American Reds, Soviet Stooges

From The New York Times:

From its founding in 1919 in the wake of the Russian Revolution until the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Communist Party of the United States of America was an instrument of Soviet foreign policy. The Communist International, or Comintern, which was set up under Lenin in 1919 and then disbanded by Stalin in 1943 as a gesture of unity to his World War II allies, regularly sent delegates to oversee the C.P.U.S.A. and transmitted orders from Moscow dictating who should lead the American party and what policies it should pursue.

The dissolution of the Comintern did not end Soviet control over the C.P.U.S.A. Supervision was simply transferred to the newly formed international department of the Soviet Union’s own Communist party.

At certain times, this Soviet domination was blatant. In both 1929 and 1945, Moscow demanded, and got, a change of party leadership. Jay Lovestone had the support of 90 percent of the party members in 1929, but his support for the Bolshevik Nikolai Bukharin led Stalin to remove Lovestone as the American party’s general secretary. When, at a hearing chaired by Stalin himself, Lovestone and several of his lieutenants refused to back down, Stalin angrily denounced them and turned the C.P.U.S.A. over to its factional opponents. When the Lovestoneites set up a dissident movement, fewer than 200 American Communists joined.

Later, Lovestone’s Stalin-approved successor, Earl Browder, concluded that the American-Soviet alliance of World War II would continue after the defeat of Nazi Germany. For this reason, in 1944, he boldly engineered the transformation of the C.P.U.S.A. into a pressure group designed to work within the Democratic Party. When Browder refused to accept Soviet criticism of his policies the following year, he, too, was unceremoniously removed — expelled from the party for his heresy. (Read more.)

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On the Importance of Hugs

From Newsner:

The more you hug a baby, the more their brains grow, according to a recent survey from the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio. 125 babies, both premature and full-term, were included in the study, which looked at how well they reponded to being physically touched. The results indicated that premature babies responded to affection less than babies who were not born premature. What was also revealed however, was that babies that were subjected to more affection by parents or hospital staff showed stronger brain response.

According to researcher Dr. Nathalie Maitre, this last revelation tells us that something as simple as body contact or rocking your baby in your arms will make a big difference in how their brains develop."Making sure that preterm babies receive positive, supportive touch such as skin-to-skin care by parents is essential to help their brains respond to gentle touch in ways similar to those of babies who experienced an entire pregnancy inside their mother's womb," Maitre tells Science Daily. (Read more.)

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Quiet Corners of Paris

Marie-Antoinette never played milk maid although she would wear simple attire when visiting the farm. From the LA Times:

Visit the grand Château de Versailles where the Sun King and his 20,000 courtiers lived, dined and entertained. But be sure to leave time for the outdoor spaces — the formal gardens, the royal waterways and fountains, and the Petit Trianon and hameau, or hamlet, where Marie Antoinette acted out her desires to be just like everyone else. In a quiet area of meadowland, ponds, rolling hills and woods, she built little thatched-roof houses, an octagonal belvedere and a classical Temple of Love. Here on the “farm” she could dress as a milkmaid and feed the sheep and goats. (Read more.)

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The Demise of Journalistic Standards

From Imprimis:

It’s not exactly breaking news that most journalists lean left. I used to do that myself. I grew up at The New York Times, so I’m familiar with the species. For most of the media, bias grew out of the social revolution of the 1960s and ’70s. Fueled by the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, the media jumped on the anti-authority bandwagon writ large. The deal was sealed with Watergate, when journalism was viewed as more trusted than government—and far more exciting and glamorous. Think Robert Redford in All the President’s Men. Ever since, young people became journalists because they wanted to be the next Woodward and Bernstein, find a Deep Throat, and bring down a president. Of course, most of them only wanted to bring down a Republican president. That’s because liberalism is baked into the journalism cake.

During the years I spent teaching at the Columbia University School of Journalism, I often found myself telling my students that the job of the reporter was “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” I’m not even sure where I first heard that line, but it still captures the way most journalists think about what they do. Translate the first part of that compassionate-sounding idea into the daily decisions about what makes news, and it is easy to fall into the habit of thinking that every person afflicted by something is entitled to help. Or, as liberals like to say, “Government is what we do together.” From there, it’s a short drive to the conclusion that every problem has a government solution.

The rest of that journalistic ethos—“afflict the comfortable”—leads to the knee-jerk support of endless taxation. Somebody has to pay for that government intervention the media loves to demand. In the same vein, and for the same reason, the average reporter will support every conceivable regulation as a way to equalize conditions for the poor. He will also give sympathetic coverage to groups like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. (Read more.)

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The Tragic Death of Mary of Burgundy

From History of Royal Women:

Mary was born in Brussels as the only child of Charles the Bold and Isabella of Bourbon, and she was thus the heiress of the Burgundian territories, and she became suo jure Duchess of Burgundy in 1477 at the death of her father. Her father died in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477. When her father succeeded in the duchy of Burgundy, Mary became an attractive marriage prospect. She received several offers of marriage, starting at the age of five with the future Ferdinand II of Aragon.

She eventually married Archduke Maximillian of Austria on 16 August 1477. They had two children together. The first was Philip the Handsome (22 July 1477 – 25 September 1506) who became Philip I of Castile due to his marriage to Joanna of Castile. Her second child was a daughter named Margaret (10 January 1480 – 1 December 1530), who married first to Juan, Prince of Asturias and second to Philibert II, Duke of Savoy. Her husband went on to become Holy Roman Emperor in 1508. (Read more.)

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Anniversary of the Murder of the Romanovs

 It is 99 years since the night of July 16-17, 1918 when Tsar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Tsarevitch Alexis, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and three of their retainers were shot by the Bolsheviks in a cellar in Ekaterinburg.
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Melinda Gates Has No Clue

From Daily Wire:

Melinda Gates, the wife of billionaire and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, may hail from a Catholic family, but like most Catholics of her era, the post-1960's "Jesus is my pal" types, she has no idea how Catholicism works when it comes to its core teachings on morality.

We know them all: abortion, homosexuality, contraception, and divorce. Catholicism, going all the way back to St. Paul, has equally condemned all of these as morally wrong and has forbidden their practice.

Catholicism has taught this for over 2,000 years because human nature never changes, no matter if we ride around on a horse and chariot or a Lexus convertible. Human beings are the same now as they were back when gladiators impaled each other as adoring crowds cheered them on; the more blood the merrier.

Human nature never changes, which is why child sacrifice went from an extinct institution to being suddenly fashionable again (I'm looking at you, Planned Parenthood).

Despite the overwhelming evidence that the Catholic Church has taught these moral precepts from its inception, Cafeteria "Catholics" and former Catholics like Melinda Gates still hold to the  presumption that the Church will magically change their teaching on these issues because the "times have changed" and the majority demands it. (Read more.)

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The Gender Game

From The Federalist:

A 13-year-old seventh grade girl committed suicide just before the Memorial Day holiday weekend. When the Alabama youth was halfway through sixth grade, she publicly identified as a boy, “Jay,” with the support of family and school. In addition to gender identity struggles, Jay’s mother says Jay battled depression and anxiety. “We were under the care of a psychologist from day one,” she says in an interview with AL.com.

The LGBTQ lobby tell parents they must support and affirm their child’s transgender journey to prevent the child from attempting suicide. As this tragic case demonstrates, however, it’s an open question whether supporting a child’s gender switch adds stress rather than reducing it. In this case, the parents fully affirmed and supported her gender transition, yet tragically, depression led to suicide.

 Children are encouraged, affirmed and assisted in “coming out” as transgendered without one word about the consequences of the dangerous game of “gender make-believe.” Today, the politically correct response expected from adults, especially parents, is to affirm the child in the desired gender. But affirmation gives young people false hope that they can really become a different gender. It’s a lie—a lie told with compassionate motives, but a lie nonetheless. Lying is not compassion. (Read more.)

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