Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Sep 10 2023
Some Music For Your Afternoon
With the summer drawing to a close, preparations for the autumn season are in progress. Here at the Fortress, we’re slowly gathering the outdoor impedimenta of summer and taking it to storage, while inside we’re making adjustments to the décor, unloading the summer rounds from the guns and reloading with autumn-appropriate rounds. Yes, really! …
Sep 10 2023
Where The Power Is
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. – William Pitt Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act. – The Talmud One of the most illuminating bits of the Game of Thrones series …
Sep 09 2023
Wherefor Art Thou, AI?
Some brilliant people have invested entire careers in the investigation of whether true artificial intelligence (AI) is possible. The claims have been many…as have the disappointments. Today we see programs such as ChatGPT proposed for the role. Some of them have impressed legions of non-technologists. We the Geeks and Nerds can peek behind the …
Sep 09 2023
Beyond Parody
Please click through and watch the video. It left me speechless. Who wants to tell her? pic.twitter.com/ksgZXzmp2z — aka (@akafacehots) September 7, 2023 The young woman in the video is either completely sincere or an actress of such quality that producers should be battering down her door this very moment. I incline toward …
Sep 08 2023
Music For A Friday Afternoon
Each decade has its stand-outs. Sometimes, the dominant modes and motifs of a particular period can cause some of the best offerings of that time to languish in obscurity. It’s unfortunate, but there’s nothing to be done about it, other than to enjoy what you enjoy and cluck over the neglected artists’ misfortune. …
Sep 06 2023
“We Must Warp Them ALL!”
Pascal and I have been blathering about the death cults for more than a decade. Not many people have taken us seriously. It’s depressing to think that an actual threat to human existence is widely treated lightly. But we soldier on. What one must not forget is that the death cults are fighting …
Sep 06 2023
This “I Identify As” Crap Must Be Stopped Now!
It’s already gone too far: Coast Guard officials arrested a Florida man after they intercepted his unusual hamster wheel contraption that he was allegedly attempting to ‘run’ to London. According to a criminal complaint, 44-year-old Reza Baluchi is facing federal charges after he was rescued 70 miles off Tybee Island, Georgia by …
Sep 06 2023
The Bioethics Scam
As one who loves words and delights in their proper use, it offends me when words used to express important concepts are twisted away from their public meaning to serve a political agenda. For example, we’ve seen the word justice brutalized by the addition of one modifier after another, none of which have any …
Sep 05 2023
Day Off
I have a great many things to attend to this fine day, so it’s unlikely there’ll be anything from me until tomorrow. However, before I depart I must commend to you this tirade from Kurt Schlichter. Kurt foresees a great turning of the worm, in which he might be correct. He feels duty-bound to …
Sep 04 2023
Worthy As Few Are Worthy
Does anyone here remember the old “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s” rye bread commercials? They had a good point. Similarly, you don’t have to be Catholic to love Anthony Esolen. Dr. Esolen’s most recent column is a clarion call. While he reminds us to “expect no help” in our …
Sep 04 2023
There Are Days The Satires Write Themselves
They seem to be particularly rife on Mondays. Consider this bit of nonsense: Anti-chippers are the latest group of awful people we now have to worry about They’re paranoid, don’t believe in science, many have white supremacist tendencies, and most importantly they want you to know that microchip implants are super duper …
Sep 03 2023
Self-Denial And All That
Today’s Gospel reading includes one of the most disturbing, even ominous, of all Jesus’s statements: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” This passage resonates with particular power in the aftermath of viewing Nefarious. For in that remarkable movie, the demon made its …
Sep 03 2023
Skip The Talking-Head Shows
This is all you need to see or hear: Applause to Hans G. Schantz for unearthing this gem.
Sep 03 2023
The Drones Of Labor Day: An Unpacking
This tidbit should be inspiring more questions than it is at present: The New York Police Department will dispatch drones to monitor backyard parties and private social gatherings over Labor Day weekend in response to any complaints. However, some are saying that drone surveillance by police would be an invasion of privacy. …
Sep 02 2023
Percentages And Concentrations
There have been several posts by other bloggers that address what happens to a society when Muslims reach various percentages of the population. History confirms the dangers such accumulations of Muslims present to a previously free and peaceful society. Moreover, Muslims’ reproduction rate far exceeds that of Western non-Muslim whites, which puts time on …
Sep 01 2023
Conversations, Unfunny Category
There are a number of news and opinion sites that put a paywall between the reader and “premium content.” It’s their perfect right, of course; how could one who sells his fiction claim otherwise? Among those sites are several I’d like to patronize, both because I deem the site worthy of reader support and …
Sep 01 2023
The Vilest Slanders
He who dares to tell the exact truth about some popular fraud will always be reviled: as a hysteric, a liar, a troublemaker, perhaps as a fraudster himself. The reason is simple: people prefer comforting lies to upsetting truths. They don’t want their illusions shattered. They will cling to those illusions even as the …
Sep 01 2023
Money And The Processes At Work
Bustednuckles deposeth and sayeth: One of the things that is amazing to me is the gamble the people in charge of the money supply system are taking. They are deliberately killing the dollar as they have run it as far as it will go before it becomes completely worthless, while thinking that they …
Aug 31 2023
Actualizing Their Fear
In the usual case, making them fear us takes a show of defiance and a demonstration that you mean to stand your ground. Bureaucrats hate that; it means they’ll be forced to deal with you…and they cannot know in advance what kind of forces you command. The power of stubborn defiance has recently been …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
