Francis W. Porretto
Mount Sinai, NY USA
Author's posts
Aug 27 2021
The Meat, The Potatoes, And Just A Drop Of Gravy
You can read innumerable columnists’ fulminations about the atrocity in Afghanistan at hundreds of other sites. Perhaps thousands; I’m disinclined to count into the four digits. (Not enough jelly beans.) So here at Liberty’s Torch you’ll get…well, at least some material of other kinds. We like to think of ourselves as the Waldorf Salad …
Aug 26 2021
Too Good Not To Share
If you don’t yet subscribe to The Babylon Bee, here’s a tiny taste of what you’re missing: That publication is staffed by a gaggle of BLEEP!ing geniuses. The comedy industry should take lessons from them. Especially the blatantly unfunny ones on late-night television. But I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t …
Aug 26 2021
Target Selection
Among the very first things a shooter-to-be is taught about guns and shooting is to know your target and focus on it. There are actually two reasons for this imperative: If you don’t “know your target and focus on it,” how can you expect to hit it? If you do “know your target and …
Aug 25 2021
The Corpse Walk
An old metaphor for an attitude of gleeful, even vindictive opportunism is “he’d walk over his colleagues’ corpses.” I’ve used it rather frequently in recent years. There are a lot of conscience-challenged opportunists in the world. They make their presence known when disaster befalls others. I’ve seen a lot of corpse-walking lately, especially …
Aug 24 2021
It’s Happening Again
…but then, it was to be expected. Yea verily, even by those who claim that it’s not happening. There are phenomena whose geneses we understand – “we” being interpreted to mean “those of us who study such things” – perfectly well. We cannot plausibly claim that we didn’t expect them to happen. Yet …
Aug 23 2021
Nobody Likes To Be Contradicted…
…especially by RealityTM [1] Statistician William M. Briggs has a piece up today about Why Experts Hate Racial Differences In Intelligence. It’s a good piece, but it sounds a somewhat discordant note toward the end: Experts say intelligence is the highest good, and these test scores are indicators of intelligence. See the …
Aug 22 2021
Renters
One of the long-time controversies in economics concerns the behavior called rent-seeking. Crudely put, the rent-seeker seeks to amass wealth without doing anything to get it. This does not describe a conventional landlord, who accepts the responsibility for maintaining his property in acceptable condition, in exchange for regular payments of rent by its occupant. …
Aug 20 2021
For Those Who Think Electing Republicans Will Save Us
Have a few words from Joe Hoft of Gateway Pundit: The United States now has a bona fide ruling class that both controls and transcends government, which sees itself as distinct from the rest of society and as the only element that may act on its behalf. The ruling class considers those who …
Aug 20 2021
The Gap
The days have acquired an eerie regularity. I rise early – typically between 4:00 and 4:30 – get my (cardiac starter fluid) coffee, and settle at my computer to read through my list of news sources. As I read I make a handful of notes about topics for future essays, though on some …
Aug 19 2021
How Did This Happen?
…grunt…wheeze… Sheesh! Getting rid of that Curmudgeon nuisance was a trial. He pops in at random hours, grabs the keyboard, and refuses to let go. I had to lever it away from him with a crowbar. (A few blows about the head and shoulders helped, too.) But all is well once more, at least …
Aug 15 2021
War Has Been Declared
…and there’s no such thing as a one-sided war: The United States Department of Homeland Security made a quiet and alarming announcement yesterday, creating the official position of the United States Government under the Joe Biden regime. [SEE DHS STATEMENT HERE] According to the statement, if you question the orthodoxy, mandates, or COVID-19 …
Aug 14 2021
Wedges
Most people who study physics at any level know the Inclined Plane as the first machine of their acquaintance. It’s the simplest machine I know of. It serves admirably to illustrate the fundamental nature and purpose of a machine: to make some human undertaking easier than it would otherwise be. The illustration commonly presented …
Aug 13 2021
The Fallen Republic: A Summing-Up
I found this at IOTW Report. I hope that site’s proprietors won’t mind that I’m reproducing it here. It deserves the widest possible audience: I never dreamed that I would have to face the prospect of not living in the United States of America, at least not the one I have known all …
Aug 11 2021
Politics Uber Alles
John Hinderaker pins it: The Democrats are bidding Andy Cuomo a fond farewell. They want to pretend that he was a successful governor and his downfall was solely attributable to sexual harassment. Not the untimely and unnecessary deaths of 15,000 nursing home residents? Not the immense damage done to New York’s already …
Aug 10 2021
Assorted
Forgive me, Gentle Reader; I haven’t the strength to think up a cleverer title today. Just read on. *** 1. Ownership of books is under threat. People were concerned about major software vendors (especially Microsoft) going to a “rent” rather than “buy” model for important applications. But what about the next most important …
Aug 09 2021
Assorted Fiction Notes And Observations
In case I haven’t done so before, I’d like to issue a hearty recommendation of Philip S. Power’s Damsel series: Damsel: No More Damsel: Slaying Demons Damsel: Wilderness Hannah Damsel: Soda Supreme You know what a raving beast I am about originality. Well, here’s a giant helping. Hannah de Peyser is an heiress …
Aug 08 2021
The Instruments Of The Faith
First, a few thematic quotes: No power is strong enough if it labors under the weight of fear. – Cicero Fear is an acid which is pumped into one’s atmosphere. It causes mental, moral and spiritual asphyxiation, and sometimes death; death to all energy and growth. – Horace Fletcher Fear is …
Aug 07 2021
Bent Brains
Accepting a lie in place of the truth will do bad things to you. I once advanced the thesis that if a man should accept even one fact as absolutely true, it would compel him to accept all the rest of objective reality. Herbert Spencer believed this as well: I asked one …
Aug 07 2021
Free Fiction
For today only, my latest novel In Vino: …is a free download at Amazon. Pope Clement XV, the first American to be raised to the papacy, is under attack from within the Vatican. Powerful cardinals, averse to his efforts to reform the Catholic clergy, are trying to force him to resign his …
Aug 06 2021
Your Decision Tree And What It Means For You
You’ve probably seen the phrase decision tree before. It’s become a frequent element in op-ed columns such as this one. While it looks forbiddingly formal and technical, it refers to one of the most pedestrian things in human life: our priorities and how we use them to make choices. Everyone has priorities. However, …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
