Bishop Robert Barron—"I was moved to hear often the name of Jesus on the lips of our govt officials" A Govt Official—"I hate my opponents and I don’t want the best for them" What Gospel did Bishop Barron read? It's charlatanry to say Jesus's name while opposing Matthew 5. A scandal. A disgrace.

Bonhoeffer called this "cheap grace."

Over 800,000 job cuts have been announced this year—the most since the pandemic. Businesses are pulling back on hiring as Trump’s chaotic tariff policies and attacks on the Fed fuel economic uncertainty. Our economy should be moving forward. Under Trump, it's going backward.

I am scandalized by and angry at this campaign against @durbin.senate.gov by Catholics who do not and never have struggled seriously with how the Roman Catholic Church meets a modern constitutional state. I have spent 35 years in close engagement... www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/09/20/t...

Twin Peaks: The Return is a sublime achievement. At its center is the idea we can never go back. What's past is gone. Lynch made our own passage of 25yrs part of the story and so, daringly, I think you can't quite appreciate it if you didn't pass 25yrs btwn s2 and s3. I'm still dumbstruck by it.

Sure. People are cancelling their Disney+ subscriptions. Let me know when the amusement parks are empty and shuttered.

Every day is a miracle Every day is an unpaid bill

As I've said, this isn't about Charlie Kirk. The falsehood is a loyalty test. One proves loyalty to the regime by repeating the preposterously false thing in public. It is public obedience. For which reason, this is a scandal.

Authoritarianism concocts wild falsehoods as loyalty tests. Combination vaccines are dangerous. Kirk was a free speech martyr. Kimmel said something so beyond boundaries that.... And even the falsehood isn't the point. Loyalty is. This has always been how they work. The internet supercharges it.

Recommending this new effort and organization to your attention and generosity. www.catholicsforthefuture.org

“I’m Charlie. My faith cost me my life, but now I stand forever in glory,” the AI-generated Kirk says. What hope can there be for the rationality that gives bedrock to freedom aganist this sophisticated emotional manipulation? Avoid screens. Sadly, avoid a lot of churches I guess. Live different.

Pope: Religions are wellspring of healing, not source of division search.app/FbyrZ

This is what a trial does, and it is why the rush to judgment whether groyper or trans is so destructive. I also wonder whether any jury could hear this because of all the publicity and esp the executive interference.

I'd take a leave or quit my job to work on this guy's campaign if I had to. This is the guy.

Sigh.

"There's an enormous budget shortfall, can we raise taxes?" "No!!" shout the homeowners and businesses. "What if we just make the poor and vulnerable pay, take advantage of addictions and desperation?" "That's leadership," say the homeowners and businesses." share.google/P8erAqBw3RqN...

Another school Plato knew well, one we might mention, was the Sophists. Did Charlie Kirk entertain his audience? Was he more effective with a more learned or a less learned audience? In all the Prove Me Wrong challenges hosted on the campuses he called "islands... firstthings.com/he-died-with...

UPDATE A complaint made to Kroger and the Cook Co. Health Dept. Frontline staff & mngmnt have little power here. It's little use doing more then telling them. But nothing happens. This is a corp that turned $34B *profit* last year stealing from unsuspecting ppl. It's good citizenship to report.

5 days later there is no shortage of opinions about why Charlie Kirk was murdered. One person who hasn't yet weighed in, though? Tyler Robinson. The rush to judgment corrodes our system of government no matter who is rushing or why. It's a fair trial that airs and settles all this.

h/t @lincolnrepublican.bsky.social en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst_W...

We need to keep this much empathy. These are kids trying to keep a paycheck, access to medical or eduation benefits. And these are confusing times. Like most of us probably most them are hoping this will be over soon. The villain is in the White House—elsewhere in the same city.

It's actually a great idea—if ICE agents feel the need to be masked, they ought to all wear Trump masks.

Opinion | I’ve dedicated my career to promoting free speech on college campuses. Here’s why the murder of a red state college dropout by another red state college dropout means it’s time to fire liberal professors in blue states.

I plan to post this ABC News supercut video of Trump calling Harris and Democrats "fascists" (and "communists"!) everytime I see a Republican on TV whining about Trump being called a "fascist" by the left. Oh, the hypocrisy! Oh, the gaslighting!

Big glitch here. Or I have gone crazy. wgntv.com/news/north-s...

I’ve seen big progressive accts drag that Klein op ed by saying that practicing politics the right way is contingent on having the correct ideas. They should keep in mind that the “post-liberal” fascists agree with that in principle, even tho they disagree on what the correct ideas are. So… 1/

👇🏼

Sir, it was never better than it was at the beginning. #LawAndOrder35

It's fair to be upset at Brian Kilmeade and FoxNews for a lot of things. An apology isn't one of them. We'd do quite well if Fox and the GOP apologized more. I sat & wrote something agnst Kilmeade yesterday as a Christian. How can I not let him apologize? None of this ends without letting it end.

Today's lesson in caveat emptor at my local Kroger.

I was just denied a COVID vaccine. It seems that lies told under oath matter as little as public health in the United States. Where do we find accountability? @durbin.senate.gov @duckworth.senate.gov @govpritzker.illinois.gov @idph.bsky.social

This is how we used to have to get our misinformation before the internet.

"...a culture which denies solidarity and in many cases takes the form of a veritable 'culture of death'. This culture is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic and political currents which encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency."

Today was my last day at the Eisenhower Library. I came across a 1964 letter Dwight Eisenhower wrote warning against “hate-filled people who set themselves up as super-patriots and, so doing, try to destroy the rights, liberties and opportunities of the average loyal American.” Worth heeding 🗃️

I get the concern over being targeted by Trump. But any other "residual anger" actually proves how childish this is because, even if Biden was not 100%, his Admin governed quite well and targeted no one. Democrats like these are a reason why we can't have nice things. share.google/SZjoNfRQKQ5f...

I am thinking a lot about how little I understand why Charlie Kirk was a big deal. Some parts are easy enough to understand. Despite his organic appeal to digital natives and his mastery of the influencer business model, he succeeded for ordinary reasons: he was co-opted by institutions and...

Our radicals are better than their radicals

The Un-American President

Opponents of cancel culture on our campuses honor Charlie Kirk's memory. apnews.com/article/dowd...

Why does every Sept 11 have such a perfect blue sky to remind me of *that* Sept 11?

Charlie Kirk's murder is a grievous crime. But forgive me—I won't listen to those who describe someone who encouraged my students to police my classroom speech as a "free speech activist." And I won't hear critics of one who called campuses "islands of totalitarianism" described as "radical."

Good reminder today. "Faced by cases of need, one cannot ignore them in favor of superfluous church ornaments and costly furnishings for divine worship; on the contrary it could be obligatory to sell these goods in order to provide food, drink, clothing and shelter for those who lack these things."

This well-meaning and ordinary expression of our underdeveloped theology around the constitutional state, an endorsement of Catholic political leaders' asserting doctrine over civil law, doesn't address the gravest threat to life in 2025. This takes the wrong side. share.google/xy5TTdSnoEvh...

Brief, investigative stops to check immigration status that terrorize and brutalize lawful permanent residents and citizens as much as any undocumented person. THIS is not what our constitutional founders had in mind. THIS is not our constitutional tradition.

This lesson already has been learned. John Paul II & Benedict XVI tried to "heal rifts" and these unreasonable people who don't want to share the Church with anyone else wouldn't stop insisting only they know what God wants. Mistake. This is rewarding disunity. share.google/soZIOwJuWg8w...

No notes

Umm.