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The rules of capitalism are being re-written. Banks are being nationalized. Governments are pouring money and incentives into the economic system. Interest rates are being lowered towards zero. Consumers are being asked to buy more in order to re-start the cycle of consumption-driven production, while Barak Obama gets on with saving the planet. Writing in the Guardian in August, Tory adviser Philip Blond explained succinctly that “the crisis of contemporary capitalism results... READ MORE >
To understand why Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that banned gay marriage, won in California, watch the campaign’s TV commercials at the What Is Prop 8? website. Not only were they well-made, featuring a multi-ethnic cross-section of very normal, quasi-hip, young to middle-age Californians, the commercials were models of serious, rational political argument. While anti-Prop 8 commercials resorted to showing Mormon missionaries conducting Gestapo-like home invasions of... READ MORE >
I have a commentary in this week’s National Catholic Register entitled “What Now? Will New Voters Refashion the Democratic Party?” I argue that the election had a silver lining for Catholics: the same voters who turned out in large numbers for Obama--blacks and other minorities--voted strongly for California’s Proposition 8, the ballot initiative which amended the state constitution to ban gay marriage. (Gay marriage bans also passed in Arizona and Florida). I cite that... READ MORE >
If you’re feeling down about the ever-widening gap between blue-state and red-state America (and the even wider gap between blue and red Catholics), you can find hope in Sarah Palin. Ironically, the woman who’s been blamed for single-handedly re-igniting the culture wars is showing signs that she can appeal across the cultural divide. This past weekend she pulled off a smooth performance on Saturday Night Live, and now she’s inspired Radar Magazine to put together a video mash-up... READ MORE >
If you want to extract information from suspected terrorists, force them to listen to an endless loop of Sarah Palin speeches. I guarantee it would work. (Fortunately, John McCain is against torture.) Yet despite her grating voice and her muddled syntax, Palin managed on Saturday to pull off an effective pro-life speech that artfully strung together every substantial talking point available against Obama’s “unconditional support for unlimited abortions.” If only it weren’t... READ MORE >
In today’s NY Times, Peter Goodman’s excellent profile of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan confirms what I’ve been writing, that it was a specific “structure of sin”—financial speculation—rather than mere human greed (or bad home loans) that created the credit crisis. I’d always wondered how a rigid anti-government libertarian ideologue like Greenspan—an Ayn Rand disciple, no less—managed to get appointed to the most powerful economic post in the... READ MORE >
Europe’s financiers were seduced by the lure of easy subprime mortgage profits, just like everyone else, and they’re suffering now, just like everyone else. But give Europe credit for one thing: Thanks to its Catholic roots, Europe’s leaders understand that the financial crisis wasn’t caused by some vague form of “greed”; it was caused by greed purposely channeled into useless financial speculation, rather than into productive investment.
This difference was clearly recognized... READ MORE >
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In her first book, Parched, Heather King documents twenty years of worshipping alcohol to the point, as she says, she was “willing to sacrifice everything: career, family, money, health, reputation, my life, and what is far worse than any of those, my soul, for alcohol.”
Her second book Redeemed – A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles toward God, Marginal Sanity and the Peace that Passes All Understanding... READ MORE >
Norman Mailer’s The Castle in the Forest was a novel about Hitler narrated by a demon, who writes: “Most well-educated people are ready to bridle at the notion of such an entity as the Devil...There need be no surprise, then, that the world has an impoverished understanding of Adolf Hitler’s personality.” I was reminded of that quote during Valkyrie, a true-story account of the most organized, wide-reaching... READ MORE >
When Caden Cotard wakes up, the first thing he does is look in a mirror. He sees a pudgy, middle-aged, balding, sad-sack of a human being. The rest of the movie will be like that: a merciless self-examination. Neil Gaiman, sci-fi and fantasy author, described most current literary fiction as “miserable people having small epiphanies of misery.” Charlie Kaufman, who wrote Being John Malkovich and... READ MORE >
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SAINT OF THE DAY St. Peter of Alcantara
GOSPEL MEDITATION
The Gospel for Sunday, October 19, 2008
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew: 22:15-21
This is the heart of the mystery of Christ's birth: to save humanity from the selfishness of sin and its corollary of death, God himself lovingly enters, in Christ, into the fullness of life, into human history, thus raising humanity to the horizon of an even greater life.
— Pope John Paul II | READ MORE >
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It’s rare to see a positive story about the Catholic Church in the mainstream media, especially in newer online-only publications like Slate, but Harold Fickett, a Godspy contributing editor, managed to publish an essay there recently about the Clear Creek Monastery, a new and growing contemplative Benedictine monastery in Kansas, and the wider story of how Catholic religious communities are attracting young people. It could be that the critical... READ MORE >
A trillion for the Iraq War, almost as much to rescue Wall Street, but basic health care for all is too expensive? Why aren't Christian leaders in the U.S. saying as much? In England it's a different story: "[T]he Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, warned in a magazine article that modern devotion to the free market is a form of idolatry and that Karl Marx was morally right in his analysis of the power of 'unbridled capitalism.' He believes... READ MORE >
The Vatican continues to take every opportunity to discourage preemptive war: "The use of violence to resolve disagreements is always a failure of vision and a failure of humanity. The responsibility to protect should not be viewed merely in terms of military intervention but primarily as the need for the international community to come together in the face of crises to find means for fair and open negotiations, support the moral force of law and... READ MORE >
A fascinating peek at how a small unit that "flourished in a climate of opulent pay, lax oversight and blind faith in financial risk models" brought down AIG, the world's largest insurance company. "Although America’s housing collapse is often cited as having caused the crisis, the system was vulnerable because of intricate financial contracts known as credit derivatives, which insure debt holders against default. They are fashioned privately and... READ MORE >
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Latest Comments
SFCatholic writes "Good article, Angelo! However, I would refrain from calling names and using emotional language to describe videos or persons with whom you disagree - by using words like “moron, smug …"
star writes "It never was men’s prerogative to give or take the life of an unborn child. For me, it’s cowardice to do such a thing to a defenseless human being inside a mother’s womb! God gives …"
star writes "Like our own mother, Mama Mary never ceases to love us, to lead us all to the heart of Her Son Jesus! She made numerous Apparitions in different parts of the world, among them, Our …"
chassup writes "KEIR_H, “It’s all very well to say these things, but only the Government, in the end, has any chance of standing up for the rights of its people to own property and raise a family.” …"
keir_h writes "Oh, yeah, my original train of thought; back last century when Chesterton and Belloc went down these lines, they didn’t shrink from attempting to affect the highest statesmen; Belloc …"
keir_h writes "It’s all very well to say these things, but only the Government, in the end, has any chance of standing up for the rights of its people to own property and raise a family. The unions …"
keir_h writes "Since Mr. Caldecott has had his free blog-plug, may I plug someone else’s blog (one which is more directly pertinent the actual topic of distributism)? http://distributism.blogspot.com/ …"
star writes "The Eucharist ! Our only Hope ‘midst our troubled world today, a world wrought with diseases, ( now the swine flu ), unemployment, famine, wars, sin. God is with us ! As we go through …"
Anon writes "Our Lady kills lust. She released me from temptation to pornography that used to hit me like a wave. But with her . . . I’m free. . . and it is awesome. I do not DARE miss daily Rosary. …"
star writes "Divine Mercy Sunday ! Blood and Water gushes from our Saviour’s Heart ! How great is His desire to immerse us in His Ocean of Love, Mercy and Forgiveness! A Love unfathomable beyond …"
keir_h writes "This site appears to have changed my : p into “raspberry"… automatic text processing “seems to have ran [sic] away” with itself. "
keir_h writes "I am personally dirt poor, over-educated, and still willing to debate. My gardener friend from South London who used to devour history books and ruined my copy of Plato’s “Republic” …"