Immigration

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Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

Thursday, March 16th, 2023

Saint Patrick’s Day has become a beloved American holiday.  Whether that means pinching someone for not wearing green, drinking green beer, or eating corned beef and cabbage, the holiday has made it into our popular culture. Saint Patrick himself is a Roman Catholic saint.  The Church grants the title Saint to a person for Christ-like […]

A More Perfect Union

Thursday, February 9th, 2023

It shouldn’t surprise you that some reporters, talk show hosts and columnists are lazy.  They find a meme and then plug in a detail.   The meme today is the phrase “Washington is broken.” This phrase allows the speaker to avoid taking responsibility for a judgment or prediction.  It opens the door to the related meme, […]

Punish Illegal Employers

Thursday, December 1st, 2022

Now that the election is over, conservative smoke and mirror politics is evaporating right before our eyes.  Gas prices have dropped to $2.60 in North Texas.  Fox News has stopped spamming crime stories.  Retailers are slashing holiday prices and seeing record sales. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, however, has returned to inflammatory talk about the border.  […]

Snake Oil Fraud

Thursday, November 3rd, 2022

Leadership requires correctly identifying problems and developing solutions. Demagogues often recognize when others are in pain, but they then exploit the pain for personal gain.  This technique helps the politician gain, and solidify, power.  Demagogues behave exactly like snake oil salesmen.  Before the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906), capitalists crisscrossed the country offering a […]

Straw Man

Thursday, October 13th, 2022

Boxers and soldiers often train fighting dummies.  It is easy to understand why.  Dummies don’t fight back.  Eventually, however, a good fighters needs to train against another human as an opponent if they want to win a real fight. Debates work similarly with words.  Some debaters only fight straw men; others, preferring a challenge, argue […]

I Wish I Were A Rich Man?

Thursday, October 6th, 2022

I am always struck when I come to the end of the Good Samaritan parable in the gospel of Luke. The parable ends with the rich man begging Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to warn his brothers. Abraham ridicules the rich man. Abraham said “If they do not listen to Moses and […]

America–Home of the Brave

Thursday, May 19th, 2022

On April 19, 1995 Timothy McVeigh attacked the United States of America.  He murdered 168 Americans. Ten children were among the dead. At the time of his arrest, McVeigh had excerpts from the Turner Diaries in his car.  This 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce depicts a coming race war.  White supremacists attacked the United […]

Fascism Builds Brick by Brick

Wednesday, August 1st, 2018

This is how fascism builds. Brick by Brick. Lies about foreigners taking over your country. Lies about how we need more control. Fake solutions to fake problems. Crowds cheering for fake solutions to problems. Demagogues burned down democracy. “You know if you go out and you want to buy groceries you need a picture on […]

“You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

Saturday, June 30th, 2018

Pretty clear isn’t it? “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 22:21 How did this get warped into “Separate their families and throw the children in prison.” Greed and cruelty. Thank Ayn Rand. Thank You Milton Friedman. Thank you Frederick Hayek. You taught […]

Donald’s Deals

Friday, January 26th, 2018

Growing up I’d love to spend summers at my maw maw’s house. One of the daily rituals was watching game shows including “Let’s Make a Deal.” We got a chuckle when someone picked a Zonk, one of the meaningless prizes. We are now into season 2 of Donald’s deals in Washington. Behind every door and […]

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