FORTUNATELY, there has been some backlash against the article in Sunday’s weddings section of The New York Times about Carol Anne Riddell and John Partilla, a New York couple who met at their childrens’ school and married after leaving their first spouses. There are many harsh remarks, as well as some comments defending the couple, in the comments section after the initial article. New York Magazine has a critical item, in which the groom regrets the publicity. One wonders if anyone has thought to contact the former spouses and ask what their reaction was when they opened a leading newspaper to find a glowing tribute to the affair that ruined their home lives. It would be similar to opening the paper and reading a glowing interview of a kidnapper who had taken your child.

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A regular reader writes:

I really enjoyed your post on race.

I think the people who complained about your entries on rape statistics (here and here) are missing the point. There are two basic groups in humanity: those who want to adapt to reality, and those who want all decisions to be subjective because they fear oversight. (more…)

IT  appears to be increasingly common for women to superficially disavow feminism. That means, when asked if they are feminist, they say, “No, I’m not a feminist.” But saying so doesn’t necessarily make it so. I can say I don’t notice cold weather, but if I wear a coat, obviously I do.

What does it take for a woman not to be a feminist? She must explicitly and publicly reject feminist principles. (more…)

  THE REPEAL this weekend of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a further step in the reckless feminization of our military forces. How can men cultivate the traits necessary for combat and at the same time condone open effeminacy in their ranks or fight alongside women, as was recently recommended by a Congressional panel? Common sense tells us they cannot.  As Lawrence Auster writes: The country is about to embark, completely unnecessarily, on an insane experiment that will cause no end of problems for years or decades to come, turn the military into a sexual and litigious battleground between homosexuals and straights, and discourage the enlistment of capable men who will not want to serve in such a decadent Army, Navy, and Air Force. The homosexualists’ and liberals’ real aim is to turn us, militarily speaking, into the equivalent of the Netherlands.

HERE is a 1993 version by the King’s College Chapel Choir of Cambridge University of the lovely hymn, “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree,” an austere contrast to jingle bell clamorousness.

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ELIZABETH WRIGHT writes:

Perhaps you’ve seen this story of two selfish monsters who rationalize their destruction of both of their families.  It wasn’t so  long ago that even the New York Times would not have celebrated the remarriage of this man and woman, who “fell in love” with someone else’s spouse, and consider their decision to leave their children acceptable, because they are “soul mates.”  I mean, this is really stunning.

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BRUCE CHARLTON, writing at his blog, praises the extremely time-consuming, but rewarding format for commenting at this blog. He writes:

I am not a huge fan of comments on blogs.

Indeed, when I first began looking at blogs and for quite a while, I was put-off reading several blogs (despite enjoying the postings) because of the comments.

The postings might be good, but the world of the comments that followed them was horrific. (more…)

VINTAGE ADS, some indecent, all politically incorrect, can be found here.

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SPEAKING of rape, how is it possible for a woman to rape a man? As far as I know, it is physically impossible. Nevertheless, Lisa M. Lavoie, a Massachusetts teacher, has been convicted of statutory rape and will serve a three- to five-year prison term.

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KRISTOR writes:

Coincidentally, I am reading a book by René Guénon, The Symbolism of the Cross, one of his metaphysical works. It is the first time I have had the pleasure of reading Guénon. I am completely staggered with amazement. He is, without exaggeration, one of the most brilliant and learned men I have ever encountered. I can’t wait to start in on his other books. I’m learning a ton. I will say, however, that the book is challenging. A reader with no background in Greek metaphysics, particularly Neo-Platonism, might find it to be nothing but portentous sounding gibberish. 

Many of Guénon’s books have appeared in English for the first time only in the last few years. Sophia Perennis has a Collected Works which I am now determined to own. My first volume of the set is already dog-eared, and heavily annotated, and I’m only halfway through. (more…)

ROGER G. writes:

You never should have posted that “Sexual Fluidity, cont.” entry and Andrej Pejic photo. It was nearly too much for me, and you know how sentimental some of your readers are. It probably killed them.

Fortunately, I was able to reach the picture of my nephew in his hockey uniform and stare at it for a half hour, so I’m all right. (more…)

A READER writes:

Your recent post, “Rape and Race,” has produced quite a few negative reactions from people who have been offended at what they feel was implied racism on your part. Their reaction, as far as I can tell, may not have been your intent. However, I feel that they are somewhat justified in their response due to the ambiguous nature of the post. (more…)

THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU writes:

Regarding male (or “male”) model, Andrej Pejic – the photograph of him that you reproduced today is creepy and disturbing. I reacted to it with visceral loathing. My guess is that, whatever sexual neurosis Pejic is acting out, he is also aiming precisely at the effect of being creepy and disturbing. If such a person had manifested himself in a public place in 1950, he probably would have been arrested and, if not charged with indecency, then placed under psychiatric detention pending a cure. Nowadays he enjoys a “career” and is a “celebrity.” Our afflicted society produces these grotesques one after another and in droves, a sign of how profound the cultural malaise is.  (more…)

HERE are some strong objections at other sites to what I and others have written here in the last few days. They concern the recent posts on men’s rights, which you can find here and here, and on black rape statistics.

At the Spearhead and In Male Fide, I am accused of a lack of understanding of what men face today. I have not read these posts in their entirety. In fact, I have not read references to me at either of these sites since they stooped to calling me names.

Two female bloggers take strong exception to my post on black rape. In a long entry about false rape accusations against black men during the Jim Crow era, accusations which she says were a result of white female hysteria over sexual relations between their husbands and black women, Alte at Traditional Catholicism says, “Hundreds of black men died that way, and many still do, to promote the cause of White Womanhood.” (more…)

  THE 19-YEAR-OLD Australian model Andrej Pejic, who is a boy, is an extreme example of what is everywhere in the modern world: the role-playing of one sex as the other. Judging from this brief description of his life, Pejic did not grow up with his father. Fatherlessness, which is becoming more common by the day, is fertile ground for sexual confusion.

  IN HIS latest article at The Brussels Journal, Thomas F. Bertonneau examines the work of the French thinker René Guénon, who coined the term "mystic socialism" to describe nineteenth century strains of  Protestantism which continue to infuse modern-day liberalism with sentimental moralism. “Humanitarianism, pacifism, anti-alcoholism, and vegetarianism [are] ideas that are at root sentimental,” wrote Guénon, who died in 1951 and stands among those who consider the Renaissance and Reformation to be the "starting point of the modern crisis."

IN AN interview at National Review Online, W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project and one of the authors of its latest report, “When Marriage Disappears: The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America,” makes this point:

So, we are witnessing a striking reversal in American life where highly educated Americans are more likely to be connected to the religious and moral sources of a strong marriage culture than their fellow citizens from middle America.

This gives the false impression that America’s elites are embracing traditional values. The truth is, a college education has simply become more common. As was discussed in this previous entry, the bourgeois middle class is now “highly educated.” Meanwhile our true elites remain enemies of bourgeois America and the traditional family, as is abundantly apparent from the constant celebration of feminism and sexual liberation in mainstream culture and academia. Our intelligentsia constantly prod the less fortunate toward radical liberation for the sheer adolescent thrill of it all. (more…)

ONE of the great things about Christmastime is that folk music is everywhere. At other times of the year, folk music is never popular music. At Christmas, the mainstream embraces vintage hymns and songs, and these are continually reinterpreted.

Here is a less familiar hymn, the Shaker song “Hail the Memorable Morn,” with beautiful call-and-response refrains by all-female and all-male sections. It was composed in Watervliet, New York in the 1830s. (more…)