Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich on the subject of the sex abuse allegations in the Church:

“The Pope has a bigger agenda. He’s got to get on with other things, of talking about the environment and protecting migrants and carrying on the work of the church. We’re not going down a rabbit hole on this.”

I honestly think he’s taking a piss on the Pope. On no planet can anybody think this is a helpful comment.

Democrats Pritzker in Illinois and McCaskill in Missouri have both taken the route of defensive political ads. I believe this is a big mistake, especially in Pritzker’s case. Nobody who isn’t a total egghead knows him. And then he goes on TV and opens with, “There have been articles saying that I’m an XYZ bad person who wants to do ABC bad things.” I, for one, have been unaware of such articles and would have remained blissfully ignorant of them had Pritzker not chosen to lay out money to inform me of them.

McCaskill does the same thing. “You’ve probably seen the ads accusing me of corruption. Factcheck.com says it’s not true and I’m not corrupt.” This way those who haven’t heard she’s being accused of corruption have been informed by McCaskill herself. And she didn’t even bother to contest the accusations! Voters are supposed to go to factcheck.com to find out what she’s been accused of (turns out it’s kickbacks to her very rich husband.)

The Republican candidates are all on the offensive. And the defensive position is not one of a winning side. Is there really nothing stronger we can say for ourselves other than some website says we are not corrupt?

Just when I realized I can work by the swimming pool, it started to rain and I couldn’t go again.

I’m a shockingly slow thinker in everything that’s not work-related. It took me 4 years to figure out I’d enjoy the pool next door.