Michael Moore the effective Catholic

America’s most effective Catholic is at it again. Michael Moore’s latest film has struck another prophetic blow for the common good. Moore continues his brilliant muckraking and concern for ordinary people. Fahrenheirt 9/11 pointed out that the faux warriors, the war shirkers like Cheney and Bush will go and have gone to any length to [...]

Techne bypasses the human

The wise man of Israeli politics former Knesset member Uri Avnery cuts quickly to the chase in his evaluation of the Winograd Committee of Inquiry, the official government sponsored report on the Lebanon War of last summer. “The army has lost its deterrent power? We shall get it back in the next war. There was [...]

The pro torture gang

On May 15, 2007 during Republican presidential debate in South Carolina,almost all several of candidates endorsed the appalling, anti-human practice of torture It was a stunning example of just how far the United States has sunk as a putative moral arbiter and beacon human rights. To his credit the one dissenter was the only one [...]

De mortuis: Jerry Falwell

Brother Jerry Falwell has passed and maybe the most honest and witty line about his death was that penned by writer Alan Wolfe of Salon.com who wrote: “One never wants to speak ill of the dead, but in the case of Jerry Falwell, how can one not? “ One can not think of anything worthwhile [...]

The circle is tightening

The circle is tightening around Israel. Jimmy Carter rendered the cause of justice a great service when he placed his considerable bona fides behind Palestinian justice. Now another voice which can not be ignored. On 15 May 2007, 22 Black American professors, writers, religious figures, and other leaders issued a call to Black America to [...]

Slopes, dinks, Pakis, ragheads-not worth much

The NY Times recently reported that the yahoos in the U.S. Marines in early March went on a killing rampage near Jalalabad in Afghanistan after a convoy of Humvees was ambushed. The yahoos went ballistic along a 10 mile stretch murdering civilians- including a 4-year-old girl, a 1-year-old boy and three elderly villagers” — and [...]

Mothers’ Day domesticated

Julia Ward Howe, the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, was sickened by the terrible carnage of the Civil War. Across the pond and equally jingoist and obtuse, Europeans were busy needlessly spilling blood in the Franco-Prussian war. Howe wrote her Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870 (see below) and took it to a [...]

The new atheism

At mass on sunday a question was posed to me: What do you make about this buzz around the sudden appearance of books and forums on atheism in the media. I believe the most recent attack on God is by the contrarian who supported Bush’s War on Iraq, Christopher Hitchens. The more noteworthy carriers of [...]

God uses the weak

RONALD JAMES (ARCHIE) FRENCH Cab driver, trainer, social worker. Born Oct. 26, 1929, in Toronto. Died March 26, in Toronto, of Alzheimer’s disease, aged 77 Archie French was an original urban character, a beloved figure who overcame a devastating childhood injury to become a pivotal figure in the lives of hundreds of young people whom [...]

Vincentian Values

Political science professor Norman Finkelstein – one of the country’s foremost critics of Israel is struggling to receive tenure at De Paul University in Chicago where he has taught for six years.He has been approved at the departmental and college level but the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,Charles Suchar has opposed [...]