About that Blackmail…
Three weeks ago I posted an article about how I was being blackmailed and how I advised others to deal with it.
Today I saw that the richest man in the world was being blackmailed:
Something unusual happened to me yesterday. Actually, for me it wasn’t just unusual — it was a first. I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Or at least that’s what the top people at the National Enquirer thought. I’m glad they thought that, because it emboldened them to put it all in writing. Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten.
I don’t pretend that Mr. Bezos is one of the 11 people who read this blog, but I must say that it appears his strategy is precisely the same that I recommended, viz,:
- Confront your fear and accept the possible/likely consequences
- Involve legal counsel
- Involve law enforcement (if appropriate)
- Go public fast
It seems Mr. Bezos may have made some terrible personal choices and stands to lose tens of billions of dollars for it, but at least he didn’t respond like a coward when threatened. As he wrote, “If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?”
This is what’s known as ‘Courage in a crisis’.… Read the rest
Listen to This Beautiful Recessional Hymn
I was honored to be present for the solemn pontifical Mass for the feast of Candlemas at Saint Thomas Aquinas Seminary on February 2nd, and the end of the nearly four-hour liturgy had a nice surprise. Listen!
Avoiding Rash Judgment
“If you always assume the best of others and you are often wrong, you are still better off than if you assume the worst of others and are only occasionally wrong.”… Read the rest
Barbarians at the Gate
Despite an unparalleled level of widespread affluence in the west and the highest standards of living in human history (even for the ‘poor’), socialism in America is increasingly popular and not just among millennials and liberals…even some self-described Christians are calling for increased government intervention in the form of wage and price regulation, higher taxes and outright seizure and redistribution of private property. Why? Because their greatest devotion is to the ideology of Karl Marx:
“As Bukovsky put it in a very recent interview with Epoch Times, “The Western elite is socialist. They were never serious about fighting Soviet power.” That is why Communism has made such a comeback in recent years, even in the United States, which rests on a foundation of capitalist success. Our current generation of emerging leaders speak openly and enthusiastically about Communism and socialism: “The absence of leadership is frightening. Our so-called elites became rotten. In the past, in history, the elites would be periodically wiped out in revolutions. In our time, it does not happen. We are too civilized.”
… Read the rest