Gay Parents Are Just Like Other Parents?

Is there some room to express doubt about that?

Life on GLAAD’s Blacklist | LifeSiteNews.com:

America doesn't know that this is part of same-sex parenting, because Americans have been blocked from hearing from me, Dawn Stefanowicz, Jean-Dominique Bunel, "Janna," Manuel Half, Rivka Edelman, and the blogger known as "the Bigot" -- just some of the many people I've come to know over the last year and a half, who have the human stories to dispel the myth that all is well with "gay families." This scares the crap out of people at GLAAD. It scares the crap out of them that I'm a professor and fluent enough in the way research works to know that the "consensus" on same-sex parenting is a fraud. It scares the crap out of them that I have a scholarly record in African-American Studies and queer readings of Thoreau and Whitman, so they can't write me off as a wacko, unwashed homophobe.

Read the whole thing.

(Via LifeSiteNews.)

Has the Sexual Revolution Been Good for Women?

This is an interesting overview of some of the gender issues in culture and politics:

Of all the political gambits that ought to be torn from the playbook once and for all, the idea that a national “war on women” is afoot has got to top the list. It’s an ideological whopper that demands more scrutiny than it has so far gotten — because underneath it are solid rocks of myth, especially myths about the sexual revolution and its real fallout. Let’s turn over a few of these to see what facts they hide.

(Via SoCon Or Bust.)

Thank You Father Z

for this:

Much needed funny cartoon:

From HERE:

Share/Bookmark

(Via WDTPRS.)

Thank You Father Z

for this:

Much needed funny cartoon:

From HERE:

Share/Bookmark

(Via WDTPRS.)

I Agree with Mark Shea

and Simcha Fisher:

Simcha Fisher Talks Sense…:

…to bedwetting panicmongers.

If some stranger came to me and said, “I thought I overheard your wife say that she is a Zoroastrian who spits on Jesus Christ” my first thought would not be, “Could this possibly be true? Is everything I know of her a lie? What do I do? O what do I do!!!!!”

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Sagrada Familia

will be finished in 2026. Since I most likely won't be around to enjoy the sight here is someone's imagining of it:

Here's how Barcelona's Sagrada Familia will look when it's finally done in 2026...:

When Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí was tragically killed by a train in 1926, he was in the middle of building of his masterpiece—the Barcelona basilica, Sagrada Familia. Eighty-six years later, the church still isn't complete. But according to Jordi Faulí, the current architect on the magnificent life-sized sand castle, it'll be done by 2026. This is what it's going to look like.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent.)

William Lane Craig Does Nifty Work

Your lesson in Natural Theology today:

William Lane Craig Does Nifty Work:

(Via Mark Shea.)

Want to Come to Rome?

How's that for a timely invitation?

Want to Come to Rome?:

Come to Rome withMark “Catholic and Enjoying It!” SheaandFr. Shane “Catholic Ragemonkey” Tharp!Click on the pic for more information! 

(Via Mark Shea.)

My Favorite City

It's true you shouldn't have favourite offspring so it might also be true that you shouldn't have a favourite city. As if that was gong to stop me. I've visited Rome four times, only once on a day trip. The others lasted from five to nine days. And still I can't get enough.

Life will probably not permit me to see her again but this article sure gave me great pleasure. You have to be a history and art buff to get the full flavour of it. Read it anyway even if you're not.

Rome’s past shows not only in her monuments and ruins, but in the very layout of the streets themselves...:

The new Mayor of the city of Rome, Ignazio Marino, just announced his intention to destroy one of the city’s central roads, the Via dei Fori Imperiali, and turn the area around the old Roman Forum into the world’s largest archaeological park. Reactions have ranged from commuters’ groans to declarations from classicists that this single act proves the nobility of the human species.

Read the whole thing.

(Via .)

So How Do They Pick a Pope Anyway?

This is quite nice:

So How Do They Pick a Pope Anyway?:

An explanation in nifty graphic form.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Why Doesn't Google Translator

do a job like this?

Translating the “catholics For Choice” statement about Pope Benedict:

When Pope Benedict announced his abdication, the heretical “catholics for Choice” issued a statement.    I didn’t want to sully my hands with it but someone else got out the little plastic bag and did the dirty work.

At the blog Acts of the Ashpostasy, we find a little parsing of their statement.  Holding your nose helps a little.

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

Five Reasons

not to co-habit prior to marriage:

5 (secular) reasons not to live together before marriage:

One interesting aspect of undergoing a dramatic conversion as an adult is that it's given me the opportunity to be deeply immersed in two rather different cultures. Up until my mid-20s, I was very much a part of post-Christian secular culture. Then my husband and I changed our religious beliefs, and though we're still in touch with many of our old friends, we've increasingly found ourselves in social circles where most people are religious.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent.)

Five Reasons

not to co-habit prior to marriage:

5 (secular) reasons not to live together before marriage:

One interesting aspect of undergoing a dramatic conversion as an adult is that it's given me the opportunity to be deeply immersed in two rather different cultures. Up until my mid-20s, I was very much a part of post-Christian secular culture. Then my husband and I changed our religious beliefs, and though we're still in touch with many of our old friends, we've increasingly found ourselves in social circles where most people are religious.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent.)

Mark Shea Does It Better

Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me! I Know!:

Because we are a Paris Hilton People in an Apocalyptic World?

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Truth in the News

I caught a brief news report on CNN about the annual March for Life which happened again today. Three things caught my attention:

The single camera shot was from below and only caught a couple of dozen participants.

The reporter referred to "thousands" attending the March. Yeah, right.

The reporter provided the background information about the original case Roe v. Wade, including the real name of "Roe" in this case: Norma L. McCorvey. Norma's conversion to the pro-life cause, of course, wasn't mentioned.

Lesson learned (again): if you want to know anything more than the most superficial and misleading things about causes that the political elite despises don't rely on the MSM.

Let's Start the New Year Right

By reducing the irrational biases in our thinking:

The 12 cognitive biases that prevent you from being rational:

The human brain is capable of 1016 processes per second, which makes it far more powerful than any computer currently in existence. But that doesn't mean our brains don't have major limitations. The lowly calculator can do math thousands of times better than we can, and our memories are often less than useless — plus, we're subject to cognitive biases, those annoying glitches in our thinking that cause us to make questionable decisions and reach erroneous conclusions. Here are a dozen of the most common and pernicious cognitive biases that you need to know about.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent.)

Let's Start the New Year Right

By reducing the irrational biases in our thinking:

The 12 cognitive biases that prevent you from being rational:

The human brain is capable of 1016 processes per second, which makes it far more powerful than any computer currently in existence. But that doesn't mean our brains don't have major limitations. The lowly calculator can do math thousands of times better than we can, and our memories are often less than useless — plus, we're subject to cognitive biases, those annoying glitches in our thinking that cause us to make questionable decisions and reach erroneous conclusions. Here are a dozen of the most common and pernicious cognitive biases that you need to know about.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent.)

A Little Ecumentical Dialogue

This is an interesting exercise:

Dialogue between Christ and a Muslim:

Very enjoyable read.

H/T Foolishness to the World

Read the whole thing.

(Via SoCon Or Bust.)

A Little Ecumentical Dialogue

This is an interesting exercise:

Dialogue between Christ and a Muslim:

Very enjoyable read.

H/T Foolishness to the World

Read the whole thing.

(Via SoCon Or Bust.)

Reasoning & Informal Logic

Informal logic frequently focuses on identifying fallacies. Sometimes that is where an argument stops: "You are guilty of fallacy x, so your argument is invalid." But some claims of fallacious reasoning may need to be examined more closely:

Philosophical Folklore and the Reification Fallacy:

Among the many things worth studying, one of the most interesting is what I call ‘philosophical folklore’.  Folklore, of course, consists of micro-traditions passed down within communities as part of the ordinary ways of life of the people in those communities. We usually think of these micro-traditions as artistic, but much folklore is philosophical in character. Studying this kind of folklore, often fascinating in its own right, can be quite illuminating.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

Jesus as Myth: a Losing Battle

I love the analogy employed here. In any case this is the least troublesome aspect of Christianity's claims: There was a man named Jesus who was crucified under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. I especially appreciate the criticism of Dawkins for relying on an inappropriate authority (German language?) who has since retracted his position.

A fight they can't win: The irreligious assault on the historicity of Jesus – Opinion – ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):

It is time for the evangelists of unbelief to give up the nonsense that the figure at the heart of Christianity may have never even lived.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Links.)

Monsignor Teaches Logic

Our inability to communicate with one another when there is significant disagreement may arise in part because of faulty thinking. I'm particularly struck by the observation that a kind of skepticism supported by an unreasonable demand for perfect proof paralyzes dialogue. If you enjoy this the follow-up post is here.

Thinking About Thinking – A Reflection on some of the Modern Pitfalls and Logical Fallacies that Hinder Us
By: Msgr. Charles Pope

- - - - - - - - - - - A Logical Fallacy

A lot of breakdown in modern communication comes down to logical fallacies and cognitive distortions that have us talking past each other. Perhaps, as the new year draws near, we might spend a little time reflecting and “thinking about our thinking.”

All of us fall into these traps. I have spoken before on the blog of the problem of “all or nothing thinking” and also our tendency today to take everything personally, to be thin-skinned. Perhaps some of the following reflections on the nature of our knowledge and how we both argue and reason, may also be instructive, since, as a group, we tend today to be ver

Read the whole thing.

(Via .)