Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Feb 07 2024
Evil As An Abstract Category
Yesterday, I posted a snippet of my fiction as a stimulator to a discussion I hope to pursue today. The scene therein is one that has never been commonplace, neither among adults or children. (Include teenagers in either category, as you prefer.) Yet what could be more important? Assuming, that is, that evil is …
Feb 06 2024
A Snippet For Discussion Purposes
The following is a segment from my novel-in-progress, working title Ex Nihilo (yeah, yeah, again with the Latin): “Father,” Sarah Lydell said, “why is there evil?” It was the question toward which Father Raymond Altomare, pastor of Onteora Parish, had been building for five weeks. The group of seniors from Foxwood High …
Feb 06 2024
Who Needs A Ministry Of Truth?
We have the mainstream media! Reid declares that “people have this mismemory of the Trump era” but claims that no wall (even part of one) was ever contracted. pic.twitter.com/RfxqEoAmw0 — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 5, 2024 Herein lies the danger of “media pigeonholing” oneself. He who confines his news-consumption to particular streams that …
Feb 05 2024
The Infuriators
Viktor Orban. Giorgia Meloni. Geert Wilders. Javier Milei. And now, Nayib Bukele: El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele has won a landslide victory in the country’s presidential election, earning him a historic second term and underscoring his status as one of the world’s most popular political leaders. Posting on …
Feb 04 2024
A Unique Variety Of Solitude
It’s not that long ago that I wrote: “The worst” is the noise. The perpetual din. The endless screaming, wailing, moaning, hectoring, begging, and cursing. The ceaseless demands from politicians. The carping from the unsatisfied. The orations of the world-savers. The unending gimme gimme gimme of those who want something they can’t get …
Feb 04 2024
Property And Security
First, I found this at Moonbattery: …and then I was reminded of this bit of insight, courtesy of WRSA: What if the Federal Government grossly violated the Constitution? Could states withdraw from the Union? Lincoln said no. The Union was “indissoluble” unless all the states agreed to dissolve it. As a practical …
Feb 03 2024
Simple Contexts, Simple Logic
It doesn’t take long for the observant student of economics to realize that the whole field is about incentives, disincentives, and human decision-making within their grip. There’s the Law of Supply and Demand, the Law of Diminishing Marginal Value, and Coase’s Theorem. All else is about particular cases and exceptions that, largely, prove not …
Feb 03 2024
Groundhog Day Backlash?
Seventy-two years now, and I still fail to understand how things become a big deal in our public discourse. “What’s the old bat talking about now?” I hear you mumble. For the first time in many a moon, I find that I must disagree with a Liberty’s Torch Co-Conspirator. Apparently, our beloved Ragin’ …
Feb 02 2024
Admirable Sentiment Du Jour
The great leftist pronoun obsession is rooted in the idea that everyone has the right to vomit their feelings and preferences all about the place, but that others shouldn’t be allowed to offend them if they find them irritating. I don’t want to be a complete jerk, but I’m growing fonder of offending people …
Feb 02 2024
What Has Been Said And Heard Cannot Be Unheard
Apparently, media company iHeart Media, previously known as Clear Channel, has been erecting some “controversial billboards.” There have been a couple of stories about this already, particularly concerning billboards that proclaim that “voter fraud is a felony” – which it is. I’m a bit baffled that merely proclaiming what’s written into the black-letter law …
Feb 01 2024
Much Driving Ahead So I Must Be Quick
Yes, it’s another of those days, so have a quickie: New polling data show Biden’s support in our state plummeting. With an approval rating of just 41% and a disapproval rating of 57%, Biden finds himself 16 points underwater. This decline is particularly worrying for the President, given that he won New Mexico …
Jan 31 2024
Music For An Unexpected Reverie
For no clear reason, just a little while ago I found myself remembering a friend from my high school years. I didn’t have many friends back then – prodigies seldom do – so I held on tight to those I managed to acquire. But this particular friend proved to be a mistake. He proved …
Jan 31 2024
Some Monitory Words From Stephen Kruiser
He’s very targeted this morning, and commendably so: Election fraud is one of those quintessential hot button 21st century issues where no nuance or real discussion is allowed. You either believe that all Republican hopes of victory going forward are doomed or, according to the doomsayers, you’re in denial. I would love to …
Jan 31 2024
Too Much Clarity
In his treatise The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, the great Ludwig von Mises makes reference to “the cousins:” i.e., the relatives and assorted hangers-on of the families of the great industrialists: Even in these lucky families, the qualities required for the successful conduct of big business are not inherited by all sons and grandsons. As …
Jan 31 2024
Stating It Clearly
It’s impossible to misconstrue what this man, death-and-aging-phobe multimillionaire Brian Johnson, is saying: The estimable Paul Joseph Watson makes it even plainer: “An absolute blank slate.” A posthuman nihilistic atomizing recipe for utter misery, that’s what that is. Rootless soulless vapid anti-natalist oblivion at its heart. This is pure Red Terror Maoism. …
Jan 30 2024
It’s Been Tried Before
Several times, really…and it hasn’t worked, ever: Days after closing a deal with Albania to hold part of the migrant flood there while awaiting asylum processing, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is trying to limit the number of arrivals in the first place, by a new partnership with Africa. She unveiled a …
Jan 29 2024
Stating It Clearly Edition
The Biden Regime is now openly blackmailing the nation: As Republican governors circle the wagon around Texas, President Biden on Saturday doubled down on a reluctant agreement to secure the southern US border – but only if Congress passes a bipartisan bill that would also allocate funds for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and …
Jan 29 2024
Politicians And Importance: A Coda
Politicians are important only because others – people who actually do things – sometimes do their bidding. But what if we were to stop? Bidworthy approached to within normal talking distance and asked, “Can you understand me?” “Can any person understand another?” inquired the farmer with clear diction. Bidworthy found himself …
Jan 28 2024
Illegal Immigration And Legislation
Everyone wants to believe that he’s important – that what he does matters to others. If there are exceptions, I have yet to encounter them. It follows that a man will prefer an occupation that appears to provide things of genuine value to others over a trade that, whatever it pays, does little or …
Jan 28 2024
Alea Iacta Est
Apparently, the Border Patrol doesn’t plan to cut through the razor wire. Twenty-five states are backing Texas’s toughening of its border. And a conspiracy to keep Donald Trump out of office has formed and is operating. Are there any classics scholars among our Gentle Readers? *** Once you demonstrate yourself …
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