FROM Peter Eric Hendrickson, author of “Cracking the Code, The Fascinating Truth about Taxation in America” come these reflections on the ‘Deep State’:

THERE ARE TWO PHENOMENA typically complained of (by conservatives, especially) in regard to Washington, DC: the “Deep State” and the “Swamp”. Often the two terms are used interchangeably.

Both terms refer to real things (metaphorically speaking). There IS a “swamp”. and there IS a deep state. They are NOT the same thing.

But the creatures of the real Deep State encourage the conflation of the two Washington infections as a means of providing themselves with cover from meaningful political attention which would otherwise be a threat.

This conflation serves the purpose because the “swamp” is merely the envelope of corruption, incompetence, bloat and waste which pork-and-patronage-larded oversized central-state bureaucracies always generate around themselves. The “deep state”, on the other hand, is a lean, purposeful competitor of the Constitutionally-limited republic on the prosperity of which it parasitically feeds. The notion that both are just parts of the same clown show makes the evil of the latter more difficult to discern and to effectively declaim. Read More »

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The exile of John Chrysostom, scene from the 11th century Menologion

“THOUGH stormy billows should rise up against me, though the sea should open to swallow me, though the wrath of kings should be enkindled against me, I will heed them no more than if they were so many spider’s webs. Had not my love for you kept me, I would have started this very day on my exile, for this is my constant prayer: ‘O Lord! thy will be done, I will do thy will; not what such or such an one may will, but what thou willest.’ This is my tower of strength, this is my firm rock, this is my trusty staff. If God will that I go, I will go.”

— St. John Chrysostom, Homily before his exile

                                                           May Day (detail) Andrew Wyeth; 1960

“BECAUSE children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

— G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

“THE concept of envy – the hatred of the superior – has dropped out of our moral vocabulary… The idea that white Christian civilization is hated more for its virtues than its sins doesn’t occur to us, because it’s not a nice idea… Western man towers over the rest of the world in ways so large as to be almost inexpressible. It’s Western exploration, science, and conquest that have revealed the world to itself. Other races feel like subjects of Western power long after colonialism, imperialism, and slavery have disappeared. The charge of racism puzzles whites who feel not hostility, but only baffled good will, because they don’t grasp what it really means: humiliation. The white man presents an image of superiority even when he isn’t conscious of it. And, superiority excites envy. Destroying white civilization is the inmost desire of the league of designated victims we call minorities.”

— Joseph Sobran, April 1997

“LET us, therefore, forsake the vanity of the crowd and their false teachings, and turn back to the Word delivered to us from the beginning.”

                    —- St. Polycarp

St THOMAS Aquinas on Man’s Relations with Foreigners (Source):

Man’s relations with foreigners are twofold: peaceful and hostile: and in directing both kinds of relation, the Law contained suitable precepts.

The Israelites offered three opportunities for peaceful relations with foreigners.

First, when foreigners passed through their land as travellers; secondly, when they came to dwell in their land as newcomers; and thirdly, when any foreigners wished to be admitted entirely to their fellowship and mode of worship. Read More »

PLEASE don’t use the phrase “Artificial Intelligence,” or A.I., if you can avoid it.

It is misleading.

Machines don’t have intelligence, which is essentially an immaterial faculty. Computers process information fed to them by human beings and use mechanical power to do it. They can’t reason. Machines can’t think.

See Peggy Hall’s Substack post on this subject in connection with “Stargate A.I.,” the ridiculously-named, high-tech program (it sounds like a video game) introduced last week by Trump. She writes:

Let’s get one thing straight—I really don’t like the term “AI.” It’s not just a personal pet peeve; I flat-out reject the idea of “artificial intelligence.” And don’t even get me started on this whole “machine learning” nonsense. Machines don’t learn—they get programmed by humans. We’re not machines, we’re people. And our brains are not computers. They are brains. Human brains. And it’s the human brains that program these computers, so there. I only refer to it as “AI” because it’s the phrase everyone uses, but I do not care for the term at all.

I’m also bothered by the idea these tech gurus are promoting that AI can somehow solve problems that humans can’t. This technology is being elevated while minimizing the incredible creation that we are—humans, God’s greatest creation. I entirely reject that notion of computers being “better than” humans.

The further implication of the phrase “artificial intelligence” is that the human mind is a machine — and that human beings in their essence and powers are merely machines. Some philosophers have viewed things this way, but then to them we have no more inherent dignity or destiny than toasters or satellites. It is definitely to the advantage of billionaires with utopian visions, whether well-intended or not, to adopt this view.

“HISTORICALLY, the poorest of the poor are rarely, if ever, the ones who migrate from poor countries to rich countries. Quite frankly, the poorest of the poor are so undernourished, and physically disabled, that they don’t have the stamina to migrate. It’s those who don’t share these characteristics who migrate. Read More »

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“Remember that even Stalin had to take a step back and grant ‘concessions’ to those disappointed with Communism. Trump is in that concession-granting phase, but it’s merely a ploy. Many of these concessions aren’t even real concessions. Read everything carefully.”

[Source]

MARC writes:

Thank you for your article, “Cooking and Love,” published a few days ago.

I had never heard of the Lutèce before, nor of the chef André Soltner, but then I’m not very cultivated and certainly not in the culinary field, so not much of a surprise here.

However, checking on the internet about Mr. Soltner, I could see he was from Thann where he was born in 1932. Though my wife is Swiss and we live on the other side of the border from Alsace, one of her grandmothers was born a few months later and lived her whole life in a small town just a mere miles away from Thann. Read More »

THEY trusted the science. They did what the government told them to do.

Three families devastated by a modern form of medical witchcraft: here, here and here.

When will those whom they trusted pay for these crimes?

ALAN writes:

Thank you for informing your readers of the death of Anita Bryant. I would like to present a few thoughts representing the views of Americans who knew better than to accept the lies told about her.

Her critics claimed a thousand times over that she was an evil, mean-spirited, hate-filled “anti-gay rights” bigot. If that were true, once would be enough to prove it, wouldn’t it?  But they know they cannot prove it, so they repeat it endlessly in Big Lie snow-job fashion: A decades-long degradation ritual, standard Communist operating procedure. Read More »

ONE winter evening many years ago, I was driving home from work on a highway outside Camden, New Jersey. The darkened hulk of this small city, one of the most dangerous in America, appeared before me on the road when a car about 100 feet ahead of me, traveling at about 60 miles per hour, suddenly spun out of control on a patch of ice.

I saw it revolve in place like a tiny toy top and then career to the side of the road near a bank of snow. It was a terrifying sight and the very instant I saw it, I pulled over to the shoulder and then parked right behind the car.

The stunned driver spilled out of the driver’s seat. A black man of about 30 years old, he stumbled up the steep, snowy embankment and sat down with his head in his hands.

I ran up the hill and called to him, “Are you okay? Are you okay?” Read More »

1. TREAT those of other races with kindness, courtesy, civility and genuine good will.

2. Refrain from patronizing virtue-signaling and excuse-making.

3. Never use deprecating slang words or images to describe other races.

4. Show patience toward whites who idolize other races, and who believe in racial utopia, while firmly rejecting their hellish flights from reality.

5. Do not befriend those with racial obsessions.

6. Do not discuss racial differences at social gatherings.

7. Treat those you meet in this multicultural empire as individuals, not representatives of racial types, but seek this empire’s end.

8. Love your own race more than other races.

9. Defend the interests of the white race with confidence and personal sacrifice, knowing that to do so is to be misunderstood and to seek the good of other races, as well as future generations.

10. Reject neurotic white guilt and the systematic defamation of the white race without indulging the fantasy that whites are without faults.

When the lessons and tasks are all ended,
And the school for the day is dismissed,
The little ones gather around me
To bid me “good night,” and be kissed.
Oh, the little white arms that encircle
My neck in their tender embrace;
Oh, the smiles that are halos of heaven,
Shedding sunshine of love on my face.

And when they are gone,
I sit dreaming
Of my childhood—too lovely to last—
Of joy that my heart will remember
While it wakes to the pulse of the past:
Ere the world and its wickedness made me
A partner of sorrow and sin,
When the glory of God was about me,
And the glory of gladness within.

I ask not a life for the dear ones
All radiant, as others have done;
But that life may have just enough shadow
To temper the glare of the sun;
I would pray God to guard them from evil;
But my prayer would bound back to myself:
Ah, a seraph may pray for a sinner,
But a sinner must pray for himself.

I shall leave the old house in the autumn,
To traverse its threshold no more;
Ah! how I shall sigh for the dear ones
That meet me each morn at the door;
I shall miss the “good-nights” and the kisses,
And the gush of their innocent glee;
The group on the green, and the flowers
That are brought every morning for me.

— From The Sixpenny Magazine, 1866