Darn it! 

[EDITORS’ QUESTION: Are you impressed by how clean we kept that? ‘Cause we are!]

Because we have no words with which to explain how genuinely we respect our readers, this post may be the most difficult we’ve ever written.

We beg your tolerance as we attempt to explain a simple problem: We cannot speak or write German.

"Sometime ago a man came to our house and he said, 
‘Mother, there is a family, a Hindu family, 
that has eight children.  They have not eaten for a long time.  
Do something for them.’ 
So I took some rice and I went. 

The email is tragically, admirably eloquent.

The news of the American presidential admiration’s cruelty is so infuriating that I’ll first celebrate kindness before addressing evil.

We really, genuinely, truly want to be priestly-kind.

We so want to be priestly-kind that we struggled for hours with how to write:

An “inked” crusader cross and quasi-christian images, teamed with an American flag adorned by an AR-15 assault rifle and “patriotic” proclamation tattoos do not make the man. Nor do they give him the personal integrity to face honest news reporting and real science.

And they do not give him courage!

Once upon a time, in a nation (seemingly) far, far away, when someone uttered something either completely “off the wall” or an outright lie, folks might respond, “What’s he/she been smokin’?”

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
Aldous Huxley

“There’s a world of difference between truth and facts.
Facts can obscure the truth.”
Maya Angelou

If I’m late for my Saturday morning workouts, blame it on The New York Times History Quiz – “Flashback.” (I’m pretty sure it’s free; just go to the NYT.com site, click the little search icon for “History Quiz” and scratch your head trying to remember history)

I hate the damn thing…

To paraphrase our Irish ancestors, “Sweet Mother of God, where did these guys buy their ‘medical degrees’ and ‘math skills.’?” 

This is absolutely not a political statement: Happily, the Oval Office-backed incumbent conservative firebrand representative from Tennessee’s 5^th District doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in the Shara of serving in the 120^th session of Congress.

The Pre-Labor Day Dumbest Commercials of 2026 Award goes to…

Drumroll, please…

The fluffy bears toilet paper series!

Before we get to a great United States Marine Corps portmanteau, let’s make a critical point.

Good manners never need an apology!

Religious or theological good manners never need an apology.

There will be no apology here!

A quiet prayer:

Eternal God, in your supreme goodness, forgive the bigotry and prejudices of men – Protestant and Catholic - who objected to Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn delivering a eulogy after the battle of Iwo Jima at the dedication of the 5^th Marine Division Cemetery. Those men – Catholic priests and Protestant chaplains of various denominations – were, we hope, prisoners and victims of the prejudices of their times.

One of us (Definitely not Father Tobin; he’s the nice one.) has a unique technique used with especially recalcitrant counseling clients: “I’m tempted to say ‘You’re a &%%#*@&%(+=$^*^&)@!’ but I won’t.’”

Because we couldn’t decide where to begin – the “Universe” or, closer to home, the human brain – we flipped a coin. The Universe won.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, 
vanity of vanities! 
All is vanity.
For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
…All go to one place;
all are from the dust,
and all turn to dust again. 
Ecclesiastes 

Who’d da thunk?

Thomas Jefferson and presidential buddy Xi Jinping share something in common.

Who’d da thunk?

We apologize.

Respectfully.

To all the Mark Twain fans out there who believe he was the first to make the cogent argument about figures, statistics, lies and liars.

In retirement, our father had a unique spirituality: Almost daily Mass – during which he prayed for the (preferably painful) deaths of the world’s dictators, the rosary, and readings. Eventually, he abandoned the idea that the Virgin Mary could miraculously “sneak” bad guys into Heaven. But he was firmly - chiseled-in-marble - convinced that there is “a special place in Heaven” for adoptive parents.

For the sake of Father Tobin’s grandchildren…

For the children and grandchildren of my friends…

America must never become a christian nation!