I've made 2 posts in the past tying Islamicist terrorism to an attempt to take over the Arab region. Now, here is a story which ties al-Qaeda to assassination attempts on the leadership of Saudi Arabia. The evidence is really stacking up.

On Saturday I asked, "How much will we assist in a humanitarian effort there? And what will some of our enemies in the region think when they learn that Americans have a heart?"

Well, it looks like Iranian leader, "President" Mohammad Khatami has answered that question... albeit in a hostile fashion.

Now he's trying to attack Bush on the handling of the mad cow scare. Mark my words: this is another non-issue for Democrats. Only 10% of all U.S. beef revenues come from exports, so even if 100% of nations block the import of U.S. beef, and if that ban lasts for a long time, the impact on the beef industry will still be far from disasterous. So why does Dean think the U.S. government should pour financial aid towards the industry? Because he's clueless, of course.

Rarely do I have my emotions stirred by an MTV show; in fact, I don't know if I ever have. But, alas, there is a first for everything. I thought this interview of Real World boyfriends Danny and Paul to be interesting. Ordinarily I wouldn't care about such a thing, but the twist is that Paul was in the military. That being the case, in conjunction with the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy meant that Paul had to hide his involvement in the relationship and MTV had to blur his face on the Real World's TV airing.

The challenges this placed on their relationship are brought out in this interview as well as a useful commentary on the military's policy towards gays itself.

The Indianapolis Star ran 'Top Stories' sections in today's Sunday paper, such as the year's top sports stories, top political stories, etc. Ok, so this is all fine and good.

That is until I reached the 'City&State' section and page 4. Whereupon, I noticed the headline at the top left, "Top Deaths." What?! Now, I admit that we should honor certain individuals that have had certain contributions to society, but to call it "top deaths" is just rediculous. Also, many people were on the list merely because of contributions that they gave to different projects. Maybe I'm just too deep, but I think a person's position of honor in their departure from this life should not be based on the size of their wallet, nor on the recognizability of their name. There's my rant for the day.

Yesterday I mentioned the factoid that the U.S. now as 1 million lawyers. One naturally asks, "What do we need all these lawyers for?"

The answer is, in part, to sue fast food companies for making us fat. According to this Detroit News article, the same man is responsible for masterminding this round of litigation as with the litigation against tobacco companies: George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf. [remind me to have a word with him, if I decide to go there for law school]

But how far can we as a society go to take away personal responsibility and replace it with corporate litigation? In other words, is McDonalds to blame for making a person fat, or is that person to blame for eating too much McDonalds? I can't imagine any person being fooled to think McDonalds healthy, and McD's has never advertised their Big Macs in that fashion. I think its time to put our collective foot down and stop this legal deterioration of personal responsibility and to legislate against this type of litigation. Indeed, the article mentions some of these proposed laws.

Here is the story.

How much will we assist in a humanitarian effort there? And what will some of our enemies in the region think when they learn that Americans have a heart?

This number, 40,000, is roughly equal to the population of my hometown. This fact helps place the immensity of this human tragedy into perspective. Imagine the entirety of your town wiped out. What is the value of a life versus thousands? Why does it matter to some of us whether or not the life is an American or not?

Then you shouldn't have too much trouble finding one. For the first time ever, the United States has more than 1,000,000 lawyers (yes, count the zero's; that's one million).

This USA Today story also says that we are set to break the record for a single year's number of law applicants as well as the number of individuals who have taken the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT).

As both a taker of the LSAT this year, and as a law school applicant, these figures have more than a passing relevance to me. I'm not too worried though; the article also points out that demand for lawyers is also higher than ever. But is this costing society?

Glenn Reynolds, of InstaPundit fame, has a great post and story regarding a recent statement by the Vatican regarding rising anti-semitism in Europe. Here is a link directly to the IHT story. And here is the "money quote" from Cardinal Roger Etchegaray:

The path that leads to Auschwitz is always in front of us and it starts with 'small' deficiencies... There is a return of anti-Semitism in our Europe. Not to recognize it, not to call it by its name is an unwitting way of accepting it.

Considering the Vatican's relative apathy for the plight of the Jews before and during WWII, this story is refreshing proof that they might have learned from their previous error.

Andrew Sullivan has some end of the year awards on his blog now. But these are not awards that somebody would like to win. They include the Begala Award for "extreme liberal hyperbole," the Von Hoffman Award for "egregiously bad predictions," and the Sontag Award for "egregious moral equivalence in the war on terror." Go check it out for the infamous winners.

On Tuesday, I referred to a story regarding the terrorist attempt to kill the Egyptian foreign minister while he was in Israel, and I said that it shows the true character of this Islamicist terrorism.

And now, we hear about an attempt on the life of Pakistani President Musharraf. This is more proof, as I see it, that much of this terrorism is really about taking control of the Arab/Muslim world. Interestingly enough, this effort to create radical control seems to be doomed, mostly due to intelligent U.S. handling of the region. Afghanistan and Iraq are no longer in radical hands. Iran is undergoing natural processes towards moderation, and Syria has us at their doorsteps.

How do I know what I think until I see what I say?

-E.M. Forster


Note: If one sentence could sum up the personal benefits of blogging, this would be it.

I really liked the way this novel which I'm currently reading began:

You are reading this for the wrong reason... If you are reading this at all, I would be amazed. But this would not be the first time that events have amazed me. The past few years have been one improbability after another, each more marvelous and seemingly inevitable than the last.

-Dan Simmons, Endymion, sequel to the Hugo award-winning Hyperion sci-fi novel

...from the Drudge Report:

Pilot Did Not Show: Feds Believe Some on Canceled Flight Intended to Attack Las Vegas

Note: this headline is regarding the canceled Air France Flights from yesterday. Drudge claims that the Washington Post is going to run a story on this tomorrow (Friday). Check back with Drudge for more on this as it develops.

I hope Santa Clause has brought all you good boys and girls, and not-so-good adults, some fun toys to play with today.

I would love to say something inspiring here about the holiday season, but the best I can muster is a self-observation... The older I have gotten, the less that Christmas has meant to me material gifts. In an odd sense though, when one's priorities reflect their faith and human relationships, much more rides on the line then getting the right gift, and emotions can be far more polarized. Such is adulthood :-)

Could it be to take control of the arab world?

This act suggests that this may be the case.

Robert Novak had an excellent column yesterday summing up the dilemma that a Howard Dean nomination might cause the Democratic Party. I, and many other Republicans have repeatedly stated that a Dean candidacy would doom the Dem's chances in '04 against Bush. While I still think this is a strong point, I do think it's worth closer inspection. The worst tactical move the GOP could make would be to dismiss Dean and any possible ability he might have to move to the middle. Anyways, here is the column's lead:

Before a single vote has been cast anywhere, thoughtful Democrats across the country are reaching a melancholy conclusion. Howard Dean is close to clinching the nomination. The question is not merely whether he can be stopped but also whether he should be stopped.

...with my opinion of Bravo's show, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."

Now I should preface this with a couple of facts. First, I have a general dislike for reality television. In fact, I despise most of it, with the sole exception of "The Osbournes." The biggest problem with "reality television" is that it is just as fake, if not more so, than other television programs. I prefer to deem it "poseur television." Second, I just watched my first full episode of 'Queer Eye' this evening. I would have seen it before, but I just don't watch that much television at school.

Now for the review. My small issue with the program is that it is annoying. To be frank, the gays and straights on it act stupid and overbearing. My big issue with the program is that it reinforces stereotypes and a new brand of conformity. As a member of a minority group in society, such as homosexuals, one must spend a great deal of time fighting the expected conformity to the majority. Now, after engaging in such a challenge for so long, why do some people wish to create a new mode of conformity in their respective group? Not only does 'Queer Eye' attempt to enforce a new brand of conformity on homosexuals, but it also attempts to enforce modes of dress, decoration, etc., etc., ad nauseum, onto heterosexuals as well.

To this I exclaim, "Bah humbug!" ;-)

"In these bureaucracies [FBI, CIA, NSA, Homeland Security] it's better to cry wolf and be wrong than to have your mouth shut when the big gray critter runs off with a sheep in his mouth."

-Tony Wills, as quoted in Tom Clancy's The Teeth of the Tiger

ed: This shows yet again that Clancy is a genius on many topics relating to the government, the intelligence business, and the military

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was making the world believe that he didn't exist.

-Kevin Spacey, from "The Usual Suspects"

As seen in a Citibank commerical:

Setting: a dad and his son doing some Christmas activity; the following caption on the screen: "The things you remember the most..."

Next screen: "...are not things"

Beautifully put, and particularly brave for a bank to advertise, I'd say

From my initial look at the plan, I really like the new planned skyscraper in NYC at the site of the former World Trade Center. Not only will the new tower be the world's tallest, but it will also be a symbolic 1776 feet tall and be able to produce 20% of its own power via windpower.

Libya to give up its Weapons of Mass Destruction and development programs. Score a big foreign policy victory for the United States and Britain who brokered the deal. And score another loss to the rest of Europe, who was noticably absent.

Oh, and one more question: why was this story buried on page 5 in my local paper, the Indianapolis Star?

No more finals, and no classes for 3 weeks plus a few days. And South Bend is beautiful with 5 inches of snow on the ground and climbing. Too bad I'll be departing it for Indy today. Well, its actually quite a good thing really.

I love Christmas

And don't worry (haha, not that you would), I'll be posting over most of break, excluding only a few days. Cya all on the flip side...

syzygy - n. 1. The intimately united and apparently fused condition of certain low organisms during conjugation. 2. The coupling together of different feet; as, in Greek verse, an iambic syzygy. 3. the straight line configuration of 3 celestial bodies (as the sun and earth and moon) in a gravitational system. etc.

Here's another example of a Washington Post editorial coyly covering itself as a "news" article.

The article alludes to and hints at a dedicated effort by the White House to cover up and censor possibly negative information on government websites. The first sentence spells out its bent:

It's not quite Soviet-style airbrushing, but the Bush administration has been using cyberspace to make some of its own cosmetic touch-ups to history.

Unfortunately, the article's author Dana Milbank only provides two examples of such historical revision: the removal of a statement by USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios undercutting the cost of rebuilding Iraq, and the addition of the word 'major' into the headline of a Bush speech reading "President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended."

Neither of these things sounds that major, and only two examples hardly establish a trend. The rest of the article's "examples" have nothing at all to do with revising or erasing history. Instead, Ms. Milbank provides a hodgepodge of other administration web decisions, such as the password protecting of increased amount of information deemed to be sensitive to national security, the removal of condom information on the CDC site, and the removal of a National Cancer Institute claim that there was no link between breast cancer and abortion.

Not only are each of these changes defensible, but none of them are germane to the article's argument. Oh well, since when did a lack of facts stop the Washington Post from editorializing in its news coverage?

Reader Chris Ptak has informed me that my quote from Lord of the Rings one post ago was indeed originally a Tolkien quote from the book.

This being so, I'll have to do a little research on Tolkien's feelings on the death penalty. Good stuff to do over Christmas break.

One word: orgasmic.

Six words: one of the best movies ever

I find this quote from LOTR particularly relevant today:

Frodo: It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance.
Gandalf: Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.

-The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring *the movie*

[ed: I'm pretty sure this quote is from the movie, not the book. I doubt that Tolkien, a devout Catholic, ever would have said that "many that live deserve death"; nevertheless, the message is good]

Thats right, its none other than Donald Rumsfeld. How quickly our opinions of people change, based on the immediate convenience.

From The Onion's News in Brief section this week:

Turkey Sandwich Given Locally Relevant Name
FAIRMOUNT, IN—For the 87,836th time, a turkey sandwich was given a locally relevant name, Mary Anne's Cafe owner Mary Anne Gunday reported Monday. "'The Hoosier Special' isn't just a turkey with lettuce, tomato, and mayo on your choice of bread," Gunday said. "It's a tribute to the state of Indiana and its inhabitants." Gunday recommended eating the sandwich with a bowl of steaming Birthplace Of James Dean Tomato Noodle Soup.

As is the case with most good humor, it has seeds of truth. I've lived in Indiana long enough to "get" this joke.

I think many of you college-aged will appreciate this spoof:

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,
He maketh me lie down in the library, he leadeth me to free food.
He restoreth my notes. He leadeth me in the paths of studiousness for my scholarships sake.
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of finals, I shall fear no Professor: For Thou art with me; thy calculator and thy cheatsheet they comfort me
Thou preparest a table for me in front of mine class, thou annointest my head with useless knowledge; my ears spillieth over
Surely my transcript and GPA shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of McDonalds, Forever

-from a friend of a friend's away message (thanks Margo)

I'm going to see it at 3 P.M. I'll write up a review ASAP when I get back from it-- no spoilers.

Some reaction in, regarding my latest post on Saddam Hussein: 'A joyous Sunday?' This from my dad via e-mail:

In response to your comments on Saddam, I feel we should all be very elated that he is captured. However, wishing him all sorts of bodily torture is, I think, a youthful reaction and not one shared by us older folks. I remember I had some of the same thoughts toward Kennedy's assasinator at the time. He does have to be dealt with in a fashion that lets the world know that tyrants like him can't be tolerated. People like him are very sick, which needs to be recognized much earlier and, although probably not curable, not allowed to get in a position harmful to others.

-today, 12:47 P.M.

The idea that consumerism goes too far in America is one that has concerned me from time to time. Every once in awhile (especially at Christmas time), we hear stories of infantile behavior in adults competing for the latest toys and goodies from the nearby Walmart or mall, and we're forced to shake our heads in shame. For some more perspective on this topic, check out these two posts by Dan entitled "This article speaks" and "Consumerism and America." His permalinks don't work, so just go to his main site and scroll down.

Also, I feel obliged to point out this excellent Wired News article on dynamic marketing. My gut feeling is that marketing has become increasingly intrusive in our lives as each year passes by-- a feeling supported by many others with which I've spoken. Marketing and consumerism go hand-in-hand, and to be honest all these intrusive ads are just annoying.

Yesterday was Gaudete Sunday, otherwise known as Joyous Sunday, in the Catholic Church year. Held on the 2nd to last Sunday of Advent (before Christmas), Catholics take this time to observe the joy of the holiday season and the miracle of Christ's birth.

The capturing of Saddam on this same day was a fitting coincidence, as it was a cause for joy for countless Iraqis, Americans, and probably even a few Europeans.

Indeed, I am no exception. My emotion at being awaken with the news of Saddam's capture can best be described as that of elation. But since then, another emotion-- at first miniscule, but henceforth increasingly acute-- has crept into my consciousness. That emotion being pity.

Seeing the photos of this defeated and haggard old man, and learning how deluded and crazy he really is, has stirred me. We look at this man, and we cast damnation upon him; we wish him pain and a violent end; and in this we take joy.

What emotions we feel, and why we feel them, speak volumes about human nature and justice. A lust for vengeance and a joy at another's demise are not elements of a peaceful heart. So, if our goal is the eradication of evil, then justice must be based on positive not negative emotions. In the instance of Saddam Hussein, I look at the thousands of deaths for which he's responsible, and the countless deaths avoided by his capture, and yes, I am joyful-- not for the demise of this man, but for the renewed hope and opportunity that face the Iraqi people and their neighbors.

Those were the triumphant words of U.S. Administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer, as he announced the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The question is: what do we do with him now? I kindof like the idea of an Iraqi led tribunal.

Now, on another triumphant note, I'll point out that I predicted the capture of either Saddam and/or Osama back on September 8. Here's what I wrote:

Ok, I'll venture Daily Contentions onto a limb here with a little prediction. In all humility, my instincts tell me that the U.S. forces will catch (or kill) either Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden or both by the 2004 Presidential election.

If this prediction were based only on my instincts, then it would be meaningless to you, but, alas, I hereby proffer some foundation. First, in regards to Saddam, numerous reports say that he has been hanging out in the Tikrit region of Iraq. If these reports are correct and he continues to be this stupid, he will be caught. In regards to Osama, here is a story that says we have him narrowed down to a 40 sq. mi. region in Pakistan. ('Catching the big fish' 09.08.03)

Now that we can concentrate our collective gaze on OBL, I will be looking forward to see what developments arise on his end.

...from Cheney's visit to Notre Dame on October 9. It only took the White House 2 months to send them out. Btw, I'm the one on the right :-)

Check out this adorable video featuring Barney the first family's dog, on the White House website. It also has appearances by Chief of Staff Andrew Card, chief political strategist Karl Rove, the First Lady, and the President himself.

Forgive me while I engage in a little political speculation/analysis. In short: its a very rosy time for the Republican Party. Back on Nov. 3, I described the GOP's prospects in the Senate, predicting anywhere between a 3-8 seat pick-up.

Now I cast my eyes towards the 2004 and 2008 Presidential elections. If Dean grabs the Democratic nod, and barring any disaster in Iraq, Bush should romp in '04, possibly grabbing more than 3/4 of the states. The Democratic nomination is by no mean a lock, but every day Howard Dean moves closer. He now leads in every major poll of the Dem. contenders, and ex-VP Gore's endorsement of him helps even more.

Many are painting Gore's endorsement as a dramatic split from the Clintons, with the implications of possible splitting the Democratic party. That's hogwash. At most, if Dean takes control of the party it will hurt the Dems in the next 4 years, not in the long term. Anyways, if Dean wins the Democratic nod, it really helps Hillary's chances in 2008, because it insures a Bush victory in '04, making '08 a fresh race, so to speak. But if Clark (the Clintons' supposed fav.) gets the nod, he could make it a better race against Bush. The last thing Hillary would want (assuming she has Presidential ambitions), would be a Democratic President this next term, because then she would have to wait until 2012 to run, past her political prime.

But, of course, if Nader runs, its all academic anyways for the Dems.

Yesterday (Tuesday), I mentioned the Hello World Project, where people can submit message to possibly be projected in larger than life fashion at four different places around the world.

True to my zeal in the post, I tried my hand, by submitting several messages to the Hello World website. After trying to selfishly plug Daily Contentions several times (and having my messages rejected), I went the cheesy route... and succeeded three times :-) All three of my messages were projected on the mountain outside of Rio de Janeiro in the full 1650 by 200 ft. size. Here they are:

"We think therefore we are... never stop thinking!"

"Information = Freedom -Luke from Notre Dame"

and

"What do laws have to do with Love anyways? -Luke from Notre Dame"


With all three messages, I received the following confirmation from Hello World via e-mail:

Hello

Thank you for contributing to The Helloworld Project.
Your message was projected in Rio at 23:12 (10.12.2003)



One word: cool

You may be asking, "Luke, why in the heck are you focusing on the EU so much?"

The short answer is that I'm taking a course called "Building the EU" this semester, so the material is fresh on my mind. The long answer undergirds why I am taking that course in the first place. That is, Europe's arrival as an increasingly unified body marks a shift in the world's balance of power, and will have repercussions on American foreign and economic policy. This issue will only get bigger over the years, and it is one that interests me greatly.

So now for some EU news. First, after the dramatic success of the Euro currency roll-out, Euro federalists were riding high. But as they strive for increased unity, they are running into increased resistance as well. Point one: in the latest Eurobarometer poll, less than half of EU citizens support the EU. Point two: the European council on the proposed Constitution has become stalled in their negotiations.

And for good reason. While most of the proposed EU Constitution is not that big of a deal, parts of it are quite problematic. It does grant some new powers, but it is far from a sweeping unification of the European continent, as some would have you believe and fear. Most problematic, in my view, is the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (link is .pdf).

At four times the size of the American Bill of Rights, it is vague, confusing, overgenerous, and even contradictory at points. Two examples. First, it guarantees a 'right to marriage.' Will this apply to same-sex marriage? And second, it guarantees a 'right to life.' Will this affect Europe's liberal abortion laws? Probably not, but it will be neat to see how this plays out in the EU's Court of Justice (ECJ).

The University's Arts and Letters college council has voted to abolish the CORE requirement for sophomores.

For those of you outside the ND bubble, CORE is a required year-long course for sophomores in the College of Arts and Letters. Its goal was to provide a unified curriculum on a broad base of knowledge and ideas. In reality, it became a tool for liberal wacko indoctrination. Yes, we do have those kindof things at ND. Its a big misnomer that our entire school is conservative. The faculty is either balanced or left-leaning.

Brendan Magee, one of my friends from the dorm and a former DC guest blogger, coined an excellent meaning for the CORE acronym: 'Crap only retards enjoy.' Please pardon that insensitive word. But really, that says it all.

Btw, I'll link The Observer's article on this, when it is placed online.

Here a quick question: when birds take on windmills, who wins?

Well, the answer in this case is the birds. According to this LA Times article, the windmills were winning at first; they were taking birds out by the thousands, including the precious California Condor. But recently some environmental groups protested the continued use of the windmills for this reason, and the windmills have been halted (for the time-being). Score one for the birds.

This has the potential of pitting environmentalists against environmentalists: those who want to protect wildlife versus those who want a clean energy source. Could get very interesting folks.

I will not mince words: the proliferation and domination of Microsoft's Windows operating system represents a clear (yet relatively small at present) threat to Americans' personal security and to our national security.

Its unreliability and susceptibility to attack (by virus and hacker) first endangered our home computers. One need look no further than a typical Windows computer and the myriad of pop-ups and spyware to see evidence of this. But now, with Windows working its way into military systems, ATMs, portable devices, and into home appliances, these weaknesses of the operating system will begin to effect us more and more pervasively.

For example, in what ATM manufacturers claimed could never happen, it is reported that a virus did infect several brands of ATMs running a new version of Microsoft Windows XP Embedded edition. How long until the same happens to key government/military computers? Or has it happened already?

The causes of these problems are two-fold. First, Microsoft simply has not invested enough resources and intelligence into creating an OS without security holes. And second, any operating system that holds as much of the market as Windows does, is bound to be a massive target by programmers and hackers of malintent. Operating system monopoly, by its very nature, threatens the security of that OS. My roommate, Ted, likens this phenomenon to genetic inbreeding, where certain genetic defects are naturally propagated and maintained, as well as causing a greater susceptibility to pathogens. Hence the title of this post: 'computational inbreeding.'

The solution, as explained by numerous technology visionaries, lies in code openness and software competition. For this reason (amongst numerous others), I remain a proponent of the Macintosh platform and of other Unix variants such as Linux.

...for free? Then go here.

Check out this Wired News article which explains The Hello World Project.

Thanks to the faithful Drudge Report for this diddy from the Washington Post. Apparently, international election monitoring agencies found the recent Russian election to be unfair. In this election, Vladimir Putin and his party (United Russia) won easily. One of the charges against the election is that some government funding was used to aid United Russia's campaign. Also of note is that voter turnout is down from 62% in 1999 to 56%, possible due to voter disallusionment.

If this is indeed the case with the low voter turnout, then this fact does not bode well for Russian democracy. In this early stage of their democracy's development, one would expect the voters to be energetic and concerned, not disallusioned. With the help of power grabbing, and unfair government aid to his party, Putin seems to be squashing out the other political parties, and people's options in the elections.

We may indeed see continued democracy in Russia-- a democracy such as that Mexico had for decades before Vicente Fox came to power, where one party holds a monopoly on power.

No no, don't worry. Your beloved DC blogger hasn't become one of those wacky World Bank protesters.

Globalization has two dimensions: economic and governmental. The naked cussing folks you see on the news from Seatle and other World Bank meeting sites are protesting the economic dimensions, specifically unfair labor practices by first world companies in third world nations.

My concerns lie in the governmental dimensions of globalization. Alas, I'm not averse to the very idea of increased global governmental cooperation, and I'm not going to strip and burn my clothing in front of the United Nations building (so you can all breath a sigh of relief). But I do think the current UN needs to get its proverbial head out of its proverbial ass.

Joshua Claybourn on the International Criminal Court

Jonah Goldberg on creating an alternative to the U.N. [via DiscountBlogger]

11:11 a.m. Funny, but this definitely happens to me more than it should. I'm referring to seeing all ones on the clock. So often.

I posted about this column on Friday, and I wanted to pull a few more things on it. Dan might be joining in the conversation on this column as well.

Here's a long quote from the column on Protestantism vs. Catholicism:


Consider that the debate between Protestants and Catholics has always at bottom been about authority: does it lie ultimately in the Church or in the Bible? At first glance it might seem that the Protestant answer is a