1744. RANDOM THOUGHTS—Group 74

Ideologues, elitists, and oligarchs have one thing in common: They politic and even fight for the ability to tell others how to live. Their major influences enable them to use an enlarged government to dismantle society, destroy individual freedom, and otherwise twist constitutional rights to their exclusive advantage. I cite one milestone and one process that women never hear.

• Women and children benefit the most from moral and religious values that smother the most uncivilized and unlawful behaviors of men. Thus, our Judeo-Christian culture became female dominated as America developed within the concepts of In God We Trust, Liberty, E Pluribus Unum, and first amendment rights. Unfortunately, the wheels to unravel the Constitution began with presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson in the early 20^th Century. The guillotine for severing the head of American freedom was unleashed in 1913 with the 16^th and 17^th amendments to the Constitution and creation of the Federal Reserve. The 16^th gave the House of Representatives the previously unconstitutional right to collect tax on incomes—a great new power to spend, right? The 17^th liberated senators from being responsible to their state legislatures—a great new decision-making freedom, right? Creation of the FED gave bankers the right to print and control the supply of money and interest rates—a great new financial power, right? The House, Senate, and FED gained such immense new powers to tell us how to live that they no longer represent We the People but themselves first and foremost.
• In early draft form, the Declaration of Independence said men are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and Property.” The last term was changed to “Pursuit of Happiness” because Southern states considered slaves to be property and Northern states could not permit slavery to be viewed as a right. Ownership of property is essential to individual freedom, which makes it a target for those seeking to tell us how to live. As an example, Marxism is far from dead in America. The ideology permeates the Progressive political movement that started and swelled under presidents Roosevelt (1901-1909) and Wilson (1913-1921). As Progressivism fell in disfavor with Wilson, Marxist theorists in the 1920s formulated a new strategy for takeover of America. They set out to impose a new culture upon our Judeo-Christian heritage. They ignore the very common pursuit of happiness as it doesn’t block their subversion. Instead, they subvert and work to ultimately kill the institutions of family, religion, and private property. Their progress continues too.

So, ladies, if you wonder where America is headed, just look around you. Are family, religion, and private property under attack? Do you feel that your senators and representatives represent your values? Does your banker seem to want to serve you personally or want you to abide primarily by his expectations? Is your government functioning as you wish it would. The questions are rhetorical of course, but perhaps your view of what’s coming will become clearer.

1741. Return to Decency

Her Highness Anne at article 1740 sparked this article. “Can women promote a culture of [decency and cultural exceptionalism] in the midst of today’s filth? …[W]hat can they do beyond the family?” Any resolution requires problem ID.

Our fast-disappearing Judeo-Christian culture still enables women to lead and men to follow. No other culture or religion does that. Female-dominated cultural values proved until the 1960s that filth and indecent conditions aren’t present when women don’t permit it. The present filth, family separations, violence, disrespect, irresponsible men, and numerous other female-unfriendly conditions arose out of Feminism, which purposely polarized the sexes.

Feminists and followers spread the originators’ lesbo-hatred of men. They demeaned and treated men as irresponsible, lazy, burdensome, inadequate, not admirable, not respected, and unnecessary for fulfilling female hopes and dreams. The self-fulfilling prophecy kicked in. With a new generation of boys coming online every six years, after eight generations males have become just what women claimed and TV, movies, and commercials continue to ridicule (as pointed out by Her Highness Boomer Babe).

Feminism, leftist politics, and cheap and easy sex came to dominate society. The male-dominated conditions will continue to worsen until girls and women demand through actions that men get rid of filth, restore decency, remain responsible for offspring, prevent violence, spread more respect in society, and on and on and on. (Men aren’t like women. They don’t much value what they hear. So, female words don’t work, but female actions impress men.)

It also worsens because women continue to do all the wrong things, and especially they try to talk and discuss relationship problems away. In short, the male gender continues to be demeaned as inadequate. Men see it as impossible or not worth it to be admired and respected by women. Consequently, they fulfill their natural need for self-admiration in ways that women disapprove as demeaning to females. (Ever heard of wham bam, booty call, porn, abortion?) Anyway, that’s the problem.

The solution lies in the hands of women. Men follow when women lead with female-friendly values, such as feminine mystique, female modesty, lifelong marriage, sex only inside marriage, family chain of command, he rules the roost and she rules the rooster, standards for ladies and gentlemen, and on and on. In this case, men are simple. In return for their handiness and hardiness at providing and protecting, they expect only respect for who they are and admiration for what they do. Do those things to match her man’s self-interest and a woman achieves one pinnacle of female life—if that’s truly what she wants.

Desirable change will come only from women. They have to start noticeably and generate change with femininity, indirectness, persistence, and hard-headedness to first teach all the men in their individual lives how to act around, treat, and entertain women as ladies and well-respected wives instead of women of the night and short-term lays. With actions that seem to demand it, they have to expect that men will rise to meet a woman’s expectations.

Of course it’s tough and will take several generations. Even though it has to be finally accomplished through motherhood, prospective mothers must be inspired from individual women going to work on every man to whom they are exposed. It’s taken us five decades to get where we are; that’s eight generations of new kids. So, you can expect it to take the same to restore some measure of what women long for. Modern men are not immutable, but as always with men, change comes slowly.

Who starts it and when? Government has the interest perpetuate a war between the sexes. Pastors can’t overcome the fear of losing tithes, offerings, and youngsters to replace oldsters that pass on. So, from where else but single and married women does the necessary fearlessness come? Only women have the courage to convince men that decent female values are superior to the trashiness of male values.

What can you do beyond the family? Convert yourself to a full-blown lady and associate outside the home. You can work on your extended family and pastor; school board and politicians; and friends and business associates. It’s slow and not always rewarding, but ‘pretty time’ (per article 1440) will make you feel better about yourself and provide many supplemental rewards.

Men heed it when females demonstrate how ladies can become more attractive, pleasant, respectful, less demanding, and of better support for their man. Men have only to see differences in female behavior, heed in friendly fashion, and work with women to improve their lives together or in association. In short, women need to stand up as ladies for sex differences and relationship equality and denigrate the abrasiveness that flows from Feminism and its failed attempt to suppress male dominance.

We all want to change the world but not ourselves. Women leading with high standards and expectations are best suited to overcome the natural resistance of both males and females.

You may conclude that I alibi for men. Not so. Neither you nor I can tell men what to do—and succeed. Only women have the God-given natural power and relationship expertise to twist the male tail into knots of compliance with female expectations.

1740. American Exceptionalism Originated with Women

Election day is a good day to draw this picture of American Exceptionalism. Morals are the province of women. Christianity is based on loving one another. Freedom and other rights come from God via the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States. Leading by example, women put God first, subordinate their self-centeredness to husband and children, and exemplify moral imperatives that bring out the goodness in people. Men dance to the kind of womanly music they respect and admire the most, which basically women perform in the key of chasteness, beat of fidelity, and notes of marital sex only.

Liberty, In God We Trust, and e pluribus unum (out of many, one) make up the American Trinity.* Combined with those spirits, American Exceptionalism flowed out of political and economic freedom, rule of law, entrepreneurial spirit, belief that Americans are good, and the creed that America is the greatest nation and place to live. The reputation of American Exceptionalism began and grew to worldwide prominence on the backs of responsible husbands and the moral and religious spirit of their wives.

Cultural exceptionalism empowered American Exceptionalism. Christianity and Judaism are male-dominated religions. Americans merged Old and New Testament values into our Judeo-Christian culture, which has turned out to be female dominated. Not female dominated, you say? Culture represents the values that govern what we all do in society. Men conquered the West but civilized it at whose insistence? Men don’t promote civilized behavior except as women insist. Men don’t need it, but they will accept moral discipline. Men don’t need a supreme being but find their lives enhanced when their women insist on religious observance. Men have an abundance of self-love but it takes women in many roles to teach men how to share and express it.

Men have always dominated the workplace and society (aka what we all do). However, American wives came to dominate the home and cultural values. Wives pressured husbands to improve happenings in society in order to meet the expectations and happiness of women and children. Wives sent husbands from breakfast with orders to put crooks in jail, keep filth out of the public eye, and to educate children. If not from the mouths and expectations of wives, from what set of masculine values did American Exceptionalism arise? Who else but women could smooth the rough masculine edges of capitalism, individual freedoms, and pursuit of property for men and happiness for women and children? Consequently, we should all feel indebted to American women for producing the foundation of American Exceptionalism. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, we have exceptionalism, if we can keep it.

If you haven’t already, please go vote. Our children need their future brightened and today’s a good day to produce it and extend our exceptionalism.

* After a close examination of the U.S. penny, Dennis Prager coined the term American Trinity.

1739. RANDOM THOUGHTS—Group 73

• Over the past half century, government provided more and more assistance to women and children. Both learned to respect men less. If women and children don’t respect the male gender as blessed and beneficial, why would women expect men to show much devotion to weaker beings that men see as easily found, fondled, f***ed, and forgotten? As always in America, women are in charge of how men view, respect, protect, and provide for women and children. They don’t much like what they have produced, but they can’t give up government largesse.
• Rugged individualism comes from individual self-respect and ability of men to take care of themselves. When women tamper with a man’s freedom to express it, they lose the benefits of his mental toughness.
• If our rights don’t come from God as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, who do they come from? Are there any humans as unchanging and trustworthy as the God who loves us first and foremost? Our diligence in preserving God as the source of our rights defeats humans who would have it otherwise in the name of better promises through bigger government—which, of course, they intend to control. When they control government that dispenses rights, they control us.
• Let’s speculate for a moment. Who prospers most from prosperity? Men who use it to create and accumulate more and more wealth? Or women who use the accumulated economic wealth to promote family prosperity and develop those in and out of the cradle to be better people? (Of course, women create a lot of economic wealth, but men and women use that wealth much differently.)

1730. Vote Your Choice, Not Someone Else’s

For five years I have explained what women need to know in order to figure out how to make their lives more beneficial. I describe the male and female natures, show how they interact successfully or not, and you take it from there. You figure everything out to benefit yourself.

Well, I just figured out a way to help you the same way with the upcoming presidential election. Now, I claim no scientific legitimacy but offer roughly opposite concepts designed to contrast what the two presidential candidates seem to stand for.

WADWMUFGAO, we all do what makes us feel good about ourselves. Some feel good by choosing the candidate that best fits their single-issue preference, such as race or abortion rights. I’m strongly opposed to single-issue voting. It generates and encourages lazy voters. It drops the single-issue voter’s other opinions from the voting pool. It also under represents the voter in public opinion, because the importance to the voter is lost when combined with other votes. I designed the following to encourage single-issue and confused voters to spread their wings.

The media, campaign staffs, pundits, and commercials constantly flood your psyche. Whether objective and truthful or propaganda, you know the rest of the story is missing. Yet, you’re invited to change your way of thinking to match theirs. In my model below, you’re invited to compare many pairs of opposing ideas, concepts, and values and strengthen your own opinion. From each pair select the one that best suits your values, interests, and expectations. Then vote for the candidate that predominantly represents your choices.

We seldom see clearly through all the differences between conflicting ideas. We usually have to choose anyway. So, in each item, which side is the most important to you? Not to choose is to make a choice. So, mark your preference, weigh the results, and decide how to merge the results with your already-formed opinions and beliefs.

1. Political correctness —or— Freedom of speech
2. Judicial activism —or— Only Congress legislates.
3. Rule of Man —or— Rule of Law
4. Collectivism —or— Individualism
5. Power politics —or— Moral principles
6. Feminist-friendly —or— Feminine-friendly
7. Equality (achievable only in theory) —or— Fairness (achievable with practice)
8. Globalism —or— Patriotism and Nationalism
9. Environmentalism —or— Private property rights
10. Multiculturalism —or— e pluribus unum, out of many, one. (aka the Melting Pot)
11. Atheism-Agnosticism —or— In God We Trust, religious freedom
12. Secular-Humanism —or— Judeo-Christian culture
13. Moral relativism —or— Biblical morality
14. Socialism (The gov’t owns businesses.) —or— Free market capitalism (The public owns businesses.)
15. Pro-choice —or— Pro-life
16. Progressivism —or— Conservativism
17. Same-sex marriage —or— Traditional marriage
18. People should be treated to make up for past mistreatment. —or— People should be treated as equal under the law.
19. Gov’t reads, understands, and complies with public opinion. —or— Gov’t too often rejects public opinion.
20. The majority always rules in a democracy. —or— Our form of gov’t isn’t a true democracy but a representative democracy. That is, a republic where small groups with similar interests and the majority prevailing elect people they can trust to represent them.
21. The popular vote should prevail in presidential elections. —or— The Electoral College defends states’ influence, balances power, and prevents tyranny of the majority
22. Spend as required to meet people’s needs. —or— Balance the federal budget.
23. U.S. should be more like Europe. —or— American exceptionalism.
24. Enlarge gov’t for better delivery of care to the people. —or— Limit gov’t to preserve individual freedom.
25. Gov’t should find ways to make people unique. —or— Gov’t should find ways to unify the people, make them more alike than different, more friendly than unfriendly.
26. Depend on gov’t to provide the needs of life. —or— Depend on self, family, and opportunities provided by free market capitalism.
27. Gov’t produces jobs. —or— Gov’t produces only gov’t jobs. (Wealth-building jobs come from untaxed earnings left in the economy and personal savings that banks loan to entrepreneurs and small businesses.)
28. Diversity makes America great and gov’t is justified using it as strategy to serve unique groups differently. —or— Diversity separates the public into groups recognizable as worthy of special attention, which demeans those excluded and generates unnecessary biases.
29. Power, passions, and possessions generate the good life. —or— Decency and goodness generate the best way of life.
30. We should pour more money into education. —or— We should restore local control of education.
31. Flood the media to get everyone believing the same way. —or— Provide We the People with the truth, and we will figure out what needs doing.
32. Unlimited gov’t power promotes national well-being. —or— The Constitution limits gov’t power in order to protect against gov’t excesses and tyranny.
33. A living Constitution changes to meet problems the Founding Fathers never anticipated. —or— Only amendments can change the Constitution; the Founding Fathers knew best.
34. Our rights come from gov’t and only gov’t can enlarge those rights —or— Our rights come from God. They’re eternal and described in the Declaration of Independence, itemized in the Bill of Rights, and dependent on the Constitution as amended.
35. Groups generate freedom within themselves. —or— Liberty as the promise and freedom as the actuality reign for each individual.
36. The rich must pay more taxes. —or— You can’t legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealthy out of it.
37. The federal gov’t outranks state and local gov’ts. —or— The states created the federal gov’t, and states rights prevail according to the 10^th Amendment.
38. The Executive Branch dominates the Legislative and Judicial Branch. —or— Three-branches of gov’t balance each other, none is intended to dominate.
39. Hate speech is criminal. —or— The 1^st Amendment prevails and thoughts can’t be criminalized.
40. Ban guns. —or— The Second Amendment is sacrosanct.
41. Malpractice as goldmine for lawyers. —or— Tort reform.
42. Central planning and regulatory control of the public. —or— Freedom from excessive regulation.
43. Have higher taxes to enlarge the gov’t. —or— Lower taxes to stimulate the economy.
44. Collect tax revenue and redistribute to less fortunate voters. —or— Charity begins at home and need not be replaced by gov’t.
45. Govt’ guarantees that nobody is in need. —or— Individuals are free to pursue their goals without gov’t interference.
46. Political skills make candidates competent for public office. —or— Admirable character is essential for representing the people.
47. Quality character develops in the crucible of politics. —or— Quality character develops from following moral standards.
48. Politics reflects the public will. —or— Principles best guide the public will.
49. Equality demands that wealth be redistributed. —or — Without the specific permission of We the People, redistribution is theft.
50. What’s best for all of us together is what’s best for each. —or— What’s best for each as determined by each is best for all of us together.
51. The Constitution imposes negative rights; it should promote positive rights such as the right to a home, education, and medical care. —or— Our rights are to prevent gov’t intrusion in our freedoms, and not to provide what We the People can provide ourselves.

Of course, you have other issues. You may have already decided how to vote. Weigh your choices above against your choice of candidate. If you like Obama best, then most of your selections above should be on the left. If you like Romney best, then your selections should be on the right. If not, then you’ve found other decision-making factors. That’s okay too as long as you please your conscience instead of someone else. (Can the list above help understand what you hear during the last debate this Monday night, 10/22?)

Not being a professional pollster, I admit the list appears amateurish but it should help you figure out how you want to vote. If the amateur flavor offends, I apologize, but ask you to vote anyway. If you can’t decide to which candidate you should cast your vote, you are not alone. However, as expected by everyone else, you have a moral obligation to choose and vote.

1720. Respect: Lost and Restorable Only by Women

Her Highness Denise asked a question that I didn’t answer. I hope to recover now. At post 1612 she asked why people are not as they were ‘way back then’ when unconditional respect existed between the sexes. Referring to the present, she asks, “What exactly led to people disrespecting themselves and one another?”

It began a century ago but intensified over the last half-century. Americans have been purposely fractionated by friends of Big Government and enemies of private property, family as primary social unit, religion, Judeo-Christian values, capitalism, energy independence, economic prosperity, peacefulness in society, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and every other value that unified us as uniquely American. Revolutionaries, radicals, feminists and leftist followers developed and spread a multitude of political movements designed to dis-unify Americans so that governments could grow with little or no effective supervision by We the People. One such movement, Feminism, aimed to split men and women, and it worked.

Advocates and followers picked up the feminist torch, ignited their imaginations, and found innumerable ways that men are no darned good. Treat anyone as no darned good and you produce two effects. You lose respect for them, and they lose respect for you.

Joining up with other radicals, feminists spread their opinions universally, and men responded with diminished respect of women generally and less respect for individuals that advocate the feminist spirit. When men lack respect for the female gender, male dominance instinctively magnifies its intensity and enhances patriarchy, which further weakens unconditional respect of one sex for the other.

The consequence of Feminism now stirs families in many wrong ways. Because of shortcomings in wifely respect, husbands react by dominating the home. From lack of husbandly respect, wives suffer loss of the natural order of mating up. They lose the privilege/power/ability of ruling the rooster. Wives fight back with in-his-face directness that exhibits even less respect. They seek to restore their natural role of dominating the home, but mutual respect sinks further, separation or divorce follows, and mutual respect of the genders weakens still further.

The consequence of Feminism also makes single women suffer under the unpredictability/undependability/irresponsibility of men scorned so long by the feminist fever.

Once on the downhill slide, respect between the sexes worsens because of this natural phenomenon. Individuals question their own self-respect when they receive less respect from the other sex than they think they deserve. As self-respect declines, the ability to show respect for others follows. Peering at one step beyond individuals, inter-gender respect also declines and in reaction further erodes unconditional respect between individuals.

We’ve been conditioned this way. There’s no end to how we unwittingly or voluntarily fractionalize ourselves and divide society into antagonistic groups. All done in the name of democracy, compassion, or whatever, we learn that other Americans are too different to be respected unconditionally. We learn to find some reason to dislike or not respect others in some way or another.

Another natural phenomenon exacerbates the process: We respect those in our group more than those outside it. When the American motto of e pluribus unum prevailed—out of many, one—the importance of interest groupings were minimized. We were all Americans and unconditional respect of others flooded society.

Now, revolutionaries, radicals, and political activists have killed e pluribus unum, aka the Melting Pot, and we identify ourselves not as Americans but as belonging to various groups in competition with others. Such as, Black vs. White vs. Hispanic vs. Native Americans vs. Asians, taxed vs. untaxed, environmentalists vs. wealth creators,  poor vs. rich, citizens vs. non-citizens, hunters vs. anti-gunners, farmers vs. environmentalists, children vs. adults, blue collar vs. white collar, Protestant denominations vs. each other, Catholics vs. Protestants, Other Christians vs. Mormons, globalists vs. nationalists, union spending vs. dues-payer interests, anarchist gangs vs. civilized order, lawyers vs. tort reformers, ethnic groups vs. each other, politicians vs. free speech, teachers vs. parents, judicial activism vs. We the People who know better, commuters vs. rapid transit advocates, conscience-bound vs. those who aren’t, religious vs. secularists, Congress vs. the public, bureaucrats vs. threats to government power, professors vs. students that disagree, husbands vs. wives that expect better masculine responsibility, administrators vs. teachers, girls that put out vs. those that won’t, wives vs. women luring husbands for sex. The list never ends, because the political class finds usefulness in pitting one group against another.

Many of those competitions rise naturally, but unfortunately for America’s future, all are exploited by the power-seeking political class plus others they can stir to rely on emotions rather than logic, reason, truth, and common sense.

This summarizes the big picture. The American Trinity*—Liberty, In God We Trust, and e pluribus unum—are purposely being made to fade away by anti-American movements such as Feminism, multiculturalism, and many other -isms. We lack unconditional respect for one another, because e pluribus unum has been effectively destroyed. We’re losing In God We Trust that helps reassure us that other Americans are good people. We’re losing our liberty that’s so vital for unifying We the People and making government work for us. Thus, unconditional respect for fellow Americans has been vaporized by purposeful radicals, opportunistic mavericks, and follow-the-crowd activists that seek to change the fundamental structure of the American political system.

The political malignancy induced by Feminism and radical leftism is deeper and now spreads faster than we suspect. UnAmerican values metastasize and eat away unconditional respect, which keeps Americans divided. It will continue until we elect new representatives who then hire new administrators that also seek to restore America as we knew it growing up, that seek to fill the gaps of diminished self-respect and respect for others, that seek to restore unconditional female respect of men who will respond by restoring unconditional male respect of women.

It will all continue until Womanhood rises against it.

As women go, so goes society. Only women have the interest, energy to fight, and common sense to defeat the multitude of political movements that seek to destroy America as we once knew it. Men don’t naturally need morality, and so they aren’t as likely to strenuously defend it as women can and do. Only women need and, therefore, only they can restore the female-defending, character-building, and respect-earning morality of earlier America. The kind of morality they wish for men so that husbands and children interface with a respected wife and mother.

That’s how people came to disrespecting themselves and one another, and that’s why women can and should lead the way to fixing it.

*Dennis Prager coined the term. American Trinity stands for Liberty, In God We Trust, and e pluribus unum, all of which appear on the penny.

—————————

P.S. To paraphrase Blaise Pascal in 1657, I did not have enough time to shorten it.

Guy

1719. Favored Quotes—Collection 35

Her Highness Denise responded to my description of ‘way back then’ in post 1216—Respect for Women Before Feminism. She added the following.

“Dear Guy,

“I was so touched by this post. I know it was not meant to be sentimental, and I didn’t take it as such; but this was the best picture of classic American society, ideals and values that I have ever read–through high school, college, and law school.

“I’m having difficulty knowing how to describe what exactly moved me–maybe it was finally reading a credible account of what exactly helped this society to become what it is…and hopefully will continue to be. Perhaps it is that the educational institutions of this country tend to be very cynical, and this post shows that cynicism to be false. They say that the more formally educated a person becomes, the more they tend to lean left. I can’t argue with that statistic, but speaking from what I have seen and experienced, it may have a lot to do with the picture of this country that is often presented: hateful, racist, sexist, oppressive, violent. And the more that picture is thrown in one’s face, the more one believes it must have been true. After all, very few of us were actually there to be able to know how it really was.

“It’s like having to make a judgment about America without knowing what actually happened. The conservatives make their arguments that it was one way, the liberals their arguments that it was another. Most on both sides come across as too ideologically driven to be trustworthy. But this concept of respect is compelling as a lens through which to view the social dynamic of yesterday’s American culture. “It’s like having to make a judgment about America without knowing what actually happened. The conservatives make their arguments that it was one way, the liberals their arguments that it was another. Most on both sides come across as too ideologically driven to be trustworthy. But this concept of respect is compelling as a lens through which to view the social dynamic of yesterday’s American culture.

“My great aunt was an African American woman who was a nanny and housekeeper for a wealthy family for years, who made her enter through the back door, cook their holiday meals without regard for her time with family, and paid her a pittance. Her story could be analyzed through either a feminist or racial lens with respect to her limited opportunities. And yet she carried herself with such class and was revered by myself and other family members as being worthy of the utmost respect. When she was alive I often wondered how it could be that those who are now considered to have been the most oppressed and victimized carried themselves with more dignity and self-respect than those who now have more liberty. That itself ought to be the indication that something has gone awry.

“I have two women friends who graduated from college in the early 1960s. They told me about how utterly different things were then and all the rules girls were subjected to (to which the young men were not). But neither complained. One said that while she appreciates the greater opportunities for women now, she felt that women were more protected then. Neither claimed that things were perfect, but something needn’t be perfect to be “better”.

“It seems that, on the whole, man, woman, black or white (child, chicken or duck…), “everyone” had a degree of self-respect and an understanding of the necessity of treating others with respect that we simply do not have today. I see that respect is key, and yet I don’t quite understand where it went. What exactly led to people disrespecting themselves and one another?

“P.S.—Sorry for the dissertation! I was very encouraged by reading [post 1216]. It provides a clear picture for me of what to pray for regarding our country. And moreover, it has revived my former political sensibilities, long wilted under the heat of politically correct liberalism.”

Having revived her question, tomorrow with post 1720 I’ll answer this: “What exactly led to people disrespecting themselves and one another?”

Blog 1718 — Favored Quotes—Collection 34

Sandra Fluke appeals publicly for government-paid contraception. Author Patrice Lewis’ article argues against it at http://www.wnd.com/2012/09/sex-and-the-single-girl/. The following quotes from that article are highly favored by me, because they bring the subject on-theme for this blog. My comments are in brackets.

• “Historically, women have been the standard-bearers of decency. We were admired for our morals, our virtue, our civilizing effect. By our behavior, we turned men into gentlemen.” [Men settled the American West and generated industrialization but women civilized both. Now, society becomes less civilized as each new generation shrouds the concept of lady with unpopularity; gentlemanly behavior fades and gentlemen become extinct.]
• “Do you recognize the damage the feminist movement has done to women? Rather than having society admire us for our minds (which, presumably, was a central tenet of feminism to begin with), women are admired for their ability to “express themselves sexually.” [As the direct result, marital responsibility dies among men, women are dumped, and children are abandoned more easily and predictably than ever before.]
• “Look, there are women all over this nation who spend their whole lives doing the right thing. They restrain their animal urges. They moderate the baser urges of men. And if they make a mistake (and don’t we all?), they don’t repeat it.” [Recovery is everything, and so wiser women adopt the strategy and practice virtual virginity.]

I love it when pretty women write so quotably in parallel with WhatWomenNeverHear.