Weren't we all thinking it?

What do you bet this guy doesn't get much of a sentence for the infraction? In fact, if there's a jury involved, they'll probably have trouble keeping them from trying to give him parole for it.

Public Service Announcement

The student production of The Tempest is running this weekend. All the student productions I've seen here are excellent, and even if this one isn't, all you stand to lose is $5 and two hours of your life (and they could probably use your $5 anyway to improve the program). Besides, Jeff Eyerman of the 2L class is playing Prospero, so how can it be less than great? I'm going Saturday, so email me if you would like to meet up for it.

In the image of God?

A Sheik in Sydney gave a Ramadan sermon in which he had a few comments about women's responsibility for men's irresponsibility. My favorite excerpt from the news story:

Sheik Hilali said: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?

"The uncovered meat is the problem."

The sheik then said: "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."

He said women were "weapons" used by "Satan" to control men.

"It is said in the state of zina (adultery), the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time on the woman. Why? Because she possesses the weapon of enticement (igraa)."

Gaaa!! I'm offended on the behalf of women for being likened to "meat" for consumption, but I'm more outraged on the behalf of men who are regarded as having the moral discretion and behavioral control of feral cats. It would take a harsh religion indeed to control a race of such animals.

By the way, do any of you remember EVERY hall meeting in which there was an announcement resembling "We know you're in dress code, but the guys are complaining that you are still dressing too suggestively and it is causing them to stumble..."

HT: Carissa

Bad news for quitters

Aw, man... Decaf coffee still has caffeine. Researchers will take the fun out of anything.

Some things don't change...

He may be bigger, but Puck has not lost his proclivity for crawling onto my keyboard and taking a snooze while I'm trying to work on stuff. Maybe he thinks the screen is like a tanning lamp...

I'm dreaming of a white... pre-Halloween!?

Pardon my Floridianness once again, but doesn't it seem a bit early to be brushing snow off my car to get to school? I mean, only a couple trees on campus have started to turn colors. The snow-dusted geraniums in full bloom look a little confused. I'm not too good with seasons, having little experience with them, but I think I remember that there was supposed to be one between summer and winter.

Update: The early hours of sunlight this morning were stunningly beautiful and I was kicking myself for not taking my camera to school. Fortunately, 3L Brendan Loy blogger extraordinaire did take his, and he is a much better photographer than I. Enjoy!

Two favorite topics, one post

Given some recent discussion regarding Ian Paisley and Bob Jones University, I thought I'd share an interesting post that mentions them both. Do I get points?

A little more substantively, I think there are some very valid points made both in the post and its comment, particularly regarding the school's insularity and lost opportunities to make statements from the Christian perspective. On one hand, I sort of cringe when the school speaks on a political issue as a school (Remember that infamous letter to Bush?), but on the other I think there's something really disturbing about not allowing your faculty or staff (as the site notes, some of the brightest Fundamentalist thinkers around) to publish even an op ed without approval.

More culture for your listening pleasure

Mark your calenders for the next ND Symphony Orchstra concert on Oct. 27 in DPAC at 8:00. The DPAC website lists Tchaikovsky, Liszt, and Smetana on the program, but I (as a humble horn player) have not noticed any Tchaikovsky or Liszt in my folder. Perhaps they meant Brahms. Lovely program either way.

Our "kids"

Nothing follows a good wrestle like a good snuggle.

Shakespeare, convicts, and redemption

I just saw this film tonight at Browning and I highly recommend it. Like, very highly. Like, click the Buy This Film button and have people over and watch it. I mean it. I'll ask you about it later.

On the nature of mysteries

Browsing through a Blackstone Fellowship forum I came across an interesting and honestly seeking discussion on the Eucharist that referred to a few links that some readers might find relevant. I can't comment intelligently on them as I haven't had a chance to sort through them (and might still not be able to comment intelligently after I do), but I'm more than happy to hear (or read) your thoughts, oh gentle readers.

StLouisiana (links from a self-described high church Presbyterian)
Biblical Horizons No.s 33 and 34
Poems cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Other related posts:
Unclogging Protestantism with the Grace of the Eucharist--Not endorsing the content here, just tossing it out as food for thought because I found some of the comments provocative
Cyprian of Carthage on the Eucharist
Paradoxology--a little more Protestant perspective

Update: Does anyone know of any disciplined Protestant answer to the Catholic view of the Eucharist? I mean, something other than "Um, no it's not"?

School safety crisis?

Does anybody know what's up with all the school shootings? Sometimes there's a rash of related news stories just because a certain type of story becomes popular, and it doesn't necessarily mean that type of event wasn't happening before. But school shootings are ALWAYS big news, so I don't think they were happening and just going unreported. It's getting crazy. Just in the last couple weeks we had a guy open fire in a Montreal college, and then another creep takes hostages and shoots a girl in Colorado. Now there's a shooting in (of all places) an Amish one-room school. What's going wrong? What will be the response? Were I a betting person, I'd put money on Congress donning the white hero hat and passing some high-toned bill mandating new safety measures on pain of losing federal funding. I'm skeptical that some broad "safety measures" legislation is going to be terribly effective, but what would make schools safer? I think it could be agreed that there is a serious problem that desperately needs to be addressed, but how?