The State Can’t “Get Out of the Marriage Business”

In the last few years, some libertarians have responded to the ongoing fight between conservatives and liberals about whether to redefine legal marriage by asking, why is marriage the state’s business in the first place?

Via Wintery Knight, Jennifer Roback Morse has a new series of three articles explaining why the libertarian “third way” is not an option:

“Privatizing Marriage Is Impossible”

We cannot escape the fact that marriage is an intrinsically public institution. We can’t avoid making collective decisions about its meaning and purpose. If we don’t do it explicitly, we will end up doing it implicitly.

“Privatizing Marriage Will Expand the Role of the State”

Fewer (but Still a Lot of) Illegal Immigrants

“So, Is Mexican Immigration Over?”, Mark Krikorian, National Review Online:

A new report finds that the number of Mexican immigrants in the United States has declined for the first time since the Great Depression. . . .

That doesn’t mean illegal immigration from Mexico has stopped . . . . But the number of immigrants giving up and going home has indeed increased, and only between 5 and 35 percent of them are estimated to have been deported; the rest left on their own.

In other words, the policy of attrition through enforcement works. This is what Governor Romney meant when he mentioned “self-deportation.”

What Sometimes Happens When People Have Sex Outside of Marriage

STDs.

Apparently the executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party “dated” one of his students, gave her HIV, and then dumped her.

I should say former executive director; he resigned last week over sexual-harassment allegations (different victim).  Likewise he technically only dated his former student; they met when he was her professor at a community college, but began their relationship “Upon completing that class”.  After they found out they had HIV, he apparently also waited a few months before dumping her.

Coverage at Talking Points Memo and the Daily Caller.

I’m just saying, Christianity makes more sense than any of the alternatives.

Hat tip to Rush Limbaugh.

Catholics Could Go to Jail over HHS Mandate

Via COAST and the Weekly Standard:  The U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is fighting back, and they’re not pulling their punches:

We have been staunch defenders of religious liberty in the past. We have a solemn duty to discharge that duty today.

We need, therefore, to speak frankly with each other when our freedoms are threatened. Now is such a time. As Catholic bishops and American citizens, we address an urgent summons to our fellow Catholics and fellow Americans . . . .

Fun with Feminism

Via Disrupt the Narrative, The Other McCain brings some levity to our sad situation:

If happiness is the problem, feminism is the solution.

Rush Limbaugh calls our attention to two oldies (this transcript from his show last week even includes the lyrics): “The Grooveyard of Forgotten Favorites, Pre-Feminism Edition”.  The first one is Dusty Springfield’s “Wishin’ and Hopin'”, 1963:

Troll-free Tuesdays

We’re going to try something new:  On Tuesdays, no trolls allowed.

In other words, for any entry I post on a Tuesday, anyone who wants to pick a one-sided fight (i.e., he doesn’t engage with others’ arguments but still expects them to engage with his), makes snide remarks, has little to say besides linking to some other Web page, or is otherwise rude or a nuisance will be blocked.

Conversely, to those who have anything thoughtful and polite to say (including those who disagree with me):  Please feel free to comment any time, but I especially encourage you to join the discussion every Tuesday!

Activist within IRS Trying to Intimidate Conservatives?

Fighting dirty: Apparently some are more equal than others

Wintery Knight has the news: “Human Rights Campaign leaks list of pro-marriage donors and their addresses” (read the whole thing).

On March 30th, the Huffington Post published tax documents from the National Organization for Marriage.

The tax return listed the names and addresses of dozens of NOM’s major donors in 2008. All of this information is submitted to the IRS on a confidential basis and is not available for lawful public disclosure.

(NOM, April 5th statement.)

In an April 12th statement, NOM explains how it was able to determine that the document was leaked directly from the IRS, not by a NOM “whistleblower” (as the Huffington Post had claimed or implied).

When We Pool All Our Knowledge…

This is the title of a real Wikipedia article:

“List of Puerto Ricans”

Oh, Wikipedia, how did we ever get along without you?  (Oh, the things I find doing research for work…)

Governor Kasich’s Latest Budget Proposals

Ohio Governor John Kasich, who famously did not shy away from controversial reforms last year, is back with more.  Reasonable Tea Party-conservative minds differ on his latest proposals.

Pro, COAST:

This Governor has been the best in our lifetimes, taking on Ohio’s entrenched special interests repeatedly for the betterment of this State and our children.

Man Bites Dog

If you like bad puns and the goofy rough-and-tumble of politics, you’ll love this (or maybe still not):  Politico collects the best of punning “tweets” about President Obama eating dogs.

For a couple of extra puns, see also coverage by Examiner.com, Yahoo News, and Yahoo again.

If you’re just joining us, apparently the Romney family put their dog in a crate on top of the car for a family vacation in 1983, while Obama ate dog meat as a child in Indonesia between 1967 and 1971.

Update (April 19th, 2012): Disrupt the Narrative has and links to more puns.

The Campaign to Take Him Out

It starts.

Only in Dreams

“I would love to write dreams for you!”

Save Scott Walker

In 2011, Wisconsin and Ohio both passed laws repealing, to a significant extent, the mistake of public-sector unions.  (Public-sector unions are a relatively recent innovation; they necessarily create conflicts of interest and represent a structural problem for democracy.)  The Ohio reform was then itself repealed by ballot initiative, in a campaign funded largely by out-of-state union money.

‘Racist’?

In case anyone had forgotten or was having trouble tracking down a source:

Even professional “black leader” Jesse Jackson makes a rational, probabilistic assessment when he encounters a black man on the street.

See this long, thoughtful 1999 article from the magazine of the impeccably liberal New York Times:

Government Workers: Government Workers Don’t Work as Hard

Via COAST and the Washington Examiner, according to a Rasmussen poll, even government workers admit (46-32) that government workers don’t work as hard as the rest of us.  (The original Rasmussen report is apparently here, but full article available only with subscription.)

Note that federal-government employees are also paid a lot better for their lackluster work.

The Bible and the Cult of Diversity

Reading through Proverbs, I was struck by these two similar verses, Proverbs 20:10 and 23:

Diverse weights and diverse measures,
They are both alike, an abomination to the Lord.

and

Diverse weights are an abomination to the Lord,
And dishonest scales are not good.

Catholics Fight Back

A Catholic organization has put out an election ad.  I pass it on without further comment.

More on Obamacare

Mark Steyn, as usual, is must-read material:

Yet he was unintentionally making a far more basic point: A 2,700-page law is not a “law” by any civilized understanding of the term. . . . It’s not just that the legislators who legislate it don’t know what’s in it, nor that the citizens on the receiving end can never hope to understand it, but that even the nation’s most eminent judges acknowledge that it is beyond individual human comprehension. A 2,700-page law is, by definition, an affront to self-government.

Santorum Gets More Votes from Women

Wintery Knight calls my attention to a very interesting fact:  Rick Santorum has more support from women voters than men voters.  Even the New York Times admits it:

He has handily carried the votes of women in primaries that he has won, including those in Mississippi and Alabama. And where he has lost, in Arizona, South Carolina and Illinois, he has enjoyed a higher level of support among women than men.