Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Apr 18 2022
Day Off
We’re doing a little celebrating at the Fortress today, so I shan’t be posting one of my “traditional” (i.e., interminable) pieces. However, do have a look at this Deanna Fisher piece at Victory Girls. She cites a terrific example of a process that’s been in process for quite some time now, summarized in this …
Apr 17 2022
A Promise Kept
Many of the promises men make to one another are broken. We have learned, often painfully, that to trust is to gamble – that no man’s word, however solemnly given, is absolutely reliable. There was, however, one exception: And in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the …
Apr 16 2022
The Suburban Horror
Homeowners know it well. At least, they do in the moist and temperate Northeastern United States. Each of us who opts for the privacy, space, and comfort of a single-family home must cope with it. The more spacious your domain, the more burdensome it is. No, it’s not the traffic, nor the property …
Apr 16 2022
An Eloquent Yet Melancholy Summary
From the Web’s foremost one-legged blogger: Outdated, clapped-out concerns such as Constitutions and Founding Fathers and principles and the like hold no sway over such duplicitous frauds, being no more meaningful to them than the oaths they dishonestly swear when they take office—oaths they never had the slightest intention of even attempting to …
Apr 15 2022
What It Means To Be Ruled By Criminals
The weight of the law is never turned on a member of the ruling elite. Instead, it marshals all the oppressive force it possesses to break anyone who stands in opposition to it. Would you like a demonstration? Here’s one from the 2020 campaign season: When [Barack] Obama first ran for the …
Apr 14 2022
He Meant What He Said!
Elon Musk is my new hero: Elon Musk has launched a $41.39 billion hostile takeover of Twitter, the world’s most influential social media platform. On early Thursday, Musk made his “best and final” offer to buy Twitter Inc., stating that he intends to unlock the company’s “extraordinary potential.” As predicted by Rebel …
Apr 14 2022
Groomer-Adjacent
This image speaks concisely and clearly of what has been done to normal Americans in the name of “tolerance:” If it’s normal and wholesome, whatever it is, it’s under attack today. From the Left, of course. The Left must destroy the chief buttresses to our sense of normality before it can remake the …
Apr 14 2022
Concerning Grooming
As a follow-on to yesterday’s rant, ponder well this article by Thomas Lifson. It and the other items it links will reinforce your fears. Yes, it is happening. Yes, there’s a lot of it. Yes, it’s across the nation. If your children are in a government school, they are not …
Apr 14 2022
I Know, I Know
I really shouldn’t…but it got me laughing so hard I hurt myself: Applause to Kenny “Wirecutter” Lane.
Apr 13 2022
Groomers And Their Agendas
Considering the imperative nature of this subject, it surprises me that it took so long to become a subject of national discussion. But perhaps it shouldn’t. We dislike to discuss our own failures, and the explosion of groomers and grooming in our schools constitutes a failure of our responsibilities toward the weakest and most …
Apr 12 2022
Holy Week Starts With A Bang!
Yes, it’s another of those dreaded “Assorted” columns. Keep the groaning down. *** I found this at Ace’s place: Plastic Martyr @plasticmartyr I wonder how these conservatives would feel if we passed a law making it illegal to teach your kids about religion until they were adults. The “Don’t Say …
Apr 11 2022
Faith Among The Faithless
Relax, this won’t be a religious piece. Rather, it’s about one’s reluctance to award credence to persons who’ve already proved unreliable. We start from this story: Nearly 100 House Republicans are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals, saying they had the …
Apr 10 2022
The Message
These days, virtually no one in the public eye speaks plainly and clearly. How long has it been since you last heard a politician answer a direct question with a direct answer – especially an answer of “yes” or “no?” Come to think of it, how long has it been since the last time …
Apr 09 2022
Depressing Or Uplifting?
Once in a great while, and usually through the assistance of another blogger – usually Gerard Van der Leun — I’ll stumble on a piece that “splits the uprights.” This is one such: a tirade that ruptures the categories and makes the reader ask himself, “What now? Do I unpack the Barrett .50 and …
Apr 08 2022
Some Fiction News
While I’ve had my novels at Amazon in the “KDP select” system for some time, it hasn’t done anything for the expansion of my readership. Therefore, I’ve decided to slough “KDP Select” status, so I can distribute more widely than just through Amazon. I’ve just resubmitted all 19 of my novels to Smashwords: …
Apr 08 2022
Political Sleight Of Hand
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. – H. L. Mencken “The bull wears himself out on the cape and never sees the sword.” – Robert A. …
Apr 07 2022
Day Off
I’m having a hellish day, so no essay today. Instead, have a little something from internationally respected financial guru and commentator Doug Casey: I can’t argue with him. Can you?
Apr 06 2022
We’ve Lost Another One
You have to be my age or older to appreciate the loss of certain artists. Indeed, being my age or older is no guarantee that you’ll remember them at all. Like Paul Siebel, who passed away just last night at age 84: Siebel’s 1970 Elektra album, Woodsmoke and Oranges, is a treasure few …
Apr 06 2022
A Prediction That Drips Blood
If you haven’t yet viewed last night’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, the first fifteen minutes of it, at least, are very much worth your time. Carlson is forthright in predicting the imminent removal of “President” Joseph R. Biden – by his own party. His analysis of the reasons for foreseeing this unprecedented event are simple …
Apr 05 2022
The Power Continuum
As the status quo is quoing along steadily just now, I thought I might resurrect an earlier Fran and write about one of my earlier areas of inquiry: power as exercised in the anarchic world of the “international order.” Commentators on geopolitics often refer to the distinctions between “hard” and “soft” power. Mostly, …
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