THIS 19th century Japanese print by Kobayashi Kiyochika is discussed at the interesting blog Floating Along in Japanese Prints. Gina Collia-Suzuki writes:

Hana Moyō (Patterns for Flowers), by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915), is a series of triptychs published in 1896, each one of which features a beautiful woman from a specific historical era set against a distant background scene. The way the figure in the foreground is shown close-up in contrast to the smaller figures depicted in the background of each triptych makes this an unusual and striking set of designs. The title refers both to the beauties themselves (the flowers) and the patterns of their beautifully decorated garments. It’s a stunning set and one of my favourites. It’s also very interesting for anyone wanting to compare the modes of dress and arrangement of hair throughout different periods of Japanese history. (more…)

  IN AN ENTRY on a fairly typical weekend of murder and mayhem in Chicago, a commenter at VFR, Wayne Lutton, writes: Our classical FM station breaks for NPR “news” at midnight. They regularly mention that “Twelve people were killed in Kabul…. so many were killed in a suicide bombing in Beirut…. people were killed in a town outside of *** in such-and-such country which has been wracked by sectarian violence.” The nameless killings in Chicago are reported in the Tribune in much the same way. But I can’t recall when NPR reported the nightly/weekend killings in Chicago at all, with even the detachment with which they relate the growing casualties in the Middle East.

JANE R. writes:

Speaking of Condoleeza Rice have you seen the new NFL clothing line advertisement? Yes, Condi is modeling for the new line of NFL sports apparel. Hard to believe that a past U.S. Secretary of State could reemerge as a model, but it’s true.

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THOUGH WOMEN have been playing golf at Augusta National Golf Club for years as guests, the club refused to admit women as paying members — until now. The chains have been loosened, and two women — Condoleeza Rice and banker Darla Moore — have been admitted as members. (more…)

CATHIE CLINE, a vice president of marketing for Mattel, Inc. recently told The New York Times: “One of the great things about Barbie is that she continues to push the envelope. Barbie doesn’t worry about what other people think.”

Maybe Barbie doesn’t care what other people think but Mattel might worry after it begins selling its transvestite Barbie in December. Here again a major American corporation defies its own best interests. Drag queens don’t have children. People who dislike drag queens produce lots of little girls who play with dolls.

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BRAD C. writes:

You might have already come across this column in The Telegraph, but I thought I would pass it along.

The author, Catherine Hakim, is a prominent British sociologist, and she argues that allowing open extramarital affairs is the way to happiness. That an academic sociologist would argue for this conclusion is not surprising. What I found surprising about this column was the way it was written: the author’s flippant tone, the seeming obviousness of her conclusions, the moral equivalency between eating meals in the home as opposed to at a restaurant and having sex in the home as opposed to with an extramarital partner, the reliance on economists’ quantification of frequency of sex into units of economic utility . . .  (more…)

IF you haven’t yet read  “The Tyranny of Artistic Modernism” by Mark Anthony Signorelli and Nikos A. Salingaros at The New English Review, I highly recommend it. The authors describe modern art as a totalitarian cult of ugliness. They write:

Whereas earlier traditions of artistic creation embraced symmetry within complexity, modernism has embraced extreme simplicity, dislocation, and imbalance. Whereas earlier traditions sought to bring pleasure to an audience — “to teach and delight,” as Horace’s famous dictum would have it — modern art attempts to “nauseate” or “brutalize” an audience (the terms are from Jacques Barzun’s The Use and Abuse of Art). Whereas pre-modern architecture employed scale and ornament, modern architecture aggressively promotes gigantisms and barrenness. Whereas classical literature was grounded in regular grammar and public imagery, modern literature routinely resorts to distortions of syntax and esotericism. (more…)

MY parents did something when I was young that would be unthinkable to today’s hovering, safety-conscious parents. My two younger twin sisters ate dinner in the kitchen by themselves while we — my parents and their other five children — ate in the dining room. (more…)

SJF writes:

As I’ve mentioned before, we homeschool our six children. One of the subjects we emphasize is history, especially American history. Whenever we travel, we prepare the children ahead of time for historical sites. So, for example, last spring, I took my 12- and 10-year-old to Washington, D.C. so they could visit the sites they had studied over the past year, such as Mt. Vernon.

We are about to leave on summer vacation, and will head into the Colorado Rockies. (more…)

EDWARD BARTLETT, of Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), sends the following summary of recent events on college campuses under the new U.S. Department of Education sexual assault directive.

Civil Liberties Took a Beating on College Campuses

The first full academic year following the Department of Education’s release of its Sexual Assault Directive has come to a close. The Directive was announced by the Office for Civil Rights on April 4, 2011 without prior notice or opportunity for public comment. Two days later, civil rights expert Wendy Kaminer deplored the “authoritarian impulse” that gave rise to the Directive and predicted it would occasion, in her words, “tragic deprivations of liberty.” (more…)

JESSE POWELL writes:

Bryan Fischer has spoken out on his radio show Focal Point about the Lisa Miller case. Fischer is the Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association. The American Family Association and the recently-attacked Family Research Council were both listed as “hate groups” by the Southern Poverty Law Center in November 2010. Here is a twelve-minute segment from his radio show in which he gives background information on the Lisa Miller case.

It is entitled, “We need an underground railroad to protect children from same-sex environments.”

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  I WROTE in a previous post that the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics featured flashes of the demonic, and among the moments I was thinking of  was this appearance of Lord Voldemort (photo above). At Tradition in Action, Margaret C. Galitzin provides a truly outstanding critique of the opening ceremonies. Her analysis affirms my point and explains how even the dozens of Mary Poppinses who floated down from the sky above the Olympic stadium were part of the ceremony's satanic message.

HOW can a mother abduct her own child and be considered a kidnapper because she refused to hand over the child to the woman who was once her lesbian lover? It can happen when parental rights are defined by the liberal State. The case of Lisa Miller, who presumably fled to Nicaragua with her daughter, resulted in the conviction in Vermont this week of Kenneth Miller, the Amish-Mennonite who is believed to have helped Lisa Miller flee from a court ruling which had awarded partial custody of her daughter to Janet Jenkins.

Below is the story from The New York Times:

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THE STORY OF yesterday’s shooting at the conservative Family Research Council was buried on page 15 in the front section of The New York Times today. Imagine if a tea party member with a gun had sought entry to the offices of a homosexual organization and had shot a security guard. That presumably would have been played differently. At Newsbusters, Tim Graham reports that ABC was the only of the three major networks to offer a complete story.

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PAULA BLANCHARD writes:

I have repeatedly posted my feelings on homosexuality on Facebook and have wondered why I never, ever get any response from my 300 plus friends (positive or negative). And then recently a friend whom I have known for at least 30 years privately messaged me to tell me that she loved reading the articles I post (often from your blog or links that you recommend). She regrets that she can’t comment or even post articles like that herself because she would probably lose her job over politically incorrect comments. Aaahaa! It doesn’t bode well for this country when a person cannot speak their mind. Kind of reminds me of the state of Communist block countries before the wall went down. Thank you for speaking up, but I do wonder if you have suffered any personal backlash? (more…)

THE FITNESS obsession in women is part of their overall loss of identity in the modern world. At her blog, Lydia Sherman explains why women don’t need expensive health clubs or time-consuming physical regimens. Staying fit involves mind and spirit. When a woman is oriented toward higher goods, she is healthier too. The home is a fitness club. Mrs. Sherman writes:

I have been collecting some ideas and techniques for the non-Olympic women who want to be fit but still look feminine. I discovered through viewing 19th century photographs and paintings that women were quite active in golf, tennis, swimming, bike riding, hand ball, hiking and walking. (more…)