Spam + Screen Time + Pigeons + California + Climate Cataclysm

SPAM

"No joke, Spam now pumpkin flavored. Ah, fall. The leaves are golden in the trees & crunch underfoot. The air is colder, but not bitterly so. The apples are ripening & the Spam is pumpkin spice flavored. Wait, what was that last part? Indeed, your favorite MN-based meat product is jumping on the pumpkin spice train & riding it straight to internet sensationalism. It's newest flavor addition, a limited edition Pumpkin Spice Spam, boasts notes of 'cinnamon, clove, allspice & nutmeg.'" --Norfolk Daily News, 9/27

"Americans have ample free time--waste on screens," Drudge Report, 10/29

"Share of Americans with no religious affiliation is growing. 26% in new survey describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or 'nothing in particular,' up from 17% in 2009." --Omaha World Herald, 10/27

DEPT. OF SHAMELESS JOKE-STEALING

"New York City public schools are trying to be healthier this year, so they're no longer serving salami or bologna sandwiches. Instead, they're going with organic free-range pigeon." --Jimmy Fallon late laughs, NDN, 9/27

THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE . . . CALIFORNIA

There shouldn’t be any doubt that California, susceptible to drought through its history and whipped by fierce, dry winds this time of year, is always going to have a fire problem. But there also shouldn’t be any doubt that dealing with it this poorly is the result of a series of foolish, unrealistic policy choices.

California’s overriding goal should have been safe, cheap, and reliable power, a public good so basic that it’s easy to take for granted. The state’s focus on ideological fantasies has instead ensured it has none of the above. --Rich Lowry, National Review Online 10/29

A HUMAN BODY

Far from a subject for another time or place, how might God be speaking to your physical existence even now? How does your body accompany your questions and encounters with God? Consider Christ who walked among the world as a human body, who shared a last meal and washed the feet of his friends, who set his face toward the anguish of the cross, who offered his body for the sake of yours. And who today, stands and physically calls us to come further into this bright mystery even today. --Jill Carattini, Slice of Infinity

CONTEMPT

The contempt we have for material abundance — for things such as agriculture and energy — is part of the disease of decadence. It is grotesque, and something one hears almost exclusively from the rich and the secure. The contempt for the Bill of Rights, increasingly common, is a worrisome sign of the times. --Kevin Williamson, National Review Online 10/28

CLIMATE CATACLYSM

Green New Dealers have convinced themselves that our planet faces an imminent, existential, manmade climate cataclysm – that can be prevented solely and simply by replacing fossil fuels with biofuel, wind, solar and battery energy. They achieve this state of absolute certainty largely by propagating constant scare stories while ignoring and suppressing contradictory evidence and viewpoints. --Paul Driessen, Townhall 10/28

9

THE LEFT

Only when one understands that the Left — the Left, not liberalism — has always and everywhere been a destructive force can one begin to understand what is happening to America. And the Left has damaged no group more than America’s youth. Leftists speak about “the children” — but they care about “the children” as much as the Communists cared about “the workers.” --Dennis Prager, NRO Online 10/29