Blog

This is a review of American Pontiff: Pope Leo XIV and His Plan to Heal the Church by Paul Kengor, Ph.D. (2026). The book actually covers two popes, with much of the book spent analyzing the pontificate (2013-2025) of Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio).

I first wrote about Pope Francis in my book A Catholic Prays Scripture (Volume 4): concerning God’s “word” and the “future.” In Chapter 6 (Your “Future” Prayer), I wrote about Pope Francis’ love for a book entitled The Betrothed by Alessandro...

This is the third in a series of three posts on Nebraska government and politics. The first post (June 21, 2026) concerned Nebraska’s unicameral legislature. The second post concerned a Nebraska political phenomenon known as the “blue dot.” This post will concern how the blue dot impacted the May 12, 2026, primary election in Nebraska.

My Favorite Primary Ad

The political ad that ultimately prompted this post caught my attention when I pulled it out of my mailbox. I DID see a clear difference...

Nebraska’s “blue dot” has received a lot of attention during recent presidential elections – more than you might expect for one lousy vote. Let’s start with some basics.

The Electoral College

Per the constitution, the electoral college assembles every four years to elect the president of the United States – to translate the popular vote in each state into that state’s vote – and then to accumulate those state votes to pick the president of the union. Each state is given two votes (one per...

Politically speaking, we are between seasons in Nebraska. The May 10th primary election has been held and the November general election is several months away. So, I thought I would spend a little time now writing about Nebraska government and politics. This is the first of three planned posts on these topics.

Nebraska is traditionally a Republican state. The current governor (Jim Pillen), two senators (Pete Ricketts and Deb Fischer), and three congressmen (Mike Flood, Don Bacon, and Adam...

This post is the fifth and last post in a series concerning parables. For the most part, these posts contained excerpts from the third chapter (A Parable Prayer) of my book A Catholic Prays Scripture – Volume 4: concerning God’s “word” and the “future.” The first post in this series was posted on May 17, 2026.

Hopefully you learned a few things from the first two posts and found some humor in the parables of sausage and golf.

Most of the chapters in my A Catholic Prays Scripture series start...

This post is the fourth post concerning parables. For the most part, these posts contain excerpts from the third chapter (A Parable Prayer) in my book A Catholic Prays Scripture – Volume 4: concerning God’s “word” and the “future.” The first post in this series was posted on May 17, 2026.

An Observation

Before I get into my parables about golf, I want to note an observation that I made during my study of the New Testament. My observation was that, considering how frequently Jesus used parables...

This post is the third post, in a series of five concerning parables. For the most part, these posts contain excerpts from the third chapter (A Parable Prayer) in my book A Catholic Prays Scripture – Volume 4: concerning God’s “word” and the “future.” The first post in this series was posted on May 17, 2026.

My Assignment

Write a modern-day parable about the Kingdom of God. Begin it simply with the words "The Kingdom of God is like . . . (Before you write, recall what a parable is; why it is...

This post is the second in a series of five, concerning the parables, that I intend to release within the next month. For the most part, these posts are excerpts from the third chapter (A Parable Prayer) in my book A Catholic Prays Scripture – Volume 4: concerning God’s “word” and the “future.” The first post in this series was posted on May 17, 2026.

In my previous post, I noted that parables contain a story element, but I did not address whether the stories are “true” or “fiction.” All of...

This post is the first in a series of five, concerning the parables, that I intend to release during the next month or so. For the most part, these posts will be excerpts from the third chapter (A Parable Prayer) in my book A Catholic Prays Scripture – Volume 4: concerning God’s “word” and the “future.”

Most of the material in the above-mentioned chapter (and this post) came about while I was attending the second year of the Archdiocese of Omaha Catholic Biblical School. During the first year...

This is a review of The Human Brain Book: A Visual Guide to Structure and Function by Rita Carter (2026, fourth American Edition). Carter is a science and medical writer who has twice been awarded the Medical Journalists Association prize for outstanding contribution to medical journalism.

This book review is a bit different for me in that it is a review of a book that might best be categorized as a “coffee-table” book. It weighs 3.2 pounds, which coincidentally is the weight of an average...

This is a book review of Rory Land: The Up-and-Down World of Golf’s Global Icon, by Timothy M. Gay (2025). The book is a biography of golfer Rory McIlroy, with an emphasis on “rounds of golf.”

I reserved this library book months ago, but the waiting list was long, and I didn’t get my first look at the book until the start of the 2026 Masters. In fact, I was only about eighty pages into Gay’s book when this year’s Masters play began on April 9th.

Note: Gay’s 428-page book does not contain an...

This is a book review of Make him a Sandwich: Why Real Women Don’t Need Fake Feminism, by Candace Owens (2025).

I first saw Candace Owens on Fox News, doing segments for Tucker Carlson. One of those segments indirectly led to the title of this book. On March 15, 2021, she was asked by Tucker to comment on a Grammy performance by a rapper named Cardi B. In her comments, Candace stated that Cardi B’s performance was “a lesbian sex scene being simulated on television.” She added, “This is not...

Omaha’s new Central Public Library opens to the public later today. It is conveniently located in the “Crossroads” area of Omaha, at the intersections of 72nd and Dodge Streets. The ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. The new building at 96,000 to 102,000 square-feet (sources vary) was built at a cost of around $158 million, $20 million from the city, and the rest from the private sector, including Heritage Omaha (the “city fathers,” including some early and fortunate “Warren...

In my book, The Polesworth Circle: The Education of William Shakespeare, I theorized that Raphael Holinshed, the great chronicler of England (and steward of the Burdett estate at Bramcote), taught William Shakespeare and Michael Drayton the art of storytelling.

To substantiate my theory, I asked Microsoft’s AI-assistant (Copilot) three questions. The first two were related to Holinshed’s relationship with the Burdett’s of Bramcote. Question #3 is the big one.

Question #3: If Holinshed lived at...

In my book, The Polesworth Circle: The Education of William Shakespeare, I theorized that Raphael Holinshed, the great chronicler of England (and steward of the Burdett estate at Bramcote), taught William Shakespeare and Michael Drayton the art of storytelling. To substantiate my theory, I asked Copilot (Microsoft’s AI assistant) three questions.

When responding to my first question, Copilot didn’t seem to know that Sir Robert Burdett (1510-49) had willed Holinshed some money when he died in...

In my book, The Polesworth Circle: The Education of William Shakespeare, I theorized that Raphael Holinshed, the great chronicler of England (and steward of the Burdett estate at Bramcote), taught William Shakespeare and Michael Drayton the art of storytelling. To substantiate my theory, I asked Copilot (Microsoft’s AI-assistant) three questions. The first, noted below, concerns where Holinshed lived during his life (London or Bramcote).

Question #1: I believe that Raphael Holinshed was...

This post is a review of I Went to Prison So You Won’t Have To: A Love and Lawfare Story in Trump Land by Peter Navarro and Bonnie Brenner (2025). The Foreword to the book was written by Stephen K. Bannon (another Trump senior advisor imprisoned because he invoked executive privilege when subpoenaed by the J6 committee).

During the first Trump administration, Navarro was the director of the White House National Trade Council before becoming the director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing...

My wife and I traveled to St. Louis last weekend to watch our granddaughter’s “club” volleyball team (from Tampa, Florida) play in the “2026 Nike Mideast Qualifier” (16 Liberty Division).

As our daughter and her family made it up to St. Louis (via plane, truck, and towed RV), we drove down from Omaha (444 miles) on Thursday. We then watched volleyball on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, before returning to Omaha on Monday. All and all, it was a fun trip – a nice visit with our daughter and her...

This is a book review of “A Revolution of Common Sense: How Donald Trump Stormed Washington and Fought for Western Civilization, by Scott Jennings (2025).

Who is Scott Jennings?

Scott is now a member of the media, a “senior political commentator” (or “pundit”) for CNN. He was hired by CNN in 2017 to “serve as an emblem of the average Republican voter that largely supported” Trump. This role contrasted with another CNN hire at about that time, JD Vance, who was to be the “Never Trump”...

This post is “kind of a review” of an article in the Fall 2014 issue of Shakespeare Quarterly by Meghen C. Andrews, entitled “Michael Drayton, Shakespeare’s Shadow.”

[See: Andrews, Meghan C. “Michael Drayton, Shakespeare’s Shadow.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 3, 2014, pp. 273–306. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24778583.]

I used the “kind of a review” phrase above because I had an alternative motive – to see if Andrews’ article provided any support for my theory that Raphael...