Townhall Review | Conservative Commentary On Today's News

The Supreme Court has long recognized that parents — not the state — have the primary right to direct their children’s upbringing.

But Massachusetts apparently wasn’t listening.

In December 2024, the state took a 15-year-old girl named Sophie from her home. Her school had been helping her socially transition. When her Catholic parents refused to use a male name or support a gender transition, they lost custody. Her family says they’re now barred from contacting her.

This is un-American. Massachusetts doesn’t care more about Sophie than her parents do. And holding traditional Catholic beliefs shouldn’t cost parents their child.

How Sophie chooses to live once she’s an adult will be her decision. But while she’s still a minor, disagreement with her parents — even over something this profound — isn’t sufficient reason for the state to replace them.

Sophie belongs with her family.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It seems like every morning lately brings a new warning about artificial intelligence along the lines of, “We’re all going to die!”

Dario Amodei—Anthropic’s chief executive—struck the panic chord in a recent essay, arguing AI was advancing too quickly for researchers to continue building it safely.

Then billionaire tech investor David Sacks struck back. In a post on X, Sacks rejected the “AI doomerism,” landing a roundhouse punch:

“Stop pretending you need anyone else’s permission,” Sacks wrote.

“Stop pretending antitrust law has to be suspended so you can form a cartel. Stop pretending you need a regulatory approval process that supersedes product liability.”

China’s President Xi is not going to be satisfied with a silver medal in the AI Olympics.

Neither should we.

Unless and until Congress says “stop” and the president agrees with a signature, the private sector gets to run with the AI ball as far and as fast as it wants.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

205 Democrats voted early this month to leave the door open to packing the Supreme Court.

Everyone needs to be paying attention.

The original Constitution was silent as to the number of justices on the high court, but from 1866 to 1869, a combination of three statutes and one constitutional amendment put a constitutional imprimatur on the number nine. 

The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified on July 9, 1868, by the necessary number of states then, and Secretary of State William Seward formally proclaimed the Fourteenth Amendment as part of the Constitution on July 28, 1868.

Less than a year after ratification and certification of the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress completed the work of the Reconstruction Era with regard to the Supreme Court with the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1869.

When he came into office, President, Ulysses S. Grant, promptly signed that law.

Like the pro-slavery Democrats of antebellum America, the Democrats of today would rather wreck the Constitution than abide by it.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11, let’s remember the adage: when you lose something, do not lose the lesson. 

Did we learn the lessons of 9/11?

Those lessons include understanding the difference between good and evil, and never to confuse the two—calling evil good or good evil.  That has not been learned.

There are vast networks of terrorists in the world—all who want to destroy America and her allies. Much of the terrorist intellectual mindset now has great support in America, itself. Whether we are speaking of allies of the Muslim Brotherhood on our campuses or in Senate and House races, or in the fulminations of too many political activists, pro-Islamist anti-Americanism is more accepted and embraced in America today than at any other time in our history.

The lesson now?  We cannot abandon the courage of our convictions from our other anniversary—that is: 1776.  Those convictions, and the teachings about them, in our schools and in our politics, have never been more needed. 

We must do everything in our power to reinfuse them.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, Americans commemorated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks carried out by Islamist extremists.

Afterward, our leaders rightly emphasized that America’s quarrel wasn’t with Muslims generally. And millions of peaceful, patriotic Muslims have made America their home.

But tolerance can’t require us to ignore a legitimate question about assimilation. Some beliefs found in significant parts of the Islamic world — about the treatment of women, Jews, religious minorities, or those who leave the faith — are completely at odds with American principles.

America has always welcomed immigrants of every faith. But immigration only works when newcomers are willing to embrace our fundamental values — not when they seek to remake our country according to values Americans have rejected.

Twenty-five years after 9/11, asking whether we’re doing enough to encourage assimilation isn’t bigotry. It’s common sense.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.