The men's rights movement (MRM) continues to grow in size, but politically is deeply flawed.
The average men's rights activist (MRA) is hostile to feminism. And yet he also agrees fundamentally with the feminist agenda.
This leads to the odd situation of feminists arriving at MRA websites, liking what they read, proposing a grand alliance with the MRM, before being angrily chased away by the MRAs.
How has this situation come about? It seems to me that there are two major wings of the MRM. The first is a liberal one. There are now plenty of men involved in the MRM who describe themselves not only as "very liberal" but even as being radically left-liberal.
These men, understandably, don't like the way that men are portrayed as being privileged oppressors (i.e. bad guys) on the mainstream, feminist left. Rather than rethinking leftist politics, they respond by pointing to areas in which it is men who are treated unequally.
There's the usual range of liberal attitudes amongst these men. Some of the more right-liberal ones limit themselves to calls for procedural equality. But others are more radical and want to follow through more consistently with the liberal ideal of making gender not matter.
It's therefore often assumed at MRM sites that masculinity is an oppressive construct; that the aim of the MRM is to liberate men from masculinity; that society should be strictly gender neutral, including in parental roles and in having women drafted into combat roles; and that feminist countries like Sweden are the models for the rest of the world to follow.
The second wing of the MRM are the male separatists (who call themselves "men going their own way" or MGTOW).
These are men who have grown up in an age of female individualism. Their experience is of a society which is geared toward maximising female autonomy, whether it's in terms of education, careers or family.
They have been particularly burned when it comes to relationships. Some of them have lost out in the divorce courts. Some of them are men whose female peers have been "liberated" to waste their 20s chasing a few alpha guys. For these reasons they are not very trusting of, or sympathetic toward, women.
How do men react to female individualism? One way (the traditionalist way) is to criticise a radical individualism, for both sexes, as socially destructive. But the male separatists don't do this. They respond instead by trying to imagine an individualism of their own.
How can men lead a more individualistic, autonomous life? How, in other words, do men "go their own way"? Above all, by not marrying. The male separatists vary a bit here. Some want to shack up with non-Western women (there is much hostility to white/Western women). Others promote the idea of occasional sexual encounters. Others don't want any contact at all.
In order to persuade men not to marry, the male separatists push the idea that men are harmed by marriage. They also portray women in very negative terms (gold diggers, sluts etc).
It ends up sounding uncannily like the feminism of the 1970s, but with the sexes reversed. In the 1970s, it was feminists who thought marriage was oppressive to women, who promoted separatist solutions, and who therefore painted men in the most unflattering light possible.
The liberal and the separatist MRAs get along quite well, as both groups are committed to the idea of male autonomy or individualism. The separatists aren't quite as motivated by the aim of deconstructing masculinity. Even so, they've managed to find common ground with the liberals here, since they believe that "manning up" means having to take on the responsibility of being a husband and father - which they fundamentally reject.
Both groups also react vehemently against the idea of chivalry. The liberals see it as being one reason why equality hasn't been fully implemented; they believe that conservative judges treat women more favourably on chivalrous grounds. The separatists believe that chivalry encourages men to make sacrifices for women, which cuts right across the separatist aim of men living for themselves alone. Conservatives and traditionalists are blamed for perpetuating chivalry and holding back men's rights.
Oddly, there are MRAs who are concerned about the presence of traditionalists within the movement. They believe that traditionalists will rob the MRM of respectability.
It's more likely, though, that it's the liberal/separatist alliance which will hold back the MRM from going mainstream. Just how mainstream did the radical separatist feminists become, even with the backing of the liberal establishment? Weren't they correctly perceived by nearly all men, and by many women, to be man-hating types without a realistic political program?
Where does the current strategy of the MRM get men? What are those men who want relationships with women, and children of their own, to do? You hear MRAs talk about sex with robots, or hiring surrogates to have children without the need for a wife, or developing affectionate male companionship, or hiring prostitutes. It just sounds desperate and unrealistic.
And will the average man gravitate toward a movement which takes just as grim a view of masculinity as the feminists have done?
And consider this. For years feminists have complained that men haven't gotten with the program. Feminists believe that careers are the ultimate in achieving female autonomy, but that women are restricted in pursuing careers by the fact that men haven't abandoned masculinity quickly enough. Too many men, complain the feminists, are still working away in careers rather than accepting androgynous roles and devoting themselves to childcare and keeping house.
The feminist message has fallen on deaf ears. So the latest feminist strategy has been to get men themselves to spread the message. More and more it is male feminists who are pushing the feminist line to men.
But feminists needn't have worried. Because it is now an "anti-feminist" men's rights movement which is doing all the heavy lifting for them. It is the MRM which is getting men to accept the idea that being a provider is oppressive to men; that society should be gender neutral and accept the idea of men as nurturers; that men should reject masculine norms of behaviour and so on.
It's a problem I've seen over and over. People feel the oppressive effect of liberal changes to society. They get motivated to act politically. But political clarity is lacking and so they end up trying to cure liberalism by adopting some more radical form of liberalism. And so nothing changes, despite all the expenditure of energy.
So what should traditionalists do? I think we have to accept, realistically, that the men's rights movement is likely to go the wrong way, just like feminism did (maybe MGTOW should be renamed MGTWW - "men going the wrong way").
But I don't think we should abandon it. The MRAs are, at least, open to criticisms of feminism. So there's an opportunity to make principled criticisms of feminism at MRA sites. And we will be the only alternative at such sites for those men who identify positively with masculinity.
We won't be part of the mainstream, but we can put forward a different approach. I'll outline some of the arguments I think we should be making at MRA sites in a future post.
Update: A reader has reminded me of some MRM sites which are not liberal/separatist politically. I do believe my post accurately describes the trends at some of the larger, influential sites, but perhaps I should have recognised the existence of a third, generally non-liberal strand of thought within the MRM.
A limerick for Lauren
There once was a sister of Blair
For her people she didn't much care
First she worshipped the Other
Then decided she'd rather
Wear the hijab over her hair.
For her people she didn't much care
First she worshipped the Other
Then decided she'd rather
Wear the hijab over her hair.
Losing ideas
This started out as a good poll. A survey by the Australian National University has found that a majority of Australians are opposed to high levels of population growth.
But the details are disappointing. It turns out that the focus of many Australians is on limiting family size rather than immigration levels:
That really is a losing combination of ideas. First, aiming for each couple to have two children will not lead to stable population growth, but to massive population loss.
To explain why, just consider my own family. Both myself and two siblings have married and had the standard two children. But one of my brothers hasn't married and looks unlikely to do so. So the four of us have produced six children. That's a fertility rate of 1.5. If that were the standard, then Australia would lose a quarter of its population (initially 5 million people) every generation.
In short, to have stable population growth you need a large percentage of couples to have 3 children to make up for those having none. Limiting families to 2 children won't work.
Perhaps someone will object at this point, by claiming that it would be a good thing for the environment if the population were to trend downward.
But that argument doesn't work either. The open borders lobby uses the below replacement fertility statistics to justify massive immigration into Australia. And it is open borders which is the much greater environmental threat in the long term than the already very modest family size we have in Australia.
In other words, we need at the very least to get to replacement fertility levels in this country if we are to take on the open borders lobby. There is no way that the business lobby would accept a situation of massive population loss through sub replacement fertility.
Finally, it shows a loss of faith in ourselves to want to limit population growth by restricting family size, whilst at the same time calling for more immigration. That's like saying that there should be fewer of us, but more of everyone else.
The more spirited outlook is to train our own young to lead future economic growth.
Update: It seems that similar attitudes exist in Germany. I was reading an article on poverty in Germany, which found (unsurprisingly) that poverty was highest amongst single mothers and lowest amongst the standard family of dad, mum and two children.
One of the commenters at the site couldn't even bear the thought of a two child family. He wrote:
That's how crazy it gets. Germany had a woeful fertility rate of 1.37 in the year 2007. It's a nation which desperately needs more children. And yet our German commenter wants to apply tax penalties to those few Germans who are actually having children.
I'm generally supportive of environmentalism, but I fear that there are some in the West who will use it to express their own nihilistic tendencies.
But the details are disappointing. It turns out that the focus of many Australians is on limiting family size rather than immigration levels:
Families should have no more than two children to limit their environmental impact, one in three Australian say...
The Australian National University survey found most Australians want the population to stay at or below current levels, suggesting Julia Gillard hit the right note by rejecting Kevin Rudd's "big Australia" push.
Just 44 per cent of respondents favoured population growth.
About 52 per cent said Australia had enough people already, and further population growth would harm the environment, push up house prices and place pressure on water resources.
But there were also concerns that skills shortages could hold back the economy, with 83 per cent of respondents calling for more skilled migrants to be allowed into Australia.
That really is a losing combination of ideas. First, aiming for each couple to have two children will not lead to stable population growth, but to massive population loss.
To explain why, just consider my own family. Both myself and two siblings have married and had the standard two children. But one of my brothers hasn't married and looks unlikely to do so. So the four of us have produced six children. That's a fertility rate of 1.5. If that were the standard, then Australia would lose a quarter of its population (initially 5 million people) every generation.
In short, to have stable population growth you need a large percentage of couples to have 3 children to make up for those having none. Limiting families to 2 children won't work.
Perhaps someone will object at this point, by claiming that it would be a good thing for the environment if the population were to trend downward.
But that argument doesn't work either. The open borders lobby uses the below replacement fertility statistics to justify massive immigration into Australia. And it is open borders which is the much greater environmental threat in the long term than the already very modest family size we have in Australia.
In other words, we need at the very least to get to replacement fertility levels in this country if we are to take on the open borders lobby. There is no way that the business lobby would accept a situation of massive population loss through sub replacement fertility.
Finally, it shows a loss of faith in ourselves to want to limit population growth by restricting family size, whilst at the same time calling for more immigration. That's like saying that there should be fewer of us, but more of everyone else.
The more spirited outlook is to train our own young to lead future economic growth.
Update: It seems that similar attitudes exist in Germany. I was reading an article on poverty in Germany, which found (unsurprisingly) that poverty was highest amongst single mothers and lowest amongst the standard family of dad, mum and two children.
One of the commenters at the site couldn't even bear the thought of a two child family. He wrote:
Those who don't have any children don't contribute to the further overpopulation and destruction of this planet. To protect the environment and to conserve resources, children ought to attract tax penalties.
That's how crazy it gets. Germany had a woeful fertility rate of 1.37 in the year 2007. It's a nation which desperately needs more children. And yet our German commenter wants to apply tax penalties to those few Germans who are actually having children.
I'm generally supportive of environmentalism, but I fear that there are some in the West who will use it to express their own nihilistic tendencies.
Lindsey Wixson & Liu Wen: Press Conference
"We are making history every day," said Liu, 22. Widely considered to be China's top model, the tour guide-turned-runway star from Hunan Province was among the most-booked models at fashion weeks in 2010...
--- Read More
Lindsey Wixson on Vogue.com
“Jason Wu’s making my [prom] dress!” she says excitedly.
--- Read More
CD of the Day, 10/29/10: Slumberjet-Slumberjet
The latest entrant into the subgenre of British power pop that started with XTC and continues to this day with the likes of Pugwash, Captain Wilberforce and Duncan Maitland is Slumberjet. Although technically they're not British (they hail from Dublin), Barry O'Brien and the lads have given us an impressive debut album and yet another best-of-2010 contender. O'Brien may be familiar to a select few of you thanks to his excellent 2004 EP, Spark, and here he and his band build on Spark's promise.
"The Strangest Game" starts off the festivities, a propulsive pop tune that features some fine keyboard work from the aforementioned Mr. Maitland. "The Letter" follows, a catchy midtempo treat, and on its heels is the album's most ambitious track, the excellent ballad "Sisters in the Sky". Eric Matthews contributes the brass & strings, and Maitland's piano gives "Sisters" the feel of one of XTC's classic ballads like "Chalkhills & Children". "C Song" is a busy power pop number that has a Jason Falkner feel, and the melancholy "Cut Me Out" boasts more hooks than a coat rack.
The buoyant "Under the Waves" kicks off the second half of this disc, helped along by Matthews' horns, and "Gone" is a power pop pastiche of styles, showing off O'Brien's songwriting skill. "You Stole" is plainly the prettiest thing on the disc, another XTC-style ballad that features Matthews' fine work again (as well as his backing vocals). Closing things out, "Breakfast Time" is a punchy popper that reminds me of David Doll/Automat, "Truth" channels Pugwash (not surprising since two of his sidemen help make up Slumberjet), and "Thanks" is a trippy psychedelic tour de force with backwards guitars that sums up the album's strengths in four minutes even. It seems as though with every disc I review lately the competition for the year-end list gets fiercer and fiercer, and Slumberjet have certainly staked their claim.
CD Baby | MySpace
dennis brown - friends for life(Shanachie)(Black Scorpio)1992
01. Dennis Brown - Look Into Yourself
02. Dennis Brown - Where Did All The Loving Go
03. Dennis Brown - Missing You
05. Dennis Brown - Friends For Life
06. Dennis Brown - Give Love
07. Dennis Brown - Time To Unite
08. Dennis Brown - Ram Dance Hall
09. Dennis Brown - Merry Way
10. Dennis Brown - If You Need Me
11. Dennis Brown - Right Night For Love
02. Dennis Brown - Where Did All The Loving Go
03. Dennis Brown - Missing You
05. Dennis Brown - Friends For Life
06. Dennis Brown - Give Love
07. Dennis Brown - Time To Unite
08. Dennis Brown - Ram Dance Hall
09. Dennis Brown - Merry Way
10. Dennis Brown - If You Need Me
11. Dennis Brown - Right Night For Love
Eniko Mihalik: Garden State
"It was Never my Dream"
Vogue Nippon // December 2010
Vogue Nippon // December 2010
Ph. Sebastian Faena // Stylist: Sissy Vian
Around the beautiful locations of Montauk, Eniko becomes the most stylish young woman in town. The rich colors of Sebastian Faena's photography make even the most mundane of daily chores seem spirited, but as the story title says, perhaps Eniko's own dreams rest somewhere other than a suburban life.
tun it over vol 2 (mango)1992
01. Buju Banton - Bogle Dance
02. Terror Fabulous - Mr Big Man
03. Top Cat - Bunn The Sensi
04. Pioson Chang - Whe Yu Batty Deh
05. Teror Fabulous - No Retreat
06. Terry Ganzie - Who So Ever Will
07. Simpleton - Me Kno You Know
08. Earl 16 - She Want My Love
09. Sugar Dee - Armstrong
10. General T.K. - Dem Wa War
11. Buju Banton - Big It Up
12. Daddy Screw - Turn On The Heat
13. Gospel Fish - A You Me Rate
14. General Pecus - Unnu Better Wait
15. Capleton - Stampede
16. Buju Banton - Bogle Dance (Re-Mix)
17. Barry Boom Ft Nardo Ranks - Kissing You
18. Barry Boom - Kissing You
19. Wayne Wonder - Let's Be Friend
20. Buju Banton - Certain Gal
21. General T.K. - Nu Trouble Me
22. Power Man - Own Big Woman
02. Terror Fabulous - Mr Big Man
03. Top Cat - Bunn The Sensi
04. Pioson Chang - Whe Yu Batty Deh
05. Teror Fabulous - No Retreat
06. Terry Ganzie - Who So Ever Will
07. Simpleton - Me Kno You Know
08. Earl 16 - She Want My Love
09. Sugar Dee - Armstrong
10. General T.K. - Dem Wa War
11. Buju Banton - Big It Up
12. Daddy Screw - Turn On The Heat
13. Gospel Fish - A You Me Rate
14. General Pecus - Unnu Better Wait
15. Capleton - Stampede
16. Buju Banton - Bogle Dance (Re-Mix)
17. Barry Boom Ft Nardo Ranks - Kissing You
18. Barry Boom - Kissing You
19. Wayne Wonder - Let's Be Friend
20. Buju Banton - Certain Gal
21. General T.K. - Nu Trouble Me
22. Power Man - Own Big Woman
tun it over vol 1 (mango)1991
01. Admiral Tibbet - Sudden Fall
02. Dirtsman - Me Ah No Bad Boy
03. Buju Banton - Love Me Browning
04. Cinderella MC & Beres Hammond - Come Get Me
05. Little John - Make You Mine
06. Captain Barky - Greatest Whiner
07. Brian And Tony Gold - Tekisha (Re-Mix)
08. Cutty Ranks, Brian & Tony Gold - Bring It Back (Re-Mix)
09. Pinchers - Si Mi Ya (Re-Mix)
10. Bunny General & Beenie Man - In The Morning Sun (Re-Mix)
11. Thriller U - I Love You Babe
12. Red Dragon - Man Face Woman Body
13. Frankie Paul - Hi Miss
14. Apache Scratchie - Keep Moving Away
14. Frankie Paul & Apache Scratchie - Keep Moving Away
02. Dirtsman - Me Ah No Bad Boy
03. Buju Banton - Love Me Browning
04. Cinderella MC & Beres Hammond - Come Get Me
05. Little John - Make You Mine
06. Captain Barky - Greatest Whiner
07. Brian And Tony Gold - Tekisha (Re-Mix)
08. Cutty Ranks, Brian & Tony Gold - Bring It Back (Re-Mix)
09. Pinchers - Si Mi Ya (Re-Mix)
10. Bunny General & Beenie Man - In The Morning Sun (Re-Mix)
11. Thriller U - I Love You Babe
12. Red Dragon - Man Face Woman Body
13. Frankie Paul - Hi Miss
14. Apache Scratchie - Keep Moving Away
14. Frankie Paul & Apache Scratchie - Keep Moving Away
CD of the Day, 10/27/10: Three Hour Tour-Looking for Tomorrow
Darren Cooper's Three Hour Tour is back, and thankfully this time we didn't have to wait almost ten years like we did for 2008's B-Side Oblivion. Once again, Cooper enlists Adam Schmitt (who plays bass, co-produced, co-engineered and mastered) and Velvet Crush's Paul Chastain, and once again he's given us one of the year's best power pop albums.
What makes Looking for Tomorrow even better than B-Side Oblivion is Cooper's desire to punch things up a little more. The whole disc sounds loud, and leaps out of your speakers. "Pig in Disguise" is the clarion call here as Cooper "lays (his) cards on the table" with a high-energy rocker which recalls Guided by Voices. "For Now We Say Goodnight" cranks up the amps as well and features some excellent drumming from John Richardson, whose drumming resume reads like a who's who of power pop and Americana. We get a relative chance to catch our breath after that opening 1-2 with "On Television", a more midtempo track with a great chorus and fine guitar work from Cooper. And you won't want to escape from "Alcatraz", possibly the most Beatlesque track on the album, while "All Time Low" is another driving rocker.
Things don't fall off on the back end of the disc either. "All We Need" is a dense, Revolver-sounding winner, while the title track slows things a bit with acoustic guitars you can hear in service of a Badfingeresque anthemic melody. "Dead Reckoning" is outright jangle-rock with 12-string guitars and a Byrdsian melody, and "Gone" rocks as hard as anything else on the album. And in keeping with the spirit of the disc, Cooper closes the proceedings with a cover of the Who's "Heaven and Hell", and when put side-by-side with the rest of the album it could pass as an original for the unfamiliar. Brad Elvis channels Keith Moon on the drums here, and you can almost picture Cooper smashing his guitar at the end. Looking for Tomorrow is one of the year's best, and hopefully Cooper & Company will settle into a new album-every-2-or-3-years cycle, a tomorrow I'll be looking for.
Kool Kat | Not Lame | MySpace
What can no longer be pretended
In my previous post, I wrote about the conversion of Tony Blair's sister-in-law, Lauren Booth, to Islam. There was a lot of thought provoking commentary on the story, both at this site and elsewhere. Over at The Thinking Housewife, Laura Wood made this interesting argument:
And at View from the Right, Sage McLaughlin wrote an excellent comment (worth reading in full), in which he argued that women like Lauren Booth were becoming wearied by aspects of the liberalism they subscribed to:
There's evidence for what Sage McLaughlin asserts in a few of Lauren Booth's newspaper columns. For instance, Lauren Booth moved with her family some years ago to the French countryside in order to enjoy the lifestyle. But it turned out badly.
In part, this was because she felt the loss of connection, as Sage McLaughlin puts it, "to the natural bonds of community":
She also felt the loss of connection to her own family. She spent years commuting to England to work whilst her husband stayed home with their daughters. It was an arrangement which bred mutual resentment:
It's also true that Lauren Booth feels uncomfortable with the growing ladette culture in the UK. She has complained that ladette culture,
Now, that could have been written by a traditionalist, rather than by a woman who has devoted much of her life to the left.
I think we should be encouraged by this. It shows the possibility, as Sage McLaughlin wrote in his comment, of women becoming wearied by the liberal fantasy of making gender not matter.
Unfortunately, Lauren Booth chose to respond to her feelings of loss of community, of womanhood and of transcendence by turning to a non-Western tradition. But her case does show how individuals can turn, how they can weary of what liberalism offers and seek alternatives.
My guess is that she sought to embrace God in socially acceptable form. She might have lost more friends if she had become a pious Christian than a pious Muslim. She did not risk social annihilation, not in the self-annihilating, anti-Christian Europe of today.
And at View from the Right, Sage McLaughlin wrote an excellent comment (worth reading in full), in which he argued that women like Lauren Booth were becoming wearied by aspects of the liberalism they subscribed to:
the real fantasy that is wearying to them right now is the desolating and exhausting make-believe world offered by liberalism. What they cannot forever pretend to accept is the universal sameness of all peoples (contradicted both by reason and by daily experience), the lack of differences between men and women that matter socially (ditto), the impossibility of miracles, and a self-created multiverse of cosmic exiles, estranged in essence and locked in their own drab mental prisons impervious to the liberating expansiveness of real transcendence. Nothing could be more pathologically masculine than such an oppressively abstract wonderland, at odds with women's natural desires and so hostile to the natural bonds of family and community.
There's evidence for what Sage McLaughlin asserts in a few of Lauren Booth's newspaper columns. For instance, Lauren Booth moved with her family some years ago to the French countryside in order to enjoy the lifestyle. But it turned out badly.
In part, this was because she felt the loss of connection, as Sage McLaughlin puts it, "to the natural bonds of community":
We have become part of the statistics of the boredom and loneliness that expats with limited French can experience, even as they portray themselves as having that ‘dream life’ in the sun.
She also felt the loss of connection to her own family. She spent years commuting to England to work whilst her husband stayed home with their daughters. It was an arrangement which bred mutual resentment:
I have been the partner who earns a living, continuing to travel back and forth to the UK ... With bank accounts in two countries, a partner with no income and the turbulence of both the financial and the job market to take into consideration, I needed to be a fiscal pedant to get the books right. I never trained as an accountant.
Soon I was feeling disjointed, neither able to pursue career choices in the UK fully, nor be a constant part of either my children’s lives nor my husband’s friendships locally. We were soon in trouble. With the banks. With the taxman. And with our marriage...
Last year, in secret, Craig went to see a lawyer. He was told that as I worked away from the home, he would get the house, the kids, a cut of my income – everything – in a divorce.
...I don’t know what the future holds, only that the time has come for me to put my children’s need to be close to me at all times before our love of la vie en rose.
It's also true that Lauren Booth feels uncomfortable with the growing ladette culture in the UK. She has complained that ladette culture,
tells young women that being female means less than being a male.
And here’s the crux of the matter, the very heart of why more and more young women ape the worst excesses of some men: if mothers don’t hail the attributes of being a woman to our daughters then why shouldn’t those daughters aspire to be young men instead?
By female attributes, or social mores, I mean that we have it in our genes to be ‘the gentler sex’.
That playing with dolls leads to caring about how we dress, that by encouraging our daughters’ interest in neighbours’ babies (and good old babysitting) we also encourage the gentler aspects of a girl’s character.
Oh how unfashionable! What next, eye-fluttering and giggling? Well, why not? In British culture, sexual competitiveness has replaced mutual respect. So why aspire to something so ultimately self-defeating as sameness?
How tragic that being a young woman is significant for many girls only because by baring their flesh they can use this to win male attention.
France, where I live with my daughters, is not (yet) experiencing the same level of teen-girl violence. I watch in fascination as my daughters Alex and Holly, aged eight and six, behave differently when they speak French than they do English.
They tilt their heads and a little smile that can best be described as coquettish (in its most innocent form) plays on their lips. In English they are blunt, bold and straightforward.
This may just be a language-based social tic. Except that what they are learning at school is undoubtedly how to be young ladies. Here, you see, girls are both consciously and unconsciously encouraged to be coy, polite and ‘coquinne’ (cute).
We can all cringe at these words but bigger values seem to hide just behind them. This idea of femininity means that girls are considered as worth protecting, by society and their male peers.
...Girl violence comes from self-loathing and insecurity. No happy, stable human being gets a ‘kick’ out of harming another. Girls who carry out such attacks have been brutalised by society. The message in UK schools and beyond is this: be the same, to be different is to be the ‘weaker’ sex, fight for your rights.
I will fight for something a little different. I want my girls to be ... girls.
Now, that could have been written by a traditionalist, rather than by a woman who has devoted much of her life to the left.
I think we should be encouraged by this. It shows the possibility, as Sage McLaughlin wrote in his comment, of women becoming wearied by the liberal fantasy of making gender not matter.
Unfortunately, Lauren Booth chose to respond to her feelings of loss of community, of womanhood and of transcendence by turning to a non-Western tradition. But her case does show how individuals can turn, how they can weary of what liberalism offers and seek alternatives.
Hardcore Ragga 2
Simular collection to the one beneath, but displaying the production skills of Mikey Bennett and Patrick Lindsay. Their Two Friends label might have always seemed in the shadow of Music Works, but hits like Cocoa Tea's "No Blood For Oil", Dennis Brown's "Poison" and Hopeton Lindo's "Slaughter" come very near to matching Hardcore Ragga.01. Ed Robinson - Roughneck sound
02. Flourgon, Brian & Tony Gold - How you so hot
03. Hopeton Lindo - Slaughter
04. Home T, Cocoa Tea & Cutty Ranks - The going is rough
05. Dennis Brown, Brian & Tony Gold & Little Twitch - HYpocrite corner
06. Anthony Red Rose & Tony Rebel - Gun talk
07. Cocoa Tea - No blood for all
08. Singing Melody - Presure
09. Home T, Cocoa Tea & Shabba Ranks - Your Bodys here with me
10. Dennis Brown, Brian &Tony Gold - Poison
11. Chevelle - No push over
12. Cutty Ranks - Original gangster
13. Judy Mowatt & Tony Rebel - Guilty with explanation
14. Cocoa Tea - Oil ting
15. Papa San - Nucler Slaughter
16. Shabba Ranks - Golden touch
17. Cocoa Tea & Judy Mowatt - After the paty
18. Home T - Who is he
19. Hopeton Lindo - Taking over
Hardcore Ragga
This compilation could not be better - Gregory's "Rumours", the J.C. Lodge and Lady G cuts, Home T, Cocoa Tea & Shabba Ranks' "Pirate's Anthem", Shabba Ranks & Krystal's "Twice My Age" and practically every important Gussie hit of the late 1980s, in digital clarity. This is some of the most adventurous music ever to merge from Jamaica.01. Gregory Isaacs - Rumours
02. J.C. Lodge - Telephone Love
03. Lady G. - Nuff Respect
04. Gregory Isaacs - Mind Yu Dis
05. Shabba Ranks - No Bother Dis Soundboy
06. Deborahe Glasgow - Champion Lover
07. Deborahe & Shabba - Mr. Lover Man
08. Home T., Cocoa Tea, Shabba Ranks - Pirates' Anthem
09. J.C. Lodge & Tiger - Love Me Baby
10. Krystal & Shabba Ranks - Twice My Age
11. Papa San & Lady G. - Round Table Talk
12. J.C. Lodge - Selfish Lover
13. J.C. Lodge & Shabba Ranks - Hardcore Loving
14. Rebel Princess, Cocoa Tea, Shabba Ranks - Just Be Good To Me
15. Papa San - Dancehall Good To We
16. Krystal - All Around The World
Yami Bolo - Cool And Easy
01. Yami Bolo - Joe The Boss
02. Yami Bolo - Be Still Babylon
03. Yami Bolo - I'm A Survivor
04. Yami Bolo - History Here I Am
05. Yami Bolo - Praises Onto The King
06. Yami Bolo - La Isla Bonita
07. Yami Bolo - Just Us Two
08. Yami Bolo - Girl With Brains
09. Yami Bolo - Love Me Tonight
10. Yami Bolo - Cool And Easy
Good Instruction
01. Tony Rebel - Good Instruction
02. Tony Rebel & Professor Frisky - Reality
03. Joseph Cotton - God A Wok
04. Professor Frisky - Homoseksuality Mash Up Country
05. Deuteronomy - God Pickney
06. Jah Monks - Cheap Wok
07. Flourgon - Bubbling Time
08. Professor Frisky - Fling Weh The Rack
09. Flourgon - Come Mek We Dweet
10. Fire House Crew - God A Dub
Pliers & Junior Moore - Clash Of The 90's
01. Pliers - Stephanie
02. Pliers - Half The World Away
03. Pliers - God Bless Pickney
04. Pliers - Ignorant Woman
05. Pliers - Young Fresh And Green
06. Junior Moore - Mona Lisa
07. Junior Moore - Forever Mine
08. Junior Moore - In Love
09. Junior Moore - Kill Me With Love
10. Junior Moore - You Must Believe Me
Lilly Melody - Give It To Me
01. Lilly Melody - The Number 1 Sound
02. Lilly Melody - Left Your Weapon
03. Lilly Melody - Sandra
04. Lilly Melody - She Need Me
05. Lilly Melody - Every One Is Talking
06. Lilly Melody - Jah Guide
07. Lilly Melody - Help Them Jah
08. Lilly Melody - Give Me Your Loving
09. Lilly Melody - Rumors
10. Lilly Melody - So Nice
Gwen Loos: Black on Black
Vogue Turkey // November 2010 Cover
Ph: Mariano Vivanco // Stylist: Mary Fellowes
Gregory Isaacs - I.O.U.
A contribution by Paul Salvatori, thanks01. Gregory Isaacs - Too Good To Be True
02. Gregory Isaacs - Fall for You Again
03. Gregory Isaacs - Fatal Attraction
04. Gregory Isaacs - What's the Matter
05. Gregory Isaacs - Can't Make a Slip
06. Gregory Isaacs - Report to Me
07. Gregory Isaacs - I.O.U.
08. Gregory Isaacs - Express Love
09. Gregory Isaacs - Hard Road to Travel
10. Gregory Isaacs - Break the Ice
11. Gregory Isaacs - Easy Life
12. Gregory Isaacs - Big All Around
13. Gregory Isaacs - Jealousy
Rest In Peace Cool Ruler
"Cocaine High School ... the greatest college ever, but the most expensive school fee ever paid."http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/Gregory-Isaacs-dies
You will be missed!
Some previous posts:
Stone Love Dancehall Hits Vol 2
01. Bobby Crystal - Can We Talk02. Wayne Wonder - I Need Love
03. Major Christie - What Will I Do
04. Sanchez - Groove Me
05. Bobby Crystal - Love Will See Us Through
06. Jigsy King And Tony Curtis - Any Man You Want
07. Tony Curtis - Sadie
08. Jack Radics - Sitting In The La La
09. Wayne Wonder - Only You
10. Bobby Crystal - Understanding
11. Merciless - You Qualify
12. Singing Melody - Really Turn Me On
13. Horace Andy - You Are My Angel
14. Bobby Crystal - Rock Bottom
15. Ian Sweetness - Jah Is My Protector
16. Queen Paula - Day A Light
Stone Love Dancehall Hits Vol 1
01. Ninja Kid - Long Thing02. Power Man - Broke Buddy
03. Ricky General - Excuse Me
04. Saba Tooth - Good Hood
05. Stone Love - Version
06. Ninja Kid - Boom By By
07. Ninja Kid - Boom By By Dub
08. Spragga Benz - Jump Up & Swear
09. Squidly Ranks & Queen Paula - Magga Man
Steely & Clevie - The Best Of
This is basically the same compilation, but the tracks are in a different order, also does the tracks sound clearer.
Compilation album from the vaults of Steely & Clevie released in 1991. plenty of hits on this one, for example: Captain Barkey - Gun, Cutty Ranks - Grizzle, Garnett Silk - We Could Belong Together, Freddie McGregor - Prophecy and many more.1. Reggie Stepper – Little Miss
2. Cutty Ranks – Grizzle
3. Shabba Ranks – Caan Dun
4. Captain Barkey – Gun
5. Reggie Stepper – Drum Pan Sound
6. Cutty Ranks – Retreat
7. Gregory Peck – Poco Man Jam
8. Ninjaman – Murder Dem
9. Gregory Peck – Oversize Mampie
10. Freddie McGregor – Loving Pauper
11. Gregory Isaacs – Miss Propaganda
12. Frankie Paul – Cassandra
13. Freddie McGregor – Prophecy
14. Cocoa Tea – Come Back
15. Garnet Silk – We Could Belong
16. Anthony Malvo & Daddy Lizard – Take You To The Dance
17. Chevelle Franklin – Good Love
18. Foxy Brown – Baby Can I Hold You Tonight
19. Foxy Brown – Fast Car
Lauren Booth's conversion story
Back in 2003, Peter Hitchens wrote a column on the prospect of Britons converting to Islam. He thought that women were more likely to convert, in response to the social chaos brought about by family breakdown, sexual permissiveness and drunkenness. Christianity, he wrote, wasn't well placed to offer an alternative to women, with the mainstream churches being empty and in decline. Furthermore, the trendy middle-class types associated Christianity negatively with an imperial past:
I remembered this column because it describes so well the recent conversion of Tony Blair's sister-in-law to Islam.
Lauren Booth was one of those politically correct middle class types. She began her journalism career as a sex columnist for a lads magazine, then started writing for the left-wing New Statesman paper. She became an activist for the feminist V-Day movement and for the Palestinians. She married and had two daughters, moved to the French countryside where her husband stayed home whilst she commuted to work. She drank much wine.
She rejected Christianity along the lines predicted by Peter Hitchens. She went to one church but had conniptions when she found out it was Catholic:
The Baptist church was beautiful but empty save for a few old ladies:
Her marriage began to break down. After one argument her drunk husband tore off on his motorbike, crashed and badly injured himself. They divorced. She threw herself into campaigns for the Palestinians and got a job for an Iranian based news agency.
And now she has converted to Islam, writing of the "comfort and strength" it gives to her. She has given up wine, reads the Koran, wears a headscarf and hasn't ruled out wearing a burqa.
She got burned by a modern girl Western lifestyle and so jumped to a more traditional non-Western alternative - just as Peter Hitchens predicted Western women might do. (In one recent column, for instance, she criticises the violence, drunkenness and crime of ladette culture in Britain and calls for a return of a more traditional femininity.)
Of course, for a Western traditionalist like myself this is a frustrating story. It doesn't surprise me that the modern girl life she planned for herself didn't work out well. But instead of returning to her own tradition, she has changed her allegiances entirely.
She has swung suddenly from feminist V-Day campaigns and boasting about breaking the mould of the traditional family to wearing a headscarf and considering wearing a burqa. She has jumped from rejecting Catholicism for its supposed "atrocities" to accepting Islam despite its association with terrorist attacks.
She seems to have a prejudice against her own tradition. What is mild in her own tradition is rejected as oppressive, whilst something more onerous in another tradition is accepted as "comforting".
Hitchens got her right; I hope there aren't too many others.
Might Islam become respectable among the politically correct middle classes, in a way that Christianity never really can, because Christianity is always associated in this country with the conservative, imperial past?
I remembered this column because it describes so well the recent conversion of Tony Blair's sister-in-law to Islam.
Lauren Booth was one of those politically correct middle class types. She began her journalism career as a sex columnist for a lads magazine, then started writing for the left-wing New Statesman paper. She became an activist for the feminist V-Day movement and for the Palestinians. She married and had two daughters, moved to the French countryside where her husband stayed home whilst she commuted to work. She drank much wine.I was smashing the glass ceiling, Craig was breaking the mould. We (nervously) patted ourselves on the back.
She rejected Christianity along the lines predicted by Peter Hitchens. She went to one church but had conniptions when she found out it was Catholic:
The dreaded words "Holy Roman Catholic Church" swam before my eyes. Had I been giving money to the Catholic Church all these weeks? Dear God.
That's it, then. I won't be going back this Sunday. Catholicism is religion's answer to McDonald's. Their main motivation is to create a world full of their customers and rake in the cash at the same time. And both have committed atrocities and leave you with a sense of guilt.
The Baptist church was beautiful but empty save for a few old ladies:
Last Sunday, we tried the grand, red-bricked, Baptist church. The interior was breathtaking. Wood on wood with more wood, interspersed with impressive, brightly coloured stained glass. We sat in the cosily rounded pews and waited for the show to begin. Two very aged white matrons and a big black lady in a bright pink hat with what looked like her granddaughter were our only companions. At two minutes to eleven, it was clear that there would be no last-minute rush for the sermon. I began to dread the thought of singing the first hymn, a jazzy-sounding number called "Higher, Higher, Higher". A miffed-looking school-marm in round glasses and a black trouser-suit stalked sulkily on to the small "stage" - it turned out she was the "pastor". She looked at row upon row of empty seats and sighed.
Her marriage began to break down. After one argument her drunk husband tore off on his motorbike, crashed and badly injured himself. They divorced. She threw herself into campaigns for the Palestinians and got a job for an Iranian based news agency.
And now she has converted to Islam, writing of the "comfort and strength" it gives to her. She has given up wine, reads the Koran, wears a headscarf and hasn't ruled out wearing a burqa.
She got burned by a modern girl Western lifestyle and so jumped to a more traditional non-Western alternative - just as Peter Hitchens predicted Western women might do. (In one recent column, for instance, she criticises the violence, drunkenness and crime of ladette culture in Britain and calls for a return of a more traditional femininity.)
Of course, for a Western traditionalist like myself this is a frustrating story. It doesn't surprise me that the modern girl life she planned for herself didn't work out well. But instead of returning to her own tradition, she has changed her allegiances entirely.
She has swung suddenly from feminist V-Day campaigns and boasting about breaking the mould of the traditional family to wearing a headscarf and considering wearing a burqa. She has jumped from rejecting Catholicism for its supposed "atrocities" to accepting Islam despite its association with terrorist attacks.
She seems to have a prejudice against her own tradition. What is mild in her own tradition is rejected as oppressive, whilst something more onerous in another tradition is accepted as "comforting".
Hitchens got her right; I hope there aren't too many others.
And after the election?
During the recent Australian election campaign both major parties made a big effort to appear firm on border security. Presumably the focus groups were telling them that this was an issue of concern to voters.
And so PM Julia Gillard made statements like the following:
and
Former Labor leader Mark Latham wasn't buying it:
Just a few months later, Latham has been proven correct. Gillard has announced two new policies on asylum seekers. The first is that women and children who arrive illegally won't live in detention centres but in the community. As has been pointed out in the media, this almost guarantees that anyone who arrives will stay. Once established in the community it becomes very difficult to reject asylum claims and to return people back to their own country.
The second new policy is even more significant. The Gillard Government, understandably, doesn't want people getting into boats to try to claim refugee status in Australia. So they are going to allow people who claim they are refugees from anywhere in Asia to be flown, at Australian taxpayers' expense, to an Australian processing facility:
Obviously there is going to be an upsurge in the number of people claiming refugee status in Australia. First, if you bring your wife and kids they will be placed in the community and will be almost guaranteed to be granted permanent residency. Second, you can apply from anywhere within Asia.
So, yes, the stance Gillard took on border security during the election was a fraud. That has become typical of Australian elections. Every few years the liberal political class has to appeal to the rank and file for support. And so we get a few weeks of politicians saying things they don't mean and won't follow through with.
We cannot rely on simply casting a vote to really change things - not when the major parties are committed to liberal political philosophies. We need to actively work to change the political culture, so that the people who put themselves forward for political leadership really do mean what they say when they talk about issues such as border security.
And so PM Julia Gillard made statements like the following:
I don't support the idea of a big Australia... We need to stop, take a breath...
and
For people to say they're anxious about border security doesn't make them intolerant ... It means that they're expressing a genuine view that they're anxious about border security...
Former Labor leader Mark Latham wasn't buying it:
Former Labor leader Mark Latham has labelled Labor's position on population growth "a fraud of the worst order", saying immigration numbers must be slashed...
Ms Gillard's "sustainable" population call was not backed with any substance and was a "fraud" designed to appeal to western Sydney voters sensitive to the asylum seeker issue, Mr Latham said.
"It's clever politics but it's a fraud. It's a fraud of the worst order," he said.
Just a few months later, Latham has been proven correct. Gillard has announced two new policies on asylum seekers. The first is that women and children who arrive illegally won't live in detention centres but in the community. As has been pointed out in the media, this almost guarantees that anyone who arrives will stay. Once established in the community it becomes very difficult to reject asylum claims and to return people back to their own country.
The second new policy is even more significant. The Gillard Government, understandably, doesn't want people getting into boats to try to claim refugee status in Australia. So they are going to allow people who claim they are refugees from anywhere in Asia to be flown, at Australian taxpayers' expense, to an Australian processing facility:
The Federal Government has revealed its East Timor detention centre would see asylum seekers from across Asia able to apply to come to Australia.
The Opposition says the plan risks creating a regional dumping ground that would serve as a magnet for asylum seekers.
The secretary of the Immigration Department, Andrew Metcalfe, revealed in Senate Estimates that potential refugees who reached countries as far away as the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand could apply to go to the proposed Timor centre.
Mr Metcalfe said Prime Minister Julia Gillard's "overarching concept is that there would be collective responsibility for displaced persons in the region" and they could send them to the centre to determine whether they were refugees.
"Therefore risking your life in getting on a boat would not occur and people smugglers would not be able to offer the automatic destination of Australia in terms of what they are selling," he said.
Mr Metcalfe was unable to say who would pay for the movement of asylum seekers about the region under the scheme, but indicated Australia would bear most of the burden.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said asylum seekers would take the view they had a new spread of countries from where they can access Australia. "They haven't thought through the magnet effect," he said. "They have comprehended that anybody who crosses the line is eligible for processing in East Timor.
"It creates a magnet and you are effectively extending Australia's migration zone to the borders of this region, wherever the hell this is."
Obviously there is going to be an upsurge in the number of people claiming refugee status in Australia. First, if you bring your wife and kids they will be placed in the community and will be almost guaranteed to be granted permanent residency. Second, you can apply from anywhere within Asia.
So, yes, the stance Gillard took on border security during the election was a fraud. That has become typical of Australian elections. Every few years the liberal political class has to appeal to the rank and file for support. And so we get a few weeks of politicians saying things they don't mean and won't follow through with.
We cannot rely on simply casting a vote to really change things - not when the major parties are committed to liberal political philosophies. We need to actively work to change the political culture, so that the people who put themselves forward for political leadership really do mean what they say when they talk about issues such as border security.
CD of the Day, 10/22/10: Scott's Garage-Soul Magnet
One of my favorite discoveries of 2008 was Scott's Garage and their self-titled debut album which placed a very high #13 on my year-end list. Led by Scott Baird and Gary Hankins, the Garage has become one of the leading lights in Southern-styled power pop a la Mitch Easter, Let's Active and early R.E.M., and their brand-new followup Soul Magnet follows nicely from the debut and adds a touch of humor and (yes) soul to the mix.
Things kick off with the bright power pop of the title track, featuring some nice guitar work from Hankins (who also contributes lead vocals), and sounding like a Southern-styled Smithereens or Goldbergs. "The Girl With the Yippy Dog" brings a bit of Terry Anderson-styled humor to the mix, as our protagonist loves the girl but hates the dog ("I wish she had a Labrador", he laments). "December Stars" is a melodic gem, and the cheekiness continues with "You Were Such a Tool (I Remember High School)", a jangly power pop number that says what we'd all want to say to that certain person we unfortunately meet up again at a reunion (or these days on Facebook). "Kaledioscope" lets you know you've got a southern rock band on your hands, with a bit of a swamp boogie sound, and the midtempo "Wasting Time" has all the power ballad trappings. Speaking of Facebook, "Add Me as Your Friend"'s title speaks for itself, as Hankins does everything but mention Farmville in his ode to social media while still maintaining a catchy tune.
Elsewhere, "Rosetta Stone" sounds like a Mitch Easter/Don Dixon classic, "Underground" and "Time to Think" rock hard and melodic, and the uptempo "High Above the Fray" closes things on a high note in Chuck Berry style. Soul Magnet is a Southern-fried power pop treat, and you can enjoy with or without barbecue. The Garage is open.
CD Baby | MySpace | iTunes | eMusic
Lindsey Wixson: Vanity Fair
Versace "Vanitas" Fragrance Campaign
Ph. Craig McDean // Stylist: Edward Enninful
Produced by Fabien Baron
Image courtesy of WWD
Two Bad Riddims Vol 2
01. Wayne Wonder - The Best02. Spragga Benz - Dolly House
03. Baby Cham - Break Up And Make Up
04. Richie Stephens - Bull In A Pen
05. Bounty Killer - Worthless Bwoy
06. Textra - H.O.T.
07. Lady Saw - Woman Wi Name
08. Stranger - Dugu Dugu
09. Beenie Man - New Suzuki
10. General Degree - Heavy Man
11. Wayne Wonder - Glamour Girl
12. Frisco Kid - Tink We Nice
13. Alias - Experience Rider
14. Baby Cham - More Wood
Two Bad Riddims '99
01. Baby Cham - Holiday02. Baby Cham - Boom Tune
03. Wayne Wonder & Bounty Killer - Criss Pack Of Boots
04. Frisco Kid - Calico
05. Wayne Wonder - Are You Ready
06. Bounty Killer - Show Me Them
07. Mr Easy - Real Things
08. T.O.K. - Eagle Cry
09. Bounty Killer - Anytime
10. Wayne Wonder - Infromers
11. Frisco Kid - Forgotten
12. Mr Easy - Murder
13. Baby Cham - Can I Get A
14. Wayne Wonder - Let Your Conscience Set You Free
A simple truth about the divorce rate
It's sometimes reported that the divorce rate is 50%. That figure, apparently, was a prediction based on the peak rate of divorce in the US in the mid-90s: it was the highest estimate of what the lifetime risk might be (current predictions seem to be around 40%).
Understandably the 50% figure spooks many young men. Under current no fault divorce laws, a man can be divorced by his wife without having done anything wrong and end up paying child support to help finance her life with a new man. It's reasonable for men to consider this unjust and to believe that they are not being protected under current laws.
So let me start by saying that divorce laws need to be reformed and, if we want to restore faith in marriage as an institution, we need to find ways to lower the overall divorce rate.
But having said that, something important needs to be pointed out. The divorce rate is not so high for everyone. Some people have an extremely high risk of divorce, others a low risk.
I looked up my own risk of divorce using a "divorce calculator" (which I'll link to later on) and it showed only an 8% risk of divorce after eight years of marriage.
So what are the factors affecting the risk of divorce?
a) The risk is much higher if the wife marries at a very young age. For instance, 8 years after marriage 42% of women who married under the age of 18 are divorced; 35% of women who married at ages 18 and 19; but only 25% of those aged 20 to 24.
The protective effect of waiting doesn't continue after age 25, at least not when longer term trends are considered.
b) Parental marital stability. If your parents divorced you're 40% more likely to divorce yourself. If your parents married others after divorce the figure rises to 90%.
c) Education & income. Any university level education reduces the risk of divorce by 13%. Having an income over US$50,000 reduces the risk by 30%.
d) Ethnicity. Divorce risk varies by ethnicity, with Asian couples being least likely to divorce, then whites, then blacks (the white rate of divorce in the US is 32%). Interracial marriages are less stable on average, with black male/white female marriages having double the risk of divorce compared to the white average.
e) It seems too that the more sexual partners a woman has before marriage, and the younger she becomes sexually active, the higher the risk of divorce.
These are just some of the more easily measurable factors connected to marital instability. There are no doubt others, including attitudes held to both marriage and divorce, mental health, financial responsibility, the level marital stability or instability within a peer group and so on.
The point to be made is that the risk of divorce for some men at least is still relatively low. There may be some men out there who believe that they have a 50% risk when the real risk is more like 15%. There's a "marriage calculator" here which plots in a few of the factors involved; as I wrote earlier, my own risk of divorce at this point in time was 8% (rising to 10% after ten years).
Understandably the 50% figure spooks many young men. Under current no fault divorce laws, a man can be divorced by his wife without having done anything wrong and end up paying child support to help finance her life with a new man. It's reasonable for men to consider this unjust and to believe that they are not being protected under current laws.
So let me start by saying that divorce laws need to be reformed and, if we want to restore faith in marriage as an institution, we need to find ways to lower the overall divorce rate.
But having said that, something important needs to be pointed out. The divorce rate is not so high for everyone. Some people have an extremely high risk of divorce, others a low risk.
I looked up my own risk of divorce using a "divorce calculator" (which I'll link to later on) and it showed only an 8% risk of divorce after eight years of marriage.
So what are the factors affecting the risk of divorce?
a) The risk is much higher if the wife marries at a very young age. For instance, 8 years after marriage 42% of women who married under the age of 18 are divorced; 35% of women who married at ages 18 and 19; but only 25% of those aged 20 to 24.
The protective effect of waiting doesn't continue after age 25, at least not when longer term trends are considered.
b) Parental marital stability. If your parents divorced you're 40% more likely to divorce yourself. If your parents married others after divorce the figure rises to 90%.
c) Education & income. Any university level education reduces the risk of divorce by 13%. Having an income over US$50,000 reduces the risk by 30%.
d) Ethnicity. Divorce risk varies by ethnicity, with Asian couples being least likely to divorce, then whites, then blacks (the white rate of divorce in the US is 32%). Interracial marriages are less stable on average, with black male/white female marriages having double the risk of divorce compared to the white average.
e) It seems too that the more sexual partners a woman has before marriage, and the younger she becomes sexually active, the higher the risk of divorce.
These are just some of the more easily measurable factors connected to marital instability. There are no doubt others, including attitudes held to both marriage and divorce, mental health, financial responsibility, the level marital stability or instability within a peer group and so on.
The point to be made is that the risk of divorce for some men at least is still relatively low. There may be some men out there who believe that they have a 50% risk when the real risk is more like 15%. There's a "marriage calculator" here which plots in a few of the factors involved; as I wrote earlier, my own risk of divorce at this point in time was 8% (rising to 10% after ten years).
Wicked Everywhere Vol. 1
Big Jammys album from 1990 on the "Love is Not A Gamble" rhythm.Contributed by Felix. He had a little request: "do you have a song of Double Ugly & Michael Peacock - Nuh ramp wid me love? or Jimmy Crazy - Jump Around (all version of this riddim)"
Can someone help?
01. Frankie Paul - Rock with me
02. Gregory Isaacs - High society girl
03. Junior Demus - Respect a respect
04. Danny Dread - One day natty
05. Derrick Irie - Rock up yourself
06. Lenky Roy - Wonderful feeling
07. Johnny Nice - Nah worry
08. Ruddy Irie - Weh you live
09. Colin Roach - It's been a while
10. Little Twitch - Rude boy gasa phang
Liu Wen: The Ritual
"Wild Dreams" (Select images)
Vogue Germany // November 2010
Ph. Greg Kadel // Stylist: Katie Mossman
Images courtesy of Fashion Gone Rogue
Richly styled, Liu Wen performs an intriguing dance that gives a maximum amount of flair to what she wears. There are brief moments of tranquility, but the dynamism is what provides full character to every detail of the story.
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