| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 |
« November 2018 | Main | January 2019 »
This is worth the six minute look. You won't find a better analysis. Mohamed El Erian - a really bright guy I pay attention to - unlike most talking heads. He was very effective as head of PIMCO.
I think I was a charter member (not that I supported them; I'm on lots of email lists of groups I don't support) of their email list way back when, as they defended Bill Clinton over his Monica Lewinsky business. "We need to move on." Here's the sticker - free if you send money. See below the sticker.
Here is what Michael Moore has to say about MoveOn: "MoveOn is working around the clock to help organize and turn out volunteers to get out the vote in November. I know that MoveOn members like you are moving heaven and earth to win this election. We're the majority. But we need to rise up. That's the only way out of this mess." Will you chip in $3 a week to help win this election? (MoveOn will contact you shortly after Election Day to see if you want to modify or cancel your donation.)
Another book recommended to me by my son Joe - he'd also recommended this one 12 Rules for Life, an Antidote to Chaos and both books come to some similar conclusions. This is despite the very different backgrounds of the two co-authors of this book and the author of 12 Rules, Jordan Peterson.
The subtitle of this book is "How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure." The book grew out of an essay the two authors wrote in The Atlantic, September, 2015 issue and which you can find here - The Coddling of the American Mind: How Trigger warnings are Hurting Mental Health on Campus. The authors are Greg Lukianoff a constitutional lawyer and the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which defends free speech and academic freedom on campus, and has advocated for students and faculty involved in many of the incidents the book describes; Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist who studies the American culture wars. In a section on "social justice" on page 216 they state "Neither of us has ever voted for a Republican for Congress or the Presidency" (just wanted to get that little fact out of the way, since it's important to some people). If you can have people as diverse as Cornel West and Robert P. George writing blurbs on the back dust cover, you can figure the book has wide appeal.
The first part of the book is a discussion of what they call the Three Great Untruths: (1) What does not kill you makes you weaker (2) Always trust your feelings and (3) Life is a battle between good people and evil people. The first third of the book investigates the social trends that spread these untruths.
Part II is titled "Bad Ideas in Action" and discusses intimidation, violence and witch hunts on college campuses. Part III is "How Did We Get Here" with thought provoking commentary on current child rearing, pre-college education and the dramatic shift in society with the rise of iPads and smart phones -how they are changing the culture dramatically for young people. Part IV is titled "Wising Up" - how do we reverse these trends.
The book is really excellent and only 260 pages. It makes many of the same points Jordan Peterson makes in his above-mentioned book. The link above is to my posting about Peterson's book - and also linked here. These books should be must -reads for educators, therapists, or anyone with children under 25 years old. In fact for anyone either and both books should lead to self-criticism and self-examination; always a good thing. If you type in either author's name on youtube you can find plenty of interviews with them.
This is pretty amusing. But I suppose I'm easily amused. M plays it well. This is the first Bond film with Roger Moore. And Bond's watch is an Omega.
Wow. You don't see this very often - usually the kicker dances out of the way.
Funny, I thought I'd already posted about this book, but evidently not. Author Amy Chozick covered Hillary Clinton for almost ten years for the NY Times - the subtitle is Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling. While it is about Mrs. Clinton, it's also about Ms. Chozick and her life while following Clinton, especially on the 2016 primary and presidential campaign trails. Lots of anecdotes and info - one amusing theme - all the while she was flying around the country on the press plane or campaign plane following Clinton, she and her husband were trying to conceive a child. Well... she wasn't home very much. (Spoiler - they succeeded, but after the election).
Of course there were some interesting insights into the Clinton campaign. While it's clear Chozick admired Mrs. Clinton, she isn't afraid to write negatively about her and sometimes reflects on the tactical errors that probably killed her campaign against Trump. I very much enjoyed the book - I found it actually charming. And it is a pretty quick read. One warning - much of the "colorful" language in the text would put a marine drill sergeant to shame.
This is only the third political book of this type I've ever read - Man of the House by Tip O'Neill and What I Saw at the Revolution by Peggy Noonan are the others. So this is the first one in over thirty years.
Recommended to anyone interested in this sort of political perspective, or wants to know what it's like to be a reporter at a high level for a major newspaper.
See link and text below the nice picture -
To help you prepare for the worst
we've compiled the following comprehensive list of essential federal government services:
I posted about this here - Amazing: American completes unaided solo trek across Antarctica and now this short video from PBS -
Monday night football - Oakland Raiders v. Denver. Raiders did win.
"The border wall was simply a metaphor for the security and safety I offer this country. It's love. It's friendship," Trump said, addressing a crowd on the White House lawn.
"In a way, all of us are the border wall," he added thoughtfully. "The real border wall was inside us all along."
33 year old Colin O'Brady an elite endurance athlete (graduate of Yale) who has a number of world records to his credit. This despite having a horrendous burn injury in 2008. Here's his website - https://www.colinobrady.com/.
From the Washington Post -
Colin O’Brady, of Portland, finished the bone-chilling, 930-mile (1,500-kilometer) journey as friends, family and fans tracked the endurance athlete’s progress in real time online.
“I did it!” a tearful Brady said on a call to his family gathered in Portland for the holidays, according to his wife, Jenna Besaw.
“It was an emotional call,” she said. “He seemed overwhelmed by love and gratitude, and he really wanted to say ‘Thank you’ to all of us.”
O’Brady was sleeping near the finish line in Antarctica late Wednesday and could not immediately be reached for comment.
The 33-year-old O’Brady documented his nearly entirely uphill journey — which he called The Impossible First — on his Instagram page . He wrote Wednesday that he covered the last roughly 80 miles (129 kilometers) in one big, impromptu final push to the finish line that took well over an entire day.
"While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced,” O’Brady posted.
The day before, he posted that he was “in the zone” and thought he could make it to the end in one go.
“I’m listening to my body and taking care of the details to keep myself safe,” he wrote. “I called home and talked to my mom, sister and wife — I promised them I will stop when I need to.”
Though others have traversed Antarctica, they either had assistance with reinforced supplies or kites that helped propel them forward.
In 2016, British explorer Henry Worsley died attempting an unassisted solo trip across Antarctica, collapsing from exhaustion toward the end of the trek. Worsley’s friend and fellow English adventurer Louis Rudd is currently attempting an unaided solo in Worsley’s honor and was competing against O’Brady to be the first to do it.
Besaw said O’Brady plans to stay on Antarctica until Rudd finishes his trek, hopefully in the next few days.
“It’s a small club,” she joked. “His intention is to wait for Louis and have kind of a celebratory moment with the only other person on the planet to have accomplished this same thing.”
Well, it ain't Breakneck Ridge.
The MOH was only awarded in 1997. This is a great story - John Fox posthumously received the Medal of Honor in 1997 for actions during World War II
Here's the citation and the video below it has been seen almost 3 million times on facebook.
For his "gallant and courageous actions, at the supreme sacrifice of his own life,"[8] Fox was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. His widow, the former Arlene Marrow, received his medal from President Bill Clinton in a White House ceremony on January 13, 1997.[9] On that day, Clinton also awarded the medal to six other previously neglected African-American World War II veterans, including Vernon Baker, who was the only one living when awarded.[10]
Citation:
For extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy in the vicinity of Sommocolonia, Italy, on December 26, 1944, while serving as a member of Cannon Company, 366th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division. During the preceding few weeks, Lieutenant Fox served with the 598th Field Artillery Battalion as a forward observer. On Christmas night, enemy soldiers gradually infiltrated the town of Sommocolonia in civilian clothes, and by early morning the town was largely in hostile hands. Commencing with a heavy barrage of enemy artillery at 0400 hours on December 26, 1944, an organized attack by uniformed German units began. Being greatly outnumbered, most of the United States Infantry forces were forced to withdraw from the town, but Lieutenant Fox and some other members of his observer party voluntarily remained on the second floor of a house to direct defensive artillery fire. At 0800 hours, Lieutenant Fox reported that the Germans were in the streets and attacking in strength. He then called for defensive artillery fire to slow the enemy advance. As the Germans continued to press the attack towards the area that Lieutenant Fox occupied, he adjusted the artillery fire closer to his position. Finally he was warned that the next adjustment would bring the deadly artillery right on top of his position. After acknowledging the danger, Lieutenant Fox insisted that the last adjustment be fired as this was the only way to defeat the attacking soldiers. Later, when a counterattack retook the position from the Germans, Lieutenant Fox's body was found with the bodies of approximately 100 German soldiers. Lieutenant Fox's gallant and courageous actions, at the supreme sacrifice of his own life, contributed greatly to delaying the enemy advance until other infantry and artillery units could reorganize to repel the attack. His extraordinary valorous actions were in keeping with the most cherished traditions of military service, and reflect the utmost credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.
There's a couple of minutes of music before the Queen begins her message. And then three minutes of singing after she is done. As always a touching message - and Brigid requires we pay attention ...
The Pope's Apostolic Exhortation (an important writing but below an encyclical) on the call to personal holiness. I think it's his best document and I wish it were more promoted; brief (only 80 pages) and very to the point. I read it when it first came out last May and re-read this Advent.
There are five chapters - I put in a tiny quote or explanation (#2) for each -
(1) The Call to Holiness
"7. I like to contemplate the holiness present in the patience of God’s people: In their daily perseverance I see the holiness of the Church militant. A holiness found in our next-door neighbors; the middle class of holiness."
(2) Two enemies of Holiness
Ancient heresies in modern form. 1. Gnosticism: we are saved by what we know. & 2. Pelagianism: We are saved by our own efforts and good works; we don't need God's grace.
(3) In the light of the Master
"63. 'What must one do to be a good Christian?', the answer is clear. We have to do, each in our own way, what Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount."
(4) Signs of Holiness Today
"108. Hedonism and consumerism can prove our downfall. Similarly, when we allow ourselves to be caught up in superficial information, instant communication and virtual reality, we can waste precious time and become indifferent to the suffering flesh of our brothers and sisters.
109. The powerful witness of the saints is revealed in their lives, shaped by the Beatitudes and the criterion of the final judgement. I recommend rereading these great biblical texts frequently, referring back to them, praying with them, trying to embody them. They will benefit us; they will make us genuinely happy."
(5) Spiritual Combat, Vigilance and Discernment
"159. We are not dealing merely with a battle against the world and a worldly mentality that would deceive us and leave us dull and mediocre, lacking in enthusiasm and joy. Nor can this battle be reduced to the struggle against our human weaknesses and proclivities. It is also a constant struggle against the devil. Jesus himself celebrates our victories."
And -
"162. Our path towards holiness is a constant battle. Those who do not realize this will be prey to failure or mediocrity. For this spiritual combat, we can count on the powerful weapons that the Lord has given us: faith-filled prayer, meditation on the word of God, the celebration of Mass, Eucharistic adoration, sacramental Reconciliation, works of charity, community life, missionary outreach."
As I said, it's short - the whole exhortation can be read and chewed over in a couple of hours. Goes nicely on a kindle or your phone.
This was my Christmas posting in 2010 - time to repeat!
Which means, Happy Christmas to You! With thanks to the Irish online publication Lifezine -
Botticelli This was his only signed painting, done around 1501. Go here to learn a bit about The Mystic Nativity
Here's a very interesting article from the online magazine Crisis. FULL DISCLOSURE: I am pretty agnostic on whether the Magi and the Shepherds were real, or woven into the two Nativity stories to make theological points. I don't think it matters. We are given Scripture as it is. Article takes five minutes to read if you hit the link. I put some excerpts below the link.
Modern Science Offers Evidence for Christmas Story
Modern secularists like to cast a wide net, portraying not only Christmas, but also the life of Christ as fable. They say there was no virgin birth, no miracles, and no resurrection. According to them, we can know very little about the historical Jesus, what he did or said, or even if he existed at all. God becoming man is just another made-up story, falling into the genre of ancient Near East mystery religions. In short, Jesus is a myth. Worse yet, the people who believe the myth are foolhardy and weak of mind. Marx and Lenin called religion the “opium of the people.” Prominent atheist Richard Dawkins even goes so far as to write children’s books trying “to save kids” from the perils of religion. Christmas is scary!
In one sense, they are right. Christianity is myth. Christianity highlights the themes of good and evil, tragedy and triumph, supernatural feats and ordinary failings. The archetypal hero with a thousand faces can be seen in the Bible. These profound undercurrents of truth run deeply through the human soul. Christianity is a myth, but it is, as C.S. Lewis called, a “true myth”: “a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened.” God’s myth is greater than man’s myth, as it is incarnational in nature.
**********
The pilgrimage also allowed us to see first-hand that we are now in a “golden age” of biblical archeology. Ironically (to some), this golden age is powered by scientific advancements and new disciplines; things like archaeoastronomy, Lidar studies, and ground penetrating radar, to name just a few. There are examples of new discoveries everywhere you go in Israel and Jordan. In 1986, two fisherman and amateur archeologists uncovered the “Jesus boat” in the muddy lakebed in the Sea of Galilee during a severe drought. The fishing boat was radiocarbon-dated to between 120 B.C.-40 A.D., or roughly the time of Christ. The Apostles would have fished in a boat exactly like this one. In 2004, the “Pool of Siloam” was discovered, where Jesus cured a blind man by having him wash mud out of his eyes (Jn. 9:7). A drainage repair crew working on pipe maintenance uncovered large stone steps down into the pool. In 2007, archeologists discovered the long-lost tomb of Herod at his Herodium fortress. In 2009, while building a retreat house along the northern side of the Sea of Galilee, crews unearthed the remains of a first century synagogue at Magdala (home of Mary Magdalene). This discovery is now the oldest synagogue in the Galilee, with the oldest known representation of the Temple on the “Magdala Stone,” and is likely one of the hallowed grounds where Jesus frequented and taught.
In October 2016, a renovation project funded by National Geographic was done at the tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Some historians had previously believed that the original cave was not there, not that old, or doubted that this was the actual site of Christ’s burial (and resurrection) at all. An archeologist using ground-penetrating radar, however, proved them wrong. He was able to determine that the original cave walls were, in fact, still present. The simple cave is still there underneath the millennium of marble, icons and incense of the ornate Edicule shrine.
Mortar samples, taken from between the limestone cave-surface and the marble slab of the tomb, carbon-dated to about 345 A.D. This is exactly the right time frame when the Emperor Constantine would have discovered the tomb and built the current shrine around it.
**********
These were no ordinary sheep and no ordinary shepherds. Shepherd’s Field is where thousands of lambs were born and used for the daily sacrifices, and more importantly, the Passover sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem, as intimated in the ancient Jewish oral tradition of the Mishnah (e.g., Shekalim, 7.4) and Alfred Edersheim’s The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. The “shepherds” were not ordinary shepherds either, but most likely Levite priests. They were specifically stationed there at Shepherd’s Field to pasture the sheep and preserve the newborn lambs “without blemish” or “broken bone,” to meet the requirements of the Law for Temple sacrifices. The unblemished lambs were then chosen from Shepherd’s Field in Bethlehem and kept for the annual Passover sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Shepherd’s Field and Bethlehem highlight the convergence of Christ, biblical prophecy, God’s true myth, and archeology. Jesus was the fulfillment of the angel’s announcement to the shepherd-priests. It is fitting that when the shepherds came to the manger, they found not a baby lamb, but the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Jesus is the true “Lamb of God,” who was the fulfillment of the Passover sacrifice of the lamb, in order to take away sin and keep us from death. John the Baptist knew Jesus fulfilled this typology of the Passover lamb, saying: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29). Like many of the Christian sites in the Holy Land, the scriptures, Old Testament typology, and history come together to reveal the divine plan in the person of Jesus Christ.
Pretty good! From Joe.
For the person who has everything. Been viewed 625,000 times. It's a watch... Who knew they were building this (takes two years) in Rockefeller Center?
This is very nice - well worth a read.
‘A Great Joy’ Christmas and the New York Times.
At this time of year many readers look forward to revisiting an editorial the Journal has been running since 1949, and which will appear again in Monday’s editions. In the spirit of the season this column would also like to acknowledge the work of the competition.
Over the years the holiday season has inspired the editors of the New York Times to publish a number of compelling stories, including a 1985 dispatch from Laurie O’Neill on Christmas traditions in Connecticut:
Few made Christmas as joyous an occasion as did the family of Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, who lived at Nook Farm in Hartford from 1874 to 1891...
‘’There is something beautiful about all that old, hallowed Christmas legend,’’ he wrote to his wife, Livy, one Christmas Eve.
The family would buy gifts for the city’s poor and sick, delivering them by sleigh on Christmas Eve. The family’s red, Victorian Gothic-style home on Farmington Avenue was festooned with garlands, lighted with candles and filled with mirth.
‘’To me,’’ wrote Twain of Nook Farm, ‘’it was a holy place and beautiful.’’
Ms. O’Neill recounted that on Christmas Eve, Twain would appear as Santa Claus and entertain his daughters while “striving valiantly to disguise his distinctly Missourian accent.” Apparently Santa also tried to manage expectations for the big day:
‘’As I often lose the letters I receive, or get them mixed up,’’ he would say in seriousness to the children, ‘’I may have confused all your wishes so that the stocking which should have bulged out with a donkey’s head may be depressed by a hair ribbon. Therefore I should like to gather up your thanks now as you may not feel like giving me any after Christmas.’’
‘’Anyway,’’ he would add with a wink, prompting the children to squeal in merriment, ‘’I shall be gone by then.’’
On Christmas day in 1980, David Bird and Laurie Johnston of the Times reported on the theft of a bicycle from an 8-year-old Alaskan named Lisa Galloso-Richardson. According to the Times report:
This week in the mail she received a $200 money order with a note: ‘’My conscience moves me to pay you for the bike. I’m sorry it happened but there was a reason. Then I came into some money so I can send you this.’’
The bicycle thief gave his name and an Anchorage return address but Lisa’s family decided not to identify him. Said her mother, Tina, ‘’We would like to wish him a very Merry Christmas.’’
Perhaps the paper’s most remarkable statement on the season was the editorial entitled ‘A Great Joy’ published by the Times in 1983:
The story begins very simply. A man and his pregnant wife are on a journey. They had planned to stay at an inn but because all the rooms are gone they take shelter in a stable.
During the night the woman gives birth to a son. Her husband is her only help, farm animals the only witnesses. The woman swaddles the boy in cloth and nestles him in the straw. The desert is cold after sunset, and his parents may be grateful for the animals’ warmth. A little rest, and the family will move on. Not far from the stable, and ignorant of the birth, some shepherds are grazing their flocks when they are suddenly, frighteningly wrapped in light. An angel appears and says, ‘’Be not afraid; for behold I bring you news of a great joy.’’ The rest of the tale has been 2,000 years in the telling...There have been eras in which it seemed unlikely that the story would ever be told again. But new pages are forever being written.
Indeed they are. Here’s to the competitors and compadres who inspire us now and throughout the year.
Sue Konig - great writer. Just type in "Konig" in the search box up on the top right for more postings about her.
Here's Sue's excellent column - Tell your kids the truth: Santa is real
I remember when Susie Denk told me in third grade that there was no Santa. I immediately reported this to my mother. My mom asked, “Well, what do you think?”
I said, “It’s sad that Susie Denk doesn’t believe in him, because now Santa won’t come to her house.”
My mom agreed and changed the subject. No harm, no foul.
Remember, when you tell your kid there is no Santa, your kid will run to school to tell another kid. And I hate to break it to you, but your kid isn’t going to break the news in a gentle, understanding, empathetic way.
Your kid is going to run up to the nearest kid and say, “Hey, Ralph, guess what? There’s no Santa. It’s your parents leaving presents under the tree. Don’t you feel stupid, you sap!”
And why is your little angel being so mean to poor, hapless Ralph? Maybe because she’s pissed off that she was told “the truth” by her dopey parents. So now she has to make her happy peers miserable.
A Gold Star family - a family that has lost a loved one in military conflict. This is great.
Sr. Helen Prejean is the religious sister who was portrayed by Susan Sarandon in the 1996 movie Dead Man Walking. Sister Helen is active ministering to people on death row and working against the death penalty. I went to her talk last month at my alma mater, Fairfield University. I have never seen the movie or read either of sister's books (she working on a third) but I've read some articles by her and about her.
There were about 200 people to hear her at the Ignatius Chapel; I'd say half students and half people like me, just interested. She spoke for over forty minutes; a really fine talk, insightful, amusing and poignant. She reflected on how she got involved - back in 1982 -and her experiences with both men on death row and the families of their victims. And about different incidents portrayed in the movie. It was a wonderful talk. And she has an amazing New Orleans accent!
She did take some questions and very fortuitously I was able to ask the first one. I made a point that the prior day in the NY State elections the last firewall (the Republican controlled State Senate) preventing the enacting of legislation allowing for assisted suicide/euthanasia went down. From the perspective of the consistent ethic of life, what should be the response? She said I'd used the perfect word - firewalls -we need to erect them and "promote respect for life from the moment of conception to natural death". Which I think is the perfect answer. I spoke with her afterwards - lovely person.
Here's her website - and you can donate a few dinero through the site if you wish. Sister Helen
Good point. I confess to not being intelligent enough to know the right answer on this ...
After Trump announced that US troops would be pulled out of Syria, the President was quickly criticized by leaders on both the left and the right for breaking with the longstanding American tradition of remaining in Middle Eastern countries indefinitely.
"Occupying a country on the other side of the globe and staying there forever is an American pastime," said a CNN host. "For Trump to pull out when we haven't even been there a decade yet is a disgusting display of his selfishness and unwillingness to conform to the standards of presidential decorum."
"Has he no respect for our ways of life?" the host concluded gravely.
In a rare moment of unity, pundits on Fox News agreed. "We just need another 20 or 30 years in Syria, and we can accomplish our goals," said a morning host on the right-leaning news station. "He didn't even really give our soldiers a chance to settle in."
Pretty good column by James Freeman this afternoon.
The Washington Post reports:
Large parts of the federal government lurched toward a shutdown Thursday after President Trump told GOP leaders he would reject a short-term deal to keep the government open unless it contained money for border security.
In an emergency meeting with House Republican leaders, Trump said he would reject a measure passed in the Senate that would fund government operations through February 8 but deny Trump any new funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Most of the government, including the military, is funded through next September, and the government will continue to send out checks for Social Security and other programs on which Americans rely. But at a number of agencies, some government employees may not be authorized to continue doing unnecessary work. The Post adds:
Some 25 percent of the federal government will run out of money at the end of Friday and begin to shut down if Congress and Trump don’t reach a deal, including funds for homeland security, law enforcement, housing, transportation, and a number of other agencies.
Those agencies will continue to preform what are deemed “essential” functions, and the White House hasn’t yet revealed the full impact of a partial shutdown, telling agencies to keep their plans private. But it appears thousands of federal workers and private contractors would be sent home without pay beginning Saturday and others would be asked to continue working without pay.
Unfortunately for taxpayers—if recent history is any guide—a shutdown wouldn’t end up generating any savings because federal wages will end up being retroactively authorized for essential and nonessential alike.
Even some federal workers don’t seem particularly exercised about the possibility that they might have more free time in the coming days. Mike Causey of Federal News Network reports:
So what if there is a shutdown and hardly anybody outside the media knows, or cares?
Reader M.G., a career fed and veteran of shutdowns past, had this to say:
“Look at the reality of the situation. First, only about 25 percent of the government agencies do not have their funding so the raw numbers of feds out of work is much lower than with past shutdowns. Second, a good percentage of the workers who would be impacted by a shutdown are essential and will have to work anyway. Finally, most folks these days do their Christmas shopping with credit cards. If you are forced to stay home, you are free to shop as long as the ‘eventually get paid’ money comes before the credit card bill comes due.”
While the government is partially shut down, Washington could still be burning money at a rate of perhaps $10 billion per day. While they debate the proposed border wall, lawmakers should also discuss ways to move that number south.
This is from the Catholic online publication, CRUX
Christians face not only “martyrdom in blood” in countries where they are persecuted and killed for the faith, but also a “white martyrdom” in democratic countries that try more subtly to stifle religious freedom and expression.
************
“It is a good sign that your initiatives in the field of training and health care are open to all, regardless of the communities to which they belong and the religion they profess,” the pope said. “In this way, you help to pave the way for the knowledge of Christian values, the promotion of interreligious dialogue, mutual respect and mutual understanding.”
However, the pope also emphasized that the order’s main purpose “is the spiritual growth of its members” so that their spiritual lives and works of charity offer a coherent witness to the Gospel.
Members of the order are not called to provide social and material improvements like “a philanthropic institution,” the pope said, but are called to “place at the center and as the final goal of your works the evangelical love for your neighbor to bear witness everywhere to the goodness and care with which God loves everyone.”
The author is the Canadian Psychologist Jordan Peterson who is a total internet/youtube sensation. And the book (4,116 reviews on amazon as of today) is rightfully a huge best seller. It's been on the amazon best seller list for 47 weeks and will probably be there for several years.
Each of the 12 Rules has it's own chapter (the first one is about lobsters and worth the price of the book), with some of the rules sounding rather odd - like #11 "Do not bother children when they are skateboarding" - but make sense when you read the chapter. Other rules are quite straightforward such as #9 "Assume the person you're listening to might know something you don't.".
Peterson's message is that life is difficult but you need to take responsibility for your own life. He is extremely popular with young men - it is my son Joe who first put me onto him. Peterson's reputation went way up (or down, depending on your perspective) after this widely publicized interview on the BBC with Cathy Newman https://youtu.be/Mufh9oKYf5Y . The link is to an 8 minute excerpt of the whole 30 minute interview. The complete interview can easily be found on youtube.
When asked to trim down his twelve rules - here's what he says -
UPDATE: From my friend Fran: "better ?, would NY times ceasing to exist be a tragedy? NOPE"
A rejoinder to the much commented on NY Times op ed which you can find here. The author, Todd May, is "a professor of philosophy at Clemson University." Sad, very sad.
From the Wall Street Journal columnist James Freeman-
Before condemning any more Donald Trump tweets, take a look at what his critics in ... Manhattan are publishing.
This week the Times runs an op-ed with the headline: “Would Human Extinction Be a Tragedy?” Strolling along the frontiers of radical environmentalism, author Todd May ponders whether we should all kill ourselves but appears to prefer extinction by attrition:
One might ask here whether... it would... be a good thing for those of us who are currently here to end our lives in order to prevent further animal suffering. Although I do not have a final answer to this question, we should recognize that the case of future humans is very different from the case of currently existing humans. To demand of currently existing humans that they should end their lives would introduce significant suffering among those who have much to lose by dying. In contrast, preventing future humans from existing does not introduce such suffering, since those human beings will not exist and therefore not have lives to sacrifice. The two situations, then, are not analogous.
Kudos to Mr. May for discovering that the death of 7.7 billion people might involve some measure of suffering. Such keen insights may ultimately leave readers more amused than shocked, especially when they get to the bottom of the story and learn that he is no less than a “philosophical adviser” to a television program starring Ted Danson. It remains unclear from the Times op-ed whether the author is in charge of all philosophical advice for the NBC comedy “The Good Place” or merely one of a number of people ready to offer such assistance on set.
I've posted stuff of hers, but not recently. This is amusing - and certainly true if you've ever bought a piece of exercise equipment for home.
Good. Overdue.
The Trump administration is set to ban so-called bump stock firearm devices, a regulation prompted by the 2017 massacre in Las Vegas.
In a reversal of an earlier finding, the Justice Department will classify bump stocks as illegal machine guns. According to the new rule, owners of the rapid-fire devices must surrender or destroy them.
The regulation, signed and submitted by Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, is expected to be formally published by week’s end and take effect in late March, senior Justice Department officials said. Owners of bump stocks will then have 90 days to surrender or destroy the devices.
The move represents one of the most significant gun-control measures in recent years. It had been largely expected after President Trump said he wanted to make school safety a priority and directed the department to ban the accessories, which allow certain guns to fire as quickly as fully automatic weapons.
Bump stocks became a focal point of the national conversation about gun violence, even though they have not been involved in most of the recent mass shootings. The new rule classifies bump stocks as machine guns, effectively prohibiting them under federal law.
I lean toward Stephen Moore being right. And especially his last comments re: stock market values.
UPDATE: Funny email from anonymous lady friend of ours: "Cuomo got the family a bridge, he can work on some Saint designations now, enough to go around"
I never heard of this guy. But evidently important. Cool confirmation name ...
St. Winebald (701-761 A.D.) was a Saxon prince born into a holy and royal family in England. His father, St. Richard the King, and his mother, St. Wunna of Wessex, are both saints, as well as his brother, St. Willibald, his sister, St. Walburga, and his uncle, St. Boniface. After making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his father and brother, and then spending many years in Rome, Winebald was recruited by his uncle, Boniface, to join him in evangelizing Germany. Winebald was ordained a priest and worked as a missionary across Germany, Holland, France, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg, leaving behind many flourishing churches and monasteries under the Rule of St. Benedict. St. Winebald was an important figure in laying the foundations of Christianity across much of Europe. After his death, his tomb became a pilgrimage shrine. His feast day is December 18.
A thirteen minute interview with Chris Wallace at a Chamber of Commerce presentation.
Bishop Barron - extremely popular on social media - as the WSJ recently headlined No church figure other than the pope has more followers than Robert Barron. This is part of a much longer interview with the popular conservative Jewish fellow, Ben Shapiro. Here he simply and quickly (4 minutes) presents the standard Catholic view on salvation. A quick review of the comments has both of them being attacked by a particular type of fundamentalism followers, so he must be right.
The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze being the local and incredibly popular (175,000 visitors this year) fall event. Brigid works there as a part-time artistic designer and took home the very last Blaze pumpkin. To this rather plump guy's delight - seen yesterday chompin' down. Below that a couple of pictures from the Blaze.
And here's a taste of The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze
UPDATE: Interesting take on the Los Angeles Chargers - Don't Look Now, But Rivers-Led Chargers are AFC's Most Dangerous Team
The Chargers were down by 14 points with four minutes to go. Here's the last minute.
For the uninitiated ROMEO stands for Retired Old Men Eating Out, but I get a pass since I am still (and the only one) working. All of us went to Fairfield U. and all but Dennis to Stepinac HS. We let him join us anyway - he's the comedian. The newcomer - and he passed the probationary test - he showed up - is Dan. At Farmer and the Fish Restaurant in Purdy's/North Salem. The second time we've met there. The restaurant is excellent - there are two other branches, one in Sleepy Hollow and one in Manhattan - 245 Park Ave.
Five hot-blooded young blades -
Dan the man -
Who is the comedian? Actually all four...
MSNBC also had a record-breaking year, finishing in second place among the news networks with 1.8 million viewers in prime time, an increase of 12 percent from 2017. Those numbers make the year the best in the history of MSNBC, which launched in 1996, the same year as Fox News.
So where was CNN? In the toilet -
CNN finished the year in third place, averaging 990,000 viewers in prime time, a drop of 6 percent from last year.
So FOX was ahead of MSNBC and CNN combined, but still way behind NBC, CBS and ABC.
The top five programs on cable news were Fox's "Hannity" for the second straight year with an average viewership of 3.275 million, MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show" with 2.881 million, "Tucker Carlson Tonight" with 2.827 million, Laura Ingraham's "The Ingraham Angle" with 2.614 million and "The Five" with 2.380 million.
And in business cable news FOX also #1.
On the business news channels, the Fox Business Network topped CNBC for the second straight year in the category of “business day” viewers, according to Nielsen Media.
Overall, Fox Business registered four of the top five rated business network programs in 2018, with "Lou Dobbs Tonight" leading the way with an average of 345,000 viewers per night.
Yes, the first half of December a great month in Farandaville -Tim birthday December 9th Tim birthday today! , we pick him up at the hospital on the 11th we picked up Tim from the hospital! and December 12th Brigid birthday.
Here's Brigid, and she's got a necklace Tim gave her -
After the Christmas Party with The Blaze on the 10th
And having dinner last night with our buddy Doreen who had her birthday six days ago -
Here's Brigid in 1979 at Lover's Leap on the south coast of Jamaica - where I'd met her when we were both living and working there - contemplating whether to end it all - or marry me -
1997 at the Bronx Zoo with Joe and Tim!
Brigid, everyone loves you!
Here we are at Benedictine Hospital in Kingston, NY. Tim was born two days earlier. The nurse said, "He's a very alert baby." Little did we know... And we all look A LOT younger.
Go here to see what he looks like today - Tim birthday today!
This is great. Unless you're a Patriots fan. But they love it in Miami.
Why was Gronkowski the last line of defense? Answer - he's tall so there for the "Hail Mary" into the end zone.
Recent Comments