Archive for Featured

71 Is the New 100%

March 28, 2015 Featured One comment

One of the interesting questions in the realm of film philosophy centers on the question of genre.  Generic texts, whether written or filmed, pose a quandary insofar as they should prove to be boring to audiences, as the form and formula of the text must have a certain consistency across the various iterations of the genre.  Indeed, if a film lays claim to being part of a genre, audiences will punish it should it venture too far off the track.  Yet, should a film do nothing more than effectively connect the dots of its genre, audiences will lambast it for

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My Kinda Lent

March 16, 2015 Featured No comments

Now here is a Lenten fast that isn’t for the fainthearted.  Don’t give up beer for Lent.  Give up everything except beer.  Remember, no sacrifice is too great for the kingdom.  I see a fasting club in our future, where we give thanks for malty miracles while growing in hoppy holiness.

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More Shenanigans:
NYC and Notre Dame

February 22, 2015 Featured No comments

Well, it’s that time of year again: time for the annual pre-St. Patrick’s Day rant. In a few short weeks, Americans of all nationalities, colors, and creeds will dress in green and ignore our nation’s anti-Catholic tendencies in order to get drunk and celebrate all things Irish-ish. What better way to get in the leprechaun-loving spirit of things than to highlight a couple of news stories that would have the Apostle of Ireland feeling green around the gills. First, we turn to New York City, where the annual celebration of the Big Apple’s patron saint and Irish (or Irish Catholic, depending on your agenda) heritage

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Shades of a Kingsman

February 14, 2015 Featured, Intellectual Formation One comment

            The culture warriors are at DEFCON 3 this weekend with the release of Fifty Shades of Grey.  Those who wish to preserve a traditional ethic on all matters sexual should rightly be distressed at the release of this film, as should be anybody who thinks the sadomasochistic fantasies of a British writer of Twilight fan fiction are an affront to the dignity of women.  However, while it is certainly noble and right to oppose this unconscionable adaptation of a (from what I’ve been told) even more abhorrent novel, it seems that the culture warriors are experiencing tunnel vision

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Your Voice Is a Gift From God…Give It Back!

February 13, 2015 Featured No comments

In honor of our fearless leader and his insights into liturgical music, I share a bit of humor from First Things: “Catholics Don’t Sing Like Lutherans.”  Follow the links in the article, too, if you have time. Educational and entertaining! Perhaps the writer is right about the differences between German Lutherans and Irish Catholics — but what of German Catholics? And perhaps the spirit of Irish singing isn’t out of place among Catholics, even if it doesn’t belong in Church. Says Chesterton: “Once men sang together round a table in chorus; now one man sings alone, for the absurd reason

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You Go Girl

October 17, 2014 Featured One comment

Apart from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, it’s been a pretty drab year at the movies.  Tentpole film after tentpole film has come and gone without making much of an impression–it’s not that they’ve been particularly bad, just not all that good.  Thus, roughly two months had passed since I went to the movie theater when I finally decided to call a friend and see Gone Girl this past week.  My initial impression was that it was a well-crafted, if too long, thriller that more than satisfies the need for an evening’s entertainment.  After a few days worth of reflection

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On Conscience, Coercion and Religious Liberty

July 24, 2014 Featured, Intellectual Formation, Moral Action 2 comments

Fellow Junto Members, herewith you will find my July meeting presentation. I appreciate the good discussion we had on it and I will also add a link later that is pertinent to this topic.   It is founded on doctrine that conscience is the voice of God, whereas it is fashionable on all hands now to consider it in one way or another a creation of man. ** Cardinal John Henry Newman, Letter to the Duke of Norfolk **   In previous Junto meetings, we debated the indisputable slide from a Christian to a post-Christian, neo-pagan society. As foundational religious

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Our Missing Rib, Part 2

July 22, 2014 Featured No comments

Blogger’s Note: This is the second in an irregular series of posts on the differences between the genders in order to spread peace and understanding. The first such post is here. A friend recently posted this column from The Washington Post, from a dad who blamed his stay-at-home wife for their messy house, until he realized what she was really doing with her time. This could have been a I’m-so-sorry-for-being-a-guy sort of thing, but I actually found that it resonated with me on two levels: I’ve had the same thought processes and frustrations as the author, only to realize that my wife is great

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More Ivy League Notions of ‘Tolerance’

May 9, 2014 Featured One comment

Last month: being pro-life is incompatible with Yale students’ notions of social justice. This month? Satanism is a form of protest against tyranny, and a Black Mass is not a mockery of Catholicism, according to folks at Harvard. Apparently, it’s educational — and they will use bread, but not a consecrated host, so Catholics should have a problem…right?

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Rolling Stone Crude and Superficial? Who Knew?

January 30, 2014 Featured, Intellectual Formation One comment

From the Catholic World Report: “Vatican spokesman responds to Rolling Stone article’s ‘surprising crudeness’” — I can’t quite bring myself to read the entire Rolling Stone piece yet, but from this, it sounds like the pope emeritus might have caught the brunt of it. He deserves better, but I had another thought: When Pope Francis was named TIME’s Person of the Year, supposedly someone at the Vatican said they weren’t sure how much of an honor it was, considering some of the others who had been recognized that way. Have they ever seen the cover of Rolling Stone? Crude and

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