A letter to the Saint Mary’s/Notre Dame student newspaper argues that women should stop wearing leggings because they attract inappropriate attention from men.

The Catholic mother of four sons argues that even “nice” guys are impacted by women who wear them.

Students on both the Saint Mary’s and Notre Dame campus reacted quickly to the controversial article.

In addition to letters in the Observer responding to the woman, there have been protests on campus.

Around 1,300 students are participating “The Leggings Protest” on Notre Dame’s campus today (Wednesday).

Senior Gaby Kluzinski hoped the article was satire when she first read it, but once she learned it was not, she joined the protest.

“People still always bring up and objectify women and always victim-blame them and keep doing it and you hope we progress, but you still find articles like this,” said Kluzinski.

The protest has two main objectives: for women and men to wear leggings in protest and to encourage conversations about female equality.

PhD student Valeria Mora decided to discuss the letter with her class. She wanted her students to know that they can talk to her about issues like this.

“The first thing I got was a huge gasp,” said Mora. “They were like ‘Yes! Yeah, I saw it too.’”

Mora says she hates the double standard in the letter.

She says no one says to men that they’re responsible for an attack because they were wearing shorts.

One law student thought the fact this happened in church was interesting.

“I also thought it was interesting that the comments were regarding something she viewed in church, particularly because there’s been a lot of push to get young people back in the church,” said Xitlaly Estrada, Notre Dame law student. “I saw it as a little counter-intuitive to be judging people while in mass.”

Conrad Palor wrote a response in the Observer, disagreeing with the woman. The sophomore wrote that the women’s letter was an attack on women.

He told us several classmates had reached out to him, happy to see that there was support from both men and women.

You can read the letter to the editor in full below:

I’ve thought about writing this letter for a long time. I waited, hoping that fashions would change and such a letter would be unnecessary — but that doesn’t seem to be happening. I’m not trying to insult anyone or infringe upon anyone’s rights. I’m just a Catholic mother of four sons with a problem that only girls can solve: leggings.

The emergence of leggings as pants some years ago baffled me. They’re such an unforgiving garment. Last fall, they obtruded painfully on my landscape. I was at Mass at the Basilica with my family. In front of us was a group of young women, all wearing very snug-fitting leggings and all wearing short-waisted tops (so that the lower body was uncovered except for the leggings). Some of them truly looked as though the leggings had been painted on them.

A world in which women continue to be depicted as “babes” by movies, video games, music videos, etc. makes it hard on Catholic mothers to teach their sons that women are someone’s daughters and sisters. That women should be viewed first as people — and all people should be considered with respect.

I talk to my sons about Princess Leia and how Jabba the Hutt tried to steal her personhood by putting her into a slave girl outfit in which her body became the focus. (That’s the only scene in the whole franchise in which Leia appears in such a way — and it’s forced upon her.)

Leggings are hardly slave girl outfits. And no one is forcing them on the countless young women who wear them. But I wonder why no one thinks it’s strange that the fashion industry has caused women to voluntarily expose their nether regions in this way. I was ashamed for the young women at Mass. I thought of all the other men around and behind us who couldn’t help but see their behinds. My sons know better than to ogle a woman’s body — certainly when I’m around (and hopefully, also when I’m not). They didn’t stare, and they didn’t comment afterwards. But you couldn’t help but see those blackly naked rear ends. I didn’t want to see them — but they were unavoidable. How much more difficult for young guys to ignore them.

I’ve heard women say that they like leggings because they’re “comfortable.” So are pajamas. So is nakedness. And the human body is a beautiful thing. But we don’t go around naked because we respect ourselves — we want to be seen as a person, not a body (like slave-girl Leia). We don’t go naked because we respect the other people who must see us, whether they would or not. These are not just my sons — they’re the fathers and brothers of your friends, the male students in your classes, the men of every variety who visit campus. I’m fretting both because of unsavory guys who are looking at you creepily and nice guys who are doing everything to avoid looking at you. For the Catholic mothers who want to find a blanket to lovingly cover your nakedness and protect you — and to find scarves to tie over the eyes of their sons to protect them from you!

Leggings are so naked, so form fitting, so exposing. Could you think of the mothers of sons the next time you go shopping and consider choosing jeans instead? Let Notre Dame girls be the first to turn their backs(ides) on leggings. You have every right to wear them. But you have every right to choose not to. Thanks for listening to the lecture. Catholic moms are good at those!

In recent weeks, Iran and its proxies have begun operating under a new directive best described as a policy of controlled escalation. Still, the potential for miscalculation and region-wide conflict has grown considerably.

Responding to the chokehold of U.S. sanctions put in place by the Trump administration, Tehran, together with its non-state militias and terrorist entities, initiated a series of aggressive acts throughout the Middle East.

These include the targeting of oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman with mines by a naval Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) squad, and last month, the targeting of oil tankers docked at a United Arab Emirates’ port in the Strait of Hormuz.

 

Such attacks are a clear threat, aimed at showing off Iran’s ability to disrupt international oil-shipping traffic. In addition, IRGC forces fired a missile at a U.S. intelligence drone. Meanwhile, Iranian proxy militias in Iraq and Syria were likely behind the firing of rockets recently at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and at Israel’s Golan Heights.

In addition, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen launched cruise-missile and explosive drone attacks against sensitive targets in Saudi Arabia, hitting airports and oil facilities.

Behind all of the actions is a single message. If U.S. sanctions continue to damage the Iranian economy, the Islamic Republic is prepared to wreak havoc in response. Iran is demonstrating its ability to threaten oil exports by Washington’s Arab allies. It is effectively holding the global oil market hostage, in addition to implicitly threatening to step up attacks on Israel.

According to a Hebrew-language report published on Sunday by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Iran has used terror factions in Gaza to send threatening messages in response to its standoff with America.

Examples include speeches delivered by Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and Palestinian Islamic Jihad secretary-general Ziad Al-Nakhleh. Both released threatening statements outlining what the next conflict with Israel would look like and boasted about growing rocket arsenals at their disposals. Both terrorist leaders praised Iranian support for their respective organizations.

Sinwar and Al-Nakhleh delivered their speeches in a manner designed to line up with Iran’s Quds Day, held on the last Friday of Ramadan, in which the regime in Tehran organizes rallies to call for Israel’s destruction.

MEMRI interpreted the speeches by Sinwar and Al-Nakhleh as “a threatening message from Iran, via its proxies, against the U.S. and its allies, after the failure of indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. over the Iranian nuclear program.” The statements echoed similar statements that came out of Iran itself on Quds Day, in what looks to be a coordinated influence campaign.

The Iranians are not rushing into war and are aware of America’s superior military might. The Iranians have also tasted Israel’s advanced capabilities in the form of large numbers of precision airstrikes in Syria that have destroyed many of their assets.

Instead, Iran wishes to frighten the international community, divide it and intimidate Europe into finding ways for protection from American sanctions.

The European Union has already tried (and failed) to set up a special financial mechanism to allow companies to bypass the sanctions; however, the threat of U.S. penalties has been overwhelming, and this effort failed.

European countries still have time to defend Iran from American sanctions, but they must act immediately, the spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, warned on Monday. His statement is an indication of Iran’s short-term end game. Iran has given Europe until July 7 to do this.

After that, more severe Iranian violations of the nuclear agreement should be expected.

A longer-term objective for Iran seems to rest on waiting to see whether U.S. President Trump is re-elected in 2020 before taking any truly irreversible decisions.

In the meantime, the Iranians are preparing the option of leaving the nuclear agreement and restarting its nuclear program.

On Monday, Iran warned that it could begin enriching uranium to 20 percent, significantly higher than the 3 percent it is allowed under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran also increased the rate of uranium enrichment and stopped shipping excess uranium abroad, as it is obligated to do.

Between the lines, Iran’s warning seems stark. If a strained economy causes instability at home, the Islamic Republic could prefer plunging the region into war in order to save itself, and in doing so rally Iranians around the flag.

The calculation behind such a move is that the Iranian regime would likely survive a U.S. air campaign, despite the massive damage it would incur. But it might not survive an uprising at home.

This, then, is Iran’s response to the massive economic pressure it is under. After America cancelled waivers to countries that import Iranian oil, Tehran took the decision to embark on a policy of controlled escalation.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and the IRGC seem to be controlling Iran’s posture, rather than the reformist camp and President Hassan Rouhani. The reformist camp’s proposal to rescue the Iranian economy from sanctions and isolation by signing a nuclear deal with the international community in 2015 has been discredited in the eyes of Khamenei and the IRGC.

As tensions in the Persian Gulf rise, they also project outwards, to other areas of the Middle East. Iran controls powerful, heavily armed proxies, and it could activate any number of them as part of a new escalation.

Israel, for its part, has made it clear that it will not tolerate a situation in which Iran restarts its nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said should that happen, the international community will have to immediately activate snapback sanctions, and “in any case, Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.”

Dangerous Rise of Anti-

Semitism all Over the

World, Including the

Church-

There is no place for anti-Semitism in our society, and all of us should be deeply alarmed by how rapidly anti-Semitism is rising across North America, Europe and the Middle East.

The numbers that I am going to share with you in this article are incredibly disturbing, and many believe that anti-Semitism is now the worst that it has been since the end of World War II.

After what we witnessed during the 1930s and 1940s, you would think that the world would never want to go down that path ever again, and yet it is happening.  Millions upon millions of people deeply hate the Jewish people just because they are Jewish, and it is getting worse with each passing day.

 

The lastest example is the New York Times which just days after the Times published an op-ed falsely claiming Jesus was a Palestinian, placed a cartoon on their op-ed page, depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a dog leading a blind U.S. President Donald Trump.

Imagine if the New York Times cartoon that depicted Israel’s Prime Minister as a dog had, instead, depicted the leader of another ethnic or gender group in a similar manner? If you think that is hard to imagine that you are absolutely right. It would be inconceivable for a Times editor to have allowed the portrayal of a Muslim leader as a dog; or the leader of any other ethnic or gender group in so dehumanizing a manner.

What is it then about Jews that allowed such a degrading cartoon about one of its leaders? One would think that in light of the history of the Holocaust, which is being commemorated this week, the last group that a main stream newspaper would demonize by employing a caricature right out of the Nazi playbook, would be the Jews. But, no. Only three quarters of a century after Der Stürmer incentivized the mass murder of Jews by dehumanizing them we see a revival of such bigoted caricatures.

Threats of rising anti-semitism caught the world’s attention after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in October 2018, where the gunman murdered 12 people and injured 7 during Shabbat morning service.  Now another one has happened…

60-year-old Lori Gilbert Kaye was killed when she stepped in front of the synagogue’s rabbi as he rushed to evacuate children.  She will be remembered as a hero, while John Earnest will be remembered as a hate-filled racist that said that Jewish people “deserve nothing but hell”.

All over the globe, prominent political leaders are condemning what John Earnest did.  In his statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “an attack on the heart of the Jewish people”…

Unfortunately, we aren’t talking about just a few isolated individuals.

A recent CNN survey that was conducted in Europe discovered that anti-Semitic attitudes are very widespread over there…

Other polls have showed the majority of British adults don’t know that 6 million Jewish people were murdered in Holocaust, or they believe the number killed to be much less than this.

The European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency study published last year asked European Jews in 12 countries their views on anti-Semitism. Hundreds of Jews polled said they had experienced a physical, anti-Semitic attack in the past year.

According to authorities in France, the number of anti-Semitic attacks in that country rose 74 percent last year.

Of course this is not just a recent trend either.  According to the Anti-Defamation League, there was a huge increase in global anti-Semitic attacks from 2016 to 2017…

NEW YORK — Megachurch speaker and author Joel Osteen and his wife Victoria were among a number of celebrities, including drag queens, actors and music industry personalities, who attended the “SiriusXM and Pandora Present Lady Gaga at the Apollo” concert on Monday night in New York City. The two posed on the carpet for a photograph next to a SiriusXM/Pandora/Lady Gaga backdrop, which is posted online.

“Are you ready to [expletive] party tonight? Are we making history?” Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, asked the crowd as she opened the show, according to the New York Daily News.

The popular music streaming companies had announced last month that they would be presenting the “special performance” to “celebrate SiriusXM and Pandora coming together as one company.” They also noted that the concert “coincides with World Pride Month, which this year is being celebrated in New York City.”

This is not satire, this really happened. Joel Osteen, one of the modern-day princes of the Word of Faith prosperity gospel movement, was seen at Lady Gaga’s pride celebration at Apollo Theater on Monday night. The New York Daily News reports, Poehler wasn’t the only heavy hitter in the crowd. From Alaska Thunderf–k, a drag performer who won Season 2 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” to the controversial televangelist and anti-LGBTQ pastor Joel Osteen, the event drew an eclectic mix of fans, industry insiders and celebrities, from the movies (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Douglas), the music universe (Clive Davis, Adam Lambert), the fashion world (Alexander Wang), television (John Oliver, Camila Mendes) and the America’s gay Royal couple and Harlem residents Neil Patrick Harris and husband David Burtka. Osteen’s presence was curious, because Gaga has championed LGBTQ causes. Lady Gaga is known for her risque performances and lack of modest attire. Being that Osteen is a charlatan who has been given over to the lusts of this world and bilks millions of people for every dime they have, it comes as no surprise that he and his wife, Victoria, would immerse themselves in the culture of demonic influence, sex, and greed. It was reported that Osteen was wearing a blue blazer while his wife was wearing a long, black dress.

Interestingly, Osteen asserted a few years ago that he believes that the Scriptures are clear that homosexuality is a sin. Yet, he has continuously softened his tone and downplayed the significance toward homosexuality since then. In an effort to remain culturally relevant and inclusive, Osteen generally avoids the topic altogether. Osteen’s ministry has produced a number of look-alike worldly money-hungry pastors, including his very own apprentice, John Gray, who was caught cheating on his wife and made amends to her by buying her a $200 thousand Lamborghini while living in a $1.8 million home paid for by his church.

(Publisher’s comments: We do not rejoice in exposing this tragic behavior of the Osteen’s on TOL. Even though we do not agree with Joel’s “Word of Faith” doctrine and his “healing in the atonement” position, which basically says that its possible to reverse the curse, we believe that he is a blessing to a great many people. As a representative of Christianity all over the globe, as Jacob said, concerning the activity of his wicked sons, he will make us all “to stink among the inhabitants of the land.” It will be so especially among the non-Christian religions, such as Islam. We must understand that we can’t win the world by acting like them. Paul said, 2Co 6:17 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you…” When the Lord Jesus ate with sinners, there was no question in anyone’s mind that He was not endorsing their sin. We need to be aware that some of the leading media preachers and preacherettes are posturing themselves to keep their tax-exempt status over the LGBTQ issue that is heating up all over the nation. Joel now has the evidence of his tolerance toward this community. He is trying to have it both ways. Even if somehow the Osteen’s simply made a mistake, when Gaga cursed, they should have exited immediately. They should go back and reread Ps 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.)

 

In the south, it has been traditional for a young lady (debutante or “female beginner”) of high status to “come out” into adulthood. It’s a formal rite of passage into society of an educated, wealthy, sophisticated young lady now ready for the privileges and responsibilities of adulthood. It is a recognition of her availability of being a wife and mother—in that order. This coming out takes place at a ball and elegant dinner. During the evening, the debutante displays her ability to walk, sit, dance, and eat without tripping over her gown or dropping a croissant down the front of her dress.

Homosexuals also have a “coming out” but not as elaborate as the southern ladies. Most southerners pay little or no attention to the social elites’ fancy affairs since they are busy making a living. However, arrogant homosexuals seem to think that all of us want to know about when they “became aware of their sexuality” and feel a need to announce it to the world. As if we care.

Pete Buttigieg is mayor of South Bend, Indiana and is “married” to Chasten Glezman, a teacher at Montessori Academy near South Bend. Pete calls Chasten his “husband” but since that is asinine, aberrant, and not accurate, I will refer to him as his “lover.” I do that knowing I will be reminded that Time magazine gave him some credibility with a cover photo of Pete and his lover. However, Time’s rush to gush is typical of the leftist media who are willing to promote anything that is anti-biblical, anti-common sense, and anti-decency.

Glezman admitted that he and Pete met online, had their first date in South Bend in September of 2015, then he “moved to Indiana and started living with Buttigieg in 2016.” Obviously, they lived together before “marriage.”

In December of 2017, the “couple” announced their engagement and were “married” in June 2018 in the Cathedral of St. James (Episcopal) in South Bend. (That says much about everyone involved.) Following their ceremony, the couple stopped by for a short visit at a LGBTQ Pride Week block party; and then went to their wedding reception where they danced the night away with 200 guests.

Their ceremony was livestreamed on YouTube and featured a reading from Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in the landmark 2015 same-sex “marriage” decision that made perversion legal if not moral.

I don’t hate Pete or his lover or any other homosexual, but I will not give them a pass when they or others suggest that “gayness” is not perversion, that it is normal, maybe even admirable. Nor is it bigotry to explain to uninformed readers what “gayness” is. However, with my demand to know the extent of Pete’s “gayness,” I will become the object of ridicule and rebuke, and rejection. Maybe, even more death threats. But if you love homosexuals more than you fear retaliation, you tell them the truth.

And this article will be rejected by some of the sites that normally publish my articles—for telling the truth! No doubt, I will be held in more disdain for revealing the disgusting things that homosexuals do than the homosexuals who do those disgusting things! You can expect the homosexual crowd to have a hissy fit because of this article. That is as predictable as tomorrow’s sunrise.

To emphasize my point: Pete and his lover chose to make their perversion a very public matter. They really worked at it. Pete said, “I’m gay as a—I don’t know, think of something really gay—that’s how gay I am.” Remember, Pete brought this up so I, as a voter, have a right to know just how “gay” Pete is. After all, he wants to be President of the United States and I want to know where he stands on important issues.

Since studies show that about half of homosexuals were seduced into perversion by age 14, I wonder if Pete would totally renounce and repudiate such a revolting practice. Just a simple disavowal with appropriate disgust thrown in will suffice.

All homosexuals are aware that their lifespan is about 20 years less than for normal people so voters should know that a homosexual president may not live to finish his term. Moreover, 70% of homosexuals admit to having at least one STD plus they are infected with other contagious diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, etc. About 20% of homosexual men are infected with HIV and about half of them do not know it. Don’t voters have a right, even an obligation, to know a candidate’s health status since the candidate’s health is always an issue? Is a homosexual candidate an exception? If so, why?

Will he release his complete medical records?

Since homosexuals do many dangerous things it seems wise, considerate, thoughtful, and loving to suggest they cease such dangerous activities. After all, we strongly suggest that one should not smoke, eat much red meat, not drink, and not gain weight since those are deadly activities. Why is it unreasonable, unkind, or untoward to demand the same of homosexual candidates?

Pete admits to using marijuana while at Harvard and wants to make smoking weed legal, but does he still use marijuana, use tobacco, drink hard liquor, overeat, lose sleep, and refuse to exercise?

Homosexuals are notoriously promiscuous as reported in a six-month study of daily sexual diaries by Corey and Holmes in the New England Journal of Medicine. In that study, homosexuals “averaged 110 sex partners and 68 rectal encounters a year.” It is known that even the most devoted and long-lasting homosexual relationships are usually not monogamous. Each partner normally reserves a night out each week to “play the field.” Will Pete admit that that is too “gay”?

Studies show that almost all homosexuals practice oral sex and about half ingest semen which is as dangerous as ingesting raw blood exposing them to hepatitis A and B, gonorrhea, and HIV. Moreover, about 90% of homosexuals practice rectal sex and two-thirds do so on a regular basis. Furthermore, 17% of homosexuals admit to rubbing or ingesting the feces of homosexual partners. Will Pete admit that too is too “gay”?

About 23% of “gays” (according to the largest study ever conducted) participate in golden showers where they urinate on each other, splash each other with urine or drink urine. Now, it is a person’s own business if he has a taste for urine, but we have a right to know what Pete thinks about that. Is he “that gay”?

Will Pete repudiate the 41% of “gays” who practice fisting where one rams his fist into the rectum of his partner? Or, at times, they use carrots, bottles, flashlights, (even gerbils!) or other objects often requiring a trip to the hospital for removal. Surely, Pete will repudiate that.

Will Pete repudiate the 90% of “gays” who practice rimming which is so disgusting that I won’t continue to explain it? In doing research for my book, AIDS: Silent Killer!, the owner of a chain of homosexual bathhouses told me that often the same man is “rimmed” 20 times in a single night. Will Pete repudiate such a disgusting practice?

Surely, Pete will repudiate the 37% of homosexuals who practice sadomasochism, the 90% of homosexuals who use illegal drugs, and the 66% who admit to restroom sex.

Franklin Graham was right when he said about Pete, being gay is “something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized.” In declaring that fact, Graham was showing love and concern for the mayor because God judges sin—all sin even the sin that shouldn’t even be named. Perversion results in judgment with horrible, eternal results.

If you haven’t noticed, they are no longer “gay” in Sodom.

(Publisher’s comments: Any decent and God fearing person should be embarrassed to read such that we have published on TOL today, however the reason the sodomites are becoming accepted in polite society is because people do not really have a clue what they do and what they are recruiting our children to do, and be assured they have never ceased their goal to turn the entire world into a “queer” society. The Zero Population growth crowd is also using them to advance their political agenda.)