AT New Oxford Review, J. Jacob Tawney discusses the effects of Facebook on friendship. He writes:

The danger in the frequent use of Facebook lies in the devolution of the entire concept of friendship. The problem is not in keeping a list of contacts, but in thinking that one actually is in contact with a “friend.” It is telling that the creators of Facebook chose this word instead of a more appropriate one like contact. The word friend is more appealing to users due to the connotation of the word coupled with the natural need for this type of relationship. But those who are “friends” on Facebook have no obligation to act in a manner befitting authentic friendship.

THE UNITED STATES accepts more political refugees than any country in the world. Welcoming the persecuted is good. However, the definition of persecution has been abused, loosened and degraded (we now take victims of “LGTB” discrimination from Africa), partly through the influence of the “non-profit” refugee resettlement industry. Now, in response to the border crisis, Obama is proposing to further broaden the definition of a refugee.

At The American Thinker, Jonathan Moseley explains why the unaccompanied minors from Central America are not refugees in any legal or customary sense. He writes:

Clearly, none of those coming across our southern border illegally is facing “persecution” on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion. “Persecution” to qualify for asylum does not mean poverty or violence, like that breaking out in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago, Illinois or in Detroit, Michigan. Read More »

Asclepias syriaca, a species of milkweed

POD OF THE MILKWEED
— Robert Frost

Calling all butterflies from every race
From source unknown but no special place
They ever will return to all their lives,
Because unlike the bees they have no hives
The milkweed brings up to my very door
The theme of wanton waste in peace and war
As it has never been to me before.
And so it seems a flower’s coming out
That should if not be talked then sung about.
The countless wings that from the infinite
Make such a noiseless tumult over it
Do no doubt with their color compensate
For what the drab weed lacks of the ornate. Read More »

THE Japanese possess a trait that is alien to most Westerners. Call it cultural self-esteem. Interestingly, they will not be accused of being racist for denying public benefits to foreigners, even though they clearly are flaming bigots.

HERE, from Associated Press, is a look at the “coyotes” who have been bringing mostly minors and women from Central America to the American Southwest and to cities across the United States. The smugglers are part of a multi-billion dollar organized crime industry. The recent upsurge from Central America was partly the result of a drop in business in Mexico, which led the smugglers to look for more opportunities in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

AT Reclaiming Beauty, Kidist Paulos Asrat writes about this portrait of Hazel McCallion, recently retired mayor of  Mississauga, Ontario. McCallion, who was first elected in 1978, is the longest serving mayor of the municipality and has left politics in her nineties. According to Miss Asrat, “The entire city center is full of her touches, giving this rather bland Toronto suburb a character of its own.” The Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Garden, below, is among the civic improvements made during her tenure.

However, the Pakistani artist, Shaheed Rassam, portrays McCallion as clearly a sinister figure. Unbelievably, this menacing portrait hangs in the Mississauga Council of Chambers. Miss Asrat contends the painting is a deliberate attempt to demonize the Canadian city’s heritage. Rassam is quoted as saying:

“I was very much inspired by the mayor’s service to the community over the years…She’s so full of energy and I tried to capture that part of her eternal soul in the portrait.”

Apparently, in his view, McCallion’s soul is positively diabolical, which raises the question as to why the council would countenance such civic self-loathing.

IN THE discussion about the latest developments in the Middle East, Shlomo Maistre makes these observations:

The willful forgetting of what “war” means, which James N. rightly notes seems to be a post-1945 phenomenon, is intricately related to the lack of de facto sovereignty of almost every nation on earth, which (and not coincidentally) is also a post-1945 phenomenon. Though there’s room to quibble with any specific list, I’d designate the United States, Russia, China, and Germany as the only de facto sovereign nations on earth at the moment.

Israel cannot eliminate Hamas’s capacity and will to wage war because such action would require the permission of a sovereign nation.  Israel receives American economic support and diplomatic protection in exchange for acting in alignment with American interests to an extent.  Certainly chief among American interests is that Israel remains its client state and not an actually sovereign one.  For now, as Israel has not taken sovereign (or what is called “unilateral”) action by decimating Hamas or bombing Iran without permission, Israel appears to place greater weight on the benefits of American support than the debilitating strings attached to it.

Read More »

AT Galliawatch, there are posts on the Muslim riots in Paris and Sarcelles.

YOU might wonder, if you have not ceased to wonder, why the President of the United States has just issued an executive order banning discrimination that doesn’t exist.

The best way to understand this outrage is to realize that marriage, family and community have ceased to exist in the traditional sense for many millions of Americans. Given the government’s active complicity in this state of affairs, it is necessary for those in power to say: “This is good. The disorder you see is actually progress.” The best way to do this is to promote more liberation. We are being liberated to death. “Homosexuals” are mere tools in the hands of our liberators. The Sexual Revolution is about political control.

Westland Lysander

THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU writes:

The National Warplane Museum in Geneseo, New York, annually puts on an air show with both static and flying displays of vintage World War II fighters and bombers in midsummer.  An Internet search Friday on July 11^th reminded me that the show was that weekend and that I had better act fast if I wanted not to miss it. I made a hurried telephone call to my Oswegonian friend Richard Fader. Was he interested? Fader (as everyone calls him) immediately said yes and agreed to accompany me to the event the next day, Saturday, July 12th. He even offered to drive. He wanted to put his new Toyota through its paces. I responded by offering to buy the tickets.

Geneseo lies about two hours south and west of Oswego by car, not far short of Buffalo and Niagara Falls.  Fader and I arrived there around noon and parked the car at the bottom of the ridge below the SUNY campus that Geneseo hosts.  Read More »

MASCULINITY is virtually extinct in “Catholic” parishes today. But what can you expect? When a man has heard “On Eagle’s Wings”or a nun with a crewcut pounding out “I Am the Bread of Life” often enough, he’s all but had a sex change operation.

However, Bishop Salvatore Matano of the Diocese of Rochester has set a bold example of masculine leadership, one at odds with the feminist zeitgeist, in ending that diocese’s extraordinarily outrageous practice of allowing lay homilists, most of whom were women. This has made some unhappy.

According to The Democrat and Chronicle:

“It really enriched me, and I have to say I’m struggling with it,” said Diane Porcelli of Gates, who did not preach but is active at St. Mary’s Church in downtown Rochester. “It’s challenging my faith and I’m struggling with the exclusion.”

Read More »

DOUG H. writes:

Yesterday while waxing the truck, my granddaughter, Hayley, came outside and asked if she could help. I got a small rag and put some wax on it for her. We worked on the truck and I tried to explain the concept of waxing the vehicles as she constantly queried. Within a short time, a typical North Florida afternoon thunderstorm rolled in. As it thundered in the distant, Hayley was concerned. She said, “PawPaw, we should go in. Lightening makes people dead.” I assured her we would be okay and would go in if it got worse. She pressed her concern and said, “PawPaw, lightening makes people dead. I don’t want you dead because you are my PawPaw and I love you.” It warmed my heart like nothing else could. I thought about how earlier in the day I had worried as usual over the turn our world seems to have taken, but just as the storm approaches, God sends rays of golden sunshine through the clouds to remind us He is in control and hope remains.

FROM The Traditio Fathers:

Francis-Bergoglio has now waded into the political realm in calling upon the United States to embrace illegal immigrants. At one time a pope would encourage everyone to follow the law. But not Bergoglio. As tens of thousands of illegals stream into the U.S. from Nicaragua, Guatemala, and other Central American countries, public resources have been strained, and those legally entitled to public assistance, like disabled veterans, are refused assistance. Bergoglio failed to mention this fact.

The United States, which has been the most welcoming country in the entire world to legal immigrants is denounced by Bergoglio for being “xenophobic” and “racist.” Isn’t that what the Liberalist/Modernists always call conservatives, and yet it is the former who are demonstrably more “racist.” [Some information for this Commentary was contributed by Breitbart.]

Read More »

ACCORDING TO Breitbart:

The last Christian reportedly left Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul at 12:00pm on Saturday, ending over 6,000 years of Assyrian history in the city. Assyrians have lived in Mosul for over 6,000 years, converting to Christianity over 2,000 years ago. This all came to an end on Saturday, when the last Assyrian Christian left the city.

AST, Balthasar van der
Still-Life with Plums, Cherries, and Shells
c. 1628

 ALAN writes: 

My grandmother led a poor, pitiful, colorless life.

These are some of the things my grandmother never did:

— Shop in a supermarket permeated by rock “music”
— Set foot on an airplane
— Ride on a motorcycle
— Ride in a souped-up car
— Travel more than 150 miles from home
— Drink anything stronger than coffee
— Work in the workaday world
— Visit a “theme park”
— Set foot in a shopping mall
— Celebrate Feminism
— Wear pants
— Wear tattoos Read More »

L.R. writes:

When reading of accused pedophiliacs being arrested at Disney World and charged with approaching teenage boys, it is important to recall that Disney has been more and more heavily pushing the “homosexual agenda” for quite a while now, even putting it into their channel’s children’s shows more and more all the time.

Read More »

AIR Force Lt. Gen. Lori J. Robinson represents a particularly striking example of military affirmative action. Robinson has been nominated as commanding general of the Air Force’s Pacific operations and for a promotion to four-star general. Robinson is not, however, a military pilot. She will be the first non-pilot to command such a large theater of operations, according to The Washington Times.

Read More »

I AM just now posting comments I received over the weekend. It was a beautiful weekend and I was so caught up in other things, including some heavy cooking, that I never got to the computer.

AERTSEN, Pieter
Cook in front of the Stove
1559