The Never-Ending Interest in Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club

My piece last year on Donald Trump and Mar-a-Lago has been a hit on this site.  There's a great deal of interest in the subject, either by his supporters (who think he's a SJW hero for the club) or his detractors (who are trying to find out some dirt about the place.)  Neither of these …

Lessons from the Cotter Bridge

The Ruthven Bridge, as it has been officially called since 1976, is a familiar landmark to visitors and residents of north central Arkansas.  It has an interesting history, not only for its design and construction, but also in how it was authorised and its subsequent history. Arkansas did not establish a State Highway Department until …

Texas A&M Newman Association 1975-6

I've alluded to my years in the Catholic Students Association in pieces like this.  Now you can get a little more flavour of what that was like in the following video. Thanks so much to Jeanne Geidel-Neal for the music for this video. As noted elsewhere, the "straight outta Irondale" folks won't like this, but …

You Have a Blessed Day, Bro

We're pretty much in a war zone these days between police, black people and just about everyone else being the shooter or the shot.  I find it hard to really say anything meaningful about it. One of the "spin-offs" of my PhD pursuits is riding the "city" bus.  Actually we have a regional authority called …

My Response to "Think Younger" and the Church of God General Assembly

With our Independence Day celebration out of the way, it's time for those of us in the Church of God to head to Nashville (if not physically, virtually) for the Church of God General Assembly.  It should be an interesting one; three of the five members of the executive committee will be going off of …

An American Children's Book in the Name of Allah

No, this is not CAIR's newest idea of subversion.  Look to the right at a page from the 1913 edition of the Arabian Nights by Frances Jenkins Olcott, an American librarian.  There at the top is the traditional Islāmic invocation "In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful," which I have seen (with variations) …

Banning Sobriety in Palm Beach

Well, not quite... It’s unlikely residents will see sober homes popping up in their Palm Beach neighborhoods any time soon. Earlier this month, the Town Council declared “zoning in progress,” a measure that essentially halts permits for alcohol and drug-free living environments in town while officials consider how best to regulate them. Council members also …

The "Arabs" of Thomas Aquinas Weren't Arabs At All

Returning to the site Ite ad Thomam, I saw an advertisement for the "Annual Fall Workshop on Aquinas and the 'Arabs'" at Marquette University (not, these days, an ideal venue for such a traditional Catholic conference.)  For someone like myself who started the Summa as an undergraduate and finished it as a PhD candidate, it …

When One Steals From A Church, One Sins Twice

Never gave this much thought, but from the "Ite ad Thomam" site: So stealing from a church is actually two sins, theft and sacrilege? Or is it still one – sacrilegious theft? Two sins.  And both have to be confessed.  In other words, it's not enough to say merely "I stole something from a building," …

Brexit, Crisis and Opportunity

One of the more amusing moments I've had here at UTC has been the visit of the new Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Dr. Daniel Pack, to the SimCentre, where I just finished my PhD.  He wanted to meet with the students; it's been a rough road for the program, and …

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