Those Dominicans...

First, let me outline some of my many prejudices:

I tend to take a dim view of apologists.
I tend to take a dim view of Protestantism (and if you get confused and think that I am saying that this means that I don't like Protestants, can it. You are too poor a reader to be worth argument).
I tend to take a dim view of pussyfooting ecumenical dialog.
I take a very dim view of Canada.
I tend to take a dim view of states bordering Canada (with the exception of Minnesota, because their Canadians live in Thunder Bay, which is cool).

As a result, awhile back, as I mentioned earlier, I removed the link to Mark Shea, a former Protestant who looks kindly at his benighted former co-religionists, an apologist who brims with polite turns of phrase, a resident of Seattle, which is practically British Columbia, and an admirer of Scott Hahn.

Now, as soft-on-heretic apologists go, Mark Shea has always struck me as a pretty decent and thoughtful guy. I could probably sit down and drink a beer with him. I even read his site pretty regularly, because he knows how to keep the content interesting, varied, and a few of my favorite lunatics comment frequently, so if I am in the need to spear some anti-immigrant, free-marketeering, neo-con boob, the fishin's real good over there. And it is especially fun when Shea breaks with Limbaugh orthodoxy and gets the Wal*Mart and Velveeta set all worked up.

However, Mark Shea has halfway earned himself his spot on the links list with this entry. He pussyfoots a little bit in apologizing for being more like Torquemada and less like Leo Bascaglia, but you get a wonderful little question about Joseph Smith in there.

And it is good to see that it was contact with one of our Oakland Dominicans that caused this little manifestation of virility.

Good for the Dominicans and good for Mark Shea.