A few weeks ago, when news broke that the IRS had apparently been targeting conservative groups for heightened scrutiny, some liberal commentators claimed that there was really nothing here to see. It is not surprising, they said, that there would be a lot of scrutiny of conservative groups applying for tax exempt status, since there [...]
This has already been a week of rough news. Scandals in Washington. Tragedy in Oklahoma (please join CatholicVote in responding). So how about something completely different? Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, is now on Twitter, and he’s taking your questions. Someone asked him recently, “after a hard day as the cardinal, what kind [...]
I did the surfing, so you don’t have to. Here are the fruits of today’s writer’s block: The good, the bad, the beautiful, and the weird from around the Web this week. 1. Have you been paying attention to how young Catholics in France are rallying against gay marriage? Because you should. This [...]
Forgive me for venturing again into the immigration debate, but it seems (judging by combox discussions) that I haven’t made my point clearly enough in my past two outings. I tried pointing out that immigration (even unskilled) is not a drag on the overall economy, if we accept the debatable premise that immigrants are a drag [...]
Cardinal Newman Society reports: A Cincinnati city councilman who identifies himself as gay doesn’t think a man who disagrees with him should have the right to speak. Anthony Munoz, former Cincinnati Bengals star, Pro Football Hall of Famer, and big-time local philanthropist, was asked by Xavier University to give this year’s commencement address. Xavier University [...]
According to an old jazz tune, “It ain’t what you do, it’s the way how you do it.” It is good to keep this principle in mind various areas of human conduct. Imagine a couple of businessmen who have concluded a deal. Suppose they have have the contract drawn up and have both examined it [...]
Central Africa seems a lot more healthy than the Western World. In my Christianity and Mass Media class, we spend the end of the year studying how the media affects our brains and personal identity. Google makes us forgetful and destroys our patience for long, sustained reading (as Nicholas Carr points out and Bill Keller [...]
When the government of the United States announced that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would not immediately be given the usual Miranda warning, civil libertarians expressed concern for his rights. My first reaction was to call to mind the immortal words of Dirty Harry in this scene: “Well I’m all broken up about that man’s rights.” Given the [...]
Now, I don’t mean to start your week off on a bad note. I don’t want to shock you or upset you. But I’m afraid I have some “news.” You know the Boston bombers? The ones from Chechnya? The ones who turned pressure cookers into sophisticated people killing machines and morphed the streets of Boston [...]
Reuters reports that the Boy Scouts of America will soon consider a proposed new policy, one that will admit homosexual youth to the organization. The Scouts have long considered homosexuality to be inconsistent with their values, and have thus excluded homosexuals from membership; but they have come under pressure in recent years to change their policy. The [...]
