Free Republic

ACORNÂ’s tactics live on in the senatorÂ’s elevator confrontation with activists from a Soros-backed group. On Friday morning, two women raced past reporters and security officers and blocked a senators-only elevator in the U.S. Capitol. They cornered Arizona senator Jeff Flake, who had just announced he was going to vote yes on moving Brett KavanaughÂ’s nomination out of the Judiciary Committee and onto the Senate floor for a full debate. The women wouldnÂ’t let Flake leave until they had yelled at him, face to face, for several minutes. Anyone who thinks the two left-wing activists acted without a well-thought-out plan...

Presidential candidates can have an impact on culture. Above everything else, they have the capacity to decide how to frame the issues and push them to their opponents, in the primary and in the general election. I was very grateful to Hugh Hewitt for bringing up religious liberty at the CNN GOP debate in Houston, as the question that is "keeping him up at night." Here's the full exchange with all the candidates: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO But the way he asked the question made it far easier to punt or even, as John Kasich did, to...

Senator Marco Rubio, one of our most attractive and charismatic leaders in the rising generation, just announced he’s running for president. So naturally he’s being peppered with the one question uppermost in the minds of American voters: What do you think of gay marriage? Rubio is getting this hit, in part, because he’s trying to negotiate a Third Way: He’s for traditional marriage but will “respect” the rights of states to disagree. He thinks states should have the right to decide the definition of marriage, but (unlike Ted Cruz) he refused to sign onto an amicus brief asking the Supreme...

Politico treated it the way we treat news stories nowadays, in our celebrity-driven culture in which a beloved actor’s suicide can drive front-page news for a whole week: “Media Matters’ David Brock expands empire,” it reported.David Brock may not be exactly an A-lister, but he is one of a contemporary cluster of insiders who have changed the way the “mainstream media” game is played. Bias, once the offshoot of genteel groupthink, has become progressively, aggressively organized. Advertisement Under the old model, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which played a key role in bringing down Jack Abramoff and...

Right now most people who believe in the classic understanding of marriage are in shock, they are awed by the powers now shutting down the debate and by our ineffectualness at responding to these developments. The temptation to shout and yell and stamp our feet in ineffectual ridiculousness is understandable, but it is to be resisted. The version of America we were born into is no more.... The rapid collapse of opposition to gay marriage we are witnessing did not just happen, and it was not inevitable. But it is.... Hiding or pretending is not going to help us, now....

Ben-Peter: What are the two worst “pro-gay marriage” arguments you’ve heard? Maggie Gallagher: “It’s not going to affect you” and “It’s inevitable.” When government adopts the core moral idea driving same-sex marriage, it’s going to change the meaning of marriage for everyone, and in ways that will make it very hard for those most committed to marriage—traditional faith communities—to act on our values in public and therefore to transmit these values to the next generation. Nothing is inevitable but death and taxes. The reason this argument is so powerful and dangerous is that it is the definition of victory in...

Equality is the state religion. If equality demands we accept that there is no difference between same-sex and opposite sex relationships, then people who cannot accept that, who do not believe it is true, will become second-class citizens – tolerated perhaps, but only in a marginalised and stigmatised way. We are already seeing the engine of state power being used to exclude traditional religious believers, especially from posts of cultural power – in the U.S. for example, graduate schools are now kicking out counselling students who say they cannot help gay couples maintain their relationships. They are willing to refer...

Thank God for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. If, when the dust settles at the ballot box this Nov. 4, California voters definitively repudiate the California Supreme Court's unjust gay marriage ruling by voting Yes on Proposition 8, Mayor Gavin Newsom will be a big part of the reason why. Even the San Francisco Chronicle acknowledged on Monday that in recent weeks, Mayor Newsom's role in the gay marriage debate "has turned decidedly unheroic." "He's become everyone's worst nightmare," said Barbara O'Connor, a professor of political communications at Sacramento State University Gay marriage is coming "whether you like it or...

Today, California same-sex couples are rushing to the altar. But this November, California voters will have their chance to say “I do” or “I do not” to gay marriage. In the meantime, what have we learned about what gay marriage will mean for gays, for marriage, and for the wider society? In just the last few months, a newly confident same-sex-marriage movement is becoming more open and revealing about the answers. The New York Times, of all places, gave us a glimpse in its front-page story this past Sunday, “Gay Couples Find Marriage Is a Mixed Bag.” What can we...

They say we are tired of culture wars. Tell that to the California Supreme Court, which didn't sound tired at all when it lobbed a big, fat hand grenade into the marriage debate. Ideas have consequences. And the California court endorsed two big, brand-new, very bad ideas. The first idea is that the internationally recognized human right to marry includes same-sex marriage. In U.S. constitutional law, fundamental human rights are those deeply rooted in our traditions. Not even in Massachussetts or in New Jersey could the courts quite stomach the idea that same-sex marriage is deeply rooted in those traditions....

Front-runner Rudy Giuliani increasingly claims the mantle of invincibility -- issues, schmissues, he's the only guy who can beat Hillary. Judging from my recent cocktail party conversations, it's having an impact. But these same conversations reveal how much wishful thinking goes into the myth of Rudy the Invincible. "I can't believe the American people will vote for that woman and her husband, a philanderer," one wealthy businessman told me. "Who are you supporting?" I innocently inquired. "Rudy," he said. Can you spell "cognitive dissonance"? Sean Hannity spends hours every afternoon criticizing those in the GOP coalition (such as Dr. James...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, JUNE 24, 2006 (Zenit.org).- After the clamor to legalize same-sex marriage, it turns out that not many homosexuals really want it. Following a bitter battle last year, the Spanish government gave homosexuals the right to marry. Since the law took effect last July 3, until May 31, only 1,275 same-sex marriages took place, reported the Madrid daily newspaper ABC last Saturday. Comparatively, that would add up to a mere 0.6% of the 209,125 marriages contracted in Spain during 2005. Of the total number of same-sex marriages, 923 were between males and 352 among females. A recent study by...

WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 10, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Children who are raised by parents who are not married are at a greater risk of depression, suicide, child abuse, domestic violence, academic failure, criminal activity and poverty.  So says Maggie Gallagher, president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and contributor to the book "The Meaning of Marriage" (Spence). Gallagher shared with ZENIT findings from studies on children with parents who never married or divorced, and the importance of traditional marriage for a child's well-being and the common good. Q: Why should Catholics be concerned about marriage in the public square? Gallagher:...

PRINCETON, New Jersey, FEB. 25, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Marriage's role as a public institution is increasingly under attack. In the midst of pressures for legalization of same-sex marriage, formal recognition of de facto couples, and the continuing problem of divorce, the traditional view of marriage is no longer clear to many people. But a volume of essays just-published collects an impressive array of evidence by leading scholars defending marriage and arguing that it serves the common good. "The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, and Morals" (Spence Publishing) is edited by Robert P. George and Jean Bethke Elshtain, professors at Princeton...

In Sunday's New York Times, Stephanie Coontz, director of public education for an outfit called the Council on Contemporary Families (which advocates for non-traditional families), administered a pop quiz on marriage. Maggie Gallagher, president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, offers the iMAPP marriage quiz, below: The iMAPP Pop Quiz on Marriage1. True or False: Young women today are more eager to marry than young men. True. According to the Monitoring the Future Survey, 82 percent of high -chool seniors who are girls said having a good marriage and family life was "extremely" important to them, compared to...

It was a battle of the sound bites yesterday at the Senate Supreme Court nomination hearings. The score? Judge John G. Roberts 1, Democrats 0. Each of the senators got first licks yesterday in a round of ceremonial speeches, but last up was Roberts himself, and he hit the ball out of the park: In his opening statement, Roberts made his role crystal clear by a homey analogy. "Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them. ... Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire." Then he promised, "And I will remember that it's...

Did you miss this story from the Guardian (via AP)? BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) - About 10,000 opposition protesters chanted "Freedom!'' and carried pictures of President Bush as they marched across Azerbaijan's capital Saturday, urging the government of this U.S. ally to step down and allow free parliamentary elections this year.... Supporters of several opposition parties chanted "Freedom!'' and "Free Elections!'' while holding placards with such slogans as "Down with robber government!'' Some carried a picture of Bush with the inscription: "We want freedom!''

Ramesh Ponnuru proposes a "Fourth Option" in the gay-marriage debate in the current issue of NR, by which he means a form of civil union or domestic partnership that would be available to non-sexual unions as well as same-sex couples. As a marriage advocate, I have no strong objection to such a proposal, provided that it is available only to couples who are not otherwise eligible for marriage, and provided that married couples are ineligible to enter such unions. (This is not a theoretical concern: The prestigious American Law Institute has already urged states to permit married people to create...

Scandal-stung Bee columnist talks to SN&R Diana Griego Erwin says she never made anyone up, criticizes the American journalism ‘witch hunt’ By Jeffrey M. Barker Diana Griego Erwin says she didn’t put this T-shirt on specifically because a reporter would be coming over to interview her. But as I am invited into her McKinley Park-area home, her white top is the first thing I notice. Its pink lettering reads: “Speak freely, while you still can.” The irony of the phrase will become increasingly apparent over the course of the morning. I’ve come here armed with a Manila folder packed with...

Newspaper Columnist Resigns After Inquiry The Sacramento Bee says Diana Griego Erwin could not confirm the identities of her sources. The writer says she did nothing wrong. By James Rainey Times Staff Writer May 13, 2005 The Sacramento Bee announced Thursday the resignation of an award-winning columnist, the latest in a series of cases across the nation in which journalists had been forced from their jobs because of questions about the veracity of their reporting. In an explanation to readers, Bee Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez wrote that Diana Griego Erwin could not adequately answer questions that first arose last month...