I’ve always loved Camus. But his shadow side must be faced. In his novella, The Fall, the Algerian-French philosopher and novelist Albert Camus stops lamenting social injustice for a moment as well as the “meaninglessness” and “absurdity” of an empty Nietzschean universe in general, and turns instead to biography, specifically to his own cruelty. Camus was a… Read More The Falls of Albert Camus
America… “not in any sense Christian” “….she licensed every form of lust with laws to cleanse the stain of scandal she has spread.” — Dante, The Inferno, canto V, 57. Every four years, truths in America can change from one thing to another, even as the center – left’s quest to be the global hegemon… Read More America and Seductive False ‘Liberty’.
An impressive look at our assumptions about Mainstream Media sources versus the new burgeoning superstars. “The term “mainstream media” has long been used to refer to established journalism outlets in the United States. In recent years, it has also been used in a more critical context, including by former President Donald Trump, other politicians and members of the media… Read More The Fall of the Mainstream Media? By What Metric?
Good Fences, Shared Bounty. Can it ever be wise to separate compassion, reasonable limits and common sense? If you have followed the immigration debates in the West in recent decades you will have long ago gotten a glimpse of the fears, greed, fanaticism and wars which, often enough, make many peoples in our post 9/11… Read More Immigration, Birds of a Feather and Trojan Horses
NOR editor, Pieter Vree, writes, “The NOR was contacted by a neocon foundation — right out of the blue” …”As my father wrote, “We at the NOR are glad to be independent of the ideological bigwigs. We don’t have to run around on the New York and D.C. cocktail-party circuit. We don’t have to kiss… Read More New Oxford Review’s Finest Hour
Before there was Gloria Steinem or Michel Foucault, there was Dada. And it was deadly serious. Kickoff, Demolition time. “Dada thrives on contradictions. It is creative and destructive. Dada denounces the world and wishes to save it.” So says one narrator of journalist-filmmaker Mick Gold’s Europe After the Rain, a 1978 Arts Council of Great Britain documentary… Read More 1914. Europe After the Rain.
Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities Authors: John A. McHugh, Charles J. Callan Although the signs of scrupulosity are easily recognizable, the causes are not clearly defined, and authors are not entirely agreed in this matter. A listing of probable causes would include internal causes: (a)… Read More Causes of a scrupulous Conscience
See Dr. Mark Miravalle talk below. Pope Leo XIII wrote, “… as soon as the constitution and the spirit of the masonic sect were clearly discovered by manifest signs of its actions, by the investigation of its causes, by publication of its laws, and of its rites and commentaries, with the addition often of the… Read More St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Popes & the Masonic Sect
Updated below. In his recent debate with Joe Biden, Donald Trump said, “We brought it back to the states and the country is now getting back together,” Trump said. Repeatedly, he said that “everyone” supported repealing Roe. But less than a year ago (2023) Donald Trump Called a 6-Week Abortion Ban a ‘Terrible Mistake’. Is… Read More 2023 – 2024. Trump’s Head Spinning Moral Schizophrenia
In one of Saint Therese of Lisieux’s favorite books, End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, the author, Fr. Charles Arminjon (1824-1885) writes among many important things on the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. And he draws a most important moral Gospel lesson: “There are circumstances when even… Read More Even the Wicked Are Rewarded In This Life.
Though they take the credit, feminists, radical or otherwise, actually had little to do with the progress of women in the latter half of this century. The trends that would of themselves produce today’s results were in place at least by the early 1960s. Once such things as the right to vote and the right… Read More Remaking Human Beings. Robert Bork.
Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register writes, “Pope Francis appears to open the door to same-sex blessings in his response to dubium no. 2, saying that priests may use their discretion in giving such blessings, so long as they don’t imply a same-sex union is equivalent to a heterosexual marriage: a) The Church has… Read More Francis Appears to Open Another Door
Note: The State today is massively involved in every aspect of American capitalist society, even to the point of total surveillance of citizens and outrageous mandatory thought-direction. Does this fact make the old paradigms (Capitalism / Socialism) obsolete? Few seem to think so. So as Francis Schaefer once asked, how should we then live? These… Read More Catholic Economics Round Table
Human Beings have certain rights, moral values, and responsibilities that are inherent in human nature. Natural law teaching is based on the idea that natural laws are universal concepts and are not based on any culture or customs. Still, it is a way society acts naturally and inherently as human beings. “Few ideas have been… Read More The Essential Natural Law. Dr. Samuel Gregg.
Jordan Peterson and Dennis Prager. In this episode Trent Horn examines some recent comments from Dennis Prager and Jordan Peterson that argue for pornography in moderation and compares them to Protestants who condemn porn but defend masturbation. Trent Horn earned his master’s degrees in the fields of theology, philosophy, and bioethics. He serves as a… Read More Trent Horn on The Spiritual Limits of Otherwise Decent Internet Moralists
When after hundreds of years the LORD finally heard the prayers and cries of his people in Egypt and delivered them from slavery under Pharaoh, he led them into the desert where they suffered for another 40 or so years. And the people were not happy about it: Then they said to Moses, “Was it because there… Read More Real Faith is Not For the Fainthearted
“One of the most famous and most evil techniques of Maoist Marxism is the “struggle session” (dòuzhēng, 鬥爭; or pīpàn dòuzhēng, 批判鬥爭, “critical struggle”; or sometimes just pīdòu, 批鬥; also called “denunciation” sessions). “They were made famous during Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), but they were utilized in the Chinese thought-reform (xǐnǎo, 洗脑, lit. “wash brain”… Read More Surviving A Modern “Struggle Session”. James Lindsay.
From the Imaginative Conservative In acknowledgement of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I wish to raise the question, based on Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” as to when, if ever, as well as to what extent, it is appropriate to defy the rule of law. On The Imaginative Conservative Winston Elliott raised the question “When is a… Read More Martin Luther King and the Rule of Law
In the time of Noah they laughed at him, but in a time when Creation, the Natural Law and gender itself, is being globally attacked as “hate”… Be it Near or Still a Ways Off, the Second Coming of the Lord & the Last Judgment By Fr. Wm. Saunders Will the last judgment occur at… Read More “We must stay awake and keep watch”
How will the knaves manipulate the masses without this “speech”? The Daily Beast: J.D. Vance Is Coming for Your Porn–Watch Out Meantime, Swiss Cows Browser and Search Engine “No Tracking. Anonymous. Family Friendly (No Pornography. Ever).“ https://swisscows.com/. (Get the App at Google Play and other App stores online). “We place great importance on family-friendly Internet… Read More Vows to Ban Porn Increase
And why our Faith tells us we “cannot do evil that good may come“. Fox News: “From Human to Robot and Everything in Between …a subdermal microchip in one’s hand to a tiny robot learning to imagine itself and its own purpose to a tiny microprocessor implanted directly on one’s brain, the line between man… Read More “Bio-hacking humans: implanting chips in hands and heads”
What, exactly, is a just and moral taxation going to look like? — The Distributism Review See also, What is Distributism? By Thomas Storck Neither Capitalism or Socialism Distributism and TaxationBy Andrew McInnes “To defraud any one of wages that are his due is a great crime which cries to the avenging anger of Heaven.” – Pope… Read More Distributism and Taxation.
Note: SH. Today it is States alone which consider the punishment of [political and ever-evolving moral] “sins” to be their exclusive prerogative. And these States employ the shocking punishments most liberally day after day. Countless millions have died. But there exists One who is far above and infinitely mightier than creaturely states (Exo. 3:14-17) Who… Read More God is a “Man of War”. The Problem of Violence in Scripture
Quoting St. Thomas Aquinas, John Paul wrote: “When through sin, the soul commits a disorder that reaches the point of turning away from its ultimate end God to which it is bound by charity, then the sin is mortal; on the other hand, whenever the disorder does not reach the point of a turning away… Read More Pope St. John Paul II on Mortal and Venial Sin
“If a type of action always destroys, damages or impedes some basic element of human good, then no ranking of proportional outcomes can make that action consistent with integral human flourishing. “ By E. Christian Brugger, Zenith Dispatch. Problem Lies in Idea of Maximizing Good. WASHINGTON, D.C., 27 JULY 2011 (ZENIT) Here is a question… Read More The Battle Over Proportionalism Rises Again
BXVI: “We have to reflect on what was insufficient in our education, in our teaching in recent decades. There was, in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the idea of proportionalism in ethics: It held that nothing is bad in itself, but only in proportion to others. With proportionalism, it was possible to think for some… Read More Benedict XVI: The Church Links Pedophilia to the Error of Proportion-alism in Ethics.
…Staunch liberal, Anti-abortion … and why he so appreciated Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for The Village Voice from 1958 to 2009. Following his departure from The Village Voice, Hentoff became a senior fellow at the Cato… Read More Why Former Village Voice Leftist & Atheist Writer Nat Hentoff Opposed Abortion
… of Traditional Religious Belief into the Pathological. Observing the not so subtle subtexts in media and their impact in our lives. This Dr. Thomas Hibbs lecture was titled Religious Liberty and Popular Culture Thomas S. Hibbs (November 3, 1960) is an American philosopher and the 9th President of the University of Dallas, a Catholic liberal arts… Read More U.S. Media Framing Belief as Pathological
The President of France, who has no children of his own, doesn’t want us to have any either. Carlos Beltramo, PhD.Population Research Institute.February 7, 2022. The chairmanship of the Council of the European Union rotates among the countries of the European Union every six months, and for the next six months it is President Emmanuel… Read More Macron Seeks Abortion Right for Europe… and for the World
By Brother Andre MarieCatholicism.org It is not uncommon to run across the term “natural law” in Catholic journals and newspapers. Frequently, the context is a discussion of hot-button moral issues in the culture war, such as abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, birth control, and so-called “end-of-life decisions.” It is encouraging to see the Holy See referring to… Read More The Natural Law
Posing as Light… At the Dawn of the 20th century, On March 19, 1902, in his apostolic letter Annum Ingressi, Pope Leo XIII warned of an abuse of the concepts “Liberty” and “freedom” sweeping the globe, and which is directly opposed to the traditional Christian definition (Jn. 8:31-32). “A certain sect of darkness is engaged,… Read More Leo XIII on Freemasonry, “Sect of Darkness”
Social Justice, War, and Housing: Have children! Have many children! Have as many as you can. This is God’s way. Be fruitful, not voluntarily barren (save for specially graced vocations which bear other kinds of fruits for the Body of Christ). Yes, certainly, but today the dilemma for many is how many children can one… Read More Family, Eternity — and Catholic Social Justice
Catholic Critique 