HENRY McCULLOCH writes:

“Catholic” Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the Supreme Court’s liberal majority in last month’s Windsor decision, pretended that the majority’s attack on the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act was limited to striking down its provisions forbidding federal agencies to recognize homosexuals’ “marriages.”  Conservative commentators, Catholic and otherwise, warned even before the Supreme Court had handed down its unconstitutional ukaze that overturning any part of DOMA would throw open the door – through judicial abuse of the Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause – to forcing all states to recognize any homosexual “marriage” contracted in any other state. They were right. It did not take long for what pro-marriage advocates warned against to happen.

In a sad situation — sad because one of the men is near death — two Ohio-resident homosexual men have sued to compel that state to recognize their Maryland “marriage,” contracted on an airfield in Anne Arundel County in the jet chartered to fly them to and from Maryland, as the ALS-afflicted member of the pairing could not move.  (more…)

M. MASON writes:

While engaged in online research about 19th century gardens I came across an article in the Shreveport Daily News of April 26, 1861 that I thought might interest you.  Titled “The Marriage Ring,” it gives a short historical overview of the symbolic matrimonial love-token which, the article states, “Many women regard as a precious treasure and preserve with great care.”  Then a certain personal story is related:

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IN a June column, Phyllis Schlafly wrote about Obama’s efforts to introduce universal preschool, which is in this case another name for day care. This is one of the most cherished fantasies of feminists despite massive evidence that day care does not benefit children in the long run. It’s not enough that children are imprisoned from ages five to 18. Obama wants to get them earlier. Schlafly wrote:

Under the media’s radar, Obama has been aggressively promoting one of his fiscally extravagant projects announced in his 2013 State of the Union Address: “preschool available to every single child in America.” The plan for the federal government to take over the care of preschool children, a longtime goal of the feminists that used to be called universal child care, is now (probably to sound academic) called Pre-K. (more…)

SUSAN-ANNE WHITE writes from Northern Ireland:

I am somewhat confused by your post and comments about the new royal baby. Have you changed your opinion of the Duchess of Cambridge, now describing her face in flattering terms? In a previous post, you described her as “mesmerizingly insipid.”

Your post about the new royal baby included reference to the fact that Prince William will take “paternity” leave, and you have nothing to say about that, even though the whole idea of paternity leave is a capitulation to feminism. (more…)

BUCK writes:

Jay from Goshen argues in this post that progressive policies and politics didn’t destroy Detroit, but that blacks did. Or, as I extend it, that modern liberal policies and politics, implemented by a ruling white majority, aren’t destroying our civilization, “others” are.

Three years ago, there was a discussion at VFR, kicked-off by a discussion between Bonald and Alan Roebuck at Throne and Altar. They debated which threat to us was greater: liberalism or Islam. Mr. Roebuck brought the discussion to VFR. He stuck to his guns and eventually secured the agreement of Lawrence Auster. Others of us, as did Bonald, argued that modern liberalism is the supreme threat. I’m more convinced than ever, that it is the threat of all threats – that modern liberalism spawns the others. (more…)

THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU has a new piece at The Brussels Journal about the thinkers Eric Voegelin and René Guénon. In “René Guénon and Eric Voegelin on the Degeneration of Right Order,” he examines their understandings of the post-Alexandrian world, when rival generals sought control of the vast empire. The new empires that emerged became a “graveyard of societies,” wrote Voegelin, destroying concrete and distinct societies. The obliteration of traditional ways parallels that of modernity. Bertonneau writes: (more…)

THE ANNOUNCEMENT that the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a boy is posted outside Buckingham Palace. According to the Daily Mail, Prince William will now take two weeks paid paternity leave.

Kate Middleton had a beautiful smile in her last public appearance, and in photos taken throughout her pregnancy. Birth is a marvel. The miracle never grows old.

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MANUEL VALLS, the French Minister of the Interior, is pictured here observing the end of the Ramadan fast at the Grand Mosque of Paris last week. A day later, French police were busy subduing riots of Muslims in Trappe in the Versailles region. The riots began after police attempted to fine a woman for wearing a full burqa.

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KARL D. writes:

DON VINCENZO writes:

Much to my surprise, the extent of the continuing decline of the traditional, nuclear family has now become a fact of life in a place that I thought it would not happen as quickly: Italy. In an article in the Italian national newspaper, Corriere della Sera (July 10, 2013), the Italian government reported that the number of children born to non-married couples has increased steadily. As a national average, from 8.1 percent in 1995, 20.4 percent in 2009, it now has reached 24.5 percent in 2011.

The north led the way with the area of the Alto Adige reaching nearly 42 percent, and the lowest in the southern region of Basilicata at 10.3 percent. (more…)

A READER from Croatia writes:

I am your faithful reader for two years now, but this is the first time that I’m writing to you. Excuse my grammar. I haven’t written a letter in English for some time. I’m from Europe — Croatia to be exact. I study law but in my spare time have many interests one of which is frequent visits to your blog. Please receive my admiration for your activity.

I think Alexander Solzhenitsyn said in his Harvard address that nothing is forbidden in the West, but there is a fine mechanism which separates fashionable ideas from the ones which are not fashionable. From that time, this mechanism has gotten a little uglier. (more…)

COURTESY of a reader at Tradition in Action.

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KIDIST P. ASRAT,  at Reclaiming Beauty, writes about the linden tree here and here. The linden is of the Tilia genus of trees and is also commonly called the lime tree or basswood. It has heart-shaped leaves and yellowish-green, fragrant flowers.

When I think of lindens I think of Tolstoy, who grew up among lime trees at his estate Yasnaya Polyana and mentions them in his books, including in this scene from Anna Karenina in which Levin and his wife Kitty, who is with their baby son, get caught in a thunder storm:

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PAUL writes:

If you don’t like the status of your porcelain johns or other crusty deposits around the sink, consider CLR (calcium, lime, rust). It is amazing stuff that I rarely use but is a miracle cleaning agent. It is a highly effective acid but won’t burn you unless you leave it on your skin for minutes or more.

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IN HIS remarks yesterday about the Trayvon Martin case, Obama spoke of the times he has been profiled as a black man. The New York Times reports:

But in the most expansive remarks he has made about race since becoming president, Mr. Obama offered three examples of the humiliations borne by young black men in America: being followed while shopping in a department store, hearing the click of car doors locking as they cross a street, or watching as women clutch their purses nervously when they step onto an elevator. The first two experiences, he said, had happened to him.

“Those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida,” Mr. Obama said. “And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.” (more…)

IN a rambling, convoluted and contradictory statement meant to address the “pain” felt by the “African American community,” Obama today blamed the Zimmerman verdict once again on racism, stating, “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.” He said whites — a word he never uses but that is implicit in his message — use the facts of black violence as an “excuse” to treat blacks differently. So much for the president’s respect for the verdict of a jury.

Was the president saying that 35 years ago, he was the sort of person who would have said these things to his friends and pummeled a man who stopped him so hard that he broke his nose and left gashes in his head? No, Obama doesn’t mean that. He was playing on widespread denial of the facts. Obama blamed whites for the high rates of black criminal convictions by referring to the “history of racial disparity in the application of our criminal laws.” He said:

The African American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws — everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws. And that ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case.

Notice the way he attributes something that he believes to “the African American community” so that he can comfortably make the outrageous assertion that our judicial system is corrupt and blacks are often unjustly convicted of crimes and unjustly executed. Imagine being told by your president that you and your people are being sent to jail and killed for no reason. His wording next is very clever as he seems to contradict himself and back away from this assertion but in the end he returns to his basic point that blacks are not responsible for their criminality: (more…)

  MY OLDER SISTER, Clare, is an extremely talented cook. This has been true for a long, long time. Many years ago, when I was 12 or so, she made the batter for a Lady Baltimore layer cake in my bedroom late at night. The cake was for a boyfriend's birthday and she hid the baking bowls under my bed. I never tasted it, but it looked delicious. Then there was the time years later when she created a stunning red pepper tart. She placed it on the front seat of the car in transit to some important event. When she braked suddenly it flew off the seat and somehow landed on her braking foot. As she had to accelerate, the tart was smashed underfoot. But this sort of mishap never deters her. Clare owns a restaurant today and she continues her brilliant cooking adventures. One of the best recipes she has ever given me is for corn salad, which I have made many times in the summer. It requires cutting fresh corn from six to eight ears and then boiling or steaming it until it is just done. Then add lots of chopped fresh basil, cut-up fresh tomatoes, scallions, chopped onions (preferably sweet) and salt and pepper. Make a dressing by slowly adding in a steady stream ½ cup olive or vegetable oil (I prefer corn oil) to ¼ cup cider vinegar mixed with two teaspoons Dijon mustard, one tablespoon lemon…