5/30/23 – Wild what one demagogue can do to the order of things. The evil one, trump, is the best and worst thing that happened to the country.
5/30/23 – Old Glory belongs to all other Americans but MAGA, who are now traitors. Democrats are now patriots.
5/30/23 – Anybody who’s been paying attention knows that MAGA are not Christians. They are pagans, godless, demonic, what have you. Comments are also worth reading.
Move over, evangelicals. Non-churchgoers now rule the GOP.
5/30/23 – Human beings were designed by God to live in and with nature. We are to spend as much time as possible with God’s other creations. The farther we get from this fundamental aspect of our design, the closer we get to our own self-destruction. The AI debates need to be broadened to the detrimental effects all of this technology is having on humans more generally.
5/29/23 – Time and nature are great healers of wounds. They are God’s creation, his healing balm for us. If one is anxious or distressed, spend time in nature and pray to God. Remember, God loves us with a deep and abiding love.
5/29/23 – As we end this Memorial Day, let’s remember that the epic battle of our time, a war for freedom and democracy, is happening right now in Ukraine. After the Ukrainians win the war, and they will win, we hope they are able to properly honor all of their service men and women, and the fallen in beautiful cemeteries with cones to place flowers and grass (or preferably pollinator-friendly ground cover) for loved ones to visit. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to heroes!
5/29/23 – Obviously, we have a lot of problems. Highest among them is the evil one and MAGA. But this is the greatest country in the world. We have freedom. We’re a nation of laws. We’re a democracy. Many of our people are good. We work hard. We care for each other. We are generous with our time and our money. May we always be a light onto the world, a city on a hill. God bless America.
5/29/23 – Don’t just BBQ or relax. Please take time out this Memorial Day to honor our heroes. In many cases, they paid for our freedom with their lives. They are our best. God bless America.
5/28/23 – Today and every day, let us honor our Jewish brothers and sisters. Without them, there would be no Christianity.
5/28/23 – May the Holy Spirit bring you to the Lord and light a fire that can’t be extinguished. We honor all of our Christian martyrs past and present, today and every day. Their blood is never in vain. It serves God and shalom.
5/28/23 – Lying is a sin, but it’s also more than that. God never lies. Jesus never lied. “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” If you’re a true Christian, you believe them and in them, and part of the reason you believe in them is because you believe them. Truth is at the center of the Christian faith. It is what allows us to believe them without actually knowing. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” He always told the truth, and he is the truth. The devil lies, and those that are like the devil also lie. Be like Jesus. Be committed to the truth no matter the cost.
Liz Cheney urges graduates not to compromise with the truth in commencement speech
5/27/23 – Great advice! “Let it go and Hold on! — in the way of so many great philosophies, those apparent opposites prove to be two sides of the same coin. To hold securely to the well-formed purposes of your will, you must let go of the vain idea that you can control people or events or the tides of fate. But you can choose what you stand for and what you will try to accomplish. You can choose, when hopes and fears are swirling in your head, to clutch at hope. Amid beauty and ugliness, to fasten on beauty. Between despair and possibility, to pursue the possible. Of love and hate, to opt for love.”
My neighbor lived to be 109. This is what I learned from him.
5/27/23 – Tomorrow is Pentecost. Receive the Holy Spirit, and be transformed by God’s grace.
5/27/23 – Being out in nature, walking, gardening, whatever, is great for physical and mental health. “In this telling, nature provides what scientists call ‘soft fascination,’ she said — it holds our attention without demanding constant intellectual processing. Our overtaxed attention can reset, and afterward, we can concentrate and reason more readily.”
Why an outdoor workout is better for you than indoors
5/27/23 – Time is the most valuable thing in the world. You don’t have much of it. Use it well. Don’t spend it on demagogues or obsessing about superficial things, like status, money or power.
Americans are bad at resting. Here’s how to reclaim your free time.
5/26/23 – Thinking of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. versus the war criminal Henry Kissinger, longevity has its place, but sacrifice is divine.
5/26/23 – Liz Cheney, “Any candidate who says they will pardon Jan. 6 defendants is not qualified to be President.” Absolutely!
5/25/23 – “‘The United States debt, foreign and domestic, was the price of liberty,’ Hamilton wrote. ‘The faith of America has been repeatedly pledged for it.'” For the first time in our nation’s history, we might default on our debt. For the first time in our nation’s history, we didn’t have a peaceful transfer of power. Who’s to blame for these terrible firsts? The evil one and the corrupt GOP.
A daring, dazed trip into the ‘hostage’ situation on Capitol Hill
5/24/23 – Well, if it wasn’t obvious before, we all now know why Musk wanted to buy Twitter.
Ron DeSantis’s 2024 kickoff on Twitter plagued by technical issues
5/24/23 – Good for the environment and your budget.
Why you should buy everything used
5/23/23 – Invoke the 14th Amendment already.
Here are President Biden’s debt ceiling options, ranked
5/21/23 – Christianity has more promise now than it’s ever had to truly be a faith that lives Jesus’s teachings. It’s more diverse than it’s ever been, and it’s shedding itself of European and other western corruptions. So, to those worried about the state of Christianity, don’t. Just trust in God and follow Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life.
5/21/23 – Tim Keller was a Christian intellectual. Some come to Christianity more from the head, some more from the heart. Keller was more from the head, but his heart was always open. Even when you disagree with some people’s theological interpretations, you can respect their zeal and their good intentions. “Where is God in the midst of pain and disease and death?” They are all a part of life, and as they are always present, God is also always present. The tribute contained the answer to the question. “But Tim was able to say that he was never happier, never had more days of comfort, and that his relationship with God had never been better. It was an extraordinary testimony.” His thoughts live on even as he has gone home to Jesus. There is no better place to be.
My Friend, Tim Keller
5/21/23 – Church is about keeping the faith, learning the faith, and building communities. Building long, healthy relationships is important to one’s health and the world’s health. Be connected. Be beloved. Happy Sunday!
5/19/23 – Don’t be afraid. The Lord did not abandon us. He walks with the righteous. Go forth bravely, committed to truth, justice and everything good. God’s will be done.
5/19/23 – Completely agree! “The key to this strategy is courage. We must conquer our fears of Russian threats and escalation, of its nuclear bravado, and even of Russian collapse. We must be strategic and shrewd, but nothing can be accomplished without courage. In the words of John Paul II—the unarmed, lone old man who did so much to bring Soviet communism to its knees—‘Never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid.’”
It’s Not Enough for Ukraine to Win. Russia Has to Lose.
5/18/23 – If you’re going to live in an urban setting, you need to adapt to its culture. People who grew up in the city are used to being around a lot of different kinds of people. We are relaxed around each other. Chill the f—k out or get the f—k out of our cities. Thank you, and have a nice day.
5/18/23 – If you think the murderer Daniel Penny is a “Good Samaritan,” you don’t know anything about Jesus or the Bible. Please stop making asinine references to the Bible, especially when it’s obvious you haven’t read it or don’t understand it.
DeSantis’s celebration of vigilantism is a new low in MAGA extremism
5/18/23 – Total and complete incompetence. Remember, we pay their salaries…for this. “But Democrats could not find the time and support to act, opening the door for Republicans now to use the debate as an avenue to push for massive spending cuts.” Let’s wring our hands about getting rid of the debt ceiling. Yes, indeed. “The United States is one of only two modern democracies that still mandate an absolute debt ceiling. The other is Denmark, which has set its borrowing cap so high that it cannot really breach it, sparing it from perennial crises.” Doom loop.
As debt ceiling fight rages, Democrats bring up an old idea: Abolish it
5/18/23 – How many times does the Washington Post Editorial Board have to write about this before DC actually implements it?
The model city for transforming downtowns? It’s in Canada.
5/18/23 – We end minority rule or end in civil war. City rights! “In fact, it’s Republicans who have not just abandoned a large swath of the country but also are openly hostile toward it. But if the GOP’s continued electoral losses in U.S. cities are any indication, waging war on these dynamic and fast-growing regions is probably not as clever as Republicans think.”
Republicans abandoned urban America, and they’re paying the price
5/16/23 – Slava Ukraini!
5/16/23 – To every institutional body, secular or religious, that wants to whine about the state of affairs, know this, you created the situation you’re whining about. Have a nice day.
Want to know why America is losing its edge? Look around campus.
5/15/23 – Is this strange? “Most American conservatives insist that the United States is the best country in the world, so it’s strange to see so many long for the politics of another nation.” Is this strange too? “Frerichs, a Democrat, pointed out the absurdity ‘of me defending the free market against a Republican legislature trying to have a planned economy mandating what businesses have to invest in.’” Is it strange that the Republican Party has become infected with the communist fascism of their dear evil leader? When power and money are the primary things you care about, you likely have no real principles. This is what the Republican Party has shown itself to be. If God wanted to completely control us, he could have created puppets. God didn’t want this, but so many people want to play dema-god.
U.S. conservatives have found an alarming model for their movement
The day free-market Republicans became Soviet economic planners
5/15/23 – Don’t be an obnoxious liberal. Don’t be an obnoxious conservative. Be your own person.
5/15/23 – Social media is bad for one’s health. Things that are good for one’s health: water, good food, sleep, nature, community and faith.
5/14/23 – Jesus was a brown Jew from Nazareth who treated women as equal to men. The depiction is actually true to the man.
Stained glass window shows Jesus Christ with dark skin, stirring questions about race in New England
5/14/23 – You don’t want to be like uncultured, evil MAGA. You also don’t want to be an elitist snob. Engage with the arts so that you can more deeply understand the complexities of the human experience. Engage with it to feel your own and other’s humanity with sensitivity and honesty. The arts make us better human beings.
5/14/23 – We need to stop having elections that are about the evil one, trump. Can we have an election in 2024 that is actually about a post-evil one future built on hope, peace, the promise of our country, and everything good?
5/13/23 – Being drawn to beauty is nothing to feel ashamed or guilty of. God wouldn’t have created a world full of beauty if he didn’t want us to be in awe of it. The ugly realities behind manmade beauty are one of the differentiating aspects from natural beauty. Even the hunting and preying of wild animals has an innocence that human exploitation of each other or of our natural resources cannot have. The former is of God’s natural order. The latter generally depends on the degree, and the ascetic monks of various religious traditions are a counterbalancing reminder of the power of worldly seductions. In the Bible, there are stories of great abundance, the perfume for Jesus prior to his crucifixion, and of great sacrifice, his own, the same person who was just perfumed. Perhaps that’s the point. If we can’t be ascetic, we must find a reasonable balance. Gluttony is a sin. Eating, even eating well, is not. Keep it reasonable. Pay it back.
5/13/23 – As a simple act of appreciation for other’s labor and for the craft, one could make their own clothes (knitting and sewing) or grow and fish/hunt their own food. These are valuable life skills, hard to master but not necessarily hard to learn. In so doing, we connect to ourselves, to our fellow human beings, and to God.
A Better Way of Buying—And Wanting—Things
Forget Uber Eats. Modern-day homesteaders prefer to live off the land.
5/13/23 – Superior white MAGhadis are addicted to lies because the truth is that they are not superior. They find this and other truths hard to accept.
5/13/23 – In terms of lying and related sins, the only difference between the evil one, trump, and George Santos is that the evil one is better at manipulating the legal system.
5/13/23 – MAGhadis are the problem. Without them, the evil one basically disappears.
Don’t Say You Haven’t Been Warned About Trump and 2024
5/11/23 – Apparently, the media or, at least, a considerable portion of it doesn’t understand that in addition to being generally horrible people, MAGA are liars. When the evil one, trump, lies, which he does all the time, it doesn’t offend them because of who they are. Yet, the media thinks “fact-checking” will somehow work on liars who want to believe the lies. OK.
5/10/23 – As a matter of pride, don’t turn in crappy writing that you have put no effort into because you just didn’t care. It is an insult to yourself and to your teacher. Have some self-respect, accept the bad grade and manage your time and yourself better the next time. If your name is on the thing, actually care about its quality. Thank you.
5/10/23 – Americans generally dress badly. They are way too casual. They are way too casual with pretty much everything. Africans, Asians, Europeans are all more formal in the way they dress, the way they address each other, and other aspects of daily life. Taking pride in one’s appearance is not the same thing as vanity nor is it necessarily an ostentatious display of wealth, which one shouldn’t do because it’s tacky. It’s a matter of self-expression and self-respect. It’s about taking pride in one’s unique identity and sending a message to the world that is meant to convey respect for oneself and others. For example, Zelensky is using his attire to remind the world that he’s the leader of a nation at war. How one expresses oneself could be for practical reasons or more personal ones. The point is to actually say something aside from you’re f—king lazy. Thank you.
Why even the preppy look is preferable to egalitarian shabbiness
5/10/23 – Part of the reason we’re stuck in a doom loop is because the old people refuse to retire. They are selfish and self-centered.
5/9/23 – Both the Republican and Democratic establishments suck a–. (Republicans are way worse though.) “Already, parts of the Republican establishment are resigning themselves to another Trump coronation. Although DeSantis was once their great hope, the plan now—once again—seems to be to sit back and pray that the Democrats take care of Trump for them.” For God’s sake, give us new candidates!
5/9/23 – MAGA are like the American Nazi. They are the worst of America. They are ignorant and stupid, and worse than anything else, they are simply terrible people. After everything they’ve seen of the evil one, he’s still their guy. The devil beats in MAGA’s dark, evil hearts. Their children and/or grandchildren will hang their heads in shame when they find out their ancestors were MAGA.
What GOP Voters Have Told Me Since Trump’s Indictment
5/9/23 – The evil one, trump, is a revolting pig who doesn’t respect anyone. At least, E. Jean Carroll and the rest of us got a modicum of justice today. And she looked lovely to boot. “[R]ather than becoming a source of judgment, clothes can become a conduit to empathy.” You don’t have to spend a lot of money. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. Just find items that reflect you. If you’re an immigrant, wear the clothes from your home country at least occasionally. Assert your unique identity. Hold your head high, and be proud of who you are.
Jean Carroll dressed to win
5/9/23 – Just this past winter, I watched a woman pull over to give a homeless man a big, warm winter coat. We need to care for each other. Always. We are at our best when we are a kind and caring country, a kind and caring world.
5/9/23 – Respecting human dignity is not about left or right. It’s about being in right relationship with God and with each other. Love and help each other, especially the poor and vulnerable. And always remember that God loves us with a deep and abiding love.
5/8/23 – Wes Moore. Maybe Amy Klobuchar could be his running mate?
5/8/23 – Biden would not win a second primary if it has a field of competitive candidates.
5/8/23 – Except for she’s about as bad as he is at the interviews. “So if I were giving Biden advice he surely doesn’t want, I’d tell him to steer into the storm rather than away from it, and run with Harris almost as if he expected her to take over. I’d make her a constant fixture at Biden’s side in public events and in the kind of extended interviews she’s mostly avoided doing. I’d turn the campaign into what Hollywood calls a ‘two-hander’ — a show with two protagonists.”
How Joe Biden should solve the Kamala Harris Conundrum
5/8/23 – It’s f—king ridiculous. “Taking questions from the media promotes public accountability. It also shows that the president is willing to defend his positions and instills confidence that he can do the job. It is widely known that Mr. Biden is gaffe-prone and that news conferences are not his forte. But as he runs for a second term, he should be eager to show he can handle all aspects of the job.”
Biden no longer does press conferences. That’s not acceptable.
5/8/23 – Remember Jesus loves you. “If you are having thoughts of suicide, please know that you are not alone. If you’re in danger of acting on suicidal thoughts, call 911. For support and resources, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text 741741 for the Crisis Text Line.”
5/8/23 – Thought-provoking piece by David Brooks. The extreme left likes to think of itself as so virtuous and moral, but often, it’s as shallow in its thinking as the extreme right. Abortion should be legal, but there should also be limits. Assisted suicide should be legal, but there should also be limits. Canada’s “limits” are way too lax. God made us because he loved us. If only we could love ourselves and each other as he loves us. “Canadian society apparently had no shared set of morals that would justify saying no. If individual autonomy is the highest value, then when somebody comes to you and declares, ‘It’s my body. I can do what I want with it,’ whether they are near death or not, painfully ill or not, doesn’t really matter. Autonomy rules.”
The Outer Limits of Liberalism
5/8/23 – We asked ChatGPT if it thought assisted suicide was moral, and it said.
5/7/23 – We asked ChatGPT if it was moral to kill evil dictators or dictator wannabees, and it said yes. We asked it if AI would ever evolve to rid humankind of these monstrous menaces, and it said it would. There is hope for AI after all.
5/7/23 – Does it matter what voters want or just what the Democratic establishment wants? We want a real f—king primary in our f—king democracy. Give it to us! Or are the a—hole elites going to subject us to yet another failure, but this time of a greater threat than 2016? Biden was senator forever, 2 terms as VP, and now 1 as Pres. It’s been a good run. He got a lot done in one term. He’s too old for another term. Move the f—k on! How much clearer can we make this? “His overall approval ratings have slipped to a new low, more Americans than not doubt his mental acuity, and his support against leading Republican challengers is far shakier than at this point four years ago…. 26 percent of independents who support charging Trump in any of the three cases say they would definitely or probably vote for him against Biden, while 48 percent back Biden and the rest would support neither, would not vote or are undecided.” The warning signs are flashing red, and the Democratic establishment ignores them at the country’s peril.
Biden faces broad negative ratings at start of campaign, Post-ABC poll finds
5/7/23 – Biden’s personal ambition and hubris is going to destroy our democracy. We need a different ticket.
5/7/23 – F—k with us enough, and we’ll bring this country to its f—king knees. Know it now. “Biden’s dominance was pronounced in the highest-output metro areas. Biden won 43 of the 50 metros, regardless of what state they were in, that generated the absolute most economic output; remarkably, he won every metro area that ranked No. 1 through 24 on that list of the most-productive places… From 2010 to 2020, Muro said, the share of the nation’s total economic output generated by the 50 most-productive metropolitan areas increased from 62 to 64 percent, a significant jump in such a short span…. ‘The basic story seems to be that where you are seeing rapid economic growth, where the nation’s GDP is produced, you are seeing an ongoing shift toward the Democratic Party.’”
Republicans’ Big Rich-City Problem
5/7/23 – It’s interesting how much more similar the Independents’ number is to Democrats than to Republicans. “Republicans view the news media less favorably than Democrats, with 61% of Republicans saying the news media is hurting democracy, compared with 23% of Democrats and 36% of independents who don’t lean toward either party.” Obviously, the press (reputable, reliable sources) could improve, but overall and excluding Fox, it is a force for good, and our democracy wouldn’t survive without the free press and courageous journalists.
Americans fault news media for dividing nation: AP-NORC poll
5/7/23 – Mending is better than spending.
5/7/23 – Taiwan does not belong to China. It belongs to Taiwan.
5/6/23 – The satanic Russia s—t is a f—king idiot of the first f—king order. Have a nice day.
5/6/23 – If it’s as the article argues, then Pope Francis is dead wrong. However, he might be taking this position so he can help broker POW swaps and the return of abducted children. If he had taken a more directly confrontational and critical approach to Russia and the satanic Russian s—t, would the Pope be able do either of these things? Would it have helped on any other matter? Probably not. PS No matter where one lives in the world, the villain is obvious or it should be. It’s Russia.
Why Pope Francis Isn’t With the West on Ukraine
5/6/23 – Too many to cite specifics, but ProPublica does great investigative journalism that has meaningfully positive impacts on our society.
5/6/23 – Less “orthodox” international economists have been making these arguments forever. Financial Times’s Luce is an indoctrinated hack. He can go f—k himself. Have a nice day.
Eyeing China, Biden official floats a new ‘Washington consensus’
5/6/23 – Absolutely! “We need to learn how to oppose the illiberalism of the left, the impulse to give up on the national story, to lose the thread of it, to declare the American experiment dead. ‘We must not be enemies,’ Abraham Lincoln urged; instead, we must all practice a conservatism that preserves the institutions and beliefs undergirding the shared liberal ideals of human freedom and equality. When the political game is played between these lines and by these rules, everyone wins.”
Illiberalism is a threat to democracy — on the right and left
5/6/23 – Who needs mergers and acquisitions when you have banking and financial crises. “Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) backed the FDIC’s decision to sell to JPMorgan but expressed reservations about ongoing banking consolidation — there are some 4,700 FDIC-insured institutions, roughly half the total 20 years ago.”
JPMorgan’s acquisition of First Republic revives too-big-to-fail talk
5/5/23 – The whole normal has changed. Can we elect someone who deeply understands that or what? Can we elect a fighter? We need a wartime president, and we have a peacetime president. Wes Moore has so many things that make for a great presidential candidate. Can we do this or what? PS Spare us the BS about maybe after he’s been governor for longer. The evil one was never elected to any other prior office.
Wes Moore: How to talk to veterans about the war
5/5/23 – Hey Kremlin, the next time you pretend an assassination attempt on the satanic poop, don’t pretend.
5/5/23 – Wes Moore.
5/5/23 – So, we’re supposed to reelect this, right? We told them to prevent the debt ceiling hostage-taking situation, and all we got were empty assurances. We told him to be more aggressive in their support of Ukraine, and all we got were empty assurances. We’re warning about 2024, and all we’re getting are empty assurances. This and the banking crisis are a replay of the Obama administration, in which Biden was VP. It’s a doom loop. Can we have a new ticket for 2024 or what? He’s too cautious and too weak. The one thing Democrats have in common with MAGA is that we also want a fighter. Instead, we’re getting someone who doesn’t understand the duplicitousness and ruthlessness of the people he’s dealing with. “Rather than join Biden in urging the GOP to simply raise the borrowing limit — as many administration officials had hoped — these groups have called for bipartisan budget negotiations, implicitly endorsing McCarthy’s position and rejecting Biden’s opposition to talks.”
How the Washington establishment is confounding Biden’s debt ceiling plan
5/5/23 – Democrats are way too weak.
5/5/23 – MAGA are evil monsters.
5 striking findings about what the GOP wants in 2024
5/5/23 – KKKlarence Thomas is one of the biggest traitors to black people in American history. He is a disgrace to this country and to the world. And yes, a kid is at risk of poor moral formation by having KKKlarence as his father. “In December 2012, the Judicial Education Project submitted an amicus brief in Shelby County v. Holder, a case challenging a landmark civil rights law aimed at protecting minority voters. The court struck down a formula in the Voting Rights Act that determined which states had to obtain federal clearance before changing their voting rules and procedures. Clarence Thomas was part of the 5-to-4 majority.”
Judicial activist directed fees to Clarence Thomas’s wife, urged ‘no mention of Ginni’
Crow tuition payment for Thomas relative adds to outcry over court ethics
5/5/23 – On what planet is the UAE an ally because it’s not on this one.
Buildup resumed at suspected Chinese military site in UAE, leak says
5/4/23 – Today is the National Day of Prayer. It wasn’t covered at all in the news. In any case, we have many things to pray for: peace, democracy, the annihilation of evil leaders, the freedom of all people, religious freedom, the end of poverty, to name a few. Prayer is the only thing that can truly save us.
5/3/23 – People spend far too much time using technology instead of being in the company of other people. It has had all kinds of negative effects on them.
Loneliness poses profound public health threat, surgeon general says
5/3/23 – They bail out big, rich investors, and it’s the small businesses that get hurt.
As Fed examines banking woes, small businesses already feel the crunch
5/2/23 – Zelensky is acting more honorably than any other politician right now. This is one of the many reasons we admire him. Glory to Ukraine!
5/2/23 – We are living in an age of incompetence. Wes Moore.
Guess what, White House correspondents: Biden’s joke was on you
5/2/23 – Yet, the Washington Post and many others are still on Twitter. We are in an age of hypocrisy.
Elon Musk’s Twitter is helping governments shut their citizens up