To add some context you wrote the best defense using church teaching to resist covid vaxx shots and mandates and I have used it many times w fellow Catholics resistant to the shots and mandates. You have a great way with words.
'In the US Office of Strategic Services psychological profile of Adolf Hitler by Walter C. Langer, Langer wrote, summarising Adolf Hitler’s primary rules..: “never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”'
Mind you, "never concede that there may be some good in your enemy" is as much, perhaps more, a fault of those who despise Trump as a fault of Trump's own. Indeed, it is a very common fault that we must all strive to resist.
Shat a beautiful read. Cheers 🍻 You have a way with words and bringing clarity to all the issues. I am honored to have read your blog and thank you for your love for the truth and transparency. God bless you and your family.
I would like to join in spirit. I once rode on the back of my boyfriend’s Triumph from Watermill, Long Island to Philadelphia, PA. My hair was long and I didn’t braid it and the tresses streaming from the helmet were uncombable for quite a while.
Thank you for bringing this piece to my attention, and for your kind words in the addendum. I will give some thought to the attempt you suggest. I agree with Chad Pecknold et al. in their claim that it is not good enough to discuss the welfare of refugees only or primarily in terms of what can be done to welcome them. The good of citizens both in the country of origin and the country of destination must be taken into account, beginning with the latter. (Turning London, e.g., a city in which I lived for some years, into a place where one in twelve is an illegal immigrant has not been good for the inhabitants of London!) Moreover, the poor migrant looking for a better place is far from the only kind of migrant we are seeing these days. Open-border policies invite the calculating and the rapacious along with the honest and the hopeful.
The Catholic catechism does not imply otherwise, though to read some episcopal (and papal) statements, one might suppose it did. Nor was it written with the current open-border, uncontrolled migration, problem in view, though while its ink was still fresh Tony Blair et al. were already at work making the latter a reality, for base political purposes. (I'm glad DJT refused to receive Peter Mandelson as ambassador.) The U.K. is now reaping the fruit of that policy, as is the rest of Europe and North America.
So as not to write an essay here in the comment box, I will conclude with this: When you're on a plane, you are told in case of an oxygen-mask drop to affix your own first, then to help your neighbour. That is just common sense, and quite in keeping with the second great commandment. Our open border policies have not been common sense, nor have they been a way of fulfilling that commandment. We must fulfill it, and the neighbour includes the neighbour who comes to us from other jurisdictions. But the terms on which the neighbour arrives to us, and who qualifies as a neighbour (the man in the ditch, so to say, or those who beat and robbed him and threw him in the ditch?) must be prudently considered and carefully managed. A country without a border is not a good country, but a lawless country, while it remains a country at all.
Professor Farrow -- I am so grateful you took the time and effort to craft a reply, which I know is no small task, thank you. I wrote a long-winded note trying to respond in kind, but ultimately removed it after reflecting on it – it comes across as rambling without the structure or direction needed, or which you provide; I do so hope you find the time and inspiration to provide clarity on this topic – I fear, and maybe hope, if that’s possible, this will become a ripe topic here in the US as it becomes more public how much the US Catholic institutions played an indispensable role in the active processing, distribution and housing of illegal immigrants throughout the country. Having a proper Christ-centered approach will provide comfort to many. The mystery of our Lord’s ministry was his loving truth that simply cut to the heart – over and over, He revealed the truth of His Father but then allowed us to grapple with the understanding to discern the application to our lives and provided the freedom of choice to follow Him, and thus receive His grace, or not. God bless you - DT
So another quite stunning and undeniable reveal re our US Catholic Church, that it is the single largest donor from USAID, the also undeniable covert arm of the CIA. how does it explain this?
Along w the undeniably explicit and substantial assistance to Biden's illegal immigration invasion, a fact borne out both by the over 4 X increase in funding to the Church to move illegals covertly into the interior of the USA and the similar prick in actual people who moved across the borders, both upticks vs all years prior during long runs of D and R admins.
On top of the Church's betrayal of our inherent God given rights during the CV era, would have been evil alone if the Church were simply silent or not taking sides, but indeed and provably it actually aligned to push the lies around the mandates to lockdown maskup and vaccinate.
These 3 clear and recent breaches of our Christian lifestyle and its commitment to uphold defend and enlarge are ... Indefensible?
The fruits of this tree are for eyes to see and ears to hear.
Thank you Lord Jesus for forming us in Your Holy word that we may know the truth.
"Beware the sort of man whose skepticism has made him, not incredulous, but altogether credulous." In Pirsig's favour, he wouldn't have offered such nonsensical advice. Sometimes Chesterton overindulged in trying to sound clever.
Pirsig would, and did. That's the Zen element. As for GKC, whose approach is quite rational, for being a Catholic he has great confidence in reason, why don't you read "The Oracle of the Dog?", which can be found here, e.g.: http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/index.html#FICTION
What do you have in mind, regarding Pirsig? I find Pirsig naive and grandiose, but sincerely so, and interesting and surprisingly intelligent (I think because he has a decent amount of self-awareness about his own naivete -- but maybe I'm misreading between the lines there), not nonsensical.
As for GKC, this kind of trite and false bromide (from the story you referenced) is rather too typical: "It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense, and can't see things as they are."
Pirsig: Naive and grandiose, yet self-aware? Now there's an exercise in contradiction. My own difficulty with Pirsig concerns his methodology, the way he approaches the dialectic of the abstract and the concrete. I also think his sense of the riding, and of the road, somewhat deficient.
Chesterton: I do not see this as the least trite, nor as a false bromide (for what?). Mutatis mutandis, it is the same line of argument Benedict, e.g., developed in his Regensburg address. But you have given your charge no substance. It appears (I do not say it is, but that it appears) as merely dismissive; even perchance as naive and grandiose. Clarifying these matters is, however, too a large a task for a comment forum.
If I am naive and grandiose, and aware of it (and accept it as part of the general proneness to absurdity of the human condition), then I am also self-aware, am I not. An exercise in contradiction, certainly not. To think otherwise seems a rather drastic failure to understand the nature of contradiction (and perhaps the human condition).
Re. Chesterton: It is trite and certainly false (in my grandiose-and-naive(?) humble(?) opinion). I think I am warranted in dismissing it, b/c it is *manifestly* false. I could defend my dismissal, but tbh I'm not sure I really need to.
Signing not necessary, but perhaps I should develop a proper insignia and line of apparel. The insignia, though I've not yet given it much thought, could feature a polar bear, of which there are rather a lot at the moment, piloting its Harley.
Which reminds me to say that a man who ought to know better presented me by email with a false dilemma: either NASA is lying or I am lying. I presume he means about the polar ice; he was clear only about the culprit. Well, I checked the interactive graphs and I don't appear to be lying. Of course I didn't take the usual "computer modelling shows" route and present the recent upticks as proof that in thirty years the whole planet will be covered in sea ice. I leave that sort of fraud to the fraudulent—what a wonder computer modelling is!—and that sort of fight to those with the credentials to fight it. I do keep a file on this sort of thing, a file that has grown almost as fat as a polar bear.
That there is a serious fight, the serious are not in doubt. That understanding natural cycles is crucial, the serious know. That there is big money in play, even the unserious should be able to figure out. Perhaps my correspondent can discover for me where my cheques are meant to come from. The postal strike is over, but they aren't showing up.
The best of your humorous side, Douglas, while making most serious points. Recalling my days on a Matchless 600 back in the day without helmets. Count me in!
Glad to discover you are also a biker. I recently rode from Bali to Flores - a three island 2000 km round trip. A mite warmer than CA and a lot of spectacular wildlife en route inc dragons!
Desmet should know better: that mass formation psychosis *started* under DJT. He declared quack emergency, platforms Fauci, and rolled helicopter cash out to Democrat! Governor to lock down. Even zuck was censoring under trump as well as under Biden. Ironic desmet should tout musk (with his dozen IVF kids) but revile Huxley. Rfk has been in with trump before he was out during 1.0 . Bhatta stood up for everyone but the elderly... They had to be locked up. Look further into the Means' - not everything you may think.
I discuss more on president warp speed at momanddadmatters.substack.com but in particular read the latest article "grand OLD party" and consider what duplicity made trump "most prolife president evahhhh" rape that GOP platform. He was a Democrat planted to make conservatives lockdown who would not have under an admitted democrat. How did Mr globo know that he could operate Biden like a drone president without country literally collapsing in shambles? He beta tested with an obligingly limp trump 1.0. what that portends for 2.0, who knows, and everyone should expect fun kayfabe fireworks at first, but look deeper to be realistic.
To add some context you wrote the best defense using church teaching to resist covid vaxx shots and mandates and I have used it many times w fellow Catholics resistant to the shots and mandates. You have a great way with words.
This lifelong biker is certainly willing to join your club.
Perhaps Robert Malone will join it as well, on one of his flesh and blood steeds. He doesn't think things are beginning at all well under DJT: https://www.malone.news/p/inauguration-day-random-mindwalk... Whoops, he seems to have changed his mind. Perhaps he got a good night's sleep... And again, more soberly: https://www.malone.news/p/ai-mrna-cancer-vaccines-and-stargate. If only Trump were more sober-minded.
Eco-alarmists and the good they do: https://dailysceptic.org/2025/02/03/eco-anxiety-affects-more-than-three-quarters-of-children-under-12/
Apropos that refusal to apologize, I am reminded of this, noted some time ago from
https://euripides.substack.com/p/main-bmj-wakefield-fraud:
'In the US Office of Strategic Services psychological profile of Adolf Hitler by Walter C. Langer, Langer wrote, summarising Adolf Hitler’s primary rules..: “never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”'
Mind you, "never concede that there may be some good in your enemy" is as much, perhaps more, a fault of those who despise Trump as a fault of Trump's own. Indeed, it is a very common fault that we must all strive to resist.
Shat a beautiful read. Cheers 🍻 You have a way with words and bringing clarity to all the issues. I am honored to have read your blog and thank you for your love for the truth and transparency. God bless you and your family.
*Such* .. not *Shat*.
Thanks very much, and correction noted :)
I would like to join in spirit. I once rode on the back of my boyfriend’s Triumph from Watermill, Long Island to Philadelphia, PA. My hair was long and I didn’t braid it and the tresses streaming from the helmet were uncombable for quite a while.
That's the spirit, and yes, 200 miles in the wind will certainly do that!
Professor Farrow - please would you consider a full theology based reply to this line of thinking that is being used by the Church and local pastors?
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/259147/what-does-the-catholic-church-teach-about-immigration-and-immigrants
Thank you for bringing this piece to my attention, and for your kind words in the addendum. I will give some thought to the attempt you suggest. I agree with Chad Pecknold et al. in their claim that it is not good enough to discuss the welfare of refugees only or primarily in terms of what can be done to welcome them. The good of citizens both in the country of origin and the country of destination must be taken into account, beginning with the latter. (Turning London, e.g., a city in which I lived for some years, into a place where one in twelve is an illegal immigrant has not been good for the inhabitants of London!) Moreover, the poor migrant looking for a better place is far from the only kind of migrant we are seeing these days. Open-border policies invite the calculating and the rapacious along with the honest and the hopeful.
The Catholic catechism does not imply otherwise, though to read some episcopal (and papal) statements, one might suppose it did. Nor was it written with the current open-border, uncontrolled migration, problem in view, though while its ink was still fresh Tony Blair et al. were already at work making the latter a reality, for base political purposes. (I'm glad DJT refused to receive Peter Mandelson as ambassador.) The U.K. is now reaping the fruit of that policy, as is the rest of Europe and North America.
So as not to write an essay here in the comment box, I will conclude with this: When you're on a plane, you are told in case of an oxygen-mask drop to affix your own first, then to help your neighbour. That is just common sense, and quite in keeping with the second great commandment. Our open border policies have not been common sense, nor have they been a way of fulfilling that commandment. We must fulfill it, and the neighbour includes the neighbour who comes to us from other jurisdictions. But the terms on which the neighbour arrives to us, and who qualifies as a neighbour (the man in the ditch, so to say, or those who beat and robbed him and threw him in the ditch?) must be prudently considered and carefully managed. A country without a border is not a good country, but a lawless country, while it remains a country at all.
PS: For some technical detail regarding Catholic teaching, see here: https://wdtprs.com/2025/01/what-is-catholic-teaching-about-deportation-maybe-not-what-some-higher-ups-think/
And for the political situation, here: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/vance-vs-bishops-on-immigration-part-iii/
Professor Farrow -- I am so grateful you took the time and effort to craft a reply, which I know is no small task, thank you. I wrote a long-winded note trying to respond in kind, but ultimately removed it after reflecting on it – it comes across as rambling without the structure or direction needed, or which you provide; I do so hope you find the time and inspiration to provide clarity on this topic – I fear, and maybe hope, if that’s possible, this will become a ripe topic here in the US as it becomes more public how much the US Catholic institutions played an indispensable role in the active processing, distribution and housing of illegal immigrants throughout the country. Having a proper Christ-centered approach will provide comfort to many. The mystery of our Lord’s ministry was his loving truth that simply cut to the heart – over and over, He revealed the truth of His Father but then allowed us to grapple with the understanding to discern the application to our lives and provided the freedom of choice to follow Him, and thus receive His grace, or not. God bless you - DT
So another quite stunning and undeniable reveal re our US Catholic Church, that it is the single largest donor from USAID, the also undeniable covert arm of the CIA. how does it explain this?
Along w the undeniably explicit and substantial assistance to Biden's illegal immigration invasion, a fact borne out both by the over 4 X increase in funding to the Church to move illegals covertly into the interior of the USA and the similar prick in actual people who moved across the borders, both upticks vs all years prior during long runs of D and R admins.
On top of the Church's betrayal of our inherent God given rights during the CV era, would have been evil alone if the Church were simply silent or not taking sides, but indeed and provably it actually aligned to push the lies around the mandates to lockdown maskup and vaccinate.
These 3 clear and recent breaches of our Christian lifestyle and its commitment to uphold defend and enlarge are ... Indefensible?
The fruits of this tree are for eyes to see and ears to hear.
Thank you Lord Jesus for forming us in Your Holy word that we may know the truth.
"Beware the sort of man whose skepticism has made him, not incredulous, but altogether credulous." In Pirsig's favour, he wouldn't have offered such nonsensical advice. Sometimes Chesterton overindulged in trying to sound clever.
Pirsig would, and did. That's the Zen element. As for GKC, whose approach is quite rational, for being a Catholic he has great confidence in reason, why don't you read "The Oracle of the Dog?", which can be found here, e.g.: http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/index.html#FICTION
What do you have in mind, regarding Pirsig? I find Pirsig naive and grandiose, but sincerely so, and interesting and surprisingly intelligent (I think because he has a decent amount of self-awareness about his own naivete -- but maybe I'm misreading between the lines there), not nonsensical.
As for GKC, this kind of trite and false bromide (from the story you referenced) is rather too typical: "It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense, and can't see things as they are."
Pirsig: Naive and grandiose, yet self-aware? Now there's an exercise in contradiction. My own difficulty with Pirsig concerns his methodology, the way he approaches the dialectic of the abstract and the concrete. I also think his sense of the riding, and of the road, somewhat deficient.
Chesterton: I do not see this as the least trite, nor as a false bromide (for what?). Mutatis mutandis, it is the same line of argument Benedict, e.g., developed in his Regensburg address. But you have given your charge no substance. It appears (I do not say it is, but that it appears) as merely dismissive; even perchance as naive and grandiose. Clarifying these matters is, however, too a large a task for a comment forum.
If I am naive and grandiose, and aware of it (and accept it as part of the general proneness to absurdity of the human condition), then I am also self-aware, am I not. An exercise in contradiction, certainly not. To think otherwise seems a rather drastic failure to understand the nature of contradiction (and perhaps the human condition).
Re. Chesterton: It is trite and certainly false (in my grandiose-and-naive(?) humble(?) opinion). I think I am warranted in dismissing it, b/c it is *manifestly* false. I could defend my dismissal, but tbh I'm not sure I really need to.
Recent Biker convert from hiker, looking for a group to join. Where do we sign? ☝️👀🤔☀️😎🤣
Signing not necessary, but perhaps I should develop a proper insignia and line of apparel. The insignia, though I've not yet given it much thought, could feature a polar bear, of which there are rather a lot at the moment, piloting its Harley.
Which reminds me to say that a man who ought to know better presented me by email with a false dilemma: either NASA is lying or I am lying. I presume he means about the polar ice; he was clear only about the culprit. Well, I checked the interactive graphs and I don't appear to be lying. Of course I didn't take the usual "computer modelling shows" route and present the recent upticks as proof that in thirty years the whole planet will be covered in sea ice. I leave that sort of fraud to the fraudulent—what a wonder computer modelling is!—and that sort of fight to those with the credentials to fight it. I do keep a file on this sort of thing, a file that has grown almost as fat as a polar bear.
That there is a serious fight, the serious are not in doubt. That understanding natural cycles is crucial, the serious know. That there is big money in play, even the unserious should be able to figure out. Perhaps my correspondent can discover for me where my cheques are meant to come from. The postal strike is over, but they aren't showing up.
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/07/11/top-climate-scientists-slam-global-warming-so-called-evidence-as-misrepresentation-exaggeration-and-outright-lying/
https://c2cjournal.ca/2024/10/a-planet-that-might-not-emneed-em-saving-can-co2-even-drive-global-temperature/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/01/18/the-saturation-effect-questions-the-prevailing-narrative-on-co2/
Well said sir!
The best of your humorous side, Douglas, while making most serious points. Recalling my days on a Matchless 600 back in the day without helmets. Count me in!
Not this one? I think maybe the CAF still uses them :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matchless#/media/File:Matchless_Vickers_8B2-M_front-left_2017_Bovington.jpg
Close, but no.
Glad to discover you are also a biker. I recently rode from Bali to Flores - a three island 2000 km round trip. A mite warmer than CA and a lot of spectacular wildlife en route inc dragons!
What fun that would be, Michael. I wish we weren't on opposite sides of the Pacific, and that I could have joined you. It sounds and looks beautiful.
President warp speed did withdraw from the who, only to transfer funds to GAVI.
The merry-go-round seems to suit him. And he calls it a Golden Age.
Here, however, is a more penetrating line of questioning, from Desmet a couple of weeks ago: https://words.mattiasdesmet.org/p/team-trump-the-real-behind-the-veil
But what Trump has done on days one and two is admirably significant and significantly admirable.
Desmet should know better: that mass formation psychosis *started* under DJT. He declared quack emergency, platforms Fauci, and rolled helicopter cash out to Democrat! Governor to lock down. Even zuck was censoring under trump as well as under Biden. Ironic desmet should tout musk (with his dozen IVF kids) but revile Huxley. Rfk has been in with trump before he was out during 1.0 . Bhatta stood up for everyone but the elderly... They had to be locked up. Look further into the Means' - not everything you may think.
I discuss more on president warp speed at momanddadmatters.substack.com but in particular read the latest article "grand OLD party" and consider what duplicity made trump "most prolife president evahhhh" rape that GOP platform. He was a Democrat planted to make conservatives lockdown who would not have under an admitted democrat. How did Mr globo know that he could operate Biden like a drone president without country literally collapsing in shambles? He beta tested with an obligingly limp trump 1.0. what that portends for 2.0, who knows, and everyone should expect fun kayfabe fireworks at first, but look deeper to be realistic.