A Quick Run Around the Web (11/15/2019)

"Using the M1 Carbine for Self-Defense [M1 Carbine Series Part 3]"--Lucky Gunner Ammo (12 min.). Some thoughts on why you might want to use the M1 Carbine over another rifle, and some tips on how to make it a little better at the role (without destroying the collector's value of the gun)

• "Active Killer Response Options for Armed Citizens"--Active Response Training. The author notes that with more and more people carrying weapons, it will become more likely for more than one armed player be in motion in the wake of a shooting. The key point:

When someone starts killing people and you whip your pistol out to engage, there are likely to be other armed people in the crowd.  Have you thought about how those folks will perceive your actions?  Will they mistake you for the killer?  The cops are coming quickly as well.  Have you considered that they might shoot you by mistake?

• "HOME BUILD A RETRO AR"--American Handgunner. Remember when the AR was a light-weight, handy rifle? No, me either. But it apparently was once so.
• "Essential Components of AR-15 Barrel Installation"--The Captain's Journal. 
• "Colt King Cobra Revolver Review"--Guns & Ammo. This is Colt's 3-inch barrel version. The author writes: "The 9½-­pound double-­action (DA) trigger is, to me, the best DA trigger out there. The pull is very smooth and breaks crisply without a hint of creep or grit."
• "Smith & Wesson Performance Center Model 686 Raises the Bar Again"--Guns America. A revolver built for competition shooting.
• "The .45 Colt: A Wheelgun Classic"--Gun Digest. A look at some of the modern offerings in this venerable cartridge. Note, however, that the powerful hunting or defensive loads may be too hot for even modern reproductions of old SAA and Remington revolvers.

• Related: "The .45 Colt — From Cowboy to Action to Self-Defense"--K-Var Blog.

• Related: "Personal Defense 45 Colt Loads: Some Are Sedate, Others Sizzle"--Gun Tests.

• "Slings and Carrying Straps"--Chuck Hawks.

       The rifle may be slung over either shoulder either muzzle up or muzzle down. When hunting in the rain it is handy to sling the rifle muzzle down over the off shoulder. This keeps the weapon as dry as possible, particularly the inside of the barrel. Another advantage of this barrel down position is that the rifle may be brought up to shooting position quickly.

      To do this the right handed shooter should carry the rifle slung barrel down over his or her left shoulder with the left hand (under the sling), grasping the forearm of the rifle. To bring the rifle to shooting position the rifleman need only to lift his left arm straight out ahead of him and rotate his wrist counter-clockwise 180 degrees. The rifle will be right side up and ready to snug into the shooter's shoulder. (If you are left handed, substitute "right" for "left.")

• "Handgun Speed vs. Accuracy: What's the Right Balance?"--Shooting Illustrated. According to the author, the right balance will depend on how much time, resources, and money you can put into training and practice.
• No surprise here: "An Ancestral Genome of The Plague Has Been Traced Back to Russia"--Science Alert. "The precursor, the researchers say, came from Russia, specifically a town called Laishevo in the historical Volga region, based on the evidence of a sample known as LAI009."
• "The HoloSun HE403R-GD “Gold Dot” Review: Worthy of a Gold Star?"--The New Rifleman. The answer is a "yes." Writes the author:

      The Gold Dot concept is just as valid as red, or green dots… I appreciated the dot outdoors as it was bright and obvious against foliage. It may be weaker against white backdrops and bright weapon lights, but I was unable to wash it out until danger close distances to the target. Like any reticle/color choice, it has its ups and downs.

      I give this optic a recommendation for shooters looking for a solid red dot sight. 

• For you martial arts buffs: "Keeping Skills Sharp"--Recoil Magazine. The article is a brief introduction to Pekiti Tirsia Kali (PTK), a bladed weapon martial art from the Bacolod region of the Philippines. From the article:

At a fundamental level, PTK puts much of its initial focus on controlling distance and proximity, essential elements in a blade-focused system. This is accomplished through training footwork and body angling drills. Dictating proximity, or your position in relation to your opponent is seen as essential in controlling your opponent’s ability to attack and defend. Controlling distance is essential to accuracy, especially when wielding weapons of various lengths. The focus of many PTK weapon-based drills is to increase speed, power, timing, and accuracy. These attributes — among others — are considered essential to making a technique work in a defensive situation.

I think the basics of all melee combat arts is controlling distance, proximity and tempo.

• "A Potential Man-Made Disaster (part 3)"--Blue Collar Prepping. Thoughts on prepping for a civil war. Two key points that the author makes is situational awareness and being prepared to move. Sparks31 and others have written extensively about monitoring local radio traffic to gain local situational awareness, and since I know next to nothing about radio, I would refer you to those sources for more information. Unfortunately, Sparks31 opens and shuts down blogs and websites with regularity, so its hard to keep track of where to find him. However, you can download a copy of his book, Commo, here (large PDF). 
• "Emergency Radio Communication for when the SHTF!"--Alpha Survivalist. An overview.

• Related: "How to Build a Homemade Radio That Really Works"--Boys Life.

• Related: "Which are the Best Long Range Two Way Radios?"--Alpha Survivalist.

• "Costco Powdered Eggs review"--Commander Zero. Bottom line: "I find them to be acceptable, and certainly a better alternative to no eggs."
• "David Grasty’s School of Bushcraft and Survival"--The Mountaineer. A look at an up and coming wilderness survival/foraging expert.
• "Criminals and the Guns They Carry"--Buckeye Firearms Association. This is a 2012 article from Greg Ellifritz taking a look at the types of weapons carried by criminals based on weapons seized by the police department for which he works. As you would expect, the vast majority were handguns. Interestingly, 28% were unloaded; 10% were could not function, and another 20% had limited functionality because they had frequent malfunctions, were missing magazines, or other problems. 
• "We are not going to die from climate change"--Behind the Black. From the article:

      Tony Heller today published this quite thorough review of the failed climate predictions by global warming scientists/activists, while also providing a great summary of the real state of our climate.

     You can disagree or question him on one point or another, but the overall data once again illustrates the uncertainty that surrounds climate science. We really do not know what is going on, and any predictions that claim we do are hogwash.

"CHINA Accuses the CIA of DESTROYING ASIAN MASCULINITY"--Black Pigeon Speaks (12 min.). Effeminate male pop stars apparently a thing in Eastern Asia (Korea, Japan and China). In China, they are termed "Fresh Little Meat," which itself is suggestive. While the Chinese government (and even everyday Japanese) may blame the CIA, it seems that it is a natural result of the r/K cycle. 

• r-psychology at work: "Abortionist Testifies: ‘No Question’ Babies Being Born Alive To Harvest Organs"--The Daily Wire.
• More more r-psychology: "We teach boys that marriage doesn’t work"--Fabius Maximus. 

       In fact our time is shaped by Girls’ Game: romance the man, stage the party-of-her-life, marry, have kids, divorce when they are in school – then get community property, child support, and independence. The husband provides support during those first few difficult years raising the children, then is dumped. She then gets the children she wants without the bother of having a husband. It is the logical strategy for women raised to value their independence above all else.

* * *

      One result of Girls’ Game: in 2005/06 less 60% of US adolescents (11, 13, and 15 years old) lived with both birth parents (per the OCED Family Database), the lowest level in the OCED. Today probably even fewer do.

• Related: "Women embrace higher values, destroying their families"--Fabius Maximus. Some more analysis of how "girl power" and no-fault divorce is destroying the family unit.

• Related: "America’s families are broken. Dreams won’t build new ones."--Fabius Maximus. A discussion of how the old order, derogatorily termed "the patriarchy" was required to lure men into the chains of "the rat race" required to support an industrial civilization, and how the destruction of that old order is also disincentivizing men from entering the "rat race." Quoting from Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind: “Of necessity, therefore, it was understood to be the woman’s job to get and hold the man by her charms and wiles because, by nature, nothing else would induce him to give up his freedom in favor of the heavy duties of family. But women no longer wish to do this, and they, with justice, consider it unfair according to the principles governing us. …"

It will come crashing down. In Isaiah 4:1 we read: "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." Although this passage is generally cited as an example of how many men will be killed in the wars and disasters preceding the Second Coming, women have historically refused to marry down (i.e., marry someone of a lower social class) even in periods when there is a shortage of men due to war such as post-Civil War America. So, to me, this passage indicates that the social stigma of not marrying will be greater than the stigma of marrying down. (Unless this is an example of the Pareto Principle--80% of the women chasing 20% of the men--in which case, you can ignore the previous sentence).

• "In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace"--Pew Research. 

In Pew Research Center telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009.

Even worse among Millennials. 

• Vox Day notes the "the Boomer cluelessness that simply can't grasp the significance of a rise in tuition from 500/semester to 15,000/semester when wages have not risen."
• Another consequence of the swine fever epidemic in China: "China lifts ban on US poultry"--DW.

      US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer welcomed the lifting of the "unwarranted" ban.

      "China is an important export market for America’s poultry farmers, and we estimate they will now be able to export more than $1 billion (€0.9 billion), worth of poultry and poultry products each year to China," he said.

• "American Blunder: Throwing Open Our Markets To China"--Pat Buchanan. 

      Among the epochal blunders America has committed since the end of the Cold War, three stand out.

      The first was our disastrous plunge into the Middle East to create regimes oriented to the West. The second was the expansion of NATO to the front porch of Russia, driving the largest nation on earth, and one of its most formidable nuclear powers, into the arms of China.

     The third was to throw open America’s markets to Chinese goods on favorable terms, which led to the enrichment and empowerment of a regime whose long-term threat to U.S. interests and values is as great as was that of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

It started under George H. W. Bush who had close ties with China. Of course, Biden and his son, Hunter, also have close ties with China.

• "The CIA falsely believed it was 'invincible' in China — here's how its spies were reportedly discovered and killed in one of the biggest blows to the agency"--Business Insider. The article blames a poorly written internet based communications systems used to communicate with new spies that apparently, when cracked, allowed access to a broader array of CIA communications. I, however, wonder how much of it was the result of Hillary Clinton's "private" email server.
• "ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATE OF THE STATES REPORT"--American Partisan. As we have come to expect, underfunded pensions are the Sword of Damocles hanging over the most liberal states. The author writes: "I don’t foresee public sector pensions being trimmed until the taxpayer looks like a Holocaust victim.  Expect a lot of internal migration and possibly emigration."
• "Is The British Empire Largely Misunderstood?"--American Conservative. Excerpt:

Black notes that “empire was in part supported and defended on the grounds that it provided opportunities for the advance of civilization.” Britain, which was “more liberal, culturally, economically, socially, and politically, than the other major European powers,” was central to ending the slave trade and slavery. British imperialism promised, and to varying degrees secured, rule of law, participatory government, and individual freedoms to many around the world. Imperialism also has a frequent tendency to protect ethnic minorities more than nation-states, because it de facto requires buy-in from everyone, while purist nationalist regimes (e.g. Turkey, Yugoslavia, Burma, Sudan) are often the ones engaged in ethnic cleansing.

• "America Is Running Out of White Children to Solve the Problems of Nonwhite Children"--Steve Sailor at The Unz Review. Liberals want to reintroduce busing to re-integrate schools (and boost test scores), but the problem is that the percentage of school kids that are white has sharply declined over the past two decades.
• "Aquinas on usury"--Vox Popoli. Money quote (pardon the pun): "To take usury for money lent is unjust in itself, because this is to sell what does not exist, and this evidently leads to inequality which is contrary to justice."
• They don't build 'em like this anymore: "NASA's Voyager 2 probe sends back its first discoveries from interstellar space 42 years after blasting off from Earth – providing 'valuable clues about the structure of the Solar System'"--Daily Mail. From the article:

      Researchers from various US institutions confirmed that Voyager 2's journey had taken it into the 'space between the stars' by noting a 'definitive jump' in the density of plasma — charged particles and gas — found around the probe.

     This change was detected by Voyager 2's instruments and is evidence of the probe making its way 'from the hot, lower-density plasma characteristic of the solar wind to the cool, higher-density plasma of interstellar space,' they said.

      The observed increase is similar to the plasma density jump experienced by Voyager 1 when it previously crossed into interstellar space, the researchers added. 

      Among many things, the astronomers are particularly  looking to gain a better understanding of how the solar winds — the stream of charged particles coming out of the Sun — interact with the interstellar winds, which are formed from particles coming from other stars.

• "How To Use a Digital Multimeter"--Popular Mechanics. Some safety rules and instructions on 5 common tasks: (1) testing batteries, (2) testing electrical outlets, (3) testing a wall switch, (4) testing extension cords, and (5) reading temperature (if your meter has this feature: mine doesn't). My most common use is to perform simple continuity tests.
• Another project for you electronics enthusiasts: "Build the long range Laser Spy system"--Lucid Science. From the introduction:

We will be starting with an ultra basic proof of concept test system that will show you how the Laser Spy converts vibration into sound and how careful alignment of both the laser and receiver are required for optimal performance. Ironically, the most basic configuration may prove to be the most useful, and the $20 you spend in parts could create a system that works as well (or better) than some of the ones that are for sale on the internet for thousands of dollars. As you will find out, the key to spying with a laser beam is in the alignment and reception of the beam, not some magical black box full of fancy filters and optical components.

A Quick Run Around the Web (11/14/2019)

"Tips for Dealing with Protests, Riots and Civil Unrest"--Modern Survivalist (8 min.)

• "Movement Principles"--Rory Miller. An excerpt:

I used to embarrass my kids when I'd take them to the playground and climb around more than they did. One of my tricks was to go to the swings. The big ones where steel poles making an inverted V on the ends to support the main beam that the swings hang from. I'd put one hand on each of the V supports and climb to the top just by swinging side to side and letting my hands move up. It was a way to climb with almost no muscle-- just structure and the momentum of the swing, which relied on gravity. Hadn't thought of that as principles until Stefano demonstrated almost the same technique for traversing.

• "Precision Rifle Reloading for the Beginner"--The Firearm Blog. Sorting cases by manufacturer and then measuring weight and certain dimensions to minimize variances. 
• "All Choked Up"--Shooting Times. An indepth discussion of chokes--a bit of history, the difference sizes of chokes, and different types of chokes.
• I like mine: "Review: Ruger Wrangler Revolver"--Recoil Magazine. From the article:

       It shoots well, especially for the price. It also functioned 100% reliably, and the only real issues with it are the low-grade finish, some mold lines on the cast frame, and a trigger that, while not bad, could be better. Are these deal breakers? 

       On something that costs $300 or more, I would say yes. On something that I picked up for $200, tax included? I don’t think so. This isn’t a self-defense gun, this isn’t a competition gun, this is a kit gun. A fun plinker. A cheap, but reliable companion to keep in your glovebox to dispatch squirrels, rabbits, snakes, and other pests. It’s just as reliable as the Single Six, and at just a touch over 1/3rd of the price. 

      It’s light enough to live in a backpack with a hundred rounds if you’re going camping, and its accurate enough to blow holes in cans all day long. I’ve got to be pushing 750 rounds through the gun already and I’ve yet to have a single issue other than the occasional dud round from cheap bulk ammo packs.

• Related: "The New Ruger Wrangler Rimfire Revolver"--Real Guns. 

• "Center Mass in a Three-Dimensional World"--Moderno. Summary:

... We shoot to stop the threat and doing so means targeting the center of what is offered, or exercising discipline until you can maneuver for a clear shot or wait for the threat to give you one. We should be wary of anything that always works on paper, just as we should probably be dubious of magic formulas that require a specific set of circumstances to work. The only off switch is a hit (or more) to the central nervous system. Outside of that, you can and should expect a threat to continue to fight regardless of where or how many times you hit them. Until they lose consciousness or surrender, they are still a threat and should be treated as such by the continued use of controlled violence so long as you have a clear shot.

• "Doc, How Do I Know Where I Should Shoot?"--James Williams, M.D. at USCCA. Excerpt:

     “Center Mass” is a myth. It’s a term used by trainers who don’t have a clue where to shoot a human being to stop him, and it’s a term that must be expunged from our vocabulary.

     In short, “center mass” means nothing more than “shoot him somewhere in the middle.” Well, that won’t get you very far. If you look at the picture on page 25, you’ll see a standard police B27 training target that I shot 60 times using a standard police qualification course of fire. If you look at the score, you’ll see that I made 299/300 points, which is pretty good shooting.

     But before I shot that course of fire, I drew the vital anatomy of the human torso on the back of the target. As you can see, 59 of my 60 bullets, which were perfect hits for scoring purposes, failed to hit the vital organs in the chest: the heart or Great Vessels. My single miss, in the 9-ring, was the only shot that hit in the vital zone.

     This illustrates the problem of shooting people “somewhere in the middle.” As you can see from this illustration, the vital organs of the thorax are well above the middle of the human torso. Shoot a violent felon in the guts, and he’s likely to have your guts for his dinner!

I think that part of the problem with the older targets and ideas of "center of mass" is that concepts were taken from 20th Century military training for use on the battlefield where soldiers were taught to shoot (for instance) at the waist or beltline in order to insure a hit at distance.

• "The Bell-Curve: Shooting Practice by the Odds"--Growing Up Guns. The author suggests looking at statistics to determine what you should practice the most: e.g., retrieving a firearm from a place of storage; practicing drawing to the first shot from however you normally carry your weapon; use decisional drills to train yourself to think and make rational decisions (for instance, shoot/no-shoot); use targets that mimic the size of the target area you want to hit in a defensive situation.
• "Kung-Fu for the Concealed Carrier"--Active Response Training. A look at why concealed carriers need to learn some empty-hand skills.

A recent article that I wrote for CCW Safe titled “The Rule of Threes” pointed out that the average distance criminal assaults occurred was maybe as close as three yards.  Concealed carriers whose sole defensive option was a concealed handgun are likely at a great disadvantage when it comes to dealing with a motivated attacker who suddenly initiates an assault using his (or her) bare hands, a concealed edged weapon, or a blunt instrument.

• "Heretofore Otherwise Law-Abiding Gun Owners"--Dispatches from Heck. From the article:

     I use that rather longish phrase to introduce a contra-intuitive notion:   the people we always thought of as 'most likely to obey the law' have changed their attitudes, their positions relative to the law, and their willingness to be bullied.

     In times past, legislators could pass laws and be relatively certain that the bulk of the population would honor the law with their obedience even as the criminal element took the opposite tack.   It appears that is no longer the case.   It appears now that — at least as far as gun control laws are concerned — the overwhelming response is not obedience but defiance.

• "Face masks to decoy t-shirts: The rise of anti-surveillance fashion"--Reuters. 
• "Best Tools to Perform Steganography [Updated 2019]"--Infosec.
• "Top 10 Must-Have tools to perform Steganography"--Grey Campus.
• "Eavesdropping Through a Wall"--Schneier on Security.

     It is easy to defeat ordinary audio eavesdropping, just by sound-proofing a room. And simply drawing the curtains can defeat newer systems, which shine a laser beam onto a glass window and decode any modulation of the reflected beam caused by sound vibrations in the room.

     So the new "through-the-wall audio surveillance system" uses a powerful beam of very high frequency radio waves instead of light. Radio can penetrate walls – if they didn't, portable radios wouldn't work inside a house.

     The system uses a horn antenna to radiate a beam of microwave energy –between 30 and 100 gigahertz – through a building wall. If people are speaking inside the room, any flimsy surface, such as clothing, will be vibrating. This modulates the radio beam reflected from the surface.

     Although the radio reflection that passes back through the wall is extremely faint, the kind of electronic extraction and signal cleaning tricks used by NASA to decode signals in space can be used to extract speech.

• Related: "Eavesdropping using microwaves - addendum"--EE Times.

• "Statistician Rethinks Gun Control After Digging into the Data"--DC Dirty Laundry.

      From silencers, to bans on “assault weapons,” to magazine capacity limits, all of the policy prescriptions she had heard politicians talk about for years would be basically meaningless, Libresco concluded upon digging into the numbers.

     The truth is suicide counts for the vast majority of gun deaths in the U.S (two-thirds). The next largest death figures come from homicides involving young men (15-34), deaths that often involve gang conflicts in which shooters use firearms obtained unlawfully. Gun legislation, she concluded, would have a minimal impact on gun deaths in the U.S. But that doesn’t mean we should do nothing.

• "The Best Self Defense Ammo – Ballistic Testing"--Ammo to Go. Another resource for ballistic testing of popular self-defense rounds.

• Related: "Best 9mm Carry Ammo"--Active Response Training.

• "FLUTED AMMO: GREAT OR GIMMIK?"--Guns Magazine.

Why am I interested in fluted bullets? As a handgun instructor and someone who carries a concealed pistol every day, I research defensive ammo on a regular basis. When I’m making a recommendation to students and determining what to carry in my own gun, I want to know what will do the job and what won’t. With so many excellent brands of JHP handgun ammo on the market, there was something in particular about this new type of ammo which attracted my attention: the promise of low recoil while still offering effective wound ballistics. The projectiles are light and need less propellant to make them travel very fast.

Also:

Results in 10 percent ballistic gelatin shows ARX and Lehigh bullets produce large temporary cavities when striking soft targets through rotational and lateral transfer of energy. As this energy is being transferred laterally, the forward motion stops, usually within 16". Unlike JHPs there is no chance of cavity plugging by denim, leather or other material prior to entering the target.

• "PREVENT FROZEN PIPES – EXTREME COLD OPTIONS, PLUS CONSTRUCTION TIPS"--Common Sense Home.
• "How To Purify Water With Iodine And Chlorine Tablets"--Survivopedia. The initial caveats:

Regardless of whether the disease risk is caused by other campers or animals in the area, understanding the uses of iodine and chlorine is very important. It should be noted these tablets only address pathogens in the water. They cannot and will not substitute for good personal hygiene. They also do not address heavy metals, toxic waste, nuclear contamination, debris, or other problems. 

A couple other points: iodine only works within certain temperature ranges (the water must be 68 degrees F or higher) and chlorine may not kill all pathogens in surface water. Anyway, good article so check it out.

"Does Life Need a Multiverse to Exist?"--Space Time (17 min.)

• Refugees welcome: "Sweden's 100 explosions this year: What's going on?"--BBC.

     This category of crime was not even logged prior to 2017. Then, in 2018, there were 162 explosions and in the past two months alone the bomb squad have been called to almost 30.

     "Bangers, improvised explosives and hand grenades" are behind most of the blasts, says Linda H Straaf, head of intelligence at Sweden's National Operations Department.

And:

     Swedish police do not record or release the ethnicity of suspects or convicted criminals, but intelligence chief Linda H Straaf says many do share a similar profile.

     "They have grown up in Sweden and they are from socio-economically weak groups, socio-economically weak areas, and many are perhaps second- or third-generation immigrants," she says.

• Related: "Denmark Introduces Internal Border Checks with Sweden, Extends Those with Germany"--Schengen Visa Info. Denmark is tightening its borders because of explosions set off by criminals it believes to have come from Sweden.

• Diversity is a strength: "Anti-police violence surges in the tough suburbs of Paris"--AP. The article reports:

      Maj. William Blanchet, who represents the Unite SGP police union in the Yvelines region that includes Chanteloup and other towns where police patrols have been assaulted, said the youths involved seem to be targeting officers for their own amusement.

     “They draw in the police with a fire, hide themselves around that spot, and then they attack,” he said.

     Police were lured to Chanteloup by calls that a trash bin had been set ablaze. Callers also reported seeing hooded youths filing bags with stones. Police union officials said about 30 youths, some armed with batons, joined the rampage. Police made two arrests.

• More diversity in action: "With O’Neill’s resignation, who’s going to clean up de Blasio’s mess now?"--New York Post.

     Open contempt for the NYPD is a thing now. They were pouring water on cops — and, once, even a carton of milk — this summer because they had every reason to believe they could get away with it. And, by and large, they were right.

     Now they’re trashing cop cars in public; marching by the hundreds in Brooklyn to spew vile anti-NYPD invective; openly defying officers in the subways and on the streets — and basically they’re getting away with that, too.

• "Father uses his 11-month-old son as a 'human shield' in a shootout over a drug deal - leaving the baby in a critical condition with wounds to his head, neck and buttocks"--Daily Mail. The father, Nafes Monroe, thought that by bringing his infant son, Yazeem Munir Jenkins, and girlfriend, the drug dealers from whom he was buying drugs with counterfeit money wouldn't shoot at him. But Francisco Ortiz didn't see it that way.
• "Nearly 40% of 2019 farm income will come from federal aid and insurance"--Axios. Per the article, "The Agriculture Department projects that farm incomes will reach $88 billion in 2019 but nearly 40% of that — $33 billion — will come from trade aid, disaster assistance, the farm bill and insurance indemnities, according to a new report by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF)." 
• "Why What You Do In The Bedroom Doesn’t Ever Stay There"--The Federalist. 

     Monogamy as a community’s sexual norm simply makes for a much better society. Citizens are more likely to thrive, particularly women and children. In fact, the article attributes “democratic rights and civil liberties” to “the strength of normative monogamy,” concluding, “The peculiar institution of monogamous marriage may help explain why democratic ideals and notions of equality first emerged in the West.”

     Monogamy, as a one-to-one negotiation, democratizes sexuality, making women more powerful agents in domestic and sexual relationships. This allows for and facilitates the democratization of the people at large.

     Single and polygamous men collect women as sexual and domestic objects, which requires competition among men and the subjugation of women. As more women are collected by richer, more powerful men, the poorer, less attractive men must resort to trickery and violence to gain access to a smaller and more competitive market. This has egregious consequences for the community. Unexpectedly, these scholars found that normative monogamy reduced a community’s rates of overall violence by half.

A lot in the article, so read the whole thing.

• "No respect for men who marry single mothers."--Dalrock. Apparently there are some theologians that preach that single (i.e., out of wedlock) mothers are some great blessing and that the man who marries one should be extra grateful for the opportunity. To such, Dalrock writes:

       But what Parkison and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary are doing here is cruel to all involved.  It is cruel to single mothers for encouraging them to count their past sin as a gift to their future husband, instead of helping them see that while our sins are forgiven in Christ, the temporal consequences of our sins remains.  Instead of encouraging humility regarding their past sins, he encourages them to see themselves as a more attractive prospect as a Christian wife.  It is cruel to the Christian men reading as well, because it teaches them to deny the sins of women and therefore sets them and their families up for even more misery.

     Lastly, the whole perspective betrays a contempt for Christian married fathers, especially the Christian men who marry repentant single mothers with full understanding of what they are taking on.  Instead of treating these men with respect, Parkison dismisses their graciousness by pretending it wasn’t gracious at all!  Parkison is stealing other men’s graciousness for himself.

• "An expert looks at the gender wars & sees wonders ahead!"--Fabius Maximus. 

I think we will see a creeping panic from our ruling class as they realize that by replacing the marriage based family model with one founded on child support they have removed the incentive for men to produce the kinds of excess wealth that our progressive tax structure requires. Even worse, fatherless children are (on average) far more expensive to society than fathered children are, and this is true for life. So the income stream is at risk, and the expenses are going up.

• "Scientists Recreate the Face of a Denisovan Using DNA"--Smithsonian.
• "Slagheaps from ancient copper mines in southern Jordan and Israel reveal ancient Biblical kingdom of Edom was REAL, scientists claim"--Daily Mail. 
• For you electronics buffs: "Track the Movement of the Milky Way With This DIY Radio Telescope"--IEEE Spectrum.
• "Astronomers Have Found Another 21 Stars Dimming as Erratically as Tabby's Star"--Science Alert. 

       The dimming of KIC 8462852 is completely random and unpredictable - and the depth of light blocked varies. It's dipped as little 1 percent, and as much as 22 percent, and a range of depths in between. These dimming periods have varying durations, too. Whatever's causing this dimming, it's definitely not a planet.

     In addition, some wavelengths of light are blocked more than others, which, astronomers say, rules out a large, solid opaque object (such as, say, an alien megastructure - an early suggestion that has since been ruled out).

• "7 Ways to Make Your Old Phone Run Like New"--Popular Mechanics. Some of the tips are purely psychological (e.g., picking a new theme or getting a new cover), others are simple phone maintenance (e.g., getting rid of unwanted apps or getting a new battery), and one involves changing operating systems.
• "Underestimating Internal Variability Leads to Narrow Estimates of Climate System Properties"--Geophysical Research Letters. An excerpt:

Estimates of climate sensitivity remain uncertain for a number of reasons, some of which are outlined in Hegerl et al. (2000) and remain relevant today. The first reason is uncertainty in observations. Many studies estimate climate sensitivity using historical observations of climate change. Due to instrumental errors, coverage gaps, and inhomogeneity in measurement practices, there is irreducible error in the time series of climate variables. The second reason is systematic/structural errors in models. Many studies derive estimates of climate sensitivity by comparing model output to observations (e.g., Forest et al., 2008; Knutti et al., 2003; Libardoni & Forest, 2013; Olson et al., 2013). All models are approximations of reality and thus do not exactly match the climate system. The last reason is chaotic or internal variability in the climate system. In the absence of external forcing, fluctuations in the atmosphere and ocean still occur due to processes and feedbacks active in the climate system. This unforced internal variability is embedded in any climate signal, and due to its chaotic nature, represents an irreducible uncertainty.

Translation: climate models are inherently flawed and unreliable.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there. As is my wont, I am reprinting something I had written back in February 2012 entitled "The Worth Of Fathers" and that I have reposted on several subsequent Father's Days.

* * * * *

         One of the most insidious results of the welfare state and the feminist movement is the loss of respect for fathers, or even the belief that fathers are needed in a home. We are surrounded with ads and TV shows that show fathers as clueless idiots--essentially just another child for the mother to care for and look after. The legal system bases custody on "the best interests of the children" which has merely become a code phrase for "fathers not needed." Even my church, sad to say, while emphasizing the importance of motherhood, significantly downplays the importance of fathers.

       I was reminded of the importance of fathers today when reading this article concerning on how New Jersey's court system has usurped the powers and authority of the legislature in important areas, including education. It noted:

The court also seemed oblivious to the fact that, no matter how much money the state spent, educational “adequacy” in the Abbott districts would remain a casualty of widespread family breakdown. In Newark and Camden, about 70 percent of children grow up in homes without fathers—which, research shows, frequently leads to dismal academic performance and high drop-out rates. “While many of the mothers and grandmothers were making a tremendous effort with their children, the consequences for most of the fatherless kids were devastating,” wrote Saul Cooperman, the state’s former education commissioner, in a 2002 op-ed. Assessing the likely effectiveness of the supreme court’s education mandates, Cooperman was blunt: “Until dramatically more fathers as well as mothers raise their children in our cities, we may be disappointed with the results.”

       Why are fathers so important? It is because fathers inculcate skills and discipline in their children that mothers, single or not, don't.

As noted sociologist David Popenoe explains,

Fathers are far more than just ‘second adults’ in the home. Involved fathers – especially biological fathers – bring positive benefits to their children that no other person is as likely to bring.

Fathers bring good, essential things to the lives of children. Children are impoverished developmentally when they are deprived of their father’s love.
The Review of General Psychology concludes:

Many studies conclude that children with highly involved fathers, in relation to children with less involved fathers, tend to be more cognitively and socially competent, less inclined toward gender stereotyping, more empathetic, and psychologically better adjusted.

(Footnotes omitted). (See also this article). And, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

         Even from birth, children who have an involved father are more likely to be emotionally secure, be confident to explore their surroundings, and, as they grow older, have better social connections with peers. These children also are less likely to get in trouble at home, school, or in the neighborhood. Infants who receive high levels of affection from their fathers (e.g., babies whose fathers respond quickly to their cries and who play together) are more securely attached; that is, they can explore their environment comfortably when a parent is nearby and can readily accept comfort from their parent after a brief separation. A number of studies suggest they also are more sociable and popular with other children throughout early childhood.

           The way fathers play with their children also has an important impact on a child's emotional and social development. Fathers spend a much higher percentage of their one-on-one interaction with infants and preschoolers in stimulating, playful activity than do mothers. From these interactions, children learn how to regulate their feelings and behavior. Rough-housing with dad, for example, can teach children how to deal with aggressive impulses and physical contact without losing control of their emotions. Generally speaking, fathers also tend to promote independence and an orientation to the outside world. Fathers often push achievement while mothers stress nurturing, both of which are important to healthy development. As a result, children who grow up with involved fathers are more comfortable exploring the world around them and more likely to exhibit self-control and pro-social behavior.

          One study of school-aged children found that children with good relationships with their fathers were less likely to experience depression, to exhibit disruptive behavior, or to lie and were more likely to exhibit pro-social behavior. This same study found that boys with involved fathers had fewer school behavior problems and that girls had stronger self-esteem. In addition, numerous studies have found that children who live with their fathers are more likely to have good physical and emotional health, to achieve academically, and to avoid drugs, violence, and delinquent behavior.

          In short, fathers have a powerful and positive impact upon the development and health of children. A caseworker who understands the important contributions fathers make to their children's development and how to effectively involve fathers in the case planning process will find additional and valuable allies in the mission to create a permanent and safe environment for children.

(Footnotes omitted).

Hypergamy and Delayed Marriage Among Women

       Hypergamy in action: "Shortage of eligible men has left women taking desperate steps to preserve their fertility, experts say"--The Telegraph. The article reports:

       The first global study into egg freezing found that shortages of eligible men were the prime reason why women had attempted to take matters into their own hands.

       Experts said “terrifying” demographic shifts had created a “deficit” of educated men and a growing problem of “leftover” professional women, with female graduates vastly outnumbering males in in many countries.

       The study led by Yale University, involved interviews with 150 women undergoing egg freezing at eight clinics.

       Researchers found that in more than 90 per cent of cases, the women were attempting to buy extra time because they could not find a partner to settle down with, amid a “dearth of educated men”.

       Experts said the research bust the myth that “selfish career women” were choosing to out their fertility on ice in a bid to put their careers first.

The New York Post, reporting on the same study, had this to say:

       Of the 114 US participants, 47 percent had a master’s degree and 34 percent had an MD, PhD or the equivalent. The findings were recently presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Geneva. They have not yet been submitted to an academic journal.

       “There is a major gap — they are literally missing men,” Marcia Inhorn, lead author of the study and a professor at Yale, said at the conference. “There are not enough college graduates for them. In simple terms, this is about an oversupply of educated women.”

Broadly goes into more depth, reporting:

       Marcia Inhorn, a professor of anthropology and international affairs at Yale University, and her co-authors were interested in exploring why more women were choosing oocyte cryopreservation (or egg freezing). Recruiting participants from eight IVF clinics in the US and Israel, anthropologists conducted interviews with 150 women (114 in select US cities and 36 abroad) who had completed one cycle of egg freezing already between June 2014 to August 2016.

        Researchers determined that most of the women weren't "preserving" their fertility because they wanted to focus on their careers, which is one commonly toted explanation. "It was clear early on but confirmed by the end of this study that the main reason this group of highly educated women were freezing their eggs, usually in their late 30s and early 40s, is that they had been unable to find a partner committed to, basically, marriage and family building with them," Inhorn tells Broadly. "In almost all cases, women told me they had been trying all throughout their education and careers to find a partner in life, but that it hadn't happened yet."

       The study notes that this is a "reflection of a growing, but little-discussed gender trend, with women increasingly outnumbering male college graduates in both countries." In other words, Inhorn says, "it's a demographical issue."

Note that this report does not illustrate a shortage of men, but a shortage of men that these women deem worthy of their affections based on education and, thereby, income. Or, as Vox Day notes, this is a case of pure hypergamy, observing: "Sure, they should simply settle for less-educated men. But they won't. Because hypergamy."

         Actually, it less the education than the associated money and social prestige. I am remindecd of a November 2011 Atlantic article by Kate Bolick titled "All the Single Ladies [sic]." It also mirrors the theme that there are too few "good men" for women--specifically, professional women--to marry.

        Ms. Bolick starts her therapy session by relating:

WHEN I was 28, I broke up with my boyfriend. Allan and I had been together for three years, and there was no good reason to end things. He was (and remains) an exceptional person, intelligent, good-looking, loyal, kind. My friends, many of whom were married or in marriage-track relationships, were bewildered. I was bewildered. To account for my behavior, all I had were two intangible yet undeniable convictions: something was missing; I wasn’t ready to settle down.

Mr. Bolick acknowledges that marriage may now, 10 years later, be more a matter of luck, than choice. (Strangely, she doesn't seem to consider that someone else's choice may play a part). However, she explains:

The decision to end a stable relationship for abstract rather than concrete reasons (“something was missing”), I see now, is in keeping with a post-Boomer ideology that values emotional fulfillment above all else. And the elevation of independence over coupling (“I wasn’t ready to settle down”) is a second-wave feminist idea I’d acquired from my mother, who had embraced it, in part, I suspect, to correct for her own choices.

        Poor Ms. Bolick. She just hasn't found anyone that provides emotional fulfillment. Except, that isn't really what happened (at least in the sense that a normal person would define emotional fulfillment). Ms. Bolick's thesis is:

       [A]s women have climbed ever higher, men have been falling behind. We’ve arrived at the top of the staircase, finally ready to start our lives, only to discover a cavernous room at the tail end of a party, most of the men gone already, some having never shown up—and those who remain are leering by the cheese table, or are, you know, the ones you don’t want to go out with.

She notes that after nearly 40 years of reverse discrimination against men, and preferences for women (I'm summarizing), the pool of marriagable men is smaller.

[T]he decline of males has obviously been bad news for men—and bad news for marriage. For all the changes the institution has undergone, American women as a whole have never been confronted with such a radically shrinking pool of what are traditionally considered to be “marriageable” men—those who are better educated and earn more than they do. So women are now contending with what we might call the new scarcity. Even as women have seen their range of options broaden in recent years—for instance, expanding the kind of men it’s culturally acceptable to be with, and making it okay not to marry at all—the new scarcity disrupts what economists call the “marriage market” in a way that in fact narrows the available choices, making a good man harder to find than ever. At the rate things are going, the next generation’s pool of good men will be significantly smaller.

At this point, you could be excused if you thought that the United States had suffered some disaster that has decimated the population of eligible bachelors. But no, even Ms. Bolick recognizes that the United States, in fact, has a healthy ratio of 50.8 percent of women to 49.2 percent of men. So why does Ms. Bolick tell us, "[t]hat we would marry, and that there would always be men we wanted to marry, we took on faith," but now lament that, in fact, the men she wants to marry don't want to marry her?

       Well, to understand Ms. Bolick's lament, you have to understand what she means by "good men." Based on her statements, it simply boils down to someone who makes more money than her. For all her pride in being a feminist, she is no different than the post-civil war women she cites in her article that chose to become spinsters instead of marrying down socially and economically. Apparently, "emotional fulfillment" and "independence" is code for "someone that can support me in the style and comfort I desire."

       Perhaps, if Allan had made more money, Ms. Bolick would now be married.

      And here is another case of a "worthy" spinster unable to find a husband.  Kate Mulvey, writing at The Daily Mail, tries to explain why she is still single at 50. Not surprisingly, she seems to think there is nothing wrong with her, but it is all the fault of the men she dates.

       For me, this is stating the blindingly obvious. I've lost count of the times men have rejected or insulted me simply because I was brighter, wittier or cleverer than they are. 

       They have called me 'intimidating', 'scary', 'difficult' and 'opinionated'. Translated, that means: 'You are too clever and I don't like it.'

Here is a taste of her dating style:

       As far as I'm concerned, a dinner party isn't complete without a bit of an intellectual tussle during dessert - whether it be on the finer points of Ed Miliband taking on the trade unions, or President Obama playing a high-stakes game with President Putin over Syria. 

       But little did I know that by honing my neurons and showing my intellectual rigour, I was scuppering my chances of romantic success. 

         The backlash against my brainpower began in earnest in my 20s, when I was a struggling writer going out with Sebastian, a high-flying City trader. Initially he loved dating a writer - even (or, perhaps, particularly) a constantly broke one, and he had to rescue me by paying for everything. But as my career and social life suddenly took off, his affection turned to resentment. 

       My career entailed a round of seminars, high-profile dinners and exciting parties. Sebastian might have made million-pound deals but he couldn't handle being my 'plus one'. After three years he told me he'd met someone who 'needed' him. Since then, relationship after relationship has imploded like a sinking soufflé.

        ... Like a lot of career women, after years of looking after myself I have learnt to see men not as protectors but competitors.  

         Unlike the canny girls who learnt how to flirt with men from an early age, the brainy ones, like me, were too busy with their books to master the art of flattery. Instead we challenge rather than charm, we control rather than compromise. No wonder men find it hard to like us.

Actually, I don't think anyone--man or woman--likes to be around a person who is an argumentative, controlling, nit-picking, know-it all. Not everything should involve "an intellectual tussle." I suspect her suitors aren't intimidated by her intellectual superiority, but tire of every conversation being a debate.

      In another article, women who have never married claim that it brings them happiness. The three female writers provide their thoughts on growing old and statying single in response to Kate Bolick’s then-new book, Spinster: Making A Life Of One’s Own, which apparently argues that spinsters should be proud of their single status and enjoy their lifestyle.

One of the responding authors, Kate Mulvey, writes of how she was recently attending a birthday party for the son of one of her friends:

       Amid the hubbub, I was shouting into my mobile, organising my Saturday night ahead. I laughed and joked about yet another date, but my laughter was empty, merely a mechanism to cover up the loneliness I felt. 

       After all, I am 51, and quite honestly, I’d much rather be spending a cosy night in with a husband and children than running around like the teenager I so obviously am not.

She also notes:

       I wonder if Bolick has factored in what will happen when old age catches up with her. The fact is, she is still in her early 40s, stunning with tumbling locks and full lips. Wait till the lips are puckered and the cheeks sunken. I often wake in the night terrified no man will ever want me again. 

       Because — and here’s the nub — Bolick’s feminist mantra of ‘If bachelorhood can be celebrated, why not spinsterhood?’ is simply naive. I am sorry, but as cruel as it is, being single is different for women. It’s unfair, even disgustingly so, but it is also true.

The next two writers are still in their 40s. The first of these, Claudia Connell, who is in her late 40s, reasons that at least she is not stuck in a lousy marriage. She writes:

      I’m glad, and rather proud, that I didn’t allow myself to feel pressured or panicked into being with somebody who didn’t feel right, as so many of my friends did. 

       In fact, the very same women who urged me to be less fussy are now the ones who tell me how much they envy my life. 

       They’re the ones stuck at home with moody teenagers who won’t leave home until they’re 30 and a boring, lazy husband they don’t seem to even like, let alone love. 

       I have freedom, a good amount of disposable income and only myself to please. I know who I think got the better deal.

Melissa Kite, 43, writes:

       We are capable, high-earning women who are opting for a life alone because we prefer it. Alone, not lonely. There’s a difference. Yesterday, I woke up, sauntered to an Italian deli for coffee, walked the dog, did some work, drove to the country and rode my horses, drove back into town, popped a chicken in the oven, watered the garden while it cooked. After dinner, I sat in my immaculate living room and read a gripping thriller in perfect peace and quiet. Finally, I made a cup of herbal tea and slipped between the crisp white sheets of my king-size bed with my spaniel curled up beside me. Perfection. 

        If you ask me how that same day would have passed with any of my last three ex-boyfriends, my answer would be: somewhat tediously, very stressfully, and with hidden tears of frustration. 

       I would have been drawn into a dozen logistical nightmares over accommodating his life before I could even think about mine. He would have wanted a far more complicated dinner than chicken with salad. I would have had to make pudding. I hate pudding. 

       We would have watched a bad movie until the early hours, too bored and fed up with each other after a day of niggling over the small stuff to even try to have sex. 

       Now, I ask you, what’s in it for me to live like that? 

       I suppose, you would say, companionship or the joy of children. The problem is I have never had a great yearning for babies and my friends make great companions.

       What all three seems to have missed is that men are the gate-keepers of commitment. Mulvey is at the age that men are not interested in her, and she is facing the sudden realization that her health will not last forever, and being childless was not an accomplishment.

       Connell's rationalization that at least she is not stuck in a lousy marriage is pitiful. It is a tacit acknowledgment that she was incapable of a having a healthy relationship, or unwilling to put in the time to build a healthy relationship--i.e., that she had commitment issues. I suppose it is a good thing that she has only herself to please because it is only herself that will bother to please her.

         Kite is the most delusional of the three. She likewise concedes that she is incapable of healthy relationships. Under her two scenarios--spending a weekend with her dog and spending a weekend with her imaginary bad boyfriend, she still winds up with no sex. That she reveals that it is frustrating to accommodate anyone's else's desires and values an immaculate house and crisp white sheets above companionship just shows that she is a selfish control freak.

        It is also interesting what is not said: all the things these women contribute or do ... or rather, don't do. They have traded companionship for self-pampering. They don't build or create anything, at least that they reveal. They appear to represent dead-ends not only evolutionary, but socially and creatively. Nothing will mark their passing. In fact, because of advancements in robotics, it is increasingly likely that the majority of men will not need women for anything that they value.

       Unfortunately, this is not limited to "Murphy Browns" of the world. We see a similar justification and excuse in the body of the Church (speaking of Christianity broadly). Mandy Hale writes at Today's Christian Woman that "Waiting for Marriage Is Hard." She relates:

... I started crying, all too vividly remembering the many times I’ve cried out to God about my desire for a family, children, traditions, people to grow old with, and a husband to hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay. I cried, remembering all the years of waiting, of enduring the space between “no longer” and “not yet,” and reliving all the moments when I’ve felt forgotten by the God who claims to love me. I recalled the countless instances of frustration and impatience and even despair as the birthdays pass, and my situation seemingly grows more and more hopeless. I might never find the simplest and most complicated of life’s blessings: someone to love who also loves me.

However, Dalrock has reposted some of Hale's social media posts about men and being single, and it is clear that Hale doesn't necessarily want a man nor believes that she needs a man. For instance, in one post she states: "There's something kinda awesome about being able to say I've never had to rely on a man for one single thing." She also makes clear that she considers herself a "strong woman" that doesn't need a man, so any suitor better make her want him. So, in short, she has been asking God to provide her with a husband she neither needs nor wants and for what? To punish the poor man that falls into her clutches?

       While many Christian woman may see this as empowering--to remain free and independent as long as possible--and blame everyone but themselves for not finding a perfect mate, they are, in fact, suffering from a chargeable hubris and selfishness. One that I do not think that God will lightly forgive them. For one thing, they seek for perfection in an imperfect world, unwilling to humble themselves to the fact that they are imperfect and may need to settle for marrying someone who is imperfect. They choose the accolades of the world over following God's command to "multiply and replenish the earth." They ignore Christ's admonition to dispose of the beam in one own's eye before trying to pluck the mote out of another's eye.

           Second, they are simply justifying their natural urge to "ride the carousel" and put off adulthood as long as possible. As Dalrock notes:

For several decades now the feminist life script for women has been to delay marriage as long as possible to focus on education, career, travel, and sexual experience. Many have mistaken this strategy by feminists as signaling that they don’t value marriage, but this is not the case for the vast majority of them.  Marriage is essential to the feminist dream of having it all, they just don’t want to waste a day more of their youth and fertility on their husbands than absolutely necessary.  Even the fictional protagonist from Sex and the City must eventually marry Mr. Big at the overripe age of 42;  otherwise she would just be a slutty failure and not a feminist heroine.

He goes on to explain the justification reasoning these type of women employ:

 If they only wait long enough, never settle, and persevere as strong empowered women, God will deliver their dream husband.  A strong empowered woman may have to wait until her late thirties or early forties to find a husband on God’s timetable, but what matters is that delaying marriage is God’s plan.  

 Dalrock points out the flaws to the justification argument:

... [M]odern Christian culture has identified the feminist life script as coming from God.  The very unbiblical feminist obsession with women’s self esteem has become a core tenant of modern Christianity.  She is a daughter of the King!  Nothing is too good for her!  Moreover, for a modern Christian woman settling is seen as an act of denying the power and trustworthiness of God, an act of apostasy.  While the Bible teaches women that they should cultivate a quiet and gentle spirit, something beautiful to God, modern Christians teach women that God wants women to be the opposite, that they are to be sassy, big and bold, loud and proud.

I don't think God is going to be sympathetic about their spinsterhood. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. I suspect that these women have been provided numerous opportunities to find a good man, but pay no attention to these good men because the men lacked the social prestige or wealth these women seek, or these woman are too busy still chasing the Alpha "bad boys" to notice the "good man."

Marriage and the Fate of Nations

I recently read an article noting the inverse relationship between women's earnings and the rates at which they marry. The article, entitled "How Earnings Influence a Woman’s Decision to Wed" was published in The Atlantic, and reports:

Between 1980 and 2010, the proportion of American women who were married declined from 74 percent to 56 percent. There are plenty of trends during that 30-year span that can help explain the shift in women’s decisions to marry or not: increasing college attendance, growing labor-force participation, increasing rates of incarceration, and changing cultural norms, to name a few. A new study suggests that as their wages increase relative to men’s, female workers become less likely to marry.

There are many explanations as to why this is so, but its seems that, just as a man cannot have two masters, a woman cannot have two husbands: many women are married to the State (welfare dependents) or their careers.

But that is not the issue I want to address. Rather, it is the obvious inference that if women are marrying less, then so are men. Moreover, I would suggest that because of decreasing marriage rates, the number of men without sexual partners is going to exceed the number of women without sexual partners. The result of this imbalance will not just be a demographic issues of fewer children and more broken homes, but increased violence and risk of civil war.

I'm going to actually take these issues in reverse order because it will make it easier to understand my point. Perusing an article on what motivates young Muslim men to become terrorists, I followed a link to an article from The Economist entitled "Of men and mayhem." The general thrust of the article is that "[y]oung, single, idle males are dangerous. Work and wedlock can tame them." The article makes a particularly interesting point, though, about polygamous societies:

Any system that produces a surplus of single men is likely to be unstable. Polygamous societies suffer “higher rates of murder, theft, rape, social disruption, kidnapping (especially of females), sexual slavery and prostitution,” note Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd and Peter Richerson in “The Puzzle of Monogamy”. 

The article expounds on the "idle hands are the tools of the devil" theme further:

... It is not simply a lack of money that spurs young men to rebel, he explains; it is more that having a job is a source of status and identity. 

Throughout history, men have killed men roughly 97 times more often than women have killed women. The reasons are biological. In all cultures, the appetite for mayhem peaks in the late teens or early 20s, “just when males are competing more fiercely for mating opportunities, as in other mammals”, notes Matt Ridley in “The Evolution of Everything”. In “Homicide”, Martin Daly and Margo Wilson put it like this: “Any creature that is recognisably on track towards complete reproductive failure must somehow expend effort, often at risk of death, to try to improve its present life trajectory.” Wars, alas, give young men a chance to kill potential rivals (ie, other men) and seize or rape women. From Islamic State to the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, rebel forces often let their troops treat females as spoils.

(Underline added).

For instance, as the author of the article on the motivation of Muslim terrorists observes, if you have 10 women and 10 men, and one man has 4 wives, that immediately means that three other men will not have wives (sexual partners); if two of the men each were to have 4 wives, you would have 6 men without wives (sexual partners).

Our culture has programmed us to see this "polygamous" sorting (multiple female sexual partners to a particular man) as unusual, but it is, rather, natural. Because a woman's hypergamous nature draws her to the highest status male, males of high status have a choice of multiple female sexual partners. Males of a lower status, conversely, may have limited or no opportunities to find a sexual partner. (High school is a perfect example of where this natural sorting occurs: e.g., the high school football team captain with many girls pining after him, and the nerdy boy who couldn't get a date to save his life).

Many societies, and Western society in particular, solved the issue of surplus men through the carrot and stick approach of the institution of monogamous marriage, thereby limiting a man to one wife no matter his status, coupled with shaming women that sought sex outside the marriage. Simple economics and the harsh realities of life ensured that a woman had to seek the protection and support of a man to provide for her and her offspring. Laws and social mores that deemed a woman, by being married, to have consented to sex with her husband ensured that the husband would have his wife as a sexual partner.

Now all bets are off. Because of enhanced educational and career opportunities, and/or government benefits, women are no longer dependent on a male for support. Sex outside marriage is not only tolerated but practically expected in this day and age. Divorce is rampant. In short, monogamous marriage is in a dangerous decline, and the natural sorting of multiple females to a smaller number of high status men is reasserting itself. Even if a man is married, there is no guarantee that he will have a sexual partner. We are increasingly moving toward what, in effect, is a polygamous society, with the concomitant result that an increasing number of young men will be without sexual partners and, as the articles above note, will be idle hands to commit crimes and engage in violence.

I would suggest that we are beginning to see the breakdown of social stability--it certainly has long been apparent in black communities, and is rapidly spreading among lower and middle-income whites. And we have also seen the resultant rage and violence demonstrated by the so-called mass-shooters, which have a commonality of being males with low sexual status. The lure of the video game console can only delay things so long, before disaffected young men in the United States and Europe begin to act like disaffected young men around the world and throughout history.

In 1995, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints released its "The Family--A Proclamation To The World," which included this statement: "Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets." These calamities are beginning to happen right before our eyes.

God--He's a Real Smart Guy: Virginity, Telegony and Damaged Goods

The concept of chastity, including that woman should be virgins at marriage, is increasingly mocked in our day and age. (See, e.g., "Virgin bride presents pastor father with 'certificate of purity' on wedding day, sparking outrage: 'This is just sick'"--New York Daily News; and this from the Daily Mail: "'No hymen, no diamond': Male activist Facebook group mocked for demanding that women are virgins before they get married"). It is viewed as a throwback with no real function or reason. However, there is recent evidence that one historic reason--telegony--is valid.

Telegony was a once discredited theory--even termed a superstition--that a woman's sexual partner(s) could pass traits on to subsequent children of the woman, even if the children were sired by a different person. Apparently the science was not settled. An abstract from  Reprod Domest Anim. 2011 Apr;46(2):338-43.

Telegony is the belief that the sire first mated to a female will have an influence upon some of that female's later offspring by another male. Although the reality of telegony was acknowledged by such authorities as Darwin, Spencer, Romanes and many experienced breeders, it has been met with scepticism because of Weismann's unfavourable comments and negative results obtained in several test experiments. In this article, alleged cases of telegony are provided. A search of the literature of cell biology and biochemistry reveals several plausible mechanisms that may form the basis for telegony. These involve the penetration of spermatozoa into the somatic tissues of the female genital tract, the incorporation of the DNA released by spermatozoa into maternal somatic cells, the presence of foetal DNA in maternal blood, as well as sperm RNA-mediated non-Mendelian inheritance of epigenetic changes.

An abstract from Gene. 2013 Jul 25;524(2):414-6:

Telegony is a discredited genetic phenomenon that a previous male may influence the characteristics of offspring subsequently borne by the same female to another male. Although its reality was acknowledged by such authorities as Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer, it has been met with skepticism because of a lack of understanding of the theoretical basis for telegony. With the discovery of fetal genes in mother's blood, the penetration of somatic cells by sperm, and the ability of RNA to program genome rearrangement, mechanisms might exist for telegony.

An abstract from Ecology Letters on September 30, 2014:

Newly discovered non-genetic mechanisms break the link between genes and inheritance, thereby also raising the possibility that previous mating partners could influence traits in offspring sired by subsequent males that mate with the same female (‘telegony’). In the fly Telostylinus angusticollis, males transmit their environmentally acquired condition via paternal effects on offspring body size. We manipulated male condition, and mated females to two males in high or low condition in a fully crossed design. Although the second male sired a large majority of offspring, offspring body size was influenced by the condition of the first male. This effect was not observed when females were exposed to the first male without mating, implicating semen-mediated effects rather than female differential allocation based on pre-mating assessment of male quality. Our results reveal a novel type of transgenerational effect with potential implications for the evolution of reproductive strategies.

Or, as The Telegraph reports the findings:

The idea that the physical traits of previous sexual partners could be passed on to future children was hypothesised by Aristotle and formed part of the reason that kings were banned from marrying divorcees. 

But the birth of genetics dismissed ‘telegony’ as a superstition which had no basis in science. 

Now, however, an intriguing new study suggests children may resemble a mother’s previous sexual partner after all. 

Scientists at the University of New South Wales discovered that, for fruit flies at least, the size of the young was determined by the size of the first male the mother mated with, rather than the second male that sired the offspring. 

It is the first time that telegony has been proved in the animal kingdom. 

The researchers propose that the effect is due to molecules in the semen of the first mate being absorbed by the female's immature eggs where they influence future offspring.

(See also the International Business Times and the Daily Mail).

And today I came across this article, "A Woman’s Body May Incorporate DNA From The Semen Of Casual Sex Partners," which explains the implications from this most recent study:

Compelling new scientific research has shown that female insects and mammals are able to absorb foreign DNA throughout the cells of their bodies. In human beings, this phenomenon has been conclusively shown to occur in women during pregnancy where genetic material from her growing fetus becomes fused within areas of her brain, affecting her chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

The evidence now shows that female animals can incorporate sperm DNA from her prior sex partners. This foreign DNA winds up in future children after the woman successfully reproduces with a completely different male. In the human world, this means that the children a man has with a promiscuous woman could possess genes from previous sexual partners he has never seen or met.

There are existing sociological studies that show a marriage is far more likely to fail when a woman had more than two prior sexual partners [footnotes omitted], but now renewed support for the once-questionable field of telegony is showing that there are also genetic reasons not to start a family with a promiscuous woman: children you have with her may have their gene pool polluted by her random affairs and one-night stands.

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The above study has two seismic implications. The first is that a woman can absorb enough DNA during her lifetime that it changes her phenotype (i.e. her appearance and overall health state). There could be some truth to the phrase “slut face” in which highly promiscuous women suffer a change to their appearance because of all the variable sperm from different males that have been deposited inside them.

The second implication stems from the fact that it’s scientifically conclusive that single mothers have DNA of their bastard children residing permanently within their bodies. Any man who reproduces with a single mom will have a child that contains DNA from the bastard spawn, which of course includes DNA from the absentee father. This means that men can be genetically cuckolded without being traditionally cuckolded, and that having a baby with a single mom is essentially giving the father of her first child a bonus prize in the game of evolution.

Microchimerism has also been noted in dogs, where older siblings pass on their DNA to younger siblings, suggesting that first-borns possess the highest genetic purity, a suspicion perhaps suspected by the royalty of old. Not only that, but the mother dogs incorporated Y-chromosome material from her male children. The mother dog essentially becomes more masculine by having sons.

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For thousands of years, a woman’s purity was cherished above all else when it came to creating a family. Now the scientific community is confirming the validity of that practice. ....