With the aim of stopping future bailouts! (H/T The Maritime Sentry)
This video has lots of full-screen Michele, instead of split-screen.
Sarah Palin, who is almost as pretty as Michele Bachmann, also grabbed the spotlight by signing a bill recognizing the sovereignty of Alaska over all powers not enumerated and granted to the federal government in the Constitution.
Meh. Michele’s video is better.
UPDATE: NEW MUST-SEE Jim Demint video has been posted here on the the failed stimulus bills and Obamacare!
UPDATE: Welcome, visitors from the Corner (National Review)! Thanks for the link from Mark Steyn!
UPDATE: Welcome Canadian readers from Blazing Cat Fur! Guess what? The Democrats are trying to pass laws that will make us just like you!
Canadian readers, pay close attention, the second half of the video is all about you.
Here’s the video of my favorite Senator Jim Demint: (11:44)
You can read about how Christians are persecuted in Canada here:
But what about the right to free speech here, in the USA?
Why did some Christians vote (indirectly) for anti-Christian policies?
There are 3 themes on the Wintery Knight blog.
Regarding point #2. It has come to my attention that some well-meaning Christians, who are apparently socially and theologically conservative, nevertheless voted for Obama, because they are opposed to fiscal conservatism and small government.
Specifically, they don’t believe in things like:
Here is a breakdown of which Christian denominations voted for Obama:
(Click for full-sized image, courtesy of Pew Research)
For the record, I am an ethnic evangelical Protestant. You can read all about how I became a Christian and the list of arguments for and against Christian theism.
On this blog, I examine policies like cap-and-trade, socialized medicine and tariffs. I argue that these policies are bad for the poor. All it takes to understand the economics is a little bit of study. Christians need to study these issues so that they are not deceived by their emotions when it comes time to vote. Otherwise, we will not only hurt the poor, but we will also lose the freedoms we need to live our lives as Christians.
We should not be so envious of our neighbor’s prosperity that we are willing to sell our religious liberty and free speech rights in order to punish their success. We should not be coveting our neighbor’s goods. We should not be stealing from our neighbor, either. Instead, we should try to improve the nation’s prosperity without involving the government. And we can start by working harder, saving more and spending less.
Further study
You might be interested in Jim Demint’s book “Why We Whisper“, which I bought but have not yet finished.
If you’d like to hear more from Jim Demint, he did a 51-minute Town Hall for the Heritage Foundation on the Sotomayor nomination.
For more about free speech in Canada, see these previous posts:
For two technical articles discussing property rights and the poor, take a look at these two articles from New Zealand philosopher Matt Flanagan.
And here is an audio lecture by Jay Richards on the “Myths Christians Believe about Wealth and Poverty“. His new book is called “Money, Greed and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem“. To understand what capitalism is, you can watch this lecture about the book. Here is a series of 4 sermons by Wayne Grudem on the relationship between Christianity and economics?.(a PDF outline is here)
UPDATE: The research paper seems to have expired from the FRC web site, but you can see the whole thing here.
I found this research paper at the Family Research Council web site. The paper compares same-sex couples and heterosexual married couples, in the following ways:
Are there really significant differences between the two arrangements? Let’s take a look at the some of the data.
Relationship duration
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2001)
Source: 2003-2004 Gay/Lesbian Consumer Online Census
Monogamy vs Promiscuity
Sources:Laumann, The Social Organization of Sexuality, 216; McWhirter and Mattison, The Male Couple: How Relationships Develop (1984): 252-253; Wiederman, “Extramarital Sex,” 170.
Rates of intimate partner violence
Sources: “Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence,” U.S. Department of Justice: Office of Justice Programs: 30; “Intimate Partner Violence,” Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report:11.
Conclusion
Marriage is a relationship that has a specific purpose. That purpose is to bind together two opposite natures and to produce children that are biologically linked to the parents. The children gain the benefits of being parented by the two different natures, so they get two perspectives. The fact that the children are genetically linked to two parents helps to ensure the stability of the commitment, as we see in the animal kingdom where animals protect their young.
The goal of marriage is not to increase the happiness of the adults, or to “recognize” the love of adults. The goal of marriage is have two people enter into a relationship where they understand that it is not about adults being fulfilled. Marriage is about people having a goal of raising children, which are tremendously stressful to raise. Marriage requires self-denial and sacrifice in order to raise those children – that is the main point of it. It also requires fidelity and chastity, so that the environment is kept stable for the children over a long period of time.
Children benefit from the stability that is more common in traditional marriages than it is in other arrangements, including heterosexual co-habitation which is similarly unstable (50% greater chance of divorce, more domestic violence, etc.). Therefore, it is important to keep the concept of marriage separate from other kinds of relationships so that the focus on commitment for the sake of the children is clear to those who contemplate marriage. Society needs to give special recognition to married couples, in view of their child-focused commitment.
I apologize in advance if this post causes anyone any harm or distress, I am just trying to explain why people have that opinion. They could be wrong, but that is the case they make. Obviously, married couples fall short of the goal, but that is their goal.
Further study
Two much bigger challenges to marriage are big-government socialism and especially no-fault divorce. I also wrote about same-sex marriage and co-habitation before, in the context of European states like Sweden and Norway.
You may also be interested in a recent post about whether homosexuality is caused by a “gay gene”.
WINTERY KNIGHT 