THERE IS only one way that Jorge Bergoglio could possibly disguise the fact that he is anti-Catholic, and that is by keeping his mouth shut, which is something the Argentine Bomber could not possibly do. For he has the attention of the whole world and appears to be intoxicated by it. His loquacity is the loquacity of the least humble of men.

The Man Who Would Be Pope launched another verbal detonation against the Church yesterday, this time by making an outrageously blasphemous statement about the Mother of God. Just in time for Christmas. Read about it at Novus Ordo Watch.

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THE blogger Sunshine Mary and her husband took their children to a local performance of The Nutcracker. It was a new version of the story, in which many details were changed. For one, Clara’s father and uncle were nowhere to be found. Clara, apparently the child of divorce, lived with her mother. Instead of the scripted male characters, there was  “a large black man who comes dancing onto stage, shaking his hips all around Mrs. Stahlbaum and several other female dancers. He has no role in the story and his only purpose appears to be for the amusement he provides the lay-deez with his hip-shaking.”

Sunshine also writes:

Rather than charming girls in ballet slippers dressed as peppermint bon-bons, there were chubby teenagers in black pants and t-shirts vogueing – I kid you not. The older teenaged girls were dressed in bright-red flapper dresses with slits up each leg; one dance move involved them sitting on the floor facing the audience with their legs spread open. (more…)

L.M. writes:

I hope that my views aren’t offensive to you; I have lurked on your site for a long time, and I have seen some of the things that have been said about homosexuality and other types of perversions. I want to give a perhaps rare, but valid perspective on another side of these tendencies.

I am a young woman. As a teenager, I desperately longed for a young man to pursue me and make me his wife. I especially longed for a man to take charge and be the authority in our marriage. But I had no background for this and no idea of how to pursue it. (more…)

DR. Thomas F. Bertonneau writes:

A few short years ago it was my privilege to be the director of the first doctoral dissertation approved by the Graduate Program in Foreign Languages and Literature of the University of Tehran.  I was put in touch with the student, a young lady, by a correspondent of some years (we shared a scholarly interest in the dramas of Henrik Ibsen) who taught on the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature at the same institution. I am deliberately omitting names because I wish to get no one in trouble.

As long as I have known my Iranian correspondent (for about ten years), he has sent me Christmas greetings every year. He did so again this year.

Our world is so topsy-turvy that from my institution, a branch of SUNY, I get only a bland “holiday” greeting (God forbid, pardoning the expression, we should mention the birthday of the Lord and Savior); but from the land of the Mullahs, in what must be, given the political reality, a somewhat risky gesture, I get an actual Merry Christmas.

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DIANA writes:

Most of the headlines about the carjacking and murder of a New Jersey lawyer at the Mall at Short Hills last Sunday are perfect examples of everything Lawrence Auster despised about journalism. “Shooting” ….”carjacking” ….only one headline mentioned the word “murder.”

Regarding these murdering fiends, they were apprehended very quickly, less than a week after the outrage. This suggests to me that they were all parolees. I will venture a guess that their priors are not petty, but consist of serious crimes. Let’s wait and see, but that’s what I think. (more…)

AT Tradition in Action, Lyle J. Arnold argues that Hollywood paved the way for the ’60s.

The valuable lesson for counter-revolutionaries here is that, already in the “good ole ‘50s,” the revolutionary forces in Hollywood were subtly undermining society and giving honor and political clout to rebels.

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THIS morning, I visited the grave of Lawrence Auster. I cut these greens from our yard, decorated them and placed them on the grave, which does not have a tombstone yet but will soon. The ground was partly snow-covered under the oak tree where he is buried. The sky was blue and the temperature was above freezing. The busyness and bustle of Christmas were all around, creating an audible din. But a cemetery is always set apart. The grave of a friend is one of the most precious things in this world. I know that my friend still exists. If he is not in Paradise yet, may he be there soon.

TEXANNE writes:

An Italian woman, Costanza Miriano, has written a book so threatening that the Spanish Health Minister (apparently a woman) is calling for it to be banned.

In this BBC interview, the writer mentions that she has also written a book for men, Marry Her and Die for Her, but the interviewer quickly changes the subject before this part of the marital relationship can be discussed. :-)

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ANTI-GLOBALIST EXPATRIATE writes:

Devyani Khobragade, the Indian diplomat arrested for visa fraud this week, should not have been strip-searched, but the irony of a supposed advocate for ‘women’s affairs’ paying substandard wages to a domestic employee and then falsifying official government paperwork hasn’t been remarked upon, so far. (more…)

DOUGLAS writes:

  O ADONAI is the second of the O Antiphons traditionally sung during the last week of Advent and intended to help prepare different aspects of ourselves for the Nativity. In English: O Adonai - O Lord, and leader of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm. (Ex. 3,2 and Ex. 20,1)

  A reader says the doctrine of original sin is an implausible explanation for the existence of evil and the suffering of children, and I respond. Just another superficial day at The Thinking Housewife.

  DON'T LOOK. Guess who The Advocate has chosen as its "Person of the Year." The Advocate, by the way, is the oldest and largest "LGBT publication" in the United States. I'll give you two clues: 1) he lives in Rome; 2) he is not Catholic.

ALAN writes:

One of your readers wrote that Christmas music can inspire memories of serenity and beauty. Indeed it can.

Can you stand a memory from an America that no longer exists?  I’ll wager I’m the only one among your readers who remembers the singer Marion Worth and the gem of a Christmas song that she recorded more than fifty years ago. (more…)

IVAR the MIDWESTERNER, who teaches at a nondescript institution somewhere west of the Mississippi and East of the Left Coast, writes:

For years now I have been collecting the wildest, most desperate statements written by college students in papers and final examinations in various college-level English courses in which students read the classics. The samples below come from three different states and two different decades; a few are recent.

On Homer’s Odyssey: “Athene helps Telemachus and Odysseus to be reunited and restore order to Troy.  This all took place around 450 B.C. but it was not written down until 800 B.C.”

On Homer’s Odyssey: “Odysseus, the main character, though having the hand of Venus (Venus-Isis) right on his side, is faced with much despair when he has to leave his wife and son’s behind before he goes on many ‘adventures’ and encounters things.  He defeats the Cycalopse after barely being eaten and meets Nausicaa while naked then stumbling over Calypso who holds him prisoner and gives him all of the winds.”

On Homer’s Odyssey: “Beginning with Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’ written down around 800 BC, when infact the events took place in the 4^th century. There are many examples of order, tragedy, and some triumph.” (more…)