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America, We Have a Problem

Posted on by laughingcatholic

Immigration has torn our nation apart.


Millions of people have entered the United States illegally. You can use all the euphemisms you like — undocumented workers, persecuted pilgrims, suffering masses — but the simple truth is they are people who entered our nation illegally.


The USCCB has issued a strong condemnation of the Trump Administration’s “indiscriminate mass deportation of people.” The bishops offer a token nod to the right of a nation to defend its borders. But you can sum up the document by saying that deporting illegals is cruel, unChristian, and worthy of condemnation.


In reality, the deportations are not “indiscriminate” but carefully planned and executed.


The bishops, in their analysis, ignore how we got into this mess. It resulted from the Obama and Biden Administrations inviting millions of illegals into the nation for one or more of the following reasons:


1. Overwhelm the social-services system and therein force massive transfers of wealth from taxpayers to the government.
2. Boosting census numbers to create more Democrat-voting Congressional districts.
3. Adding millions of welfare-depending people to the voting rolls (even if illegally).
4. Creating a huge class of people dependent on the government for support and thus willing to support any and all entitlement programs.
5. Providing cheap labor that displaces existing American workers.
6. Centralizing all power in the government at the expense of the individual.

All this was easy to see coming. When Biden was President, thousand of illegals streamed across the border each day. We didn’t know where they came from or where they were going. Many were unaccompanied minors destined for sex trafficking or virtual enslavement.


Biden said there was nothing he could do without new legislation. But after Trump was elected, the border crossings stopped. It was a miracle, right?


Now we have millions of people here illegally and they are demanding we take care of them. And, of course, there are millions of people born and raised here legally who also are demanding we take care of them.


In this context, the Trump Administration is doing the hard task that must be done to hold people accountable by forcing them to accept the consequences of their illegal (criminal) actions. The consequences might be unpleasant but that is the price for going against the law.


The bishops have countered by playing the useful idiot: abetting illegal actions while believing they are doing the compassionate, Christian thing. In offering concern about illegal immigrants, they ignore Americans who lose their jobs to cheap labor, taxpayers who lose their homes, citizens who can’t get health care because the medical system is overwhelmed, schools that are overcrowded and trying to teach students who don’t know English.


President Trump didn’t create this crisis but he is trying to solve it while preserving the United States of America.


Will the process be painful? Yes… but so would be doing nothing. If I come home to my house one day and another family has moved into my home illegally, getting them out will likely be painful. But so would it be painful to tell my family to shrug it off and go sleep on a park bench.


Of course, perhaps some dishonest realtor illegally sold my house to an unsuspecting soul who thought he has bought it honestly. Likewise, we probably have many people who entered the country illegally and were told it was okay and they could “get their papers later” and not to worry. We certainly hear the emotional stories of people crossing the river, trekking across the desert, working to make a better life for their families.


Those stories just give more credit to the immigrants who came to America legally, waited their turn, and worked to become citizens.

We don’t have a perfect system, but the system we have is better than just letting people stream into the country, demanding all the benefits afforded American citizens. America, our home, deserves protection, just like the home of an individual American. If we don’t accomplish that protection, what people come here to get will be gone.


The Charlie Kirk Effect

Posted on by laughingcatholic


My wife and I have a pleasant Sunday after-church habit of going for a walk.
The town where we live is pleasant and safe and we usually go for about an hour. This includes a stop at a local chocolate shop for something sweet and a coffee to go. It is a leisurely walk, a walk I anticipate fondly,
I often wear a baseball cap for these walks, typically choosing one from my broad MAGA collection. This is not an effort to foment revolution, but just show support for what I believe in. Sometimes my hat causes a reaction from others out for a Sunday stroll. The reactions have evolved through three periods of time.
In the year or so before the 2024 Presidential election, reactions alternated between a sneer of contempt and a quiet nod of approval. The anti-MAGAs were much braver than the pro-MAGAS; I think people who agreed with my hat were fearful to show it. Hating MAGA was seen as acceptable.
This changed after Donald Trump was elected in 2024. I noticed that many people I passed smiled and bravely said “I like your hat.” The MAGAs had come out of the closet and felt they had permission to confess their support for Trump. On the other hand, those who had opposed Trump either eyed me warily or avoided eye contact.
We now are in a third period, which I believe exhibits “The Charlie Kirk Effect.”
In short, the horrific murder of Charlie Kirk has emboldened moral people with Christian values to stand up for what is right and to speak it. After all, if a man dies for the truth, the least the rest of us can do is defend the truth.
Last Sunday, I wore my least bold MAGA had on our walk. It is all black with black MAGA lettering — rather subtle. Still, I got reactions. The first came from a couple teenage boys on bicycles who stopped and said they really liked my hat. From my experience, such behavior from teenage boys is unusual.
Then a young couple walking a dog passed us and the wife flashed a big smile and said, “I love your hat.” That put a smile on my face — and my wife’s pretty smile grew bigger.
This, of course, is hardly a statistically significant survey of American opinion. But I believe it is a positive moment, at least for me.
Charlie Kirk sacrificed his life simply engaging in constructive dialog to help young people find the truth — about Christianity, marriage, honesty, the eternal truths embodied in the Ten Commandments.
Charlie set the bar for the rest and we must follow his lead. We all have the responsibility to speak truth with patience, kindness, and respect. I promise to try.

Latin Rights and Wrongs

Posted on by laughingcatholic

I stumbled back to Church after a 10-year absence and enjoyed the modern style of the Mass. I enjoyed Mass with popular music, guitars, folksy songs, handshakes, hugs, and happy talk.


I even joined the “pop” choir, standing with the other musicians on the side of the alter, which clearly was not an appropriate place to be. But we were all part of the team celebrating the faith, partners with the priest, dancing nuns, and a congregation mostly ignorant of the true Catholic faith.


I could have left well enough alone, but if I had always left well enough alone I would have still been a Methodist. So as I came back to my converted faith, I decided to study, learn, and figure out what it is all about.


No, I did not evolve into a brilliant theologian. But I learned enough to recognize the faith being practiced with sincerity and devotion.


This brings us to the subject of the traditional Latin Mass.


I’m a post-Vatican II convert who didn’t grow up with the traditional Mass and thought Latin was for doctors and old guys with long beards. If I had returned to a Church with the incense, bells, and whistles of the traditional Mass, I might not have stayed. It might have been too alien, too off-putting, too frightening.


I needed something friendly, inviting, and, frankly, a bit like a Protestant service. But as time went on and I became more knowledgeable about my faith, I wanted more — and I found a deeper faith in a more traditional practice of the Catholic faith.


No, I don’t attend a Latin Mass (most of the time). But it is a joy to attend a formal service with traditional music, a homily that teaches the true faith, where there is no compromise of right from wrong.


When my faith became deeper, I moved to a more traditional parish. It has been a wonderful faith community for my family and me.


However, it never occurred to me to condemn my old parish or petition the bishop to remove the Gather songbook from its pews. If people want to sing vapid songs and strum guitars, so be it. I will always proclaim the truth but will not attempt to “outlaw” those who take a different path, assuming it is aligned with the teachings of the Church.


All this makes me deeply puzzled and troubled by the efforts by some in the Church hierarchy to suppress the Traditional Latin Mass, which faithful Catholics practiced for eons. If someone likes the old form, why deny them? To deny them, is to be divisive, which is the worse thing in the world, many would say.


What we need to focus on is the Essence of the Mass: the consecration, the true presence, the creed, and prayers. The use of incense, women in veils, holding a rosary, or the use of Gregorian chant are not symbols of rebellion against Vatican II; they are practices that appeal to some people, like guitar music appeals to others.


I hear lots about the need for tolerance. The Traditional Latin Mass is worthy of tolerance — or, perhaps, praise.

Death and Taxes and My Ring Tone

Posted on by laughingcatholic

The proverb “Nothing is certain but death and taxes” appeared in the 1700s and has remained mostly true today.


You still can’t avoid death and taxes but I’m convinced you also can’t avoid junk phone calls. Heaven knows, I’ve tried.


This is not a life-threatening situation, just damn annoying. Each day I get between 15 and 30 calls on my cell phone from people who want me to buy something — or take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that is honestly too good to be true. Virtually all of these people are running a scam.

Many of the calls come from robots with enough AI to ask me a few questions and then connect me with a real, live human being who is determined to close the deal. Usually the human beings have accents that suggest they aren’t locals, although most of the calls originate in my area code — or so the caller ID suggests.


The priceless opportunities I have been offered include:


— Help in paying off my student loans. (At my age, even had I ever taken out loans, they would have been paid off long ago.)
— A discount to pay for my final burial expenses. (I hope not to need help and in any event, it won’t be my problem.)
— Special additions to my Medicare plan. (Frankly, I have all the help in this area I can stand.)
— A discount to put a new roof on my house. (The roof will need replacing in a few years and I’m unlikely to hire some guy who calls me out of the blue.)
— A buy who just happens to be painting houses in my neighborhood and could to mine while he is nearby. (I have a brick house.)
— The cheapest auto insurance in the history of the world. (I’m retired and already have many discounts from someone who has been taking care of me for decades.)
–People who want to update my personal information for government or medical agencies. (Sure, we just need your social security number or a major credit card — perfectly secure.)
— The sketchy sounding guy who wants to make sure I don’t miss out on my winnings from the Lotto, casino, or Irish Sweepstakes. (Saints are born every day.)


Just to be clear, I don’t actually talk to all these people — at least not more than once. I have tried blocking the numbers on my phone, listing my number with the national no-call database, and reporting numbers from especially annoying organizations. I do give money to a number of charities… but I contact them and don’t give a credit card out on the phone.


I occasionally take a call and ask the caller to be placed on their no-call list. Either this is useless or there is a multitude of companies trying to sell me the same tax forgiveness program. I find those calls especially interesting because they always say their records show I owe a huge amount in back taxes, which my records don’t show and the IRS hasn’t claimed.


I confess that I have on several occasions resorted to somewhat sophomoric methods in dealing with these calls. For example, I might tell someone who wants to help me with my lotto winnings to just put cash in a bag and leave it at the local police station for me to pick up. I’ve learned that if I say I’m older than 80 nobody wants to sell me life insurance.


I’ve been known to snore into the phone or blow my police whistle. Nothing stops the insidious robo-callers who are determined to rip me off.


You would think some politician would see stopping these calls as a winning political strategy. Millions of voters would appreciate their effort to bring peace to phone users.


Unfortunately, living in Illinois, I assume all the politicians have been paid off or are getting a cut of the profits from the calls. And they are too busy promoting their pet projects: raising taxes, promoting abortion, expanding drug use, and persecuting home schoolers.


But there might be some clever politician who sees these callers as a source of new taxes. That is one tax I might support; I might even vote for a Democrat.

The Buck Stops

Posted on by laughingcatholic

I’ve been hearing that many federal government employees are worried that they may lose their jobs. This is because of the aggressive work of President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).


DOGE has started to look into budgets, staffing levels, and organizational failures in various parts of the government. Much to the surprise of no one, they have discovered there is a good deal of waste, corruption, and (believe it or not) lack of worker enthusiasm.


We taxpayers are paying more than we should and getting less than we deserve. Surprise: this has been going on for a long time. Perhaps that is why government employees are so shocked that there might be layoffs, downsizing, or early retirements — realities people in private industry have faced their entire working lives.


It seems the employees of the federal government believe they should have their jobs for life, get regular raises and promotions, work from home, and enjoy a month of paid vacation a year. So in light of an administration that believes government should be efficient and effective — and taxpayers should get honest work from the people they pay to serve them — federal workers are worried. Maybe they deserve to be worried.


Don’t get me wrong. Losing a job is a terrible experience. I’ve been through a couple major corporate reorganizations and downsizings that cost thousands of people their jobs. I’ve been the guy losing his job and the guy telling friends they were “redundant.” It is unpleasant being on either side of the conversation.
But life goes on, people adjust, and do the heroic tasks of caring for their families. There are sleepless nights and ample worry.


But people who run businesses, own homes (or hope to), and pay taxes also worry.


They worry about government regulations that make it difficult to stay in business.


They worry about how much higher their property taxes will go — and whether they can keep their homes (or ever afford one).


They worry that massive government spending and debt will mean they will lose more of their hard-earning income to taxes imposed by a wasteful and corrupt bureaucracy.


DOGE may seen cruel and heartless to federal workers fearing for their jobs. But to people scrimping to pay for health care and groceries, DOGE looks like the hope for a brighter future. If DOGE really saves a billion here and a billion there, those are billions that don’t have to come out of the paychecks of working Americans.

Vote for policy, not personality

Posted on by laughingcatholic

Citizens and Christians have a more responsibility to vote.

You are going to hear that in homilies, news editorials, maybe even from friends and neighbors. I mostly agree. But not everyone votes with a clear head.  Many votes from ignorance, fear, and just plain stupidity.

There are many reasons to vote for a candidate, some good and some awful.  Let’s look.

10 worst reasons to vote for a candidate:

  1. They promise to expand government to make everyone equal.
  2. They want rich people to pay the “fair share” without telling you what that is.
  3. They want to increase taxes on businesses.
  4. They believe in the broad nonsense of “women’s health” issues.
  5. They support the Paris Climate Accords.
  6. They support DEI.
  7. They want to defund the police
  8. The deny that marriage is between one man and one woman.
  9. Your union boss supports them.
  10. They are a Democrat.

10 best reasons to vote for a candidate:

  1. They will cut taxes and regulation.
  2. They will maintain a strong military
  3. They support public safety.
  4. They will defend life at every stage from conception to natural death.
  5. The realize that government creates more problems than it solves.
  6. They recognize that the United States was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.
  7. They will defend the original intent of the Constitution.
  8. They will appoint conservative judges and executive-branch officials.
  9. They will limit the growth of government and reduce the number of government employees, programs, and offices.
  10. They are the Republican with a chance of winning.

You don’t have to be a genius to realize the worst reasons justify voting for Harris; the best reasons justify voting for Trump.

Some people – even those who agree with Trump on policy, say they just can’t vote for him because he is mean, is rich, or has a nasty personality.

Frankly, Harris doesn’t have a great personality and has lots of trouble being open and honest.  She also can’t seem to make up her mind about what she believes.

What Harris says will change with the direction of the wind; what Trump says is what he will do. He gets my vote because he will support the Constitution and the American people.

I’m not going to date him, spend my weekends fishing with him, or hang out at the Mar-a-Lago clubhouse. I will have the opportunity to live my life as a free man.

Pick policy over personality.

America Under Threat

Posted on by laughingcatholic

In only a generation, we can throw away our freedom and we may be living in that generation.

Our institutions are occupied by agents of democratic socialism, progressivism, and liberalism. Frankly, they are all communists, although most would deny that and lay claim to one of the euphemisms mentioned earlier. They are either true communist believers or useful idiots who know not what they do.

Schools don’t teach kids to read and write… but that they can choose whether to be a boy or a girl, are privileged oppressors if they are white, and that government is the source of good, not God.

The party led by Kamala Harris and Tim Walz wants to continue on the road to government power and control, where bureaucrats can steal your property and your children.

The party led by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance wants to regain the rule of the brilliant United State Constitution, an inspired document designed to preserve freedom and liberty for all Americans.

Please remember that the Constitution was designed to protect the people from an oppressive government – not to ensure government control over the people.

If you are considering a vote for Harris-Walz, here, whether you believe it or not, is what you are voting for:

  • Abortion up to – and after – birth.
  • Massive wealth distribution via an extremely greedy tax system.
  • Control of education at all levels by teacher unions.
  • Unlimited immigration with illegal arrivals getting all sorts of free stuff paid for by existing taxpayers.
  • The right to vote for non-citizens.
  • Increasing prices for all the basics of life: food, water, clothing, transportation.
  • Decreasing quality and availability of health care.
  • The end of energy independence and massive investment in failed green energy schemes.
  • Persecution of religion, especially of Jews and Catholics.
  • The death of free expression.

On the other hand, voting for Trump-Vance means you are supporting the following:

  • Belief in the sanctity of life.
  • Freedom to openly practice your faith, be it Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu of whatever.
  • Domestic energy development to remove dependence on foreign suppliers or uncertain green fantasies.
  • Lower taxes.
  • Lower prices for the basics of food and shelter.
  • Reduced regulation of business so the entrepreneurial American spirit can thrive.
  • Parental control of public school and the right to school choice.
  • Strict limits on the intrusive arms of government, particularly and CIA, FBI, EPA, and IRS.
  • The end of government green mandates and return to market dynamics.
  • An end of the illegal migrant invasion.

We have two extremely different options from which to choose.  Trump and team will, indeed, make American great again.

Harris and team (whoever is really pulling the strings), will destroy our freedom and make us the world’s largest banana republic and saddest failure of hope.

We are under attack

Posted on by laughingcatholic

Once upon a time there was a man named Saul Alinsky. He was a very bad man.

He was an anti-American activist who hated everything the United States stands for and wrote an infamous book about how best to overthrow freedom: Rules for Radicals

In a nutshell, the book tells readers how to destroy and establishment in the effort to replace it with a horrendous, totalitarian, communist government. I know, that sounds like an unbelievable conspiracy theory – but it is the truth.

And it might surprise you to learn that many of today’s “progressive” leaders look to this book and its author as their Holy Grail, their Bible, their roadmap to a great new society.

It might (or might not) surprise you to learn that Alinsky and his plan of disruption are admired by Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and their many acolytes. Ms. Clinton wrote her senior college thesis about Alinsky.

A key to the Alinsky approach is lying. At its most blatant form this means lying that your political opponent is a liar. If you want to obliterate the Constitution, you say that is the goal of your opponent.

Christians have the 10 commandments to guide their behavior.

Today’s progressives have the Alinsky rules:

  1. “Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.”
  2. “Never go outside the experience of your people.”
  3. “Whenever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy.”
  4. “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
  5. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also, it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”
  6. “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.”
  7. “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”
  8. “Keep the pressure on.”
  9. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”
  10. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.”
  11. “If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative.”
  12. “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”
  13. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

If you have not read the book but these rules sound familiar, there are two explanations for that.

First, you may have watched progressives putting them into action. For example, no sane person could suggest that Joe Biden won the recent debate with Donald Trump. But despite the reality of his pathetic performance (dementia-fueled) they say any criticism of him is a lie; he is a genius, dynamo, bold leader, and just plain nice guy.

Second, you may have young children who are well-versed in creative fibbing to avoid blame for misbehavior. For example, the dog ate my homework or Billy made me do it.

You may also recognize the young child and modern progressive politician operate on pretty much the same intellectual level. The modern progressive is really just an evil child who never learned right from wrong and just grew physically larger.

In reality, Biden has much in common with Alinsky, who included this dedication in his book:

Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins— or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer

Biden’s problem isn’t old age

Posted on by laughingcatholic

I’m sick of hearing that President Biden is incompetent because he is old.

Yes, he is clumsy and forgetful. As someone who has cared for elderly people suffering from dementia, I recognize the behaviors. But his most disturbing character traits have been present since he was young man.

  • Lying about his academic record
  • Lying about his athletic record
  • Plagiarizing the writings of others.
  • Collecting payments from foreign governments
  • Sniffing women and girls
  • Showering with his daughter
  • Spearheading unwarranted attacks on highly qualified judicial nominees.
  • Making up all sorts of ridiculous stories about his heroics that never happened

And, of course, there is the little issue that he entered “public service” with modest means and piled up millions of dollars courtesy of the taxpayers. He is a walking (or stumbling) pile of ethical and character faults.

This pile of faults has nothing to do with old age. Biden has been a selfish, egomaniac, dishonest, disgrace of a man his entire life.  And as a man in his ‘70s, I resent his failings being blamed on his age.

Looking for a role model

Posted on by laughingcatholic

Here I go touching the third rail regarding WNBA star Caitlin Clark.

Let me start by admitting I have never attended a WNBA game and likely never will.  Frankly, I have not attended an NBA game since the Jordan era in Chicago and likely won’t ever attend another game. 

Why?

Professional basketball has become more like roller derby or pro wrestling.  Big brutes covered with tattoos shove each other, trash talk, travel, and beat their chests after dunking a ball through a hoop (not a great achievement when you are seven feet tall).

Although that last paragraph was referring to the NBA, it pretty much fits the WNBA. The WNBA has the added strangeness of a high percentage of members who are gay and brag about it.  (In the NBA, the members brag about how many members of the opposite sex they sleep with.)

Into this morass of crudeness comes Caitlin Clark, a clean-cut, heterosexual, white, Christian with unbelievable talent and determination. She is feisty and gives credit to her teammates. By WNBA standards, she is the exception. And she is drawing huge crowds into formerly empty arenas.

Why?

She is an excellent role model for daughters and granddaughters of families around the country. Any thoughtful parent wants a daughter to grow up and act like Clark… not some crude, thuggish, painted, lesbian.

It isn’t any more complicated than that.

During the Jordan era in Chicago, little boys – of all races and economic status – just wanted to “be like Mike.”

Today, little girls want to “be like Caitlin.”

Can you blame them?