Monthly Archives: October 2026

Would Somone Explain to Me—- 

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—-exactly what are “traditional Christian values?”

A lady at a convenience store I like to visit from time to time was wishing the other day that our nation would return to “traditional Christian values.”

“I wish somebody would define them,” I responded.

As I’ve said before, not many of us would want to live under the “Christian Values” that our sainted Pilgrim fathers and mothers came here to practice.

We do hear so many demands that our nation return to them but none of those, especially in political circles, who suggest our country is failing because it has abandoned those values has ever clearly justified their interpretations of them.

I have a copy of a 3×5 card from an organization in the 1920s that listed its core Christian values.  They weren’t bad except one of them was white supremacy.  The Christian organization circulating that care was, of course, the Klan.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus tells his disciples, “Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

There seems to be in some quarters a misunderstanding of that verse by many of those who religiously support our president who, from this quiet hill, seems to fall well short of the qualities He spoke of.

This entry might stir some heated responses in the box below.  So, fire away.

A good minister friend of mine, John Bennett, thought the Old Testament prophet Micah captured those values in thirteen words.

“To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

In the Gospel of James, we learn that the “pure and faultless religion” requires us to “to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”

Isaiah told us, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”  Verses in Deuteronomy and in one of the Psalms say the same thing.

And Zechariah says God said, “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.”

All of those sound pretty good from here.  However, I think all of us can think of at least one prominent person revered by certain religious elements who falls well short of that.

It would be interesting to have a reaction from the self-proclaimed faithful Bible reader who lives in what is left of the White House to those descriptions or what we’re posting next.

One of many places on the internet explaining TCVs is beliefnet, the place where I found an article by Lauren McKeithen, a contributor to the page and to other information sources.

“10 Christian Values and how to Live them.”

A value or ethic is a principle or standard about what is important in one’s life. Therefore, Christian values are the principles that a follower of Jesus Christ holds as necessary, the principles of life that Jesus taught.

Christian values don’t change over time. They are consistent from generation to generation since their foundation is found in God’s Word, the Bible.

Worldly values include wealth, power, pleasure, revenge, fame, vanity, and status. These are the most important things to people who perceive no power or purpose beyond themselves

Worldly values promote jealousies, resentments, and conflicts among people following the objectives of Satan.

The Christian values taught in the Bible are often the opposite of worldly values: kindness and respect for all people instead of power; humility instead of status; honesty and generosity instead of wealth; self-control instead of self-indulgence; forgiveness instead of revenge.

Christian values promote peace and goodwill among people following the purposes of God. We will never achieve perfection in this life, but those who strive to obey God often find a sense of joy and peace that no worldly rewards can match. Here’s a list of Christian values emphasized in the Bible.

Worship God.

One day, a religious leader asked Jesus which commandments were most important. Jesus replied in Mark 12:28-30 by saying, “The most important one is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

The Hebrews of Old Testament times tended to lapse into worship of pagan deities and statues of animals or other objects. Still, anything that takes the place of our devotion to God becomes an idol or false god.

That idolatry is forbidden by the first of the Ten Commandments. Jesus particularly singled out the love of wealth as a false god, and other Bible passages mention greed, covetousness, arrogance, gluttony, and pride as equivalent to idolatry.

In today’s world, many things compete against God for our devotion. These are some things that are not necessarily bad in moderation but can become modern-day idolatry if we let them become too important to us, like attention to material possessions, the pursuit of wealth, and excessive devotion to self.

If you need ideas on how to worship God, here are 18 ways to worship God.

Be kind to everyone.

After saying “Love the Lord your God” is the most important of the commandments, Jesus continued, “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these,” as seen in Mark 12:31.

The English word “love” has many different meanings, but the Greek word agape, used in the New Testament, is commonly known as “Christian love.” It means respect, affection, benevolence, goodwill, and concern for the welfare of the one loved.

Jesus’ Golden Rule is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

We should not say or do anything unless we can answer “Yes” to the question, “Would I want that said or done to me?” Neither should we fail to do the good things we would expect of others.

Be humble.

Humility or being humble is a quality of being courteously respectful of others. It is the opposite of aggressiveness, arrogance, boastfulness, and vanity.

Acting with humility does not in any way deny our self-worth. Instead, it affirms the inherent worth of all persons.

Humility is needed to live in peace and harmony with all persons. It dissipates anger and heals old wounds, and allows us to see the dignity and worth of all God’s people. Humility distinguishes the wise leader from the arrogant power-seeker.

Be honest.

Honesty and integrity are held as fundamental values throughout the Bible. Any deception to gain an advantage or harm someone else is prohibited by the Ten Commandments and other Bible passages.

Deception may be by lies, cheating, innuendo, or failing to tell the whole truth. It is all too common in advertising, business, politics, and everyday life.

We must strongly resist the temptation to engage in any form of theft, cheating, deception, innuendo, slander, or gossip.

Rationalization is a form of self-deception. We convince ourselves that sinful actions are justified to achieve a good result, but this is another form of dishonesty.

Holiness is living by the commandments, not reaching an outcome. In Biblical teaching, the ends do not justify the means.

Live a moral life.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

Jesus gave a list of actions that constitute immoral uses of the body: evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, arrogance, and foolishness.

The apostle Paul gave similar lists. We often think of morality in terms of sexual sins, but according to Jesus, slander, greed, covetousness, deceit, and arrogance are equally immoral.

Be generous with time and money.

The Bible tells us to share generously with those in need, and good things will come to us in turn. Each of us has something to offer to someone in need.

We can give our money and our time to charity, be a friend to someone sick or lonely, do volunteer work or choose a service-oriented occupation. We may give unselfishly of our time to our spouse, children, or parents.

This idea doesn’t mean we are obligated to share our time or money with people who are not in need but want to use or abuse us, as described in 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12.

Don’t be a hypocrite.

If there was any group of people that Jesus couldn’t stand, it was hypocrites.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ time were a religious and political party that insisted on the rigorous observance of Biblical laws on tithing, ritual purity, and other matters. At the same time, many of the Pharisees forgot the true spirit and intent of the law and became self-indulgent, self-righteous, snobbish, and greedy.

That led Jesus to tell the Pharisees that they appeared righteous on the outside, but they were full of hypocrisy.

It is not the things we say that truly matter. It is the things that we do. If we claim to be Christians but do not let Jesus’ teachings guide our lives, we are nothing but hypocrites.

Don’t be self-righteous.

No one is perfect; we are all sinners in one way.

Living a moral life means taking responsibility for controlling our behavior. If we say or even think we are better than people we consider to be sinners, we are guilty of the sin of self-righteousness.

It is not our right to look down on, criticize, judge, condemn, or try to control other people. Judgment is to be left to God.

In Matthew 7:1-5, Jesus said, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make, you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”

This value does not deny the right of governments to maintain law and order and collect taxes. Jesus and other New Testament leaders supported the authority of civil governments.

Don’t retaliate.

Jesus said there is no place for hatred, holding a grudge, revenge, retaliation, or getting even in the life of a Christian, described in Matthew 5:38-40 and Matthew 5:43-45.

Holding grudges and seeking revenge are never appropriate responses to a perceived wrong. Resentment destroys the grudge-holder with bitterness, and revenge only escalates hostilities.

Jesus told us we must reconcile with our adversaries, forgive their transgressions, and let go of the anger that may tempt us to commit an act of revenge.

Forgive others.

Matthew 6:14-15 tells us, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

God is merciful and forgives our sins and failings. In the same way, we must be compassionate and forgive other people who sin against us or do us harm.

Romans 12:9-10 tells us, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”

God is evident in His Word how to apply each of the Christian values He holds dear. Christians can tell if they hold to the values God holds dear by how they treat others.

As we read God’s Word, we know God better and understand His purpose for us in the world. We learn the values He holds dear, and we also grow to love those values. The Holy Spirit works through us to spread God’s love through good works, leading others to eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Well said. Anybody care to differ?

Sports: Two Big Wins; Poll Vaults; Life and Death in the Fast Lane

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—Coach Drinkwitz wants to stay focused on the tasks ahead and not let himself or his players be distracted by transitory things such as rankings or past history.  He made it all clear in the press conference after the 25th (and hanging on by heir fingertips) Tigers crushed Florida Saturday in front of a delirious homecoming crowd.

The win brought him a national distinction: Coach of the Week.  We haven’t heard a comment from him about it but, based on his comments after the game, it’s no big deal in the larger picture for him and the team. It is his 50th win with the Tigers (50-30 now).

Drinkwitz already is the 4th winningest football coach in MU history (Pinkel 117, Faurot 101, Devine 93)

Fans can go a little nuts, however, by remembering that his Tigers had been 8-20 against top 25 teams before the big win. “This is about this game,” he said. “That’s just noise that people create on social media for no reason. Has nothing to do with anything…Nobody in our locker room could have cared less about that. I couldn’t have cared less about that. Again, that’s stuff for you all to tweet about and to make up stories about and try to create some sort of narrative about me or my program. I really couldn’t care less.”

We can’t basically disagree in terms of controlling the narrative you want to have your guys focus on in the locker room, the practice field, and the stadium turf. But the folks outside are kind of important too and they have to share those good things because they’re the ones who pack the stands and help buy the best players MU can buy and believe that a good major sports program represents the whole University—even the physics department—as a place to send your kids to.

“Every game has a life of its own. It’s people searching for crap to talk about, and it had nothing to do with this game. Each game has a life of its own, an opponent of its own, and we try to make up the best matchup that we can. And, you know, that’s the hot-take world right now. Try to find, what are things that you can poke holes in our program about? Great, that’s fine. Do what you want to do, but it doesn’t faze us any.”

No hole-poking here. Not after that game.  But the public is fickle and in one way or another has bought the right to poke holes when the promise seen in one game isn’t consistent.

Fans and players and coaches need a little time to luxuriate in what just happened—560 total yards against what was temporarily one of the ten best teams in the country while suffocating a Gators offense that was lighting up scoreboards by scoring at least 44 points in its games this year, holding the then-second leading running backs to 1.1 yards a carry. The coach for Florida, Jon Sumrall feeling “sick to my stomach with what we just did.”

(RANKINGS)—Florida still is above Missouri in two of the three big time rank outfits. ESPN has dopped Florida ten places to 15 and brought Missouri up seven slots to 18th. The Coaches poll shows Florida 15 and the Tigers 16th. The Associated Press ups Missour by eleven positions to 14 and drops Florda eight slots to 16th.

(TIGER BBALL)—The Missouri basketball team might not want to print Mark Mitchell’s jersey yet.  A Kentucky Appeals Court has dealt a setback to Mitchell and several other players who are hoping to get a fifth season on collegiate courts.

As of now, he’s out. He still can file a lawsuit in Missouri arguing he should be included in an NCAA rule adopted after the last season that players going forward will be allowed to have one. The policy excludes players who had played four seasons before the rule went into effect. Some of those involved in the Kentucky ruling already have seen some playing time for their college football team.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs remain undefeated after surviving Las Vegas and the Raiders 30-27 but they have some lineup juggling to do before their next game. Fortunately, they’ll have two weeks to get it done. That’s two weeks for Rashee Rice to get his tweaked hamstring back in playing shape and for the Chiefs to decide on a replacement for deep threat Tyquan Thorton, who could be out for the season with a badly broken ankle.

Rice and Thornton are the numbers one and three wide receivers on the squad.  Xavier Worthy is still healthy but behind him are Jalen Royals, Cyrus Allen, and Nicko Remigio. Royals has three catches for 17 yards and a touchdown this year. Allen is a rookie who has seen little action, and Remigio has a couple of receptions for ten years and a TD.

For weeks, maybe months, there’s been speculation the Chiefs might bring back Tyreek Hill, once Patrick Mahomes’ favorite “bombs away” target.  Hill has been stuck in the free agent market until somebody decides that his severe knee injury suffered last year while with the Dolphins is adequately healed.  Michael Silver with The Athletic has reported the Chiefs have contacted Hill’s agent. There are reports that the Chiefs have contacted Hill’s agent. Silver says Hill “remains well liked within the organization.”  Videos of Hill doing beach workouts have been posted on the internet.

Keneth Walker is running for his second straight player of the month award from the NFL.  He ran for 177 yards against the Raiders including a 7-yard bolt in the third quarter, the NFL’s longest run so far, that put the Chiefs in a lead that they didn’t give up. There already are some folks thinking he might set a new NFL rushing record, breaking the 2,105 run up by Eric Dickerson forty-two years ago. He has accumulated the most yards in the first four games since Arian Foster had 539 for the Texans sixteen years ago (Foster led the NFL  with 1,616 rushing yards in 2010).

One of Walker’s more amazing stats is the number of broken tackles he’s had. 43 so far, fifteen more than Jahmyr Gibbs of the Lions has. He’s had six runs of 20 or more yards—double the number the Chiefs had in all of last year.

(BASEBALL)—Free agency doesn’t kick off until the World Series ends and the present labor contract will terminate about a month later, December 1.  One member of the labor committee is Royals CEO and President John Sherman who says “Everybody is working hard to make sure” a lockout doesn’t happen.  He says fans want revenue parity, payroll parity and competitive balance.  Major League Baseball is the only one of the four major sports without a salary cap.

He calls the Royals season “disappointing” and says he top priority is to rebuild the bullpen and stabilize the pitching rotation.

Moving right along to the people who move right along—

(NASCAR)—Chase Briscoe’s dominating win at Las Vegas has moved him into the top six in the championship points standings but Kyle Larson’s finish 1.4 seconds behind him as built is lead.

Briscoe was in charge for 175 of the 267 laps and he held Larson at bay down the stretch—as Larson had done to him the previous week at the Kansas Speedway.

Regular season points leader Denny Hamlin continued to struggle in the ten race run off. He finished 16 and trails Larson by forty points with only four races remaining in the season.

The racing next weekend will be on the Charlotte oval for the first time since 2017. Since then the fall race has been on the roval—the road course that combines an infield track with part of the oval.

(INDYCAR)—One of the biggest open rides in the series has been filled with Christian Lundgaard stepping into the Chip Ganassi car that Scott Dixon had for 24 years.

The number 9 won six championships with Dixon driving and the number also has been used for championship runs by Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, and for Alex Palou’s first of five championships.

Arrow McLaren had dropped Lundgaard because of his mediocre oval track record. It’s gotten better in each of his five years in the series and Ganassi.

Dixon is moving to Arrow McLaren after years of being sponsored by PNG Bank. A Missouri financial company will be his sponsor with his new team—Edward D. Jones, based in St. Louis.

(JOHNCOCK)—Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Gordon Johncock has died at the age of 90. Johncock, a quiet buy with a lumber company in Michigan. He also won the series championship once.

Johncock won the race in 1973, a tragic year for the 500.  The race was stretched through three days by weather and a tragic accident. He was leading on the 133rd lap when the rain came again and the race was declared official (it becomes official with the 101st of 200 laps run).  During the race, one of his teammates—Swede Savage—was fatally injured in a violent crash at the head of the pits.  A pit crew member was hit and killed by an emergency vehicle speeding out to the crash scene. A second driver, Art Pollard, was killed in a crash on the first qualifying weekend.

On the day the race was scheduled to be run, the field dissolved into a  melee of crashes, one of which critically injured Salt Walther whose car wound up upside down with Walther’s feet hanging out of the front of the wreckage. Several spectators were injured. Rain washed out any competition that day and the next day, too, before the contest finally got underway on the third day. Johncock led 64 of the 133 laps on a day that saw only one-third of the 33-car field still running.

He got a win after the full 200 laps, fighting off Rick Mears in the last 40 laps and beating him to the checkered flag by 0.16 seconds, the closest 500 finish in history at that time.

When he left racing, he really left it.  He had his sawmill in Michigan, seldom returned to Indianapolis and once said racing was a previous life—“a job”—but he later said he had another job.

(Image credits:  Drinkwitz—Saturday Down South; Lundgaard—Bob Priddy at Indianapolis; Johncock—Instagram; Finish—IndyCar.com; Briscoe–Priddy, Indy25;  Walker—KC Chiefs)

The Reactions 

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The reactions to our junior senator’s monstrous gaffe last week as he thought he had skewered former special prosecutor Jack Smith have been creative, critical, mean, tough—

—and, frankly deserved.

There might not be a more popular way to express an opinion today and express it to everyone you see on the street, at eating places, at sporting events—you name it—than the t-shirt. Even in our smaller towns, there’s likely to be some one who makes t-shirts to order.  Our junior senator became instant t-shirt fodder last week when he became the “got” in “gotcha.”

I wonder if the company is going to sent one of these to the Senator.  He’s tall, about 6-7, and kind of husky. An XL, VL (very long) would probably cover the most territory although it won’t cover that part of his anatomy that was exposed at the hearing.

Social media has had a field day, of course. AI has added a new depth to the ridicule opportunities. Creative juices have become gushers on various platforms. This one showed up on our Facebook page.

These things get circulated around and I am afraid I don’t know who had the original thoughts so I can’t tell you the names of these creative people. These probably are just a small example of the images created in the wake of the implosion. Most of them also showed up on our Facebook page.

I wonder if the senator, to show that he has a sense of humor about himself, will fame a few of these and put them in his office in the Russell Senate Office Building near the Capitol. He hasn’t been able to admit he made a giant mistake that will haunt him for a long time. But if he won’t admit he did a lot of damage to his future political credibility, maybe he can regain some PR points by displaying how much fun he has allowed others to have at his expense.

Don’t you wish you could have been a mouse in the corner when he and his staff got back to the office and closed the door after that hearing?

Here is what happens when a bag of political dirt explodes in your face.  Your faithful observer knows from some non-political experience of dropping the bag while emptying the canister of our whole house vacuuming system. My dirt, however, washed off fairly quickly.  The Schmitt dirt will require a huge amount of scrubbing, and even then—–

Maybe someone was thinking a song from a Stephen Sondheim musical, A Little Night Music—

Isn’t it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground
You in mid-air
Send in the clowns

Isn’t it bliss?
Don’t you approve?
One who keeps tearing around
One who can’t move
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns

Just when I’d stopped opening doors
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Sure of my lines
No one is there

Don’t you love farce?
My fault, I fear
I thought that you’d want what I want

Sorry, my dear
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns
Don’t bother, they’re here

Isn’t it rich?
Isn’t it queer?
Losing my timing this late in my career
And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns
Well, maybe next year

Our president might be able to straighten things out the way he straightens out a lot of things—by renaming them.

Chris Clark and Kyle Cheney headlined their story on Politico, “Eric Schmitt pins down Jack Smith — as a Caitlin Clark fan” and went on: “Sen. Eric Schmitt thought he caught Jack Smith in a lie. Instead, he outed him as a fan of former Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark.”

Perhaps we should lighten up on our junior senator a bit.  A long time ago I was in doing some research at the University of Iowa and during a lunch break I went past a t-shirt store that featured one kind of like this

Self deprecating humor can lower the temperature a bit.  I had a t-shirt that I bought in Columbia that read: “Missouri.  It’s not that bad.”  So far there has been no such humor from our junior senator, though.

Senator Schmitt isn’t the only prominent Missourian whose dreams of national importance went up in smoke in an instant because of an ill-timed word or an ill-timed action or something that wasn’t supposed to become public but did.  We’ve seen it happen several times on our political turf in Jefferson City.

However, as rocky as our political history is, we have not reached the level of my home state where I once saw a t-shirt such as this one.

About eighty percent of the license plates issued in this country are made by prison inmates. Missouri is one of the states that has that system. We understand our inmates could make license plates for other states, as some other states do. But we know of no public record indicating them do.

There are some states who get their plates made in Canada. So far, license plates have escaped Trump tariffs.

I think this is probably enough for a while about Senator Schmitt. Already, he’s old news.  And I imagine he hopes to stay that way for a while.

 

The Dirtbag

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The Eric Schmitt we saw a couple of days ago making a fool of himself in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing grilling former special counsel Jack Smith is not the Eric Schmitt I remember from my days covering the Missouri Senate.  That Eric Schmitt was intelligent, respectful of the rules and of other senators on both sides of the aisle and knew what he was talking about.

He was elected State Treasurer and when Attorney General Josh Hawley went to Washington, Schmitt was appointed to move across the street to replace him.  He caught whatever political virus Hawley left behind.  I’ve said before that he left the best part of himself in the Capitol.

He apparently now bathes in Trump Kool-Aid.  The day that a prominent Republican consulting firm tried to start a boomlet for him as J.D. Vance’s running mate in two years, Schmitt turned his inner attack dog loose and in a matter of minutes proved why we do not need to see him one breath away from the presidency, assuming fellow Kool-Air bather Vance is picked to head the ticket.

You’ve undoubtedly seen the video of his smug, misguided attack of Smith and his charge that Smith had gone to Atlanta to meet with Fulton County Prosecutor who had admitted she and one of her associates had been associating too closely, a relationship that eventually led to the dismissal of 13 co-conspiracy charges she had filed against Donald Trump.  He’d even gone to an Atlanta Hawks NBA game while he was there, said Schmitt.

Smith said he recalled going to a University of Maryland women’s basketball game to see Caitlin Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes. And Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, whose staff rapidly learned there had, indeed, been a game in Maryland that night, quickly suggested that Schmitt didn’t know the difference between the Atlanta Hawks and the Iowa Hawkeyes.  It was one of the greatest political takedowns in memory, a “My Cousin Vinnie” moment for real.

Republicans on the committee wanted to get Smith to admit he had behaved unethically and illegally by meeting with Fani Willis on the day her affair was revealed.

When Schmitt found himself waist deep in it, he refused to back down. He slogged ahead and accused Smith of perjury and showed an incredible lack of maturity for a U. S. Senator by calling Smith “a total dirtbag.”

At the end day, Trumpist GOPers had failed to ruffle Smith enough to get him to make him admit what they wanted him to admit—that he had meddled in Willis’ affairs, more legal than personal, and had weaponized the Justice Department. And if anybody should know about weaponizing the Justice Department, it’s Republicans.

The Republican witch hunters spent the day beating up on Smith but in the end none of the hunters disputed his findings.  Their efforts to undermine his professionalism in securing indictments against the president were an embarrassing failure. It might be said they never laid a glove on him.

“The didn’t even talk about the report,” observed California Congressman Ted Lieu.  “They didn’t dispute that Donald Trump engaged in a conspiracy to try to get fake electors and fake documents to overturn this election.”  He called the stuff Republicans were saying, “idiotic.”

Did Schmitt, caught with his political pants entangling his ankles, apologize for his mistake.  Oh, no.  Later he told CNN he had not made a mistake. “Who knew Jack Smith was a Caitlin Clark fan?” he blithely deferred.

When another interviewer told him there was television footage showing Smith at the game in Maryland, he retorted, “Great. Well, then, he was at the Hawkeyes game.” But he wouldn’t admit he was wrong in the hearing.

On the “Charlie Kirk Show” later, host Andrew Kolvet praised Schmitt, who responded, “Here’s the thing — my job is to ask the questions. He’s already — and if that’s what his answer is — then that’s what his answer is….The purpose of today is just to get him to answer a bunch of questions.”

Bee  Ess.  His job, the committee’s job, was to get facts.

Smith had them and spoke them and he made our junior senator a fool. Schmitt claimed Smith perjured himself. He didn’t. His description of Smith as “a total dirtbag,” a startling act of discourtesy and juvenile behavior.  He shouldn’t stay up so late at night taking name-calling lessons from our president.

He’s going to be a star on Saturday Night Live this week.

Some might think the dirtbag was not the one at the witness table.

Columbia Missourian editorial cartoonist John Darkow—-the best of his kind in Missouri and among the best in the whole country jumped on Facebook with his commemoration of the great inquisition.

Don’t expect any apologies from Senator Eric Schmitt. There are plenty of sycophants who will pat him on the back for becoming the class clown at that hearing. It takes some doing to make Josh Hawley look like the grownup in our senatorial delegation.  But for that one day, Schmitt rose, or sank, to the occasion.

Even when Klobuchar proved  Schmitt didn’t know what he was talking about, he snarled, “I stand by that statement.”

We should all hope the rest of the people in our country don’t judge Missourians on the basis of our Senators. Really, we should assure them, we normally are intelligent beings.

I want to know who kidnapped the Eric Schmitt that I knew and replaced him with someone that I don’t recognize.

(Picture Credit—some clever person on the internet. It’s not the only one mocking Schmitt; Darkow on Facebook.)