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Forbidden Topics · 2Y ago

B16 sez…

that I need to get off my butt and start posting more! OK, he actually only encouraged priests to blog. But still, I like to think of his recent World Communications Day message as some sort of papal benediction on my erstwhile New Year’s resolution, even if I’ve been too swamped with papers to post
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Forbidden Topics · 2Y ago

Weekend music post

I’ve been busy this weekend so I haven’t had time to do much non-academic writing, but I thought I’d continue my semi-tradition of sharing my favorite pieces of sacred music. Today’s is the Kyrie from the Missa Papae Marcelli (Mass for Pope Marcellus), by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. I’m no exp
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Forbidden Topics · 2Y ago

Question

While most of this week’s news focused on the Massachusetts Senate race, the collapse of health care reform, and President Obama’s proposals for stricter financial regulation, there’s one story that will have much more important and far-reaching consequences. The Supreme Court, in the majority opini
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Forbidden Topics · 2Y ago

Sign me up NOW!

From Erin Manning (hat tip to Mark Shea): A long while ago, a reader of this blog asked what my “Member, Coalition for Clarity/Because Torture is Intrinsically Evil” item on my sidebar meant. Was there a group called “Coalition for Clarity?” Who were its members? Truth is, the group is (thus far) fi
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Forbidden Topics · 2Y ago

Happy anniversary, Mr. President

Today is the first anniversary of Barack Obama’s inauguration. I thought I’d share two old but still funny JibJab videos, one from the ’08 campaign and one from June 2009. Unfortunately, I’m too much of a tech doofus to embed them, so you’ll have to click the links.
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Forbidden Topics · 2Y ago

Why I’m attending the March for Life

A lot of people give me funny looks when I tell them that I’m planning to attend the March for Life this Friday. On the one hand, many of my pro-life friends know that I am a Democrat. They see me on Facebook, Twitter, and this blog saying largely positive things about a pro-choice President, [...]
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Forbidden Topics · 2Y ago

My thoughts on elections

Now that I’ve gotten over the shock of seeing a Republican win in Massachusetts, here’s my basic position on this election, and the upcoming midterms: The Republican Party, to be quite honest, scares the hell out of me. The party’s positions on torture and preemptive war border on fascism, and I don
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Forbidden Topics · 2Y ago

US war crimes

According to a report in Harpers (hat tip: Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic), a former guard at Guantanamo Bay has admitted that US soldiers there tortured three men to death in 2006. Please read the entire thing. My thoughts: 1. I can’t wait to hear Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani, Bill O’Re
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Forbidden Topics · 2Y ago

Faith in Haiti

Cnn.com has a home-page article headlined, “Many Haitians’ religious faith unshaken by earthquake.” It’s really quite an interesting read. A snippet: “A lot of people who never prayed or believed — now they believe,” said Cristina Bailey, a 24-year-old clerk. In parks and backyards, anywhere a group
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Forbidden Topics · 2Y ago

My pitch for STAND

In my initial post, I mentioned that I do a lot of work with STAND, the student-led division of Genocide Intervention Network. Since then, I haven’t talked about it at all. I never intended for this blog to focus on STAND-related issues; this is a blog about the “forbidden topics” of politics and re
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