Archive for Law

Pew poll finds mixed data on marriage trends

Posted by: Jason | July 23rd, 2008 · 11:03 PM

(image: perimeter)

Maggie Gallagher at Townhall discusses an interesting new Pew Poll out on marriage and raising children. For all the talk that conservatives make about society running wild these days, the results are quite conservative in nature. Don’t celebrate yet however; there is trouble brewing down the road.

One key finding: Americans have a problem with unmarried childbearing. The Pew poll asked this question in a variety of ways: Seventy-one percent of Americans say the growth in births to unwed mothers is a “big problem” for society, while 69 percent agree “A child needs a home with both a mother and father to grow up happily.” By a margin of 66 percent to 25 percent, Americans say that “single women having children” is a trend that is “bad for society,” rather than “good.”

While shocking to see such large majorities for traditional family models these days, one might still be alarmed by the numbers. For instance, the figure showing that only 66% of Americans think that single women having children is a trend that is bad for society should raise some eyebrows.

The study goes further, targeting young adults.

But a significant generation gap emerges: Among 18 to 29-year-olds just 46 percent say unmarried couples having children is a bad thing and 45 percent say it is a good thing for society. The biggest drop off is among Hispanic Catholics: Fifty-two percent disapprove of “single women having children,” but only 37 percent say unmarried couples having children is a bad thing for society.

On gay marriage, Americans are against it 57 to 32 percent. Even young adults ages 18 to 29 oppose gay marriage 46 percent to 44 percent.

And there lies a correlation, at least in part. By overwhelming margins, Americans who oppose the movement to extend marriage to same sex couples also view marriage as necessary for having children, while younger Americans, according to the study, who tend to favor gay marriage as much as oppose it see nothing wrong with couples having children out of wedlock. While the gay marriage movement cannot be fully to blame for this view among young people, it does go to show that liberalizing one’s view about the experience, seriousness, and makeup of marriage equates to a change in belief that making families must take place after the vows.

If there is indeed a dangerous trend in society’s understanding of marriage, it lies in the sector of young adults who are beginning to change their belief in the importance of the institution itself, especially with regard to having children after the fact.

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Flashback: Top Five Reasons to Protect America’s Gun Rights

Posted by: Jason | April 27th, 2008 · 10:48 AM

(image: americanrevolution)

Another tragedy… Another debate on the rights of Americans to keep and bear arms. It is inevitable that every time we experience traumatic events, such as the Virginia Tech massacre, that we begin to ignore the natural urges of sick human beings to kill, and jump to rash conclusions about guns in the hands of law abiding people.

Is it time to ban guns? This is a question which came up within hours of the shooting. We should accept the pain, suffering, and anger that Americans feel right now. We’re a good people. During a crisis which effects the heart of the entire nation such as this, as in the aftermath of 9/11, Americans unite behind each other in supporting those who need it. But then comes the politics.

It’s ironic, as we’ve heard many of our liberal friends often blame Republicans for using the events of 9/11 to advance a political agenda in the War On Terror, so too do we see the same example of political opportunism coming from their side, as they are already using the Virginia Tech campus shootings to advance a belief over guns that they held before 4/16.

In the spirit of this debate, I have compiled a list of my top 5 reasons for why Americans should want to protect their right to bear arms, and why we should feel proud of that right.

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Democrats Against Democracy?

Posted by: Ion | September 27th, 2007 · 4:37 PM

I was perusing the posts over at the occasionally interesting leftblog The Albany Project and came across one about the recently formed Democratic group Californians for Fair Election Reform. This organization was created to resist a Republican-led ballot initiative in California called the “Presidential Electoral Reform Act,” which is being spearheaded by the Republican Californians for Equal Representation.

This ballot initiative would modify the manner in which the state’s electoral votes are awarded in presidential elections, going from the current winner-takes-all formula, to the far more democratic method of distribution used by Maine and Nebraska. That is, California’s electoral votes would be divided up by how people in its congressional districts vote for president.

In practical terms this new arrangement might throw as many as 20 of California’s 55 votes to the GOP in 2008. Assuming the Republicans can hold their core states, it could make the difference in the election. Particularly if the border-reds, Ohio (21 votes) and/or Virginia (13) go blue in 2008, as now seems conceivable.

On these grounds the California state Democratic party doesn’t like the plan at all. They instead are arguing forcefully for the status quo, which essentially mandates the votes of Republican districts go to the Democratic nominee, if he or she wins their concentrated and politically uniform urban districts (which always happens). To fight the signature drive (they call it the “Steal the State Initiative“), they’ve organized a volunteer based ‘do not sign’ campaign, distributing activists to shopping malls and other public places to warn the public against signing the GOP petition. Perhaps in an indication of how troubling this initiative is to Democrats, Art Torres, chairman of the Democratic Party of California, volunteered assurances to the press that their anti-petition activism would be completely “non-violent.” Hmm.

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Buried in Stone

Posted by: Ion | August 27th, 2007 · 7:13 PM

A pretty striking little anti-Iranian art project from Spartakism:

(image: Spartakism)

This image was made in support of Pegah Emambakhsh, a lesbian Iranian woman who escaped from the theocracy to the United Kingdom. The barbaric Iranian treatment of her and her family for the crime of her sexuality, has been rather predictable:

Pegah escaped from Iran, claiming asylum, after her lover was arrested, tortured and subsequently sentenced to death by stoning. Her father was also arrested and interrogated about her whereabouts. He was eventually released but not before he had been tortured himself.
(BipolarBisexual)

From what I understand, she was scheduled to be deported back to Iran yesterday, until a stay was granted at the 11th hour after a campaign by the public. Evidently her original application for asylum was rejected on her inability to “prove she was a lesbian.” How that test is administered I’ve no idea, but apparently her love letters from other women weren’t sufficiently persuasive to the British Home Office.

Now as you know, I’m no opponent of efforts to prevent the further demographic destabilization of Britain through enervated immigration control enforcement. Yet it does seem to me that in this instance, that Britain is highly unlikely to be importing a jihadist fanatic in the person of Pegah Emambakhsh. Or, for that matter, one who is likely raise a family of such sorts.

I doubt very seriously that as many as half of the recent Muslim immigrants to Britain possess such a sterling case of potential death and torture upon return to their homeland. One should not penalize the deserving for being recent, because the past policy was too permissive.

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Gay Endorsements Don’t Help, But Labor Unions Are Murder

Posted by: Ion | August 8th, 2007 · 11:31 AM

Here’s an interesting finding by Quinnipiac, which surveyed general voter-candidate sentiment in three swing states:

In Ohio, 54 percent say such endorsements make no difference, while 34 percent said it would make them less likely to support a candidate and 10 percent said it would make them more likely to back a campaign.

The numbers were similar for Pennsylvania and Florida.

At the same time an endorsement by a labor union was an overall negative in all three states.
(Reuters)

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A Macaca Moment for Bill Richardson

Posted by: Ion | July 14th, 2007 · 12:25 AM

This is just uncanny:

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson said Thursday his use of a Spanish word that some contend is a slur against homosexuals was meant to be playful but apologized to anyone who was offended.

[…]

Richardson replied in Spanish that if the staffer believes that, then he is a “maricon.”

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation says the word means “faggot” in Spanish.
(AP)

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A Little Pink Pistol Publicity

Posted by: Ion | July 9th, 2007 · 9:25 PM

(image: Pink Pistols)

The Pink Pistols are one of the precious few gay and lesbian rights organizations I’m genuinely fond of. Rather than bucking for ever stiffer hate crimes penalties (which do not seem to deter violent attacks by bigots), their philosophy is that targeted violence against gays and lesbians would swiftly evaporate, if every gay and lesbian had a handgun on his or her belt…and wasn’t disinclined to using it when assaulted.

While that’s a practical truth, there’s also a substantial political value to it. That’s because by resting their claim of gay rights on the 2nd Amendment, rather than seeking new and particular protections under law, the Pistols have transformed their small corner of the movement from just another victim constituency in the Democratic machine, into a group of ordinary Americans, who are laying claim to the enduring constitutional order in the name of preexisting liberties, which are equally shared by all.

The political upshot of which is they become the kind of gay rights movement that even the most vociferous opponents of GLAAD’s agenda can readily accept, or even embrace.

Perhaps somewhat by consequence of that, the Pistols don’t get as much press as more left-wing gay groups. They did however recently score a notable little media event, albeit through inadvertent means.

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Vandalizing Marriage

Posted by: Ion | June 29th, 2007 · 3:57 PM

(photo: Zipser)

Do you remember Jeniffer Hoes? I blundered into this old story on Digg yesterday and was struck by it. In 2001, the Netherlands rewrote its marriage laws to include…well, just about anything. 2003, the newly permissive definition of who you could marry was exploited by a studio artist, who married herself.

For me this was unsurprising. It should seem obvious that once you begin to redefine marriage to accommodate gay unions, it becomes very difficult to prevent another modification for something else. If you can claim the authority to modify an ancient tradition based solely on a self-selected modern moral mandate, so too can anyone else on those same grounds.

Singles frustrated with trying to find a spouse now have a solution, thanks to the new re-definitions of marriage. A woman in the Netherlands is getting married to herself. 30-year-old Jennifer Hoes has set the date for May 28. She has her wedding dress, her friends and family have their invitations, and the dinner will cost $22,000. The wedding itself will be in the city hall of Harleem. Apparently, in the anything-goes marriage laws of the Netherlands, the wedding will be legal.

She told Dutch and German newspapers that she will vow to “love, respect and honor” herself in good times and in bad. “We live in a ‘Me’ society,” she said. “Hence it is logical that one promises to be faithful to oneself.”
(World Views)

Perhaps no story better demonstrates that when marriage means everything, it means absolutely nothing.

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