The Super Bowl

The heart wants a Patriots' win.  What the eyes see is that the Giants are really overpowering right now, and Eli is really in a good rhythm.  This is the key:  Brady must execute perfectly in order to score enough points for a victory. 

Classroom talking points

1. Faith is not blind.
2. God is not random.
3. Scripture has to be read with intelligence.
4. The world's religions seek truth and hold to it as they see it; Catholics understand that the heart of wisdom is within Jesus' teachings, preserved and protected by their Tradition.

The NFL Playoffs

The scenarios thus far are interesting:

• Texans-Ravens:  This game shapes up to be living proof that the modern NFL game is often an exercise in violence and the ability to overcome the attrition of forces.  You have to like the Ravens, but I think the Texans are underrated.  Can they overcome, eke it out, squeak by?  
• Packers-Giants:  On the face of it, it seems that the team that scores last will win.  The Giants are on a hot streak.  The Packers have somewhat the better offensive package, but a suspect defense.  It's in Green Bay.  Will the weather decide?  No, the Packers' defense, or the lack of it, will decide the game.
• Saints-49ers:  The Saints are battle-tested and have Drew Brees.  That's got to be enough.  Although SF has won a number of critical games, you have to like Brees until the Saints offense prove they can't do it against any defense.
• Broncos-Patriots:  The Patriots are overwhelming favorites.  Belichek and Tom Brady have had time to prepare against Denver's very tough defense.  What will decide will be Tim Tebow and the Denver offense can score significant points against the Patriots' underachieving defense.

If it winds up to be Patriots-Saints in the Super Bowl, what will the over/under be?  

Summer reading and more

Basically, a peek at my kindle list:

--The Devil Colony:  A Sigma Force Novel.
--A Game of Thrones.
--A Clash of Kings.
--A Storm of Swords.
--A Feast for Crows.
--A Dance with Dragons
--Harvard is Burning.  (Lee Siegel's essay on liberal ideology.)
--On Bullshit. (Harry Frankfurt.)

Now I'm growing impatient with GRR Martin, because there appears to be no definite prospect of release on the sixth of the series, only a flippant comment or two on his website.  Dude:  get on with it.

Beautiful!

Save Hugh's comments for the campaign.  It contains a rubric for scoring the debates the right and effective way.

Well, it's not...

...like we've been doing NOTHING during these times.  Really, I think the revolution has been going pretty strong.  However, word needs to get out that the Church IS really a vibrant intellectual community in this nation and around the world.

The ten most underreported studies from 2010 | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

The ten most underreported studies from 2010 | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

What are the odds?

Which is more likely?

----->We're being visited by ET's.

----->The reality of ghosts, the post-dead.

Stresses

When the history of these times is written, we may become aware of how close our republic has come to tyranny--the usurpation of private rights and dignities in favor of state manipulation.  The obsessive adherence of the current majority--may their hegemony be brief!--to the tools of bureaucracy, propaganda and economic disruption creates a pseudo-justification for an ultimately thuggish totalitarianism that cannot be sated.  I'm sure there are some in places of influence who work as the engineers of this process in the name of progressive, scientific humanitarianism.  What we see is the work of their amateurish, clumsy, uncentered, uncritical and often unwitting minions.  And seeing that is a good thing, for this insidious will to power must betray itself by its own contradictions.

Now this is another piece of the puzzle

Remnants of a pre-Islamic monastery have been discovered in U.A.E.  It appears that for at least a time it existed contemporaneously with the nascent Islamic communities in the region.  This is very valuable for those who are concerned with periods of religious co-existence, when they occur.