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A time of reckoning

Much is being made of the probable consequences of Trump’s Iran war for the US economy and the midterm elections. And “it’s the economy, stupid” still describes the dominant consideration in the minds of American voters. But to the extent that foreign policy affects the ballot box, the fact that Trump’s invasion is a proxy war for the Netanyahu regime in Israel could also be a factor in November. Here, the distinction seems less along party lines than the willingness of candidates to apply the standard of national interest to military intervention. Both major parties in America have mostly stood by Israel, even as its policy of violent apartheid against Palestinians has intensified. As Democrats try to figure out how to exploit the disaster that the Trump GOP has become, they’ll need to come clean on the blank-check policy towards Israel. “ PARTY OFFICIALS TOLD ME they think Democratic voters will be motivated in the upcoming elections to back candidates who feel authentic—candidates w...
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Good news, I guess

The justifications for the war on Iran were kind of a dog’s breakfast. Among those mentioned were regime change and unconditional surrender, which promised a long commitment and boots on the ground. Looks like the stock market and oil prices got through to Cadet Bone Spurs. “What this all comes down to is that the White House is running as fast as it can from regime change and even faster from its demand for “unconditional surrender”. Trump wants to be done because the conflict is getting too messy, Gulf allies are certainly privately asking WTAF Trump’s plan is and more than anything else Trump is realizing that he is triggering what has been the most reliable presidency killer in American politics for more than half a century: spiking gas prices.” https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-now-moonwalking-away-from-regime-change-as-fast-as-he-can
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First, do no harm

  If you don't want to get vaccinated and your don't want your kids to get vaccinated, that's on you. But don't be surprised if the rest of us don't want to suffer from your bad judgement. You have no right to inflict the consequences of your bad decisions on others. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1259384362680113
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Is a Jesuit education special?

Within the first couple years of my joining the faculty of Saint Louis University, a Jesuit Catholic University, my chairman asked me to attend a dinner sponsored by the Jesuits. The goal of the dinner was for the Jesuits to assess the Jesuit mission at the School of Medicine. After dinner, we were each asked to introduce ourselves. One after the other, the faculty said they had attended Jesuit universities and/or medical schools and asserted that that experience conferred a special concern for ethics and morality that they carried since. I was the only member of the party that, while having been raised Roman Catholic, only trained in secular universities. I told everyone that I felt my training also prepared me for a moral and ethical life, and I couldn’t discern anything unique about the morality of Saint Louis University faculty. After I went home, I pondered this idea and came up with an experimental test. Over the 40-year span of the Tuskegee syphilis study, there must have been h...
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Versatility of conviction, big law extortion edition

TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) was coined to describe Trump’s flip-flops on tariffs, but he’s flip-flopped on other notorious threats. “The Trump administration plans to abandon its defense of the president’s executive orders sanctioning several law firms, according to people familiar with the matter.   “The Justice Department as soon as Monday was expected to drop its appeals of four trial-court rulings that struck down President Trump’s actions against law firms Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, and Susman Godfrey.    “Trump issued a string of  executive orders last year  against several law firms and individual lawyers that would have stripped security clearances, restricted their access to federal buildings and directed agencies to end any federal contracts with the firms and their clients.   “The White House campaign sent a chill through the industry. Fear of the orders also prompted other large firms  to make deals with the presiden...
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Primitivism among evangelicals

In the ancient world, people saw signs and portents in eclipses, weather and earthquakes. The God(s) must be trying to tell them something, they believed. By the beginning of the 20 th  century, educated people should have abandoned such primitivism. And most did. But reality, facts and evidence continue to confound evangelical Christians.   “Hagee’s blood moon prophecies have become enormously popular in evangelical circles. The Christian Broadcasting Network   cited   them this week in its coverage of the war. An “ analysis ” the network published on its website acknowledged that the blood moons might be a coincidence, but that “doesn’t mean there also wasn’t an intentional message that was pre-ordained from the time God set the sun, moon, and planets in motion in Genesis 1.” The blood moons, along with the war, could be a sign of the end-times.   “Hagee may be the godfather of Iran-related prophecies, but prophets echoing them have become commonplace.   ...
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RFK Jr attacks Dunkin' Donuts

There’s a Dunkin’ Donuts around nearly every corner here in Rhode Island, or so it seems. And there’s a cemetery just a block away from our house. Coincidence? We report, you decide. But the mortality rate here doesn’t seem markedly higher than anywhere else I’ve lived. But RFK Jr is coming for your Dunkin’, Rhode Island! “We’re going to ask Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, ‘Show us the safety data that show that it’s OK for a teenage girl to drink an iced coffee with 115 grams of sugar in it,’” Kennedy told the applauding audience. “I don’t think they’re gonna be able to do it.” OK, not the donuts, just the sweetened coffee. But all sugar? Or just above a certain amount? Who pays for the sugar police? Pick up any bottle of prepared salad dressing, soda, soups or ketchup and read the ingredients. Many prepared foods on the grocery shelf have added sugar, either in the form of sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup. That’s not going away. And of course, there isn’t an atom of evidence that it...
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