Macron’s Praetorian, Mexicans and Moustaches

Emmanuel Macron’s entire security detail – his personal praetorian guard, if you will – quit en masse rather than submit to his requirement that they all pass his new ‘sanitary certificate’, that is, receive the new experimental gene-therapy vaccine. I admire their principled stance, heading out to the unemployment lines to sell their services to Eric Clapton and van Morrison. Macron’s draconian approach has lit a fire of revolution in France, as thousands resist the measures; things are, shall we say, mal tournant. How many police and military do these nouveaux-emperors need to protect their vulnerability? Perhaps they will see the light, only once they realize their own nakedness.

Ah, the chaos in trying to govern everything. Two Americans were fined $20,000 – that’s most people’s life savings – for trying to cross into Canada with fake vaccine passports, lying about their tests and not staying the ‘quarantine hotels’. So much for tourism. Trudeau can try to keep Canada pristine of Covid, but viruses do what viruses do, and they’re small, sneaky, insidious little critters, not much bigger than a DNA molecule. They tend to get around regardless of what measures we take. Then there’s the southern American border, which at this point is almost completely porous: Estimates are that a million undocumented – what is the word? What does one call ‘immigrants’ who do not go through the legal process of immigration? – have entered the U.S. since Biden took power, or whoever is the ventriloquist moving him around and telling what to say. And they’re not all just from Mexico, for apparently the ‘world’ has discovered you can just fly to Tijuana and on walk on in; or to Ciudad Juárez, and with a few front crawls across the Rio Grande, presto Americano! They are all bused to various centres, given amnesty, and released into the general population. Do you think they’re all getting tested and showing vaxx-passes? As a few Mexican bandits shouted to Humphrey Bogart in Treasure of the Sierra Madre: ‘We don’ need no stinkin’ badges!’ No, we don’t indeed.

A final historical note: A hundred years ago today, July 29th, a young Austrian took control of the nascent National Socialist Workers’ Party in Germany. The members acceded to all his demands, including changing the title of the leader to Führer, difficult to translate precisely into English – a leader/father figure, of sorts. Contemporary reports describe the 32 year old veteran as charismatic, and quite an animated speaker. He also had a nifty little moustache, and side-swept hair, that may well become the rage. Hmm. You don’t say.

Hubris, dear reader, hubris. We are drowning in it, and not just in our secular society. But God has His time, and knows what He is about, if we but trust, hope, pray and be led not into anxiety.

Pax vobiscum, omnes!

Carney’s Amoral Majority

After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→

A Closed, Unsustainable, Descending Loop

As a follow-up to my thoughts on Payette’s payout, here be a stark image of where are here in Canada. As the graph shows in, well, graphic terms, since 2025, the public sector has contributed to 95.5% of economic growth. The private sector – which funds the public sector, or is supposed to – has[…]Continue reading→

Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk

(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→

A Tale of Two Benedicts

A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→

Presidential Pardon of Weronika Krawczyk

As a good news, follow-up to our story from Poland, of the persecution of Weronika Krawczyk for her pro-life views, we heard that she has been granted a presidential pardon. One might still wonder why one needs a presidential pardon for simply holding the long-held belief that the child within the womb is a child,[…]Continue reading→

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→

The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus

As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→

Pope Leo and a Rosary for Peace

Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics across the world to join him in a Rosary for peace today, at 18:00 Rome time (6 pm), which would be noon from where I write (EST). If you are able, whether at that time or another, and in whatever way you pray, to join in intercession with the[…]Continue reading→

Payette’s Payout

I was glancing through some headlines, and noticed a mention of Julie Payette – engineer and astronaut and sometime the Queen’s representative in Canada – which brought back vague memories. She was appointed Governor-General by Justin Trudeau in 2017. Ms. Payette resigned in 2021, amidst claims that she created a ‘toxic work environment’, with allegations[…]Continue reading→

Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów

We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→