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Can you stand on one leg and list Trump’s disqualifying problems? Maybe if you’re a gymnast. I can’t. 1.        He’s a liar. No matter what he says today, if it doesn’t make money and win applause today, he won’t say it again tomorrow. 2.        He’s pro-abortion. Even when he was pro-life for a few days – even then! – he was pro-Planned Parenthood and ready to appoint pro-abortion judges. 3.        He treats women like cattle. I like cattle. But women aren’t cattle. When you check out his wife collection, it’s glaringly obvious what he wants from women. 4.        He despises the military. Yeah, I know he has put a lot of money into buying vets’ votes. But he thinks that having the guts to die for your country is a clear sign of a loser. My brother died for his country, and I cannot find it in me to understand anyone – anyone! – who tolerates Trump’s rem...

My good friend John Ryan asked what the USA can and should do to protect American citizens from terrorists and other violent immigrants. Is it safe to reach out and help the one million pregnant refugees on the roads of this heaven-cherished world of ours? Will my children be safe? Several things. First: Here’s what the process looks like for refugees. We have a process, and it will protect us. I suspect that if there are a million people going through, somebody somewhere might do something bad; if you want complete and perfect safety, join your local cemetery. But if you live in the real world, look at this process: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/cosmostheinlost/2015/11/19/exclusive-longtime-immigration-lawyer-pastor-explains-the-refugee-process/ Second: what happens to a dream deferred? A quick reflection on American history: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/46548 Third, some stats on the Syrian crisis – Syria alone: http://www.unhcr....

Pro-lifers!  This video is a must-see! I am not kidding when I ask pro-lifers to check out this pro-abortion propaganda. It’s slick and convincing. And I get it on my FB feed every time one of my good solid pro-life friends approves and passes it on: it’s all over the place.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE Check it out! Commentary attached below. It’s from Numbers USA, founded by John Tanton. He’s much more dangerous than Margaret Sanger. Sanger devoted her life to making the feminist movement subservient to the eugenics movement. Tanton has given his life to recruiting conservatives including pro-lifers to support population control. It was weird enough when mothers were recruited to the abortion movement; this guy successfully recruits avowed pro-life activists! Watch how it works! He says he’s talking about immigration. That’s true, but it’s a detail, not the whole story. Step 1: KISS: keep it simple, stupid! Don’t personalize poverty; ...

Post-Trump, pro-lifers will be struggling to rebuild a movement that was either (1) just smashed, or (2) just shown to be smashed. In 2000, I wrote two books, one about the pro-life movement and one about the pro-abortion movement. I have thought since 1975 that the pro-life movement was focused on a pipedream, and should be re-shaped. And I have thought since 1985 that pro-lifers had little or no ideas where the abortion movement came from, and needed a new perspective – specifically, about eugenics. I tried to offer some ideas about both the pro-life movement, and about our opponents. The pro-life book is: “Emmanuel, Solidarity: God Act, Our Response.”  The effort to analyze our opponents is “The Roots of Racism: an Exploration of Eugenics.” Both are available through Amazon or Kindle. The book on eugenics had a chapter that I knew was weak, on immigration. I have written about immigrations since then. In short, I argue: The slaughter of children is a mas...

Gut: conscience or touchy-feely? I want to explain my reactions to the words of Trump and Hillary about abortion at the third debate. Let me get at it crabwise, off to the side, scrabbling toward an unaccustomed angle, not too hopeful about being heard. Scrabbling to the side: I got a Master’s in education after college, planning to teach. I didn’t use the degree for decades, but I got one, investing perhaps 600 to 1,000 hours in it. In that time, I learned a single significant lesson, but I think it was probably worthwhile. The lesson: there is often some relationship between what a teacher teaches, and what a student learns, but the relationship is fragile and uncertain; and what matters is only – only! – only! – what the student learns. I remember watching a student once, while I was talking about the way Shakespeare moves us from one level of human experience to another, and realizing that this poor kid was struggling with a deep embarrassment. She found herself sexually a...

Today the Catholic Church recalls some American martyrs, including St. Isaac Jogues, my patron saint when I was confirmed. One of the startling details about hospitality in Scripture is that there’s not much difference between the guest and the host. When Mary visited Elizabeth, who was guest and who was host? Today, we would promptly say that Mary was the guest, and Elizabeth was the host, because they got together at Elizabeth’s house. Our view makes sense; it’s not nutty or confusing or anything. But I think that Mary was as much host as Elizabeth. Look at the six precepts in Matthew 25. Jesus said, welcome strangers – and also said take care of specific needs. It’s plausible that oftentimes people who need food and water and clothes are strangers. It’s plausible that the commands to care for the hungry and thirsty and badly dressed are details of a more general command, to take care of strangers. But more, the six precepts include visiting the sick and the imprisoned. I th...

Pro-life friends, this rally is not about the Lord Franklin Graham is visiting state capitals to argue that the Lord wants you to support an ignorant, racist, misogynist fraud for President, because the alternative is worse. From my perspective, the most important detail in today’s very strange presentation is the claim that Trump will push back against abortion. About 1.2 million children die from surgical abortion annually in the USA, and their moms are deceived and exploited, and Hillary Clinton supports this violence. But abortion is not on the ballot. Trump is. He wants your vote, and has made promises. But a bankruptcy is a list of broken promises! Sometimes you can’t help it; you can’t keep a promise; you have to ask creditors for patience and understanding. But six times? And now he’s rich but still doesn’t pay the people he stiffed? If he lies to people wholesale, not retail, why do you trust his promise to you? But what does Trump offer? Let’s skip all the other is...

   ---   open letter   --- To my Muslim friends on a complex anniversary Lepanto. On October 7, Catholics celebrate the feastday of Our Lady of the Rosary. It marks the day in 1571 when Catholics beat the crap out of Muslims in a naval battle for control of the Mediterranean. Two years after the battle, the pope established October 7 as a feastday in honor of Mary, attributing the victory at Lepanto to praying the Rosary. If you want to remember fights between Christians and Muslims, it’s easy; there have been a lot of them. The Spanish national epic, “El Cid,” is about fighting Muslims. The French national epic, “Le Chanson de Roland,” is about fighting Muslims. Lepanto, oddly, is often a British celebration. A truly great Catholic writer, G.K. Chesterton, wrote a powerful English poem about the battle; 1,357 words, and I can recite it for you from memory if you would like; please provide a solid surface to pound my fist on at critical mom...