Watchmen Ministry

(RedState) The so-called “trans” tournament, featured a “Team Black” vs. “Team Pink” game that included the Boston-based “Team Trans” organization, which describes itself as “New England’s first LGBTQ+ hockey club.”

Sure enough, a video first posted by Quillette shows player #90 on Team Pink, described as a “bisexual trans woman” (man) shoving #91 on Team Black, described as a “female-to-male” (woman). The male athlete can be seen pushing the female athlete to the ice and then into the boards, resulting in a concussion. It reportedly took more than 17 minutes to get the female player stretchered and taken off the ice.

Was the shove intentional? It doesn’t matter.

In an article titled “Ignoring Biological Reality Puts Female Hockey Players at Risk,” Quillette sports writer Jonathan Kay summed it up:

The contact doesn’t look particularly serious when you watch it on video. It may even have been entirely accidental. But the size imbalance between the two skaters was so great that the Team Black player ended up being propelled head-first into the boards with enough force to deliver a concussion.  (Read More)

(Gem State Patriot) “A religion that doesn’t interfere with the secular order will soon discover that the secular order will not refrain from interfering with it.” — Fulton J. Sheen

[…]There is a difference between tolerance and acceptance. Go to countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or China if you want to see societies that don’t embrace either concept. When our religious principles do not conform to the political narrative or agenda of the political left, we are called names like “bigot” or “homophobe”, “misogynist” or worse of all CHRISTIAN! Name callers are anything but tolerant —in my most humble opinion.

As Christians we are called on to “love our neighbor” and “love the sinner and hate the sin” but we are not called on to accept acts that are sinful and destructive. We are asked by the secular progressives to stand by when a mother destroys the life of her child. The moral predicate for our beliefs? —”Mary said yes”. Ronald Reagan once said: “that it seems to me that people who favor abortion have already been born”!

We are asked to allow and tolerate for men to compete as women against women. We disagree with their premise. The moral predicate for our beliefs? —Genesis 2: I paraphrase if you please, Man and woman were made “for each other” – not that God left them half-made and incomplete: he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can be “helpmate” to the other, for they are equal as persons (“bone of my bones. . .”) and complementary as masculine and feminine. This “complementarity” can be expressed in the vocation of marriage, the religious life, or as a single person. Men and women are not the same in their bones and flesh, nor in their unique spirits that are made in the image of God.  (Read More)

(American Family News) The University of Idaho will pay $90,000 to settle a lawsuit from members of a Christian law students’ organization who claimed their freedom of speech was violated when the school’s civil rights investigation office issued no-contact orders against them.

(Washington Stand) With the explosive phenomenon of gender dysphoria continuing to ripple across America’s youth, a related but much less highlighted trend is simultaneously occurring — a movement almost completely ignored by the mainstream media. New studies are now emerging showing that the “detransitioner” movement is far larger than what is commonly acknowledged, with detransition rates nearing 30% in some instances.

The phenomenon of “gender dysphoria” (the condition of being mentally distressed due to a perceived mismatch between one’s gender identity and one’s biological sex) has seen a colossal increase among children in the United States over the last five years. A recent investigation by Reuters found that a minimum of 121,882 minors in the U.S. between the ages of 6-17 were diagnosed with gender dysphoria between 2017 and 2021, while admitting that this is probably an “undercount.” In 2021 alone, they tallied 42,167 diagnoses, an almost 70% increase from the previous year.

But thousands of young women and men who once identified as the opposite sex — many of whom attempted a “gender transition” by ingested drugs and undergoing elaborate surgical procedures to impersonate the opposite sex — are now rejecting the transgender identity and are once again embracing their natural sex.  (Read More)

(Townhall) A former Navy SEAL who came out as transgender a decade ago and has since de-transitioned is warning young people to “slow down” when it comes to irreversible “gender-affirming” care, which includes hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery.

To recap, Townhall covered how Chris Beck served for over 20 years through 13 deployments and gained experience on special operations teams including SEAL Team Six. In 2013, Beck appeared on CNN to announce that he was transitioning to live as a woman and going by the name Kristin. In an interview this month, he announced that he was de-transitioning and claimed that he was used by activists to push a radical agenda.

On Monday, Beck, 56, told the New York Post in an exclusive interview that he would have “gone about my life and never said a word” about his de-transition, but decided to speak out because “there are doctors doing surgery on 12-year-old children and that’s unacceptable.”

“Twelve-year-olds can’t get tattoos, can’t drink booze or do anything,” Beck said transgender minors. “They have not fully developed as humans and anyone who has ever had a child knows this. We can’t allow these doctors to butcher children.”  (Read More)

(Washington Stand) Trent Talbot, the CEO of Brave Books, could only shake his head at the resistance they’ve faced. “It is devastating to discover that many of our publicly-funded libraries have now become indoctrination centers that refuse to allow biblical wisdom to be taught to our children.”

[…]If this pattern of discrimination continues, Cameron warned, there will be consequences. “I hope these libraries welcome me to Indiana and New York, but should they refuse to rent me a room — like those used by drag queens in June — I am prepared to assert my rights under the Constitution in court.”

If that’s what it takes to stop the Left, so be it. “…[T]he family and the church are two great pillars of Western civilization, and those things need to be removed and taken out of the way in order to fundamentally change the power structure and the moral value code of the nation. And that’s why parents are fighting back,” Cameron told Tucker Carlson.

At the end of the day, he emphasized, “… good will always win over evil.” But that doesn’t mean Christians can sit on their hands. “We need to have heroes rise up out of the cultural darkness and pressures of our time and begin to apply these same truths in modern America and around the world so that we can see a great awakening again. We need all hands on deck.”  (Read More)

(Faith & Freedom) The American Girl website begins:

“The American Girl experience is more than just a collection of toys. It is a collection of magical moments filled with goodness—moments that will nourish a little girl’s spirit, send her imagination soaring, and make her dreams come true.” —Pleasant T. Rowland

It continues:

When Pleasant founded American Girl in 1986, she believed that great stories with aspirational characters could inspire girls to make their own positive mark on the world—and she was right. Since then, we’ve been a trusted partner in empowering girls with confidence and character.

So much for Rowland’s inspirational and aspirational American Girl. And for trust.

Now Mattel owns the product line and has chosen to abuse the popular and beloved American Girl.

Welcome to the new girl in America who is troubled, confused, and vulnerable. And exploited.  (Read More)

(Washington Stand) Throughout this series, I’ve been open about the difficulty of persecution. Now, I want to encourage you with some of the positive results — call them unexpected blessings — that can come from persecution.

But first, let’s summarize some of the risks and the steps we have talked about so far. I’ve highlighted four dangers that can knock us out if we’re not prepared for persecution: the danger of acting according to fear; the danger of the heart becoming offended toward God; the danger of pursuing pleasure as an escape; and the danger of being derailed by deception.

I’ve also suggested six steps that prepare our hearts to stand. Step one is to talk about persecution so we’re not caught by surprise. Two, develop fear of God, in the right perspective. This is the best way to counter fear of man. Three, pursue the heart of God. This is the most important thing we can do. It underlies obedience, fuels perseverance, and overcomes offense. Four, build perseverance. This is how we persist under pressure. It strengthens us against the temptation to escape through pursuing pleasure. Five, build community. And six, guard the Word. These last two are safeguards for us, our families and our churches against sliding into deception.  (Read More)

(PJ Media) “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”
—George Orwell, 1984

Orwell’s “Newspeak” is on full display. We’re almost ready for “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.” Not quite, but rest assured, we are getting there. By way of a quick review, there are these things called dictionaries. They used to be these big, frequently dusty things found in the back of classrooms or libraries. Occasionally, they have been given as gifts to young students who tried their best to look grateful. Dictionaries have migrated to a digital format and can be found online.

Once upon a time, a dictionary could be used to provide you with the correct spelling of a given word, as well as its definition. No political commentary, no “directing” people to an acceptable mindset. Just the information you needed to help you express yourself properly.

Now? Not so much.  (Read More)

(Daily Wire) A clinical investigator of the drug commonly used off-label to block puberty in trans-identifying adolescents voiced his concerns about administering the drug without conducting proper safety tests.

Dr. Marc B. Garnick, a Harvard professor, oncologist, and co-principal investigator for the drug Lupron, wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times in support of a recent investigation into the health effects of puberty blocker drugs for adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria.

“The scholarly and well-researched article raises significant safety issues about using puberty blockers in prepubescent and pubescent children as part of gender transitioning,” Garnick argued.

The letter was one of four accepted in response to the NYT article that described the “long-term physical effects and other consequences” of puberty blockers prescribed to adolescents experiencing gender distress. The other three letters, which were not written by medical professionals, criticized the article as “transphobic.”  (Read More)

(Washington Stand) The American family is in dire straits. And despite what conservative political pundits may think, the root cause is not because the Senate just passed a bill to codify same-sex marriage or because California is paying for women to fly there for abortions.

The CDC recently released their latest abortion statistics for 2020. One of the overlooked details of this year’s data is the increase in the percentage of abortions among unmarried women. The abortion rate among this demographic has always been high — around 84-85% — but it has now increased slightly to 86.3%, the highest number in 10 years. This equates out to 412 abortions for every 1,000 live births among unmarried women in the U.S. — an almost inconceivably high number.

For the American children who make it out of the womb alive, the outlook isn’t great. Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow Patrick Brown recently posted data from Pew Research Center pointing out the glaring statistic that the U.S. has a higher percentage of kids living in single parent homes (23%) than any other country in the world. The only other country above 20% is the U.K. (at 21%), which similarly has a very high unmarried abortion rate at 82%. The U.S. rate of 23% of kids living in single parent homes is more than three times higher than the world average of 7% — another startlingly high number.  (Read More)

(The Federalist) About a year and a half ago, I noticed that my son — let’s call him Andy — was putting rainbow stickers on his phone. And a friend alerted me that Andy rebuked her daughter in a group chat for being “so cisgender.” I did some delicate digging, and it became clear: My child, then 13, was flirting with going “trans.”

He’s not alone. The number of transgender-identifying kids is up 20 to 40 times since a decade ago, to 1.5 percent of all teens. And the gender facilities that say they are the experts have been unmasked. Videos and statements have revealed that doctors in these so-called clinics are willing to give 15-year-old girls double mastectomies and call it treatment.

I wasn’t about to send my son off for experimental medical interventions that didn’t treat any underlying psychological issues. In this, I think I’m representative of the silent (and bullied) majority. Still, what could I do?

The first thing I had to do was to realize that the gender cult is powerful, and I can’t control the choices and feelings of my kid. I had to accept my limits, but that didn’t mean I was helpless. Parents are still the most important influence on their kids.  (Read More)

(Standing For Freedom Center) One political philosopher put the goal of liberal progressivism in rather stark terms. He said, “Progressivism is, at its core, the hatred of your father and the rejection of God.”

While many self-proclaimed progressives might not put it like that, he’s right — at the core of their ideology is the rejection of anything and everything from the past that might hinder “inevitable progress.” This often means family. It always means biblical Christianity.

The triumph of progressivism in American culture has been on full display this week, as the Senate passed the (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act, which codifies the unconstitutional Obergefell decision “redefining” marriage in our nation.

Another way to describe progressives is as “moral revolutionaries,” and indeed they are. In Albert Mohler’s piece addressing the passage of this bill, “A massive victory for the moral revolutionaries,” he rightly noted:

“No civilization stands still. This kind of legislation is not neutral. The so-called ‘Respect for Marriage Act’ is either the sign of a civilization advancing or a civilization crumbling.”

That’s a good litmus test. Progressives see this bill as a bright beacon of advancement. For Christians, we know that this is a tell-tale sign of civilization collapse. But this is the path of progressivism: God, family, and marriage must get out of the way as the arc of history hurtles toward their flawed conception of justice — diversity, equity, and inclusion.  (Read More)

(The Federalist) In contrast to the conservative Christians who have consistently opposed sexualizing children, Tenbarge is only concerned with ensuring that the sexuality children are exposed to is rainbow-infused. This view is increasingly normal, and it is the result of social conservatives having lost repeatedly for decades. This is the world liberalism created. The many victories won by the sexual and cultural revolutionaries are the reason we are now trying to hold the line against child drag shows and sterilizing children.

Of course, there are some people who eagerly signed up for the toboggan ride down the slippery slope and are only now wondering why there aren’t any brakes. These people persuaded themselves that the cultural and sexual revolutions would go just as far as they were comfortable with, and not any further. But the real, consistent resistance to those revolutions has always been from people and communities providing a comprehensive critique against — and a lived alternative to — them.

The people trying to hold the line now are mostly the same people who have been doing so for decades, and though they have rarely been victorious, they have often been vindicated. The abolition of long-standing sexual mores and obligations was supposed to make people freer and happier. But sexual liberation has brought misery, along with continued inequality and exploitation. The sexual revolution gave us less bliss and far more loneliness, suffering, and fatherlessness than promised. Even liberal feminists such as Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times are acknowledging the problems the sexual revolution has created, especially for women.  (Read More)

(PJ Media) Per reporting via the Los Angeles Daily News, DNC darling and 2024 presidential hopeful Gov. Gavin Newsom has passed Californians’ vax status to an outfit called Street Level Strategy, apparently for the purpose of prodding “vaccine-hesitant” residents into getting vaxxed and haranguing the already-vaxxed to get boosted.

Political consulting firm Street Level Strategy, LLC, a custodian of Californians’ private medical records, bills itself as “a public affairs firm that specializes in grassroots mobilization, community organizing, digital organizing, and strategic consulting for a range of clients including Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, and trade associations.”

One L.A. resident quoted in the report said, “I’m being stalked by the state of California. I just got a call from a guy who told me he has my file and he sees I got the Pfizer vaccine, but not a booster.”

Pressed for comment, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) responded that “MyTurn, the state’s vaccine appointment program launched by CDPH, shares a list of booster eligible California residents with Street Level Strategy, LLC that includes names, age, gender, ethnicity, contact information and vaccination history in order to prioritize equity, with a focus on reaching communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

(Vaguely defined “equity,” of course, being the ultimate excuse for state abuse of power, since challenging any program devoted to promoting “equity” automatically renders one a bigot.)  (Read More)

(Daily Signal) Organized far-left protesters repeatedly disrupted a pro-life banquet on Thursday hosted by a pregnancy resource center that was vandalized with pro-abortion sentiments this summer.

The incident is part of an ongoing effort by leftist protesters to pressure and intimidate pro-life advocates who offer women alternatives to abortion. Since the May leak of the draft opinion showing that Roe v. Wade would soon be overturned, scores of pregnancy resource centers have been attacked.

The anti-fascist group ShutDownDC has repeatedly protested at the homes of lawmakers and Supreme Court justices. That group confirmed in a Twitter post that seven individuals disrupted the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center banquet on Thursday evening.

Security escorted protester Vincent Vertuccio from the room after he began jumping up and down during the banquet and screaming that Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center was a “fake clinic” that lies to women. Vertuccio, who did not respond to requests for comment, repeatedly bragged on social media that he enjoyed the banquet’s “fantastic” food.

“The people that attack reproductive healthcare, welcome fascists with open arms, and expect to dine in peace while ripping our rights from us don’t deserve a minute of peace until they stop their attacks on our communities,” he said on Twitter. “I was proud to disrupt their banquet.”  (Read More)

(Daily Wire) Actor Kirk Cameron — and a proposed story hour event promoting his latest faith-based book — have been rejected by 50 public libraries so far, publisher Brave Books says.

According to a Fox News Digital report published early Wednesday morning, Cameron’s team reached out to dozens of public libraries in the hopes that some would be willing to host an event for his latest book, “As We Grow” — but at the time of publication, not a single one had returned a “yes.”

Among those rejecting Cameron’s event was Rochambeau Public Library in Providence, Rhode Island — a library that hosts a recurring program for members of the LGBTQ+ community who are aged 12 or older called “Queer Umbrella.”

Queer Umbrella is billed as a “club and safe space where teens can learn, discuss and connect over queer history, art, community resources, and more.”

A representative from the Rochambeau Public Library told Cameron that they did not have any interest in hosting his event.

“No, we will pass on having you run a program in our space,” the library said, adding, “We are a very queer-friendly library. Our messaging does not align … You can fill out the form to reserve space, to run the program in our space — but we won’t run your program.”  (Read More)

(Washington Stand) “Have you ever been denied a meal because of your beliefs?” Victoria Cobb asked. Because she has. The head of the Virginia Family Foundation spent the weekend grappling with the news that a local Richmond restaurant, Metzger Bar and Butchery, refused to serve her organization because of its conservative views. And if the Democrats’ get their way with the bill to redefine marriage, guess what? A lot more Americans might have to go hungry.

Metzger Bar and Butchery had already agreed to rent a private room to the foundation a week or two earlier. But when one of Cobb’s staffers went to check on details the night of the event, she got a call from one of the restaurant’s managers telling them they had to cancel. Her first thought was, “Is this a COVID thing?” Turns out, it was an outbreak of something else: intolerance.

A server had apparently seen the reservation under the Virginia Family Foundation’s name and objected. As Cobb relayed to Virginia Business, Metzger’s explained that they have a lot of LGBT-identifying waitstaff who “were presumably opposed to some of the organization’s political stances…”  (Read More)

(Washington Stand) In an all-black outfit, fitting for a funeral of freedom, Lummis talked about the personal journey that led her to betray her faith and base. It was a “painful exercise in accepting admonishment,” Lummis admitted. There was “fairly brutal self-soul searching,” which she admitted was “entirely avoidable had I simply chosen to vote no.”

For a full minute, Lummis launched into a series of compelling reasons to oppose the bill, arguments that should have talked her out of this misguided path. “The Bible teaches that marriage is between one man and one woman,” she said. “I accept God’s word — including God’s word as to the definition of marriage. I support my church’s adherence to that biblical pronouncement. I support Wyoming’s statute, which codifies that definition. I find solace in people and organizations that share my beliefs.”

Then, in a surprisingly candid twist, Lummis talked about the hostility she’s experienced from the Left for her views. “I, and many like me, have been vilified and despised by some who disagree with our beliefs. They do not withhold bitter invective. They use their own hateful speech to make sure that I and others who believe as I do now, that we are hated and despised by them.” Then, looking up from her script, Lummis said pointedly that people on the conservative side of marriage “can relate to ill treatment.”

So why stray? Why turn her back on years of personal and public conviction? Because, in Lummis’s mind, surrender is the only way to prove her tolerance.  (Read More)

(Daily Wire) Ohio parents are suing their local school board over a new transgender policy that allows students to use the bathroom and locker room that correspond with their gender identity.

A group of Muslim and Christian parents in Bethel, Ohio, filed a civil lawsuit in federal court on November 22 against Bethel Local School District’s school board, seeking to halt the district’s new bathroom policy.

The parents say the policy violates their parental rights and Constitutional religious rights, as well as Title IX and Ohio state law.

The lawsuit claims that children of the plaintiffs “hold their urine and avoid using the restroom at school if at all possible” due to the policy. If the children do use the restroom, it causes them “anxiety and emotional distress,” and they fear they will be exposed to the opposite sex, the suit says. One of the children, a ninth grade girl, takes a friend with her to make sure no boy “violates her modesty.”  (Read More)

(The Federalist) Politico published what it called a “Special Report” over the weekend, chronicling the experiences of families with transgender-identifying youths who have moved because of state laws that place restrictions on wrong-sex treatments for underage children. As when reading all corporate media coverage, readers should ask: What narrative is this writer pushing? But in this one-sided, pro-trans, and anti-science article, Politico leaves no doubt.

Underpinning the story lies the premise that encouraging children to undergo complicated medical procedures to attempt to change their sex (impossible) provides unalloyed benefits to the youths in question. But just because Politico says something doesn’t necessarily make it so.

I should preface my comments by stating that I do not have a medical background in endocrinology or otherwise. I won’t pretend to know the “right” way or “wrong” way to treat someone with gender dysphoria, although I hope that all God’s children get treated with dignity and respect.

But as someone who works in health policy, I have noticed several instances in recent months in which high-profile people have begun questioning the effects of puberty blockers and treatments that involve extensive hormone therapies and gratuitous surgeries that irreversibly damage people. Having come across these data points during my health policy work, I found the Politico piece striking for what it excluded.  (Read More)

(PJ Media) Joshua Heath, a junior research fellow at Cambridge University in England, preached a sermon at an Evensong service this past Sunday. According to Fox News, Heath made the case that Christ’s body could be seen as a trans body. He said that non-erotic portrayals of Jesus’ genitalia in works of art should be used to create a welcoming voice for trans people, not a hostile one. Heath also displayed medieval paintings of the Crucifixion, showing Christ’s side being pierced by the spear. Heath noted that the wound had the appearance of a vagina and that the blood that issued from it flowed toward Christ’s groin. The sermon contained the phrase, “In Christ’s simultaneously masculine and feminine body in these works, if the body of Christ, as these works suggest, [is] the body of all bodies, then his body is also the trans body.

While hostility has no place in the church, Heath was reaching to make his point. And it was a long stretch indeed. Many of those in attendance were offended, and some even left in tears while others shouted that Heath was committing heresy. One churchgoer wrote to Dr. Michael Banner, the dean of Trinity College, “I am contemptuous of the idea that by cutting a hole in a man, through which he can be penetrated, he can become a woman. I am especially contemptuous of such imagery when it is applied to our Lord, from the pulpit, at Evensong. I am contemptuous of the notion that we should be invited to contemplate the martyrdom of a ‘trans Christ,’ a new heresy for our age.” Banner has come to Heath’s defense, stating that Heath raised legitimate speculation about the nature of Christ. He has also maintained that perceiving Christ’s body as both male and female could help people think about transgender issues.

(Washington Stand) Despite the constantly shifting sands of the culture war, one could hope that there is still moral territory where common ground between conservatives and liberals can be found; namely, protecting children from the likes of pedophiles and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) producers. If the lack of shared public concern about harbingers of pedophilia is any indication, however, the complete moral desolation of western society may have already arrived on our doorstep.

A recent high-profile instance of mainstream pedophilia propaganda has appeared in two ad campaigns from the luxury fashion brand Balenciaga. In one disturbing campaign, the brand photographed gloomy-looking children holding stuffed animals dressed in BDSM gear, surrounded by alcohol and items associated with violent sexual fetishes. In the second campaign, an office-themed set included documents from the United States v. Williams Supreme Court case, which centered on CSAM.

[…]In its frantic scramble to avoid condemnation, Balenciaga has admitted that the content featured in its ad campaigns was highly disturbing; mainstream media outlets, however, appear hellbent on defending both the luxury brand and the pedophilic content. Popular fashion magazine Elle marveled at how, “anything that comes even close to sexualising children — which clearly wasn’t the intention here, and arguably wasn’t the final product — invites loud, impassioned, and endless backlash.”  (Read More)

(Dennis Prager) What would you think of a person who never asked the price of anything he or she bought?

You would assume the person was inordinately wealthy. But if the person wasn’t, you would dismiss him as a fool, and you would certainly never ask this person for advice about how to spend your money.

Yet, for two years, that question — “What is the price?” — was avoided by virtually every political leader in the world as well as the vast majority of epidemiologists and physicians, journalists and editors, college presidents, deans, professors and K-12 teachers.

They never asked, “What is the price?” with regard to locking down businesses, schools and, in many cases, entire countries.

That is why so many political leaders, teachers, college presidents, doctors, epidemiologists and other scientists turned out to be fools.

The handful of scientists — and, of course, the even smaller number of academics or people in the mainstream media — who questioned the lockdowns were labeled purveyors of “misinformation” and “disinformation,” the terms used by the Left to describe all dissent. Indeed, as of January 2023, California physicians who differ from the fools who dominate the American medical establishment will risk having their license to practice medicine revoked.  (Read More)

(The Federalist) No matter how you define “marriage,” there is zero respect for it in the so-called Respect for Marriage Act.

You may believe it serves to federally codify the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision that rejected marriage as a male-female union. Maybe it would do so temporarily. But that’s not the endgame.

If you’re paying attention, you can see that the Senate’s recent 62-37 vote for cloture on HR 8404 puts us one step closer to abolishing state recognition of marriage entirely. That’s where this train is headed.

This will happen the same way such things always happen — through a demonization campaign that frames skeptics as bigots who are guilty of discrimination. That’s how you get Democrat-pliable Republicans such as Mitt Romney and craven Supreme Court justices like Anthony Kennedy to sign on. That’s how you manufacture a public opinion cascade, warning average Americans that they’ll be pummeled with lawsuits and ostracism if they dare think out loud.

And that’s how Democrats in Congress are likely in the not-too-distant future — via HR 8404 — to make the case that marriage actually comes with privileges that discriminate against the unmarried. Disagree? You’re a bigot who deserves to be socially ostracized! Self-censorship in the face of such accusations will pave the way, as always.  (Read More)