Leo XIV: “the hope of the Church and the world”.

Dear Readers,  for your consideration, I offer this translation of an Italian  article that  reflects my present thoughts and sentiments regarding the election of Pope Leo XIV, despite initially being worried when I heard his name.   Paolo DeottoNuovo Arengario via Rorate Caeli, 10th May 2025 The Philosophy of Leo XIII ? “Allow me today to speak only… Read More Leo XIV: “the hope of the Church and the world”.

Thoreau on “News” Media As the “Ruling Powers”

Cynical news media daily turn many a local story, especially calamities, into national or international stories for political and financial purposes. The media bosses reap all the profit by spreading fear and shattering nerves. Motives are often far from noble despite all the self-righteous pretense. Henry David Thoreau anticipated this and there is lesson in… Read More Thoreau on “News” Media As the “Ruling Powers”

Bowling Alone

Loneliness in the West. “Once we bowled in leagues, usually after work — but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolizes a significant social change that Robert Putnam has identified in this brilliant volume, Bowling Alone, which The Economist hailed as “a prodigious achievement.” Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans’ changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have… Read More Bowling Alone

Malcolm Muggeridge on The Fourth Temptation

And Frankenstein. “…Jesus is approached with the offer of a worldwide TV network, and “The Dead Sea Videotapes,” in which archaeologists centuries hence discover a cache of tapes, films, and other evidence of our contemporary society, and reach shocking conclusions. “Future historians,” says Muggeridge, “will surely see us as having created in the media a… Read More Malcolm Muggeridge on The Fourth Temptation

Are Moral Truths and Free Inquiry Being Outlawed in America Today?

Tucker Carlson cancelled by Fox News. Opinion. Updated. NEW YORK (LifeSiteNews) — “Conservative media titan Tucker Carlson and Fox News on Monday “agreed to part ways” effective immediately. Carlson’s last broadcast was April 21, giving the hugely popular host no opportunity to bid farewell to his audience. An announcement from Fox News shared on social media… Read More Are Moral Truths and Free Inquiry Being Outlawed in America Today?

Marshall McLuhan on media manipulation of peoples and nations

McLuhan, 1969: “There’s nothing at all difficult about putting computers in the position where they will be able to conduct carefully orchestrated programing of the sensory life of whole populations. I know it sounds rather science-fictional, but if you understood cybernetics you’d realize we could do it today. The computer could program the media to… Read More Marshall McLuhan on media manipulation of peoples and nations

Far Left Power. A New Berlin Wall.

“On August 13, 1961, the Communistgovernment of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep so-called Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state,… Read More Far Left Power. A New Berlin Wall.

U.S. Media Framing Belief as Pathological

… of  Traditional Religious Belief into the Pathological. Observing the not so subtle subtexts in media and their impact in our lives. This Dr. Thomas Hibbs lecture was titled Religious Liberty and Popular Culture Thomas S. Hibbs (November 3, 1960) is an American philosopher and the 9th President of the University of Dallas, a Catholic liberal arts… Read More U.S. Media Framing Belief as Pathological

7 Reasons Why Henry David Thoreau Still Matters Today

By Laura Dassow Walls | Jul 21, 2017Publishers Weekly Laura Dassow Walls’s definitive biography, Henry David Thoreau: A Life, is an amazing achievement, a merger of comprehensiveness in content with pleasure in reading, following Thoreau’s progress as a writer and also as a reader, as well as his social and political involvements and scientific pursuits.… Read More 7 Reasons Why Henry David Thoreau Still Matters Today