I  remember, way back in 6th grade (1963), a lot of stuff happened. Mrs. Libby was our teacher. I really liked her. She was strict but she would let me do extra science experiments from the big box when I was getting too far ahead in my reading program. Most of my classmates don’t remember her so fondly. Probably the biggest bad thing that happened was JFK being assassinated. The biggest good thing (to me) was when daily recitation of the Lord’s Prayer was halted, thanks to Madelyn Murray O’Hair.

The Most Hated Woman in America was My Shero. I hated having to recite this every morning, after the Pledge of Allegiance (which I did not hate). It was bad enough that this was my PUBLIC school, but it was extra bad because we Catholic kids were not supposed to say the last phrase (“for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory …”) because that was the PROTESTANT version. Oh no. Way to divide tweens when all they want to do is blend in, right? Say The Lord’s Prayer in Church? No problem. At home, or during the rosary with Cardinal Cushing’s mumbling drone? We were ready. But NOT in school, in the rules of life according to young Fenway Fran.

Today’s article in the WaPo about the latest shattering of the line between Church and State brought it all back to me. I believe the Texas Lege has drunk too much holy water. Pop those 10 Commandments in every classroom! Replace those trained school counselors with ‘chaplains’!  These hypocrites have forgotten what Matthew said about loudly praying in public. They’ll have some ‘splainin’ to do when they meet their Maker.

Late yesterday afternoon, a Trump judge in Amarillo decided it was a really good idea to take Mifepristone off the market, a drug that has been safely used to induce medical abortions for 20 years.  The lawsuit he ruled on was filed by an anti-choice group that wasn’t happy that the SCOTUS decision to take away the constitutional right to healthcare from millions of women didn’t go far enough.  They wanted to take away the right to abortion from ALL women in the US.  The group venue shopped, taking the case to a radical judge Amarillo and got the result they wanted; for the first time in US history, a federal judge interfered with the FDA’s authority by banning the drug. The plaintiffs lied that the drug was untested and dangerous, which is bullshit.  Of course, since their case was bullshit, the judge bought it and banned it.  Another judge in Washington State almost immediately issued a contradicting order, which will likely throw the case straight to the SCOTUS.  Recall that the SCOTUS, which now has a 6 -3 ultraconservative majority gained by cheating, could likely generate a nationwide ban on the drug.  Even though the SCOTUS threw the abortion issue to the states, I have no confidence the court will remain consistent by throwing this back to the states, since their rulings are now controlled by ideology, not the law.

Here’s a solution to the Mifepristone ban, and it’s pretty straightforward – we need a lawsuit filed that bans Viagra and all other ED treatments.  If a federal judge can intervene in the FDA’s decisions over women’s healthcare, certainly another federal judge can to the same thing men’s healthcare, right?  Besides protecting men’s health, banning Viagra will prevent millions of pregnancies, which is a huge side benefit.

After all, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?

After the last month, this one speaks volumes about our plunge backwards to the 1940s.  The court was our last line of defense against fascism.  Now that it’s now a tool of extremists, we’re on our own.

By now I’m sure that you’ve heard about the Catholic priest who has resigned in shame after the Church declared all of his baptisms invalid because he used the word “we” insted of the liturgical “I” as in, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  It blew up last week, after the Diocese of Phoenix announced on its website that everyone  baptized during the career of Phoenix priest Father Andres Arango has had their baptisms invalidated by the Church.  What that means is that their subsequent first communions, marriages, and all other liturgical events in their lives are also invalid.  The announcement even included a form to fill out to get a corrective baptism done.

To a post-christian infidel like me, the entire issue seems absurd, but this judgment by the Church has thrown thousands of people’s lives into serious uncertainly, and only God knows how many of those people who had died since Arango’s invalid baptisms are now burning in hell because of one wrong word.  I’m sorry, but this “scandal” is complete bullshit.

So what’s really going on here?  Well, as explained by another priest, actually former priest, Father Nathan Monk, it’s a diversion from an actual scandal in the Church.  In a Facebook post a few days ago, Monk explained the absurdity of the Phoenix Diocese’s claim that the baptisms are invalid, noting that the only requirement is that the baptism should be in the name of the “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”, the traditional Trinity in Christianity.  He explained further that even laypersons (not ordained) can baptize a person in an emergency, and those baptisms are considered valid.

In that same post, though, Monk drops the bombshell, which actually should have been obvious….The Diocese of Phoenix invalidated these thousands of baptisms on the orders of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, which is the enforcer of rules in the Catholic Church.  So why would this agency inside the Vatican do such a thing to a local priest way out in Phoenix?  Monk explains it this way –

“Because the decision came down from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and this absurd story broke right after Joey Ratz aka Pope Emeritus Benedict the 16th was called to the carpet for how he handled another scandal within the Church. And guess where he was in leadership before being appointed pope? The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith! And guess which story we are talking about instead of that? The one about a priest saying ‘we’ instead of ‘I.'”

Now we get it.  Monk contends, and it makes more sense than any of us would like, that the Roman Catholic Church willfully and knowingly destroyed the life long career of a devoted bilingual priest and turned the lives of thousands of people on their heads to distract church attention away from the actual villain, who is Ratzinger, in an effort to protect his corruption.

This sordid tale explains perfectly how, and more why, the Church as we know it is dying. And that death can’t come soon enough.

We’ve talked at length about QAnon adherents bending reality, believing wild conspiracy theories, being anti-vaxxers, anti-mask, anti-science, and anti-common sense.  Most amazing about this phenomenon, though, is there absolute devotion to their delusion to the point of dying for it.  To wit, I give you Veronica Wolski, a high profile QAnon advocate from Chicago, who publicly protested against masks, vaccines, and against all things not Trump and who died of COVID this week.  Her dying is not the story, though; the story was that Lin Wood (yes, THAT Lin Wood) whipped up a QAnon protest last week in an attempt to force the hospital she was in to administer Ivermectin, the horse de-wormer, as treatment for COVID.  He has now declared that the hospital, Amita Health Resurrection Medical Center, caused her death through…wait for it…malpractice. He’s also made the same claim against the hospitals where Herman Cain died and another right wing activist and GOP party operative Presley Stutts.  Of course, Cain and Stutts died after being infected while not practicing normal masking and distancing protocols.  In fact, it’s likely that Cain was infected at the Trump campaign rally in Tulsa.

In an unrelated story, the fifth hate radio talker died this week.  He was Bob Enyart, an anti-science talking head and bible thumping preacher.  He was a charming fellow who made his career by bashing AIDS patients, calling for the death penalty for women who received abortions, and spreading the lie that the vaccines were made from aborted fetal tissue.  The irony is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

The stupidity of these people wouldn’t be so bad if they were only killing themselves, but they’re risking the lives of many other people AND stressing the medical staffs who are having to risk their own lives to treat these self destructive idiots.

Jesus.  Literally.

Those of us who reside in Texas know that, after almost 25 years of single party control, it is now a mere empty shell of the once Great State.  This fact was confirmed yesterday when CNBC published it’s annual study of states for business and livability.  While Texas ranked 4th for states friendly to business, and ranked as second worst in the nation for livability.  In rendering its verdict, CNBC pointed out that Texas is the hardest state in the nation to vote, has no laws against discrimination, and scored an F in livability.  It also said that the only thing that kept it from falling below Arizona was the fact that Democrats walked out during the regular session of the legislature to thwart Republicans’ efforts to make voting even harder, if that’s even possible.  After all these years of single party rule, Republicans have succeeded in destroying Texans’ access to healthcare, education, and the ballot box.  It’s turned our school curriculum into propaganda churning out ignoramuses who have warped understanding of our history and even science.  It’s worked tirelessly to deny healthcare for women, the economically disadvantaged, and the elderly. Even while making life miserable for anyone but the rich, the GOP also bungled our response to the pandemic, causing over 53,000 deaths so far, and allowed our power grid to fall into literal ruins, failing to provide power when it is needed most. The corruption and continuous lying from our politicians and RW networks have made truth unknowable, allowing bullshit to proliferate convincing people that Youtube videos are more reliable than scientists, doctors, and engineers.  They have played to people’s worst traits to cling to power while suppressing votes.

As our friend Mimi Swartz wrote this week in the NY Times, Texas has truly broken our hearts.