The Railway Exchange Building, St. Louis

ALAN writes:

My first job was as a clerk in a corner drugstore.  Most of the people with whom I worked are gone now, and the drugstore was demolished more than 35 years ago.  It was locally owned and operated.  It was one of a kind.  Not a trace of it remains.  There is no historic plaque reading: “On this corner stood the only drugstore in downtown St. Louis that was open all day, all night, every day of the year for 62 years.”

It was in some ways a relic from a time when Americans had some understanding of proportion, form, and function.  It had one purpose:  To offer prescription medicine and sundries.  It catered to ordinary, unpretentious people, most of them working class, some of them poor, most of them middle age or older.

There was a steady stream of customers and prescriptions, but the soda fountain/lunch counter kept the store afloat.  The floor was white ceramic tile.  The store had glass display cases with marble foundations.  Pharmacists filled prescriptions on the catwalk-balcony.

It was not a fun house.  We did not sell toys, tires, or beach balls.  The only sound was that of conversations at the lunch counter or sales counter and the bell on the cash registers.  It was never annoying.  You could hear yourself think.  Try that today in the midst of the noise absurdly called “music” that large chain drugstores love to inflict on their customers.  Mercifully, it was long before the cell phone was invented.  We had one pay telephone for customers.  On one wall were dozens of shelves and small wooden cabinet drawers.  Candy, cigars, and cigarettes were always in demand.  We sold Fatima cigarettes, Velvet tobacco in tins, and Bull Durham tobacco in the pouch.  We had “Prince Albert in the can”, and thoughtful people would phone in to say we should let him out.

To borrow a line spoken by Margaret Sullavan to James Stewart in “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940), I was an “insignificant little clerk”.

When I worked in the basement, my only companions were the mice.  One day a pharmacist and I were standing down there talking.  One of our mice was unaccounted for and we were concerned.

I delivered prescription medicine to elderly residents who lived in tall apartment buildings nearby.  There were no locked doors in my path, I needed no push-button security code, and I never had to justify my presence.  All I had to do was walk through the entry door and to the elevator.  And Americans today think they are “free”.  Self-deluded fools.  There is no better guarantee of arrogance than ignorance of the past.

The midnight shift was quiet and uneventful.  We sold and served no liquor.  There were no security guards at the drugstore because none were needed.  There were no spy cameras in the store and no bars on its door or windows.  I never saw more than one police officer in the store, and he came in every evening to talk with the pharmacist or the cashier.  Read More »

Madonna and Child, Bartolomeo Vivarini

We fly to thy patronage, O Holy Mother of God; despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us from all dangers, O ever glorious and blessed Virgin.

JANE S. writes:

There is a scene from Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop that takes place in a remote Spanish mission in colonial New Mexico. An old man is lying on his deathbed, while the priest administers the Sacrament. Others take turns praying at his bedside while the rest of the community keeps vigil.

Watching beside a death-bed was not a hardship for them, but a privilege—in the case of a dying priest, it was a distinction.

In those days, even in European countries, death had a solemn social importance. It was not regarded as a moment when certain bodily organs ceased to function, but as a dramatic climax, a moment when the soul made its entrance into the next world, passing in full consciousness through a lowly door to an unimaginable scene.

Among the watchers there was always the hope that the dying man might reveal something of what he alone could see; that his countenance, if not his lips, would speak, and on his features would fall some light or shadow from beyond.

The “Last Words” of great men, Napoleon, Lord Byron, were still printed in gift-books, and the dying murmurs of every common man and woman were listened for and treasured by their neighbours and kinsfolk. These sayings, no matter how unimportant, were given oracular significance and pondered by those who must one day go the same road.

I often recall that passage and think: those people had their priorities straight. They were tuned in, in a way that we are no longer tuned in.

Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Edward Lawrence, 1919

“The Cabinet raised the Arabs to fight for us by definite promises of self-government afterwards. Arabs believe in persons, not in institutions. They saw in me a free agent of the British Government, and demanded from me an endorsement of its written promises. So I had to join the conspiracy, and, for what my word was worth, assured the men of their reward. In our two years’ partnership under fire they grew accustomed to believing me and to think my Government, like myself, sincere. In this hope they performed some fine things, but, of course, instead of being proud of what we did together, I was bitterly ashamed.

It was evident from the beginning that if we won the war these promises would be dead paper, and had I been an honest adviser of the Arabs I would have advised them to go home and not risk their lives fighting for such stuff: but I salved myself with the hope that, by leading these Arabs madly in the final victory I would establish them, with arms in their hands, in a position so assured (if not dominant) that expediency would counsel to the Great Powers a fair settlement of their claims. In other words, I presumed (seeing no other leader with the will and power) that I would survive the campaigns, and be able to defeat not merely the Turks on the battlefield, but my own country and its allies in the council-chambers.”

—- From Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence (London: Black House Publishing, 2013)

Quoted by Kerry Bolton in his article, “Roots of Present World Conflict: Western Duplicity during World War I”

“Jews should rejoice at the fact that Christian Europe is losing its identity as a punishment for what it did to us for the hundreds of years we were in exile there. We will never forgive Europe’s Christians for slaughtering millions of our children, women and elderly… Not just in the recent Holocaust, but throughout the generations, in a consistent manner which characterizes all factions of hypocritical Christianity…

.. Even if we are in a major war with the region’s Arabs over the Land of Israel, Islam is still much better as a gentile culture than Christianity’. ‘And now, Europe is losing its identity in favor of another people and another religion, and there will be no remnants and survivors from the impurity of Christianity, which shed a lot of blood it won’t be able to atone for …. Jews must pray that the Islamization of most of Europe will not harm the people of Israel’.”

 — Rabbi Baruch Efrati, 2012

For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

— John F Kennedy, Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association, April 27, 1961.

G20 leaders meet in Hamburg — Central bankers of the world, unite!

ALMOST makes you want to be an anarchist.

FOR some reason, they have fewer children. Therefore they will need more public services.

Many will never reach old age due to disease, suicide and drugs.

ARRESTS of Orthodox Jews who have been accused of welfare fraud in Lakewood, N.J. continue. So far, 26 people have been charged with unlawfully taking more than $2 million in fraudulent benefits, including Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits.

The haredim have been known for depending heavily on welfare benefits in New Jersey for many years. Read More »

In 2016 the image of Omran Daqneesh, shell-shocked and covered in ash, was disseminated by a number of Western media outlets as a symbol of Aleppo’s civilian suffering, with some news agencies even accusing Moscow of conducting the airstrike that the boy was allegedly injured in.

CNN has yet to retract or apologize for its misleading use of images of the boy.

HYLA BROOK
——by Robert Frost

BY June our brook’s run out of song and speed.
Sought for much after that, it will be found
Either to have gone groping underground
(And taken with it all the Hyla breed
That shouted in the mist a month ago,
Like ghost of sleigh-bells in a ghost of snow)—
Or flourished and come up in jewel-weed,
Weak foliage that is blown upon and bent
Even against the way its waters went.
Its bed is left a faded paper sheet
Of dead leaves stuck together by the heat—
A brook to none but who remember long.
This as it will be seen is other far
Than with brooks taken otherwhere in song.
We love the things we love for what they are.

JAMES PERLOFF shares his latest theories of what happened on 9/11. He writes:

This post is not intended to be taken dogmatically; I do not insist that its conclusions are correct; they are just presented for consideration.

In this post, though they have already been much discussed and debated within alternative media, I’ll address three major components of the 9/11 controversy: (1) what brought down the Twin Towers; (2) what initially struck the Towers; and (3) what happened to the original planes and passengers.

Read more here.

REPORTS of a “gay orgy” at a Vatican apartment circled the globe yesterday.

The use of negative language in connection with homosexual activity is strictly verboten in the media unless it involves alleged homosexual activity by alleged Catholics, in which case the behavior must be strongly condemned and broadcast around the world. Seriously, when was the last time you saw the words “gay orgy” used disapprovingly in a major publication? Meanwhile, all of Western society is an ongoing orgy celebrated by the media.

Toronto Pride

Read More »

JAMES HASSON at The Federalist writes of the Army’s “Tier Three Transgender Training.” Now women in the Army face the possibility of naked men in their restrooms. Also men who do not qualify for enlistment may qualify under the less stringent female standards.

Hasson writes:

For a soldier to officially change gender requires only some paperwork. A military doctor or civilian medical professional must certify that the transgender person has achieved “stability in the preferred gender” and the soldier must change the gender designation on the soldier’s passport or birth certificate. From that point on, the transgender soldier is “expected to adhere to all military standards associated with their gender,” and “use the billeting, bathroom and shower facilities” of their new gender.

For example, “Vignette Four” of the training module presents the following scenario: “following her transition from male to female (which did not include sex reassignment surgery) and gender marker change in DEERS [DEERS is the military’s personnel database], a transgender Soldier begins using female barracks, bathroom and shower facilities. Because she did not undergo a surgical change, the Soldier still has male genitalia.”

How should troops respond? “Soldiers must accept living and working conditions that are often austere, primitive, and characterized by little or no privacy.”

By consenting to transgenderism (anyone who doesn’t consent, at least outwardly, has to go), the lower ranks become the perfect citizens of a psychological totalitarian state. “Transgenderism” attacks truth and reality. The best and the brightest must become willing accomplices to lies. To get ahead and survive in institutions such as the Army, they must deny obvious truths that everyone knows: a man is a man and a woman is a woman.

Why is the Army so heavily accommodating a tiny, troubled minority that otherwise deserves compassion for a tormenting affliction and help overcoming it? Transgender policies are not motivated by the interests of the “transgendered,” who often end up committing suicide or living a life of wrenching regrets, as Alex P. Serritella writes in his book Transgenda: Read More »

JEWISH-born and -raised Brother Nathanael proposes an ‘America First’ policy toward Syria.

ST. John Chrysostom (347-407), the Bishop of Constantinople and one of the 32 doctors of the Church, condemned immodesty in dress in strong terms:

“You carry your snare everywhere and spread your net in all places.  You allege that you never invited others to sin.  You did not indeed by your words, but you have done so by your dress and your deportment.  And much more effectively than you could by your voice.  When you have made another sin in his heart, how can you be innocent?  Tell me whom does this world condemn?  Whom do the judges in court punish?  Those who drink poison or those who prepare it and administer the fatal potion?  You are more criminal than those who poison the body.  You have given the death-dealing drink.  You murder not the body but the soul, and it is not to enemies do you do this nor are you urged on by any imaginary necessity nor provoked by injury.  But you do it out of foolish vanity and pride.”

Woe to women who dress immodestly!  Woe to fathers and husbands who do not correct their wives and daughters!  Woe to pastors of souls if they remain silent!  Woe to us, for this is one of the sins which causes most souls to go to hell, sins of the flesh.  “O that they would be wise and would understand and would provide for their latter end.” (Deut.32:29)  “There is a way that seemeth just to a man; but the ends thereof leadeth to death.” (Prov.14:12)  “Few find the narrow way to life.”

ONCE revered as temples of learning, public libraries are indoctrination centers filled with junk. It gets worse and worse all the time.

The Boston Public Library just hosted the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” men in drag dressed mockingly as Catholic nuns, yet again.  This time for children’s storytime.

Seeking to honor homosexual “Pride Month” in June, the library happily announced a “Drag Queen Storytime.”  The San Francisco-based group enjoys non-profit tax deductible status.  [Source]

Pick up materials you find online, but don’t hang around. Don’t teach your children to have any respect for public libraries. Just because they have some good books doesn’t make them good institutions.

Independence Hall

MOST Americans are familiar with Independence Hall, an inspiring Georgian building that is an icon of our “freedom.” Very few are familiar with a much larger structure that is less than half a mile away: the Masonic Temple of Philadelphia.

Which is the more influential structure?

Some would argue that it is the imposing, ornate temple, where powerful Freemasons continue a deeply-held American tradition today.

The Masonic Temple in Philadelphia stands next to City Hall

Henry Makow, a Canadian, writes about the role of Freemasonry in America:

Freemasons drafted the Constitution and signed the Declaration of Independence. The “Indians” who dumped the tea in the harbor were Masons. So was Paul Revere and his Minutemen, George Washington and most of his generals. The Marquis de Lafayette was shunned until he joined the Masons. At least 20 of the 42 US Presidents were “Brothers.”

Freemasonry is the Church of Satan masquerading as a fraternal mystical philanthropic order.