Safe Haven

 I started to see a reel posted by a friend that was created by a working-class white guy. Credit to him for that, at least. Most spokespeople for Democrats are pathetic classist snobs. Uber-rich old money educrats who are so disconnected from ordinary people that a fake rich plutocrat got to play Donnie Populist all the way to the White House. Twice. Can you seriously believe it? The alleged party of racial minorities, the vulnerable, and the forgotten is actually the party of neo-Marxist pseudo-intellectual Mad Libs, outmaneuvered by a vulgar reality star, who drove a garbage truck and did a shift at McDonald’s. In a very profound way, Donald Trump is the antithesis of everything the Republican Party I had known stood for. The Cold War had continued the bipartisan consensus that won the Second World War. The Democrats got off-track when they let the Marxism and fascism we defeated gain a foothold in their ranks. It wasn’t economic Marxism, at least by the late 1960s. It was revol...

 She made 61 percent of her shots last night. For reference, anything at or very close to 50 percent is excellent, for men or women. Caitlin and her fans have surely been disconcerted that her shooting percentage has been low, especially from 3-point range, so a game like this, combined with others recently, has to feel good, especially when the Fever are winning games. Caitlin is famous for her facility for three point shooting, so you really want those shots and others to go in. Shots in the normal run of play while the clock is moving are called “field goals” if they go in, and field goal attempts in general. Shooting percentage is just the fraction of shots made by shots taken. The stats geniuses across many sports have been developing advanced stats that help them understand why games turn, or to explain why one player impacts a game more than another player. Competitive sports is just a giant math problem, from one angle, and that is personally terrifying to me. On the other ...

 I had a buddy in seminary who said that stand-up comedians were the secular preachers. Huge fans of particular comedians are like parishioners. Watch Josh Johnson. His control of pace is incredible. You don’t want to give up, even as you know he’s dripping out words like it’s his sermon, and you’ll have midday dinner when he’s ready to sit down. Pauses are punchlines, but punchlines are still punchlines. If you’re getting laughs at every part of a sentence, you’ve got them. If you don’t have to finish a sentence to get a laugh, they’re finding the punchline for themselves. Observational comedy is most analogous to preaching, especially in applying some premise to a particular situation. A preacher draws his audience in by painting a picture, then using a surprise twist—maybe even a joke—to make a point. The parables of Jesus are perhaps the most unique in recorded human history. (I’ll not waste time proving the point that they belong to the real Jesus of Nazareth; suffice to say t...

 If you ever watched the NBA from 1984-1998, this will make more sense. That’s the Jordan Era. I don’t intend to say that Caitlin is Michael Jordan in every respect, but she’s the player that is taking the WNBA from a marketing perspective to a similar place as Jordan did. He became literally the worldwide icon of the game. His popularity didn’t diminish other great players; it brought the overall talent into sharp relief. Like Clark now, no one would have said Jordan was the best in the league in 1984, or even 1987. But the fans saw what they saw, and “voted” with their dollars and attendance and TV viewership. She absolutely has the ability to be a multiple time MVP, scoring champion, league champion, and assist leader. How is she not like Jordan? Right now, I don’t see Caitlin being the best offensive and defensive player at the same time, as Jordan was. Or as the great A’ja Wilson is right now. I hope she proves me wrong. But like Jordan in 1997, Caitlin is good for 20 every ni...

 I know young people and everyone else for that matter just (apparently) has sex whenever they feel like it. Christians fornicate and cohabitate worse than the heathen these days. I also definitely recognize that mistakes and “accidents” happen. If I didn’t believe in forgiveness, I would be by definition the stupidest disciple of Jesus who ever existed. A disciple knows first above everything and everyone that his debt with God is bigger than anyone else’s. He extends mercy to other sinners because he believes he is the chief of sinners. All that said… How in the Sam Hill are you gonna make a baby, and then decide—while your age starts with a “1” or barely a “2”—that this isn’t going to work out, and you’ll go find someone else to have sex with? This serial monogamy stuff is just nuts, man. There are things even more nuts, but I cannot fathom a more painful question for a child, and from a child, than, “How come Daddy isn’t here with us?” Or worse, “Who is my Daddy?” Believe me, n...

 I saw something mean on the Twitter. Someone I follow said something like, “Protestants claim to know the Bible, but they just use it how they want.” Let me stop you right there. Most Protestants do absolutely know the Bible (as they have received it) better than most Catholics. That’s just true. I was there, and I’m telling you, it’s true. Unless we can cheat and use Scott and Kimberly Hahn’s kids, we’d get murdered in “sword drills” by some 16-year-old on a break from Baptist summer camp. Look, I am not saying it’s rightly interpreted all the time. I’d still be part of the Reformation if I believed that. But I can absolutely promise you: you don’t want to pick this fight. I was received into the Catholic Church at Easter when I was 31 years old. I’m 46 now. It might have been the happiest day of my life. But I will tell you that drinking deeply of the philosophical tradition and the Sacred Tradition, I started to get sad, because the Scriptural citations didn’t come quite as eas...

 The official terms liturgically are that bishops, priests, and deacons are the “ordinary ministers of Holy Communion.” Anyone else who helps in this way or in any other way is an extraordinary minister. Respectfully, in an ideal scenario, you wouldn’t be there. So please do it reverently and efficiently by all means. But ideally, the faithful shouldn’t notice you. It is also the case that people with bad motives and the ignorant use the provisions and permissions for less-than-ideal situations to introduce their wrong ideas into the liturgy. More than a few people need to hear, “Hey friend. You could literally go to Hell for stuff like that.” “Active participation” does not mean, “As many of us as possible need to do stuff in the liturgy.” It means that we know the significance of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We are trying to be prayerfully aware of what the priest is doing, and to offer our own selves as distinct sacrifices to God. This is where the “and yours” in the vernacul...

 I don’t do it. I have a disability. Nobody should want to drop a consecrated Host, but if you know that you’re more likely to drop one than almost everyone else, just receive on the tongue. I don’t think that kneeling and receiving on the tongue is necessarily better, except to say that altering a body posture can alter a heart posture. In the main, that’s why we do it. To be somewhat funny about it, I would absolutely rather lick or bite the finger of a minister of Holy Communion than drop the Blessed Sacrament on the floor. Don’t worry about it, though; if Jesus were mostly ashamed of us, he wouldn’t show up at all. I started reading some lay “trad” essay on Substack about how it’s somehow wrong to receive in the hand, and I stopped. Just precious self-important nonsense, as usual. Please feel free to lick your hand, if you do happen to receive in the hand, and you suspect there might be a crumb. Our Lord shouldn’t be left like a hobo, after all. We do seem to spend a good deal ...

 Too bloody right, I watched The Lion King again the other day. It truly is a great film. Did you know that it’s made 979 million dollars? They made it for 45 million dollars in 1994. That’s a blockbuster, folks. Oddly enough, it did the most business outside North America. Different things struck me this time. Mufasa said, “Being brave doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble.” Indeed, bravery in the cause of wickedness or pride is a waste. Mufasa speaking to Simba from Heaven got me pretty good. I don’t think I’ve gotten emotional at that part before. I used to feel Simba’s ache as Mufasa receded; that longing I understand. However, this time it was, “You are my son, and the one true king” which landed a hard punch against me. Indeed, I spoke the line out loud, though I was alone. It was emotional. Ancestor worship isn’t totally wrong; as it is written, “Honor your father and your mother.” On the other hand, there’s nothing inherently praiseworthy about merely having lived and die...

 I was on a rant the other day about how the TV drama The West Wing was liberal fantasy, and how even Martin Sheen couldn’t play a believable Catholic president, because no one who was meaningfully Catholic—even with buffet tendencies—would go into an Episcopal cathedral (not even the National Cathedral) to contest with God over the death of Mrs. Landingham.  We just wouldn’t. Sorry. There’s probably a Catholic chapel at least within a couple miles, and maybe better. Technically, Martin Sheen was born during World War II, so he’s the Silent Generation. But The West Wing is Boomer fantasy liberalism. Notice how often the characters in that administration win the arguments with just their sheer conviction. The music swells, and whoever they were arguing with just slinks away. It’s actually embarrassing. I’ll just say it: you kinda have to be liberal to like the show. Not even the adorable Emily Procter playing a Republican could save the show. She might actually be conservative ...

 I don’t mind it. I’m not even rebellious enough to destroy a wave as it comes around. I will say that most people can’t do the wave and maintain focus on the game, which baseball assuredly deserves. In my long familiarity with my beloved St. Louis Cardinals, the outbreak of The Wave usually indicated that the game was delayed, or boring. We’re not The Best Fans In Baseball (TM). Sorry. But St. Louis has a pretty big metro area. The Cardinals will never be in financial trouble, unless they get taken over by a series of fools. Moreover, the hardcore, well, core of the fan base IS extremely knowledgeable. Objectively, we can say that the floor for the attendance of the Cardinals is probably 25,000 a game. It’s the most decorated franchise in the National League, and probably the Dodgers and the Yankees could credibly claim to have more haters. And we absolutely deserve that. We’ve won a lot. Like, a lot. They’ve spent the last few years being average or bad, and I’ve felt genuine sym...

 The Lion King. (1994) The Hunt For Red October. (1990) Field Of Dreams (1989). They are great films, but there are specific reasons why these three are the ones that mean the most to me. The Lion King reminds me of my father. When I think of my father, I think of Mufasa. I also think of Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, but Atticus is impossible to live up to. Like Bluey’s Dad.  But the parallels to Mufasa deepen. Mufasa dies suddenly, and it’s something that defines Simba for the rest of the film. When Simba finally triumphs, he does so by finding himself, and thereby honoring his father. His wandering was Simba trying to ignore his father and his father’s death. It’s more than just the sadness of the death; it’s what the death means, and what Simba does in response. The Hunt For Red October is pretty much my foreign policy and my patriotism distilled into a movie. Communism sucks, and despite herself, the United States of America remains the hope of the world. The book had to ...

 I don’t know anything about psychology, and obviously he does. I think I have dropped enough similar bombs on the far Left that I don’t need to become a poster boy for the Right like he did, or at least I felt he did. Probably from his perspective, he sees and saw his field in general being used for the destruction of self-efficacy, especially among men. I can appreciate that. He said something a few months back in a video that sticks with me as a teacher: The biggest thing a teacher does is set the inspirational frame for learning. I think he’s right. I think what I can do better is draw direct connections with the content knowledge and our near-inevitable bond as learners together. (That is, some of my friends have said that I am especially skilled at creating bonds of friendship with kids; I don’t think so. I just think a lot of people don’t feel seen, especially as they grow up. Try a little, you end up with strong loyalty.) If you don’t know something, you can find it out. Bu...

 I know Scott Stapp and those guys were trying to beat the Christian allegations, but especially the period from 1997-2001, why try? It’s a hard rock trip through the Psalms. As for music critics, what do they know? I always do reparations for “the words” in “My Own Prison”—I’m definitely a Christian, after all—but I have seen some things, man. Imperfect but real spirituality resonates more with me than a lot of “church people.” Moreover, every genre of music deserves stuff that’s radio-friendly. Make what you want, but if you try to tell me that you’re a musician and that you wouldn’t trade places with Taylor Swift in half a second, I’ll call you a liar. Besides The Joshua Tree, if it’s not a Creed record, give me the Make Believe LP from Weezer. It’s Eastern, but get over it. We can and will “baptize” anything. If I’m completely honest, “Christian” music usually isn’t good because I just don’t believe what they’re selling. Pathos and ethos, man. How many of those CCM bands had pe...

 The Spotify algorithm knows me well. 1980s and 1990s pop and R&B. It was a time when pop and adult contemporary were the same songs. Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis made their bones in this time, somehow making a mark as songwriters and producers contemporaneously with the legendary Babyface. (Kenneth Edmonds) Jam and Lewis introduced the music world to Janet Jackson principally, though that is in no way exhaustive of their contributions. They wrote and produced the ballad “Let’s Wait Awhile” from the 1986 LP Control. It concerns a young woman telling her boyfriend that she isn’t ready to have sex. Now, the younger sister of Michael Jackson was only 20 years old in 1986. Doubtless many of her fans were younger. The question is, why? What are we waiting for? A lot of scary red pill types go on and on about not wanting a woman who’s “ran through,” but what’s the point? 20 is too young, but 22 would be fine? The Christian ethic is direct: the permission for sex for both men and women...

 I’m not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch. I thought and think that COVID-19 was deadly and dangerous. I wore a mask the whole time, and got the vaccine as soon as I was permitted to. I’ve received three doses so far. All that said, I have no need to put my spikes in the ground to defend Anthony Fauci. In fact, I have known a few people who got MPH degrees to wonder if the whole racket is in creatively lying to the “ignorant” public for ideological purposes. High US officials knew the Chinese were literally making bio weapons at the Wuhan lab. We funded it. It was not a bat or a pangolin or anything at a wet market. If that right-wing nutjob Jon Stewart (sarcasm) can joke about it on late-night TV, it ain’t the fever swamp, my friends. And look, I started fights on social media trying to get friends and loved ones to get vaccinated. Basic math said the older you get, the less likely you were to bounce back unaided. That’s still true. It’s not in the news, but it could still kil...

 Obviously, I didn’t know Glen. But I knew his work, especially “Once” and the music associated with the film. It’s legitimately a great film, and the song “Falling Slowly” won an Academy Award. Marketa Irglova played a fellow musician who agrees to help him make an album. There is some romantic tension in the film, though Irglova’s character was married. It was a real Kris Kristofferson-Barbra Streisand situation, and the actor-musicians actually were dating during the making of the film. It’s a good enough story to have spawned a Broadway musical, and if you’re not aware, that’s a compliment from me. Hansard really did play his guitar on the street for money, and even after “Once” he wasn’t likely to be the opening act on the Eras Tour. He loved music, and he loved to play it for people. With the Lord’s permission, I would like to say that auto accidents and plane crashes are stupid. Actually, I can think of a few other ways of dying that seem senseless. Suffice to say that he’s ...

 I suppose that a person who is not an adherent of Christianity would be literally ignorant of certain details, but does any American who lives in Kentucky of all places really not understand why Christians would be sad if you said you’re not a Christian and you don’t want to attend their church? [People are idiots, and some people on social media pretend to be idiots for money.—ed.] Fair enough. Being Catholic is somewhat easier, in the sense that we don’t anxiously worry about the souls of those practicing other faiths, because God doesn’t condemn ignorance and can lead them to His Son via his own workings. That said, if a Muslim walked straight up to me and demanded to know about Jesus, I won’t miss that hanging curve. Some crazy fundamentalist wandered into our parish one night before Saturday Vigil Mass, and tried to preach us out of the Catholic Church. I was almost sad that the usher dragged him out. Dude, you’re standing in front of your Beloved right now. Your Savior is ri...

 Did I watch it a fair amount? Sure. Did I laugh sometimes? Absolutely. And he's not without his charms. Our ages are close enough that we lean into pop culture similarly. I've never met anyone who dislikes The Lord of The Rings book trilogy. His wife is more interesting than he is. But let's cut the crap: the show was too political and too liberal to have and keep a big audience. He got his start in Jon Stewart's satirical orbit, and his rise may have sown the seeds of his own destruction. Of all the really strong criticisms you can make of Donald Trump, I guess I never have hated him enough to be sad that Colbert's show was ending. The Left thinks its satire reflects reality, and that's exactly why they keep losing. To paraphrase James Carville, you can't beat someone you don't take seriously. Political satire has a long tradition in our country, but the secret sauce of political comedy gold is that (almost) everyone has to laugh. We've hit a point...

 People who have been actually abused have a good reason to do something like that. And if an otherwise healthy and accountable person doesn’t respect boundaries that you want to set for your own family and children, well, I can see saying something like, “These are our expectations. Meet them, or leave.” I think that Catholic Answers piece was overstated on this point. You can still will the good of any person—the definition of love—and still rightly decide that being physically and emotionally close to someone is everything from undesirable to highly inappropriate. My parents are and were great. Not perfect, mind you. I’ve had to forgive and let go of things. I don’t want to give a eulogy any time soon for my mother, God willing. But in the end, it would be an honor. I couldn’t even attempt a eulogy for one stepfather. See the first paragraph. But I did give one for the other stepfather, and I meant every good word. I honestly hope I don’t become “The Eulogy Guy.” Because I feel ...

 Obviously. Because in order to defend it, you have to defend the idea—whether you realize it or not—that only people who are strong enough to defend themselves have rights as people. All that babble about power imbalances is rendered as unserious, because the most powerless people on Earth are the unborn, and the infants they will become.  Prenatal testing as a regime heads toward genocide. “Death with dignity” will start voluntarily, and become involuntary. If the government controls health care, they will tell you if you live, or if you die. You can easily say Big Insurance already does this, and I won’t argue the point. But the lot of you have no idea what “medically necessary” means. Some of you have trauma keeping you from seeing the numbers on elective abortion. I’ll grant a full one percent to various disasters that may arise. I know it’s not even that high. But if 99 percent of something is indefensible, you don’t cling to the one percent, unless you’re nuts. And the ...

 My delightfully nuts internet friend Aaron “The Rat” Nelson posted a sign from Lima, OH that oddly enough said, “No child has two moms. No child has two dads.” With rainbow colors, just to apparently stick the rhetorical knife in. Now, I am 46 years old, unemployed, crippled, and I already had a big mouth, so my first reaction was, “Tough cookies, you cowards. That’s true.” But I figured an explanation was in order. Especially given the fact that I 1. Arguably hate no one, besides arguably John Kerry, for being astonishingly self-important, being inarticulate, and being wrong about everything important anyway. 2. Have no malice I am aware of involving ordinary people who practice homosexuality, and 3. Have no plans in any case to set up Rainbow Gulags or any similar thing in the happy event that I become Dictator of Jasonistan, formerly known as the United States of America. Now that all the foregoing is established, I explain thusly: People are created when a man and a woman have...

 I think it’s weird and stupid that Christian morality is the only one people are somehow allowed to be frightened of. The nature of government authority is coercive. That’s how governments work. Christianity isn’t special in its possibility to be terrifying. In fact, I will happily argue that full-blown Christendom was objectively the best thing to happen to humanity, ever. People are so soft that they’ll act like the Salem Witch Trials will break out because some Republican happened to say that it might be wrong to murder your own children. I just think it would be more honest if people said the truth: they don’t mind government telling everyone what to do, as long as all the coercion happens to people they don’t like. Maximum freedom doesn’t work; we know that. We rely as much on social conventions and social mores as we do on government. That’s why Sam Harris ends up looking so foolish: it’s what an avowed unbeliever looks like when he grew up in a Christian culture. If you don...

 Tommy Lee Jones, if memory serves, is an Academy Award winner who has been charming audiences for ages. He’s probably best as a police officer or a soldier, ordinary guys forced to be extraordinary and heroic. He’s one of my favorite actors. He’s been the big lead, but he’s a character actor, and that’s probably the highest compliment I can give as a film and television patron. Men in Black (1997) is a sci-fi buddy comedy that has way more pathos than it has any right to have. The sequels are still watchable because of Jones and the great Will Smith. Agent K (Jones) convinces Smith’s NYPD detective James Edwards to join MIB. Edwards finds out that he’ll never see family or friends again, and it will be as if he never existed. It’s a heavy moment, and Agent K gives him until sunrise to decide. Edwards asks, “Is it worth it?” K answers, Oh, yeah. It’s worth it.” He pauses for a beat as he’s walking away and adds, “If you’re strong enough.” Someone added that clip to a reel showing a...

 On the one hand, he actively dislikes and is confused by social expectations that others don’t seem to mind. His wealth and position insulate him from the repercussions of his social discomfort and people put off by his lack of conformity. He is very blunt with his close friend Charles Bingley. Bingley definitely moves in social situations easily, and speaks positively about others, both by natural disposition, and by the mores of that culture. In his interactions with Elizabeth Bennet, it’s not hard to imagine that Elizabeth views their interactions as “witty banter,” whilst an autistic Darcy views his replies as explaining her mistaken perceptions of his motivations thoroughly. There are a lot of situations where Darcy clearly indicates that he feels he has to pretend, to “pass” when he clearly doesn’t understand why people expect him to do or to feel certain ways. And if Darcy actually were autistic, he wouldn’t be bothered per se by negative perceptions about him, but he would...

 What people are doing with the heterosexual/homosexual binary is (whether intentionally or not) suggesting that both sides of it are morally the same. One is not better, just different. That’s exactly what the activists were doing. They do it with even stupider words like “cishet” and “fem-presenting.” Activism and jargon, all the way down. And left-Christians rush in to apologize for slights or even violence that—if it happened—don’t happen to the degree that the activists need it to. The streets need to be stained with gay/whatever else blood. Of course, leaving people alone and not being the language police are barely an option. Pete’s sake, Sophie Cunningham is getting called “MAGA Barbie” for being conventionally attractive and daring to suggest that biological men shouldn’t compete in women’s and girls’ sports. Here’s the bad news: I’ll bet you a million dollars that she’s more Left than I am. Not that it matters. Someone white and male will get blamed for the incest between...

I’m tired of seeing “by suicide.” Frankly, I would rather see,  “X committed suicide.” Maybe enough of us know Latin, and that the word literally means killing oneself, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s an effort to deflect responsibility and agency from people. Important people want to do that so they can justify telling us how to live. If we’re all just feeling beasts with no decisional capacity, some class of betters can tell us where to go, what to eat, where to live, and when to die. We can still have context in these tragic cases when someone takes his or her own life. Far be it for me to tell the God of mercy and justice what to do. But it doesn’t just happen; it’s not a disease process, in the strict sense. What do you tell people who are angry in the aftermath? They don’t want to hear that some anthropomorphic Depression took down their loved one. They didn’t contract Ebola or COVID or tuberculosis. They decided—under duress perhaps—that dying was preferable to liv...

 She’s the four-time and reigning MVP, having gone into this season with the all-time leading points per game average of 21.82. She’s above 26 points per game this year. The equivalent of this would be if Michael Jordan bumped his points per game average to 35 in 1997, just because the Bulls needed him to. She’s also an elite rebounder, recovering 9.5 missed shots every game. A’ja Wilson is making over 53 percent of her shots; Caitlin Clark is making 43 percent of hers. Caitlin Clark is now the all time leader in assists per game average, at only 24 years old. She’s also the fastest to make 200 3-point shots in history. She’s basically good for 20 points every game, even if she’s playing poorly, and maybe double that, if she’s playing well. She’s the face of the league, in terms of fans, revenue, merchandise, attention, and all of it. She’s my favorite player, on my favorite team. She’s not the best player. Anything to the contrary is just agitprop. All the above takes into conside...

 Sometimes the mask will slip, and history gives a clean look at an ugly thing, like when Alexander Stephens proclaimed that the Confederacy was fighting for white supremacy. It’s unavoidable; you see it, you can’t unsee it, and how everything shakes out will set a new pattern for how everything will go. When certainty and consensus is achieved, everyone will say that they always agreed with what we’re saying now, though that’s not even close to true. Most people prefer euphemisms in times like these. They’ll literally invent things that never happened, because a hero on the wrong side of a crossroads like this is intolerable. Abortion is like this. It’s ugly, it’s tragic, and it’s actually indefensible. But ordinary people who don’t want to face it will talk about “choice” and “bodily autonomy” and literally anything else, because the nature of the thing is too ugly to face directly.  What is the thing in itself? We’re not saying that choice or bodily autonomy don’t matter in...

 That’s me. [Jesus would be Michael Corleone. Also, he’s definitely not going to kill you whilst you fish.—ed.] It’s an analogy, OK? Plus, if he did happen to say, “He’s got a good heart, but he’s stupid and weak,” I couldn’t possibly argue with that characterization. Puzo and Coppola wrote brilliant screenplays for both films, and I am reading the book now. These two films are among the greatest ever produced, and I think it’s 100 percent true to say that authentic Christianity is in the background. If it weren’t, the famous baptism scene where Michael is taking baptismal vows for Michael Rizzi while the Corleone henchmen kill the other heads of the Five Families on his orders wouldn’t work. It relies on our moral intuition that this is the absolute height of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is also in view at the beginning of the second film, when Senator Cleary, played by regarded character actor G. D. Spradlin, delivers a slur-infused invective against Michael Corleone after playing the ki...

 Taylor Swift is suitably liberal, so she’s probably safe from being cancelled by our “betters.” But I remember when they used Kanye’s little protest on behalf of Beyoncé to try to argue that Beyoncé was being overlooked because of her race. Yeah, that lady, who’s won every award known to humanity (basically) and has more money in her couch cushions than I will ever make. And I am not saying that she’s never faced anything heinous. I wouldn’t even try to say that. What I will say is that progressive white women especially will make a cause out of anything or anyone, even if it’s dumb. Kanye West is a mentally unwell Nazi-loving Trump supporter, so they’ll send that little incident down the memory hole, since it’s not useful anymore. But I remember, and I don’t plan on letting certain people forget it conveniently.

 The comedian Neal Brennan has a bit about how Republicans welcome anyone who says they want to be a Republican. Liberals? Not so much. “Hey, I’m liberal, too!” “Really? We’ll see.” Josh Johnson has a similar bit. Both audiences laughed, because they know it’s true.

 When I was about 20, I used to read him on occasion. I was Reformed, and a Federal Vision sympathizer. Of course I was; I didn’t know it, but I was a writer. And if you’re a little bit artsy-fartsy like that, you’re a crypto-Catholic, even if you’re not ready to submit to Rome. It’s legit a kind of Oxford Movement within Reformed theology; that’s what it was; that’s what it is. I was smart enough to know that Western civilization is Catholic civilization. America is a bit anomalous, but let’s be real: the Anglican Communion at the time of the death of St. Thomas More was just the SSPX of its day: Catholics separated from their visible Head on Earth. Anyway, I laughed at a lot at the Wilson snark, because even a lot of liberal Christians at the time acted like President Bush was a Christian Ayatollah. C’mon, man. This dude from Old Money, whose relatives seemingly own a third of New England? Other than the Calvinist Congregationalists, the region is not known for its excess of reli...

 With due respect to Lichtman, external factors are just background most years. If a substantial portion of people think you hate them, criticism of the candidate who sits back and says, “They hate you, see that?” goes precisely nowhere. I could even grant you that the sitting president is like an internet comment section, like Cliff from Cheers without the sneaky smarts.  I would even grant you that staffing a ton of the executive branch with right-wing radio hosts is highly questionable. It’s the exact thing a TV president who is out of his depth would do. But the Democratic Party’s counterpart to Cliff Clavin was…Tim Walz? An alleged football coach who doesn’t know what a “pick six” is? Not to mention that a guy who is father to a Downs Syndrome son sounds foolish defending unfettered abortion rights. If it’s really true that you believe Republican efforts to restrict abortion access have unanticipated bad effects, handle it legislatively. Trump/Vance on abortion are first-...

 “Kamala Harris cares about they/them. Donald Trump cares about you.” A couple things: I won’t cynically say that a politician doesn’t care about anyone; I don’t know that. Heck, I called George W. Bush the “Comforter-In-Chief” (before some jackwagon at USA Today stole it) and I wasn’t kidding. That second sentence I don’t personally believe. I have to work hard to praise the man. But anyway. This was the crowning moment. Whoever wrote this deserves a place teaching in the Obama-Atwater School of Effective Political Destruction. Harris could recite “The New Colossus” whilst weaning a flock of baby bald eagles with Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless The USA” to no effect. It was over. And it was perfectly emblematic. Normal people don’t spend time worrying about being transphobic. It’s essentially a meaningless word, coined yet again by people who talk exclusively to each other. If I promise not to say “progressive academics,” will you send me money? This is distinct, by the way, from...

 22 years ago in an essay, I said that I preferred Bush 43 to be re-elected president, for lots of policy reasons. But on a personal note, the Democrats acted like our country itself was a gulag, and we were all allegedly locked in it. Happy warriors usually win; dour people embarrassed for the very country they intend to govern usually don’t. In the interest of principled criticism, I definitely know that “enhanced interrogation” and the abuse of terrorist militants violates longstanding human rights commitments. In the present day, ICE detentions that ignore judicial orders to obey habeas corpus have a gulag-adjacent quality. Any lawyer advocating for basic human rights can say anything they want. I didn’t vote for Donald Trump; I didn’t appoint Stephen Miller. This is quite apart from illegal immigration, and the probable likelihood that any such people also are violent criminals. In other words, when ICE agents are protecting Americans and guests from monsters along with other ...

 There was a lot of social science in my electives then. Political science and economics were a blast, but I filled it all out with enough sociology and religious studies that I nearly had minors in both. Sociology was explicitly Marxist. In fact, a lot of those were taught by European immigrants. The only people more self-righteous than American leftists are European leftists. As you may know, religious studies became essentially religious sociology or cultural anthropology after the rise of the New Left in the late 1960s. Studying dogma and religious texts was left to the benighted believers in their churches and seminaries. I still liked a lot of it, but I was often angry and arrogant then. I got saved in 1997. “Deconstruction” meant Marxist dismissal of white and male certitudes from the modern era, and an assertion that some need for power completely explains every contention. But philosophically, if every truth claim is a grasp for power, that’s emotivism: personal gain or de...

 The Democratic Party isn’t winning the presidency lately. I’m going to put a language warning right here. Sometimes, a vulgar word or words is the clearest way to say something. Donald Trump has been described as a carnival barker. I happen to think that is an insult to carnival barkers. He’s a self-involved amoral beast who was born leading off of third base. The only real difference between Bernie Madoff and Donald Trump is that Madoff went broke. If you have money—even if you borrowed it—you don’t have to be bound by anything, and this man isn’t. That said, I don’t believe a whole bunch of left-wing garbage, and most people don’t. Trump is a bullshitter, when he’s not doing something awful or illegal. But if you think about who votes in America, it’s probably a guy about 55, white, named Steve or Ron or Jim. That’s your median voter. I am not him; Tom Darrow and I are too throughly Christian to be the median voter. Most Americans identify as Christian, but Jim’s not a disciple,...

 I will still say that The Lion King is my favorite film, because it helps me process and heal from losing my father, without completely breaking me. Interstellar just breaks me, and if it weren’t so profoundly Christian, I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone I’ve known. I have watched it 5 times, and I will only watch it again if I am sharing it with someone. I don’t hurt myself on purpose, even if pain can be good. Matthew McConaughey may be a funny guy who has done comedy and chick flicks, but when he wanted to avoid being typecast to move into drama, he did it exactly right. He won his Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club, but Interstellar was the announcement that he would win one. Nobody will ever take the respect that comes with that, and no one should try. It feels sort of cheap to call it “entertainment,” though I suppose it is. My Blu-Ray sits in a box; my streaming copy has never been watched.  What could I possibly say to those actors, without melting into a puddle? ...

 I was going in thinking about Interstellar and Arrival, because those sci-fi films are intentional dramas. And the Nolan brothers write, produce, and direct with the intention of producing an emotional response. If you have seen Interstellar, you know. There’s always a risk of being cheap and mawkish with that effort, but I think both Interstellar and Arrival earn their payoffs with characters we care about and costs that aren’t repaid neatly. This film kind of sets us up for something similar: Hero goes on an apparent suicide mission to save the world. He finds more than he bargained for. He’s reluctant. It jumps around in time to fill in the background. But this film replaces the sorrow with humor and a kind of plucky optimism. It’s not like self-sacrifice is absent; not at all. But “Coop” saves the world FOR his kids, Tom and Murph. In a way, the world IS Tom and Murph. Love drives him. Grace had no one on Earth; he found a purpose in deep space. He didn’t even willingly go. Wh...

 Billy Joel has a hit song called, “Only The Good Die Young.” It’s catchy, but it’s scandalous. If you stop dancing for five seconds, you realize it’s about enticing a young Catholic teen girl to fornicate. I didn’t write it; I am just the messenger. Yeah, Billy, if Catholic girls start much too late, they have good Dads. Anyway, I have noticed that indeed the good do die very young sometimes. You’ve seen it often enough; people who teach you that you’re not grateful enough. People will still decide God is a monster, and I have varying degrees of pity or sympathy, depending on those circumstances. But I understand now. I’m paying attention. Happiness is fleeting here; joy abides, and it is for others. Hand me a Coke or a Mountain Dew, I am happy. Frankly, I will probably arbitrarily decide you’re a good person. Abiding joy goes through me, even if I suffer. Nothing merely human produces abiding joy. You need a relationship with Jesus for that. “It is no longer I who live, but Chris...

 Even in these latter times, tons of safeguards have been added to our penal system, so that instances of capital punishment aren’t seen as barbarism. Doubtless, even some people who in some objective moral sense deserved it were people who reformed their lives—such as they were—and took responsibility for what they did. Let me back up and say that it could never have been intrinsically evil, that is, evil in its very object. Holy Mother Church executed enough notorious murderers that she wasn’t about to impugn her moral authority. By God’s grace, the Catholic Church remains the last best hope for humanity, not only for eternal salvation in Christ, but for a society worth living in. Too many people think even high-level theology and ethics is a Choose Your Own Adventure Book. And that Church discussion is just politics with a longer timescale. I have no time for that, re: capital punishment. We’re even caught between the dignity of the condemned, and the barbarism of their acts. Th...

 In my last post, I took a shot at Ricky Gervais. Well, not really. More like a shot at atheist-flavored ignorance, which even as an entertainer, he’s pretty visible for. We need to actually speak plainly about what we have recorded in what Christians call the New Testament, or New Covenant. Church people, step out of the shoes of loving Jesus and His Church for one moment. How does the New Testament read or sound on the face of it? Let’s just focus on the four Gospels. That’s where all the stuff allegedly said by Jesus is recorded. Jesus as a liar doesn’t have much evidence behind it; he didn’t lounge in Malta after all the stuff, getting rich after selling purported baptismal water. He got called a blasphemer by his own people, and executed as a disturber of the peace by the Roman Empire. Let’s set aside Jesus’ alleged resurrection and every miracle he did for a moment as well. Jesus being crazy seems to have some evidence behind it. No sensible philosopher I have ever heard woul...