The Orthosphere

Nerd Princesses and Babies

Did you know Alte is the “true Nerd Princess of the Orthosphere“?  Awesome!  I get all giddy just thinking about our “sphere” having a nerd princess.  I’m such a beta.

Speaking of which, Traditional Christianity had a post up (by Elspeth, who’s also an Orthosphere Princess) on co-sleeping a while ago.  Apparently the city of Milwaukee is on a jihad to stop mothers from sleeping with their babies.  They’re worried parents will roll over and squish the little ones, or something like that.  I have some experience in this matter–Julie having decided a little before her first birthday that it was time for her to move into bed with mommy and daddy, and the stronger will overpowering the weaker two–that cribs were not designed to protect babies; they were designed to protect fathers.  Trust me, little people are total bed hogs.  More mornings than not, I’ll wake to find myself holding onto the edge of the bed–where someone has pushed me–trying to keep from falling off.

Men and Women

Will S. at Patriactionary links to a brilliant set of posts F. Roger Devlin defending patriarchy.

Whither Jewry?

Justin helpfully summarizes the statistical data showing that American Jews remain overwhelmingly a Leftist bunch.  (The alleged tendency of Jews to disagree with each other doesn’t extend to the topic of abortion, for example.)  What happens, though, when we look to the future, or even to the present outside our own country?  Will the growth of Orthodoxy and the political experience of Israel (where Jews must take responsibility for preserving a nation with which they identify, and criticizing from the sidelines from a position of morally superior alienation is not an option) strain this love affair with the Left?  They already are.  Steve Sailer is already pointing to Israel for an example of how intelligent people deal with “illegal infiltrators”.  Also, the Tablet has a fascinating report on a recent academic conference on the death of the Jewish-Leftist alliance.  Since these are academics, they see the question as whether Jews shall be revolutionary Leftists or only liberals–as if those were the two extremes of the political spectrum.  Still, some of the statements made were notable.  Michael Walzer argues that Jewish Leftism’s invocation of the prophets is illegitimate.  The prophets had no interest in democracy or revolution; what they wanted was an end to idolatry and submission to God.  Other speakers spoke harshly of the Jewish Left’s dalliance with communism, properly treating communism as a genuine evil rather than an excusable excess of enthusiasm.  I noticed that English-speaking Jewish magazine articles like this one still write as if it were a proven fact that the Torah is not divinely inspired.  I suspect (and hope) that is will not be true a century from now, given which Jewish groups are most likely to still be around then.

Thinking about the Right

Summaries of conservative belief vary widely in quality, so throwing up a picture of Joseph de Maistre on top is a good way of signaling that you’re going to do a good job of it.  And Samuel Goldman does do a good job here of explaining to the Corey Robins of the world the differences between an extreme reactionary and a fascist.

See also R. J. Snell’s post on the Trinitarian grounding of the Right’s anti-individualism.