Odds and Ends commentary 4-17-2006

Local newspaper coverage of Catholic topics

The Fort Worth Star Telegram’s Weekly Review section had a feature article on the 1^st anniversary of Benedict XVI. The author was by Hans Kung, who is known among Catholic circles as something of a rebel Catholic who lost his credentials to teach the faith. Earlier in the year, the Fort Worth Weekly had a feature article on another deposed Catholic instructor: Father Charles Curran. It’s a bit odd that both of Fort Worth’s newspapers chose such men to write their articles on Catholicism. Odd, but certainly not surprising. While I’m not a believer in the “liberal media bias” concept, this tendency to select the “rebels” only falls in line with that stereotype. Weren’t there other sources that these two newspapers could have interviewed that don’t have an axe to grind against the Catholic Church? Absolutely! In fact, there are more pro-Catholic sources that they could have referred to than anti-Catholic sources. That they instead chose to go to a hostile source is itself a source of great disappointment; especially since there were many other friendly, well-spoken sources that they could have chosen. Nowadays, going to a hostile, anti-Catholic source takes absolutely no guts at all.

Are wildlife preserves anti-nature?

That thought occurred to me last week. Let's see what you folks think about the argument that I’m about to present. Wildlife preserves are supposed to protect animals that are low in count or close to extinction. However, according to the theory of evolution, species dying out is part of the "cycle of life”. Don’t get me wrong -- I would like to keep some of the wonderful creatures that we have as long as we can. But by trying to preserve these creatures beyond what should be their natural lifespan of existence on our planet, are we actually messing with the natural order of things according to Darwin’s theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest? If so, then can the wildlife preserves’ purpose of trying to keep dying species in existence actually be considered "anti-nature"? In keeping consistent with Darwin’s theory then, maybe it’s okay to have spotted owl burgers or to have snail darter escargots, because all we’re doing is participating in natural selection. What do you folks think?

Sports

The Dallas Mavericks have looked rather lethargic as of late, but then, these last few games aren’t of great significance, because the playoffs are close, and it might not be worth the Mavs to kill themselves for the chance to get the #1 seed that they are most likely not going to get. So in that instance, I can understand trying to scale back a bit to save the players some wear and tear as they go into the playoffs. But they better get it back come playoff time!

The Fort Worth Flyers are in the NBDL Championship! Let’s hope that they bring a second championship to Fort Worth in a year! (The Fort Worth Cats won their league last season). Their game is Saturday.

The Texas Rangers looked marginally better in recent games, but it’s still not pretty. They have to try harder to win more games in order to keep from being in too big a hole at the start of the season. The recent 3 game series with the Oakland A’s could have easily been a sweep.

Easter family picnic

Easter was great. Spent Saturday with fam. Took pictures. Hunted eggs. Got slight sunburn. Don’t know why I’m keeping comments brief.