Monthly Archives: September 2016

‘3-Parent’ Babies: A Controversy That Shouldn’t Be

The New York Times: A few months ago, after a fertility procedure at a Mexican clinic, a healthy baby boy was born in New York to a couple from Jordan. It was the first live birth of a child who … Continue reading

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An “Urgent Need For More Exorcists” (Apparently)

The Daily Telegraph: A sharp rise in the number of people dabbling in Satanism and the occult is fueling a growing demand for more exorcists on both sides of the Atlantic. Speaking in tongues, levitating and vomiting nails may seem far-fetched to … Continue reading

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The God of War

Crux:  Ahead of his day trip to Assisi to participate in a World Day of Prayer for Peace, Pope Francis said that the gathering of women and men religious from around the world is not a “spectacle” but simply a … Continue reading

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Pope Francis: the Man with the Answers

Cross-posted on the Corner. AP: Pope Francis has encouraged Europeans to welcome refugees, calling authentic hospitality “our greatest security against hateful acts of terrorism.” Francis Saturday spoke to alumni of Jesuit schools in Europe who were in Rome for a … Continue reading

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Climate Change: Sarkozy Goes There

Cross-posted on the Corner.  Count me skeptical about former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, but I had to warm, so to speak, to this comment (via Politico): Sarkozy, who hopes to secure the center-right Les Républicains party’s presidential nomination, told business … Continue reading

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The Clowns of Salem?

Once upon a time it was alien abductions, and not so long before that, the Satanic panic of the 1980s, a wave of hysteria that spilled over into some of the child abuse  prosecutions of that era with sometimes appalling consequences. Now there … Continue reading

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Fifteen Years

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Even Muslims Think British Police Might be Overcompensating

Just as the level of trust in the West’s governing institutions is at or near all-time lows, the Daily Telegraph reports that British officials in the vicinity of Birmingham are considering allowing female officers of the Islamic persuasion to don…burkas: A police … Continue reading

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A Raid in Argentina

We’ll have to see what emerges from the eventual prosecution, but this story (reported in the Daily Telegraph, with my emphasis added) from Argentina may be interesting for the light it casts on the Christian fascination with suffering (discussed here the other … Continue reading

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Ayahuasca and the D’Ohs of Perception

Cross-posted on the Corner: Madness, too much time in the desert or just the right hallucinogenic concoction all seem to be reasonably reliable routes to mysticism. Ayahuasca is (the New Yorker reports) “an intensely hallucinogenic potion made from boiling woody … Continue reading

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