Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Jul 21 2022
Computer-Generated Fantasies
It was 1983: “early days” for the personal computer upheaval. Most Americans knew that microcomputers existed, but few had actually acquired one, or knew what they were good for. (Spoiler alert: not much.) I was asked about them now and then – I remember an ophthalmologist quizzing me about them during an eye exam …
Jul 21 2022
“But They’re Not Allowed To Know!”
If you have firearms, the federal government knows about it: The homeowner was alerted there were trespassers on his property by motion detectors outside his front door. A live video feed from his doorbell camera showed three armed men wearing tactical vests, t-shirts and jeans. Two appeared to be ATF agents. The third …
Jul 20 2022
Objectives And Constraints
“If you’re willing to die you can do anything.” – lapel button Yes, there’s a point to the above – and it’s not that the accumulated wisdom of Mankind can be found on lapel buttons. (It’s also not that I’m willing to die.) Life under the veil of Time is an exercise …
Jul 18 2022
Day From Hell? Try A Whole Weekend
Yes, it was that kind of weekend. The kind that makes the national and international news seem chuckleworthy. But that won’t stop me. (When has it ever?) *** I found this brief but pungent piece courtesy of Gerard van der Leun: Ever since Roe was overturned I’ve really started to notice how…I …
Jul 17 2022
Conversations
This one just took place: FWP: Say, is Jamie Lee Curtis related to Tony Curtis? [spoiler alert: she’s his daughter] CSO: Why do you expect me to know? FWP: You’re the one who reads Entertainment Weekly. CSO: That subscription was by mistake! FWP: Yeah yeah, but you read it anyway. CSO: I don’t know. …
Jul 16 2022
An Alternative Strategy No One Will Like
Concerning the prospect of mail-in ballots and similar fraud-enabling measures in the upcoming midterms, Stephen Kruiser has a few words to say: During the Obama years, I used to say that any GOP candidate had to make sure that he or she was “outside the margin of ACORN.” I’ve updated that to “outside …
Jul 16 2022
A Quick Saturday Morning Observation
Courtesy of The Feral Irishman: Is there a Gentle Reader disposed to argue the point?
Jul 14 2022
Climax States
Before I retired, I had no idea how the range of my thinking would expand once I was free from the imperatives of wage labor. It’s been a unique sort of experience. Among other things, it got me thinking seriously about “eye catchers” that I’d previously only chuckled over. (That’s not to say that …
Jul 13 2022
Unmaking The Foundation
There are a myriad things I could write about this morning – you should see my “Future Columns” folder – but one has risen above (below?) the rest to evoke a balled-fist tirade from my underappreciated main computer. Courtesy of Dave Blount at Moonbattery, we have this piece of scrofulous garbage from LA …
Jul 12 2022
The Lowest Steps
Mike Miles has provided another thought-provoking graphic: The “message” could hardly be more obvious. But what about its wider applications – that is, its applications to various aspects of social and economic mobility? Give it a moment’s thought while I finish my breakfast. *** We often hear of “social climbers,” usually …
Jul 12 2022
Hero Hunger: A Report From 2022
They little knew of brotherhood – The faith of fighting men – Who once to prove their lie was good Hanged Colonel Jacques Chretien. [Gordon R. Dickson, “Brothers”] The C.S.O. and I recently watched this Amazon Prime mini-series and loved it. The headliner and co-producer is Chris Pratt, one of entertainment media’s disfavored for …
Jul 11 2022
The War On Compassion
There have been quite a few “war on” initiatives popularized by the statists of our formerly free nation. I’m sure you can name a few names without straining: “War on Drugs,” “War on Poverty,” and “War on Terror” practically leap to mind. Note that in each of those cases, “war” is being declared against …
Jul 11 2022
The Essence Of Totalitarianism
From Power Line’s John Hinderaker: Currently the Left is “demonstrating” against the Supreme Court justices who concurred in the Dobbs decision. A few nights ago, as Scott has noted, left-wingers harassed Justice Brett Kavanaugh and other diners at the Morton’s steak house in D.C. Liberals viewed this effort as a triumph–Kavanaugh reportedly had …
Jul 10 2022
Settled Outrage
The word of the day is settled. As in “The metal shavings have settled out of the engine oil,” or “The fruit has settled to the bottom of the Jell-O®,” or “He settled his fat ass in his high-backed leather desk chair, grinned mockingly, and said ‘no comment.’” But most emphatically not as in …
Jul 09 2022
Your Papers, “Please” Part 2
I know most Gentle Readers disdain to watch videos – and the longer the video, the less likely you’ll watch it. I can’t criticize that; I’m that way myself. But I hope you’ll make an exception for this one: If you don’t have the time or the patience, here’s the whole thing in …
Jul 08 2022
Your Papers, “Please?”
As a thumb rule, one can say that any time a planet starts developing cities of more than one million people, it is approaching critical mass. In a century or two it won’t be fit to live on. [Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough For Love] When a place gets crowded enough to require …
Jul 07 2022
Disdain, Distaste, And Self-Regard
At present, all signs point to the Republicans giving [Democrats] an electoral shellacking but, hey, we’re never really outside the margin of magical mail-in ballots, are we? While I have often cautioned about Republicans being overly optimistic about November, I am gradually moving toward the position that all the GOP has to do …
Jul 06 2022
New Things To Fear
Thankfully, the COVID-19 fear porn has exhausted its bite. In consequence, we who ask only to be left alone are beginning to peer “behind the curtain.” What we’re seeing is both astonishing and terrifying. Feel free to dismiss what follows as the ravings of a paranoid septuagenarian. I’m tempted to dismiss them myself …
Fran’s Recent Novels
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