Tom Faranda's Folly

Well, we are into basketball season now, with Tim in the St. Augustine’s CYO 4th grade team. Last year he played on our parish 3rd grade team, since his school didn’t have a third grade program, but decided to play this year with his school chums. Tonite was the 3rd-4th grade Ossining Little League Football … Read more

From the Financial Times (UK) FT.com / World / International economy – Richest 2% hold half the world’s assets Personal wealth is distributed so unevenly across the world that the richest two per cent of adults own more than 50 per cent of the world’s assets while the poorest half hold only 1 per cent … Read more

This is from a professional journal which is sent to me gratis, and which for some reason is allowing free access to anyone for this article. Hearts & Minds – Investment Advisor Magazine The feature is about so-called "Socially Responsible Investing" and I have several clients who do try to invest in what they view … Read more

There’s an interesting discussion going on the weblog althouse, right here Althouse: Those contemptuous atheists… why won’t they be kind? Ann Althouse writes about Nicholas Kristoff’s NY Times column this morning, quoting Kristoff: [There is] an increasingly assertive, often obnoxious atheist offensive led in part by [Richard] Dawkins — the Oxford scientist who is author … Read more

In keeping with the theme of the prior post on Africa and the undeveloped world, here’s a column in which a Catholic priest and sociologist – who has been writing for at least 40 years – is kind enough to accept the faith of southern hemisphere believers, as long as they leave the thinking to … Read more

This excellent book of 288 pages is an examination of Africa and all it’s problems and potential, by a reporter for the London-based The Economist magazine. Robert Guest was one of their African correspondents for seven years, residing for most of the time in Johannesburg, South Africa. My friend Tom Hardy and his wife Mabvuto … Read more

Yesterday evening my Aunt Ardis called with the terrible news that my cousin Tim – my oldest cousin, a year younger than me – had died. Of course a shock, but not a surprise – Tim had been diagnosed in January with thyroid cancer, and seemingly everything that could go wrong did go wrong. He … Read more

Here’s a good posting on the weblog of a Catholic journalist about the "Fraternal Encounter" of Pope Benedict and the Ecumenical Patriarch of  Constantinople, Bartholomew I. The photos alone are worth a look. Whispers in the Loggia: Fratres in Unum From their joint declaration: This fraternal encounter which brings us together, Pope Benedict XVI of … Read more