Good stuff at Townhall.com today.

Some points I think require my own comment:

Ann Coulter:

Since Bork, Republican presidents have put three justices on the court. Two of the three gaze upon a document that says absolutely nothing about abortion or sodomy and discern a "constitutional" right to both. (But try as they might, they still haven't been able to discern a woman's constitutional right to defend herself from rapists by carrying a pistol in her purse.) Because of the court's miraculous discovery of a right to sodomy last term, gay marriage is now on the agenda in America.

There is a very interesting discussion of the Ninth Amendment - "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." - at Talk Left, dated July 24, 2002. Clayton Craymer, who outed Micheal Bellesiles' fraudulent gun research, puts in a comment that I mostly agree with, except to say that good political thinking didn't end in 1791, though anybody doing anything but building on that thought is likely not doing good political thinking. Quite frankly, I don't think it's possible to effectively ban "buggery" or abortions that no one is complaining about (if someone is complaining that makes them assaults; or at least torts), without creating more disorder than these
activities cause.

I also think marriage is a social matter which doesn't require government sanction. The one compelling right that the gays argue for is the right to visit their lovers in the hospital. I don't get any justification for ever denying that. I suppose the AIDS victim's (or whatever) family get upset sometimes and raise a stink, but that's a good reason for the hospital to kick them all out and try to determine the victim's wishes in the matter. It's definitely a problem if those wishes contradict the reality that those people just aren't going to get along. Perhaps they'd learn how not to get kicked out of the hospital.

Brent Bozell:

Perhaps what causes many people to tremble is the idea that the security of the United States and the cause of world freedom will be left in the cynical clutches of John Kerry and the manipulative media elite that shares his reverence for diplomacy over democracy, for process over principle.

Bruce Bartlett:
Of course, one cannot know whether a more open and honest debate on Iraq would have led to a different result. But I for one would not have supported the war if I thought that its principal justification was the liberation of the Iraqi people, which is what the White House now says was its primary mission. Our military exists to defend the nation, not be the world's policeman. If there is a linkage, President Bush has yet to make it.