Should we give J. D. Vance another chance? He's asked for one. Is he eligible?
Martha Stewart rebounded from a prison sentence. Michael Vick returned to professional football after strangling a dog. Donald Trump was elected president after a failed attempt to learn the flute. (The failure came when he was very young, when his lips were less prehensile.)
In 1932 F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "There are no second acts in American lives." But that was 94 years ago, when American lives were shorter.
Our newspaper recently printed a letter by a Christion reader who praised Charlie Kirk. In the letter the reader wrote: “There is one God, and we are not him."
The writer meant well but overlooked the 14 different gods mentioned in the Old Testament, ranging from Baal to Molech to Marduk. Then there are heavenly beings, lower ranking gods like Michael, Gabriel, Satan, and the angel of destruction (Psalm 78).
To that we could add more minor gods like the Heavenly Host, Cherubim, Seraphim, etc.This rich tradition includes El, the Canaanite deity who sent the war god YHWH to protect the Hebrews. Hence, “Isra-el.”
As Psalm 82 states, “God stands in the divine assembly; he judges among the gods.”
I sometimes wonder why voters elect mentally ill idiots to public office. One theory is that voters prefer rich candidates who are always certain they are right. That's leadership.
You are thinking of Sen. Fetterman, aren't you?
s
This is what I think.
Trump is incompetent. The people working for him are stupid. He's going to cheat in the election and still lose. Like most morons, Trump has left things until it is too late.
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Fear of ICE has contributed to a slump in Europeans visiting the United States. Visitors from Germany, for instance, are down 12% from last year.
Widely reported cases of Europeans with good documents being seized, detained and deported have led vacationers to choose more welcoming places to spend their money.
Do you know how to achieve campaign finance reform?
Don't give money to political candidates.
If you follow this plan (and register as an independent), you get a bonus: an end to texts asking for contributions.
THE LOVED ONES
The loved ones we call the dead
depart from us and for a while
are absent. And then as if
called back by our love, they come
near us again. They enter our dreams.
We feel they have been near us
when we have not thought of them.
They are simply here, simply waiting
while we are distracted among
our obligations. At last
it comes to us. They live now
In the permanent world.
We are the absent ones.
—Wendell Berry
People who vote but do not belong to a political party get little credit, which is okay if you are a Daoist. Let's take a look at the polling for the current race for governor between Xavier Becerra and English Steve Hilton.
Counting everyone, the poll shows Becerra 55% with English Steve at 37%. Those of us belonging to no party favor Becerra more strongly, by 58% to 30%.
Note that progressive voters, who did not support Becerra in the primary, immediately switched to Becerra when he won.
A few years back, English Steve worked hard to get Brexit passed, then fled to America to teach us how to ruin an economy.
Last Monday Senator Fetterman of Pennsylvania, the tallest senator at six-eight, went on TV to claim that Abdul El-Sayed suffers from what the senator called the "little man syndrome."
I am having problems processing this diagnosis. I haven't found it in the DSM. I am beginning to suspect that "little man syndrome" mainly serves as an insult directed at foreigners. But El-Sayed was born in Detroit and went to Andover High.
