About Fred Thompson

Against the Grain offers an interesting digest of the current scuttlebutt and popular wisdom on Fred Thompson in "Fred Thompson to Run for President?" (Against the Grain, June 4, 2007).

I personally have no dog in the race on whom I've placed my money, although that time will surely come. I most certainly do not want to see any of the current Democratic contestants in the White House.

Developing ...

Will "historical Koranic criticism" yield a more pacific Islam?

According to Sandro Magister, a contemporary Islamologist appears to think so. In "For a Renewed Interpretation of the Qur'an: The Lesson of a Great Islamologist" (www.chiesa, June 4, 2007), Magister writes:

Michel Cuypers applies to the sacred book of Islam the methods already applied to the Bible. The results are astonishing. For example, the most bellicose verses of the Qur'an do not "abrogate" the more tolerant and peaceable ones, as the proponents of holy war presume

I remain skeptical for the reason that I repose little confidence in any movement whose ebullience takes its point of departure from the Enlightenment in general. I am no more convinced that a peaceful Islam can be found through tinkering with suras in the Kuran than I am that the Pax Christi can be garnered by finding the right spin on foreign policy in Iraq.

Uncanny

On August 6, 1978, Pope Paul VI died at 9:40AM, Roman time. At that very moment, his Polish alarm clock, purchased in Warsaw in 1924, went off.

Mary Roach, who takes a naturalistic view of such phenomena, needless to say offers little light on such subjects in her book, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (WW. Norton, 2006). But you can find a good review of the book by Arthur C.
Sippo in the May issue of New Oxford Review.

Catholic Coke???

Someone emailed me the following:

I found the link to this on New Advent. I thought it was a pretty light heartened way to start a Friday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMSAMUd7Hq4

Lenoir-Rhyne dean fired for looking too good?

The Lenoir-Rhyne Onion carries this article today: "Dean of Academic Programs fired for looking too good" (Lenoir-Rhyne Onion, June 1, 2007).

Highland Hall razed

The Lenoir-Rhyne Onion carries an article ("Highland Hall razed," The Lenoir-Rhyne Onion, June 1, 2007) on the demolition of the venerable old Highland Hall, which was carried out last week at Lenoir-Rhyne University at Old Dominion, NC. Read it and weep. (N.B. -- If a pop-up window appears asking for an authentication code, click on 'cancel', and you will be allowed to proceed).

Study verifies airborne cocaine in Rome

"Cocaine in the air in Italy: study" (Breibart.com, May 31, 2007) reports that an Italian scientific study has found particles of cocaine in Rome's air. The study by the council's atmospheric pollution institute, also found traces of cannabinol, a component of marijuana and hashish, as well as nicotine and caffeine, a statement from the council said.

"The highest concentration of cocaine was found in the centre of Rome and especially in the University of La Sapienza area," the study said.

"We cannot in any way confirm that the consumption or trafficking of drugs is more common in that area," the statement said, adding that more in-depth study would be needed to determine that.

The highest concentrations of cocaine (about .1 nanograms per cubic metre) were detected during the winter months, according to the study.

Where else but in Kentucky?

You won't believe this. A reader recently sent in the links below with the following (edited) remarks:

Me and the Bride were visiting family in Lexington, Ky about a decade ago. On the return back to Lexington from Mammoth Caves, we passed this roadside attraction. Back then, it was still open and still the #1 shaded biblical mini golf course in America- prolly in the world (Dubai excluded)

You just can't make this stuff up. I laughed my butt off. I got out, took pictures etc. ...

Where else but in Kentucky would a man think - "Honey, call me crazy but if we combined Mini-Golf and the Crucifixion . . ."

• Jim and Tammy Kay: visit Golgotha Fun Park
• #1 Shaded Biblical Mini-Golf

[Hat tip to Sun and Wine]

The new pickpockets in Rome

Like the earlier teams of pickpockets in Rome, the new teams appear to be made up of family members working in concert, using the younger members to distract.



[Hat tip to M.K. - edited]

How "The Pill" causes embryonic abortions

Animation showing how "The Pill" causes embryonic abortions:

"Abortifacient" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiCU46_lWeE]

[Hat tip to M.F.]

Christian Iraq at risk

"A Final Appeal: Save Christian Iraq" (Sandro Magister, www.chiesa, May 28, 2007):

It is the only country where the liturgy is still celebrated in Aramaic, the language of Jesus. But Christianity is in danger of dying out there. Killings, aggression, kidnappings. And now also the "jiza," the tax historically imposed by Muslims on their "infidel" subjects, those who have still not fled the country.

Head coverings, again -- for the record

We've been through this before, and we know about the controversy regarding the new Code of Canon Law (1983) and its silence on the question. For the record, however, here is an article from The Atlanta Journal (June 21, 1969) entitled "Women Required to Cover Head, Vatican Insists," which my wife received in a mailing from Halo-Works:

"A Vatican official says there has been no change, as reported,in the Roman Catholic rule that women cover their head in church. The Rev. Annibale Bugnini, secretary of the New Congregation for Divine Worship, said the reports stemmed from a misunderstanding of a statement he made at a news conference in May. 'The rule has not been changed,' he said. 'It is a matter of general discipline.'"

ZENIT recently carried an article (May 22, 2007) interviewing Fr. Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university, on several subjects, among them, head coverings for women. McNamara, not surprisingly, sees the practice as a culturally conditioned custom of no abiding significance. Among other things, he says:

This custom was considered normative and was enshrined in Canon 1262.2 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law alongside the recommendation that men and women be separated in Church and that men go bareheaded. This canon was dropped from the new Code of Canon Law promulgated in 1983, but the practice had already begun to fall into disuse from about the beginning of the 1970s. Even though no longer legally binding, the custom is still widely practiced in some countries, especially in Asia. It has been generally abandoned in most Western countries even though women, unlike men, may still wear hats and veils to Mass if they choose.

The case of Madeleine Mccann's parents

Like everyone, I have heard that Madeleine Mccanne's parents are guilty of gross negligence in leaving their daughter alone in a hotel room while they went out dining in Portugal. That's reportedly when she was abducted. There's a good bit of Internet blog discussion about this -- for example, "Parents Who Neglect Their Children" (AOL United Kingdom News, 5/12/07). Many of you have no doubt heard the reports that the Holy Father has agreed to meet with Gerry and Kate McCann, who are both Roman Catholics (e.g., "Pope To Meet Madeleine's Parents" (Sky News, May 27, 2007). Some see this as part of a deliberate strategy of media manipulation, designed to portray themselves as victims, and it well may be. In any case, there is no question that Madeleine Mccanne is a victim in the case, and her parents quite clearly need our prayers as well.

[Hat top to J.W.]

Without comment

[Hat tip to S.F.]

The narcissist generation

Complaints about the younger generation have always been commonplace among the older generation. Yet Jean M. Twenge argues that the current generation is unique in Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before (Free Press, 2007). She presents evidence that "Generation Me," those born after 1982, is rooted in profound pathology of narcissism. In some ways, her thesis is reminiscent of Christopher Lasch's magisterial Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (1979; W. W. Norton & Company; Revised edition, May 1991). Only, her focus is narrower and her approach more popular. Spoiled beyond reckoning, members of "Generation Me" have heard since infancy that "I'm okay, and you're okay," that they were "special," and that "God don't create junk." The latest navel-gazing technological innovations of MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, iPods, -- not to mention the inanity of most uses of cell phones and text messaging among them, only reinforces the pervasive sense of entitlement -- and equally profound misery, alienation, and ennui.

. . . and ugly clothing
Oh, and by the way, the picture on the book cover reminds me of what Alice von Hildebrand once said in a speech in Charlotte about modern clothing styles having become unworthy of the dignity of human beings. These low-riding, 3-4 inch-above-the-crotch, G-string baring jeans are the female equivalent of the low-slung ghetto-'n'-grunge look sported by derriere-cleavage-baring knuckle draggers who can't seem to keep their pants above their hips. Watch a woman wearing a pair of tight low-riders try to sit down in public. It's a seesaw trick between revealing too much butt cleavage in the back and too much thong (or, worse,) pubic fuzz in the front. People who think there's anything aesthetically pleasing about such clothing are fashion-myopic morons. For a woman, such clothing is the moral equivalent of wearing a sandwich board sign saying "I'm a cheap and easy, have no aesthetic taste or self-respect." For a man, it's the equivalent of a sign that says "I'm an unrefined boor with no future." In either case, the clothing announces a loud lack of self-respect. As von Hildebrand says simply, "It's ungly. It's clothing unworthy of a being created in God's image." Here's to an authentically Catholic counter culture!