Thoughts on Coming Home; Faith, Loss,
and Belonging
Posted By: Boomer in the Basement, 12/24/2025 5:56:21 PM
Written on Christmas Eve, 2025. A personal reflection on faith, loss, ancestry, and finding my way home. This Christmas, life is really different for me. Since September, I’ve been attending RCIA, or Catechism, with the aim of converting to Catholicism and joining the church. Presently, I’m about 40% of the way through, and to say it’s been eye-opening would be the boldest understatement I’ve ever made.
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Boomer in the Basement"
Written on Christmas Eve, 2025. A personal reflection on faith, loss, ancestry, and finding my way home. This Christmas, life is really different for me. Since September, I’ve been attending RCIA, or Catechism, with the aim of converting to Catholicism and joining the church. Presently, I’m about 40% of the way through, and to say it’s been eye-opening would be the boldest understatement I’ve ever made.
When I was a kid, my middle sister’s birthday was December 10th. As part of her celebration, the family went out to buy a live Christmas tree. Not because we were virtuous. Not because of tradition. Because that’s when the tree lots opened.
There were no pre-lit artificial trees waiting in plastic coffins in the attic. You didn’t unbox Christmas. You went outside and found it, standing upright in the cold, guarded by a man with twine and cold hands in a worn corduroy jacket.
Writing this in December as I am you might be tempted to think I’m something of a money-grubbing Scrooge, but let me assure you in this first sentence I’m nothing of the sort. In fact, when it comes to tipping good service, I’m renowned for being generous, and was going twenty percent years before it was standard.
My formula for a tip is this. When I enter an establishment, the wait staff is at twenty percent, perhaps even a little more. The tip is built into my tipping psyche. At that point, it’s up to the wait staff to begin working their way down.
Talk Radio Tuneout
23 replies
Now that we’re firmly in December, I can comfortably drive around in the truck with Jimmy Durante’s gravelly crooning of Frosty the Snowman for the eighteen-millionth time in my life, rather than tune into what passes for talk radio these days. To be sure, I’ll even turn up The Chipmunks—poor old Alvin being screamed at by Dave—before I switch over to the local AM station carrying Clay and Buck, or, God help me, Sean Hannity.
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Democratic Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said on Monday that Somalis are to thank for “every achievement” that the city has ever had.
Somalis have gained national attention after several were charged with stealing over $1 billion from Minnesota’s social programs, including those intended to feed poor children. Wu claimed that the Somalians are responsible for every positive thing that has happened in Boston.
“You cannot talk about any achievement that the city of Boston has had in safety, jobs, and economic development, in education, without talking about the Somali community that has lifted our city up. We are proud and we are grateful for our Somali community and
Raffensperger Says 2020 Election Blunder
"Does Not Erase Votes" Despite Over 300k
Questionable Votes 24 replies
"Does Not Erase Votes" Despite Over 300k
Questionable Votes 24 replies
Nearly two weeks after the December meeting of the Georgia State Election Board, some continue to claim Fulton County was fraudulent because tabulation tapes were not signed that included 315,000 votes. Five years after the 2020 election, challenges continue despite multiple audits. (snip) Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger addressed the accusations in a social media post. "Georgia has the most secure elections in the country and all voters were verified with photo ID and lawfully cast their ballots. A clerical error at the end of the day does not erase valid, legal votes," Raffensperger said.
Gov. Tim Walz says the state is anticipating and preparing for increased ICE enforcement actions over the holidays, including the possibility of ICE agents targeting Christmas Eve mass. (snip) "We hear rumors, we hear suggestions of things, because that's how they operate, that there will be an increased presence," said Gov. Walz. "I would tell you, if I were a betting person, they will do it over these holiday seasons because it makes it especially cruel."
Supreme Court says Trump can't deploy
National Guard to Chicago as legal challenge
moves forward 19 replies
National Guard to Chicago as legal challenge
moves forward 19 replies
Washington — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a bid by the Trump administration to deploy National Guard members to the Chicago area while a legal challenge moves forward, delivering a setback to President Trump in his effort to use federalized troops in Illinois to ensure enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The high court left untouched a judge's decision blocking the government from putting National Guard members on the streets of Chicago and surrounding areas. The Trump administration had urged the Supreme Court to allow the extraordinary move to deploy the troops over the objection of Illinois' Democratic governor, arguing that federal courts cannot second-guess
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was buried under backlash after a tone-deaf post lamenting the “most vulnerable” illegal aliens in her community.
The Democrat’s post on social media last week touted a holiday donation drive for families not feeling “safe” in the California city, and it generated criticism on X that continued to reverberate for days.
“For many immigrant families, this holiday season is marked by absence and fear. Loved ones are missing due to immigration enforcement actions, and many families do not feel safe leaving their homes to participate in holiday traditions,” Bass wrote in the post, accompanied by photos from the toy drive.
Nearly 100 MN Mayors Warn in No-Nonsense
Letter That Tim Walz Is Leading State
to 'Fiscal Disaster' 17 replies
Letter That Tim Walz Is Leading State
to 'Fiscal Disaster' 17 replies
In this episode of "Try to Control Your Shock and Amazement..."
There's no doubt that Minnesota governor and erstwhile Democrat vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz is, shall we say "different"? And if you're like me, you still shudder at the mere thought of what would have become of the country we love if the equally *brilliant* Kamala Harris had not been decisively mauled by President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Apparently, a group of nearly 100 Minnesota mayors has already learned.
So yeah, 98 mayors across Minnesota have sounded the alarm in a no-nonsense letter to Walz and state lawmakers, blistering the state’s fiscal mismanagement. The distraught mayors warned that what
2020 GA Election Fraud is Confirmed
17 replies
A few days ago, the Federalist reported that Fulton County, Georgia, had over 300,000 illegal early-vote ballots during the 2020 election. The votes were illegal because they were unsupported by poll worker signatures (contrary to Georgia law). In other words, the vote totals were miraculously born without a mother or father.
Independent analysts have known of this evidence for years. Indeed, a reference to the phony 2020 votes is included on page 108 of my book (Debunked?), which was published three years ago:
“All but two of the early vote tabulator closing tapes for 350,000 votes were unsigned. Thus, there was no chain of custody for those files.”
The Trump administration is preparing to crack down on student loan defaulters starting next year. This will be interesting because you can bet Democrats are going to flip out about this. The Education Department confirmed it will begin withholding wages from borrowers who fail to pay their debts. The first wave hits in early January. About 1,000 individuals who defaulted on their student loans will see wage garnishments begin the week of Jan. 7, 2026.
“We expect the first notices to be sent to approximately 1,000 defaulted borrowers the week of January 7,” an Education Department spokesperson told The New York Post.
Even more surprising than the blockbuster 4.3% economic growth rate recorded in the third quarter of 2025 was the fact that some 90% of the nation’s professional economists got it all wrong.
These economic whiz-kids’ faulty forecast comes on the heels of their predictions last week that inflation was going to be above 3%. Instead, the actual number was 2.7%.
Welcome to the gang that can’t shoot straight.
Maybe it’s time for this cadre of Keynesian economists to send their PhDs back to the Ivy League schools they got them from, and just admit they have no idea what they’re talking about.
Disgraced first son Hunter Biden turned on his father, Joe, in a wide-ranging podcast interview this week, acknowledging that the 46th president’s lax immigration policy and move to pull US forces out of Afghanistan were both catastrophic failures.
We need vibrant immigration,” the 55-year-old told “The Shawn Ryan Show” during a five-and-a-half-hour conversation that dropped Monday.
“But we don’t want immigrants that are coming here illegally, draining us of resources, and being prioritized above people that are actual, literal heroes, that are still recovering from 21, 20 years of endless war — or anybody else in our society.”
The U.S. economy grew this summer at the fastest pace in two years, far outpacing economists’ forecasts.
The Commerce Department said U.S. gross domestic product—the government’s official economic scorecard—rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted 4.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter. The report on the July through September period was delayed due to the shutdown.
“Today’s blockbuster, expectation-smashing GDP report is the latest proof that President Trump’s America First trade and economic agenda continues to turn the page on the Biden economic disaster: American consumers are spending, and American exports are surging,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said. “President Trump built the greatest economy in the world in
Former Republican Senator Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, calling the diagnosis “a death sentence.”
“This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,” Sasse wrote in a post on X.
Sasse served as a senator for the state of Nebraska from 2015 to 2023, at which point he resigned to become the president of the University of Florida from February 2023 to July 2024.