While everyone has been on the Mitch McConnell death watch the entire political world was caught completely by surprise by the sudden death of a seemingly healthy & vigorous Lindsey Graham.
It’s an important reminder that nobody is promised even tomorrow or even the rest of today.
Plus you never know, back when the Catholic “Sacrament of the Sick” which is now regularly given to those who are ill, was the called “The last rites” given to people expected to die my mother had received them 7 times before she was 50 due to illness & incidents.
She lived to be 88.
Of course Graham will get a full autopsy because he was considered “young” & that he was on Iran’s kill list but in my youth a person dying at 71 would not have elicited a 2nd thought.
A lot of people complain food is killing us or the environment is killing us or manufacturing is killing us but the truth is that we are living longer and longer because western civilization gives us a safer & cleaner life than than even the richest people 100 or 150 years ago.
As a biographer of Churchill, William Manchester, noted in the first of his three volumes on his life, the food served to the lords of the Manor in the 1890 would not pass a basic safety muster of today.
We live in what most people in history would consider a paradise & the only reason why so many young are discontented is because they’re too ignorant & uneducated to realize it & it’s in the interest in those who wish to use them to keep them that way.
The reaction to the death of Lindsey Graham is a great example of the new rules of culture and how they are applied.
As recent as two decades ago the idea that any person with a national platform would speak ill of the dead within 24 hours after they died unexpectedly was considered beyond the pale.
Today the fact that I completely expected to see it online, both by people who want to get credibility with their fellow haters & by their opponents to get clicks by saying how nasty they are for doing so, doesn’t move or outrage me at all.
It’s the natural results of the new rules. I disagree with these rules & I would like them to no longer exist but one must live in the world you’re in even if you wish it changed.
I can’t get angry at people when I don’t expect better from them.
Since we’re speaking of death it’s worth noting the political death of Graham Platner in Maine.
I was actually surprised that he pulled out of his race as he had nothing to lose by staying particularly since the left is completely terrified of the violent DSA types, not to mention his overwhelming victory over a sitting Democrat governor. Whatever incentive they offered must have been really something.
The only thing that really surprised me is how fast the media played the “boy were we stupid” card so soon after they had done so with Joe Biden.
That anybody falls for it is amazing, but it shouldn’t be. It’s amazing how much you don’t see when blindness fits into your political or financial desires.
I don’t blame fans of Egypt for being disappointed. After all they were up 2 goals with under 12 minutes to play for a chance to get to the final 8 in the World Cup before the defending champions with perhaps the single best player in the world managed to put three goals in the net
I don’t even mind them questioning the calls.
What I do mind is trying to turn their defeat by the defending champions into a Jewish conspiracy against Islam in general & Egypt in particular & also going after Argentine “football” as something corrupt.
The only thing funnier is how they champion the “Palestinian” cause while having one of the tightest fences & borders to keep Gazans out of their country.
Egypt’s team had a great run that it should be proud of. 150 countries would have celebrated a team in the final 16 & their fans would be right to lionize their players & coach’s skill. Alas that’s coupled with pulling this kind of idiocy because since they attributed their victories to calling on Allah to curse the Christians & Jews before each game it’s impossible that they might actual lose a legit match.
Fortunately they don’t care about losing the respect of outsiders like me as long as they’re able to lie to themselves.
The best non-decision my wife and I ever made still remains not moving to the Portland Oregon area after our Honeymoon there 33 years ago but I’m thinking giving Anna Maria a miss twelve years ago comes in as a pretty solid second.
We interrupt our coverage of Pintastic NE to revisit an issue from the very earliest days of this blog.
Back in 2009 my oldest son was looking at colleges. Having gone to a Catholic Grammar school and a Catholic High School the idea of attending a Catholic College like Anna Maria which offered him a scholarship seemed attractive…right up until I visited the place.
There were pictures celebrating the new president all over the place, banners celebrating diversity, announcements of the woman’s study courses but nothing on the March for Life later this month in Washington. The concert was a “holiday” concert. In the Anna Maria in the news bulletin board at the admissions office there was an article talking about protesting the pope in the US. That was the extent of any recent mention of religion.
The Chapel is downstairs at basement level, its a nice enough place and the corridor leading once one goes downstairs does feel Catholic but it seems to be hidden in order to make sure it doesn’t offend anyone. It’s Gene Robinson all over again:
Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
It’s a real question how many out of 1100 students would know this quote from Luke. Actually the question isn’t that hard, we met with the campus ministry people just before leaving, there are 10 active people in Campus ministry and about that many show up for Mass regularly.
It would be nice if there was at least one picture of the Pope displayed prominently. It would be nicer if Catholic identity actually meant something. I’ve spent much more than I can afford over the last 10 years giving my sons a Catholic education. If I’m going to spend a whole lot more for a Catholic College then I expect a Catholic College.
They were very committed to deemphasize the faith & emphasize diversity, as I wrote to the Bishop after receiving a letter from him suggesting a Catholic education at Anna Maria:
I can’t reconcile your description of Anna Maria with what I saw and I can’t believe you would make that description after visiting the college yourself. While academically I believe it would be strong I don’t believe attending would foster his faith, in fact I suspect if he choose to wear his faith proudly it would go hard on him there.
Lucky for Sam and us Fitchburg State College has offered a full scholarship which will allow him to live at home and remain in our parish as well. This would seem to be much more conducive to both his Academic and spiritual development.
Well Sam ended up attending Fitchburg State, he has a good job and I’m pleased to say his Catholic faith and his brother’s who he shares a house with remains strong. In fact this past Easter Vigil his brother was sponsor to a new Catholic who was one of 8 baptized and 14 confirmed and welcomed into the faith, the most I’ve ever seen at such a mass in my life.
A second Massachusetts liberal arts college this month has announced it will close, underscoring the mounting financial strain facing small, tuition-dependent schools.
Anna Maria College in Paxton said Thursday that it will shutter at the end of the semester after what officials described as an “exhaustive review” of its finances. The decision follows a similar announcement earlier this month from Hampshire College in Amherst.
“Like many small, tuition-dependent institutions, Anna Maria has faced structural challenges driven by declining enrollment and rising costs in the years following the pandemic,” the college said in a statement.
You see Anna Maria is or was, as it soon will be described, indistinguishable from all the other secular colleges out there competing for students. Meanwhile as faith continues to surge in America Catholic parents are seeing Catholic colleges that actually promote the faith.
It speaks volumes that the article doesn’t initially describe Anna Maria as a Catholic college but as a liberal arts college which makes these paragraphs particularly ironic:
Founded in 1946 by the Sisters of Saint Anne as a women’s college, Anna Maria later became coeducational and operated for decades as a private Catholic liberal arts institution.
“The Board of Trustees reached this decision only after pursuing every realistic alternative. We are heartbroken,” Board Chair David Trainor said in a statement. “The legacy of the Sisters of Saint Anne, and of every faculty member and staff person who carried their spirit forward, will endure in every graduate this institution has ever produced.”
The college choose to place their bet on the secular world than with the Catholic traditions of the Sisters of St. Anne and at the time of my visit with the election of Barack Obama that might have seemed a good bet.
Alas they forget that Christ’s Catholic Church has outlasted the Roman Empire, the British Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Nazi Empire, the Soviet Union and the Napoleonic Empire whose Emperor once declared to Cardinal Ercole Consal his ability to destroy the Catholic church if he wished to. The Cardinal answered thus:
Your Majesty, you would be making a useless effort. You would be defeated. We, the priests and Christians, with our weaknesses and infidelities, have not succeeded in destroying the Church! And would you like to do it?.
Now it will outlast Anna Maria College. I can’t say the college’s fate is a surprise, but I will not cheer as any time the enemy manages to compromise a Catholic institution it’s a defeat for us all. That defeat predates the closing of the institution by many years.
For all the horrible things our friends on the left say about America being racist, sexist unequal etc etc etc let me make one important point.
This horrible America of which you speak is so great that given the choice between going back to their own countries at no cost to themselves with $3000 in their pockets (An amount higher than the average yearly income in 54 countries) or staying in the US and risking arrest and deportation the majority choose the former.
On twitter today saw a post about how difficult it was to program back in the punch card era compared to today when you can literally ask a AI to create code for you. The fellow marveled at the progress in just 50 years and he’s right about that but let me tell you want progress really is:
If you told my grandfather born in Sicily in the 1892 that you knew a store where for the price of one hour's wages you could buy a hot meal WITH MEAT to feed his wife & 5 kids (& a cold one for even less) he'd have assumed it was a scam.
Being able to feed a family of four a hot meal with meat for less than an hour wages? THAT’s human progress that king and princes could only dream of.
It’s very easy to forget that Donald Trump has been back in office for less than a year. This is because of his insane work ethic and the breakneck speed that things have been
The amount of things he has managed to get done in these first 11 months is so vast that any other president in history would have considered it a grand set of accomplishments for a full term and quite a few presidents would have been lucky to accomplish as much over two terms. Any person with a even a slight grasp of US history could see this.
Yet lately my X feed has been bombarded by posts aren’t happening fast enough in the Trump administration from cracking down on fraud to arrests, particularly arrests. The post seem unrelenting
I’m thinking this is one of two things or possibly both.
It could be that people just have gotten so used to Trump getting things done fast they can’t grasp the idea that getting things done in Washington is the exception not the rule. It’s sort of how Patriots fans were spoiled by Tom Brady basically making a trip to the Super bowl every other year and acting like something was wrong when we didn’t
It could also be a PSI-op to anger Trump supporters to trick them into staying home in 2026 and try to drive his numbers down.
Frankly if it was my job to try to foment dissent within MAGA that’s how I’d try do it.
One must always remember that most pols aren’t saints. There are some who will do the right thing out of principle (although they might disagree on what the “right thing” is) but in the end most will only do the right thing if the incentive is greater than doing the wrong thing or nothing at all.
That’s reality
When I went to mass yesterday I passed by the cheapest gas station in town which is conveniently located next to my church.
Gas was $2.63 a gallon. That’s a full 16 cents less per gallon than it was two months ago.
Over the course of a year that’s enough saving for me and DaWife to pay 5 water bills or allow us to go out to eat 5 times.
If that’s not enough Friday when I went to work there were no temps in the building.
That it itself is not unusual for the day after Christmas, but what WAS unusual is that Friday was the first day this month when there were no temps in the building.
Last year the temps were gone by December 3rd and at no time during the Biden presidency where they here for more than a week.
The Trump boom is coming in fact it might be already here.
One of the things about importing people from a different culture who don’t want to become Americans is importing a different value system.
A great illustration of this was shown nearly 50 years ago on the TV show “Yes Minister” in an episode called: “The Moral Dimension”
A great explanation of how this works comes from this excellent post on X
RE: Fraud in Minnesota
I’m not sure that most Americans understand that in large swathes of humanity, there is no actual concept of “fraud,” particularly fraud against the government. Instead, there is a belief in the virtue of getting away with what you can to help yourself…
The weird thing about this to me was that whenever I turned down such an offering, it was treated as a grave insult. I was the one in the wrong, and not the fraudster trying to bribe me. They considered it rude that I was in their country and refused to accept how things got done. After all, why did I not want to help my tribe by helping their tribe?
Let me repeat: in these cultures, FRAUD IS NOT EVEN A CONCEPT. There is only what helps your tribe.
They people have no concept that stealing is wrong, unless you’re stealing from them. The stealing doesn’t shock these folks, what shocks them is that we weren’t already doing it on the scale that they are.
Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do. Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault, and land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do.
US Grant, at the Battle of the Wilderness 1864
One of the most famous scenes in movies is the opening speech of Don Corleone in the Godfather when he tells the undertaker who is asking for Justice for his daughter who was disfigured by men let off by the courts:
If you’d come to me in friendship, this scum who ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by some chance an honest man like yourself made enemies they would become my enemies. And then, they would fear you.
For the last 10 to 15 years or even more the woke mind virus has held ordinary Americans in fear of saying the wrong thing, or expressing an approved opinion. We had not reached the point of England where people were getting arrested but the fear was palatable and most of all those who perpetuated this fear to control us kept pushing in order to give the illusion, backed up by media and culture, that they were the overwhelming majority.
It could be something as simple as not putting out a Trump sign because you didn’t want your car keyed or your house egged, or keeping your mouth shut while a leftist ranted on at work about Trump being a Nazi.
Quite a few gave into this fear but a much larger amount of people simply wanted to get on with their lives and didn’t want to waste their time dealing with fools. They were quiet and quite a few were armed but in the end all they wanted was to be left alone.
The political left seeing an advantage in this kept pushing farther and farther and seeing no penalty for their actions didn’t bother to police or restrain themselves, in fact I suspect more than a few understood the monsters they created in places like Portland but realized that said monsters could easily turn on them.
It’s generally a bad idea to push a well armed population beyond their endurance, because people eventually decide they’ve had enough and once you push a person who only wants to be left alone past that point bad things tend to happen.
And that brings us to the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk.
When we had a Christian society that valued life it was axiomatic that people would not celebrate a political murder or frankly any murder. One might not worry if criminals murdered criminals as that was considered part of the risk of being one, but the murder of a political figure for expressing & debating those who disagree with them in public? Unthinkable.
But once, thanks to the rise of abortion & gay marriage and the transgender business the political lines became split along religious lines. While it is not an absolute rule odds are if you were and are against these three things you were a Christian and thus a republican, while if you were for it, you were a Democrats.
It started in the 1970’s, continued in the 1980, and by the rise of Barack Obama the lines were pretty much set.
Now the thing about Christianity is this. The core principles, beyond the divinity of Jesus include the following:
The equality of man before God in value and love
The love of neighbor and even of enemies
When your culture embraces this, you can get along with those who disagree with you.
But when half of the culture decides those are not values they share, who decide that those who disagree with them are worthy of suffering and death the social compact was shattered.
And the reaction of leftists all over the nation has done this.
We see that poor Ukrainian girl murdered in Charlotte Iryna Zarutska who could be their daughter and realize that the left doesn’t care if violent lunatics’ are free to do this because they see political gain in having them free.
We see that poor hotel manager Chandra] Nagamallaiah BEHEADED by an illegal immigrant who was let free by the Biden administration with just two weeks left before Trump took office and realize that could be them at work while the left marches against deporting such people.
And last of all we see people openly celebrating the murder of a young man with a wife and two kids because he argued for opinions opposite of theirs opinions that we share.
If it was the odd crank on the net we wouldn’t care, but the sheer number of teachers, physicians, college administrators, members of government and the military and those in various industries that serve the general populace who have taken to the net either on video or via social media to celebrate the murder of Charlie Kirk has been a great shock to many who are suddenly realizing that these people who they work beside would celebrate their deaths for agreeing with him.
Now mind you, they have a perfect right to hate Charlie Kirk, they have a perfect right to say they’re glad he’s dead, either at home or in private or public conversations, they even have the right to post what they did. It’s not a criminal offense and I would object to anyone being prosecuted for such a thing.
We also have rights, and when you go on a public platform, and appear in the public square and in our workspaces or in a place where our children are being taught and publicly celebrate assassination, not because they’re a terrorist or that we’re at war with an enemy or because a person is a gangster or mafia guy to whom such a thing is an occupational hazard, but because you disagree with the person’s political opinions and dared to openly and effectively debate others, then we have the right to very publicly call you out.,
For this breaks the social compact, it actually shatters it. This is a trust society and we can’t trust them anymore. The line is crossed and something must be done.
If we were leftists who had rejected Christianity the solution would be rather simple, we would slaughter them and say good riddance. The right is certainly well armed enough for this, but we don’t just pay lip services to those Christian beliefs, we actually believe them and thus such an option is off the table as it is grave sin that puts one’s soul at risk.
Furthermore like in the Godfather scene above, while these people have celebrated murder these people online have not actually murdered anyone. Consider this exchange prior to the Godfather quote above:
Don Corleone: I understand. You found paradise in America. You had a good trade, you made a good living. The police protected you and there were courts of law. So you didn’t need a friend like me. Now you come and say “Don Corleone, give me justice.” But you don’t ask with respect. You don’t offer friendship. You don’t even think to call me “Godfather.” You come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married and you ask me to do murder – for money.
Bonasera:I ask you for justice.
Don Corleone: That is not justice. Your daughter is alive.
So instead us worrying about what they will do to us, we’re thinking about what we’re doing to them. They are being named and shamed and pressure is being put on the institutions & businesses that employ them. Such people have no place in government, or in law, or in teaching or in medicine. And if you own a private business that serves the entire public you can’t have someone on staff publicly cheering the death of someone for having the same opinions as half the population.
So now hundreds, or even perhaps thousands of people will lose their jobs. I suspect most if not all of them had no issue when Roseanne Barr or Gina Carano lost their jobs over public statements that didn’t involve cheering for political murder and if it was 1968 they would have no problem doing the same to anyone who celebrated the murder of MLK or RFK but they never dreamed their actions might actually have consequences.
If they didn’t get it before they get in now. Some might celebrate themselves as maryters but I suspect most of them may have figured out they’re crossed a line…
…and now they fear us.
It would be very nice if it didn’t reach this point, but one must live in reality. This is where we are, where we go from here is anyone’s guess however there is one other aspect of Christianity that does comes into play here.
Then Peter approaching asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
Matthew 18:21-22
That’s a non-optional doctrine because if we don’t we condemn ourselves as the Our father says: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
If these people seek forgiveness we are required to forgive but will they have the humility to ask for it?
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 