The Home Front

Show Notes:On the Biodetector:Phil on the elections: Beyond tariffs: Trump’s Beef Import Plan Delivers Little Relief for Consumers as Ranchers Take a HitFilm: Now and at the Hour of Our Death - The Story of Tom Vander WoudeTom and Mary Vander Woude were blessed with a joyful marriage and a family of seven sons. As a Knight of Columbus, Tom was always a man of sacrifice and service, considering it a privilege to care for his son Joseph, who had Down syndrome, embracing him as one of God’s special children. After retiring from a career as a pilot, Tom settled his family on a farm in Virginia, where he remained active in his church and school community as a coach.On September 8, 2008, Joseph fell into the family’s septic tank and struggled to stay afloat. Without hesitation, Tom jumped in to lift his son to safety, enabling Joseph to breathe and survive. In the selfless act of saving his son, Tom lost his own life, offering a profound example of sacrificial love reminiscent of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.Since his death, family members and friends have experienced graces while seeking Tom’s intercession. Recognizing the extraordinary love and heroism of his final act, the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, is investigating Tom Vander Woude’s cause for sainthood.‘You Pull, I’ll Push:’ A Father Gives His Life by John CuddebackTom’s unforgettable last words capture both the heart of this amazing story and the heart of the man who uttered them. “You pull, and I’ll push.” Thus Tom directed the man above the tank, so that together they would keep Josie from sinking to his death. Tom’s heroic effort would be just enough.At the wake Tom’s wife Mary Ellen would truthfully say of her husband, “He died with his boots on.”Phil Lawler’s SubstackLeila’s other Substack: The School for HousewivesLeila’s blog: Like Mother, Like DaughterLawler Family Book Club list (scroll down) Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe

Show Notes:The Children Saved by Flock (City Journal)The Odds of Your Kid Getting Kidnapped by Lenore SkenazyOnline grooming (the real danger). A Philosopher of War Changes His Mind (New Yorker): Michael Walzer (access the archived version here)Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations by Michael Walzer (affiliate link)Cardinal Fernández admits low interest in his latest document (Catholic Herald)The Apparition of Our Lady of ZeitounOur Lady of Zeitoun TimelineAll the Pretty Horses by Cormack McCarthy (affiliate link)Next book in the LFBC*: City Of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge (affiliate link)Phil Lawler’s SubstackLeila’s other Substack: The School for HousewivesLeila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter*Lawler Family Book Club list (scroll down) Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe

Show Notes:The Overton Window (Mackinac Center)An Introduction to the Overton Window of Political Possibilities (Mackinac Center)US ambassador to Holy See visits Taybeh day after settler attack on locals, European diplomats (Zeale)Justices leave lower court order in place preventing Trump administration from implementing transgender inmate policy (SCOTUSblog)Supreme Court Rules on Trump Admin Policy Blocking Sex-Rejecting Procedures for PrisonersMatt Fradd: Did Mary Really Appear in Egypt? Our Lady of Zeitoun (Fr. Anthony Mourad) | Ep. 601Fifty-one years ago today: Carlton Fisk hits home run in Game 6All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (affiliate link)Phil Lawler’s SubstackLeila’s other Substack: The School for HousewivesLeila’s blog: Like Mother, Like DaughterLawler Family Book Club list (scroll down)Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe

Show Notes:Changes in the Catechism on capital punishment:Original wording2266: Preserving the common good of society requires rendering the aggressor unable to inflict harm. For this reason, the traditional teaching of the Church has acknowledged as well-founded the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty…2266, cont.: The primary effect of punishment is to redress the disorder caused by the offense….2267: If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.As amended by Pope John Paul II2267: “…cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender today are very rare, if not practically non-existent.”As amended again by Pope Francis (in current edition)2266: The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people’s rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and the duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense...2267: Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.On the death penalty, an uncertain trumpet by Phil Lawler:Nowhere has confusion about Catholic teaching on capital punishment been more in evidence than in the responses to Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the execution by firing squad of the Fort Hood terrorist.Phil Lawler’s SubstackLeila’s other Substack: The School for HousewivesLeila’s blog: Like Mother, Like DaughterLawler Family Book Club list (scroll down)Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe

Show Notes:Religious Scholars Met with Anthropic. What They Heard Stunned Them (New York Times) (archived here)A warning about ‘model welfare’ (Mustafa Suleyman, Substack)10 Years After Amoris Laetitia, Bishops to Discuss Challenges of Families at the Vatican‘Amoris Laetitia’ Is Consistent With Church Teaching, Sister Tells Pope and BishopsPope on Amoris laetitia: What Church do people meet when most fragile? [sic]Wilmer will bring to Rome experiences of “homosexual couples” and divorced people who have remarried at the meeting on Amoris laetitiaShort version of Leila’s argument regarding the contradiction of Amoris Laetitia (scroll down to footnote 2)The long version is in the appendix of this book (endorsed by Cardinal Pell, RIP)How the Sexual Revolution Led to Cornell by Louise Perry (WSJ)The Campus Rape Myth (Heather MacDonald, City Journal)Orley Farm, by Anthony TrollopePhil Lawler’s SubstackLeila’s other Substack: The School for HousewivesLeila’s blog: Like Mother, Like DaughterLawler Family Book Club list (scroll down)Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free!Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us!How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe

Show Notes:Pope Leo in France: highlightsPope Leo’s in-flight presser: “So, I would say, if that’s politics, I did that, but it was not to get involved in French politics. It was to teach what the Church really believes.”The insanity of the coverage of this story: Trans NYT exec charged with child abuse threatened to kill spouse before in-laws shot her to death in California: court docs. But then, the story is insane.Support Andy Ngo on Substack.Pope Leo’s address to Civil Authorities in FranceCornell 7 gang rape case.Phil Lawler’s SubstackLeila’s other Substack: The School for HousewivesLeila’s blog: Like Mother, Like DaughterLawler Family Book Club list (scroll down)Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free!Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us!How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe

State intrusion after baby is born:Governor Healey Announces New Actions to Strengthen Maternal Mental Health and Postpartum Care from the MA government websiteMaura Healey Wants Increased Maternal Mental Health Spending Following Lindsay Clancy Trial (New Boston Post) Maura Healey Wants to Investigate Parents of Every Newborn Baby (LifeNews)Massachusetts Considers Bill to Prioritize Treatment Over Punishment for New Mothers with Postpartum Psychiatric IllnessNikole Hannah-Jones: She flunks all the tests:In which we talk about court-ordered forced busing: How to resolve AI threats:J.P. Morgan and the Panic of 1907: How one financier proved mightier than Wall Street (Daily News)The history of 1907 Financial Crisis: The Unseen Hand of J.P. Morgan (World History Journal)Surrogacy Gridlock:Supreme Court Turns Away Surrogate Appeal in Messy Custody Fight (Wall Street Journal Supreme Court stays out of custody dispute between California couple and surrogate (CBS)And More:Confraternity of Christian MothersPhil Lawler’s SubstackLeila’s other Substack: The School for HousewivesLeila’s blog: Like Mother, Like DaughterLawler Family Book Club list (scroll down)Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free!Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us!How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe

Show Notes:New Details About Holdout Juror in Lindsay Clancy Case RevealedReport of an interview with the holdout juror in the Clancy caseRobert Kennedy’s speech at the Republican Midterm ConventionMassachusetts kidnaps a teen to trans her against her parents’ willOur interview with Robert Royal on his book about the 21st century martyrs:Phil Lawler’s SubstackLeila’s other Substack: The School for HousewivesLeila’s blog: Like Mother, Like DaughterLawler Family Book Club list (scroll down)Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free!Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us!How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe

Show Notes:* The German bishops’ outcry; the US bishops’ silence by Phil LawlerWhy the AfD Wins by Christopher CaldwellGermany’s ‘Firewall’ Against the Far Right Is Being Tested as Never Before ~ News analysis, The New York Times (archive version here)The AfD Rises on the German Right ~ Editorial on The Wall Street Journal (check this page to see if the article is archived yet)Mitt Brennender Sorge: On the Church and the German Reich, Pope Pius XI (1937) * Using the Child Care and Development Fund for married couples with one spouse staying home with children:Pro: The Stay-At-Home Parent Debate Is GDP First Vs. America First​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Con: Welfare Queens of the Right and the Diet Coke of SocialistsHow the program worksLawler Family Book Club list (scroll down)Phil Lawler’s SubstackLeila’s other Substack: The School for HousewivesLeila’s blog: Like Mother, Like DaughterYour paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free!Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us!How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe

Update (from when we recorded): The second “unvaccinated person” measles-associated case is put in perspective by Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons. He makes five points about the information given to the public. A must-read on this developing situation. Democratic Socialists of AmericaMeasles Hysteria: A Timely Political Hit Job by Mary Talley BowdenThe Pope and the Jesuits: John Paul II and the New Order in the Catholic Church ~ by James HitchcockPontifex Minimus — Fr. Mankowksi’s review of Fr. James Martin S.J.’s book Building a Bridge, in First ThingsFarewell, Uncle Di: Father Paul Mankowski, RIP ~ Phil Lawler’s obituary on CatholicCulture, with links to some Mankowski classicsDiogenes Unveiled: A Paul Mankowski, S.J., Collection (affiliate link) ~ edited by Phil LawlerJesuit at Large: Essays and Reviews by Paul Mankowski, S.J. (affiliate link) ~ edited by George Weigel The Sound of Silence: The Life and Canceling of a Heroic Jesuit Priest (affiliate link) ~ by Karen HallTolkien and the Inklings: Men of the West (affiliate link) ~ by Bradley J. Birzer The Crusades: A History (affiliate link) ~ by Jonathan Riley-SmithPhil Lawler’s SubstackLeila’s other Substack: The School for HousewivesLeila’s blog: Like Mother, Like DaughterYour paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free!Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us!How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe