Childhood

Excellence in Parenthood

  Here is a partial list of the virtues children need to learn in order to flourish as adults. Once acquired, these virtues tend to last, or at least to make a lasting impression. But, they may take many years to acquire:     Truthfulness     Neatness     Obedience     Self-control     Courtesy     Respect for elders     Loyalty     Thrift      Modesty     Trustworthiness     Courage     Friendliness     A sense of civic duty  There are also intellectual virtues:     Concentration     Dispassion     Simplicity     Perseverance     Moderation     Judgment     Piety     Studiousness     Curiosity     Respect for the past     Cultural literacy     Exactitude in written and spoken expression     Clarity in thought and idea Here is a list of the practical things children require on a regular basis:     Clean clothes     Healthy meals at set intervals     A neat, uncluttered environment     Instruction in daily cleanliness     Medicine and rest during illness     Routine social interaction with the same people     Conversation with adults     Physical affection     Words of love and encouragement     Disapproval and punishment for wrong actions and unruly behavior     Fun     Quiet and peace at night      Adequate sleep

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July 16, 2009
American politics

Anti-Woman Women

  The idea that women in power are more sympathetic to women is false. This notion has been used countless times to justify the choice of women over men as lawyers, judges, and politicians. In fact, women in power are often actively anti-woman, despising the very things most women cherish. Here is a good example. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg talks with dripping disdain of women who regret having had abortions. Emily Bazelon is the interviewer: Q: Since we are talking about abortion, I want to ask you about Gonzales v. Carhart, the case in which the court upheld a law banning so-called partial-birth abortion. Justice Kennedy in his opinion for the majority characterized women as regretting the choice to have an abortion, and then talked about how they need to be shielded from knowing the specifics of what they’d done. You wrote, “This way of thinking reflects ancient notions about women’s place in the family and under the Constitution.” I wondered if this was an example of the court not quite making the turn to seeing women as fully autonomous. JUSTICE GINSBURG: The poor little woman, to regret the choice that she made. Unfortunately there is something of that in Roe. It’s not about the women alone. It’s the women in consultation with her doctor. So the view you get is the tall doctor and the little woman who needs him. [emphasis added]…

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July 15, 2009
American politics

Sonia and Sarah

  It is interesting to contrast and compare two of the most prominent women in American politics this summer. They are dramatically different figures.  Let's leave aside their sharply differing political views for a moment. It's interesting to look at these women simply as models for women. What do they have to say to the young women of America about their hopes and dreams? Sonia Sotomayor is far less dangerous in this respect than Sarah Palin. Sotomayor has justified her radically feminist speeches on the ground that they were purely inspirational. She was trying to motivate young women and Hispanics to succeed in the tough realm of law. This is a poor defense for her remarks and no disavowal of the content of the speeches. But, the question here is this. Is she truly inspirational? Sotomayor is the sort of woman whose life speaks honestly to women who wish to reach the pinnacles of law. It shows what sacrifices are involved. Sotomayor is divorced and has said publicly that her work contributed to the break-up of her marriage. She has no children. She is manly in manner and appearance. Young women look at Sonia and realize that they must make real choices. In other words, she is inspirational, but only to those willing to pay the inevitable costs. Sarah, however, offers an image that is an illusory bargain. She has five children, a handsome husband, a pretty face, and a feminine style. Young women look at Sarah and think, "Ambition carries no price. I can have…

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July 15, 2009
American politics

Women’s Vote: the Silent Debate

 

The women’s franchise seems to be the deadest of dead issues. To express the opinion that it has been damaging to the country at large is to relegate oneself to the marshy backwaters of political discourse. Unless, of course, you’re a billionaire, such as Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, who expressed in a recent article that the women’s vote has ruined chances for libertarian-style democracy. He is so despondent about the nation’s future, he is putting his hopes in seasteading and outer space communities.

 

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July 15, 2009
American politics

The Symbolism of Sarah

  Sarah Palin is not simply a personality. She is an idea. From the moment she stepped through the gates of national politics, she presented herself as a normal all-American mom. People went gaga. The hockey mom routine was a sensation. They roared with approval, not just at the convention but all across the country in the aftermath of her speech. It struck a chord because of what it said about women. They can be aggressive and maternal with no inherent contradiction between the two. Things are not as bad as they seem! People who reject her for reasons other than, or in addition to, her political inexperience know this is a dangerous illusion.

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July 15, 2009
American politics

Graham, the Feminist

  America's women were unfairly and unnecessarily denied entry to the legal profession, Sen. Lindsay Graham said today during senate confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor. For years, women were asked only, "Can you type?" when considered for legal jobs. "Count me in," Graham said, referring to hopes for many more women as lawyers and judges. Given that almost half of all law students are women today, it's uncertain why the South Carolina senator is anxious about their plight. He also said Iraq would be a better place if women were judges. In other words, the supposedly conservative Republican concurs with Sotomayor that male judges because of their sex cannot be trusted to protect the legitimate interests of both men and women. Graham made a show of criticizing Sotomayor's famous remark about being a "wise Latina," but he stunningly agreed with her point. Justice cannot be administered by predominantly male courts. There seems to be no connection in Graham's mind between abortion, which he passionately opposes, and the careerism of women. There seems to be no connection in his view between the deterioration in society and the already significant presence of women in many professions. In fact, he feels this trend has not gone far enough. When the abortion issue is viewed in a vacuum, it leads to this sort of blind cheerleading for the very things that have led to a world with more abortion.  Who but a conservative can articulate the benefits to women of previous customary discrimination against them? Who but a conservative would take this public opportunity to explain to a world steeped in…

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July 14, 2009
Marriage / Weddings

Vanity Vows

  Here is the story of one recent wedding ceremony. The details are not typical, but the effort at originality is. The couple not only penned their vows, but their English bulldog walked up the aisle in a collar that matched the best man's vest. Each of their 125 guests went to the microphone and spoke. Weddings are now widely viewed as theater, occasions to display a couple's production skills.  Couples today don't just worry about the dress, the tux, and the party. They often feel the need to write their own wedding vows too.  Unfortunately, a bride and groom usually succumb to vanity, romance and amateurism when they throw out traditional vows. Most prefer to do away with the whole "for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health" business. Who really wants to think about poverty and illness at one's own wedding? It's only the stern wisdom of convention that added this gloomy stuff to the festive day. The truth is couples struggle to make weddings a good show. In an age of sexual license, weddings just aren't exciting. They make for great parties, but the thrill is gone. Often, the marrying couple has been living together for years. Their daughter may be the flower girl or the bride may be pregnant. There's an after-the-fact tone to the whole thing that no amount of novel staging can take away. As Anthony Esolen put it, "where there is not much to celebrate, we can only distract ourselves from the lack by throwing big parties, getting drunk, spending a lot of money, or, what is more likely, causing a lot of people…

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July 13, 2009
Same-sex marriage

Same-Sex Marriage Suit

  The need for a federal constitutional amendment defending traditional marriage became more apparent yesterday when Massachusetts became the first state to seek a judicial repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. In its suit against the U.S. Government filed in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts claims the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) denies "equal treatment under the law" to the 16,000 homosexual couples who have married in the state. The federal law, enacted in 1996, gives states the authority to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, but homosexual couples married there cannot have their marriages recognized in most other states. The argument on which the suit is based is spurious. There is no denial of civil rights to homosexuals under traditional marriage laws. Anyone - homosexual or heterosexual - is permitted to marry a person of the opposite sex. Anyone - homosexual or heterosexual - is permitted to have a spouse of the opposite sex receive federal marital benefits such as Medicaid. Traditional marriage laws and regulations are equally applied to all adults. Homosexuals are entitled to marry everywhere in America. It is not possible for states with dramatically opposed definitions of marriage to amicably coexist. State laws govern millions of child custody decisions made every year. Nevertheless, President Obama has vowed to seek DOMA's overturn.

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July 10, 2009
American politics / Feminism

Why Women Should Not Lead

  In light of the renewed discussion of Sarah Palin, I offer a short, politically incorrect list of the reasons why women should not hold the reins of power, even at levels less significant than the presidency:  Women, even highly intelligent women, are more emotional than men.  Women govern with ideas of nurturing. Society functions on notions of duty and discipline.  Women have too much to do in the private realm.  The future depends on the child-rearing of today.  Birth rates sharply fall under egalitarian leadership.  Men lose interest in fields dominated by women. The more women govern, the less men seek to govern.  Female public figures are judged more than men on their physical appearance.  Women who hold power tend to disparage the powerlessness of most women, making it difficult for women in general to forsake ambition for greater goods.

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July 10, 2009
Uncategorized

The Aristocratic Pigeon

    This drawing by the artist Kidist Paulos Asrat is a beautiful rendering of a bird who sings of love all summer long. He does not mourn. He hopes. He does not cry. He woos.  

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July 9, 2009
Uncategorized

Decadent Old Age

  How did we reach the point where we both sanction suicide among the old and yet go to extraordinary lengths to extend their lives? We got here by losing sight of what life is. Roughly 60,000 Americans in their eighties now have open-heart surgery every year, according to a recent study, as reported in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer. And, more than a thousand in their nineties do. Those surgeries cost Medicare $40,000 to $60,000 each. Medicare will be bankrupt in seven years. And, the number of people in their eighties and nineties is rapidly increasing. Americans appear to believe death is okay if you're dying of hopelessness and despair. Death isn't okay if you're dying from ordinary physical decline.

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July 7, 2009
Cooking

Tarts Lost. Tarts Saved.

  I know a woman who once placed a homemade tart on the front passenger seat of her car. It was a Provencal recipe made with roasted red peppers. She set off for a social event where the tart would be unveiled and eaten. The woman was racing along when she was forced to make a sudden stop. The tart went flying, landing on the accelerator. She had to keep driving. She vividly recalls crushing the tart again and again into the pedal and car floor. Perhaps you cannot fully appreciate this story. If you have never made a tart from scratch, perhaps this means nothing. But to any cook, it speaks of tragic desecration. The tart is the acme of culinary perfection. It takes years of trial and error to master the form. Some people never get it right despite monumental effort and patience. In our world, many women never get the chance to try. Tarts are not important. But, they are among the most important of unimportant things. Everything from field and orchard is at home in pastry. "So many simple ingredients can be made to look exotic by being dressed up in a pastry crust," said Julia Child. It's true. If you sliced up an old shoe and arranged it in concentric circles on pastry, it would look appealing. With a light glaze, it might taste good. The homemade tart is cheap and filling. Store-bought models look fine, but taste stale. Ironically, those who make pastry for a living are considered to be doing something worthwhile. But, the…

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July 6, 2009
Uncategorized

‘Barberism’

 

No advanced civilization has been sustained without barbers. The more the better. There are few things more beautiful or emblematic of strength and order than a man’s neck, freshly-shaven. Some societies have found long hair in men attractive and masculine. These societies have disappeared, as well they should have.

The barber closest to where I live is a nice, but messy person. He sweeps all the day’s hair into a hole in his floor. The hair rains down into the basement, where he leaves it accumulating in a massive hill of human locks. I once took my son down to the basement so that he could use the restroom. We both almost fainted in disgust. The hill was illuminated with the ghostly light shining from the hole above.

For this reason, and out of thrift, I have long been my husband’s barber. I have cut his hair for about fifteen years. I have a few rules. One, I don’t talk sports. Most men enjoy mulling over the latest scores while getting their heads shorn. Tough luck.

I also reserve the right to break out in laughter. There’s a reason why there are barbers. It does take some skill and training. Worse comes to worse, my husband can wear a baseball cap for a few days. Don’t misunderstand me. I take the job seriously. What woman wants her husband to appear with unintentional corn rows?

“Thanks,” my husband said recently after a hair cut. “It needs to be done.” He was quoting Richard Nixon. In his famous conversaton with John Dean, Nixon spoke of the need to use the FBI and IRS against political enemies.

“Oh, what an exciting prospect,” said Dean.

“Thanks,” said Nixon.  “It needs to be done.”

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July 6, 2009
American politics

Sarah-nades

  Many patriotic Americans are madly in love. They're madly in love with Sarah Palin. Sarah will break the stranglehold of the Washington elites. She will stick up for nation and family. She will be to the GOP what Obama is to the Democrats. Only read the comments on this column at American Thinker to get a sense of all that is riding on Sarah. It's gotten to the point where the more Sarah disqualifies herself from higher office, the more popular she becomes. Sarah has just betrayed the voters of Alaska by leaving her elective office. She has resigned for no reason other than that she wishes to explore better possibilities for herself. She appeared afterward at a July Fourth parade in Juneau, smiling with daughter Bristol and her baby at her side. All along, she has taken the view that the more publicly she flaunts her daughter's private life, the more acceptable it will be. She has offered no compelling reason to support her candidacy for national office other than her identification with Red State America. Yet, her supporters view everything Sarah does as an act of wisdom and idealism. Why don't they see it as ambition? For a simple reason. They are in love. Love is mad. Love is irrational. Love is often self-destructive.

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July 5, 2009
American politics

Mulshine on Sarah

  Paul Mulshine of the Newark Star-Ledger is one of the few journalists in America who offers clear-eyed commentary on Sarah Palin, with neither the infatuation of the right or the venom of the left. He says: "What makes someone who has never won election before a polity bigger than Bergen County's think she could handle the most power[ful] job on the planet? Whatever it is, it's not pretty - though she certainly is. But if she had a bit less ambition and a bit more humility, Palin would realize that without her looks she wouldn't have appeared on the national political scene in the first place."  

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July 5, 2009
Thought and Its Nature

On Intellectual Revolutions and Liturgies

Kristor writes in response to Intellectual Revolutions:

Intellectual revolutions are almost my favorite thing. I love the feeling of things falling simultaneously apart and back together, into a better, stabler order of thought, the way that water flows back into the hole one creates with an oar, vortices upon vortices. When they say that nature hates a vacuum, what it means is that nature hates the absence of beauty. I remember many of my intellectual revolutions, better than I remember where I was when I heard Kennedy was shot. I remember understanding integral calculus deep in my heart, the tears rolling down my cheeks at the beauty of it. I remember learning why Evil is not a Problem (for Christians and Jews, that is). I remember finally “getting” Whitehead’s metaphysics. I am still working away, deep underground, at the Trinity. Dense earth indeed, that. 

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July 2, 2009
Uncategorized

The Artistic Impulse

  Artists give up everything - money, security, normalcy - for their art. Why do they do it? Lech is an Abstract Expressionist painter and a friend of mine. He once explained to me the reason why he has devoted his entire life to art. "I love the smell of paint,"  he said. "I can never get enough of it."    

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July 2, 2009
Pre-marital love

Sown Oats

 

Is sex before marriage all it’s cracked up to be? There’s an interesting discussion of the issue at Lawrence Auster’s View from the Right.

Statistics suggest that scattering one’s wild oats before settling down does not lead to greater marital happiness. Perhaps this is why. Pre-marital affairs raise expectations of novelty marriage cannot satisfy.  They also offer experience in how to end it all – sometimes with brutal efficiency.

Here’s Markus, at VFR, on the subject:

“The idea that having multiple sexual relationships while young will help you get something out of your system that needs getting out, and will lead you to experience a more stable and contented life afterward, is flat-out false. Rather, such a lifestyle creates a set of expectations–and frustratingly vivid memories–that will cause those who find themselves in the humdrum of a marital relationship (with all that that entails) to pine longingly for the old days, when they had what now seems like not a care in the world…”

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July 2, 2009