From the Washington Post: The Vatican is becoming increasingly alarmed at what it regards as official anti-Roman Catholic sentiment and secular trends in Europe, as government after government approves measures on abortion, family law and scientific study that run counter to Catholic teaching. … …”It looks like a new Inquisition. It is a lay Inquisition,…

From Jeff Taylor at Counterpunch: 1. Do you live in a swing state? Which one? Yes. Minnesota. 2. Are you still planning to vote Nader? Why? Yes. Because Nader is by far the best candidate running for President in 2004. He’s an honest, humane, informed, and intelligent man. He shares my ideology (populism). I agree…

It’s a veggie two-fer today! From the American Spectator: Bashing the animal-rights movement has become a genre of conservative article. The latest I saw is one by Daniel Flynn, and he makes clear that there’s a lot to “bash.” Animal-rights fanatics in Britain have been threatening not only biomedical researchers, but their children. Flynn traces…

A conservative critique of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from Bill Luse. (via Paul Cella)

By day, I shop for organic produce in local health food stores and farmers’ markets. I talk with people about what’s in season, new vegan recipes, the next fermented food craze, and how to displaced cooked, junk foods – excuse the redundancy – in our families’ diets. I meet many people who are trying to…

The American Conservative has published it’s endorsements for the presidential election. Those fractious paleos just couldn’t agree on one candidate! Unfortunately, this election does not offer traditional conservatives an easy or natural choice and has left our editors as split as our readership. In an effort to deepen our readers’ and our own understanding of…

Bill Keezer and Kevin the Big Hominid both have good posts on the intersection of religion and politics. In response to Kevin’s question about whether it’s possible to separate one’s religion from one’s political beliefs and actions, I’m inclined to say it’s not. If my conscience is well-formed by my tradition, how can I somehow…

If American conservatism is individualist social-contract theory combined with anti-statism, then it has very little in common with Christianity, according to James W. Skillen: George F. Will, drawing from what he considers “the best political book in years” (John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge’s The Right Nation), writes in a recent column that “the emotions underlying…

This is a very powerful movie based on the experiences of Allied POWs in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. These men lived under horrific conditions and were forced to construct a railroad between Thailand and Burma. The heart of the film, though, is in the prisoners’ struggle to maintain their dignity by studying philosophy,…

Via Michael Gilleland comes this sermon from Fr. Jim Tucker – “A Primer on Prayer.” I’ve found that many pastors seem averse to offering this kind of “nuts and bolts” advice on living the Christian life. But some of us are in great need of it!