FRAGRANT, various, delicious, fascinating, beautiful — the plants classified as herbs due to their medicinal, ornamental and culinary uses are also great companions. Though they are famous for their medicinal powers, I appreciate herbs mostly for aesthetic and mystical reasons. I watch them grow, take in their scents, eat them and marvel at their beauty in an unscientific and often impractical way. I am not a horticulturalist or certified botanist, but I am an admirer of horticulturalists and certified botanists. I wish I knew what they know. I am not an expert on herbs, but an admirer of experts on herbs. How do they get to be so smart? I refer to them and my own limited experience in the garden for the knowledge I have of these famously interesting plants, which some say are so powerful they can alter your personality, at least for a time.

Rue (ruta graveolens) is one of my favorite herbs. With interesting blueish-gray-green, lacey leaves and miniature, star-like yellow flowers, common rue, also known as herb-of-grace, can grow quickly into a small bush-like plant about three feet tall. Some people probably find it unmanageable, but its wild look and quick growth provide stems that are beautiful in a vase all summer long. Although it has been used in the kitchen, its bitter taste is supposedly not appealing. Truthfully I have never tasted it and some say it should not be eaten, especially by pregnant women or in large quantities. It is a component of the Ethiopian spice mixture berbere and is used sparingly in salads and egg dishes in Mediterranean cooking. (more…)

A REPORTER from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was kind enough to inform me that I had confused the city of Allentown, Pa. with the Pittsburgh area neighborhood of Allentown in a post about the closure of St. John Vianney Church. While I stand by my basic point that changing demographics, caused by mass immigration (Hispanics are not keeping those historic Catholic churches alive) and the sidelining of Catholic doctrine on contraception, have led to the closure of many churches (one in four in Chicago churches are in danger of shutting down), this was a serious error and I have removed the post.

I have been hard-pressed this week due to other pressing obligations. Still that’s no excuse! (more…)

  CALL ME JORGE imagines "Pope" Francis's recent encounter with TV actress Eva Longoria: “Eva, you are so beautiful.  I’m glad to meet your newest fiance Jose Antonio Baston whom you are co-habitating with.  It’s nice you found love again after your Catholic marriages to Tyler Christopher and Tony Parker didn’t work out.  Pray for me and pray that on April 8th, 2016 when I publish my Apostolic Exhortation — Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) you will be able to receive communion again.  Mercy, joy, blah, blah, blah...  I’m a big fan of all the work you do in North America promoting illegal immigration and the rights of illegal immigrants!  By the way Eva, that’s a nice red kabbalah bracelet.  Let me show you mine.  Rabbi Skorka made it for me and I use it to ward away Rosary-counters!”

  QUOTES from Jewish authors, religious leaders, scientists and academics on "diversity." (Courtesy of Henry Makow.)

A COUPLE of readers take exception to a benign view of the ’60s TV sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. One suggests it includes Masonic signs. And the reader Paul A. writes:

A review of the first episode shows that the first jokes are about Ellie-May: Her lack of femininity and her abundant breasts. Ellie-May has not even been on stage yet, but we are set up for her two-dimensional personality, which perdures for the whole series, in three jokes. She is a sexy, powerful, young woman, who can out do any male in physical pursuits. Much like modern feminism, with the difference that modern feminism has cast aside any aspiration to retaining sexiness or youth. (more…)

THE SAKER decries the end of Europe as he knew it:

So my Europe was stolen from me not once, but twice and while I weep over the Europe of my youth, I absolutely loathe the Europe of the European Union.  Every time I see Hollande, Stoltenberg or Tusk, my stomach turns and I feel like cursing.  They make me absolutely sick.  I hate the Europe of Charlie Hebdo, of BHL, of Harlem Desir, the Europe of Conchita Wurst or of Dalia Grybauskaitė (there goes a typical European name, right?).

London now looks like Karachi, Paris like Ouagadougou, Rome like Târgu Mures.  This is absolutely disgusting, revolting and suicidal.  To say so has absolutely nothing to do with racism and only a person totally devoid from any real cultural roots can misinterpret the horror of those who see their cities and cultural roots being smashed by waves of non-integratable immigrants as a form of racism.  You don’t believe me?

Let me tell you this: in France there are a lot of Maghrebians who are now horrified to see their (usually poor) neighborhood being literally run over by Romanian Gypsies while in Switzerland you have more or less integrated ex-Yugoslavs who now watch in horror as their putatively “fellow” ex-Yugoslavs run the cocaine business.  How many Swiss citizens do you think you would fine in a Swiss jail?   Nobody knows, but my guess is less than 15%.

The worst part of it all is that both the Right and the Left are equally responsible for this state of affairs. (more…)

  IN THIS recent interview with Judith Sharpe of In the Spirit of Chartres, Jim Condit, Jr., a candidate for Congress in Ohio, criticizes Catholics who withdraw from politics. The "pray-and-be-good Christian" can be an obstacle to social order. Condit is basically a Trump supporter. He also advocates peacefully overthrowing the existing political powers through the precinct system. Supreme Court judges can be impeached and the Federal Reserve can be ended through a grass roots uprising.

ALAN writes:

A recent post noted that the top-rated television programs in 1965 included “The Beverly Hillbillies” at No. 2. Since I am likely the only one among your readers who remembers viewing the first episode of that series when it was telecast one evening in September 1962, I would like to say a few things about its virtues.

The intellectuals hated “The Beverly Hillbillies.” They hated it for the same reasons ordinary Americans loved it:  It offered thirty minutes of simple, clean comedy, crisp writing, and characters who were decent, honest, happy, and had plenty of moral fiber.  The critics just could not stand the thought that Americans were enjoying entertainment that included no despair, no messages, no murders, and no pretentious nonsense.  There was nothing dark or cynical or profane for the critics to feast upon and “interpret.”

“The Beverly Hillbillies” projected what Ayn Rand called a “benevolent sense of life.”  The early black-and-white episodes were the best.  They teem with brightness, good cheer, and optimism in the comical situations, misunderstandings, and musical themes heard at intervals throughout.  The comedy ranges from slapstick to word play to understated, self-effacing humor.

Only when viewing them forty years later did I begin fully to appreciate those virtues.  They are evident in many episodes in the early seasons.  In later seasons, the comedy pacing and restraints had largely vanished and the writing became overdone and self-consciously cute.  (more…)

TWO quotes from a compilation:

When a male Jew is called to the Torah, he recites the traditional blessing, ‘asher bahar banu mi’kol ha’amim’, praising God ‘who has chosen us from among all other nations.’

When Jews recite their daily morning prayer they say the benediction, ‘she’lo assani goy’, thanking God ‘that he has not made [us] gentiles.’

When they pronounce the benediction over the Sabbath [Saturday] wine, they declare that God has chosen and sanctified Jews from all other peoples in the same way which he has distinguished between Sabbath and weekday. (more…)

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS writes:

Yesterday I was stuck in front of Fox “News” for some minutes on both sides of 1:00 PM US East Coast time. It was one of the blonds and some character presented as a terrorism or ISIS expert. It seemed to me that the purpose was to prepare Americans for the next false flag attack. ISIS, we were told, will be branching out and bringing its bombing attacks to America.

All of these bombing attacks have anomalies that the media never notices. Whatever officials say is reported as factual. How these bombings serve Washington’s agendas is never mentioned. The bombings often have the same pattern—brothers who conveniently leave their IDs on the scene. I suppose that having hit on an explanation that worked, the explanation is used repeatedly.

Liberalism has helped to make Western peoples blind by creating the belief that noble intentions are more prevalent than corrupt intentions. This false belief blinds people to the roles played by deception and coercion in governing. Consequently, the true facts are not perceived and governments can pursue hidden agendas by manipulating news. (more…)

The Dangers of Individualism in Art

By Kidist Paulos Asrat

Western art has been the oeuvre of the individual man, the distinct person. It does not have the veil of communitarian art, but the light of the individual mind. Through centuries of quests and questions, study and theory, and most importantly practice, it is fundamentally concerned with beauty, anchored with truth and goodness (or Godliness). [1]

Modern Western art took this quest for beauty, which had always been aligned with God, into a new turn when the modern mind reduced, and even eliminated, the presence and the subject of God from its oeuvres. What took over instead was modern man as creator, like God himself, and the grand designer of his own destiny. This quest for the new, for progress, for change – artistic, technical and ideological – which has been the character of Western art and mind throughout its history, accelerated during the modern era. [2] This frantic search translated into the cult of the new, which became worshiped in its own right. Progressivism became a substitute for the waning God. [3]

But since there is nothing substantial to worship, or esteem, other than a concept (of progress), man started to hold the thinker and the creator of these ideas, man himself, as the highest pinnacle. [4]

Man’s lack of Godly influence began to show most prominently in his art where he felt God was an obstacle to these pursuits. These psychological and spiritual shifts, rather than leaving him alone to his thoughts and activities, apart and separated from God, introduced another player into his spiritual world. He began to acquire the directions of the Devil.

The Devil knows that man has a soft heart for beauty, even if he may denounce that need when he abandons God. But, the Devil’s beauty is twisted and maligned, a fantastic copy of man’s art created under God’s direction. (more…)

YESTERDAY was the third anniversary of the death of the writer Lawrence Auster, who died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 64. A few of his close friends gathered at Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Springfield, Pennsylvania on this blustery spring day to remember and pray for him at his grave under an oak tree. A soloist sang a few hymns, including this version of the traditional Irish hymn “Be Thou My Vision.”

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art;
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my Wisdom, and thou my true Word;
I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, and I thy true son,
Thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise;
Thou mine inheritance, now and always;
Thou and thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my treasure thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Eternal rest grant unto Lawrence Auster, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace, Amen. (more…)

Novus Ordo Watch looks at three theological honchos in the Vatican II Church who subtly reject belief in the physical resurrection of Christ.  It must be remembered at the outset that one of the characteristics of Modernism is the use of high-sounding and ambiguous words and confusing language in order to camouflage error and make it sound acceptable. In addition, what is denied in one place is sometimes affirmed in another, so that the Modernist can inject his poisonous error more craftily, for thus he seems confused rather than pertinacious, he prevents others from pinpointing his heresies exactly, and he always leaves a loophole for plausible deniability should he ever be challenged or found out. This is part and parcel of Modernism, and we need to keep this in mind as we review the evidence...

FROM REUTERS: The College Board, the not-for-profit organization that owns the SAT, has acknowledged widespread problems with test security in Asia in recent years. Since October 2014, the New York-based organization has delayed issuing scores in Asia six times and canceled an exam sitting in two locations there – steps the College Board takes when it has evidence that test material has been exposed to the public. But the breakdown in security is more pervasive than the College Board has publicly disclosed, Reuters has found. In addition to the security-related incidents the College Board has announced, the news agency identified eight occasions since late 2013 in which test material was circulating online before the SAT was administered overseas. (See table for details.)

SEBASTIÉN writes:

The Paris region is fortunate to have two relics directly related to the Passion of Our Lord. The Crown of Thorns, exposed every Friday during Lent at Notre Dame is known the world over, but the lesser known Tunic of Christ, said to be woven by the Holy Virgin and worn by Jesus on his bloodied body as he walked along the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha, when the Roman soldiers removed it before the Crucifixion, can also be seen at the Basilica of St. Denys in Argenteuil in a highly Islamicized northern suburb.

The seamless tunic is usually kept rolled up in a reliquary, but is occasionally exposed for short periods. The current exposition will last two weeks and began on Good Friday. It was last exposed in 1984. The day before yesterday, Easter Monday, we waited two hours along with hundreds of other pilgrims who made the trip to Argenteuil for this occasion. Judging by the crowds, Jorge Bergolio still has a long way to go before completely destroying the faith of Novus Ordo Catholics who made up the majority of the pilgrims. (more…)

  HAVING been mostly away from the computer for several days, I belatedly wish the readers of this site a happy Easter season. May you never be estranged from the wonder and promises of the Resurrection.