Bill Kassel's Blog

Such a Deal!

December 13, 2018 By Bill Kassel Leave a Comment

GET A SIGNED COPY OF MY NOVEL
AT A SPECIAL PRE-HOLIDAY PRICE

Here’s the perfect gift for that insatiable reader on your Christmas list. Or for yourself.

Right now, my award-winning historical novel about the family of Jesus — MY BROTHER’S KEEPER — is available at a special pre-holiday discount: only $20 (which is nearly 20 percent OFF the cover price of $24.95, a savings of almost FIVE BUCKS)!

Click HERE for more information. You’ll find reviews and excerpts.

Then scroll down to the order button located below the cover image on my book page. Order now, and I’ll send you a signed copy of MY BROTHER’S KEEPER for only $20 (plus shipping).

Check it out…

https://www.billkassel.com/brothers-keeper-novel-family-jesus/

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

December 9, 2018 By Bill Kassel 12 Comments

MORAL CONSCIENCE
VS. SPIRIT OF #METOO

Recent controversy over the classic winter pop song, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” reveals much about our present state of moral reasoning.

Written by Frank Loesser — best known as composer and lyricist for the Broadway musicals, “Guys and Dolls” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” — the song is a clever exploration of the tug-of-war between conscience and hypocrisy to which sexual desire often subjects us.

The premise of the song is as simple as it is universal: A girl knows she should remove herself from a sexually charged situation while a guy attempts to distract her from the warning bells ringing inside her head.

The humor of the piece lies in the obvious fact that she isn’t listening too closely to those bells and her resistance to his entreaties is half-hearted at best.

A Token of Good Will

December 2, 2018 By Bill Kassel 2 Comments

THE GREETING “MERRY CHRISTMAS”
EXPRESSES GENEROSITY OF SPIRIT

While our annual debate over the holiday greeting “Merry Christmas” seems to have lost some sharpness, the issue is far from settled.

There are plenty of folks who still charge Christians with cultural imperialism. Likewise, the impulse to defend the traditional salutation asserts itself regularly.

While I surely see that some of the anti-“Merry Christmas” sentiment expresses rejection of Christianity (or even outright attacks on the Faith), there’s also a good deal of simple misunderstanding about what the greeting really conveys.

Back in December of 2013 I posted an essay that attempted to clarify what people mean when they wish someone “Merry Christmas” (or at least what I mean by it). I’ve reposted the piece in subsequent years.

As it remains relevant, here it is again…

[Read more…] about A Token of Good Will

Becky

November 25, 2018 By Bill Kassel 3 Comments

WHITE, MIDDLE-CLASS WOMEN
NOW SCORNED BY THE LEFT

For onto half a century you white, middle-class girls were considered the future of the world.

Your tastes and preferences set the direction of style, driving the consumer economy.

You were the market segment most pursued, the voting bloc most courted.

Barriers were removed and glass ceilings shattered so that you might attain new heights of educational and career success, your leadership potential realized at last.

You were the backbone of the Church. Even a pope (John Paul) hailed your special “feminine genius.”

You were WOMAN, and we heard you roar.

Alas, how things do change.

After being less than enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton in 2016 and failing to thoroughly rebuke Donald Trump in the election just passed, you are being called out as a bunch of narrow-minded, selfish, husband-dominated, and — wait for it — RACIST harpies.

You are…Becky.

[Read more…] about Becky

Complain, Complain!

November 15, 2018 By Bill Kassel 10 Comments

THERE ARE REASONS FOR
POOR CHURCH MUSIC

Rare is the parish that’s free of complaints about music at Mass.

Whether it’s the screechy-voiced soprano in the choir, or the under-rehearsed guitar group, or the too-frequent repetitions of “Lead Me, Lord” — there’s usually something about which somebody has a gripe.

Unfortunately, the dissatisfaction is often justified.

[Read more…] about Complain, Complain!

Us

November 2, 2018 By Bill Kassel 3 Comments

WHAT THE ELECTION
IS REALLY ALL ABOUT

It can be edifying to go back and reread commentaries from a few years past. They refresh the memory about issues debated and battles fought.

Sometimes they can surprise by showing how little has changed. More often, they reveal the beginnings of ideas and themes that would infuse later arguments.

During the run-up to 2016’s Presidential election, author and television writer Shalom Auslander penned an op-ed for the Washington Post in which he explored the comparison between Adolph Hitler and The Donald then becoming a popular anti-Trump rant. Auslander wasn’t fond of the comparison, and actually felt that it belittled Hitler…

“Hitler was a megalomaniacal psychopath who should burn in Hell for eternity,” he wrote. But at least der Führer was someone “who actually believed in something. There’s a difference. Trump is a two-bit con man. He’s playing the fools.”

The “fools,” of course, were us — which was Auslander’s main point. He wanted to show that Donald Trump could have gotten to where he was a genuine contender for President of the United States only because We The People were so irredeemably weak minded …

[Read more…] about Us

Conversation Avoided

October 27, 2018 By Bill Kassel 2 Comments

MEGAN KELLY COLLIDED WITH
A PAINFUL POP CULTURE IMAGE

The uproar over Megan Kelly’s remarks about white people in blackface demonstrates once again that there are certain issues so emotionally charged that it’s all too easy to give unintended offense when addressing them.

Megan made a very odd assertion that when she was a kid, blackface was okay at Halloween, as long as you were dressing up as a particular “character.” That comment raised questions, not only about what “characters” might have been acceptable in those days, but about the kind of neighborhood in which she did her trick-or-treating.

Nevertheless, video footage of her “Today Show” discussion shows clearly that she was not unaware that blackface is considered offensive. Rather, she was attempting to draw a distinction between being sensitive to other people’s feelings and being crushed under the arbitrary dictates of political correctness.

That someone with her media savvy and cool presence did it so awkwardly shows how delicate such a task can be.

[Read more…] about Conversation Avoided

Gifs, Tiffs & Tweets

October 15, 2018 By Bill Kassel 2 Comments

CONSIDERING AN UP-SIDE
TO ONLINE NASTINESS

The shared experiences of a society tend to reveal the attitudes of individuals within it.

For example, if you’ve ever watched film footage of the Nazi era in Germany — especially the great propaganda epics created by Joseph Goebbels and Leni Riefenstahl — you’ve probably been struck by the genuine enthusiasm of the crowds.

To be sure, the shots featured were selected and edited to demonstrate broad support for Hitler and his movement. But the overwhelming numbers of enraptured faces recorded on film leave no doubt that large portions of the German population were swept up in a collective frenzy.

Those folks would feel differently by the end of World War II, when Germany was in ruins and enthusiasm had turned to anguish. But at Nazism’s rise, many people opened their hearts to der Führer, embracing his promises as their own personal hopes.

Today we’re watching the attitudes of individuals reveal themselves in the unique confluence of politics and social media.

[Read more…] about Gifs, Tiffs & Tweets

Columbus Day Comes Again

October 7, 2018 By Bill Kassel 1 Comment

REFLECTING ONCE MORE ON
THE IMPACT OF COLUMBUS

It must have been the distraction of Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation brouhaha, but this year we’ve been largely — and blessedly — spared our annual agony over how the discovery of America ushered in the greatest of injustices and suffering.

Even Indigenous People’s Day, about which so much was made in 2017 when it received official status in Los Angeles, has gotten little attention.

Who?

October 4, 2018 By Bill Kassel 3 Comments

CHARLES AZNAVOUR WAS
THE UNKNOWN SUPERSTAR

My Ave Maria Radio colleague, Al Kresta, is host of the daily talk show, “Kresta In the Afternoon,” heard on about 400 radio stations.

Al once made a wry comment about his situation of being widely known within the limited universe of Catholic Radio…

“It’s hard being famous when nobody knows who you are.”

The line is classic Kresta, reflecting both his quick wit and his honest self-awareness.

Charles Aznavour faced Al’s problem, but with a twist. Based in France, he was a true international superstar, a singer-songwriter known around the world, but recognized and followed by only a narrow audience within the United States (the world’s single largest music market).

That must have been a frustration for someone who had written more than 1,300 songs, some of which became standards in the U.S.

I discovered Charles Aznavour in the early 1970s, and I found his music deeply affecting. But whenever I’d mention him, the common response would be…

“Who?”

My simple answer was always…

“The guy who wrote ‘Yesterday, When I was Young.’”

At which point I would hear…

“Oh…you mean Roy Clark’s song.”

[Read more…] about Who?

Kavanaugh v. Ford

September 30, 2018 By Bill Kassel 4 Comments

EMOTION OUTWEIGHS ALL IN
THE CONFIRMATION DISPUTE

The Democrats have certainly shown they’re great at planning ahead.

After silently lining up accusers to tar Brett Kavanaugh with a colorful variety of sex-abuse allegations — of which Christine Ford’s is only one — they’ve got their next argument ready for his confirmation vote…

His extreme emotional reaction to Ford’s charge shows he lacks the proper “judicial temperament” to sit on the Supreme Court.

If you haven’t heard that notion yet, you will soon.

But preparations don’t stop there. Lefty media mouthpieces are already announcing the strategy for blocking the assault on Roe v. Wade they assume would follow Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Court.

As reported by Breitbart News, Terry Moran, chief foreign correspondent for ABC, laid it all out during coverage of the committee hearing…

[Read more…] about Kavanaugh v. Ford