J. J. Charf
1 9 5 2 – 2 0 2 6
his influence has
never left me
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April 19th, 2026
“Friends who know me know I routinely drink out of cow troughs with the cows. I do it not because I’m thirsty, but because I want a bigger variety of bugs in my microbiome. And I want some exposure to whatever unseen antagonist might be out there. The point is to exercise my immune system so that when something really serious comes along, it’s strong enough to fight it off. Yes, I could die tomorrow. But for decades, I have gone many years without the common issues that plague most folks. That is not pride; it is humble acknowledgment that we have a fearfully and wonderfully made body that is ready to house health if we give it half a chance.”
— Joel Salatin — 4/17/26
Sad mood. Bad mood.
April 2nd, 2026“Be strong! Do not be afraid. Here is your God…”
— Isaiah 35:4
I won’t go into why we decided to live at the Town House or why we continue to stay here (probably “for the duration”). I just want to note that over the past 37 years or so, we have been witnesses to countless people at their moments of greatest discomfort. It comes with living next to a funeral home and a courthouse. These incidents are not uncommon, but one never really gets used to seeing others in abject sorrow or extreme turmoil. Fits of temper. Wails of grief. Explosions of anger. Awkward outpourings of affection. All I ever can do is say a prayer.
~ Lord have mercy on those in the midst of great loss or distress. May they know that You are always with them in the worst of their emotional pain. May the mercy of the Father, the love of the Son, and the comfort of the Spirit be with them. Amen.
February 16th, 2026
Robert Duvall
1 9 3 1 – 2 0 2 6
the quintessential
actor’s actor
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January 15th, 2026
“In his book, The Haunting of Bishop Pike, Dr. Merrill Unger chronicles the tragedy of listening to demons and provides a good warning we should all adhere to: ‘The [conveying of knowledge] through demonic power is not free and purely beneficent. They always operate under the principle of compensation, with a price tag attached to them … one that must be paid throughout eternity.’”
— Robin Schumacher
waters of the Jordan
January 13th, 2026“Why did Jesus, who is sinless, choose to be baptized? He steps into the muddy waters of our humanity, not becaue He needs cleansing, but because He chooses to stand where we stand. Scholars like William Barclay describe this moment as a turning point in Jesus’ life. It is a moment of decision, when He leaves behind the quiet years of Nazareth and embraces His mission. It is a moment of identification, when He stands with sinners rather than above them. It is a moment of approval, when the Father’s voice affirms Him as the Beloved Son. It is a moment of conviction, when He accepts the path of the Suffering Servant foretold by Isaiah — not the path of earthly power, but the path of the cross. And it is a moment of empowerment, when the Spirit descends upon Him, equipping Him to proclaim not a God of wrath and fire, but a Father rich in mercy and compassion.”
— Fr Jinto Thomas — 1/11/26
January 6th, 2026
“He ought not have infallibility demanded of him.”
— Mary Cranch to Abigail Adams
January 4th, 2026
“Modern multi-billion parameter AI models are scaffolded on and made possible by the largest heist in human history: theft of everything that could be scraped from every corner of the digital spaces we share. Without prevention of and justice for this damage caused by current models, their use is highly fraught, ethically. We, as human beings, have developed complex social forms of intelligence when it comes to dealing with things like credit and provenance, two things that modern models are incapable of. And without monetary and policy recognition of the entire global economy of labor that enabled current AI models, using them is active permission given to the theft of all human art and knowledge.”
Outlook for 2026
January 3rd, 2026People have told me my whole life that I’m talented. As if that summed up everything. I was quick to accept and run with it, but wasn’t very old before something about it bothered me, as if it was just the small piece of a whole that remained hidden. Talent is simply the beginning — a gift, but also a profound responsibility. It’s not really worth a hill of beans unless developed with education, discipline, ongoing effort, and perseverance. With that obligation comes the necessity of not only following a worthy impulse, but also conquering the doubts and fears that go with it. More importantly, it requires confronting the inherent pride that was seeded the very first time somebody said, “Oh, you’re so talented.” I don’t think it’s a challenge that ever goes away. For me, it means more than unraveling what it is to be a creative individual, but what it is to be a soul called upon to put all the priorities of divine creation into alignment — to discover, by grace, the truth of my human nature, to understand the pitfalls along the journey that any recipient of talent is compelled to undertake, and to discern my intended role as a cooperative instrument of a greater purpose, as a grateful “agent” for the creative source of everything that was, is now, or ever shall be.
December 30th, 2025
“Companies like Netflix are adapting with targeted woke messaging in countries where people can actually be forced to watch. In Britain, for example, the government is excitedly promoting the Netflix series Adolescence. The show is set to be featured in UK classrooms as part of an anti-masculinity program to brainwash young men into avoiding conservative content and fearing their own biology.”
— ‘Tyler Durden’ — 12/30/25
December 11th, 2025
“The Department of Health and Human Services has launched an investigation into a troubling incident where a midwestern school administered a federally funded vaccine to a child despite a legally recognized state exemption. If a provider ignores consent, violates an exemption, or keeps parents in the dark, HHS will act — quickly and decisively. We will use every tool we have to protect families and restore accountability.”
— Robert F Kennedy, Jr
It’s about time that a denial of informed consent is considered a civil rights violation! I developed that conviction 50 years ago and have waited my whole adult life to hear a top leader express it.
Watch this important video.
December 10th, 2025
“Any composer, painter or sculptor will tell you that inspiration comes at the eighth hour of labour rather than as a bolt out of the blue. Get our vanities and preconceptions out of the way and do the work in the time allotted.”
— John Williams
September 4th, 2025
Runaway technology (with work-depriving automation, electromagnetic pollution, cognition-robbing language models, and legalized plagiarism) is no doubt with us for the duration, but I cannot for the life of me understand how people can rationalize its utility, which surely will be out of proportion to the inevitable human cost. How can usefulness be a justification for not being against it? It is not unlike one being against environmental injury or war, even though many would justify their continuation and ignore the clear evidence of human damage. The only way forward that is rational or righteous is “zero tolerance of harm.” Let’s see if those with a vested interest in seeding communities with artificial intelligence can measure up to that standard. I won’t hold my breath.
Of course, one can take a stand “against” something, but also be accountable for personal behavior, advocate for reforms, and undertake positive action. I think of two of my heroes. Dick Gregory was against medical tyranny, but promoted nutrition, fasting, avoidance of toxic substances, mental wellness through humor, and upholding human rights. Wendell Berry is against industrial agriculture, but promotes the restoration of rural economies, human-scale communities, and stewardship of natural places. And above all those we may admire and hope to emulate, there is always Jesus of Nazareth, who was against the evil doer and wicked conduct, but promoted mercy for the suffering, love of others before self, and the forgiveness of sin.
Exhibition at Art Center of the Bluegrass in October
September 4th, 2025 
“Rooted in visual design and inspired by the avant-garde history of collage, LITTER-ALLY KENTUCKY is a compelling body of work that transforms discarded materials into powerful statements on beauty, environment, and belonging. Created entirely from recycled and found objects — including ruined book pages, used tea bags, and fragments of roadside litter — these intricate collage landscapes offer…” READ MORE:
September 3rd, 2025
“Whenever a hole appears in the ozone layer of received opinion, it is sure to be quickly labeled a ‘conspiracy theory’ by a large technology platform. The lab leak in Wuhan was a conspiracy theory, as was the idea that the U.S. government was funding gain-of-function research; the idea that the development of mRNA vaccines was part of a Pentagon bio-warfare effort from which Bill Gates boasted of making billions of dollars; the idea that masking schoolchildren had zero effect on the transmission of COVID; the idea that the FBI and the White House were directly censoring Twitter, Google, and Facebook; the idea that the information on Hunter Biden’s laptop showing that he received multi-million-dollar payoffs from agents of foreign powers including China and Russia was real. The most offensive thing about these falsehoods is not the fact that they later turned out to be supported by evidence, which can happen to even the most unlikely seeming hypothesis. Rather, it is that the people who labeled them ‘false’ often knew full well from the beginning that they were true, and were seeking to avoid the consequences; that is how a truth becomes a ‘conspiracy theory.’”
— David Samuels, 2023
August 15th, 2025
“The problem is that AI absorbs and spits back conventional wisdom gleaned from every source, which makes its judgments no better than someone wholly uninformed on particulars but rather gains opinions from the mood of the moment. It has no capacity to judge good quality over bad so it puts it all into a melange of blather, distinguished only because it looks and feels like English. Any writer who thinks this is a good way to pawn off content on unsuspecting readers or teachers is headed for disaster. I shudder to imagine a future in which AI is training the population how to think. It is the opposite of thinking. It is regurgitating conventionalities without any serious reflection on the social or historical context. It is literally mindless.”
August 1st, 2025
“And so we have got to ask if there is a point at which Christian conscience, or any conscience, can say no to a technological ‘advance’ of any kind. I will mention again, as I have done often before, the Old Order Amish, who have maintained an effective freedom of choice for themselves by limiting the economic scale of their lives and by asking of any proposed innovation a single question: ‘What will this do to our community?’ Otherwise, the conscience of our country, Christian though it may be, is at one with or more or less surrendered to the doctrine of technological progress, which apparently reduces to the assumption that what can be done must be done.”
— Wendell Berry, 10/3/24
July 30th, 2025
“A recent MIT study used EEG (electroencephalography) to examine what happens in the brain when people use AI tools like ChatGPT. The results were chilling. Brain activity dropped — especially in the prefrontal and temporal lobes, the areas responsible for problem-solving, planning, memory, and language. Even after removing the AI, participants who had used it showed persistently lower brain engagement. This lingering drop — dubbed cognitive debt — is eerily similar to patterns we see in screen-saturated youth or early cognitive decline.”
— Daniel G Amen, 7/28/25
July 22nd, 2025
“Americans will finally learn the truth about how in 2016, intelligence was politicized and weaponized by the most powerful people in the Obama Administration to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump, subverting the will of the American people and undermining our democratic republic.”
— Tulsi Gabbard, 7/18/25
