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“If nothing is true…” A Review of “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the...
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, 128 pages, Tim Duggan Books, March 2017 Timothy Snyder is the Housum Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the...
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Reflections on a Sanity Day
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, Today I am just going to share some reflections of a restful day off regarding friendship, family, and being deliberate rather than reactive in the way I get...
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Abandon Facts and Abandon Freedom: Contending Against Alternative Truth,...
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, Marcus Aurelius wrote: “If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly...
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“In Their Hearts there is Unspoken Fear…” Observing the “Enfant Terribles” of...
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, It seems like nearly every day we are treated to a new round of manic midnight tweeting by our President, usually because he has been criticized by someone or has went...
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The New Freedom of the Mass Movement: “freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture,...
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, I was startled when I read the latest Quinnipac poll numbers regarding the views of Republican supporters of President Trump. According to the poll 81% agree with the...
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The Totalitarian Contempt for Facts
A Short thought to begin the week that kind of follows my posts of the last several days. Hannah Arendt wrote in her book The Origins of Totalitarianism this poignant fact and warning: “Before mass...
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Character: “The Decisive Factor in the Life of an Individual and of Nations...
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, I teach ethics, and as I observe the words and actions of President Trump and his closest advisors I see a massive attack on facts, truth, reason, intellectualism, and...
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“I am not a tool of any President!” Will a Republican Emulate Stephen A....
Stephen A. Douglas Friends of Padre Steve’s World, Barbara Tuchman wrote in her book The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam something that we are observing up close and personal as President Trump...
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The Christian Choice: The Idolatrous Worship of Power or Stand in Favor of...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Friends of Padre Steve’s World, One of the most frightening things to me as a historian who happens of claim to be a Christian is the propensity for the Church and its leaders to...
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A Son of Erin
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, Like any American whose family on both the paternal and maternal sides has been in this country since well before the American Revolution, I am kind of a genetic mutt....
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Committing Suicide out of Fear of Death: The Possibility of Preventive War on...
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, Otto von Bismarck, the “Iron Chancellor” of Prussia and Germany once noted that “preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.” Sadly, most Americans,...
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“No More Dangerous Thing for a Democracy…”
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, There are some times when my education and experience as a historian and ethicist. Last week was one of those times as I watched Secretary of State Tillerson and...
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A Budget is a Moral Document
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, Just a short couple of thoughts to start the week concerning the budget proposal of President Trump. President Dwight D. Eisenhower said: “Dollars and guns are no...
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The Deadly Illusion: Ignorance, Myth, and Alternative Reality
ordinary men can find themselves standing over death pits with guns in their hands… Friends of Padre Steve’s World, My longtime readers know that I write about the Holocaust and Nazi Germany a lot....
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Humanizing Inhuman Humanity
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, In the movie Judgement at Nuremberg, Spencer Tracy’s character makes tis comment: “If he and all of the other defendants had been degraded perverts, if all of the...
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Perpetrators and Bystanders
Jewish Men being Rounded Up in Baden with Citizens looking on Friends of Padre Steve’s World, Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer wrote: “Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator,...
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“Once you start down the dark path…” Longing for Honesty from the President
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, Thomas Jefferson once noted “Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.” It is a lesson that the President, his spokespeople, and his flacks should learn. However...
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The Trumpcare Train Wreck: Incompetence + Hubris = Disaster
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, Mark Twain once wrote, “Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” That being said is amazing to watch a...
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The Lenten Mendoza Line and a Birthday
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, It looks like we’re about halfway through the season of Lent, my least favorite season of the liturgical year and I am doing pretty. Good. I’m going to celebrate my...
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“The Grave Dangers in Meeting Fanaticism with Ignorance…”
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, Earlier in the week I discussed the moral implications of the President’s budget and talked about President Eisenhower’s Chance for Peace Speech of 1953. As I thought...
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