Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Jan 08 2024
Quarter Pound Opinions
Yes, I’m still recovering. (I’m told this whatever-it-is can hang on for many weeks. Something to look forward to! 😒) As my energies are low and the news has been both repetitive and monochromatic, a short while ago I decided to page through my archives in search of something worthy that I could repost. …
Jan 07 2024
Desecrating A ‘Sacred Space?’
Happy Feast of the Epiphany / Theophany / “Little Christmas,” Gentle Reader. It’s a big day for Christians worldwide, on which we commemorate the visit of the Magi to the newborn Christ Child. I’ve written at length about it, if you’d like a detailed rumination over it. However, for this morning I have something …
Jan 06 2024
Dismissal Through Diagnosis
The old rhetorical gambit called argumentum ad hominem is most often deployed by advocates for a shaky proposition. If Smith has a better case for his position, such that the preponderance of the evidence and the logic it supports appear to have won the day, his adversary Jones will be powerfully tempted to “attack …
Jan 04 2024
Closing The Escapes, Defiling the Heroes
The Totalitarian Prime Directive is simple: Permit no escape. After all, the evidence is copious that oppressed and subjugated people will flee if they can. Therefore, the totalitarian must block all escape routes, station men with guns at each of them, and shoot those who attempt to breach them as an example to others. …
Jan 03 2024
The Method Remains Unspecified
This recent column from Victor Davis Hanson nicely sets out the major indicators of impending national collapse. He’s also candid about the absence of an evenhanded rule of law when political questions or prominent politicians are involved in a controversy. He leaves no question about the international consequences of such a collapse. I read …
Jan 01 2024
Happy New Year 2024
Mine is looking up. Yes, I’m still a wee bit under the weather, but I’m much better than I was a few days ago. So I thought it might be time to set the tone for the New Year in terms that are clear and specific. Bullet points, really, though I detest the notion …
Dec 31 2023
The Closing Of The Year
Yes, I’m still sick. Pretty seriously sick, if you must know. But I wouldn’t feel right about letting 2023 go without a column. It won’t be a “round-up,” just a few thoughts that have congealed around a disastrous year: arguably the worst yet for America under the Usurper Regime. One of my favorite …
Dec 28 2023
“What Works” Versus “What Sounds Good”
Thomas Sowell has many pithy sayings to his credit, but the one that resonates most powerfully with our current maladies is this one: The more I study the history of intellectuals, the more they seem like a wrecking crew, dismantling civilization bit by bit — replacing what works with what sounds good. …
Dec 27 2023
Mask Droppings
FORBES was once proud to call itself a “capitalist tool.” That’s some years back now. Today the magazine peddles tendentious twaddle: Why ‘Doing Your Own Research’ May Make You Believe Fake News In an age in which misinformation abounds, how do you determine what is real and what is fake? New research …
Dec 27 2023
Declining Temperatures
No, this isn’t about “climate change.” The temperatures I have in mind measure the warmth of other countries’ regimes toward Americans. Apparently, Americans who dare to leave the increasingly questionable security of these United States to pursue activities in other nations are in danger of being kidnapped – by those nations’ governments: …
Dec 26 2023
Missing The Point
It’s difficult for me to imagine how some people live with their spinelessness: Carols by Candlelight is the largest annual fundraiser for Vision Australia’s children’s services, which provides support to families and children who are blind or have low vision. A crowd of 10,000 gathered to enjoy the live broadcast, celebrate the …
Dec 26 2023
National Treasures
No, this isn’t about the movie, though I must admit that I enjoyed it greatly. Then again, I’m a Nicolas Cage fan. I’m thinking of a few writers and thinkers whom I might never have encountered if not for the World Wide Web. There are several…and some of them get much less appreciation than …
Dec 25 2023
December 25, 2023
Ponder this: When God came to Earth, there was no room in the inn, but there was room in the stable. What lesson is hidden behind the inn and the stable? What is an inn, but the gathering-place of public opinion, the focal point of the world’s moods, the residence of the …
Dec 24 2023
They Who Have Not Joy
There are…people whose entire mission in life is to despoil the lives of others. Any Gentle Reader of Liberty’s Torch will be able to name a few categories thereof. But just now, we’re seeing one of the most odious of all in inglorious death-dealing Technicolor®: the rabid anti-Semites who cheer whenever a “Palestinian” murders …
Dec 24 2023
Things You Do Not Want To Hear Around Christmastime
1. On the phone: “Mr. Porretto, my name is John Smith, and I’m with the Internal Revenue Service.” 2. From your Significant Other: “There’s water seeping out from under the kitchen cabinets.” 3. From anyone, anywhere: “Say, doesn’t that guy look a lot like John McClane? Got any favorites of your …
Dec 22 2023
I Can Hear The Anguish In This Man’s Voice
Malcolm Pollack asks a painful question: [I]s there no point at which kinetic war against people who hate you and seek to subjugate you is justified? As stewards of the American nation we inherited from our forebears to preserve and cherish, and now crumbling before our eyes, where does our duty lie? A …
Dec 22 2023
They’re At It Again
Some of the Establishment’s dance steps are fresh. Others are well rehearsed and easy to recognize: Jim Messina, a former top aide to former President Obama, claimed that a “third-party candidate can’t win in 2024” and might guarantee former President Trump does. “With a rematch between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump …
Dec 22 2023
I Was Going To Take The Day Off…
…until I saw this piece at Power Line. As I have a huge disdain for “wine snobs,” it immediately elevated Steven Hayward to my Pantheon of Heroes. A brief “tasting:” Talking about wine lends itself to the same kind of silly jargon that has justified the fraud called “modern art” (an oxymoron if …
Fran’s Recent Novels
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