THE blogger Weapons Man analyzes the recent graduation of two women from the grueling Army Ranger School: The two women who were nurtured through Ranger School recently (and who, we must say, showed incredible grit and determination to hang in there through multiple recycles) were so much more impressive than the 136 who fell by the wayside that the Army has decided, after long deliberation a pause to provide a Decent Interval® and look like long deliberation of orders that came from Ash Carter and John McHugh, to open all future Ranger classes to women. Who will graduate. Remember, we called it back in November 2014, as the first 31 women for the Corps of Commissars were selected (out of 36 volunteers… now that’s real selectivity): Lower Standards, Commissars, to Guarantee Graduation. The distaff Ranger graduation is also being used as a wedge to crack open the rest of combat arms, because the Maslovian self-actualization of a couple of career women who want to play Army, and a victory for the lesbo-wiccan coven that is DACOWITS, are more important than whether units can fight and actually beat anybody. “Since they’re only ever going to play Little League, we might as well get ’em used to participation trophies.” [cont.] -- Comments -- Josh F. writes: It seems that the "cost" of "women" in combat is a loss of womanhood and thus a self-revocating appropriation of the title "woman" for each and all female so inclined to make it all the way to…

FROM John Gray’s False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism*:

The free market is a construction of state power. The idea that free markets and minimum government go together, which was part of the stock in trade of the New Right, is an inversion of truth. Since the natural tendency of society is to curb markets, free markets can only be created by the power of a centralized state. Free markets are creatures of strong government and cannot exist without them … It is well illustrated by the short history of 19th century laissez-faire. The free market was engineered in mid-Victorian England in exceptionally propitious circumstances. Unlike other European countries, England has long traditions of individualism. For centuries yeoman farmers were the basis of its economy. But only Parliament [in which most English people were unrepresented] using its power to amend or destroy property rights and create new ones — through Enclosure Acts in which much of the country’s common land was privatized — did an agrarian capitalism of large landed estates come into being … By the middle of the 19th century, through the enclosures, the Poor Laws and the repeal of the Corn Law, land, labour and bread were commodities like any other: the free market had become the central institution in the economy … By the First World War, markets had been largely re-regulated in the interests of public health and economic efficiency. (more…)

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON writes: My analysis of new IRS data shows that, adjusted for inflation, the bottom half of Americans reported average total incomes (excluding welfare benefits like food stamps) of just $14,775 in 2012, down 18 percent from 2003. [emphasis added]

THIS POST is for parents of children in the ten- to 12-year-old age range. Mothers and fathers, please pass on this important knowledge to these children, an audience which is dramatically under-served by this website. Many of these children are resuming schoolwork this week, and my heart goes out to them. I would like to give them this vitally essential knowledge to distract them from their disgusting and exploitative drudgery and show them that there are some things which are never, ever found in school books. In the first two and half minutes of this video, they can learn how to pull out a loose tooth. It's common sense, and it works!!  

MR. JORGE BERGOGLIO, leader of the One World Church, not the still-existent Catholic Church, streamlines the process for Catholic "divorce." See the report at Novus Ordo Watch. 

CHERYL Chumley at World Net Daily reports on a Fox News show in which two attorneys and host Gregg Jarrett come to the unified conclusion that Kim Davis’s legal defense is “stunningly obtuse.”

The attorneys reject both the argument that the Supreme Court does not make state laws, and thus cannot command Davis to issue same-sex “marriage” licenses, and the argument that Davis has a constitutionally-protected right to act upon her religious beliefs. (more…)

DUE to the illness of an elderly relative, I am behind in responding to e-mails, posting comments, and adding new posts. I hope to be back later today.

ALAN writes:

“Pop culture is filth,” John Derbyshire wrote in an essay several years ago.  And music is part of pop culture.

At a time when blacks and whites compete to determine who among them can produce the most vulgar, tasteless, and repulsive noise in the history of recorded sound, I thought it may be useful to consider what kinds of songs American blacks were singing half a century ago.

Here is a list of 20 popular songs that I compiled from memory.  These were sung by black men, women, or groups and played on AM radio stations in the years 1962-’64: (more…)

MRS. T. writes in response to the entry on flex-time: I have an acquaintance who is a professional counselor. The vast majority of her clients are women...working women. They are mostly customer service representatives for a major phone/internet/cable company and teachers. Both jobs are very emotionally demanding. I cannot imagine what these women have left when they get home to their families. My husband also works in customer service for a major utility. His co-workers are primarily women who are the main financial providers within their relationships. And a large percentage of them are on some sort of anti-depressant. It's no joke; it is not uncommon for women to be either entering the building or leaving it crying. Although in regards to kicking children out of their own home, I am guilty of this. As a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom I get a little crazy if the children don't have time outdoors, away from me!

HENRY McCULLOCH writes: Great idea I saw today for a campaign season bumper sticker: I voted for Bush Senior, but I ain’t voting for Señor Bush!

THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU writes:

I call attention to Jack Cashill’s article of today at The American Thinker, in which the author invokes a glaringly self-evident, but almost entirely unobserved, fact concerning the case of Kim Davis, the Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk whom U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning has jailed on a contempt citation for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.  Bunning asserts that Davis is in violation of her official duties and of his court for failing to comply with a law concerning “gay marriage.”  Cashill, citing Davis’ own remarks, points out that there is no such law.  Laws have effect under the Constitution only insofar as the House of Representatives has first written them and then submitted and enacted them by due process.  No Supreme Court ruling can make law.  Cashill writes: “One would think, though, that if the Fourteenth Amendment safeguards gays from suffering the ‘pain and humiliation’ of being denied marriage, the First Amendment should certainly protect practicing Christians, Muslims, and Jews from the pain and humiliation of being denied their very freedom.” (more…)

MORE delightful September images can be found at It's About Time.

BERT PERRY writes: What bothers me almost as much as the acceptance of ever more heinous crimes against human life is the excuses people give. I've recently had a discussion with two people who have argued that the "roll tape" exposé of Planned Infanticide was somehow false--as if the obvious dickering over price, desire for a sports car, and modification of infanticide procedures for getting "tissue samples" hadn't been done by Planned Infanticide officials. In other words, we're getting to the point where, in the minds of adherents to various aberrant ideologies, even videotaped evidence is not sufficient to demonstrate that something occurred.  The very notion of truth is being discarded for political motivations. Yikes.

FOR years feminists have campaigned for flexible hours in the workplace. Instead of campaigning for the family wage (and for an end to the "free trade," open borders policies that have undermined American jobs), they have fought for accommodations in the workplace and the privilege of becoming economic serfs. These "flexible" accommodations often put women in the position of having full-time psychological commitments to jobs, but with only part-time hours. They do not change the reality that motherhood and home, except perhaps for those who have paid staffs and many paid services, absolutely constitute a full-time job. The campaign for flexibility has created the illusion that work and home can be "balanced" without cost to family life. Yesterday, I heard of an interesting development in this brave, new, oh-so-flexible world. A woman told me of her daughter who works for a major financial management company. The daughter has "flexible" hours. She works two days at home. However, during those two days, her young children are not allowed to be home. That's right. They are kicked out of their house. I don't think even the Soviet Communists, in their enlightened efforts to send all women from the home and obliterate the Russian people, ever came up with this idea. (And that's what the mass entry of women into the workforce means. If not the gradual obliteration of a people, at least a dramatic demographic and cultural decline.) Of course, one can understand how this practice…