Good Morning & Happy Friday Friends & Refugees, Early Birds & Later Dayers, Conversants & Lurkers! Well another week is in the rearview mirror! I hope it has been a good one. I think many of us on the cultural-political spectrum of healthy discourse (a disappearing commodity only rarely encountered in mainstream {the torrent of crap} reality) are preparing for the next shoe to drop after the Rittenhouse trial. I hope that is not the case, winter is coming, and the RiotLARPers might be more fair weathered, but few things warm their hearts more than a good night of burning, looting and mostly peaceful pillaging. While I poke humor at this reality, it is no joke to people who have lost their businesses, their homes and in some cases their lives (none of which is reported in a personal way but only in terms in numbers of financial loss or statics) as a result of the breakdown of communities.
I know I rant about the Cabal often - they are the pretentious movers in our culture. They are not leaders, but often masquerade as them. Politicians, Big Tech, Academia, Wokertainment, and the Enemedia purport to be our betters leading us to a promised future. There is a promised future, for them, but not for you. If you don't join their cult, admire their intelligence, sell your person for their passing notice, repeat their mantras, (buy their stuff) be prepared to be dismissed if you a relatively silent or be branded an enemy if you dare to question or disagree. Sorry - a bit more sour than I want for a morning post. I'm a fan of finding the roses and smelling them, but there is no avoiding the crap on the path if you don't notice it. Life is still good, even if the terrain is difficult and the future does not look immediately rosy. Good people really make a difference in life, I hope you them here and in real life. Happy Weekend my friends!
Some Iffisms for the cultural-political minded. Probably not so much funny as stuff for cultivating more mindful living or perhaps just my personally curated BS. Your appreciation may vary. 😉
The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. - Philip K. Dick
If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise,
we don’t believe in it at all. - Noam Chomsky, in a 1992 interview
(It is possible he no longer subscribes to this reality, things change once one get emboldened, achieves celebrity, or sadly believes they are among the "enlightened." )
If presidents don’t do it to their wives, they do it to the country. - Mel Brooks
A barn photographed by James Pharaon somewhere in Kansas
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
6:00 AM - 8:00 AM (CST)
Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA
White Pilled Wednesday - A break from the heaviness of news and current events to focus upon things more personal & positive for the first hour of Coffee Talk.
Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central
Other chats as posted in the community.
Good morning, digital neighbors! Blessed Sabbath and Saturday to all you fine souls milling about on Substack and Locals in the various communities I visit and enjoy, especially my home crew at Padre's. I hope all of you had a wonderful week while I was away at the Lake of the Ozarks. The weather was great, perhaps even a bit too warm, but the mornings and evenings were outstanding autumn weather with that crisp tone. Buckle up: TL:DR is on the way.!
The late-summer drought continues. I doubt it will be a colorful autumn for any trees; they mostly look either green or that yellowish tinge of distress. I suspect this will be a "brown and down" kind of autumn with barely any vibrancy. Time will tell. At least Unsplash will provide some wonderful autumn photography. That is where most of my photos come from, with the photographer credited.
The main presentation of the week was Dr. Scott Hahn's six lectures on the Road to Emmaus as a paradigm for understanding the Sacred Scriptures and the Eucharistic ...
XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
