Celebrating Underrated Soul Songstress Nikka Costa You know that thing that TV stations do, when they turn up the volume on the commercials so they can still try to sell you stuff you don’t want when you’ve gotten up to check the clothes in the dryer? I usually resent that, but this time I didn’t. Before…

I was scrolling through Twitter on the day after the Supreme Court’s treachery was revealed. Despite ALL of the Catholic Conservatives saying abortion rights were “settled law” as they were on the route to confirmation, they turned right around and unsettled it. But this is not about that. I kept…

I was watching a YouTube excerpt of Jonathan Capehart’s Sunday Show on MSNBC. If you don’t know, Capehart is an MSNBC staple, a young attractive sartorially smart gay black man with tightly trimmed hair (no afros, no way) who tends toward the inoffensive. He colors well inside the lines so…

I’ve gotta say, I was a little surprised at a quote I read from Lady Bird Johnson. I always think of her as one of those quiet first ladies, like Laura Bush or Mamie Eisenhower, but I’m thinking there might have been hidden depths. Because she was generally quiet, I…

A Different Spotlight on the Matter Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? A film called Spotlight is being released (as of this writing). It’s named after the investigative team at the Boston Globe that uncovered the story of the Boston abuse scandal that led to the resignation of Archbishop Bernard Law in 2002. …

Messing with Texas On and on the complaints from parents, children, and pastors poured in. Over and over doctors declared Becker noncompliant and untreatable. Again and again the Church found positions for him. In 1993 he wanted to be a cruise chaplain but needed a “certificate in good standing.” The Church supplied it. …

Antigone and Antigonish, Two Tragedies So I’m watching Betrayal and halfway in. Some of the Canadian victims are seeking out Jeff Anderson, an American lawyer in Minnesota with specific expertise in Catholic abuse cases. He supplies the name “Maciel” as an example of the long-term venality of Church responses to abuse. Maciel? What?! Remember him…

Forgive 70 x 7? Let’s 86 That! Could two communities be more different than Catholics and the Amish? The grandeur of richly embroidered robes versus plain cotton clothes in dark solid colors. Elaborate stained glass windows in magnificent edifices designed by the world’s greatest artists versus simple wood or brick structures for homes, barns, milking sheds. Jet-setting…

A Connecticut Yankee “Unsubstantiated” The trial turns things around on the Lunny brothers. Older brother Brian (he of the hamburgered hands) had found peace through forgiveness and a family, abandoning his brother for years after having left St. Vincent’s himself. Defense attorneys turned the klieg lights on younger brother Steven’s history on welfare, his…