IT'S A CLICHÉ but it is true. A picture -- especially a good painting -- says as much as a thousand words and even more, it may say things that words cannot. I was thinking about this the other day when looking at this touching painting, Breaking Home Ties, by the American artist Thomas Hovenden (1840-1895). From the description by the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Voted the most popular painting at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, Breaking Home Ties captured the American imagination as few other pictures have. The 1890s saw the decline of small family farms and the necessity of young sons leaving the land to make a living in the city or on what little was left of the frontier. The scene Thomas Hovenden depicts here had been enacted in many homes, and the composition gave American families a visual record of their own turmoil. The artist used models he knew well: each figure can be identified as a relative or friend of the Hovendens, including the family dog. The sadness of the boy's departure is movingly conveyed with the gloomy background and the mother's affection and the dog whose eyes are fixed on what is probably one of his best companions. The men move around in the background as if it is too much to watch and the grandmother is stony. The boy looks off in the distance with apprehension and determination. In such a tiny space, the painter captures…

THE CATHOLIC GENTLEMAN has good advice for how to beat the temptation to view pornography, which is everywhere and available like never before in human history.

A GOOD piece by Patrick Buchanan on the U.S-supported Saudi blockade of Yemen: Almost 90 percent of Yemen’s food, fuel and medicine is imported, and these imports are being cut off. The largest cities under Houthi control, the port of Hodaida and Sanaa, the capital, have lost access to drinking water because the fuel needed to purify the water is not there. Thousands have died of cholera. Hundreds of thousands are at risk. Children are in danger from a diphtheria epidemic. Critical drugs and medicines have stopped coming in, a death sentence for diabetics and cancer patients. If airfields and ports under Houthi control are not allowed to open and the necessities of life and humanitarian aid are not allowed to flow in, the Yemenis face famine and starvation.

  COMPOSER Randall Thompson (1899-1984) put seven Robert Frost poems to words in this gentle choral work titled "Frostiana." The final poem (if you'd like to listen to that poem alone, you can find it here performed by the New York Choral Society) is "Choose Something Like a Star," a moving reflection on the night sky. As Frost says, stars ask something of us here below. CHOOSE SOMETHING LIKE A STAR --- Robert Frost O Star (the fairest one in sight), We grant your loftiness the right To some obscurity of cloud -- It will not do to say of night, Since dark is what brings out your light. Some mystery becomes the proud. But to be wholly taciturn In your reserve is not allowed. Say something to us we can learn By heart and when alone repeat. Say something! And it says "I burn." But say with what degree of heat. Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade. Use language we can comprehend. Tell us what elements you blend. It gives us strangely little aid, But does tell something in the end. And steadfast as Keats' Eremite, Not even stooping from its sphere, It asks a little of us here. It asks of us a certain height, So when at times the mob is swayed To carry praise or blame too far, We may choose something like a star To stay our minds on and be staid.

  TE DEUM LAUDAMUS O GOD, we praise Thee: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. Everlasting Father, all the earth doth worship Thee. To Thee all the Angels, the Heavens and all the Powers, all the Cherubim and Seraphim, unceasingly proclaim: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts! Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy glory. The glorious choir of the Apostles The wonderful company of Prophets, The white-robed army of Martyrs, praise Thee. Full text

IF ANY ONE man can be blamed for the gorge-and-then-shop spirit of Thanksgiving weekend in America it is John Calvin, the 16th-century Protestant revolutionary.

While it is impossible to imagine Calvin slamming a fellow Black Friday shopper for the last flat-screen TV at Walmart, his theological principles have been so influential in America they can arguably said to have formed it. They inescapably lead to the conviction that contemplation and good works do not constitute the Christian life as much as ceaseless industry. Calvin encouraged a life devoid of elevating ritual and the American who turns even his leisure time into a form of competitive work. Under Calvinism, prosperity and success became the signs of salvation.

George O’Brien in An Essay on the Economic Effects of the Protestant Reformation sums up the spirit of Calvinism:

The earliest Calvinists did not believe that there could be any outward distinction between the chosen and the rejected, but, as the popular creed developed, it came to be believed that a man’s spiritual regeneration could be testified to by the manner of his life. It was taught that incessant activity in one’s vocation dispelled religious doubt, and assured one of the possession of the state of grace. 195 The new Protestant conception of the state of grace was to belong to the elect, and the only way in which this association could be proved was by the systematic mode of conducting one’s life, and by the avoidance of all indolence and inactivity. 196 The Catholic Church taught the possibility of the gradual accumulation of grace by individual good works, but the Calvinist conception of the state of grace demanded a persevering, systematic course of conduct, by which a man’s spiritual condition could be recognized by the whole world. The judge of one’s spiritual health was not, as in Catholicism, a confessor, but one’s own neighbours. 197 It is easy to understand how this conception would lead to a new kind of spiritual aristocracy, an aristocracy of the diligent, the active, and the zealous – the “saints” – instead of the old aristocracy of the monks. It is also easy to see how it might lead to a close connection between a man’s religious reputation and his worldly success. To be excluded from the category of the elect in a community where such ideas prevailed would be a stigma to be avoided at all costs.

O’Brien, George. An Essay on the Economic Effects of the Reformation (Kindle Locations 1403-1409). Ihs Press. Kindle Edition.

John Calvin would surely never have indulged in Black Friday sales, but he helped make a world where what you have matters most and where no one truly takes a day off.

(more…)

ANN KELLY writes: This is part of the "Typical German" anti-white brainwashing campaign happening in Berlin. If a German went to Nigeria or Saudi Arabia no one would call him a "Typical Nigerian" or "Typical Saudi." This kind of propaganda ONLY happens in White countries ... -- Comments -- William writes: I live in Berlin. Not only are these propaganda posters plastered all over the place, dissent is not allowed. When I clicked the link to read the rest of the story you had posted, I was sent to a page with the following message: "@LadyAodh withheld @LadyAodh's account has been withheld in: Germany, France. Country withheld content."

REGULAR readers will not be surprised that "Pope" Francis is shilling for the Pizza Industrial Complex. In a recent video, he romanticized the low-paying and sometimes dangerous job of pizza delivery man. Recent commentary at Novus Ordo Watch is relevant: “Pope” Francis is concerned about many things, it’s just that most of them have nothing to do with the job description of Pope (cf. Lk 10:42-43). Were he a true and valid Catholic Pope, his first duty would be to guard the purity of the Faith, to teach true doctrine, to sanctify souls, and to govern the Mystical Body of Christ, ensuring its unity, prosperity, and growth. A great example of how to do this well was given by Pope Saint Pius X (r. 1903-1914), who was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1954. Francis, the anti-Pius X in more ways than one, makes his primary concern the temporal welfare of the world. He is concerned about water, carbon emissions, mass migration, the “marginalized”, hunger, communications, mudslides, racism, homelessness, unemployment, sports — all causes that have nothing to do with the primary job description of a Pope and can be addressed by all sorts of people who aren’t, and don’t even claim to be, the Vicar of Christ.

SOME COMMENTARY from Stephen Baskerville at Crisis Magazine: The Sexual Revolution is now out of control. [Hasn't it always been?] Initially promising freedom, like all revolutions, it has entered something like its Reign of Terror phase and is devouring its own children. As with other revolutions, it is not because the revolutionaries enjoy broad popular support; it is because civic and religious leaders are confused, divided, and cowed into silence. Those whom one expects to impose some order on all this—conservative politicians, religious leaders, civil libertarians, journalists, scholars—are either hiding under the table or signaling their virtue by themselves fanning the flames of a hysteria that they show no interest in trying to understand. Even as one hysteria—the campus “rape epidemic”—is finally exposed as a hoax by the common sense of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, another breaks out over Harvey Weinstein and others (and still others) emerge almost daily. The commentariat from the left to the right is either diffident or so intoxicated with sanctimony that they are unable to write about it critically. Yet once we strip away the obfuscating jargon and ideology, it becomes very clear what is going on. For there is nothing new about the sordid behavior. All that is new—and all that makes it newsworthy—is that it has been politicized. To begin with, there is not, and never has been, any epidemic of “sexual harassment,” “sexual assault,” “domestic violence,” or the rest. It is not that deeds associated with these terms do not happen; the terms…

MIKE KING writes at The Anti-New York Times:

We must give [Donald Trump] credit for the most important goal that he has achieved [in his almost one year in office], namely, the apparent defusing of the World War III time-bomb scenario which Soros-Obongo-Killary-McCain were driving us towards. Killing the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, chipping away at ObongoCare, cutting regulations, pulling us out of the Paris Climate Scam and resisting gun control schemes in the face of continued crisis actor “mass shootings” orchestrated by the “Deep State” should all be applauded as well. Had that hideous hag been elected, the communist world government express, with its inevitable clash with Russia & China, would have been rolling at full speed ahead. (more…)

“The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.” -- G.K. Chesterton  

“BLACK FRIDAY” is an appropriate name for a day that turns what should be a relaxing weekend into a form of work. Some people get up in the middle of the night for the best deals. However, it’s Black Thursday too: many stores will be open on Thanksgiving. They include, according to BestBlackFriday.com:

Bass Pro Shops – 8 a.m. to 6 p.m
Bealls Florida – 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Belk – Thanksgiving 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Black Friday
Bergner’s – Thanksgiving 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Black Friday
Best Buy – Thanksgiving 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Black Friday
Big Lots -7 a.m. to midnight
Bon-Ton – Thanksgiving 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Black Friday
Boscov’s – Thanksgiving 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Black Friday
Boston Store – Thanksgiving 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Black Friday
Cabela’s – 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (more…)

DAVID CURRY, of the Russian Faith website, writes:

Two weeks ago, I was summarily informed in a brief email from YouTube that our Russian Faith channel—on which we had spent hundreds of hours of hard work and which complements the Russian Faith website, which I own, had been ‘terminated.’ No reason was given other than a very general one which could mean anything.

Russian Faith is a new media project I started in September:  a website, YouTube channel (now banned), Facebook, and Twitter – to cover Christian issues in general, and the huge story of the renaissance of Christianity in Russia.

This dramatic turn by both government and society in Russia is very important not just for Christians, but for the whole world, regardless of their religious views, because it has so many ramifications important to us Americans.

It should affect our foreign policy, and it contrasts with the hostility to Christian values in our own Western societies. It is a fact that Russia has emerged as the leading defender of world Christianity, and it is a disgrace that liberal forces in the US elites and the government are among Christianity’s most hostile foes – both at home and abroad.

(more…)

ALAN M. writes: Here is an article that highlights much of what is wrong with the Canadian immigration system. Enticing young people into the grinding system that is the modern West only benefits those who gain power and money from a larger dependent underclass. On top of that, it causes the self-fulfilling feedback loop of more immigration requiring more socialized services for the “racialized” immigrants which requires more immigrants to keep paying for it all as the native population fades away. There is no stopping it, according to most of my Canadian friends and family. They have resigned themselves and their progeny to minority status and really don’t understand how anyone could think it isn’t the great thing they believe it to be.

OOPS! They forgot to mention the father! But as long as everyone's smiling, it doesn't really matter.

SEXUAL harassment wasn’t much of a problem in the all-male office of yesterday. This provocative and interesting comment came from a reader in 2012, lamenting the loss of mentoring opportunities that also came with that era. Note his observations on the importance of male bonding.

Jim writes:

I recently quit my job after a 10-year career at large and mid-size law firms in a big city. I do not believe in whining, sour grapes, or blaming women for the world’s problems. I have never told anyone what I am about to write, which is in response to the following comment you made on January 31, 2010:

“Like all other occupations which women have moved into, a large stratum of men choose to quit or not join rather than put up with the PC nonsense of aggressive feminism.”

Sometimes this decision is unconscious. But there is an iron law regarding the entry of women into formerly all-male vocations. These jobs instantly become less desirable to men. Therefore, to allow women to become police, firefighters or soldiers is to jeopardize our safety.

At both law firms where I worked, the male partners of the baby boom generation would select a female as a favorite associate. Every male partner had his own younger female sidekick that would have the opportunity to tag along with him and work on important cases. These women excelled at the tasks expected of a junior associate; they had meticulous attention to detail and strong organization. The partners got not only excellent support but also the satisfying feeling of having a young, attractive woman look at them with reverent, adoring eyes. As far as I know, these relationships were not sexual, but they were personal. The younger female associates would know the details of “their man’s” personal life–his relationship with his children, his hobbies, where he went on vacation, what he did there. It is impossible for most men to forge this kind of a personal bond with a senior man in the workplace. Most men compartmentalize work from their personal life, and find it awkward to discuss personal things at work. They just want to talk about work there. Women, on the other hand, strive for work/life balance. They eagerly await the holiday calendar so they can make travel plans. Work is something they do to support leisure and family time. They intuitively do not separate work life from personal life and naturally are curious and concerned about their older male partners whole life, not just his work role. Once a man has a younger female associate’s affections, especially those of an attractive female, the male protective instinct kicks in, and Daddy is going to take care of his Little Girl. In the law firm, world that care takes the form of mentoring, the best work opportunities, rave performance evaluations, increased compensation, and promotion. (more…)

  CLOSE your eyes or turn off the lights and listen to the Lund University Male Voice Choir sing the traditional Swedish choral "Aftonen" (The Evening) by Hugo Alfvén for the aural translation of darkness descending in still countryside. THE EVENING The forest is silent; the sky is clear. Hark to the lullaby of the cowherd's horn Echoing among valleys and green hills As the sun quietly descends. -- Herman Sätherberg (1812-97)