Politics ... Bah! Humbug!

It's an intense political season, so naturally I've been posting about the campaign.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are completely objectionable in so many ways. I could never vote for them.

But Donald Trump is no prize. And his support of disordered individuals, and statements lately about abortion and IVF are worrying.

The Republicans have moved away from being pro-life. They are not as extreme as the Democrats, but they are moving in that direction.

Meanwhile, our Congressman Morelle is a pro-abortion extremist who has betrayed his faith. But his opponent also supports abortion.

At least i have Peter Sonski of the American Solidarity Party as a presidential candidate for whom I can happily vote.

But the election this year has me worried about the future of our country.

Sigh. 

Pax et bonum

Trump, IVF, and Pro-lifers

Pax et bonum

DNC

Pax et bonum

Proposition 1 and Weak Responses

I was out the other night with a group of men from the Catholic men's group to which I belong. I struck up a conversation with one man sitting next to me. The issue of Proposition 1 on the NY ballot came up.

For those unfamiliar with the Proposition, if approved it will codify abortion without limits in the NY Constitution, and undermine parent right when it comes to their children and abortion or "gender transition."

As part of our discussion, the man noted that the Catholic Courier had reported on a statement from the NY Bishops opposing the Proposition, but complained that the Courier has stuck the article on an inside page (13) and posted it in a single narrow column that would not draw a lot of attention. He said that the issue is so important that priests should be talking about it in their homilies, and it should be addressed in parish bulletins again and again, otherwise people will not be aware of the evil of this proposition.

I agreed that a single article like this in the middle of the summer will not be enough. As a retired teacher, I know you have to repeat new ideas again and again before a majority of students understand them. I also think the article could have used some statements or a second article interviewing diocesan officials, local pro-life activists, and perhaps some spokesperson from the opposition organization linked in the article.

Perhaps there will be more from the Bishops. Perhaps the diocese will do something to focus on the issue. Maybe it will distribute bulletin articles and homily hints related to the Proposition. How about a press conference with diocesan pro-life officials and Bishop Matano? One can only hope,

As for the Courier, perhaps there will be something more in October when it puts out a Life issue, but that's just a month before voting and hardly enough. Maybe there will be something in the September issue, but I'm not holding my breath given recent trends. Just this year:

- There was no coverage of the Good Friday Stations of the Cross for Life.

- There was no coverage of the national 40 Days for Life Catholic speaker coming to Rochester.

- There was no coverage of the national Men's March coming to Rochester and drawing more than 200 mostly Catholic marchers processing through downtown Rochester.

- Unless there is a future article, there was no coverage of Catholic pro-life activist Mark Houck, whose home was raided at gunpoint by the FBI - terrorizing his wife and seven children - but who was acquitted of all charges.

Anyway, the man and I agreed that with the state government and the media backing it, and without more being done on sustained basis by the Church, it is likely the Proposition will pass, and abortion will be enshrined in the State Constitution and parental rights will be undermined.

And maybe after the approval state Catholic officials will lament the passage and note that, gee, they did issue a statement against it.

Pax et bonum

WALZ PUNISHED CHURCHES DURING COVID

WALZ PUNISHED CHURCHES DURING COVID

Is Childbirth More Dangerous than Abortion?--PODCAST Season 9, Episode 32

Colonel Kolb On Tim Walz

Colonel John Kolb, Tim Walz’s battalion commander and direct supervisor:: “It is an affront to the noncommissioned officer corps that he continues to glom onto the title. I can sit in the cockpit of an airplane, it does not make me a pilot.”

Pax et bonum

Kamala Meme

Pax et bonum

James Stewart

Our pastor went on a short vacation, and as part of it he visited the James Stewart Museum in Indiana, Pennsylvania, his hometown. In passing he mentioned that Stewart is his favorite actor. I responded that Stewart is also mine.

Of the 80 movies Stewart made, I've seen more than 30 of them. The exact number is unclear because I don't recognize some of the titles, but if i saw the movies I might be able ot say, "Oh, yes, I saw that."

My favorite movie if gis is also one of my favorite Christmas movies: It's a Wonderful Life.

My top five Stewart movies are:

It's a Wonderful Life
Harvey
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Shop Around the Corner
Anatomy of a Murder

But I also really like: 

You Can't Take It with You
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Winchester '73 (Though I thought the Shelley Winters character was annoying and deserved to be shot!)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Flight of the Phoenix

There are others I like, though not as much as these 10.

I know he won an Academy Award for The Philadelphia Story, though I think that was a payback for not getting the best actor award for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. My quibble with this otherwise fine movie is that it stars Katherine Hepburn, and except for The African Queen I never liked any of her movies or her portrayals!

I was once in a production of Under Milkwood, portraying multiple characters. One of them the Rev. Eli Jenkins. I imitated Stewart's voice in playing him! (I also played Lt. Sulu in a parody of Star Trek, imitating the voice of John Wayne, so the character was known as "Duke Sulu! But that's another story.)

Stewart tended to play decent, moral characters (with a few exceptions). He was also a war hero, taking years away from his movie career to fight in World War II. 

My only sadness about Stewart is that while filming Destry Rides Again he had an affair with Marlene Dietrich, who was married at the time. He broke up with her after filming ended. The affair was bad enough morally, but what Stewart did not know was that she became pregnant and aborted their child. How awful.

Still, he remains my favorite actor. It's nice to know he is also the favorite of my pastor, a fellow movie buff.

Pax et bonum

J.D. Vance

I don't know if J.D. Vance

has ever been to France,

but unlike Walz he doesn't lack

service to the nation in Iraq.

Pax et bonum

Coach Tim ...

Pax et bonum

Tim Walz and Socialism

Pax et bonum

Let the Political Clerihews Continue!

The clerihew is supposed to be a gentle, humorous, clever poetic form. Some political clerihews clearly are too harsh to be true to the spirit.

But I still write some of those more pointed, political ones.

The Democratic ticket (for the moment, anyway) has inspired two recent ones.


Kamala Harris
finally made it to Paris.
And, yes, she did once visit near the border,
at a peaceful site her handlers found made-to-order.

Governor Tim Walz
was enjoying some spaghetti and meatballs,
but then got a sick feeling in his belly
when an ad for tampons came on the telly.

Not my best, but a start.

Walz is a new face. And who knows if he will stay on the ticket due to all the flak. Of course, Kamala has been on the scene for the last three years, and during her failed Presidential bid back in 2020.

Senator Kamala Harris
traveled to Paris.
She was trying to find ways to avoid every public relations error
of their revolution's Reign of Terror.

Kamala Harris
didn't mean to embarrass,
but her family's reaction to her Jamaican drug joke
suggests her presidential campaign might just go up in smoke.

There was also a limerick

There will be more!

Pax et bonum

Cat Ladies Unite!

Pax et bonum

She Gets Us

Pax et bonum

Someone Else Likes Old Books

In the July/August issue of  Gilbert, an article by Mark Johnson caught my attention. In "Urgent Conversations with the Dead" he discusses reading good and old books - a subject near and dear to my heart.

He notes that we used to read books with a sense of urgency, books that elicited a personal response, books that revealed truth about the world and human nature.

Johnson laments the fact that too many people no longer read books "with urgency" due to television and the internet. And he points out that too many new books are tainted by "characters engaged in fruitless searches for an ever-elusive 'inner self'' and trapped in personal development purgatories." He goes on to say "If The Brothers Karamazov were written today, all the brothers would be sent off to therapy by page 80 or so and live pleasantly medicated lives ever after."

As a retired middle school and high school English teacher I did indeed see such tendencies in the "young adult" and even adult novels were were supposed to teach. They were shallow, and tended to water down moral and ethical values. Thank God I ended my teaching career at a classical education  school with ties to the Chesterton Network!

One of my joys since retiring is that I have had time to read some of those books with values and depth. Oh, some are for fun - I'm currently reading a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery - but many are books and works I've wanted to read or reread. Some are old classics, some are more contemporary books with substance. Just this year I've read such books as:

Heretics by G. K. Chesterton

The Flying Inn by G.K. Chesterton

Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales

By the Rivers of Babylon by Michael D. O’Brien

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift  

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor 

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Johnson points out the importance of novels in challenging the current trends: "The path back to reading for truth may also be though the novel ...."

I completely agree.   

I have a pile of novels waiting me to read or reread! 

Pax et bonum