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Jesus Prayer rosary
As usual, my high aspirations for improving my practice of prayer during Lent haven’t lived up to expectations. Still, I recently picked up a small book called The Jesus Prayer Rosary by the late Fr. Michael Cleary that I’ve found helpful. Although I’m wary of mix ‘n’ match approaches to spirituality, I love the Rosary…
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The bar of reason
Marvin reproduced an interesting quote from Gary Dorrien, who Google tells me is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University. Dorrien offers this definition of a “liberal approach” to theology: theology should be based on reason and critically interpreted religious experience, not external authority.…
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Foie gras revisited
A writer for the Village Voice investigates the “Is foie gras torture?” question by traveling to Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York, the nation’s largest producer. What she concludes after observing the birds is that it’s not nearly as bad as some of the images from animal rights and welfare groups suggest. (Many of…
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Why do we have pets?
A new book suggests that we get a bio-psychological reward from them. Salon interviews the author: Touch releases oxytocin in humans and animals. Oxytocin is one of the most powerful hormones that the body makes. This is a chemical that is responsible for social bonding. When you pat your cat, you should be getting a…
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Speaking of BSG…
You can watch the trailer for the prequel series “Caprica” here. According to Wikipedia, an “extended version of the pilot will have its world premiere exclusively on DVD on April 21, 2009. In early 2010, the first season, composed of the two-hour pilot and 18 hour-long episodes, is expected to begin airing on the Sci…
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Two Radioheads
This is bound to brand me as old and/or lame, but I seem to be one of the few people who loved Radiohead but stopped listening to them at the end of the 90s. I loved The Bends and especially OK Computer and saw them play a terrific show at the Metropol in Pittsburgh around…
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BSG and green anarchy
An interesting–though somewhat spoiler-y!–analysis of some of the themes in the Battlestar Galactica finale. (Via Jim Henley; also see Jim’s thoughts here.)
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So much for states’ rights
In the grand tradition of Congress treating D.C. as its own personal political laboratory, Nevada’s Republican senator John Ensign has attached an amendment to the D.C. voting rights bill that would essentially gut what remains of the District’s gun control laws post-Heller. I actually have fairly middle-of-the-road, or even conservative views on gun rights. Part…
