Obama Snipes at the Court

President Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court, and Justice Alito’s reaction, have received a surprising amount of attention—given that Obama had thousands of words, widely broadcast, and Alito had a headshake and two words, unheard, possibly “that’s wrong.” . . . . Continue Reading »

“We tremble not, we fear no ill”

From Pastor Gregory Alms:That line is one of my favorites in Luther’s great hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. I always get a lump in my throat as I sing it. I stand a bit taller and thrust out my chest just a bit in defiance of enemies, spiritual and otherwise.But it is a curious moment. For . . . . Continue Reading »

God Absent From the Western Mind

From an address by Archbishop Charles Chaput at the Fifth Symposium Rome: Priests and Laity on Mission: Having said all this, we still face a problem. And here it is: God has never been more absent from the Western mind than he is today. Additionally, we live in an age when almost every scientific . . . . Continue Reading »

Hitchens vs. The Unitarian

At NRO, Kathryn Jean Lopez posts an exchange between Unitarian minister Maryiln Sewell and atheist Christopher Hitchens: Maryiln Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from . . . . Continue Reading »

Is Petri Dish Pork Kosher?

Scientists have recently discovered a way to grow pork in a petri dish —a technique to turn pig stem cells into strips of meat that could one day offer a green alternative to raising livestock. Although in-vitro pork won’t be reaching supermarket shelves anytime soon, it’s not too . . . . Continue Reading »

SOTU Word Cloud Comparisons

How does Obama’s first year State of the Union Address compare to other recent Presidents? Below are word clouds, based on the number of times a word was mentioned in the speech, for the first-year SOTUs of Reagan through Obama. Barack Obama (January 27, 2010) George W. Bush (January 29, . . . . Continue Reading »