THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU writes at the Sydney Traditionalist Forum's Symposium 2015 that a "conservative" is: A historyless, cultureless person who believes that life today is normal, and that things have always been normal; and who judges that Globalization must be good for people because it is merely an improvement on what is normal – that is, the subjection of everything to Economy. A Traditionalist, by contrast, grasps Globalization as the exportation of crisis not only to every quarter of the world, but to every city, town, and village of every niche of every quarter of the world. A Traditionalist grasps that Progress is deeply abnormal, globally existential in its implications, and that its crisis-mongers cannot be bought off. The price of stopping them is much higher than any simple bribery – and there is no room for hedging.

A POET from Indiana offers compelling proof of discrimination by publishers against white male literary artists. From The Federalist: The literary journal Prairie Schooner published “The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve” by Yi-Fen Chou in its Fall 2014 issue, and the poem was referred to the Best American Poetry 2015 anthology, which accepted it and published it this fall. Then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire, because “Yi-Fen Chou” was actually a cynically chosen pen name for Michael Derrick Hudson, a white male poet from Indiana. After his acceptance, Hudson confessed his white male identity to anthology editor Sherman Alexie, who decided to include the poem anyway. Poetry is a subjective business. But Hudson’s revelation that “The Bees….” was rejected 40 times under his real name is revealing: “If this indeed is one of the best American poems of 2015, it took quite a bit of effort to get it into print, but I’m nothing if not persistent….” Kidist Paulos Asrat found the same phenomenon at work a few months ago when she tried to organize a program on Western Civilization at the public library in multicultural Mississauga, Ontario.

TIBERGE at Galliawatch reports that at least some French students are now being taught to refrain from referring to Germanic invaders during the Middle Ages as "barbarians." They were "migrants." See other posts from Tiberge on the latest news in France.

HERE’s more defiance from the French Nationalist singers, Les Brigandes, who have had enough of the New World Order. In their song, “I Found a Sword,” they evoke Joan of Arc. (more…)

JEWISH author Leora Tanenbaum writes in The New York Times (full article here) that it’s fine if preteen girls look like sluts on Halloween. As long as they feel good about themselves, it’s fine: (more…)

CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS reports:

A new UN report claims that “73% of women have been exposed to online violence.” To combat this alleged epidemic of sexist mayhem on the web, it calls for draconian measures—including more government supervision and censorship of the internet. Before anyone acts on these UN recommendations, let’s check out a few facts. (more…)

ALAN writes:

A week ago, a group of Koreans were in St. Louis for a wedding.  The day after, while they were visiting the Gateway Arch, thugs broke into their rental van in broad daylight in downtown St. Louis and stole their passports and five traditional Korean dresses.  This photograph shows the elegantly-attired wedding party on the day before the theft.

This incident caught my attention, but not because of crime by black thugs, which is as predictable in St. Louis as night following day.  (more…)

JOE A., who sent the copy of an anti-suffragette poster, writes: My dear, sainted mother firmly believed it was an error to grant women the franchise.  In her words, “It’s the man’s job to lead” even if that leadership was mediocre or worse.  “You cannot take this responsibility from him” lest he became a “lazy bum” or lose all purpose in life and quit trying.  In her mind, a wife’s job was to stand by her Captain as a good Executive Officer, follow him loyally even in disagreement, and strengthen and encourage him through the hard times.  She allowed that mature women, past the change of life, were perhaps fit for leadership in certain domains, but never if it would deprive a fit man of his duty.

THESE are the opening pages of the 1880 book Home and Health and Home Economics by Charles Henry Fowler, who was president of Northwestern University from 1872 to 1876, and William H. De Puy. It’s hard to imagine this guide to home economics being written today.

Only Man has a Home.—The tired lark sinks in the evening shades down to its quiet nest, and oilers its grateful anthems for the boon of a house; but man, wearied with the strifes of the mart and of the field, seeks shelter in his home, the sacred retreat of the heart. Foxes have holes, birds have nests, lions have dens, tigers have lairs, dogs have kennels, but men have homes. The supreme putting of divine love is found in Jesus, when he forsakes his home, and wanders a stranger, not having where to lay his head; while the extreme display of human sinfulness is found with those human creatures who are “without natural affections.”

Virtues of the Hearth are the Securities of the Peoples.—The home is the cradle of the great virtues. The Church was organized in the family. The power to command his household and his children after him was the spring of Abraham’s call to be the Father of the faithful and founder of the Church. There is one bond that encircles earth and heaven. It is woven from the most tender longings and hunger of the heart. It binds the humblest home on earth to the Home of our Father on High. It domesticates the angels in cabins. The love of mother is often the last cable that holds a youth to his moorings. Beaten upon by the storm of his passions, every other stay gives way. Every other anchor drags. But the love of mother, that was dropped deep into his soul’s substance before he got out of the nursery, holds. While that holds he is almost certain to outride the wildest gales. So the Home, which is the sanctuary where this spirit presides, is a perpetual protection. It is an ark floating with us down the tide of the years. It carries the virtues that make the citizen, and the inspirations that develops the saint. It is not merely a shelter from the storm, it is also a workshop, where the grandest characters are built. It is a preeminent opportunity for the achievement of good. To miss this chief purpose of the home is to lower its grade. (more…)

AN article by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge illustrates the inevitable outcome of an economic system (capitalism), which is dominated by usury. When money, which should be a token of the exchange of goods and services, becomes a commodity in the hands of a few, it leads to this kind of servitude. In Greece, withdrawals of cash are now limited for pensioners and civil servants. How long before the Greeks even have their purchasing decisions controlled from above?

WE see this week what appears to be great conflict and division at the Anti-Family Synod in Rome where some “bishops” have come right out and said that homosexuality is an acceptable congenital “orientation” (see video above) and other “bishops” have written a supposedly leaked letter in which they mostly protest procedural issues but also say that the Church risks losing its branding edge by becoming too much like the Anglicans (as if they were marketing executives for the Piggly-Wiggly Supermarket chain and not spiritual guardians). But all this conflict is so much huffing and puffing. Irreconcilable conflict is a familiar and inherent characteristic of the Vatican II religion, which is more like an umbrella group for an ensemble of beliefs than the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith for which millions of people have died and which will never change in its essential doctrines and worship however many lay people and “popes” happily and triumphantly depart from it. Beneath this conflict is basic agreement and adherence to a system of beliefs that is man-centered, not Christ-centered. All this conflict will not stop the Revolution from advancing. We will see female deaconesses or quasi-priests and possibly even churches where homosexual “marriages” are celebrated and definitely churches where the divorced and remarried freely munch on the liturgical cookies along with other more conservative churches which are stricter and more Catholic-seeming, providing some with an illusory oasis of sorts, but nevertheless are part of the same sect because they do not reject the principle by which these differences are tolerated or the heretics in power. As Dr. Thomas Droleskey wisely notes, the protests at the synod are meaningless. In the end, they amount to theater and smoke which distract the clueless into thinking that what is happening isn’t really happening. Modernism is, above all else, confusion and doublespeak. The fog never lifts. From Dr. Droleskey:

[T]he pitched battle going on now at “Synod ‘15” as “cardinals” and “bishops” from F Troop (“Where Indian fights are colorful sights and nobody takes a lickin’, Where paleface and redskin both turn chicken”—F Troop) is meaningless. The results of this farce have been predetermined the moment that Jorge Mario Bergoglio stepped out on the balcony of the Basilica of Saint Peter on Wednesday evening, March 13, 2013, as he told “Monsignor” Guido Marini, who is no relation to Piero Marini, that “carnival is over” as he, the newly-elected “Pope Francis,” refused to don the papal mozzetta and then asked for the people to pray for him without his giving them a “blessing.” Bergoglio is doing now on a universal scale exactly what he did in Buenos Aires, and it is laughable to see various “conservatives” and semi-traditional commentators try to convince themselves that the farce that is going on at “Synod ‘15” is not part of their “pope’s” plan to make what is purported to be the Catholic Church a DFZ—a “Doctrine Free Zone”—where all are welcome regardless of what they believe, except in actual Catholicism, of course, and how they live, making the conciliar sect a JFZ—a Judgment Free Zone as well. (more…)

DR. THOMAS DROLESKEY made a prediction last week regarding the Family Synod taking place in anti-Catholic Rome:

Here is a prediction, perhaps erroneous, about the farce at the Aula Paolo Sicko that is ending its first full week of melodrama: there will be no schism. The “conservative” “bishops” and their false opposites in the Jacobin/Bolshevik camp will go home to put their own “spin” on the developments, agreeing to coexist with each other in a spirit of the miserable Anglican sect. (more…)

ORPHANAGES run by the Missionaries of Charity, which were started by Mother Teresa, are refusing to comply with new government guidelines that require them to put children up for adoption with single individuals. The Missionaries have ceased adoptions altogether rather than change their standards. Previously they occasionally arranged adoptions with single parents, but the new guidelines would give them less freedom in rejecting candidates they consider inappropriate. (more…)

  ED writes: Thank you for your recent post and linked artwork about Doña Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda. While looking at the It's About Time blog I was reminded of an interview Dr. E. Michael Jones did six years ago on his book Ballet Parking. Last year someone on YouTube excerpted about seven minutes of this hour-long interview and combined it with a few still images which help clarify the points Jones made. The entire Jones interview on his book (eight segments of nine minutes each) is here. The original 2009 interview was done by Stephen Hand and Joanna Francis for TCR Reports, a website which doesn't exist any more as far as I can tell. Thanks again for your blog!

SOLANGE HERTZ, the formidable and inspiring Catholic author who wrote some two dozen books and many magazine articles on culture, history and the Church, died on Oct. 3 at the age of 95. A trenchant anti-feminist in the age of Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, Mrs. Hertz was the mother of five children. Her husband, Gus, was captured by Vietcong while working for USAID and died a prisoner of war. The family was living in Saigon at the time and she returned home with their children. She later supported the family in part through her writings. Here is an obituary in The Remnant newspaper. Mrs. Hertz is survived by 19 grandchildren and 50 great grandchildren.

Mrs. Hertz, I suggest, was virtually unknown to mainstream culture precisely because she was such an eloquent critic of it. Feminist trash fills the shelves of every public library while one must dig to find Mrs. Hertz’s works. She would never pass the censorship of our cultural commissars. Here is an excerpt from one of her many memorable essays, “The Housewife as Guerrilla:”

Whereas man has been entrusted with government, his wife has been entrusted with society.  His the state, hers the family.  To his sophisticated professionalism she brings the happy pragmatism of the dedicated amateur.  ”Whenever you have a real difficulty…when a boy is bumptious or an aunt stingy, when a silly girl will marry somebody, or a wicked man won’t marry somebody, all your lumbering Roman Law and British constitution come to a standstill.  A snub from a duchess or a slanging from a fishwife is much more likely to put things straight.”

To woman, “almost certainly, are due all those working traditions that cannot be found in books, especially those of education; it was she who first gave a child a stuffed stocking for being good or stood him in the corner for being naughty.  This unclassified knowledge is sometimes called rule of thumb and sometimes motherwit.  The last phrase suggests the whole truth, for none ever called it fatherwit” (G. K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World).

Motherwit is the very stuff of guerrilla warfare, at which woman excels to the degree that she remains at Adam’s side where God put her.   To fight with Adam is not to fight Adam.  Each must face, not the other, but their common enemy.  In this confrontation Eve’s position is that of the guerrilla in relation to the regular army, which is her husband’s.  Like every guerrilla’s hers is ancillary and presumes the existence of the regular; but, again like the guerrilla, she must be prepared to continue the fight alone when routed regulars fall back to regroup.

I daresay this is woman’s unenviable task today, when authority is crumbling all around us.  Man has all he can do to restructure it and regain control.  Luckily, as Chesterton also remarks, “Government is only one side of life.  The other half is called society, in which women are admittedly dominant.”  While man reforms his ranks, she must keep the resistance going, lest everything fall to the enemy.  Unfortunately many women alert to the current emergency have been seduced for the first time in history into abandoning their most impregnable positions without a fight.

I am saddened by the death of this powerful voice of sanity. May more people discover her writings in the years ahead. (more…)

MICHAEL R. writes:

You always have interesting posts.

I was particularly  encouraged by the one titled “Courageous Women.” I checked out the link which relates to the French group Les Brigandes.

What’s not to love?  One might not agree with all they believe but to realise all Europe has not rolled over is a breath of fresh air. They bring out their message in a very accessible way.

One of their other songs, “How we become an American,” has a powerful message. One  line made me think of you:

When you get into your car
And fasten your seat belt
To go and get a pizza
Right around the corner

Please accept the usual disclaimers I am not anti-American but as I think you would agree, Americanism is an attempt to submerge us all. (more…)