AMONG the conceits of boosters of modern-day capitalism, with its supposed free competition and “free trade,” is the idea that consumers are supplied with a wide range of choices and that the best products win out due to the forces of competition.

That this is myth is easily exposed by a trip to the supermarket or mall. The truth is, capitalism, as we know it, often consigns us to a very limited array of inferior products. There is all too often no hope for any competition to the producers of obvious junk because they are so big and so well-funded and so pervasive.

Here is one small example.

I recently set out to buy a replacement for the sponge of my kitchen mop. It was one of those mops that is squeezed out by pushing down on a sleeve on the handle. It is a simple design that was common for many years. I bought the mop  two or three years ago. But I found out, after going to five or six stores, that the sponge refill is no longer available. The mop has been discontinued and you cannot buy a refill pad anywhere, not even online. No other mop manufacturer produces a simple mop refill for this model.

That meant I had to buy a new mop, not just a new sponge. But the kitchen mops that were available were all …. technologically weird. They included this complicated Libman “Freedom Mop” (above, what a ridiculous name for a mop), which does not allow you to dunk the mop head in water and wring it out. Other mops had styrofoam pads, which do not hold water, or had other similarly complicated, counterintuitive designs. Basically none of the mops could be used with a simple pail of water and an easy mechanism for squeezing a sponge mop head out without bending down. I was in one store and spotted something that seemed to fit the bill. I grabbed it. On my very first use of this plastic mop — I am not lying — it broke. Part of the plastic head just snapped.

While I was shopping, I ran into a woman in the aisle of yet another store. She heard me talking about how bad all the mops were. She interjected and said she has looked for a simple, decent kitchen mop everywhere and could not find one. Yet think of how basic a mop is to daily life. Everyone needs a mop.

It was obvious, after searching over a two-week period, that the few mop manufacturers that supply most stores want consumers to buy the “mops” with disposable wet pads such as those produced by Swiffer. These pads are expensive and give off a strong chemical odor. I used them for a while, but I don’t like them. There’s something decadent and wasteful about pulling out a chemical-bathed diaper every time you want to clean the floor and throwing it out after one use.

I ended up buying this other mop by Libman with its cheap plastic parts and big brush. I am willing to bet that the replacement sponge will not be available for all that much longer and that the whole thing will not last for long. “Free enterprise” often seems to entail compulsory consumption of trash. The people who produce this junk in factories in China are probably paid very little and have no fondness for the product either.

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ALMOST half of British youth between the ages of 18 and 24 who responded to a survey said they are not quite heterosexual. (more…)

HERE'S COMMENTARY at Tradition in Action about Mr. Bergoglio's revolting habit of touching the stomachs of pregnant women who are just getting married. It's not enough that this impostor has to paw little children all the time, sometimes making them burst into tears, he also turns to unborn children to promote ever so slyly his agenda. Oh, it seems to loving! So tender! After all, he is blessing the unborn! This con artist never misses a chance for some symbolic and sentimental gesture to manipulate the public mind and undercut Catholic morality without explicitly rejecting it. Here he is clearly sanctioning extra-marital relations. TIA writes: This is inconceivable for a Pope, whose mission is to confirm the faithful in the Catholic Faith and Morals. But it's not inconceivable for a Masonic infiltrator. It's just the sort of thing he would do.

A POPE who ain't Catholic ain't a pope. It's elementary, my dear Watson. See more at Novus Ordo Watch.

"WHEN everything is a marriage, nothing is a marriage." Consider more reflections by Edward Feser.

THOMAS DROLESKEY writes at Christ or Chaos:

Today’s Feast of Our Lady’s Assumption ought to be a major national holiday in all of the countries of the world. Our Lady is the Queen of Heaven and of Earth. Her Divine Son is meant to be honored as the King of all men and of all nations. Each country, without exception, is meant to be confessionally Catholic, thus giving God His due and affording men an opportunity to fulfill the duties of their states-in-life with a view to their eternal destiny, all aspects of national life being referred to our First Cause and our Last End. What redounds to Christ the King is to be given to the Queen Mother, that is, public honor and recognition, especially through her Most Holy Rosary and public processions and pilgrimages in her honor. No man can get to Heaven without Our Lady. No country serves God truly except by means of giving public honor to His Most Blessed Mother. God will never truly bless any country that does not honor His Most Blessed Mother, Assumed body and soul into Heaven on this very day.

Orestes Brownson’s essay, Moral and Social Influence of Devotion to Mary, speaks of this exact point. No society is “civilized” unless it refers all of its actions to the Mother of God, she who was assumed body and soul into Heaven:

The whole order of Christian civilization is founded on humility, and on respect for the humble and compassion for the poor and friendless, the needy and the helpless. The Greek and Roman civilization was founded on pride, on respect for the successful, and favored only the favorites of fortune. (more…)

ALAN writes:

Toys representing monstrous and ugly creatures “should be banished from every toy box and tossed into incinerators,” you wrote in “The Occult in Children’s Toys.” Am I alone among your readers in suggesting that the same advice may apply to television?

“It would be better to play with sticks and mud” than with such toys, you wrote.

Precisely correct.  Children must be made stupid; they are not born that way.  And contrary to what many parents believe, “child’s play” is not frivolous.  It is serious business to children, and properly so.  They will make toys of what nature provides for them—sticks, mud, trees, hills, sand, flowers, snow, animals—and of common things in daily life—boxes, paper, crayons, rags.

Thirty years ago, Erma Bombeck wrote: (more…)

DON VINCENZO writes:

  IN a short video, the organization Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth shows raging fires in skyscrapers around the world that did not result in buildings collapsing: This three-and-a-half-minute video — "9/11 In Perspective"— presents footage of eight buildings, ranging from nine to 62 floors, that have been either partially or fully engulfed in flames and yet remained standing despite massive internal destruction. Their major fires shown in these clips range from 1988 to 2008, and took place in U.S. cities (Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles) and abroad (Caracas, Madrid, Beijing, Delft). Seeing the stubborn resilience of these high-rise steel structures makes one question the U.S. government's contention that the Twin Towers were leveled by jet crashes and kerosene-fueled fires, and that a third building, World Trade Center 7, was destroyed by fires alone on September 11, 2001.

A writer at Henry Makow's website argues that suburbs are "sinister places" because they offer so little meaningful social interaction.

TOMORROW is the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, so I thought I would, for the sake of those who mistakenly believe that Catholics practice idolatry in their devotion to Mary, post this clear and brief explanation of the reasons for veneration of Mary. This is by Adolphe Tanquerey in A Manual of Dogmatic Theology (quoted here):

III. DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

843 A. State of the Question.

1. Errors. The cult which Catholics pay to the Blessed Virgin Protestants bitterly attack as superstitious, illusive, even idolatrous.

2. Catholic doctrine. The cult of the Blessed Virgin is not the cult of latria, which is due to God alone, nor is it the simple cult of dulia due to the saints. But it is the cult of hyperdulia because of her singular supernatural superiority. Therefore devotion to Mary embraces:

1) Veneration and reverence because of the dignity of the divine maternity conferred on her and because of her outstanding holiness; (more…)

FOR many years now, major toy manufacturers have been producing demonic “action figures” for children, particularly for boys. This is not a new story. But it is still a shocking story.

Just to give you an idea of the latest, here are a few figures that Walmart recommends for children between the ages of two and four. In other words, these are recommended for toddlers.

What are we to think of these hideous “toys?” We are to think of them as child abuse. They desensitize children to extreme ugliness, impoverish their imaginations and acclimate them to the satanic. It would be better to have no toys at all. (more…)

CHERYL SULLENGER at Tradition in Action writes about the "full, uncut video of the undercover visit to the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Houston, Texas." "That longer video contains new revelations that some aborted baby remains sold by Planned Parenthood go to biotech companies for the purpose of creating 'humanized' mice."

WILLIAM writes from the Netherlands:

After the unveiling of the satanic ‘Baphomet’ statue in Detroit, people can now also rejoice in the projection of the Hindu goddess Kali on the Empire State Building.

The Kali projection was part of a visual show on the building’s exterior last weekend, a display on threats to endangered species and Kali was included for “giving mother nature a fierce avatar against pollution.’ I suppose the fact that ‘mother’ nature pollutes the world much more than humans by way of volcanic eruptions or that humans, in the modern view, áre nothing but mammals, i.e. themselves part of ‘mother nature,’ does not make anyone pause for a second.

So now we have the goddess Kali to project ‘change.’ Her name means “black, time, death, destruction” and could be connected with “hell” and the Germanic goddess ‘Hella’ or ‘Holda.’ She, like Kali, was a goddess of death and associated with the (skin) colours blue and black, being the same in ancient understanding.

In recent years, the people who have tatto-ed or body-painted themselves with skeletal features have increased tremendously and Hella was often half skeletal. There is a skeletal goddess or aspect of Kali in Hinduism too (Chamunda). (more…)

THE former public school teacher and well-known anti-school crusader, John Taylor Gatto, explains his views of mass schooling. The primary purpose of modern schools, he argues, is not knowledge, but social engineering. There are many other videos of his talks here and here. I don't understand his points about eugenics, but his general idea of the industrializing of schools is his most important criticism.