There reaches a point where you lose your patience with being mocked. With the latest round of businesses using campy men in drag to promote their products, I’ve hit my limit. I’m tired of my femininity being reduced to absurd stereotypes. I’m tired of being insulted and belittled. I’m out of patience for men anywhere on the political or social spectrum who deign to instruct women on what it means to be “feminine.” I know what it means to be feminine... Read more
It doesn’t take much ink to sum up the Catholic view of disordered sexuality: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27-28 I can’t be certain, but I would hazard that there are very, very few adults who never ever experience disordered sexual attraction. Jesus makes it clear that even if... Read more
Today we’re looking at a particularly abhorrent fallacy I ran across this morning, and no, I’m not going to give any attention to the offender. By the end of this tutorial you should have no difficulty spotting it when you see it in the wild. (If you’ve never been quite sure what “equivocation” means, the Wiktionary definition may help.) The fallacy runs like this: Person A died of a cause described in the medical terminology as XYZ. Person B also... Read more
Way back in the fall of 2020, what caught my eye in reports of “long covid” were accounts from physicians and nurses who previously had been physically active and professionally ambitious, but now no amount of determination and perseverance could shake off their persistent, debilitating fatigue. Recently I was surprised, therefore, when someone I usually look to for level-headed, logical, data-supported analyses was convinced that “long covid” was purely an anxiety-related disorder. Since I follow several (real, credentialed, not-quacky, not... Read more
I have a friend who will be sitting the bar exam on Ash Wednesday. She’s young and healthy, but still: What a high-pressure situation! She needs to be as mentally sharp as possible, and she has to have the stamina to make it though the day’s exam without flagging. A poor performance means, at best, another round of studying and exams; in a worst case it could completely derail her legal career. It is not the kind of day when... Read more
My writing friend and I have started identifying a particularly painful genre of Catholic literature: Blarbage. If you write, you’ve probably been guilty of it at one time or another. If you read widely from Catholic priests, bishops, and lay opinion-leaders, sooner or later you’ll stumble on it. Let’s talk about what it is, how to identify it, and what to do when you encounter it. Blarbage is: Verbose.* Not just lots of wordcount (guilty), but often a truckload of... Read more
You may be one of the many Catholic couples finding yourselves in a difficult position this evening: You are using Natural Family Planning to avoid pregnancy, and Valentine’s Day has fallen during your fertile time. At best it’s exasperating; at worst it might feel like God is trying to wreck your marriage. What do you do? It’s Not Your Imagination! Let’s be honest here: If you are doing it right, sex should be something you and your spouse look forward... Read more
For a while during my misspent youth, I was a regular viewer of The Addams Family – not so much because I especially loved the program, but because it was on. That’s more or less the same reason I watched Wednesday on Netflix on the other day: I was curious, I was laid up with a cold (all better now, thanks for asking), and there it was. It was entertaining and I don’t recommend it.* What follows is not an... Read more
The Pillar has a detailed story on the accusations of sexual misconduct against Fr. Frank Pavone in the years prior to his laicization, and it’s worth a read for reasons which require no opinion on whether the allegations are true or false. [Update 2/8/23: There’s now a second report of a different woman’s allegations, with details once again relevant to what follows here.] What you’ll find in the article is a detailed description of inappropriate boundary-violations that carefully skirted flagrant... Read more
I have a friend born and raised in Orangeburg, SC. She speaks with a strong local accent. She teaches in a rural school near where she grew up. As we would say in the South, she is from there. We’re going to come back to her, specifically, down at the bottom when we finally get to our title topic, now trending on Twitter. I am not from here in South Carolina the same way as my friend is. I’m only 1/4... Read more
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