Bill Kassel's Blog

Good Listening

March 7, 2023 By Bill Kassel Leave a Comment

COMMUNICATING ABOUT
COMMUNICATION

If you’re interested in how communication shapes our lives — and in this increasingly wired world you ought to be — give a listen to my radio show, “Free Expression.”

It’s produced by Good Shepherd Catholic Radio (an EWTN affiliate serving south-central Michigan), and is available worldwide on the PodBean podcasting platform…

“Free Expression” touches on writing, media, online communication, preaching, evangelization — all the various ways in which messages about life (especially religion and morality) are conveyed.

In terms of subject matter, the show covers a lot of ground, demonstrating how we’re impacted by mass media, politics, science, technology, pop culture, and more.

As the title, “Free Expression,” suggests, a special focus of the show is defending First Amendment rights. That’s certainly a timely concern in the current atmosphere of censorship, cancel culture, and anti-religious bigotry — a world where faith and virtue have been turned upside down.

Here are thumbnails of episodes currently posted on PodBean:

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Christmas Prayers

December 23, 2022 By Bill Kassel Leave a Comment

PRAY FOR PEACE IN THIS
VERY UNCERTAIN TIME

It’s been a couple of years since I posted the lyrics to my little variation on Franz Gruber’s Christmas classic, “Silent Night.”

I wrote these lines for the Christmas concerts presented by my 1980s music group, Company, which I’ve mentioned from time to time. We did an annual benefit program for a regional charity called Christmas Unlimited. The high point was always our rendition of “Silent Night” that included this insert…

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Jesus the Jew

December 11, 2022 By Bill Kassel Leave a Comment

FREE SPEECH DISPUTE REVEALS
CONTRADICTION IN ANTISEMITISM

Elon Musk’s liberation of Twitter has warmed the hearts of those who value freedom of speech.

It’s terrified those who fear open discussion, in particular open discussion of Biden Administration policies, election integrity, and other issues (not to mention Hunter’s laptop).

Charges are flying that — bereft of its former content-moderation practices and the hoard of woke operatives who implemented them — Twitter is becoming a wellspring of white supremacy, racism, misogyny, and every other frightening variety of hate and hostility. Especially antisemitism. [Read more…] about Jesus the Jew

Latest Interviews

November 1, 2022 By Bill Kassel Leave a Comment

MY RADIO SHOW/PODCAST HAS
COVERED IMPORTANT TOPICS

As we move into the last months of 2022, the urge to look back (a not altogether welcome impulse) creeps upon me.

The disruptions of this year — owing to COVID, some technical issues, and other concerns — are most apparent in this blog. You who follow my humble scribblings haven’t had much to follow lately — for which I apologize abjectly.

I’ve been able to keep reasonably close to a production schedule for my radio show, “Free Expression.” And so I’m happy to draw your attention to my latest episodes, which cover a number of important topics.

Take some time to sample a few. I particularly urge those of you in Michigan to catch my latest (Episode 63), in which I speak with Dr. Monica Miller, a longtime anti-abortion activist and founder of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society. Monica has some hair-raising insights into the dangers posed by Proposal 3, a dishonorable effort to amend the state constitution appearing on the current election ballot.

For one thing, Proposal 3 would legalize all types of abortion — including dismemberment, or so-called “partial-birth abortion” — right up to immediately before delivery. For another, it would lay a legal foundation for wholesale mutilation and sterilization of gender-conflicted children, without parental consent.

This is something which must be stopped. And Monica is rallying the troops to do just that.

Her interview and other provocative discussions can be accessed via Podbean, the well known podcasting platform. Just go here…

https://billkassel.podbean.com

Episodes currently posted…

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God’s Country

July 3, 2022 By Bill Kassel 1 Comment

WE NEED TO PROCLAIM
OUR TRUE CHARACTER

The Supreme Court decision negating Roe v. Wade has breathed new life into an old canard, namely that people are being forced into submitting to Christian doctrine.

All the familiar clichés associated with the abortion issue are, more or less, based on that premise: the silly cry of “Keep your Bible off my ovaries!” … those stupid red robes and cone-shaped bonnets from “The Handmaid’s Tale” … and the rest.

You needn’t be particularly concerned with abortion, either. I encounter self-proclaimed atheists and agnostics who seem to live in terror of being rousted out of bed in the middle of the night by agents of a new Christian Inquisition. Maybe as kids they all had really scary Sunday schools teachers, but the mere existence of churches taps into some primal fear of compulsory devotion.

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Immoral and Un-American

May 12, 2022 By Bill Kassel 2 Comments

WE’VE REACHED A POLITICAL LIMIT
BEYOND WHICH WE DARE NOT GO

The First Amendment is America in a nutshell.

Anyone who would reject the idea that government should not be permitted to obstruct the free expression of information, ideas, and opinions — as that amendment specifically states — would be denying a fundamental assumption on which our nation is based.

Yes, there are limits to free expression.

You aren’t free to incite violence or crime (as, for instance, in the prohibition of so-called “fighting words”). Similarly, your speech must not create a situation of danger or panic (as in the famous cliché about falsely shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater).

We have laws that impose legitimate restrictions on what you can say in public, or even what you can communicate in private if it promotes criminal activity. The limits are well established and long recognized.

But to advance the notion that government can make judgments on what is permissible speech content — based, for instance, on conformity to certain philosophical or ideological premises — is in total contradiction of our national character.

Podbean

March 21, 2022 By Bill Kassel Leave a Comment

MY RADIO SHOW IS NOW ON
A GREAT PODCAST PLATFORM

I’m pleased to announce that “Free Expression with Bill Kassel” is now available on the podcast platform, PodBean.

Silly name, but a really good distributor of alternative media. In fact, PodBean is one of the largest podcast outlets, with an excellent assortment of top Christian programs. Check out the latest episode of “Free Expression”…

In this segment…

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Radio Days

March 15, 2022 By Bill Kassel Leave a Comment

A PIPELINE FOR TRUTH
AND A DEFENSE OF RIGHTS

I hope that you, dear readers, can forgive my laxity in tending this blog.

Since my radio show, “Free Expression,” moved from a monthly to a weekly schedule, my days are kept pretty full arranging, conducting, and editing interviews, then compiling episodes.

A definite shift in my priorities has taken place. But the way things are going in post-Trump America, I think my energies are directed usefully.

This country has entered a very uneasy period in its history.

[Read more…] about Radio Days

The Year of Inclusiveness

December 30, 2021 By Bill Kassel 1 Comment

2021 PUSHED US TO
BE MORE ACCEPTING

I have to admit that my Christmas post was somewhat less merry than befits the season. But I can’t let 2021 pass without noting some of the social progress we’ve made, during this second year of pandemic.

Indeed, even while socially distancing, we’ve continued on our trek toward the enlightened goal of inclusiveness — gathering us all in, as it were, fully vaxed and unified in the oneness of cultural, ethnic and sexual acceptance.

A Clouded Christmas

December 20, 2021 By Bill Kassel 4 Comments

THIS YULETIDE FEELS
LIKE CHRISTMAS 1941

Perhaps, like me, you have the feeling Christmas is a bit strange this year. At a time that should be one of hope and celebration, everybody’s a little on edge.

A sense of uncertainty clouds this season, not unlike the cloud that overhung the world in which Joseph and Mary made their fateful trek to Bethlehem. They were taking part in a census to provide the count on which taxes would be extorted by a brutal empire.

In our day, we face the prospect of vaccine passports to number us and regiment our travels and transactions. (But then, as the French say, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”—the more things change, the more they remain the same.)

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Decision in Kenosha

November 21, 2021 By Bill Kassel 3 Comments

LEFTISTS WILL DO
WHAT LEFTISTS DO

And you thought the Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal was a victory for simple justice and the right of ordinary people to defend themselves.

Ha, ha! Silly you.

Considering how good leftists are at using any development to advance their nefarious causes, I wouldn’t be surprised if, at some point, an armed rioter shoots somebody and claims the Rittenhouse case gave him the right to do so.

He’ll cite the principle of “equal treatment under the law”…

If a White boy can get away with using deadly force against three attackers, then a social justice warrior (of whatever color) should be able to use deadly force to defend against any violence or threat of violence — even by the police — no matter who or what provoked it.

I’m not saying this would hold up in court (on the rare occasion when leftist rioters might go to court, that is), but it’s likely to be attempted. And all those somber legal experts trotted out to offer their sage opinions on TV news shows will frown gravely and opine that the assertion is plausible.

You can see the groundwork being laid for just such a scenario in the hyperventilating that overwhelmed social media after the “Not Guilty” verdict was announced, such as in these tweets cited by the blog Legal Insurrection…

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