FROM The Star-Spangled Heresy: Americanism by Solange Hertz (Tumblar House, 2012):

“It would be difficult to overrate the natural genius of this extraordinary man. In his Epitaph he calls himself a printer. And so he was, printing playing much the same role in his life that gold-making played in Alchemy. By its means he put together the first controlled press in America, his Pennsylvania Gazette soon heading a whole network of subsidiaries throughout the Colonies like the New York Journal, the Boston Gazette, and myriad lesser breed.

“These constituted a Masonic press, staunchly anti-Papist and preaching its own doctrine indefatigably in political dress. Franklin was a master propagandist. It is well known how he maintained European indignation at fever pitch against the British and loyalist Americans by atrocity stories which could not get by at home, but which he circulated via his fake newspaper the Boston Independent Chronicle, regular “reprints” of which were distributed abroad from Holland. Bernard Fay concludes it was such papers, in conjunction with taverns, the Lodges and the cooperation of certain preachers and merchants which actually fabricated the American Revolution. (more…)

ALAN writes:

Ten years ago, I wrote about the fifty-year reunion of my eighth-grade parochial school class.(TTH, Nov. 4, 2014)

Last month I attended the sixty-year reunion. Fewer classmates were there, but it was a glorious feeling once again to be among the living; to be among people who can see straight, think straight, and talk straight. For one afternoon, we lived on an island of memories, laughter, animated conversations, and once-upon-a-time anecdotes. We shared reminiscences of life at St. Anthony of Padua grade school and high school and the neighborhood around it in the years 1956-’68. Both schools closed years ago because the kind of people who ran them and the parish and that neighborhood moved away in later years because they preferred to go on living.

We talked about the streetcars on Meramec Street and the Chariton Restaurant and Al Smith’s Restaurant, each a landmark for decades in that predominantly German neighborhood; about plays and other events that were held in the high school auditorium; and about teachers whom some of us remembered from pictures the parish included in a booklet it published in 1963, and Catholic nuns who were 125 years old (or so it seemed in those years to some of us children). (more…)

"THE big commercial concerns of today are quite exceptionally incompetent. They will be even more incompetent when they are omnipotent. Indeed, that is, and always has been, the whole point of a monopoly; the old and sound argument against a monopoly. It is only because it is incompetent that it has to be omnipotent. When one large shop occupies the whole of one side of a street (or sometimes both sides), it does so in order that men may be unable to get what they want; and may be forced to buy what they don’t want. That the rapidly approaching kingdom of the Capitalists will ruin art and letters, I have already said. I say here that in the only sense that can be called human, it will ruin trade, too." --- G.K. Chesterton, Utopia of Usurers  

His power shall be an everlasting power, which shall not be taken away; and His kingdom a kingdom that shall not decay.  --- (Daniel 7:14)  

"LEWISTON, Maine is a primary inflection point of the demographic replacement of White Mainers. In 2000, Lewiston was 95% White. As of the 2020 US Census, Lewiston's White population has been smashed down to 77%. "Not content with merely replacing the White population of Maine, lawmakers have passed legislation to silence White Mainers from even speaking about the war being waged against them for being White. A 2023 law passed “in response to the rise in White Nationalism” makes it a violation of civil rights to 'attempt to cause emotional distress if motivated by race.'" Read more  

"TRUMP'S rhetoric is not anti-White, but his policies, actions, and inactions are absolutely anti-White." Read more.  

“Psychopolitics is the art and science of asserting and maintaining dominion over the thoughts and loyalties of individuals, officers, bureaus, and masses, and the effecting of the conquest of enemy nations through mental healing.”

FROM Brainwashed into Slavery by Kenneth Goff (1949):

The first thing to be degraded in any nation is the state of Man, himself. Nations which have high ethical tone are difficult to conquer . Their loyalties are hard to shake, their allegiance to their leaders is fanatical, and what they usually call their spiritual integrity cannot be violated by duress. It is not efficient to attack a nation in such a frame of mind. It is the basic purpose of Psychopolitics to reduce that state of mind to a point where it can be ordered and enslaved. Thus, the first target is Man, himself. He must be degraded from a spiritual being to an animalistic reaction pattern. He must think of himself as an animal, capable only of animalistic reactions. He must no longer think of himself, or of his fellows, as capable of “spiritual endurance,” or nobility.

The best approach toward degradation in its first stages is the propaganda of “scientific approach” to Man . Man must be consistently demonstrated to be a mechanism without individuality, and it must be educated into a populace under attack that Man’s individualistic reactions are the product of mental derangement . The populace must be brought into the belief that every individual within it who rebels in any way, shape, or form against efforts and activities to enslave the whole, must be considered to be a deranged person whose eccentricities are neurotic or insane. and who must have at once the treatment of a psychopolitician. (more…)

WHAT explains Trump's fanatical devotion to all things Israel? You decide.  

IF YOU know of any trustworthy organization taking donations for those in the path of Hurricane Helene, please let me know at thinkinghousewife@pm.me.

Thank you. (more…)

KATHY G. writes:

When Kamala Harris mocked Jesus, she joined Obama, Hillary, and Biden in the relatively new tradition of antagonizing potential voters, something we never saw before the Kenyan was installed. Politicians never insulted any voter, and went to great lengths to try to appeal to everyone in order to win votes. Curiously, after Obama became president, he had no problem revealing his disdain for the conservative “bitter clingers to guns and religion”, Hillary exulted in ridiculing the “basket of Deplorables” who supported Trump, and Biden called them “white supremacists” and “terrorists”. It appears the tradition of insulting American voters signaled the end of any actual votes electing representatives, and the actual installation of operatives by “elites”.

Kamala Harris’ triumphant rejection of Jesus Christ may well be a bridge too far for the Novus Ordo religionists who were so gleeful at Trump being ousted in 2020, uncaring of the very shady circumstances. We will see if these “Catholics” support this communist even after she openly scorns Christ.

Will their Trump-hate overcome their love of Christ? (more…)

A MAN yells "Jesus is Lord" and "Christ is King" at a Kamala event while she's promoting abortion. To wild applause, she tells him he's at the wrong rally and should be at the "smaller one" down the street.  

OCTOBER — Robert Frost O hushed October morning mild, Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild, Should waste them all. The crows above the forest call; Tomorrow they may form and go. O hushed October morning mild, Begin the hours of this day slow. Make the day seem to us less brief. Hearts not averse to being beguiled, Beguile us in the way you know. Release one leaf at break of day; At noon release another leaf; One from our trees, one far away. Retard the sun with gentle mist; Enchant the land with amethyst. Slow, slow! For the grapes’ sake, if they were all, Whose leaves already are burnt with frost, Whose clustered fruit must else be lost— For the grapes’ sake along the wall.

CHARLIE DAVENPORT, at age 100, reminisced about his days as a slave:

Us Niggers didn’ know nothin’ ’bout what was gwine on in de outside worl’. All us knowed was dat a war was bein’ fit. Pussonally, I b’lieve in what Marse Jefferson Davis done. He done de only thing a gent’man could a-done. He tol’ Marse Abe Lincoln to ’tend to his own bus’ness an’ he’d ’tend to his’n. But Marse Lincoln was a fightin’ man an’ he come down here an’ tried to run other folks’ plantations. Dat made Marse Davis so all fired mad dat he spit hard ’twixt his teeth an’ say, “I’ll whip de socks off den dam Yankees.”

Dat’s how it all come ’bout.

My white folks los’ money, cattle, slaves, an’ cotton in de war, but dey was till better off dan mos’ folks.

Lak all de fool Niggers o’ dat time I was right smart bit by de freedom bug for awhile. It sounded pow’ful nice to be tol’:

“You don’t have to chop cotton no more. You can th’ow dat hoe down an’ go fishin’ whensoever de notion strikes you. An’ you can roam ’roun’ at night an’ court gals jus’ as late as you please. Aint no marster gwine a-say to you, ‘Charlie, you’s got to be back when de clock strikes nine.’”

I was fool ’nough to b’lieve all dat kin’ o’ stuff. But to tell de hones’ truf, mos’ o’ us didn’ know ourse’fs no better off. Freedom meant us could leave where us’d been born an’ bred, but it meant, too, dat us had to scratch for us ownse’fs. Dem what lef’ de old plantation seamed so all fired glad to git back dat I made up my min’ to stay put. I stayed right wid my white folks as long as I could. (more…)

"SLAVERY was put down in America, not in consequence of any action on the part of the slaves, or even any express desire on their part that they should be free. It was put down entirely through the grossly illegal conduct of certain agitators in Boston and elsewhere, who were not slaves themselves, nor owners of slaves, nor had anything to do with the question really. It was, undoubtedly, the Abolitionists who set the torch alight, who began the whole thing. And it is curious to note that from the slaves themselves they received, not merely very little assistance, but hardly any sympathy even; and when at the close of the war the slaves found themselves free, found themselves indeed so absolutely free that they were free to starve, many of them bitterly regretted the new state of things." --- Oscar Wilde,  The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891)  

FREEDOM is all right, but de niggers was better off befo' surrender, kaze den dey was looked after an' dey didn' get in no trouble fightin' an' killin' like dey do dese days. If a nigger cut up an' got sassy in slavery times, his Ole Marse give him a good whippin' an' he went way back an' set down an' 'haved hese'f. If he was sick, Marse an' Mistis looked after him, an' if he needed store medicine, it was bought an' give to him; he didn' have to pay nothin'. Dey didn' even have to think 'bout clothes nor nothin' like dat, dey was wove an' made an' give to dem. Maybe everybody's Marse and Mistis wuzn' good as Marse George and Mis' Betsy, but dey was de same as a mammy an' pappy to us niggers. --- Tempie Herndon Durham, 103 years old (1937)  

  

AT In the Spirit of Chartres, I talked a bit today with Judith Sharpe about the history of slavery. I hope to have more on the subject in the future. We only scratched the surface. The above photo is of Isaac Jefferson, a slave of Thomas Jefferson's whom I mentioned today and who was born in 1775. Isaac shared his memories of his slave days at Monticello, Virginia with Charles Campbell in the 1840s. Campbell collected them in the book Memories of a Monticello Slave. Isaac's account does not fit the popular narrative of slavery in America or the views conveyed to visitors to Monticello today, where more than $20 million was recently spent to diminish Thomas Jefferson's legacy and reputation by making slavery the central fact of his life and presenting it in a harshly negative light, with a 60-foot-long, steel sculpture created to help visitors solemnly reflect on the suffering of slaves at Monticello. Isaac seemed to have only tender memories of his master. From the book: Mr. Jefferson always singing when ridin or walkin: hardly see him anywhar out doors but what he was a-singin: had a fine clear voice, sung minnits (minuets) & sich: fiddled in the parlor. Old master very kind to servants. And: Mr. Jefferson bowed to everybody he meet: talked wid his arms folded. Gave the boys in the nail-factory a pound of meat a week, a dozen herrings, a quart of molasses &…

ST. GREGORY of Nyssa was arguably the world’s first abolitionist. In the fourth century, he condemned all trafficking of human beings and it is one of the great tragedies of history that his view was not heeded many centuries later when the transatlantic slave trade began:

“For what is such a gross example of arrogance (…) as for a human being to think himself the master of his own kind? ‘I got me slaves and slave-girls’, he says, ‘and homebred slaves were born for me’.

“Do you notice the enormity of the boast? This kind of language is raised up as a challenge to God. For we hear from prophecy that all things are the slaves of the power that transcends all (Ps 119/118,91). So, when someone turns the property of God into his own property and arrogates dominion to his own kind, so as to think himself the owner of men and women, what is he doing but overstepping his own nature through pride, regarding himself as something different from his subordinates?

“’I got me slaves and slave-girls’. What do you mean? You condemn man to slavery, when his nature is free and possesses free will, and you legislate in competition with God, overturning his law for the human species. The one made on the specific terms that he should be the owner of the earth, and appointed to government by the Creator – him you bring under the yoke of slavery, as though defying and fighting against the divine decree. (more…)