Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Nov 16 2022
Biennial Seductions
Do you know how the professional seducer operates? Are you able to detect one at work? What if the seducer is aiming his wiles at you? In his novels, Robert A. Heinlein made several observations about con men and their operations. Their aggregate import can be stated as follows: The con man selects …
Nov 15 2022
A Sentiment I Have Often Felt
It was unusual to see anyone in a p-suit in the corridors. Walking back suited up with the machine pistol and her sword in her left hand might get a few looks. She was way past caring. April put the badge back in the bag and tossed it to Bob. “Take care of …
Nov 13 2022
“I Know A Place”
“Hey, I know a place. Let’s go.” – Russell Baker I’ve always had a fascination with the truly remote places: the regions well separated from the main habitats of Mankind. Most such places are islands. If inhabited at all, their populations are small. The mode of life of the denizens is likely to …
Nov 13 2022
An Assessment
The following is lifted from a recent novel: “Tim, how are your classes coming along?” “I’ve got the kids working on a Better Government assignment. Everyone is reading the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Then we’re going to brainstorm how to tweak our government.” “We hold these truths to be …
Nov 12 2022
Voiceless Victims
Way, way back in the darkest recesses of history – my history, that is – I had a brief exchange with a much older colleague about the presidential election that had just taken place. The year was 1976, and Jimmy Carter (God help us) had just become the President-elect. My colleague, whose name was …
Nov 11 2022
Slaps In The Face
The first is an open-handed one. Quoth Baron Bodissey: Anyone who is forced to accept the farcical results from Pennsylvania is being grievously humiliated. Some people may really believe that the vote in the Keystone State was truly free and aboveboard, and that John Fetterman won fair and square (the gents at Power …
Nov 10 2022
Reliberating America (UPDATED)
Yesterday’s election news has a great many of us in the Right scratching our heads. This makes no sense, we say to ourselves. People can’t be this stupid. And like John Godfrey Saxe’s blind men who “studied” an elephant, we are partly right and partly wrong. Partly right, in that few people really …
Nov 08 2022
Piebald Nation, Magpie People
Well, it’s finally here: Election Day 2022. Until late this evening, those of us unwilling to break the law can know very little about what’s taking place. Unfortunately, there are quite a few who are willing to break the law. Whether they can cheat sufficiently to retain their grip on the federal Leviathan will …
Nov 08 2022
Site News 2022-11-08
If you’re a regular Gentle Reader of Liberty’s Torch, you may have noticed that we’ve had an outage here for about 18 hours. That was a consequence of a “port” of the site from a sluggish server to a better one by our Web host. The new server was apparently incompatible with some “plugin” …
Nov 07 2022
On The Eve: November 7, 2022
There’s too much to say, and not enough pixels in which to say it. But the Curmudgeon Emeritus to the World Wide Web has never yet quailed before a challenge. He’s not about to end his streak today. *** 1. “Rooting for Laundry.” First, a little Jerry Seinfeld: As a (lapsed) baseball …
Nov 06 2022
Frontiers In Incredulity
I’ve written before about the Usurpers’ employment of cognitive dissonance as a tactic for inducing paralysis in the populace. It appears that the powers behind the throne have decided that no lie is too extreme for their purposes: During a visit to California yesterday, President Biden gave a speech in which he made …
Nov 05 2022
Facing Reality
Many things have been said about reality. You might say it’s the most discussed subject of all time…and space…and matter and energy. But that’s neither here nor there…unless it’s both. An old gag, usually presented as part of a mock test called “Qualifying Exam,” includes as an “extra-credit question,” this chestnut: “Define the …
Nov 04 2022
The Ongoing Firestorm
Emily Oster’s saccharine-saturated column in The Atlantic, in which she argues – unpersuasively – for a “pandemic amnesty” has ignited a blaze that, so far, has refused to go out. Indeed, it seems to be mounting as the days count down to the midterm elections…and that’s a good thing. I’ve already said my …
Nov 03 2022
May I Or Mustn’t I?
On this third day of November in this Year of Our Lord 2022, I refuse to talk about the upcoming elections. I refuse to talk about the attempts to pre-anesthetize us about the massive, nationwide act of vote fraud we must anticipate. And I flatly refuse to talk about the whining for “pandemic amnesty.” …
Nov 02 2022
The Cogly Life
“I said it as soon as I got to Elbow: I’m a free man, I didn’t have to come here! . . . We always think it, and say it, but we don’t do it. We keep our initiative tucked away safe in our mind, like a room where we can come and say, …
Nov 01 2022
When Not To Forgive
This Atlantic article has stimulated quite a few jeers and raised middle fingers from us in the Right…and that, Gentle Reader, is entirely appropriate: We have to put these fights aside and declare a pandemic amnesty. We can leave out the willful purveyors of actual misinformation while forgiving the hard calls that people …
Oct 31 2022
Hold The Presses!
I was about to turn to other things when I saw this John Tierney article at City Journal. It made my day, and I’ll bet a dollar that it will make yours. Utopians almost never admit to error. Their moral self-exaltation forbids it. How would they continue to posture as morally superior to …
Oct 31 2022
Hypocrisy, 2022 Edition
First, a most striking quote from one of science fiction’s foremost practitioners: “You know, when I was a young man, hypocrisy was deemed the worst of vices,” Finkle-McGraw said. “It was all because of moral relativism. You see, in that sort of climate, you are not allowed to criticise others — after all, if …
Oct 30 2022
Capturing The Future
“Children are our future,” as the saying goes. It’s true enough. It’s equally true that a nation that disdains to produce children will have no future. Mark Steyn, in America Alone, tells us that “The future belongs to those who show up for it.” This is irrefutable. By implication, those who hate and …
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