13 June 2010

Coffee Bowl Browsing

Is it time to rethink the need for public sector unions?  (NB.  great cartoon included!)

Why aren't college undergrads majoring in the humanities like they used to?   I can personally attest to his diagnosis of the problem.

P.C. history vs. Real history:  what's at stake for our civil society?

Great story about a mom struggling to deal with her easily frustrated 8 y.o. son:  "My Prickly Priest"

Belgium steps closer to extinction.  Free-market, politically conservative, economically prosperous Flanders wins the referendum on separating from socialist, politically liberal, economically depressed Wollania.  Apparently, the Flemish are tired of supporting their Nanny State neighbors to the south.

The Palestinian president tells B.O.:  don't pressure Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza. . .only the terrorists would benefit.

With Helen Thomas out of the room, will the White House Press Corps get even wimpier?  Better question:  is it possible for the WHPC to get any wimpier?

Are we being governed by professors?  Looks like it.  Though I'd rather be governed by the philosophy department than the English department!

Reforming tenure rules for public school teachers in CO.  Once a means of providing scholars with a defense against being fired for holding unpopular positions on hot-button issues, tenure has become an end in itself--a utopian goal of life-long employment that produces predictable ideological conformity and massive fiscal irresponsibility.

Heh.  Maybe not ALL Nanny State social engineering/meddling is a bad thing.  "Maternity leave" for fathers in Sweden.

The history of B.O.'s Justice Dept.'s defense of voter intimidation in Philadelphia.  This time the scandal is both the misdeed and the cover-up.

Every sport in the world could disappear tomorrow, and I wouldn't notice until someone mentioned it to me.  Just not a fan.  However, this analysis of the differences between international sports teams and U.S. teams is interesting for its political insights.

Hilarious anti-Bush sign at a protest march. . .truly a LOL moment.

Is the Church a cruise ship or a battleship?  I say:  the Church is a fishing trawler whose crew never throws back anything they catch. . .though sometimes what we catch jumps overboard.

A letter to God arrives at the post office. . .


The Rules for "Calling Shotgun".  I always invoke Special Cases Rule no. II.6., a.k.a. the Too Wide Exemption.

Disgusting canned foods. . .and I use the word "food" with great hesitation.


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6 comments:

  1. Just wanted to say, thanks to the FT link, I added yet another book to my Wish List: Sertillange's "The Intellectual Life."

    Not sure whether to curse you or thank you. :)

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  2. Dismas, I read the Sertillange's book while writing a paper for the MLA on the "veritatis misercordiae" of the Order preaching mission.

    It is HEAVY on discipline. . .so, I'm not so sure how well I have managed to assimilate its better points!

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  3. Anonymous9:20 AM

    What Fr. Oakes describes sounds to me like Marxist hermeneutics, according to which, there's no truth, just discourses to defend one's own class.

    If only Marx would apply the same to himself... and also college professors!

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  4. Anonymous9:32 AM

    Fr. P.,

    On sports, having lived in TX, you should know better that Texans hate Oklahomans out of "state jingoism" in football, much like Brazilians and Argentinians in soccer.

    You should know better than applying the naive notion of American exceptionalism, in itself a jingoist notion, to sports. It ain't, it's all the same fallen nature. ;-)

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  5. Anonymous12:59 PM

    Today in the USA is Flag Day and the 235th anniversary of the US Army.

    Pray for our gallant troops!

    Pray for Victory and Peace!

    God bless America.

    Father, thank you all you do.

    The bit about "Bush stole my dentures" hit home. My uncle (RIP) was in a nursing home his last two years. Once a year they lost his dentures and paid a ton of money to replace.

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  6. Anonymous12:07 AM

    My husband has renamed pepper steak "scorpion tails". The younger children are half convinced that it might be. Now I have a picture of canned scorpions.

    Marie

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