IN THIS entry, the reader Chris disputes another commenter’s claim that feminism is on the wane. Chris writes:

I would very much like to share your optimism. But I know of no effort by conservatives in Congress, or in the churches to repeal Title IX. There is no one within the Republican Party who is speaking up with regards to the dearth of men teaching in our schools. No one within the recent Tea Party phenomena expressed any interest in eliminating the blatantly unconstitutional sections of the Violence Against Women Act. No state legislature I know of is planning to reform “no-fault divorce.” (more…)

AT The Brussels Journal, Thomas F. Bertonneau reflects on determinism and morality. He examines three Late Antique works, Satyricon, The Golden Ass, and St. Augustine’s Confessions, in light of one of the key tenets of modern liberalism — the notion that we are compelled to sin by external forces.

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WHY DOES a male prostitute use a condom? Does he do so out of genuine concern for his client, as Pope Benedict XVI suggested when he recently spoke of condom use by male prostitutes as a “first step in the direction of a moralization?” I am not an insider to the sex business, but does one have to be an insider to see the simple realities here. It seems logical that the prostitute uses condoms, or requires his clients to use condoms, 1) because he will not get clients otherwise and 2) to protect himself. There is most likely no genuine selfless “concern for the other,” as Vatican spokesman  Fr. Federico Lombardi stated when he backed up the Pope’s comments. (more…)

JEFFREY WHITING writes:

Thank you for writing against egalitarianism and feminism in Christian churches when so few are willing to make any serious criticisms of it. 

And, thank you for providing a forum sympathetic to the difficulties of men in the modern world today. Your writing is a refreshing alternative to the wicked rhetoric that is common on so-called “men’s rights” sites. However, I must admit, my stamina and willingness to continue actively resisting these influences has sunk very low. I will never become an egalitarian or feminist, but I’m transitioning from resisting them to simply trying to avoid being destroyed by them.  (more…)

AMERICA’S schools routinely use mothers as unpaid slaves. That would be okay if the tasks they demanded were necessary or interesting. But they ask for things that are typically make-work: bake sales and craft projects and fund-raisers everyone could easily do without. I remember once working hard on some ridiculous fund-raiser at my older son’s school, only to be told the money would be spent on a hideous steel jungle gym that was ripped out two years later. 

This trivial servitude, which can be found at churches as well, turns many women away from their families and homes. They get paid jobs to escape this depressing round of cupcake ventures. (more…)

  BRITAIN'S Equality Act of 2010 encourages companies to choose women and racial minorities over equally qualified white male job candidates. As reported in The Daily Mail, Labour ministers announced yesterday that the new law would "apply voluntary positive action in recruitment and promotion processes when faced with candidates of equal merit, to address under-representation in the workforce.’ This goes a step further than most anti-discrimination laws, at least the stated intention of most anti-discrimination laws, which is to remove any supposed bias against women. The Equality Act sets a new standard of active discrimination in favor of women.  The British government is also considering the draconian possibility of requiring the most powerful corporations to ensure that their boards are at least 40 percent female. Currently, about 12 percent of board directors are women.

IF YOU are searching for a Christmas gift for a child between the ages of five and 12, the 1987 film adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s prose poem A Child’s Christmas in Wales, available on DVD, is an excellent choice. This production stars the Welsh actor Denholm Elliott, who narrates with the words of the original poem about one man’s memories of his Christmases in a town in Wales. It features snow, firemen dousing flames, “useless” gifts, candy cigarettes and fat uncles dozing in chairs after Christmas dinner. It is funny and poignant, capturing the perspective of both youth and old age. Thomas is especially lyrical on the subject of snow: (more…)

ALAN writes:

I have observed the following notable species at public libraries in St. Louis and would like to know whether any of your readers have made similar observations in libraries elsewhere: 

The Cell-Phone Chatterers. Invariably cool people who sit at the computer next to yours and continue conversation on their cell phones that they began outside on the parking lot – and will not cease unless instructed to do so by library staff.  (more…)

A TEENY-CON is a conservative who exults in popular culture even at its lowest, or especially at its lowest. Here is a good example. Mike Potemra, writing at National Review Online, has glowing words of praise for Lady Gaga, whom he has “enjoyed immensely.” He’s concerned, however, that his tastes might strike his audience as pedestrian (not immoral or anything old-fashioned like that, just pedestrian). Potemra writes:

While I take a great deal of delight in my tastes in music [he doesn’t delight in music but in his tastes in music], I know that they are untutored; and I am plenty insecure enough to be grateful for the validation of experts whenever I come across it.  (more…)

FITZGERALD writes:

CHRIS writes:

Today’s column in the Thinking Housewife prompted two responses from within–a question, and a prediction:

Question: Is feminism a problem unique to the English-speaking world; ie, US. UK, Australia, Canada? I have read in numerous magazines that the Scandinavian Countries indeed reserve a certain percentage of political seats in their parliaments for women–whether they work for those seats or not. Furthermore, abortion has long been a way of life not only in that part of Europe, but in those countries of the former Eastern Block. (more…)

TEXANNE writes:

This theme of anti-feminism is popping up all over with increasing frequency — and you are out there ahead of the curve!

Note that this writer, in conflating the words “equal” and “identical,” demonstrates just how feminist ideology gained traction in the first place. Without the Judeo-Christian notion of all humans being created in the image and likeness of God, we are left with the literal, materialist concept of equality, resulting in the relentless effort to “unsex” us and make us identical. This subtlety and nuance seems to escape progressivist thinking. (more…)

MICHAEL D. writes from Australia:

It is common for royals to visit religious sites overseas. Pakistan and India are members of the Commonwealth and receive frequent visits from various members of the royal family. I recall that when the minor controversy arose over the requirement that the U.S. President wear a headscarf to visit a temple earlier this year, it was pointed out that the Prince of Wales simply leaves his wide-brimmed hat on when entering Sikh or Hindu temples and nobody has ever complained.  (more…)

BARTHOLOMEW writes in this entry:

[T]o say that atheists cannot be conservatives is not to say that atheists cannot ally with conservatives. They can, and I hope they do. It only means that since what animates conservatives–the desire to defend the revealed order of God–cannot animate atheists, the animating core of conservatism and atheism must differ, i.e. they are not the same. (more…)

THE PLIGHT of a woman struggling to find a job anywhere in the world plucks the heartstrings of the feminist journalist. And the woman who has found a job and left her children to be raised by others in some remote Communist village causes these same strings to resound with cheerful hosannas.

Didi Kirsten Tatlow writes in today’s New York Times about the plight of women in China, who still have problems despite the certain guarantees of feminism to remove all problems and who are not yet universally favored over men in China. As is typical of these vacuous  foreign reports on the ongoing oppression of women, there is not the slightest acknowledgement that men and children are human beings who are at least as entitled to happiness as women.

Ms. Tatlow describes one success story: (more…)

FRED OWENS writes:

I saw this story in the Los Angeles Times that bodes well for the future of farming. I have also spent the weekend in Los Angeles, where new companies have sprung up — they will plant a vegetable garden in your yard, if you don’t have the time to do it yourself, and — going further, because this is Los Angeles — they will plant and cultivate the vegetables for you.

Then all you have to do is go into the back yard before dinner and harvest some arugula for your salad.

This service is for persons of affluence, and it’s a good thing — they’re taking the money they would have spent on golf and yachts and put that money into a more wholesome activity — their own back yard for growing food. (more…)

IVAR THE MIDWESTERNER writes:

I offer an anecdote about how, in liberal society, manipulative power masquerades as charitable concern. I teach at a state college somewhere in the United States. As in all such institutions the federal laws governing disability accommodations are in place. According to these laws, so many parking spaces must be allocated for “handicapped commuters,” buildings must be “wheelchair accessible,” hearing-augmentation devices and sign language interpreters must be available for deaf or hearing-impaired students, and so forth. These gestures are humane although they would carry more moral weight were they voluntary rather than mandatory. Nevertheless, who would object to them? (more…)

A ROMAN CATHOLIC church in Avignon, France, has been defaced by urine, excrement and arson in multiple attacks by Muslim youths.  In an interview translated at GalliaWatch, the Archbishop of Avignon, Jean-Pierre Cattenoz, was philosophical about recent developments, which he said marked “a turning point in the religious history of our country.” He predicted that Muslims in France will be in the majority in 30 years. He said: (more…)