Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Apr 02 2022
Celebrating Their Achievements Part 2: WTF, Over?
In a comment upon the earlier essay, my Gentle Reader George asks: How is it possible for anybody this inept and inarticulate to get to such a position? I realize she “moved up” on her back however, I cannot honestly believe that ANYBODY (let alone a dim) could think putting her in such …
Apr 02 2022
A Long, Long Time Ago…
…there was a company called Disney. Its products were aimed at American youth, typically below the age of puberty. The consistent quality and generally uplifting character of those products made it one of the most successful entertainment companies ever formed. Its founding genius, Walt Disney, was the icon of the company for the whole …
Apr 02 2022
Celebrate Their Achievements! (UPDATED)
I’ve come slowly but firmly to the conviction that, while our political class is generally vile, nevertheless its members display certain talents for which they should receive the credit due them. Some of those talents are demonstrably world-class. Consider, for example, the ability of the underappreciated Kamala Harris to speak at length, and entirely …
Apr 01 2022
From The Hollow-Laugh Files
Legislators continue to ignore a law they greatly dislike. They dislike it because they can’t think of a way to repeal or modify it. But ignoring it is a short cut to disaster. Among other things, it makes plain the fatuity of their pretensions: Democrats’ environmental activism continues to backfire, as evidenced by …
Apr 01 2022
The Liability In The White House
Concerning the recent concessions from the Usurper Regime’s media handmaidens about the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden laptop, people of all political leanings are asking “Why now?” After a year and a half of nonstop denials, deflections, and dissimulations, why are they ‘fessing up’ now? The questions and speculations are widespread. For example, consider …
Mar 31 2022
Credible Versus Conclusive
Once in a great while, a mainstream media outlet “’fesses up.” That happened once with the New York Times, whose first “public editor” – a rough equivalent for “ombudsman” – Daniel Okrent admitted in print that the Times was a left-leaning organ. He attributed it to the Times’ Northeastern urban base…but he admitted it. …
Mar 30 2022
Too Plain To Permit Being Said
I’m sure my Gentle Readers are all aware of the New York Times’s rather self-serving front-page motto: All the News That’s Fit to Print. There have been some send-ups of that bit of journalistic pseudo-piety. In these latter days of the legacy media, now that they’ve openly embraced the role of information managers for …
Mar 29 2022
Ramblin’
It’s the 29th of March, I’ve just bought a tankful of oil to stave off indoor frostbite, and I’m feeling…scattered. (Yes, a little broke, too.) So this will be a scattered piece. Tuesdays are to your Curmudgeon as Thursdays are to Arthur Dent. *** First, have a passel of links: Vote Fraud: …
Mar 28 2022
Unrealized Income?
I won’t speak for anyone else, but when I call a development “unrealized,” I know what I mean by it: it hasn’t happened yet. And of course, something that hasn’t happened might never happen. So what shall we say, Gentle Readers, about this resurrected notion of unrealized income? Many billionaires can pay far …
Mar 28 2022
Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!
This definitely wins the Internet for today: I’m going to go out on a limb and say that global nuclear fallout is slightly worse for the environment than drilling our own oil. (A comment to this Daily Wire piece about Biden and the looming importance of the 25th Amendment.)
Mar 27 2022
Sex As Strategy And Tactics
It goes essentially without saying that sex, owing to our nature, is a principal attractor. However, the reverse of the coin is seldom discussed: it’s also a principal distractor. Clever sorts can use sex or parasexual matters to distract target audiences from what ought to be get their greatest attention, just as a stage …
Mar 27 2022
Snark Level: World Championship Contender
This (found at 90 Miles From Tyranny)) requires no comment from me: I do find it “cute” and “heartwarming,” though. (Did Mommy Tank ever get Junior back on his treads?)
Mar 26 2022
What Is The Diminutive Of “Snark?”
Occasionally, I experience a spike of irritation that briefly deflects my train of though onto a semi-humorous side track. I think that henceforward I’ll indulge myself at such times. Like just a moment ago. Here’s “how it goes” in this Year of Our Lord 2022; Speaker 1: Why aren’t your pronouns in your …
Mar 25 2022
We Won’t Get A Clearer Warning
Sorry, Gentle Readers, but time is up: Earlier today, the hapless president of the United States emerged from one of his NATO huddles to answer questions from the reporters he had been instructed to call upon, as per his SOP. One of them brought up the potential for food shortages, and Biden’s answer …
Mar 24 2022
The Sane And The Insane
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson pulled off quite a lot of masks yesterday with her non-answer to a single, putatively nonthreatening question posed by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R, TN): Sen. Blackburn: Can you define the word “woman?” Brown Jackson: I’m not a biologist. I’m sure my Gentle Readers, as engaged with current events as …
Mar 23 2022
Outsourcing Tyranny
Many Gentle Readers are already acquainted with this subject, owing to the rise of cancel culture and the impediments the giants of Big Tech have dropped upon our freedom of expression. Mind you, while there are many persons ready, willing, and able to offer opinions about what should be done, the subject is considerably …
Mar 22 2022
Back In The News?
No, not the Hunter Biden laptop. (I almost typed “Hunted Biden laptop,” which might soon be “breaking news,” but we’ll have to wait and see.) Rather, it’s one of the ideas that was floated shortly after Gregor Mendel discovered that fruit flies like sex: deliberately, eugenically breeding people as a way to improve us …
Mar 20 2022
The Numbing
I wrote not long ago about the fraying of the norms that bind Americans together as a coherent society. That process is been going on for long time now, and has almost reached the level necessary for complete social collapse. However, while the fraying of our norms is necessary for collapse, it is not …
Mar 20 2022
I Try Not To Use Certain Words
Indeed, I try really hard. But sometimes, I can’t resist. Today’s word is inevitable: Analysis of the Russian attack on Ukraine has rightly focused on the strategic, military and humanitarian considerations of the conflict itself. Soon, however, domestic implications will begin to impinge on the geo-political. Maintaining public support will be critical …
Mar 19 2022
The Wide World Of Pranks
We’ve all heard about them. Some of us have perpetrated them. The easier and more common ones – filling someone’s bedroom with Styrofoam® peanuts, or turning every item in his room upside-down – have lost their humor value through overuse and are merely irritating. But there are still a few that can tickle one…as …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
