I'm thinking that you are packing a lot of travelling into your last tour. I'm also thinking that by cranking up the wheel on the Lord's words you will succeed in getting the choir to kneel and pray for the old guy ' R😒ikers days are numbered as are ours/think of it as a race, I'm pleased you're getting outta the city and actually visiting home. More book signings seem to be in your future. Travel wisely/stay off small planes, and don't underestimate your fellow man's capacity.
I hope you mean our fellow man's capacity for goodness and not other capacities. I do believe in my sisters' capacity for goodness, having spoken to my cousin Elizabeth this morning and cousin Joyce last night, both of whom are wonderful scholars of Scripture, and Elizabetth gave me a good talk about the laws of Moses that imposed tax obligations on the rich to provide opportunity for all, something that Christian evangelicals seem to have forgotten.
Jewish tax obligations, from what I've heard, can in some respects be superior to our own. "Tzedakah", for early Hebrew farmers, could mean leaving a band of your crop unharvested beside the road. Then the poor could come and take what they needed, unobserved, without openly begging. The intention was to help the less fortunate to "save face." That seems to me to be a really "Aware" philosophy - not just of the need, but in terms of the sensitivities of "the Needy!"
In some ways, in our "Provide for Everything" society, we've missed that point. In our Ukrainian Protestant Immigrant's church, some parents were really into "Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child." A family that seemed to change location every few years - I called them "The Rabbit Family" for their reproductive fecundity - entered our congregation. Soon it was obvious that the father wasn't earning enough to keep his family well fed. Someone from the Refugee Resettlement program suggested that the family should contact a local charity to apply for assistance.
"No Way!" said Papa Rabbit. The father of another recent Ukrainian immigrant family had been sent to jail because he punished his children with his belt. If the charity worker came to interview this family, the father feared that the kids would discuss his "Rod" with her. He preferred poverty to jail.
People in the church did what they could for the kids. Several of the women would take turns as volunteer "caretakers" to make sure the kids had something to eat, at least. Those who had access to the "Food Bank" program would collect more than they needed and donate what they could spare to the "Rabbits."
When I heard that story about Br'er Rabbit, I gained an even greater respect for "Tzedakah!" Getting tied up with red tape and legalized oversight might, on the surface of it, seem to "Protect the innocent." But, when you think about it, it can also, at times. just "Send Folks Underground." Sometimes "the answers" aren't as simple as they seem. Our actions might have surprising consequences - not what we intended at all!.
Goodness, thank you! I love that word, "Twittification," but I've just discovered that it's already out there on the web! You might like this little gem, "On the Twittification of Walt Whitman" (from http://mikechasar.blogspot.com/search/label/140%20characters):
"I cLebr8 myself,
& wot I assume U shaL assume,
4 evry atom belonging 2 me az gud belongs 2 U"
I couldn't find "twitticization," but I did find "twitticism," which describes, "An idiotic remark uttered by a twit who mistakenly believes he/she is being witty" (or the act of criticizing someone via Twitter, but the first definition is cooler) (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Twitticize). Thank you for the excuse to dig around for words, it's almost as much fun as solitaire scrabble (my right hand is currently beating the heck out of my left hand!).
GK, as I read your comments several things came to mind.
Your discussion of the cold made me think of the PHC host (yourself) who I believe once told that sometimes it is so cold in Minnesota, that if one opened the door and threw a bucket of water out the door, said water would be frozen solid by the time it hit the ground. Now that is cold.
Most people are conservatives. But most people misuse the term "conservative." I think of myself as a "conservative liberal." That is, I like things more or less as they are unless we have a good reason to change them. But I think that I have the right to live my life as I see fit as long as I do not harm other people or break the law. And that applies to other people.
The problem is that many people who say they are "conservatives" are actually what I call "republican/religious right wing." They don't want to conserve, they want to take us back to the 1920's or the 1880's in a legal, social, political, economic sense. That seems to be the direction in which about half of the current Supreme Court would like to go. They think that the "gilded age" was a "golden age" socially and legally. Deep down the republican/religious right loves rich white people above all others.
Many of the republicans talk of being "libertarians." But sometimes this means that "I have complete freedom to do anything I might wish to do, but if you do something I don't like, then government should stop you or we should call the police and tell them to stop you." The old heads I win, tails you lose philosophy. I think that freedom and liberty should apply equally across the board to everyone.
You are absolutely correct about the mentally ill. In this country we turn the mentally ill over to the police. It is not unusual to hear that someone calls the police for help in dealing with a relative who has mental problems. The police come and the mentally ill person is shot and killed. Or the mentally ill person is jailed for "resisting arrest." They say that the largest mental health facility in Chicago is the Cook County jail. At least it is the place which houses the most people who have mental issues.
Your mention of Christians calls to mind something that is attributed to Gandhi. He supposedly said that "he thought the Christian religion was beautiful. It is the Christians themselves for which he has no use." The issue of how Christ would live and deal with the modern world or how should we apply his teachings to the modern world is one that most people ignore.
I can't say that I know anyone who lets Christianity get in the way of enjoying life and doing pretty much whatever they wish to do. Most people create God in their image of what God should be. Does concern for the poor mean giving some used clothes and $100 to the Salvation Army?
Well, I could go on but enough rambling for now. Instead of hiring someone to talk to (as in paying a therapist) I can just send in these comments.
Thanks, Garrison, and I hope that everyone has a nice day and a nice life.
Many conservative Christians are obsessed by the End Times. Many seem to have forgotten about Jesus and his message and are constantly thinking and talking about the rapture and other topics related to the end of time when Jesus is expected to return.
A David L. Arnold of Versailles wrote, “...even if every one of us is more important than the rest of us, it is also true that sometimes all of us are more important than each of us...” This is the finest expression of how a citizen should act. (in fact it was a response to covid restrictions.)
Paul Simon had it wrong. No one is an island. And the mentally ill and poor and homeless are on the island with the rich and powerful.
Thanks for those comments. I have to say that I don't know many real libertarians. If wearing a mask helps someone else, then why not wear one. If me going without a gun makes other people safer, then that is a good idea. It seems that many libertarians and right wingers are fixated on themselves. Like Donald, the only thing they think of is themselves and what they want. You miss a lot in life if all you think about is yourself. With kindest regards.
I just laughed at issues that usually make me either cry and go back to my latest Tim Bulmer puzzle, or shout out to the cats all the swear words I can remember, heavily peppered with the F-word in all it's grammatical forms, followed by a glass of good wine (this would be in the early evening, only...) or another espresso (mornings). Thank you, Garrison, for restoring (at least temporarily) my ever-fading sanity....
You are a better person than I. I also will say my cat endures cursing that is not aimed at him. But then cats never do think cursing is aimed at them.
Disappointing. We are as divided as we have been in your and my lifetimes. You belittle the seriousness of a an insurrectionist plot to overthrow our government. Meanwhile, the campaign of Russia to corrupt and disable democracies and the world order is exposed. And we are to calm down?
No! It's time to stand up and speak up, and not sit down nor shut up until the authoritarian stain has been purged from our body politic, and we can continue on the challenging road to become a just, fair, compassionate and equitable society.
i recall zelensky before the invasion advising all to calm down and people thought he was an idiot / an unemployed actor out of his league / turns out he was prepared to lead and has done a hell of a job / i think there's a lesson there
Ginni Thomas has a right to call the White House and urge that a valid election be disposed of? You better get that wife, you are always writing about, to edit these columns. Philip Freedman
I believe, conspiring to overthrow a validly elected President is a crime. Whether she committed the necessary overt act is yet to be seen. She has no right to do that.
Ginni Thomas is crazy, as her messages clearly show, but it's not my problem nor yours. The problem is a Supreme Court that's been selected by the Federalist Society on the basis of truckloads of dark money, as so eloquently described by Senator Whitehouse. No Republican senator bothered to answer his powerful statement. It deserves our attention. We have a Court that seems prepared to take us back to the 19th Century. Ginni Thomas is a sideshow.
All that being true you are the one one who wrote that she had a right to do what she did in calling the Chief of Staff of the President. Why not just admit you misspoke?
I don't care who she texts. I want to know who the Commander spoke to on his mysterious phones that afternoon. His office carries serious responsibilities, hers does not.
But we can still make fun of her a bit, and then worry about how much her "crazy" indicates exactly how far that court has not just regressed to the 19th century but how much it has veered from attempting, at least, to give fair and reasoned consideration to our laws. She is a clue. And I took the "give the woman credit" for not actually breaking down the doors to Congress as sarcasm. :)
I just love your columns. Also please come east soon. My dad loves you and he's 90 and starting to "wind down". I'd love to get him to one more show. :)
Ok fair enough, but you're not doing any shows there. :) Also I should have been more specific - please do a show somewhere close-ish to Norfolk/Virginia Beach. Maybe DC? Wolftrap? :)
"Only a show"? Where did you get that from??? You are completely clueless if you think that. Wake up. He was not there for a reason, but he certainly inspired the devastation of YOUR national capital. Go ahead. Whistle past our graveyard. And Clarence Thomas should be impeached.
The capitol is not devastated. It has been corrupted, surely, but it still stands and this fall the American people will decide what to do with it. Low voter turnout is our problem, caused by discouragement, and it's lowest among the young who have the most to lose. The House committee on the insurrection needs to do its work and if the facts justify, the Justice Department needs to hand down some indictments of persons in high places who committed felonies. That, sir, will be much more than a show.
I've always agreed with your political viewpoints, but in this case, I must say you've given me pause. I'm not at all sure that it's going to be okay. Dismissing the likes of Thomas's wife as relatively insignificant in the scheme of things is to downplay her influence and that of those like her. She is simply playing to Trump's base, and firing them up with the ultimate goal, I assume, of helping to maintain her and her husband's position in the miserable soup that has become the Republican party. Of course Trump watched the January 6th debacle from afar - you don't think he'd ever put himself directly in harm's way, do you? Still, he succeeded brilliantly in fomenting all the ugliness he set out to achieve. This should not be so cavalierly dismissed.
I don't dismiss the insurrection, it was history being made before our eyes, and the people on the right who dismiss it as ordinary political action are on the wrong side of history. But the crazed rhetoric of an educated woman is a sideshow and the House investigative committee is the important business at hand. There's some irony in the column but I'm serious about the insurrection. This is not a country ruled by mobs.
Blue Curled Scotch Kale holds up pretty good; I've got a couple plants that actually lived through the winter snows. Which doesn't matter; I rarely eat the stuff, and avoid it entirely if there's better options in the fridge.
Our Gopher teams have been losing to Michigan for years. The Vikings routinely beat the Lions but then so does everyone else. We ignore you because we don't comprehend the geometry of Upper and Lower.
This June, a lot of your followers around Livermore, Oregon may be wandering around, wondering where the Bankhead Theater is. They won’t realize that, like Lake Wobegon, it’s a figment of your imagination.
Calm down. It’s going to be okay. It’s funny how little details like that just jump out at me. If there were a Livermore in Oregon, you’d be welcome there too.
GK, you are the unvarnished truth and we are all better for it. Selah!
I'm thinking that you are packing a lot of travelling into your last tour. I'm also thinking that by cranking up the wheel on the Lord's words you will succeed in getting the choir to kneel and pray for the old guy ' R😒ikers days are numbered as are ours/think of it as a race, I'm pleased you're getting outta the city and actually visiting home. More book signings seem to be in your future. Travel wisely/stay off small planes, and don't underestimate your fellow man's capacity.
I hope you mean our fellow man's capacity for goodness and not other capacities. I do believe in my sisters' capacity for goodness, having spoken to my cousin Elizabeth this morning and cousin Joyce last night, both of whom are wonderful scholars of Scripture, and Elizabetth gave me a good talk about the laws of Moses that imposed tax obligations on the rich to provide opportunity for all, something that Christian evangelicals seem to have forgotten.
Jewish tax obligations, from what I've heard, can in some respects be superior to our own. "Tzedakah", for early Hebrew farmers, could mean leaving a band of your crop unharvested beside the road. Then the poor could come and take what they needed, unobserved, without openly begging. The intention was to help the less fortunate to "save face." That seems to me to be a really "Aware" philosophy - not just of the need, but in terms of the sensitivities of "the Needy!"
In some ways, in our "Provide for Everything" society, we've missed that point. In our Ukrainian Protestant Immigrant's church, some parents were really into "Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child." A family that seemed to change location every few years - I called them "The Rabbit Family" for their reproductive fecundity - entered our congregation. Soon it was obvious that the father wasn't earning enough to keep his family well fed. Someone from the Refugee Resettlement program suggested that the family should contact a local charity to apply for assistance.
"No Way!" said Papa Rabbit. The father of another recent Ukrainian immigrant family had been sent to jail because he punished his children with his belt. If the charity worker came to interview this family, the father feared that the kids would discuss his "Rod" with her. He preferred poverty to jail.
People in the church did what they could for the kids. Several of the women would take turns as volunteer "caretakers" to make sure the kids had something to eat, at least. Those who had access to the "Food Bank" program would collect more than they needed and donate what they could spare to the "Rabbits."
When I heard that story about Br'er Rabbit, I gained an even greater respect for "Tzedakah!" Getting tied up with red tape and legalized oversight might, on the surface of it, seem to "Protect the innocent." But, when you think about it, it can also, at times. just "Send Folks Underground." Sometimes "the answers" aren't as simple as they seem. Our actions might have surprising consequences - not what we intended at all!.
Goodness, thank you! I love that word, "Twittification," but I've just discovered that it's already out there on the web! You might like this little gem, "On the Twittification of Walt Whitman" (from http://mikechasar.blogspot.com/search/label/140%20characters):
"I cLebr8 myself,
& wot I assume U shaL assume,
4 evry atom belonging 2 me az gud belongs 2 U"
I couldn't find "twitticization," but I did find "twitticism," which describes, "An idiotic remark uttered by a twit who mistakenly believes he/she is being witty" (or the act of criticizing someone via Twitter, but the first definition is cooler) (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Twitticize). Thank you for the excuse to dig around for words, it's almost as much fun as solitaire scrabble (my right hand is currently beating the heck out of my left hand!).
Thanks for the research. Writing a column turns out to be more educational for the columnist perhaps, and if so, so be it.
God bless your wife.
GK, as I read your comments several things came to mind.
Your discussion of the cold made me think of the PHC host (yourself) who I believe once told that sometimes it is so cold in Minnesota, that if one opened the door and threw a bucket of water out the door, said water would be frozen solid by the time it hit the ground. Now that is cold.
Most people are conservatives. But most people misuse the term "conservative." I think of myself as a "conservative liberal." That is, I like things more or less as they are unless we have a good reason to change them. But I think that I have the right to live my life as I see fit as long as I do not harm other people or break the law. And that applies to other people.
The problem is that many people who say they are "conservatives" are actually what I call "republican/religious right wing." They don't want to conserve, they want to take us back to the 1920's or the 1880's in a legal, social, political, economic sense. That seems to be the direction in which about half of the current Supreme Court would like to go. They think that the "gilded age" was a "golden age" socially and legally. Deep down the republican/religious right loves rich white people above all others.
Many of the republicans talk of being "libertarians." But sometimes this means that "I have complete freedom to do anything I might wish to do, but if you do something I don't like, then government should stop you or we should call the police and tell them to stop you." The old heads I win, tails you lose philosophy. I think that freedom and liberty should apply equally across the board to everyone.
You are absolutely correct about the mentally ill. In this country we turn the mentally ill over to the police. It is not unusual to hear that someone calls the police for help in dealing with a relative who has mental problems. The police come and the mentally ill person is shot and killed. Or the mentally ill person is jailed for "resisting arrest." They say that the largest mental health facility in Chicago is the Cook County jail. At least it is the place which houses the most people who have mental issues.
Your mention of Christians calls to mind something that is attributed to Gandhi. He supposedly said that "he thought the Christian religion was beautiful. It is the Christians themselves for which he has no use." The issue of how Christ would live and deal with the modern world or how should we apply his teachings to the modern world is one that most people ignore.
I can't say that I know anyone who lets Christianity get in the way of enjoying life and doing pretty much whatever they wish to do. Most people create God in their image of what God should be. Does concern for the poor mean giving some used clothes and $100 to the Salvation Army?
Well, I could go on but enough rambling for now. Instead of hiring someone to talk to (as in paying a therapist) I can just send in these comments.
Thanks, Garrison, and I hope that everyone has a nice day and a nice life.
The Gandhi comment reminded me of this: sitting in church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car.
Gandhi lived his faith.
Many conservative Christians are obsessed by the End Times. Many seem to have forgotten about Jesus and his message and are constantly thinking and talking about the rapture and other topics related to the end of time when Jesus is expected to return.
Re your graph about "libertarians":
A David L. Arnold of Versailles wrote, “...even if every one of us is more important than the rest of us, it is also true that sometimes all of us are more important than each of us...” This is the finest expression of how a citizen should act. (in fact it was a response to covid restrictions.)
Paul Simon had it wrong. No one is an island. And the mentally ill and poor and homeless are on the island with the rich and powerful.
Thanks for those comments. I have to say that I don't know many real libertarians. If wearing a mask helps someone else, then why not wear one. If me going without a gun makes other people safer, then that is a good idea. It seems that many libertarians and right wingers are fixated on themselves. Like Donald, the only thing they think of is themselves and what they want. You miss a lot in life if all you think about is yourself. With kindest regards.
I just laughed at issues that usually make me either cry and go back to my latest Tim Bulmer puzzle, or shout out to the cats all the swear words I can remember, heavily peppered with the F-word in all it's grammatical forms, followed by a glass of good wine (this would be in the early evening, only...) or another espresso (mornings). Thank you, Garrison, for restoring (at least temporarily) my ever-fading sanity....
Ukraine! [weeping] Bogus verbal bludgeoning of SCOTUS appointee! [f-bombs] Jan. 6 revelations [opens large vat of wine] GK essay [hugs Mitch McConnell]
OK, I give. How does a GK essay prompt you to hug Mitch McConnell??
Following the list from Linda's post, "restoring [at least temporarily] my ever-fading sanity" leads to temporarily loving someone unlovable.
You are a better person than I. I also will say my cat endures cursing that is not aimed at him. But then cats never do think cursing is aimed at them.
Trust me, it was only a joke. :) My cat is similarly immune to epithets.
I had to google ‘ Tim Bulmer puzzle’! Those are crazy!
Disappointing. We are as divided as we have been in your and my lifetimes. You belittle the seriousness of a an insurrectionist plot to overthrow our government. Meanwhile, the campaign of Russia to corrupt and disable democracies and the world order is exposed. And we are to calm down?
No! It's time to stand up and speak up, and not sit down nor shut up until the authoritarian stain has been purged from our body politic, and we can continue on the challenging road to become a just, fair, compassionate and equitable society.
I agree completely, as stated above.
i recall zelensky before the invasion advising all to calm down and people thought he was an idiot / an unemployed actor out of his league / turns out he was prepared to lead and has done a hell of a job / i think there's a lesson there
Ginni Thomas has a right to call the White House and urge that a valid election be disposed of? You better get that wife, you are always writing about, to edit these columns. Philip Freedman
Having the right to do something doesn't necessarily make that something the right thing to do.
I believe, conspiring to overthrow a validly elected President is a crime. Whether she committed the necessary overt act is yet to be seen. She has no right to do that.
Point made.
Ginni Thomas is crazy, as her messages clearly show, but it's not my problem nor yours. The problem is a Supreme Court that's been selected by the Federalist Society on the basis of truckloads of dark money, as so eloquently described by Senator Whitehouse. No Republican senator bothered to answer his powerful statement. It deserves our attention. We have a Court that seems prepared to take us back to the 19th Century. Ginni Thomas is a sideshow.
All that being true you are the one one who wrote that she had a right to do what she did in calling the Chief of Staff of the President. Why not just admit you misspoke?
I don't care who she texts. I want to know who the Commander spoke to on his mysterious phones that afternoon. His office carries serious responsibilities, hers does not.
But we can still make fun of her a bit, and then worry about how much her "crazy" indicates exactly how far that court has not just regressed to the 19th century but how much it has veered from attempting, at least, to give fair and reasoned consideration to our laws. She is a clue. And I took the "give the woman credit" for not actually breaking down the doors to Congress as sarcasm. :)
I just love your columns. Also please come east soon. My dad loves you and he's 90 and starting to "wind down". I'd love to get him to one more show. :)
I'm about as far east as I can be, sitting on the West Side of Manhattan. If I got on the C train, I'd be on the Atlantic shore in half an hour.
Ok fair enough, but you're not doing any shows there. :) Also I should have been more specific - please do a show somewhere close-ish to Norfolk/Virginia Beach. Maybe DC? Wolftrap? :)
I think we're going to do a show this summer in D.C., a hall near the Jefferson Memorial. Watch for further bulletins.
Peekskill, NY, is east enough for me. So excited.
"Only a show"? Where did you get that from??? You are completely clueless if you think that. Wake up. He was not there for a reason, but he certainly inspired the devastation of YOUR national capital. Go ahead. Whistle past our graveyard. And Clarence Thomas should be impeached.
The capitol is not devastated. It has been corrupted, surely, but it still stands and this fall the American people will decide what to do with it. Low voter turnout is our problem, caused by discouragement, and it's lowest among the young who have the most to lose. The House committee on the insurrection needs to do its work and if the facts justify, the Justice Department needs to hand down some indictments of persons in high places who committed felonies. That, sir, will be much more than a show.
I've always agreed with your political viewpoints, but in this case, I must say you've given me pause. I'm not at all sure that it's going to be okay. Dismissing the likes of Thomas's wife as relatively insignificant in the scheme of things is to downplay her influence and that of those like her. She is simply playing to Trump's base, and firing them up with the ultimate goal, I assume, of helping to maintain her and her husband's position in the miserable soup that has become the Republican party. Of course Trump watched the January 6th debacle from afar - you don't think he'd ever put himself directly in harm's way, do you? Still, he succeeded brilliantly in fomenting all the ugliness he set out to achieve. This should not be so cavalierly dismissed.
I don't dismiss the insurrection, it was history being made before our eyes, and the people on the right who dismiss it as ordinary political action are on the wrong side of history. But the crazed rhetoric of an educated woman is a sideshow and the House investigative committee is the important business at hand. There's some irony in the column but I'm serious about the insurrection. This is not a country ruled by mobs.
"Give the woman credit." The quintessential GK. *heart emojis*
Blue Curled Scotch Kale holds up pretty good; I've got a couple plants that actually lived through the winter snows. Which doesn't matter; I rarely eat the stuff, and avoid it entirely if there's better options in the fridge.
Garrison Keillor's written insights can make us kinder, smarter people with and for others ~ Kare Anderson
You're kind to say so, but "smarter"? I doubt that. I'm good at concision though.
I believe you are smarter too Garrison ~ Kare Anderson
How can a Minnesotan ignore Michiganders? Please!
Our Gopher teams have been losing to Michigan for years. The Vikings routinely beat the Lions but then so does everyone else. We ignore you because we don't comprehend the geometry of Upper and Lower.
This June, a lot of your followers around Livermore, Oregon may be wandering around, wondering where the Bankhead Theater is. They won’t realize that, like Lake Wobegon, it’s a figment of your imagination.
Aiyiyi. Am I in trouble again?
Calm down. It’s going to be okay. It’s funny how little details like that just jump out at me. If there were a Livermore in Oregon, you’d be welcome there too.