The War Prayer

Our Secretary of War Pete Hegseth put out a call to the American people, asking them to pray for victory in battle.  He said we should pray “Every day on bended knee, with your family, in our schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ”

This reminded me of Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer.”  In a church a preacher and the congregation pray for victory in battle.  Then an old man comes to the back of the church and says that was only half the prayer.  He then prays this:

 

“O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

The Congregation dismisses him as a lunati

Fetterman needs to hear this

Sen. John Fetterman,

200 Chestnut St., Suite 600

Philadelphia, PA 18235

Dear Senator Fetterman:

Recently a friend sent me a copy of a talk by a lay priest in a Buddhist temple in Minneapolis.  When Japanese-Americans were rounded up during World War II, her parents were imprisoned in a “relocation camp” in Arkansas.  She compared the roundup and the imprisonment to what is occurring now.  She speaks from personal experience.

Now we have Markwayne Mullen replacing Kristi Noem.  Sen. Mullen, I understand, is a friend of yours.  I assume you care about the rules on search and seizure, believe that accused people have a right to a hearing, and think that when people are deported, it should at least be to the country they are from.  If their lives are endangered by their home government, under international law they should be granted asylum.  I assume you also believe that ICE agents should not be allowed to break down doors, should not arrest people at their citizenship hearings, and should not wear masks.

I will also assume that since you voted for your friend Sen. Mullen, you had some assurances that he believes that also, or you would not have voted to approve his appointment.

In addition, I must say that criticizing President Trump for going to war with Iran, for having no plan, for celebrating the death of civilians, and for never informing Congress is not “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”  It is criticism that is well deserved.  You, sir, are a United States Senator representing the people of Pennsylvania.  This is not a game or a popularity contest.

Sincerely,

Roy Christman

War Plans

Every now and then my friend Bill sends me a meme which I just need to share.  

So, what is the difference between Vietnam and Iran?

Answer:  Trump had a plan to get out of Vietnam. 

What is happening in Cuba

Tonight millions of Cubans will be without lights.  Food will rot in refrigerators and freezers.  Dialysis machines won't work.  X-ray machines won't show broken bones.  Surgeons will work by flashlight.  Computers won't work.  

This is a result of a U.S. blockade.  Why are we doing this?  Because we can.  Because we are run by an evil and incompetent jerk who has no compassion, no empathy, not even any commons sense.  And millions of Americans still think he is great.  And my own Congressman and one of my Democratic Senators say nothing.  

Songs for St. Patrick's Day

I signed up for a New York Times program called “The Amplifier” which occasionally sends me suggestions for songs I might like.  Today I received a list of eight songs.  I think you can get them all on You Tube.

Booker T. and the M.G’s  “Green Onions”

Lorde  “Green Light”

The George Baker Selection  “Little Green Bag”

Creedence Clearwater Revival  “Green River”

Tim Harden  “Green Rocky Road”

Roger Miller  “Little Green Apples”

Joni Mitchell  “Little Green”

Ray Charles  “It Ain’t Easy Being Green”

And I’ll add a real Irish song–“Kevin Barry."   You can hear that one on You Tube sung by Raul Robeson, Stompin’ Tom Connors, or the Clancy Brothers.

What will Ryan Mackenzie do about this?

After trashing allies, Trump wants them to help guard ships.  That is the definition of chutzpah, and it betrays a complete lack of planning for this war.

Now Trump is talking about seizing Cuba.  Cuba!

He is is threatening to cut off the HIV aid to Zambia, a program started by George W. Bush, unless the U.S. gets advantageous terms for importing certain minerals from that country.

And what will my Congressman Ryan Mackenzie do about any of this?  Not a goddam thing.

Farmworkers needed

Of course they are.  If the Immigration and Customs Enforcement goons were going after “the worst of the worst,” we wouldn’t need to worry about the shortage of farmworkers.  That was never the plan of Stephen Miller.  It was mass deportations from the start.

Now the administration is giving in to agribusiness.  Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, said the administration was planning to ease “regulatory burdens and lower labor costs.”  What that means is the administration is increasing the numbers of foreign workers under the H-2A visa program.  

One way to attract more workers would be to raise the wages of farmworkers, but that would make groceries cost even more than they do.  The Trump administration is caught in a dilemma resulting from its inability to think more than a day or two into the future.

Some info for this post is from Linda Qiu, “U.S. Eases Path for Hiring More Migrant Farmworkers,” New York Times, (March 15, 2026), p. 17.  The snarky comments are all mine.

Predatory Hegemony

In the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs, Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international affairs at the the Harvard Kennedy School, says the U.S.foreign policy can best be described as “predatory hegemony.”  Foreign policy is no longer treated as a “plus-sum” game in which two sides can benefit.  Instead, Trump sees it as a “zero-sum” game.  The U.S. gains will be at the expense of the losses of other countries, both former allies and opponents.

Here is how Walt sums up current policy:

A predatory hegemon is a dominant great power that tries to structure its transactions with others in a purely zero-sum fashion so that the benefits are always distributed in its favor.  A predatory hegemon’s primary goal is not to build stable and mutually beneficial relations that leave all parties better off but to ensure that it gains more from every interaction than others do.  An arrangement that leaves the hegemon better off and its partners worse off is preferable to an arrangement in which both sides gain but the partner gains more even if the latter case yields large absolute benefits for both parties.  A predatory hegemon always wants the lion’s share.

Walt points out that predatory hegemony often has short term gains but tends to ignore the long-term negative consequences.  The U.S. will become poorer, less secure, and less influential than it has been for last 100 years.  

Don't say you weren't warned

During my high school and college years I read a pile of science fiction.  That was a golden era of cheap paperback books and of really good science fiction writers like William Tenn, Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon, Judith Merril, Clifford Simak, Phillip K. Dick, and Poul Anderson.  

I got rid of most of those books years ago, but I still have a copy of Selections from Science-Fiction Thinking Machines edited by Groff Conklin.  This  paragraph is from the frontispiece of the Bantam edition of 1964:

Robots...Androids...Electronic Brains...

The mechanical men are waiting, biding their time.  Imitation flesh and blood–soulless, but not mindless–they were invented by man to do the world’s hard work.  But how long will they let us be masters?

What an A-hole

I wonder how many times I’ve uttered that phrase after hearing our President on some topic.  Must be hundreds.  

The latest was tonight when the news was showing him in front of a crowd at some political event bragging about how great the name “Epic Fury” sounded.

The fact that this war is costing billions, has killed American soldiers and about 130 Iranian school girls–not mentioned.  It’s like a game to him.  He has no idea what war is like.  

But wow, it has a neat name.  

What an A-hole.

Rep. Andy Ogles: "Muslims don't belong in American society"

 Rep. Andy Ogles

151 Cannon House Office Building

Washington D.C. 20515

Dear Rep. Ogles:

I know that you would never say that “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”  I know that someone is trolling you in order to discredit you and make you look like a bigot.  You need to come out with a firm denial that you said that.  

I think it is really nasty when people use the Internet or social media to discredit our Republican politicians.  I have friends and relatives in Tennessee, and I know that people in that great state are fine and reasonable people who would never insult millions of their fellow Americans.  Speak out and explain that you are a victim of a terrible smear.

Sincerely,

Roy Christman

Goliath's Curse

That’s a book by Luke Kemp, published last year by Alfred A. Knopf.  The subtitle is The History and Future of Societal Collapse..  I asked the Palmerton Library to order a copy, and I am almost finished with it.  (It’s 445 pages long with another 100 pages of end notes and the index.).  

If you read one book this year, read it.  On the other hand, if you want to continue whistling a happy tune, betting on football games, and thinking life is good, run from this book.  It will made you very afraid. 

Should President Bonespurs salute a soldier

In a word, no.  Although the President is Commander-in-Chief, the President is in civilian clothes.  According to armed forces regulations, the President is not required to salute.  In the past, generals who became Presidents, like Washington and Eisenhower, did not use the hand salute when meeting soldiers.  

The first President to salute troops was President Reagan, who during World War II made propaganda movies.

I will say this.  When the President is wearing a baseball cap and dead soldiers are being unloaded from the plane and passing in front of him, it might just be appropriate for him to take off his cap.  

 

Just to remind you how a real leader speaks

     We shall not flag nor fail.  We shall go on to the end.  We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air.

     We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills.  We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God’s good time the New World, with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old.

Winston Churchill June 4. 1940

And then there is this:

“And sadly, there will be more [deaths] before it ends.  That’s the way it is.”

Donald Trump, earlier this week

 

Religious exemptions for measles vaccines

Spartanburg, South Carolina, is experiencing the largest measles outbreak to hit the U.S. since 2000.  One of the reasons is that people are getting “religious exemptions” for vaccinations for their children.  I’d say this was really Darwinian natural selection at work, except that it is happening to children who have no voice in the matter.

Let’s get something straight.  You do have freedom of religion.  You also have the right to be stupid, as many voters demonstrate far too often.  On the other hand, your religion may be restricted if it harms children or other people.  

Yes, if you are an adult, you may handle poisonous snakes in church.  If God loves you, maybe the snake won’t bite, although my advice is not to carry this too far by pinching the snake’s tail.  On the other hand, if you are a believer in “spare the rod and spoil the child” and then beat your kid with a bull whip until his back is lacerated and running with blood, you will be arrested for child abuse.  And you damn well should be. 

Let’s take this to its ridiculous limit.  Child sacrifice may have been permitted, even mandated in Mayan times, but NOT TODAY.  You can be cited if your kid is not in a proper seat belt, no matter what your religious belief.  You should not have a legal right to put your kid in harm’s way by denying that kid life-saving medical treatment.  I don’t give a damn what your religion says.

Kristi Noem and the Arrival of Spring

 Yesterday the first red-winged blackbirds of the season were feeding in our back yard.  The snow is almost melted.  A warm rain is falling tonight.

And Kristi Noem is no longer head of the Department of Homeland Security.  Now there’s a breath of fresh spring air.

Abusing women online

Germany, as you may know, has tough social media rules.  J. D. Vance has called those policies “Orwellian” and “lunacy.”  The Trump administration thinks that rules against antisemitism and racial slurs undercut free speech.

Now Secretary of State Rubio has banned two women from the group “Hate Aid” from entering the United States.  The group helps women demeaned on the internet. 

Rubio says the women are part of a “global censorship-industrial complex,” whatever that is, and if the women entered the U.S. it could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

This is the same administration that tried to get Jimmy Kimmel off the air, that put out a list of words and phrases like “transgender” and “climate change” that could no longer be used in government documents, that wants to remove certain books from schools and libraries, and that went after college students who carried signs in support of Palestinians.  Yeah, that group, so quick to defend free speech as long as it involves demeaning women.

I was about to write “amazing,” but it isn’t.  It’s the Trump administration.

See Adam Satariano, “Barred over Helping Women Abused Online, New York Times, (Mar. 4, 2026), p. B1, B6.

Preview for November's election

Because of a screw-up in the election procedures in Dallas, a judge in Texas extended the polling in Dallas for two hours after the official quitting time.  The ruling, as I understand it, only affected the Democratic primary.

Then Texas Attorney Ken Paxton, who is also a candidate for the U.S. Senate, went to a Texas Supreme Court judge and appealed the ruling.  That judge then said the votes of anyone after seven o’clock would have to be segregated.  There is a good chance they won’t count.

Republicans, who are constantly crying that the elections are rigged, rig elections.  I have yet to hear any Republicans complain when they win.  Elections are only rigged when they lose.

Hey Bro, THAT’S CALLED LOSING.  

Wait.  They will try all kinds of subterfuges in November.  We must be on guard.  That’s their motto:  “If you can’t win legitimately, cheat.”  It’s part of their mission statement.

The California Top-Two System Backfires

In 2011 California adopted the “top-two” system.  In the primary election the top two voter getters run in November with no possibility of a write-in.  I thought this system was un-democratic.  It meant that third parties like the Greens and Libertarians would never be on the fall ballot.  Many Democratic legislators, however, supported it, thinking Democrats would benefit.

This is what happens when you put short-term partisan interests above fairness and democratic values.  On June 2 the state holds its primary.  Polling shows five Democratic candidates for governor in a range between 14% and 10%.  No other Democratic candidates has more than 5%.  Undecided is at 10%.

What all that means is that the top two candidates will most likely be two Republicans.  Remember–no write-ins.

So liberal California may end up with a Republican governor.  FAFO.

See “Ballot Access News,” (Mar. 1, 2026), p. 1.