At the Papal Youth Rally back in April, my colleague Amanda Shaw and I managed to sneak into the press section. We dodged the Secret Service in part by being interviewed by some folks from Sirius Satellite Radio’s The Catholic Channel who were on hand to cover the event, and in part by their not kicking us out of their area. So I was delighted to see that one of them, Lino Rulli, was profiled in Sunday’s New York Times for his radio show “The Catholic Guy.”

From what the Times said, it sounds like Rulli is the latest in the old Christian tradition of taking the things of the world and using them to proclaim the Gospel: “Still, not many radio hosts use the Imus/Stern model — with on-air sidekicks, comic sound effects and the ad-libbing host who trades in the provocative — while hewing to a message of virginity until marriage and the unquestionable authority of the Catholic Magisterium.”

If you have Sirius, or know someone with questions about the faith who does, you might want to direct them Lino Rulli’s way.

Via the Wall Street Journal’s law blog comes this notice of a case involving a housing dispute in Chicago. I can’t decide the legal issues involved, which center on the question of whether or not the plaintiffs’ action is moot, but Judge Diane Wood’s dissent seems reasonably correct when it points out to the defendants that they probably shouldn’t use the phrase “pound of flesh” in their briefs when they’re being sued by Jewish plaintiffs for religious violations of the Fair Housing Act.

In yesterday’s Washington Post, Michael Benson suggests sending the space station to orbit the moon—or even beyond. It’s easier than it looks, he argues, for, technically, the ISS is already an interplanetary vehicle.

Well, maybe. I’d rather we concentrated our space resources on something grander, but at least Benson sees that something ought to be done to make space more exciting—to make it a more compelling part of the human imagination. [Hat Tip: Instapundit]

Ezra Levant is the Canadian who, while he was publisher of the Western Standard, printed some of the Danish cartoons that depicted Muhammad—and then got hauled before the Canadian human-rights commissions, accused of crimes of insensitivity. (Levant’s case, along with that of the America Alone author Mark Steyn, is chronicled in “Kangaroo Canada,” an article by Douglas Farrow in the new issue of First Things).

On Friday, Levant spoke to members of the U.S. Congress, warning that the Canadian human-rights commissions were a dangerous and destructive force. “So why should Americans care? I can think of three reasons.” Levant explained:

1. Americans should care because Americans have always cared about liberty around the world, especially political and religious liberty. It is one of America’s greatest characteristics: a love for the well-being of other countries. Being a Good Samaritan is in your nature, and the world is freer because of it.

2. America should care because what happens in Europe and Canada soon comes—or tries to come—to the U.S. When it comes to censorship, we’re a laboratory for bad ideas. And the coalition between foreign trouble-makers and domestic busy-bodies is an idea that is spreading here, too.

3. Despite your First Amendment, human rights commissions are popping up all over the U.S. The city of Philadelphia’ s “human relations” commission has a staff of 33, and a multi-million dollar budget. Last year, they prosecuted Geno’s Steak House because they put up a sign asking customers to order their Philly Cheese Steaks in English. We might agree with Geno’s sign or disagree. But to have a government agency prosecute them is a threat to the First Amendment. And, if it’s a steak house today, it could be a news magazine tomorrow. And if it’s do-gooders today, I can assure you it won’t be for long.

James Lileks—whose blog, with its calm voice recounting his day, is one of the treasures of the Web—has a column this week on the Star Tribune website about the anniversary of Skylab. Or, rather, the anniversary of the day Skylab fell from the sky, on July 11, 1979. Interestingly, even after it recounts all the mockery of Skylab in the 1970s, Lilek’s piece ends with something of a defense of the project.

Nobody likes a little bit of counter-intuitive twist better than I do, but, in this case, I think Lileks is wrong. The mockery derived from a serious insight: Worthy or not scientifically, Skylab lacked the spark, the imagination-catching glory, of the moon walk. Maybe we learned some important things from having a giant laboratory circling Earth, but where was the ad-astra oomph that could inspire us? There’s always an odd, heavy gravity that draws humans inward on themselves. Skylab lacked the centrifugal force to tug us out to the universe instead.

As then, so now. Can’t you hear Mars calling?