One of the marks of a virtuous character, according to Aristotle, is the performance of virtuous acts with ease and delight. On that basis, as well as others, Ralph McInerny was a remarkably virtuous man. One of Ralph’s most beautiful books is entitled The Very Rich Hours of Jacques Maritain: A Spiritual Life,
the premise of which is that “we can find in the person of Jacques
Maritain a model of the intellectual life in the pursuit of sanctity.”
Those words certainly apply to Ralph… . . Continue Reading »
Call it the Clinton Clutch”the stylized maneuver in the political playbook for incumbent Democrats who have run into a spot of bother. President Obama’s first State of the Union address last night will be interpreted as a replay of Clinton’s 1995 classic… . Continue Reading »
While visiting the National Gallery of Art this past Saturday, I ran into a pair of errant security guards who have taken to interpreting the Constitution in their spare time. I decided to visit the Gallery after attending the March for Life the day before… . Continue Reading »
Why do advocates of abortion and contraception find the conscientious objection of pharmacists and other medical professionals so intolerable? … Continue Reading »
Why do advocates of abortion and contraception find the conscientious objection of pharmacists and other medical professionals so intolerable? Recognizing a right to conscientious objection, some hospitals allow the shifting of work schedules and duties to respect conscience on a variety of issues… . Continue Reading »
In 1992, Jack Kevorkian proposed establishing a pilot program of euthanasia clinics, which, he argued in the Journal of Forensic Pathology, would be staffed by physician-killers, permitted legally to painlessly terminate patients who request it… . Continue Reading »
How did we get here, to this curious and unexpected place? We could never have imagined, for instance, we’d live to see the day a book of the Bible is illustrated by an R-rated comic-strip cartoonist… . Continue Reading »
How did we get here, to this curious and unexpected place? We could never have imagined, for instance, we’d live to see the day a book of the Bible is illustrated by an R-rated comic-strip cartoonist… . Continue Reading »
Justice Thomas is magnificently right in making the case that the whole
scheme of requiring the public disclosure of contributions is something
that deserves to be struck down… . Continue Reading »
The Satin Slipper, the ambitious second installment of The Paul Claudel Project by The Storm Theatre and Blackfriars Repertory Theatre, makes no pretense about being anything but epic in scope… . Continue Reading »
The ever slightly oafish Pat Robertson (you remember him: that fine Christian gentleman who just a few years ago defended China’s infanticidal one-child policy, lest he imperil his own lucrative business relations with the PRC by publically criticizing the regime) has opined that the earthquake in Haiti… . Continue Reading »
The ever slightly oafish Pat Robertson (you remember him: that fine Christian gentleman who just a few years ago defended China’s infanticidal one-child policy, lest he imperil his own lucrative business relations with the PRC by publically criticizing the regime) has opined that the earthquake in Haiti is only the most recent result of a curse that the nation contracted back in the days of Toussaint Louverture, when “they” (that is, apparently, all the Haitians and their posterity) conducted a ceremony in which “they” made a deal with the devil, promising him their allegiance in exchange for liberation from the French… . Continue Reading »
No wonder the White House was surprisingly nice in its first public statements about Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts campaign. After all, Brown’s victory just handed Obama what he needs to win his own campaign for reelection as president in 2012… . Continue Reading »
One of the marks of a virtuous character, according to Aristotle, is the performance of virtuous acts with ease and delight. On that basis, as well as others, Ralph McInerny was a remarkably virtuous man. One of Ralph’s most beautiful books is entitled The Very Rich Hours of Jacques Maritain: A Spiritual Life,
the premise of which is that “we can find in the person of Jacques
Maritain a model of the intellectual life in the pursuit of sanctity.”
Those words certainly apply to Ralph… . . Continue Reading »
