“I try not to use multiple punctuation marks, and keep it temperate, but ‘Bush Gets It’?!?! That’s the headline you choose when the President of the United States finally, lamely, far, far too late actually deigns to speak directly to the American people with the details of how he will try to salvage some honor out of what is becoming a world-historical debacle?
It must be nice to be a president for whom expectations of seriousness, policy grasp, and communicative ability are so low that when he offers a press conference or actually takes time to describe his policies to the people he “leads”, this is news, for which we are meant to be grateful.
If by ‘Bush Gets It’ you mean ‘Bush realizes he is in serious danger of actually losing to a lackluster central-casting Democrat who can barely be bothered to campaign, and this after winning two wars and giving half the treasury back to the people in pandering tax cuts, and he knows it’s high time he actually be the president and stop just saying ‘freedom’ and ‘stay the course”, you’re right. I guess, maybe, three and a half years into his job, he finally gets it.” More new feedback on the Letters Page.
ANOTHER WRINKLE: Here’s another fascinating little nugget that proves nothing – except that the hysteria of some on the social right is misplaced. To hear some social conservatives, you’d think that all sorts of bad social phenomena are related to tolerance of gays – from illegitimacy rates to divorce and even abortion. But none of this pans out. In fact, we know that divorce and abortion rates are often higher in those regions where the religious right is strongest. But I was not aware of the following:
The Netherlands – which are also very gay-friendly – has the lowest abortion rate of any country in the world (6.5 per 1,000) – much, much lower than in the USA. Belgium has extremely pro-gay laws and an abortion rate nearly as low as The Netherlands (6.8 per 1,000). The other countries in the world with gay-marriage or marriage-lite laws – Germany (7.6), Denmark (16.1), Norway (15.6), France (12.4), and Canada (15.5) – all have significantly lower abortion rates than the USA (and also lower than most countries in the world).
Meanwhile, Eastern Europe – the least gay-friendly place in the developed world – has an incredibly high abortion rate: 90 abortions per 1,000 women age 15-44. Overall, it’s clear that gay-friendly countries have fewer abortions.
No, that doesn’t mean they’re linked. I don’t share the social science methods of Stanley Kurtz. But it’s interesting nonetheless.
The Dish 