Dumplin’. Wow, leftwing political tripe dressed up as a movie. This movie from Netflix is shameless with its political agenda.

Denver and the Bowel. Denver has decriminalized crapping in public. The mind boggles.

Wicked Me. Some people’s generosity with their time floors me. I can’t say I’m impressed because the way they’re spending it seems so banal, but maybe I ought to be impressed. It’s time spent for others. I puzzle it out in this segment.

Lightning Segments. Another good gin and tonic recipe, Hayek praising Belloc, changing the name of unfortunate circumstances . . . and changing the name of minority groups . . . an insult?

Steve Martin and Seinfeld. Comedy seemed to take a pretty wild turn with the advent of Steve Martin. Did screens affect our comedic tastes? i think so. I flush it out here.

The Old Testament. I summarize the OT in about eight minutes. The segment is closer to 11, but I throw in a couple of decidedly un-OT anecdotes.

Words. A short look at a few unusual words.

Lightning Segments. The ideal gin and tonic, The Adventures of Beer Man, Ira Gershwin, More.

Radical Derrida? I know Derrida was radical, but I’m not sure three of his main conclusions—words don’t carry ultimate meaning, no text outside the text, and condemnation of binaries—are all that startling. I explain why, pulling from my personal experience, the Warren Court, and Lao Tzu.

Sex in the Stall. A couple allegedly has sex in the bathroom stall at a NFL games. That’s unbelievably gross. Deconstructionism is partly to blame. The fact that these people are absolute pigs doesn’t help, but deconstructionism feeds them. I explain how.

Communist Gnosticism. Marx, Lenin, and hatred for religion = shuttering of Greek Orthodox Churches in the early USSR. Homosexuality, deconstructionism, and hatred for truth = shuttering of Roman Catholic Churches in contemporary USA?

Deconstructionism. Summarized succinctly. Words carry no meaning. Therefore, anything anybody purports to know is merely what they derive from individual experience: subjectivism. No truth . . . only “truth claims.”

Lightning Segments. Hip and renegades: shaping American culture. More McLuhan.

What TWE is Trying to Do. It started as “messages to my adult children,” but quickly grew. What am I trying to do? Nothing more nor less than imitating the essays of Joseph Epstein and honoring Samuel Johnson’s axion: The only end of writing is to allow the reader to better enjoy life.

Fulton Sheen. Bishop, Emmy award winner, adviser to the rich and famous, and making serious inroads to canonization thanks to a stunning 2010 miracle (well, they’re all stunning, but this one particularly so). And then there’s his namesake, Charlie Sheen.

Modernity: Modernity is Gnosticism. John Locke and Materialism, Newton and Empiricism, Mill and Utilitarianism, the politics of Progressivism.

Lightning Segments: Martin Sheen and Dorothy Day and Dostoyevsky; Lesbian remark apologia, using Pineapple Express; E. Michael Jones.

Introverts. An introvert is not a shy person. It’s someone who draws energy from quiet. He has a finite supply of energy for interaction . . . it drains him. A huge revelation for this podcaster. Hat tip to The Matt Walsh Show.

Deconstructionists. Derrida’s attack on binaries was an overreaction to Descartes’ erroneous dualism that denied the sacramental nature of reality. That, anyway, is my theory.

Gnostic Gays: Deconstructionism + Gnosticism = LGBTQ movement.

Touching During Mass. Enough already. Enough with shaking hands, too, at least during the cold and flu season. That custom has ran its course.

Today’s Pride and Prejudice Parlor Scenes. Family members lounging around the living room, each with individual screens in their hands. The end of the family? Or a return of the family to 1800 leisurely norms?

Marshall McLuhan. This Catholic convert would probably take major issue with my conclusions in the previous segment. I introduce the thought of this man who used to be a household name and the meaning of his signature line, “The medium is the message.”

Lighting Segments. Augustine didn’t say “He who sings prays twice,” plus it seems kind of self-laudatory. School of Rock, the musical . . . excellent. Andrew Lloyd Weber . . . rich and conservative. More.

Gnosticism. Introducing the thought of Eric Voegelin, one of the twentieth centuries greatest, yet unheralded, thinkers.

The Mind and Art of Albert Jay Nock. Great book/introduction into the life and thought of the godfather of American libertarianism. The fact that Crunden wrote this as an undergrad? Blows me away.

Deconstructionism and the Family. Why are leftists pro-environment and pro-gay marriage? There’s a connection, though it’s murky and a bit confusing. I try to flush it out here.

Lightning Segments. Dieting, Smear the Queer, More.

Mindfulness. Breaking the mind in two. Proof of the soul? One piece of handy practical advice (identify the emotion and it goes away).

Punctuation. Basic punctuation shows regard for the other.

Haters at Mass. Pope Francis’ suggestion that hateful Catholics stay away from Mass makes sense, but there are three potential problems with it: When is a person good enough to go to Mass? Hasn’t he been a bit, ahem, spiteful in his attacks on his political foes? Maybe Mass is keeping the hateful from becoming the murderous.

Structuralism. The foundations of post-modernism. My first podcast segment on this topic. Structuralists: words form the society; the society tells you how to think; thoughts don’t come from inside of us. Deconstructionists: Okay, but you guys, the structuralists, aren’t thinking for yourselves either. There is no truth period, in any form or fashion whatsoever. Leads to sexual libertinism.

Buddhist Emptiness. The Buddhist doctrine of Emptiness appears to reflect the basic insight of semiology, the science of signs, which was the foundation of the structuralists’ insights. Both led to sexual libertinism: Tantric Buddhism on the one hand, free love of the 1960s on the other (and today’s celebration of preference today).

Lightning Segments. Hangovers, exploding real estate prices in Detroit, TWE’s improving Facebook page.

Nestorian Christians. Mongols respected Christians . . . of the Nestorian stripe. Who were they? In sum, Christians who denied Christ’s full divinity. They were active in the far east and managed to convert an important Mongol tribe.

Next Week: I plan on producing a podcast next week, over the holidays, but it’ll probably be unusual fare.

Sol Invictus. No, Christmas predates Sol Invictus, but the question of pagan practices’ influence on Christian practices is interesting. I don’t look at the history much, but rather, focus on the premonition of truth that I think was at work.

The Jesus Prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Just twelve words. The path to praying without ceasing (Thessalonians 5)?

Econtalk and Secular Groping. The more we advance, the more we go backwards: As we get away from modernism, we start to rediscover ancient truths. It’s a phenomenon that has long fascinated me. I delve into it here.