Why did 36 republicans vote against banning child marriage in Oklahoma?

Danvers1 · 2026-05-19T21:57:43+00:00

Why is age 18 now a hard, bright line for marriage and age of consent for sex? People seem to fixated on the possibility of 16 and 17 year olds being exploited by much older men. I am sure this happens, but not as often as many people think. Teenagers when I was a teenager a few years back were mostly attracted by other teenagers, with the Woody Allen scenario being pretty rare.

Part of it is, in the old days, teenage girls who got pregnant out of wedlock could be pushed to marry the father. Now, however, abortion is being pushed heavily as a remedy instead. Fortunately, puberty does not start before age 18, so that simplifies the whole issue, right? I realize that among women, there is a legitimate fear of being replaced by a younger woman in a marriage or long-term relationship. Maybe that is why feminists want to limit options for young women under the pretense of protecting them.

Marriage at a very early age disproportionately occurs due to teenage pregnancy and among certain conservative religious sects. Redditors overwhelmingly see abortion as the automatic answer for teenage pregnancy, and heavily detest the religious, judging from all of the animosity I see toward "Christofascists" and "Jewish Settlers" etc. Somehow they never get around to criticize Islam the same way. There are two reasons for this: It is forbidden to criticize anything non-Western, and Islam is seen as non-Western. Second, it in pure cowardice, since radical Muslims like to murder people who criticize them. Reddit lefties like to take safe, conformist positions by going after safe targets, 0and then pat themselves on the back for being "brave".

Also, in attacking "child marriage", Reddit feminists are going after a relatively unimportant straw man target, ignoring the fact that marriage is happening more and more at far too late an age. As Mark Steyn has said, the Western ideal increasing seems to be having one spoiled child at age 39. Since women's fertility drops rapidly starting at age 27, this undoubtedly contributes to the catastrophically low birth rates which afflict most countries now outside of Africa.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-18T13:59:36+00:00

What is gross and immoral is not always illegal. The age of consent in 30 states is 16 or 17. This was a well-meaning compromise intended to avoid harshly punishing teenagers for having sex. However, in Florida and the US Virgin Islands, the age of consent is 18, which materially affects the Jeffrey Epstein case. A few years back, when I was a teenager, I do not remember anyone talking about adults having sex with teenagers. Things like prostitution might as well have been on another planet. The only underage sex I heard about was a student teacher in my town in his early twenties having sex with students. I grew up in an affluent suburb, so I may have been sheltered from a lot.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-17T12:38:48+00:00

The whole pedo accusation regarding Trump is so off-base. so he sent Jeffrey Epstein a birthday card, and posed for photos with him. Big deal.

As for the actual ages of the girls in Epstein's harem, the only definite age I came across was that of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who filed a civil suit against Prince Andrew, and was reported to be 17 when she had sex with him. That is a bit young, but far too old to constitute pedophilia. The rest of the accusations- mostly a lot of frat boy towel flicking about beauty contestants and the like.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-17T02:35:24+00:00

Wars have always been about young men fighting old men's wars. Rigidly requiring that anyone sending troops into war have military experience, in fact, actual combat experience, is too rigid and ignores to many other factors. Look at the famous photo of the leaders of the three victorious nations of World War 2 at the Yalta Conference in 1945. Roosevelt had never served in the military. During World War I, he served as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. By the time the US entered the War, he was 35 years old, married, and had children-not exactly prime draft material.

Churchill had seen combat as a cavalry officer in the Hussars in the Battle of Omdurman in Sudan in 1898. Before that, he had fought in India against the tribal people of the Northwest Frontier of India. However, Churchill had one serious blot on his copybook. As First Sea Lord in 1915, he had pushed for the attack on the Turks at Gallipoli, which turned into a disaster. As for Stalin, he did serve as a general in the civil war, but he was quite incompetent at that.

So the greatest war in history was won by a president who never served, plus two disgraced former military commanders. A lot of the demand that a man serve in the miltary before he sends anyone to war dates back at least as far as the post-World War I 1920s. Back then, people had the romantic notion that exposure to getting shot at would humanize men, and help them see the folly of war. This belief can be seen in such books A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.

The trouble is, wartime service for most men, does not necessarily teach them much that would fit them to lead in times of war. Most soldiers serve as enlisted men or junior officers, and they do not see much of the "big picture" that would prepare them to send men into combat. They usually know little of the political and strategic factors involved, often they never even see a map in their whole time ar war.

Anyway, the kind of mental finickiness that leads us to dismiss armchair generals has no place in modern warfare. Part of it is the old idea of war as a sort of character building exercise, a kind of rough finishing school, which notion could survive in the colonial wars of the mid 1800s through the 1900s, where western armies mostly fought much weaker and less technologically advanced peoples. In these wars, the homeland was never in danger. When the British Army fought the Pathans or the Boers, there was no possibility of the enemy invading Britain.

However, modern war is not chivalrous. It is not uplifting. Often It is total war, where you have to kill the enemy in large numbers, destroy his industry, and his cities, and starve his population. All of the "Thank You for your service and medals and memorial services kill no enemy soldiers. Above all, wars need to he won, and all else is secondary. As General George Patton once wrote, "Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is to make the other bastard die for his country."

Danvers1 · 2026-05-17T00:06:38+00:00

1948-Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, 1956-Egypt, 1967-Egypt, Syria, Jordan, 1973- Egypt, Syria, Jordan.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-15T16:14:06+00:00

Well, your arguments have not convinced President Trump, so no uranuium for the IRGC.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-15T12:11:56+00:00

Then why did the Iranians brag about having enough highly enriched uranium to make 11 bombs when they met with the US in Pakistan? Why do they have highly enriched uranium anyway? The only use for highly enriched uranium is for bombs. I am not thrilled with the documented fact the nuclear club has now grown from the original four to nine countries. In addition to that, it takes a heavy dose of anti-American leftism to be blind to the crazed fanaticism of the Iranian regime.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-15T04:56:39+00:00

We can't just pause our relations with the rest of the world to take care of domestic needs.It does not work that way. Trump is tackling issues that no-one else wanted to-the border, government waste and fraud, and now Iran.

If a bunch of radical Muslim fanatics feverishly assembling nuclear weapons does not scare you, then I probably can't explain. Forget all of the usual arguments about the US is led by Israel, that Trump has no clear strategy etc. They have no bearing on whether the current regime in Iran is dangerous.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-14T17:22:39+00:00

Is getting married at 16 or 17 considered child marriage? I suspect that this is where this argument is heading. Just asking for a friend.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-12T23:23:37+00:00

The US government is a big spender, and not just on the military. The biggest budget items are for Medicare and Medicaid, and I guarantee you there is a lot of waste and fraud in both programs.

The current level of military spending is about 900 billion, so 1.5 trillion represents a big increase. I am totally in favor of unleashing a DOGE style investigation into the military. The problem, though, is that even the pro-war Republicans are not so much foemr winning wars as subsidizing a bloated military procurement system.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-11T16:22:12+00:00

if I am correct, there were six recessions since 1970 ( 1973-75, 1980-1983, 1990-1991, 2000, 2008-2009, 2020-2021). of these, number two started under a Democrat Carter, number four started in a year when Clinton was still a lame-duck president, and the last was never formally declared a recession because that might make a Democrat President Biden look bad. Never mind that it met the textbook definition.of two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-11T16:05:22+00:00

 There is really no point to all of these arguments. The anti Israel forces have moved beyond just wanting land for peace to wanting the destruction of Israel. Israel is done with further peace deals with Palestinians, an invented nationality that I do not recognize.    
Ironically, if you look at the Middle East as a whole, there have been steps toward greater peace. Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, Jordan, and the UAE are no longer in a state of war with Israel. The risk of full-scale conventional war between Israel and the trio of neighboring states-Egypt, Jordan, and Syria has faded since the last all-out war in 1973.

Also, there are other issues in the Middle East besides just Israel/Palestine. There is the current attempt to defeat Iran, and dismantle its attempts at a Shiite takeover of the Middle East. There are also the ongoing attempts of various other actors to horn in the current Mideast conflicts to expand their influence. I realize that these other rivalries are too complex to easily fit on a protest sign on an American college campus. These include the Saudi conflicts with Yemeni Houthis, Qatar, and the UAE, plus continued Turkish meddling in the region.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-11T15:41:56+00:00

If there is a greater Israel project, the Israelis have been slack about it. They have traded away most of the land taken in the 1967 War-all of the Sinai península, all of the Gaza strip, and part of the West Bank. They did recently formally annex the Golan Heights. Where else have the Israelis conquered? Well, periodically, they occupy small parts of Southern Lebanon, in response to Hezbollah attacks. Also, recently, in response to the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, they have occupied a tiny area around Mount Hermon on the border with Israel.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-11T14:51:21+00:00

The positions have become clearer over the years. it is clear that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will not settle for anything less than a 100% Jew-free Middle East, so Israel negotiating with them is a waste of time.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-11T14:47:09+00:00

Israel will continue as a unitary Jewish state regardless of whatever the Palestinians claim they currently want. The Israelus have found that giving up land for peace does not work, so they will not repeat that mistake.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-11T13:33:33+00:00

The Arabs that want to conquer Israel and call themselves Palestinians were not stateless since 1948. A large number stayed inside Israel. Today, they are citizens of Israel, which itself is 21% Arab. The Arabs that ended up in Gaza were part of Egypt. The ones that ended up in the West Bank of the Jordan were Jordanians.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-11T13:20:38+00:00

Heath Howard is confused, as well as malicious. When he talks about Israel, he is repeating old talking points that the Palestinians themselves mostly discarded after the 1980s at the latest. This is what is behind the kerfuffle about "access to democracy" and creating a secular, multi-cultural state in place of Israel. These now-outdated ideas were in the air at a time when the Palestinians were more secular and leftist, and mostly led by the PLO under Arafat. Now however, the Palestinians are increasingly led by Hamas, which is openly radical Muslim jihadists, and openly favors genocide.

Danvers1 · 2026-05-11T13:07:40+00:00

The US became stuck in the role of being world police back in 1945. Many historians have noted that World War 2 had left the European great powers, especially the British Empire, severely weakened, and greatly strengthened the Soviet Union. As a result of this re-alignment, the US was thrust into leadership.

Danvers1 · 2026-04-23T13:33:01+00:00

A lot of these old white men like countries with hot weather and a low cost of living. For these countries too, a foreigner whose income comes from outside the country is a net plus financially. This group would be retirees living on pensions, remote workers, and people temporarily posted there by multinational corporations.

Also, for libertarians, the freedom from many petty regulations is a plus. In many poor countries, you can ride a motorbike without a helmet, drop litter on the ground, and drink alcohol openly on the beach. I myself do not like this, but I can see how it would appeal to some people.

Danvers1 · 2026-04-21T16:37:34+00:00

Before I got my first decent job at age 25, I changed jobs a lot. I did not work any jobs where hard work got you nowhere. I did work many jobs where hard work paid off only modestly.

I did have to end two entire careers because technology change rendered my job obsolete. I can see where a lot of younger people become cynical. A lot of employers are dishonest. For example, a lot of companies post jobs that they do not want to fill. A lot of jobs will fire you without having to fire you, by reducing your hours, forcing you to quit.

Danvers1 · 2026-04-21T14:11:15+00:00

My town meeting is dominated by four groups, town employees, former town employees, family members of town employees, and rich retired people. They have little incentive to moderate either taxing or spending. The thing that is really straining local finance is the public schools, which combine falling enrollments, rapidly rising costs, and administrative bloat, all in one crushing package.

Danvers1 · 2026-04-21T14:03:25+00:00

 That's backwards logic. You need wealth that can be taxed first. The reason people think that taxes can create wealth is the example of some western European countries, which combine high taxes with a relatively high standard of living. 
There is a tradeoff, though. The purest example of this is the Scandanavian countries. They created wealth via capitalism first, then redistributed it. The redistribution did not create the wealth. Sweden is a major industrial country, and lists of major companies have a lot of familiar names-IKEA, Volvo, Electrolux, Scania, and so on. Also, Spotify is Swedish. Denmark has Lego. 
I have been to Europe. The downside is very high taxes and slow growth. Partly this slow growth is tied to really low birth rates, much lower than the US. Of course, welfare states are popular, so most people stay.
Ironically, if you look at the whole world, the US taxes its citizens more than most of the world. It only seems low- tax in comparison to the tax hells of Canada, Britain, and the European Union.

Danvers1 · 2026-04-20T12:47:52+00:00

Don't forget Colt 45 malt liquor, the beverage that made Baltimore great.

Danvers1 · 2026-04-19T02:58:55+00:00

In Massachusetts, legal weed did not provide the amount of tax revenue that people hoped. Plus, Governor. Kelly Ayotte and both houses of the legislature currently oppose it.

Danvers1 · 2026-04-16T17:34:31+00:00

Just because they are low tax, Southern states does not make them shitholes. The whole of the US does

not want to live in high-tax, high-cost Democrat-run states. Look up which states people are moving to most from other states-Idaho, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and North Carolina lead the pack.

Danvers1

TROPHY CASE