Is part of the problem that humans are increasingly disconnected from the natural world and from each other? Big sprawling urban areas are kind of soul-killing for a lot of people -- at least, they are for me -- and that would tend to suppress the desire to bring a new life into the world. Babies are miracles, and living in cheap mass-media consumer society sort of kills the human capacity for awe at miracles, doesn't it? When I go to the big city, I'm always amazed that there's ANYONE who lives there who manages to have a deep spiritual life, much less bring a child into the world. I am in awe of them!

Wendell Berry, Allen Carlson, G.K. Chesterton and E.F. Schumacher all set forth the vision of women and men in harmony with the natural world, living in small-scale communities where neighbors know and are invested in each other. Hillary Clinton has a lot of odious ideas, but it really does take a village to raise a child. Where Hillary and I differ is that I don't count state-funded daycare and cradle-to-grave welfare programs as a village. What you do need to raise children is a healthy COMMUNITY. When cities get too big, community becomes difficult. Through most of human history, children were born into communities, places with mostly shared values and at the very least, a shared rootedness in a particular place. I'm personally blessed to live in a small town -- but I have to confess that if I lived in a concrete wasteland, it would be much more psychologically difficult, at least for me, to get excited about bringing a child into the world.

But this article is about Europe. Soul-killing concrete wastelands are more an American and East Asian feature than a European one. Parts of Europe are gorgeous -- even in their biggest cities! So what's the explanation? Could part of it be that the massive migration of Muslims is destroying Europe's sense of itself? Although everybody denies it, and it's not politically correct to say it out loud, it's got to be profoundly disturbing to a Western European to see their world being taken over by people who shroud all their women in black, kill their own daughters for violations of "honor," and threaten to kill everyone who refuses to submit to their horrid cult of slavery and death. I think deep down, Europeans are terrified and in despair -- they know they are facing cultural annihilation -- and why would they want to bring a child into that world?

You're projecting, Lenewyorkais. No conservative I know even thinks of terms of "undesirables." That's a word invented by "progressives" and liberal fascists.

ACA means UNaffordable care for all but the rich, who can afford anything. Small insurance companies such as the one I'm insured with will be killed financially and go out of business, while the big mega-companies, which are friends of Obama, will prosper. That's how fascism works. Middle-class folks such as me will lose our insurance -- neither the insurance companies nor the employers will be able to afford it anymore -- and we'll be forced to go on the government plan... which was, of course, the leftists' goal all along. Single-payer, i.e., socialized medicine. Look at England and Holland: socialized medicine ALWAYS involves rationing, and eventually involuntary euthanasia. The "costs" you characterize so erroneously will be born by older people and the handicapped, who will be exterminated. That is exactly what is happening in England and Holland.

You're obviously very gullible, haven't studied history or economics or other countries' healthcare systems, and have fallen hook, line and sinker for leftist propaganda. You'll learn the hard way, I guess.

What makes it so galling is that every single one of those statements he inserted is a falsehood. For instance, his Obamacare is actually designed to BANKRUPT Medicare TWELVE YEARS FROM NOW. His "death panels" will cut those seniors loose and essentially tell them to go home and off themselves and get out of the way.

It's chilling to realize that this behavior -- both the lying and the self-glorification -- is characteristic of every communist tyrant. Think Mao Tse-Tung.

wiggumc1, I wish there were a way I could "thumbs-up" your comment five or ten times instead of just one! You have absolutely hit the nail on the head. I've always thought this is one of the reasons their hatred of George W. Bush and Sarah Palin is so over-the-top hysterical. Anyone who ACTUALLY BELIEVES that good and evil objectively exist is perceived as a threat by those who have suppressed the God-given conscience they were born with.

This is why there have been actual physical attacks and even murder attempts on peaceful pro-lifers doing nothing more threatening than silently praying in front of abortion facilities.

Bingo! I hope more and more people start noticing this very obvious fact. It shows that this whole initiative has nothing to do with health care and everything to do with picking a battle with the Catholic Church to show them WHO'S BOSS.

Back before the 2008 election, I remember an interview where Obama cited "The Godfather" as his favorite movie of all time. In a way, that tells you everything you need to know about the creep. That, and the fact that as an Illinois Senator, the only legislation he fought against with any vigor at all was a law that would have stopped the infanticide (killing of already-born babies) in Illinois hospitals. The man is a monster.

Indeed, far too many Catholic clergy were pumping for ObamaCare so long as it carved out an exemption from abortion -- as if the whole idea of socialized medicine was not morally problematic in any other way, and as if the crocodile Left wouldn't, predictably, turn on the Church as soon as the damn thing passed -- or at the very latest, after Obama's reelection.

In one sense, the bishops have reaped what they've sown. Too many years of reflexively backing Democratic policies while ignoring the elephant in the room: the Democrat over-the-top OBSESSION with abortion, as shown in the fact that the one and ONLY thing you can never get Democrats to compromise on is abortion.

Too many years of priests failing to utter a single word against contraception despite knowing that a huge percentage of the people in the pews are using it. Can they really be surprised that their inaction, their wind-and-a-nod, has been interpreted by most Americans as an indicating that the Catholic Church really doesn't care about contraception at all?

I totally agree with J. Christian Adams that the issue is not contraception per se; the issue is religious freedom and conscience rights. However, when people are morally compromised in their own personal lives, it is much, much easier to manipulate, exploit and abuse them.

I think Thad McCotter would be open to that!

Oh quit already with the "hijacked" bit. Islam has been murderous from the very beginning. Lucky for us, there are Muslims who don't follow the teachings of their own "religion." These folks are what we call "moderate" -- but what their more faithful brethren call "apostate." Muslims are to be pitied -- they have been brainwashed with an evil ideology and forbidden, on pain of death, from leaving the cult. We should pray for their liberation from this oppressive cult. But please, let us not have any illusions about the origins of the cult itself. Its author is Satan.

AAUUGGHH with the Christie already! The man is no conservative!! http://theheartlander.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/is...

I actually love it that he blows all the steretypes -- balding, not handsome, dry/sardonic, uses big words....

Remember, folks, Abraham Lincoln was considered freakishly ugly, albeit striking, and his sum total of elected office experience was ONE TERM as a Congressman (he ran for Senate twice, and lost both times). Lincoln was elected because: 1) He spoke truth, and, 2) he spoke it well (he was a great orator). He believed things that were true, and he PERSUADED others of them.