Making Mountains out of Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes
Pope Francis yesterday published, motu proprio, Traditionis custodes, revising certain regulations regarding the observance of what is commonly called the Tradi...
Tag: politics
Someone is Wrong on Television
I’ve been avoiding Twitter and its ilk, but dear Lord the people in mass media are even worse talking to themselves on the television. Of course, one of them is...
Was There Some Kind of Ceremony Today?
Today, I spent my day in front of a computer, in four hours of meetings about meetings, another few writing a script and updating a spreadsheet, and then some m...
Cooking the Books
It is the Constitutional responsibility of the Census Bureau to count. That does NOT mean build a website then mail a letter and a postcard, or otherwise advert...
How Do We Sleep While Our Beds Are Burning?
A hazy morning today, like yesterday, here in New York, on the eastern coast of North America. The smoke from the wildfires along the western coast of North Ame...
How Much Greed is Good?
Paul Graham believes a wealth tax would act as a disincentive. He’s since revised his post several times to remove some indignation. But I’m surprised Mr. Graha...
Knowing One’s Place
My youngest (12) asked, out of the blue, why do some people want a monarchy when they can’t be the king? I’m not sure. Maybe we should ask the British. I ...
What First Principles?
Tonight’s film was Romero (1989). Earlier this year my eldest and I were talking about a paper due for her international politics class on the Middle East, the ...
Chickens Coming Home to Roost
Not a few of us have said, over the years, that the PATRIOT Act was an over-reaction. Not a few of us have said, over the years, that the Department of Homeland...
Lands Now or Formerly of
Over time I have lived on the lands of Lenape, Mohican, Wappinger, Manahoac, Piscataway, Powhatan, Monacan, Osage, Shawnee, Miami, Adena, Hopewell, and the Chic...
Should We Talk About the Government?
Every budget is a document of priorities filled with moral and ethical decisions. Every budget is the result of political wrangling over who and what matters. W...
Cutting Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face
Heather C. McGhee notes (as heard on the radio) that racism has a cost for everyone. Let me tell two stories from my time in local government. One involves an e...
You Kiss Your Mama with that Mouth?
Many years ago, as a young man in my early teens, what convinced me of the falseness of Christianity was the behavior of the Church and people who called themse...
Our Elections Make No Sense to Me
I really don’t understand electoral politics, especially the selection of candidates for office and how they are chosen. It’s not the procedure that I don’t und...
Provide for … the General welfare
I am livid. Those fine folks in Congress have an opportunity to help people weather the economic storm caused by COVID-19 and the responses to it, and so the Se...
Vulture Capitalists and Other Scavengers
Remember what happens to the country when the unfit ruler comes to power? I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals, and I will make the cities o...
What I Hope–and Fear
I hope there will be a great coming together of society, as people from all walks of life realize that we are all in this together. We leave the world a better ...
What if…
What if we helped each other? What if there were no bullshit jobs? What if health care, sick leave, insurance, retirement, …, weren’t tied to your e...
Why Don’t We Like Joe Biden?
FiveThirtyEight’s Perry Bacon, Jr., offers some hypotheses to answer the burning question of why Millennials don’t like Joe Biden. Well, I don’...
On Attempting to Determine the Outcome through the Selection of Candidates
Just in from the Well-at-Least-It’s-Not-New-Jersey Dept., New York is redesigning its license plates again. If you are a New York State resident, you have...