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Liberal vs. Leftist

When it comes to politics, I am right-of-center. You can say I’m “politically violet” because that’s the color you get when you combine red with purple. I have friends and relatives that I consider liberal, but not leftist. I can befriend the former, but hardly the latter. “What’s the difference?” you ask. Let me spell it out for you. I define a liberal as a person that holds to liberal political views, period. That’s all, nothing more. One such person was my maternal grandmother Mary R. Kalman. She voted for Walter Mondale for President in 1984, then for Michael Dukakis in ’88. She was all-against Operation Desert Storm. She called it an excuse for oil. She was all-against the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. On abortion, she was “pro-choice” all the way. In her eyes, a woman having an abortion was comparable to a woman having back surgery. You get the picture. She was politically liberal. As you could imagine, we were no strangers to escalated arguments, but at the end of the d
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Do You "Smell" Like the Mag Mile?

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I live just outside Chicago, and I've been down the famous Magnificent Mile a few times. It's a strip of North Michigan Avenue that runs from the Chicago River, northward for one mile. I remember the delightful aroma of chocolate and roasting nuts emanating from some of the stores. Ahh, how pleasant. But I also remember the very UNpleasant odor emanating from the horse manure in the street. That's because the Mag Mile is known for frequent horse carriage rides. I'm sure they're fun, but you'll have to endure the regular natural bodily functions of the horse. It's not uncommon for pedestrians to catch a whiff of the chocolate nuts and caramel corn , only to smell the horse manure simultaneously. Ugh! Talk about an appetite suppressant.  That reminds me of one sobering truth: All too often, we Christians tend to give off mixed scents to those around us, be it our coworkers, classmates, neighbors, or the like. They may "smell" the scent of a Christian
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They Asked For It

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  In my neighborhood, there’s a defunct movie theater with a marquee that reads, “Why does Biden suck? katrisfrank@aol.com ”  They asked for it.  Now let them know. First if all, President Biden sucks because he gave a big “NO GO” to the Keystone XL pipeline that would’ve created thousands of jobs, and provided fuel logistics that are far safer than railway or tanker trucks. He has given us record-high inflation at the gas pumps and grocery stores. He’s “pro-choice,” but not when it comes to schools, unions, or COVID vaccinations. He’s all-the-way ANTI-choice in those matters. Go figure. His administration would love to shut down or sue crisis pregnancy centers that refuse to refer women to abortion services. So screw freedom of religion. He and Genghis Kamala are at war with conservative-leaning, non-woke parents. They want to give young “transgender” children access to puberty-blocking drugs without the knowledge or consent of their parents. They also want to provide aborti
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Violet Red

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When it comes to politics, we all know about red vs. blue.   Red is for the Republicans and blue is for the Democrats.   However, I’ll bet you most Americans do not identify as all-red or all-blue.   There are those that land somewhere “purple-ish” on the political spectrum.   I am one of those people.   I do not identify with all-blue or all-red.   I believe the political color that fits me best is violet-red.   That’s the color you get when you mix red and purple.   In other words, I call myself right-of-center, but not far-right. What’s the difference between right-of-center and far-right? Unlike myself , folks in the all-red, far-right crowd believe all or most of the following: The 2020 Presidential election was stolen; Joe Biden did not win legitimately. Barack Obama was not born on American soil. Antifa was involved in the Capitol raid on Jan. 6, 2021. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was an elaborate hoax. Man-made climate change is pure junk science. The Fox News Chan
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Twenty Years

How long is twenty years? That may sound like a dumb question, but do you consider twenty years a long time, a short time, or neither? By far, that depends on your age. I was fifteen back in 1987. Back then there were two chart-topping hit songs that were overplayed on the radio: “Mony Mony” by Billy Idol, and “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tiffany. They were remakes of two hit songs from Tommy James and The Shondells, released back in 1967 (twenty years earlier). The originals are older than I am, so I did not hesitate to classify them as “oldies.” When I was fifteen, twenty years was a really long time from my perspective. Now here we are today. Some of us have heard a high schooler or a college kid label 90’s music as “oldies.” (After all, that decade ended over twenty years ago.) What were your thoughts on the 20 th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Did that horrible day seem like a “long” time ago to you, or rather a “short” time? Twenty years seems li
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Haunted Houses

I must admit I like to watch TV shows about haunted houses. As a Christian I firmly believe in the existence of angels and demons, and life after death, so I am very slow to write-off such haunted house tales as mere myths or hallucinations.  However, there is some serious sorting-out to do regarding what we see and hear so consistently on those shows. To put it plainly, disembodied human souls (or ghosts) do not linger our atmosphere.   Instead, they depart immediately either into the presence of the Lord, or to “hades” (hell) after the physical body dies (Luke 16:19-31; Luke 23:43-46; Acts 7:59; and 2 nd Corinthians 5:8). If you claim to have seen or heard the ghost of a deceased person, you may have the utmost of sincerity, but you are sincerely deceived.   Assuming what you saw was real and not a hallucination, that “ghost” that you saw was actually a demon (or evil spirit, or “familiar” spirit, or “unclean” spirit—all synonyms). Satan, the devil, has not been cast into the l
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Pacific Golden Plover

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To me, the Pacific Golden Plover is one of the most amazing birds in all creation.   It lives in Alaska and Canada’s north pacific coast.   Yet sometimes it migrates all the way to Hawaii and back.   First of all, before its first migratory journey, how does it even know that Hawaii exists, let alone where to find it?! They’ve never seen a map, let alone would they even know how to read one.   To this day, scientists that have been studying this bird stand in wonder of this mystery. A bit disturbing is the fact the females lay their eggs, and abandon them on the mainland!   It chooses to leave for Hawaii after the eggs are laid, knowing they will bear too much weight for her to make the journey.   By human standards, these are deadbeat parents.   They know they need to eat a lot of food and gain a lot of weight to store enough consumable energy that will last the entire journey.   It’s an eighty-eight-hour flight, non-stop!   These birds cannot swim, and they have nowhere to land s
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