SOMETIMES you suddenly and for no reason think of people you haven’t seen in years, the friends that drifted away. Recently, I was thinking about a family that used to live on our street. They moved to a nicer neighborhood a few miles away — oh, boy, it was about 15 years ago — and we gradually lost touch.

I was thinking about her, the mother of two boys roughly the same age as our boys. I always liked her. “Maybe I will knock on their door,” I thought. “I’ll just show up and say, ‘Remember me?” Read More »

SOME news stories about the alleged Robb Elementary School shooting were posted on the Internet before the event. Wikipedia posted a full page on the shooting, complete with map of school campus the day of the event.

HERE is a beautiful American love song, dedicated to my husband, on the occasion of our 35th wedding anniversary.

We’ve lived on the same street for many years now. I still remember when we didn’t, and would rather be here, on the street where he lives.

People stop and stare
They don’t bother me,
For there’s no where else on earth
That I would rather be

Let the time go by,
I won’t care if I
Can be here on the street where you live Read More »

“WHEN I was a teenager, people with looser morals in the area of sex tended to characterize those with more conservative attitudes as prudes or killjoys.  The attitude was that of the frat boy who pities the nerd or bookworm who doesn’t know how to have a good time. Nowadays the mentality is instead like that of a Bizarro-world Cotton Mather, or perhaps a mashup of Hugh Hefner and Mao Zedong.  Critics of the sexual revolution are treated as agents of the devil or enemies of the people – bigots, haters, oppressors who must be hounded and silenced.

[…]

“It is … worth noting that as the sexual revolution has progressed, it has led to claims ever more bizarre and manifestly preposterous – such as the claim that the biological distinction between male and female is bogus and an expression of mere bigotry. How could anyone seriously believe such nonsense?  The motive for wanting to believe it is not mysterious, since one might have gotten oneself locked into sexual vices so extreme that their rationalization requires such an absurd thesis.  But how could one fool oneself into actually believing it?  Here too a kind of Bizarro-world moralism rides to the rescue.  If one can whip oneself up into a self-righteous frenzy that directs attention away from the absurdity of one’s belief and onto the purported bigotry of those who deny it, then the belief can (perhaps just barely) be sustained.  And the more manifestly absurd the belief, the more moralistically shrill will be the rhetorical defense of it, because rhetorical force has to make up for the lack of any rational basis.

“We might call this the law of compensatory moralism: The more manifestly shameful or absurd one’s sexual vices, the more shrilly moralistic one will tend to be in attacking those who object to them, so as to compensate psychologically for one’s own deep-down awareness of this shamefulness and absurdity.”

–– Edward Feser, “Psychoanalyzing the Sexual Revolutionary“

“ASK Mary to obtain for you the grace of a clear, practical knowledge of your nothingness. You have inherited the seed of pride from Adam; hence, the road to self-knowledge is rough and hard. But Mary is your Mother, if she is with you, everything will become easier and sweeter.”

(Memento Mori)

A partially weeded section of our front yard. I’m trying, for Pete’s sake!!

SPRING is a time of combat, at least here in suburban Pennsylvania. The greens are on the move. They are lush, vibrant and unstoppable. Lilacs, azaleas, verdant lawns and an infinitude of flowering plants fill our lungs with their sweet, restoring exhalations.

But the weeds have returned too, amassed in military-style battalions with age-old strategies of invasion and conquest, some operating with sneak attacks or guerilla warfare, others blitzkrieg-ing entire neighborhoods within a few hours.

They may have delicate and colorful flowers. They may be as fragrant as expensive perfumes, but they will spread and dominate all other plants if they get their way. They  mean to conquer. In May, invasive vines would wrap their tendrils around our necks at night if we let them do what they naturally do and if we did not engage in backbreaking battles with them, like mariners in a storm holding the sails against the towering waves crashing over our heads. I have seen grape vine trying to get in our bedroom windows. I have told my husband that if I die before him, he must evacuate the property immediately. Otherwise he will be murdered by honeysuckle. I currently have Weed-Induced Cardio-Muscular-Skeletal Fatigue Syndrome.

The people who defend weeds and say they should generally be left alone are barbarians with no appreciation for order and beauty. You cannot love some plants unless you hate others.

We can’t shoot weeds with guns unfortunately and we shouldn’t douse them in chemical poisons, except in exceptional cases, because that would be to engage in an unfair advantage over them. Bombing our yards is a tempting idea, but probably too destructive. Sometimes there is no choice but to-the-death wrestling matches. This is war, but no victory is final. Cardboard can do a lot to stifle weeds and now that Amazon has put everyone else out of business every yard in existence could be paved with cardboard. But there is no trick to overcoming weeds completely except the unpleasant, boring, hand-to-root struggle. Weeds, especially those with roots that seem to traverse miles into the bowels of the earth, are a disturbingly persuasive argument for the institution of human slavery. I’m going to go so far as to say, weeds created slavery in the dawning years of agriculture, eons before Monsanto was causing human cancer with its herbicides. It’s only when I’m weeding that I have outrageous sympathies with plantation owners and contemplate how sweet spring would be if I only owned two nice slaves. (I know I would treat them better than Amazon treats its slaves.)

Weeds are a reminder that something has fundamentally gone wrong in Paradise. Nature has mixed feelings about us. Weeds are also a reminder that if you don’t attack a problem at its roots, you will not overcome it, a lesson that can be applied to every other arena of life. Pull its shoots and a weed will return, positively energized by the pruning. Attack the symptoms of a disease only and it will likely return with a vengeance.

If you are ever tempted to despair by the vindictive powers of unwanted vegetation, please remember that if the forces that make weeds so lush and abundant did not exist — if the warm temperatures and abundant rains never came — neither would the plants that claim our affections. In deserts, there are no weeds and there are no gardens either. I have no idea what people who live in deserts do in the spring. I guess they play cards or watch a lot of TV. Anyway, the conditions that create weeds create the vegetative splendors of spring, a season which trembles and sings, in perfect harmony with spiritual realities.

The people who enjoy spring most are probably the young and property-less who don’t notice weeds and have no idea how much the human management of vegetation costs. They actually think nature is natural. There is a time in life for this inspiring ignorance. I wouldn’t wish the wisdom weeds bring on anyone.

Still, weeds are truly a small price to pay for the lavish gifts of spring. No matter what is happening in the world, spring returns. Did you notice that? Spring cannot be held back or canceled. Supreme Court “justices” cannot issue a ruling that spring is over. They can do that with marriage and human life — they can say they no longer exist — but not spring. I know the global control freaks are trying their best to engineer the weather and to muddy the skies every day to create just the right cloudy, totalitarian look, but the daffodils and dandelions just laugh at them so far.

When slaving away in our personal jungle, I sometimes hear an oriole whistling overhead.

“I am overjoyed,” he says to his mate. “Come, fly with me.”

Who wouldn’t marry a bird like that?

The thought that a few unwanted vines may hold together the pair’s invisible love nest high up in a tree uplifts and exalts the weeder. All of life is inescapably intertwined.

THE Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary can be found here.

 
APOLOGIES for not being able to say more right now about this subject.

I’m laughing too hard. Oh, it hurts. I can’t breathe. I, I can’t stop, I just can’t …

FROM Gary Barnett at Lew Rockwell:

It seems completely obvious that this so-called baby formula ‘crisis’ is a scam, and was purposely created to advance other agendas. Is baby formula scarce worldwide, or is this a U.S. phenomenon? There is evidence that U.S. baby formula is on shelves in other countries. It is also obvious that most could breast feed their babies naturally, which could negate this fraudulent (manmade) shortage. That is the healthy choice, but pharmaceutical companies are telling mothers and parents that breast feeding is dangerous and not a solution for this baby formula shortage. Baby formulas coming from the few large U.S. companies allowed to produce and sell them, are chemically laced and unhealthy products, but so many have been sold the lie that mothers can simply use a store-bought product instead of natural feeding or making their own formula. This is just more hype and lies meant to harm families and promote a particular reaction. After all, it is easier just to buy these protectionist products instead of seeking alternatives, and that seems to be the new American way.

Money, power, control, and societal dependence are sought by the state, and this new ‘crisis’ is simply meant to cause more panic to young parents who have been groomed to do as they are told. After all, this is not the only government made panic, as everything going on is meant to create and stoke fear. Food shortages abound, and that will worsen, and there will be more shortages coming, including less energy available for entire populations. By using the ‘climate change’ argument to sell fake, genetically modified baby formula, it should be a simple task to see through this fraud.

Personal responsibility can go a long way in overcoming the fear foisted on society by the criminal tyrants. This baby formula fiasco is just one more in a long series of abuses at the hands of these controllers and their pawns in government and the media.

Remember that everything coming from the claimed rulers should be disbelieved, everything should be questioned, and nothing coming from the state and the political class should be accepted without solid factual evidence to support any claim made. As an aside, solid factual evidence from government is anything but likely, and very rarely exists.

Courtesy of Thuletide

St. Bernardine of Siena, Jacopo Bellini

“O THOU vain prattler, hearken! A sage giving counsel to mankind saith: If thou speakest, say little and speak seldom and speak low, do not shout and verily this is a most useful saying! Woman, when thou speakest to thy husband say little, and speak seldom and in a low tone, because who sayeth little can seldom err. Knowest thou the proverb: He who speaketh often, doth often err. And moreover when thou speakest, speak in a low tone: do not speak so that thou seemest a locust.

“Woman, wouldst thou please thy husband? Yes. Then speak little, do not chatter as many women do — chia, chia, chia — who never cease in order to rest. O she is a bad neighbor, a chatterer. We have it that the Blessed Virgin spoke seven times in all the length of her life, and not more. I mean not to say that she never said more, but that of all those things which she said we know only seven.”

— St. Bernardine of Siena

(H/t: Memento Mori)

Susan B. Anthony

TERRY MORRIS, writing at Identity Dixie, makes a point I have made in posts here and in my interview “Real History and the Suffragettes” at In the Spirit of Chartres:

Perhaps one of the strongest, most enduring misconceptions ever to come down the pike regarding the infamous 19th Amendment – of “female emancipation” and its predictable disastrous aftermath – is the idea that the original “suffragettes” were “conservative” in their overall world and life view, and had altogether, or at least mostly, pure intentions and motives in mind when a few of them first organized to meet in Seneca Falls, New York, July 19-20, 1848. A modern iteration of the point may readily be found in the following exchange between two (silly) American women who count themselves among the leadership ranks of today’s “conservative women” and who came together to discuss the topic as such on a post-2020 election Heritage Foundation-sponsored podcast ironically named Problematic Women. To wit (beginning @ 11:09):

Problematic Host: I know, I’m … such a nerd; I … love the House Freedom Caucus, and,… I just can’t wait for the day where… – We do conversations with conservatives at the Daily Signal and with the Heritage Foundation, and that’s where the … House Freedom Caucus comes into a press conference – …and I just can’t wait till the day I show up and it’s … half women, half men, and women are represented there; it’s just going to be such a, uh, I dunno, a proud lady moment for me.

Problematic Guest: A “proud lady moment,” I mean, that’s an awesome way to think about it, right! Conservative women are … resolute, and it seems like we’ve finally come to the other side of the, y’know, the very harsh and extreme feminist movement of the last thirty years, and we’re ready to reclaim the original type of feminism that started in Seneca Falls and take it back for conservative women, and be what it’s really supposed to be about, which is providing opportunity, umm, and advancement for all women, not just a specific type of women, and I think that’s why so many people are so excited about Justice Barrett, about these thirteen new [female] House members, …

Read more.

Yes, Mr. Morris.

The new feminism is the same as the old feminism. Just because the suffragettes wore long skirts and frilly caps doesn’t mean they were not revolutionaries.

There were no first waves, second waves, third waves, or fourth waves. It’s all the same tsunami, crashing incessantly over our heads since the 19th century, based on the same principles, on the denial of essential differences between the sexes and on a war against the family. It was never about the vote and women could have received the vote without a feminist campaign; it was about transforming all of society.

“HAVE you ever wondered why worshippers of the Buddha never argue about anything? Uneducated and ignorant people think nirvana was a grunge band headed up by that guy who killed himself. Even less educated people think nirvana is some kind of blissful state of the soul, a place of joy, peace, and tranquility, and have visions of lily ponds and light and pink lemonade at the mere mention of the word. But the object of Buddhism is not joy. The object of that cold, atheistic religion is the annihilation of love, of self, of thy neighbor, and indeed the world. That’s nirvana, if it pleases you. Buddhists never argue, because they simply have nothing to argue about.

“Now, have you ever wondered why worshippers of the only begotten Son of God seem always to be arguing? And if they are not arguing, they are being ripped to shreds by bears? Christians argue, or put up a good fight against the faithless, precisely because the object of this true religion is love, of self, of neighbor, of the world—‘world’ here meaning the created order and beauty of nature, of all that exists in creation.

“Thus, the curse of the Christian is to be a controversialist, because where the true religion is involved, disagreement is bound to arise. This is true, of course, between the believer and the non-believer, but as often happens, the non-Christian is far less concerned about truth than his Christian interlocutor. But where disagreement and controversies do spring up like lilies of the field is in the vineyard of the Lord, between fellow Christians. The reason is a simple one: a true Christian loves his neighbor as much as he loves the truth, which is why paradoxically he is willing to fight with him, to tell him how much of a dunce he is.”

 — Robert Robbins, Eclipsed Catholic

See also Robbin’s latest post on the dangers of sedevacantist chapels.

Note: I am referring in the heading of this post to religious controversy, not political or social disagreement. As Mr. Robbins points out Christianity hinges on the truth of its assertions and on love for the supernatural welfare of others.

ANALYSIS of the self-recorded livestream of the alleged shooter in Buffalo can be found here. The full livestream is here, with the actual shooting beginning at minute 5:30.

(Warning: This is a bloodless scene, but still may be upsetting to some. Please do not look at it if you think you may be upset by it.)

By the way, if you are not convinced that rifles or even handguns at close range cause explosive carnage, I suggest you look up the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination or look up photos of deer that have been shot by hunters.

I post this potentially disturbing content so that perhaps the few who can dispassionately analyze it may help those who are being psychologically terrorized by staged mass shootings. Children especially hear of these things and are led to view the world as much more frightening than it is. My interest in these events is motivated by concern over this constant stoking of fear and the legislative objectives being sought by propaganda. But I don’t encourage obsession with it. I hope those who are upset by even thinking about such blatant lies would simply suspend judgment and remain entirely detached from the news. They must realize, however, that these events are inevitably leading to new laws, which will restrict speech and the right to self-defense.

A WITNESS to the alleged shooting in Buffalo receives instructions from his earpiece in a live television interview.