The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘An Uncomfortable Truth’

  Spain is dying. The total fertility rate — average number of lifetime births per woman — is 1.49 in Spain, and this is nearly 30% below replacement level. In December 2015, demographers noted that Spain had passed a crucial milestone — more deaths than births, a harbinger of population decline. Before a nation dies, […]

Fear and Loathing: Three Days, $900, and It’s Morning in Vanuatu Again

“How long, O Lord, how long? Where will it end? “All I ever wanted out of this campaign was enough money to get out of the country and live for a year or two in peaceful squalor in a house with a big screen porch looking down on an empty white beach, with a good […]

Forever Young

  Did I ever mention my wife is beautiful? That photo of us back in the day, when Mrs. McCain was so skinny (and I had so much hair) is one of those images that I occasionally enjoy sharing, just to remind everybody that (a) I wasn’t always an old guy, and (b) my wife […]

More Scenes from a Wedding

We were dining on barbecue beef brisket Sunday beneath the shade trees at Ole Gilliam Mill near Sanford, N.C., when Cassie asked, “When are you going to dance?” Cassie is a friend of my son Bob, and also of his twin brother Jim and Jim’s wife Danielle. Cassie remembered how I danced at Jim’s wedding […]

Scenes from a Wedding

SANFORD, N.C. As promised earlier, here are a few photos from Sunday’s wedding of my son Bob and his lovely bride, taken by my brother Kirby McCain. Here comes the bride! The bride is escorted down the aisle by her parents. Our two daughters-in-law with our two daughters. Mrs. McCain, Bob and his bride, me. […]

Army Bob Takes a Bride

Earlier this year, my son Bob and his girlfriend came to visit us for Easter. Bob has been in the Army since 2013 and, while stationed at Fort Bragg, met a lovely girl named Johanna who is an art student (she does video animation). While they were visiting, Bob invited Johanna to hike up to […]

Begat … Begat … Begat …

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply . . .” — Genesis 1:27-28 (KJV) Today is Father’s Day, and I have much to celebrate. All of my […]

Never Take Advice From Feminists

  Peggy Orenstein is a feminist whose books include Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Love, Kids and Life in a Half-Changed World (2001): At 34, Peggy Orenstein faced a series of dilemmas shared by many women of her generation: She was unsure whether she wanted children, unsure about the impact of motherhood on her career, […]

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