Sequels are hard. “Men in Black 3” is no exception. After an attention-grabbing, keeping-in-the-MIB-mode (and a once-only-ultra-risqué scene) opening, “MIB3” strives in a ho-hum way to maintain the MIB quirky vibe and “odd couple” relationship between Agent J (Will Smith) and Agent K (a wan-looking Tommy Lee Jones). Each actor does their best with mediocre, […]
Those who are up-to-date on the television series MadMen have an interesting episode to chew on as they await the season finale, but in the limited discussions I’ve followed since it aired, I have yet to see any reference to what I found the most profound point: the reverence due to the human body. […]
We are all called to holiness. Sometimes this can seem like an impossible call, especially when things get tough. And, at times the path to heaven can look like a fork in the road. What to do? If you read the lives of the saints, you’ll discover that they’re all so different that no one […]
Don’t let your life be sterile. Be useful. Blaze a trail. Shine forth with the light of your faith and of your love. ~ Saint Josemaria Escriva, from “The Way.” Danielle Rizzo is 13 years old and still cannot speak. Nine years ago, when she was diagnosed with autism, her parents were devastated. “In the […]
Every once in a while, I watch a movie that I hate. U.N. Me is just such a movie. I hated watching it but I have to recommend that others see this movie. Why? Because I believe that even if the truth is brutally hard to digest, it’s better than ignorance. I hated what was […]
Catholic Philosopher Chick Makes Her Début by Rebecca Bratten Weiss and Regina Doman Front Royal, VA: Chesterton Press, 2012 Catholic Philosopher Chick Makes Her Début is the intelligent Catholic woman’s beach read. This book is so much fun that you won’t want to put it down until you have turned the last page with a […]
In How to Read a Film, author James Monaco writes that movies “have drastically changed the way we perceive the world… yet we all too naturally accept the vast amounts of information they convey to us in massive doses without questioning how they tell us what they tell.” When it comes to movies, how we […]
Fr. Stefan Starzynski’s book, Miracles: Healing for a Broken World (Our Sunday Visitor) is one of those faith-building books that every observant Catholic should read at least once. While this book is not quite a new release, I read it and thought, “How and why did I not hear about this book sooner?” The book […]
No cardinal is under suspicion of being the mastermind behind the “Vatileaks” affair which is rocking Rome, Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., the Pope’s spokesman, told journalists in the Vatican Press Office shortly after noon today. Nor has the Pope constituted a special team of lay investigators, led by a woman, to look into the case […]
I have joked for years that MTV is destroying civilization as we know it. Then, the network gave us “Jersey Shore,” and proved my joke wasn’t funny, it was true. Now, I’m convinced the people at MTV actually sit around a conference table and ponder the question: How can we exploit and corrupt the innocence […]
The way Willie Bloomquist sees it, he’s living an impossible dream. Of all the players who try to make it to the major leagues, only a relative few actually get there. Bloomquist is one of those few, but he doesn’t attribute this to his own skills. The 34-year-old Port Orchard, Wash., native says he’s not […]
Like the Hulk, The Avengers, directed by the imaginative Joss Whedon, has smashed all previous weekend box-office records, hauling in over $200M in just three days. So what is it about these kinds of films that draws people to see them over and over? Part of it is the sheer spectacle of it all, some […]
For as well as I know my only son, I never really understood him until I read John L. Parker Jr.’s Once a Runner. Often called the “definitive running story,” Once a Runner, published in 1978, remains a cult classic for those whose identities are defined by the sport of running. Through the tale of […]
Style, Sex, & Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter, edited buy Hallie Lord, is full of spiritual truths and spunk! The ten women who each tackle a different current issue seem to hit most of the hot topics usually found splashed across the covers of women’s tabloids, but from a Catholic […]
Media outlets tiptoeing around Islam are a dime a dozen, but the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) stands apart for the egregiousness of its self-censorship and bias. Even more striking than the number of controversies involving suppression of Islam-critical speech on its channels are the frank acknowledgements that BBC policy is shaped by fear. During a […]
Dastardly Dames in History, Ages 9-12 Cixi: Dragon Empress Author: Natsha Yim Illustrator: Peter Malone Reading level: Ages 9 and up Hardcover: 32 pages Publisher: Goosebottom Books ISBN-10: 0983425655 ISBN-13: 978-0983425656 This series of historical accounts profiles strong women who took extraordinary measures to achieve and maintain power—including murder, deception, and black magic—examining the women’s reputations in the […]
Popular Christian author Janette Oke’s first book was Love Comes Softly. Janette was born during the depression years on a Canadian prairie farm and she remembers her childhood as full of love, laughter, family life and faith. Janette drew upon these themes for her debut novel and her many other popular books that followed. I […]
As parents, we have so many responsibilities when it comes to our children. We need to feed, clothe, and nurture them. We need to raise them in the faith and make sure that they are educated. But in the midst of all those responsibilities, it is also important to have fun as a family. Moments […]
I was nearing the close of Pat Buchanan’s new book Suicide of a Superpower (St. Martin’s Press) when I read that MSNBC had fired him as a political commentator for expressing views offensive to political correctness as practiced at that left-leaning network. (“Left-leaning” as applied to MSNBC comes from the Los Angeles Times, which is […]
They used to arrest middle-aged perverts who get their jollies from talking dirty to children. Today, they get a television show, a nationally syndicated column, a lecture circuit and multiple visits to the Obama White House. You know: “Forward.” The irony is palpable. Dan Savage, sex columnist and founder of the LGBT anti-bullying “It Gets […]
About a month ago, I went to see the movie The Vow fully prepared for it to be an overall disappointment. It certainly delivered, except for one scene that actually makes the movie worth seeing. The mother tells her upset daughter that she stayed with her husband after learning of his lengthy affair because she […]
I’m doing something I’ve never done before. I’ve never written a movie review for a movie I have not yet seen or a book review for book I have not yet read. But I am so excited by the “buzz” about an upcoming movie that I thought I’d let you in on some of it. […]
For the past few months, I’ve had the great pleasure of a biweekly radio chat with Dr. Greg and Lisa Popcak, Directors of the Pastoral Solutions Institute and authors of Beyond the Birds and the Bees: Raising Sexually Whole and Holy Kids. As a major fan of Dr. Greg and Lisa’s work, their writing, and […]
The glorious story of Eric Liddell will soon grace a London stage just as issues of conscience make headlines with Christians defending religious freedom from coercion. Chariots of Fire, the Oscar-winning film of Olympic runner Eric Liddell’s refusal to race on the Sabbath, is being adapted into a play to usher in the 2010 Olympics […]
