INEZ writes:

I’ve read your blog with interest over the last several months. You can call me your loyal (hopefully respectful) opposition. I’m perfectly willing to grant that many of the principles you articulate about masculinity and femininity are true across large numbers of people, and I oppose a great number of modern feminist tropes. However, both my natural inclinations/strengths and my admittedly short experiences have been the opposite of what you would consider feminine.

In your entry “Male and Female, Summarized” you list masculine and feminine qualities. Of the masculine, I strongly fulfill all except sexual conquest, physical strength (relative to men, of course), and naturally, genius, although I doubt that most men possess this quality either! [Let’s leave aside for a moment the technical meaning of PATER-nalism and how I cannot possibly be paternal by definition, not being a man, and replace it for now with “protectiveness.”] (more…)

AT Galliawatch, Tiberge reports on the aftermath of the violent and obscene protest by feminists during a Paris march against homosexual “marriage.” She writes:

Jacques Bompard, mayor of Orange and deputy in the National Assembly, who participated in the Civitas march has described what happened on Sunday, as the rally was getting started:

“The extremists of Femen violently attacked the rally, spraying the demonstrators, including children in carriages and the security personnel, with fire extinguishers,” insists the deputy. Worse, the Ukrainian militants from Femen were “naked with anti-Christian and obscene slogans on their chests, shouting in front of young children,” he wrote in his communiqué. “Contrary to what government spokeswoman Mme Vallaud-Belkacem affirms, the provocations and the calls to hatred came from the aggressors and not from the demonstrators,” he added, condemning the attack “perpetrated by extreme-left-wing militants that belong to an activist fringe group.”

See the amazing video (be warned: it contains obscene footage) of the feminists from Femen aggressively shouting and then screaming like little girls when the crowd reacts to their attack with fire extinguishers.

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  THE Church of England's rejection of female bishops has dealt a devastating blow to the future of liturgical vestments. We're going to see far less innovation in the years ahead. Just when things were finally getting interesting too.  

  ERVEN PARK has an interesting piece at Tradition in Action on the high prevalence of homosexuality in the Catholic priesthood. He blames this on the failure of bishops to adhere to longstanding prohibitions against men with homosexual inclinations and on the natural attraction of the priesthood to homosexual narcissists. He makes persuasive points. However, he seems to be missing a major factor. It's not surprising if few men secure in their manliness are attracted to the heavily sentimentalized environment of a contemporary Catholic parish, where they will be raised up on eagle's wings, to paraphrase the popular Catholic hymn, on the emotional, personalist liturgy of Vatican II. The figures on homosexuality in the priesthood are probably skewed by the general decline in male vocations. The feminization of the Church inevitably leads to effeminate priests.

A READER writes:

I appreciated that Thanksgiving essay, articulating the value and love of tradition (though the family’s consumption of pies, pastries, candies, and soda pop left me concerned about blood-sugar levels). It came just in time, as we drive past overcrowded shopping malls and homes with garish displays of holiday lights and inflatable Santa scenes already disturbing the peaceful night. Carols have been replaced by Irving Berlin tunes. (No matter; no one knows how to sing anymore.) Christmas, the religious holiday, finally has been eclipsed by the Winter Retail Holiday. I’m sure the Homo economicus elite is pleased.

I don’t know if you remember that scene in the movie, Gandhi, where Gandhi sits alone at his spinning wheel, the breeze gently unfurling his flag and slapping its clips against the flagpole. The sense of isolation was overwhelming. That’s akin to how we feel at Christmastime.

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JLG writes:

A few excerpts from Lisa Bingham’s column, “Bless Your Heart,” from the Syracuse (Utah) Islander for Thursday, 22 November, 2012. I think she hit this one out of the park (to use an image from a sport I never watch)

Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE! it didn’t used to be so—I mean sure, as a child I loved to sing about the great, big turkey down on Grandpa’s farm, but mostly it was just a blip on the radar screen between Happy Halloween and Merry Christmas. (more…)

HERE from the League of the South, a secessionist organization, is the case for making Alabama a separate country. The piece states, “It is time we Alabamians ruled ourselves. We have everything we need . . . if we can merely muster the will.” It begins:

Like many other States of this once-voluntary union, Alabama has all that is necessary to be a separate, independent republic. Our State’s population is 4.8 million (2010 US Census), which puts it equal to or larger than Norway, New Zealand, Croatia, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, and Iceland, among others. In total area (roughly 50,000 square miles) it is equal to or larger than Slovakia, Estonia, Denmark, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Israel, and Taiwan. It is a land of great diversity, from its resource-rich mountains in the north, to its luxuriant Black Belt farmlands, to its beautiful Gulf Coast. Alabama’s enormous natural resources range from timber and other forest products to the ingredients for steel production—coal, iron ore, and limestone. (more…)

IN THE Danish author Isak Dinesan's short story, "Babette's Feast," the story upon which the well-known and remarkably faithful 1987 movie of the same name is based, General Loewenhielm rises at the end of the spectacular feast that Babette, the former French chef, has prepared in the rustic, ascetic home of the two pious Lutheran sisters who took Babette in as a servant after she fled revolution and the events of Bloody Week in France. Loewenhielm is deeply moved and wants to deliver a toast. The meal, so improbable and sublime, has profoundly affected him. It has affected the other guests too. The elderly religious friends of Martine and Philippa are unaccustomed to sensual pleasures of this kind. They normally dine on simple fare such as split cod and bread-and-ale soup. They had been alarmed as Babette prepared for the feast, which was to be in honor of the ladies' deceased father, the leader and prophet of their sect. They had wondered if Babette intended to use the beasts and various herbs in the kitchen to bewitch them. Instead, under the influence of Blinis Demidoff, Cailles en Sarcophage and Veuve Clicquot, they experience a joy and delight they had rarely, if ever, known. They are rejuvenated and their various enmities magically evaporate. Instead of being bewitched, they are filled with a child-like innocence and purity. They laugh under the effects of this mysterious convergence of spiritual and bodily forces. But…

IN THE entry about the demonstrating French feminists who cursed Christianity and opponents of homosexual “marriage,” Daniel S. writes:

With Christianity gone from the public square and from the hearts of most Frenchmen, an old enemy has returned. Islam is now set to surpass Catholicism as the dominant religion in France. The hedonistic nihilism of the decadent, spoiled bourgeoisie will naturally crumble before the soldiers of Allah that now populate large portions of France. It might be boobs for these spoiled children today, still playing out their silly rebellions against any father figure, but it will be burqas tomorrow when the Muslims, with their eternal will power, assume the upper hand.

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AT The Orthosphere, Kristor offers a reasonable guide to survival and affecting the culture. In the immediate future, he recommends:

1. Resolve to pay no more PC jizya (beautifully spelled out in the Solzhenitsyn essay that has been discussed a lot lately in the wider orthosphere). Tell the truth, and call a spade a spade: calmly, politely, and without being obstreperous about it, but nevertheless firmly. Without making a big deal about it or calling attention to yourself, fail to appear for the public rites of Moloch. If you must thus appear, quietly fail to meet the requirements of the rite. (more…)

TIBERGE at Galliawatch has another must-read post on one of the recent demonstrations against same-sex unions in France. She writes:

Nude women, part of the “Femen” group disrupted the march and sprayed the demonstrators with tear gas. Their naked torsos were painted with blasphemous slogans such as “F… God”, “F… Church” and “In gay we trust” (photos below).

These obscene paid “professionals” were supported and seconded by a well-known French “journalist” and militant lesbian named Caroline Fourest, who had already demonstrated in favor of gay marriage on Saturday and had been pushed back by the police.

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  SJF writes: Here is a sermon by Fr. Jackson of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Littleton, Colorado on the election, culture, history, World War I and how Catholics should respond to recent events. He wrote: So what to do? C.S. Lewis knew the Great War was the end of Christian rule. So he wrote that from here on out, we are not called to rule but to sabotage. We are not being called to win an earthly victory. We are simply being called to battle. And to understand the first thing we have to do to be in the battle, I'll turn back to Tolkien [and The Lord of the Rings.] When the hero Frodo sees that the great age of Elves was passing, and the age of men was beginning, he says, "I wish it need not have happened in my time." His friend Gandalf says in reply, "So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." I thought you would enjoy his thoughts. Happy Thanksgiving!

KEVIN V. writes:

Here is today’s State Department announcement, sent to all employees:

2012 National Transgender Day of Remembrance

National Transgender Day of Remembrance is observed on November 20th each year to memorialize those who suffered or died as a result of anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. Such persons were victimized simply because they failed to meet someone else’s expectation of how they should identify or present themselves. Globally, the transgender community is among the most vulnerable and most misunderstood of communities, often facing lives of persecution, humiliation, poverty, exclusion, and rejection – even from their own families. (more…)

IN rejecting the current American order, it is a big mistake to idolize the Founding and seek to return to an earlier point in our political history. As a reader noted in the previous entry and as Lawrence Auster points out, we couldn’t have gotten here unless America was flawed from the start. Mr. Auster writes:

The official documents of the Founding defined America in terms of universal equal freedom (the Declaration of Independence) and neutral government procedures (the Constitution). It did not define America as a religiously, culturally, and racially specific nation. Yes, such culturally specific definitions were a part of the Founding, but were not stated with the same force, explicitness and authority as the equalitarian, procedural aspects. (more…)

HERE IS another example of fraktur, colorful documents made by Pennsylvania Germans in the 18th and 19th centuries. This marriage certificate was made in 1839 in Northampton, Pennsylvania. Here is a translation: I, Maria Stüwer, entered into the state of matrimony with Johannes Spriegel, on the 14th day of March, in the year of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, one thousand eight hundred and thirty seven. In God’s name we commenced, his spirit leads us on the right path, to announce the state of householding. Because it is still so unknown to many, we bring the verses into bright light, informing those the teaching breaks. [In English] Made by Daniel Stephen Horn, Teacher, September the 3rd, 1839.

HERE is good news. Thousands of people turned out in cities across France for two different demonstrations, yesterday and today, against a bill that would legalize homosexual marriage and adoption. Tiberge writes about the events at Galliawatch.

Notice how the banner above calls attention not just to marriage as one man and one woman, but to the child as having both a mother and a father. Homosexual marriage involves the unjust deprivation of children of their natural parents and homosexual adoption deprives the orphaned child of surrogates for both his mother and father. Behind the banner is a sign calling for parity in marriage, mocking the left’s constant calls for parity with equal number of men and women in all spheres of life. And below is another great sign, which says, “A father, a mother — One doesn’t lie to children.” That’s a terrific statement.

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CHRISTINE SMITH writes:

I came across this song by the Quebec band Mes Aïeux on Youtube. I think these Québécois are onto something. The song didn’t end with as much “punch” as I had hoped, but they bring up some good points about the degeneration of culture.

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  AT Galliawatch, the blogger Tiberge, who writes about the nightmarish conquest of France from within, writes: The Plutonic forces of destruction cannot be stopped. We have to let them run their course to make way for the new. But we must, at the same time, do whatever we can to see to it that the new order, built on the ashes of the old, is not devoid of memory. That it is, instead, totally aware of what happened, of who was responsible, of what was done and not done to prevent it, and of the responsibility to keep alive the best of our efforts.