Safe Haven

 As many know, this was actually a film for TV, based on a stage play by Levinson and Link. If memory serves, the character of Lt. Columbo originated in 1962, and he was not played by Peter Falk. Columbo was played by Bert Freed. What we know as the TV series began airing in 1971, and the final episode of “classic” Columbo aired in 1978. You may have heard that ABC aired many “new” Columbo films starting in 1989, and the last aired in 2003. I have seen just a few of these, and I think they are fine, but the general consensus is that the classic ones provided the audience for the new ones. This makes sense; Columbo is on a short list of the most beloved characters in American TV and feature films. Anyway, this very first story centers around a psychiatrist “Ray Flemming” (Gene Barry) who viciously strangles his wife “Carol” (Nina Foch) because he’s been adulterous, she demanded that he stop or face divorce, and he refused. He’s also having one of his affairs with a very ill patient ...

 It’s a modern hymn written by Stuart Townsend. As a Catholic and a theologian, I feel compelled to change one line in the first stanza/verse: “The Father turns His face away.” That’s heresy. Otherwise, it’s a great hymn, much better than a lot of things that are sung at Holy Mass/Divine Liturgy. Oh, I change the line to, “I cannot turn my face away.” As difficult to see “The wages of sin is death” at the Cross, we shouldn’t want to look away. And if we’re not looking away, how much more should the Father not look away! This is the true Son with whom He is well pleased, the Son to whom he commands us to listen. We cannot eliminate the penal and substitutionary aspects completely, nor should we want to, but so-called penal substitutionary atonement seriously misunderstands sacrifice in service to the Calvinism at its root. Let’s talk about 2 Corinthians 5:21. This verse is offered by Reformed as an argument for “double imputation,” the idea that Christ takes the penalty for sin, bot...

 What if second-wave feminism and after just reduces down to abortion, and a bunch of unhappy people? What if you were an activist for most of 92 years, and nearly everything for which you advocated was bad? What would you do, if your life was a waste? Lord, have mercy! Ezekiel 33:11.

 A woman advocating for abortion is like actually installing a screen door on a submarine. Abortion is literally anti-woman. This makes a certain sense if you think about it. A lot of people doing it are pretending they don’t know what a woman even is. Olivia Rodrigo is a pop star, if you don’t know. She’s a walking, flouncing performative contradiction, if you ask me, because her appeal is largely based in creating the desire in men to copulate with her. Let me know when “Let’s have sex and then kill the baby!” starts making sense. Meanwhile, Rodrigo spearheaded an abortion-celebrating music festival. Nothing says “girl power” like murdering all the girls.

 If a person tries to enter the US more than once, that illegal entry becomes a felony. Even taking into account “felony creep,” we don’t have to allow felons to stay here. I think Stephen Miller is a web troll with political power. I think Donald Trump’s entire political career is at best, a waste. Even adding in the Republican conflation of crime with immigration, the Democrats pretend that Donald Trump is essentially the only criminal. And I do mean only. Some may forget “Defund The Police” but I don’t.

 It always had a deep resonance for me, because the Huxtables were an intact family with generations of that fidelity and love. And yes, it’s TV, and human beings are sinners, but it wouldn’t resonate if it were completely unrealistic. Bill Cosby’s own sins have damaged the images he left us, these symbols that the whole cast created together. But there must be a thirst for virtue. Pretended goodness will appeal, but we all thirst for it, because we keep gravitating toward it, even in our stories.