Bill Kassel's Blog

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

bill kassel

Ideology & Politics

Division and Disorder

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IMPEACHMENT IS THE
NEXT PLANNED TACTIC

During this now-past summer in which I’ve kept a low profile, blogging-wise, I’ve been reading, scanning the web, speaking with people, and working on a new project (to be announced soon).

And I’ve been thinking.

All that thinking — which tends to make my head hurt — has confirmed me in the opinion that the country is indeed divided.

No surprise there. That’s a pretty easy conclusion to reach.

The most obvious divisions run along left-vs.-right, Trump-vs.-anti-Trump, religious-vs.-secularist sorts of lines. But there are many other ruptures as well.

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Corporate Censorship II

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A REPLY TO SOME ARGUMENTS
IN DEFENSE OF AMAZON.COM

(This essay refers to my last post, below. If you haven’t read that, scroll down and give it a look, then come back to these current observations.)

My last post elicited several comments in defense of Amazon.com’s right to refuse carrying products its managers deemed objectionable — specifically, books by the late Catholic psychotherapist, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi.

A reader named Eric suggested…

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Corporate Censorship

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BIG MEDIA APPROVES
THE BANNING OF BOOKS

Some years back, a reader complained that Christians were always whining about being discriminated against and having their views marginalized. “You’re the largest religious group in the country,” she wrote “Nobody’s persecuting you.”

It was a sentiment that shimmered with ignorance. But it could perhaps be explained by how hard press outlets were working to obscure the many ways traditional religious ideas are systematically excluded from public discussion. At that time, suggesting people of faith weren’t able to express their opinions freely would have brought derision from across the media spectrum.

These days, making any sort of moral pronouncement that reflects a traditional faith perspective is very likely to get you called a bigot, a Nazi, a purveyor of hate — or worse. It can also get you banned from Facebook and other online platforms.

And it’s become harder to cover up that reality.

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Following the Right Map

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THE NATION’S FOUNDERS
GAVE US GOOD DIRECTIONS

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.

My favorite place to drop them off happened also to be the best-known site on the map: Washington Crossing. This was the riverfront location from which George Washington launched his fabled Christmas-night foray across the ice-bound Delaware to attack Trenton and Princeton, turning the tide of the Revolutionary War.

The focus of Washington Crossing Historic Park (located about 30 miles northeast of Philadelphia) was the Visitors Center. This modest structure contained a museum, the requisite gift shop, and a small auditorium where tourists could view the famous painting, “Washington Crossing the Delaware.”

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I Post, Therefore I Am (2)

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POLITICAL BIAS IS NOT
APPROPRIATE OVERSIGHT

(The thoughts below were intended as a supplement to my last post. But a week of wrangling with some rather extreme upper-respiratory nonsense kept me from completing and posting them. Better late than never.)

About 20 years ago I was incubating an idea for what would eventually become two mystery novels (both of which are no longer in print). The books included a couple of characters who had (as it might have been tactfully put at the time) irregular inclinations.

In order to present their motives and reactions authentically, I turned to the Internet in search of psychological insight and analysis. It didn’t take long to discover that there was a lot more than clinical information available.

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I Post, Therefore I Am

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WE MUST FLING WIDE
THE ONLINE GATES

An item posted recently on Facebook recalled that in October of 1982 a joint House and Senate resolution acknowledged that Holy Scripture, as “the Word of God,” is “the rock on which our Republic rests,” and declared that 1983 would be celebrated as the “Year of the Bible.”

Almost four decades later — after countless debates over religious symbols in public spaces, a near-complete cleansing of faith from public education, and relentless efforts to force church-related institutions to adapt their policies and procedures to some highly questionable secular legal standards — it’s hard to imagine such a robust governmental salute to our nation’s spiritual roots.

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Vice to Virtue

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GAY MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG CAN’T
AVOID JUDEO-CHRISTIAN MORALITY

As the old saying goes…

“Hypocrisy is the tribute which vice pays to virtue.”

That maxim — credited to 17th-Century French essayist Francois Duc De La Rochefoucaul — came to mind when I read that South Bend Mayor and would-be presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg had cited Donald Trump’s sexual history as a put-down of both the President and his supporters.

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Community Service

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SMOLLETT AND MUELLER CALL
FOR MEDIA SELF-EXAMINATION

Jussie Smollett avoided prosecution by doing community service, but he worked on the wrong project. He should have been assigned to help OJ track down Nicole’s killer.

There. I’m sure I’m not the only one to have thought of that line. It’s so obvious. Are we hearing it from our trendy-lefty comedy hosts?

I don’t watch much late-night TV, so let me know if someone says anything like that.

What we do know is that Jussie is still insisting he’s dedicated to defending the rights of all those “marginalized” people. We also know we aren’t hearing very much contrition among media talking heads for all the attention showered on his hate-crime fantasy. And the reason is obvious…

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Hating Hate

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FORGET EMPTY GESTURES ON HATE
DEFEND THE 1ST AMENDMENT

I hate hate. I mean I really hate hate.

And I hate the haters who hate. I hate them because they’re so…well…so hateful. And I just hate that.

It’s a good thing Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats pushed for that anti-hate resolution.

There can be no question now that Americans believe hate is bad.

And that’s good.

Because we don’t want any haters around here.

People could get the idea that we tolerate hate. And I’d hate for them to think that.

Hate is intolerance. And tolerating that kind of intolerance is…intolerable.

–  –  –

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The Mind of the Left

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SLANDERING TRUMPSTERS WAS
LOGICAL TO JUSSIE SMOLLETT

The endless media cycle has already spun ’round several times since Jussie Smollett’s claim of being attacked by two Trump supporters was exposed as another pathetic victimization fantasy. This less-than-A-list actor is already fading into Jussie-Who? status.

He enjoyed a moment of fame when his IMDb ranking (a measure of recognizability with which Hollywood folk are obsessed) peaked at Number 10. But his character was written out of the last three current-season episodes of the series, “Empire,” on which he’s been featured. Will he recover? Maybe. But at the moment, his long-term employability is uncertain.

So if boosting his career was the motive for claiming persecution based on his intersectional characteristics of race and sexuality — as has been speculated — it probably wasn’t the shrewdest move.

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Anything She Wants

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ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ
BENEFITS FROM CUTENESS

In an episode of the comedy/detective TV series, “Monk,” Adrian Monk’s assistant, Natalie, suggests doing something to gain information that might help solve the week’s mystery. I can’t recall what mystery they were trying to solve or what Natalie suggested, but I do remember her idea was considered so outrageous that she couldn’t possibly get away with it. “I can do anything I want,” she replied serenely, “I’m cute.”

Indeed, Natalie expressed a great truth: Much is allowed — or forgiven — a girl who’s cute.

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