CULTURE
They Came For Don Cherry
The public firing of Don Cherry on Veterans’ Day, known in my native Canada as Remembrance Day, reveals a media culture way out of sync with ordinary people who exist outside politically correct urban bubbles. [...]
Bye Bye, Stranger Things
Halfway through season two of the Netflix hit series Stranger Things, I made the decision to stop watching. Owing to monstrous laziness, I kept putting off writing down the reasons why I stopped. This month, I dumped Netflix altogether. [...]
Mahony at Congress: A Bridge Too Far
Roger Cardinal Mahony is set to speak at the 2019 LA-REC in late March. (That is, the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, aka—if you’re really in the know—“Congress” for short). Yes, the face of U.S. [...]
Why am I interviewing Milo Yiannopoulos?
Yiannopoulos may never be your cuppa. I get it. I’m not his PR rep and he doesn’t need my defense anyway. But there is much more to the story. The correct answer comes down [...]
Good-bye, Dad
Since the death of my father three months ago, I have re-read parts of A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis, the blunt opening line of which tells the truth: “no one told me grief feels so like [...]
Here’s How to Make Holy Week Count
Here are some resources that can help us get into the right frame of mind as we approach the Triduum. Each year, I try to “lean in” during Holy Week, to focus my attentions on [...]
Top 11 Manly Christmas Gifts
As Christmas time draws near, wives and sons, brothers and sisters do flips and twists trying to figure out what to get the man in their life. Fear not. Uncle Patrick is here with avuncular [...]
Two Cheers for Commercialized Christmas
Every year around two minutes past midnight November 1, when Halloween ends and the malls begin spewing out “Xmas Muzak,” Christians trundle out their well-worn complaints about the tinselly squalor of today’s commercialized Christmas. Don’t [...]
Pro Sports as Substitute Religion
Man was made to worship. It's in his DNA, so to speak, to reach out towards and even to surrender to a Higher Power. The object of his worship will either be the one true [...]