AN OLD woman in the mining region of Central Pennsylvania describes her troubles in this ballad by Felix O’Hare, sung here by Daniel Walsh. From the George Korson Recordings of Pennsylvania Coal Miners Collection at the Library of Congress:

This ballad articulates the thoughts of the miners in the depression of the early ’70’s. In 1871 the little mine patch of Valley Furnace received a blow from which it never recovered: the mine gave out. Normally the miners might have found jobs at the Shoofly, a nearby colliery. There, however, a bad seam had been struck and men were being laid off. The only alternative to starvation was to gather meager belongings, leave old associations, and trek across the Broad Mountain in to the Mahanoy Valley then being opened to mining. [Songs and Ballads of the Anthracite Miners, Recorded and Edited by George Korson, 1947 ]

THE SHOOFLY

As I went a-walking one fine summer’s morning,
It was down by the Furnace I chanced for to stroll.
I espied an old lady, I’ll swear she was eighty,
At the foot of the dirt banks a-rooting for coal;
And when I drew nigh her she sat on her hunkers
For to fill up her scuttle she just had begin
And to herself she was singing a ditty,
And these are the words the old lady did sing: (more…)

NELSON EDDY sings “Goin’ Home” in 1944. The melody is from Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, also known as the New World Symphony,  composed in 1893 in Iowa. (more…)

“THE strongest piece of evidence for government criminality is the Supreme Court decision Brown v Board of Education and there is no judicial interpretation that can save it because it requires the government to carve out race as exceptional, which is impermissible.

“The Court’s insistence that racial segregation is ‘inherently unequal’ stands in tension with the fact that many forms of separation — such as sex‑segregated facilities—are widely accepted as compatible with equality, suggesting that the Court treats race as an exception where separation is unique.

“From this perspective, this line of reasoning highlights how the Court’s doctrine constructs race as a constitutionally singular category, functioning like a state religion, granting the judiciary extraordinary authority to invalidate majority preferences in racial matters while permitting other forms of classification, thereby reinforcing the argument that the Court’s interpretive power in this area resembles a kind of modern, self‑legitimizing sovereignty, allowing it to pronounce moral truths with the same finality that monarchs once claimed by divine sanction, turning racism into blasphemy.

“Finally, and most important, the Court’s racial jurisprudence functions as a pre-textual mechanism for constraining majority rule, using race not as the true object of concern but as the doctrinal lever through which the judiciary limits the political authority of the numerical majority. (more…)

“A critical institutional‑theory reading might argue that the Constitution — adopted through procedures that exceeded the amendment rules of the Articles of Confederation — was less a social contract than a deliberate elite project to replace the older hereditary and status‑based political order with a new framework of structural power insulation.

“In this interpretation, the Constitution’s real significance lies not in its amendable rights provisions but in its tripartite architecture, where checks and balances function as elite insurance mechanisms designed to prevent popular majorities from radically redirecting state power.

“Rather than expressing collective consent, the document can be seen as a calculated reconfiguration of authority: a shift from lineage‑based legitimacy to institutionalized guardianship, in which political stability is maintained by distributing veto points among mutually reinforcing branches.

“Under this view, the Constitution’s form—not its amendments—embodies the true logic of American governance: a system engineered to manage social volatility by ensuring that no surge of popular will can easily override the entrenched custodians of the state.

“The Constitution’s architects deployed Enlightenment language —consent, liberty, natural rights— not to empower the governed but to legitimate a transfer of authority from open hereditary rule to secret elites whom the governed would not willingly accept, unlike a theocratic white Christian male whom they would, transforming covenantal ideals into instruments of control. (more…)

“Birthright citizenship for people unlawfully present was never explicitly established by the Constitution, because the Fourteenth Amendment’s phrase ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ historically referred to those fully and legally subject to U.S. sovereign authority.

“Any recent Supreme Court interpretation that retroactively extends citizenship to individuals outside that original jurisdictional meaning would be seen as an unconstitutional act of judicial revision rather than interpretation.

“Such retroactive validation effectively legitimizes a century of improper administrative practice, which enabled electoral and immigration fraud.

“To put what I’m saying in perspective had the Supreme Court correctly declared that birthright citizenship never existed and removed citizenship from millions of U.S.‑born residents, the public reaction would likely have been explosive because many people would interpret the decision as proof that decades of elections were shaped by an improperly expanded electorate. (more…)

PAUL Michael Clark writes:

I read with interest your readers’ recent thoughts about classic screen musicals. One film I think particularly noteworthy in that context is 1958’s Gigi. It serves as a reference point in the erosion of Hollywood’s Motion Picture Production Code (“Hays Code”), the industry’s now-extinct set of moral guidelines — that’s to say, in the erosion of cultural standards in general.

Gigi’s creepy plot, about a teenager being groomed by female relatives as a courtesan, became defused in the eyes of many Eisenhower-era moviegoers thanks to the film’s cheerful cinematic sweep and high production values (including first-rate songs by Lerner and Loewe of My Fair Lady fame, another adapted story about female transformation). Certain concessions were necessary, of course, in the face of what filmmakers considered the public’s stilted bourgeois values.

For starters Gigi’s age was left unstated, as opposed to being 15 in the source material, a 1944 novella by Parisian author Colette. Filmmakers also chose an actress in her mid-twenties, Leslie Caron, for the title role though they patently portrayed the character as significantly younger.

Those involved in the production, to be certain, held no illusions about Gigi’s age. In 2024, at age 93, Miss Caron gave an interview to British magazine The Oldie, whose reporter noted how “When filming Gigi, she was a 26-year-old mother with an infant son, yet she carried off the part as a gamine 14-year-old,” then quoted the actress herself:

I was still feeding my little Christopher. My bosom was a little too voluptuous for a girl of 14 and I said to [costumer] Madame Karinska, “Why don’t we have braids to keep this little gilet?” Otherwise I looked too maternal. 

Nine years earlier, a French movie adaptation of Colette’s tale earned a Condemned rating from the Catholic-sponsored National Legion of Decency, which concluded that the film “condones and glorifies immorality.” But the Legion proved lenient toward the Hollywood version, classifying it as “Morally Unobjectionable for Adults.” This was due primarily to two factors besides fudging Gigi’s age: an ending that putatively affirms marriage, and the framing of her courtesan training more as aristocratic etiquette lessons than what they subtly represented.

(more…)

IF you receive an invitation by e-mail from me, please disregard it and do not sign into it.

I did not send it.

It is a virus that came into my inbox. I am very sorry for any inconvenience.

(more…)

 “IF you wish it, the blood of your Lord was given for you; if you do not wish it, it was not given for you.”

— St. Augustine

(more…)

“AND Pilate seeing that he prevailed nothing, but that rather a tumult was made; taking water washed his hands before the people, saying: I am innocent of the blood of this just man; look you to it.

“And the whole people answering, said: His blood be upon us and our children.”

— Matthew 27:24-25

(more…)

Hymn for Feast of the Precious Blood

He who once, in righteous vengeance,
Whelmed the world beneath the flood,
Once again in mercy cleansed it
With the stream of his own blood,
Coming from his throne on high
On the painful cross to die.

Blest with this all-saving shower,
Earth her beauty straight resumed;
In the place of thorns and briars,
Myrtles sprang, and roses bloomed:
Bitter wormwood of the waste
Into honey changed its taste.

Scorpions ceased; the slimy serpent
Laid his deadly poison by;
Savage beasts of cruel instinct
Lost their wild ferocity;
Welcoming the gentle reign
Of the Lamb for sinners slain.

(more…)

“AND Saul, as yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, And asked of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues: that if he found any men and women of this way, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew nigh to Damascus; and suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?  Who said: Who art thou, Lord? And he: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.”

— Acts of the Apostles, Chapt. 9:1-4

(more…)

ALAN writes:

Several years ago I was talking with an acquaintance.  She and I were close in age.  She was a very pleasant woman, intelligent, articulate, was educated in Catholic schools, and had even earned a Ph.D. in American Literature. I made a cynical but mild remark about FDR’s “New Deal”.  (What I said was far less biting than Dr. Revilo Oliver’s favorite characterization of FDR as “that loathsome creature in the White House”.) She was incredulous and said to me in reply, as if she thought I ought to know it, “Roosevelt saved the country.”

I did not agree, but I knew that what she said is what Americans are taught to accept in the official court history of those years.

I let the matter drop, for two reasons: Because she was such a good person and wonderful conversation partner, and because it was later than we thought.  Unwelcome proof of that latter came on the day last year when I learned she died in her sleep at age 77. Very seldom did we disagree. We shared 70+ years of happy memories. So now I missed the sparkle and zest in the conversations we shared for more than six years in the twilight of her life and mine.

But what she said –“Roosevelt saved the country” –was (and is) the frame of mind held by most Americans. And that brings me to this:

How many readers of The Thinking Housewife would recognize the name Sterling E. Edmunds?

I thought so. I have never seen his name mentioned by any Conservative or Paleoconservative or Traditionalist writers or bloggers.

Sterling Edmunds was a newspaper reporter, editor, attorney, and law professor in St. Louis, with a particular interest in Constitutional law. He lived from 1880 to 1944. He was described as “a man who has won a host of friends because of his gentlemanly behavior”. (more…)

The Angry Man
— by Phyllis McGinley

The other day I chanced to meet
An angry man upon the street —
A man of wrath, a man of war,
A man who truculently bore
Over his shoulder, like a lance,
A banner labeled “Tolerance.”

And when I asked him why he strode
Thus scowling down the human road,
Scowling, he answered, “I am he
Who champions total liberty —
Intolerance being, ma’am, a state
No tolerant man can tolerate.

“When I meet rogues,” he cried, “who choose
To cherish oppositional views,
Lady, like this, and in this manner,
I lay about me with my banner
Till they cry mercy, ma’am.” His blows
Rained proudly on prospective foes.

Fearful, I turned and left him there
Still muttering, as he thrashed the air,
“Let the Intolerant beware!”

(more…)

“THE filial devotedness of the Christians of Rome took alarm, and they implored Saint Peter to elude the danger for a while, by instant flight. ‘Although he would have much preferred to suffer,’ says Saint Ambrose (Contra Auxent), Peter set out along the Appian Way. Just as he reached the Capuan gate, Christ suddenly presented Himself, seemingly about to enter the city. ‘Lord, whither goest thou?’ cried out the Apostle. ‘To Rome,’ Christ replied, ‘to be there crucified again.’ The disciple understood his Master; he at once retraced his steps, having now no thought but to await his hour of martyrdom. This Gospel-like scene expresses the sequel of our Lord’s designs upon the venerable old man. With a view to founding the Christian Church in unity, He had extended to his disciple his own prophetic name of the ‘Rock,’ or ‘Stone,’ Petrus; now, even unto the Cross itself, was He about to make him His participator. Rome having replaced Jerusalem must likewise have her Calvary.”

— Dom Prosper Guéranger, “The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul“

(more…)

(more…)

Hymn
(On the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, Proper of Saints)

O more than blessèd, merit high attaining,
Pure as the snow-drift, innocent of evil,
Child of the desert, mightiest of martyrs,
Greatest of prophets.

Thirtyfold increase some with glory crowneth;
Sixtyfold fruitage prize for others winneth;
Hundredfold measure, thrice repeated, decks thee,
Blest one, for guerdon.

O may the virtue of thine intercession,
All stony hardness from our hearts expelling,
Smooth the rough places, and the crooked straighten
Here in the desert.

Thus may our gracious Maker and Redeemer,
Seeking a station for his hallowed footsteps,
Find, when he cometh, temples undefilèd,
Meet to receive him.

Now as the angels celebrate thy praises,
Godhead essential, Trinity co-equal;
Spare thy redeemed ones, as they bow before thee,
Pardon imploring.
Amen.

(more…)

KATHY G. writes:

I’ve been thinking about Alan’s wonderful post reminiscing about the old musicals.

I remember some of those movies, although they were on their way out during my ’60’s childhood. Looking back, I am increasingly struck by the engineered culture provided for Americans to consume. I have looked at music and artists that I used to enjoy and admire with more detachment. I’ve learned about military intelligence and CIA involvement in so much of it. I’ve thrown out a lot of it, movies as well, and will probably throw it all out.

As that catchy tune from the strange musical “Mary Poppins” taught us, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”.

In retrospect, “My Fair Lady”, based on Fabian G.B. Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, was basically advancing the multicultural mess we now find ourselves in. The premise that education, wardrobe, and etiquette skills can turn a street urchin into a fine lady is very entertaining and idealistic.

(more…)

“WE consider secularism, with its errors and abominable attempts, to be the plague of our times; and you know, venerable brothers, that such impiety did not mature in a single day, but rather incubated long before in the very heart of society. It began by denying Christ’s dominion over all peoples; the Church was denied the right, founded on the right of Christ himself, to teach humankind — that is, to give laws and to guide nations to lead them to eternal happiness. Then, little by little, the Christian religion was equated with other false religions and indecorously degraded to their level. It was then subjected to civil power and the arbitrary permission of rulers and magistrates. And things went further: some of these people imagined replacing the religion of Christ with a kind of natural religion, with purely human feelings. There were even states that believed they could do without God, and they based their religion on impiety and contempt for God.” 

— Pope Pius XI, Qyas Primas, 1925

(more…)