"It's been really awful having to make my own decisions the last 53 years. It was really hard." These are your men, Hannah. Buckle your seatbelt so you don't fly out the window.
I’m sad to confess Penny Nichol’s enthusiasm gives me a stomach ache. All those travesties in one Substack is hard to digest. I’m heading for the Pepto Bismal as I write.
So much jack-assery in such a short time. You lay it out beautifully here. Really do need to focus our energy on where the constitution crisis mobile goes. Very concerned with the data breach musk and DOGE team have done in the treasury systems and the assault on women's rights as well as other marginalized groups. As always - love your writing!
Lol- “jackassery”! Our country is going to hell in a hand basket. I never in my wildest imagination thought it could get this bad. Pretty sure it’s going to get a lot worse. That or I’m going to wake up and laugh at what a weird dream I had.
Penny Nickels of the Bimidjy Bugle: You have to just love the enthusiasm of the National Catholic Register here:
"Perhaps the most compelling moment of the speech, delivered in the Capitol Rotunda before a small but lively cast of lawmakers and dignitaries, came when Trump proclaimed that he would declare a national emergency at the southern border. The line, delivered simply and without dramatic effect typical of an “applause line,” caused attendees to rise and cheer."
"But the moment of rapturous applause was but more proof that Trump was a political visionary on the issue — and that he had his finger on the pulse of America many years before the political establishment took notice."
This is truly a great time, no, a great Epoch for the Evangelicals at the core of the Bimidjy Bugle. That small newspaper, inefficiently run by a staff hitherto of 17, now "right-sized" (in the current jargon) to ONE, serves a small town of people who truly listen to the Bible and read it daily, especially such sentiments as in Leviticus, Chapter 24, from verse 19.
No wonder they have hopes that Must/Vance/Tramp will bring the Tramp-Bible and its appendices to all of the Jesus-loving, solid Evangelicals in the country and SAVE OUR COUNTRY by putting Evangelicalism into every curriculum and in every branch of the Government
And as the National Catholic Register says -- "A political visionary" (on immigrants poisoning our blood).
Oh, and thank you for sending us the addresses to send our pennies. I think you make me feel generous, and I may actually graduate up to sending nickels.
Chris Andrews: I could give a whole day lecture on the vile enabling of such harm within the Church and the mealy-mouth defenses.
I implored Nancy (my love for 53 years; married 51) to let us transfer into the Eastern Orthodox, the Lutheran, or High-Church Episcopal Church. My loving, beautiful Nancy is deeply rooted -- mind you, she was reared Presbyterian, but loves the Catholic Church.
Chris, I am 77. The Catholic Church is at the top of institutions that I love that have disillusioned me.
When I take Holy Communion, from my youth during the time of Pius XII (cowardly during WWII!!!), I instinctively feel union with Christ in the sign of his most Precious Body and Blood.
When I experience the rites, I picture the wondrous art of Sandro Botticelli and his depictions, for example, of The Last Communion of St. Jerome, and I feel part of that.
And so many good people.
I will say the parts of the Liturgy.
But I am indifferent to so much else in the Church, which has lost the moral authority of Mother Church as represented by the Mother of God.
I had believed our House of Representatives, our Senate would be bulwarks of freedom.
I had believed John Roberts, a very gifted jurist, to have the intellectual capacity of greats such as Louis Brandeis, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Benjamin Cardozo, and Felix Frankfurter.
But Chief Justice John Roberts has committed a grave sin in perverting his gift to serve INJUSTICE and to expand the powers of the Presidency -- already too strong -- into the arbitrariness of the next, ill-motivated dictator.
I will never forgive Chief Justice Roberts.
Chief Justice Roberts is the more damnable, because he has far-reaching abilities and HAD the potential for greatness that he has MISSPENT.
Academia: I love literature, philosophy, arts, history . . . But Joseph Goebbels earned a doctorate in the humane study of Literature from the mediaeval university, Universität Heidelberg, one of the world's great universities. Martin Heidegger moved from Universität Marburg -- which WAS a bastion even during the Third Reich with the great resister, one of the greatest theologians, Rudolf Bultmann, to Heidelberg (!!), where he gave the Nazi-speech justifying the "Bewegung" (the Movement -- i.e., Nazism) and where his "Schwarze Hefte" (Black Notebooks -- i.e., Heidegger's diaries) during the Third Reich exposed the nakedness of Heidegger, one of the greatest of academes, as an inflamed, anti-Semite who could reconcile himself to genocide.
Yale Law -- the greatest law school in the country, known for its emphasis in grounding young lawyers deeply in the practice, but also very deeply in jurisprudence -- the developing philosophy of law.
Yet Yale Law turned out JD Vance who spent 30-minutes with the anti-Semitic Alice Weidel of the neo-fascist AfD ("Alternative für Deutschland" -- "Alternative for Germany") in Vance's own spacious hotel room in Munich.
What the hell does Vance think HE knows about German politics.
Germans over the past 80 years have been VERY penitent about the Third Reich.
Now over the past few years has been a rise in neo-fascism in the AfD and JD Vance -- YALE LAW (!!!) is among those trying to tell Germans to be "proud" of their heritage (of Beethoven and Brahms -- of course -- but of Goebels, Göring, Heinrich Himmler ???!!!).
That is the most galling of all.
Our cowardly administration LECTURING Germany on accepting neo-Fascism.
That says EVERYTHING you need to know about the vileness of this administration.
What keeps me HOPEFUL is the goodness of the individual person.
Chris: You are a very gifted person with a flowing pen with fun and beauty.
Creative, good persons like YOU keep people like me strong.
I am very happy that Substack -- flawed platform that it is -- has introduced me to good, dear friends.
Thank you for all of this. I can appreciate your connection to the liturgy of the Catholic Church and to the other magnificent embellishments that help create those bonds to a higher power. In my mind, art and music connect us to the greatness that is within each of us as humans: our ability to create, feel, and experience. In great art is the expression of universal principles — the feelings and emotions that connect us to all of humanity. The philosopher, Susan K. Langer, beautifully explains these principles and how art affects the mind. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanne_Langer)
For decades, I worked as a musician who specialized in providing music for Catholic masses, weddings, etc. I loved doing those gigs — always a wonderful setting with great acoustics and an appreciative audience for my classical music offerings. I am a huge fan of the Catholic liturgy, even though I am not a Christian.
I am, in fact, an atheist and from a family of non-believers, though one side of the family is still hardcore Methodist (and I’m not talking liberal Methodists - this variation is from the jackpines of Northern Michigan). I am also a direct descendent of Emil Baur, who started a religious colony, Ora Labora, in the thumb of Michigan, which many believed to be a cult (including myself). See: https://mcconegh.wordpress.com/2023/04/18/short-story-ora-labora/.
Though I can appreciate the importance of religion in so many people’s lives, I am disgusted by the religious leaders (every type of religion - Catholicism is not unique in its corruption) who take advantage of vulnerable, trusting people and whose leaders then cover up these indiscretions and abuses. They protect the abusers, not the abused. That is unforgivable, in my opinion. Sociopaths and psychopaths manage to find their way into every institution where the weak, needy, and oppressed seek solace. They feed off their trust.
As you point out, there are so many parallels between the Church and what is now happening politically. Politicians (of a certain bend) are chomping at the bit to bring in these religious folks as they’ve been conditioned to follow blindly, be obedient, and never question the (supposed) word of God/their church leader, etc. And here we are as a country. Something is wrong with all of this.
Armand - I am well into my 60s and have seen far too much of what religion can do in the way of destroying lives and splitting families (and society) apart. Education is vital, and it must include a wide spectrum of views, teach facts, and elevate science, philosophy, history, and critical thinking. And the arts, of course.
Chris Andrews: You have shared so deeply of your inner beauty and your spirit here.
I am so glad I commented, because this conversation is one of the deepest experiences I have had ever on media, and rarely this deep in private conversations.
Thank you so very much for sharing.
I am heavily conflicted, because a very real part of me is that I feel a sick feeling every time I drive by ANY church.
I have mixed feelings even before the Holy Mass.
What you say about toxicity in the church I can share a whole afternoon over coffee talking.
As far as Dark Age, I agree, BUT . . . I read so many wonderful authors today in Germany. Iris Wolff and Ralf Rothmann, Antje Rávik Strubel, Monka Helfer, and the late Johanna Moosdorf.
My philosophy and experience resemble yours A LOT.
I guarantee, that, despite my practice in Catholicism, you and I share CORE VALUES and we could talk an afternoon into the next morning in harmony. I know you well enough to guarantee that.
What you do is very important!
I am among your friends and I admire the force and beauty of your pen.
It's super that white guys are making a comeback. Just super duper.
It's been really awful having to make my own decisions the last 53 years. It was really hard.
I could have let my husband make decisions for me, but he wasn't white.
He is dead, but would approve of my sorry attempt at humor. We were fun like that.
Thanks for the recap of the whitest EOs. Can't say I had forgotten, but any stroll down memory lane....
Louis Prima. My dad had his records. He sang with a brown woman named Kitty. They were just something else. Not a fan, but hey .
"It's been really awful having to make my own decisions the last 53 years. It was really hard." These are your men, Hannah. Buckle your seatbelt so you don't fly out the window.
😂😂😂 Thanks Chris, I think 🤔
I’m sad to confess Penny Nichol’s enthusiasm gives me a stomach ache. All those travesties in one Substack is hard to digest. I’m heading for the Pepto Bismal as I write.
😭
So much jack-assery in such a short time. You lay it out beautifully here. Really do need to focus our energy on where the constitution crisis mobile goes. Very concerned with the data breach musk and DOGE team have done in the treasury systems and the assault on women's rights as well as other marginalized groups. As always - love your writing!
Lol- “jackassery”! Our country is going to hell in a hand basket. I never in my wildest imagination thought it could get this bad. Pretty sure it’s going to get a lot worse. That or I’m going to wake up and laugh at what a weird dream I had.
I fear it will get worse. I'm not going down without a fight. Buckle up!
Oh yeah
Penny Nickels of the Bimidjy Bugle: You have to just love the enthusiasm of the National Catholic Register here:
"Perhaps the most compelling moment of the speech, delivered in the Capitol Rotunda before a small but lively cast of lawmakers and dignitaries, came when Trump proclaimed that he would declare a national emergency at the southern border. The line, delivered simply and without dramatic effect typical of an “applause line,” caused attendees to rise and cheer."
"But the moment of rapturous applause was but more proof that Trump was a political visionary on the issue — and that he had his finger on the pulse of America many years before the political establishment took notice."
https://www.ncregister.com/news/president-trump-lays-out-his-vision-for-a-new-golden-age-for-the-us
This is truly a great time, no, a great Epoch for the Evangelicals at the core of the Bimidjy Bugle. That small newspaper, inefficiently run by a staff hitherto of 17, now "right-sized" (in the current jargon) to ONE, serves a small town of people who truly listen to the Bible and read it daily, especially such sentiments as in Leviticus, Chapter 24, from verse 19.
No wonder they have hopes that Must/Vance/Tramp will bring the Tramp-Bible and its appendices to all of the Jesus-loving, solid Evangelicals in the country and SAVE OUR COUNTRY by putting Evangelicalism into every curriculum and in every branch of the Government
And as the National Catholic Register says -- "A political visionary" (on immigrants poisoning our blood).
Oh, and thank you for sending us the addresses to send our pennies. I think you make me feel generous, and I may actually graduate up to sending nickels.
Isn’t the NCR nauseating? You must read their take on the pedophilia issue. Unreal that.
Chris Andrews: I could give a whole day lecture on the vile enabling of such harm within the Church and the mealy-mouth defenses.
I implored Nancy (my love for 53 years; married 51) to let us transfer into the Eastern Orthodox, the Lutheran, or High-Church Episcopal Church. My loving, beautiful Nancy is deeply rooted -- mind you, she was reared Presbyterian, but loves the Catholic Church.
Chris, I am 77. The Catholic Church is at the top of institutions that I love that have disillusioned me.
When I take Holy Communion, from my youth during the time of Pius XII (cowardly during WWII!!!), I instinctively feel union with Christ in the sign of his most Precious Body and Blood.
When I experience the rites, I picture the wondrous art of Sandro Botticelli and his depictions, for example, of The Last Communion of St. Jerome, and I feel part of that.
And so many good people.
I will say the parts of the Liturgy.
But I am indifferent to so much else in the Church, which has lost the moral authority of Mother Church as represented by the Mother of God.
I had believed our House of Representatives, our Senate would be bulwarks of freedom.
I had believed John Roberts, a very gifted jurist, to have the intellectual capacity of greats such as Louis Brandeis, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Benjamin Cardozo, and Felix Frankfurter.
But Chief Justice John Roberts has committed a grave sin in perverting his gift to serve INJUSTICE and to expand the powers of the Presidency -- already too strong -- into the arbitrariness of the next, ill-motivated dictator.
I will never forgive Chief Justice Roberts.
Chief Justice Roberts is the more damnable, because he has far-reaching abilities and HAD the potential for greatness that he has MISSPENT.
Academia: I love literature, philosophy, arts, history . . . But Joseph Goebbels earned a doctorate in the humane study of Literature from the mediaeval university, Universität Heidelberg, one of the world's great universities. Martin Heidegger moved from Universität Marburg -- which WAS a bastion even during the Third Reich with the great resister, one of the greatest theologians, Rudolf Bultmann, to Heidelberg (!!), where he gave the Nazi-speech justifying the "Bewegung" (the Movement -- i.e., Nazism) and where his "Schwarze Hefte" (Black Notebooks -- i.e., Heidegger's diaries) during the Third Reich exposed the nakedness of Heidegger, one of the greatest of academes, as an inflamed, anti-Semite who could reconcile himself to genocide.
Yale Law -- the greatest law school in the country, known for its emphasis in grounding young lawyers deeply in the practice, but also very deeply in jurisprudence -- the developing philosophy of law.
Yet Yale Law turned out JD Vance who spent 30-minutes with the anti-Semitic Alice Weidel of the neo-fascist AfD ("Alternative für Deutschland" -- "Alternative for Germany") in Vance's own spacious hotel room in Munich.
What the hell does Vance think HE knows about German politics.
Germans over the past 80 years have been VERY penitent about the Third Reich.
Now over the past few years has been a rise in neo-fascism in the AfD and JD Vance -- YALE LAW (!!!) is among those trying to tell Germans to be "proud" of their heritage (of Beethoven and Brahms -- of course -- but of Goebels, Göring, Heinrich Himmler ???!!!).
That is the most galling of all.
Our cowardly administration LECTURING Germany on accepting neo-Fascism.
That says EVERYTHING you need to know about the vileness of this administration.
What keeps me HOPEFUL is the goodness of the individual person.
Chris: You are a very gifted person with a flowing pen with fun and beauty.
Creative, good persons like YOU keep people like me strong.
I am very happy that Substack -- flawed platform that it is -- has introduced me to good, dear friends.
And you are HIGH on that list!
And you are high on my list, as well, Armand.
Thank you for all of this. I can appreciate your connection to the liturgy of the Catholic Church and to the other magnificent embellishments that help create those bonds to a higher power. In my mind, art and music connect us to the greatness that is within each of us as humans: our ability to create, feel, and experience. In great art is the expression of universal principles — the feelings and emotions that connect us to all of humanity. The philosopher, Susan K. Langer, beautifully explains these principles and how art affects the mind. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanne_Langer)
For decades, I worked as a musician who specialized in providing music for Catholic masses, weddings, etc. I loved doing those gigs — always a wonderful setting with great acoustics and an appreciative audience for my classical music offerings. I am a huge fan of the Catholic liturgy, even though I am not a Christian.
I am, in fact, an atheist and from a family of non-believers, though one side of the family is still hardcore Methodist (and I’m not talking liberal Methodists - this variation is from the jackpines of Northern Michigan). I am also a direct descendent of Emil Baur, who started a religious colony, Ora Labora, in the thumb of Michigan, which many believed to be a cult (including myself). See: https://mcconegh.wordpress.com/2023/04/18/short-story-ora-labora/.
Though I can appreciate the importance of religion in so many people’s lives, I am disgusted by the religious leaders (every type of religion - Catholicism is not unique in its corruption) who take advantage of vulnerable, trusting people and whose leaders then cover up these indiscretions and abuses. They protect the abusers, not the abused. That is unforgivable, in my opinion. Sociopaths and psychopaths manage to find their way into every institution where the weak, needy, and oppressed seek solace. They feed off their trust.
As you point out, there are so many parallels between the Church and what is now happening politically. Politicians (of a certain bend) are chomping at the bit to bring in these religious folks as they’ve been conditioned to follow blindly, be obedient, and never question the (supposed) word of God/their church leader, etc. And here we are as a country. Something is wrong with all of this.
Armand - I am well into my 60s and have seen far too much of what religion can do in the way of destroying lives and splitting families (and society) apart. Education is vital, and it must include a wide spectrum of views, teach facts, and elevate science, philosophy, history, and critical thinking. And the arts, of course.
We are headed into a Dark Age, I fear.
Take care,
Chris
Chris Andrews: You have shared so deeply of your inner beauty and your spirit here.
I am so glad I commented, because this conversation is one of the deepest experiences I have had ever on media, and rarely this deep in private conversations.
Thank you so very much for sharing.
I am heavily conflicted, because a very real part of me is that I feel a sick feeling every time I drive by ANY church.
I have mixed feelings even before the Holy Mass.
What you say about toxicity in the church I can share a whole afternoon over coffee talking.
As far as Dark Age, I agree, BUT . . . I read so many wonderful authors today in Germany. Iris Wolff and Ralf Rothmann, Antje Rávik Strubel, Monka Helfer, and the late Johanna Moosdorf.
My philosophy and experience resemble yours A LOT.
I guarantee, that, despite my practice in Catholicism, you and I share CORE VALUES and we could talk an afternoon into the next morning in harmony. I know you well enough to guarantee that.
What you do is very important!
I am among your friends and I admire the force and beauty of your pen.