“Hysterical blindness” is a clinical term describing someone with no physiological reason for their loss of vision. It may be antique and politically incorrect terminology, but it aptly describes our modern world—as well as some of the people in this…
Marriage is the gift that keeps on giving—for comedians. Gag writers have drawn from this bottomless well of material since well before Henny Youngman said, “Take my wife. Please!” Even old married couples who’ve been together for half a…
Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly recently recounted asking a little kid celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans what he was giving up for Lent. The child said “nothing.” Instead, the kid added, he plans to do one act of random…
On this first Sunday of Lent, St. Paul summarizes the reason for the season (Rom 5:12-19) : For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the…
The national decline in church attendance seems to be accompanied by another trend: a rise in “safe spaces” on college campuses. These are environments designed to protect certain students from subjects they may find uncomfortable, depending on their background or…
Whether or not you believe in the literal account of Adam and Eve and the nature of their original sin, what’s harder to believe is that their Creator would abandon them and their descendants to hopeless lifetimes of toil and…
“El Chapo,” the infamous Mexican drug lord, will go down in history for his inability to escape prison. Yes, he staged two elaborate vacations from them—the second via an impressive Hogan’s-Heroes-style tunnel he dug beneath his cell—but he was just…
Did you know that a dinosaur writes this blog? You can carbon date me by the music I listen to. I’m firmly entrenched in the Perry Como era. He and his colleagues who sang from the Great American Songbook of…
Last week’s inauguration was designed to help Donald Trump accept an oversized hand-me-down mantle of leadership that he’ll have to grow into—just as each of its previous owners did. The ceremonies began with a series of prayers for the success…
Guys like me who pontificate about matters of faith should pay special attention to this Sunday’s mass readings. Although many of us are guided by the Spirit, we can sometimes take a bit too much pride in occasionally saying something pithy…