Posts
“Can’t We Just Take the Money and Do Our Own Thing?” Why you can’t out-fox Common Core
“Look,” the bright, young superintendent of schools insists, “I understand that are all sorts of horror stories floating around out there about terrible Common Core curriculum but that isn’t the curriculum we’re going to use.” She began her job this past August and has enormous enthusiasm for what can be done to improve the academic…
Footnote 58: Dolan Cheerleader
https://media.blubrry.com/bellarmineforumfootnote/bellarmineforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BF-Footnote-58-Dolan-cheerleader-120713-df.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadTimothy Cardinal Dolan, outgoing president of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference, says that the bishops, some of Obama’s “greatest supporters,” can’t be cheerleaders for the president until he ends the HHS Contraception Mandate. Is Cardinal Dolan on the right track here?
Pope Francis’s 44th Anniversary
Pope Francis was ordained on 13 December 1969. Even though there is a lot of talk about today being the third Friday the 13th this year (2013), it marks his 44th anniversary as a priest, and his ninth month as Pope – recall he became Pope on 13 March 2013. Ad multos annos!
Getting Testy about Testing
You know, it wasn’t that long ago that Johnny – and Juan – could read. They could recite the multiplication table, too, and could quickly make change, tally a ledger, and calculate simple percentages. Their teachers didn’t teach to a test; they taught basic, academic content. Johnny’s score on standardized tests – and Juan’s –measured…
Footnote 57: Envy
https://media.blubrry.com/bellarmineforumfootnote/bellarmineforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BF-Footnote-57-envy-110613-df.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download“Social Justice” groups argue that the “gap between the rich and the poor” is the major cause of poverty. Would it help if we were all poor?
From Under the Rubble…Cheering for the Wrong Team
“I’ll tell you what I think God thinks of the Affordable Care Act. It’s a big Amen!” –Political Commentator Ed Schultz It’s not uncommon for the left-wing MSNBC to lead the cheers for President Obama. But it’s all too common, and more than a bit unsettling, when a Catholic bishop joins in the jubilation –…
CatholicCulture.org Reviews the Bellarmine Forum
CatholicCulture.org–a solid Catholic internet apostolate complete with solid commentary by the likes of Phil Lawler and Dr. Jeffrey Mirus–has given a solid review of the Bellarmine Forum. One of the services that Catholic Culture does for its readers is to evaluate various Catholic websites for their fidelity to the Magiserium. How did we do? Check…
She Who Directs Our Gaze to the Heavens
In one of his last works, the baroque painter Pietro Bianichi (1694-1740) executed an image of Our Blessed Lady’s Immaculate Conception. The painting sits in the Roman basilica of Santa Maria deli Angeli, a church renowned for its famous meridian line (constructed at the behest of Pope Clement XI by Francesco Bianchini)–a feat of scientific excellence. Within a decade of its…
The Rise of the Machines (and the Fall of Man)
A little over sixty years ago, J.R.R. Tolkien defined what he meant by a machine: By the [ word “machine”] I intend all use of external plans or devices (apparatus) instead of development of the inherent inner powers or talents — or even the use of these talents with the corrupted motive of dominating: bulldozing the real world,…
