'Because you gotta have faith...'

I heard the end of a panel discussion on the topic of why young people are not having more babies in America. We are currently having about 1.6 babies per woman and the "replacement number" is 2.1, so that doesn't look good, particularly if we continue to measure almost everything in terms of growth.

There are lots of possible reasons for the low birth rate, it appears, but many young Americans apparently are doing rational calculations on having enough money put aside so their children can attend private school or enough money for a house, or delaying having children to move higher in their career or to simply do more traveling. 

Bottom line: people are putting off having children and getting married, and the state of the world likely has something to do with it all.

But all I could think about was Kathleen and I, about 23 years old, off on our own in England with Uncle Sam and some fellow Air Force folks. No money to speak of. No college degrees. I was a drop out with no discernable prospects. And we decided to have a baby... without much in-depth conversation about it all.

Looking back, we simply took the leap, the clearest act of faith I have ever experienced. We trusted each other and trusted the Fates. We loved each other and, I guess, just trusted in our willingness to work and raise a family and have no real financial foundation. 

That foundation would come later, along with jobs and places to live, and more family. In many ways, I suppose, ours was a story as old as time. How many humans have had the luxury of a clear plan with all the resources needed to make that plan work out? 

We went off to England as newlyweds and came back with a five-month-old and a VW. That was about it. Our own little miracle story.

I'm sure our parents were worried and anxious and skeptical as to how it would all work out. Now I'm a grandparent and honestly would argue against our own grandchildren leaping into life as we did. It would seem foolish or silly or even dangerous. 

Maybe I should just not worry so much about the world and about the young ones. We made it and we knew and had almost nothing. 

It might have been a far different story, but here we are.

Stranger than fiction and the Senate

Sometimes life is nuttier than any short story or TV comedy... and this week we find ourselves with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee conducting hearings on Joe Biden's state of mind, or something, while president. The feeble justification is that he might not have been "all there." 

The committee is co-chaired by 91-year-old Chuck Grassley, from the great state of Iowa. Far be it from me to be ageist, but that guy has at least one foot in the grave and seems to rarely be aware of where he is and what he is saying. So we have one old codger investigating another old codger and neither of them should be allowed anywhere near important decisions.

Another leader in some stage of dementia is Donald Trump, who today called for a special prosecutor to investigate the 2020 election. This refusal to let things go and to accept reality is a symptom of dementia but no one... and I am including the New York Times and CBS... seems willing to simply state this plain fact: the Emperor wears no clothes.

While Iran was being bombed incessantly, Trump droned on about two new flagpoles he had installed on the White House grounds. There are live wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and he appears to not have any sort of understanding of either.

I suppose we just have to wait for the next two weeks to pass... Trump is fixated on two weeks as the time needed to work out "a deal." Again, the demented come to rely on simply repeating whatever information lies at top of their minds. 

Our expertise in everything from foreign intelligence to military leadership has been fired in the service of Elon Musk collecting data on everyone while high on various drugs. American just sighs and carries on. 

Demonstrations have basically dropped off in Los Angeles but Trump just sent 2,000 more National Guardsmen to... um, mill around? 

It's all madness, of course, and so beyond the pale that reputable media don't seem to have any way to handle such nonsense. 

And the so-called leaders of the Republican Party just carry on, scared spitless of the Trump crime family. 

Or, worses, maybe they are just fine with the chaos and the division and the wars and the injustices. 

Shame on them all. Shame on us all.

We are not going back as a nation, that seems clear. As to where we might be going? Anything but clear. 

'I missed the final but...'

My very fast four-week online strategic writing course through CSU Global wrapped up this past Sunday night, with two students not submitting the researched recommendation report at all, thus earning Ds for the course. When students earn less than a C, there is the likelihood that the course doesn't count toward graduation (though I'm certain there are ways around this... there always are).

Another student emailed me (as "Dr. Kennedy," demonstrating that he had not read my personal introduction) and expressed shock that he had forgotten to take the final exam, despite it being open for three entire days and despite my course announcement reminding everyone of the final exam "window." The student asked if there was anything to be done, or "is that just the way the cookie crumbles?"

The zero on the exam left that student with a B- and that's where it remains. I only estimated the effect of the exam grade, but I don't think the student would have earned more than a B+ even with a perfect score. CSU's system does mean that plus and minus marks do affect the GPA. 

I have not responded to the email and probably won't. What would be the point? The student passes and will soon push this little blip into a half-formed memory. 

I will likely spend more time thinking about how I MIGHT have reopened the exam for a day, and considering how unfair (or fair) that might have been. After all, I don't grade on a curve and have never met the student other than through his work for one month. 

But last night I was thinking of all those Trump voters (not to mention the people who didn't bother to vote at all in the last election) and how a common story now about American is one of regret. "Gosh, I never thought he would really... (fill in blank with whatever personally affects the source)." 

We all love second chances and I have enjoyed any number of them over many years. But I also have had to live with all sorts of bad decisions or mistaken decisions or just "non-decisions." Life went on. 

It will for my latest forgetful student, just as life will go on for other students who ignored my repeated pleading for using professional tabular formatting... built-in to Word. Or who ignored my step-by-step on how to use hanging indents for their reference lists. 

I know. I know. Following the recipe is not a reflection of intelligence and is certainly unrelated to quality of writing. But a lot of life consists of following some basic "recipes," and I honestly don't know how I could have made the required recipes more clear.

More annoying is that many times I make what turns out to be the correct choice but find myself in the minority. I have to live with 42 more months of Trump, for instance, and WWIII may be on the horizon. 

My last task for the semester is properly inputting final grades for the completed course. No creativity is required or even tolerated. There is a clear deadline and missing it might mean that CSU would stop asking me to continue as an "academic slave." 

My preference is to keep going. Some day my forgetful student may also find that simply following the clear directions is his best choice. 

I will never know.

Even video evidence is not enough to change the cult's views

Lying has always been a go-to strategy in defending our actions and words. After all, everyone know that it's tough to discern the views of two people without additional witnesses. It's just one person's word against another's. 

But we now live in a world that features high-quality video cameras in almost everyone's hands (or purses or pockets or backpacks). In nearly every clash between, for instance, police or security guards with individuals, there is now a video that is easily shared. If we are in public, there can be no reasonable expectation of privacy.

But there are still bad actors and bad deeds, and the lying is not diminishing. The treatment of a U.S. senator by Noem's security detail is a case in point. There is clear video of him raising his voice to ask a question of this appalling woman (my view) during a press conference being held in his state (California) about the ICE crackdown on immigrants (or anyone maybe being in the country illegally). 

Tension must be high among the authorities because the senator was instantly hustled out of the room and soon thrown on the floor before being handcuffed. He identified himself but the excuse is that the officers did not recognize him. Noem claimed to not recognize a senator she had testified before just a few days prior. 

There have been no apologies... though he was soon released and was never charged with anything. That is hardly satisfying.

This is classic intimidation through force and that is now where we are as a country. 

Such actions flow down from the leader and that leader is a 79-year-old man who either can't read or refuses to read, who is increasingly befuddled and who any objective person would say has lost not just a step but dozens of steps. His default is cruelty and exuding power... facts be damned.

The emperor has no clothes (and it's not a pretty sight), but the members of his court will go to great lengths to rationalize anything that the boss says or does. Those groveling cult members are beneath contempt and a majority of the public disapproves of basically Trump's entire agenda.

But we passively await the courts restoring sanity. But courts are built on delay and precision of opinion and can't possibly keep up with the deluge of illegal actions by Trump's administration. 

I like the idea of the "No Kings" protests planned across the country for Saturday. It's a clean and clear message that Americans have a 250-year history of opposing a monarchy. Not everyone opposes that monarchy, of course, but we are now confronted by the reality of a wannabe dictator governing by fiat.

And we have lots of media hoping for photogenic confrontations and investing in spreading more lies. 

That dull ache in my stomach is not going away soon. 

About that 'personal relationship with Jesus'

I read an intriguing post about something called "vertical Christianity," which was Thomas French's take on the current state of the evangelical MAGA cult. Within was a story about how a prominent religious leader, Paula White, who reportedly regularly consults with Trump, offered "seven supernatural blessings" over Easter in return for $1,000. Each of those "blessings" was individual-centered: “God will assign an angel to you, he’ll be an enemy to your enemies, he’ll give you prosperity, he’ll take sickness away from you, he will give you long life, he’ll bring increase in inheritance, and he’ll bring a special year of blessing.”

As French noted: "The emphasis is clear — look at what God will do for you. It’s all vertical. Honor God (by giving White a pile of cash), and he’ll make you healthy, wealthy and strong."

It's a modern take on "selling indulgences."

The recent travesty from Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, who proclaimed that "we're all going to die" when someone in a town hall meeting shouted that "people will die" due to the Big Beautiful Bill that Trump and his minions are foisting on the country. On one level, of course, she's correct, but it certainly makes a difference whether people live longer, healthier, happier, etc., up until that moment. 

Being a faithful Trump cult member, she just had to double down by sharing a video shot in a cemetery that was a faux apology and that ended by inviting viewers to join her as a follower of Christ. 

Yay for religion!

Kathleen and I had just wrapped up watching "The Righteous Gemstones" on MAX, which makes fun of the classic selfishness of evangelical ministers practically begging their often poor followers to send them money in return for all sorts of promises that will never be fulfilled. 

It occurs to me that a lot of the split in America is due to people taking the idea of personal responsibility and independence to somewhat illogical conclusions. It boils down to something like, "I'm white and doing OK and native born and away from clear danger... Why isn't everyone else?" 

And if people are not "doing OK," they may quickly be drawn to any ideas or any persons who give them some hope that things could change. 

It's related to the J.D. Vance misunderstanding of some ancient pronouncements, saying, "There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that."

The Pope and many Catholic clergy pointed out that humans can actually balance love for family with love for a much larger world... and that "priorities of love" was a foolish concept.

But that innate selfishness and smallness is now part of American culture. "Why can't we all just take care of ourselves (and a few chosen others)? If everyone did that, wouldn't life be grand?"

This week there are federal troops standing around in Los Angeles, waiting for trouble. Trump is engaged in his own depraved act of prayer for violence to break out. He wants it. After all, dealing with it shows him to be strong, to be in control. People being hurt, families being torn apart, communities in disarray? Who cares?

He will be fine. 

I also saw a short segment on CBS news about the airlift of 3,000 children to America as Saigon was falling in 1975. They were all fathered by U.S. troops and there was fear that they would be slaughtered. We went to great lengths to fly them to safety. We met some of those now 50-something people, each firmly American and thriving. 

Now THAT was horizontal Christianity. 

More of that, please.

So, those masked men are the 'good guys'?

Evidently, ICE agents have long worn masks, mostly in sensitive situations where protecting identities also protects families from retribution. This was key in, for instance, arresting cartel members and other potentially violent offenders whose criminal "families" might exact retribution.

But the masked agents leaping out of unmarked vans to arrest people on American streets in broad daylight strikes me as one of those images that should bother everyone. When the crooks look much like the "good guys," and when many of those arrested are unarmed and unsuspecting, the visuals are tough to shake.

I was reading this morning that there are no federal laws pertaining to masking federal agents. I guess it's just a policy. I also read that it's legal to capture video of police officers, generally, in their duties. I'm sure there is some limit regarding confidential or undercover operations. I am confused by the contrast in the two law enforcement operating instructions.

A country in which masked men can spirit possibly innocent people into detention (and ask questions later) is a country that most of us would label as a police state and a possible human rights abusing nation. Somewhere like Venezuela or Iran. Not the Land of the Free. 

I am skeptical that illegal immigration is the national threat that Republicans, at least, believe it to be. My view is that a nation growing increasingly older, with women having fewer children, benefits in lots of ways from immigrants. Of course, I would favor finding legal means to manage this influx of potential workers, citizens and taxpayers. And no one seriously disagrees with dangerous criminals being locked up or deported. 

Immigration is beyond complex, but I can't quite shake that visual of armed, masked men arresting people on the street. There has to be a better way.