Safe Haven

No, I will not buy American. That's stupid protectionist nonsense. I'll buy whatever I happen to need at an agreeable price, regardless of the origin. If there are ethical concerns about it, well OK then. But I won't fail to notice that everyone is better off when nations trade freely. Free-flowing international commerce creates economic interdependence, and that is one protection against war. Trade wars create actual wars, and war is never desirable. It's amazing how stupid people can be.

5 Thoughts For Today 5. I love college basketball, despite it being a big corporate blight on our system of higher education. 4. The Civil War was about slavery for the South. Whatever lessons we may draw in terms of limited government from that episode, the CSA will not be our teachers. Despite the plethora of undoubtedly virtuous and interesting men from that side of the conflict, I am glad EVERY SINGLE DAY that they lost. 3. I want a tax credit for my sugary, fizzy beverages. 2. Replacing Susan Rice with John Kerry is like replacing low batteries with dead ones. 1. Duke.

OK, it bothers me, I admit it. I know exactly how many Facebook friends I have at any one time. I've lost 6 in the last 2 weeks. Could be people closing their accounts. Fair enough. But it bugs me to think someone is mad at me or something, and unfriended me. Even with 864 friends, you must know that I don't take such things lightly. I have never seriously contemplated unfriending someone. There are people I met once, and maybe will never talk to again, but you never know. I feel bad when I can't remember someone's name, but I know that no encounter with another human being is a light matter. It stings a little when you see a profile of someone you were friends with, and it gives you the option to add them. Since I know I wasn't the one to drop them, I'm not going to add them again. On the other hand, it might make the person tell you why they dropped you in the first place. Remarkably, I've had people drop me and add me again, twice, without explanation...

Thank you, Pope Pius XII: "Hence they err in a matter of divine truth, who imagine the Church to be invisible, intangible, a something merely 'pneumatological' as they say, by which many Christian communities, though they differ from each other in their profession of faith, are united by an invisible bond." Those of you with a more mathematical, precise bent may benefit from a longer exposition here on the "Catholics are divided, too" objection. For my part, I had a few comments. First, the mere fact of disagreement between people tells us nothing about the nature of the disagreement, or the potential basis for reunion, because we don't have a baseline to measure it against. But in Catholicism, there is a baseline, so that whether the error is heresy or schism, those terms have objective meaning. This is the basic flaw in an old, "The Council cannot be authoritative, because it did not include x group" argument. It would allow dissenter...

It's kinda cold here. Not bitter, but it's cold enough that I don't want to go outside. [You never want to go outside.--ed.] OK. There's much work ahead. I don't want to do it. But most of the time, like the weather, the clouds are not as dark as they appear. I've been lax in my prayers recently, but I was literally inspired to pray a whole bunch. It was finding out about people's trials and reading the Catechism. My favorite passage from the past couple of weeks is paragraph 278. It's in the context of whether God is omnipotent. Now, the answer to this is an easy 'yes,' if one is thinking clearly about the definitions of the words, but people's spiritual problems are rarely intellectual. Doesn't that paragraph just sound like a priest or Jesus admonishing you with rhetorical questions? At least it inspires me to make my "I'm sorry I asked" Face. Isn't it odd that although most people can't think their way out of...

It was a "set your hair on fire" kind of homily. Or more appropriately, your heart. Father spoke about Calles and his persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico in the 1920s. He said that the world, the flesh, and the devil were really behind the whole thing, and ultimately, Satan is in a battle with Heaven for your heart and mine. In the little things, in the big things, in all things. He asked us to whom our hearts belonged, reminding us that they cannot belong to both. And he concluded with "Viva Cristo Rey!" or, "Long live Christ the King!," the words the martyrs shouted as they gave their lives. Might I add that you need to see the film, "For Greater Glory" if you haven't. It tells this story, and does it well. It was easily the movie of the year. I couldn't help but think yesterday--as I had my very own Thanksgiving, Part II (Mexican Style)--that my worlds are merging. Any good Christian you read will say that we must learn to...