I saw Mars!! Right now Mars and Earth are the closest they have been in 60,000 years and on the night of the GREAT POWER OUTAGE 2003 I stepped outside where it was cooler and saw an orange dot to the right of the moon. It looked like a star but with orange color instead of white. Take a gander now because it will be many years before Mars is this close. It is not much to look at with the naked eye but with a telescope it must be pretty cool. Read more about this here.

Anyone wish to speculate just when The Osbournes Jumped The Shark?? I say it was right after the brilliant first season. They were wacky, interesting, loving in a psycho kind of way at first but quickly became annoying as their fame grew.

BLOGS OF THE DAY

16) Blog:Eve Tushnet- Eve Tushnet

Self-Description: “Conservatism reborn in twisted sisterhood”

Features: politics, poetry, round ups of good posts from other blogs, intellectual posts, comics reviews

Quick Summary: A must read, hip, fun and intelligent


17) Blog: Annunciations -- Michael Dubruiel

Self-Description: "And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at the proper time, (Luke 1:20)."

Features: Some interesting news stories

Quick Summary: Nice place to get a collection of news stories and interesting info on saints.

18) Blog: A Saintly Salmagundi - Father Bryce Sibley

Self-Description: “Various Ruminations on Catholicism, Satire, Esoterica, Hagiography, Nuttiness, Culture, Etc.”

Features: Crazy stuff from the web, stories of butt-kicking saints, humor

Quick Summary: this priest has an awesome sense of the nuttiness of life (which is a requirement for Catholics), fun site

Gen X Revert will return tommorrow with Blogs of the Day

Blogging will return when it is not 1000 degrees and I can turn the air conditioning on without fear of blowing out the Northeast Corridor.

Update: Now that I said that I just found this article about people in other countries laughing at us. Seems that in Liberia the power has been out since 1992!

Relapsed Catholic linked to the article by Maggie Gallagher I wanted to post as soon as it was available. It was entitled Snubbing the Africans when it was in the NY Post.

"What really happened last week among Anglicans in Minneapolis? When push came to shove, the remnants of the old WASP elites decided to snub the black folks in the Anglican communion in favor of the voices of people who are white, affluent, with post-graduate educations, just like themselves. Is anybody really surprised? "

I just got power back! Must turn off computer to conserve-what a pain this outage was.

I saw the best writing on the Episcopal Church's situation in today's NY Post. It was by the great Maggie Gallagher but I don't see it online yet. As soon as it becomes available I will post it-it is a must read. Basically the column points out how orthodox Episcopalians are willing to put themselves under the authority of the Africans while the elite in the Anglican communion would rather stay with their fellow "WASPs with graduate degrees". There is an undercurrent of racism that says the "underdeveloped" world (read non-white) will someday become as advanced as us.

People will talk about the Crusades, Galileo, Inquisition, etc.. to portray us as dangerous religious fanatics but when was the last time you heard of “radical atheist fanatics”. Yet, I don’t have to go back centuries to find examples of bloody, repressive atheism. From the French Revolution to Nazism, to Communism, to Timothy McVeigh, to the Columbine shooters, the godless are the real dangers.

BLOGS OF THE DAY

13) Blog: Flos Carmeli - Steven Riddle

Self Description: “Reflections on Carmelite traditions and saints, contemplation, and the arts. . . among other things.”

Features: Poetry, Carmelite spirituality, commentary on music, arts, and literature

Quick Summary: beautiful blog, artistic, poetic, reminds us of how deep and wide Catholicism is


14) Blog: Rerum Novarum - Shawn McElhinney

Self-Description: “My musings on ...well...basically whatever I want to muse on...”

Features: extensive commentary, refutations of traditionalists

Quick Summary: Blogger obviously knows an incredible amount of stuff on Catholicism, this blog is very valuable for info. Concentrates on traditionalists, long posts with much info

15) Destination: Order – TheresaMF

Self-Description: The Pilgrimage of your typical post-homeschooling Catholic College student

Features: Stories of schooling at Christendom

Quick Summary: delightful journal-makes me wish I was in college again, and could choose an actual Catholic school this time

The Elizabeth Seton Childbearing Center is Closing

Seems the center where midwives delivered babies could not get good or affordable insurance.

THE TERRORIST NEXT DOOR

Ever since Sept. 11th the NY Post is the paper I read while getting breakfast. Daniel Pipes is one of the many reasons for this. Rod Dreher, Maggie Gallagher, Pat Buchanan, and Michelle Malkin were others but some of these people have moved on from the Post.

BLOGS OF THE DAY

10) Blog: From the Anchor Hold - Karen Marie Knapp

Self-Description: “at Fr. Groppi's Bridge, Milwaukee. Living simple, single, and submitted, in a real city, in a real world”

Features: selections of spiritual readings, prayers

Quick Summary: very spiritual and positive blog, good counter-balance to the more political blogs

11) Blog: man with black hat - David Alexander

Self-Description: none

Features: Zydeco, dancing, personal stories

Quick Summary: fun personal anecdotes, good commentary, lots of song and dance


12) Blog: Nihil Obstat - ?

Self-Description: “Don't ask for the facts unless you want the truth.”

Features: all the errors of St. Blogs

Quick Summary: hilarieus and brilient corections, I go here for laughs, the writer writes good and makes me lgh.

'Tribute in Light' To Mark 9/11 Anniversary

BLOGS OF THE DAY

7) Blog: The Blog from the Core - Lane Core

Self-Description: “Needless Commentary from Small-Town America”

Features: politics, both ecclesial and secular

Quick Summary: nice blog, especially interesting in pointing out hypocrisy on the left



8) Blog: Heart, Mind, and Strength - Gregory Popcak,Zoe Romanowsky, Kevin Miller & others

Self-Description: “Faith-filled Answers for Life's Toughtest Questions. An Internet ministry of the Pastoral Solutions Institute”

Features: Group blog, family issues, contemporary issues

Quick Summary: Fun and serious, lots of posts by many people


9) Blog: The Mighty Barrister

Self-Description: “Daily Catholic Commentary Online - Shaken, Not Stirred”

Features: Common sense, logic

Quick Summary: commentary on current stuff, quality posts

I went to St. Christopher’s parish today just for a change. The Church is beautiful and traditional- a crucifix is at the center above the tabernacle, there are altar rails (with padding!), and artwork is in the sanctuary. Statues of Mary and Joseph are on either side of the sanctuary, and the high altar is covered by a baldacchino! The Mass itself was pretty good, there were only a couple of annoying things: the Psalm was changed to take out “Him” in reference to God which just sounded silly, before Mass a woman asked everyone to introduce themselves to someone around them, and the priest began Mass by saying “Good morning, thank you for the air conditioning”. Other than that it was fine. I was struck by how the traditional architecture and the size of the Church made the priest and deacon seem to be only a part of the picture rather than the center of everything. In my Church and many others the priest is at the center and there is no artwork or anything to focus on during the Mass so your attention is drawn to the priest. I don’t understand how priests today feel they can start the Mass by making small comments about the weather, etc.. This really takes away from the ritual. It was brought home tonight when I watched Inside the Actor’s Studio with guest Martin Sheen. The whole hour was interesting and filled with references to Catholicism. I know, I know some readers are thinking ‘commie, pinko, liberal wacko Sheen, but he came across as intelligent, serious and proudly Catholic, and not flaky as I thought he might. The show started right off with reference to Sheen’s Spanish and Irish heritage and Catholicism. He talked about serving Mass and his favorite prayer at the beginning of Mass: “Introibo ad altare Dei. Ad deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.” James Lipton continued with “Judica me Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta..”, --two old altar boys spitting out the latin with smiles on their faces and a reverent tone. I have always loved that prayer at the beginning of the traditional Latin Mass! Now that is the way to start a Mass! Sheen was a graduate of Chaminade High School, the one in Dayton, Ohio not the one I attended. He spoke of taking the name Sheen from Fulton Sheen and later returning to the faith. Influenced by Day, Berrigan, and “liberation theology”, Sheen is definitely a liberal Catholic but a serious and devout one. The audience at least got to hear a positive and intelligent reference to Catholicism throughout the show. I also learned that Sheen played a Catholic soldier in The Execution of Private Slovik , the first one shot for desertion since the Civil War.

I grew to like James Lipton over many months of watching this show. He is a good interviewer and even his silly questions (what sound do you like? what is your favorite curse word?) make for some interesting responses. At first he can seem a bit over the top egotistical or whatever but he really seems to be passionate about the "craft" of acting and it makes the show and its guests more interesting.

BLOGS OF THE DAY

4) Blog: Gospel Minefield - Kathy the Carmelite

Self-Description: “Apologetics, Catechesis, and Triage”

Features: Observations by a happy Carmelite, lots of those quiz things

Quick Summary: Nice site of personal observations, balanced and humorous




5) Blog: Quenta Nârwenion – Donna Marie Lewis

Self-Description: “From the life of Nârwen. Catholic. Secular Oratorian. Rat Fan. And oh, yes, Tolkien Nut.”

Features: Info on saints, Newman, Tolkien

Quick Summary: Good stuff on Newman and oratory


6) Blog: The New Gasparian - Jeffrey Keyes C.PP.S.

Self-description: “This is dedicated to the Life and mission of St. Gaspar del Bufalo, and the Spirituality of the Precious Blood. Our on-going mission is to share the good news of a spirituality of hope and communion.”

Features: Thoughts of a priest, readings of St. Gaspar

Quick Summary: nice collections of readings and reflections, thoughtful commentary