Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Dec 05 2023
Assorted
Yes, Gentle Reader, I’m still pretty sick. The energy isn’t there for more than a few casual shots out the passenger-side window as I drive past the passing scene. But I hate to leave you with nothing to read, and my Co-Conspirators, normally a worthy bunch, appear to have gone mute for the time …
Dec 04 2023
The Loss Of Simplicity
[I’m still afflicted by some sort of upper-respiratory torment, and expect to spend the day under about a dozen blankets, so have a reprint from Eternity Road of fond memory. It first appeared there on July 28, 2007. Sadly, some of the embedded links no longer work. Sixteen years is long enough to lose …
Dec 03 2023
Day Off
Apologies, Gentle Readers. I’m a bit under the weather today, and lack the energy for my usual ranting and raving. However, the comments to this piece have cheered me greatly. If you haven’t read them, I recommend that you do so. After that, perhaps you might revisit this Baseline Essay, which is very much …
Dec 02 2023
This Is America
Presented without comment: …because it brought tears to my eyes. May God bless and keep you all!
Dec 02 2023
Just How Does Harvard Award Professorships?
You really have to wonder: Scientific American, which dates to 1845 and touts itself as “the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States,” recently ran an article arguing that scientists should prioritize “reality” over scientific “rigor.” What would make a publication with a name like this one set empirical evidence at odds …
Dec 02 2023
“Sorry sir, your race card has been denied.”
Perhaps this will trigger a general re-evaluation of the bilge poured forth by the racialist hucksters: It’s hard to believe it has been nearly five years since the Jussie Smollett hate hoax happened. It’s even harder to believe that despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt, Smollett has only spent 6 days in jail …
Dec 02 2023
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes Dept.
I just saw this graphic over at Mike Miles’s place: But Congress, which is 95% recidivists and 50% millionaires, would balk at both propositions. For one thing, the swollen Defense Department appropriations are a fertile source of pork for their constituents. For another, it’s a safe bet that a lot of them are …
Dec 01 2023
Omission Statement
There are many in the right who feel we’re not making progress. Given that the political milieu hasn’t budged since the inauguration of the Usurper-in-Chief, I can understand the feeling. But in point of fact, we’re advancing “upstream,” in the battle over the culture: “Entertain first, not messages,” Iger said at something called …
Dec 01 2023
The Eternally Misleading Vision
Some thematic music: As the dust settles, see our dreams, all coming true it depends on you, If our times, they are troubled times, show us the way, tell us what to do. As our faith, maybe aimless blind, hope our ideals and our thoughts are yours And believing the promises, please make your …
Dec 01 2023
Apostate Glimpses A Critical Truth
It cannot be said too often: Leftism, whether it goes by “liberalism,” “progressivism,” “socialism,” or outright “communism,” is a religious faith. As with most faiths, believers regard apostates as the worst of evils: The reasons are several, but paramount among them is this one: the Leftist regards his faith as a badge of …
Nov 30 2023
The Diplomat
peace n: A state of tension falling short of armed conflict. [Definition proposed by the late Keith Laumer in his Retief tales] Among the political fantasies of our era, the notion that one can negotiate an enduring peace with an enemy ideologically committed to one’s destruction ranks very high, possibly supreme. Yet that …
Nov 29 2023
Unions And Their Objectives
The following fragments of conversations with union members are taken from Robert C. Townsend’s classic Further Up The Organization: Production Worker: “In a big union shop, management is the enemy – is something to overcome, or somehow get around. That’s the game everybody plays.” Machinist: “The minute you put on a blue …
Nov 28 2023
Naming What They’re Doing… And Why
Pascal sent me a link to the following brief speech by Laura Aboli, about whom I previously knew nothing. I think we have a new heroine – and I hope to hear more from her. Perhaps Rand was prescient about this as well: “There was a time when men were afraid that …
Nov 28 2023
“That Can’t Be!”
Dave: Everybody cheats. I just didn’t know. Dad: Well, now you know. [From Breaking Away.] Have you become more skeptical as you’ve aged, or less? There’s an awful lot of utter nonsense being purveyed by the extended media, these days. By “extended,” I mean to subsume all providers of information, not just the …
Nov 27 2023
Quote Of The Day
The state of our country can be defined by this simple fact: Someone can be convicted of murder and sentenced to jail even though the “murdered” man’s death certificate states he died of a drug overdose. — David DeGerolamo
Nov 27 2023
Notes On Extremistry
Yes, that’s a coinage. It’s in the vein of chemistry, which is the study of how chemicals behave. There’s also palmistry, which is the study of palm trees. (What’s that? Palmistry has nothing to do with palm trees? Well, never mind then.) However, the comparison isn’t all that close. What I mean to tag …
Nov 25 2023
“Diversity” Advocates
American “diversity” advocates, henceforth to be styled Diversitoids, have a propensity for living in the “whitest” parts of the country. As it happens, they’re usually surrounded by other Diversitoids…that is, other white Diversitoids. But diversity! We can’t get enough of it…or so they say. If that’s so, then what explains their chosen neighborhoods? …
Nov 25 2023
No Americans Were Released
John Hinderaker comments pithily: On October 7, Gaza murdered 31 Americans and is believed to have kidnapped 13 more, including a three-year-old child. Yesterday an initial exchange of hostages for prisoners was carried out. Ten Thais and one Filipino were let go, but no Americans were released…. […] If our president …
Nov 25 2023
Perhaps You’ve Wondered
Why are there so many total nutcases infesting our world? How can there be so many terrorists, so many mass murderers, so many loonies gluing themselves to stuff to “protest” fossil fuels, or “cisgender heteronormativity,” or whatever? Omitting the ones driven by Islam, that is. A short while ago, it occurred to me …
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