The Liberal Order

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. Check out this wonderful tale of peace, prosperity and liberty by my friend Howie Baetjer.

Happy Holidays . . .

. . . to my family, friends, and students.

Or, as Stephen Colbert says it, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, or however else you celebrate Jesus' birth.

I'm willing to bet . . .

. . . that this family suffers from more serious problems than just a messy house.

A local mother who was fed up with her family not picking up their things went to extremes to clean house.

Jessica Schickel, of Avon Lake, created a box filled with all the items that were not put in their proper place, and sold them on eBay, ONN affiliate WEWS reported.

The winning bidder got all the items and a videotape of the family's reaction when they found out their possessions were sold behind their backs.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to my wonderful and beautiful bride of ten years.

The Evolution of Marriage

Stephanie Coontz has an interesting take on the evolution of marriage.

Giving married women an independent legal existence did not destroy heterosexual marriage. And allowing husbands and wives to construct their marriages around reciprocal duties and negotiated roles - where a wife can choose to be the main breadwinner and a husband can stay home with the children- was an immense boon to many couples. But these changes in the definition and practice of marriage opened the door for gay and lesbian couples to argue that they were now equally qualified to participate in it.

Marriage has been in a constant state of evolution since the dawn of the Stone Age. In the process it has become more flexible, but also more optional. Many people may not like the direction these changes have taken in recent years. But it is simply magical thinking to believe that by banning gay and lesbian marriage, we will turn back the clock.

On a related note, Margaret Brinig (U. Iowa Law School, formerly at GMU Law School) has an interesting discussion (albeit dated) of the evolution of the diamond engagement ring as a commitment device for marriage proposals. (Subscription to J-Stor required.) As courts abolished a woman's right to sue for "breach in promise to marry," men had to find alternative means of enforcing their committment to marry a woman. (Imagine that! Women have never trusted men who say, "Honestly honey, I swear I'll marry you if we just . . .") The diamond engagement ring served to commit men who promised a woman that he will marry her. Consequently, beginning in the early 1930s there was an increase in sales of diamond engagement rings. (If the male reneged on his promise to marry his fiance, she kept the diamond engagement ring.)  Changing social mores, however, loosened the stigma attached to having participated in pre-marital sex, thus the need to pledge one's committment also loosened. Consequently, beginning in the 1980s, there was a marked drop off in sales of diamond engagement rings.

Addendum: Fixed the link to the Brinig article.

Just In Time for Father's Day

Dads parent differently than mothers, a University of Delaware researcher says.Rob Palkovitz says fathers tend to be more unpredictable and engage in more fun activities with their kids, perhaps to make up for generally spending less time with the children than mothers do.

Mothers, he said, tend to play a greater role in care-giving and interact with children at multiple levels.

"When fathers come on the scene, they engage in spontaneous, unpredictable and wacky stuff in order to have a higher impact, sort of 'I'm home! It's going to be impossible to ignore me!'" Palkovitz says. "It's making up for absence in time by presence in intensity."

Story here. Gotta say it's true here.

Link via Fark.

GPS Panties

This is a little excessive. If you believe you need this for your wife the marriage is already doomed.

HT: Fark

Our Birdie Update

The mother robin now has to sit on the baby robins to keep them from falling out of the nest. I expect them to begin flying any day now.

Birds pant and open their mouths to cool themselves, which is what these birds are doing in the picture. The father comes back with food for the babies and the mother.

Another bird story. We watched a red-tailed hawk circling above the yard door and a smaller bird (maybe a red-winged blackbird) flying in and out of the hawk's path in a provoking manner. The blackbird was obviously trying to either distract the hawk or attack him for taking something. I thought I could see something in the hawk's mouth, but he made screeching noises while he was circling. Then all of a sudden he takes a dive straight down. When he got behind the tree line I lost him.

More Bird Pictures

Here are two more bird pictures from the nest outside our window. It's been a wonderful experience to see how quickly these birds change. In fact, just over the course of today the birds are now able to control their neck movements and peer over their nest.

The Wonders of Nature

The kids, my wife, and I have had a nice time observing the wonders of nature from up close. We noticed that a robin had built its nest on one of our window ledges about three weeks ago. Three of four eggs that the mother bird laid hatched late last week. (We didn't get to see the actual hatchings, but did see the newborn chicks right afterward.)  We have been able to peer right into the nest (from the other side of the window, of course) and watch the mother (or father) feed the chicks and the mother waiting for the fourth egg to hatch. (I don't think that's going to happen.)  This morning the chicks are beginning to peep. My wife informs me that the chicks will learn to fly on their own within about two weeks, so we have only one week left to enjoy this display.

Update: Here's a photo of our nest. Not very clear because of the screen, but you can see the shape of the three birds and their beaks.