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Fiat justitia ruat caelum

				
				
				

				

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				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 14, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My mom visited my family recently and kept commenting on how busy I was, while I ran around trying to take care of my four kids (one a infant) while on maternity leave.  She spent most of the time on the couch or "cleaning up" (really, messing up the careful system we have to make sure everything gets cleaned up.)  She spent almost no time with the kids, let alone in a way that would have taken them off my hands.  She was mostly determined to take posed photos of the kids, culminating a very staged attempt at getting a video of her reading a book to all the kids, keeping two of them up past their bed times.  I don't think she learned anything from the experience, though the video is hard to watch with all the crying from the younger two.


I had an Au Pair, but she left the weekend before my mom showed up.  It was a month early, and we would then have a gap between Au Pairs, but we didn't question her decision to leave too much.  A week before she left, the Au Pair started asking me about my mom's visit.  It turns out she had been under the impression that my Mom was coming over to take care of my kids, because that's what happened in her country when a new baby was born.  I could only laugh.


My mom had me when she was 33.  She has struggled with her weight since bearing kids and has low energy, was diagnosed with something wrong with her thyroid at some point.  Playing with the kids would be hard for her on a physical level.  I don't think she even has the strength to carry the 2 year old.


There are a lot of factors in lower fertility.  Increased maternal age has effects for multiple generations, overall decline of health in the older population means less help to the next generation of mothers.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 17, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Reminds me of the MJ-12 documents.  As Skeptoid theorized:




During the early days of the cold war, the Air Force became concerned that such UFO groups might conceivably collect actual sensitive information about classified Air Force capabilities. It stood to reason that Soviet spies — who were no dummies — might reasonably attempt to infiltrate such groups. It was perfectly plausible that the UFO groups on stakeout formed a pipeline of classified information to Soviet spies. And so in an ironic twist, the UFO groups, who intended to support national security by revealing what they thought was an alien threat, actually became the national security threat themselves.




...




How was the Air Force to deal with this potential leak? They could have arrested the UFO guys, but among the various types of fallout that would create was the fact that such arrests would certify to any Soviet spies that the information was indeed valuable. Another way to deal with it was with disinformation, to discredit the UFO groups by persuading them that their observations did indeed pertain to aliens, and not to actual Air Force capabilities. Soviet spies were much less likely to take interest in claims of flying saucers than they were in film of American F-117A aircraft. So the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) developed a new expertise: Feeding made-up disinformation about aliens and UFOs to the UFO enthusiasts, indicating that the United States did indeed have deep relationships with aliens. In some cases, this information — which was exactly what the UFO groups salivated for — was actually provided in exchange for information about the UFO groups' movements and what data they may have collected.




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
"It's a big mistake for women to talk to men the same way they do among other women because then he often..." takes it as an attack or plea for him to do something.


My husband came home early from work yesterday because the internet was down.  I took the opportunity to ask him to walk to get lunch with me (I work from home).  On the walk, I first asked him about the internet situation - he was upset because the IT department didn't bother telling anyone the internet was down while they've known since 4 AM, some people have 1 hour commutes and essentially wasted prime work hours, etc.


Once that conversation topic ran its course, I told him that after lunch I had a lot of copy/pasting to do - someone made a workbook where I could input different values to get the quantities of items, and I needed to put in 50 or so values and copy/paste into a format a customer wanted.  He immediately started asking me details about the workbooks, what format they where in, what format the customer wanted, trying to solve the problem.  I had to tell him to stop - I didn't expect him to fix the excel copying problem any more than he expected I'd be able to fix his office internet situation.


Or sometimes I'll say something like, "Man, the kids are wild today," and he'll assume I'm asking him to go in there and yell at them, instead of just making small talk.  And then he gets frustrated with me because he thinks I'm being lazy, or making him the bad guy who has to punish the kids.  Sometimes I'm just talking to talk.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
People trading based off of Twitter screenshots deserve everything they get.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 22, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This series has a list of interesting proposals for amendments that are not policy-based but rather attempt to fix some of the areas where governance has fallen apart. For example:




    

  1. All Bills which raise or appropriate money, or which issue or limit the size of the public debt, or which fix the salaries of Officers of the Government of the United States, shall originate in the House of Representatives, and shall not be altered or amended by the Senate.
    2. 

  2. The Senate shall vote on all such money bills within one year, voting by the Yeas and Nays, and the affirmative vote of a majority of the Senators duly chosen and sworn shall cause the bill to be passed. If, after one year, this vote has not been taken, the House may present the money bill to the President of the United States for signature, in like manner as if it had been passed by the Senate.
    3. 

  3. These provisions may be enforced by judicial proceedings.
    4. 





But even something as anodyne as this would probably become polarized once one group of people took up its cause.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 15, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The day after the Daily Wire made some sort of indication they were going to develop kids programming, I bought an annual membership.  I've only watched a DW movie/show a couple times since then, but I've renewed the membership once already.  It doesn't matter that they don't even have any kids programming yet, I want to encourage them to make it.


Angel Studios has three kids shows, one for the preschool age and two that are probably TV-Y7.  They aren't religious in nature, one teaches civics from a right wing stance, but the other two are non-political.  They just don't include anything that would have been objectionable to a Republican 20 years ago.  These shows are free to watch, but new episodes are crowdsourced (so if you want to see what happens next, pay up!)


There aren't many options, but the Right is starting to wage the culture war, in the sense of changing the culture kids are exposed to.


Disney plus includes shows and movies from more than 15 years ago.  If a parent controls the remote, they can show their kids more wholesome programming.  There's even ways to block specific shows in the parental controls.  A truly dedicated culture warring parent could probably manually block all new shows every morning.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Why is Eisenhower asking a Catholic woman?  Eh, weirder things happen in wartime.


There are a few criteria for waging a just war according to Catholic doctrine:


    

  1. The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave and certain.
    2. 

  2. All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective.
    3. 

  3. There must be serious prospects of success.
    4. 

  4. The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.
    5. 



I think your scenario takes for granted #1 and #2.  The historical record bears out #3, but it could be an interesting exercise to determine if this could have been known at the time.  Your question is getting to the heart of #4.


Then I look at the doctrine of Double Effect.  When an action produces both a negative and a positive effect, it is permitted if:


    

  • The good effect outweighs the bad effect.
    • 

  • The action is undertaken with the intention of producing the good effect, not the bad effect.
    • 

  • The bad effect is not the direct cause of the good effect.
    • 



Given this, the most simple answer to "How many French civilian deaths are tolerable to ensure the success of Operation Overlord?" is one less than the number of lives saved by the success of Operation Overload, as long as the rules of Double Effect are applied.  Of course, we don't live in a counterfactual world where we know for certain how many people would have died had we not acted.  We should be careful and allow for our knowledge being imprecise.


There would be some actions that could not be tolerated - we could not attack civilians directly in the hope that it would redirect medical supplies from the military and therefore weaken the military.  This would violate the "bad effect is not the direct cause of the good effect" clause.  But overall, as long as we are attacking legitimate military targets for the sake of attacking legitimate military targets, and we are reasonably certain that each attack will save more lives than cause civilian deaths, it is morally permissible.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 19, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Taken individually, no single law in any state completely strips parents’ rights over the care and mental health treatment of their troubled minor teens. But pieced together, laws in California, Oregon, and Washington place troubled minor teens as young as 13 in the driver’s seat when it comes to their own mental health care—including “gender affirming” care—and renders parents powerless to stop them.




https://www.city-journal.org/article/when-the-state-comes-for-your-kids


Article presents an example of a 14 year old checking into a youth center and parents unable to retrieve them despite no cps investigation.




One mother I spoke with had had Child Protective Services called on her by her own therapist, after she had explained in therapy why she had chosen not to “affirm” her young trans-identified teen daughter. In that instance, the mom said, the social worker accepted the mother’s explanation that this did not constitute abuse. She counts herself lucky.




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Quality Contributions Report for April 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A definitive list of Catholic Dogmas and their teaching weight has been made, yes.  Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Ludwig Ott is the best at explaining the degrees of authority each teaching possesses.  St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Moral Theology is likely the most thorough explication of Catholic Moral Theology.  As Rev. Thomas Slater, S.J. put it, "Moral theology is still what St. Alphonsus left it."


Ott lists 6 grades of Theological Certainty, ranging from "immediately revealed truths... defined by a solemn judgement of faith (definition) of the Pope or a General Council" to "Tolerated Opinions."  A solemn judgement of faith cannot be just what the Pope said last Tuesday, or even something put in an instructional document like the Catechism.  (The current Catechism of the Catholic Church has many topics with various degrees of authoritativeness, and explicitly states that the degree of authority pertains to the documents outside of the Catechism in which they are defined.  Addition to the Catechism does not increase magisterial authority.)


The Church has not U turned on capital punishment, which is infallibly considered not intrinsically immoral.  The current Pope skirting heresy does not change the fact that capital punishment is good in a lot of situations.  The Pope could even be a full blown heretic and that would still not pose a problem for the Church.  What he cannot do is declare he's changing prior dogmatic teaching using his authority as the Pope.


In the case of capital punishment, Pope Francis is clearly making a prudential judgement, which is still binding on Catholics as my first comment shows.  Prudentially, in most countries today, is is possible to protect society without killing murders.  Much of the benefits to the murderer from killing them are gone as well - in a non-Catholic society it is unlikely that a murderer will repent, go to confession, face the hangman, and go on his way to Heaven.  Instead, keeping the murderer alive for longer gives him the best chance at repentance.  Prudentially, there is a good argument to not practice Capital Punishment.  And as I said above, the Pope doesn't even need a good argument to make Catholics do something under obedience.  He could outlaw the color pink arbitrarily.


"Do not murder" in the Bible has always been consistent with God commanding the Israelites to practice capital punishment one book over.  There is no ambiguity or conflict there.  If you are interested in a more thorough explication of Catholic teaching on Capital Punishment, I recommend, "By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed: A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment." (You should be able to pirate it, there's nothing about copyright in Alphonsus' Moral Theology, so it's totally morally fine.) (Also copyright would probably be considered unnatural, like usury, and therefore prohibitions on it are unjust.)


Honestly that reminds me.  I owe a debt to Pope Francis for his ambiguous statements on Capital Punishment.  It is much, much easier to talk about how Church teaching hasn't changed in regards to Capital Punishment than it is to talk about how Church Teaching hasn't changed in regards to Usury, which used to be the go-to zinger.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 18, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There's really only one or two forms of intelligence, spatial and verbal.  The rest is personality.  So how does genius display itself when a stereotypical woman burdened with it?


She identifies BS but doesn't directly confront it.  Rather she works to circumvent it and cushion the negative impacts of it.


She is thrifty and knows how to make a meal out of leftovers, leaving nothing to waste.


She is able to order the day around everyone's needs and weaknesses.  If a child is too cranky to do homework after school, she makes a routine in the morning.


She binds communities together and makes a society run on gift instead of transaction.


She is able to hold dozens of people's expectations, needs, wants, and histories in her head and exploit this information to accomplish her goals.


She is a good project manager.  I think society has lost something when the smartest women became project managers instead of free community builders.


The Ur-example is from Proverbs 31:


A wife of noble character who can find? 

She is worth far more than rubies. 

Her husband has full confidence in her

and lacks nothing of value.

She brings him good, not harm,

all the days of her life.

She selects wool and flax

and works with eager hands.

She is like the merchant ships,

bringing her food from afar.

She gets up while it is still night;

she provides food for her family

and portions for her female servants.

She considers a field and buys it;

out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

She sets about her work vigorously;

her arms are strong for her tasks.

She sees that her trading is profitable,

and her lamp does not go out at night.

In her hand she holds the distaff

and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

She opens her arms to the poor

and extends her hands to the needy.

When it snows, she has no fear for her household;

for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

She makes coverings for her bed;

she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

Her husband is respected at the city gate,

where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

She makes linen garments and sells them,

and supplies the merchants with sashes.

She is clothed with strength and dignity;

she can laugh at the days to come.

She speaks with wisdom,

and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

She watches over the affairs of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed;

her husband also, and he praises her:

“Many women do noble things,

but you surpass them all.”

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Honor her for all that her hands have done,

and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have seen trans women refer to their sexual organs as female penises, usually in the context of a spa serving female only treatment. The logic being, they are a woman, therefore female, therefore any sexual organs they possess are female, regardless of their function. But you will have to take my word for what it's worth because I usually see it on Reddit and Tumblr, two sites with terrible search.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 1, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


If this becomes a nationwide thing, for people who want to avoid databases for privacy concerns, it could get a lot harder than just grabbing ProtonVPN and going to town. Maybe it would be adopted internationally and you'd HAVE to sign up for the database. Having such a hurdle to something that is arguably a free speech issue would be frightening.




Porn is not protected under free speech in the United States.  Something that "appeals to the prurient interest" is only protected to the extent it has "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value." (See Miller and Ashcroft.)  "Patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated... [and] representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, and lewd exhibition of the genitals" are all restrictable without violating the first amendment (according to case law.)  Maybe we will see a change to this after these cases are brought up to the Supreme Court.  But for now, there is no First Amendment barrier to restricting access to this content.


In fact, it is already federally illegal to send a minor pornographic content over the internet.  This is very rarely enforced, but it is the reason why there are those 18+ checkboxes on all your favorite websites.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				To Escape the Body: A Review of Helen Joyce’s Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, pt. 3 – How Transgenderism Harms Women And Children
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think the problem is inherent in the blockers. They do what exactly what it says on the tin - halt puberty.  The problem with that is they are being used for the purpose of allowing a person to mature and a brain to develop enough to make an adult decision.  But they halt puberty, the process that changes a kid brain into an adult brain.


I don't think this has been sufficiently studied.  If it ever gets studied either:


    

  1. 

    I'm wrong.  Teen brains still mature as normal on puberty blockers. Despite this, nigh 100% of kids who go on puberty blockers to treat dysphoria go on to hormone replacement.  In this case why bother with blockers at all?  Seems like medication and risk without a purpose.  Better to come up with a new protocol that focuses on preserving sexual health and end appearance.
    

    2. 

  2. 

    I'm right, in which case puberty blockers are not actually giving kids time to mature and make adult decisions.  We still have kid brains making the final decision to go on HRT, it's just a 16 year old kid brain instead of a 12 year old kid brain.  We still have immature kids making adult decisions.  It is possible that normal puberty is the thing that causes desistance and acceptance of sex assigned at birth.
    

    3. 



So I'm against blockers on principle and I don't see a way to get me to change my mind.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think most people today don't realize Catholics had a Pope literally declared a heretic at one point.  We've had much worse popes.  The Catholic claims do not rely on a perfect pope who believes, professes, and acts perfectly all the time.  This post has a good summary of what Catholics mean and don't mean about papal infallability.


It's just weird that Catholics had a run of fairly upstanding and holy popes compared to the historical norm.  Pope Francis is a regression to the mean.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It all seems bizarre to me.  Before this incident, I had an idea that if a member of the cabinet or other high-ranking government official was unaccounted for, even for a couple hours, Secret Service would be notifying the President, intelligence agencies would be tasked with tracking them down, and we'd know by the end of the day if they were kidnapped by an adversary, fell into a sink hole, whatever.


I'm not clear yet how this scenario updates my priors.  Could the Defense Secretary have been kidnapped by Russia without anyone knowing?  His top staffers didn't know he was hospitalized until the next day, how did they find out and why didn't they find out sooner?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 18, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Eh, Cornell is ok. Do you know what Cornell Engineering students and MIT students have in common?


They both applied to MIT.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 7, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


"But you said you are engaging in prayer, which is the offense," the officer responded.






"Silent prayer," she responded.






"No, but you were still engaging in prayer," he said. "It is an offense,"




https://www.foxnews.com/media/uk-woman-arrested-second-time-offense-silently-praying-outside-abortion-clinic


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 17, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I respect Dr. Powers, but one clinician noticing that he has a lot of patients with certain comorbidities and doing informal surveys on the internet with his fanbase is not high quality evidence.


One possibility is he's too good at his job, he's one of the few endocrinologists who actually run hormonal assays on his patients before prescribing them new hormones.  He always does a mental health referral before doing anything else.  In other words, he's ethical.  It is entirely possible that he and his band of clinicians using the "Dr. Powers'" method have already weeded out the tucutes from their patient list and are only looking at a smaller subset of the transgender phenomena - those with actual hormonal issues and would have a problem regardless of the culture.  Not every underweight person has anorexia!


I am 100% supportive of trans-identifying teens having a hormonal assessment and then prescribed methods of making their hormonal profile more closely fit with their sex assigned at birth.  Medicine should be focused on restoring health and biological functioning when possible.  I would love if the battle over trans-identified individuals took place over polluting corporations, identifying all the endocrine disruptors and removing them from our environment.


I do want to note that opponents of transitioning have also noticed the correlation with ADHD and Autism, and have taken it as evidence that it is a social contagion (we would expect these groups to be more susceptible to feelings of not fitting in with peers, body dysphoria, etc.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 3, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm surprised to see Japan as lower trust, given that they send little kids on errands and trust slightly older kids to navigate around.




What accounts for this unusual degree of independence? Not self-sufficiency, in fact, but “group reliance,” according to Dwayne Dixon, a cultural anthropologist who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Japanese youth. “[Japanese] kids learn early on that, ideally, any member of the community can be called on to serve or help others,” he says.




Maybe it depends on how the question of "Most people can be trusted" is translated into the language?  In Japan maybe they hear the question "Most people (globally) can be trusted" and think of their geopolitical neighbors China, North Korea, and Russia and say, nah.  And in China they hear the question "Most people (locally) can be trusted" and agree?  "Share of people who trust others in their neighborhood" is at 74% in Japan at your link.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 25, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Don't you worry it will cause a Dark Age?  Civilizational collapse doesn't seem good for anyone, or do you not expect it will get that far?


Or is the satisfaction of saying, "I told you so," worth what you believe will be European civilization "fail[ing] spectacularly?"


Wouldn't you rather hope that social science develops and we create societies that facilitate the thriving of human nature?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for December 8, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've never been to Japan, but I have heard that their Disney parks still have the magic.  Clean, impeccable service, superior rides, and marvelous theming. It is run by a Japanese organization, The Oriental Land Company, which insulates it from a lot of the poor decisions made by Disney corp.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for November 17, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I hate Thanksgiving. Last Thanksgiving I had three kids in the ICU for breathing problems. This year I forbade my husband from making Thanksgiving dinner, despite how irrational it is. I tried to explain to him, it's not really superstition, it's more like how some people hate Christmas because a relative died on Christmas. It's like that but slightly less drastic. Thanksgiving is now associated with Children's Hospitals.


Then he bought several pies for the donation drive at work. The minute after he checked out, I got a call from my daughter's school to pick her up due to a cough, and not bring her back without a doctor's note. A couple days later, I'm in the ER with a sick 8 month old.


I think I am now superstitious.


Edit: baby is fine, just has RSV and an ear infection. We're home now and I will have a  Thanksgiving dinner out of spite for the supernatural miasma (or viruses) that plague us.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


With those numbers, you’re exceedingly unlikely to know anyone with kids going through those procedures.




Then I guess I'm exceedingly unlucky to have a cousin who went on puberty blockers then HRT. I lived with another person who began HRT at 16, no puberty blockers.   Given that a quarter of the teenagers I've been close with have undergone some sort of medical transition, it does seem relevant to me.


But I also suspect that your source is a huge undercount, and also many of the people medically transitioning do not go on puberty blockers because they don't identify as Trans* until they are 14 or older.  And even the people who do not medically transition might face health issues from chest binding and other encouraged practices.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 11, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The current papacy has certainly been a scandal and stumbling block, just as Peter was described in Matthew 16:23.  For what it's worth, the death penalty has not been declared intrinsically evil, which would be a break with tradition.  The pope is making a binding (on Catholics) prudential judgement, which is not considered free from error.  I could advise you to read Ed Feser's blog posts on the topic, or read An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine by St. John Henry Newman, but it's the perception of internal inconsistencies that is the problem.


I try to maintain the same attitude towards the Pope as a medieval peasant.  I mostly ignore his existence save to pray for him in the abstract.   He may be the worst scoundrel or the most pious saint.  As long as he doesn't issue any papal bulls that affect me I don't care.  My local bishop matters more in my day to day life (and yes, bishops are often terrible too.  May God preserve His Church.)


What is your relationship with God like?  What was it like when you were Catholic?  Did you read the Bible, pray, read the spiritual classics?  Were you prepared for a desolation, or is this totally surprising to you?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 14, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah, I don't know why she thought the two month old would be interested in listening to her read... I think she has forgotten most of what it is like to have small kids.  That thought gives me weird feelings.  On the one hand, I know that one day most of my kids will be able to feed themselves breakfast and lunch, take their own baths, entertain themselves, and my role as a parent will be very different.  I look forward to the role changing.


On the other hand, I want to be there for my kids when they have kids.  If I forget what it's like, I will not be able to help as much.  I'm already disappointed in Future Me's inevitable failure.


This was just the example that was easiest to convey.  The most enraging thing was on a zoo trip.  The zoo has a ski-lift-like ride where you can get a better view of the animals.  My oldest, A, and second oldest, C, were tall enough to ride, but short enough that they needed a riding partner.  My husband took C first, they got on the lift without a problem.  I stayed with the younger two and the strollers.


My mom took A. While waiting for the chair lift to come up behind them, my mom kept trying to get A to look at me, yelling at me to take a photo, trying to get A to smile.  The chair came behind them, my Mom sat on it easily, kept looking over my way trying to get me to photograph her.  My daughter did not sit on the chair easily and was pushed forward.  I kept shouting, "A!  A!"  helplessly behind three layers of steel gates and a long line.  A ride attendant caught up and got my daughter on.


I was furious, muttered, "Stupid fucking woman cares more about photos than the life of her grandkid!"  Mothers with young children heard me and glared.  I was anxious, worried my daughter would fall off, pacing around until finally they came back around.