PHILIP GIRALDI writes for Unz Review:

If you want to understand what the “special relationship” between Israel and the United States really means consider the fact that Israeli Army snipers shot dead seventeen unarmed and largely peaceful Gazan demonstrators on Good Friday without a squeak coming out of the White House or State Department. Some of the protesters were shot in the back while running away, while another 1,000 Palestinians were wounded, an estimated 750 by gunfire, the remainder injured by rubber bullets and tear gas.

The offense committed by the Gazan protesters that has earned them a death sentence was coming too close to the Israeli containment fence that has turned the Gaza strip into the world’s largest outdoor prison. President Donald Trump’s chief Middle East negotiator David Greenblatt described the protest as “a hostile march on the Israel-Gaza border…inciting violence against Israel.” And Nikki Haley at the U.N. has also used the U.S. veto to block any independent inquiry into the violence, demonstrating once again that the White House team is little more than Israel’s echo chamber. America’s enabling of the brutal reality that is today’s Israel makes it fully complicit in the war crimes carried out against the helpless and hapless Palestinian people.

Pro-Israel spin

So where was the outrage in the American media about the massacre of civilians? Characteristically, Israel portrays itself as somehow a victim and the U.S. media, when it bothers to report about dead Palestinians at all, picks up on that line.  (more…)

THE CANADIAN author Michael O’Brien is an eloquent critic of the occult influences on children today, especially through fantasy literature. O’Brien is author of A Landscape With Dragons: The Battle for Your Child’s Mind (Ignatius) and Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture (Fides et Traditio) . In a 2001 interview with Zenit.org, he summarized his objections to J.K. Rowling’s works. His points are relevant to much of popular culture:

Q: Many are critical of the Harry Potter books because they claim it is dangerous to expose children to witchcraft and the occult. What is your reaction to this?

O’Brien: I have read the four volumes of the Harry Potter series three times, and with each reading the serious defects of the novels appear in clearer light.

The most obvious problem, of course, is the author’s use of the symbol-world of the occult as her primary metaphor, and occultic activities as the dramatic engine of the plots. It presents these to the child reader through attractive role models, such as Harry and Hermione, who are students of witchcraft and sorcery. This has the potential of lowering a child’s guard—both subconscious and spiritual—to actual occult activity, which is everywhere and growing.

Rationally, children know that the fantasy element in the books is not “real.” But emotionally and subconsciously the young reader absorbs it as real. This is further complicated by the fact that in the world around us there are many opportunities for young people to enter the occult subcultures, where some of Harry’s powers are indeed offered as real.

Q: Critics of Harry Potter see a big difference between authors such as Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, who, they argue, use magical elements in a Christian way, and the books of J.K. Rowling, where magic is presented in a Gnostic and pagan fashion.

O’Brien: The differences are great, I would say absolute. The resemblance between the works of Christian fantasy writers and Rowling is only superficial. Yes, there is “magic” in both. Yet Tolkien and Lewis repeatedly warn about the danger of magic throughout their novels. (more…)

EASTER
— George Herbert

Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delayes,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him mayst rise:
That, as his death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more, just.

Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art.
The crosse taught all wood to resound his name,
Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day. (more…)

IN 1885, excavation of a building site on the Quirinal Hill in Rome uncovered an extraordinary remnant of the past. It was the Boxer at Rest, a life-size bronze statue from Ancient Greece, probably dating to the late fourth century, depicting a boxer resting between bouts. You can see him in this photo sitting on the earth at the excavation site and looking very much alive.

It was common then to uncover artifacts of antiquity underground — and any significant discoveries automatically belonged to the city of Rome — but this was far different from the typical find. One of the archaeologists working on the site recalled the amazing discovery:

“I have witnessed, in my long career in the active field of archaeology, many discoveries; I have experienced surprise after surprise; I have sometimes and most unexpectedly met with real masterpieces; but I have never felt such an extraordinary impression as the one created by the sight of this magnificent specimen of a semi-barbaric athlete, coming slowly out of the ground, as if awakening from a long repose after his gallant fights.”

I was fortunate to see this masterpiece when I went to the Palazzo Massimo museum in Rome this winter. I can attest to Rodolfo Lanciani’s impression. This is one of the most powerful and unforgettable of sculptures. When walking into the room in which it is displayed, one can’t help but be taken aback, as if one is in the presence of a living person, though from 2,400 years ago. The boxer, with blood on his head and leg, one eye bruised, is seated with his arms resting on his knees and his head tilted upward, as athletes who have just been through some great exertion often do to catch their breath. The statue probably once included eyes in stone but they are now gone. As the Metropolitan Museum of Art described it:

The boxer is represented just after a match. His muscular body and full beard are those of a mature athlete, and his thick neck, lanky legs, and long arms are well suited to the sport. His face exhibits bruises and cuts. His lips are sunken as though his teeth have been pushed in or knocked out. His broken nose and cauliflower ears are common conditions of boxers, probably the result of previous fights, but the way he is breathing through his mouth and the bloody cuts to his ears and face make clear the damage inflicted by his most recent opponent. The muscles of his arms and legs are tense as though, despite the exhaustion of competition, he is ready to spring up and face the next combatant.

The way he is sitting — as if poised to jump up again — suggests resilience, determination and intense preparation. Judging from his exhaustion, whomever this boxer’s opponent was, he wasn’t going to give up easily either. And that is what is inspiring — this boxer will continue until he has nothing left. He has given everything for this revered ancient sport and it isn’t just a game.

I thought of this sculpture today when visiting the grave of the writer Lawrence Auster, friend and colleague who died of pancreatic cancer five years ago today, in the early morning hours of Good Friday, 2013 and is buried at Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Springfield, Pennsylvania. I thought of it not just because Mr. Auster admired Ancient Greek culture and would probably have liked this statue very much, but because he too was a tireless fighter. He could certainly throw a punch, not in the boxing ring but in the arena of cultural warfare, and he could get up again, even after he was beaten. Years of intense study had prepared him for battle.

That preparation is over. He too is now a boxer at rest.

But we can still appreciate, and participate in, the fight. Mr. Auster’s work is available as always at his website, View from the Right, much of it as timely as ever, and will be published in book form soon.

I hope others will be inspired by his combativeness for many years to come.

May his friends never forget his efforts. And may his soul, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

(more…)

  "[A]S NO one can handle flour without carrying some of it about with her, so no one can meditate devoutly and assiduously on the Passion without deriving great fruit therefrom.” --- St. Gertrude

R. HOUCK at Countercurrents looks at the push for interracial couples by major advertisers. You see these ads everywhere. (WARNING: Immodest ads.) A political agenda, not simply a response to cultural change, is at work here. Houck calls it “anti-white,” but it is anti-black and anti-Asian too. Just ask ordinary black women who can’t easily find a husband, or Asian men who see more Asian women marry whites, how they feel about it. Houck’s right though: the goal is to weaken traditional American culture. The result is not good for white women as interracial relationships rise in number:

A 2015 study examined the outcomes of women that have children with black men, the results were staggering. Currently, 70% of black children are born out of wedlock, however when the mother is white and the father black, the rate jumps to 97%. 98% of white mothers studied reported the father does not support their children financially, 97% report the father is not in the child’s life, and 97% of the women have used welfare to help support themselves and their children. Only 10% of women that have children with black men out of wedlock end up marrying. The vast majority of white women that have children with black men live far below the poverty line.

As Houck notes, the advertising industry is largely in Jewish hands. This is widely acknowledged by Jews themselves. According to a prominent Jewish source:

In few modern industries have Jews had greater influence than in advertising, and this applies particularly in America. It has even been suggested that Jewish advertising men are responsible for the wide scope and shape of the modern advertising agency.

The promotion of interracial couplings is part of the Jewish war against the natural social order and organic society, in favor of an easily manipulated, globalist mass society. Interracial advertising is part of a longstanding psychological war. (more…)

  WRATH OF GNON made this lovely meme and posted it at his Twitter feed, which I highly recommend. Thank you, Wrath!

  WILLIAMS SONOMA gives this recipe for Roast Leg of Lamb with Herbes de Provence and Potatoes. I have tried it and it makes a great Easter meal. It is not difficult and it is very good. I found the recipe in this beautiful book which I bought for $1 at a book sale.  

  "Hippies throughout the 1960s and 1970s continually protested and spoke out against the Vietnam war.  Many hippies did not like President Johnson or President Nixon, because of their active role in sending thousands of troops into Vietnam and Cambodia.  Hippies and other student movements and activists would protest and march in the streets with signs that said things such as, “Make Love, Not War” or “U.S. Troops Get Out Of Vietnam” or simply hold up peace signs.  They would also chant and sing through the streets and play music that promoted peace." [Source.] But why after 15 years of the destructive and ongoing War on Terror in multiple countries, why when there is even talk of war with Russia, is the leftist peace movement nowhere to be seen? Where are the hand-made signs and the crowds in the streets? Where are the rousing folk songs? The answer is blowin' in the wind: The Hippies made love. The left was co-opted by the Sexual Revolution. It will not rise up against the pro-war Democratic Party because the Party is the only force that keeps them from moral panic. All that love created havoc and guilt. The Party says it's progress. The Hippies and their descendants now live very complicated lives. Hippie, peace-loving, anti-war women became corporate slaves with hippie sexual mores. They don't have the time or energy to care. They even take their cues from Big Brother on TV --…

IN THIS MUST-SEE interview, Adam Green interviews 9/11 journalist and anti-war activist Christopher Bollyn. Some quotes: "I have to tell you it's very painful for me to see the suffering in America today. I see a lot of suffering. I see a lot of poverty. I see a kind of spiritual poverty because this is a nation that's been deceived and abused. And you can't be a happy people when your reality is based on deception.... The War on Terror is a two-edged sword. Of course we're causing incredible harm in countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. But the other side of the sword is, it's cutting us. It's hurting America very, very badly..... It's essential that Americans wake up from this nightmare."

DAN CROMER uncovers interesting details about the personal history of Emma Gonzalez, one of the stars of the Parkland Shooting Show.

TIMOTHY FITZPATRICK writes at his website Fitzpatrick Informer:

Trump’s over-the-top behaviour and persona makes a convenient caricature out of conservatism. It has provided a rallying point around which Leftists can punch holes in an easily deflatable strawman blow-up clown doll. This is only possible because Trump does not embody genuine conservative values. He is the creature of New York, Jewish yuppy culture and is led by his lust, greed, and narcissism. This caricaturization is being used the same way the Zionists used the caricature of Hitler to galvanize the fractured Jewish community. It lead to an intense period of cohesion for Hitler’s opponents, while he and the Nazis became more and more discredited. The Hitler caricature also enabled the Jewish money power to inoculate the world against any return to nationalism, which is the natural opponent of communism (and Zionism). The Soviets strive for the same goals, despite pretending to be nationalists themselves. Do you think the world will ever look at conservatism and nationalism with any validity, in the post-Hitler, Post-Trump future?

The fracturing, discrediting, and caricaturization of the Right has only encouraged the Left that their ideologies are correct. They can now push forward implementing their “truth” all over the world—more easily than had caricatures like Trump never been in power. Now there is the convenient pretext to save the world from any more monsters. Just accept their communism. Everything will be fine. (more…)

EVERY HOUR, taxpayers in the United States are paying: *$11.6 million for military costs of war since 2001 *$10.05 million for interest on the war debt *$7.99 million for "Homeland Security" costs *$2.28 million for care of War on Terror veterans *$32 million for total costs of war since 2001. Source: National Priorities Project

"ST. Thomas Aquinas was one day visiting St. Bonaventure, and asked him from what book he had drawn all the beautiful lessons he had written. St. Bonaventure showed him the image of the Crucified, which was completely blackened by all the kisses that he had given it, and said: “This is my book whence I receive everything that I write; and it has taught me whatever little I know.” --- The Rev. Reginald Walsh, Meditation on the Passion, 1922; Kindle Edition.

  "Do not weary thyself in vain; for thou wilt never succeed in possessing true spiritual sweetness and satisfaction, unless thou first deny all thy desires." ----  St. John of the Cross

FROM G.K. Chesterton's Heretics (1905): The word "heresy" not only means no longer being wrong; it practically means being clear-headed and courageous. The word "orthodoxy" not only no longer means being right; it practically means being wrong. All this can mean one thing, and one thing only. It means that people care less for whether they are philosophically right. For obviously a man ought to confess himself crazy before he confesses himself heretical. The Bohemian, with a red tie, ought to pique himself on his orthodoxy. The dynamiter, laying a bomb, ought to feel that, whatever else he is, at least he is orthodox. It is foolish, generally speaking, for a philosopher to set fire to another philosopher in Smithfield Market because they do not agree in their theory of the universe. That was done very frequently in the last decadence of the Middle Ages, and it failed altogether in its object. But there is one thing that is infinitely more absurd and unpractical than burning a man for his philosophy. This is the habit of saying that his philosophy does not matter, and this is done universally in the twentieth century, in the decadence of the great revolutionary period. General theories are everywhere contemned; the doctrine of the Rights of Man is dismissed with the doctrine of the Fall of Man. Atheism itself is too theological for us to-day. Revolution itself is too much of a system; liberty itself is too much…

ELLEN BROWN disputes the common view that the U.S. Postal Service is failing because of the Internet. The post office, she says, has been deliberately targeted by powerful commercial forces: Bankers continue to fear that postal banks could replace them with a public option -- one that is safer, more efficient, more stable, and more trusted than the private financial institutions that have repeatedly triggered panics and bank failures, with more predicted on the horizon. Sad, how tawdry the post office has become, selling all kinds of junk to stay afloat. I once ordered some stamps and the postal clerk said, "Would you like fries with that?"