MY husband and I recently stayed at a relative’s timeshare in New England. The mountain villa was in a town that has banned most franchises and chain stores, except for the supermarket, a couple of gas stations and a convenience store that is part of a regional chain. The town has a busy tourist economy, and it would presumably be highly attractive to chain stores. A woman who was visiting the local farmer’s market asked a vendor, “Is there a Dunkin’ Donuts around here?” The man said no, there was no Dunkin’ Donuts. “Oh,” she said, somewhat disappointed. “I do like their coffee.” Apparently, in the mind of this Philistine, it would be better for her to have her favorite coffee than for local entrepreneurs to run small businesses. She would rather see the ugly pink and orange Dunkin’ Donuts sign and smell the familiar aroma of cheap donuts with confetti than decipher the unfamiliar sign of a local coffee shop, of which there were several to choose from that had very good coffee.

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The Annunication, Meister der Braunschweig-Magdeburger Schule; circa 1275

IN ADVENT, “God knocks at the door of all men’s hearts,” Dom Prosper Guéranger wrote. Advent is the season of expectation. The world awaits. “Conditor alme siderum,” or “Creator of the Stars of Night,” is a plainchant from a seventh-century text used in Advent Vespers that captures some of that solemn anticipation. Listen to two excellent renditions of the chant here and here. I prefer the first. The English translation is below.

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LIFESITE news, reporting earlier this week on the story of a lesbian waitress who falsely claimed she received a hateful note instead of a tip, lists similar hoaxes and false allegations of hate crimes:

Last July Charlie Rogers, a lesbian and former college basketball player, carved a cross into her own chest with a knife in a simulated hate crime. Read More »

IN contrast to Jorge Bergoglio’s criticism of the economy in his apostolic exhortation, in which he suggests that inequality is inherently evil, I offer the balanced insights of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: Read More »

PHILIPPA CROSS, a South African expatriate who lives in Australia, describes the anger she feels whenever she is asked for money to aid African charities. She writes:

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JOY has been a major motif of the phony post-Vatican II Church since the 1960s and you’ll come across some nauseating version of this happy-clappy love fest in almost every Catholic church today. It is no surprise then that Jorge Bergoglio’s first official writing as pretender to the papacy is an apostolic exhortation titled Evangelii Gaudium, or The Joy of the Gospel. Here we have the Pope of the Balloon Church, the Prince of Hot Air, exhorting Catholics to be ever more joyful and to abandon true Catholicism.

Balloon Theology requires a great deal of rhetorical helium, and that’s largely what this apostolic exhortation is. But it is also a serious revolutionary document, masking hostility toward Catholic tradition behind a posture of openness. With statements such as “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence,” Francis burnishes his credentials as a revolutionary. He proposes a “revolution of tenderness”  — a brilliant and ominous expression if ever there was one, something that is sure to strike terror in the heart of the jihadist. Even deeply-rooted aspects of Catholicism must be changed in this “revolution of tenderness.” Evangelii Gaudium calls for re-evaluation of “certain customs not directly connected to the heart of the Gospel, even some of which have deep historical roots.”

Many Catholic commentators are no doubt saying that this exhortation is “oh, so different” from the Francis of the infamous interviews. Don’t believe it. All the elements of Balloon Theology and Catholic apostasy present in those interviews are here. They are just not as readily accessible in this 48,000-word document.

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Still life with Bread and a Chocolate Set, Luis Melendez

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all the readers of The Thinking Housewife. Among the many things I am thankful for are your wisdom, common sense and support. You are in my prayers, today and always.

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ALEX writes:

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IN AN interview at Breitbart, Colin Flaherty, author of White Girl Bleed A Lot, talks about the refusal of the mainstream press to disclose the full nature of black crime: 

The author said that for years he was seeing such crimes dismissed as “kids blowing off steam,” but when he began seeing regular Americans talking about these crimes more and more on social media and Youtube he knew it was time to speak out about his [sic] the media is refusing to report the truth. Read More »

Norman Rockwell’s Cousin Reginald Catches the Thanksgiving Turkey (1917)

MARK MONCRIEFF writes from Australia:

I have a question about American culture. We see it so much on TV and in the movies that sometimes it’s easy to forget it’s not the same as ours. It mostly is, but say about 20 percent isn’t. My question is, would an American family that could only get together for one holiday prefer to get together for Thanksgiving or for Christmas?

We don’t have Thanksgiving in Australia and on TV and in the movies it seems like basically the same holiday with different titles…..or has TV lied to me?

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THE transparent fraud of same-sex “marriage” becomes more transparent by the day. A federal judge in Illinois has ordered Cook County to issue a “marriage” license to a terminally ill pervert and her pervert friend immediately, months before the legal absurdity of same-sex “marriage” becomes official in June. Aw, shucks. Isn’t that sweet? What a caring judge. What a beautiful couple. Presumably, this “marriage” will come with material advantages for the pervert left behind after her friend’s death. Expect to see many of these “marriages” in the future. Want your friend’s Social Security benefits? Just get married.

Look yourself in the mirror, my friend. And say to yourself, “I live in a society in which the institution of the family has been destroyed.”

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THIS is the second of a series of four essays by Thomas F. Bertonneau on T.S. Eliot’s writings on the decline of higher education. The first part is here.

T. S. Eliot, Culture, and Higher Education, Part II

Thomas F. Bertonneau

When the reader encounters in T. S. Eliot’s Notes towards a Definition of Culture (1949) references quoted from Harold Laski to such things as the building of a “new civilization” based on “social justice,” he might excusably muse to himself that he has the feeling of having met with these phrases before – only before would not be exactly right because he will have met with them recently in the twenty-first century whereas Eliot wrote his Notes sixty-three years ago.  The Notes – which figured along with books by Nicolas Berdyaev, José Ortega-y-Gasset, and three others in a seminar that I taught in the fall semester of 2012 – put in order a number of disconcerting intuitions that plagued Eliot with redoubled urgency after the Allied victory of 1945.  Read More »

DANIEL S. writes:

The southern African nation of Angola has reportedly outlawed the practice of Islam within its borders, declaring it not a religion, but a subversive cult. It is also being reported that several mosques and minarets were demolished.

If this story is confirmed, it will be interesting to see what international reaction will be. Read More »

T.D. writes:

JAMES N. writes:

With regard to the “Negro Question:” Everything we have believed is wrong. All of it, without exception.

Anyone who, in 1963, was a supporter of “civil rights,” knowing how society would change by 2013, would have predicted – paradise. They would have predicted – did in fact predict – that if we followed their counsel, things would be better. Maybe not all better, maybe not completely better – but better than they were in 1963.

What a disgusting farce. Things are not only worse, they are much, much worse. And Philip Chism is the messenger, bearing the message that is the refutation of every … single … thing that white “people of good will” believed, that Colleen Ritzer undoubtedly believed.

“I hate you all.” That’s the answer to 50 years of struggle. I hate you all.

White America. He’s talking to you.

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MY fundraising goal has been met!! I am thrilled. Thank you to all who contributed, including those who gave a few dollars and those who gave much more. I will continue to annoy my enemies without interruption. Thank you also for your kind letters. I appreciate your support more than I can say.

I also realize that in spite of their sophistication and razor-sharp intelligence, my readers have a simple, earthy, Pavlovian side. When they see an image of a thermometer, they instinctively want to get the mercury to the top! Thank you again.

[thermometer height=200]

DIANA writes:

The newest viral video is yet another example of Hunger Games America. That is my new little personal invention: Hunger Games America, or HGA. Some have BRA, I have HGA. It’s the America where butt-kickin’ babes rule and sensitive boys let them do the heavy lifting.

It makes my head want to explode. The U.S. invented the notion of popular culture, and the complete degradation of popular culture in the U.S. says something deep. I’m not saying the old days were sheer genius – but Hollywood films did reflect something real, albeit in a funhouse manner. Today’s popular culture has jumped the shark – a whole school of sharks.

So here’s the video, and a Times article on it.

When I see stuff like this, I become enraged, and all I can do is write to The Thinking Housewife!

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