Ya think it's easy?

“No one is as happy to see you as your dog.”

I spent much of last year hearing the lyrics to Steely Dan’s “King of the World” every time I went to the supermarket: “If I stay inside, I might live ’til Saturday.” So I have been delighted, this year, to again hear the voices of children in stores.

Real estate is kids and dogs, and I engage well with both. It’s them that all of us are working for – the satisfaction of their needs. Plus which, they’re excellent closers: Whey they move in, everybody moves in.

But I read a horrifying article this morning – anecdata, so take it for what you will – about the birth dearth among the Cautious.

I’ve been saying this all along, of course: Where reproduction is optional, the Cautious prefer not to – lifelong marriages with one or at most two offspring for Cs, serial graduated celibacy for Ci.

But: America is a Cs nation, has been since Ibsen’s world premiere performances took place in Minnesota, since Kolachis came to Texas, since the Mormons blazed the Hashknife Trail. Cs is why your grandma was surrounded by six kids at all times, and it’s why your own grandkid is surrounded by six grownups at all times.

But at the end of a year where dogs and even chickens were adopted with what will turn out to be sociopathic abandon, no children were spawned. And now we are well into an inexplicable global vaccination frenzy, and I am wondering what that is doing, de facto, to fertility.

I can belay all suspicions, for now, but I really would like to see some infants. Practical ontology proves nothing, of course, but it does distinguish fact from fiction.

So: Are there any newborns out there?

In other news:

CNBC: Housing boom is over as new home sales fall to pandemic low.

Housing Wire: Why the US MLS system is the envy of other countries.

CNBC: Home prices broke records in May, according to S&P Case-Shiller.

City Journal: Better Red Than Taxed: As government revenues rebound, GOP-led states are cutting taxes while Democratic states ponder increases.

Josiah Lippincott: The Conservative Case for Cyberbullying America’s Generals.

Joel Kotkin: The End of Merit: Our schools, even without CRT, are failing to prepare students for a skills-based job market.

Michael Anton: “That’s Not Happening and It’s Good That It Is” A quick and dirty guide to regime propaganda.