Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Jul 13 2024
Cue Napoleon’s Maxim
The mess called California has had several architects, but none more prominent nor proud than Gavin Newsom. Yet Democrats are pondering whether he should replace Joe Biden as their 2024 presidential nominee. Let’s not interrupt them as they do so. Twenty years ago, California had passed a law, the Defense of Marriage Act, …
Jul 12 2024
Peripheral Indicators
Sometimes, you can divine more about what’s coming by watching the edges of the news than by focusing relentlessly on the core. Here’s an edge to ponder: Fletcher Knebel’s 1969 political thriller Night of Camp David, which concerns a president who has descended into paranoid / megalomaniac delusions, is experiencing resurgent sales. Used copies …
Jul 12 2024
“You Know You’re Over The Target”
…when the flak is heaviest. This has special application to the public statements of popular figures who dare to go against the Official Line. In our time, Official Lines are everywhere. One differs with them at one’s personal peril. No Official Line is more heavily defended than this one: “Women, You Can Have It …
Jul 11 2024
An Inevitable Schism
Doctrines, regardless of the subject matter, are usually inflexible. Sometimes that’s not a virtue. Today in the Wall Street Journal, there’s an article about the divergence on economic policy between two wings of the Republican Party: There are, of course, widely aired disagreements over abortion and the war in Ukraine. But a …
Jul 10 2024
Sides
‘Hoom, hm, I have not troubled about the Great Wars,’ said Treebeard; ‘they mostly concern Elves and Men. That is the business of Wizards: Wizards are always troubled about the future. I do not like worrying about the future. I am not altogether on anybody’s side, because nobody is altogether on my side, if …
Jul 10 2024
Have You Finalized Your Vacation Plans?
Because if not: Scientists have identified an exoplanet that may possess an Earth-like atmosphere and the potential to support life, and in space terms it’s really not that far away. But how are the accommodations and the nightlife? Located just 48 light-years from Earth, LHS 1140 b orbits within its red …
Jul 10 2024
Insanity Or Deliberate Political Malfeasance?
You really have to wonder: After securing the majority of seats in Sunday’s election, the newly formed left-wing government in France has revealed plans to impose a ninety percent tax on its “wealthier” citizens. The left-wing coalition known as the New Popular Front (NPF) shocked French politics this past weekend when it …
Jul 09 2024
Turning Heads
Apparently, women’s basketball sensation Caitlin Clark isn’t done breaking records yet: Caitlin Clark is currently leading the WNBA in total points from scoring and assists. Similar to the NFL’s all-purpose yards measurement, Clark now has to be considered a candidate for MVP and Rookie of the Year (ROY). Clark on Saturday became …
Jul 09 2024
Plainly Stated
And by one of today’s most eloquent commentators and thinkers, at that: If someone wished to destroy America, could he do anything more catastrophic than what we currently see and hear each day? What would an existential enemy do that we have not already done to ourselves? Fair use restricts me from …
Jul 08 2024
The Multiparty Model Versus The American Model
Events in Britain and France these past few days have emphasized one of the critical differences between the European, “parliamentary” scheme for forming a government and that which prevails in the United States. In Britain and France, the aggregated Left may rise to power over the parties of the Right, despite the Rightist parties …
Jul 07 2024
Evidence Of Spine
I’m always heartened to learn of some indication that Americans are rediscovering their courage, in these times when so much has been done to make us furtive and timorous. This one from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho cheered me in two ways: Christians in Idaho who had been banned from carrying religious symbols during their …
Jul 06 2024
Questions Not Asked Frequently Enough
I just stumbled over this at Mike Miles’s place, and it got me thinking about such questions generally: Yes, why? The majority of Muslim immigrants to the United States and other First World countries are from places where Islam is dominant – in most cases, it’s the law. Other religions are either discouraged, …
Jul 05 2024
“I’m Not Watching This Show Any More.”
Have you ever said that to yourself, Gentle Reader? Perhaps after the 2317th episode of some drama that once thrilled you, but whose writers and producers had apparently “lost the plot?” The onset of the condition can seem sudden. Yet no such transition from slavish dedication to “eff this” is anything but gradual. …
Jul 04 2024
Happy Birthday, America
It’s number 248, if we don’t count the very first one. Time was, I would print the core section of the Declaration of Independence here, as my commemoration of the original event. It’s one of the greatest passages of prose ever set down, and it deserves to be proclaimed all over the world. …
Jul 03 2024
Big Brass Ones
Stephen Green relates a striking tale: As President, Donald Trump’s ballsiest moment might have come as he was negotiating an end to our two-decade presence in Afghanistan. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Tex.) told the story to Shelby Steele on a recent video podcast. “I want to leave Afghanistan,” Trump is supposed to have …
Jul 02 2024
Have The Rules Changed Or Haven’t They?
Back when certain Y-chromosome bearers decided it was time to take the thirteen colonies-become-states and make them into a nation – a decision some think they regretted afterward – they had certain rules in mind about governments and how they were supposed to be formed. The most important of those rules was no violence. …
Jul 01 2024
Look East To Glimpse The West’s Future
France has just held its “first round” parliamentary elections, and the results look very, very bad for the governing coalition headed by President Emanuel Macron. But my sympathies this morning aren’t for him and his ilk; rather, I’m worried for the common French citizen: Left wing protests have started in Paris following the National …
Jun 30 2024
Uncertainties
No one really likes them. Especially if they’re about big things. The following popped out of the memory bank a little while ago as I contemplated this subject: He felt toward Kathy a certain strange cynical trust, both absolute and unconvincing; one half of his brain saw her as reliable beyond the power …
Jun 28 2024
What Now, Democrats? Part 3
The hole is getting deeper: “I know I’m not a young man, to the state the obvious. Well, I know I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do …
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