MR. T. writes:

I have been reading your delightful blog for many months, but this is my first comment.

Your post and thread on small houses resonated deeply with me. I grew up in the U.S.A., in a medium-sized house, but have lived most of my adult life in Hong Kong. Property here is expensive in a way only people in the ritziest environs of Manhattan can imagine. My wife, daughter and I live in a flat that’s listed at about 900 square feet, but all Hong Kong people know that’s a fiction. The ‘building area’ for a Hong Kong flat includes a share of the elevator lobby, windowsills, walls, and other unusable space. Our actual living area is closer to 600 square feet.

In this space, which might well fit in toto within a McMansion’s living room, we have a kitchen, two bathrooms, a living room and three bedrooms. As you can imagine, none of these rooms is very big, and a couple of our bedrooms would be derided as inadequate as closets in the U.S.A. Read More »

MARY K. writes:

When my husband and I were ready to purchase our first house two years ago, we deliberately looked for a “small” house, exactly for the benefits you describe. We could have easily gotten a bigger and cheaper house, and many people tried to persuade us to do just that. No regrets here, even when we have family flooding in for Thanksgiving and camping out in the only bathroom! Read More »

LAWRENCE AUSTER writes on the vanity of female politicians:

If you have a society in which men are running things and enforcing male standards of conduct in the public sphere, you can have an occasional woman in high public office and it will not harm the society. But once the appointment of women to conspicuous political positions becomes routine and expected, and once female standards of public conduct become normalized, thus pushing aside male standards, then you have things like this.

I would add two points. One, a woman in power has more incentive to flaunt her physical assets precisely because they may be all she has left of her femininity. This is why we see more and more cleavage. The essence has vanished with the pursuit of power.

Second, a society’s understanding of authority also weakens when a significant number of women enter elective public office. Eileen Behr, pictured below, is running for sheriff in suburban Philadelphia. She seems like a perfectly nice, competent woman, but her face changes the very definition of the office. She looks too nice to write a parking ticket.

Read More »

THE STANDARDS for what constitutes a normal family house have changed dramatically in recent decades. The average home size in the United States was slightly over 2,400 square feet in 2009. This figure, down slightly from the year before, is more than twice that of the ranches and Cape Cods of the 1950s, such as those built in the Levittown developments of New York and Pennsylvania. Ironically, we have smaller families to fit in our houses.

The suburban house has swelled to the detriment of the family. With bigger houses has come more pressure on women to work. More square footage has meant a loss of family intimacy and less ease in supervising children. Our population growth rate has declined, jeopardizing future prosperity, while our lives have gotten lonelier.

The fifties-style ranch house or Cape Cod is often viewed with sneering derision unless it has undergone a fantastic architectural makeover, complete with granite counter tops and cathedral ceilings. And yet it has much to commend it. (I should know. I have raised my children in one of these houses.) Peter Bacon Hales, of the University of Illinois, wrote of the Levittown Cape Cod house: Read More »

Timothy Miller with his family

IN THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT in a child custody case that will either go down in the history of American jurisprudence for its flagrant violation of parental rights or represent a radical shift in the legal defintion of parenthood, federal prosecutors last week dropped kidnapping charges against Timothy Miller, the Mennonite missionary who helped Lisa Miller flee the country with her daughter in 2009 after a Vermont judge ordered her to hand over the child to her former lesbian lover.

According to The Rutland Herald, U.S. Attorney for Vermont Tristram Coffin, in a motion to dismiss the charges against Timothy Miller, stated that Miller agreed to appear as a possible witness in the future. Timothy Miller, who is no relation to Lisa, works as a missionary in Nicaragua. He has been unable to leave the United States since his arrest last April. The Timo Miller Support Network was collecting financial support for him.

Interestingly, the story of the charges against the missionary has been virtually ignored. Read More »

A tailor in the documentary O'Mast

A.M. writes:

As style is a recurring topic at your salon, and traditionalism the dominant one, the documentary O’Mast may be of interest. If the trailer is any guide, there is much to admire in it. The video raises my doubt in the notion of America as relatively ‘conservative,’ and the nations of Europe as relatively ‘progressive.’ Not that the film is representative of anything but its niche subject, but, as a general matter, Europe seems abler at preserving the beauty of generations past, and perhaps even at cultivating it for the present and future. Read More »

MICHAEL D. writes:

If there are any lingering doubts that “Conservative” Prime Minister David Cameron is indeed a conservative, then let them now be dispelled without further ado. His proposal to change the law of succession to reflect his liberal tastes is foolish, insensible and potentially harmful. The succession cannot be changed simply because David Cameron, or anybody else for that matter, doesn’t like it. They don’t have to like it. 

However, I was not surprised at the total absence of opposition to this proposal to do away with male primogeniture at the Commonwealth Heads of Governments meeting here in Australia. Our own hard-left, unmarried, barren, feminist prime minister was not about to complain. Neither were the spineless political leaders of other nations, who are mostly elites eager to prove their “diversity and equality” credentials at the expense of their culture and their peoples’ long-term interests. It would not have been difficult to bury this risible proposal with an effective counter argument, but no Commonwealth political leader even tried.  Read More »

THE FOLLOWING flyer was sent a few days ago to the faculty of Valencia College in Osceola, Florida by its Office of Marketing and Strategic Communications:

MTV Film Crew at the Osceola Campus on Monday

You may notice an MTV film crew at the Osceola Campus on Monday as they tape a new season of the reality show 16 and Pregnant.  Their current story is about a young woman, now 17, who has had her baby and whose mom told her that if she didn’t go to college, she’d be out on her own. Read More »

FITZGERALD writes:

The mother of Steve Jobs chose to put his sister and him up for adoption when they were infants. What if he had been aborted? Jobs had an enormously influential role in the creation and transformation of several industries. How many other potential innovators, business leaders, architects, and artists have met an untimely end in the womb? Is it any wonder our civilization is waning. We destroy it’s most important element in the scores every year: people.

Read More »

Winter Scene in New Haven. Connecticut, George Henry Durrie (1858)

ALMOST everyone would like the last month of winter to be more like the first month of spring or maybe the last month of summer to be more like the first month of fall. But no one wants to see the first full month of autumn become more like mid-winter. 

The snowstorm that hit our area this weekend was an unprecedented event. Some trees had still not changed color. The sight of an oak tree with green leaves and snow is disorienting. Leaves are part of a tree’s periodic immaturity. A tree that is juvenile in June is ancient in November. By early winter, a tree becomes wise and wizened, mature enough to handle the tribulations of cold and ice. Many a tree in October is no more prepared for snow than a teenager is ready for mortgage payments.

By last night, leaves that were still green or gold were loaded with snow that was so heavy, massive branches drooped to the ground. Many snapped instantly. The roads were littered with downed limbs and many people lost power. The party was broken up. The authorities came and told everyone who was enjoying autumn to go home.

Normally, the first snowstorm is exciting, but this wasn’t exciting, it was strange. It was a premature end to the season. The flames of fall were doused with buckets of ice.

Read More »

THE EMPLOYMENT rate among American men reached its lowest level in 63 years this summer. Not since 1948 had so relatively few men held jobs. But the news was already bad. The median annual earnings of all men 30 to 50 years old, including those who did not work, fell 27 percent from 1969 to 2009. 

When men are underemployed as a group, the consequences for society at large are far more dire than when women are unemployed in high numbers.

In fact, when women are unemployed, as history clearly shows us, the consequences are good. Society functions better when women are not working outside the home and are raising the workers of tomorrow. When men are unemployed at high levels, marriage declines, illegitimacy increases, crime increases, and overall social dysfunction follows.

We live in a world of fantastic denial of these facts, a world in which intractable differences in work motivations and performance between men and women are also categorically rejected. As we speak, companies continue to be hauled into court for the offense of employing men over women. Immense resources and vast sums of money are devoted to improving the confidence and work performance of women. 

Is it any surprise the figures are so grim? In August, Mike Dorning of Bloomberg Businessweek wrote: Read More »

ALAN writes:

I agree with your remarks about parades.

In 1956, my mother took 24 color slides at two parades in downtown St. Louis: an Easter Seals Parade and the Armed Forces Day Parade. They show groups of soldiers in military uniform and helmet, a bugle corps in black and white uniform, groups of children wearing school colors and carrying batons, and a women’s bugle corps group neatly attired in white blouse, gold tie and skirt, green jacket, green and white hat, and white shoes. Read More »

JANE writes:

Thanks for the great commentary on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s Pinkwashing of America. This month a promotional perfume was launched for breast cancer fundraising called Promise Me. What a name. Promise Me. Just a bit suggestive, I’d say. What are we talking, vows? Weird! The ingredients include these toxic chemicals: Galaxolide, a hormone disruptor; Toluene, a neurotoxin; and Oxybenzone, an estrogen mimicker of the type implicated in causing breast cancer. Read More »

DAVID CAMERON announced yesterday that the heads of the 16 Commonweath governments have agreed to change the 300-year-old rules of succession and give girls equal claim to the throne. The proposed elimination of male primogeniture is highly significant in its symbolism. It does not signal “equality” for women, but further chaos. It is one more sign that modern society is bent on deflecting men from their role as provider and head of the family. Britain, the land of the single mother, is now naturally the land of the dispossessed king.

According to The Times, Cameron stated: Read More »

WOMEN will be boxing for the first time in the 2012 Olympics and the Amateur International Boxing Association has asked the female participants to wear skirts. Naturally, the women are up in arms. Yahoo Sports reports:

Three-time world champion Katie Taylor from Ireland does not want to wear something that she would find uncomfortable while fighting: [That’s right. Boxing never involves discomfort.]

“It’s a disgrace that they’re forcing some of the women to wear those mini-skirts. We should be able to wear shorts, just like the men. [And you should be walloped and suffer brain damage just like the men too. Isn’t one of the perks of being female the privilege not to box?]

“I won’t be wearing a mini-skirt. I don’t even wear mini-skirts on a night out, so I definitely won’t be wearing mini-skirts in the ring.” [I would be supremely surprised if you ever have a night out with a man regardless of what you wear.]

Who the heck cares whether these Amazons wear skirts or pink frou frous? Women don’t belong in the boxing ring. Period. Female boxers are about as interesting as a male synchronized swimmers. They are pretend boxers, acting their roles in the ridiculously drawn-out farce that is modern male and female relations. If only a director would emerge from the sidelines and say, “Cut! Alright, that’ll do. Let’s wrap this up and go home.”

Read More »

Rosa Damascena, Pierre-Joseph Redoute

WHEN I think of pink in its loveliness, I don’t think of pink ribbons, pink lemonade, pink planes or the aggressive sentimentality of hot pink Blackberry covers, but of the Rosa Damascena of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, one of history’s great botanical painters. The petals and thorns of this rose, which cannot be conveyed on a screen, are exactly as the most beautiful roses appear in the garden, their heads nodding under the weight of their flamboyant frills. They have a sleepy quality and are reminiscent of the roses in Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” the flowers that reminded Gerda of her friend Kay. When Gerda cried in sorrow for her friend, her tears fell to the ground and rose bushes sprang up from the moistened earth.

Redouté was born in 1759 in St-Hubert in the Begian Ardennes. His father Joseph worked as a painter and decorator in the local Abbey and came from a long line of craftsmen and artists. The family was not wealthy, but the young Pierre-Joseph was befriended by a monk at the Abbey, who was an avid naturalist and herbalist. He took the boy on walks in the woods and meadows, where they looked for medicinal plants for the Abbey pharmacy. Thus was born a botanical painter.

Redouté would eventually go on to the Versailles and patronage under Marie-Antoinette and, later, Empress Joséphine. Though prints of Redouté works can still be found in elegant homes, there is something intensely rustic about them upon closer examination. The glory and delicacy of the flower and the fruit as they are found in nature were captured with breathtaking verisimilitude by Redouté. I bought a portfolio of Redouté prints at a library book sale last year. I was amazed that they were there for $2. Thank you, Marie-Antoinette.

A.M. writes:

Your views of our culture, and of traditionalism in general, are simply arresting. You wrote:

“A parade was once for honoring or commemorating heroes. Now parades are for freaks, misfits, sluts and monsters. It must be overwhelming for children.” Read More »

Delta Airlines' pink plane

SEE the ongoing discussion of fundraising for breast cancer.

Breast cancer research is a worthy and important cause. Breast cancer is a terrible evil. But why do women seem to show far more interest in their own health than that of others? And, since this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, why are we not insistently reminded by its promoters that abortion, oral contraceptives, a failure to breastfeed and low fertility are believed to be major causes of breast cancer? Pink ribbons, pink t-shirts and pink lemonade are well and good if you can stand that kind of thing, but the important facts about breast cancer are even better.