Who wants to be 18? Not me.

I haven't heard anyone at The Estates (formerly the Forum) say this--"I wish I were 18 again." But I've enjoyed listening to some of the men (widowers, usually) talk about their kids when they were little--how cute they were, lessons they learned, crazy risks they took. I think I've seen men in a whole new light. If you're young, don't miss that part. https://youtu.be/81FjrGwkhi0?si=DR9jjtonqwH4ULmn Burns was about 85 when this was made.

The Commencement speech heard around the world

I've read excerpts of Harrison Butker's speech at Benedictine College by journalists who have sliced and diced it from the left and right, without reading or listening, but finally listened to the whole thing. https://youtu.be/-JS7RIKSaCc?si=IoYc4Bscv7PbhYGV It was not what I expected. Remember--he is talking to college graduates about to go out and face the world! He spoke personally about vocation--his as a husband and father, and his wife's, whom he met in middle school, as a wife and mother. He attends the TLM, Traditional Latin Mass, and encouraged the graduates to choose a city not just for the career opportunities but for the availability of a believing, serving church. I've heard a lot of speeches over the years, but never heard that one! He did lay the responsibility for many of society's ills on emasculated men. He said to live in the post-God world one needs to "do small things well" and to choose friends carefully as they leave the bubble of campus life. But before he talked about his own life as a Christian father, he really took the bishops and priests to the wood shed for their failures, particularly during the Covid lockdown.

Thoughts on Ben Sira

Ben Sira (also known as Ecclesiasticus or Sirach) is part of the Apocrypha, or more accurately the Deuterocanonical books of the Bible. I've only been in one Bible study that even mentioned this lovely collection of proverbs, wise sayings, advice and counsel to all types of people from physicians to fool. And the female leader (on video) of that class railed against the writer/translator as being a misogynist. Not so. It's a lovely book, and I really like the longer advice pieces. As far as being anti-female, what's wrong with this advice? It's directed at men and how they behave around women.

 
Chapter 9: 3 Keep away from other men's wives or they will trap you. 4 Don't keep company with female musicians; they will trick you. 5 Don't look too intently at a virgin, or you may find yourself forced to pay a bride price. 6 Don't give yourself to prostitutes, or you may lose everything you own. 7 So don't go looking about in the streets or wandering around in the run-down parts of town. 8 When you see a good-looking woman, look the other way; don't let your mind dwell on the beauty of any woman who is not your wife."

 
That advice would work in the 21st century.

But more to the point. If 7% of Sirach is addressed to problems with women, then that means the other 93% is addressed to problems with men. What do Paul and Jesus lay at the feet of men (to whom they were talking) Well, how about Mark 7: greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, arrogance, folly, evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, and blasphemy for starters. Paul was just as straightforward as Jesus: Colossians 3: 8: "But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips. "

Abraham was a liar; Noah was a drunkard; Moses lost his temper and killed a man; Elijah was despondent; David was an adulterer and murderer; Peter denied his Lord; Paul (Saul) chased down Christians and killed them. Thomas doubted. So, it seems the Bible doesn't always reflect well on men, yet they were all part of God's plan of redemption.

I don't recall where I read it, but Luther and Calvin didn't remove those 7 books from the Protestant canon. Later Reformers did that.

You might be a Christian Nationalist if

 You might be a Christian Nationalist if:

You believe in natural rights.

You attend church. Possibly more than once a week.

You support your children and participate in their lives.

You believe marriage is between a man and woman.

You believe men can't become women, nor women men.

You believe teachers and school administrators should not secretly influence your children against your family values.

You believe giving a child cross sex hormones and genital surgery is child abuse.

You believe the USA has borders that should be protected.

You believe children are being trafficked across the border.

You believe releasing foreign military age young men who are well dressed and physically fit into the general population with no tracking could endanger our safety.

You believe sowing distrust and loss of trust in the military with wokeism instruction is a threat to our safety.

You believe DEI has been destructive to student learning.

You believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

You believe Israel has a right to eliminate the danger of Hamas.

You believe Hillary Clinton and ladies in pink hats had a right to protest the election results of 2016, just as Trump supporters had a right to protest the election results of 2020.

No wonder men are happier by Unknown

Men are just happier people.! What do you expect from such simple creatures? Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack. Car mechanics tell you the truth. The world is your urinal. You never have to drive to another service station to find a loo that isn’t too icky. Same work, more pay. Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress: five thousand dollars. Tux rental: a hundred dollars. People never stare at your chest when you’re talking to them. New shoes don’t cut, blister or mangle your feet. One mood, all the time! Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. You can open all your own jars. You expect and get extra credit for the slightest act of domestic work. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend. Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. You only have to shave your face and neck.
One wallet and one pair of shoes – one color for all seasons. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. You can ”do” your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache. You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 24 minutes.

No wonder men are happier.

Legal surrogacy is an industry needing legislation

In case you were out of moral and ethical problems to worry about, have you given thought to legal surrogacy--or rent a womb? Many states outlaw it, as do many countries. Ukraine doesn't. And when the war broke out, there were some babies in limbo, or women left postpartum in a war zone without care after the foreign parents swooped in, picked up the baby on demand, and left. In countries that allow it, it is exploitation of poor women. Now Congress is getting involved, although I can't find the right link. New legislation is being planned (follow the money) to insure that gay men or trans women can have their babies and still have insurance coverage and tax deductions. Family building not as God intended. Just a quick internet search reveals the number of Gay Surrogacy businesses. Since I can't find the information, I don't know if there is any protection for the womb mother. Probably not. Politicians buy off the poor, but they don't really help them. We have a SCOTUS justice who can't define woman, a wealthy, highly educated heterosexual lawyer who can't figure it out. It's now considered a "rights" issue--the proposed legislation has to clarify what is infertility; obviously two gay men may not be infertile, nor a single woman, so that can't be the criteria. But someone better hurry with a definition, because technology and the culture has moved on past that little detail. "Inside the rapidly changing world of reproductive technology." If we leave it up to rights groups and politicians (both left and right) we'll have a mess.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-the-rapidly-changing-world-of/id983782306?i=1000590081088

Emma Waters, Heritage Foundation is the speaker interviewed on the Federalist Podcast by  Emily Jashinsky

We are all paying for transgender surgery through Medicaid

Medicaid represents $1 out of every $6 spent on health care in the US and is the major source of financing for states to provide coverage to meet the health and long-term needs of their low-income residents. The Medicaid program is jointly funded by states and the federal government. Now that states are succumbing to pressure from leftist ideology groups to obscure the truth known from the beginning of time by pagan tribes, rampaging warlords, Greek philosophers, Roman Caesars and thousands of years of the Judeo-Christian traditions with sacred texts (including Bill Clinton and Barack Obama), trans-intervention (called GAHT and GAS) will be covered by Medicaid.

“Gender-affirming surgeries are safe, effective, and medically necessary,” says the ACLU, but in fact they aren't any of those. Certainly not safe or effective when one considers the long term (untested) results of a life time of mental confusion and hormones foisted on people already with high suicide rates. But they want us to pay for their crimes in the medical, legal, non-profit (obviously very well funded) and entertainment fields. They want the government to pay for amputating non-diseased penises, testicles and breasts, and then they want all of us to not only pay for it, but to agree it's right, change our language and submit to being vilified if we speak the definition of a real woman.

Patrick W. Lappert, MD: "Self-identified transgender persons are a small but apparently growing population of persons who experience a severe dissonance between their sex (male or female) and their interior sense of themselves as men or women. It is a condition that is associated with a high rate of self-harming behavior, including alcohol abuse, drug abuse, sexual abuse, prostitution, and suicide. It is a condition that demands merciful care in every regard.

 
Care for transgender persons is presently being compromised by a distortion in our understanding of the human person. Whereas in times past the patient was seen as an intrinsic unity of body and spirit, today we are seeing large segments of the medical community tacitly accepting an understanding of the human person as a kind of spirit creature that may or may not be inhabiting the correct body." Are Man and Woman Interchangeable? – St. Paul Center (stpaulcenter.com)

I only mention Clinton and Obama because Bill admired women and knew the difference, and Obama was a great family man and even in his campaign said marriage was between a man and women until the swamp issued directives about rest rooms during his term, so we can date this official, tax paid insanity to about 2012, a little recent in the history of mankind's approval.

Georgia' Medicaid will Pay for Sex Change Operations for Trans Women (breitbart.com)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33422448/

The difference between men and women

"The gender gap in athletic performance, as shown in records from Olympic competition, has remained stable since 1983. The mean difference has been about 10 percent between men and women for all events. The mean gap is 10.7 percent for running, 8.9 percent for swimming and 17.5 percent for jumping. When performances improve, the improvements are proportional for each gender." 

A well trained, in shape, female athlete can out perform a male non-athlete. Female equestrians can compete on a par with males because of their physical balance and concentration.

 
This article will probably be taken down as "hate research," (2018), so read it while it's available.

https://www.sportsrec.com/6580144/how-do-men-and-women-differ-athletically

For Book Club, Monday March 1

I am the hostess (on Zoom) for the March book club and we’re reading the book by Eric Metaxas, Seven Men and Seven Women and the Secret of Their Greatness. (2016).  The main characters are presented in chronological order, and all are deceased.  The men are George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson, Saint John Paul II, and Charles W. Colson.  The women are Saint Joan of Arc, Susanna Wesley, Hannah More, Saint Maria of Paris, Corrie ten Boom, Rosa Parks, and Saint Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa).

I’ve looked around the Internet for some interviews and opinion pieces.

Eric Metaxas telling how he became a Christian through intellectual discussions with a Christian at his job, and then God revealed something to him in a dream. Eric Metaxas testimony how he became a Christian - YouTube

Study guide with links for 7 men (original title): A Discussion Guide for Eric Metaxas’s Seven Men and The Secret Of Their Greatness – home (chrisbrauns.com)  Includes Metaxas’ personal testimony. If you are unfamiliar with Metaxas’ background, this is a good start.

There are many videos of Metaxas discussing William Wilberforce. This is at Calvary Church https://youtu.be/njLUCmtLQpY

Metaxas lecturing about Bonhoeffer and Wilberforce at Grace Church in 2012.  https://youtu.be/48U3D74SwLs  

Metaxas laments in a secular publication that the Jackie Robinson movie left out the faith of both Robinson and Rickey in 42. Jackie Robinson a man of faith: Column (usatoday.com) “Omitting the role of faith in this story does a serious disservice to history — and to the memories of Robinson and Rickey.”

Interview (2013)  with Metaxas about the book Seven Men and the secrets of their greatness

https://youtu.be/yw-hVleL1DI (pt.1) and https://youtu.be/1UmJESQ-5iw (pt.2) and https://youtu.be/tiaXPGNje-E  (pt.3)

Interview with Metaxas about the book  Great Women from Joan of Arc to Mother Teresa | Eric Metaxas

The Secret of Mother Teresa's Greatness | Eric Metaxas  Mother Teresa  Opinion piece written for Fox

Article by Metaxas on Susanna Wesley, Joan of Arc, and Rosa Parks, Susanna Wesley, Joan of Arc, Rosa Parks and Other Ordinary-Extraordinary Women God Used to Change the World | Eric Metaxas in Christian Post.

For an extra if you’re interested in Mother Teresa.  Interview 1974 https://youtu.be/Th2QzJwy8tI  in Ireland.

Full movie on Corrie Ten Boom https://youtu.be/GHjiGwG4cFY

Movie on the life of William Wilberforce William Wilberforce | Full Movie | Steve Bell - YouTube  voice over with drawings--very well done.

Toxic masculinity and white supremacy

There was a huge semi parked in front of Marc's today--full of potted mums. All had been unloaded by the time I walked in. There must have been hundreds, every color and size. I kept thinking about the time and physical effort to drive that massive truck, and to load and unload. When I came out I saw the truck had moved ahead a little so as not to block the store entrance. I could see someone moving around inside, so I stood by the truck's tail gate for the driver (and I assumed a helper) to come out. He finally appeared. Only guy on the truck. He was white, fair skin, about 20, slight build, with a huge smile, blue eyes, and neatly dressed. "Can I help you," he asked. "Did you do all that by yourself?" I asked, motioning to the racks and racks of mums. He still had a load of flowers inside the truck and was moving them. "Oh yeah, it's not hard, and now I have another stop for the rest of the load."

Maybe there's a slender woman out there who could have wrestled this load and driven the truck and still be pleasant and polite to a stranger, but I haven't met her.

It's what real men do; the Harvey hurricane and flood

This has gone viral. Can't find the original source. I've seen it combined with video of a redneck monster (huge tires) car pulling a submerged military vehicle out of the muck.

"Let this sink in for a minute.....Hundreds and hundreds of small boats pulled by countless pickups and SUVs from across the South are headed for Houston. ...Almost all of them driven by men. They're using their own property, sacrificing their own time, spending their own money, and risking their own lives for one reason: to help total strangers in desperate need.

Most of them are by themselves. Most are dressed like the redneck duck hunters and bass fisherman they are. Many are veterans. Most are wearing well-used gimme-hats, t-shirts, and jeans; and there's a preponderance of camo. Most are probably gun owners, and most probably voted for Trump.

These are the people the Left loves to hate, the ones Maddow mocks. The ones Maher and Olbermann just *know* they're so much better than.

These are The Quiet Ones. They don't wear masks and tear down statues. They don't, as a rule, march and demonstrate. And most have probably never been in a Whole Foods.

But they'll spend the next several days wading in cold, dirty water; dodging gators and water moccasins and fire ants; eating whatever meager rations are available; and sleeping wherever they can in dirty, damp clothes. Their reward is the tears and the hugs and the smiles from the terrified people they help. They'll deliver one boatload, and then go back for more.

When disaster strikes, it's what men do. Real men. Heroic men. American men. And then they'll knock back a few shots, or a few beers with like-minded men they've never met before, and talk about fish, or ten-point bucks, or the benefits of hollow-point ammo, or their F-150.

And the next time they hear someone talk about "the patriarchy", or "male privilege", they'll snort, turn off the TV and go to bed.

In the meantime, they'll likely be up again before dawn. To do it again. Until the helpless are rescued. And the work's done.

They're unlikely to be reimbursed. There won't be medals. They won't care. They're heroes. And it's what they do."

Where in Bible is marriage being for a man and a woman.

Marriage between a man and a woman was instituted by God with Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:24 states: "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh."

In Matthew 19:4-5, Jesus reaffirms this: "He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one’?"

I doubt that this will satisfy the culture worshipers. We may have to look at biology or chromosomes.

http://www.catholic.com/video/same-sex-marriage

Heterodox marriage—a useful term with 780,000 matches in Google

It was new to me; so I looked it up.

adjective: heterodox

1. not conforming with accepted or orthodox standards or beliefs.

   "heterodox views"

   synonyms:
   unorthodox, nonconformist, dissenting, dissident, rebellious, renegade

“The United States Supreme Court is hearing two pivotal cases and could, at its whim, change the definition of marriage and custom that has guided human society since ancient times. From experience, we know this — for the most part, aside from sex, men prefer the company of men and women prefer the company of women. We have never had a society where the norm was for men and women to cohabitate, particularly with children.”

Read more: https://amazingopinionsite.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/the-united-states-isnt-ready-for-heterodox-marriage/

Midlife Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Incident Cancer, and Survival After Cancer in Men

Good news.  Cardiovascular fitness in midlife may protect against cancer, not just heart disease.  Aren’t middle age?  Well, tell your sons, or grandsons.

Free article. http://oncology.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2203829

• High CRF was associated with reduced incident lung (HR, 0.45 [95% CI, 0.29-0.68]) and colorectal cancer (HR, 0.56 [95% CI, 0.36-0.87]) in white men.

• High CRF is associated with a one-third risk reduction in all cancer-related deaths among men who developed lung, colorectal, or prostate cancer at age 65 years or older compared with low CRF.

• High CRF is associated with a two-thirds reduction in cardiovascular death compared with low CRF among men who developed cancer at age 65 years or older.

http://generalfitness.tripod.com/id4.html

http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicine/sportsmed/cusm_patient_resources/Documents/Training%20for%20Cardiovascular%20Fitness.pdf

What did a high school record tell about a PhD holder 50 years ago?

In today's climate of providing women extra assistance for education  a report written in 1965 provides an interesting look back. 

When boxing and pitching files a few years ago, I came across a copy of National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council. 1965a. High School Ability Patterns: A Backward Look From the Doctorate. Prepared by L.R. Harmon. Washington, DC. It had been withdrawn from the OSU Library and I’d apparently picked it up at a book sale.  NAS went to a lot of trouble to do this research and I think Mr. Harmon got several publications out of it. 

It's a study of high school aptitude and achievement of PhDs of 1959-1962 (i.e., folks a few years older than me). It samples 20,440 doctorate-holders, men and women, compares them with randomly-selected classmates, and looks at sex, grades, rank and IQ scores as well as type of school, size of class, and region.  It is a fascinating study but I don't know if anyone paid any attention to it or adjusted any educational goals accordingly. Harmon’s other publications for NAS on the topic of doctorates  have numerous cites in ISI, but I think this study only had two when I looked. His study doesn't include race or economic information.

Here’s what Lindsey R. Harmon reported from all that data.

• In high school, these graduates were about 1.5 standard deviation above the mean of the general population, and 1 standard deviation above their classmates.
• There was a positive relationship between school retention rate through the 12th grade and eventual doctorate attainment rate by students in those schools.
• Among the schools, independent schools' students measured highest, then denominational schools, then public schools.
• It was possible to sort about 40% of the high school students into their eventual doctorate fields solely on the basis of their high school information.
• Girls' mean GPA in all areas was higher than boys (even among the non-doctorate controls), but boys' intelligence test scores were better (boys had a higher drop out rate which culls the less intelligent students).
• Girls (who went on to get doctorates) outscored the boys in high school math and science.
• Married, female doctorates by any index were brighter than men in the same fields of specialization.
• They also outperformed (in high school records) single women--in both GPA and mental tests. 
• Married men's GPA and mental tests, however, were lower than single men.  There was a lot of speculation about these differences.

So, is there life after high school?

Other publications by Harmon on this topic are listed in this bibliography.

Update: Although I can't be sure since the obituary doesn't list publications, I think this is the obituary for Lindsey R. Harmon author of the above cited publication and many others on college graduates.

Choice or aggression?

President Obama proclaimed “we need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn’t end at conception.” In a sense, of course, he is absolutely right. But the problem is that, in another sense, he is completely wrong: Male responsibility really does end at conception. Men these days can choose only sex, not fatherhood; mothers alone determine whether children shall be allowed to exist. Legalized abortion was supposed to grant enormous freedom to women, but it has had the perverse result of freeing men and trapping women. . .

“Abortion facilitates women’s heterosexual availability,” Catherine MacKinnon [radical feminist] pointed out: “In other words, under conditions of gender inequality [abortion] does not liberate women; it frees male sexual aggression. The availability of abortion removes the one remaining legitimized reason that women have had for refusing sex besides the headache.” Perhaps that is why, she observed, “the Playboy Foundation has supported abortion rights from day one.” In the end, MacKinnon pronounced, Roe ’s “right to privacy looks like an injury got up as a gift,” for “virtually every ounce of control that women won” from legalized abortion “has gone directly into the hands of men.”

From Her Choice, her problem, First Things, 2009

A NOTE TO WOMEN

“Would you please stop entertaining and sleeping with
these guys? If you are sleeping with a married guy, you are
being used. If you are sleeping with a guy who hasn’t married
you, you are being used. “Living together” is just a fancy term for, “I want to use you for sex until I’m tired of you.”

Please, kick him to the curb and go find a decent man who
accepts you, treats you like an equal, and will give up his life for
you. Anyone else is just a waste of time.

Besides, there is a good chance this loser is going to get you
pregnant. Who is going to be left with the decision about what
to do with the baby? You. Who is the only legally responsible
party? You. Who will bear the brunt of the abortion? You.

You are worth more than that. You deserve to be treated
better, respected more, and protected by someone who is
willing to commit the rest of his life to you. Don’t settle for
anything less.” Abortion: The Ultimate Exploitation of Women. By Brian Fisher, pp. 165-66

Photo from Why you’re better off married.

Health disparities

The new golden goose. Disparities. It's must be the magic word for getting grant$$.

African-Americans have the highest life time risk for HIV (1 in 22) compared with whites (1 in 170) and Hispanics (1 in 52). Sociologists and government health workers try to attribute this to poverty, homophobia and housing, and increasingly, you see geographic location thrown in. However, this idea is repugnant, insulting and degrading to the millions of low income men and women who do not have multiple same sex partners or are not unfaithful to their spouses.

Tiger and Arnold (Austrian males have the highest rate of promiscuity) and Weiner are certainly not poor or powerless, nor lacking in health insurance, yet they've chosen a promiscuous life style endangering the women they married and the children they've conceived.

It is personal choices not neighborhood, not income, not race that determines whether one will have HIV. Unfortunately, that choice may be a man choosing not to tell his wife or girlfriend that he is gay and has been having sex with men. It is his own homophobia, not mine.

HIV/AIDS and African Americans | Topics | CDC HIV/AIDS
HIV, AIDS and Men Who Have Sex with Men
Fact Sheet

For starters, Jared Loughner was male

“Boys, compared to girls, are 6 times more likely to have learning disabilities, 3 times more likely to be registered drug addicts, and 4 times more likely to be diagnosed as emotionally disturbed. Boys are at greater risk for schizophrenia, sexual addiction, alcoholism, and all forms of antisocial and criminal behavior. They are 12 times more likely to murder someone, and their rate of death in car accidents is greater by 50%.”

New Man, May/June 2003, p. 16

Federal grand jury indicts Loughner in Giffords shooting

Why Men's Friendships Are Different

"Studies show that in their late 20s and 30s, women have a harder time staying in touch with old friends. Those are the years when they're busy starting careers and raising children, so they don't have time to gather for reunions. Money is tighter, too. But around age 40, women start reconnecting. Before the 1990s, researchers assumed this was because they had more time for friendship in their 40s, as their children became self-sufficient. But now researchers consider this middle-aged focus on friendship to be a life stage; as women plan the next chapter of their lives, they turn to friends for guidance and empathy.

Men, meanwhile, tend to build friendships until about age 30, but there's often a falloff after that. Among the reasons: Their friendships are more apt to be hurt by geographical moves and differences in career trajectories. Recent studies, however, are now finding that men in their late 40s are turning to what Dr. Grief calls "rusted" friends—longtime pals they knew when they were younger. The Internet is making it easier for them to make contact with one another."

Why Men's Friendships Are Different - WSJ.com