The newest exercise “craze” (that’s a little strong, but so be it): open-water swimming. My wife will vouch for it. When we vacation up north, she loves to swim in Lake Huron (assuming the water is smooth, of course). She says it’s an entirely different feeling that swimming in a pool. The link above touches [...]
Now that researchers have concluded that divorce is bad for the environment, Theodore Dalrymple humorously asks:
One of the interesting questions that this little piece of research poses is whether the environmentalist lobby will now throw itself behind the cause of family values. Will it, for example, push for the tightening of divorce laws, and [...]
My son Alex bought me a Benedict Groeschel book for Christmas: Spiritual Passages: The Psychology of Spiritual Development. I’ve only read the first twenty pages, but so far it has all the markings of an Eric Classic, which I define as a book uniquely situated for my situation: The subject matter interests me greatly and [...]
When I was a kid, I was always depressed Christmas night and the day after, with my spirits gradually lightening as the new year approached. I don’t get depressed anymore, not at all. It’s odd, though: I intensely look forward to Christmas for a month, then I’m happy it’s mostly over and look forward to [...]
“He is born poor, and he teaches us that happiness is not to be found in an abundance of earthly goods. He comes into the world without any ostentation, encouraging us to be humble and not to depend on the applause of men.”
When I see stories like this, I think even the New York Times can be redeemed. A wonderful tribute to Benedict Groeschel, a man whose podcasts have become one of the high points of my week. Excerpt:
And so, when Father Groeschel and his crew of helpers went to the South Bronx for the 45th year [...]
“Another manifestation of humility is the avoidance of negative judgments about other people. The knowledge of our own weaknesses will prevent us from entertaining a bad thought about anyone, even if the words or conduct of the person in question give good grounds for doing so.”
If anyone tried to email me and didn’t receive a response, please try again. Yahoo Mail put at least one apparently legitimate message in my spam/bulk folder. I had highlighted a batch of messages, hit delete, then saw that there were potentially-legitimate messages in there, but it was too late to pull back. Sorry. I [...]
Ah, Christmas weekend. A great thing, and the Tuesday Christmas is the best. I’ve informally polled my friends around town, and more than half of them aren’t working Monday or their offices (like mine) are closed. It’s a four-day weekend, so we get the best of Thanksgiving and Christ’s birth. Maybe we should pass a [...]
I can’t get this story off my mind: Mike Huckabee to speak at strongly anti-Catholic preacher’s church.
I’m not fascinated that Huckabee is going there (though it concerns me—bigotry is bigotry, and for reasons explained forth below, Preacher Hagee is a bigot). I’m fascinated by this preacher’s spin: The Catholic Church is anti-Semitic and fundamentally flawed, [...]
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