Ireland’s Abolitionist Titan

 In Ireland we stayed at the hotel in Cork where Frederick Douglas and Daniel O'Connell lectured. From First Things:

The whole saga drew considerable attention. Trinity College is one of Dublin’s grandest institutions and Ireland’s premier university. Its centuries-old campus sits in the very heart of the capital city. Trinity can doubtless congratulate itself on a difficult issue, sensitively and successfully handled. Yet this was also an opportunity scorned. Ireland has its own “anti-Berkeley,” a towering figure in the cause of abolition, and simply one of the four or five most important figures in modern Irish history: Daniel O’Connell.

O’Connell came from an old Irish family on a wild, far-flung peninsula of the Atlantic coastline, though he received some of his education in the eminent Catholic colleges of northern Europe. His place in history rests largely on successfully leading the campaign for Catholic emancipation in the early nineteenth century, earning him the sobriquet “The Liberator.” 

But his actions as an abolitionist were also remarkable. Slavery, he wrote, was “a crime of enormous magnitude to be at once, unconditionally, and for ever abolished.” He foretold that slavery would never disappear from America until “some horrible calamity befalls the country.” Of Irishmen in the United States who supported slavery, he said: “They are not Irishmen! They are bastard Irishmen!”

O’Connell gave moving and fiery speeches against slavery in Cork and Dublin, London and Glasgow. He shared platforms with Frederick Douglass and Charles Lenox Remond. Douglass later called O’Connell’s death a great blow to the cause of the American slave. Remond said that it was only on hearing O’Connell speak that he realized what being an abolitionist really meant.  

O’Connell refused all money and favors from supporters of slavery, often at great risk to the causes he pursued for the sake of the Irish. His outspokenness took him to the brink of a duel with Andrew Stevenson, former speaker of the House of Representatives and ambassador to the Court of St. James. John Quincy Adams spoke out in O’Connell’s defense.  

All of this is the subject of a full chapter in a biography by Patrick Geoghegan, who happens to be a professor of history at Trinity. Why, then, did the university forego the chance to rename their library after Ireland’s abolitionist titan? What better and more apt way could there have been to move on from Berkeley’s tainted legacy?  (Read more.)

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Why Trump Can—and Should—Deport Mahmoud Khalil

 From Amuse on X:

The detention and pending deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University, has ignited a firestorm of controversy. His arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 9, 2025, stems from allegations that he engaged in activities aligning with Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization. As the Trump administration enforces its promise to crack down on those who support terrorist-affiliated movements, legal commentators, activists, and political figures have debated whether such action is constitutionally and legally permissible. The answer, upon thorough legal examination, is unequivocally yes. The Trump administration not only has the authority to revoke Khalil’s green card and remove him from the United States, but such action is firmly grounded in existing immigration law, Supreme Court precedent, and compelling national security interests.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), codified at 8 U.S.C. 1227, lawful permanent residents are removable if they fall under specific categories of inadmissibility. Most relevant here is 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)(B), which deems deportable any alien who has engaged in terrorist activities, represented or supported a terrorist organization, or received training from such an entity. Section 1182(a)(3)(F) further establishes that an alien whose presence the Secretary of State believes to have serious adverse foreign policy consequences may also be removed. Given Khalil leadership of activities aligned with Hamas—he fits within these statutory provisions, making his green card revocation and removal well within the executive branch’s legal authority.

Some have argued that Khalil’s deportation violates his First Amendment rights, particularly given his status as an outspoken leader of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. While it is true that legal permanent residents enjoy certain constitutional protections, their rights are neither absolute nor coextensive with those of U.S. citizens, particularly in the realm of immigration and national security. Precedents such as Turner v. Williams (1904) underscore Congress’s broad authority to exclude or remove aliens based on ideological grounds, affirming that non-citizens can be expelled for advocating beliefs deemed inimical to national security. Similarly, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (2010) upheld prohibitions on material support to terrorist organizations, even when such support took the form of speech. Khalil’s actions undoubtably provided material support for Hamas, through financial contributions, logistical aid, and explicit endorsement, as a result his activities are not protected speech under the First Amendment. (Read more.)

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The Fiat of the Prince

 From The New Digest:

Let me begin with that rather large question: What is the foundation of the rule of law? The modern answers are familiar. Among them are equal justice, treating like cases alike; the prevention of arbitrary exercise of power; the protection of human dignity; and legal certainty and predictability. These are right as far as they go, or at least not exactly wrong, but I will explore an older answer, given by (or at least in the name of) the English civilian jurist Bracton — an answer that I think places the rule of law in a wider and deeper perspective. On the view I will explore, the foundation of the rule of law is Marian political theology, specifically a Marian interpretation of the Digna Vox, a famous text of the Roman civil law.

“Bracton,” or more precisely the text conventionally attributed to Henry of Bracton (1210-68), is probably a collective work of the mid-13th century, on the laws and customs of England. The Bracton text brought a distinctively Romanizing influence to English law, with the extent and duration of that influence being a much-debated topic. Bracton writes: “The king has no equal within his realm. Subjects cannot be the equals of the ruler, because he would thereby lose his rule, since equal can have no authority over equal, nor a fortiori a superior, because he would then be subject to those subjected to him. The king must not be under man but under God and under the law, because law makes the king…. Jesus Christ willed himself to be under the law that he might redeem those who live under it. For He did not wish to use force but judgment. And in that same way the Blessed Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord, who by an extraordinary privilege was above law, nevertheless, in order to show an example of humility, did not refuse to be subjected to established laws. Let the king, therefore, do the same, lest his power remain unbridled” (emphasis added).

I want to bring this passage into association with the Digna Vox, which Bracton’s text unmistakably echoes. The latter is a fundamental constitution or imperial edict of the Codex Theodosianus (later embodied in the Codex Justinianus), and was issued jointly at Ravenna in 429 by the Christian co-emperors Theodosius II in the west and his son-in-law Valentinian III in the east. It is a principal, founding text of the rule of law in the Western legal tradition — and, I note tendentiously against more recent legal theorists, long predates any talk of subjective rights in the modern sense, or the separation of powers, or judicial review, or any of a number of other legal mechanisms that are now sometimes said to be essential to the rule of law. I suppose the Digna Vox is quite familiar to civil lawyers and probably to a number of non-lawyers too, but I take the liberty of quoting it just because of the majesty of the proclamation, which itself explains in what consists the majesty and authority of the prince. (Read more.)

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Empress Maria Feodorovna

From Historic Women Daily:

Maria Feodorovna (née Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg) (25 October 1759 – 5 November 1828) was Empress consort of Russia as wife of Emperor Paul I (son of Empress Catherine the Great). Maria Feodorovna and her husband Paul had 10 children together, including: Alexander I (Emperor of Russia), Nicholas I (Emperor of Russia), Anna Pavlovna (Queen of the Netherlands), Alexandra Pavlovna (Archduchess of Austria), Catherine Pavlovna (Queen of Württemberg), Maria Pavlovna (Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach). She had 4 sons and 6 daughters. She was a good and loving mother, and despite the fact that Catherine the Great took over her two eldest children in their early years, Maria Feodorovna managed to maintain close relationships with them, as with all her children. They remained genuinely attached to her.

During reign of Paul I Maria Feodorovna had a great and beneficial influence over her husband. She was clever, talented, purposeful and energetic, and was a nearly perfect Imperial consort. Maria Feodorovna loved all the arts and supported them generously, she also devoted energies to the great charities and educational institutions. After her death in 1828, Maria Feodorovna’s memory was revered by her children and grandchildren and her successors as Empress consorts looked up to her and used her as a role model. (Read more.)

There is a section about Maria Feodorovna in my book, Marie-Antoinette, Daughter of the Caesars.

The Empress and her daughters

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Epstein Files: White House Implies Progress, Some Agents See Stalemate

 From Sharyl Attkisson:

Public news has been scant in recent days about the Jeffrey Epstein files, documents tied to the financier’s and sex trafficker’s criminal past. Those documents could reveal details about his network and any high profile figures who patronized his entourage of minors.

Epstein was arrested in July 2019 for sex trafficking minors. He died in his prison cell a month later, officially a suicide, though speculation persists.

The files—court records, witness statements, and possibly videos from his private island—have been the subject of speculation for years, with many wondering why there have been no publicly announced revelations or prosecutions tied to them.

The Department of Justice initially released 200 pages of documents two weeks ago, mostly flight logs, distributing them to Internet influencers—a move some viewed as an “embarrassing misstep” due to the lack of significant content. That was followed by a public standoff between the FBI in Washington DC and the FBI field office in New York, when it was revealed that agents there had failed to turn over all of the documents they had been holding. Attorney General Pam Bondi accused the FBI New York office of non-cooperation and set a February 28 deadline for the documents to be handed over.

In one of the few statements on the results, Bondi told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on March 4 that the FBI New York office had produced a “truckload” of documents—thousands of pages.

“We did get a ton of documents,” she stated, noting they are “under review.”

More recently, White House Senior Advisor Alina Habba appeared on a podcast and answered lingering questions about the radio silence on the documents. She asked for “patience,” suggesting the FBI might be “saving the integrity” of potential prosecutions by staying quiet while the documents are scoured for information. (Read more.)

 

From Right Flank:

In an ideal world, the public might have access to the bank records of all politicians. As Elon Musk has noted, judges should be impeachable similar to politicians. If justice were served, we’d also have full transparency when it comes to judges’ bank accounts. Such proposed financial transparency could be circumvented through backdoor bribes in the form of bags of cash dropped off at judges and politicians’ homes. However, doing so would be risky. The depositing of those cash bribes in bank accounts would eventually be flagged unless bankers were also bribed to remain quiet.

At this point, we’re all wondering, how far does the rabbit hole go? (Read more.)

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JFK & the CIA-USAID

 From Tierney's Real News:

As I reported a few weeks ago USAID is a money laundering front for the CIA and it's run through the State Department. They use it to launder BILLIONS of our tax dollars for coups, false flags, election rigging, lawfare, fake prosecutions, whatever, under the guise of AID for starving children. This has been going on for decades. They have STOLEN trillions from the American people.

Marco Rubio is Trump's new Secretary of State. Former Secretary of States that knew about this fraud and did nothing are:

Colin Powell

Condoleezza Rice

Hillary Clinton

John Kerry

Victoria Nuland (Undersecretary)

Rex Tillerson

Mike Pompeo

Tony Blinken

John Dulles was Secretary of State under Eisenhower in 1953 and likely helped his brother, Allen Dulles, set this up. John Foster Dulles's brother was Allen Welsh Dulles, who served as the first civilian director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1952. Connect the dots. (Read more.)

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Hermitess and Green Man

 

From The Abbey of Misrule:

Iffley has been described as ‘one of the most spectacular Romanesque parish churches in England’. For those of you who don’t know what ‘Romanesque’ means, it’s a style of architecture associated in England with the dastardly Normans, but which was common right across Europe from the 9th to the 12th centuries. You can always spot it by the shape of the windows: those semicircular arches are the giveaway. Romanesque buildings have small, arched windows, thick walls and big supporting pillars. Compared to the later Gothic style, the architecture is solid and straightforward.

Less straightforward though, very often, is some of the decoration, and in this, Iffley excels. You can see from the photo above how the architects of this church went to town on the stone carving. Iffley church was built in the 1160s, when Romanesque stone carving was at its peak, and Iffley’s west doorway, which you can see on the two photos above, is a riot of stone art. (Read more.)

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What Germany Won’t Admit About Nord Stream – And Why It Matters

 From Amuse on X:

The explosion that shattered the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022 was more than an act of economic and geopolitical warfare—it was a test of Germany’s sovereignty, one that Berlin has failed spectacularly. The silence emanating from the German government in the aftermath of what was undeniably an attack on critical infrastructure is more revealing than any words Chancellor Olaf Scholz might have uttered. Despite mounting evidence pointing toward a pro-Ukrainian operation, and amid revelations that some Western intelligence services were at the very least aware of an impending attack, Germany has chosen not only to suppress discussion but to actively obstruct its own legislators from inquiring too deeply. Why? Because the truth, if fully acknowledged and publicly confronted, could fracture NATO unity, shake European support for Ukraine, and reveal Germany’s troubling status as a nation unable—or unwilling—to assert its own interests when they conflict with the broader objectives of the transatlantic alliance. (Read more.)

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The Men Who Would Be King

From Air Mail:

On a bitingly cold morning in January, some 200 men and women, smartly attired in furs, wool coats, and fluffy pillbox hats, gathered at the Chapelle Expiatoire in Paris for a Requiem Mass. Who were the deceased? King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, who had been executed 232 years ago.

The men overseeing the memorial service wore white armbands embroidered with the fleur de lys, while young women wearing penny loafers and prudishly long skirts handed out the order of service. The chapel itself was an auspicious choice for the occasion. “[Louis XVI’s] remains were found under the site,” whispered the 68-year-old Duc de Damas with some pride.

But the star of the service was Louis Alphonse de Bourbon, the Duke of Anjou, a direct descendant of Louis XIV—the great-grandfather of the decapitated king—and a pretender to the now nonexistent French throne. (Read more.)

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Marie-Antoinette's Journey of Faith

I have always felt that Maxime de la Rocheterie's description of Marie-Antoinette is one of the best:

She was not a guilty woman, neither was she a saint; she was an upright, charming woman, a little frivolous, somewhat impulsive, but always pure; she was a queen, at times ardent in her fancies for her favourites and thoughtless in her policy, but proud and full of energy; a thorough woman in her winsome ways and tenderness of heart, until she became a martyr. (The Life of Marie-Antoinette by M. de la Rocheterie, 1893)

Marie-Antoinette spent the first fourteen years of her life in Austria, worshiping in Rococo churches and listening to the music of Haydn and the Italian composers. Architecture and music in that time and place celebrated the glory of God in the beauty of His creation. As Queen, her desire to promote beauty around her, especially in the lives of those whom she loved, was an outgrowth of the culture in which she was raised. She loved theater, acting, opera, ballet, painting, gardens and everything that enhanced the loveliness of the natural order. Hers was a piety that was loving, gentle and courteous, but real and unflinching nevertheless. Antoinette's approach to faith was joyful and non-judgmental, free from the rigorist approach of Jansenism that so tainted a great deal of French piety in the years preceding the Revolution. Nevertheless, even as a young bride, she had the moral courage to defy the king in regard to Madame du Barry.

Antoinette was the fifteenth child in a family of sixteen. It is known that the young Archduchess Antonia was not an outstandingly pious child, but she was carefully taught her faith. Her mother, Empress Maria Teresa of Austria was a deeply observant Roman Catholic, who prayed novenas with her children and took them on pilgrimages. She instilled in her daughters the importance of being faithful wives and staying at their husbands' sides, no matter what.

The Empress also taught young Antoinette how to play cards before sending her to France, knowing that at the French court just like the Austrian court, gambling was rife and if a princess did not know the ropes she would lose all her money. Antoinette's mother's devotion to God did not blind her to the realities of life as a royal for which she tried to prepare her daughter, although many say that Antoinette's youth and naïveté made the task difficult. Unfortunately, the teenage Antoinette became addicted to gambling, a passion that she later overcame with her husband's help.

When I look back at my own youth I cannot be too hard on the imprudences of Antoinette as a girl. Whatever mistakes she made, she later paid for, bitterly. Her faith was practical and manifested itself in her extensive charities, including a home for unwed mothers. While her generosity to the poor is famous, it is not as widely known that she was a patroness of the Carmelite order, and visited the monastery where her husband's aunt was a nun, once a year. She made many personal sacrifices on behalf of the poor and encouraged her children to do so. She assisted at daily Mass, confessing and receiving Holy Communion on a regular basis,and lived, to all appearances, as a Roman Catholic in good standing.

After the death of her mother and loss of two of her children in the 1780's, Antoinette became more noticeably devout, growing closer to her pious sister-in-law, Madame Elisabeth of France. While under house arrest at the Tuileries palace, the two connived at getting non-juring priests, (i.e., those who were faithful to the Pope), into the chateau for secret Masses and confessions. It is supposedly the time when a few historians claim she had a romantic rendez-vous with Count Axel von Fersen. I think not. The atmosphere at the Tuileries was more like the catacombs than Dangerous Liaisons.

Before her death, when her children had been taken from her, her little son abused and her husband slain, the queen again sought prayer, the sacraments of the Church, and affirmed in writing her loyalty to the "Catholic, Roman and Apostolic religion." The priest who received her last confession in the Conciergerie later publicly affirmed these facts.

The more I continue to discover about Antoinette, for history is a gradual voyage of discovery, I do not regret having painted her as I did in Trianon. If I could write it again, there is more that I would wish to add about her goodness, courage, nobility, love for God and the people of France. My fear is that perhaps I did not do justice to a very great but much maligned Queen. As historian John Wilson Croker expressed it:

We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with-- if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves-- something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny-- that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings. (History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844)

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Syria Butchers Christians

 From Christine Niles.

 

From Marco Rubio, Secretary of State: 

 The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days.  The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families.  Syria’s interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.

 

From GB News:

The Syria Campaign and the Syrian Network for Human Rights reported that both security forces and pro-Assad gunmen were "carrying out mass executions and systematic killings". The SNHR estimated that 125 of approximately 140 civilians were slain over the weekend in "suspected revenge killings". Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell described the violence as "a massacre reminiscent of October 7th" and "nothing less than a brutal crime against humanity". (Read more.)

 

The killings are in honor of Ramadan. From The Geller Report:

 “I appeal to you, by humanity and human rights, to save the Alawites on the Syrian coast from the crimes of the terrorists.. The corpses fill the streets and children are killed in their homes in Tartous, Latakia, Banias and Jableh.. And women are taken with them to be raped.. An ethnic cleansing operation.. Please help us.. The criminals are everywhere.”“Please save what’s left of us.” (Read more.)

More HERE.

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Why Britain is Broken & How to Fix it

 David Starkey on the much-needed Restoration.

 

From Amuse on X: 

 The specter of an Orwellian Britain is no longer a thought experiment confined to the pages of dystopian fiction. It is, instead, manifesting in real time under the guise of expanded hate speech legislation, exemplified most alarmingly by the UK government’s latest initiative to define and criminalize “Islamophobia.” Vice President JD Vance’s recent warning about the United Kingdom’s descent into anti-democratic overreach now appears less like political rhetoric and more like a sober assessment of a government rapidly consolidating its control over speech, thought, and civic discourse.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s push for a formal definition of Islamophobia may seem, at first glance, a well-intentioned effort to combat discrimination. However, upon closer inspection, this effort bears all the hallmarks of a modern-day blasphemy law—one that, in the name of tolerance, effectively revives Britain’s abolished blasphemy statutes under a new secular pretext. Britain’s original blasphemy laws, which criminalized offenses against Christianity, were repealed in 2008 after being deemed incompatible with modern notions of free expression. At the time, their abolition was hailed as a triumph for free speech, removing outdated restrictions on religious criticism. Yet, this new initiative threatens to undo that progress, reintroducing punitive measures against those who challenge or critique religious ideologies—only this time, under the banner of protecting a specific faith from offense. This is not about preventing incitement to violence or ensuring fair treatment under the law; those mechanisms already exist. Rather, it is about defining Islamophobia in a manner that will inevitably criminalize criticism of Islamic beliefs and practices. The UK is on the precipice of a fundamental shift—one in which the state determines which viewpoints are permitted and which are deemed criminal.

The UK’s aggressive expansion of hate speech laws has been steadily encroaching on free expression for years. Individuals have been arrested and even convicted for offenses as trivial as tweeting provocative remarks about soldiers, wearing politically incorrect t-shirts, or making ill-advised jokes in public. The cases of a man jailed for calling his ex-girlfriend’s Irish boyfriend a “leprechaun” or another for singing ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ in the presence of a bystander who deemed it offensive illustrate the absurd extremes to which the British government has gone in policing speech. More troublingly, citizens have been arrested for expressing opinions on immigration and the Pakistani grooming gang scandals. Tommy Robinson, a well-known activist, was jailed for contempt of court while reporting on a high-profile grooming gang case, an arrest many saw as politically motivated censorship. Others, including journalist Darren Grimes, have faced police investigation for interviewing guests who expressed controversial views on these topics. A British army veteran was even arrested at his home for sharing a meme criticizing Islam on social media. These cases demonstrate a clear trend: the state is increasingly using hate speech laws as a tool to suppress politically inconvenient discussions. But the proposed Islamophobia definition threatens to take this even further, raising the specter of an ideological enforcement mechanism that outstrips previous crackdowns. (Read more.)

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Tour a 1920s Washington, DC Home

From Architectural Digest:

The property itself helped to narrow some of the designer’s choices. It’s a semi-detached, 2,000-square-foot house built in the 1920s in a style that recalls the architectural vernacular of Provence, France, with stuccoed exterior walls and windows flanked by wooden shutters. While Feldman, an AD PRO Directory designer, felt the interiors should reflect this traditional European aesthetic, she also wanted to display a series of modern and contemporary artworks, some of them abstract, others in the realm of Pop art. “I’m so lucky to have this wonderful art collection,” she says, explaining that her grandparents were art dealers. “That gave me an opportunity to play with the tension of old and new in a really natural way.” In Feldman’s hands, this tension translated into the kind of laid-back glamour that many designers attempt but few achieve, with dramatic moments mellowed by rustic touches, and a nuanced mix of saturated and soft hues.

There’s undeniable drama in the dining room, where after much thought Feldman decided to use wallpaper instead of hanging any art. She found the perfect motif in de Gournay’s Mountains Above Clouds collection, depicting a Japanese landscape in brilliant shades of yellow and green. “I felt like it had a lot of energy to it,” she says. “My children call it the golden wallpaper.” Toning down the wall’s glitz is a rattan pendant and a handcrafted dining table with a matte walnut finish. Just steps away, the living room offers an airier atmosphere. Farrow & Ball’s Cabbage White (a white with faint hints of blue) on the walls and matching drapes provide a serene backdrop to Alex Katz’s Grey Dress, a striking portrait that anchors the space. The signed lithograph is surrounded by other family heirlooms, including marble-topped Baker cabinets and a set of Knoll Florence sofas, which belonged to Feldman’s grandmother. “She sadly passed away during COVID, at 94,” says the designer. “She’d always wanted to give me her furniture, and it’s the weirdest thing, it all fits really perfectly in my living room.” Before that, she’d been struggling to find the right pieces for the space, she says, and now it seems “beshert,” or meant to be. Feldman admittedly found it harder to make choices for herself than for her clients, yet she did lean heavily on her intuition and her knowledge about color. “I can feel the cadence of a space,” she explains. “That’s the first process for me, which rooms are getting density and which need levity.” (Read more.)

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Follow the Money

 From Tierney's Real News:

So, our taxpayer money isn't just being laundered by the CIA and USAID through NGOs and guys like Soros & Koch for election fraud, false flags and campaign contributions. It's also being laundered by individual Senators and Representatives for their own personal grift. They don't just make extra money by "insider trading" - they are outright stealing it from us.

Trump and the DOGE team are going to make significant progress towards balancing our federal budget. Our budget deficit is $2 trillion per year, $1 trillion of which is interest on the $36 trillion in debt. The DOGE crew is finding hundreds of billions of $$$ in waste and fraud - which is very important.

But, even though DOGE is doing great work in cost-cutting, Musk apparently attacked Rubio in a recent Cabinet meeting on staffing, and President Trump let it play out and then sided with Rubio. It appears that Elon may overstep his authority at times and Trump is quick to rein him in. Good! Elon has a big platform on X (with over 200 MILLION followers) that he can use to present his side of an argument to the public - many cabinet members don’t have the same luxury. In the end, Musk gave out his cell phone number to others on Team Trump and asked them to call him if there are ever problems. All of this was confirmed by GROK. (Read more.)

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The Lenten Politics of 'Measure for Measure'

 From First Things:

At the beginning of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna, withdraws from the city for undisclosed reasons and leaves his full “terror” in the hands of a deputy, Angelo, assisted by the older, wiser Escalus. We quickly learn the duke’s departure was a ruse. He returns to the city disguised as a friar and manages much of the action of the play. As he confesses to Friar Thomas when he assumes his mendicant disguise, he’s been lax in enforcing the law, and the city has descended into chaos, with sex and alcohol as its primary commercial products. Rather than cracking down himself, the duke lets Angelo play Bad Cop. 

Just as importantly, the duke is suspicious of Angelo. He’s “precise” and “scarce confesses / That his blood flows,” but the duke wonders whether his reputation for rectitude is more than skin-deep. There’s one way to find out “what our seemers be”: Dress him in authority and see if “power change purpose.” Power is privilege. Power is also, always, a test.

As it turns out, Angelo more “seems” than “is.” He closes the brothels and arrests sexual criminals under long-unused statutes, making an example of Claudio, who’s sentenced to death for getting his fiancé Juliet pregnant. When Claudio’s sister Isabella, a novice nun, pleads with Angelo, she inadvertently awakens his cloistered sexual desire. He proposes a deal: If Isabella yields the treasure of her body to Angelo, he’ll reverse his sentence against Claudio. Isabella vehemently refuses, and when her brother asks her to take the deal, she denounces him with equal vehemence: “Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd: / ‘Tis best thou diest quickly.” 

Early on, Shakespeare sets the drama in an overtly theological context. Men drinking in a brothel joke about pirates and soldiers editing inconvenient commandments from the Decalogue. In the first scene, the duke reminds Angelo that virtue should shine like a torch; hidden virtues are none. Literary scholar Darryl Gless hears an echo of Jesus’s “New Law,” summarized in the Sermon on the Mount: Jesus’s disciples are the “light of the world” who must let their light shine, rather than hiding it under a bushel (Matt. 5:14–15). That allusion sets up a complex thematic matrix for the rest of the play. Characters and action oscillate between cloistered or disguised goodness and public goodness. But Jesus’s words cut more deeply, because some displayed virtue is, like Angelo’s, no more than display. Men dressed in authority do public good to gain public favor, not to lead men to praise of God (Matt. 5:16). If private virtue is nothing without public good, it’s equally true that public good is hollowed out by private vice. (Read more.)

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Almsgiving of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette

Louis XVI visits a poor family

During Lent we recall the duties of every Christian to apply themselves more fervently to almsgiving. In pre-revolutionary France it was for the King and the Queen to give an example to everyone else in this regard. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette took this duty seriously and throughout their reign did what they could to help the needy.

At the fireworks celebrating the marriage of the young prince and princess in May 1774, there was a stampede in which many people were killed. Louis and Antoinette gave all of their private spending money for a year to relieve the suffering of the victims and their families. They became very popular with the common people as a result, which was reflected in the adulation with which they were received when the Dauphin took his wife to Paris on her first "official" visit in June 1773. Marie-Antoinette's reputation for sweetness and mercy became even more entrenched in 1774, when as the new Queen she asked that the people be relieved of a tax called "The Queen's belt," customary at the beginning of each reign. "Belts are no longer worn," she said. It was only the onslaught of revolutionary propaganda that would eventually destroy her reputation.

Louis XVI often visited the poor in their homes and villages, distributing alms from his own purse. During the difficult winter of 1776, the King oversaw the distribution of firewood among the peasants. Louis was responsible for many humanitarian reforms. He went incognito to hospitals, prisons, and factories so as to gain first-hand knowledge of the conditions in which the people lived and worked.

The King and Queen were patrons of the Maison Philanthropique, a society founded by Louis XVI which helped the aged, blind and widows. The Queen taught her daughter Madame Royale to wait upon peasant children, to sacrifice her Christmas gifts so as to buy fuel and blankets for the destitute, and to bring baskets of food to the sick. Marie-Antoinette took her children with her on her charitable visits. According to Maxime de la Rocheterie:

Sometimes they went to the Gobelins; and the president of the district coming on one occasion to compliment her, she said, "Monsieur you have many destitute but the moments which we spend in relieving them are very precious to us." Sometimes she went to the free Maternity Society which she had founded, where she had authorized the Sisters to distribute sixteen hundred livres for food and fuel every month and twelve hundred for blankets and clothing, without counting the baby outfits which were given to three hundred mothers. At other times she went to the School of Design also founded by her to which she sent one day twelve hundred livres saved with great effort that the rewards might not be diminished nor the dear scholars suffer through her own distress. Again she placed in the house of Mademoiselle O'Kennedy four daughters of disabled soldiers, orphans, for whom she said, "I made the endowment."

The Queen adopted three poor children to be raised with her own, as well overseeing the upbringing of several needy children, whose education she paid for, while caring for their families. She established a home for unwed mothers, the "Maternity Society," mentioned above. She brought several peasant families to live on her farm at Trianon, building cottages for them. There was food for the hungry distributed every day at Versailles, at the King's command. During the famine of 1787-88, the royal family sold much of their flatware to buy grain for the people, and themselves ate the cheap barley bread in order to be able to give more to the hungry.

Madame de la Tour du Pin, a lady-in-waiting of Marie-Antoinette, recorded in her spirited Memoirs the daily activities at Versailles, including the rumors and the gossip. Her pen does not spare Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, which is why I find the following account to be of interest. Every Sunday, Marie-Antoinette would personally take up a collection for the poor, which the courtiers resented since they preferred to have the money on hand for gambling. The queen supported several impoverished families from her own purse. As Madame de la Tour du Pin describes:

We had to be there before seven, for the Queen entered before the chiming of the clock. Beside her door would be one of the two Curés of Versailles. He would hand her a purse and she would go around to everyone, taking up a collection and saying: "For the poor, if you please." Each lady had her 'écu' of six francs ready in her hand and the men had their 'louis.' The Curé would follow the Queen as she collected this small tax for her poor people, a levy which often totaled as much as much as one hundred 'louis' and never less than fifty. I often heard some of the younger people, including the most spendthrift, complaining inordinately of this almsgiving being forced upon them, yet they would not have thought twice of hazarding a sum one hundred times as large in a game of chance, a sum much larger than that levied by the Queen. (Memoirs of Madame de la Tour du Pin: Laughing and Dancing Our Way to the Precipice, p. 74)

Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette contributed a great deal throughout their reign to the care of orphans and foundlings. They patronized foundling hospitals, which the Queen often visited with her children. Above is a picture of an occasion in February, 1790, after their removal to Paris, when the king, the queen and their children toured such a facility, where the nuns cared for abandoned babies and little children. As is reported by Maxime de la Rocheterie, the young Dauphin, soon to be an orphan himself, was particularly drawn to the foundlings and gave all of his small savings to aid them.

The king and queen did not see helping the poor as anything extraordinary, but as a basic Christian duty. The royal couple's almsgiving stopped only with their incarceration in the Temple in August 1792, for then they had nothing left to give but their lives.

(Sources: Memoirs of Madame de la Tour du Pin, Marguerite Jallut's and Philippe Huisman's Marie-Antoinette, Vincent Cronin's Louis and Antoinette, Antonia Fraser's The Journey, Madame Campan's Memoirs, Mémoires de madame la Duchesse de Tourzel, Maxime de la Rocheterie's The Life of Marie-Antoinette)

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Dems and Blob Together

 From James Howard Kunstler:

If the Jacobins of Paris, 1794, had not been bum-rushed to the “national razor,” perhaps they would have acted-out as clownishly in defeat as America’s Democratic Party does right now after their election debacle of 2024. Imagine Robespierre in Harlequin drag riding backwards on a goat over the Pont Neuf to do handsprings and a juggling act in the Parvis de Notre-Dame. Alas, foiled by the guillotine. . . .

Now imagine Rep. Al Green (9^th Texas Dist) shaking his cane and hollering curses at the rostrum in Tuesday night’s joint session of Congress. Two days later, he carried on again in the well of Congress as Speaker Johnson read out his bill of censure and a motley mob of Mr. Green’s fellow Dems gathered ‘round to sing We Shall Overcome — the once stately Civil Rights movement reduced to abject farce. Such things are really happening.

The Dems’ game has been revealed. The revenue stream for their national wrecking operations is suddenly cut off and it’s game-over. Everybody can see how this worked now. You funnel vast amounts of US taxpayer dollars into Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs, spin off more NGOs below them, and add extra layers of subsidiary NGOs, and all of them pay their staffs of Dem Party foot-soldiers for do-nothing jobs — leaving plenty of time for riots and real-estate investing — a splendid racket that worked for years to support the insane antics of the Woke-Jacobin revolution. (And you paid for it.) (Read more.)

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The Noticeable Non-Diversity Of D.E.I. Supporters In Easton, Maryland

 This is hilarious. And so true. I have friends that were there. From The Easton Gazette:

It's fascinating to watch how much ignorance stems from retired Democrats who have moved to Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Maryland's Eastern Shore has long been a haven for those who wish to escape the urban environments of D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia. They come here for the rural scenery of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries and the small-town atmosphere. While they are welcomed to the Shore with open arms, they seek to bring some of their clueless political views and activism, imagining that they have some kind of moral superiority, which they don't.

On Tuesday, February 25, 2025, these supporters, mostly old and white, rallied before the Talbot County Council's Meeting room in Easton. They were demanding "D.E.I." in response to Councilman Dave Stepp's resolution to remove D.E.I. from Talbot County offices, projects, etc. Mr. Stepp tried to rationally reason that the true nature of D.E.I. was, in fact, discriminatory and could cause the county to lose funding based on President Trump's recent executive orders which requires non-discrimination based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Equal Protection Clause under the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. The order prohibits discrimination in the guise of D.E.I.

He hit a brick wall of ignorance by those who regurgitated "we want diversity" as some sort of religious mantra for the Talbot Community.

What is fascinating about them is that they grew up in the era of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60's which included passage of anti-discrimination laws in education, employment, disability, sports, etc. Yet, they are clueless about any of that. They imagine that discrimination is ACTUALLY the solution under the deceptive name of "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion."

Just a few counties east, the Somerset County School Board clarified their position on D.E.I. and passed a resolution unanimously which condemns ALL FORMS of discrimination and mandates full compliance with the 1964 Civil Rights of 1964.

The Talbot County Council should have observed what Somerset County did and clean up confusion among residents who all voice and want the same thing; to prohibit discrimination in their own county. But, one group doesn't know what D.E.I. really is and the other group is in the minority and cannot reason with the brainwashed Democrats on the Council.

In the end they may lose all federal funding and out of ignorance actually end up promoting discrimination and racism in Talbot County, contrary to what they say they want.

It's a verbal collage of idiocy.

EXTRA INFORMATION: Councilman Stepp's resolution was tabled until March 11th. Keasha Haythe, the council's sole minority member was one of three votes for tabling the resolution. The other two were Pete Lesher and Lynn Mielke. Haythe also requested that the vote be tabled until the council could hear more public comment and the legal process for Trump's Executive Order could play out. (Read more.)

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Lent at Versailles

Versailles is not usually associated with Lenten penance, but fasting and abstinence, as well as some mortifications, were observed there by many during the old regime. For one thing, there would be no plays or operas performed; all the public theaters were closed in France during Lent. The daughters of Louis XV were known for their scrupulous observance of fasting and abstinence, although Madame Victoire found such penance especially trying. According to Madame Campan:

Without quitting Versailles, without sacrificing her easy chair, she [Madame Victoire] fulfilled the duties of religion with punctuality, gave to the poor all she possessed, and strictly observed Lent and the fasts. The table of Mesdames acquired a reputation for dishes of abstinence....Madame Victoire was not indifferent to good living, but she had the most religious scruples respecting dishes of which it was allowable to partake at penitential times....The abstinence which so much occupied the attention of Madame Victoire was so disagreeable to her, that she listened with impatience for the midnight hour of Holy Saturday; and then she was immediately supplied with a good dish of fowl and rice, and sundry other succulent viands.

Their nephew Louis XVI was also known for his fastidious observance of Lent, as recorded once again by the faithful Madame Campan:

Austere and rigid with regard to himself alone, the King observed the laws of the Church with scrupulous exactness. He fasted and abstained throughout the whole of Lent. He thought it right that the queen should not observe these customs with the same strictness. Though sincerely pious, the spirit of the age had disposed his mind to toleration.

Some of the King's tolerant behavior included the permitting of certain games at court during Lent. During the Lent of 1780, the Austrian ambassador Count Mercy-Argenteau was shocked to discover Louis XVI playing blind man's bluff with Marie-Antoinette and some members of the Court. Count Mercy described the scandalous scene to the Empress Maria Theresa:

Amusements have been introduced of such noisy and puerile character that they are little suited to Lenten meditations, and still less to the dignity of the august personages who take part in them. They are games resembling blind man's bluff, that first lead to the giving of forfeits, and then to their redemption by some bizarre penance ; the commotion is kept up sometimes until late into the night. The number of persons who take part in these games, both of the Court and the town, makes them still more unsuitable ; every one is surprised to see that the King plays them with great zest, and that he can give himself up wholly to such frivolities in such a serious condition of State affairs as obtains at present.

Given the long hours that Louis XVI devoted to affairs of state and the fact that people often complained that he was too serious and reserved, it seems that Mercy should have been pleased to see the King come out of his shell a little and take some recreation. But then, Mercy often tried to cast Louis in an unfavorable light. As far as the Empress was concerned, however, Lent was not the time for any games. Louis' devotion was sincere all the same; he was constant in prayer and good works, observing the fasts of the Church for Lent and the Ember days even throughout his imprisonment.

The King's sister, Madame Elisabeth, also steadfastly kept the discipline of Lent in both good times and bad. In the Temple prison, the jailers mocked the princess' attempts to keep Lent as best she could. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette's daughter, Madame Royale, who shared her aunt's imprisonment, recorded it thus:

Having no fish, she asked for eggs or other dishes on fast-days. They refused them, saying that in equality there was no difference of days; there were no weeks, only decades. They brought us a new almanac, but we did not look at it. Another time, when my aunt again asked for fast-day food they answered: "Why, citoyenne, don't you know what has taken place? none but fools believe all that." She made no further requests.

As for Marie-Antoinette herself, she did not fast and abstain through every day of Lent as Louis did; her health did not permit it. However, after baby Madame Sophie died in 1787, it was noted that the Queen became more fervent in her devotions, especially during Lent. Jean Chalon in Chère Marie-Antoinette (p.235) notes that in 1788 she gave orders that her table strictly comply with all the regulations of the Church. Even the Swedish ambassador remarked: "The queen seems to have turned devout."

(Photo: http://www.cyrilalmeras.com/)
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Blunt Diplomacy: Trump’s Path to Peace in Ukraine

 From Amuse on X:

Donald Trump’s diplomatic style, on full display in his best-selling opus, The Art of the Deal, hinges on calling out systemic failures and pressuring the status quo to bend before it breaks. His approach, for better or worse, rarely flatters established sensibilities, particularly among European elites, left-leaning U.S. politicians, and drive-by media outlets. Far from the typical political pleasantries, Trump’s tactic is to combine open criticism with the promise of beneficial agreements—always with a clear end goal in mind. In the present Ukrainian crisis, that goal is as simple as it is vital: to stop the carnage and avoid a slide into a broader conflict that could engulf the globe.

Those who scorn this approach as “dangerously simplistic” forget that much the same language was thrown at Trump when he chastised NATO members for neglecting their financial commitments—only five members were meeting their 2% commitment at the time. At the infamous 2018 summit, Trump labeled certain allies “delinquent” for their failure to honor the 2% GDP spending threshold. Most of the condemnation fell on him, not on those nations content to shelter under America’s defense umbrella without meeting their obligations. Notably, Germany—the largest economy in Europe—resisted, citing sovereignty over its spending choices. Meanwhile, the American press and Democratic leaders seized on Trump’s critiques as evidence he was eroding NATO unity to Vladimir Putin’s advantage.

But fast-forward to the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022. Only then did the same European allies scramble, belatedly, to rectify glaring vulnerabilities that Trump had warned about all along. Today more than 23 members have now raised their defense budgets to meet or exceed the 2% threshold; some have even rushed to surpass what they had previously denounced as an irrational American demand. Like Benjamin Franklin’s cautionary advice—“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”—Trump had advised that paying now would prove cheaper and less perilous than paying later on the battlefield. (Read more.)

 

Also from Amuse on X:

 Europe stands at a precarious crossroads, holding the lofty yet perilous belief that it might successfully engage in a direct conflict with Russia absent the robust support traditionally provided by the United States and the broader NATO alliance. Advocates of European strategic autonomy argue earnestly for the continent’s military self-sufficiency, envisioning a scenario where Europe's combined economic and technological prowess suffices to repel any Russian aggression. But such views are perilously detached from the cold calculus of geopolitical reality. (Read more.)

 

From The America Conservative:

The Democrats tried to treat Congress as if it were a college campus, where angry activists could shout down and “cancel” a speaker they didn’t want to be heard. Johnson treated them the way more college presidents should treat disruptors. He enforced the rules and shut them down. Once Green was escorted out of the Capitol, the rest of the opposition mob took note. They weren’t silent during the president’s speech, and they scowled all the way through it. But they didn’t dare try to derail it again.

If the president had said nothing the rest of the night, he would already have been assured of a favorable reception from the American public. The Democrats had shown themselves to be both petulant and impotent. They frowned, and some held up little paddle-shaped placards with brief messages written on them. These were grown adults—indeed, many looking positively cadaverous—trying to protest like undergraduates, and failing. Far be it from me to advise Nancy Pelosi and friends how to conduct a protest, but common sense ought to tell would-be protesters to agree on a common message beforehand, at least. The slogans were a cacophony. 

Other forms of protest, such as some Democratic women wearing pink in solidarity with one another, also fizzled, since only a handful of women joined in, and they failed to sit together in an unbroken bloc. Pelosi wasn’t wearing pink. What exactly was the logic behind who participated and who didn’t? A viewer couldn’t guess. The Democrats just seemed to be literally in disarray. (Read more.)

 

What Zelensky could learn from Ben Franklin. From Creators:

After the United States declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776, this nation sent diplomats to France — seeking an alliance with a country then led by King Louis XVI. One of these diplomats was Benjamin Franklin. In 1778, France signed a treaty of alliance with the United States and Franklin would later write a letter to Congress, arguing it was in America's interest to express gratitude to the French king for his support. (Read more.)

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Uncovering P*rnhub's Darkest Secrets

 Andrew Klavan interviews Laila Mickelwait.

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Portrait of Isabel de Borbon

She was Queen consort of Spain and is also known as Elisabeth of France, eldest daughter of Henri IV and Marie de' Medici. Her daughter Maria Teresa married Louis XIV. From Artnet:

A recent conservation undertaken by the Prado Museum, which holds the work, has restored the painting’s original depth and colors, with the lateral additions newly blended into the main canvas. This effort is part of a project to restore Velázquez’s equestrian works.

“The queen has recovered the regal bearing and the serene and natural beauty with which she was portrayed,” María Álvarez Garcillán, of the Prado’s conservation department, said in a statement. “With unique mastery, the horse once again shows off its qualities in a display of naturalism that only a genius like Velázquez is capable of recreating.”

Velázquez’s Queen Elisabeth of France, on Horseback was created as one of a series of portraits meant to adorn the Salón de Reinos, a wing of the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid. The great hall hosted soirees and spectacles, as well as paintings celebrating the monarchy. Isabel’s portrait was intended to hang with that of her husband Philip IV and their son Prince Balthasar Carlos—all of them depicted on horseback.

In ways, Isabel’s and Philip’s equestrian portraits both complement and contrast with each other. Velázquez’s opted to place the queen on a white horse, echoing the stripe on the king’s rearing stallion. Where Philip is portrayed with a forward gaze, Isabel directs her eyes to the viewer, appearing composed atop her horse’s blanket and lavish gown bearing her anagram, which was not painted by Velázquez himself. (Read more.)

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Musk's $1 Credit Card Clampdown: Restoring Accountability

 From Amuse on X:

Contrary to prevailing misconceptions, federal agencies are not strictly mandated to use the General Services Administration (GSA) for every procurement; yet, centralization through GSA offers undeniable advantages such as competitive pricing, rigorous oversight, and significant cost savings. Unfortunately, the widespread issuance of approximately 4.6 million federal credit cards and lax management have permitted agencies and their employees to circumvent GSA-negotiated agreements, leading to extensive unnecessary spending and inefficiency. In fiscal year 2024 alone, these cards facilitated around 90 million transactions, totaling nearly $40 billion in expenditures.

The historical proliferation of federal purchase cards, dramatically expanded during Clinton-era government streamlining efforts, was intended to enhance efficiency. However, this well-intentioned measure quickly evolved into an unchecked system rife with wasteful and fraudulent activities. Reports by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) vividly document abuses: a U.S. Forest Service employee charged over $31,000 in personal luxuries like jewelry and electronics; employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development amassed over $27,000 in taxpayer-funded shopping sprees at Macy’s and J.C. Penney; and perhaps most egregiously, a Federal Aviation Administration employee brazenly withdrew cash at casinos using a government card. These examples illuminate a persistent culture of entitlement and fiscal negligence within federal bureaucracies.

Yet, the misuse extends beyond isolated incidents of outright fraud. Systemic negligence results in substantial unaccountable losses, such as audits revealing the disappearance of hundreds of Department of Education computers collectively worth over $260,000. Multiply this by hundreds of thousands of federal employees with credit cards and the losses are monumental. Such reckless oversight starkly contrasts conservative ideals of responsible stewardship and fiscal restraint.

Further, agencies regularly bypass centrally negotiated GSA travel agreements, opting instead for convenient but costly individual bookings on government-issued credit cards. This practice nullifies carefully negotiated volume discounts, inflating costs and exemplifying the very inefficiency conservative principles abhor. (Read more.)

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Is Pro-War Pro-Life?

 From Christine Niles.

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Mercredi des Cendres

From author Catherine Delors:

Ash Wednesday follows Fat Tuesday, and the mood could not be more different. Today, a day of fast and prayer, marks the beginning of Lent. The day of ashes on foreheads, and the admonition Memento, homo, quod pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris (“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”)

No better illustration of the contrast between Carnival and Lent than this work by the 19th century Bavarian artist Carl Spitzweg. Spitzweg, though classified as a Romanticist, admired and emulated the genre paintings of the 17th century Flemish school. His style is often humorous and down-to-earth (two qualities I find somewhat lacking in Romantic art.) (Read more.)

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NGO Fraud Racket

 From Tierney's Real News:

Our elected officials have very little power relative to the bureaucracy. DOGE is a threat to the bureaucracy.

It’s shocking. One person was getting $1.9 billion sent to their NGO which basically got formed about a year ago and had no prior activity - so they just set up non-governmental organizations and fund them by the government. No real oversight.

These nonprofits become very wealthy - they pay themselves enormous sums through these nonprofits. That's been going on for so long it's a gigantic scam like one of the biggest maybe the biggest scam ever. There are probably millions of NGOs.

Soros was really good at this. He figured out how to hack the system. He’s a genius at arbitrage. [Arbitrage is the practice of buying and selling an asset at different prices in different markets to make a profit.] He figured out that you could leverage a small amount of money to create a nonprofit and then lobby [pay off] politicians to send a ton of taxpayer money to that nonprofit so that he can can take a $10 million donation to a non-profit (from the Government) and leverage that into a billion dollar non-profit NGO.

{Soros isn’t spending HIS money - he’s using taxpayer money for his schemes and most of it is funneled through USAID or the CIA.]

It'll have a nice sounding name like the “Institute for Peace” or something like that. They just get grants and I think a lot of people in the government know that they are not doing good work - it's a giant grift. (Read more.)

From The Vigilant Fox:

The data scientist revealed that “States United Democracy Center,” an NGO co-founded by Norm Eisen, received $17M—and “the only thing they did with $17M was make a terrible muppet show.”

“That’s (explicit word)!” she exclaimed.

“They got money, and they did something with that. It was just awful. Jim Henson would roll in his grave. And it was weird because all the videos have less than 200 views,” DataRepublican explained.

“They didn’t even try to promote them with ads or anything. So where did the $17 million go?” she asked.

Shortly after this interview aired, DataRepublican revealed she was doxxed in a viral post on X.

After being doxxed, DataRepublican shared more details about herself to take back control of the narrative. She revealed her real name as Jennica Pounds, a 100% Deaf and nonverbal database kernel engineer with expressive dysphasia related to autism. (Read more.)

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Why All Morality is Arbitrary Without God

 From Culturcidal:

Do you know what secular morality is? Ultimately, it’s the child’s game of telephone with a heavy dose of self-interest involved. What do I mean by that? Well, where do secular moral beliefs come from? They are beliefs that are fed to people through the culture. Kids hear things from their parents, at school, and from their friends. They watch TV shows. They read comic books and fairy tales. They see who’s punished and who’s rewarded for doing things in society. Then, they start to formulate their own beliefs – and this is where the self-interest part comes in. They may adopt a moral framework, but in places where it’s difficult, inconvenient, or disadvantageous, they usually bend the rules to make things easier for themselves.

Now, if a culture is healthy enough, unified enough, and has strongly enforced rules, it can still produce a moral people – for a while at least. Long term? That’s a much more doubtful proposition. Unfortunately, in America, we don’t have a healthy culture or a unified culture. There is also no longer strong cultural pressure to conform. What does this inevitably create? Widespread degeneracy. That’s because a large percentage of the culture does whatever they want to do and then just calls it moral. After all, who can contradict them? Sure, I can. You can. But what moral authority do we have over them in their mind? None whatsoever.

This is how you end up with people who consider themselves to be moral cheerleading for Luigi Mangione’s murder of a random stranger, spewing hate online all day and putting kids in front of drag queens. It’s how we had people who morally justified riots, looting, and shoplifting. Just about every degeneracy you can imagine is championed by godless people who will tell you what they’re doing is moral and in their minds, they decide what’s moral and what’s not, so no one can contradict them. (Read more.)

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