Apr 30, 2026
*from humorist Andy Borowitz, who I follow and look to for fun, humor, sarcasm and irreverence, among other things. Borowitz is a secular Jew; I am an atheist raised Catholic, long recovered! He compiled this, and I am grateful:
Last Tuesday, JD Vance made headlines by offering this helpful advice to Pope Leo XIV: “I think it’s very, very important for the Pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.” Undoubtedly, the leader of the world’s 1.42 billion Catholics (*who holds a Masters in Theology and a Doctorate of Canon Law) was grateful for this pro tip from a guy who converted to Catholicism 6 years ago.
But if JD thinks the pontiff is a little shaky on the Bible, what theological expert does he trust? Clearly, that higher power is Donald J. Trump, who, in 2016, declared, “Nobody reads the Bible more than me.”
So I decided to host a debate about the Bible between the head of the Catholic Church and the leader of the world’s largest theocracy. Read the following actual quotes by Pope Leo and Donald Trump, and decide: Who understands the Bible better?
Pope Leo: “When the light of forgiveness succeeds in filtering through the deepest crevices of the heart, we understand that it is never futile. Even if the other does not accept it, even if it seems to be in vain, forgiveness frees those who give it: It dispels resentment, it restores peace, it returns us to ourselves.”
Trump: “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.”
Pope Leo: “Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power or pleasure.”
Trump: “Part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich.”
Pope Leo: “The Church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking. Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges.”
Trump: “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall.”
Pope Leo: “Peace is built in the heart and from the heart, by eliminating pride and vindictiveness and carefully choosing our words.”
Trump: “When people wrong you, go after those people, because it is a good feeling and because other people will see you doing it. I always get even.”
Pope Leo: “Religious experience is an essential dimension of the human person.”
Trump: “When I go to church and when I drink my little wine and have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of forgiveness.”
Pope Leo: “Our neighbors are not first our enemies… but other men and women with whom we can speak.”
Trump: “They’re not just illegal aliens, honestly, they’re monsters. These are savage monsters.”
Pope Leo: “Christ, King of Peace, cries out again from his cross: God is love! Have mercy! Lay down your weapons!”
Trump: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
Pope Leo: “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants.”
Trump: “Putin, very smart.” “President Xi is a brilliant man.“ “How smart is Kim Jong Un? Top of the line… really smart.”
Pope Leo: “The Almighty will not be outdone in generosity to those who serve the people most in need: the greater the love for the poor, the greater the reward from God.”
Trump: “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare—all these individual things.”
Pope Leo: “There is no shortage of theories attempting to justify the present state of affairs or to explain that economic thinking requires us to wait for invisible market forces to resolve everything.”
Trump: “We had the largest gain in the stock market in history on every single category last week.”
Pope Leo: “Peace is built in the heart and from the heart, by eliminating pride and vindictiveness and carefully choosing our words.”
Trump: “Nobody’s ever been more successful than me.”
Pope Leo: “Blessed are the peacemakers! But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Trump: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!”
Pope Leo: “God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail!”
Trump: “I think God is very proud of the job I’ve done.”
Apr 29, 2026
Never heard of her. Norma Shearer, Norma Desmond, Norma Rae – them I’ve heard of, but Norma Swenson? Huh? Nope.
Norma Swenson. Born in Exeter, NH in 1932, she attended both Tufts and Harvard Universities, receiving her Masters in Public Health from the latter. In 1958, Ms. Swenson gave birth to her daughter; what she witnessed in the maternity ward during her stay would shape the rest of her life – affecting the lives of millions of women in the U.S. and elsewhere on planet earth.
All around her, women in various stages of labor were being given Scopolamine, a drug inducing “twilight sleep” – a state of semi-consciousness often filled with hallucinations and terror. When the women, confused and frightened, resisted – they were tied to their beds with restraints. If they persisted, either verbally or physically objecting to being restrained, they were then given Demerol, rendering them fully unconscious while their babies were delivered by forceps. She said later that she knew immediately: “These women weren’t being helped. They were being controlled.”
Norma refused the drugs, giving birth awake, alert, and fully present — a sight so unusual that the entire labor and delivery ward staff gathered around her bed to watch. Shockingly, most of the residents had never seen a natural birth before. That degree from Harvard might’ve given her a leg up on getting her the treatment she demanded, but regardless, Norma Swenson never forgot what she’d seen.
In 1960, only 6% of incoming American medical students were women. Healthcare was and had been for far too long entirely dominated by male physicians who very often (and still) approached women’s healthcare and bodies with paternalism, condescension, and genuine ignorance – a dangerous combination. Dangerous for women. Women were routinely told to defer to men who knew nothing of their lived experiences, to trust male experts, ask no questions, and accept what they were given.
In 1969, Norma Swenson was among a small group of female Bostonians gathered at a workshop called Women and Their Bodies. This event was part of a women’s liberation conference at Emmanuel College. Sharing their medical experiences – routine dismissals, misinformation, humiliation, and fear – led them meet and continue their discussions after the conference ended because there was so much more to say, and – potentially – report out.
From those initial conversations and further research – twelve of the women spent months answering every medical question they had ever been afraid to ask, or that had been dismissed by male physicians and male dominated institutions. The result? A 193-page stapled booklet called Women and Their Bodies, published by a small local press made available for 75 cents, which booklet spread across America – before the internet!!! – like a revolution.
Renamed Our Bodies, Ourselves in 1971, it sold 225,000 copies almost entirely by word of mouth, and without the benefit of a single advertisement. Norma Swenson – and I hope you’ll remember her name now – was a co-founder of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, the organization behind the book, serving as its first Director of International Programs.
When Simon & Schuster published the expanded commercial edition in 1973, the book became a huge hit and cultural phenomenon. It addressed everything the medical establishment had deliberately, systematically kept from women and girls: answering questions regarding sexuality, masturbation, abortion, birth control, menopause, and childbirth. Author and political activist Barbara Ehrenreich called it “a manifesto of medical populism.” Conservative groups called it obscene, because of course they did.
Norma spent the rest of her long life taking that women’s medical populism truth global — traveling to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, supporting women’s health movements all over the planet, also helping translate the book into 34 languages. Additionally, she taught at Harvard’s School of Public Health for over 20 years, working with the World Health Organization. Bottom line: Norma Swenson helped ordinary women everywhere understand that their bodies belonged to them.
Her daughter Sarah said that Norma was still asking this essential question on her death bed: “Why don’t women have bodily autonomy in the 21st century? We still don’t have control. Why is that?”
We know why. The patriarchy. And. We persist. All hail Norma Swenson, who died in 2025. Let’s keep up the good fight going until we do, all over, all women and girls everywhere. So! Now you know.
For more on Norma, here’s a link to her wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norma_Meras_Swenson
Apr 28, 2026
“I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. I am not sure that you are of the same mind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear.” – George Eliot from a letter to Georgiana Burne-Jones, 11 May 1875
When you meet someone – a potential friend – and you know like you know like you know that they might just be perfectly and permanently a friend, it’s a kind of falling in love both like and unlike the romantic fall (it’s a lot less stressful), but oh what a gift! There have been moments when I knew in an instant that this new to me person would be a friend for life, and – so far – those instants have become long connections between souls that I treasure, and for which I am deeply grateful.
Long before we met, I’d spoken to one best friend for life twice on the phone and, TBH, I remember thinking ‘what a bitch’. But, she’d been getting the same call regularly for over two years or more on the subject of an investment she’d made, and while it was not at all on her, or me (my predecessors didn’t believe in taking notes…), she was impatient with the repeated calls and what they may have been revealing, a.k.a. incompetence. Once we met for reals, face-to-face, I knew we would be pals, and said so (which, TBH, kinda freaked her out), adding ‘Let’s have lunch.’ We did, getting slightly and pleasantly sloshed sitting in the sun on 9th Avenue.
After that, we attended an event, a discussion forum – where we contributed our views, asked good questions, and giggled quite a bit; we were chastised when the event was over re: our levity by a member of the AA mafia, which made us howl with laughter, then and since. Why is it converts to whatever the thinking is (religion, sobriety, political parties etc.) are often such zealots? And, you do you, Tom. That memory began a journey of friendship that I already knew was for life, bay-bee!
I have always tended to be a best friend type person, having one close, close pal with whom I share life, mostly via phone and, latterly, text or email, but – over time, that style has changed, loosened, and my friend circle is broader, deeper, and – I believe – healthier. A need for peer friendships – although I treasure my older and younger friends, too – is one reasons I’ve never been a big fan of home schooling. We need our same age pals, those who are going through the living and doing and working and raising family and retiring and aging thing around about the same time we are.
Yet, all friends are a gift to be treasured.
The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love, whether we call it friendship or family or romance is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another.- James Baldwin
Apr 27, 2026
*my progressive opinion column for April, posted here a week plus after it is published online and on paper, with my thanks for you being here, reading, and following along. Every month I work to find 800 words on a political subject. You-Know-Who provides so much material, it is hard to choose, and I often write four versions on different topics and passions of mine…And oh, how I long for the days when politics was relatively boring, and the headlines didn’t make me gasp out loud in horror. SMDH. Listening to Secretary of War Kegseth alone is enough to roll my eyes permanently back in my head. Sigh.
An excursion/war from the self-declared Peace President is consistent with his administration’s foreign and domestic policy for Belligerent Dummies: The Donroe Doctrine! Here’s a quote from Stephen Miller (no relation!) a few weeks ago now foreshadowing our involvement in Venezuela and Iran, and potential future military steps toward Cuba, and – one fears – Greenland or Mexico: “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”
No, you creep. That’s not how this works, that’s not how any of this works. Cooperative, peaceful, equitable societies with governments, however constituted, that invest in their people (and don’t kidnap, deport, or shoot them), as well as in their laws and institutions, countries that are able to make fair and lasting diplomatic and trade deals with neighbors near and far while engaged in the business of taking care of their citizens, rich or poor, able or disabled, young, old, and everything in-between – these are the safest, happiest, and most stable.
Hey, y’know, maybe the Scandinavian model has got it right, providing universal healthcare while codifying the essential values of egalitarianism and secularism? These nations also place much higher taxes on their wealthiest citizens, individuals who benefit most from the financial and political stability and regulatory safeguards of the state, whatever they claim to the contrary, including being able to hire healthy, educated, well-housed workers.
Finland is dark for half the year (darker even than upstate), but the Finns consistently rank among the happiest people of all nations, along with their neighbors in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and The Netherlands. Where does the U.S. rank on the happiness index? In 2026, we rank 23th, slightly up from 2025, which was our lowest standing to date (24th), yet still lower than Costa Rica, Mexico and Canada where – it must be repeated until it gets through – they also have universal healthcare.
Imagine if you will the vast benefit to an entire society when all persons living therein have access to healthcare, to educational opportunities, clean air and water, affordable housing and safe, updated infrastructure like good roads and bridges, but also wireless broadband, geothermal heating and cooling, and all other innovative mod cons, regardless of zip code. Imagine, too, an immigration system that works, a less torturous path to U.S. citizenship for immigrants and refugees seeking asylum, and DACA recipients finally made full-citizens.
Stress and uncertainty – a lack of stability in both the personal and political spheres – devour time and energy that would be better spent on family, studying, work, or creative entrepreneurship. The anxiety of not knowing where or whether your spouse, employee, or neighbor has been sent by ICE, or feeling unsafe in your hometown unless you carry citizenship papers everywhere you go – all of this is antithetical to our values, and is undermining entire communities’ well-being. It’s also a clear example of bad governance. Ditto the stress of being unable to cover your health insurance premiums because tax breaks for billionaires was a policy priority for the GOP.
Governing by power and force alone is not governing at all, nor are demands backed by violence to effectuate regime change the same as diplomatic solutions or democratically elected leadership. True strength is shown by a willingness to compromise and sacrifice for the common good, whether that commonality exists within a family, village, county, nation, or hemisphere.
When respect goes in all ways and all directions, life is more stable, safer and better, and much less easily poisoned by the maggots of envy, resentment, fear or rage, otherwise known as racism, sexism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia. Working toward consensus and consent in all things is hard, continual work, like marriage or farming, but it’s good, important work like those, too. It’s called The Social Contract, a contract that includes consenting to be governed by laws, respecting the results of elections and other people’s beliefs, religious views, and bodily autonomy while understanding the importance of taxation and representation.
Y’all might consider renewing your commitment to America’s Social Contract as we prepare to celebrate our 250th this July.
We’re currently being mis-governed by a dangerously combustible combination of short-term thinking, amateurism, and arrogance. Power and force aren’t ever enough. Bellicose militant and nationalist empires (Mussolini, Hitler, Hirohito, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, etc.) inevitably crash and burn after a burst of overinflated triumphs that also inevitably lead to historic levels of violence, corruption and eventual defeat. Those governments ended in flames, disgrace, annihilation, suicide, or all of the above. Truly strong governance requires playing a long, slow game, but life itself is a long game (hopefully) as is much of what gives life meaning.
Apr 26, 2026
*On the Bone is a novel by Edna O’Brien, one of my favorite writers from the past, whose depictions of Irish life, Catholic upbringings, Irish women and girls trying to break free in Ireland, England and London during the 20th century resonated deeply with me. From a book featuring writers and snippets of their work I recently picked up at a book sale because one cannot have too many books!, And yes, along with thoughts of lost loves, I have a very barky dog…They say, those science types, that the ovum that will become ourselves is held in the bodies of our mums, even while they grow from infancy to girlhood to motherhood to death. Fancy that, as Mothers’ Day approaches…
When dogs bark
I think of you
And dogs bark
The world over
Even in ochre-veined Mexico
Where the women scrape the cacti
And offer them
Like Manna
With heads bowed.
On those nights of the vehement dogs
I think of you –
Oh Mother
Is there still such a long way
To go
Even tho the end has been?
Ours was a lonely wine
A lonely trail,
Without dalliance
Without men-folk.
Duologues and Dialogues
Much the same.
Climbing the next bit of missing stairs,
Like a gate hasp
Or a paw.
Oh Mother without mercy,
I am back now,
I am here to stay
I would make it again
For the sake of the song
For the sake of the rose.
Let us fold it together.
Petal upon petal
Glorious
Ancestral
Menstrual
Rose
Made red
From
The pool
Of our
Being.
