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I woke up this morning, which is always a good thing. My memory tells me that Friday night, January 1, I didn't sleep. At all. Maybe I dropped off for a few minutes to an hour, but even then I didn't get nearly enough sleep. Three weekends and most of a week after my all-nighter, I'm starting my eighth day of one-a-day 'journal' posting. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

It's a sunny Tuesday afternoon here in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. It's 8°F outside, -13°C. At that temperature, water is a mineral. Which is normal for this time of year here in central Minnesota. The sun is setting, which again is normal for this time of place, day and year.... ...And my news feed is clogged with headlines about today's American president, and the chap who will become president tomorrow. Which may or may not be normal. But it's pretty much what I expected.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(Looking across the street last Saturday. (January 2, 2021)) This week's weather has included, for the most part, dense or patchy freezing fog. I figure the weather, and Washington news, have been affecting my mood. Or should that be "has been affecting?"... ...I'd planned on getting a picture of the same twigs this afternoon. But something's removed an identifiable curvy twig. Maybe the night's and morning's frost hid it. Or maybe I just didn't notice it. So I took a picture of another part of the same set of bushes.... ...Sound and Fury, News and Opinion "2021 storming of the United States Capitol" may or may not stick as a name for whatever happened last Wednesday. I'm even less certain about what actually happened. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Today is New Year's Eve. It's also Saint Sylvester's Day, the 420th anniversary of the British East India Company's charter and the 141st anniversary of Thomas Edison's incandescent light demo. But mainly, I figure, for most Americans, today is New Year's Eve.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

This is a bad situation. But it could have been a lot worse.... ...I'd hoped that three non-life-threatening injuries was the extent of casualties. As of early evening of Christmas Day, that seems unlikely. "...Possible human remains..." does not sound hopeful. Motive is also an apparently-unknown part of the puzzle.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The first shipments of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine arrived in America this week. Folks are getting immunized, including health care workers. I think that's good news.... As I see it, all that's good news. I'd prefer focusing exclusively on the 'up' side. But there's an ethical problem with the new vaccines. I'll be talking about that, and why getting immunized when it's my turn still makes sense. COVID-19 Vaccines and a Little History Ethical Concerns HEK 293 Donor: RIP Options and "The Mark of the Beast" Statistics and Death Love, Neighbors and the Common Good Remembering, and Learning From, Our Past First Vaccines Arrive: "...Healing is Coming" The Inevitable Link Lists (and resources, too) From the USCCB My stuff More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

This isn't the first time I've voted during a pandemic, but it's the first time I've had reason for extra caution. That's why I voted by mail this year. The election results will please or disappoint me. Or, more likely, do a bit of both. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

A presidential election is looming in my country. We have one every four years. Maybe I'd get more attention by demonizing or deifying a candidate. Or saying that nobody should vote, because "they" put subliminal messages in ballots. Oddly enough, I haven't heard that claim. Or I could express deep despair over the demonizing, deifying and drivel that dominates news and social media. I could do any or all of the above. But my heart wouldn't be in it. I am quite sure that no candidate is a fascist, the antichrist or a pawn of the Illuminati-pixie cabal. I don't even think the Illuminati-pixie cabal exists. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I watched NASA's Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter take off at 6:50 this morning, 11:50 UTC. (July 30, 2020) If I heard coverage of the launch correctly, it wasn't perfect. The Atlas V took off a few milliseconds early.... ...The folks who anchored the NASA/JPL online video coverage explained why peanuts are on the snack menu for JPL missions... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Daniel Lewis Lee died this morning. That's unremarkable, by itself. Roughly 150,000 people die every day. Cause of death varies. Diseases kill some of us. Others die in accidents. Civil authorities kill those who deserve death. In their government's opinion.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Several decades back, while I was living with my parents in Moorhead, Minnesota, a radio announcer read the day's weather forecast.... After finishing the official forecast, the announcer paused before rhetorically asking "what? No burning hail?" Or maybe it was "fiery hail." Something like that.... ...Maybe it's the sudden and temporary sunshine, but I'm even almost upbeat about the COVID-19 pandemic. Folks here in Minnesota aren't dying of the disease nearly as fast as we were a month or two ago.... ...The politics thing is pretty much inevitable. There's a presidential election on, so sound and fury is the order of the day.... ' More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

My Fourth of July plans include watching an episode or two of Marvel Ultimate Spider-Man, contemplating the whichness of what while sitting on the front stoop, relaxing and getting a few chores done. And enjoying a virtual fireworks show. Probably one of these.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

This Saturday is the Fourth of July: America's Independence Day. It's a day for picnics and parades, barbecues and ice cream. We celebrate with fireworks and carnivals, picnics and concerts, fairs and baseball games. Usually. This year will be different. Plans and Parade Permits Blow Hot, Blow Cold Fireworks Parade Permit Perplexity Street Legal Vehicles and Skimmed News Vanilla Ice and Common Sense Patriotic? Me?! Definitions Viewpoints and Obligations Big Country, Small World Living in Small Town Minnesota, and Loving It "...My Family Celebrating!" Remembering And In Conclusion More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Derek Chauvin, a police officer, killed George Floyd about a month ago. I don't know whether a court will call that homicide a murder, or assign some other label. I do know that there was and is no apparent excuse for ending Mr. Floyd's life.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . News and Views A Drive-Through Nap The Mystery of the Transferred Tazer Duality and Death St. Cloud, Minnesota: An Arrest, Social Media and Riots Good Neighbors and Ersatz Facts Rumors and Looting Fear and NASCAR Flags Prudence and Perspective "A Highly Charged and Emotional Time" Freudian Slips, a "Cavalier" Comment Moral Panic, Then and Now "A Day of Reckoning:" He Said, She Said Attitudes "Hooray for Our Side" Irish Lives Matter??? Cartoons, Slogans and Some Logic Statue Panic? Public Safety and Making Sense Minneapolis: [insert feared technolog

The American holiday and Christmas seasons overlap, with fuzzy terminuses. Termini. Beginnings and endings. For some, Christmas starts with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. That fine old American tradition has been joined by Cyber Monday. Oddly enough, I haven't noticed anguished laments over that newfangled technology and Macy's inflated cartoon characters.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Saturday night had been Sunday morning for just over an hour when death came to a street in Dayton, Ohio. A young man killed eight folks who had been outside a bar. He's dead. too. Probably killed by police. One of the killer's victims was his sister. Maybe she was an intended victim. Maybe she'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.... ...We know who, how, where and how many were killed. The crime's "why" is another matter. The killer is dead, so investigators can't ask him. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

"A journey of a thousand li starts with a single step." (Tao Te Ching," Laozi) "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." (Neil Armstrong) I figure the journey to Earth's moon began when someone looked up and wondered what this world's "lesser light" might be. Uncounted ages, most likely, before folks like Laozi and Thales of Miletus added their thoughts to humanity's storehouse of knowledge. Thales of Miletus gets credit for figuring out that Earth's moon is roughly spherical. So does Anaximander, depending on who's talking. Those two lived about two and a half millennia back. A century later, Anaxagoras said Earth's moon was earthy, made of the same sort of stuff we stand on. He was right about that. Other details in his cosmology, not so much.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Apollo 11's Lunar Module reached Mare Tranquillitatis fifty years ago this month. I remember hearing Neil A. Armstrong announce the landing site's name: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." A few hours later, Armstrong opened the Lunar Module's MESA — a storage locker built into the lander's side. A television camera in the MESA showed us Armstrong's, and humanity's, first step onto another world. Back on Earth, one out of every five people were watching: at home, in pubs, at cafes, in New York's Central Park and at shop windows. Pope St. Paul VI watched at the Castle Gandolfo observatory.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I'm not sure how the 'defrocked Cardinal' story will play out in America's news. Assorted presidential campaigns will be building up steam, and there's no shortage of other newsworthy angst. Maybe the McCarrick case will be a nine day wonder, maybe not. Either way, I did a little checking, and shared what I found.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I've read that spiritualism and spiritism started in the 18th or 19th centuries. Folks who take one or both seriously seem to think spiritism isn't spiritualism. How the 'isms' are different depends on who's talking. Some say spiritualism is a religion, while spiritism is a social movement. Or spiritism is a science and spiritualism isn't. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .