Comments for The Life of B. at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 10 out of 10 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Tue, 18 Jun 2013 04:00:02 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-life-of-b.html#comment-14576 Please -- Beatrice is not "home-schooled"; she is taught at home. - Mack Hall Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:18:12 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-life-of-b.html#comment-14569 After hearing every last woman (even Catholic women) who have spoken on the subject of their daughters' futures express the hope that said daughters will be"whatever they want to be"--doctors, diplomats, scientists, pilots, submariners, college president, U.S. president--whatever a man can be. I have never once heard a woman (even a Catholic woman) say, I would like my daughter to grow up to be a loving wife and mother. If one were to take a survey of women's choices for their daughter(s) of just Catholic women, in one's very own parish--even a very traditional one--how many women would respond "I hope she will grow up to be a very loving wife and mother, at least for the first 25 years of her adult life." Or would they give the same responses as the secular women--"I hope she will choose a well-paying career where she can have lots of success and career advancement, travel, you know, all the material success that I never had. So, what's the difference between them and us? What unspoken messages do we send our daughters (and sons, for that matter) about what we believe are the priorities in their lives? It's too bad that B.'s children didn't choose better paths. Maybe example was not enough to combat the subtle messages of popular culture. What do you all want for your daughters? - Maggie-Louise Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:16:20 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-life-of-b.html#comment-14567 Great piece, but wouldn't it have been more touching to have Beatrice meet and marry Dan A? - NIck Palmer Mon, 26 Nov 2012 08:33:53 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-life-of-b.html#comment-14565 I have a six-year old granddaughter and a four-year old grandson (the oldest of my nine grandchildren, so far), who are able to read, and I was able to read when I was four. I'm about ready to have a bumper sticker made that says: "If you can't read this, thank a (public school) teacher." - Richard A Mon, 26 Nov 2012 05:46:22 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-life-of-b.html#comment-14562 Thank you for laying out a "chassis" upon which commenters, with your permission, may build. When Beatrice and Francis X. attempt to purchase a car,rent an apartment ot buy a home, they are struck by how high the costs are. When they speak to their very Catholic friend who is a financial planner, he explains that as the Catholic bishops allowed a contraceptive culture to flourish for 44 years, that B. and F.X. are competing with two-income families on almost everything they purchase, including education for their children. Since all the Sisters were "on the bus", there were none left to teach in parochial schools so that was now being done by lay persons who, because the pay in St. Trinians was so modest, required a second job to make ends meet. The major difference between Julia and B and F.X. is, depending on the level of their belief and piety, is B. and F.X. know why they are alive while Julia will finally learn that she is nothing but a drone, and whether she was ever born is of no interest to the State unless she is exceptional. B. and F.X. will also learn in time that the wasteland in which they live mimics life in Russia, Cuba, N. Korea,etc. and was VOTED for TWICE after decades of rot and decay often encouraged by the hierarchy of the Church. - Manfred Mon, 26 Nov 2012 03:24:09 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-life-of-b.html#comment-14561 I do not know if many have noticed what the Election of 2008 has wrought. In Newtonian Natural Law, action and reaction are equal and opposite while in God's Law, not the one given to Moses, but the One brought but the Son of God himself, action begets reaction far greater than the 'Natural' one. It is wonderful to see! - W. P Dias Mon, 26 Nov 2012 03:10:38 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-life-of-b.html#comment-14560 Excellent piece. It goes to show how antithetical government bureaucracy is to Christianity. Government bureaucracy removes Christ's touch. It is not coicidental but causational that the more government controls our lives the more atheistic society becomes. We are living in a real dystopia and we don’t even know it. - Manny Mon, 26 Nov 2012 02:49:24 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-life-of-b.html#comment-14559 Nice! Unfortunately, I believe most people will take the path of least resistance and to hell with the difficult moral road. There are now more takers than makers and more votes for the easy road. We are on the road to European socialism and its denigration of "First Principles." - Willie Mon, 26 Nov 2012 02:33:10 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-life-of-b.html#comment-14558 Bravo Mr Royal! Jack - Jack,CT Sun, 25 Nov 2012 23:17:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-life-of-b.html#comment-14556 Loved it Bob! Not nearly as dystopian as I was expecting it to be at first. It will be interesting to dig this piece up 20 years from now and see how prescient it was. Couple of quibbles. College tuition is more expensive because of easy federal money, but would still grow alot faster than inflation even absent this. Anything that depends on lots of skilled workers to run is going to get more expensive over time. You have to pay the classicists professors more and more over time to keep them from entering the more lucrative sectors where productivity is rising. So Beatrice might have to take out a loan after all. Or absent that her college would find itself constantly strapped for cash and having to load up on adjunct classicists!! Depressing. On a brighter note, don't be surprised if the big government types won't soon figure out that a higher birth rate is in fact to the benefit of the welfare state they've built up. I'm not saying they'll change on abortion but some are already making essentially this argument as it pertains to immigration. One of the reasons they don't is the growing cultural divide between them and "red America" where fertility rates are higher. But cultural divides of this kind don't last forever. But I loved the nice little entrepeneurial distributivist touch at the end, with the Latin school :) Great piece!!! - petebrown Sun, 25 Nov 2012 19:21:55 +0100