Physician, Thy Healing Is Needed

Bishop Bruno prepares to receive the keys to St. Luke's in La Crescenta after a three-year legal battle.

Biden's Not Hidin'

Major "Newsweek" puff piece for the VP.

Mark 10:21

How to live without money.

What Do You Want To Do Before You Die?

Check out this incredible website.

Perfect Bands: "Yer Blues" (1968)

John Lennon singing his song from "The Beatles" with Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Keith Richards on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums. The performance is from the Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus in London in December 1968.

1 & 2 Judges

U.S. District Court judge Andy Guilford and former Rep. James Rogan, now a Superior Court judge in Orange County, before Jim's talk to the St. John's men's group this morning

St. Mark

Early in "The Invention of Lying," Mark Bellison (played by co-writer and -director Ricky Gervais) discovers that absolute power is no fun. As the world's only fibber, he's not above stealing enough money for a comfortable life. But when he refuses to use his super powers to get Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner), the girl of his dreams, it means he's discovered that even the all-powerful don't feel good about themselves unless they win in a fair fight -- sort of like General Zod arriving from Krypton, making swift work of earthlings, and jonesing to battle Superman.

The movie's most sublime moments come when Mark discovers the pastoral advantages of rank duplicity. In the film's imaginary world, since everyone tells the truth all the time -- to bosses, dates, police officers, and patients ("You'll probably have another heart attack in the next 36 hours and then die very soon after that") -- there's no denial, illusion, hope, nor ultimately joy. People don't know how to make up stories, so the only movies are dry regurgitations of historical events. Coke commercials admit that it's too sweet; Pepsi commercials say that you should buy it only if there's no Coke. Then one day Mark tells Frank (Jonah Hill), a suicidal neighbor, that he shouldn't kill himself because it's all going to work out -- and Frank, who like everyone else in the world has no concept of a lie, instantly believes him and cheers up, forever. Mark whispers equally sweet somethings into the ears of squabbling couples and discouraged nursing home residents. A word from Mark, and their faces bloom, as does his own as the pleasure of sheer benignity captivates him. It's one of the most moving sequences I've ever seen in a movie.

Theological complexities accumulate during the worldwide spiritual awakening Mark ignites by telling his dying mother that she needn't fear the nothingness of death because she'll live forever in paradise. Improvising desperately, he announces that a Man in the Sky causes everything. Mark's off-the-cuff stabs at systematic ethics and explaining why the Man permits or causes suffering are unsatisfactory as humanity gets almost immediately to work devising workarounds. You don't get into heaven after three sins? Then make the most of the first two! As a theologian and church builder, Mark encounters the same problems as St. Paul, who had to address the question of why people shouldn't sin plentifully so that God's forgiveness would abound. Lovesick and discouraged, Mark finally retreats into his ill-gotten mansion. After his hair and beard grow, he looks like Jesus, which makes you think that his friends Frank and Greg (Louis C.K.), who have inexplicably moved in, are disciples.

A somewhat pat ending doesn't disguise the movie's seriousness of purpose when it comes to matters of faith and belief. Some may be offended by the idea that religion didn't exist until a man started lying. And yet who's to say where Mark got his inventive powers to begin with? Eh? Anyway, it's not a movie about the emptiness of religion but the fulsome power of hope, dreams, and yes, even illusion. Great cameos, too, including Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a bartender and Ed Begley, Jr., I'm pretty sure, as a sidewalk preacher.

The Fight is Over, The Battle Won

St. John's middle school students turned out in force this afternoon at San Francisco Solano Catholic Church in Rancho Santa Margarita, California to support their schoolmate, Bella Bendix, and her sister, St. John's alumna Aria, at a celebration of their father Ken's life. Ken, beloved husband of Alexa and son of Don and Betty, died last week after a courageous three-year battle against peritoneal mesothelioma, a rare and virulent cancer that afflicts 3,000 and kills 2,600 Americans annually.

Both Sides Not Yet

Insisting that President Obama has "enhanced prestige" because he won the Nobel Peace Prize, the LA Times runs this headline and subhead:

Israelis, Palestinians wary of Obama the Nobelist
Both sides in the Mideast conflict worry that President Obama's enhanced prestige as a peacemaker may work to their disadvantage. Israel's Shimon Peres congratulates a fellow laureate.

And yet the reporter, Richard Boudreaux, can't back that up. From the Palestinian side, he reports only these statements:

"This man has not accomplished anything to deserve this prize," Hafez Barghouti, editor of the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al Hayat al Jadida, wrote in a commentary. "On the contrary, he went back on his position on the Palestinian issue." The prize, he added sarcastically, "may be an incentive for him to start working for peace. Therefore, I want to congratulate him in advance."

Judgment of Obama was harsher in the Gaza Strip, whose Hamas rulers shun the goal of a peace accord with Israel. "He backs Israel, and whoever backs Israel is a partner in war crimes," said Jihad Rayes, a 55-year-old Gaza resident.

So the Fatah journalist makes fun of Obama and the Hamas resident caricatures him. No enhanced respect whatsoever in evidence among Palestinians.

That's Just What They EXPECT Us To Do

Oops. "The Economist's" pre-announcement picks for the Nobel Peace Prize:

The favourite is Sima Samar, an Afghan human-rights activist [shown here], with Piedad Córdoba, a Colombian senator who has pushed for peace in her country, not far behind.