Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Mar 03 2022
Let’s Mince Some Words!
I was just tooling around, surfing through my usual list of news and commentary sources, when I found this piece: I first noticed that the Democrats had shanghaied control of our language when the phrase “Global Warming” began to disappear. It was replaced almost overnight with ‘Climate Change,’ mostly because we had had …
Mar 02 2022
There Are Days
Indeed, there are whole years. And 2021 was one such. This year isn’t shaping up to be better. But this is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the special liturgical season of Lent. It moves around from year to year, as it depends on the date of Easter. For those with an interest, …
Mar 01 2022
Incentives Matter
Human action is guided and constrained by two and only two factors: Incentives, Constraints. Sometimes the changes to those things come in a form we fail to recognize at once. Sometimes we aren’t paying attention. And sometimes they stroll up and bite us on the nose: After years of delinquency to meet …
Feb 28 2022
Crossing The Aisle
“The poor” have been one of the principal flails the Left has wielded against the Right for over a century. Innumerable policy initiatives have been called for and justified under the rationale of “helping the poor.” They go by other names, now and then: the “disabled;” the “structurally unemployed,” the “historically marginalized;” the “homeless;” …
Feb 27 2022
The Fraying Part 3: Action And Reaction
Through the first and second pieces, the news has all been bad. Now it’s time to review the other consequences of the sociocultural assault on American norms: the ones that hold out some hope for a future of freedom and decency. *** As I’ve written before, word gets around. What people need to …
Feb 26 2022
“National Commitment”
Hold onto this snippet for later in the essay: During repeated visits after 1909, the two commandants became fast friends even to the extent of [British General Henry] Wilson being admitted into the French family circle and invited to the wedding of [French General Ferdinand] Foch’s daughter. With his friend “Henri,” Foch spent …
Feb 25 2022
Organic, Whole, And With The Dirt Still On It!
Ahhh, Friday. Just as with Mondays, even retirees still look forward to them. No, it doesn’t make sense. Does it need to? Have a few squibs before I sit down to compose the main event for today. *** “Experts” Gerard Van der Leun has done so much good stuff for so long …
Feb 24 2022
“National Interest”
We interrupt this series of “Fraying” essays to address the question that seems to be on a majority of Americans’ minds at this time: Is Biden Out Of His BLEEP!ing Mind? Warning! Spoiler Alert! Yes. But this leads to a larger and ultimately more important subject: foreign policy and what constitutes the …
Feb 23 2022
The Fraying Part 2: Genesis And Consequences
Yesterday’s rather melancholy piece provoked some contention, but there was less of that than there was of dour, semi-resigned agreement. Quite a number of my correspondents wrote to say “I wish you were wrong, but I fear you aren’t,” albeit not in so many words. Nearly all of them asked me not to mention …
Feb 22 2022
The Fraying
This will be a rather sad piece, I fear. Still, hang in there. You never know when a ray of light might come through the clouds. *** Unreal City,Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,I had not thought death had undone so many.Sighs, short and infrequent, …
Feb 21 2022
The Grab-Bag
Hey, it’s Monday. Never imagine that that doesn’t distress a “retired” guy quite as much as a still-working stiff. Actually, I had more free time when I was working for someone else…and I’m not the only retired engineer who would say so. *** 1. What’s so important about this “freedom” crap? If you’re …
Feb 20 2022
Capitalism: The Order Of Execution
Forgive me, Gentle Reader. Because of the graphic above, which I found over at 90 Miles From Tyranny, my memory has assaulted me again, and so I find that I must do a terrible thing. How terrible it is, I shall leave for you to decide. About thirty-five years ago, Long Island’s regional …
Feb 19 2022
Parallel Processes
In the early morning – obscenely early by most Americans’ standards – is when the ideas that spur deeper contemplation usually occur to me. Perhaps that’s because the more recently awakened is one’s mind, the more likely it is to perceive without distraction. The world certainly provides a wealth of distractions, but at 4:00 …
Feb 18 2022
Luxuries And Necessities
Do you work in a “service” trade? That is: rather than making or enhancing physical goods, do you merely provide a convenient service to others, sparing those others the chore of doing whatever it is for themselves? No need to be shy about it. Many Americans are in that category. The “service economy” …
Feb 17 2022
Labels Can Mislead
We tend to trust labels. (At least, we did back when we were a high-trust society, but perhaps I shouldn’t assume that it remains the case.) If the package says “Chocolate-chip cookies,” we proceed on the assumption that the package contains chocolate-chip cookies. If we discover afterward that it contains something else, our readiness …
Feb 16 2022
Rise Of The PAT
My admiration for Tucker Carlson grows daily: Carlson has nailed a key, if largely unnoticed, development: the rise of the Passive-Aggressive Tyrant. Justin Trudeau qualifies. Though a figurehead rather than an actual president, Joe Biden qualifies. Are there others in the First World? Emmanuel Macron, perhaps? I await the evaluations from European readers …
Feb 15 2022
The CHIP Department
If you’ve never seen the acronym “RHIP,” it stands for “Rank Hath Its Privileges.” Today we inaugurate a new version of that old maxim, Class Hath its Privileges. For it isn’t just “rank,” interpreted narrowly as elevation within a hierarchy, that decides who can do what to whom, without penalty even if with malice …
Feb 14 2022
Empty Calories
That’s what yesterday meant to most people. Not football. A social gathering with plenty of nosherai. Here at the Fortress, yesterday had another, far more significant meaning, which I shall refrain from disclosing, out of regard for the feelings of my Significant Other. Yes, this is the introduction to yet another “assorted” column. …
Feb 13 2022
Curmudgeonry In A Nutshell
[As I’m coming off an unsatisfactory book giveaway, and the question “Why do you style yourself a curmudgeon?” has been asked afresh, I shall give myself an easy day by reposting this exegesis, which first appeared at Liberty’s Torch V1.0 in March of 2020 — FWP] *** Long time Gentle Readers are aware …
Feb 12 2022
Free Fiction!
For today, February 12 only, until Midnight Pacific time, the most daring science fiction novel since Stranger in a Strange Land: is a free download at Amazon! When the remnant of the anarchist Spooner Federation fled Earth before the genocidal wrath of the States, the fugitives had only the slimmest chance of …
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