Kudos to Justin for giving us the heads-up about the potential Bloomberg acquisition of the bankrupt enterprise called the U.S.A. However, given the prospect that the race might come down to Clinton vs. McCain (or anyone EXCEPT Ron Paul), I see the positive side of a Bloomberg in the race: It might help to split the “Evil” vote. [Read More]

Check out the collapse of the latest attempt to smear the principled, honorable, and honest Ron Paul—the only conservative in the presidential race. Kudos to Justin Raimondo and Lew Rockwell and the thousands of “pesky” Ron Paul supporters who Fisked Virginia Heffernan’s sophomoric blog smear (which now runs complete with retraction). For fun, read the torrent of finely written comments in … [Read More]

This year, as every year, the crèche has sat empty of God. The shepherds knelt, the angels sang, the ox and ass and eager lamb looked on, even Joseph and Mary stared down adoringly—at a vacant manger. There was no Infant here. When people knelt before this nativity scene to pray, they closed their eyes, as if averting their gaze … [Read More]

As a native New Yorker who has lived in the City (albeit Queens) most of his life, I have some reason to be grateful to Rudolph Giuliani. His policies—and the capable police commissioner he hired, then enviously fired, William Bratton—helped reverse the decline of a once vital city, whose coffers had been scraped, its thugs empowered, and institutions corrupted through during … [Read More]

There’s nothing more delightful than going to the home of a friend or family member who has really pulled out all the stops to provide an old-fashioned Christmas feast. Roast turkey or (better) goose with fresh cranberry sauce, roasted potatoes, festive veggies and plum pudding—all presented on the very best china, with the scent of spiced candles, real pine boughs and … [Read More]

Most Catholics know this as the feast day that marks the fact that Jesus was born of a Virgin, without an earthly father. If you asked them why we had a separate feast for the Annunciation, they’d probably shrug and say, “I don’t know. Why does the Church do a lot of things? Why is bingo always on Wednesdays?”   … [Read More]

I may be going out on a limb here, but I think most readers have probably heard of this saint. Ever since he signed that endorsement contract for Coca-Cola, he and his army of pygmy toymakers and genetically modified reindeer have maintained a high profile—sometimes to the point of distracting us from… you know… that kid in the manger. Of course, … [Read More]

This Web site is non-sectarian, and I’m glad. However, as some of the discussion threads have exploded into a veritable 30 Years War, I have asked the editors for this opportunity to pose a few questions from my own point of view, as a faithful if thoroughly imperfect Roman Catholic who welcomes the development of doctrine which occurred at Vatican II … [Read More]

Excerpted from The Bad Catholic’s Guide to Good Living. Halloween has a very long pedigree, reaching back into Celtic pagan days, when peasants believed that the times which marked transitions between the seasons—such as the autumn equinox, which happens around this date—opened the door between our world and the Unseen realm of the spirits. For a few days every year, the … [Read More]

As the Bush administration, with the full-throat support of our unhinged media, whips up the public for a looming war with Iran, a sober citizen’s thoughts run naturally to the Apocalypse. One’s next thought, inevitably, is of absinthe. Absinthe was invented as a medicinal tonic in the ancient world. It was recommended by Hippocrates the physician as a cure for rheumatism, … [Read More]