READ the fascinating story of Bella Dodd, who was a member of the Communist Party of America in the 1930s and 1940s and later became an outspoken anti-Communist and Catholic here. An excerpt from the article by Eleonore Villarrubia follows:

In 1950, Bella was called before the Tydings Committee of the United States Senate to testify as to whether or not she knew Owen Lattimore, who had been accused by Senator Joseph McCarthy of being a Soviet agent within the American government. She had not known Lattimore and as far as she knew, he was not a member of the American Communist Party. She stated those facts; however, as she thought about the duplicity of the Party and how it had deceived her and thousands of others, she found herself revealing those facts as well. It was the first time that she had spoken out publicly against the Party. She began to see how the Russians had used the Spanish Civil War as a preview of the Red Revolution to come in western countries; she thought of the Koreans killing each other in the name of Communism and the Americans dying in the cause; she saw how the godless Communists used well-meaning Americans against their own country. (more…)

  GALLIAWATCH has posted an interview with Marine Le Pen, of the Front National Party, which has changed the landscape of French politics with its recent election victories. In the interview, Le Pen states: The EU is deeply harmful, it is an anti-democratic monster. I want to prevent it from becoming fatter, from continuing to breathe, from grabbing everything with its paws and from extending its tentacles into all areas of our legislation. In our glorious history, millions have died to ensure that our country remains free. Today, we are simply allowing our right to self-determination to be stolen from us.

  ON THE recent Memorial Day, I was busy and did not get a chance to post something appropriate to the occasion. Then the editorial department of this two-bit operation forgot to remind me to do something belatedly. Here, from the better-late-than-never department, are a number of John Philip Sousa marches to honor those who have fought for America. Also, there are Sousa recordings at Wikipedia.

MORGAN GEYSER, one of two 12-year-old Wisconsin girls — yes, 12-year-old girls — who are accused of acting as proxies for an Internet paranormal character and stabbing a friend 19 times, led a suburban American life that was saturated with Satanic imagery. Her father is a fan of the ‘stoner” band, Deadboy and the Elephantmen (flyer below.) Her mother decorated the house with Gothic imagery.

At Morgan’s trial, it will probably be argued that she was having mental problems. Who wouldn’t in such a setting? 

Anyone who is surprised by the increase in irrational and savage behavior by adolescents is living in a dream world, cut off from the real world. Anyone who denies that school shootings and teenage murders represent a significant trend is living in a dream world. Anyone who thinks parents can “monitor their children’s Internet use” and in that way shield them from the demonic imagery, music and pop fiction all around us is living in a dream world. 

That is not to say people should panic. There is no need to panic, only to act wisely and confidently against this supernatural adversary who is weaker, much weaker, than God and whose most effective strategy is to convince us that he doesn’t really exist.

Wake up, America! You need an exorcism! 

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RAYMOND IBRAHIM recently summarized the toll of U.S. intervention in the Muslim world:

[E]very Muslim nation that the U.S. has helped “liberate,” including in the context of the “Arab Spring,” has become significantly worse for Christians and other minorities. Previously moderate Syria is now ranked the third worst nation in the world to be Christian, Iraq fourth, Afghanistan fifth, and Libya 13th. All four receive the worst designation in the ranking process: “extreme persecution.”

Three of these countries—Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya—were “liberated” in part thanks to U.S. forces, while in the fourth, Syria, the U.S. is actively sponsoring “freedom fighters” against the regime, many of whom have been responsible for any number of atrocities—including massacres, beheadings, and the crucifixion of Christians and others.

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  THE recent prediction here that the time would come when Navy submarines would be fitted with daycare facilities has become all too real with the unveiling of a plan by German Defense Minister Ursula Von der Leyen, who is seen here exuding the gravitas of a typical military commander. Von der Leyen has proposed that the German armed forces install daycare facilities in barracks.

NO human being can fully comprehend the perfection and infinitude of God’s love. But everyone, without exception, can comprehend it in part and many of those advanced in spiritual knowledge and sanctity have greatly penetrated its mysteries. For instance, in the 13th century, Mechtilde von Hackeborn, a Saxon noblewoman and cloistered nun, reported a vision of the heart of Jesus:

“One day I saw the Son of God, holding in His Hand His own Heart, which appeared more brilliant than the sun and which was casting rays of light on every side; then, this amiable Saviour gave me to understand that all the graces which God unceasingly pours forth on men, according to the capacity of each, come from the plenitude of the Divine Heart.”

St. Mechtilde was one of the early practitioners of what later became known as the Devotion to the Sacred Heart. The month of June is dedicated to this rich and fertile ensemble of spiritual exercises, which have as their sensible object the physical heart of Jesus Christ, and as their spiritual object, the immense love which Christ has for humanity.

Another cloistered nun, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque of France, is famous for having ardently promoted the devotion in the 17th century and for having helped bring it to its present form after having reported her own private revelations.  She told her spiritual director, Father Claude de la Colombière, of her visions and communications with Jesus. She wrote:

“At another time, it seemed to me that I saw this amiable Heart like a sun projecting Its rays in every direction and on every heart, but in a manner differing very much according to the dispositions of those on whom these rays fell; for the souls of the lost became still more hardened, as mud becomes hardened by the rays of the sun; on the contrary, the souls of the just became more pure and were softened like wax.”

[From The Devotion to the Sacred Heart by Father John Croiset, S.J.]

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A Reader writes:

Have you seen this video?

Apart from – or alongside – the horror that is “transgenderism” at six years old, this child also has cochlear implants. They say this little girl began to identify as a boy when she first began to speak – I’m guessing that was around the time she was given the implants.

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BUCK writes:

In the context of the intense and very informative recent entries here deconstructing and reconstructing the hierarchy of Church and State; here is another homosexual “rights” case that when and if it is appealed in our courts will be decided, for the reasons that I cited briefly here, in favor of the furthering of unnatural rights. In this case, a baker refused to accommodate two homosexual males requesting a cake for “our wedding.” Upon hearing “our wedding,” the baker said no, citing religious reasons. He refused to sell them a “wedding” cake, but offered to sell them any and all of the many other baked goods that he offers for sale to everyone. The two homosexuals immediately got up and left the store.

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  HOW does an English professor cultivate literary judgment in undergraduate students who have had little serious reading experience? Thomas Bertonneau makes some suggestions.

MARK B. writes in response to the Auster movie review:

I used to review movies for Spero News and other outlets. I gave it up because one can only watch so many bad and immoral movies, and they are almost all bad and immoral now.

At the time, I joined a Christian Movie Critics web forum, but I got kicked off after I continued to argue that a Christian could never approve of a movie with nudity and simulated sex (of any kind) in it since it, in absolute fact, makes prostitutes out of actors (simulated sex for money), and made panderers and pimps out of producers and directors. I also pointed out that wall-to-wall swearing in movies was problematic. It’s one thing to be an adult and tolerate a bit of salty expression in a work of art, but not what is being said now.

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LIBERALISM demands not just that homosexuality be approved, but that it be celebrated. Anything less would be unfair. From AllGov.com:

Declaring part of its duty is to tell the history of the gay rights movement, the National Park Service (NPS) will place markers at significant locations that note the advancement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

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LAWRENCE AUSTER, the formidable journalist and thinker who died last year, was a prolific letter writer. For him, the letter was a necessary medium of cultural combat. Aside from the many letters he wrote to family and friends, which were of a different nature, he frequently wrote to magazines, newspapers and radio stations. He wrote letters to the New York transit authority about loud music and the poor design of subway cars. He wrote letters to his landlord about the tiles in the entranceway and to neighbors who let their charcoal smoke drift into his apartment.

Though these letters often involved complaints — he tended to complain about very important things or what most people would consider very minor things, rather than anything in between these two extremes — he never seemed deterred by the possibility that his letters might be unread even when they were lengthy. Who knows how many people were bewildered to find that someone had applied such deep and eloquent analysis to what they had said or done. Who knows how many people did that most difficult of all things and found themselves unexpectedly engaging in the act of thinking after reading an Auster letter.

Below is an example of one of his letters. It is dated Oct., 28, 1997 and is addressed to the commentator and film critic Michael Medved concerning a review he wrote for The New York Post.

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THE discussion of separation of Church and State continues in this entry.

By the way, today is the 60th anniversary of the canonization of Pope Pius X and a good occasion to read some of his thoughts on the subject. In his 1906 encyclical Vehementer Nos, on the French law of separation, he wrote:

That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error. Based, as it is, on the principle that the State must not recognize any religious cult, it is in the first place guilty of a great injustice to God; for the Creator of man is also the Founder of human societies, and preserves their existence as He preserves our own. We owe Him, therefore, not only a private cult, but a public and social worship to honor Him. Besides, this thesis is an obvious negation of the supernatural order. (more…)

LIFENEWS reports on the services offered by Eastside Gynecology, a Manhattan luxury clinic which offers VIP abortions with “the utmost in service, comfort, and confidentiality.” First and second trimester abortions are available. “Simple, gentle, non-invasive options” make ending a life hassle-free. This is the kind of facility Ivy League colleges and top-notch corporate campuses should have. It also offers “permanent birth control,” what was once crudely called “sterilization.”

The clinic’s ”Private Abortion Boutique Services,” are advertised as follows:

“Accelerate your appointment and procedure wait time at our private abortion clinic for the best VIP service offered in NYC. You and your significant other or escort will be ushered to a well-appointed private room complete with a mahogany sleigh bed, luxurious bedding and a flat screen television and free Wi-Fi. After your procedure you are get access to a private area within the recovery room and as soon as you are medically stable you are brought back to your private room where your significant other is waiting.”

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  A professional psychologist answers in the affirmative at Tradition in Action, writing: Again, if this is true, and all the evidence seems to be increasingly pointing to it being so, it seems to give credence to St. Malachi's Prophecy of the Popes. What better precursor to the Antichrist could there be than a man who energetically and seemingly gleefully tears down the last remnants of a once great and beautiful edifice as if it were a cockroach on the bottom of his shoe? And, at the same time, he is able to convince the many that he loves the cockroach with all his heart…

PHILOSCRIBE writes:

I don’t know if the divorce of Elliot Rodger’s parents played a role in his deranged mental state. But you don’t have to be a psychologist to think it surely didn’t help prevent the abyss into which their son was sinking.

Incredibly, this is the second time that a son of a Hollywood director committed a rampage murder in Santa Barbara near the University of California campus. The second time! The first occurred in 2001 when David Attias plowed his Saab into a crowd, killing four students on the spot and severly injuring a fifth victim. Attias was found guilty on four counts of manslaughter and sentenced to 60 years in the state mental assylum. A judge recently granted his request to be transfered to a less restrictive facility. Here is a link.

One might ask what is driving the sons of Hollywood’s elite to go on killing sprees. I mean, what are the chances?

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