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Our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem was like a ticker tape parade. The original one, in 1886, an impromptu celebration. Jesus had grassroots support that few celebrities or politicos achieve. Our Lord could have written his own ticket. All he had to do was keep that enthusiasm going. (More at A Catholic Citizen in America )

A tsunami flooded the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant eight years ago. Fires, explosions and meltdowns followed. Folks living within 20 kilometers were told to leave the area. Radiation levels are dropping. A few folks are moving back. Clearing debris and removing radioactive fuel rods is taking more time than expected.... (More, at A Catholic Citizen in America )

Seeing Jesus as a charismatic wannabe revolutionary is possible. So is assuming that he was politically inept or stark raving mad. Maybe both. Another option is seeing Jesus as a great teacher, one of the world's best: in the same league as Socrates, Kapila and Confucius. The 'up' side of the 'great teacher' view is that it acknowledges our Lord as someone who talked about ethics and made sense. The 'down' side, and it's a big one, is that Jesus of Nazareth said this.... (More, at A Catholic Citizen in America> )

Light and dark, green and brown. Crescent moon, textured memories. Past is done, a quiet present. What was, will be. Their now Is yet to come. (On A Catholic Citizen in America (January 30, 2019))

It's been a month for space exploration 'firsts,' and a 'farthest.' Ultima Thule became the most distant object visited by a probe on January 1, with the New Horizons flyby. A few days later, China's Chang'e-4 mission landed in the von Kármán crater, part of the moon that's not visible from Earth. It's the first lunar farside landing, and the first time plants sprouted on the moon...." (More on A Catholic Citizen in America .)

While writing about Epiphany, I meandered past Gothic cathedrals, kings and chancellors, and some of what's happened over the last two millennia. The magi, too: the first of many from all nations who recognized and welcomed the good news our Lord brings. That's in the day's Gospel reading this year, Matthew 2:1 - 12 . (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 .

Folks who saw virtue in unquestioning devotion to established values didn't like the 1960s. No institution, custom or belief seemed safe from scrutiny. Even the idea of progress — a cherished heirloom from the Age of Enlightenment — was challenged disputed, and ultimately rejected. Visions of a technotopia, where our greatest challenge was deciding how to spend our leisure time, were fading. Hopes for nuclear power's abundant clean energy were giving way to fears of an atomic holocaust and reactor meltdowns. Assuming that pollution didn't kill us first. ( July 28, 2017 ; February 17, 2017 ) Perhaps even more disturbing for social Luddites, the nation's youth seemed ill-suited for their assigned role as torchbearers for liberty, conformity and suburban living. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Some folks act as if they think physical reality is bad and having a body is icky. The notion's 'Biblical,' sort of. Galatians 5:19 through 21 call bad ideas like licentiousness, hatreds and idolatry "works of the flesh." With a little paraphrasing, I could claim that 1 Corinthians 3:3 says jealousy and rivalry are "of the flesh." Romans 8:3 mentions "sinful flesh." Taking those verses, ignoring Genesis 1:31 , Psalms 84:3 , Ecclesiastes 2:24 - 25 and two millennia of Catholic teaching, and I might see loathing physical reality as an option. But not, I think, a reasonable one.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Fourteen high-profile murders are in the news. Four died at a Waffle House in Nashville, 10 were killed on Yonge Street in Toronto. The accused killers have been caught. I put links to BBC News and Wikipedia pages about the murders at the end of this post. 1 I'll mostly be saying why I think murder is a bad idea, and how I see being human and making sense — or not, in some cases. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Robots are starting to look and act a lot like humans. Wondering if robots can be people, or if humans are merely biological robots, involves assumptions about reality. I'll look at one of those assumptions in this post and why I believe there's more to me than chemicals. Whether a robot could be a person is more of a philosophical question than a legal issue. So far. The question would be particularly interesting if a robot asked to be recognized as a person. Or disturbing, depending on how you look at it. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Divine Mercy Sunday: Acts 4:32 - 35 1 John 5:1 - 6 John 20:19 - 31 (April 8, 2018; this homily is from April 7, 2002) Divine Mercy Sunday, 2018 By Deacon Lawrence N. Kaas April 8, 2018 (originally April 7, 2002) 20 years ago we wanted to dedicate our community to the Mercy of God. The story of which is far too long to share with you this morning. But you need to know that we asked our Bishop Speltz to conduct the dedication but were told, 'no he can't come because of confirmations.. Just days before the dedication, he personally called and said that it was too important for him not to be here and so changed appointments to be with us. At one point he said, he saw this as a way to get the Sacred Heart enthroned in every home and saw this was a means to fulfill that because The Divine Mercy image fits perfectly with the Sacred Heart - as well it should. Now what does he do? Not only does he dedicate our community, but dedicates the whole Diocese to The Mercy of God: t

Mass murder at a Florida high school is in the news again. Someone has been accused of killing 17 students and staff on February 14, 2018. He's being tried and may be executed. I'll be talking about him, one of the dead students and why I think human life matters. All human life.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Quite a bit happened this week. We started Lent's 40-day stay with our Lord in the desert. Not literally. That's mentioned in today's Gospel: Mark 1:12 - 15 . I've talked about deserts and Deuteronomy, penance and porridge, before. ( February 11, 2018 ; February 26, 2017 ) There's a more technical — and more useful, probably — discussion in Catechism of the Catholic Church 538 - 540 .... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Falcon Heavy's test flight last week wasn't perfect. But I'll call it a success. That's good news for SpaceX. Not my opinion: the largely-successful flight. The test flight's dummy payload included an actual dummy. "Starman" is that mannequin wearing a spacesuit at the wheel of a red Tesla roadster. I'll be talking about that, how I see the news, technology, and humanity's new horizon.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Folks in the United Kingdom may be changing their rules for wood and coal fires. Or maybe not. It depends on whether their rules match Europe's. Volkswagen paid researchers to mistreat monkeys and people. Or maybe not. We know the research happened. It's complicated, a bunch of folks are upset, and I'll get back to that. Fireplaces, outdoor grills, and coal-burning furnaces aren't basically bad. Neither is learning how stuff in the air affects animals. And us. But having smoky fires upwind of our neighbors isn't a good idea. Neither is mistreating critters. Or people. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

It's Epiphany Sunday. It's not about the magi, wise men from the east. Not exactly. They're involved; along with King Herod, religious experts, Mary and Jesus. But they're not what this is all about. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

About 78 folks were on Amtrak Cascades passenger train 501 Monday morning. They'll be late. At best. I'll be looking at what happened, new and old technology. Also how I see change and progress.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Whether you call it mental illness, lunacy, or insanity, being crazy isn't fun. It's not a lifestyle choice either. Not for most. Certainly not in my case. I'll get back to that.... ...Somewhere along the line "mental hygiene" got repackaged as "mental health." I think it wasn't just a new coat of paint on old ideas. We were learning more about how minds work, and sometimes don't. We were also learning what we can do: and what we shouldn't.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(From Getty Images, via BBC News, used w/o permission.) ("Police say a number of students had to be medically evacuated from the school" (BBC News)) I hadn't planned on writing about murder and getting a grip this week. Or next. But another multiple murder is international news.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .