Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
May 19 2022
The Normalization Of Fear
Are you afraid? You’re meant to be. Influential people in many high places have decreed that you shall be. And they’re putting a lot of effort into getting you there. One of the most important enduring features of the American milieu – for virtually the whole of our history – has been …
May 18 2022
What Must Not Be Said
A little-known incident in the early years of World War I comes to mind this morning. (Actually, most Americans know absolutely nothing about World War I, so much so that the entire conflagration, which cost nearly twenty million lives, could be called “a little-known incident.” But I digress.) Like the deputies in Paris, …
May 17 2022
“That’s Racist!”
First, a thematic cartoon: Got the idea? Well, then let’s proceed. One of the critical conduits for the prescription of attitudes among Americans, and possibly among Westerners generally, is our entertainment stream. This is unlikely to surprise my Gentle Readers, several of whom have complained about it to me – privately, of …
May 16 2022
From Blue To Red To Purple To Blue
M. B. Mathews has posted something of a cri de coeur at American Thinker: There has been a huge influx of blue state people to red states in the past three years. This is a good thing because the Democrat voters, the blues, see what is happening in their own states and …
May 16 2022
No, It Wasn’t A Hoax
Some just couldn’t believe it. They were sure it’s some kind of put-on. But it’s really happening, Gentle Reader. “They” are doing their damnedest to normalize pedophilia. If you need more evidence, here it is: Johns Hopkins University has hired a female-to-male transgender academic who has called for pedophilia to be “destigmatized.” Despite …
May 15 2022
Do Mine Eyes Deceive Me?
Three men gang-raped a minor, filmed it, and were sentenced to probation? WEST JORDAN — Two men accused of raping a 14-year-old girl who was in and out of consciousness and another man charged with videotaping the sexual encounter were sentenced Wednesday to 48 months of probation. Third District Judge Douglas Hogan …
May 15 2022
The Vice President Of These United States In This Year Of Our Lord 2022…
…should have better sense than ever to speak in public: KAMALA: “We will work together, and continue to work together, to address these issues, to tackle these challenges, and to work together as we continue to work operating from the new norms, rules, and agreements, that we will convene to work together…We will work …
May 15 2022
Determinism And Its Antecedents
Were you aware that the hottest issue in the physical sciences today is whether there’s really such a thing as causality? Actually, it’s been the hottest issue for several decades already, ever since the codification of measurement uncertainty and quantum level indeterminacy. Physicists struggle to work with quantum systems that defy classical conceptions of …
May 14 2022
The Great Othering
I’m sure my Gentle Readers are familiar with the neologism othering. It’s been used in connection with common allegations that some minority group has been targeted for elimination. Supposedly, the targeted group is slathered with propaganda designed to convince the majority that “they are not like us – they are others.” This is used …
May 13 2022
Since No One Else Is Doing So…
…it falls to me to commemorate the 105th Anniversary of the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin at Fatima: Our Lady of Fátima is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary based on the famed Marian apparitions reported in 1917 by three shepherd children at the Cova da Iria, in Fátima, Portugal. …
May 13 2022
“Tapping The Wires”
The Gentle Readers of Liberty’s Torch will probably already know what I’m about to say, yet its significance might be greater than any of us have yet imagined. Even so, I shall eschew large font for it. I’ll restrain my desire to shout. This once, anyway. The mainstream media are largely the mouthpieces …
May 12 2022
When What You Want To Say Would Come Out As A Scream
…it’s best to say nothing. Just now, the patience of real Americans – patriots who love our country and are agonized by what’s happening to it – is being tried to its limits and beyond. In less than two years, the Usurper Regime has brought this nation to the brink of the abyss. …
May 11 2022
Does Anyone Need A Reminder…
…about why the Second Amendment is so important? Well, here: I rest my case.
May 11 2022
“Not Done”
Historically, much that is not illegal by statute has been restrained by an unwritten social code. Nineteenth Century England, the closest approach to a classical-liberal polity in Europe of that era, had extensive codes of that sort. Because English society was stratified by class, there were several such codes, which included rules by which …
May 10 2022
Masks Off Dept.
First, the scene at Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, just this past Sunday: Marxists try to disrupt Mass at Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels. Security, ushers and parishioners said they were not having it.#cathedral #Catholic pic.twitter.com/HlN8yHxPKL — Romangod7 (@Romangod7) May 8, 2022 And what do the Usurpers think …
May 10 2022
More Cans And Can’ts
Certain truths appear to be particularly difficult for people to accept. One such truth is on my mind this morning: Laws cannot change people’s desires. Laws, coupled with sufficiently determined enforcement, can change the incentives and disincentives people face, but nothing else. If a politician proclaims himself in favor of a law that’s in …
May 09 2022
Everything New Is…Old Again?
A number of years ago, someone I worked with asked me to describe libertarianism. There are a host of answers to that question, most of them pretty good. I replied with one I find more polemically effective than the rest…possibly because I concocted it: “A libertarian is a conservative who remembers what conservatism used …
May 08 2022
For Life
I attended several of the annual conventions of the Libertarian Party of New York, back when I was engaged with the party. I can’t remember at which of them, but at one I heard a presentation by an upstate activist, Andrew Melechinsky. “Andy Mel,” as we called him, told some riveting stories about his …
May 08 2022
For Mothers’ Day 2022
A Happy Mothers’ Day to all my Gentle Readers, all mothers, and anyone who had a mother! Mothers, as most of us are aware, are vital to the continuing of the species…and you’ve just got to love our species. Especially the members who wear “pronoun pins” and insist that men can give birth. But …
May 07 2022
Things Lost And Things Misplaced
Time was, there was a kind of space reserved in pop music for the ballad. Harry Chapin was one of the better known practitioners of the form, but there were many others. Being a storyteller by inclination, I have a soft spot for ballads and balladeers, and I miss them. Way, way back …
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