Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Jul 31 2021
One Week From Today
…that is, on Saturday, August 7 in this Year of Our Lord 2021, …will be a free download at Amazon. Feel free to indulge yourself (and save a few bucks) in the paramount near-future Catholic science fiction novel of the year! Pope Clement XV, the first American to be raised to the …
Jul 31 2021
How Can We Be Sure?
The great goal of the knowledge-seeker is practical certainty. Note the modifier: for most propositions in this universe of discourse, absolute certainty is unattainable. That’s in the nature of causal propositions. Only in completely formal systems such as mathematics can we be absolutely certain of anything. This has critical implications for the sciences. …
Jul 30 2021
A Compound Moral Conundrum
First, some music: The tale of Jack Orion is a British Isles Traditional ballad. It’s been performed by several musicians and groups, including (of course) Pentangle. For villainy and woe, it ranks high among stories of its kind. While the traditional lyric is beautiful and evocative, it’s also rather long, so I’ll provide …
Jul 30 2021
A Man Who Predicts Successfully…
…should be listened to with attention. At Liberty’s Torch V1.0, I made use of this passage from The Black Cloud several times: “It looks to me as if those perturbations of the rockets must have been deliberately engineered,” began Weichart. “Why do you say that, Dave?” asked Marlowe. “Well, the …
Jul 29 2021
From The “Cui Bono?” Department
This morning, Dinesh D’Souza, whose intellect is significant if not quite sufficient to penetrate his partisanry, talks about “Section 230,” the fabled protection of “common carriers” against liability for what’s said over them: D’Souza’s comments irritated me for the reason expressed in the title of this piece. Specifically, he noted that when the …
Jul 28 2021
Ch-Ch-Changes 2021
The attempt to subjugate Americans has run out of new ideas. The giveaway is the Establishment’s propagandization of the “Delta variant” to frighten us back into face masks and isolation. The bad news is that some people are buying the scare propaganda. The good news is that they’re greatly outnumbered by those who aren’t. …
Jul 27 2021
Do Facts Matter Part 2
In response to the first episode in this tragedy, reader Clayton commented thus: “Respectable, law-abiding Negroes could solve the problem by bringing their unruly racial brethren to heel.” Which is why desegregation and the end of Redlining was a disaster for Blacks: much like the US and EU strip-mining anyone with talent …
Jul 26 2021
Do Facts Matter?
This appears to be the question of our time – the supreme question of our time. What does it mean to be oppressed? According to the dictionary, to oppress means “to burden with cruel or unjust impositions or restraints; subject to a burdensome or harsh exercise of authority or power.” If we use …
Jul 25 2021
Gifts, Love, And Miracles
Today’s Mass reading from the Gospel of St. John told of the miracle of the Loaves and Fishes: After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. …
Jul 24 2021
Proud To Be…?
The “pride talk” has gotten way, way out of hand. Even John Hinderaker has fallen into it: Most people, first of all, are proud of being Americans. That is a good thing. Is it? Are you proud to be an American? Is “being an American” your personal achievement? If not, what …
Jul 23 2021
Squibs
I’m hurting somewhat – yesterday was a day of much exertion – so have a few brief comments on assorted matters, that I might leave my computer and assume a more comfortable position. Assuming I can find one, that is. *** The Dynamic of Power Strikes Again. Don’t take that “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity” …
Jul 22 2021
Something Catholic And Beautiful
If you haven’t yet made the acquaintance of Loreena McKennitt, it’s high time. Listen to what she does with the stanzas from Saint John of the Cross’s classic tome Dark Night of the Soul: Upon a darkened night The flame of love was burning in my breast And by a lantern bright I fled …
Jul 22 2021
Having It Both Ways
I’ve ranted on other occasions about my strong preference for stand-alone novels: i.e., no unending series in prospect and no need to purchase a sequel to find out how the story ends. Now and then I find one that “cheats” in some fashion, usually by incorporating plot threads that aren’t critical to the resolution …
Jul 21 2021
The Mystery Of Work
It’s time for something to raise the spirits, rather than darken them as political BS tends to do. As it happens, I have something of the sort on tap. First, a little C. S. Lewis: Then an experience that perhaps no good man can ever have in our world came over (Ransom) – …
Jul 21 2021
The Fundraising Dynamic
The following six-minute video from Dinesh D’Souza is a must-view: In light of David Friedman’s assertion that political parties are vote-maximizing machines (from The Machinery of Freedom), the decomposition of a political party into its constituent components, specifically to look for any “interior” motivations, is of particular importance. There is no guarantee that …
Jul 20 2021
Giveaways 2021-07-20
Very few people ask “why?” with sufficient frequency. Even fewer demand an answer and refuse to rest until they get one. Consider the following three pieces: Get Vaccinated – Or Else Concerning recent church burnings in Canada The changing tone of the Mainstream Media The unifying factor here might take a moment …
Jul 19 2021
Something Unexpected
Liberty’s Torch isn’t a well-known, heavily-trafficked site. Thus I don’t expect to receive a great deal of email from persons with a significant public profile. I get a little of it…evenly split, as you might imagine, between applause and razzberries. So the following, which arrived in the email moments ago, came as a surprise. …
Jul 19 2021
No Remedy
It’s easy to castigate men long dead. It’s especially satisfying – for persons of a certain disposition, anyway – when those men have an achievement to their names that their critic could never have equaled. When the achievement is the founding of the greatest nation in history, the castigator has a hard time not …
Jul 19 2021
I’d Been Wondering When We’d See This
It wasn’t quite unprecedented…but it certainly hasn’t been common: Los Angeles cops in riot gear went toe-to-toe with antifa yesterday outside the Wi Spa, where a transgender man took off his clothes in the women’s locker room two weeks ago, setting off a firestorm. The riot was clearly planned. Despite the naughty …
Jul 18 2021
How To Say “Repressive Tolerance” So Anyone Will Understand!
Twitter may be more poison than nutrition, but every so often a gem appears there: If you’re unfamiliar with Marxist theorist Herbert Marcuse’s concept of “Repressive Tolerance,” you could: Read his 1965 essay; Use the “capsule” formulation above; Simply shrug and say “I don’t care what Marxist theorists say or think.” My …
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