“All of us are working harder and yet are falling further behind,” O’Malley said. “In other words, for a lot of us, the American dream and the truth of that dream is on the ropes. We can be a country that wherever you start you can get ahead, but we’re going to have to make better choices. I understand leadership is important. Leadership that can solve problems, it can bring people together to make progress. That’s why I am running. I love my country and I have the experience and the ability to move our country forward and make that dream real again for us.”

O’Malley adds he aims to improve the future of America.

“Wherever you start in the United States of America, you should be able to work hard and be able to get ahead,” O’Malley said. “I believe there are somethings we can only do as a nation in order to make sure that opportunity is not some hollow word, but something that’s available to every single family that’s willing to work hard.”

“Threats we face are different today than they were back then,” O’Malley said. “From nation state failures, to the rise of ISIS, to pandemics, to climate change and the stabilization that brings about. We need a national security strategy that focuses on threats as they are rising and then takes action to reduce those threats before we are backed into a corner.”

“All of us are working harder and yet are falling further behind,” O’Malley said. “In other words, for a lot of us, the American dream and the truth of that dream is on the ropes. We can be a country that wherever you start you can get ahead, but we’re going to have to make better choices. I understand leadership is important. Leadership that can solve problems, it can bring people together to make progress. That’s why I am running. I love my country and I have the experience and the ability to move our country forward and make that dream real again for us.”

O’Malley adds he aims to improve the future of America.

“Wherever you start in the United States of America, you should be able to work hard and be able to get ahead,” O’Malley said. “I believe there are somethings we can only do as a nation in order to make sure that opportunity is not some hollow word, but something that’s available to every single family that’s willing to work hard.”

“Threats we face are different today than they were back then,” O’Malley said. “From nation state failures, to the rise of ISIS, to pandemics, to climate change and the stabilization that brings about. We need a national security strategy that focuses on threats as they are rising and then takes action to reduce those threats before we are backed into a corner.”

The state of Colorado has been conducting a massive experiment with birth control over the last 6 years. Teens and low-income women were offered free IUDs and implants that prevent pregnancy for years. Officials wondered if women would sign up for the family planning assistance if it were free.

Sabrina Tavernese in the New York Times:

They did in a big way, and the results were startling. The birthrate for teenagers across the state plunged by 40 percent from 2009 to 2013, while their rate of abortions fell by 42 percent, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. There was a similar decline in births for another group particularly vulnerable to unplanned pregnancies: unmarried women under 25 who have not finished high school.

“Our demographer came into my office with a chart and said, ‘Greta, look at this, we’ve never seen this before,’ ” said Greta Klingler, the family planning supervisor for the public health department. “The numbers were plummeting.”

The cornerstone of American strength in the world is economic strength at home. Maintaining our security in the long run will require an economy that works for all Americans. No fighter jet or troop battalion will protect us as much as a vibrant economy. A stronger middle class is the first garrison against any threat we might face.

The greatest power we possess as Americans is not military might, but the power of our own example. We must lead the world by strengthening the American middle class and supporting the rise of a global middle class — free from want, and free from fear.

That will make us more prosperous and secure. That will give our children a better future with more opportunity. And that will make our planet healthier, more peaceful, and more just.

These are the foreign policy and national security goals worthy of a truly great people.

The cornerstone of American strength in the world is economic strength at home. Maintaining our security in the long run will require an economy that works for all Americans. No fighter jet or troop battalion will protect us as much as a vibrant economy. A stronger middle class is the first garrison against any threat we might face.

The greatest power we possess as Americans is not military might, but the power of our own example. We must lead the world by strengthening the American middle class and supporting the rise of a global middle class — free from want, and free from fear.

That will make us more prosperous and secure. That will give our children a better future with more opportunity. And that will make our planet healthier, more peaceful, and more just.

These are the foreign policy and national security goals worthy of a truly great people.

1.) Dancing, in general. "Christian teens stay away." (1973)
7.) The Supreme Court, in general. "They must be committed to...applying the original meaning of the Constitution." (Friday)
18.) The actress Jamie Lynn Spears, for being pregnant and unmarried. "A tragedy." (2007).
19.) The media, for criticizing Bristol Palin after she became pregnant while unmarried. "The most shameful thing I've ever seen in my life...Everyone understands that the basis of being a Christian is that everyone has fallen short of God's ideal." (2008)
21.) Democrats, for intruding into the sex lives of women. "The Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control, because they cannot control their libido." (2014)

Dear Cecil:

Republican candidates appear to be coming out of the woodwork every day. Do these people actually all think they can win? Does running for the presidency as a low-profile candidate make any logical sense, or are all these people slightly insane?

It’s true that the 2016 list of presidential candidates is growing more unwieldy by the hour. Through last week, the tally of people who’ve filed a Form 2 statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission is 424. These include a Federalist Party candidate, an Absolute Dictator Party candidate, and an independent (likely in more ways than one) named Sydneys Voluptuous Buttocks. But perhaps these aren’t the kind of candidates you’re talking about. Mr. or Ms. Buttocks probably understands that he or she’s not going to win, but Republican George Pataki may well not. And as a result he’ll probably spend serious time and money trying in vain to convince the rest of us.

So what makes the Patakis run? OK, some of the borderline candidates are just megalomaniacs with a seeming ability to metabolize derision (we’re looking at you, Donald). But the rest of the ever-expanding field is likely thinking: maybe I can actually win this thing, and if not the boost in cred alone is probably worth it.

Those who believe they stand a chance of winning at least the nomination aren’t totally nuts: the primaries are perhaps the only part of the presidential election cycle where the campaign really matters. The post-convention phase of the process, according to many political scientists, is determined by some combination of the state of the economy and the perceived performance of the incumbent party. (It’s thought this basic principle may be true of elections worldwide.) So on this theory, all the oratory, charisma, and excruciating interviews with Katie Couric didn’t really matter — Obama was going to beat McCain in 2008 anyway because Bush was unpopular and the economy was exploding like a cat in a microwave.