Safe Haven

 I can actually imagine the kind of person who worries that that America’s putative conservative political party will usher in some crazy religious nutters. The avowed Christians around Donald Trump are not like your Grandma. I might have said they haven’t had a normal day since Halloween, 1985, but they probably don’t celebrate Halloween. We can imagine those people; they are depicted on TV a lot, fairly and not. I saw a clip of the stand-up comedian Danny Jolles talking about “bros” the other day. [Bros? Oh. Like, not the guys who call everything “sportsball” to seem cool to their wussy academic friends. Gotcha.—ed.] He said a funny thing, insulting maybe, meant for that “wussy” audience: “Bros are like the dogs of people.” Loudly announcing themselves, potentially annoying, but really just want to make friends. After mentioning that genuinely evil, dangerous bros exist, he noted that a “good bro” refers to Roe v. Wade approvingly. And maybe Danny Jolles is the kind of liberal co...

 The infamous Juror #3 was played by Lee J. Cobb, and of course his intransigence was driven by his distance from his son. He saw his son in the defendant. He got called a sadist by Henry Fonda’s Juror #8, and he did a fair amount of yelling. But in the end, I’m pretty sympathetic. The real bigot is Juror #10. He goes on a big rant, and gets shunned by all the others. Ed Begley. He had to be a heck of an actor. The anger ranges from subtle to explosive. I think the lesson is that anyone can seem normal when they aren’t pressed.

 The basis for all the case law that we think of as “human rights” is natural law, and revealed Christianity.  [Sarcasm on] It’s cool on the worldwide Left to think of “human rights” as pertaining to sexuality, as long as it’s abnormal, or involving the intentional killing of preborn people in the womb. Wars are always bad, especially when engaged in by the United States. Actually, wars started in response to the “evil” hegemony of the United States are good, obviously. [Sarcasm off] Somewhat inconveniently, the only time sexual minorities are actually erased are in countries that happen to be enemies of the United States. Forgive me, but I think the idea of Christians being the problem is patently absurd. Domestic politics is absurd, silly, and even destructive. But you know, we can ignore people who say crazy things. Then again, doing politics might involve hearing things that sound crazy, but are actually not. Doesn’t it seem clear that people stay in bubbles where they nev...

 I had some pretty rough days as a child. Most people don’t know. Whenever I could, I would escape to my room and watch PBS. Because in St. Louis where I grew up, Channel 9 comes in the best, even today. It’s a moral intuition that told me Fred Rogers was safe. Don’t bother me about his views on homosexuality; by the time I get to Heaven, the Lord has already talked it over with him. [Did you just baldly assert that Fred Rogers is in Heaven?—ed.] Yep. Feeling pretty safe about that one. But if he needs my prayers to make it all the way Home, he’s got them. Pete’s sake, I feel like he’s a friend of my Dad, at the very least. He’s been dead 23 years, and he still seems present. I know I’m not the only one. I’ll elaborate my conflicted views about public television and radio later. Suffice it to say that I really don’t know if I would be here, without Mr. Rogers.

 There’s a pretty woman who gives sex advice for a company called “Yoxly.” I’ve seen the reels on Facebook. I have no need for sex advice, but you know, good-looking women are good for marketing. I’ve noticed one weird thing: the worst-case scenario in all these reels is pregnancy. The worst thing next to that is unprotected sex. Or, as normal people call it, “sex.” I know objectively that not everyone is Catholic. I also know that a Catholic life is a difficult life, at least with willpower alone. I also know that the purveyors of the zeitgeist are absolute freaks. Seriously, what is wrong with you people?

 I admittedly aim a lot of my fire at these wishy-washy liberal evangelicals, because they seem to assert that all Trump opposition has to be basically progressive. Maybe rightism was forced down their throats. Or maybe they’re just dumb. I’m never going to say abortion is acceptable. I’m never going to support euthanasia. I’m never going to say that a family is whatever you want it to be. Let me be blunter about it: I don’t think homosexuality is good, or even neutral. People are going to do what they do, and I don’t believe in government power to force people to do things. But I also think the “pro-gay” consensus is fraudulent. It’s a witches brew of stupidity and sentimentality. At best. While we’re at it, the reason to support one man-one woman marriage is that children result from those people having sex. I suppose that’s kind of obvious, but you can’t take anything for granted, given the influence of gender ideology. Young people are so steeped in it that they can’t even prac...

 I was snarkily thinking it was cute to see who liberal Democrats think is a unifying figure who could win the presidency. But then I thought, “Well, the Right isn’t having a normal one, either” and that we don’t really talk across that divide. We talk about each other, but not to each other. I’m glad Stephen Colbert’s show is ending. I like him, or at least I think I would, but he hasn’t been funny for years. And he’s one of those people who reinforces arrogant left-wing attitudes and perspectives. He’s the Pauline Kael of the century; he doesn’t have any friends who voted for Trump, and he won’t know anyone who voted for the next guy. I could have said “person,” but I don’t think we’ll see a female GOP nominee for some time. It seems like Rubio is in a good position to unite the Right, but he’s the child of immigrants. Will the nativist wing allow him to be kinda liberal on immigration? On the other hand, a lot of Trumpism is pretending to care about things—enough to enrage the L...

 I’m in a wheelchair with spastic hands, arms, and legs, so I wouldn’t touch a Host or a chalice unless I was compelled to do so. Along with the Magisterium, I place no special burden upon people to do it my way. I will say that if the Host ever did touch my hand, I would lick my hand, to make sure nothing of Jesus ended up on the ground or some other unworthy place. I don’t abide “traditionalist” nonsense that only clerics should touch the sacred species because only their hands are consecrated. By baptism, all the faithful are consecrated and made worthy by Jesus to be there. He could destroy us all, but he wants us there. The priest is consecrated in a unique and permanent way to make the Eucharistic Sacrifice, but the whole liturgy is sacrifice and communion. If extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion remain bothersome, it is because not enough people avoid Communion for reason of grave sin/mortal sin. But that’s a much bigger problem than the “traditionalist” desire to presu...

 It’s the film Argo, about the rescue of the hostages taken by the Iranian cult regime. Several CIA agents did great work, and it’s awfully hard not to swell with pride at hearing from President Carter in the ending credits.    I never went along with the legend that the Iranians were terrified of Reagan, so they released the diplomats. They weren’t afraid of Reagan when they sent the PLO terrorists to Beirut to kill Dr. Malcolm Kerr in 1984. Obviously, if you’re gonna lose, you want to have a post-presidency like that one. Also, how do we know he wasn’t just unlucky in the macroeconomic sense? George H.W. Bush got similarly unlucky in the fall of 1992. And the Right was divided by a nativist populist that year. I seriously hate it when that happens. I hate it even more when a dumber, cruder version of the guy wins two non-consecutive terms. I digress.