Carol, I almost used a graphic of Homer Simpson as the illustration for this post.

Carol, I almost used a graphic of Homer Simpson as the illustration for this post.

Dochumi--thanks for your comment. I'm perfectly willing to be done with "American empire"; I just don't want it to take all of us with it.

Ken--thank you so much for your comments. I only saw Henry Aaron in person once: sometime in the early 1960's, when the Milwaukee Braves played an exhibition at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The joy I experienced in 1974 when Mr. Aaron hit his record-breaking home run off Al Downing cannot be put into words: my celebratory shout may have been heard from Buffalo all the way to Atlanta.

Shovon1337: Thank you for your comment and your interest. We are referring, I think, to two different people named "John Gray". Mine is the iconoclastic British philosopher, author of "Straw Dogs" (not the movie) and other contentious volumes; you are referring, I assume, to a "John Gray" who is an American pastor of some evangelical-type denomination.

She could be all of the above--who knows?

Ann: so I've heard, but please don't get me started on that topic. This excerpt from Camus caught my attention in part because I've been reading, in Berdyaev and other Orthodox writers, about "deification" ; while I find that idea fascinating and even inspiring, in the end I'm with Camus--we're better off if we just stick to being human.

Ann: thanks for the input. As should be obvious, I continue to flail, to thrash, and to flounder at the very idea of spirituality. "The spirit" seems to me to be mysterious, and I am simultaneously attracted to and suspicious of "mystery," which I have always held to be (along with patriotism) the last refuge of scoundrels. Despite which, my current correct line of thinking is that world history in the past 200-250 years has been an era of spiritual warfare in which humanity's "yetzer ha-tov" and "yetzer ha-ra" have struggled for dominance; one of our main problems being that, even with the best of intentions, we don't always know which is which.

Thanks, Ann. I'm pretty sure I've almost got it all figured out...maybe by next Tuesday?

Ann--thanks, as always, for the comment. Re "what is it that we have to give?": I don't mean to be flippant, and I am but a humble atheist, but it is my understanding that the Church claims to distribute God directly to believers on a regular basis. What more could it do?

Ann: but I said you can get there in your own way...in point of fact, this is one of the least coherent, least thought-out pieces I've ever posted; I just felt like posting something this morning, and this is what came out.

Thanks, Ann. May your New Year be bright with promise and may your heart be filled with hope...

Oh, I dont actually read them. I just write a little bit about them based on their cover blurbs...

You "disagree"? With "most of this post"? This does not bode well for your spending a congenial week in Missoula. Perhaps you should re-read the post, more carefully this time; I for one find it highly persuasive.

Reverend Markle: I am just getting warmed up on the subject. Won't we have fun conversations about this when I'm in Buffalo!

Mr. Ballor: You did indeed make that connection in your other article at Acton--thanks for pointing it out. Like Alaska, internet archives are a vast and wondrous wilderness; it helps to have a guide when exploring the territory.

Dear Rev. Markle: thank you for your comment but I will not be dissuaded by "facts," especially when promulgated by liberal media like PBS. Everything wrong with this country is traceable to the Sixties, so please don't go blaming poor William McKinley--has he not suffered enough already?

Thanks for the comments, Terry. Have a great New Year's yourself; we will just have to keep muddling along with our lives until the robots put us out of our misery.

Ann: you are indubitably correct, both about the Obama/Holder group and about changing the lawyer joke. Maybe we should put Jared Kushner to work on this?

Nice try, James and Bunni, but I am sworn to secrecy about Dissenting Commenter. The Little Red Blog protects its sources, such as they are.

Thanks, Terry. Of all the various categories in which America leads the world, "Locking people up" is one of which we should be ashamed. I repeat my recent citation of a quote from Jon Langford--Americans are "the most frightened people on earth".

Thanks for your kind comments, ME. I believe that, in the original text of Genesis, Adam was busy watching a football game and therefore he didn't notice when the serpent approached Eve; either that, or he was out playing golf. But perhaps Adam's "liturgical failure" in Eden was mean to prefigure all the failures of male priests ever since.

Oh yeah--I'm just learning now about President Obama's announcement. As for optimism-- I'd say impeachment is all but a certainty after the new Congress takes office. (Also, happy birthday, James!).