Reading Assignments: February 2007 Archives

Blogwatchin':

• How to visit the dying - Found via Bill White who adds that a Catholic should bring along a rosary and a prayer book. You should probably bring a bunch of rosaries.
  
• Steve Sailer on Chicago's mayoral election

New stuff:

• "What if We Leave?" (Iraq, that is)

Old Stuff:

• The Human Difference - A lovely meditation by Eric Cohen on what separates us from the animals.
  
• A challenge to the stereotype of a cruel Old Testament God. From the Fall 2006 In Character which also included this interesting reading list of classics on justice.

Newer stuff:

• For First Things types: Papal Address on Natural Law
  
• The Stabat mater in, like, every language
  
• From the NAC homepage: Map of Lenten Station Chuches in Rome that links to info on each Church

Older stuff:

• Max Boot on modern military technology. Good stuff, just don't think about how much money we spend to be able to kill lots of people. UPDATE: Victor Davis Hanson reviews Boot's book on the subject here
  
• The sprituality of The Far Side
  
• "The Mislabeled Child" - On decreasing, rather than treating, behavioral problems
  
• "How the Schools Shortchange Boys" - just what the title says. An excellent article, except it's main vehicle of argument is defending a boy who acts like an ass. Not every rude jerk is a misunderstood hero. Sometimes, they're just rude jerks
  
• "Samantha Shrugged" - A teacher tries to get his students to put some thought into the abortion question

Around St. Blog's

• Amy's Theory of Everything
  
• 2007 Catholic Blog Awards winners
  
• That old-time American religion.

Newer stuff:

• Florida's pro-choice license plate option shows a baby star floating upward (heavenward?) from inside a mother star. I can't decide if it's monstrously sick and twisted or refreshingly blunt and honest.
  
• Even Stanley Kurtz can't tolerate D'Souza's book.

Older stuff:

• 30 Days on St. Charles Borromeo.
  
• Review of Alisdair MacIntyre's biography of St. Edith Stein's early life.

I herein inaugurate a new, periodic (adj. - whenever I get around to it) feature, where I provide links to interesting articles I've found on the web, handily divided into stuff that has just appeared and older stuff that I've juse come across.

Stuff from today:

• The introduction to Danielle Bean's next book, (along with a pre-order link)
• Papal Address on 11th World Day of Consecrated life.
• The Winter 2007 Issue of The New Atlantis is online. Check it out!

Older stuff:

• The War of the Imagination - A damning look at the initial phase of the Iraq war published in late November. Lengthy, but necessary.
• Plumbing the archives of the excellent journal Touchstone, I found two gems in the October 2004 issue. In "Swift Prophet", Anne Barbeau Gardiner looks at Gulliver's Tavels as a allegory of British Christianity. And in "The Lovely Dragon of Choice", Anthony Esolen slays said dragon - which is not simply the euphemistic "choice" of abortion, but a far more hideous and menacing beast:
  I am not merely saying that there is a freedom higher and more blissful than the freedom to choose how one spends one’s money or where one buys a house or whom one marries. I assert that even regarding questions of money or dwelling or spouse or any earthly thing, there is a freedom that slays the freedom to choose. Call it the wisdom of tossing the choice away. Call it the hope not in choosing but in being chosen.