PATRICK BUCHANAN writes that there is no important U.S. interest in Ukraine that would justify any military action or economic sanctions in response to Russia’s actions:

What is the U.S. vital interest in Crimea? Zero. From Catherine the Great to Khrushchev, the peninsula belonged to Russia. The people of Crimea are 60 percent ethnic Russians.

And should Crimea vote to secede from Ukraine, upon what moral ground would we stand to deny them the right, when we bombed Serbia for 78 days to bring about the secession of Kosovo?

Across Europe, nations have been breaking apart since the end of the Cold War. Out of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia came 24 nations. Scotland is voting on secession this year. Catalonia may be next. (more…)

MORE evidence that feminism is anti-woman. We’re supposed to believe that interfering with the complex hormonal system of women is progress. It never ceases to amaze how the enlightened promote the use of oral contraceptives while insisting on pesticide-free broccoli.

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    ATILA SINKE GUIMARÃES, in this older entry at Tradition in Action, contends that the medieval knight succumbed to vanity: This was the means the Revolution used to change the humble and serene medieval man turned toward the glory of God into a proud and superficial peacock absorbed in himself and his own exploits and talents, spending a considerable amount of his time catching up with the latest fashions. This is how the medieval man became the Renaissance man.

“CONSERVATIVE” columnist Ross Douthat writes in The New York Times that those who risk financial ruin if they refuse to approve of same-sex unions should not complain of persecution:

Christians had plenty of opportunities — thousands of years’ worth — to treat gay people with real charity, and far too often chose intolerance. (And still do, in many instances and places.) So being marginalized, being sued, losing tax-exempt status — this will be uncomfortable, but we should keep perspective and remember our sins, and nobody should call it persecution.

Since homosexuality is objectively immoral and harmful, this is similar to saying that people who refuse to be accomplices to embezzlement or burglary should accept government coercion because the Church has always condemned embezzlement and theft. To rephrase his statement:

Christians had plenty of opportunities — thousands of years’ worth — to treat burglars with real charity, and far too often chose intolerance. (And still do, in many instances and places.) So being marginalized, being sued, losing tax-exempt status — this will be uncomfortable, but we should keep perspective and remember our sins, and nobody should call it persecution.

Douthat is a useful idiot for the liars, moral imbeciles and propaganda artists at the Times.

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I don’t mean to interfere with your pre-Lenten festivities (which may resemble the Dutch painting by Jan Steen above), but here, as a bit of foreshadowing, are some words of Dom Lorenzo Scupoli from his famous work The Spiritual Combat. First published in 1589 and once a hit bestseller, this is a practical manual on spiritual warfare and the struggle to overcome self. This section is titled Of the Way to Rule the Tongue:

It is very necessary that the tongue be well bridled and regulated because we are all much inclined to let it run on upon those things which are most pleasing to the senses.

Much speaking springs ordinarily from pride. We persuade ourselves that we know a great deal; we take delight in our own conceits, and endeavor by needless repetitions to impress them on the minds of others, that we may exercise a mastery over them, as though they needed instruction from us.

It is not possible to express in few words the many evils which arise from overmuch speaking.

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  Julie writes: Just wanted to share some pictures of teenage girls from my hometown playing basketball. They're a reminder of how our society encourages this unfeminine behavior. I loved sports as a teenager and was a competitive swimmer, but to me it seemed there were just some sports that were more suitable for males. I actually swam on the boys' high school swim team as a freshman in the 1970s. There was no team exclusively for girls at that time, so it was allowed. Although I had a competitive spirit, I recognized the difference between my abilities and theirs. It was not commonplace for a female to be a bodybuilder in order to compete with men. We had a mutual respect for one another and functioned as teammates. A year later the first girls' swim team was formed.

  RYAN D. writes: I stumbled upon this.  It's evidence of the Pizza Industrial Complex and its hold on feminism. Keep up the good work. I enjoy your writing very much.

“We must examine and penetrate the full meaning of the faith, for which we are combating … There is no such thing as original sin. Every child is born innocent and is not marked beforehand by the sin of Adam. That impious, barbarous myth is disappearing. In its place, justice and humanity stand forth. Accordingly, two principles are now face to face; the Christian principle and the principle of 1789. There is no possibility of reconciliation between them. Odd and even members will never agree, neither will justice and injustice, so in the same way 1789 and the heritage of original sin will be ever opposed to each other … Education then will be completely different according as it takes as its starting point the old or the new principle.”

                                —- Nos Fils, Jules Michelet (1798-1874)

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  THE British judge who sentenced Lewis Gill, the man who killed a mentally disabled pedestrian with one blow, has been reportedly besieged with complaints about the leniency of the four-year sentence. Meanwhile, The Daily Mail reports, the mother of the convicted man said the crime was "not a big deal." ‘This story will be the lining of chips tomorrow. I just don’t understand what all the fuss is about.’

HENRY McCULLOCH writes:

I am more than usually disappointed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s veto of the “religious liberty” bill.  I had believed that  Brewer was a woman of principle who would not be buffaloed.  Not so, I guess.

In this episode, the disgraceful threatening of Arizona by corporations (“American” Airlines, AT&T, Marriott, Delta, Verizon, Apple, Intel) is another low in American social-political life.  It is also further evidence that the cultural-revolutionary elite that is the enemy of civilization extends far beyond the targets conservatives usually criticize — government, academia, media, entertainment — into things most people still instinctively think of as conservative: business, the military, organized religion.  Those of us who follow the immigration wars know that, but most people still don’t.  We should publicize, as best we can, the role of big businesses in this cultural subversion.  Another good example is the Coca-Cola Company’s Super Bowl ad, with the U.S. national anthem ostentatiously sung in a myriad of languages other than English by a host of people who are visibly not American.  These are all insults to actual Americans, but we seem to have had the ability to take justified offense bred out of us.

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TED D. writes:

BUCK writes:

The black racialist Spike Lee went on a obscenity-laced rant (see here and here) on Tuesday about gentrification in New York City. The tirade took place during an African-American History Month event and Lee was speaking to an obviously all black audience, after being asked a reasonable question by a man in the audience about gentrification in some of the well-known historic New York City neighborhoods. A paraphrase of his question is: “Why is it a bad thing that a long-time homeowner who lived in a $40,000 home can now sell that home for $3.5 to $4 million?”

Many points can be made about the intellectual dishonesty revealed by Spike Lee’s contradictions and hypocrisies, especially as juxtaposed against Daniel Attila’s story. But the speech, which I have transcribed below, speaks for itself.

Spike Lee begins by saying: “Let me just kill you right now,” to laughter.

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  IN 1997, Daniel Attila described his experience working for four years as a conductor for the New York City subway system. The piece, published at American Renaissance, was titled, "Hell on Wheels." Attila began with this: I was born in Hungary, from which I escaped in 1982 at age 18. I settled in New York in 1984 with the intention of becoming an artist, but after nearly a decade of struggle I realized I might never make it. In 1993 I enrolled in the City University of New York, while I supported myself for four years as a conductor on New York City subway trains. There can be only a few jobs that so quickly introduce an immigrant to the realities of multi-racialism. Beneath the streets of New York I have seen and done things that very few whites will—I hope—ever see or do.

  FOUR outstanding entries on objections to sedevacantism -- which is the position that the Vatican II Church is not the Catholic Church -- and on the failures of Catholic "traditionalism" can be found at Novus Ordo Watch here, here, here and here. These are lucid and brilliant arguments with quite devastating conclusions for those who recognize the Pope's heresies and yet still see him as the Pope. At bottom, it all boils down to this: Is truth relative or not? In other words, does truth exist?

AT the website Vice, Justin Levy interviews a friend who has survived on an all-pizza diet for 25 years. (Obscenity warning.) Here is Dan Janssen on what is now a perfectly normal way of life:

I’ve been eating pizza exclusively every day of my life for the past 25 years, and I’m not just talking about a slice of pizza every day. I usually eat an entire 14″ pizza, and I only eat cheese pizza. I never get sick of it. If I go to one pizza shop or another brand, it’s like eating a completely different meal.

I’m not sure why this interview is warranted. It is no surprise that someone eats nothing but pizza. What is a surprise is that some Americans — a few — don’t eat pizza at all. They should be interviewed and asked about their strange eating habits.

Dan says he is not terribly bothered by his diabetes, but his fiancée has urged him to see a therapist about his lack of interest in other foods: (more…)

ANDREW YOUNG, 40, was said to have the social skills of a 14-year-old. He had been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. On November 6, Young was walking down a busy street in Bournemouth, England when he saw a man, David Ibitoye, with his bicycle on the sidewalk, according to The Daily Mail. He told the man that it was dangerous to ride a bike on the sidewalk, which was filled with people. Little did he know that one should never, ever challenge a black man. An argument ensued. The cyclist’s friend, Lewis Gill, appeared and punched Young in the head. Young fell and his head slammed onto the concrete. Gill walked away and left him on the ground. Young died the next day.

On Monday, Gill pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to four years in jail. Judge Keith Cutler said that a murder charge was not appropriate because Gill did not intend to cause “grievous bodily harm.” The judge also said there was an element of “provocation” in the attack. Gill contended Young had made a racist remark, according to The Telegraph. From The Daily Mail:

Taxi driver Simon Scott said of him: ‘Andrew was always friendly and polite and often struck up conversations with strangers. He was gentle and wouldn’t hurt a fly.’

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THE rule of law is meaningless to those seeking to force same-sex “marriage” on America.

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  AT The Orthosphere, Alan Roebuck has a very good essay on marriage and men that manages to be both realistic and idealistic, a significant feat for so difficult a subject. Though the essay is mostly directed to men who are not yet married (and he doesn't suggest that every single man marry), my favorite parts are those addressed to men who are married, in which he describes the essential leadership qualities of husband and father. Here is a brief excerpt: Men and women were designed by God to love and support each other in marriage, but modernity has set them against one another. The most accurate brief way to characterize the current disorder in male-female relations is to say that modernity has made men and women into rivals, each seeking to gain the advantage at the expense of the other. At the outset, then, the properly masculine man rejects the modernist paradigm. Although probably a majority of women will not be seeking a proper relationship with a man, and many women will be hostile toward men from the start of any relationship, you will transcend the hostility. You will not mistrust women in general (although you know you must be wary of many of them), because you know the God-ordained purpose of marriage: Fellowship between man and woman, under the leadership of the man, leading to marriage and children. And even if your woman shows signs of hostility or rivalry, you…