Carol Platt Liebau: Massachusetts' Family-Destroying Legal Move

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.

Social media influencer Hasan Piker is now the face of the Democratic party. Piker wears his Mao jacket and hoses his Twitch audience down with absurd political takes. Piker uses social media to monetize the worst impulses of the extremes in American politics. In the course of doing so, he personally carried the most radical major-party candidate in memory — Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed—to that party’s nomination for the United States Senate. Piker has now gone so “supernova radical” that some Democratic leaders have tried to rebuke him without even naming him—including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. It’s not going to work. Piker—and the socialist fever he represents—is repelling the moderate Americans who love the country especially in the Democratic party. It should not be difficult to say: voters ought to reject Hasan Piker, Abdul-El Sayed, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and I could go on—by name. They also ought to be rejected at the ballot box.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Gloria Steinem died last week, she was mourned across popular culture as a feminist icon.  But her legacy was a mixed one. Many feminist reforms of the civil rights era were necessary and right — including laws against sex and pregnancy discrimination.  But Steinem’s brand of feminism also had an anti-male streak that still poisons relations between the sexes today. She popularized the line: “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” Steinem promoted the idea that women find their greatest fulfillment through work outside the home—and Generations of women and children have paid the price. She also advocated for the abortion on demand culture that has shaped the course of our nation. There’s no question: Gloria Steinem lived an influential life. But on her impact? The jury—like our country—is split.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The morning of September 11, 2001 was stunningly beautiful. It was a promising day as it started, and yet it would end as a day of horror that would be indelibly etched into the American psyche. Those beautiful skies carried mass murder and terror. Through those skies flew airliners turned into massive bombs, carrying human passengers who were exploded into dust.  The sight of the airliners flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, smoke rising from the Pentagon, and then the towers burning and twisting and falling—all of it shown on television screens over and over again. Americans were shocked and declared that the world would never look the same again. The 25th anniversary of 9/11 demands serious moral reflection. Sadly, the anniversary also underlines massive questions about America’s role in the world, about the war on terror, and about the stark moral realities of our times. We know this, we need to pray. May God bless, guide, and protect the United States of America.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

25 years ago this week, radical Islamists slaughtered nearly 3000 people in New York, Washington DC, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The deaths took place in Shanksville when a few dozen Americans stood up to fight the Islamist terrorists and thwarted their plans to drive Flight 93 into either the White House or Capitol Hill. Let's roll became a mantra to fight back against extremists determined to destroy America and Western values of freedom and self-governance. The question we face now is, when did we stop rolling? This somber anniversary arrives as radicals make serious inroads into American politics. In New Jersey, just across from ground zero, a Democrat nominee with previous ties to Al-Qaeda and the Sheik behind the first World Trade Center bombing will likely win a seat in Congress. In Michigan, a Democrat spent the weekend at a conference held by an unindicted co-conspirator in a money laundering scheme that benefited Hamas. Ronald Reagan warned that freedom is only one generation away from extinction. Let's roll.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

September 11 is not a normal day on the calendar. Nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered by Islamist terrorists. Yet 25 years later, retired Port Authority police officers are asking Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stay away from the commemoration at Ground Zero. Thirty-seven Port Authority officers died that morning. Now their surviving brothers are pleading: “Please allow us to remember in peace.” Hochul angered the 9/11 community by illuminating One World Trade Center for Muslim American Heritage Month. Mamdani faces a petition opposing his attendance signed by more than 96,000 people—including grieving families. Both intend to attend anyway. Ground Zero—especially on the 25th anniversary of that dark day—does not belong to politicians. It belongs to the dead and their families, the cops and firefighters who walked into hell while everyone else ran away. They do not owe elected officials a backdrop or a lesson in tolerance. One day. One place. No politics. They’ve earned that. Let them have it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.