IN AN AGE when children with Down Syndrome — children who might bring so much joy and meaning to the world — are routinely killed in the womb, this 16th-century Nativity painting, which clearly depicts two people with the familiar traits of the syndrome, is especially beautiful. Erna Albertz works for Rifton, a company that makes products for the disabled. She writes about the painting:

In 1515 the painting “The Adoration of the Christ Child,” was created by a follower of the Dutch painter Jan Joest of Kalkar. A close look at the artwork reveals two characters who appear to have Down syndrome. One a shepherd–looking down at the scene from behind a post at the center of the painting–and the other an angel standing beside the mother Mary, these two participants in the nativity are situated in what would seem to be places of honor. Because the painter is unknown, his motive for placing them there can only be surmised. He may have had a child with Down syndrome or simply known individuals with the condition. At that time, the syndrome also may not have been formally diagnosed as it is today. What seems beyond doubt is that he felt they belonged there, in the midst of the holy scene.

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RITA JANE writes:

My husband and I have struggled to have children and we’ve lost three pregnancies in succession, even though I am young and healthy. I’m a fertility treatment baby myself, but even I have been astounded by how people react when I say we won’t be pursuing fertility treatment. (more…)

A federal judge’s decision in Utah yesterday does not make polygamy legal, but it brings that possibility closer to reality. From a report by John Schwartz in The New York Times:

A federal judge has struck down parts of Utah’s anti-polygamy law as unconstitutional in a case brought by a polygamous star of a reality television series. Months after the Supreme Court bolstered rights of same-sex couples, the Utah case could open a new frontier in the nation’s recognition of once-prohibited relationships. (more…)

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KARL D. writes:

YOU can read about the Indian Supreme Court’s decision this week here. The law, first adopted in 1861 under British colonial rule, imposes a ten-year sentence for any act of “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with man, woman or animal.”

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JORGE BERGOGLIO, the man whose credentials for the papal throne do not include being a Catholic, has done it again. He has once again delivered a rhetorical detonation. This time he tells us that all that stuff about hell and damnation was exaggeration. Novus Ordo Watch has the gory details of  his homily this Wednesday, in which he stated, according to a reliable English translation:

Do not be afraid of the final judgment of God, when the good will be separated from the bad, because Jesus will always be at our side, because we can rely on the intercession and the benevolence of the saints and because God “did not send his Son to condemn, but to save” and “he who believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is already condemned,” and in this sense “the judgment has already begun”.

Unsurprisingly, Time magazine has chosen Francis as “Man of the Year”  — oops, make that “Person of the Year.” The magazine, which we know has the highest of standards, calls Bergoglio the “People’s Pope.” There you have it. When a pope is popular in the modern world, that’s a sure sign he is not Catholic.

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  "VOX Clara Ecce Intonat," or "A Thrilling Voice by Jordan Rings," is another beautiful Advent hymn. It was composed in the sixth century. Notice once again the stirring lyrics. O, we of little faith. If only we could have a modicum of the courage of St. Lucy, whose martyrdom is honored today. If only we could hear that thrilling voice. A THRILLING voice by Jordan rings, rebuking guilt and darksome things: vain dreams of sin and visions fly; Christ in His might shines forth on high. Now let each torpid soul arise, that sunk in guilt and wounded lies; see! the new Star's refulgent ray shall chase disease and sin away. Giovanni Vanini performs the ancient hymn here.

AT Reclaiming Beauty, Kidist Paulos Asrat writes about Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, economists, public policy celebrities and purported experts on marriage and the economy. Interestingly, Stevenson and Wolfers are not married, though they have lived together for years and have two children. They are not married for tax reasons, which is a super-cool reason not to marry. They employ a nanny for some $50,000 a year and outsource almost all domestic chores. Thus have they outfoxed the tedium that has afflicted mankind and been able to devote themselves to the families of the world. Wolfers is the first economist in history to discover fatherhood — and he has long hair, which further boosts his hipness rating. The top universities can’t get enough of these two and they have worked at a bunch of them. They are currently employed at the University of Michigan. Here is a New York Times piece about them from last year.

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AISHA HARRIS, a black columnist for Slate, suggests that Santa Claus be henceforth depicted as a penguin — yes, a penguin — instead of a fat, bearded white man. Harris writes:

Why, you ask? For one thing, making Santa Claus an animal rather than an old white male could spare millions of nonwhite kids the insecurity and shame that I remember from childhood. (more…)

IT makes as much sense for a woman to head General Motors as it does for a man to head the League of Women Voters. In other words, it makes no sense. Automotive engineering and manufacturing have always been a man’s world — and always will be. I am sure Mary Barra, who has been named CEO of General Motors, is a talented and smart woman. Indeed, she may be a brilliant CEO, but it’s still an outrage to have a woman in charge of a man’s world. It’s an outrage against male authority and against female dignity. Women have many more important things to do than manage giant companies and market cars. The corporate world loves the dynamic dualism of the woman executive. Her vitalistic androgyny inspires the sort of denial of reality that makes people want to spend more than they have. But whenever I see a woman CEO, I think of the barren home life she must lead. Fancy vacations and big houses do so little to cover up a soulless home. You have to have a soul, by the way, in order to identify a soulless home. A female executive doesn’t have time to take care of a single houseplant (it would wither under her lack of nurturance), let alone nurture and bring to life a family and a real home.

By the way, how can you take seriously an executive who wears such lurid nail polish? I realize I’m mind-blowingly old-fashioned, but the truth is the woman executive just can’t stop herself. She compensates for her masculine ambition and competitiveness, things which stifle her femininity at its core, by being aggressively feminine in dress, with low-cut blouses, tight skirts and the sort of nail fashion once reserved for tarts. Barra just had to offset her Maoist pantsuit with something suggestive of a brothel.

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I KNOW this has already been widely commented upon, but this photo of Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and the Obamas at the Nelson Mandela memorial yesterday says it all, doesn’t it? Here we have the aggressively revealing dress and lack of gravitas of the Western white woman in power along with the inflated egotism of her natural ally, the black man in power. They can’t get enough of each other. Then to top it off, we have the stony demeanor of the wife, whose unhappiness symbolizes the unpleasant reality that the black woman is often the loser in the race to elevate and bring together the white woman and black man. Michelle’s expression reminds me of the antipathy black women feel as more and more white women take their men. — And all this at a memorial service, confirming what has been said here about the death of death.

The Daily Mail also has the now famous photo of Obama, David Cameron and Thorning-Schmidt taking a selfie. These are the Teenagers Who Rule Us.

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THE modern world progressively destroys all vestige of the sacred and turns all ceremonies and rites into vulgar exercises in self-love. The funeral is no exception to this rule. In an egocentric, nihilistic culture, the traditional funeral is too sad, too serious and too impersonal. It’s too much of a downer. That’s why instead of praying for the dead and contemplating the hereafter, survivors now commonly celebrate the life of the deceased with upbeat eulogies, mementoes, biographies, songs, and photos. Chad Bird, in his excellent essay “The Tragic Death of the Funeral,” aptly calls it “necronarcissism.”

Surrounded as it is with so much sincere sentiment and seeming good will, the “Celebration of Life” seems innocuous. But, as Bird writes, this kind of Funeral Lite is a symptom of profound social decay:

What makes community life viable, in groups as small as a family or large as a country, is the will of individuals to makes [sic] sacrifices for others, to consider more than their own needs and wants, and to act accordingly. The more robust this other-focused approach to life is, the healthier the community will be. For that reason, there is no greater threat to the cohesion and perpetuation of a society than narcissism. (more…)

FITZGERALD writes:

I was in college during the anti-apartheid movement. I was in the anti-anti-apartheid movement. We once held a campus-wide meeting where we screened a CBC documentary on the ANC exposing its murderous practices and Soviet underwriting and how the Western and especially American press falsely reported the reality on the ground. It was especially condemning of the Mandelas for advocating violent acts of terror including the practice of necklacing. (more…)

IN celebrating the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God today, we celebrate not just the purity and sinlessness of a single woman, but her combativeness, the counterpart to her spotless purity. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira wrote of the intransigence of Mary:

Let us look more closely at what intransigence is. When a person has a very clear notion of what is good and an understanding of the highest expressions of this good, this person knows that the opposite is bad. It is not a theoretical knowledge, like that of a scientist who analyzes a specimen in a laboratory, but rather a knowledge that comes hand in hand with a great love for good. The person naturally recognizes the opposite of such good, which is evil, and hates evil with an intensity proportionate to the magnitude of his love for the good.

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  I AM very behind in posting comments on recent threads. I may not be able to get to them all until later today.