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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 >
Image Journal’s website features a blog by Brian Volck on the slippery nature of words; more specifically, the language of this election season, and key words like “change.” Both parties claim to be the agents of change. What does it mean? How does a word or expression change in a given context? In politics, are words used to clarify or obfuscate? Can spin doctors contort and distort words to a shadow of their former meaning?
“Perhaps that’s one reason,” Volck observes, “why... READ MORE >
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There’s a pseudo-myth in rock music that drug-abusing artists lose their edge when they clean up their act. Their music, once forged in the crucible of angst and addiction, is softened and sanitized by sobriety. It’s a popular theory, especially among would-be rock stars without a label contract but with a dealer contact. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, bad poets live the poetry they cannot write.
Ryan... READ MORE >
Who or what is a RocknRolla? Someone born to be in a Guy Ritchie flick, that’s who. An amoral member of the criminal class doing bad things in stylish threads and an expensive pair of shades, spouting tough-lout talk like a Cockney at a Tarantino casting call. Ritchie’s first and best movies were Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, though they were best appreciated as flashy genre exercises,... READ MORE >
Chuck Klosterman acquits himself well with his first novel, Downtown Owl. He’s better known as a wiseass essayist on movies, video games, heavy-metal music and pop culture miscellany for publications like Esquire, Spin, and The Guardian.
An ominous news clipping prefaces Downtown Owl, reporting on a vicious blizzard that claimed the lives of eleven people in North Dakota’s Red River Valley in February... 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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Copyright © 2008 GODSPY.com | Published by Transmodern Media LLC, 1360 Park Lane, Pelham Manor, NY 10803
Latest Comments
AgapeMargaret writes "As a California resident, I think the Prop 8 campaign did a great job. I commented numerous times how logical all the ads in print and on TV were. I am surely exasperated from being …"
Debra Murphy writes "It makes no sense to me, strategically, to abandon to the pro-aborts a party which a) has more registered voters than the Republicans, b) is on average in power about half the time, …"
Dave writes "Ah, the emptiness of nihilism. "
dsconi writes "How interesting. At a time when many of our betters in the print and electronic media are blaming the Republican party’s recent election losses on the courting of culturally conservative …"
GTN writes "Well, I’m definitely a capitalist, a Christian, and right-wing, but definitely not racist. Are you refering to those who are worried about the man or the name? I don’t especially care …"
GTN writes "Well, I would certainly like to see socially conservative Democrats, but they are missing the other half of the coin. Economic conservatism is almost as important, and may even be …"
Dave writes "I think that Communion and Liberation is doing an amazing job bridging the gab between faith and culture. Especially the Crossroads Cultural Center. "
chassup writes "VICO, Error has no rights, but erroneous people do. Your hope for prudence from a man who rejects the basic human right to life is not rational. "
CarolAnn writes "This story will most likely hit home with many people. I owe my own path back to the Faith through the intercession of Our Lady. I had been a “non-practicing” Catholic for more than …"
RickCross writes "For a more substantial review of W. go here. "
Dave writes ":D "
thickcow writes "Dear Mr. Matera -- Thank you! I have always been amazed by bios of prominent figures (and they’re none too few), which refer without comment to their worship of Ayn Rand. Huh? Didn’t …"