Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Feb 15 2024
Bad Buys
[This piece first appeared at Liberty’s Torch V1.0 on April 6, 2017. I was missing and mourning my late friend Joe – if you haven’t yet, you’ll “meet” him in this piece – and decided that, considering Americans’ rising fears of an economic collapse, a second look at the division of labor is warranted. …
Feb 14 2024
An Observation About Characterization
Regard the following snippet from a novella from P. S. Power: “It’s a danger of taking responsibility for others, of course. A strong leader might have to make decisions that others wouldn’t. I can’t even tell you it’s wrong for you to be doing it. Just be careful. Taking on too much at …
Feb 14 2024
In Journalism, Probity Is Irrelevant
A dear friend, Lynn Chesnut, has opined for a long time that “broadcast journalism” is inherently untruthful, illegitimate, and generally unnecessary. When I first encountered Lynn’s thesis, I was seriously disturbed by it. Is there an actual social benefit from American citizens not knowing what’s going on in distant places? Perhaps, perhaps not. But …
Feb 13 2024
Warning!
If you live in a small town and have some degree of prominence, it is vital to be on good terms with the editor of the town’s newspaper. This is especially important if you and he are of different faiths. The following story will give you an inkling as to why. Father O’Malley, the …
Feb 13 2024
Blinding Flashes Of the Obvious Dept.
“The more you look, the more you see.” — Robert M. Pirsig “Not necessarily, Bob ol’ buddy.” – Me. Dennis Prager is a reasonably bright man. He’s made a number of pithy observations over the years. Yet it’s taken him a lot of those years to realize something that I’ve been harping …
Feb 13 2024
A Shift You Won’t See On The Gridiron
Geez. Not yet six AM and the day has already become strange. I just found myself explaining “sync idle” to the C.S.O. (Never mind why.) But let’s get to the most recent burr under my saddle, shall we? Surely you’re familiar with the sojourn of nine-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan Holden Armenta. Some …
Feb 13 2024
Conversations
It has come to my attention that an increasing number of media outlets don’t exactly “report the news,” as you and I would understand the practice. Rather, an editor will give a reporter an idea for an eye-catching story, prescribe the desired slant, and tell him to go forth and gather “facts.” The ever-widening …
Feb 12 2024
“Our Standards? Can He Drive The Baseline? Hit A Three-Pointer?”
I sometimes lament how little of the news I manage to cover each day. There’s certainly plenty going on. But I have an actual life – the C.S.O. reminds me about that frequently – a home, animals to tend, and miscellaneous other things that deserve some attention. So I miss a lot. However, …
Feb 11 2024
Concerning The Animus Against Tucker Carlson For Interviewing Vladimir Putin
A phony will always despise the genuine article. The overwhelming majority of the more prominent “journalists” of our time are phonies. Tucker Carlson is the genuine article. But beyond that, he takes risks and he strikes for the jugular. He goes straight for the most critical subjects of the day and leaves the trivia …
Feb 11 2024
Stop All That Thinking!
Don’t think. Don’t investigate. Don’t ask about “sources.” Don’t demand confirmations. And above all, do what you’re told! Your block’s political commissar will stop by later to see how you’re doing.
Feb 10 2024
Trends In Employment
I snagged this story a couple of days back: Since June 2023, Americans have been increasingly employed in part-time positions, with a subsequent decline in full-time work, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The number of Americans working part-time in January grew by 96,000 compared to the previous …
Feb 10 2024
Troubling Trends In Marketing
Being “of a certain age,” I have fond memories of a few things younger sorts might not be aware of. For instance, I remember the Lynda Carter series Wonder Woman. Now, that wasn’t High Art…but it had two things I enjoyed greatly: A love of America; Lynda Carter’s boobs. At around the same …
Feb 09 2024
For The Clean Minded
Sometimes, the value of something from the Web lies in the memories it inspires: Like now: “They teach us to remember; why do they not teach us to forget?” – Francis A. Durivage, Nineteenth Century American magazine writer. “Beats the shit out of me.” – Francis W. Porretto, Curmudgeon Emeritus to …
Feb 09 2024
A Leap In Understanding
There are “24 / 7” jobs. Mostly, the requirement that the worker be available at all times is stated before he takes such a job, so that afterward he can’t claim that he didn’t know what sort of position he’d accepted. But most jobs are not of that sort. Time was, employers and managers …
Feb 09 2024
Truer Words Were Never Spoken
This spoke to me so powerfully that I could not refrain from snagging it: Every writer wants to believe that his books are good. How many believe they’ve produced even one book that’s great? How many would even want to? If only…sigh. (Applause to The Feral Irishman.)
Feb 08 2024
Evil, Decrees, And Authority
If there’s a more misunderstood sociopolitical concept than authority, I’m not aware of it. Most people can’t even answer the key questions: “Are there varieties of authority? If so, what are they? How do they differ?” For today, let’s omit the uses of the word authority to denote high expertise in some subject. …
Feb 08 2024
Evil: The Relevance Of Decrees
The Gentle Readers of Liberty’s Torch have a spread of opinions and convictions about God, the supernatural, and religion. That’s to the good: it makes for a variegated background for subjects such as this one. One of the critical issues that arise from that spread is this one, which I’ll touch on briefly for …
Feb 07 2024
Evil: A Little Something To Lighten The Mood
[“Heavy” topics can be usefully leavened with humor, if the humorous material is relevant. Herewith, a piece I wrote back in 2010, about a distant culture with a…peculiar view of criminal self-indulgence. — FWP] The Scourge: A Report From Epsilon Eridani III Those boys over at NASA have not been idle. Oh, no, …
Feb 07 2024
Evil As An Abstract Category
Yesterday, I posted a snippet of my fiction as a stimulator to a discussion I hope to pursue today. The scene therein is one that has never been commonplace, neither among adults or children. (Include teenagers in either category, as you prefer.) Yet what could be more important? Assuming, that is, that evil is …
Feb 06 2024
A Snippet For Discussion Purposes
The following is a segment from my novel-in-progress, working title Ex Nihilo (yeah, yeah, again with the Latin): “Father,” Sarah Lydell said, “why is there evil?” It was the question toward which Father Raymond Altomare, pastor of Onteora Parish, had been building for five weeks. The group of seniors from Foxwood High …
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