Ryan Sayre Patrico

Sounds good to me : Vauban, Germany—Residents of this upscale community are suburban pioneers, going where few soccer moms or commuting executives have ever gone before: they have given up their cars. Street parking, driveways and home garages are generally forbidden in this experimental new . . . . Continue Reading »

From the Jerusalem Post : A leading Palestinian cleric commandeered an evening devoted to interfaith dialogue with Pope Benedict XVI on Monday to rant against Israel for “killing Gaza’s children,” “bulldozing Palestinian homes” and “destroying mosques.” In . . . . Continue Reading »

Sounds reasonable to me : A groundbreaking study suggests people with autism-spectrum disorders such as Asperger’s do not lack empathy—rather they feel others’ emotions too intensely to cope. People with Asperger’s syndrome, a high functioning form of autism, are often . . . . Continue Reading »

Mary Anastasia O’Grady interviews Archbishop Timothy Dolan for the Wall Street Journal : If Archbishop Dolan can save and perhaps even revive the city’s Catholic school system, he will be a hero to all of New York. But while he’s working on that, he has two other problems that are . . . . Continue Reading »

Too bad . Thalheim-Kunz-Hallstein just rolls off the tongue. . . . . Continue Reading »

Amy Welborn also has some insightful things to say about E.J. Dionne and L’Osservatore Romano : One of the current memes, as we say, making its way through commentary on Obama/Notre Dame and Obama/American Catholics runs something like this: “The Pope and the Vatican don’t seem to . . . . Continue Reading »

If I hear one more person say that the slippery slope argument doesn’t apply to gay marriage, I’m gonna scream : First came traditional marriage. Then, gay marriage. Now, there’s a movement combining both—simultaneously. Abby Ellin visits the next frontier of nuptials: the . . . . Continue Reading »

Democracy, shemocracy : The recent run of states legalizing gay marriage—punctuated Wednesday by Maine becoming the fifth state to do so—has increased the likelihood that California voters will face another ballot measure on the issue as early as next year, according to strategists on . . . . Continue Reading »

From the Catholic Herald : The Vatican drew up secret plans to appoint a new pope and relocate the Curia to a safe country if Adolf Hitler went ahead with his threat to kidnap the wartime pontiff, according to secret archives. Pope Pius XII informed leading bishops that his resignation would become . . . . Continue Reading »

While we very much appreciate all the readers of this blog and insist that you keep tuning in, don’t forget that First Things is also hosting four new blogs. They’re firing on all cylinders. At the Anchoress , Elizabeth Scalia discusses media bias—against Bush and toward Obama: . . . . Continue Reading »