Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gun Mayhem Thursday
Yesterday, I was driving to work up I-35W near 50th street when I saw the police helicopter in the air. It wasn't moving, but rather staying in one place. That's when I knew something bad had happened-- and I feared the worst.
As we all know, it was the worst, the very worst, the murder of children at school. This time, at morning Mass at a Catholic school not so far from my house. Again, too, another young white man with a big bag of grievances and hatreds.
At some point, are we going to act like we actually care about this?
One thing that seems logical is to start monitoring social media for people posting about violence and hatred and shootings, the same way we do for pedophiles. It seems that they nearly always post their beliefs somewhere, after all.
In Minnesota, we do have a "red flag law" that allows action to be taken when people threaten violence. However, that law relies largely on family members and others close to the person spouting hate to turn them in-- a mechanism designed to disappoint, because those closest to a person are those least likely to turn him in.
It might be a hard thing to do, but we have reached the point where we need to do hard things.
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
There is a difference between anecdotes and data-- but be accurate, people!
This graphic is generally true, but there is one glaring error (at least): Detroit is listed as Republican town, but it has a Democratic Mayor and Michigan's Governor is still Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.
It's probably not fair to list cities in states with Republican governors but Democratic mayors (and city councils) as "Republican"-- at the very least, they are mixed re responsibility for high crime. The state listings are more fair that way-- and telling.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
New writing
If you are interested, I have two things out on very different topics.
First, you can download this short book chapter about clemency and violent crime-- something that has seen a real shift in the last year, with good and bad implications.
Second, I had this piece about two long-term dangers of AI in last weekend's Waco Tribune Herald.
More to come!
Monday, August 25, 2025
In the rain
Some great haiku about the rainy day-- thank you, friends.
We had this evocative poem from Christine:
In Tampa rain pounds
The metal roof, relentless,
Hours and hours
In Durham rain falls,
gently, dripping, from the trees
Regenerative.
The metal roof, relentless,
Hours and hours
In Durham rain falls,
gently, dripping, from the trees
Regenerative.
And a great one from my Mom:
Rain at the cabin
soft lichens and mosses in
gorgeous shades of green.
soft lichens and mosses in
gorgeous shades of green.
And this from the re-located Jill Scoggins:
Hot mornings, then hard
afternoon rains: that’s summer
on Georgia’s coastline.
afternoon rains: that’s summer
on Georgia’s coastline.
Sunday, August 24, 2025
Sunday Reflection: The good sermon
I'm a fan of good sermons. That, of course, means that I am often disappointed. Recently, it occurred to me that we might not even realize that some ministers have begin letting AI write their sermons once that starts happening, since the hallmarks of AI-- inauthenticity, failure to identify a coherent viewpoint, a focus on avoiding offense, bland aphorisms, and a lack of storytelling-- have been there in bad sermons all along.
Lately, though, I have heard a few really excellent sermons. One was by Tom Cook at St. Stephens at Edina. The second was by Richard Yeager-Stiver at Grosse Pointe Congregational Church (the church I grew up in). Both were deeply human, and did something I see too rarely: root their message in their own ethos. It's what Aristotle advised two millenia ago, but still seems hard to do for many preachers-- they present little of themselves other than as a kind of omniscient expert on Christianity. There is no struggle, no failure, no roughness or doubt. And who believes that?
One problem with the ethos-free sermon is that we never get a glimpse of the minister's personal theology. Does she think the whole Bible is literally true? If not, how does she read it? What parts are most challenging? These are pretty important things to know if we are to understand their teaching from the pulpit.
It's a hard job, to stand in front of a bunch of people every week and talk about God. I appreciate all of those who make an effort. But I'd be lying if I said I always walked out of church the same way. What I want is to feel the way people did when they walked away after Jesus was teaching: they were always amazed or angry or euphoric or sad. No one set off on their way home from a Jesus sermon thinking "well, that was okay, I guess."
But, yes, that's a high standard....
Saturday, August 23, 2025
On the list...
Among the movies I've never seen is "Stripes." I need to get around to that.
Friday, August 22, 2025
Haiku Friday: The Rainy Day
We are moving on to "where is that sweater?" season in Minnesota, but just finished a weird patch where it rained hard every night then cleared out for the daytime. It made me kind of miss rainy summer days. So let's haiku about that this week.
I can read a book
Without guilt or distraction.
And the sound: Drop. Drop.
Now it is your turn! Just use the 5/7/5 syllable pattern and have some fun!
Thursday, August 21, 2025
PMT: The Maximalist
Washington DC's US Attorney is Fox News stalwart Jeanine Pirro, has announced that her office will limit plea agreements to lesser charges for street crimes.
It should be noted that Pirro has significant experience as both a line prosecutor and an elected DA (in Westchester County NY), so she knows where this leads. If prosecutors don't offer good deals, more people go to trial. That stresses the system as a whole, but the prosecutors most of all. It's an edict that is often made but not as often carried out over the long term.
There has been a remarkable loss of talent within the DOJ, as career prosecutors and managers retire en masse. That means that the crush of cases will fall largely on new hires.
And, dear reader, that will not be a very good job. Too many trials, too many cases, too little experience... it's a bad bad bad combination.
But, time will tell how this plays out.
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
The first game!
This weekend begins the college football season, with a Saturday matchup between the Big 12's Iowa State and Kansas State, played in Dublin, Ireland.
These aren't two teams that I really care a lot about... but I'm thrilled that it is that time of year! I do kind of wonder what the Irish make of it all; football is fundamentally a strange sport if you don't grow up with it. Those experiencing it for the first time are often taken with how much standing around there is, particularly in contrast with the European version of football....
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Oh, Louisiana...
Well, here is a baffling development: Louisiana is sending national guard troops to suppress crime in DC.
Shreveport, Louisiana has a violent crime rate of 1228/100,000. DC's is 948/100,000 people. It seems like maybe DC should be sending troops to Louisiana.
But, of course, that's not really what this is about. And that's a shame because the truth is that crime is not evenly distributed, and a "surge" of attention at the right time can make a difference. In 2023, DC really was in trouble, but their rates of violence have come down since then. If all this was rational, we would be sending resources from other states to Memphis right now, and that would be a good thing.
Monday, August 18, 2025
Re: School Supplies
Apparently, I'm not the only one whose mind turns to school supplies at this time of year! We had some great haiku entries, like this one from Craig:
New pencils, cool ‘raser,
wooden ruler, kid’s scissors,
and metal compass!
wooden ruler, kid’s scissors,
and metal compass!
And from Des:
Most important school
supply- new lunch box. It has
to be really cute.
supply- new lunch box. It has
to be really cute.
I loved this anonymous entry:
Pencils, Elmers glue,
Crayons, new spiral notebooks
All ready to go...
Crayons, new spiral notebooks
All ready to go...
And here is another:
Rubber erasers
That plastic pouch for supplies
Fresh set of markers
That plastic pouch for supplies
Fresh set of markers
Someone grew up far away and wrote this:
And this:
Sunday, August 17, 2025
Sunday Reflection: On Theology
I've spent a fair amount of time around theologians-- people who think about theology, one way or another, for a living. Sometimes I'm baffled by the complexity of their work, which often leads me to think "how do you know that?"
Sometimes people refer to "personal theology," but all theology is personal-- if no one believes it personally, it isn't really theology, is it? My own theology has evolved a lot over the years, often influenced by those experts in theology I have known (though often more influenced by their questions than by their answers).
My personal morality and religion is built around the constantly challenging teaches of Jesus. I really do focus pretty narrowly on the four Gospels and Jesus himself, and I suppose that is theological choice.
In a bigger way, though my theology is rooted in a single question, which is this: "I believe there is a God-- so what does that mean?"
Over the years, I have developed some answers to that question that may seem superficial but actually can be quite challenging:
-- There is a God, and it is not me.
-- Because there is a God and it is not me, there are going to be a huge number of things that I do not know or understand (but God does).
-- That the existence of God argues for the same thing Jesus did: Humility.
-- Though I am a very very very small part of God's Universe, that does not mean I am unimportant, as I am a part of that remarkable whole.
There will be more-- I am still a work in progress.
Saturday, August 16, 2025
The Trump-Putin summit
If you missed it, here is the short press conference after the conclusion of the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska. It's hard to tell if anything got done, but time will tell:
Friday, August 15, 2025
Haiku Friday: School Supplies
When it starts to get a little colder (at least in Minnesota) that means it's time to get school supplies. I've basically been doing this most of my life, and it is still a part of my routine-- I want to make sure I have some nice pencils and pads in plenty of time.
So, let's haiku about that this week. Here, I will go first:
Big fat Number Twos
The pencils I love the most
Me? Avid scribbler.
Now is is your turn! Just use the 5/7/5 syllable formula and have some fun!
Thursday, August 14, 2025
Political Mayhem Thursday: Gaza's hard questions
In the wake of the 2023 invasion of Israel by Hamas, most reasonable people expected a response from Israel. It was a horrifying incursion, largely targeted at civilians. As Ezra Klein of the New York Times explains (quoting Joe Biden), equivalent to Israel's size, it was a loss of life like fifteen 9/11's.
But the loss of life in Gaza is now equivalent to 2,500 9/11's. Starvation there is a reality as aid has been restricted.
If you have a subscription to the Times, I recommend you watch Klein's full video.
Wednesday, August 13, 2025
The new era in college football just doesn't feel right
This is the time of year that I start reading about college football in preparation for the season-- getting a sense of who will be good, what the best games will be, etc.
But this year those articles are disconcerting. "New QB lands two-year deal worth $3 million" is an actual headline. About college football.
Look, it has long been a fiction that big-time college football was actually connected to the actual academic institutions-- these were not guys who got out of Organic Chem class and headed over to practice. Universities across the country increasingly segregated the football players from the rest of the student body over the last 30 years or so. First it was dorms, then dining halls, then (basically) their own majors and academic curricula.
And now, the final frontier is crossed as they are straight-up paid. I get the argument for this in terms of rewarding people for the value they bring. I just liked it when it was easier to pretend that student-athletes were students first, or at all.
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
Three moves in DC
Yesterday, President Trump decried DC as over-run by "bloodthirsty criminals" and announced three actions:
-- That the DOJ will take over the DC police
-- That the National Guard will be deployed
-- That FBI agents will be assigned to the District
I'm curious about how each of these will be implemented. The DOJ takeover of the police department puzzles me, as I'm not sure who at the DOJ is actually going to do it. AG Pam Bondi was assigned the task, but being AG is already a full-time job. What that "takeover" will mean in real terms is TBD.
The National Guard deployment is probably not going to make much of a difference. DC includes about 44,000 acres. So if you deploy 2,000 troops to kind of watch out for crime, that is 22 acres per soldier. Setting aside a lack of training in police work, etc., if they are just observers it is silly to think that they will be much of a deterrent given the vastness of the task. If they focus on where crime most often occurs (which would make sense) they won't be in the more-visible areas where tourists and wealthier DC residents are found-- and I suspect that the point is to have them in those safer areas, unfortunately.
Assigning the FBI to the District is weird in that, well, there already is an FBI office there with plenty to do. If the intent is to have FBI agents serve as patrol officers, that is a terrible fit-- the rough equivalent of an FBI Agent in a police force is a detective: they are trained to solve crimes, not walk around looking for it.
There IS a way the FBI could be used that would be helpful, and that may be the plan, ultimately. If FBI agents were assigned to increase the clearance rate for murders and non-fatal shootings (especially the latter), it could have a real effect on gun violence. If that's the plan, I'm for it. But I fear that is not the plan.
Monday, August 11, 2025
Two winners!
Obviously, after my return from Osler Island I have to get my haiku chops back. There were only two entries this week, but they were excellent!
This one from CraigA:
Only to walk in the
cool air of Osler Island.
Hot and humid here.
cool air of Osler Island.
Hot and humid here.
And an Anonymous gem:
Daily walk to beach
Wide sky, blue waves, soft sand, birds
Morning has broken ☀️
Wide sky, blue waves, soft sand, birds
Morning has broken ☀️
Sunday, August 10, 2025
Sunday Reflection: Faith and Nature
There is a lot of confusing interplay between faith in nature. If we are out of the city, we call it "God's country." People sit by a mountain lake and say "This is my church." For some, being in nature is a proof that there is a God. (and by "some people," I mean me).
But everything is God's, isn't it? Including the city? Do we leave God's domain when we drive home?
I suppose what we mean is that in nature we are seeing a purer version of God's creation-- one we haven't messed up so much, perhaps, with pavement and cars and the rest of it.
The whole thing makes me feel challenged to see God's creation wherever I go, in all of it. That's harder to do, sure, but it probably will take me closer to the God I live with everyday rather than some kind of "special occasion" God who is present only where the road ends and the trees are tall.
Saturday, August 09, 2025
Gotta disagree with this ranking-- #3 should be #1
