salacious.com. The story continues.

"I did not have an affair with Ted Cruz," Ted and Cruzettes back-up singer Tiffany Lamp. "I mean, eww."

Walking it back . . . slouching toward where?

“On Easter?” he asked. “This is your post on Easter? And no mention of the 35 people they killed in Brussels? WTF, my friend, wtf.”

A fair set of questions. “On Easter?” That was part of the point. Even on Easter, even in the new creation the prophet imagines, we have enemies. There are serpents in the grass that will have to eat dust and die. It’s the way it was and is and will be to come. Inevitably.

     Inevitably, perhaps, but not necessarily.* Or, so I would like to believe.

“ . . . the 35 . . . they killed in Brussels?” On “they,” see above: serpents in the grass. Let them eat dust and die. If they don’t die, let’s kill them. To paraphrase Jesus, “Because they kill us, let’s kill them. Or: before they kill us, let’s kill them.” But, yes, I should have written something about Brussels, a lament. I should have hung a Belgian flag from the window of my apartment, or put a Belgian decal on the back bumper of my car. Or: I should have written something – it didn’t matter that I have no understanding whatsoever of the motives of the bombers; that’s no excuse, because I have almost as little understanding of our motives in killing Abd ar-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli.

He called back not minutes after he’d hung up. “Are you a damn pacifist or something?”

     Well, I’m against killing (period). It’s not that, as in the case in point, I don’t see how killing someone can’t solve a problem. But it’s never a good solution. Never.

_______________

 * The best explanation I’ve heard of the difference. The good fathers of the village of Sundry put a four-way stop at its lone crossroads after a car and a truck collide there. Now there need never – it is not necessary that there ever – be another collision, if everyone drive with extreme care, taking account of the conditions of road and weather, and obeying the four signs. But inevitably there will be one.

Holy Saturday: Us kills

And celebrates!

There will be no peace. Ever. And here is why (from Isaiah 65, the reading for Easter Sunday):

               I am about to create new heavens and a new earth . . . The wolf and the
               lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent -
               its food shall be dust!

There must always be a enemy, and us must always kill him.

H.B, R.B.G.

I had a record when I was a kid, a canary yellow 45 rpm on one side of which was a birthday song that went something like this:

          Today, today, today, today,

          today, today is your birthday.
          It’s not the beaver’s or the bears;
          It’s not the pickle’s or the pears.
          Hooray, hooray, hooray, hooray,

          today, today is your birthday.

It’s not. I was born in October, not long before the beginning of the second half of the previous century.  Not too long before that:

There is an interesting, informative, and fun interview of the Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Jeffrey Rosen, legal affairs editor at The New Republic and president and CEO of the National Constitution Center. It may be found online here.

Among the questions Rosen asks is this: “What’s the worst ruling the current Court has produced?”

     Ruth Bader Ginsburg replies in part, “If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be Citizens United. I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be. So that’s number one on my list. Number two would be the part of the health care decision that concerns the commerce clause. Since 1937, the Court has allowed Congress a very free hand in enacting social and economic legislation. I thought that the attempt of the Court to intrude on Congress’s domain in that area had stopped by the end of the 1930s. . . . Perhaps number three would be Shelby County, involving essentially the destruction of the Voting Rights Act. . . . The bill extending the Voting Rights Act was passed overwhelmingly by both houses, Republicans and Democrats . . . . The Court’s interference with that decision of the political branches seemed to me out of order. The Court should have respected the legislative judgment. Legislators know much more about elections than the Court does. And the same was true of Citizens United. I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.

                        Celebrate, celebrate. Dance to the music!

"an ego without a heart, an id without a soul"

On August 21 of last year, I promised I wouldn’t write any more about Donald Trump. 
     I have not been entirely faithful to my promise. As recently as three days ago I acknowledged his endorsement by former U.S. Ambassador to North Korea, Dennis Rodman  [Through dark glasses darkly]. And previously I had mentioned his position on closing down Episcopal Churches [Damned those huddled maasses yearning to be free], and I had supported m ball’s Christmas special, a an utterly vain campaign to market a Donald Trump finger puppet.

And now I write this, a non-series of non-propositions that I hope – but do not promise – will make an end to it: I won’t write about the Donald again, not because Trump will disappear - the limits of God’s grace are sometimes too painfully apparent - but because I will have nothing to add.

1. It is not Trump’s fault that he is a jackass; but it is his fault that he acts like one – and it is our fault when we permit him to.

B. Trump claims to be a Presbyterian – and a Christian. But no Presbyterian Church that I’m aware of has confirmed that he is a member. And what he means by Christian I have no idea. Eighty-three percent of Americans – that’s almost 265 million people – claim to be Christians. I do not know what they mean. What I do know: Donald Trump is not a follower of Jesus.

iii. Trump follows no one but himself, an ego without a heart and an id without a soul.

n - 1. He may not even be a jackass, then; but he may be George Wallace redivivus.

 fin

Through dark glasses darkly

Former ambassador to North Korea, Korean leader endorse Trump

@dennisrodman tweets  
          @realDonaldTrump has been a great friend for many years. He’ll be a great president for many more.

@kimjong-un adds 
          @realDonaldTrump will be a great friend to North Korea. He and I think alike on many matters.

N is for ninkompoop

N

ninkompoop • ^lnĭng-kəm-poop   

     (also nincompoop)

     noun

     1. person that wants to be fooled, because it’s easier on the con-
science or more profit-
able in the pocket to be wrong than right - but not to know too much about it.

ex. Joshua Ninkompoop

M is for military intervention

M

military intervention • ĭn-'vād yo͝or-'as

     terminus politicus

     1. “reckless sadism disguised as defense”*

     2. resulting pandemonium

as in:

Ted Cruz’s saying: “I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but we’re going to find out!”

________________

*Peter Sloterdijk

If all you have is a hammer,

assembled by m ball

Super Tuesday down our way.

Virginia chooses new state birds:

Exit interviews: