Chemi Shalev reports in Ha’aretz (read more at If Americans Knew):

The stark contrast that played out on split screens throughout the world Monday, between the Israeli celebration in Jerusalem and the Palestinian casualties in Gaza, was worthy of Charles Dickens’ immortal opening to “A Tale of Two Cities:” “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Read More »

Mrs Francis Brinley & son Francis, John Smibert; 1729

FROM an outstanding Mother’s Day piece by Stella Morabito at The Federalist:

Motherhood is the first and last line of defense against totalitarianism. If you think this statement sounds over the top, you ought to ponder why the family has always been the ultimate target of tyrannical systems of government such as communism. Advocates of cultural Marxism tend to view families as akin to subversive cells that get in the way of centralized state power.

The driving force in each of those “cells” is a devoted flesh-and-blood mother who defends, nurtures, strengthens, and teaches her children well. She magnifies this power by teaming up with the child’s father in that effort. Such a family represents, at the most elemental level, the “little platoon” philosopher Edmund Burke referred to:

To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind. The interest of that portion of social arrangement is a trust in the hands of all those who compose it; and as none but bad men would justify it in abuse, none but traitors would barter it away for their own personal advantage.

As healthy, cohesive families go forth into the world as little platoons, they are a force for goodwill and real justice in society, broadcasting by example and by good works into the culture at large. They begin with mothers who cultivate virtue and a sense of uniqueness in their children. In a very real sense, mothers are the ultimate force for de-centralizing and distributing power in society. Their influence sets virtuous communities in motion.

A mother begins this task as only a mother can: through the mysterious pull of love, by forging bonds of personal loyalty, and under cover of the hidden sphere of private life. Tyrants have openly targeted these positive forces at least since Karl Marx essentially declared them totally incompatible with socialism. Lately we see devoted mothers—particularly traditional, stay-at-home mothers—increasingly mocked and challenged as cultural throwbacks. Even President Obama has criticized them in policy speeches, including his 2015 State of the Union.

Countless examples illustrate the extraordinary impact of attentive mothers to thwart the forces of a tyrannical state. Some cases stand out. But most of the work is done quietly, through their teaching of faith, fairness, virtue, and goodwill. This groundwork mothers lay has a cumulative effect that supports wholeness over brokenness in human beings. Obviously that’s not good for any agenda propelled by resentment over understanding, or chaos over stability. [cont.]

FROM TODAY’S Anti-New York Times:

Five separate stories, with one common theme, spread like hot feces all throughout a single Sunday issue of Sulzberger’s Slimes. Here’s a brief summary of the essence of each article:

Women good — men bad
Women good — men bad
Women good — men bad
Women good — men bad
Women good — men bad 

The angle here is obvious. The Marxist-inspired “women’s movement” ™ which began with the suffrage movement of the late 19th century eventually metastasized into the feminist revolution of the 1960’s and beyond. Today, many loony and thoroughly miserable ladies, having abandoned motherhood for the pursuit of “equality” in government and the professions, now hold some of the highest corporate and government positions in major nations throughout the West, and constitute a majority of the university student population.

Yes indeed — you’ve come a long way, baby. How’s it workin’ out for ya?

Given this amazing “progress,” one would think that the “women’s movement” ™ would settle down and savor the “equality” it has won. Instead, the loony ladies are becoming even more aggressive in their holy war to tear down “the patriarchy.” The goal now is not merely “equality,” but rather, a perceived superiority over de-balled and dispossessed men. Note our use of the adjective, “perceived” in front of the word “superiority.” That’s because, at the very tippy-top of the New World Order pyramid, it has always been and will always be a men-only club calling the shots. Ever notice how, despite their total orchestration of the “women’s movement” ™, the “capos” and heirs of the intertwined Globalist Rothschild, Rockefeller, Sulzberger and Soros crime syndicates are always boys?

You see, the fraud of female equality not only serves the critical Globalist objective of degrading humanity by wrecking the traditional family, it also supports the heavy capstone of the pyramid structure because female presidents, prime ministers, senators, and CEO’s will never rebel against the strong masculine hand of the true masters of this troubled planet (cough cough). It is not in a woman’s nature. Though these nasty man-hating harridans (a $10 word for ‘bossy hags’) may fancy themselves as “liberated” rebels who love to throw their weight around before de-balled / demoted male subordinates, they will, paradoxically, grovel like star-struck groupies and purr like submissive kittens in the presence of a strong N.W.O. king queen-maker. That’s part of a woman’s nature too.

Notice how the nasty, bossy, man-hating, feminist Killary Clintonsuddenly melts like butter before the predominately Jewish, all-malemasters of the Globalist / libtard conspiracy.

Hillary and Bloomberg

Hillary and Soros

Hillary and Weinstein

MELANIE NOTKIN has some wise reflections on the rise of the childless mother — the woman who wants children but fails to have them because she never finds the right man.

But Notkin fails to see the solution — a reversal of the Sexual Revolution and the feminist quest for autonomy.

Still Life with a tulip, Jacob Marrel (1634)

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Mothers who find their lives exhausting may enjoy this diary of a 19th-century Indiana farm wife. The account may make their lives seem easy by comparison. Sarah Young Bovard brought many children into the world (12 — though not all survived childhood) and gave herself entirely to the vocation of motherhood. She was the sustaining heart of her home before refrigerators and dishwashers helped with the work.

Trafalgar Square signals change for Pride London Credit: Transport for London

CHRISTOPHER writes:

We were in London in yesterday and crossed a road at Trafalgar Square when a strange pedestrian signal caught my eye. I thought I had seen something a little strange but wasn’t sure, so I went back across the road to get another look. It was exactly what I thought: an LGBT logo.

It turns out, they have been there for quite some time.

Here’s the film:

Read More »

THE fifth-century hymn Aeterne Rex altissime, on the Feast of the Ascension, is sung here by the Choir of St. John’s College. A translation by J.M. Neale:

Eternal Monarch, King most high,
whose blood hath brought redemption nigh,
by whom the death of Death was wrought,
and conquering Grace’s battle fought.

Ascending to the throne of might,
and seated at the Father’s right,
all power in heaven is Jesus’ own,
that here his manhood had not known.

That so, in nature’s triple frame,
each heavenly and each earthly name,
and things in hell’s abyss abhorred,
may bend the knee and own him Lord.

Yea, angels tremble when they see
how changed is our humanity;
that flesh hath purged what flesh had stained,
and God, the flesh of God, hath reigned. Read More »

Now it is very much like this: as if we were sailing
in ships across cold water, over the sea-waves,
beyond the wide ocean in water-steeds
traversing the floods. The waters are perilous,
the waves immeasurable, amid which we journey here
through this frail world, the stormy oceans,
across the paths of the deep. Dangerous was that life
before we came to land
across the rough waves. Help came to us
that we might be led to a haven of healing,
God’s Spirit-Son, and gave us grace
that we might find, by the ship’s side,
where we could moor our water-steeds,
our ancient wave-horses securely anchored.
Let us fasten our hope on that haven
which the Ruler of the skies opened for us,
holy in the heights, when he ascended into heaven.

— excerpt from the Old English poem, Christ II

Madonna and Child, Marianne Stokes

I say that we are wound
With mercy round and round 
As if with air: the same
Is Mary, more by name.
She, wild web, wondrous robe,
Mantles the guilty globe,
Since God has let dispense 
Her prayers his providence:
Nay, more than almoner,
The sweet alms’ self is her
And men are meant to share
Her life as life does air.

—- Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe”

SARA writes:

I have been reading your blog for a while, and want to thank you for being a voice of sanity in an insane world.  I don’t know what I would do without your words.

It seems one of the biggest issues in today’s world is what few are acknowledging.  It takes place in our skies daily and if people would just look up they would see it. Euphemistically called “geoengineering,” it is the aerosol spraying of aluminum particulates, ostensibly to moderate climate change.  There is a website the explains all of this better than I ever could, done by a man who has given his life to wake people up to this global threat to all living things. [Here is Dane Wigington’s introduction to the jet spraying of aerosols or “chemtrails.”] The scope and implications of this demonic activity are shocking.

This documentary is comprehensive, a must-watch on this issue. It is eye-opening (and disturbing); if you can take the time to watch it, you will see this health crisis approached from multiple angles.

STEPHEN IPPOLITO writes from Australia:

Kyle does  excellent work pointing out that those who so loudly and so often shriek their membership in the so-called “resistance” are the people least resistant to all forms of temptation – bodily or spiritual.

I had an experience just a week or so ago that taught me a lesson very much along the same lines.

It occurred, of all places, at the new KFC outlet in my neighborhood.

(Yes, mea culpa! I confess it: I have a weakness for the Colonel’s chicken fillet burgers – and his coleslaw too. Since its opening, it has run some great dinner specials  and that, combined with the unusually comfortable tables and chairs, has caused me to stop off there once or twice a week. In my defense, I can only plead that at least I am not at the local Pizza Hut or Dominos!)

Anyway, I was approached at my table by a lady who introduced herself as the store manager. She was accompanied by a few of the young staff from behind the counter. The manager explained that she had been told by “my kids,” (in the usual way of fast food places the staff are all about 17 or 18), that I was always very polite to them and always treated them courteously. The lady explained that very few customers did that and that “so many” customers were rude to her young staff over even minor things. She appeared a very kind, motherly lady and was protective of her young staff, (as all good mothers and true leaders are). She then presented me with  some lovely corporate freebies as a thank you. Read More »

KYLE writes:

“Resist” is the moniker of the cultural revolution and a call to action for those who share in impotent, child-like rage towards patriarchal authority. If anger qualifies for proof of their sincerity, then those who use this slogan must be for real but, does it seem that the average person resists much of anything these days? Is there a solitary moment in their daily lives when they don’t indulge their every desire?

Recent studies show that the average person touches [his] cell phone 2,617 times per day. Do they resist picking up their iPhone every 30 seconds to receive their brain treat dopamine from a text message or Facebook notification? Do they resist the urge to eat out every day of the week? Nope, as  American obesity rates have hit all-time highs according to the most recent CDC study on the prevalence of obesity among adults and youth in the United States.

We live in a world where one can purchase anything on their Amazon wish-list and have it delivered to their doorstep the next day. In the days when stores closed at 6:00 pm, if you needed an item not carried in the store, you special ordered it from the catalog and sometimes had to wait for weeks to receive it. Today you can sit in bed and do some online shopping on your iPhone before dozing off, increasing the chance of impulse purchases. Where’s the restraint in consumer spending when Americans are headed towards $1 trillion in credit card debt? Read More »

KIDIST PAULOS ASRAT, at Reclaiming Beauty, briefly analyses a photo of this year’s “UN Champions of Change for Gender Equality.”

The vast majority of women today favor black — the color of death. Perhaps they are unconsciously mourning their own femininity. Power masks emptiness. The UN wants women around the world to be black-clad drones.

As a commenter at Tradition in Action says, in analysing a photo originally posted here:

Satan’s hatred for women knows no bounds.

Indeed, the Prince of Darkness is immensely enjoying the spectacle of female “empowerment.”

AN OREGON man has refused to pay taxes since 1999 because the American government funds abortion, Lifesite News reports.

Planned Parenthood receives more than $500 million per year from the federal government, and performs more than 300,000 abortions. Federal law forbids taxpayer dollars from being directly spent on abortions, though pro-life groups argue that the money still enables abortion facilities to grow their reach and influence, and spend more revenue from other sources on abortions.

“All the government has to do is put a check box on the tax forms that says check here to support Planned Parenthood, and write in your donation amount,” Bowman proposed. “Then, just like any church or charity, Planned Parenthood will be funded by those that have no problem with it, and the 150 million people like me that are pro-life, can pay their taxes and live knowing we kept our conscience clean.”

He vowed that he will continue his resistance as long as the government continues funding the abortion industry.

More Americans should do this.

 A PRAYER IN SPRING
— Robert Frost

OH, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.

DAN R. writes:

Apparently there is a new trend catching on among the younger generation: companies celebrating new “Dads”** with a rough equivalent of the baby shower. My niece is pregnant. Her husband works at a medium-sized tech company. Recently they held a recognition for the “Dads” whose wives are expecting a child.  Never mind that the original baby shower was a tribute to a woman becoming a mother. In the new world “dads” are just as important as “moms,” with wives nearly fully integrated into the work force. For many, being at home with the baby is barely a consideration. I was admonished by my sister to “be happy for them” and recognize that the company’s celebration was both “lovely” and “very thoughtful.” If you’re unsure of the meaning and significance of things, what better way to convince one’s self than with a celebration!

**What happened to the words “mother” and “father?”

Read More »

ANOTHER example of the beautiful music which I came to appreciate because of my beloved father, who died this week, this is from Act III of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), the second of the four works that form Wagner’s operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), based on Norse mythology.

Wotan, king of the gods, must punish his favorite daughter Brünhild for her disobedience. He reduces her to mortal status and decrees that she marry the first man she meets. She begs him to make it a brave man. He finds a way to answer her request. He puts her into a deep sleep on a mountaintop, surrounding her with a magic ring of fire, through which only a brave man can step. He then says goodbye to his cherished daughter.

A “PHILOSOPHY PROFESSOR” celebrates the achievements of Karl Marx in the distinguished pages of The New York Times.

The Anti-New York Times responds.