A friend of mine here in Canada, whom I suspect is too young to remember life before Feminism, started a snarky thread on a discussion board inviting people to post "Five ways Feminism has helped me" -- meaning to have people post ways that the straw woman "feminist" (i.e. 'emasculating lesbian bleep') has in fact ruined life for Real Women (i.e. women married to their first husband, whose children are all products of that marriage).

I'm a spinster woman in the best 19th century meaning of the word, and I'd like to list here a number of ways Feminism has not only helped me, but made it possible for me to live an independent and fruitful life without being forced to remain in my parents' home or marry anybody who asked me and remain dependent on him until death.

(1) Feminism made it possible for me to rent an apartment in my own name, without having the lease countersigned by my Daddy, who was retired on disability from a job that paid way less than I was making the day I signed my first lease.  The landlord of my first apartment had never met my Daddy and didn't know him from Adam's House Cat, but because he had the correct genitalia, his word was valid and mine was not.

(2) Feminism enabled me to have a credit card, and gave my sister the right to have a credit card in her own name -- Doris Jones, not Mrs. John Jones.

(3) Feminism made it illegal for the Dean of a University Law School to tell another generation of women "It's no use training girls to be anything -- they just get pregnant and quit", and to deny them admission 'because your grades are good enough if you were a man, but they'd have to be a lot better to get me to admit a girl.'

(4) Feminism gave my word as a witness in court the same weight as the word of a man, and my income the same weight as the income of a man when I'm considered for a home loan.

(5)  Feminism made it illegal for race tracks to exclude me from working as a journalist 'because girls in the pitlane are unlucky.'

(6)  Feminism made it possible for me to get a room in a nice hotel without being asked "Where's your husband?" or having the concierge shout for everyone to hear, "Miss Jones, your room is 205, right next to the elevator and the ice machine!"

(7) Feminism made it necessary for the doctor who asked me "Why don't you just go to a bar and pick up a guy if you want to get pregnant?" to apologize or face a lawsuit, and to publish a retraction of his printed statement that "All single women who want to conceive by AI are lesbians whether they know it or not."

(8) Feminism made it necessary for my boss to pay me a living wage, rather than the 'pin money' girls were paid when it was assumed a girl either lived with her parents or with her husband and it was he who needed a living wage, not her.

(9) Feminism made it illegal for a university to deny me a spot in a Logic class under the claim that "girls are not logical".

(10) Feminism disposed of the 10:00 p.m. curfew imposed on all women at my university, regardless of age or degree of emancipation, while letting all men of every age and condition roam free 24/7.

That's just a sampling of what feminism has done for me. 

Contrary to the belief of so-called Real Women, whose real complaint is that they had a great racket going when men had all the rights and all a girl had to do was catch one and her life was settled for good, and women who chose not to live under that regime spoiled it by proving that women could in fact look after themselves and handle their lives as responsibly as men could.

Feminism doesn't want to take away anything from those who choose to marry and stay home and rear children; all it did for me was give me the welcome chance to opt out.  And along the way it has provided benefits and freedom to those stay at home Moms and grandmothers and aunts and in fact all other women.

So before you start blaming everything that ever went wrong in your life on "feminism", stop and think what life would be like without it.  And if you can't remember, ask your Mama.  I'm guaranteeing she can.

 Recently the Holy Father gave a talk to an academic audience in which, as you may remember doing when you were at University, he combined quotations from different sources with different points of view, and created with their aid a dialogue on a set topic. In this case, he discussed the question of whether there is a place for force and violence in spreading the Faith, and he concluded that since God is a reasonable Being, He would not need to use the sword, the gun, the bludgeon or the screaming temper tantrum to encourage humanity to follow Him. Of course He could if He wanted to, but being reasonable and having endowed His creatures with free will, He didn’t think that was necessary. Well, surprise, surprise! There has been a flame war in the Muslim world demanding that the Pope take back that quotation that Mohammed was violent and especially that he commanded conversion by the sword – or they’ll slit our throats and blow up our churches and burn our buildings down.

Apologize? For what? For doing the job God tasked him with when He hired him?

The Pope is charged by God as Defender of the Faith. His duty which was tasked upon him by God is to speak out to Christians and on behalf of Christians (particularly Catholics of course but all Christians in the aggregate) to point out where we are correct and where we are off the rails. Currently in Canada there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth because the Pope pointed out that CATHOLIC politicians who claim they can put their Catholic religion in a box while they practice their politics are tragically mistaken and they need to choose either one or the other and stand by it or else. That is his duty. Instead of realizing this, the GLBT and the pro-choice people are bawling that the Pope is violating "The Separation of Church and State" which is not even a CANADIAN concept in the first place. His Holiness is practicing that task given him by God. He is calling the faithful to BE faithful and pointing out the danger to their immortal souls. That's what he's supposed to do.

Likewise it is his task given him by God to defend his flock from the ravening wolves outside the sheepfold. This he is doing with the army that he has. That would be us. He is standing up and showing us by example what we need to do, and proving the old Army maxim "You can't push a string." That is, you have to lead by getting out in front.

The Muslims are behaving like the teenager who reacts to her mother's decree that she's not old enough for all-night parties by throwing a screaming tantrum. By their behaviour they are proving exactly the point His Holiness made. And we all remember the forced conversion of the Fox reporter and photographer (cowards that they were -- they will pay dearly for their cowardice in the future, I bet). How's that fit in with what His Holiness said? Pretty well, I’d say.

Look, either we're going to have to fight them or they're going to kill us. When are we going to realize that and put on the whole armour of God? And where do we get that armour and who’s going to lead us into the battle? God’s Rottweiler, His Holiness the Pope, God’s representative on Earth. Because his job is Defender of the Faith. And that’s what he’s out there in the front of the army (that would be us) pointing out the way.

 

Why they really hate Wal-Mart

I have a theory about why the "Elite" hate Wal-Mart.  I believe they hate it because it allows the proletariat to have things that look as nice as the things the Elite people have. How can you incite people to overthrow the government and put you in power unless they are both Poor AND downtrodden? And the way to keep them both is to deny them gainful employment AND a comfortable life for themselves and their families.

One of the unmentioned benefits of the Industrial Revolution was the mass production of furniture, fixtures and equipment (such as china) at prices low enough for the working class people to own them -- as well as the jobs making and distributing those things, which allows them to pay for them. Wal-Mart is carrying on this tradition and the Lefty Elite hate it because people can no longer tell the difference between the kitchen of an Elite and the kitchen of a Prole.

There are seven deadly sins, but in my own opinion the most dangerous sin of them all is Envy/Jealousy. Keeping the Proles both poor and downtrodden allows you to cultivate envy and jealousy in them that will lead to your rise in power. And Wal-Mart stands between the Elite Liberals and power -- so Wal-Mart must go.

It's simple, really, if you got your education before Universities became trade schools and 'education' became 'relevant' ...

Full Disclosure:

I'm a liberal arts graduate with a major in West Saxon Literature and a minor in Victorian History.  Although Mama questioned my sanity when I declared my field of study, I've found Victorian History explains a lot of things missed by those Elites who major in "Gender Issues in Contemporary Rock and Roll" or in my own generation "Vietnam Awareness".  If you still read books, read Gertrude Himmelfarb.  It's all right there.

It's the time of year when students return to school, and when university graduates must face the fact, like it or not, that the employment they've found is not just some way to mark time until they can get back to the classroom.  And all over Toronto we hear the lamentations of those who graduated with a B.A. in English and History and have not been hired as network anchors or made Hollywood stars, but instead are selling donuts at Tim Horton's ... and to one another and themselves they are crying, "I worked four years and spent $30,000 for this?"

I graduated from university 36 years ago, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, with a B.A. in West Saxon Literature and Victorian History, and my mother asked the same question of me.  But I knew then and I know now the secret I'll pass along to you:  a degree in Liberal Arts was never meant to fit you to make a living.  It was meant to make you fit to make a life.

Daddy told us when we graduated from high school that everyone ought to have an education and a trade, so as to be sure she could earn a living; but the most important component of that is the education, was what we'd learn in college (that's University in the States) because it would fit us to understand the world we lived in and to communicate with people in other cultures, other countries, and other areas of expertise from a common base of knowledge.  In a rapidly changing world there are some things that don't change, and a liberal arts education will give you that foundation on which to stand.  When you stand in the Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey, you'll be overwhelmed by the thought that those people you studied actually lived and you'll be able to recite to yourself or others their words in this place where they are.  When you stand in York Minster and hear the great striding fugues of Bach in the mileau for which they were written, you'll get a thrill that your friends who went to DeVry Institute will never understand.  And when some of your less-educated classmates are marching in the street chanting pre-programmed slogans and waving pre-printed signs, you'll be able to look at the world around you and compare what you see with what has happened before, and your patience and understanding will keep you from suffering the hysterical stress (or the smugness of ignorant certainty) that you see parading itself to public view.

When you get into your profession, whatever it might be (mine veered in many directions and ended up legal assistant and motorsport journalist), you'll find yourself turning to "Chief Modern Poets of England and America" and to your battered Shakespeare for the apt quotation and the perspective more often than you might think.  I happened to be at a motor race where a young Canadian driver was killed in a particularly horrible accident.  As we huddled round the TV in the lounge waiting word from the officials, someone recited a World War II poem called "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" that spoke eloquently to the occasion.  And instead of spending your leisure time with your iPod jammed in your ears with obscenity, blasphemy and pornography echoing through your head, perhaps you'll trek off to a "Sing it yourself Messiah" (as I have done for the past 40 years) or join a performance choir ... or when you are out in the middle of the ocean on a freighter trip to Tunisia and there's no television or movies around, you may spend some delightful time singing madrigals or shaped note or gospel music with other people who are educated too.

Finally, it wouldn't hurt you to overhaul your trade skills, for everyone who majors in English has skill in research and typing if nothing else.  My typing skills led me eventually to a position as officer manager to a high-powered attorney in International Tax and Finance, dealing with clients from forty different countries and producing documents in three languages, turning expense accounts submitted in seventeen currencies (this was pre-Euro) into American dollars, and learning how to deal with the Russians which will by the way help you with the Canadians too.

So don't think your liberal arts education has been a waste of money because you happen to be employed selling donuts right now.  Raise your head and look around you, see the wilderness of wonderful possibilities that await your shaping and formation, not only careers and professions but citizenship in a world that is not only more fascinating and complex than you imagine but more so than you can imagine.

Its all out there for the taking.  Put down the donut and reach out and grab on!