Gifford Pinchot visiting students at School of Forestry Camp at Gray Towers

[This entry was first posted here on June 12, 2012. It’s still an interesting story. Perhaps the Forest Service has since changed, but it seems unlikely.]

TWO YEARS ago, I posted an excerpt from a book-in-progress, The Death of the U.S. Forest Service by Christopher Burchfield.  Since renamed The Tinder Box: How Politically Correct Ideology Destroyed the U.S. Forest Service, the book was published by Stairway Press earlier this spring.

Burchfield has more than fulfilled the promise evident in that excerpt. The Tinder Box is an outstanding work of investigative reporting and cultural criticism, a blow-by-blow account of how the U.S. Forest Service, with its millions of acres of cherished timberlands, was transformed from one of the most effective and highly motivated government bureaucracies in American history to a rancorous, dysfunctional and despised workplace, a bureaucratic hellhole more preoccupied with egalitarian quotas and sexual harassment seminars than its mission to preserve and govern this country’s vast woodlands.

Burchfield, who has held jobs in the Forest Service, other government agencies and IBM, spent months poring over government documents and interviewing employees of the Forest, amassing a small mountain of evidence. Anyone who doubts that feminism severely damages the morale and initiative of men, and is inherently opposed to the pursuit of excellence, is encouraged to review this evidence. This story is so disturbing, pointing as it does to an environmental disaster of significant proportions, it is sure to be ignored by the mainstream. And that is a crime. Read More »

IN honor of Mother’s Day, here is an excerpt from Theodore Roosevelt’s 1905 speech before the National Congress of Mothers. It’s surprising that such sentiments were not so long ago acceptable on a national stage. The text is worth reading in full, but here is the opening:

In our modern industrial civilization there are many and grave dangers to counterbalance the splendors and the triumphs. It is not a good thing to see cities grow at disproportionate speed relatively to the country; for the small land owners, the men who own their little homes, and therefore to a very large extent the men who till farms, the men of the soil, have hitherto made the foundation of lasting national life in every State; and, if the foundation becomes either too weak or too narrow, the superstructure, no matter how attractive, is in imminent danger of falling.

But far more important than the question of the occupation of our citizens is the question of how their family life is conducted. No matter what that occupation may be, as long as there is a real home and as long as those who make up that home do their duty to one another, to their neighbors and to the State, it is of minor consequence whether the man’s trade is plied in the country or in the city, whether it calls for the work of the hands or for the work of the head. Read More »

IN CASE you mistakenly plan to invest emotional energy in the 2016 presidential election and place your hopes in Republicans, I offer this story on Marco Rubio’s support for “gay marriage.”

As Thomas Droleskey wrote ten years ago:

It is my view that the national establishment of the Republican Party is so corrupted by careerism and the moneyed interests which support contraception and abortion, to say nothing of active homosexual behavior, that it is irredeemable. Strong words, yes. But what is it going to take to convince good people of the stark reality that has been hitting us in the head again and [again] in the last two decades? Is it really worthy continuing to fight a battle in a political party that is committed institutionally first and foremost to its own perpetuation in power as an end in and of itself?

SPENCER WARREN writes:

1. In an NPR interview in 2001, Obama sharply criticized the Constitution for guaranteeing ‘negative liberties,’ i.e. for restricting the government in order to protect the liberty of the individual, but not ‘positive liberties,’ as embodied in welfare and other ‘rights’ similar to those found in the constitutions of Cuba, North Korea, China, and Stalinist Russia. O referred to “the so-called Founding Fathers.”

2. Last summer, O made this confession of his utter alienation from and hatred of our country’s creed: Read More »

Theodore Roosevelt, March 13, 1905

No piled-up wealth, no splendor of material growth, no brilliance of artistic development, will permanently avail any people unless its home life is healthy, unless the average man possesses honesty, courage, common sense, and decency, unless he works hard and is willing at need to fight hard; and unless the average woman is a good wife, a good mother, able and willing to perform the first and greatest duty of womanhood, able and willing to bear, and to bring up as they should be brought up, healthy children, sound in body, mind, and character, and numerous enough so that the race shall increase and not decrease.

There are certain old truths which will be true as long as this world endures, and which no amount of progress can alter. One of these is the truth that the primary duty of the husband is to be the home-maker, the breadwinner for his wife and children, and that the primary duty of the woman is to be the helpmate, the housewife, and mother….

Barack Obama, January 24, 2013

Today, by moving to open more military positions—including ground combat units—to women, our armed forces have taken another historic step toward harnessing the talents and skills of all our citizens. This milestone reflects the courageous and patriotic service of women through more than two centuries of American history and the indispensable role of women in today’s military. Many have made the ultimate sacrifice, including more than 150 women who have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan—patriots whose sacrifices show that valor knows no gender.

Earlier today I called Secretary of Defense Panetta to express my strong support for this decision, which will strengthen our military, enhance our readiness, and be another step toward fulfilling our nation’s founding ideals of fairness and equality. …. Today, every American can be proud that our military will grow even stronger with our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters playing a greater role in protecting this country we love.

I DID not realize until today that the militantly anti-white Southern Poverty Law Center, which lists websites such as View from the Right and Vdare as “hate groups,” also defines traditionalist Catholics devoted to the Tridentine liturgy as extremist haters. That’s interesting. It seems wherever there is life, the SPLC is there to smear it.

As posted at The Remnant, here is Conservapedia’s informative entry on the SPLC, with descriptions of its extensive activities and finances. The organization now has over $200 million in assets.

Read More »

JOHN E. writes:

My wife and I have discussed the phenomenon of Ann Barnhardt on a few different occasions. We both find her intriguing and have basically concluded about her what she concludes about herself – that she is an anomalously masculine woman, that masculinity does not find its optimum expression in her because she is a woman, and that her manner and activity would find a better vehicle of expression in a man. This is not to criticize what she is doing, or to say she should refrain from doing it. Read More »

JESSE POWELL writes:

Even though it is clear that non-whites vote Democratic much more than whites do, it is also true that the racial make-up of the states that voted for Obama is not that much different from the states that voted for Romney. In actuality, the racial make-up of the states that Obama won actually favors Romney and yet Obama won those states anyways!  Race is not as important a factor in voting as it appears when looking at voting by racial category.  Oddly enough the White Childless Cohabitation Ratio appears to be a better predictor of how a state will vote than the racial make-up of the state even though the White Childless Cohabitation Ratio only factors in the family behaviors of whites as a predictor.

The overall social environment of a state appears to be more important than the racial make-up of a state in terms of voting.

Below is a little table showing the collective racial make-up of all the states voting for Obama versus all the states voting for Romney in the 2012 election (Florida is assumed to have voted for Obama) based on the 2010 Census.  In addition I add in what the expected vote for Obama would have been based solely on race. Read More »

JEREMY MORRIS writes:

A few moments ago I was browsing Twitter and happened upon a tweet by a female Romney supporter. I thought that you might find it interesting, for lack of a better term.

OBAMA takes his job with such a striking lack of seriousness that one questions whether he truly wants a second term. I believe he does not truly want a second term (Michelle surely does want it). One of the most despicable, albeit minor, examples of this lack of seriousness is his habit of referring to other people as “folks.” I would have to go through his speeches carefully to count up the number of times he calls people “folks,” but I am certain it is in the thousands. He even goes so far as to call the mob who murdered an American ambassador “folks.” Here from the 60 minutes interview in which he affirms his view that the Benghazi attack was not committed by terrorists: Read More »

SAME-SEX “marriage” has never been approved by voters in any state, but will be on the ballot in four states next week: Maine, Washington, Maryland and Minnesota. Unsurprisingly, the New York Times does not believe the issue should be submitted to the electorate at all. An editorial in today’s paper openly objects to democratic processes. The editorial states: Read More »

AT The Orthosphere, Bonald wonders why Paul Ryan has not more emphatically rejected his previous enthusiasm for Ayn Rand:

[A]ren’t we entitled to a major speech in which he totally renounces her and all her works and all her empty promises?

Read More »

AT The Orthosphere, Proph argues that it is morally wrong for Catholics and any “men of good faith” to vote for either of the two major-party candidates for president. He writes:

Those who choose to exercise their right to vote should …. either vote for a morally commendable third party candidate (if one can be found), write-in such a candidate of their own choosing, or else spoil their ballots. The same principles apply in general to all candidates down-ticket, as well.

Read More »

AT LAST NIGHT’S presidential debate, Obama mentioned Planned Parenthood, which really should be called Planned Non-Parenthood or Eugenics Anonymous, no less than five times and spoke glowingly of the need for every woman to have contraceptives for free. Can you imagine George Washington or Eisenhower speaking of the need to widely distribute chemicals to prevent pregnancy and facilitate promiscuity? Read More »

WHEN Mitt Romney was asked by Katherine Fenton at last night’s presidential debate, “In what new ways do you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?” did he dare to speak the truth and say that these discrepancies in earnings are overwhelmingly due to the voluntary choices of women in education and the job market? Did he say that women choose fields that are less high-paying and that women choose to drop out or scale back or switch jobs once they enter the workforce? Did he say that in some parts of the country, single women are actually making significantly more than single men?

Of course not. If he had spoken the truth, people in the viewing audience would have been shocked and angry. They would have been enraged by the open blasphemy against their idol, Woman as Perpetual Victim. Some probably would have burst into tears and come close to fainting with nausea as one woman academic did when Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard, said that the reason there are not more women scientists is that women choose not to be scientists, an unbearable and absolutely unpardonable thought.

No, it would not have been possible for Romney to say such things and still remain in the running.

However, here is what Romney might have said to educate America and to counter Obama’s tendency to fan the feminist flames: Read More »

THIS maudlin Washington Post story, more editorial than balanced reporting, argues that the same sex “marriage” law on the Maryland ballot is in the interest of children, echoing the slogan used by Gov. Martin O’Malley, who says people should vote for homosexual unions “for the kids.” That’s right. The governor of Maryland believes that being raised by homosexuals and being denied a relationship of any kind with one parent is actually a good thing and should be championed for its own sake.

The article by Aaron C. Davis features two overweight, middle-aged lesbians (almost all middle-aged lesbians are seriously overweight, or so it seems) seeking to formalize the adoption of one of the woman’s twin sons by the other. They are already legally both the parents of another boy who was born to the same woman. The women appear before a female judge who is delighted with their petition and with the idea of three boys being raised by lesbians. Unsurprisingly, they succeed in the adoption of the twins. Now both of their names are on the childrens’ birth certificates, making this document an outright lie and falsification of parentage. One small battle is won in the ongoing war on children.

Amid the sympathetic details about the immense sacrifices of the lesbian couple, we find this interesting paragraph:

Rice [one of the lesbian women], who manages a homeless shelter in the District, carefully documented their Shady Grove fertility clinic’s use of sperm from an anonymous donor so that no one could later claim fatherhood.

These women have with deliberate calculation obliterated the boys’ father from their lives, and we are supposed to believe that they have the children’s best interests at heart.

Read More »

IN THE latest entry about the issue of cancer, abortion and oral contraceptives, Samson, a physician, writes:

[M]ost doctors are utterly unaware of the abortion-OCP-and-breast-cancer controversy. Understand: it’s not merely that most doctors disagree that there is a link, but most have not heard that there is a debate surrounding the issue whatsoever. When I was in residency (within the past five years) I was going to do a research project on the question of a link between contraceptive pills and breast cancer, but was talked out of it by several supervisors who thought the topic was unworthy of investigation because they had never heard tell of it.

 To me, the issue highlights the power of the supposedly “unbiased” and “scientific” literature, but that is a whole other discussion.

When one thinks of how much public interest there is in the effects of pesticides on human health, the relative lack of interest in this subject is striking.

Read More »

A GREAT ad by the RNC on Biden’s grinning and laughing during the debate.

Lawrence Auster captures the meaning of these grins:

Biden’s constant guffawing while Ryan was speaking—conveying the message, “I can’t believe Ryan is telling such a howler of a partisan lie, I just can’t believe it!”—epitomizes the liberal domination of U.S. politics.

And, as I’ve said so often, the Republicans lack the wit, the steel, and, most importantly, the non-liberal principles to identify this insidious manipulation for what it is and put the Democrats on the defensive over it.