ALAN writes:

Do-Gooders who are out to make the world over like to advise older people not to live in the past.  That is hilarious.

Not to live in the past—as against what? The increasing ugliness of the culture outside? The supine willingness of grown men and women to go along with trendiness instead of stand firm by timeless moral and esthetic standards?

“Real life today?” And precisely what is “real life today?” It is a festival of inanities and imbecilities, each more preposterous than the next. Why would any self-respecting person wish to live among people who celebrate those things?

I’m confident that many of your older readers will agree with me if I say that memory offers at least some refuge from those indescribable horrors. Memory is the land where we exclude those things in a glorious act of discrimination. Memory is the land where we build our interior castle.  Memory is “the land where the good songs go” (Jerome Kern, 1917). It is the land where the good people go and where we keep them until we join them.

The past—the eternal past—may be the only place where decent people and a sensible tempo and texture of life can be found. (more…)

  "I perceive that all the seasons of the year are to be found in your soul: sometimes winter, with sterility, distractions, torments, disgusts, and weariness; sometimes the roses of May, with the sweet scent of holy little flowers; sometimes the heats of desire to please our good God. There only remains autumn, when, as you say, you do not find much fruit, but it often happens that, in threshing the wheat and pressing the grapes, we find much more than the harvest and the vintage had promised. You would like always to have spring-time or summer; but it is necessary to have a change internally, as well as externally. In heaven, there will be a perpetual spring as to beauty, a perpetual autumn as to joy, a perpetual summer as to love. There will be no winter there; but here, winter is required for the exercise of self-denial, and for the growth of a thousand beautiful virtues which flourish only in sterility. Let us, then, make our little steps forward; if we have a good and resolute affection, we cannot but advance well. It is not necessary for the practice of virtues to be always attentive to them all. That would entangle and perplex your thoughts too much. Humility and charity are the antiphonarians; all the other virtues are annexed to them. The preservation of a house depends on the foundation and the roof; if we attend to which,…

FRENCH presidential candidate Marine Le Pen (always identified as "far right" by the media) was followed on the campaign trail by the group Femen, who protest the existence of two sexes by appearing naked in public. In a photo at Galliawatch, these modern-day Furies stand half-nude on the roof of a church.

"In the past French politicians have announced their victory to the sound of La Marseillaise, which has stood as their anthem for hundreds of years. But Mr [Emmanuel] Macron, who has gained support from major European figures including Jean-Claude Juncker and Angela Merkel, instead blasted the anthem of Europe ‘Ode to Joy’ from the speakers as he waved to adoring crowds of voters outside the Louvre museum. The show of allegiance with the faltering European project was condemned by the losing Front National, who have fought to remove France from the crumbling European bloc. Speaking to the public he said: "I'll defend France, I'll defend Europe, and will strengthen links between Europe and its people." -- The Express

ANN CORCORAN, of the website Refugee Resettlement Watch, which documents how federal refugee contractors ("non-profit" organizations that have a vested interest in more "refugees") move large numbers of refugees into mostly smaller American cities and towns, was wildly pro-Trump during the election season. Her enthusiasm has declined dramatically. As she recently reported, more refugees have entered the U.S. since January than in the previous ten years and there is no sign of a let up. See more here. (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel -- all much closer to the home countries of the refugees and thus more logical choices -- all take none.) The Trump administration now seems uninterested and "continues admitting refugees as if nothing was ever said (before or after the Presidential campaign)." Trump has also said nothing about the "Diversity Visa Lottery." [Note: Unfortunately, Corcoran buys into the nutty conspiracy theory that Muslim immigrants destroyed the World Trade Center Towers and that Islamic terror is a pressing problem in the U.S.]

STEPHEN IPPOLITO writes from Australia:

As I look at the priests processing at Lourdes to model the importance of “fun” to the faithful I’m reminded of how I once numbered among my legal clients a couple who operated a small “dating” agency. They mused to me once over coffee and biscuits (never pizza) that the aspect of their business that struck them most forcefully was how, counter-intuitively, the broader a client was in painting a word-profile, the fewer enquiries he or she would draw.

It emerged that most of their clients strove to appear as all things to all men.

The two most popular terms people used to describe their personalities, far and away, were  “fun-loving” and “non-judgmental.” Likewise, in specifying the attributes of those they’d like to meet these people would take care to eliminate absolutely no one and no form of behavior. No one especially wanted to be seen as serious because serious is boring. (more…)

  SWEDISH journalist Ingrid Carlqvist has created some controversy by looking at the roots of the disastrous policy of multiculturalism in Sweden. The Swedes are on their way to becoming a minority in their own country. Why? How was their famous homogeneity destroyed? "Most people want to be popular, they want to be loved ... I don't really care about that," Carlqvist says. "My mission in this life is ... when I understand something ... it is my duty to tell other people about it. And many times, people say, 'We don't like what you're saying.' But that doesn't matter to me. I need to tell it.'" [I am not a regular listener of Red Ice Radio and this post, as with all posts here, is not an endorsement of all its content. I apologize for the blasphemous aside by Henrik Palmgren in this otherwise good interview.]

ALAN M. writes: In the department of “you couldn’t make this up:” "Couples Are Turning Extra IVF Embryos into Jewelry." Perhaps they look at all of their children as jewelry.

PRISCILLA writes:

 The above is a video described at Canon212 as “the liturgical disaster at Lourdes.”  I am speechless upon viewing it,  although I think you might find words to describe it.  The procession is especially egregious.  HCPT is a UK charity which funds pilgrimages for disabled and disadvantaged children, which is undoubtedly a worthy cause, and it is encouraging to see so many young people participating.  Something in my soul shrivels aesthetically in the face of it, however.  The priests in ball caps, clown wigs and face paint are truly cringeworthy.  Unfortunately, “liturgical disasters” are not uncommon these days, but this seems particularly brutal.  And I feel bad and petty for noticing!  What would Jesus say? (more…)

DAN R. writes:

Are you sure it wasn’t you who wrote the caption to this photo?

“Never has a photo said so much about the current state of humanity.” (more…)

  CAROLINE writes: Just had to share these pictures with you. They are photos of a "health service" vehicle at a public university. It was early in the morning when I dropped my daughter off, so the li’l car was charging in the conveniently located charging outlet. It might be redundant, as in many ways we are so far gone as a society, beyond Orwell, but there is so much wrong with this “service," one hardly knows where to begin. First of all, the condescension to ethnic minorities (image below) revolts me. Easy to see who educated the marketing firms. The nauseating coopting of a perfectly lovely color, pink. Before I read the copy on the “car,” I thought, ‘Oh no, more female cancer agitprop.' (Don't know what to think about the pig.) The car advertises "birth control" and services for "safer sex." It almost looks as if they’ll deliver their products to eager students in their dorms. (Stashed in the back compartment of course.) Don’t know. Perhaps exclusively for TTHW readers, they should add pizza delivery? As I contemplated this insult to decent people, it occurred to me that in my time of high school and college (and before I think) students carried on their own elicit affairs by themselves, with no help and guidance from the over-preening hand of the university. They had illicit sex, did drugs, got drunk—mostly on their own terms. Not that I advocate this,…

  SONG OF THE PEARL --- By Archie Sullivan I WAS made for the smallest hands to press, For the softest kiss and the still caress, For the whispered peace of a night in June, For tired eyes that watch the moon. I was made for grief and for hearts that break To passionate tears for the loved one's sake; My soul is a mist, my heart a sea, And I pave the floors of eternity.

REPUBLICANS have for quite a while been offering lip service and minor action to the anti-abortion movement in exchange for Christian Zionist support for military aggression. A podcast from the organization We Hold These Truths looks at the "bone" Trump is tossing to anti-abortion "Evangelicals" while he simultaneously ramps up threats of war. Chuck Carlson comments on the hypocrisy of Christian Zionism. The high-paid, carnival barker preachers who have led the masses into unjust wars are, despite their opposition to abortion, child killers.

  AN allocution by Pope Pius XII in 1958, posted in part at Tradition in Action, asserts that beautiful clothing "concentrates the sight on the spirit." The more materialistic a culture, the uglier and the more immodest its clothes.

FROM a 2004 piece (no longer available online) by Paul Craig Roberts:

Compare an American taxpayer’s situation today with that of a 19th century American slave.

Not all slaves worked on cotton plantations. Some with marketable skills were leased to businesses or released to labor markets, where they worked for money wages. Just like the wages of today’s taxpayer, a portion of the slave’s money wages was withheld. In those days the private owner, not the government, received the withheld portion of the slave’s wages.

Slaves in that situation were as free as today’s American taxpayer to choose their housing from the available stock, purchase their food and clothing, and entertain themselves.

In fact, they were freer than today’s American taxpayer. By hard work and thrift, they could save enough to purchase their freedom.

No American today can purchase his freedom from the IRS. (more…)

SEE many vintage photographs at Call Me Jorge of May Crownings and Processions. The one above is from 1950 and below from 1929.  

ONE OF five baby rabbits born in our garden this weekend.