4.4.2026 – the distortion and

the distortion and
weaponisation of faith
deeply saddening

Adapted from the article, As Team Trump wage unceasing war on Iran, evangelical nationalists are destroying any moral world order we once had by Simon Tisdall in the Guardian on April, 4, 2026 where Mr. Tisdall writes:

For most practising Christians, the misappropriation, distortion and weaponisation of faith to justify death and destruction, sow divisions, excuse war crimes and bomb Iran “back to the stone ages” is deeply saddening.

Christians – who celebrate Easter on Sunday – believe Jesus was crucified for the sake of all mankind, for the forgiveness of sins, not for vindictive vengeance, pride and domination.

Pope Leo spoke for many beyond the Catholic church at a Palm Sunday mass in Rome in forcefully rejecting attempts by zealots such as Hegseth to conscript Christianity.

“No one can use [Jesus] to justify war,” he said, quoting Isaiah. War-makers’ prayers would go unanswered. “Your hands are full of blood.”

I grew up in the Evangelical Church (Pre Trump).

I grew up

singing Onward Christian Soldiers and The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Onward, Christian soldiers,marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before!

And

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.

As a little kid in Sunday School and Tuesday Bible Club, we sang a song the closed with the line “For I’m in the Lord’s Army, YES SIR!” and when you hit the Yes SIR!, you yelled it out and saluted like a Marine Drill Sergeant.

We also sang a song that went:

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

It just came to me, typing out these words that the first couple of songs are written in the 1st person and about me.

That last song is in the 3rd person and is talking about Jesus.

Maybe that’s where the disconnect comes in.

Still …

That line from the article, “Christians – who celebrate Easter on Sunday – believe Jesus was crucified for the sake of all mankind, for the forgiveness of sins, not for vindictive vengeance, pride and domination.“

Thinking about what Pope Leo said. “No one can use [Jesus] to justify war.”

And that kids song:

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

Do you really want to choose up sides?

4.2.2026 – Boy! undisciplined

Boy! undisciplined
unstructured, uninspiring
unpresidential

Based on the New York Times Opinion piece, The Conversation: Tastelessness and Classlessness Are the Least of Our Concerns by Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens.

Frank Bruni is a professor of journalism and public policy at Duke University and Bret Stephens is an Opinion columnist for The Times, writing about foreign policy, domestic politics and cultural issues.

They create a weekly column where they discuss current events where Mr. Bruni takes the ‘left’ side of the discussion while Mr. Stephens takes the ‘Right’ side.

This is what Mr. Stephens, the feller who takes the ‘Right’ side of an argument wrote about the speech the feller in office made last night.

As our readers know, I support the war and think it’s been far more successful — and necessary — than critics acknowledge.

But boy, that was a childish speech.

Undisciplined, unstructured, uninformative, unimpressive, uninspiring, unpresidential.

I learned nothing from it that I hadn’t known before it started, except that Trump somehow thinks that the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened by something akin to magic.

It was also a signal to what remains of the Iranian regime that they just need to hold on for another two or three weeks and it will be over.

A reminder that, even if this is the right war, we’ve got the wrong president.

Undisciplined,

unstructured,

uninformative,

unimpressive,

uninspiring,

unpresidential.

As I said, Mr. Stephens is on the right.

3.30.2026 – but immigrants built

but immigrants built
this country, we should admire
them and respect them

Auburn basketball legend Charles Barkley sounded off about immigrant treatment in America during Sunday’s March Madness broadcast on CBS. Discussing UConn’s Alex Karaban and his family’s journey to the U.S., Barkley spoke out about current immigration practices in the country.

“I wanna be very careful with my words right now,” Barkley began. “Cause this is a really touchy subject for me. I love that kid (Karaban) and his family. But the way some of these other immigrants are getting treated in our country right now is a travesty and a disgrace.”

“I think there is a difference between amazing immigrants and criminal immigrants.

And I think what’s going on in our country — I think what we’re doing to some of these amazing immigrants is really unfortunate and it’s really sad.

That’s a great immigrant story, we have a lot of great immigrant stories out there who — they stories need to be told but some of the stuff that’s happening to immigrants in our country is really unfortunate and its really unfair.

But immigrants built this country, we should admire them and respect them.”

From the article, “Charles Barkley says treatment of immigrants in US is ‘travesty and disgrace:’ ‘It’s really sad’” by Andrew Hammond.

7 of my eight great grand parents immigrated from the Netherlands in the late 1800s.

The other great great grand parent immigrated from England in 1847 and when he was 18, he joined the Union Army and went south to fight for freedom.

I don’t know that anyone asked for his ID when he signed up.

I don’t know that anyone asked for his passport when he signed up.

Just a kid and as a part of the 16th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, he marched in front of Abraham Lincoln in Washington.

Fought for freedom and got shot for it and came back home to Michigan and then got married and the way those things work out, it led to me being here.

A great immigrant story.

I have to agree with Sir Charles and I thank him for his words.

3.27.2026 – forget that, when are

forget that, when are
they going to do statue?
one surreal moment …

Adapted from the article, “Flatterers out in force to fill Trump’s head with Venezuelan statue dreams” by David Smith where Mr. Smith writes:

Burgum added that, during his recent trip, the media had been allowed to visit Venezuela’s equivalent of the White House, the Miraflores Palace, for the first time in 20 years. He said there were encouraging signs for US businesses returning and for oil production. But Trump’s mind was still elsewhere.

“Forget that,” the president interjected. “When are they going to do the statue?” The room erupted in laughter.

Trump has long had a special interest in statues. He has railed against protesters who toppled Confederate statues, proposed a National Garden of American Heroes and this week installed a Christopher Columbus statue on the White House grounds. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has proposed carving Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

The exchange was just one surreal moment in another weird and wild cabinet meeting, the first since the war in Iran broke out. Trump claimed that Iran has been “beat to shit” and accused British prime minister Keir Starmer of a “shocking” lack of support. He went on a long riff about the merits of Sharpies over what he claimed were the $1,000 pens that presidents typically use to sign bills.

Just one surreal moment in another weird and wild cabinet meeting.

Just one surreal moment.

Another surreal moment was listening to people argue that ‘we’ are safer today now that those folks in Iran no longer have the ability to nuke us.

That those folks in Iran who have been after us since the Carter administration are no longer a threat.

That people in the US feel safer today because of this.

I said to my wife I never felt a threat from Iran.

She agreed and put forward the thought that we had lived most of our lives under the threat of immediate annihilation from the dread Soviet Evil Empire and with that in our background, Iran didn’t seem like much to worry about.

I been thinking about that.

I think she is right.

But a good part of the population today don’t remember the Soviet Union.

But a good part of the population today don’t remember those Olympic Teams of the CCCP.

Just one surreal moment in another weird and wild world that exists due the efforts on one man.

I guess he desrves a statue.

BTW – this is a real statue in Oslo, Norway. The creator, Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland, spent the last two years of his life making the statues in a particular park in Oslo contains 212 bronze and granite sculptures and covers around 80 acres of land. including this mad baby. Here we have a statue of a giant, angry infant throwing a naked tantrum on top of a cube stacked atop a larger cube.

3.18.2026 – Ides of March are come ….

Ides of March are come ….
seer said softly, … they are come
but they are not gone

Adapted from The Parallel Lives: The Life of Julius Caesar by Plutarch, as published in Vol. VII of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1919 where the author rights.

The following story, too, is told by many. A certain seer warned Caesar to be on his guard against a great peril on the day of the month of March which the Romans call the Ides; and when the day had come and Caesar was on his way to the senate-house, he greeted the seer with a jest and said: “Well, the Ides of March are come,” and the seer said to him softly: “Ay, they are come, but they are not gone.” Moreover, on the day before, when Marcus Lepidus was entertaining him at supper, Caesar chanced to be signing letters, as his custom was, while reclining at table, and the discourse turned suddenly upon the question what sort of death was the best; before any one could answer Caesar cried out: “That which is unexpected.” After this, while he was sleeping as usual by the side of his wife, all the windows and doors of the chamber flew open at once, and Caesar, confounded by the noise and the light of the moon shining down upon him, noticed that Calpurnia was in a deep slumber, but was uttering indistinct words and inarticulate groans in her sleep; for she dreamed, as it proved, that she was holding her murdered husband in her arms and bewailing him.

Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II also comes to mind.

Cassius speaks to Brutus

Now, in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome,
That her wide walks encompassed but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough
When there is in it but only one man.

As Kenneth Roth, a Guardian US columnist and visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, and former executive director of Human Rights Watch writes in his opinion piece, “Trump needs to reject Netanyahu’s quest for a forever war“:

As the world suffers the economic consequences of this disastrous war of choice, and people see yet another defenseless people being pummeled by the US-Israeli military alliance, public opinion is turning rapidly. American support for Israel has plummeted, first as it committed genocide in Gaza, and apartheid and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and now the crime of aggression in Iran.

Trump’s lawless belligerence and indifference to international standards have made the public in key democratic allies – Canada, Germany, France and the UK – favor a turn toward China, despite its own repressive indifference to international law. That’s quite an accomplishment.

Trump’s aggression is no more popular among allied governments. His pleas for help in defending tankers in the strait of Hormuz have so far come up empty. He has tried to up the ante, suggesting that his commitment to Nato, a defensive alliance built on pledges to support any member under attack, would depend on Nato members joining him in his offensive war of aggression. The response to that threat was decidedly cold.

Trump has an endless capacity to make fact-free pronouncements about the brilliant success of his policies. Iranians’ best hope may be that he declare victory and move on. Trump’s demand for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” complicates that face-saving strategy. Yet as the price of Trump’s folly mounts – new inflationary pressure, declining stock markets, worsening midterm prospects, even a disheartened Maga base – we must hope that Trump finds the wisdom to reject Netanyahu’s quest for a forever war and calls it quits.

Look again at the words …

Trump’s lawless belligerence and indifference …

Trump’s aggression …

Trump has an endless capacity to make fact-free pronouncements …

Trump’s folly mounts …

Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!

… the seer said to him softly: “Ay, the Ides of March are come … but they are not gone.