Moments after my usual winter flare-up began to subside, I made the mistake of leaving my house. And I instantly caught the flu from a bus passenger. And if you think you know what a flu feels like, try finding out what a flu does to fibromyalgia. So I spent all of yesterday lying on the sofa and didn’t get any writing done. Today, I’ve tried to be online, swatting at trolls and such. But my fever is still really high... Read more
I am not a member of the American Solidarity Party. I greatly respect my hardworking and principled friends who are members of the American Solidarity Party. I stand with them on any number of issues. It’s just not my jam. I’ve been pretty shocked at the sparring between the different factions, excuse me I mean caucuses, of the American Solidarity Party lately. Just recently, for example, I accidentally started a public Facebook brawl between the particularly misogynistic he-man “family values” caucus... Read more
I keep thinking about that nonsense paragraph from Dreher that I tore apart yesterday. One phrase of his is rattling through my head: “the destructive culture of the poor.” He claims that no one would want to live next to Section Eight housing because of the “destructive culture of the poor.” The destructive culture of the poor. I mentioned yesterday that I think he’s dead wrong. There is no “culture of the poor.” Poor people are the least powerful class in the... Read more
I don’t usually read The American Conservative. I don’t usually read Rod Dreher. But today, my attention was called to an article where he muses on whether the president had a point about calling African countries “sh*tholes.” There’s plenty to raise the eyebrows in this article, but I’m just going to respond to one paragraph. This paragraph touches upon a topic with which I have a lot of firsthand experience, but I don’t believe that Dreher does. The topic is poor... Read more
What’s on my mind, Facebook? Well, it’s a little too long for a status. My SAD therapy lamp came in in the mail today, which is awesome, but by the time I took a morning sunbath in the bright light it was three o’clock. There is something surreal about sitting in bright glaring full-spectrum light until your head aches, on a wet and cloudy January day. More surreal still when you start your morning at three in the afternoon after... Read more
We’re having a nice little thaw in Steubenville. It’s chilly and sloppy out instead of bitter cold. It’ll be almost Spring weather tomorrow, then dipping back down. The snows will surely come back several times before we’re through, of course. And I doubt even the warm spell will be enough to melt the mountains of snow we got last week. When Rosie went to Catechism class yesterday, she played in a drift outside that was nearly up to her waist. The... Read more
Hey all, I’ll be back later tonight with another “real” blog post. This post is just your periodic reminder that Steel Magnificat is almost entirely fueled by gratuities. It’s also my family’s only income. For those of you who are just joining us, I am homebound more than half the time with a chronic illness. My husband Michael is the full-time homemaker because I’m rarely strong enough for housework and often need to be waited on like an invalid. Rosie is... Read more
By Beth Hersom Today marks the anniversary of Roe versus Wade. Today, the 45th annual “March for Life” will crowd the streets of DC. There is enough of a history for precedent: Republican presidents address the crowd. The 45th president of the USA will make an address via satellite. My thoughts are disconnected. 1. There are really only two reasons to oppose abortion: misogyny or the inherent dignity of the human person. In my experience of thirty-some years, both are... Read more
This is getting to be a habit. The inimitable DOCTOR Anthony Esolen, whom I was yelled at for calling “Tony,” writes an article to do with sexuality and naughty bits, and I respond. I am told I must not respond because Doctor Esolen is a “good man and a fellow Christian,” and that makes it wrong to dialogue with him, but I’m not a good woman so I will. This week, Esolen is not writing at Crisis magazine but at... Read more
This is the time of year that I don’t sleep very much. It happens every January. I have the post-Christmas fibromyalgia flare, and I don’t sleep very much, or not at the right time. I can’t drift off before seven in the morning, and then I either sleep until afternoon… or I don’t. I get up to the sound of the neighbors shoveling their sidewalks at eight o’clock and try to get through a day on one hour of rest.... Read more
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