John H. Richardson (Esquire.com) offers up an interesting collection of facts that seem to confirm -- again -- that:
Gay marriage doesn't have any negative effects on so-called traditional families...
Not only have gay rights had no effect on constantly expanding population rates, but they've had no effect on traditional marriage in those European countries where they have the most extensive legal protections. Similarly, the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts hasn't changed a relevant fact: Massachusetts has one of the lowest divorce rates in the United States. This is relevant because divorce is the real threat to American families, having broken up more than fifty percent of all marriages since it achieved widespread acceptance.
The most pro-gun states seem to have the most gun problems...
In this country, ten states supply fifty-seven percent of the guns that police recover from criminals in all other states. When compared to the ten states that supplied the fewest firearms, a recent nationwide
analysis found that those ten gun-toting states also had nearly sixty-percent more homicides and three times as many cops dead from gunfire.
Countries that allow legal abortions have lower abortion rates...
According to the
Guttmacher Institute,
the lowest abortion rates in the world are in Belgium, the Netherlands,
and Germany -- less than ten for every one thousand women aged fifteen
to forty-four. The highest abortion rates, meanwhile, are in Africa,
Latin America, and the Caribbean, where the numbers ranges between
twenty-five and thirty-nine percent per thousand. That's nearly four
times as many dead babies.
...
Counterintuitive as it may seem, the facts remain that abortion is most rare in countries where it is legal and readily available, and most common in those where it is illegal or difficult to obtain. This is largely because the countries where abortion is legal also have better sex education and more access to birth control. So, to some extent, the good and sincere people who call themselves "pro-life" have the blood of millions of babies on their hands. These are the facts in the real world, as it actually exists.
As Richardson points out, in each of these issues, the wingnuttery focuses on distraction and avoids the real issues. Gay marriage is hardly the threat to families that divorce is. It's not being unAmerican to want to regulate guns, it's about saving lives and having less dead cops. And as abhorrent as abortion is in the abstract, it is less common when legal.
There are a lot of people who sure hate that facts get in the way of their crusades.
Shocking, I know.
