A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words. And Two Pictures?

Mr. and Mrs. Brimelow, with infant child in tow.
(Photo from the H.L. Mencken Club site)

I've been debating whether to post these photos. But, they are on public sites, and are obviously meant to be looked at and commented on.

Look at the first photograph, with Peter Brimelow as a "new" (old) father but closer in age to being a great-grandfather. He's with his new wife, Vdare contributor Lydia Sullivan who writes under the pen name Athena Kerry, who is holding their infant child. From what I've read at Brimelow's site Vdare and what Wikipedia tells me, his new wife is forty years younger than him! Still, Sullivan has a hard glint in eyes like someone that goes after what she wants, and gets it. Such character doesn't discriminate by age.

The top photo was taken at the 2010 M.L. Mencken conference where Brimelow presented a paper. He took the infant girl along. I presume he did this to show her. But why that awkward expression, as though he's in the wrong place, with the wrong people, at the wrong time? Also, he shows a strange deference towards Sullivan, the way he's leaning a little too humbly towards her and the infant. Usually, a new father stands proud and straight next to his family, especially in a public setting.

Didn't Lydia Sullivan, a.k.a. Athena Brimelow, have any family members, a concerned and conservative mother who said "under no circumstances" at the prospect of this marriage? Brimelow is close to seventy. Some father he will be to a young child. Was there no one thinking of the ensuing babies, who was concerned by the prospect that they might be born, and endure such a life?

Such is the case with "conservatives" these days, who really behave like liberals. But Brimelow is an avowed libertarian, so his motto is, "I'll do what I wish, and apres moi le deluge." Yes, the whole thing is as pompous as Louis XV's famous phrase. At least his excuse was that he was King of France. What does Brimelow have? And look what happened to Louis and his reign. Or more like, what Louis wrought.

L-R: Genevieve Sullivan (sister), Grandmother Von Talbot,
Mother Deonne Sullivan, and Lydia Sullivan. (Photo source)

The second photo is of Sullivan with the female members of her family: her grandmother, mother and sister. Sullivan is at the far right. Again, I am struck by the hard edge in her eyes. Her sister is on the far left. What a difference. One would have thought that the grandmother, who looks strict and principled, might have been the one to rein things in.