Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Jun 28 2024
What Now, Democrats? Part 2
When a supposedly astute political commentator suggests that the Democrats should strip Joe Biden of the nomination and give it to Gretchen Whitmer or Gina Raimondo, you know that political Armageddon has arrived. I wish Biden would reflect on this debate performance and then announce his decision to withdraw from the race, throwing the …
Jun 28 2024
What Now, Democrats?
“The news is all bad, but it’s good for a laugh.” — Tom Paxton Well, it appears that the Democrats’ sub-threshold panic about their Maximum Leader has finally erupted in the public eye. All the debate conditions were slanted toward Biden. Every provision but one – the requirement that the debaters stand rather …
Jun 27 2024
Upbeat… Cynicism?
I don’t know what became of Juice Newton. Her first album did well, with the song below as its “hit.” But I haven’t heard anything about her since that first disc. Anyway, have a little remembrance, followed by one from the “other side” – of the sex wars, that is: Now, a man …
Jun 27 2024
The Message Is Plain Part 2
I know, I know: I’m supposed to be off-line while my hand heals up. But this piece has been getting a fair amount of attention, so I thought I’d try to “complete the syllogism” before that has a chance to wane. Please be tolerant of any typos. Just this morning, a gentleman at …
Jun 27 2024
Some Unsolicited Advice
Advice is easy to give, hard to take, and seldom followed even when it’s plainly correct. Yet I’ll try it, even though the probability of it being heard by its intended recipient is close to zero. To President Trump concerning tonight’s debate: Trust in God and fear no man. You are the …
Jun 26 2024
Time Off
I won’t be posting for two or three days because I’ve just had surgery on my left hand. Please bear with me as at the moment typing is very inconvenient. (Voice recognition is no picnic either.)
Jun 25 2024
The Message Is Plain
There are no property rights in the United States…at least, none that the State deigns to honor. Do you remember Teresa Ghilarducci? I do. Any American who has a 401(k), an IRA, or some equivalent should know about her and her chief ambition: Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings …
Jun 25 2024
Third-World Problem?
As you are no doubt fully aware, the Fortress is inhabited by a Newf. The Newf, whose name is Joy, is very large, as are all Newfs, and loves to sleep at those points in the house where she can impede passage from room to room. Joy is also long-haired and prone to …
Jun 25 2024
This Frightened Me Badly
Not the image itself: …but rather that not for one second did I imagine it to be a parody. That’s how far the once-vaunted New York Times has fallen from its previous state of grace. Time was, readers trusted the Times’s reporting to be factual and accurate, but expected the left-wing slant …
Jun 24 2024
Expectations
There’s already been plenty of comment about this Atlantic article, originally included in its September 2022 issue. Most of the commentary – this David Thompson piece is a good example — focuses on the attitude the author, Xochitl Gonzalez, had toward her tenure at her Ivy League college. She, the article makes plain, is …
Jun 24 2024
Early Morning Thoughts
Quoth Stephen Kruiser: Donald Trump is going to places where, according to traditional wisdom, he doesn’t have a chance. It’s the kind of fight we never see from most Republicans. Trump’s desire to fight where it matters is the reason that people who have delicate feelings about him should just shut the …
Jun 23 2024
A Hymn From Across The Pond
If you’re unfamiliar with British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, you can surely be forgiven. He never achieved much popularity outside his homeland. Yet his choral works are among the most beautiful things to come out of the Sceptered Isle. Here’s my favorite: May you have a blessed Sunday and a glorious summer.
Jun 22 2024
How It’s Done
I’ve been thinking about the attempts by the Usurpers to dismiss all the videos of Biden stumbling, freezing, “losing time,” and wandering around as if lost as “cheap fakes.” That’s the wrong approach. Aristotle would have told them. The best approach is to start with what Aristotle called encomium. The dictionary defines encomium …
Jun 21 2024
Even Conservatives Move Goalposts
Sometimes, we even forget to bring them onto the playing field. FAIR WARNING: One subject of this piece will be currently illegal drugs and the proper legal attitude toward them. It’s probably the most contentious subject roiling the Right. Tempers often flare over it. Many in the Right, daunted by its seeming complexity, …
Jun 21 2024
Visualizing The Issue
Back in my college days, I had a colleague named John who often exhorted those of us who worked in the Computing Center to “Think Visual.” The exact subject of the discussion seldom mattered; he always had a visualization pertinent to whatever we were trying to promote or encourage. Most of them were both …
Jun 21 2024
On Feeling Old
I snagged this over at AoSHQ: I’ve felt old since 1994. You know, the last year in which the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup. So I don’t have a lot of sympathy for younger snots who’ve just started “feeling old.” But the image above caused me to drag out my own …
Jun 20 2024
Compare And Contrast
It seems that for many years, whenever an identifiable member of a Democrat mascot group was deemed the perpetrator of some heinous crime, Leftists would leap to their typewriters and microphones to proclaim that “Society is to blame! Oppression! Victimization! Deprivation! Marginalization!” and so forth. It was vital for Democrat control of those voting …
Jun 20 2024
How It’s Done
I’m not an X / Twitter user. I couldn’t confine myself to that few characters if I were merely saying hello to my mother. Moreover, most of what’s emitted there is fatuous or worse. But I must admit that from time to time some X type says something that’s both hilarious and illuminating. For …
Jun 19 2024
Gradually, Then Suddenly
When Ernest Hemingway was asked “how does a country go bankrupt?” he famously replied, “Gradually, then suddenly.” Hemingway had glimpsed an important truth about the onset of financial calamities. Yet that insight actually applies to a wide range of disasters. There will be some who can see the clouds of crisis forming when …
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