I finally got around to watching 10 Things I Hate About You the other night. The movie apparently came out when I was a junior in high school – prime target audience age for that teen cult classic. But despite being repeatedly being told over the years that I channel the female protagonist – I h...

Give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide yourself from my supplication. (Psalm 55:1)       LORD, hear our cries to you for your church and your people. Attend to me, and hear me; I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily, (Psalm 55:2)     ...

We talk to folks a lot about genre books and movies, but what do they have to say about books from outside the field? Q: SF conventions often have panels on "What sf books would you recommend to someone who hadn't encountered the field before?" Let's turn that around: "What non-sf/fantasy books woul...

He’s aliiiiive! But really, was there ever any doubt? The long-awaited flashback story of Jeremy Bentham, aka “John Locke off the island,” was remarkably straightforward, with very few real surprises. There were a few, though, and the best one came at the very end. Favorite line: &...

This situation is now unsustainable for everyone, whether within the Eurozone or still out in the cold Everything is being stress-tested in this crisis. Europe, too. The weak points in the way the European Union has been put together, politically and economically, over the 20 years since the world c...

After re-reading Hardy’s The Return of the Native I’m still not sure what originally attracted me to it, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the plot. In fact, it’s a sign of Hardy’s genius that he managed to make the novel as believable as he did. The plot is melodramatic, little more than so...

Born: April 1, 1866, in the village of Å»arki, six miles from Kraków, Poland. Studies at St. Anne’s Gimnazjum (Kraków, Poland), the JageÅ‚Å‚ionian University (Kraków, Poland), and St. Vincent’s Archabbey (Latrobe, Pennsylvania) Ordained to the Holy Priesthood: August 19, 1893, in St. ...

(published 2/11/09) Read Mark 4:35-41 Peace During Battle At Woodridge, our current teaching series, The Jesus Chronicles , has brought Jesus to life, for me, in a very real way. In today’s passage, our verse begins at the end of, yet, another very busy day for Jesus. His human body must have been...

Scottish judge Roger Craik threw a rape victim in prison overnight, after she got so upset that she fled the witness box. Un-fucking-believeable. Pegah Emambakhsh has won refugee status at last: She fled Iran for the UK almost four years ago when her sexuality became known to the religious authoriti...

 Raffaella has information on many bishops who have openly criticized the Vatican's handling of the SSPX de-excommunications, including Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor and a Swiss bishop, Kock: http://paparatzinger2-blograffaella.blogspot.com/2009/02/il-vescovo-kock-svizzera-scrive-una.html. ...