THE PHOTOGRAPHS now in wide circulation of the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik show a man of immense grandiosity. Posing in uniforms or with weapons, looking straight at the camera and smiling with self-satisfaction, Breivik displays heroic pretensions that are in stark contrast to his actual life. According to this profile, Breivik spent much of his time playing video games, a world of risk-free, contained aggression. He does not appear to have done anything more heroic on the political scene than commenting at blogs. He did not run for office or even set up his own website. His crimes were against the defenseless: unarmed young people in bathing suits and office workers sitting at their desks.

Assuming he did act alone, here was a man with an overblown fantasy life revolving around the virtual world of video games and Internet websites. He now has the renown that matches the glorious self-image he cultivated there. That is one of the most disturbing aspects of his horrific crimes. He wanted to be famous and he is. (more…)

  THE FATHER of the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behrig Breivik divorced the mother of Breivik when the boy was one and has been estranged from him for 16 years. Breivik's crimes, while extraordinary in every way, show the rage characteristic of a significant minority of men raised without fathers.  Anders, who was the center of a custody battle between his parents, became a discipline problem in his teen years. According to The Telegraph, the father, Jens Breivik, is a retired Norwegian diplomat and has been married three times. Anders Breivik's mother was his second wife. Presumably Jens Breivik did not try to intervene in his problem son's life after he was 16 years old.

FOR YEARS, New York Times writer Lisa Belkin has been an industrious purveyor of the view that whatever feminism says is good for women must be good for children too. Since feminism and its denial of innate sex differences has led with inexorable logic to the idea of same-sex “marriage,” it is no suprise that this weekend, when same-sex “marriage” becomes legal in New York, Mrs. Belkin weighs in with her views in a piece predictably titled, “For the Sake of the Children.” (more…)

JESSE POWELL writes:

Same-sex “marriage” is legal in New York State tomorrow. On the eve of this grand experiment, it is interesting to look at how family life is faring in the Empire State. In certain areas, it is not doing well at all, especially in upstate New York. New York’s lawmakers apparently did not notice the social problems that literally surround them before launching an attack on marital traditions. 

Like much of America, New York is a two-tier society, with marriage holding up among the higher functioning segments and in extreme disrepair among the lower functioning.

This report looks at five cities: New York City, America’s largest city; Rochester, a troubled city just south of Lake Ontario; Albany, the state’s capital; and Schenectady and Troy, small cities not far from Albany. All five of these cities share one thing in common, and that is a major decline in their white populations in absolute numbers since 1970. The declines in white populations, from 1970 to 2010, are as follows: New York, 55%; Rochester, 68%; Albany, 48%; Schenectady, 49%; and Troy, 41%.  (more…)

I CONTINUE to be persecuted for my stance against American pizza. Another reader, whose comment I will not include here because it is so critical it may precipitate a more widespread loss of confidence in this site, has said that I am unfair and petty. There is plenty of very good pizza, he said. Besides, how could I possibly consider pizza a serious cultural issue? (more…)

IN TWO articles posted at Tradition in Action last year (here and here), Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, now deceased, reflected on the decay of gravitas in the modern Catholic clergy. He illustrated his points with numerous images, including the photo above and a painting of St. Dominic by Fra Angelico.

Of the priests above, he wrote:

Note the optimism of these priests. For these poor men nothing is elevated any more. Should someone try to speak to them about the sublimity of God, he would be looked at askew. For them life is a cloudless horizon. Their main concern is to joke, which is the lowest level of amiability: to make others laugh. They do not want to see that the Church is going through the most apocalyptic time of her existence.

Do these poor men have an idea of what it means for us laymen to persevere in the Catholic faith and morals? Do they have any notion of the fights, persecutions and adversities we have to face in order to remain faithful? Do they think that they will guide people to practice virtue with this attitude? They imagine that this is what they are doing and that everyone is following them; they believe they are conquering the world. But they are not. They are helping the Church to lose her credibility. (more…)

IN most of the forlorn cities of upstate New York, less than 50 percent of the children born in 2010 were born to married parents. In Rochester, almost 70 percent of children are illegitimate at birth. But just south of Rochester, there is a scattered community where such things are virtually unheard of.

As this article in The New York Times about a crash that killed five Amish reports, the Amish population in upstate New York has grown by 13 percent in two years, with many migrating from nearby Ohio and Pennsylvania. Illegitimacy is not a problem for the Amish.

The Amish are an island of social stability in the region, evidence that it is not the economy that determines whether traditional sex roles survive, but the metaphysics of a people.

An Amish woman’s life revolves around her children and her home, and the idea of her being ashamed to live this way is ludicrous. She  may easily leave behind enough children and grandchildren to populate a small village before she dies. Many decades from now, her legacy will live and breathe while today’s female graduates of, say, Columbia Law School, supposedly so much smarter than the frumpy, apron-clad Amish housewives, have a good chance of vanishing without a trace.

Not only will the Amish woman leave raw numbers behind, she will leave behind functioning human beings, who are able to take part in civil society, to marry and have children of their own, to work hard and build upon what she did. And, yet by the values of modern leftist society, she has wasted her life.

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JEFF W. writes:

Here is a statement that I believe is true. It’s something that Vitalist women should think about.

A man reserves his true and deepest love not for the species of woman in whose company he finds himself electrified and enkindled, but for that one in whose company he may feel tenderly drowsy.

– George Jean Nathan

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THIS nineteenth century portrait by James Charles of Mrs. Alfred Illingworth might seem to modern sensibilities to be a portrait of luxury and its unearned privileges. But this interpretation cannot survive an honest appraisal of Mrs. Illingworth’s face. Every thing in the picture is a prop to the magnificent, communicative face. She is serene and self-effacing. Her gaze is steady, not defiant. Like Stoic Roman matrons immortalized in busts, or a weathered cliff on a lovely shore, she is a bulwark of receptivity. She is not beautiful, but she is highly feminine.

Feminists have often scared women with the idea that when their children are raised they will have nothing to do. What can I say, but how stupid this idea is? Nothing to do?  Does the cliff have nothing to do? Does a work of art have nothing to do?

What can a woman do after her children are raised? She need not do. But she must be.

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IN THIS AD, Republican women in the House of Representatives show off how pro-woman they are, as if we needed to know. They give the impression that the universe is female and never mention that jobs and businesses for men should be a far greater priority than jobs and businesses for women.

Can women in a modern democracy move beyond the politics of narcissism?

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ROBIN writes:

Carla writes: 

…And most important, if feminism is making women so unhappy why are women not embracing traditional role more?…

I would add to your excellent commentary only by suggesting that men are also not embracing traditional role more. When Betty Friedan and Margaret Sanger, et al, began their wicked, Marxist campaign, I believe they were well aware that they would influence men as well as women, eventually altering an entire society. 

As a reformed (and continually reforming, thanks be to God) feminist myself, I can confidently say that I have the utmost respect for men. I am far from a man-hating feminazi, so to speak. However, I will say that there exists a sea of men in America who are quite comfortable with their feminist wives. Not happy, mind you, but quite comfortable – some even encourage feminist qualities in their wives!  (more…)

AT HER blog Camera Lucida, Kidist Paulos Asrat recently posted photos of Niagara Falls.

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  A READER writes: I was persuing the IKEA catalogue on this very hot summer day when I came up with my own additions to the merchandiser's Swedish names for sofas, bookcases, cabinets and tables: Rïppoff Häardtoassembel Faallapåart Päartikalbørd Lostscrü Missingpåart Kollapsprøn Wherdidwepäark Løstyœngestchild

    SAMSON writes: Since you've had a few recent posts on the changing face of medicine, may I recommend a painting? It dates from 1887, by a British painter named Luke Fildes. It's called "The Doctor." To me, it conveys gravitas, dedication and the sanctity of the profession.

JAMES N., a physician, writes:

I just googled “physician burnout” and got 3,600,000 hits.”Resident burnout” got 5,580,000 hits. “Medical student burnout” got only 228,000 hits.

Prior to, say, 1990, “burnout” as applied to medical students, residents, and physicians was not a concept in general use.

What is different? The question answers itself. As the blogger Dr. Helen points out here, women often are surprised or shocked at what is actually involved in holding a job, never mind in constructing, developing, and holding a career. The low number of “medical student burnout” hits is probably because medical school is the last place a bright and studious girl can get by with her exemplary social (teacher pleasing) and academic (studying hard) skills that she has been crafting since kindergarten. (more…)

PATRICK HOLDEN writes:

One aspect of the Michele Bachman controversy over gay reparative therapy struck me as odd. Opponents of gay reparative therapy criticize it as cruel and inhumane. My understanding is that the therapy consists of reading the Bible, praying and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). In addition, celibacy was recommended as an alternative to engaging in homosexual behavior. I see nothing wrong with a competent adult deciding to attempt to live a life of celibacy based on the very traditional belief that homosexuality is wrong. I also don’t see anything wrong with obtaining psychological services in furtherance of this goal. 

Contrast this with the reaction to sex reassignment surgery, which is never condemned in leftist circles as cruel or inhumane. (more…)

CARLA writes:

Reading your blog makes me wonder. If older generations were happy with the traditional role of women in society, why was feminism embraced by the later generation? Maybe you think it was propaganda, but why did the propaganda take hold? Were women discontent with their role to begin with? Was feminism offering something women thought they were lacking? And most important, if feminism is making women so unhappy why are women not embracing traditional role more?… Just curious. I think is a fascinating topic. (more…)

DEPARTMENTAL
  —  Robert Frost

An ant on the tablecloth
Ran into a dormant moth
Of many times his size.
He showed not the least surprise.
His business wasn’t with such.
He gave it scarcely a touch,
And was off on his duty run.
Yet if he encountered one
Of the hive’s enquiry squad
Whose work is to find out God
And the nature of time and space,
He would put him onto the case. (more…)