I’ve been pondering why some people who claim to be Republicans are so opposed to the probability that Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States.

Could it be they believe there are better candidates? How about Nicki Haley or Ron DeSantis? They have both served as governors, the latter successfully, the former less so.

Could it be they think Trump will do something crazy, like start a war in Ukraine or the Middle East? Wait… that didn’t happen when he was in office before but when the addle-minded Biden moved into the White House.

No, I think it has more to do with envy and fear.

Let’s consider envy. Trump inherited a sizeable fortune from his father and parlayed it into a massive fortune. He recently was fined $375 million by an obviously corrupt, dishonest judge and his lawyer said he would have no problem pulling the money together. And unlike the government, Trump can’t print money; he earns it by being one of the smartest business minds in history.

Trump has lived the American Dream. He has a plethora of successful businesses, a beautiful estate in Florida, a stunning wife, a family of great kids and grandkids, planes, cars, and any toys a man could desire.

You can bet there are many traditional Republicans who envy Trump’s success and believe they deserve a bigger piece of the pie. Of course, the ingredients of the pie they want are our tax dollars. They feel like we owe them – and people who feel owed are prone to envy.

Unlike the current occupant of the White House, Trump LOST money by serving his nation in public office and has been constantly attacked by ethically challenged states attorneys and a corrupt Justice Department. He has suffered more persecution that any normal man could survive.

Still, he soldiers on, determined to make America great again, to bring it back from the brink of a statist technocracy.

Let’s also consider the fear of many never-Trumpers. These are the people who have been benefitting from the rigged system for decades, taking bribes and favors, scratching one another’s backs, feeding their greed on the hard-earned dollars of the American taxpayers.

These corrupt and greedy souls fear the gravy train might end under a second Trump administration. He really might drain the swamp and the snakes and slugs will have to get jobs and earn an honest living.

Of course, some never Trumpers are wealthy and don’t fear economic loss (unless they are the sort of people who can’t tolerate someone have more than they have). But with Trump in office, they may not get appointed to the prestigious boards and get a martini at the important social events. In other words, they will lose a seat at the table.

Under a Trump administration, a lazy federal bureaucrat might lose his useless position in government and be faced with having to get a real job. He might have to work for a living. It might be hard work requiring the use of a brain and calloused hands.

This is a prospect many in government have never faced. They may fear they can’t deal with the situation; they may be right.

I can’t blame them for being afraid. I feel a similar fear when I do my taxes and when local, state, and federal politicians threated to increase my taxes more to pay for things the nation can’t afford.
It is time to end the fear of the taxpayers and increase the fear of the tax spenders.

I’m beginning to think that the Pope would think I’m a very, very, bad Catholic.

The evidence?

• I have actually listened to the entire Bible in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz (twice). These days I’m listening to the Catechism in a Year with the same faithful priest. (This would be a good podcast for the Roman Curia and Holy Father to listen to.)
• I attend a parish that the Pope would consider “conservative.” I don’t know a congregation of kinder, more faithful people. By the way, the demographics of the congregation are diverse economically, socially, and ethnically.
• I’m a post-Vatican II convert who never attended Mass (Latin or otherwise) growing up.  I have never been a fan of the Latin Mass but have numerous friends who are, and it seems to attract many young people.  If you have a restaurant that attracts patrons for both steak and fish, why eliminate one from the menu?
• The Vatican has literally persecuted faithful priests and bishops, the devout Bishop Strickland being the most recent. Yet, priests, bishops, and Cardinals who are weak in their criticism of abortion, firm in their acceptance of deviant sexual behavior, and reluctant to speak Biblical truth find themselves praised and appointed to positions of influence.
• None of us is without sin.  However, I don’t think anyone who presents a public scandal ought to be a Godparent.  Remember, a Godparent is called to present a faithful example of Church teachings to young people. That would exclude people who live a lifestyle contrary to the moral law or amputate a portion of their body in the mistaken notion that they can change the gender God gave them.
• I believe the number one job of the Pope it to protect the faith and prevent members of the clergy from teaching errors or misleading the faithful.

In the current debate on transgender people serving as Godparents, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller made a cogent point: “The pastor motive that urges us to treat those who sin against the Sixth and Ninth Commandment of the Decalogue as ‘gently and compassionately’ as possible is praiseworthy only as long as the pastor does not, like a bad doctor, deceive his patient about the seriousness of his illness…”

I spent most of my professional career as a “public affairs” advisor.  In simple terms, my job was to suggest to senior managers in business and of a faith organization the right things to do in difficult situations – and what to communicate about their actions.

From that perspective, I have some advice for the Pope. He needs some good advice; he either is getting (and accepting) very bad advice or he is the source or really distorted thinking. Here it goes:

• Don’t crucify the faithful
• Know the difference between someone disagreeing with your decisions and someone who hates you. There are many of the former and only a few of the latter.
• A Pope must be a bulwark of the faith – not a facilitator of theories, theological experiments, and untested “reforms.” (This might mean that having a Jesuit as Pope is overly risky.)
• Remove someone from a position when they threaten the faith of their congregation – not when they don’t scrape and bow to Rome.
• Even the appearance of revenge by the Pope or a Cardinal will likely hurt your reputation beyond repair. If you are going to preach tolerance, you have to practice it.
• Recognize that “dialogue” can only take you so far; you must stand for the truth, which is found in the Bible and Catechism. Put another way, you can’t meet everyone halfway. Sometimes you have to say, “You are wrong.” That would, for example, include Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Hamas. Put still another way, sometimes one side of an argument must win over the other. For instance, the solution to defeating evil is to destroy it, not compromise.

A few years ago, a priest I know was ordained by Saint John Paul II in St. Peter’s Basilica. (I’m changing a few details to protect the identity of the priest, him being the sort of “conservative” the current Pope might not like.)  Anyway…  after the ordination ceremony, there was a reception line and each of the newly ordained priests got to shake hands with JPII and speak briefly.

My friend took the opportunity to pledge to the Holy Father that he would always support him, in every situation, in every debate, forever. The future saint smiled and replied; he said he hoped my friend would only support the Pope when the Pope was right.

I believe I have the obligation to support the Pope through my prayers and by living my Catholic faith to the best of my ability. The Catholic Church is my Church and the haven of all the faithful. The Pope is the Vicar of Christ and is sworn to protect my Church. When he fails in that duty, he loses my support —  but I’ll keep praying.

I’ll state it right at the start; I’m tired of the term “game changer.”

The term had an innocent beginning in the commentary on sports.  Let’s say an announcer was watching a football game.  One team was ahead but their quarterback threw an interception that was run back for a touchdown.  Suddenly, the game was close.

That interception really changed the course of the game – it was a game-changer.

Today, the term pops up everywhere:

• A chef promoting his air cooker on television mentions the single-hand French doors on the appliance: they are a real game changer.
• A doctor changes the heart medication he gives a patient, so it doesn’t make him as tired: a real medical game-changer.
• A new toothpaste allows the pretty girl to attract more men: a real social game changer.
• A majority of Democrat voters realize Biden really is as dopey as he seems: a political game changer.
• A rich relative dies and leaves me a fortune: my life has experienced a game changer (one that isn’t likely to happen).
• I upgraded the memory on my phone and can store all pictures I have of the grandkids: a family game changer.
• You fall off a mountain while rock climbing and break both legs: now there is a serious game changer.
• I’m running to catch the train, trip, and fall over a little old lady: here come multiple game changers.

It isn’t that the term “game changer” is inherently offensive or especially inaccurate. It simply has been overused to the point of becoming trite.

I have arthritis in both shoulders and every few months the pain and stiffness get troublesome.  So I go for some physical therapy.  I had a session today and the highly skilled therapist pulled, twisted, kneaded, and massaged my shoulders and arms until the joints loosened and pain subsided.

When she was done, she asked if I felt better. No, I didn’t tell her what she had done was a game changer. I just said I felt great and thanked her for her hard work and skill.

The therapist is a talented athlete and has worked on the aching muscles and joints of many other athletes. (I’m just an old guy trying to keep up with the grandkids.)

Given her clientele, she really is a game-changer.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. ~ A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

Someone today experiences their best of times; someone else experiences their worst of times. There are times in my life when I believed I was experiencing either the best or the worst. The factors that determine which is which are many, some obvious, some subtle.

The best days included the day I married and the days when my children were born. The worst days included a couple stays in the hospital and the funerals of loved ones.

But the little question that has been sneaking into my mind of late is whether we are in “the last days,” the time of trial and tribulation before the end of the earth.

There is ample evidence that we are nearing the end:

 The United State no longer has a real border. Anyone and everyone simply walk into the country and signs up for benefits.
 In our major cities crime actually does pay because criminals are seldom caught and are unlikely to be prosecuted.
 We have a significant number of “gender-confused” people who think they might be the opposite sex from how they were born – and doctors ready, able, and willing to give them mass doses of hormones and cut off their genitals.
 We have all but abandoned the Biblical, sacramental, natural law definition of marriage being between one man and one woman.
 Millions of people live a “hook-up” lifestyle, sleeping around, having abortions, suffering from sexual addiction and disease, rejecting all reasonable moral codes.
 We have a President and wide swath of government leaders who lie constantly, using the threat of COVID, climate change, and war to justify ceding the freedom of the people they represent over to an unseen global leadership. (The Catholic Church is doing the same.)
 Russia and Ukraine are at war. Israel and Hamas are at war. Communist China threatens Taiwan. Millions are enslaved in Africa and the Far East.
 In the United States, government is trying to control everything, from what you think, to what you eat, to how often you can flush a toilet.
 You can turn on your computer and watch any sort of violent, sexual perversion the mind of Satan can imagine.
 In short, it seems as if everything that is decent, true, and eternal is being abandoned for the power of pure evil.

Lest we think we are the only ones in history to wonder if humans have reached the end of their rope, let me recall a few groups of people in the past who may have thought the world was coming to an end:

 The residents of Pompei being drenched in volcanic ask.
 The residents of Rome when the city was sacked in 420 by the Visigoths.
 The soldiers collecting the dead and wounded following the Battle of Gettysburg.
 The soldiers in trenches facing a brutal attack during World War I.
 The millions sent to the gas chambers by Hitler.
 The millions sent to the gulag by Stalin.
 The troops landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day.
 The residents of two Japanese Cities destroyed by atomic bombs.
 The tortured soul’s dying in Cambodia’s killing fields.
I could go on, but the point is that there are times when it certainly must seem like the end is near.

Perhaps it is right now. I don’t know and I don’t know anyone who does.

What I do know is it is time for me to repent of my sins and pray as if the end is near. Please do the same. Just in case…

If you attended a liberal arts college and had even a passing encounter with psychology, you likely are aware of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

It is a fascinating theory developed in the 1940s and 1950s by A. H. Maslow, that, in the simplest terms, suggests that human beings move through a continuum of needs from the most basic to high levels of self-actualization (be all you can be). In pedestrian terms, before you paint the Mona Lisa you need to have food, water, and a roof over your head.

In recent days there has been considerable debate about the World Cup collapse of the US Women’s National Soccer Team.  Many have suggested that the team got a bit over-confident and was distracted by misplaced efforts at political advocacy. That made me ponder if the Maslow model could be applied (imperfectly, for sure) to sports.

Maslow’s hierarchy has five levels.  The first is physiological needs: air, water, shelter – the very basics of survival. In the athletic area – we’ll use soccer as an example – you need some fundamental skills like dribbling, kicking, and running. These are the things a kid learns in local park district programs, something sometimes coached by a parent attending his first soccer match.

The second Maslow level involves safety needs: personal security, a job, property. For the soccer player, the analogy would be joining a team and playing in actual competition.

Third for Maslow comes love and belonging, including friendship, family, and a sense of community. For the soccer player, this means developing teamwork on the team, being a key player, being a starter, being connected to something that is beyond individual talent.

Esteem comes fourth in the Maslow hierarchy. This means status, recognition, and an elevated sense of self. For the soccer player, this might mean being named to the all-star team, generating positive newspaper stories, getting a scholarship to play in college, being drafted for the pros, even getting your picture on a box of Wheaties.

The final level in the hierarchy is self-actualization, which encompasses being the best version of yourself possible, experiencing spiritual fulfillment, and a sense that your life has made a real difference.

As for the soccer player, this final level offers great opportunities for good – and foolishness. The American soccer stars proved how the promise of level five in the hierarchy can prove hollow.

The American soccer women had, as a team and as individuals, reached level four of the hierarchy. The team won the last two world cups.  Players’ pictures were everywhere, and commentators said they had a good chance for a three-peat.

Instead, they played poorly and made a point to show disrespect during the playing of the national anthem. In short, they misused the fame of level four in immature, inappropriate ways.

Soccer players (and most other athletes) almost always get into trouble when they use their prominent position for social or political advocacy. Actors get into the same trouble.

In the case of the women’s team, one of the stars used her fame to advocate for gay rights and equal pay for female athletes with male athletes. She proudly picked controversial issues to champion, perhaps naively thinking it would make people respect her. Instead, it made at least half the people dislike her.

What was her alternative? The 6^th chapter of Matthew has a suggestion in verses 3-4:

But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

That’s right; do good deeds quietly and don’t issue a press release whenever you have an opinion about some political or social issue. Remember that you are a soccer player who only has a public platform because you can kick a ball down the field and people like it when you win for THEIR team.

Soccer players, both male and female, eventually get too old to compete. They will be remembered, provided they achieved some level of fame, according to how they lived the 5^th level of the hierarchy. If they spent their retirement years endowing scholarships, visiting children in hospitals, and speaking at fundraisers for those in need, they will produce happy memories in their fans.

On the other hand, if the last thing the one-time fans remember is that the soccer star spit on the American flag and whined about her paycheck, it likely won’t bear fond memories.

True self-actualization isn’t really about self but what the self can do for others.

Americans today are much wiser than Germans in the 1930s and would never sign on to the many evils the Nazis represented. We’re progressive, inclusive, enlightened, and just plain smart.

What a stupid question. Nobody would want to be a Nazi, right?

Of course, there has been much debate since the end of World War II over how the Germans allowed Hitler to rise to power, invade most of Europe, kill millions in death camps, and encourage horrendous medical experiments on innocent people.

Most of the rationalization centers on the oppression of Germany following World War I and the dream of the German people to return to some former glory. Hitler failed. And I’m sure most Americans believe nothing like the horror inflicted by the Nazis could ever happen in America.

I disagree. In fact, I believe our nation is working fast and hard to surpass the insanity of Hitler and his followers. There are several pieces of evidence, any one of which would suggest we have lost our moral balance.  Together, they convince me that we are past the tipping point and really do want to be Nazis.

Here we go…

• We kill roughly 3,000 unborn babies each day. We call it protecting the right of women to choose, believing an unwanted pregnancy (we call it “unplanned”) should be eliminated so the “burden” of a child shouldn’t interfere with work, education, or a party lifestyle.
• Men pretending to be women are allowed to enter women’s bathrooms and locker rooms and participate in women’s sports.
• We allow surgeons to cut the breasts off girls and penises off boys so the children can pretend to be a sex other than the one God gave them. In doing so, we call “mutilation” something new: gender-affirming health care. Dr. Mengele could only dream of such abominations becoming socially acceptable.
• We forced millions of people to get a “vaccine” for COVID that was possibly more harmful than helpful.  Refuse the jab and you may lose your job or be discharged from the military.
• The only sector of the economy that is growing is government, with increased taxes and regulations destroying businesses, savings, and the future of our children.
• The government continues to promote “green” programs that do nothing to improve the quality of life or help the environment. Electric cars require batteries that are based on foreign-mined minerals; gasoline cars use fuel we can produce.
• At the risk of raising the hackles of the WOKE everywhere, the entire climate change scare is a hoax. Along with COVID, it is part of a grand plan to allow a small cabal of “intellectuals” to control the rest of us. The best way to gain government control is to make people government dependent.
• Our elections are no longer trustworthy. To cite an obvious case, our current President is clearly impaired; if he really won his office we are certainly as stupid as the Germans who elected Hitler.

Hitler and the Nazis were all about control. The more control they achieved, the worse the future became for Germany. 

Frankly, things looked pretty good in the short term for the Nazis.  Building a huge army created lots of jobs. Beer flowed in the bars and Wagner played in the opera houses.

Today in America, teacher unions are running schools and getting fat pay raises. Of course, the kids can’t read and write, and their parents are going broke paying the taxes.

We believe by using LED light bulbs we’ll save the planet.  What hubris. Nobody wants to be a Nazi. But if we don’t start being Americans as described in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, we face the same fate.

What would you call a country that impeached its duly elected president twice on the basis of a fictional dossier?

What would you call a country that jailed without bond dozens of protesters and held them without trial for more than two years?

What would you call a country that engaged in massive voter fraud that likely resulted in the wrong person being elected president?

What would you call a country that indicted a former president and current political candidate on the grounds of a highly dubious claim that he gave money to a porn star to keep her from talking about their relationship, which he denies?

What would you can a country in which a leader of a major political party says an arrested political candidate will get the chance to prove he is innocent – rather than and constitutional requirement that the prosecution prove he is guilty?

Sad to say, that is our country. We have become a banana republic: Bananamerica.

A banana republic is a place where the rule of law is not constitution but the strength of a particular political tyrant. Regime change comes through revolution, fighting in the streets, or outright fraud at the ballot box. The “banana” term comes from the politically incorrect fact that such countries tend to exist in places warm enough to grow banana – most of South America.

Banana republics tend to be ruled by guys in military uniforms who smoke Cuban cigars and wear several pounds of military medals on their chests. “Bananas” is a 1971 Woody Allen film that pokes fun at such republics.

Our former president doesn’t wear military outfits or smoke Cuban cigars.  He neither smokes nor drinks. But his political opponents have been trying every hairbrained scheme they can think of to eliminate him as a competitor for the White House. This latest plot – to show he paid off a porn star – would be laughable under normal conditions.  After all, would it shock anyone if it turned out a politician was messing around with a sleazy woman?

Don’t get me wrong.  I wish everyone serving in public office would live a moral life. But when you have a president who is basically an agent of the Chinese government, who has family members on the take from China, Russia, and Ukraine, and who has not exactly lived a life of upstanding morality, I find the sleazy woman allegation pale by comparison.

When I think of professional ice hockey I think of tough men, strength, speed, and athletic passion.

I don’t think of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I always figured the National Hockey League would be the last holdout against wokeness. If the NHL goes snowflake all sense of sporting sense is lost. But that has happened.

From an October 18, 2022, statement by the league:

“The National Hockey League and its 32 teams today released their inaugural Diversity & Inclusion Report, a comprehensive document that both details accelerated efforts by the League and its teams in recent years and includes a groundbreaking demographic study of the NHL workforce at both the League and Club levels.

“The report is based on seven dimensions that the NHL is following to “build (diversity and inclusion) at every point where a player, fan, or employee might interact with the game, taking important steps to lay the foundation for progress,” according to its executive summary.

“The dimensions encompass leadership, education, marketing, employment, partnerships, participation and community engagement.”

You can read all about the wonder-woke works of the NHL on the league’s website. Although I’m writing about hockey today, you can find similar silliness on the websites of all professional sports. They all are virtue-signaling to prove how much they care about the trendy concerns of the woke.

As you can read in the league’s diversity report, the vast majority of professional hockey players are white men.  Frankly, I could have told you that without taking a survey. Maybe I’m just not thinking out of the box but I expect most hockey players come from northern countries that have lots of ice. You aren’t going to find many hockey players in jungles, deserts, or rainforests.

News flash: the population of every nation and region on earth does not have a perfect balance of ethnicity and different groups play different sports.  As a result, all sports reflect a lack of diversity and inclusion.

A few examples:

• About three-quarters of professional basketball players are black.  Most are tall, quick on their feet, and athletic.
• Most professional football players are large and strong.
• In most cases, Sumo wrestlers are big, fat, Japanese men.
• Most marathons are won by short, skinny, Africans.
• Irish Hurling is dominated by Irish men.
• Irish Camogie is dominated by Irish women.

I seriously doubt that any of these sports I have cited will ever be played by a perfect diversity of the human race. That is fine and dandy with me.

I think the hockey folks have lost their way.  Instead of diversity and inclusion, they need to worry about the excitement of the game and try to keep down the price of beer and pretzels at their various arenas.

But if they find a sumo wrestler who has quick reflexes and can skate, he might make a great goalie.

Parkland School shooter Nikolas Cruz will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing 17 people in 2018. Under Florida law, he could have been given the death penalty but that requires a unanimous decision by the jury – and one juror refused to vote for death.

Given the horrendous nature of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the decision to allow Cruz to remain alive has been widely criticized. The comments usually suggest that the guy deserves to die and, frankly, if anyone ever rated the death penalty, it is Cruz.

I doubt that. And frankly, I’m very much a conservative law-and-order kind of guy.

There are many people who deserved the death penalty as much as Cruz. Richard Speck and Charles Manson come to mind. The guy who shot Saint John Paul II got parole. The guy who shot President Reagan got parole.

We have people serving in Congress who have sanctioned the murder of millions of unborn babies, stolen billions from the taxpayers, and entangled us in unproductive wars. By those standards, there are lots of people as deserving of death as Cruz, which isn’t to diminish the pain and suffering he caused.

I favor putting him in a jail cell and throwing away the key. My reason goes to a fundamental purpose of the Catholic faith: getting souls to heaven.

If you think Cruz already is destined for Hell, I recommend viewing one of my favorite movies, The Scarlet and the Black. Yes, it is a movie, but it is a true story of faith and salvation.

There are two key players in the film, both of whom were real people.

Colonel Herbert Kappler (played by Cristopher Plummer) headed the German occupation forces in Rome in 1943. He was by all standards, an evil man. He ordered the deaths of thousands and hunted Jews to send them to concentration camps.

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (played by Gregory Peck) was the colonel’s nemesis, taking refuge in the Vatican but sneaking out in various disguises to organize a massive network to harbor Jews and smuggle them to the safety of allied territory.

The movie is an exciting game of cat and mouse. And since we all know how the war ended, I’m not being a spoiler when I tell you that the colonel ends up in prison for life and the Monsignor was honored as a hero. He was a Catholic hero because in addition to saving thousands of lives during the war he saved a soul after the war that might surprise you.

Kappler had only one visitor during his time in prison: Monsignor O’Flaherty, who visited him once a month to offer spiritual counsel and, perhaps, even friendship. In 1959, he baptized Kappler and welcomed him into the Catholic faith.

Many people look at mass murderer Cruz and demand an eye for an eye. I’m sure there were many in Rome who felt the same way about Kappler.

But that isn’t the Catholic way. Our way is the path to eternal life – even for those we might deem least deserving.