The White Supremacist Tiki Brigade: On the Stupidity of Evil

Last updated on: August 12, 2017 at 3:19 pm By Mary Pezzulo

There is nothing funny about the white supremacists demonstrating in Virginia. Nothing whatsoever. Except that I couldn’t help but crack a small smile when I saw the photos of last night: angry young men with neat, well-groomed and moussed haircuts, mostly in button-downs or polo shirts. These are not down-and-out country folk whipped into a frenzied mob; they’re not hardscrabble sons of the soil with no healthy outlet for their rage. Whatever narrative we’ve been told about why young white men are so angry,... Read more

They Seemed Like Mountains

Last updated on: August 12, 2017 at 2:10 am By Mary Pezzulo

It’s odd, sometimes, how little things bring a series of memories back. Rose wanted to hear stories of when I was a little girl, before she would go to sleep. I usually don’t know what to tell her. I want her to form her own conclusions, and not take my word for anything. I told something benign. “I had a boy cousin, a little older than me. We used to play together, when we traveled to West Virginia... Read more

Confessions at Nagasaki

Last updated on: August 9, 2017 at 11:25 pm By Mary Pezzulo

They were hearing confessions after Mass in Urakami Tenshudo, the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. It was getting very close to the Feast of the Assumption, so confessions were well-attended; there were thirty people there, and two clerics. Their cathedral was a large one– Urakami Tenshudo was the largest Christian building in the Asia-Pacific region, at the time. It was just twenty years old. They had built it on the site where they were once persecuted; they used to be... Read more

Fire and Fury, Says the Bellicose Brat

Last updated on: August 8, 2017 at 8:21 pm By Mary Pezzulo

Today, the darling of the pro-life movement, TV’s Donald J. Trump, just brought us one big step closer to nuclear war. It has just been reported that the president promised retaliation against North Korea in the most shocking terms imaginable today, and I’ll let the New York Times give you the details: “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. “They will be met... Read more

A Ruse of an Article

Last updated on: August 7, 2017 at 10:11 pm By Mary Pezzulo

Some people are very touchy about recipes. After taking a literal forty-eight hours to argue with people about whether it took fifteen minutes to cook a simple homemade meal of pork chops and rice for a mere six dollars on one one of Mark Shea’s infamous Facebook threads, the inimitable Austin Ruse wrote an article for Crisis. He doesn’t mention Yours Truly by name, but he dropped enough references to my article of last week that I realize I’ve stuck in his... Read more

Defense is not Delightful

Last updated on: August 7, 2017 at 6:30 pm By Mary Pezzulo

I got into a conversation with a libertarian, as one does, on Facebook in the wee hours this morning. I do have areas of shared agreement with libertarians. I agree that our military, insofar as we should have one, should be much smaller and not go around bombing other countries most of the time. I agree that the militarization of our police is a serious problem. And then he brought up guns. I am not anti-gun, per se. I like to... Read more

Rhapsody

Last updated on: August 4, 2017 at 8:32 pm By Mary Pezzulo

One of Molly’s guests down at The Friendship Room somehow made it into a rehab and counseling program, thanks be to God. That’s not the way it usually ends around here. They usually die. No one mourns for them but the beautiful, broken people at the Friendship Room, those who care for them, and those of us who pray and try to tell their story. She has nothing– no clothes, no toiletries, not a single worldly possession. She was desperate for tampons. I... Read more

A Humble Supplicant Strikes Out

Last updated on: August 2, 2017 at 6:29 pm By Mary Pezzulo

I went to the free clothing giveaway downtown– or, at least, I tried to. I heard there was going to be a free clothes giveaway from ten to two, Tuesday only, at the Veteran’s Memorial beside the fire house. Up to twenty clothing or household items, mostly for children, free, no questions asked. I have a child who refuses to stop growing up, not to mention climbing trees and ripping the seats of her leggings. I also have very little... Read more

Why Don’t They Take Their Families?

Last updated on: August 1, 2017 at 7:55 pm By Mary Pezzulo

He’s at it again. The same pompous gentleman I mentioned earlier today, the man who thinks that poor people spend between $30 and $60 a month on vending machine sodas, came back to the same thread with another question. He wants to know why, when an undocumented Mexican migrant with a United States citizen spouse and Natural-born American children is deported, he doesn’t take his family along to Mexico with him. And he asked it so genuinely I think... Read more

Why Don’t The Poor Cook From Scratch?

Last updated on: August 1, 2017 at 4:28 pm By Mary Pezzulo

I had a run-in with an interesting gentleman just now– the kind of person you hope you don’t meet at a party. He was mouthing off about the poor. He’s one of those people who thinks that poor folks lack food because they don’t know how to manage their funds properly. According to him, poor people are really poor because they eat at McDonald’s, smoke cigarettes and get beverages from vending machines– he tells me that vending machine drinks can cost “thirty... Read more