 Here follows a cursory look at the second of America’s faux Western “values” (usury, sodomy, and genocide). But first, some semi-related news about an alleged Washingtonian misunderstanding over the fate of Gaza. According to sources, no sooner had Lindsey Graham lisped, “Level the place,” than Randy Fine asked, “What? Like me sit on it?” And now… Sodomy, in the American or Enlightenment context, is not limited to mere homosexuality. It may be considered a catch-all category for all manner of deviance and sexual immorality. Perhaps the worst of the associated wanton licentious behaviors is divorce and the breaking of the nuclear family unit. Unchecked usury, as noted by Michael Hudson and David Graeber, can and will wreck a culture. However, to ensure that a society is utterly destroyed, and destroyed as fast as possible, nothing works like abolishing morality and family structures. See J.D. Unwin’s exhaustive 1934 book on the subject, Sex and Culture. Usury and sodomy usually come along together as if parts of the same nefarious plan. America’s plight for the past sixty years or so is nothing new. Michael Hoffman described the tandem nature of the two “values” as they affected fifteenth-century Florence: “By the time usury was in the ascendant in Florence, sodomy was too. … [once usury was essentially deregulated] [i]t was reported that an elated city official declared, ‘Thank God, now we can sodomize!’” See Usury in Christendom, p. 93. (Note: the blasphemous official was a Renaissance Italian, not an American Republican.) American Republicans and conservatives generally are constantly thwarted by their allegiance to legalism, regardless of the nature of the particular legality. The only law it appears they don’t care to follow, or to tremble over, is God’s Law. In this short, concise, and stirring VIDEO, Father Josiah Treham looks at what ten years’ worth of legalized homosexual “marriage” has done to America. It is not pretty, and it represents only one small pane in the great broken window. My only quibble with Father Josiah’s otherwise deft reflection is that America was only ever at best pseudo-Christian. Or, rather, while there were always many Christians in America, theirs was never the prevailing religion. Friends, there is a reason why Washington, D.C. (Devil’s Coven) is physically a giant freemasonic-satanic temple. Conservatives (and all others) can safely forget the poor rhetoric about freedom of religion. Only one religion is freely allowed and protected. Likewise, the so-called “wall of separation” only exists to protect satanists from Christians. In fact, at this late hour, pretty much all American law may be dismissed as null and absurd. Rhetoric and the “law” notwithstanding, consider the late case of the Little Sisters of the Poor, wherein luciferian federal nazis order Catholic nuns to pay for abortions. Got that? Catholics, the Orthodox, Lutherans, or any other Christians who pray to end abortion can and will be imprisoned for felonies. Pay, not pray, is the sodomite Yankee way. Anything deviant and destructive is celebrated, promoted, and practically mandated in American sociosexual life today. Divorce, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, pedophilia, cannibalism, vampirism, child sacrifice, contraception, abortion, asexuality, transvestitism, promiscuity, feminism, and more are “good.” Pay no attention to their lethal effects on society. Pay no attention to the relationship between these evils and the financial class’s profit motives. One of the main reasons women are heavily favored in ruinous divorce settlements and child custody proceedings is that such favoritism radically increases all manner of social instability, which, in turn, cycles and expands the fake credit substitute money through the system faster and harder. Families die, vampires benefit. It is now a certainty that, along with SIDS and autism, the incredible increase in homosexuality and other deviant afflictions over the past several generations is driven by the chemical, neurological, and physical effects of so many dangerous and useless (yet mandatory) childhood vaccines. There is a reason why corporations, banks, and the U.S. State Department place so much faith in and attention on the devil’s rainbow. There is a reason why no Democrat or Republican appears to care about the Epstein files anymore. And on and on and on it goes. When anything and everything goes, generally going for illicit profit, except for traditional morality, it is safe to assume that the culture and its laws are completely broken. As I will cover in my next installment, this collapse fosters a craven societal acceptance of any and all maladies, no matter how unconscionable—even genocide. Just about all of the aforementioned wicked behaviors were illegal in America in the not-too-distant past. They are still illegal in civilized countries. In America, Christians go to prison for praying to end abortion or refusing to bow to sodomite supremacy; in Russia, simple promotion of degeneracy leads to confinement. In America, abjection leads to fame or elected office; in Iran, it leads to psychiatric treatment. There are many reasons why Americans are always told to hate traditional nations. Voting will not solve these problems. Court challenges will not solve these problems. Protests, witty memes, and letters to the editor won’t help either. In many ways, democracy is the problem. Trusting, tolerating, and supporting any of the idiotic malevolent monsters who created this mess will only make it worse. What will work—really, the only thing that will—is a complete renunciation of this wickedness and a return to Christian law and civilization. I might add that those directly responsible deserve to get a full introduction to the lex talionis via so many tight ropes, crackling fires, and dull blades. Thank God, now we can avenge! Deo vindice. This piece was published at Perrin Lovett on August 13, 2025.
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 Every once in a while, one hears something about cherished, if undefined, “American values.” I’ve looked into them and I can now define the primary three. They happen to coincide almost perfectly with Evangelical ”Christian” Zionist values and the values of the fallen, post-Enlightenment West. They are usury, sodomy, and genocide. These values overlap and work together. Herein, I briefly examine the first value, usury, with further commentary on the others to follow. But first! A joke. In perhaps a world first, a passing whale in Florida called emergency services to report seeing a beached Randy Fine. And now… It took me a long time to realize the truth about the country I grew up in and used to love. Both the essence and the official history of America is largely a matter of intentionally contrived falsehood. The immediate post-peak America I grew up in was mostly a pleasant but dishonest veneer—a façade now completely fallen away. Very little about what we’ve been told about the American experiment is accurate, much of it being maliciously misleading. Books like Nonsense of Stilts by Paul Graham and The Nation That Never Was by Kermit Roosevelt III are, in fact, revisionist histories. They revise the historical record so as to make it truthful. Professor Michael Hudson perhaps best summed up the first American value, usury, as it relates to the country as a whole, when he essentially said that America, like all Western, post-Enlightenment nation-states, is little more than an agent for the international financial class. It is, and it always has been that way. English America’s history began in earnest on April 10, 1606, at Westminster, London, with the chartering of the Virginia Company of London. The Company was essentially a hedge fund that operated in a way equivalent to modern ventures. All risks and costs were borne by the people and all the profits went to the shareholders. Then, the formula was simple: kill or push back the native American Indians, loot everything for profit, manipulate English law as needed to maximize profit, and run the whole scheme with slave labor, at first using poor English and Welsh servants, then Polish and other European thralls, followed by African chattel slaves. While the names and parameters have changed, four hundred years later, the plan is still operational, though now on a global scale. The patterns established in early colonial America were applied against Russia and Ukraine beginning in the 1990s. On the back of US imperial meddling, banks and funds rushed in, stole what they could, and worked with Washington to conquer, enslave, loot, and destroy. Thankfully, the general wickedness met a roadblock. I consider that if the Native Americans had had Russian weapons, then I would be writing from the Catawba Nation. I’d probably be writing about something else entirely. Almost everything in American civic life revolves around usury and profit for the satanic international elites. The once-sovereign Dollar was replaced by pure usury or super usury, a unique arrangement whereby money is nonexistent and what passes for money is utterly under the control of the commercial banks. They conjure it, via fake loans, out of nothing and for free, and the people, literally sacrificing their lives, work like slaves to repay it. This evil system, in direct contradiction of the commandments of Almighty God and Jesus Christ, channels all value and ownership into the clawed hands of the elites. The effects of the mass financialization are, as I have noted time and again, ruinous for the people. By design, and as compared to large ticket items (houses, education, healthcare, etc.), salaried purchasing power has declined by over ninety percent since 1950. That means that, on average, in order to live as his grandfather did, the modern American man would have to work ten full-time jobs. As an elementary math student from the near past could tell one, there is a problem with that situation. Along with other factors, most of them related to the elements of sodomy and genocide, the loss of purchasing power is one of the key reasons why young Americans do not date, marry, or have children. Super usury is dysgenic and dyscivilizational. Americans tolerate this evil for a variety of reasons, including hopelessness, insanity, stupidity, and sheer wickedness. Rather than hunt down and slaughter the relatively small cadre of their oppressors, they continue to go along with the plan, many of them still happily participating in the failed, fake, and dead institution of democracy. Many of them will continue to do this until the final collapse. The rest of humanity should continue doing what they are doing now—moving onwards and forward, away from the debased evil of the West. They should also memorialize the lessons of the Enlightenment as a warning for the future. Learn from it, but do not trust or emulate it! In this monetary case, they should lock money and banking tightly under sovereign control and strictly prohibit any form of usury. They’re already doing it, so this is somewhat superfluous, but they also need to do whatever is necessary to keep the dying rabid dog of America and the West at bay until the beast ceases to be of any threat. Even if it is never reborn in its homelands, the spirit of the original West will live on in other civilized, sovereign cultures. That is a great hope and reassurance of this age! Deo vindice. This piece was published at Perrin Lovett on August 8, 2025.
 Who, really, doesn’t love a good, old-fashioned gibbering about nothing in particular? Well, love it or not, like it or not, it’s all I have this week. I had high hopes for this one, but sometimes we must settle. I started a draft about Russia banning the de facto national religion of the GAE, but then I thought, “Why bother?” Indeed. The late political circus idiocy of the former US is of little interest to me. So there was nothing there. I mean, it’s over, folks. Maybe it’s not time to move on just yet, but it’s probably a good time to start packing. It’s hot as blazes this summer. But that’s most summers down here. The heat zaps a certain degree of my creativity, though I try to make up for it in other ways. Results vary. Et cetera. While great commercial success still eludes me, Judging Athena has turned into my first critically acclaimed and award-winning book. Thanks, readers and reviewers! The manuscript of AURELIUS, Tom Ironsides’s next hard-charging action novella is with Green Altar Books now. So there’s that. Once the heat and my mind settle a bit, I’ll be polishing the next literary installment and working on the drafts behind it. Due time, due time. Rumor has it that children in Gaza took a break from starving to death to raise funds to buy some SlimFast for Randy Fine. Generation X, I have some great news for you! I’ve been most privileged to read the first installment of a new American epic that will debut in January, Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome, Episode One: Bad Boy by Chris Orcutt. In fact, all American generations are in for a treat: a literal time warp back to the middle of the 1980s. It’s almost indescribably good. Much more on that soon. As for other summer reading, I’ve done my usual. Some of it was great, some less so. A few reviews will be forthcoming. Right now, among several others, two notable novels I’m working on are The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates and The Thorn and the Carnation by Martyr Yahya Sinwar. Both show great promise. While one is never quite certain about these things, I fear I will miss the end-of-summer and fall fun up at the world’s greatest amusement park, Tweetsie Railroad. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to. In August, kids of all ages will delight in The Ghost Riders in the Sky and Railroad Heritage Weekend. Come the middle of September, the Ghost Train starts those spooky night runs. All that is in addition to the usual merriment. And … that’s all I gotz. More and better soon. Quality will improve tomorrow. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!!! Deo vindice. This piece was published at Perrin Lovett on August 1, 2025.
 Briggs, Georgia, Icon, Chesterton: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2017. Today, my friends, we owe a debt of gratitude to the wonderful Matushka Emma Cazabonne for recommending I read a relatively new novel by a talented young Southern author. (Thanks, Emma!) The book is a new take on an old story, or, rather, an old and persistent threat to civilizational states, especially those grounded in Christianity. It is a somewhat disturbing look at an alternative contemporary or near-future Alabama and America.
Icon, by Alabama author Georgia Briggs, is a stirring dystopian story told from an explicitly Orthodox Christian point of view. Briggs succeeds brilliantly in melding her faith with her genre. If I am not mistaken, this was her first novel, ergo, her success is an amazing achievement and a great testament to her ability. Icon is available from the Ancient Faith Store and Amazon. Also, please visit Briggs at her website. In Icon, young Euphrosyne learns that an innocent mistake at school quickly leads to death, oppression, and terror. Some might find the plot initially confusing, especially since it unfolds in the new and grand “Era of Tolerance”. However, others will wisely recall that tolerance was one of the chief sins of King Jeroboam. Euphrosyne, her family, and her friends find themselves living in an occupied state that tolerates everything … except Christianity. Clinging to tradition in this new age results in brutal and relentless intolerance. Briggs does a fine and fascinating job portraying how the repression transpires and how it affects those caught in the crosshairs. That she does this so convincingly from the primary perspective of a twelve-year-old girl is very impressive. But the choice of Euphrosyne’s eyes should not necessarily be surprising because, while all people suffer under tyranny, perhaps none are so afflicted as children. The real world gives us constant, daily reminders of that sad fact for those willing to see them. I will leave the hows and whys behind the rise of Brigg’s draconic fool’s paradise for the discovery of the reader—and the reader will thoroughly enjoy the journey of revelation. Yet I will say I thought Briggs’s moniker for those in control of the new Alabama and new America was a poignant bit of genius. She took an old and famous name from America’s nineteenth-century transcendent enlightenment and progressed it forward to a fanciful but very natural and plausible zenith. Plausibility. Interestingly, Briggs wrote Icon in 2017, eight years before I read it. Those eight years have been packed with incidents and trends that should have dropped the veils or blinders from many American and Western eyes. In short, only the truly blind (or the complicit) do not, at this point in our history, begin to at least suspect that something has gone very wrong. A century before Briggs’s pen crafted her tale so artfully, J.B. Bury was busy lauding what he thought were the then-present achievements of the Enlightenment and the coming golden age of free thinking and tolerance, the triumph over Christianity and tradition. See A History of Freedom of Thought (1913). As the entirety of the Enlightenment was a lie and a rank inversion, things didn’t work out exactly as promised. Instead of a peaceful, happy Shangri-la, today’s America sees Christians beaten and imprisoned for praying in public. America openly and even proudly supports, funds, and participates in war and genocide against multiple parties of the innocent around the world, a sizeable portion of them Christians. It is not too far a stretch, certainly within fiction, to foresee an America that openly exterminates Christians. In addition to a moving, alarming story of warning, Briggs also provides an antidote. At certain points in Icon, particularly at the end, I found myself silently hoping for stern physical retaliation from the oppressed or liberating action from outside parties. I will divulge that as the Orthodox Believers of Alabama are hunted, Russian Spetsnaz troops do not arrive to save the day. But Briggs had a far better idea. Someone does show up at the end, and there is no earthly substitute for the deliverance and compassion he brings to Euphrosyne. It is a miracle in a book full of miracles. Just when all feels lost, the young protagonist wins the ultimate fight, via her Christian faith and her acknowledged (if not so-named) eschatological optimism. “[Y]ou lived well,” she is told. Indeed, she survives in glory and learns the true meaning behind Jesus’s reassurance when He said, “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you. …[B]ut I have chosen you out of the world...” John 15:18-19. Briggs salvages eternal beauty out of tragedy and perfidious horror. Her plot, purpose, scenes, and settings are vivid, valid, and believable. Her characters bring to life the best and worst of human behavior and capability. As for the good potential within Christians, she delivers with convincing eloquence stern adherents to our faith who are, despite all else, joyous, reflective, defiant, zealous, and selfless. For a shorter work, and one marketed for the young adult audience, the spiritual lessons within Icon are astounding. Oh, and THE icon is as much a character, as much a hero as he is a title! For all these reasons, and for those the reader will find beneath the cover, I happily recommend Icon by Georgia Briggs. I also recommend buying a few extra copies to give as gifts to children, grandchildren, students, parish friends, neighbors, or any other young people the reader might know and care about. Help spread the word. Deo vindice. Your reviewer owes the late, great Tom Moore for helping discover the subject matter of today’s critique. I’m not sure if Tom ever read anything by Chris Orcutt, but I know that if he had, then he would have enjoyed it. As I have written before, Tom was an extremely good friend and my adopted big brother. He also served admirably as my mentor en écriture de fiction, wingman, and general conspirator. Sometime after his death, I stumbled across Orcutt’s website while randomly looking for new authorial inspiration. The first thing I read was his essay, “Being a Novelist Isn’t a Job, It’s a Lifestyle”. I approved. Tom would have approved. Read it yourself and you’ll catch a glimpse of an artist as dedicated to the craft as may be found anywhere. Now it is my honor to briefly examine one of his many novels, the fun, daring, and masterfully written One Hundred Miles from Manhattan.  (Stately, eclectic cover design by Elisabeth Pinio.) *Orcutt, Chris, One Hundred Miles from Manhattan, “Wellington”, NY: Have Pen, Will Travel, 2014 (2017 2nd Kindle edition) One Hundred Miles from Manhattan has been occasionally deemed a collection of short stories. And it is. But isn’t every novel chapter a short story? Probably. So by linking a series of these things together, especially if they are well-linked, a legitimate novel—however we define “legitimate”—is born. Orcutt describes his book as a “modern novel”, see the cover above. That is true in the sense it is contemporary fiction and that it innocently defies certain conventions or preconceptions in a manner to make Gustave Flaubert or Julian Barnes proud. The ten stories or chapters offer ten different perspectives on a series of independent yet related tales. Orcutt sets up a fine plot of points, which are then connected by the reader’s immersed mind. The book reminded me of a few other works. Orcutt’s stories, all of them vivid and engrossing, take place in the fictional town of Wellington, New York. That geographic commonality at once suggested, in my mind, Mary Morrissy’s Prosperity Drive. (You leave the Aussies intact, Lassie?) Characters reappear and themes recur here and there. And Wellington itself becomes a perpetual personality in much the same form and fashion as the titular character in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Street”. And just like Morrissy’s Prosperity Drivers and Lovecraft’s Lane, albeit in distinctive locution, Wellington and its population are adroitly, entertainingly, and guardedly presented as offbeat. Who doesn’t love to hate the rich? Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 24:19. Confucius said, “Wealth and honor are what people want, but if they are the consequence of deviating from the way, then I would have no part of them.” It’s not necessarily that the wealthy are wicked. Or it’s not that, in a sense of totality, money is evil. Part of the stigma of the well-to-do is that their fortune allows them the opportunity to engage in behavior inherent to all of us with unfettered ease and unadulterated excess. That alone might explain much of the universal caution against the trappings of great opulence. Forewarned or not, Wellington is overrun with wealthy people, both of the generational landed gentry and the nouveau riche Manhattanite yuppie kinds. Much of the narration involves horses. Horses are fine and noble beasts, yet horse people are about as weird as they come. If one knows, then one knows: from California to Kentucky to Florida, it’s the same pattern. Wellington’s “hilltoppers” are sterling examples of horse and general monied eccentricity. However, safely confined within the pages of a book, their various follies make for excellent fiction. Orcutt opens with a quote by Anton Chekhov. He then proceeds with a story about an unusual “shooting party”, one led by a rather determined woman. Her self-imposed exile at the end appears happier and less taxing than, say, tenure at a standard labor camp. Another tale delves deeply into the lethally neurotic absurdity of fighting over a literal pile of trash. Perhaps you, dear reader, have heard of or imagined such things? Yet another story reminds us that little to nothing will come between the hobby engineer and his model train set layout. Assorted cautionary themes run the length of the book. In a sense, perhaps an inverted sense, One Hundred Miles from Manhattan might be considered an American ode to the Russian village fiction of the twentieth century. Lavish as it is, there is a certain pastoral romanticism associated with Wellington. And in keeping with the spirit of Valentin Rasputin, et al, a level of hardship is keenly examined—though it is volitional hardship, not so much on the local peasantry but, rather, on the peculiar affluent residents. Some of the presented rural fascination is coupled with criticism of modernity, subtle yet palpable criticism delivered with ranged emotion. Orcutt’s writing is crisp, evocative, and arresting. He balances, very well, a technical precision with great relatability. Somewhere, he mentioned he writes stories he would like to read. He succeeds with aplomb, which is a testament to several factors (that I can think of): a deeply contemplative philosophical outlook, high creativity, and an ability to accomplish that hardest and most critical aspect of writing—being able to jot it all down in such a way that the reader not only understands but mentally makes the story his own. He’s noted in several places his admiration for different great authors of the past. If he ever tried to emulate some of their manners or tack—and all of us try that to some extent—then he has succeeded in channeling the best as required and where necessary; but, he has also developed a most unique and enjoyable style all his own. More of Orcutt’s rare distinctiveness is on humorous, insightful display in his 2017 book, Perpetuating Trouble: A Memoir, which is part biography, part story-telling, and part poignant writing guide. I highly recommend it, to writers and all, along with, of course, One Hundred Miles from Manhattan. I’m also looking forward to 2026 and the coming first segment of Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome, a nine-episode novel, twice the heft of War and Peace, about Gen X and our glory in the greatest of all decades, the 1980s. Grab the Swatches and pop those collars! Evidently, Orcutt spent the past decade locked in the last functioning Aladdin's Castle mall arcade researching and refining the chronicle. If dedication equals perfection then… Okay, honestly, I was there. Did that and all. Part of me really wants to relive the majesty. But part of me is a little wary that once pulled back… I won’t want to leave again! Rad. This piece was published at Perrin Lovett on July 5, 2025.
EDITOR'S NOTE: South Carolina writer Perrin Lovett has just published an intriguing Christian novel Judging Athena, available from Shotwell Publishing. Below is an interview he gave to Literary Titan about his new book.  Judging Athena follows a humble and kindhearted research assistant who meets a curator at an art gallery, and what begins as a chance encounter over a necklace for a young girl’s birthday unfurls into a deep and poetic romance. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story? The idea came to me while I was walking one evening last October. There is a real art gallery gift shop in a charming New England town. Many years ago, I purchased some custom nickel jewelry from the shop manager, a lovely woman with an accent (the nationality of which I cannot recall). On my walk, I suddenly suspected a story was lurking in the memory. As I strolled along, it all began to coalesce in my mind, blending with a few other ideas. I decided to go home, start typing, and see how far it went. Three and a half weeks later, I had a rough draft. I enjoyed the romantic relationship between Josh and Athena. How did their relationship develop while you were writing it? Did you have an idea of where you wanted to take it or was it organic? I’m glad you enjoyed it! I had a notion about both characters and their interaction. While they eventually presented themselves well in the first draft, initially, both were somewhat difficult for me to conceptualize. Josh was a challenge because of his humility and piety, and because I wasn’t sure how he would relate to Athena. She was very challenging due to her rarified nature and utterly unique circumstances. And her essence changed quickly in my mind, from a mere legend into something higher and in keeping with her arc of redemption. Fortunately, all my quandaries were resolved as I wrote. Once I was used to the sincerity and kindness in both characters, writing them became a nearly effortless pleasure. Because of my marital deliverance theme, and partly in defiance of postmodern trends, I knew I wanted the relationship to progress from meeting to matrimony as quickly as possible. Yet in getting there, I decided to dwell on the details of dates, thoughts, emotions, and so forth. And many, many roses! That is why the betrothal period, less than two months long, essentially occupies half the book. I felt the emphasis on clean and honest dating and development, along with genuine understanding behind the marriage, was that important. As an aside, part of me almost wishes I could have dedicated the same level of attention to the rest of the story. However, that would have resulted in a book of 95,000 pages, not words, and I was pleased with the second half anyway. I did have an idea of where I wanted Athena and Josh to go, though the idea evolved a bit. Most unusual for me, the ideas pretty much landed in the word processor in an organic fashion. Ordinarily, I erratically plot, fill in via scattershot, overthink, and stall manuscript development for months or even years. I practically wrote Judging Athena straight through from page one to “The End.” What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book? Perhaps the most important element is the Christian concept of joint salvation, manifested through the three primary reasons for marriage, as explained by Father Josias in Chapter Four. This is a core tenant of the Church, however, too much of its veracity has been lost or diluted in our era. The tale I tell is, sadly, not my own. Rather, it is an idealistic expression of the ideal romance. My plot device or hook regarding Athena’s true nature is an admittedly extreme use of speculative theology. However, given the extreme state of the real world around us, I thought it was important to provide a strong counterbalance. Another important concept, for me and, hopefully, for readers, is the complete deference to God offered by two imperfect people who, by dispensing with solipsism, offer anathema to the postmodern concept of the individual über alles. Fiction provides a forum for letting be what should be, even if the imagined vehicle approaches the fantastical. Many of the themes and subthemes in Judging Athena stem from First Corinthians. I really enjoyed working various metaphors into the characters’ perceptions, their relationship, and their interaction with God, others, and the world. In addition to all else, the titular matter of judgment requires a real apophatic leap of faith. While hinting all around, I do not expressly explain how it happens. I don’t know technically how these matters unfold. No one does. Hence, a degree of trust is warranted. Had I delivered a detailed verdict, I doubt anyone would have liked it—least of all the author. Also, I really like writing “innocent” fiction. All too often, my work veers into the polemical and the expositive. I may have finally discovered it is better to suggest than to force certain matters. Beyond telling what I hope is a sweet and entertaining story, I ultimately hope to encourage young men and women to defy the world, unite, be fruitful, and help each other redeem themselves through and into the glory of the Almighty. What is the next book that you’re working on, and when can your fans expect it out? Next up, Tom Ironsides returns in AURELIUS, a hard-charging action novella wherein the CIA’s former best blasts through the ranks of assorted international criminals. It’s another book that’s been simmering for a while, since around 2020. With any luck, it should be out late this year or in the winter of 2026. As with Judging Athena and The Substitute, it will come to market via Green Altar Books, the growing and outstanding literary imprint of Shotwell Publishing. I generally have four or five manuscripts in development at any given time, and now is no exception. My “save the world” inclinations are slowly giving way to something more genteel and with more genuine literary quality. I have a few more romances in the works, including an outline for something of the levels of apologetics in Judging Athena. And there’s always more coming along—in due time. This interview originally appeared on Literary Titan on June 28, 2025.
 When they’re not worshiping satan and raping children, the Zionists occupying Palestine scheme for ever-expanding power and the acquisition of “Greater Israel”. In the early hours of Friday, June 13, 2025, Tehran time, they may have pushed their aggression too far. Operatives from Mossad, Unit 8200, and Unit 9900 scurried around Iran sabotaging air defense installations. Then, with great assistance from the Global American Empire, the IDF commenced a substantial attack on Iranian military and scientific leadership, military, industrial, and nuclear research targets. Because it was an IDF attack, backed by the Yankees, civilians were also specifically tormented. Once the IRGC restored AD capacity, they began wave after wave of retaliatory strikes against the Occupation Entity, inflicting upon it perhaps the worst damages of its 77-year, stolen, gerrymandered history. As with most conflicts, it’s still too early to determine much about the scope and duration of this war. However, critical geopolitical lessons were almost immediately provided for those willing and able to study them. And the global majority must study them! The first is that the Occupation Entity, sometimes erroneously referred to as “Israel”, is evil. This point should be self-evident based on the past eight decades and, especially, from the past two years and the Gaza Genocide. This “Israel” is not the Israel of the Old Testament. That title and torch passed to Christians in the early first century AD. Please read Acts 3:25! Talmudists are not Hebrew Israelites and only illiterate heathen Judeo-”Christian” evangelicals refuse to see the difference. The Entity is extraordinarily dangerous and cannot be trusted. The same goes for the remnant Yankee Empire. As the Russians have long observed, it is simply agreement incapable. The Iranian nuclear “deal” talks were a ploy to buy the Zionists time to prepare for their assault. And the Empire provided, as ever, arms, intelligence, and legal cover. It even sent the demented Bruce Jenner to comfort the Zionists in their fallout shelters. The Yankees did the same thing during the late negotiations between Russia and the Banderaite regime of the former Ukraine. The Empire is not part of the alliance of sovereign countries. It is no one’s friend. While its power wanes, it is still dangerous. Donald Trump is a carnival barker clown. It is my strong suspicion he was no more validly elected than Brandon Autopen before him. While a maverick, he is still beholden to his masters, the real owners of what was America. The actions of the Zionists and Yankees demonstrate their desperation. The world they thought they would rule has rebelled against them. They are running out of resources and time. They are wild, malicious beasts, wounded and cornered. Before they fade into history, expect a vicious fight from both. Tactically and operationally, advanced offensive weapons require advanced defenses. The defense systems themselves must be guarded, electronically and physically. Eight hours of marginal coverage provides enough time for serious damage to be inflicted. Espionage and sabotage agents must be prevented from entering a country, and those present must be hunted down and destroyed. BRICS+ and other global majority countries must keep moving away from the Anglo-Amero-Zionist axis of slavery and destruction. In the name of all that is good and Holy, cease your factional squabbles, band together, and cooperate in defeating the rank evil that threatens all mankind. Countries like India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran have a decision to make—try to game a rigged system and remain tied to the neocolonial disorder, or else, fully and completely break with it. As no man can serve two masters, no country can have it both ways. You’re all on the right track, but now is the time to run. Christians, Muslims, and others of goodwill must remember that God is in charge, He cannot be defeated, ever, and He will both deliver those who faithfully serve Him and utterly vanquish those who oppose Him. The current global war really is a contest between the Highest Good versus the lowest evil. Stay on the right side. And fight. To the lingering American people, I have little specific to say. On my morning walk, I encountered two lizards fighting on the sidewalk. I didn’t bother them in their folly or frolicking, instead continuing to shake the dust off as I moved on. Murikans, your country was founded by a hedge fund owned by Freemasons and chartered into existence by a sodomite pedophile. 400 years later, very little has changed. And you keep letting matters slip. Odds are, you will continue to do so. Many or most of you will keep happily playing the idiotic games set forth by a ruling elite that hates you. Any of you who wish to survive and leave anything to your children need to renounce the existing chaos and rebuild privately. The literate among you should, if nothing else, read a book or two. The regional situation in West Asia, like the rest of it, is evolving. Keep a close eye on it. And maintain trust and faith in Providence. Deo vindice.  *Dugina, Daria Platonova, A Theory of Europe: A View of the New Right, London: Arktos, 2024 (Kindle edition) Commonality. Your reviewer has discovered that just like England and America, Russia has its fair share of Francophiles. Setting aside warfare, economic and political differences, and religious doctrinal minutiae, there is a great shared history among the many European peoples, divergent, of course, though still linked together by a great overarching predominance that transcends language, local culture, and assorted ethnic heritages. Western Europe, France included, has fallen into disarray. Eastern Europe, while in turmoil, still stands, particularly where it stands under the Russian aegis, as a coherent civilizational state. In a book that examines the questions of Europae Restitutio, one particular Russian looks hopefully, through a unique Russian lens, albeit one curated by classical Greek-derived philosophy and copious cross-cultural experience, primarily to France and the emerging, evolving legacy of the Nouvelle Droite. It is an academic’s approach. It is, as the title suggests, a theory, or an amalgam of theories. However, it is also an optimistic lure of promise and potential and a fascinating, thought-provoking disquisition. Daria Platonova Dugina was the rising star of Russian intellectual thought, a powerful philosopher and gifted writer, artistically talented, who loved life and honored God. She was the daughter of Alexander Dugin and Natalya Melentyeva. On August 20, 2022, she was murdered by Western-backed Ukrainian Nazi terrorists. This is my third Dugina book review, following Eschatological Optimism (review) and For A Radical Life (review). A Theory of Europe is a masterfully-compiled set of lectures, essays, discussions, and interviews that move forward as one well-threaded narrative. For readers familiar with Daria Dugina, postmodern European political thought, and views that surpass mere “left” or “right”, it will serve as a wonderful summary of approximately half a century of studied rebellion against the prevailing rot. As with any work bearing the standard of Dasha Platonova, it contains new surprises and revelations to interest any mind. And as with Miss Dugina’s previous works, as posthumously translated into English, I heartily, even sternly recommend A Theory of Europe. Please obtain a copy from Arktos or Amazon. Herein, I examine just a few higher points for the reader’s edification. The tone of the book is set in the Forward by Professor Dugin, who wrote of his daughter, on page 10, “Dasha believed in the New Right and was inspired by their views on the need for a great restoration of primordially European values—classical, ancient, and medieval.” Most or much of my usual audience is either European, European descended, European adjacent, or otherwise at least tangentially interested in Europe. Those in Europe and of European descent now face an epochal change, a choice between enduring or, by postmodern default, diminishing or even disappearing. One hopes Dugina’s take on the restoration of European values inspires them as well. She gets right to the heart of the matter on page 16: “...the French Nouvelle Droite represents a Traditionalist, cultural, conservative revolution. The New Right might be called the new encyclopaedists or the new European “Enlightenment”—Enlightenment 2.0—but in the reverse.” The original Enlightenment, one of the most persuasive con jobs in history, broke the traditions of Europe and Western European Civilization by insidious design. It represented the end of the traditional monarchies, the end of meaningful Western European Christianity, a recalculation of the Greco-Roman legal and philosophical legacy, and the alteration of the organization of European nation-states and polities. Going in reverse means ending the charade and lies of the past five hundred years and reestablishing the old order of Christendom. Reestablishing the lost order might require a coalition of what could be labeled strange bedfellows. In order to affect both politics and culture, those on the right need to consider at least tactical alliances with some groups on the left, including labor, the ecology-minded, and more—groups not frequently thought of as conservative allies. “For [Carl] Schmitt, politics is always a confrontation between different political units (groups and collectives of various scales) and presupposes a permanent multiplicity, which Schmitt calls the “pluriversum””. A Theory of Europe, page 24. Such a multiplicity counters the artificial universal hegemony imposed by liberal globalism. “[T]he modern West masks the pursuit of its agenda under the aegis of “establishing democracy” and “defending human rights”, Id., 25, while destroying both. By pursuing or pushing individuality as its primary subject, “Liberalism denies collective identity and proclaims abstract human rights, which leads to focusing only on the isolated individual.” Id., 43-44. So liberated from his traditions and culture, the individual finds himself in a vacuous state of self-destruction. Another link the New Right, particularly Alain de Benoist, encourages and seeks to establish is that between Europe and the Third World. While such a proposition might initially sound strange, it makes sense as both populations, albeit in different ways, are victims of global modernity. Opins de Benoist, “We are united in our common revolt against the hegemony of the West.” Id., 48. Europeans in both Europe and places like America and Canada should carefully consider this option, both out of deference to the aspect of tandem rebellion against the status quo and out of geographic convenience—whereas Europeans may find common ground with those in the Third World, they will also find those from the Third World already living among them. For those in America, perhaps particularly in Dixie, Dugina’s treatment of things like the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia torch rally, page 117, might be of interest. Dugina also examines the cooperative nexus of various religious elements. Europe (and America) rose under the auspices of Christianity. Many still consider Europe and America Christian, Christian majority, or Christian sympathetic. To some extent this is correct. However, vast swaths of the various European populations have delved heartily into atheism, cultism, heresy, and nihilism. The lingering Christian remnants, of whatever size, may have to make do with other allies previously unlooked for. To that end, Dugina notes the predominance of paganism in the echelons of the New Right. “There are rather many neo-pagans among the New Right, practically 90% of the movement.” Id., 66. She also hints at the previous East-West divergence in dealing with pre-existing folk (pagan) tradition: incorporation versus elimination. “Orthodox Christianity absorbed a rather large mass of ancient East Slavic beliefs. We have tighter ties with Indo-European tradition than Catholics do. Moreover, Orthodoxy is closer to Hellenic culture as it was preserved in Byzantium up to its latest eras.” Id., 67. Somewhat related to the idea of holistic incorporation of multiple cultural facets, she observes the close links between the New Right, de Benoist, and others, and her father’s Fourth Political Theory. She also explores the philosophies of America and how they have come to dominate much of European thought and economic-political discourse. While she labels the American way, “pragmatism,” Id., 84, others, like Dr. Michael Hudson, have bluntly dismissed America (and other post-Westphalian Western nation-states) as being nothing more than an agent for the international financial class (whose concerns, while generally cold and plausibly irrational in strategy, certainly are pragmatic as to the ultimate goals of enslaving mankind and stealing everything). Concerning the international rentier leeches, in Dugina’s included interview with de Benoist, after discussing how the system reduces man to a mere consumer, he remarks of (financial) capitalism:
Summarizing the final effects of the Enlightenment, of the philosophy obsessed with “the end of history”, Dugian notes: “To sum up, today the West is dead. European culture has died. French culture has died along with it.” Id., 254. She ends the book by discussing how Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine has thrown a wrench into the machinations of the luciferian globalists. Sadly, her life was stolen not long after the SMO began. Still, her early observations have proven prescient. Russia’s martial retaliation, along with the greater economic and geopolitical war waged by the sovereign world majority against the globalists, has demonstrated various glimpses, for those who can or will see them, of solutions to many of the quandaries scrutinized in A Theory of Europe. Huge parts of the world have already learned great lessons from the late rebellion. It remains to be seen, in full, if Europe and its New Right, along with associated movements elsewhere in the fading Combined West, will follow suit. Russia, China, et al have, at least, given anti-liberal dissidents a little breathing room and bought time if nothing else. Perhaps the gentle reader of Dugina’s fine treatise might make a positive difference in that regard. If nothing else, it will set the gears and wheels of the brain in motion. And as with any great book, it pays dividends just to read it. Kindly do that soon. *I would be remiss as a reviewer and friend if I did not thank Professor Alexander Dugin for his excellent heartfelt commentary within A Theory of Europe (and for gifting us the author), Constantin von Hoffmeister for his editorial prowess, Jafe Arnold for his translation skills and his Preface, and Daniel Friberg of Arktos for permission to utilize the foregoing quotations. Thank you, gentlemen. Deo vindice This piece was published at Perrin Lovett on June 6, 2025.
 In his 1871 essay “On Strategy”, Helmuth von Moltke (Moltke the Elder) opined, “Strategy is a system of ad hoc expedients; it is more than a mere scholarly discipline. It is the translation of knowledge to practical matters, the improvement of the original leading thought in accordance with continually changing situations.” He further noted, or warned, “That is why general principles, rules derived from them, and systems based on these rules cannot possibly have any value for strategy.” Both Russia and America offer sterling examples proving the worth of Moltke’s wisdom. For approximately 200 years, Russia has operated and refined a logarithmic mathematical model for conducting warfare. In addition to things like tables of organization and equipment, fire requirements, and logistical considerations, the Russian science-cum-art also integrates dynamic adaptability. Russia’s system, to which the West has no answer or equivalent, is on display via the Special Military Operation, wherein Russia makes very effective as-needed use of another of Moltke’s devices, the concept of offensive defense. This is why Russian negotiators can confidently leave a meeting warning, “next time it will be eight [Oblasts Ukraine and NATO will have to part with]”. It’s why and how Russia currently runs a 26 to 1 kill ratio over what’s left of Kiev's NATOnian army. It’s why they win. America, on the other hand, a very few, mostly naval exceptions aside, has never been able to conceive of, organize, or execute any real strategic or operational ambitions. Whereas Russia’s eternal principles might be summarized as “promote and defend Russia, win at all costs,” America’s version is a perpetual commitment to serve the international financial class at all costs. America’s servile house values of usury, sodomy, and genocide may work well to destroy America and associated vassal states, but they are worthless in a war against any foe approaching the peer level. They offer no value for strategy and no path towards victory. In the SMO contest against NATO, the US, and Ukraine, Russia constantly practices that Clausewitzian maxim of politics with other means. With (mit, not von). Moscow maintains a willingness to engage in honest dialogue, all the while maintaining a death grip on the enemy’s throat. In other words, they will have victory one way or another. And Russia appears to find the other means easier to trust than the ordinary political discourse route. America, having no strategic ability, resorts to things like counterproductive sanctions, hodge-podge junk weapons meant for short-term tactical misuse, and endless word spells—none of which are effective. Of course, lately, both sides have appeared open to talks. Russia, we know, is open, and America says it is. America says a lot, usually without meaning, but here’s to a little hope. Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Imangali Tasmagambetov, recently expressed “cautious optimism” over the late diplomatic dialogue between Moscow and Washington. In cases like this, that’s probably the only kind of optimism worth holding. After the Putin-Trump telephone chat on May 19, 2025, both sides expressed variants of that optimism. However, there were stark differences between the two cautious assessments. For his part, Vladimir Putin kept open the idea of peace, but conditioned it on objectives Moscow considers essential (like defending Russia, winning, etc.). Trump instead focused on nebulous economic benefits, perhaps forgetting he was talking about warfare rather than a shady New York real estate deal. Regardless, what works will work, so there is still room for circumspect hope, so long as hope is guarded by wary reason. For all the late hub-bub, America still appears unfitted to maintain a normal existence and relationship with the rest of the world. It remains rather dangerous, though its power to damage is waning. And while America may constitute a pole in the emerging multipolar world order, it is a pole unlike any of the others. As such, the others would do well to keep a close eye on the American monster until something changes. America certainly has not joined forces with Russia and China in the global war of the sovereign states against satanic evil. And for at least a while longer, America cannot join the right side of the conflict, itself being a product of that evil. In fact, America isn’t even sovereign, being instead controlled by various factions of darkness. The best America can offer at present is more chaos, panicked unpredictability, and endless words of little sense or value. America still has a firepower advantage in rhetorical word-slinging. However, that advantage is double-edged because literally everyone sees and understands what Washington’s verbosity really means. (Everyone except America, NATO, Ukraine, and maybe Israel, that is.) For instance, when Trump recently ranted that America won World War II, many Americans felt a sense of pride, both in that the rant was made and in that they felt it was correct. It was dead wrong, of course, and Dmitry Medvedev correctly deemed Trump’s babbling “pompous nonsense.” Similarly, in response to more Trumpian gibbering, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, called Trump’s bellicose garrulity “a source of disgrace for the American nation.” And, most hilariously, the Ansar Allah of Yemen responded to Trump’s labeling of the Yemeni defeat of the US Navy a “capitulation” by simply continuing to deal with their political problems with other means, aka, by continuing to win. Again, whatever works, will work. And I have no doubt that the leaders of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Yemen, Burkina Faso, et al, know exactly what they contend with in America and how to keep contending with it. To that end, it’s interesting and important to note that “Ansar Allah” literally means “supporters of God”. Really, this is important to all ends, because when one supports God, He usually supports one back. After all, Deo vindice! This piece was published at Perrin Lovett on May 21, 2025.
 *Shenoda, Dr. Sherry, The Lightkeeper, Chesterton, Indiana: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2021. Edith Hamilton, classicist and author of The Echo of Greece, once said, “Greece's great men let all their acts turn on the immortality of the soul. We don't really act as if we believed in the soul's immortality and that's why we are where we are today.” I read The Echo seven to ten years after my misspent undergraduate career and my belated studies of Athens and Rome. However, as they spoke to Hamilton, so the ancient philosophers, historians, and poets spoke to me. I strongly suspect they had a similar influence, formal or autodidactic, on the author of The Lightkeeper. In a book about Deuterocanonical Biblical Wisdom, the wisdom of the ancient thinkers is on display at the beginning of many chapters, also being embedded within them in an instructive, narrative fashion. Among other things, it is a book about the immortality of one particular unusual soul. Dr. Sherry Shenoda, originally from Egypt, is a California pediatrician, wife, mother, and extraordinarily gifted storyteller. Learn more about her at her website. And please purchase a copy of her sublime novel from the Ancient Faith storefront. The philosophy of it all: there is a noble degree of Orthodox (Coptic) Christian apologetics behind the plot and message of The Lightkeeper. It is a beautiful and original explication of the very concept of (Lady) Wisdom, exploring the mysteries of that proverbial truism with stirring elocution. Herman Melville once noted that in addition to the tenants of Old Testament Hebrew faith, Wisdom is also laced with an appreciation of Platonism. More recently, Professor Alexander Dugin likewise explained a strain of the Platonic running through Judaic philosophy, as well as in Islamic reasoning, and, of course, the underpinnings of Eastern Christian Orthodoxy. The same strain grounds The Lightkeeper and provides deep impetus for the story, especially as to the protagonist’s journey. It is a book riddled with time travel. And it opens and closes with an entertaining, or even breathtaking loop (a Closed Timelike Curve to make Seth Lloyd smile) that provides closure for the characters, the reader(!), and for much of the apophatic trust through and beyond questioning that both hammers home the philosophy of the book and narrates the first two parts of the tome. From the outset, Shenoda’s Lightkeeper wrestles with questions about her identity and her purpose. She even wrestles with Wisdom in the literal sense. But via her righteous perseverance, she is eventually gifted true wisdom of the kind only God may dispense. And the entire storyline is incredible as it teaches, without lecturing, the value of patiently trusting and enduring; the twists and turns and mysteries presented eventually cobble together a compelling rendition of the lessons lived and learned by Solomon and Adam. Again, there is recurrent time travel throughout the tale, which, on its own, curves here and there, seemingly chaotically at first glance, but with an ardent purpose before the end. And the story even ends with a form of “wave collapse”. The ending, or rather, the third part through the satisfying conclusion, provides multiple completions both within the story and within the mind of the reader. Per the Biblical sapiential, the protagonist, already immortal, though still suffering doubt and mental anguish, finds true Life Everlasting in addition to the fulfillment of her real intended purpose. “It’s all for me,” she keeps repeating. And it is, though it is not without the influence of the Lady of Wisdom and the permitting glory of He Who is Above. And another he! He who tends the favorite lighthouse. What, really, are we mortals without a love story? And to that end, Shenoda delivers in a rather surprising, though very gratifying, disposition. I do not dare spoil the romance, instead, I advise the reader will find it riveting and rewarding. Of course, that latter description is one I shall apply to the entire work. If I am not mistaken, The Lightkeeper is Shenoda’s second book and first full novel. One truly hopes for a second, third, fourth, and so on, as the author exhibits a keen ability to provoke thought and emotion with her exceptional literary fiction. The Lightkeeper is a gem for any Christian, any philosophically-minded individual, anyone seeking pleasant complexity, if within a gently read format, or anyone interested in a touch of eccentric fantasy or traditional romance. I applaud Shenoda and highly recommend her book. This piece was published on Perrin Lovett on May 9, 2025.
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