IN contrast to the shallow promotion of childlessness discussed in this entry, here are reflections on marriage and family by the Russian Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, the wife of Tsar Nicholas II whom, as we all know, was assassinated along with her family by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and whose mournful and pensive face was so entirely lacking in the vanity mentioned in the previous post. Below is an excerpt, but please read the whole thing. This is a beautiful essay. Many years from now, people will still be reading this and feel affection for its author, while reflections on the joys of sterility will make future generations despise their stingy ancestors — if those reflections are read at all. These reflections are almost painful in light of Russia’s subsequent moral and demographic collapse. Here is the Empress on children:

Our children naturally bring along with them a multitude of cares and concerns, and for this reason there are people who look upon the appearance of children as a misfortune. But it is only cold egotists who can look upon children in such a manner.

It is a momentous thing to take upon oneself the responsibility for these tender young lives, which can enrich the world with beauty, joy, and power, but which can also easily perish; it is a momentous thing to nurture them, form their character, – this is what one should think about when establishing a home. It should be a home in which children will grow up to a sincere and noble life, grow up for God. (more…)

TIME magazine chose an image of a couple lying on a beach for its latest promotion of childlessness by Lauren Sandler. Imagine if the magazine had chosen an image of old people languishing in a nursing home instead. But then the publication would have offended the delicate sensibilities of its readership. If it had also portrayed the intentionally childless as the selfish people they often are, that might have caused someone, somewhere to think.

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  KARL D. writes: Megyn Kelly, the glamorous FOX news blonde newscaster and feminist, is now rumored to replace Sean Hannity as co-host on his long running 9 p.m. time slot. While I am no fan of Sean Hannity, the man slogs it out five days a week (including a radio show) and to my knowledge does not get extended time off to be with his family. Kelly, however, is now out on maternity leave. Her third maternity leave in as many years! When I say maternity leave I am not talking about a few weeks, but several months. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out. It seems feminism has been very, very good for Megyn Kelly. Her children and Hannity? Not so much.

DANIEL S. writes:

I hadn’t seen this when it first happened several months ago, but Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch had posted the letter that the Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts wrote after he canceled Spencer’s planned appearance at a Catholic men’s conference. The bishop was none too pleased with Spencer’s critique of Islam. After mentioning the usual mush about Vatican II and “mutual understanding” the bishop wrote:

My decision to ask Mr. Spencer not to speak at the Men’s Conference resulted from a concern voiced by members of the Islamic community in Massachusetts, a concern that I came to share. That concern was that Mr. Spencer’s talk about extreme, militant Islamists and the atrocities that they have perpetrated globally might undercut the positive achievements that we Catholics have attained in our inter-religious dialogue with devout Muslims and possibly generate suspicion and even fear of people who practice piously the religion of Islam. (more…)

ADAM writes:

While waiting for my flight at an airport yesterday, I browsed through some magazines at a shop in the terminal. The cover of the current issue of Time magazine said “The Childfree Life: When Having It All Means Not Having Children.” The cover photo showed an apparently carefree couple sunning themselves on the beach. (more…)

A READER writes:

I am a young woman in my twenties. I have a Ph.D. and was raised to be extremely feminist. To make a long story very short, I am very lonely. I am attractive and pleasant enough and have never had trouble attracting men, but they (or at least the ones I meet) tend to want only one thing. Over time, I have discovered that I have very conservative …”tendencies” and have been lurking at your site and others like it for years, rather wistfully I must say. I long to be a wife and mother and to have a lifelong companion. I love art, music, and literature, and that is why I continued my studies, but while they have been rewarding, they have only made me lonelier in the end, because the students are all very liberal and even the ones who are married are not in it for the long haul. Divorce is always considered an option and many of them engage in behaviors I wouldn’t consider at all appropriate in a marriage, like flirting or even adultery.

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DON VINCENZO writes:

Again, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point does not disappoint: political correctness is very much alive and well at the institution.

In an appeal for financial support, the West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG) sent a flyer to former graduates.
The focus, below, of the flyer tells you a lot about what West Point’s Association of Graduates believes will attract the largest cohort of donors: a black and female cadet. Further, if you look closely at the graduation ceremony photos, above, the center shows two female cadets taking the oath; the young man behind the two females is probably Hispanic. (more…)

HENRY McCULLOCH writes:

Yesterday I commented on Frank Bruni’s New York Times column and Bruni’s dream that U.S. athletes may engage in a pro-sodomite disruption at the opening of next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, to protest Russia’s statutes — unobjectionable in a healthy society — against homosexualist propaganda and proselytising.

Maybe Barack Hussein Obama has been reading Bruni or the NYT op-ed by sodomite activist Harvey Fierstein. In a softball interview with Jay Leno, Leno said the [Russian] laws had “shocked” him and compared Russia’s arrests of homosexual protesters to Nazi Germany’s extermination of Jews and homosexuals. No hint of hyperbole there. Unblinkingly accepting the risible comparison as valid, Obama – as his paymasters require – took his cue: (more…)

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ONE of the most disturbing things about Pope Francis’s recent comments on the plane from Rome to Rio was his implication that the Church may legitimately view homosexuality as a permanent inclination and a form of identity. But there is no such thing as a Christian homosexual. There are obviously Christians who have homosexual desires, but not homosexual Christians. Here is some deeper analysis of the Pope’s remarks at the sedevacantist website, Novus Ordo Watch. Novus Ordo writes:

Francis plays right into the wrong-headed but widespread idea that some people are homosexual in their identity, in their nature, as part of “who they are”. This is exactly what modern-day liberals want you to believe, that just as people are biologically either male or female, so they are also biologically either heterosexual or homosexual.

Nonsense! If a Catholic accepts this idea, he has already crossed the line….

Also, here is a reader’s comment on the same subject that came in before the Pope’s remarks on the plane to Rome.

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HERE IS a great comment by a reader from a 2012 post, “On the Myth of Neutral Schools.” Greg J. wrote:

REBECCA ANN CLARK has filed a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission because she was asked by a lifeguard to wear a shirt on a Montreal beach after she was seen strolling down the beach half-undressed, according to the CBC. She says if men are not required to wear tops, women shouldn’t have to wear them either.

She’s got a point. There is no working principle by which the Human Rights Commission can deny her claim. To differentiate between the sexes, except in cases where criminal charges are filed against men or jobs are granted to women, is to discriminate. That’s bad. Therefore, female nudity is good.

One would like to ask Miss Clark if she truly wants the world to view her chest as the same as a man’s and whether she has noticed that female toplessness is a hallmark of less advanced cultures (see image below). But it is probably pointless to intrude upon this highly intelligent woman’s revolutionary high. Miss Clark, assuming this report is correct, is merely practicing her religion. Filing a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission is a sacrament that confers extraordinary grace. If it takes outright nudity to achieve this state of sanctification and keep the forces of the Quebec Inquisition busy, so be it.

[WARNING: IMPROPER IMAGE BELOW.]

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HENRY McCULLOCH writes:

One of The New York Times‘s Designated Homosexuals, the columnist Frank Bruni, Has A Dream that must send a thrill up his leg. In his dream, Bruni imagines U.S. athletes taking a stand for sodomy at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi. Sochi, you see, is in Russia. And the Russians are Very Bad – Mean, even – to sodomites. Bruni’s column perfectly captures the arrogant oddity of America today: censoriously hectoring the rest of the world in the promotion, not of virtue, but of vice.

The thrilling vision Mr. Bruni offers his readers is of U.S. athletes in the opening parade at the Sochi Olympics, teaching those big, bad, homophobic Russians a lesson. One by one, in Bruni’s tingly imaginings, the strolling U.S. athletes pull out handkerchief-sized rainbow flags, and wave them! Take That, Vladimir Putin, You Big Homophobic Meanie You!

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ADAM writes:

This photo of Kerry announcing visa changes to allow same-sex “spouses” the same immigration benefits as married couples is the first thing that greeted me at the top of the homepage for the U.S. Department of State when I visited that website yesterday as I was preparing to travel abroad next week.

I had heard of this policy change before, but still there’s something shocking about seeing it in print and promoted as the top news item at the State Department website. I understand that marriage fraud is a fairly common way for unscrupulous individuals to gain entry and residency to the U.S. As it is, immigration officials have the difficult task of interviewing couples to determine whether a marriage is real or a sham. The problem with same-sex couples is that their union is by-definition a sham, as “marriage” between two people of the same sex has no basis in tradition, history, or law, and because such a union cannot produce children. I’m trying to imagine the kind of questions the immigration officer could ask to determine if the homosexual couple’s “marriage” is legitimate or a sham. How awkward!

I predict that this policy will result in a dramatic increase in marriage fraud for purposes of immigration, as there will be no way to legitimately screen out sham marriages. (more…)

KARL D. writes:

I have been on Facebook for the last several years, something which is both a blessing and a curse. It has allowed me to re-connect with people from my past which is a good thing. But on the downside it has allowed me to re-connect with people from my past. I was never a liberal, but I was more of a centrist in my late teens and early 20s.

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