TEXANNE writes:

Do you think people will stop wearing the yellow “Livestrong” bracelets now that Lance Armstrong has been officially discredited? I am seeing lots of online advertising for the Livestrong line, which I had not noticed before the most recent developments — maybe close-out specials. Will anyone want to be seen in Livestrong gear? (more…)

A READER sends this note after requesting an address for making a donation:

It’s the least I can do to help you keep up the great work that you’re doing.

Yours is one of the sites I check in with every day, and several times a day at that. I think most people know the re-energizing feeling of finding like-minded allies, but it’s especially heartening to me to find conservative women, since so many women–sadly–lean left, and often hard left. (more…)

BOND AND FREE

                 — By Robert Frost

Love has earth to which she clings
With hills and circling arms about–
Wall within wall to shut fear out.
But Thought has need of no such things,
For Thought has a pair of dauntless wings. (more…)

IN A previous entry, many readers who have more than two or three children wrote of the rude comments people make about their large families. Ironically, some mentioned that they are also the recipients of compliments for their children’s good behavior in public. A reader describes his experiences in this regard below.

Terry Morris writes: (more…)

PENNY writes:

Frances Parkinson Keyes, who died in 1970, was a popular author in the early 20th century.  I confess I’ve never read anything by her myself, but I’ve seen her books for years – first in the library and then in used bookstores.

This past weekend I picked up a copy of her Senator Marlowe’s Daughter (c.1933). Have yet to read it, but the plot seems to be that Faith Marlowe, only daughter of a New England senator, leaves America for Europe and has some kind of unhappy romance there. What really interested me while flipping through it, was this passage from the end.  (Yes, I am one of those terrible people who read the ends of books before buying them – though not mysteries, that wouldn’t be fair):  (more…)

  WILLIAM JAMES writes: My parents had five children in six years; I'm the eldest. We often elicited comments from strangers. I remember one time we were out shopping as a family, and a woman we had never met came up and said to my mother, "Goodness! Are they all yours?" She said we were, and the woman said, "Well, I'm glad they're not mine!" My mother's response: "So are they."

AN EU directive informally introduced this week would require major European corporations to reserve 40 percent — more than triple the current average in EU countries — of the positions on their supervisory boards for women, thereby mandating discrimination in many cases against men. The idea of quotas in boardrooms is a pet project of European feminists, who have no qualms about instituting the type of employment discrimination they claim has always existed against women and who never lose a wink of sleep over possibly damaging the world economy and accelerating social decline. Companies that did not comply to the mandate would face fines and other sanctions. The directive would not apply to executive board positions — as of yet.

The proposal, to be introduced officially to the European Commission next month, would do nothing to satisfy the interests of the vast majority of women, who are not interested in highly demanding careers of uninterrupted work. A major reason why women are not more heavily represented in top executive positions is that they do not want to be in top executive positions and their personal responsibilities interfere with their competitiveness. See British analyst Catherine Hakim’s study on the issue. She explains why even in Sweden, with its onerous equality legislation, women make dramatically different work choices than men. (more…)