Safe Haven

 I’m gonna help you with this, and I don’t need a dubious degree in a dubious discipline to do it. What is a “boy band”? If it’s white/Latino/Asian kids singing Black music, or pop in a Black style, it’s a boy band. We know it, but we don’t say it. If it’s Black kids doing the exact same thing, it’s a vocal group. It might not even be fair, but that’s how it works. It’s even more obvious if the audience is pre-teen or teenage white girls. That’s a boy band. You might feel slightly embarrassed to put on really old New Edition; awkward songs about youthful crushes. But they did OK after that. I don’t have any Backstreet Boys albums; I just don’t. Why? I wasn’t their audience. That’s why Andy Samberg getting criminals to sing “I Want It That Way” was really funny; we know he’s twisting a gender and sex boundary, even if we don’t say it. This is your “JK Liberal Post Of The Week.” Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

 For the record, I am only part-way into season 3. And a lot of people who probably go to a lot of therapy are really inspired by it. I suppose that’s fine; I can’t claim my eyes have stayed dry the whole time. But it’s a comedy primarily, and it’s actually funny. Those of sensitive conscience will be out; it’s got strong language. But I speak Swear natively, so I hardly noticed. It’s about a soccer team in England who hires an American football coach as a gag, but Ted isn’t a bumbler, and it starts to work. You’ll like these people, and you should. I have been a teacher and a coach, so I know that motivation is the true key to success, and Ted Lasso absolutely believes it, too. Brett Goldstein as Roy Kent is the best character on Anglo-American TV this side of Alec Hardy. He’s crass and endearing, and it just works. I saw him in a Sesame Street clip, and I just got happier not long ago. Goldstein was originally just a writer on the show, and he said, “I think I’m Roy,” and he cert...

 These liberal politicians just grind my gears. The police are part of the system, but at the top of that system is capital punishment. No major Democrat has moved against it. They’re the Government Is Good Party, but they can’t even move against the supreme expression of state power, which is unnecessary. Rural cops haven’t been leading in extrajudicial killings since like 1930, but on and on they rail about rural Republican love of guns. Mark Shea is intellectually useless, but Greydanus might stand to notice that New Jersey isn’t quite as wide open as say, Utah, or Kansas. I’d be way more afraid of guns, too, if my neighbors were on top of me. And mental health plays a role in almost all these mass shootings, too. Personally, I am all for more spending on mental health. Maybe we can use the annual subsidy that Planned Parenthood gets.

 Let me preface this by saying that my general sense of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church seems to advocate for a social democratic state that would terrify Ronald Reagan, to say nothing of American “conservatives” today. But. One funny little aspect that throws a wrench into various left-wing dreams AND Tom Darrow’s advocacy for a UBI: The dignity of work. We could probably do everything conceivable along the lines of preventing disastrous externalities—and it’s probably right and good to do so—but a UBI can’t replace a minimum wage, because it’s not a wage. Wages and salaries get paid for work that gets done. We could make a Basic Needs Floor or something, but that’s not a wage. Looking forward to where this goes.

 But Dr. Bryan Cross of Mount Mercy University was my Confirmation sponsor. And taught me RCIA/OCIA. He’s a credentialed expert on Alasdair MacIntyre. Some of it possibly rubbed off. Dr. Lawrence Feingold was my teacher, also. He’s a  Thomist. A group of folks spent hours at Larry’s reading the Summa. I don’t mind zucchini because of dinners there, and I can read St. Thomas without wanting to curl into the fetal position. Maybe that makes me a Thomist.  You just gotta read him; no easy way to become a Thomist. You can be guided by a great teacher through Aquinas, but you’re not a Thomist until Thomas is your teacher. When you can anticipate what he would say—or flat-out recite it—you’re a Thomist. Pastor Timothy Butler of Little Hills Church in St. Peters, MO is absolutely a Thomist. I think he thinks in Summa article format. Good quirk to have. [Oddly, he’s not Catholic.] He oddly is a lot of other things, though! I’m willing to lose a bet that Tom Darrow has read the Su...

 It’s probably insane to mark the time when I was about 20 as “the good ol’ days,” but if you think about it, unless you’re sick, being 20 is generally awesome. I didn’t fornicate with any women, so I can’t talk about that. I’m a massive nerd, who was the type to learn whilst entertaining himself. I never belly-laughed at Dennis Miller, but I appreciate him. The forerunner of every rightist trying to be funny. A conservative Republican at his/her best knows something you don’t. He’s not depressed; he leaves that for you, liberal. I will say Gutfield is trying too hard; when The Five was first on, it was hilarious. Conservatives aren’t funny when they’re aggrieved; they’re funny when you’re aggrieved. I don’t have anything to say really about the Pope and Vice President Vance. It wasn’t a smooth move for a general election, when the Catholic vote—both observant and otherwise—will be crucial. You can totally see Marco Rubio getting photographed at Mass, hugging his Bishop, and carryi...

 I always fear that my friend Tom Darrow, lately of Denver, Colorado and now presumably Iowa, cannot follow my chaotic digressions. But he seems to hold up well enough. [You probably shouldn’t give him your private message novellas late at night; he has a family, you scumbag.—ed.] Well, I used to rely on the forced generosity of the Mountain time zone; now, I am legitimately just trash. Anyway, I had a point, other than shouting out Tom. Being on the Right like 25 years ago at the dawn of the internet age was wild. Instapundit was the blogger version of the New York Times. And from there, you could go to Blackfive and Ace of Spades for military blog posts, James Lileks for culture and humor, some chick named Virginia who was in tech or something who was attractive and interesting, and on and on. Kausfiles was linked, and I am sure liberals thought and think he’s a betrayer, but those were the days that Democrats could outright win national elections. No, seriously. It used to be a ...

 Barry Manilow is a great songwriter, producer, and performer. His most famous songs are ones he didn’t write. “Mandy” and hilariously, “I Write The Songs” are the obvious examples. But he did write “Looks Like Me Made It.” Now, I love that bloody song; the lyrics and chorus just ring somehow. Yet I got to thinking. That’s the exact song that made me realize Manilow is gay. If he’s got actual sexual experience with women back there somewhere, I stand corrected. But no healthy heterosexual man—if you will forgive the term—would openly say anything like this, and especially not when he’s supposed to marry someone else. Maybe most people are recklessly…active, and I’m naive. But most of his records are kinda heteronormative in a way that isn’t convincing. With all due respect. Granted, pop singers aren’t known for continence and fidelity. But if say, Lionel Richie had been closeted gay for 40-odd years, I’d be stunned.

 I said that the Left had a presentation problem, and that is not quite right. First, a couple anecdotes: 1. I read once that 86 percent of babies aborted in New York City are Black; 2. Gov. JB Pritzker, someone with presidential aspirations, and whose state contains one of the largest cities in America, signed a bill authorizing euthanasia in Illinois. (Pope Leo XIV is a Chicago native.) Two literal examples of genocide, if not in intent, in result. Even the people who caved and used IVF or condoms one time know that we’re in a spot. Even if you can be funny on Colbert, you’re not “just one of the folks” if you support a genocide. Before you support single-payer healthcare (all the government), what are you going to say when that euthanasia becomes involuntary? Meanwhile, some Christians make a big fuss about various “visibility days” related to LGBTIA issues. Before I go on, let me say this as carefully as I can: I can show respect and even sympathy for people who are struggling—...

 Trump is Trump, and “appalling” and “blasphemous” are probably apt descriptions. But someone I know started a statement like the title of this post. I reject it as Marxist ideology, as if a person with a certain skin tone must think a certain way, and must be in eternal conflict with white people. It’s everywhere; it’s almost embedded in “mainstream” liberalism. Personally, I have opposed Trump at every turn. I’m not going to accept him as the logical outcome of a “white” view of the world, as if that also exists. A certain type of evangelical just falls into this ideological capture, because they are apocalyptic about everything, including politics. No “we lost today, but we’ll get them the next time.” No cooperation for the good of the city. Good guys and bad guys. The right-wingers do the same thing in reverse.

What if most of this phrase is political and cultural bullshit?  There is probably a theobro somewhere who agrees with me. I’m not one of them; I think women should vote, and have driver’s licenses and credit cards and whatever. I think “bodily autonomy” is a trash euphemism that means, “I think it’s perfectly acceptable to murder the results of my sexual promiscuity, because sexism, or whatever.” Something very close to 99 percent of all intentional pregnancy terminations are elective. Those three words before “are elective” are precisely chosen, so I don’t get into a pointless equivocation with the latte-drinking girly-boy husband of an exvangelical, because they like to conflate medical terms with common usage ones to sound smart. I don’t know “Allison,” maybe traditional Christianity seems “hurtful” because you slept with your boyfriend in college, and every time you open a Bible, you feel guilty. Except when Pastor Ben displays that verse about immigrants from the Old Testamen...