IF democracy is so great, how come politicians don’t talk about some of the most important issues? Here’s a documentary that I hope will keep you balanced on Election Day. If voting really made a difference, it would be illegal.

JOHN TAYLOR GATTO, the public school teacher who waged war against public schools, died at the age of 82 on October, 25, 2018.

I enjoyed Gatto’s writings when I discovered them many years ago, especially his books, Weapons of Mass Instruction and Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Agenda of Compulsory Schooling.

This is an excerpt from his essay, “Against School:”

I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom. Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as I often did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were every bit as bored as they were. Read More »

ALAN writes:

I would suggest….that Western society today [ 1973 ], deluded into complacency by its technological sophistication and neglectful of the things of the spirit, is in the condition of a blind man tottering precariously on the edge of a cliff:  In such a situation, it is wisdom itself to counsel an immediate halt, then a step backward….

“Great literature is that which over centuries has sustained and elevated….  Such art involves a prodigious effort and concentration on the part of its creator and demands a cultivated response from its audience.  As such it is exclusive, in terms of both those who create it and those who can appreciate it.  It necessarily constitutes a minority culture and is therefore to be detested and feared by most contemporary artists and writers, with their egalitarian aims and allegiance, reinforced by the financial rewards of catering to an undiscriminating mass market…..

— Professor Duncan Williams, “The Liberty of Privacy,” National Review, Dec. 21, 1973, p. 1408

Imagine what he would say if he were here today and could see the extent to which modern Americans have ignored his thoughtful and sensible advice. Read More »

HALLOWEEN offers a vision of the damned. The Feast of All Saints offers a vision of heaven.

O Christ, Thy guilty people spare!
Lo, bending at Thy gracious throne,
Thy Virgin Mother pours her prayer,
Imploring pardon for her own.

Ye Angels, happy evermore!
Who in your circles nine ascend,
As ye have guarded us before,
So still from harm our steps defend.

Ye Prophets and Apostles high!
Behold our penitential tears;
And plead for us when death is nigh,
And our all-searching Judge appears.

Ye Martyrs all! a purple band,
And Confessors, a white-robed train;
Oh, call us to our native land,
From this our exile, back again. Read More »

FROM The Anti-New York Times:

What … “The Editorial Board” of The Anti-New York Times would like to specifically address in today’s rebuttal is the use of the word “stuns” in the headline — “Growing Anti-Semitism Stuns American Jews.” And we truly do believe that many of the self-chosenites are indeed “stunned.” Read More »

THE excesses of Halloween — both its commercialism and occult grotesqueries — have led some Americans to reject the day altogether. It’s no wonder. Even normal days are creepy and horror-filled — with people walking around with purple hair and fish hooks in their faces. Halloween has likewise become so extreme in some places it seems like a trip to a super-commercialized corner of hell.

A Protestant writer has turned his back on Halloween:

“Even little girls as young as three years old are being dressed up in sexually provocative costumes. What kind of message does this send to them?”

His concerns are valid. But he then claims a scriptural basis for totally condemning Halloween celebrations:

The Scriptures are very clear about this sort of thing.  Deuteronomy 18:9-13 says the following: “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults with the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord”.

Is a child who dresses up as a princess, monster or ghost really engaging in witchcraft and sorcery?

Some Catholics also are eschewing Halloween and opting for All Saints Day parties instead. Children dress up as saints instead of witches or ghosts.

But let’s face it. It’s just not as much fun to dress up as a saint as it is to dress up as a sinner. For this day, it should be okay to be a swashbuckling pirate or a princess with excess jewelry. That isn’t the same thing as endorsing piracy or vanity. It isn’t Catholic to condemn fun or categorically ban images of demonic evil — think of all the hideous gargoyles on medieval cathedrals.

Halloween, though secularized, has Christian meaning. One of the purposes of the day is to remind us of hell. And hell is scary.

Fish Eaters offers some history:

The Vigil of, or evening before, All Hallows’ (“Hallows’ Eve,” or “Hallowe’en”) came, in Irish popular piety, to be a day of remembering the dead who are neither in Purgatory or Heaven, but are damned, and these customs spread to many parts of the world. Thus we have the popular focus of Hallowe’en as the reality of Hell, hence its scary character and focus on evil and how to avoid it, the sad fate of the souls of the damned, etc. Read More »

SEQUELS to this video here.

FROM Chuck Baldwin:

To know whether a politician—especially a President—is in the pocket of the Deep State, look no further than the way he or she wages war. And anyone who is even halfway objective and awake can see that Donald Trump has become one of the Deep State’s most effective servants.

I’ll say it straight out: The Deep State doesn’t hate or fear Donald Trump; it loves Donald Trump, because Donald Trump is the warmonger’s warmonger.

Donald Trump is on a pace to drop more bombs and kill more innocent people during his first four years in office than Barack Obama did during eight years in office. In fact, Trump is dropping a bomb somewhere in the world every 12 minutes. 

CAROLYN F. writes:

I was surprised by your answer to H.F. (possibly because of this post). To me this is a no-brainer. She should stop studying to be a doctor. Even though she says it was her decision to study medicine, and not the decision of her parents, their expectations of her to “earn a professional degree” likely have played a role in the career path she’s chosen. Also, who knows the degree to which our feminist-run society has also influenced her to have a demanding career and put marriage and motherhood on the back burner.

Why should she set herself up for the problem of the “mutual exclusiveness” of being a homeschooling mom and a physician, if she does meet someone to marry and has children (despite her thoughts about the nobility of celibacy)?  Read More »

(TURN OFF the truly gruesome sound in this video and sing the following to the tune of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”)

NUNS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN

I come to church in the morning light
Deacon Bob says everything is new and bright
Oh deacon dear we’re the fortunate ones
And nuns they wanna have fun
Oh nuns just want to have fun

[Beepy doo, Beepy da]

The dancers arrive in the middle of the night
They need to get their altar disco just right
All that stuff about Calvary was way overdone
Because Catholics they wanna have fun
Oh Catholics just want to have fun

That’s all they really wa-a-a-ant
Some fun
When the working day is done
Oh nuns, they wanna have fun
Oh nuns just wanta have fun (altar girls and boys wanna have fun, nuns wanna have, priests wanna have fun)

[Beepy doo, beepy da]

Some Catholics take a beautiful Mass
And kneel hidden away from the rest of the world
But we want to be the ones to walk in the sun
Oh Catholics they wanna have fun
Oh Catholics just wanna have
That’s all they really wa-a-a-n-ooh-t
Some fun…

When the working day is done,
Oh, nuns they wanna have fun …

[Beepy dooo, beepy da]

Ohhhhhhhh, fun, fun, Ohhhhh, just wanna …

PEOPLE with emotional difficulties are often diagnosed today with “bipolar disorder.”

“Bipolar disorder” is not a scientific diagnosis. You can’t take a physical test and be assured that you have an organic condition. The diagnosis is based on subjective interpretation of symptoms. Mood swings — ranging between manic thoughts and depression — are said to characterize this illness.

Some individuals have organic predispositions and temperaments that make mood swings more likely and truly challenging, or even incapacitating. But I believe this diagnosis is so wildly popular for a deeper reason. The human condition itself is bipolar.

We all swing between two poles.

What are those poles?

We can simplify them and call them, everything and nothing. Read More »

Yellow crime scene tape!!! It must be real!!

[This entry has been updated.]

IN the aftermath of real shootings, everything is done to save lives. Contained havoc prevails as victims are frantically treated and rushed to hospitals. Gore is visible and messy; rescuers are in too much of a rush to hide it. Trauma centers can sometimes save even those who have been shot in the head. Rarely is a victim conclusively declared dead at the scene and then left without being taken to the nearest trauma center. And if such poor treatment occurred, lawsuits would result.

In our day of pervasive cellphones, dozens of images of vivid carnage and its repulsive chaos would quickly emerge after a real mass shooting. In fake shootings, you see no evidence of this frantic rescue effort and no convincing gore. Instead, you see lots of police standing around or rushing into buildings (with a cameraman coincidentally nearby) as if they are on the set of a TV drama. These images are quickly replaced by those of official press conferences and people with red eyes and candles. As a former newspaper reporter, I can tell you that this is not how things work at real crime scenes where everything is done to save lives and detectives truly study the evidence, without rushing to declare instantly who the perpetrator is.

The default position for all synagogue or school shootings should be that they are staged political events until proven otherwise. Yes, they may be real, but evidence is needed before a rush to judgment. This rule insists on hard evidence, not just official reports. The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting strongly suggests staging. The almost immediate identification of the perpetrator — with no doubts — with a ready profile of him and his motives suggests staging. Read More »

PILATE therefore said to Him: Art thou a King then?

Jesus answered: Thou sayest that I am a King. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth, heareth My voice.

(John xviii, 35-37)

H.F. writes:

I’m responding to the posts “Clueless Women” and “The Woman as Helpmate.”

To an outsider I look like another clueless woman. My life revolves around studying to become a doctor, often at the expense of spiritual life, time with family, and friendships. Yet I deeply desire to be a mother and helpmate. I’m 22.

Why, then, do I waste my youth poring over textbooks rather than trying to start a family?

I was raised without religion but joined the Church as an adult, to my parents’ disappointment and embarrassment. During my childhood both my parents worked full-time, so I saw little of them. They’ve spent many thousands of dollars on my education. Earning a professional degree is expected of me.

In college I told my parents about my longing to be a housewife. They laughed and said that no man would want a freeloader. They can’t fathom forgoing an income. I tell them that I’ll marry only a Catholic man, or a man willing to convert. They laugh and say that I’m being unreasonable and inflexible, that I can’t expect a man to convert just for marriage. They view marriage as an optimal financial plan rather than as a sacrament. Although they promise to help me find a husband, I have little confidence in their ability to judge virtue, so I can’t rely on my parents for help. While I’ve tried earnestly to meet a virtuous young man, a good man is hard to find. The best men I know are becoming priests.

But the above doesn’t explain why I’ve chosen such a long, grueling educational path. I should be clear: the decision was mine, not my parents’. Prayer illuminated to me that being a doctor is my life’s calling. Based on my personal strengths and interests, medicine is the best way for me to obey Christ’s commands. In fact, I feel that God has called me to be a physician more strongly than He has called me to be a wife and mother.

I understand that medicine isn’t like any other profession. At minimum, it requires substantial time and attention. Being a good doctor and being a good mother are probably mutually exclusive. If I have children, I want to do things right. For instance, I would homeschool my children. Telemedicine is growing in demand, so as a doctor I could work from home while teaching my children, but the quality of the patient care would likely be diminished. Read More »

A page from the Diary of Anne Frank

ROBERT FAURISSON, the famous French scholar and literature professor who researched official accounts of World War II — and was jailed, fined, persecuted, defamed and severely beaten on the street for his conclusions — died earlier this week at the age of 89.

The difficult and brilliant professor’s legacy includes his remarkable study of The Diary of Anne Frank. We all know the vivid and moving story of the young girl which was published in English as The Diary of a Young Girl, and later made into movies, plays and television dramas. Faurisson peered behind the drama for the facts.

Faurisson first worked on the project with the help of his university students in the 1970s. In the resulting article (later a book), he summarized his findings. He described the physical details of the “secret annex” in Amsterdam, where Frank hid from the Nazis with her family:  Read More »

Raphael, Palazzo Ducale, Venice

MOST compassionate Archangel St. Raphael, who, by a miracle wonderful in its simplicity restored the precious gift of sight to the blind Tobias, free my life, I beseech thee, from the blindness which afflicts and dishonours it, so that I may know things in their true aspect. Never permit me to be deceived by appearances, but help me always to walk secure in the way of the divine Commandments.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Source

Emma Zorn, Anders Leonard Zorn; 1887

ELIZABETH writes:

I, too, am a mother of five (all daughters) under the age of eight. The biggest struggle I face is not so much in seeing the value or feeling fulfillment in my life as a wife, mother, and home-educator, it is beating back the distractions which abound in our technological age! How much of my life — my children’s lives! — have I wasted looking down at some stupid screen just because it was there, close to hand? It is a selfishness and self-indulgence that must be checked if we are going to succeed in our vocations as the hearts of our homes.

I grew up as the Internet sprang up and blossomed. I am in my thirties and can still remember life before the Internet. Having the world at our fingertips was supposed to be almost miraculous, beautiful, and it was seen as such an amazing advance, it was going to help us connect to one another, but I see it now having the effect of keeping us from focusing on our own little spheres, since we are so distracted by the wider world.

Whatever feminism left behind on the hearth, technology is now devouring.

Kitchen, Leon de Smet (1881-1966)

S.K. continues his comments posted here:

I hope the day finds you well. It is strange for me to read my own words on your site. I feel as an outside onlooker. It hit me, regarding the post, that I will never, ever have a helpmate. I mean, I already knew that, but I still found it momentarily shocking. I am not exceptional in this regard of course. In an era of ceaseless chatter regarding erotic fantasies and ‘naughtiness,’ the ‘forbidden’ and such, I’d say that the naughtiest, most ‘forbidden’ fantasy any man dare to dream up would be that of having a helpmate.

Have a wonderful day. Read More »