May 2, 2026

MARRIAGE AND ITS DISCONTENTS:

America’s rapidly changing demographics on the marriage question do not, however, tell the whole story. More ominously, American society today is now divided between the enlightened few and the unenlightened many. On one side stands reason, morality, freedom, equality, progress, compassion, decency, and love, and on the other side stands nothing but the forces of superstitious irrationalism, reactionary stupidity, Troglodytish bigotry, and segregationist oppression. To support the institution of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is now seen by many as illiberal, which means bad. It is the Forces of Light set against the Forces of Darkness. This Manichean world is now divided into binary categories of Us and Them, Friends and Enemies, Saints and Sinners, Believers and Infidels, all of which can be reduced to “The Good” and “The Evil.” The unwashed masses that stand for traditional marriage are said to suffer from a new kind of mental illness: homophobia.

Not surprisingly, many conservatives and libertarians have either waved the white flag of surrender, or they have begun calling for a brokered truce on the marriage issue before any real intellectual engagement has taken place. But a truce was never an option for the proponents of same-sex marriage. Nary a shot was fired in the cultural battle over same-sex marriage before the Nervous Nellies of the Right vacated the intellectual battlefield and began their fast retreat. This would suggest that they quickly realized they had been wrong on the marriage issue, that they are intellectual cowards, or compromising pragmatists.

Thus, it was only a matter of time before Ross Douthat, the lone “conservative” columnist at The New York Times and a supporter of traditional marriage, waved the white flag asking in a whimpering op-ed for “The Terms of Our Surrender.” Douthat conceded unconditional defeat on the marriage issue and expressed his hope that the conquering forces would treat him and his friends humanely.

Make no mistake about it: this is a cultural revolution the likes of which has never been seen before.

Still, for the tens of millions of unenlightened Americans stuck in the here-and-now, the question of marriage is a living and not a settled issue. It is not going away anytime soon. In fact, we may very well be witnessing the beginning and not the end of the marriage debate. Thoughtful Americans on both sides of the issue are right to wonder about the true meaning and long-term consequences of redefining marriage politically. The form in which this conversation takes place will be a test of who we are as a nation.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 12:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

I KNEW STEVE COHEN WHEN I INTERNED AT THE STATE SENATE IN COLLEGE. HE WAS VERY WHITE.

That fried chicken isn’t fooling anybody, Steve.

Posted at 12:31 pm by Glenn Reynolds

I’LL TAKE “WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF A SUNK COST FALLACY” FOR $500, ALEX:

UPDATE: Bill Maher drags Gavin Newsom for high-speed rail and sky-high gas in blistering interview.

Thus proving it’s possible to crash in a fiery train wreck despite no track ever been laid.

Posted at 11:44 am by Ed Driscoll

LIMITED TIME DEAL: Furbo Mini 360°. #CommissionEarned

Posted at 10:02 am by Helen Smith

THIS IS WHY IT’S DROPPING OUT OF THE NEWS:

Posted at 8:18 am by Glenn Reynolds

GOODER AND HARDER, SEATTLE:

Posted at 8:14 am by Ed Driscoll

THAT’S THE ONLY KIND THEY PLAY THERE: Playing Dirty Pool at the International Criminal Court. The story is described as “a ball of snakes,” but that’s also a pretty good description of the ICC itself, along with most of the other international institutions and bureaucracies.

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

JAMES TARANTO: The SPLC Is a Journalism Scandal.

Around the time the SPLC began the litigation campaign, it launched a project called Klanwatch to monitor and report on KKK activities. Klanwatch ultimately grew into “the broader-based Intelligence Project, which tracks extremists and produces the S.P.L.C.’s annual hate-group list,” Mr. Moser wrote.

According to the indictment, between 2014 and 2023 the field sources contributed information to at least three SPLC publications: Intelligence Report, “a magazine-like periodical”; Hatewatch, a blog; and Intelligence Project Dispatch, “a monthly online publication issued by the Hatewatch Staff.” This seems to have been the informants’ main function in recent decades. The SPLC’s principal activity has been gathering information and presenting it to the public in printed and online media. That is known as journalism.

Here’s what SPLC journalism looks like: The indictment alleges that “a high-level SPLC employee” used the documents F-9 stole from the National Alliance as the basis for a Hatewatch story. A former chairman of the same group, F-42, “was featured on the SPLC’s ‘Extremist File’ webpage.” The center denounced F-42 as an extremist with one hand and paid him $140,000 with the other, according to the indictment.

To observe that the SPLC practices journalism isn’t to give it a seal of approval. To the contrary, it is to insist that the center’s work be judged by the ethical standards of journalism. In America at least, respectable journalists don’t pay sources for information—much less hire sources to obtain information illegally, as the SPLC allegedly did with F-9. We don’t deliberately deceive our readers, as the SPLC allegedly did by attributing F-9’s theft to F-39 and by publishing an exposé of F-42 that concealed the most interesting and pertinent fact about him—that he was on the SPLC payroll.

It’s also a financial scandal as well:

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll

LEFTISTS ARE GARBAGE (CONT’D):

Posted at 7:00 am by Glenn Reynolds