Reflections on life, meaning and purpose

Daily Rome Shot 1020: Magnus Effect

White to move and mate in 2. NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others. Interested in learning?  Try THIS. I had a note from a friend in Rome: I hope … Read More →

The Death of Institutional Identity

In the entrance of historic Nassau Hall at the heart of Princeton University is Memorial Atrium, designed in 1920 to commemorate the Princeton students and alumni killed in battle. Six hundred and forty-six names are inscribed on its walls, including seventy who died in the Civil War. As campus legend has it, thirty-five died fighting […]

Aid agencies mobilize to respond to floodings in Afghanistan

UNICEF and other aid agencies are sending relief teams and desperately needed humanitarian aid to northeastern Afghanistan where unusually heavy rains have killed at least 300 people, sweeping away homes and damaging vital farmland. Read all  

13 May: St. Robert Bellarmine – Pray for us!

Today I greet readers and friends who are blessed with the name “Robert”.  Happy Vetus Ordo Name Day. You get two Name Days, since the Novus Ordo  day is 17 September. In particular I remember in prayer His Excellency Most … Read More →

Consecrating Error?

Consecrating Error? Once upon a time, in a land known as Christendom, a man died rather than betray his conscience, which is to say, his “convictions about what it is right and wrong to do.” That man was Thomas More (1478–1535), who, if you are a certain kind of law professor writing in the year […]