The Lost Battle of 2010:

How President Obama Executed a Campaign Pledge and What It Means for America When a lame-duck Congress voted last December to overturn a 1993 law, one passed by huge majorities of both houses of Congress and which unambiguously proscribed homosexual conduct as incompatible with military service, the repeal engendered a widespread reaction that the whole […]

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Confronting the More Entrenched Foe:

The Disaster of No-Fault Divorce and Its Legacy of Cohabitation When Ronald Reagan signed the nation’s first No-Fault Divorce legis-lation as governor of California in 1969, little did he suspect that this policy innovation would lead not only to a dramatic increase in divorce rates but also a consequent plunge in marriage rates and a […]

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The New Outlaws:

How Same-Sex Marriage Suffocates Freedom Those advocating the radical social innovation, which they label “same-sex or gay marriage,” typically claim that they are fighting for freedom, championing a basic liberty. “Freedom to Marry” is indeed the name of a national organization devoted to the advocacy of same-sex marriage. Established in 2003 by civil-rights advocate Evan […]

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From No-Fault Divorce to Same-Sex Marriage:

The American Law Institute’s Role in Deconstructing the Family Legislative reforms that have prohibited American courts from finding fault when a man and a woman divorce are now leading the nation toward a situation in which no state would be permitted to deny a same-sex couple’s application for marriage. This turn of events owes its […]

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Downturns Dampen Divorce

Share When this journal’s editor asked Rep. Paul Ryan if his “Roadmap to Prosperity” included a provision to help reverse family breakdown, the chairman of the House Budget Committee conceded that his budget blueprint helps the family only indirectly. By presenting a plan focused on rebuilding the economy, he argued, the family would be able […]

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The Midlife Toll of Unwed Childbearing

The Book of Ecclesiastes observes that “of the making of books there is no end.” Likewise, of the research quantifying the negative outcomes of bearing children out of wedlock there is no end. Delivering some of the most recent findings, a study by a team of sociologists led by Kristi Williams of Ohio State uncovers […]

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Separating the Men from the Boys

Do young women shortchange themselves when they settle for premarital cohabitation rather than marriage plain and simple? A study by Arif Mamun of Mathematic Policy Research suggests that women literally do shortchange themselves, finding that old-fashioned matrimony, even in a day of increased prevalence of cohabitation, still generates a sizeable and robust “wage premium” for […]

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What Economic Conservatives Don’t Get

America’s Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb: How the Looming Debt Crisis Threatens the American Dream— and How We Can Turn the Tide Before It’s Too Late Peter Ferrara Broadside Books/Harper Collins, 2011; $25.99, 432 pages When he wrote The Foes of Our Household in 1917, Theodore Roosevelt noted that “reforms are excellent, but if there is nobody […]

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The Bitter Fruit of the Sexual Revolution

Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker Oxford University Press, 2010; 312 pages, $24.95 Although written two centuries ago, the novels of Jane Austen remain a fascination with many young adults living on this side of the Atlantic. It is hard to imagine a […]

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Adam Sandler, Male Drifters, and the New-Girl Economy

Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys Kay S. Hymowitz Basic Books, 2011; 284 pages, $25.99 A couple of months ago, the Yale chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon was suspended for its members’ behavior during pledge week. Pledges, many of them blindfolded, shouted out chants to their female classmates such […]

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