A New Link

Probably of most interest to my Catholic readers:

I komu to przeszkadzalo

It's a Polish site but it's in two languages, Polish and English. Its owner contacted me some time ago as he happened to like a couple of old pictures that I had posted on this blog, so I sent him a version of them with better resolution. The site exists to promote traditional Catholicism and liturgy.

England Goes Full PC

Well, I can't even...Judge for yourselves:

A British police officer was moved to activate her panic button after taking offence at a parody song making fun of former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden being played at a garden party, bringing in serious re-enforcements to a small English village...Responding to the call for help, the local force dispatched another ten officers and a police helicopter...

Mark Donovan, who attended the party in the Cambridge village ... said: “... We had our karaoke machine on playing music through our phones from YouTube which are all approved songs.

Read the whole thing over here

From The Home Front

It's HOT over here. Like really hot. Nevertheless I did my duty and baked for the holiday, two days ago:

Everything is eaten up, of course:)

The recipe was adapted from the Nordic cookbook I'd written about, with changes.

For the dough, I used 2c flour, mostly plain flour with a couple of TBSP spelt/whole wheat/barley;
1 1/2 tsp yeast, 60g butter (less than the recipe called for), 2TBSP sugar, 2 eggs, cinnamon and a bit salt, and 100ml warm milk. I melted the butter before adding it. According to the book, you have to knead the dough with a mixer but I just used a fork and stirred it vigorously for ab. 5 min. If you have any experience with yeast dough, you'll know when you get this feeling of it being ready. After letting it rise for 1.5 hour, I had to knead it by hand (on a floured surface, of course), than I rolled it out, rolled it up, and cut it into 12 slices. After this, it had to rise for another 1.5 hour.

Now the fun thing starts. You have to press the center of the rolls and fill them with self-made custard. I was too lazy to do it and used kwark instead (the same stuff we use for a cheesecake over here). I mixed it with an egg and was fully intending to add vanilla sugar, but forgot...I baked them at 200*C for something like 20-25 min and they turned out fine, but not really sweet. Not a problem really, since the book recommends further filling them with jam, which I did. Or to be more precise, I just put jam all over and ate them this way:)

All in all, I was pretty satisfied with the result!

Money For Nothing

For all the children of the 1980s - uncensored version:




I'll write a post tomorrow, today is a holiday so we are off to party:)

R.I.P. Manchester

Well, it didn't last long...

Which European country will it be next time?

Beer Controversy

Some time ago I linked to a couple of articles claiming how beer is bad for men, because of estrogenic properties of hop. Then, the study appeared which states that beer is actually good for male fertility:

A pint of beer a day can double men's fertility

Another study claims totally opposite, namely that

three pints of beer a week will damage your sperm

Yet another study says that beer is extremely healthy, for both men and women:

Research suggests it can help protect against Alzheimer’s disease, aid weight loss and even balance hormones...

A study by Tufts University in the United States in 2009 found that moderate beer consumption can protect bone mineral density.

For years Guinness was even prescribed to pregnant women due to its high Vitamin B content. ‘It’s  now recommended that pregnant women avoid alcohol but other  people could benefit,’ says nutritionist Vicki Edgson.


Beer: full of vitamins...

It protects you from heart attacks, kidney stones, and bad effects of menopause. So the question is, what are we supposed to believe when some products are first declared to be dangerous, then beneficial?

Honestly, folks have been drinking beer (and eating cheese and butter and bread) for ages. Obviously, moderation is the key, especially when it concerns alcoholic beverages, but even when you binge on water, it can be bad for you. I once read of a lady who having learned that water is healthy drank a liter of five, disturbed her body's electrolytic balance and ended up in IC. We should always use our common sense!

As for experts, instead of digging into dangers of cheese and butter and gluten and other stuff, how about they study processed foods? But that would probably involve telling people to start cooking from scratch, and we can't have it now, can we? Because somebody somewhere could interpret it as  telling ladies to get back to the kitchen and it's a crimethink in the current year:)

Seriously, if you want to stay healthy, learn how to cook, and that goes for both men and women.

Three Cheers For Self-Defence

A lot of religious Westerners somehow have this weird idea that a real Christian is some cowardly pacifist milk toast. Luckily, not every Western church-going man subscribes to it (though Mormons, are strictly speaking, probably not Christians since they deny the Trinity doctrine, they still claim the name of Christ).

Personally I find this video quite inspiring:

Catholics And Working Women

Catholic Church nowadays appears to have few problems with working women, but it hasn't always been the case. Recently I stumbled upon a second-hand book in a thrift store about a famous Dutch Catholic politician from the 1930s. Carl Romme fought, among other things, for the government subsidies for families with multiple children and against work participation for married women.

To quote the book (approximate translation mine):

To fight unemployment, the government encouraged city councils to fire female employees who were going to get married. It didn't go far enough for the Catholics and Steinmenz also proposed to fire all the married women. Romme used this opportunity to argue that...the work of a married woman was a result of ...psychoses, that of freedom and equality which for years had been undermining the strength of the people. This strength was necessary for the healthy family life and thus it wasn't allowed to encourage a married woman to look for her daily work outside the family. (p. 187).

Further in his career, when he became a minister, he was busy, among other things with prohibiting employment for married women. On the one hand, it was a necessary measure to fight unemployment, but it went further than that. Again, to quote:

A woman's duty lay within the family and nothing should keep her from it. The education of a girl had to prepare her for it and once married, she had to be prohibited from working. (p. 305).

In 1962, he got the honour doctorate from the Catholic University of Tilburg. Thus, in the beginning of the 1960s his opinions were still considered respectable. What the heck happened in the end of the 1960s? Nowadays it's quite otherwise, as a married woman's "duty" apparently lies anywhere except in her own home...

(The book in question was written by J.Bosmans, and it's called Romme. Published by Het Spectrum, 1991).

My Birthday Present

I gave it to myself with my birthday money last week. The Nordic Kitchen isn't only a book of recipes, it also has stunning photography, like this:

That was a part of its appeal to me, as I'm in love with Northern Europe, as you have probably noticed (comes from having Viking blood, though diluted, I guess:)

Its authors are a Scandinavian couple, Gisli Egill Hrafnsson and Inga Elsa Bergthorsdottir, and they evidently used the pictures from their family album since they also feature their two daughters.

They appear to have a passion for authentic Nordic recipes from the times past, which they combine with some modern ingredients and cooking methods. The book has some background info on each of Scandinavian countries, some of their culinary traditions and their historical way of life and then goes on to recipes which are divided not by country, but by seasons: Spring-Summer, and Autumn-Winter.

Again, recipes are accompanied by photos. It's a very beautiful book. I've tried a couple of recipes already and they turned out fine. The book is heavy on fish, meat, healthy veggies, animal fat (which will attract Paleo lovers, I suppose) but also baked goodies, that look delicious. So  it's a review of sorts, but really I just wanted to show off a bit:)

Happy Mother's Day!

I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and death.

(Quoted from here) 

A Piece Of Advice For Men

If you ever encounter a woman like that, don't walk - run! She's a perfect example of everything what's wrong with many modern women: lazy (spent 10 years "trying to be an artist", has an easy job teaching English in a foreign country, but though obviously in her thirties wants to go back to college); entitled (expects her current boyfriend to sacrifice everything for her without a hint of giving anything in return, like children, for instance), and with delusions of grandeur (zero achievements, but she isn't just some "woman of the household", she is "ambitious", no, really, "too ambitious" for some patriarchal developing country, so there!). To say nothing of student debts which she will later expect you to pay...

Unhappiness And Cancer

Like probably many of my readers, I have been following the story of Lydia Sherman's friend who was diagnosed with cancer. In the update on her blog, Lydia has recently published the lady's letter, where she said, among other things:

Yes take your vitamins and eat a healthy diet but more than that just live life and enjoy it.  I believe that joy will keep cancer away just as well as anything else.

(You can read the full letter over here). 

That actually made me think, is there really a link between cancer and unhappiness? I did a small research and found an article which states that there is definitely a link between the two. For instance, it quotes a scientist who says the following:

it takes from 5 to 40 years for a cellular anomaly to become a detectable tumor. A healthy gene can become abnormal via radiation, environmental toxins, and other carcinogens, such as the benzopyrene from cigarette smoke...no psychological factor by itself has ever been identified as being capable of creating the cancer seed...but...that certain reactions to psychological stress can profoundly influence the soil in which the seed develops...


The article goes on to state that a cancer patient shouldn't be blaming himself for getting a disease but implies that there exists something like "cancer-prone personality". It also describes an interesting experiment where rats were implanted with cancer cells and divided into groups, and the group which was given an opportunity to control their circumstances, had higher survival rates. You can read the whole of it here.
  
 Official research hasn't been able to establish any clear links between one's stress levels and cancer, so stress on its own is probably not something to worry about, it's more how we deal with it. Anyway, that's something to ponder...

Dane-Geld

Saturday Poetry Hour brings you this:

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
  To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
  Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
  And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
  And then  you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
  To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
  We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
  But we've  proved it again and  again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
  You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
  For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
  You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
  No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
  And the nation that pays it is lost!"

Three guesses as to who might be the author? The answer is here.

A Troll's Offer

Lies Moderns Believe

What MSM has been telling you vs truth.

"If you love someone set them free." This used to discourage mate guarding and fleeing temptation. Apparently, your marriage will only get better if either of the spouses will regularly spend weekends (binge) drinking with friends of both sexes (oops, not sure whether it's allowed to say any more), and if you object, you are a caveman. Of course, we've all heard that alcohol lowers inhibitions and that one tends to get attached to those one spends a lot of time with, but really, who will you believe, some relationship expert or your lying eyes???

The same is, of course, true about people spending too much work time with each other, and in less enlightened times they used to joke about the (male) boss and his (female) secretary, doctors and nurses etc, but it's doubleplusungood to notice it now. What are you, some sort of Taliban ISIS?

Which takes me to my next point. It was a big success of the enemies of tradition to teach people to see everything as black and white. 1950s Euro/American society had traditional sex roles and was nothing at all like Taliban yet that's exactly who you get compared to if you object to mothers working. Same with modesty. Western women used to look modest without wearing a black tent over their heads, yet if one objects to half-nude females even in the formal or sacred settings (like church) he gets accused of wishing to force women to wear burkas. On the other hand, people who object to unlimited immigration from countries where it's well, traditional, for women to wear these styles are all Hitlernazywhatever.

So you have lie number three: if you don't agree with certain things or even slightly deviate from the current party line, you are a hater who is apparently planning to commit genocide. Again, there are no degrees, simple disapproval apparently equals murder in progressive eyes. Again, common sense should be able to tell you that it's just ridiculous. Disliking certain people or disagreeing with someone's opinions or disapproving certain lifestyle choices doesn't at all mean that you are planning their extermination.

Speaking about love, here is lie number four: sexual desire or having sex with someone means love and love is the highest virtue so don't you dare to question me! Love can certainly have a sexual component, but lust doesn't equal love. Love, properly speaking, is first, attachment, and second, wishing good for the person you love. Taking care of them, this sort of thing. Mothers generally love their children. Children love their parents. It doesn't mean, well you know.

This one was/is used to undermine parental authority as well. If the parents object to the dates/prospective spouses their children bring home, they are accused of "hate". And we know that "haters" are all genocidal maniacs at heart, don't we? Well, guess what? Not wishing that your daughter dates a certain category of men doesn't mean that you hate them or wish them any harm. I guess there are more lies we have been spoon-fed but those seem to be the most persistent and the most pernicious, because most people are decent, kind people who don't wish any harm to anyone and thus are easily browbeaten into submission when accused of hatred and various -isms. Just don't fall for it any more, and remember, you don't stand alone!

Links For May

Clothes and manners edition:

Dress to Regress
how t-shirts ruined civilisation

Divorce Your Wife
and marry her again, men's rights types won't like this one, I'm afraid...

Relaxation
time to start enjoying your life

A case of the "What's if's"
you, too, can become a housewife!

The Richer Life of a Housewife
dealing with saving money

yes, YOU, can become feminine
discover a little woman in yourself