Dec
31
Happy New Year
December 31, 2009 | 3 Comments
It’s hard to believe tonight marks the final day of the year, and in fact the decade.* Both have been whirlwinds, both personal and public. For me, in the past 15 months I’ve become a doctor (of philosophy), a dad, and a homeowner. Oddly enough, it was this Sporcle quiz that got me to thinking [...]
Dec
30
Renting vs. Buying
December 30, 2009 | 6 Comments
Darwin linked to a couple of pieces that tackle the question: is it better to buy or rent? The answer is something along the lines of: it depends on your circumstances, but in the long-run, it’s hard to see how renting is the better option. If you’re young and single, then renting makes a lot [...]
Dec
28
Switching places
December 28, 2009 | 1 Comment
And so the last hope for a New York playoff appearance are the . . . Jets? That’s not a common occurrence, but more on that in a minute. What can I say about the Giants? That putrid performance, combined with the nice weather, allowed me to get a run in yesterday afternoon. This wasn’t [...]
Dec
28
Holiday Roundup
December 28, 2009 | 3 Comments
Normally when I travel for the holidays, I stay marginally in touch with the news. Now that I have a cell phone with internet access, it should be even easier for me to stay on top what’s happening in the world. But I basically went dark during Christmas as I spent time with my family [...]
Dec
23
Bob Casey is more pro-life than you
December 23, 2009 | 1 Comment
At least, that’s what Senator Bob Casey would like you to believe. Casey: After all, if you really say you’re pro-life, you should want to cover 31 million Americans and provide all kinds of preventative services that will make women and their children a lot more healthy. So I don’t think you can have it [...]
Dec
23
The Framers’ Design is Still Alive
December 23, 2009 | 1 Comment
With the Senate poised to ram through a horrendous, arguably unconstitutional piece of legislation that will do irrevocable harm to our country if eventually signed into law, it might seem a bit odd to muse on the success of Framers’ constitutional design. But when you take a step back, you realize that the intent of [...]
Dec
22
Even I know not to do that
December 22, 2009 | 2 Comments
Speaking as a rookie father, I wouldn’t be psychotic enough to do what this dad did, mainly because then the crib would be shattered into a thousand pieces.
Dec
22
And to think I was worried about the game going in
December 22, 2009 | Comments Off
My concern that the Giants would get rolled by the Redskins proved to be off – way, way, way off. That was about the most thorough beatdown I’ve ever seen the Giants administer. The joy of watching this particular game was only heightened afterwords as I basked in the lamentations of Skins fans and other [...]
Dec
21
Let it snow
December 21, 2009 | 1 Comment
With the Federal Government closed today, that means so is my office. Love that snow, even when it’s piled up like this. That was actually taken Saturday, before it piled up real high. And I gotta say, there’s nothing like shoveling the driveway, turning around, and seeing that another inch has already accumulated. again, this [...]
Dec
19
Ben Nelson’s thirty pieces of silver
December 19, 2009 | 1 Comment
Senator Ben Nelson (Sellout-NE), has turned his backs on the unborn in exchange for a fake “compromise” and some special favors for his home state. As Jonah Goldberg puts it, It profits a man nothing give his soul for the whole world, but for Medicaid funding carve outs…. As usual, “pro-life” Democrats show their true [...]
Dec
17
Worst argument for judicial intervention ever (Updated)
December 17, 2009 | 1 Comment
I caught this post in the Corner. It’s written by two attorneys for the Institute for Justice (IJ’s), and they are defending IJ’s filing a lawsuit challenging the ban on compensation for bone-marrow donors. They take issue with Ramesh Ponnuru’s objection to the lawsuit, and I have to say that they don’t really do an [...]
Dec
17
Pope Benedict XVI talks about the Natural Law
December 17, 2009 | Comments Off
Catholic Online reports on Pope Benedict’s Wednesday General Audience. The Pope focused on political philosopher John of Salisbury, in particular his writings on the natural law. The Pope’s message was that the natural law needs to inform the natural law. “The question of the relationship between natural law and positive law, as mediated by equity, [...]
Dec
16
Give that man a gold star
December 16, 2009 | Comments Off
Just when it looked like Sarah Palin was a lock for the “Make the CrankyCon pump his fist in the air” award, Ramesh Ponnuru writes this post on the Corner. It’s all very good, but this is the clincher: At the risk of being thought quixotic, let me suggest that we need to revive a [...]
Dec
16
Going Rogue
December 16, 2009 | 8 Comments
It’s probably not a good idea generally to buy a book out of spite, but in some ways that is precisely what I did when I picked up Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue. We had had a meeting at work, and several of my co-workers were amusing themselves with some anti-Palin jibes. So at lunch time [...]
Dec
15
Funny, I don’t feel panicked
December 15, 2009 | Comments Off
Two big pitcher moves went down in Major League Baseball. John Lackey signed with the Red Sox for five years, $85 million (analyzed here). The other big move involved Roy Halladay being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for prospects. OH NO! THIS IS THE WORST THING EVER! How can the Mets possibly compete with a [...]
Dec
10
Washington Post slimes the Church . . . again
December 10, 2009 | 4 Comments
One would think by now that I would have learned by now to disregard the Washington Compost, but for some reason it’s the only local paper that my office provides, so I like to look at the local section. And what’s on the front page of the Metro Section? This grossly distorted and ignorant op-ed [...]
Dec
9
U.S. Congress moves on with pressing business
December 9, 2009 | 4 Comments
While I do support a playoff for division-I college football, I’m probably not along in thinking that this is none of Congress’s business. Federal legislation that could lead to a college football playoff tournament will move a step closer to reality on Wednesday in a hearing before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. [...]
Dec
4
Let’s get serious
December 4, 2009 | 2 Comments
Some stray thoughts related to my post the other day about the third party delusion. One of the problems that conservative activists (what an oxymoron) have in their quest to provoke the next American revolution is that they fail to take into account two intractable problems. Our quest to achieve change through party politics and [...]
Dec
4
Someone at Vox Nova must have written this
December 4, 2009 | Comments Off
The left-wing think tank has issued this report on how the health care reform package being debated before Congress fully squares with Church teachings. Just forget that whole abortion and euthanasia thing. As Ramesh Ponnuru points out, CAP is engaging in a bit of subjective interpretation of Catholic teaching. And when the bishops say that [...]
Dec
4
Breeziness
December 4, 2009 | 7 Comments
As I mentioned the other day, there is a Mass in the Extraordinary Form at St. Mary’s Church in DC every Friday, and I just came back from that Mass. It’s the first time I ever attended a non-Sunday or non Holy Day Mass in that rite, and it was about double the length of [...]