We met Chicago Cardinal Francis George before when he threatened to close down hospitals and other Catholic service institutions if their health insurance providers had to comply with the requirement to provide contraceptive services free of charge to their employees. [Read more…]
I am currently attending a conference and so blogging will be a bit more erratic than usual.
When I travel on work, I often eat alone at restaurants. I don’t mind it in the least and, being somewhat introverted, even welcome the chance to be alone after mingling with people all day. I usually take a book with me as a companion, the main problem being that the lighting in restaurants is usually very dim and I have to specifically ask to be seated at a table near a light. The backlighted iPad comes in useful here. [Read more…]
A girl walking along while talking on her phone falls into sinkhole that suddenly opens up. A taxi driver sees it happen and climbs down into the hole to try and get her out. Fortunately she survives and is seemingly unhurt by her experience.
It is really nice the way people take risks to help total strangers in distress. (Via Gawker.)
There has been much discussion recently about computer software that seems to be able to grade students high school essays about as well as humans, but of course much faster. [Read more…]
The personhood legislation proposed in Oklahoma has been deemed to be unconstitutional by a unanimous state Supreme Court.
A federal judge ruled a similar measure in Nevada to be unconstitutional and Mississippi and Colorado voters rejected similar measures.
Maybe there are some ideas too crazy for people to stomach even in these crazy times.
On Sunday April 29 on its program All Things Considered, NPR had an interesting story based on a mock ‘obituary’ by Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke who wrote about the death of Facts. He said that Facts had been ailing for some time but the claim by congressman Allen West (R-FL) that around 80 House of Representatives members of the Democratic party belonged to the Communist party was the final blow that killed it off. [Read more…]
A British parliamentary select committee has issued a stinging rebuke to Rupert Murdoch personally and to his media empire.
The committee concluded that the culture of the company’s newspapers “permeated from the top” and “speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International”.
That prompted the MPs’ report to say: “We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of major international company.”
All those people who are dissatisfied with Barack Obama’s policies but don’t know where else to turn will be pleased to hear that May 2 has been declared “Grumble About Obama Day”, a “day of deliberately ineffectual venting” where you can let off steam without actually doing anything about it.
So go to it, folks!
American exceptionalism is an article of faith in the US. A surefire applause line for a pandering politician is to take some fairly humdrum achievement and tack on the phrase “only in America”. Audiences seem to delight in thinking that achievements that are commonplace the world over are somehow only possible here because of the unique conditions in the US. [Read more…]
I have been beating up on the Catholic Church recently and have no regrets about doing so because that institution richly deserves it. But I think I should be a little more discriminating and point out that the immense faults of the Catholic Church can be laid almost entirely at the feet of the men in the church, and not the nuns. Not ever having been a Catholic, I have not crossed paths with many nuns in a formal capacity and so do not have much first hand knowledge of them. The few nuns I have met have been extremely nice people but there is more to this defense than personal knowledge. [Read more…]