Asked about gay marriage, "Carrie" blurted out her truth: "I believe all Americans should enjoy equal rights to get married whether it is same-sex or opposite marriage. That's the way I was raised, and that's the way I think marriage should be."

Afterward, a judge proclaimed her answer so offensive he voted against her and wanted to rip off her tiara. Instead of rebuking the judge, pageant officials said that "Carrie" needs to meet anti-gay marriage folk to assuage the "hurt" she has caused them. A media firestorm...]]> Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600 On Election Day this past Tuesday, the people of Maine voted to repeal gay marriage, 53 percent to 47 percent.

Gay-marriage advocates are bitterly disappointed. They spent three years building an organization to push gay marriage in Maine. They had every major newspaper and most other media on their side, as well as the political establishment -- the governor, the attorney general, the head of the schools. They were awash in money, out-fundraising pro-marriage advocates by more than 50 percent. (Full disclosure: The National Organization for Marriage contributed $1.8 million to the Yes on One campaign -- or more than half the campaign budget.)

Gay-marriage advocates in...]]> Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 The Rev. Anthony Evans stepped up to the podium at Stand for Marriage D.C.'s rally last Sunday with a message for D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray: The black church will no longer partner with politicians of any race who work against its interests and its values.

From the podium, Rev. Evans spoke about an "extraordinary" meeting that took place when a half-dozen black bishops, representing the heart of the black church, paid a pastoral call on Councilman Gray, who is African-American.

The 30 minutes allotted stretched into an hour and a half as bishops representing the core Pentecostal denominations explained their concerns about gay marriage. But Gray was adamant in his...]]> Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 I've been thinking about the invention of lying.

Maybe it's the pair of Virginia gubernatorial campaign ads I just saw on TV in which the word "dishonest" was hurled with a fine disregard for any truth but truthiness.

But, yes, I also mean the film by comedian Ricky Gervais by that name, which imagines an alternate world where everybody tells the truth to each other all the time because they cannot even imagine lying. Imagine going on dates or working with colleagues who can't dodge or fudge or fib, even a little bit. Hell would be other people, the filmmaker suggests.

What would politics be like before the invention of lying?

President Obama: "Americans are...]]> Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 The insurance companies have decided to let you and me in on a little secret: When the government says the health care bill is "revenue neutral," that doesn't necessarily refer to your personal cash flow.

Democratic politicians are denouncing health care insurance executives as traitors for spilling the beans in a new industry-funded study that predicts large increases in premiums if the health care reform plan passes: "The misleading and harmful claims made by the profit-driven insurance companies are politicking for corporate gain at its worst," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

Just hours before a vote, it is still not entirely clear what the Democrats' health care plan...]]> Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 How do you measure a marriage culture?

The Institute for American Values, in conjunction with the new National Center for African-American Marriage and Parenting has just released a new "Marriage Index" that for the very first time in American history creates a tool to measure the health of marriage in America.

It's a brilliant conceptual idea, long overdue. This is a GDP for marriage, a way to statistically sum up complex trends in a way that allows us to capture a core truth: Is marriage getting weaker or stronger?

The report (available at www.americanvalues.org) begins by asking key questions: "What helps us the most to thrive, as individuals and as a society?...]]> Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 "Every society regulates sex," Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. has noted -- it's just a question of how, and to what end?

Not in the streets where it scares the horses. And not in your college dorm room's bottom bunk if the roommate on the top objects. Congratulations, Tufts University: We now know there is at least one sexual rule short of rape that Tufts Unviersity is prepared to openly stand behind.

Actually, technically speaking, the new policy forbids public sex displays even if your roommate does not object. "You may not engage in sexual activity while your roommate is present in the room," commands Tufts' newly revised 2009-2010 guest policy.

Well, it's nice to know...]]> Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 There are lies, damn lies, and then there is politics.

Read President Obama's lips: No new taxes for the middle class. Well, OK, maybe there will be revenue enhancers, levies, tax penalties and fines, as well as mandatory purchase of insurance policies that consume more than 10 percent of your income. But, hey, no new taxes.

You have to feel sorry for a politician who is trying to sell that product.

The cumulative weight of the political fibs is beginning to weigh on our president.

Read President Obama's lips: Health care reform won't pay for abortions. Except that FactCheck.org has confirmed that the pro-lifers are not hysterical: New government subsidies are...]]> Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 We live in an age where rights are multiplying like rabbits. Don't get me wrong: I like rabbits.

In Vermont, 16-year-old Kyle Giard-Chase marched over to the Vermont Human Rights Commission to demand the right to genderless bathrooms in public schools. Kyle is working with Outright Vermont, a social service organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth, which views unisex bathrooms as the next great civil rights revolution.

"The hope is that this is the first statewide gender-neutral bathroom campaign in the country," Outright's executive director Christopher Neff told The Associated Press. "Vermont is a leader. This is another opportunity to again be the...]]> Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 I was in Maine on the day that marriage qualified for the ballot this November. I went to Maine as president and founder of the National Organization for Marriage, which helped local groups organize the signature drive in Maine, as we did in California for Proposition 8.

Most of the people in Maine were enthusiastic, but one clergyman asked me, "Shouldn't we live with our neighbors in peace?"

His question haunts me for its debased presumptions: Is using democracy to fight for shared values somehow an act of war against our neighbors? "Agree with me or you're a hater" is not the authentic voice of peace and tolerance. But the question underscored an increasingly obvious...]]> Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 The body had barely been laid to rest with a presidential eulogy plus all the pomp and circumstance fit for a king or a Kennedy, when politcos began buzzing:

"Another Sen. Kennedy in Massachusetts?" asked The Associated Press. What's the next episode of the long-running Kennedy saga in American politics?

The media was fascinated. Wall-to-wall coverage of Sen. Kennedy's death was record-breaking in recent times, according to a new Pew report. Kennedy coverage accounted for 27 percent of the news in the week of Aug. 24 to Aug 30.

"Kennedy's death indeed generated more coverage than that of any other political or celebrity figure since (the Project for Excellence in...]]> Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Conservatives are on a roll.

A huge negative reaction to liberal Democrats' overreach may well push the Republican Party to victory in 2010. What then? Ah, there is the rub.

When modern conservatism started, it had big dreams: rolling back government, lowering tax rates, defeating communism, strengthening the traditional family, de-funding the left, pulling back the Supreme Court.

Well, two out of six is not bad.

What is the heart of the thing that conservatives care about now? We had better be ready to answer that question before 2010.

I cannot speak for a movement, but as for me, I am a conservative because I believe in one core unshakable truth:...]]> Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Why has President Obama's Justice Department abruptly attempted to sabotage the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal court?

Justice is supposed to be blind. When Congress passed DOMA in 1996 with overwhelming bipartisan support, its reasons for doing so were made crystal clear:

"At bottom, civil society has an interest in maintaining and protecting the institution of heterosexual marriage because it has a deep and abiding interest in encouraging responsible procreation and child-rearing."

This is not some kind of weird side argument drummed up by folks who don't like gay people. It has been at the heart of America's marriage tradition since the dawn of the...]]> Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 The Democrats must be having second thoughts about Obama's strategy to blunt the impact of health care protestors by calling them an "angry mob."

I mean, look at the photos or the videos. Those dudes are really old! Angry white duffers aren't exactly scary. Why are they so old?

Here is Obama's problem in a nutshell: Old people are the ones who care the most about health care -- their own health care. So the more Obama and the Democats talk about the need to change the system to cover more young folks, the less secure Grandma feels.

Right now, President Obama is beginning to sound a lot like former President Bush. I mean, specifically, the Bush who roared back from a...]]> Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 More cash for clunkers? Obama's Cash for Clunkers program ran out of money in just a few weeks, as Americans rushed in record numbers to take advantage of the new public option: free cash if you buy a new car!

What lesson can we learn for ObamaCare from the stunning success of ObamaCar? I am not an economist, but here's some stuff I figured out:

1. People Like Free Stuff!

Americans don't like government running our lives, but we do like getting free stuff. We don't like it when government tells us what to do, but we like it very much when government hands us cash. We like it so much that if the government will pay us to do something, more of us will rush to do it...]]> Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 How do we trim health care costs? Weighing in on the national debate, a new study in the journal Health Affairs urges: Fight fat by fighting fat.

An obese person spends $1,400 more in medical expense per year than normal-weight people, and obesity-related diseases cost this nation anywhere from $86 billion to $147 billion per year. "Real (health care) savings are more likely to be achieved through reforms that reduce the prevalence of obesity and related risk factors," the study's scholars conclude.

Addressing "poor diet and inactivity," they say, will require "policy and environmental changes that extend far beyond what can be achieved through changes in health care...]]> Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 I'm not literally uninsured. But I started thinking hard about what Obamacare would mean for the people I know.

A big chunk of people are uninsured for a reason. Health insurance makes no economic sense for them. The second (related) truth is this: People who are uninsured still get health care.

Many of the uninsured have learned that core medical needs will be met in this country. Doctors will charge less if you are a cash patient. Big ticket items can be put on credit cards. Hospital emergency rooms will see you for (effectively) free, if necessary. Using lawyers to chase the young and asset-poor is not cost-effective.

Moreover, the currently uninsured, if given...]]> Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 "She has become perhaps the most vilified spouse of a financial rogue in history," The New York Times announced.

Americans love to loathe Ruth Madoff, wife of convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff.

One typical ABC News headline was hopefully titled: "Homeless? Ruth Madoff to Lose Penthouse, Other Homes." When she refused to comment to an ABC News reporter who accosted her after a prison visit, ABC News spun that into another hateful headline: "No Apology from Ruth Madoff."

The New York Times' official ethicist pontificated about her sins:

"Marriage is a partnership. If you reap its rewards, you bear some responsibility for the way they accrue. ... Perhaps one...]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Frank Lombard is a Duke University health official, a licensed social worker, a white, college-educated, legal father of two African-American boys, and according to federal authorities, a pedophile.

He allegedly abused his adopted son personally and then offered him on the Internet for abuse by others. "Perv dad for fun" was his online moniker.

Nobody could have guessed. Nobody but him is responsible, right?

I want to believe that. Really, I do.

But adoptions are government acts. What did his fellow social workers who approved this adoption know? What did they overlook? What questions didn't they ask because, well, he was "in the club" -- one of...]]> Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 America's most televised parents of multiples made it official: They are splitting up. Kate minus Jon makes nine.

Yes, the children will suffer. But no doubt it will be good for ratings.

Well, there are worse tragedies than divorce, bigger problems in the world than the things that led Jon and Kate to break up their own family, as the headlines remind us. Even as Kate and Jon called it quits, a young Iranian woman named Neda captured the fickle attention of the world for her simple and defiant act of courage. Some things are worth dying for.

What kind of freedom will they die for in Iran? Political freedom -- the freedom to vote, to assemble, to speak? Economic...]]> Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Sarah Palin has graciously accepted David Letterman's long-delayed apology.

The Alaska governor, in a statement issued Tuesday, accepted his apology "on behalf of all young women, like my daughters, who hope men who 'joke' about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve."

God bless her.

This is what should have happened in the first place. This should have been totally a one-day story. Dave Letterman makes an inexcusable joke, is called on it and apologizes for it. End of story.

Can I let you in on a secret? I hate the whole thing. I hate the joke first of all. Who jokes about 14-year-old or 18-year-old girls like that?

I hate...]]> Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 The sausage-making isn't always pretty. Sometimes, at least, it's kind of amusing.

This week in Albany, N.Y., a "coup" was staged.

If you don't live in a democracy, "coup" is short for "coup d'etat." That is when guys with guns (or in the old days, swords) take out the leader of your government and take over power in the "off with their heads" manner.

Fortunately, in the New York State Legislature, a "coup" means that two Democrats in the closely divided Senate decided to vote with the Republicans and make former minority leader Sen. Dean Skelos the new majority leader.

How did Sen. Malcolm Smith, the displaced majority leader, and the Democrats respond? Gov....]]> Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Army Pvt. William A. Long was willing die for his country. He just never expected to have to do it in broad daylight on the peaceful streets of Little Rock, Ark.

Long and his buddy, both privates just out of basic training, were lounging around outside the recruiting station Monday -- part of an Army program that sends hometown boys back on the streets to recruit the next generation of soldiers.

A witness to the shooting, Lance Luplow, told The New York Times that he heard about seven loud bangs and looked up to see a black truck with tinted windows speeding away. Luplow ran across the street -- toward the violence -- where he saw one soldier lying in a pool of his own...]]> Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 I should be thrilled with Proposition 8's victory in the California Supreme Court. Instead, I wonder: Why in the world did I have to worry? Seven million Californians went to the polls and voted to define marriage as "one man and one woman." How in the world have we reached a point where respectable people argue the courts have the power to strip those voters of their absolutely fundamental civil rights?

I should be grateful. Instead, I'm mad: Who will hold gay marriage advocates accountable for this effort to deny us of our core rights as citizens?

Nobody. Sigh. So it's on to the next fight in this ongoing war on marriage, on constitutional law and on common...]]> Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Five years after same-sex couples first began to enter legal marriages -- recognized by court order -- in Massachusetts, what do voters in the Bay State think about gay marriage?

A new poll commissioned by my organization, the National Organization for Marriage, and the Massachusetts Family Institute indicates that voters remain sharply and surprisingly divided about gay marriage.

When asked, "Do you personally favor or oppose same-sex marriage generally?" 43 percent of Massachusetts voters favor same-sex marriage and 44 percent oppose it, with the remainder saying they don't know or choosing not to respond.

The telephone survey of 306 people taken March 30 to March...]]> Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 So Donald Trump, the big, strong alpha male, steps in to rescue the fair damsel in distress. Carrie Prejean, Miss California USA, will keep her title.

Good for him.

Carrie is going to be OK. She's going to have far more powerful and numerous defenders than me. She will define her own mission and speak in her own voice.

God works in such mysterious ways.

Why didn't Human Rights Campaign step forward to defend Carrie from mistreatment? It would have been such a brilliant move -- in one fell swoop, gay marriage advocates could have allayed growing fears. Are they really all about love and tolerance, or are they -- as many Americans now experience them -- a...]]> Thu, 07 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Say it ain't so, Donald! Why is Donald Trump, one of the biggest mouths on the planet, trying to make Miss California USA, the runner-up Miss USA, shut up?

That's what went through my mind as I looked at the cease-and-desist order from the Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant directed at me and the National Organization for Marriage. Last week, NOM launched an ad, "No Offense," which features a seven-second clip of Carrie Prejean answering the question posed to her by pageant judge Perez Hilton. "I believe marriage should be between a man and woman, no offense to anybody," she said.

The Miss Universe cease-and-desist order trying to prevent the ad from airing that clip follows...]]> Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Do we want to be like Europe?

Europe is the first large and powerful civilization attempting to base itself on a pervasive secularism. The American tradition is not secularism, but religious liberty -- in the God-given right of every human being to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. European elites, by contrast, tend to see religious belief as a mere senseless passion, as an essentially irrational drive that may be permitted expression but must also be constrained.

In European eyes, religion is messy and, if not disciplined, gets in the way of the quiet, orderly consuming society that has become the European ideal.

Thus, in an extraordinary move early in...]]> Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Is America's long love affair with Christianity coming to an end?

Newsweek and other media decided the most appropriate way to mark the anniversary of Jesus' death was to trumpet the end of the influence in America of the religion he founded. Do they not recall how that story ends?

Yes, there is a kernel of truth in the headlines. Since 1990, according to American Religious Identification Survey 2008, Americans who say they have no religion jumped from 8 percent to 15 percent.

These people are not necessarily atheists or agnostics. A 2006 Baylor University study titled "American Piety in the 21st Century" found that the majority of people who say they have no...]]> Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 This week, by one vote, the Vermont Legislature overrode the governor's veto to impose same-sex marriage on that state. It's a breakthrough of sorts for the gay marriage movement: the first state to impose gay marriage through the legislature, rather than the courts. Expect Vermont to figure prominently in President Obama's crusade to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act later this year. The Democratic Party has now thrown its lot against the principles and priorities of the majority of Americans in favor of its richly endowed base of gay supporters. Democrats are the party of gay marriage -- a position opposed by 55 percent of the American people in the latest polls.

But...]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 He is an assistant principal at a public high school -- Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School.

Should public school teachers receive special protection from sex abuse charges?

A new bill pushed in New York (similar legislation has been introduced in other states) has two remarkable features: 1) It removes the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits against sex abusers at schools and charities for one year, and 2) it exempts public schools.

Removing the statute of limitations means that people who believe they were victimized as children can reach back 30 years or 40 years or more and sue not only individuals (likely dead or poor), but the institutions that...]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Gee, this explains a lot about Washington, D.C., doesn't it? The Obama administration? Why President Obama's approval ratings have suddenly tanked in the latest Zogby and Rasmussen polls. And why Barney Frank just won't shut up about the number of things he thinks he should be in charge of.

In the real world, we have things called "reality checks." When the president of a successful company makes bad decisions, he gets fired. His company goes bankrupt. He loses his stock options.

In Washington, there are no reality checks, only taxpayer checks that the government believes will never bounce.

Only government bails out the bonuses of executives who run their company into...]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500 They met to discuss a big new idea: Trade federal civil union protections for more generous religious liberty exemptions.

Why compromise? Rauch argues, "The consensus around the meaning of marriage in this country has broken down, it's fractured, and I think it's going to be decades ... before we have anything like a broad national consensus on what marriage means."

Gay marriage advocates who see quick victory around the corner are fooling themselves, according to Rauch:

"If you ask people ... do they favor gay marriage, or civil unions, or nothing, it's basically a third, a third, a third. If you look at people age 29 and younger, yeah, more of them favor gay...]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500 It means research that is willing to destroy some nascent human lives in order to (possibly) save others. The politically astute move by the president produced one of the beautifully self-serving front-page headlines: "Obama Puts His Own Spin on the Mix of Science With Politics," as The New York Times put it.

Dr. George Q. Daley, who studies blood diseases at Children's Hospital in Boston, said private money is drying up for embryonic research, making the public money particularly welcome.

Why? Controversy may be part of the reason, but venture capital basically is streaming away from embryo-destroying research precisely because the science is moving so powerfully (at least...]]> Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0600 Among the recent cases:

Six high school students from Greensburg, Pa., were charged with possessing, manufacturing and distributing child pornography this month after nude pictures of several underage girls were confiscated from one of the boys' phones. The three 14- and 15-year-old girls who sent the self-made child porn and the three 16- and 17-year-old boys who received it were arrested.

In Fort Wayne, Ind., a teen boy faces felony obscenity charges for allegedly sending a photo of his private parts to several girl students.

Nor is this always kids' play. In a suburb of Phoenix, the assistant principal of Buckeye Union High School faces up to 12 years in prison if...]]> Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 "We've got to have equal rights for everyone," he went on. "I'm very, very proud to live in ... a country who, for all its toughness, creates courageous artists."

Sean Penn calling on us to repent our evil ways and turn to the good -- but who represents the good? "Courageous artists" like himself.

Narrow, intolerant, zealous, self-congratulatory. If that's not pontificating without portfolio what is?

Meanwhile on Monday, 3,000 miles away on the opposite coast, the the next Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, was taking center stage.

I have always felt for Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop Dolan's predecessor, because he had an enormously difficult job to do:...]]> Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 Greta: "Do you have a philisophical or religious opposition to (contraception)?"

Bristol: "No I don't want to get into detail about that -- I think abstinence is, like, the ... I don't know how to put it, like ... the main -- everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all."

Greta: "Why?"

Bristol: "Because it's more and more accepted now ... among kids my age."

(Note: I wonder if Bristol really thinks sexual virtue is harder these days than it was, say, 30 years ago when her mom and I were teenagers. That would be circa 1979. I could tell Bristol some stories -- the sexual revolution has been swinging pretty hard for a good long time now.)...]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 Let's admit it: This whole stimulus thing is just a guess -- the best guess our best and brightest can come up with. Use government to force consumer spending that will prevent a severe contraction and restore investor confidence and a normally functioning economy. Well, it's a theory; it's a shot.

Privately, the best and the brightest admit that if it works, this stimulus strategy will likely cause hyperinflation down the road. Running $2 trillion to $3 trillion deficits annually will do that. But hyperinflation, they whisper, is better than the alternative: another Great Depression.

So we have to do something. Unless confidence is restored, eventually, even the U.S....]]> Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 The president is not punishing failed and spendthrift executives. He is rewarding them with billions -- nay, trillions -- of taxpayer dollars.

Obama is betting that a little ritual public humiliation will distract the public's attention from the really key fact: The plan to shovel money to failed corporate executives is now Obama's and the Democratic Congress' plan. Yes, I know it began as President Bush's plan, but Obama and the Democrats have eschewed change in favor of continuity with one of George W. Bush's worst ideas.

And there's only one question Americans really care about in the new "recovery plan": Will it work -- restoring economic growth and adding...]]> Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 Is this what seriousness of purpose sounds like?

"This," our new commander in chief told us, "is the price and promise of citizenship. ... With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy current, and endure what storms may come," so that, as our new president of stern and noble mien promised, our grandchildren will say "we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."

Let no one say that President Obama has not given us fair warning: The next few years are going to be, as my dad used to say, character-building.

The morning after the uplifting rhetoric brings, for many of us, the hangover: Obama's first act promises to be...]]> Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 Then something wonderfully and distinctively American happened: "Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said that he was no bigot and could hear a prayer from any gentleman of piety and virtue who was at the same time a friend to his country."

So the next morning America's founding fathers bowed their heads as an Episcopal clergyman prayed fervently "for America, for the Congress, for the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially the town of Boston" (then under attack).

"It was enough," said John Adams, "to melt a heart of stone. I saw the tears gush into the eyes of the old, grave, pacifist Quakers of Philadelphia."

More than 20 years later, Ben Franklin (who was not exactly...]]> Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 In 1980, Ronald Reagan changed all that. His coattails brought an unexpected swing of 12 seats that put the GOP in the majority 53 to 46. An era began. In a few days, that era will end, as President-elect Obama's inauguration ushers in a (likely) sustained period of strong Democratic majorities in the Congress and control of the White House.

An era is ending. It's a good time for reflection: What did conservatives accomplish?

No, we did not shrink the size of government. Federal government spending has grown from almost $600 billion per year in 1980 to almost $3 trillion in 2008.

The greatest achievement of my lifetime is the defeat of communism. Jihadism has its...]]> Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600 In the LA Times, nation editor Katha Pollitt called it "an insulting choice" to Obama's supporters. After all, how can a man who urged his flock to vote for Proposition 8 in California, which overturned a state Supreme Court decision imposing gay marriage, be invited to pray at Obama's inauguration? Are not those of us who worked to overturn Proposition 8 just like people who oppose interracial marriage? Isn't such a person supposed to be radioactively bigoted -- akin to George Wallace, barring the schoolroom door with dogs and raised billy clubs?

Yet here is President-elect Obama, in a fit of patriotic grace, busting the hard left's new narrative line about how scary it is that...]]> Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600 "The Gods of the Copybook Headings," as Rudyard Kipling put it 100 years ago, promise that much.

Bankrupt. Some $50 billion vanishes because one man decides, inexplicably, to steal rather than to invest. And why in the world did he do it? Bernard Madoff was a wealthy man, the former head of the Nasdaq exchange. Why engage in a Ponzi scheme when the one thing you know about Ponzi schemes is that they must come tumbling down?

"They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings. So we worshipped the gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things."

Yes, we've all been caught up in the perpetual promise of "the Fuller Life," which as the poet...]]> Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600 So President Bush, apparently delighted with the success Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has had as our banking czar at jump-starting the economy, would replicate that model for another industry and concentrate immense power in one politician's hands in the vain hope that something good will come of it.

What Washington has exacted from the auto industry so far is what Washington specializes in: moral kabuki theater. Oh, they are going to be so especially strict on those awful car executives: No pay for you auto executives! (Oh yes, they will let you failed executives keep your jobs and attempt to bail out your stock price, but they're hoping maybe the voters won't notice.)

I...]]>