social issues Archives | Restoring Liberty

Homosexual Marriage Hype: A Social Experiment Without Science Behind It

March 28, 2013/0 Comments/in Featured, Opinion /by Nelson Lund

Photo Credit: Agence France-Presse

The Supreme Court is hearing two cases this week that represent a challenge to one of the oldest and most fundamental institutions of our civilization. In Hollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor, the court is being asked to rule that constitutional equal protection requires the government to open marriage to same-sex couples.

The claimed right to same-sex marriage is not in the Constitution or in the court’s precedents, so the court must decide whether to impose a new law making marriage into a new and different institution. The justices are unlikely to take so momentous a step unless they are persuaded that granting this new right to same-sex couples will not harm children or ultimately undermine the health of our society.

A significant number of organizations representing social and behavioral scientists have filed briefs promising the court that there is nothing to worry about. These assurances have no scientific foundation. Same-sex marriage is brand new, and child rearing by same-sex couples remains rare. Even if both phenomena were far more common, large amounts of data collected over decades would be required before any responsible researcher could make meaningful scientific estimates of the long-term effects of redefining marriage.

The conclusions in the research literature typically amount at best to claims that a particular study found “no evidence” of bad effects from child rearing by same-sex couples. One could just as easily say that there is no reliable evidence that such child-rearing practices are beneficial or harmless. And that is the conclusion that should be relevant to the court.

Social-science advocacy organizations, however, have promoted the myth that a lack of evidence, so far, of bad effects implies the nonexistence of such effects. This myth is based on conjecture or faith, not science.

Happy-Face Statism

February 11, 2013/0 Comments/in Featured, Opinion /by Wesley J. Smith

Photo Credit: Dancing TunaFor the last decade, some social scientists have been arguing that “happiness measurements” should replace or supplement established economic standards to judge a society’s “success.” Many environmentalists also support the idea as a way of putting lipstick on policies that could slow down economic growth. And now, the idea is deemed ready to leave the ivory tower for implementation as government policy.

One can understand the appeal for the ruling elite and their camp followers of consultants and lobbyists. If government assumes the power to promote happiness, officials would have to “consult with experts” to figure out criteria by which a society’s “gross happiness index” could be measured. (As we will see below, that process has already started.) Once these standards were determined, a new bureaucracy would have to be established—let’s call it HAA, the Happiness Advancement Administration—to promote happiness goals and enforce happiness regulations. One could even imagine a presidential debate, in which the challenger looks into the camera and earnestly asks, “Has your government made you happier today than you were four years ago?”

We have already started down Happiness Road. Bhutan recently established a National Happiness Commission, chaired by the prime minster, which must give all legislation a happiness seal of approval before it can become law.

One could shrug off Bhutan’s law as a consequence of the altitude. But the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution in 2011 calling on all member states to promulgate national standards of happiness. The resolution states that “gross domestic product . . . does not adequately reflect the happiness and well-being of people in a country” and that “sustainable development” and a “more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth” will best encourage the “happiness and well-being of all peoples.” Sounds like a prescription for wealth redistribution and rationalizing reduced prosperity to me.

An article published in National Affairs reported that “the twenty-seven nations of the European Union also plan to move ‘beyond GDP,’ complementing their official measures of economic output with measures of well-being drawn from happiness literature.” What better way to divert our attention from declining standards of living than to have government and the media trumpet proud claims of improved collective happiness?

Sluts and Condoms for Obama

September 7, 2012/3 Comments/in Featured, Kathleen's Korner /by Washington Examiner

You only have to step outside the Democratic National Convention center in downtown Charlotte where vendors and special interest groups are hawking their goods to realize that the Democrats have become the party of hard-edged social issues, not the GOP.

While the Republicans have largely tried to follow former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ suggestion that they stick to economic issues, the Democrats have gone hog wild on social issues like abortion, contraception and same sex marriage.

Consider the dozens of pink-shirted Planned Parent representatives. As the crowds stroll by, they yell out “Get your ‘Protect yourself from Romney and Ryan condom,'” as they hand out pink condom packages with a single condom appropriately dyed blue.

“Everybody is pleasant,” said Planned Parenthood hawker Alissa Hanan, of Asheville, N.C., who shyly held one up for a picture.

Abortion is also a big topic with convention goers, especially those who supported Sandra Fluke, the former college student whose congressional testimony supporting government backing of contraception was hit by conservative talker Rush Limbaugh.

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