In the sixth century, the monk St. Columba left the Emerald Isle and sailed to Iona to build a new monastery and spread the Christian faith. For centuries afterwards, Ireland held a reputation as a deeply and even fundamentally Catholic nation, responsible for training priests and religious scholars and sending them out across the wide world to preach and teach the Gospel. But today, there is only one seminarian currently studying for the priesthood to serve the entire Archdiocese of Dublin, which comprises over 200 parishes and approximately one million baptized Catholics. According to data from the Irish Census Bureau and the Iona Institute, only 69 percent of Irish identify as Catholic, down from 84 percent in 2011 and over 90 percent in 2006. A 2023 survey from analytics and data company Amárach found that only about 14 percent of Irish Catholics attend Sunday Mass. To serve the nearly four million Irish who still identify as Catholic, the nation has just over 2,000 priests, but 15 percent of them are over the age of 75 (and not yet retired) and 25 percent are between the ages of 60 and 75. Less than 3 percent of priests in Ireland are under the age of 40. How did a nation once famous for being the Land of Saints and Scholars reach such lows? And what can American Catholics learn from the example of Ireland? The American Spectator spoke with Hermann Kelly, a former Catholic school teacher and previous editor of The Irish Catholic who is now the founder and president of the conservative Irish Freedom Party. The following interview has been edited for clarity. [B]e proud to engender and cultivate pride and knowledge and practice of their own national culture. The American Spectator (TAS): Hermann, thank you very much for making the time to talk with us. The news right now is that there is only one seminarian currently studying to serve the entire archdiocese of Dublin, and that’s rather paltry. In my own home diocese in Baltimore, we’ve got two major seminaries that are just packed. But one seminarian to serve an entire archdiocese seems rather on the meager side. Can you share with us what this indicates about the state of Catholicism in Ireland at present? Hermann Kelly (HK): Well, a number of years ago, I did an article for the Irish Examiner in the newspaper. And it basically showed, I believe it was 1965, was the year of the highest rate of seminarians or vocations to the priesthood in Ireland. At the same time, it also had the lowest rate of murder and manslaughter. I think there was one murder and two manslaughters, something like that. And this inverse correlation between religious vocation and a more virtuous and a less vicious society — I believe there’s a connection between the two. Because when people respond to the vocation of the priesthood it shows a desire to be pleasing to God, but it also shows a society of commitment. And that commitment also reflects on the whole number and rate of marriages. Things that take long-term commitment, like a vocation to the priesthood or to be a nun, to be married and things like that, implies things that take a long-term commitment. So with loss of religious vocations, there has been a less virtuous society. Ireland has become much more violent in regards to crime, sexual assault, rape, break, and entry, etc. Ireland has become much worse. Things are happening now in Ireland which only a short a decade ago were unthinkable, things that were unheard of are now becoming a regular occurrence. And a lot — some of it, not all of it, but some of this — is linked to the whole fall away in religious faith and practice. And it’s linked directly to the sharp fall in seminarians for Dublin archdiocese. I believe per capita, Ireland is one of the lowest religious vocations countries in the world, and given that in the 1950s and 60s, Ireland was noted across the world for its huge number of vocations — actually, there were so many vocations that there wasn’t room for these people, for the priests and religious in Ireland, and they had to be sent abroad, to England, to America, to all over Latin America and Africa, there were so many religious vocations in Ireland. So it really does show a collapse in religious practice, a collapse in religious vocations. And what has happened is that Ireland has become less virtuous. There’s a much higher rate of criminality and vicious crimes, and violent crimes, sexual assault and rape and stuff has gone up dramatically. TAS: And what has led to or contributed to this decline — in religious vocations, in the practice of faith, in virtue? HK: Well, there was a pamphlet or a booklet produced by the Association of Irish Religious Orders two decades ago now; I think it was called “Fire in the Forest.” It basically showed post-Vatican II the huge drop in vocations. Actually, it also not only showed a huge drop in vocations, but also showed that many who had joined the religious orders, be it the priesthood or to be nuns, etc., left their vocation. And it explained in this booklet that the Second Vatican Council was a huge — not only did it undermine and reject what previously has been the traditional part of the Church in regards to not only philosophy, liturgy, theology, but also there was like a psychological bomb that went off, and that everything that you were taught that belonged to the tradition of the Church, which is meant to be held by all universally and forever going forward, was to be not only no longer approved, but not allowed and forbidden. Like when you look at the old Mass, like for decades after Vatican II, it basically wasn’t allowed, it was discouraged. A lot of the traditional theology of the Church was disavowed. Instead of the traditional Rite of the Mass in Latin, you had, I don’t know, balloons and clowns and paper maché and folk groups in its place. I think that people found the changes, the dramatic liturgical changes — which also were reflected in doctrine and philosophy as well — found that very destabilizing and called into question their belief in the Church and the Christian faith itself. And this was an act of the Second Vatican Council and the bishops who were there that called into question what were foundational tenets of the Catholic tradition and the Catholic faith. And I think people found this very disconcerting. There was a huge number of nuns and priests who left their religious vocation, and this was then followed by a drop in the number of vocations. So I think to get that back, the only orders, I believe, in America and in Ireland are the traditional orders. These kind of 19th century French orders, which were popular in Ireland, these new kind of 19th century orders have completely gone to the wall when it comes to number of vocations: some of them haven’t had vocations for like over a decade. And the only orders that are getting vocations are the traditional orders, linked to the Traditional Latin Mass — and also the Dominicans, who are very traditional in doctrine — and orthodox, self-consciously orthodox orders in the Novus Ordo rite, as well as Traditional Latin Mass orders are doing well also. So I think people seriously consider what they will give their life to, what they think is worthwhile dedicating their whole life to. And it’s obviously to the traditional orders, or the very self-consciously orthodox diocesan or religious orders of the Novus Ordo rite as well. When you look at who’s getting the numbers, that’s who’s getting it. And so the woke religion … post-Vatican II hasn’t engendered the vocations, nor has it engendered, commitment, lifelong commitment. And people simply aren’t willing to give their life to it. But tradition in the Church still is attractive to many young people in America and in Ireland. But there has been a religious collapse in Ireland. It’s quite amazing, actually, because in the 50s and 60s Irish identity was, “I’m Irish and I’m Catholic, I’m an Irish Catholic,” and the two things were completely intertwined. I think both of them collapsed at the same time, and that collapse was related. There’s that old phrase that “nature abhors a vacuum,” and that it’s not that religion disappears, it’s that the religion changes. And the substitute religion in Ireland is the politically-correct, woke religion. And Ireland has become an extreme carrier of this new woke political-correctness and they have gone over the top and beyond any normal state to show the world that the political class in Ireland are post-Catholic, as they call it, or anti-Catholic as they are. And they’re politically correct. They reject not only the Church, but also the whole thing of nationality and national sovereignty, national pride has all decreased. For example, at the moment, not only have religious vocations gone down, but there has also been a steep decline in the rate of marriage and also a very steep decline in birthrate. In the 1970s, the average woman had four children, and now it’s less than 1.5 children per woman. So the birth rate has gone down, marriage rates have gone down, vocations have gone down. And the only thing that has gone up really is this encouragement by the uniparty — which is the political class, media class, NGO class in Ireland, they’re all pro E.U. Like the kingdom of God in belief and seeking. “Seek ye first.” The Kingdom of God has gone down, and it’s now been replaced by an unquestioning belief in anything and everything that emanates from Brussels. So it’s no longer “home rule,” it’s now “Brussels rule.” And with that is this E.U. They’re all looking to be good Europeans, compliant, docile. Ireland has become the most docile, ridiculously subservient country within the European Union. According to polls, it’s one of the most pro-E.U. countries in Europe. While much of Eastern Europe is starting to turn very Eurosceptic, Ireland continues to be — because the media and political class are completely pro-woke. It’s like the new religion. You have the woke religion and they have Brussels rather than home rule. And the Irish have taken this new religion, this substitute religion, very, very close to their heart. So they love the E.U. and this woke religion. But it’s really, really extreme. Like the government wanted to introduce legislation against free speech, they wanted to introduce legislation in 2015, virtually without comment; in quick succession, it passed the legalization of gay marriage, and it has passed the legalization of abortion — of young, innocent, defenseless children in the womb. It has the Gender Recognition Act. People can decide themselves and declare their gender. Some government ministers say there are nine genders, some people say there are more. This kind of thrust towards this gender ideology and intersectional ideology, and with it the rejection of natural law and biology. So the ideology has become a substitute for belief in biology, and where previously was divine law, natural law, that’s all been rejected, and it’s whatever is fashionable and whatever’s trendy. And that’s a very dangerous foundation. In parts of Ireland it seems to be all about the small, weird, this whole trans agenda now, which was — five years ago, was unheard of and almost unthinkable. Now you’re supposed to be accepted without question. This new substitute religion has taken hold in Ireland and it’s very woke. It’s very pro-E.U and it’s very anti-nationalist and it’s very pro-mass-immigration. As I said earlier, nature abhors a vacuum. All these epicenters where these migrants are kept, the vast majority are economic migrants here for the feast, giving out at the behest of the government — funnily enough, that they have been housed, a lot of them, in convents and monasteries and religious houses that have been shut, no longer functioning, and they’ve been taken over by the state. Polls show that in regards to religious faith and religious culture, it’s use it or lose it. But because religion is the basis and has been the basis of Irish culture for a millennia and a half, once that goes down, well, all of society, Irish society also go goes down. Not only is there a loss of belief in God, but there’s also a belief in Irish people themselves that — maybe they don’t believe that God loves them anymore or God is interested in them. and they don’t feel any love or interest in themselves or pride in themselves. It’s also left a political, a cultural elite in Ireland: as I call them, the uniparty .. anti-Christian and they’re actively aggressive for secularism in Ireland. And now we are supposed to believe that everything is good, everything is better. Except our religion, our culture, our music, our dance, our national sovereignty. So this loss of faith and loss of practice of Christian faith has had huge consequences, much more, much deeper than purely religious vocations. It has undermined greatly this idea of pride and confidence in Irish culture itself. TAS: You’ve mentioned the political class and some social maladies as well. This is something that maybe neither of us can answer without conducting an honest survey first, but what kind of connection do you see between the state of society and the state of faith? Do you think that as society degenerates, faith has waned? Or do you think that society has been permitted to degenerate because faith has waned? HK: Well, I think that it was Leo, one of the popes, said that as man believes, so does he act. Because will follows knowledge and belief. As a man believes, so does he act? No, not in every case, but in most cases. So that socially, across society, you can see a pattern of high religious faith as is correlates and causes, I would say, at least a society attempting to be more virtuous, attempting to be more kind, charitable, forgiving, just, all these things. And when religious faith, static faith collapses — especially in a place like Ireland where there was no substitute, like kind of civil, there’s no great philosophical tradition beyond that of the philosophy encouraged by the Church of Thomas Aquinas and the Western tradition — but there was no great kind of civic philosophers. Ireland’s cultural foundation was a religious one, and there was Gaelic language and Gaelic games and music and dance, etc. on top of that. When the religious hierarchy and the Church, its confidence in itself and the people’s confidence in it as well, once that went down, there was no kind of civil or even lay-led philosophical tradition to stabilize the ship of state, so to speak. Once the hierarchy of the Church kind of said, “Okay, we’re off. We’re taking the ball and we’re going off. You do as you like,” that void in society was filled by the most, in many cases, most irrational, woke, politically-correct, crazy ideas. It’s also left a political, a cultural elite in Ireland: as I call them, the uniparty, the political-media-NGO class that are not only not Christian, but they’re actually anti-Christian and they’re actively aggressive for secularism in Ireland. A bit like as we had also in, in the Netherlands and Quebec after Vatican II. So when the bishops say, “No, no, the Catholic church won’t be the only religion or basis of society and we’ll go quiet,” and people say, “Okay, well off you go then, off you go, and you’re not getting back in.” It brings up the whole importance of the Church and the Christian order of society. Like, be proud and say, “No, we want Christian order in society and we’re not going to be some part to be recognized, like some football team or unions or ‘Tidy Towns’ Association,” and the Catholic Church just to be seen as one little kind of interest group, among many others. A lot of damage in the Catholic Church is completely self-inflicted. Completely self-inflicted. Many laypeople were kind of completely nonplussed. Like we just had a referendum here which tried to remove the words “mother” and “woman” from the Irish Constitution. And the Church said virtually nothing. That campaign was made by a small number of people who made the defense of the importance of family and woman, those words in the Constitution. And the Church is very quiet on it. So it’s funny that lay organizations and even lay political organizations like the Irish Freedom Party, for example — we would regard ourselves as socially conservative, economically liberal, nationalist and sovereigntist, Eurosceptic — that we and other parties like ourselves are leading the fight back, while the Church is basically silent. But the good news is that there is taking place in Ireland, because people have become upset and tired of watching their country being washed down the river, that now they see that they must stand up themselves to defend the values of a functioning society and to stand up for Irish self-determination. Democratic self-determination, and often Irish national sovereignty, stand up for the family, to proudly say that we are pro-life, we are pro-family, and for the first time in, I think, a long number of decades, a self-consciously ideological opposition to the liberal — so-called liberal agenda, even though they’re the most authoritarian sects that you will ever come across. But this woke agenda, political correctness, that we are self-consciously an ideological opposition to that which hasn’t been around in Ireland for quite a long time. TAS: On a final note, what kind of advice or encouragement would you give to Catholics, whether in Ireland or in the United States, who are really seeking to preserve and further Christian society, as you put it? HK: A number of things. Like we need to return to stability and the tradition of the Church, which includes the Traditional Latin Mass. I would suggest people look at homeschooling where there is a lack of traditional Christian education in their area, like a good Catholic school, and homeschool. Also immerse themselves in the beauty of their Christian and national culture, be proud to engender and cultivate pride and knowledge and practice of their own national culture. Revive again the study of philosophy and knowledge of theology, knowledge of the liturgy. But in real terms, support and devoting more time to the importance of family and faith and Church. But also it’s not just to be hanging around the church, it’s getting out in wider society and it’s to effect Christian impact on the society in which they live and not to be hanging around. Some people think that to be Catholic means to be hanging around the church sacristy. It doesn’t. It’s the very opposite. Leave that stuff to the priests and stuff like that there. It’s for laypeople to get out there and impact, politically and culturally, the society in which they live. And that’s their job — not to be hanging around the sacristy all the time. TAS: Thank you again for your time and insights, Hermann. God bless. READ MORE from S.A. McCarthy: A Painful Division in the Heart of the Church Anti-Catholic Kamala Did God Save Donald Trump? The post Learning From the Collapse of Catholic Ireland appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

On Sunday, the Iraqi Parliament held its first reading of a bill that allows girls as young as nine years old to be married. The bill would amend the Personal Status Law of 1959, which has been hailed as the most protective law for women in the Middle East. The proposal to lower the marriage age for girls to nine years old is based upon teachings in the Koran, Islam’s holy book. The Personal Status Law was passed shortly after the fall of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958. The law put the governance of personal affairs, such as inheritance and marriage, in the hands of the state and took it out of the control of religious authorities. It also requires both men and women to be 18 years-old, or 15 years or older with permission of a judge and legal guardian, to be married under civil law. Every year Iraqi religious leaders flout the Personal Status law and conduct unregistered marriages. Twenty-two percent of girls in these illegal unions are younger than 14, and 28 percent of all women in Iraq are married before the age of 18. The new amendments would legalize pedophilia and legitimize these illegal marriages. It reflects similar amendments that were enacted during the rule of Saddam Hussein. The amendment would legalize child marriage by shifting regulatory power over personal affairs back into the hands of religious leaders. In order for the bill to be passed, it must go through three readings, debate, and a vote. The proponents of the law claim that it gives Iraqis freedom of choice because it allows a man to choose whether he and his wife will follow Sunni or Shi’ite family law. Shi’ite women would suffer the most under the bill if it was passed and made law. In addition to legalizing pedophilia, the bill would legalize Shi’ite “pleasure marriages.” Pleasure marriages are temporary unions that can last as little as an hour. They can be conducted outside of a court and do not require witnesses. In short, these marriages are excuses to engage in prostitution and rape women and girls without legal repercussions. The amendment would also ban Shi’ite women from inheriting their husband’s estate, strip them of custody of their children, and force them to pay their husbands a sum of money if they want to divorce. Opponents of the amendment have also pointed out that the bill would undermine Iraq’s legal structure. It would allow Shi’ite and Sunni religious authorities to have their own code of legal rulings on personal affairs. In addition, the bill does not address any other religious groups that live in Iraq. This is not the first time a bill of this type has been introduced though all previous attempts have failed. Some previous versions proposed legalizing marital rape and banning women from leaving the house without permission from their husband. Ra’ad Al-Maliki, the Shi’ite member of Parliament that proposed the bill claimed that he did so “in response to the desire of the religious authority.” He also stated, “some people have hatred for applying the provisions of God’s law.” The proposal to lower the marriage age for girls to nine years old is based upon teachings in the Koran, Islam’s holy book. Sahih al-Bukhari 5133 (Book 67, Hadith 69 of the Koran) states that “the Prophet [Muhammed] married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old.” People in Iraq and members of human rights organizations are protesting against the amendment, but until it is defeated women and children are in danger. Their basic human rights are on the brink of disappearing. READ MORE from Katelyn Livorse: ‘By Hook or By Crook:’ The Venezuelan Election Vatican Denounces Olympic Opening Ceremony The post Iraq Law Seeks To Force 9-Year-Old Girls Into Marriage appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Green New Deal energy policies are prolonging war and over time, constitute the real “existential threat” to free societies in their struggle with powerful autocracies. A nation’s industrial base and military prowess is dependent on reasonably priced fossil fuels, to run and to grow. To think otherwise invites economic and geopolitical suicide. Once again, the real “existential threat” to Western Civilization is doing away with the very fossil fuels that are driving the global economy. The ability of Russia to wage war on Ukraine and for Iran to war against Israel depends almost entirely on both nations’ selling (sanctioned) oil to China, their biggest customer. The Biden-Harris Administration, in particular, does not enforce so-called “secondary sanctions” on Russian and Iranian oil, as they believe, rightly, that further increases in gas prices at the pump would hinder their re-election chances in November. Taking substantial amounts of Russian and Iranian oil and gas off the global market is viewed by elected officials throughout the West as too bitter a pill to swallow. Yet the national security of America and Western nations is diminished by bucking the growing domestic and global demand for fossil fuels with policies that seek to radically reduce their own fossil fuel production in their effort to mitigate changes in the global climate. That approach is not working, as global “carbon” emissions are growing substantially regardless of significant reductions in the West. The national security answer lies in lessening the focus on climate change and increasing fossil fuel production, everywhere … in particular, oil, gas and coal in the U.S. and fracking in Europe (presently largely banned). A moratorium on closing nuclear power plants would also be helpful. While the U.S. is currently producing oil and gas at record rates, those amounts are substantially less than what could be produced if stifling climate change regulations and brakes on future investment were lifted —  2.5 to 3.5 million bbl of oil/day more.  By hamstringing  America’s oil and gas production and related exports that substitute for Russian and Iranian product, the Administration is, in some measure, responsible for prolonging deadly conflicts on the European continent and in the Middle East. Alaska is virtually off limits to new exploration to say nothing about exploitation. Permits for four new LNG export terminals were put “on hold” in January endangering future supply to our European allies. Thankfully a Judge recently ruled against the Administration. EPA regulations and federal government subsidies have led to numerous high-quality coal power plant closures and even the shelving of new natural gas projects. DoD is spending substantial resources on electric trucks, tanks and yes, airplanes. This at a time when the defense budget is not nearly up to meeting the present global threats. War by the China-Russia-Iran axis on U. S. allies, Ukraine, and Israel would literally run out of gas if the U.S. and the West strictly enforced existing sanctions on Russian and Iranian energy and ramped up its own production. It is beyond ironic that America and the West accept the passage of Russian and Iranian fossil fuel production to global markets, but clamp down on their own. Necessary increased production in the West is not happening now and with a possible Kamala Harris-led, progressive, Green New Deal-focused administration in charge, the situation can only get worse. The Biden-Harris “whole-of-government” approach to doing away with fossil fuels now and into the future would continue, perhaps accelerate. Irresistible federal financial subsidies and hyper regulation to “encourage” industry and utilities to go Green would continue. The information war on fossil fuels would not stop. Depletion of America and the West’s fossil fuel-producing and processing capacity while Russia, China, and autocratic Petro-States build theirs is a prescription for Western geopolitical disaster, an unforced error of historic proportion. Yet America and the West are presently headed in that direction. The Trump candidacy has steadfastly supported the production of fossil fuels and opposed their phase-out, all-the-while taking major incoming fire from pseudo-religious but powerful forces bent on “saving the planet.” Trump et al. would work to dismantle the “climate-industrial complex” by removing the vast subsidies given to Green industry. In sum, he has promised to undo the Green New Deal at every turn while seeking American “energy independence, then dominance”… or, one might say, global energy realism. We are witnessing a growing symbiotic relationship between China and Russia. America’s main adversary, China, is strengthened enormously by purchasing and processing fossil fuels and raw materials from Russia while its manufacturing powerhouse provides them with vital “dual use” products for the Russian military and a wide array of manufactures to support the Russian people’s demand for consumer products. It’s a veritable “bromance,” just think President Xi’s “changes not seen in 100 years” statement. When experts diminish the Russian war machine by pointing to the limits of the Russian economy (about the size of Italy’s), they are not accounting for the potent China connection. The China-Russia bond of autocracies is a powerful match for the U.S. and European democracies. Add Iran in the Middle East and the West’s cause for unease is magnified. New Green New Deal policies require the expenditure of trillions of dollars ($400 billion is already contained in the  Inflation Reduction Act). Plus there’s tens of billions of dollars in Green New Deal-type spending in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. The fact that anyone who doesn’t accept the dogma of the “existential threat” of climate change is considered a heretic or a “denier” speaks volumes about the zeal of the movement and its significant impact on the electoral politics of the West. Advocates seem to think that intermittent solar and wind energy, which currently provide some 6 percent of global energy consumption, is the answer. Simplistic, unrealistic and in the end, dangerous to our way of life. Once again, the real “existential threat” to Western Civilization is doing away with the very fossil fuels that are driving the global economy while alternatives are in their nascent stage, scientifically questionable, wildly expensive and nowhere near capable of meeting the ever-expanding needs of an energy-hungry planet. READ MORE from Don Ritter: This Is Why Putin Thinks Victory in Ukraine Is Inevitable READ MORE on energy: What’s Really Wrong With the Green New Deal Whitmer Signs Michigan’s Green New Dystopia The post Reducing Fossil Fuels Helps Our Adversaries appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

The renowned Spanish author Gómez de la Serna used to say that to be bored is to “kiss death”; by the way, that is also what my friend Tony does before sleeping with his harpy girlfriend. Anyway, sometimes summer is too long. The beach-bar-bed routine is wonderful, but it can be exhausting if you repeat it for more than 40 days. To break that monotony, different domestic hobbies have been invented that, while you wouldn’t kill for any of them, can entertain you for a while, although they also have their trade-offs. I propose and discuss below some that don’t stain too much (unlike painting the house), are reversible (unlike making household explosives), not too expensive (unlike lobster tossing in the backyard), and shouldn’t destroy your marriage (unlike poker). Let’s see: Making Dessert Select your favorite dessert and search for its recipe on the internet. Now check that you have all the ingredients. You don’t have them, obviously, no one does. So your cooking hobby will turn into “going down to the supermarket to buy ingredients I don’t have.” That’s why I hate cooking. You think you’re breaking the routine, but in the end you’re just doing the same old thing: going down to the grocery store. By the time you get home you’ll be too tired to make dessert. Learn Arabic Knowledge of languages breaks down cultural barriers and brings you closer to inhospitable places and souls. Arabic is a complex and richly nuanced language. The best way to learn it is to practice it. To do this, take off your shoes, pick up a stone the size of Donald Trump’s testicle, close your eyes, and drop it straight onto one of your big toes. Magic! Do you hear yourself? You’re already cursing in Arabic! Now you just need to learn some manners. Origami This is an art that consists of folding paper to give it the shape of different objects. It is a bit complicated, so I recommend that you start with something simple, for example, making a sheet. To make a paper figure in the shape of a sheet, the fold you have to make is none. If you manage not to fold it, you will have obtained a sheet. Now you can move on to the next level, which is to make a figure that represents nothingness: throw the sheet in the trash. The good thing about origami is that it is very intuitive and, I guess, sustainable. Fly a Kite From Your House The only important thing if you are going to fly a kite from home is that you know that it is incompatible with the next hobby proposal. Check that you don’t have a neighbor who has reached the next item on this list. Pilot a Drone Before you start flying a drone out the window, check that the jerk next door isn’t doing the above. Put on Your Own Play Try acting out Hamlet. If Hamlet doesn’t work for you, imagine what might happen if you tried to act out what you have written yourself. Enjoy TikTok Spend an afternoon full of satisfaction, joy, and adrenaline on the social network of the Chinese communist regime. To get started, open the app, and hit the “delete account” button. Don’t you feel better? Follow me for more libertarian tips. Make Your Own Craft Beer Buy the ingredients, put an apron on and wait in the kitchen. Lay the ingredients out slowly on the floor, put your hands up, stand against the wall, and wait; I’ve already called the police. Beer is sacred, you idiot. Organizing the Pantry There are different criteria on how pantries should be organized. My favorite is alphabetically. It may sound stupid, but it’s always easier to find something sorted by letters than when you have breadcrumbs next to flour, and garlic stuck to thyme. You can spend an unforgettable evening alphabetizing your food. You can top it off by having Alphabet pasta for dinner. For dessert, have a bite of Quixote. Walking An Egg Stand at one end of the house. Bite a soup spoon with your teeth and keep it (the spoon) parallel to the ground. Now put an egg on top of the spoon and try to get to the other end of the house without dropping it. Now you grab a mop and a scouring pad and start scrubbing the carpet, I reckon it will take you most of the afternoon. Note: you have to be really bored to do this one. Note 2: if you’re going to do this, refer to “Receiving a visit from the fire department.” Start a Diary No one, except psychopaths or writers (which are synonyms), continues writing a diary after starting it. So if you don’t want your journal to look dreary, I recommend that you write the next three weeks on the first day. The important thing is that you then make sure that you follow through on the plans and experiences you have written in the diary, otherwise you will have to rewrite it, and that is no longer a hobby but a chore. Writer’s word. Clean the Skirting Boards Around the House Try not to use every single activity that was designed to punish children with. Fix Things in the House As time goes by, houses deteriorate, broken handles, light bulbs that don’t work, closets that don’t close, or damp spots on the wall. Broken handles are broken, so they cannot be fixed. Changing a light bulb is a high-risk activity without adult supervision, but if an adult is present, you can ask him or her to change the bulb. Closets that don’t close allow you to keep clothes from smelling like a closet, so don’t close them, lest the closet should start smelling of clothes. And damp stains on the wall could be esoteric manifestations of ancestors who inhabited your home long ago. Try to identify them in a photograph, learn their names, turn off the light, light a couple of candles, and communicate with them. If they do not answer, they are damp stains: call the painter. Receiving a Visit From the Fire Department This is my neighbor’s favorite hobby, especially since she broke up with her boyfriend and is lonely. To get firefighters to come you need to know that there are three things they are deeply attracted to: fire, people trapped in places, and calendars. For calendars you need a charitable cause and a photographer — and anything charitable is expensive — and getting trapped is claustrophobic, whereas fire is easy. Men have known how to make fire since at least the Stone Age, so you don’t need me to tell you how to do it at home, and I wouldn’t do it unless without my lawyer present. One piece of advice my neighbor gave me: when the firefighters come around, be very careful about stepping on hoses. They might not be hoses. READ MORE from Itxu Diaz: Cars and the Repair Shop Oracle Woke? Nope. Back to Sleep. The post Hobbies for Boring Days Around the House appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

What some are calling the media’s “honeymoon” with Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris is nothing of the sort. It is an alliance. ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and most national pollsters are, to put it mildly, anti-Donald Trump. Those who claim the honeymoon will end are living in the past…. That mainstream media no longer exists. Most of them have pushed a narrative that Trump is a threat to democracy, an autocrat who likes the world’s other autocrats (especially Vladimir Putin), a racist, a misogynist, anti-gay, a white Christian nationalist, etc. These are the same media outlets that pushed the phony Russia Hoax and who cheered when Democrats launched impeachments and local and state Democratic prosecutors fulfilled their campaign pledges to “get Trump.” And the media “honeymooners” are joined by social media platforms that have censored Trump supporters and censored Trump. Thanks to Elon Musk, Twitter (now X) has broken from the anti-Trump pack. These are the same media outlets that promoted and protected Barack Obama in 2008. They are the same media outlets that concealed President Biden’s mental slippage for more than three years, only relenting when Biden’s debate performance exposed their previous efforts to protect him from scrutiny. Alliance With Harris Is Strong With Kamala Harris, these media outlets have a candidate that checks all of their cherished boxes: she would be the first female president, the first black female president, the first black-Asian female president. And, of course, she is a leftist who shares the mainstream media’s worldview. She may not be as smart as Obama, but she checks more ideological boxes than even he did. Even Donald Trump has fallen for the “honeymoon” analogy. The Hill reports that Trump predicted that Harris’s honeymoon period would end eventually. No it won’t. The mainstream media fell in love with Obama in 2008, and they have fallen in love with Harris in 2024. They were, of course, willing to conceal Biden’s cognitive impairment as long as they thought he could beat Trump. Once the post-debate polls showed otherwise, they (and their Democrat allies) ganged-up on Biden and forced him to end his candidacy despite the anti-democratic nature of the political coup. Piers Morgan claims that Harris’ honeymoon will last about a week. He’s wrong. The New York Post noted that “Kamala Harris’ so-called ‘honeymoon’ in the polls shows no signs of stopping … ” Axios says the Harris honeymoon is of “epic proportions.” Several Democrats, including Sen. John Hickenlooper, say “There’s no limit on a honeymoon,” arguing that Harris has “a lot of momentum … that’s going to keep up for a good while.” Those who claim the honeymoon will end are living in the past — when the mainstream media still had anchors and political reporters who were somewhat fair and cared about at least appearing to be impartial. That mainstream media no longer exists. It ended when it became partisan cheerleaders for Obama. Media Hates Trump More Than Nixon Today, it doesn’t even attempt to conceal its anti-Trump venom. It is even worse than the anti-Nixon venom of the early 1970s that drove one of the most electorally popular presidents in history from office. In Nixon’s time, the mainstream media had the field to itself. There was no internet and no “alternative” media to contest their narrative that Nixon was a “crook” who had abused his office. The late, great British historian Paul Johnson rightly labeled Watergate a “media putsch,” aided and abetted, argues Geoff Shepard, by a Democrat Congress, a partisan special prosecutors office, and a compliant judiciary. Shepard’s evidence is detailed in a just released movie Watergate’s Secrets and Betrayals that every open-minded American should watch. Like Shepard’s books, it shreds the conventional Watergate narrative that the media has promoted for 50 years. Make no mistake: the media’s “honeymoon” with Harris will last at least until Nov. 5. READ MORE from Francis P. Sempa: Paul Nitze: A Career of Thinking About the Unthinkable The 9/11 Murderers Escape the Death Penalty Even More Echoes of 1968 The post This is No ‘Honeymoon.’ The Media and Harris Are Allies. appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Cliches are sometimes unavoidable (hindsight is 20/20), but then so is history – it provides clarity when obfuscation is the order of the day. It seems fitting to say that in some respects we have been here before. Earlier it was with one who some say was a pioneer and in some respects a forerunner to Trump – Patrick Joseph Buchanan. The author, advisor to Nixon, Ford, and Reagan and TV commentator pursued a political agenda that still resonates today among conservative American minds. Those searching for Pat Buchanan’s influence on Trump and the Republican party will not find it in Buchanan’s animus toward the State of Israel. High on his list of priorities for America was a moratorium on unlimited immigration, including a wall along the southern border. He sought to rescind unfair trade agreements and reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing. Buchanan cautioned Americans against foreign interventions and warned that American culture was slipping away. He decried as un-American a “rigged” political system with a voice which produced a groundswell shaking Republican elites. And he was denounced (at the time) by the future 45th President of the United States — Donald J. Trump. In 1999, the Reform Party in America had just been created from what remained of Ross Perot’s two efforts for the White House. Pat Buchanan was about to campaign under that aegis for his third presidential run in a decade. Contrary to his ‘92 and ‘96 bids, Buchanan arrived for his 1999 presidential campaign as a serious contender. It was assumed he’d give “the second Bush” a serious run. (READ MORE from F. Andrew Wolf Jr.: Is ‘Man the Measure’? From Where Does Our Freedom Come?) But the Republicans were putting together something much stronger than what Buchanan had experienced before. It quickly became apparent; the contest was being orchestrated against him. Sound familiar? Buchanan realized his dilemma. He could surrender, like others before him; he could against all odds wage a principled but “rigged” battle against the second Bush. Or he could embrace America’s newest electoral entity — the Reform Party. “The day of the outsider is over in the Beltway parties,” Buchanan said. “The money men have seen to that. Never again will our political establishment permit a dissident to come as close to capturing a nomination as we did in 1996. They have rearranged the primary schedules and rigged the game to protect the party favorites.” Buchanan’s new book at the time was met with both enthusiasm and no small degree of trepidation. A Republic, Not an Empire, amounted to a concerted exposition against foreign entanglements — especially military interventions. The “year 1989 was the American moment,” he writes, “but such moments never last.” Buchanan added, “It is time to let go of empire.” He castigated the establishment (including the military industrial complex) by reconsidering America’s past military ventures. Buchanan showed that “America’s latest commitments were a dramatic break with the most cherished and prudent traditions of American foreign policy. Washington’s Farewell Address was front and center in this story.” The political commentator turned savvy politician fiercely resisted the Washington establishment by challenging not only the elites of the Republican Party but the scion of a former president from its ranks. He captured the fear and frustration of the latter couching his 1992 campaign as “a culture war … a struggle for the soul of America.” But he also garnered the attention and wrath of a former president and his son, who feared that the adage “like father like son” would eventuate politically. It has been rumored that within the Bush family, itself, an uneasiness existed — if Perot cost the father a second term, would Buchanan now deny the son his first? His solution to America’s problems would be the basis for three back-to-back runs for the White House. America, he said, needs a “new nationalism” that focuses on “forgotten Americans” left behind by unfair trade agreements, detrimental immigration policies, and foreign policy military incursions. The three-time presidential hopeful argued that “with the collapse of the Soviet empire, Europe, Japan, and South Korea were now more than capable of providing for their own defense.” America should no longer carry the burden of their defense. The ideas which Buchanan employed were and remain a function of his political ideology: nationalist, noninterventionist, contra open-border immigration, anti-establishment, against unfair trade practices. In a like manner the former president articulates his vision for America in ways that may strike a chord with the past, but that’s only because things haven’t changed much. The system doesn’t permit that. And the issues which need addressing are similar to those of the past. (READ MORE: The Enduring Ronald Reagan) Yet, in considering the past, it is not Pat Buchanan who should garner our attention when considering the politics of Donald Trump today. Yes, like Buchanan, he is nationalist, non-interventionist, contra open-border immigration, anti-establishment, and against unfair trade practices. But Donald Trump is not constrained by those political characteristics; in fact, it was Pat Buchanan who has referred to the former president as the “heir to Reagan.” The similarities are not insignificant. The two former presidents were outsiders, not career politicians. Reagan a successful actor in Democrat Hollywood — Trump, a real estate developer from Queens (a distinctly Democrat city). Both took on the Washington establishment of their day and left their imprimatur upon it. Lest we forget history — let’s “give credit where credit is due.” While it is true that “Make America First Again” started with Buchanan in the ‘90s, it was Ronald Reagan who printed “Let’s Make America Great Again” on millions of buttons and posters in his landslide victory over Jimmy Carter in 1980. Like Ronald Reagan, Trump was regarded in Washington with derision, bordering on resentment for having the audacity to be President in “their city” and contempt for surviving their ridicule (in spite of assassination attempts.) Reagan, like Trump, also admonished America that a country that can’t control its borders isn’t really a country any more. Many deride Reagan for signing the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which sparked the decades-long flow of immigrants into the U.S. But no one doubts Reagan’s sincere belief in the efficacy of the employer sanctions he insisted be written into the bill. He couldn’t have known at that time of the overwhelming power of the metastasized civil rights regime, or that in its name the courts would step in to obstruct enforcement of those provisions. Reagan and his “heir apparent” subscribe to federalism and state’s rights, preferring to send power and authority back to the people. A Pro-life commitment is tangible in each president’s tenure in office, with Trump appointing three of the justices who made possible the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And both articulate libertarian policies which focus on individual freedom, exemplified by both presidents’ record of deregulation. Tax cuts are and were important to both presidents. For Reagan, they were employed to mitigate our dependence on government and kickstart a moribund economy. For Trump, they incentivized businesses and helped a beleaguered middle-class. Necessary programs like Medicare and Social Security were never in jeopardy. Finally — and this is where the difference between Trump and Buchanan are most apparent — both presidents shared a commitment to Israel, embracing the Strategic Defense Initiative as now embodied by Israel’s Iron Dome Anti-Missile Defense System. Reagan became politically conscious at the time the Jewish state was created in 1948 and felt a warmth toward it stemming from Truman’s embrace of the embattled fledgling democracy. For Reagan, Israel was a stalwart anti-communist ally in a dangerous region. Moreover, Israel now rejoices in Trump’s having moved the U.S. Embassy to its capital city of Jerusalem, as well as in America’s recognition of the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory. Several Muslim countries in the region have begun “normalizing” relations with the Jewish State thanks to Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords initiative. Those searching for Pat Buchanan’s influence on Trump and the Republican party will not find it in Buchanan’s animus toward the State of Israel. Republicans are now overwhelmingly pro-Israel and feel a kinship with Israel’s Likud party. Few (if any) Republicans would say today that the problems in the Middle-East are the fault of “the Israeli Defense Ministry and its amen corner in the United States,” as Buchanan did in 1990. But in truth, the calls from both Reagan and Buchanan for Americans to “take back America” from those who care only for themselves — and not America or Americans — continues to ring true on the lips of Donald Trump. Buchanan, now 85, looks back on a life replete with victories for many of the beliefs he thought redounded to America’s best interest. For a long period many thought these beliefs were at risk of being forgotten — but that was before Donald Joseph Trump became the 45th President of the United States. For all of his influence, Buchanan himself now views Donald Trump as “the future of the Republican Party,” and he acknowledges that Trump possesses attributes that he himself did not. “Trump is sui generis, unlike any candidate of recent times,” writes the retired Buchanan. “And his success is attributable not only to his stance on issues, but to his persona, his defiance of political correctness … charging in frontally where others refuse to tread.” High praise from an influential elder statesman. The post Is Donald J. Trump Channeling Pat Buchanan? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

from SD Bullion: TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

by Martin Armstrong, Armstrong Economics: I have been asked numerous times if a Donald Trump victory would equate to eliminating our computer’s projection for war. No. No one can alter a cycle once in motion. We can change the velocity at best but everyone and anyone who has tried to alter a cycle, be it […]