THE FEDERAL takeover of health care, passed into law this weekend, is the almost inevitable outcome of government intrusion decades ago. Entitlement programs for the elderly and poor, along with the rise of the HMO, were destined to lead us here without a principled retreat from socialized medicine. Twila Brase, of the Citizens’ Council on Health Care, writes:

The proliferation of managed-care organizations (MCOs) in general, and HMOs in particular, resulted from the 1965 enactment of Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. Literally overnight, on July 1, 1966, millions of Americans lost all financial responsibility for their health-care decisions.  (more…)

THE NEW YORK TIMES wedding and engagement anouncements have for a long time trumpeted careerism in women and treated a nuptial as the merger of resumés. They make excruciatingly boring reading, detailing the bride’s career, the groom’s career, the fathers’ careers, the mothers’ careers, the stepfathers’ careers and the stepmothers’ careers.

A wedding announcement for today’s paper accidentally included comments in its Internet version from an editor who was miffed by the scanty work history of a housewife. What to do? The paper finally omitted the mother altogether. According to  Gawker:

The final edition leaves poor Mrs. Segal out entirely, because if one does not have an easily identifiable job, philanthropic hobby, or tony employer, one does not exist at all to the Vows page. 

To be fair to its feminist leanings, the paper should have listed Mrs. Segal as the inmate in a concentration camp or as a household slave.

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NATASSIA WRITES:

I came across this article at Fox News, and I found it to be interesting because I remember when I was trying to be “Super-Mom” (and giving myself an anxiety disorder in the process), I felt a twinge of incompetence when my husband was “too helpful” with the babies (a toddler and an infant.) When he loaded the dishwasher (even before we had children), I felt like I wasn’t doing my job, despite the fact that I was in school full-time (or working or both.) I tried to tell myself I was being stupid and unrealistic about my abilities (and I was), but that still didn’t stop the gut-feelings that I had. 

Talk about turning oneself into a neurotic.

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  THE FEDERAL government has no constitutional authority to require answers to many of the personal questions it asks on census forms, including queries on race, physical disabilities, and income. In fact, it is only authorized to count people. That's it. Here is an excellent report by Jerry Day on the over-reach of our national statisticians, who are naturally  just asking out of curiosity.

 When Mother reads aloud, the past
 Seems real as every day;
 I hear the tramp of armies vast,
 I see the spears and lances cast,
 I join the thrilling fray;
 Brave knights and ladies fair and proud
 I meet when Mother reads aloud. 

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William B. writes:

I once blurted out one of Basil Ransom’s lines from The Bostonians when affforded a rare social opportunity: “I haven’t been to a party since Mississippi seceded!” 

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MARY WRITES:

I was fascinated by the census form I received in the mail this week. There are only four questions for each person in the household, two of which deal with race. The first is whether or not you are of Hispanic origin. If so, the form wants to know whether it’s Cuban, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Spanish, etc. or if they did not list your particular country of origin, to please fill in the blank. The second question more generally asks for your race. There are about twenty choices including Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, African-American, African and Native American, these last two requesting that you please fill in the blank with your particular tribe. One of the check boxes is “White,” of course, but without any request for more specific information. So the same census takers who would want to know whether I were Cherokee or Shawnee don’t care whether I’m Polish or Italian. The disparity between the treatment of white people and everyone else is glaring. 

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THE MEN’S RIGHTS movement is tainted by self-interest and misogyny. Nevertheless, the restoration of Western society depends on men: their leadership, confidence, foresight, judgment, strength, intellect and dynamism.

Here is a statement to this effect by a man known as Elder George of Men’s Action to Rebuild Society, a New Age effort to reestablish patriarchy:

In order to change the lot of women and children and improve the condition of society in general men must regain their authority and exercise it. … They must realize that they created all the institutions that now have power over them. Institutions have no ethics, no love, and no reality. Ethics come from men who realize the purpose of human existence is the propagation and preservation of the species while on its spiritual journey. They must rise up and reassert themselves, and this is a good time to do it as a growing discontent has arisen against all the institutions that Western man has created. People have lost faith in government and all the bureaucracies that they have spawned. (more…)

Cindi writes:

You wrote this in a previous entry:

This is a relatively trivial point, but Paula’s reference to grown women as “moms” offends me. Children refer to their mothers as “moms;” other people should speak of them as mothers or women. To me, this cutesy, sentimental language is a way of shielding women from criticism. This pervasive Mommy-ness is not always as sweet and other-directed as it appears. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for being as offended as I am by this diminution of mothers and motherhood; this juvenilization of the very concept. No woman is any longer a mother, she – they are all – “moms,” pronounced “mawm.” I can’t stand it.

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SAGE McLAUGHLIN WRITES:

I should say that I find the idea of a “men’s movement” not merely quixotic but wrong. The basic premise is that there are political and social interests that are specifically male interests, which all men share in common and which must compete with women’s interests to prevent men being defrauded of their due. One of the reasons people used to argue that the universal franchise was an absurdity was that each vote rightly belonged to the entire household, and that a husband and wife could never have different, much less opposed, political interests. The post-Hobbesian (or rather post-Cartesian) view of human beings as atomistic cosmic exiles, each with his own unique interests that stand opposed to the interests of every other individual, has been very destructive. 

What is needed is a movement which places families at the heart of things, and there is something truly accommodationist about spending one’s energies establishing, say, the legal presumption of joint custody following a divorce. I’ve been watching men’s movements of various kinds with interest for quite some time, and I’ve never become active in them because I’ve always sensed that there is something basically evil about the notion that men ought to be construed as a distinct political grouping fighting over the tainted spoils of the family court system. (more…)

  IN A piece called "So who is on the side of men?," Mark Richardson, an excellent Australian analyst of feminism, considers  the influence of Roissy, the blogger who offers advice on female conquest and is widely touted as an inspirational force for men. Richardson writes: So is Roissy then someone who is better placed to lead a men's movement? A movement of solidarity between men to overcome such adversity? That would be no.

THE ISLE OF SARK in the English Channel was the world’s only surviving feudal state up until two years ago. During World War II, it was occupied by the Germans. Many residents chose to stay for what would be a bitter five-year ordeal. Sybil Hathaway was then the Dame of Sark, the island’s female hereditary ruler, and she handled the occupation with courage and fortitude. She is a model for all those who see their country or personal isle invaded.

A homeschooling mother at the Pleasant Times blog relects on the Dame’s life story.

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N.W. writes:

While reading the discussion following Brittany’s questions concerning the differences between the sexes, I was reminded of Richard Wilbur’s poem She. One aspect of the poem I always liked was Wilbur’s implicit observation that all things men hold dear they refer to as “she.” He writes of how she “in time took on / The look of every labor and its fruits,” an interesting observation; a husband labors to provide for his wife and family and his labors reflect his beloved. Wilbur is a master of his craft and his poems possess a resonant depth full of subtleties.

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STEVE T. WRITES:

You’ve been posting on father-hunger among children. I’d like to share my story. I live in a fairly well-to-do suburb in the Northeast, in a town characterized by intact families with working fathers, stay-at-home mothers, multiple children, church attendance, and conservatism. (Moving to here from the heart of the city of Boston, where we were regarded as freaks, was a revelation.) 

Our town has a public swim club, where for a fairly modest seasonal fee, families can spend the summer swimming every day, with the men usually joining the fun after work. One summer, I happened to be unemployed, so I sent my wife out on a temp job while I took our children to the pool. (more…)

  GAIL AGGEN WRITES: May you always walk with God, may you rejoice with the companion of your youth until you are old and full of years, may your children rise up and call you blessed, may you dance at your grandchildren's weddings, may your barns be ever full to overflowing, may you die a happy and a well-prepared death in your warm bed when you are a little old raisin of a woman, and in the meantime, may your computer and your keyboard, as did the clothes and shoes of those who fled the Pharaoh of Egypt, not wear out until your journey's end, even though you put them to vigorous use daily in defense of the truth.

EZEKIEL BULVER, as mentioned by a commenter in the previous thread, is the imaginary inventor of a logical fallacy. Bulver is the creation of C.S. Lewis, who said he would write a biography of the great inventor but never did.

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RITA WRITES:

I pray for Mrs. Wood every day (my yahoo calendar reminds me!) because I know she tells the truth and I know she catches a lot of flack for it. I know she is right because up until rather recently I was a feminist and it wasn’t working for me. It’s a bitter lonely way to live. Since you have cursed Mrs. Wood, I am going to respond by blessing her.

Laura, I hope that your marriage stays intact, your husband continues to be your partner, lover and best friend and your children and husband rise up and call you blessed (Proverbs 31:28) later on in life. I pray that in your old age you will be surrounded by loving family, husband, children, grandchildren, sisters, brothers and so on, and have time to reflect on all God has done through as you so graciously shared His truth with others. Your price is far above rubies (Proverbs 31:10). You open your mouth in wisdom and in your tongue is the law of kindness.(Proverbs 31:26)

I pray that God would bless you and your family and enlarge your border, that his hand would be with you and that he would keep your from harm. (1 Chronicles 4:9-10)

May you be like a green olive tree in the house of God and may you trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.(Psalm 52:8)

A.C., I pray these blessings on you as well, if you wish to receive them.

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