Department Of Just Another Day In The US of A:
( Translation: Another Church/School Shooting )
“…yet again the same stale ritual has unfolded: politicians sending ‘thoughts and prayers’ instead of offering solutions.
But this time, some prominent figures are refusing to let that go unchallenged.
Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki cut through the platitudes, posting on X: ‘Prayer is not freaking enough. Prayer does not end school shootings. Prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back. Enough with the thoughts and prayers.’
She’s right. Prayer doesn’t stop bullets. It doesn’t heal wounds. It doesn’t change laws. It doesn’t keep parents from burying their children.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey made the point even more starkly: ‘Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.’
The victims of this atrocity were in church, being led in prayer, when the shooter opened fire. If ever there were a test of the supposed ‘power of prayer,’ this was it. And it failed in the most heartbreaking way imaginable.
Instead of reckoning with that reality, White House officials have attacked Psaki and Frey for being ‘disrespectful.’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Vice President JD Vance both accused ‘the left’ of mocking faith. But nobody is mocking grieving families. What’s being called out is the political cowardice that hides behind prayer as a substitute for policy.
During a press briefing, Leavitt said: ‘I saw the comments of Ms. Psaki and frankly I think they’re incredibly insensitive and disrespectful to the tens of millions of Americans of faith across this country who believe in the power of prayer, who believe that prayer works.’
Even more outrageously, Leavitt shared a post blaming ‘demonic forces’ for the Minneapolis shooting.
It doesn’t matter how many people ‘believe’ in the power of prayer (or demons) — belief doesn’t make it real…. [1]
…Politicians pray publicly (or at least tell us they’re praying ad nauseam), then do nothing. The cycle repeats, and children keep dying.
It’s not ‘disrespectful’ to point out the obvious — it’s disrespectful to the victims to pretend prayer is the answer.”
( Excerpts, my emphases, “If prayer worked,
the Minneapolis children would still be alive,” Chris Line, FFRF blog, 8-29-25 )
* * *
Department Of A Parrot Sums Up The Only Rational Reaction
To The Latest White House Blatherings Statements
* * *
Department of Interesting People [2]
Herman Pontzer, researcher and professor of evolutionary anthropology and Global Health at Duke University, studies the interesting (IMO) traits and behaviors of his (and our [3] ) species. He shares many of those observations in the latest Clear + Vivid podcast
“Unlike most other land animals, we can live almost anywhere: from deserts, to mountains, rain forests, even the arctic. We are supremely adaptable, and that adaptability has led to our diversity – not only in our biology, but also in our cultures.”
( Episode description, Clear + Vivid podcast,
Herman Pontzer: Diversity: Humanity’s Superpower )
That seems like a simple enough observation. But that fact – that human beings, like news about the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce engagement, can be found all over the planet – is something moiself hasn’t often considered.
And speaking of planet-wide infestation, don’t the two lovebirds deserve the obligatory, celebrity name mash up? Traylor? Swiftce?
Once again, I digress.
Other than insects, homo sapiens is arguably the most adaptable life form on the planet. [4] . Check out Pontzer’s interview, for human being trait tidbits such as….
( C + V podcast host) Alan Alda:
“What about the notion of race? Does race exist,
or is a phrase that’s used when it’s convenient?”
Herman Ponzer:
“The answer is it’s a socially constructed grouping…we like to put people in groups, and use them as a sort of in-group out-group way of dividing up our world.
So, race means different things around the globe. And people divide up their world into different races or categories using different criteria. That just goes to show you how flexible and cultural it is. There’s no real hard edges around human groups at all. In fact, we’re such a recent species that all humans around the globe are 99.99% similar genetically. There aren’t any kind of genetic boxes you can put people in easily. In the U.S., we use skin color historically, as a sort of racial categorization. And it’s true that skin color is a biological trait, right?
I mean, it has to do with how much melanin your skin makes. So, in that sense, skin color is a biological trait.
But even there, as I like to tell my students, until the late 1800s – early 1900s, having white skin wasn’t enough to make you white.
If you were Irish or Italian, an immigrant in the States,
you were still considered black.”
Alda:
” I remember almost dropping your book out of my hand when I read that.
You can hardly get whiter than Irish people.”
* * *
Department Of “No Shit?!” Titles
From Fresh Air interview, 8-21-25, Robert Reich: The Baby Boomers Fell Short
“Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich…opens his new memoir, Coming Up Short,
with an apology on behalf of the Baby Boom generation
for failing to build a more just society.”
* * *
Department Of Nothing Like A Walk In The Fresh Air To Begin Your Day
Dateline: Thursday; 7:41 AM; morning walk. My nose detects it before I see it, and I look around for the carcass of a dead Mephitis mephitis, which moiself has on at least three occasions spotted while walking past the fields near the Fairgrounds light rail station. Instead, as I turn the bend in the pathway parallelling the fields I see a man and a dog walking toward me. The man puffs on a spliff and his dog huffs and strains against its leash. As the man nears me the stench increases.
I feel my shoulders slump, as I consider the fetid fact that there are people in this world who like to – or feel like they have to [5] – begin their day polluting their pulmonary packets with the aroma of skunk roadkill.
* * *
Department Of Right Now It’s Like This
“Early one morning an intrepid traveler started down a long and dusty road. Before long, he came upon a shepherd tending to his flock. The traveler asked, ‘What kind of weather are we going to have today?’ The shepherd answered, “The kind of weather I like.’ The traveler asked, ‘But how do you know it will be the kind of weather you like?’ The shepherd answered, ‘Having found out, sir, that I cannot always get what I like, I have learned to always like what I get. So, I am quite sure we will have the kind of weather I like.’
The shepherd chose to be open and flexible to what life gave him. By accepting what he could not change, the shepherd practiced non-resistance. It was as though his personal mantra was, ‘Right now, it’s like this.’ So the next time life throws you a curveball…try recalling on that phrase:
‘Right now, it’s like this.”
Do your best to bring a spirit of non-resistance to the situations you can’t change, and challenge yourself to accept what is. In the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ‘The best thing one can do when it’s raining is let it rain.’ “
( excerpt, Daily Calm meditation app, 8-26-25, It’s Like This )
* * *
Department of Employee Of The Month
It’s that time, to bestow that prestigious award upon moiself. Again. The need for which I wrote about here. [6]
* * *
Freethinkers’ Thought Of The Week [7]
( Doug Stanhope is an American comedian, author, and activist [8] )
* * *
May you not categorize people because it is convenient for you to do so;
May you understand that believing in something doesn’t make it real;
May you let it rain when it’s raining;
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
* * *
[1] Amen, sez the atheist.
[2] Why would interesting people need a footnoate?
[3] Okay; moiself is assuming a commonality of species among readers of this blog.
[4] Much to the detriment of other species whom we’ve wiped out due to hunting and habitat destruction….
[5] Oh, yeah dude, weed is so *not* not addictive.
[6] Several years ago, MH received a particularly glowing performance review from his workplace. As happy as I was for him when he shared the news, it left me with a certain melancholy I couldn’t quite peg. Until I did.
One of the many “things” about being a writer (or any occupation working freelance at/from home) is that although you avoid the petty bureaucratic policies, bungling bosses, mean girls’ and boys’ cliques, office politics and other irritations inherent in going to a workplace, you also lack the camaraderie and other social perks that come with being surrounded by your fellow homo sapiens. No one praises me for fixing the paper jam in the copy machine, or thanks me for staying late and helping the new guy with a special project, or otherwise says, Good on you, sister. Once I realized the source of the left-out feelings, I came up with a small way to lighten them.
[7] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
[8] And there is no footnote for him here.
