* Hear G. K. Chesterton's voice. The "I am not much of a Crusader" line is priceless in its delivery.
* The Gypsy Scholar recently had a series of good posts on the apparent use of a winged Christ in pictures of St. Francis's stigmatization.
Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata from a Winged Christ?
Saint Francis Receiving Stigmata from Winged Christ: Images
Saint Francis Receiving Stigmata from Winged Christ: Interpretation
* For Doctor Who fans: Timeline of The Doctor's revolutionariness. (ht)
* 2008 is International Year of the Potato (ht)
* A site with a number of Bible reading plans.
* Danny Garland on the Church Fathers's Marian Interpretation of the Old Testament.
* A number of articles relevant to the interpretation and application of the principles of Kant's cosmopolitanism as found in the essay, Toward Perpetual Peace, and related (broadly) Kantian issues. (ht)
* Art Lindsey suggests a lit of C. S. Lewis's seven key insights. Bulverism, which would make my list, is conspicuously missing, as is Joy or Sweet Desire as C. S. Lewis means it in Surprised by Joy or Pilgrim's Regress. But chronological snobbery, imagination, and myth are all good choices.
* Some Lakota are attempting to secede from the United States (and here). In particular, the Lakota Freedom Delegation, which includes Libertarian and activist Russell Means and a number of others. It's unclear how widely supported among the Lakota this move is; and the Lakota Freedom Delegation is not a branch of any tribal government. It's a sort of PR stunt, I suppose; even if some of the people involved mean it seriously, they aren't in a position to follow up.
* I had meant to mention this before, but failed to do so: Michael Pakaluk considers how Spe Salvi promotes the study of Greek philosophy. I certainly would consider more Catholics reading Plato's Gorgias a good thing; it would increase the chance of modern-day Boethiuses (Boethii?).
* The appeal of the underdog (ht)
* Fr. Gregory Jansen has some excellent thoughts on Christian unity:
While I can't speak for Catholics and Protestants, at least among the Orthodox (myself included I am ashamed to say), there are many who prefer a divided Christendom. It is simply easier not to have to deal with the many questions that seem to be tearing western Christian confessions apart. We happily exist in splendid isolation.
I think this is generally true. It is easier -- so very much easier -- to remain divided. But the rub is that divine love does not rest content with division; so key is this point that we should never forget that our salvation itself rests on it. And the chief question here is whether we will take seriously the Johannine insistence that we should love each other as God loved us or pass it off on the very human -- and very undivine, very ungracious -- excuse that it is easier not to do so, thereby to fall under the Johannine condemnation that whoever is without love does not know God.
* From YouTube: Dolly Parton was always awesome; I really like this Francis Cabrel song; Kokko by Wainotar is excellent (few languages sound so lovely sung as Finnish; it's not surprising that Tolkien modeled Quenya on it); Basic waltz in five and a half minutes. ADDED LATER: Philosophy Street
* Speaking of Finnish and Quenya, a fragment of the Kalevala translated into Quenya.
* Ratzinger's cats.
* A Baptist critique of our usual idea of preaching. (PDF)
ADDED LATER
* Currently reading: Everett and Roman, A Superluminal Subway: The Krasnikov Tube (PDF)
Krasnikov, The Quantum Inequalities Do Not Forbid Spacetime Shortcuts (PDF)
Krasnikov, Toward a Traversable Wormhole (PDF)
Alcubierre, The warp-drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity (PDF)
Some of the papers at Ribeiro's Warp Drive Theory Page
