Growing Number of Single Moms Really Victims of Patriarchy?

Despite readily available birth control, more single women are getting pregnant—but choosing not to marry to the biological father—than ever before, in part because the social stigma associated with unwed motherhood no longer exists and in part due to the lack of availability of economically-stable male spouses.

Two researchers claim that, while this coupled with the ranks of divorced mothers, is a mark of women's new-found independence, these single mothers are now even worse victims of the old male patriarchy. Why? According to the authors,

• College-educated men still have the greatest access to "the most influential and highest paying jobs" in large part because "women are still much more likely than men to drop out of the labor market when children come."
• The patriarchal system continues to extend to males "political power—the ability to secure laws reflecting male preferences and perspectives over female ones."
• The patriarchal system has made alimony and child support for women less common (especially to mothers who earn more than fathers), while at the same time awarding more shared custody to fathers.

The authors' conclusion is that there is no "new matriarchy" to celebrate:

The word “matriarchy” suggests power, and it is hard to see what power today’s struggling single mothers exercise. Their hard-won independence, in a world where they do not have the power to create better relationships or stronger communities, is under assault. They might be better off unmarried than married to unemployed boyfriends who still live at home with their mothers. But with children to raise, bills to pay and multiple jobs to go to, do they really have any other choice?

Americans Still Believe in Individualism, Capitalism

Breaking down the results from the latest Pew Research survey of global opinion, James Pethokoukis writes:

Let’s start with the US: 70% of Americans still think most people are better off under a free-market system, even if some people are rich and some are poor. That compares to 63% for the average advanced economy. What’s more, 73%  and 62% think working hard and getting a good education, respectively, are very important to getting ahead in life vs. 40% and 39% for the average advanced economy. (For France, by the way, it’s 25% and 24%.) Finally, just 40% think success is determined by forces outside out control vs. 51% for the average advanced economy.

No Gender Gap This Election?

Today's ABC News/Washington Post poll brings more bad news for the party of liberalism. "Even with the [economic] recovery to date, 77% are worried about the economy's future, and 57% say the country has been experiencing a long-term decline in living standards ..."

Barack Obama and his political party are heading into the midterm elections in trouble. The president's 40 percent job approval rating in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll is the lowest of his career — and the Democratic Party's popularity is its weakest in polling back 30 years, with more than half of Americans seeing the party unfavorably for the first time.

The Republican Party is even more unpopular. But benefiting from their supporters' greater likelihood of voting, GOP candidates nonetheless hold a 50-43 percent lead among likely voters for U.S. House seats in the Nov. 4 election. 

Women, who have long been counted on to lift liberals' fortunes, have lost confidence as well.  Among likely voters, "women divide evenly between Democratic and Republican House candidates," reports the poll. The gender gap this cycle is all male:

Ebola Travel Restrictions

According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Tuesday, 67% of Americans support restricting the entry into the US of those arriving from Ebola-outbreak nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, reports Newsmax.com. Only 29% oppose travel restrictions.

Ninety-one percent of adults in the survey said they want "stricter screening of people entering the United States who have been in African countries affected by the outbreak."

The results mirror an NBC News poll (October 7) that found "58% of Americans favored banning flights from countries hardest hit by the virus."

Some of the nation's leaders are listening; others are not, reports Newsmax in a related article.

Despite calls from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and other Republicans, the Obama administration has repeatedly said there will be no travel ban from West African countries stricken by the Ebola virus outbreak.

'War on Women' Over: Women Won

Women aren't responding well to the oft-repeated liberal claim that conservatives are waging a 'war on women', according to Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, and Genevieve Wood cites these examples to explain why that may be:

• For every 100 higher ed degrees men got last year, women earned 140.
• The wage gap between men and women is now almost non-existent in apple-to-apple comparisons of males and females in similar jobs with similar education, experience, years in the work force and hours worked.
• Millennial women with no children who live in metro areas earned 8 percent more on average than men.
• Women control over 50% of private wealth in the US today and they make about 80% of all household spending decisions.
• Over 40% of the 3 million Americans making off $500,000 a year are women.

Lake says women find the term 'war on women' "divisive, political [and] they don't like it."  Wood suggests another reason: "more women now recognize that it's simply not true:"

In a recent Rasmussen poll, 52% of likely U.S. female voters said they believed the "war on women" slogan is primarily used for political purposes. And in Colorado, where one of the most closely watched Senate races is happening, a Magellan Strategies poll of female swing voters found 77% of respondents said they saw through the "war on women" messaging strategy.

Looks like the Left's "war on women" is over, and women won.

Reynolds: CDC and the Ebola Fight

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has lost sight of its mission, argues Glenn Reynolds in a USAToday editorial. Created to prevent malaria and other dangerous communicable diseases, the CDC has gotten into all sorts of 'side jobs', from playground safety to calisthentics to second hand smoke.

These other tasks may or may not be important, but they're certainly a distraction from what's supposed to be the CDC's "one job" — protecting America from a deadly epidemic. And to the extent that the CDC's leadership has allowed itself to be distracted, it has paid less attention to the core mission.

In an era where new disease threats look to be growing, the CDC needs to drop the side jobs and focus on its real reason for existence. But, alas, the problem isn't just the CDC. It's everywhere.

It seems that as government has gotten bigger, and accumulated more and more of its own ancillary responsibilities, it has gotten worse at its primary tasks. It can supervise snacks at elementary schools, but not defend the borders; it can tax people to subsidize others' health-care plans but not build roads or bridges; and it can go after football team names but can't seem to deal with the Islamic State terror group.

Multitasking results in poorer performance for individuals. It also hurts the performance of government agencies, and of government itself. You have one job. Try doing it.

Judge: IRS Obamacare Rules 'Abuse of Discretion'

"U.S. District Judge Ronald White concluded Tuesday that the IRS rule altering the Obamacare law and providing billions [of dollars] in subsidies is 'arbitrary, capricious and abuse of discretion'," writes Craig Bannister @ CNSnews.com.

"The court holds that the IRS rule is arbitrary, capricious, and abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with law, pursuant to 5 U.S.C.706(2)(A), in excess of summary jurisdiction, authority or limitation, or short of statutory right, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 706(2)(C), or otherwise is an invalidation of the ACA [Affordable Care Act], and is hereby vacated. The court's order of vacatur is stayed, however, pending resolution of any appeal from this order."

Oklahoma was the first of several states to challenge the IRS rule "that caused billions in subsidies to be paid out, despite Congress having never authorized those payments."

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt hailed the state's victory in its lawsuit challenging the implementation of the Affordable Care Act:

"Today's ruling is a consequential victory for the rule of law. The administration and its bureaucrats in the IRS handed out billions in illegal tax credits and subsidies and vastly expanded the reach of the health care law because they didn't like the way Congress wrote the Affordable Care Act. That's not how our system of government works."