Penna Dexter
It may not be their ideal life dream, but a Wall Street Journal analysis concludes that “American women have never been this resigned to staying single.”
In response to major demographic shifts and also divergent beliefs about what a family should look like, today’s single women are less anxious to get married than they used to be and less interested in marriage than their male peers.
In her piece, titled “American Women Are Giving Up on Marriage,” Rachel Wolfe, economy reporter for the Journal, writes “A rise in earning power and a decline in social stigma for being single has allowed more women to be choosey.” She cites a 2023 survey of over 5000 U.S. adults conducted by Pew Research Center in which “48% of women said that being married was not too or not at all important for a fulfilling life, compared with 39% of men — up from 31% and 28% in 2019.”
In an American Enterprise Institute survey of college-educated women, also done in 2023, half of respondents said they’re single because they haven’t found anyone who meets their expectations.
Throughout her article, Rachel Wolfe presents stats that show that American women of marriageable age are better educated and have better career prospects than men. She quotes sociology professor Brad Wilcox, a fellow at the Institute for Family Studies who says, “people prefer to date in terms of comparable education or income.”
Lyman Stone, a researcher at IFS points out that “Men’s odds of being in a relationship today are still highly correlated with their income.” In an interview for an article in The Atlantic, he said “a lot of young men today just don’t look like what women have come to think of as ‘marriage material’.”
The bitter fruit of 60’s feminism is that many women really do want marriage, but they don’t think they need it.

Kerby Anderson
Rich Lowry proclaims that “Safety is the Worst Word in the English Language.” You might think that statement and commentary are strange unless you have been paying attention to the release of the “Twitter Files.” Safety has been used as a justification for the censoring of Twitter posts and the de-platforming of certain people who post tweets that some of the leadership at Twitter considered harmful or unsafe.
He is not the only person to focus on the misuse of the word safety. In previous commentaries, I quoted Jonathan Haidt, who was on my radio program to talk about his book, The Coddling of the American Mind. One of the key points in his book was the “Untruth of Fragility: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Weaker.”
He argues in the book that the younger generation has been protected by a culture that promotes “safetyism.” It has become a cult of safety that is obsessed with eliminating threats (whether real or imagined) to the point where fragility becomes expected and routine.
Concerns about safety morphed from a desire to protect bicycle riders with helmets to protecting students and the public from harmful ideas. Professors issued “trigger warnings” to “show students that you care about their safety.” The former Global Head of Trust & Safety at Twitter used concerns about safety to protect readers from encountering offensive speech.
Rich Lowry adds one more ingredient to this toxic mix. The 2016 election of Donald Trump was supposedly won because of misinformation. Once you considered that a threat, the “license to censor became broad and far-reaching.” That’s why Rich Lowry says safety has become the worse word in the English language.

Kerby Anderson
Merrill Matthews was in my radio studio recently to make the case that the “Axis of Evil” is now bigger, bolder, and more evil than twenty years ago. Back in 2002, President George W. Bush identified three countries during the State of the Union address that he designated as the “Axis of Evil.” Those countries were Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.
Merrill Matthews suggested that we now identify the countries that should be listed as part of the “Axis of Evil.” Twenty years ago, those three countries were relatively small, failed states. His current list of countries is composed of countries that are much stronger and more dangerous.
China, for example, is the world’s second-largest economy and brings numerous financial and industrial resources to the network. Both China and Russia have huge natural resources. If you look at those countries, along with the other countries aligned with one or both, you are talking about a land mass that includes most of Asia. And their proximity to each other allows them to expand trade and even allows the movement of banned or sanctioned products (like weapons and drugs).
Not only do these countries have stronger economies, but they are also dedicated to expanding their territory. Neither Russia nor China is content with their borders. Russia is expanding through war (in the case of Ukraine). China is expanding through threatened aggression (in the case of Taiwan).
China has already absorbed Hong Kong and is now plotting how it will be able to take Taiwan. They have also built islands in the South China Sea that can be forward military bases. And it is worth mentioning that China has the largest army in the world and the largest navy in the world.
Twenty years ago, the “Axis of Evil” was dangerous. Today our world is more dangerous than ever before.