Scott the Cave Dweller

Minnesota is done. Democrats will redistrict Republicans into oblivion and amend the state constitution to negate the legislature and make activist judges the true authors of law. Even if Republicans win later, it won't matter, because anything they pass will be undone.

This clip with @TuckerCarlson is from March. It’s hard for me not to look at the midterm results with this hypothesis in mind.

No politician will save you. They also won't stop you. Master yourself. Outwork everyone. No matter whose in power, your fate is 100% up to you. Make it great.

Bad news is we lost senate seats that won't be winnable for six years. Gut wrenching. Here's the good news: in terms of electoral prospects, this is super easy to fix. Trivial, even: 1. End the tariffs now. If the Admin wants to make a case for a few targeted ones for bad actors, fine. But the broad tariffs must stop. 2. Either go balls to the wall on Iran to finish the regime, or pull out of the war. Do more limited stuff like "midnight hammer" if Iran tries to rebuild its nuclear program, but that's it. 3. Do not back off the stuff that IS going well, and a lot is. Crime at record lows. Border under control. ATF and 2nd Amendment Section doing great work. Government employment reduced. Etc. Do not learn the wrong lessons from what was an inflation-related election blowout and undermine the things that are working. 4. Finally, and this one may be the hardest for Trump: limit the stupid distractions.

The Cardinal is operating behind enemy lines with ZERO backup from the Church or from any friendly government. If Algeria decides to to march into his churches and slit everyone's throats, literally no one will do anything to rescue the Catholics, stop the Muslims or to seek justice on their behalf of the dead. He has been operating under these conditions for decades. That takes its toll, and the compromises one makes to survive tend to become normalized (we call this "normalization of deviance" in Aviation). This humiliation ritual/lifestyle is, of course, the intent of Islamist policies towards other religions in order to wear down the faith and courage of those Christians and Jews to live there so that they ultimately begin denying their faith in small ways that snowball into larger ways. Is this the fault of the Cardinal? Partly. The much larger fault lies with the organization who sends its people into harm's way with ZERO meaningful support for their physical safety when options exist to provide that support, and, in providing said support, enable the steadfastness of faith and courage that is required to bring the Gospel to nations who want to kill you and your family and all those you care about. If the Pope can have the Swiss Guard, it's time to acknowledge that clergy like the Cardinal need similar support. There should be two inviolate axioms that are recognized around the world for ages to come: 1) do not touch American boats, and 2) do not harm, kill, molest, or bother Catholic priests and their flock.

Patrick Stewart's self-eulogy is perfect. #patrickstewart

Well, another Cardinal has come out with a, shall we say, puzzling take on evangelization. A few years ago, Cardinal Américo Aguiar, at the time auxiliary bishop of Lisbon, said that he and the other organizers of World Youth Day in his hometown had no interest in converting anyone to Christ. Now Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco of Algeria has opined that “the Church is not there to convert” and “Christians should approach other religions through fraternity rather than seeking conversions.” Excuse me, but…what? Last time I checked, the Founder said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Sure sounds like conversion to me. When St. Paul came to Corinth or Athens or Thessalonica, his purpose was not to listen or to form a discussion group but rather to declare an unnerving message: the euangelion (glad tidings) that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. So impassioned is he for this work that he says, “I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:22); and “If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16)! Moreover, the entire thrust of the Second Vatican Council was toward bringing the Light of Christ to the peoples of the world (Lumen Gentium). And this missionary élan has given rise in the last few decades to the idea of a “new evangelization,” which is to say, a fresh declaration of the Lordship of Christ. Quite obviously, no one thinks that this work of evangelization should be done in a brow-beating, overbearing, or disrespectful manner (proselytization), but for God’s sake, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If I really thought that the Church does not exist to bring people to Christ, then I would resign and get an honest job.

This is for all the writers ( and want to be writers) in this beautiful community 💖✍🏼👩‍💻👨🏻‍💻📝. This gave me some serious guffaws and I hope it does for you as well 👍🏼💙. Happy writing ✍🏼🙏🏼. @LouDPhillips @DzintraSullivan @ChrisBohjalian @therealSIR3 @hwinkler4real @AuthorFleur @donnacox1021 @drdoomed01 @jameshealyjr

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McDonald's is spending 8.5 billion dollars to find out why families stopped coming. I can save them the 8.5 billion. They took out the playground. The plan, announced Wednesday at investor day. Better food, faster service, new equipment, AI tools, hospitality training, and a bigger push into chicken and beverages. They call it Next. The goal, they say, is making customers feel more comfortable. Wall Street loved it so much the stock fell 5 percent to its lowest since 2022. Over five years McDonald's shares are down 3 percent. Burger King's parent is up 14. The owner of Taco Bell and KFC is up 13. This is not a hamburger problem. This is a McDonald's problem. So let us talk about who used to eat there. Parents. That was the whole business. Parents at 5:40 on a Tuesday with three kids in the back and nothing thawed at home. You did not go for the burger. You went because your kids could run screaming through a plastic tube for 40 minutes while you sat with a coffee and experienced silence. That was the product. The food was the cover charge. The first PlayPlace opened in 1971 in Birmingham, Alabama, and for fifty years it did one job. It made small children demand to go to McDonald's. Then 2020 arrived, every play area in the country closed, and a great many never came back. The equipment came out during a remodeling program named Experience of the Future. The Experience of the Future turned out to be a touchscreen. Their own chief executive said he did not know if ball pits were in their future. Sir, you were not selling ball pits. You were selling forty minutes. So now there is no counter, no playground, and no reason for a seven year old to want to go. A screen, a window, and a bag. And for that we pay prices that require a moment of reflection in the parking lot. For thin, overcooked, oddly uniform pucks that taste like a memory of beef. I did not love them because they were good. I loved them because I was eight and there was a slide. And have you seen the new buildings. The old ones were unmistakable. Red roof, yellow arches, legible from a highway at 70 to a child who could not yet read. The new ones are a flat gray box with a small logo and a drive through wrapped around it. A regional claims office with a fryer. They removed the color, the characters, the counter, and the playground, and then hired consultants to find out why it no longer feels like anywhere. Which is why, when I have to eat fast food, I go to Chick-fil-A. Not for the politics. For the competence. They have led the customer satisfaction index for fast food eleven years running, and average 8.5 million dollars per location against McDonald's 4 million. More than double, while closed on Sundays. Fifty two days a year with the lights off, and still double. A seventeen year old hands you a bag and says my pleasure and means it about 70 percent, which is 70 percent more than a touchscreen has managed. McDonald's is spending 8.5 billion on hospitality training. Chick-fil-A earns 8.5 million per restaurant by just having some. So here is my consulting proposal, free of charge, on behalf of mothers everywhere. Put the playgrounds back. Not a nostalgia campaign. Not a retro cup. The structure. Tubes, slides, a door the kids cannot open from the inside, and a bench where a tired woman can sit. And understand what you are buying, because it is not lunch. A six year old does not know your food is bad. He has no basis for comparison and no functioning palate. He thinks the burger is incredible because he is standing in a castle made of tubes. That is the window. That is the only window you get. You catch them before the taste buds arrive, and thirty years later they drive past your sign, feel something they cannot explain, and pull in anyway. That is not a menu strategy. That is imprinting, and you shut it down in 2020 to save on cleaning. Eight and a half billion dollars for AI tools and hospitality training. Or a slide. 🦋

A 2-year-old boy is dead, his mother faces murder charges, and a quiet Illinois community is reeling after police found the child unresponsive inside a Frankfort home. Police say officers found the child Tuesday at Corie Walsh's home. He later died at a hospital, and the local FOX affiliate reports he was strangled. Walsh, 40, faces three counts of murder. One neighbor said the circumstances immediately brought the Lindsay Clancy case to mind: "You never think it's going to hit so close to home."

December 1st, 2022 Jimmy Fallon: « You have a secret song locked away in Dollywood that will be released in 2045. » Dolly Parton: « That’s the truth. No, seriously. When we – We do a lot of things at Dollywood, and one year we thought about that. They asked me if I would write a song that nobody would ever hear – I’ll be dead and gone. Well, I might not be ‘cause I’ll be 99. You know me. I might still be hopping around. I wrote a song, and I put it in the box to be opened, and I even put – Like, at that time there was a CD player and the ways in saying what we were doing with our music at that time. Left all the instructions and here’s how you can play this. I swear. And so I don’t know what they’ll do with it. But I have regretted that. Because it was a really good song. No, I’m serious. I keep wanting them to let me dig it up and put something else in it that’s not as good. Jimmy Fallon « Yeah. 2045. We’ll see the song. » If any of you are around when they open that box, well, I hope you enjoy my song. »

For incoming freshmen at Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it's hard to imagine a more mortifying tradition on first-day dropoff: All the seniors surround their cars and don't let them out until they do one specific thing – give their mothers a goodbye kiss. @SteveHartmanCBS reports on how a tradition of senior pranks turned into a show of thanks, and an emotional milestone for kids and their parents.