"The Vision of St. Joseph" by James Tissot

What a wonderful angel! Via East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

"I am poor, and in labors from my youth and being exalted, I was humbled and troubled." Psalm 87:16

Joseph of Nazareth

On a joiner's bench

You ply your trade.

Hands calloused

Fingers nimble.

Wood chips and shavings

At your feet.

Sawdust

In your beard.

You sing

The song of your people

Longing

For the Face

Of Him

Who is to come.

Joseph of Nazareth

Of David's line

You sing

The wedding song.

"My sister, my spouse

Is a garden

Enclosed..."

Virgin husband

Of the Daughter of Sion

You prepare a

Dwelling

For the Stainless One.

Joseph of Nazareth

In sweat of anguish

You ponder

Another Joseph

Thrown in the cistern.

Your song

Becomes sad.

"Save me

O God

For the waters

Are come in

Even unto

My soul..."

You sing

Then fall silent.

Sleep comes

With the breeze

That stirs

The curls of wood...

And then

The voice: 

"Joseph, Son of David,

Fear not...."

By a Carmelite tertiary Share

Moral Clarity Is Not Optional

 From Unlicensed Punditry:

I’ve been listening to Democrats and the No War in Iran crowd demand ridiculous things. They want public announcements of timelines, strategic plans, budgets, manpower, reports on readiness, and briefings that will be immediately leaked. They want down to the minute accounts of what Trump knew and when he knew it and what he plans to do and what he will rule out, all the while knowing that releasing all this information would mean disaster for any military move.

I recognize all of it is just an attempt to stop American leadership from ending a half-century of threats, the funding of death around the world, and a risk of nuclear war. That the opposition to President Trump’s decisions have no moral standing is a symptom of a complete erosion of moral certitude.

I’ve studied some of great Western leaders – Reagan, Churchill, Teddy Roosevelt, George Washington, even FDR and Truman’s wartime leadership—and it appears to me that great leadership requires many traits—competence, discipline, patience—but above all, it requires moral clarity. Even our American Founding Fathers chose moral clarity in separating from England to form a new nation. (Read more.)

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Anti-Motherhood Rhetoric

From Word on Fire:

When I finally read the much-discussed piece from The Cut “I Regret Having Children,” which shares the experiences of three women, I expected my reaction to be indignation. After all, how can someone look at her children and regret their existence? But as I read their experiences, I realized that they had been profoundly failed by a society that sees child-rearing not as a normal phase of adulthood but as an opt-in only choice. Given that secular (and even some religious) culture understands being a mother as a step in one’s quest for self-fulfillment, it is consistent that these women would view any limitations to their freedom that accompany motherhood as wholly negative. While this broken understanding of human freedom certainly plays a part in their experiences, that’s a conversation for another day. 

The three women who shared their stories in The Cut described a sense of shock at how brutally difficult motherhood is. They felt tricked by sunny stereotypes of parenting—only to find a reality of exhaustion, overwhelming mental and emotional demands, loss of identity, and a sense of crippling loneliness. And as the piece notes, they are not alone. Many women think that they were sold a story that motherhood would be magical and fulfilling but end up feeling unprepared for the challenges and lacking the support they need to thrive. 

What should be validated in these women’s experiences is that the infant and toddler years can be relentlessly difficult and exhausting. Sleep deprivation is used as a torture method for a reason: It decimates your mental health. I remember being three months postpartum with my autistic child, who couldn’t sleep more than forty-five minutes at a time. An older mom who noticed the dark circles under my eyes as she washed her hands next to me in the office bathroom said, “They start sleeping better around six months.” I remember thinking, “If I have to wait three more months for a night of sleep, I’ll never make it.” I fully believed that the sleep deprivation would kill me. Unreasonable? Perhaps. But it seemed very, very real and, honestly, devastating in the moment. (Read more.)

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At the Tuileries

Among the many out-of-print books that are now online is Imbert de Saint-Amand's Marie-Antoinette at the Tuileries (1893). In spite of the panegyrics, there are many quotes from original letters as well as day-by-day accounts of the life of the royal family during their life under virtual house arrest from October of 1789 until the end of 1791. The following passages describe the tightening of security around the family after their escape attempt in June 1791. The queen, especially, was closely guarded (as anyone can see, it would have been impossible for her to have entertained Count Fersen, as some authors claim.)

It had been resolved that [the queen] should have no personal attendant except the lady's maid who had acted as a spy before the journey to Varennes. A portrait of this person was placed at the foot of the staircase leading to the Queen's rooms so that the sentinel should permit no other woman to enter. Louis XVI was obliged to appeal to Lafayette in order to have this spy turned out of the palace where her presence was an outrage on Marie Antoinette. This espionage and inquisition pursued the unfortunate Queen even into her bedroom. The guards were instructed not to lose sight of her by night or day. They took note of her slightest gestures, listened to her slightest words. Stationed in the room adjoining hers they kept the communicating door always open so that they could see the august captive at all times. (pp223-224)

The family continued to assist at daily Mass, albeit with difficulty.

The precautions taken were so rigorous that it was forbidden to say Mass in the palace chapel because the distance between it and the apartments of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette was thought too great. A corner of the Gallery of Diana, where a wooden altar was erected, bearing an ebony crucifix and a few vases of flowers became the only spot where the son of Saint Louis, the Most Christian King, could hear Mass. (pp.225-226)

However, their fortitude was admirable.

The royal family endured their captivity with admirable sweetness and resignation and concerned themselves less about their own fate than that of the persons compromised by the Varennes journey, who were now incarcerated....Louis XVI, instead of indulging in recriminations against men and things, offered his humiliations and sufferings to God. He prayed, he read, he meditated. Next to his prayer book his favorite reading was the life of Charles I either because he sought, in studying history, to find a way of escaping an end like that of the unfortunate monarch, or because an analogy of sorrows and disasters had established a profound and mysterious sympathy between the king who had been beheaded, and the king who was soon to be so. (pp. 226-227)

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Why Did The Biden Administration Cover Up Intelligence On Chinese Interference With Our Elections?

 From AND Magazine:

Solomon’s report is based on a 7 April 2020 National Intelligence Council Assessment. That report reads in part:

“We assess that China and Russia are increasing their ability to analyze and manipulate large quantities of personal information in ways that will allow them to more effectively target and influence, or coerce, individuals and groups in the United States and allied countries. Their cyber espionage efforts have helped them acquire bulk data.”

“Adversaries almost certainly are already applying data-analysis techniques to hone their efforts against US targets.’

“Chinese intelligence officials analyzed multiple US states (redacted) election voter registration data…”

This is particularly troubling because the date of this report dovetails with the cover-up of the actions of the Chinese-affiliated election service company Konnech. In 2022, the election security firm True the Vote broke the story that a company called Konnech in Michigan was storing data on American election workers on servers in China. True the Vote leaders Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips were, of course, ridiculed by the so-called mainstream press. Then, Los Angeles arrested the head of Konnech and charged him with violations of U.S. laws on the handling of personally identifiable information by storing it on servers in China.

The ridicule stopped. Even the New York Times had to issue a retraction.

Then more information came in, and the picture got a lot worse.

Konnech wasn’t just storing data in China. Konnech was using contractors inside China to do work in the United States on American election systems. This is the exact language in the criminal complaint filed by Los Angeles.

“On or about October 10, 2019, through October 4, 2022, Eugene Yu and other employees at Konnech, Inc. were providing these services to Los Angeles County using third-party contractors based in China.

“…Konnech employees known and unknown sent personal identifying information of Los Angeles County election workers to third-party software developers who assisted with creating and fixing Konnech’s internal ‘PollChief’ software.”

(Read more.)

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James Ellroy’s 'Red Sheet'

 From Mark Judge at Hot Air:

As if right on cue, the great author James Ellroy is publishing a new novel in June. Red Sheet is the latest offering from the fantastic creator of L.A. Confidential and American Tabloid. Like other books, it has to do with Los Angeles, cops, drugs, fringe characters, politics, and corruption. 

    It is also a bracingly anti-communist novel, perhaps the most anti-communist work of fiction I have read since Mickey Spillane’s One Lonely Night. Knopf, Ellroy’s publisher, was kind enough to send me an advanced review copy. Out of respect for Ellroy, I will save a detailed review until closer to publication date, but for now let me just say that Red Sheet is a brilliant, powerful novel that should be read by every American. Set in 1962, it opens with a quote from Whittaker Chambers, vindicates Richard Nixon, and makes it clear that the American anti-communists of the last century were right-on in their opposition to this evil pseudo-religious cult.  

    In fact, let me quote directly from James Ellroy’s official page:

Red Sheet is an anti-communist novel. It stands foursquare in the tainted tradition of Ayn Rand and Mickey Spillane. Ellroy is out to scramble your long-held perceptions and force you into a state of jumped-up disavowal.

Red Sheet scorns the mock-martyred Hollywood Ten and ballyhoos the Blacklist and the ’47-’48 HUAC hearings. Red Sheet forces you to live within the twisted and oddly tender soul of Richard M. Nixon. Red Sheet spotlights the Spanish Civil War and atrocities committed by the commie-infested International Brigade, heretofore held as heroic. Red Sheet lionizes name-naming kingpin Whittaker Chambers and bestows kudos on ratfinks Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg.

(Read more.)

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Colcannon

A staple in my novel The Paradise Tree. From Irish Central:

Colcannon with its unique and simple recipe has become popular around the world. It normally includes chopped kale or green cabbage mixed with hot, floury mashed potatoes. This simple recipe is an ideal one to make with the kids. The word colcannon is from the Gaelic "cal ceannann," which literally means "white-headed cabbage."

In the past, charms were mixed in with the colcannon. Depending on what charm you found it was seen as a portent for the future. A button meant you would remain a bachelor and a thimble meant you would remain a spinster for the coming year. A ring meant you would get married and a coin meant you would come into wealth. Others filled their socks with colcannon and hung them from the handle of the front door in the belief that the first man through the door would be their future husband. (Read more.)

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Without The Save Act, We are Living in a Slave State

 From Welcome to Absurdistan:

Did John Thune get a clench in his noble behind when eye-patch-pretend-pirate-guy lost his primary? Added to Trump’s relentless pressure Thune has, grindingly, consented to refer the Save Act to a vote, possibly next week.

Thune is, like most elected Republicans, pretendian MAGA counting the days when he can go back to playing defence and lining his pockets. The fact that voter fraud has deprived the Republicans of a clear unbreakable majority for THREE election cycles is clearly beyond him. He is functionally retarded. Or a shark committing treason.

John Solomon on Wednesday:

John Thune has scheduled a potential vote as early as next Thursday for the Save America Act…and it will be a flesh-it-out sort of moment for whomever is on board with a proposition that’s 85 percent popular in America… it’s really a roll call so that the grassroots efforts can then begin for the White House to target the people that should be in favor of this and aren’t.” Episode 5207, Bannon’s War Room, 3.11.26

Thanks to the 2020 steal, the grass roots is woken all the way up and targeting RINOs is their next step. They will enjoy it.

Therein lies the threat to established order. The obvious theft of 2020 and the Covid lying/bullying/cheating/stealing scam, the latter deliciously revealed by the White House on Thursday, activated the adults out in the Great Flyover. People who know the way the world actually works, saw how badly it wasn’t working. For decades they have been experiencing an almost imperceptible decline, where their lives and most particularly their childrens’ lives were being foreshortened by crooks. As is clear from the estimated $1 trillion a year stolen from all of us. (Read more.)

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Bards

It has always fascinated me how the telling of stories was held in high regard in Irish culture. Here is a little history:

In medieval Ireland, bards were one of two distinct groups of poets, the other being the fili. According to the Early Irish law text on status, Uraicecht Becc, bards were a lesser class of poets, not eligible for higher poetic roles as described above. However, it has also been argued that the distinction between filid (pl. of fili) and bards was a creation of Christian Ireland, and that the filid are were more associated with the church.^[3]

Irish bards formed a professional hereditary caste of highly trained, learned poets. The bards were steeped in the history and traditions of clan and country, as well as in the technical requirements of a verse technique that was syllabic and used assonance, half rhyme and alliteration, among other conventions. As officials of the court of king or chieftain, they performed a number of official roles. They were chroniclers and satirists whose job it was to praise their employers and damn those who crossed them. It was believed that a well-aimed bardic satire, glam dicenn, could raise boils on the face of its target.

The bardic schools were extinct by the mid 17th century in Ireland and by the early 18th century in Scotland.

The bards played an important role in preserving the traditions and legends of the Irish people, as well as their genealogical connections. Stories were passed on through poems, songs, ballads and the loricas. According to one article:

Bards are found in Celtic cultures (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Manx and Brittany) and a rough equivalent can be found in Norse culture, too, where they were known as "scops."

There is no real equivalent to the Celtic Bard in Anglo-Saxon England, however.

In Ireland and Scotland, the use of the word "Bard" apparently fell into some disrepute, as the records we have show that the Bard was simply a minor poet, while the "filidh" (seer) or the "ollave" (master poet) occupied the former status and functions of the Bard....

The word "Bard," in Wales, denoted a master-poet. In Ireland it meant a poet who was not an Ollave, one who had not taken all the formal training. Apparently even the lower-status Irish Bard was on a level with the Welsh Bard in knowledge and poetic education, however, and these were what I have termed "hedge-bards," above.

In the Celtic cultures, the Bard/Filidh/Ollave was inviolate. He could travel anywhere, say anything, and perform when and where he pleased. The reason for this was, of course, that he was the bearer of news and the carrier of messages, and, if he was harmed, then nobody found out what was happening over the next hill. In addition, he carried the Custom of the country as memorized verses...he could be consulted in cases of Customary (Common) Law. He was, therefore, quite a valuble repository of cultural information, news, and entertainment.

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