Almost derailed. The post Fighting for the last time at Muscle Shoals: The disaster session that gave Aretha Franklin her first hit first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Catholic priests in the Diocese of Charlotte, in North Carolina, are asking the Vatican to possibly intervene as their bishop continues to strip priests and the faithful of traditional Catholic devotions, customs, and liturgies. Last month, Bishop Michael Martin authored a “pastoral” letter on the reception of Holy Communion in the diocese, ostensibly in an effort “to strengthen unity in worship, uphold the Church’s liturgical norms, and encourage active participation by the faithful.” Martin has established himself, since taking over the diocese in 2024, as a staunch opponent of traditional Catholic practices. In effect, however, his letter ordered the removal of altar rails and kneelers for the reception of Holy Communion, which the Catholic Church proclaims as the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ Himself. Why would a bishop, a successor to the Apostles and a shepherd of souls, prohibit his flock from kneeling before their God? “As missionaries of hope, our Eucharistic life is oriented toward living the sacrifice and banquet with others. For this reason Jesus says, ‘you are the light of the world,’” Martin wrote, citing Matthew 5:14. “In accord with universal and episcopal conference norms, I offer the following norms and guidelines for all public celebrations of the Most Holy Eucharist in the Diocese of Charlotte.” The bishop observed that while the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has prescribed standing as the postural “norm” for receiving Holy Communion, individuals receiving Holy Communion are free to choose instead to kneel and to receive the Body of Christ upon the tongue, as was the custom in the Latin Rite for centuries upon centuries. “Communion cannot be denied this individual solely based on their posture,” Martin noted. So he developed a novel approach: since the faithful cannot be denied Holy Communion, deny them the posture of kneeling. Martin ordered, “The use of altar rails, kneelers, and prie-dieus are not to be utilized for the reception of Communion in public celebrations” and “[t]emporary or movable fixtures used for kneeling for the reception of communion are to be removed by January 16, 2026.” Martin also demanded that priests, catechists, and “extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion” “instruct communicants according to the normative posture in the United States,” meaning standing while receiving Christ’s Flesh, and to inform parishioners that kneeling to receive Holy Communion is not “better, preferred, more efficacious” than standing. “The faithful who feel compelled to kneel to receive the Eucharist as is their individual right should also prayerfully consider the blessing of communal witness that is realized when we share a common posture.” According to a report from The Pillar, a band of 31 Charlotte priests wrote a letter to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts, asking, “Since an altar rail is a common and traditional ‘structure and ornamentation’ that marks off the sanctuary from the body of the church within the Roman rite, it is asked whether a diocesan bishop has the legitimate authority to prohibit the erection of altar rails within churches or other sacred places in his diocese.” Catholic News Agency (now EWTN News) further reported that roughly half of the diocese’s priests agree with the line of questioning presented to the Vatican, but many did not sign the letter due to an “atmosphere of fear, retaliation, and mistrust.” Martin has established himself, since taking over the diocese in 2024, as a staunch opponent of traditional Catholic practices. When celebrating Mass in churches where altar rails or kneelers are in place, Martin will reportedly stand in front of the kneelers in order to prevent communicants from using them. Last year, he imposed heavy restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), which had surged in popularity over the preceding years. Martin’s is an example of episcopal cruelty. Many bishops have failed, particularly in recent decades, to protect or to nourish the souls entrusted to their care, but bishops like Martin actively wound those souls. READ MORE from S.A. McCarthy: The Sheen Renaissance College of Cardinals To Meet Annually Under Pope Leo XIV Is Hostility Against Christians Going to Increase in 2026?

We are often reminded that 2024 was the hottest year on record and that 2023 was the second hottest. The World Meteorological Organization, NOAA, and Copernicus (the European Union equivalent to NOAA) all report this. Given the considerable amount of expertise that these agencies represent, it would be natural and reasonable to accept their claims. How could anyone say otherwise? But not everyone agrees. Before I explain, it’s fair to say that 2024 was a hot year by several metrics and the hottest in at least 47 years. The University of Alabama in Huntsville Global Temperature Report nicely illustrates that 2024 was indeed very warm on our planet.  Since 1978, Earth has had satellites capable of measuring microwave radiation coming from the atmosphere. Using that data, Dr. John R. Christy and Dr. Roy Spencer — each with over 40 years experience with temperature datasets — calculate the Monthly Global Lower Troposphere Anomaly. What does that mean? The lower troposphere is our atmosphere from the ground up to about 5 miles in altitude. The anomaly is the difference between the global average air temperature for a particular month and the global average air temperature for the same month from 1991–2020. Dr. Christy explained to The American Spectator that this metric is “far more capable of responding to rising greenhouse gasses than surface temperature, which is influenced by many non-greenhouse gas issues, including poor geographic coverage for large regions of the globe.” Just below is their latest graph. The increasing temperatures from 2023 to 2024 followed by an overall decrease — with some upward fluctuations — to December 2025 are evident.  Image courtesy of John R. Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville There are several global temperature datasets used by scientists to analyze climate change. Although they probably have more in common than not, they are not identical and each one is managed according to the standards established by the controlling agency. For example, the Copernicus ERA5 dataset has data going back to 1940. Therefore, any high temperature event before 1940 will obviously be excluded in determining the hottest year when using ERA5. The NOAA Merged Land Ocean Global Surface Temperature Analysis (NOAAGlobalTemp) dataset begins in 1850, providing us with a much wider timeline. This is a monthly dataset composed of inputs from the Global Historical Climatology Network (land stations), Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (ocean surface temperatures), International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (surface marine data), and the International Arctic Buoy Program (Arctic buoy data) that create a comprehensive, gridded global temperature dataset.  NOAA’s map of global temperature trends from 1994–2023 Most pertinent to our question is the fact that NOAA, like most weather agencies, calculates the average temperature (TAVG) of the daily maximum temperature (TMAX) and the daily minimum temperature (TMIN). This average is then fed into the NOAAGlobalTemp dataset that produces its Global Mean Surface Temperature (GMST). NOAA uses TAVG to create temperature trends diagrams such as this one below. Why is this relevant? According to Dr. Christy, TAVG is influenced by urbanization. This means that higher temperatures found in urban centers relative to their surroundings can distort the true temperature profile. For that reason, he and colleague Dr. Spencer focus on TMAX because it is less influenced by urbanization.  By using TMAX instead of TAVG, the Christy–Spencer team revealed a very different temperature profile for the contiguous 48 states over time, as illustrated in the graph just below. They built this graph by comparing the temperature data for each weather station in one year to the same station in all other years from 1898 to 2025. Image courtesy of John R. Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville It is obvious that many more TMAX records were set in 1936 compared to 2024 by a wide margin, revealing 1936 as the hottest year on record since 1898 in the U.S.  The Christy–Spencer graph agrees with the Warm Spells and Heat Wave Magnitude Index graphs (shown below), which were published in the Climate Science Special Report Fourth National Climate Assessment, Vol I. Image published by NOAA If we widen our perspective even further, the answer changes yet again. We have temperature data going back 600 million years. In the relatively recent past, we know that the Minoan, Roman, and Medieval warm periods were all warmer than today, as shown in the diagram below. Image courtesy of William Happer at Princeton University In southern Greenland, the ruins of about 620 farms from the Medieval period have been discovered. Thousands of hectares were likely farmed at these sites. Farming was mainly animal-based, but evidence of barley grains has been found at several locations. Today, there are about 40 commercial farms in Greenland, and these are mainly focused on sheep farming, although there is some small-scale vegetable production enabled by recent warming and advanced greenhouse technology. TAVG or TMAX, you decide, but as far as I’m concerned, based on the data that I’ve seen, 2024 wasn’t the hottest year on record in the USA. That honor should belong to 1936.  READ MORE: Two Retractions Raise the Question: Is Climate Science Really Settled? The Welcome Demise of Climate Change Catastrophism Bill Gates Has Discovered Something More Profitable Than the Climate Apocalypse

Long ago and far away, I was a lonely Junior at Columbia. I was in an incredibly great fraternity called Alpha Delta Phi in a magnificent townhouse at 526 West 114th Street. I had the best fraternity brothers on earth, starting with Larry Lissitzyn, the President of AD. A kind and brilliant classmate named Stuart Reynolds had gotten me in — possibly because they thought they needed me to elevate the average grades in AD. We were happy. I vividly recall Mary and me asking God how we deserved to be the happiest people on Earth. And I had girls I could take to our fabulous parties but no girlfriend who truly loved me. Then, a MIRACLE — the girlfriend of Larry Lissitzyn, a great student at Barnard named Susan Sgarlat, introduced me to a beautiful, tall willowy school mate of hers named Mary Margaret Just — daughter of a world-famous botanist named Theodor Just — head of the botany department at the University of Chicago. She was tall, with watery blue eyes, flaxen hair, worn down her neck and her back in the style of the day. I fell in love with her immediately. Summer was about to start. I had a summer job in DC at State. She had an internship at the Pentagon. We were dating and sensing how much we had in common. This would have been in 1964. I really cannot adequately describe how perfectly we fit together. She was half-Irish, half-Austrian. Her father had died when she was not yet in college. She had a magnificent sense of humor. She especially liked to make fun of my roommate in Apartment 8D, 380 Riverside Drive. He was a brilliant Brooklyn boy named Arthur Best. Arthur could open his mouth very wide. Once, when Arthur, Mary, and I were in Dulles Airport, Mary turned to Arthur and said, “Okay, Arthur, Joke time. Put your fist in your mouth.” That was in 1964 and I still cannot catch my breath laughing about it. Mary and I would meet after morning classes at the Sundial at 116th Street. Then we would walk to Chock Full of Nuts and have a super rare cheeseburger. Then we would stroll down Broadway to 110th Street. There was my apartment called 380 Riverside Drive. For a large two-bedroom, one bath with a Hudson River View we paid $150 a month. We knew it was a bargain then and now. Mary and I spent the afternoon cuddling while our super clever roommate, David Paglin, also from Silver Spring, sang along to songs by the Four Seasons. We were happy. I vividly recall Mary and me asking God how we deserved to be the happiest people on Earth. Mary said it was because she had suffered so terribly when her father died in 1960 when she was in Junior High. We went downtown to shop at Brooks Brothers and J. Press and Paul Stuart for clothes for me. I wanted to look “tweedy.” We would go to Bergdorf Goodman or Lord & Taylor to shop for clothes for Mary. Mary wanted to look great and she did. I still have a few color photos of Mary and she looks like a queen. My favorite is of Mary with ashes on her forehead when she was coming out of a Catholic Church on Amsterdam Avenue just east of Columbia on Ash Wednesday 1966. I just melt when I see those photos. I have far too few of them now and then. Mary and I would go to every single AD party. I would dance up a storm and so would Mary. And then we would go downtown to the Saint Regis Hotel’s King Cole Bar or to other night spots. Mary was always the prettiest girl there and the most well-dressed. My memories of the Stork Club were especially vivid. I can’t write much more right now because I just learned that Mary died in her sleep about ten days ago. Mary has not been my gf for a good sixty years. These things happen. I don’t even clearly recall how or why we broke up. I tried to contact her by mail a good 60 times and she never replied, so she obviously believed, probably rightly, that it was my fault. What I do recall is that I never felt lonely again in school. Mary cared for me so thoroughly that I had a billionaire’s bank account of love to last me till now, and gave us a launch pad of love that lifted me into outer space of affection for all time. I will write more soon. Just one more thing. In November of 1964, she and Susan Sgarlat gave me a surprise Birthday party. It was a helluva great night. READ MORE from Ben Stein: Work and Love Where Everybody Knows My Name What It’s Like to Feel ‘Restricted’

The Washington Trail: A Slade and Cork Mystery By Lou Aguilar Aethon Books, 304 pages, $22 The usual practice in book reviewing is to write about books just being published. Free advertising for the publisher if the review is positive. And there are usually new titles coming out that are worth the reading time. An enjoyable part of reading Trail for me was the many quotes from movies in the two main character’s dialogue. Of course there are books coming out that readers should be warned off of. I don’t like to write negative reviews. But I’ve made exceptions for the empty suit and political windsock Charlie Crist and for the execrable Debbie Wasserman Shultz, the very leftist congresswoman representing Broward County in Southeast Florida, and the former chairwitch of the DNC. (To be politically correct, as Debbie always is, shouldn’t that be Wasserperson?) But what about worthy books that have been out for awhile that have escaped the notice of well-read TAS regulars? Reading time is limited, downright precious, in our busy lives. So in this review, and perhaps others in the future, I endeavor to direct readers to books that I’ve found entertaining, informative, or both. Books that I hope will repay the reading time of others. To do this I have a long reading life to draw from. What better way to start than to feature a 2024 title by one of our own, the estimable Lou Augilar. TAS readers will recognize the byline. In on-point columns Lou has ably plumbed the depths of our current debased culture. He’s deconstructed Hollywoke, with particular emphasis on how moviemakers have turned their backs on feminine beauty and on traditional masculinity. They’ve ridden every dopey progressive brain bubble hard and put it up wet, thereby turning the dream factory into a nightmare, and leaving movie theaters nearly empty. Lou is well-suited for his Tinseltown takedowns, having lived and worked in the belly of that beast for years as a screenwriter.  This career was curtailed somewhat when the Hollywood political police discovered, to their horror, that Lou is a conservative, mired in common sense. He was promptly cast into what the entertainment smart set considers outer darkness, and the rest of us see as the real world. A world where men are men, women are women, horses are horses, and with any luck the cowboy kisses the right one. In The Washington Trail, Lou’s devotion to traditional characters and themes finds fictional life in the work of two Washington-based private investigators. Ex-Army Ranger Mark Slade is the kind of tough, intelligent, honest, and courageous alpha male that has just about disappeared from both the large and small screens. His partner, Neil Cork, is an ex-FBI analyst, more cerebral than Mark perhaps, but no cream puff himself. Both find themselves in their ex- status because of the corrosive effects of progressive ideology and partisan politics thwarting the missions of their previous employers. Both men are, as not that long ago men were allowed to be, open admirers of feminine beauty. They don’t consider “the chase,” honorably conducted with boundaries respected, to be sexual misconduct. Objectify? Whatever the hell does that mean, other than the eternal verity that straight guys like pretty girls? To those that this troubles, Slade and Cork counsel, “GET OVER IT!!” Speaking of pretty girls, Trail begins innocuously enough when the pair take on a comely client, one Amy Gallup, who is convinced, she says, that the man she fancies is enjoying a bit of the other with a party unknown. She wants to know for sure. This is the kind of case that makes up a significant portion of PI cash flow and is usually of no interest to anyone beyond the parties involved. But not this time. Soon this “routine” case spirals into a hairball that involves a threat to the nation’s security and a matter of life and death to the parties involved. Slade quickly determines that Amy’s guy is indeed playing away from home and with someone whom Slade didn’t suspect. Then events begin to move quickly. The cat is soon among the pigeons. Multiple cats as it turns out. The players expand to include a conservative Southern Senator loosely connected, or not, to a shadowy group called Kudzu (which like the dew, covers Dixie), a violent group of eco-terrorists, various law enforcement agencies,  and a mysterious painting called “The Apocalypse Mask,” which is said to contain dangerous powers. Slade and Cork must dodge assassins as the bodies pile up, and have to sort corrupt government officials from the legitimate. Until the end, it’s hard to tell who is on what side. No spoiler alerts necessary as I won’t go into plot details or the outcome of Trail. I’ll leave these to the folks who choose to read the book. Readers who like to see their politics served up by engaging fictional characters will like this one. In addition to taking swings at a political FBI and CIA, Slade and Cork tear strips off of climate hysterics, other enviro-wackadoodles, the pronoun posse, macho feminists, and other disturbers of the peace. An enjoyable part of reading Trail for me was the many quotes from movies in the two main character’s dialogue. (I’m of an age to have seen most of the movies — but not so old that I’ve forgotten the quotes.) Not surprising that a movie guy such as Lou — a great fan of westerns and an admirer of my childhood favorite, the Duke — would resort to a devise like this. The most frequently quoted movie by far is 1959’s Rio Bravo, which starred Wayne, Dean Martin, and a young and alluring Angie Dickenson. Other flicks that get cameo quotes include: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Shane, The Searchers, The Magnificent 7(the original one); Marathon Man; Stage Coach (again, the original one); The Outlaw Josey Wales; The Last of the Mohicans; Tombstone; Ride the High Country; and High Noon, this last one unfavorably. When a barista in a restaurant asks for Slade’s name, he replies, “Tom Dunson,” the name of the Duke’s character in Red River.   Lou promises more Slade and Cork later this year. If these two gumshoes appeal to you, read the books. Yet encouragingly, the gradual easing of Hollywood’s progressive orthodoxy during the Trump years has also sparked renewed interest in small corners of Tinseltown. Who knows? READ MORE from Larry Thornberry: World’s End, and Then Some Christmas in the Sub-Tropics Reports of Woke’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated  

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by Joseph P. Farrell, Giza Death Star: There is a hyper-gravity machine in China that just captured the world record, according to the following article shared by E.G. (with our deep gratitude), but the real story may not be the world record, but rather, the general implications of such machines. Brace yourself, because today’s high […]

As a massive winter storm barrels across the United States, bringing record snowfall, ice accumulations and sub-zero temperatures to over 140 million people, weather modification investigators have pointed to “deeply suspicious” flight patterns by U.S. [...] The post Historic Winter Storm Engineered? Flight Tracks Show KC-135 Stratotankers Prepping the Skies for Catastrophe appeared first on The People's Voice.

Democrats in Congress, fully on the side of criminals and radicals, are considering locking down the government over the shooting of Alex Pretti today. Mr. Pretti approached the DHS agents with his gun drawn. He then resisted arrest and tried to get to his gun when he was shot and killed. This is who Democrats […] The post Democrats Threaten Shutdown as They Side with Criminals and Radicals appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.