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.”
How to Respond to Blackmail
If you interact with enough people, speak offensive truths, or stand up to the powerful, it’s inevitable you’ll eventually be blackmailed. Extortion and doxxing are related techniques you may encounter as well.
If your first thought on reading those words is to say to yourself, “You can’t be blackmailed if you haven’t done anything wrong”, well, you’re delusional.
For one, we’ve all done something wrong, it’s simply a question of there existing the right kind of evidence to be employed against you at a certain time and under just the right circumstances. Your crime or sin could be very minor, but if you were to state under oath that you had never committed a crime, and then a blackmailer reminded you that at age 16 you exceeded the speed limit, or you lied in a phone call you made to a girlfriend and mailed across state lines, or you wore an American flag as a piece of clothing to a political rally, or you trespassed while protesting outside an abortion clinic, well, you have not just empowered the blackmailer, but you may have perjured yourself and be subject to additional criminal penalties.
Secondly, it doesn’t really matter whether you are guilty, because the blackmailer perceives that you fear the allegation, and not just the truth of it. Since most people are inclined to believe the worst of others, especially someone they already dislike, the revelation of negative information is almost certainly to be damaging, even if much later it is … Read the rest
You Are Likely Richer Than John D. Rockefeller
If you are an average American, European or Australian reading this blog post, you are likely materially richer than John D. Rockefeller was 100 years ago today.
Consider the following which you likely enjoy which even billionaires 100 years ago lacked:
Radio & Television
Inexpensive, effective painkillers
CDs & DVDs
Safe, Timely transportation
Computers
Air-conditioning
Cheap, on demand International food
Smart phones
A high likelihood of surviving infancy
LASIK, Contact lenses & easy cataract correction
Widely available, cheap antibiotics
Dental care
World-class basic medical care
On demand access to classical literature and reference books
The Internet
And yet, the Marxists are gaining in power once again, not just on the Left, where they’ve always found a home, but with educated religious people.
I would not trade my lifestyle in 2019 for $1 billion and a life in 1919; would you?
Gratitude to God, not envy of worldly goods, is the certain human path to temporal happiness. … Read the rest