Does anybody care anymore? Hell, I’m having a hard time finding people who care about 9/11. To me it was yesterday. But I had troops under my command who were born AFTER that day.
My dad was born in 1940. My grandfather was a gunner’s mate on a US Navy destroyer. A year and a half after my father was born, my grandfather would deploy, and the family would see him again two years later when he came home on leave. Then he was gone again. This was the repeating cycle of my father’s life until he was 14.
I’ve been lucky enough to talk to multiple WWII vets throughout my life. But they’re vanishingly rare these days, and can’t do many interviews. Finding Korean vets is just as hard, and the Vietnam vets are in their 70’s and 80’s, and dying off at a fast rate. So much history, just…. gone.
The Day that shall live in Infamy, now relegated to a couple pages in school history books, sandwiched between why white people are evil and how boys can become girls just by saying so.
I’ve been in a melancholy mood for some time now, so forgive me if my posts are brief and infrequent.
Why did the priest do so? Because his target chooses to mock the term “African-American.” And so there’s no imaginable confusion, I mock it too.
I am sick to death of the racism-shouters – and when a Catholic priest does it, he does harm to the Church. He’s employing the mantle of Holy Orders to give his personal opinion the status of a commandment. It’s been done before, and it’s always destructive to the Church, and to the Christian faith.
Virtually no one will tell you, in a clear, well-defined fashion, what he means by “racism.” It’s a lot of hot air designed to mask the shouter’s inner censoriousness, and it is contemptible. If you can’t define the term intensively – that is, with a genus and a differentia, which all good definitions must possess – then you deserve to be despised for ranting about it… Catholic priest or not!
Forgive me, Gentle Reader; I had to get that out before it could fester. Too many priests have tried to elevate their preferences to Holy Writ, and it is disgraceful. I will denounce it wherever I see it, and may the Devil take the hindmost!
You’re an intelligent and erudite person, aren’t you, Gentle Reader? I certainly hope so. Which means you’re already cognizant of the old saying that “war is a continuation of diplomacy by other means.” While it’s not absolutely true in every applicable respect, it contains a terrifying insight.
In a peacetime situation (“Peace: a state of tension that falls short of armed conflict”), the diplomat is a “point man” for his nation’s armed forces. They loom behind him, ready to try to enforce his government’s will should diplomacy fail. The other diplomats at the table are in the same position. All the participants must remain continuously aware of this throughout the proceedings.
From that opening, you probably think I’m going to talk about international tensions, crises, and ongoing conflicts. I’m not. I have an entirely “domestic” situation in mind. But the dynamics of diplomacy as summarized above are entirely pertinent to it… perhaps more pertinent than any other kind of analysis.
All forms of human interaction have rules. Even warfare has rules, though nations don’t always agree on them. As war is an attempt by one government to impose its will upon another government, the underlying theme of any war is who shall have power over whom. Tom Kratman wrote some penetrating things about the law of war in his early novel A Desert Called Peace, which I recommend unreservedly.
Politics, too, is about who shall have power over whom. There’s no “law of politics” comparable to the law of war; there is only the law of the civil society in which politicking takes place. Political parties, movements, and activists are expected to remain within the law of their nation while they conduct their efforts. Of course! The same is true for all of us, whether we’re politically engaged or not.
But as politics is the pursuit of power over others, some of the character of war can seep into it, perhaps without being detected at the outset. Political fanatics can embrace the methods of war: lethal violence and destruction. Some have done so here in America. There are indications that they’re poised to “escalate” should they not get their way.
So far, none of this constitutes a revelation, nor should it. The Gentle Readers of Liberty’s Torch have been watching events quite as attentively as anyone. You’re all aware that persons on the Left have employed violence for political purposes. What’s on my mind this morning is the conceptual foundation for that violence.
The Left is currently straining to mobilize its field forces by ranting that “it’s about justice,” and “our survival.” Yet simultaneously, its media figures strive to demonize the Right for “violence”… which has been almost completely absent from Rightist political action.
Ace has written a bit about this, in connection with the murder of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson:
“Anti-violence.”
The left means they’re anti-violence against the left. They never stop committing and justifying violence against their enemies.
The whole rotten Establishment, including the Establishment “right,” concedes that the left has an inalienable right to political violence. Compare the GOPe’s reaction to January 6th versus its collective shrug over six months of arson, looting, and murder in the “Summer of Love.”
They don’t put these in the same category. The right’s violence is unjustified, dangerous, and a threat to the Republic, whereas the left’s unceasing violence is just the “voice of the streets.”
At the risk of being inflammatory: The Establishment “right” often knocks the real right for not taking rightist violence seriously.
Well, see if you can follow this logic: We see you constantly excusing and justifying leftist violence, and we have decided we are NOT the second-class citizens you wish to re-caste us as, and if political violence is permissible to the left, then it is permissible to all.
It is you in the Establishment who are defending political violence and increasing political violence by continuing to maintain that some political violence, by the groups deemed righteous and deserving, is permitted.
Well, we think we’re righteous and deserving and I don’t accept Bitch McConnell’s assertions that I am not. So condemn it all, or condemn none of it.
They’ve chosen “condemn none of it.”
Fine. We’ll walk arm and arm into chaos and strife, then.
In effect, the Establishment “Right” has accepted the Left’s claim of moral superiority. The implications are as plain as print. One of them is that the Left has the authority to decide the rules of political combat. And therefore, the Left is permitted to use violence in pursuit of its aims.
The United States of America is tottering at the edge of an abyss: a condition of asymmetric civil warfare, in which the Establishment Right has disarmed itself. It has permitted the Left to write the law of this war. You don’t need to draw a trend line to predict what would come of this if the rest of us in the Right should accept it as given.
Barack Hussein Obama’s exhortation to his followers to “get in their faces” – meaning our faces, of course – and Maxine Waters’ similar preachments to her followers that we must be excluded from normal life have been amplified, broadcast, and reified. Leftist violence against Rightists – often against persons merely wearing a MAGA hat or with a Trump / Vance sticker on their bumper – is now so common that it’s moved into the dog-bites-man category. Reactions from the Right have been few so far, but that’s bound to change.
People will tolerate a great deal before they snap, but they will snap. Especially if they’re being told that they must tolerate personal abuse or oppression, the abuse of their loved ones, or the destruction of something they love. And if Americans should snap, the reverberations will circle the globe. As Larry Correia and others have observed, we’ve got two and only two settings: Vote and Shoot everybody. Governments, law enforcers, bureaucrats, and activists should beware. Day by day we move ever closer to throwing that switch.
We are a people accustomed to civil peace and public order. The summer of 2020 tested our tolerance almost, but not quite, to the snapping point. Perhaps what restrained us was the localization of the violence and disorder to a group of “blue” cities. It never reached beyond them. Moreover, it was mass violence. In the great majority of cases it lacked the personal component that has the most energizing and mobilizing effect. Had there been many such, the lid would have blown off already.
Assassinations are qualitatively different. The two assassination attempts on Donald Trump have already angered and energized a number of us. The assassination of Brian Thompson, and Leftist voices raised to excuse and defend that atrocity, are fanning what has been a modest flame until now. Some have actually called for the crosshairs to settle on Elon Musk.
There’s little more to say on this subject, except:
Make sure your guns are clean, oiled, and where you can find them,
Go armed whenever you’re in public,
And buy more ammo.
President Joe Biden’s senior aides are conducting a vigorous internal debate over whether to issue preemptive pardons to a range of current and former public officials who could be targeted with President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House, according to senior Democrats familiar with the discussions.
Biden’s aides are deeply concerned about a range of current and former officials who could find themselves facing inquiries and even indictments, a sense of alarm which has only accelerated since Trump last weekend announced the appointment of Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Patel has publicly vowed to pursue Trump’s critics.
…but not that it was receiving attention from “senior aides.” As they are the people functioning as the president de facto, the possibility must be taken seriously.
Let’s stipulate, for the sake of argument, that the persons who would be preemptively pardoned have committed no crimes under statute law. For the sake of argument, Gentle Reader! I am a serious commentator, you know. Grim visage, high forehead, and everything! (And I’m struggling to hold in my laughter, too.) Let’s also stipulate that every one of them could prove it in a court of law, such that any indictment against them would appear foolish and petty. What, then, would preemptive pardons of these noble-souled public servants signify?
Got it in one, didn’t you? It would certify that the “lawfare” tactic has been deployed against Donald Trump and his aides these past nine years! For none of those persons had committed any actual offenses, if we omit the lese majeste of defeating the Democrats’ chosen one in 2016. The point was to bankrupt them if possible, or to weary them out of politics if not. And that inference and the stipulation that underpins it are the most generous of all the possibilities.
The Democrat Party in our time has been revealed as a giant crime organization. Men pursue its heights with two aims: power and pelf. It doesn’t earn votes; it buys, fabricates, or steals them. If you’re thinking “RICO Act” as you read this, you’re not alone.
But have a caveat: The Republican Party is headed in the same direction. It’s just not yet entirely corrupted. There are still a few Republican officeholders that are more or less trustworthy. Yet the dynamic of power is at work on the GOP as well.
Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they have been resisted with either words or blows, or with both. – Frederick Douglass
With all due respect to Douglass, words are insufficient. The dynamic of power can only be thwarted by a revolution.
Hold onto your guns, Gentle Readers. The moment looks shiny, but moments pass. The time when courage and the willing embrace of danger will be required of us draws ever nearer.
I should stop thinking about this. I really should. Because the consequences will be wider and harsher than anyone has yet had the courage to mention.
A pardon says, sotto voce, “Yes, you’re guilty and I know it, but I’m going to let you off.” The acceptance of a pardon says, in equally hushed tones, “Yes, I’m guilty, but I’ll happily escape the consequences of my actions.” And we all know that Hunter will accept the pardon his “loving father” has granted him, so that settles that.
But what does that say to parents throughout the land? Don’t we already have severe problems with unruly young men, especially in our larger cities where so many of them have never known their fathers?
A man who begets a child and walks away from him has already conveyed a very poor “lesson” to that child, though he might not recognize it consciously. A youth who commits a crime and gets away with it, regardless of the reason, is acting on that lesson. It doesn’t require a great deal of reinforcement to become the kid’s central character premise: It’s not whether it’s right or wrong; it’s whether I can get away with it.
We already have severe problems because parents are too ready to shield their kids from the consequences of their actions. Yea verily, even from deeds such as gang warfare and drive-by shootings. Add the increasing reluctance of “law enforcement” to take action against young black lawbreakers, and even a moron can see what’s coming.
Now our “president,” in the waning days of his term in office, has decided to pardon a convicted felon who happens to be his son. Just the kind of reinforcement for the “I can get away with it” moral premise the nation needs, eh, Gentle Reader?
The late Gonzalo Lira wrote a powerful article, The Coming Middle-Class Anarchy, about the “moral hazard” entailed in allowing ordinary Americans to escape responsibility for obligations such as their mortgages. What do you suppose he would have to say about the Biden pardon? I doubt it would be confined to a reflection on “fatherly love.”
I received a curious inquiry just yesterday, from a fiction colleague I’ve known for some time.
As we hadn’t spoken for some time, we exchanged some pleasantries before he got to the real reason for his call. He wanted to know why there’d been no new novel from me in 2024. As Doors was released in October 2023, he’d expected to see something new from me before the year’s end.
I couldn’t answer him immediately. Up to that very moment I’d intended to go on producing fiction. I thought of it as my calling, despite its difficulty and my lack of readership. So I had to think it over, and I told him so.
Well, this morning I have the answer. You see, this past week the esteemed Hans G. Schantz has been holding yet another Based Book Sale. Those sales have been my only promotional vehicle for a long time now. The sale ends today. Total sales of all nineteen of my books this past week: two.
That’s not enough to persuade me to continue, especially as Doors, despite being priced at only $2.99 for its first year of availability, and only $0.99 since October 2024, has sold a grand total of 55 copies.
$2.99 is pretty damned cheap for a full-length novel. $0.99 is remainder-table pricing… if eBooks could be “remaindered,” anyway. So plainly, my stuff doesn’t sell. It’s clear that it lacks something… or that I do.
As I said, I’d planned to continue. I have a novel under construction: Dreams of Days Forsaken. Yes, it’s another Onteora County tale, though I’d intended several national and international motifs. I had hopes for it. I even bought a cover for it, which I shall reveal to you here:
That story has been stuck at about 25,000 words for several months. I can’t bring myself to look at it. I haven’t wanted to admit to myself that my zeal is gone.
So as matters stand today, I don’t expect to produce any more novel-length fiction. The return on investment just isn’t there — and for those who don’t know me well, I don’t mean a financial return. While this might disappoint the few readers I have, I can’t continue to pour out my diminishing energies for the five or six dozen of you who enjoy my stories sufficiently to purchase them at bargain-basement prices.
And about that fiction colleague who called me? He didn’t intend to read Dreams of Days Forsaken. He hasn’t read any of my previous ones, either. I think that was the deciding factor.
Among the more interesting things about Joe Biden’s “unexpected” decision to pardon his son Hunter for his gun felony and federal tax offenses is this: Hunter has the option to decline the pardon. I was aware of this previously, but the legal significance of it had not occurred to me.
The acceptance of a pardon carries with it the implication that the one being pardoned is in fact guilty of the offenses with which he was charged. If that pardon is declined, prosecution for the relevant offenses may and probably will continue. The accused’s legal jeopardy is unaltered. So why would he elect to decline the pardon?
The answer is straightforward: for the chance to establish his innocence at trial. If he wants that opportunity, he must decline the pardon, which would obviate a formal trial and verdict. So to accept the pardon, the accused must be comfortable with the imputation of guilt.
There’s no question that Hunter Biden is guilty of the offenses with which he’s charged. Perhaps admitting that guilt doesn’t matter to him, so long as he remains out of prison and free to pursue his various pleasures. At his age, he hasn’t got much in the way of career prospects. Once the disgraced Biden family is completely removed from the corridors of power, he’ll be unlikely to sell any more of his “paintings,” so remaining unconfined is all he has to look forward to.
However, the social and political significance of the pardon will be great. The media have made a great deal of noise over the election of a “convicted felon” to the presidency. Being boughten allies of the Democrats, they’re unlikely to say much in that regard about Hunter. For one thing, some of the dirt would adhere to Barack Hussein Obama, and the Obamas retain enough influence to take revenge for it.
So a fresh opportunity has arisen for us in the Right. Let’s ask some pointed questions, loudly and publicly:
Why have the media not commented on the significance of the pardon?
What are the implications for the rest of the Biden family?
Does this merit a re-examination of the evidence of Joe Biden as a major collaborator in an influence-peddling scheme which netted millions of dollars?
In all probability, the legacy media will do its damnedest to ignore such questions. But the independent media won’t. To harp on them, and to keep them in circulation, may be the best near-term chance America has to head off another voracious crime family before it can rise — or be raised — to the power the Bidens have exploited for half a century.
Former Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat, has said that his party needs to “rebrand” in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s big win.
[…]
“What does it mean to be a Democrat?” Ryan asked. “People want to trust us. They don’t want to go to Donald Trump. I’m telling you, the middle-of-the-road people, they’re holding their nose to vote for him but we did not give them enough, like, we are reindustrializing, we are talking about American competitiveness. We are moderate on things like natural gas in western PA which ended up being a big issue which we can’t be for natural gas replacing coal.”
Doesn’t this look to you like another claim that “It was only the messaging!” Gentle Reader? An attempt to evade discussion of all the ways the Democrat Party is immoderate, even radical?
If the “middle of the road people” really did have to hold their noses to vote for President Trump, it isn’t obvious. Perhaps the “middle of the road” — a phrase with no objective meaning — isn’t where Tim Ryan thinks it is.
American values are not “moderate” in any objective sense. Freedom, individual rights, Constitutionally limited government — these are radical positions. They’re not found anywhere else in the world. Freedom is not the same as the “right” to vote. Individual rights are absolute guarantees, the violation of which is never justified by some “compelling government interest.” Constitutional limitations on government are similarly supposed to be non-negotiable, enforced by an armed citizenry disinclined to tolerate officials who give the Constitution nothing more than lip service.
One of the best known Democrat legislators, the odious Nancy Pelosi, once said on camera that “We [i.e., Congress] can do anything” — that the Constitution’s “necessary and proper” clause gives Congress unlimited authority to legislate on any subject whatsoever, to any end whatsoever. She said that in the course of deriding a question from a reporter: “Where does the Constitution give Congress the authority to legislate about health care?” Pelosi dismissed it as “not a serious question.”
Remember that. If you happen to encounter Tim Ryan, remind him about it. And never, ever trust a Democrat.
Is anyone sincerely surprised that Joe Biden lied when he said he wouldn’t pardon Hunter?
Lying is what Biden does. It’s his specialty. We joke about politicians lying, but when it comes to Joseph Robinette Biden, Usurper of the Presidency, it’s as natural as breathing.
Biden’s lies make a mighty long list. He only tells the truth by accident, and he usually regrets it afterward. What he’s sought in vain is that special technique that other politicians have mastered: the ability to not get caught. Perhaps it’s for the best that he lacks it.
This “presidency” has eclipsed all its predecessors for deceitfulness, spitefulness, and destructiveness. Perhaps that’s the only sort of mark Biden could make on history. All we have left to hope for is that he and his handlers don’t get us into a world war on their way out.
Beloved Gentle Readers of Liberty’s Torch, you few whose patronage have sustained us lo, these many moons, your Curmudgeon has a problem. It’s one he cannot solve alone.
Yes! It’s true! I, Fran Porretto, international superstar, hero to screaming millions, the fantasy of would-be love slaves on every continent of the world, am at an impasse. X — the social medium formerly known as Twitter — has locked me out — and after I paid for a Premium-Plus account, at that. Their “help” facility has been no help at all. Apparently, to them “support” means “Yeah, yeah, sit down and shut up.”
It happened a few days ago, shortly after my desktop computer died and I had to resurrect this old laptop. Something displeased X’s digital monitors, and suddenly I had to “verify” my account by responding to an email. So I told X to send said email. It did not arrive. So I said “send another.” Still nothing. I must have told X to send (another) email more than twenty times. (I am not easily daunted.) Did I receive any such email? Of course not!
I was able to contact the X “help” system. Here’s what I received in reply:
Hello,
We have received your request and will get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!
X Support
2024-11-29 18:54
As of yesterday afternoon, I’d heard nothing more. So I queried the “help” people once more. Their reply:
Hello,
Thanks for your report. It looks like this is connected with your original case # 0381606872, so we’ve added it to that first report.
We’ll continue our review with this information.
If you have more details you think we should know, please respond to this email to send them our way. We appreciate your help!
Thanks,
X Support
People get incensed over being locked out of “free” social media. Imagine my ire at being locked out of a site where I’ve already paid over $100 for Premium-Plus access — and then getting the sort of “help” above.
If any Gentle Readers are X users, would you please lend me your assistance? My account details are below:
User email: porretto -at- optonline -dot- net
User name: @FranPorretto
Acct level: Premium+
My thanks in advance for whatever you can do. I’ll update this post with any further developments.
A little Knowledge is a dangerous thing – which implies that Greater Knowledge is not.
Education is the Key to a Good Life.
We’ve all heard similar sound bites before – all of them glorify knowledge as the most important aim of humanity.
One of the slurs against Christianity is that it is anti-knowledge. Didn’t one of the first stories in the Bible warn Mankind to limit their pursuit of Knowledge?
It’s a fight that lies behind much of history. What Knowledge the State wants its people to possess, and what is in the individual’s best interest.
Socrates used teaching the young of Greece to coax the young to oppose their elders. The young men began to believe they were better suited to running the affairs of the city because of their access to knowledge.
You know how THAT turned out.
Some of the Early Christians claim to have access to “special knowledge” that was available to them alone. That wasn’t an unusual concept at that time. Many of the religions had secret texts, withheld from those not in power, that gave them access to God-Like knowledge and power within.
Those were the Gnostics. A large part of the writings of the Church Fathers dealt with that heresy.
“By the 2nd century CE, Christianity was a separate religion from Judaism, but Christians retained the God of Israel and many teachings of the Jewish Scriptures. Gnostics agreed that the creator God in Genesis created the universe, but creation consisted of evil matter. In some Gnostic systems, the God of Israel was not only evil, but Satan himself. Thus, the commandments of the God of Israel were deemed invalid.”
There is a lot more at the link. It’s worth reading.
The plan for AI is for it to be embedded into most online and computer-facilitated interactions. It’s operation should be largely out of sight, as the average person can feel antagonistic about ‘machines controlling their lives’.
However, in practice, most AI systems have an interface that is both friendly and personalized. Users are encouraged to input their ideas, and generate the AI-created results. I’ve seen uses of this that seem to work, such as book covers for sci-fi. I’ve seen others that laughably fail.
The above was derived from AI being asked to show Mother Theresa Fighting Poverty.
AI is in its infancy. I’ve no doubt that it will increase in its ability to fulfill Human’s requests in an appropriate manner.
At present, AI is deficient in understanding nuance. It fails in understanding which of several meanings of words are intended to be used. As the American English language is ever-evolving, I foresee a long period of time when AI simply cannot keep up.
And, FWIW, that is the technological solution that developers have long used. We are frustrated by systems that can only work within limits:
Press 1 to leave a message, Press 2 to hang up – neither one was my choice
Which of these describes your problem (followed by a few categories) – Um, NONE of these – which is not among the choices
Do you wish to reach Billing, to report a power outage, or to leave a message? When I indicate Billing, I am informed that I can hear my balance, recent transactions, and pay by phone. None of which applies when I’m interested in talking to a Human about a billing mistake.
“Technological advances can usher in both the dawn or endless night, depending on our choices. Science by itself can never tell us what science should do. If AI is left to define the ultimate ends of human life – essentially our religious beliefs – it will have usurped the Kernel of humanity and our last agency. In large part AI works by minimizing the distance between its conjectures and the known facts. Once AI controls the black box it possesses everything it needs to make whatever it says the final authority.”
The Left strongly favors the Gnostic position. They claim superior knowledge, in a time when more than 1/2 of Americans have attended college.
Never fear, there is a response to THAT – those “lesser beings (hardly Human!)” attended non-Elite institutions, where they were only taught correct ways to approach their learning – such as in Engineering, Science, Math, and Business. It was not the Correct Knowledge, which they could have for only $19,990 per semester! A BARGAIN!
This year, thousands of volunteers fanned out across that unfamiliar territory known as Middle America, where they worked to get Kam-ala and Walz-ing Timmy elected. Many met up with people who agreed with them – others found staunchly opposed voters, who were not cowed by the kids’ Educated Assurance.
Hopefully, the lesson most of them learned is that average Americans are smart enough to handle their own lives without the government’s interference. Maybe they learned that, although the farmers, construction workers, waitresses and clerks couldn’t DE-construct literature, they COULD handle their jobs, their children’s education, academic and spiritual, and could not be persuaded to vote in a way opposite to their own interests.
Given the response of many on The Left, I’m not confident of the outcome.
As a quote from the movie Rudy puts it:
Father Cavanaugh: “Son, in 35 years of religious study, I have only come up with two hard incontrovertible facts: there is a God, and I’m not Him.
That’s the spirit that an educated person should maintain.
Good luck with that. Although Trump is capable of using tech, he is probably most comfortable working person-to-person. He should get in the habit of having one of his aides turn on a blocker to keep his conversations private. Also, use a nondigital recording device to have evidence of what was actually said. Sad that he isn’t just fighting other countries, but enemies at home.
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, is of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” — C. S. Lewis.
You don’t have to be a Catholic to appreciate the season of Advent.
For the next four weeks, Christians everywhere will prepare for the holy day that commemorates the birth of the Son of God in mortal flesh. Perhaps you don’t even need to be a Christian — that is, to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, and therefore divine in his own right — to grasp the momentous character of this occasion. For that man, who never moved more than two hundred miles from the place of his birth, has had more influence on the beliefs and deeds of men than any other individual who has ever lived.
Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent. Reflect, Gentle Reader. Reflect on the teachings of the one we call the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of Mankind. Compare them to any other propositions that have been pressed upon you, and decide for yourself: Which would you prefer to become a Kantian “categorical imperative” to be followed by all who live?
There is nothing — there can never be anything — to compare with the promise of eternal life in the nearness of God. That is the promise that Jesus made to us. The condition of entry is that we follow a few simple rules:
Don’t murder.
Don’t commit adultery.
Don’t steal.
Don’t bear false witness.
Don’t covet what is not yours.
Honor your parents.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
…and that, when we violate those rules, we repent sincerely, with true contrition, and resolve not to repeat our sins. If you can find a bigger payoff for a smaller investment, I want to hear about it.
To me, this is the best bargain that’s ever been offered to anyone. And four weeks from tomorrow, he who proclaimed it will be born a man: the child of an impoverished couple who had to shelter in a stable, for the inn was full.
Hearken to the late, great Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen:
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 worldly, the rallying place of the fashionable and those who count in the management of the world’s affairs? What is a stable, but the place of outcasts, the refuge of beasts, and the shelter of the valueless, and therefore the symbol of those who in the eyes of public opinion do not count and hence may be ignored as of no great value or moment? Anyone in the world would have expected to find Divinity in an inn, but no one would have expected to have found it in a stable….
If, in those days, the stars of the heavens by some magic touch had folded themselves together as silver words and announced the birth of the Expected of the Nations, where would the world have gone in search of Him?
The world would have searched for the Babe in some palace by the Tiber, or in some gilded house of Athens, or in some inn of a great city where gathered the rich, the mighty, and the powerful ones of Earth. They would not have been the least surprised to have found the newborn King of Kings stretched out on a cradle of gold and surrounded by kings and philosophers paying Him their tribute and obeisance.
But they would have been surprised to have discovered Him in a manger, laid on coarse straw and warmed by the breath of oxen, as if in atonement for the coldness of the hearts of men. No one would have expected that the One whose fingers could stop the turning of Arcturus would be smaller than the head of an ox; that He who could hurl the ball of fire into the heavens would one day be warmed by the breath of beats; that He who could make a canopy of stars would be shielded from a stormy sky by the roof of a stable; or that He who made the Earth as His future home would be homeless at home. No one would have expected to find Divinity in such a condition; but that is because Divinity is always where you least expect to find it….
The world has always sought Divinity in the power of a Babel, but never in the weakness of a Bethlehem. It has searched for it in the inns of popular opinion, but never in the stable of the ignored. It has looked for it in the cradles of gold, but never in the cribs of straw – always in power, but never in weakness.
Pray: for peace, for the peace of your family and friends, and for the peace of the world. For only he who was born in a stable and laid in a manger can bring us peace.
Anyone NOT living under a rock (or only watching MSNBC for their information) will know that a violent gang from Venezuela is operating within the USA’s borders. Tren de Aragua was first noticed kicking in doors in Colorado. Since that time, we’ve found them in pretty much every major city in America, and a few minor ones.
Tennessee Conservative News has a pretty good roundup of this story, which notes that three women were also arrested, but rather than being Tren de Aragua members, these women are apparently being held in captivity and forced into prostitution.
Slavery. Sex slavery. Women being held against their will and forced to have sex with men who pay the gangs. That is evil.
When ever I encounter someone who advocates for open borders (which is thankfully few and far between in Idaho) my question to them is blunt: “Why are you in favor of sexual slavery?” I don’t want to hear that avacados are going to go up in price. I don’t give a shit. I care about the fact that women are being held against their will and forced to have sex with men who pay the gangs money. And all of this, ALL OF IT, is happening because we as a country refuse to secure our borders. These violent gangs are here because the Biden regime opened the borders and refused to stop anyone from coming in. These violent gangs, as well as the known terrorists, and the Chinese nationals of military age, and the Haitians, are here because of Joe Biden and all the people who voted for him. Which is at least twenty million less than the numbers they gave us in 2020 due to fraud and cheating, and we all know it. But if sixty million people had not voted for Joe Biden, then the cheating and the fraud wouldn’t have been effective. So yes, I’m going to put the blame for violent Venezuelan gangs running sex slavery rings in the USA squarely on the shoulders of Democrat voters. This is what they voted for.
“Oh but DAAAAVE, aren’t you a CHRISTIAN? Why don’t you want to help those poor people?” Good question. And it’s a very simple answer: Help them in their own countries. Don’t bring them in. Don’t allow any Juan, Habib or Chang to come into this country. Remember folks, the Good Samaritan bandaged up the victim of thugs and then helped him get to an inn where he could rest. He did not bring that man into his house. Your house is your castle. It’s where your family lives. Letting anyone into your home who feels like walking in puts your family in danger, and that makes you a failure as a man. Letting anyone just stroll into your house means that your wealth is gone, your daughter and wife are raped and possibly kidnapped or murdered, and you have nothing left with which to help anybody.
Whatever these people do in their countries, they are going to do the exact same thing when they’re here. Honor killings by goat-fucking pedophile worshipping savages? Yep. Happening in America. Killing pets and wildlife and then eating them? Yep, happening in America. Slavery, which we fought a bloody war to end in this country, being brought back by third world shitstains? Yep, happening in America. Hell, illegal aliens killed a bald eagle in Nebraska, and thanks to Joe Biden’s regime and the people who helped install him, they were only charged with misdemeanors and let go. Would anyone like to guess what would happen to an American who committed that crime? Anyone?
Open borders are evil. You want to whine about how the cost of produce is going to go up? If your economy is dependent on what is essentially slave labor, then your economy deserves to collapse. “But who’s going to build the houses?” Maybe people will actually have to hire legal citizens to build the houses. Maybe people will actually wise up to the fact that the US Government has put so many rules, regulations and taxes on businesses with regard to paying employees and it’s now effecting the nation as a whole. I mean, probably not Democrats, at this point most of them are a lost cause, but the people in the middle might start waking up.
We can hope, anyways.
Buy more ammo. When Trump is in office and Tom Homan starts the deportation proceedings, God only knows how the Left is going to react. Or the Cartels, who are going to see a huge chunk of their income get slashed. They’re not going to take that very well. I hope that Trump does what he said he’ll do, which is to label the Cartels as terror organizations, and then send in our best operators to take them out. The fact that this country has allowed criminal gangs to control OUR borders is disgusting, and a huge part of the reason that Trump won a third election.
OK, rant over. I have dogs to walk and logs to saw.
Just a quick thought this morning, as I’m still on a backup computer with no software except Windows, Kindle PC, and Notepad.
I’ve been reading — and am greatly impressed by — Henry Brown’s six-volume Paradox series, the core motif of which is a “multiverse” caused by the invention of a space-time “warp generator.” Persons with access to such a device can move freely through both space and time, given sufficient power. In doing so, their actions become capable of “splitting” the timestream, which gives birth to an alternate reality separate from its origns and from the destiny of that previous stream.
In this fictional multiverse, there’s a war on. There are forces that seek to control all movement of that sort. Others — mostly individuals, whom the would-be controllers call “rogues” — merely want the best situations they can contrive for themselves. Violence erupts whenever the controllers manage to track down a rogue, and they are dedicated to that effort.
What’s the rationale? “Order over chaos:”
“Think of it this way: humanity has emerged from chaos, and built order. That order is seen as fragile, on many levels. With time travel, the danger of sliding back into chaos increases exponentially. They don’t want that. We don’t want that. All humanity is in agreement that order is better than chaos.”
Superficially, that sounds good… until we confront the question in the title of this piece:
“What’s the big deal about having a bunch of alternate streams?” I asked.
“Untold numbers of radically different world lines would be extremely difficult to police.”
“So why do you need to police them? Let the natives police themselves.”
She shook her head in frustration. “That simply won’t do.”
“Why not?”
She made a flinging gesture with her hand, and sighed again. “As I said: I don’t want to argue with you. My organization has its reasons. The CPB wants to preserve order, as do we. There is no good and evil, per se. That’s novice, binary thinking.”
It always comes down to that final rationale: “There is no good and evil, per se. That’s novice, binary thinking.”
Frankly, a man who believes “There is no good and evil” had better not try to get behind me.
I just read a previous post from yesterday, in which Francis laments the death of his laptop, and asks Ragin Dave and I to carry on.
I’m typing this from bed. I woke in the middle of the night with digestive upset, and, feeling a little light-headed, went back to bed. I briefly climbed out this morning, verified that I could keep food down, and toddled back under the covers.
I’m HOPING to be ready to go again by tomorrow – there’s a big Ohio State game on TV, and my kids and my husband are rabid fans. If not, I’ll send my husband on his way, and go back to bed.
There are worse places to be now. NC residents are STILL living rough, and those FEMA employees whose parents never married have snippily refused them permission to reside in the small home the Amish built. Apparently, their “ethical awareness” is such that the alternatives – leaving the area with a pitiful sum of money PROMISED, but not paid (allowing FEMA’s chosen raptors to take over the land and condemn/tear down the houses), spending the money to rebuild to today’s code standards – IF, and when, they again GET PERMISSION to do so, or, like the stubborn hillbillies they are (in my mind, that’s a compliment), keep living in tents and freezing.
I hate to tell you, FEMA, hillbillies are NOT the people to bet against. They out-stubborn just about everybody. My Dad was born and raised in WV, and the reason we used to say, “There is stubborn, and then there is West Virginia stubborn”. He had an aunt and uncle who got into an argument early in their marriage, and vowed not to speak to that person again.
They lived together another 30 years or so, having several kids in the meantime, and never again spoke a direct word to each other. They would pass messages through their kids (God knows what they did after the kids grew up!).
Trump cannot take office soon enough.
On that subject (changes we HOPE will follow the swearing in), I’ve heard a lot of talk about the possibility that the GOP majority will be worthless, given the people who have already left to join the new administration, and the likelihood of that Dam#ed RINOs rolling over and showing their belly in a crunch.
I don’t agree. A LOT of what is wrong about government is in the Executive Branch:
Departments – policy is set by the head, who also has control over the organization. He/she may not be able to directly fire employees, but he CAN eliminate their position, in the name of lowering costs and improving efficiency. That’s where the DOGE folks come in.
Agencies – replace the head, direct him/her (see how PC I’m being?) to cut through the regulations AND THEIR ACCOMPANYING DEFINITIONS OF ELIGIBILITY. Yes, I’m riding my hobbyhorse of CMS having “interpreted” the meaning of Beneficiary Eligibility to include THE FREAKING ILLEGAL ALIENS WHO ARE ON A DEFERRED DEPORTATION STATUS!
That ONE change – explicitly classify all people without permanent residency or born or naturalized in the United States as INeligible for benefits – would, at one fell swoop, remove the people who never should have received the benefits from the rolls.
BTW, once a person is deemed eligible for one benefit, it’s easy-peasy to get more. Agency workers are drones, who will go along with the easiest solution. If they reject someone, they will likely get ‘dinged’ for the complaint. Too many of them, and their job is in jeopardy.
After that change, let the cost-cutting dogs loose.
MOST of the overreach of The Left was slipped in there by agencies and departments exceeding their authority, with the Executive Branch’s cooperation. If the President was challenged about an action, he could gracefully defer to the administrators, and imply that his hands were tied.
And, most people bought it.
Not Trump. In his businesses, he had to face opposition from bureaucrats. He knows that there are times to get in there and schmooze with the bosses, and times to put on the gloves. He will back up admins and department heads who do the same.
Fran knows me to make connections between sometimes widely diverse observations. Today’s connection is far from diverse. I hope its importance reinforces his inclination of providing me this platform in which to speak out.
Here, in a nutshell, displays the warning of the problem the Uniparty is preparing to exploit.
But wait. The situation is even worse than simply losing votes on bills.
Using my recall of California majority manipulation, I see the potential for a 5 alarm fire being created to thwart President Trump this term. For all stolid Trump worshipers — you better pray he is as expert at 4-D chess as you claim he is. Here is the worrisome precedent from California, the testing ground for all assaults on America as a whole.
“When Willie Brown ran for re-election in 1994, California’s newly-enacted term limits assured that it would be his last stint in the legislature.
Although Brown easily retained his Assembly seat in 1994, Republicans won a one-vote majority in the California State Assembly and it appeared that Willie Brown’s record-setting tenure as Speaker was finally over.
Brown pulled off a remarkable upset, clinging to his leadership of the Assembly by a margin of a single vote, cast by a Republican member whose loyalty Brown had won in an earlier session.
When the Republican dissenter was recalled in a special election, Brown stunned the opposition again, by persuading another Republican member to stand for Speaker against the Republicans’ chosen leader.
Brown’s choice won the votes of all Democrats and a single Republican in the Assembly. When Brown’s chosen successor was also recalled, he persuaded Democrats to support the candidacy of the one Republican [GOPe] who had supported Brown’s choice for Speaker, thereby dooming the hopes of Brown’s Republican rival for a third time.
The Republican majority were forced to withdraw their first choice and elected a fourth Speaker for the brief remainder of the Assembly session.” — https://berggruen.org/people/willie-lewis-brown-jr [emphasis added — PF]
It took me a good deal of searching to get the above details to reinforce my memory. It should surprise nobody that Leftist Wikipaedia provided far less detail. But as you will see, it did end with a far more ominous observation which I will emphasize.
“The 1994 California State Assembly elections were held on November 8, 1994. California’s State Assembly in its entirety comes up for election in even numbered years. Each seat has a two-year term and members are limited to three 2-year terms (six years). All 80 biennially elected seats in the Assembly were up for election this year. Republicans gained a net of eight seats from the Democrats, taking control of the chamber by a slim margin. However, Assemblyman Paul Horcher soon left the party to become an independent, allowing Speaker Willie Brown to remain in power for a few months until Horcher was recalled. As of 2024, this is the last time the Republicans won control of the California State Assembly.“
And mind you, unlike California, SCOTUS reads the constitution as not permitting recalls of turncoat members of Congress.
We’d better have a lot of people on our side, in addition to President Trump, prepared for all Uniparty treachery that is being set up.
I hope this thought gains some traction and wider notice, because we on the Right need all hands on deck to provide pressure to combat what has a high likelihood of coming our way.
If it were just terrorists bombing buildings and public transit, it would be easier; even the feeblest Eurowimp jurisdiction is obliged to act when the street is piled with corpses. But there’s an old technique well understood by the smarter bullies. If you want to break a man, don’t attack him head on, don’t brutalize him; pain and torture can awaken a stubborn resistance in all but the weakest. But just make him slightly uncomfortable, disrupt his life at the margin, and he’ll look for the easiest path to re-normalization. There are fellows rampaging through the streets because of some cartoons? Why, surely the most painless solution would be if we all agreed not to publish such cartoons. [From Mark Steyn’s America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It]
The communists and other Hamas supporters stormed the [Macy’s New York City] Thanksgiving Day parade and tried to stop it. They aren’t Americans. They want to destroy America.
And it is so.
Time was, this would have been called “disturbing the peace.” Apparently, these days you can legitimately disturb the peace if you’re promoting the right Cause. At least in a “blue” city.
If you just want it to stop for a little while, you give in to it: you fold up your banners, deflate your floats, and go home. But that is positive reinforcement for the disruptors’ tactic. If there’s anyone out there who doesn’t grasp that dynamic, he’s never trained a puppy.
If you want it to stop and never happen again, you punish it so harshly that the “protestors” will feel it for years to come. I suppose people foolish enough to allow Leftists to “govern” them have a hard time grasping that.
Apologies, Gentle Reader. Not only am I writing this after a day of overconsumption that’s left me feeling as if I’ve swallowed a beach ball, I’m doing so on Notepad. Please pardon any typos.
