JOSEPH writes:

It saddens me no end to read comments like the one in the previous post by Lawrence Auster, who said he would no longer celebrate Fourth of July because of the passage of Obamacare. I have great respect for Mr. Auster’s thinking but Independence Day has nothing – nada, zip – to do with the United States government as it would not be invented  in its present form for another nineteen years after 1776. Nineteen years! Read More »

KIDIST PAULOS ASRAT writes:

I’ve posted a rather serious article on my blog on the New York Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks. I found them incredible. They were truly spectacular.

I say in my post that it is a sign that America is truly great. It sounds trivial to gauge a country’s greatness by its firework displays, but I think only Americans can give us such a display. Read More »

JAMES M. writes:

During Confession, a priest recently said to me: “I think you are too hard on yourself. Your penance is to think about that.”

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ALISSA, who is nineteen, writes:

I’m starting to believe that liberalism is demonic. The sexual revolution has resulted in the normalization of two malaises: feminism and homosexuality. A lot of liberals shout “Homophobia!” and “You have to be insecure in your sexuality” or “You are secretly gay,” but the truth is that societies which tolerate homosexuality go to accepting it and then finally normalizing it on a grand scale. Read More »

HIgh Cliff, Coast of Maine; Winslow Homer; 1894

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SARAH SAMS writes:

Was it you or Lydia Sherman who suggested that women should spend their time and energy entertaining their own families? I know that I read it sometime last fall, because I took it to heart and began to plan and make every holiday or birthday extra special starting at Thanksgiving. Read More »

ALAN writes:

Lawrence Auster wrote about a game at Yankee Stadium four years ago:

“The very loud rock music played during the game made it a very unpleasant experience, not something I would want to repeat. They even play loud music during the innings, as well as between innings. It’s an assault on one’s senses and mind and simply destroys the experience and integrity of the game.” Read More »

SEE THE recent amazing comments by Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy on a black radio station. He says whites are to blame for black hostility toward the police and, indirectly, for the high black incarceration rate. He does not object when another person on the show says “the legal system is the new Jim Crowe system in America.”

IF YOU don’t know the answer, go to your local Papa John’s and reflect on its theological implications.

A reader below explains.

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MARK RICHARDSON, at Oz Conserative, writes about a feminist writer who for years penned articles against marriage and fidelity. Then one day, her longtime boyfriend decides he agrees with her.

Here’s a good question. How many women read her articles and did the same thing to the men who would have been their loyal spouses? We will never know.

Female writers have done so much in the last two hundred years to destroy the things that are most important to ordinary women that a case is to be made for a period of prolonged female silence similar to the days when the best women authors wrote with male pseudonyms. As a female writer, I would happily oblige if it meant that the vast majority of feminist harpies would retire or perhaps start a writers’ colony on a deserted island.

MANY excellent comments have been added to the thread on the neurotic, quasi-religious pursuit of fitness. In that post, MarkyMark writes:

I have a simple theory about why women are obsessed with looks, sex appeal, and exercise these days. For me, it’s simple: they have nothing else to offer a man besides sex appeal and looks. Does the modern woman know how to cook these days? No. Does she even know how to boil water? No. Does she know how to clean and keep house? No. Is she even a kind, decent, warm, and supportive companion? Hell no! So what, pray tell me, does a woman have to offer a man besides looks and sex appeal? From where I sit, not a whole lot. Ergo, women freak out if they gain two ounces of weight….

Pop star Miley Cyrus would probably say that’s enough to offer a man. According to The Daily Mail, she will not be having children soon after her pending marriage:

A source said: ‘It might be a little while after marriage for Miley to start having kids because she really loves her body and wants to spend some time being the “Hot Wife.” ‘

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KATHLENE M. writes:

My nine-year-old son and I have noticed that modern day pictures of presidents — since at least Kennedy — tend to have ridiculous smiles on their faces, undermining the stature of the position. I’ve sent three different images so you can see what we mean. (Nixon and Kennedy have goofy grins in one of the group images.) Read More »

MICHAEL SAVAGE, as a reader points out in a previous entry, makes the case here and here that John Roberts has suffered mental slowing and irrationality due to the medication he takes for epilepsy. As Savage notes, the New York Times raised the possibility at the time of Roberts’ confirmation hearings that his medication would compromise his mental functioning.

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CONTRARY to popular belief, the first July Fourth, as experienced by the founding fathers, was not terribly hot. The temperatures in Philadelphia in July of 1776 never rose above 82 degrees Fahrenheit, as can be seen from this log kept by Thomas Jefferson. And on July 4th, the high was a mere 76 degrees.

However, the delegates of the Continental Congress were wearing wigs and frock coats, not T-shirts, baseball caps and fanny packs. There was no air-conditioning or electric fans, and a summer in Philadelphia was tropical compared to those in England. The average high in London in July is 72 (as compared to 86 in Philadelphia), and would have been lower in 1776, which was toward the end of the Little Ice Age. Therefore they are still deserving of admiration for their endurance.

THE FRENCH make potato salad with olive oil and wine, the Germans like it warm with bacon, Sicilians reportedly add fava beans. Americans have their own tradition. They eat potato salad with sugar in it.

Horrors! Sugar is evil. Okay, be that way. Nevertheless, that is our heritage, and until the federal government bans potato salad (or rather imposes a fine on those who eat it), it’s a good thing to participate in this exalted tradition once in a while.

Here is an excellent recipe for an American-style potato salad. The dressing, which is also good on macaroni salad, is adapted from Roy Finamore’s book One Potato, Two Potato and originally came from a vendor at the Union Square Market in New York City.  Read More »

IAN writes:

Thank you for your wonderful site. I discovered it about six months ago and have been reading faithfully since. This is my first time writing you.

I was wondering if you had any old posts on the modern obsession over exercise, especially among women. A conservative friend of mine recently accused me of being a feminist when I wrote to him in an e-mail that the modern obsession of women over exercise evinced an inappropriate focus on looks. Specifically, I wrote the following:

[G]irls should be concerned about their weight if they are overweight. But there is a drive for women to look ‘hot,’ which is not healthy from both a physical and spiritual point of view. Read More »

Angelina Jolie, the glamorous face of international adoption

PETER DODDS writes:

I read with great interest your April 5th story, titled “The Confession of Joyce Maynard.”

I was adopted from a German orphanage by an American couple, one of about 10,000 German children adopted by U.S. citizens during the 1950s-1970s. In this television interview, I describe international adoption from a unique perspective — that of a foreign orphan adopted to America — and the harm caused by uprooting children from their native countries and cultures.

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