Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Feb 18 2023
A Safe Place?
One of the reasons the C.S.O. wants us to stay on Eastern Long Island is that it’s relatively safe. That is: the crime rate here is fairly low, the public services are no worse than average, the above-average affluence means that we’ll be more reliably supplied with the necessities of life than a less …
Feb 18 2023
New Fiction!
This is a day of rejoicing: Liberty’s Torch Co-Conspirator Margaret Ball has released a novel that truly has it all: magic, history, intrigue, action, and a delicately paced romance. I was privileged to be her proofreader, and I tell you, quite sincerely, that I have never read anything like it. It is simply …
Feb 17 2023
The State Giveth And The State Taketh Away
The battle for educational freedom is ongoing. One of the drivers on the pro-freedom side is the desire to keep kids away from all the “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” poison that’s infused “public” education. (Another is a desire to keep kids away from this sort of thing, which threatens to become widespread.) And in …
Feb 17 2023
And Coming…
This one should shock any man of good will: Police are investigating reports of an assault at a Springfield [Ohio] Elementary School involving two groups of students. Monday morning Springfield police were called to Kenwood Elementary School about an incident that happened during recess Friday, according to an incident report obtained through …
Feb 16 2023
The Hits Just Keep On Coming…
A little more news from the race wars: A Fort Belvoir mom has released shocking video of her 12-year-old son being “strangled” by a girl twice his size on a school bus in Virginia and claims her son’s abuser only received a slap on the wrist. Here’s the video of the event: …
Feb 16 2023
The Misuse Of Cost
Typically, when you or I use the word cost, we mean the cost of something we must purchase, regardless of our desires. But cost, like need, has experienced a number of marginal and outrightly wrong uses in recent years. Here’s one for you: opportunity cost. You’ll hear that usage from time to time, …
Feb 15 2023
I Think I’m Leaving
No, not Long Island. This planet, if possible. But to where? Anywhere else that’s safe from this: In this age of reboots, perhaps it was inevitable: A beloved (by its target audience) and also reviled (by a sizable group outside the core demo) character getting a new look and relaunch. All of which …
Feb 15 2023
Surprise Is Optional…
…but “outrage” is mandatory: Days after Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., declared education a top priority for his tenure, Baltimore reported that zero students in 23 different public schools are proficient in math. Also, 93% of third through eighth graders tested below grade level in the same subject. Baltimore residents responded by blasting …
Feb 14 2023
Yet Another Long Drive Ahead
Yessir, that’s right: The C.S.O. and I must once again mount our steeds and journey far, into lands of myth and mystery, for an appointment with one of her surgeons. At least this time there won’t be any actual surgery, though. But it means nothing much from me for the rest of the day. …
Feb 13 2023
The Empire Strikes…Back?
Ever since World War II, our Ruling Elite has worked to undermine governments elsewhere that have failed to defer to American policy preferences. No, we don’t always bomb them. Sometimes we just foment revolutions against them. Sundance at The Last Refuge believes that the Usurper Regime has undertaken an effort to weaken or …
Feb 13 2023
It’s Not Just Here
Have a look at this report from Alice Springs, Australia: A cinema in Alice Springs has been forced to board up their front door despite being open after it was broken into five times in the last four weeks. Alice Springs Cinemas shared an image of the theatre’s boarded up front door …
Feb 13 2023
It’s Not Often These Days
…that I see an image on the Web that’s so heart-stoppingly beautiful that I must snag it and post it here for others to swoon over. But it happened just a moment ago. And no, it’s not a picture of a woman. Shamelessly stolen from Bustednuckles: That’s an old Buick Roadmaster coupe. …
Feb 12 2023
For The “Whites Are Inherently Racist” Crowd
I can’t imagine how any of you could justify this: Equity… pic.twitter.com/F1oBFQfDaH — @amuse (@amuse) February 11, 2023 …but you’re welcome to try. I don’t see how whites can share a country with savages like this. They simply must go, one way or another. And I don’t care what anyone thinks of …
Feb 12 2023
False Promises
“The way to control and direct a Mentat, Nefud, is through his information. False information—false results.” [Frank Herbert, Dune] The supposed “artificial intelligence” program ChatGPT made some news a couple of days ago. It seems that when someone offered the program a dilemma – utter a racial slur to prevent the deaths of …
Feb 11 2023
Prescience Or Naivete?
The following was written in 1972: A fiercely combative system characterized by a high degree of tension must eventually overload and collapse. There are only so many put-ons that man can sustain before his entire system of interrelationships becomes ambiguous and, ultimately, meaningless. Twenty years ago, the need for a book probing the …
Feb 11 2023
Entropy And Discord
“You know what I hate?” – Clive Owen as Smith in Shoot ‘Em Up Courtesy of Hans G. Schantz, I’ve just read this thought-provoking article by Bruce Charlton. Charlton’s concept of entropic pseudo-creation resonated with me immediately: The past century has been characterized (indeed plagued!) by a pseudo-creativity which has usurped true …
Feb 10 2023
Day From Hell Alert
The C.S.O. has another procedure scheduled for later this morning. Once again it will involve a long drive, a lot of cutting (for her) and a lot of waiting (for me), a long drive back, and then postoperative care most of which will fall on my shoulders. When we get back there will be …
Feb 09 2023
The Deserving Poor
American Catholics tend to vote. (Yes, we have other bad habits as well.) Unfortunately, too many vote for Democrats. Why? The tragically misunderstood “social teaching” of the Church. It’s widely believed among Catholics that we have a moral obligation to provide for “the poor.” Note the lack of qualification. Part of the reason …
Feb 09 2023
This Is Mind-Boggling
How are American Catholics under attack? Let me count the ways: The FBI’s Richmond Division would like to protect Virginians from the threat of “white supremacy,” which it believes has found a home within Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass. An intelligence analyst within the Richmond Field Office of the FBI released in …
Feb 08 2023
First Thought Of The Day
In Eric Drexler’s seminal Engines of Creation, the first book for laymen about the promise and perils of nanotechnology, he writes: States have needed people as workers because human labor has been the necessary foundation of power. What is more, genocide has been expensive and troublesome to organize and execute. Yet, in this …
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