N.W. writes:
My country where is she?
Buried by diversity, bled dry by thieves.
Our fathers would have cried,
To see the day she died,
As I flee to the mountains high,
I weep for thee.
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.
A GRATEFUL READER writes:
I just voted in the District of Columbia, where I have voted for the past fifteen years. I generally write in the candidates and have no aspirations that my candidates will be elected. In the course of those years, the choices have remained left and far-left, but the voting process has noticeably degenerated. When my children were small, I had to show my driver’s license and D.C. voting card in order to receive a ballot. Today, the woman at the table told me I need not show any sort of identification. She said, “All you have to do is know your address, sweetie.” Ah, this makes voting early and often easier. My children recall going into the voting booth and closing the curtain behind us and voting in secret. Today, privacy has disappeared. I took my paper ballot to an open kiosk where anyone may look over anyone’s shoulder and then to a man who took the ballot out of its sleeve and looked at it as I put it into the machine. At this point, I do not care who sees my ballot, but the secret ballot no longer exists and this leads down a dangerous path. (more…)
AS posted at VFR, The Daily Mail reports more extensively than the Times on the latest in the nanny case. Yoselyn Ortega said she had an argument with Marina Krim the day before the killings and resented the family for its demands. She was also told by the family that she might be fired for poor performance. It is a shocking account of apparent revenge that totally conflicts with speculation of a psychotic breakdown.
Lawrence Auster writes:
Everything in yesterday’s Daily Mail’s article (copied below) supports what we have said before: by being too close to her children’s nanny, Marina Krim inadvertently established the conditions for Yoselyn Ortega’s insane rage which led her to murder Krim’s children. Ortega was the Krims’ employee. But the Krims also treated Ortega as part of their family, even spending several days with Ortega and Ortega’s relatives in the Dominican Republic. As a result, when problems arose with regard to Ortega’s work performance, Ortega was not just being criticized and threatened with possible dismissal by her employer, she felt she was being betrayed by the woman who had led her to think of herself as part of Krim’s family.
The relationship between employer and employee, which is based on a contractual exchange of work for money and which can end any time if the exchange becomes unsatisfactory to either party, is fundamentally different from the relationship between family members, which is based on enduring ties.
Boundaries—between employer and employee, between officers and enlisted men, between males and females, between native and foreigner, between white and nonwhite—exist for good reasons. Over and over we see how the liberal compulsion to topple all boundaries, in the name of human fraternity and equality, unleashes envy, hatred, evil, and violence.
The newspaper reports:
RadarOnline reported yesterday that Ortega ‘told NYPD detectives that she was involved in an epic argument with Marina Krim the day before the children were tragically murdered.’
‘Yoselyn also said that when she left at the end of the day before the murders, Marina ignored her when she said good-bye and this made her very, very angry,’ Radar’s source continued.
Yoselyn became extremely animated when she discussed the incident with police, telling officers that she had numerous disagreements with mother Marina about how the kids were being cared for. (more…)
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: (more…)
AT the first ever Global Home Education Conference on Friday, Dagmar Neubronner, of Germany, spoke of moving to France with her children because homeschooling is banned in her own country: [W]e left at the moment where we couldn’t be sure about keeping custody of the children.... My very first responsibility as a mother is for the well-being of my children — not any political goal. I can fight for political goals until it comes to the point where I can’t assure the well-being of my children.”
MARK RICHARDSON writes about the Daily Mail article in which a middle-aged female journalist laments the fact that men prefer women who are not feminist careerists. Mr. Richardson writes:
As regular readers will know I work as a teacher and so I am in a position to follow the lives of about 60 other staff members. About five years ago the school hired three young male teachers. They are tall, good-looking, socially adept, intelligent and sporty. In the last year or two all three have married and two are now expecting children.
Why point this out? Well, the people I work with are mostly very politically correct left-liberal types. The three men who recently married all passionately endorse feminism and other aspects of “progressive” politics. (more…)
ACCORDING to the New York Times, Yoselyn Ortega, the Dominican nanny who slashed two children to death in Manhattan two weeks ago, told police detectives Saturday that she resented the Krims. This is in keeping with a previous post here that questioned whether she was motivated by envy. William K. Raushbaum reports:
The nanny charged with stabbing to death two children she cared for on the Upper West Side of Manhattan told detectives that she had resentment toward the family, who she complained were always telling her what to do, a law enforcement official said this week. (more…)
ECOLE EDITOR writes:
I am a regular reader of your blog. Thank you for your work. I really enjoy your social commentary and insights.
I read this article in The Daily Mail about a forty-six year old journalist who comes to realize that men prefer to marry younger women. She comes to this conclusion:
“I … think it’s an uncomfortable truth that the sort of high-flying alpha males we were all holding out for didn’t want women like us. All the successful men I know have married sweet, uncomplicated women who are happy to forfeit their careers to support their husbands,”
She concludes the article by comforting herself with the thought of her disposable income.
VINCENT C. writes:
Mr. Smith’s commentary about the German school’s dress etiquette for teachers might leave the impression that such rules for dress were long forgotten in the school systems in the U.S. Speaking from personal experience, it is beyond cavil that those “teacher dress codes” began to unravel in the 1970s with the ascendency of the counter-culture’s belief, now indelibly etched in our custom, that “clothes did not make the man,” but were merely an external and inappropriate system of judging anyone, including a teacher, and which played no part in his/her performance or success.
The class pictured here, taken about 1966/67 was of 12th year students (17-18 years of age) taking their second part American History course in preparation for the state examinations – called Regents in New York State. There was no warning that such a photo would be taken; hence, neither the teacher nor the students dressed any differntly than they normally did. (more…)
ALAN ARCHIBALD writes:
I marvel that Christian conservatives rally around Mitt Romney, the first non-Christian to run for president of the United States. Did you note Rev. Billy Graham’s recent “rehabilitation” of Mormonism from “cult status” to “full biblical integrity?” Perhaps Rev. Graham has been swept away by the zeitgeist of flip-floppery.
JANE R. writes:
Pictures do say a thousand words. This photo of Gov. Christie and Obama is sarcastically being referred to as their Love-In. I don’t get it. The whole country is watching and this is how politicians conduct themselves and allow themselves to be photographed? Weird!
TWO friends of mine who are financial analysts have been following the polls closely since last summer. They believe the polls are wildly wrong because they overestimate voter turnout among Democrats. My friends have made two predictions:
1. Romney will win in a landslide,
2. Obama will become a talk show host.
I have tried to convince them that their predictions are overly optimistic, but have not succeeded.
DANIEL S. writes:
It has been widely reported in the liberal press that discussion between the Vatican and the traditionalist Catholic group, the Society of Saint Pius X, has irrevocably broken down, with blame being placed on the SSPX for being retractable and reactionary. Reports of the demise of the ongoing dialogue have been greatly exaggerated. Indeed the Vatican is now awaiting the response from the traditionalist society concerning a doctrinal preamble submitted for their consideration. The SSPX has requested more time to review and consider the preamble, with the Vatican stating that the ongoing process must be met with patience and perseverance. It would seem neither side has abandoned dialogue. (more…)
P. SMITH writes:
Your recent articles on clothing piqued my interest. I’m an American who’s been living in Germany for many years. My wife and I have put four children through the excellent Bavarian school system.
I’m attaching two photographs which summarize the change in attitudes that has occurred in the West in the past century. The newer photo may be familiar from the recent strike in Chicago. The older photo, taken in 1925, is of the teaching staff at a Gymnasium (college prep high school) in Osnabrueck, in northwestern Germany. The painting behind the teachers, The Announcement of the Peace of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years’ War, was destroyed by a bombing raid in 1942. On the wall at the right are the names of the school’s teachers and pupils who had been killed in the First World War. (more…)
IN CONTINUATION of the discussion about refusing state marriage licenses, Jeremy Morris writes:
America has been reduced to a culture filled with distractions, light shows that do nothing more than hold our attention just long enough to cause us to forget our duty to God almighty. It is the “Vanity Fair” of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Its days are numbered, the evil that is rampant can only destroy itself eventually. The hold it has on people will eventually be loosened. Similar, to how the beauty and distractions offered by a luxury cruise liner can only hold the passengers attention so long before they realize it is sinking. No matter what the people in authority over the ship say, the discovery of its true fate is inevitable. The crew down below are the first to realize with absolute certainty that the ship is bound for a watery grave. The story of the Titanic is a great metaphor for what is happening to America as we speak. Many will perish in the confusion, many more will perish in denial. My sincere prayer is that Christians will break the hold that “Vanity Fair” has upon them, remember their duty to God, and seek him before it is too late. (more…)
THE GREAT Miami Hurricane of 1926 would cause $180 billion of damage if it were to strike today. Katrina cost $85 billion. Sandy is expected to cost $20 billion. Roger Pielke Jr., of the University of Colorado, argues that the U.S. has actually been extraordinarily lucky in recent years, contrary to alarmist statements by politicians eager to worsen fears related to global warming. Andrew Cuomo said this week, “I think at this point it is undeniable but that we have a higher frequency of these extreme weather situations and we’re going to have to deal with it.” He is wrong.
Pielke writes in the Wall Street Journal:
While it’s hardly mentioned in the media, the U.S. is currently in an extended and intense hurricane “drought.” The last Category 3 or stronger storm to make landfall was Wilma in 2005. The more than seven years since then is the longest such span in over a century. (more…)