Happy Saturday! Good Morning and welcome to the weekend Friends, Phamily, Refugees, Early Birds, Dawn Patrol, Triggeratti, Sun Chasers, Fascinating People, Later Dayers, Conversants, Lurkers and Joyful Bigots! This a post across all three communities that I love - Rubin Report - Phetasy & Triggernometry. One more final look at imagination - and someone who helped inspire a lot of imagination for myself was Robin Williams.
I remember his debut on Happy Days as Mork from Ork and then Mork & Mindy. His stand up routines were hilarious and his choice of movies was often fascinating for the characters he played and the crazy stories he chose to tell.
He was a beloved mad comedic genius that help me laugh at some of the unquestioned idiosyncrasies of human nature, the overly comfortable norms of society and attitudes that we are often too afraid to examine the change it might invite us to make.
Someone in Rubin Report or Phetasy mentioned months ago that most people really don't want to change their mind, and many just want validation of their views as part of the joy of personality & individuality surrendering group-think. I think that is one of my constant hopes for Locals as a place of genuine liberty (a better choice that than the bankrupt term "diversity" ) is the exchange of ideas, the freedom to question, doubt and GASP even reject things without being labeled the worst and culmination of all ISMs possible.
I think it is ironic that the cultural court jesters may be the ones to help push back against the evangelical & toxic Left. For years they have mocked the Right, which at times tends to take itself too seriously with an inability to stand back and occasionally laugh at itself. But as culture shifted Left, and it has (and I don't think for better, since Right & Left bring needed balance for the functioning of a thriving culture) the LEFT has become the new cultural monitors with a joy in destroying lives and livelihoods. I am not talking to any of you Center-left souls that are capable of dialogue and appreciate other options and points of views without retreating in the charges of ISMs which tell me you have already given up the idea of real conversation.
Joe Rogan, Dave Rubin, Bridget Phetasy, Triggernometry - all people that have roots in comedy and looking at things a little differently than the herd-alongs. Robin Williams was such a trail blazers for looking at humanity, culture and the value of the individual. He helped feed my imagination in such great ways and I pray on the other side he found healing for the darkness that haunted his heart and often made him so brilliant. Happy Saturday Friends, Phamily and Fascinating People! Thank you @DaveRubin for Locals and all the individuals that have found their way to these havens of on-line humanity and created their own communities with different vibes and rhythms.
@ Padre's Comment only - After faith, nothing has mattered more than an appreciation of humor for myself. While I can understand that some do not have faith in a higher power, I do find it hard to believe that some have no sense of humor. Scott Adams says that perhaps 25% of people really don't have a sense of humor just like there are 25% of people who are virtually opposed to any idea proposed that is not already their own. I wonder of those two percentage overlap? Are the humorless also the perpetually disagreeable? I wouldn't doubt it.
Thanks for being part of this community and especially to those of you who are Supporters. Our Lady's Inn will be the recipient of this month's income.
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! I had a great Labor Day! Mass in the morning with members from both parishes at the cemetery for St. Columbkille — we pray for all those buried there. The parish was founded in the 1850s as an Irish parish. Later in the day we celebrated a potluck with about 120 of my closest neighbors: staff members, daily Mass-goers, friends from past parishes, as well as some family. It was a great day. The weather was nearly perfect. I never pray for weather, but I am very thankful when it is good, and yesterday was beautiful. I was exhausted at the end of it, but the food was great and the company even better. Nothing beats physical face time with people — catching up with one another, meeting new people, and telling lots of old, familiar stories. I leave you with another prayer for a Tuesday that feels a lot like a Monday. Peace, dear neighbors!
We praise Thee for the signs of Thy coming in the familiar world about us:
for the warmth and friendliness of home,
for ...
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.”
