For the last several years, I've been wondering about the rise of what I'll call the "Libertarian Jesus" in contemporary Christian culture. By the "Libertarian Jesus," I mean the anti-government, anti-tax, anti-regulation, anti-redistributive laissez-faire Jesus. These days said Libertarian Jesus also seems to condemn anything that anyone might ( Read more... )

One of the things that bugs me about both Star Trek Into Darkness and the previous J.J. Abrams ST movie is that the actors are just too young for the Starfleet rank they're supposed to have. It was the same problem I had with Stargate Atlantis only much worse ( Read more... )

So most of you who read this know I'm not the hugest fan of "white boy gospel music" that has become popular among certain contemporary Catholic composers. Which means that I really don't like the Mass of Glory setting (try playing it on guitar some time... it's really, really boring). However, I will make an exception for the Lord Have Mercy. ( Read more... )

Often we like to focus on the extraordinary of Christmas. The choirs of angels. The star. The wise men from the east. It's easily to look at Christmas from a miraculous perspective because, well, it was pretty miraculous ( Read more... )

Inspired by the ever-so-awesome daniellij, I will also be running a sporadic Advent meditation series this year. I'll be using various readings or writers as my muse and then going from there. It's been far too long.

Walker Percy (Lost in the Cosmos) writes:"You have seen yourself a thousand times in the mirror, face to face. No sight is more ( Read more... )

... I was more or less dared to do this by my buddies:


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Courtesy of Obamaicon.me:


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Our reading group is doing Chesterton now, which can be a bit of a frustration since (a) Chesterton's perspective on economics predates both Keynes and Friedman, which means that a lot of his ideas are now obviously bunk (but he didn't know that at the time) and (b) he has a tendency to shamelessly straw man his opponents. But today he sparked an ( Read more... )

1) David Tennant's portrayal of The Doctor is outstanding --- The Doctor as a tragic hero. Brilliant!

2) Chairman Mao's cultural revolution has the same roots as G.K. Chesterton's distributism --- the idolization of the farmer and the farming life.

... and no, it wasn't the, "British, Gay or Both" audio round, or the multiple choice, "Hillary, Condi or Margaret Thatcher" round ( Read more... )