Francis W. Porretto

Mount Sinai, NY USA

Author's posts

On Pulling Triggers

     These statements by baseball great Curt Schilling have just come to my attention:      “We’re up against a side and a force that doesn’t play by the rules – refuses to play by the rules,” he said, adding of conservatives: “We get excited, and we get emotional; that’s it. They break the law; they …

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Powerful Or Powerless?

     Anyone who follows the storms of political commentary will be aware that the Left is angry that the Supreme Court of the United States is currently moderately conservative. (I make it roughly 5.33 conservatives to 3.67 left-liberals, as Chief Justice John Roberts has proved that he cannot be trusted.) This morning, John Hinderaker comments …

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The Hunter Biden Saga

     Yes, it’s been going on for quite a while now. Many are asking whether it’s genuinely important or one of the Establishment’s diversions. I’m no longer sure. But of this I am certain: developments are telling us in the plainest possible manner that the American ideal of classlessness has been overthrown. There is now …

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They Will Not Let Us Be

     Every day brings fresh proof:      Violence broke out again in Glendale, CA, after Antifa showed up to a school board meeting at which parents were protesting the school’s promotion of “pride month” and gender ideology.      Videos showed police on the scene in riot gear as well as temporary barriers being set up. …

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Once More…

     …The Big Based Book Sale is underway! A large number of ebooks of all kinds, written from a pro-freedom, pro-reality perspective, are available for $0.99 or absolutely free, and are guaranteed to remain so through June 27. (Yes, my crap is in there again.) If your reading stack is getting short, surf on over …

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Frontiers In Doublespeak

     If you’ve never visited the Baseline Essays collection, I exhort you to spend a couple of minutes there perusing what’s on offer. Yes, it’s all old blather from one of the wordiest people ever to infest the Web. Still, some of those pieces are actually…ahem…interesting. My focus today is on the wildly popular Dictionary …

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The Explosion Of Criminality

     I know of two ways to create a crime wave: Outlaw many ordinary actions and undertakings; Refrain from prosecuting and punishing crimes already on the books.      Can anyone suggest a third?      Today, John Hinderaker comments on the crime explosion in Minnesota, with emphasis on a specific recent event:      Derrick Thompson was …

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They’ve Discarded All Pretense

     Donald Trump is today the most popular political figure in the United States, and one of the most popular this century past. The Usurpers are aware that unless they put him behind bars, come November next year he’ll wipe the floor with whoever they nominate. So they’re denying him a fair trial:      Joe …

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The Anti-Humans

     Yes, Gentle Readers, they walk among us. Really. Co-Conspirator Pascal provided the following image in a comment to this piece, and it struck me so powerfully that I decided to promote it:      Appalling.      Time was, we spoke of “the gift of life.” Not all of us, of course; Sophocles is noted for …

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The Shortage

     I fancy I can hear the mutterings of “The shortage? Which one?” from the back rows. Yes, there are a few, properly understood. But I have a particular one in mind this morning. It’s not peculiar to America, either. The whole First World, and quite a bit of the rest, appears to be afflicted …

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This Morning’s Illumination

     From T. L. Davis:      The crisis of conscience is what kills the right every time. They want to win, but they don’t want to do anything dishonorable in the process. They won’t take a stint in jail to win. They won’t intentionally inflict emotional or psychiatric pain on another person, even if that …

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Homelands Part 2

     Everyone is born somewhere. Well, today at least; that might change if we ever become a spacefaring species. But for the moment, each of us has a birthplace in some Earthly land. The majority of us live our whole lives in that land, vacations and business trips notwithstanding.      Some striking fiction has been …

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Tucker And The Regime

     If there’s anyone in the Commentariat who should feel the crosshairs settling on his forehead, it’s Tucker Carlson.      After Carlson’s inexplicable dismissal from FOX News, many of his regular viewers were worried about what would become of him. He was highly valued. He went as far as anyone in commercial media could in …

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An Early-Morning Thought

     This comes from Father Paul Scalia:      Armando Valladares was initially one of Fidel Castro’s supporters. He even got a job in the Office of the Ministry of Communications for the Revolutionary Government. But in 1960 things changed drastically. It happened that everybody else in his workplace had placed a I’m with Fidel sign …

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When They Realize They’ve Overplayed Their Hand

     …they immediately try to squelch conversation about it – “they” being the anti-American Left, of course. One aspect of that is the denigration of any group that coalesces around the salient they’ve misguidedly created. Such a group is in the news today:      To its members, it’s a grassroots army of “joyful warriors” who …

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Some Music To Lift Your Spirits

Neither I nor anyone else could say anything that would embellish or diminish this magnificent piece: The Flower Kings have been erratic over the years, but this piece is one of the jewels in Prog-Rock’s crown.

Is This What We Have Hoped For?

     “Upon occasion, the annelid completes a circuit.” — Piers Anthony      When your enemy overplays his hand, it’s time to rejoice…and to counterattack: Major League Baseball is learning this. Both leagues, too. Of course, the groomers are unhappy. Colleges will soon find out. Public schools, too. Parents are mobilizing. And the alphabet-people are really …

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Yet Another Surgery Day

     Once again I must drive the C.S.O. a long distance for a surgical procedure, so I haven’t the time for a big essay today. However, I do have a quick thought to leave with you: Lawyer and author Harvey Silverglate posits in Three Felonies A Day that the complexity and obscurity of law today …

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You Are Not Special: A Defense Of Normality

     The early-morning hours often bring me to a strange place. It’s not a particularly comfortable place. Yet from that vantage point I can see things that are not apparent at other times, when time itself seems speeded up and a welter of necessities press. And being who and what I am, I’m moved to …

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Corpus Christi Sunday 2023

     Many American dioceses celebrate this feast, that of the Body and Blood of Christ, on the Sunday that follows Trinity Sunday, rather than on Thursday as is traditional. So it’s worth a few more words about this celebration, and the specific doctrine that underlies it.      Corpus Christi concerns one of the Church’s most …

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