Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 118

Married Priests Now

Given the rapid growth of Catholicism in Africa, it's certain that the continent's clergymen are set to play an increasingly large role at the Vatican. (Cardinal Francis Arinze, for example, has already been mentioned as a possible future pope.) But while the majority of Africa's priests and bishops hew closely to Chruch orthodoxy, there are plenty of radicals, too. And the most notable of these might be Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo of Zambia, founder of Married Priests Now. Though excommunicated

Beg No Friends

Cramming on a Wired deadline this afternoon, so we'll outro with yet another track that the essential WEFUNK recently turned us on to. The group itself, Strictly Roots, is mighty obscure—as far as we can tell, they released just one album, back in 1993, before vanishing into the ether. But they were big enough to convince Fat Joe and Grand Puba to appear on this song, so they apparently had quite a bit going for them during their brief golden age. Of course, this was back before Fat Joe's waistl

Wait of the World

Account of Ajmal Kasab's surprise confession have often noted that the Mumbai attacker's trial has proceeded at a lightning clip, at least compared to other Indian criminal proceedings. How quickly have things gone? A 2007 study in Delhi cast a harsh light on the nation's creaky wheels of justice:

The analysis is based upon the cases listed before all the 135 criminal courts of the city on a one particular typical day, selected at random. The study finds that in the sessions courts the overwhelmi

The Flag Racket

Once again, we're gonna use our platform here to highly recommend The Snakehead, Patrick Radden Keefe's non-fiction account of the 1993 Golden Venture disaster. The book would be awesome enough if it just told the tale of Sister Ping's rise and fall as the tsarina of human smuggling in New York's Chinatown. But The Snakehead offers a whole lot more—it's chock full of knowledge-expanding goodness, touching on everything from FBI informant policies to the Kenyan restaurant scene. And then there's

Animal Could Have Done It

Tending to Microkhan Jr. has given us a newfound appreciation for great kiddie fare of yore, most notably the late, great Muppet empire. And do when we stumbled across this clip of various Henson creations "auditioning" for the role of Yoda, we couldn't resist the urge to pass it along. Honestly, we could totally see Animal tackling the role—especially in those lightsaber fight scenes. His technique would probably be very Drunken Master-ish.

Fatally Besotted

Upon reading this tragic yet all-too-common tale from this morning's New York Times, we were reminded of our long-held hypothesis that a huge number of homicides would never occur were it not for the ingestion of alcohol. Yet we've never really had a good sense of what percentage of killings involve inebriated parties—at least until we read this recent paper from the Australian Institute of Criminology:

The current study sought to build on the limited Australian research on alcohol-related homici

The Lunar Also-Ran

As we spend today celebrating the 30th anniversary of mankind's first visit to the Moon, it's worth noting that America's space-race triumph was far from pre-ordained. In fact, the smart money circa 1963 would have been on the Soviets reaching the goal first, due to the seldom recognized genius of Sergei Korolev. The man responsible for such feats as Laika's orbiting and the underrated Venera 3 mission, Korolev once seemed well on his way to getting a Russian to alight on the Moon before NASA go

One at a Time, Please

This week's installment of Bad Movie Friday brings us some serious high-concept nonsense: the 1985 Kurt Thomas vehicle Gymkata, which sought to cash in on the nation's post-Mary Lou Retton love affair with gymnastics. And what better way than to take a slightly past-his-prime male gymnast and insert him into a limp ninja flick?

We understand that Gymkata has its share of fans, though most are likely of the ironic variety—the same crew that has raised the equally ridiculous (yet enjoyable) Roadho

Goons Never Go Out of Style

A recent rash of moonshine deaths in Gujarat got us thinking about the state's failed prohibition policy (PDF). While liquor bans may have some discernible impact in isolated villages, they're doomed to failure in larger regions that are tied to wet neighbors via modern highways. But the black market for legit liquor is only for the moderately well-off; the poor must make do with bootleg hooch, which all-too-often is spiked with lethal amounts of methanol.

Yet Gujarat's prohibition still enjoys

Goes Down Smooth as Fire

Anyone who's ever sampled Thunderbird is unlikely to forget the experience—or, for that matter, to recall it with much fondness. The stuff is the very epitome of bum wine, heavy on the alcohol and the commensurate taste of metallic burning. This detailed review breaks it down for the broke oenophiles in the audience:

For all the legend and hype surrounding this booze and its Clorox-like qualities, Thunderbird wasn't nearly as harsh as I was expecting. It retained a flavor of poorly fermented gra