Happy New Year

May it be a fantastic one.

Power is Back

Our power finally came back on at about 2:30AM this morning. There are still a lot of people without power in our area, but our neighborhood was barely touched by the storms so we were among the earlier groups to have it restored. Since I’ve had a fair amount of disaster prep stuff on this site lately, I’ll have a follow up sometime this afternoon detailing how things played out and what lessons I’ve learned from the first hand experience.

No Power

My part of the South was hit Wednesday night by the worst tornadoes in our recorded history. All of my family and friends are fine, but like nearly a million others, we have no power at the moment (I’m updating from a smart phone) and they’re saying it might be a few days before we do, hence the quiet around here.

Pregnancy Fetishes

I’ve been meaning to make this post for a while anyway, but Paige’s comments this morning about pregnancy bellies make it as good a time as any. She quotes a post from Laura Wood (she left off the link, so I don’t have it to share) in which she (Wood) bemoans modern trends toward pregnant women showing off their bodies.

I have two different (but not mutually exclusive) opinions on this, and I think both are very important in their own right. First, I have seen some real problems with this. Shortly before their baby was born, Clark and his wife posed for exactly the kind of pictures that Ms. Wood blasts. Now, I don’t have any particular problem with these kinds of pictures. Pregnancy is a normal part of life, and a part that can be incredibly beautiful. But these particular pictures had a twist. First, Clark and his wife are very Southern Baptist. Remember, this is the guy who covers his eyes at nudity in movies. The poses in these pictures are the kind that they’d both be out bitching about in any other context. There are several in which her breasts are barely covered (in order to expose the belly), a couple in which she’s basically only wearing a sheet, and a couple in which he’s holding her from behind with his hands on her belly as you can clearly see the unbuttoned and unsnapped jeans. All fair enough if the photos were taken for personal use. They were posted on Facebook. The other problem I had with this photo shoot is how clearly and utterly pedestalized she is and how beta Clark is. These photos are all about making his wife the center of attention.

In other words, there are two basic problems. Because it’s “all about the baby and motherhood” women get to exercise their inner sluts and attention whores in ways that would be completely socially unacceptable in other contexts (at least for these particular women). They get to be skanks while pretending not to be. For a large portion of our population that’s really not an issue anymore – but for many “religious” women it still is. The other problem is that it’s another (often very expensive) item that’s all about the woman. “I’m pregnant, you should be catering to my every desire.” Groan.

Modern American women are wimps when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth. Yes, I’m a man and I said it. Let forth the feminist wrath. I’ll say it because I’ve had the very good fortune to find myself with a woman who is not a wimp about it. Don’t get me wrong, she’s no hero either (sorry honey). You want to see a hero in pregnancy and childbirth? Look at frontier women or nomad women, the kind who do real, physical labor all day in the hot sun right up until the moment they give birth – and then a few days later they’re out doing it again. Pregnancy is a natural part of human life. You’re not sick. You’re not injured. You don’t have a “medical condition.” You’re just pregnant. Yeah, you’ll get tired more easily. Your back will get sore because your center of gravity is completely off. You’ll have some other issues thanks to hormones. Yeah, there are even a very few women who are actually defective (defective in the sense that their bodies don’t quite work right) in some sense and have truly serious issues while they’re pregnant. But by and large, the female body was designed to do it and does a pretty good job of it.

But in modern America pregnancy has become an excuse for a woman to be worshiped and pedestalized not just by her husband/boyfriend/baby daddy but by all of society. “I’ve got a craving at three in the morning for a triple chocolate dunked Oreo and lard cheesecake – GO GET IT FOR ME NOW!” OMG, you’re pregnant! Can I wipe your ass for you? As I said, I was extremely fortunate that my wife wasn’t like that at all. In fact, she got extremely annoyed by everyone treating her like a baby.

Pictures of this sort are just another symptom of that. It’s not about the baby. It’s all about the attention whore mother. Babies should be a celebration, I agree. But you’re not a goddess because you managed to spread your legs and let some guy squirt a little bit of jizz in there. You’re just a woman – like the billions of other women who have done it before. I only put it that roughly because so many pregnant women need to get their heads out of their own asses so that we can get back to celebrating the baby, the birth and the miracle of life like we should be.

Now, with all of that said and done…. my second perspective. Pregnancy is a natural part of the human condition. A lot of people find it gross. I never really understood that. It’s not a fetish for me or anything, but frankly I find pregnant women to be beautiful in their own right. There’s a distinct difference between a pregnant body and a fat body. Fat bodies are gross. Pregnant bodies are not. Unfortunately in this day and age of obesity, most women I see are actually both. And women who are fat and pregnant… yeah, that’s pretty gross, too. And as I’ve mentioned before, when a woman you love is pregnant with your own baby and happy to be… that’s really damn hot.

My wife, however, does have a bit of a pregnancy fetish. As far as I know, she’s only ever admitted it to me. Even with me she gets embarrassed to talk about it. But as I’ve told her a million times, I’m willing to bet that this is an extremely common fetish for women. Duh, it makes an awful lot of evolutionary sense. And as Athol loves to remind us, sex is all about making babies.

Like I said, it’s not really a fetish for me. But you know what? When your wife reveals a fetish, roll with it. Milk it. Use it for all you can. So when we’re out in publicly, we quietly cheer to each other when we see cute pregnant women who are actually not fat. We talk about it when we tease each other. We talk about it in different ways when we’re actually having sex. Hey, it works for us (most of the time, anyway).

But especially these days, I suggest an alpha framing for men who go this way. It’s not just about her. Talk about showing her off in a “look what I did” kind of way. Talk about her belly as being your way of marking her as yours. I got the double bonus of luck – my wife was talking about things that way before it ever occurred to me and before I ever knew about Game. What can I say, she really did want me to Game her all along.

Oh, and women like Ms. Wood who rant about disgusting baby bellies are largely the same liberal feminist idiots who are against children and population growth anyway. Somehow these same women, who would kill any man who suggested that a woman should stay home, want to keep their fellow women from breast feeding in public and don’t want to go anywhere where they might run into somebody’s “screaming brat.” Don’t worry. These women may be proof positive that women are more misogynistic than men, but they’re also sowing the demographic seeds of their own irrelevance with their anti-child ideals. And frankly, she’s mostly jealous because she doesn’t have a pregnant belly of her own.

One Year Anniversary

It’s hard to believe that it’s been an entire year since I launched this blog. And oh what a year it’s been.

I’ve moved twice, changed jobs, transferred to a new grad school, almost finished my conversion to Catholicism, sold a car, and bought a car. We celebrated my son’s first birthday and my grandmother’s 90th. My nephew was born. Athol’s about to release his book. Keoni’s lived through his second tsunami. Ferdinand relaunched his blog as a group effort, which I joined, and I’ve launched a new satellite blog as part of his revamp.

The blog itself has grown. It started as merely a documentation of my path. It’s grown to be much more. I’m not exactly sure yet what it is, but it’s definitely more than that.

And oh yeah, I’m having more sex than ever.

My Long and Winding Road to Catholicism – Conclusion and Summary

I haven’t really talked to my parents much about my conversion, but we had recently let them know that I will be baptized on Easter Sunday. My mother called me last Saturday and asked me why I’d picked the church we did. I told her it was a long answer. I’d have pointed her at this blog, except that I’ve made too many disparaging comments about my family here (one of the biggest reasons I post anonymously). I should’ve just told her that there was no way in hell I’d be caught dead at my brother’s church. It’s not really an explanation, but at least it’s true.

I was raised as a Methodist and found it to be nearly useless. Likewise, I found atheism and agnosticism to be unsatisfying.

I’ve come to believe over time that more defined religion is generally beneficial.

I believe Christianity to be both the most advanced and most beneficial major religion in the world today.

I have a lot of issues with some flavors of Christianity.

The Catholic church doesn’t suffer from most of these issues.

The Catholic church has other aspects that I see as good both for myself and for society.

I do still have issues with the church, and probably always will.

Nevertheless, I find it to be the best place to raise my children and strengthen my family against the storm of the modern world.

As I’ve noted elsewhere, in no way is this series an attempt to convert anybody. I’m not out to change anybody’s mind or win anybody’s approval. It is merely my story. Read it or don’t. Like it or don’t. Agree with it or don’t. Argue with it or don’t (I actually like those who do; reasoned argument is how I learn new things). It should be pretty clear by now that my conversion to Catholicism is largely for practical rather than theological reasons. Do I have huge amazing reservoirs of faith? No. I have issues with a lot of things. The Catholic God, though, will forgive me for that, even if He doesn’t approve. It is His nature.

The Whole Series

My Long and Winding Road to Catholicism Part 1
My Long and Winding Road to Catholicism Part 2
My Long and Winding Road to Catholicism Part 3
My Long and Winding Road to Catholicism Part 4
My Long and Winding Road to Catholicism Part 5
My Long and Winding Road to Catholicism Part 6
My Long and Winding Road to Catholicism Part 7
My Long and Winding Road to Catholicism – Conclusion and Summary

The Way to Improve School is to Have Less of It

Today’s title is yanked from a throwaway line about a minute and a half into the video, but it more or less sums up my own experience with the public schools.

Asian Demographics Revisited

Here’s some updated statistics on the Asian demographic crisis I discussed last week. The most recent figures are now showing 123 live male births for every 100 female births in China, even worse than the numbers I was reporting. Also of note:

The question left open by economists is what the consequences will be of such a large surplus of young men. History offers a disquieting answer. According to the German scholar Gunnar Heinsohn, European imperial expansion after 1500 was the result of a male “youth bulge.” Japan’s imperial expansion after 1914 was the result of a similar youth bulge, Heinsohn argues. During the Cold War, it was youth-bulge countries—Algeria, El Salvador, and Lebanon—that saw the worst civil wars and revolutions. Heinsohn has also linked the recent rise of Islamist extremism in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan to an Islamic youth bulge. Political scientists Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer warn that China and India could be the next countries to overdose on testosterone.

This isn’t the first time in history this has happened. But if the problem is resolved peacefully, to my knowledge it really would be the first time. I’m not betting on it.

Single In the Suburbs

Dalrock left a rather disturbing post yesterday about an online series that very much does seem to be “reality fiction” and yet seems to be being passed off as non-fiction. I also agree with him very much that Single in the Suburbs and stories like it do have a disturbing impact on our society. By presenting an overly rosy picture of life after divorce, they help encourage people to join the exciting divorcee lifestyle… that most likely won’t work out anywhere near as well for them as it did in the author’s mind. I therefore feel pretty compelled to join with Dalrock in getting out the truth about this story and others like it.

Better Than Skittles

Sometimes I play a game with my wife, adding a bit of sweetness into things to offset the alpha. I’ll buy a bag of small chocolates and leave a couple at a time around the house where she’ll find them over a few weeks until the bag is gone. She likes it and finds it sweet, etc.

I one upped myself this time. I bought the current bag at 40% off the day after Valentine’s day. Unlike the old me that might’ve been ashamed, I proudly fessed up to it when she asked and referenced the infamous Skittles post (which she’s read) – all in good humor, of course.

Also, the other day we shared a bag of peanut butter M&M’s (very tasty). When we got to the last four, she asked if I’d been saving them for her. I replied that no, I’d been saving a couple for our son (he only gets one or two at a time due to being just over a year old, but he freaking loves them). She then asked if the last two were one for me and one for her. I said no, she could have both. She asked if I was sure, to which I replied, “Yes, happy birthday.” It was, in fact, her birthday. She looked at me and said, with a grin, “What, one whole M&M? Gee, thanks.”

The key to making it work in a long term relationship: make sure it’s humorous. If she’s certain that that’s all you think she’s worth, she won’t put up with it. If she thinks you’re kidding but isn’t quite sure, you’ve hit it just right.