A Different Kind of Liberal

Excellent op-ed in the New York Times by Ross Douthat on the pro-life influence of the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

Along with her husband, Sargent Shriver, Eunice belonged to America’s dwindling population of outspoken pro-life liberals. Like her church, she saw a continuity, rather than a contradiction, between championing the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed and protecting unborn human life.

Her brother took a different path...

At times, Ted Kennedy’s fervor on abortion felt like an extended apology to his party’s feminists for the way the men of his dynasty behaved in private. Eunice, by contrast, had nothing to apologize for. She knew what patriarchy meant: she was born into a household out of “Mad Men,” where the father paraded his mistress around his family, the sons were groomed for high office, and the daughters were expected to marry well, rear children and suffer silently. And she transcended that stifling milieu, doing more than most men to change the world, and earning the right to disagree with her fellow liberals about what true feminism required.

Read the whole thing.

St. Anne's Byzantine Catholic Church

St. Anne Byzantine Catholic Church (Ruthenian - Eastern Rite) in San Luis Obispo, California, has certainly changed since we left California. For one thing, they remodeled their building and finally added their iconostasis (see below), and just recently, they also installed a new pastor, Fr. James Lane.


I miss our occasional visits to St. Anne's and the ancient Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

To be or not to be a lawyer

Interesting post from the American Catholic blog on reasons why folks shouldn't consider becoming lawyers today. Some good points, although I would add that this would also depend on the type of law. But I'll summarize my general thoughts by reposting this video: