FITZGERALD writes:

Bloomberg reports that single women favor Obama by a ratio of almost two-to-one:

“Married voters are more likely to focus on the economy and health care, while single voters are more focused on issues such as gay rights and reproductive issues,” said [Peter Brown, assistant director of the Hamden, Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University Polling Institute] in an e-mailed statement accompanying the poll, conducted July 1-8. (more…)

BUCK writes:

The heavily tattoed lesbian discussed in the previous entry brought back chilling memories of a girl from grade school (circa 1958). I’ll never forget her. She may have been the meanest and most angry person I ever knew, and the scariest. We were in fourth or fifth grade. She dressed like a boy, as bad-ass a boy as she could. Black leather, belted biker’s jacket (Wild Ones) with blue jeans rolled up into cuffs and black leather bombers. She was maybe a year older than me. (more…)

JANE S. writes:

When I was a child, I loved reading Lois Lenski. She wrote and/or illustrated more than 100 books, as well as poetry, songs, and plays. Sadly, her books getting hard to find.

One of the things that makes her stories so precious is that they offer a glimpse of a time when there were distinct differences between regions of America. Differences in the way people dressed, in their style of cooking, in the ways they entertained themselves. This is in contrast to today, where America is more and more like a continuous, coast-to-coast strip mall.

In the foreword to one book, she talks about how she became inspired to write songs:

“My deep interest in our American regions stimulated me to write songs to interpet the lives of my Regional children, songs such as these children might write themselves, were they articulate. . . I have wanted them to illuminate the real environment – desert, woodland, mountain, city, river, cottonfields – where real children live; and to make it vivid and understandable to other children who have never been in these places at all.”

She goes on to write: (more…)

JENNIFER writes:

I just wanted to let you know I am in a difficult situation with some new neighbors lately and I found your old posts (here, here, and here) about “Lesbians and Neighbors” helpful.

My new neighbors are lesbians with a small child. They are determined to have her “socialize” to build her “social skills” and my children are children they would like her to socialize with. (more…)

RICH P. writes:

I am considering proposing marriage to my girlfriend of two years. She is sweet and kind, especially to children and the elderly. She remained faithful to me through a deployment to Iraq. She sought confirmation as a Catholic, expressing that if we were to begin a family, unity of faith would be absolutely essential. Her faith before the Sacrament is an inspiration to me. Previously our relationship had been intimate but for the last six months she’s quit birth control and we have (thankfully) recovered a commitment to chastity. (more…)

THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU writes: I want to tell you about an amazing new dinner product from the American food industry, Higgs Boson Helper. When added to absolutely nothing and placed in a casserole dish, Higgs Boson Helper immediately adds mass to your main course. It's microwaveable and comes in four savory flavors: Muon, Gluon, Meson, and Quark. As Scarlet O'Hara said, "I'll never be hungry again!"

A BELATED comment has been added to the recent thread on men’s rights. Jesse Powell responds to a reader who defends the idea of a Christian men’s rights movement. Mr. Powell writes:

Is the very idea of a “Christian MRA” an oxymoron? I tend to think so. It’s like being a Christian narcissist. Is there any such thing as a Christian narcissist? Somehow I’m thinking that narcissism doesn’t mix with “obeying God” very easily. (more…)

THE REV. JAMES JACKSON writes:

After dinner with some parishioners, we were tossing oxymorons back and forth, and I heard some good ones; athletic scholarship, Victoria’s Secret, Facebook Friends and some others, but the one I had to pass along to you was … gourmet pizza.

(more…)

JEFF W. writes:

Presidents in earlier photos looked like men who were ready to deny themselves and bear their responsibilities each day. Modern presidents look more like they are trying to prove that they are happy. This is because socialism puts happiness at the top of its value scale.

The reason for taking money away from those that have too much and giving it to those who have too little is so that there will be greater happiness. The reason for government regulating and controlling everything is so that everyone will be shielded from events or conditions that may cause unhappiness.  (more…)

  MATT writes: I enjoyed the comments in the "Tolerance, without Discernment, Is Not a Virtue" thread. It made me think of something Hutton Gibson (Mel's father) said with regards to tolerance: Tolerance is the last virtue of a depraved society. It seems to me that when an immoral society has blatantly and proudly violated all the commandments, it insists upon one last virtue, tolerance, for its immorality.

GUILAIN writes:

In France, shortly after a president is elected, his official picture is taken. There is only one per president. It is hung in tens of thousands of official places all over the country (in mayors’ offices, for instance). I’ve picked the faces from those photos and put them together. It goes from Charles de Gaulle in 1958 to our time. As you can see none is smiling (Giscard d’Estaing let us see his front teeth but it cannot be compared with the near hilarity of some of your presidents). (more…)

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! (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. (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.”

(more…)

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. (more…)

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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. (more…)