Mark fields questions on many topics, from the Islamisation of the western left to the precipitous decline in screen acting. All that plus a few thoughts on the impending seventh birthday of The Mark Steyn Club...

Welcome to the thirteenth episode of our current Tale for Our Time: The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie - although John Wilson, a First Week Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, is beginning to doubt that: This tale reads more like John Buchan

Feminist theorist Judith Butler is calling for mandatory education to confront children with modern gender theory. As David Gordon points out, she wants to use coercion to force people to accept her theories.

Mark takes questions from Steyn Club members around the world...

The American governmental scheme is sliding ever closer towards a pervasive authoritarianism.

The American people, the permanent underclass in America, have allowed themselves to be so distracted and divided that they have failed to notice the building blocks of tyranny being laid down right under their noses by the architects of the Deep State.

This steady slide towards tyranny, meted out by militarized local and federal police and legalistic bureaucrats, has been carried forward by each successive president over the past fifty years regardless of their political affiliation.

Biden, Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton: they have all been complicit in carrying out the Deep State’s agenda.

Frankly, it really doesn’t matter who occupies the White House, because it is a profit-driven, unelected bureaucracy—call it whatever you will: the Deep State, the Controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the corporate elite, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex—that is actually calling the shots.

In the interest of liberty and truth, here’s an A-to-Z primer that spells out the grim realities of life in the American Police State that no one seems to be talking about anymore.

A is for the AMERICAN POLICE STATE. A police state “is characterized by bureaucracy, secrecy, perpetual wars, a nation of suspects, militarization, surveillance, widespread police presence, and a citizenry with little recourse against police actions.”

B is for our battered BILL OF RIGHTS.

C is for CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE.

D is for DRONES. Nearly 1500 police departments across the U.S. include drones as part of their technological arsenal, and that number is growing.

E is for EMERGENCY STATE. From 9/11 to COVID-19 and beyond, we have been the subjected to an “emergency state” that justifies all manner of government tyranny and power grabs in the so-called name of national security.

F is for FASCISM. A study conducted by Princeton and Northwestern University concluded that the U.S. government does not represent the majority of American citizens. Instead, the study found that the government is ruled by the rich and powerful, or the so-called “economic elite.”

G is for GLOBAL POLICE.

H is for HOLLOW-POINT BULLETS. The government’s efforts to militarize and weaponize its agencies and employees is reaching epic proportions, with federal agencies stockpiling millions of lethal hollow-point bullets.

I is for the INTERNET OF THINGS. This “connected” industry propels us closer to a future where police agencies can apprehend virtually anyone if the government “thinks” they may commit a crime.

J is for JAILING FOR PROFIT.

K is for KENTUCKY V. KING. In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that police officers can break into homes, without a warrant, even if it’s the wrong home as long as they think they may have a reason to do so, leaving Americans with little real protection in the face of all manner of abuses by law enforcement officials.

L is for LICENSE PLATE READERS, which enable law enforcement and private agencies to track the whereabouts of vehicles, and their occupants, all across the country.

M is for MAIN CORE. Since the 1980s, the U.S. government has acquired and maintained, without warrant or court order, a database of names and information on Americans considered to be threats to the nation who can be rounded up in times of martial law.

N is for NO-KNOCK RAIDS. Owing to the militarization of the nation’s police forces, more than 80,000 of these paramilitary raids are carried out every year.

O is for OVERCRIMINALIZATION. Thanks to an overabundance of 4500-plus federal crimes and 400,000 plus rules and regulations, it’s estimated that the average American actually commits three felonies a day without knowing it.

P is for PATHOCRACY. What we are experiencing is a pathocracy: tyranny at the hands of a psychopathic government, which “operates against the interests of its own people except for favoring certain groups.”

Q is for QUALIFIED IMMUNITY.

R is for ROADSIDE STRIP SEARCHES. The courts have increasingly erred on the side of giving government officials—especially the police—vast discretion in carrying out strip searches, blood draws and even anal and vaginal probes for a broad range of violations, no matter how minor the offense.

S is for the SURVEILLANCE STATE.

T is for TASERS.

U is for UNARMED CITIZENS SHOT BY POLICE.

V is for OPERATION VIGILANT EAGLE. One of several government initiatives that call for heightened scrutiny of those who challenge the government’s authority, this particular program calls for surveillance of military veterans, characterizing them as extremists and potential domestic terrorist threats because they may be “disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war.”

W is for WHOLE-BODY SCANNERS. Using either x-ray radiation or radio waves, scanning devices and government mobile units are being used not only to “see” through your clothes but to spy on you within the privacy of your home.

X is for X-KEYSCORE, one of the many spying programs carried out by the National Security Agency that targets every person in the United States who uses a computer or phone.

Y is for YOU-NESS. Using your face, mannerisms, social media and “you-ness” against you, you are now be tracked based on what you buy, where you go, what you do in public, and how you do what you do. Facial recognition programs are being rolled out in states all across the country.

Z is for ZERO TOLERANCE.

None of these dangers have dissipated in any way, and yet suddenly, no one seems to be talking about any of the egregious governmental abuses that are still wreaking havoc on our freedoms.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is how freedom dies.

If there is any means left to us for thwarting the government in its relentless march towards outright dictatorship, it may rest with the Tenth Amendment, which affirms that “we the people” (in the form of juries and local governments) have the power to invalidate governmental laws, tactics and policies that are illegitimate, egregious or blatantly unconstitutional.

Nullify everything.

Nullify the court cases. Nullify the laws. Nullify everything the government does that flies in the face of the Constitution.

It’s time to rein in our runaway government, reclaim our freedoms, and restore justice in America.

Reprinted with permission from The Rutherford Institute.

Please enjoy the replay of yesterday’s Peak Insider Live conversation with.  Topics discussed include: Flight MH370, Bitcoin and government interventions, Japanese Yen, University Unrest and the upcoming Election Cycle, Mortgage debt and its relationship to the great taking, Transgender issues and how the NIH in the UK is handling it, Donald Trump and the upcoming […]

“It is absurd and deplorable for those who pretend to represent the political ‘Right’ to fail to leave the dark and small circle that is determined by the demonic power of the economy. . . . We must . . . uphold that beyond the economic sphere an order of higher political, spiritual, and heroic values has to emerge . . . an order [of] the things worth living and dying for.”

Julius Evola, Men Among the Ruins: Postwar Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist (1953)*

The Z-man’s latest post discusses the rise of a Romantic Right.  He wrote this post in response to am on-line kerfuffle over some video celebrating the mundane joys of contemporary Babbittry, or what might be called the Griller Dream.  Apparently some Griller posted a video of himself living the Griller Dream, and the new Romantic Right sent up a digital howl of derision.

“There’s more to life than Work and Grilling!  Or at least there ought to be!”

The Z-man sort of gets it and sort of does not, since the American “Right” almost always sees Romantics as men of the Left.   This is both a consequence and a cause of the profound philistinism of the American Right, and I would say one large reason for its failure.  If an American Griller would only set down his hamburger flipper and think for a moment, he would realize that materialism has always been the rock and foundation of the Left.  If he unfuddled his head by cutting back on the brewskies, this Griller might even begin to suspect that there is something distinctly Lefty about his beloved Capitalism

“Nothing is more evident than that modern capitalism is just as subversive as Marxism. The materialistic view of life on which both systems are based is identical; both of their ideals are qualitatively identical, including the premises connected to a world the center of which is constituted of technology, science, production, ‘productivity,’ and ‘consumption.’”*

These lines are again from Julius Evola, than whom very few men can claim to be farther Right.  And he is correct.  Capitalists and Marxists disagree over details of administration, but they answer with one voice when asked what life is all about.

It is about going to work and grilling!

In other words, Capitalism and Marxism are the two schools of what Thomas Carlyle called “Pig Philosophy.”

“The Universe . . .  is an immeasurable Swine’s-trough . . . . Moral evil is unattainability of Pig’s wash; moral good, attainability ditto . . . . Paradise [is] unlimited attainability of Pig’s-wash . . . . and the duty of all Pigs, at all times, [is] to diminish the quantity of unattainable and increase that of attainable.  All knowledge and device and effort ought to be directed thither only; Pig Science, Pig Enthusiasm and Devotion have this one aim.  It is the Whole Duty of Pigs.”**

The boast of Capitalism is that it fulfills the Whole Duty of Pigs efficiently.  The boast of Marxism is that it fulfills the Whole Duty of Pigs equitably.  Beyond that, there is not a speck of difference.

The real Right has always rejected Pig Philosophy with profound disgust, protesting that Pig’s-wash is nothing but a means to higher ends.  To say otherwise is as upside-down and backwards as putting businessmen—or even worse, workers—at the head of Church and State.  The real Right has never touted “bourgeois values”—safety, respectability, a careful calculation of profit and loss.  The real Right has instead championed “aristocratic values.”  It has taught that some things are worth dying for, honor is more important than respectability, and that all bean-counting economists and statisticians should go to hell.

Or as Evola put is,

“We must declare in an uncompromising way that in a normal civilization the economy and economic interests—understood as the satisfaction of material needs and their more or less artificial appendices—have always played, and always will play, a subordinate function . . . . that beyond the economic sphere an order of higher political, spiritual, and heroic values has to emerge . . . an order solely in terms of which are to be defined the things worth living and dying for.”*

We are so far sunk in bourgeois values and Pig Philosophy that even supposed men of the Right find it hard to say just what “higher political, spiritual, and heroic values” might be.  Our politics is nothing but a wrangle between Capitalists and Marxists over the correct way to manufacture and distribute Pig’s-wash.  Our Churches are little more than soup kitchens with stained glass windows.  And when it comes to “heroic values,” one’s choice is limited to giving one’s life to the spread Pig Philosophy on either Capitalist or Marxist lines.

Stripping away all on-line drama, the Alternative Right was always, at heart, a rejection of Pig Philosophy (i.e. materialism) in both its bourgeois and proletariat forms.  It was almost entirely a movement of romantic young men who felt in their souls that,

There’s more to life than Work and Grilling!  Or at least there ought to be!

* * * * *

“But it is not the danger of the noble man to turn a good man, but lest he should become a blusterer, a scoffer, or a destroyer.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-1885)

What Nietzsche called a “good man,” I have called a Griller.  Nietzsche’s “good man” is respectable, he plays it safe, he makes careful calculations of profit and loss.  Nietzsche’s “noble man,” on the other hand, lives by aristocratic values—values that transcend Pig’s-wash and are not universal in the herd.  Death is not for hi, the greatest evil.  He places his sense of personal honor before the demand for social respectability.  And he says to hell with all bean-counting economists and statisticians.

A “noble man” is higher than a “good man,” but as Nietzsche says, he can all too easily become something far worse.  A noble man falls into ignobility through disillusionment.

“Ah! I have known noble ones who lost their highest hope.  And then they disparaged all high hopes.”***

They become that most pathetic of all pests, the cynic who has lost his faith and now insists that others must lose their faith as well.

Outwardly the fallen noble man may resemble a Griller, but he has none of the redeeming qualities of that amiable buffoon.  He is not generous; he is not cheerful; he knows no joy,  He is rather cold, and bitter, and addicted to pleasure in its crudest (i.e. gourmet) form.

“Then lived they shamelessly in temporary pleasures, and beyond the day had hardly an aim.  ‘Spirit is also voluptuousness,’ said they.”***

The fallen noble man carries about him an offensive odor because he is what our old colleague Thomas Bertonneau called “subscendent,” appeasing his frustrated hunger for transcendence with food of the flesh.  What is worse, the fallen noble man becomes a destroyer of nobility, and of the longing for nobility, because he hates what he has lost.  His cynicism is at bottom a form of jealous spite.

“Then broke the wings of their spirit; and it creepeth about, and defileth where it gnaweth.  Once they thought of becoming heroes; but sensualists are they now.  A trouble and a terror is the hero to them.”***

We should welcome the rise of a Romantic Right because this is a return of the real Right, and we should damn the phony bourgeois “Right” to hell.  But we must never forget that this higher path is the more dangerous path, because a noble man has farther to fall.

“But my love and hope I conjure thee: cast not away the hero in thy soul!  Maintain holy thy highest hope! Thus spake Zarathustra.” ***

*) Julius Evola, Men Among the Ruins: Postwar Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist, trans. Guido Stucco, ed. Michael Moynihan (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, n.d.), pp. 166-167.
**) Thomas Carlyle, Latter-Day Pamphlets (London: Chapman and Hall, 1850), pp. 28-29.
***) Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, trans. Thomas Commons (New York: The Dial Press, 1928), chap. 8.

The Death of Ireland and Replacement of the Irish People

The Conquest of Ireland and the UK Nears Completion

Paul Craig Roberts

Gaza is not the only genocide. Genocide is taking place all over Europe and in the US.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/conflict-migrant-centres-ireland-uk/5856071

All over Europe and the US governments prefer immigrant-invaders over their own citizens.

“The migrants are eligible for free accommodation, free social welfare, free medical care, food, clothes, and various other perks. Whilst at the same time that the Irish government is facilitating mass immigration there are 14,000 Irish homeless people on the streets.” And many more homeless Irish citizens are on the way. Migrants are given free accommodation in hotels and country estates throughout the land, while the Irish people are seriously struggling to make ends meet in a rigged inflationary system, with a never-ending story of sky-high rents, high taxes, inflation, and an ongoing extremely serious accommodation crisis. Many young Irish citizens are left with little option but to live with their parents or emigrate to countries such as Australia as they cannot afford to live in their own country.

This is an extremely important article. It shows that the West is being intentionally destroyed by its own governments. The threat that all citizens in the West face comes not from Russia, China, Iran, but from their own government.

Irish citizens who peacefully protest their replacement by immigrant-invaders are brutally beaten–even mothers and children–by police, which emphasizes the second class status of Irish ethnicity. “Many of the Irish police in balaclavas that are enforcing these tactics against the Irish people are not Irish at all, but are more akin to non-Irish hired mercenaries, or more like an EU army.”

“The stark reality is the Irish government is not really the Irish government it is just a puppet of the EU bureaucracy. Ireland has been a fully controlled vassal state of the banker-controlled EU, in particular since the controversial (and rerun) Lisbon referendum 14 years ago, which hammered a nail in the coffin of Irish sovereignty.”

The Ukraine Conflict Is Spinning Out of Control

Paul Craig Roberts

In my effort to awake humanity to its extinction in the nuclear war that is advancing upon us, I have pointed my finger at Putin and Xi’s mistaken belief that the way to avoid it is to ignore provocations and wait for Washington to come to its senses.

This shows diplomacy at its highest level, but it is mistaken. The ignored provocations encourage more and worst provocations.

The Asia Times, if the story can be believed, reports that NATO has begun deploying troops in Ukraine’s defense. https://asiatimes.com/2024/04/nato-starts-deploying-troops-as-russia-races-to-win/ \

“NATO is starting to deploy combat troops to Ukraine. Soldiers from Poland, France, the UK, Finland and other NATO members are arriving in larger numbers.

“Although Russia says there are over 3,100 mercenaries in Ukraine, these newly arriving troops are not mercenaries. They are in uniform, home country proclaimed via insignia. They mostly are concentrated in the western part of the country, although in some cases they are close to the actual fighting in the east.

“NATO is putting out the word these are not combat soldiers but are in Ukraine to operate sophisticated western hardware. But if they are firing at the Russians the only proper way to interpret their presence is that they are playing an active part in the shooting war.”

It is the same plan as Washington’s intervention in Vietnam. What will the sequel be?

Putin and XI are diplomats. But they have no comprehension of Washington. Their naiveness has blinded them to reality. Consequently, they are walking into Armageddon by betting that Washington is rational.

Russian Philosopher Tells Tucker Carlson that Putin is More American than Biden

https://www.rt.com/russia/596797-philosopher-cause-west-russophobia/

Did the EU’s Von der Leyen Sell Out Europeans’ Health for Big Pharma’s Money?

https://www.rt.com/news/596821-eu-pfizer-vaccines-leyen/

In yesterday’s post about Saints Catherine of Siena and Francis of Assisi being made the patron Saints of Italy, I explained a bit about the state of cold war that existed between the Papacy and the kingdom of Italy in the period of the so-called Risorgimento, and how the Popes from 1870 until 1929 were confined to the Vatican. A friend then brought to my attention this video from the Gregory DiPippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13295638279418781125noreply@blogger.com0

Animal control officers are supposed to, well, control animals in a municipal area. But thanks to animal control policies, it's the stray animals that are in control of our author’s town.

In the general audience Francis renewed his invitation to pray for peace. In the catechesis he reflected on the theological virtue of faith. "Its great enemy is not reason, but fear". A gift that "must be asked daily, so that it may be renewed in us".

"The happy birds Te Deum sing,/'Tis Mary's month of May;/ Her smile turns winter into spring,/ And darkness into day;/ And there's a fragrance in the air,/ The bells their music make,/ And O the world is bright and fair, / And all for Mary's sake.// " The first stanza of Number 936  in the good old English Catholic Hymn Book; by a sometime Vicar of Pimlico, Fr Alfred Gurney (1843-1898). Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com4

 

Abuse in the Church by those in authority, any kind of abuse, occurs when truth is replaced by ideology and perverted desires. Not only can people be abused but even Catholic teaching is abused by the abuser. When people are convinced by a Church leader that doing something immoral isn’t wrong, that is abuse.

We need prophets to stand up and call it out. And two African prelates continue to do so, one who is Pope Francis’ closest advisors.

Press the title for the full story:

Top African cardinal says Fiducia Supplicans ‘has been buried’ on the continent

I confess a fondness for the old Star Trek television series, which had little to do with science and a lot to do with perennial questions regarding human nature; Paradise Lost or Gunsmoke in outer space. One episode commonly named as among the best, “The City on the Edge of Forever,” presents to the shrewd but passionate Captain Kirk a terrible conundrum. The ship’s surgeon, Dr. McCoy…

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