An ugly fact

So the media has exploded about news that the very elderly Mel Brooks put his stamp on a sequel to the 1987 movie Spaceballs.  Here's what I have to say.  I'm sorry to the Brooks fans out there, but when that movie came out, I knew nobody who saw it that liked it.  They just didn't.  The general consensus was that whatever magic Brooks had in the 70s with such classics as Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, or even History of the World, Part I, was long gone.

The common narrative was that the out of left field comedy Airplane! had out-Mel Brooksed Mel Brooks.  It was everything Brooks had done, but on steroids.  And from that point on, Brooks just didn't know how to top it. When he tried, such as with Spaceballs, or Robin Hood, Men in Tights, it came off like a screenplay written and produced by adolescents and fifth graders.  Lots of heavy handed and contrived jokes, one dimensional humor, with no real wit, meaningful homage, or even clever commentary.  For instance, with Young Frankenstein, you can almost see the love that Wilder had for the original source material (for he was a major creative force in the movie).  With Spaceballs, you felt they simply watched Star Wars and then said 'put a joke here.'  

This is what my sons often call 'the movie that nobody wanted.'  Oh, they'll make huge noise about it.  The media today often acts in the role of marketers and promoters for various artists and products and productions.  My guess is this will be something like Wicked or Taylor Swift or Lebron James, that will receive 100% media backing and hoisting and advertising over the next couple years.  And given a global audience in the billions, it will no doubt make some good money.

But don't be fooled.  As I hear the original called a classic or a smash hit or beloved, we were the audience the original was aimed at, and I knew nobody who thought much of it.  And that included mixed reviews at best from the critics.  Not that there weren't funny parts. We all quoted 'They've gone to plaid!' a million times.  Of course everyone loved John Candy's 'I'm a Mog, half man, half dog!  I'm my own best friend.'  But save for one friend who felt the various bits did outweigh the blah of the whole, we were far more taken by the movie The Princess Bride released the same year. 

Progressive lies in an age of lies

As we watch the news media and pundits express confusion about the motive behind the latest attack on ICE, followed by weeks of pondering just what could have motivated the assassination of Charlie Kirk or the reasons behind the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, I can't help but remember this Simpsons Halloween spoof of Dracula:  

Remember when that was supposed to be humor, not the actual news?  That it was supposed to demonstrate the stupidity of the Springfield police, not the actual news station's SOP.  But that's the world in which we now live.  Somewhere along the line, I think people imagined that the only side effect of chucking God from our society would be that we can now party like it's 1999.  It didn't dawn on us that there would be other side effects not quite so pleasant.  In this case, the decline of honesty and truth as virtues worth demanding from our national institutions and leaders.  

Heck, sometimes I wonder if we wouldn't be outraged at them for being honest, when what we want is to be told what we want to hear.  I recall way back in the day, early 2000s, and leftwing journalist Bernie Goldberg assessing the decline in journalistic integrity.   He said something I've not forgotten.  While talking about the growing bias and partisanship in reporting, he pondered if a growing number of Americans don't follow various news outlets despite the fact that they fear they could be biased, but precisely because they know they are biased.  When I see the systemic mendacity in our modern press, and how many seem to take it at face value against all common sense, it does make me wonder. 

From the BBC article on the ICE facility shooting: "While the shooter's motive remains unclear, the attack comes amid growing concerns in the US about political violence in the wake of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk this month."

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  John 8.44

The most wonderful time of the year

OLD POST ALERT!

Yes, things have been quite crazy, and will likely be so over the next few weeks.  We just got back from my father-in-law's funeral in Florida.  After 40 hours of driving across US, do I have something to say about America's infrastructure.  And that, overall, is infinitely better than the dumpster fire that is Ohio's.  That will be for another time.  This is, I believe, the first real Autumn Post, which for many years became a feature here at ol'Daffey Thoughts.  I had posted some brief nods about Autumn or things I like about Autumn before this.  But I think this was the first real unpacking of the season and why I love it.  So here it is.  The boys have grown and are moving on, our youngest just got his driver permit.  And quite frankly, not a few family members who were still around and taking part in the festivities when I posted this are no longer with us, or able to take part due to health or age.  Such is Autumn and that odd mixture of beauty and impermanence that defines the time and symbolizes our time on Earth in general.  Anyhoo, a blast from the past:

Despite everything going on in our lives, I must admit, at least it's all happening during my favorite time of the year.  The difficulties are making it hard to fully enjoy this time as I'm inclined to do, but I figure it could be worse, it could be in the middle of Summer.

I know, as a good Catholic Christian, my favorite time of the year should be Easter.  Or even Christmas without the shopping malls.  But I confess, it's really autumn.  Why, I can't tell you.  Perhaps because that old rusty clock that was set to start afresh every new school year still chimes somewhere in the back of my mind.  Perhaps it's memories of days gone by, when we came back together with friends, when the crisp air of fall meant sitting in the chill autumn breeze at the Friday night games.  Maybe it is memories of bonfires and apple cider, of homecoming parades and Tricks or Treating.  I don't know.  I just know this season has always been my favorite.

There are practical reasons.  As a kid, even though I had to endure the school side of things, I knew that in only a couple of months that Holiday to end all Holidays would be approaching with all its promised glory.  Plus, being a December baby, I knew I got the extra hors d'oeuvres that was a few early presents to whet my appetite. 

But whatever the reason, the remaining memories I cling to from years gone by invariably have steamed windows blocking out a rainy Thanksgiving day, wading through snow on our way to our end of the football season band concert, or running through corn fields in October, with Jack O' Lanterns shining out of windows, secretly trying to find someone's house to decorate.  It's training for Cross Country in the late afternoon by running through the explosion of colors in a park's woods, or walking with my Mom and Dad in a gentle September drizzle through some remote plot of land that Dad was thinking of purchasing, looking for walnuts to take home. 

Those are where most of my memories from childhood linger.  As an adult, with kids making their own memories, I can't help but admit I'm partial to those we've made in September and the following months.  But when you have kids, the memories begin to be special no matter what the season, as long as it's with them. 

So happy autumn.  May yours bring more blessings than this will for us, but may I be proven wrong and have more than a commercially dominated holiday at the end of the year to be thankful for when all is said and done.

A good question

So we're trying to get back to that old game of games, World in Flames, when one of my sons asked something that I thought was a good question. He asked why is it that 'Jap' is considered a racist term, and 'kraut' is merely considered a derogatory term?  After all, Jap is really just short for Japanese.  Yet that's racist.  While kraut is a term digging at that particular cuisine preference common in parts of Germany and Austria.  Yet it's not racist.  Why is that?  Heck, why is Jap offensive at all when we called our own closest allies Limeys?  A term, once again, merely described as either slang or perhaps derogatory, but not racist.  

I told him I can't say, but I can sure guess.

Anyway, I will be out and about over the next few days.  God willing, I'll be back to answer comments and see what other mischief the World is getting into.  Until then, Pax. 

If you disagree with the Left then they hate you and want you dead

Is the message being defended by the press.  Yes, the press has found an out.  An out, in terms of the news media, is when a story happens that must be covered, but in some ways upends or threatens established media narratives.  Such as a young radical leftwing activist murdering a conservative.  Or a young white woman stabbed to death by a black man.  Or a transgender activist murdering children in a Church that does not officially endorse transgender activism.  

Sure, you can make it about guns.  That worked in Minneapolis as Christians and Christian leaders rushed out to assure the world that trusting in politics to ultimately solve our problems is the smart way to go, as opposed to just thoughts and prayers.  But despite some Church leaders saying Charlie Kirk's assassination was about gun violence, almost anyone beyond paramecium level of intelligence knows that there are few gun laws in history that would have stopped most of history's assassinations.

So look for - anything else in order to deflect attention.  Now we have it.  As leftwing activists have taken to their social media accounts to laugh about his death, rejoice in his murder, insist he had it coming, and call for it to be only the beginning, many have found themselves losing their jobs.  Which would normally happen.  If after the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting anyone said they had it coming for being gay, that would be the last day that person worked in 99% of our country's institutions and companies.  Most would understand that response from most companies for such a heinous thought.

Heck, if you were found to have dropped the N-word (note I can't say it) in a 20 year old email, the press would happily report on the outrage and stand back while you were chased out of your position.  Or anything regarding feminism, the LGBTQ community, Covid responses and vaccines, Muslims, you name it.  We've watched for 20 years as the cult of George Carlin has faded away and we've recalibrated our approach to free speech in a manner that would make Joe McCarthy quiver. 

But not now.  Now the press has rushed in to defend those rejoicing in the death of Kirk and calling for more of the same, by framing their removals as a potential attack on free speech. You know, the same media that had news anchor Margaret Brennan lecture Marco Rubio on the dangers of free speech.  The same that saw Lesley Stahl's 60 Minutes segment that taught us we sometimes need to rejoice in the government censorship of clearly dangerous and threatening speech.

Now, the press is making it clear: We're once again all about Free Speech full stop.  Which strongly suggests either they were lying before, or they're OK with those who hate non-leftists and want them dead and murdered.  Because apparently that is what free speech is all about.  They certainly shouldn't be punished for merely expressing an opinion (which obviously isn't a deal breaker for those press outlets). 

Insisting that what is clearly happening isn't happening is a bit like Chamberlain flying back to Munich in 1942 and hoping it might work this time.  The emerging Left, utilizing Trump as a living Death Star that must be destroyed at the cost of freedom, democracy, and life itself, is making it as crystal clear as it possibly can: You bow a knee to the Left, or you are the enemy.  And while some Christian leftists have said that still means we love our enemies like Charlie Kirk, even if the hatred and violence against him is understandable, they've made it clear they won't stand up to those who prefer their enemies of the Left dead and buried.

UPDATE: Meanwhile the Left's Ministry of Lies and Propaganda is not only making people wanting conservatives murdered into a Free Speech issue, but are framing the pledge to stop the growing tide of leftists murdering anyone in their way as mere vengeance.  See NBC: 

Of course nowhere in the story was he quoted as saying this was vengeance or revenge or any such thing.  Just treating the growing number of Leftists murdering those deemed evil by the Left as terrorists. 

Again, things are on the move.  Like Trump's first term, the anti-Western revolution is ratcheting it up and making it clear that those who don't bow a knee to the Left are the enemies.  And if people want you dead for your refusal to conform, so be it.  We call these moments in history the chance you had. 

On this day of remembrance

It's often easy to pull the cameras back and look at the big picture. And there is nothing wrong with that.  But doing so can, at times, blur the fact that for so many thousands, it wasn't some massive geopolitical event that would kill so many and speed up the decline of the West.  It was really the victims, in the last moments of their lives, in their own lives and those of their families, as is the case with how we go through this vale of tears.  I thought of that when I saw this posted: 

Joseph Stalin, that wily mass murdering dictator, was known for his callous wit.  One paraphrase attributed to him is that a single death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic.  I know the crushing weigh of what we saw that day, and the deep in the gut feeling that America would not come out of it the way we did Pearl Harbor, tended to obscure the details and the individuals.  

We might have looked with horror at those jumping out of windows, or debated whether anyone said Let's Roll! or not.  I still remember as I was driving home to get to the church I was pastoring at the time and the gut crunch that came with hearing the news that the first tower had collapsed.  But on the whole, there was so much, so many dead, it was almost impossible to get our hearts and minds around it on a personal level.  Not like a mass shooting that claims twelve, or even a plane crash that claims two hundred.  

But this post and picture is a reminder.  As it is any time we think on the tragedies of human history.  It's all too easy to read 'fifteen thousand were killed' or 'only four hundred died', but that's a single tragedy in a single life and family merely repeated thousands of times.  Almost three thousand may have died on 9/11, and no doubt the families of the victims share a bond similar to other who experience such horrors of history.  But in the end, it was the individuals that day, and their individual families, that were impacted first, and worst.  As happens every day in the world that such terrible tragedies occur, whether to a single person or to a million.  

FWIW, for the mathematically impaired, she would now be 26 years old.  

A reminder to supporters of President Trump

The main reason he, and the GOP and pretty much anyone challenging the establishment in 2024, was swept into office was because things were falling apart.  And those who voted for President Trump want them fixed.

Right now we've seen a hurricane of activity from the White House, and some of it appears to be addressing some of those problems.  The chaos along the border, handling international crises, just giving the impression he's doing something as opposed to nothing.  In the wake of the Biden White House, just mailing a letter could be seen as a leap forward in personal accomplishment.

But we're going to have to see more.  The economy is not improving on any noticeable level for most people I know.  I just paid .70 a gallon more for gas than a month ago.  Prices aren't lowering, and now I'm sad to say, I'm seeing some go up.  I fear part of it is that the press has 'Covided' tariffs.  Remember how during the Covid panic and shortages that companies raised their prices, sometimes significantly and overnight?  Remember how they blamed Covid and the supply shortages?   Notice in most cases, those prices haven't gone down despite the Covid pandemic and shortages being over with?

I fear companies will do it again, this time using tariffs - and all with the media's blessings.  If that happens, and if people don't see some radical improvements to the staggering economic problems of the Biden years, it is going to go badly for the GOP.  And if it doesn't turn around, Republicans can give up on their dreams of a Vance presidency.

Oh, and for heaven's sake don't make the mistake that the Democrats/Press/Left made going into 2024.  Don't deny the obvious.  I saw a discussion about this on another site, and there were people saying things are great!  Prices are going down, salaries taking off, jobs, jobs everywhere!  Well, I'm glad they live somewhere those things are happening.  Because they aren't here, and aren't where most people I know are living in different cities and states.  And at the end of the day, that is what will matter. 

It is a sad fact

That our youngest has been on the receiving end of some pretty ill timed events in our lives.  He was born of our entrance into the Catholic Church and the change in lifestyle approaches that such a commitment brings.  If you get my drift. 

Of course that was the beginning of the rough years, until things stabilized for us, only to be plunged into crazy and chaos again.  Then, after several years of some more hard knocks, we entered 2020 looking pretty darn good.  Then, well, you know. 

This year was his big sixteenth birthday.  A somewhat solitary young fellow, we pulled out all the stops and got him the materials needed for him to build his own computer.  He's seriously into tech, retro-tech, and of all things, sound and video mixing.  He has taken to getting old VCR compilations that are no longer available, or practical because of companies' refusal to make new VCRs, and is transferring them onto digital formats - no easy thing since many had measures to prevent easy copying.  But he's done quite well.  We saved money when he build a PC for my wife's work when she was at home rather than having to buy a new one outright. 

Nonetheless, no sooner were we getting ready for his sweet sixteenth than my mom had her latest stroke the day before.  Then shortly after, my father-in-law's health took a sudden turn for the worse, leading to his unexpected passing.  That was his birthday.  His previous special birthdays often ending up in the same way.

Because of that, we try to balance it out by doing what we can.  Right now, we're having that 'talk' about my mom, if we can in any practical way continue to help her at home.  We are cognizant of the fact that nobody in any of our families has the relationship with her that he has.  My mom and dad were always there to help raise my nephew, and when we moved to Ohio they were often here with the boys to visit and help out.  

But our youngest was there when my mom moved in with us, and almost immediately he began to have to help take care of her.  And he has.  It was he who alerted us to her serious health crisis back in 2017 that  almost took her from us.  Had he not done that, we would have lost her then (his intervention along with fast thinking help from my other older sons at the time of course). And he has been every bit as good with medications, feeding and basic care as any of us.  So what this will do if she must go to the next stage in her life regarding care in a nursing home, we don't know.  

Nonetheless, for all of it, he's proven to be resilient.  I would never say he's the lowest key of the brothers and no doubt his life of ups and frequent downs gives him an edge and an almost obsessive determination when there is something he wants.  He thinks nothing of kicking in doors and putting his foot down until he at least gets something out of his goal.  Set him on a task that interests him and watch the rest of the world fade away as he throws himself into the job until it's done. A trait that can be both good or bad, depending on how it is cultivated.  Yet he has a big heart, and this is best seen when we watch him with our granddaughter or my mom.

Part of his nature and mature perspectives no doubt come from his relationship with his brothers.  Over the years I've seen more than one child born crazy late after a set of older siblings.  Often they are simply 'the young kid' with the older siblings going on with their lives, forever seeing the youngest as merely a distant youngest.  But our three older sons have done yeoman's work over the years making sure they weren't the party he missed.  They really have made him 25% of the Griffey boys.  And for that I am ever grateful.

So here's to a smoother year ahead for him.  I think after all the years before, he's earned it. 

The four boys with our daughter-in-law; not the three and daughter-in-law plus the kid. 
All is right with the world

The big winners in the Thoughts and Prayers kerfulfual

Is, as always, the secularists and atheists and non-believers of the modern godless world.  There is nothing better for them than to continually hear religious believers, including their leaders, affirm just how marginal and limited in effectiveness religious faith, practice and belief in God really is.  After all, when the Minnesota mayor belted out that the children killed were in the middle of praying, he did nothing but say 'see how utterly useless prayer can be!'  That those believers joining the 'sucks to your loser prayers' movement did nothing but circle the wagons around his speech shows how colossal the World now is versus the whimpering, emaciated Church. 

Now the whole 'sucks to your loser thoughts and prayers' line of attack came some years ago from gun control activists who were openly non-religious.  I remember this addressed on different Catholic sites.  At that time, there was obvious sympathy for the gun control activists making the charge.  But caution was advised with a gentle rebuke, reminding them (and us) that prayers are never to be seen as contingent upon worldly solutions or activism.  They shouldn't be seen as standing against such things as working to find a solution, as some either/or proposition. Likewise, at no point should we make judgments about the sincerity of those invoking prayers, since prayer is so much more than just asking God to solve our problems.  But mostly we want to be careful not to affirm the secular idea that God and all the religious stuff is worth nothing more than killing an hour on a Sunday morning versus looking for real solutions in the real world.

Well that's dead.  Now there are plenty of Christians saying just what those non-believer said, only more.  Taking the leap that nothing but the left's gun control advocacy can save us, and anyone who disagrees can be judged accordingly, it's Christians as much as anyone saying prayers and God are beneficial only within the context of proper political advocacy.

Which wouldn't be the first time someone charged forth and said my way or you aren't properly following God.  The irony, like so much we've seen in the last couple decades, is that it was the political and religious left that put the kibosh on such thinking.  After all, in WWII for instance, saying we will just pray for peace but not actually resist the Nazis would not have been seen as valid by a substantial number of people.  Yet look at all the horrible things we did to beat the Nazis. Hence those left leaning Christians I encountered warning the religious right about making one's religious life, devotion or sincerity contingent upon any worldly or secular matter, especially politics.

But again, that's dead.  The worst is, of course, that it plays into the modern narrative that Jesus is OK, God's OK, smoke'em if you got'em, but it's keeping up with the world that allows us to see the true nature of sanctification and righteousness and truth.  Something hammered home frequently during the papacy of Pope Francis.  Catholicism was OK, and Christianity as good as always.  But it was being properly ordered, which almost always looked like adhering to progressive and leftwing ideology and activism, by which we will see the good fruits.  Except for transgender activism, which Pope Francis pounded on more than once.  Odd that.  But that's for another time since right now nobody seems eager to address that particular topic.

No, I like what one fellow observed.  He said the big problem with this is how many Christian leaders now are undercutting prayer itself.  As any believer who has attended church more than a few times knows, prayer is more than a laundry list of requests we give to Santa God.  While supplications certainly have their place, prayer is so much more than just going to God with a list of demands and expecting results on our terms.  

In the MASH episode Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler, a B-52 bombardier has a meltdown and decides he is Jesus Christ.  It actually has some fairly honest theology for such a show.  But at one point, the villainous Frank Burns, who isn't buying this shell shock rubbish, says he knows he's not Jesus.  He prayed for something and it didn't happen.  To which Hawkeye quips 'just because you didn't get chocolate pudding for lunch doesn't mean anything'.  Of course it was a joke, and everyone got how stupid it would be to say 'it can't be God, because I prayed for something and didn't get it.'  Apparently those condemning the invoking of prayers because the children who were killed were praying missed that episode. 

So those who are saying your prayers are not enough have either two choices.  Either they are suggesting prayers are only good insofar as God answers them as we want, and since God hasn't saved the victims, the prayers obviously aren't enough.  Or they are saying the efficacy of prayer is entirely contingent upon one worldly solution and one worldly solution only.  I just don't see a third option here. But either way, again, the big winners are those who know religion, Christianity and certainly Catholicism are all a bunch of BS to begin with. Something our churches and leaders, and sometimes fellow believers, insist on inadvertently being the biggest cheerleaders for nowadays.  

FWIW, as for those Catholic leaders, bishops and others explaining that thoughts and prayers are fine, but must be accompanied by meaningful action?  Because meaningful action always sounds like it has been endorsed by the establishment media and DNC, while almost never daring to call out any possible part of the problem that might offend the left of center, I see that doing nothing to avoid the above concerns.  After all, even secularists and non-believers can tell court prophets when they see them.

But when it sounds like the US Catholic Leadership is taking its cues from Catholic tradition and not the latest Manhattan Democratic fundraiser, then I'll at least concede the obvious point that prayer does not negate the need for earthly action. It simply shouldn't be subordinate to political activism.  Remember, if the US bishops were 25% as passionate and zealous about calling out the border catastrophe during the Biden years as they have been condemning Trump's response to it, we might not have ended up with Trump being reelected in the first place.  The same goes for almost every other topic today, including this one. 

*Fun trivia.  In the MASH episode above, it was shown in season four.  Up until that time, the character of Radar O'Reilly had no first name.  But at the end of the episode, a young and innocent Radar asks Captain Chandler - taking at face value he might be Jesus after all - to bless his teddy bear.  At that point Captain Chandler says 'and bless you Radar.'  To which Radar responds 'I'm Walter.'  The writers had to come up with a name they thought would fit, and he became Walter as much as Radar for the rest of the show.