THE PIZZA CHAIN Sbarro has filed for bankruptcy, suggesting there is either a limit to the American appetite for cheese-covered fiberglass or we are in far worse straits than we thought. With more than 1,000 outlets, this ubiquitous chain has been stuffing the intestinal ductwork of Americans for more than 40 years. If it were to close, we might have to resort to asphalt shingles with sauce and mozzarella or the Army Corps of Engineers might have to come up with something, perhaps the mass distrubution of used tires sprinkled with oregano. Writing at Slate, Justin Peters examines the state of the pizza chain. Sbarro has tried everything to stay afloat short of selling an edible product. He writes:

For a long time, you could make a lot of money selling terrible pizza. For most people, a bad slice of pizza is better than no pizza at all, and Sbarro has banked on this for decades. (more…)

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HERE IS Alfie, the unforgettable little boy in a series of children’s books by the well-known British illustrator and author Shirley Hughes. When they were little, my sons and I read the Alfie books again and again, particularly the one (Alfie Gets in First) about the day when Alfie accidentally locked his mother out of the house and the other (Alfie’s Feet) about the time he goes to the shoe store to buy new boots. Hughes’s illustrations are charming. With their warm, rich colors and interesting domestic details, they vividly capture the expressions and movements of young children. Hughes has a sense of how ordinary episodes become for them high drama.

When Alfie gets his new boots, he comes home and puts them on right away. He goes to the park, but discovers something is seriously amiss. Most children have experienced at some point the same problem, which is why people sometimes write R’s and L’s on perfectly good boots. (more…)

  THIS IS an illustration from Life Magazine of 1912. It offers one view of the dilemmas facing the modern woman.  The unhappiness involved in moving away from home and love is written on the woman's face, and yet children and marriage are choices at the very bottom of the stairway. This whole consuming question - what should a woman choose to achieve happiness? - has been a preoccupation in the press for many, many decades. Lost in the endless discussion is the notion that there is objectively a right way and a wrong way, that fulfillment of one's duties, not personal happiness, is the ultimate goal. Regardless of what women want or do not want, what they feel or do not feel, what makes them happy or does not make them happy, there is a job to do and only women can do it. That job is creating a new generation and preserving morals, manners and learning - in short, preserving civilization itself - by raising the next generation well.

THOUGH IT IS indecent in parts and not recommended for children, this Mother’s Day video called “Dad’s New Girlfriend” is hilarious and honest. The actress is Stephanie Courtney.

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AS REPORTED at Adweek, the clothing retailer J. Crew, which recently unveiled an ad of a mother (the company’s creative director) painting her son’s toenails pink, has a new ad featuring a homosexual couple. No mention here that both of these men are likely to suffer serious illnesses or physical inconveniences, not to mention sterility, due to their chosen lifestyle.

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THE “It Gets Better Project,” started by homosexual columnist Dan Savage, is a campaign to encourage homosexuality in teenagers. The theme, inspired by teen bullying, is that homosexuality “gets better” with time.  Celebrities, including Suze Orman and Adam Lambert; politicians such as Obama, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi; and corporations, including Gap and Facebook, have contributed to the 10,000-some videos on the project’s website, which amount to a loving virtual embrace of  the confused and lonely. Google’s new entry is a warm appeal to teenagers who may have experienced hostility from friends or family. “Your life will be amazing but you have to tough this period out and you have to live,” says one adult in the ad. “You are perfect and wonderful just the way you are,” says another.

All in all, the project is a remarkably powerful use of Internet and video technology. It may be unprecedented in its reach and beguiling message.

The “It Gets Better” project is similar to an ad campaign assuring addicts that drug use gets better with time. Such a thing would never be permitted. But when it comes to public promotion of homosexuality, the dangers are never mentioned. Nowhere do these videos speak of the health consequences, especially for men. There is no mention of the drastically reduced life span, the host of diseases or the high suicide rate. According to the American College of Pediatricians,  diseases frequently found among male homosexual practitioners as a result of anal intercourse include: (more…)

AT HIS blog, Bruce Charlton ponders the relatively low fertility of intelligent women from an evolutionary perspective. If maximizing reproductive success is a driver of human behavior, why do many women pursue childlessness or near-childlessness?

The second of his two answers, in which he discusses the social orientation of women, seems closer to the truth. However, I would rephrase it this way. Women are not loners, for obvious biological reasons. Women prepare for child-rearing by forming communities. In modern life, community revolves around institutions. In contrast, the actual physical community – the neighborhood or town – is a non-hierarchical place into which the more intelligent woman cannot find a place or a natural role. She spends years working to find a stable network in an institutional society. This paradoxically leaves little time for actual investment in child-rearing. Evolutionary behavior is for her non-evolutionary.

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DAN MULHERN, the wife, I mean, husband of Jennifer Granholm, the former Democratic governor of Michigan, has written an inspiring letter to his 13-year-old son in Newsweek, telling him that if he’s lucky he may be a housewife someday. Mulhern tells his son:

When I launched my leadership consulting business, I enjoyed “eating what I killed,” as the macho maxim puts it. But the choices Mom and I made to put her public service in front of my career, and for me to lead at home, left me vulnerable and caused me to rethink what it means to “be a man.” It has not been a tragic end to my manhood, but a wondrous beginning. It’ll get even better for you…

… As a modern man, you’ll learn way more than if you were large and in charge. It used to be a man’s world (and, in some measure, it still is). If you lead like Mom, you’ll know how to persevere. You need not fear strong women, or dismiss gentle men. And if you so choose, you’ll be a great stay-at-home or lead parent, giving and receiving incredible lessons and profound joy. Either way, it’s a great time to be a man.

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SPENCER WARREN writes:

Please let me note I disagree 100 percent with negative opinions expressed here about Kate Middleton herself and her gown. I thought she was just beautiful. Her naturalness and dignity as she waved to crowds in a situation she had never before encountered were very appealing – both in the landau and on the balcony. Also her spontaneity.  (more…)

TWO WEEKS ago, the Hungarian Parliament passed a constitution that is a direct rebuke to the values of the European Union and to the country’s Communist past. The constitution affirms Hungary’s Christian roots and defines marriage as between a man and a woman. It also sets a debt limit and speaks of respect for the unborn, though apparently Hungary’s liberal abortion laws will remain in place unless the parliament specifically overturns them. The Constitution states:   

We, the members of the Hungary Nation, assert our responsibility to say the following for all Hungary at the beginning of the millennium: 

We are proud of the fact that our King Stephen, the Saintly Patron of the Hungarian State for a thousand years had built a secure foundation and placed our Fatherland in the line of Christian Europe. (more…)

  [Sex and violence is] the stuff that people are talking about on the streets...to get attention, you have to speak their language. You have to interest them, gain their trust, talk to them and show you're one of them. You're a person from the street and speak of your experiences. Then at the end you can tell them God has helped me out like this and it might transfer over instead of just come straight out and just speak straight out of religion.                                                                --- Joseph Bruce of the hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse Insane Clown Posse is respectfully reviewed by David Itzkoff in today's New York Times. Itzkoff writes of the group's concert in New York:  The group performed some of their best-loved tracks from their 1990s-era breakthrough, like "I Stab People" and the pro-cannibalism ode "Dead Body Man."

SAGE McLAUGHLIN writes:

Is there something wrong with me, or is there something wrong with the world? I just cannot jump for joy and light cigars and drink champagne and chant “USA” the way the rest of the country seems to be doing over the death of bin Laden. (more…)

AT VDARE.COM, Steve Sailer writes:

The point of thinking about the past is not to decide whether or not we’d rather live there. Since we don’t actually have time machines, we aren’t confronted with an all or nothing choice between living in the past and living in the present. Uninventing advances in coffee-making machines or lawnmowers isn’t on the table. The point is to understand the past to help us make decisions in the present to make the future better.

Exactly. The purpose of thinking about the past is not to reject the present, but to live more fully in it and to prepare for the future. (more…)

  Saraband for Dead Lovers is an excellent 1948 movie about the doomed royal marriage between King George I of England and Sophia Dorothea of Celle, who was imprisoned by her husband for 30 years in a castle in Germany on charges of infidelity, charges which have never been conclusively proven. Joan Greenwood stars as Sophia Dorothea and she is exquisitely beautiful and moving in the role, portraying the woman who would never sit on the throne of England with her husband as the innocent victim of schemers and cruelty by her husband. There are three outstanding female perfomances in this movie. In addition to Greenwood, Francoise Rosay plays the imperious Duchess Sophia, the mother of George, originally George Louis of Hanover. Flora Robson is the plotting and vain Countess Platen, the former lover of  Philip Christoph von Konigsmarck, played by Stewart Granger. The costumes and the scenes of seventeenth century Hanover help to make this an exceptional product of London's famous Ealing Studios. Directed by Michael Relph, it was the Ealing Studios' first film in technicolor and for some inexplicable reason it was a box office flop. In real life, Sophia Dorothea was forced to marry her cousin George Louis in 1682 after his mother, the Duchess Sophia, plotted to arrange the match for financial reasons.  The marriage was arranged on the very day Sophia's engagement to another man was to be announced. Prince George Louis of Hanover (Peter Bull in the film) was disliked by even his own mother, who said he was "the most pigheaded, stubborn boy who ever lived."  George Louis later…