From Patrick Lee, John N. and Jamie D. McAleer Professor of Bioethics at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Much of what is covered here is, for us here at pw, old ground: the definition of marriage as a type of relationship turns on just how we identify what is special about that type such that the government has a unique and legally defensible interest in promoting it (I don’t share with

I’m beginning to wonder just how far back has Romney been, through his operatives, manipulating the Party, press, and other’s campaigns in order to have himself positioned as not only the inevitable candidate but President too. Quotes below from several places that seem to me to point in that direction when taken together.

Sarah Palin decries the Alinskyite tactics an organized GOP establishment has been using to clear the field for its preferred candidate, Mitt Romney, and the response from certain conservatives is to note that it is the TEA Party who profits most from the tactics of Alinsky — indeed, that it relies on them for its very political successes: Rather than reject Alinsky’s rules for radicals, the Tea Party has adopted

Two of the newer excuses trotted out in recent weeks for the continued lackluster performance of the several “Recovery Summers!” we’ve suffered through under Obama’s stewardship are as follows: first, we’re told, any comparison of the Obama economic recovery to the Reagan economic recovery is “unfair” given Reagan’s ability to factor in growth in the housing market, the single indicator that is keeping Obama’s Keynesian gimmicks from really boosting economic

It’s the new math: “New Home Sales 2011: Worst Year on Record” + “Annual GDP grew just 1.7 percent, debt nearly larger than economy” = Gee, that Obama sure is doing some damage to this country, isn’t he? There. Because I’m a giver, that’s why.

Yesterday at my son’s school was “Australia Day” (he came home with a little Australian flag affixed to his backpack with a toothpick). Today is a half day / early release day. So my question is this: did I sleep through a revolution or something? Or are there new religious observances I need to be made aware of? I mean, shit. You turn off the cable TV for one day,

And what’s the market bear these days in Democrat circles for the sale of your civil rights? A ten spot. Tell me: is it really too late to bring back a poll tax?

This one from Frank Hagen: “@proteinwisdom If you’re a conservative blogger criticizing Mitt, Newt, or Rick more than Obama, you’re doing it wrong.” Now, rather than point out that I was all but marginalized and vilified by many on the right in the blogosphere for coming out hard in opposition to Obama — and hard in opposition to those who tried to tell us that his victory meant the “era

— I’m curious why you’d expect me to reward a candidate who, in every election cycle, uses his money and his surrogates and sycophants to level insidious attacks against his opponents — not on the substance of their ideas, but rather in an attempt to smear them personally and, frankly, to ruin them. (The tell came last evening when Romney suggested to Wolf Blitzer that, in fact, Gingrich had indeed

Dan Riehl supplies the missing context. Seems like the establishment is going all in to sink Newt and give us Romney. And if they’re unable to, you can bet that they’ll point to a Gingrich defeat — which they’ll help to fuel — as proof that we need to listen to them about which candidates are “electable” going forward. Here’s the full video of Gingrich on Reagan: Incidentally, there are