ALAN ROEBUCK writes:

Commenting on the marvelous photos of the old America, Kilroy M. said

…it seems like the decline of modern architecture, industrial design and with it the form of vehicles is somehow representative of our culture’s departure from celebrating the beautiful, to worshiping the merely useful.

He hasn’t taken his observation far enough. We have changed from celebrating the beautiful to celebrating the ugly. Think of it: Almost every major fashion movement in the last 50 years or so has been to elevate the status of what was once regarded as (and still is) ugly. (more…)

IF YOU have never made gazpacho, the cold Spanish soup, I suggest you try it. Here is a great way to use summer produce that involves no cooking. This recipe is from one of my favorite small cookbooks, Cold Cuisine, by Helen Hecht. (more…)

SEVERAL READERS argue that it is not cruel to laugh at the video of the man hit while he is dancing in the street. They defend their view, however, instead of simply sneering, as the commenters at AltRight did.

Also, the discussion over the stroller and lesbian neighbors continues.  I wrote:

There are ways to minister to these neighbors (how about praying for them?) without giving children the impression that homosexuality is normal. That’s what having homosexuals over for coffee and accepting gifts from them does. It sends the message to young children that homosexuality is just one of several acceptable choices. When we minister to the poor or to Cambodian refugees, we don’t have to worry about our children becoming poor or Cambodian refugees. We do have to worry about them becoming homosexual. Older adolescents under guidance may be capable of making the more subtle distinctions implied by friendly overtures and socializing, but not young children. And it’s pointless to wait for years to help them make these subtle distinctions once they have received a different message repeatedly. 

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THIS collection of  photos taken by photographers for the Farm Security Administration in the thirties and forties recently appeared at the Denver Post site and it includes many great images. Among other things, it highlights the change in basic dress. Children from relatively poor families look classy in comparison to their affluent counterparts of today.  The photo above is of a family attending the state fair in Rutland, Vermont in 1941.

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JEAN-PAUL de Montréal écrit:

On the shore of the St. Lawrence River opposite Montreal is an old river town. It has metastasized into suburbia but the part near the river still looks like the old days; it was founded around 1650. The ancient stone church facing the river is a jewel. On the river bank facing the church is a recent stone monument about 6 feet high, in honour of Pierre Boucher who founded the town, Boucherville. About 10 feet away is an identical monument reading “Jeanne Crevier, Co-Fondatrice de Boucherville.” Their dates of birth and death show they both died in their nineties.  (more…)

FITZGERALD writes:

I have been too busy on the road to weigh in on the whole corset/bra controversy. I was surprised no one commented on what drove the shift from corsets to bras. Bras were part of a general movement of less restrictive women’s clothing, a movement which included the Rational Dress Society and Amelia Bloomer, who said, “When you find a burden in belief or apparel, cast it off.”

The most ironic aspect of the bra burning – it did happen, I believe, but it was only very brief and greatly amplified by the press – is that the bra was itself a feminist reaction to the corset. Anyone care to weigh in on how the bra after the sixties went from a basically functional “foundation” to exceedingly sensual attire in the last twenty years?

Here’s some history from Wikipedia: (more…)

    KIDIST PAULOS ASRAT writes: As you know, I am not a fan of Michelle, both as a personality or as a fashion (non) icon. I don't see what the stylists or the public see in her. What an odd top. A variation on the "off-the-shoulder" shirt? I also think she should wear skirts and dresses more (although she does seem to like them too clingy), since she really doesn't have the body to pull off the kinds of pants she wears. And I won't go into the bracelets (an over-abundant mish-mash, to start it off...). I don't mean to be catty, but I think that is how women see each other. The kinder ones (perhaps only a sister can get away with it) tell each other what they should avoid. Someone like Michelle has expensive stylists at her side, who are paid to diplomatically influence her in the right direction. Either they are no good, or she just doesn't listen. A combination of both, I would think.

LAWRENCE AUSTER writes:

I agree that to make mocking comments at the sight of a person getting hit and presumably killed by a car is wrong. I agree that Richard Spencer by allowing such comments to be posted reveals the ugliness that is at the core of his website. But I don’t agree with the commenter who says that it was wrong of Spencer to post the video itself. The behavior of the young man who dances backward into the street until he is hit by a car is an emblematic expression of the modern, self-esteeming self in its black incarnation. People today, including whites, are so full of themselves, so easy on themselves, so in love with their cell phones and other gadgets, and therefore so out of touch with objective reality, that they repeatedly do wildly foolish and dangerous things that get themselves injured or killed. (more…)

  DAVID K. argues in the entry "Lesbians and Neighbors" that a reader should take the gift of a stroller from his lesbian neighbors.

  I HIGHLY recommend Kristor's examination of the difference between hypocrisy and uncertainty in this recent entry on interfaith marriage. He looks at two parents who choose to take their children to church even though they themselves do not believe. Other interesting comments have also been added to the discussion on whether it is good to take children to church when parents do not fully accept the faith.

AT ALTERNATIVE RIGHT, a video of a black man who is hit by a truck while dancing in the street, and presumably killed, is gleefully savored by hateful commenters.

By the way, if hatred is expressed at a website by commenters, and not denounced by moderators, the latter are implicitly endorsing those sentiments. In this case, Richard Spencer obviously does accept the commenters’ views as he treats the incident, in which a man is injured, as a joke.

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IN HIS inspiring and provocative reflections on mountains and their effects on the psyche, Thomas Starr King spoke of the importance of learning to see. He wrote:

To learn to see is one of the chief objects of education and life. First as infants we learn to push the world off from ourselves, and to disentangle ourselves as personalities from a mesh of sensations. Then we gain power to detect and measure distance ; then to perceive forms and colors; and at last to relate objects quickly and properly to each other by a sweep of the eye. And this process is crowned by the poetic perception of general beauty, in which our humanity flowers out, and by which we obtain possession of the world. ” The charming landscape which I saw this morning is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms. (more…)

KRISTOR writes:

The Corset Revolution would presumably herald the downfall of the movement that began with the public burning of bras.

Laura writes:

Yes, of course. The revolution must come full circle and make some dramatic statement involving underwear. We cannot project an image of seriousness otherwise. 

Why did they burn bras anyway? I forget.

Here’s an article claiming that the bra-burning is a folk myth. Also, I have been unable to find an image in online archives of anyone burning bras; perhaps it never happened. I’m inclined to believe it never did happen. No woman in her right mind, even a radical feminist, would burn her bra. [SEE the comment from a reader below whose sister and friends did indeed burn their bras.]

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MANY wise and sensible things have been said here in recent days about corsets, especially in relation to the traditionalist revolution. But let’s be honest, ladies. Corsets have a double meaning.

Michael S. writes:

The Bayreuth Festival re-designed its website a few years ago. As part of the new design, each production is now associated with a different object (stage prop?) that supposedly communicates its meaning. For Das Rheingold, for instance, we have golden apples. That, I understand. For Parsifal, a gaudy chalice. OK, well, the chalice part makes sense. For Götterdämmerung, a suitcase. Now, I’m not so sure. A meat grinder for Siegfried? Or some such contraption. As for the Meistersinger deer-type animal, I have no idea. And given the nature of Bayreuth productions so far this century, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.

But for Die Walküre… check out the red corset-thingy.

Laura writes:

The Ride of the Valkyrs meets Hooters.

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WHAT DOES it mean when two people of different faiths marry without either giving up his faith for the other? It means neither is serious about what they believe and their children will believe in nothing.

By the way, the wedding pictures of Chelsea and Marc suggest a fairly typical modern couple: an exultant, confident bride and an insecure, timid man. (more…)

JAMES M. writes:

My neighborhood, I suppose, has been found to be adequately friendly to homosexuals and so several lesbian couples have moved in over the last year; I’m sure that they network. I could throw rocks and hit three of their houses (not that I would throw rocks at them). They seem to try extra hard to keep their lawns and landscaping extra tidy, so they can appear as normal as possible, and keep people from fussing at them or thinking ill of them. Or maybe all six of them just like to mow. I am making assumptions, but this is in the middle of Kentucky.

One of the couples lives two houses over from my wife and me, and they recently made a quite neighborly and friendly gesture towards us, offering to give us their stroller (they have an adopted little boy who is now in kindergarten). (more…)

THE EFFORT to legalize same-sex marriage achieved another significant victory yesterday with the California federal court ruling striking down Proposition 8. In light of this development, it is time for traditionalists to consider civil disobedience in the realm of marriage.

In short, the State’s role in marriages is tyrannical, forcing couples to participate in an institution that strips them of their property and civil rights in the event of divorce and that may no longer resemble traditional marriage in the most fundamental way. The State is a third party in marriage and it views the marriage contract essentially as a commercial transaction between individuals. Given that marriage has long been defined by the State as a commercial agreement, it makes sense that no one should be excluded from forming such a bond in a way that alters its non-commercial aspects. Two pieces, here and here, explore the idea of couples declining to obtain civil marriage licenses as an act of resistance and self-protection. In the American colonies, no one was required to obtain a state marriage license. This is a return to our historic roots. (more…)

SO MANY important issues have been discussed here lately that you may have missed the recent entry on corsets. Perhaps no topic of conversation at this site will confirm its image of evil, reactionary thought than this. I have decided to plow ahead with this pressing matter. The state of women’s clothing is in disarray.  (more…)