Just a warning to my friends who have been through assault– I’m going to talk about trauma today, a little graphically, to try and help people who have never been through it to understand. If you don’t want to read that, you can scroll down past the picture of Jesus, to my message for you at the end. So, by now we’ve all heard that a 20-year-old woman in the Netherlands had herself euthanized, because of severe trauma from sexual abuse which... Read more
I don’t mind when people disagree with me, but I don’t like to be called names. Most people don’t. I’ve been called quite a few names in my day, and some of them were more hurtful than others. When a commentator yesterday informed some of my commentators and me that we were crazy, psycho, paranoid and needed to take off our tinfoil hats, though, I took particular offense. I was even more horrified when I found out that this commentator... Read more
First of all, please pray for my neighbor Kim. Kim has cancer of some sort and is allergic to anesthesia, so they’re going to have to do a torturous-sounding biopsy while she’s awake. Also this week her brother had a stroke and some idiot totaled her car. Lord, hear our prayer! Secondly, for anyone who would like to help my dear friend Erin fly her son’s body back to Arizona for burial and with funeral expenses, they are accepting donations.... Read more
Every other Sunday, after Mass, The Community would come. As far as I know that was the group’s only name, The Community with a big fat capital T and C. The Community, a conglomeration of people who thought of themselves as Charismatic Catholics, consisted of two families with other children besides my own family, and a handful of scary older men and women. Most of them wanted to hug me, and though I didn’t like hugging, I didn’t dare say... Read more
I want to introduce you to my friend Kreed, and I wish I could do so under happier circumstances. Please, if you can find the 26 minutes, do me a favor and watch this whole video. Besides his autism, Kreed suffered from about nine different serious medical conditions. He had hyperinsulinism, severe sleep apnea which required a Bipap machine, a degenerative nerve condition, food allergies and other struggles. He spent most of the past year in the hospital, and I’ve... Read more
I know I’ve got readers from all different faiths here, but I want to talk just to the pro-life Catholics for a moment. Guys, I am also a pro-life Catholic. I used to picket my local clinic. I got Coke bottles and sandwiches thrown at me; I was nearly run over. I want to talk to you as one of your own. I want to beg you to help me with something. For the sake of Life, we need to... Read more
I tried hard to like High-Rise. I really did. I was pleased to see that Amazon had it on demand ahead of its May 13th US theater release. I love strange and surreal films; I even love violent films, and films that deal with the darker, more animalistic parts of human nature. I love movies that deal with Dystopias, possible futures and bizarre alternate presents. I love Tom Hiddleston, who does an excellent job as the main character, a dapper yet... Read more
(imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and this is my flattery of The Toast.) You’re confronted in the woods by a deceitful satyr who offers you sardines on toast. After the satyr admits he meant to have you murdered, you meet him several days later for lunch. Your sister’s lunch date has been dragged off to prison by a werewolf, and you feel you want some dinner. A total stranger entices you with a roomful of Turkish Delight, if... Read more
Let me tell you another story: a story about two people I didn’t like, and my sin. I used to have this friend; you have probably had this friend at some point yourself. When I call her a friend, I don’t mean that she and I were chums, bosom buddies, devoted companions like two petals on the same flower. I mean the other kind of friend: she went to the same Catholic college my husband and I attended, she married an acquaintance... Read more
I am a bit of a snob about books, and about books of a religious nature especially. I’ve admitted this in my now-famous rant about poorly made and kitschy art for Jesus. I think that a book of meditations on God needs to have a good “tooth” to it, to be beautifully written but also stimulate the intellect, for it to be worth anything, and I’ve been disappointed far too many times by popular books of this sort. Imagine my apprehension when... Read more
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