JOHN D. writes:

Blasphemy, traditionally conceived, is a statement which is derisive of God. In the past, society punished blasphemous statements both formally (through law) and informally (through societal censure). Of course, we are now free to make blasphemous comments about God without any adverse social or legal consequence. Indeed, such comments are often praised as courageous and thoughtful. They litter our public airways. No one would dare censure such comments. While society has abandoned the traditional object of blasphemy (God), it has not, it turns out, abandoned the concept of blasphemy altogether. However, its concept of what is sacred has changed.

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“POPE” Francis in his daily homily on Monday spoke approvingly (and humorously) of baptizing Martians. However, the homily was a very serious and cleverly ambiguous argument for abandoning Church teaching, a homily in which Bergoglio blasphemously suggests that the Holy Spirit is guiding the Revolution. From Vatican Radio:

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SAM writes:

I believe that we have finally reached the point where it is impossible to correct the thinking of liberals through any kind of dialectical process. One of the hallmarks of dialectical reason is the use of a technique known as the reductio ad abusurdum or the “reduction to absurdity.” Utilizing this technique, one demonstrates that the premises underpinning a certain theory logicaly entail something so repugnant to reason that the only rational response is to go back and figure out which of them needs to be rejected. No more, apparently. Witness this article.

For centuries, narcissism was rightly regarded as a spiritually dangerous, anti-social, and highly undesirable vice. Christopher Lasch, whose work is a mixed bag, nevertheless correctly classified it as a kind of pathology. (Although the therapeutic language ubiquitous in modern times utterly obscures the distinction between moral and psychological pathology; a distinction vital to a correct understanding of the human condition.)

In response to Lasch, the feminist Elizabeth Lunbeck now argues that what he describes as narcissism is really something laudable; an advanced form of social consciousness, as it were.

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AT American Renaissance, Michael Smith, “a public defender in a large southern metropolitan area,” vividly describes his experience working for black defendants.

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I WILL give five dollars to any reader who can find a single instance of a feminist complaining about the fact that Satan is always referred to as male. Isn’t it strange and perplexing that feminists worry about the lower numbers of women at the top — among CEO’s and other muckety-mucks — but are silent when it comes to the relatively low numbers of women in the working trades and even much lower, among criminals and drunks who live on the streets? I have never encountered a feminist who was upset that there are not more women mowing lawns, fixing sewer lines or working as “tree surgeons.” Hmm, I wonder why. Similarly, endless verbal indignation has been spawned by the terrible injustice of referring to God with masculine pronouns. Liturgical texts have been thoroughly revised to deal with this inequity. Worshippers are expected to use clumsy grammatical maneuvers to avoid references that are masculine. We are supposed to imagine God as an androgynous force or, better yet, as a woman, which would only be fair.

But no one — at least no one outside the inner circles of demon worship — suggests that Satan should be a she. It does seem like a feminist issue. It does seem unfair to women, doesn’t it, that such a powerful entity is imagined to be male?

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PERHAPS others have picked up on the intense irony of Harvard President Drew Faust’s bargain with the devil. Committed to “free expression” at all costs, she gave the okay for a Black Mass, or a “reenactment of a Black Mass,” to be sponsored by the adult school adjunct of the university. The Satanic Temple, a cult that is also sponsoring a monument to the devil outside the Oklahoma State building, apparently infiltrated the citadel of tolerance and planned the event at a Harvard bar. It reportedly has now been canceled because the bar, not the university, backed out. (more…)

HENRY McCULLOCH writes:

A sadly very confused Austrian man, Tom Neuwirth, has won the Eurovision Song Contest.  For those unfamiliar with the ways of postmodern Europe (now very loosely interpreted: Azerbaijan sends contestants), the Eurovision Song Contest is a freak show in which the post-nations of post-Europe send contestants to vie for their nation’s honor by singing pop songs that are almost unimaginably bad.  The worst — to my ears, not the judges’ — is usually awarded first prize.   (more…)

SHERYL SANDBERG, Facebook chief operating officer and corporate feminist mega-celebrity who has made more than a billion dollars on the social networking company and her best-selling campaign to portray the overwhelmingly masculine world of Internet technology as glamorous and amenable to female ambition, has pledged to join with other billionaires and give away half her earnings to charity.

Many of the recent news reports about Sandberg’s pledge refer to her as a “self-made” billionaire. No one is entirely self-made (Sandberg went to Harvard and worked in the Treasury Department under Bill Clinton). The idea that a person is “self-made” is just plain absurd, but among the people who “made” Sandberg is her mother, who gave up her own career ambitions in her early twenties to focus on her children and home. This irony is generally lost on journalists who hyperventilate over Sandberg’s success.

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  HERE'S another article by Fr. Anthony Cekada that nicely simplifies the argument for sedevacantism -- the position that Jorge Bergoglio cannot possibly be the legitimate pope of the Catholic Church. It's all quite elementary, gentle reader. Jorge Bergoglio was not Catholic when he was elected "pope." If this man is pope then I am the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. Why is this such a difficult point? It is possible to honor the papacy while declaring the Argentinian Bomber an impostor. But it is not possible to honor the papacy while resisting almost every word that comes out of his mouth, as well as his "infallible" canonizations of anti-saints, and recognizing him as pope. You can't have your cake and eat it.

THE Republicans have offered to make it easier for immigrants to win legal status if Democrats will make it easier for immigrants to win legal status. Our two-party system is a miracle of compromise.

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  WITH the news that Paul VI, a suspected homosexual who destroyed the Catholic Mass and gutted Church traditions, is to be beatified in October, the fact that the Vatican II sect is anything but the Catholic Church becomes even more strikingly apparent. See the report at Novus Ordo Watch.

WIM GROMMEN writes:

This article of mine may be of interest to you and your readers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Is A Hoax

Wim Grommen

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Index is the only stock market index that covers both the second and the third industrial revolution. Calculating share indexes such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and showing this index in a historical graph is a useful way to show which phase the industrial revolution is in. Changes in the DJIA shares basket, changes in the formula and stock splits during the take-off phase and acceleration phase of industrial revolutions are perfect transition-indicators. The similarities of these indicators during the last two revolutions are fascinating, but also a reason for concern. In fact the graph of the DJIA is a classic example of fictional truth, a hoax.

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  HE'S been convicted of murder and has two wives. He runs a highly successful and growing chain of South Indian fast food restaurants called Saravana Bhavan, which is now expanding in the U.S., with current locations in New York, New Jersey, California and Texas. And he is the revered patriarch of  8,000 employees in India and of his own family, which includes his son P. Shiva Kumar, who was arrested on a charge of forging documents to smuggle people into the U.S. in 2008. This article by Rollo Romig in The New York Times is a fascinating glimpse into the empire of  P. Rajagopal and the culture that nurtured it, a culture that is now an integral part of multicultural America.

According to New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade, race is not a social construct after all. Jared Taylor, of American Renaissance, reviews Wade’s new book A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History here. Taylor writes:

Any assault on dogma is welcome and laudable, and Mr. Wade will certainly take a beating for it. However, there is much waffling in this book, which was no doubt meant to ward off beatings but that, at least to undeceived readers, rings of timidity.

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    THE Center for Bioethics and Culture has made three excellent films about the fertility industry, including Breeders and Eggsploitation. The third, Anonymous Father's Day, is about the children of anonymous sperm donors and their longing to know their fathers. You can watch it on demand for $5.99.

SAM writes:

This article by Junot Diaz was recently published in The New Yorker, which is supposed to be a highbrow magazine and a cultural bellwether. The article is a symptom of how rapidly the culture is coming apart, of how our flagship institutions are collapsing right in front of our eyes as a consequence of egalitarianism. I was never a fan of The New Yorker, but I could not have imagined something like this being published even five years ago.

 The article is poorly written, poorly reasoned, and laden with cheap vulgarity and street slang. I don’t recommend that anyone waste their time reading it, so here is a representative sampling of Diaz’s elegant prose just in case anyone wonders just how bad the article might be:

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STEVE DOWTY writes:

It’s an indication of how far Western civilization has fallen that the phrase “divorced gay bishop” not only shows up in a Google search, but elicits no surprise, provokes no outrage, and seems oddly comforting to so many people. The “bishop” involved himself stated that he takes comfort in the fact that he and his “husband” faced the same problems any married couple face…and his abject failure to behave in a manner even distantly approximating decent makes him “jes’ folks,” as good as you and me and even better for being less judgmental. The fact that millions of people accept such claptrap without batting an eye is utterly terrifying.

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A READER writes:

I just got my notice to enroll for health care benefits from my employer, Aerotek. My weekly premium went from $29 a week to $116 a week. How do I afford a $6,000 annual health care bill when I only take home $24,000? It’s like I am being asked to pay for a second apartment but never live in it.

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