Bill Kassel's Blog

Occasional reflections on religion, culture, politics, and anything else that comes into my mind...

bill kassel

Ideology & Politics

Kavanaugh v. Ford

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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

Baby Bottoms & Original Intent

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A NEW SYSTEM FOR PICKING
SUPREME COURT JUSTICES

So…the Democrats have dug up another Anita Hill — a politically motivated woman who suddenly remembers some dastardly act on the part of a Supreme Court nominee years after the time it’s alleged to have happened.

Goes to show how powerful are the psychological forces that can suppress traumatic memories until just the moment when their reemergence hinders the plans of a Republican President.

Amazing.

History does repeat itself.

I, for one, think this is for the best, because it lends support to an idea I’ve been mulling over about a better system for staffing the Supreme Court.

[Read more…] about Baby Bottoms & Original Intent

The Watchdog

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“INSIDE RESISTANCE” IS THE
HOT ANTI-TRUMP MEME

The latest salvo in the war on Donald Trump is an op-ed commentary in The New York Times purportedly from a member of the White House “inner circle.” This writer, whom The Times refuses to identify, claims to represent “inside resistance,” a group of staffers devoted to keeping the President from following his most erratic impulses.

The question that comes immediately to mind is…

Does this person actually exist — which is to say, Is this really a Trump minion? — or has The New York Times perpetrated a hoax?

[Read more…] about The Watchdog

The Three-Ring Sign

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CAN WE EVEN CALL IT
WHITE SUPREMACY?

As if we descendants of European immigrants weren’t self-conscious enough about the social privileges we’re alleged to enjoy, now we must be on guard against suspicious gestures.

An attorney and close associate of Judge Brett Kavanaugh was outed as a secret White Supremacist because of the positioning of her arms during the opening day of congressional hearings for Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.

Seated immediately behind him, Zina Bash, who is on his confirmation prep team, was caught by TV cameras unconsciously resting her right hand on her left forearm with fingers in a pattern some interpreted as a representation of the letters “W” and “P,” standing for “White Power.”

[Read more…] about The Three-Ring Sign

A Tale of Two Hats

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AMID POLITICAL DIVISIVENESS
WE NEED TO TALK AND LISTEN

John Pavlovitz is a minister, a writer, and a rising star of liberal Protestantism. His blog, “Stuff that Needs to Be Said,” has a wide readership, and his books are prominent among Amazon.com’s Christian Living titles. [Read more…] about A Tale of Two Hats

Colluding for Peace

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HELSINKI WASN’T GREAT
BUT IT WAS A START

Have you noticed how people who insist the United States should have no borders are obsessing over Russian threats to our national interest?

Of course, one could ask if we have a national interest, by their definition.

For that matter, are we even a nation?

One particularly lewd cartoon making the rounds on Facebook shows the Russian bear mounting and having its way with a prostrate Donald Trump.

It’s the latest entry in a seemingly endless flood of invective by which crudity passes for political sophistication…

See? We told you the big fool was Putin’s whore.

[Read more…] about Colluding for Peace

Can’t Help Themselves

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CALLING TRUMP A RACIST
MARS THANEDAR CAMPAIGN

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.

[Read more…] about Can’t Help Themselves

History’s Highways

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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

A Fifth Column?

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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

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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?

[Read more…] about Memo to Robert De Niro

A Teaching Moment

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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

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