A new family in my parish, the oldest daughter in which is gravely disabled physically and mentally, went home after Vespers Saturday night and later found this gravely disabled pubescent daughter unresponsive in her room.

She eventually was airlifted to Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, where she has been declared brain dead (by an Orthodox Christian neurologist, coincidentally).

The prayers for the departure of the soul from the body have been served. And now the real heartbreak - from my perspective.

Her grieving parents are keeping a sort of vigil over tubes and machines and the body of their daughter while transplant donor paperwork is completed and a recipient is found.

The agony of the scene in the preceding sentence has never before occurred to me. It has always been “they decided to donate her organs,” without appreciation of what that means emotionally for the family.

It looks as if the handmaiden of God, Annalise, will be the first person interred in our parish cemetery. I’ll be singing my first funeral in years in this young parish.

They told me that if I voted for Kamala Harris we’d end up with a command-and-control economy. And they were right.

Nick Catoggio, Socialism without Socialism.

I’m too easy: Damon Linker had an “Eyes on the Right” item today that enticed me to re-subscribe so I could read it all.

Also Presented Without Comment

The Journal (Ireland): 6 Foot 5 Justice Minister Says He Feels Safe Walking Around Dublin ‘Any Time of the Day or Night’

(The Morning Dispatch)

Frank Bruni ends most columns with quotables:

In The American Prospect, Ryan Cooper divined a Greek myth in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s war on game-changing, lifesaving mRNA vaccines: “It’s as if Prometheus decided to return fire to the gods because woo-woo Instagram influencers convinced him that cooking your food is unhealthy.” (John Peterson, Mullica Township, N.J.)

Finished Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos. 📚

I can’t believe that they call them “neglectons.” It’s just too perfect.

1. Scientists may have uncovered the missing piece of quantum computing by reviving a particle once dismissed as useless. This particle, called the neglecton, could give fragile quantum systems the full power they need by working alongside Ising anyons. What was once considered mathematical waste may now hold the key to building universal quantum computers, turning discarded theory into a pathway toward the future of technology. Research paper is here. (Sources: today.usc.edu, sciencedaily.com, nature.com)

John Ellis

Erasing Christianity from American History

Mark Bauerlein shrugs and suggests a workaround, But this is gross educational malpractice.

I’m not asking that schools use David Barton books, but there’s such a thing as honestly giving Christianity its place in history curricula.

My subscription to Damon Linker’s Substack expires tomorrow. He appears to have been dumbstruck by the political tsunami over the last 7 months, 2 days (as have I). I’ll peek in as best I can to see when he’s gotten his mojo back.

For there is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved.

Acts 4:12. That name, apparently, is “Alfred Nobel.”

Fall of the House of Bobble

Just cancelled more than a quarter of my Substacks - mostly political ones.

Ted Gioia, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Short-Term Results in My Career. This is one of his best, in my book, and means it’s very, very good.

Currently reading Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos. 📚

I vented my spleen about our POTUS Wednesday and the catharsis seems to be enduring. Today, I even posted without obsessing over his evils.

Abandoned Timothy Patitsas, The Ethics of Beauty. 📚 The author admires every single facet of his idée fixe that sound ethics must put beauty ahead even of truth and goodness. And every facet still refused to come into focus.

I kind of wish a certain microblogger hadn’t mentioned and hyperlinked his Freewrite Traveler, since he has demonstrated that I’m not entirely over acquisitiveness.

I’m not sure I ever kept a computer this long – since 2020.

Part of it is that I’m less acquisitive as I get older, suffering less from FOMO.

But mostly it’s that a 2020 MacBook Air M1 continues, after 5 years. to astonish me - a word guy, not a video guy - with its speed and capability.

The autocracy is no longer “creeping”

Word of the day: minatory

I like travel, but my wife doesn’t (I think it’s hereditary). So I look for travel videos on YouTube.

I’d call most of them bush league except for fear of offending the bush leagues.

But I’ve found a good one: Restless Viking, feature a pair of empty nesters who actually learn about places they’re showing. So far, most of what I’ve seen is Great Lakes area, which is fine by me because I’m in a state on Lake Michigan (barely). An area where I’ve been going for twenty years, seen through their eyes, was a revelation; most of what they said was new to me.

Any other recommended travel spots on YouTube?

Every Sunday, my “big blog” focuses on the disputed category “religion.” Here’s today’s, mostly curated items from others.

Some conservative writers I respect are going on about how gerrymandering is normal.

I know that. But what about redistricting in the middle of the decade with no fresh census data to support it? Justify that if you can.

I recall no precedent for that.

FIRE is proud to be filing a suit against Secretary of State Marco Rubio, challenging two federal immigration law provisions that give him unchecked power to revoke legal immigrants’ visas and deport them for protected speech.

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression