A writer can learn a lot from people who comment on his writings. My Thanksgiving Day piece on the “Secular Puritan Covenant” elicited one reader’s opinion that we should celebrate a “Native Americans’ Day” to celebrate the contributions they made and the experiences they suffered during the settlement of North America. I initially demurred, noting that … Read more
According to a Nielsen survey conducted a few years ago, the 5th and 7th biggest beer-drinking holidays in America are Christmas and Easter respectively. That year, Americans consumed 59,393,752 cases of beer at Christmas and 53,458,630 cases on Easter. I find this strange because Christmas and Easter are the two seminal feasts on the Christian calendar, yet … Read more
Death and sex for kids—Halloween is scarier than ever. Given the trends, there is little wonder why many Catholics hold Halloween as more trick than treat nowadays. One of the wildest perversions of the Christian calendar is that the holy day before All Saints Day, All Hallows’ Eve, is now an unholy day of fear … Read more
Larry Sand’s article “No Wonder Johnny (Still) Can’t Read” — written for The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, based in Raleigh, N.C. — blames schools of education for the decline in America’s education. Education professors drum into students that they should not “drill and kill” or be the “sage on the … Read more
Last October, my 12-year-old son stood in the aisle of our local pharmacy and held up a life-like foam replica of a human skull. “How about this one?” I winced. My son rolled his eyes. “Come on!” he coaxed. “St. Francis had one!” Of course he did. I placed the skull in our cart, along … Read more
Writing at Catholic Advocate, Matt Smith suggests, “One Document Elena Kagan Might Want to Re-Read This Weekend.” Commenting on Kagan’s promise to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that she would take another look at the “The Federalist Papers,” Smith writes, The Federalist Papers were written after the Constitutional Convention as part of what today would be … Read more
Thanksgiving is traditionally a time to gather with family, enjoy the sweet aromas of turkey and stuffing, and remember all the things for which we are grateful. But with the recent economic downturn, many people will have their holiday darkened by financial crisis. Families that usually host a lavish Thanksgiving dinner may have to cut … Read more