Crusoe by N.C. Wyeth

FROM CHAPTER 7, of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe:

This I was very glad of, you may be sure, and about the latter end of December, which was our second Harvest of the Year, I reap’d my Crop.

I was sadly put to it for a Scythe or a Sicle to cut it down, and-all I could do was to make one as well as I could out of one of the Broad Swords or Cutlasses, which I sav’d among the Arms out of the Ship. However, as my first Crop was but small I had no great Difficulty to cut it down; in short, I reap’d it my Way, for I cut nothing off but the Ears, and carry’d it away in a great Basket which I had made, and so rubb’d it out with my Hands; and at the End of all my Harvesting, I found that out of my half Peck of Seed, I had near two Bushels of Rice, and above two Bushels and half of Barley, that is to say, by my Guess, for I had no Measure at that time. Read More »

WRITING AT SLATE yesterday, Sharon Lerner says the abysmally low birthrate among corporate women is proof of the U.S. government’s stinginess. If only we had universal paid parent leave. You see, dear reader, this is the kind of nonsense that rains down upon us like soot. Read More »

ACCORDING TO a new report, 43 percent of  corporate professional women between the ages of 33 and 46 have no children. In its press annoucement of the report on the work lives of “Generation X-ers,” the Center for Work-Life Policy, a liberal “think tank” which specializes in corporate diversity programs, expresses no consternation over the demographic suicide of the American elite (it actually seems to think this low birthrate is kind of cool), but raises alarm about the need for cutting-edge corporations to appeal to the childless.

Perhaps the U.S. could become the first country in the world to offer parent leave to non-parents.

Why not? Once corporations began to accomodate parents, and mothers in particular, by offering them flexibility, which is a form of non-cash payment, they became unfair to the childless. If they can’t do away with these forms of favoritism, the only choice is to offer the same flexibility and benefits to the childless. After all, there is no business rationale for favoring parents except the goal of retaining them as employees. The childless make valuable workers too. Read More »

THE PSEUDONYMOUS writer CWNY often argues that the white man has replaced faith in Christ with worship of the black man. CWNY’s argument is more subtle than that. He says rationalism ate away at the heart of the white Christian, who then turned in his lifelessness to the primitivism of the Negro. The liberal Christian sought to recover the elemental and fend off spiritual death.

If CWNY’s argument seems hard to grasp, here is a music video made by members of an Evangelical church that just about sums it up, though with much less elegance.

It’s worth noting that no one has forced these men to appear this way. They like it. This is how they view themselves, as pale, robotic imitators of black thugs. Read More »

THE New York Times today describes the 2008 racially-motivated arson that destroyed a black church in Springfied, Massachussetts as a “hate-fueled fire.” A crime that is more than two years old, in which the perpetrators have been caught and punished, still calls for passionate condemnation. In contrast, the brutal execution-style murder of a young white couple by two black men in Tulsa, Oklahoma last week has not even been covered by the Times, let alone been identified as “hate-fueled.” The media coverage elsewhere of the murder of Carissa Horton and Ethan Nichols, who were robbed in a park and then shot in the head, has overwhelmingly referred to the crime as “senseless” or “random,” not as an act of racial hatred.  Read More »

DAN writes:

I have a great deal of love and admiration for Pope Benedict XVI, and consider him an instrumental figure in my turn to Christianity after years in the spiritual wastelands of my youth. That being said, when it comes to the issue of Islam I regret that the Holy Father has retreated from his earlier positions which displayed a skeptical, if not critical, view of the religion and a seeming recognition that it did not belong in the West. Read More »

IN THIS ENTRY about an auto plant reopening in Tennessee, Jesse Powell makes an important statement about the “family wage,” which is commonly known as an income that can support a family without a working wife. Mr. Powell wrote:

As far as “restoring the family wage” I think the whole concept of a “family wage” job is misleading. Any wage that men earn is a “family wage” because the role of the man is to provide for his family regardless of how rich a country he lives in. Society should be organized around the man playing his proper role and the woman playing her proper role, the income level of a country has nothing to do with it. Read More »

LAWRENCE AUSTER writes:

In your entry, “Pope Benedict Welcomes a Muslim Europe,” you quote Benedict’s statement that he welcomes the growing Muslim presence in Germany, because, as he puts it, “religion” is good, and Muslims are very religious. You are to be commended for clearly seeing the problem in this. My criticism here is limited to your opening sentence, in which you say:

“When Pope Benedict met with prominent Muslims in Berlin today, the Benedict of the Regensburg speech was absent.” Read More »

WHEN POPE BENEDICT met with prominent Muslims in Berlin today, the Benedict of the Regensburg speech was absent. Instead, he spoke approvingly of the flowering of Islam in Europe: “The presence of Muslim families has increasingly become a distinguishing mark of this country.” The tendency of Muslims to take their faith seriously was “thought provocative,” he said, but no impediment to peaceful cooperation. He told the gathering of Muslim leaders: Read More »

A GENERAL MOTORS plant that closed two years ago in Tennessee is expected to reopen under a new contract agreement that will allow G.M. to hire union workers for about half the standard wages. An article in today’s New York Times is an interesting look at how jobs that were headed to Mexico were recovered. Here is an excerpt: Read More »

THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU writes:

On “Chaz” Bono, Brittany writes: “You have to understand, people like Chaz Bono really believe that they are the opposite sex.” The forthright response to this rationalization is, so what? Read More »

JESSE POWELL writes: 

The focus of this report is the child population in America’s 25 largest cities. The Married Families Ratio (MFR), the proportion of all families with own children under 18 headed by a married couple, fell for all racial groups from 2000 to 2010. In proportional terms it fell the least among Asians, moderately among whites, and the most for blacks and Hispanics. This is exactly what one would expect according to the rule that family breakdown accelerates as it becomes more severe. 

Every one of these cities has fewer white children than the national average and in ten of the 25 cities, fewer than one out of five children are white.

Also given, for the years 2000 and 2010 according to race, is the Married Parents Ratio (MPR), the proportion of all own children under 18 whom live with married parents. The Married Parents Ratio is from the child’s point of view while the Married Families Ratio is from the household’s point of view. The reason why the Married Parents Ratio tends to be a bit higher than the Married Families Ratio is because married couples with children tend to have more children on average than single parents do. 

The below table gives the proportion of the total population that was under 18 in the United States in 2000 and 2010 as well as the racial composition of the child population and the Married Parents Ratio and the Married Families Ratio by race for 2000 and 2010.  Read More »

BRITTANY WRITES:

You have to understand, people like Chaz Bono really believe that they are the opposite sex. They are not doing this to annoy or anger anybody. They really believe that they are not the right sex. I do not know about you but I can’t imagine constantly thinking that I am the opposite sex. Read More »

EPISTLE TO A YOUNG FRIEND

                             — Robert Burns (1786) 

ELENA writes:

I want to endorse your comment about kids benefiting from interaction with people a little older than they are, who seem interesting and grown-up without being, you know, parents (ugh!). Read More »