| Title |
Excerpt |
Author |
Date |
Total Comments |
Recent Comment |
| My Sincere Thanks… |
...to all those who've written, these past few days, to inquire about my silence, to ask if I'm in difficulties, and to offer support and express their best wishes. I'm approximately all right; at least, I doubt anyone has ever died from the gaggle of minor afflictions bedeviling me at… |
Francis W. Porretto |
07/21/10 |
2 |
07/21/10 |
| Making Amends |
The following essays were written in mid-2010, during a spell of unusually dark forebodings. Ever since I composed them, I've been trying to refute their premises and logic. I'm still trying. Making Amends: A Mini-Manifesto Making Amends Part 2: The Writing On The Economic Wall Making Amends Part 3: The… |
Francis W. Porretto |
07/16/10 |
0 |
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| Making Amends Part 4: The Writing On The Politico-Ideological Wall |
Fran here. This will be the last of these pieces. It's time to concentrate on strategies for mitigation and recovery from what's approaching. All the same, you can't solve your problems without accurately identifying and admitting to their genesis, which has been my aim in this series. *** Despite the… |
Francis W. Porretto |
07/14/10 |
5 |
07/16/10 |
| Making Amends Part 3: The Writing On The Demographic Wall |
Fran here. I didn't originally intend this to be a series, but since I posted the first essay, I've received so much email and so many requests for elaboration that I couldn't refrain from extending and amplifying the thoughts behind it. Please be patient, Gentle Reader; we'll be back to… |
Francis W. Porretto |
07/13/10 |
9 |
07/14/10 |
| Making Amends Part 2: The Writing On The Economic Wall |
Fran here. I hadn't planned to add anything to the earlier Making Amends essay; its doom-and-gloom seemed adequately complete. But that just goes to show you...well, me...what unpleasantnesses can lurk in the email-box, their unsettling power unleashed by a simple click of the mouse. *** The Washington Post, hardly a… |
Francis W. Porretto |
07/12/10 |
7 |
07/14/10 |
| Higher Realities: A Sunday Rumination |
When my luck is running, I can literally feel it, like an air current that pushes me gently in the direction I ought to go, and around all traps and hazards. It's been that way this past week. Part of any man's luck is a sense for opportunities ready to… |
Francis W. Porretto |
07/11/10 |
2 |
07/11/10 |
| Making Amends: A Mini-Manifesto |
Fran here. This will be in first-person, as I have some hard things to say. Forgive me, Gentle Reader, but I don't think you'll like them much. One caveat: When I use the pronoun we in what follows, I don't necessarily mean all of us alive today. I'm using we… |
Francis W. Porretto |
07/09/10 |
34 |
07/12/10 |
| Two Faiths: A Sunday Rumination |
If there's a day in the calendar that's near to my heart for secular reasons, Independence Day would be it: When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers… |
Francis W. Porretto |
07/04/10 |
2 |
07/04/10 |
| “Priestesses” Released |
Priestesses, my second erotica-for-good-people collection, is now available for free at SmashWords. My sincere thanks to my several test readers for their astute and constructive comments. |
Francis W. Porretto |
06/30/10 |
1 |
06/30/10 |
| Idiots With Opinions Dept. |
Fran here. There are times when sheer anger catapults me out of the Curmudgeon Emeritus's persona. This is one of them. I was just listening to Steaming Tea with the Brazen Three, a regular BlogTalkRadio feature, and the comments one of the hosts made about the pernicious nature of third… |
Francis W. Porretto |
06/25/10 |
5 |
06/28/10 |
| Making Time: A Sunday Rumination |
"Take your choice, there is no other -- and your time is running out." -- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged [M]an can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift; he might as well regard the sun and the moon as his chattels.… |
Francis W. Porretto |
06/20/10 |
2 |
06/20/10 |
| The Coming Crises: A Coda |
Fran here. I hadn't intended to write a post today; I've just completed a new novel, and I've been wallowing in the sense of completion of a long and difficult project. BUT... Just below, Esteemed Co-Conspirator Aaron Brenzel has posted a terrifying piece. Outstanding, but terrifying, and based entirely on… |
Francis W. Porretto |
06/19/10 |
4 |
06/21/10 |
| Quasi-Philosophical Rants |
Fran here. The Curmudgeon has been rather tiresome of late, always barking about misplaced modifiers and questioning my use of semicolons, so I've sent him out to wash the garage floor -- yes, I'm one of those obsessives -- while I wax just a wee bit philosophical about some frequently… |
Francis W. Porretto |
06/15/10 |
1 |
06/16/10 |
| That We Might Have Life: A Sunday Rumination |
A cynic's maxim of long standing holds that Smith who praises you and Jones who reviles you are equally likely to owe you money, but Smith will owe you much more. There's a lot of truth in that. We tend to value everything at its cost. Even when an item… |
Francis W. Porretto |
06/13/10 |
3 |
06/13/10 |
| A Quickie |
I’ve added a video synopsis at Smashwords for my book The Sledgehammer Concerto. |
Francis W. Porretto |
06/10/10 |
1 |
06/11/10 |
| A Matter Of Justice |
The Curmudgeon doesn't write all the essays here, Gentle Readers. Now and then, a subject so charges my condensers that I simply must approach it in my own voice, with all the censors deactivated. Such a subject is before us today. What subject, you ask? Bide, and you'll see. ***… |
Francis W. Porretto |
06/03/10 |
2 |
06/03/10 |
| For Short Timers: A Sunday Rumination |
On Trinity Sunday, Catholics acknowledge and ponder one of the central mysteries of the Christian faith: the Three Persons of the One God. Believe it or not, that mystery gave rise to one of the most important of all the schisms in the Church: the Arian-Athanasian face-off over the relation… |
Francis W. Porretto |
05/30/10 |
0 |
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| The Gift Of Tongue: A (Late) Sunday Rumination |
No, the title is not a typo. Today is Pentecost Sunday, the commemoration of the event, ten days after the Ascension, when the Holy Spirit descended on the eleven Apostles and the Blessed Virgin, hiding in a locked upstairs room, and gave them the gift of tongues. That gift confirmed… |
Francis W. Porretto |
05/23/10 |
4 |
05/25/10 |
| OOPS! Almost Forgot! |
Today is “Everybody Draw Mohammed” Day, isn’t it? What a pity I can’t draw… |
Francis W. Porretto |
05/20/10 |
3 |
05/22/10 |
| Unthinkable |
This one will be in my own voice. Ever since the Curmudgeon penned this essay, I've been pondering the efficacy of the Left's speech and thought control strategy. Can it work? If it can, will it? And of course, what could anyone do to thwart it? The key conception beneath… |
Francis W. Porretto |
05/20/10 |
3 |
05/21/10 |
| Our House And His: A Sunday Rumination |
Before I proceed, apologies for the recent raggedness of these Ruminations. I try not to dwell on it...well, at least, not here...but I'm rather hard pressed just now, and have been for a while. As much as I'd prefer that it be otherwise, I can't always keep my personal trials… |
Francis W. Porretto |
05/16/10 |
6 |
05/17/10 |
| Flog ‘Em: A Profession Of Commitment |
Fran here. Recently, I received a note from a Co-Conspirator who shall remain nameless, expressing a dismay so profound at the direction the nation has taken that it had precipitated that worthy into serious emotional and health consequences. That note left me speechless -- and if you know me, you… |
Francis W. Porretto |
05/08/10 |
30 |
05/10/10 |
| Beauty Versus Vanity: A Sunday Rumination |
Among dog lovers, the most famous of all epitaphs is this one, penned by George Gordon, better known as Lord Byron: Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.… |
Francis W. Porretto |
05/02/10 |
6 |
05/04/10 |
| Conversation With A Libertarian Candidate |
Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of conversing extensively with Arvin Vohra, a young entrepreneur who has put himself forward for public office in the state of Maryland. It had been quite a long while since I last involved myself with any candidate or campaign, but when Mr. Vohra's associate… |
Francis W. Porretto |
05/01/10 |
0 |
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| His Chosen People: A Sunday Rumination |
As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people were urging them to speak about these things on the next Sabbath. When the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading them… |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/25/10 |
5 |
04/27/10 |
| A Critical Observation |
Now and then, I return to books I’ve already read, in part to enjoy them a second time, but in larger part to see if their message still “holds true.” Accordingly, I recently reread Stephen Baskerville’s Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family, and found this… |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/24/10 |
1 |
04/25/10 |
| Book DISRecommendation |
Jenna Black: The Devil Inside The Devil You Know The Devil's Due Speak Of The Devil The Devil's Playground Since I don't get paid for this (nor for anything else that appears here at Eternity Road), I have infinite latitude. No one can tell me what I must write, or… |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/19/10 |
5 |
04/19/10 |
| By Imperial Decree: Frivolous Day |
As Grand High Pu-Bah of this establishment, I have come to a policy decision, and am here to announce it to you all: WHEREAS, the calendar of the Nation is festooned with "days" about this, that and the other thing; and WHEREAS, this "day" stuff appears to have, if not… |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/17/10 |
4 |
04/17/10 |
| New Story Posted |
"Farm Girl” has been added to the Short Fiction section. |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/16/10 |
0 |
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| Farm Girl |
Allan Fitzgerald's front yard was unusually shallow for a parcel that had once been a working farm. A mere sixty feet separated his front porch from the curb of NY 231. Behind his humble little ranch, his spread extended a quarter mile further eastward, and was almost as wide as… |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/16/10 |
2 |
04/17/10 |
| Tax Day |
In point of fact, for most Americans this isn’t a day to pay taxes. It’s just the day we have to testify against ourselves, in violation of Fifth Amendment protections against exactly that. But all the same, the symbolic significance of the date is considerable. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, please reflect… |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/15/10 |
0 |
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| Don’t Know Much About Poetry: Repetition |
(Hey, we can't talk about politics all the time.) In a way, repetition in poetry is a goes-without-saying sort of topic. A poem, after all, is supposed to conform to some scheme of rhyme and meter, and such things are inherently repetitious. But there's more to the matter than that.… |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/13/10 |
1 |
04/13/10 |
| The Fortress Has A New Resident |
There was no Rumination today because of the new arrival, freshly fetched from Amity Newfoundlands of Mahwah, New Jersey: Please give a warm welcome to Rufus the Newfus! UPDATE: Because you're just dying to know: Rufus was born on July 9, 2009, so he's about 9 months old. He's pure… |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/11/10 |
11 |
04/13/10 |
| E-Book Review: Radiation Angels: The Chimerium Gambit |
(Praise God and all the saints and angels! At last, an E-book that's worth reading and reviewing.) The lineage of mercenaries in fiction is deep. It goes back at least as far as Mitchell V. Charnley's The Buccaneer. More recently, we've had Frederic Forsyth's The Dogs Of War. Then came… |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/04/10 |
4 |
04/06/10 |
| A Little Easter Humor |
The pope was slowly awakening one morning, just about ready to rise, shuffle out of his bedchamber and into his private kitchen for a cup of coffee, when his chief aide burst into the room in a state of high anxiety. "Your Holiness, He's back! He's back!" "Excuse me, Legate?"… |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/04/10 |
1 |
04/04/10 |
| Renewal: A Holy Saturday Rumination |
This one is aimed specifically at non-Christians, so I hope my Christian readers will excuse its tone and thrust. For reasons that require no elucidation, anti-Christian animus rises to its peak at two times of year: Christmas and Holy Week. The world's evangelical atheists, most of whom are insincere about… |
Francis W. Porretto |
04/03/10 |
8 |
04/05/10 |
| Knowledge Versus Vision: A Palm Sunday Rumination |
Palm Sunday. Holy Week is upon us once again. American Catholics who go to Mass today will hear, and participate in, the recitation of the Passion according to Luke. Yet today is the commemoration, not of Jesus's trial and execution, but of His entry into Jerusalem, the sacred city of… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/28/10 |
2 |
03/29/10 |
| E-Book Reviews Suspended, Hopefully Temporarily |
Fran here. I'd hoped to post another E-book review today, but I ran into a problem I'd hoped not to face: despite all the sampling I've done over the past two weeks, I couldn't find an E-book worth reviewing. The garbage quotient (GQ) -- the ratio of unworthy E-books to… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/27/10 |
3 |
03/29/10 |
| The Trumpets Sound |
"And this," said Ransom, "is why we have no way left at all save the one I told you. The Hideous Strength holds all this Earth in its fist to squeeze as it wishes. But for their one mistake, there would be no hope left. If of their own evil… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/22/10 |
3 |
03/23/10 |
| Stones And Stoles: A Sunday Rumination |
I have an ongoing feud, seemingly with Catholic clergy everywhere, about the appropriateness of clerical pronouncements on political topics. It's a rather difficult subject, since the Christian faith does offer explicit statements about what is eternally wrong -- what God Himself deems punishable with damnation. That would appear to open… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/21/10 |
5 |
03/21/10 |
| E-Book Review: Expressions Of Freedom |
Expressions Of Freedom, Gareth Lewis Many, many voices have been raised to the effect that the democratic system should be made somehow more democratic. Mr. Lewis explores one direction this desire might take...and some of the abuses that would flow from reposing too much confidence in the technology and maintainers… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/19/10 |
0 |
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| Blogging It Forward |
Fran here. It's time for a little linky-love to other second-tier blogs, in place of my customary endless blather. 1. The chickens are coming home to roost. From the Big Dog: Walgreens in Washington state will stop accepting new requests for prescriptions to be filled for Medicaid patients because the… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/19/10 |
1 |
03/19/10 |
| Moral Clarity: A Bonus Rumination |
Fran here. I know Monday is supposed to be an off-day for me and the Curmudgeon, but when a conception literally refuses to let me sleep, what am I supposed to do? *** I dreamed last night. It's not a frequent occurrence; at least, I don't often remember my dreams.… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/15/10 |
2 |
03/16/10 |
| Hard Times: A Sunday Rumination |
Americans began to experience hard times about two years ago. Unfortunate changes in the distribution of political authority, and insane policies enacted by our new ruling elite, made them harder still. As the dynamics inherent in those policies seep into the motivational structure of the American economy, times are likely… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/14/10 |
2 |
03/14/10 |
| E-Book Review: The Heretic |
Sigh. When a writer describes himself in terms such as these: Joe is the author of more than a dozen novels, including the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles trilogy (HERETIC, A SCREAM OF ANGELS, A TEAR IN THE SKY) , as well as the Hunt Chronicles series coming soon from Tor… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/13/10 |
4 |
03/13/10 |
| Conversations: The “Milk Run” |
FWP: Do you want me to pick up anything on the way home? CSO: Wine and milk. FWP: Oh, no. Wine only. You get the milk. CSO: Why? FWP: You can't get milk at the liquor store. CSO: So go to a gas station! FWP: Naah. I'd have to bring… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/12/10 |
2 |
03/13/10 |
| E-Book Review: Asulon |
Asulon, by William McGrath A Christian / martial arts / high fantasy quest novel. Wow. Asulon is the first volume in a (probable) three-volume high fantasy by law-enforcement consultant and martial-arts instructor William McGrath. I surmise that McGrath is also a believing Catholic; Asulon is pervaded with Catholic sensibility and… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/10/10 |
5 |
03/12/10 |
| Infantilizations: A Screed-Rumination “Twofer” |
It's all but impossible for one my age to look at "student protests" in our day and feel anything but contempt. Consider the one Don Douglas reports on here, and see if you can disagree. "Student power" and "student protests" have always been ludicrous affairs. Adolescents with neither experience of… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/07/10 |
4 |
03/08/10 |
| E-Book Review: Orange Car With Stripes / Missy Tonight |
Orange Car With Stripes, by Tom Lichtenberg Missy Tonight, by Tom Lichtenberg I don't have quite the right words with which to describe these two novellas. (Missy Tonight is a sequel to Orange Car With Stripes.) Madcap? That almost fits. Black humor? More in the indigo range, but what the… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/06/10 |
2 |
03/07/10 |
| E-Book Review: Better Than Real |
Better Than Real: Huw Lyan Thomas, originally published by Velluminous Press. You've got to love a book that starts with a genuine bang: The sharp metallic tang of hemoglobin hit Lee as soon as he opened the bedroom door. Kelly was still within earshot at the top of the stairs,… |
Francis W. Porretto |
03/04/10 |
0 |
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