LYDIA SHERMAN writes: A friend in Florida sent this today. I never approved of Mark Twain and his values, but I thought this was interesting: "If voting mattered, they wouldn't let us do it." ---- Mark Twain

A FEMALE reader writes from England:

I have been a reader of your site for some years now and I was hoping for your advice. Please feel free to place my letter on your website if you feel it would be helpful.

I have been married for five years to a wonderful man, we have children together and another on the way. We try to cultivate healthy, natural gender roles in which he acts as provider and head of the family. (more…)

  TELEVISION induces mental passivity and gradually undermines the source of human creativity. Jerry Mander, whose work I am not familiar with, makes these points in this talk and also says television is responsible for hyperactivity in children. (Recommended in an article here on television.)

WILLIAM writes:

In this video, a young Polish priest tackles Islam and liberal lies in front of a huge crowd last November. To me, this is like a diamond, so hard and so bright that it seems impossible to fathom, as if from another dimension.

Like a diamond also, because it is so beautiful. Such a speech would be totally impossible in the
Netherlands where I live. Even my beloved England is light years away from anything like this. (more…)

IN 1965, the top ten rated television shows were:

1. Bonanza
2. The Beverly Hillbillies
3. Gomer Pyle
4. The Lucy Ball Show
5. Red Skelton
6. The Andy Griffith Show
7. Get Smart!
8. Saturday Night At The Movies
9. The Ed Sullivan Show
10. Petticoat Junction

Not much in the way of great drama or comedy, but not much explicit sexual content either.

Introibo Ad Altare Dei reflects on the changes since then. (more…)

FROM E. Michael Jones’s article, “David Bowie Was: Berlin, the CIA and Heroin Chic,” in the March issue of Culture Wars magazine:

As Elvis Presley demonstrated in the 1970s, the best career move an aging pop star can make is dying. Like Elvis and Michael Jackson, David Bowie’s career took off the minute he died. What united all three men was their sense of style. They became iconic figures whose music remained secondary to the persona that their music allowed them to project. David Bowie was without a doubt the most style-conscious of the three. He had the distinction of building a towering career as a singer songwriter on a virtually non-existent foundation of musical talent. Before the Bowie fans get en-raged, let me ask a simple question: can you hum one melody from the David Bowie songbook? Even if you can hum the first three bars of, say, “Heroes,” can you hum one tune from beginning to end? The answer, I would wager, is no. All of his songs were overproduced studio creations, whose elaborate arrangements were calculated to disguise the fact that there was, musically speaking, nothing there. If melody is the soul of music, David Bowie’s tunes were musical zombies wandering around an elaborately produced MTV video in search of musical purpose. The sound that emanated from a David Bowie album was calculated to showcase a series of personae which Bowie created over the course of his career. They had names like Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, the Thin White Duke, etc., and they had elaborate costumes, but the music always came across as an afterthought. (more…)

IN 1970, one in fifteen U.S. residents was a recent immigrant. Now it is nearly one in five.

MAX LUCADO, a Protestant pastor and best-selling author from San Antonio, Texas, refuses to jump on the Trump bandwagon. Lucado wrote a blog post called, “Decency for President,” in which he took the candidate to task for his tone. He said, in so many words, that Trump is insulting and arrogant. In this, Lucado was correct and should be commended, though he was beat up by Trump supporters for saying it. He told Christianity Today, “I would have absolutely no right to speak up except that he repeatedly brandishes the Bible and calls himself a Christian.”

There was one occasion he held up a Bible. On another occasion, at Liberty University, he read from Scripture. On multiple occasions he’s said “Of course I’m a Christian.” There was a time in Iowa when he said “I’m a Christian,” and somebody asked about forgiveness and he said “I’ve never asked God for forgiveness.”

I can’t imagine that. I’m just shaking my head going “How does that work?” Does a swimmer say “I’ve never gotten wet?” Does a musician say “I’ve never sung a song?” How does a person claim to be a Christian and never need to ask for forgiveness?

The Washington Post, which normally shows no concern for indecency in popular culture, picked up on Lucado’s piece and published it:

“The stock explanation for Mr. Trump’s success,” wrote Lucado, “is this: he has tapped into the anger of the American people. As one man said, “We are voting with our middle finger.” Sounds more like a comment for a gang-fight than a presidential election. Anger-fueled reactions have caused trouble ever since Cain was angry at Abel.” (more…)

B.E. writes: A Chinese woman in Xi'an, a city in western China, was trapped in an elevator for a month and starved to death. Maintenance men had taken the elevator out of service, but did not check it for occupants first. [And her family reportedly decided not to search for her when she was missing.] Singapore has a different problem with elevators: some locals use them as public restrooms. Many elevators now have UrineDetection Devices that, when activated, lock the elevator shut. When the authorities arrive, they arrest the micturator.

  ANYTIME a man in public shows truly masculine traits, he is instantly demonized and his reputation is viciously attacked. Here is another good lecture from Fr. Chad Ripperger, who makes this point in his lecture on cultivating masculinity. "What passes for masculinity [today] is actually effeminacy," he says. What is effeminacy? Effeminacy, which is entirely different from femininity in women, is an unwillingness to put aside pleasure to pursue what is difficult and arduous. Masculinity cannot simply be acquired by man's own efforts. It is a gift from God.

FOR those seeking to make a good confession this Lent, here are seven sermons by the Rev. Chad Ripperger on the seven deadly sins, viz. anger, envy, gluttony, lust, pride, sloth and vain glory. See more sermons here on other sins. Here is another practical guide to sin. (See the additional links at the bottom of the page.)

HOMOSEXUALS, lesbians, and the “transgendered” cannot marry, adopt children, or arrange surrogate pregnancies in Israel. Its lawmakers have once again affirmed these restrictions. From The New Observer: The Israeli parliament—the Knesset—has once again definitively rejected a raft of laws promoting “marriage equality” for homosexuals, lesbians, and “transgenders,” even as the Israel-supporting Jewish lobby in America is at the forefront of promoting those very same laws in the US and elsewhere. Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzmann openly called homosexuals sinners. "Gay" is for the goyim.

IF YOU value this website and would like to see it continue, please make a donation today. Thank you to those who have already donated during this, my once-a-year fundraising drive.  

MEN should have the right to terminate any legal relationship with their unborn children, according to a proposal from the Liberal Party of Sweden. It is “legal abortion” for men, and it’s hard to argue with it under the inhuman principles of sexual freedom:

Men who don’t want to become fathers should be permitted to have a “legal abortion” up to the 18th week of a woman’s pregnancy, say the young liberals.

The cut-off date coincides with the last week in which a woman can terminate a pregnancy in Sweden.

“This means a man would renounce the duties and rights of parenthood,” LUF Väst chairman Marcus Nilsen told The Local.  (more…)

IN THE 16th-century, Catholics in England took serious risks to continue to receive the sacraments. Some hid priests in tiny compartments in their homes in order to practice their banished faith. Eric Grundhauser writes:

Surprise inspections and raids of wealthy family homes were not uncommon. If a priest was found, he would face torture and eventual execution.

To escape this fate, a number of homes installed hidden compartments called priest holes, where Catholic leaders could conceal themselves in the case of an inspection. These small hideaways were often built under staircases or inside fireplaces or behind false walls. (Even if you weren’t harboring a religious fugitive, the priest holes made a great place to stash your candles, crucifixes, and other Catholic accoutrements.) Some homes would have multiple priest holes scattered throughout, with at least one, Hindlip Hall, maintaining 12 separate holes. Some priest holes would even be hidden behind secret panels in other priest holes as an added precaution. The hiding places were generally very small, with barely enough room for a full-grown adult to fit, but they did the trick. (more…)

  "The principle of Christian civilization is the existence of evil in the heart of man, and the necessity of authority in order to combat it and to establish the reign of virtue. The principle of revolutionary civilization is the immaculate conception of man and his right to liberty and equality. See there, the two roads; 'they are not only different,' a certain author of many evil books acknowledged, 'but two very divergent lines,' the author, Michelot, concluded, 'that must always remain apart, even unto infinity.'" -- Msgr. Henri Delassus, Americanism and the Anti-Christian Conspiracy