KYLE writes:

I recently drove through my old neighborhood on the way home one evening and noticed that a plurality of the houses my childhood friends grew up in, homes built in the 1970s, haven’t aged gracefully. Most of the aesthetic ornamentation of these houses has become blackened from dirt and brake dust. Window shutters, glass panes, aluminum siding, gutters, entry sidewalks, and garage doors are long overdue for a good pressure washing. Wooden deck patios are a good shove away from falling down. Flowerbeds are barren from being washed out by clogged gutters that flood the bed below and wash out the mulch. Often times garden beds are clogged with dried up leaves from the previous autumn.

Large weeds are often indistinguishable from the plants next to them. The concrete driveways we played basketball on now feature a multitude of spider-web-like cracks and in some cases, they’ve damn near been pulverized to gravel. The streets are riddled with erosion from salt that city workers pound on it during winter months. The same streets are soiled from the engine oil of parked vehicles, giving the neighborhood streets the seedy look of a Wal-Mart parking lot. (more…)

FROM Our Borders, Our Selves: America in the Age of Multiculturalism, a forthcoming book from VDare Books by the late Lawrence Auster:

We do not resist, and in most cases do not even notice, the desacralizations that surround us because they constitute the very fabric of our culture. Every culture has an organizing idea that is expressed, consciously or unconsciously, in every facet of its physical and social environment. Just as the organizing idea of medieval Europe was Christianity, and the organizing idea of nineteenth century America was democracy, so the organizing idea of our present, multicultural society is nihilism.

To characterize modern society as nihilistic may strike the reader as extreme. Nihilism is conventionally thought of as an attitude of total negation, as “a rage against creation and against civilization that will not be appeased until it has reduced them to absolute nothingness.” [Eugene Rose, Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age, Fr. Seraphim Rose Foundation, Forestville, CA, 1994]. What does this frightful will to destruction have to do with our happy-go-lucky, prosperous, fun-loving country? The answer is that there are degrees and stages of nihilism short of the extreme kind described above. As Fr. Seraphim Rose writes, nihilism is entirely compatible with a “positive” attitude toward life, with enthusiasm, goals, self-esteem, creativity, and most of all with a sense of limitless freedom. What defines nihilism in all its variations is not an attitude of total negation toward everything (which, as we have said, is only the most extreme form of nihilism), but the belief that there is no absolute truth and no rational basis for determining right and wrong. In its early stages, nihilism simply denies the existence of moral truth. In its advanced stages, nihilism replaces moral truth by a new, non-moral criterion of human action–such as “power,” “vitality,” “self-fulfillment,” or “prosperity.” (more…)

LAST MONTH, when I was away from home and not following the story, Catholic League President Bill Donohue, PH.D., wrote of the mind-blowing injustice of the grand jury report on clergy sex abuse issued by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro:

Importantly, in almost all cases, the accused named in the report was never afforded the right to rebut the charges. That is because the report was investigative, not evidentiary, though the report’s summary suggests that it is authoritative. It manifestly is not. (more…)

Seldom have I felt as comfortable in anyone’s presence as I did with Lynn and her family.  To her, they were probably only ordinary years.  But she had such a benevolent sense of life and projected such cheerfulness and optimism in her voice and her demeanor that those two years were a high point in my life. 

ALAN writes:

ONE DAY last March, I was looking for a newspaper death notice. I did not find it, but I found something I was not looking for: The death notice for a man whom I had played with when he was a baby in 1963.  He thus became one of the few people I have known and seen make the journey from birth to death.

It was in 1963 that I first heard the 1930s’ ballad “Deep Purple.”  Missourian Jane Froman recorded it in a beautifully arranged version in the 1950s.  Its tone and melody remind me of good friends of ours who are now deceased but who live in the deep purple of my memories.

On ordinary days in the spring of 1963, we became friends with a young married couple who were also our neighbors in a residential area of south St. Louis, less than a mile from where sheep grazed in fields behind a Catholic high school in the 1940s and where my great-aunt could look out the back window in her home and see a farm in the 1930s.  I will call them Ken and Lynn.  She was a housewife and he was a factory worker.  Color slides taken by my mother show them to be a handsome couple in the prime of life.  Their son was born that spring.  I played with their young daughter in our backyard. (more…)

IF AMERICANS KNEW writes: Legislation to give Israel $38 billion over the next ten years is currently working its way through Congress. This is the largest military aid package in U.S. history. Yet, while Israeli media are covering the legislation, virtually no U.S. news reports have informed American taxpayers about this proposed disbursement of their tax money. The proposed military aid amounts to $23,000 per every Jewish Israeli family of four. (Aid to Israel has been on average about 7,000 times greater per capita than U.S. aid to others around the world.) The proposed aid is divided between two bills. One has already passed, but the main bill is still before Congress.

IMAGINE if Indians became a minority in Calcutta. Imagine an Arab openly celebrating the demise of Indian culture. Nuseir Yassin, known [as] Nas Daily, celebrates the demise of British culture in this video made for Facebook. Zionist Report writes: "And, if you are a non-White Goy, you should be offended by this too. Because after Europe (research the Coudenhove-Kalergi plan), your culture and race are next. In the end, if you don't know who you are, and where you come from, you have no reason to defend it... and therefore much easier to control."

TheMediaReport.com writes:

A priest washed out the mouth of a young sex assault victim with holy water? Another priest sodomized a boy with a crucifix? Another priest assaulted another kid multiple times on an airplane? 300 “predator priests”? The Church “did nothing”?

Are these sickening stories all true? No, they’re not, and we will show you explicitly in this special, two-part report.

Where does one begin to get at the truth of the recently released Pennsylvania grand jury report that has wrought breathless headlines across the globe? Here are two essential starting points: (more…)

WHEN “Monsignor” Jean François Lantheaume, former first counsellor at the “apostolic” nunciature in Washington D.C., confirmed earlier this week that he had personal knowledge that the accusations against high ranking prelates made by “Archbishop” Carlo Maria Viganò were true, he stated, “I can tell you as being the direct witness that Vigano is telling the truth: I was the direct witness! these may be the last lines I write… if I am found chopped up by a chainsaw and my body sunk in concrete, the police and the hacks will say that we have to consider the hypothesis of suicide !!!”

Perhaps Lantheaume’s statement about his own safety was simply a dark joke. But that the life of someone who would expose the homosexual network in the Vatican II Church would be in grave danger is apparently not paranoia. “Archbishop” Viganò has gone into hiding for very good reason.

In 1998, Fr. Alfred Joseph Kunz, a Catholic priest in Dane, Wisconsin, near Madison, was murdered in his rectory. No one has ever been arrested for the crime, though police say they have a suspect and those who knew Fr. Kunz have their own theories. From a report by the Dane County Sheriff’s Office (warning: this contains some graphic details and is not for those with delicate sensibilities):

“On March 4, 1998, at 7:00 a.m., the body of Fr. Alfred J. Kunz, DOB 4/15/30, was found in the hallway of St. Michael School. The school is in the Village of Dane, population approximately 600, located in rural Dane County 5 miles northwest of Madison, Wis., the state capital. (more…)

FOUR HUNDRED and fifty years ago yesterday, Pope St. Pius V decreed in his bull Horrendum illud scelus that any cleric caught in the crime of homosexual acts should be turned over to civil authorities to be put to death:

That horrible crime, by which corrupt and obscene cities were destroyed by fire through divine condemnation, causes us most bitter sorrow and shocks our mind, impelling us to repress such a crime with the greatest possible zeal. (more…)

DR. THOMAS DROLESKEY writes at Christ or Chaos on the unfolding scandal involving “Pope” Francis and charges that he protected a sexual predator:

What Father Carlo Maria Vignano has done is to bring into public light the festering grievances within the counterfeit church of conciliarism [Dr. Droleskey is referring to what many today mistakenly believe to be the Catholic Church], and it is, of course, quite delightful to see the arrogant and defiant Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who is ill-tempered and does not take criticism or opposition very well— remember, most leftists don’t cotton to opposition — suffer as he well deserves for his countless offenses against Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and Our Lady and for the infinite harm that he has done and continues to do to souls. (more…)

KYLE writes:

In his memoirs published in 2016, The Last Conversations, Benedict XVI openly acknowledged a “gay lobby” in the Vatican, and claimed he managed to “break up this power group,” which he estimated as constituting four to five different individuals who tried to influence decisions. His boast of success may have been premature as the recent priest scandals in Pennsylvania have once again opened up a conversation on the question of homosexual clergy and how much influence they currently have in the Vatican II church. (more…)

  EVOLUTIONISTS would have us believe that the mystique of late summer is a trick. The hummingbirds and the bees, the fields of ripening corn, the blackberry's clever pockets bursting with juice -- all are nature's way of getting us to propagate the species. Talk about hoaxes! Though these scientists-turned-philosophers claim to believe in random events, they impute to nature itself -- an entirely material reality -- a form of mind and design. The poets know otherwise. They know that the mysterious bounty and beauty of summer correspond with an invisible, intangible, immaterial reality. Robert Frost wrote of a summer caterpillar: She is as in a field a silken tent At midday when the sunny summer breeze Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent, So that in guys it gently sways at ease, And its supporting central cedar pole, That is its pinnacle to heavenward And signifies the sureness of the soul, Seems to owe naught to any single cord, But strictly held by none, is loosely bound By countless silken ties of love and thought To everything on earth the compass round, And only by one's going slightly taut In the capriciousness of summer air Is of the slightest bondage made aware. The very summer breeze communicates love and thought. How can we prolong this delightfulness? How can we absorb it? We can put it in a food processor and eat it. My husband said yesterday that if…

IN his 2002 book Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church, author Michael S. Rose argued that for decades normal Catholic men were being turned away from seminaries in favor of men who supported the sexual revolution. For instance, men who did not believe women should be priests -- that is, men with a healthy and normal sense of masculine identity -- were being turned down for the priesthood. The rough, cigar-smoking, golf-playing priest of yesteryear was long ago replaced by men who were noticeably un-manly, reflecting changes in the culture at large, but more importantly changes in the mental universe of those leading Catholic institutions. The ongoing sex abuse scandal -- and the explosive revelations of the last few days -- are not surprising in light of Rose's findings. In fact, that there would be anything but widespread sexual crimes in the institutions of what was once the Catholic Church would be a major surprise. In an interview, Rose stated: In bringing the “sexual revolution” into the Church, liberals have welcomed—even preferred—radicalized active homosexuals to orthodox seminarians in the name of “tolerance.” Now that tolerance has been exposed as a toleration of criminal acts. The extent of the sex abuse scandals and the accompanying payoffs and cover-ups has mystified many of the faithful who are simply at a loss to understand how this could have occurred, and why it was swept under the rug for so long. Goodbye,…

NOVUS ORDO WATCH has been vigilantly (and perceptively as always) following the events which may represent the death knell to “Pope” Francis’s pseudo-papacy — the accusations by “Archbishop” Carlo Viganò that Francis was personally involved in the cover-up of “Cardinal” Theodore’s McCarrick’s sex abuse crimes:

Yesterday we published a post chronicling what had happened since “Archbishop” Carlo Viganò released his 11-page dossier accusing Francis of having known about and covered up Theodore McCarrick’s shameful immoral acts. As this is becoming nothing less than an ecclesiastical Chernobyl, we’re going to start providing daily updates on the day’s developments and links to commentary, in addition to our usual postings on other topics. Please bear with us as we navigate through this unprecedented disaster that could bring the end of the Francis “pontificate”.

The claims against Francis are reportedly highly credible. How will the cunning spinmeister ever attuned to public opinion spin this? So far, the man who is an ever-flowing fount of public statements has been uncharacteristically silent.

See more posts here, here and here. Get an overview in the audio “Tradcast” episode. (more…)

  "MY iniquities were like a snowball growing in size as it rolls." --- St. Augustine, speaking of his days in Rome

"SADDAM Hussein is a megalomaniacal tyrant whose cruelty and offense to the norms of civilization are infamous" Saddam's government is a clear and present danger to the United States of America..... "He has developed stocks of germs and toxins in sufficient quantities to kill the entire population of the earth multiple times. He has placed weapons laden with these poisons on alert to fire at his neighbors within minutes, not hours, and has devolved authority to fire them to subordinates. He develops nuclear weapons with which he would hold his neighbors and us hostage. No, this is not just another self-serving, oil-rich potentate. He is the worst kind of modern-day tyrant — a conscienceless murderer who aspires to omnipotence who has repeatedly committed irrational acts since seizing power. Given this reality, containment and deterrence and international inspections will work no better than the Maginot Line did 62 years ago." -- John McCain, Oct. 10, 2002, on the floor of the Senate