That’s what my then two-year-old used to shout at his baby sister in the next seat when we arrived at our destination. The parents were not amused.
These two articles might not amuse you, either. But if you need to be really grumpy, these’ll do it.
–> I’m continuing with the regular-life-requires-my-attention-theme, so outsourcing my invective to ‘things that showed up in my inbox’.
From Christian LeBlanc, interesting link to an essay on contraception and the fall of the west.
The West lasted from AD 732, when Charles Martel defeated the Muslims at Tours, until 1960, where it fell without a battle. In 1960, the birth control pill became widely available. Many think of it as heaven, sexual nirvana, the route to self-expression, wish fulfillment, and liberation for millions of women. I think of it as Auschwitz in a bottle. It was and is genocide, as, using it, the women of my generation happily traded off 1,200 years of unparalleled growth, wealth, security, stability, scientific and ethical progress for a second BMW in the garage.
I’m not persuaded of author’s provocative conclusion (“Islam is the only way”), but the irony is there. In the 19th century the French quit reproducing — yes, before effective contraception became widely available — and by the late 20th were wringing their hands over the cultural impact of all the muslims they’d imported to do the labor of the children they’d never had. Germany has followed suit, and the US isn’t far behind.
(Though, luckily for our culture, we are importing truckloads of macho catholics with their awesome mariachi masses. Maybe God does love us more? Kidding. Really. The French have Brie — if that isn’t love, I don’t know what is. But yes, I do like a rousing Spanish mass now and again. Perks up the excessively-somber soul. And as much as I am moved by the beauty and devotion of faithful muslims at worship, no, I can’t slip down to the corner mosque for a mini-revival.)
Anyhow, key point of link for me is this: You can’t refuse to bear children, then get all shocked and horrified at the presence of the people you imported to do the work of the offspring you never had. You want someone t0 mow your lawn and do your dishes? Either rear yourself a pair of middle-schoolers, or hire someone else’s.
[Teenagers everywhere are now saying aha! You really did raise me to be a slave! The mother points out that she does a thing or two for her own children that she doesn’t do for the random low-wage stranger. Indeed, here may lie a bit of the problem: rather than a steady flow of youngsters who do the grunt work for a decade and then move on to greater work, we attempt to create a society divided between perpetual overlords and perpetual economic-teenagers. And then are shocked, just shocked, when the daring, hard-working, self-sacrificing immigrants turn out to be just like our own children — ready to move up in the world after a spell.]
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Your other link is this article from the HSLDA, from Swedish parents who moved to Finland in order to homeschool. I will use this as my cue to get off the internet educate a few fresh faces of my own.
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PS, castle news: We got a new roof. Looks a lot like the old one, only much, much younger.
I should add that the excerpt is from a novel. The author intends that the reader would recoil from the conclusion “Islam is the only way.”
I was hoping that. 🙂 Thought it was a good way to promote the novel, too. Makes you want to read more.
…I remember in high school in the 80s, hearing Fr. Paul Marx of Human Life International speak to my parish. He was the first person I heard say that there would be a Muslim Invasion of Europe through population rather than the Sword. People chuckled and shook their heads.
He also noted that West Germany at the time was beyond the point of no return, demographically. They didn’t have enough 18 year old boys in the entire country that year (’87, I think) to fulfill their NATO quota.
“So, if you don’t like Germans much,” he quipped, “just wait around. They’ll all be gone soon. The only thing that could at least delay it is the reunification of the country, East & West.
….Germany re-unified less than 5 years later. No one mentioned the reason…or the demographics.
Sad.
Yes. On further thought, since it is taking me ten years to resume the conversation:
Double-compounding the situation in Europe today, I think, is that christian families are more and more running up against the law when they try to practice their faith. You can’t really scratch your heads about why your culture is being overrun by a new religion, if you are busy annihilating the remains of your culture’s previous religion. Faith abhors a vacuum.