Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Feb 07 2022
America Neofascistica
Someone, at some time in the past, said something similar to this: “When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” The original source is heavily disputed, so let’s not go there. The core of the sentence is perfectly plain: To impose an alien ideology …
Feb 06 2022
Censorings And Shapings
‘I don’t understand your viewpoint,’ she said. ‘You broke his nose, yet he had done you no harm of any sort. You expect me to approve that?’ ‘But Persephone,’ he protested, ‘you ignore the fact that he called me a most insulting name.’ ‘I don’t see the connection,’ she said. ‘He made …
Feb 05 2022
Practical Reasons
“Tell your men to sheathe their blades, my lord. Else I shall collapse the whirligig upon them, and Anam will be once more without a balance.” The baron’s eyes lit with understanding. His hand retreated from his sword. “Practical considerations, sorcerer?” “Just so.” “Will you take my realm from me, then?” …
Feb 05 2022
One Week From Today
…on Saturday, February 12, Which Art In Hope, the first novel of the widely praised Spooner Federation Saga, will be a free download at Amazon. Mark your calendar.
Feb 04 2022
A Completely Uncoded Message
If you’re not aware of them, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is one of the few organizations actively fighting for freedom of communication in today’s media, especially the Internet. They’ve made the unearthing, publicizing, and combating of threats to communications freedom and privacy their sole priority. They’re very good at it. So when the …
Feb 03 2022
History And Its Lesson
“The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel I sometimes envision History as a teacher standing before a classroom filled with squalling teenagers. The kids are entirely uninterested in what Miss History has to say. Who cares about all that old …
Feb 02 2022
Right Ways And Left Ways
Time was, soldiers had a saying: “There are three ways to do anything: the wrong way, the right way, and the Army way.” It was facetious, of course; an Army that refrains from doing things the right way as a matter of policy wouldn’t last very long. But the saying expresses some of the …
Feb 01 2022
Authority And Reality
One of the giveaways that an authority – of whatever kind – is evilly motivated is an attempt to suppress divergent convictions. George Orwell’s 1984 expressed this through its motifs of doublethink, its motto “Ignorance is Strength,” and Oceania’s Ministry of Truth. That last organ of the State labored continuously to “correct” the record …
Jan 31 2022
Why I Wrote And Promote The Spooner Federation Books
Regular Gentle Readers have noticed that I’ve been indirectly touting this novel recently. A couple have expressed curiosity about it: “If you’re going to sneak pitches for your novels into your op-eds, why that book? It’s one of your oldest.” One, whom I know more personally than most of my other readers, went even …
Jan 30 2022
Conditional Property
Have you ever seen the phrase above? I’ve encountered it only once, and that was in a fictional context: “What made you think that I’d accept a gift of this kind?” “It is not a gift, Mr. Rearden. It is your own money. But I have one favor to ask of you. …
Jan 29 2022
Trust: What It Can And What It Can’t
I feel certain that my Gentle Readers have all, at some time, heard the acidly funny line, “What are you going to believe? Me, or your lying eyes?” It’s not really funny, of course. Nevertheless, it alludes to a condition that has become almost as pandemic as the Kung Flu: the determination of politicians …
Jan 28 2022
Humility And Confidence
Do those two qualities sound mutually exclusive to you? They’re not, though quite a lot of people think they are. In fact, they complement one another to an extent that only experience can adequately illuminate. No, no political blather today. This is more important. *** I’d bet that most of my Gentle …
Jan 27 2022
Just In Case I’ve Never Mentioned This Before…
…there is a novel – a remarkably brave and optimistic novel – that addresses the possibility of an America without government. It’s clear-eyed; it allows that there would be some difficulties and some dangers. It also allows that such a project would probably have a limited lifetime. But it is among the most cheerful …
Jan 27 2022
Something That Desperately Needed To Be Said
Today – indeed, for some years now – any attempt to argue with someone on the political Left has been met with vituperation and accusations of evil motives. “Racist!” “Sexist!” “Xenophobe!” and so forth have become the Left’s standard responses to any sort of disagreement. These pejoratives have lost some of their ability to …
Jan 27 2022
What You Don’t Know You Know (Or Pretend That You Don’t)
Most Gentle Readers probably remember Donald Rumsfeld, when he was the Secretary of Defense in the Busy the Younger Administration, talking about “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns:” gaps in our knowledge that we’re aware of, and others that we’re not. Rumsfeld’s comments were important not only at that time and for those circumstances, but …
Jan 26 2022
Bullies, 2022 Edition
During today’s early-morning news sweep, my eye caught on three stories in particular: Antifa Wins At Dartmouth OSHA Drops Vaccine Mandate Savor the Democrats’ Humiliation All three are relevant to the subject given by the title of this piece. The first is an example of how bullies prevail when not opposed by forces …
Jan 25 2022
Self-Defense (UPDATED)
I have to run off virtually at once, so I hope my Gentle Readers will be satisfied with a short piece today. Not that “short” should be taken to mean unimportant. Indeed, the short stuff is often more important than the long rambling rants. Writer and “professional tinkerer” Alexander Rose, author of Pay …
Jan 24 2022
WTF Department
Sometimes, there are no words: Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, Mimi Cave’s “Fresh” is a movie about cannibalism. Yes, cannibalism, the eating of people. Yes, Disney. It’s not a parody or a satire like “Get Out.” It’s a straight up horror film about a charming doctor, played by Sebastian Stan, who seduces …
Jan 24 2022
There Have Been Days…
…when an image I encountered by chance has infiltrated my thought processes and refused to budge. Those Gentle Readers who remember this short story will know how that can affect me. Well, today, courtesy of Knuckledraggin’ My Life Away, we have another such image: …and it has compelled me to recycle an …
Jan 23 2022
Status Report
“The world’s in a bad way, my man, And bound to be worse before it mends; Better lie up in the mountain here Four or five centuries, While the stars go over the lonely ocean,” The old father of wild pigs, Plowing the fallow on Mal Paso Mountain. — Robinson Jeffers — Say, are …
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