Two NR Items

I was excited to receive the first issue of my new subscription to National Review today.  (I might have gone with The Weekly Standard but it was not offered in the catalog that one of my Confirmation kids was selling.)  Two items from the always entertaining “The Week”:

Hillary Clinton says that her competitors are picking on her because she’s a woman.  Hey, Hillary: If you can’t stand the heat, stay in the kitchen.

And:

NFL scouts are after him, but Adam Ballard, a senior fullback at the Naval Academy, isn’t biting.  “Being a Marine fits my mentality,” he said, explaining why he’s seeking a commission that would deny him a shot at a professional career.  “I don’t see myself as one who sits back.  I like to be down in the dirt with a gun in my hand.”  For Ballard, it’s more than a simple call to action: “When I’m older, I want to be able to look at my kids and tell them why they can go to any church and why your mom doesn’t have to wear a burqa.”  Oo-rah!

Timotheos

You, Out of the Gene Pool!

Sarah Irving and Toni Vernelli are two women who feel that having children is selfish and bad for the environment. (Here‘s a longer story from the Daily Mail.) They are like every other fanatical extremist who populates the lunatic fringe. They want sacrifice, but they want it from other people. In this case, they’re happy to sacrifice the lives of their children for the sake of their stupid cause. If they think people are bad for the environment, why didn’t they go first and off themselves? That would have killed (no pun intended) two birds with one stone: it would have saved us their idiot commentary and the murders of two children.

My favorite unintended (I think) irony of the story is this:

The environmental advocate also sees having children as an egotistical act. ‘Having children is selfish. It’s all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet,’ Vernelli told the Mail, adding she believes bringing new life into the world only adds to the problem.

Well, yeah, that’s what I thought when my wife conceived. Obviously.

It’s so great that they’re completely unselfish in their childless lifestyle:

Toni says: “After the operation, which is irreversible, I didn’t feel emotional – just relieved.

“I’ve never doubted that I made the right decision. Ed and I married in September 2002, and have a much nicer lifestyle as a result of not having children.

“We love walking and hiking, and we often go away for weekends.

“Every year, we also take a nice holiday – we’ve just come back from South Africa.

“We feel we can have one long-haul flight a year, as we are vegan and childless, thereby greatly reducing our carbon footprint and combating over-population.”

Yeah, children really drag you down.

At least one positive was gained: they’re both now sterile. ” But while other young women dream of marriage and babies, Toni was convinced it was her duty not to have a child.” It is unfortunate, however, that Toni’s parents did not consider their “duty” to the environment before she “came of age” (by which, of course, I mean “born”).

[Vernelli said:] “Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population.”

What about all the people living now? In fact, now that I think of it, these women are polluting my environment. Where’s my gun? Surely they won’t object to me reducing their carbon footprint all the way to zero. Actually, maybe we can construct some sort of “chamber” that produces “gases,” which “solve” the problem of “unwanted” people and anyone else who gets in the way of “nature.” Toni, want to be first to try it out?

The Reverend House’s commentary can be found here, with which I wholeheartedly agree.

Timotheos