ANTI-GLOBALIST EXPATRIATE writes:

James Palmer describes life in China:

My time in China has taught me the pleasure and value of craftsmanship, simply because it’s so rare. To see somebody doing a job well, not just for its own reward, but for the satisfaction of good work, thrills my heart; it doesn’t matter whether it’s cooking or candle-making or fixing a bike. When I moved house some years ago, I watched with genuine delight as three wiry men stripped my old apartment to the bone in 10 minutes, casually balancing sofas and desks on their backs and packing the van as tightly as a master Tetris player.

But such scenes are an unusual treat. … Instead, the prevailing attitude is chabuduo, or ‘close enough’. (more…)

  STEPHEN BASKERVILLE writes at The Daily Caller: This election will be remembered as a metaphor for our civilization.  Though many people dislike both candidates for diverse reasons, one underlying subtext has now emerged into the open that shows there is still a very clear difference: the power of sexual indulgence to determine our politics. The consequences of uninhibited sexual freedom are now as explicit as a pornographic movie. Both candidates are not only products but pioneers of the Sexual Revolution, and together they personify its political dynamic. On the one hand, Trump epitomizes the personal hedonism of the Sexual Revolution – the side dominated by men.  (He is not the first, but his case is the most politically critical – more than, say, Ted Kennedy or Bill Clinton.)  This side of the Revolution came first chronologically.  Playboy magazine and its imitators came on the scene in the 1950s.  This represents sexual freedom for its own sake, with no pretense at any larger principles. Shortly after, we began to see the political side of the Revolution.  This began with the “free love” of the beat and hippy generations, which transformed unlimited sexual freedom into a political statement: an act of rebellion against all authority.  This soon transformed itself into the more aggressive and authoritarian feminism. Read the rest of Baskerville's article "The Sexual Revolution Triumphant" here. He ends with this: Trump has one chance, and so do the rest of us.  The only way…

HILLARY Clinton’s accusation once again in yesterday’s debate that Russia has interfered in the presidential election — a claim based on evidence that has not been publicly vetted — was wildly irresponsible.

But then what struck me most in the second round of the presidential boxing tournament (1-1), which is looking more and more like reality TV, was that both candidates seem determined to make enemies abroad. [Read the full transcript here.] With Hillary, it’s Russia. With Trump, it’s Iran.  Trump is hellbent on wrecking the Iran agreement, the chance for lasting peace with that country. And Hillary was even more belligerent toward Russia. (more…)

I HAD BEEN away from the news, due to pressing obligations, for a couple of days so when I tuned into last night’s presidential debate and heard Anderson Cooper — CIA-trained propaganda artist extraordinaire — mention the explosive release of audio clips of Trump making insulting comments about WOMEN!!! I had no idea what he was talking about. Cooper could hardly contain himself; it took only a few minutes for him to launch into the topic of this great threat to national security. It was clear the incident was some variant of The Big, Bad Misogynist.

Hillary said earlier of the clips, “This is horrific.” So you knew it had to be relatively trivial. House Speaker Paul Ryan said he was “sickened:”

“Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified. I hope Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves and works to demonstrate to the country that he has greater respect for women than this clip suggests,” Ryan said in a statement.

No, Mr. Ryan, women are not always to be championed and revered. We live among sexually aggressive women whose everyday clothing is the fashion equivalent of Trump’s crude, trashy talk.

Odd how those who have no problem with much, much lewder things on an average episode of Saturday Night Live are suddenly scandalized by crude language. There’s no need to defend that language to note the glaring hypocrisy. This is life in the gynocracy. Constant outrage over the offended honor of women who despise feminine honor.

I recommend Heather MacDonald’s take at City Journal on this hypocritical hysteria. She writes: (more…)

JORGE BERGOGLIO’S recent statement on “transgenderism,” made during another in-flight press conference, is a marvel of doublespeak. This stuff is torture to read, but it shows Mr. Humble Pie — also known as “Loose Lips Jorge” — as the crass manipulator and artful mutilator of truth that he is: (more…)

GABRIELE KUBY, a German sociologist and author of The Global Sexual Revolution, responds to "Pope" Francis's latest on the "transgendered." (Warning: Bergoglian blasphemy and gobbledygook at its worst. May cause nausea.) Kuby is a compelling speaker on the issue of "gender dysphoria." As she explains, medical treatment does not solve the problem and often make things worse. It's not surprising so many people have "gender dysphoria." What else would you expect in a culture that advocates androgyny?

  THE Western media has been playing up big time this week's protests in Poland against an abortion ban. (See here and here.) Natalie Dueholm at Lifesite News offers a counter view to reports here. She contends the proposed abortion law, which would have outlawed most, but not all, abortion, had the support of the majority of Poles and that the reported numbers of the protestors were wildly exaggerated by the media. Even so, the Polish parliament rejected the ban, reversing its earlier position with little discussion, apparently intimidated by the protests.

“GRATEFUL READER” writes:

I just noticed this in a child’s music book.

Labelled “Traditional Melody,” the following words are presented to young piano students in the 2013 edition of Faber and Faber’s piano lesson series. The text notes that the 250-year-old tune has been set to God Save the Queen; was the national anthem of Denmark, Prussia, and Lichtenstein; and became known in the United States as My Country ‘Tis of Thee. Here is another version set to the grand old melody: (more…)

PAUL A. writes: The case of Lisa Miller is a reminder of why I cannot take any interest in Amber Alerts. Amber Alerts are nation-wide now, and are meant to help provide information on kidnappings, with the intent of finding the child quickly. They are marketed as fighting a crime by some shady pervert in a raincoat. The vast majority of them, however, involve a non-custodial parent whose child is accompanying them with full cooperation. Pretty much anytime an Amber Alert gives the color, make, model, and license plate of a car, you can be sure it is a custody dispute. If you respond to an Amber Alert, you might be helping to send a child to the woman in this story, or back to the heroine-addicted mother of the four-year-old in the "White America" post from a week or so ago. Since I lack the wisdom of Solomon, I just stay out of it.

FROM an entry at Christ or Chaos on St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is today: He preferred to hear himself reviled rather than praised, and when people extolled the merits of his sanctity, he ordered one of the friars to assail his ears with abusive epithets. The friar, all unwilling, called him a bumpkin, a money-lover, an ignoramus, and a worthless fellow, and Francis cheered and said: "Lord, bless you, brother! You have told the truth, and I need to hear such things!" The servant of God wished not so much to be in command as to be subject to authority, not so much to give orders as to carry them out. Therefore he gave up the office of general of his Order, and asked for a guardian, to whose will he would be subject in everything. To the friar with whom he was accustomed to go about he always promised obedience and always kept his promise. (Archbishop Jacobus de Voragine, O.P., The Golden Legend.)

IS PURITANISM, and the Protestant spirit in general, responsible for the triumph of the mediocre in American life? Here is a tantalizing thought on that subject from John Rao's essay Americanism and the Collapse of the Church in the United States: Many Americans continue to anathematize “high culture”. They characterize everything from architecture and music to cooking and clothing as silly, wasteful, and effeminate, the moment that it rises above the mediocre. Other Americans feel the need to escape the blandness around them. They cannot, however, bring themselves to flee from it by cultivating truly serious culture. This would so tie them into the Greco-Roman and Catholic tradition as to frighten them back into their mediocrity. Instead, they develop a new type of “high culture” based upon the mad, individualistic ravings of their tortured puritanical souls. Their “cultural” creations are then guiltily justified by them with reference to deep biological or psychological needs. The one group of secularized Puritans adores the Big Mac as the height of human achievement; the other, a homosexual’s multi-million dollar sculpture of a broken toothpick. In short, the Puritan, after his break with faith as during its full fervor, is unable to grasp the principle of restoring all things in Christ. He manifests his inability in either philistinism or perversion. If he does discover the true heritage of the West, he converts to Catholicism or plays carelessly with it like an adolescent plays haphazardly with things before…

PHILIP ZODHIATES, a Virginia businessman, last week became the second man convicted of kidnapping charges in the case of Lisa Miller, who fled with her seven-year-old daughter to Central America in 2009 when a family court gave sole custody of the child to her former lesbian partner, who was represented by attorneys for the militant homosexual organization, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU.

Zodhiates drove Miller from Virginia to western New York; she traveled from there to Canada. As a result, he faces up to eight years in prison. An Anabaptist minister, Kenneth Miller, is now serving a 27-month sentence for also allegedly helping Miller flee. He refused to testify in the Zodhiates case in Buffalo last week and was charged with contempt of court, for which he could face additional jail time. (more…)

AN interesting statistic: For every official the United States public has elected, its government supports 5,000 unelected employees.  

THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU teaches literature to students who are unable to hold discussions on the assignments in complete sentences. Too many words can be a problem, he says, but then so can too few. [O]ne way to die is to give up on language, to revert to speechlessness, so that, at first, one can only say yes or no, and finally only yes.

IN AN AGE of endless war and a $530-billion defense budget, how can the American military machine make itself look good to left-wing pacifists? It can subsidize gender reassignment surgery.

OKLAHOMA Wesleyan University President Dr. Everett Piper at Life Site News:

“Now how in the world is it possible for anybody to be pro-woman if they now, under the Title IX ‘Dear Colleague’ letter, which tells us to deny the biological fact of the female, and give her rights — the biological female’s right to the athletic field and to her shower and to her toilet and to her facilities — give those rights to someone who fancies himself or fabricates female identity out of thin air?” Piper asked. (more…)

JOHN writes:

Frederick Bastiat, writing in his little book, The Law, made the profound observation that the perversion of law takes two divergent forms: simple greed, and the pretended love of humanity.  C. S. Lewis made a similar observation, as did Jesus when he singled out for special condemnation both the love of mammon and the moral hypocrisy of the religious leadership of the time.  What is profound is that these two styles of faithlessness––which on the surface seem to be opposed––both spring from the same root.  They are both forms of idolatry whereby the God of heaven is deposed in favor of the gods of self and of this world.

Sadly, Trump’s supporters believe he has the power to ensure America’s continued place as the world’s largest producer and consumer of material goods, as if this were the highest goal a nation and its people could aspire to.  Even so, he probably won’t succeed. (more…)