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. (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. (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.” (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: (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? (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.  (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. (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!). (more…)

APROPOS of the discussion here on homeschooling, I recommend this essay by William C. Michael, director of the Classical Liberal Arts Academy for homeschoolers. He writes:

Working in education and being a father of 5 young boys, I face the same questions any time someone learns that I live on a farm and teach my own children at home:

“Do your kids play video games?”

“Do your kids watch TV?”

“Do you kids play sports?”

My answer: “No, they don’t.” (more…)

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INEZ writes:

I just wanted to add my experiences, as a private SAT prep teacher, to the discussion about the SAT scores. The SAT is not a valuable test; by this I mean the score a student receives on it does not correlate strongly with any substantial measurement of success or intelligence. (more…)

GREG JINKERSON writes:

My wife and I have a baby boy so far, with hopes of having several more kids. She is a full-time mom. I am absolutely bound and determined to keep our children out of state schools, and my wife is to a great extent in agreement with me. However, she is having doubts and anxieties about her ability to educate our kids herself. I have told her my opinion: that simply by virtue of being protected from statist brainwashing and kept in our family orbit, our children will wind up perfectly civilized, especially in comparison with what government schools are turning out. (more…)

YOU MAY have heard that American college students are doing worse on the SATs, but a look at the official breakdown of scores according to race reveals that whites, who represent the majority of test-takers, are doing better in math than they were in the early 70’s, when scores overall were at their highest, and are doing only marginally worse in reading scores. (more…)