Association Of Catholic Bloggers

...The Osakis Chamber of Commerce parade sounds like a good idea. Provided that they take pandemic-related precautions to keep folks comparatively safe. I'm guessing that this year's sidewalk watchers will be spread out more, and wearing face masks. But I won't be going. Even though Osakis is only 20 minutes down the road. Standing on a central Minnesota sidewalk after sundown in early December isn't my idea of a good time. The COVID-19 pandemic is still around, and making a difference. Maybe that's this post's unifying idea: Macy's Parade News: Good and Sort-of-Good Rampantly Raging Death and Dramatic Drumbeats Monday's Death Toll in Rural Minnesota Speculation and a Serious Subject Streaming Together for Thanksgiving Sound, Fury and the Usual Paranoia More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Several decades back, while I was living with my parents in Moorhead, Minnesota, a radio announcer read the day's weather forecast.... After finishing the official forecast, the announcer paused before rhetorically asking "what? No burning hail?" Or maybe it was "fiery hail." Something like that.... ...Maybe it's the sudden and temporary sunshine, but I'm even almost upbeat about the COVID-19 pandemic. Folks here in Minnesota aren't dying of the disease nearly as fast as we were a month or two ago.... ...The politics thing is pretty much inevitable. There's a presidential election on, so sound and fury is the order of the day.... ' More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

My Fourth of July plans include watching an episode or two of Marvel Ultimate Spider-Man, contemplating the whichness of what while sitting on the front stoop, relaxing and getting a few chores done. And enjoying a virtual fireworks show. Probably one of these.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Derek Chauvin, a police officer, killed George Floyd about a month ago. I don't know whether a court will call that homicide a murder, or assign some other label. I do know that there was and is no apparent excuse for ending Mr. Floyd's life.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . News and Views A Drive-Through Nap The Mystery of the Transferred Tazer Duality and Death St. Cloud, Minnesota: An Arrest, Social Media and Riots Good Neighbors and Ersatz Facts Rumors and Looting Fear and NASCAR Flags Prudence and Perspective "A Highly Charged and Emotional Time" Freudian Slips, a "Cavalier" Comment Moral Panic, Then and Now "A Day of Reckoning:" He Said, She Said Attitudes "Hooray for Our Side" Irish Lives Matter??? Cartoons, Slogans and Some Logic Statue Panic? Public Safety and Making Sense Minneapolis: [insert feared technolog

I'm writing this partly as a followup on Thursday's "Self-Isolation in the Family" post. And partly because I got frustrated with what I'd been trying to write today. My son is still sick, and it's a damply dismal Saturday afternoon. Outside temperature is 40 degrees Fahrenheit, 4 Celsius.... ...The family’s self-isolation went up a notch when Bishop Kettler said that churches should close their doors.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

COVID-19, the pandemic coronavirus disease, has come to my house. Maybe. My son has been sick. Yesterday he had a telephone checkup. I don't know what the official term is for a medical interview conducted via telephone. He's been told to self-isolate.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Catholic churches in the St. Cloud diocese aren't shutting down. Pastoral care will continue. But today our bishop announced that public Masses won't happen in the diocese until after April 13.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

COVID-19, a coronavirus disease, has been headline news since last December. By March 11, 2020, we had more than 122,000 known cases in 120 countries and territories. 6,100 of those were serious. The March 11 death toll was 4,300 — 3,200 in China. On the 'up' side, 67,000 have recovered from the disease. Folks are dealing with travel restrictions, quarantines and cancelled events. And, as of today (March 11, 2020), COVID-19 is officially a pandemic. UPDATE March 12, 2020 That didn't take long. The nearest known case of COVID-19 is an hour's drive or less away.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The American holiday and Christmas seasons overlap, with fuzzy terminuses. Termini. Beginnings and endings. For some, Christmas starts with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. That fine old American tradition has been joined by Cyber Monday. Oddly enough, I haven't noticed anguished laments over that newfangled technology and Macy's inflated cartoon characters.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Webcam: Sauk Centre MN is back online. And has been for several days. A bit more at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I talked about Sauk Centre's Corpus Christi procession last year : and, in another post, background on why this is a special day and what that in the procession is. I put links to that one at the end of this post. (Before Mass, at Our Lady of Angels church. The monstrance is there on the altar, between the candelabras, with its back open.)... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Studying ticks preserved in amber, mutant crickets in Hawaii, and flint tools from paleolithic London give scientists a few pages from Earth's story: and help us understand how this astounding world works.... ...Living Amid Ancient Splendors (From NASA; ESA; G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch, University of California, Santa Cruz; R. Bouwens, Leiden University; and the HUDF09 Team; used w/o permission.) About a half-dozen centuries after Sargon of Akkad became the first known emperor , quite a few folks thought we lived on a circular plate , surrounded by a cosmic ocean. That's where we get the Old Testament's poetic imagery about this universe. ( January 3, 2014 ) More recently, a 17th century Calvinist decided that God created the universe at nightfall before October 23, 4004 BC . A remarkable number of folks still think he was right. ( April 4, 2014 ) I'll grant that, as far as my personal experience goes, the universe might be no more than a few tho