7/29/25 – If we set “sucking on the informational sewer pipe” as the chronological line of demarcation, on one side are Millennials and younger and on the other side are Gen X, who generally had an analog childhood and a mixed analog and digital adulthood, and older generations. What might said sucking do to one’s brain? Are people ready to hear the truth about America’s youth? It might radicalize them. That’s why you see them being more comfortable with authoritarians (on the left), violence, censorship, bullying, etc., all justified by their self-righteousness and obvious moral superiority. It also decouples their brains from reality. Not to mention that they are uncool. Hoka might be quite comfortable, but those are some ugly shoes. You wear them when your feet need a lot of support, not all the time.
Now, let’s consider Gen X. This is a generation that remembers the Cold War and our country’s battles against communism. (Last we checked, there’s a communist, perhaps a socialist, Millennial running for NYC mayor.) They were shaped by the violence inflicted on the country during 9/11 and its aftermath. They disliked political correctness and generally viewed it as a form of censorship; instead, they prized individual expression and personal liberties, which perhaps they indulged in a bit too much, but at least they knew how to have fun – in person, meaning being physically present with other human beings. And lasty, they popularized Dr. Martens because it’s important to have well-made shoes that look, well, cool. That said, even Gen X could become susceptible to radicalization, but one’s formative years can also serve as a vaccine against the informational sewer pipe disease. So, whoever thinks this is a sustainable culture for the current and future younger generations is simply daft. It is failing them and our country.
The Moral and Factual Bankruptcy of Generation Z
7/28/25 – Take a vacation from your bad habits and get some real world into your real life. We’re in no position to judge other busy people, so here are some entirely temporally and financially feasible ideas. 1. Stop looking at your phone in church (really?…) or, well, anywhere. 2. Go somewhere spontaneously. Often, we go for random drives into the country or other parts of the city. It’s not a vacation per se, but it’s an easy, cheap and fun break from our routine. (We don’t use the phone except for navigation or quick check-ins.) If you can’t commit to a long vacation, several short breaks, daytrips or weekenders, will help you relax and break up the stress or the monotony (yes, even of a job you’re passionate about). 3. Go out – in person – with people (friends, family, coworkers, etc.). 4. Eat, drink and be merry. 5. Volunteer with others – in person. What’s important is that you’re actually able to relax, genuinely enjoy life and experience joy with others and that you are not trying to impress people (such as randos on the internet) with, let’s be honest, your life that nobody really gives a crap about. Thank you, and Happy Monday!
Take a Vacation Already. The Pope Says So
7/28/25 – You know what’s sexy and cool. From a generation that figured it out when they were still coming of age, not trying to impress other people and just being a genuinely interesting and great person. Whatever people have going on with this s—t on social media is a monumental waste of time and life. You’re not doing anything of any value to anyone, especially yourself.
7/27/25 – Apparently, some people are rediscovering physical albums that you share in person with your friends and family. Apparently, there was some sort of kiss-cam scandal, Coldplay, whatever, with strangers involving themselves in other people’s private lives without a substantive justification. In any case, we don’t know, and we don’t want to know. We know this though. Sundays are for church, hobbies and other enjoyable activities. Maybe catching up on a couple short errands or chores because we’re all behind all the time. We are not suffering from FOMO. We are quite content with our ordinary, analog lives. We are rather happy being entirely boring, with our routine, middle-class, working-class lives that would put everyone to sleep. Where are the envy-inducing vacation photos, the self-promoting videos, or the sexy, sexy everything? You find us unremarkable in every way, you say. Thank you because that’s how we like it. Happy Sunday! Remember what’s important: God loves you with a deep and abiding love.
7/25/25 – A fascinating article on time and our perception of it. Our understanding of time is also a human invention, one that we hope matches the reality of it. In the end though, regardless of whether or not our measurement of it is accurate, our perception of it might matter more than the reality of it. For example, if you are not already, imagine that you are in the second half of your life (by your own estimate, which requires its own commentary). When one engages deeply in spiritual activities, such as prayer or meditation, time can sometimes seem to stop. (Once, and only once, I personally had the experience of gravity somewhat ceasing, like I was not standing on the floor but floating just above it.) If you do this enough, especially as you get older, it’s as if you’re escaping time temporarily. You’re still aging. The world still ticks by, but you have become removed from the world in way that’s hard to describe. Try to enter that deep spiritual world and see if it affects your perception of time.
The Psychological Secret to Longevity
7/22/25 – We thought we were a democracy. First, a certain person undermined our democracy, then his successor, the dotard, eroded our democracy. Then Texas, now California. It’s a downward spiral, and both parties need to be stopped.
7/22/25 – Scripts, Sounds and Simplicity
7/16/25 – It’s very easy to promise the sun and the moon. It’s much harder to govern responsibly. Mamdani is a Latin-American style “populist,” some might say communist, leader. In general, fiscal profligacy on top of our already high level of debt is a recipe for economic disaster.
7/16/25 – If we’ve learned one thing about MAGA during the “Epstein scandal” is that it might distrust the “deep state,” generally meaning the government, more than it trusts a certain person.
7/13/25 – The Washington Propaganda has taken this opportunity to, what else, more culture war. Here it is: from the conservative bastion known as The New York Times. They went too far. Is this actually hard to understand? Particularly poignant were the comments about Iran and, well, so many other statements of fact, such as men and women are biologically different.
When your self-worth or your identity revolves around the world agreeing with you that the sky is green and the grass is blue, you might seek therapy instead of trying to force people to believe in things that they can see are incorrect with their very own eyes and in their very own lives. The public was initially gracious toward trans since the American people are generally kind until it was asked to participate in a fantasy that increasingly infringed upon their own rights and identities, not to mention their children’s development.
Other statements of fact: Fiction writing is fiction. Biological realities are biological realities. Although we appreciate the moral lesson, which the Bible efficiently expresses as, there but for the grace of God go I, a simple act of empathy and compassion, we will pass on confusing ourselves by treating fiction as factual reality to assuage anybody else’s ego or confused identity. Forcing people to agree that the sky is green and the grass is blue isn’t asking them to be compassionate. It’s bullying them into one’s own personal fiction because one refuses to privately deal with one’s own issues. Thank you, God bless, and Happy Sunday.
How the Gay Rights Movement Radicalized and Lost Its Way
7/13/25 – Type “superman christopher reeve gen x” (which was a great movie) into AI, and this is what it says, “Christopher Reeve and Superman
Background
Christopher Reeve was an American actor, director, and author, best known for his role as Superman in the film series from 1978 to 1987. He was born on September 25, 1952, in New York City and passed away on October 10, 2004. Reeve’s portrayal of Superman became iconic, influencing generations of fans.
Impact on Generation X
Generation X, those born roughly between 1965 and 1980, grew up during the height of Reeve’s Superman films. Many Gen Xers have fond memories of watching these movies, which were characterized by a sense of wonder and adventure. Reeve’s Superman was seen as a larger-than-life hero, embodying hope and idealism.
Shift in Superhero Movies
As Gen X matured, their tastes in superhero films evolved. The tone of superhero movies shifted significantly, especially with the release of darker films like “Batman” in 1989. While Reeve’s Superman was celebrated for its charm and optimism, later films began to explore more complex themes and darker narratives. This change led some Gen X viewers to feel disconnected from modern superhero films, which they perceive as lacking the emotional depth and seriousness of earlier works.
Conclusion
Christopher Reeve’s portrayal of Superman left a lasting legacy, particularly among Generation X. His films provided a sense of nostalgia and shaped the expectations of superhero storytelling for many who grew up during that era.”
Do you see what it doesn’t say? Anything about culture wars. That’s because it didn’t exist. Gen X had a lot of great movies and music, and thought hard about tough subjects. What they didn’t do was politicize absolutely everything in life and into simplistic, artificial tribes.
7/12/25 – We’re going to be posting more infrequently. As a nation, we’re at a very unhealthy place. We all need to be online much less and in-person much more. If you go to a movie, say Superman, and start engaging in culture wars, you’ve failed in living life well and our country. When we were young, nobody did this. It was just about the movies, the books, the travel, the whatever it was that we loved because it was…fun! That’s all it was to us. It was enjoyable. We got to hang out with our friends and family and do fun stuff. Americans are killing each other’s joy. Everything doesn’t have to become some fight with your fellow Americans. It’s gotten very old! We don’t know what happened with Millennials and younger, but get it the f—k together, already. Work hard; have fun. The end.
7/8/25 – If you’re looking to live a moral life, you will by grace and/or by reason, arrive at the Gospel. Why do we know this? “If no one can persuade anybody about right and wrong, then there are only two ways to settle our differences: coercion or manipulation.” There is a far superior way: model it. This is why the Gospel and Jesus Christ’s ministry and sacrifice reign supreme.
Imagine that you provide no arguments for why x is morally correct, for example, feeding hungry children. This is your moral passion. You don’t try to coerce or to convince anybody of its righteousness or try to manipulate people into supporting the cause. You don’t care if USAID is doing it or some ultra rich people. All you did was work tirelessly to feed hungry children. At the end of your life, you will have lived it well. It’s really that simple and that hard.
The reason so many people think that a certain person is good is because we are living in pagan times. They have a “might makes right” mentality whether or not they recognize it as such. It’s also true of the left. They’re just better at being self-righteous and hypocritical.
Why Do So Many People Think That Trump Is Good?
7/6/25 – From Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr (recommended reading): “The Third Way is the way of wisdom. It’s a lonely, perhaps narrow path, because almost everybody takes the other two ways: flight or fight. The usual path for liberals is to fight. ‘Let’s fix and change it.’ But they too often become a mirror image of what they oppose. Conservatives tend to take flight by denying there is a problem. They love to quote the saying ‘the poor you will always have with you,’ and then assert that ‘our job is just to get it right with Jesus.’ They’re frequently into massive denial of institutional evil, except for the security systems they build. The wealthy never see how 90 percent of the world lives. That’s dangerous illusion. It’s been one of the great sins of the Catholic countries. They look at the cross but don’t realize what the cross is saying. That is true for both liberals and conservatives: the liberals deny the vertical arm of the cross (transcendence and tradition); the conservatives deny the horizonal (breadth and inclusivity).”
7/5/25 – Jesus didn’t force anyone to follow him. We choose of our own volition to do so.
7/5/25 – It is a bit bizarre when wealthier Democrats, who disproportionately benefit from tax cuts, are fighting the hardest to help…um MAGA, whether on taxes or on Medicaid. MAGA voted for this (sort of). We said this after the election. Let’s give them what they seem to have wanted. You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped. They have to want it, or maybe Democrats will create new enterprises that disproportionately benefit…um MAGA. In any case, it is more than a bit bizarre to screw over your base to help the people who voted against you and generally can’t stand you. But hey, it’s strange times.
Conservatives Are Prisoners of Their Own Tax Cuts
7/4/25 – We’re not at our greatest moment, but we’re still a great country. Be grateful for all the patriots who fought for our freedom and our democracy. Happy Independence Day!
7/3/25 – “Part of what Christianity has done for me is that it embodies all of that, deep conviction and humility, profound faith with an understanding that doubt is part of the experience of faith.”
Pete Buttigieg | The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.
7/3/25 – One of our favorite saints: “A reading from the holy Gospel according to John 20:24-29 Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But Thomas said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’ Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.’ Thomas answered and said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.’
The Gospel of the Lord.”
Magnificat – Gospel of the Day
7/1/25 – Three simple ways to meaningfully improve the quality of your life. 1. Develop a deep spiritual life that involves solitary prayer or mediation and communal activities, such as worship services. 2. Spend time outdoors being active, such as walking, biking, or gardening. 3. Read and write, and in different languages. Living well is about both not doing unhealthy things and doing healthy ones. Enjoy!