer at the age of 45, because she had lived with her partner but never married him. Her

The Abortion Litmus Test Keeps Coming

> A clear majority of Americans say John G. Roberts Jr. should be confirmed to serve on the Supreme Court but want him to state his views on abortion before the Senate votes on his nomination, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/

Cruel and Unusual?

How long until the ACLU tries to ban mug shots as a violation of the Eighth Amendment? "In the days of Internet and electronic scoffing, mug shots have become the equivalent of the public stocks . . ." > The Ohio man was nabbed yesterday morning for "abusing harmful intoxicants&

New Meaning to "Johnson & Johnson"

It appears the Johnson Fellas (a/k/a Johnson & Johnson) continue their corporate promotion of homosexuality. Link [http://www.onemillionmoms.com/IssueDetail.asp?id=233]. Excerpt: > Johnson & Johnson has placed an ad for its Tylenol PM product in the July 19 issue of The Advocate, the nation&

News Flash: Federal Program That Might Work!

We're not big friends of the No Child Left Behind spending, but it appears to be holding public schools' feet to the fire. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20050721-093749-7769r.htm]. Excerpt from Thomas Sowell op-ed: > There have been many bitter complaints from teachers and principals

The Weekend Eudemon

Another Saturday am. Another bout with grogginess. It was a rough week at the office for Eric Scheske, so he concluded it at the Elks Club, starting at 5:01, overlooking pretty Lake Omena (f/k/a Crotch Lake--no joke) and drinking tall 22-ouncers with his father and a few

Come Here, Marcy!

He played Peppermint Patty (a lesbian, at least according to Chris Rock) and wore funny pants. Reasoned Audacity tells us that there's a campaign to make conservatives think John Roberts might be gay. Hard to explain. Check it out yourself. Link [http://www.charmaineyoest.com/archives/2005/07/

Until Whenever

> [Wedding] vows like "For as long as we continue to love each other," "For as long as our love shall last" and "Until our time together is over" are increasingly replacing the traditional to-the-grave vow – a switch that some call realistic and others

Rockabilly

We like Lew Rockwell's eclectic approach, and we like rockabilly. We especially enjoyed this piece today. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/davis6.html]. Excerpt: > The "King of the Cats" at it again: the greatest all around guitar player ever, Brian Setzer, is set for

We're Not Surprised . . .

. . . We've suspected for many years that certain folks like to kill babies. We always felt a little shrill thinking such a thing, but there's evidence for it, including this: > Appearing before the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services subcommittee last week, Dr. William Hurlbut, a

We've Been That Desperate Before

> Thieves posed as police officers in Russia to steal thousands of rolls of toilet paper. > The robbers dressed as policemen to make three loo roll laden trucks stop as they travelled from St Petersburg to Moscow. > When the drivers got out to show their identification they were

'bout Time

> Mainstream Hollywood, after decades of ignoring the pious - or occasionally defying them with the likes of Martin Scorsese's revisionist "Last Temptation of Christ" and Kevin Smith's profane parody "Dogma" - is adjusting to what it perceives to be a rising

The Absurdity Continues

NYC train searches: Eighty-six year-old white grandmother? Search her. Twenty-two-year-old Arab man? Maybe not. It's random, both for sensitivity reasons and, we assume, the warped Fourteenth Amendment: > Kelly said that, in general, every 10th rider - or some other set interval - would be stopped before they

Erotica is Erotica

The more rampant illegitimate heterosexual acts, the more acceptable homosexual acts seem. That might be the reason a "gay vibe" TV show like Desperate Housewives resonates with heteros, but we're just speculating, in a half-baked kind of way. We'll think about it some more.

Brews You Can Use III

From Leno: > According to a recent Gallup Poll, 39% of people say they prefer to drink wine, 36% say they prefer beer and 21% say they prefer hard liquor. Here's the sad part... This is a poll conducted among airline pilots!

Brews You Can Use II

> A US brewer has recreated a beer that was first brewed in China 9,000 years ago. > Sam Calagione of the Dogfish Head brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, used rice, honey, and grape and hawthorn fruits. > He got the recipe from archaeologists who derived it from the

Brews You Can Use

Curious about the economics of homebrewing? A friend sends along the following e-mail: > I just bottled 2 cases of prime quality home brew last night. It tastes pretty good and should be carbonated in a couple of weeks. Variable cost, not including bottles, $0.31/bottle. That works out

More Dahl

The New Yorker has run a lengthy piece about Roald Dahl. Link [http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/articles/050711crat_atlarge]. Excerpt: > Dahl shared with George Orwell an acute sense of why small children often see adults as unsightly or intimidating. “Part of the reason for the ugliness of

The Continued Plummet of The Euro . . .

. . . and we ain't talking about currency: > A German magazine sold out in a day after offering readers vouchers for a free sex session at a brothel in Austria. > Readers of the Freizeit Magazine said they were shocked when they opened the mag to find a full

Here's an Idea . . .

. . . just don't call in the first place. Then you won't take the risk of rattling a grieving widow: > The nation's largest direct marketing group set up a registry Thursday to remove dead people from its telemarketing, e-mail and direct mail lists - for

WSJ on Roberts and Abortion

The WSJ says the confirmation battle ain't over 'til it's over. Link [http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/#To%20Roberts%20Opponents,%20the%20Constitution%20Is%20About%20Abortion%20and%20Only%20Abortion] . Excerpt: > To Roberts' Opponents, the Constitution Is About Abortion and Only Abortion: > . . . Most of

A Splendid Collection

A review of The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400044251/thedailyeudem-20]. Link [http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2246/]. Excerpts: > The lavish new Everyman Book Of Nonsense Verse is an exemplary anthology, covering the ground with thoroughness while also aggravating and

Not Art

Wow, whatta great concept: Art that's not art. It's called "Outsider Art." Here's the promoters' explanation: > "Art Brut", or "Outsider Art", consists of works produced by people who for various reasons have not been culturally indoctrinated

Whatta Killjoy

> A Ugandan member of parliament has pledged to reward girls for their chastity by paying their university fees if they are virgins when they leave school, a local newspaper said Wednesday. > Bbaale County MP Sulaiman Madada said any girl in his district who wanted to take part in

In the Name of Freedom . . .

. . . let us disrupt your home life: > Telemarketing groups are quietly mounting a campaign that would open the door to a floodgate of new calls, [the Electronic Privacy Information Center] says, pointing to a series of requests filed with the FCC, essentially asking the agency to invalidate state laws regulating

Just Ain't Gettin' It, Episode 3,412,908

> About 400 people will be in Ottawa this weekend for an international conference on getting women ordained as Catholic priests. Link [http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=22f79b7d-6bed-4697-8eaf-d06b9a6c5cdf] .

Well, That's Good News

We hate spam and we hate porn. Any knife (needle) in their sides is good. We knew such operations were in place, but we didn't think very many people got caught or punished: > Federal regulators accused seven companies Wednesday of hiring others to send illegal e-mails with

Along with Deferred Looks

> The word "fail" should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralizing pupils, a group of teachers has proposed. > Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can

ZZ Top's Favorite Culinary Inventor

> Gerry Thomas, credited with inventing the TV Dinner more than a half-century ago and giving it its singular name, has died at 83. Link [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/07/20/national/a091338D12.DTL] . A staple of Eric Scheske's life, age

Anti-Establishment. Kinda

Doesn't The Man run the USPTO? > Former Black Panther associates of Huey P. Newton, the late co-founder of the militant organization, are seeking to trademark the phrase "Burn Baby Burn" so they can slap the words--long associated with conflagrations that left cities like Watts and

More Discrimination Against the Homeless

Houston denies them library privilges (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/800/]), Vancouver takes away their bathrooms (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1312/]), Massachusetts throws them away (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1434/]), Alaska takes away their meat (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1456/]), and now NYC won't let them copulate: > Meet

Canada Plods On

Getting shocked by something in Canadian politics is like getting shocked when Chris Rock uses the "F" word. Still, this story struck us as a little premature at this stage of the Canadian game. We would've thought the Canadians were at least six months away from

Groceries, Optometry, Hair Salons . . .

Soon: Doc in a Box, Canned Brief Legal Work, and Wally Morgue: > Wal-Mart Stores Inc. this week applied to organize a Utah industrial bank. > The retail giant already offers credit cards, money orders, money transfers and check-cashing services at its more than 3,500 stores nationwide. Setting up

New Meaning to Charles and John

We don't keep abreast of Methodist developments, but have gay revisionist assertions that the Wesley brothers were gay been made yet? > The official conference center for the United Methodist Church's conservative Southeast Jurisdiction is hosting a four-day pro-homosexuality rally September 2-5. Lake Junaluska is located

We, Too, Have Loved the Stacks

A pseudonymous writer makes an impassioned plea for the stacks and urges colleges not to throw away their books. Link [http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=0gixexfr1qnuloqnx6pvokmo3ek5o8np]. Excerpt: > Where will the library ghosts go . . . when all the books have been made immaterial and antiseptic through digitization? > What

High Praise

High praise from Pat Buchanan for Cinderella Man: > Men and women like the James and Mae Braddock of this film were the products of homes, schools, churches and parishes, and Howard's depiction of the community that produced them marks this as one of the most pro-Catholic films

You Can Murder Her, But Don't Get Her Drunk

> A pregnant Oklahoma woman who split a case of beer with her boyfriend shortly before giving birth last month is facing felony child neglect charges. Melissa Irene Tanner, a 37-year-old mother of seven, had a blood alcohol content nearly four times the state's .08 limit, according to

Monitoring Muslims

If this were happening in America, we'd be required to create units to monitor Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and Druids, too. You know, to make sure the Muslims don't get their feelings hurt: > Special intelligence units are being planned across Britain to monitor Muslims so the

Unintentionally Blasphemous?

We ran across this blurb about an odd billboard in Japan. We're not sure what to think: > It appears that some advertising company was asked by a Tokyo distributor to do a special ad for Christmas for the Passion of the Christ DVD. Apparently nobody who was

Wonka's Creator

From an on-line biography of Roald Dahl: > By the time Roald was thirteen the family had moved to Kent in England, and he was soon sent off to the famous Repton Public School. His sisters all attended Roedean in Sussex. To Roald, Repton was even worse than St. Peter&

Interesting Fast Fact

> The First Amendment has not always provided much protection in the courts for Americans; in fact, the Supreme Court did not decide any First Amendment cases for the first 150 years after the adoption of the Constitution. Michigan Bar Journal, June 2005, p. 30. Reminds us of Willmoore Kendall&

Weekly Features Post

Finally, a Weekly Features Post. For awhile, we thought we'd have to rename it the "Monthly Features Post." It's been a hectic summer. Even this WFP is being written after ninety minutes of pulling up prickly weeds that were nearly six feet tall. The

1970s Pinball

Sure, the 1970s were tacky and the art on the pinball machines captured the tackiness perfectly. Still, we enjoyed this blog post with pictures of vintage '70s pinball machines. Link [http://positiveapeindex.blogspot.com/2005/07/such-supple-wrist.html].

Where's All That Dutch Virtue and Self-Restraint?

We're shocked (shocked, you hear!) that such a thing would happen in The Netherlands: > Dutch police and park rangers have admitted they are powerless to stop a growing trend of outdoor sex orgies. > In the latest incident, a large group of people were found romping naked

The Kinder, Gentler Madonna

"Now I just publish Kabbala musings under my name even though somebody else wrote them. I'm a deeply spiritual person, but I still don't understand commas." > In the August issue of Vogue magazine, Madonna is featured in a lengthy interview and a photo

Hoisting Them by Their Own Petard in the Village

Adam Thierer at Tech Central Station raises a valid concern about Hillary Clinton's desire to regulate video games: > The Clinton bill might best be thought of as a "hanging the industry with its own rope" regulatory scheme. That is, her bill would hijack the industry&

Mobilizing in the Name of . . .

The LA Times reports on the atheist mobilization in the New Red Scare era. We think the atheists are paranoid, just like the ACLU-types who panic everytime they see the "G word" in public. Nonetheless, it's interesting stuff: > Other [atheists] see the future as a

Maximum Sex

> Authorities in Florida are sending convicted sex offenders to jail for violating the terms of their probation by having men's magazines such as Maxim. > Andrew Calderon, 23, was jailed for six days before a judge ordered his release after officers found a racy poster and calendar

We Weep for the Guy

What's the world coming to when you can't trust a bawd? > Actor Colin Farrell is suing a woman for allegedly trying to distribute and profit from a sex tape he says the two recorded with the agreement they would never make it public. > The

More Warming

> The heat wave in the Southwest is breaking record high temperatures across the region. In Las Vegas, Nevada, a new record high was set Monday when the mercury topped out at 116 degrees. It may not be out of the woods. Temperatures through Tuesday are expected to near the

S.Ct. Battles

The Wall Street Journal has a good overview of what's important--historically and currently--in Bush's justice selection. Link [http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110006984]. From the conclusion: > But the larger goal should be to pick someone who has the intellectual conviction and firepower

Keep Your Finger on the Remote

> The NBC network, eager for new hits to reverse a ratings slump, said on Friday it has given a mid-season 2005-06 commitment to a new drama titled "The Book of Daniel," depicting Christ as a contemporary confidant to a pill-popping priest. > The series stars Aidan Quinn

Letters to the Editor

We now accept and publish letters to the editor. See the link on the left. We won't respond to the letters, primarily because we don't want to be in a position where we spend a lot of time every day jousting with mean-spirited folks. We'

Ten? Did You Bust an Old Folks Home?

> Police in India's eastern state of Orissa rounded up about 200 people watching a porn movie in a cinema hall and made them do 10 sit-ups in public as punishment, a report said today. > Parents of teenagers under 17 caught in the net were ordered to

A Guy After Eric's Heart

Eric Scheske loves a good nap. He even has a recliner office chair, which he uses for slumber two or three times a week while at work (with door shut, lights off, Do Not Disturb light on, and strict instructions to the staff that he is not to be disturbed,

Site of the Week Award

It's only Monday, but we're confident we won't find another site as neat as this one: Moonshine, a brief history and how to make it. Link [http://www.oldstatehouse.com/exhibits/changing/john-barleycorn/making_moonshine.asp] . 1. Furnace surrounds the Core to retain heat

Prosperity Theology Redux

America is great, America is warped. Often in the same phenomenon. Witness the Hollywoodization of worship: > The nondenominational Lakewood Church, the nation's largest congregation, moved into the Compaq Center, once the home of the Houston Rockets, over the weekend. After $95 million in renovations, including two waterfalls

"This is a Bongee Wongee, Tommy"

A news item worthy of The Onion. Link [http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1643022005]. Excerpt: > Children under five are to be schooled in the dangers of drugs in a bid to "drug-proof" Scotland's youngest generation, The Scotsman can reveal. > Infants will be

A Bit on B16's Views on Harry Potter

> Debates are raging online and off over whether the new Pope Benedict really disapproves of Harry Potter. > It seems a German author, Gabriele Kuby, recently wrote a book called "Harry Potter - Gut Oder Bose" (that translates as "Harry Potter - Good or Evil,"

The Devil's Work

> Kevin Davy set out from his family's neatly kept home for the nearby church about 1:30 a.m., carrying a portable radio blaring rap music in one hand and a sword in the other. > First, he took the sword and started hacking at the arms

Yeah, Right

We'd rather try to seduce Rosie O'Donnell than apologize to Boston: > Angry sex abuse victims and Democrats are demanding that U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum apologize for three-year-old "insensitive" and "self-serving" remarks that blamed Boston's liberal cultural, political and

The Cat Hoarders

We're assuming everyone has been reading the spate of cat-hoarding stories this year. An old lady lives with 450 cats, 220 of them dead; another old lady lives with 300 cats, many dead or mangled. Etc. Early studies have come up with a profile of these ladies: >

More Harry

The new Harry Potter is selling 250,000 copies an hour. Rowling made over $36 million in a day. This type of frenzy in a medium that's dead? Interesting. Link [http://www3.contactmusic.com/news/index15.htm].

The Light of Wicked Felina?

We like to report on any phenomenon that boggles scientists. Out in the West Texas desert near the town of Marfa, odd lights across the Mitchell Flat and toward the Chinati Mountains have eluded explanation: > There are numerous theories on what causes the phenomenon. Moonlight on mica veins sparkling

Votes Be Damned . . .

. . . Do not thwart the elites' will: > You may have got the impression that the European constitution was dead - that the French had felled it, and the Dutch had pounded a stake through its heart. If so, think again. The constitution is being implemented, clause by clause, as

Potter Verdict

Eric Scheske's eldest, Alex (12), finished volume 6 of the Harry Potter series last night. He says it's the best one yet.

Sledgehammer Banging on Public Education

In a recent speech, Alan Greenspan says our public schools are going to kill us in competition with China. Why? Well, just check out this incredible article. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20050716-105811-9987r.htm]. Excerpts: > In the long run, he accurately pointed out, our economic strength in the

Zero Tolerance for Juvenile Violence

I guess we shouldn't find this surprising. In a culture with increasingly fewer children, why should adults know how to deal with them? > Maribel Cuevas [11] was arrested in April in a police operation which involved three police cars and a helicopter. > She has since spent

Black Sunday

We'd never heard about Disneyland's opening day fifty years ago. This writer gives a concise overview of a miserable day: > The heat and the crowds, along with a Magic Kingdom full of other problems, contributed to what will forever after be called Black Sunday in

Hollyroit

Interesting commentary piece at NYT that compares (not contrasts) Hollywood and Detroit. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/weekinreview/10gross.html?ex=1278648000&en=dc676f56bc9e3354&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss] . Excerpt: > Consumers today face an unprecedented array of choices for how to

Words of Dylan Wisdom

> You may be a state trooper, you might be a young Turk, You may be the head of some big TV network, You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame, You may be living in another country under another name > You may be a

Something for Sunday Morning

We're blogging from Chicago and the blog change-over threw some wrenches at us that we didn't successfully dodge. We're not even sure this and other posts will go up, but here's a neat blog that also contains some words for Sunday morning:

The Nine Monarchs

Joe Sobran raises interesting points in a discussion about the Almighty Court: > Many controversies end prematurely not because one side is necessarily right, but because it wins elections, or a war, or just manages to get its view established as conventional wisdom. Eventually, people just stop debating very debatable

Dry Iraq

A soldier writes about serving in dry Iraq. One of the funnier pieces we've read recently. Link [http://moderndrunkardmagazine.com/issues/04_05/0405_dry_war.htm] . Excerpt: > Winston Churchill said the Royal Navy promised nothing to its enlistees but “rum, sodomy, and the lash. ” . . . > In

PSA

Blogging will be a little light later today and tomorrow morning. Eric Scheske is attending an out-of-town wedding, and the blog is changing web hosts (iPowerWeb has gone down or malfunctioned one too many times). During the change-over, you will still be able to access the site, but we'

Lactating Lawsuit

Mrs. Scheske breast-feeds the Scheske babies. The cost savings have bought Eric hundreds of cases of beer. But there's something unsavory about the militant mammary movement: > A Great Lakes Naval Base mother is crying foul after an employee at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor allegedly asked her not

The Next Civil Right

An absolutely-disgusting article. Link [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002382718_horse15m.html]. The only excerpt we'll present: > The farm was talked about in Internet chat rooms as a destination for people looking to have sex with livestock, he said.

Warped Sports Culture, Episode 1,542,901

> A T-ball coach seeking to keep a player with a mental disability off the field allegedly asked another player to hurt the boy, state police said Friday. . . > During pre-game warmups, Mark Reed Downs Jr. offered one of his players $25 to hit the 8-year-old boy in the head

Rich Guys Have Everything

> As their incomes rise, both men and women are more likely to have a higher sex drive, according to a study of almost 30,000 people from 170 countries. Only among men, however, does this translate into more frequent sex: male high earners have sex significantly more often than

How Much is Enough?

> When the scandals at companies such as Enron and WorldCom were first uncovered, corporate governance advocates, investors and some politicians pointed to runaway executive compensation as a key underlying problem. > Yet more than three years later, experts say little has improved. These days, heads of public companies can

The Paternalism Marches On, Too

Couldn't we just make everyone sign a blanket Assumption of Risk form when they turn 18 and get rid of all this crud? > The Center for Science in the Public Interest, supported by other health advocates such as Children's Hospital Boston, petitioned the Food and

The Beat Goes On

> Dutch paediatricians have voted unanimously to adopt as national guidelines the so called Groningen protocol that covers the mercy killing of newborn babies who are incurably sick and are suffering severely. The Dutch Paediatric Society accepted that "in exceptional circumstances and under strict conditions... deliberate ending of life&

Something for Saturday Morning

Jeffrey Tucker lauds the morning drink. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker55.html]. Excerpt: > It turns out that in the sweep of history, when water was not always safe and orange juice rarely accessible, this practice of morning drinking was the norm for all classes in society, and

PSA

We're not posting a Weekend Eudemon this morning. Eric is preparing to attend an out-of-town wedding, which means light packing and getting the babysitters situated for his children. Too much stuff, too little time. Note: We plan to discontinue "The Punchy Journal." Despite repeat notices that

They Hate Purity and Goodness

Like we've always said: Abortion, contraception, homosexuality, and everything aren't about choice and freedom. Their about normalizing license. It's part of the same old moral revolution that started with the Enlightenment: Once everyone is freed of norms and moral restrictions, we'll be

Chapter 7 Wasn't Good Enough

> William Crutchfield was deep in debt and looking for a way out. Authorities say Crutchfield apparently watched with envy as Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph was headed to prison for life and aspired to the same fate - allowing him to live off the government while behind bars. > So

Crisis Advertising

We don't typically offer free advertising on this site, but we received notice today that Crisis is offering new subscribers a one-year subscription for $10.00. That's 91 cents an issue (11 issues). You don't see deals like that any more. Here's

More Attention, the Better

We're skeptical that it's a problem in Colorado and we're curious about the substantive difference between a "sex slave" and a prostitute with a pimp, but we're glad this international scourge is finally getting the attention and condemnation is deserves:

New Blog

It's not often a person finds a blog that mentions the Southern Agrarians in its introduction, so we figure this one is worth watching: AntiRust [http://antirust.typepad.com/my_weblog/]. From its "About" page: > Welcome to AntiRust, an open discussion about how America works.

Poker Mania

Dave Kindred is to The Sporting News what Rick Reilly is to Sports Illustrated: its leading columnist, occupying the back page. Kindred's writing might stand a half notch below Reilly's, but Kindred's left-leaning ideas are visible only between the lines, whereas Reilly wears his

Dyker Trademark War

We find this fascinating. The USPTO won't issue a trademark because it's vulgar. The applicant says, "It's not vulgar to me, therefore, it isn't." The USPTO applies norms; the applicant applies its will. Who will win? Is there a relationship

Brews You Can Use IV

Brews for Jews. We love the cottage industries, especially when the owners have fun in the process. Link [http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/food/0705/14kosherbeer.html]. Excerpt: > Cowan's idea was to make and market a gourmet kosher microbrew that combines Jewish culture, chutzpah, humor

Brews You Can Use III

This guy deserves the Noble Peace Prize: He invented the "Turbo Tap," a beer tap that pours a flagon in half the time. Link [http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112130747570985459-a6aQ_cM7U3ysPBEVAdU5mR7YbX8_20050813,00.html?mod=blogs] . Excerpts: > "I think this will change the way

Have Member, Will Cloister

A woman suddenly became a man and now wants to join a Buddhist monastery. One of the oddest stories we've read this week. Link [http://new.mweb.co.za/news/news_story.jsp?content=136801]. Excerpts: > Thin Sandar, a chicken seller in Myanmar, had always dreamed of

Crazy Brits

> A paedophile sacked by a Christian publishing company after being convicted of sexually abusing a four-year-old girl is suing his employers for unfair dismissal. Link [http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/14/npaed14.xml].

Dying to Avoid Life

The birth control patch is dangerous, it would seem: > [A] dozen women, most in their late teens and early 20s . . . died last year from blood clots believed to be related to the birth control patch. Dozens more survived strokes and other clot-related problems, according to federal drug safety reports

Welcome

Welcome, new visitors from Open Book [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/]. Have a look around. If you're curious about who "we" are, please read our FAQs. You might also enjoy the endorsements and links on the right. Come again soon. We add fresh content anywhere from

Is This Interrogation . . .

. . . or a fun night at a San Fransisco nightclub? > United States interrogators at Guantanamo Bay subjected a suspected terrorist to abusive and degrading treatment, forcing him to wear a bra, dance with another man and behave like a dog, military investigators said yesterday. Link [http://news.scotsman.com/international.

Brews You Can Use II

We learn something new everyday. Last night, we learned that July is beer month. Link [http://www.americanbeermonth.com/]. Note to new visitors: If the blog seems rather "top heavy" with drinking information today, that's because it's Friday. We feature "Brews You Can

If the T-Shirt Fits, Wear It

Maybe it's the six pack he quaffed at the Elks club, but Eric Scheske about shot beer out his nose when he saw this story from The Smoking Gun: > Since you usually can't anticipate an arrest for drunk driving, a motorist does not have the

Coprophiliac Strikes Starbucks!

Freaks: > Oregon cops are trying to figure out who stashed a wireless pinhole video camera inside a roll of toilet paper in a Starbucks bathroom. The camera, powered by a nine volt battery, was outfitted with a wireless transmitter that could have sent the video to a receiver up

Odd Consumer News

This article says more people are going to start eating goat. Link [http://www.deridderdailynews.com/articles/2005/07/13/news/news6.txt]. Excerpt: > "The population that eats goat meat is increasing in the United States," Hankins said, explaining one segment of that population are people of

Cooter Ain't Crazy . . .

. . . he just forgot that Hollywood doesn't know anything else: > If television's "Crazy Cooter" has his way, fans of the "Dukes of Hazzard" may be speeding away from a new movie version of the cornpone classic faster than the Duke boys running

Wait Until the Homo-Lesbian Crowd Hears This

A father kills his son in an effort to toughen him up . . . and to make sure the boy isn't gay: > Even though the boy would shake and wet himself, his father, Ronnie Paris Jr., would box with the 3-year-old, slapping him in the head until he cried

With a Side of Fried Cat

Odd Consumer News: Restaurant owner David Kerr said Wednesday that he received lots of complaints and abusive phone calls after he started serving horse steaks [called "Mr. Ed is Dead"] at his eatery in Hamilton, North Island, as part of an annual event during which restaurateurs compete to

Test Orphans

Startling stuff from James Kushiner over at Mere Comments: > Last year we posted a link to the writing of investigative writer Liam Scheff, who wrote about the use of orphans in New York as subjects for testing AIDS drugs. We received a couple of complaints or warnings not to

That's Grounds for Annullment?

Not understanding what you're doing is good enough? Wow, the Vatican's about to get deluged with "A" requests: > A Manhattan judge has annulled the marriage of a physician-businessman who treated Argentina's Juan and Eva Peron, saying the man did not understand

This Makes No Sense

We're not a political blog. Moreover, we've never been big fans of the Iraqi War. But please indulge this observation: If Madrid and London were bombed because they supported the United States, what is France concerned about? > Tight security in Paris for Bastille Day parade

Another Gaffe

We like John Miller, but today isn't his day. First, he makes the confessional goof. Then he says this about hockey: > There may be some rule changes to create more scoring, and that's probably a good idea. But if it hasn't already happened,

Leno on the Gambling Craze

> Here's a very odd story... A new class of drugs designed to help people with Parkinson's Disease actually turned some of them into compulsive gamblers. These drugs are now being sold over the counter at Caesar's, Harrah's and the MGM Grand.

Inviolable Media

Interesting post at the National Review Corner this morning, which we reproduce in full (we'll take the copyright heat): > D.C. police have arrested a man who they believe is a prolific vandal (I mean, a "grafitti artist") who has defaced buildings, bridges, and street

If You Got 'Em, Smoke 'Em

We detest cigarettes: we hate the smell, it hurts our eyes. But if no-smoking bars are such a great idea, let owners make their bars non-smoking. They'll make a killing. We're flabbergasted that this assault on private property rights has picked up such momentum. Hats off

Internet Catastrophe Looming?

> U.N. bureaucrats and telecommunications ministers from many less-developed nations claim the U.S. government has undue influence over how things run online. Now they want to be the ones in charge. > While the formal proposal from a U.N. working group will be released July 18, it&

Why You Shouldn't Vote for a New Tax, Episode 1,243,901

> In March 1936, three days of rain and runoff from melting snow led to the second of three great floods that has hit Johnstown, Pa. > Two dozen people died and the state immediately set out to help the city recover. > That recovery plan involved a 10 percent

Say "No" to Moreau

Prison Fellowship has run a nice and concise critique of chimeras. Link [http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=BreakPoint1&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=16322] . Excerpt: > Even the magazine Scientific American says that some human-animal chimeras “disquietingly blur the line between species.” It notes that

Monkey Attack

> Authorities were searching Tuesday for a monkey that escaped his cage and bit a man before fleeing. Noble County Sheriff Landon Smith said two monkeys escaped from an outdoor cage, but one was soon captured by the owner. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ESCAPED_MONKEY?SITE=

Settle Down, Edward

It's not like Santorum mentioned booze, womanizing, and poor driving. > In a rare personal attack on the Senate floor, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy accused Sen. Rick Santorum on Wednesday of being self-righteous and insensitive for a column he wrote three years ago linking Boston's

The Bizarro St. Joseph

> [A] businessman and father of three heads out for a day of fishing, never to return. > The police cannot find a body or solve the case, and eventually they file a death certificate. His business fails, his wife remarries, the kids grow up, his family moves on. >

How Novel!

So novel that it's newsworthy, at least in Georgia: > Depictions of well-known scenes from the holy book adorn the long corridors of Bethany Baptist Church, and several church members are responsible. > The colorful artworks - all painted on 30 inch by 40 inch canvases - serve

Flat Earth Myth

Thomas Woods continues his sledgehammer blows against bigoted views of the Middle Ages. This time, he points out that people in the Middle Ages didn't think the earth was flat. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods46.html]. Excerpts: > David Lindberg, who is among the most accomplished

We Think We're Gonna Hurl!

> The winner of a German beauty contest has confessed she used to be a man. > Judges at the Miss Marksmen Festival 2005 competition held in Hanover voted unanimously for 24-year-old Kira. > She was among nine leggy contestants at the traditional men's only shooting club'

We'd Rather Be Passed Out

Fascinating article on sleep paralysis. It's when a person wakes up and feels an evil presence, but he can't move; he is paralyzed and afraid. After a few minutes, the state passes. Link [http://sciencenews.org/articles/20050709/bob9.asp]. Excerpts: > Although widely acknowledged among

Lechers Need Love, Too

Q. Everyone's doing _______________ (insert favorite vice), so why deny it and cover it up? A. Because when we no longer treat it with shame, we begin to celebrate it. > Gallagher says her Secret Lover Collection of 24 cards is the first line exclusively for people having affairs,

Big Brother is Catching You

London's public cameras apparently played a role in cracking the London case. Link [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/13/ncctv13.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/07/13/ixportaltop.html] . Excerpt: > The critical breakthrough in the hunt for the London bombers

Odd Approach to Charity

We're not inclined to criticize any charitable effort, but this one is kind of odd: designing giant sculptures from canned goods, and then, at the end of the exhibit, donating the cans of food to soup kitchens. We're not sure we "get it," but

Could be Awkward Precedent

Historical knowledge or no food? Americans everywhere could starve: > Japanese customers must apologise for their country's wartime occupation of China before getting a seat at a restaurant in former Manchuria or find another place to eat, Japan's Kyodo news agency said on Tuesday. > No

Media Revolution Continues

CBS will launch a 24-hour on-line news network, complete with a blog. The whole shift in the dissemination of news and analysis is fascinating. CBS no doubt sees the changing landscape and will be one of the first of the big trees to get planted in it. > In a

Et Tu, Irish?

Have even the Irish have succumbed to the paranoid/humorless-thinskinned crowd? Link [http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=52074]. Excerpt: > Democratic candidate for mayor C. Virginia Fields is apologizing for using the term "paddy wagon" in an interview with NY1 last

Christian Exodus . . . to South Carolina?

An extreme measure first requires extreme times. Are we there yet? Hard to say, but so far, only three families have moved to South Carolina as part of a "Christian Exodus" movement: > South Carolina may not be flowing with milk and honey, but it looks like the

The State Wrecked Marriage?

A libertarian weighs in on the marriage debate. It's not the most entertaining piece we've read today, but it attacks the issue from a different angle (we thought all the angles had been exhausted long ago). Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/vandun3.html]. Excerpt: >

The Saint Track

The canonization of JPII appears to be rolling along quickly. Link [http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article298081.ece]. Excerpt: > Speculation has been swirling about whether Pope Benedict XVI might beatify John Paul during the World Youth Day celebrations - placing the late pope on an even faster track

Beautiful Has Gotten Ugly

We've written before that beautiful women in media don't really exist. All the pretty women we see on TV, the movies, and magazines have been airbrushed and touched up. They might be pretty, but not nearly as pretty as they're made to appear. The

We Can't Wait. We Won't Wait

The culture's obsession with control and certainty ploughs foward: > Is it a girl or a boy? It's the first question every new mother asks. And the answer can now be given almost from the moment a woman finds out that she is pregnant. > A

Put Salsa on that Ice Cream

We like country, and we like reggae, but we don't like them together. Nevetheless, we'll be drawn to Willie Nelson's reggae album, Countryman, which is being released today. The photo on the left below is the album cover. The one on the right is

Another Study Confirms Common Sense

> Women working full-time are 29 per cent more likely to get divorced than those who stay at home and raise children. > Research to be published this week in the European Sociological Review finds that the probability of divorce is in direct correlation to the number of hours a

We're Aghast!

> According to America's New York Post newspaper, a source has alleged the pop queen did not write her Kabbalah-inspired children's books by herself. > The insider claims the stories - 'The English Roses', 'Mr. Peabody's Apples', 'Yakov and

Monkey Men

This comes close to disagreeing with one of pop culture's commandments: If we can do it, do it. > In cutting-edge experiments, scientists have injected human brain cells into monkey fetuses to study the effects. > Critics argue that if these fetuses are allowed to develop into self-aware

U.S. Plaintiff's Lawyers Looking Overseas

> The Vatican, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic church, returned to the black last year after three years of losses as rising stock markets and property prices boosted its economy. > The Holy See, which has an all-male population of 921 and is headed by Pope Benedict XVI, made

Horrible Lawsuit . . .

. . . but we sympathize. > Weathermen are being sued in Romania by hotel and restaurant owners who say the rain they keep forecasting has frequently failed to arrive. > They say reports every week that resorts will face heavy rains have hit business hard and left hotels in tourist areas like

Folks from Andrew Sullivan's Blog?

> Someone urinated in the holy water at a suburban Rochester, N.Y., Catholic church. > Four local teens have been charged with that and other vandalism. > Monroe County sheriff's deputies said the teenagers smashed wine bottles against the walls, left bicycle skid marks on the carpet,

Philip K. Dick

Tech Central Station has run a neat--though somewhat chilling--piece about the sci-fi work of Philip K. Dick. Link [http://www.techcentralstation.com/071105B.html]. Excerpt: > Indeed, Dick, although stone-cold dead for nearly a quarter-century, is doing pretty well. His 50 volumes of fiction have inspired such classic movies as

The Fame Craze, Episode 20,212,499

A woman lost 30 pounds eating nothing but McDonald's food. Now she's dreaming of fame and fortune: > Morgan dreams of becoming the McDonald's Corp.'s Jared Fogle, the Subway weight-loss poster boy. She figures she might as well find a way to

Attacking the Therapeutic Society

The Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute has run a review of Christina Hoff Sommers' and Sally Satel's book, One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture Is Eroding Self-Reliance. We'd give the review a five, on a scale of 1-10, but the book sounds pretty

What Would We Do Without Surveys?

> Most Italians think nude sunbathing is perfectly natural and don't mind crossing paths with bottomless beach-goers -- even when those bottoms are unsightly, survey results released Sunday said. Link [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-07-11T131550Z_01_L10510188_RTRIDST_0_ODD-ITALY-NAKED-DC.XML]

2002 Pregnancy Rates Released

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has released the 2002 pregnancy rates. For the most part, the news is depressing. MSN Link [http://family.msn.com/tool/article.aspx?dept=baby&sdept=bpc&name=bc_041105_usbirths&GT1=6434] . Excerpts: > The big news from the

Gadarenes Sheep

> First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TURKEY_SHEEP_SUICIDE?

At the Risk of Losing our PG Rating . . .

Quick-moving paddle, nudity, presumably a lot of drinking. What could go wrong? > Three strippers and two nightclub managers have been arrested for allegedly spanking a trucker at his 31st birthday bash and severely bruising his backside. > After his friends paid $25, Keith Lowery was handcuffed and spanked with

Naked Anti-Druid

But if therapy is the highest good, this must be all right: > A German man has been arrested after a marriage guidance counsellor advised him to run around naked shouting at trees. > Dieter Braun, 43, from Recklinghausen said the stress release technique had worked perfectly until he was

Scary Specter

We weren't going to cover the Supreme Court battles here, but we suspect they're going to get too bizarre to ignore. Round one of weirdness: Specter wants Bush to appoint O'Connor as Chief Justice. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/politics/

Bring in the Cloons

> George Clooney is spending time in Edinburgh, Scotland after appearing at last night's final Live 8 concert in the city's Murrayfield stadium, to put pressure on the G8 leaders to tackle world poverty. Link [http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/#celeb8].

Anti-Commie Comics

The Authentic History Center has put a series of comic book issues from the 1960s on line. They're "This Godless Communism," a look at Communism's threat to the U.S. and Catholics, published by the Catholic Guild. We didn't read all the

Running of the Bulls

It's tradition and odd, so we cover it: > Four people were injured during the third running of the bulls here on Saturday, emergency services said. > A 24-year-old man was taken to hospital after being gored twice in his right thigh and at the base of his

Lost Art

Another little art sacrified to the pursuit of money, efficiency, and rootless ideas of personal fulfillment: > Even as "food culture" blossoms in countless cookbooks and chef shows, many adults simply don't know cooking basics. Experts blame it on a transmission breakdown. While parents traditionally shared

The New Urbanism

The forthcoming issue of The American Conservative has a great piece by William S. Lind on the New Urbanism. Lind concedes that New Urbanism has often become the province of eco-extremists and other lovers of big government that would use coercion to enforce their ideas. But, he says, New Urbanism,

Harry Potter Coins

Eric Scheske isn't a big Harry Potter fan, but his wife and oldest son, Alex, love the books (last count, Alex had read one of the books (stifle gag) eight times). So this is for them: How to make your own Harry Potter coins: > You'll

Looking for an Aggressive Lawyer

Can we get a restraining order on this? > Three-time Oscar winner Oliver Stone will direct superstar Nicholas Cage in the first major Hollywood movie about the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, producers announced. > The as-yet untitled film, which will be made for Paramount Pictures, will tell the true

Weathermen with Scimitars

> Intelligence experts and Islamic leaders agree that Thursday July 7 marks the bloody emergence of home-grown Islamic terrorism in Britain rather than the arrival of Al-Qaeda's bombers on these shores. The favourite hypothesis of investigators is that the bomb teams comprised a cell of some eight or

Communism's Lamer Than We Thought

> A Cuban newspaper says Air Supply are "idols for thousands of Cubans." The paper writes "we would never have imagined that one day they would come here -- and here they are!!" > Fans went nuts when the group sang "All Out of Love&

Scientists Faking Us Out

When something's importance becomes disproportionate to its actual value, troubles arise. With scientism, it's been sloppy research, contradictory research, and now, fraudulent research: > Allegations of research misconduct reached record highs last year - the Department of Health and Human Services received 274 complaints, which was

The Craze Gets Crazier

> The person lucky enough to win the 36th annual [World Series of Poker] tournament will earn an astonishing seven-and-a-half (m) million dollars. Last year's prize was a mere five (m) million, doubling what accountant Chris Moneymaker made in 2003. > The person knocked out first in the

Maybe They're Shaman Saints

> Oddball rock star Jack White has become so obsessed with Roman Catholicism he now puts figures of saints on his guitar amps at all concerts. > The weirdo frontman of the White Stripes said: “I've recently got into the cult of the saints. Link [http://www.thesun.

Something for Sunday Morning

Theophan the Recluse, writing to a young Russian society lady: > Such a life is the life of the fallen man, whose primary characteristic is pride or egoism, which presents itself as the primary goal, while everyone and everything else are the means. Thus, everyone's goal is to

"Mike Blake" Is Not an Eric Scheske Alias

> Mike Blake, a recovering alcoholic who has never worked in his life, says he will still stay at home and live off the family's [government] benefits. > He claims looking after his kids with his unemployed wife Kathleen, 24, will always be his full-time job. > Blake

Drunk Guys Throwing Heavy Objects

> A game to see who could throw an empty half-barrel of beer the farthest injured two bystanders at a party in the town of Ahnapee early Monday. > During the contest, a 20-year-old man threw the half-barrel and hit several bystanders, injuring two of them, according to the Kewaunee

Peachy Solution

Joe Sobran on impeachment: > If you'll read the Constitution in question, you'll notice that it provides for impeachment. This was meant to be used – not rarely, but always. Every government official should be constantly aware that he can lose his job if he abuses his

A Little Distributism in the Mix

The folks at Lew Rockwell have a little distributism in their veins. Or maybe the distributists have a little libertarianism in theirs. Or maybe the two parties disagree on some things but agree on others. We're not going to sort it out here, but we enjoyed this little

During Sweeps, Every Three Minutes

More annoyance driven by advertising. Then again, these people have volunteered to be annoyed and, quite frankly, we, too, would have a hard time turning down the opportunity to get our vote to count in the ratings: > Nielsen will now be interrupting Nielsen people meter users every 42 minutes,

Insuring Against Attacks by Our Underwater Ally

> One of the world's most famous fables faces a serious financial test in two weeks' time when 100 international athletes plunge into Loch Ness - each insured for Â£1m against monster bites. > A hefty but undisclosed premium has been paid by organisers of Scotland&

Spooky Art

If you, like us, have a moderate taste for the macabre, you may enjoy this site. Link [http://www.hauntedstudio.com/]. It's full of original spooky paintings, like this one:

King Kong

LOTR's Peter King has re-made King Kong. It comes out in December 2005. The trailer looks good. Link [http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/king_kong/large.html]. We hear a lot of complaining, but we like the re-makes. Some are horrible (we're not sure we

Brews You Can Use Special Edition

Yes, it's not Friday, but it's still the weekend, so we can't resist posting this great piece from the Wall Street Journal about the booming liquor industry's variegated ways of putting more liquor on the market, from new flavors to vodka-soaked bubble

NEGay

The recent NEA convention decided to advance the homosexual agenda, according to this choppy Washington Times piece [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050708-124919-6209r.htm]: > The National Education Association ended its four-day convention here with a big victory for members promoting homosexual advocacy, but debate by conservatives seeking resolutions condemning

Dying for a Diet

Don't diet. Just live right. That's what the evidence shows. Link [http://www.techcentralstation.com/060205D.html]. Excerpt: > It has been well documented that dieting virtually always fails long-term -- about 90 to 95% of the time -- and that dieting drop-out rates are high.

The Weekend Eudemon

Well, it's nice to bring one of our traditional posts back to the stage after a short lay-off. We haven't had prolonged access to our computer on the weekend for almost a month. Eric woke up at 3:55 this morning, which isn't surprising,

More PETA Fun

The PETA workers arrested for animal cruelty have potential additional criminal charges headed their way: > Now, WAVY-10 reports, police are "trying to figure out if the animals in the case were euthanized. If so, it could mean more problems for PETA." > The station noted that if

Womyn's Studies in NC

Not exactly dispositive with respect to nationwide interest, but here are interesting results of a review of Women's Studies at public universities in North Carolina: > In 2003, UNC-Chapel Hill had 15,089 undergraduates and only four graduated with a major in Women's Studies; meanwhile, UNC-Greensboro

Fodder for the Anarchists

> For motorists wondering whether police are working on a quota system, an answer can be found in Montana. > A new policy requires state troopers to stop at least one vehicle an hour, whether the driver has done anything wrong or not. But the driver doesn't have

Calling John the Baptist

> One could say that St. Mark United Church of Christ is bee-deviled. The church in Clarion County, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, has been infested with bees in its walls for about seven years. The church tried an exterminator and that didn't work. Now the problem

There's Still Time to Expose Yourself

> July 8-14th is Nude Recreation Week. Naturists from all over the country celebrate by engaging in their favorite nude recreation, from visiting nude beaches and resorts to hosting parties in their own backyards. > The force behind Nude Recreation Week is the Naturist Society [http://www.naturistsociety.com/], a

Bring in the Swedish Bikini Team!

Forty percent of Swedish women are abused by men, according to one Swedish womyn radical. A Swede counters the argument and lavishes loathing on the Swedish feminists and their public funding. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/sanandaji2.html]. Excerpt: > The definition of abuse in her report includes having

Pictures? Have Mercy on the Rest of Us

We're torn. On the one hand, we favor public humiliation of criminal offenders (assuming society recognizes any behavior that's shameful). On the other hand, we're fans of moderate outdoor urination: > Officials at the waterfall VÃ¸ringfossen, on the road between Bergen and Oslo,

Brews You Can Use III

Beer logo game. We didn't do well. Link [http://www.logogame.com/game.php?id=16#guess].

Thanatos in America

> Wealthier elders are significantly less likely than poorer ones to suffer pain at the end of their lives, according to a University of Michigan study forthcoming in the August issue of the Journal of Palliative Care. > Specifically, men and women age 70 or older whose net worth was

Brews You Can Use II

> A German company has launched a beer, NicoShot, it claims is designed to help drinkers stop smoking. > "NicoShot is cigarette satisfaction in a beer without the smoke," according to a company press release. "For most smokers, three cans of NicoShot is comparable to an entire

Brews You Can Use

The Firefox browser has a "Beer o'clock" on it: > A small beer icon appears in the status bar of your browser which periodically alerts you to the time until your office beer o'clock: "17 hours 'til beer o'clock"

Kasparov's Politics

A few days ago, the Chicago Tribune ran a piece about chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov's political ambitions. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/chitribts/20050705/ts_chicagotrib/checkmatingputinischesskingsgambit] . Excerpt: > Announcing his retirement from professional chess in March, Kasparov threw himself headlong into Russian politics, undaunted by its

Topsy-Turvy World of Research

A new study says being overweight is a problem after all. Link [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GuestColumns/Fumento20050707.shtml]. Excerpt: > That study in the July Health Affairs classified people as obese (Body Mass Index [http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bminojs.htm] above 30), overweight (above 25), and normal

We Knew HIV was a Jewish Plot!

> The study's preliminary results, disclosed Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal, showed that circumcision reduced the risk of contracting HIV by 70 percent -- a level of protection far better than the 30 percent risk reduction set as a target for an AIDS vaccine. Link [http://www.

Reasoned Audacity

Kind of interesting e-mail we received from the husband of fellow blogger, Charmaine Yost, at Reasoned Audacity. She's in Edinburgh: > Dear Friends, Charmaine is safe, but stranded in Edinburgh while working the G8 and Live 8, and doing research on her book. We'll let you

Peace Prize?

His heart's probably in the right place, even if his ideas are hopelessly flawed. > Campaigning rocker Sir Bob Geldof has been nominated for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless campaigning to save the African continent. The former Boomtown Rat, 53, has devoted most of the

London

Yes, we're aware of the London bombing. We haven't covered it here, primarily because, as a general rule, we present "cultural/religious" posts and try to avoid overtly political matters (e.g., the interminable Bolton nomination) and foreign affairs. We also try to avoid

Shocker Shocker 101

> Sexually transmitted diseases, especially syphilis, have become more common among gay men as the fear of AIDS has declined. > The Miami Herald reports that doctors also blame an increased use of methamphetamines, which increase sexual drive and makes users less cautious, and the rise of Internet chat rooms

Odd Consumer News

Sounds a tad ridiculous, but what the heck. Eric Scheske drinks wine, but he knows very little about it. This could help quite a bit. But does the chip explain how to shake off a wine hangover? > A "talking" wine label could soon tell consumers in Italy

Wi-Fi Everywhere

We like Wi-Fi. We use Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi lets us blog at various locations, thus bringing you, our faithful readers, quality(?) entries throughout the day. But it looks like Wi-Fi is about to step into the annoying sphere. Backpacks with Wi-Fi capabilities will transform every public place into a potential hot

Follow-up on RCC Priestess Story

> A French Cardinal has excommunicated a Catholic woman claiming she was "ordained" as a priest by three women who call themselves Roman Catholic bishops. For those supposing the next generation of church leaders will turn the church even more politically correct, the action by one of the

Big Brother? No.

> City officials [in Chicago] are using new technology that recognizes the sound of a gunshot within a two-block radius, pinpoints the source, turns a surveillance camera toward the shooter and places a 911 call. Officials can then track the shooter and dispatch officers to the scene. . . > After a

War of the Worlds Strikes Twice

First by Orson Welles [http://www.transparencynow.com/welles.htm] in the U.S., now by Spielberg in Siberia: > War Of The Worlds has been blamed for a mass panic in Siberia after locals mistook a tornado for an alien invasion. > People in the Khabarovsk region of Siberia

The Free Money Guy

More than you ever wanted to know about Matthew Lesko, the clownish little guy with question marks all over his sports jacket who has made a fortune off the federal government's bloated size. Link [http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=10258]. Excerpt: > In the late

Runaway Borrowing, Issue, 2,467,201

A group called Demos found that a recent college graduate earning $36,000 a year had only $34 a month left after paying his living expenses and loans. Touchstone , July/August 2005, 57. (No link available.)

African Aid

The leading African economist, James Shikwati, discusses African aid. Link [http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,druck-363663,00.html] . Excerpt: > SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa... > Shikwati: ... for God's sake, please

Sad Celebration

Anyone who fires anything into the air in an inhabited area ought to be taken out and maimed: > Doctors are trying to save the life of an Albuquerque baby shot in the head by a bullet that fell from the sky Monday night. The bullet was likely fired into

Thonged Protest

Either they're using sex to draw attention to themselves or they're pretty ugly and this is punishment: > Hundreds of protesters, some wearing just thongs and plastic bull horns, marched through Pamplona on Tuesday to protest against the centuries-old running of the bulls, Spain's

Agreeing with a Pro-Gay Op-Ed

It's not often that we agree with a New York Times op-ed, much less a NYT op-ed in support of gay marriage. But here's one that has us nodding, at least most of the time. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/opinion/05coontz.html?

All Sorts of Dads Volunteering

> A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the American Association for Nude Recreation can pursue its claim that [a law requiring parental supervision at a nudist camp for kids] violates its free speech rights, crimping its ability to spread its nudism philosophy. >

Divorced Tarzan

> A Romanian man ended up in hospital after he tried to swing from tree to tree to escape his wife and go drinking. > Stefan Trisca, 66, had been locked in the bedroom by his wife who was fed up with him going drinking with his friends. Link [http:

Leno on the Childless Culture

> Did you know that today is 'Take your dog to work' day? How stupid is this? What am I missing here? Are there a lot of dogs being held back in their careers because of lack of experience in the workplace? And the sex-obsessed culture: > Mattel

Setting New Kissing Record

A mix of desire for fame, diversion from ennui, sexual obsession, and probably a handful of other unidentified problems in our culture: > More a test of endurance than enduring love, the record set in the US in 2001 is 30 hours, 59 minutes and 27 seconds. > The partners

Band-Aid on a Gaping Chest Wound

> Members of Epiphany Baptist Church on McDuff Avenue asked city officials in late June to consider banning cosmetic gold teeth and low-hanging pants. Church deacon Richard Burton said higher waistlines and whiter smiles could wipe away the thuggish image many young people project -- and that change could help

Caligula and Other Classics

Lew Rockwell has run an entertaining article today about ancient fools. The implied parallel to President Bush is a bit shrill and the nutshell summaries of Stoicism and Epicureanism are a little misleading, but it's still entertaining. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/case3.html#_ftn7]. Excerpt: >

Heretics in History

Excerpt from Eric Scheske's regular Wednesday column at Catholic Exchange: > Two traits unite Arius, Amaury, and Marcion: (1) They taught heretical ideas while members of the Church; (2) They were charming. It's a curious combination. Men with heretical ideas, ideas meant to undermine the Church,

Wait Until PETA Gets Ahold of This

Evidence, in the PETA world, that animals are people, too? > Animal experts in Croatia say a bear has learned how to trick people to let him in by knocking at the door. > They believe the 35-stone brown bear probably learned the trick while nudging a door to get

Nauseous and Mad

From an AP story about the horrific Idaho case: > Duncan had spent more than a decade in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint in Tacoma, Wash., and was a fugitive at the time of his arrest after he was charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy in

Illustrated Catechism

On June 28th, Pope Benedict presented a new "Compendium" of the catechism of the Catholic Church. It features fourteen full-color sacred images. Link [http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=35203&eng=y]. Excerpts: > As the pope has explained, the images are not there purely

More Early Consumerism

Back in the days when every motel with more than one star didn't have an indoor pool. Here's a site dedicated to old motel signs. Kinda neat. Link [http://www.motelsign.com/index.html].

Blogging with Our Noses Held

We hate to mention Paris Hilton on this blog. It's kinda like talking about dirty underwear or body functions. The mere mention would seem to pull down a site's urbanity by at least 10%. Nonetheless, we found the following story disgusting and humorous: > The self-described

Go Moron Go!

Some people think gambling is a fool's pursuit. A new Indian casino in California apparently agrees, dubbing itself "Morongo." Link [http://www.morongocasinoresort.com/].

Ventriloquist

There's a museum or hall of fame for everything these days, so this doesn't surprise us: A museum dedicated to the art of ventriloquism. It's in Kentucky. Link [http://www.venthavenmuseum.net/index.html]. Some people find ventriloquism annoying, but we enjoy it in

Your Brain on TV

TV hurts kids. This is common sense to anyone who looks at himself honestly while watching TV and compares it to his mental activity while conversing, playing, or reading. Or, perhaps a better way to put it, such an assertion makes intuitive sense if we look at ourselves honestly. Doesn&

Deep Impact Lawsuit

> Russian astrologist Marina Bai has filed suit in a Moscow asking for 8.7 billion rubles (311 million U.S. dollars) because, she claims, the NASA Deep Impact mission damaged her business by altering her ability to provide accurate horoscopes, harmed her "system of spiritual values," and

Flushing at MSU

And if you're on an athletic scholarship, it'll count as three credits: > Following the completion of a $64-million renovation, hundreds of volunteers plan to help make sure Michigan State's football stadium has what it takes to make it through game day. > The

Not Sure How We Missed This

First pets, now dolls: > As Japan produces fewer children and more retirees, toymakers are designing new dolls designed not for the young but for the lonely and elderly–companions which can sleep next to them and offer caring words they may never hear otherwise. > Talking toys have become

Cruisin' to the Defense

Charley Reese at Lew Rockwell comes to Tom Cruise's defense. We don't care for Cruise, but most of Reese's points have merit. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese206.html]. Excerpt: > [P]sychiatry is a pseudo-science, just like so-called social science, as Cruise

Anglicans Slaughtering Goats

> In South Africa, so the Church Times article by Michael Bleby explains, some Christians like to involve their ancestors in worship, and, the argument goes, since blood is symbolic of life, Christian worshippers can come into communion with their ancestors through the fresh blood of a goat. . . > "

One Comic Book Series + Sex

The director of the new X-Men movie is inventing his own character to, what else?, add a large dose of sex. Link [http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2005-07-04/#celeb7]. Excerpt: > Brett Ratner is spicing up the new X-Men 3 movie with the addition of his very own fantasy

Korean Wife Beaters

Mildly interesting article in The Korea Times about troubled marriages between Korean men and Filipina women. Basically, it appears that Korean men tend to abuse the wives. Link [http://search.hankooki.com/times/times_view.php?terms=Korean+wives+code%3A+kt&path=hankooki3%2Ftimes%2Flpage%2Fspecial%2F200507%2Fkt2005070320064567650.

Misleading/Fraudulent Ads? No!

We posted a story last week about a woman who sold advertising on her forehead for $10,000.00. One source claims it's a fraud: > Deseretnews reports that Golden Palace bought forehead space on a woman for $10,000. We've seen forehead ads before, in

Stupid and Pregnant?

This reminds us of that H2 (horrible yet humorous) joke: Q. What do you call a woman with a brain? A. Pregnant with a son. Needless to say (hopefully), Eric Scheske holds women, especially his long-suffering and saintly wife, in considerably higher regard. Which is why we found this article

Odd Consumer News

Illuminated shower heads. Neat looking. Not sure why anyone would need one or even have a reasonable comfort desire for it, but that's not the point of buying things these days. Link [http://www.interbath.com/ondine/els100.html]. > A gorgeous downpour illuminated by the colors of

Rocket's Red Glaring Error?

Russell Moore at Mere Comments does a pretty good job of trying to parse our culture's flippant attitude toward funerals. Link [http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2005/07/fiery_minister_.html]. Excerpts: According to USA Today [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-07-02-minister-fireworks_x.htm], a Lutheran pastor

Humanists, Atheists, and Secularists

> Humanists and atheists from East and West meet in Paris this week to forge a common platform against what they see as a growing threat from religions and religious politicians to secular states across the globe. . . > Their gathering, the World Humanist Congress running Monday to Thursday, is timed

Hot Comic Book

Watch for a new comic book, the eponymous offspring of a village in Michigan named "Hell." > A woman takes an ax to her husband in their new home, someone is boiled alive in a public pool and a father is swallowed by the earth. Just another day

Communist Scientologists

Hollywood is investing in China. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/04/business/media/04film.html?ex=1278129600&en=124616a33f9cb8d2&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss] . Excerpts: > Like the rest of American industry, Hollywood has seen the future, and it is China. Some of

Viagra Me

A former Viagra salesman wrote a book about his experiences as a legal drug pusher. The LA Times discusses it. Link [http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-et-viagra21jun21,0,7799050.story?coll=la-home-style] . Excerpt: > Just in time to rescue his self-image, Reidy was selected for the V-team. The drug

Live 8

With the exception of a short-sighted slap at the RCC, here's a great commentary about Live 8. Link [http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=733072005]. Excerpts: > "Wearing badges is not enough," Billy Bragg used to sing, "in days like these", but judging

Not Shepherds, But Wolves

The Times has run an interesting piece about the Anglican Church in the UK: The congregations believe in religious verities more than the clergy. Link [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1679824,00.html]. Excerpt: > The report says that if committed Anglicans are clear about one thing it

Happy Fourth

Happy Fourth of July to all our readers. We'll spend it picking up trash at the local airport. It's one of the charitable endeavors Eric undertakes, since he's very good at it. It's like he has twelve arms, ten of which are

Energy Beers

Regular readers of this blog know that two of our "side" interests are advertising and beer. We, accordingly, found this analysis [http://www.beveragebusiness.com/bbcontent/art98/bryson0405.html] of "malternatives" and their marketing interesting. Excerpts: > The core malternatives - Smirnoff Ice, Mike's

Dawn Eden: RCCC

While we were on vacation last week, Dawn Eden at The Dawn Patrol announced that she's joining the Catholic Church. Here's her explanation. Link [http://www.dawneden.com/2005/06/how-i-became-catholic-i-wuzpart-1.html]. Excerpt: > C.S. Lewis wrote that those who find themselves in heaven will

Curing Boys

What's so hard to understand? Girls good, boys bad: > "Modern American teachers are often taught in education school that fairly normal signs of 'male' behavior, like overflowing energy or aggressiveness, must be severely tamped down. ... > "It is very natural for boys to

That Counts as Sex?

We never knew. Eric Scheske is gonna be grabbing his wife's arm a lot for now on. It'll reduce the number of unexpected NFP births. > Fitzroy Barnaby said he had to swerve to avoid hitting the 14-year-old Des Plaines girl who walked in front of

Replacing Spouses

> It is the ultimate back seat driver. Motorists face having their cars fitted with a “spy” device that stops speeding. > The satellite-based system will monitor the speed limit and apply the brakes or cut out the accelerator if the driver tries to exceed it. A government-funded trial has

More Vampires Coming

What's next? How-to-Make-Yourself a Priest for Dummies (it wouldn't be for anyone else)? > A French woman defied a threat of excommunication by the Roman Catholic Church and held a ceremony proclaiming herself a priest on Saturday. > In a small ceremony on a boat, Genevieve

Infiltrating the Bedroom and Kitchen

Spain isn't just allowing gay marriage. It's also requiring men to do their share of the house work. > The vows that couples take in a civil marriage ceremony are to change. Not only will the spouses have to promise to be faithful, live together and

More than Fried Chicken and NASCAR

> Bobbing for pig feet, the mudpit belly-flop, the armpit serenade - they're all part of the Redneck Games [ http://redneckgames.tripod.com ], a series of good ole'ympic events for the ain't-so-athletic celebrating their 10th year in middle Georgia. > Started as a Southern-fried

Dating in the 21st Century

Ridiculously well-read Mike Aquilina [http://www.mikeaquilina.com/books.html] has two teenage children, and he's a little nervous. To help prepare for the sex and dating questions, he read three books: Christian Courtship in an Oversexed World: A Guide for Catholics [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/

Something for This Holiday

The pursuit of happiness. It doesn't mean getting as much action as possible? Link [http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006896]. Excerpts: > For anyone who went to church in the 18th century, the "pursuit of happiness" was a familiar phrase. American preachers had delivered sermons

Being Old Never Sounded So Good

Phil Brennan celebrates a birthday this week. He tells readers how old he is. Charming and thoughtful stuff. Link [http://www.etherzone.com/2005/bren062905.shtml]. Excerpts: > I'm old enough to remember that my paternal grandfather was born in 1850 and enrolled in Manhattan College a mere

Nine Nuns Officiated from the St. Lawrence River

> A Hokkaido couple has tied the knot here with dolphins acting as witnesses to the wedding ceremony. > Dolphins watched on as Hiroshi Ogaki and Miwa Yoshida became the first couple ever to exchange marriage vows at Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, a marine resort in Yokohama. . . > "We really

Something for Sunday Morning

"[T]he soul moves in the opposite direction, lightly and swiftly moving upwards once it is released from sensuous and earthly attachments, soaring from the world below up towards the heavens." Gregory of Nyssa

Outage

We had planned to resume regular blogging, but were thwarted by the Norse gods of the Internet. We're not sure what happened yesterday evening, but the TDE site and many others on the web were down for hours.

Who Needs Beer . . .

when you have pi to avert ennui? > Akira Haraguchi, 59, managed to recite the number's first 83,431 decimal places, almost doubling the previous record held by another Japanese. > He had to stop three hours into his recital after losing his place, and had to start

We're Back

The raid on Somalia was a success. Eric Scheske made it back home with seven treasures. Truth be known, Eric wasn't in Somalia (shocker, shocker). He was in Houghton Lake, Michigan, a tourist resort area in central/northern Michigan (lower peninsula). The "seven treasures" refer to

Absalom

Absalom has one of the oddest deaths in the Encyclopedia Britannica. During a battle in the forest, he got his flowing hair caught in the branches of an oak tree, which allowed his enemy, Joab, to catch him and slay him. We'd never heard this story during all

Culture and Barbarism

The primary difference between the cultured man and the barbarian is a difference in permanence. The cultured man values things that are long lasting, that provide on-going value, that make a difference in the long run. He will accordingly make short-term sacrifices in order to obtain the long-term gain. The

Louis XIV

> An Italian chemist came to Louis XIV with plans for the first bacteriological weapon. Louis XIV refused. He never developed the weapon, never used it against other European nations. But even more impressive, he paid the chemist an annual salary to keep the bioweapon a secret from the world.

Lenin is Rolling Over in Grave (Yet Again)

LOTR fans are staging battle scenes around Moscow: > In the summer, woods around Moscow, as well as Moscow's biggest parks often teem with people who look like they've just walked off the set of “Lord of the Rings” – swords, armor, the works. The parks and

Ugly Is As Ugly Does

A man who rejects truth and goodness tends to hold the ugly in high esteem. If there are enough men like that walking around, we become a culture that holds the ugly in high esteem. As we become a culture that holds the ugly in high esteem, we become a

Kierkegaard

> Kierkegaard was haunted by the fact that his Dad--when he was a struggling tenant farmer--stood on a hill and solemnly cursed God, an act that Kierkegaard believed doomed the entire family. Source: The Know-It-All. We're a bit skeptical about K's reaction to the cursing (perhaps

A Brief History of Control

Although not commonly acknowledged, the Renaissance's cutting-edge intellectual current was magic. The daring intellectuals of the day were magicians. Magicians like Marsilio Ficino, Cornelius Agrippa, Tommaso Campanella, and Giordano Bruno taught esoteric, magical doctrines to society's upper-crust–a strata of society that has always felt a

But She Won't Get a Book Deal Out of It

> A young woman decided to call off her wedding 12 days before the event and her parents knew they'd be stuck with the bill, so they decided to have a party anyway and invited the homeless. > Residents of the Interfaith Family Shelter, housed in a former

No Brews

Due to Eric Scheske's limited Internet access this week, we will not feature a "Brews You Can Use" this Friday. Our apologies, but we're sure you'll find ample reason to drink a few anyway.

Berenstain Bears in the Trunk

> The Prince William County woman accused of putting her 5-year-old children in a car trunk finally turned herself in last night. . . > According to city police, an off-duty New Hampshire police officer stopped Parker on Saturday as she was backing out of a parking space at Wal-Mart with her

One of Our Favorite Saintly Anecdotes

In 372, Valens' zealous Arian servant, Modestus (the “Count of the East”), came to Caesarea and summoned Basil. Basil–emaciated from his asceticism but mentally rigorous–came. Modestus shouted at him: “Basil, how dare you defy our great power? How dare you stand alone? Everyone else has yielded, and

Advertising Gone Wild, Issue 2,908,455

A woman has sold space on her forehead for $10,000. Golden Palace dot com bought the spot, which is now permanently inked. Even the tattooist tried to talk her out of it. It would seem that she's had a run of very bad luck and some money

Scoping the ACLU

Excellent piece at Lew Rockwell this morning about the ACLU and the Scopes trial. Packed with facts and solid analysis. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/jarvis/jarvis89.html]. A few excerpts: > We must remember that at this early stage the Russian experiment with Communism seemed to be working ”“ this

Family Substitutes

We reported yesterday that studies in third world countries indicate that family ties help cure mental illness. In a culture with increasingly-severed family ties, products like this aren't surprising: > Needies are interactive plush dolls inspired by codependent, high-maintenance relationships. > Totally attention-starved, they compete with each other

Evil Rules

> History is brimming with evil leaders you've never heard of. Early on, there was Jean-Bedel Bokassa, head of the Central African Republic, who . . . crowned himself emperor in a sumptuous $20 million ceremony that helped bankrupt his country. Though he did find enough money to also kill a

Science of the Sun

Not coincidentally (as we sweat away in 100-degree temperatures), summer brings renewed interest in global warming and the sun's effects. Now this: > A confusing array of new and recent studies reveals that scientists know very little about how much sunlight is absorbed by Earth versus how much

PSA

Another reminder: Eric doesn't have regular access to his computer this week, so the fare is different and lighter than usual. Regular blog programming will resume in a few days.

The Problem of the Welfare State

> The real problems are cultural, social, and moral. The welfare state has not only encouraged perverse and destructive behavior, but it has also led to an idolatrous devotion to the central state, with its implied promise of a single and costless political solution to every social ill. Hilaire Belloc

How to Meet Girls 101

> A man is facing charges after police said they pulled him from a tank under a women's toilet that was filled with human waste. > Police said that Gary Moody, 45, was under a log cabin outhouse off the Kancamagas Highway in Albany. > "You can

The Impartial Judge

"No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity." James Madison, Federalist No. 10 A truism, no doubt, but not recognized by those who, wrapped up in the self-interest of legitimizing

Rootless in House and Mind

Fascinating piece at WaPo about studies of schizophrenia in third world countries. According to the study, people with strong family ties are more likely to overcome mental illness. Link [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/26/AR2005062601091.html] . Excerpts: > [A remarkable three-decade-long study by the World

Obscene Language

> For using the "G" word 41 times in a term paper, Bethany Hauf was given an "F" by her Victor Valley Community College instructor. > Hauf's teacher approved her term paper topic – Religion and its Place within the Government – on one condition: Don&

Stupid Christians

Some apologetics for this week of off-beat fare: One of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's more clever and sinister characters (Peter Verkhovensky in The Demons) says of religion: The worse off a man is, the more downtrodden, the poorer–the more stubbornly he clings to the idea that it will all

Flannery O'Connor on Her Writing Habits

I'm a full-time believer in writing habits, pedestrian as it all may sound. You may be able to do without them if you have genius but most of us only have talent and this is simply something that has to be assisted all the time by physical and

Encyclopedia Miscellany

Isaac Asimov wrote about five hundred books. When he was 81, P.T. Barnum fell gravely ill. At his request, a New York newspaper printed his obituary in advance so he could enjoy it. Watch for this to become a source of revenue for newspapers seeking to shore up their

Flannery is Rolling Over in Her Grave

> In the event that GC&SU 'makes the cut' and is asked to participate in the next stage, we would appreciate having anecdotal evidence of religious faith making civil, balanced, classroom discussions virtually impossible. Are there faculty who experience this? Would you agree that such attitudes

Power and Love and Deformity

The material goods that are shoved down the soul's spiritual throat take different forms. In the totalitarian, it takes the form of raw power. Control. That's the substance that he crams into his heart and mind instead of power's opposite, love (the proper spiritual

Adhesives and Sex

J. Budziszewski writes about sex in the upcoming issue of Touchstone. Excerpt: > When I say we aren't designed for [casual sex], I'm also speaking of males. A woman may be more likely to cry the next morning; it's not so easy to sleep

PSA

Just a reminder: Eric is on assignment this week to recapture certain holy relics in Mogadishu, Somalia. Our Internet access will be sporadic and available in short spurts, so our output will be limited and the fare less plentiful and different. Regular blog programming will resume next week.

State v. The People

Orestes Brownson said, on a speaking tour on “The Church and the Republic,” that every society is exposed to two opposite dangers: absolutism of the state and absolutism of the individual. In order to mediate between the two dangers, and give each, the state and the individual, their due, there

Hating the Hate

The UK new hate law is making its way through the legislative channels, even as members of Parliament devastate its logic. Link [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1065-1668313,00.html]. Excerpt: > It was a fine debate, during which the Home Secretary was reduced to repeating bald assertions

Crass and Unrestrained Greed . . .

. . . resulting in crime? No, say it ain't so: > Federal prosecutors here have charged a retired Palm Springs, Calif., lawyer with taking kickbacks from a prominent New York law firm in exchange for serving as plaintiff in dozens of class-action and shareholder lawsuits that earned the firm $44

What Scientist Would Have Guessed?

> Eating dark chocolate may have a protective effect on the cardiovascular system in healthy people, the results of a new study suggest. Link [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2005-06-24T183417Z_01_B289314_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-CHOCOLATE-ARTERIES-DC.XML] .

Ganja Me

> Milton Friedman is no dopehead. But that's his hallowed name atop the list of more than 500 economists who've signed an open letter asking our Drug War-addled politicians to stop the prohibition of marijuana and instead legalize it and tax it. > The petition asks

Reporting on Assignment

Mogadishu is a hot spot, but not of the wi-fi sort. Eric Scheske had to resort to the Mogadishu public library (who knew Carnegie's grants stretched so far?) to blog. He has only minutes until his pursuers discover where he has ducked, various recovered religious artifacts crammed into

Nietzsche Understood the Roots of Scientism

> Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as science "without any presuppositions" . . . a philosophy, a "faith," must always be there first, so that science can acquire from it a direction, a meaning, a limit, a method, a right to exist . . . It is still metaphysical faith

Zossima's Love

Keeping with our off-beat fare this week, we thought we'd present one of favorite passages from Dostoyevsky's writing. It's found in the “Thoughts and Teachings of the Elder Zossima” of The Brothers Karamazov. Fr. Zossima, the revered elder of Alyosha Karamazov, is dying. He

Promiscuous and Lovin' It

> "Until fairly recently," writes welfare scholar James Payne, "girls who got 'in trouble' were whispered about–and expelled from school. Seeing this social disapproval, other girls made a great effort to avoid pregnancy. Today programs like free day care for student mothers make unwed

An Ecumenical Moment

For rock-n-roll fans out there with a penchant for things Jewish, you may want to check out Jews Rock [http://jewsrock.org/]. We can't say we're highly impressed with their assortment of Semitic rockers, though. One article refers to the "Holy Trinity of Brooklyn Rock&

PSA

For the next week, readers will probably notice that TDE is different. There will be fewer posts and the fare will be a little odd. Eric Scheske will be on undercover assignment in Mogadishu, Somalia to recover holy relics of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church that were stolen by Mamelukes in

Real, Real Southern Blog

We like to point out unique blogs, so we bring you this: a blog from Antarctica. Link [http://simonc.f2o.org/south/]. Excerpt: > Wednesday 1 June 2005 Fun at -50C > Yesterday the temperature dropped to -52.6C (that's -62.7F). Even for Halley that's

Why Should Bloggers Blog?

> According to Maximus the Great, there are three different purposes for which gifted men write without fault or constraint: the first, as memoranda for themselves; the second, for the benefit of others; the third, for obedience. With this last purpose many writings have been composed for those who humbly

Something for Sunday Morning

> Drive from the soul the vain thoughts about wealth, the excitement and distress related to it, the worries that are the thorns of existence and that suffocate the seed of life. Clement of Alexandra.

Storing Magazines

Eric Scheske's house has a magazine problem. They're all over the place. He ran across a great idea in his local paper recently: use old cereal boxes to hold them. Cut off the top inch or so, then cut at an angle to about one-third of

Dog Funeral

We rarely offer straight jokes on this site, but this one cracked us up: Muldoon lived alone in the Irish countryside with only a pet dog for company. One day the dog died, and Muldoon went to the parish priest and asked, "Father, me dog is dead. Could ya&

Get in the Encyclopedia

A.J. Jacobs read the 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica, A to Z. He then wrote a book, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. It's a good book: filled with facts and funny comments. It's

Going to Europe?

If so, you may want to check this: > To experience Old Europe, there's no better way than by eating, sleeping, walking, studying, and praying in the houses of monks and nuns. Europe's Monastery and Convent Guesthouses: A Pilgrim's Travel Guide by Kevin J.

Odd Consumer News

This place has devised an alarm clock that wakes you up with the smell and sizzle of cooking bacon. Link [http://www.mathlete.com/portfolio/wakeNbacon.php] . > Once the alarm goes off, it sends a signal to a small speaker to generate the alarm sound. We hacked it such

More Fun with Female Workers . . .

. . . in traditionally-male jobs: > A failed romantic relationship between two pistol-packing guards led to some tense moments inside an armored car at a Slidell bank. > Loomis, Fargo & Co. employee Quiana Anderson, 27, told authorities she was driving to Hancock Bank at 1411 Gause Blvd. to make a pickup

Dissin' Sex?

We hear the measure didn't run into very stiff competition: > Impotence drugs such as Viagra would not be covered by Medicaid and Medicare, the government health programs for the poor and the aged, under new prohibitions approved by the House on Friday. > By a 285-121 vote,

While You're At It . . .

. . . make them all valedictorians, too: > Today, San Ysidro Middle School will recognize 516 eighth-graders in a ceremony to promote them to high school, regardless of whether they passed middle school. > More than a fourth of them did not. > In today's ceremony, 143 students who either

The Oneness of Vice

> A woman shoplifter in Germany abandoned her three-month-old baby after being caught stealing from a supermarket, authorities said Friday. > "When the security man told the woman to enter his office so he could check her identification, the perpetrator took off, leaving behind the baby and the pram,

Abelard and Heloise

The Claremont Institute has published a nice piece about the greatest love affair of the Middle Ages. Link [http://www.claremont.org/writings/crb/summer2005/bramwell.html]. Excerpt: > Abelard and Heloise inhabited a world that, like our own, was changing rapidly. They saw themselves and their times as modern.

Growing Crack?

Interesting concept: high rise farming complexes in the middle of urban areas. Link [http://www.verticalfarm.com/]. Excerpt: > The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new

Good

> The Chicago Police Department began posting on its Web site on Tuesday photographs, names and partial addresses of people who were arrested on charges of soliciting prostitutes in a move intended to embarrass offenders and deter people from committing such crimes. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/

The Early Days of Consumerism

A man has set up a blog dedicated to pictures of vintage shopping malls from the 1960s and 1970s. Shallow, yes, but it's kinda neat. Link [http://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/]. Westland Mall in Detroit area:

Porn Generation Interview

David Horowitz's Front Page has an interview with Ben Shapiro, author of Porn Generation. It's pretty lengthy, but worth a click. Link [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18529]. Excerpt: > Watching enough of this stuff does change kids' views and affect their

The E Meter

Everything and more that you ever wanted to know about Scientology's e-meter: > [T]he 'e-meter,' or 'Electro-psychometer,' a “pastoral counseling device” used by the Church of Scientology [is used] to detect, among other things, the emotional state and thoughts of those attached to

Strangling Russia

Russia needs lots of small businesses to open shop. Unfortunately, small businesses are opened by people without much money who can't afford to pay a lot of legal fees to figure out bureaucratic nightmares. But that's the situation in Russia. A maze of regulation is strangling

Brews You Can Use

We've been meaning to get back to New York: > [A bill in New York] would create a tourism mechanism similar to the New York State Wine Trail, a state program promoting tourism and marketing at state wineries."We have over 50 breweries in New York state

Close Relationship Ain't Good Enough

Suzanne Fields has written a great op-ed that covers the basic issue in the marriage debates: Good of the Offspring v. Close Relationship. Link [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/suzannefields/sf20050623.shtml]. Excerpt: > In "close relationship" law there's a moral equivalence between marriage and cohabitation

Monkey Art

Paintings by Congo the chimpanzee sold at auction for more than $25,000 on Monday. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHIMPANZEE_ART?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=STRANGE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-06-20-16-47-57] . Excerpt: > The three abstract, tempera paintings were auctioned at Bonhams in London alongside

Ships Passing in the Night

Get Religion has a good short piece that gives an example of the gay marriage opponents talking past each other. It discusses an 8,000-word pro-gay article in The New York Times Magazine by Russell Shorto. Link [http://www.getreligion.org/?p=868]. Excerpt: > Shorto writes, for example: >

Internet Porn Recedes?

> Amended Section 2257 recordkeeping regulations [went] into effect at midnight [Wednesday] tonight. The federal law requires website owners to keep records documenting, among other things, that "every performer portrayed in a visual depiction of actual sexually explicit conduct" is over the age of 18. . . > Section 2257

More on .XXX

This is interesting. We haven't taken a position on the .XXX domain, but we were inclined to approve of it since the First Amendment Absolutists tend to disapprove of it (they fear that sites will be forced to register as .XXX, even though the sites themselves don'

Young Marx

Interesting piece at Tech Central Station, A Tale of Two Prophet: Karl Marx and Brigham Young. Link [http://www.techcentralstation.com/062405C.html]. Excerpt: > Brigham Young believed that man was put on earth to do hard physical work with his hands, and he believed this was the only sure

Pride Parade Side Shows

Keeping you abreast of breaking news at the Pride Parade: > This Sunday in a Wells Fargo bank parking lot near San Francisco's City Hall, August Knight will demonstrate for any adult who cares to stop by what it's like to be flogged -- and enjoy

LW2 Trailer

The first Lion Witch and the Wardrobe trailer is out. Link [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2003080001-2005250614,00.html]. It looks good. Of course, all trailers look good, but based on everything we read, we're optimistic this will be a hit and trigger six sequels.

PSA

As mentioned yesterday, blogging will be light today. It's the 27th Annual Scheske Open. Eric Scheske has been beckoned to the golf course for his annual battle with the capital sin of anger. There will be a few breaks during the post-golf festivities, but just a few.

Free Koran

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is mailing out free copies of the Koran. Go here [http://www.cair-net.org/explorethequran/] to order one. Ten dudes with black scarves around their faces will even visit your house thirty days after you order. To, you know, answer any questions you have about

We Will Drink to His Memory

> Gene Ford, 77, a wine writer and educator who wrote extensively about the health benefits of moderate drinking, died June 10 of complications from heart surgery at a hospital in Seattle. Link [http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-passings22.2jun22,0,5699554.story?coll=la-home-obituaries] . Eric Scheske will drink

Tradition is Right?

> Married men earn more than bachelors so long as their wives stay at home doing the housework, according to a report Wednesday from Britain's Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER). > Academics Elena Bardasi and Mark Taylor found that a married man whose wife does not

The Writer

We're a part-time literary blog, so we feel obligated to bring you this: a 30-foot-tall sculpture, "the Writer." It's on display in London's Hampstead Heath. Italian artist Giancarlo Neri says the sculpture is "a monument to the loneliness of writing."

Ukraine Vampire

A vampire affiliated with the occult? Say it ain't so: > Diana Butenko, 29, lured homeless youngsters to her apartment saying she would feed them. > But she plied them with booze, got them to sniff glue then tied them to beds. Butenko – now under arrest – slashed their

Toys Lead to Addiction

First toy guns, now toys: > Children at playschool in Austria are having their toys taken away in the belief it will help them fight drug addiction and alcoholism later in life. > The project called 'toy-free kindergartens' will see groups of youngsters forced to go without their

International Illegitimacy

Nice piece about the floundering United Nations. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul257.html]. This excerpt pretty much sums up the problem: > Many conservatives have bought into the neoconservative dream of using the UN as a tool to advance an aggressive US foreign policy. But granting more power

They Can Write?

We try to keep readers abreast of blog trends, so we bring you this: The professional cheerleaders blog. Link [http://nflcheerleader.blogspot.com/]. Edifying excerpt: > Meanwhile, the Ben-Gals are working on their 2006 calendar and recently wrapped up their annual uniform shoot. We're in for a great

Longer and Longer Acronyms

Don't ask us how we stumbled upon it, but here's a lesbian writing about this coming weekend's gay pride parade. She adores the parade, but has some problems with it, like this one: > Stand proud Gay Parcheesi Players with Hay Fever! You are

St. Joseph, Pray for Us

From Australia: > Men should swap their role as breadwinner for the "mummy track" employment path and end relationship tensions over work and family, according to a national discussion paper to be released today. . . > Fathers of young children are likely to be working a greater number of

Odd Consumer News

This one cracked us up: > I've been having a lot of fun with the Portable Rotary Phone from Spark Fun Electronics. It's a GSM cell phone built inside an old rotary phone. You pop your SIM card in, it dials out, rings and acts just

Not an Oxymoron?

In case you missed this new phrase: > Catholic evangelicals: This counterintuitive term identifies Roman Catholics who embrace much of the public-witness style of evangelical Protestants. “They have the fire and zeal usually associated with evangelicals,” said William Portier, a religious studies professor at the University of Dayton and the

Rachel Carson: Mass Murderer?

According to this disconcerting article [http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7822]: Millions are dying in Asia and Africa due to malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes. DDT cheaply and effectively kills mosquitoes, and allegations of its dangerousness are exaggerated or unfounded, yet we're prevented from using

Weekly Features Post

Issue XXX The title of this Weekly Features Post is sure to attract some shady types: XXX. Boy, will the porners be disappointed. Stoic's Porch "Rehearse death." Seneca More Anonymous Existentialist Ramblings Although Jack Kerouac never completely deserted his native Roman Catholicism, he was infatuated with

Crumbling Housing Market Exception

We stopped bidding when they refused to throw-in the clothes line and NASCAR memorabilia: > A 40-acre estate in the Hamptons - the Long Island summer retreat of New York's rich and famous, has been sold for $US90 million, a new US record for a residential property. . . >

Yet Another Attack on the Homeless

Houston denies them library privilges (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/800/]), Vancouver takes away their bathrooms (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1312/]), Massachusetts throws them away (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1434/]), and now Alaska is taking away their meat. > A Juneau homeless shelter has stopped serving donated bear meat after learning

Ban Outdoor Advertising?

Ford has come up with an idea that makes outdoor ads more palatable: > Ford has erected a "living billboard" in Dundas Square, Toronto to promote its Escape Hybrid. With the headline, "Makes everything a little greener," the board contains 900 real plants, kept alive by

Praying for a Good Game

Christianity Today has a decent essay about the theology of golf. We say "decent" because it's not great. CT runs good essays, but there's always something missing. Oh well, if you like golf and religion, you'll get a kick out of this

Porn is Even in the Hamburgers!

They're looking for a McDonald's worker with a bad disposition who spends a lot of time looking at his keys: > Penny Needham of Madison Twp. said she pulled up to the drive-through window of McDonald's on North Verity Parkway at 6:15 p.

Newspapers Sinking

Newspapers are in big trouble. They're losing classified ad revenues, and they no longer control their rate card (without a monopoly, they can't control ad prices any more). Traditionally, newspapers have used the rate card to eliminate competitors. Now the game is reversed. Link [http://publications.

Leno on McDonald's

> McDonald's has announced they're going to start selling their own skateboards and bikes. Apparently they feel our kids have gotten so fat and lazy now, the only way to get them to a McDonald's is to roll them in.

It's Still Tinsel Town, But Worse

We apologize for revisiting the Holmes-Cruise debacle again, but this piece gives a good glimpse of the "reality" of Hollywood. Link [http://news.independent.co.uk/media/story.jsp?story=648502]. Excerpt: > In Hollywood, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who believes the romance

MS and Blogging in China

We're not big fans of antitrust laws and we know Microsoft has done a lot of good. But we don't trust 'em, just don't trust 'em: > Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer repeatedly visited China in recent years,

They Ruin Every Other Place . . .

. . . why not the beach, too? > The once quaint, red-lettered banner dragged behind a small bi-plane has increasingly given way to gigantic sky banners, sailboats equipped with logo-emblazoned sails, grooming equipment that paves the beach with logos in the sand, logoed umbrellas, handouts, beach chairs, towels and flip-flops. Tantalized with

First Jane Seymour, Now This

This trend has gotta stop before we all go blind: > Entering the final leg of a $4 million building fund drive, Dietert Senior Center leaders are considering a non-traditional way to raise cash: a naked-biker calendar. > A graying local cyclist proposed the risquÃ© revue to close the $1

Better Never Than Late

> She was a glamour girl in a Bond movie and the maverick Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman , renowned for her ladylike image on screen. > Now, at the ripe old age of 54, actor Jane Seymour dared to go topless on screen for the first time. Link [http://dailytelegraph.news.

Bloggers' Paradise

> This tropical island off the east coast of Africa is best-known for its white-sand beaches, its designer clothing outlets and its spicy curries. > But tiny Mauritius is about to stake a new claim to fame. By year's end, or soon afterward, it is expected to become

Origins of Ghetto Culture

Interesting excerpt from a gushing review of Thomas Sowell's Black Rednecks and White Liberals (link [http://www.townhall.com/bookclub/sowell7.html]): > Sowell begins by tracing the origins of black ghetto culture all the way back to the British Isles from which white American Southerners immigrated in

Hot Date

I'll bring the Cialis, you bring the grapefruit, and we'll meet in the back of a car: > A study of smells shows that the scent of grapefruit on women make them seem younger to men - about six years younger > However, a grapefruit fragrance

Home of the Klan Sells Out

> Indiana may soon begin hiring men in dresses in order to satisfy the governor's affirmative action plan. That's a possibility because of an April 26, 2005, policy statement issued by Republican Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. > After listing categories now covered by anti-discrimination law,

Divorced Anti-Divorce Columnist

A columnist fiercely opposed to divorce gets divorced. Funny? Could be. But this appears to be a case of spousal abandonment. Contrary to what people want to believe, divorce is not always a two-way street. Too frequently, it's just one self-obsessed individual causing all the problems. This columnist

Two Sets of Queer Genes

Read on, if your Monday is going fine and you want to ruin it: > Scientists at the University of Sheffield have proved for the first time that human embryonic stem (ES) cells can form the precursors of sperm and eggs in the laboratory, a critical step towards making synthetic

Further Attacks on the Homeless

First Houston tries to exclude the homeless from public libraries (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/800/]), then Vancouver tries to take away their bathrooms (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1312/]). Now, Massachusetts is simply throwing them away. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DUMPED_FROM_DUMPSTER?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=

Expensively Publishing the Levelling

Good rant at Lew Rockwell this morning about today's school textbooks. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/taylor/taylor105.html]. Excerpt: > America was once a nation of literate, thinking, people. This level of education was brought about, despite the fact that there was (fortunately) a dearth of huge

Gay Vague?

The New York Times is excited. According to this story [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/fashion/sundaystyles/19GAYDAR.html?ex=1276833600&en=9a7245033eb2af5a&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss] , it's getting harder and harder to distinguish queers from straights. Excerpts: > As

Tibetan Buddhist Counterpart to St. Therese

> The Dalai Lama has admitted mosquitoes drive him crazy because his Buddhist faith rules he cannot kill them. > Even when the insects bite him, he is supposed to stay calm and just shoo them away instead. > Buddhists are not allowed to kill, but the Tibetan spiritual leader

It's a School Photo! It's Supposed to be Bad

> An 11-year-old Queens, N.Y., student and her family are demanding that 200 yearbooks be recalled because they are unhappy with the sixth-grader's unattractive photo. > Asheana Maihepat was out sick the day class photos were taken, so she had a make-up photo a month later. But

As More Christians Turn Their Back on Public Education . . .

. . . Catholics are turning their back on their 150-year-old education tradition: > This week, the Presbyterian Church in America voted to receive a personal resolution encouraging Christian parents to remove their children from the public schools and see to it that they receive a thoroughly Christian education. Link [http://www.religionjournal.

Thank You, Dr. Obvious

> As the nation's Roman Catholic bishops gathered in Chicago Thursday for a meeting to review their sexual abuse policy, Cardinal Francis George said homosexual men should not be admitted into seminaries. > George, who is archbishop of Chicago and vice president of the U.S. Conference of

Frosty Hades

Former California governor Jerry Brown married yesterday. That's surprising, but it doesn't cause Hell to freeze over. The freezing comes in this paragraph: > The couple were serenaded by Gregorian and Cistercian chants, a nod to Jerry Brown's days as a Jesuit scholar. Brown,

Freaky Stuff

From Dracula [http://www.donlinke.com/drakula/vlad.htm] to this, those Romanians have some freaky spiritual stuff: > A Romanian nun has died after being bound to a cross, gagged and left alone for three days in a cold room in a convent, Romanian police have said. > Members

Slow News Days?

Reuters devotes a substantial amount of print (three Internet pages) this weekend to a story about Raphael's alleged affair with a baker's daughter. Link [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=lifeAndLeisureNews&storyID=2005-06-17T120916Z_01_L20372736_RTRIDST_0_LIFESTYLE-ARTS-RAPHAEL-DC.XML] . Excerpt from the introductory

Ireland and Taxes

Eric Scheske took his parents to lunch to celebrate Father's Day. His parents had just returned from Ireland, where his father attended a Certified Public Accountants convention (exciting stuff). Here are two unrelated things they brought back: 1. A great anecdote about President Bill Clinton: Their tour guide

No Lunacy Here

Good information for nervous expectants: > Doctors and nurses who work in the delivery room should not fret during the next full moon: a new study has found no evidence to support the common belief that births and delivery complications spike during full moons. > Some people believe that maternity

With Friends Like These

We don't know whether we're more offended for the friends or the muskrats: > Some Danish zookeepers violated a cardinal rule of animal care when they slaughtered 50 muskrats and other beasts – and then served the meat to friends. > "A single muskrat serves up

Great Gonzos

No, it's not a story about Ted Nugent. It's a new porn fad: filming sex scenes in public places. > Local porn peddlers are illegally taking their smut trade to the streets – filming their sickening sex scenes in public places. > On sidewalks and in alleyways,

Gay Bashings on the Rise in NYC

We despise the gay marriage agenda, but we condemn violence against homosexuals (we understand it, but we condemn it . . . snicker, snicker). Unfortunately, it appears crimes against gays are rising, at least in NYC: > Hate crimes against gays shot up 32 percent this year from 2004, with a host of

Changing the Name of Indiana

The ridiculous debate about college Indian names rages on. The NCAA is preparing to meet next week to discuss a total ban on such names by its member schools. Whenever totalist solutions are proposed, the Leftist totalist vision usually wins, so we were expecting the NCAA to ban the names

Something for Sunday Morning

Passion can be understood in many ways, even Christians have applied the term differently. In its theologically-negative sense, it connotes a desire that cuts-off the individual from God, that inordinately serves the self, including its body and its worldly appetites. It is the bridge from sinful thought to sinful action.

Dang It!

Eric Scheske was thinkin' he'd win this: > Former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., was recently honored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. > The group recognized Daschle for what it called his "fight to defeat the Federal Marriage Amendment in the

More Hollywood Gossip and Religion

We dislike covering what everyone else is covering, and we dislike celebrity gossip, but the Cruise-Holmes thing (Scientology v. Catholicsm, with the Hubbardites winning) is interesting. Not all girls are as awe-struck around Cruise as Katie. We found this at Radar Online [http://www.radaronline.com/fresh-intelligence/#report_001291]. >

Arrested for "Stealing" Beer

> A 30-year-old Sparta, Illinois man has been charged with stealing a beer from the Citgo Station on Highway 51 North early last Friday morning, even though he tried to pay for it. > According to the Perry County Sheriff's report, Vincent D. Boston entered the Citgo Station

Cell Phone Mania

The cell phone can make calls, surf the 'net, send/receive e-mail, and take pictures. Now, it can store your credit card information and make purchases. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050618/ap_on_hi_te/wireless_wallet;_ylt=AsrrOlLAXqdZfFRLulz6IiCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2NDg4NWRqBHNlYwN0Yw--] . Excerpt: > Already a device

Condom Nation

> Despite overwhelming evidence kids are receptive to an abstinence-only approach and that increased abstinence-only education are largely responsible for a drop of 8 percentage points (from 54 percent to 46 percent) since 1991 in high-schoolers who have had sex, the government continues spending $12 on "safe sex"

A Father's Day Message

From Rebecca Hagelin. Link [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/rebeccahagelin/rh20050617.shtml]. Excerpt: > The sad reality is that we live in a society where the message to fathers is, “You're irrelevant. You're useless. You are a loser.” Just flip on the television: commercials and sitcoms

The Comeback Mother

Interesting piece about the renewed interest in Mary. Even more interesting because it's from the LA Times: > Last month, the renewed interest in Mary became the subject an "agreed statement" by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission – a panel of bishops and theologians who try to

Runaway Book Deal

We hate to brag, but we called it [https://thedailyeudemon.com/?p=860#comments]. > New York superagent Judith Regan has bought the rights to the life stories of runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks and her fiance after offering them $500,000 for a package that -- in an unusual twist

The Weekend Eudemon

Father's Day Weekend. It's not just Father's Day around here. Eric Scheske demands about two-and-a-half days of celebration, and his family humors him. Today is filled with . . . nothing. Tomorrow? Nothing. That's a slight exaggeration. He'll be reading and writing, opening

Batman Begins

Crux Magazine on the boring beginning of Batman Begins and Hollywood's inability to stage a fight. Funny stuff. > OK, I understand it's Batman Begins, and you feel obligated to show his beginnings, which is acceptable as a premise even though we've seen his

What's This?

> The archbishop of Madrid and other senior Roman Catholics plan to attend a rally protesting a bill to legalize gay marriage, church officials said Thursday -- their first display of anti-government activism in more than 20 years. Link [http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/06/17/special_reports/religion/

Like That Princess Leah Hologram in Star Wars?

Computer scientists are developing a system that allows people to "teleport" a solid 3D recreation of themselves over the internet. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4102018.stm]. Excerpt: > He said that these cameras would work much the same way as the character of

Break Out the Jeremiads

> CBS television has given producers the go-ahead for a big-budget miniseries charting the life of the late Pope John Paul II, with guidance from the Vatican, the network said Thursday. > The four-hour, fact-based drama, tentatively titled “Pope John Paul II,” will chronicle the story of Karol Wojtyla from

Calling Wendell Berry (Maybe Not)

> So, you want to buy a house in the country? > Some Lebanon County [Pennsylvania] officials want to warn you that it might stink. > To drive the point home, they are developing a brochure that features scratch 'n sniff manure. > "Farming sometimes means late hours,

Multi-Tasking Gone Wild

An obesity researcher at Mayo Clinic is coming up with ways to burn calories while we work. Link [http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050607%2F1324151967.htm&ewp=ewp_news_0605future_office] . Excerpts: > Sitting at their desks is about the last thing

Women Drivers

> A little over 88 percent of Saudi women interviewed in a survey rejected the idea of women driving in the Kingdom. > They said driving was not a priority for them; this echoed the view expressed earlier by Interior Minister Prince Naif. > The London-based Center for Women'

Odd Consumer News

Maybe we can have it all: > Exercise is the latest target of the nation's candy makers. > At this week's candy trade show in Chicago, the new products include caffeine-rich, vitamin-fortified gum for energy and vitamin-laced jelly beans. > Another company has come up with

It Don't Get No Better Than This

> Two individuals from Hampton Roads, employees of the Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, were arrested Wednesday night in Ahoskie, N.C., on animal cruelty charges. Link [http://www.wavy.com/global/story.asp?s=3482974&ClientType=Printable].

Calling Wendell Berry

An article in the June 20th issue of U.S. News & World Report speculates that suburbia might be bad for our health. A few excerpts (no link available): > Since 1960, the number of people commuting to work out of the county they live in jumped by 200 percent.

Defending Cell Phones

Jeffrey Tucker does a pretty good job of decrying the recent criticism of the cell phone (e.g., it's an addiction). Link [http://www.mises.org/story/1849]. His main point: The criticism is just more of the intellectual, Commie-tainted, anti-free market psychobabble that we always hear about

The Raging Atheist

The July 4th issue of The American Conservative has a good review by Marian Kester Coombs of America's Most Hated Woman: The Life and Gruesome Death of Madalyn Murray O'Hair. A few excerpts (no link available): > Despite (or perhaps because of) an IQ of 150,

Brews You Can Use II

> Pabst Brewing Co. has discontinued selling Falstaff beer, once one of the largest selling beer brands in America. Link [http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002585.php]. We shed a tear. Back in the 1980s, Eric bought many cases of this stuff. At $5.00, it couldn't

Brews You Can Use

The Chinese are out-malling us (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1133/]) and competing with us in food and sex (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1369/]), but we still got 'em in the beer arena: > The beer industry in China is way behind in levels of sophistication....you're talking

You're All Winners!

> This year's 406-member graduating class at Garfield High School features 44 valedictorians. Forty-four students with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages who, over seven semesters of mostly honors and Advanced Placement classes, have never earned less than an A. Link [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002336475_garfield15m.

Calling Norman Vincent Peale

An MIT economist studied the effects of religion on financial well-being, according to U.S. News & World Report. What did he find? > First, he finds that religious participation is highest in those places where there is a high density of people sharing the same religious preferences; and second,

Grad Student's "High"er Purpose

But if he's gay, meth might be part of his sex routine. Wouldn't it then be protected as a civil right? > A San Diego State graduate student on probation for drug violations used a university lab to make methamphetamine, Ecstasy and an anesthetic 80 times

The Waste Shuttle

John Derbyshire on that monstrosity of wastefulness, the space shuttle, and our ongoing obsession. Link [http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire200506160749.asp]. Excerpts: > Like the monster in some ghastly horror movie rising from the dead for the umpteenth time, the space shuttle is back on the launch pad. This

Gender Equality Advances Another Step

> Four North Texas high school varsity cheerleaders put human feces on a pizza during a cheerleading camp and then returned the pizza to a rival high school squad, claiming the rivals had done the disgusting deed, school district officials confirmed this week. . . > Such behavior, once unthinkable, is increasing,

Horror Covers II

If you liked that page of horror magazine covers that we posted yesterday (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1356/]), you might like this gallery of magazine covers from Weird Tales pulp magazines (1920s to early 1940s). Link [http://www.noosfere.com/showcase/weird_tales_1924.htm].

Porn Generation

Townhall has a bullet-like summary of Ben Shapiro's book, Porn Generation. The book sounds like it's worth reading, though we suspect it rehashes a lot of the same information that anyone with a sane eye on our culture already knows. Link [http://www.townhall.com/bookclub/

Money and Mysticism

Curious about all that Kabbalah stuff in Hollywood? Radar Online has a slashing story about the movement and its founder, Philip Berg, that's worth reading. You can judge for yourself how much to believe or disbelieve. Link [http://radaronline.com/web-only/the-kabbalah-chronicles/2005/06/inside-hollywoods-hottest-cult.php] . Excerpt: >

Kill 'Em, Eat 'Em, Whatever

When it comes to abortion clinics, we admit: we're suckers for wild stories. To us, anyone capable of killing scores of babies every day is capable of anything. Even so, this story is (almost) too bizarre to be believed. Link [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_

Revolutionizing Music?

Few things are more corrupt than the music industry: it's hedonistic, yes, but also big and manipulative of public taste. The whole American Idol phenomenon testifies to this: Network TV locates a talented singer and then the record company guarantees her/her massive success. How do they know

I Feel Like a Woman! I'm Comin' In!

> [Eugene, Oregon's] current Human Rights Ordinance bars discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, ethnicity, marital status, familial status, age, sexual orientation, or source of income. The new ordinance would add "gender identity" to that

Cutting Edge Canadians!

> The military has confirmed that a male sergeant and male warrant officer were married last month in a ceremony at a military base in Nova Scotia. > It was the first time the military has presided over a same-sex marriage, now legal in almost all of Canada after a

Lost Boys in College

Great piece at Lew Rockwell this morning about the dearth of male college students. Fact: There are far more girls attending college than boys. Part of the problem: Many feminists either refuse to acknowledge the disparity or think it's a good thing. Explanations for the disparity: See below.

Fleet Street and Johnson Revisited

Coincidentally, on the same page with that maddening comma, Boswell refers to Johnson "keeping to his favourite Fleet Street." Maybe Johnson is sharing a tear with Chesterton (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1377/]).

Life of Commas

While reading from Boswell's Life of Johnson last night, Eric Scheske ran across this: > 'But, (said he,) before leaving England I am to take a jaunt to Oxford . . .' We realize Boswell wrote during the comma's halcyon days (if you want another example of

Blessed are the Peace Makers . . .

> Two former editorial writers at The Indianapolis Star have gone to court, charging that top newsroom managers "consistently and repeatedly demonstrated ... a negative hostility toward Christianity." . . . > Both former staffers claim to have "strong and sincere Christian religious beliefs." Link [http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/

And Higher Education Strikes Again!

This time, in India: > Students of M.Sc. nutrition class of a famous girls' college doing their internship in the medical university were allegedly asked by the Assistant Professor to remove their aprons during a lecture demonstration. Although some of the girls complied, others refused as they found

Polling Research Strikes Again!

What would we do without polls? > A poll shows most people don't have much faith that forecasters can accurately predict what the weather will be like on any given day. > Four in 10 respondents in an AP-Ipsos poll said they've made plans in the

Not Thinkin' Straight 101

What would Ben Franklin say? > Students sick of working for zero cash at crappy jobs are taking matters into their own hands and joining online casinos in record numbers. That's right! Fed up with filling out the same boring applications at food courts and Starbucks around the

The Spirit of the Gay Community

In 1810, a woman in Toronto reported she was raped and, in the tussle, had scratched the rapist's genitalia. The magistrate, Alexander Wood, lined up suspects and demanded they drop their pants so he could inspect them. When the community heard, he was branded a "molly"

G.K. Chesterton Sheds a Tear

Chesterton loved Fleet Street. Stories were told for years about his large frame tottering down the street and about him sitting in the pubs, composing his timeless columns. > For over 300 years, London's Fleet Street was the heart of British journalism, home to many of the country&

Tough Excuse

> James Carroll Bayley, 44, pleaded guilty in May to killing his brother, Robert, in an incident in Raleigh, N.C., in which James alleged that Robert had come by, drunk, to retrieve his power drill that James had borrowed. James told the judge that he certainly didn't

Get On With It Already!

We love the RCC, we really do, but its gum-shoed American bishops exasperate us: > U.S. Catholic bishops will sidestep the issue of whether homosexual men should become priests at their semiannual meeting, which begins tomorrow, despite the Vatican's concern about the role of homosexuals in the

Wham! Wants Weligion

George Michael on finding "faith, faith, faith" for queers: > George Michael has written a column in a magazine urging fellow gay men to embrace religion. . . > "There really ought to be a campaign to make Henry VIII the patron saint of British queerdom. > "Without

The Anti-Consumerist 101

We frequently rail against America's consumerist ways, so perhaps we should mention the frugal types among us, like this guy who created his own air conditioning unit for $30.00. Link [http://mirror.lerfjhax.com/www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~gmilburn/ac/].

Wishful Thinking

Yeah, it's conceivable, but it's mostly wishful thinking by the secularists: > As Republican strategists weigh the party's prospects for 2006 and 2008, they are increasingly worried about a political confrontation with Roy S. Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court

Raising Schizoids

Russell Moore at Mere Comments on the children's cell phone: > We are living in a culture that is so under-protective of children that we are willing to pack them off to institutionalized daycare as toddlers and subject them to sexualization in grade school. And yet the same

Commies Out-Americanizing Us Again!

We earlier reported that the Chinese are beating us at the mall game. Link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1133/]. Now, they are beating us at two other American favorites: sex and food. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/en/061005chocofashion/im:/050610/ids_photos_en/r902810469.jpg;_ylt=Ap1csxVu20HA3PxNoVmLkml.

On Smut

Gil Reavill, a former employee of Screw magazine and current writer for Penthouse and Maxim, has written an excellent cover story for The American Conservative about the prevalence of smut. It's not available on-line yet, but when it is, we suggest everyone read it and send the link

The Vegas Odds on Pulling This Off . . .

. . . can't be good. 10,000 to 1 maybe? > A coalition that would for the first time unite the major Christian faiths in the United States is taking years to coalesce, but its organizers say that's a good sign and are not discouraged. > One day

Weekly Features Post

Issue XXIX This is our first free Tuesday since May. No baseball, no school functions, no anything . . . except a handful of children who sense that Dad has some free time. Eric Scheske sedated them with some wine to gain a few minutes to write this. He'll then edit

Planned Parenthood Antics

> Planned Parenthood has released a little video, called "The G Spot," which, you guessed it, talks about how babies are made. In a humorous manner and without holding anything back, including pre-ejaculate, the video features two characters shaped like sexual organs. Predictably, it's the male

Father Facts

National Fatherhood Initiative has a neat, though sobering, Top Ten list of fatherhood facts. Link [http://www.fatherhood.org/fatherfacts_t10.asp]. Excerpts: > 1. 24 million children (34 percent) live absent their biological father. . . > 6. Fathers who live with their children are more likely to have a close,

Funny and Sad

Do the math. Each guy in the sect gets three girls. Your sect creates the same number of boys and girls. Eventually, you need to purge. At least they didn't Jim Jones the boys. > Up to 1,000 teenage boys have been separated from their parents and

Horror Covers

Horror shows what happens without good. Because all goodness comes from God, horror points to God. It's not as perverse as it sounds, though others have done a better job of articulating the legitimacy of the macabre (we believe Russell Kirk wrote about it, which isn't

Watch Aunt Maude's Hernia Operation

> Tampa General is joining an increasing number of hospitals showing surgeries on the internet. > "It's kind of cool, actually, watching it live," said Jean Mayer, Tampa General's vice president for strategic services. "As people use the Internet more and more to

Giving Viagra to Children

No, it's not an experiment at the Kinsey Institute, it's an odd treatment for a sad disease. Link [http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/06/13/hscout526266.html] . Excerpt: > Viagra may come to the rescue of children with a rare and deadly

Rootless in Central Park

> It was 88 degrees and humid. Folks were eating fried catfish and hushpuppies and listening to bluesman Terry "Big T" Williams sing about the delta, while the Governor of Mississippi greeted old friends. Just another day in park - New York City's Central Park. >

Gay Games

The American Family Association is contemplating a boycott of Kraft Inc. for its sponsorship of the Gay Games in Chicago. Link [http://www.onemillionmoms.com/]. The problem with the games is, as with all gay events, they're filled with sex and groping and other stunts that normal folks

Consumerism or Art?

Or maybe it's just home improvement. For more information about these urinals: Link [http://www.clarkmade.com/].

Talking About Talking

An op-ed by Louis Rene Beres in the Chicago Tribune tries to get to the root of cell phone mania. Link [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0506120303jun12,0,5646218.story?page=1&coll=chi-newsopinionperspective-hed] . She raises interesting points in a poetic way: > Talking on a cell phone

Little Criminals

Britain's getting aggressive in its efforts to root out crime: > The Home Office study suggested nursery staff should be trained to spot tots at risk of becoming criminals when they grow up. > The publication said that infants not "under control" by the age of

Manifestation of the Culture of Spend

> Fewer than four years after the attacks, she has blown through most of the money, and is coming out with her story now to warn others against the trappings of chronic spending, a major problem among Americans. . . > At the time of his death, Dan Trant, 40, was quickly

Jacko

With the verdict due in about thirty minutes . . . For the Law & Order types out there, here's an interesting account of how Michael Jackson will be handled administratively if convicted. Link [http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1503453/20050603/jackson_michael.jhtml?headlines=true] . Excerpt: > Jackson would

Stoke the ACLU-ites Fires

> Even for Texas, the scene was remarkable: The governor, flanked by an out-of-state televangelist and religious right leaders, signing legislation in a church school gymnasium amid shouts of "amen" from backers who just as well could have been attending a revival. > It wasn't just

Paris Hilton Reality Check

AdRants calls one right: > If advertising portrayed even a hint of reality, this is what the Paris Hilton "Spicy Paris" commercial for Carl's Jr. would look like. Link [http://www.adrants.com/2005/06/paris-hilton-carls-jr-commercial-gets.php].

Yet Another Reason to Dislike Will & Grace

The Will & Grace stars engaged in a little playful eroticism Friday night at the Lucy Awards. Link [http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-06-12-lucy-awards_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA]. Excerpt: > After Camryn Manheim introduced the pair as the new Lucy and Ethel, [Megan] Mullally playfully fondled [Debra Messing'

Blurring the Gender Lines Some More

This is just in time for Father's Day, which is increasingly a waste. We should just combine it with Mother's Day and call it "Parental Unit Day." Link [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1652100,00.html]. Excerpt: > A man's

Mythbusters

It's rare that we get tempted to check out a TV show. In the past twelve years, Eric Scheske has watched two shows: Seinfeld and The Sopranos. Eric shares Marshall McLuhan's distrust of TV and Neil Postman's disgust with it. Eric especially dislikes documentaries.

Traveling Man

Either this guy is trying to show the nature of being homeless but everywhere at home, or the Anglican monasteries have become as watered down as its doctrine and this guy finds his kicks just like ordinary joes. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1427587.html]. Excerpt: >

EBay Gone Wild

We like eBay. We like the cottage industries it has spawned; we like the way it brings together ordinary consumers without a significant middle man. But it wouldn't be so successful in a society that wasn't infected with acquisition infatuation. Anyway, if you want to buy

Chaput Chastises

Ya gotta love Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput. He has attacked America's moral and theological loosening, and now he tells Europe what he thinks of their increasingly-godless ways. Link [http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0%2C1299%2CDRMN_15_3843854%2C00.html] . Excerpts: > Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput waved

Sex in Swaziland

Just as long as he wears a condom, everything will be all right: > Africa's last absolute monarch king Mswati III has married another teenage bride to become his 12th wife, a newspaper report said Sunday, less than a month after secretly taking another young woman. . . > Mswati,

The Incubator Doctor

Odd historical piece at the New York Times this morning. In the early part of the 1900s, a doctor set up incubators for premature babies and displayed them for a quarter. It would appear he did it for money and because these babies may have died otherwise. Link [http://nytimes.

Jacko and the Permissive Society

A Calgary Sun columnist has written a great piece about Michael Jackson. Link [http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Calgary/Ian_Robinson/2005/06/12/1083192.html] . Excerpts: > I mean, here we have a man who speaks in an affected little baby voice, owns a face that looks like

Calling Hazel Motes

If Flannery O'Connor were still alive, she'd have a great time with this one. Her Hazel Motes dreamed of establishing the Church Without Christ. These folks have gone one better: the Church Without Church. Link [http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2005/06/09/faith.20050609-sbt-MICH-D3-Former__churches_

The Divide Isn't That Great

> The annual President's Dinner, a Republican Party fundraising event featuring President Bush, could get an extra dash of spice this year with porn actress and former California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey planning to attend. . . > Carey acknowledges that some people just think of her as a busty

The Wisdom of Janice Rogers Brown

Pittsburgh Live's editorialist has written a column about why the Left hates Janice Rogers Brown so much. Basically, she slams into the roots of the Left's totalist vision with a sledgehammer. The column is worth reading. Link [http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/enews/s_342977.html]

Gay and Ugly

The New York Times has a grisly article (with one particularly-nasty picture) about "meth mouth": gnarled and ruined teeth resulting from the use of methamphetamine. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/11/national/11meth.html?hp&ex=1118462400&en=51ca0e06dc145407&ei=5094&partner=

Feeding One to the Wolves Revisited

We didn't realize this Holmes-Cruise thing has spawned a "Free Katie" movement. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050609/ap_en_ce/free_katie_5]. Excerpt: > A Web site is selling items with the logo "Free Katie" for

Feeding One to the Wolves

All right. She says she's willing to get naked for the camera and pop mags refer to her as Tom Cruise's "lover." Now she's apparently interested in Scientology. We're beginning to think the "devout Catholic" Katie Holmes ain&

Something for Sunday Morning

> Abba Isaiah said, "Nothing is so useful to the beginner as insults. The beginner who bears insults is like a tree that is watered every day." Sayings of the Desert Fathers

PSA

Astute readers may have noticed that we didn't run a Weekly Features Post or a Weekend Eudemon last week. We are not discontinuing those features. Both fell victim to power outages, cable outages, and time outages. We plan to resume both features this week.

Movies as History

Joe Sobran wrote a nice column about the historical value of movies. Link [http://www.sobran.com/columns/2005/050519.shtml]. Opening paragraphs: > One of the ways I like to study American history is by watching old Hollywood movies, especially those made (usually in black and white) around and

Bank Robbery is a Young Man's Sport

> Germany's three oldest bank robbers were jailed yesterday after admitting they stole more than â‚¬1.2 million ($1.9 million) in 14 raids across a number of provincial towns. > The men, who became known as the "Grandpa Gang", started their spree in 1988

Isn't That Uncomfortable?

> Hundreds of naked cyclists rode past Big Ben and the U.S. Embassy in London on Saturday to protest the West's dependence on gas-guzzling cars – and to push for more use of bicycles. > The organizers of World Naked Bike Ride 2005 said protests were expected in

Children's Day

Everyone has heard of Mother's Day and Father's Day, but did you know that there's a Children's Day? It's tomorrow. Whatta great idea! Eric Scheske and his wife are going to celebrate it in grand style. We're going

They're Having a Baal in Wyoming

"A bronze calf was dedicated Thursday to former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Clifford Hansen for his contributions to Wyoming and the farm and ranch industry." Link [http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/06/10/build/wyoming/75-hansen-calf.inc] . (Yes, we posted

Ten Good Books

Two years ago, Human Events similarly compiled a list of ten books every student should read in college. 1. The Bible 2. The Federalist Papers 3. Democracy in America 4. The Divine Comedy 5. The Republic 6. The Politics 7. Nicomachaean Ethics 8. City of God 9. Confessions 10. Reflections

Ten Bad Books

Human Events asked conservative scholars to compile a list of the most harmful books of the past 200 years. Here are the results: 1. The Communist Manifesto 2. Mein Kampf 3. Quotations from Chairman Mao 4. The Kinsey Report 5. Democracy and Education 6. Das Kapital 7. The Feminine Mystique

PSA

Blogging will be light today. It's graduation open house and baseball season. Plus, it's splendid Jack's ninth birthday, which we plan on celebrating at St. Anne's Chapel (an hour drive from here).

Killer Pope?

Tech Central Station has a smart article about the wild allegations that JPII is a mass murderer for his stance on condoms in Africa. Link [http://www.techcentralstation.com/061005D.html]. Excerpts: > Nicholas Kristof, of the New York Times, says that the Vatican's rejection of condoms has

Indulging the Child

Mr. and Mrs. Scheske seem to encounter two types of parents: those who neglect their children and those who over-indulge them. We're guessing this mother falls into the latter category: > A woman allowed her 11-year-old son to drive the family's minivan to his elementary school,

Best TV Dads

TiVo polled its audience and came up with this list of the Top 25 TV Dads 1. Cliff Huxtable – The Cosby Show 2. Sheriff Andy Taylor – The Andy Griffith Show 3. Pa Ingalls – Little House on the Prairie 4. Howard Cunningham – Happy Days 5. Ward Cleaver – Leave it to Beaver

We're Dyin' Over Here

One of the funnier things we've read in awhile: > A German zoo has been accused of exploitation after it unveiled plans to put grass-skirted black men in mud huts . . . > The zoo, in the southern German city of Augsburg, is promoting the plan in a glossy brochure

LW2 Poster

This appears to be a poster for the upcoming blockbuster production of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Pretty neat.

Crazy Copyrights

We don't have an opinion on the matter, but this blogger and novelist raises interesting points about U.S. copyright protections. Link [http://www.maxbarry.com/2005/06/09/news.html#copywrong]. Excerpt: > We invented copyright to encourage innovation: to make it worthwhile for people to create

Orestes

Christianity Today has run a decent article about Orestes Brownson. Link [http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/003/23.33.html]. The article has a few serious flaws, which is predictable since the article is apparently written by a non-Catholic. Brownson's later life (from his conversion to Catholicism

Brews You Can Use: Beer Tub

First blush: Paradise. But after thinking about it a bit, we're guessing we'd decline: > An Austrian holiday resort is offering guests the chance to swim in a pool containing 42,000 pints of beer. > The Starkenber Beer Myth resort located in and around the

Hating the Haters

England wants to take Canada's lead in efforts to limit freedom of expression: Certain members of its government want new hate speech laws that will primarily protect Muslims. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4075442.stm]. Excerpts: > Controversial plans to make incitement to religious

The Educators Got the Educators' Backs

> A Valley Springs teen who was home-schooled is being rejected for admission in a program at Southeast Technical Institute [in South Dakota] because the school requires a high school diploma. > Based on his ACT score, Jordan Scott probably would be accepted at several colleges or universities in South

Naked Politics

In a democracy, we only get as good as we deserve. > Ex-stripper Diana Hampton will soon have something new to wear - judicial robes. > Hampton was elected to the Municipal Court in Henderson on Tuesday, defeating Michael Miller in a run-off by 176 votes. > Hampton, 39, had

More Discrimination Against the Homeless

First Houston takes steps to keep the homeless out of public libraries (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/800/]), and now Vancouver wants to take away their bathrooms. Link [http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2005/06/08/1077793-cp.html]. Excerpts: > The ripe stench of human excrement is getting stronger in

The New Advertising Rage?

Ads purposefully crafted to get banned. Link [http://www.adrants.com/2005/06/girl-grabs-crotch-ad-gets-banned.php]. Excerpt: > [I]t seems marketers are simply creating them now in order to have them banned. Take the Plugg Jeans ad. It shows two hotties on the beach. The guy is holding a girl

Naked Zorro Yet Again

This one has curly blonde hair, too, but fewer and fewer are laughing. Link [http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/060805_nw_nakedzorro.html]. Excerpt: > The man dressed only in sneakers and a mask haunting diners in Doylestown has now been spotted in Valley Forge. > Upper Merion police

Easy and Fun Values to Live With

We try to avoid overt politics on this blog, but we found this humorous: > [MTV's] Rock the Vote also awarded former President Clinton its "Lifetime Achievement" award, meant to "honor an individual who has always made reaching out to people and appealing to their

Wheeling for Pets

> The program Meals on Wheels/Pets Eat Too was launched last month with 30,000 pounds of pet food. It's being run under the auspices of the Department of Human Assistance senior nutrition program. > The goal, said Jayna Karpinski-Costa, a Citrus Heights, Calif., city councilwoman and

The Cult of the Naughty Nice in Germany

We appreciate the considerateness, but . . . > A German city is rushing to install a series of drive-in wooden "sex garages" in time for next year's Soccer World Cup and an expected boom in the local sex trade, a city official said Wednesday. > Dortmund, one of

Parole Never Made Sense to Us

The Urban Institute recently compared rates of recidivism among ex-convicts who were paroled with those among ex-convicts who were released with no strings attached: > The study found that the recidivism rate among prisoners released unconditionally was virtually the same as that among "mandatory parolees," or prisoners for

Is This What Heaven Looks Like?

Livio De Marchi carved an entire house so it seems to have been assembled from books. Pretty wild. Link [http://www.liviodemarchi.com/casauk.htm].

Federal Hands in Local Affairs

Public schools already have too much power and a lack of accountability. Bush's decision to increase the federal government's role has made matters worse: > Since 2001, when the No Child Left Behind Act tied federal school funding to performance on annual tests for students in

How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization

Lew Rockwell has a great review of Thomas Woods' How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. We enthusiastically agree with every part of the review, including the statement that this book should be in every Catholic home. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/mcmaken/mcmaken107.html]. Excerpts: > Conditioned early

Continuing Theme: Public School Sex

This one has it all: Public school teacher/student sex, paganism, lesbianism, gay wedding. And it took place in staid and rather conservative western Michigan. Link [http://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=3438743]. Excerpt: > Before learning her fate, she stood before Judge Kolenda. "Enough people have

Reality TV

Fox Cable Networks announced the debut of Fox Reality--a network that provides 24/7 reality programming. Sound unique? No, there are already two other cable channels that provide 24/7 reality coverage, and the rest of the world has had it since 2003. Consider these programs: > Terrorism in the

A Frustrated Reader

A reader writes with regard to the "Why the European Giants?" post: > A-a-a-a-g-g-h! You allowed these words to appear on your blog: “thirty-five million who live below the poverty line” referring to Americans. Do you realize that this poverty line is established by income and not by

The Crooked Science

Scientists aren't objective. That has been established for years. But now it appears that many aren't even honest. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1894&e=2&u=/ap/20050608/ap_on_sc/misbehaving_scientists] . Excerpts: > One-third of scientists

Applauding Our Admin Guy

During the Great Michigan Charter Cable Crash of June 2005 (which occurred yesterday), our administrator put up a few posts for us and a public service announcement. At no charge to TDE. The least we could do is thank him publicly (thanks) and tell everyone that they'd do

Calling Dr. Pierre Barbet

> An Israeli researcher has challenged the popular belief that Jesus died of blood loss on the cross, saying he probably succumbed to a sometimes fatal disorder now associated with long-haul air travel. > Professor Benjamin Brenner wrote in The Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis that Jesus's death,

RCC Has Female Priests!

> Nine women, including one Canadian and one American, plan to defy the Vatican and become the first female Roman Catholic priests and deacons ordained in North America during a ceremony on a boat on the St Lawrence River next month. . . > The location for the ceremony was chosen because

Leno on New Mental Research

> According to experts at the National Institute of Mental Health, depressed people die much sooner than everyone else. Well, that's just what depressed people need to hear! That should cheer them up!

More Tolerance Meaning Intolerance

> A federal civil rights lawsuit filed today charges that the Poway Unified School District violated the constitutional rights of a student and censored his free speech. The school district threatened further punishment and suspended the student for expressing his religious faith on a T-shirt during a school day designated

Effective Catholic Schools

This article is especially poignant for Eric Scheske, who attended his sixth-grade son's "graduation" last night from Catholic parochial school. For over fifty years, the school offered K-8 education, but it had to drop grades 7 and 8 due to lack of students and funding. Link

Continuing Theme

Has anyone else noticed the glut of stories from India involving spiritual con games? > Police in India have arrested a couple who claimed they could cure ill people through 'ghost therapy'. > Kohinoor Bibi and her husband Majid Mandal claimed two ghosts helped them treat their patients,

Why the European Giants?

Europeans, especially folks in the Netherlands, are outgrowing Americans. Here's a link to a fascinating article at The New Yorker. Excerpts: > By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the country seemed set to regain its eminence. The economy was expanding at a dramatic rate, and public-hygiene

Wrong Confessional

> A top German lawyer has handed himself into police and confessed to being responsible for a string of bank robberies that netted Â£250,000. > The 41-year-old also admitted a range of swindles and cons carried out from his legal practice based in Muenster, Germany - most involving

The Sexualized Culture

Is all that sexually-charged advertising and programming okay? The empiricists out there won't believe that it's harmful until they see hard evidence, but the saner denizens of our populace rely on the traditional evidence: an innate sense of norms, a little imagination, metaphor. This writer in

She's a Lean, Mean, Dancing Machine

Dancing is an art, but dancing with a robot? Hey, if car racing is a sport, robotic dancing can be an art. Link [http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/06/07/robots.ballroom/index.html]. Excerpt: > The world's first ballroom-dancing robot is set to take to the

The Road to Serfdom

John Robson has written a nice review of Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944). It's not often you get to read about that classic, so we thought Robson's description of the thrust of the book worth re-producing (no link available): > Hayek'

More Terrible Than Kali

Celebrate it, claim it's normal, and later we'll somehow institutionalize it. Link [http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/06/08/health/c01060705_01.txt]. Excerpts: > They call her ''Ana.'' She is a role model to some, a goddess to others -

Almost Half are Mentally Ill?

We found this story on two different Chinese pages, but we couldn't find corroboration from any other source (including WaPo, but our Internet connection is not fully functional right now, so our searching was limited). You may want to hesitate before accepting it as fully truthful. Link [http:

Nightmare in the Restroom

> Visiting the toilet can be a costly business as a man in Germany discovered when he stopped to relieve himself and forgot 30,000 euros ($36,800) he was taking to the bank for his bosses, authorities said Monday. > Police said the 29-year-old took five minutes to realize

Therapy at the Mall

Shopping is therapy. If that doesn't signal a consumerist society, then Eric Scheske isn't spitting mad at Charter Communications for losing his Internet connection for nine hours today. Link [http://health.discovery.com/centers/womens/shopping/shoppingtherapy.html]. Excerpt: > Whatever the motivator, shopping, in contrast

Power Outage

Due to a power outage, The Daily Eudemon probably won't be updated until tomorrow, Wednesday, June 8. - Site Admin

No Clones

A leading clone pioneer says human cloning is far, far away. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1539&e=1&u=/afp/20050607/sc_afp/healthsciencestemcellskorea_050607123400] . Excerpt: > South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk said the cloning of human beings would remain an

Book Binding

We'd never seen anything like it, and since it pertains to books, we thought it worth posting: How to bind your own book. It's lengthy and it looks kinda hard, but the result is pretty neat. Link [http://www.livejournal.com/users/tobycraig/29223.html]

Infanticide

The Washington Times has written a scathing opinion about the 4th Circuit's partial-birth abortion decision last week. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050606-101058-5934r.htm]. Excerpts: > In a contentious 2-1 decision last week that places Virginia in the hot seat of the abortion debate, the 4th U.

Why Johnny Can't Be Alert

Eric Scheske's eldest is 12. This information comes at just the right time. Whether we believe anything researchers tell us, that's another matter, but at least this research "rings true": > Biological changes at puberty make it difficult for adolescents to get the nine

Small is the New Big

Media Maven Jeff Jarvis has a compelling meditation on the smallness economy that is gaining speed. Link [http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2005_06_06.html#009807]. Excerpts: > [Y]ou will come to a new definition of value built on trust. Dealing with big companies today -- airlines, banks,

Thomas Woods, Again

Lew Rockwell has another favorable review of Tom Woods' The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/chapin3.html]. We're part way through the book, and based on what we've read, we enthusiastically recommend it: > The Politically Incorrect Guide

Who Said the Homeless Are Crazy?

> A homeless man is facing a possible prison term for allegedly charging tourists $5 to park in a free lot during the busy Memorial Day weekend. . . The unemployed man set up a sign advertising "party parking," according to his arrest report. Link [http://www.wftv.com/news/

It Coulda Been Worse . . .

. . . but we won't explain how: > An 80-year-old woman, who uses a walker and an oxygen tank, has been busted for running an escort service from her New Jersey apartment, state police said on Monday. Link [http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8711797&type=entertainmentNews] .

Frog Marriage

They're 200 lives away from a shot at Moksha, but at least they're going to have legitimate relations: > Two giants toads were married in a traditional Hindu ceremony in eastern India at the weekend by villagers hoping to propitiate the rain gods and end a

Go NYC Go!

Eric Scheske is a fan of New York City. He always wanted to live there upon graduation from college, but his fiance (now wife) squelched it. He likes the way people seem to walk every where and how its little shops still thrive. A former contributor to Gilbert Magazine, Jerry

And Bigotry at Showtime

A recounting of an episode of Showtime's cable show, B***s***. Link [http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/entertainmentcolumn/2005/col20050603.asp] . Excerpt: > While the episode titled “Holier Than Thou,” ends with a few smacks at Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama, Penn Jillette mostly savaged the world&

Bigotry in Brooklyn

We missed this last week: > Timothy Shortell, who was recently elected as the chairman of the sociology department [at Brooklyn College], wrote in an online posting that "religious adherents" are "an ugly, violent lot" and "in the name of their faith these moral retards

Kournikova to be Exiled?

As long as we're talking about Russia, we figured this might be appropriate: > Russians who marry foreigners could be exiled and stripped of their citizenship under a bill being drafted by a group of members of parliament, a deputy said Sunday. > One of the bill'

Russia Now

Wow, excellent book review/essay at The Claremont Institute today about James Billington's Russia in Search of Itself. Unless you're already terribly well-versed with respect to Russia's history and current situation, it's worth the eight minutes it'll take to read.

More Time for Eating!

Modern science has improved the modern vomitorium: eat and eat, purge and purge (through exercise). > Six minutes of intense exercise a week does as much good as six hours, according to a study. > People could cut their workouts from two hours a day, three times a week, to

Monkey Consumers

An economist has undertaken studies with monkeys. It appears that primates are capable of behaving like economic animals and responding to incentives. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/magazine/05FREAK.html?pagewanted=1]. Excerpt that describes one of the studies: > Two monkeys faced each other in adjoining

Odd Consumer News

With six kids going in and out all day, including Max "I like to stand with the screen door open" Scheske, we might get one of these: an electrified tennis racket-type swatter. Just $4.99. Link [http://www.buzzzapper.com/handheld-bug-zapper-370.html]. > The Buzz Zapper (TM) power

Eatin' and Drinkin' Fast at Applebee's

Tennessee resident Michael Oliver is accused of pulling a fire alarm at Applebee's, after being refused a drink. Link [http://www.wrcbtv.com/news/news.cfm?DID=14118]. "Eatin' good in the neighborhood" is Applebee's slogan, but it might as well be "

Transsexuals Against Terror

This isn't exactly the type of person we want in charge of national security: > Last fall, the Congressional Research Service offered Dave, 48, a job as a research analyst on terrorism, then rescinded the offer when Dave disclosed he was in the process of making the medical

Lighten Up on XXX Net

The new .xxx net domain is producing fear of censorship. What kind of censorship? The kind that forces obscenity to declare itself as obscene. The xxx net domain is supposed to be voluntary, but some fear that sites will eventually be forced to go there. Link [http://news.bbc.co.

Death of David Garrick

Here's that passage we mentioned (link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1251/]): > David Garrick['s] widow has been in mourning, but the period is over. This evening was the first time since her husband's death . . . that Mrs. Garrick has had a select party of her husband&

Dearth of Posts

We apologize for the lack of posts last night, including a promised passage from James Schall. Eric was tied up with his four sons all day yesterday until his wife got home, shortly after which thunderstorms and, we're told, tornadoes ripped through our region, knocking out power until

Sanctity in Michigan's Wine Country

Eric Scheske views his diocese with a modest degree of disapproval. He isn't favorably impressed with its intellectual, spiritual, material, or administrative rigor. He has, with good reason, occasionally mentioned that he lives in an "arid" Catholic region of the world. At the same time, he

Education Brownshirts

The folks at Lew Rockwell refer to the public school system as the most pure example of socialism we have in this country. We tend to view such statement as hyperbole (but maybe not, since they restrict it to examples in our country), but there's truth there: public

Symptom of Consumerism

A UK magazine finds that people are inclined to rate their trendy products highly, even though they aren't very reliable. Link [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1497103,00.html]. Excerpt: > But despite ranking low in reliability, Dyson [vacuum cleaner] owners are still relatively

Growing Up with Jacko

Great piece at WSJ about Michael Jackson and the American culture he helped create. Link [http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB111776123421750067-IZjgINglaB4n5utZ3qGaqiEm4,00.html] . Two excerpts: > In 1991, Michael Jackson produced a video called "Black and White" for MTV and VH1, which ends with him smashing

Gay Scientism

Scientists swapped a gene in fruit flies and turned them queer. Now they're proclaiming the dispute about whether homosexuality is hereditary or environmental is almost over . . . in favor hereditary. Link [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/story.jsp?story=644275]. Excerpts: > The long-running scientific debate

Home Funerals?

Odd growing movement: home funerals. They're legal in all but five states (Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Nebraska and New York). Link to Washington Post article [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/04/AR2005060401667.html] . Excerpts: > [The decedent's] body, washed and dressed in his

Something for Sunday Morning

"[T]hose who are nothing but flesh and are addicted to self-love always serve sensuality and vanity; envy too is rooted in them." "Those who speak from their own thoughts, before having acquired purity, are seduced by the spirit of self-esteem." "He who weeps and

One Rung Below Cannibal Arwan Miewes

> German police, alerted to a potential kidnapping, "freed" a man from a car trunk only to discover the would-be victim was actually a willing sex slave, authorities said Thursday. > Police stopped the car after a concerned caller told them he had seen a woman locking someone

Coming to a Teenager's Back Seat Near You

> Oxytocin is generated naturally by the brain--and scientists have long associated it with positive social behaviors. It's sometimes called the hormone of love. > The hormone's effect specifically on trust hasn't been well understood. But in an experiment described in this month'

Odd Consumer News

Hot pink toolkit, for the lady or homosexual in your life. Link [http://www.fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=35&cat=312].

The Shamanic Catholic

All right, we're assuming actor Jack White wanted the priest and the bride wanted the Shaman priest. Why the priest blessed a shamanic wedding, we don't know. > The [wedding] service was conducted by a shaman priest on a canoe in the Amazon basin. It was

Arrested for Animal Cruelty?

> Sam Brown, 21, had staggered out of a bar in the early hours and came face-to-face with two mounted officers. > Sam, who is studying English at Oxford University, approached one of the cops and asked: “How do you feel about your horse being gay?” > He was taken

Hooked on Phonics (and Common Sense)

Some different fare: Britain's whole-word reading programs that were imposed by the government have been a disaster. Bring back phonics, says this editorial. Link to Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/06/04/dl0401.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/06/04/ixopinion.

Left Coast Uses Scarlet Letter?

We like it, we like it a lot: > People who solicit prostitutes in Oakland, California, could find their faces plastered on billboards under a new shaming program that one civil rights group calls bad public policy. > The city of 400,000 across the bay from San Francisco started

One Born Every Minute

Prosperity theology fails yet again: > A man posing as a government employee approached a business owner and said he needed to take soil samples from the property. > The next day, the suspect returned with a metal detector claiming he found gold or silver in the soil. > The

Book Review of Sacred and Secular

Here's a fairly interesting review by Os Guiness of Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide by Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart. It re-hashes a lot of the stuff we hear from other sources, but it's a decent overview. Link [http://wwics.si.edu/index.cfm?

Link Policy

We've been asked by other sites and bloggers about adding links to their sites. We have, accordingly, come up with this policy: We are not picky about the links we provide under the Bloghorn. If you update your blog at least once a week and the content is

The Weekend Eudemon

It will be a light Weekend Eudemon today. Eric Scheske's wife and girls are abandoning him this morning, leaving for Detroit while he stays home with the four boys, including 22-month-old terror, Max. When we named the kid after Maximilian Kolbe, we hoped he would imitate the saint,

Female God Incarnate

> A new edition of the Gospels of the Bible for the first time shows Christ as a woman, named Judith Christ of Nazareth, and God as female. In all other respects, the classic texts of the Gospels remain unchanged. > The publisher, LBI Institute, has released this new Bible

Ban Bible from U.K. Hospitals?

> Hospital bosses in Britain were meeting on Friday to discuss a controversial move to ban Bibles from patients' bedsides after they were decreed not only insensitive to other religions but also a health risk. . . > . . . The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, which runs the three main hospitals

Bye Pistol Pete?

First the violence-free pinata, now getting rid of New Mexico State University's violent mascot, Pistol Pete. Link [http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=19516&cat=NMSPORTS].

But Hey, We're Getting Their Consumers!

> Amnesty International, the well known human rights group, has issued its 2005 Amnesty International report which again shows China's continuing abuse of women due to the one-child policy. Successive reports indicating such abuses have, however, failed to convince the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to abandon its

Disease Respects No Bogus Civil Rights

> A rare sexually transmitted disease some are calling the "new AIDS" has made its way to Canada. > There have been 22 cases of lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) reported in Canada in recent months, all in homosexual and bisexual men with high-risk sexual practices, according to a report

Reader's World

We earlier reported that general book sales are down. Link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1125/] . But this NYT article [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/books/02book.html?] says they're up: > Sales of general-interest books are thriving, in sharp contrast to recent downturns in other communications and

We're Gonna Haffta See It

Cinderella Man is apparently a manly family man's movie. Link [http://www.townhall.com/culture/moviereviews/CinderellaMan.html]. Excerpt: > The fight scenes are gritty and exciting, often seen from Crowe's blurred perspective as he lopes around the ring and grins through his mouthguard. But Crowe

The Dark Museums

Interesting piece at Spiked about the dark museums (holocaust museums and other exhibits of misery and conflict) that have been proliferating. Link [http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAB4B.htm]. Excerpt: > *This mania for memorial museums is a sign of a society with an unhealthy obsession. These new museums indicate

Many Houses, No Home

The NYT ran an interesting piece earlier this week about the white gypsies: upper-middle-class folk who run for the money and constantly re-locate their families. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/national/class/01ALPHARETTA-FINAL.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=c11207ca2f82faf8&ex=1275278400&partner=

No Swearing in the Netherlands?

> The name of the Lord may no longer be taken in vain in the Dutch village of Staphorst. > Staphorst, in the so-called Dutch "bible belt" of eastern towns where religion holds sway, approved a ban on swearing by 13-4 council votes. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/

PSA

If you notice odd links at the bottom of our posts during the next few days, just ignore them. We're experimenting with Technorati tags, and it may take us a few days to figure out how they work.

1941 Redux

Japanese porn is coming . . . to Sony's PSP-friendly Universal Media Disc. Sony says it has no control what producers make for the device. Some think Sony doesn't object because its failure to embrace porn led to the demise of Betamax twenty years ago. Link [http://www.gamespot.

Brews You Can Use

We have no idea if this guy knows what he's talking about, but we're reproducing this beer review because (i) we like the name of the beer ("Shakespeare Stout"), and (ii) we appreciate his fine attention to detail: > The first impression is of

Fa(s)t Food Advertising

We're not a fan of advertisers or fast food chains (or fat kids, for that matter), but the campaign to blame obese children on fast food advertising is laughable, at best. It's good to see an ad wonk slash back. Link [http://ana.blogs.com/jaffe/

19th Amendment Foe to Oversee Elections?

> Sen. Kay O'Connor announced Wednesday that she is seeking the GOP nomination for [Kansas] secretary of state next year. O'Connor, 63, has served in the Legislature since 1993. > In 2001, O'Connor received national attention for her remarks about the 19th Amendment to

Dougy the Future Dangerous Driver

Another common sense study, this time from Australia: Troublesome children are more likely to grow up to be dangerous drivers. Link [http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Todays-naughty-child-is-tomorrows-road-lunatic/2005/06/02/1117568321783.html?oneclick=true] (good luck getting in; it's a real hassle). Excerpt: > A report

More Ugly Kids

A familiar theme: Pets as substitutes for children. A reader sends along this page of babystrollers for cats and dogs. Link [http://www.justpetstrollers.com/] .

The Ugly Side of Convoy

Mercy sakes alive, it looks like we got ourselves a . . . bottle full of urine. Link [http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7912464]. A few excerpts from an article about a problem that plagues roadways: Trucker bombs, plastic jugs full of urine tossed by truckers, who don't want to make

Sounds Good, But . . .

. . . we'll need to learn more about it: > The Internet's primary oversight body approved a plan yesterday to create a virtual red-light district, setting the stage for pornographic Web sites to use new addresses ending in "xxx." > The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names

Leno on Dirty Advertising

> A number of TV watchdog groups have filed complaints against Carl Jr's ad with Paris Hilton calling it soft pornography. To give you an idea of how racy the ad is, Carl Sr. wouldn't let Carl Jr. watch it. > Have you seen the ad?

Naked Zorro and Moral Morons

A disgruntled reader writes: > That was wrong to call the people of Doylestown morons. Doylestown is home to the Pauline Fathers and Our Lady of Czestahowa shrine also it has a 24 hour Catholic radio station and many devout practicing Catholics. I think, and you should know this, that

Ho Ho. That's Rich

Ted Turner spoke to CNN employees yesterday about making the network more serious. It now trails Fox in the ratings. But Ted is still proud of his network, calling it his greatest professional achievement and even claiming partial credit for ending the Cold War. When CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour asked

The Pink Sox

The Bosox continue to provide us with reasons to root for the Yankees. First, five of their players appeared on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Now, crew members from Queer will throw out the first pitch at Fenway. Link [http://thetrack.bostonherald.com/moreTrack/view.bg?articleid=85953]. And

Disney's Form of PC

The Disney Virtual Kingdom is on-line. It has a filter to protect the kids--from all sorts of words, but not all of them are words you'd normally consider unsuitable for children's ears: > Because the Disney experience is supposed to be kid friendly, interpersonal communication is

The Gentleman

A Southern writer provides this handy list of ten things you must do to be a Southern Gentleman: 1. Open doors. 2. Carry heavy things. 3. Mean it. 4. Make a living. 5. Live your beliefs. 6. Abolish government. 7. Do unto others. 8. Smile. 9. Be responsible. 10. Expect

PC in NFL

San Francisco 49ers running back Garrison Hearst makes an anti-gay comment. The 49ers organization organizes a diversity workshop, intended to educate players about San Fran and all its diversity. So what do you present to a bunch of young, athletic men? Eleanor Smeal recordings? The PR director knew better. Instead,

What is the Essence of a Pinata?

Nipping Mexican violence in the bud: Advertisement from kids' page: > This colorful pinata is 24" tall and 15" wide. Kids take turns pulling each string. When the hidden string is pulled, it releases the candy! No violence required! Link [http://birthdayshack.com/]. No coordination required, either!

Wiccan Persecution

Get Religion wrote a nice piece about an Indiana judge who entered an order that prohibits a Wiccan couple from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals." Get Religion responds: > This is an important parents' rights case and is, in a strange way, very

TV is Getting Better? A Response

The man behind Filboyink [http://www.filboyink.blogspot.com/] blog wrote to us regarding Eric Scheske's review of Steven Johnson's Everything Bad is Good for You. He raises some good points that challenge the assertion that TV entertainment is getting smarter (better, more sophisticated, whatever): >

The Literate Redneck's Heaven

> Christopher Nelson's new job, which comes with a $100,000 salary and a one-year contract, will be to watch reruns of "The Dukes of Hazzard" weeknights on the Country Music Television cable channel and write blog postings for the network's Web site. Link

Will He Deal with the Pro-Gay Agenda at ESPN?

Sports Gone Wild, Issue 5,471: > Long-time Washington Post sports editor and columnist George Solomon will become ESPN's first-ever ombudsman beginning July 1. In this newly created position, Solomon will critique decision-making, coverage and presentation for studio and event production, including SportsCenter, ESPN Radio and, occasionally, programming

Bewitched in Salem

> [A] fictional psychologist named Dr. Robert Hartley (aka Bob Newhart) is commemorated with a bronze-couch statue on Chicago's Michigan Avenue. A bronze image of Mary Richards, played by Mary Tyler Moore, tossing her tam stands on Seventh Street in Minneapolis. > A bronze statue honoring Jackie Gleason

Naked Zorro

> It sounds almost comical, an exhibitionist dressed only in a Zorro mask and white sneakers following women around the streets of Doylestown. It is not only the talk of the town, but it has become big business. At Finney's, t-Shirts are being sold for $10 a piece

Got Condom?

Hey, if your kids are watching TV past 9:00, they're seeing a lot worse than a little latex. Then again, nothing normalizes like advertising. Your call: > Two major TV networks agreed to run a new campaign for Trojan condoms on primetime Tuesday, according to the New

Atlantis and Mu

Neat review by Philip Jenkins of a new book about the lost worlds (Atlantis, Mu, Lemuria). Link [http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/003/20.24.html]. Excerpt: > Above all, her book addresses powerful cultural themes of loss and redemption. Once long ago, in the dreamtime, there was a

ET, Come Here

We don't know if this is best characterized as (i) pollsters with too much times on their hands or (ii) the merits of using popular vote to elect our leaders: > While most depictions of extraterrestrials are confined to science fiction, nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that some

Prom Invite

Last week, we mentioned the new trend among high schoolers: the elaborate prom invite. Link [https://thedailyeudemon.com/1137/]. Eric Scheske has written about the phenomenon in greater depth at Catholic Exchange. Link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=28729].

Westminster Joins Rome

The widespread discrediting of The Da Vinci Code as pure fiction doesn't matter. Dupes will still be talking about its historicity ten years from now. > Westminster Abbey has issued tour guides with information sheets to help them correct the factual errors in the bestselling novel The Da

Kinda Like a Zoo

> TAKE-OUT-TIME-OUT is a portable "time-out" mat. The "time-out" method is the most common and successful of methods used to manage child behavior (ages 2-8), even more successful when using a consistent spot. TAKE-OUT-TIME-OUT can be used anywhere anytime (home, store, restaurant, playground, etc.). Link [http:

Reparations for 225 Year Olds

> Congressional leaders have announced that a task force will be created to study the history of slave labor that was used in the construction of the U.S. Capitol. Link [http://www.local6.com/news/4552675/detail.html].

Weekly Features Post

Issue XXVII We've passed the half year mark. Twenty-seven issues of the Weekly Features Post and still rambling. This WFP benefits from the three-day weekend. We're often rushed to put together the WFP, especially during the frenzied month of May, but this time we were able

Fining the Parents

That's like twenty minutes worth of work at a casino! > Weary of poor grades and low graduation rates, Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation families are being fined if their kids skip school or arrive long after the bell rings. > The tribal council is fining parents $100 a

The EU Would Take Care of These Problems!

A German man who was mugged in a night club was mugged two more times while waiting for the police. The first mugging took place in a bathroom, where three men took his wallet and cell phone. The second took place while he waited outside the club for the police

A Pox on Higher Education

Great rant against higher education at Lew Rockwell this morning. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/doyle3.html]. Excerpt: > Here's the most diabolical part of the deal: Taxpayers lavishly subsidize higher education even while students go into debt slavery for their own reprogramming! Maybe those eggheads aren&

While You're at It, Install a Wet Bar . . .

. . . and some jacuzzis: > British telecoms operator BT Group Plc has wired up a church in Wales to allow the congregation to hook onto local high-speed Internet connections when they want a break from the sermon. . . > "The church has to move with the times and I wanted to

Ah, Grasshopper, Much You Don't Understand

> Five Thai Buddhist monks have been defrocked and fined after a brawl with monks from a nearby temple, police and newspapers said Tuesday. > The street fight was the culmination of years of antagonism between monks from the two temples who had often exchanged curses, insults and rude gestures

The Lost Art of Hospitality

> A 46-year-old man allegedly set his own home on fire in order to get two visitors to leave, police said. Link [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HOUSE_FIRE?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-05-30-09-27-05] . Richard Weaver warned that Americans were losing the

It's the High, Stupid

Regular readers of this blog know we're not friends of marijuana, but jokers like this make us re-think our position: > Michigan State Rep. Dudley Spade has announced that he'll soon be introducing legislation to outlaw candy made with hemp or designed to taste like marijuana.

Professor Against the University

Professor Anthony Esolen writes in the most recent issue of Touchstone about the public universities (no link available): > We encourage you to put your homes in hock, for the privilege of a "loan" from ourselves; we ally with one another in a price-fixing cartel, and call it

Consumerism Comes to Thanatos

There's a new "art" exhibit coming to the West Coast: Experience the Experience of Being Buried Alive. Link [http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/30/austrian_artists_exp.html]. Excerpt: > The people present will have an opportunity to be buried alive in a coffin for

Jouvenel Review

ISI Book's book on Bertrand de Jouvenel (part of its excellent Library of Modern Thinkers collection) is coming out soon. George Carey has given it a good review in the forthcoming issue of The American Conservative (no link available). Excerpt: > [In the first chapter of On Power]

What Are the Vegas Odds Going At?

> The first telescope designed to search for alien life began operating this month from northern California. > The state-of-the-art radio telescope, being operated by the SETI Institute, is still undergoing development and will be able to examine more stars in a year or two than Earth-bound scientists have been

Welcome

Welcome, first-time readers from Lew Rockwell. Take a stroll, check out the FAQs, and come back again soon. We add content repeatedly throughout the day.

Movies: Leftist or Not?

Film critic Steve Sailor, writing in the upcoming issue of The American Conservative, says Hollywood's movies aren't as far left as you might think. No link available (the issue hasn't even hit the newsstands yet). Excerpt: > Feminism gets no more than lip service

Book Review at Lew Rockwell

Lew Rockwell has posted a stupendous and shockingly-insightful review of Steven Johnson's Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter. Readers of this blog are acquainted with the genius and oh-so-modest reviewer. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/scheske1.

Catholic and Naked

Here's a great blurb about Katie Holmes: "devout Catholic" who strips for public viewing and is Tom Cruise's "lover." Link [http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity/42732004.htm]. Excerpt: > Katie Holmes says she would happily strip off on-screen. > Devout Catholic

The City

Intriguing piece about The City: A Global History by Joel Kotkin: Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/ocregister/hip-cities.html]. Excerpt: > "The City" offers fascinating insight into the ideologies that have created different city designs, and into the natural human desire to gather together to live and for

Robson on Big Government

John Robson rolls out a little common sense political philosophy (no link available yet): > Monday's Citizen said: "The British government is considering regulating the maximum temperature of domestic baths." It seems the public are too stupid not to scald themselves unless big nanny hovers over

1,000 Bars in a Year II

When we ran the post yesterday about the fellow who is frequenting 1,000 bars this year, we didn't realize he has a blog on which he chronicles his pilgrimmage. We love bars and their different attributes. The blog does a nice job of capturing the "aura&

Neat Idea, But . . .

. . . how long until MADD demands a zero-tolerance steering column? > A Fort Lauderdale man has created a steering wheel that contains a skin sensor that blocks a vehicle from starting or running if the driver is drunk, an invention he thinks could reducing alcohol-related accidents. > The sensor is installed

For Olympic Hopefuls, Spiked with Steroids

The whole North Korean debacle would be funny, if it weren't so scary and sad. Now this plan to stave off starvation with a new kind of candy. Link [http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=8629258]. Excerpts: > North Korea has developed a candy

More Stuff on Four-Legged Children

Canada and Spain vie for first place in the race to normalize homosexuality. Italy and the country of California are racing to treat pets as child substitutes. In Italy, there is now a tour book about taking your pet on vacation. Link [http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&

Oh, Shaq, You Homophobe!

"It's just like a bunch of worker bees protecting the king bee, because I'm not a queen bee. I'm a king bee." Shaquille O'Neal talking about his injured thigh that is getting better with the help of teammates. Link [http:

Are Those Good-Lookin' Russian Babes Worth It?

If someone told us that we'd be quoting from Pravda some day, we would've scoffed. Since the fall of Communism, perhaps it has become a reputable paper. We don't know. In any event, we found this story interesting. It says that the U.S.

Have a Few More Pints, Mates!

> Three British men sparked a full-scale air and sea search after going for late-night swim and forgetting where they left their clothes on the beach, eventually going back to their hotel without them, police said on Sunday. Link [http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1712930,

Best Story of the Weekend

The Church of England will allow gay ministers to marry . . . if they agree not to have sex. The C of E gets funnier every day. Link [http://www.getreligion.org/?p=820]. Excerpt: > Homosexual priests in the Church of England will be allowed to “marry” their boyfriends under a

1,000 Bars in a Year

It might not be the holiest pilgrimmage, but it sounds pretty good to us: Link [http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/052805_bb_barquest.html]. Excerpts: > The Brooklynite set out Jan. 1 to visit 1,000 bars in a single year, a cocktail lounge quest that began with one

Not Just Catholics and Fundamentalists

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's Sanctity of Human Life Committee says "treatment cannot be called futile if it sustains a God-given life (even if it is not a life someone would choose), such as food and water for a comatose or brain-disabled patient." The Committee suggests asking

Clockwork Orange

It's a disturbing movie, to say the least. Eric Scheske's older brother exposed him to it when Eric was about 17. It's been etched into his mind since. We present this excerpt from a Lew Rockwell article because we purport to be a literary

Indy 500

It's Indy Day, so we thought we'd pass along this humorous piece of male whining: > Robby Gordon accused Danica Patrick of having an unfair advantage in the Indianapolis 500 and said Saturday he will not compete in the race again unless the field is equalized.

Priest Shortages and Beer

According to the BBC, a diocese in England has decided to use beer mats and posters as part of a campaign to recruit more priests: "The Church is launching a recruitment campaign that will use beermats in pubs and posters on the London Underground to promote the priesthood."

Nooooo!

The Washington Times reports this morning that a new study finds that "women are more likely to suffer financially than men when marriages or cohabitational relationships fail." Link [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050528-113355-4933r.htm]. Excerpt: > The financial loss is significant for both groups of men: Married

Great, The Muslims Agree with Us

"A growing number of Muslims are becoming vegetarians . . . because the practices of factory farms conflict with the Islamic law for slaughtering animals and treat animals cruelly." Touchstone, June 2005, p. 51. We're not vegetarians, of course, but we've speculated on this site that such

Something for Sunday Morning

Quotes from Fr. Solanus Casey: "Man's greatness lies in being faithful to the present moment." "God, who loves tiny beginnings, will know as He always does know, how and when to provide development." "We do God's will best when we obey,

Dangerous Missions

We didn't know we had that many missionaries in Detroit: > From 1990 to 2000, 573 Catholic missionaries suffered a violent death. Fifteen died violently in 2004, and 35 in 2003. Touchstone, June 2005, p. 53.

Get Naked with TSA

Apparently, the Transportation Security Administration is beginning to test an x-ray machine for use at airports that will see through clothing. Link to rant at Lew Rockwell [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/akers3.html]. Excerpt: > [T]he TSA whispered a few weeks ago that it is carrying things a

Give 'Em Wi-Fi, and the Talk Will Die

Pro-computer (and self-described) geeks like Steven Johnson say that the Internet is helping our social skills. In Everything Bad is Good for You, he dismisses the conventional fear that the Internet "would come at a terrible social cost, by confining us in front of barren computer monitors, away from

A Familiar Theme

More on our culture's pet-for-children substitution: > Half of pet owners surveyed said they would "very likely" risk their own lives for their pets, and another third said they were "somewhat likely" to do so. Almost three quarters of married pet owners reported that,

It's All About the Parents x 10,000,000

It's one of the more disturbing stories we've seen in awhile. We'd heard of surrogate mothers, and we'd heard of gay guys using surrogate mothers to misappropriate a child of their own. We didn't know the gay surrogate route was

We Thought NBC Had a Bigger Audience

"From 10,000 to 15,000 Americans live in 'persistent vegetative states,' while another 100,000 live in what is called 'minimal consciousness.'" Touchstone, June 2005, p. 50.

Bring on Vlad Tepes' Rehabilitation!

It's a good year for bad guys. We earlier featured a story about Mongolia's efforts to rehabilitate Genghis Kahn. Now Carthaginians (Tunisians) seek to rehabilitate Moloch's worshippers. Link [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05146/510878.stm]. Excerpts: > Mr. Fantar is campaigning to clear

The Anti-Drinking and Minors Fanaticism Continues

> Hundreds of Arlington Heights, Ill., residents protested a school board decision accepting the resignations of four teachers who drank during a field trip. > The teachers apparently had a 15-year tradition of taking turns being "on duty" while others went to a local bar during the annual

The Weekend Eudemon

Memorial Day Weekend 2005. Weekends like this keep Eric Scheske awake at night with excitement. What does he have planned? Nothing. Absolutely flippin' nothing, except reading, writing, playing with his children and, if he's feeling motivated, drinking wine. To make it even better, two new books that

Another Pro-Condom Distribution School Worker

Part of our continuing coverage: > Michelle Sikes, 34, the former CHS interpreter, entered a plea of guilty on Monday of last week in Van Buren County Circuit Court to 11 counts of first-degree sexual assault in allegations that she had sex with a 15-year-old male student. Link [http://www.

The Next Wave of Sexual License Cometh

Perhaps our only hope is that South Park gets ahold of this trend and beats it to a comical death. > Richard Hooper, deputy chairman of Ofcom (the UK's TV and radio regulating body), has indicated that the long-anticipated new broadcasting code makes no definite provisions against the

Centesimus Annus Wasn't Strong Enough

We're against the consumerism of Western culture, but this guy needs to be taken out and maimed: > It is a sight to make the average toddler weep with horror: a billboard not only stating categorically that Santa Clause does not exist, but also condemning him as a

But Did They Go Blind?

Give us a jury with four unhappy housewives . . .Link [http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_2760993]. > More than 400,000 customers of a Canadian company that sells penis-enlargement products may be eligible to join a lawsuit claiming the oils and herbal supplements don't work, a Denver federal

A Chance to Give Your Left Eyeball for Sex

If the blindness lasts more than four hours, call your doctor: > US health officials are examining reports of varying degrees of blindness among a small number of men using the anti-impotence drug Viagra. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4587191.stm].

Still Struggling with Gnosticism

This could come straight from the April Fool's edition of a National Rifle Association publication: > Three emergency-room doctors called Friday for long, pointed kitchen knives to be banned in a bid to reduce the number of stabbings in Britain. > Writing in the British Medical Journal, three

New Addicts

The Washington Times has an interesting piece about videogame addiction. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/culture/20050526-111739-7334r.htm]. Excerpts: > A neglected baby cries alone. Crazed by lack of sleep, a young boy threatens suicide. A marriage crumbles over a lone obsession. > Yet another grim tale of 21st-century social

On Freakonomics

The Ludwig von Mises Institute politely points out flaws in the bestseller, Freakonomics. Link [http://www.mises.org/story/1817]. Excerpt: > The most controversial topic of the book is Levitt's (in)famous theory that the Roe v. Wade decision explains much of the dramatic and completely unexpected

Can't Afford a Private School?

Gary North at Lew Rockwell continues his intelligent broadsides against the public school system. In this excerpt, he responds frankly to a woman who says parents can't afford private schools: > I see. Because they have monthly car payments for cars they bought new, plus mortgage payments, plus

Brews You Can Use II

> British brewer Bath Ales claim that their Wild Hare organic beer won't give drinkers a hangover because it contains no artificial ingredients or chemicals. Link [http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15562721%26method=full%26siteid=89488%26headline=a%2dgood%2dhead%2don%2dit-name_page.html] .

Brews You Can Use

"The U.S. Marines' first recruiting station was in a bar." You can find that and much more drinking trivia here [http://www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol-info/FunFacts/AlcoholTrivia.html#.]. We haven't verified the accuracy of the trivia, but many of the facts are known by

Blogger Book Game

This has been flying around the Catholic blogosphere for awhile. On Nothing [http://onnothing.blogspot.com/] tagged us (thanks, man), so we'll play along, though we honestly don't know who to tag at this point since all the blogs we read have already played. We'

New Blog

The clever Peter Floriani has started a blog: Frances Blogg, named after GKC's wife, "Frances" being her first name and "Blogg" her maiden name. Says Peter, "Frances Blogg was dedicated to G. K. Chesterton. So is this blog - and so you can

Prom Fever

When real religious rituals lose their force, pseudo-rituals will rise to take their place: > Inviting a date to the prom has never been easy. The sweaty palms, the stomach knotted by fear and anxiety. The nervous questions, muttered sotto voce, followed by equally breathless answers. > But that was

Peterson on Pieper

The new Gilbert Magazine arrived this week. In the Miscellany of Men Department, John Peterson provides a splendid overview of one of our favorite philosophers, Josef Pieper. No link available. Excerpts: > [Pieper] never used technical language, preferring instead the language of common sense, the language of the people. But

Catholic Schools and Their Silent Fathers

National Catholic Register has a nice cover story this week about the Wichita, Kansas diocese. The diocese implemented a highly-successful stewardship program that emphasized Catholic schools. The result: Its 38 schools are now thriving and tuition free. We're guessing the Wichita bishop preaches the importance of a genuine

The Cross and the Crescent . . . Together?

Interesting piece at Tech Central Station about the Christian/Muslim alliance in Lebanon. Link [http://www.techcentralstation.com/052505D.html]. Concluding paragraph: > Beirut may be the only place in the world where you can buy a necklace with a Christian cross and a Muslim crescent moon fused together as

Babymoons. Yuck.

Feel like getting nauseous? Check out this story about "Babymoons." A babymoon is when new parents take their babies on a fancy trip. Link [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/050530/30diversions.htm]. Excerpts: > The travel industry is paying attention. The luxury market in particular is

PSA

We won't be blogging much today. Eric Scheske is on secret assignment to find the Spice Girls' lost virginity. It's his most daunting assignment yet.

Europe's Biggest Problem

U.S. News & World Report's May 30, 2005 issue has a two-page spread about Europe's Christian problem. It echoes (and cites) the observations in Weigel's The Cube and the Cathedral, which we discussed last month. Link to U.S. News article [http://www.

The New Talking Movies

A former Seinfeld writer writes an open letter to the couple who talked throughout an entire movie, thus ruining the experience for everyone else. We're not sure why we're bringing it up here, but it did bring tears of support to our eyes. Link [http://www.

The Ivy Crusade

Well, it's encouraging, but we would've thought Peter the Hermit's crusade [http://historymedren.about.com/library/who/blwwhermit.htm] stood a better chance. > Now a few affluent evangelicals are directing their attention and money at some of the tallest citadels of the secular

The Commies Are Beating Us at Our Best Game!

China is out-Americanizing us in mall building. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/25/business/worldbusiness/25mall.html?hp]. Excerpts: > The South China Mall - a jumble of Disneyland and Las Vegas, a shoppers' version of paradise and hell all wrapped in one - will be

What We Owe the Monks

Thomas Woods continues his series of articles at Lew Rockwell about the Catholic Church's contributions to Western Civilization. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods43.html]. Excerpts: > Although the Rule of St. Benedict (c. 529) was known for its moderation and its aversion to exaggerated penances, we

Disney Gives the People What They Want

> Greenpeace and the Worldwide Fund for Nature asked Hong Kong Disneyland to take shark fin soup off the menu after the theme park announced last week the delicacy would be served at wedding banquets and other special events. > Environmentalists say millions of sharks are killed each year for

Sex Good; Beer Bad

A high school senior class throws a theme party. The theme? Playboy Mansion. Link. It's all about sex; girls show up in skimpy clothes. But the important thing is, all the attendees signed a waiver not to drink alcohol. > One parent, whose son attended the party, told

Fat and Dull

> In a study published in the journal Eating Weight Disorders, Vol. 10, N.1, researchers have outlined a possible link between severe obesity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) -- a mental condition that effects hundreds of thousands of Canadians. Link [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/

Weekly Features Post

Issue XXVI Hectic days around here. Ongoing health fights, family obligations; you name it, we have it. Eric was supposed to have gallbladder surgery today. He ran around the past couple of days, trying to get his life in order so he could take two or three days for the

Free Dope

No matter how much sense it seems to make, no program that denies fundamental virtues--here, justice and temperance--will work. Excerpts from an article about free heroin: > A new program that would supply free heroin for hardcore addicts in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is having trouble recruiting addicts. >

Muslim Cola

> A drink created in France as a protest symbol for the Palestinian Intifida in 2001, is catching up amongst the Muslim and non-Muslim consumer alike. > The drink was branded as an alternative to the ubiquitous US brands Coke and Pepsi. > As a part of international expansion strategy,

Reader's World

Books titles are up; sales are down; religious books are up; > Some interesting new stats about book publishing. Number of books sold is way down. Number of titles published is up. Cover prices are up, and so are revenues (slightly). Higher cover prices are driving students and poorer people

Leapin' for a Lucky

> "Nelson said Foran was smoking a cigarette when it blew out the window and Foran jumped out the window to retrieve the cigarette. Nelson said he was driving between 55 and 60 mph when Foran jumped out," the trooper said. > "It was obvious he was

Pro-Life Giuliani

Neocon John Podhoretz has a bad tasting op-ed in the New York Post this morning about Giuliani's need to become pro-life in order to become president. Link [http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/47054.htm]. Excerpts: > Ronald Reagan, whose 1980 victory cemented the move of evangelical Christians

Bring on the Dietary Vomiting!

> Teenage boys are now so obsessed with their appearance that a quarter of them would consider plastic surgery to try to achieve the looks and physiques of their celebrity heroes. > A study of 2,000 boys with an average age of 15 indicates that they agonise about their

Great. Let's Throw More Money at It

Scientism and educationalism go together like rolling papers and dope: > Worldwide, women are twice as likely to suffer from insomnia as men, but a new study suggests that the more educated a woman is, the less likely she is to lose sleep. Link [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,

Birthing in Britain

A reader in England sends this along from the Telegraph: > Jemma, Jade and Natasha Williams, who receive benefits totalling more than Â£31,000 a year, are raising their babies alone after they became pregnant within three months of each other. > The sisters, aged 12, 14 and 16

Spend Faster

There are new, easier-to-use, credit cards coming. You just wave them. The old system was much too cumbersome. All that swiping really held up the spending. > The cards – which are "waved" near card readers instead of swiped and signed – move customers through checkout lines faster. And because

School Bus and Bullies

Clever piece about what one man learned by reflecting upon his years of riding a school bus. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/bright1.html]. Excerpt: > Most of the kids who were bullies as kids grow out of it one way or another. > It's often the

The Chinese Will be Geeked!

All right! More sex! We were beginning to think our country was running out of it. > The first drug formulated to treat premature ejaculation delays climax and also increases reported satisfaction, researchers said on Monday. > The drug, called dapoxetine, helped men delay their orgasms significantly and doubled the

China's Westernization Continues

We're just awaiting a Chinese Elvis: > In one cafe in southern China, pictures of naked women hang on the walls - a rare sight in this country. > But that is what this cafe is all about. It was set up by the City Government Reproductive Health

The Gay Sex Frenzy--Yet Again

The New Yorker, a leftwing rag by any measure, has a lengthy feature article about the rise of homosexual promscuity. Disturbing stuff, to say the least. According to the writer (a pro-gay, it would appear), four factors have resulted in a frenzy of homosexual activity that makes the 1970s bathhouse

Spain's Looming Oppression

Pope Benedict XVI has written a message to Spain's bishops, urging Spain to respect religious freedom. The reason? It's speculated that the homo-lesbian forces in Spain could attempt to require the Church to recognize gay marriages. Just another example of the intolerance and coercion that takes

New Oakland Cathedral

Well, they've broken ground on the new $131 Million Oakland Cathedral. It looks like another modernist monstrosity:

Are We Supplying It to Prison Bubbas, Too?

Only in a sex-crazed society would this even be an issue. Link [http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-viag0523,0,1950104.story?coll=nyc-topheadlines-left] . Excerpts: > [New York] State Comptroller Alan Hevesi said Sunday that he wants the federal government to stop allowing convicted, high-risk sex offenders to buy

First Gays, Now Clowns

Why is the RCC pursuing ecumenical dialogue with these clowns? Link [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/312124p-267023c.html]. Excerpts: > Clowns and jugglers packed the aisles, while fully costumed church staffers handed out red noses and noisemakers to all worshipers. > Even the rector of the Episcopal church

Justifying a Big Tattoo

A woman gets a tattoo of a lion bursting from a jungle. It stretches from her neck to her left buttock. It costs 33 hours of her time, $4,000, and a lot of pain. Why? Perfectly reasonable explanation, one that could probably make it into a Supreme Court opinion

WFB Talks About God

We've always found the man remarkably intelligent and well thought out, though we'll never understand National Review's childish revolt against Humanae Vitae back in the 1960s. Anyway, here's a short article [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4656595] by

"Man" Hugs

The Denver Post has run a lengthy piece about the manhug. What is it? It's an alternative form of greeting another man. According to the article, some men hug and others shake hands. The article goes into all the nuances and talks about how difficult it is to

A Wonder with MS Paint

We laud art wherever we find it, from the good conversationalist to the talented chalk artist. Some guy painted this picture of Venice, using MS Paint! It took him 500 hours. Pretty wild: Click here [http://www.deviantart.com/view/17908194/] for a fuller view.

Dr. Frasier Crane Goes Pro Gay

> Representatives of the nation's top psychiatric group approved a statement Sunday urging legal recognition of gay marriage. If approved by the association's directors in July, the measure would make the American Psychiatric Association the first major medical group to take such a stance. Link [http:

Hey Puny Boy II

A reader writes to ask about our post, "Hey Puny Boy with the Glasses." According to the reader, the theory advanced by the writer--that boys are lagging behind in school because they're punished for being testosterone-driven males--is close to the theory advanced by Christina Hoff Sommers

The Court Comedy Keeps Coming

You'd expect more mental toughness from a male hairdresser: > Windsor, Ontario, hair stylist Waddah (Martin) Mustapha was awarded the equivalent of about US$270,000 by a court in April after he testified that he became racked with depression upon seeing a fly inside a commercial bottle

Fast Food, Fast Reading

McDonald's "is in the midst of a nationwide wireless Internet roll-out, one of many attempts to get customers to linger longer – and spend a little more." Link [http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050522/BUSINESS01/505220379/1005] . We spend a lot of time

Can Computers Eat Prozac?

Electronic immortality is coming, some say. Link [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15374571%5E601,00.html] . Excerpts: > Death could become a thing of the past by the mid-21st century as computer technology becomes sophisticated enough for the contents of a brain to be

No Unclean Animals in the Gate

Man, if this guy is going to apply all the Old Testament strictures, he's going to have some rough sledding: > Leviticus Chapter 22 is part of the scipture Ambus says applies to his case [of whether he should he should have to neuter his dog]. Ambus, an

Hell Express

Another guy who doesn't want to wait in line when he gets to Hell: > A Chatsworth man has been charged with using a church's banking information to buy Internet porn. > Robbie Lee Ritchie was indicted Thursday by a Murray County grand jury on 12

A Blurb About SWIII

Got back about an hour ago from seeing Star Wars III. We won't discuss it, since the movie has been blog beaten to a pulp. We will, however, comment on the big line that kicked-off the anticipated fight between Obi wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. As their verbal

Modesty Getting a Little Steam?

Saw this in our local newspaper: > "We're definitely seeing a trend toward more conservative swimsuits with moderate coverage," says Jodi Randolph, senior designer for Venus USA, a designer and distributor of swimwear. . . > Another trend that bodes well for women is the increasing availability of

Here We Go Again

Science is again reversing itself. This time: Sunshine may help prevent cancer, and perhaps we shouldn't be using all that sunscreen. Link [http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050521/D8A7MPFG0.html]. Opening paragraphs: > Scientists are excited about a vitamin again. But unlike fads that sizzled and fizzled, the

Hey Puny Boy with the Glasses!

Data from 2003 shows that 60.9% of undergraduates are girls and 39.1% are boys (the latter percentage, by the way, is not automatically knowable from the former, not in today's world of transvestities, transgenders, and other translogical mutations). According to this article, > An examination of

Apologies

We apologize for the light blogging. A variety of factors--family, illness, Star Wars, roving Mongol hoards in southwest Michigan--have made blogging difficult today. There'll be a few posts today; full-scale posting will resume tomorrow morning.

Something for Sunday Morning

"However hard I try, I find it impossible to construct anything greater than these three words, 'Love one another'--only to the end, and without exceptions: then all is justified and life is illumined, whereas otherwise it is an abomination and a burden." Mother Maria of

Still Feeling Some Obligation

Divorce if you want, but maybe, just maybe, there is something behind the Catholic position that a valid sacrament can't merely be broken and tossed away: > In scenes exhibiting a vivid range of feelings - acrimony, compassion, rekindled love, abiding friendship - sick and dying Americans are

Ran Just Like an Abortion Mill

All right! This is perfect: Our culture treats pet animals like children. This woman treats pet animals like unborn babies: > Summoned to the woman's East Orange home by a neighbor complaining about a stench, city health inspectors found 48 cats inside the house -- 38 of them

Now We're Going to Hurl

Goodness knows the poster girl for Walker Percy's culture of the naughty-nice, Britney Spears, is annoying, but could we give the girl a little peace and give the rest of the world a break from the pregnancy coverage? > Britney Spears' morning sickness is reaching new levels

Bring Back the "S Word"

We'd love to get the word "sin" back into everyday discourse. Whatta coup that would be: Bill Clinton sinned with Monica Lewinsky; Michael Jackson is accused of atrocious sinning; Stealing from a client's trust fund is a sin. We never held out much hope

Dakotans Calling PETA Out

> Sentinel chickens will be used throughout North Dakota as a warning system for West Nile virus, the state Health Department says. > The chickens act as bait for mosquitoes that may be carrying West Nile. > About 80 chickens will be placed at eight sites throughout the state, said

The Rock is Rolling

Described by one disgruntled liberal as "William F'in Buckley," Chris Rock has potential to be a big thorn in the left's side, and the potential has increased: > Chris Rock rocks. "Everybody Hates Chris," the comedian's UPN comedy has emerged

Modern Art's Ongoing Obsession with Excrement

Tom Friedman is a successful artist, so successful, in fact, that he thinks his excrement is art. Tony Christie's agreed to try to sell a two-foot white cube with a barely visible black speck of Friedman's excrement. How is that art? Let Friedman explain: > "

The Religious Atheists

Reminds us of Chesterton's observation: If God did not exist, there would be no atheists: > As they watch religion increasingly dominate American political discourse, nonbelievers will gather in San Francisco today for their first "All Atheist Weekend" -- in an effort to put a friendlier

Heretics

James Schall has written a piece in honor of the 100th anniversary of G.K. Chesterton's Heretics. Link [http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/print2005/schall_heretics_may05.html] . Here's an excerpt (a somewhat thick one, so read attentively): > Today, the only popularly acknowledged public "

The Weekend Eudemon

We'll have an abbreviated Weekend Eudemon this time. It's Michigan Week, it's May, it's busy at the office, it's a wonder we have any eudemon at all. But we do. This Weekend Eudemon was written Friday evening, after attending Michigan

GayCLU Again

Yet another instance of the ACLU backing the gays in a local battle. Link [http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000929248] . Excerpt: > Student journalists sued their Bakersfield high school district Thursday in an effort to keep the school's principal from censoring

Ban on Headers . . .

. . . in Massachusetts! Has the ACLU been made aware of this? > Edwards . . . is asking lawmakers to stop a potentially damaging practice among K-12 students: "headers," or when soccer players hit balls with their heads. > "Brain injury or a concussion can change a soccer player's

Take a Lude, Man

The ACLU successfully obtained an order that prohibits prayer activities in a Louisiana school. The school allegedly isn't following the order. The ACLU is angry and has filed a motion in court. From the pleading: > "The consent judgment is repeatedly violated by these individuals because they

Nice Blurb on Chaput

Katherine Lopez at the NRO Corner this morning: > Archbishop Chaput of Denver also spoke at the Reagan Hilton this morning, warning Catholics (any person trying to live their faith in the world can appreciate the message) about the "cost of fitting in." Faith should guide you in

Sex Sells . . . Even on Little League Teams

Not sure how we would've handled it. Give these folks credit for trying to do the right thing, even when it affects their children: > Parents pulled their 8-year-old son off his baseball team when they found out it would be sponsored by Hooters, Cincinnati television station WLWT

Dog Vader

Eric Scheske didn't even know about pet costumes when he wrote his earlier rants (e.g., Link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=28485]) about adults who substitute pets for having children. He probably needs to get out more, but with

New Form of Censorship Plaguing Midwest!

Limiting the Ad Monster?

Give them time. In a consumerist society, the advertising hounds know no limits because consumers know no limits. Link [http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=772732]. Excerpt: > The Federal Aviation Administration proposed on Thursday to amend its regulations to ensure that it can enforce a law that prohibits

Indy 500 and Women

Did we hear correctly? Danica Patrick, a female driver, has earned the fourth spot in the upcoming Indy 500? The Indy 500 has lost some luster in recent years, but it's still the premier car race in the world, or close to it. Danica's accomplishment speaks

Spanking at Issue Again

As far as we're concerned, this type of government intervention calls for an insurrection. It's the worst type of government meddling: interference with the home. The government exists to serve the home; the home doesn't exist to serve the government's ideas. >

G.A.Y. Distributorship Company

James Kushiner writes at Mere Comments: > An incident that took place at Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral on Sunday was not covered by the major local papers, as far as I can tell, but was front page news in a paper that I found on the bus this

Give Us Edgar!

Great piece at Lew Rockwell today, "Everything I Needed to Know, I Learned From Edgar Rice Burroughs." Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/wallace/wallace210.html] . Excerpts: > Perhaps the first thing I noticed about Burroughs is that, much like Robert Heinlein, none of his women characters are victims.

Brews You Can Use III

Interesting piece at National Geographic about ancient culture's belief that beer is healthy. Link [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0516_050516_ancientbeer.html]. The article mostly talks about Nubian beer that contained antibiotics, but here's a more generalizing excerpt from the conclusion: > Charlie

Brews You Can Use II

There's an intriguing new book out: A History of the World in Six Glasses. It's about, yup, drinking, but not just alcohol. Here's an excerpt from the author's page that explains the theme better than we can: > Just as archaeologists divide

Brews You Can Use

From Hail the Ail! > Last week on NPR they had Michael Jackson take the hosts of All Things Considered on a tasting of good beers. Michael Jackson is a beer expert who wrote Michael Jackson's Great Beer Guide. > Surprisingly several of the beers were from the

August Comte Clapping from His Grave

Harvard has a humanist chaplaincy for atheist and agnostic students. He's retiring, hence this story, but we're more interested in the mental machinations of Ivy League types that hire a chaplain for atheists. Ah heck, why not? And while we're at it, we'

PETA at the Chalkboard

PETA in charge . . . of humane education in public schools. Link [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156398,00.html]. Excerpts: > Through its innocuous-sounding "educational" programming arm known as TeachKind, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has found a way to reach school children starting as

Another Pro-Condom Teacher

It's been awhile since we featured one of these stories: > A former North Myrtle Beach High School teacher who had a sexual relationship with a student for about a year declared his love for the girl Tuesday just before he was sentenced to six years in prison

Not Dolphins!

Since we were kids, we've been told dolphins are kind and humanlike, possibly even more intelligent than humans. They've been the darlings of the environmentalist crowd for over twenty years. And now we find out they're not so nice and, to the extent they

It's So Normal, Honey, They Have Cards for It!

When's the last time we ranted against the normalizing of sinful behavior? > Browse the aisles of any stationery store and you'll find cards for your spouse, children, parents, siblings and even your pet. > Soon, you could also find cards for your mistress or the

Oh, the Stand-Up Comedy Fodder in This

This story says it's possible that Bernardo Provenzano, the Sicilian Mafia's “boss of bosses,” has eluded capture for more than four decades by posing as a bishop. Link [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7884756/]. Does anyone else hear Tina Brown's saliva dripping on

Free Books

Here's a nifty site with over 60 classics available on-line in pdf format. Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Stevenson, Dickens, Joyce, Conrad, Twain, Milton, The Blind Dude, Poe, others. Link [http://www.planetpdf.com/free_pdf_ebooks.asp?CurrentPage=1&cachecommand=bypass] . There are other such sites, but this one

He Got Porn! He Got Porn!

Is this becoming common? Other people go onto a person's computer and view/download porn with it? What then? They call the police and say "I have reason to believe Pastor MacDonald has kiddie porn on his computer"? Odd and insidious stuff. > A man has

The Brain Spa

A new world is opening up. No matter what ails us--depression, jitters, tremors, sleeplessness, anxiety--we'll be able to fix it, patch it, reverse it, whatever. It's especially useful for those whose careers are being affected by their ailments--or natural limitations. Just go to a brain spa

Return of the Jed

In honor of its opening day, and a household of little Scheskes chomping to get to the movie theater:

Follow-Up

That Washington woman will be allowed to keep her John 3:16 plate. Link [http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4874741p-4471616c.html]. Excerpt: > After a public outcry, University Place resident Jane Milhans will be able to keep her vanity license plate “JOHN3:16.” > A Spanaway woman complained

Optimistic in America

In general, Americans are remarkably optimistic. It's consistent with what de Tocqueville found when he came here 200 years ago, but to be honest, we're not sure what to make of it. Link [http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050518-110514-8271r.htm]. Excerpts: > A landmark study released

Slutty and Proud of It

Good for the Catholic high school . . . almost: > A pregnant student who was banned from graduation at her Roman Catholic high school announced her own name and walked across the stage anyway at the close of the program. > Alysha Cosby's decision prompted cheers and applause Tuesday from

Bye Rudolph

This from the Cardinal Newman Society: > Today Baltimore's Cardinal William Keeler informed Loyola College of Maryland interim president David Haddad that the Cardinal refuses to participate in an event honoring Rudolph Giuliani, an advocate of abortion rights and probable Republican candidate for U.S. president in 2008.

Modesty Wear

Well, we spent a few moments surfing the site, and though we're not overly optimistic, we feel compelled to let everyone know that there is a manufacturer that makes modest swimwear for women and girls. Link [http://www.wholesomewear.com/]. Culture needs a little more modesty (actually, a

We Thought This Issue Was Over

Pat Buchanan blisters the NYT and op-ed writer Arthur Hertzberg for continued slander about the Church, Pius XII, and the holocaust. Link [http://www.theamericancause.org/a-pjb-050518-pius-print.htm]. Excerpts: > Hertzberg and the Times are perpetuating a blood libel that is Hitlerite in dimension. Just as Hitler blamed Bolshevism on

Buddhists Against Bikinis

Must not have been Tantric Buddhist temples: > Photos of bikini-clad Miss Universe 2005 contestants in front of some of Bangkok's famed Buddhist sites have irked protectors of Thai culture and prompted some self-censoring of the pageant's publicity footage, media reports said on Wednesday. > The

Zero Tolerance Means Zero Discretion

A high school senior was quoted in the local paper as saying "she likes drinking" and plans to drink alcohol with her friends after the prom. The school, citing its zero-tolerance policy, has now banned her from attending the prom. Link [http://www.wltx.com/fyi/fyi.aspx?

PC for Everyone, Even If They Don't Care

We keep hearing that today's youth aren't hung-up on the political correctness of their parents' generation. Here's a good piece of anecdotal evidence: > Students voting on superlatives – a staple of yearbooks for decades – elected Richards as "Most Whipped" by his

Another Blow to the Travel Industry

Oh whatever will we do with all that ennui as more and more people decline to travel? > An airline catering company must take major steps to clean its Honolulu location or risk the unit's closure after U.S. health inspectors found live cockroaches, dirty utensils and an

Living High In Detroit

Corruption in the big city? Nawwww! Boss Tweed would be rolling over in his grave. > Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick doesn't want you to know about some things: > The spa visits. > The hotel room for his family babysitter. > The posh suite at the Luxor casino

More on Sniffing Gays

The NYT ran a pro-gay op-ed yesterday about the origins of homosexuality (triggered by the homo-lesbian sniff test results we discussed here [https://thedailyeudemon.com/937/]). Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/17/opinion/17pinker.html?]. It's reasonably objective and worth a look. Excerpt: > Homosexuality is

Corn and Porn

The University of Iowa is offering a course on pornography. It sounds outrageous, but quite frankly, given the prevalence of porn in our culture, such studies might have merit. Unfortunately, any attempt to handle them from the relativist and secular position found at a public university would derogate to a

Same Old, Same Old

One person or one family kicks and screams and demands to get their way--even if everyone else wants it otherwise. Link [http://www.tonguetied.us/]. Excerpt: > Florida Today is reporting that the family of one graduating high school senior in that state wants its child's graduation moved

Wouldn't That Make It Harder to Run?

> Italian police have discovered a mob-linked race track where they say horses were pumped full of Viagra and other drugs to fix races. Link [http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=8519171].

Billy Bob with an Attitude

Or maybe you're snobbish like a bubble-guy, but can't quite afford the $3 million outlay:

Odd Consumer News

Lookin' for a new pad? A bubble-house in France is available for only $3 million. Link [http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/005727.php].

The Wedding Racket

Finally, someone is speaking out against the wedding ceremony industry. We're not sure we agree with part of his solution (a reception with no booze is like a honeymoon without . . . nevermind), but he raises valid points. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnwell/barnwell48.html]. Two excerpts: > One

Dibs on Kathy!

We don't particularly identify ourselves with the religious right, since that's more of an evangelical thing and we're Catholic, but everyone knows we're now allies in the culture wars. So we were glad to see the religious right claim one of the

Un-queerin'-believable

This is one of those stories that is so outrageous that even we have difficulty believing the pro-homosexual forces did such a thing. It appears a public high school in Massachusetts distributed a "how-to-be-a-queer" booklet to students. Link [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44306]

Fired for a Coors?

> A former supervisor at a Budweiser distributorship says he was fired for drinking a Coors beer in public. > Ross Hopkins, 41, filed suit in Weld County District Court, saying American Eagle Distributing Co. has no right to tell him what kind of beer to drink when he is

Weekly Features Post

Issue XXV We've been reading about a new mental problem: blogging addiction. Sure, so far it's just bloggers joking about it: "How do you stop?" But soon, a psychiatrist will have an actual case, he'll write a journal article about it, a

Poor Worshipping with the Microscope

Decent article at Lew Rockwell about science and religion. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/crispin/crispin14.html]. Excerpt: > Science can describe vibrations and neural responses but not the "mysterious reality of music." It cannot tell us what we get from a painting or other work of art.

That Little Guy from Fantasy Island Is All Over the Place

Need more evidence that pop culture is bad culture? > As models flaunted head-to-toe body art and hard rock pulsated in a cavernous ballroom, veteran tattoo artists at a New York convention on Saturday wondered if their once taboo artistry was losing its nonconformist lure. > Americans, especially women, are

It Ain't 50 Cent, But It Be Awright

> The late Pope John Paul II has become an unlikely pop star in his homeland. > A collection of his poetry with a disco beat backing is currently number three in the Polish charts. > And at least seven other songs featuring his voice or texts are in the

Gossip's a Sin, but . . .

> BOGOTA, Colombia - Malicious gossip often results in tears and anger, but in Colombia it had lead to murder - and officials say they've heard enough. > Fed up with people targeted by false rumors turning up dead or wrongfully arrested, the mayor of a small Colombian

The Muthas

Great piece at WSJ about a new book on inner-city motherhood. Link [http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110006699]. Excerpts: > Ms. Edin and Ms. Kefalas decisively rescue the young welfare mother from the policy wonks and feminist professors who have held her hostage until recently, and in so doing

First Anniversary of Gay Marriage

It's been one year since Massachusetts ushered in gay marriage. The LA Times has a fairly lengthy article on its effects, including galvanizing the rest of America against it. Link [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-anniversary17may17,0,413176.story?coll=la-home-headlines] . Here's one excerpt

ACLUligans

> The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit yesterday against the Department of Health and Human Services, accusing the Bush administration of spending federal tax dollars on an abstinence education program that promotes Christianity. Link. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/16/AR2005051601224.html] Consistent with special

Kudos to Kudzu

At first we thought, "This isn't good," but then we thought about it some more and figured, "Hey, if it helps problem drinkers continue to drink without killing themselves or others, it's a good thing." Excerpts: > Heavy drinkers who tried the

Gotta Look Good for the Shower Fights

New underwear is a constitutional right! Link [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0516051briefs1.html?link=rssfeed]. Excerpt: > A Tennessee youth detention facility that provides female inmates with previously worn--and allegedly stained--underwear has triggered legal complaints by a pair of teenagers who have spent time in the Knoxville lockup.

Too Early to Celebrate Wine Decision

Professor Bainbridge points out that states could still ban all Internet wine sales, in which case the law would not discriminate against other states and would be upheld. Link [http://www.professorbainbridge.com/2005/05/supreme_court_s.html]. Excerpt: > Indeed, it's not at all certain that

Popo Bawa

Here's a story about a freaky belief in Zanzibar: fear of the prison-sadist-like Popo Bawa. Link [http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-05-16T011620Z_01_DIT604532_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-TANZANIA-MONSTER.XML] . Excerpts: > Although no one ever has seen it, belief in the monster

Diversity Becomes Discrimination . . .

. . . and tolerance becomes intolerance. David French on (in)tolerance in higher academia: > Universities say it's people like me, red staters who grew up in middle-class suburbs, who need their views challenged. In my experience, the exact reverse is true. I went to a Christian undergraduate school and

Postman, Fill My Glass!

> Wine lovers may buy directly from out-of-state vineyards, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, striking down laws banning a practice that has flourished because of the Internet and growing popularity of winery tours. > The 5-4 decision overturns laws in New York and Michigan, which supporters said were aimed at

Impotent Stuff

Frustrated Romanian women forced a 24-hour shop to close because its cheap booze was making their men impotent. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1397328.html]. Must be a difference in culture. Lots of wives over here would order that booze by the case.

Good News, Probably

Now, if we could get female ordination, gay union, contraception, divorce, and other little issues under wrap: > Roman Catholic and Anglican leaders announced Monday that after years of discussions, they have come to an understanding concerning the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and that doctrine concerning her

Race for Ignorance

The mother country is leading the way to dumbed-down education. What is it now? Spelling doesn't count on English tests. Link to The Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/15/nspell15.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/05/15/ixhome.html] . Opening

The Pope and the Professors

Another fine Thomas Woods article at Lew Rockwell about a Catholic institution. This time, the university. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods42.html]. Excerpts: > It must be frustrating to be a historian of medieval Europe. No matter how many books you write, lectures you deliver, or students you

"Art" for Profit's Sake

> To conceal an enormous open-cast mining operation about 10 miles from Newcastle, England, and to reduce the cost of carting away millions of tons of debris, the mining company recently hired artist Charles Jencks to incorporate the waste into a reclining female sculpture, a half-mile long, running along the

Runaway Spending

If there's a price on it, they'll buy it: > "Jennifer's High Tailin' Hot Sauce," a nod to the saga of runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, has sold briskly since its debut Wednesday. > "I'm in the hot sauce

Rain(bow), Rain(bow), Go Away . . .

We assume most readers have heard about the disturbance at St. Paul's Cathedral yesterday. The priest refused communion to over 100 rainbow-sash wearing gay rights protesters. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/gays_communion]. We're not going to re-hash the story here, except to provide

The Vigilant Whiners

> Jane Milhans of Tacoma has had a plate reading “John 3-16” for some 21 years without a complaint, but a woman recently called the state to say it was an illegal endorsement of religion by the state. > The woman's complaint read in part: "I was

Gay is OK, but Keep Bible Away?

Christians, mostly of the evangelical sort, are forming groups at big corporations. Many corporations allow it. Some don't. Link [http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-na-religion15may15.story]. Excerpt: > Since the 1980s, employers have allowed workers with common interests – including gays and lesbians, military families, and people

NFPers Save Taxpayers' Money . . .

. . . and fishermans' stomachs: > After spending more than $1.8 million for a temporary system to catch stray condoms slipping through a sewage treatment plant, a Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District spokesman says officials are fairly confident a majority of condoms are now being caught before they can reach Lake

Serial Killers

Matt Drudge has thrown up a disturbing post about abortion (like there are benign posts about abortion). Link [http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3uk.htm]. Excerpts: > A dramatic rise in repeat abortions has reinforced fears that women are increasingly having terminations for lifestyle reasons. > One in three abortions is

Classroom Confusion

Two excerpts from a great article in The American Conservative by Christina Hoff Summers about self-esteem in the classroom (no link available): > There is in fact no evidence that immigrant children or their parents would feel insulted or diminished by reading texts praising the nation's democratic tradition

Yeah, TV Ain't Hurtin' Our Culture None

The Discovery Channel has come up with a list of the 100 greatest Americans, according to a viewer poll. For the complete list, go to this link [http://www.professorbainbridge.com/2005/05/the_100_greates.html], which also includes a list of notables who didn't make the

But He Didn't Spank Him

The primordial need to be able to throttle a student rears its repressed head. Link [http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4483688/detail.html#121]. Excerpt: > A teacher at Sidecreek Elementary School in Aurora was placed on leave Thursday after the mother of a fifth grader reported that the teacher

The Pollster and the Cellphone

America continues its obsession with polls. Link [http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-polling-cell-phones,0,7365847.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines] . Excerpt: > The rapid growth in cell-phone only households is pressuring public opinion researchers to adapt their surveying methods, which are based heavily on telephone interviews of people with traditional

Something Literary for Slow Sunday

We've mentioned earlier that the weekends tend to be slow: many bloggers don't blog, and more mainstream websites slash their production. Our traffic also drops, though the drop isn't nearly as severe as it was back in March; perhaps readers have become aware that

IBM Supports Firefox

IBM has "officially announced that it will adopt FireFox, recommending all 300,000 employees to download and use it." Link [http://news.softpedia.com/news/IBM-sides-with-FireFox-1917.shtml]. Firefox is a free web browser that provides an alternative to MS's Explorer. So what's the big

A Catholic Film Critic on Sith

Steven D. Greydanus at decentfilms.com gives approval to the Star Wars series, including the one coming out this Thursday. Link [http://www.decentfilms.com/commentary/starwars.html]. Concluding paragraphs: > Ultimately, what the Star Wars films offer is not a coherent philosophy of life, morality, or spirituality. Rather, they

Doin' Right Before Doin' the Chair

An inmate on Indiana's death row has a sister who needs a liver transplant. The inmate wants to donate his. And now there's a scramble: to see if health insurance will cover it, to see if the governor will grant a temporary stay to allow the

E-Mail

In light of turning off the comments feature (see Saturday's Weekend Eudemon for explanation), we encourage readers to send comments to us via e-mail (see link on the left). If the comment offers additional insight or would entertain our readers, we will run it. If you have a

Not Catholic and Doin' It

Spice Girl Geri Halliwell says she has a huge collection of "toys." But she avoids "buying the toys herself because she feels 'genetically split' after inheriting her late father's sex drive and her mother's Catholic cautiousness." Link [http://www.femalefirst.

It's Gotta be a Joke. Please Tell Us It's a Joke

A group that calls itself United Confederacy Against WWW (World Wide Web) has started a petition to shut down the Internet. Link [http://www.petitiononline.com/UCAWWW/petition.html]. Entire petition: > We, the members of UCAWWW, petition that the Internet (World Wide Web) creates nothing but harm in society

The AP's Sexual Confusion

Another great post from The Dawn Patrol [http://www.dawneden.com/blogger.html]. Excerpt: > [In "Transsexual Youth Haven Provides Support [http://www.newsday.com/news/health/wire/sns-ap-young-transsexuals,0,238585.story?coll=sns-ap-health-headlines] ", the Associated Press reports on a] Chicago center for youths who want to change

Mass Transit, Oil, and American Patriotism

Interesting piece in the June 6th issue of The American Conservative about mass transit, lamenting the Bush administration's proposed 2006 budget to eliminate funding for Amtrak (no link available). The article makes a strong case for continued funding. The premise is that it's not just Amtrak

Something for Sunday Morning

"Pride of mind is much worse than pride of will. For pride of will, being visible to the mind, can sometimes be easily cured by forcing it to submit to the yoke of what is good. But when the mind is firmly grounded in the self-relying thought that its

NOW's Gonna Be Mad About This

"35 years old, been on the pill since age 18, one abortion. Why can't I carry a baby to term, doc?" Link [http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/15/nabort15.xml]. Excerpts: > Having an abortion almost doubles a woman&

Skinning Incident

Ya know, we're really beginning to think all religions aren't created equal: > Tanzanian police arrested two men accused of killing a 9-year-old boy and selling his skin for 20,000 shillings ($18) to make sorcerers' get-rich-quick charms, a senior officer said Friday. Link [http:

Nice Fat Contract, Sirius

We incline toward a rather Augustinian view of human nature. We're also somewhat pessimistic about the state of American culture. But then we hear something like this and we think, "Maybe things aren't that bad after all. Maybe most people are decent but just don&

I Buried Paul

Another eruption from the dead. Link [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=lifeAndLeisureNews&storyID=2005-05-12T121652Z_01_L04243660_RTRIDST_0_LIFESTYLE-SWEDEN-VOICES-DC.XML] . > Can voices of the dead be heard on ordinary audio tapes recorded in a quiet room? > Swedish archeologist, documentary maker and artist Friedrich Juergenson

Watch Out

It's not due out until September, but it's gonna be scorching hot--both in sales and the resulting debates. We're gonna pre-order. Link to Book [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&camp=1789&tag=thedailyeudem-20&creative=9325&

Aged 55-64?!?!

All right! You win! Just put your clothes back on! > While some United Airlines employees are using placards and pamphlets to protest the loss of their pensions, a group of flight attendants is taking a more risque tack – showing some skin to publicize their plight. > The five women,

Good for Billy

We don't care for Billy Crystal, but we agree with his small outburst at people who bring their cellphones to the theater. Link [http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/crystal%20upset%20by%20cellphones] . Why can't people go anywhere without having their phone? It, quite

The Heart is Tricky?

Science continues to narrow the lead against antiquity: > [Researchers found] that male undergraduates were fare more likely to consider women attractive if they had just been exposed to alcohol-related words like "keg," "drunk," wasted," and "booze." What's more, the men

Put That In Your Pacifier and Smoke It

A father goes to court, arguing that his four-year old boy has a constitutional right to use peyote because the hallucinogen plays a part in the father's Native American religion. Anne Zapf, whose husband runs a peyote church in Arizona, said “I'm not even into handing

The Weekend Eudemon

Well, we're back and at full force. Eric's trip to Nigeria went well. It was actually another trip to the hospital, this time for a scope down the throat and into the stomach. It's a fairly simple procedure, but there was a small scare

Is This Sounding Like a Backdoor Draft

We haven't followed this issue so we're treading carefully, but this sounds a little bit like conscription: > The U.S. military has the right to keep soldiers in the service beyond their original contracted time by issuing so-called emergency stop-loss orders, a U.S. appeals

Jerry Lee Lewis: Trend Maker

"Well, we're all cousins. That's what I believe. Because we're children/of Adam and Eve." Elvis > A gay marriage-style argument is now being used to peel back prohibitions on incestuous marriage. Steve Chapman, of the Chicago Tribune editorial board, has endorsed

Must be a Union Thing

> U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers, The Washington Times has learned. > More than a dozen agents,

Odd Consumer News

Camera that looks like a Zippo. Not sure why anyone would need one, but why does anyone need 3/4s of the stuff we purchase?

Taking It Like a Man

Connecticut executed serial rapist/killer Michael Ross this morning. Opponents of the death penalty and family tried to stop the execution, but Ross didn't want them to: > Last fall, Ross announced he was abandoning all remaining appeals, which could have kept him alive for many years, because

Must've Been a Pretty Flaccid Performance

A man does a stand-up routine on public access cable revolving around his penis. He is successfully prosecuted. Good things happen sometimes. Score one for the sane First Amendment folk. Link [http://www.freep.com/news/mich/naughty12e_20050512.htm]. > A penis that tells jokes on late night public

Sainthood Fast Track

> Pope Benedict XVI said Friday he had opened the process for the sainthood of Pope John Paul II, overriding the usual five-year waiting period following the death of a possible candidate. > Link [http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=753802].

Brews You Can Use II

No home should be without one:

Fulfillment or Obligation?

Excellent review of two books about the population implosion: Fewer by Ben J. Wattenberg and The Empty Cradle by Phillip Longman. Link [http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.2327/pub_detail.asp]. Excerpts: > Longman writes as a progressive worried that only "fundamentalists" will have children in the

PSA

Blogging could be light today. Eric is undertaking special operations in Nigeria to smuggle millions of dollars from their resource-rich land and stashing the money into U.S. savings accounts. Contrary to popular belief, such operations can't happen over "the wire." You have to do it

Brews Your Can Use

> A California man has sued the Lost Coast Brewery in Humboldt, claiming that a label on its Indica India Pale Ale offends him and Hindus worldwide. > The label shows elephant-headed Ganesh, god of wisdom and remover of obstacles, holding a beer in one of his four hands, and

Did You Hear About the Hittite Who . . .

Mark Krikorian on ethnic jokes: > In Armenia they tell Kurdish jokes, which were like our Polish jokes ”“ about dim-witted dullards. I would tell people that in America people (used to) tell Polish jokes, and they were amazed, because they saw Poles as tall, blond, sophisticated paragons of European-ness ”“ go

Scriptures According to Lego

Smokin' Joe Tremblay [http://onnothing.blogspot.com/] sent this one along. Kinda neat: Link [http://www.thebricktestament.com/].

Did Anyone Win WWII Besides the USSR?

We like Pat Buchanan. For the most part, he plays conservatism like it was meant to be played, at least by Catholics. Not sure why, but we're intrigued to learn that he's friends with Matt Drudge: Link [http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/05_05_08_corner-archive.

Federal Judge Gives Naughty Nebraska a Spanking

A federal judge has knocked down Nebraska's ban on same-sex marriage. When is Congress going to step in and enact a defense of marriage law and make it non-reviewable by the federal courts (at least give it a shot and see what happens--U.S. Const., Article III, Section

The Smoking Empire Strikes Back

And they're organizing a boycott against a handful of big charities: > Smoking rights groups, bar owners and Libertarian political parties are taking aim at some major charities. > They say the charities support smoking bans that threaten civil rights and small business. > The groups in nine

Ouch! Hope They Weren't Teething

We've written here and elsewhere [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=28485] about childless adults substituting animals for children, but this shocked even us: > Two endangered Bengal tiger cubs breastfed for weeks by a Myanmar woman have died of dehydration,

Decadence in Disney

"Hey Mom, let's do the Gay Bath House Ride and then the Whirlywhore!" > Whenever possible, the actors flee the sterility of Disney World and seek sanctuary in the grungy 1.5-mile network of dank tunnels below. There they shed their heads in the "zoo&

Just Claim Whatever You Want

"I have four children and eight grandchildren that I love dearly. I believe in family values." Seminole County Republican Party Chairman Jim Stelling, defending his five marriages. Link [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/newsreel/].

But Will the Feminists Demand Waterless Toilets?

> Waterless urinals are being tested at [Chicago's] City Hall. > But although they are saving hundreds of thousands of gallons of precious water in 29 states -- and in high-profile venues like Disney World and the Rose Bowl -- the devices are illegal in Illinois. > Waterless

V is for Virgil

We claim to be a part-time literary blog, so we feel obliged to put up a few, you know, literary-type things occasionally, hence this: Thumos has a good but brief post about Virgil's Aeneid. If you're into this type of stuff, check it out. Excerpt: >

Crazy Goblins

Ah yes, the Tsikamutanda Wiccan sect, coming soon to a First Amendment extremism party near you: > A self-styled traditional healer popularly known as tsikamutanda, was on Monday seriously burnt by a suspected goblin, which he was allegedly trying to get rid of during a cleansing ceremony at one of

Leno on Elvis

We've written about Elvis on other occasions, so we don't feel too shallow posting this hilarious line from The Tonight Show: > CBS had its big Elvis movie the other night. It was about Elvis' relationship with Colonel Parker and how the Colonel took advantage

Public Salaciousness

A man sculpts a massive pair of woman's legs, spread open, in plain view for anyone walking along Welcome Avenue in Henderson, North Carolina. When people complain, he says there's nothing in the sculpture a kid shouldn't see. "If they learned a little

A Little Queerola in the Blood?

Didn't Georgetown used to be a Catholic school? > Prospective lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students will soon have the opportunity to apply for a scholarship from the Georgetown University GLBT Alumni Group in partnership with the Point Foundation, a nationwide scholarship organization for LGBT students. > The

Let's Hope the NYT is Right for Once

The New York Times this morning has an editorial that blasts the rap music industry. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/opinion/12thu4.html?]. Excerpts: > People who pay only minimal attention to the rap world may have thought the killings would sober up the rap community. Not

Will We Take PETA Standards to Humans?

We're not sure what to make of this: > Information obtained from the State of Virginia shows that PETA has a long-standing practice of killing thousands of dogs, cats, and other animals at its Norfolk, Virginia headquarters. Along with the billboard, the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom is

Jacko

Regular readers of this blog know we avoid topics that get pummel-coverage by other media outlets (the Georgia bride being an exception, but we jumped off that topic early). But this link of Michael Jackson's backyard is interesting . . . and eerie, in light of the allegations. Link [http://www.

Blogging to the Next Level

In case you missed it: Three large blogs have combined to form a network called Pajamas Media. They have recruited 160 other bloggers from various regions, as well. The result? This blog network will have reporters in the field far quicker than the average newspaper. Link [http://www.spectator.org/

Why Johnny Hasn't a Clue About Anything

> Beginning in September, elementary students in Palm Beach County will see only a 1, 2 or 3 grade for each subject and skill, the Palm Beach Post reported. > According to the report, a 1 means the student is working a year or more below grade level, a 2

Thirteen Years?

Ah, those compassionate Germans: > A Berlin man who killed a music teacher and stored his victim's body parts to satisfy cannibalistic fantasies was convicted of murder Tuesday and sentenced to 13 years. > Ralf M., 41, confessed to stabbing Joe R., 33, with a screwdriver during a

Calling the ACLU!

Sounds like a pretty clear-cut case of transvestite discrimination to us. > A Bartlesville man was arrested Friday after reportedly appearing in front of a local restaurant wearing a white mini skirt and little else. Link [http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/articles/2005/05/10/news/4701.txt]. How short was

More Catholic West. Civ. Stuff

> At present, books considered "pop-up" or movable are popular sources of delight for children and adults alike. However, the types of books today's audiences associate with such a genre are the result of a somewhat long development and, consequently, form an intriguing niche in the

Drive-by Porn

Eric Scheske wrote to his Michigan representative about a year ago, expressing concern that people had started to view pornographic movies on their car video players, with the result that others, including children, could see it. It looks like at least a handful of reps share his concerns. Link [http:

52,416 Dead?

We don't like to post such sad stories. So many dead . . . and it was a Molson truck (sniff). > A 19-year-old woman from Mississauga has been charged with careless driving following an accident this morning that dumped 2,184 cases of beer onto Highway 401, forcing its closure

It's Just a Little Urine

We just knew things would go to pot after the Commies took over Hong Kong! > Nearly a third of Hong Kong men don't wash their hands after using the washroom, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Hong Kong Toilet Association. Link [http://www.nydailynews.com/

A Nation of Gossips

Isn't there a good book somewhere that condemns gossiping? > We've become a nation of rumor mongers, gossip hounds and leakers. Everywhere you turn, somebody's telling somebody something about somebody else. > In addition to those who spill the beans about their own lives,

Chimeras at NYT

The New York Times this morning weighs in on chimeras. Excerpts: > Distinguished groups of ethicists and scientists have been pondering what steps should be taken, if any, to head off the nightmarish possibility of a human brain's becoming trapped inside an animal form, silently screaming, "Let

Leno on Creation

Creation's goodness and its potential for abuse: > According to new research, drinking whiskey can help protect you against cancer. However, it cannot protect you from waking up in the morning with an ugly person.

Who's Gay Zoomin' Who?

Gay fellas aren't flocking to the altar even when they can. Why? Maybe because they're basically like regular guys who try to avoid marriage as long as they can so they can continue a carefree life, only in their case with bathhouses and other over-sexed amenities.

John School

Brooklyn now allows first-time johns to attend classes about the evils of prostitution, rather than go to jail. Interesting concept; interesting article (but colorful language). Link [http://villagevoice.com/news/0519,hunter,63812,5.html]. Excerpts: > "I wanna ask you," [a former prostitute] says to the men,

The Other G.K. (not Chesterton)

Fascinating article about the rehabilitation of Genghis Kahn that is taking place in Mongolia. A country that engages in ancestor worship, the other G.K. is revered by some Mongols as a god. A world anxious to curry favor with Mongolia (a beautiful land rich in resources) is helping the

Weekly Features Post

Issue XXIV Stone sober. Eric Scheske has a bum gall bladder and he's guessing it's having an adverse effect on his drinking. He has no doctor's opinion to support the drinking connection, but beer unduly fills him up these days and more than a

Sweden v. Canada

No, it's not a hockey game. It's the suppression of free speech in efforts to keep homosexuals from getting their feelings hurt. Link [http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/may/05050905.html]. Excerpt: > Ake Green, the pastor of a Swedish Pentecostal church in Kalmar, Sweden,

Odd Consumer News

> Five new luxury suites at The Palace of Auburn Hills, the home to the NBA's Detroit Pistons and WNBA's Detroit Shock, are set to open this fall. > They've already been leased for $450,000 a year despite lacking at least one thing

Ah, the Joys of Motherhood

> Maria Brunner waved to neighbours as police drove her away for not paying a Â£50 fine that had risen to Â£2,500 because it had been left unpaid. > "She opened the door and seemed really happy, if not relieved, to see us before asking us

Another Boomer Legacy

Let's see, if you were a twenty-year-old flower child in 1965, in 2000 you would've been . . . We're sure it's just a coincidence. > A new report shows the number of adults over age 55 entering treatment centers for drug and alcohol abuse

C Cubed: Charitable Catholic Church

Thomas Woods provides a good snapshot of the then-unique charitable work of the early Catholic Church. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods41.html]. Excerpts: > Just as important as the sheer volume of Catholic charity was the qualitative difference that separated the Church's charity from what had

Romance Comics

We're always amazed to learn things that had completely slipped through our mental net of knowledge (the holes in the net are admittedly many and large, but still). Here's one such item: > Romance comics were one of five major genres of adult comics which boomed

PC on Fox

Fox News has a great run down of PC rampaging. Link [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155847,00.html]. Excerpts: > *As part of a class devoted to promoting "inclusive classrooms," McConnell wrote a paper saying: "I do not feel that multicultural education has a

Science Plods On

To quote Wayne Campbell, "I think I'm gonna hurl!": > Wysocki's team at the Monell Chemical Senses Center studied the response of 82 heterosexual and homosexual men and heterosexual and homosexual women to the odors of underarm sweat collected from 24 donors of varied

Criminy, Wait 'Til Tina Brown Hears About This

> A Roman Catholic cardinal and a priest in charge of Vatican Radio have been convicted of polluting the atmosphere with powerful electromagnetic waves. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4531247.stm].

Was She Taught by Justice Brennan?

A wife who shoots her husband in the chest discovers that police don't need a warrant to enter a home when they see a man lying in a puddle of blood. Link [http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3173235]. Excerpt: > Deputies went to the

NYT's Increased Religion Coverage

> In order to build readers' confidence, an internal committee at The New York Times has recommended taking a variety of steps . . . > The committee also recommended that the paper "increase our coverage of religion in America" and "cover the country in a fuller way,"

This Guy Will be Getting Goosed

A man is walking across a park. A goose hisses at him. He gets startled, slips in the mud, jumps up and starts attacking the geese. The result? One adult goose is killed, and five goslings are stomped to death. And the man is jailed. Link [http://www.boston.com/

High Rent Blog

Arianna Huffington started a blog today. Being its first day, we felt obliged to mention it. Link [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/]. Huffington with a blog. Hmmm. Isn't that kind of like Donald Trump with a Yugo? Sure, he might get one decked out with all the extras (eight-track

Four Percent Sounds Light

A bar in Brazil charges customers 4% if someone vomits on their premises. One of the patrons is now suing, though. Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1388577.html]. We like the 4% charge. It's fairly measured on consumption. If a person says, "Hey, I

Doin' Cosby Proud

The Game (a hip-hop recording artist) is changing his life, and to represent his transformation, he has tatooed a butterfly on his face. It sits opposite an older tatoo of a tear. Only The Game can explain it all adequately, so we'll step aside and give him the

Kids Can Start Carrying Their Cross at Preschool

Eric Scheske has seen it in one or two of his eldest daughter's friends, and he remembers seeing it as a youth: meanness in girls. It apparently starts at toddler age. Link [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155920,00.html]. Excerpts: > Meanness in girls can

Calling Crocodile Dundee!

We remember reading that crocodiles and polar bears are the only animals that hunt humans. This problem in Australia will make the cougar problem out west look like tame. Another victory for environmentalists. > A record number of crocodiles in Australia's famous Kakadu National Park, and larger more

Kinsey Redux

> North America's top sexologists are hunkered down with academics and therapists at a Fisherman's Wharf hotel this weekend: to swap findings about everything from teens with underwear fetishes to transgender couples. > "These couples have problems that I didn't know how to

Why Johnny Likes Big Government

One writer slashes away at the idea that public schools should adopt a free enterprises paradigm. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/johnson-t1.html]. Excerpts: > [S]tudents are definitely not customers, because customers are not forced by law to patronize businesses, but students are forced to attend school. Customers

Nerd Gathering

Star Wars or Star Trek? Nerds debate. The rest of us may now slit our wrists, resting comfortably in the fact that the world is, as Schopenhauer assured us, pointless. > This month will mark the passing of not only the final Star Wars movie, but also the latest Star

More Odd Consumer News

It's all fun and games until someone loses a mouth: > A new chilli sauce goes on sale today that is so hot it could KILL. > Ultra-concentrated “16 Million Reserve” is the hottest science can make. > The sauce is 30 times hotter than the spiciest pepper

School Administrators Gone Wild 1,000,958

> A decision to take Advanced Placement biology instead of gym will cost a Bow High School senior her diploma, but it won't keep her from going to college in the fall. > Though Isabel Gottlieb is a good student, a trumpet player in the school band and

Consumerism 101

Don't know what we did without this: And watering your lawn with the Dark Side costs only $19.00! Link [http://shop.starwars.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=1890;category_id=421;pcid1=;pcid2=] .

Flushing Trillions

City Journal has a great piece about educating and raising inner city children. The article starts with Bill Cosby's rants against black parents for failing their children. It then explores the trillions of dollars that have been wasted in efforts to provide better education for inner city children

More Higher Education

And to think we've been frowning on higher education: > The 2005 SpringFest, a controversial [University of North Dakota] student bash held every year in University Park, was very similar to last year's celebration, as Grand Forks Police issued just as many citations. > But homeowners

A Little Richard Weaver

We had occasion to revisit the Southern Essays of Richard Weaver recently. We found many gems, including these from his essay, "Lee the Philosopher": > It is fatuous to say, as is being said now, that all men want peace. Men want peace part of the time, and

More Spitting at the Mystery of Life

> A secret organisation headed by a retired family doctor is illegally providing terminally ill British people with thousands of pounds to enable them to travel to a Swiss suicide clinic. Link to The Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/08/neuth08.xml&

Heating Up in the North

For those who missed it, the Canadian battle against free speech and freedom of religious belief finally hit the big time: a bishop has been sued in Canada's notorious human rights commission. Why? He wrote in a pastoral letter, "Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution, and pornography undermine the

We Don't Think This is Going to Fly

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit wants Detroit voters to approve a two-percent fast-food tax. Critics of the plan say the tax would unfairly burden the poor and hamper economic development in the city. Link [http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?S=3315172]. Comment I: Maybe the Mayor should try

Public Sector and Common Sense

An 11-year-old boy was arrested this week for carrying ten nails in his pocket at a middle school and charged with carrying an unlawful weapon. The nails were left in his pocket after a Boy Scout meeting. Ten nails at first, sure. But then it's AK47s and flame

Serves Her Right

She should've used a cottage industry computer consultant who doesn't even own a floor model. Yeah, it would've cost her 8% more, but at least some stranger doesn't know her credit card numbers and the names of all the high school boyfriends

GM and the Welfare State

Interesting article at Lew Rockwell about GM's problems. Essentially, the writer says it comes down to this: Starting in the 1950s, GM bought lower wages for workers by giving them great OPEB ("other post-employment benefits"): great pensions and lifetime health care. The workers didn't

Odd Consumer News

iPod vending machine at the Atlanta airport:

The Human Constant

Great piece by Victor Davis Hanson in The Washington Times about the need to respect our ancestors. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20050506-090931-9566r.htm]. Excerpt: > To appreciate the value of history, we must also accept that human nature is constant and fixed across time and space. Our kindred

Something for Sunday Morning

Two by Muggeridge: > When Christ was in the world, He was despised by men; in the hour of need He was forsaken by acquaintances and left by friends to the depths of scorn. He was willing to suffer and to be despised; do you dare to complain of anything?

MS Again Backing Gay Rights

Microsoft is again pushing the gay agenda. Link [http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBSYSITE8E.html]. Excerpt: > In a turnaround Friday, Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer said the company will support gay rights legislation.

Chicago Mary

Hmmm. The Virgin Mary under the overpass is back. > But the faithful turned out, and one or more people somehow began to remove the paint. It was not known how they did it, but by afternoon, the image was back largely intact and apparently with no sign of the

Lower Than a Snake's Belly

There's nothing like stooping lower than your opposition. With dolts like these battling the homo-lesbian community, Andrew Sullivan's campaign for gay rights and marriage is all but won: > The [pro-gay] demonstrators stood on [an] American flag, saying the red strips represented AIDS-tainted blood. The [anti-gay]

About Time

> The editor of the Jesuit weekly America is leaving the magazine after the Vatican received complaints about articles he published on touchy issues such as same-sex marriages and stem cell research, Jesuit officials said Friday. Link [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050506/ap_on_

Damned If We Do . . .

Now those ecologically-friendly wind farms are bad for nature. How? Birds run into the turbines. Link [http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7350&feedId=online-news_rss20]. Excerpts: > "Available evidence suggests that wind farms reduce the abundance of many bird species at the wind farm site,"

Passive Hate

Remember the Small Pax site we mentioned earlier? We found this nifty little anti-anti-smoking picture called "Passive Hate" through that site: Link [http://blog.gleeson.us/sean/2005/04/26/passive_hate].

Speaking of Fr. Brown

Ignatius Press has issued the first set of the complete Fr. Brown stories, with notes from John Peterson. Link [http://www.ignatius.com/ViewProduct.aspx?SID=1&Product_ID=2493&SKU=GKC12-P&ReturnURL=search.aspx%3f%3fSID%3d1%26SearchCriteria%3dpeterson] .

Small Pax Guild

Here's a nice site [http://www.smallpax.com/]. From what we can tell, it's a group of illustrators hanging-out together on-line, showing each other their stuff. Two of the illustrators work for Gilbert Magazine. Sample: A great drawing of G.K. Chesterton's Fr. Brown:

I'll Take the Wrinkles

The worship of youth continues its devastation: > A guest on the television talk show "Oprah" recently shared her secret to fighting facial wrinkles: vaginal cream. > "I have been putting Premarin vaginal cream on my face for 20 years, and it works," said Vicki Mackarvich.

It's Not Just the Georgia Wimp

A teenage girl breaks up with her boyfriend. He supposedly says some unkind things about her. In retaliation, she causes 300 naked photos of him to be passed around the school, much to the amusement of the other student bodies. But apparently they're back together: > "It&

Ho Man! I Love Holistic!

> The City of Toronto licenses more than 200 brothels under the banner of holistic health centres, a Toronto Star investigation has found. > Licensed to offer alternative health treatments such as shiatsu, reflexology and aromatherapy, about three-quarters of the city's holistic centres operate as sex dens. Link

Losing One B16 Hater

Nasty Tina Brown is outta here! > A moment of silence, please, for Harold Evans, Henry the Intern, and the three diabetics watching CNBC on Sunday nights: Tina Brown, she of the bathroom that time forgot, has been “relinquished” of her duties and the last episode of Topic A will

The Weekend Eudemon

Felon in the outfield. That's Eric Scheske. As we've mentioned before, May means nice weather and lots of children sporting events. But Friday was just too gorgeous (70 and sunny) to enjoy cold sober, so he took Child Three to baseball practice and helped out for

No Sense of Humor

> A Romanian traffic cop has been demoted after he fined a driver for "having a face like a moron and being a big monkey". > Marius Vlasceanu pulled over Gheorghe Tosa as he drove through Craiova in Romania, local daily Jurnalul National reported. > But Tosa failed

Next on the Menu . . .

> A state of the art swimming pool for down-on-their-luck dogs has been opened by the King of Thailand. > The pool at Bangkok's Kasetsart University will provide therapy for sick and injured dogs. > It has been named after the King's favourite pet, Suvarnachad, a

Great Lectures While You Eat Lunch

If you weren't aware of it, the Heritage Foundation provides live Internet broadcasts of its events. Link [http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/index.cfm]. It would be worth downloading the necessary plug-in, if you don't have it already. Here's the list of lectures

When Six Times a Day Isn't Enough

> Three New York doctors were charged on Thursday with giving large amounts of Viagra and other anti-impotence drugs to mob members in return for construction and auto repair work done by mafia-controlled businesses. Link [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-05-06T161701Z_01_N05533102_RTRIDST_

Pope Supports Consumerism!

> A second-hand Volkswagen Golf once owned by Pope Benedict sold for 188,938 euros ($244,800) to a U.S. buyer in frenzied online bidding, a spokeswoman for eBay in Germany said Thursday. Link [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-05-06T161556Z_01_L058907_RTRIDST_

Will the ACLU Protect the Doctors?

Just another instance of tolerance leading to coercion: > A new law will soon require all New Jersey doctors to complete a course on "cultural competency" to help them understand patients whose lives may be very different from their own. Link [http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?

Take Her to St. Anne's and Get It Aborted

> A study funded by the radically pro-abortion organizations, the John Merck foundation and Catholics for a Free Choice, surveyed staff at all 597 Catholic hospitals in the United States and found that only 55% of them refused to dispense the abortifacient morning after pill. Link [http://www.lifesite.net/

More on the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Guy

Link [http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=BreakPoint1&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=15965] . Excerpt: > Of the twenty top-grossing films of all time, not a single one is rated R. Of the top fifty films, only five are rated R. Clearly, Americans want family fare

The New Pantagruel

The current issue of The New Pantagruel is up. Link [http://www.newpantagruel.com/issues/2.2/]. It promises to be a good one. How could it not be? It features a piece by the modest Eric Scheske.

Girls Want Boys

The Spectator has a pithy "mommentary" piece about an awkward fact: adults usually want to have boys, rather than girls. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/spectator2/spec597.html]. Excerpt: > The revelation, and others like it, came after the birth of my son. Walking around with a little

Call the ACLU!

> A new rule is in the works that would bar gay men from serving serving as anonymous sperm donors. > It would apply to any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the previous five years Link [http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=3306123]. Previous five

Brews You Can Use II

Desperate times call for desperate measures: The Volstead Act didn't prohibit alcohol for medicinal purposes. Since beer had a history of being so used, the debate about its health value roared during the Roaring Twenties. Link [http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues05/apr05/presence.html]. Excerpt: >

Brews You Can Use

> For those of you who don't keep up with the important news stories, the first Friday of May will be International No Pants Day. Why No Pants Day? Quite simply put . . . "when large groups of people parade aroundin public without their pants, amazing things are bound

Necromancy Brings Woman $110,000 (Almost)

We're against broken families, but . . . > A woman who helped her husband dig up a corpse and use it to fake his death in a fiery staged car accident was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison. > Officials said the body of an 81-year-old person was used

Sign of the Dutch Reformed

It's not 666. It's 616. Link [http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=702d14ee-4847-4c3d-90ce-46e933232df0] . Excerpt: > A fragment from the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, dating to the Third century, gives the more mundane 616 as the mark of the Antichrist.

Is This Like a Confession?

> Maury Povich was my neighbor, and he and his wife, Connie Chung, are two of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. I saw his show just a couple of days ago, and it was all paternity tests and lie-detector tests, all stuff that I pioneered,

Not a Prince Charming Turtle

> A fight between an elderly woman and a Cambodian Buddhist monk over an allegedly magic turtle required the reptile to be rescued and landed the monk in court on charges of impersonating a god, police said on Thursday. Link [http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/

Chalk One Up for (We Thought) Useless Technology

> A subway pervert was caught in a flash yesterday by feisty Catholic schoolgirls armed with a cell phone camera in Queens, cops and witnesses said. > The suspect sicko flashed the teens twice last week as they rode the F train toward their high school in Jamaica Estates. >

Leno on Scientism

"Scientists in Israel have developed a libido meter which measures a person's sexual desire. Is this new? Don't guys already come with a libido meter?" Leno on the Cosmetic Culture: "Ed Schantz, the man who invented Botox, passed away this week at the

First NAMBLA, Now Meth

We posted the ACLU's defense of NAMBLA's child-sex agenda, and now this blurb about the ACLU defending the right to drug children with methamphetamine. Maybe the ACLU is just pro-child torture. > "Michelle Ann Foust, 31, was jailed last Wednesday when a urine sample allegedly

Mobile Muslims

Guess this has been circulating for awhile, but we hadn't seen it, so we're guessing a few of our readers haven't either:

The ACLU and NAMBLA

Why is the ACLU constantly on the twisted and lurid side? It has nothing to do with liberty, and everything to do with a warped ideology. > On October 1, 1997, two men lured [ten-year-old Jeffrey] Curley into a car in Boston, and, when Jeffrey fought their sexual advances, he

Teenagers Like Their Parents?

Hoover Institute Fellow Mary Eberstadt on parents and their teenagers: > It seems that having a warm adult body on the premises is good for two reasons: It exerts a chilling effect on certain perennial temptations; and it just plain makes most kids happy to be around their family routinely

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Just Spread It

Don't know how we missed this story from earlier this year: > The Pentagon considered developing a host of non-lethal chemical weapons that would disrupt discipline and morale among enemy troops, newly declassified documents reveal. > Most bizarre among the plans was one for the development of an

A Reason to Root for the Yankees

The "notoriously unkempt World Series champions [Boston Red Sox] began spring training with makeovers from the cast of the TV show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The episode airs [June 7th]." The Atlantic, June 2005, p. 13.

McLuhan and Ong Would Be Proud

Marshall McLuhan and Walter Ong recognized the legitimacy of comics. Today, they're back on the rise. > The push for comics has produced an interesting set of bedfellows. A collaboration of artists, teachers and scholars, the National Association of Comics Art Educators, is distributing study guides and lesson

JPII Goes Big

> Beckett Media, whose pricing guides are the acknowledged arbiters of value for collectible trading cards, said on Tuesday a limited-edition Pope John Paul II from the 2005 World Treasures line of card maker Topps has sold for $8,100. Link [http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&

Greenpeace: Enemy of the Environment

This is kind of like a preacher caught soliciting a prostitute: > Lawyers selected a jury Monday that will decide whether Greenpeace and its contract ship were criminally negligent by failing to have the proper oil spill response paperwork during an anti-logging campaign. > The environmental activist group, the captain

ACLU on Cheerleading

The ACLU reacts to Texas' looming ban on suggestive cheerleading: > Director of the ACLU Will Harrell says the new bill reminds him of Afghanistan's former ruling regime, the Taliban. > "This broad, morally restrictive legislation reminds me of the Taliban," he said. Link [http:

Glad We're Not Eleven!

> Children who use marijuana before age 12 are twice as likely to later develop serious mental illness as those who don't try the drug until they're 18, according to a federal report released Tuesday. Link [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155396,00.html]

Firearm Death Ratio

We received this from a reader. We haven't verified his stat, but we know the sender to be a reliable fellow: > If you consider that there have been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraqi theater during the last 22 months, that gives a firearm

You Want a Coffin with That Condom?

Another great post from Dawn Eden this morning, this time about plans to distribute 100,000 free condoms around NYC, mostly (it would appear) for the benefit of the homosexual community. Link to The Dawn Patrol [http://www.dawneden.com/blogger.html]. Excerpt: > And people say the Roman Catholic

The Salt's Not Just in the Popcorn?

If you're interested in religious interpretation of modern film, Christianity Today has a lengthy review of three books that tackle the subject. Link [http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/003/9.43.html]. Excerpt: > In Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies, Anker organizes his detailed

The Liar and the Hispanic

> An advocacy group for Hispanics is demanding an apology from the bride-to-be who skipped town days before her lavish wedding and falsely claimed she had been abducted by a Hispanic man. Link [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/03/national/a160007D96.DTL] . Eric

Odd Consumer News

A restaurant is supposedly having success with a toilet-themed restaurant. The dishes look like little toilets, the chairs are toilets. Only in America? Nope, Taiwan. Link. [http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2005/05/toilet_bowl_res.php?rss]

Overpopulated Areas Without Enough Children

"In Hong Kong, one of the world's most densely populated cities, the birth rate fell to 0.94 babies per woman of child-bearing age in 2003, prompting the city's deputy leader to call couples to have three children each 'to help alleviate the ageing

Weekly Features Post

Issue XXIII Michigan in May. It's possibly the prettiest month of the year. Everything is brilliant green, except for the newly-sprouting flowers and the large number of small trees that are blossoming in shades of red, pink, and white. The weather is warm, but not brutally hot, and

Paying Mommy

> Just in time for Mother's Day, an informal study conducted by Web site Salary.com shows that stay-at-home moms would earn an average of $131,471 annually, including overtime, if they received a paycheck. Link [http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8353442]. That

The End of Cancer

Full disclosure time: When it comes to things scientific, we struggle. We're interested, but not competent. Nonetheless, we found this article at Lew Rockewell highly interesting. The gist seems to be: telomerase inhibitors could take care of the Big C, but the government is blocking its development. We

Ripper Redux

This stuff always interests us: There's a new theory about Jack the Ripper. This one says he was a sailor and struck in countries besides England. Link [http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1475063,00.html]. Here's an excerpt of biographical sketches of

India's Culture Wars

India's courts want the cow problem resolved . . . now! Thing is, a lot of the Indian people don't think there's a problem and get a little angry when officials try to fix it. Link [http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&

Who Said Americans Are Fat?

On the one hand, the excess disgusts us. On the other hand, "Hey, lighten up, Scheske. We're just having a little fun": > The burger war is growing. Literally. Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, which lost its crown as the home of the world'

Leno on Living Right

"According to researchers at Michigan State University, only three percent of Americans have a healthy lifestyle. They say only three percent exercise regularly and eat enough fruits and vegetables. Just three percent! Well, good, that means there's very little chance we'll actually run into any

Right Humor

This is the third time we've mentioned South Park, so we apologize if you're getting tired of it. Given that we've watched the show fewer than a dozen times, we're surprised by the number of posts, too. Anyway, here's a

No Stress Left Behind

> Across the nation, educators are trying a variety of methods - including beach days, barbecues, flute music and fun hats - to ease student test anxiety as schools face increased pressure to improve their scores under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Link [http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/

Hindu Disney

> Its backers describe it as the "world's biggest ever mythological theme park." Hindu gods such as Ram, Hanuman and Krishna will be the central attractions for a 'Disneyland on the Ganges' in India. Link [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/

The Dour Professor

Joseph Epstein on the malcontents at colleges and universities: > Universities attract people who are good at school. Being good at school takes a real enough but very small talent. As the philosopher Robert Nozick once pointed out, all those A's earned through their young lives encourage such

Administrators Stomp on Penis Day

The Vagina Monologues and the filth it inspires are fine. Parallel antics from the penis's perspective? That's not acceptable. Link [http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/sommers200505020808.asp]. Excerpt: > College administrators have been enthusiastic supporters Eve Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues and schools across

More Disrespect for the Middle Ages

Sex romps and drinking binges in the ruins of a medieval castle in Bridgend, Wales, have led to it being closed to the public. Link [http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=15465792&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=romps-leave-castle-in-ruins-name_page.html] . Couldn't they

Did They Need a Search Warrant?

"William Woodard, 39, suspected by police in the Trenton, N.J., area of more than 50 burglaries, was arrested in March, and authorities said they were confident they could match him to what had become one of the "signatures" of the crime spree: random splotches of excrement

Protecting Our New Children

As human procreation drops, we replace children with dogs--and legislative efforts reflect it. In addition to a bill to ban pet cloning, here are three other bills currently in front of the California legislature alone: > ”¢ Dogs would be allowed to roam free on a mile-long section of Dockweiler State

That's How We Paid at Woodstock!

FARGO, N.D. - Police arrested a 21-year-old man early Saturday after he allegedly assaulted a pizza delivery driver who refused to take marijuana as payment, police said. Link [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/newsreel/].

Yeah, that Child Will be Okay

> A pregnant woman named Akono was quoted in a March Agence France-Presse dispatch from London during demonstrations against U.S. policy in Iraq as saying she planned to intensify her own protest by soon going on a hunger strike, reasoning that she wants "to do everything I can

Belloc Woulda Been Proud

Hilaire Belloc often pointed out that modern Western civilization runs off the fumes of the civilization built by the Catholic Church (see, for instance, Belloc's Europe and the Faith). At least one modern scholar agrees with him. Today is the official release date of Thomas E. Woods'

I'll Drink Some of That

At Winthrop University students can learn how to create and form their own pieces of medieval armor, learn to brew medieval beer, and distill medieval wine. Link [http://www.thejohnsonian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/05/01/42751af0ed7f9]. It's odd, sure, but we kind of like it.

Manure Theft

"In Rockport, Mass., a chaired professor of economics at Harvard, Martin Weitzman, was charged with larceny after a farmer said Weitzman has long been trespassing and hauling away manure for his own nearby farm, thus denying the farmer his market price of $35 per truckload." Couldn't

Robert Conquest: Prepare to Vomit

The San Francisco Chronicle has a favorable review of Bob Avakian's From Ike to Mao and Beyond, the memoir of a recalcitrant Marxist. According to the Chronicle, the book "leaves a breathtaking impression. Having deepened and purified his convictions over 40 years of personal and political struggle,

Dems Don't Mind Conservative Judges, Unless . . .

Regular readers have no doubt picked up on the general subject matter of this blog: things religious and cultural first, things political where the religious and cultural bleed into politics second (maybe even third or fourth). Thus, readers rarely see straight-out political commentary, like the Bolton nomination issue and the

The Anti-Runaway Bride

Let's hope fundamentalist Mormon missionaries don't make progress in this place: > [Marital] abductions are common here. More than half of Kyrgyzstan's married women were snatched from the street by their husbands in a custom known as "ala kachuu," which translates roughly

Et Tu, Philippines?

> One of the most populous Catholic countries in the world is set to significantly liberalize its laws on family planning and "reproductive health" services, stopping just short of outright legalization of abortion. > The proposed legislation, which is likely to pass within months, sets in place a

Slay Me South Park

South Park slayed us last night. We realize that describing a TV show loses a lot in the translation ("I guess you had to be there"), but we'll give it a shot: The theme revolved around surgical alterations: a white boy who likes basketball wants to

Reality TV with the Monks

> Five men, ranging from an atheist in the pornography trade to a former Protestant paramilitary, have found their lives unexpectedly transformed in the latest incarnation of reality television - the monastery. > [T]he five underwent a spiritual makeover by spending 40 days and 40 nights living with Roman

Focus on the Gays

> On Sunday, more than 1,000 people are expected to gather for a “family picnic and protest” outside Focus on the Family. On Monday, they'll return to “take the truth about our families directly to Focus on the Family, holding hands as we walk through their building

Something for Sunday Morning

"If you do not wish to become angry, do not be curious. If you ask what is being said about yourself and uncover unpleasant words (even though these words were said privately), you only make yourself unhappy. "Those who are wise overlook many wrongs and often do not

Factory Farms and Other Cruelty

The May 23, 2005 issue of The American Conservative has an extensive cover story by Matthew Scully about cruelty to animals. It's a compelling philosophical analysis of how we should look at animals from a conservative perspective. We'd provide excerpts, but the software version of TAC

Get This Guy Some Beer

> Gasoline sniffer Brian Taylor, 36, was sentenced to three months in jail in March for violating a UK ''anti-social behavior order'' by loitering around the pumps at a gas station in Middlesbrough, England. . . Taylor often dangerously reeks of gasoline fumes and is sometimes aggressive in

Communism and Capitalism

Interesting mini-essay at Lew Rockwell this weekend. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/bonner/bonner93.html]. Excerpt: > "What no one expected," said a colleague the other day, "was the way capitalism and communism get along in the modern world." > People thought the two ideas were

A Wise Judge

A woman stole money from union coffers to meet expenses. At the time, she purchased twelve tickets to Green Bay Packers games for the upcoming season (for those unacquainted with Packer-mania, tickets are very difficult to get and pricey). The judge asked her if she still had the tickets. She

It's Not a Question of Tolerance

> David Parker, 42, confronted officials at Joseph Estabrook School in Lexington, Mass., Wednesday after his [six-year-old] son brought home a copy of "Who's in a Family,'' a storybook that includes characters who are homosexual parents, the Boston Herald reported. > According to the report,

The Strange Pasture of Dr. Moreau

> On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs. > The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about his plans to euthanize one of the

What Are the Vegas Odds on this Marriage?

The Georgia woman just got cold feet. Link [http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050430/D89PNBKO0.html]. Fourteen bridesmaids and fourteen groomsmen and 600 guests. Maybe the bride got so caught up in the planning that she forgot about the marriage itself. One thing is for sure: She likes to think

The Weekend Eudemon

Well, we lied. We weren't agents for the Vatican yesterday. We were at a seminar in Kalamazoo. A spawn-of-Satan boring seminar. One presenter was almost a caricature of poor speaking. She spent the first five minutes reminiscing about her early years and making inside jokes with fellow-panelists, and

Brews You Can Use IV

We'll live forever and be smart! > It's the news drinkers have waited years to hear - alcohol consumption is good for your brain. > A pint of beer or a glass of wine triggers the growth of new brain cells and boosts memory, scientists say.

JPII Trading Cards

Get 'em here [http://www.johnpauliitradingcards.com/].

But Will the Cellphone Addicts Go Into Withdrawal?

"New Zealand cinema owners said Friday they may use mobile phone jamming technology to stop mid-movie calls and text messaging in the hopes of preventing disruptions and conflicts between patrons." Link [http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2005/04/29/1018382.html]. Some churches may want this technology

Another Step Toward Embryo Farm

"Using in vitro fertilization to create a baby that might cure sick siblings was ruled legally acceptable by Britain's highest appeal court on Thursday." Link [http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/04/29/createbabies0430.html]. The Canadians gotta be pretty envious that they didn&

Brews You Can Use III

We're gonna live forever! > A total of 20 000 fliers outlining the health benefits of drinking up to two bottles of beer per day will be handed out to patrons arriving at gyms in Lisbon and Oporto, the nation's second-largest city, by Friday, according to

Whorehouse Days

Towns have all sorts of ways to attract tourists. The most popular way is to concoct some sort of festival. We've seen the Potato Festival, the River Fest, White Pigeon Days, Old Fashioned Days, Covered Bridge Days. And now: Whorehouse Days, to be held in Gilbert, Minnesota. Registration-required

Brews You Can Use II

Bowlers will have something to say about its claim to be the sport of drunks, but Mrs. Scheske has played Whirlyball and says it's a blast. Link [http://clevescene.com/issues/2005-04-27/news/news.html]. Excerpt: > WhirlyBall can be called a sport in the same tenuous way

The Cat Don't Get Much Fatter Than This

We're gonna hurl! > Some house-hunters insist on gourmet kitchens, others on antique moldings or sprawling backyards. Now comes a new, even more ostentatious status symbol for the condo, townhouse and suburban home: the passenger elevator. > This isn't just for the very old or the

Big Budget Bush

We voted for the man, twice, but his embrace of big government makes us shudder. An excerpt from last night's Q&A regarding No Child Left Behind: > But we spend a lot of money here at the federal level and have increased the money we spend

Substituting for Children Redux

This out of London: > Dog-lovers have taken 2.7 million working days off to care for their sick pets over the last two years, according to a survey on Thursday. > Ten percent of owners missed five days of work, with half of these taking up to two weeks

PSA

Posting should be light today. Eric Scheske is on assignment, going undercover as a Vatican agent of B16 to undermine democracy in the Midwest in order to clear the way for a B-Squared (Bush-Benedict) theocracy. His assignment today is to penetrate public libraries and tear the Bill of Rights from

Brews You Can Use

The first Saturday of May is National Homebrew Day. It's eight days away, but there's no reason you can't start drinking now in anticipatory celebration. Link [http://news.ratebeer.com/Beer-News/Article-467.htm]. Excerpt: > In 1979, the American Homebrewers Association named the first

It Don't Get No Better Than This

They got themselves a dilemma in Oregon. Salmon are an endangered species. They're bottle-necked somewhere along the Columbia River. Sea lions--carrying substantial clout as protected species under the federal 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act--are eating them like popcorn. Authorities don't know how to stop the slaughter.

An Uncle Tom in Dreadlocks?

Blacks are coming over to the Republican Party in greater numbers. They tend to support vouchers and faith-based initiatives, and they oppose gay marriage. The WSJ has an article about one particularly-flamboyant dreadlocked man, Ted Hayes, that we'd love to meet. Link [http://www.opinionjournal.com/cc/?id=

Rube Goldberg

There's a fairly entertaining and different kind of essay at Lew Rockwell today about the politics of Rube Goldberg. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker52.html]. Here's an excerpt, setting forth Goldberg's distrust of what Russell Kirk referred to as "defecated rationality&

Go Outside!

We heard those words about, oh, thirty times a day while growing up, often after being in the house for only thirty seconds. Turns out it was probably good instruction. NYT Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/garden/28kids.html?]. Excerpt: > Doctors, teachers, therapists and even coaches

Getting Drunk without Fear

Sex is too often associated with drinking. It's part of the "wild and get drunk" stereotype that leads to all sorts of laborious restrictions on drinking that affect us responsible drunks. One of the worst examples of sex and drinking: the spiking of girl's

Worshipping at the Multi-Plex

The final Star Wars movie is poised to burst on the nation. It might be time to consider, again, the religion of Star Wars. We like Terry Mattingly's concise overview. Link [http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/1997/01/29/]. Excerpt: > The faith in "Star Wars"

Five Hail Marys and Undo It!?!?

> A television, stereo, and VCR were stolen over the weekend from a house in the small town of Kremlin. > Undersheriff Jerry Niles said the woman who lives at the house called deputies Monday night to say that someone broke into her house again while she was away, returned

Leno on Consumerism

"Direct TV announced it's coming out with satellite as an option for the Cadillac Escalade. The Escalades have incredible stereos in them, refrigerators and now satellite TV. Do you realize they're just one bathroom away from being a mobile home?"

Homeless in Houston

Do you have any books about decorating refrigerator boxes? > On Wednesday, Houston's city council passed a series of library regulations that some say are an attempt to discourage homeless people from visiting the public buildings. > Library officials said people have been using their facilities as temporary

Stabbed Her 111 Times

A 15-year-old boy killed his mother, stabbing her 111 times. An argument had erupted over a play gun, porn, and a girlfriend. The family lives in Rochester Hills, an upscale suburb of Detroit. The mother was divorced from the boy's father. Here's a further description of

Smug Spielberg

No uncertainty about the existence of extraterrestrials, insulting relativity toward the Bible, a nauseating smugness that can't fathom that it might be wrong about the big issues even though it relies on no authority but its own musings: > "I have to certainly believe what my heart

Snitch Nation

Schools have begun to offer cash and other prizes – including pizza and premium parking spots – to students who report classmates who carry guns, drugs or alcohol, commit vandalism or otherwise break school rules. Link [http://www.dailyherald.com/news/nationworldstory.asp?id=41838]. We don't like it. We

Gay Times at Microsoft

Microsoft decided to stay neutral with respect to pending gay rights legislation in Washington. The homo-lesbian community exploded. Now Microsoft is re-considering. Link. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/27/national/27microsoft.html?ex=1272254400&en=db49511979e32c95&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss] It appears Microsoft

Public Schools: Trustee of Public Funds

In a couple of years, they'll be back, asking for another two mills: "In addition to buying big-screen plasma TVs for the Muskego High School cafeteria, school district officials disclosed Tuesday that they spent $191,250 on aesthetically-pleasing brick and hallway doors with some of the money

Gay Priests Chat Room Transcript

Here's a shocking transcript from a chat room of gay priests (or perhaps priests who support the gay agenda) from a few years ago. Important note: We haven't verified its authenticity, but we're assured by a solid individual that the source of the transcript

Early Kinsey

Google has a cache of 1950s advertisements, mixed in with some modern-day ads that use a 1950s approach. It's a neat assortment, but a little confusing. Anyway, we liked this one as an accurate portrayal of the scholarly quality of the Kinsey Institute's research, then and

Do the Tramps Want to be Looked At or Not?

"Four more surveillance camera operators at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino have been accused of using the equipment to ogle women, according to a complaint filed Tuesday. In December, the same casino was fined $80,000 for incidents involving two camera operators who trained their in-ceiling cameras on low-cut

St. Ataturk?

It seems Canada and the countries in the European Union are in a race to see who can wholly secularize their cultures first. The European countries have a firm edge when it comes to the populace as a whole, but Canadian government and its officials hold the lead over their

Chalk One Up for the Baptists

In February, Magellan Health Services, the nation's largest managed-care behavioral health company, fired a psychologist for helping homosexuals who sought therapy to change their sexual orientation. Warren Throckmorton has now been reinstated, following complaints from a few of Magellan's clients–like LifeWay Christian Resources of the

Porn Me, Daughter

"A Jupiter man who used his adult daughter's Internet account to download and transmit child pornography pleaded guilty to the crimes Tuesday." Link [http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pplea27apr27,0,7104745.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines] . A son or daughter sacrificed to a parent's

Fetus is Latin for "Young One," but Still . . .

The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto asks a fair question: > It seems songstress Britney Spears is pregnant. Well, hooray for her. We just have one question: How come news reports refer to her baby, whereas if she were Jane Doe it would be her fetus? Link. [http:

You're Suing the Pope?

This reminds us of that Eddie Murphy stand-up routine about Mehmet All Agca: "He shot the pope?" I guess he "wanted to go to Hell, but didn't want to stand in line with everybody," so he's taking the "Hell Express."

The Monkey Man Cometh

The New York Times reports this morning that the National Academy of Sciences has drafted stem cell research guidelines. Among much else, the guidelines discuss the use of "chimeras": animals seeded with human cells. The guidelines allow chimeras, but only under restrictions. You see, there could be a

Weekly Features Post

Issue XXII A little Luna Di Luna, Merlot/Cabernet. Eric Scheske has to drink wine by himself, and he typically doesn't want an entire bottle, so he buys four-packs of wine. We're guessing there's eight or ten ounces in a bottle. It's

Whore College

The same type education takes place at campuses throughout the country with no objection from, and often the tacit support of, adminstrators. At least this school is honest enough to admit that this is what students learn at their college: > On May 4, the Epicenter Gallery in San Francisco

At Some Point You Gotta Make Him a Lifer

> The Seminole County sheriff's office said a Volusia County man is in custody on his 16th drunken-driving arrest. > Mitchell Raulerson, 55, of Seville, was stopped in Sanford by an officer who was suspicious about his hand-drawn license plate. Link. [http://www.wesh.com/news/4416716/detail.

Orphaned for Feminism

While at Notre Dame, Eric Scheske had a jurisprudence professor who appalled female law students by referring to children of working mothers as "part-time orphans." It was funny stuff, but apparently at least one CNN correspondent woman is willing to risk it for real. Link [http://www.nydailynews.

Holy Water at Wrigley

In an article about odd baseball remedies, we ran across this: > And then there's Cubs pitcher Mark Prior, whose manager resorted to a more conventional talisman to help his young ace recover from arm problems during spring training. > Dusty Baker doused Prior's inflamed right

The Chesterbelloc Hits Left Coast

The apocalypse is upon us! The LA Times has an article that quotes G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. The article is about Catholic jokes, and it's not bad. Link [http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcgough25apr25,0,7344950.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions] . Excerpts: > Much funnier was

Further Troubles for Wal-Mart

We don't like the behemoth that is Wal-Mart. We know, we know: we should respect the free market, Wal-Mart lowers costs for consumers which in turn frees up money for consumers to spend elsewhere, it provides jobs. They're legitimate "pros." Still, its rapacious hunger

N.V. Peale Redux

Prosperity theology has disgusted and amused us for years. We used to receive the free Norman Vincent Peale pamphlets every quarter, which we read strictly for masochistic purposes, kind of like watching bad variety shows from the 1970s. The whole idea of taking a poor, mocked, and tortured God and

Couldn't We Just Kill the Little Girl Now?

"A 20-year-old woman from Scotland is suing a hospital for botching her abortion which was performed there in 2001. Stacy Dow was pregnant with twins but the procedure only terminated one pregnancy. "Her daughter, Jayde, is now three-years-old and healthy. Dow is raising her with her parents."

eBay-Mania Hits Peru

It's one of the odder stories that we missed. A teenage model who struggled to support her sick mother and younger brother hit on a sure-fire idea: She'd auction off her virginity. People in Peru were infuriated; one Canadian man offered $1.5 million. She shrugged

The Really Mysterious Church

There's an interesting post at "Get Religion" about the growth of Eastern Orthodoxy. We've always been intrigued by Orthodoxy. Years ago, we read Faber & Faber's re-issuance of The Philokalia , practically memorized Kallistos Ware's modern classic, The Orthodox Way, and

Another Reason Blogs are Better Than MSM

This is an ethics violation? We would've thought it was basic politeness: > When reporter Craig McCool and photographer Mairin Chapman of The Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette went to a local party to research a series on drinking among young adults, they saw nothing wrong with partaking of the

British Screed

There's quite the screed at The Spectator about Britain's immigration/multi-cultural problem. Link. [http://www.lewrockwell.com/spectator2/spec593.html] Excerpts: > At the entrance to my local library there is a large glossy poster which carries the slogan 'Celebrate Diversity'. It sounds like

The Parents Gap

Another shocker: Married people with children don't want babies killed, the ACLU defending public perversion, and homosexuals further undermining the institution that's at the center of their lives. > The Progressive Policy Institute has discovered a "parent gap": in the last two presidential elections,

Whole Lot of Pokin' Goin' On

The sex paradox plods on: More sex means fewer children. Most people just want to bang without consequences, but even those who want children often can't have them. Between (i) waiting until after careers are launched, and (ii) messing up one's system with the pill, many

More Monologue Mania

Are these high schools students or faculty members at Notre Dame/St. Mary's Theology Department? Link. [http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/state/11452310.htm] > High school students here are being admonished for wearing buttons inspired by the sometimes raunchy off-Broadway hit "The Vagina Monologues&

If at First You Don't Succeed . . .

Public school educators don't give up. Why would they? It's not their money. Nevertheless, Kentucky is now re-assessing its taxpayer-funded GED program for drop outs. The cost is one issue, but also--shocker, shocker--it's almost as if the students who drop out don't

Planned Parenthood Goes Mainstream

The LA Times ran an eerie piece over the weekend about the prevalence of pornography and its impact on teenagers. The message of the article is, "Look, the kids have seen it all and they're fine, so don't get worked up about porn any more.

Pretty Much Sums Up the Situation

The Atlantic's Ross Douthat has an excellent piece in The New Republic regarding liberal Catholics' wish for a reformed Church. His point: A more liberal Church would kill the Church, based on all the empirical evidence. It's a stunning article when you figure it'

Fox Plunges Deep Again

Tonight at 8:00, Fox will premier its new reality show: Marriage 911. Link. [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/303414p-259572c.html] Excerpt: > Fox's "Marriage 911" gives one squabbling couple, Chris and Laura King, the services of veteran British marriage counselor Jamie Greene for

Remember that Monday Night Football Spoof on SNL?

Hip-Hop performer 50 Cents' manager was robbed at gunpoint last week. The robbery apparently scared the English out of him: “N***as ain't shoot my whip up, they did set me up,” he said. “I'm still in the hood and got a scope on all

Pavlovian Children

The May issue of Reader's Digest discusses the effects of consumerism on today's youth. The gist of the article: Parents give kids everything they want, and the results aren't good. Kids are spoiled, yes, but also (i) they keep wanting more and more, (ii)

We'll Take Traditional Courtship and Marriage

The inspirational Charles Gonsoulin of Los Angeles, pursuing a Canadian woman he had met on the Internet, sneaked across the border on foot in February from the North Dakota side (because a 1984 crime would have prevented his legal entry), heading for the bus station in Winnipeg, 75 miles away,

Doolittle of the Dead

But animals don't have rational souls, so they can't speak, so what are you channeling? And if you're channeling barks and meows, then . . . ah, nevermind. Link. [http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=49496&paper=62&cat=104] Excerpt: > Barb Mallon,

TV Makes Us Smarter?

Interesting article in NYT Magazine this morning. It's an excerpt from Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson. Johnson claims that TV today is making us smarter because its programs make us think. Link. [http:

Has John Cage Taken Over the BBC?

The BBC broadcasted a Quaker religious service this morning. The BBC broadcasts a different religious meeting every week, so what's the big deal? Quaker services are silent: > A Quaker meeting involves gathering in a room and sitting silently for an hour. There are no hymns, no sermons,

More Theocrats!

We'll take our friends where we can find them: Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League Homepage Link. [http://www.godlessprolifers.org/home.html] Excerpt: > I'm James Matthew (Matt) Wallace, aka The Compleat Heretic. I'm both a Secular Humanist atheist and a pro-life advocate. All

What was Illich Saying About the Medical Nemesis?

Obsession with longevity plows forward: > An American expert on longevity believes menstruation may play a part in why women are almost six times as likely to live to 100 than men. > In an attempt to test his theory, Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study, donates

Drooling and Crying

We never thought we'd say this, but it looks like it's time to stop reading Andrew Sullivan. Besides his public weeping at Benedict XVI's election, he is now implying that it is the Catholic Church's goal, with Rove and the Republicans, to

The Cube and the Cathedral

A few excerpts from Weigel's new book about the plight of Christianity in Europe: > European man has convinced himself that in order to be modern and free, he must be radically secular. That conviction has had crucial, indeed lethal, consequences for European public life and European culture.

Defending the Man

David Scott has written a nice and concise rebuttal of all the criticisms about Benedict XVI. Link. [http://www.beliefnet.com/story/165/story_16573_1.html] Excerpts: > He has never said that non-Catholics can't find God or reach salvation. Indeed, he has written that the teachings

Benedict XVI Cover Story

The NYT on-line feature piece this morning is about Benedict XVI's turn to the right in the 1960s. LINK. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/international/worldspecial2/24ratzinger.html?hp&ex=1114401600&en=163fc9d7909d07de&ei=5094&partner=homepage] Overall, it's not

You Can Lead a Horse to Water . . .

"Only a quarter of condoms made in India are used for sex, most of the others are used to make saris, toys and bathroom slippers, a newspaper reported Saturday." Link. [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&ncid=757&e=10&

Paying for One's Sins

The media is having fun with this one: > Kobe Bryant is still paying for his one-night stand. > The L.A. Lakers star shelled out $50,000 this week for a recommitment ceremony with his wife, Vanessa, who stood by him after he was accused of raping a hotel

Disturbing

Disturbing story from 1975 over at The Japery. Link [http://japery.newpantagruel.com/2005/04/23/shock_therapy.php]. It is our editorial policy to give TDE readers enough information so they don't need to click to get the gist of a story. But in this instance, we

Something for Sunday Morning

On Obedience Jesus set the tone for obedience when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.” “My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass without my

Protecting Europe's Children

Well, when you figure dogs have replaced children in Europe, this law makes a lot of sense. Link [http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=VVQ3HG4MHPY0WCRBAELCFEY?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=8268361] . Excerpt: > Dog owners in Turin will be fined up to 500 euros ($650) if they don't

Purple Haze II

When we repress a proper relationship with the dead, there are all sorts of unforunate eruptions, like spiritualistic practices. Is this another such eruption? Link. [http://www.roadrun.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=35821] Excerpt: > Jimi Hendrix's younger brother, Leon Hendrix, says he

E-Dope

This has a smack of scientific goop, but it rings true to us: > The distractions of constant emails, text and phone messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration than taking cannabis, according to a survey of befuddled volunteers. Link. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,

Sex Ed in Florida

Maybe the Gainesville Public Library has a Planned Parenthood department. Link. [http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050421/LOCAL/204210361/1078/news] > When Shirley White-Satcher's 12-year-old son sat down Sunday night to watch what she thought was a Disney movie checked out from the

Tribute to Dr. Johnson

We didn't realize it, but 2005 is the quatrimillennial (quarter millennium) of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language. His wasn't the first dictionary, though. The first was Robert Cawdray's A Table Alphabeticall, compiled, as he described it, for "ladies ... or

Red States Have More Children

Population projections from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the eight fastest growing states are "red states" and that blue states are shrinking fast. This, no doubt, will have an adverse effect on blue states' political clout, especially in New England. LINK. [http://www.boston.com/

The Weekend Eudemon

Draft Day 2005. The biggest non-event event of the year. It's our understanding that ESPN will dedicate over twelve hours to people talking on phones. Don't get us wrong. We like football and we enjoy the draft, but to watch it on TV for prolonged periods?

Planned Pornography

Crux Magazine's website has a hard-hitting article by Dawn Eden about Planned Parenthood's pitch to teenagers. Link [http://www.cruxmag.com/asset/CRUX_everybody.html] (Note: This stuff is scarcely fit for a frat house sex party). Excerpt: > Teenwire does observe one single and incontrovertible

Gotta Be Sensitive to the Druids

"Eighth-grade counselor Margo Lucero, filling in for absent principal Kathleen Norton, changed a portion of the Pledge from 'one nation under God' to 'one nation under your belief system,' while on the public- address system Wednesday morning." Link [http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,

Sweep Us to the Bottom

May is almost here and that means May sweeps: the time when TVs struggle mightily for viewership and good ratings so they can hike their advertising prices. Television shows will be trying all sorts of stunts--from sudden plot turns to lasciviousness to violence--to lure viewers. Example: "Entertainment Tonight"

Maybe Sesame Street is Playing the May Sweeps

PBS is transforming the Cookie Monster. Just in time to coincide with the CDC's admission that the risk of obesity has been overblown. Link [http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200504220746.asp]. Excerpts from column: > After three decades, [PBS] announced he's not a Cookie Monster at

Ratzinger, Hesse, and St. Benedict

We try not to hammer on the same points that can be found on numerous other web sites (you didn't see any discussion of the Wendy's finger incident here), but we were obliged to join in the Ratzinger/Benedict celebration. We let it die down on

The Current Ads Aren't Informative Enough

Two Saratoga County girls, ages 15 and 16, went to NYC on their spring break with the older girl's mother. They'd been going to NYC for years with no problems, but then this year, the girls sneaked out of their room at the YourStay Central Park

Aren't Unions a Step Backwards for Marxists?

A poll commissioned by the AFL-CIO has found that full-time faculty members at public universities that aren't unionized would be interested in a union or something like it. LINK [http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/04/22/poll]. We would have thought all full-time professors at public universities

Bring Us the Children!

Spain's Socialist government continues to ramrod its Leftist social agenda. Yesterday, the lower house passed a bill to allow gay marriages, thus joining The Netherlands and Belgium. The bill also allows gay couples to adopt children. LINK [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4469653.stm]

Got Cougars?

Here's an interesting piece about the cougar attacks in California. LINK [http://www.lewrockwell.com/fontova/fontova46.html]. You may want to skip the first half. It's a little too self-indulgent for us, but the second half is clever enough. Excerpts: > "There is a

Yeah, the Netherlands Will Be Fine

Just some more of what might be coming to childless Europe as they continue to welcome Muslims to fill the worker void: > A Pakistani man accused of desecrating the Koran was shot dead Wednesday after being chased by an angry crowd. > Ashiq Nabi, in his thirties, was accused

Brews You Can Use

What's Bavaria known best for? Beer, and now the pope. It's fitting that a brewer in Pope Benedict's former village, Marktl am Inn, has started to sell Pabstbier: Pope Beer. Link [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0504210259apr21,1,4149412.story?coll=chi-news-hed&

Revenge of the Fat People

Nice article at Tech Central Station about the CDC's admission this week that it has overblown reports of the adverse health effects of obesity. The article is strongly libertarian (no surprise, coming from TCS), but also seems laced with a little Ivan Illich and his famous opening words

Blind Baseball

This novel about no-fault divorce in Michigan sounds fairly realistic. We may have to buy it. Link [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/sobran1.html]. Two excerpts: > 1. The story's hero, Barry Ballinger, has, to say the least, a troubled marriage. His wife, Sal, serves him with divorce

And It Ain't a Marsha and Greg Brady Situation, Either

Here's a great story that'll get the ACLU mad: authorities in Alabama arrested a brother and sister for, ah, well, impropriety. It appears they were pretty drunk, but it was fully consensual. Link. [http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/111401010148380.xml] Needless

Leftovers from Federal School Breakfast Program?

"Voorhees High School will remain closed today while school and law enforcement officials try to determine how a bag full of rotting animal parts wound up hidden behind a ceiling tile in the school lunchroom." LINK [http://www.pennlive.com/news/expresstimes/nj/index.ssf?/base/news-7/111390154918860.

NBC's Continued Race for the Bottom

NBC is doing a mini-series on 9/11. The goal of the mini-series? Based on this excerpt from a NYT story: to humanize the monsters who attacked us. Link [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/20/movies/20atta.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=b64d01fc0e3fed52&ex=1271649600&

Relativism in Religion

"A woman who was fired by Costco in 2001 for refusing to remove her eyebrow ring has accused the company of religious discrimination, saying she is a member of the Church of Body Modification." Link. [http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2005/04/20/updates/odds_and_ends/139e45b7391b527286256fe900543acf.

Slaying Us in Jerusalem

There's an international gay pride parade scheduled for this summer in Jerusalem. Last month, Jews, Muslims, Catholics and evangelical Christians put their disapproval of homosexual behavior above theological differences to condemn the parade. This week, a coalition of Jews have backed it. Three-fourths of Jerusalem's citizens

Probably Pawned for $150.00

Look at the bright side: Some fiddler's gonna get a great deal on it at Slippery Pete's Pawn Shop. It'll be the best "Devil Went Down to Georgia" ever. > A local musician is issuing a desperate plea for the return of

No Brainiacs

Michigan's New York Times, the Detroit Free Press, ran an article recently about all those baby-enhancement videos. You know the kind: Baby Genius, Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby. Sales of these "kid-vids" hit $4.4 billion in 2004 and the pressure to buy them ("What? You

A Protestant Weighs In

A letter from a non-Catholic to the WSJ. It's not terribly profound, but it's refreshing to see an outside observer use simple logic to put a fundamental truth in a different glass: > I am not Catholic, but it seems to me that if the pope

Wal-Slabbers

Don't give them any ideas. Next thing you know, they'll be driving the local morticians out of business, too. > Archaeologists have found what they believe are the 5,000-year-old remains of two American Indians at a southern Jefferson County site planned for development. > Bone

Left Side of the Dial

Despite all the optimistic hype, it would appear that left-wing talk radio isn't doing well after all. LINK. [http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-anderson18apr18,0,7147223.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions] Excerpt: > Wait a second, you say, didn't I read that Air America has expanded

Correcting John Allen

Much of the junk out there about Benedict XVI comes from John Allen's bad book, Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith. If you're looking for a polite but firm corrective, we recommend this piece by David Scott [http://www.davidscottwritings.com/inquisition.

PETA for the Pope

This may sound ludicrous [http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7561229/], but there's a ring of truth to it, if you ask us: > PETA believes it may have a powerful new ally: the pope. > The star-studded animal rights group – whose high-profile spokespeople include Paul McCartney and Pamela

More on South Park Conservatives

The Wall Street Journal has a decent piece about the new buzz word: "South Park Conservatives." LINK [http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110006580]. Excerpt: > Yes, he notes, "South Park" is a coarse and offensive TV show. But precisely because it "spares no sensitivity,

Reactions to Election

We've been reading different reactions to the papal election. The Old Oligarch's is one of the most enjoyable. LINK [http://old-oligarch.blogspot.com/]. Excerpt: > The other sure bet in terms of news coverage: by the time I got home around 11 pm, and started a

Masters of Words

It's not often you see masterly understatements and overstatements juxtaposed like this: Understatement: "Ratzinger is not the Pope that we would ideally like," said Joelle Battestini, associate convener of the Australian group Ordination of Catholic Women. Overstatement: Matt Foreman of National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

We Believe in Miracles, But . . .

The Windy City gets religion: "A shape on an underpass wall of the Kennedy Expy. attracted hundreds Monday who wanted to see for themselves if it really looked like Virgin Mary." LINK. [http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-virgin19.html]

Get Naked Day at Bremen High School

"A veteran Oak Forest High School teacher has received a written reprimand for telling students last week they could earn extra credit if they took part in a 'Get Naked Day' in his classroom. The comments were an unfortunate, tongue-in-cheek effort by English teacher Bob Burt to

Another Objective Look at Benedict XVI

Slate, which purports to be an unbiased news source, has this front headline today: "Ratz! Cardinal Ratzinger is a great choice for pope--if the church wants to adhere to backward doctrine, alienate more of its followers, and lose more influence in the developing world." The feature article is

Polygamy and Gay Marriage

Fascinating article about polygamy in Utah and Arizona and the effect of gay marriage on that fundamentalist Mormon institution. LINK. [http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/basham200504180745.asp] Excerpts: > [For over fifty years, due to a disastrous raid on polygamists back in 1953, both Utah and Arizona's tacit

The Nerd Party's Co2 System

If you're curious about how they're reading the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, it's a technology called "multispectral imaging." It's kind of interesting, but too nerdy for anyone who even pretends to be cool. Anyway, here's the link [http://www.slate.

Benedict on Benedict

The pope ought "to be the guarantor of obedience . . . The pope himself cannot even say, I am the Church, or I am the tradition, but he is, on the contrary, under constraint; he incarnates this constraint laid upon the Church. Whenever temptations arise in the Church to do things

Weekly Features Post

Issue XXI Goodness gracious. Whatta day. You ever feel like unseen forces are colluding to keep you from an appointed task? For Eric Scheske, the election of Cardinal Ratzinger was one of the most exciting things he'd witnessed in his life. He wanted nothing else but to watch

The Hist Generation

In light of Benedict XVI, a twenty-something reflects on her generation and all the changes she's seen in her brief 26 years on earth. It's a nice little essay. LINK [http://cruxmag.typepad.com/signs/]. Excerpt: > I propose a name for my generation---let's

Screed

Say what you want about Andrew Sullivan, he is usually (not always) forthright and lays it on the line. When you read him, you know what the Left is thinking (though Sullivan purportedly was a conservative, his homosexuality has steadily pushed him all the way to the Left on social

No Fair. They Got a Head Start

LINK [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1572667,00.html]. Excerpt: > Unknown to many members of the church, however, Ratzinger's past includes brief membership of the Hitler Youth movement and wartime service with a German army anti- aircraft unit. > Although there is no suggestion that

The Red Flag

A traditionalist Catholic e-mailed the following to us: "Nice to see the Church throw the old red flag at the bull once again, the bull being the Western media." Nice indeed.

E Benedict

Amazing/troubling/sickening. You decide: Results from an eBay search of "Pope Benedict" LINK [http://search.ebay.com/pope-benedict_W0QQsojsZ1QQfromZR40]

Benedict XVI

Let the sputtering and fury from the NYT, WaPo, and others begin.

It's the DVD, Stupid

Highly interesting piece in The Weekly Standard about the evolution of movies. Essentially, the piece says that movies no longer make money at the box office. The real money is in the DVDs and the spin-off toys and games. The results have reverberated throughout the industry, from blurry screens at

Pleasing the Enemy

Here's a (perhaps purposefully?) disjointed yet interesting account of liberal General Peter J. Schoomaker's plans to get women into combat. LINK [http://www.charmaineyoest.com/]

Sex in Catholic America

There's a pretty good review of Leslie Woodcock Tentler's Catholics and Contraception at Christianity Today. LINK [http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/003/2.16.html]. It's one of those reviews that seems to summarize the entire book, thus precluding our need to read

"L" is for Learning Lesbianism

Disturbing op-ed by Dennis Prager today. LINK [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/dp20050419.shtml]. It discusses a young woman who admits she learned to be a lesbian (or part-time lesbian) at college. After reading a column of hers in the university newspaper, he interviewed her. Here's the

Leno's "Outsourcing the Pope" Joke Wasn't Far Off the Mark

From Reuters this morning: "Faced with a shortage of clergymen and dwindling churchgoers, Catholic churches in Europe, the United States and Latin America are seeking the services of Indian priests to run parishes and say Mass, church officials said." LINK [http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050419/325/fgn50.

The RCC's European Problem

Smarmy article in NYT this morning about Catholicism's fall in Europe. It's nothing new, of course (heck, George Weigel's current big book is all about it). The NYT article attributes it to the Church being out-of-touch with European ways. The implication that the Church

Oh, But She's a Stay-At-Home Mom

The Detroit Free Press ran an article about a suburban Detroit mother who appeared in Playboy's "Real Desperate Housewives" pictorial. We're acquainted with her suburb; it's fairly upscale. But the woman is still trash and not even very good looking. LINK [http:

Now We're Worried

The drought that has hit the Pacific Northwest could produce a nation-wide drought of the worst kind: less beer and wine. According to this article, "the region is the nation's largest producer of hops, a key ingredient in beer, and Washington state and Oregon are among the

PSA

Posts will be light this morning. Eric Scheske is shaking off a bender. Relax, just jokin'. He's going to be tied up at the hospital for awhile. (Later edit: We'll be back to normal posting by 9:30. )

Doin' Disney

Here's a reasonably-humorous article that lists 21 observations by a Disney World lover. LINK [http://www.techcentralstation.com/041805A.html]. A few excerpts: > You can get away with almost anything if you're riding in a wheelchair. But, if you're riding in a wheelchair,

Not Our Style, But What the Heck

"Extreme Christian Clothing stores in Topeka, Kan., and Lawrence sell T-shirts with messages like 'Satan Sucks,' 'My God can kick your god's butt,' and 'To Hell with the Devil.'" LINK [http://www.wsoctv.com/irresistible/4388079/detail.html]

Nerd Party Time!

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri is getting opened up after many years. It's possible that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed. Excerpt: > In the past four days alone, Oxford's classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries,

Creativity for Destruction's Sake

We can't think of anything to add that would make this story more humorous or more telling about the arrogance of much modern art and its practitioners: > An artist who randomly vandalised nearly 50 cars as part of a project said yesterday the owners should be happy

Too Cutting Edge for Episcopalians!?

"An Episcopal priest who resigned from a Downingtown [Pennsylvania] church last fall after his ties to a Druid society were made public has renounced his Episcopal ordination and become a Druid priest." LINK [http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/11397667.htm] (registration required). The priest and

Genghis

Funny op-ed in the Telegraph today about "being to the right of Genghis Kahn." LINK [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;sessionid=VPREN1CNOPVJ3QFIQMGSM5OAVCBQWJVC?xml=/opinion/2005/04/18/dl1803.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/04/18/ixportal.html] . Excerpt: > But does Genghis really deserve his

What Would They Say at the Haight-Ashbury?

Yet another instance of colleges gone wild, this time at UC Berkeley, supposedly one of the finest public institutions in the country. LINK. [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/16/BAG0PC9U621.DTL] > The [frat brothers] took the [pledge] to a room and stripped him

Do They Bring the Ripple Right to Your Cot?

Los Angeles has a new homeless shelter. LINK [http://csmonitor.com/2005/0418/p01s01-uspo.html]. Excerpt: > Opening Monday and trumpeted proudly by city officials is the Midnight Mission - and one of the nation's plushest homeless shelters. The $17 million state-of-the-art facility boasts a full-sized gymnasium, library,

It's All the (Computer) Rage

It's a new angle on an old passion: computer rage. In a time when most everyone depends on computers for most everything, anger is mounting when things go wrong. We gotta believe McLuhan would really enjoy this type of phenomenon. LINK [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=

We're Glad Someone Isn't Letting This Slide

One organization is taking steps to make sure the eBay sale of the Eucharist doesn't occur again. LINK [http://www.tfp.org/what_we_do/index/ebay_request.htm] . We wish them well and encourage our readers to support the effort.

The Midwest Indies

They're taking that New Age stuff pretty far in one Iowa village: "It's official: Maharishi Vedic City has gone all natural. "The town of about 200 in southeast Iowa has become what some experts believe is the first all-organic city in the country. "

Fine! We'll Find Some Other Way to Spend

A freak seven-story wave that slammed into a cruise ship sent furniture sailing through the air, knocked Jacuzzis overboard and forced some passengers to sleep in hallways in life jackets. LINK [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CRUISE_SHIP_DIVERTED?SITE=APWEB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT] .

They Must've Studied Flowerchildren from the Sixties

We missed this one. We assume that short hair has now become the rage in Berkeley, Madison, and Ann Arbor: > Bureaucrats in North Korea's Communist Party, summarizing their understanding of the way the brain works, announced in January that, henceforth, all men would be expected to wear

I'll Just Take the Beatific Vision Door, Monte

From News of the Weird (no link available, sorry): TalkToAliens.com began taking orders in March, recording people's messages at $3.99 per minute and beaming them into space, aimed toward the Milky Way by a huge parabolic dish antenna in Connecticut on a relatively accessible FM frequency.

Sterility Supports Sterility

V. Gene Robinson, the gay Episcopalian "bishop" from New Hampshire, is a supporter of Planned Parenthood, it would appear. He spoke at Planned Parenthood's fifth annual prayer breakfast last week about political battles. Two quotes: "Our defense against religious people has to be a religious

Sexual Revolution Gone Astray. Issue 10,100,758

"A man allegedly unhappy with penile-enlargement surgery he underwent mailed explosives to a Chicago plastic surgeon, according to a federal grand jury indictment." LINK [http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/11406638.htm].

Leave it to NYT

The New York Times has dedicated extensive ink to a condescending "analysis" of the Catholic Church's irrelevance to many Catholics. Here are two excerpts from the article by Colm Toibin, apparently a gay fellow with an undisclosed homosexual axe to grind with the Church. Two excerpts:

Dishonesty in Academia? Say It Ain't So!

"A group of American students revealed last week that they had submitted an "academic paper" consisting of computer-generated gobbledegook to a scientific conference - and it was accepted. The students were convinced that many academic conferences were only concerned with profiting from the submission fee for papers.

De Lubac

We promised last week to post passages from The Drama of Atheistic Humanism (see "The Cube and the Cathedral," Friday, April 15, 2005). The task proved harder than we anticipated. Not because there aren't a lot of great passages, but because de Lubac's text

Metro Man is Out

A reader sends this along: The Washington Times reports that Metro Man (discussed yesterday in "The Punchy Journal") is out and manly men are in. Excerpt: > The Harris survey was conducted among 1,003 men and 1,128 women 18 or older from across the United States.

Here's Support for John Peterson

We assume many of you have seen John Peterson's witty endorsement of this site (to the right). At least one other person--Bill Grueskin, managing editor of WSJ.com--agrees with John's assessment of MSM blogs: > Lately, a number of newsmagazine and newspaper sites have started blogs.

Sexed but Not Sexed

David Brooks has an interesting op-ed at NYT this morning. He says the teen culture is perhaps trashier than ever, but teens aren't. A few excerpts: > Young people are waiting longer to have sex. The percentage of 15-year-olds who have had sex has dropped significantly. Among 13-year-olds,

Well, At Least He's Blunt

Howard Dean doesn't believe in keeping aces in the hole. LINK [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DEAN_SCHIAVO?SITE=APWEB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT] . > Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who has accused congressional Republicans of "grandstanding" in the Terri Schiavo

Catholicism in Latin America

The LA Times ran a good piece yesterday about the "turf war" in Latin America. LINK [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-latam15apr15,0,2219344.story?coll=la-home-headlines] . A few excerpts: > Across Latin America, home to nearly half the world's Catholics, believers are increasingly

Noonan on Blogging

We read most everything we see about blogging, from Hugh Hewitt's book, Blog, to raving denunciations from the mainstream media. It helps us better understand what we're doing and, maybe just maybe, why we're doing it and how to do it better. The topic

Calling McLuhan Yet Again

Is there any reason to be concerned about the effects of new entertainment technology on our hearts, emotions, minds, souls, oversouls, brain waves, karma, etc.? Check out this story from yesterday's Washington Post. LINK [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20050416/tc_washpost/a57629_

Your Way All the Time

American Baby ran a piece recently about cesarean sections. It seems more Americans are having them instead of traditional births. Why? Various reasons, but one of the biggest: the mothers want to be in control of when the baby comes. As one woman explained, "It was about being able

Something for Sunday Morning

"It is children who lead us to the gospel”¦ We are not worthy to educate them. Our lips are unclean; our dedication is not wholehearted. Our truthfulness is partial; our love divided. Our kindness is not without motives. We ourselves are not yet free of lovelessness, possessiveness, and selfishness”

Abortion and Crime

We assume most people have heard of economist Steven Levitt's theory that Roe v. Wade has reduced crime by eliminating unwanted babies. In the upcoming issue of American Conservative, Steven Sailer questions whether these "preemptive executions" have really reduced crime. He makes a compelling argument that

Attila the Welfare Recipient

"Hungary has refused to grant minority rights to the self-proclaimed descendants of Attila's Huns, who rampaged across parts of Europe in the fifth century." LINK [http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1344048.htm].

Lukacs II

In the Introduction to Remembered Past (see below), we found this beautiful but somewhat depressing passage: > With somber fortitude, Lukacs continues to remind us of a world, very different from our own, that rested on the cultivation of manners and morals, on a luxuriant inner life, on the ideal

South Park Conservatives

The phrase "South Park Conservatives" (apparently coined for the first time in 2002), is making headway again. This time, in a book written by the same person who wrote the 2002 article. LINK [http://www.techcentralstation.com/100702A.html]. Excerpt: > The name stems from the primetime cartoon

Lukacs

We received a copy of ISI Book's new publication, Remembered Past: John Lukacs on History, Historians, and Historical Knowledge [http://www.isi.org/books/bookdetail.aspx?id=283d712d-f2b1-4530-b22f-8e0b3b0ade25] . It's a thick volume that we delved into immediately. Eric had been acquainted with Lukacs for years, but

Yet Another Pro-Condom Teacher!

"In the fourth sordid case involving city teachers this week, a Queens English instructor is under investigation for having sex with two female students . . . ". LINK. [http://nydailynews.com/news/v-echo/story/300442p-257218c.html]

The Pope and the Dice

Betting on the new Pope is running wild, according to this story [http://nydailynews.com/news/v-echo/story/300338p-257119c.html]. Two excerpts: > "The level of interest has been nothing short of phenomenal," said Darren Haines, spokesman for top Irish bookie Paddy Power, which already has taken in

Weekend Postings

Postings often become a little more cerebral on the weekends, mostly because current news items worth posting slow down, thus requiring us to find other material, but also because we welcome the opportunity to offer different fare. Blog readership drops by about 30% Friday through Sunday, so if we'

The Weekend Eudemon

Riesling Friday night. Yes, it might be more of a girly wine, but that's all right. Eric walked downtown yesterday afternoon to his favorite shop and picked up a couple bottles of wine, including an inexpensive Riesling. He opened it when Mrs. Scheske went swimming, leaving him with

A Beautiful Death?

Long-time readers of this blog may remember our extended review of the Penguin Book, Cannibal, about the German maneater, Armin Meiwes. At the time, we mentioned that he received a mere eight-year sentence and had a lucrative movie deal in the works. This story [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?

Unmixed Legacy II

Here's another article (this time, the New York Times) about the conservative vanguard that marches forward after JPII's death. LINK [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/international/worldspecial2/14youth.html?oref=login] . Two excerpts: > No matter who is chosen as the next pope, John

Cucumber Heaven

The Dawn Patrol has a pithy post about the sex-ed battle raging in Maryland. It's so good, we have shamelessly copied the whole thing below, but we're not going to provide her links. If you want those, go see her site. LINK [http://www.dawneden.com/

Tax Breaks

A tax fact you won't see anywhere else on Tax Day 2005: A married couple filing jointly that has seven minor children can reasonably expect to be able to earn $90,000.00 without owing any federal income tax. There could, however, be a small alternative minimum tax

These Public School Employees are Probably Pro-Condom, Too

"A gutsy Staten Island mom helped cops catch a serial kiddie flasher by chasing down the sicko - who turned out to be a city teacher, police said yesterday." LINK. [http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/300133p-256884c.html] "Guidance counselor Samantha Solomon's alleged extracurricular relationship

Weightlifting, Beer, and God

You can't judge a book by its cover, but we're gonna endorse this publication based on its title. It's Catholic Men's Quarterly, a journal apparently devoted to being a man and Catholic, but its site doesn't give a lot of

Calling Robert Conquest

"Lawmakers in a western Russian city have called for authorities to rename streets after Josef Stalin and restore memorials to the Soviet dictator." LINK [http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-russia-stalin,0,5951689.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines] . We gotta believe a similar measure will soon be pending

We Didn't Know They Spoke English There

The West Virginia legislature has passed a bill to make English the official language of the state. The governor will sign it. LINK [http://www.usenglish.org/inc/news/preleases/viewRelease.asp?ID=157]. Excerpt: > With the passage of the bill, West Virginia will become the eighth state in

The Cube and the Cathedral

Well, we received our copy of Weigel's The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God yesterday. It's a punchy, easy-to-read job, only 177 pages of text, of which we read 60 in less than an hour. It's meant for a popular

Brews You Can use

Criminy, all the beer bloggers must be drunk this week. We couldn't find hardly anything worth posting, so we're passing along this link [http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/6537/]. It provides a few generalized facts about the healthiness of beer. We think

What Are Values?

Heavier fare than what we normally feature at TDE, but the Claremont Institute has a pretty good article on our society's obsession with "values" that's worth reading. LINK [http://claremont.org/writings/050413voegeli.html]. Excerpt: > The term "values" has become so

More Pro-Gay ESPN

A reader sends this along: > Awhile back, you mentioned that Sports Illustrated and ESPN seem to have a pro-homosexuality agenda. I thought you'd like to know about Colin Cowherd's discussion earlier this week about gay NFL football players (like there are more than just a

You Have No Freedom Not to Accommodate My Freedom

According to this article [http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Careers/story?id=661009&page=1], ten states have laws that require employers to grant leave time to parents so they can attend their children's school functions. Other states are considering such a law. It's a

African Gays?

We've all heard the party line: AIDS is spreading in Africa due to rampant heterosexuality. According to this article [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GuestColumns/Fumento20050414.shtml], that's a myth. Here's an excerpt: > So if vaginal intercourse can't explain the awful

Raising Nebraska

The Boston Globe has a decent article about Nebraska's conservative Catholicism. The lead picture is something that could've been in the religion bashing of Midnight Cowboy, but the text of the article is pretty good, including this quote: "'Some people call us old-fashioned,'

Why Johnny's Big Brother Can't Pray

Interesting study shows that college freshmen are highly interested in religion, but by the junior year, their interest shrinks. The classroom does little to encourage religious interest, according to the study, so that might be the culprit. Of course, drinking to the point of vomiting, marijuana, sloth, and raging sex

Pre-Mature Brews You Can Use

According to one set of scholars, the need/desire to produce mass quantities of alcohol partially drove primitive cultivation methods. At least we think that's what this poorly-written story is trying to say. LINK [http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/7007]. We realize this type

MSM Gets Even by Not Trusting Blogs

For those who missed it Tuesday, NYT Op-Ed writer Nicholas D. Kristof laments the mainstream media's continued plummet. LINK [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/12/opinion/12kristof.html?ex=1113969600&en=aaf01212e79f8410&ei=5070] . Two excerpts: > A recent report from the Pew Research Center,

We're Guessin' This Guy is Pro-Condom Distribution

"At least 39 calls to escort services and sex chat lines were placed from Orchard Park School Superintendent Paul J. Grekalski's district-issued cell phone since September, according to district phone records." LINK. [http://buffalonews.com/editorial/20050412/1064227.asp]

Vocabula Review on Blogging

Vocabula Review is an on-line journal that features elegant prose, poetry, tips on writing, and rules of grammar. It's one of our favorite publications, and Eric Scheske counts it as one of his finer accomplishments to have published two articles in it. When we saw that one of

What's the Problem?

Isn't it all about the parents, about their needs and desires? "A mother is under arrest, accused of selling a 12-year-old daughter into prostitution and trading a 14-year-old daughter for a car." LINK [http://www.thecarolinachannel.com/news/4374363/detail.html].

The Cream and the Slop

The left at Harvard shows its class once again. LINK [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=507033]. This time, at a counterterrorism career panel that included representatives from the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and two non-partisan security think tanks. The audience consisted of (i) people

Jacko is Just a Little Misunderstood

Concise review [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/10/RVGPBC25LJ1.DTL] of Michael Gross' Starstruck [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thedailyeudem-20&path=ASIN/1582343160/qid=1113433493/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1] , a book about celebrity fanatics who

An Unmixed Legacy

This article [http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/world/ny-wosemi134215848apr13,0,450840.story?coll=ny-worldnews-print] asserts that the young priests being groomed today as the Catholic Church's future will be loyal to the Church's "conservative" ways. Excerpt: > They are the elite. They may

Fat and Tired

American Baby reports that Americans today average seven hours sleep per night. One hundred years ago, the average was nine hours. The sleepless trend, the magazine says, may be contributing to Americans' overweight problem. Sleep deprivation throws off the hormones in a way that increases one's appetite.

Leno on the New Pope

Jay Leno: They say the new Pope may be from Bombay. Now they're even outsourcing the Pope to India.

Arinze Pulls in the Lead

According to this story [http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/37042.html], on Monday Cardinal Arinze of Nigeria became the bookies' favorite to win the Papal election. We'll be curious to see what happens with black jokes if Arinze is elected. Will our culture's fervor

More Gay Bigotry in Massachusetts

Prison authorities in Massachusetts have denied two inmates the right to a homosexual marriage. LINK [http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/04/13/male_inmates_bid_to_marry_denied/] . The proposed marriage has indicia of being a case of prison sex abuse, of a predator inmate trying to

We're Not Even Going to Comment

Here is possibly the most shocking story we've seen in five years. LINK [http://www.local6.com/news/4372049/detail.html]. Warning: It's not fit for youngsters. Sexual degradation, with a crowd and videotape, against the disabled, with public school administrators covering it up. Unbelievable. Thanks

Sopranos 7th

Awhile back, Godspy published a piece [http://www.godspy.com/culture/The-Sopranos-Bada-Being-and-Nothingness.cfm] containing this line: "If Shakespeare were alive today, he'd be writing for the Sopranos." We think that's an exaggeration, but we like the show, and there's now a glimmer

Garville

We try to be kind, really we do, but this picture slayed us:

Andrea Dworkin, RIP

David Frum has a decent little piece about the leftist Andrea Dworkin. Link. [http://www.nationalreview.com/frum/diary041205.asp#060470] Excerpt: > She understood that the sexual revolution had inflicted serious harm on the interests of women and children ”“ and (ultimately) of men as well. She understood that all-pervasive

The Lion Witch and Wardrobe Guy

More coverage about Philip Anschutz, the billionaire behind The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe movie that comes out this fall. LINK [http://www.getreligion.org/]

Where's the Story?

A female author who graduated from an all-girl Catholic high school near Milwaukee in the early 1990s publishes a racy book about three sexually-active girls at an all-girl Catholic high school near Milwaukee in the early 1990s. The author's alma mater and the fictional school have similar names.

Weekly Features Post

Issue XIX Our first Weekly Features Post since switching over to The Daily Eudemon. To readers of Eric Scheske's weekly column on Catholic Exchange who have visited for the first time since last Wednesday, we hope you like the new format. If you logged onto The Eudemon more

Bible as Literature

A famous critic once said, "Those who talk of reading the Bible 'as literature' sometimes mean, I think, reading it without attending to the main thing it is about; like reading Burke with no interest in politics, or reading the Aeneid with no interest in Rome. That

Profitable Host

Someone has sold the host on e-Bay for $2,000. LINK [http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6169851381#ebayphotohosting] . For some people, the pursuit of money knows no bounds. Here, the person apparently acquired the host under the false pretense of being a Catholic and is

Phone Sex

"About one in seven Americans would stop in the middle of sex to answer their cell phones, a new survey finds." Link [http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/299107p-256001c.html] Heck, and we get annoyed when someone is talking on their cellphone while sitting at the bar or

More Zaniness from Those Public Schools!

School districts are looking to ban the use of red ink when grading papers. Link [http://www.themorningsun.com/stories/041205/opi_metzger001.shtml]. Excerpt: "Even red for high grades and praiseworthy comments is not acceptable. According to the report, a red A is no different from a red

Weigel's New Book

Great review about Weigel's new book, The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God. LINK [http://www.nysun.com/article/12023]. Two excerpts, one about Weigel and one about the book: About Weigel: > Mr. Weigel is a shining example of that elusive species, the

Choice Religion

Interesting piece today in the Washington Times about the rise of technology and its possible effect on religious habits. It has a McLuhanesque air to it, so we enjoyed it, but we disagree with its speculation. Link [http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050412-121457-4149r.htm]. Excerpt: > "Generation Y,"

Everybody Loves Raymond

During a basketball game last month, the San Jose State dance team performed a suggestive routine to the raunchy lyrics of "Move Somethin'" by LL Cool J. Alumnus Ray Silva, a 74-year-old San Jose businessman and major university booster, didn't like it. In his words,

Butchering "Dates"

From Thumos [http://thumos.blogspot.com/]: > This curious piece in the New York Times "Fashion and Style" section last weekend: "Simply defined a man date is two heterosexual men socializing without the crutch of business or sports. It is two guys meeting for the kind of

Oh Winston!

We ran across this anecdote at Vocabula Review [http://www.vocabula.com/] in an article about euphemisms. We recall hearing it before, but it's worth reproducing in case any of our readers haven't seen it: At a Richmond, Virginia, reception in his honor, Winston Churchill, then

The Economy on Juice

Disturbing opinion piece at Fox News about our economy's steroids: the money supply has been juiced, consumer debt is juiced, housing markets are juiced. “About the only thing that's not juiced is our personal savings. After spiking to 3.7 percent last December, the personal savings

Dominatrix Administers Different Sort of Pain

A former sexual sado-masochist pain administrator in San Francisco takes a new job at the SF Treasury Department. One of the office managers, a former client, harasses her, including requests for “a session.” The employee files suit, which has now been settled for five-figure damages. The plaintiff has no regrets

You're Not in California Any More, LA Times

The LA Times is obviously disturbed by the Kansas Attorney General, but they have virtually no dirt on the guy. This report paints him as a diehard Christian who opposes abortion and gay rights and who stretches the law to fit his agenda. They picture him as an extremist (which

Catholic Renaissance II

Yesterday, we ran a blurb about the alleged great increase in Catholic converts. We whimsically called the piece “Catholic Renaissance?” Our unserious title shouldn't be taken seriously, of course. If you need evidence, we recommend a Patrick Buchanan piece that summarizes the grave condition of the Catholic Church

Weird Artist Stuff

Making fun of cutting-edge artists is kind of like making fun of stupid criminals: “yeah, yeah, there are a lot of unintelligent people out there; now get some new material.” But we continue to be fascinated by them, like Emily Katrencik, an “artist” whose big project is gnawing through drywall

What? No Federalism for Gay Marriage?

In this opinion piece [http://www.detnews.com/2005/editorial/0504/11/A09-145952.htm], a gay-rights writer comes out of the closet, so to speak, and flat-out states that gays are counting on the U.S. Supreme Court to force homosexual marriage on the American people. Her words undercut the

We Just Use a Digital Alarm Clock

Heard on the radio: A St. Cloud, Florida man suffered serious facial injuries when the gun he keeps under his pillow discharged.

Blogs v. Media

The mainstream media, feeling the blog dog nipping at their heels, has been slashing back at bloggers lately. A lot of it is shrill and self-serving. Bloggers have slashed back. Slate has provided what we think is a balanced analysis of the blog v. media debate. Link [http://slate.msn.

Catholic Renaissance?

We pass this along from Zorak [http://e-pression.blogspot.com/]. We haven't verified the statistics, but needless to say, the average person--Catholic and non-Catholic--would find this highly surprising. But if people are joining the Catholic Church in record numbers, why are the pews half empty? Poor adult instruction?

Blacks without God?

We hadn't thought of it, but during Black History Month, you don't hear much, if any, talk about God. Christianity has been central to the blacks' American experience, from the spiritual songs of slaves to MLK, Jr., yet Christianity doesn't get much discussion.

Pope Odds

We're not endorsing and we're not condemning, but we are chuckling. You can bet on who will be the next Pope. LINK to odds [http://www.oddschecker.com/betting/mode/o/odds/124960x/mbid/5714253]. Dionigi Cardinal Tettamanzi of Milan is the bookies' favorite right

Belloc the Discerning Bartender

Hilaire Belloc viewed the Reformation as a sundering, not just of the Church, but of all aspects of civilization, right down to drinking it would appear (gentle Protestant reader: please don't take offense at Belloc's rhetoric; it's just Belloc's way): > I

Shots from MG

In case you were enjoying this nice Sunday afternoon, we thought we'd pass along two statements we just heard on The McLaughlin Group: Eleanor Clift: John Paul II's position on the use of condoms in Africa was "unconscionable." John McLaughlin to Pat Buchanan: "

Interesting Assertion

By Jeff Culbreath at Hallowed Ground: > [C]ultural influence and renewal doesn't need a majority. A staunch and vigorous minority - say 25% to 33% - can turn around an entire nation. The majority will always be hedonistic and amoral, but a moral MINORITY can shame them

And Grad Students Vote Blue

The current issue of U.S. News & World Report says that incidents of mental illness among graduate students is high and rising. One grad student at Berkeley examined the breadth of the problem at UCB. Her findings: "Nearly half of the students said they'd had an

Meth and Viagra

Interesting article from the New York Times about the disappearance of condoms from homosexual clubs and the potential rise of HIV. It seems that homosexuals are combining Viagra with methamphetamine and having a raging good condom-less time. An earlier NYT article (which we can't find now, sorry) says

Something for Sunday Morning

"Prayer is the single most powerful tool we have on Earth. And yet so many people misunderstand it–or ignore it altogether. Prayer is our ability to talk directly to God–and to listen to God tell us how to live our lives. Those who ignore prayer–and God,

Terrorist

Prosecutors in Michigan are using the state's anti-terrorism threat law to prosecute students who threaten violence against other children. According to prosecutors, there are no statutes at their disposal for these types of cases. It sounds like the Michigan legislature needs to pass such a statute. It'

Imprison this Guy with the Amorous Sadists

According to the Associated Press, a man convicted in the nation's first felony case against illegal spamming was sentenced to nine years in prison. Jeremy Jaynes sent millions of spam e-mails, and his operations grossed up to $750,000 per month. We wonder if Jaynes was the guy

Flannery

Eric Scheske recently picked up Flannery O'Connor's The Habit of Being again. A collection of her letters from 1948 until her death in 1964, it's a thick book, about 600 pages. Eric started reading it about three years ago and loves it, but something

Excess?

One reader has questioned whether a bottle of wine and a can of beer (Eric's consumption last night) is excessive drinking. Not by our standards. A bottle of wine equals a six pack of beer, so Eric consumed seven beers over the course of three+ hours. He'

Unsteady at Wal-Mart

NYTimes LINK [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/08/business/08walmart.html?ei=5090&en=af8d95bdca37c318&ex=1270612800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&adxnnlx=1113062409-7qn6+jsp8BhyoLbnPBDgmQ] This is the first time we've ever gotten the feeling that something might be caught in the wheels

The Weekend Eudemon

Oh, the best laid plans! It's a glorious weekend here: Spring weather in the 60s and 70s, no clouds, small breeze. Eric left work early on Friday (4:00), came home and went for a walk with Mad Max in the jogging stroller. When he got back, he

Sex and Truth

The clever John Robson has written a good piece about JPII, the modern world's sex obsession, and its corresponding rejection of truth. There's no link yet, but it'll be on his site [http://www.thejohnrobson.com/] in a few days. Here's an

Diet Food for the Hungry

There's nothing wrong with it, of course, but we're amused that they're handing out Atkins diet food to the hungry in Appalachia. Link [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152875,00.html].

Wisconsin Governor Submits State to Vatican!

The Wisconsin governor ordered flags flown at half-mast this week. The result? The separation-of-church-and-staters are upset: "The gesture 'appears like an endorsement of Roman Catholicism over other religious viewpoints,' said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. LINK [http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/

You Go, Girl

Here's a great rant by Elinor Dashwood [http://mommentary.blogspot.com/]. Has it all: masculinity, a shot at popular weakness, religion. If a man had written it, he'd be accused of being insecure. > What's the deal with these men who talk about feelings?

Ebb and Flow

On Tuesday, Kansas passed a constitional amendment against gay marriage. Yesterday, NYC says it must recognize gay marriages from other jurisdictions. Link [http://nydailynews.com/news/v-echo/story/297689p-254885c.html]

Yeah, Right

Eric Scheske has written elsewhere that all those beautiful women in the magazines and movies don't really exist. Link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=2&art_id=24526]. This story and pictures of 61-year-old Diana Ross support his assertion. Link [http://nydailynews.com/

Brews You Can Use

According to this guy [http://beerblog.genx40.com/archives/2005/april/britains], the Nutshell is the smallest pub in England. "Weighing in at 15ft x 7ft, it seats about ten people with room for about another half a dozen standing. After this it becomes all very uncomfortable, or cosy,

Whatta Shocker

A reader sent us the following humorous observation: > I have been watching some of the media coverage of JPII with much amusement. > It's amazing isn't it? Here we have a man who was born into a devout Catholic family in fervently Catholic country. He

Follow Me!

May the Holy Father rest in peace. May the rest of us follow his example, which is nothing less than to follow Christ. The text of the homily is available all over the Internet, but here's a link [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=

Fearing the Food II

Last month, we mentioned that Eric Scheske's daughter, Meg (4), still feared "the salami" that hit Southeast Asia in December. This evening, Eric ran outside to chase off two stray dogs that potentially threatened to attack his wife and two youngest. Meg came to the door,

The B Side of the Albom

Being from Michigan and a former Detroit Free Press paperboy and an occasional reader of Mitch Albom, Eric Scheske finds Albom's alleged fraud about MSU players meeting at a tournament game interesting. LINK [http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=9216]. The MSU column is vintage Albom:

Bold but Sane

We don't agree with all of it, but The Sunday Times ran a bold yet reasonably sane call for Catholic Church action in the coming years. Link [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-1552217_1,00.html]. Excerpts: > The task of doing God's will

We'll Put It In an Albert Jay Nock Book

While walking through the public library's IRS Tax Information Resources Center yesterday, Eric Scheske noticed that the IRS now provides taxpayers with free bookmarks. They contain happy faces and information about the IRS. Criminy, who'd want that as a bookmark? Opening a book is a relaxing

Mastering Burke

The Masters is here, and that means one thing: No Martha Burke. We'd forgotten about what may have been the last whimper of militant feminism two years ago this month, but the New York Times reminded us. LINK [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/sports/golf/06masters.

1960s Still With Us

Why should they move? They don't trust the establishment and they have nothing better to do: "Seven weeks before release of the new 'Star Wars' flick, fanatics started lining up outside the famous Grauman's Chinese Theater this past weekend. But there's

Another Non-Flash in the Pan

Al Gore on Monday unveiled his new television network, "Current," which aims to attract younger viewers with short videos and a tie-in with the popular Google Inc. search engine. It's geared to 18-34 year olds and is going to have a serious theme: "empower- ing

Fascists in Boise

It's bad enough that they restrict the right to see naked dancers, but the ordinance then coerces people into acting like artists. More fascism and oppression. Link [http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050405/D899F0DG0.html]. Excerpt: "Art night at Erotic City apparently wasn't artistic enough.

Never Let Me Go II

We earlier linked to an review in Slate of Kazuo Ishiguoro's new novel, Never Let Me Go. The Atlantic this month also praises it, saying "modern desperation regarding death, combined with technological advances and the natural human capacity for self-serving fictions and evasions . . . could easily give rise

Comments

All right, we've come to a momentous decision: we're going to allow comments, starting now. As we mentioned on Saturday, traffic isn't a problem, but we are concerned with the twin problems of nuts and cranks. After much deliberation and beer, we've

Welcome

Welcome to The Daily Eudemon., formerly The Wednesday Eudemon. We're still working out some kinks, but this is our new format. We hope you like it. We'll resume our regular posting Thursday morning.

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Girls Gone Wild II All right, we're posting this, but we're not convinced that it's real. Procedurally, it has all the signs of authenticity, but its substance is ridiculous. It's a supposed press release from Women's Church-Convergence. The funnier parts

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A Blogger PSA Allow us to do some dirty work for our fellow bloggers. Have you seen those blog “Google Ads”? It is our understanding that a blogger receives a small amount of money every time a viewer “clicks through” one of the ads. So if you're on

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Multi-Tasking and Interrupting A reader of Eric Scheske's Wednesday column at Catholic Exchange [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=28068] writes, “I know a lot of people who multi-task, and can agree with you that its effects are insidious. It'

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In the Spirit of Aldous Huxley? Kazuo Ishiguro has written a new novel: Never Let Me Go. Slate provides a compelling review of this eerie and chilly novel about cloned children. Based on the review, let's hope this novel resonates as loudly with us as Upton Sinclair'

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A Clothesline Tackle We enjoy the mini-essay about little things. Belloc was good at it (there's a passage in The Path to Rome about windows that we've been meaning to post during one of the slow weekends). Jeff Cumbert at Hallowed Ground [http://hallowedground.blog-city.com/

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Carlyle's Cash Nexus Strikes Again! A father is selling videotapes of his serial killer son's confession. LINK [http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3675980,00.html] . Who cares about making money off what should be great shame (the contestants on Fear Factor

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Vicuna In yesterday's Weekly Features Post, there is a reference to vicuna. In our ignorance, we didn't know what it was. It's a very soft fabric made from, shocker shocker, vicuna. A reader sends along this picture, in case anyone else is curious:

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Lawrence is Fuming Kansas yesterday approved a constitutional amendment that bans homosexual marriage. LINK [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152572,00.html]. That means eighteen states are rife with hatred and bigotry. Sixteen more states are supposedly lining up to declare themselves narrow-minded. What's going on?

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Weekly Features Post Issue XVIII What a difference a week makes. Last week, we wrote/slashed together the Weekly Features Post with a tall cold one at our elbow. This week? Tuesday a.m., cold sober. The beer went with the mother-in-law. And with the wife. Her passion is swimming

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Bullies are Couch Potatoes There's more evidence that TV leads to aggressive behavior. LINK [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152430,00.html]. Excerpt: According to researchers, "We have added bullying to the list of potential negative consequences of excessive television viewing along with obesity, inattention,

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Getting Rid of Religion, Again A young man named Sam Harris has written a scathing book against religion: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. Based on this dissecting review [http://www.christianitytoday.com/books/features/bookwk/050404.html] in Christianity Today, the book is well

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The Grey Lady II We went to the First Things archives and pulled up these words from Richard John Neuhaus (2002) about Cahill's view of JPII: Thomas Cahill does his duty by Catholic liberalism with Pope John XXIII, which is part of the Penguin Lives series. It is

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Leave it to the Grey Lady The New York Times has ran a harsh op-ed about JPII's accomplishments. It's exactly what we expected to issue eventually from a leftist press that's largely been respectful for an entire 48 hours following the Pope's

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Gay Con Man? Like the doctors suing over paternity after the woman “stole” the man's sperm, these types of stories always humor us. Here, it looks like a homosexual tricked men into stripping for him by promising prize money from a local radio station. (The story doesn'

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That's Good Catholic Mocking In light of John Paul's worsening condition on Saturday, the producers of “Desperate Housewives” edited out a reference to Catholics in Sunday night's episode in which two of the characters are attending a Catholic funeral. One of the characters says,

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The Secular Press, Too, Shall Pass . . . But the Church will still be standing. Mark Steyn at the Telegraph has a great piece [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/04/05/do0501.xml] on John Paul II and Truth v. the Secular Press and Relativism. Here&

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Even a Guy on the Left Understands With all the attention on the Pope's illness and death, the level of ignorance about things Romish has really come to the surface. Every hack thinker has all sorts of ideas for the Church, from women in the pulpit and married

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Burial in Poland? Smokin' Joe Trembley [http://onnothing.blogspot.com/] sends this along in response to rumors that John Paul wanted to be buried in Poland: "Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said John Paul would 'almost surely' be buried in the tomb where Pope John XXIII

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Conservatives on the Gay Left As Kansas prepares to vote tomorrow on a constitutional ban on gay marriages, one lesbian comments about the proposal, "The consequences of this are totally unknown," said Sandra Kobets, a 55-year-old Prairie Village nurse with a female partner of nearly 11 years. "

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Suffering Fools Gladly 101 James Taranto knows not to deal seriously with folks who lack the most basic levels of discernment [http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/]: Jack Nargundkar of Germantown, Md., is confused, as he made clear in a letter to the editor of the New York Times the other

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Blues and the South Engaging article by Clyde Wilson that pithily recounts the South's conservatism and the whines from the Blues that they'd like to secede from the Union in light of the 2004 elections. LINK [http://www.lewrockwell.com/wilson/wilson17.html]. Closing excerpt: There

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Billionaire Lion Another successful man is prepared to make a killing off Hollywood's obsession with breasts, violence, and flatulence. This time, it's billionaire Philip Anschutz, the entrepreneur behind Anschutz's Walden Media. AWM is the child-centric division of Anschutz Film Group and the maker of

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A Blog Worth the Click James Thumos has a worthy blog. We've been watching him for awhile and, though his posts had been sporadic, his quotidian postings have been going strong recently. Today he has fitting words for the New York Times' editorial on JPII: “The New

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Consumerism and a Sad Flip-side From News of the Weird: “On Thika highway in Nairobi, Kenya, in February, frenzied and hungry villagers brawled for access to meat from a baby hippopotamus (about 1,700 lbs.) that had been killed by a passing vehicle. Amidst the kicking and punching, two people

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Nazi Western Civ Prof And we thought FDU's only problem was getting the sixteenth seed every year in the NCAA Basketball Tournament: “Fairleigh Dickinson University last week dismissed an adjunct professor who is a leader of the National Socialist Movement of the United States, also known as the

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John Paul the Great Richard John Neuhaus is one of the folks pitching for John Paul the Great. LINK [http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/42137.htm]. “In the nearly two millennia of the Church's history, only two popes are known as 'The Great': Leo the

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What About Our Condo in PV? The American Thinker has published a startling short essay about the civil unrest brewing in Mexico. LINK [http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=4386]. A few excerpts: Ten percent of Mexican voters now live in the U.S. legally or illegally, but

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Guess We'll Give These Guys Another Look “Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote in his 1950 best seller, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, that gays were 'sexual perverts' and 'very ill physically.'" Now that Scientology is the rage with Hollywood, it

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MTV In the 168 hours of programming during its spring break 2004, MTV showed over 3,000 depictions of sex or various forms of nudity and made 2,881 spoken references to sex. MTV is laced with more profanity than Rick James's veins had cocaine. MTV during the

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Berry's World The Hallowed Ground [http://hallowedground.blog-city.com/] blog prompted Eric to take The Art of the Commonplace from his shelf. A collection of the agrarian essays of Wendell Berry, it's a pleasant read: not too hard yet profound, full of truths you don'

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John Paul the Great A few tidbits picked up from Fox News during the past thirty minutes: It has been suggested (sorry, we didn't get a name) that the Holy Father will be known as "John Paul the Great." (This "campaign" has been going

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Equality! "This year, more women (124) than men (123) are expected to be ordained in the Church of England for the first time. An average of 267 men were ordained each of the three years before the church began ordaining women, meaning that the number has fallen by half

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Blessed Sin? "Dante says that at the summit of Mount Purgatory is the Earthly Paradise, the place of man's innocense. It is from here that, if man had not fallen, he would have entered upon the life of Perfection, in this world and the next. Dorothy Sayers

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Book on the Pope's Death George Weigel is writing a book about the death of the Pope. LINK [http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050402005067&newsLang=en] . At first we thought, "Is it going to be one of

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Something for Sunday Morning Existential anxiety is quelled by detachment, and therefore, to use Thomas Merton's words, detachment is “the number one rule of religion.” Detachment is the state of mind that does not care for the self–that master of every sinful act, appetite, and thought; that

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Maybe It's the Tess Celebration Wine, But . . . The guys at Hog on Ice crack us up sometimes. They're off-color, but frequently funny. Here are one of their contributor's thoughts on bullfighting: I “ate a nutritious breakfast while watching a matador get rectally impaled about

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No Limbo for Tess The Church received Therese Elizabeth Scheske this evening, about two hours after the Holy Father passed and about thirty minutes before the Blessed Statue of Fatima came through our little parish. Maybe Tess will be a nun. Eric Scheske has three daughters. To give one back

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We Will Not Tolerate Your Beliefs "With a growing number of reports of pharmacists around the country refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control and emergency contraception, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on Friday filed a rule requiring Illinois pharmacies to accept and dispense all such prescriptions promptly." LINK

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Two Jobs Don't Equal Freedom? G.K. Chesterton said the workplace would enslave women, not emancipate them: "While working men spend 6.4 hours a day at work and working women about 5 hours, the women spend about twice as much time on housework and childcare as

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New Blog Did you like that rant against corporate America? Here's a blog you might want to bookmark: Hallowed Ground [http://hallowedground.blog-city.com/].

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You Ain't Corporate? You Ain't Diddley. Watching the Final Four tonight? You probably won't be in the stands, unless you work for a big company. This, according to USA Today. LINK [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/tourney05/2005-03-31-final-four-tickets_x.htm] . Excerpt: "

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Charles Williams We promised more literary comments even though we fear that they're not very popular. Most of our readers appear to enjoy the current events commentary more, which is fine, since we like providing it. Nonetheless, we promised literary references, so we're going to post

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Ptolemy Redux [http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050331_asimov_debate.html] "Though researchers find more and more distant planets revolving around alien suns, the discoveries highlight that Earth and its solar system may be an exceptionally rare place indeed." This, the consensus of researches at the 5th annual

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The Weekend Eudemon Whew! Eric Scheske is shaking off a binge this morning. Yes, we realize a binge is only five beers, according to U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, so perhaps he should feel fine. But what if he had a binge and a half? Or

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Jane II We should have mentioned: Jane Fonda may have converted to Christianity. LINK [http://www.beliefnet.com/story/7/story_791_1.html]. Guess we were asleep at the mouse when this news broke back in 2000. It rings a bell, but that's it. Thanks to Me

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A Sad Day Here's the Papal procedure [http://www.popechart.com/Papal%20Election.htm], if the Holy Father passes.

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Who Black-Blogged the Minorities? Studies show that the blogosphere is dominated by white males, and not dead ones, either. A few activist types are appalled and they're challenging bloggers to do something about it. One woman wants other bloggers to find ten female non-white bloggers and link to

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Fast Lane Jane Hanoi Jane engaged in untoward acts with her first husband and prostitutes. LINK [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/295371p-252841c.html]. We saw this story a few weeks ago, but Fonda denied it. Now she's apparently admitting it. Don't tell us that

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Now There's a Reason for Her to Beer Me If one married person is happy, the other tends to be. But that's not necessarily the case with couples that are merely shacking up. LINK [http://channels.netscape.com/ns/love/package.jsp?name=fte/maritalsecret/maritalsecret]

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No Ho? There are no black holes, at least according to one scientist [http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050328/full/050328-8.html]. The way black holes have always been presented to us, we thought their existence was indisputable. Will it turn out to be a laugher, like so many

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Funniest Quote We Found This Morning "I think there are some people in the audience who meant to be at the sexual reorientation class down the hall." Ann Coulter, responding to liberal hecklers during a speech at Kansas University (the UC Berkeley of the Midwest). LINK [http://www.

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Ho On a Minute! Freedom of expression, freedom to be hypersensitive, and political correctness crash in the Northleft [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002225807_tshirt31m.html]: "When Snohomish High senior Justin Patrick wore a T-shirt to school last month with the lettering 'SNOHOS' across the front,

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Binge Drinking Almost one-quarter of Americans reported binge drinking in the last month, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Amazing number? Not quite. The Administration defines "binge drinking" as having five or more drinks on the same occasion. Criminy. By that definition,

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Friday's Brews You Can Use From Hail the Ale [http://www.hailtheale.com/blog]: "For those who drink less discerning beers, there is a new movement afoot to rid the nasty aftertaste of your Bud or Miller. InBev will be distributing Brahma, a Brazilian beer that will

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The Successor John Paul II has received last rites. Who will be the successor? We've heard three theories: 1. The next Pope will be malevolent and cause great harm to the Church. This is an unacknowledged prophecy from at least one purported mystic. 2. The next Pope is

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Rodrigo Revisited It appears we may have been duped with respect to the Maradiago story (see below). We asked for comments, and we got 'em. A reader wrote to us earlier this afternoon: "You got played. The canadafreepress story about Maradiaga copied most of its 'quotes'

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Fat and Poor According to the Child Well-Being Index, America's children are fat but sober, poor but safe. Basically, everything seems to be going well for them, except they're poorer and getting big as whales. It's probably because they're spending all their

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On Comics Interesting article about society's attitude toward comics [http://www.jeetheer.com/comics/intellectualmarijuana.htm]. For the first half of the century, the article says comics were condemned as “intellectual marijuana” and contributors to juvenile delinquency. In the last half of the century, they were accepted, thanks

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Debt Culture is Dangerous Culture “The sheer scale of consumer debt has made millions of households extremely vulnerable to shocks in the economy, both from fiscal mismanagement and external factors such as oil price rises, acts of terrorism and wars. A downturn in the economy would create serious economic and

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What's the Standard in Bath Houses? We doubt many in our reading crowd need it, but Slate's “Dear Prudence” column has provided guidance on homosexual public display of affection. We like the underlying assumption that such displays are fine overall. More normalizing: “Prudie's opinion

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Dying Babies According to The Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=G0V42NXSPTKNJQFIQMGSM5OAVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2005/03/31/nbaby31.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/03/31/ixportal.html] , the number of babies who die during or soon after birth is rising in the UK. The pre-birth mortality

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Rodrigo Revisited? Note: The following post turned out to be false (see explanation above) With the Holy Father failing, one Cardinal has apparently made it known that he's the man for the job: "'When the Sacred College of Cardinals names me pope, I'm gonna

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Prom to Porn We've been knocking sororities lately, but fraternities aren't any better. There are all sort of stories out there, this one being the most recent: California State University has suspended the charter of Phi Kappa Tau after it hosted a porn party. Students participated

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More Whistling at Construction Sites A report in England says girls are discouraged from pursuing non-traditional female jobs (e.g., construction). LINK [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4395565.stm]. That's surprising. Back in our school days, we recall girls being pushed to non-traditional jobs

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That's a Tiny Mannequin! "Police are looking for two women who stole a 'plastinated' 13-week old fetus from the Body Worlds 2 exhibit in Los Angeles. Surveillance tape showed the two thieves lingering at the exhibit, then taking the specimen from its case." LINK

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Now That's Good Sex! According to a survey, "'Half of the country sleeps pretty well -- the other half has problems.' What is to blame? The survey of more than 1,500 adults found that 87 percent usually watched TV in the hour before going

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That Cutting Edge is Soooo PassÃ© "The number of women who choose to keep their surname when they get married has dropped significantly in the last 20 years since the fashion's peak in the mid-1980s." Authors of a new study estimate that "a little under

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Stalinist U Another instance of a study confirming what everyone already knew: “American professors are overwhelmingly liberal, according to a new report [http://www.bepress.com/forum/vol3/iss1/art2/] on faculty political attitudes. “Previous surveys have reached similar conclusions, but this one suggests that the ideological divide on campuses

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Shape Up and Fly Right, Parents “Two-thirds of teenage children of parents who said religion is extremely important to them say religion is extremely important or very important in their own lives, while half of teens whose parents say that religion is not very important to them agree with their

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Sorry We Couldn't Be There Sounds like there was a lot of fun at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards dinner. Held at the Marriott Marquis in NYC, Jon Stewart greeted everyone via videotape with a shot at the religious right, “Good evening, Godless sodomites!

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Wednesday Features Post Issue XVII Things have been hoppin'–both for TWE and our glass. For TWE, the RSS feed appears to have worked well, increasing our "Visitors" count by over 40% immediately (there could be other reasons for the increase, but that one seems most likely)

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Crimson Crisis II Well, what do you expect when you don't have Cap'n Crunch and Fruit Loops? “A long-held stereotype that Harvard undergraduates feel neglected by their professors and don't have as much fun as students at other colleges now has some data to

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Slate Joins LA Times in Ignorance Add Slate and its chief political correspondent, William Saletan, to the list of publications and writers who feel qualified to talk about the Schiavo case and the DeLay case with no knowledge or acknowledgement of the Catholic Church's teaching on extraordinary versus

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The Deathferall Government Christopher Manion has written a cogent article about the runaway federal government and the Schiavo case. LINK [http://www.lewrockwell.com/manion/manion63.html]. The thrust of his article: the issue of death and dying has traditionally been a local affair, normally right down to the smallest

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Slouching Toward the Canucks If gay marriage continues to pick-up steam, maybe some day we'll be like Canada, where folks are punished by the state for anti-gay rhetoric and forced to do business with homosexuals whose life styles they find offensive. It apparently has already started. LINK [http:

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Racism! According to an Associated Press report, Census Bureau data shows that college-educated white women typically earn less ($37,800) than college-educated black women $41,100) and Asian women ($43,700). College-educated Hispanic women early about the same as the whites ($37,600). Either the government needs to take steps

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Captain Obvious Rides Again! "Smoking bans being considered in New Jersey and Colorado would hurt revenue at casinos, analysts and industry lobbyists say." LINK [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050328/bs_nm/leisure_casinos_smoking_dc] Isn't a casino without smoking

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Better Yet We knew it would be cool if Alec Baldwin and others of the Left Company moved to Canada after the 2004 elections, but we didn't know it would be this cool: There is "no fate so wretched as to be without a country of one&

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Courtesy Notice Postings will be scarce early today. Eric Scheske has to take Max (19 months) to the Big City for an operation. We oughtta put up a "PayPal: My Kid Needs an Operation" link, but it's just tubes in the ears. We'll be

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Skinheads and Marriage From The American Thinker (LINK [http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=4367]): "Given the German birthrate, I pointed out to my close friend Axel (a German) that if the skinheads really wanted to help their Fatherland, instead of beating up nonwhites, they should marry

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No Shame and/or Intelligence The LA Times has published a lengthy story about Tom DeLay's decision to let his father die 16 years ago instead of intervening with kidney dialysis and other extraordinary measures. The implication: DeLay is a hypocrite in the Shiavo matter. The total ignorance

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Crimson Crisis America's best and brightest tackle social injustice. The next round of campus protests nears: “Angry cereal fans are lashing out after Harvard University cleared its dining halls this school year of brand-name cereals, such as Fruit Loops and Cap'n Crunch, and swapped them for

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Feeling a Draft II Last Saturday, we linked to a 10,000-word essay about the potential for a military draft. If 10,000 words wasn't inviting but you're interested in the topic, you may want to try this much shorter article: LINK [http://www.lewrockwell.com/

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Jail the Pharmacists! The front page of the Washington Post reports this morning that there is increasing outrage over pharmacists who refuse to fill contraception prescriptions or abortifacients because it violates the pharmacist's beliefs. Predictably, the reduced-children crowd wants to force pharmacists to fill the prescriptions. The following

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Dirty Doctors Dancing In cases like this, it's fun to see the lawyers get rich. We feel bad for the daughter, of course, but for the doctors, it's a good thing. From News of the Weird: “Six years ago, during a brief affair in Chicago, Dr.

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Bigotry Lingers On English law still provides that a person cannot become head of state if s/he marries a Roman Catholic. We erroneously thought the law had been repealed. The Telegraph is pushing for its elimination. Excerpt: "Only Roman Catholics are barred from marrying the monarch. Prince William

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Planned Viciousness Dawn Eden continues her fine broadsides into that travesty known as Planned Parenthood. This time, taking apart their claim to religion by setting up clinics in churches. LINK [http://www.dawneden.com/blogger.html]. A few excerpts: “On Good Friday, Planned Parenthood's Web site touted an

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Who Are the Freaks Now? We believe large families are nature's norm. And when norms are ignored, unusual phenomena occur. With the proliferation of small families, we're seeing a lot of parents going to absurd lengths for their children: catering to their whims, making sure they

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Time to Start Walking Funny We didn't think it possible, but magazines are increasing cleavage. LINK [http://pdnonline.com/photodistrictnews/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000855318] . Excerpt: “Buxom babes and cleavage-bearing models have always been a bankable newsstand commodity for men's magazines, but a

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Early Risers According to this article in the LA Times [http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/la-me-beliefs26mar26,1,836142.story?coll=la-news-religion&ctrack=1&cset=true] , Protestant churches are abandoning their traditional sunrise services on Easter: "While some Christian churches still faithfully hold sunrise services on Easter,

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Easter Celebrations It's been a pretty wild Easter so far. Five of Eric Scheske's seven children were up at 6:30 this morning, biting at the candy bit to search for their baskets. They came to Eric's study, where he contained them until he

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More Easter "If it had ended [at the cross], however, the world may have been impressed by Jesus's goodness, but that's it. Someone who is good is not automatically worthy of one's faith or hope. The Resurrection, the real conclusion of Christ'

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Easter When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld "him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a

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Holy Saturday Satan didn't know he had swallowed the Godhead, thereby inviting Full Being into his fortress of nothingness and bringing about the ontological fall of his nothingness. In the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa: "The Godhead hid under the covering of our human nature so

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Do You Feel a Draft? We don't believe that the draft will return, but this lengthy essay (actually, a booklet–over 10,000 words) makes us wonder. If this type of thing interests you, it's worth browsing. LINK [http://www.counterpunch.org/reeves03192005.html]. Note: We

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More Absinthe We are pursuing this absinthe matter further (see 3/25 "Friday's Brews You Can Use"). Per our request, Dale Ahlquist, Publisher of Gilbert Magazine and President of the American Chesterton Society, passed along seven passages from works of G.K. Chesterton that mention it.

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Electronically Perverse, Yet Modest From News of the Weird: "Vivienne, an interactive companion accessible on powerful, 'third-generation' cellphones, was recently introduced by the Hong Kong company Artificial Life as a high-maintenance, video-image 'girlfriend' who goes on dates with you, kisses, speaks six languages, converses on

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Stalinists and Satanists We read recently that Moscow has over 30 Satanist sects and about 2,000 Satanists. LINK [http://mosnews.com/news/2005/03/25/satanicmoscow.shtml]. While reading the article, we kept thinking it said "Stalinists." It wouldn't make much a difference, both being

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The Weekend Eudemon Concentration Camp U.S.A. We did a little pilsner philosophizing last night about Bishop Bruskewitz's mass excommunication nine years ago. After drinking about it, we've concluded that we were a little too flippant in our observation that Bruskewitz's actions didn&

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Million Dollar Schiavo Crushing piece in the Harvard Crimson today [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=506716] about Terri Schiavo and Americans' disdain for people with disabilities. After Million Dollar Baby came out, we opined that "better dead than disabled" has stealthily become a part of

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Shacking Up and Shaking Out A few interesting items from the National Catholic Register that came today: 1. A study in Britain shows that unmarried couples with young children are five times more likely to break up than married couple families. Nearly one in two cohabitating couples split before their

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Good Friday "His Cross has put its due value upon every thing which we see, upon all fortunes, all advantages, all ranks, all dignities, all pleasures; upon the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It has set a price upon

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The Sci-Fi of It All! We thought this story [http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=313952005] might have been a bad Monty Python spoof, but no such luck: "MPs will today recommend giving the go-ahead to couples to create 'designer babies' and allowing the experimental implantation

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Friday's "Brews" You Can Use We weren't going to post any drinking news today, in light of Good Friday, but we find this story [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20050323-0500-life-absinthe.html] fascinating, mostly because we know very little about this type of drink.

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Another Alternative Lifestyle Well, it has happened. We always joked about punk rockers with their fishing tackle boxes hanging from their face: "If they wanna mess themselves up, why don't they get serious and amputate an arm? That's really messed up." It turns out

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Holy Thursday In order to accomplish salvation in a manner that permitted human nature to cooperate in its own fulfillment, a man–Jesus–needed to undergo an ontological privation. Jesus would have to give his being in order to restore our being, analogous to dirt being taken from a hill

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Honey, Who Shrank Our Daughters? You have a daughter going to college? Check out the last half of this article [http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/002/10.37.html]. It seems things have gotten worse at sororities since Eric Scheske frequented them (heh heh heh) in the 1980s, but

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The Crowd in Front Will Run Faster PETA is sponsoring a “running of the nudes.” LINK [http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-3-2005_pg9_4]. Excerpt: “The annual 'running of the bulls' in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona could get some serious competition this

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Just Shaking Hands When we heard that San Franciso had banned handshakes following female soccer games (LINK [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/23/BAGCTBTCDG1.DTL]), we assumed the post-game tradition had turned erotic. Turns out it's just the opposite: the girls

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Hey, Placenta Head! While waiting for Mrs. Scheske to go through the labor game, Eric talked with the attendant nurses about birthing stories. None of the stories beat the one about the guy who wanted to take the placenta with him. He had heard it was a cure for baldness.

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We're No Luddites TWE now has an RSS feed (see the XML box below, on the right side). An RSS feed is basically a form of technology that checks sites for changes. If we post a change to TWE, the RSS feed will tell you about it. Many

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Modesty in Fashion? We saw this at the Mommentary blog site [http://mommentary.blogspot.com/]. After years of twisting our necks while driving down the road or twisting our brains in resistance to the neck twisting, we'd love to see some modesty return to fashion. We're

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Tinsel Chimps It's common knowledge that monkeys engage in sodomy. It used to be one of the gay quarter's favorite arguments: "It's so natural, monkeys do it!" They also hit each other over the head with rocks, but no matter. Assuming chimps

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Black Oil on White Snow We've never hugged a tree, cried for a seal, or taunted a lumberjack, but we've had misgivings about the renewed plunder of nature in the name of material wealth and the American “way of life.” Mostly, we dislike the de-greening of

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Married Priests A Catholic bishop wants the Church to consider ordaining married men. This, according to ABC News: LINK [http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1329648.htm] We don't mind such discussion, but it won't be long (six minutes?) until someone who doesn'

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She's Here! Therese Elizabeth Scheske, 8 lbs, 8 oz. Born: 4:05 a.m. EST, 3/23/04. We'll call her "Tess," but she's named after St. Therese of Lisieux.

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Wednesday Features Post Issue XVI "The waiting is the hardest part." Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were right. This Baby Number 7 just doesn't want to come out. Last Tuesday, the doctor told Mrs. Scheske that she wouldn't make it through the week. That

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More NBC Readers of TWE might remember this earlier post: “A recent study says that NBC is by far the worst network when it comes to treating religion negatively. From September 2003 to September 2004, it had 9.5 negative treatments of religion for every positive one. Of the other

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The Cell Phone Virus The technology goes faster and faster and the scams mount higher and higher. LINK [http://www.slate.com/id/2115118/] How do you become Amish? "Several security officials told me that a scam artist could write a worm that invades your phone, waits patiently until

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American Idol News The federal 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that a judge's dismissal of Harry Keane's claim that he invented American Idol was proper. The judge ruled in 2003 that Keane shopped his idea for the show around so broadly -

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The New Candy Man We actually feel bad for this little guy. He no doubt meant well: “A first-grader brought dozens of little bags of crack cocaine to his Chicago Heights elementary school Friday and began passing them out to classmates, calling them 'candy,' officials said Sunday.” LINK

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The Birth Dearth Mark Steyn at The Telegraph discusses the “birth dearth” in Europe and the trouble it portends. A similar problem confronts the U.S. to a lesser extent (for now; we generally lag behind European decadence by a few years, but eventually catch up). LINK [http://www.telegraph.

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Waiting for Scott A San Quentin inmate sent an open letter to Scott Peterson. LINK [http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/41386.htm]. Said the letter writer, "As for killing his wife, that's his business – but for killing that child, well, he gots to suffer for that.

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Muslims Attack Christians. Who's Shocked? Attacks against Iraqi Christians (which total about 3% of Iraq's population) are on the rise, according to this article [http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=IA21305]. Here's an excerpt: "The high level of violence in

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Revenge Tuesday Few days feel as long as Tuesday. On Monday, most everyone is taking it easy, trying to ease into the week. But on Tuesday? It's just a work day, with many more coming. We found this on MSN's homepage yesterday and thought we'

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Another PC Disaster From Fox News: “The Arizona Daily Star [http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/dailystar/65372.php] paints a chilling portrait of a sexual predator who ran amok at the University Medical Center in Tucson in part because staffers who suspected foul play were afraid to speak up for

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All Aboard the Ennui Train! This guy [http://www.slate.com/id/2115015/] aims to extend longevity, drastically. It's the same old story: science barging forward, wondering if it can, but not stopping to ask if it should. Such a question would require the input of philosophers and

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Scatman Crothers on the Cover? The mainline magazines for teeny-boppers and teenagers are pretty bad, often taking the form of “front rags” for Planned Parenthood. The most popular teen magazine is J-14. We'd never heard of it, but it sells 451,000 copies per month, 84,000 more

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Quotidian and Frequent Postings For those who aren't aware, Eric Scheske typically posts throughout the day. Sometimes just once in the morning and once in the afternoon, but he normally posts three to nine entries every day, from early morning to early evening, hence his claim to offer

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Dog Fight “A bitter custody battle has erupted between two Long Island families that both claim to be the rightful guardians – of a Chihuahua.” This, according to the New York Post. Peter Singer would see nothing odd. LINK [http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/41504.htm]

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Double Effect As a Catholic with mostly Protestant, agnostic, or atheistic friends, Eric Scheske gets a lot of, sometimes pointed, questions about when it's permissible for a woman to get an abortion. Eric always answers, "Never," to which he gets a lot of other, even pointier,

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Inside Higher Stalls Inside Higher Ed has a 1,400-word views piece about whether college students should be able to leave the room to use the bathroom. We know about the “publish or perish” problem among professors, but this? Then again, it appears to be a fiery topic: dozens of

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Long-haired Freaky People Need Not Apply "As if the hair in your salad wasn't bad enough, a city health inspector in Cheyenne, Wyo. said there had been 'several cases' of tongue rings and other facial jewelry found in the food in the city's

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Pride Unbound If you missed it, a group of today's leading novelists have undertaken to rewrite the great ancient myths. It's nauseating. Here's a link [http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/edesk031605.htm]; here are excerpts: "The mission of the literati, headed by Canadian

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Dr. Death Here's a troubling story [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/international/europe/19verhagen.html?] from the New York Times about Dr. Eduard Verhagen, a cutting-edge Dutch physician who kills babies with serious health defects. It's euthanasia, but in this situation, there are no

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More French Inanity The Ottawa Citizen's John Robson reports: "In a state-owned TV channel Top 100 French people poll, a certain 'Napoleon' misses the Top 10 cut, placing 16th (one viewer offers the deep historical insight "He was short, arrogant and I wouldn'

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NAMBLA Redux The Queens "sicko" accused of abusing "at least seven children told cops he attacked even more kids - and claimed his tiny victims enjoyed the abuse, law enforcement sources said yesterday. 'I never forced them to do anything they didn't want to,

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Bible Okay, God Not A study shows that high school teachers in Britain have found a way to teach Bible stories that suits them: excise all references to God. The prevailing rationale among the teachers for their hellish editing? They fear the pupils might find religious teaching too "boring,

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Mere Censorship? Bobby Maddex at the Crux blogs writes this interesting post: "Our sister publication Touchstone received an interesting email yesterday from a high school teacher who could not access its blog Mere Comments [http://merecomments.typepad.com/] from work. Apparently, the school uses a security program called Bess

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Z goes X? Has something screwy happened at Zondervan? Eric Scheske hasn't kept tabs on the publisher, but when he was a young Missouri Synod Lutheran, Zondervan was a respected publisher of solid Christian works (at least from the perspective of the teenage Scheske). Now this: "A

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A Day in the Life of Ivan Illich We haven't mentioned the Terri Schiavo case, primarily because many other worthy bloggers are doing a fine job covering it. We will say, however, that the whole affair reminds us of the central tenets of Ivan Illich's criticism

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Romano Guardini on Palm Sunday "The hour overflows with supernatural power. In these last days it is as if Jesus were gathering strength on strength preparing for the ultimate. He has just summoned Lazarus from the dead. His power has accompanied the disciples into the world, so that at

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Roman Ranger Rick on the Right Catholic congressmen are meeting to discuss Catholicism [http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/031505/santorum.html] . We encourage any serious efforts to educate folks about the Catholic faith. Most Protestants understand about one-fourth of Catholicism, and most Catholics's understanding

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Tent City A friend sent us this 2004 story [http://www.fenrir.com/free_stuff/columns/callcops/ctc-268.htm] about Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail creation, "Tent City." We'd heard of it, but didn't know any details. Sounds like a neat set up,

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Nerd War We like Wikipedia, but we don't rely on it much. We mostly use it to confirm our memory; we are uncomfortable accepting uncorroborated information from it. For those not acquainted with this on-line encyclopedia, it is written and edited by anyone who wants to write and

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The Weekend Eudemon Eric Scheske has had a good twelve hours. No baby yet, but he killed seven beers in anticipation. Also, Vermont, Bucknell, and Villanova all won yesterday. Eric drafted all three in an NCAA basketball team auction earlier this week. Their victories have advanced Eric's dreams

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The Chesterbelloc G.K. Chesterton blogs have come and gone, but we've never seen a Chesterbelloc blog. It looks like one has been started. Named On Nothing after an entertaining essay by Hilaire Belloc, it's less than one week old. LINK [http://onnothing.blogspot.com/] It

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AMA Alternative Perhaps all Christians should ask their doctors: Do you belong to the AMA or the CMA? "Do we want to reinforce the fear that the infirm are no more than a burden on the healthy? We need to send a message that even in our darkest hours,

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Music and (Very Little) Talk Radio Here's a WSJ article [http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB111111009578183338-IdjfYNjlaN4opynbIGHb62Fm5,00.html] about the radio industry's Canutin' efforts with regard to iPod and satellite radio (and, as pointed out in an article linked here Tuesday, additional electronic

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The Wizard of Os Os Guinness has written a new book: Unspeakable: Understanding & Resisting Evil in an Age of Genocide & Terrorism. Christianity Today interviewed him about the book [http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/110/42.0.html]. Here's a nice nutshell statement from Guinness about

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Politics in Sports The following is from a 1990 essay by Murray Rothbard [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard73.html]. It reminds us of our earlier musings about the efforts of ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and other media to push homosexuality into sports. It also reminds us of the effort every

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Da Vinci Code Stuff Catholics would learn more about theology and history from Monty Python and the Holy Grail than from The Da Vinci Code. Those, supposedly, the words of a priest being interviewed on ABC News. Funny and apt. Lifted from Open Book [http://amywelborn.typepad.com/openbook/].

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Friday's Brews You Can Use Molson has announced a new beer [http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=930adece-4663-4b46-9467-b968ed87e276] , "Molson Kick." It's made with guarana, a natural source of caffeine. Guarana is a fruit. Hmmm? We like Molson, but a fruity

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Die for Feminists Ann Coulter has nicely thrashed feminists [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/ac20050317.shtml] in light of the Atlanta shooting. Of course, she uses common sense in her piece, so it won't carry much weight, but here are some excerpts: “How many people have to

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G.K. Chesterton's Praise for the Irish "For the Great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry And all their songs are sad."

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Drink Green Looking for St. Patrick's Day drinking material? Here's a good page. [http://www.realbeer.com/edu/irish/]

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We don't run essays often, but there's not a lot of blogging material on the 'net right now, so we pulled up this piece from a writer who wants to remain anonymous. We think it's a delightful little essay, at least as delightful

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Charismatic Clubbing Based on this story [http://www.larknews.com/march_2005/secondary.php?page=2], charismatic worship services are getting out of hand. In all that charisma frenzy, people are getting gouged and bloodied. It's become enough of a problem that the North Carolina governor is preparing

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Idiot's Guide to Planning Planned Parenthood now endorses a thing called "outercourse." Basically, it's anything-goes sex, short of intercourse. A diagram of outercourse is reproduced below (which is taken from PP's teen web site). For more on the PP idiocy that shows

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Booze, Bouncer, BYOB . . . With the NCAA Tournament less than 24 hours away, along with the generous amount of drinking that accompanies it, we suspect this piece could be handy [http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/issues/02_05/02-05_on_the_cuff.htm]. Frank Rich, editor of Modern Drunkard Magazine, has provided

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Religions in a Nutshell There's a lengthy article in Christianity Today [http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/002/6.10.html] about ongoing dialogue between Catholics and Evangelicals. The article is upbeat about the process, especially with regard to beating back the secularism that is trying to outflank

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Yet Another Call for McLuhan Fascinating article on the revolution [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers134.html] that is about to take place in electronic entertainment. Here are two excerpts: (1) The opening paragraph; (2) a paragraph that describes one of the leading technologies that is going to lead the

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Malt Liquor Another study confirming what anyone with a modicum of street knowledge already knew: “Malt liquor, a type of beer that is higher in alcohol than other brews, is largely a drink of the homeless and unemployed, and is likely to be abused, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

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Fearing the Meat How long do children carry around shadowy notions of natural calamities? The flooding in southeast Asia occurred almost three months ago, and Eric Scheske's daughter Meg, who just turned four two weeks ago, still fears "the salami."

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Unscrewed John Zmirak reviews an unheralded movie [http://www.godspy.com/reviews/Mary-and-Joseph-at-the-Sex-Therapist-by-John-Zmirak.cfm] , Unscrewed. It's an entertaining article. The movie and review in a nutshell: A young married couple is inexplicably unable to have sex. They consult all sorts of therapists, and eventually get it sorted together

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For the “Fact Stranger than Fiction” Category We're not positive this story is real, but it appears to be. Students in Bible quiz competitions are being tested for performance enhancers, like ephedra, large doses of caffeine, and ginseng. LINK [http://www.larknews.com/march_2005/secondary.php?page=

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Fat No More We're sure most readers have heard this statistic that's being tossed around: Nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight and about half of those are considered obese. That fat fact drove the effort against McDonald's "Supersized" menu items and prompted

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Raising Readers A neat article at Lew Rockwell encourages parents to get their children to read a series of books in order to turn them into adult readers. The article then lists a dozen such series (listed below, along with a link to the article and an excerpt from the

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Another Breast Story A photographer in NYC discovered what we already knew: There's too much sex in our culture, it's become normalized, and we've become desensitized to things that would've brought prison sentences in a more modest era. LINK [http://nydailynews.com/

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The Other Performance Enhancer A reader sends along this message: “If society is opposed to steroids in sports/recreation, then enhanced breasts should be damned as well.” We're not sure what prompted the letter (maybe the gorilla/breast story from earlier today?), but he has a point. Eric

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No Tears Here We'll admit it: there's something about the whole coffee house industry that bugs us. Maybe it's the conspicuous consumerism of the whole thing: $3.00 for a cup of coffee. Maybe it's the academic pretension we acquaint with it.

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Conservatives Distrust Authority? David Greenberg at Slate has written a scathing criticism of Thomas E. Woods' The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Essentially, Greenberg is using Woods' book to stab at what he calls “populist conservatism,” a type of conservatism that “exhibit(s) scorn for intellectual authority

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Breasts and the Beast No cost too great in the pursuit of proving species equality: Everyone has heard of Koko, the gorilla who lives at the Gorilla Foundation and knows a thousand words in sign language. News of the Weird reports that two of Koko's female handlers filed

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Non-Eugenic Thought The March 14th issue of U.S. News & World Report has a short article on page 66 about Down syndrome children. According to the piece, parents of Down syndrome children often find them a unique blessing, but doctors "don't do an adequate job in

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ACLU on BSA The Americans for Catamites and Lesbians Union continues to flail away at the Boy Scouts, this time on separation of church and state grounds. LINK [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43258]. Two excerpts: "The Boy Scouts of America is pulling the charters

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Million Degraded Babes The Washington Monthly has published a hard hitting (heh heh heh) essay [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0503.wallace-wells2.html] against female boxing. It turns out that Million Dollar Baby isn't just a warped film about the glory of euthanasia. It's also

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NOW Has a Cow (Again) The only woman ever to serve as president of the NRA, Marion Hammer, will be inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame. And the feminists are mad. It appears the expansion of women's opportunities is good only if the expansion

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Erase Race Funny op-ed in the Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/03/13/do1306.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/03/13/ixop.html] this morning about classifying people by race. The writer contacted various agencies in Britain in order to determine what criteria

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The New Pot Heads Another study [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=711&e=15&u=/usatoday/20050310/tc_usatoday/electronicworldswallowsupkidstimestudyfinds] crying for a Marshall McLuhan revival: "The USA's children live in an increasingly heavy stew of media, spending about 6Â½

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Big GKC We've been told we don't post enough pictures. It's true that we don't post many, but this blog is a little different. In addition to commentary about current events, we post literary and historical references that you don't

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Something for Sunday Morning Be Still The spiritual state of stillness has fortified Christians throughout history. The teenage Origen (the first great Christian intellectual) stationed himself on the road where Christian martyrs were being led to their deaths and defied the Romans by saluting the victims with a kiss. When

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Director of Mental Waste Ah, those public school educators. They're always thinkin'. Scottsdale, Arizona public schools have changed some of their job titles. They don't have a receptionist, for instance. They have a "Director of First Impressions." Bus Driver? No longer, you'

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Blog Survey A blog reader survey is up [http://www.blogads.com/survey/2005_blog_reader_survey.html]. Based on 30,000 responses, the survey says blog readers tend to make decent money (over 60% make $60,000+ per year; over 40% make $90,000+); they tend to be male

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On Teddy's Virility Good essay by Harvey Mansfield [http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/23/mar05/mansfield.htm] about Teddy Roosevelt's manliness. Here are two excerpts: In a notable chapter of his Autobiography entitled “Outdoors and Indoors,” Roosevelt says that love of books and love of outdoors

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Equal Rights Shooting A reader points out to us: "In all the TV and newspaper coverage of the Fulton County fiasco in which a judge, a stenographer, and a deputy were shot, did you once read that the deputy who was overpowered and whose gun was taken was a

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Silly Satanists For those who missed it and are interested in the subject, here's a link [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=27763] to Eric Scheske's piece about the ridiculousness of Satanism.

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More TV-B-Gone The Old Oligarch [http://old-oligarch.blogspot.com/] weighed in on the TV-B-Gone earlier this week: "I need one of these. I ditched the TV when I went to college and never went back. Once I turned it on again in the summertime, I saw exactly how insipid,

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The Weekend Eudemon Moderation? Novel Concept "A Maine college takes an unusual approach to curbing drinking: allowing students who are over 21 to drink wine and beer with dinner on campus. The policy is an unconventional method at trying to convey lessons on moderate drinking." Now, if we

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Drunken Fun on the Farm Let's hope the anti-firewater brigade doesn't get a hold of this one: A new study finds that "every 10 percent increase in the excise tax on beer reduces the gonorrhea rate by 4.7 percent among males aged fifteen to

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Star Wars in Hell Back in the 1970s, Russell Kirk prohibited any discussion of Star Wars at his dinner table. Though he admires Kirk, Eric Scheske didn't follow his example, and now his four oldest children, especially the two middle boys, are crazy about the series. The last

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The Cos Interesting article on the use of smear campaigns for political purposes. Here's an excerpt: “The accusations brought against [Bill] Cosby are almost certainly not politically inspired, but they are being used by those who oppose Cosby's political and social views to discredit Cosby'

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No One Ever Smoked We're not pro-smoking, far from it, but the crusade against smokers never ceases to amaze us. First, no smoking in governmental buildings, then the current crusade to tell private businesses whether they can allow smoking, and now an effort to deny history. “France'

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TV Makes Odd Bedfellows “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton teamed up yesterday with two of the Senate's most conservative Republicans to warn Americans about the impact of televised sex and violence on young children. “Clinton called it a "'silent epidemic.'" “Citing research by the Kaiser

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PETA v. PETA When an angler caught a near-record 22-pound lobster near Massachusetts, he was sent to a fish market in Pittsburgh. PETA pleaded for his life while PETA offered a hefty sum to eat him. Confused? The first PETA is "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,"

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A Class of Blue Buds Friday's Brews You Can Use We'd been suspecting it for a few years now, but this article from Forbes confirms it: conspicuous consumption has infiltrated beer, the most beautiful bastion of the blue collars. "The Italian word for chutzpah is

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Modern Mating Fascinating speculation in today's Spectator about autism. After recounting the rise in autism in the past twenty years (possibly a ten-fold increase), the writer, Rod Liddle, discounts a few popular theories about why autism has increased, and then tells us that researchers are beginning to speculate

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Oh, Canada! The troublous trolley trundles forward in Canada. In furtherance of its same-sex marriage law, Ontario has a new bill that will rid all its statutes of non-gender-neutral references. Attorney General Michael Bryant stated, on introducing the bill, "Currently, the statutes offend the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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Stem the Tide, No Canutin' on This Testimony from Patricia Payne in front of Massachusetts' newly created Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies: "Adult stem cells have treated and cured literally tens of thousands of people with almost 100 different diseases. How many people have

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Another Clash Privacy and Technology fight again [http://nydailynews.com/news/gossip/v-echo/story/288576p-247020c.html](see post below). This time, it's Mick Jagger's daughter engaging in sexual activity in a hotel lobby and getting caught on videotape. A judge ruled that she had an expectation

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Note: We apologize for any problems this morning. We're having a heck of a time getting our posts to load.

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Clashing Gods Speaking of George (two posts below), he's back in the news, in the “Big Brother” context (does anyone remember Orwell for anything else these days?). This time, the dispute deals with strapping radio frequency badges on students in order to keep count of them. Some parents

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Left Side of the Dial It looks like the days are over when a guy could turn on talk radio and assume the host is conservative. Liberal talk radio has taken off. The liberal talk radio network Air America "is on the verge of reaching 75 percent of the

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Bedwetting and Corporal Punishment On a whim, we read from a collection of George Orwell essays last night before bed, particularly enjoying his "Such, Such Were the Joys . . .", an essay about his youth at Crossgates, a British boarding school and, near as we can tell, a prep school

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Andy Griffith, Where Are You? Police in Williamsburg, Brooklyn ticketed a girl scout for selling cookies without a permit. Maybe the officer (presumably a member of the FOP) thought cookie-selling is a union job and he was just protecting the position from getting misappropriated by management. That theory makes more

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Readers: You will find the feature publication, The Wednesday Eudemon, after this post. Patronize the Stores that Make You Nauseous? And we thought pop-up ads were annoying. From today's LA Times: “Forget television and radio spots, print ads and those pesky Internet pop-ups. The latest in advertising is

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Issue XIV Welcome to XIV. Possibly the best sentence with "fourteen" in it comes from a guy who recounted, "I once got so drunk on slo-gin that I couldn't touch it again until I was 14." We don't endorse underage drinking, but

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No More Pornography Canutin'? Here's an interesting article [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/03/06/x_ed_out?pg=full] from the Boston Globe about the conspicuous absence of feminist voices against pornography. The industry is expanding, the article notes at the beginning:

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If It's Ugly, It's Planned Parenthood Well, mutilating fetuses isn't enough for Planned Parenthood. Now they're going for the genitalia. From this morning's Dawn Patrol, quoting from a column by a PP rep, Alicia Fraser: "Female genital piercings not

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Angel in the Waters Sophia Institute Press published Angel in the Waters by Regina Doman last year. Says Sean Dailey, Editor of Gilbert Magazine, this children's book about the gestation of a baby “relates more truth and beauty about the miracle of life than any hundred screaming position

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Preventing the Gay Columbines The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) claims that only eight states and the District of Columbia properly support homosexual, bisexual, and transgender students. GLSEN apparently promotes its cause under the guise of preventing bullying. What “GLSEN does is use efforts to stop bullying as

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Runaway Train! Runaway Train! The higher education establishment is out of control, and it's burdening our young adult population with a lot of debt. “A fifth of recent college graduates report having postponed having children because of their college loans. The average 2002 graduate has almost $20,000

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New and Improved Bums There are new bums in town: "freegans." Freegans scour trash dumpsters and eat leftover food as a political statement. According to a freegan interviewed in The Bergen Record (New Jersey), "It feels good when you watch all those people paying for food."

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Rabbits Endorse Gay Marriage! Have you heard about the PBS kids TV show, “Postcards from Buster”? In this 40-episode series, a rabbit named “Buster” and his dad, an airplane pilot, fly around America visiting real kids and learning about their regions. One show is called “Sugartime.” In this episode, “Buster,

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Slouching Toward George Orwella? What's gonna be the Democratic Party's strategy for 2006 and 2008? It might be "reframing," according to a review by Marc Cooper in the April 2005 Atlantic of George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant (sorry,

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Couldn't Resist We typically don't cut-and-paste stories simply for the oddity of them, but this one has a very high Bizarre-to-Word Ratio. From News of the Weird, it has everything: drinking, the KKK, violence . . . "A jury in Nacogdoches, Tex., convicted Jerry Don Hartless in January

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Public Service Safety Announcement For those in red states who may have missed it, there's a feud going on between rappers 50 Cent and The Game (those are the individuals' names, in case you're struggling). If you were planning on attending a rap concert, you

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Biojewellry? We're not sure what to say about this one [http://www.biojewelry.co.uk/], but remember when just having sex with someone was enough? “The project is seeking couples who want to donate their bone cells - a couple having their wisdom teeth removed would be ideal.

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Milking It We won't take sides in the breast feeding/bottle feeding debate. Eric Scheske's wife has breast-fed six babies and believes it's better for a variety of reasons. Nonetheless, the La Leche folks have kind of unnerved Mrs. Scheske on occasion, and we

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F-Word Takes a Hit Every so often, the mighty f-word is resisted. Matlock is probably Canutin', but we appreciate his efforts. LONDON (Reuters) - "Wanna be an anarchist?" At least one of the Sex Pistols, now middle-aged and a father of two, no longer does. Former Pistols

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Blogger Widow? Posts might be scarce today. Eric Scheske's wife, Marie, is celebrating her 37th birthday, which means Eric Scheske is pandering to her wishes, which means he's primary caregiver for six children, ages 11 years to 19 months. Vacuuming the basement was tough (the little

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Diapered Consumerism "Americans spend $6 billion a year on things for their infants. . . One-quarter of the 4 million babies born each year will be registered at Babies R Us. 'Before you can register at Babies R Us,' wrote Caitlin Flanagan in The New Yorker, 'you must

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Some Fundamentals about Pride Something for Sunday morning. Every person is born with pride. It is ingrained in the soul due to original sin. It was Adam's sin. C.S. Lewis described it as the “Great Sin” and said “the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. . . Pride

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The King and the Dendrites The weekend is a good time to take care of housekeeping matters. 1. We received e-mail about the King Canute legend (see Issue XIII of TWE, posted March 1st). Yup, we're aware it didn't really happen that way. To quote Brewer&

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The Weekend Eudemon So That's the Relevance of Hip Hop! "I think that the whole future of my race hinges on the question as to whether or not it can make itself of such indispensable value that the people in the town and the state where we

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K-8 or Sex Bait There's strong evidence that the entire middle school experiment (which started in the 1950s) has been a total bust. K-8 schools are springing up all over the place in the public school sector, including in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Oklahoma City. The following

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Desperate Housewife Territory We've always been interested in urban sprawl, the emptiness of suburban life, and the potential for downtown urban revival. According to this article [http://www.architecturemag.com/architecture/reports_analysis/design_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000780668] from Architecture Magazine, there is no downtown urban

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Norm! Friday calls for beer news. This is one of the better stories we could find. “Tom Ciccateri proved that the fourth time may be the charm when he was chosen Beerdrinker of the Year during finals competition in Denver. Ciccateri, who had made the finals three other times, will

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First SI, Now the NFL? "Bowing to pressure from gay-rights advocates, the NFL Shop will now allow buyers of personalized jerseys to have the word "GAY" sewn onto the back of their shirt. A homosexual-news syndicate reported today that the league claimed it wasn't caving

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Nasty 'Bout Christians A recent study says that NBC is by far the worst network when it comes to treating religion negatively. From September 2003 to September 2004, it had 9.5 negative treatments of religion for every positive one. Of the other networks monitored (ABC, CBS, Fox, PAX,

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Eternal Drinking Yesterday, we referred readers to a blog known as The Inn at the End of the World. We're guessing that the blog takes its name from from the ending of G.K. Chesterton's 1906 study, Charles Dickens. Regardless, we find GKC's final

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Well, We Can Hope, Anyway "THE SUICIDE of Hunter S. Thompson, aged 65, according to the New York Times, or 67, according to the Washington Post, at his home in Aspen, may definitively mark the conclusion of the chaotic 'baby-boomer' rebellion that began in the 1950s and

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We Didn't Say It CBS News veteran Dan Rather, who's leaving the anchor chair next week amid lingering embarrassment over the President Bush-National Guard flap, is under no illusions that everyone wishes him well. "If I went to Times Square this afternoon and immolated myself,

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God Bless Clerics with Guts Excerpt from the Rocky Mountain News: "Verbal fisticuffs broke out Tuesday between Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput and a luncheon audience that challenged him to defend the church's role in public life. "'Why do (religions) feel they have to impose their

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The Real Feminine Mystique? The following paragraph from an otherwise forgettable book review [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2102-1496529,00.html] on the Times Online startled us a bit. We're not saying it's true, funny, or anything else. Just kind of eyebrow-raising: "As

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MD and CA The Washington Post opens a story [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2544-2005Mar2.html?sub=new] this morning with an impartial paragraph (cough, snicker) about Maryland's attempt to fund stem cell research: “John L. Kellermann III has had Parkinson's disease for 13 years,

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More Wood than Holly Is the free market failing us in Hollywood? We thought the free market automatically gave the consumer what they want. It's not, at least according to the following information that we gleaned from the March 2005 issue of Touchstone: "Movies with a '

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Interview About Mother Teresa We've mentioned twice how much we enjoyed David Scott's new book about Mother Teresa, A Revolution of Love. Beliefnet has posted an interview with Scott [http://beliefnet.com/story/161/story_16158_1.html], for anyone who wants more information. Here'

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Another Lewis Pub For those clicking over from Eric Scheske's regular Wednesday column on Catholic Exchange, we found a picture of another of C.S. Lewis' favorite pubs, The Trout and The Six Bells. We found it at a blog called Inn at the End of the

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Readers: You will find the feature publication, The Wednesday Eudemon, after this post. The Big Sex Hollywood has always been a left-leaning town, but now it's combined with a lot of violence and sex. A new book might offer additional insight into the unsavory glamour. The New Logic

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Issue XIII We come to a number that can't be divided by any other number. Some speculate that's the reason 13 came to be seen as an unlucky number. Thirteen, after all, follows 12, and 12 is amenable to all sorts of division. The sudden jolt

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Harpers Revisited? There's a nasty homosexual battle being decided in Topeka, Kansas today. Councilwoman Tiffany Muller, the first openly gay officeholder in Kansas, is facing an anti-homosexual challenge from 20-year-old Jael Phelps. Also on the ballot: whether to repeal an ordinance that prohibits Topeka from discriminating against gays

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Oxford Needs Belloc Again The New York Daily News, 3/1/2005 In its 183-year history, the august Oxford Union debating society has heard the wisdom of Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan and Mother Teresa. Now its members are to hear from Ron Jeremy, star of 1,700 adult films, including

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Rising Woods The inflammatory Justin Raimondo at Antiwar.com has weighed in on Thomas Woods and his successful Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. We can't say we agree with all of the raving Raimondo's points, but he's a good read and gives facts

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Blog and Baseball There's been plenty of discussion during the past year about the definition of a blog and what the advent of the blog means to the publishing world. We think those questions jump the gun a bit. A more fundamental question to ask is, why read

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Thanks, GM While perusing our most-recent issue of Gilbert Magazine, we found interesting news that had escaped our roaming mouse. Here are two items: "Chris Cranmer, 24, a non-commissioned officer in the Royal Navy, has become the first registered Satanist in the British armed forces. The designation gives him

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There Goes Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner "Once they were a byword for mindless docility. But cows have a secret mental life in which they bear grudges, nurture friendships and become excited over intellectual challenges, scientists have found. "Cows are also capable of feeling strong emotions such as pain,

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The Swimsuit Issue The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue came out earlier this month. We subscribed to SI for years and have seen over twenty swimsuit issues. We finally concluded that all the 4/5s-of-a-breast pictures weren't doing us any good. We couldn't get the image of

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One Rock Quote Rock didn't discuss much religion last night, but he did have this comment, which we found kind of funny: "A lot of Jewish people were offended by Passion of the Christ. I can relate, because I had to deal with a movie called Soul

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Pro-Life Commies! "A pro-Putin youth group organized by the Kremlin, Idushie Vmeste ("Moving Together"), represents a kind of model for how Patriotic Orthodoxy aims to renew Russia. The group is against abortion (Russia has one of the highest rates in the world) and informs recruits about the

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B.T.K. Serial Murderer Well, they caught the B.T.K. murderer in Wichita, Kansas. The initials stand for his mode of operation: bind, torture, kill. He's Dennis Rader, a 59-year-old municipal employee. It turns out he was an active member and President of his congregation at

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Don't Know How We Missed This From Friday's New York Post: The New York City man infected with the "superstrain" of the AIDS virus had sex with at least 10 men after he tested HIV-positive, according to new information released yesterday. LINK [http://www.

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Vulgar but Funny and On Yet more about Chris Rock and tonight's Academy Awards. This time, from Slate Magazine [http://slate.msn.com/id/2113952/]: "Rock may speak the irreverent language of blue comedy, but more often than not, his ideas are red-state red. "Take, for

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Dysfunctional Oscar For those who missed the Catholic League's William Donahue's comments on tonight's Oscars. LINK [http://www.catholicleague.org/05press_releases/quarter%201/050223_Hollywoodmindset.htm] . Here's the opening paragraph: “This year's Oscar nominees tell us a great deal

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Teens Don't Still Worship Elvis? To be published this week: Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford University Press). The book is based on a comprehensive four-year study by 133 researchers and consultants. It appears Catholic youth won't fare well: "On

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An Art Linkletter Anecdote At bedtime last night, Eric Scheske's Kindergarten son Michael informed his Dad that he knew the Holy Family's last name. "Really?" Eric asked. "What is it?" Michael: "Christ."

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The Heart Every sin gushes from a complex soul. The Pseudo-Macarius, a master of intimate theology, described the heart (a term nearly synonymous with soul) as follows: "The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and

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Better than the Boston Tea Party We've been blessed with plenty of drinking items lately. Now there's this story about the Japanese's efforts to get around their government's onerous beer tax. According to the article: "By using less malt and more

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And Pete Singer Would Say . . .? "Kraft Foods, the No. 1 U.S. foodmaker, will stop making its Road Kill candy after consumers and animal-rights activists complained about the sweets shaped like flattened snakes, chickens and squirrels and marked by tire treads. "Road Kill, part of Kraft's

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The Tinsel Clothing We're surprised there's not more talk about the Academy Awards and Hollywood Boulevard. Hollywood Boulevard is one of the most crime-ridden and drug-infested areas of Southern California. According to the morning DJs on WLS in Chicago, they'll need to roll out

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The Weekend Eudemon Effectively Ineffective Eric Scheske received a fair amount of hate mail from natural family planning advocates when he--in the throes of his wife's fourth, then fifth, then seventh unexpected pregnancies--expressed doubts about NFP's effectiveness. Writing in Gilbert Magazine, for instance, he said, "

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Lew We're repeatedly impressed with the folks over at Lew Rockwell. For a libertarian site, they publish a lot of insightful and intelligent stuff. Libertarian ideas have always appealed to us, but the amorality of their ideas always kept us at a distance (think Jesse "the No

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Mead Me They say mead is making a comeback. If so, it'd be the comeback of the millennia. What is mead? Basically, honey wine. A drink made of water, honey, malt, and yeast. It pre-dates beer and grape wine, and it might be the oldest alcoholic drink known

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Everipody's Talkin' At Me Andrew Sullivan, writing about the iPod world in the Sunday Times, opened his piece with this: "I was visiting New York last week and noticed something I'd never thought I'd say about the city. Yes, nightlife is pretty

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A principal made news this week when she prohibited distribution of a high school newspaper that contained an article about sex and virginity. According to the story [http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2005/02/22/s1b_wellhigh_0222.html] , the principal believed that “the article would

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St. Jude's Chapel of Hope We just got our March 2005 issue of Grit: Stories of American Life & Traditions. Most people remember it as the cheap little newspaper that boys sold for a nickel as a way to earn gum money. It's still around and

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Two pregnant women were killed this week, one in New York and one in Texas. The New York slaying was apparently a lover's squabble. We haven't heard of any leads in the Texas case. Then there's the gruesome attack a few months ago on

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The following piece is a little graphic. Written for a mainline Catholic publication, it was understandably rejected on grounds that the subject matter is too sexual and the tone a bit too strident. It's not the type of thing we like to present regularly on TWE, either, but

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Issue XII Well, things have gone well for TWE. Our visitors/hits goals that we hoped to meet by the beginning of Spring have been greatly exceeded. Many thanks to y'all for visiting, reading, and forwarding TWE to friends and family, especially those who don't otherwise

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The Weekend Eudemon - Sunday We Thought It Was a Joke According to a January Associated Press dispatch, an outfit called Rent-a-Priest supplies independent Catholic clergy to perform Mass on cruise ships, even though the reason why some are independent is that they're no longer in good standing.

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The Weekend Eudemon ”“ Saturday Welcome back to The Weekend Eudemon. You apparently made it here without the benefit of an e-mail reminder. We don't send them out on the weekends, primarily because we don't want to be a pest, but also because TWE (with the exception

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The Weekend Eudemon ”“ Friday The Prospect of Death Wonderfully Focuses the Mind From the New York Daily News [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/281711p-241383c.html]: "Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova says the tsunami that crumpled her body and killed her boyfriend has transformed her life - and she

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Issue XI In case you missed it, we're posting at least twice a week now: once on Wednesdays (obviously) and one or more times on the weekends. The latter, we call The Weekend Eudemon. More details can be found at the end of this week's issue.

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The Weekend Eudemon No, you're not on LSD. We've posted on a non-Wednesday. We're calling it The Weekend Eudemon because (i) it allows us to keep the same initials and (ii) we're too lazy to come up with an entirely new title.

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Issue X From Groundhog Day to Ash Wednesday. The temperament swings quickly on this page. Kinda like its talent level. It's now the penitential season, of course. It's made particularly more difficult by Mardi Gras excesses (those Catholics are always sticking it to you somehow: eat

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Issue IX A Groundhog Day issue. On this auspicious occasion, we remember the prognosticating groundhog's vicious-but-forgotten cousin, the hodag. The hodag was a dreadful and strong beast that terrorized the logging camps of the nineteenth century. It had great iron teeth, a long flat tail of bone with

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Issue VII Lucky VII. We hope, anyway, thinking we could break that 1,000,000 reader barrier with this issue. It'd be a coup, seeing as readership is less than 500 at this point. Anyway, it's not our place to disprove numerology, only to laugh at

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Issue VI We plod forward. In the grips of the Great Lakes' winter buffets, we have nothing better to do: the lawn needs no cutting, the golf courses are three feet under, the lakes are frozen, our Speedos are even more out of place than usual. And we don&

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Issue V Welcome to the first issue of 2005 (and our fifth overall). Nothing much has changed since last year, with the exception of an exhilarating attack on our editor's mental faculties on December 31st. Our quality weekly tradition now spans two years. A Stab of Light Since

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Issue IV Welcome to an abbreviated version of TWE. We plan to return to our full plate with the new year. Drinking with Toddlers I love playing with my six children and I look forward to drinking beer with them in some not-too-distant future. But we're not buddies.

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Issue III Cleverness is scarce, but compliments are up. So we plow forward, a glass of merlot in one hand, a flagon of ale in the other, a keyboard in the third. Welcome to Issue III of TWE. I'm Glad My Dad Didn't Play Darth Vader

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Welcome Back Glad you came back for Week II. We received compliments on the first issue. Here's a tall glass of Christmas spirits to hopes of another successful run at this humble enterprise. Kinsey and the Beast In light of the renewed interest in Alfred "Batman'

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Welcome Welcome to the inaugural issue of The Wednesday Eudemon. If you read it and (i) smirk once, (ii) nod once, and (iii) learn something new, I'm gratified. If you do just two of the three, I'm content like Meatloaf: two out of three ain'

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"Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country at 2.4 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants. Texas has a divorce rate of 4.1." That observation was made by Andrew Sullivan, the rabidly gay-is-great ex-Catholic, but otherwise splendid writer. He goes on to observe that, like Texas,

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This blog is changing. Starting December 8th, it'll become a "weekly reader's source" (the term "on-line magazine" would be too bold). Each issue will present something fun and something fine, something stolen and something mine. Some items will be old. Some will

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Man by nature asks questions he cannot possibly answer. If a man also rejects authority, the result is a detached nihilism or despair. If a young man decides to scale to the top of a giant walnut tree by himself but simply cannot do it, he will need help. If

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"I suppose I divide people into two classes: the Irksome and the Non-Irksome, without regard to sex. Yes and there are the Medium Irksome and the Rare Irksome." Flannery O'Connor.

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Those who fail to see that love means sacrifice, live miserably or shallowly. Love, after all, is the ultimate source of happiness.

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Presenting a GKC quote is almost cheap. They're so plentiful and many of them so well-known, it's just too easy and commonplace. But once in awhile I see a new one and it's too good to keep private. Definition of secularism: "the idea

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The only way most people can be better off exchanging gifts than keeping the money and spending it on themselves is if their kith and kin know them so well, have cared enough to know them so well, as to give them things they wanted without realizing it. John Robson

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When do we hit middle age? I think most people would place it at 35-40, but I see people who look middle aged at 33 and some who look youthful at 43. It's probably not a matter of one's chronological age, as much as it is

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I earlier said The Great Society and its descendants today like college-aid programs for single mothers are manifestly unjust in their "actual workings on the individual level." I qualified it because all such programs are couched in terms of "social justice." Their proponents would argue that

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Chesterton "could, and would, write under the influence of alcohol, with no visible difficulties or impairments to his thought and clarity." Michael Coren

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I recently read a ratty old copy of George Gissing's The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (c. 1903). One of the most pleasurable books I've read. A few excerpts: For not, surely, by deliberate effort of thought does a man grow wise. The truths of life

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"It is impossible to be a Christian without effort." Paul Claudel

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It's curious that pornography has increased in America at the same time that access to higher education has increased. At a time when we're supposed to be getting smarter, we're voluntarily plunging ourselves into the dream world of stupidity.

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A Walled-in Life "Sir, you have to go." The middle aged man stirred on the bench outside the drug store. "Go? Go where?" he asked. "Home, sir. You can't stay here," the man said firmly, but trying to be kind. He carried

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"Work and leisure are complementary parts of the same living process and cannot be separated without destroying the joy of work and the bless of leisure." E.F. Schumacher

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Sauron: Control Freak Sauron is a pretty plain character: Evil, unadulterated and cunning and powerful evil. But it's the nature of his evil that's interesting. Tolkien told his publisher, Stanley Unwin, that Sauron's evil stemmed from his obsession with power. Sauron, the “reincarnation of

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Elven Sleep After the defeat of Sauron and celebration, Gimli the Dwarf, Aragorn, the Hobbits and everyone else bedded down. But not Legolas the Elf. He said he would rather walk in the woods and dream of crossing the Sea. Elves are immortal, saving violent death. They weren't

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"If you would make a man happy, study not to augment his goods; but to diminish his wants." Orestes Brownson

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Giant on Giant In January, 1910, H.L. Mencken wrote of Chesterton's George Bernard Shaw: "The cleverest man in all the world, with the second cleverest as his subject, is here doing his cleverest writing. . . Not since St. Augustine have the gods sent us a man who

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Every unkind thought reflects a defect in my soul, which is connected to my mind, which is connected to my brain. Therefore, how can I ever be sure that my unkind thought is accurate? And if I'm not sure it's accurate, shouldn't I keep

Ents

EntsThe lovable Ents. The most ancient of peoples of Middle Earth. They were the shepherd of the trees, and, like their wards, they were trees–but mobile and with the gift of speech. They were slow to jump to conclusions or to judge, a trait we'd expect of

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"Where all are free to aim to be first no one is contented to be second." Orestes Brownson

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St. Gandalf There were five of them. Not gods, not elves, not men. They came to Middle Earth early in the Third Age. Forming the Order of Istari, the wizards were sent by the Valar to help the elves and men in their efforts against evil Sauron. Though Tolkien never

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Aragorn's Soul Butterbur the innkeeper almost got a mouthful of iron when he spoke harshly about Strider, telling Frodo, “if I was in your plight, I wouldn't take up with a Ranger.” Strider, losing patience, lashed back, “Then who would you take up with? A fat

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“Like all secular saints, she canonizes herself.” Walker Percy, The Last Gentleman

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Modern Christological arguments often strike me as ridiculous. In these arguments, theologians debate the Person of Christ in light of his unique nature as God and man. From what I understand, there's higher Christology (which emphasizes his divine nature) and lower Christology (which emphasizes his human nature). As

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"Wicca bears a striking resemblance to another religion–one that also tells of a dying and rising god, that venerates a figure who is both virgin and mother, that keeps, in its own way, the seasonal 'feasts of the Wheel,' that uses chalices and candles and sacred

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"When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine." Aristophanes

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Prayer by Malcolm Muggeridge: God, humble my pride, extinguish the last stirrings of my Ego, obliterate whatever remains of worldly ambition and carnality, and help me to serve only thy purpose, to speak and write only Thy words, to think only Thy thoughts, to have no other prayer than '

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I'm going to memorize your name, then throw away my head. Oscar Levant, speaking to a disagreeable store clerk.

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"Happy the people whose annals are boring to read." Montesquieu

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"A writer should remember that about his Muse there is a good deal of the Siren. He should view his mental offspring as relentlessly as a Spartan father–if it is not perfectly sound, let it be cast out. If he does not expose it, others will, in a

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Note to Readers: I will be off-line for awhile. My blog will not be updated for a few days.

Elvis, the Colonel, and Me

Excerpt It was also the anniversary date of the release of Elvis's first number one hit, "Heartbreak Hotel," so we talked about Elvis. All of us are fans. Gotta be. We were in middle school when Elvis died, and every cultural event that happens when you&

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"Social changes which propel dubious characters in great numbers into ruling positions make the political environment unlivable for well-bred men with some self-respect." Eric Voegelin, Plato and Aristotle, 288-289.

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Orestes Brownson's Conversion When Brownson started taking concrete steps toward Rome, it was philosophy that paved the road. His was a philosophical conversion, Rome via Athens, though he would later emphasize that no mental process can ever produce a convert unless grace is also at work (philosophy can

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"The man who can wholeheartedly believe that all things are created by God and that God does not create evil, is freed from many burdens, and one of them is fear." Paul Gallico, writing about St. Francis of Assisi.

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Laughter is the mind sneezing. Wyndham Lewis

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Prophet McLuhan on the World Series of Poker's Popularity "Poker is a game that has often been cited as the expression of all the complex attitudes and unspoken values of a competitive society. It calls for shrewdness, aggression, trickery, and unflattering appraisals of character. . . Poker is intensely

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"If I had to single out one piece of writing which was more responsible than anything else for my becoming a Catholic, it would that essay of Kierkegaard's." Walker Percy, referring to Kierkegaard's essay on "The Difference between a Genius and an Apostle.

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Some Education from Henry Adams The "profoundest lessons are not the lessons of reason; they are sudden strains that permanently warp the mind." "The habit of expression leads to the search for something to express." "Friends are born, not made." "A friend in

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Books I recommend to young adults James Schall, Another Sort of Learning. Read this while you're still in college. Its primary value rests in the writers Schall introduces (the lists of books in the back of each chapter are excellent). C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. All of Lewis&

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"Christians should be the salt, not the syrup, of the earth." Georges Bernanos "What matters is not what ideas do to men but what men do to their ideas; how and when they choose them, and how and why they accommodate them to their own wishes, interests,

Sex Perception

You'll have to excuse this salacious slice of commentary. The subject matter requires ribaldry. There's a rock-n-roll morning show in my little corner of the world that is hosted by two male DJs and a female sidekick. The DJs have been in the same time slot

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"When the motorcar was new, it exercised the typical mechanical pressure of explosion and separation of function. It broke up family life, or so it seemed, in the 1920s. It separated work and domicile, as never before. It exploded each city into a dozen suburbs, and then extended many

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Fyodor Dosoyevsky, Orestes Brownson's junior by eighteen years, would write on a theme similar to Brownson's concerns about humanitarian democracy. Just as Brownson worried that North American progressives would sacrifice men on the altar of the abstractions known as “Man” and “The Rights of Man,” Dostoyevsky

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"The glory to which man is called is that he should grow more godlike by growing ever more human." Dumitru Staniloae "Christ is looking at us through the eyes of all those whom we meet. Once we recognize his universal presence, all our acts of practical service

The Modern Creed and Sex

The World of Two Consenting Adults and Do as Thou Wilt I've been in circles when young, growing families are discussed. The conversation goes something like this: Person One: “E is having another child.” Person Two: “Another! What is that, five?” Person One: “Yeah; five kids, can you

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Daily negligence deadens the soul. Gregory of Sinai

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What men want to be is often even more important than what they 'are.' John Lukacs If only more of us, including this writer, truly wanted to be saints.

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California "is a renowned haven for faddists, individualists and nuts of every kind. . . There's always some screwball out here who's got some new cult or ism working and a band of happy unrealistic acolytes around him who are now convinced that they've discovered

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Exalt leisure and contemplation over money-making and success. s/ G.K. Chesterton, The Agrarians, Richard Weaver, Legions of Monks, The Inklings, Russell Kirk, Josef Pieper, Christopher Dawson, and The Wise Men.

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I read lots of books. I begin many more. Appears I'm not alone. The brilliant essayist and voracious reader Joseph Epstein once wrote about a book he bought: "It begins brilliantly. Another bookmark in yet another book; another book atop yet another pile of books–one of

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"The characteristic of lost souls is their rejection of everything that is not simply themselves." C.S. Lewis

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"In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention." Simone Weil

Poultry Protection

"Is this America or Nazi Germany?" the man exclaimed. "You're hardly showing proper respect to the Director of the Poultry Protection Agency, sir," the muscular young man in a wife-beater said menacingly, his fists clinched. "I'm only saying that I oughtta

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Power mowers, power blowers, power edgers. Chain saws and weed whippers. Pervasive, pushing, penetrating noise. "Silence is not just the absence of noise any more than peace is the absence of war. It is rather a positive and difficult accomplishment, a state of justice in the soul in which

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"Many of us feel remorse for our sins, yet we gladly accept their causes." "Blessed is the monk who looks with great joy on everyone's salvation and progress as if they were his own." Mark the Ascetic "There is scarcely any other virtue

On GKC

Miscellaneous snippets about one of the greatest literary post men of the twentieth century In those early years of the twentieth century, a quick-moving age that was experiencing the fruits of industrialization and new trends, he pushed for tradition. He argued for the need to preserve the family and to

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"A great division among the American people has begun--gradually, slowly--to take shape: not between Republicans and Democrats, and not between 'conservatives' and 'liberals,' but between people who are still unthinking believers in technology and in economic determinism and people who are not." John Lukacs,

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Dogma Man A few years ago, I was talking with an acquaintance about George Roche's resignation as president of Hillsdale College in light of allegations that he'd been engaged in an affair with his daughter-in-law. My acquaintance was outraged by the idea that Hillsdale College may

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Good Christians are many, if it weren't for all those maddening people: the whiners, the manipulators, the crooks, the liars, the heretics, the greedy. But Christ put up with all of them and remained sinless. The Bible recounts disciple buffoonery and selfishness, yet Christ communed with them, loved

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Essayist Joseph Epstein once described reading as a "lovely, antisocial, splendidly selfish habit." Selfish? I suppose so, but could one be so unselfish as to deny himself the pleasures of the mind and strengthening of the soul that come from reading? I'm reminded of Josef Pieper&

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"As soon as a man satisfies his desire by obtaining what he wants, he starts to desire something else and finds himself empty again; and if he satisfies his desire with this, he becomes empty once again and ready for still another. And this never stops until we depart

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"When man's irrational passions are thriving he is not free to pray and to seek the word of God." Evagrius. Many others, including Augustine, would say that, when a man's irrational passions are thriving, he is not free, period.

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Thoughts are serious. Don't entertain them, unless you want to be them.

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"I used to believe, with regard to any problem whatever, that to know was to solve the problem; now I realize that it means to know how the problem concerns me." Simone Weil

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You ever wonder why people on vacation often have a bad time? I do, and I've concluded that–absent obvious things, like flat tires, or missing one's plane, or getting abducted like that family in Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard

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"The intellect thinks more or less well according as the soul is more or less completely purified of its stains." Etienne Gilson

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Monks, the cutting-edge Followers, have always made obedience central to their quest. The earliest order devoted to the higher life, the Greek Pythagoreans, required new pupils to listen and obey for five years before receiving full membership. The Jewish Essenes required its members to surrender all possessions and permit a

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It is often lamented that a prophet has no honor in his own village. I suspect it's because people closest to him are acquainted with his ordinariness, and his ordinariness blocks out the greatness, like dense trees block out a view of the forest. The people closest to

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I've tried reading outside in all seasons, including winter, and I've concluded that spring is the best season for outdoor reading. It's not too hot and it's not too cold, the bugs aren't out yet, and when the rain walls

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"The tongue requires a strict guard over it, by reason of the inclination we have of talking about everything agreeable to our senses." Lorenzo Scupoli

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"The specialist is one who never makes small mistakes while moving toward the grand fallacy." Marshall McLuhan

Van Helsing

I don't write many reviews, but this stunner of a movie deserves a brief mention. Van Helsing may be the worst movie I've ever seen. It's a 135 minute trailer. There is a plot, I guess, or two plots, or possibly five plots, none

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"I believe that the purpose of pornography is to produce excitement in the human mind not by the depiction of nudity or even of sexuality but by the depiction of human degradation." John Lukacs

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"One of the things that make pornography so damnable, in my view, is its humorlessness." Joseph Epstein

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The other four guys got to the bar first. Scott was putting money in the jukebox. The regulars at the bar were giving him dirty looks. "What the heck," Scott said as he came and sat down. "You see those decrepits at the bar? They were looking

The Russian Pilgrim

The nineteenth century Russian story, The Candid Narrations of a Pilgrim to His Spiritual Father, tells the story of a poor man with a withered arm who reads St. Paul's instruction to pray without ceasing. Thessalonians 5:17. He wonders how a person can do this. He seeks

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"A man who is angry, even if he were to raise the dead, is not acceptable to God." Agathon

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"There is nothing gayer than true wisdom, nothing jollier, more playful, or--I could almost say--more madcap." Montaigne

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Followers have consistently sought silence and stillness. They are the treasures sought by the monastic life, whether it be the monasticism of the mysterious, math-loving Pythagoreans of ancient Greece; the Jewish Essenes from the time of Christ; Buddhist monasticism; or Christian monasticism from its inception in the fourth century. Perhaps

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“I, the Captain of a Legion of Rome, serving in the desert of Libya, have learnt and pondered this truth: 'There are in life but two things to be sought, Love and Power, and no one has both.'”

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"Youth is a charming thing; it sets off a life's beginning, crowned with flowers, like the Athenian fleet on its way to conquer Sicily." Chateaubriand

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The Modern Vomitorium Few practices from ancient Rome leave a bad taste in the mouth like the vomitorium. During Roman banquets, participants would stuff themselves with food until they couldn't eat any more, then go to the vomitorium where they would tickle their throats with a feather. They

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Reality is simultaneously knowable and unfathomable. Josef Pieper

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G.K. Chesterton once wrote that frugality is more romantic than extravagance. It is. The penny-pinched man looking for a gift for his beloved, he must think and be creative. And when he spends on his beloved, he feels it, like the old woman felt her two mites go into

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"As the eyes of bats are dazzled by sunlight, so it is with human intelligence when face to face with what is by nature most obvious." Aristotle "Though the eyes of the bat do not avail to behold the sun, it is seen by the eye of

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Quite odd, all this pornography in America, a country with a remarkably high percentage of people who identify themselves as Christians. Kinda reminds me of Walker Percy's reference in The Moviegoer to the "cult of the naughty nice": Where "everyone is nicer than Christians and

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Michigan in March Of all the Meadian gifts from Zeus, the sudden surprise of nature has always been my favorite. A wise man once said that those who set out to appreciate nature are the ones most likely to miss it. The converse is also true: Those who set out

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The pagan gods don't drink mead with mortals for a reason, and it's not snobbery. It comes from the desire to hang out with their peers–with those who know they are merely imperfect gods and can jokingly point out their flaws.

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There is an amiable muse and a mordant muse. I'm not sure which should be indulged more. The amiable muse is more edifying; the mordant muse, more entertaining.

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Thomas Merton described the Tao as “the simple good with which one is endowed by the very fact of existence. Instead of self-conscious cultivation of this good (which vanishes when we look at it and becomes intangible when we try to grasp it), we grow quietly in the humility of

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Never underestimate your greed. It's ivy in the soul, creeping everywhere, fertilized by pride.

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"Everyone has within himself something he does not know as long as he has not searched it out; but if he has searched it out–he shudders." Boethius

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It's Just My Imagination In the second volume of lectures published posthumously as Redeeming the Time, Russell Kirk celebrates the workings of the moral imagination (the power of ethical perception) and contrasts it with the idyllic imagination (the fanciful imagination of people like Rousseau) and the diabolic imagination

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When a sneering acquaintance told the poverty-bitten Diogenes that he wouldn't have to eat lentils (a poor man's food) if only he would learn to flatter the king, Diogenes said his acquaintance wouldn't have to flatter the king if he just learned to eat

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"To be subtle without ceasing to be simple; to be realist, yet not crude; to be minute at the right moment, but not all the time; to add here and there the little concrete touch, but only here and there–this, at their best, the Greeks achieved." F.

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Pithecanthropus Pithecanthropus is the Ape Man. He's also known as Java Man and Peking Man. Latin-loving scientists call him Homo erectus, Homo modjokertenses, Meganthropus palaeojavanicus, Pithecanthropus robustus, and Pithecanthropus dubius. He is the creation of Dutch physician Eugene Dubois. In the 1890's, Dubois discovered a few

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There are at least three doors of nomative perception: revelation, custom or common sense, and the insights of the seer. (Adapted from Russell Kirk)

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"Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon." George MacDonald

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I've always received the notion of "acoustic space" with a skeptical attitude. It's my standard knee-jerk disposition toward any notion coeval with the vacuous pop art concepts of the 1960s and 1970s. But I've warmed up to the concept now that I&

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Maybe rock-n-roll has been wildly popular and rock stars the object of disproportionate admiration because art has dropped to a low level of appreciation in our culture. In a culture where art isn't appreciated, lower forms of art will step in to fulfill that primordial human need that

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Top Ten List of Schallian Points found in The Unseriousness of Human Affairs: 10. Higher education is today largely a matter of private enterprise, good fortune, and reading things that few assign or praise. 9. We must first ask to see before we shall see. 8. We must philosophize with

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Free Time True free time is time that is free from the exigencies of work and the requirement to play. In true free time the highest things are offered. Remember that before filling your weekends with incessant activities and your weekdays with twelve hours of work. And if you find

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No person does anything unless it strikes them as good, but only a bestial person does something solely because it feels good.

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Easter When the disciples saw the risen Christ, they beheld "him as a reality in the world, though no longer of it, respecting the order of the world, but Lord of its laws. To behold such reality was different and more than to see a tree or watch a

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Holy Saturday By killing Jesus, Satan had swallowed God's bait. He didn't know he had swallowed the Godhead, thereby inviting Full Being into his fortress of nothingness and bringing about the ontological fall of his nothingness. In the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa: "The

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Good Friday No one ever experienced the plunge down the vacuum of evil as did God's Son--even to the excruciating agony behind the words: "My God, my god, why hast thou forsaken me?" Jesus was really destroyed. Cut off in the flower of his age; his

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A Little Boswell In his fine book, The Unseriousness of Human Affairs, James Schall recounts a dinner attended by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. The occasion: the first gathering of a small group of friends with Mrs. Violette Garrick since the death of her husband, the actor David Garrick. The

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Vanity: "that self-assertion which imposes one's ego on others." F. L. Lucas

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Decent documentary last night on ABC about Jesus and Paul (at least the first ninety minutes that I watched while exercising and cleaning house). I was struck mostly, however, by the lack of content. I remember reading once that thirty minutes of TV documentary script can be read in five

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In The Brothers Karamazov, the Elder Zossima, a revered monk, is known widely as a man of learning and spirituality, a man with insight into the human condition gained through years of ascetical and contemplative practices. People flock to him for advice on everything, from disputes over livestock to questions

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Three Approaches to Fiction "Beckett characteristically does hang his works on odd premises, usually philosophical ones." Hugh Kenner. Hence, the main character in Murphy is a man truly split between mind and body, like Descartes erroneously taught. Flannery "O'Connor's stories can be seen

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"If God exists, whence comes Evil? If He does not exist, whence comes Good?" Boethius

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Vladimir and Estragon In the meantime let us try and converse calmly, since we are incapable of keeping silent. You're right, we're inexhaustible. It's so we won't think. We have that excuse. Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett

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"When drinking is made a sin, the only point in drinking is to get drunk." Hamish Macbeth (Scotish village constable in M.C. Beaton novels)

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When my friends and I turned thirty, our reactions varied–some were sad, some indifferent. But we all shared one feeling: It seemed we had turned twenty just yesterday. Everyone experiences this feeling. The college graduate feels like he was entering first grade yesterday. The octogenarian mourning the loss of

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There aren't enough children being born. There's statistical evidence to support that statement, but I have better proof. My wife took our 16-month-old daughter (Meg) next door to see my nephew, who was hanging out with a friend who had just graduated from high school. The

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"What is self-evident is not discussed." Josef Pieper

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Note: I'm working on a new blog "look." I'll start adding content again on April 1st (no fooling).

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Every aphorism is a condensed essay.

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"[T]he gifts of the heart cannot be separated from those of the intelligence; those who have drawn a distinction between them, possessed neither." Flaubert

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When asked whether he ever felt embarrassed to meet artists whose work he has criticized, an art critic of high standards replied, "Not at all. They ought to be embarrassed for producing such wretched art." Reminds me a little bit of a movie critic (again, of high standards)

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"I have often repented of having spoken, but never of having been silent." Simonides (a Greek Pythagorean)

Weekdays with Maury

The free-sex mantras from the 1960s are common knowledge today: Get over the hang-ups; love everybody; share your body with everybody. Once everybody gets over these hang-ups and taboos about sex, society will make a real breakthrough in peace and love. Austin Powers' views on living, in other words.

Orestes

Orestes Brownson was mostly a kind man, his made-for-public-consumption polemics notwithstanding. He was tenderly affectionate toward his wife and children and had many friends. He was deeply devoted to God; after his conversion, always writing with a crucifix in front of him and a statue of the Virgin Mary at

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"Comparison is the expedient of those who cannot reach the heart of the things compared." George Santayana

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Aristotle, a pagan, placed the highest natural felicity in the knowledge of God.

Get Small

Commencing with Copernicus, western culture increasingly adopted an attitude of domination, of hubris, an attitude brooking no limitation to man's effort to master the universe. We sit today in a position of health, comfort, luxuries, and increasing longevity. Before Copernicus, the chips were down, we felt insignificant and

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"Satire is a glass in which we see every countenance but our own." Jonathan Swift

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"Obedience is the opener of eyes." George MacDonald

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Duder: The nineteenth-century Scottish fantasy writer, George MacDonald, lived in intense poverty, writing fairy tales in order to eke out a living for his family. Yet he had a peaceful mind. C.S. Lewis said of him: “His peace of mind came not from building on the future but from

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Duder: Whenever you're dealing with something sinful, it is helpful to see what it really is. Strip away the props; eliminate the frills and hype; and see what you really have. If you get the time or desire, you should read Dante's Divine Comedy, especially the

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"When science moves faster than moral understanding, as it does today, men and women struggle to articulate their unease." Michael J. Sandel, The Atlantic, April 2004

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"The unexpressed assumption of empiricism is that experience will tell us what we are experiencing." Richard Weaver

Heart and Soul

Every sin gushes from a complex soul. The Pseudo-Macarius, a master of intimate theology, described the heart (a term nearly synonymous with soul) as follows: "The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the

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In the introduction to a collection of Cicero's essays, Michael Grant said of the Romans, “philosophy was regarded as a strictly practical study–something which, if approached in the right way, was perfectly capable of guiding and improving people's lives.” Philosophy is practical? It's

Tom Bombadil

The big willow tree swallowed Pippin and Merry and threatened to suffocate them. Frodo and Sam were frantically yelling for help when they heard someone carelessly and happily singing a ludicrous little song and making all sorts of noise as he stomped. The person listened to the hobbits' plea

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“The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.” T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral

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"By the time I graduated from college, in 1983, the polemical message of [Friedan's] “The Feminine Mystique” had been firmly established as the new orthodoxy. Almost without exception, my female classmates either went off to graduate school or found themselves jobs. If any of us harbored a

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"I do not see what more can be desired than poverty linked with an active leisure." Albert Camus

On Mirth

When humor returns, sanity comes with it. Maybe the insane era of political correctness is nearing an end. Not only have comedians been poking fun at it for a few years, but even academicians are getting into the act. To wit, The Mirth of Nations by sociologist Christie Davies, who

The Paradox of Wealth

When is a person monetarily wealthy? The question is inherently relative. A person living in a housing project or in the poor hills of Appalachia is wealthy compared to the average person in many parts of Africa. A person considered rich in my small town of Sturgis, Michigan would probably

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"In order to arrive at having pleasure in everything, desire to have pleasure in nothing. In order to arrive at possessing everything, desire to possess nothing." John of the Cross

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"I suppose I divide people into two classes: the Irksome and the Non-Irksome. Yes and there are the Medium Irksome and the Rare Irksome." Flannery O'Connor

Devil's Feast

Excerpted from my article in the March/April 2001 issue of The Catholic Answer: The full terror of Jesus' death is well magnified by looking at it through the prism of diabolic vengeance: Jesus took Satan's beating. Jesus, Full Being incarnate and therefore Full Goodness incarnate, was

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“We cannot live without ascribing some meaning to our existence, or act without ascribing some goal to our activity; when philosophy no longer provides men with satisfactory answers to those questions, the only means they still have to escape skepticism and despair are moralism, or mysticism, or some combination of

After Forty Days

"Jesus brought Satan to a standstill. He alone was able to stare him down. To the extent that we succeed in looking with Christ's eyes, we too shall see him; to the extent that Christ's heart and spirit become alive in us, we shall dominate

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A woman wrote to me the other day in response to my article on the f-word. She wrote: "I think most of the seemingly perplexing uses of fuck can be explained in this way: Fuck is an intensifier. It delivers a thought in bold italics, or all caps, as

Silence

"Silence puts man to the test." "That is what silence itself is: holy uselessness." "The mark of the Divine in things is preserved by their connection with the world of silence." "The man who lacks the substance of silence is oppressed by the

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Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) tended to dislike music. When someone tried to tell him about the merits of a violinist's performance, Johnson replied, "Difficult, do you call it, sir? I wish it were impossible."

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Reckless moneymaking, status seeking, womanizing, overeating, addiction to delicacies and snacks, wine tippling, irascibility, anxiety, desire for fame and public recognition, fear of contact with other human beings. Those, said Cicero, were Roman characeristics as the Republic decayed and fell. The "polis is man written large." Plato.

From <em>Malcolm's Messages</em>

"Have you heard of the Dwarves of the Corn?" Malcolm asked Mr. Rufus, who shook his head. "They are the malevolent beings who taunt people is rural areas. They swarm, hitting people with doubts and dissatisfaction. No matter how blessed, or wise, or knowledgeable, or rich a

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Ireland yesterday outlawed smoking in pubs. While reading about it, I found this little piece of information: "The catering trade will have to remove all ashtrays and put up 'no smoking' signs within six weeks of the ban. . . The Office of Tobacco Control, which has been given

On the Proliferation of Vice

"The white man who begins by cheating a Negro usually ends by cheating a white man." Booker T. Washington

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Perhaps no people were as fearsome and violent as the Vikings. Their love was war; their salvation was war. Seeing a comrade smitten with a hideous stomach wound, a Viking went to him and asked if it hurt. The warrior replied, "Only when I laugh."

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"In morals, as in physics, the stream cannot rise higher than its source." John Henry Newman.

Puritan Leftover

Why don't more bars have windows? Maybe it's a stain from the Puritans. Those guys were insufferable. They latched onto a few ideas like a burning marshmallow on a kid's forearm, substituted those ideas for complete reality, and self-righteously tried to force them down

D. H. Lawrence on Vampires

"One should be sufficiently intelligent and interested to know a good deal about any person one comes into close contact with. About her. Or about him. "But to try to know any living being is to try to suck the life out of that being."

Valentine's Day

"The way to love anything is to realise that it might be lost." G.K. Chesterton

(Wo)man

For a long while, our culture tended to bleed manliness into femininity. Men were told that they should be sensitive and artsy, that it's acceptable to cry, that they should undertake traditionally female roles. The response? Some went for it. Others rebelled, and set-up the antithesis: a pig

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"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl." H.L. Mencken

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Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight; But roaring Bill who killed him Thought it right. Hilaire Belloc

Can You Fit 37,000,000 Into a Monster Truck Show?

Whenever I see a clear vehicular mark of blue collar-dom (say, a big-wheeled pick-up that requires a stepladder to access its cab or a sticker of a urinating cartoon character) dragging a trailer with a jet ski or some other recreational contraption, I'm reminded of the words of

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"To be poor in order to be simple, to produce less in order that the product may be more choice and beautiful, and may leave us less burdened with unnecessary duties and useless possessions--that is an idea not articulate in the American mind." George Santayana

Brownson, the Radicals, and God

Although he was a collaborator with the radical Fanny Wright (and her partner, socialist Robert Owen), and had veered strongly toward agnosticism himself, Orestes Brownson (1803-1876) quickly found their anti-religion stance intellectually clumsy. The radicals taught that religion/superstition (the two are synonymous for radicals) were coeval with the human

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"Yes, that's the bore of comfort. We only know when we are uncomfortable." Henry James

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"Laugh at a man's language, and you have laughed at the man himself in the most inclusive sense." Herbert Agar

Negative Vice

Writing about the tendency of materialism to enervate the higher faculties of man, Russell Kirk described materialism as a "negative vice." Shopping and possessing material things are fine in themselves, but a passion for shopping and material things is a negative vice: a vice that negates the positive.

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"Bad news concerns few, but good news can upset a whole culture." Marshall McLuhan

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Although I see an existentialist thread running through J.D. Salinger's works, Salinger himself seems to be the antithesis of Albert Camus' ideal absurd man and even of Holden Caulfield. Salinger had immense success with The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey, but he wasn&

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They say ESPN got what it was asking for when it hired Rush Limbaugh: political commentary in a sports forum. I say CBS and the NFL got what they were asking for when they hired Kid Rock, Nelly, Janet Jackson, and Justin Timberlake: white trash morals in a sports forum.

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Vice is a monster of such frightful mien As to be hated needs but to be seen; But seen too oft, familiar with its face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace. Alexander Pope

Alyosha Karamazov

There were four Karamazov brothers: Dmitri, the sensualist–loving God but indulging his sins; Ivan, the intellectual–unable to believe in a good God; Smerdyakov, the twisted and cunning bastard son–and parricide; Alyosha, the monk and budding saint–a handsome young man who loves God and humanity. Few literary

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"The present cannot be revealed to people until it has become yesterday." Wyndham Lewis.

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The early pages of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited describe the drunken antics of students Lord Sebastian Flyte and the narrator, Charles Ryder. Ryder “got drunk often, but through an excess of high spirits, in the love of the moment, and the wish to prolong and enhance it; Sebastian

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Detest witch burnings, but detest even more the idea that witches ought not be burned.

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I often vacation in Ossineke, Michigan at my family's cottage on Lake Huron. Ossineke has two major attractions. The first is a swell tavern called the Wagon Wheel, a joint consisting entirely of one big room, complete with a juke box (40% Country, 20% Western, 30% old rock-n-roll,

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I have fought my fight, I have lived my life I have drunk my share of wine; From Trier to Koln there was never a knight Had a merrier life than mine. Charles Kingsley

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The hodag was a dreadful beast that terrorized the logging camps of the nineteenth century. It had great iron teeth, a long flat tail of bone with steel-like serrated edges. It ate bears, deer, and wildcats, but its favorite food was landlookers: those men that scouted areas for suitable logging

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Lawyer and animal rights activist Steven Wise's book, Drawing the Line, does three things: (1) It explains what makes a person a person; (2) It provides a person-continuum of 0.0 (mere stimulus-response machines) to 1.0 (full autonomy–which is what Wise identifies as the essence of

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On Equality Let's face it, no matter what the Declaration of Independence says, men are not equal. Sure, in the eyes of God they are, and in the eyes of the law they ought to be, but other than that? Inequality reigns more powerfully than a sadistic ante-bellum

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My blog isn't intended for poetry, and I am not a poet. Nonetheless, some might enjoy this hobby: rhymes for drinking times. Written under the pseudonym, WC Bardstool, they've been well-received in Gilbert Magazine. Here are two: There once was a gal from Nanu, Who used

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Alexandre Dumas once described the chains of marriage as being "so heavy that it often takes two people to carry them, and sometimes three.” That's sinfully, even fearfully, funny stuff.

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If something isn't at all comprehensible or even imaginable, it's weighty evidence that it doesn't exist. In the words of American philosopher CS Pierce: "We cannot even talk about anything but a knowable object. . . . The absolutely unknowable is a non-existent existence." Consider

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Drinking beer and wine is a waste of time? Naw. Drinking helps us to do nothing, and when we're doing nothing, we're doing eternity.

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"Why won't you attend wedding and baby showers?" I get that question a lot. I have lots of reasons. For starters, I don't enjoy them. I work in the office and my wife handles the domestic front, thus making much of the stuff received

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