The religion of the New York Times

We all know, I suppose, that the New York Times isn’t fair. In his latest column in Commonweal, Kenneth Woodward provides an enlightening example in this respect:


In its all-hands-on-deck drive to implicate the pope in diocesan cover-ups of abusive priests, the Times has relied on a steady stream of documents unearthed or supplied by Jeff Anderson, the nation’s most aggressive litigator on

Common sense

Tim James, the Republican candidate for governor of Alabama, believes “common sense” will win out over “political correctness.” Hence, his new ad, in which he argues that Alabama’s driver’s license exam should be given only in English. “Why do our politicians make use give our drivers license test in 12 languages,” he says. “This is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it.”

Ten-man Inter knocks out Barcelona

... With 10 men for more than an hour. Yes, it will be Inter Milan vs Bayern Munich in Madrid on May 22!

And Germany made the Greek crisis much, much worse

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” This piece of wisdom is known as Murphy’s Law, and I absolutely hate it, but Prof. Gustav A. Horn, the director of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) at Germany’s Hans-Böckler Foundation, says it currently applies extraordinarily well to economic policy in the euro zone. He gets angry with “the German government’s submissiveness to the financial

Invictus

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find,

Nine reasons to be alarmed about Biden's stance on Iran

According to Vice President Biden Iran has never been more isolated and the international community never more united against it. He also thinks proposed (tougher) UN sanctions against Iran—the US said yesterday it wants to see a sanctions resolution submitted “as soon as possible” within the UN Security Council—will stop Tehran’s nuclear weapons program. Wishful thinking? Realistic hope? Well,

A Big Nasty Financial Mess

~ “LETTERS FROM AMERICA” - by The Metaphysical Peregrine ~President Obama continued his attacks on America this week, focusing on Wall Street. He and his political party take millions from the financial industry and then attacks them, which isn't as crazy as it sounds.For decades the Democrats and their propagandists in the Main Stream Media, have repeated the lie that the Republicans are the

A Party is born

Someone says this is the announcement of a political divorce, someone else says that Gianfranco Fini, the head of the Chamber of Deputies, has just committed a political suicide. But I think neither of the two hypotheses is correct. In my opinion—and that of many others—a “true” party was born yesterday, instead: the People of Freedom (PdL), which until yesterday was little more than a

UK: Is Nick Clegg anti-American and anti-Israel?

A new survey by ICM Research for the left-wing Guardian, released Monday, put Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats at 30%, just three points behind the Tories (30%) and ahead of Labour back on 28%.

Asked if he truly believed he could become Prime Minister, Nick Clegg said he was “acutely aware” of the volatility of the polls but implied anything was possible: “I want to be the next Prime Minister,”

Female promiscuity causes earthquakes

An intriguing piece in The Weekly Standard, the American neoconservative opinion magazine, about a leading Iranian cleric who told worshippers in Tehran that he blames earthquakes on female promiscuity: “Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes.” This may sound wacky, says the magazine, but it can teach us a valuable

Distrust, discontent, anger (or, the American people and their Government)

According to a new series of Pew Research Center surveys, nearly 80 percent of Americans are more sceptical of Washington than ever, and a desire for smaller government is especially evident since Barack Obama took office. Public confidence in the federal government is at one of the lowest points in a half-century. There is a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government—a

The liberal Axis of Evil

Google convicted: it was the profit's fault

“Judge Magi’s full judgment will make for interesting reading once it’s published,” someone said after (at the end of last February) three Google executives were convicted by the court of Milan for failing to prevent publication on the search engine of a video—posted in 2006 on Google Video, a now-defunct service that Google ran before it bought YouTube—that showed an autistic boy being bullied

Alice in Wonderland

I didn’t see the film, but my wife and daughter did, and told me they enjoyed it a lot. Almost as much, I might say, as Mirino did—and he is a good judge of such matters…

“All this may read like a review. Be as it may. But it comes from yet another visual interpreter of the classic, therefore it might have a shade more significance. It's also written as a homage by a proud father who has had the

The Vatican's new blog

It's official: the Vatican Information Service—a news service, founded in the Holy See Press Office, that provides information about the Magisterium and the pastoral activities of the Holy Father—has now its own blog.

At the moment, the posts are simply a recapitulation of the service’s daily email digests (sent to subscribers every day at 3 p.m.). Latest post:
Guide to Understanding Basic CDF

What the New York Times does not translate

I have already said what I think about the whole thing: nothing can ever excuse the sexual abuse of a minor, as much as nothing can justify covering these abuses up, but claims against Pope Benedict’s handling of sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, in particular those according to which he declined to defrock a Milwaukee priest who molested deaf students, are groundless and brought in

Plastic gondolas? No thank you, say Venetians

A shipyard in southern Italy has offered a low-cost version of the traditional Venetian boat, an exact replica of the wooden original but with some significant advantages. But according to authorities even the idea of a plastic gondola is unthinkable … Read the rest.

Fed up with Media bias

A new Rasmussen Report survey finds that 55% of U.S. voters think Media bias is a bigger problem in politics today than big campaign contributions:

Voters ages 30 to 49 are the most wary of the media’s influence on politics today.Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Republicans and 62% of unaffiliated voters say media bias is the bigger problem in politics, a view shared by just 37% of Democrats. The

Why I stand for the Pope

The Pope, as everybody can see, has been under attack by the Press since just before Holy Week. This may have a very simple explanation. But first let me say this as a preamble: nothing excuses the sexual abuse of a minor, as much as nothing excuses covering these abuses up. With this being said, here is a plausible explanation: “This latest onslaught of hyperventilating media self-righteousness

The Abbey of Piona

It’s always the same story when I have to deal with monks—a question I should not ask (but which I regularly ask), and an answer I would not like to hear: “How many of you are there in the Abbey?” to which the answer is, “Not many, as you can see, but this is not the problem… the problem is the future, there are few vocations!” This always fills me with sadness...

This time, however, the old

Happy Easter!

Happy EasterJoyeuses PâquesBuona PasquaFrohe OsternFeliz PascuaBoa Pascoa

Waiting for the Resurrection

Erbarme dich, mein Gott,
um meiner Zähren willen!
Schaue hier, Herz und Auge
weint vor dir bitterlich.

(Have mercy, my God,
for the sake of my tears!
See here, before you
heart and eyes weep bitterly.)

From the St Matthew Passion (Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244) by Johann Sebastian Bach. In Mixto Genere ensemble. Jerusalem views in video.

Easter Triduum

Attending Easter Triduum services (here). See you later.