This is not an argument about birth control, nor is it part of some “War on Women” waged by misogynistic clerics and their political allies from the fever swamps of the Right. The mandate is being legally challenged, in twelve different federal district courts, on the grounds that it violates the provisions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment’s guarantee of the free exercise of religion. If those legal protections mean anything, they must mean that neither religious institutions nor individuals can be compelled to provide “services” that are readily available through means other than coercing religiously informed consciences. Contraceptives are more readily available in the United States in 2012 than either cigarettes or beer. There is no compelling public need to dragoon institutions and individuals who conscientiously object to providing them into doing so — with the threat of ruinous financial penalties if they do not.

I could not agree more.  Read it all.  The fate of civil society in the United States truly is at stake, and we move into a dangerous laicization (rather than the religious pluralism America has traditionally enjoyed) should this last-dtich effort by the Catholic bishops fail.

Now, to make matters worse, here is Paul Ryan, a congressman of uncommon intelligence who can ably argue the public-policy implications of Catholic social doctrine and who understands that what the Church asks of a just society is the empowerment of the poor: breaking the cycle of welfare dependency and unleashing the creativity the Church believes God builds into every human soul.

Ryan is the dissenting Catholic’s worst nightmare, and his demonization from that quarter has just begun. Ryan is a big boy, though, and he’ll fight his corner well. That argument might even lead to some consensus about empowerment-based anti-poverty strategies and fiscally responsible social-welfare policies among serious Catholics of both political parties.

Read it all.

The number of leading lights within the faithful remnant of Catholicism are running intellectual circles around the half-hearted socialists who put their political religions in front of their Catholic faith.  Ryan’s key points this morning at Georgetown University drove it home — you can’t steal from the future and call that prosperity.

…or better entitled, why a third-party run is a really bad idea:

We need 8 years to quietly infiltrate the Republican Party’s county organizations, especially in rural counties where Democrats are dominant. Nobody wants to be a Republicans in in those counties. Ron Paul Republicans should take advantage of this.

No one wanted to be a Republican in the South, 1877-1960. In 1964, Southern conservative Republicans’ patience paid off. Lyndon Johnson lost the South. The Republicans took it and kept it.

This can happen again in counties that are not inner-city counties. Most aren’t.

Ron Paul, as a good Republican, needs to put aside some of his campaign money to put together a post-election team of specialists in winning local elections. They need to set up an online training program for Republican activists who will become the next generation of leaders at the county level.

Great post worth reading.  Tom Woods has more on the give and take here.

I have literally been pounding the table on this for the last five years (or more).  If the Ron Paul movement or the Tea Party movement really wants success, the “light switch” theory of just-elect-em-and-we-are-done has to go.

It took 80 years for the quasi-socialist left to get us to where we are today.  We’re not going to fix it in five months or five years.

We will fix it, however, if we start taking the pragmatic long view and (1) stop the bleeding, (2) reform the way government does business, and (3) start prying out those institutions that have made society utterly reliant upon government by (4) focusing on creating more independent and self-sufficient producers rather than co-dependent consumers.

A third party effort is akin to going back into the shipyard and building a new aircraft carrier.  Better to hold a mutiny on the one we’re on now.

More tangentially… while Mitt Romney isn’t my first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or even my preferable choice, we march with the army we have.  Ron Paul supporters need to embrace the idea that only 20% of the GOP (and ideally, 10% of Americans) support the movement.

That means we need converts… and converts are made with persuasion, not force and certainly not kamikaze politics.

…and what’s worse, when the Russian president condescends to pass that request on to the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin.

Shocking and outrageous.  Since when did an American president — leader of the free world and head of the American republic — ever ask permission to do the right thing on behalf of his country?

The answer to this question is an immediate no.  The POTUS couldn’t do it in 2008; the POTUS couldn’t do it in 2012 (at least to an immediate effect).

Republicans this morning are gleefully sharing how the Democrats are more hypocritical than the right, because whereas only 18% of Republicans changed their minds from ’08 to ’12, a full 40% of Democrats changed their minds from ’08 to ’12 — ostensibly because the man in the White House changed.

Now obviously, the POTUS has very little to do with oil production.  The reason why oil prices are through the roof is because 2 billion people in Asia with roaring economies growing at 10% a year are emerging into the middle class.  A further 1 billion people are on the cusp of doing likewise.  Guess what they want?  Cars.  Trucks.  Equipment.  The list goes on…

This isn’t Obama’s fault, but rather a macro-level good ol’ fashioned supply and demand problem.

Of course, did Democrats suddenly realize this in say, 2009?  I leave the reader to your own conclusions on that matter… so yes, the point being made in Republican circles does have some degree of merit.

Consider this before we all go running off the cliff though — Obama does have the ability to pursue through policy alternative means of energy production.  America has 300 years of proven coal reserves in the ground as of today.  America has proven oil and gas reserves that we refuse to tap.  The blocking of the Keystone XL pipeline is a mindnumbing move designed to prop up an artificial economy in green energy — a technology that despite the resources being thrown at it, from a physical sense, simply isn’t producing results.

Perhaps — and I’m just throwing this out there — Democrats are more forgiving to a POTUS willing to seek alternative means of energy production?  No matter how wasteful they really are at the end of the day (and especially if one views monetary units in terms of energy conversion — we simply aren’t getting any bang for our buck).

So for the short and mid-term, America could certainly use a bit less politics and a lot more common sense when it comes to cheap energy.  For the long term, the federal government should either (1) pursue effective mid-range and long-range solutions for energy production using existing resources that complement clean and powerful energy solutions such as hydrogen cells, fusion, or clean coal, or (2) simply allow the free market to innovate a solution.

A $74 trillion worldwide economy will certainly find solutions much faster (and more efficiently) than a $3.8 trillion United States government.

The inventory of completed homes for sale was at 54,000 units in February. The combined total of completed and under construction is at the lowest level since this series started.

The last graph shows sales NSA (monthly sales, not seasonally adjusted annual rate).

In February 2012 (red column), 25 thousand new homes were sold (NSA). Last year only 22 thousand homes were sold in February (although 2012 is a leap year). This was the second weakest February since this data has been tracked – the third weakest was February 2010 with 27 thousand homes sold. The high for February was 109 thousand in 2005.

So what does this mean for the economy?  A couple of things.

First, the market has bottomed out once again in the aftermath of the mortgage tax credit repeal, probably one of the more poorly thought out decisions of the Obama administration in terms of raw policy.

Second, as the market picks up steam, the demand for new homes will improve — a metric that impacts over two dozen key American manufacturing sectors.

The bottom line?  The recovery cometh (and right soon) provided that energy prices or a Euro collapse doesn’t spray Roundup on some very firm green shoots.  The only additional caveat?  3% GDP growth will more than likely be the “new normal” for a few years until the American consumer finally pays down their credit card debt.  Once that happens in late 2013… the inflationary pressures of two rounds of qualitative easing could pose a significant threat to the economy.

As always… fear the boom, not the bust.

It’s indisputable that the Anglosphere no longer enjoys the overwhelming global dominance that it once had. What was once a globe-spanning empire is now best understood as a union of language, culture, and shared values. Yet what declinists overlook is that despite its current economic problems, the Anglosphere’s fundamental assets—economic, political, demographic, and cultural—are likely to drive its continued global leadership. The Anglosphere future is brighter than commonly believed.

Read it all. Or skim it for some pretty powerful graphs demonstrating the combined power of the Anglosphere plus India.

The ghost of the British Empire haunts us still, for better or worse.

“I’m planning on winning here in Michigan and also in Arizona,” Romney said Monday on Fox News — one of a half-dozen media appearances he scheduled in addition to three campaign stops. “Obviously, that will be huge for us if we’re able to do, particularly having come from so far behind here in Michigan.”

Umm… Governor?  You should’t be behind in Michigan in the first place.

For the next two decades, Richelieu was a crucial player in French and European politics, but with his position resting on his ability to please and manipulate his vain, stubborn, and temperamental royal master — whom Blanchard nicely describes as “worn out by inner torments, military battles, and furious hunting.” As a Spanish diplomat of the time put it, Richelieu had come “closer to Jupiter, but also to his thunder.” Blanchard might have dwelt somewhat more on this fascinating relationship, in which Richelieu not only flattered the king endlessly but also made sure the monarch was surrounded by attractive young men. Above all, Richelieu became a mentor to Louis, someone able to scold the king for his shortcomings, sometimes even in public.

As Richelieu’s star and influence rose, Marie grew resentful of her former protégé, and a showdown became inevitable. On November 11, 1630, Marie exploded at the cardinal in front of the king, showering him with insults and forcing him to beg for mercy on his knees. Louis, apparently struck dumb by the outburst, left without acknowledging Richelieu, and Marie’s supporters rejoiced that their nemesis the cardinal had fallen. That evening, the king summoned Richelieu to his hunting lodge at Versailles — for his execution, the cardinal thought, assuming he had finally lost the high-stakes poker game of court politics. Overcoming his urge to flee, Richelieu obeyed the king’s command and discovered that he was in fact being restored to royal favor, in an episode that would become known as the Day of the Dupes, with Marie’s leading allies arrested instead the next morning. By 1642, Louis could write to Richelieu, “I have never loved you so much. We have been together for too long ever to be separated.”

Thus the career began.  Great read to print off for a lunch break.

Part of the reason for Santorum’s surge is his own high level of popularity. 64% of voters see him favorably to only 22% with a negative one. But the other, and maybe more important, reason is that Republicans are significantly souring on both Romney and Gingrich. Romney’s favorability is barely above water at 44/43, representing a 23 point net decline from our December national poll when he was +24 (55/31). Gingrich has fallen even further. A 44% plurality of GOP voters now hold a negative opinion of him to only 42% with a positive one. That’s a 34 point drop from 2 months ago when he was at +32 (60/28).

Romney bought carried CPAC with 38%, which means (for those of us doing the math) a full 62% of the supposedly locked up “base” voted against Romney as their candidate of choice.

Ouch.

Meanwhile, Ron Paul appears to be on the verge of a make-or-break Maine primary contest after having ditched CPAC… or after having been wholesale uninvited to CPAC according to folks on the ground.