Our path is worn our feet are poorly shod We lift up our prayer against the odds And fear the silence is the voice of God, of God, of God And we cry Hallelujah, Hallelujah, we cry Hallelujah It is the heart that kills us in the end Just one more old broken bone that cannot mend As it was now and ever shall be amen, amen, amen — Emmylou Harris, “The Pearl” Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
There’s a Fine Line Between Comedy and Elder Abuse
Nailed it.???? pic.twitter.com/3hT6ZOOgZ6 — Praying Medic (@prayingmedic) August 31, 2020 Read more →
I Blame Donald Trump
Former Socialists on Socialism
The RNC 2020 speaker who’s made the biggest impact on me thus far is Maximo Alvarez, a Florida businessman whose family fled Cuba when he was 13 years old. Here’s an excerpt: I heard the promises of Fidel Castro. And I can never forget all those who grew up around me, who looked like me, who could have been me, who suffered and starved and died because they believed those empty promises. . . . Those false promises — spread the wealth, free education, free healthcare, defund the police, trust a socialist state more than your family and community — they don’t sound radical to my ears. They sound familiar. . . . But the country I was born in is gone – destroyed. I may be Cuban born, but I am 100-percent American. This is the greatest country in the world. I said this before. If I gave away… Read more →
I Blame Donald Trump
On this date, Aug. 24, in the year 79 A.D., an estimated 20,000 people died when Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic ash. Read more →
Michelle Obama Fact-Checked by Associated Press
Surprising! Normally as a Democrat you really have to go off the rails to motivate a media organization to fact-check you. “Trump used facilities that were built during the Obama-Biden administration to house children at the border. They are chain-link enclosures inside border facilities where migrants were temporarily housed, separated by sex and age,” AP fact-checkers said. It noted that photos of children in housing centers that were circulated by Democratic officials online to criticize Trump were actually taken in 2014. These pictures actually “depicted some of the thousands of unaccompanied children held by President Barack Obama,” AP said. The “ripping migrant children from their parents and throwing them into cages” distortion was the most urgent issue in the world right up till the day everyone forgot about it, so why the AP is fact-checking it at this late date I do not know, but better late than never I… Read more →
Be Prepared
An ad comes on the radio for a lawyer offering to sue the Boy Scouts on behalf of anyone molested by a scout leader . . . “I was in the scouts. I wasn’t molested though. Or maybe I was molested so traumatically that I’ve blocked it out of my mind. What was that guy’s number again?” “What are you talking about?” “I like to ‘Be Prepared’ for financial opportunities.” Read more →
Weekend at Biden’s
I have a sense that Joe Biden is already dead and the Dems are trying to pull off a Weekend at Bernie’s scenario . . . just keep moving him around from place to place and propping him up . . . Read more →
Why Are You Crying So Sadly?
One late autumn night, the disciple awoke crying. So the master asked the disciple, “Did you have a nightmare?” “No.” “Did you have a sad dream?” “No,” said the disciple. “I had a sweet dream.” “Then why are you crying so sadly?” The disciple wiped his tears away and quietly answered, “Because the dream I had can’t come true.” Read more →
I Am in the Herd, and a Coward
And he who is not sufficiently courageous even to defend his soul — don’t let him be proud of his ‘progressive’ views, don’t let him boast that he is an academician or a people’s artist, merited figure, or a general — let him say to himself: I am in the herd, and a coward. It’s all the same to me as long as I’m fed and warm. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago Read more →
Closer to Fine
And I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains There’s more than one answer to these questions Pointing me in a crooked line And the less I seek my source for some definitive The closer I am to fine — Indigo Girls, “Closer to fine” Read more →
Dilbert: Reasonable Assumptions
Biden Is Not Available
Fox’s Chris Wallace: "In our interview last week with President Trump, he questioned whether his opponent Joe Biden could handle a similar encounter. Well, we asked the Biden campaign for an interview and they said the former VP was not available. We'll keep asking every week.” pic.twitter.com/5BIbp6dQ02 — TV News HQ (@TVNewsHQ) July 26, 2020 Read more →
Four Existential Questions
Can I eat it? Can I have sex with it? Can it kill me? Can I buy it at a discount? Read more →
Playlists for Pandemics
Come take a walk on the wild side Come kiss me hard in the pouring rain You like your girls insane So, choose your last words, this is the last time ‘Cause you and I, we were born to die — Lana Del Rey, “Born to Die” Read more →
What Young People Did Not Know
What young people did not know. They did not know that lumpy, aged, and wrinkled bodies were as needy as their own young, firm ones, that love was not to be tossed away carelessly, as if it were a tart on a platter. — Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge Read more →
Playlists for Pandemics
But I’m not crazy, I’m just a little unwell I know right now you can’t tell But stay awhile and maybe then you’ll see A different side of me I’m not crazy, I’m just a little impaired I know right now you don’t care But soon enough you’re gonna think of me And how I used to be — Matchbox Twenty, “Unwell” Read more →
On This Date: Settling Clergy Sex-Abuse Cases
On this date, July 15, in 2007, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles announced it was settling clergy sex-abuse cases for $660 million. Some people, including some in my own family, will tell you that America started going down the drain when we took God out of schools, whatever that means. Call me a skeptic but we haven’t taken God out of churches and yet we still have $660 million worth of child rape. In one archdiocese! Pass the collection plate, Padre! Read more →
Purpose in the Workplace
There was a Harris Poll survey years ago that asked employees how connected they were to the purpose and core values of their company. 37 percent of these US workforce employees clearly knew their company’s purpose. 20 percent were enthusiastic about the purpose of the company. 20 percent could see how they as an employee could support the purpose of the company. 15 percent felt enabled to work toward the purpose 20 percent fully trusted the company that employed them. Is that a good set of statistics or not? It’s not unexpected when you look at the US workforce right now. What if that were a football team? So what if you’re the quarterback on this football team and on this football team, on the offensive side, there are 11 players and you find among all 11 players that only four of them know which goal they’re going to. That… Read more →