pmdungan

Husband. Father. Pastor. Geek. Rugby Booster.

[pmdungan @pmdungan]

@navybirddog And the Jags’ defensive play of the day to finish the Bengals.

[Brett Kollmann @BrettKollmann]

Multiple factors, but here are the key reasons imo

1. Games between big programs just feel like two groups of mercenaries facing off. The teams don’t feel as tied to the fanbase or community as much anymore because guys are only there for like eight months.

2. Mercenary teams means sloppy football for the first month. And not in the fun Pac-12 way.

3. The broadcast feels like a vehicle that purely exists to get you sign up for a sportsbook. They have to dial it back. It’s too much.

4. The pregame shows don’t feel like they actually love the sport, but rather just love the conference that pays them more.

5. Vibes are off, generally.

[Jon Gruden @BarstoolGruden]

This is a very special box from a VERY special place.

It's the United States Naval Academy! I absolutely love these guys and what they stand for!!

Thank you to Coach Newberry and everyone at @NavyFB for thinking of us, have a great season!!

[pmdungan @pmdungan]

@IMAO_ Department of Peace within 24 hours.

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

This has been a running theme of the Remnant podcast since the first episodes.

[Will Hooley @will_hooley]

My article below on Substack ✍️ Within the sporting hysteria here in the US, rugby still has a small spotlight on Father’s Day. The @usmlr Championship kicks off later today. Here are my thoughts on the big game within a summer of incredible sport 👇

https://t.co/OFrVr72NxV

[Lance Hansen @TlLance]

“That call is why I keep doing this work…Our job isn’t to be liked. Our mission is to create resilient humans who make a difference. Uphold the standard.” 💯

[Sarah Isgur @whignewtons]

Someone recently reminded me of the advice I offered in my DOJ farewell email: Trust first.

Lots of people take to heart Truman’s “if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” But it’s not a fact, it’s a choice.

Non sibi sed patriae

[Navy Rugby @navymrugby]

Navy wins!

The Midshipmen bested rival Army 38-10 in the DI-A quarterfinals!

Navy advances to the CRAA DI-A Semifinals and plays host to the winner of Life vs. Lindenwood.

#GoNavy

[Mark T. Barclay @MarkTBarclay]

When men speak, they transfer information; but when the Holy Spirit speaks, life itself is transferred to the soul.

[pmdungan @pmdungan]

@kaylahaas Terminator.

[Mark T. Barclay @MarkTBarclay]

Let God anoint His Word in your life. Find scriptures that address what you are dealing with, and meditate in them until you are free.

[Coach Jay Guillermo @Jay_Guillermo57]

A combined 11.24 MILLION people watched @NavyFB WIN our last 2 games. You want 👀 on you? Navy is where you want to play.

#RollGoats

[pmdungan @pmdungan]

@whignewtons Culinary oops
Artistry from suffering
Masterful haiku

[pmdungan @pmdungan]

@navybirddog He’s going to be a wrecking ball next season, and his name is fun to say, which is a great combination.

[pmdungan @pmdungan]

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.”
2 Corinthians 1:18-22 NIV
https://t.co/k9QpEoExcA

[pmdungan @pmdungan]

If you want to act like Jesus, believe like Jesus. See John 6:29

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

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.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[pmdungan @pmdungan]

Let those who love the College Football Payoff (yes PAYOFF) recognize that it is the death knell of what was a great and beautiful sport. Murdered by its pimps.

[Scott Strasemeier @ScottStras]

Exactly right. They will come for the Iowa State's of the world next. Mark it down.

[Scott Strasemeier @ScottStras]

Exactly right. They will come for the Iowa State's of the world next. Mark it down.