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Q: Could you please explain what "ratum sed non consummatum" means with respect to marriage? I always thought that this was an antiquated term that no longer had any relevance, but recently I encountered it [in a current context]… Why would it matter to the Church whether a marriage has been consummated or not? –Fiona A: The Latin phrase ratum sed non consummatum is translated literally as “ratified but not consummated,” and it has been used by theologians and canonists in regard to matrimony for many centuries. These four Latin words actually contain a wealth of information about the way...

In the ongoing presidential campaign, we may expect a handful of broad themes to receive the overwhelmingly greater fraction of the Democrat propagandists' efforts: "Republican war on women" "The 1%" "Fairness" The "fairness" canard is, of course, aimed at cowing the GOP's Congressional caucus, its candidates, and the electorate into bowing to higher taxation. In this connection, the Democrats' dominant meme has been that "millionaires and billionaires" are somehow evading paying their "fair share" of federal taxes, and that this contributes to the immense Obamunist deficit. Let's see if I can make this as striking as it always was at...

It's time to round off this short series of screeds. If these "Terminus" posts have struck you, Gentle Reader, as unusually angry or strident, I can scarcely be surprised. I'm very angry; the country is going downhill far faster than even I expected it to go, and good men have done little more than complain about it. My contempt at such limpness in the face of social, economic, and political calamity has caused me to jack up the stridency of my prose. Whether that's for good or for ill, I can only wait and see. * * * The belief...

Permit me to speak in abstractions for a moment. Imagine that the Wazznians have been eyeing the possibility of invading neighboring Brux, toppling its regime, and seizing its lands. Imagine further that the rulers of Wazznia -- nasty fellows, really -- have harbored this ambition for some time, and are passionately dedicated to it. Finally, imagine that, though Wazznia's military strength vis-a-vis Brux has been growing, it's not yet decisively greater; moreover, it's highly unlikely to grow any further, even shows signs of waning. Given all those postulates, what decision would you expect the rulers of Wazznia to make? Would...

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell Sharp-eyed readers will note that the link to National Review Online has vanished from my list of useful or interesting sites. Some will ask why; others will know. For those not yet aware, the reason is this John Derbyshire article: There is much talk about “the talk.” “Sean O’Reilly was 16 when his mother gave him the talk that most black parents give their teenage sons,” Denisa R. Superville of the Hackensack (NJ) Record tells us. Meanwhile, down in Atlanta: “Her sons were 12 and...

Divide et impera. Divide to conquer. Julius Caesar knew it. He wasn't the first. He's certainly not the last. Robert A. Heinlein made use of the concept in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress: "Manuel, you wish to see Luna free." "You know I do." "You also know that Terra can defeat us." "Sure. No projection ever gave us anything close to even money. So don't see why you set out to antagonize-- "Please. Since they can inflict their will on us, our only chance lies in weakening their will. That was why we had to go to Terra. To...

I have had enough. The progression that has driven the original, relatively constrained welfare system of the United States to its present, cradle-to-grave assurances of absolute support for whatever form of Taking or Faking one chooses to pursue has taken quite a lot of Americans, including this one, to a completely different destination. Here's a sample of the fuel that's propelled us: “I believe that in a society as wealthy as ours, we should have a commitment to our seniors and to the disabled,” Obama said. “That’s not a sign of weakness. That’s not socialism.” Obama called “the basic American...

Fiction writing is a far tougher road to travel than op-ed; ask anyone who's tried it. As satisfying as it can be artistically, its practical frustrations can make the aspiring fictioneer wonder why he didn't put his spare time into something constructive, like teaching manatees to tap-dance. Many fiction writers claim to write for the sheer pleasure of it. Some claim they only write for the revenue: "to buy groceries," as the late Robert A. Heinlein put it. But all of us, without exception, write to be read. Anyone who claims otherwise deserves no more of your time. Thus, it...

"When a man dies, he does not just die of the disease that he has; he dies of his whole life." -- Peguy We stand, God willing, at the end of the Progressive Era in American politics and political thought. One way or another, the edifice will shortly come crashing down. The only questions that remain are whether a recognizable United States of America will rise from the rubble. Many Americans, however, will not. That's guaranteed. Our current political order does not resemble our Constitutional basis in any way. Every stricture of the Constitution has been abrogated. Most states treat...

This appears in the "The Week" section of the June 11 edition of National Review: Life in Venezuela is going from bad to worse. Having recently seized the last of his country's private oil fields, Hugo Chavez is now moving in force against Venezuela's farmers. They have long had to contend with squatters who assemble on their land and burn their crops as an intimidation tactic. Now they must also cope with the army commando units Chavez is sending to help the squatters build socialist cooperatives on the land they do not own. In other news, Chavez has announced that...

There are duties attached to every form of power or ability. The duties attached to insight and clarity are particularly compelling -- and frequently most unpleasant to face. In the Thirties and Forties, the Western world had a minor contretemps -- just a scuffle, really -- with a totalitarian power that called itself the Third Reich. We -- America, mostly -- expunged that power from the world, and took special care to salt its leavings. One of those leavings was its ideology, National Socialism, which is most commonly called Nazism, then as now. In consequence, today one cannot proclaim oneself...

The C.S.O. and I have just seen it. Go see this movie. You won’t regret it, I promise. You’ll be exalted by the eloquence of the script, stunned by the special effects, and carried away by the superb acting. The meticulously choreographed fight scenes will blot out all your memories of The Matrix and the Kill Bill movies. The beauty of the songs will have you whistling as you leave the theater. And the gorgeous, delicately framed love scene between Gary and Lisa, so central to the development of the plot, will show you for the first time purposeful eroticism...

It appears that we now know the approximate scope of the carnage in Beslan, Russia. The totals are not complete, as there are still Chechen Muslim terrorists struggling to resist capture by the Russian troopers who stormed the school. Undoubtedly a few more bodies will be added to the pyres before the day is done. Would anyone care to argue that the Chechen Muslims who perpetrated this horror were just acting on their legitimate nationalistic aspirations? Come closer, please. My arms aren't that long. There is simply no defense for the use of civilians as military targets, or hostages, or...

June 29, 2004 The opening days of World War I produced some of the most memorable quotes in recorded history. Among your Curmudgeon's favorites is the following, more doom-laden than any words that had been uttered for centuries before. "The world will be plunged into the most terrible of wars...all for a word -- 'neutrality'...all for a scrap of paper." -- Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, Chancellor of the German Empire, referring to Britain's decision to go to war over Germany's violation of Belgium's neutrality, which had been guaranteed by Britain, France and Germany in an 1832 treaty. Indeed. Yesterday was marked...

May 11, 2001 Your Curmudgeon is a student of military history and military planning, among other things. These are subjects that bring a perspective available in almost no other field of the intellect. Of course they would! Their subject matter is literally life and death: the life and death of men and nations committed to a struggle from which some will, inevitably, not return. Unfortunately, there's far more of that sort of activity about than we should really tolerate. Putting an end to war may well be beyond our powers -- "Nations in general will go to war whenever there...

May 2, 2003 Yesterday, May 1, 2003, George W. Bush, President of these United States, touched down on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to make a speech to its crew, to the soon-to-return forces of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and to the country and the world. Dubya landed on Abe in a two-place fighter jet, an S-3B Viking. The president debarked from his plane grinning broadly, relaxed, confident, and at his ease. He looked like a man reborn, after months of international tension and the trials of war. He chatted casually with his Navy pilot-companion as they strolled across Abe's...

This is too much. I have no idea whether it's been posted already, but Freepers will undoubtedly enjoy the manic energy of it. ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US! Freedom, Wealth, and Peace, Francis W. Porretto Visit the Palace Of Reason:http://palaceofreason.com

WHO SHOULD BE NEXT, after the ouster of Saddam Hussein? What evil nation should next be de-fanged or demolished in our urban renewal in the global community of nations? Should it be North Korea, the Orwellian Marxist madhouse now building nukes and bracing for attack, with its long record of selling any weapon it can acquire to anybody willing to buy it? Should it be Iran, a theocratic dictatorship closely allied with terrorists, now rushing with Russian help to produce the raw materials for atomic bombs? No, we should instead go after and disarm an enabler of terrorists that already...

Multiple trusted sources have reported anti-war protests that, by design, have crippled the traffic flow in various American cities. In particular, Palace correspondents in Boston and San Francisco tell of groups of unruly demonstrators shutting down major thoroughfares by physically occupying them, thereby bringing city traffic to a halt. Up to now, metropolitan police have been exceedingly reluctant to remove them by force. As Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit has said, these activists, who claim they speak for the workingman, don't seem to have the workingman's interests very much in mind. What your Curmudgeon finds noteworthy is the justification offered by...

Don't call them principled. They're not. And don't call them ideologues. They wouldn't know an ideology from a par-boiled turnip. They protest. They demonstrate. They've disrupted metropolitan traffic in Boston, San Francisco, and several other cities. A few have engaged in violent vandalism against others' property. But they have yet to articulate precisely why the American campaign against Saddam Hussein and his Baathist dictatorship has them so exercised -- unless we accept "we don't like it" as the response. Most people, be it frankly said, aren't all that good with abstractions and reasoning. Most of our actions are propelled by...