I ONCE had a neighbor who worked for many years on rebuilding his house. He did a lot of the renovations himself and the place was transformed from a hideously ugly ’50s ranch house into a very attractive, two-story colonial. In time, our friend and his wife borrowed some of the equity they had accumulated on the house, equity which was generated by the increased value of the house resulting from the labor he had put into it. They borrowed the money to send their children to private school. And then they borrowed more to send them to college. And then his income declined. And then his wife left him. And then he drank too much. The bank reclaimed the house. The house he had spent years rebuilding and infusing with his own artistic personality no longer belonged to him.

Leaving aside the great injustice that was done to him through divorce, let me focus for a second on those banking transactions. The bank that held his final mortgage took the house not because it had lost any of its own real money on the house. It reclaimed it because it had not made enough money on the house. Our friend and his wife had, of course, paid tens of thousands of dollars in interest payments over the years, but they could no longer afford the credit that had been extended to them. The interesting thing about the loans they procured is this. They had put up something real — a house — to obtain the credit. The bank had put up nothing. It had risked nothing other than the opportunity to profit from extending credit elsewhere. It had simply created figures in its accounts, made money out of nothing, to make the deal with him. The credit the bank had extended to him was part of its share of the national reserve of credit that constitutes our collective goods and services. The bank takes some of the credit that rightfully belongs to all and sells it for a profit.

Something doesn’t quite make sense here, don’t you think? That’s what Jerome Daly thought when he was about to be foreclosed on his Minnesota house in 1969. He said, “Wait a minute. The bank put up nothing, and now it is taking my house.” He challenged the foreclosure in court.

In this video excerpt from a movie called Zeitgeist: Addendum (I have only seen this clip not the whole movie), the case of National Bank of Montgomery vs. Daly is explained. Jerome Daly won the day. Unlike my neighbor, he did not lose his house because the court agreed that the bank did not rightfully own it.

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A GERMAN writer contends that the "refugee crisis" in his country is an apocalyptic event and has all the hallmarks of a military intelligence operation. He writes: Even if this is a genuine refugee crisis, why is that none of the policies of the German/European government make any sense? And why is the press acting continuously and uniformly in favor of their policies, and is downright hostile toward the European populace? If millions of people have to flee immediate peril, there are a lot of different ways to care for them without endangering the integrity of Europe and ruining several national budgets. But instead of discussing what to do, how to do it and how to pay for it, the plan seemed to be predetermined, decided and fixed long ago. Notice that in the comments section the writer is sneered at and accused of exaggerating.

ANTI-GLOBALIST EXPATRIATE writes: I'd wager that feminism fatigue, the ethnic backgrounds of the bar employees, or both played at least some role in why the men in question in this incident failed to assist a woman who had been punched in the face by a man. And my guess is that she is a very obnoxious person in general (explaining the snide comments she alleges they made to her, and perhaps the initial assault itself -- she may well  have been harassing the fellow wearing the Afro wig about how his getup was 'racist'). I'll bet she supports women in combat, all the while complaining that 'three grown men' refused to help her. [Warning: Profane language, stupid people.]

  YOU can't be a self-respecting conspiracy theorist unless you delve into the activities of the CIA. Thus I offer this interesting new interview by Ron Paul with David Talbot, author of "The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government." Talbot discusses the CIA's role in manipulating events and public opinion. The Kennedy assassination is discussed but the main issue is the ongoing expansion of the CIA's subversive activities.

  Offertorio Lord Jesus Christ, glorious King, free the souls of all the faithful dead from punishment in the inferno, and from the deep pit. Deliver them from the lion's mouth, lest the abyss swallow them up, lest they fall into darkness. But may the standardbearer St. Michael bring them into the holy light, as once you promised to Abraham and his seed. Sacrifices and prayers we offer to you, Lord, with praise. Receive them for the souls of those whom today we commemorate; make them, Lord, to pass from death to life, as once you promised to Abraham and his seed. [Herbert von Karajan conducts the orchestra and choir of Teatro A La Scala in 1967 with soloists Leontyne Price, Fiorenza Cossotto, Luciano Pavarotti, and Nikolai Ghiaurov.]

WENDIE W. writes:

I couldn’t begin to express to you what your blog has meant to me, how much I enjoy it, how much I have learned, and how much I have benefitted from your writings, perspectives, and references.

Due to your recent interest, I have decided I must at least forward to you a most compelling video on the topic Building 7 that perhaps you have not yet seen.

 I remain ever grateful to you and your benefactors. (more…)

THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU writes:

I recently asked the students in my “Writing about Literature” course to compose a short essay by applying the criticisms made by Romantic writers and poets like William Wordsworth and Samuel T. Coleridge – and their modern defenders – against the purely rational society that modern people have inherited from their Enlightenment ancestors.  I asked, what would those authors say about a modern university?  In assessing the responses, it is probably a good idea to correct for the fact that students frequently write or say what they imagine the instructor wants to read or hear and for the tendency of contemporary college students to take things with alarming literalness.  Nevertheless, the responses hold out some interest.

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FATHER Francis Xavier Weninger explained in 1876 why we pray for the souls in Purgatory:

“In that abode of sorrow the departed souls hunger after the possession of God, and with so famishing a desire that nothing on earth can be compared with it. They thirst after the fountain of eternal life with that thirst which knows no comparison in this world. They suffer; poor and destitute of all worldly goods. Yea! they are even deprived of all those consolations which at times lessen our desires, and afford us moments of repose. Here upon earth, though we long and sigh ever so much after a thing, still we can sleep; and the pains produced by our heart’s desires in our waking moments leave us, we feel them no longer. We can engage ourselves in other occupations; other cares may distract our minds. We may, at times, enjoy various pleasures, and partake of the good things of this life. Now all these things remove, or, at least, soothe the pain and care of our desires. Not so, however, is the condition of these distressed souls. They have no refreshing slumber; they are incessantly awake; they have no occupation; they can not indulge in other cares, in other distractions. They are wholly and continually absorbed with the burning desire of being liberated from their intense misery.” (more…)

THIS Rosh Hashanah sermon by Rabbi Jeremy Gordon, of New London Synagogue in England, is quite a piece of work, a succinct statement if ever there was one of Jewish advocacy for the mass invasion of Europe by Middle Eastern refugees. The ordinary Jew, Gordon says, must not fear the radical transformation of Britain and other European nations. The refugees should be permanently accommodated because to do otherwise would be a betrayal of Jewish history. In the sermon, which is posted at the website of Support Refugees, a consortium of Jewish organizations offering assistance to the asylum seekers, Gordon explains:

We are in danger of forgetting that we are the people who are supposed to have the deepest understanding of the life of a Fiddler on the Roof; understanding the way in which people flee the country of their birth because staying is just too horrible a fate to wish upon our children is the deepest insight of our Jewish national memory. Loving the stranger is our central ethic. This is what it means to be a Jew. There may well be less Jews keeping Kosher than was the case a hundred years ago, and there may be less Jews here on Second Day Rosh Hashanah than was the case even thirty years ago, and I can live with all that. But I can’t live with this. I can’t live with the notion that the Jewish people have forgotten what it means to be Jews.

Loving the stranger is our central ethic. Gordon does not mention that the principles he advocates for Britain are not endorsed by Israel, which offers automatic asylum only to Jews. Why is Gordon not advocating the same policy for the Jewish homeland?  Nor does he mention that the brotherhood advocated by Maimonides is a brotherhood extended only to other Jews. Hating the stranger is closer to the central ethic of the Talmud, which even says it’s okay to murder, defraud and lie to gentiles. (more…)

DR. Hsiu-Ying “Lisa” Tseng was convicted of second-degree murder last week for allegedly over-prescribing prescription painkillers to three men who were addicted to the drugs. According to The New York Daily News: (more…)

ED HUNTER writes:

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation wanted to do a video on the Trump movement. They are a Leftie organization, but they treated us more or less fairly. I am in the video and they tried to trip me up with the usual racist stuff, but I think I deflected it, Auster-style. I refused to toe the PC line, which shocked them. (more…)

KEVIN MacDONALD writes about the Jewish reaction to Donald Trump, whose anti-immigration stance some see as reminiscent of Nazi Germany. This is not surprising, as Jews are taught from infancy by their own culture that they are hated.

There has been extraordinary, almost unhinged anxiety among some Jews about Donald Trump’s campaign for the GOP Presidential nomination. It has no solid basis, but unfortunately it does speak to their profound neurosis and alienation from the historic American nation. (more…)

Dr. THOMAS A. DROLESKEY writes at Christ or Chaos:

One of the many consequences of the lack of a superabundance of Sanctifying and Actual Graces flowing out into the world involves the false, infantile belief that to criticize someone for anything is to “hate” him.

Barack Hussein Obama/Barry Soetoro and many of his supporters are quick to denounce any and all criticize of him and his lawless policies as racists who are filled with resentment against a black president (who happens to be half Caucasian as well, of course).

To oppose the chemical and surgical slaughter of the innocent preborn is said to engage in a “war against women.”

Those who oppose the promotion of the sin of Sodom under the cover of civil law and all throughout what passes for popular culture are said to “hate” homosexuals, lesbians, mutants and other practitioners of perverse sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance. “Homophobia” has even been denounced by officials of the counterfeit church of conciliarism. (more…)

  FEMALE convicts in Italy celebrate Antipope Francis's message of universal salvation. Halleluia! Everyone goes to heaven.

FROM a 2014 piece by Peter Kwasniewski, Ph.D.: One day in New Jersey, years ago, I was standing on a train platform waiting to catch a train into New York City. Seeing beautiful and well-dressed young women waiting at the platform, on their way to work, I thought: How many of these women are committing themselves to a life of singlehearted devotion to Mammon, the god of the world, without reaping any of the benefits that would arise from a life dedicated to the true God? They are celibate, after a fashion, but they are not virgins; they make sacrifices day after day, but reap no salvation from them, and bring no immortal souls into the world. They might have sex, but no children; thus, they lose the chief glory and merit of the married woman. Once they have a child, they then frequently hand over the burden of work to someone else, losing the greatest opportunity and privilege of all, that of nurturing and educating their own offspring. We know that there are cases where daycare cannot be avoided and is chosen as a last resort; and yet, could one truly say it is unavoidable in the majority of cases? So many modern women are a set of absolute contradictions: their lives are consecrated, but to a false god who takes away the blessings of virginal faith; they are lying down with their husbands, but choose barrenness; when they bear children…

KIDIST PAULOS ASRAT, who lives in Canada today, was born in Ethiopia. Her father worked for the government of Emperor Haile Selasie and the family fled to France during the civil war of the 1970s, which was followed by catastrophic famine. Miss Asrat is at work on a memoir of her life, and it is a fascinating story. Her first chapter is online. It begins:

My earliest decisive moment was when I was left behind for the first time for school. I was a little more than two years old, and my father had moved us to the northern province of Ethiopia, which was later to be the ground for bitter civil war, and its eventual secession.

It was part of the government’s program to fill official posts by the Emperor’s Men, so to speak, throughout the country, to quell dissatisfied grumblings of the influential ethnic groups like the Tigray (of the north) who wanted to end the centuries-old stranglehold on Ethiopia by the Amhara. But the Amhara were confident in their quest, and in the correctness of their quest. They were on a mission to make Ethiopians out of all the ethnic groups of the country: Tigray, Eritrea, Gojjam, Somali. To be a nation was to be modern.  (more…)

SVEN writes:

I was in Fairbanks, Alaska, the state’s second largest city the other day. Back before the Alaska Railroad was built, it was at the end of the earth as boomtown in the Klondike Gold Rush. Travelling there required a dangerous voyage from Seattle to Nome, and then a treacherous journey through the heart of Alaska by a Yukon riverboat.

I had an extra hour, so I stepped into the historic Church of the Immaculate Conception, which sits on the banks of the Chena River in the downtown area. It actually survived the 1927 flood when it floated down the street. In terms of architecture or decoration, it’s not too unusual. I’ve seen countless Lutheran churches in North Dakota that look a lot the same, although most are sadly abandoned, casualties to the automobile and declining church attendance. In a way, churches like these are special precisely because they used to be so unremarkable. Building churches was a form of sacrifice, and everyone pitched in to build the most beautiful church that they could afford.

What’s striking about this church is the effort that went into building it so far from the rest of the world. The stained glass windows would have had to be carefully imported from the states. The boards would have been made of very expensive and carefully milled local boards. Although there are many trees in Fairbanks, they tend to be stunted so it can be difficult to find sawmill quality timber. Any special hardwood items, such as the pews, would have been imported as well. All of the fancy wood work would have been done by local craftsmen.

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OUR culture is producing highly motivated girls and boys who are alienated from school and achievement. Boys have always rebelled against the dull routines of school, but the malaise we see today is more intense and pervasive, a product of unprecedented focus on boosting the morale of girls and of a world in which everything traditionally expected of men and women has undergone radical change. Heroism has been demonized. Boys understandably find it all boring. On some unconscious level, they know school is not about reality. Electronic games also consume much of their energy and motivation.

Gallons and gallons of ink have been spilled already on this subject. In his book, Boys Adrift, Leonard Sax, whom I have written about before, does a good job of describing the problem:

The hostility I’m seeing toward school among so many boys—no longer confined to black and Latino boys in low-income neighborhoods, but now including white and Asian boys in affluent suburbs—is also new. If you’re my age, or older, you can remember forty years ago when the Beach Boys had a major hit with their song “Be True to Your School”: “Be true to your school . . . just like you would to your girl.” That song describes a boy who is proud to wear a sweater emblazoned with the school’s initials, a boy who insists that allegiance to one’s school should be on a par with the enthusiasm a boy has for his girlfriend. There is no trace of irony in the song. If you’re my age or older, you remember Sam Cooke singing “Don’t know much about history . . . but maybe by being an A-student, baby / I could win your love for me” in his song “Wonderful World.” It’s hard to imagine any popular male vocalist singing such a line today, except as a joke. Can you imagine Akon or 50 Cent or Snoop Dogg or even Taylor Hicks singing, without irony and in all seriousness, about wanting to earn an A at school to impress a girl? I can’t. (more…)