Category Posts

Darwin was wrong

JT Twissel 19 Comments

The other day … after learning that Turnip won the Iowa primary because of the Evangelical vote (or so it was reported on the cable news) … I flipped the channel and Inherit the Wind was playing. The original black and white movie, with Spencer Tracy and Frederic March.

If you’ve never seen the movie or play, it’s about small town in Tennessee full of church going folks who believe that the Bible should be taken literally and never questioned. To question “The Word” is to invite the wrath of God and since they are all soldiers in God’s army, they will become His wrath, His mighty sword. So, when high school students begin arriving home with questions about certain aspects of the Genesis story, their parents are outraged. Few have even heard of Darwinism, but they are easily whipped into a frenzy by their holy roller preacher. He convinces them that their children have been exposed to evil by their high school science teacher and now that teacher must die. They must be the wrath of God; His mighty sword. Soon the battle cry of “hang Bert Cates from a sour apple tree” rings through the town as they throw rocks at the jail where the teacher is being held for breaking a law banning the teaching of evolution.

Church going Christians hanging the high school science teacher in effigy

The resulting trial is a farce where all evidence that Darwinism is not a threat to morality is suppressed. Cates is found guilty and fined. But it’s fairly obvious that to lead a normal life, he will have to move far from that town.

What does that movie have to do with the evangelical support for Turnip, you might ask. In the book The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory Tim Alberta writes that evangelists believe God wants the United States to be his kingdom on earth and that they must do everything in their power to make sure that happens, even if it means taking up arms. This belief has been reinforced over the decades by televangelists out to make their own kingdoms on earth … the same snake oil salesmen who convince donors that Jesus Christ wants them to have a private jet like Turnip’s. (So give often and give generously). Apparently all of the seven deadly sins are forgivable as long you’ve taken up the sword and are willing to fight in God’s army.

This explanation makes sense, particularly in remote and isolated communities although it doesn’t make me feel better about future of this country. As Gene Kelly (playing H.L. Mencken*) said: “Darwin was wrong; man is still an ape.”

*H.L. Mencken was the journalist who covered the Scopes (Monkey) Trial upon which Inherit the Wind was based. His acerbic wit is often compared to Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift.

Oh dear, who to vote for?

JT Twissel 21 Comments

Here in California we recently lost one of our longest serving senators, Diane Feinstein. Regardless of your political leanings, I remember the Milk/Moscone murders and how she stepped in and took control. She was not a woman to be trifled with. Now we have to replace her.

Our “voter’s guide” arrived yesterday and the first thing Joel said was: “Holy Cow! Thirty people are running to replace Feinstein!” He hadn’t read the pamphlet; just the list of “certified candidates.” We’re actually having two elections: the first to decide who will replace Feinstein for the remainder of her term (until Jan 2025) and the second to decide who will serve for the following 6 years. Feinstein would have been up for reelection this year and so it didn’t make sense for someone to be appointed and then have to immediately start campaigning.

Only twenty-two of the certified candidates bothered to submit position statements for the guide. I guess the other eight figured that people don’t read anymore so why bother. Or maybe, like Ms. Gilani, they want to save the trees.

But … hasn’t she already betrayed the tree by submitting a photo to be printed and distributed to millions of people? So why not also include a statement instead of leaving a blank space? Doesn’t make sense to me but I have a pretty good idea where she stands on issues.

Some candidates submitted a statement but no photo. If you read through Mr. Grundmann’s diatribe you can figure out why. What do you suppose NO QUALIFIED PARTY means? Is the MAGA wing of the republican party changing it’s name?   

Mr. Early was a lot braver than Mr. Grundmann (he worked on the GI Joe television series!!) but I don’t think there’s any doubt what he’d be spending his time doing in DC. Investigating that nasty old Justice Department and rooting out the Marxist threat. Is there a Marxist threat?

This lady is practically a god in Biggs California (population 1,700) and good for her but I have no idea what sort of “grassroots transformation at the National level” she’s talking about. I doubt she does either but she is a beacon! 

Am I going to go to the trouble of checking out Liew’s website? Hell no. It’s probably a porn site.

Hey – this guy is balanced! But no telling what will happen if he gets elected and has to serve in the Senate. Think he’ll be able to remain balanced? Doubtful.

There are three highly qualified candidates running for Feinstein’s seat on the democratic side: Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee. Our dilemma is to choose between the three. But it was my civic duty to at least read the statements of the others, right?  Yeah, right. It’s California, land of almonds and other nuts. Probably the only state whose voter’s guides can be amusing. 

The Celestial Smooch

JT Twissel 27 Comments

It’s rare to glimpse the moon in the morning where I live, especially this time of year. If it’s not the fog hanging about, it’s the haze. But the other morning I arose just in time to see the sun bid the moon adieu in a clear blue sky.

Kind of a blurry image but I only had only seconds to catch the first rays reflecting off the the moon’s surface.

It’s the third day of the New Year and I should be making plans, right? On the first day we can be forgiven for dawdling about. On the second day, well, we’re getting over the first day but on the third day there just aren’t any excuses. Time to get motivated like these blokes from one of my favorite feel-good movies (which I watched in honor of the recent death of one of its stars, Tom Wilkinson.)

I was surprised to read that this low budget flick did far better both critically and financially than expected. A group of unemployed steel workers decide to become strippers. Only one of them knows anything about dancing; only one of them is particularly handsome (or “hung”); and none of them are what you’d call “buff.” I mean, really! Who wouldn’t want to cheer them on? 

I’ve been working on a story about a family I once knew, which is probably why I’m having trouble getting motivated. It was a family that thrived on doing good deeds. They literally went to Mass every morning and fed, clothed, and sometimes even housed the transients loitering the streets of Reno Nevada. They rescued many lost and hopeless kids like me and always had a menagerie of pets, both domesticated and wild. On the surface, a wonderful family always joking and having fun.

But all Catholic tenets were indisputable. If you dared to doubt any of them, you were going to Hell. Even if you were as loving and giving as Jesus Christ himself, you had to accept all the tales in the New Testament as truth or you were going to Hell. As you can imagine, when the children became adults they all suffered from either schizophrenia or substance abuse. Not because they believed those stories but because they feared going to Hell if doubt crept into their minds. I see a lot of that fear in the world today and it’s frightening. Perhaps that’s why I’m entering 2024 on tip toes.

Fly Away 2023

JT Twissel 19 Comments
Goodbye to a year of grief for so many

Aside from attending a memorial in Reno, we didn’t do any traveling this year and so, on our yearly Christmas visit to the San Diego area, we splurged. We stayed at a resort a few blocks away from my daughter’s house.

For us, this resort was a splurge but it was actually one of the cheaper places to stay in the area. Across the street is a campground full of families barbecuing and playing loud music while they dangle on a cliff over a rocky beach. Given the humongous waves hitting the California coast these days, I’m not sure I’d camp on a ledge. Would you? But the resort had a bar and friendly bartenders, who, after a day spent making and decorating Christmas cookies and shopping for last minute gifts, were a real godsend.

It’s hard to enter 2024 with any optimism at all. Nothing to do but …

Join me, will you?

Best wishes for a better than expected year for us all!

How things change

JT Twissel 22 Comments

Today it took me less than an hour to decorate for the Christmas season and I didn’t break a sweat. I really didn’t need to decorate. We won’t be here. I did it out of habit. And nostalgia. The only ornaments I’ve hung onto over the years have some sort of special memory attached.

My sister made this ornament the year her son was diagnosed with leukemia and she had to sit in the children’s ward for hours. It reminds me of all the innocent children who suffer through no fault of their own.

We used to have boxes and boxes of ornaments, reindeer with blinking red noses for the front yard, Christmas villages surrounded by model train layouts … and a massive artificial tree that Joel found one year – half off! It had two thousand mini lights woven in its branches and, since nothing says Christmas like a tree that can be seen from outer space, he had to have it. Of course, the two thousand lights only worked if you found that one that had burnt out. What a pain in the patootie! I hated that tree!

Not really sure which child made either of these two priceless Santas. Our current tree has no greenery. Just fake and barren birch branches.

Back then all of the children (we’re a blended family of five) descended on our house Christmas Eve, had dinner, spent the night, and then left the next morning to celebrate the rest of the day with their other families … after a Christmas breakfast of waffles and strawberries, of course. I don’t know how we managed to find a place for everyone to bed down comfortably. I don’t know how we managed all those last minute trips to find stocking stuffers that weren’t complete junk, or to make sure we had enough food, enough wine, enough wrapping paper, enough tape, enough toilet paper, enough aspirin. But I do remember that feeling after all the children left and the house was quiet once again. I didn’t even mind the clean up. I’d take one task at a time, have another glass of champagne, and listen to some dumb Christmas movie on the tube.

One of the last times we were all together on Christmas. This was the best of many, many shots! The two squiggles in the front had eaten way too many Christmas cookies and could not sit still.

Would I return to those hectic days of Christmas Past? Only if I could be in my forties again and since I can’t, this Christmas Eve we’ll be sipping cocktails while watching the sun set over Moonlight Beach. Our only stress, the long drive down the coast.

Shell ornament given to my children by their globe trotting godfather. I believe he bought them (there are others) in Bangkok

In case I don’t get inspired to post again, I hope you all can spend the holidays doing something you enjoy, whether entertaining a mob or just sitting on the beach!

If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.

R. Tagore