Notes from Underground – April 2024

4/30/24 – It is good to think about one’s identity, but use actually meaningful sentences. Stop slapping labels on yourself like you’re merchandise marketing yourself to a public that speaks in strings of single words. Present yourself like a unique individual not like a caricature of all things trending. It is quite annoying and meaningless. Happy Tuesday!

4/30/24 – As a country, we need to find a reasonable compromise on abortion that both respects the rights and the needs of the mother with (equal) respect for the sanctity of life. Figure it out.

4/30/24 – Considering all things, since gender dysphoria is a gender identity disorder, wouldn’t it make more sense to treat is with neurological and/or psychological treatments than with physical alteration?

4/28/24 – Birds make everything better and more beautiful. Happy Sunday!

4/28/24 – To escape is sometimes to just look at the beauty and the art in the world around you.

4/28/24 – Other ancient civilizations, for example, those in Asia, such as in India and China, and in Africa, such as in Egypt, which to a certain degree represents the Arab world more broadly, don’t get adequate recognition.
The focus tends to be on what is characterized as the western ancient world, Greece and especially, Italy, which was particularly powerful and influential in the west. However, other ancient civilizations have also had great influence, especially in other parts of the world.
These beautiful pictures capture the romance of the intersection of the ancient and the modern in Cairo, Egypt. If we lived in the world we deserve to live in, one of peace and a truly shared humanity, we would all be able to better appreciate the timeless artistry of kilim rugs, the delicate loveliness of minarets, and the intricate beauty of Islamic and Arabic art and architecture. If we lived in the world we all deserve to live in, we would be able to live in our shared heritage by sharing it with each other as a people of God.
It went viral because we all want this, whether or not we (fully) realize it. “The next day, he was surprised to find that the post had gone viral. People all over the world were resharing it across social media. ‘It evoked emotional reactions of comfort and tranquility, nostalgia and connection,’ he says.”
These dreamy photos of historical Cairo will transport you to another time

4/28/24 – A beautiful piece that speaks eloquently to the universal truth below, while capturing the particular spiritual and earthly journey of the Jewish people. Jewish artists often grapple with the tension of that truth by trying to capture the eternal nature of their spiritual sanctuary, their tabernacle, their ancestral land, which is the state of Israel, and the realities of the Jewish experience in its myriad migratory forms, those due to persecution or war, but also those simply in search of opportunity and a touch of wanderlust. There are many similarities to others’ experiences, and to recognize this truth is to recognize our shared humanity.
“The experience or memory of the modern Jewish artist has included the shared reality of pogroms, wars, persecution, and a modern-day version of Biblical wanderings. Jewish artists’ work intertwined with the reality of the time, as with Felix Nussbaum, the Polish painter who later moved to Berlin and eventually died in Auschwitz with his wife, also an artist. His work reflects wide-eyed fear, as in his 1943, ‘Self Portrait with Jewish Identity Card.’
And thousands of years after the wanderings of the Jewish people in the desert, some critics understand Mark Rothko’s large canvases with blocks of color as a modern day tabernacle. In this way, Rothko, as with many Jewish artists, was both creating a sanctuary serving as a place of worship and also a mobile place, reflecting the enduring reality of wandering in the history of the Jewish people.”
Jewish Art: A Brief History

4/28/24 – In this polarized era, it’s more important than ever to remember that there is no us and them. The truth is that there is just us, and by us, that means all life. Just look at the known universe for proof. We are all immigrants or migrants, even those of us who have lineages that go back millennia to our ancestral lands because we are all guests on a planet we had no role in creating. We are here by God’s invitation, and our time on our temporary home has an end date. From dust we were made, to dust we shall return.

4/23/24 – It just passed…finally. Slava Ukraini! (Please excuse the dysfunction in the USA. What can we say? It’s a miserable and unnecessary state of affairs.)

4/23/24 – Foreign aid packages need to be brought to the floor separately. It’s not fair to the countries involved or to the American people to package them like this. Ukraine and Taiwan are easy. (The only reason MAGA Republicans are taking issue with Ukraine is because they are traitors, sympathetic to the russian poop and followers of the evil one, trump.) Israel is not easy. There is no compromise on Israel belonging to the Jewish people, however, the war is unacceptable as it is currently being conducted.

4/23/24 – It’s a bit surreal to watch Bernie Sanders, a Jew, fighting for Palestinians during Passover. He is right that the war stopped being (exclusively) about Hamas. Update: He just said that he would vote no…of course.

4/22/24 – It is important to note that there are many good journalists, some of whom risk their lives to tell important stories and help us protect our rights, freedoms and democracy.

4/22/24 – The propaganda has lost the public trust. It’s going to be hard to get it back.

4/22/24 – “What’s happening there? Why is NPR telling me what to think?” Right. As every educator knows, it’s a lot easier to think for your students or to tell them what to think than to teach them how to think for themselves.

4/22/24 – The propaganda, who generally hate Christianity, might consider that the Pope routinely dresses down the clergy in rather humiliating, public fashion. Where is the dressing down of the propaganda? At least, we have these couple examples of well-deserved criticism.
I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.
Chasing sensationalism contributed to the evil one, trump’s, win.
Trump, Project 2025, the Supreme Court and the Election with Hillary Rodham Clinton
Oh yes, and we all still notice that the propaganda also serves as Taylor Swift’s advertising campaign.

4/21/24 – Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Billy Graham was a man of deep faith, who genuinely loved the Lord and brought millions to Christianity. However, the church is mostly made up of clergy who quietly do the Lord’s work day in and day out. They are the good shepherd who tend to their flock. They go to their people in or out of distress, sometimes in the middle of the night, for births to deaths and everything in between. We appreciate them, but we don’t thank them enough. To our good shepherds, thank you. You help us heal our brokenness with your wisdom, kindness, love and compassion.

4/21/24 – The church is incredibly diverse. How could it not be? It spans the globe and has billions of believers. This is an interesting article about the misuse of the term “evangelical.”
The Line Between Good and Evil Cuts Through Evangelical America

4/21/24 – Truth: You can’t be freed from suffering. Anyone who’s telling you that you can be freed from suffering is lying to you. Signed, simply being human.

4/21/24 – Happy Sunday!

4/21/24 – The Vatican is correct as it relates to human dignity. It is very important to maintain the organic, natural nature of human beings. Once that is destroyed, the continued existence of the human species will be gravely threatened. Within liberals, there is a paradox that they simultaneously want a more natural world, free of chemicals, the torture of animals, the extraction of fossil fuels, etc., but when it comes to preserving the natural order of humans, our own species, they go full-blown scientism. Whether or not one agrees with the Vatican, it is much more consistent than either liberals or conservatives.

4/19/24 – The logic was something along the lines of: If the other party is fighting, we’re winning. Really!? Is that how that works? In that case, who needs foreign enemies. They just need partisanship, right? The reason we do the right thing is because we are people with integrity. You don’t capitalize on other people’s mistakes to try to elevate yourself. It just ends up bringing you and, in this case, the country and the world down. It wasn’t the right thing to do. It was wrong.

4/19/24 – Flashback Friday.
10/25/23 – This. They didn’t get the evil one, but they got someone who’s worse than McCarthy. “10/4/23 – Apparently, they are planning to nominate the evil one, trump, for speaker. So, if they do so, what will Democrats do? Or they didn’t bother to think through their position? 10/4/23 – McCarthy also prevented the federal government from shutting down. If one is going to say a bunch of negative things that are entirely correct, one does also need to acknowledge the positive things that are also correct. There are certain people who are evil, such as the evil one, Trump, and one doesn’t need to do this with them. But McCarthy isn’t evil. He’s actually a rather run-of-the-mill politician. “Kevin McCarthy gave up his soul not for Wales but for something worse—Donald Trump. It will be of little comfort to McCarthy to know he’s hardly the only one to have done so.” Didn’t the evil one want the shutdown? McCarthy was punished immediately after he did the right thing and prevented it. Tell us: how do reinforcement and punishment work? What message does this send to other Republicans who do the right thing? Encourage the behavior you want to see in others.
Kevin McCarthy Got What He Deserved
10/18/23 – Taking a cynical, calculated approach to Republican dysfunction is not the way to go. Jim Jordon as Speaker is not a good outcome for the country and, therefore, for Democrats. They should have helped McCarthy keep his job, or find some suitable Republican alternative. Do the right thing and stop with the machinations or indulging in schadenfreude. Grow up!
10/2/23 – If need be, Democrats need to vote for McCarthy so that he can retain his job. We need to move beyond politics and start solving our problems. We need to work together as Americans and as global citizens.

4/19/24 – Too much politics. Not enough principles. Too much tech. Not enough analog. Too much social media. Not enough real-world interaction. Etc.

4/19/24 – We said a long time ago that Democrats should have crossed the aisle for McCarthy. They did not. Think about how much misery they would have saved Ukraine and others if they had done the right thing from the start.

4/16/24 – Much is uncertain. One thing is certain. Extreme liberals will destroy life on the planet with their scientism (science worship), aided and abetted by the propaganda.

4/13/24 – One idea to help revitalize rural areas and small towns is for them to invest in charging stations for EVs. This would help both the environment and these areas, as people could spend time and money in them while their vehicles charged up.
Also, this article/podcast addresses several questions about EVs.
You asked, we answered: Your questions about electric vehicles

4/10/24 – Yes, it’s a propaganda event, but only for a country that prides itself on state-sanctioned baby rapists, sodomizing rapists, rapists more generally, and, of course, torturers. A country that no longer produces anything of any value to the world. A country that has become a full-blown kleptocracy. A country that violently represses its own people. A country whose leaders care about nothing else but power and money. That’s the modern Russian state. It’s sick and sad.
“‘To be able to show off an American citizen who has chosen to reinvent themselves, to reform themselves and become a part of the Russian war machine seems to provide evidence that Russia is winning a much bigger spiritual war,’ he said.” Sure, Russia is winning a “spiritual war,” but only if you’re on the side of evil.
US military veteran accused of having explicit images of a child apparently joined Russian army
“Kamardin, 33, recited a poem condemning Russia-backed insurgents in eastern Ukraine. The next day, police with a search warrant burst into the apartment he shared with his wife Alexandra Popova and another friend, and took the poet into custody. Police beat Kamardin, Popova and their flatmate, and raped the poet, both his wife and his lawyer said.”
A lonely radio nerd. A poet. Vladimir Putin’s crackdown sweeps up ordinary Russians

4/10/24 – The evil one, trump, doesn’t give a crap about abortion. He’s a self-serving lunatic who’s desperate to stay out of prison.

4/10/24 – The world needs fewer people and more animals. Happy Wednesday!

4/2/24 – One shouldn’t get everything their way. Part of being a mature, reasonable person is conceding even if you might be right. Grace has tremendous value. It is dignified. It is love.

4/2/24 – Some more great pictures from Easter.
AP Photos: Easter Sunday around the world

4/2/24 – The way many Israelis and its government have treated both Palestinian Christians and Muslims is not correct. Also, this war is not well-executed, and it has turned into at least as much a quest for revenge as for justice. Netanyahu is a terrible person. (We also had a terrible leader, the evil one, trump, so we can sympathize with the Israelis who would like to get rid of him but can’t.) There have been too many innocent lives lost, harmed or displaced, including the tragic deaths of the workers with World Central Kitchen. May their courageous, humanitarian souls rest in peace.
Do all reasonable people wish there were peace in the Middle East? Of course, we do, but if people think the problems in the Middle East are isolated to Israel, they are not. That is simply fiction. Christians have fled the entire Levant due to war, persecution, discrimination, or Israeli’s restrictions. The rest of the Middle East, which also holds considerable religious significance for Christians, has treated them even worse than Israel has.
The propaganda would know this if they followed the persecuted church at all, but they don’t. So please spare us the anti-Semitism masquerading as deep concern for Christians. The propaganda hates Christianity, and we all know it. They also hate Islam because they hate religion in general. So, if you’re Muslim, don’t fool yourselves.
This is not actually about Muslims or Palestine. It’s actually about many liberals’ hatred and jealousy of the Jewish people. Look at how white people, especially Europeans, have treated them throughout history. Their fragile white egos can’t handle a successful ethnic group that is not white.
Israel belongs to the Jewish people. Period. Not Christians. Not Muslims. Ideally, all three Abrahamic religions could live there in peace and religious harmony, but that doesn’t seem to be the way things are playing out. This is quite unfortunate, and there is much blame to go around. Is it what Christians want? No, it’s not, but the right thing to do is to respect that the land belongs to the Jewish people and just leave if we can’t make this work.
Don’t begrudge the Jewish people. Christians and Muslims would have no religion without them. This is also a historical fact. It’s not worth it to continue to fight like this. Let the Jewish people have their land. Let them have peace. We can’t have peace in the world without grace and love. This is a way to express love of God, whether Christian or Muslim, by showing the Jewish people, who have been persecuted throughout history, some grace.

4/2/24 – God bless the persecuted church around the world, today and every day. God loves them with a deep and abiding love. May our God of hope sustain them physically, emotionally and spiritually. Pray for them, our true believers in Christ.

4/2/24 – One of the paradoxes of Christianity is that (then and perhaps still now) the people who were best suited to adopt its beliefs were the Jewish people. Why? Because, aside from Jesus as the Messiah, which they don’t believe unless they are Messianic Jews, the vast majority of Christianity’s beliefs and traditions came directly out of Judaism, and everybody else were Gentiles, who, at the time, had no spiritual formation in Christianity’s core tenets.
When Constantine converted to Christianity, he had no knowledge of the faith because he wasn’t a Jew. He was a pagan, who came to believe in monotheism while still not fully understanding the Jewish theological concept of one God. He also didn’t initially know the Christian rites that existed from the beginning, such as baptism, or its moral expectations, such as the Ten Commandments. He routinely violated the commandments, such as murdering his own wife and son, and procrastinated on baptism to avoid going to hell.
How is this still relevant 2,000 years later? For as surprising as it might be, because there is still considerable ignorance about the faith, its beliefs and demands, and ironically, especially from the “Christian Nationalists,” who sometimes still worship Nordic or pagan gods. Also, looking at the state of Christianity in Europe, the supposed cradle of Christianity, it is clear that its strong pagan streak, presently manifested as hedonism and/or science worship, is particularly obstinate among the self-described superior white race.
“Christian Nationalism” is a political movement with allusions to a religion that they barely understand. The degree of Constantine’s sincerity is debatable. Likely, it was a combination of genuine belief, however flawed in its understanding, and political ambition. MAGA are generally less sincere in the faith, and they reveal their theological and historical ignorance regularly.
Where Constantine ended the persecution of Christians and maintained religious freedom for all even while establishing Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire, MAGA are damaging the faith in their quest for political power and by forcing their more extreme religious values on a secular, diverse society.
Lastly, Constantine may have confused Jesus Christ with Sol Invictus, the son god, but it was at the origins of the faith, i.e. about 1,700 years ago, and at least it was still a god, not an evil, dangerous demagogue. What is obvious to many observers, even the nonreligious who don’t know much about Christianity, of our bizarre, modern-day religious saga is that MAGA treats the evil one, trump, like their messiah, casting aside Christians’ true Messiah, Jesus Christ. There is a Commandment about this. It’s the first one because it’s the most important.

4/2/24 – Everyone needs to stop rewriting facts and history according to what matches their feelings or views. Everything is hard enough. It’s obnoxious and intellectually and morally wrong. Knock it off!

4/2/24 – God loves Palestinians and Israelis alike, but Jesus was not a Palestinian Jew. Thou shall not give false testimony. He was a Hebrew, an Israelite from the land of what was then Judea. He was not Palestinian. There were Jews, and everybody else were Gentiles. Palestinians were Gentiles. They are Arabs. The Romans were colonizers. Everybody knows this, and it’s right there in the Bible. Stop making things up! Judea was and is Jewish land. Accept it, and move on.
This Easter, let’s not try to pretend Jesus was a ‘Palestinian Jew’

4/2/24 – To all of the overt and covert racists who think black people are inferior, just sit your ignorant a—es down. You know nothing. There is no evidence to support these views. Black people are beautiful, smart and talented. They are a gift to the world, and God loves them as they are.

4/1/24 – That’s fun. They looked amazing! There are some churches where entire African families will come dressed from head to toe in the same beautiful African prints. Lovely, and so cute! Everybody is welcome to our churches, especially the poor and marginalized, no matter how they’re dressed. We come dressed not to impress others with worldly things, but to show our respect to the God we love. It’s great when people come dressed well, and when immigrants come dressed in their home country’s traditional attire. It puts on full display the diversity of the Body of Christ.
These parishioners showed off their “Sunday’s best” this weekend

4/1/24 – Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” He is.

4/1/24 – Our civilization has taken millennia to develop. It can be destroyed in seconds. Remain humble and faithful to the Lord. All glory is fleeting.

4/1/24 – Before we have to return to the insane asylum that is American politics and other worldly preoccupations, let’s reflect on what was a soul-reviving Holy Week. It was a much-needed blessing and break from a world gone mad.
One would be forgiven for thinking of Christianity as a “white man’s religion,” but as the late Billy Graham said, it’s not. One of the many intriguing questions is: why did Rome become arguably the center of the faith, in which resides Vatican City, even though Paul and Jesus’s disciples evangelized throughout the world: the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa? Within what we now consider to be Europe or “the west,” why wasn’t the center Greece?
Perhaps Jesus, who most historians and theologians understand to be a brown Jew, meaning neither white nor Roman, thought that “the white man” most needed to hear his message. Rome was the center of earthly power. Also, wouldn’t it be poignant if the very people who put Jesus to death were conquered by him? (No, it wasn’t the Jews. Stop with the anti-Semitism. Ultimately, Pontius Pilate was in charge of the province of Judea, and he made the call.) This reversal of power for the ancient persecuted church in Rome is often attributed to Constantine’s conversion, but perhaps it should actually be credited to God.
The Roman Empire is no longer. Italy is a small fraction of what was once that mighty empire, but Christianity has come to dominate the world. One can find it almost everywhere on the planet. It takes different expressions influenced by the people and the culture that make the universal religion its own.
Linguistically, in the Catholic Church, there is often a considerable amount of Latin, some Greek, and some Spanish during standard masses. The language Jesus spoke, however, was Aramaic, which is most closely related to Hebrew and Syriac, all three of which are Semitic languages. Syriac and the Syriac rite are still spoken and practiced in Eastern churches.
That said, both Greek and Latin played a considerable role in the early church, but the closest language to Latin, which was the language of the Roman Empire, that is spoken in the Catholic Church as part of its standard Liturgy of the Word or of the Eucharist is actually Spanish, since it’s a Romance language. It is definitely not English.
There is also the outstanding question: exactly how “white” are Italians and Greeks anyway? They certainly don’t seem genetically as “white” as the people from England to which a certain political camp is peddling American exceptionalism. The Pilgrims and Puritans were Northern Europeans, who hadn’t experienced conquest from, for example, the Moors of Africa. They were much more likely to be raided by Vikings to their north.
Therefore, genetically, ethnically, and linguistically white people don’t have any special inheritance to Christianity. In addition, Romans came to dominate Christianity through power and politics, starting with Constantine. This is obviously contrary to the message of Christianity, but the arc of this worldly power was relatively flat and short in comparison to the high and long arc of Christianity’s divine power.
MAGA’s claims to Christianity are, as usual, absurd and detached from historical and other evidence. More generally, the cross isn’t a flag, a country, a culture, a language, a people or a genetic ancestry. It is the most powerful expression of God’s love in human history. It is a love that we don’t deserve but was given to us nonetheless. To use this love to spread hate again goes contrary to Jesus’s message. If we are to escape from our self-inflicted misery, there is only one way – the way of the cross, and this way, this truth, this life belongs to the world, from the beginning to the end, from the alpha to the omega, no matter the language, culture or people.
AP Photos: Young and old participate in Holy Week religious processions on Italy’s Procida island
Good Friday in Latin America
Hours to make and seconds to destroy, Holy Week flower carpets are a labor of love in Guatemala

Notes from Underground – March 2024

3/31/24 – Happy Easter! Our Lord is risen. People seemed to need spiritual nourishment in this time of darkness, and this Holy Week gave it to us. Take time to glorify God, who gives us everything, including our salvation.

3/29/24 – Our services are stunning…and packed. Get there early, or you won’t be able to find parking and/or a seat during the Triduum Sacrum.

3/28/24 – “When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord,” and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John 13: 12-15) Brings one to their knees. As Christians, we are called to serve God and each other.

3/28/24 – It’s especially beautiful when religious traditions overlap. Much love to our religious brothers and sisters, particularly Abrahamic and Hindu. It’s a gift to glorify God together.
Holi 2024: The Festival of Colors

3/24/24 – As a rough estimate, at least half of the country is sick of the other half of the country, who are hyperpartisan extremists, on both sides of the aisle. Happy Palm Sunday! Hope Holy Week is a no politics, no social media break from all of the absurdity. 

3/21/24 – Now, let’s take it up a notch, shall we. What about beastiality? (Oh yes, we’re going there.) The Bible explicitly states that human beings are made in the image of God and are unlike animals. It also says that beastiality is not allowed, so that’s that.
However, according to the theory of evolution, coming out of the magical primordial soup, we’re all genetically related. Humans are just another animal, so what’s wrong with having sex with a sheep, a monkey, or your pet dog? You’re feeling a little lonely, and dogs have desires too. (Are you getting a little uncomfortable? Poor you.)
Aren’t these also just social taboos, outdated artifacts without any scientific basis? There is nothing in the survival of the fittest that limits sexual activity to the same species. What’s a species anyway? Isn’t this taxonomy going to evolve? Isn’t our species just a relatively arbitrary designation that science will eventually modify?
You have sexual desires. You need gene expression. Just find a warm hole and stick it in. Sure, it might be an anus that is biologically designed to expel shit, but when has that stopped anyone, right? In fact, some might argue that an anus is just a…wait for it…universal vagina. (But we will be coming back to this point.)
Let’s see what nature comes up with. Maybe dog sex will generate something more evolved than the pathetic humans we have now, some of whom are deluded enough to think they’re made in the image of God, or is it the flying spaghetti monster? Those religious folk, such simpletons with their ideas of family and their prohibitions on incest and beastiality? Why limit ourselves to these boring, unevolved ideas.
You know what, let’s just skip the dog sex (penises dripping with dog shit might not be everybody’s cup of tea) and just create part dog, part human in the lab, right? (Why limit ourselves to organ harvesting? Isn’t all life meant for us humans to use however we see fit?) We can do that, can’t we? The tools are right there. Yes, the religious folk are the backward, delusional past. Crispr, it’s the evolved, scientific future.

3/20/24 – Now, let’s add some more complexity to the situation below regarding an adopted child wanting information about their birth parents when the parents wanted to remain unknown. Ancestry and 23andMe don’t tell their clients if evidence of incest can be found in their DNA analysis. Should they? They are obviously trying to protect the client from traumatic information. Should we as a society have laws in place that require them to provide this information? Should we have laws that remove any statute of limitations as it relates to these crimes? But wait, are they crimes?
As the article points out, incest is a taboo in almost all if not all societies in the world. However, the children are still human. The likelihood of genetic defects is greater, but there are still many children of incest that are generally healthy. Is the taboo outdated? The Hebrew Bible, which is one of the oldest if not the oldest religious text in the world, explicitly states that incest is not allowed. How does one reconcile this with the story of Adam and Eve?
How does one reconcile this universal taboo with the theory of evolution? If we’re all coming out of the same source of life, the magical primordial soup, aren’t we all made of the same genetic material? By evolutionary theory, isn’t all life incestuous? Should we just allow everybody to have sex with anybody, as long as they are “consenting adults”: fathers with daughters, brothers with sisters, uncles with nieces? What does it matter? Aren’t we just animals who can have sex with whomever we want? Survival of the fittest means spreading one’s genes far and wide. Let chance do its thing, right?
Also, what’s a consenting adult? Isn’t 18 years of age simply an arbitrary cut off? Maybe it should be 16-years-old? Why not 14-years-old? Perhaps incest has less to do with biology and everything to do with what we find morally and socially acceptable? Isn’t the idea of husband and wife, children, grandparents, grandchildren, uncles and aunts, etc. all just social constructs and artifacts? Perhaps they are outdated too? Perhaps the entire notion of family is outdated? In which case, what is incest, right?
As an aside, the liberals seemed to take great issue with the evil one, trump, speaking in sexual terms about his daughter, but why? Aren’t they the same people who think all of these ideas are antiquated, religious restrictions?
DNA Tests Are Uncovering the True Prevalence of Incest

3/18/24 – Let’s start here, in a place that’s less combustible. Unless there is something wrong with you, you want children to be adopted if their birth parents are unable or unwilling to take care of them. Likely all reasonable, caring people share this position, meaning there is no political divide. Spend some time thinking about the rights of the mother, the father, and the child. Then, think about the rights of the adoptive parents. Think about everybody’s feelings including the adoptive parents, the birth parents, and the child. Should one party, such as the child’s rights, be given more weight than the others? Should the adopted child be able to get this information about their birth parents? Think through all of the negatives and positives in making this information available to the child and/or the public. If you think everything about giving life to another human being and raising that beautiful life is simple, just black and white, you likely haven’t been thinking hard enough about the complexities of this situation or about life more generally. The article is striking in how deeply personal and well-written it is. It is thought-provoking and at once sad and hopeful. It is real life. Read, listen and think deeply.
No One’s Children

3/18/24 – Does National Propaganda Radio actually think articles like this help anything or our country? On what planet is this objective reporting?
An ‘exvangelical’ on loving, leaving and reporting on the culture of Christianity

3/17/24 – Jesus did not leave us orphaned. He loves us. Happy Sunday!

3/17/24 – “Another interesting fact about Saint Honore is that he was a close friend of Saint Eligius, who was a famous goldsmith and metalworker. The two saints worked together to spread the Christian faith and helped to establish monasteries and churches throughout France.” One of the turns our society needs to take is to value the simple, honest work that others do. Everybody doesn’t need to get a bachelor’s degree. There are many people who are considerably smarter than people who have bachelor’s degrees. For example, is that idiot Kate Cohen smarter than the average blue-collar guy who didn’t get a bachelor’s degree no matter the institution she went to? No, she’s definitely not. We can provide students with pathways that develop their intellects and inspire a love of learning while they learn a meaningful trade, which often pay well, by the way.
Saint Honore: The Compassionate Bishop and Patron Saint of Bakers and Pastry Chefs

3/17/24 – If you’re already planning for some Easter treats, which is only two weeks away, perhaps try a classic French pastry, the St. Honoré cake.
St. Honoré Cake

3/16/24 – If you read this scathing article and aren’t full of rage at the Supreme KKKourt by the end of it, then you’re simply not paying attention. It is a rogue institution, and the extremely important question before us is: how do we put it in its place? It is not the highest court in the land. It’s the lowest. It is traitorous scum. It betrayed our Constitution and our democracy. Put it in its place!
Supreme Betrayal

3/14/24 – A great article that makes numerous important points. One criticism is that Gen X wasn’t worse off than Millennials due to the phone. It was due to divorce and other social changes that had started in the previous generation. Did the phone help Millennials with those issues? That’s unlikely. The society likely got better at dealing with things like single-parent homes and divorce. So basically, the social changes are a confounding factor. The section on social sciences, particularly economics and psychology, was quite fascinating. It is likely that many of the kids can sense they are addicted and want to stop. Mostly, it’s parents’ responsibility to make this happen. They have failed at their jobs.
The government must step in. The TikTok ban is a great first step. (Again, the Washington Propaganda’s editorial board are ignoramuses.) If our society, our world really, cares at all about its children, it will put an immediate stop to this madness. Arguably, children don’t need smartphones at any age. All one needs to do with the phone is use it to make phone calls, text occasionally and search the web from time to time for information. They can deal with not being able to search the web on their phones.
One only needs to observe kids for a few hours to see that they are addicted to their phones, often social media and video games. It has created antisocial kids (and adults). But it’s more than that. Kids’ hands get tired faster when they’re writing because they literally haven’t trained those parts of their body as much. Their attention span is considerably lower, and more generally, they don’t know how to study. They also have not had similar necessary formative experiences as older generations, and in great part for this reason, they are less independent and responsible. (Also, stop coddling your kids.) The phone has wasted an entire generation’s minds and bodies. If you’re still defending this $%@& (no swearing for Lent), you’re out of your mind, or you’re addicted yourself. Grow up, and start acting like an adult.
End the Phone-based Childhood Now

3/14/24 – This is good advice. Parents have no discipline anymore, and kids are learning bad habits…from them.
Why you should stop texting your kids at school

3/11/24 – Not to be a complainer, but churches need more parking.

3/11/24 – It’s more important that the show stays free than that fans get their fix now. Jesus belongs to the world. Chill out, and if you can financially, you really should be contributing. You can buy merch, DVDs or Blu-ray, go to the cinema, donate, etc. Don’t free ride.
I’ve got bad news about Season 4’s release

3/11/24 – We need to define life. Life is not some pathetic Petri dish cells swimming around in toxic sludge. Life means comparable to what we have on earth. That’s the standard. That’s life…as God created it.

3/11/24 – There are the genius masters of the universe with their brilliant mathematical and financial models that nobody could actually understand. So, everybody just believed them or at least pretended to because they didn’t want to look dumb. Then, the financial system imploded because the masters of the universe were wrong. It’s not dumb to not understand something exceptionally complicated and, in fact, stupid. What’s dumb is to go along with it.
This same phenomenon is happening with the science worshippers, which is much of the elite. They are actually idiots who are going along with theories that they don’t understand. They just don’t want to seem dumb. The moron Kate Cohen doesn’t understand anything, and we all know it. The whole thing is a farce, or maybe the better word is a lie.

3/11/24 – At present, we understand the universe to be expanding, what if it starts shrinking? Then what? What does the probability for life, which is very close to zero, look like then?

3/10/24 – The radicalization of the Republican Party isn’t some deep mystery. It’s that, for all of its other stated values, some of which were quite noble, it values greed above all else. This was true of Reagan, and it is true of the evil one, trump. One could argue that this was the underlying condition that predisposed it to radicalization.
Avarice is not just a sin in Christianity, it’s a corruption of the soul. Greed manifests as what about me and mine, and it can quickly be transformed into resentment, especially by a skillful demagogue. I’m not getting what’s due to me because of [insert scapegoat].
If rich people were anywhere as smart as they think they are, they would ask themselves a simple question: What if there is a God? Because the probability that there is a God is extremely high. To everyone preoccupied with money: remember that the life you were given was a gift you didn’t earn. You will lose it, and when you do, your maker will decide your fate. All of the power and security you thought you had was an illusion.

3/10/24 – It is never wise to bet against the United States of America. Let’s live up to our creed, America. Happy Sunday!

3/10/24 – A country is only as good as its people. On a day-to-day basis, our people are good. They work hard. They are generous, kind and helpful. On the Job is a series that showcases the people who make our country work. (It would be rather poignant to have a Dalit as the host for the series.)
On the Job
These are our people. “‘2 in the morning, we thought they were sleeping,’ he told us. ‘We started banging, banging on doors and yelling ‘fire, fire, fire!’ at the top of our lungs, just trying to wake people up. We didn’t think about getting hurt. Just getting people out.’
There were about 14 people inside those two burning buildings. Several were children. Police say they all got out safely, including a neighbor who suffers from dementia. Then they all took shelter on Adamopoulos’ bus, while firefighters arrived and put out the flames.”
Opinion: Some heroes drive city buses

3/10/24 – As it relates to illegal immigration, the words don’t matter: illegal, migrant, immigrant. They are all true. What matters is our Statue of Liberty. Daniel Pink suggests that all of our natural born citizens take, as a rite of passage, our citizenship test. It’s a good idea. It will remind them of the words that do matter. They are the ones in our Constitution.

3/10/24 – With all of our intense internal problems, which are, frankly, a bit scary, Americans are still a force for good in the world. We are helping Israelis and Palestinians because we care about both people. (Right now, we need to be doing more and faster for Palestinians in need.) We will live up to our responsibilities in the world. (If any other country wants to take over this role though, we’re more than happy to hand it over. It is quite exhausting for us as a country.)

3/10/24 – Israel belongs to the Jewish people. End of story. The extreme left and right need to stop with the anti-Semitism. It is never justified – ever. The Jewish people have brought the world so much. They are a good people. They are a great people. As Americans, we will stay true to our creed, to George Washington’s America. This land will always be a safe refuge for the Jewish people, for people of all faiths, Muslims, Jews, whomever.
The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending

3/10/24 – With respect, the Pope should keep his opinions on Ukraine to himself. They are not helpful. Americans are a people of our word. These are dark times for us, yet we are doing our best to stand with Ukraine. We fully intend to stand with them until they win the war. (If the evil one, trump, is reelected, the entire country will blow up, so who knows what will happen to all of us.) Slava Ukraini!

3/10/24 – If you happen to still be working it out, yes, that means that the probability for life is very close to zero, which is also supported by observation of our universe. We take life for granted, but it is an extraordinary gift.

3/9/24 – For the people who can’t get all that. Imagine a situation where you can get to life, but with each step you need to take to get closer to life, the probability of getting to life gets exponentially smaller, and there is no way to get to life without creating new steps. That’s how the logic breaks down. It’s basically a Catch-22.

3/9/24 – Assume the conditions for life are met, which we haven’t found anywhere else but on earth, thus an infinitesimally low probability. Then, by chance, also an infinitesimally low probability, life emerges. Then, by the genius RNA theory, the copy must not be too good or too bad, another highly precise set of conditions, another infinitesimally low probability. Then, by Darwinian theory, evolution would begin by natural selection, even though, life on the planet earth as we observe it (usually called science but only if it supports a popular theory and doesn’t refute it, right, objective scientists?) doesn’t seem to follow the survival of the fittest as defined by scientists. There seems to be an element of chance. Conveniently ignoring the element of chance in evolution, which clearly causes complications for the theory, what is the probability? Please do tell. Mathematically, every time you include a condition, which is the logical development of any approach along these lines and practically impossible to get around, the probability goes down. If you simply multiply the probabilities together, it goes from infinitesimally small to infinitesimally smaller. That’s what the inclusion of RNA into said magical primordial soup just proved. That’s the math. (Do the math.) That’s the science. And that’s the truth.

3/9/24 – All the science worshippers have is an intellectual legerdemain, which is also called specious logic. They have not actually proven anything that needs to be proven to be scientifically convincing.

3/9/24 – Not only have we not been able to find life anywhere else in the universe, but we haven’t even been able to find the conditions for life as we understand them to be. Now, assume we do find the conditions for life as we currently understand them to be, is that necessary and sufficient for life to emerge? Assuming God doesn’t exist, does chance play a factor not just for the conditions for life but also for life to emerge assuming the conditions for life? If life does emerge, would it look like life on earth? Identity atheist, extrapolate.

3/9/24 – The genius science worshippers’ theory of the origin of life: assume primordial soup. It’s catchy and has a Latin word and the word, “soup,” which just sounds lifegiving. What is said primordial soup? Well, it doesn’t matter too much. It’s magical. Main ingredient is water, add some sun, and just like plants, it will bloom life. Then there is the, wait for it, deep revolutionary scientific find that RNA begets RNA, a clever mockery of the Bible because, of course, their theory is vastly superior. Except for it’s not. Yes, assume the conditions for life is necessary and sufficient to magically bring forth life, throw in science words, and legitimate. Smart. Science. Superior. Logic?

3/9/24 – Another way to respond to evil: document it any way you can.

3/9/24 – The AP has some great photojournalists and a few good reporters, and the ones on dangerous assignments risk their lives to bring us the images and the stories. It is important to appreciate good journalists. They help us preserve our democracy, speak truth to power, and share the stories the world needs to hear. It is very important the AP does not do propaganda.

3/9/24 – If Israel doesn’t cooperate, the international community will force it to cooperate. It will allow Palestinians to get humanitarian aid. End of story.

3/9/24 – We can feel the pain of the heinous crimes Hamas perpetuated against Israelis and the pain of Palestinians struggling for their survival because of the Israeli government’s overreach, at times cruel actions, and its terrible leader Netanyahu. Biden’s biggest problem is actually not his age (although we would still like a younger leader, but none has surfaced that will be taking on the evil one, trump), it’s that he’s been too cautious and slow on foreign policy. (He’s been fairly bold on some domestic policy though, but he needs to stop bailing out the financial industry and corporations.) This has been true of Ukraine. It’s also true of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. To the Palestinian supporters who are frustrated with him, they should view it as a pattern of behavior that is simply part of his personality. It’s not indifference. Biden does care, but his reflexive caution can be frustrating to infuriating. This action should have been taken some time ago…. Whoever advises that man on foreign policy: more and faster!
How the US military is scrambling to build a floating dock for urgently needed aid to Gaza

3/9/24 – The MAGA degenerate MTG thought she was quite clever appropriating “say her name.” Well, Biden had no problem saying her name, and neither should the rest of us. It doesn’t undermine anything. Her name is Laken Riley, and she was murdered by an illegal. We have no problem stating truths. The people who have a hard time with the truth are people like the moron MTG, the evil one, trump, and his cult MAGA. We can show up for people’s pain no matter their political alignment, their race, nationality, whatever. It is MAGA who can only feel white pain but not black and brown pain. Their compassion is conditional on skin color. That’s not Christianity. That’s the MAGA religion, and their god is the evil one, trump.
How Black women coined the ‘say her name’ rallying cry before Biden’s State of the Union address

3/8/2024 – Don’t take any of your rights for granted. There are powerful evil forces in our country that want to turn back the clock and strip us of our fundamental, God-given rights. Our ancestors sacrificed greatly for us. We owe it to them to keep fighting no matter the cost.

3/8/2024 – The Supreme KKKourt can decide to take away our rights at any time, and they have. They are subverting the supreme law of the land, the Constitution. It is up to the American people to defy any laws that do not hold true to the document to which we swear an oath. We will never give up our freedoms. We will never give up our democracy. We will never betray our country, meaning our Constitution. Give us liberty or give us death.

3/8/2024 – Dred Scott was a terrible decision. It was made on March 6, 1857. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on September 22, 1862, the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, wasn’t ratified until December 6, 1865. Today, Friday, March 8 is International Women’s Day. Women didn’t get the right to vote until August 18, 1920, when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. (We were cheated out of properly celebrating our 100-year anniversary because of the evil one, trump.)
The Supreme KKKourt has no respect for or loyalty to the Constitution, the Founding Fathers or the country. Just like previous bad decisions the KKKourt has made, their decision regarding the evil one, trump, will live in infamy. Time will only intensify how cowardly and disloyal to the Constitution it was. No, we will not be getting over it at any point in the future. What’s done is done. The KKKourt will live with the consequences of its decision for perpetuity. American history will see to it.

3/5/24 – Let us consider what the military is expect to do when it receives an order that violates the Constitution. Even if it’s from the Commander-in-Chief, it’s expected to not follow it. The military swore an oath to the Constitution. The same principle holds here. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, not any one person or any one institution. The Supreme KKKourt is totally illegitimate. States should simply ignore its ruling, and keep the evil one, trump, off the ballot. Let the chips fall where they may. States must uphold the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, not the Supreme KKKowards.
“To the contrary, because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, they have a duty to do that. State officials and state courts have an obligation not to ‘deny to any person within [the state’s] jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,’ regardless of what Congress does or doesn’t do. So now Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment is the only provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that may require some congressional action to be enforced, at least in some circumstances. The justices effectively carved out Section 3, without any textual or clear historical basis for doing so.”

3/5/24 – Moving on from WaProp’s idiocy, no, this is not a fair point. “You could have different states applying different standards under Section 3 in different proceedings with different procedures and on differing records, and they could reach differing results as to a particular candidate for the presidency. This, the Court felt, was bad. Practically speaking, that’s a fair point.” The entire point was that the southern states might want a former Confederate officer to become president of the United States. Section 3 is meant to prevent an insurrectionist, which is what the evil one, trump is (this is obvious on its face), from being elected even if some states might want this. It was expected to be applied when different states had different standards regarding this matter.
Exactly. The variation is part of states’ rights with certain exceptions, such as insurrection. Despite what some states might want, an insurrectionist is not allowed to become president. That is what the Constitution says! “And despite the Court’s decision on Trump, we will still have a dreaded ‘patchwork’—because the Constitution has always vested states with the task of running even federal elections.”
The Court’s Colorado Decision Wasn’t About the Law

3/5/24 – The Washington Propaganda’s editorial board are elitist, unprincipled ignoramuses who are contributing to the destruction of our country. It also has people like, Kate Cohen, identity atheist, extrapolate, who is as evolved as an amoeba yet constantly brags about how intelligent she and her children are. It is a terrible publication.

3/5/24 – Long live the Federation!

3/5/24 – There does not need to be any violence in becoming a federation. In fact, a federation of states would be much better aligned with the composition of our people and their diversity. We can simply dismantle the federal institutions that no longer serve the will of the people. We, as states, can also decide how the military will function. Since the Supreme KKKowards has decided that we no longer need to follow the Constitution as a country, the military should not be led by the Commander-in-Chief. It makes it too vulnerable to a coup using the military. We haven’t had a president like George Washington since our founding. The evil one is the antithesis of George Washington, and people are concerned that he’ll turn the military against the American people because he has already tried to do so. A federation would be better for all Americans, red and blue states, than living under the Supreme KKKourt’s dictatorship or the evil one’s, trump’s, dictatorship.

3/5/24 – The evil one, trump, is a wannabe dictator. The Supreme KKKourt is already a dictatorship. It is obvious that they amended the Constitution.

3/5/24 – The Supreme KKKourt has become a dictatorship that’s imposing the will of the minority on the majority. It is undermining the other two branches of government, which are directly elected by the people. More importantly, it is undermining our Constitution. It is not applying the law. It is overwriting the law, including the law written by our Founding Fathers. After its latest ruling regarding the 14th Amendment, it has no more legitimacy. It needs to be eradicated as an institution. We can be a federation with state supreme courts.

3/4/24 – Only Congress has the right to amend our Constitution. The Supreme KKKowards do not have that right. It is a rogue, hypocritical, political arm of the Republican Party. All states can simply ignore its rulings. The states that want to keep the evil one, trump, off the ballot should simply do so. The KKKourt is not originalist or backed by sound jurisprudence. It is acting as what should be two separate branches of government. The Supreme KKKourt is illegitimate.
“They felt that a plain reading of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment would lead to chaotic or adverse outcomes, so they not only ignored it but also essentially amended the Constitution by fiat.”
The Supreme Court Once Again Reveals the Fraud of Originalism

3/4/24 – The evil one, trump, accuses Biden of conspiring against the U.S. because that’s what the evil one is doing. With the recent ruling, the Supreme KKKowards are contributing to the grave danger we’re facing due to the evil one, particularly maintaining our democracy and protecting ourselves from attacks from our adversaries.

3/3/24 – On the power of prayer, art and showing up for other people’s pain. (The Israelites gave the world everything. Be true to the God of our shared Abraham. Be the great people your ancestors have been.)
Monasteries and the Art of Quieting the Disquieted Mind

3/3/24 – If you’re serious about changing this world for the better, show up for “the other side’s” pain. The darkness we’re in now isn’t our destiny. Our destiny is what we make it. Let’s go back home and be a servant of the Lord.

3/3/24 – If you’re serious about changing this world for the better, focus on glorifying God not yourself.  “‘We thought, this is cool — it’s God glorifying,’ Haynza Posala said.”
This is a great idea! Places to have fun and connect with our creator. The church has never been the building. It’s always been where two or more are gathered in Jesus’s name. Jesus, the person who turned water into wine, didn’t seem to have a problem with people being human and having a good time. Keep it clean though.
No twerking. No drinking. No smoking. But plenty of room for Jesus at this Christian nightclub

3/3/24 – Compared with Europe, which created outstanding art and architecture, the rest of the Christian world has not produced as much great Christian art and architecture. Let’s change that. We are a global religion. Inspired by our faith and our love for God, let’s create gorgeous, compelling art that reflects the diversity of the body of Christ and glorifies the Lord.

3/3/24 – The Bible is filled with stories that force you to think hard about who you are and your relationship with God, each other and our incredible planet. It has many great stories that have inspired artists and thinkers for generations. The Prodigal Son is one of them. Read the Bible. Pray. Remember: Jesus loves you.
Ry Cooder – The Prodigal Son (Live in studio)

Rembrandt – Return of the Prodigal Son

3/2/24 – Hinduism with its belief in reincarnation can express a beautiful respect for other life, all of God’s creatures. Unfortunately, the caste system, which can treat other human beings as even less than animals, and the focus on cows and beef consumption undermines its potential to enlighten us on our interconnection with God’s other creatures.
Similarly, pigs are very intelligent animals. All animals regardless of their intelligence belong to God. Dietary taboos that might exist within a religion or spiritual belief system do not negate this universal truth: all life belongs to God.

3/2/24 – We are all sinners. We are all the prodigal son, the one who realized he was lost and the one who didn’t realize he was lost. Be humble before God, each other and all life. Life is a gift we never earned.
The Sensational Nightingales – Prodigal Son

3/2/24 – The Israeli government’s actions have gotten cruel. This isn’t justice. It’s become revenge or political machinations to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza. It needs to stop. If the Israeli army engaged in a war crime, it should be prosecuted as such. The investigation should be conducted by a neutral third party.
To the Israelites, remember, God showed you mercy despite your sinfulness. Practice the faith by extending grace to others whether or not they deserve it. Palestinians are also human beings.
Many of those killed or wounded in Gaza stampede for aid were shot by Israel’s army, EU arm says

3/1/24 – We all die. When your time comes, just accept it and move on. Also, there is no greater honor or way to be closer to God than sacrificing your life for a righteous cause or for others (including animals). If we were all more like Jesus, we would have heaven on earth.

3/1/24 – It is immoral to experiment on pigs or other animals to harvest organs, etc., so that we can live longer. God created humans – and animals. The same people who believe in evolutionary theory want to treat animals as if they have no rights. They have rights under God’s law.

3/1/24 – Evolutionary theory is garbage.

3/1/24 – One can mourn the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and also mourn the murder of Paul Elmstrand, Matthew Ruge, and Adam Finseth in Burnsville. One can mourn the murder of Alexei Navalny and the murder of countless innocent Ukrainians. This is consistent. We mourn senseless loss of life.

3/1/24 – There should be a national ban on students having phones in classrooms for the entire school day. If there is an emergency, students can go to the school office like they used to.
Kids are using phones in class, even when it’s against the rules. Should schools ban them all day?

Reversal Is Redemption

The Visitation
Ghirlandaio – Visitation

Are people born evil, live evil lives and finally die evil, what we sometimes call nature? Do they become evil due to their circumstances, what we sometimes call nurture? Or is the survival instinct, the key assumption for evolutionary theory for all life, the source of all evil for human beings (since even the science worshippers don’t believe that animals have the (what’s the word) capacity for or responsibility of discerning good and evil)?

If all that matters is survival at all costs, wouldn’t all humans be motivated to be as evil as possible? Wouldn’t civilization effectively end up as a race to the bottom? Why sacrifice one’s life for anything? Why temper one’s desire to extend one’s life at any cost?

What if, instead of survival of the fittest, our souls magnify the Lord, not ourselves. This is Mary’s Song, The Magnificat, the Ode of the Theotokos. It is a reversal of the world order.
“46 And Mary said:
My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.” (Luke 1:46-56)

In God’s order, we are to be stewards of the life he created, of all life on the planet. In his order, humans do reign supreme, but with great power, God also gave us great responsibility. In addition to the story of God’s creation in Genesis, the story of Noah’s Ark also reflects the importance of the animals that share our planet to our own survival. They were not abandoned. They were preserved with human life. They are part of God’s initial creation, and the story reflects their value to their creator. As we do, all life belongs to God.

According to the theory of evolution, human beings evolved from the same magically appearing spark of life into the superior creatures we presumably are now. By our superior reason, we are dominant because our genes are simply better than other animals, since we are considered the most evolved animal. The evolutionary order imposes no responsibility on humans to other life. In fact, if we can live on the planet without other life, all the better, more space and resources for us, the superior animal.

However, we cannot do so, something about food chains and such. Science can be so convenient (evolutionary theory) and yet so inconvenient (the real world created by God). More importantly, this is not God’s order, and it is a violation of his mandate. We are failing our planet and all of its life. In God’s order, human beings are not the only creatures with rights. In addition to violating human rights, violating animal rights, such as using them in immoral experiments to serve humans, even to extend their lives, is also evil.

What great irony it is to be a vegan and an atheist. The science they believe in so deeply in is the same science that tortures animals to extend human life, survival of the fittest at all costs after all. In other words, we can use any animal however we want to extend our lives because survival of the human species, the superior species, is all that matters. Survival of the fittest is the process by which we attained our superior position as king of the animals, and we keep it by ruthless self-preservation.

Mary tells us that the Lord will reverse the order. God’s order is the opposite of our worldly order. This is also Jesus’s message in the Sermon on the Mount, one of the most famous passages in the Bible.

“5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.
The Beatitudes
He said:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5-7)

It is a warning to all. Do not get too attached to worldly things, such as power, money, and prestige, or even to life itself. If you do, in the end, under God’s law, which is the only one that truly matters, you will find yourselves on the losing side of the order. The reversal will be redemption for the poor in spirit, for those who mourn, for the meek, for the righteous, for the merciful, for the pure in heart, for the peacemakers, for those persecuted because of righteousness, and like Noah’s Ark, for the rest of God’s creatures, for he does not abandon us or them.

Notes from Underground – February 2024

2/27/24 – Another way to respond to evil: quiet. Just sit in your quiet room by yourself and rest your body, mind and soul. Just be with your creator. If you want, you can let your mind drift to all the beautiful life he created for us, animals and plants, and your heart can be full of gratitude. What a gift.

2/27/24 – Another way to respond to evil: don’t. Turning off the evil one, trump, is actually one of the most effective responses to him. The people, such as MAGA, who give him their ear, their time, their money, their lives, contribute to his evil. If there were an evil one, trump, switch that the nation could just turn off, our country would be that much less evil. It would be quieter and nicer.

2/27/24 – The evil one, trump’s appeal to white people, such as the KKK, “I am your retribution; we’re taking the country back from those criminal black people.” The evil one, trump’s appeal to black people, “You’re all criminals like I am; we have so much in common.” Genius.

2/27/24 – Give the Ukrainians the money already! It is costing them their lives.

2/26/24 – Be more like Jesus. Happy Monday!

2/26/24 – There are two Americas. The people who can’t unplug, and the people who can.

2/24/24 – To the Bernie supporters who were pissed off about Super Delegates, they sure come in handy sometimes, don’t they.

2/24/24 – The Republican Party should spend all of its money saving the evil one, trump, who is a tested loser. This is a great political strategy for winning.

2/22/24 – Let’s realign our society, showing people who do more for our country, more appreciation, respect, and value.

2/22/24 – The character of farmers isn’t as critical as it is in jobs that require direct interaction with people, but, on a day-to-day basis, we need them arguably more than anybody else. Farmers also need to be better compensated and regarded. They work extremely hard, and their jobs require knowledge, skill and discipline.

2/22/24 – It’s puzzling why it’s hard to appreciate the people who actually make the country work. Almost all of these educated people are not the bedrock of our country. Their jobs are basically glorified paper pushers. (The pandemic exposed this.) Hard truth.

2/22/24 – Many progressive “values” are just kooky fads, and these people can come across as unhinged.

2/22/24 – David Brooks writes, “Finally, less-educated voters feel morally judged for being socially backward.” (Maybe it’s Canadian English. Did he mean “as”?) They’re not socially backward. Even a piece that’s pretending to advocate for noncollege educated Americans ends up being condescending.

2/20/24 – There are certain professions that require people of the highest character. In particular, we don’t want people entering education, first responders, law, medicine, military service, or the religious life that aren’t of the highest character.
Even though fewer people are entering the seminary than in the past, there are still people entering it. The Catholic Church, for example, recruits religious people, as do all organizations. However, that doesn’t mean that they are willing to lower their standards or that they should. One priest in his homily said, if you don’t want to work, this is not the right job for you. Go do something else. This is a job that requires your all. It is. They take vows that give up everything: money and a family, and it’s demanding work.
There is too much money in medicine and law. Medical and law schools should increase the number of students they accept to bring down the average compensation. They are providing a valuable service to the public. It should be well-compensated but not be as lucrative as it is now so that they attract people who are committed to serving people, not themselves. On the flip side, the military, first responders, and education need to be held in higher regard and be better compensated. Religious people should also be held in higher regard.
When these professions aren’t calibrated correctly, they attract people who have subpar character, who are motivated for other reasons, such as prestige, money, power, or who knows what. In general, character is more important than anything else, and when these professions accept people who don’t have exceptional character, it can have terrible ramifications. We can end up with predatory priests, killer cops, war criminals, or unethical doctors, lawyers or educators.
We, as a society, need to value certain professions more than others because we depend on them more and because they are more demanding. The military and first responders put their lives on the line for us. They run toward danger, when we run away, potentially making the ultimate sacrifice for us. Their performance can also mean life or death for the people they serve. The stakes are high.
Everybody needs educators, and they should be better compensated. Most people interact with educators more than anybody else in their entire lives outside of their families. They help form them into the people they become. No other profession carries that same level of responsibility in the formation of our people. We want educators to be committed to the work and to serving people. We do not want to attract people with subpar character to education. It would be disastrous.

2/19/24 – The United States of America welcomes all people. The Statue of Liberty is a message to the world that the strength of our country comes from the character of our people who have come here from around the world. We are so blessed as a nation to have such good, talented people. Together we’re stronger, and we will defeat evil and our adversaries, no matter the cost.

2/19/24 – Black America is America.
A nontraditional rendition that reflects the diversity of our nation even within the black experience.
Marvin Gaye – National Anthem, 1983 NBA All-Star Game
A classic, arguably, the best. The pipes on that woman.
Whitney Houston – Star Spangled Banner (National Anthem) – Super Bowl 1991 – 4K REMASTERED

2/19/24 – George Washington’s America is a proudly secular nation. “May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.”
George Washington and the Jews

2/19/24 – Like many other underpaid professions, such as our military and our first responders (thank you to them, as always), teaching is a noble profession. We do want teachers to be better compensated, but we don’t want people to enter the profession because it pays well. The best teachers are lifelong learners. They have a passion for learning and for sharing their knowledge and instilling this same passion in others. We need to become a nation focused on excellence and channeling our talents into the betterment of our society and our world. We need to become a nation focused less on personal enrichment and more on using our God-given gifts to lift up others. Our ultimate reward is in serving God.

2/19/24 – A reminder to the Catholic Church’s leadership, Jesus didn’t ostracize lepers, as was the practice of his day; he healed them. This Lent is a good opportunity to reflect on their own sinfulness and failures in being faithful to Jesus’s teachings, not to mention protecting children from their own predatory priests. Our call as Christians is to be like Jesus, to follow him.

2/19/24 – The Israel government needs to be held accountable. After 9/11, Americans were deceived by their own government that entered into a war on false pretexts and without the support of the American people. The civilian death toll and displacement in Israel’s war against Hamas is too high. The government is being supported by other countries, and it needs to be held accountable, just as we do with Ukraine. The acts by Hamas are unquestionably heinous and barbaric. There is no justification for them. That said, two wrongs don’t make a right. Israel’s response needs to follow international law, have good intent and be executed to minimize civilian causalities and disruption. Israelis and Palestinians are all God’s children.

2/19/24 – Hamas is pure evil. If you excuse Hamas, you’re excusing evil. History will not be kind to you. Know it now.

2/19/24 – As stated in the Hebrew Bible, you know, the oldest religious document in the world, all people are created equal, including Israelis and Palestinians, but Israel belongs to the Jewish people. It’s their ancestral land, and it’s well-documented. The Books of Moses are historical documents. To suggest otherwise is to undermine the legitimacy of Islam. Stop debating what is not up for debate. The sooner Palestinians accept this historical fact, the sooner they can liberate themselves from their resentment and build a better future for themselves. Right now, Palestinians are their own biggest oppressor, not the Israeli people, and the longer they persist in falsehoods, the more oppressed they will remain.

2/18/24 – We pray for and thank all of our first responders. When we need them, they come immediately and help us. We appreciate them so much. May the Lord bless them and protect them.
May he heal Adam Medlicott. Paul Elmstrand, Matthew Ruge, and Adam Finseth are with the Lord. They saved the woman’s and those kids’ lives. Their sacrifice is never in vain. Our deepest condolences to their families. They are our heroes. We are community. We are family. We hurt together. We are here for each other. We are strong.
Two police officers, fire department medic shot and killed in Burnsville, suspect dead
‘Ultimate sacrifice’: 2 officers, medic killed in Burnsville; suspected shooter dead

2/18/24 – God is faithful. Happy Sunday!

2/18/24 – Instead of aspiring to fame and fortune in this world, serve the Lord with humility and love. Aspire to everlasting greatness.

2/18/24 – Another way to respond to evil: This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine. If you grew up a practicing Christian, you’ve sung this song several times as a child. Cuteness is built into the song, as you can see with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who is considered a godmother of Rock n Roll, waving her hands to the music. To dispel darkness, we have to be a source of light.
« This little light of mine » par (1960)

2/18/24 – When thinking about God, be prepared to accept questions as answers. “Are there still fundamental theological questions that you have? Or maybe more simply, what doubt do you have? My theological question is how to reconcile the cruelty of the world with the idea of God’s omnipotence, and I simply assume that’s something I will not understand in this life.”
Marilynne Robinson is 80. She’s brilliant. As someone who’s thought about my own morality since I was at least eight-years-old, it’s not scary. When you think about it as a child, it’s with awe not fear. There is no reason this should change as one gets older. “I mentioned your age earlier. Do you find yourself thinking about heaven more as you get older? Well, I belong to a particular branch of Protestantism that sort of discourages reflections on heaven in the sense that we can’t know what it is and we can’t know on what grounds we might or might not end up there. I find that very satisfying. What it does is entirely refocus attention to the world. When I die, I expect to be very impressed with what follows.”
Marilynne Robinson Considers Biden a Gift of God

2/18/24 – Don’t expect people to meet your purity test. We are all imperfect. We are all sinners. Spend some time this Sunday and this Lent reflecting on your own sinfulness instead of focusing on everything that’s wrong with everybody else but you.

2/18/24 – Empathy for others is not empathy if it’s conditional on their profile as a person and whether or not it fits your preferences or prejudices.

2/18/24 – In this Radio Lab episode called The Bad Show: “[they] wrestle with the dark side of human nature, and ask whether it’s something [they] can ever really understand, or fully escape.”
The Bad Show

2/17/24 – Anti-Semitism isn’t relegated to educated people. It’s a perennial evil found throughout almost the entire world. It’s pervasive and enduring. If you don’t think you’re an anti-Semite (you’re just about “Free Palestine,” right?), substitute your favored group, perhaps it’s Palestinians, LGBTQ+, some racial group, and then read it again. Wherever there is the word “Jew,” replace it with your tribe, and now, how do you feel? Do you need to see the rapes to indulge your voyeuristic sadism because it’s certainly not out of any quest for justice? Or since it’s now your people, do you feel empathy? Don’t delude yourselves. The rest of us see you for who are, and more importantly, God sees you for who you are.
Why the Most Educated People in America Fall for Anti-Semitic Lies

2/17/24 – The United States of America was founded as a secular nation, and we will remain a secular nation. Our country is a city on a hill for all people.

2/17/24 – Love is the most radical concept and expression in the world. God is love. Jesus is love.

2/17/24 – Ukraine without Russia.

2/17/24 – Russia without Putin.

2/17/24 – As part of our Lenten meditations on evil, let’s consider the extraordinary example we have before us of an effective way to respond to evil. Every Lent, Christians reflect on Jesus’s 40 days and nights in the desert and how he responded to Satan’s temptations. He responded by firmly rejecting them and putting him in his place.
Alexei Navalny was a mere mortal, but let’s also reflect on how he chose to respond when faced with the evil Kremlin and the Russian poop. He firmly rejected fear. He chose to reenter the devil’s dominion by returning to his motherland, which he loved, and to put the Russian poop in his place.
On his way back to Russia, after having recovered from the Kremlin’s poisoning, Navalny watched Rick and Morty. He quoted it during one of his many court appearances: “‘To live is to risk it all,’ he said, reciting a quote from the show. ‘Otherwise, you’re just an inert chunk of randomly assembled molecules drifting wherever the universe blows you.’” In Navalny’s final hours of freedom, he was calm, funny and watching ‘Rick and Morty’ Navalny was calm and funny until the end. No matter how much earthly power that evil man wielded against him, he was unable to break his spirit. On what matters, the poop was powerless against Navalny.
Video shows Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny joking and laughing during court hearing a day before his death
Navalny knew that he was on the side of the righteous, on God’s side, and he continued to maintain a steadfast belief in the character of his country. He believed that, in the end, the goodness of its people and good would prevail. “‘And I want to say that there are many good things in Russia now, and the best are these very people who are not afraid, who don’t cast their eyes down at the table, and who will never give up our country to a bunch of corrupt officials who have traded our motherland for their own palaces, vineyards, and aqua-discos.’ The courtroom speech of Alexei Navalny. He was 47 years old. He leaves behind his wife, Yulia, a daughter, Daria, and their son, Zakhar.”
Opinion: Navalny’s spirit and legacy live on
Navalny was correct in his faith in the Russian people. The Russian poop knew that Navalny would have won a free and fair election if he had run against him, so he prevented him from running. Navalny won anyway. Navalny was a winner. The Russian poop is a loser. At this point, the last disgraceful act left to the loser is to not return his body. If he does not do so, the loser would only more firmly establish Navalny as a martyr, which he already is.
What is the lesson for the rest of us? Don’t run from evil. Face it bravely, resist its temptations and put it in its place. All we have to do is be firmly committed to the truth, to what is right and to maintain our divine spirit. If we do these things, we will win the battle of good against evil.
Alexei Navalny’s Last Laugh

2/16/24 – Alexei Navalny was a martyr for Russia, the country he loved. The world honors his courage and patriotism. From around the world, we give our deepest condolences to his family. May they know that he fought for a just cause – democracy – and that his name will be remembered in the history books for this reason. He is with the Lord. May he rest in peace.
Putin’s palace. The story of the world’s biggest bribe

2/15/24 – No other religion in the world has as much diverse music as Christianity. It’s an auditory feast. In our present journey, let’s start somewhere that’s associated with the west but does not use the Roman alphabet. Kyrie Eleison. (Lord, have mercy.) Christe Eleison. (Christ, have mercy.) (Latin transliteration.) It’s typically sung in the original Greek with no translation in eastern and western rite churches. (Ignore the Latin or Catholic song descriptions found on YouTube. Neither is accurate.)
Kyrie Eleison – Byzantine Version

2/15/24 – In general, we need to get away from dualistic thinking. It’s not serving us well. It’s likely been holding us back for some time. We’ve also gotten too rigidly specialized. We could tear a page out of the Italian Renaissance, and liberate ourselves intellectually and artistically.

2/15/24 – Is math a human invention or discovered? It’s both. From a Christian perspective, which adopted the Jewish one, God is “infinite” has always been the understanding of his fundamental nature. God is I am, meaning there is nothing beyond, before or after. God just is and has always been.
Math is similar to a spoken language. When you read the Bible, one of the most remarkable aspects is that it treats language as divine because it is. From a Christian tradition, which is, obviously, founded on the Jewish tradition, God is the Word, and the Word was made flesh. The second clause is the Christian part, the Jesus part.
We use language all the time, so we don’t fully appreciate how remarkable it is. Reflecting our divine spark, it is necessary for our own creativity and creations. Just like life on our planet, it’s not to be taken for granted. It’s a gift from God.
However, all languages are also a human invention. The symbols, sounds, and syntax vary because we create them. On a fundamental level, though, it’s all the same. We can learn any language we’re exposed to as children. Our brains are wired for language, not a particular language. The Word is built into our genes, our brains.
You can think of it as the Word is as God exists (I am, his “infinite” nature), and we also discover the Word by inventing the word. Similarly, what we call math exists because God created the universe, and we discover the order behind the universe by inventing and reinventing the language of math. Beautiful, no?
Don’t let anyone tell you science and religion are at odds. They’re not. They are complements. They are both how we connect with and better understand our maker and his creation.

2/14/24 – From ashes you were made; to ashes you shall return.

2/13/24 – We need to invest much more in public schools, and teacher unions are a good thing not a bad thing. They are a bulwark against bloated administrations that waste public funds and are often incompetent. Reforming the required training of teachers is not related to disinvesting in public schools or dismantling unions, and it should not be treated as such. Reforming the required training simply reflects the reality that we have a much more highly skilled and specialized workforce than we did in the past when the general population was not as well-educated.
Many of these advanced degree holders would make great teachers, and they shouldn’t be excluded from the profession because of an antiquated understanding of how one learns to be an educator. One learns by being a student for an extended period of time, and this is how it’s always been treated in higher education. To claim that all teachers need to go to a teacher college to teach effectively is to suggest that all of the country’s professors, almost all of whom received no pedagogical training, are incapable educators, which is obviously untrue. Also, what’s the difference between a junior or senior in high school and a freshman or sophomore in college? There really isn’t much of one. College professors could walk into any high school and teach as capably in their discipline as they do in higher education and at least as capably if not more so than any high school teacher who received pedagogical training. All states’ licensing requirements and schools’ hiring processes should be updated to reflect this positive change in our society.

2/13/24 – As a country, we need more teachers with broader knowledge in addition to specialized training in at least one subject. This would require some changes to teacher licensure requirements and hiring processes to make them less restrictive and teacher college focused. At least for secondary education, teacher colleges are outdated, and any pedagogical instruction, which is generally unnecessary, should be provided as online classes by the state for any aspiring teacher.
Instead of teacher colleges, we should focus on attracting and retaining high-quality candidates with subject-matter expertise, ones with a master’s degree or beyond in their discipline. The advanced degrees usually require courses in related disciplines. Therefore, these degree holders often end up gaining a considerable amount of knowledge in at least one related discipline.
To give students, breadth, depth, and real-world application, the more knowledge and range a teacher has, the better. This would also enable administrators to structure schedules that allow secondary school students to stay in one class for the entirety of the period, while still learning two subjects from the same teacher, either from a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach. For example, imagine if a math teacher has adequate command of logic, computer programming, physics or economics, to apply the math to one of these other disciplines, or vice versa. This structure would allow for comparable coverage of the curriculum as we have now, but also for more efficient and more integrated learning.

2/13/24 – Yes, we were and some of us still are subversive in the best of ways. (Like Jesus….)

2/13/24 – Sharif don’t like it. Fundamentally can’t take it. You know he really hates it.
The Clash – Rock the Casbah (Official Video) (The drums are fun!)
But we love rock ‘n roll. Long live democracy! Long live freedom (and frontwomen)!
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘N Roll (Official Video)

2/12/24 – Math is an important and fundamental subject, and students’ exposure to it in K-12 shouldn’t decrease, if anything, it should increase, such that all districts nationwide are required to cover algebra (1), geometry (2), trigonometry (3), and pre-calculus and statistics/probability (4) in high school, with one year dedicated to each of these four areas. That said, logic should also have a much more prominent role in education, starting in primary school. How we integrate this is a good question, since teachers would need to have adequate command of the subject, which would require investing in some professional training. In terms of pedagogy, one idea is to integrate logical thinking explicitly using the techniques of formal (symbolic) logic by taking an interdisciplinary approach, which generally enhances student learning. Logic is particularly conducive as a subject to an interdisciplinary approach since it is a necessary way of thinking in almost every discipline (and in life). The creative arts, which are quite varied, require more imagination, which can sometimes be at odds with logic; at other times, logic comes into play as it does in other disciplines.

2/12/24 – If you’ve never seen Labyrinth, you must watch it. It’s somehow kid- and adult-friendly at once, and because it was the 80s, the music is really good.

2/11/24 – Remember: Jesus loves you today and every day. Happy Sunday!

2/11/24 – One big positive contribution of younger Millennials and Gen Z is their candor with what were once stigmatized or shameful topics. It takes courage, and they deserve credit for it. It is also a testament to the country that it has softened up enough for them to feel safe enough to do this. We are human beings, and we go through all kinds of painful events. If we approach them well, they are all opportunities for personal growth. Being able to be open about these moments facilities this growth, mental health and creates bonds.

2/11/24 – This is a fascinating approach to both Scripture and fiction. As an opening question: How real does the Bible get? Perhaps a more accurate question: why does reality seem much more depraved than even the worst acts in the Bible? For example, in yesterday’s AP was this story. “Kayla Montgomery testified that her stepdaughter, Harmony Montgomery, whose body has not been found, died Dec. 7, 2019, in a car the family was living in after getting evicted. It was the third day of Adam Montgomery’s murder trial in Manchester, which he hasn’t been attending. Kayla Montgomery said Harmony was potty trained, but had begun having frequent accidents. She testified that her husband punched Harmony in the head after two such accidents in the car. He later covered Harmony with a blanket as the child cried, moaned and eventually went silent, the stepmother said. Their car broke down soon afterward and Adam Montgomery put Harmony’s body in the duffel bag, she said. ‘He, like, folded her in half and put her in the duffel bag,’ she said.” It gets even worse from there.
“At one point in Gilead, he asks his father and Ames, ‘Are there people who are simply born evil, live evil lives, and then go to hell?’ The Bible, Robinson declares in the first line of Reading Genesis, is ‘a theodicy, a meditation on the problem of evil.’” This is a fair description of the Bible, but we’re still left with so many questions. What is one supposed to do, for example, with Harmony’s story? Do we just read it and move along with our day? If it haunts us, then what are we to do? Do we ask God for the millionth time why people do these things? Do we cast it off as there are evil people in the world who do evil things? Do we take our burden and try to place it at the foot of the cross?
If you’re a writer taking inspiration from Scripture: how would you approach this story? An innocent child is brutally murdered and dismembered by her own father. Kasey Emerick was sexually abused by her own father at around the same age. Would you redeem the father somehow? How would the child be given justice? What would that even look like? Would she want reunification in heaven with a redeemed father?
One could argue that when we mediate on evil, we actually don’t need to ask “why” because we already know the answer? Because evil exists, and according to the Bible, we, not God, brought it into existence. This answer, however, gives no peace. Perhaps we aren’t supposed to seek solace from our pain? Maybe we’re supposed to not only empathize with the victim but to allow of our volition their pain to become a part of us, part of our own pain. Maybe it’s not peace or solace we should seek, but similar to reflecting on the crucified Christ, we are to have the courage to allow their pain to reshape our pain, our sinfulness and ourselves. We are a few days shy of the start of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday. Perhaps these are some of the many questions to meditate on?
Marilynne Robinson Makes the Book of Genesis New

2/10/24 – Bill Ackman is correct that robust debate is not happening. It definitely ought to be happening always. Objective reporting should also be happening, which is also not always happening. Regarding his arguments against DEI and for excellence, there are considerations beyond his rather simplistic focus and analysis.
Firstly, as Ackman should well know, trust should be earned, not simply given to someone based on their connections or demographic profile. If he’s being intellectually and otherwise honest, he should find this consistent with his position. In finance, the industry in which he operates, there have been numerous failures in this regard. Routinely, trust and, therefore, money have been misplaced, whether due to inadequate due diligence or to bias, the unjustified presumption of competence and ethics. Also, as it relates to investment management, to what degree does the skill of the portfolio manager actually matter? The rise of index funds provides an answer, does it not?
For a society to operate based on merit, many factors must align, and the society must routinely realign such that meritocracy is maintained. (Meritocracy’s relationship with and similarities to democracy should also be thoroughly analyzed.) Academia has been perpetuating an unmeritocratic system for a long time now, with its self-serving grade inflation and admissions that are based more on the status of the parents than the potential of the student. See here for one example. (There are many other problems in academia that go beyond DEI or the ones mentioned here.)
Let’s start with assessments. They need to be objective and fair. This begs the question: who is making the assessments, and are they capable of doing so given this rather challenging task. Many people will justifiably be skeptical of Ackman because they don’t trust his motivations, as mentioned above. Is he pushing this agenda because it benefits him? Is it just an extension of his activist investing, or does it have altruistic motives? If the latter, a natural follow-up question is: what makes him qualified to make the assessments? What knowledge and background does he have such that he is competent to make the assessments? Is he correct in his assessments?
Next, what are the criteria for the assessments? For example, look at the simple comparison below of two renditions of “Hound Dog,” the original by Big Mama Thornton, and the appropriation by Elvis. In terms of musicality, Thornton’s is objectively better. However, should showmanship also be factored in? Should we also consider sex appeal? Should we consider mass appeal?
We argue music should be about music, but it’s also an art that often comes coupled rather logically with dance. So even on something as simple as the evaluation of a song, the scope and weights of the criteria are not always clear. (From our perspective, the music has to be able to stand on its own merits, and everything else is extra.)
Let’s return to Ackman’s own realm. Objective hiring criteria for corporations simply don’t exist. There is minimal meritocracy in their process for recruitment or retention. Their job board algorithms are black boxes that are often biased. Corporations hire all the time based on who people know, so much so that the idiom, “it’s not what you know; it’s who you know” is treated as an axiom. However, this corporate gospel is not truth or meritocracy. Instead, it reflects a deep rot within our society. Their unmeritocratic process results in toxic cultures and work environments that are antithetical to excellence. This begs the question: Are they even interested in excellence? Many people think they are simply interested in profits, and their leadership is motivated to hoard as much of them as possible to the exclusion of labor. Modern CEOs do not deserve the compensation they are getting. In addition to being exploitative, it’s also unmeritocratic.
Anyway, we could go on and on. In summary, yes, let’s have this debate, but its terms should not be set by billionaires or corporations or by anybody else. It should be honest and open to everyone, and we should look hard at what works and doesn’t work in our society. We might all be surprised by what we find. If it’s done well, we might be able to make our society more meritocratic, democratic and more nurturing of excellence.

2/9/24 – The news media needs to end its role in perpetuating this inequity.

2/9/24 – Ironically, history repeats itself with the overrated Taylor Swift during a black history month with a theme of the arts.

2/9/24 – Do you know where your food comes from? Do you know where your stuff comes from? Do you know where your music comes from? Were they ethically sourced?

2/9/24 – The original by Big Mama Thornton was better, which is more blues than rock and roll. More importantly, the lyrics actually match the music. Also, reversing the roles and genders wasn’t convincing. (For those of you good listeners who were wondering why there is an inconsistency, well, now you know.) That said, Elvis was a good musician and performer, but the fawning was so over-the-top relative to his talent that he ended up being overrated, just like Taylor Swift is now.
Why? The majority audience was and still is white. On a subconscious level, white musicians resonate better with them. Note that this does not necessarily make them racist. Some likely are. Much, if not most, of the audience is actually not aware of their bias. However, on an objective basis, the quality of the music is sometimes not being assessed accurately, and it can cheat musicians of color of deserved recognition and reward for their talent and hard work.
Big Mama Thornton – Hound Dog (1953)

2/9/24 – The power of music. The power of art to change our world for the better.
Billie Holiday Strange Fruit
Probably the most well-known cover of Billie Holiday’s 1939 original.
Nina Simone – Strange Fruit
Strange Fruit – the story behind “The Song of the Century”

2/9/24 – We probably shouldn’t be too hard on Millennials and Gen Z because their digital, social media childhoods pretty much sucked a–. The generation right before, Gen X, didn’t have either. They had something far superior – music. We rode our bikes to each other’s houses, ate a bunch of candy because we were still kids, listened to music and watched music videos. We basically grew up on it (and cartoons).
To younger generations, you have to look back, or you’re not going to have a solid musical education because the more recent music is generally inferior. Listen broadly and deeply: different genres, styles, artists, but often people also go through phases, narrowing their focus. Try to make connections like you would with literature or the fine arts. “Study it” like you would anything else, but also just enjoy it. You don’t have to be musically talented to appreciate it. It’s black history month. If you’ve never done this, it’s the perfect time to start.

2/8/24 – We, as a country, need to get back to focusing on producing excellence in everything we do.

2/8/24 – The Millennials ruined American music and culture, which was once the envy of the world, because they have bad taste. Hard truth.

2/8/24 – Yes, we were spoiled, and we didn’t know it. We’re going to stay spoiled because much of this great music is recorded. Deliver this level of mastery of your craft, or with respect, please do piss off. If you can’t play one or more instruments exceptionally well, if you can’t perform live without auto-tune or lip-syncing, if you can’t write your own songs that captivate audiences for generations, you’re not a musician. You’re a marketing product of the music industry, and we’re not interested in what you have to sell.

2/8/24 – Prince had more than enough hits to have sung only his music. One of the songs he covered was Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, which is a masterpiece of song writing. This is why it has been covered by so many other famous musicians, including notably Jimi Hendrix. Dylan is also from Minnesota, but not a native son of Minneapolis, as Prince is. This is the best Super Bowl half-time show in its history. Why? Simply, talent and passion. He was not a spring chicken at the time or at the peak of his career, but he never stopped making music. He was an artist.
From the comments, “@dwayneflorence4482 You know you’re blessed when God provides your special effects.” When asked if he would be OK performing in the rain, Prince asked if it could rain harder.
Prince – Super Bowl XLI | Halftime Show 2007 FULL SHOW HD
If you look closely, you’ll see a little smoke coming off the end of his guitar. Many people from Minneapolis know he loved to jam because he would throw parties at Paisley Park, his former home and studio in a suburb of the city, and do just that.
From the comments, “@jimparson8968 My guitar watches this when I’m not home”
2021 Remaster “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” with Prince, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Steve Winwood

2/7/24 – If you can’t write your own songs and can’t perform live, just you and your instrument and/or your band, you need to pack up and go home. Thank you, and have a nice day.

2/7/24 – In the past, we would come together to solve big problems, whether famine, AIDS, etc. and for other unifying reasons. We need artists who are passionate about their craft and not superficial, and fans who are discriminating in their tastes. We didn’t care about the marketing. We cared about the music. We didn’t care about their personal lives. We cared about the music. So different in their styles, yet both are authentic and brilliant. (The Brits got some of the best concerts….)
Live Aid (Queen) Full Concert [1985, London, Wembley Stadium] (One of the best concerts in music history.)
Tracy Chapman – Fast Car [Wembley 1988]

2/7/24 – Truth: politics matters, especially saving our democracy, but generally speaking, it’s just not that important. Be informed, vote, but most importantly, try to be a good person who does good things in the world.

2/7/24 – We literally live side by side with people who have different politics than we have. Does that matter? Or is what matters that we’re just neighborly? Exchanging kindness and pleasantries. Shoveling each other’s walks. Sharing plants and gardening tips. Sharing treats. Looking out for each other and the neighborhood’s kids. Helping each other in whatever way. People don’t have to agree with your politics for you to live in peace and harmony with them. Even for MAGA, who are infuriating, if you think you should call 911 for one of them, are you really not going to do it because you disagree with their politics? Of course, not. You’re going to call 911 because you value human life, and it’s the right thing to do.

2/7/24 – We used to be a country that took pride in our excellence. We need to go back to that, to a focus on substance, but to do that we have to stop wasting our time, which almost all of us are guilty of, and prioritize the things that matter. Aim for excellence and a healthy pride in one’s work and life.

2/7/24 – You don’t have to look like people to admire them. Although there are exceptions for extreme people, you don’t have to agree with their politics or way of being in the world. You can just fall in love with their work.
Also see here: “1/21/24 – When you choose people to admire or emulate, they don’t need to look like or be like you. You don’t need to have similar genetics. Christians should know this better than anybody else. Jesus, who is our guiding light and our savior, was a brown Jew, a Hebrew, an Israelite, from what we call the land of Israel. He belonged to a relatively small group of people who are/were ethnically joined. During his own lifetime, he literally crossed boundaries to bring his ministry to those outside of his ethnic group, the Jews, violating the taboos of his time. He was aware of what he was doing, and it is documented in the Gospel. Nativism is antithetical to the Christian faith, which is a global religion. From its inception, the religion and Jesus have belonged to the world.
The Party of Malice
1/20/24 – Many really talented people were very disciplined. We can copy them no matter how talented we are or aren’t. Michelangelo (yes, he comes up often because, well, he’s il divino) lived about twice as long as his peers, until almost 90-years-old, and he worked like a beast. His work was not just artistically and intellectually demanding but also extremely physically demanding. Setting aside the intense technical difficulty, sculpting marble and painting frescos are not exactly easy on the body. Nonetheless, he was highly productive until the end of his life, and his youthful personal ambition became a divine purpose as he matured.
Of course, none of us are Michelangelo, but we can all take a similar approach to life. He was deeply religious (the Holy Spirit touched that man…), highly passionate about his work, which was usually religious in subject, and as a polymath engaged his mind and talents in diverse disciplines. He exercised regularly both in his work and horseback riding. He was too busy to have bad habits or indulge in unhealthy activities. And he complained all the time, which might seem like a negative, but it’s not. Work like him, and you’ll understand how important expressing one’s feelings is to staying the course, not to mention staying sane.
This is how to age: living your life like your youthful, robust self doesn’t age; it matures on all dimensions. For all of his complaints about his physical ailments, he exemplified maturation instead of just getting older. You don’t have to be unbelievably talented to want to live like every minute of your limited time on the planet matters. It does for all of us. Use it well.”

2/7/24 – Music isn’t about the awards. It’s about the music. Luke Combs just loved Tracy Chapman’s music. He loved the song Fast Car. Everyone just needs to focus on doing the best work they can given their talents. Stop focusing on other things that don’t matter. Chapman wasn’t interested in being glamourous or an “influencer.” She just wanted to make great music, and she did. She was about the artistry. It was the highlight of the Grammy’s because nobody cared about their politics, glamour or other BS. They cared about the music. It’s a beautiful, moving song, and that’s what mattered.
A Rare Moment Americans Could All Share

2/6/24 – We need to right the ship, here and abroad. The center must hold. Enough with the extremes. They’re destroying our world.

2/6/24 – There are many different people in the world, with different values and perspectives, and they deserve to be presented dispassionately and in a balanced manner by any respectable, trustworthy news outlet.

2/6/24 – The influencers pretending to be LGBTQ+ advocates at the Associated Propaganda (the AP) need to be removed. They can sell their s–t on YouTube, social media, and wherever else to people who’re interested in the propaganda they’re selling. It’s not journalism, and they are not journalists. It’s not appropriate for the AP.

2/6/24 – Plenty of people never actually needed therapy in the first place. The main reasons why there is an explosion of mental health issues is that people have not been raised to develop good coping mechanisms for life’s inevitable challenges and have developed many bad habits instead. You have to take the time to build good habits and healthy coping mechanisms. Build good friendships and a support network. Give and take with other people to foster community and mutual care. Build a relationship with nature, our common home, and with God’s creatures. Go for walks or bike rides. Motion is therapeutic. Spend time in water, swimming, in a hot tub or sauna. Water is therapeutic. Make art, express your emotions in a visual, musical or other artistic way. Art is therapeutic. Write, it doesn’t matter if you’re a good writer. Journaling is therapeutic. Use aromatherapy, natural scents from our God-created world connects us with the divine. Scents are routinely used in various spiritual traditions. Spend time on your spiritual life! Go to confession, pray, meditate, worship with others. And on and on. You’re supposed to actually take the time as a human being to understand yourself and figure out how to help yourself become whole. You’re not supposed to outsource that complicated, individual process to someone else. Therapists are supposed to help you develop healthy coping mechanisms, not become a crutch. Reach out to them as you need. There is no shame or stigma in doing so, but in general, you’re not supposed to become dependent on them.

2/6/24 – Can we keep the responsible articles coming? Imagine acting like a professional. Imagine putting the interests of the people you’re serving first, even if you might be telling them things they would rather not hear. Imagine acting ethically. What a concept!
Plenty of People Could Quit Therapy Right Now

2/5/24 – Don’t even try to justify this s—t. Seriously, f—k off.

2/5/24 – Every single profession, especially those that come into regular contact with people, particularly vulnerable people, such as kids, has professional ethics. Educators, especially those who teach K-12, for obvious reasons, healthcare professionals because you’re dealing with people’s health, often at vulnerable times, finance professionals because you’re dealing with people’s money, lawyers because you’re dealing with people’s legal lives, which can have all kinds of serious implications, military because you’re literally dealing with people’s lives, first-responders the same, because you’re dealing with people’s lives. Apparently, the media doesn’t seem to think professional ethics apply to them. They are more like…well, entertainers or what’s the word, influencers. Right?

2/5/24 – The propaganda (aka the liberal media) is unethical. They are in the business of making money and advancing their own careers. If you make life-changing decisions that you later regret or that make you seriously ill, such as getting cancer, they won’t be paying your medical bills or helping you. They promote whatever liberal agenda is in vogue, no matter how dangerous it is, because that’s what gets them clicks. They are self-serving people. Know that in advance.
For reference: “7/28/23 – Has WaPo captured enough of the extreme (and often loony) NYTimes audience yet? Not yet. Immorality doesn’t just come in yachts. It comes in various forms. One of them is pandering. Don’t think it isn’t transparent.
7/28/23 – Have members of the press made enough money off of the destruction of young people’s health? Apparently not. Know this. They won’t be there to pay the health bills when the kids get, for example, cancer.
7/28/23 – F—king with one’s hormones isn’t healthcare. It’s health destruction. Don’t screw up your otherwise healthy bodies. Love yourselves as you are.”

2/4/24 – Kasey Emerick’s story is profoundly sad and deserves a separate response. It is very common for victims to blame themselves for the trauma they’ve experienced, but it is not their fault. A parent’s or parents’ betrayal can be particularly hurtful, damaging, and hard to reconcile. How could someone who’s supposed to care for me harm me? It must have been something I did. No, it wasn’t. It was something they did, and they are solely responsible for their actions, whether or not they’re willing to accept it.
Sometimes, we blame God. This is also a common feeling. However, God didn’t create sinful men and women. We choose to be this way. Kasey and others like her were made perfect in God’s eyes, and God loves them as they are. We are all broken in one way or another. The path to wholeness isn’t through pretending wrongs or trauma didn’t happen, blaming oneself or changing oneself in a futile attempt to rationalize the irrational. Evil exists outside of reason. It exists because of the actions fallen men and women choose to take, and we can’t control the world or others.
We can, however, control how we choose to respond to the good things and the bad things that happen to us. To release oneself from the pain of injustice and betrayal is to truly understand that it was the perpetrator’s and only their responsibility and to join ourselves with our creator who loves us in our brokenness. No matter how the world fails us, and it will fail us, the closer we bring ourselves in union with the divine, the more it won’t matter because God never fails us. In God, we will find strength and reconciliation for the wrongs that have been done to us through no fault of our own and be able to forgive ourselves even when we haven’t done anything wrong. May the Lord bless her and give her peace.

2/4/24 – Whether LGBTQ+ people were born that way, experienced trauma that negatively impacted their sexual identity or lives, or simply choose it because they prefer it, the way conservatives, especially Christian conservatives who should know better, treat them is immoral and antithetical to the faith. Jesus didn’t denounce people even though he was fully aware of their sinfulness because we are all sinners. He pushed us to be better from a place of compassion and love.
In general, conservatives are engaging in all kinds of immoral behavior, from supporting the evil one, trump, to engaging in conspiracy theories, the latest of which is a bizarre fixation on a famous musician who seems to have found love in an NFL star (good for her), demonizing people who are simply fleeing violence or searching for a better life, or generally engaging in hate and vilification, etc. (It’s a long list.) They have abdicated any kind of moral authority because they have engaged in too much immorality themselves. Once you lose moral standing, you often lose influence, as it should be.
We are to assume that people are broken because we often are, assume that they are in need of being made whole, assume that people are generally good because they usually are, assume that even when they do terrible things, they retain their rights and deserve to be treated with the rule of law. When we engage in war and other acts of killing, as the military well knows, all of our actions must be conducted in accordance with international and our own laws. When one is wronged, this can be difficult to do, but honor demands that we do it nonetheless. If we decide to take out certain people, evil dictators and such, to protect other people, this needs to be done within the rule of law. This doesn’t make us weak. It’s makes us moral, and morality is power and strength.
If you take issue with certain behavior that you disagree with, say homosexuality, that is within your rights. Where you cross a line is to treat people with callous disregard for their soul and their rights as human beings. Imagine that some of these people that you are vilifying have been victims of sexual abuse or that they are suffering from depression and suicidal ideation, do you really want to be the person that pushes them to take their life because you’re more concerned with your self-righteousness or imposing your idea of morality? Jesus would definitely not approve of this.
One can always exercise their First Amendment rights and make an argument. We can also try to convince the public or our elected representatives why our position is correct and why others are wrong. What one cannot do is engage in vigilante “justice” or the dehumanization of human beings. One cannot incite violence, as the evil one did on January 6, 2021. There is much freedom in our country to express our views, and healthy democracies depend on this exchange. However, it is not limitless and for good reason. It would lead to chaos and unjustified violence. Whether or not one agrees with LGBTQ+ choices, they are human beings who deserve to be treated with compassion and love as anybody else does. Walk with them in their journey from a place of caring, not a place of denunciation and cruel judgment. That’s what Jesus would do, and as Christians, we are called to be like him. Happy Sunday!

2/2/24 – When you’re contributing to things you shouldn’t be for personal gain, such as money, fame, acceptance, career-advancement, what have you, that’s immorality. Christianity taught me that. There is no confusion, and there is no self-delusion.

2/2/24 – Yes, Biden’s age is a problem, but it’s not just that. If the pitch is Democrats get stuff done, the logical question is: do I agree with what they’re getting done? More generally, the Democratic Party can come across as the party of weird snobs. They push bizarre ideas, see below, that many people, even liberal people, don’t agree with.
They also look down on people who are just trying to make an honest living and live a simple life. They don’t get the science worship, and they shouldn’t because it’s not smarter or more evolved, whatever that is. It’s just stupid. They don’t get the influencer or celebrity worship, and they shouldn’t because it’s not trendy or better. It’s just stupid. They don’t get the tech worship, and they shouldn’t because it’s not cool or more efficient. It’s just stupid. You get the idea. If you’re an elitist snob, and the stuff you’re worshipping is actually f—king stupid, well, it’s insulting to the people who rightly see it as stupid that they just don’t get it because they’re not the elite, evolved genius that you think you are. That’s the real problem for Democrats.
Maybe have some honest conversations with the people who make the country work: farmers, blue-collar workers, manufacturing workers, religious folk, small town folk, etc. Just hangout for a while, sit in the quiet of the country or the small town, and understand that this is also America. It has advantages that life in a bigger city does not have. It has its own pace and charms, and its people are as valuable, if not more so, as anybody else.

2/2/24 – It’s hard to believe this article is in the NYTimes, but it is. Finally, an actually responsible article on this sensitive topic. These people are not supposed to be treated as political pawns or for political pandering or expediency. Making sure patients are actually being diagnosed properly and that they understand the risks associated with any medical procedure is standard medical practice, no matter the procedure. It is a violation of the Hippocratic Oath (codes of honor aren’t exclusive to the military) to not follow it based on some misguided societal fad or pressure. Being a medical professional means that you honor the Hippocratic Oath no matter how unpopular it is or whether you face backlash or criticism. In addition to the general application of the Oath, these are children. They are not adults, and their brains are still developing. Their judgment and cognitive faculties have not fully developed. It is irresponsible and unethical to not consider all of these factors when providing them with medical care. Liberals, especially the propaganda (aka the liberal media), failed these kids, and it’s a disgrace.
“But right-wing demagogues are not the only ones who have inflamed this debate. Transgender activists have pushed their own ideological extremism, especially by pressing for a treatment orthodoxy that has faced increased scrutiny in recent years. Under that model of care, clinicians are expected to affirm a young person’s assertion of gender identity and even provide medical treatment before, or even without, exploring other possible sources of distress…. ‘What should be a medical and psychological issue has been morphed into a political one,’ Powell lamented during our conversation. ‘It’s a mess.’… The mother left in shock. How would hormones help a child with obsessive-compulsive disorder or depression? she wondered…. ‘I transitioned because I didn’t want to be gay,’ Kasey Emerick, a 23-year-old woman and detransitioner from Pennsylvania, told me. Raised in a conservative Christian church, she said, ‘I believed homosexuality was a sin.’… Transgender influencers told her she was bald and ugly. She received multiple threats. [What compassionate, what’s the word, pluralistic people.]… Children change their minds all the time. [You don’t say. Who knew, right?]… Studies show that around eight in 10 cases of childhood gender dysphoria resolve themselves by puberty and 30 percent of people on hormone therapy discontinue its use within four years, though the effects, including infertility, are often irreversible…. ‘You’re made to believe these slogans,’ he said. ‘Evidence-based, lifesaving care, safe and effective, medically necessary, the science is settled — and none of that is evidence based.’ [But science, right libs? All you have to do is keep repeating the word.]”
As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do.

Notes from Underground – January 2024

1/31/24 – To the irreverent dreamers, with our heads in our novels that both entertained and taught us, impractically idealistic, ridiculous romantic, we see in the world what we found in our books, and it is hope. Keep dreaming. Keep being yourself.

1/31/24 – Every so often during a day, we stop to remember things past. Who or what do we choose to remember? Are we brooding on insults, wallowing in recriminations, or allowing bitterness to swallow our present. Let us instead remember random acts of kindness and the heroes that we’ve known, never known, or those we all know. As a nation, we elevate certain men and women because they deserve it. They wanted the character of their country written into the history books. Their names are a testament to the nation’s glory. They wanted it to be known that no matter how dark the world might get, there will always be people with character that are willing to fight against it, even sacrificing their lives. Their sacrifices are never in vain. Let us remember them often, and say a silent prayer of gratitude to them. They will hear us, and they will feel loved.

1/30/24 – Administrations can be toxic, districts dysfunctional, and students disrespectful or addicted to their phones because their parents aren’t doing their jobs. Educators must, no matter what, do theirs. While the world falls apart, their passion for learning and character formation, their own and others, must remain a source of hope and light for the world. There are many others who are doing noble work, the Lord’s work. Scholars and artists who without acclaim or money keep producing research and art to inspire us and to force us to think hard about who we are and what we’re building. Our military who put their lives on the line for us. It is dangerous work, and they know it. No matter how toxic our politics, how idiotic the fads that captivate the country, or how traitorous the commander-in-chief (the evil one, trump) may be, they have codes of honor to follow and people to save. Religious men and women, who often take vows of poverty and chastity and in spite of a culture that undervalues or even ridicules them, work consistently for the betterment of our society. The few good journalists who report objectively, often risking their lives to tell the stories that must be told, the ones the world needs to hear. God bless the best among us for keeping the world moving forward whether during a pandemic, war, or whatever other unnecessary misery the worst among us inflicts.

1/29/24 – Much of the liberal mainstream media are generally ignorant idiots pretending to be intellectuals. They are atheists, science-worshippers who don’t understand science and have not actually spent much time thinking about hard questions. The Big Bang is generally accepted scientific theory. The key difference between the Christian and atheist understanding of it is that Christians believe God, who exists outside of space, time, matter, created it whereas atheists believe it just happened. You might disagree with it, but Christians’ understanding of the creation of the universe is actually an answer. If you think that pretending a non-answer, the magic trick of it just happening, is an answer is gaslighting, you would be correct. However, this is par for the course for these people. They are constantly gaslighting with or without realizing it. Why? Because, just like their magic trick, they actually have nothing.

1/29/24 – Does the “mobster look” come with a hammer and a sickle? Let us know when the dumb youth and the gullible media figure it out? When you’re getting played by morons, please keep repeating the word “science” to try to compensate for your stupidity, ignorance and lack of discipline.

1/28/24 – The likelihood that there is a god is high. The likelihood that there are many gods is low. Therefore, the likelihood that there is one true God is high. However, there is no crime in venerating pagan and Christian saints alike who espouse similar beliefs, universal values. We live in continuity. There are no discontinuities in the human journey, and time is our divine thread. It is so divine that it can be accounted for only by the divine. The atheist answer to the puzzle of the creation of the universe is that it just magically came to be or bizarre theories that cannot account for time. The Christian answer for the creation of universe, developed by a Catholic priest, Georges Lemaître, is what is called the Big Bang. His answer is definitely more logical. It’s easy to say “science,” “science,” “science.” It’s quite another to actually understand or practice it. Happy Sunday!

1/28/24 – Nobody gets to rewrite history. Jesus was a Jew from the people of Israel, not the people of Palestine. He was not Arab, and his identity was not Palestinian. If this truth is inconvenient for you, that’s too bad for you, but it remains the truth. That said, Jesus belongs to the world, as he so chose.

1/28/24 – Regarding Ukraine, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Corruption exists everywhere. Ukrainians just need to keep working to get rid of it, keep being transparent, keep holding people accountable, and keep perfecting their union, as the rest of us, including Americans, are doing. Slava Ukraini! PS Belatedly, Happy Birthday to Zelensky!

1/28/24 – When on the same day, one reads progressive Gen Z is the savior of Americans and Biden’s poll numbers with black men are falling, one has to wonder if the Democrats want to win or lose the election.
As it stands, Gen Z doesn’t do anything but stare at their phones. Their diversity is not a value. It’s a statistic. If they’re so pluralistic, why do they feel the need to police, such as canceling, dissenting opinions? Any favorable volunteering numbers is because they don’t have jobs. It’s not a demonstration of values. Showing one’s values is donating money when you don’t really have money to donate or giving of your time when you don’t really have time to give. It’s not resume padding. When young people have actually done something for the country and shown us their character, then and only then, they might merit some higher estimation than the presently low one.
It is also unethical to treat older people, some of whom have actually sacrificed for the country, as if they’re disposable has-beens with antiquated values. It is also unethical to treat immigrant minorities who often have conservative values as if they are backward and unevolved because they are religious and don’t subscribe to hedonism and other immorality.
To return to the softening of support for Biden from one of his core voting blocs, i.e. people who actually vote, might it have something to do with pandering to younger progressives? At the end of the day, any party worth its salt should not be dependent on any one group to be its savior. Its appeal should be broad and solid. That appeal comes with being reasonable and honest with voters, and valuing all of them, not just the ones that appeal to modern, western tastes that are often questionable at best.

1/27/24 – To the Jewish people, Christians thank you. You gave us everything.

1/27/24 – Never forget. The Jewish people are a source of strength and light for the world. We pray for their safety, for justice for them and that they never let evil people change them into people they aren’t proud of. “His hope is that the horrors of October 7th and its aftermath won’t overtake Jews or Israel. While dealing with antisemitism unfortunately is part of what it means to be Jewish, says Farkas, it doesn’t define Jews. ‘We are defined by our love of life, by our joy and by incredible acts of loving kindness.’”
International Holocaust Remembrance Day rings differently this year

1/27/24 – “Rosensaft recalled in his speech the stories of Bosnian Muslims who risked their lives to save their Jewish neighbours from the Nazis and, about 50 years later, Bosnian Jews saving and caring for their Muslim neighbors during the country’s internecine war.”
Muslims and Jews in Bosnia observe Holocaust Remembrance Day and call for peace and dialogue

1/25/24 – White people’s superiority complex is nauseating. They have no respect for the natural world, no respect for nature, no respect for the natural health and beauty of the human body, no respect for God, and no respect for all of the things, which is tremendous, that they don’t know. They are arrogant and narcissistic, and the manifestations of this lack of respect and their demented self-love on us and on our culture is destroying life on the planet. When the history books are written on the demise of our species and life on the planet, there will be a direct line to their negative influence on the world.

1/24/24 – The propaganda (self-described free press) agenda is for everyone in the country to change their gender with unhealthy drugs, edit their genes to become mutants and practice the new none religion, which is pretty much just like the old atheist religion. That’s their utopia. If it’s your dystopia, that’s because you’re a backward degenerate who likes being natural and natural things and are not an enlightened Hoka shoe, Lululemon pants, Stanley cup, Taylor Swift suburbanite pretending to be urban cool.

1/24/24 – The science- and self-worshippers at NPR (National Propaganda Radio) are trying to more subtly signal their science worship. Yes, let’s place nones, trans, and gene editing right next to each other and only the other initiated science- and self-worshippers will notice. No, we notice. That’s why they are the propaganda. Are they noticing the right shift of the country? Are they aware of their role in radicalizing the electorate? No, because they have their heads up their self-righteous propagandist a–ses.

1/24/24 – What qualities do rich people have that the rest of us are supposed to emulate? Although it definitely doesn’t apply to many of them, let’s give them working hard and work discipline. They still end up in negative territory because the rest of their character is terrible: greedy, narcissistic, self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-serving, selfish, often delusional, etc. A couple positive qualities are not enough. They have to exercise discipline on every dimension, especially their money addiction and selfishness. Also, even though they like to think otherwise, they are not gods, and they are not special. (They are not Michelangelo.) They are just flawed – and entirely mediocre – human beings, who got lucky. Do the f—king work and exercise self-control. Thank you, and have a doubly nice day.

1/24/24 – Rich people like to and try to justify their money addiction (avarice) by claiming they worked really hard, so they deserve it. No, they don’t. Look at how many people work extremely hard in the world, especially in poorer countries, who have nothing to show for it. Many of them are indentured servants, basically slaves. So, spare us the f—king bulls—t. It is insult upon injury to deprive workers of fair compensation for their labor and then claim to be virtuous (a hard worker) when you’re just a f—king greedy, immoral a–hole. Thank you, and have a nice day.

1/23/24 – They are our best, and we honor their beautiful, brave souls, Navy SEALS, Nathan Gage Ingram and Christopher J. Chambers. May they rest in peace. They have character traits we want to emulate: courage, discipline, and excellence. God bless them, and God bless America.

1/23/24 – All people need to be much more disciplined.

1/23/24 – Belonging to a union isn’t protection for workers to be lazy or irresponsible. Don’t abuse unions. You are always expected to work hard, be professional and responsible. Take pride if not passion in your work. Unions exist to protect workers from what has become an increasingly ill-balanced compensation structure, with those at the top getting far more than they should with everyone else getting far less than they should. Unions also protect workers from exploitative companies and practices. It’s about leveraging solidarity for fairness – not for laziness. It’s also about fighting for a good work/life balance so we have time for other important aspects of life, such as family, faith and our own health and well-being. This does not mean that you should go home and indulge in various bad habits or waste your time/life. One is supposed to exercise discipline in all aspects of life. Our ancestors worked hard so that we can have a better future. We need to work hard to honor them and to give the next generation what they deserve.

1/21/24 – Paul saw the light on the way to Damascus. Before that moment, he was absolutely convinced he was right. After that moment, he realized how wrong he was. Like pre-conversion Paul, MAGA don’t understand and don’t practice their self-identified religion correctly. The question is: Will MAGA become like the post-enlightenment Paul, or are they like the high priests? There will likely not be some on the road moment for MAGA. In fact, they are acting more and more like the high priests with each passing day: legalistic, law-abusing, power-preserving, treacherous, all the while preening in their self-righteousness, and insulting God with their hypocrisy.

1/21/24 – When you admire the wrong people, you risk becoming like them. Then, before you know it, you’ve lost your soul. Half the country has fallen under the influence of an evil man, trump, and are becoming like him.

1/21/24 – When you choose people to admire or emulate, they don’t need to look like or be like you. You don’t need to have similar genetics. Christians should know this better than anybody else. Jesus, who is our guiding light and our savior, was a brown Jew, a Hebrew, an Israelite, from what we call the land of Israel. He belonged to a relatively small group of people who are/were ethnically joined. During his own lifetime, he literally crossed boundaries to bring his ministry to those outside of his ethnic group, the Jews, violating the taboos of his time. He was aware of what he was doing, and it is documented in the Gospel. Nativism is antithetical to the Christian faith, which is a global religion. From its inception, the religion and Jesus have belonged to the world.
The Party of Malice

1/20/24 – Someone needs to remind Tim Scott, whose judgment has been compromised by his ambition, that the evil one, trump’s, last VP, a white man, was nearly lynched by a mob. Just imagine what they would do to Tim Scott, a black man. When ambition, greed, power and other addictions are more important than the values Jesus preached, as he said, repent. Following Jesus isn’t a show or a signal. It’s a way of life.

1/20/24 – Many really talented people were very disciplined. We can copy them no matter how talented we are or aren’t. Michelangelo (yes, he comes up often because, well, he’s il divino) lived about twice as long as his peers, until almost 90-years-old, and he worked like a beast. His work was not just artistically and intellectually demanding but also extremely physically demanding. Setting aside the intense technical difficulty, sculpting marble and painting frescos are not exactly easy on the body. Nonetheless, he was highly productive until the end of his life, and his youthful personal ambition became a divine purpose as he matured.
Of course, none of us are Michelangelo, but we can all take a similar approach to life. He was deeply religious (the Holy Spirit touched that man…), highly passionate about his work, which was usually religious in subject, and as a polymath engaged his mind and talents in diverse disciplines. He exercised regularly both in his work and horseback riding. He was too busy to have bad habits or indulge in unhealthy activities. And he complained all the time, which might seem like a negative, but it’s not. Work like him, and you’ll understand how important expressing one’s feelings is to staying the course, not to mention staying sane.
This is how to age: living your life like your youthful, robust self doesn’t age; it matures on all dimensions. For all of his complaints about his physical ailments, he exemplified maturation instead of just getting older. You don’t have to be unbelievably talented to want to live like every minute of your limited time on the planet matters. It does for all of us. Use it well.

1/20/24 – Structure and routine are really important, not just for kids, but throughout one’s life. Make your bed. Keep your place clean and organized. Have to do lists. Unless you do a lot of manual labor, don’t eat more than three reasonable meals per day. Even as you get older, you likely won’t put on weight if you eat appropriately, and you’ll stay healthier. In many ways, it’s more important than exercise. Get adequate rest. Don’t be so productive that you don’t sleep enough. That’s not healthy either.

1/20/24 – You are likely addicted to something, but you can end your addiction. However, you have to want it, and you have to do the work. Nobody else can want it for you or do the work for you. If you think you’re not addicted to something, you’re likely wrong. Almost everybody is addicted to something these days. How much time do you spend on your phone, on social media, watching TV or movies, unhealthy socializing, playing video games, shopping, surfing, eating too much, etc.? Keep track of how you spend your time. Add it up, and you’ll see that you’re addicted to something. That’s your life you’re wasting. Think about it.

1/20/24 – We’re living in an era where people seem to have no idea how to exercise self-control and discipline. Do people no longer structure their days or restrict themselves from engaging in unhealthy activities? If you need some help doing so, skip all the “advice,” and look to monastic communities or the military. You can just copy their structure with some modifications. They do it better than anybody else. Their days are very structured, and they are very disciplined. Although they obviously have different purposes, they are both also about sacrifice.
How to structure your day: have times and activities listed for the entire day. (See below for an outline of an average day.) Generally, follow the structure. Don’t develop or indulge any bad habits. (This is critically important.) These includes shopping, playing video games, watching TV, movies, or other entertainment, surfing or social media in addition to the other more obvious addictions. Any form of entertainment should be at most a total of two hours per week. No time on social media. Bare minimum use of phone. Spend only a moderate amount of time reading the news, so you can stay informed. Socialization is encouraged but should also not be excessive. Spend time in nature and on your spiritual life. The idea is to be so productive that you have no time (and eventually desire) for bad habits or unproductive activities.
From 12/2/23 – “Simple average day: Wake up, work, go home, do little things around the home, errands and such, time for family, friends or yourself (e.g. exercise), sleep. Repeat.”

1/20/24 – So, the most recent thing to go apes—t over is apparently ranch-flavored Burt’s Bees lip balm, is that right? What’s wrong with everybody? Our enemies, especially the Chinese who are contributing to this idiocy, are laughing at us. Who needs Pavlovian dogs when they have humans. This is just embarrassing.

1/19/24 – People waste way too much of their time – their lives – online. Go read a book or take in some culture. Hang out with real people in the real world. Goodbye.

1/19/24 – How to choose a water bottle: assess your needs, go to the store (or online store), look at the selection, match to your needs (such as size, cleaning, car holder, straw vs. spout thing, hot/cold, leak proof, etc.), price (see below), align to personal aesthetics, purchase. The thing to not do: spend any time online looking at “influencer” blogs.

1/19/24 – Word to the wise. Sometimes, if you’re too cheap, it might end up costing you more than you save. Weigh pros and cons well.

1/19/24 – This is extremely odd behavior. Unsure what else to say about it. “Trying to parse why strangers ascribe such meaning to an object or product that is meaningless to you—or why they’re so set on one thing and not another, similar thing—is usually a fool’s errand. Humans by nature turn objects into meaning, and consumerism is the process by which that impulse is commodified by middlemen looking to ascribe that meaning to particular things in order to sell your identity or values or group affinity or sense of community back to you.”
It’s Just a Water Bottle

1/18/24 – “‘This war has never been about any real security threat to Russia coming from either Ukraine or NATO,’ Bauer added. ‘This war is about Russia fearing something much more powerful than any physical weapon on earth — democracy. If people in Ukraine can have democratic rights, then people in Russia will soon crave them too.’” God bless Ukraine and the Ukrainians. We will never forget about them and our support will never diminish. It’s as strong now as it has ever been. Slava Ukraini! Long live freedom and democracy!
Top NATO military officer urges allies and leaders to plan for the unexpected in Ukraine

1/18/24 – The irony of someone who joined an order that gives up consumption to end up being an expert on what it means to be a consumer and to be consumed. AI is effectively about consumption. It’s cyclical consumption. We consume (or produce as laborers). This data becomes the input for the algorithms that then influence our consumption (or production). “For his part, the friar told AP that regulating artificial intelligence shouldn’t mean limiting its development. ‘It means keeping them compatible with that fragile system that is democracy, that today seems to be the best system,’ Benanti said.”
The Vatican’s top expert on AI ethics is a friar from a medieval Franciscan order

1/18/24 – Everything that goes into your person should be thoughtful. One of the beautiful things we could all learn from monastic communities is that they are intentional about everything they do and consume. If we want a thriving culture, we have to create it. It doesn’t just happen. Renaissance Italy didn’t just happen. The artists and intellectuals wanted it and worked very hard for it. The patrons wanted it and invested in it. Their legacy remains with us. Don’t be lazy. Put in the effort to actually think about who you are and what you consume. Be intentional. Be unique. Our democracy depends on people being independent thinkers and consumers.
How social media algorithms ‘flatten’ our culture by making decisions for us

1/17/24 – If you learned how to read literature well, you will rather quickly realize that you could be like (almost) every character you encounter if you allow yourself to be unrestrained. We’re all capable of depravities. The difference is the degree to which we restrain them. Some of us restrain ourselves well. Others not only allow themselves to go unrestrained but plunge with glee into the darkness of the human heart. This is one of the many brilliant truths found condensed into one book, the Gospel. It lays them out in a way that has been unsurpassed. If anybody thinks they are beyond depravities, that they are incapable of them, they think wrong.
There is a big difference between seeking justice and seeking revenge. Perhaps MAGA deludes itself into thinking it seeks justice. Perhaps it has plunged into the darkness of seeking revenge, regardless of what is just or unjust. “Trump, in so many ways, quickly made fools of them; his various inanities, failures, and possible crimes sent them scrambling for ever more bizarre rationalizations, defenses of the indefensible that separated them from family and friends. If in 2016 they suspected, rightly or wrongly, that many Americans looked down on them for any number of reasons, they now know with certainty that millions of people look down on them—not for who they are but for what they’ve supported so vocally.”
People do think less of MAGA because they support the evil one, trump, and it’s justified. If one supports evil people, such as Hitler or Stalin, Putin or Modi, then it’s justified that people will think less of them. The depraved response is to seek revenge as a salve for one’s wounded ego. This is not justice. This is the siren call of pride, and it has led many people down a path to immorality and evil. “Trump wants payback; so do millions of voters who have no one to blame for their sense of humiliation but themselves.” And the way out for them, as Jesus said, is not revenge but repentance.
Trump Wants Revenge—And So Does His Base

1/16/24 – The climate change models seem to be underestimating the warming. Have they accounted for a downward spiral? The worse global warming gets, the more energy we use to heat and cool spaces. The worse global warming gets, and so on.  

1/16/24 – DeSantis should drop out.

1/15/24 – To turn to a real American, Happy Birthday to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr! The country has a select brave men and women who sacrifice their lives for the nation’s progress. We honor and thank him. God bless him today and every day.

1/15/24 – If the evil one, trump, is the chosen one, then why is it so cold on the first day of his revenge election?

1/15/24 – It’s rather enjoyable to watch moronic MAGA stand out in the freezing cold for hours for their evil cult leader. It’s the simple pleasures.

1/15/24 – Your therapist will tell you it’s everybody else’s fault and send you the bill. That’s not what the Gospel says. It says that you need to change yourself, and it’s free.

1/14/24 – America has turned into vapid, shallow morons. Don’t be like the Kardashians. Be like Kierkegaard. Happy Sunday!

1/14/24 – If you can be someone who’s never bored, you figured it out. There’s far more to do than can fit into one life. How could one possibly be bored? But maybe that actually isn’t the problem.
Kierkegaard’s Three Ways to Live More Fully

1/9/24 – The Washington Propaganda has an affection for self-glorifying, shallow, stupid, intellectually deficient, godless morons writing opinion pieces on God. Just f—k off.

1/9/24 – No phone addiction. No money addiction. No BS addiction. No influencers. It’s not hard, people. It’s actually a lot easier and better. It’s simple, healthy living.

1/9/24 – To all rich people, you don’t need any more money. You just want more. The kids are addicted to their phones. You’re addicted to money. Get some godd—n discipline. Start modeling virtuous qualities instead of sinful ones. Be self-controlled, responsible adults. Your indulgences and lack of restraint have f—ked up our world, and we resent you for it.

1/9/24 – All kids do these days is stare stupidly at their phones. Progress.

1/9/24 – You don’t need an app to tell you where to go. You know what you do. You drive, walk or bike around your city, make little notes of interesting places, and then go to them. Or you ask your friends, colleagues, etc., you know, maybe interact with people. Simple and genius.

1/9/24 – What on God’s green earth is an “influencer.” Apparently, people actually spend their time on this, whatever it is, and it’s one of the dumbest things to have recently emerged. You don’t need an “influencer” to tell you anything. If you want to buy something, you go to the store, look at the selection, compare prices, perhaps seek out some opinions, and then buy the thing that most appeals to your unique person and judgment.

1/9/24 – Are we going to blame the existence of the addictive product or the people who choose to abuse it? Is the phone, the algorithm, etc., the problem, or the people who can’t or won’t control themselves? Is the left capable of holding people accountable? Last we checked, all kinds of addictive things have existed: coffee, tobacco, weed, alcohol, street drugs, pharma drugs, phones, gambling, sex, and a big one – money. You get the idea. Many of these things have existed since basically the beginning of time. What’s changed is our expectation of human behavior. Apparently, nobody is held accountable for their own behavior or addictions anymore. Exercise discipline!

1/8/24 – Living well isn’t about how much money or comfort you have. It’s about how you spend your time, your life, and the quality of your mind and your character. Keep it simple.

1/8/24 – If rich people want to be cool or more importantly genuine, they would give most of their money away to the poor and live simply like the rest of us. An upper-middle-class life is better than a rich life, and a middle-class to upper-middle-class life is the best. Being poor (without being part of a strong community or a religious order) is hard. Being rich is easy but vacuous. This is why they often end up chasing substance outside of themselves and their circle. They also have no freedom. We can go wherever we want without being hounded. We can get lost walking around our city, our parks and communities, stop here or there for something to eat or drink, take in some culture, casually and without scrutiny. Whether or not they realize it, the money took away more than it gave them because that’s what money does. That’s what it would do to any of us if we had a lot of it. The tradeoff is simply not worth it. When we tax the rich, we’re actually doing them a favor, no matter their protestations as we take the drug away, and they’re doing the country and, hopefully especially the poor, a lot of good. We’re bringing the rich’s feet down to the ground, and lifting the poor’s burden of their backs. It’s a beautiful rebalancing to help us all stay focused on the things that truly matter.

1/8/24 – PS Not only did older generations have better taste in music, they knew how to read and analyze great literature. They also admired artists who kept out of the limelight, such as Salinger. Younger generations might try it sometime, you know, actually producing worthy work instead of self-promotion. Older generations also didn’t engage in rants on social media under the guise of literary criticism that instead brought attention to their literary ignorance. But hey, it “trended,” and that’s all that matters, right? Attention (at any cost).

1/8/24 – Look at what happened to Burning Man. Rich people started going there. Now, it’s dead. As soon as the thing goes mainstream, or God-forbid, rich people start going to it, thinking it’s cool, you’ve got to stop going. It’s done. They did the same thing to SXSW. The whole point is to get away from those people. It’s bad enough we often need to interact with them to make a buck. (They’re so narcissistic, they often can’t tell that we really don’t like or respect them.) Do we also need to see them during what were once activities for people who actually care about true innovation, spirituality and the arts? No, we really don’t. They remind us of the thing we want to forget – money, especially when we’re trying to focus on the things that matter (often with a substantial dose of inexcusable hedonism. Don’t even try to justify it. Just confess, ideally in a confession booth with a priest). Creativity is hard enough. Letting go of the material world is hard enough. Being less of a s—head than you usually are is hard enough. You get the idea. You don’t need a bunch of rich f—kers reminding you that in your daily life, you often end up being an a—hole like they are. Calling Holden, we’re all sold-out phonies to some degree, but at least, many of us still make the effort to not be sold-out phonies and still feel bad about being so. That’s something, but it becomes nothing once the rich people come around.
How the ultra-wealthy infiltrated anti-capitalist Burning Man

1/8/24 – Who says small venues are for old people? When kids were still cool, which they aren’t anymore, this was the thing! It was like a great travel story, but it was a great music story. I saw ____ at ____ (small venue). Part of what gave the experience cachet was that the artist had not blown up (yet) because they hadn’t been “discovered” and that the venue was small. That was when kids – not the music industry – wanted to discover new talent, not just mindlessly imbibe and tribal signal what was, what’s the word…, right, “trending”. It used to be that money and fame would ruin the thing no matter what it was. Once it got big, the kids would lose interest because it had gotten too mainstream? Where is that glorious, youthful snobbery? Where is that rebelliousness? Where is that desire to be different? It doesn’t seem to exist anymore.
The Secret Joys of Geriatric Rock

1/8/24 – There is definitely no anarcho-punk in this video. There is a lot of Taylor Alison Swift though. Blackstone says that it buys assets and makes them better. Did y’all know that? Better. That’s an interesting description of what they do. (Watch at your own peril. If you can’t erase it, not our fault.)
Blackstone’s 2023 Holiday Video: The Alternatives Era

1/8/24 – We don’t definitively know if Michelangelo (yes, there’s a theme, some might say obsession) was gay. Some people have suggested he was. It’s possible. What does it matter either way? Is his work diminished if he was? Of course not. Would his work be better if he was? No, it wouldn’t. Il divino’s work stands on its own merits regardless of the person. (Some say he was rather irascible, which makes him all the more endearing to some of us, but doesn’t bias the assessment of the work.) Was his devotion to the Lord any less ardent? No, it wasn’t. He loved him until the end, and it came through in his work. What would have been repugnant though is if he used gay people to make his career, which, of course, he didn’t.
Also, whatever Michelangelo’s sexual orientation was is actually none of our business. If he was gay, he wasn’t openly. Respect people’s privacy. He also surely wasn’t sexually abusing children as some gay or straight priests have, with the Catholic Church, the largest denomination of the church founded on the Apostle Peter, covering it up. Michelangelo’s feelings about his sexual desires or life are between him and the Lord, and that’s it.

1/7/24 – Spend some time on your spiritual life. Be a whole person. Happy Sunday!

1/7/24 – Remember: God gave you life; you will die; spend your time wisely. Many people have gotten addicted to their phone’s apps, which is more than a little ridiculous. The best thing to do is to not use the phone the way others are using it. It’s meant for calling, texting and practical stuff, including learning. But even when you’re doing productive things on your phone, such as learning a new language or skill, keep it reasonable. Don’t have social media, news, or other unproductive apps on your phone. Frankly, the phone is boring. It’s mindboggling that people find it so appealing. In no particular order, there is nature, books, places of worship, people, food, cultural activities…and on and on. So many other things to do that engage your whole person. The clock ticks, and life awaits. Enjoy!
You have one life. Do you really want to spend it looking at your phone?

1/6/24 – Devoted to Jesus Christ, and that’s it. Christ is priest, prophet, king. We don’t need anyone else.

1/6/24 – Today, Christians celebrate Epiphany. God walked with us in the flesh. Jesus’s divinity was known to others during his lifetime, firstly, his own mother, Mary, then Joseph, and next the Three Kings. God is with us. Emmanuel.

1/6/24 – If you’re not crazy about Biden, fine. Just don’t vote for the evil one, trump.

1/6/24 – The evil one, trump, deserves the death penalty for what he did on January 6, 2021.

1/6/24 – George Washington was a slaveholder, and that will remain a stain upon his character. But he was also a great president and leader. We can hold both parts of him at once while still holding him high. Jesus understood this dichotomy of men and women. He said to the person who denied him three times even though he recognized his divinity as the Son of God that he would build the church on him, Peter, the rock. Peter, who knew he would likely be martyred, was also crucified. There are no perfect people. There are people who despite their weaknesses rise to the occasion. They are called, and they answer the call. Our country is founded on patriots like George Washington who refused to be king. After two terms as president, he became a citizen again of the United States of America. He put country above self because that’s what honorable, valorous patriots do.

1/6/24 – Many Democrats would rather have a younger president and simply a fresh approach, but as presidents go, it gets way worse than Biden. He’s been good. Not great. Not terrible. Just good. More importantly than anything else, he saved the country from more of the evil one, trump. The worst “president” (he was president in name only) in American history is the evil one, trump. There is no comparison. He is a loser. He is a treasonous traitor. He is a wannabe dictator. He is pure evil.
President Biden Delivers Remarks Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

1/5/24 – Just saying that someone or some group is “populist” doesn’t mean that it’s totally wrong, backward, or whatever. MAGA are f—kheads, but that’s because they are choosing to support the evil one, trump, even though he’s obviously a dangerous demagogue. Does this say something quite negative about the state of MAGA’s soul? Yes. But that’s different from saying the elites are right about intellectual or other matters.
Remember that Bernie supporters are also “populists” who share the same anti-free trade sentiment as MAGA. They have legitimate grievances. When elites (who really don’t understand economics well, even the economists) keep pushing their simplistic understanding of complex economic issues, they don’t allay but inflame them. These “populists’” realities aren’t matching the idealized outcomes of the economic models, which are often not supported empirically, or the narratives the elites, such as David Brooks, pitch.
Brooks, in particular, is an oddity. He seems quite aware of the elite/regular folk divide, yet he rather hypocritically sits on a comfortable ivory perch telling people whose ancestors often sacrificed greatly for our country and who value simple things that they just don’t get the globalism that the other elites have been shoving down everyone’s throats.
A reviving domestic manufacturing industry under Biden can be attributed in no small part to Bernie’s influence. This is definitely not the position of a neoliberal, free trade economist. It would be quite ironic if it’s one of the factors that gives Biden a second term.
Also, barbarism comes in many forms. Some forms reflect the brutality that man has always been capable of, one that comes at the end of a gun. Other forms come at the end of a pen. They are based on “law and order” and “the spirit of capitalism” (Protestant or other). Just because it’s written with pen onto paper doesn’t mean it’s moral. What is legal in one man’s country can be illegal in another. Just look at how much legal controversy we’re dealing with domestically, leave alone internationally.

1/5/24 – Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s. Economics doesn’t result in morality. There are many solid arguments against free trade (without limits). Firstly, being economically independent (autarky) has its own value, particularly as it relates to national security. Secondly, many (developing) countries became highly dependent on trade, and their economies became brittle and imbalanced. Thirdly, economic specialization is often environmentally damaging. Fourthly, there are always tradeoffs in economics and in life, and there are always losers, not just winners. Many other reasons, too many for a quick list…. Last but not least, free trade is definitely not morality inducing. There isn’t a single economic system or ideology, neoliberalism or anything else, in the world that somehow softens people’s hearts. Money does not have that power, and money never leads to morality. Money corrupts.

1/5/24 – Aided by technology, the Millennials created a culture in which one sells themselves instead of their ideas. Before them, the culture was not like this, in part, because one couldn’t do this. There was no mechanism to market oneself (really prostitute oneself) on a big platform even after the creation of the Internet. Sure, some fledgling social media sites existed, but Gen X was generally more interested in experiences in the real world than spending huge amounts of time prostituting themselves on the Internet. What one should always be selling is their ideas, not their person. Michelangelo didn’t need to sign anything (which he didn’t do but one piece in an uncharacteristic flex of his ego). His work spoke for itself. Of course, most of us aren’t Michelangelo, but the standard hasn’t changed: the work is what matters. The rest is a mirage. After time passes, this will be made clearer. The sands will be blown away to reveal, well, nothing. Like an unknown masterpiece, its glory will be visible only to its owner.

1/4/24 – George Will’s greed is preventing any modicum of objectivity. He doesn’t like paying taxes, and therefore, he’s going to engage in absurd equivalencies that undermine any credibility he might have while holding up some pretext of libertarian ideology. We get it. He doesn’t want to pay taxes. Well, f—k him. There are costs to living in a great country and keeping it great. Pay your f—king taxes. It’s an act of patriotism. In general, Libertarians need to ask themselves what they do for the country. It doesn’t exist for them to extract as much as they can for themselves. That’s not freedom. That’s greed. And there is a big difference between the two.

1/4/24 – And what are Swifties? You’re literally named after someone else. Pathetic. The culture took some strange turn that it needs to turn away from because it’s f—king sad. This is not limited to Millennials or Gen Z. There are people who fought the Nazis, honorable, brave people, who naturally don’t want some punk-a—, s—head Millennial or Gen Z, who thinks they’re great just for existing, to tell them that they’re somehow less than or “cancelled”. Who the f—k are they, communist-leaning, know-nothing, do-nothing narcissists? And they would be right, except that the same people who fought the Nazis are now supporting a fascist, the evil one, trump, the most dangerous person in the world. They are acting like they are his dogs. Has everybody lost their minds? Yes, they have. Everybody needs to get some god—n dignity and pride. Like and think things that are different from others and have your reasons for your preferences and thoughts. Be a person instead of someone else’s puppet. God made us free. Act like it.

1/3/24 – Be truly different. Leave a mark that is as unique as you are. People don’t need to “follow” you or to “like” you. They don’t need to want to be like you or be jealous of you. They don’t even need to know anything about you. Care about the quality of your character and your work. Don’t worry about whether it appeals to others. Focus on learning and being.

1/3/24 – The Millennials killed music and culture.

1/3/24 – Is the propaganda (self-described free press) getting paid to write articles on Taylor Swift? This is a serious question. It’s like a full-blown multi-publication ad campaign. There are other f—king musicians in the world, many of whom are much more talented. Good god. Get a grip!

1/2/24 – Yes, the world is falling apart, and we’re in for serious trouble, but trying to control others won’t make anything better. If anything, it’ll make things worse. Stop policing others. Start changing yourself.

1/2/24 – Some of us are suckers for great stories, valor, honor and bravery. Mark Milley is his own person. Have personality. Have character. Have an identity that’s actually yours.

1/2/24 – Great article! We’re so blessed as a country to have patriots like Mark Milley. We salute and thank him. They have kept our Republic intact for 247 years. What happens when are they kept out of positions of powers in an evil administration? Rome falls.
The Patriot

1/2/24 – If reelected, the evil one, trump, might get us into a war so that he can try to stay in power by claiming martial law. Americans’ children will die so that the evil one can become a dictator.

1/1/24 – This is the state of the world on the first day of 2024. We’re going down in epic fashion.

1/1/24 – Do Millennials or Gen Z know who they are if they don’t know what’s been cancelled? Do they exist if they aren’t “trending”? Did X, formerly Twitter, make them and then unmake them? Are they at the whims of the corporate gods? Have the corporate gods taken over their temporal lobes? Maybe they can ask God to restore them to their pristine glory (oops, they don’t believe in him; God has been “cancelled”), or maybe like the planet, it’s too late.
Here is a little musical and political history for folks. “Anarcho-punk spread to the United States in the late 1970s with groups like Austin’s MDC and San Francisco’s Dead Kennedys. Los Angeles’ Black Flag also embraced anarchists politics between 1982 and 1986, when Henry Rollins was their vocalist. United States anarcho-punk generally supported revolutions in Latin America and anti-Apartheid movements and criticized the Presidency of Ronald Reagan.” How many articles have been written about Taylor Swift recently, Time magazine’s person of last year? The youth pre-Millennial would have found it disgusting, pure corporate, anodyne trash. Are people getting it yet? Diffuse from the f—king tribe. You’re supposed to be different!
Anarcho-punk

1/1/24 – The Middle East, perpetually in conflict or war, always getting worse.

1/1/24 – Africa, perpetually unable to get its act together, also moving toward totalitarianism.

1/1/24 – Europe, science- and self-worshipping white narcissists who are dying off.

1/1/24 – The rest of Asia, moving toward totalitarianism.

1/1/24 – China and Russia, the countries that have no value for human life.

1/1/24 – India, the country that loves to hate the female sex and human dignity.

1/1/24 – The USA, the country with a couple of competing generational groups who want to control everybody with fascism or communism, a sociopathic ex-president who wants to be a dictator, and a supreme court that interprets the law to reflect their ideological preferences, effectively controlling people who should be free. Anyone seeing the pattern here? Everybody wants to control someone.

1/1/24 – We’re going to lose our planet and possibly our democracy. Progress.

1/1/24 – It’s 2024. One more year of self-destruction. Global boil on.

Notes from Underground – December 2023

12/31/23 – As we make our way through one of the two worst days of the year, the last and the first, if you feel like taking a break from your soma stupor, ask yourself a simple question with a metaphysical dimension: are we going up, or are we going down? We are going down in every sense of that expression.

12/31/23 – Narcissism prevents objectivity and makes it difficult to see things clearly. Millennials and now Gen Z assume that they are right in their approach, but it has likely contributed to the polarization we see. Obviously, there are smart phones, social media and other factors, mostly technological, but there is also a cultural component that contributed to the present polarization that was driven by these generations’ culture.
One of the under-appreciated advantages for Gen X was that it was a small generation. Therefore, it didn’t fall under the illusion of wielding power. If you’re aware of how powerless you are, which is generally an accurate assessment, there is no temptation to get everyone else to conform to your will. So, you just flip the man and the dominant culture the bird and do things your way.
This was one of the appeals of British punk for the American youth coming out of the dominance of 80s pop. Politically, there is a certain anarchist element in punk that is outside of the main political or economic ideologies, such as communism or fascism, capitalism or socialism. Anarchism is anti-dualistic. It is chaotic, and if you are rebellious and have a risk-tolerance, that has a certain appeal.
Millennials went in the opposite direction. They became quite controlling. They asserted the power of their numbers the way Boomers did and started policing the dominant culture. Unsurprisingly, it has not gone over well. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Boomers and older generations, who were/are accustomed to being in power, naturally did not take kindly to the policing and the power grab with communist leanings. Now, the Boomers and older generations are policing in the opposite direction and leaning fascist.
The problem with both of these approaches, the older larger and the younger larger generations, is that they want to control others, just in different ways. Healthy societies aren’t composed of individuals who are controlled either by the government or by pressure from the prevailing culture. They actually have a certain level of chaos that is the natural outcome of a myriad of people expressing their individuality. They are less predictable and also more balanced in the aggregate.

12/30/23 – A good new year’s resolution: be your own person. Instead of subscribing to a tribe or to a tribal identity, commit to the truth and define your own identity. God made us unique. We undermine that gift when we put earthly categories above our calling to be united with him in our individuality, with the special talents he gave us. Develop your person. Read. Patronize the arts. Be spiritual. Be a whole person that forges your own path, thinks for yourself and has your own sense of style and way of being in the world. It will be much more satisfying than donning some prêt-a-porter identity to fit into a society that’s become unmoored from substance.

12/30/23 –Just being young doesn’t make one cool. Prior to Millennials, being cool was defined by being nonconformist. Millennials and Gen Z are quite conformist. They want everybody to speak like them, think like them, be like them, and if they don’t, they’re “cancelled.” That’s not the way the world works or should work.
Gen Xers are now middle-aged. Some Gen Xers (and likely other older voters also) feel nostalgic about the way Reagan made Americans feel good about being American. Like Biden, Reagan was also old, but he was quite successful at inspiring national pride no matter what one thought about his policies. We need a president who can do this while having reasonable policies that are popular with the majority of voters. (And one who isn’t a treasonous, traitorous despot like the evil one, trump.)
Millennials and Gen Z have decided being patriotic is cancelled. Why should that be? Being patriotic is about being American. It’s about being invested in our country and taking pride in who we are, how far we’ve come, the positive role we can play in the world while still perfecting our union.
Endless cynicism and criticism doesn’t make one cool. Endless policing of others’ words or conduct doesn’t make one cool. What’s cool is being a substantive person of one’s own and taking emotional and other risks, including investing in our country. Yes, America might break our heart from time to time, but it’s better to love something and fight for it than to just criticize and feel justified in your detachment when things don’t go well.
Although Gen X is a small generation, it’s a pretty good measure of how broad an appeal a politician has. It’s a tough, independent generation, and it’s still pretty nonconformist even though it’s aged. It didn’t police others, and it didn’t want to be policed. It didn’t cancel, and it didn’t give a crap if it was cancelled, which it sort of was in a written off kind of way. It sold out to some degree, as many generations do, but even now, its ethos remains cool. That’s because being one’s own person is timeless.

12/30/23 – Christianity is a world religion. Scientism is a white man’s religion. God created the universe and gave us life. Scientism is a false god that is killing us. Christianity is countercultural. Scientism is conformist.

12/30/23 – Although it was rarely practiced correctly, the best thing Europe brought the world was Christianity. The worst thing it brought the world was the “Enlightenment.” Everything related to the destruction of our planet as we knew it can be traced back to the science- and self-worship that was the result of this misguided white movement.

12/30/23 – Christianity is based on a brown Jewish man, who we believe to be the Son of God and who sacrificed himself for us. To paraphrase one of the most prominent white evangelicals in recent history, Billy Graham, don’t let anyone tell you it’s a white man’s religion. Jesus belongs to the whole world. Christianity has also existed in many diverse parts of the world since its birth. What is a white man’s religion is the science worship that mostly white liberals have been pushing down our throats for centuries. White people have abused science, which has an important role in the world. They replaced our God with themselves, and their hubris and narcissism are leading to the destruction of life on the planet.

12/29/23 – Millennials were never cool. They just thought they were. In general, sneaker “fashion” is stupid. The only reason to wear athletic wear is because you’re actually exercising or your feet need the support, which is particularly true in certain professions. Gen X were the last generation that had any sense of style. Millennials popularized Hoka. Gen X popularized Dr. Martens because American grunge and British punk had something of an overlap. The style was tied to the generation’s music. Running around everywhere in yoga pants and sneakers is what lazy people who don’t have any sense of identity or style do.

12/28/23 – You have to do the work. You have to actually change yourself. There are no shortcuts.

12/28/23 – Many of these liberals think Jesus was, let’s just put it bluntly, a delusional freak. Unfortunately for them, it doesn’t compute. What delusional person reverses the entire secular order (their order), bringing the poor and marginalized up and putting the rich and powerful down? Does that seem delusional, or does that seem right? Doesn’t that seem like how things ought to actually be if one is truly an “evolved” person? (They love “evolution,” “evolved,” “evolve,” “evolving.” These words appeal to them more than any other, such as: love, sacrifice, faith, hope, peace, etc.) Does what Jesus preached go against evolutionary theory and the survival instinct? It does, and that’s an important part of the point.
You know who are delusional freaks though? The science-worshipping (usually white) freaks who persist in arrogant hubris when all the evidence points to it being our undoing. They say they love science; they believe in science. They preach science while not actually practicing it. Who persists in gaslighting the vast majority of the world’s population that is mostly not white and, wait for it, spiritual and also living in a way that is much more connected to the gods they believe in and to the planet that they believe a higher power created so that they will instead worship (white) humans and their disgusting abuse of science? What level of delusion are these narcissists living in? A high and dangerous level, and they going to get the rest of us killed.

12/28/23 – If you happen to be a Christian who loves Jesus and feels deeply resentful about Christian Nationalism with its myriad intense awfulness, it’s understandable. If you happen to be a religious or spiritual person who loves God, (or) the creator, and nature and feels deeply resentful about its destruction caused in great part by the science worshippers, it’s understandable. Know that you are not alone. You can be all of these things, and it’s entirely justified. For Christian believers, our God asks that we continue to hope and pray that these people with whom we have profound disagreements, both metaphysical and physical, on matters as serious as the survival of our species and life on the planet, will see the light. Nothing will change for the better unless we change ourselves to be more Christlike. This is the one and only way out of our self-inflicted dangerous situation. The more we think we can “science” our way out of the mess we “scienced” our way into, the deeper hole we’ll dig. Know it now as a warning.

12/27/23 – If you think there aren’t liberal racists, you’re living in a special kind of fiction. Labels don’t make people or their hearts. There are plenty of liberals who are racists, and there are plenty of conservatives who aren’t racists. They just have conservative values. (FYI Conservative values are not by definition racist.) There was a time not that long ago when we, as young people, actually cared about being well-rounded. We pursued it with a good-natured competition. We wanted to have great travel stories so that we would be worldly and, yes, so that people would think we were worldly. We wanted to understand art and speak about it with insight and sensitivity so that we would be cultured, and, yes, so that people would think we were cultured. We read great writers, thinking critically about their various arguments, coming up with our own counterarguments, cross-referencing other great writers, thinking deeply about complicated moral questions. We actually cared about knowing things and being intellectually, culturally and morally developed.
There was a time not that long ago when tribalism did not define the person, slapping simplistic labels on oneself and claiming to be “evolved,” whatever that means. What defined the person was substance. One actually had to know s—t, not blindly adopt whatever positions the rest of one’s tribe did because one just wanted to fit in. Were we sometimes pretentious a—holes? Yes, we were. Were we sometimes obnoxious and contentious? Yes, we were. But we also took pride in being genuinely cultured and knowledgeable. That time and culture are gone. By chance of our birth year (and we aren’t that old), we had an intellectual, cultural and moral formation much more similar to people much older than we were. For centuries, perhaps millennia, these were the qualities that defined well-roundedness. That formation and definition no longer exist, and it’s a real loss for humanity.
Some argue that the phone has made young people dumber, and some research seems to confirm this. But let’s be honest; it’s also beyond the effects of the phone or even social media. We wanted these things because we wanted to be better people and, yes, because we thought it was cool. What’s cool now? More importantly, do people actually want to be better people anymore, or do they just want to signal that they’re good people, whether or not they’re actually good? Maybe actually being the thing just doesn’t matter that much anymore on any level.
PS Yes, it’s being treated as a noun. There are enough adjectives. We need more actual nouns, being the thing itself.
It Sure Looks Like Phones Are Making Students Dumber

12/26/23 – As Jesus said, hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites, on the right, on the left, everywhere. If we had done what he asked us to do, we would not be in this situation. We are here because of these (white) narcissists who routinely mistake themselves for god, in one way or another. After two thousand years of watching people fail at following him, it’s safe to forecast that the “enlightenment” experiment is going to end extremely badly. People will be begging to go back to the way it was before all of this “progress,” but it won’t be option. The only option will be mass destruction and death.

12/26/23 – The evil one, trump, “I am your retribution.” “I am your savior.” The liberal science worshippers, “I am your evolution.” “I am your savior.” Just different forms of the same dangerous narcissism. They both want you to stop worshipping your God and start worshipping them.

12/26/23 – Christianity is beautiful. Throughout the world, there are people who are exposed to the Bible and fall in divine love with Jesus. In his figure on the cross, we can see our own and each other’s brokenness. God became man. He ate and drank with us. He laughed and cried with us. He experienced pain, fear, and sadness, as we do. He was tortured and died for us. Even 2,000 years later, Jesus and his sacrifice grips people and can transform them like nothing else. (Read Peter Wehner’s writings to better understand some of the reasons for Jesus’s unique power.)
“I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I believe that God took on flesh in order to model servanthood and self-sacrifice; I believe he commanded us to love our neighbor, to turn the other cheek toward those who wish us harm, to show grace toward outsiders and let our light shine so they might glorify our heavenly Father. Not all professing Christians bother adhering to these biblical precepts, but many millions of American believers still do. It is incumbent upon them to stand up to this extremism in the Church.
Yet the responsibility is not theirs alone. No matter your personal belief system, the reality is, we have no viable path forward as a pluralistic society—none—without confronting the deterioration of the evangelical movement and repairing the relationship between Christians and the broader culture. This Christmas, I pray it might be so.” This latter group hates religion, Christianity in particular, which has tremendous appeal to many around the world, because they don’t want a pluralistic society. They want a scientocracy that worships human beings. Their narcissism and arrogance have brought us to this dangerous place where all life on the planet is threatened, and they are still too blinded by their self-love to see it or to own it.
The Only Thing More Dangerous Than Authoritarianism

12/26/23 – Many liberals, especially the white ones, worship science. It’s a religion to them. Darwin is their God. Evolution is their “bible.” They are indoctrinating others with these views. The science worship in which these over-educated narcissists engage has led to the destruction of our planet and life as we knew it before the “Enlightenment,” a European movement, when we lived on a planet truly teeming with life. Now, they’re trying to convince us that the way out of the problems they created is more belief in them and in their science. They’re so evolved, don’t you know. Yes, so evolved that they’re killing life at an unprecedented pace. Their self-love and arrogance are a danger to all life on the planet. Will they ever admit that they are one of the main reasons we’re in this miserable and dangerous predicament? That would require objectivity and humility, and they don’t seem capable of either.

12/26/23 – As the “elite”-educated, godless geniuses destroy our planet, aided by the propaganda (the press that has a science-worship agenda), going on about how evolved and virtuous they are, drinking their Starbucks, buying their “fast fashion,” indulging in all manner of decadence and consumption, while making empty proclamations about climate change, intentionally oblivious to their blatant hypocrisy (it’s so inconvenient), they want you to know that they will save you from your backwardness, your religion, your god, your inadequate evolution. You pathetic low IQ simpleton with your lack of understanding of science, they will be better than any previous god you believed in. They are the god of reason, rational and logical. They are enlightened (and mostly white). You are dumb and dark. (Yes, they are racists. They’re just better hypocrites and better at hiding it.) You used to drink from clear bodies of fresh water created by your God, unadulterated by chemicals. Soon, as a reflection of their evolution, superiority and progress, you’ll be drinking processed toilet water. That’s right, water into which people has previously deposited their human waste. It’s not an exaggeration. California is trying to figure out how to reuse toilet water. Science. Progress. White superiority.  

12/26/23 – There will come a day in the not-so-distant future when everything we’re wastefully throwing away now is going to be reused if it’s not already destroyed because we’ll be running out of natural resources. All of our efforts and resources will be focused on potable water preservation and food production, and everything else will become secondary. On an individual level, think twice before you throw stuff away. If it’s still usable, use it until it’s not. Stop spending money and start conserving. Poor countries that are unwilling to take our “trash” might actually want to do so because it will be free money if the stuff is handled properly at some point in the foreseeable future. As a matter of equity, conservation and the environment, wealthy countries should help poor countries figure out cost-effective ways of reusing materials. It’s basic fairness, and it’s good for the planet. Nobody should take the present abundance of resources for granted. It’s definitely not going to last.

12/25/23 – This and every Christmas, all glory and thanks be to God. He gave us truth and freedom. Merry Christmas, our savior, our healer, our revolutionary is born!

12/25/23 – God loves all his people throughout the world: black, white, Asian, indigenous, whoever. He does not forget the poor and the powerless, and neither should we. This Christmas, let’s pray for all of them and, as always, for the persecuted church.

12/25/23 – “There are a million Rohingya people living in the world’s largest refugee camp who are suffering in a dire situation. We think that photography and storytelling have that power to motivate people and to empower people and to draw their attention to our crisis – the Rohingya crisis.” “Most of the people held posters that said ‘We are not Bengali’ and ‘We are Rohingya.’ And among the crowd, I can see a little child also holding a banner: ‘I want justice.’ There’s a long story about this child because he was burned in Myanmar by the Myanmar military. Half of his head is burned. The mark appeared very clearly. Still, this young child is holding the poster and asking for justice. That moment really, you know, hit my heart. So I feel like if you’re a victim, if you’re persecuted, then age does not matter – you can fight for all your rights…. We are genocide survivors and we have been going through a lot of hard times, but still we have to face all these natural disasters also. When I see her, she is old but still she has hope. And I really felt broken after seeing her situation. That is the photo, you know, that I can not forget.”
Prize-winning photos by Rohingya: Unseen life in the world’s largest refugee camp
Rohingyatographer

12/25/23 – God made us in his image. We don’t remake God in our image.

12/25/23 – Flashback: Love this clip. “8/12/23 – ‘He [Jesus] belongs to the world.’ Billy Graham, may his soul rest in peace. We miss him. The geographical trinity image is lovely.
What Did Jesus Look Like? How Would A Jewish Man Possibly Look 2000 Years Ago?
The Land of Israel in the Ancient World (Jewish History Lab)

12/24/23 – This is a good example of liberals not understanding much of anything as it relates to Christianity. Jesus was a brown Jew. This is based on historical accounts, both Biblical and other. Many deeply religious people are, wait for it, scholars: Biblical scholars, historical scholars, linguistic scholars, literature scholars, scholars of various disciplines, who are deeply committed to the truth. It was not a “clash of generations.” It was the imposition of a set of cultural values that are ahistorical and incompatible with Christianity.
The depictions of Jesus as white are inaccurate. Many Middle Eastern people sometimes classify themselves as white even though they clearly are not. Mostly, they are Arab, and the Jews are their own people, genetically and culturally. Christianity was “nurtured” and politically embedded in Europe. Thus, images of Jesus as a white man became normative for political and cultural reasons. White Jesus is historically inaccurate, but after two thousand years as Europe’s religion, it is understandable (but still not acceptable) why the depiction is common.
The problem is that liberals impose their views and values on others with an arrogant sense of themselves. Did the author not stop to consider how judgmental of and superior to her grandmother she comes across? Jesus isn’t a political figure to be colored or dressed according to the fashion of the day. He isn’t supposed to be used to make people feel validated. Did the author consider that this might be why her grandmother found it sacrilegious? Apparently, after all of these years, the author hasn’t learned much about the faith or maybe even about her grandmother.
Christianity is about the truth. Stick to the truth. The truth is that Jesus was a brown Jew who belongs to the world. He sacrificed himself for all of humankind. That truth is much more powerful than a black or a white Jesus or any other fictional version of him, which is also called a lie. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and because of these truths, all people can see themselves in him as they are. (Her grandmother understood this perfectly.) We don’t change God, who chose for his Son to take the human form of a brown Jew. We change ourselves. That’s humility, and that’s the truth.
Why Black Jesus Made My Grandmother Uncomfortable

12/24/23 – A bit morbid for Christmas Eve, but without birth, there can be no death. We can only trust the man who sacrificed himself for us. Everybody else wants something from us, whether it’s our time, talent, money, genes, labor, etc. It’s all transaction everywhere. Society functions and disfunctions on transactions. Jesus gave us his life, and he asks nothing of us but to follow him. He asks everything of us, but it’s nothing of this world. It’s of God’s world. Tomorrow, we celebrate the birth of this divine, unearned gift. 

12/24/23 – Not right, not left. Not conservative, not liberal. Not fascism, not communism. Not church, not state. Not theocracy, not scientocracy. Not east, not west. Only Jesus, the only one to trust. Everything and everyone else is vulnerable to corruption. Even the best of people become corrupted to some degree of this world.

12/23/23 – What does it mean to be “in the Christmas spirit”? As always, what it should mean is being oriented to Christ, glorifying and worshipping him. The self-glorifying atheists and others, aided by the “news” media (the propaganda), want you to worship your genes (you’re more evolved), science (scientism, it’s a religion), Darwin (he’s its god), the theory of evolution (this is their religious text), luck (such as the parents to whom you were born), “pedigree” (such as the diplomas purchased at the “elite” diploma-mill schools; no, everyone shouldn’t be getting an A; it’s a fraud), your “IQ” (see the well-educated idiot Larry Summers with his genius IQ who is also routinely wrong), your status, your job, your stuff, etc. (Are you jealous of them yet? They really want you to be jealous of them.) It’s all wrong. These are all the wrong things to worship. The best present one can get this Christmas is really understanding how profoundly wrong it is and finding the light. Pray for this greatest of gifts.  

12/23/23 – To fellow Christians who want the church to be some sort of refuge from an ever-changing world, understand that the church is change, internally, within the person, and externally, as we are to help change the world for the better. The church isn’t a refuge from change. It’s an agent of change, and in its transformative change, one finds refuge.

12/23/23 – People talk too much about the institution of the church, theology and whatnot. Who cares about any of it. Remember, the church is where two or more are gathered in Jesus’s name. The best and truest part of the church right now, as it has always been, is the persecuted church. More generally, the global church is a countercultural movement. It is radical in every respect. This is a great time to be a Christian in the west because Christianity has fallen out of favor. It is “officially” not normative, as it really should never be, and we are much more in sync with our fellow Christians in other parts of the world, especially where it is a minority religion. The dominant western culture is white and secular. Christianity is multiethnic and not about this world. The mainstream culture is about consumption, hedonism and decadence. Christianity is about restraint, discipline and sacrifice. You get the idea. There is the world, and there is the Christian world. So, don’t worry about all of the words. Follow Jesus’s words and his actions, as described in the Bible. No matter who are you, no matter your nationality, religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., whoever you are, if you feel moved by the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus, just follow. Don’t worry about what mere mortals have to say or about this and that debate. God is the Word, and the Word was made flesh. That’s all that matters.

12/22/23 – The problem with Washington people and the technocrats is that they have no moral clarity. This impairs their intellectual ability.

12/22/23 – Very good points in this article. Also, could someone please tell the rest of us simple people when the last time was that someone, anyone, got an armed mob (effectively a militia) to storm the US Capitol to prevent the transition of power? Anyone? Right. So, this is not a concern: “It could also encourage states to play fast and loose with Section 3 to keep legitimate candidates off future ballots.” Yes, someone might try. Someone might try anything, and they do. We can sue anybody for anything. It’s one of the things that makes our country great. God bless America. That doesn’t mean that the grievance has any merit. Making this non-concern into a concern sends the message that it happens all the time and that well everyone does it. It diminishes the gravity of the evil one, trump’s, words and actions. It’s never happened before! It will likely never happen again, but if it does, it will likely be because of him – again. That evil man deserves the death penalty for what he did on January 6, 2021, a day that goes down in infamy. Do you understand? Understand the gravity of the intent and the crime. Are people getting this, or is this actually hard?
The Colorado Supreme Court Decision Is True Originalism

12/21/23 – To all of the supporters and apologists of the evil one, trump, know that you have sold your soul to the devil, and when the day of judgment comes, you will be held accountable for it. To all of the technocrats, find your soul and your moral compass. These are not hard questions. Your machinations are clouding your thinking and your judgment. Think about what that evil man did, including the people who were injured or died because of him, and how evil he needs to be to do that. That man is pure evil, and your response does not match the gravity of his intent or his crimes.

12/21/23 – When MAGA’s fever breaks (and one day, it will likely break), and they realize how badly they were conned, who knows how they’ll respond. The hatred and rage against the evil one on the left is well-established and known. It’s predictable. We knew who he was all along. January 6 was shocking but not surprising. For MAGA, when the spell lifts, it will be as if they realize they had been fleeced of everything of any value to them: their loved ones, their property, their health, everything…all by the evil one, trump.

12/21/23 – If you get to go to heaven, be sure to tell Abraham Lincoln that we fought like hell to prevent the evil one, trump, from destroying our democracy. Be sure to tell Honest Abe that we love our country and that we hate treasonous traitors. Be sure to thank him, salute him and call him patriot, president, and citizen of the greatest country in the world.

12/21/23 – Clarence Thomas is a justice for hire. Name the price, and he’ll rule your way. The Supreme KKKourt is KKKorrupt.

12/21/23 – Do we get our right to free speech from Congress? No, we don’t. We get it from our God and our Constitution. This is why we can tell Congress or whomever to go f—k themselves as many times and as colorfully as we like. God bless America. God bless our Constitution.

12/21/23 – This “judge” should be fired. The person is a complete idiot. “And the dissenters didn’t even bother with the district court’s bizarre position that even though Trump is an insurrectionist, Section 3 doesn’t apply to him because the person holding what the Constitution itself calls the ‘Office of the President’ is, somehow, not an ‘officer of the United States.’” They don’t have a strong counterargument because they don’t have an argument. They have BS, and they should be ashamed of writing their BS into the American legal and historical record. If they aren’t, their progeny can be on their disgraced behalf.
The Colorado Ruling Changed My Mind

12/21/23 – As is often the case, the Washington Propaganda is wrong. No president (it could be argued that no person) has ever committed a greater crime in the history of the United States. The monstrous, evil one’s crime on January 6, 2021 deserves the death penalty, at a minimum, life in prison. It was a total and complete betrayal of his oath, of our Constitution, and of our country. This is all anybody needs to know. That is moral clarity. Unfortunately, Washington people and the technocrats aren’t capable of it.

12/20/23 – The super smart, rational, science worshippers on the left, such as the self-glorifying Kate Cohen, identity atheist, who brags of her children’s precociousness, (similar to the evil one, trump, yet another moron with a huge ego), are just as gullible as MAGA. Know it now.

12/20/23 – The science worshippers at National Propaganda Radio (NPR) aren’t journalists. They are propagandists.

12/20/23 – The evil one, trump, deserves the death penalty for his crimes against the state.

12/20/23 – This is all that matters. The Supreme KKKourt either respects the Constitution, or they act as traitors to it and to our country. It’s as simple as that. “The evidence that Trump engaged in the sort of conduct the Fourteenth Amendment was designed to address is overwhelming, as is the originalist case for its application. Every piece of information that has emerged in the aftermath of the Capitol riot on January 6 has clarified what appeared even then to be a premeditated attempt to overthrow constitutional government in the United States.”
The Colorado Ruling Calls the Originalists’ Bluff

12/20/23 – Another flashback. “8/21/23 – We have an originalist Supreme Court, don’t we? We are either a nation under the rule of law, or we’re not. Apply the law without fear or favor. ‘Section 3 is “self-executing.”… one who fails to satisfy the Constitution’s qualifications does not have a constitutional “right” or “entitlement” to serve in a public office…. The bottom line is that [the evil one,] Donald Trump both “engaged in” “insurrection or rebellion” and gave “aid or comfort” to others engaging in such conduct, within the original meaning of those terms as employed in Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. If the public record is accurate, the case is not even close. He is no longer eligible to the office of Presidency, or any other state or federal office covered by the Constitution.’ Many people described it as an insurrection in real time. It was obvious. ‘The only intellectually honest way to disagree is not to deny that the event is what the Constitution refers to as “insurrection” or “rebellion,” but to deny that the insurrection or rebellion matters.’ It matters more than almost anything else, except betraying us to our enemies, which he might have also done. The evil one deserves the death penalty.
The Constitution Prohibits Trump From Ever Being President Again

12/20/23 – We won’t be substituting our democracy, as imperfect as it is, for the evil one’s or anyone’s autocracy or for a scientocracy. They can all go f—k themselves. Happy Wednesday again!

12/20/23 – Freud was a fraud, and yes, wait for it, Darwin was also a fraud. Happy Wednesday!

12/20/23 – “If my own mind is a product of the irrational, how shall I trust my mind…?” C.S. Lewis. “Whether the convictions of a man’s mind…are of any value or at all trustworthy?” Darwin. The magician’s twin is science, but science is much more dangerous. The perils of both, magic and science, include, wait for it, a lack of skepticism. The ironic thing is that many Christians today went through a period of (intense) skepticism of the faith and came back to it afterwards for various reasons, often both heart and mind.
The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis and the Case against Scientism

12/20/23 – We must be a country where the rule of law applies equally to everyone. We must honor the words written in our Constitution in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment that are intended to protect our democracy. The evil one wants to be a dictator, which is antithetical to democracy. His actions on January 6, 2021 were intended to subvert the will of the people and prevent the peaceful transition of power. He incited an insurrection. Again, apply the f—king law. We want to see that evil man behind bars where he belongs for the rest of his traitorous, treasonous life.

12/20/23 – From David Frum’s article below, “Trump will probably lose to Biden, but almost any other Republican would likely beat the current president.” If Democrats lose the presidency to Haley, it might hurt them politically, but it would help the country on every level to not have the evil one possibly reelected. She is not a treasonous traitor. She just happens to belong to the opposing party. That’s how it goes. Long live the Republic!

12/20/23 – Everybody, not just economists, are wrong sometimes if not much of the time. There is no shame in being wrong as long as one doesn’t persist in it or try to pretend otherwise. One can’t learn without being wrong, and it’s all about learning. Be humble. Be holy.
The Colorado Supreme Court Just Gave Republicans a Chance to Save Themselves

12/20/23 – In case anyone is confused, there is some intensity on this topic. The hatred of the evil one is justified, and yes, it is intense. Don’t expect any apologies for it. They won’t be forthcoming. Let’s revisit and reiterate. Apply the f—king law as it’s written in our Constitution. If the Supreme KKKourt takes the case and overrules it, they are accomplices to the insurrectionists and to their dear leader, the evil one, trump. The justices would be traitors to our Constitution. They would become completely illegitimate. “8/30/23 – Let’s look at David Frum’s argument, which we won’t be linking to because it’s idiotic. He wrote, ‘They might spare the country the ordeal of renominating an insurrectionist president.’ So, the evil one, trump, is an insurrectionist. Then, the law applies to him. (It does not to his hand-wringing examples.) Unless one can produce a coherent argument that what we all saw with our own eyes, that spectators in real time observed as insurrection was not actually an insurrection but a…what’s the word, oh fantasy of some variety but not the insurrectionist kind, there is no argument against the use of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Frum and any other unprincipled persons can just shut the f—k up with their political calculations and their illogic. Apply the f—king law as it’s written in our Constitution.”

12/19/23 – The Supreme KKKourt cannot take up the case because it is too corrupt.

12/19/23 – F—k the evil one, trump. May future Americans spit on his vile grave. He was not a president. He is and will forever live in American history as a treasonous traitor. The day when he leaves this world can’t come soon enough. May his disgusting body rot in hell and may he be tortured by its demons forever.

12/19/23 – There is one way out of our mess: the Jesus way.

12/19/23 – Don’t give them your money. Don’t give them your genes. Freedom.

12/19/23 – Fascists bad. Communists bad. “Science…is neutral.” In its sum, it is not moving us backward, and it’s not moving us forward. “That’s the voice of a man with his legs under his own table, eating the mutton and turnips raised on his own land.” We must free ourselves of the oligarchy.
Is Progress Possible? Willing Slaves of the Welfare State. – C.S. Lewis

12/19/23 – We need to stop with white people’s processed food culture. It is unhealthy and bad for the environment. This should be happening everywhere. All indigenous people need to reclaim their ancestral ways of agriculture and cuisine where lost. “Angelina Toineeta, who is Crow, is studying the BNFSI at Montana State as part of her major in agriculture. ‘Growing these gardens really stuck out to me,’ she said. ‘Native American agriculture is something we’ve lost over the years, and I want to help bring that back.’”
With bison herds and ancestral seeds, Indigenous communities embrace food sovereignty

12/18/23 – About all the people who don’t want to hear the truth: Too bad for them.

12/18/23 – The greedy capitalists just want cheap labor. It’s better for everyone, all animals and the planet to not have kids.

12/18/23 – The former is definitely true. The latter is somewhat true. However, the most acute and dangerous threat to our democracy is the evil one, trump, returning to power. “Mason said one side fears what Trump has said he will do if he wins, while the other is responding to the fear created in a media ecosystem that says the Democrats want to destroy America and turn it into a socialist or communist society.”
Americans agree that the 2024 election will be pivotal for democracy, but for different reasons

12/15/23 – Oh dear MAGA, the evil one, trump, has no loyalty to anyone but himself. Has he paid the legal bills for any of the people who did his bidding? No. He doesn’t have their back. He doesn’t have anyone’s back. You know it in your hearts. Know it in your heads too.

12/14/23 – The world needs less humans and more animals. “‘Overall, the conclusions weren’t necessarily surprising. I mean, they were depressing but not surprising.’… The researchers cite a variety of potential causes for the loss of birds, including habitat degradation, urbanization and the use of toxic pesticides, notes Zipkin.” National Propaganda Radio (NPR)
North America Has Lost 3 Billion Birds, Scientists Say

12/14/23 – Do we really need to torture birds to learn this? We don’t. “‘What they are highlighting is that you need a lot of practice to achieve a mastery in what you’re doing,’ says Ana Amador, a neuroscientist at the University of Buenos Aires who wasn’t involved in the research.” National Propaganda Radio (NPR)

12/14/23 – People are not supposed to get everything they want. If you can’t have kids, just accept it, or adopt and actually help people instead of harming the entire human species with your selfishness.

12/13/23 – The disgusting National Propaganda Radio (NPR) with its terrible “reporters” keeps pushing for Brave New World, dangerous genetic engineering. When is it going to go out of business?

12/13/23 – Once your metabolism changes, you’re supposed to eat less. Added benefit to your own health: the less people eat, the healthier the planet will be.

12/13/23 – The evil one, trump’s Achilles’ heel is that he turns bitterly on those he deems to be disloyal. If his supporters, such as white evangelicals, sour on him, he will viciously denounce them.

12/13/23 – The evil one, trump, is the greatest threat to global security. The threat must be eliminated.

12/11/23 – Christianity is radical in the best of ways. If you can give yourself to God, you will be truly free.

12/11/23 – The “Heritage Foundation” is the Dictator Foundation, and it is antithetical to our heritage: a democratic, checks and balances system. The “Heritage Foundation” needs to be destroyed.
Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision

12/11/23 – The evil one, trump, is all evolution. Right does not exist in his framework. It’s survival, greed, power, everything unholy at all costs. To MAGA, the evil one, trump, will use you and spit you out. He doesn’t care about you or the country. He cares only about himself. “One of the fake electors, former Wisconsin state Republican Chairman Andrew Hitt, repeated that position in a statement Wednesday. ‘The Wisconsin electors were tricked and misled into participating in what became the alternate elector scheme and would have never taken any actions had we known that there were ulterior reasons beyond preserving an ongoing legal strategy,’ he said. Hitt said he has been working with the Justice Department since May of 2022 and he will not be supporting Trump in 2024.” “The fake electors also released nearly 600 pages of documents related to their scheme, under terms of the settlement. Those show one Republican involved with the fake elector plot texting another one referring to their action declaring Trump the winner of Wisconsin as a ‘possible steal.’” The only people who were trying to steal the 2020 election was MAGA. Hard truth.
Fake Donald Trump electors settle civil lawsuit in Wisconsin, agree that President Biden won

12/11/23 – Reminder: Evolution is based on might makes right. Christianity is based on right makes right.

12/10/23 – Wise words. We should all heed them. “To follow in private or in public life, the law of love and temperance, even when they seem to be suicidal and not the law of competition and grab, even when they seem to be necessary to our survival. For it is part of our spiritual law never to put survival first, not even the survival of our species. We must resolutely train ourselves to feel that the survival of man on this earth much more of our own nation or culture or class is not worth having unless it can be had by honorable and merciful means. The sacrifice is not so great as it seems. Nothing is more likely to destroy a species or a nation than a determination to survive at all costs. Those who care for something else more than civilization are the only people by whom civilization is at all likely to be preserved. Those who want heaven most have served earth best. Those who love man less than God do most for man.”
C.S. Lewis – On Living in an Atomic Age

12/10/23 – If you’re genuinely Christian, what do you have to fear? God gave us everything. There is nothing to fear.

12/10/23 – A fun story about God’s divine creation and our mutual interests, even if it’s just to marvel at their splendor. Birds are wonderful creatures, and God made them for us. What a gift! Happy Sunday!
Looking for honey? This African bird will heed your call and take you there

12/10/23 – On this glorious Sunday, let us give thanks to the Lord our God for life and for his forgiveness. We are all sinners. Americans are at our best when we have no personal investment in politicians. They are just people, not God, and many of them are deeply flawed. If MAGA can rid themselves of their cultlike association with the evil one, we actually have a lot in common. Many of them are farmers or live in rural areas of the country. We have a mutual love of nature, of the land and the wildlife that inhabit it. We are simple people, who like our simple lives: closeknit communities, people who are courteous and help each other. We like everything from cooking, knitting and sewing, to home improvement and construction. Simple things. We have a lot in common because we’re Americans and because we’re humans. To MAGA: Don’t fall in love with politicians. It’s bad for your health. Fall in love with God.

12/8/23 – The church was better when it was smaller and purer. It’s gotten too big and too political. There are numerous people who would have committed to the religious life but were turned off by the institutional self-love. We are the hands and feet of Christ, simple people who love him and want to be like him. We are not an institution. We do not worship an institution, a party, a building, or anything other than God.

12/8/23 – The culture has become extremely decadent, and people are not exercising adequate discipline on any level.

12/8/23 – Reminder of basic things. You can’t just kill people because you don’t like them. The reasons are obvious. This includes people of other races, genders (yes, including trans), religions, ethnicities, etc. There is a famous commandment about this. You can’t just storm the Capitol because you don’t like the outcome of a free and fair election (or even an unfair one, which 2020 was not). This is insurrection, and lawful societies don’t do things like this. There is a famous constitution that talks about this. You can’t just become a fearful conspiracist because the culture is going in a direction you dislike and put your faith in an evil wannabee dictator who does not have a moral bone in his body. There is a famous early church that modeled correct conduct in a godless or heathen land. If you don’t like the way the culture is changing, then hold yourself to the highest of standards of integrity, objectivity, honesty and values. You show grace, love, kindness and compassion to others. You lead like Jesus led, by living like he lived. There are no shortcuts or excuses, and there are no rationalizations to act otherwise. There is a famous book about this.
How Trump Has Transformed Evangelicals

12/8/23 – We end minority rule or end in civil war.

12/8/23 – It will be much worse than this dystopian forecast. The evil one, trump, is pure evil. Every single person that’s helping him must be taken down now.
“For democracy to continue, however, the democratic system itself must be the supreme commitment of all major participants. Rules must matter more than outcomes. If not, the system careens toward breakdown—as it is careening now.
When Benjamin Franklin famously said of the then-new Constitution, ‘A republic, if you can keep it,’ he was not suggesting that the republic might be misplaced absentmindedly. He foresaw that ambitious, ruthless characters would arise to try to break the republic, and that weak, venal characters might assist them. Americans have faced Franklin’s challenge since 2016, in a story that has so far had some villains, many heroes—and just enough good luck to tip the balance. It would be dangerous to continue to count on luck to do the job.”
The Danger Ahead

12/6/23 – If you worship anything other than God, it will show up as a stain upon your character in one way or another.

12/5/23 – Speaking of the psycho Nazis: Firstly, let’s take in the depravity of Germans asking for this statue. The Italians should have sent them a marble middle finger. Secondly, last we all understood the general DNA of Greeks or Italians, they are definitely not the same as the unattractive Germans. So, what are the Germans talking about: “Aryan aesthetic, calling it a national treasure”? What is an Aryan aesthetic? Does anybody know what these inferior, delusional morons with their crap cuisine are talking about?
Italy refuses Munich museum’s request to return ancient Roman statue bought by Hitler

12/5/23 – Why does MAGA fall for the evil one, trump? Why did so many self-described intelligent, moral people fall for the evil henry kissinger. This guy here and here, and so many other places of total disregard for human life. He was the Jew who learned nothing from the Nazis except how to be like them and simultaneously win the Nobel Peace Prize. All the people who fawned over him should ask themselves: Are they really so different from MAGA?

12/5/23 – Yes, almost all politicians are corrupt, but, at present, only one American politician is the evil one.

12/4/23 – Birds are like flying flowers, and people love them because they’re beautiful, sensitive, complex creatures. We don’t need all this stuff. We need what God created for us, for our sustenance and our pleasure – our beautiful planet and all of his creation.
Why is this bird drawing people from far and wide to downtown Corpus Christi?

12/4/23 – People need to stop exploiting Christianity for their own selfish ends.

12/4/23 – Academia has a deception and ambition problem, and the news media has a sensationalism and ambition problem.
The Curious Case of Jesus’s Wife

12/4/23 – If the evil one, trump, who is the most dangerous person in the world, is reelected, he will try to become a dictator. Blue states should engage in nullification, and their governors should be prepared for civil war. Also, the US military needs to be inoculated from a tyrannical takeover of the country by the evil wannabe dictator. Ideally, the evil one is eliminated as a threat to the Republic before the primaries.

12/4/23 – If you buy into the extreme left, you’ll end up worshipping yourself. If you buy into the extreme right, you’ll end up worshipping the evil one. Both are false gods.

12/4/23 – How much evidence do people need to understand that the right worships the evil one. They have fallen under the spell of a false god. “While Johnson was aggressively gathering signatures from his colleagues, according to the excerpts, Cheney overheard one of them say in exasperation: ‘The things we do for “Orange Jesus.”’” In the excerpts, Cheney names the congressman, who has since denied using those terms for the former president.” Little things such as sell their soul.
Liz Cheney is back and unloading on the current leaders of her ancestral GOP

12/3/23 – As we head into the Advent season, one of light, of the birth of the Messiah, let’s remember that the forces of evil are advancing, unchecked in their power. If you thought the first presidency of the evil one was bad, the second will feel like the darkness of pure evil descending upon the country. And its own decadence and apathy will have brought the plague upon us.

12/3/23 – The theory of evolution is of might makes right. The Christian theory of the divine is of right makes right. All Christians everywhere need to remember that the foundation of our faith is not of this world. It has nothing to do with power, money, fame or comfort. It has everything to do with faith, hope, love and accepting God’s will as one’s own. Keep your eyes fixed on what you cannot see and your ears open to the Lord who speaks in your heart. Happy Sunday.

12/3/23 – God is a mystery, which reveals itself to us as God and only God chooses. We can either believe these revelations, faint and fleeting as they usually are, or not. If Jesus is who Christians believe him to be, the Son of God, the divine made human, then God’s motivation behind the incarnation is the greatest mystery of all, even more so than the creation of the universe. The Word became flesh. Happy Advent.

12/3/23 – Satan didn’t eat the apple. He convinced Adam and Eve to eat it. One cannot love God and country, and love the evil one, trump. You have to choose.

12/3/23 – “‘Most of them won’t care about you in a week,’ he said. ‘Remember,’ Dad said, smiling. ‘On this Earth, all glory is fleeting.’” They didn’t even care about him in the moment. They cared about themselves. Another truth is that the evil one, trump, does not care at all about his supporters, and they are elevating this traitorous devil while debasing the values of the Gospel and their relationship with God, with Christians and with their fellow Americans. Sadly, the insidious infiltration of the evil one into his followers’ hearts and minds has been so complete that they have stopped being Christian. They are now effectively devil worshippers. They have become idolatrous and traitorous.

“It got to the point where I had to take a walk. Here, in our house of worship, people were taunting me about politics as I tried to mourn my father. I was in the company of certain friends that day who would not claim to know Jesus, yet they shrouded me in peace and comfort. Some of these card-carrying evangelical Christians? Not so much. They didn’t see a hurting son; they saw a vulnerable adversary.” “This was [his dad, the same person who gave him the advice above] taking the weight and the gravity and the eternal certainty of God and lending it to an ephemeral and questionable cause. This was rebuking people for failing to unconditionally follow the president of the United States when the only authority we’re meant to unconditionally follow—particularly in a setting of stained-glass windows—is Christ himself.” “‘America,’ he replied. ‘Too many of them worship America.’” No. They worship the evil one.
My Father, My Faith, and Donald Trump

12/2/23 – “‘This is the way out,’ Zelenskyy said, adding that nothing terrifies Russia more than a militarily self-sufficient Ukraine.” This is the way to protect Europe. This is true. “‘In the case of Ukraine, if resilience fails today due to lack of aid and shortages of weapons and funding, it will mean that Russia will most likely invade NATO countries,’ he said. ‘And then the American children will fight.’” After Ukraine has won the war, somebody needs to buy that man a beer.
The AP Interview: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says the war with Russia is in a new phase as winter looms

12/2/23 – Shop at and support local businesses. It’s an investment in your community, and it builds relationships.
Small Business Statistics

12/2/23 – Oprah is right. People need to put down their phones. We were all better off the way it was before all of this tech and mass production and consumption. Efficiency and consumption aren’t everything. Community and connection are everything.
Simple average day: Wake up, work, go home, do little things around the home, errands and such, time for family, friends or yourself (e.g. exercise), sleep. Repeat. The mobile is for emergencies and should be checked as minimally as possible. If you’re worried about your loved ones, give them your work phone number so that they can call you if it’s truly an emergency. The rest of the time, you should be where your feet are. Be present.

12/1/23 – None of these evil men will escape death…or justice. The Lord will give us justice.

12/1/23 – May the war criminal henry kissinger burn in hell.

Notes from Underground – November 2023

11/28/23 – This needs to become a nation-wide policy. “‘What’s shocking to people often is not only how much we waste … but also the impact,’ said Emily Broad Leib, a Harvard University law professor and director of the school’s Food Law and Policy Clinic. ‘Food waste causes about 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.’ Broad Leib says 20% of water in the U.S. is used to grow food ‘that we then just throw away, so we’re basically taking water and putting it directly into a landfill.’”
Tackling climate change and alleviating hunger: States recycle and donate food headed to landfills

11/28/23 – Wherever there is discrimination, in any shape or form, we must eliminate it.

11/28/23 – Europe has an antisemitism problem.

11/28/23 – The half-black Kamala Harris supported vetoing an anti-caste discrimination bill after wealthy upper-caste Hindus intervened to protect their interests. Why are wealthy, upper-caste Hindus opposing the bill? Well, why are racist white people opposing anti-discrimination bills? Why did Newsom veto the bill? The wealthy upper-caste Indians threatened to pull their funding and support. This is politics in America. It’s a disgusting game where revolting rich people use power and money to oppress others. They are all so corrupt.

11/26/23 – Happy Sunday! God bless the United States of America. Long live the Republic under God.

11/26/23 – Section 3 of the 14th Amendment must be protected. It must not be watered down. It must be used now – against the evil one, trump, the most dangerous threat to the Republic in its history.

11/24/23 – In a Christian centering prayer practice, we try to connect with the divine, our God, with a focus on doing God’s will and releasing ourselves from our ego. A daily practice of connecting with the divine and other activities, such as a gratitude journal, promotes spirituality, a love of all creation, and mental health.
Giving thanks is good for you. Here’s how to make it a habit

11/24/23 – We should all try to incorporate features of the monastic life. It makes us all better. “Sannyasin Tillainathaswami, a monk who has lived here for more than a decade, said the ancient practice drew him in because it delves deep into the meaning of one’s existence.” Lovely sentiment, and beautiful temple!
How a massive all-granite, hand-carved Hindu temple ended up on Hawaii’s lush Kauai Island

11/24/23 – India is a country that does not value or respect human life. The Hindu caste system treats some people as less than others and as slaves into familial perpetuity. It also treats women as objects to be abused, exploited and raped. India needs to value and respect all human life!

11/24/23 – White Evangelicals in America don’t love the Lord. They love their whiteness, power and money. They also love the evil one, Trump. They are agents of the devil. “It is a rather remarkable indictment of those who claim to be followers of Jesus that they would continue to show fealty to a man whose cruel ethic has always been antithetical to Jesus’s and becomes more so every day. Many of the same people who celebrate Christianity’s contributions to civilization—championing the belief that every human being has inherent rights and dignity, celebrating the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount and the parable of the Good Samaritan, and pointing to a ‘transcendent order of justice and hope that stands above politics,’ in the words of my late friend Michael Gerson—continue to stand foursquare behind a man who uses words that echo Mein Kampf.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Taking a stand for conscience, even long after one should have, is always the right thing to do.

‘When we engage in dehumanizing rhetoric and promote dehumanizing images,’ the best-selling author Brené Brown has written, ‘we diminish our own humanity in the process.’ We are called to find the face of God in everyone we meet, she says, including those with whom we most deeply disagree. ‘When we desecrate their divinity, we desecrate our own, and we betray our humanity.’

Far too many Christians in America are not only betraying their humanity; they are betraying the Lord they claim to love and serve.”
Have You Listened Lately to What Trump Is Saying?

11/23/23 – This and every Thanksgiving, we’re thankful for a planet that teems with life and for the God who created it. We pray that others are also thankful for this gift and will work to protect it.  

11/19/23 – God created all life – not just human beings. We need to respect all of his creation. Happy Sunday!

11/19/23 – People need to stop having children so our planet can recover. There are simply too many people.

11/18/23 – City slickers with their technology addiction have nothing on these people who live simple lives in rural America or around the world. These farmers and ranchers are connected to the land and to the food we eat. They deserve more respect and gratitude from the rest of us.

11/18/23 – Consumers should have choice in the matter also. Any rancher who puts this much care into their livestock and the environment should have the benefit of it being displayed prominently on the packaging.
Also, meat tastes good, but how can people actually digest this much beef? It’s harder on the digestive system than any other common meat product. If people would just eat smaller amounts, both they and the planet, which we need for our survival, would be healthier.
“That thinking eventually led her to the theories of regenerative ranching, which harken back to the 30 million bison that once thundered through the Plains states. Herds would seemingly annihilate grasslands by eating all the vegetation and pummeling the ground with their hoofs. The ground looked trashed, but those hoofs stimulated the soil, and the animals coated the ground with nitrogen-rich waste. Then, the animals left for months or even years, allowing grasses to grow and establish deep, sturdy roots.
Regenerative ranchers try to do roughly the same by moving cattle frequently. They’re kept in spaces where they can trample the grass and soil and then move on, allowing the land to recover for weeks or months. The goal is to produce more grass that will generate deep roots to take carbon from the air and permanently store it underground.”
Raising Better Beef

11/12/23 – From Christians to the Jewish people: thank you so much. We would have nothing if it weren’t for you. The faithful among us, the true followers of Jesus Christ, a Jew, will never abandon the Jewish people.

11/12/23 – “The Book of Job solves no problems. It gives no answers. It is a one long, poetic attempt to grapple with what ails many of us — all of us.” The Book of Job answers everything. We just don’t like the answer. The most important relationship we can have is with God. He gave us everything, and he asks us for everything that actually matters. We either love and trust him completely, no matter what happens to us, or we don’t. If we can love and trust him completely, we will have no more questions of him or of anything or anyone else. It is the choosing of our own free will his will. If we can do this, everything else becomes moot.

11/12/23 – If one reads one book in the Old Testament, let it be the Book of Job. It’s so illuminating! “The Book of Job is wildly disturbing — and that is the point.” “In effect, what God is saying is this: Even if you quote the Bible, you’re wrong. It’s completely subversive, and necessary.” “And Elie Wiesel himself asked for a volume of Talmud, so he could return to his Jewish learning. Like Job, he had suffered, but he was not about to turn away from God — he expected answers.” Wow!
What Elie Wiesel Taught Me About the Book of Job

11/11/23 – Maybe Hamas needs to stop using civilian Palestinians as human shields. Let’s face it. Like other terrorist organizations in the Middle East, the terrorist organization Hamas has no value for human life, including their own people.
The brutal calculus of war: Is the killing of civilians ever justified?

11/11/23 – Ukrainians, what a great people! Heart, heart, heart. It’s beautiful how people in the global veteran community help each other. We are put on this earth to make each other and all creation whole. We are not here to horde anything. Only inferior people with low intellects and morals give in to such base desires.
A program helps Ukraine’s veterans find sexual healing after the trauma of war

11/11/23 – The Department of Veterans Affairs is totally incompetent. Why are so many of our important institutions unable to function properly at the most basic levels?
Thousands of veterans face foreclosure and it’s not their fault. The VA could help

11/11/23 – Our service men and women sacrifice everything for the freedoms we take for granted. They are our frontline in protecting our democracy. We appreciate them so much!

11/11/23 – God bless our veterans. They are our best! We need to treat them much better than we do. Instead of allowing worthless rich people, who don’t sacrifice anything for our country, to horde wealth, we should redistribute their ill-begotten gains to veterans and others who make our country great. Happy Veterans Day!
Biden says America’s veterans are ‘the steel spine of this nation’ as he pays tribute at Arlington

11/11/23 – Many rich people, who have always been nuttier than the rest, have completely lost it, and in their psychosis, they flatter themselves by thinking this makes them smart. It doesn’t. Many rich people are not and have never been smart. They are greedy a—holes who have psychological problems, and they pose a danger to the rest of us. In their insanity, they are contributing to our destruction, who aren’t crazy like they are. We must create laws to prevent this extreme wealth and their threat to humankind.

11/11/23 – How to put this delicately? Peter Thiel, like many other Germans, is a f—king moronic nutcase. Also, Tolkien was a devout Catholic. Perhaps he could read Lord of the Rings again bearing that well-known fact in mind, and if has any brain cells in his skull, it might make more sense. When Thiel dies – and he will die – let’s hope he goes straight to hell.

11/11/23 – “He also seemed bewildered by the passions he arouses on the left. ‘I don’t think they should hate me this much,’ he said.” The left should hate him even more, not because of his political positions, but because he has no respect for God, for life, for anything in the order of the universe. Instead, he wants to be god.

11/11/23 – Being perpetually cynical, detached from everything and everyone, including reality, and having unrealistic expectations doesn’t make one cool or insulate them from others’ judgment. It just makes them crazy a—holes.

11/11/23 – Perfect description. “‘“Make America great again” was the most pessimistic slogan of any candidate in 100 years, because you were saying that we are no longer a great country,’ Thiel told me. ‘And that was a shocking slogan for a major presidential candidate.’ ‘Voting for Trump was like a not very articulate scream for help,’ Thiel told me. He fantasized that Trump’s election would somehow force a national reckoning. He believed somebody needed to tear things down—slash regulations, crush the administrative state—before the country could rebuild. He admits now that it was a bad bet.” It wasn’t a bad bet for Thiel because the evil one nearly destroyed our democracy. It was a bad bet for him because the nebular dystopian vision that he wears like a safety blanket around his infantile mind and absurd ego wasn’t realized according to his fluid and unrealistic expectations.
Peter Thiel Is Taking a Break from Democracy

11/7/23 – Governor Walz of MN should run for president. Biden should step aside.

11/7/23 – Biden’s ego might very well cost us our democracy.

11/7/23 – How is the evil one, trump, winning? How is ____ evil person winning? The world has gone mad. Yes, that likely includes you. Any other questions?

11/7/23 – To those who don’t believe God exists: Imagine today you find out that, in fact, you were wrong, and he does. Then what?

11/7/23 – Yes, the Jewish people are smart and successful, and the self-proclaimed superior white people can’t handle it. They can’t handle it when other people are objectively better than they are. It’s all about jealousy. That’s what it’s always been about. It’s not about Palestine. It’s not about justice. It’s not about righteousness. White people’s antisemitism on both the right and left is about ego. The left also hates God.

11/6/23 – Europe and much of the American left has an antisemitism problem.

11/6/23 – The evil one, trump, is unfit for any political office. That’s the truth.

11/6/23 – Almost everybody has lost it. They are detached from reality.

11/5/23 – Before we close out this sad and frustrating Sunday, please pray for the innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives lost. The world does not need any more hate, war or lies. It needs more love, compassion and truth. For us a human family to get through this dark period, we need to remember each other’s humanity and be honest with our past and who we are as a people. No side is more deserving of life than another. No side is more human than another. God made us all in his image.

11/5/23 – The left is getting played – again – because it’s stupid.

11/5/23 – It is entirely possible that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries, possibly even China and Russia, are behind this entire thing, funding Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations and even helping them plan these attacks. It is harder for these despicable regimes to maintain control of their people if their plight is getting international attention. If they create an international conflict, they can manufacture solidarity within the Islamic world, which doesn’t actually exist, and feign international outrage while they oppress and exploit their own people. It also distracts the world from these abuses, who will then focus on…well yes, of course, the Jewish people as the source of all of the world’s problems, the perpetual scapegoats.

11/5/23 – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, they are all Hebrew names. Why? Because they were all Hebrews, who became Israelites, Jews, you know the Jewish people who wrote their religious texts, the Hebrew Bible, which Christians call the Old Testament. They were not Christians, and they were not Muslims. These are the facts. The linguistics are part of the proof. None of them have names in Arabic, English or whatever other language because they were all Jews. It’s called history. It’s called linguistics. It’s called facts. Science. Deal with it.

11/5/23 – The only sane people left in this country are the Christian left. Happy Sunday!

11/5/23 – A Palestinian state should be created by the awful Muslim countries that do nothing but violate their citizens’ rights and that have rulers who don’t care about anything but money and power. They definitely don’t care about God or his creation. They should all contribute land or money to create a state for the Palestinian people.

11/5/23 – Jerusalem is a Hebrew name: Yerushalayim (Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם‎). It is recorded in ancient Egyptian texts as well – 4,000 years ago, predating Islam by about 2,500 years. The Jewish people have been living on that land for millennia. It’s their land. People can say whatever they want. Show us a single piece of evidence that Islam existed as a religion before 610 AD.

11/4/23 – Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. There is absolutely no doubt that this is the case. It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks or says, not the Palestinians, not any Muslim country and especially not the loony left. It is absurd that the youngest of the Abrahamic religions thinks they can claim it as their own. Are they delusional? Do they live in some fiction? Even Christians don’t do that, and Christianity precedes Islam by over half a millennium. Go read the Bible – the Hebrew Bible, the one Christians call the Old Testament (because it’s really old). Get a grip on reality. You know actual f—king history, not the crazy stories you’ve made up in your brain.

11/4/23 – One of the temptations in a period such as this is to make seemingly neutral, anodyne statements. To say that one is on the side of peace in Russia’s war against Ukraine is an insult to the Ukrainian people who are fighting against evil and genocide. To be on the side of peace is to be on the side of Ukraine.

In the Israel-Hamas war, the same rules apply. If an organization chooses to engage in terrorist acts against a people, in this case, the state of Israel, the side of peace is the side of Israel. The confusion lies in equating Hamas with the Palestinian people. Are all Muslims the terrorists who attacked us, Americans, on 9/11? Are all Muslims the terrorists who carry out terrorist attacks throughout the world: Europe, Africa and Asia? How is this fair to Muslims, the vast majority of whom simply want to live in peace and have been the primary victims of the evil Islamic regimes that govern them?

Israel and the Jewish people have a right to exist and to their own state. There will be no compromise on this point. Muslims throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East, who have been suffering for decades under brutal regimes that have no value for their humanity also have a right to exist. A Palestinian state is a political discussion that needs to be had, but let us not deceive ourselves into thinking this is the primary problem in that region. It definitely is not.

People need to get their heads on straight and stops associating terrorists with broader groups to which they don’t belong. Also, if one doesn’t agree with Netanyahu, which is entirely fair game, or the Israeli strategy to deal with Hamas, then make those arguments. Stop with simplistic associations based on cults/tribes/political identities and with meaningless statements that prevent intellectual and moral clarity.

Notes from Underground – October 2023

10/30/23 – The Jewish people’s religious texts are also historical documents. The American (far) left are bigoted, self-righteous, antisemitic ignoramuses who take up positions based on cult/tribes/political identity instead of any commitment to truth and historical fact. F—k them! This moment has exposed them for who they’ve been all along, and it all needs to be said.

10/30/23 – Hamas is a terrorist organization. It is evil. There are no excuses for them, and the leftists who are doing so are also evil.

10/30/23 – There is no Islam without Judaism. This is an undeniable fact. Moses was a Jew. This is the same Prophet Moses to which the Quran/Koran refers, the Prophet Moses from the Jewish people’s Bible, the Hebrew Bible, which predates Christian and Muslim religious texts by a lot – millennia. Respect God’s wishes. All of us are mere mortals. God is God. God is I am.

10/30/23 – From the Hebrew Bible, the books of Moses, the oldest religious texts in the world, simplified so even the (far) left can understand it. The promised land is Israel. The Hebrews are who we now call the Jewish people. Have a nice day.
God shows Moses the Promised Land

10/30/23 – When the (far) left shows you who they really are, you should believe them.

10/27/23 – Please stop inundating us with idiocy. Thank you, and have a nice day.

10/27/23 – What the f—k is “Biden’s economy”? What does that even mean? It’s meaningless. It’s not the president’s economy when it’s good, and it’s not the president’s economy when it’s bad. If it’s anybody’s economy, it’s the Fed’s economy, as it has been pretty much since the institution was created. If you don’t like the economy, blame them. Or the warmongers and the evil poop in Russia. Or the authoritarian a—holes in the Middle East. Or the greedy corporations. Or the rich a—holes. Or yourself because whether or not you realize it, you’re likely part of the problem. There’s also that.

10/25/23 – This. They didn’t get the evil one, but they got someone who’s worse than McCarthy. “10/4/23 – Apparently, they are planning to nominate the evil one, trump, for speaker. So, if they do so, what will Democrats do? Or they didn’t bother to think through their position? 10/4/23 – McCarthy also prevented the federal government from shutting down. If one is going to say a bunch of negative things that are entirely correct, one does also need to acknowledge the positive things that are also correct. There are certain people who are evil, such as the evil one, Trump, and one doesn’t need to do this with them. But McCarthy isn’t evil. He’s actually a rather run-of-the-mill politician. “Kevin McCarthy gave up his soul not for Wales but for something worse—Donald Trump. It will be of little comfort to McCarthy to know he’s hardly the only one to have done so.” Didn’t the evil one want the shutdown? McCarthy was punished immediately after he did the right thing and prevented it. Tell us: how do reinforcement and punishment work? What message does this send to other Republicans who do the right thing? Encourage the behavior you want to see in others.
Kevin McCarthy Got What He Deserved

10/24/23 – Christianity as Jesus Christ taught us is perfect. Christian religious institutions, like many other institutions, are imperfect, but we can’t simply give up on our institutions. We need to force them to reform and to build them better and stronger. We have to build everything together as a community. Community is everything.

10/24/23 – Absolutely! Pro-union is pro-people. Christianity is all about people. Thus, this alignment makes total sense. “Fain’s religion seems especially sensitive to the needs of the working poor. Part of the appeal of left Christianity is the notion that all of the resources one needs for sustaining a worldview focused on the needs of workers, the poor, and the dispossessed are already inside the faith. ‘My favorite verse, period, is Ecclesiastes 4:9–12,’ Fain told me. ‘I mean, that’s to me what the union’s all about; it’s what solidarity’s all about.’ Fain recited the verse, which advises that two or more workers striving together achieve greater strength and security than a single worker laboring alone. ‘My favorite line in that is “A cord of three strands is not easily broken,”’ he added. Fain said that the verse ‘speaks about what life’s about: standing together and helping one another and loving one another.’”
Shawn Fain’s Old-Time Religion

10/24/23 – To the Republicans who think you don’t have to compromise, f—k you and f—k you some more. You’re in the vast minority. No country can function well without compromise. You don’t get everything your way! A—holes.
Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on the Republicans’ struggle to choose a House speaker

10/23/23 – Fall is the best season. Enjoy!
Fall Is in the Air: Images of the Season

10/22/23 – Sacred birds. Buddhism is peace. Happy Sunday!
The sacred birds of longevity revered in Bhutan

10/20/23 – The more important economics is actually home economics. It’s very important to learn how to mend, sew, knit, garden, cook, and such. These are very practical skills that will save you lots of money, which you can then invest wisely. It is both home and economics. Meanwhile economics is just a bunch of bloviating white men who won’t update their knowledge or the discipline…perhaps with some exceptions.

10/20/23 – Economics, the discipline that refuses to evolve. Institutional inertia is everywhere, but economics is particularly inert. “Don’t let the dry econ-speak fool you. For someone in Goolsbee’s position, a sentence like that is the equivalent of standing on the steps of the Federal Reserve with a bullhorn screaming, ‘Stop before you crash the economy!’
‘If you believe that the only way to bring inflation down is to adopt a tighter policy,” Goolsbee told me recently, ‘then by the time you realized that wasn’t the case, you’d have created a recession that was not necessary.’
Causing a recession in order to tame inflation is painful enough. Causing a recession when inflation is already getting under control would be tragic. The past year has been something of an economic miracle. Against all odds, we didn’t actually need a recession to bring down inflation. But if the Fed is unwilling to accept the good news, then we just may get one anyway.”

Something was posted here way back in March. What was that again? Oh yes, this.
“3/17/23 – Going to try to say this as calmly as possible. From the beginning, we have been saying (i.e., berating the Fed on Twitter, which is dead) not to raise rates. The a—holes with their econ 101 textbooks have been saying raise rates. A lot of the inflation was due to supply-side issues. Basic logic dictates that is what needs to be addressed to bring down inflation. Those are policy issues that the Biden administration and Congress need to tackle. This is not the god—m 1970s. Stop with the Milton Friedman s—t. The financial system, the economy, everything has changed, and on top of all of that, the world is emerging from a pandemic. The elevated demand was mainly due to that. And there is a war. Instead of taking a nuanced approach to economic policy, it’s a formulaic approach that does not suit this case. If the Fed is too incompetent to manage the economy, it needs to be completely overhauled. Fire and hire until it can do its job correctly. This entire f—king banking crisis fiasco, not to mention the higher debt servicing both for regular folk and the government, which is ultimately paid for by the taxpayers, is because of the higher interest rates. In addition, the financial system, which has been drunk at the punch bowl (low interest rate environment) for how long is it, almost a half a century, give or take, is an alcoholic. It is brittle. Raising rates this aggressively over a short period of time is going to destabilize it. So, f—k you to everyone who’s a bloviating moron about inflation, finance and economics. You are a contributor to this mess. Thank you, and have a nice day.”
The 1970s Economic Theory That Needs to Die
Notes from Underground – March 2023

10/18/23 – The incompetence and indifference of child protection services is shocking. Is anybody going to fix this f—king sick situation that can be found around the country? “Mickel Cherry, a 25-year-old homeless man, is charged with first-degree murder, rape and capital murder, and could face the death penalty. Authorities haven’t said how Zoey died…. DCF opened another investigation as a result of Zoey’s death.”
Kansas agency investigated girl’s family 5 times before she was killed, a report shows

10/18/23 – Just curious. There are so many Muslims suffering in the world, many in Muslim majority countries. Why is it that the loony left has chosen the Palestinian cause? Is it really about the Palestinians or about something else, say anti-Semitism?
UN refugee chief says Rohingya who fled Myanmar must not be forgotten during other world crises

10/18/23 – The “fury” of Middle Eastern countries about Gaza is pretty rich since almost all of them have been oppressing and killing their own people for a long time. What has Hamas done for its people but bring misery upon them? Israel is the only democratic, liberal country in the region, so what is these Middle Eastern countries’ “fury” actually about? Where is their “fury” about their own regimes and their own treatment of their people. Spare us the bulls—t.

10/18/23 – Taking a cynical, calculated approach to Republican dysfunction is not the way to go. Jim Jordon as Speaker is not a good outcome for the country and, therefore, for Democrats. They should have helped McCarthy keep his job, or find some suitable Republican alternative. Do the right thing and stop with the machinations or indulging in schadenfreude. Grow up!

10/18/23 – Given the current state of affairs, if Republicans got behind one candidate, assuming all the money goes to the person, he/she would have about $50 mil, $5 mil more than the evil one, trump, and Haley would be their best option.
Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on Jim Jordan’s chances of becoming House speaker

10/16/23 – The world wants to and deserves to see all “royal families’” DNA analyses.

10/16/23 – Categories should be based on DNA, linguistics, culture and history. This would be much more meaningful as groupings of human beings go.

10/16/23 – Race is not a useful categorization. Some people are more genetically similar to each other than others, but this similarity might not show up in appearance the way people expect. Skin color, more generally melanin content, is one of the worst predictors of genetic similarity. Even within white families, siblings can be blond and blue-eyed, or dark-haired and dark eyed. Also, is a southern Italian more genetically similar to a Swede or to a North African? Given the geography and the history of trade and conquest, this is a fair question. How many people when asked what their race is are actually answering with a geographical region, such as Asian? What is Asian as a race? Does anybody really know?

10/15/23 – A model for the way forward. A culture justifiably proud of its religious tolerance and harmony. Happy Sunday to all!
Kerala, India: A historic site of religious harmony
The ‘Real’ Kerala Story: Tales of Communal Harmony From Ground Zero

10/14/23 – To the degenerates on the left, spare us the bulls—t.

10/14/23 – To become a saint, one just has to become gay. All gay, trans, LGBTQ+ people are morally upright, perfect, in fact. They wouldn’t knowingly spread a terrible STD, such as syphilis, to a group of people who had been untouched by other civilizations, and abuse and exploit them, right? They are angels. These tribes want to stay uncontacted because some of their members were raped by a gay person who gave them a deadly STD.
Why Uncontacted Tribes Want to Stay Uncontacted

10/14/23 – Although most institutions generally ranked low in Gallup’s poll, faith in church or organized religion (32%) is considerably higher than faith in the propaganda (aka the liberal press, 18%). The only institutions that did better than religious ones were the military, the police, and the medical system.
Historically Low Faith in U.S. Institutions Continues

10/14/23 – Hey Associated Propaganda (aka AP), still waiting for the “sweeping, immersive experience” evangelizing Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism…. Not holding our breath though.

10/14/23 – Faith leaders, like other human beings, need to take care of themselves too. “That level of faith-based self-care is just what many clergy should practice to avoid the burnout and deteriorating mental health symptoms like anxiety and depression that experts say are affecting religious leaders at a worrisome pace. ‘Mental health needs are just overwhelming faith communities.’…. Compassion fatigue can develop from the constant exposure to other people’s trauma without taking time to process one’s own grief.” Maybe the hypocritical atheists, including the reporters at the Associated Propaganda, which conveniently left this obvious part out, who don’t serve anybody but themselves can stop attacking religion, which would definitely help not just faith leaders but our society as a whole.
Clergy burnout is a growing concern in polarized churches. A summit offers coping strategies

10/14/23 – The temple is beautiful! It is very important that all workers are well-compensated for their work and that there are no caste or class divisions. The caste system is criminal and a moral abomination. “‘Trivedi said these allegations weighed heavily on community members because their faith has always taught them ‘to see the divine in all and love and serve them as manifestations of the divine.’ He said Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the sect’s fifth spiritual successor, who envisioned such a temple campus in the United States, was a progressive guru who cared deeply about social equality…. ‘It’s not even just Indian or Indian American,’ he said, adding that the temple stands for universal values that can be found in every religious text and in the hearts and minds of great thinkers and leaders of every era. ‘What we’ve tried to do is express these universal values in a way that relate to all visitors.’” Lovely. Hinduism is peace.
Largest Hindu temple outside India in the modern era opens in New Jersey

10/13/23 – The left flunked the test because it is an imposter, one that is pretending to be knowledgeable, intellectual, enlightened and morally correct, but, in reality, it’s none of these things.

10/13/23 – Academia needs a good purging. It’s filled with anti-intellectual bigots.

10/13/23 – Is it feeling somewhat murky? If so, that’s odd because it was so clear not that long ago. Religion bad. Atheism good. Right bad. Left good. Israel bad. Palestine good. Trans good. Gay good. Women good. But wait? Yes. It was all so clear not that long ago. Wasn’t it? If the world became atheists/nones, trans, and Palestinians, all the world’s problems would magically disappear. Right?

10/13/23 – “That’s how you end up with Queers for Palestine when being queer in Palestine is difficult and dangerous.” Let’s blow up the left’s BS, shall we. Israel is far more secular than Palestine and the Islamic countries in the region, some of which murder gay people. But Israel is the country of the Jewish people who, according to the left, are colonizers and oppressors of the Palestinian people. So, what is the left to do? Which side should it take? Basically, Palestinians or LGBTQ+? What about Kate Cohen, identity atheist, extrapolate, which side does she take? “It’s also how you end up with candidates for Labour Party leadership signing a pledge that insists there ‘is no material conflict between trans rights and women’s rights,’ even when—as in the eligibility rules for women’s sports—some wins for one group plainly come at the expense of the other.” Which side should it take: women’s rights or trans’ rights? “In 2017, Linda Sarsour, one of the organizers of the Women’s March, told The Nation that Zionism and feminism were incompatible: ‘It just doesn’t make any sense for someone to say, ‘Is there room for people who support the state of Israel and do not criticize it in the movement? There can’t be in feminism.’” Kate Cohen, identity atheist, extrapolate, and other fanatical leftists, do you agree: are Zionism and feminism incompatible?

10/13/23 – “‘A woman is a female adult.’ Got that? A politician with an essentialist view of womanhood is complicit in the deaths of innocents, but a terrorist indiscriminately murdering people at a music festival must be understood in context.” Indeed, stating a simple unchangeable fact, a woman is a female adult, is cause for outrage, but the beheading of babies, that’s well, morally ambiguous; perhaps it’s justified, right? And then they wonder why the rest of us think the loony left is f—king crazy. Perhaps it’s because they’re f—king crazy. Perhaps none of this is as hard as they make it. Perhaps they have been distorting reality to fit their narratives for so long and in slowly increasing levels of absurdity, they didn’t see how far they had strayed from anything remotely resembling reality.

10/13/23 – As Jesus said, hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites. The high-priests of self-righteousness, the atheistic religious bigots with their scientism, their godless communist propaganda and their allegiance to tribe/category are showing themselves for who they have been all along.
The Progressives Who Flunked the Hamas Test

10/13/23 – “But I quickly saw that many of those on the left who I thought shared these values with me could see what had happened only through established categories of colonized and colonizer, evil Israeli and righteous Palestinian—templates made of concrete. The break was caused by this enormous disconnect. I was in a world of Jewish suffering that they couldn’t see because Jewish suffering simply didn’t fit anywhere for them…. If I can fault myself clearly for something, though, it’s not recognizing that the same ideological hardening I’d seen on the right in the past few years, the blind allegiances and contorted narratives even when reality was staring people in the face, has also happened, to a greater degree than I’d imagined, on the left, among the people whom I think of as my own. They couldn’t recognize a moral abomination when it was staring them in the face. They were so set in their categories that they couldn’t make a distinction between the Palestinian people and a genocidal cult that claimed to speak in that people’s name. And they couldn’t acknowledge hundreds and hundreds of senseless deaths because the people who were killed were Israelis and therefore the enemy.” This has been true for a long time. It’s better to see it now than never. There are simplistic idiots on both sides. The left is better at deceiving itself that it is intelligent. It isn’t. The right doesn’t boast such a claim. They accept if not flaunt their degeneracy. Both sides think they morally superior. Immoral idiots such as Kate Cohen, identity atheist, extrapolate, wrote a stupid book that should be used as toilet paper, but the idiots who identify with her will buy it. It’s all tribal nonsense, morality by category. It is wholly lacking in intellectual sophistication and moral depth.
The Left Abandoned Me

10/13/23 – It’s funny how America’s corporations quickly approach “economic ceilings” when it comes to rank-and-file worker compensation but not when it comes to executive compensation. Yet a corporation without a CEO will survive. A corporation without its rank and file will not.

10/11/23 – To the propaganda (aka the liberal press) and the (militant) atheists, no decent person insults other people’s religion. This is simply not something civilized people do. That is all.

10/11/23 – The Jewish people have a special place in our hearts, and we pray for them. We love them and will defend them forever. We also love our Muslim sisters and brothers. Like the Jewish people, Americans also understand terrorism. We just marked the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, but then and now, we remain a people who believe in love, especially in the face of hate. On that dark day, our president, George W. Bush, said, “Islam is peace.” It was his finest moment. Islam is peace, and Judaism is peace. Christianity is peace. This is the Holy Land. On this sacred land, our shared faith rests. All parties need to treat it with the respect it deserves. Personally, 9/11 was a traumatic and sad day for me, as it was for much of the country, but at no point did I ever direct animus towards Muslims. At no point in my life have I done this to anyone of any religion. When I was a child, my mother told me to always be respectful to people of other religions, and I obeyed her wise advice even on 9/11. Our shared faith tells us that every single person is made in the image of God and that we should do unto them as you would have them do unto you. In the face of evil, restraint is hard. Ask the Ukrainians. They understand it well. If the response is over-reactive, it won’t be a just response. Remember: our God is our justice. Let his love for us, in spite of our own wrongs, be a tempering force.

10/11/23 – Russell Moore makes the following argument. “As Christians, we should pay special attention to violence directed toward Israel—just as we would pay special attention to a violent attack on a member of our extended family. After all, we are grafted on to the promise made to Abraham (Rom. 11:17). Our Lord Jesus was and is a Jewish man from Galilee. Rage against the Jewish people is rage against him, and, because we are in him, against us.
No one wanted to wake up to war in what was already a tinderbox of the world order. But war has come, and we should recognize terrorism for what it is. We should also recognize the justice of a forceful response to that terrorism. However we read the prophecy passages of the Bible, and however we disagree on world politics, American Christians ought to stand together with Israel now.”
American Christians Should Stand with Israel under Attack

10/10/23 – The Washington Propaganda can go f—k itself. It gives space to the self-glorifying, religious bigot Kate Cohen, identity atheist, extrapolate, to evangelize atheism and insult the vast majority of the world’s population and then realizes that it can’t “grow” its subscription base and has to let a bunch of people go. Gee, wonder why? Maybe treating a global news source like it’s a private platform to promote your agenda isn’t the best business strategy.

10/10/23 – Lots of great information on the planet.
BBC Future Planet

10/10/23 – Deal with it. “This would have been between 7,000 and 3,000BCE. These Zagrosian herders mixed with the earlier inhabitants of the subcontinent – the First Indians, descendants of the Out of Africa (OoA) migrants who had reached India around 65,000 years ago – and together, they went on to create the Harappan civilization. In the centuries after 2000 BCE came the second set of immigrants (the Aryans) from the Eurasian Steppe, probably from the region now known as Kazakhstan. They likely brought with them an early version of Sanskrit, mastery over horses and a range of new cultural practices such as sacrificial rituals, all of which formed the basis of early Hindu/Vedic culture. (A thousand years before, people from the Steppe had also moved into Europe, replacing and mixing with agriculturists there, spawning new cultures and spreading Indo-European languages)…. The idea of the mixing of different population groups is also unappealing to Hindu nationalists as they put a premium on racial purity. There is also the additional issue of the migration theory putting Aryans on the same footing as latter-day Muslim conquerors of India – such as the Mughals.”
How ancient DNA may rewrite prehistory in India

10/10/23 – Living like our ancestors also means living with a light footprint. We should have never stopped doing this. We and our planet would have been so much better off had we kept living in that simple, healthier way.

10/10/23 – If godless science worshippers (aka atheists) don’t want to keep their ancient traditions alive, that’s their problem. They can worship science and live like sterile robots. The rest of us want to stay connected to our ancestors and be humans. An interesting video series by the BBC on battle arts.
BBC Battle Arts

10/9/23 – We need more news sites that are religious. The propaganda (aka the press) are biased atheists and idiots, and reading their stories is choosing to be indoctrinated with their views and values.

10/9/23 – The propaganda (aka the press) are godless communists who think humans can fix anything even though we’ve destroyed everything. They think we can fix the planet that we didn’t create with science even though we’ve destroyed it with science, and they want to turn humans and other life into monstrous science experiments. They worship science and themselves. They are the enemy of the people and of all life.

10/9/23 – Tip: If you’re going to read a dense writer whose work you’re unfamiliar with, first read a well-written book that explains the person’s work. It basically replaces a series of lectures and will give you a sense of who the author is and how to approach the person’s work.

10/9/23 – It doesn’t take much to create a beautiful, magical garden for bees and butterflies that you (and your neighbors) love. You do have to weed, seed (micro or White Dutch clover) and, generally, tend to the garden, but the benefits far surpass the costs. Tips: cover your entire lawn with high-quality top soil, use beneficial nematodes and organic fertilizer, and mulch and burlap for weed control. Get rid of grass, and plant clover instead. It acts as a natural fertilizer by fixing the nitrogen. Do not use inorganic fertilizer and never use pesticides. All of these tips work great. You’ll have a beautiful, unique lawn that benefits our pollinators and other creatures and one that you and your neighbors can feel good about. You will also get great natural exercise managing your garden, and it is good for your mental health. You will also have beautiful flower arrangements, and fresh fruits and vegetables that you grew! “Lawns may seem like a trivial place to focus your eco-energies, but they cover about 40 million acres of the United States — that’s about the same land area as wheat. (And that estimate is from 2012; researchers say the amount of lawn has almost certainly increased as the suburbs have sprawled ever outward.)”
Want to help the planet? Rethink your lawn

10/9/23 – Fish and seafood are the best meat. There is no comparison. If we actually took care of our water sources, we could have plenty of it, but alas, apparently, we can’t do this. Can we do this?

10/9/23 – The world is overwhelming, and in many cases, there isn’t much we can do but pray. We can also focus on changing and building our communities for the better. If we all did this, in the collective, we would change the world.

10/9/23 – Please pray for peace throughout the world. Shalom. Salaam.

10/9/23 – Hey Propaganda: Keep telling us our religion is bad, and we’ll keep telling you to go f—k yourselves. Thank you, and have a nice day.

10/9/23 – Hey Associated Propaganda: Are you going to do “A sweeping, immersive experience” on Christianity? What about Islam? What about Buddhism? You like Buddhists, right? No, don’t have space you say. Oh, OK.

10/9/23 – Hey Washington Propaganda: Are you going to let Christians evangelize their religion, in an exceptionally long essay, on your platform? What about Muslims? Buddhists? You like Buddhists, right? Can we write about how exceptional our children are and how stupid and naïve atheists’ children are? No, don’t have space you say. Oh, OK.

10/9/23 – It’s not just fascism (MAGA) we need to worry about, it’s also communism (militant atheists, which is most of the liberal media, the propaganda, aka the press).

10/9/23 – Atheists do have a bad reputation. It’s earned.

10/9/23 – Many atheists are actually controlling authoritarians who have infiltrated various organizations, including the propaganda (aka the press), to spread their views.

10/9/23 – There isn’t a single intellectual atheist in the world today. They simply do not exist.

10/8/23 – Fruit and honey are gifts from God. How do they taste like that? We do nothing to them, and it’s like wow…so good! God is great! He gave us everything.

10/8/23 – In a time when we can’t trust many of our institutions, organizations and even other people, we can always trust God. We can also trust the beautiful, kind, supportive religious and secular communities we build together. We are happier because our lives are better for our faith and our community. No propaganda will ever take God away from us. Let them spew their worthless, toxic words and their hate. To all religious people in the world, let’s continue as we are: faith, hope, love. Happy Sunday!

10/8/23 – In a time of war, not just in Ukraine, but in many parts of the world, climate change, mass extinction of God’s creatures, the torturing of animals for their flesh, democratic backsliding, rampant corruption, the exploitation of the poor by the rich, modern slavery and human trafficking, the migrant crisis, homelessness, injustice of every manner, religious persecution throughout the world, what did the Associated Propaganda (aka the AP) think was worthy of their fake reporters’ time and energy: Nones, “A sweeping, immersive experience.” The propaganda outlet has dedicated prominent space on their front page to this “topic” for at least the past three days, since October 5. It is a full-throated propaganda piece advocating for atheism or nones (whatever they are). Why would a self-described trusted, no, the most trusted, global news organization feel that this topic merited this sweeping and in-depth coverage? Yes, you’re right because it’s obvious. In spite of all of these other topics that are objectively far more important, which ended up getting cheated of coverage, this topic, nones, whoever they are, is what is important to the Associated Propaganda. If you ever needed proof of their lack of trustworthiness and objectivity, it’s right here. When people show you who they are: believe them. This is who the AP is: the Associated Propaganda.

10/7/23 – The question for this kindhearted and honest man (unlike the bigoted and deceitful Kate Cohen): Why on God’s green earth does he still subscribe to the Washington Propaganda?
An essayist evangelizes readers for atheism but the story doesn’t stick

10/7/23 – Not saying it to “any one particular religion” but saying it to all religions is saying it to every single particular religion. The genius atheists aren’t too good with categories and how they work, but that’s how they work. F—k them and f—k the propaganda (aka the press).

10/7/23 – The atheists of old actually had intellects and arguments. The new atheists, such as Kate Cohen, are arrogant idiots, with no arguments. They are stupid, simplistic religious bigots.

10/7/23 – The religious bigot Kate Cohen, identity atheist, extrapolate, says that she was “raised Jewish.” Many people would still consider her Jewish. The last we checked Islam is a religion. Now, let’s read her text as directed to Muslims, and let’s fill in some of the words she left unwritten but that were there nonetheless. “[Islam] offers ready-made answers to our most difficult questions…. My children know how to distinguish fact from fiction — which is harder for children raised [as Muslims]. They don’t assume conventional wisdom is true and they do expect arguments to be based on evidence [unlike your Muslim children]. Which means they have the skills to be engaged, informed and savvy citizens [unlike your stupid, naïve Muslim children]…. [We] are everywhere. And we are unusually disposed to getting stuff done [unlike Muslims]. I used to say, when people asked me what [we] do believe, that it was simple: [We] believe that [your] God is a human invention. But now, I think it’s more than that…. But you also don’t get to leave things up to God. [There is no inshallah because there is no Allah.] [We] must accept that people are allowing — we are allowing — women to die in childbirth, children to go hungry, men to buy guns that can slaughter dozens of people in minutes. [We] believe people organized the world as it is now, and only people can make it better [unlike Muslims who just sit around and wait for their imaginary God to do things.]… That’s right: [We] take more political action — donating to campaigns, protesting, attending meetings, working for politicians — than [Muslims]…. You don’t have to be [like us] to conduct yourself as if people are responsible for the world they live in — you just have to act like [us], by taking matters into your own hands [instead of the Allah believer you are who just sits around waiting for your imaginary God to solve your problems]…. Peel back the layers of control over women’s bodies — from dress codes that punish girls for male desire all the way to the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade — and you find [Islam]. Often, there isn’t much peeling to do. [Why do you force your women and girls to cover themselves up? They should be able to wear anything they want like my children do.]” You get the idea. This is basically what the Washington Propaganda (aka WaPo) published. One can replace Muslims with whatever other religious group and make the associated changes. This is the person who thinks she’s a good person. Think about it.

10/7/23 – The Associated Propaganda (the AP), “Advancing the power of [propaganda].” These “news” organizations are so “fact-based” that even when every recent poll shows that trust in them is at or near record lows, they still claim to be the most trusted. Here is the Associated Propaganda’s claim. “Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business.” They are the most trusted at propaganda, of the promotion of their reporters’ views and values. They are religious bigots who promote themselves as lacking in any kind of prejudice.

10/7/23 – To the propaganda (the press), f—k you! You are the enemy of the people, and we will fight you until the bitter end.

10/7/23 – The Washington Propaganda (the Washington Post) gave the low intellect, low character, religious bigot Kate Cohen, identity atheist, extrapolate, a platform to spew her vile religious bigotry. Would they give a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew or any religious person a platform to spew religious bigotry against people of another faith or atheists? Yet, this bigotry against religious people is OK, right? Yet, her royal self-righteousness with her smug voice filled with her grotesque self-love has the right to spew her hate of people who are religious, denigrating them on the Washington Propaganda’s platform, right?  

10/7/23 – The Associated Propaganda’s (the AP) religion team is actually the atheist/none (whatever that is) team. Truth is lies. War is peace. Slavery is freedom. All brought to you by the propaganda (the press), a group of liberal atheists/nones evangelizing their religious bigotry and their vile self-love and self-worship. They want us to become like them. We will not.

10/7/23 – From the beginning of time, there have been religious or spiritual people and nonreligious or nonspiritual people. There are good and bad people within both groups. How stupid are the propaganda (aka the press)? Indeed, all one needs to do is become an atheist or an ill-defined none, and you’ll magically be transformed into a good person. Does the propaganda (the press) think that everybody who is or who becomes an atheist/none becomes a better person? Of course they do because they are biased morons. Kate Cohen thinks she’s so smart. Her voice drips with condescension. She thinks her children are so precocious. She flatters herself through her children. She and her children are simplistic idiots, but, more generally, so is the propaganda (aka the press). Zero f—king intellect. Zero depth of thought. Zero basic f—king logic. Zero objectivity. Zero integrity. All fatally flawed propaganda.

10/6/23 – Much of the press has become the enemy of the people. They claim to be defenders of democracy, but they are not. They are promoters of themselves. They are propagandists for their lifestyles, their beliefs and their values.

10/6/23 – The Associated Propaganda (aka the AP) really really wants the entire world to become atheists, or rather cleverly, nones, whatever they are, as their “reporters” are. They’re pretending to look out for you, to care so deeply about you. That’s why they are trying to indoctrinate you with their values. They hate religion, and they want you to hate it too, but ultimately, this isn’t really about religion or human rights. This is about them. They want to make you in their image because they think of themselves as superior gods.

10/5/23 – Here is another one. They conspire with each other to indoctrinate Americans. It’s timed delivery. “Today’s Opinions: America needs more atheists Opinion by Drew Goins” The Washington Post

10/5/23 – Here is a survey the media can conduct. Do you subscribe to the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, the AP, some other news source, or none of the above? If they read no news sources, they are nones. If they watch the news, they are nones. If they read many news sources or some new sources sometimes because they find news sources to have an agenda, they are nones. If they read nothing in particular, they are nothing in particular, which are also nones. Did you get all that?

10/5/23 – If anybody is wondering why the polls about elections were so off, it’s completely clear now.

10/5/23 – Either the surveys are badly designed, the statistical analysis is skewed or the presentation is distorted or some combination of these serious flaws.

10/5/23 – Here’s a story the media should be running instead of the multimedia propaganda for atheism that conveniently corresponds with their “reporters” views that spanned multiple “news” (really propaganda) sources such as the AP and the Washington Post’s “book” by Kate Cohen. They should write about why the public’s trust in them is near a record low. “Notably, this is the first time that the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media is higher than the percentage with a great deal or a fair amount combined.” Also, the reason Americans’ opinion of the media is partisan is because it is biased towards the Democrats, who are mainly liberal and nonreligious. This is why nobody, including liberals, should trust the media. The media is supposed to be objective and unbiased, not serving a political constituency. When it does this, it no longer has any credibility of any kind.
Americans’ Trust In Media Remains Near Record Low

10/5/23 – The press has no integrity. They are propagandists or even liars. If they willing to blatantly distort, one can’t trust anything they say.

10/5/23 – Does the media know how to report anything correctly, or they just don’t want to do so? So, the Nones are both 16% and 30%? One can’t have an overarching category also be a subcategory. Is this hard? Given these gross errors, this polling, which is highly dependent on the quality of the survey, is dubious at best. What the AP should have said is that Atheists are 7%, Agnostics are 7%, Nones are 16%, of which half are “spiritual but not religious”… “‘[The Nones (unclear if it’s half of the 16% or the entire 16%)] are definitely not as turned off to religion as atheists and agnostics are,’ Burge said. ‘They practice their own type of spirituality, many of them.’” These three categories, Atheists 7%, Agnostics 7% and Nones 16%, sum to 30% of Americans. The AP and other “news” organizations are trying to present basic statistics in a distorted manner, such as inflating the Nones, so that the statistics better align with their reporters’ biases.
The Nones United States

10/4/23 – Religion bad. Atheism good. Me atheist. Me superior. The liberal atheists, who we’re apparently grossly undercounting, are great at virtue signaling, hypocrisy, not sacrificing anything, and what do you know, asking the Catholic Church, religion bad, religious people dumb, to ask its faithful to reinstate the old practice of not eating meat on Fridays for the good of the planet. So where is their scientism cult leader to tell them what to do?

10/4/23 – Apparently, they are planning to nominate the evil one, trump, for speaker. So, if they do so, what will Democrats do? Or they didn’t bother to think through their position ?

10/4/23 – McCarthy also prevented the federal government from shutting down. If one is going to say a bunch of negative things that are entirely correct, one does also need to acknowledge the positive things that are also correct. There are certain people who are evil, such as the evil one, Trump, and one doesn’t need to do this with them. But McCarthy isn’t evil. He’s actually a rather run-of-the-mill politician. “Kevin McCarthy gave up his soul not for Wales but for something worse—Donald Trump. It will be of little comfort to McCarthy to know he’s hardly the only one to have done so.” Didn’t the evil one want the shutdown? McCarthy was punished immediately after he did the right thing and prevented it. Tell us: how do reinforcement and punishment work? What message does this send to other Republicans who do the right thing? Encourage the behavior you want to see in others.
Kevin McCarthy Got What He Deserved

10/4/23 – Thank you, and have a nice day.

10/4/23 – Christians don’t have any arguments for the world about how great and perfect we are, and we aren’t messiahs. We aren’t evangelizing based on our perfection and our superiority. We know we’re imperfect. In fact, on a regular basis, we ask forgiveness for our sins from God and from our you, our brothers and sisters. We accept our humanity and others’ humanity as a fallen people. We accept our shortcomings in thoughts, words and deeds and try to do better. Among these humbling things and others, practicing Christians are weak, meek and poor in spirit. We aim to be in service to others and to our God. Our God was crucified on a cross, and we love him because of this. He and he alone is our messiah. We don’t find him weak. We find him to be the truth. If this isn’t appealing to you, that’s OK. We’ll keep walking and believing in our God.

10/4/23 – Oh and by the way, Hitler was an atheist, one of many evil people who were atheists. He hated Christianity. He thought it was weak. It’s well-documented. It’s what one might call a fact. Atheists love facts, don’t they? Or are facts only facts if they align with their understanding of things? Wait, isn’t this similar to their extremist “religious” counterparts, many of whom are actually atheists pretending to be religious?

10/4/23 – One of the greatest dangers of being blinded by self-love is that one makes incorrect assumptions. My Christian faith, which has taught me to love God above all else, has taught me this. One might call it a requirement for, well, are the atheists, ready, critical thinking.

10/4/23 – Apologies, not f—kers, that was inappropriate, but atheists.

10/3/23 – As someone who’s been trying to get rid of these f—kers for years, there aren’t words to express how happy I’d be if they’d own up to the truth and describe themselves as they actually are, as atheists. Please keep sending these articles our way.

10/3/23 – “Christian Nationalist” MAGA and other nonbelievers pretending to be Christian but are actually atheists in hiding, Cohen makes an extraordinarily compelling argument. “But for everyone else who doesn’t believe in God and hasn’t said so?…. [T]he next time you find yourself tempted to pretend that you believe in God? Tell the truth instead.”
America doesn’t need more God. It needs more atheists.

10/3/23 – As it stands, a lie that atheists love to tell themselves is that they are such great people, so moral, rational, politically active, what else did Cohen claim, basically perfect, messianic really. Now, imagine if all the fake religious people, such as the Christian nationalists, who aren’t actually Christian, started describing themselves accurately as atheists, then what? Just curious how well her book, or is it her fairy tale, will age.

10/3/23 – Kate Cohen, identity atheist, extrapolate, is desperately evangelizing atheism while hawking her new book on why atheists and atheism are so great. Let’s help her. To all Christians everywhere who don’t really believe in Christianity, please leave it and become an atheist or a believer of some other faith tradition. Thank you.

10/3/23 – We’re definitely in crisis mode, and we need to return to our ancestral ways that were much easier on the planet. “‘We’re supporting our relatives of the sea in a time of crisis,’ said Quintasket, the Swinomish senator. ‘It’s not just climate change anymore. We are in crisis mode, and this is just a little bit of work that we can do to support their home to make sure that they’re surviving with us.’”
Swinomish Tribe builds U.S.’s first modern ‘clam garden,’ reviving ancient practice

10/3/23 – Instead of growing corn for ethanol, a type of biofuel, whose present production is 15 billion bushels, we should just use what is already being formed in the oceans, lakes and elsewhere: algae. Sargassum, which has been growing in large quantities in the ocean, poses several environmental risks to coastal regions and getting rid of it this way could be a win-win. We could also use the methane released from landfills, as the military is currently doing. (The military is working on complete energy independence using microgrids. All of us should have some level of energy independence on a state/local and an individual level.)
Maps and Data – U.S. Corn Production and Portion Used for Fuel Ethanol

10/3/23 – If you hate politics, in religious or secular institutions, nobody would blame you. We need more direct democracy and direct religion. Too many people are putting themselves between us and our country, and us and our God. Christianity started out as a small group of Jews who believed Jesus is the Messiah. That’s really all we are as Christians. Basically, we adopted the Old Testament, the Jewish part, and added the New Testament, the Jesus Christ part. We believe in him and him, and we believe the testimony in the New Testament. Over 2,000 years, this simple but radical revolution has become so politicized. The main thing Christians need to do is just focus on being the hands and feet of Christ and loving our generous, merciful God.
5 conservative cardinals challenge pope to affirm church teaching on gays and women ahead of meeting

10/2/23 – If need be, Democrats need to vote for McCarthy so that he can retain his job. We need to move beyond politics and start solving our problems. We need to work together as Americans and as global citizens.

10/2/23 – Everywhere, governments are failing their people.

10/2/23 – Meanwhile, other parts of the planet are getting too much water. “‘Those in power really need to step up,’ he said.” Those in power are too busy stirring up hate and assassinating people to govern.
India’s devastating monsoon season is a sign of things to come, as climate and poor planning combine

10/2/23 – This is a real problem. These corporations are trying to use the law to steal all the water. They will destroy these communities. We must move to the community model described below. It’s way more sustainable. The dispersion of gardens around the country will distribute water usage, and it’s way better for pollinators. We should grow flowers alongside the fruits and vegetables. Also, the corporations must be stopped by the federal government. “‘We feel we are being totally overrun by those people,’ Gaillard said. ‘They are taking all the water.’”
In a remote, dry patch of California, a battle is raging over carrots

10/1/23 – In honor of St. Francis, today was the blessing of the animals. Hundreds of people brought their pets to be blessed: dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, you get the idea, and we sang songs about God’s creatures. Children and animals! So much cuteness!

10/1/23 – This Sunday, let’s think differently about what is possible. Let’s live in a way that honors creation. Life is extraordinary. The abundance we have on earth is exceptional. Before the pandemic, we were all burning out. During the pandemic, a period of illness, fear and death, we burnt out. Let’s imagine a world that puts the sacredness of life at its core, one that isn’t dominated by a callous disregard for life and an obsession with greed. Let’s build a beloved community.

10/1/23 – Are we going to be a people who can do things or who makes simple things hard? We are not reinventing the wheel. In fact, all of this has been done for most of human civilization. If our ancestors can do it, we certainly can. We would just be finding ourselves again.
Monks Making Money

10/1/23 – What are the things we truly need: water, food, shelter, each other and God. We have rural cities throughout the country that simply need people. The infrastructure is there already. We should also equip them with wells or rain barrels because climate change is real, and it’s good to have for gardens, trees and ground cover. They should be pollinator friendly. They can have gardens and fruit trees, and cute goats and cows. See below also. People who can’t do without meat can learn to hunt and fish. They will eat less of it and are more likely to honor the lives they are taking. Housing needs to be made free. We, including the people who will be living in them, can build them. It’s not hard to build a larger “tiny home.” You measure (you know, with a tape measure, hold it against the thing and read the number), cut (you know with a saw, you pull the thing down on the thing you want to cut) and combine (nail gun, you pull a trigger). Is this hard? Is basic construction hard? It’s not. Put these homes together, add people, and you have a community.

Everybody should be given a bike, also for free. People can buy used electric cars. Wood for fires. So, what’s a person’s expenses? Utilities. Clothes, shoes, linens and furniture? Thrift stores, etc. They are very cheap, and that’s what washing machines are for. Restoring furniture is not hard either. Many people give things away. (Certain items, for example, towels, socks, shoes, underwear, etc. can also be purchased new if people so choose.) Another word for all of this is recycling.

Let’s consider the rest. Soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, sunscreen, lotions and such, hair stuff, razors, TP, cleaning products. People can learn to sew, knit, make jewelry. People can learn crafts: soap, candles, scented things, flower arrangements, and using flowers in food and scented things, cooking. At the end of the day, how much money will a person be spending? Probably not much even if they buy some of these items. One can work 32-35 hours per week (people do need to work, it’s healthy), save money, eat healthier, get exercise, live in community, be much kinder on the planet and on animals, and have time for our spiritual lives. That’s freedom. That’s living.

10/1/23 – This is the kind of bureaucratic dysfunction to which our great country has been reduced. Governmental structures and processes need to change as needs change. We also need to better staff these agencies. Create a new category for the neglected or abused minors. Is this hard? Why does every simple solution seem beyond our reach? “The State Department announced that for nearly seven years it had been placing in the wrong line tens of thousands of applications for neglected or abused minors from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and would now start adding those to the general queue with the clergy. Since the mid-2010s, a surging number of youth from these countries have sought humanitarian green cards or asylum after illegally crossing into the U.S.” Our country needs people to work in various jobs and to revitalize certain parts, such as rural America. America is a nation of immigrants. Don’t fear them. We are them.
A green card processing change means US could lose thousands of faith leaders from abroad

Notes from Underground – September 2023

9/30/23 – Bring on the robot revolution! It might be disruptive and scary, but only if we let it by not planning for it. Let’s build free housing for everybody. Nobody should be living on the streets anywhere in the world. We can even have robots build them, or they can help us build them. All of the new communities should have community gardens with plots for everyone so that people can grow fresh fruit and vegetables. They should also have hens that are treated humanely for eggs. Maybe a couple community cows or goats who are treated like part of the family. Kids can be given lessons on how to milk them without hurting them. They can learn the value of and the sacredness of life. All communities should also have wells or other ways of capturing rainfall. We need to live in communities again, share our resources and help each other. We need to live in communion with animals and other life. People used to do this, and we were all better off the way it was. Let robots work like slaves. They are made of metal and wires, and by us. We are not. We need rest. We and the animals with whom we share our beautiful planet are made by God. Let us respect ourselves and them.

9/30/23 – The Jewish people are a gift to the world. Never let anybody tell you otherwise. They gave us so many things, and one very important thing is simply a value for rest. Beautifully said! “Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote that for Jews, whose sacred architecture isn’t only physical but temporal, ‘Sabbaths are our great cathedrals.’ ‘Six days a week,’ he observed, ‘we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul.’” It doesn’t matter if it’s the third or fourth commandment. It’s God’s commandment to us. It doesn’t matter if it’s Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Ideally, it’s all three days. The entire world is tired. We all need more rest and more time for the things that make life worth living. One day for errands, cleaning and such; one day for wholesome entertainment with family and friends; one day for God and our spiritual lives. Right now, the first two days are compressed into Saturday or spread out over Saturday and Sunday, which ends up being a partial day instead of a full day of rest. Some people don’t rest at all, which is quite sad. We can choose on which day we do what. Do we really need to shop on Sunday, or can we give the consumerism a rest, for at least one day? Sure, the greedy ones won’t like it. God doesn’t care what they like, and neither should the rest of us.
The Quiet Revolution of the Sabbath

9/30/23 – And on the last day of the month of September, there is still hope. If moderates in both parties defied the extremes, we might actually move forward as a country and as a world. Shut out the extremists. They are a death cult. They can die alone.
Kevin McCarthy Finally Defies the Right

9/28/23 – The elite liberal media are vile mad scientist worshippers. They don’t worship God. They worship crazy humans who think they’re god.

9/28/23 – While conservatives have been obsessed with abortion and LGBTQ+. They missed this “Brave New World” development.
Japanese scientists race to create human eggs and sperm in the lab

9/28/23 – Of the main media organizations, some of the worst ones are the New York Times and NPR. NPR should not have any governmental support of any kind. After contributing to the destruction of our world as we knew it, the elite liberal media are now contributing to the destruction of the human species.

9/28/23 – Instead of reporting on our big, diverse country in a way that accurately reflects the entire nation, the elite liberal media have been pushing their own agenda and reflecting their values and beliefs onto the country. They think that they are morally and intellectually superior. Thus, this approach is justified. “In a new study, Black Americans expressed broad concerns about how they are depicted in the news media, with majorities saying they see racist or negative depictions and a lack of effort to cover broad segments of their community.” Black Americans aren’t the only ones who are dissatisfied with the media. It is also incapable or unwilling to critically examine itself.
Black Americans express concerns about racist depictions in news media, lack of coverage efforts

9/27/23 – After listening to several of his well-delivered sermons, they were all thematically similar to other sermons I’ve heard, albeit with his own twist, which was usually interesting. This question, however, never occurred to me, and I’ve never heard it in a sermon. What is the “USP” (unique selling point) of Catholicism? For Christianity, without question, Jesus. He’s not a “selling point,” but there is no Christianity without Jesus. What is the “USP” of Catholicism? Without hearing the answer, I knew that the priest would say the blessed sacrament, but in my opinion, that’s not accurate. Many denominations have high regard for communion even if they theologically think of it a little differently from the Catholic Church. There are also other denominations that are more conservative or more liberal. One could perhaps argue the prominence of Mary. I would say, it’s simply the long history of the Catholic Church, which comes with the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s likely the largest, most continuous institution in the world. Empires have come and gone, and it’s still here. It’s broad, deep and diverse, and it started with Jesus and a handful of Jews. What’s interesting and revealing is that after the priest says “blessed sacrament,” he goes right back to talking about Jesus. Don’t be Christian because of any selling point. Be Christian because of Jesus. Be Catholic because of Jesus.
Why Be Catholic?

9/26/23 – A balance between labor and leisure is necessary to be able love authentically and fully.
Labour, Leisure & Love

9/26/23 – This is an interesting question. “Many studies have shown a strong association between workaholism and the symptoms of psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and depression, and it has been common to assume that compulsive work leads to these maladies. But some psychologists have recently argued reverse causation—that people may treat their depression and anxiety with workaholic behavior.” Helpful advice for those struggling with “workaholism.” “This has been a game changer for me. I treat my walks, prayer time, and gym sessions as if they were meetings with the president. And when I have nothing planned, my plan is literally to do nothing, without succumbing to distractions.”
The Hidden Link Between Workaholism and Mental Health

9/25/23 – Many countries around the world love Bollywood, which is much more conservative in comparison to Hollywood. They also like much of Indian style, henna, jewelry, attire and such, because it’s more modest while still quite beautiful. Women can be free and modest. In fact, with modesty comes a genuine liberation. A woman is not a sex symbol but a human being. Dressing appropriately reflects our inherent dignity.

9/25/23 – “‘If your primary dystopia is a kind of fascist authoritarianism, you’re going to end up in a different alignment versus if your fundamental dystopia is something closer to Huxley’s “Brave New World.” The latter—a secular state that manages sex, death, and reproduction—is Douthat’s dystopia, and in several of our conversations he brought up newly permissive euthanasia laws in Canada and other countries.” Americans are aware of how crazy the liberals can be. It’s just a matter of priority. The imminent threat is the evil one, trump, and retaining our democracy. The more serious, long-term threat is “Brave New World,” which the irreverent experimenters, aka the crazy libs, keep pushing us toward. They have inadequate regard for the divinity and sanctity of human life, but the crazy libs aren’t America. They are just one faction of a big, complicated country with people from all over the world. To our conservative Muslim sisters and brothers and those of other religions, know this, many Americans will fight like hell against turning human beings, with our divine spark, into some monstrous science experiment.
Ross Douthat’s Theories of Persuasion

9/25/23 – One of the things many countries in the Islamic world, such as Iran, misunderstand about Americans is that they think we’re a bunch of half-naked, godless hedonists who fornicate and do drugs with abandon, have broken families, and are obsessed with all the wrong things. This misconception is quite understandable because they got it from the liberal media and Hollywood. Americans are not all like this. We have huge populations from conservative countries, whether Muslim or Christian ones, who tend to be quite family-oriented, god-fearing and moderately conservative. Many of us are aware of the excesses and lack of restraint of liberal America. Don’t look at Hollywood and liberal media, or one will get a very biased impression of who Americans really are.

9/25/23 – “The Talmud also understands Yom Kippur to be the day that God presented the Israelites with the second set of tablets after Moses shattered the first.” In the Sisyphean punishment, who was punished for thinking himself superior to God, there is no forgiveness. It is a forever punishment. In the Jewish tradition, God persists. Moses had to convey the tablets twice because the Jewish people were not, to put it delicately, getting it. (After 2,000 years of Christianity, most Christians are still not getting it.)
“The many prohibitions on the Day of Atonement allow us to disconnect from the material world and focus on repair and repentance for our sins. While owning up to our spiritual wrongdoings can feel daunting, there is great joy to be found in knowing that God sees the opportunity to forgive as nothing short of a celebration.” There is great joy and humility to be found in a God that doesn’t give up on us.
Why Yom Kippur Is a Joyous Holiday

9/25/23 – If you worship a false god, you’re violating the first of the Ten Commandments. The first one.

9/25/23 – In the Christian tradition, we believe that God simply speaks words, and the world is created. We also believe that the word became flesh. Imagine if our God lies. Imagine that instead of speaking truth, he speaks falsehood. Lies is truth. War is peace. Hate is love. Darkness is light. Slavery is freedom. What kind of flesh would a lying “god” take? MAGA, Russian nationalists, Hindu nationalists, all the world’s nationalists: what kind of flesh would he take?
What “Orwellian” really means – Noah Tavlin

9/25/23 – Every single person, even evil dictators, should be given opportunities for genuine repentance. All the evil poop would have to do is walk into a church, a real one not one that is an extension of the Kremlin, and be honest with himself and repent. Every single diabolical scheme he’s devised, every single lie he’s spoken, every single murder he’s ordered is known to God anyway. What the world is wondering is whether the satanic s—t knows it. Walking away from continuing the war in Ukraine isn’t weakness. It’s strength. It would be an act of reconciliation with God, and there is nothing more important in the world than one’s relationship with him.

9/25/23 – God’s designs have a way of inconveniencing dictators. It would have been so convenient, a neat sales pitch if the Ukrainian leader were a run-of-the-mill white person, preferably with ties to the west. There is the Russian s—t’s theory. “The ‘Western sponsors’ of the Ukrainian government, he told an interviewer, had deliberately chosen a Jewish president of Ukraine to camouflage the ‘antihuman’ essence of the Kyiv regime.” Then, there is the divine theory that God deliberately chose Zelensky, aka David, as president of Ukraine to expose the antihuman essence of the Russian regime.
Putin Is Worried, So He Turned to Anti-Semitism

9/25/23 – “‘We are waiting for the right moment regarding the schools. And while the schools are closed now, they won’t be forever,’ he says. He won’t give a timeline but insists that ‘the world shouldn’t use this as an excuse’ not to recognize the Taliban government.” The Afghan people should govern their own country, their ancestral lands, and the world’s people recognize that the Afghan government is the Taliban because it’s clearly in power. What the world’s people and its institutions don’t recognize is a world where women are erased. Before any man existed as a breathing human being, he existed in the womb of his mother, a woman, tied with an umbilical cord to her body without which he would die. The Taliban seems to think that once this baby comes out of his mother’s womb, he should rule over her and other females as if he is now a god. There is only one true God in Islam, Allah, and he has no parent, neither father nor mother. The Taliban are simply men born of women, children of God, as are all people, men and women. It is a sin to elevate oneself above God or to act as if one is God.
Women, Erased

9/25/23 – To Christians, particularly Catholics, my personal take on the mystery of communion: As someone who was raised in the Catholic tradition, I received my first holy communion at the traditional age, around eight-years-old or so. I still remember it. I had my beautiful white dress and veil. Like so many other Catholic kids, I was nervous and worried whether I would do things correctly. I was also really excited to participate in something I had seen my parents and others share in every Sunday. Communion still feels like a great privilege, one in which any Catholic of any station in life can and is encouraged to participate. From all ends of the earth, from all occupations and classes, we file one after the other, forming orderly and patient lines, to receive communion. We walk to the altar and receive the bread, the body of Christ.
For me, this act has gone from a ritual of remembrance, which has great value and beauty in and of itself, to one of hope of transformation. (Jesus said, “Do this in memory of me.” The Christian tradition of communion is, in part, derived from Jewish traditions. The Jewish people are one of remembrance. One could even say that their identities are built on it.) I can’t remember when this transition took place, but it was sometime after I realized that a supernatural divine presence can actually happen. When I receive communion now, it is the only time that I regularly hope for a supernatural presence. Anticipation would be too presumptuous. It’s truly hope. Now, communion is both remembrance of the God we love and his tremendous love and sacrifice for us and hope that his presence will transform me on a supernatural level. I am not interested in the theological debates. All I know is that somewhere along the way, this change occurred, and therefore, for me, at least the possibility of Christ’s presence must have registered. The thing I want more than anything else is to be connected in the strongest possible way with God because nothing else really matters, and, in my view, the best chance of that happening in ordinary life is during communion.

9/24/23 – Several church leaders have said that they’ve gotten too comfortable. In the developed world, we’ve all gotten too comfortable. We need to get uncomfortable, in many different ways, and we need to start giving up our comforts. It’s a hard truth.

9/24/23 – Solidarity Sunday is the best! Everybody looks so beautiful in their traditional clothes. The church is more diverse than the United Nations.

9/24/23 – God bless church and state separation. God bless the Black Church.
After Florida restricts Black history, churches step up to teach it

9/24/23 – To some extent, worshipping with our Jewish sisters and brothers, this is a good Sunday for an examination of conscience and repentance.

9/24/23 – Beautiful images! The box camera heightens the contrast, which one would normally have to do in a dark room. In the Abrahamic religions, God created men and women equal, and no God anywhere permits raping anybody ever. It is a sin of the highest order. It is a crime. On this Sunday, pray for the Afghan people. American has not forgotten them. The Middle East will have peace and will be free, and its people will have the opportunity to realize their ample God-given talent. Salaam.
Afghanistan in a New Light

9/23/23 – Everybody has a right to be fed up with everything, but nobody is a saint. We all contribute to this misery. Giving up religion doesn’t absolve anybody of sin or hypocrisy. It’s just that much more likely that you never examine your own conscience.

9/23/23 – The reason why marriage rates have fallen is because liberals created a terrible culture, one that told men and boys (and women and girls) that anything is permissible, and the men and boys raised in this culture never matured. Why should they grow up when they can get all the sex they want and remain adolescents for the rest of their lives? The women who wanted to get married and have traditional families had no suitable choices for a husband, which requires an actual man and not a boy. That’s why there are so many broken or single-parent (meaning female parent) families, particularly black American families. But hey, what’s important is the virtue-signaling. What’s important is that everybody thinks you’re really cool and open-minded. What’s important are not the ramifications of your words and actions on real people and their lives. Right?

9/23/23 – Just wondering if all the people who were quick to criticize David Brooks took the beam out of their own eye first. In some providential irony, as the Jewish people are atoning for their sins, the judgmental virtue-signaling liberals are pointing to others for the sins they commit themselves. This applies to even poorer liberals. For every poor person in the USA, there is a person living on the brink of starvation elsewhere, many of whom probably made the cheap clothes they’re wearing and the cheap goods they’re using. David Brooks apologized for his insensitivity, which is something the virtue-signaling liberals pretty much never do because, well, they’re too busy judging others and tells others not to judge others.

9/22/23 – At the crux of the entire conundrum is the fact that the people who theoretically should have all the power don’t seem to have any power. Why? Some might argue it’s the nature of our political system. If only we were fill in the blank of some perceived superior political system. Some might argue it’s corruption and greed. Certainly, these are serious problems, but let’s be honest and ask ourselves: is that all there really is to this miserable situation we find ourselves in, the f—king torturous doom loop? Are we condemned as a world civilization to a Sisyphean punishment? Are we destined as a human species to enter a period of global self-destruction every few decades?
Let’s ask some other questions: Is it other people’s sinfulness that has led us to this place where we eat the flesh of tortured animals and continue to do so even when we are made aware of this fact? Is anybody forcing us to do this? Is anybody forcing us to be obsessed with money, comfort or other people’s estimation of us? Is anybody forcing us to buy goods we know were made with slave labor? Of course not. These are all our own afflictions that govern the decisions we make on an individual level, and after some labyrinthine, Kafkaesque journey, our individual afflictions become collective dysfunction. Our afflictions, our selfish indulgences which we console ourselves with as relatively minor, end up becoming the evil we condemn in the world.
One could reduce the values of the Gospel, of what Jesus preached, very simply yet accurately to overcoming this affliction. Yet even the Apostles of his time, for example, Paul, struggled with controlling their own afflictions. Does one find this comforting or discouraging? At least, they were honest. The reason we’re in this situation is that, metaphorically speaking, we’re addicted to eating each other’s tortured flesh. We just don’t recognize it as such. The communion is said to be the eating of Jesus’s tortured flesh and drinking of his blood. It is the only cannibalistic act that will save us from ourselves. When you read the Gospel, read it as a guide to examining the darkness within your own soul, and if you’re completely honest with yourself, you’ll realize everything he said about us was right. If we are to ever escape from the evil doom loop, we have to actually do what Jesus asked us to do. Can we do this?
Radical Vegans Are Trying to Change Your Diet

9/22/23 – Today was a dark, brooding day. On a day when one would welcome a change from the heat of summer, fall’s crispness, the warmth of the sun against the coolness of the air, the turning leaves with their branches like ripening fruit, there is a sense of pervasive evil. It roams the earth with impunity and with force. It has taken over swaths of the world: Russia, China, India, many parts of Africa, and the one last key line of defense are the democracies of the west, and look at us, we are barely holding the line. There is a sense that evil is winning. We have to get serious and fast. We have to assert who we are as a people and ourselves in no uncertain terms or that sense of evil winning will become the reality.

9/22/23 – If we collectively screamed at the top of our voices about all of the evil and madness we have to process on a daily basis, our voices would be heard well into the darkness of our solar system. Yet here on our beautiful blue planet that is being destroyed every second of every day, we end up being muted and muffled by the elite, by the institutions, by the structure of the world we’ve created. The people are supposed to be the ones with the power. We have the numbers. It’s our talent and our money that make this world work, and in spite of all of this, we seem to have no real say in the countries and in the world we actually build.

9/22/23 – If you’re overwhelmed with all of the dysfunction at every possible level, you’re not alone.

9/22/23 – If you are seething with frustration and anger about the doom loop, it’s entirely understandable. For f—k’s sake, can the f—king idiots we elect govern or what?

9/21/23 – We have a domestic and international governance system in which people don’t matter. They are controlled by the elites. Some of them are good people. Many are bad people. And the rest of us have no voice or agency. We don’t matter. That’s the message these domestic and international institutions send to the rest of us.

9/21/23 – In a country of over 330 million people, apparently, there are only two candidates who are qualified or competitive enough to run for president. Most Americans also don’t want them as president again. Are we understanding this situation correctly?

9/21/23 – Just wondering how many times the world is going to ask the Ukrainian people to justify their fight against evil. At what point does the questioning of them stop and the questioning of Russia and the Russian s—t, putin, start?

9/21/23 – The truth is that the evil one, trump, doesn’t care about abortion. More precisely, as with everything else, he has a position on it to the extent that it serves the only thing he does care about – himself. To all the pro-choice people, the pro-life people aren’t your “enemy.” To all the pro-life people, the pro-choice people aren’t your “enemy.” The actual enemy is the evil one, trump. Having an honest disagreement on a particularly tough moral issue is honorable. Pro-lifers and pro-choicers obviously disagree, but they both have heartfelt positions that are based on their sense of right and wrong. For those who are tempted to think that the evil one is taking a moderate, reasonable position, considering the values and views of both sides, he’s not. He’s taking a position that he deems to be the most presently politically favorable to him. He is a transaction man. He is a con man. He is a man without a moral bone in his body. He is the evil one, and one hopes that evangelical Christians will finally see him for who he has been this whole time. We might disagree on abortion, but both sides of this debate agree on the value of human life. The evil one has no value for human life.

9/19/23 – One of the most beautiful things a religion can offer is to ask us to be introspective. The introspection can take many forms, but they generally pull us out of our worldly preoccupations and, perhaps paradoxically, outside of ourselves. One common and valuable form is meditation. The Jewish and Christian traditions have periods for what Catholics call “an examination of conscience,” a time for repentance and forgiveness. In the Catholic Church, during last Sunday’s mass, we talked about the importance of forgiveness. The essence of the lesson was that God forgives us, so we need to forgive others. This is really from the Jewish tradition, and it is helpful for Christians (and other people) to better understand the Jewish faith because it is enlightening. “Anger’s enormous power is not easily contained by rational thought. But its destructive force can be tempered by love, the mitzvah at the very center of Jewish practice. In fact, while Leviticus doesn’t specify a ritual to resolve grudges, it includes ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18) in the same passage, directly linking love to forgiveness.” Even if you can’t bring yourself to love the person who has wronged you, if you walk humbly with God, you can forgive others out of love for him.
How To Forgive Is Just as Important as When to Forgive

9/18/23 – If the present Indian government is worried about secession by any Indians, domestic or of its diaspora, it’s a situation of its own making. In fact, if India was presently true to its rich spiritual history and freedom of religious expression, which throughout its history, it has shown it can be, then nobody would want secession. Instead, it has a clone of the evil one, a Trumpian “leader,” who is trying to maintain power by feeding base feelings, anger, resentment, hate and so on. India, one of the greatest civilizations in world history, and the Indian people deserve better.

9/18/23 – Gandhi was a Hindu, a true Hindu and a true leader. We have the fake Christians here. They claim to be Christian, but they don’t actually practice the faith. The same problem exists in many different parts of the world across many different religions. In India’s case, there are many fake Hindus. Modi is just one of many.

9/18/23 – Let us consider a simple question: Are you actually surprised that the evil Modi might have ordered the execution of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh Canadian national? If you are, then you didn’t really understand the kind of person Modi is.

9/18/23 – Reauthorize PEPFAR. Americans, we are a people of hope and love. We have obligations to the rest of the world that we must fulfill. This is something on which both Democrats and Republicans agree. We are a strong people. Be true to your word, America.

9/18/23 – The most ancient part of the world is Africa. The continent is a natural marvel, and its people are warm and essential to our understanding of ourselves as human beings. The new world bursts with innovation and dynamism. It has attracted people from all over the world, as they seek new beginnings and opportunities. However, let us all remain connected with our roots and our ancient traditions. For millennia, the ancient civilizations have traded with each other, made business relationships and friends, and broke bread. We enrich each other through commerce and our cultural exchanges. Our modern existence has made us detached from our essential selves, our elemental needs, and we need to make a conscious effort to reconnect with our own ancestors and ancestral way of life and build connections to others’ ancestors and their ancestral ways of life. We move forward by building on our collective past and by honoring all of the people who came before us, within our ethnic groups and national boundaries and beyond them.

9/18/23 – The memories of the sadness we’ve seen can be overwhelming even crippling at times. When you think about events or people you know, met or with whom you simply crossed paths and wished you could have done more for, been there for, you can lay these feelings and thoughts at the foot of the cross. You can take these small crosses that seem to weigh so much and just hand them over to God, and say, my heart feels heavy, and it is too much for me to bear. I feel impotent in a cruel and unjust world. Lord, all powerful God, you be the justice that the world seems unable to deliver. When you remember someone like this and call upon God, these are prayers. These are silent acts of love, and God will hear them.

9/18/23 – People often want to cry in church, and many people sometimes do. One should never feel self-conscious or embarrassed about this. Church is the Lord’s house. It belongs to God, and it is safe. It is where you can be entirely vulnerable and yourself with God. Also, there is no point in being dishonest with God. God knows everything anyway. Be candid with your petitions and yourself even if you feel embarrassed, demanding or whatever. If you’re angry with God, say “I’m angry with you God.” If you’re sad, say “I’m sad”. And so on. Just be yourself. You can’t have a healthy relationship with God or with anybody if you can’t be honest with yourself and with other people. Take the time to go to the depths of your feelings and thoughts, well beyond the masks that we all wear to some degree, to find these truths. Then, speak these truths to yourself, to God and to other people. Vulnerability is essential to honesty, and honesty is an important virtue. It opens our hearts and binds our relationships.

9/17/23 – We have to be honest with ourselves and our history as human beings. It is very important for our continued progress. We can’t move forward into the future if we’re not honest about our past.

9/17/23 – We cannot have a world where one nation or group of people invades others and claims their land as their own. The days of empire are over. The world should not have any tolerance for it. It is violence. It is greed. It is sinful. We also cannot have a world where one nation or group of people rewrites history to suit their narrative. We need to move beyond these violations of human rights and human history and be a people of peace. Peace means coexistence in acceptance of our differences, our history and our heritage. We discover and honor history and respect territorial integrity.

9/17/23 – To our Jewish sisters and brothers, the ancestors of our faith, Happy Rosh Hashanah.

9/17/23 – Although it might be frustrating to Muslims, the fact is that of the Abrahamic religions, Islam is newer than both Judaism and Christianity. Judaism is an ancient religion. It started at least 4,000 years ago. Christianity began 2,000 years ago, and Islam began around 1,400 years ago. There is no Christianity or Islam without Judaism. This is a fact. Any statements or claims to the land that contradict these facts are invalid. Who are the Palestinian people before Islam? They are simply people without a religious identity as defined after Islam. Therefore, they can live side by side with the Jewish people as they once lived on the land. However, any claims of a religious legacy and corresponding claim to the land that predates Judaism is simply historically false. Lying or misrepresenting facts does not move any of us forward. It pollutes our discussions and prevents us from finding consensus and compromise.
UN committee votes to list ruins near ancient Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine

9/17/23 – In order to be truly happy, deeply happy, a stable, calm contentment, we need to redirect ourselves to God. In him, we will be healed of the brokenness caused by our broken world. In him, we will be made whole. Happy Sunday!

9/16/23 – India is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. It predates European civilization. The name “India” comes from the Indus Valley Civilization (“c. 7000 BCE – c. 600 BCE The Indus Valley (or Harappan) Civilization”). The people (horrible BJP) who want to call India “Bharat,” which is not a pretty name, want to ignore, well let’s see, “c. 60000 BCE – 32768 BCE Human habitation of India” until the 5th century BCE. Trying to rewrite history by ignoring huge swaths of it doesn’t make history so. It just makes one a liar.
Ancient India

9/16/23 – To suppress the religious diversity of India is an act against the cultural and religious heritage of the world. Buddhism, born in India, took root throughout Asia, and it’s even popular in the west. Meditation is an integral part of the faith and a practice from which we could all benefit. The Muslims in India are some of the most moderate in the world and could play an important role in countering the extreme forms of Islam found elsewhere. Let us all remember that algebra, one of the greatest contributions to math, came from the Islamic world, which can once again be a center of great intellectual and artistic generation, as it once was. The Taj Mahal, one of the greatest testaments of love to a woman, was built by a Mughal emperor, a Muslim. The Jewish people who lived in India for millennia lived in peace, one of the few places in the world for which that record holds true. This is something for which India should to be proud. Christianity has existed in India since the beginning of the faith and in an expression that respects its Jewish origins. Hinduism, of course without the hideous caste system, is a beautiful religion. It is truly ancient, complex, and its adherents are deeply spiritual. Whether or not one believes in reincarnation, there is an element of interconnection, and birth, death and rebirth to which we can all relate. Hindus help other religious people remain grounded in our spirituality and remind us of the eternal need to connect with God. The India of our collective spiritual heritage is one that respects religious diversity and freedom, nourishes it and offers the world a much-needed elemental antidote for our technology-dominated modern lives.

9/16/23 – Before the Russian war in Ukraine, most people didn’t think of the country. It wasn’t really on the radar. Now, it is clear that it is an ancient country with a beautiful people. Its unique history is fascinating and worthy of study. Its cultural heritage is a gift to the world. Slava Ukraini!

9/16/23 – The man delusion has been in vogue since the Enlightenment. It has run its course. Science is based on observation. If one objectively observes our current situation, it is quite obvious that man is the source of all of our problems, not God. Let us think back to what our pristine planet must have been like. You walk to a body of water, dip your hands into it and drink. You pick fruit off trees and eat. This world, the one God created, no longer exists in this form. Our water is polluted. Our food production is compartmentalized, and we have no real connection to the food we eat. Much of the food that’s produced is processed garbage. We have to return to the world God created.

9/15/23 – On the 15th anniversary of the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers, let’s remember that there are two justice systems in our country: one for the rich and powerful and one for the rest of us. We bailed them out. They got golden parachutes. They behaved irresponsibility again. We bailed them out again. They got golden parachutes again. You get the idea. We’re stuck in doom loop.

9/15/23 – Perhaps Catholics can eat meatless on any two days out of the week. This is really not hard to do. One can still eat diary or even better nuts and beans. This would be entirely in keeping with the faith and being stewards of our planet.

9/15/23 – Only crazy liberals would think that the solution to mental health issues is magic mushrooms. What’s wrong with these people?

9/15/23 – There is a fundamental divide between religious people and atheists that go well beyond politics. These are profound differences in our understanding of many foundational concepts, including life. There is no way to bridge these differences since many of our values and beliefs are antithetical to each other. The atheists, with their science worship, are posing an existential threat to the vast majority of life on the planet, human beings and the animal kingdom. If they only self-destructed, it would be one thing, but unfortunately, their activity does affect the rest of us.

So, to all religious people: protect your genetic lineage, and try to live as natural and simple a life as possible. Don’t engage in unnatural reproductive or sexual activity. Eat genetically unmodified fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains. Eat as little meat as possible. Although the godless atheists are making it as difficult as possible, try to avoid chemicals. You’ll likely need to use filtered or bottled water for drinking. Minimize the use of tech, and do activities that give you natural movement and exercise. Keep aesthetic modifications to a minimum. When it’s time to die, just die in peace. Don’t try to extend your life unnaturally. We were all better off the way it was. We’re careening toward a dystopian death of epic proportions. Be wise. Be prepared.

9/15/23 – The western world, which is mainly liberal, atheistic white culture, suffers from a particular affliction. Consider the prevailing aesthetic ideal. A woman who is taller than most men, which is neither objectively attractive nor practical. Pale white skin, which provides inadequate natural protection from the sun, that they color an unnatural shade of orange intended to look tan. Blue eyes, which also provide inadequate natural protection from the sun. Veneered teeth, which damages teeth. Fake nails, which damages nails. Chemically processed hair, which damages hair. Fake boobs, which damages the body. Unhealthy even dangerous weight-loss strategies. And on and on.

One could make a strong argument that liberal, atheistic white people hate natural things, and the rest of the world likes and respects natural things. Conservative, religious white people, for all of their issues, are the exception to some degree. To some extent, they respect the natural order of things. They need to have more respect for the judicious use of science, but at least they are not irreverent experimenters, narcissists thinking they can solve problems via science, when all they are actually doing is making everything much worse to the point of posing an existential threat to all life on the planet, including the human species. White people are dying off, and there are many reasons for it. This might be one of them. If you mistake yourself for God, you’re living in a state of delusion, and nothing good can come of it.

9/14/23 – A gender divide on contemplating the Roman Empire? Ah no. It’s so fascinating. The ancient world as a whole is fascinating. Our twisted modern lives are filled with chemicals, a dying planet, unhealthy weirdness, and the atheists’ science worship. The ancient world was at once brilliant and barbaric. It was filled with gods and godlessness, which it wore honestly. In a time of fakeness, it is real. Also, if you read the Bible regularly or are devoutly Christian, you’ll think about it at least once a week, likely more.

9/14/23 – Veneers. What a joke! It’s the same with the weird acrylic nails. Firstly, how can anybody get anything done with that s—t on their nails? They are ridiculous. Even if you don’t have great nails, just go with them. At least, they’re natural. They’re yours. Just like your smile. Unless your smile is quite off, one shouldn’t even bother getting braces. You have to wear your retainer every day forever, which you’re not going to do, and your teeth will pretty much go back to the way they were. Also, you’re not damaging your natural body, which you likely can’t fix. This can happen with nails, teeth, hair, you name it. People, save your money, and just be natural!

9/14/23 – Stuck between the crazy MAGA who want the destruction of everything via man and god and the crazy libs who want the destruction of everything via man and science. They are all sick nutcases.

9/13/23 – NPR is a vile atheist, scientism rag. They are promoting procreation without a sperm and an egg. They are sick nutcases. It should be put out of business.

9/12/23 – If God isn’t real, well, I guess a bunch of people, the vast majority of the world, believed in something that wasn’t real. They were also likely healthier and happier for their beliefs whether or not they were real. If science is wrong, we’re dead. Guess what, we’re dead. All science and people’s unreasonable faith in it is doing is destroying everything: our planet, our lives, our health, our happiness and on and on. So, who’re the fools: the religious people or the science worshippers, aka atheists?

9/12/23 – Was just thinking that this is the way to go a couple days ago. “‘Thanks. I made it.’ Trust me, it never gets old.” What has gotten extremely old is being a slave to the world and destroying our planet. Also, clothes have become so boring. We wear the same stuff, and everybody looks the same. There are so many different cultures with unique ways of dressing. We can make our culture’s traditional clothes or give them a modern take, exercise some creativity and design skills, and be kinder on our planet.
Never Acquire Clothes the Same Way Again

9/11/23 – When we pulled out of Afghanistan two years ago, the Afghan people were devastated. Americans were also devastated. We wanted our presence and the considerable investment we made in the beautiful country to end with the realization of its promise. However, history is long, and the story is not over. We are the children of the God of Abraham, and we will have peace and prosperity in the Middle East. Its people will be free.

9/11/23 – Also from two years ago. 9/11 was a painful day. It remains so, but today and every day, Americans love our Muslim sisters and brothers. The Statue of Liberty stood tall and proud against the devastated Twin Towers. When Muslims come to our shores, it and their Abrahamic brothers and sisters, Jews and Christians, among other Americans welcome them. No terrorist will ever change who we are as a people.
AP PHOTOS: 20 images that documented the enormity of 9/11

9/11/23 – From two years ago.
They Lost Loved Ones In 9/11. We Invited Them To Leave A Voicemail In Their Memory

9/11/23 – Remember the cross, and remember the people who have loved us even when they didn’t know us. Love them as they loved you.

9/11/23 – Yesterday, the Catholic Church beatified a Catholic family that was murdered with the Jews they were sheltering, a total of 17 precious souls. “Last year, Francis pronounced the deeply Catholic Ulma family, including the child that Wiktoria Ulma was pregnant with, martyrs for the faith. The Ulmas were killed at home by German Nazi troops and by Nazi-controlled local police in the small hours of March 24, 1944, together with the eight Jews they were hiding at their home, after they were apparently betrayed.

Jozef Ulma, 44, was a farmer, Catholic activist and amateur photographer who documented family and village life. He lived with his 31-year-old wife Wiktoria; their daughters Stanislawa, 7; Barbara, 6; Maria, 18 months; and sons Wladyslaw, 5; Franciszek, 3; and Antoni, 2.

With them were killed 70-year-old Saul Goldman with his sons Baruch, Mechel, Joachim and Mojzesz, along with Golda Grunfeld and her sister Lea Didner with her little daughter Reszla, according to Poland’s state Institute of National Remembrance, IPN, which has meticulously documented the Ulmas’ story.” They took the risk and sheltered them because it was the right thing to do, the Christian thing to do.
The Vatican beatifies a Polish family of 9 killed by the Nazis for sheltering Jews

9/11/23 – Today is the 22nd anniversary of 9/11. Please take time to honor the men and women who sacrificed their lives for us that day, particularly the firefighters, police and other first-responders. They run towards danger, while we run away.
9/11 Memorial and Museum

9/10/23 – Apparently, this story, which is more accurately described as a non-story, merits coverage by at least three major self-described national news agencies. Here’s a quick summary: While “making it,” Perry Bacon decided to worship himself instead of God. Instead of God blessing him, he realized that he’s actually really smart and, well, evolved, much like the white people he went to school with instead of the black people he went to church with, so he became a “none,” whatever that is. He tries to make this about BLM, blah blah blah something (BTW the religious black civil rights movement achieved much more with much less violence) and LGBTQ something. Basically, he’s become so inclusive that he’s excluding everybody who doesn’t think exactly like him. That’s it in a nutshell, but the world greatly benefits from hearing the extended version of this profound story over and over again.
Also, since they grew up in Christianity, yes, you do need the “resurrection part,” as they well know. Don’t come to our churches for the donuts. We have enough problems. There are many secular organizations where one can get donuts, volunteer or whatever it is that one is seeking, presumably community. Frankly, their “search” seems more like an exercise in narcissism and attention-seeking than any kind of genuine spiritual quest or even community quest. If one is having such a hard time finding community, one is most likely not actually looking for community (alone). So, the honesty with oneself is not really where it needs to be. Also, please don’t free ride on other people’s faith. Thank you, and have a nice day.
The search for a church that isn’t a church

9/10/23 – Does NPR ever have anything positive to say about our country? It has the word “national” and “public” in its name, but it’s not either. Also, it has someone who’s supposed to write about spiritual matters, but who’s not spiritual. Don’t people need to have a background in world religions and be spiritual for that job? Can religious people get coverage that is valuable to us? Or are the millions of us in the USA and billions around the world just not that important to “NPR”? They pander to the atheists who have no sense of morality and treat humans like disposable experiments. It is a coastal private liberal atheist website.

9/10/23 – Christians, Happy Sunday! We will hope until the end, and we will hope through the end. Respect your body, mind and soul. Preserve your integrity as a child of God and do what Jesus asked. We’ll be fine. After all, for us, death is going home. Peace.

9/10/23 – If you can live in peace with people of various faith traditions, you are succeeding at one of the most important things people need to do well. You don’t have to believe in their god. Obviously, you are of a different faith for a reason, but you can still respect, learn from and even participate to a degree in their religious traditions. This is a beautiful thing. Be a people of religious tolerance. Be a people of peace.

9/10/23 – Islam has been in India since the late 7th century, basically soon after the beginning of the faith. The members and supporters of the BJP need to show the world their DNA analysis to prove that they are not genetically related to the very people they are persecuting and demonizing as not Indian. Do it now or STFU.

9/10/23 – What’s going to come first: the end of democracy, the inhabitability of the planet, the destruction of the human species via gene editing, or nuclear war? Or will they all converge in one gloriously apocalyptic climax?

9/10/23 – Let the genetic editing arms race begin, right everyone? Is the Chinese government conducting gene editing experimentation on their Uighur or other minority populations? Hey pro-lifers, did you know that the super-evolved atheists with their big brains are treating fetuses like guinea pigs, and when it doesn’t work out as they expect, they abort them? This is what happens when people give up God and worship science. The end is nigh. It’s just a matter of time.

9/9/23 – In one of many great ironies, China, the most godless large country is right next to India, arguably the most religious country. Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world. The country gave birth to many other religions, and Christianity has been in India since the beginning of the faith. These two countries don’t get along, and it’s going to be interesting how all of this evolves.

9/9/23 – The atheists, with their evolved brains, are a curse to all humankind.

9/9/23 – We can’t save or, more accurately, recreate the planet this way. God’s creation fits together perfectly. It’s not piecemeal creation. The way to save the planet is by respecting the planet.
One way to save coral reefs? Deep freeze them for the future

9/9/23 – To be willing to die prematurely to preserve the integrity of the human species is a noble thing to do.

9/9/23 – So, how is the evil Xi going to use gene editing to realize his demonic plans for global domination? It’s all just a matter of time.

9/9/23 – “In the first ten years, he would tackle a variety of genetic diseases; in the ten years after that, he’d extend the human life span to a hundred and twenty years.” Living in the simplest of ways, which has the added benefit of having a light footprint on the planet and, other little things like, poses no risk to the human species, the people in the regions below are doing the same thing or better. See, we can’t improve on God. When we think we can do better, we just end up destroying everything and ourselves. Gene editing is a recipe for annihilation. “Editing human embryos for reproduction is taboo in the world of genetic engineering; the possibility is too great that a scientist will accidentally introduce mutations that harm the subject and affect future generations…. As crispr became available, a broad consensus emerged among scientists that they should, at least for the time being, resist the temptation to make heritable changes to the human genome. crispr was too new and too poorly understood. ‘You never know what you will introduce,’ Charpentier told me. ‘Is it the realization of a nightmare?’…A further complication is that, as embryonic cells divide and multiply, and the crispr scissors keep snipping, they often fail to edit every cell. The growing embryo becomes a ‘mosaic’ of edited and unedited DNA…. ‘Fear number one: the weaponization of the military. We know how to make a human being who runs on four hours of sleep—I can tell you what mutation to make. Two: We know what gene to edit to reduce pain sensation. If I were a rogue nation wishing to engineer a next generation of quasi-pain-free special-forces soldiers, I know exactly what to do. It’s all published. And three: physical strength. You don’t need a large lab operation. You just need the ill will.’…. (It would also cover abortion costs in the case of a serious genetic defect.) [What a plan.]… There is also evidence that disrupting CCR5 affects bone growth. Had JK created superpeople? Or had he inadvertently condemned unconsenting not-yet-born victims to potentially serious health problems?” The crispr monster has begun. Science. With 100% certainty, it will destroy us.
The Transformative, Alarming Power of Gene Editing

9/9/23 – Back before all of this madness, pretty much all of us lived like this. The recent changes to how humans live have been so bad, they are now posing an existential threat. We should all just go back to the way it was. “A body of scientific research validates the blue zone way of life: Good food, good sleep, good friends, plenty of movement and a sense of purpose are a recipe for living better.”

Exercise naturally. Gardening is great on so many levels. Have a pollinator friendly one to have communion with God’s creatures. Sure, the critters might destroy some of your plants, but living on our beautiful planet is about sharing.

Eat vegetables and beans. You don’t have to cook vegetables. You can just grow or buy them and eat them. If you feel like cooking them, great, but don’t skip them because of time.

Stop eating so much meat. It’s bad for animals, the environment and people.

Have community. Different types of community, and try to be in person as much as possible. Maybe you can’t get to everything in person, but it’s much better than being online all the time.

Volunteer. Everything isn’t about you. Do your part.

Rest. Even God rested.

7 habits to live a healthier life, inspired by the world’s longest-lived communities

9/9/23 – As we deal with climate change (it’s real and it’s here, folks), we might consider reviving long tunics and ditching shirts and pants. It’s one of the most universal items of clothing, and many cultures have some tie to it. (In India, it’s called a kurta. See below.) It’s highly versatile and can be loose fitting. It’s comfortable and practical, while still stylish, and it can be worn by men and women. Walking around half-naked like western, especially American, women like to do is not a good approach to increasingly hotter temperatures. Firstly, it’s quite indecent and inappropriate. (This is embarrassing for us as a country. Other cultures don’t do this. Please stop.) Secondly, it gives no sun protection.

9/8/23 – Men and women dress more differently in the west than in many other places in the world. Women wear extremely tight and revealing clothes that are often quite indecent while men are dressed more comfortably and modestly. There is nothing liberating for women in dressing like this. It is demeaning. In many other countries – including Muslim countries – there is more parity in men’s and women’s clothing. In India, many men wear kurtas. Women also wear them. The sari, which can show a little more skin around the mid-section and the back, is an iconic Indian attire for women, but it’s not indecent at all. It’s quite elegant. The sari is actually somewhat similar to the togas that Roman men would wear or the stolas that Roman women would wear. It’s strange that the self-described bastion for women’s rights, the west, has less parity in attire than many more traditional societies.

9/8/23 – We want the names of the plutocratic traitors – every single one of them. We want it in the American record.

9/8/23 – When it comes to preserving our republic, we’ve ended up with some surprising bedfellows. To those who can set aside our differences in this moment of peril and be American patriots, we salute you. “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.” Former VP Dick Cheney

9/7/23 – BRICS is becoming dicks, a group of authoritarian countries.

9/7/23 – The Chinese model was actually never alive, although many economists and others were convinced it was heading for world domination not that long ago. Its model wasn’t entirely bad, targeting a higher level of export sophistication via state capitalism than would normally be associated with its prior level of development. However, if one actually took the time to look at the totality of China’s development, it was obviously unsustainable.

“By example, China has sought to demonstrate to the Global South that democracy and development are not inseparable, and that autocrats can have wealth, international respect, and political power. Those claims are harder to make with a faltering economy. If anything, China’s economic troubles suggest that authoritarian regimes cannot both tighten control and sustain economic progress—that, ultimately, political reform must accompany economic reform.”

It’s surreal to read this when many western economists and policymakers not that long ago were making a similar argument to Xi’s. However, they were wrong. To have long-term economic success, a country does need to be democratic. Capitalism has been associated with Adam Smith’s invisible hand for a long time. The idea is that a country’s people in the collective are the best corrective and rebalancing for markets and economies. This doesn’t always hold. There are market failures, such as the tragedy of the commons and negative externalities, but it’s generally true.

State capitalism has its place, though, and when used correctly, it can catapult a country into a higher level of development or, more importantly, lay a solid foundation for sustained economic growth. However, for industries to emerge or to thrive, corruption must be consistently kept in check. Although it can be difficult, only democracies can really do this well. Certainly, corruption can take hold even in capitalist countries, but they are better able to root it out.

The rich parasitic traitors who want to turn the USA into Russia also want to turn our capitalism into a kleptocracy. They want to kill us economically so that they can enslave us, horde our wealth, and turn themselves into walking corpses as they try to avoid death. In other words, they will try to avoid death as they inflict death on everybody else. Democracy dies in darkness. Capitalism dies without democracy. Thus, they both die in darkness.

PS China’s demographics are a nightmare. Don’t forget to consider them.
The China Model Is Dead

9/7/23 – Here’s another analogy. It’s like considering the feelings of Germans when trying to stop Hitler. And yes, this includes Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It includes anything and everything to stop the evil one, trump, arguably the most dangerous person in the world. “Yet this harsh medicine wouldn’t be necessary if Trump hadn’t brought this challenge to American democracy in the first place. And letting the challenge go unanswered would have far more destructive effects. The idea of the body politic, and the risks of its decay, is a very old one. Trump’s actions are the source of its current illness, and though the treatment may seem extreme—and have unpleasant side effects—it’s what’s needed to stop the disease from taking over.”
The Metaphor That Explains Why America Needs to Prosecute Trump

9/7/23 – The rich (no, not you, the people who’re actually rich) are afraid of death because they, at least subconsciously, know that they’re going to hell. They will do anything and everything to not die, even if it means becoming a walking corpse and threatening the entire human species with their genetic experimentation.

9/6/23 – The evil, murderous dictator modi and all members of the BJP should be required to make their DNA analysis, conducted by a reputable company such as 23 and Me, public. If it isn’t basically 100% of the country of India, they should be required to move to their country of origin, such as the Middle East or Europe. All “royal” family members around the world should be required to do so as well.

9/6/23 – Hindi and Sanskrit, which belong to the Indo-European language family, are not original to India. They are the language of the invaders. The Dravidian languages are original to India, and nobody should ever forget that.

9/6/23 – All words are not created equal in any one language. Bharat is simply quite unattractive as a word/name. Namaste is a pretty word. India is a pretty word. Hard truths, particularly for the BJP, an evil party full of demagogues and criminals. Thank you and have a nice day.

9/6/23 – And lord of the flies comes to the Ivy League. Given it’s filled with s—t, it’s quite appropriate that it’s infested with flies. “‘It’s strange to me how many student organizations decide to be selective when it’s students who completely control the system,’ Mira Debs, the executive director of Yale’s education-studies program, told me. ‘I have often found it to be a puzzle. What force drives Yale students to be so competitive, and to construct all of these different categories that they’re applying for?’”
You Already Got Into Yale

9/5/23 – Let’s take a long view of our current miserable state. We had the biggest generation in recent world history, the Boomers, descend on the earth like locusts. They were spoiled and narcissistic. They did a bunch of drugs, fornicated like rabbits, then did a 180, became “greed is good” sellouts, and the world has yet to recover from their damage and influence. Millennials, for all of their stated attempts to distinguish themselves, in practice, simply adopted much of the Boomers’ values, particularly the hedonism and the shallowness of their existence.

Even as we face the existential threat of climate change, the quality of our clothes, furniture, most durable goods and the attitude we have towards them is to embrace the cheap, temporary and disposable. Granted the free trade economists, which are pretty much all western economists, had a key role in pushing this ideology, but the American consumers, starting with the Boomers, now perpetuate it. This approach to trade eviscerated our manufacturing sector, diminished our autarky and made us dependent on our enemies for important goods.

What have we lost? In no particular order: the earth is on the precipice of being uninhabitable. Other species are facing a mass extinction due to our selfishness. Our communities, particularly our faith communities, are considerably weakened, and some might never recover. Our families are broken, and the extended family is practically nonexistent. Our elite educational institutions are bastions not of intellectual and personal growth or agents of meritocracy but of the wealthy ruling class and its domination. The arts and humanities are going extinct. We eat more processed food than ever before. We are depleting our water sources at an alarming rate. Among countless crises, we have an obesity crisis, a drug crisis, a gun violence crisis and a mental health crisis. More generally, the American people are losing it. We are at risk of losing our democracy that countless American patriots sacrificed their lives to defend. And on and on.

What have we gained? Tech for tech’s sake. A bunch of cheaply made s—t. Tacky and meaningless “markers of accomplishment and status.” A culture of rank hypocrisy. Facades of glitz and glam brought to you by social media. New ways to exploit human beings also brought to you by social media. You get the idea. Aside from some gains on women’s and civil rights, the past approximately 75 years have been an unmitigated disaster for our society. The status quo is simply untenable. The aging Boomers, who refuse to go quietly into the night, want to continue to impose the disaster they created. There are seemingly no limits to their narcissism, their desire to maintain control of our society and the destruction they are willing to inflict on it, even as or perhaps because death comes knocking at their door.   

9/5/23 – This piece is well-intentioned and has some helpful advice, but who are we kidding right now? There was a time, not that long ago actually, perhaps with the last of the bohemian Gen Xers who were also the last of the analog kids, when being a well-travelled, well-cultured, and truly well-educated (meaning not just getting an education to get a high-paying job but to be actually learned) was something to which one would aspire.

The smart phone and social media killed all that and people’s attention span with it. Not only are people addicted to their phones, mindlessly scrolling through the inanest and sometimes poisonous material, but it has warped their experiences with the finer aspects of life. Although potentially pretentious, there is nothing necessarily wrong with wanting to impress people with a substantive knowledge of the arts and the world, but this is no longer the case. The goal is to create the impression of it: take a photo, make a video, put it on social media, or even more crude, just invoke jealousy. It doesn’t matter whether one has experienced something moving or not. The phone has become the device that documents a superficial life pretending to be a substantive life, and one that always asks, hey audience, are you jealous of me yet?

The reason to spend time on the finer aspects of life has ultimately nothing to do with anybody but oneself. It is to transform oneself on the inside not to project to the outside. It is to become someone who is more sensitive to the human condition, and by so doing, better able to interact with others and the world in a healthy way. It is similar to the difference between hedonism and humanity. Hedonism is the simple pursuit of pleasure; on the other hand, art, whether it invokes pleasure or pain, is the pursuit of understanding. Its power is the distillation of the human experience into a concentrated form to move its audience from their present often shallow preoccupations into consideration of life’s bigger questions.

You know how you get good at all of this, whether it’s art appreciation or spirituality? By actually putting in the work! What a concept. There are those who sit on their lazy asses, who don’t actually want to put in the time and energy, but just want the benefits of seeming as if they have. There are those who don’t want to put in the work into their spiritual lives, instead they will dismiss the existence of God with a convenient certitude so that they don’t have to think about these thorny questions. There are those who think if there is a God, the onus isn’t on them to discover him, but on him to reveal himself to them. Guess what? None of this works that way. If you want it, you, with the emphasis on you, have to put in the work. Go to these spaces, museums, theaters, places of worship, etc. and spend time learning and absorbing. Spend time engaging in the activity not with the intention to impress others but with the intention to transform yourself.
How to make a meaningful connection with a work of art

9/4/23 – This Labor Day, let us pray for and commit to helping the people who are unemployed, underemployed or enslaved. May the unemployed and underemployed find meaningful work that respects the dignity of their person. May the millions of people throughout the world who are uncompensated for their labor, whether they are sex slaves whose bodies and the holiness of physical love are perverted into commodities, indentured laborers caught in the evil trap of modern slavery, or child workers who should be loved and nurtured not exploited, be liberated and restored. Let us strive to build a society free of the shackles of greed and full of the freedom of love.

9/4/23 – If you’re not encountering homeless people at some point in your church or in the communities it supports, then your church is not doing Christianity correctly. That is all. “Several of the foreign-staffed Catholic religious orders in Mongolia run shelters, orphanages and nursing homes to care for a population of 3.3 million where one in three people lives in poverty. But the new clinic for homeless people, people with disabilities and victims of domestic violence is aimed at showing the outreach of the Mongolian Catholic Church as a whole to its local community. ‘The true progress of a nation is not gauged by economic wealth, much less by investment in the illusory power of armaments, but by its ability to provide for the health, education and integral development of its people,’ Francis said at the shelter, urging Mongolians rich and poor to volunteer to help their fellow citizens.”
Francis opens a homeless clinic on the 1st papal visit to Mongolia

9/4/23 – Happy Labor Day, proudly brought to you by unions, one of the last safeguards of human beings’ divine dignity. Unions are stronger now than they have been in a long time, but they are nowhere as strong as they ought to be. They are essential to rebalancing our distorted lives, and we need to continue to strengthen them. The Boomer generation has done immense damage to our lives. They are the people who promoted the “greed is good” ethic. Generation X, a small and ridiculed generation, pushed back against this by focusing on human experiences and connections, and were labeled slackers. In the end, many of them adopted the Boomers’ obsession with money, status and other superficial aspects of American life. Unfortunately, they couldn’t beat them, so they ended up joining them. The Millennials didn’t bother to push back, and they were even more atheistic than Gen X or the Boomers. The Millennials discarded the last meaningful corrective to the work-obsessed direction the country had taken. We are now just masses of cells who can be easily formed into slaves by corporations and other entities by dangling the carrot of accomplishment and status in front of us: the false gods of mammon and the praise of men.

Prior to this destructive turn to our country’s social fabric, we had an unspoken Protestant work ethic, which although it could be excessive, the focus was still on treating work as a divine calling and on using one’s gifts to glorify God. Catholics share in this focus while departing from Protestants in giving leisure more importance in life. To Catholics’ great credit, they also have been the guardians of the arts, which reflects a sensitive understanding of the essential nature of human beings. In the tradition captured by the great writers and artists of the human condition, of the endless paradoxes of our collective existence, the corruption of the Renaissance period was a terrible sin, but the artistic giants and the masterpieces of the period were also funded by it. The arts aren’t just a hedonistic indulgence. They are life itself. In a religious context, they are how we, mere mortals, glorify and show our love for God. After worship of God, they are the deepest, most powerful expression of our humanity. The arts, like places of worship, also afford us spaces to be in communion with each other, to be a people not of mere flesh and bone, but of deeper consciousness and souls together.

This Labor Day, reflect on how we are living our lives. Are we living and working for more comforts and conveniences, or should the goal of our lives have loftier ideals and expressions? We need more work/life balance so that we have time for our spiritual lives, for the arts, for our families and communities, simply put, for the things that make life worth living because they honor our divinity as children of God.

9/3/23 – A little loathed to bring up politics on Sunday, but this was an important article. Europe is dying, so pining for a “secular” (actually atheistic) society that has several serious problems is misguided. Returning to our own country, “[d]enominations and church commitments once preserved a set of broadly shared Christian moral values that transcended the right-left divide, but now that some of the loudest supporters of Christian nationalism have left these denominations behind, there is little to stop them from refashioning the Christian faith in their own image, with potentially heretical [many are heretical] results. And in contrast to the days when both Republicans and Democrats—and northerners and southerners—shared a common religious language despite their differences, little common ground is now left between the post-Christians of the urban North and the post-churched Christian nationalists of the rural South. The decline of churchgoing in America, it seems, has not eviscerated Christianity; it has simply distorted it. And that distortion will have politically unpleasant implications that go far beyond church walls.”

In a way, Christianity is its own language. Which language are people going to speak: it or the language of politics? Are we going to speak: the language of love or the language of division? This summer, a group of Christian volunteers of mixed political views (generally somewhere in the middle) came together on hot summer days to volunteer for our communities. The only thing that mattered was our love for our God and for each other. We would break together, eat, drink and laugh. We shared our differing thoughts and feelings respectfully and then got back to work. This is the language of love, and it needs to be spoken inside and outside the church. The church is our common house, the Lord’s house, where we worship, pray, sing, read Scripture together, celebrate each other and remind ourselves of our shared faith, of who we really are. Christians are not a political group. We are simply followers of Jesus Christ.
What Really Happens When Americans Stop Going to Church

9/3/23 – Evangelization is sometimes loud, like Billy Graham, who was great. Other times, it’s quiet, “‘When you whisper, you whisper to an individual or a few people, you cannot whisper to many people at the same time because they simply will not hear you,’ he said. ‘And I think this visit will also somehow manifest the attention that the (pope) has for every individual, every person who embarks in this journey of faith.’” Beautiful.
Go to church and find your soul. It doesn’t matter what society wants or says. What matters is your personal relationship with God. You can go in-between services instead of to mass or service. You can just sit there and pray. Sometimes you need a priest or preacher to help guide you through the text and your spiritual journey. Other times, you just need to be with God by yourself. Bring your mind to stillness and your soul to silent love. Happy Sunday!
Cardinal says the pope’s visit to Mongolia’s tiny Catholic community will show his dedication

9/2/23 – We need a religious moderate party. We need to get rid of the atheists. They don’t fit our values. That is all.

9/2/23 – Speaking of the earth, we need to change the way we eat. We need to eat way more vegetables. Indian food does vegetarian meals exceptionally well. They are healthy and nutritious. Lentils have a lot of protein, and we need to each more of them. Westerners and others eat way too much meat. It’s hard on the digestive system, unhealthy and bad for the environment. If one must eat meat, eat smaller portions. You will appreciate it more. As one example of a highly nutritious and delicious vegetarian meal: wheat roti (chapatti) with dal (lentils) (dal roti is an Indian staple), vegetable curry or other vegetable dish, and, optionally, a small side of fish (fry or curry).

9/2/23 – India’s G20 logo, “One Earth, One Family, One Future,” with the earth cradled in a lotus flower is beautiful! It’s imagery that resonates throughout Asia, including China, and even the west that doesn’t have the same attachment to the lotus flower. Thomas Christians, an ancient church, use it in their cross, which is quite beautiful, and “following the introduction of Christianity to China by the Church of the East, the Nestorian cross was frequently depicted on a lotus flower in Chinese Christian iconography.” The colors of the logo are the Indian tricolor, which are also symbolic religiously but in a universal way, and they are earthy colors. The issue must be “universal values.” Well, if a country’s leaders, say the horrible Chinese leaders, take issue with values such as love, truth, peace, compassion, courage, and respect for God’s gift of life to us, our beautiful planet, then the problem isn’t the proponents of the universal values but the opponents of them.  

9/2/23 – Obviously, this doesn’t apply to all atheists. Many are relaxed about their position on God. Others are not relaxed at all. You can read the comments to get a sense of the difference. The main thing to remember is that your spiritual journey is yours, and everybody’s journey is going to look different. A lot of people won’t have one at all. You can’t change others. Serve them as you would anybody else, extending compassion and love, but remember, Jesus kept walking. They have their free will, and you have yours. They have the right to their views that are conflicting with or antithetical to yours, and you have the right to just keep walking (or even running).

9/2/23 – Apparently, some atheists come to our churches as they say for the music. (Many of them also pray, but that’s a different oddity than this one.) What to do with this rather strange phenomenon? Since it’s the Lord’s house, one should always be welcoming and gracious, but they don’t believe in our God, and they’re using us for our beautiful music. So, what is a Christian to do? Always be polite unless they are disruptive and rude. Then, they can be politely asked to leave. Many of them are proud to be hedonists, so perhaps our worship music is just another “pleasure” to them. Is this flattering or insulting? Hard to say. These are not logical people…so it’s best to not try to get into their heads.

9/2/23 – From the comments in the link below. “The Satanic Temple is an atheist church. About the smartest, most interesting, most fun group of people I’ve encountered in a very long time. [Whether or not they belong to the Satanic Temple, they all think this about themselves.] We are committed to doing good in the world, while harming or controlling no one. The same cannot by any means be said of many Christians.” Is it any wonder why we want to avoid them?

9/1/23 – And into the church I go to lose my mind and find my soul. Yes, the “s” word. Tra la la.

9/1/23 – To the people who are trying to recreate church without God, please just give it rest. We get it. You have unmet needs or desires, but, no offense, it’s ridiculous. “Let me answer you with a question: do you know what ‘ridiculous’ means?” Exactly. Just stick to this. It’s more honest and logical. Perfect, in fact. “To get together, spend half an hour parking, shaking hands with friends, getting seated, having someone up in front say ‘I don’t believe in any gods’, everyone responds, ‘neither do I’, we get up, shake hands with other friends and go home? I’d rather sleep in.”
To religious people: Atheists are the most unhappy people on the planet. They keep going on about how smart they are with their big, evolved brains and such, but we know they are miserable f—kers. When you encounter these people, run, don’t walk, lest they kill your natural joy.
Quora – What do atheists think about atheist churches?

9/1/23 – The coastal liberal elites live in their own bubble. At a recent gathering, when the presenter asked the audience where they find belonging, many people answered “church.” It was the most common response. Yes, the music can be amazing! (Check out the Washington National Cathedral as a supplement to your own church.) The community, worship and formation activities are all lovely and helpful to our spiritual growth. We are well-organized and routinely volunteer our time, talent and treasure. We are asked to be the hands and feet of Christ, and we do our best (we can all do better) to live the faith. The belonging is very important, especially celebrating the sacraments with each other. Having said all of this, and it’s a lot, the main thing though is to have a peaceful place to pray. We have the great privilege to enter our testaments of love to our God, into our beautiful churches, humble ourselves before him and pray, or just sit in the pews, in the quiet, read our Bibles, pray, and think about how much we love him. It is peace. It is love. One can’t find that anywhere else. We are so blessed.

9/1/23 – The baptismal bucket is well-preserved and beautiful.
Archaeologists in Turkey have identified massive structures below a Roman-era castle

9/1/23 – When you allow others to change you for the worse and to define you, you’ve lost.

9/1/23 – Christians, as the inheritors of the Jewish faith, which we made our own, would like to remind our sisters and brothers, the Jewish people (and ourselves) that they (and we) are a people of hope. The entire world needs them to be a people of hope and to act accordingly. For every persecutor, there is a liberator. For the Nazis, there are the Americans who stormed the beaches of Normandy, who like the 9/11 firefighters, climbed its rocky cliffs knowing full well that they would likely die upon them. Honor them and their sacrifice. Visit France’s testament to them. Come to our cemeteries and read their names. Brothers and sisters of the God of Abraham, do not become like the persecutors. Be like the liberators. Be a people of faith, hope and love.

“Israel, after all, originated as a great vessel of hope for people across the world—nationalism as a kind of redemption for a long-suffering people. Illouz suggests that hope, in principle, can strengthen the bonds of fraternity not just among the nation’s own members but with other countries as well, opening the way to dialogue, tolerance, and justice. Perhaps, but there is something forlorn in hoping that hope will carry the day. Given recent events in Israel (and the United States), Penslar’s conclusion, tragically, carries greater weight. He reminds us that the Hebrew word for hope is tikvah, whose literal biblical meaning is ‘cord’ or ‘rope’—‘something to hold onto.’ Many of us now find ourselves grasping this cord more tightly than ever before.” The Jewish people cannot lose hope. Where would the rest of us be?
A Country Shaped by Love and Fear

9/1/23 – The Christian symbol is a cross. It’s an unusual symbol. If one doesn’t give it much thought it looks innocuous, two lines crossing, but it symbolizes an instrument of torture. Our other symbol is a crucifix. It’s even more unusual. It includes an image of Jesus hanging on this device of torture. A compelling argument could be made that people need to overcome one main emotion that resides in the body, mind and soul – fear. Our body responds to perceived threats involuntarily: fight, flight or sometimes freeze. Obviously, we respond emotionally. Fear is also one of the great corrupting forces of the soul. It can drive us to kill, to horde, to persecute, to commit all kinds of evil.

The cross is a truly practicing Christian’s response to fear. Our God was sentenced to death, one he freely accepted. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was fearful of the fate his Father had revealed to him, but he accepted the cup and fulfilled God’s will. The Christian response to fear is to be like Jesus and to overcome our fear. What do we have to fear? Death? We all die. It’s simply a matter of when. Should we fear the passing of time? Then, we would be in perpetual fear, wouldn’t we? That’s no way to live.

“In the realm of fear, the demagogue is king.” (Link above.) In the realm of love, God is king. Some might argue the opposite of fear is courage. A strong argument could be made that the opposite of fear is actually love. Look at the many people we admire and honor. What they often have in common is that they put love first, and therefore, fear last. Fear, which can command and consume the entire person, was relegated to the fringes of the psyche, still present, still flickering, but eclipsed by love’s brilliant light. What kind of love? Certainly, not a tribal love. Jesus’s sacrifice was for all humankind. The cross is a divine love. That’s how an instrument of torture, of fear, became a symbol of true power, of love, and that’s why it’s our symbol as Christians.

Notes from Underground – August 2023

8/31/23 – Our enemies, such as the evil leaders of China, Russia and North Korea, want to destroy us because we pose a threat to their demonic order. Americans, patriots, continue to show them who we really are and what we’re made of. We were called by God to be a city on a hill. Every day, Americans, from small acts of kindness to heroic acts of bravery, place another stone in the city we build together, high on our hill. From the sins of genocide and slavery, discrimination and selfishness, we will redeem and redefine ourselves in the collective by our acts of goodness. We will continue to define ourselves to the world as a resilient people, as a people of faith and repentance, of love, kindness and bravery, and we will be a light of hope for the world. Go forth in this dark time knowing that God walks with us. The NYC firefighters did not abandon the residents in their charge, and the God we love and who loves us, who told us he would not leave us orphaned, did not abandon our beloved firefighters. Do not be afraid.

8/31/23 – The evil, illiterate one, trump, wants to abolish the Department of Education. He and the plutocrats want us to be their slaves.

8/31/23 – The Supreme KKKourt is corrupt. We have the right to defy any judgments it makes that are not in keeping with our Constitution or our laws. They have forfeited their stature. They are nothing.

8/31/23 – We need to start prosecuting the plutocrats to the fullest extent of the law for anything and everything. They have been plotting against the American people, against the laws established by our Founding Fathers and defended by countless American patriots. The plutocrats are parasites and enemies of the state. We need to drive them into the dirt.

8/31/23 – All the perverted plutocrats care about is the endless quest for money and power. The rest of us care about the things that last in the infinite goodness of God. The plutocrats enter the history books in dishonor. Our heroes, men and women, enter them in the greatest of honor. Our heroes become a part of our national conscience and character, the stories we tell ourselves about who we really are as Americans. (Ukrainians, right now, in their suffering, are also defining their national character.) Are we a nation defined by greed and corruption? Or are we a nation defined by the people who pay the ultimate price and those who simply work tirelessly toward the romantic, irrational, divine ideal of love? Is it rational to walk up flights of steps knowing that it’s unlikely you will walk back down? No, and it’s also an expression of pure love. The hard hearts of the plutocrats don’t understand love. They are not really capable of it. They have only their minds, which speak only the language of transactions. We don’t think about them but in disdain. We think about the people who have sacrificed for us long after they are gone. At predetermined times, we honor them as a nation, but also at random, intimate moments, which we often don’t share, our minds drift to their legacy. We weep over the unmerited gifts they have left us and pray that their beautiful souls have peace. They are who we are as Americans.

8/31/23 – “Men (as a group and to a significant extent) are larger, faster, and stronger than women. This cannot be disputed, and it cannot be understood as some irrelevancy, because it comes with an obvious moral question that each man must answer for himself: Will he use his strength to dominate the weak, or to protect them?… The opposite of toxic masculinity is heroic masculinity…. [I can’t remember the number of times I have cried, more accurately, sobbed when I have thought about this.] Heroic masculinity is the understanding that someone has to climb the endless staircases in the towers. On 9/11, 343 New York City firefighters died at Ground Zero, and there wasn’t one of them who didn’t know, or at least suspect, that he was climbing to his death. They didn’t do it because of a union contract or an employee handbook. They climbed those towers because they knew that it must be written into the American record that heroes were there that day, and that the desperate people inside those buildings had never—not once—been abandoned.” To those who sacrificed their lives for us and their relatives, know that they live in our hearts, minds and souls. We love them with a genuine, grateful love that’s as eternal as their heroic souls.
In Praise of Heroic Masculinity

8/31/23 – This is beautiful: tradition, practical skills and learning. All kids, not just indigenous kids, boys and girls, should learn how to live off the land. It will help them feel more connected to nature, appreciate the food we eat and the water we drink, develop motor skills and learn practical skills.
An Alaska district aligns its school year with traditional subsistence harvests

8/31/23 – In this case, “the military and Alcoholics Anonymous, are much further toward the dark end than you’d like to believe,” the definition of a cult needs to be made more precise. Setting that flaw aside, the evil one’s followers, MAGA, have been conned, and the more money they give to him, the more conned they become. “As anyone who’s been taken in a game of three-card monte and then played again to win their money back will know, the hardest thing in the world to admit is that you’ve been conned…. ‘The way that cults die without a final, Jonestown-like conflagration is when they can’t recruit the next generation, and we are seeing this in the alt-right. We’re going to see young children of MAGA Republicans voting for the left.’… [T]he members of the cult itself will die out, and there will be no one, eventually, to replace them. In 2020, more than half of Americans over the age of 65 voted for Trump—it was, in fact, the only demographic group he won outright—while 62 percent of voters aged 18–29 went for Joe Biden.”

Outside of his natural death, for which we are praying, the way this cult will end is by the country ending it for MAGA, by putting his evilness behind bars for the rest of his life or by giving him the death penalty. The rest of the country is doing MAGA a public service by saving their money for their progeny who will abhor him. In fact, someone should figure out the average MAGA donation to his evilness and run a simple compound interest calculation. This is the actual amount of which they cheated their children.
The End Will Come for the Cult of MAGA

8/30/23 – To the plutocrats: we are not Russia or China, and we will destroy you. We will make sure your evil greed and treasonous actions cost you everything.

8/30/23 – Let’s look at David Frum’s argument, which we won’t be linking to because it’s idiotic. He wrote, “They might spare the country the ordeal of renominating an insurrectionist president.” So, the evil one, trump, is an insurrectionist. Then, the law applies to him. (It does not to his hand-wringing examples.) Unless one can produce a coherent argument that what we all saw with our own eyes, that spectators in real time observed as insurrection was not actually an insurrection but a…what’s the word, oh fantasy of some variety but not the insurrectionist kind, there is no argument against the use of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Frum and any other unprincipled persons can just shut the f—k up with their political calculations and their illogic. Apply the f—king law as it’s written in our Constitution.

8/30/23 – And what has Biden done to protect our democracy? Nothing. The dotard dawdled his way through the past three years on the most existential crisis in our modern history.

8/29/23 – Our military, our politicians, all naturalized citizens pledge allegiance to our Constitution. Native-born citizens are expected to pledge allegiance to our Constitution. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc. have their respective religious texts. The United States of America has our Constitution. It is our sacred document, and it is clear. The evil one, trump, is unqualified. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment must hold. If the Supreme KKKourt overrules any state, the state should defy their decision.

Also, a message to the fevered plutocrats plotting to destroy our democracy and to make us their slaves: we will have the rule of law, or we will burn the whole thing down to the ground.
Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision

“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” V
People Should not be Afraid of their Governments , Governments Should be Afraid of their People

8/28/23 – The GOP would rather cheat than update its policies to win the votes of voters.

8/28/23 – The retrograde party, aka the Republican Party, want you to be stuck in the past, with the industries that their wealthy donors benefit from, and don’t want you to be leaders in the industries of the future. The GOP, once the party of Lincoln, that spoke to the moral conscience of our nation, is now a retrograde party, pandering to racists and bigots to prop up the dying industries of their plutocrats. “‘It’s so frustrating to hear these people ‘poopoo’ solar and renewable energies, and I just don’t see the logic of it. Because it’s just one more feather in our hat to make America more viable for companies to come to, and for Americans to thrive,’ he said.”
Biden’s climate bill brings investments and jobs to many GOP strongholds

8/28/23 – The merchants of short-term profits and long-term poverty, aka the Republican Party, want you to consume your children’s future. “‘[Young Republicans] genuinely want to see some leadership from their party,’ Maibach said. ‘And if the leaders of their party or the people who are asking to become leaders are not taking this seriously … I think young voters are going to become less willing to show up and cast their vote for the Republican candidates and in districts where the margins are thin.’”
Climate change made it in the GOP debate. Some young Republicans say that’s a win

8/28/23 – Exactly! Hold your heads high, compatriots, Americans, and put your heads down and do the work. “Young, the King adviser and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said…his Christian faith tells him to not place limits on what is possible. ‘If there is a place where we can learn to live together as brothers and sisters, rather than perish together as fools, it’s the United States of America,’ he said.”
At March on Washington’s 60th anniversary, leaders seek energy of original movement for civil rights

8/27/23 – Rest and reflect on the many Americans who sacrificed greatly for everything we have, including our freedom and our progress. God bless them, and God bless us. Happy Sunday!

8/26/23 – May he rest in peace.
Martin Luther King | I Have A Dream Speech | August 28, 1963, Full Speech

8/26/23 – Many liberals routinely set themselves apart from the country, seemingly holding it in disdain while holding themselves in high regard. As a Christian, King knew he, like everybody else, was a sinner. King also understood what it means to be a citizen of our great country. Many conservatives want to whitewash our history, erasing elements that they find undermine their own narratives about who they are and who we are. King acknowledged our country’s shortcomings while asking us to grow deeper roots into our adopted land. Aside from the indigenous people, we were all born of foreign soil, but we were all transplanted by choice or by force into this majestic land with the highest of stated ideals. “He talked of the circumstances and sense of urgency but then moved into what he said was a ‘dream deeply rooted in the American dream.’” King’s I Have a Dream speech is thematically oriented around contrasts, which he infuses with Biblical tones. We are contrasts ourselves, good and evil, right and wrong, walking contradictions. Grow roots into our country, into the soil which holds the blood of sins and sacrifices past, and grow branches into our country’s and our world’s collective future, shaping our stated ideals from a dream into a reality.
MLK’s dream for America is one of the stars of the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington

8/26/23 – “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” Don’t think yourself to be a saint and your fellow countrymen to be sinners. We are all sinners. Every single one of us, whether we are on the right side or the wrong side of history. Remember it always. Walk humbly with the Lord. “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered – that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. ‘Woe unto the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.’ If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come but which having continued through His appointed time He now wills to remove and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do we hope – fervently do we pray – that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’

‘With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.’” May he rest in peace.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

8/26/23 – In secular terms, it’s called purpose. In Christian terms, President Abraham Lincoln and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were called by God, and they did what the Lord asked. Like Jesus’s Apostles, they gave their lives. Like the Apostle Peter, they finished the course. We cherish their words and their sacrifice. We also cherish the countless others whose names we do not recognize but who did the same. God knows them by name. He called them by name. When the Lord asks, answer the call and finish the course.

Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address in 1863. King gave his I Have a Dream speech in 1963, one hundred years apart. The speeches are quite different, and they are both rhetorical masterpieces. Where King, as man of God, speaks poetry as prose; Lincoln, a man of the people, speaks prose as poetry. The unifying elements are a call to respect the divine law and order: honor our freedom and our equality. Anyone who dares defy God will face his wrath if not in this life, in the next.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863”
The Gettysburg Address

8/25/23 – Christians: Don’t worry about phases, careers and such. (It’s very confusing.) Do as much good as you can. Goodness. Learn as much as you can. Truth. Glorify God. Beauty. The good, the true, and the beautiful. (It comes from Plato, but we made it our own.) They have to align to find genuine purpose.

8/25/23 – Is it possible that if they are asking these questions as older adults, they had never really answered them earlier. “Who am I? [Nothing to do with one does. If you ended up tying who you are to what you do, you will want to fix that as soon as possible.] What’s my purpose? [This can be a challenging process of discovery. It might change over one’s life.] What do I really want? [We should all ask this of ourselves regularly?] Do I matter? [Yes, always and everyone.]”

Completely agree. “Modern life is oriented around the meritocracy, which implies certain values—that life is best seen as a climb toward the top, that achievement is the essence of a good life, that successful people are to be admired more than less successful people. But this overreliance on our work identities is unhinging us.”

No, see video below that covers this point. “You should find a job that will pay the bills but won’t demand much of your time or passion. Abandon the ordeal of careerism and devote your energies to the daily pleasures of life.”

Exactly. “If you make only a half-assed commitment to your work, you’re settling for mediocrity in an endeavor that will necessarily absorb a large chunk of your life. And if you decide to prioritize pleasure, you’ll spend your days consuming random experiences that you’ll measure on shallow, aesthetic grounds—was today tasty or bland? You’ll accumulate a series of temporary experiences that don’t add up to anything substantial.”

Right. Atheism. “But how on earth did we end up with a society in which 65-year-olds have to take courses to figure out who they are, what they really want, and what they should do next? How did we wind up with a culture in which people’s veins pop out in their neck when they are forced to confront their inner lives?”

The same thing was said in Christian terms below. (It’s not an original concept. It’s been said countless times and places in the Christian context, just phrased differently.) “You have to give to receive. You have to lose yourself to find yourself. You have to surrender to something outside yourself to gain strength within yourself.”

8/25/23 –Adolescence is for sure a phase because your body is changing. However, why would adulthood have phases? This needs to be better explained. Adulthood is individually defined. One gets to flourish under one’s own terms. What defines a phase? Are phases defined by careers? Younger generations often don’t stay in the same career for decades. They might give it a good run, and then move on to something else. If phases are defined by careers, then what if a “phase” is, say, one decade long or so? A decade is not a short amount of time to focus, whether in one’s education or in the workforce, on one area. One can learn a lot over that period of time. Is that a career or a phase as defined in this article? Does one have to do the same thing for three decades for it to be a career or a phase? What if one stagnates and just does the same tasks for thirty years, is that a career, a phase or a job? In any case, that sounds rather boring. Does one need to be performing at increasingly higher levels for it to be a career? Does a phase mean a continuous stretch of working in the same profession, field, position, occupation, which are not necessarily interchangeable terms? What about going to school for a time and then returning to the workforce? Would the phase be broken? Would that be two phases? The definition of phase and its related duration is unclear. Simply: This concept of a phase, defined in this article, more or less as a multi-decade stretch of time working in the same profession is a very perplexing concept, but let’s set this aside.
The New Old Age

8/25/23 – America is back. We don’t know for how long, but we do know that nobody can take the mugshot away from us. It was as good or even better than we expected. God bless America.

8/25/23 – The thing to understand about the liberal, atheistic media is that they are a business, and it’s about making money. Like most atheists, they are about themselves. They don’t care about your mental health. In fact, the more addicted you are to the news, the more money they make. Stay informed, but don’t give it more time than it deserves.

8/24/23 – The long-awaited mugshot of the murderous mobster is finally here, and the evil one, trump, looks like the crazy person he is. He can try to spin this and fleece the MAGA cult, but it’s obvious he’s not happy. Are the American people happy? Justice is working, but the evil one should be disqualified from running, so obviously, the rule of law only applies to a certain degree. He needs to be disqualified, and he deserves the death penalty, or at least, life in prison. Then, justice will be served. We’re waiting for that day.

8/24/23 – “Here’s the question we all need to ask ourselves:… what do I love when I long for achievement?… What do I want when I want accomplishment? What am I looking for in this aspiration?” Recently, we discussed suffering in the context of Job’s life. (See below.) Here, we discuss success in the context of Augustine’s life. One can suffer not just from deprivation, pain, loss, or other negative experiences, but we can also suffer in the midst of our success. Are we going to blame God for this too? What aren’t we going to blame God for? A well-ordered, well-directed love provides protection from the brutal onslaught of the world and the whims of fortune and provides protection from our own egos. The one we’re made for is the one who made us, and it’s only by directing our ambition to glorifying and pleasing him that we can find rest. “Be our glory, let it be for your sake that we are loved.”
PS The audio isn’t the best.
Reforming our Ambition: James K.A Smith

8/24/23 – Labor, leisure, and love. Remember: God made us, and God loves us. We belong to him.

8/24/23 – Tim Keller recently passed away. May his faithful soul rest in peace. He was the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church and the Center for Faith and Work. What is workism, as termed by The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson? It’s the atheist’s calling. It’s centering one’s identity and purpose around work. What is faith and work? It’s the religious person’s calling. According to the Center for Faith and Work’s website, it “exists to explore and investigate the gospel’s unique power to renew hearts, communities, and the world, in and through our day-to-day work.” Martin Luther started this conversation about how laypeople can use their work to connect with God and each other. The monastic communities do this too, but obviously, they have an overt religious dimension and spend considerable time on their spiritual lives. How does a layperson do this? The difference is mostly in who you’re ultimately serving. By serving each other, we’re ultimately serving God. However, in the atheist’s calling, work is intended to serve oneself. After all, the present atheistic culture is about individualism, independence and achievement. In the religious calling, it’s about the beloved community and giving glory to God. This orientation outside of oneself helps give genuine purpose to the work. It is actually a big difference.
Faith & Work Integration | Q&A with Paul Sohn, New Director of the Center for Faith & Work

8/24/23 – Connection in all forms is very important. It’s not just one’s family, which, let’s face it, can sometimes (maybe almost all of the time) be quite annoying. It’s friendships, long and short. If a friendship doesn’t work out or fades with time, so what. At least, you tried, and at least you enjoyed it for a time. It’s having causal conversations with strangers, or even to just smile, wave or raise one’s hand in a gesture of peace with anyone you encounter is to recognize their humanity. If you need to practice casual conversation, start with Trader Joe’s. Seriously. They may be encouraged to chat with you, but it comes across as quite genuine. Let’s just assume it is. Then, to go to the next level, you initiate. Something that’s so great: give casual compliments to people you pass by. “Your outfit is beautiful.” “I really like that shade of lipstick.” You could be making that person’s day. It’s like giving a free gift. Especially if you’re of the same sex, it’s unlikely to come across as creepy, and for women, in particular, it’s a small but meaningful way to show solidarity. Relationships in faith communities are special though. At least in some churches, likely in other faith traditions also, we have activities that we do that go deep into who we are. It’s trust and love, and often times, it’s with strangers. It’s the most beautiful thing. This doesn’t really happen anywhere else.
Why a stranger’s hello can do more than just brighten your day

8/24/23 – For those who think atheists, nones, and whatever are in the majority, let’s break up the parties, and see what happens. The country needs a religious moderate party. If one thinks it’ll be in the minority, it’s not a threat to either of the existing parties, right?

8/23/23 – Climate change is real. Any religious, moderate candidate must take this position because it’s the reality. The person must also be hopeful. We need our politicians to make us feel stronger, not weaker, especially as we face down existential threats. The apocalypse is nigh, but we must always be a people of hope. This is not contradictory. They are coexisting truths.

8/23/23 – Like all political candidates, both Nikki Haley and Tim Scott have their flaws, but either would make a much better candidate than the evil one, trump, who should be disqualified. (The evil one is not just a terrible candidate, but he’s a clear and present danger to the republic.) Tim Scott is particularly appealing, but Haley, who was once Sikh, defends religious minorities, which is very important in every country, even ours where our religious liberties are constitutionally protected. Protecting freedom of religious expression for all people of faith is nonnegotiable.

Any religious, moderate candidate must be religious. Haley and Scott are religious people, which reflects most of this diverse country, full of immigrants not just white coastal elites, and the world. Note that candidates don’t have to be specifically Christian, just people of any faith or spiritual tradition that thinks of people as more than just matter. We have souls, and any other conception of a human being is a nonstarter. This is also nonnegotiable.

On this issue of a “colorblind society,” it all depends on the context and how this is understood. The legacy of slavery and past wrongs do need to be recognized and, importantly, righted, but do we really want to be a country where we think of each other based on the color of our skin? In many Asian countries, they are obsessed with skin color. It’s quite ridiculous. However, what does a colorblind society mean exactly?

Ideally, we end up in a place where people just don’t even think about race or skin color. (Dark skin is beautiful and more protective, by the way. Don’t change it.) In one of the episodes of Jewish History Lab (so good!), Dr. Abramson said that back in Moses’s time, who is said to have an Ethiopian wife, people just didn’t think about race that much. (On the other hand, gender was a much bigger deal.) Whether or not this is true about race in ancient times, we won’t know for sure, but the ideal is that race is simply a nonissue.

The ideal is that we focus on character. At present, America is still structurally racist to a certain degree, but it has gotten better, and it’s definitely not irredeemably racist. We have to honor all of the white people who have fought for freedom and equality of nonwhites, and we have to be a people of hope. We are Americans. It’s who we are.
Can South Carolina’s Haley and Scott woo the GOP’s white evangelical base away from Trump?

8/22/23 – The liberal elites are full of nepo babies, i.e. talentless hacks, such Catherine Rampell, the person who wants the Fed to keep raising rates. There are many others. This is the party that claims to be about diversity, equity and inclusion. They are complete hypocrites.

8/22/23 – The most common feeling in the country right now is being stuck in the middle of two extremes. This is undemocratic, and we need to fix it.

8/22/23 – Democratic religious moderates are tarnishing themselves by continuing this involuntary marriage due to a lack of party and candidate choice. We don’t agree with the evolved ones on foundations concepts, such as what a human being is. Therefore, we will inevitably disagree with them on many other issues as well. Pretending these profound differences don’t exist is unhelpful. More generally, the evolved ones are an embarrassment to the country and the world. They are like 10% of the world’s population (correcting for countries that don’t allow religious expression), and they alienate almost everybody else. They come across as unhinged and extreme because they are. Why should we associate ourselves with this? We shouldn’t. It’s embarrassing, and it doesn’t reflect our values and beliefs.

8/22/23 – Atheists, the soulless ones, who are really smart and cool, aka the evolved ones (including some nones) are on the same intellectual level as MAGA. They’re both anti-intellectual and detached from reality. MAGA belong to the cult of the evil one, trump. The evolved ones belong to the cult of scientism. Wherever the evolved ones and MAGA are is where we shouldn’t be as a country or as voters. Since, at present, this means both parties, it means both parties. They have both destroyed our country, just in different ways. Simply put: dumb + crazy = dangerous. See the evil one, trump. See MAGA. See the evolved ones.

8/22/23 – If religious moderates got our own party, it’s likely to be the biggest and the most normal. Policies would be somewhere in the middle, and the country would be spared all the unnecessary drama of the extreme right and left. We could have reasonable and well-reasoned debates about questions that concern the intersection of morality and policy, meaning all of our laws and policies.

The entire country is exhausted not just by the evil one, trump, but also by these wacky, incessant narcissists. The what has God done for me lately, church without the religion, I’m so rational, smart and cool crowd, and the God is a white nationalist, church is an arm of the government, and I’m a proud degenerate crowd. Hopefully, they would both finally just shut the f—k up.

8/22/23 – Being a boring “normie” is glorious. Please God, bless us some more to be exceptionally boring. We go to our jobs, which we do as well as we can; we go to our religious activities, which we do as well as we can; we help each other as much as and as well as we can, and the rest of the time, we engage in fun, wholesome activities. It’s simple living. It’s the best.

8/22/23 – If you’re wondering if the loony left has completely lost it, yes, you’re not imagining it; they have. It’s just the latest in all sorts of fun political developments. Insanity is definitely not confined to the right.

8/22/23 – There are no bounds for the atheists’, nones’, etc. narcissism, but just know that it’s guaranteed whatever deep insights or questions they have about religion or spirituality, it has been covered in the texts generated in the past, oh at least 6,000 years. They aren’t special or smart compared to the people who’ve come before them. In fact, those people were way smarter than they are. These people are a sad excuse for intellectuals. After these people read their works and actually understand at least some of the key points, they can get back to us.

8/22/23 – According to an article in the Atlantic, which has some of the best and some of the worst writers, love is magic caused by hormones. That’s the title. We didn’t get beyond the title since well…why? Let’s find some similar titles: love is sex; love is the body; love is the brain and the body; love is the brain and the body, and a magical mix of hormones. Maybe we should measure it? Should we plot it? Should we put love in a decanter? Science.

8/22/23 – Around 2010 at the latest, many economists and others were forecasting the demise of the dollar. Unsurprisingly, they were wrong. “Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela — have expressed interest in joining BRICS.” They should not be allowed to join BRICS. This is a good idea, “[he]e’s urged African leaders to join a fledgling pan-African payments system that uses local currencies in a push to encourage more trade.” What they should not do is a currency union.

Obviously, the management of the US dollar is customized to the US economy, but it is stable and trusted. If there is an inadequate supply of US dollars in these countries, one option would be to create a sort of contracts form of bartering using blockchain or even a simple app. Instead of just exchanging one good for another, the contract could be customized to have elements of this exchange (and a financial component, perhaps as a hedge,) which allows for a time dimension. In other words, the contract would act as a sort of store of value. The key would be to keep it simple enough for people to understand, but complex enough to offer some value-added to run-of-the-mill bartering.
Emerging economies are pushing to end the dollar’s dominance. But what’s the alternative?

8/21/23 – The world needs to switch to less water intensive grains.
Global food security is at a crossroads as rice shortages and surging prices hit the most vulnerable

8/21/23 – Religious moderates need their own party. The chasm between us and the atheists, nones and whatever is just growing wider and wider. It’s not bridgeable. We also really don’t want to be stuck with these odd people anymore. They make no sense. It’s just not tenable.

8/21/23 – People on the right already think the left is loony. If they say, people need more church without the religion, they’re just confirming the right’s conclusion that the left is crazy.

8/21/23 – People want to take personal credit for their achievements, in this achievement-based, atheistic society, and blame God for their suffering. That’s conveniently flattering and protective of the ego, isn’t it? God created the universe and everything in it. Does he owe you something? Who are you? Suffering is a part of life. Are you blaming God for giving you life? Is God supposed to save you and everybody else from themselves and each other every time they experience suffering? Why even bother to give us free will then?

What is obvious is that people want and need reconciliation with God. They just can’t get there or figure out how to get there for a variety of reasons. It’s easy to blame others, the broader society, politics, religious institutions themselves, etc. What is actually preventing this reconciliation is the person themselves? If one wants to grow spiritually, they have to be extremely honest with themselves on the deepest of levels, or it’s unlikely to happen. Interventions such as with the Apostle Paul, for whom God had a special mission, are few and far between. Stop asking questions of God, as Job did, and start asking questions of yourself.

8/21/23 – A chaplain who’s an atheist, OK. No offense to this person, who seems kind and, frankly, still traumatized by the Holocaust, but this is an oxymoron. To help others with their spiritual life, one does have to have a healthy spiritual life of one’s own. Therapy is not spirituality, and this confusion is indicative of the spiritual decay within our society. This is therapy. “Most of the community members who I work with and serve are ex-evangelical and ex-Mormon who have somehow been really hurt by traditional religion. And to offer a safe space where that’s not going to happen again feels important to me.”

Keep that thought in mind as you consider the following. However, all that said, she describes common lines of questioning and conclusions. “I asked my dad once about God and he said, ‘If there’s a God, he hates us.’ And by ‘us’ he meant the Jewish people. My dad’s historical understanding of Jews is that every generation there’s an attempt at total eradication.” This is covered in the Book of Job, which is a masterpiece of psychology and spirituality. It answers key theological questions, including this one.

There are three main responses in terms of faith to suffering: strengthening the faith, weakening the faith, no response. Weakening is nothing new. Being angry with God is nothing new. The thing with God is that, ultimately, you either reconcile yourself to him or you don’t. In the end, no one can really help you with that process. Like most other things, you have to do the work. Read the book, and ask yourself: what did you learn? What are you actually seeking in a having a relationship with God? Is it transactional, or something beyond that? What are your expectations, and why do you have them of God?

There is nothing in atheism that encourages this moral behavior. That’s a fallacy, which people need to stop promoting. In fact, as climate changes worsens, and people get more desperate, the survival instinct will kick in and fewer people will take care of each other. “But I think that the absence of God can be really beautiful. It means it’s our responsibility to take care of each other on this earth. And everything courageous and beautiful that we do is on us.”

This is a biased conclusion. Many people would argue that the afterlife keeps people on their better behavior. What many people hate about Christianity is the notion of an afterlife, specifically hell, mainly because they don’t want any restrictions or to feel guilt about their behavior in this life. This is a very common complaint. “It’s really easy to say to someone, ‘It’s great that you’re suffering in this life because you’ll get your just rewards in the next life.’”

This was self-flattering. It’s a “humblebrag,” another oxymoron. “I’m results oriented, Rachel. I’m data-driven in my religion. I want us to be solving these problems on this planet.” She exists in her mind. The spiritual life doesn’t exist in the mind alone.

Now, we see the hallmarks of atheism: “I want to marvel at the fact that lions exist and despair at the fact that they’re dying from being overheated because we’ve ruined this planet and not leave myself the option to put a silver lining on it. [Spiritually, this translates to hopelessness. Are Christians who believe in hope and using it to motivate action or simply to stay sane putting a silver lining on our own exploitation of the planet? What does marveling at this fact and despair mean exactly? Does it mean acceptance of this avoidable tragic reality as it is? A central tenet of Christianity is to be a people of hope. This doesn’t mean we’re naïve or that we’re putting a silver lining on anything. If we don’t have hope, we have no reason to even wake up in the morning.] I’m not saying that religious people have only cheap grace. [Cheap grace, it says so much. Hope is not cheap grace. The Jewish people aren’t a people of persecution. They are a people of hope. It’s one of the greatest gifts they gave the world. It has sustained countless other people in their own trials and tribulations.]

I want to just confront the realities of the suffering. And I don’t think enough people take that position. And I was raised to take that position. I don’t think everybody should. So, I feel like this is a muscle that I have and I don’t know why, but I think it’s a gift that I have to offer, my atheism. [Without being a therapist, that “muscle” is learned values and behavior from her father. She adopted his pessimism and internalized his own anger at God. How does she confront the realities of suffering? Where is that guidance in this piece? It’s not there. Simply stating the suffering or the data, as she bragged, is not confronting the realities of it. See, this is one of the main confusion of atheists. They confuse awareness of a problem as taking action to solve the problem. What is going to motivate people to take action, viewing the problem as hopeless or maintaining hope even while acknowledging the tremendous challenges in front of them?]” Let’s thank her for helping strengthen our own faith and not wanting to ever become an atheist.
Why this chaplain sees her atheism as a gift

8/21/23 – When is the United States going to dump Saudi Arabia? It is morally abhorrent.

8/21/23 – To the naysayers, we don’t care what you think. One way or another, Ukraine, all of it, including Crimea, will be free. Slava Ukraini!

8/21/23 – We the people make this country, not any one man or woman, not any party, not the media or the press, not any institution, not any corporation, not any industry, not any one entity of any kind, but we the people. Nobody should forget that. The country, the government and the culture, all of it belongs to us – all of our people, not just coastal elites or the rich and powerful. It’s ours, and it will reflect the majority, even if we have to burn every entity in this country to the ground to eliminate or to remake them.

8/21/23 – A piece of advice: if you’re proposing anything to a Christian audience, which is never any newspaper’s target audience, know our tenets and ask yourself: is this actually new or better than the framework we already have? It is quite unlikely to be. We’ve had 2,000 years to sort out these questions and develop a comprehensive moral framework. The atheist moral framework doesn’t even exist. It simply appropriated evolutionary theory, which has no moral component.

The work truly practicing Christians do can be quite exhausting. It’s often a lot of giving and not a lot of getting in a tangible sense, and it can lead to burnout. A nurtured spiritual life is what offsets this natural fatigue, which is often accompanied by a decrease in compassion. It’s a regular recalibration of the soul to reorient to love, our love for God and for each other, and away from the world and the work itself, which is inherently taxing. The proposal below, although definitely better than nothing or the prevailing culture, is a mutual exchange, and it’s not holistic.

8/21/23 – A certain newspaper has a well-meaning article about encouraging interdependence instead of independence in children. At least it recognizes that the atheistic culture (not referred to as such in the article), which has been the prevailing one for the past approximately half century, is based on individualism, independence and achievement. Perhaps these aren’t the best values for individuals or for a society as a whole after all. All atheism has given people is a false sense of identity and of accomplishment. If people adopt atheism, they think they will be considered smart and cool.

The “interdependence” the article argues for is less comprehensive than what Christian communities have been encouraging and practicing, with more or less success (recently less thanks to the atheists and to the failures of the church itself), for two thousand years, but sure, let’s pretend what’s extremely old is new again. Wasn’t there somebody else who did something similar recently? Ah yes, this guy, the huckster, “For a moment at least, Ramaswamy had pulled the elemental trick of both a politician and a huckster: making a banal idea seem forgotten, and new.” (See link below.)

Is “e pluribus unum” banal? Is what Christians call “beloved community,” a more expansive and holistic concept than “interdependence,” banal? No, actually, they’re not. They are short phrases, aphorisms, simple truths that remind us of their respective usually hard-to-practice and deeper concepts or ideals.

The reason many correctly practicing Christians have little or nothing to learn from atheists is that they pushed western civilization into the moral and metaphysical dark ages or perhaps even the abyss, one into which we didn’t enter. Why would we adopt “interdependence,” which, by the way, works contrary to evolutionary theory, when we have “beloved community”? Why would we avoid morality and the wholeness of a person to fixate on an intellectual and presumably logical argument?

Let’s check the assumptions of this presumably logical argument. What are they? Ask yourself, as one example, why should someone who does not suffer from a disability help someone who does? More generally, why should someone who is “superior,” as evolutionary theory would define, smarter, stronger, more beautiful, richer, more talented, help someone who is dumber, weaker, uglier, poorer, and less talented? What could the “superior person” possibly get out of this exchange, this “interdependence”?

An unstated assumption is that “interdependence” as described in the article is between relative equals. The church believes that the more marginalized and vulnerable the people, the more we need to help. In other words, the less help we get in return, the more we’ll get out of building those relationships and the work we do. We give freely of our time, talent and treasure because it’s morally correct. We do it because we’re doing what Jesus did, reversing the power structure, not because we get anything tangible out of it. We get a lot of intangible, irrational love though, love from our God, and love from each other, which is more valuable than anything else. The interdependence framework has no room for love because it exists only in the mind and tenuously at best.

8/21/23 – We have an originalist Supreme Court, don’t we? We are either a nation under the rule of law, or we’re not. Apply the law without fear or favor. “Section 3 is ‘self-executing.’… one who fails to satisfy the Constitution’s qualifications does not have a constitutional ‘right’ or ‘entitlement’ to serve in a public office…. The bottom line is that [the evil one,] Donald Trump both ‘engaged in’ ‘insurrection or rebellion’ and gave ‘aid or comfort’ to others engaging in such conduct, within the original meaning of those terms as employed in Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. If the public record is accurate, the case is not even close. He is no longer eligible to the office of Presidency, or any other state or federal office covered by the Constitution.” Many people described it as an insurrection in real time. It was obvious. “The only intellectually honest way to disagree is not to deny that the event is what the Constitution refers to as ‘insurrection’ or ‘rebellion,’ but to deny that the insurrection or rebellion matters.” It matters more than almost anything else, except betraying us to our enemies, which he might have also done. The evil one deserves the death penalty.
The Constitution Prohibits Trump From Ever Being President Again

8/20/23 – Our bodies are sacred. Our minds are sacred. Our souls are sacred. We are all sacred beings loved by God. We are not slaves. We are made free. Rest is resistance.

8/20/23 – The church isn’t a social club. It’s a beloved community. “Arquero says bearing each other’s burdens in this way — caring for neighbors — is the work of the church. ‘That is what we are called for to. That we care for people. In fact the mission of our church is we love God and we love people.’”
A Filipino congregation took in its own members after their Lahaina homes burned

8/19/23 – MAGA are an abomination to mankind. The evolved ones are also an abomination to mankind. We are stuck in the middle with them.

8/19/23 – Remember for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It applies to societies also, not just to physics. If you’re wondering why the far-right is getting more extreme, it’s because the far-left is getting more extreme.

8/19/23 – All public schools should have spaces where employees and students of any and all faith traditions can pray. Many Muslim students also pray during the school day. Schools should be places where the whole person is honored and nurtured. Intellectual development is only one part of a person’s development.

8/19/23 – There is a misconception that all Gen Z or Gen Alpha are not religious. This is untrue. The loony liberals, the liberal elites and the media haven’t indoctrinated all of them with their atheism. They need to work harder to spread their scientism and ruin more people’s spiritual lives. “While the Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits school-sponsored prayer in public schools, the court also has made clear that individual students have a right to pray in public settings. And, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of teens ages 13 to 17, a sizable share of students in public school are availing themselves of this right. About a quarter of teens who identify with a religion and attend public school (26%) say they regularly pray before eating lunch at school…. Prayer in a school setting doesn’t just take place before lunch and, in fact, teens in public school are more likely to see students praying before sporting events (39%) than before lunch, according to the survey.”
About a quarter of religiously affiliated teens in U.S. public schools say they pray before lunch

8/18/23 – The idea that the rest of us are all going to “evolve” into the superior white atheists’ ultra-liberal positions, which is a form of white supremacy, is pure fiction. They are in the minority. They just don’t realize it because we are not provided with adequate choices. The Hispanic vote is decreasing, and even *liberal, white women* are complaining, at least privately. If Democrats lose the black vote, it’s over. If the loony left keeps this up, Democrats will alienate key constituents within its coalition, and it will lose them, possibly for generations. It’s a foolish strategy, and it’s morally wrong. This is a democracy. The politics and the culture should both reflect the majority. That’s clearly not what we have now. Neither reflect the majority.

8/18/23 – The Washington Post and The New York Times are local newspapers. Their reporting is totally disconnected from and does not reflect the majority of Americans, and much of their readership is like them, soulless evolved brains. We need national newspapers that can actually cover this complex, diverse country fairly and dispassionately.

8/18/23 – One of the super big, genius brains commented, “A deficient article that doesn’t mention the misbehavior of Catholic priests that shocks the conscience, and the subsequent coverups by the chrurch [sic].” What about the priests! What does that have to do with these parents?

8/18/23 – This article was published in The Washington Post as an opinion piece because their liberal atheist reporters, many of whom have no journalistic integrity and who do not represent even the country leave alone the world, would never publish something like this as news: a heterosexual couple is not allowed to foster children because of their entirely “normie” religious beliefs, you know the ones that at least 90% of the world views as totally normal. They will however run pieces as news that promote highly controversial practices that at least 90% of the world views as abnormal. The loony left has lost it, and this situation tells you everything you really need to know about how f—ked up the media is. Reverse discrimination is not always true (we don’t need people crying wolf), but it’s also not always untrue. Kudos to them for suing! They will win. It’s blatant discrimination.
A new puritanism is turning Catholics into Salem’s witches

8/18/23 – Both conservative and liberal elites want different constitutional amendments, obviously, ones that favor them. What the American people actually need, which European countries have, is more choice (parties and candidates) and ranked choice voting. It’s a much simpler and more direct fix for many of our political problems.

8/18/23 – The political polarization belies the reality, which is that the vast majority of voters are somewhere in the middle. The two-party system obfuscates it. The phenomenon of MAGA notwithstanding, these are fragile coalitions. Most people are voting either against something or because they have no better alternative. Both parties have exploited this lack of choice. The liberals have exploited it for cultural imperialism. The conservatives have exploited for political power.

8/18/23 – If the Democratic Party loses the black vote, many of whom are rather culturally conservative, it’s toast. It’s already lost many Hispanics because it’s gone off the cultural deep end. Voters, right or left, should never be taken for granted.

8/18/23 – It might be tempting to discount Ramaswamy as a huckster, but aren’t all politicians hucksters? None of them tell the truth all the time. All of us have lied at some point in our lives, if only about minor matters or white lies. Thus, lying is something to which everybody can relate. The seriousness and the frequency are what matter, but this is not a black and white area. It’s a gray area, and this is what regular liars abuse.

He’s also doing what any good politician intuitively knows how to do: validate voters’ feelings. In other words, make them feel good. However, ethical politicians do this in a way that doesn’t do damage, such as promote hate or conspiracy theories.

His political positions are infantile. He has no understanding of politics, and it shows. However, the Republican electorate has shown us that it doesn’t care about that. On the cultural issues, many of his positions, such as God is real, are taking on the extremes of liberalism. “Faith, patriotism, and family have disappeared as pillars, he said on the stump, replaced by ‘depression, anxiety, fentanyl, suicide.’” This is true. Whereas the politics is conservative minority rule. The cultural is liberal minority rule. The liberals own this decay, and on this point, the liberal extremes are the problem, not the pushback against it.
In Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republicans Have Something New

8/17/23 – Religious savages are being punished by the evolved ones who dominate the media and who can’t be bothered to give any thought to weighty questions because they’re too busy preening in front of their cellphones. Idol worship. Cultural hegemony.

8/17/23 – Among religious people in the US, black people have some of the strongest relationships with God. “For African Americans, the Bible’s Exodus narrative is a cultural touchstone. Since before the Civil War, the story of the Israelites’ [Hebrews’] slavery and deliverance has spurred comparisons to black people’s experiences in the United States. Scripture’s importance to the black population in the U.S. is reflected in Pew Research Center survey data showing that black people are more likely than most other Americans to read scripture regularly and to view it as the word of God.” They’re just not evolved enough to figure out it’s all lies, fairytales and such. Maybe the evolved white atheists, with their superior brains, can educate them? White supremacy can take many forms, and it’s not just on the right. The evolved ones must be sure to destroy their spiritual lives, as they have much of the rest of the country’s.
Blacks more likely than others in U.S. to read the Bible regularly, see it as God’s word

8/17/23 – Many loony liberals say the same thing. Who needs enemies when you have them? “Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong called the United States a ‘declining’ power and said if the council dealt with any country’s human rights, the U.S. should be the first ‘as it is the anti-people empire of evils, totally depraved due to all sorts of social evils.’” The perspective of the godless is that there is no God, so there is no God to love them and no God to love. Why would they love country or anything else larger than themselves? It’s all about them and their evolved brains.
UN: North Korea is increasing repression as people are reportedly starving in parts of the country

8/16/23 – Hey liberal media, MAGA, and loony liberals, the s—t has been real. We need to focus on solving our problems, not creating unnecessary ones. If you’re bored, you’re sleep-walking. Roll up your sleeves and do the work!

8/16/23 – This might not be of much interest to the godless atheists and therefore to the liberal media, but it’s of great interest to us, religious savages. Restorative justice holds a lot of promise. It comes out of indigenous practices and is also an application of the Judeo-Christian value of forgiveness. For almost everyone, forgiveness is one of the hardest virtues to practice. Instead of relying strictly on the criminal justice system, restorative justice can be used instead of it, in cases where the crime was an accident or relatively minor, or in addition to it, where the crime was intentional and more serious. The statistics show that it can greatly reduce recidivism, and it also helps promote compassion, which promotes more compassion, in other words, a virtuous cycle.  

Jewish people and black people have historically been some of the most wronged people in history, and they have also been some of the most forgiving people in history. This is not a weakness. It is a testament to their strength. The Jewish people and black people have both experienced bondage, persecution and liberation on a massive scale, such as the Holocaust and chattel slavery, respectively. Liberation from these wrongs is more than just physical. It is also a psychological and spiritual process. In general, restorative justice has the potential to make our criminal justice system less punitive and more healing, both for the perpetrator and the victim of these crimes, no matter how heinous they are.

8/16/23 – The media is our frontline to protect our democracy, but it’s done terrible damage to our culture. The work they do on the former is being defeated by the damage they do on the latter. When you send the message that anything is permissible, the message received is anything is permissible. Their job is to protect our democracy, not to engage in cultural hegemony or imperialism and to manipulate people into their mindset. The liberal media needs to fix the mess that it created.

8/15/23 – Professions that involve serving people are bleeding staff because serving people has become highly unpleasant. The problem is atheism. We gave up something important and got this s—t culture in return.

8/15/23 – “By the nineteen-sixties, Rothbard had fallen out with William F. Buckley, Jr.,’s National Review, for its support for the Cold War buildup, and for its frivolous inclination to abandon the real ideological fight against the state in an effort to preserve, as Rothbard put it, ‘tradition, order, Christianity and good manners.’” And the abolitionist John Brown was a devout Christian. His faith motivated his zeal to end slavery, a cause for which he sacrificed his own life. “This approach can sometimes come off as a land grab; my eyebrows went up when they claimed the abolitionist John Brown as a libertarian hero.” Right.
The Long Afterlife of Libertarianism
John Brown (abolitionist)

8/15/23 – Clearly, our society is falling apart. Not only have children lost it, but so have the adults. However, most people, children and adults, can’t see it. This is a big part of the problem. If you don’t even recognize you have a problem, you can’t actually fix it. Why can’t they see it? Because they’re following the prevailing culture’s values and norms, and based on it, they’re not doing anything wrong. So, of course, they don’t see it.

Also, MAGA are convinced that their problems will disappear or be greatly reduced if the evil one, trump, is reelected, and if they own the loony libs. The loony libs are convinced that their problems will disappear or be greatly reduced if they defeat the evil one, trump, and own MAGA. From their perspectives, the problem and therefore the solution hinge on power and politics.

Many thoughtful, smart people have offered several theories about why our society is falling apart and recommendations on how to fix it. David Brooks proposes in this piece that it’s a lack of moral formation. Derek Thompson has proposed that is workism, making work the center of one’s identity and life. Among some of the other reasonable theories, some people have proposed that it’s due to political polarization or the weakening of communities.

All of this is true, but the source of the problem is broader and more foundational than this. We have to start with what a human being is. We don’t even agree on this most fundamental of concepts, so really, there is nowhere to go from this lack of consensus but to misery. Also, on the pretense of being a secular culture, we’ve actually become an atheistic culture based on might makes right.

Atheism says there is no god. The universe just started. Evolution determines the formation of life. When you, as an intelligent animal, die, meaning when your body and brain die, that’s the end. What is the inevitable result of a shallow, simplistic conception of a human being and of the world such as the atheistic one? Exactly what you’re looking at.

David Brooks said that “Statecraft is soulcraft. The laws we pass shape the kinds of people we become.” The causality is reversed. Soulcraft is statecraft. The laws we have now are based on Judeo-Christian values. Also, from the atheists’ perspective, human beings don’t have a soul. Therefore, statecraft would follow the laws of evolution, survival of the fittest. Might makes right. There is no moral code. How could there be one based on this theory? The culture, however, has developed based on this theory. No soulcraft is cultural immorality and decay.

Brooks writes, “For decades, researchers have asked incoming college students about their goals in life. In 1967, about 85 percent said they were strongly motivated to develop ‘a meaningful philosophy of life’; by 2000, only 42 percent said that. Being financially well off became the leading life goal; by 2015, 82 percent of students said wealth was their aim.” Is anybody surprised by this? “A meaningful philosophy of life,” what good could that possibly do for anyone when we have no soul? Everybody is avoiding the elephant in the room: the atheism problem.
How America Got Mean

8/15/23 – We have three main existential problems right now: the threat to our democracy (the most immediate), climate change (the most far-reaching), and the disintegration of our society (the most poorly understood).

8/15/23 – Let’s take a journey. Let’s start in our present space. We can look at our own bodies and at the space around us, smell the air, feel what we’re sitting or standing on, hear the noises around us, taste some water or food. We can engage all our senses and know to some degree but not entirely what we’re experiencing.

Now, let’s pull out a little. We can ask ourselves questions about our feelings and thoughts. How do I feel about these sensory experiences? What do I think about their relative importance? Do I prefer one experience over another? We still know, but the knowing becomes more abstracted, more fluid. Perhaps you preferred one thing now, but will prefer something else later. This means that time has a role. Are your emotions, thoughts and states conditional on time or circumstance?

Let’s keep pulling out. What do we know about current domestic affairs? More. What do we know about current international affairs? What do we know about world history? More. What do we know about all human knowledge? What do we know about our solar system? What about our galaxy? More, and more and more. What do we know about our universe?

Imagine yourself sitting there one little speck of knowledge that even when you’re experiencing the most immediate, the most concrete of your experiences, you still know it only to a certain degree, and as you pull out, you remain more or less that little speck, and the unknown keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. What you know is the numerator, and what you don’t know is the denominator. As you keep pulling out, the unknown keeps getting bigger and bigger until the fraction goes to zero. Now, imagine that there is a God, and he knows everything. This fraction is one.

You are at zero, and God is at one. No matter how much knowledge you gain, relative to God, you’ll still be at zero, and he’ll still be at one. This can be distressing, or it can be liberating. Someone once said to me, “I don’t trust God.” In this case, it will likely be distressing. But imagine if you did trust God. Imagine if you trusted him so much that you fully surrendered to him. What do you really need to know now: the unknown or God who knows all? One of the reasons people yearn to know God is because if they know him, they know everything they really need to know. Is God unknowable? Who is God? In the Abrahamic context, God’s answer is: I am.

8/15/23 – Scientific experiments need to be made much more ethical. The natural world, including the incredible animals we share our beautiful planet with, also belongs to God.

8/15/23 – “We [all human beings] have been created to know the unknowable.” Lovely phrasing of a universal truth. “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You,” as Augustine said. (Augustine was African, not European, by the way. If you’re going to claim to be a Christian, learn the faith and the history.) The need and desire for reconciliation with the divine will continue to exist, whether a person recognizes it or not. Rainn Wilson had been raised in the Baháʼí faith, so even though he fell away from his religion, as so many of us do, he was able to more easily recover it. In fact, this process of loss and recovery can actually help people have a stronger connection to God. (Also, see the Hebrews to Israelites story of loss and recovery below.) To all the atheist parents and nonobservant religious parents, not only have you set your children up to be weaker and less resilient, you’ve also set up them to have no spiritual recovery process. They will have to start from the very beginning, to construct their belief in God from scratch. God works in mysterious ways, but, in general, this is likely to be a harder process.
Why ‘the guy’ from ‘The Office’ wants a spiritual revolution

8/15/23 – A question for the liberal atheists: Unless they’re lying to themselves, which is entirely possible (although being great thinkers, they don’t think of themselves as sinners because they don’t think of sin and, of course, they’re very good people, perhaps even perfect), evolution and natural selection has no moral component. It is simply survival of the fittest. If the only thing that matters about a species or any individual within a species is their relative intelligence, then what should we do with people who have intellectual or other mental disabilities? If you reduce someone to the brain: rational, intelligent, logical, etc., what should happen to the people who aren’t at a high level on these measures? Let’s add the body. If they have physical disabilities, what should we do? (They have no souls, right? So, that’s all to consider.) Should we treat them like the Nazis did? Should we treat them as some “scientists” at the Smithsonian treated blacks and indigenous people? Should we assist them in suicide, my body, my choice? (See David Brooks’s article below.) Should we let them change their brains, allowing them to experiment on themselves, like we experiment with guinea pigs? Science. Progress. Right? Just curious.

8/14/23 – When it comes to bodily autonomy, what’s the difference between the liberal atheists and the libertarians? Is there one? Note that many libertarians are also godless.

8/14/23 – Let’s all remember that not that long ago, the Democratic Party was the racist party, and the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln, the party that freed the slaves. Do people actually think that these racists might not change parties again. (If you do, you’re a special brand of naïve.) It is true that some people who claimed to be Christians incorrectly used the Bible to justify slavery. Any written or oral message, such as our own Constitution, can be incorrectly used to justify anything. That’s the nature of communication of any kind. We have a justice system to help manage this inherent problem. Do you know which part of the Bible they often used? The Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, the same Bible that contains Exodus, the greatest story of liberation from slavery ever told. It gave comfort and courage to black slaves for generations in their own story to freedom. Remember in the painting below: the Semites and the Nubians toil together in bondage. In a sense, the Hebrews helped liberate their counterpart, another group of people who had been stripped of their identity, to be free at last and recover their God-given human dignity.

Christianity is distinguished from Judaism by the New Testament, and Jesus went out of his way to break down barriers: from the Samaritan woman at the well, to the Good Samaritan, to the Romans, such as the Centurion, etc. His ministry is characterized by a reversal of the power structure, see the Sermon on the Mount and his own crucifixion and resurrection. So, tell us, what are the implications of more godless white racists becoming Democrats given the complete lack of a moral code, not just potential ambiguities within the text to be exploited for evil ends, but completely nonexistent text in the theory of evolution? Where there is an absence of communication, there is no potential for misuse, right? Is that right? You don’t need to imagine actually: you can just look at communists and fascists. Where is the corrective mechanism coming from, for example, regarding the Uighurs in China? It’s coming from the Abrahamic religions, both Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions, outside of China because in China, might makes right.

8/14/23 – Speaking of slavery, Exodus is one of the greatest stories in the Bible, and it obviously has a special meaning for the Jewish people. It is the foundation for their identity. You can see this as Dr. Henry Abramson describes watching the movie, The Ten Commandments, as a young immigrant in Ontario, Canada and experiencing it as only Jewish people can. As an immigrant, a foreigner in a foreign land, this must have been particularly poignant. Jewish identity has a specific beginning, and they find it after the Egyptians had tried to erase their humanity. In the painting, he explains that the Hebrews are depicted as Semites working alongside the Nubians, without specifically being identified as Hebrews. He draws the analogy to black slaves in the US whose unique African identities were erased by their white enslavers. Don’t take your identity for granted. It’s an important part of who you are. Figure out who you are. And remember: you are nobody’s slave. God made you free.

There is a special treat at the end, a providential resemblance. Wow! Tell us, which endures: worldly power or otherworldly power? Enjoy this great episode!
5 Exodus in Historical Perspective (Jewish History Lab)

8/14/23 – Nobody will make us into slaves, not the liberals, not the conservatives, not the loony left or the MAGA right, not the Democrats or the Republicans, not any of our friends or our enemies in the world, not any corporation. Nobody. God made us free, and we belong to him.

8/13/23 – God loves us all.

8/13/23 – Many people describe Jesus as pacifist. Some might describe him as somewhat introverted, especially compared with the Apostle Paul or some of Jesus’s disciples. Even more than his observant Jewish disciples, Jesus routinely withdraws, leaving his disciples and others, into silence and solitude for prayer.

The liberal elites, media and atheists have forced their idea of a human being upon the rest of us whether or not we realize it. We are walking brains held in bodies that can be modified as we wish. We are a product of cells, simple matter, so we can be engineered in any which way we want. From their perspective, we could modify our bodies to extend the shelf-life of the brain or its productivity. We could modify our brains and bodies such that the brain and the body don’t need a good night’s rest, usually quantified as 8 hours. This would be progress, scientific achievement, evolution. (Note:  If you go without sleep for a long enough period of time, you can literally die. Do not attempt this.)

It used to be the case that much of the country would honor the Sabbath. This observance holds for all three Abrahamic religions, but the day varies. On at least one day, we would rest and reconnect with our spiritual lives. The liberals have destroyed this day for the rest of us, who are the majority in the world. On this day, our minds are now an endless checklist. Our bodies are just a vessel for pleasure. It’s not a day dedicated to our spiritual lives. From their perspective, we don’t have souls, so what possible value could this have. It’s a day to complete unfinished tasks and entertain ourselves with some soma, whatever form that might take for us.

However, we do have souls, and we need time to focus on them. Take time out of your day, like Jesus did, for silence, solitude and prayer. Respect the integrity of your person and nurture your whole being, body, mind and soul. The checklist, the vapid entertainment, it can all wait until tomorrow.  

8/12/23 – If they can’t even hang onto Democrats, leave alone attracting Republicans, they’re failing at their jobs. After more news organizations fail, maybe we can finally get ones that reflect the composition of the country and the world in every respect instead of what we have now. These organizations are dominated by liberal elites who are ambivalent if not antagonistic towards religion. It’s cultural imperialism.

8/12/23 – Does The New York Times still exist?

8/12/23 – The Washington Post’s idea of covering Christianity is to mock it.

8/12/23 – Some Christians dislike or even hate Muslims, yet Islam has nothing but praise for Jesus. Dr. Shabir Ally provides a helpful summary of what Muslims believe and don’t believe about Jesus. From a Christian perspective, Jesus acts like John the Baptist for the Prophet Muhammad, not exactly an insignificant role. Jesus prophesied his coming. Jesus never made a villain out of people. He reached out to everybody. Be like Jesus. Salaam, Shalom, Peace to our Muslim sisters and brothers.
Muslims Believe in Jesus too | Dr. Shabir Ally

8/12/23 – Liberals are some of the most vapid people on the planet. Flaking is not a negative. It could be positive. It’s embracing chaos. This argument is supposedly article worthy.

8/12/23 – Between the liberals, the evolved ones, MAGA, proudly degenerates, and the evil one, trump, it’s going to be a long, hard road.

8/12/23 – If the white nationalist MAGA, the self-described Christians do not actually become real Christians, they need to stop calling themselves Christians because they’re not. They have done incalculable damage to the church.

8/12/23 – “He [Jesus] belongs to the world.” Billy Graham, may his soul rest in peace. We miss him. The geographical trinity image is lovely.
What Did Jesus Look Like? How Would A Jewish Man Possibly Look 2000 Years Ago?
The Land of Israel in the Ancient World (Jewish History Lab)

8/12/23 – The reason communist states, such as China, fascist states, such as Nazi Germany, or communist/fascist states, such as Russia, which are/were all dictatorships, want godlessness is because they don’t want human beings to have inherent dignity and worth. They want human beings to be slaves. Godlessness and authoritarianism appeal to liberals and conservatives, respectively, and it’s up to balanced, sensible people to prevent either of these outcomes.

8/12/23 – For those who think this is a dystopia future, is it in the future, or has it already begun? Let’s consider our problems: the detachment from reality and the increase in violence, both greatly exacerbated by social media and technology; the explosion of pornography, including child pornography; the myriad sexual depravities that have also exploded, both again facilitated by social media and technology; the drug addiction crisis and the associated deaths of despair; the breakdown of the family; the breakdown of gender; the breakdown of identity; the decline of communities; the decline of religious life, and the corresponding increase in isolation, anxiety and loneliness; the mental health crisis also resulting from the decline of community and religion; the new concept of people as simply matter for whom death is nothing but the end of the body and the mind; the disconnection from the natural world; the treatment of classics and classical themes as outdated even ignorant; the desire to transform free people into dependents of the state, such as already exists in Europe. All of this is the liberal elites’ and liberal atheists’ fault. They have destroyed our society. Conservatives are guilty of creating many other serious problems, but you cannot blame these serious problems on them. Hey genius liberals, fix it!

8/12/23 – We, backward idiots, savage religious people, who you, super evolved, genius, irreverent experimenters, who you liberal atheists say believe in the flying spaghetti monster, traditional families, and who want to be more than babies and brains in decanters, and want to, what’s the word, is it science, no, no, it’s not, it’s love, the most irrational of all the irrationals, and not just love, but the highest of loves, with our body, mind and soul (you might be unfamiliar with some of these terms, but they were once considered to make up a whole human being), this unevolved, funny, silly, stupid thing called God, yes, your brave new world, that’s right, we reject it. We don’t find it evolved at all, and we don’t want science in our lives to that degree. Atheists have already told us that we have no souls, deleting our divinity. We don’t want our entire humanity deleted by science. We claim the right to be fully human as designed by our creator. We don’t put our faith in science. We put our faith in God. We believe in a natural and a divine order, and we believe that we are loved by our maker, our God. We understand that you find these ideas antiquated, but we find them eternal.

8/11/23 – This is what the liberal atheists, the evolved ones, want for the rest of us. Science. Evolution.
Brave New World – Narrated by Aldous Huxley

8/11/23 – It should be noted that of the 1.2 billion with no religious affiliation, more than one half of them (58%) are Chinese. It’s not a choice. The Chinese government does not allow them to be religious, nor does the North Korean government.  “In 2015, 1.2 billion people in the world, or 16%, said they have no religious affiliation at all…. The region also hosts 76% of the world’s religiously unaffiliated people, 700m of whom are Chinese.” See link below.

8/11/23 – My body, my choice has always been a lie. Individual autonomy has always had limits, from the beginning of a person’s life to the end of a person’s life. Let’s look at why. “About 49,500 people took their own lives last year in the U.S., the highest number ever, according to new government data posted Thursday.” As a society, we don’t want people or allow people to take their own lives. The moral expectation is that we will intervene to prevent it where possible, even if it means physically restraining the person, in other words, overriding their autonomy.

When we are born, we don’t have individual autonomy. Our parents have almost complete control over us, which diminishes over time as we become more independent of them. Until we are 18-years-old, they are held legally responsible for us. However, this doesn’t mean that during these first 18 years of life, our parents can do anything they want to us. They cannot abuse or neglect us. Why are there these limits? Whether or not we recognize it, we are God’s property. We belong to him. We don’t even belong to ourselves. This is the main reason why you cannot do whatever you want to your own body.

Another reason we can’t do whatever we want to our own body is out of a sense of collective obligation, of our interconnection. During Covid, this terribly simplistic slogan was flipped from liberal usage to conservative usage to defy following Covid restrictions. Just like we are interconnected with the natural world, we are interconnected with each other. Even a single individual’s actions, depending on the action, can have a dramatic impact on all of mankind. Therefore, we have expectations that we will restrict ourselves, in other words, sacrifice individual autonomy for the greater good, especially in certain circumstances.

PS This article is also a good example of liberal bias. Is the problem really access to guns? That might be a contributing factor, but it’s definitely not the underlying cause.
US suicides hit an all-time high last year

8/11/23 – Another key truth: no identity. Neither side, conservatives or liberals, have any idea how to construct a real identity. They both pull words from their respective word clouds, slap them on their persons and convince themselves that they’ve actually done the work of figuring out who they really are.

8/11/23 – Another key truth: superiority. Many white conservatives think they’re superior because of their white skin and Europeans’ supposed dominance. Many liberal atheists think they’re superior because they’re not religious.

8/11/23 – One key truth is this: hypocrisy. Some conservative Christians, not all since many of them know almost nothing about the religion, might remember that Jesus used this word numerous times. Some liberal atheists might think this word doesn’t apply to them since the only word that they think applies to them is science and not some word the flying spaghetti monster said, but it does. They both stink to high heaven of hypocrisy.

8/11/23 – F—k the liberals, and f—k the conservatives. We’re done with the duality. There’s a better way. It’s not through the middle. It’s through the truth.

8/11/23 – Let’s go through this list as a comparative exercise. Let’s see what we find, shall we.

“You or I have no shortage of illusions in our parts of the political spectrum?” Applies to both liberals and MAGA. We all have illusions, not just MAGA, although theirs – at present – are worse.

“Though Trump may be a person of low character, to many of his supporters, he seems like the sort of fighter that is needed—someone who does not follow the rules because the rules are believed to be the problem.” The system is rigged, which it is, applies to both liberals and MAGA.

“When you’ve committed to something at a great cost, it is hard to admit that your commitment was all for nothing.” Universal truth.

“No one wants to be confronted by a horde of their neighbors at church or accused of supporting degeneracy at the grocery store. Peer pressure is probably keeping a lot of people in line.” Another universal truth.

“[W]hat really matters is whether a candidate gives a voter an identity.” True on both sides. Look at Bernie supporters, for example. People don’t know how to construct real identities, so they are vulnerable to creating superficial identities. See criticism below that applies to liberal atheists.

“Trump supporters believe that the economic and cultural game is rigged…. Trump supporters see Trump as challenging the cultural and economic system that excludes them and their views.” Both sides think the system is rigged on every level, and everybody wants a candidate that will unrig it.

“They defend him out of reaction: It’s ‘unpopular,’ and they are raging against the machine.” This is America, and all Americans love flipping the bird to the man. We are naturally rebellious.

“[T]hey don’t want government interfering in their freedom…. And beyond them, I’ve observed that there are people with a seemingly ‘genetic’ trait who simply enjoy seeing a person ‘stick it’ to others.” See previous comment, and add, Americans love freedom.

“But I do think that we tend to support someone when we see ourselves in them. Identity politics play in both parties.” Ditto.

“It’s cultural imperialism.” Both sides are vying for cultural imperialism, which is a great term, and when MAGA says that the cultural system is rigged, they’re right. On the political side, the conservatives have minority rule. On the cultural/media side, the liberals have minority rule. This liberal minority rule pushes atheistic values and calls it neutral by pretending it’s secular. It’s not neutral. It’s a cultural position that favors the minority.

“Part of being a human being is wanting to belong. One way we do that is to identify with someone or something.” Absolutely true. On the political side, some liberals identify with, some might argue, have a cultist attachment, to AOC, Warren, Bernie, for example.

“Give someone a reason to feel good about their anger and resentment and you can gain their loyalty.” Liberals are not at all immune to this.

This comment was brutal and so true. “After all, how would we feel if confronted by a way of life that mocks our religion, siphons up our brightest young people and convinces them we’re hopelessly ignorant, sells us out to the global economy, promotes behavior that’s been taboo for thousands of years, and cancels us if we disagree? It fits with the experience of Indigenous cultures that were overrun by modern industrial society during the past 250 years.” This is what liberals and liberal elites are doing. So, take a cold, hard look at yourselves, and ask yourselves, why do you think you’re so much better than the other side? Liberals are so smart and science and such, do some self-reflection and self-criticism.
13 Readers on What Trump Voters Want

8/10/23 – “84% of the world’s population identifies with a religious group.” Of which over half (55.3%), belong to two Abrahamic religions: Christianity and Islam, which for obvious reasons share considerable theological overlap with Judaism. “According to 2015 figures, Christians form the biggest religious group by some margin, with 2.3 billion adherents or 31.2% of the total world population of 7.3 billion. Next come Muslims (1.8 billion, or 24.1%).” In other words, over one half of the world’s population, to some degree, share the same religious beliefs, with some of them being about as important as they can be, such as the nature of a human being.

Yet the shallow, simplistic atheistic values and worldviews are shoved down our throats by the liberal media, every single day. The liberal atheists claim to have these evolved, highly developed brains; they are so smart, scientific and rational; they are enlightened; they are humanists. Simply put: they are superior. Did you know that?

Actually, the rest of us didn’t know that. These liberal atheists are actually anti-intellectuals, and their entire identity is composed of a word cloud from which they all pull the same words to form a caricature of an identity: humanist, science, rational, science, evolution, science, autonomy, science. Did you know that they believe in science? Perhaps if they repeat the word some more, the backward, religious idiots of the world, such as we are, would get it.

What the liberal atheists actually believe in is their own superiority, and they should just say this. They are more evolved than the rest of us. Are the rest of us supposed to be impressed by this? What exactly are the rest of us supposed to get from them and this? By the way, did you know that they’re cool, really cool, and smart, really smart. That’s what we’re supposed to get. It’s pure narcissism, and it has no value whatsoever to society.
Religion: why faith is becoming more and more popular

8/10/23 – Let us put the liberal atheists’ understanding of human beings in simple terms: we are a more evolved animal due to natural selection, and we think, therefore we are, meaning our body is just a physical vessel to hold our exceptional brains. (The usage here is not referring to Descartes’s original.)

Firstly, many religions do not think of human beings as more evolved animals. The Abrahamic religions definitely don’t. We are made in the image of God, which for all Abrahamic religions is a spiritual image not necessarily a physical one. This is arguably the biggest difference in the way atheists see things and the way we see things. Although God created everything, human beings are distinct on an important level from the animals he created. As an extension of this belief, for us, we, all humans, are created equal.

The logic of evolutionary theory, however, is that we are all unequal. That’s the logical foundation of natural selection. The humans who go extinct either naturally (diseases or genetic susceptibility) or through violence (genocide and war) are just less evolved. Survival of the fittest. Might makes right. One cannot overemphasize how important this difference in our understanding of a human being is. Its implications affect everything.

Secondly, for many religious people, humans aren’t just exceptionally intelligent. We are not just a mind, but a body and a soul as well. We are three parts in one beautiful whole, and all three parts are divine. This difference in understanding also carries with it a myriad of implications.

Liberals feel no compunctions about experimenting with their bodies, either with drugs and alcohol, plastic surgery, gender changes and so on. Nothing is out of bounds because they don’t actually have any regard for the body, except to extend its longevity through any means possible, including ones that religious people would find objectionable. In addition, in their framework, emotions originate in the brain and can be controlled with the right thinking. They also don’t think humans have a soul. It’s ultimately all about the brain for them.

When you reduce human beings to just a brain, all of the other dimensions, the body and the soul, that are actually still there and need nurturing end up being neglected. Do you want to see the result of this one-dimensional understanding of a human being? It’s what you’re looking at right now. A breakdown of people and of the broader society. See, the “Enlightenment” was not actually all that enlightened. It was actually retrograde.

You cannot reduce complex human beings, our cognitive processes and psychology, into I think therefore I am. That’s simply not how humans are actually wired or work. They have needs, desires, and motivations that are of a mystical nature, that transcend both rational and irrational, and they often think and act on a subconscious level. Also, whether something is rational or irrational depends on the perspective.

Let’s consider: Is the desire for humans to connect with their maker rational or irrational? For religious people, it would be entirely rational. Of course, we do because we believe God exists. For atheists, it would be entirely irrational because God doesn’t exist. The existing assumptions determine the rationality or irrationality of the conclusion.

For Christians, God is. God is not because he thinks, but he simply is. We also think that humans are more than just thinkers. We aren’t just because we think. We are body, mind and soul made in God’s image. It is a sensitive, multi-dimensional understanding of human beings that does justice to our complexity and our divinity.

8/10/23 – The power of Christianity is not in militancy or any kind of aggression or dominance. It’s in peace. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. It’s not in belittling or disrespecting other religions or people who are different from you. It’s in love. People love Jesus because he knows how to love. Jesus loves you. It’s not worldly power. It’s otherworldly power.

8/10/23 – This applies to all people and religions, but to address conservative Christians who are feeling threatened by the perception of a decline in the faith: this is a great time for all religions, including for Christianity. It used to be the case that people were born into a faith, and many of them practiced it almost mindlessly. They practiced it because that was the tradition into which they were born. How well did they understand their faith? Did they go to their place of worship because they really wanted to connect with God or for some other reason? When disputes arose between religions or religious factions, they often didn’t settle them peacefully but violently, which, for Christians, is antithetical to Jesus’s teachings.

For perhaps the first time in world history, many people (but sadly not all, in some parts of the world, they aren’t allowed to choose freely, which is a violation of their God-given right) have the freedom and the access to learn about and consider a variety of religions. This is great news! Obviously, they might not approach the process efficiently. They might meander meaninglessly or the variety might end up being more confusing than clarifying. But the people who do find their way, who find their spiritual home and clarity, are much more likely to understand the faith well and have more zeal because they actually went through a discernment process.

The thing to understand about people is that there are certain fundamental truths about their being that don’t change with time. One of these truths is that they all want to be reconciled with God. Even when they don’t recognize this need, it’s still there. So, no matter how the world changes, they will want to fulfill this need.

God willingly, all people on earth will be presented with Christianity among other options, the more options, the better, so that they can be more fully informed, and the Spirit will move them. To conservative Christians, pray for this divinely inspired conversion and be the hands and feet of Christ, so that they can see how powerful our faith is. In your life, bear witness to Jesus Christ and the faith by being the embodiment of goodness. Not only will you be stronger in your own faith, but you will make Christianity much more appealing to others, which will address your fears of its decline in a healthy, positive way.

In the American church, there are a lot of people who treat church as a social club, which is not what church is, and don’t actually understand the faith, which is a real problem. We want people to understand and practice the faith correctly because it is truly a beautiful thing. Also, Christianity has suffered from corruption, power and money almost from the beginning. Remember the Protestant Reformation. This is a great opportunity to clean the Lord’s house and to realize what Luther and other reformers hadn’t fully realized: a Christianity that’s actually faithful to Christ’s teachings.

8/10/23 – Christianity and religion, more generally, are not in decline. It’s a false perception.

8/9/23 – “Jesus represents a whole body of religion, not just one way.” Oprah means well, so let’s show her some grace, but this is very imprecise language and frankly wrong. And Rohr who is thought-provoking and has many good insights is also guilty of this sometimes. He’s a good person and could be a healing force in these polarized times, but frankly, his theological interpretations can be pretty loose.

Even more than to Christians, Oprah’s statement would actually be quite offensive to practitioners of other religions. In that statement, their sophisticated and differentiated belief structures are being subsumed under Jesus. When these sort of “universalists” (don’t really know what to call them) make these kinds of statements, they mean to be inclusive. They mean well. They are trying not to exclude. What they don’t understand is that it’s actually quite offensive to almost all practitioners of various religions. This is a good example of how to do inclusivity incorrectly.

Just like human beings and all of God’s creation around us, religious and spiritual traditions are diverse. They are all sophisticated. These are the hardest questions we grapple with as human beings. A lot of (metaphysical) thought, debate and decision-making has gone into them. Almost all of them overlap to some degree, and they are all also different. (See Joseph Campbell.) Therefore, when you try to erase their distinguishing characteristics, this is naturally offensive because you’re treating these elements as if they are not integral to the religion, as if they are optional. You’re treating the religion like it’s an à la carte religion from which you can pick and choose, or mix and match how you want. You’re disrespecting the integrity of the religion.

This is one of the reasons why you have to choose. (See below.) Imagine that you’re choosing a spouse. You can’t mix and match. You can’t take aspects of one girlfriend or boyfriend and mix it with aspects of another girlfriend or boyfriend. Not only is it usually infeasible, but you would be violating the integrity of the person. If you try to change the person, especially on a substantive level, into the other person, it’s likely not going to go well. This is disrespectful to the person. You’re not accepting the person as is.

Choosing a religion is like choosing a spouse. You’re “marrying” that belief system. You can always try to “spin off” a new one that uses elements of the original and perhaps elements from other system(s) or something new. See Christianity from Judaism or Buddhism from Hinduism. But you can’t mix and match between existing religions because it’s disrespectful to the religious and spiritual traditions. In one’s personal life, of course, you’re free to do what you want, but just know that these kinds of ideas and statements will likely not go over well with a lot of people, especially in traditional cultures.

Inclusion done correctly is founded on love and respect for the differences. Human beings have come up with so many different understandings of God, which in and of itself is a testament to the divine. There is a natural desire to understand the divine and for this divine connection. To do inclusion right, you simply recognize the differences between faith systems. You can appreciate or admire aspects of other faith traditions. You can try to learn the other systems to help inform your own practice and spirituality. You can even try to understand their theological foundations. However, you also have your own reasons why you chose what you chose. That doesn’t mean that other religions or belief systems are less than yours. They just didn’t correspond as well to your understanding or conception of God. Remember: none of us know. We believe. So, humility is always in order, but picking and choosing, mixing and matching is not respectful. It’s actually disrespectful, even if well-intentioned.
Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations Father Richard Rohr The Universal Christ

8/9/23 – It is now clear to me why I was dreading dealing with love. It is the most abused word and concept in the world. It is a tortured word cloud holding the most banal and the most sophisticated of emotions and states. Tip: Whenever you’re confused about metaphysical matters, refer to the Gospel. High likelihood it’s covered there. God is love. We want to be reconciled with God. Love in this highest of expressions resides in the heart (body), mind, and soul. In other words, this kind of love requires your entire being. “Jesus replied, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. Love God above all else. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” The second part, “love your neighbor as yourself,” is less demanding but still hard to do. In practice, we love in different ways, and in most (if not all other) expressions of love, it’s not going to reside in our entire being but parts (one or more) of it, or rather oddly, just a banal utterance (not really love) that doesn’t really reside anywhere but in a word cloud. What are the implications of this? For you to be truly transformed, your entire being (body, mind and soul) needs to be in a state of love of God.

8/9/23 – Faith, soul. Hope, soul. It would have to be love, the most irrational of the irrationals. Even time is easier to deal with because you can just say it started with the Big Bang (the beginning of the universe, of all creation, and God exists outside all of it) and call it a day. (You’ll notice that this means that time is not infinite.) But love is frankly a pain in the a— metaphysically, arguably the worst. It would be so much easier to ignore it, but that no longer seems tenable. So, where does love fit best? Body (unlikely, even though we associate it with the heart, which is just an organ), mind (unlikely, love is way too irrational), soul (promising but complicated), a separate entity (but how exactly)? Let’s work from the premise that love resides in the soul. Let’s list a few things people love: nature, books and other human creations, pets, other humans, and God. Now, let’s make some statements. I love nature. I love my blue coat. I love my dog. I love my child. I love God. Are all of these expressions of love going to originate in the soul? Are we just sloppy and use the same word, “love,” to express very different emotions or states? Given how hard people fight for money and material possessions, it seems to be (some sort of) love though? Maybe it’s just an addiction? Some (sadly, likely many) people (seem to) love their money and stuff more than anything else, including other humans? How could this love reside in the soul? Is the love for one’s parents or children the same as one’s love for God? Is there a hierarchy to love? Perhaps different types of love reside in different places. This would, however, undermine the integrity of the concept. Love as a single concept would cease to exist. Or perhaps love is only love if it resides in the soul, and everything else is just called “love,” but it’s really not love. From this perspective, the residence (the soul) of the expression (love), defines the expression. Is this tautological?  

8/9/23 – Don’t feel at all compelled to dig into this. It’s pretty metaphysical stuff. This is a Jewish explication, and this line stuck out to me, “Without the body, the soul would be unable to do the holy, redemptive work of following the commandments.” It’s as if the soul needs the body to redeem the soul, which I find rather fascinating from a Christian perspective, especially in terms of communion, since Jesus gave his body to redeem our souls.
Body and Soul: Indispensable partners for doing life’s sacred work

8/9/23 – Jesus was a brown Jew (brown Jew, meaning not white) born in the Middle East. This was the specific human form Jesus, the Son of God, took. One’s preferences and opinions on this matter are irrelevant.

8/9/23 – The process below will work for discernment for any religion, no religion, or no one religion. For Christianity specifically, many people don’t need this or any intellectual process at all. Their hearts know. Their hearts run to Jesus like a child to its parent. They understand Jesus’s love, and that’s all they need. They are truly blessed. The rest of us need our minds to explicitly make that journey with us.

8/9/23 – Some words of advice to people trying to understand Christianity or discern if they believe in it: if you let it, the process and Christianity can be overwhelming. The Trinity can be particularly hard to understand, and some people argue that Christianity isn’t a monotheist religion because of it. Note: monotheist does not equal superior. It’s best to not get too wrapped up in theological debates or definitions. It will more than likely frustrate or confuse you and will not help you at all in your spiritual journey. You can just ask yourself a couple basic questions and your answers to them should be enough.

The first question to ask yourself is: Do you believe in God? If you believe in God, then God can take on whatever form or no form. God takes on different forms in different religions. Therefore, the second part is to decide which form is true. Note: “Believing” in all religions might be an appealing copout from actually making a decision, but it’s also pretty meaningless. This does not mean that you can’t strengthen your faith or spirituality by learning from other religions.

In Christianity, God takes the form of the Trinity. The Trinity is basically the Father (no physical form), Jesus (human form), and the Holy Spirit (no physical form) that are connected as one whole. I understand the Holy Spirit as Jesus explained it. When he left this world and his disciples, he sent the spirit to guide and help them and us. He didn’t want his disciples, in particular, who had gotten used to his presence and whom he had sent on hard missions to feel orphaned.

To me, the remarkable aspect of the Trinity is for God to explicitly take human form, Jesus. This is an important point: You do have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God to be a Christian. In the Christian faith, he’s not just a nice man who did and said some nice things, or a prophet, as he is in the Islamic religion. Why would God actually choose to take human form and then choose to die on the cross for us? That’s a mystery. Only God can know his own motivations, and one just needs to accept it as such. But if you need (even more) proof of God’s incredible love for us, there it is. So, the second question to ask yourself is: Do you believe the testimony in the Gospel? That’s pretty much all there is. It’s best to not over-think. Reduce the logic to its essence and answer key questions.

8/8/23 – What church leaders and others need to admit is that they watered down Christianity to make it more palatable for the general public. Let’s face it. Many people can’t even understand the Gospel, let alone live it. This “mass marketing,” if you will, comes at a cost to the faith itself, and arguably, to the broader society that would otherwise greatly benefit from a better understanding and practice of it. The reform that needs to happen is to bring Christianity back to its roots. Don’t pretend it’s a religion that doesn’t ask much. It asks everything. But if we can do it, we get everything in return. It’s better for the church to be smaller and truer than whatever it is now.

8/8/23 – Correction: The verbatim part below isn’t correct. It was actually his son, jr. However, the general message is the same, for example, here.

8/8/23 – Personally, it’s mind-blowing to me to spend all this time on something, and not understand it at all. What’s the point in that? Sleep-walking through one’s life. Wake up, people. Think more. Think harder.

8/8/23 – When hasn’t the church been in crisis? It’s been in perpetual crisis. In the west, in the beginning, it was persecuted within the Roman Empire, which is a crisis of its own. Then, it became adopted by the Roman Empire as its religion, which is a crisis of a different kind, arguably worse than the persecution. And on and on and on. The question I have for all true Christians in the west (because where Christianity is a minority religion, they should know better) is: why do you expect a subversive religion, which is what Christianity is, to not be in crisis?

Jesus told us what to expect, and it isn’t pretty. Yet your expectations aren’t actually matching what he told us to expect. In other words, if Christianity is practiced correctly, you’re going to be persecuted; you’re going to be marginalized; you’re going to be distrusted, and so on. Yet, the expectation is that you’re going to be an extension of the powers that be, of the status quo: dominant, powerful, wealthy, etc. What is this? When this has been the case, the church became corrupt, meaning it stopped being the church in its original intention, and therefore, in crisis. The church is the purest when it is the truest to the teachings of Jesus Christ, typically when it’s a smaller group of people who come together to worship together or to live and worship together, casting off all worldly trappings. You see this throughout the history of the persecuted church, throughout the world, people who are willing to give up everything for Jesus.

I had the Bible read to me in church since I was born, and I used to think that all people had to do was to read the Gospel for themselves, and they would be converted (born again), which was my personal experience. I later realized this is not the case. As you can see below, people can react in the strangest ways to the Gospel. If Jesus, the Son of God, is weak, then how do you define powerful? Jesus chose of his own volition (this is why we call it a sacrifice and not a crime), to die on the cross for us, for our salvation. He didn’t have to do any of the things he did. He chose to do the things he did, including to die, for us. Does God need us, or do we need God? These people below don’t actually understand even the basics of the faith they claim to practice, and there are millions of them. It would be shocking if it weren’t so common.

”It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — ‘turn the other cheek’ — [and] to have someone come up after to say, ‘Where did you get those liberal talking points?’ And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would not be, ‘I apologize.’ The response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.’ And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.” And do you know where they got this particular misunderstanding? They got this from the evil one, trump. It’s practically a verbatim quote. The devil has entered the Lord’s house, but let’s not pretend this is the first time nor will it be the last.

To dissect this particular observation: “And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.” Is this, “subversive to us,” how we define crisis? The reality is that Christianity is subversive, and in many ways, it’s actually intended to be “subversive” to us. We should be clear-eyed and honest with ourselves about what our religion says and what it is asking us to do. It’s asking us to go against every natural instinct we have as human beings: self-preservation, narcissism, power, money, lust, and on and on. When you think lower-level thinking or instinct, we’re being asked to not do it. What should we call that? We are choosing to subvert a lower-level person for a higher-level person because that’s what it takes to be closer to God. That is what Jesus asked of us. That is what he modeled. When you understand it that way, “turn the other cheek” is not weakness. It’s power. The reason it is not understood this way by Christians and non-Christians is because there has been a complete misunderstanding of what the Gospel’s message really is, and this misunderstanding is perpetuated by, at least, American, if not western, churches themselves.
He was a top church official who criticized Trump. He says Christianity is in crisis

8/8/23 – Paul said that the greatest of these: faith, hope, love is love. You would think that for Paul, the person who was blind but then could see, it was faith, but it wasn’t. It was love. I wasn’t actually convinced. They seemed equally important. Other things also seemed equally important. What about justice? What about equality? Etc. I’m absolutely convinced he was right now. Love is the greatest of all. It is also the greatest commandment. How I got to this conclusion is long, convoluted and a bit mystical. In other words, I’m not sure I can explain it myself, but he was right. Probably subconsciously, I didn’t want it to be true because I knew it would be really hard for me. I don’t think of myself as a mystic or a naturally loving person at all. I think of myself as a rational person who’s rather bad with all emotions, especially love. So, talking about the highest of emotions, love, is about foreign as it could possibly be for me, but here I am. The person that wants to tell people to just go f—k themselves will still be here though, just to manage expectations.

8/8/23 – Being really good at virtue signaling and really bad at showing love in the real world doesn’t work. You have to change yourself. You have to the work. Don’t worry about controlling or changing others. The reason you want to control or change others is because you’re trying to get out of doing the hard work of changing yourself. It’s a similar psychological place to procrastination, but it gives you a scapegoat. If only they’d change…. No, you need to change. I need to change. We all need to change ourselves.

8/8/23 – His comments about elders particularly and painfully resonates. The older people in my personal life are simply older. They definitely are not elders. In fact, the reason why very few older people in general are regarded that way is because they didn’t develop themselves to be elders. So, it’s hard to find people with wisdom who live contemporaneously with us. There is the wisdom elders left in books, which is much appreciated and helpful, but it’s not the same as being in their company. There might be more middle-aged people who are on their way to being elders. (Middle-age is generally a good time to start because one has enough experience to reflect on and hopefully enough maturity to do this work.) So, it seems something, maybe a narcissistic arrested development, happened, particularly in the baby boom generation.

8/8/23 – If anybody is wondering why Richard Rohr keeps being shared, it’s because the situation has gotten so dire, we need to bring in the cavalry. He’s probably our best shot right now to get us out of this quagmire we’ve created. At a minimum, he’s capable of self-reflection and self-criticism. (He’s obviously capable of much more than that.) If you can’t do self-reflection and self-criticism, and MAGA and the loony libs seem incapable of this, then you really can’t help anything or anyone move forward. You have to be able to do at least this one thing.
Father Richard Rohr “Falling Upward”

8/8/23 – Remote work is better for the environment, and if they relocate to rural areas, better for communities. But on an individual basis, given our loneliness epidemic, it’s probably not healthy for people. There should be some balance that each employee can work out with their employer based on their life situation.

8/8/23 – People love Jesus because he knows how to love. God loves us all with a deep and abiding love. Yes, this includes MAGA with their lovers of demagoguing false gods and democracy killers, and yes, the loony libs with their militant atheists and irreverent experimenters. In fact, Jesus seems to specialize in loving hard to love people. It’s one of the great mysteries. A section should be added to praying the rosary: the love mysteries. Jesus chose Paul, the persecutor, and Matthew, the tax collector. The others couldn’t figure out why, but there they were with the Apostles. Writing away. Love mystery. Jesus even loved the people who condemned him, an innocent man, to death. Love mystery.

8/8/23 – A word to the wise (and to the Democratic Party), psychology is more important than economics or any other policy matter. It’s not the economy, stupid. It’s the person, stupid. Any party or politician worth anything would do one thing well – make voters feel good. That’s really all one needs to do. It is critical to understand and acknowledge their fears. The world has changed faster than most people, even well-educated ones, can process. Even the tech “geniuses” can’t keep up with their tech “genius” inventions. How can anybody else? Say that. Speak truths that narrow the distance between us and them to make it we. Speak truths about the state of affairs that shows empathy with voters, which is what people and politicians should do anyway, empathize. Then, provide an antidote to what is naturally an unpleasant state of the mind (and the soul). If your opponent is someone who peddles hate, provide love. If he incites fear, instill hope. If he spews lies, speak truth. And so on. On a fundamental level, everybody, whether they realize it or not, wants to be reconciled with God, with love. You don’t actually need to convince anybody of anything. You just need to get their state of mind (and soul) into a positive place where their fears, whether real or perceived, have been acknowledged and allayed, and provide a positive alternative. You will not only increase your chances of winning, but you’ll help our country heal, which is even more important.

8/8/23 – “George Will said it first, but it bears repeating: The modern GOP is the first American party that fears its own voters.” It might sound counter-intuitive, a party fearing its own voters, but this phenomenon is not unique to the United States. In China, for example, the people can get worked up into such a nationalistic fervor that it can be hard for the Communist Party (or now the dictator Xi Jinping) to rein them in, especially on issues of a nationalistic variety (us versus some foreign threat, real or perceived, a qualification one needs to add because it’s usually perceived), for example, the South China Sea. The leadership isn’t necessarily afraid of the people in these authoritarian regimes, but they can be cowed into taking actions they wouldn’t otherwise take to appease the angry, nationalistic mob.

These are fear-based regimes and politicians. They prey on the fears of the people. Unlike Jesus, who kept repeating, “do not be afraid,” they want the people to be afraid. Fear is a primal emotion, and Jesus was asking us to rise above it. (This is not easy. Look at what difficulties his own disciples had.) Once it’s triggered, the survival instinct (a fight or flight response) kicks in, which can run longer and stronger than intended. The GOP’s MAGA base has become a fear-based electorate. We know that they are also grievance-based. Rohr explains that every preference is a grievance waiting to happen. If one’s preferences carry (perceived) existential weight, the resulting grievances become fears that become battles for survival whether real or perceived. Remember: it was really not Pontius Pilate or the Jewish high priests who condemned Jesus to death. It was the angry mob that the Jewish religious leaders had worked up into an irrational rage. It’s an ancient strategy that will often work and will continue to be exploited by evil people. Unless, of course, we can become a people who rise above fear to a higher state of consciousness, one defined by love.
Mike Pence’s 11th Commandment

8/7/23 – God bless the persecuted church. Pray for our sisters and brothers in Christ. Pray that the hearts of the Hindu persecutors are softened in Manipur and throughout India where they have terrorized other religious minorities, such as Muslims. Pray for peace in India and throughout the world.

8/7/23 – This is the person who the unprincipled panderer, also known as Biden, as well as other weak world leaders, such as Macron, who hasn’t met a dictator whose a— he wouldn’t kiss, courted and showered with unearned praise. Like the evil one, trump, did here, the murderous, dictator(-wannabee) modi (and his demagoguing BJP) foments this hatred and then silence. Not a spiritual silence. A satanic silence. Under the BJP, it will never be Gandhi’s India. “For three months, the strongman leader has been absent on arguably the worst ethnic violence ever seen in the remote state, where Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is in power. Modi’s role, or lack thereof, has sparked a no-confidence motion against him in Parliament, where his government holds the majority.”
India’s Modi faces a no-confidence vote over silence on ethnic violence tearing at remote Manipur
Violence & Assault in Manipur: Christians Persecuted in India

8/7/23 – It is incumbent upon all – meaning all – of us to help each other. We have a mental health crisis, an addiction crisis, which is also related to a deaths of despair crisis, a homelessness crisis, a poverty crisis, etc. We have a lot of crises. One of our responsibilities as human beings is to help restore each other’s dignity in our daily lives. When you cross paths with someone/anyone, smile, and if possible, greet the person, or raise your hand in a gesture of peace. If possible, talk to each other. Where you can, help each other. Basically, recognize the person’s humanity and divinity. It is a simple gesture that makes a big difference. It also helps build community.

Other people are not just other animals that share your space. They are God’s people, and they belong to him. Treat his creation, human and other, with the grace and love he and they deserve. There are a lot of broken people in the world, and they need love. They need to be reminded that they are loved by God and by others. If all you’re doing is spewing hate: religion is bad, God is bad, science is bad, x political party is bad, everything but what you think is right is bad, you’re not fulfilling your responsibilities as a human being to your fellow human beings. You’re not being restorative. You’re being destructive no matter how well-intentioned you might be.

Everybody wants to know that they are loved. It is a fundamental need, and we each have to communicate this truth to each other in gestures, words and deeds, or unnecessary pain will continue. A person who is well-connected with God exudes love. Most of us aren’t there, but this is the goal. Let’s drive out each other’s fear with love. It’s not easy to do, especially consistently, but we have to keep trying for ourselves, for others and for God. Fail again. Fail better.

8/7/23 – Don’t be motivated by fear. Be motivated by love. Love is fearless. God loves all of us. What do we have to fear? Nothing. Not even death itself. “Do not be afraid.”

8/7/23 – In terms of secular law, one person’s right to practice their religion openly and in peace trumps another person’s right to protest this practice if it prevents them from exercising their right. In other words, some exercises of freedom of expression get more protection than others. They are not all equal.

8/7/23 – Most of the video below is a critique of the church and Christian practice, but the critique Rohr makes at the beginning of science is fair. In fact, if one is wondering why economics, for example, doesn’t seem to change, aside from the influences of power and money, it’s his explanation of dualistic thinking. Also, the Big Bang theory he referenced was discovered by a Catholic priest, Georges Lemaître. Science has never been Christians’ enemy. If anything, it supports the faith if only we could understand it this way. Like many institutions, people and things in the secular world and in other religions, the church is its own worst enemy.

8/7/23 – Did you know that a lot of MAGA, Make God Great Again, are pagans or don’t even practice Christianity? They want to control who comes into the churches they don’t attend and who practices the faith they don’t practice. They want to call themselves Christians even though they worship false gods, evil men.

8/7/23 – “[I]t’s not your place to pick and choose…. The Gospel was meant to be a socio-political economic revolution. How else is Jesus going to be the savior of the world if we keep him at this tribal level? Keep him just our little Jesus, our little Christ, who just cares about white, middle-class Americans who vote correctly, you know?… For some reason, we’re in love with the good old days when God was God. Give me that old-time religion when God was God. Do you see the atheism in that? Do you see the agnosticism in that?…. [I]t isn’t up to you to decide what human beings are sacred or whether the earth is sacred. It really is an all or nothing proposition. Either this whole thing came forth from God or it didn’t. Either God created all things or God created nothing…. It’s not a moral matter. It’s a mystical matter.” Amen. Amen.
An Evening with Richard Rohr

8/7/23 – People do no spiritual work during their lifetimes. Then, they get to the end of their lives and are woefully unprepared to reckon with their own mortality. Like anything else, one needs to put time and effort into a spiritual life in order to grow. It is an important part, arguably the most important part, of a life well-lived. Don’t neglect it.

8/7/23 – Medicine is a glorified trade, and there is no real reason for “doctors,” which is originally and still now an academic title not a medical one (it should remain that way), should make as much as they do. They are over-paid and over-respected. They often don’t care about helping people. They just care about the money and prestige. They also shouldn’t be trusted. Any time they make a recommendation, which is all it is, not an order, do your research and think about your own bodies. They are not always ethical, and they will prescribe medications that are unnecessarily and lifelong. Not that long ago, many of them were often quacks and charlatans. More recently, the profession intentionally made itself too exclusive, and that’s in part what drove up their salaries. It suppressed the supply of doctors. AI will soon be doing much of their work better and cheaper. We should all hope that medical costs fall considerably as a result.

8/7/23 – Once a news organization undermines its credibility, it’s pretty much impossible to recover from it. They aren’t paid to push an agenda. They’re paid to objectively report the f—king news.

8/6/23 – Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. It is when his divinity is revealed to his disciples: Peter, James and John. The Lord chose these disciples as is his prerogative. May we be transformed by his sacrifice and by grace into instruments of his peace and love.

8/6/23 – God created everything, including all human kind. We belong to him. We are his property, and therefore, we cannot be anybody else’s property. To own another human being in any way, shape or form is an act against God. When we, as a free people, chose to build a church, it becomes the Lord’s house. It belongs to him. It is not anybody’s place to choose who can be part of the body of Christ.

There are over 8 billion people in the world, and about one-eight of them are Catholic. It is simply not possible for us to always agree. We are not robots or clones of each other. We are children of God, and by his design, we are unique. We are entitled to our own feelings, opinions and thoughts.

What we are not entitled to do is to play God. No Christian gets to decide who is welcome in the Lord’s house into which we all, including the priests, walk as sinners. God has already decided that. Jesus decided that when he extended his ministry from the Jews to the Gentiles. God chooses his followers. As a Christian, you are free to disagree with how others live their lives or the decisions they make, but they also have the divine right to make those decisions for themselves.

Just as no human being will be the gatekeeper beyond this life, you are not free to be gatekeepers to his house on earth, the church. It is, at a minimum, discrimination and could even be persecution to try to prevent LGBTQ+ or anybody else from practicing their Christian faith. They have a divine and civil right to practice their faith openly and in peace.

It should go without saying that all – meaning all, meaning catholic – are welcome to all churches. After all, they don’t actually belong to us. They belong to our Lord and our God. If you feel called to him, go to him where we will pray for your transformation and for our own.
Pope presides over solemn Way of the Cross prayer as Portugal government weighs in on LGBTQ+ protest

8/6/23 – Below are two videos that provide much food for thought. They touch on several topics relevant to our present problems, which are many and serious. Also, take time for silence and contemplation. It’s important for your soul.
Trappist | Full Movie | Thomas Moore | Kathleen Norris | Herbert Bronson MD
Festival of Faiths: Fr. Richard Rohr: Finding God in the Depths of Silence

8/6/23 – The truth is that American universities have a lot of problems. Many of which are caused by rich elites, but also simple demographics, such as the baby boom. There are many good articles from academics and others that outline them. Presenting these universities as innocent institutions of moral and intellectual purity is not accurate.

8/6/23 – There is a decline of the west. That’s indisputable. The original west, Europe, is dying. Some of the decline has been due to the excesses of the “Enlightenment,” a poor understanding of and irrational belief in science. Some of it has been due to the excesses of liberal culture that is hedonistic and godless. However, the right’s dystopian authoritarian vision would only accelerate the west’s decline. The result of this vision, as it has been shown in Russia, is cultural death, enslavement and kleptocracy. Russia has no culture. It has only theft. It has no free people. It has only slaves. It has no democracy. It has only autocracy. This result isn’t the restoration of western values: democracy, freedom and human rights. It’s a restoration of might makes right, of pre-Christian values.

The driving psychological force in the appeal of this vision is that social changes are happening much faster than many people’s ability to adapt to them or even to absorb them. The average person is not adaptable and not smart. Although some people (liberals) want to continue the change, even at a faster pace, many people want to stop the change, and some people (such as MAGA) even want to reverse the change. This would give them a false sense of control over these changes. Why is it a false sense? Because the motivations of those who peddle this vision have nothing to do with the restoration of western values. They just want to consolidate power and money for their own personal benefit.

To restore western values, more precisely, to build societies that truly reflect western values as listed above, would require the transformation that Jesus prescribed: a death of the glorification of the self and the birth of the glorification of God. This is contrary to both the right’s and the left’s prescriptions. It is countercultural to the entirety of our present culture. It doesn’t fit into any side of the “culture wars” because it is on the side of Jesus, on the side of truth. It also can’t be imposed on people. They have to choose it of their own volition, of their free will. If they choose it, they will be truly free.
Why the Populist Right Hates Universities

8/6/23 – Almost all rich people have a sickness of the soul. Money is addictive and corrupting. It erodes souls. Don’t envy them. Don’t admire them. Don’t model them. Instead, follow Jesus. Be like him. If you commit to him, you commit to everything good, true and holy, and you will be transformed.

8/6/23 – Science. “The protective benefit of personal spirituality, meaning someone who says their personal spirituality is very important, is 80% against addiction. They have 80% decreased relative risk for the DSM diagnosis of addiction to drugs or alcohol…. In other words, three cheers for the skeptic. Here is published, peer reviewed science for skeptical audiences to begin to explore, to be curious about our spiritual nature. You know, at the inner table of human knowing we all have an empiricist, a logician, an intuitive, a mystic, and a skeptic. And the skeptic is very welcome, but the skeptic is not the bouncer at the door.” But don’t do it for the science. Do it for your soul.
This Ivy League researcher says spirituality is good for our mental health

8/5/23 – Christianity started as a small Jewish sect that worships a man, Jesus, who was crucified on the cross. It was countercultural. It’s still countercultural when practiced correctly. Despite everything, the scandals, the corruption, the reformation, 2,000 years, the Pope is still the most powerful person in the world. It’s pretty mind-blowing.

8/5/23 – An older article (2015) whose relevance has only grown. Many of the world’s religious faithful and scientists are in agreement on this issue. The only people pushing an alternative narrative as they push alternative facts are the merchants of short-term profits and long-term poverty. “In ‘Laudato Si,’ Francis addressed ‘every living person on this planet,’ urging them to hear ‘both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor’ about the damage from ‘compulsive consumerism,’ waste and a single-minded pursuit of profit.’… Scientists who for more than 50 years have been talking about the dangers of global warming say the encyclical could break the inertia that has characterized climate negotiations. With their data and computer models, scientists appealed to logic; the pope sought to engage the soul.”
Pope challenges world to clean up its filth

8/5/23 – What is a life well-lived? Status, money, prestige? Or is it living a humble life of service, caring for our planet, lifting up others and giving glory to God? “‘An academic degree should not be seen merely as a license to pursue personal well-being, but as a mandate to work for a more just and inclusive — that is, truly progressive — society,’ he said. Francis encouraged the students to use the privilege of their educations to protect the environment, care about poor and marginalized people, and to ‘redefine what we mean by progress and development.’”
Pope gets an electrifying World Youth Day welcome and urges fighting for economic justice, climate

8/4/23 – Get some f—king perspective. “Such eruptions occur when officials let their irritations suppress their empathy. At the moment of peak whine, they forget what it means to have a fifth of your country occupied, or to know that a far bigger country is attempting, every night, to smash your power plants, blockade your ports, and destroy your crops. They are not holding in the forefront of their minds obliterated towns and mass graves. They do not know what it is to welcome back exchanged prisoners of war who have been castrated. Or to mourn old men and women murdered, or younger men and women tortured and raped. Or to worry frantically about thousands of children kidnapped. They forget that while a Western official’s sleep may be interrupted by a phone call or an alarm clock, a Ukrainian official’s sleep is more likely (and more often) interrupted by a siren or the crash of a missile slamming into an apartment block.” Eliot Cohen, thank you! Slava Ukraini!
Western Diplomats Need to Stop Whining About Ukraine

8/4/23 – See the plague mentioned below. “The MAGA base doesn’t support Mr. Trump in spite of his flaws. It supports him because it doesn’t seem to believe he has flaws.” He doesn’t believe he has flaws, so it must be so. Forget: “I think, therefore I am.” I think I am perfect, therefore I am perfect. Right, libs? Right, MAGA? Right, everyone?
More generally, “The former President continues to attract millions of supporters who have such antipathy for Biden, for the Democrats, for the ‘corporate media,’ for academia, for all the institutions they see as woke and hostile to their interests, that they interpret Trump’s deviance as defiance, his lies as truthtelling, his fury as their fury.” Thus, more precisely, they aren’t attracted to the evil one, necessarily, as much as they are repelled by the alternative. Why is that? Is it because the alternative refuses to do any kind of self-reflection and self-criticism? Also, it’s not just hostile to their interests. It’s also hostile to them and things they hold dear, such as their religion. The left helped create this situation, and they refuse to accept any responsibility for their role in it. The reckoning is coming for all of us.
The New Trump Indictment and the Reckoning Ahead

8/3/23 – To reprise some of the points in this Atlantic article below, there is a difference between “workism” as we currently experience it and intense productivity. This is an important distinction because it can be argued that nobody has been as productive as deeply faithful Christians. The Benedictine monks, for example, did nothing but ora et labora, pray and work. They were so productive, they became wealthy, which sometimes led to corruption, and, of course, they also saved western civilization with their transcription. It isn’t just that we’re working a lot. It’s that there is no counterbalance: a nurturing of the soul, a communal structure and a deep love of and commitment to God. The other half of this equation is important, and we have lost it. Work can’t give you these other things: “but for the college-educated elite, it [work] would morph into a kind of religion, promising identity, transcendence, and community.” Religion gives you those things, and when you lose religion, you lose the counterbalance to work. Then, you are just a slave to the world instead a slave to God, which is not being a slave at all, but being totally and completely free.
What Did Medieval Monks Do All Day?
Why So Many Americans Have Stopped Going to Church

8/3/23 – Love yourself as you are means as you actually are, not as you want others to perceive you to be. If you want others to think you’re rich, you can buy a bunch of expensive clothes, and they might think you’re rich, but you’re not actually rich. If you change aspects of your physical appearance, your DNA doesn’t change with it. There is a plague upon our world, and it’s this idea that you can just pretend to be a certain kind of person and that makes it so. It doesn’t. Also, it’s just a matter of time before the loony liberals, the irreverent experimenters who don’t understand the limits of their intelligence or abilities and who have no respect for God, destroy mankind by screwing with human DNA. It’s hard to say which will come first, the destruction of the planet, which has been caused by both the right and the left, or the destruction of human kind by irresponsible and unethical experimentation, which will most likely be caused by the crazy libs. In either case, the apocalypse is nigh.

8/2/23 – The evil one, trump, deserves the death penalty.