CELEBRITIES can be trusted to support the script. They are hired actors in a morality play. Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of George W. Bush and host of the Today show, is a major character in celebrity culture. She is pretty and talented, to be sure, but also willing to sacrifice her privacy and family for the cause. A recent interview of Hager on her return to her job after three months of maternity leave for the birth of her third child is a revealing look into the dictates of our rulers. Hager has two daughters, ages 4 and 6, and now a three-month-old son, whose childhoods will likely be almost as heavily exposed as the childhoods of the children of Prince William and Kate Middleton, Americans having as little choice over the royal lineage as the British do. The interview is a classic case of "Nanny-for-Me, Slavery-for-Thee" feminism. You need to go to the full magazine article to see the photo of Jenna in her daughters' bedroom, a scene of luxurious chaos with toys strewn everywhere and her husband, Henry Hager, lounging on a bunk bed, playing the part of the incompetent Dad which is now sadly the reality for the culture at large now that masculinity and the male provider have been so thoroughly demonized and trashed. He lies beneath a Communist-style framed poster of the head of woman and the words, "Women are Perfect." Jenna waxes on…

A RUSSIAN HACKER who has emptied bank accounts around the world and is alleged to have stolen hundreds of millions from UK victims alone lives in Moscow and has connections with Russian intelligence. From The Daily Mail: [Maksim] Yakubets is alleged to have run the operation since May 2009 from the basements of Moscow cafes. He is said to have employed dozens of people to steal money from victims in 43 countries using computer viruses that are designed to target only victims outside Russia. The ‘malware’ is downloaded when a victim clicks on an email attachment. It remains hidden on their computer to harvest their personal and financial data such as online banking details – which is subsequently used to drain their accounts. Operating online under the name Aqua, the hacker and his associates are accused of stealing at least £76 million. US treasury officials also say Yakubets has provided ‘direct assistance to the Russian government’ by acquiring confidential documents for the FSB. He was also said to be part of a scheme in which Russian intelligence agencies recruit criminals to hack national security targets.

  LEARN about Josquin des Prez, who was one of the most famous composers of the 16th century, here. Yet in spite of Josquin's colossal reputation, which endured until the beginning of the Baroque era and was revived in the 20th century, his biography is shadowy, and virtually nothing is known about his personality. The only surviving work which may be in his own hand is a graffito on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, and only one contemporary mention of his character is known, in a letter to Duke Ercole I of Ferrara. The lives of dozens of less revered Renaissance composers are better documented than that of Josquin.[9] Josquin wrote both sacred and secular music, and in all of the significant vocal forms of the age, including masses, motets, chansons and frottole. Here is his beautiful Ave Maria performed by the Hilliard Ensemble.  

FROM Thomas Mūller, on the election of Boris Johnson as UK Prime Minister: The giveaway is Boris Johnson’s pedigree of hardcore globalists and internationalists. Like Trump, he represents the right but is, in reality, a Trojan horse sent in to bring down the nation. Look for him to drop the ball on Brexit. The sistema is using the same Worldwide Wrestling formula with Boorish as with Trump: reality T.V. cult of celebrity personality. Asked why they support Boorish, a common reply among his voters was, “I’m voting for Boris because he is a laugh.” As prime minister, it will be Johnson who gets the last laugh.

SINCE the Renaissance, human beings have become progressively more fascinated with the human face. With the advent of digital technology, we are now surrounded by faces, faces everywhere. Some people have their picture taken many times a week. By the time a child is three, he is already the subject of a vast archive of photos.

Do we know ourselves better because we see ourselves in photos more?

For that matter, do we know ourselves better by looking in the mirror? I’d say, some things we learn. But not enough. Not anywhere near enough.

The camera does most justice to the human face when used by a craftsman, who employs the mechanical to capture the non-mechanical. The portrait of the nineteenth century Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, (below) was made by the famous London photographer Henry Rose Barraud. We see here the thing most worth getting at in a photograph: the inner life. Judging from what we know of Manning and his piercing insight, it is a brilliantly faithful portrait. (View it more closely here.) With the effects of light, Barraud gives a sculptural quality to the face, as if it was molded from bronze. We see age, wisdom and the power of conviction.

Leonardo da Vinci, in his famous portrait of the 15th-century Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de’ Benci, conveyed far more than an ordinary camera ever could. In her pale, downturned lips; her directed gaze, falling just short of a trance; her wide, marble-toned forehead, we see the mystery of personality.

Notice how Ginevra is not concerned with pleasing the viewer. She is not pandering to you. From way back then, when women were supposedly slaves, we find an independent and pensive being able to make profound judgements and to match virtue with intelligence.

Thousands of amateur photos cannot portray what one picture well done can. Today, in our world of Faceburg, many people ironically don’t have one decent picture of themselves, worthy to pass on to posterity, but do have thousands of photos. The human face is losing its human qualities from over-exposure.

Do we know ourselves better? I’d say no. As the greatest portraits tell us, it is not the surface that matters but the powers of reflection. We know ourselves best not by looking at ourselves in photos but by reflecting upon and painfully gazing into that which is better than we are.

Then we see the truth — the truth that Manning and Ginevra saw, the truth that the artists who portrayed them saw. And that is, we are not much.

(more…)

  "IN 1828, as first Ambassador to the new Republic of Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett (Bio) while visiting the Taxco region, discovered the ruby red-bloomed plant and was so fascinated with it that he sent clippings to his home in Charleston, South Carolina. Poinsett, a doctor and soldier by trade, was also an amateur botanist. Upon his return to Charleston, he forwarded clippings to friends. Poinsettia Pulcherrima. Showy Poinsettia. This truly splendid plant was discovered by Mr. Poinsette, in Mexico, and sent by him to Charleston in 1828, and afterwards to Mr. Buist of Philadelphia; from Mr. Buist, it was brought by Mr. James McNab to the Botanical Garden Edinburgh, where it flowered twice last year, and again in February of the present year... (From "Paxton's Magazine of Botany" Published 1837)" Read more here. [Thanks to Joseph S.]  

PUTIN’S Russia is not a bastion of Christian values. It’s Communism with a new look — and Communism never was about liberating the people. Critics of the state are imprisoned and assassinated. It’s illegal to evangelize outside a state-recognized church. Highly-concentrated wealth (always a characteristic of Communism), taunting militarism and cruel power rule. Yegor Zhukov, 21, a university student heading to prison for dissident views, stated, according to Moscow Times:

“The only traditional value that the current Russian state truly honors and strengthens is autocracy. Autocracy that tries to break the life of anyone who sincerely wishes the best for their homeland, who doesn’t hesitate to love and take responsibility.”

“As a result, the citizens of our long-suffering country had to learn that no good deed goes unpunished, that the authorities are always right simply because they’re the authorities, that happiness here may be possible — but not for them.”

“Having learned that, they began to gradually disappear.” (more…)

“[I]n order to rid ourselves of  self, we must die to ourselves daily. That is to say, we must renounce the operations of the powers of our soul, and of the senses of our body. We must see as if we saw not, understand as if we understood not, and make use of the things of this world as if we made no use of them at all. This is what St. Paul calls dying daily, — Quotidie morior. “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone,” and bringeth forth no good fruit. (Jn. 12:24-25) If we die not to ourselves, and if our holiest devotions do not incline us to this necessary and useful death, we shall bring forth no fruit worth anything, and our devotions will become useless. All our good works will be stained by self-love and our own will ; and this will cause God to hold in abomination the greatest sacrifices we can make, and the best actions we can do; so that at our death we shall find our hands empty of virtues and of merits, and we shall not have one spark of pure love, which is only communicated to souls dead to themselves, souls whose life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God (Col., 3:3).

“We must choose, therefore, among all the devotions to the Blessed Virgin, the one which draws us most towards this death to ourselves, inasmuch as it will be the best and the most sanctifying. For we must not think that all that shines is gold, that all that tastes sweet is honey, or all that is easy to do and is done by the greatest number is sanctifying. As there are secrets of nature by which natural operations are performed more easily, in a short time and at little cost, so also in like manner there are secrets in the order of grace by which supernatural operations, such as ridding ourselves of self, filling ourselves with God, and becoming perfect, are performed more easily.

“The practice which I am about to disclose is one of these secrets of grace …”

— St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary (transl., Fr. Frederick William Faber)

 
Above, Ave Maria [Composer: Franz Biebl) (more…)

  "IT IS MARY alone who has found grace before God, without the aid of any other mere creature: it is only by her that all those who have found grace before God have found it at all; and it is only by her that all those who shall come afterwards shall find it. She was full of grace when she was saluted by the Archangel Gabriel, and she was superabundantly filled with grace by the Holy Ghost when He covered her with His unspeakable Shadow; and she has so augmented, from day to day and from moment to moment, this double plenitude, that she has reached a point of grace immense and inconceivable; in such sort that the Most High has made her the sole treasurer of His treasures, and the sole dispenser of His graces, to ennoble, to exalt, and to enrich whom she wishes; to give the entry to whom she wills into the narrow way of heaven; to pass whom she wills, and in spite of all obstacles, through the strait gate of life; and to give the throne, the sceptre, and the crown of the King to whom she wills. Jesus is everywhere and always the Fruit and the Son of Mary; and Mary is everywhere the veritable tree, who bears the Fruit of life, and the true Mother, who produces it." --- St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary  

GABRIEL’S MESSAGE (arranged by Jim Clements) performed by Voces8

The angel Gabriel from heaven came
His wings as drifted snow his eyes as flame
“All hail” said he “thou lowly maiden Mary,
Most highly favored lady,” Gloria!

“For known a blessed mother thou shalt be,
All generations laud and honor thee,
Thy Son shall be Emanuel, by seers foretold
Most highly favored lady,” Gloria! (more…)

DURING  last week’s reported terror attack at London Bridge, police shot the knife-wielding Muslim terrorist Usman Khan execution-style while he was disarmed and lying on the ground. There was no safety reason for killing him. This is key evidence that the whole thing was staged. A dead assailant is a standard feature of staged terror events, which are part of a strategy of tension to keep people disoriented, agitated, fearful, compliant, and primed for social unrest. (more…)

"NOT TO oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them.” --- Pope Saint Felix III, 483-492 A.D.  

   COMPOSED BY JOHN WILLIAMS, the soundtrack for the movie The Patriot is terrific. I've never seen the movie so I'm not making an endorsement, but the music is wonderful -- great Thanksgiving weekend fare.

NOTRE DAME, the formerly Catholic university, is under pressure by religious fanatics. A group of activists so militantly adores the chimera of racial equality, making of non-whites idols instead of human beings, that it wants half of the books in the curriculum to be chosen by purely racial criteria, excluding white authorship. End Hate at ND (clever name!) states: “Cultural competence is key in building empathy for marginalized folks. No course or program of study should have a view limited to white, western, and/or male voices. We demand that people who are of Color, Indigenous, Black, queer or not male are represented in the authorship of at least half course and major required readings.” Can you imagine what it's like in your budding youth, your mind aflame for knowledge, to come across the strident and deadeningly dull imperatives of people who judge the merit of a thinker primarily by the race (or sexual anomalies) he represents? I think it would be much, much better to work in a convenience store. James Murphy has more about these haters-of-hatred at New American. It's not surprising to see this fanaticism at Notre Dame. When Catholic worship became man-centered, a fixation on non-Western man was bound to follow. For human beings naturally crave a God that possesses otherness. Lawrence Auster makes this fascinating point in his book, Our Borders, Ourselves: American in the Age of Multiculturalism.  

  "THEME AND VARIATIONS on 'Red River Valley,'" a chamber piece by David Amram, is performed here by the New York Chamber Orchestra. I hope this beautiful music inspires you on this Thanksgiving Day. I hope it inspires you to love America --- and to keep gratitude in your heart for all this country has been given.  

KIDIST PALOUS ASRAT writes:

You might be hearing about the Calgary Flames head coach’s firing due to anecdotal accusations of “racism.”

Apparently, a “Nigerian Ukrainian” hockey player with a Nigerian Muslim name, Akim Aliu, was yelled at by the coach for listening to hip-hop music in the locker rooms — ten years ago!

Hockey is a fast and furious game. Even the players cannot contain their aggression, and fights on the ice have to be broken up by referees regularly. Coaches have to be equally fierce to reign in their players, on and off ice.

You can see the quote here as recalled by Aliu. Admittedly it was crude, but isn’t that common in locker rooms? The coach, Bill Peters, yelled at the player, but he never called him, Aliu, the “N” word, but rather referred to the music Aliu was listening to with that term (which is used by blacks also sometimes).  It must be disconcerting to these majority white players and coaches to hear this unexpected black culture in their midst. (more…)