Afternoon Links — 9.24.10

Thomas Spence, the head of Spence Publishing, explains How to Raise Boys Who Read . Many experts, he notes, recognize the problem but predictably offer the wrong answer, along the inevitable lines of “make it easier.”

E. Christian Brugger, a senior fellow of the Culture of Life Foundation, explains Satisfaction in the Marital Conjugal Relationship . This is a concrete ( not the right metaphor, but I can’t think of a better one) and practical article, on what justice means in sexual relations.

Matthew Schmalz, a professor at Holy Cross, describes Benedict’s Humiliation in the U.K. He writes in praise of Benedict and his wisdom.

Bruce Thornton, author of Decline and Fall: Europe’s Slow-Motion Suicide , explains how the West fails to imagine that its adversaries might have different values . He means Jihadist Islam in particular.

Thomas Farr, a senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute, explains how to Kill the Extremist Idea that Threatens America .  The answer is to counter fear with freedom.

And Brendan O’Neil, editor of Spiked, examines those who declare that “Pope Benedict is an enemy of the state” . The protests in England, “shrill, decadent, profoundly illiberal in sentiment,” confirm “what the pope has become for at-sea secularists: an Emmanuel Goldstein figure.”

Update: A charming story: In Bing Crosby’s Wine Cellar, Vintage Baseball .