"We must live beautifully." Mother Teresa

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

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,

"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?"

"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."

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

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

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

“All fear arises from the love of something.” St. Thomas Aquinas