Charles Taylor had disappeared before his planned extradition to stand trial for war crimes, but has now been caught (couldn’t have happened to a more deserving fellow). Incidentally, I notice that Taylor has been demoted in several official news stories from “former president” or even “dictator” to the much scarier-sounding “warlord.” What exactly do you…

It seems that those liquor and energy drink mixes like Red Bull and vodka can give you a false feeling of sobriety. Of course, if you’re over the age of, say, 20 and you’re actually drinking these kinds of unholy concoctions, you’ve got other problems. (Link by way of Andrew Sullivan)

I’m sure I’ve linked to this before, but here’s an article by Stanley Hauerwas and John Berkman, “The Chief End of All Flesh,” which attempts to think theologically about our relationship to animals. In Hauerwas and Berkman’s view, to say that humans have “dominion” over creation (and, thus, animals) means that “God has chosen humanity…

Since the topic came up in the comments below, here is a recent article from philosopher Peter Singer on factory farming. And here’s an interview from the same source.

For reasons that are hard to articulate I find this pretty disturbing: If a new kind of pork makes it to the dinner table, healthy eaters worried about fat and heart disease might finally be free to, well, pig out. Scientists using genetic engineering techniques have produced pigs rich in omega-3 fatty acids – a…

Titian, Annunciation, 1559-62 Since I missed this yesterday, I’ll just link to Brandon’s fine post on the topic.

You have to hand it to Mel Gibson, he does his own thing. Here’s a look at his new project Apocalypto an “action epic about the ancient Maya” featuring “[h]undreds of local extras–many of whom have never seen a movie, let alone acted in one” and filmed in – yes – a language most viewers…

Rosanne Cash talks about getting angry letters for her opposition to the Iraq war: Through songs such as “Like Fugitives” and “World Without Sound” — which asks, “Who do I believe/Once they put you in the ground?” — Cash lets loose on the difficulties of having to share her grief with the public. “There are…

There are a couple of good items in the April issue of First Things (not yet online) concerning intelligent design that I wanted to highlight. First, Fr. Edward T. Oakes has a letter responding to Christoph Cardinal Schönborn’s article from January. Fr. Oakes makes the very important point that one concedes way too much in…

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus points to this amusing goof in historian Alan Brinkley’s review of Kevin Phillips’ new book American Theocracy in the New York Times Book Review: “[Phillips] points in particular to the Southern Baptist Convention, once a scorned seceding minority of the American Baptist Church but now so large that it dominates not…