The Pope has arrived.

Last night, Maddie and I went to Costco to purchase mass quantities for the Price clan. As promised, we stopped by the book tables.

I did a double take, but sure enough, it was there--two stacks, each fifteen or so copies high, of Jesus of Nazareth.

Boo-yah!

Faaaabulous!

Pentagon considered building "gay bomb."

All right, then.

Tagged.

With an interesting meme: Things/People That Don't Bother/Worry Me.

You're supposed to come up with thirty, but we'll see. With some annotation:

1. Protestant fundamentalists. They're on the same side about 85% of the time, aren't pumping the culture full of crap, and I'm comfortable enough to swat them aside when they get up in my face about the other 15%.

2. Seat belt laws.

3. Helmet laws. I don't need to feel the curb running through my hair, thanks.

4. Dishabited nuns. I've met some very orthodox ones, believe it or not.

5. Vaccination requirements. My thought is that this shouldn't be an issue, but it's a strange world getting stranger.

6. Getting asked for an ID when making a debit card purchase.

7. Instant replay. Get the call right.

8. Mitt Romney's Mormonism. Could. Not. Care. Less. Don't buy the LDS narrative even slightly, but that's not the reason I haven't warmed to the guy. In fact, I liked the response he gave at the last debate, refusing to put daylight between himself and his faith. Good for him. That takes clockweights.

9. The New Atheism. Vaguely irritating, but far from bothersome. Just what is new about it, anyway?

10. NHL shootouts. Who likes a tie?

11. Andrew Greeley. Sorry--I've tried to work up outrage at the windy Irishman, but I can't. He's the most likeable--and, yes, constructive--of the Class of '67. He can be (intentionally) laugh out loud funny, too.

12. A certain alleged Roman something or other.

13. The music of John Foley of the STL Jebbies. He had all the talent in that band.

14. The Notre Dame Fight Song.

15. Andrew Sullivan. What a difference not reading him makes.

16. Long memes.

17. Gas grills. Sometimes, you just have to use the Barbie grills in a pinch. It doesn't make you a bad person. For the most part.

18. Vegetarians. As opposed to vegans.

19. George Steinbrenner.

20. Parts of the State of Ohio.

21. Traffic slowdowns. As long as I have my tapes/CDs and a functional A/C, let it ride.

22. Mild-to-moderate profanity/scatology. As long as the kids aren't within earshot.

23. Macro-brew beer.

24. San Antonio Spurs fans. Most of the time.

25. Nuclear power.

26. Blizzards.

27. Waiting in line to get your license plates renewed. See #21, add "books."

28. Non-obscene spam. Click, delete and move on.

29. The French.

30. Very, very long memes.

Tag: it. And it.

And so it ends.

Season Four will be the last for Galactica.

Despite the happy talk, the reason seems pretty obvious: the odds for a fifth season were just about nil.

The good news is that this means the story arc should get the resolution it deserves. Those who remember Seasons 4 and 5 of Babylon 5 know what the precarious renewal status of the show meant for the plot: a hurried resolution of the Shadow War unsettled the remainder of 4 and left Season 5 in the doldrums until the halfway point.

The key word being "should." An uneven Season 3 gives some cause for concern. But nothing focuses the mind quite so effectively as the axe, so here's hoping.

Prediction: they don't get to Earth.

We interrupt the nonstop Paris Hilton coverage to bring you this.

A rare Saturday post, but worth breaking the silence. Here are three good blogs I've found recently:

The Roving Medievalist--devoted to medieval images and architecture.
Let Britannia Rise--the same, except focused on Great Britain.

Both by Jeffrey Smith, a Toledan with a fine taste in imagery, Catholic and Britannic. His tag is a classic: "Cantankerous middle-aged relapsed Catholic who is hopelessly in love with 'old unhappy far-off things and battles long ago.'" Actually, I've seen TRM before, but I've been dilatory in linking. Here's the overdue correction.

fides et ardor, by a former Anglican priest-turned Catholic in Wales, with a focus on promoting Welsh and English culture, no small task in the era of "Cool Britannia."

Give them a look.

Most brutal one-line review of 2007.

"The Secret is the self-help book for people who found Dan Brown too hard to read."

Ouch.

Michigan: It's a whole 'nother place.

Wheelchair-bound man stuck in grille of semi-truck for two miles, is unhurt.

Ben Carpenter is used to being on wheels. Just not in this way.

Carpenter, 21, who was pushed for 2 miles down a two-lane highway when his wheelchair got stuck in the grille of a semi, said he was helpless. He just had to ride it out.

"I tried to yell for help but no one could hear me," he said Thursday.

The truck driver had no idea someone was stuck in his grille Wednesday afternoon until he turned into the lot of his business and was stopped by an undercover police officer who had spotted the incident on the highway.

The truck, Carpenter said, was going 50 m.p.h. Luckily, he always straps himself into the chair, so he felt secure that he wouldn't fall out. But he was pretty sure he was going to die.

"I didn't know how far he was going," he said of the driver, whose name was not released Thursday. "I think people were looking at me."

Interesting coincidence.

Bear-i-tone properly corrected me regarding the D-Day post and noted that Europe's liberation began with the invasion of Italy, mentioning his father's experience in the Italian campaign.

Just this morning, I had the opportunity to shake hands with an Anzio veteran. A Ranger, no less, and from the looks of him, it was a good bet that he could still break me in half. I thanked him for his service and for "going through hell with Mark Clark."

St. Blog's Baby Pics.


Courtesy of once-and-future blogger, Terry the Filius Prodigius, who announced the birth of his daughter Elizabeth Claire in the combox.

The first is of Elizabeth Claire at roughly six weeks, the second as a newborn:




Beautiful little girl you have there, Terry. Congrats on the wonderful blessing. And get a grinder and buy your coffee in beans. It's more expensive, but you deserve to taste the good stuff while you're quaffing it by the gallon.

Cutest dodge of the year.

Courtesy of the Michigan franchise of the ACLU.

The ACLU says that the use of student fees at a public university to build facilities for use by adherents of one religion is just okey-dokey fine.

Specifically, the University of Michigan is spending student fee money to build Muslim footbaths.

The Detroit ACLU branch is down with that, and their reasoning wins them the right to trademark the term "casuistry," free and clear for the next fifty years:

The Detroit chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union isn't getting involved, arguing the foot baths are secular since non-Muslims could use them, said spokeswoman Rana Elmir.

They don't make hip-waders strong enough to withstand BS like that.

Thought experiment: imagine using student fees to install holy water fonts outside the "reflection room" at the University. After all, anybody could dip their fingers into one. I suspect you could count on the Detroit chapter being all over that idea like a terrier on a hambone.

Crusade in Europe.

Today is the 63rd Anniversary of D-Day. I visited Sword Beach in 1989. I'll see if I can dig up some of my pictures.

In the meantime, take a moment today to remember the bravery of the men who began the liberation of Europe on that overcast day not so long ago.

[Photo via the Navy Historical Center.]