“WINSTON had disliked her from the very first moment of seeing her. He knew the reason. It was because of the atmosphere of hockey−fields and cold baths and community hikes and general clean−mindedness which she managed to carry about with her. He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones. It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers−out of unorthodoxy.”

— George Orwell, 1984

”THE more the virtue of a being is perfect and against its degree of goodness eminent, the more its desire for the good is universal and the more it seeks and works towards the good in beings which are distant from itself. For imperfect beings tend towards the mere good of the individual as properly understood; perfect beings tend towards the good of the species; and the most perfect beings towards the good of the genus. But God, Who is most perfectly good, tends towards the good of being as a whole. And thus not without reason it is said that the good as such is diffusive; for the more a being is good, the more it spreads forth its goodness to beings which are further from itself. And because that which is most perfect in each genus is the exemplar and measure of all which is contained in the genus, God, Who is most perfect in goodness and Who spreads forth this goodness most universally, must be the exemplar of all beings which give forth any goodness.”

— St. Thomas Aquinas, ” III Contra Gentiles, c. 24

“AVOID sloth, bad company, dangerous conversations, and games; remembering that time passes and never returns, that you have a soul, and that if you lose your soul, you lose all.”

—- St. Leonard of Port Maurice

THANKSGIVING DAY is a great American tradition, a day of gratitude, feasting and togetherness.

Among the many things I am grateful for today are my readers. May this day bring you simple pleasures, peace and an abundance of thankfulness.

Some comic relief:

I HAVEN’T viewed this yet, but it comes highly recommended.

Farm Boy, George Clausen

“[E]ACH SEX needs to deeply consider and be grateful for the gifts and talents of the opposite sex. In our time, what men give to the world is absolutely taken for granted. Men are disrespected by our culture and in law, are degraded in popular entertainment and by our institutions. While the world turns itself upside down to ensure the success of females and provide them help, male success and well-being are completely ignored even as men are blamed for the existence of all evils. Women need to stop and truly think about what the world would be like without men. Roads, buildings, running water, electric gadgets, centralized heat, air-conditioning, airplanes, antibiotics — as Camille Paglia put it, without men, we’d be living in grass huts. And women need to show some appreciation and respect for that fact. At the same time, we need to guard against overreaction to the brutal ways in which men’s lives have been taken for granted, and teach our children to have an ordinate respect for women, without whom men wouldn’t be inspired to build what they do, and would have no families to build for. Mothers, praise up little boys and men — and praise them up to little girls. Model having respect for the masculine to them. Fathers, teach your sons to respect and be ordinately protective of girls and women. Vive la différence!”

— Fisheaters

Gerard Dou, An Old Woman at Prayer before her Meal c. 1645-50

Thanksgiving for All God’s Gifts

O God, whose mercies are without number, and whose goodness is an inexhaustible treasure, we render thanks to Thy most kindly Majesty for the gifts Thou hast given, evermore beseeching Thy goodness, that whilst Thou hearest the prayers of those who ask, so deserting them not, do Thou prepare them for the blessings yet to come.

(Roman Missal)

More prayers of thanksgiving can be found here.

“AND so shall the world be so much beautified by the punishment of the wicked, as it hath been defiled and disfigured through their offences. When a man hath by reason of some great fall put his arm out of joint, the more it is out of joint, the more grief and pain must he afterwards abide, before it can be set in joint again, and brought to his due proper place. Now whereas the wicked have disordered all things in this world, and set them out of joint, and wrenched them out of their natural places, when that heavenly reformer shall come to restore the world by punishment of so many disorders, how great shall the punishment be, where so many and so great disorders have been?”

— Venerable Louis of Granada, Of Prayer and Meditation, “Thursday Night Meditation“

THE HOUSEWIFE’S LAMENT
(from the diary of Mrs. Sara A. Price, written between 1850 and 1900)

One day I was walking, I heard a complaining,
I spied an old woman the picture of gloom.
She gazed at the mud on her doorstep, ’twas raining,
And this was her song as she wielded her broom.

O, life is a toil and love is a trouble,
Beauty will fade and riches will flee,
Pleasures, they dwindle and prices they double,
And nothing is as I would wish it to be.

There’s too much of worriment goes in a bonnet,
There’s too much of ironing goes in a shirt.
There’s nothing that pays for the time you waste on it,
There’s nothing that lasts us but trouble and dirt.

In March it is mud, it is slush in December,
The midsummer breezes are loaded with dust.
In fall the leaves litter, in muddy September
The wallpaper rots and the candlesticks rust. Read More »

“… NOTHING is more agreeable than to receive a good thing that we are eager to possess. But gratitude is the key to the inexhaustible treasury of that Lord of infinite wealth. Go with confidence and ask of Him what you wish; all you have to do is to return thanks for what He has already given you, and the new gifts and graces are already prepared for you. ‘Be nothing solicit­ous,’ says St. Paul ‘but in everything, by prayer and supplica­tion with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God’ (Phil. 4: 6); for gratitude gives prayer its greatest efficacy. Do you wish, therefore, to be in good health? Then thank God for the health He has given you hitherto. Do you wish to have means to support yourself and your family? Then thank God for the daily bread He gives you. Read More »

“THE folk song deals with the fundamental, universal realities of human life, realities which belong equally to the present and the past, and which always hold deep meaning for us. Thus, nothing has changed in the relation between God and man in spite of modern atheism; nothing has changed in the relation of boy and girl, man and wife, despite rising divorce rates; nothing has changed in the relation between mother and child despite birth control; nothing has changed in the relation of a man to his country despite treason and cowardice. Folk music sings of life and death, the joy of true love and the pain of disappointment, daily chores and heroic adventure, the jovial comradeship of the tavern, the difficulties of this earthly pilgrimage and the longing for our heavenly home.

“Because folk songs present these universal human experiences in a simple and beautiful form, they have the power to stir the souls of men in every age. They are always contemporary; they speak to us now as clearly and warmly as when they were first sung. We experience today the timeless beauty of the anonymous folk poetry, a beauty often equal to the work of our greatest poets and composers.”

— Dr. Jop Pollman, Laughing Meadows Songbook, Grailville Publications, 1947

“IT is a vice, by keeping quiet, to allow someone unworthy or unfit to be chosen for promotions and honors, or permit someone worthy to lose his dignity, goods or honor… The same can be said if, in meetings of the council, you keep quiet out of ignorance or malice and thus withhold the truth from the other advisers. Likewise, during a court hearing, if you see someone make a fraudulent accusation or be unjustly condemned, you will sin. And if you fail to reprehend the detractors in conversations defaming others by neither excusing nor praising the person defamed, you will sin by remaining silent. Likewise, when you perceive that a word to edify, instruct, exhort or correct someone is necessary, you commit a sin if you withhold that wholesome advice. Hence Isaiah exclaimed: ‘Woe is me, because I have held my peace’ (6:5). The same is said in Ecclesiasticus: ‘And refrain not to speak in the time of salvation’ (4:28)”

— Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1184/1194 – c. 1264), Dominican theologian, Speculum Majus

JOHN Fetterman routinely wears hoodies and shorts on the Senate floor. Is this promotion of the pajamas-and-slippers society just another psyop to demean and demoralize the masses?

Of course it is.

Politics at this point is an ongoing humiliation ritual. ‘Democracy’ is just another word for mockery of the people.

See an interesting discussion (if that’s what you call it) here, especially the comments by Legalman.

ALAN writes:

One day in 2000, I found a note in my mailbox. It was not a letter and had no stamp on it. It was a neatly-typed note from the man who delivered mail to homes in my neighborhood, and he intended it for all of them. He wrote:

Dear Friends, 

I have enjoyed being your mailman for the last few years, and have made a lot of friends on this route, but my legs have started to hurt all of the time from all of the walking over the last 36 years. Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2000, will be my last day on the route.  I will be retiring as of that date. I don’t mind leaving the job, but it’s hard leaving all of the nice people.  If you see me out anywhere in the future, please say hello. I hope you get a new mailman who takes his job seriously. Goodbye.

Your friend and mailman,

Larry 

Larry was a Vietnam Veteran. He died in 2015 at age 69.

I have saved his note because it is a remnant from Old America. It reflects the sense of life, work ethic, and loyalty to customers that postal workers once displayed throughout their daily routes. Read More »

Henrick Goltzius

“WHEREFORE tell me now, wherein hast thou spent thy childhood? Wherein thy infancy? Wherein thy youth? To be short, wherein hast thou spent all the days of thy life past? Wherein hast thou occupied thy bodily senses, and the powers of thy soul, which almighty God hath given thee, to this end, that thou shouldest know him, and serve him? Wherein hast thou employed thine eyes, but in beholding of vanities? Wherein thine ears, but in harkening after lies? Wherein thy tongue, but peradventure in all kind of swearing, backbiting, and most unhonest talk? Read More »

MANY Orthodox Jews oppose Zionism, as do many liberal Jews. This video focuses on the former.

“POLAND: Over 250,000 patriots march on Independence Day, honoring their ancestors.

“England: Muslims conduct a “million man march” on Remembrance Day, disrespecting fallen British soldiers.”

— Thuletide