Mary Todd Lincoln's House

From Victoria:

Built as an inn and tavern in the early 1800s, the fourteen-room abode suited the large Todd clan. Mary was the fourth of seven born to her mother, Elizabeth Parker Todd, who died when the girl was 6. Her father, prominent businessman Robert Smith Todd, married Elizabeth “Betsy” Humphreys two years later, and they had nine children. Although Lexington comprised fewer than seven thousand citizens when the affluent family bought the residence in 1832, the town’s prosperity and culture fostered comparisons to Philadelphia and Boston. (Read more.)

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Is Trump Pro-Life?

I have a number of broken friendships over this question because I see no reason to disbelieve a person who always speaks his mind, for better or worse. You may not like Trump but don't spread falsehoods about where he now stands. From Breitbart:

Sometime in the intervening 16 years, Trump became fully pro-life. You can say you don’t believe him — just as you might say you don’t believe Cruz has truly changed his mind on amnesty, the wall, or the Trans-Pacific Partnership, etc. But to claim Trump is pro-choice today — present tense — is what’s known as a “lie.” But that’s what Cruz says over and over again, including in a campaign ad — and not one of those “super PAC” ads that count even less than a retweet. A Cruz ad plays the clip from that 1999 interview where Trump says, “I am pro-choice in every respect,” repeats it three times, and then cuts to a narrator proclaiming: “For partial-birth abortion, not a conservative.” These are the kinds of lies that used to drive conservatives crazy when the Clintons did it. Not anymore. All’s fair in smearing Trump. (Read more.)

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Chesterton and Eugenics

From The Distributist Review:

Eight years after Chesterton published his book, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Casti Connubii and pointed a finger at the unrelenting eugenicist movement, that “by public authority wish to prevent from marrying all those whom, even though naturally fit for marriage, they consider, according to the norms and conjectures of their investigations, would, through hereditary transmission, bring forth defective offspring.…” To no one’s surprise, Pius’ condemnation of eugenics drew responses from the eugenics movement, which failed to deliver a substantive critique of Church teaching and instead proceeded to predictably question the encyclical’s authority, raising the possibility (in the minds of those soft on eugenics) that Pius’ teaching may have overreached rather than bound Catholics by the weight of his Office.⁶ Accusing the pontiff of hiding behind papal pedagogy to mask his own “defiant medievalism” and “condemning many a woman to die in the hopeless agonies of childbirth,” American eugenicists like Margaret Sanger also used their rhetoric to re-ignite conspiracy theories about Romanism in America.

The eugenics movement had indeed found a formidable enemy in the Church. They had good reason to tremble. Catholic advocacy groups were well oiled and organized opponents. Clergy worthy of their cassocks rejected eugenics publicly and proved themselves loyal to mater ecclesiae. One of the most prominent Catholic social thinkers of this period, Rev. John A. Ryan, publicly described eugenics as a “pseudoscience” designed by “the immoral perversion of the human faculty,” and attacked contraception as the frustration of new life that “prevent it from attaining its natural end.”⁷ Ryan also wisely observed the implications of subordinating “the weaker groups to the welfare of society,” which would become “instruments to other human beings,”⁸ perfectly echoing Chesterton’s sentiments about eugenics breeding wage-slaves for “docility” and fostering “enterprise in a few masters.” (Read more.)

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A Home in Harmony

From Victoria:

Shutters in a just-right shade of blue-green punctuate the brick facade of a grand suburban manor, where each thoughtful detail reflects the esprit de corps among the owners and the design team. The unique symbiosis between a decorator and a client is a crucial component in the design process—one that spells the difference between a house and a home. An ideal brick-and-mortar illustration of a successful collaboration can be seen in a beautiful Georgian-style residence in Brookhaven, Georgia. (Read more.)

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Pius XII and the Olivet Discourse

From Unveiling the Apocalypse:

As most readers are aware, one of the central arguments of the first version of my book (which has been furthered throughout this blog) is that the world wars which took place over the course of the 20th century were directly related to the "wars and rumours of wars" mentioned by Christ in His Olivet discourse as being one of the birth pangs of the Second Coming. These wars are said to take place when "the end is not yet", but would ultimately result in a major falling away from the faith:  "because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold". (Matt 24:12).  It is well enough known that both Benedict XV and Pius XII shared the belief that the wars which took place throughout the courses of their respective pontificates were the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy. As Pope Benedict XV famously stated in his 1914 encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum: "Certainly those days would seem to have come upon us of which Christ Our Lord foretold: "You shall hear of wars and rumours of wars - for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom" (Matt. xxiv, 6, 7). Another quote by Pius XII is frequently cited to confirm that he shared this belief: “We believe that the present hour is a dread phase of the events foretold by Christ. It seems that darkness is about to fall on the world. Humanity is in the grip of a supreme crisis.” (Read more.)

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Inside ISIS

Pray for the captives. Someone please help them. From Al-Monitor:

Eyes filled with tears, Janet said in a sad voice, “This picture was taken a month before she was captured. We were attending a concert and she insisted that we take a group photo. She looked stunning that night.” Mary’s family is from the area of Tal Shamiram, in the southwest neighborhood of Tell Tamer, in Hasaka city, where she was captured along with 234 others, including her parents, by IS militants. The abduction followed a major IS offensive on Assyrian villages at dawn on Feb. 23, 2015. On Nov. 7, 2015, IS freed 37 Christians, including Immanuel, after nine months of detention. He told Al-Monitor that prior to his release, he “asked IS officials about my wife and Mary, but to no avail.” He contented himself with believing that they would soon be freed as well.

On Dec. 25, 2015, IS released another 25 Assyrians, mostly women and children. Janet was among them. She said, “They called my name, but Mary’s name was not among those who would be released. I passed out. Later on, I insisted on staying there with her until we were both freed.” But IS did not grant her request and said that Mary and the other detainees will be released once a deal is concluded. Janet said that IS is still holding seven Assyrians, including her daughter, and asking for a higher ransom for them. She said, “When I was held by IS, the militants used to tell us that we would be freed once our relatives pay the ransom.”

The BBC Arabic site quoted Talia Younan of the Assyrian Democratic Organization as telling the Associated Press Feb. 22 that the release came after mediation led by an unnamed senior Assyrian priest. Younan reported that IS demanded “a ransom of $18 million for the Assyrian Christians, and that the figure was later lowered following negotiations.” No one knows the final figure paid to IS. Janet is afraid that Mary might be raped or forced to marry during her detention. She said, “This has caused Mary extreme panic attacks and continuous treatment at the hospital.” She went on, “She is by herself now, and I wonder how she is doing without me by her side.” Immanuel said they know nothing about their captured daughter, who has been kept prisoner for a year and one month now. (Read more.)

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A First Lady

An interview with Mississippi First Lady Deborah Bryant from Southern Lady Magazine:

SL: Tell us a little bit about your early life in Jackson.

DB: I grew up in West Jackson, and we still have ties there. The area that I grew up in was actually a neighborhood that my grandfather developed. He was a doctor and he lived behind the church that we went to my whole life. He donated the land for that church, and my mom still goes to that church. There are a lot of memories there … we were all christened in the Methodist church; Phil and I were married in that church; Phil was baptized in that church. We still go for communion on Christmas Eve to this day.

SL: What are the most dramatic changes in Jackson that you have seen over the years? How would you characterize the city today?

DB: We have got a lot of interest in Jackson right now. We have the Jackson Zoo, and we have the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership—business leaders in the area that really work hard to make improvements to Jackson. We recently had a downtown restoration. It’s coming back slowly but surely. We’ve got the Fondren area, which is a great place for young people, and we have some restaurants around here that are really good. Jackson’s coming back too in that apartments are being built in some of the older buildings—a lot of the people that work downtown are moving into these apartments. (Read more.)

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Our Capacity for Self-Deception

From Crisis:

The Da Vinci Code is significant not for what it says about the Catholic Church, but for what it inadvertently says about the state of Western culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The positive reception accorded to The Da Vinci Code reveals a society in deep denial of reality. The book came out to its warm reception after 9/11. The film version came out after the Beslan school massacre, after the Madrid train bombings, after the London tube bombings, and after three weeks of Muslim rioting in 275 French cities. The movie hit the theaters at just about the same time that news of the Mumbai train bombings (which killed 200 and injured 700) hit the news.

Yet such was the public mood that millions of gullible readers and moviegoers were willing to accept the thesis that the greatest threat to human happiness lay in the supposed machinations of powerful figures within the Catholic Church. Future historians will no doubt be amazed at our capacity for self-deception. That presumes, of course, that future historians won’t be under the thumbs of the Ayatollahs and Muftis—a presumption that can no longer be safely entertained.

If the Islamization of all aspects of life—history, education, culture—is the fate of the West, The Da Vinci Code, along with similar fantasies, should bear some of the responsibility. By doing his best to deconstruct the religion that historically had stood as the main bulwark against Islamic fanaticism, the author has served as an enabler of Islam’s spread into the West. The weakening of Christianity has done little to strengthen the cause of goddess worship, but it has done a great deal to further the cause of Islam.

Whatever future historians may say about The Da Vinci Code, contemporary chroniclers are already saying that the rise of Islam in the West is directly related to the decline of Christianity. As I wrote four years ago:

As Europeans started to lose their faith, they stopped having babies. They stopped having babies because they had nothing meaningful to pass on to the next generation—and also because babies get in the way of self-gratification. The decline of Christianity in Europe created a population vacuum and a spiritual vacuum, both of which Islam soon began to fill. If Christian faith had been more robust in Europe, it is unlikely that radical Islam would have advanced so far, so fast.

A number of recent surveys show that Christianity is also on the decline in America. Increasing numbers of Americans now identify as “no religion” or “agnostic” rather than as Christians. As in Europe, this will eventually create a population shift. Filled with faith, the Muslim population will grow, and lacking it, the indigenous population will grow older.

As in Europe, the spiritual shift will also have an effect on the will to resist Islamization. Traditionally, Christianity has been the main source of meaning in the lives of most Americans. Once deprived of that meaning, they will begin to lose the will to resist. What’s the point of resisting if everything is relative? If one religion is as good as another? If you have nothing meaningful to stand for? Better in that case to submit and go along with the new order of things, distasteful as it may be.

Of course, the responsibility for the decline of Christianity in the West can hardly be pinned on Dan Brown alone. The decline was underway long before he put pen to paper. The Sexual Revolution, the lure of secularism, and the work of celebrity atheists had already done considerable damage to the Christian faith. Brown provided one more excuse for not believing, and because his thesis was dressed up in the language of scholarship it proved to be a potent excuse.

Brown quite obviously intended to undermine traditional Christianity and, in the process, pave the way for a non-patriarchal, feminine-friendly type of spirituality. Ironically, one of the effects of his and similar deconstruction efforts was to strengthen the hand of the most male-dominated, anti-feminine religion on the planet. Thanks in part to Brown and his fellow demolitionists, the institutionalized oppression of women that was once largely confined to Islamic lands has now set up shop in Europe. (Read more.)

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Nicknames of French Royals

From Geri Walton:

When Louis XVI came to power he received a number of nicknames. One positive one was “the Restorer of French Liberty” received in 1789 after feudalism and the taxes and privileges associated with feudalism were abolished. However, most of the rest reflected the unfortunate opinion Frenchmen held of him. After the Constituent Assembly allowed him the power of veto, he used it. This caused practically every Frenchman to be unhappy, resulting in him being called “Monsieur Veto.” Later, when he was imprisoned at the Temple, he went by several names including “Citizen Capet,” “Citoyen Louis Capet,” or just plain “Louis Capet.” There were also at least two rather sad nicknames: “the Martyr King” and “the Last.” (Read more.)

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