Bill Kassel's Blog

Shri Thanedar (pronounced “Shree Tannadar”) burst onto the Michigan political scene with a self-funded, $80,000 Super Bowl TV spot for the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

That first ad succeeded brilliantly. It not only gained visibility for the 63-year-old, India-born immigrant (who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Akron), it established him as a down-to-earth, nice guy who doesn’t take himself too seriously. It also boldly declared him to be “the most Progressive candidate” running for governor.

History’s Highways

July 3, 2018 By Bill Kassel 1 Comment

WE GOT GOOD DIRECTIONS
FROM THE NATION’S FOUNDERS

The following reflection is adapted from an essay I posted on this blog for Independence Day 2014…

One summer during college I worked for the Bucks County Historical Tourist Commission. My job was to drive around eastern Pennsylvania and nearby portions of New Jersey, stocking the map racks of gas stations, restaurants, motels, and other tourist haunts with copies of “Highways of History,” a large, folded map highlighting places of historical and cultural interest in Bucks County. [Read more…] about History’s Highways

Fr. Joe Krupp

June 27, 2018 By Bill Kassel 18 Comments

A GIFTED PRIEST
MOVES ON

Hardly a day goes by without someone pontificating on how to achieve a “proper” worshipful atmosphere at Mass.

You have your advocates of “sanctity.” You have your advocates of “welcoming.”

You have your organ music lovers. You have your guitar fans.

And don’t even go near the ongoing debate over communion in the hand.

For all that, it’s been my experience that the greatest determinant of parish spirit — both in communal worship and in overall faith life — is the pastor.

The priest sets the tone.

A good priest brings all the factions together, bridging divergent expectations and points of view.

A great priest creates an atmosphere of love.

Fr. Joe Krupp is such a priest.

[Read more…] about Fr. Joe Krupp

A Fifth Column?

June 22, 2018 By Bill Kassel 12 Comments

RELIGION IS BEING USED
AS A WHIP AGAINST TRUMP

There are certain Facebook pages I visit regularly to keep up with the topics that agitate folks on the Progressive Left. And I’ve discovered something quite interesting…

If you want to encourage a lefty agnostic to read the Bible, tell him it’s a great source of material for bashing Donald Trump.

Ever since media began focusing on the practice of detaining illegal-immigrant kids separately from adults, Facebook has become a veritable Scripture study. You needn’t look hard to find passages such as…

“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”
— Exodus 22:21

“There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native…”
—Leviticus 24:22

“Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.”
— Deuteronomy 27:19

“Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner.”
— Jeremiah 22:3

Indeed, you’d think Progressives have their iPhones set to stream “The Bible Answer Man” 24/7.

[Read more…] about A Fifth Column?

Memo to Robert De Niro

June 12, 2018 By Bill Kassel 2 Comments

WHY ARE MOVIE STARS
SO BUGGED WITH TRUMP?

Dear Bob,

Okay, I get it. You don’t like The Donald. Your outburst at the Tony Awards made that clear.

I’m not surprised. There’s a lot of anti-Trump stuff going around.

But let me ask you:

Do you really think “F-ck Trump!” brings new clarity to the current political discussion?

Giving the benefit of the doubt now, I’ll assume you were just calling for proper presidential decorum and behavior.

But, don’t you see a little irony here, Bob?

A Teaching Moment

June 8, 2018 By Bill Kassel 4 Comments

ROSANNE & SAMANTHA
HIGHLIGHT BIAS & IRONY

I’m old enough to remember when folks in the entertainment business tried to avoid saying offensive things — or to avoid being heard saying them. If something problematic did get out, stars and their PR minions would scramble to clean up after the ill-considered words.

Recall John Lennon’s observation that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.” Given the slide in church attendance already obvious in 1966, that remark had a certain prophetic quality. Yet Lennon was forced to apologize to irate clergy and believers.

In a tense press conference, he nervously tried to explain the origin and context of his controversial quip…

“Well, originally I pointed out that fact in reference to England — that we meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion at that time. I wasn’t knocking it or putting it down. … I just said what I said and it was wrong, or it was taken wrong, and now it’s all this.”

Lennon had at first dismissed what looked to him like the proverbial tempest in a teapot. But the furor — especially in America where there were credible death threats surrounding a planned Beatles tour — made him realize the price of his own thoughtlessness. As recounted in Rolling Stone…

“Faced with the realization that both the tour and his life hung in the balance, Lennon finally cracked. ‘He actually put his head in his hands and sobbed,’ [Beatles press aid Tony] Barrow maintains. ‘He was saying, “I’ll do anything … whatever you say. How am I to face the others if this whole tour is called off just because of something I’ve said?”’”

One wonders if Rosanne Barr is having similar feelings in the wake of her notorious Valerie Jarrett tweet and the cancellation of “Rosanne.”

[Read more…] about A Teaching Moment

Just Catching Up

May 30, 2018 By Bill Kassel 3 Comments

IRELAND COMPLETES
ITS QUIET REVOLUTION

How interesting it’s been — no, revealing, actually — to observe the absolute glee with which Ireland’s legalization of abortion has been met.

Facebook is awash in photos and video footage of people celebrating wildly.

There appears to be no mixed emotions, no acknowledgement of moral ambiguity, about this reversal that’s taken place in historically Catholic Ireland. All is joy, merriment, revelry.

Pass around the Guinness, lads! Crank up the volume on that U2 album! Good old Bono was with us!

[Read more…] about Just Catching Up

God Made You Gay?

May 26, 2018 By Bill Kassel 32 Comments

POPE FRANCIS SETS OFF
ANOTHER CONTROVERSY

My Facebook news feed has been ablaze ever since a report broke suggesting that Pope Francis assured a gay man that God made him homosexual and that’s just fine.

Did the Holy Father really say such a thing?

I’ve read numerous reports that cite the Pope’s alleged remark…

“You have to be happy with who you are. God made you this way and loves you this way, and the pope loves you this way.”

…all set forth in pretty much the same words.

But does this flood of reportage rise to the level of multi-source confirmation? Or is it a matter of citing a single source, and therefore, echoing the same possibly inaccurate quote?

[Read more…] about God Made You Gay?

Westside Story

May 18, 2018 By Bill Kassel 8 Comments

LEGAL MARIJUANA IS RUINING
A ONCE-CHARMING COMMUNITY

There have been some startling developments in the world during my two-week sojourn in Colorado.

Kim Jung Un has started playing his predictable games over the Trump summit. America opened a new embassy in Jerusalem, with predictable backlash from Hamas and other Arab extremists. And Mother Nature showed how unpredictable she can be by launching her volcanic re-conquest of Hawaii (of the “Big Island,” at any rate).

[Read more…] about Westside Story

For Kathy

May 2, 2018 By Bill Kassel 1 Comment

REPOSTING A “EULOGY” TO MY WIFE
WHILE SHE’S STILL AROUND TO ENJOY IT

(I offered the reflection below to mark Kathy’s 65th birthday. These thoughts are as applicable five years later, on the occasion of another milestone for her.)

My wife’s favorite scripture reading is the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). Kathy always says that the experiences in her life make her able to identify with all three characters in the story — the son, the father, the brother — and she wants the passage read at her funeral.

I’ve promised her that, should she precede me in death, I’ll make sure her wish is fulfilled. But I’ve also insisted that I’ll read the famous Woman of Valor passage from Proverbs 31.*

“When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls.” (In some translations it’s “rubies,” but why split scriptural hairs?)

One of the good things about funerals is that people’s virtues get spoken of in public. But then, that’s also one of the bad things; how unfortunate that we don’t often give voice to those virtues while the person we’re honoring is alive and on hand to hear our reflections. Everyone could use a little praise now and then.

[Read more…] about For Kathy

Colluding for Peace

Can’t Help Themselves