FROM The Contemplative Observer:

We look, in our current political debate, at all kinds of people who – at times, frivolously – advertise themselves as “conservatives”. But are they? What is it that they defend? What is it that they stand for? Do they practise what they preach? At a time of permanent, unrestricted, asymmetrical war, that needs dedicated, sincere, but also competent and knowledgable warriors: are these people the ones, to paraphrase Comrade Obama, we’ve been waiting for?

It may be an attractive career to be a “conservative” media icon giving eloquent speeches peppered with the most entertaining polemics. But if such conservative heroines (or “paleo-conservative” living monuments) don’t even remotely understand that the Russian bear of today is still the same deep-red communist bear as ever, what then are these “public figures” ultimately good for? Especially as the damage they do is twofold: They cannot see the beast for what it is, number one, and instead praise it as the new hope for Christian civilisation, number two! Maybe these people should stop writing books and start reading books instead!

Let’s not mince words here – and today we MUST expect from a true, valuable conservative to be “holier than the pope”, because, well, just look what has been going on in Rome ever since Pius XII was succeeded by “good pope” John XXIII: (more…)

  A MAN remembers his "Mammy's" lullaby in this sweet 1921 song, which I hope you enjoy. Source  

FROM Oliver Heydorn at Social Credit Views: One of the difficulties that tends to be characteristic of the contemporary Christian milieu in particular, is the belief, more or less unconscious in most cases, that engaging with questions of money, economics, finance and so forth is ‘mundane’ and therefore of no interest to Christianity, which is ‘otherworldly’. There is, in the minds of some people, a strict separation between the religious/spiritual/supernatural sphere and that of profane concerns, a separation which is somewhat analogous to the liberal democratic principle of ‘separation between Church and State’. One manifestation of this compartmentalizing is the notion that “all is fair in love, war, and money”. In other words, because money and economics are profane they are essentially neutral, just like football, the weather, and food preferences. One can do with them anything that one pleases within the broadest of parameters … the underlying assumption being that Christianity has nothing of particular importance to say about the rights and wrongs of money and economics, i.e., has nothing of substantial doctrinal import that could or should be brought to bear on such subjects. Indeed, in some streams of Protestantism, both historical and contemporary, one is heartily encouraged to ‘do business’ and to store up treasures with wanton abandon. Such an attitude may even be taken so far that behaviours which would be regarded as sinful in other circumstances, such as theft, rise above any suspicion if they occur…

  "DRAG KIDS is an intimate journey into the lives of four child drag queens from around the world. Stephan, Jason, Bracken and Nemis have never met, but they’re united by a shared passion for drag, and they’re about to come together for the first time – to perform Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ at the world-famous Montreal Pride Festival. As they prepare for the big show, each faces their own unique challenges, as well as challenges they have in common – deep feelings of isolation (most have ever met another ‘drag kid’ before) and the struggle of trying to claim a place of your own on the fringes of a fringe culture." --- Guelph Film Festival  

  THE PIOUS Job gives us the finest example of real patience and resignation to the will of God. He was a wealthy, respected, and at the same time god-fearing man in the land of Hus, he was father of seven sons and three daughters, and lived peacefully and happy. God wished to try him and permitted the devil to vent his whole rage upon him. Job was deprived of his children and all his property, and, finally, he was himself afflicted with the most painful disease of leprosy. But in the midst of all these dreadful misfortunes Job remained calm. Naked, covered only with a few patches, he sits on a dunghill, a picture of misery, and yet no sound of murmuring comes from his lips, he does not curse, does not blaspheme God, but says resignedly: God hath given it, God hath taken it away, God can give it again; blessed be the name of the Lord. To all this misery was added the baseness of his own wife, who came and mocked him, and of three intimate friends, who instead of consoling him, judged him falsely and said, that his misery was just punishment from heaven. And still Job did not murmur against God's wise dispensations; with unshaken patience he held out with confidence in God, and God did not forsake him. He rewarded him well for his fidelity and patience. For He made him well again…

  TRADITIONAL Italian cookies called "ossi di morti," or bones of the dead, have been part of Sicilian customs of honoring the souls of the dead on All Souls Day. A recipe is available at Made in House.  

  IN POLAND, graves are decorated with flowers and the cemeteries are illuminated with candles at night on All Saints Day and All Souls Day, Nov. 1 and 2: Her family would begin preparing a week ahead of time by cleaning up the graves of their deceased relatives. The whole village would be at the cemeteries preparing the graves of all the deceased, including the graves of those who had no living relatives in the area. Later, I read that the Poles took this obligation of cleaning the graves so seriously that after World War II many would travel to Monte Casino, Italy, to pay this honor to the graves of the Polish soldiers who died there. Read more at Tradition in Action.    

WILLIAM BYRD, a composer of the Tudor period, set Psalm 150 (Laudibus in Sanctis) to music in his 1591  Cantiones Sacrae and his hymn gives us a sense, though shadowy and inadequate, of the saints in heaven and their choruses of praise to a good and just God. I hope you enjoy this beautiful performance by Stile Antico. A translation:

Celebrate the Lord most high in holy praises:
Let the firmament echo the glorious deeds of God.
Sing ye the glorious deeds of God, and with holy voice
Sound forth oft the power of his mighty hand. (more…)

THE blog It’s About Time explores the Celtic origins of Halloween festivities.

And two American images from the Library of Congress:

Halloween fun fact:

Did you know that dressing up as a hobo, always a last resort for the lazy, is now considered “hurtful?” According to the ADL, a hobo costume stereotypes the poor. Gee, I didn’t know hobos were so sensitive. Here’s more advice from the ADL for schoolteachers:

Many Halloween costumes perpetuate gender stereotypes and exclude those who don’t conform to traditional gender norms, especially those who are transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming. Be mindful that you may have students who feel excluded and marginalized by the overly gendered way Halloween costumes are marketed.

Encourage self-expression, while making sure that children who venture outside of gender norms for Halloween are accepted, respected and not teased. Before a Halloween event, you might say something like, “It’s really fun to dress up and pretend. At our school, there aren’t boy’s and girl’s costumes.” (more…)

FROM Heather Mac Donald, writing about the manufactured racial hysteria in Madison, Wisconsin: Contemporary racial practice ... treats certain words as magical talismans, capable of inflicting harm on official victim groups regardless of how those words are used or even of their meaning, as protests over the academic term “master” reveal. This magical view of language has been lethal to many a career, in K-12 schools as well as in colleges and universities. It is a safe bet that the only appearance of such racial epithets in mainstream white society today is as a mention, not a use. To generate a sufficient number of racist incidents to ground the anti-racism religion therefore requires suspending the use-mention distinction. But if reinstating that distinction will itself generate a racial crisis, then it will be resurrected in the blink of an eye. And that is what happened in Madison over the last two weeks.  

[An imaginary conversation based on a true story.]

ALLSWELL: Hello.

BARKLEY: Hello, is Jason Allswell there, please?

ALLSWELL: Yes, this is Jason.

BARKLEY: Oh, hello, Jason. This is Colin Barkley of the Colin Barkley Family Funeral Home.

I hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time.

ALLSWELL: Oh ….

BARKLEY: Oh, good. I tried to catch you before, but no luck.

ALLSWELL: I didn’t recognize your number. I’m on my way to work now so …

BARKLEY: Mr. Allswell, it’s been a year since your mother’s death — and let me say once again how very sorry we are for your loss — (more…)

TWO people were killed and 12 were injured at a party attended by college students in Texas. You didn't hear anything about it? That's because the media is not very interested. Paul Kersey explains why. I hope the obvious agenda behind much publicity for mass shootings will help you keep future events in perspective.  

INSIGHTS from George Neumayr at The American Spectator on the Amazon Synod and the Pachamama idols:

Under a post-Christian pope, the Vatican has lost both its mind and soul and thus has neither the rationality nor the faith to distinguish between good and bad in culture or religion. The relativism implicit in the refusal to make judgments about culture and the willy-nilly blending of religions is like an acid that burns through everything it touches; the Church has shriveled in proportion to its exposure to it. Unwilling to stand for anything, relativists prostrate themselves before everything, including Amazonian paganism.

What is presented to us as “cultural respect” is in fact contempt for culture — the careless condescension of liberals who reduce everything from the Pieta to Pachamama to the same meaningless level. Forbidden to make judgments about Amazonian culture, multiculturalists must treat everything in it as the same, which means they never truly appreciate what’s good in it. (more…)

ROBERT FRIEDMAN'S 2000 book Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America provides extremely important and, though almost 20 years old, timely background to the underworld of organized crime figures currently in the news. From the book's introduction: In North America alone there are now thirty Russian crime syndicates operating in at least seventeen U.S. cities, most notably New York, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Denver. The Russians have already pulled off the largest jewelry heist and insurance Medicare frauds in American history, with a net haul exceeding $1 billion. They have invaded North America's financial markets, orchestrating complex stock scams, allegedly laundering billions of dollars through the Bank of New York, and coolly infiltrating the business and real estate worlds."The Russians didn't come here to enjoy the American dream," New York state tax agent Roger Berger says glumly. "They came here to steal it. This book is must reading. I don't know how else to put it: It will blow your mind.

ALAN writes:

Here are a few things I have seen since the year 2000:

— A jewelry store is selling “braclets.”

— Sign on movie theater building that is closed:  “CLOE.”

— Sign at meeting hall:  “Large crowd excepted.”

— Sign on church:  “Enterance.”

— I can find “RASIN BRAN” cereal on sale at Walgreens.

— A newspaper death notice reports that a woman has “joined the angles.”

— Sign at doctor’s office:  “No controlled drugs are kept on these premesis.”

— A Burger King restaurant is offering “Crossiants.” (more…)

E. MICHAEL JONES in this interview with Henrik Palmgren psychoanalyzes Greta Thunberg, the climate activist who became a star after going through a period of serious psychological turmoil. He speculates that her unhappiness and political activism were caused by her famous mother's absence from the home. "Greta's sitting at home watching her Mommy get famous," says Jones. "....What we see, I think, is the downside of Swedish feminism which is the children who are at home without Mommy." At the age of 11, when she is undergoing sex ed and sexual assault at school, Greta stops eating, which quickly draws her singer mother, Malena Ernman, back home, as described in the mother's book, Scenes from the Heart. "It's like Greta is on the train and she pulls the emergency brake, she's on the train of Swedish social engineering and socialism and she says,'I'm not eating anymore.'" It's an interesting theory. Of course, children with mothers at home can develop mental problems too. But Jones makes the case that Greta created chaos to get her mother back. She refuses to eat anything but five gnocchi a day. Climate activism ultimately unites the family and imposes order "on a world that is completely out of control." One cannot help but feel compassion for this girl, her plight and the way she is used for a political agenda.  Swedish modern culture and its social gospel are driving its people insane.  

  SOMETHING Greater: Finding Triumph Over Trials, is a memoir by Donald Trump's "spiritual advisor," Paula White-Cain, who prayed at his inauguration and is gearing up to support him for another round. Here is a little taste: "The world knows my name, which I share with a thriving ministry that impacts millions worldwide. "A soaring, powerful voice erupts from my petite frame on the stage. My blond hair is short, cut in a bob with bangs just above the eyebrows. My purple robe is loose and royal; my words are sharp and understandable. There is a rhythm to the sentences I use, a cadence to my words. There is an unexpected fire in my preaching. "This true self is valuable and unchangeable. I have authentic wisdom to share with others." There's no doubt this woman has real talent and that she went through difficult experiences in life. Shallow, materialistic, narcissistic and charismatic, Preacher Paula is the perfect spiritual match for Donald Trump. Some people have too little confidence in God. And some people have far too much.