6/30/25 – Part of the reason there is more violence is cultural and technological changes, but it’s also related to how dysfunctional our government has become. It is not working as designed by our Founding Fathers, and now, the center is not holding. As the Yeats poem that we shared right before the last election said, things fall apart when the center cannot hold. Both sides have to moderate, or we will have an extended painful period in American politics. Can we do this?
6/30/25 – Judges can’t do this either, right? Is it possible for the legislative branch to make our laws as our Founding Fathers intended, instead of the executive or judicial branches? Can we do this? “Indeed, when Biden was elected, his Office of Civil Rights reimposed much of the Obama-era approach, until a judge blocked the policy in a nationwide injunction. Trump’s return to office effectively ended that legal fight, but there’s no telling what the next president will do.”
Also, one of the great ironies of this situation is that the liberal media is convinced that this administration is abusing the law in this respect in an unprecedented fashion. As the article explains, this interpretation isn’t correct. What is correct is that the Jewish students’ civil rights were clearly violated, and because of this, to some degree, funding can be withheld for this reason. The question is: To what degree? In the end though, this administration is acting more lawfully as it relates to using Title VI violations to withhold federal funding than the previous Democratic ones because it has more justification for the violation.
What the Right Learned From the Left About Policing Colleges
6/28/25 – This time, in remembrance of Melissa and Mark Hortman:
“4/21/25 – Peace Prayer of Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.”
6/28/25 – We would like to remind our fellow Americans that our self-governance is done by ordinary Americans who simply choose to run for and serve in office. Sure, there are the narcissists who forget who they are serving, but vast majority do not. The normalcy of Melissa and Mark’s lives was evident in the eulogies and in the service itself, which was held in a large church that was likely somewhat warm, with their staff and parishioners helping during it. Our grander churches have active parishes, with homeless people who come for aid, parishioners and Christian pilgrims to pray, and visitors to appreciate the spirituality and the beauty. All of these people, the politicians, the clergy, the faithful, the firefighters, the state troopers, etc. are your neighbors. They live among you, and they lead lives like yours. Remember and respect their humanity.
6/28/25 – A beautiful funeral service for Melissa and Mark Hortman at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. May their souls rest in peace, and may the Lord bring comfort to their family.
Funeral for Melissa Hortman, Mark Hortman [FULL SERVICE]
6/25/25 – The truth will set you free.
6/25/25 – While we lose our minds to find our souls, here is some food for thought. It doesn’t matter how many times you say the Jewish people’s homeland isn’t Israel or how many times you say that Islam was the first of the Abrahamic religions. It won’t make it true. Whether you’re a certain person lying about the 2020 election or a Muslim who believes a fictional tale about Jewish ancestry or the origins of Islam, a lie remains a lie. No amount of repeating the lie will make it true. The repetition of the lie might make you into a monster though. Thank you, and have a nice evening.
6/25/25 – Goal: Master Gardener
6/25/25 – The world is on fire, you say. The Iranians are on the run, maybe with their nukes, you say. Summer of George is red hot Commie summer, you say. Huh, interesting.
6/23/25 – Perhaps it’s time for the United Nations to be dissolved. It has become apologists for authoritarian governments, particularly Islamic ones.
6/23/25 – The BBC has an anti-Semitism and an anti-Christian problem, and it is so arrogant and self-righteous that it can’t see it. It’s rather fascinating to be so morally enamored with yourselves that you are unable or unwilling to take a close, hard look at your own BS and bias yet still consider yourselves to be messengers of the truth.
6/23/25 – The New York Times has become corrupted by the profit motive, perhaps because many of its writers are vapid, shallow narcissists who are more interested in pandering to their irrational liberal tribe to advance their careers than in the truth, or perhaps its owners are simply greedy phonies pretending to care about our society and our world when really all they care about is money. In any case, it also has many ads pretending to be articles. (Literally.)
6/22/25 – On this Corpus Christi Sunday, we’re praying for the at least 20 Greek Orthodox Christians who were massacred and the more than 50 who were wounded in Syria while worshiping in their church by an Islamic State suicide bomber. We’ve also been praying for the Nigerian Christians who keep being slaughtered also by the Islamists. They say that Islam is peace. We’re waiting to see the peaceful version, especially in the Middle East and Africa. Also, any country whose spiritual mantra is “death to Israel” or “death to America” isn’t much of a country. It’s a terrorist organization, like Hamas and Hezbollah, pretending to be a country. Perhaps Islam can reinvent itself in a version that isn’t militant, oppressive and that doesn’t violate minority groups’ God-given rights. However, if the only place Islam can be moderate is in countries with majorities of another religion, such as Christianity or Hinduism, then there is likely a fundamental problem with the religion, and it needs to be fixed. The status quo is simply unsustainable for Israel and for Christians in most Muslim-majority countries.
6/20/25 – “Lazy girl” is not the way to go for the reasons that Brooks provides but also because laziness is sinful. It is bad for your soul. People need to work hard. Don’t come to us with laziness. It will never be well-received. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if one has lived well, you won’t need one of these courses towards the end of your life because you will have practiced life stage transitions earlier. Basically, you don’t want to work so hard that it’s all you have.
So, let us now bring up, well, Michelangelo. (Yes…again.) Back about 500 years, he lives until he’s almost 90, and he’s working the whole time. (We know.) But is it work? Yes and no. He’s working the whole time, but it’s for God. Literally. On the Vatican until he dies. He complained pretty much the whole time, which is understandable. Imagine an old man on scaffolding painting frescoes on ceilings, and you’ll understand. Obviously, there were likely the commissions he didn’t care about as much, but for the most part, he is working not to please his patrons but to please God. His spiritual life became married with his paid work. This is the way to do it.
There are different stages to life, and our individual lives will naturally look different. However, be passionate about your life – your whole life – and if you can develop a deep spiritual life, it will set you free, no matter what you do for work. Additionally, if you can marry your work and your spiritual life in a meaningful form for you, you will live well. Then, when you get to the end of your life, you might be blessed to go as Michelangelo went: From signing his name, which he did only once, on La Pieta to simply not caring about his name but only about God’s glory. This is the ultimate freedom and success.
The New Old Age
6/19/25 – Homework for today: Get a hobby simply because it’s enjoyable.
6/19/25 – How about this? Maybe Democrats should get a hobby not to seem more relatable or as a campaign strategy but because they are fun and healthy. The rest of us have hobbies because we find them enjoyable, and they give us balance. Although we love our jobs, we aren’t our jobs, and our hobbies not only help us be better at our jobs, but they remind us that we are first and foremost children of God, made to enjoy his creation in its glorious majesty.
The real question is: Why is being an ordinary human being so difficult for Democrats? Why do they seem so weird, and why are so many of their policies/positions weird to the American electorate? Also, they aren’t actually important, but they are self-important. Even our Founding Fathers had other stuff going on, and they went back to their other stuff after they served. They didn’t cling to power because all they had was their political job and their self-importance…. Did we mention that these were our Founding Fathers? Get some balance, already.
Democrats Need More Hobbies
6/18/25 – Homework for today: Get social media off your phone. You can still have it on your laptop or desktop if you must. Ideally, you don’t have it at all.
6/18/25 – Your phone is killing you. You are literally becoming unhealthier in every respect because of it.
6/17/25 – Homework for today: Pray for your enemies. You might ask: Why should I pray for my enemies? You pray for them to become better people, and in so doing, you yourself becomes a better person. It will soften your own heart. We all need to soften our own heart.
6/17/25 – Today’s Gospel reading: “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’”
6/16/25 – Homework for both sides: If you support a certain person, make a list of ten policies or character traits you liked about biden. If you supported biden, make a list of ten policies or character traits you like about a certain person. Not one. Ten. If you can’t think of ten, do research until you come up with ten.
6/16/25 – Three things we sense agreement on across the political spectrum (excluding extremes, who have disqualified their inclusion by their radicalization). One: There is an anti-Semitism problem in the country, which is quite unfortunate and wasn’t like this before, and it’s on both sides. Obviously, it needs to be dealt with. Two: In terms of renewable energy, we agree on geothermal. Let’s make it happen. Three: We need comprehensive immigration reform. One of the greatest overreaches of this administration has been on immigration, and one of the greatest failures of Congress has been on immigration. These problems are related. Fix it. Congress needs to do its job, and fix it.
6/15/25 – The authorities have captured the assassin, and we hope that everyone just lets him go through due process without unnecessary speculation or condemnation. Obviously, his actions were horrific, but he, like all of us, is a child of God, and he deserves to have his humanity respected. We can’t have a functioning society the way things have been going. Go and do something else. When facts have been reported by investigators, you can read them then. Good night.
6/14/25 – It is a sad day for our country, the state of Minnesota, and the Twin Cities metro area. We are praying for Melissa Hortman, John Hoffman, their spouses, and their families. The country can let us know when it wants to do things differently. We’ll be here waiting. That’s all we have to say right now.
6/13/25 – We also read The Atlantic’s article that argued that anti-Semitism is “an American problem.” One could argue that with the exception of some countries such as India, a neutral country with a long history of religious tolerance until relatively recently, the United States has been rather safe for the Jewish people compared with much of the rest of the world. In any case, are the left and the right in agreement that anti-Semitism is an American problem? Is the National Review willing to admit that there are factions on the right that also have an anti-Semitism problem, or do they think this is the exclusive purview of the left?
Israel recently attacked Iran in an attempt to thwart its nuclear weapons program. Is this related to the anti-Semitism on America’s left or right, or is this a broader problem, as we argued below? As an aside, it’s quite interesting that the left has come to the defense of a religion that is often dangerous for (women, you know, half of the world’s population, and) LGBTQ+ people, but will criticize Christianity much more harshly for its nonthreatening positions regarding homosexuality. Perhaps by their estimation being deemed “intrinsically disordered” is worse than being thrown off buildings. It seems a bit, well, irrational.
It also seems a bit irrational to want to reduce the debt and deficit, but also want rich people to pay lower taxes. It also seems irrational to want to reduce the public safety net to nonexistence to enable rich people’s money addiction. Last we checked, Christianity views greed as one of the seven deadly sins. In search of normalcy, which had several fair points, can the National Review explain these irrationalities? In any case, there is a lot that seems irrational these days, and it’s coming from both sides. It’s tedious, unproductive, and frankly exhausting to deal with all of these people and their irrational positions. This isn’t about being normie, moderate, nonpartisan, independent, or what have you. It’s really about basic logic, consistency and rationality, which apparently are a rarity these days.
6/13/25 – Flashback Friday: From 6/1/25, “Yes, there is an anti-Semitism problem on the left, but it is definitely not the only reason for the radicalization. Arguably, the main reason is the Islamic faith itself. So, we’re wondering how the National Review plans to help Israel by complaining about the left’s inability or unwillingness to do something about this problem. Netanyahu and the extreme Jewish right are not helping the Jewish people. Is there going to be any recognition of this? Please share with us a reasonable plan that accounts for the realities as they are.”
06/11/25 – Apparently, both parties have embraced lawlessness, just in different ways. As we continue to reflect on Pentecost and the Acts of the Apostles, it’s striking how naturally the Apostles embraced persecution, imprisonment and martyrdom. From Tolstoy to Gandhi to MLK, Jr. to Mandela, nonviolent resistance was employed not because they weren’t aware of violent options. All of them except Gandhi were Christians and deeply influenced by their faith, and Gandhi, a Hindu, was influenced by Tolstoy, who was a Christian pacifist in imperial Russia, which didn’t go over well with the powers that were.
Violence begets violence. Lawlessness begets lawlessness. Maybe instead of focusing exclusively on the authoritarians, because authoritarians will authoritarian, let’s consider the conditions in which authoritarians arrive and thrive. Biden and his weekend-at-bernie’s band of traitors contributed considerably to these conditions. The lawlessness of liberals has contributed considerably to these conditions. The dysfunctionality and illiberalism of the Democratic Party has also contributed considerably to these conditions. If there is one thing we’re learning observing all of this madness is how timeless and tested true Christianity has been. Both political parties are disasters. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life.
06/09/25 – We’re back to ordinary time in our extraordinary times. This is a good time to garden and to prepare for the apocalypse, which is always nigh.
06/08/25 – May the Holy Spirit fill you with grace and love and guide you to do God’s will today and every day. May the Holy Spirit move throughout the world. Happy Pentecost Sunday!
06/05/25 – We’re glad to see a unanimous decision on this case. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision was appalling in its bias, ignorance, and interference in religious expression. Set aside any denominational differences that have evolved over 2,000 years of history. Firstly, from the very beginning of Christianity, Christians served everybody. In fact, it was an identifying characteristic of members of the nascent religion. They will know us by our love that was for all people. See the Good Samaritan. Secondly, to serve our fellow human beings has also never been conditional on proselytizing. We aren’t transactional. That’s what secular people do. We serve out of love for our God and for each other. Lastly, think about the perverse conditions this ruling was effectively imposing on Catholic Charities. You can only be considered religious if you serve people like you or with the intention of converting them to be like you. The Wisconsin Supreme Court should be ashamed of itself for this ruling….
“While nobody disputed that Catholic Charities is religious, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that it is not operated primarily for religious purposes because it neither restricts its charity to Catholic recipients nor uses the opportunity to proselytize the Catholic faith. Catholic Charities argued that both of these practices are the results of Catholic doctrine rather than symptoms of a lack of religious purpose.” This would be obvious to anybody who knows anything about Catholicism, really about Christianity.
Supreme Court Says Catholicism Is a Religion, Too
06/05/25 – Pentecost Sunday is coming up, and it’s a good reminder of unity among differences for our country and for the world. The current trajectory is simply unsustainable and dangerous.
06/05/25 – We’re not going to judge anyone for breaking out the popcorn or engaging in some schadenfreude…, but we went from biden’s infirmity being exposed to the world to heated, public fighting between the president and his once billionaire backer. None of this is good for our country, and we’re becoming more and more vulnerable to our enemies. We also have even more enemies and less friends now. We are also not setting a good example for the world for good governance and, well, much of anything right now.
06/03/25 – We’re curious about something. Why is it that said elite institutions, both the ones who caved and the ones who are flattering themselves about “standing up” to a certain person, are so lacking in real diversity? Why is it that said elite institutions disproportionately favor the same kinds of people? They are the kids whose parents raised them to be academically overweened and intellectually insipid, over-paid, elite cookie-cutters who lack creativity, intellectual depth or moral sophistication. Their mission in life is to enrich themselves and achieve status. Impressive.
Christianity has numerous expressions while still being a coherent faith, and people from all walks of life. Our saints are from everywhere. Africa, the continent on which Christianity arrived in the first century, the very beginning of the faith, has the most Christians, by the way, not Europe. About one-quarter of the world’s Christians live in Africa. The Holy Spirit is moving on that glorious continent with its gorgeous, smart, faithful people.
Are the elite institutions not interested in them? Are they only interested in the rich, spoiled children of rich, ambitious Chinese parents? What about poor, rural, white American children? Not interested in them either. Are they all just too poor? Too untrained to be elite? Did they not write papers the elite institutions’ fraudulent faculty with their doctored data would like? Did they not flatter enough of their faculty’s egos, who have convinced themselves that they are intellectual gods? Are they not rigorous enough (whatever that means)? See the problem with elite institutions is that they are actually not elite. They are frauds. They are pretending to be something they are actually not. They are pretending to be meritocratic, but they are not.
In the Christian context, meritocracy doesn’t exist in the making of a saint. Even Catholics, who consider good works, wouldn’t talk about it that way. The Spirit guides you to a saintly life. You become a saint out of love of and fidelity to God. You become a saint by your willingness to sacrifice everything, sometimes even your life, to do God’s will. It’s certainly not about enriching yourself and achieving status. There is a rot in the state of the elite institutions. It is soulless, and the integrity of its body decayed long ago.
06/03/25 – The late, great Billy Graham regularly reminded his large audiences that Christianity is not a white man’s religion. Christianity belongs to the world. Blessed are our martyrs. We love them. We remember them. They were and are the seeds of our faith. May their beautiful, brave souls rest in peace with the Lord.
Morning Prayer | 6.3.25
06/02/25 – Perhaps the best thing for the elite American universities is that the ones that were founded as Christian institutions should return to their Christian roots. The genius secular academics are free to invade Islamic institutions of higher education and secularize them with their obvious brilliance. Happy Monday!
06/02/25 – There isn’t a larger, more geographically diverse or more multi-cultural institution than the Catholic Church, or a larger, more geographically diverse or more multi-cultural religion than Christianity. Within this broad, varied body is unity in Christ. Secular societies can learn from this model. This video presents a fair set of criticisms and observations of secular “multi-culturalism.”
What Catholicism Can Teach Us about Multiculturalism
06/01/25 – The Palestinian people deserve their own state, and it is unconscionable to starve them or engage in any kind of war crimes against them, which is what Netanyahu and his supporters have done. They should be arrested and brought to trial at The Hague.
The National Review is clearly Zionist. We wonder if it understands the psychology and the history of the people with whom it is dealing. If the National Review thinks that the violence being perpetrated against the Jewish people in the United States is simply the failure of the American left in reining in the extremes within its ranks, we present the state of affairs as described in the posts below.
Islamic violence or violence perpetrated by Palestinian sympathizers is a pathology and likely inflamed by misguided theology. If this were not the case, the violence would not be generalized to the degree that it is. They say that Islam is peace. Is that what the world sees? Let us be honest. No, it is not. Look at the number of terroristic acts perpetrated by Islamic extremists. The most prominent act in the United States was 9/11, but these acts can be found throughout the world.
Is the National Review oblivious to these facts? Yes, there is an anti-Semitism problem on the left, but it is definitely not the only reason for the radicalization. Arguably, the main reason is the Islamic faith itself. So, we’re wondering how the National Review plans to help Israel by complaining about the left’s inability or unwillingness to do something about this problem. Netanyahu and the extreme Jewish right are not helping the Jewish people. Is there going to be any recognition of this? Please share with us a reasonable plan that accounts for the realities as they are.
06/01/25 – One of the problems with Islam is that many of its adherents are under the grand delusion or great ignorance that they would have a religion without Judaism. They also seem to think that the entire Middle East and Northern Africa belongs to Muslims. It does not. The reason is simple. Of the three Abrahamic religions, Islam is the youngest. The believers of both Judaism and Christianity have lived there longer. There is this thing called time, and it doesn’t care about anybody’s fictions.
The other great problem with many Islamic countries is that they don’t seem to have any respect for religious freedom. Neither the Jewish people nor Christians impose their religion on anyone, and conversion can be a long discernment process. We know, for a fact, that many “Muslims” actually want to publicly convert out of the religion. What does Islam intend to achieve by appropriating religious institutions that do not belong to it or forcing the religion on people who practice or would like to practice a different faith? Do they think that God is fooled by their violence and intolerance? Do they think that God will reward this conduct? If they do, they are wrong.
06/01/25 – St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, Egypt should remain under the ownership of the Greek Orthodox Church. “I hope that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the State Department’s Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom explicitly speak out in support of the independence of St. Catherine’s and that the Egyptian government works to reverse this ruling and return ownership of the property to the Greek Orthodox Church. The monks of St. Catherine’s deserve the right to live independently in worshipful peace.”
Historic St. Catherine’s Monastery in Peril