ARS ORANDI posted an excerpt today from St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori’s work Uniformity with God’s Will:

Let us now take up in a practical way the consideration of those matters in which we should unite ourselves to God’s will.

1. In external matters. In times of great heat, cold or rain; in times of famine, epidemics and similar occasions we should refrain from expressions like these: “What unbearable heat!” “What piercing cold!” “What a tragedy!” In these instances we should avoid expressions indicating opposition to God’s will. We should want things to be just as they are, because it is God who thus disposes them. (more…)

MARIO BERGNER analyzes in this video posted at Heteroseparatist.com the psychological forces that led him to feel sexual desire for men and turn to the homosexual life as a young man. He says the overwhelming cause was his weak attachment to his father.

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THE negative consequences continue to unfold for Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper, who did something so heinous he has been fined by the NFL, been widely condemned for an act of singular atrocity and has decided to leave the game for awhile. What did Cooper do? He used the N-word.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Cooper announced today that he is going to leave the team for now and enter counseling:

“The last few days have been incredibly difficult for me,” Cooper said. “My actions were inexcusable. The more I think about what I did, the more disgusted I get. I keep trying to figure out how I could have said something so repulsive, and what I can do to make things better.

The truth is there is nothing he can do. He is a permanent social outcast. He might as well find an island somewhere where he can live out his remaining days in seclusion. Cooper also said:

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STEVE KOGAN writes:

The issue of “women’s rights” was almost a century old when Nietzsche cut it to the quick with a five word response: “Feminism: the uglification of Europe.” For years, I found nothing to match its bite until I recently came across the following reminiscence in The Dostoevsky Archive: Firsthand Accounts of the Novelist from Contemporaries’ Memoirs and Rare Periodicals (1997). The account is taken from the memoirs of a Prince Vladimir Meshchersky (St. Petersburg, 1898), a friend of Tchaikowsky’s and the grandson of Nikolai Karamzin, the 18th and early 19th-century historian, whose volumes on Russian history became classics in their time:

At the parties I gave, Dostoevsky showed himself to be a charming person. He told his stories, and he displayed his wit and humor, as well as his unusual and original way of thinking. As a new person entered the room, however, Dostoevsky became silent for a moment and looked like a snail retreating into its shell, or like a silent and evil-looking pagan idol. And this lasted until the newcomer produced a good impression on him…. If the stranger engaged Dostoevsky in conversation, one generally heard him make some rude remark, or saw a sour look on his face.

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AT her lovely blog, Resting in Apricity, Casey Ann wrote earlier this summer of her trip to Paris. She was traveling as part of a study abroad program. Below is a snapshot she took in the Louvre. Her tour guide described a group of people protesting homosexual marriage as “the archaic people,” to which Casey Ann took exception.

Apricity, by the way, is the warmth of the sun in winter.

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A New Zealand couple who refused to allow two lesbians to sleep in a double bed at their bed and breakfast, as previously discussed here, has formally apologized to the women as part of the settlement of a complaint against them before the New Zealand Human Rights Commission.

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HERE is an interesting piece in the New York Times this morning about the rejection of a women’s rights bill in Afghanistan. The article by Azam Ahmed and Habib Zahori (typical bylines for an American newspaper) describes the Muslims who rejected the law, and see it as Western imperialism, simply as “conservatives.” From the piece:

Even in Kabul, one of the most liberal cities in Afghanistan, many young men and women express beliefs that fly in the face of the messages coming from American Embassy outreach efforts. Censorship, particularly when it comes to religious offenses, summons little ire. Many consider democracy a tool of the West. And the vast majority of Afghans still rely on tribal justice, viewing the courts as little more than venues of extortion.

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FOSTER parents in Massachusetts must undergo ten hours a year of “LGBT sensitivity training” and state workers are “weeding out” foster and adoptive parents who disapprove of homosexuality. See Amy Contrada’s report at Renew America.

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A READER writes:

Kind greetings!  I was an avid reader of View from the Right and appreciated the many insightful posts and essays by the late Lawrence Auster regarding Western civilization, Christianity, and race.  However, the racial issues bothered me so that I occasionally inquired him concerning his ability to reconcile Christianity with race realism (or human biodiversity, as I like to call it).  To his credit, Mr. Auster posted some of my questions on VFR and thoughtfully responded to them.  Please see the email below for an example of my inquiries. 

My regret is that I never identified my race to him as I wanted to keep our exchanges as objective and impersonal as possible. In truth, I am a black man who has avidly studied race realism for at least ten years.  The topic daily occupies my mind from the moment I awake until night falls.

Every day for over a decade.  No exaggeration.

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THE media around the world has proclaimed that Pope Francis approves of homosexuality because of remarks he made to reporters on a plane returning to Rome from Rio. The New York Times has the story on the front page with this headline, “On Gay Priests, Pope Francis Asks ‘Who Am I to Judge?” thus suggesting that open homosexuals will be welcomed into the priesthood.

On the one hand, this is blatant distortion. The Pope did not come close to saying that homosexuals would be admitted to seminaries. On the other hand, the Pope’s remarks are disturbing, not least because he used the euphemistic label “gay” — the first time a pope has ever done so publicly — and because his words suggest that homosexuality is a permanent “orientation.”

Thetimann at the blog St. Louis Catholic has a reasonable summary of the incident:

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THE Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate comprise the second largest Catholic religious congregation that regularly celebrates the Tridentine Mass. Pope Pius V promulgated the missal for the Tridentine mass in 1570 and it was in effect for almost 400 years, until 1969. Catholic Culture reports that Pope Francis has consented to a decree forbidding the friars from using the ancient Latin liturgy without specific approval. Rorate Caeli also reports on the news.

Listen to a polyphonic choir of the Franciscans singing here.

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  ARS ORANDI offers this reflection on the Feast of St. Martha, whose story is an example to women everywhere to value things of the spirit over necessary chores: When Martha received Jesus into her house, she was naturally busy in preparations for such a Guest. Mary sat at His feet, intent alone on listening to His gracious words. Her sister thought that the time required other service than this, and asked our Lord to bid Mary help in serving. Once again Jesus spoke in defence of Mary. "Martha, Martha," He said, "thou art lovingly anxious about many things; be not over-eager; do thy chosen work with recollectedness. Judge not Mary. Hers is the good part, the one only thing really necessary. Thine will be taken away, that something better be given thee." The life of action ceases when the body is laid down; but the life of contemplation endures and is perfected in heaven.

  THE Catholic Church's World Youth Day 2013 ended yesterday in Rio de Janeiro. Novus Ordo Watch writes: This is what a church looks like that has absolutely nothing relevant to offer to modern man - and desperately tries to appeal to the young and "fit in." You'd think that after 50 years of this bunk, they'd finally realize it's not working. On his way home from the event, Pope Francis made another one of his confusing ex tempore statements. He reportedly said, regarding homosexual clergy, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” It is now being broadcast around the world that the Pontiff believes we should not condemn homosexuality, which is a reasonable inference from his words. The Pope makes many off-the-cuff remarks that are ambiguous. See more on World Youth Day here and here.

JOHN T. REED, a graduate of West Point, argues that military women will always be subject to sexual exploitation by their superiors, even at top military academies. He writes:

Fundamentally, the military cannot handle having women integrated into male units. Civilian colleges can handle it, as can civilian grad schools and civilian police and fire. But the military cannot handle it and anyone who votes to continue the current situation is complicit in the ongoing rapes, harassments, and retaliations against females who spurn the advances of their male superiors. Any parent who countenances their daughter going into the military is complicit in the rape or harassment of their daughter.

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JOE writes:

I  know three women in my working-class neighborhood who don’t have children – and never will have children. It’s a choice they made for themselves.They’re very proud of it.

The thing is: No one ever brings the subject up. No one mentions it. No one hassles them. They themselves are the ones who always bring the subject up.

I find it really difficult to believe the 67-year-old actress Helen Mirren when she says people – especially men – often asked her about her childlessness, especially as she traveled in very liberal circles. Even down here in working-class land no one hassles childless women. Most likely, Mirren is the one who made her childlessness the focus of conversation, just like the three childless women I know.

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ADAM writes:

Yesterday, The Arizona Republic published an exuberant follow-up article about a pair of homosexual superdads: Gay dads adopt 2 more children for total of 14.

The Republic previously promoted this nontraditional blended “family” of foster children in 2011 and 2012. The story was picked up nationally by ABC News (which cast the group as a real-life Brady Bunch), Esquire (which named the “dads” among their 2012 Fathers of the Year), and the Huffington Post.

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AT The American Thinker, Don Wilkie explains why he moved his small manufacturing business out of Detroit. He blames government. But when one reads carefully, one discovers it wasn’t government so much as a corrupt and dishonest workforce. In order to get one good employee, Wilkie had to hire eight. But the workers he fired in order to get that one good employee came back to haunt him when they accused him of violating their civil rights or said they had been injured on the job in order to get Workers Compensation benefits. He had to go to extreme fortress-building measures to make sure his buildings were secure, but these were nothing compared to the problems with the workers. He writes:

After a period of time, my insurance company put me in what was called the “Assigned Risk” pool. What that meant in practice was that my Workman’s Compensation insurance costs doubled overnight.  Every new employee hired became a huge financial burden not in terms of wages but in terms of Unemployment and Workman’s Comp costs. (more…)