Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Jun 12 2023
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 …
Jun 11 2023
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 …
Jun 11 2023
Headline Writer Lacks All Critical Sense
Film at eleven? All right, I suppose that’s too tongue-in-cheek even for me. Still, this headline (and the article that follows) got me shaking my head: NASA to voyage to ‘golden asteroid’ worth $10,000 quadrillion this fall $10,000 quadrillion? $1019? Even in 2023 dollars, that’s a whole lotta bread. But what, precisely, …
Jun 11 2023
Maybe It’s The Proximity Of All That Saltwater
…but whatever the actual cause, California appears to have gone “off the rails.” For an appetizer, there’s this: A recently amended California bill would add “affirming” the sexual transition of a child to the state’s standard for parental responsibility and child welfare—making any parent who doesn’t affirm transgenderism for their child guilty of …
Jun 10 2023
Reality And Its Detractors
In this universe, which is kept running by the often invisible operation of inviolable natural laws, we can observe various kinds of order. Natural order – the reliability of various cause-and-effect relations – is what makes life possible. Men use their knowledge of those relations to organize their activities in pursuit of sustenance and …
Jun 10 2023
There Are Days
Indeed, there are whole geological epochs. But I digress. This morning, given the chaotic mess into which our nation has descended – what, you didn’t think stolen elections would have consequences? – I found myself in the mood for some Kipling: Macdonough’s Song / Rudyard Kipling Whether the State can loose and bind …
Jun 09 2023
Day Off
Forgive me, Gentle Reader. I’m utterly exhausted. I need some time away from this monstrosity. Anyway, this morning there’s only one story that really matters, and there are plenty of able commentators to address it. So be well, and check back tomorrow.
Jun 08 2023
Something You Might Not Have Realized
As the official school year dribbles out to its close, school-age kids are celebrating in anticipation of their summer vacations. What will they do with their time off? Well, when I was in that age band, I was sent to spend the summer on my wealthy aunt’s country estate in Dutchess County, where I …
Jun 07 2023
Worse Than Communism
They said “It can’t happen here.” They said “This is America, where we have rights.” And they said “He wouldn’t dare!” But he has: Scared yet? How would you, Gentle Reader, defend your privacy and property against a ukase such as that of New York City Mayor Eric Adams? Adams will have …
Jun 07 2023
Call The CSI Macro!
What’s that, Gentle Reader? You don’t remember that one? Oh, it’s simple. Just four little words: “People lie; evidence doesn’t.” I should add, for completeness, that “people” also: Are frequently mistaken; Can be deceived about what they saw or heard; Come with agendas and priorities of their own; Can be “bought.” The …
Jun 06 2023
Evidence, Interrupted
Yes, friends, you guessed it: Christopher Wray has refused to surrender the “Biden bribery” FD-1023 after all: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is afraid its informant who provided information about an alleged bribery scheme by the Biden family will be killed if their identity is exposed. …
Jun 06 2023
An Irrational Exclusion
The original Constitution included a couple of things that should have been left out…but today, I have in mind a provision that should have been put in: Three Christian organizations will host a prayer vigil on the west steps of the California state Capitol in Sacramento on Monday as a member of the …
Jun 06 2023
The Imperative Question
Toward the end of Atlas Shrugged, Hank Rearden has a final meeting with the “looter elite” in which they propose a “Steel Unification Plan.” That “plan” is plainly just as vampiric as every other that emerged from the looter-ruled economy described in the novel. Yet the elite are solidly behind it…which causes Rearden to …
Jun 05 2023
The Trope That Never Expires
…is racism. Supposedly, American society is so pervaded by racism and the attendant maltreatment of Negroes that their physical health is being degraded: Health disparities are the topic under scrutiny in today’s episode of Everything Is RacistTM. According to an investigative series by the Associated Press, black people are the biggest victims of …
Jun 05 2023
Disingenuous Or Merely Sarcastic?
John Hinderaker, one of Web commentary’s brightest lights, penned this: For reasons I can’t explain, the Left, including the Democratic Party, has made sex change operations on minors its signature issue. It has become a litmus test: in order to be considered progressive, one must now advocate the mutilation of children’s genitals. If …
Jun 05 2023
Expect To Miss A Few Meals
…if this atrocity gains force: Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration signed a global agreement with twelve other nations, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, and Spain, to crack down on farming to “save the planet” from “climate change.” If it’s like the plan implemented throughout the Western World, it will crush American farmers. …
Jun 05 2023
Perhaps Things Are Turning Around
One hopeful sign of a rising consciousness of what’s really going on – the sign that the public’s eyes are turning from the distraction to what the prestidigitator is actually doing – is when “respectable” sources begin to cop to it: Christianity Today published a curious piece by Paul Miller on Thursday calling …
Jun 05 2023
When Smart People Say Foolish Things
Folly, the late Barbara Tuchman has told us, is “knowing better but doing worse.” The power of wishful thinking is so great that even demonstrably highly intelligent people can fall into this zone. I say this with a certain authority. Today, we have an example from a generally smart commentator: The GOP …
Jun 04 2023
Love And Suffering
With today, Trinity Sunday, the liturgical year continues into “ordinary time.” That’s a misleading title for this period. It’s intended to mean that we’re beyond the special season of Easter and have not yet entered the special season of Advent. Yet any part of the year in which believers practice the Christian faith is …
Jun 03 2023
The Low-Trust Society: A Case Study
I snagged the graphic below from Ace of Spades HQ. The story it tells, though four and a half years old, is an important one. It’s easy merely to allow yourself to be appalled and then pass on to other things. In today’s sociopolitical environment, that’s no longer wise. Anyone could be caught in …
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