Where’s Torquemada When You Need Him?

This weekend something strange happened. The Henry Hotel in Dearborn, Michigan hosted the first annual “Dirka-Dirka Fest and Comic-Con”. For those of you unfamiliar, “Dirka-Dirka” is the mock Arabic language sound used by the characters in the silly and profane “Team America World Police” movie, brought to the screen by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the same people who developed the “South Park” adult cartoon series that parodies, basically, everything. In the movie, various, crudely styled, Arab Claymation characters, including a mock Osama Bin Laden, utter “dirka-dirka”, or some variation thereof,

Appetite for Destruction

Protests and signs are theater. The economic power of 1.3 billion Catholics is a devastating weapon of mass destruction. What if the Archdiocese of Boston, and the Catholic Church, immediately severed all commerce with the Marriott corporation? What if the Archdiocese excommunicated any Catholic who cooperates, in any supportive manner, with The Satanic Temple?

The New Minstrel Show

One does not need to be Sigmund Freud or a PhD in clinical psychology to see that Dylan Mulvaney suffers from a profound and serious mental illness. In an attempt to soothe the demons in his head, Mulvaney has latched onto this trans-identity that is bringing him 15 minutes of fame, a few dollars and, maybe, a few peaceful nights of rest.

butMuslims

Dear readers, God bless you this Easter and throughout the year. By His sacrifice, we are cleansed and reborn, to do His work, in this world and the next. Is His sacrifice in vain for you?

I’ll Get You My Pretty, and Your Little Heart Too!

The human body is a wonderful and intricately designed machine. It is a repository for the immortal soul while on earth. Physiologic systems hold endless complexity and wonderous interconnection to allow man to function, thrive and interact with the environment. And while atheists may say that this is all an evolutionary convergence of a trillion random cells over billions of years, the elegance of human anatomy and physiology, when rationally and objectively examined, is more than sufficient proof for the existence of God and intelligent design...

Follow the Science

In the English language, there are certain words and phrases that convey meaning beyond their literal translation. Ultimately, such words and phrases become slang, which is a form of speech that conveys an idea or emotion, beyond what is written or said. For example, bestowing praise and excessive flattery on an individual for the purpose of currying favor with said individual is “buttering someone up” in slang.

Womb with a View

Ectopic pregnancy is a sad and tragic outcome for about 2% of all pregnancies, or 1 in 50.(1) In an ectopic pregnancy, the fertilized ovum, instead of making its intended trip down the fallopian tube to implant in the uterus, instead implants elsewhere, usually in the fallopian tube itself ...

Deception, Lies and Libel

I have never quite understood the appeal of Zombie movies and shows, particularly, The Walking Dead. After a couple of episodes, it was clear that the world was in a zombie epidemic and society quickly collapsed, with the requisite zombie attacks, blood, gore and roving bands of the “uninfected.” This is a common trope in the end-of-the-world, apocalyptic fiction genre.

Are You “Cool” with Evil?

Following World War I, under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forbidden from stationing military forces in the Rhineland. This is the area of Germany bordering France, Belgium and the Netherlands, loosely defined by land on either side of the Rhine River. Under the treaty, Germany could station no military forces anywhere on German soil west of...

Perhaps Dr. Frankenstein Was Just Misunderstood

In the past, we have discussed many aspects of Catholic bioethics as they apply to living human beings, born and unborn. Today, we find ourselves thinking about the human body, absent the eternal soul, that is, a corpse. There is something fundamentally unsettling about a dead body.