Townhall Review | Conservative Commentary On Today's News

Too many parents have faced the dilemma of how to help a child struggling with gender confusion. They’re often told anything short of affirming a new gender identity risks psychological harm—even suicide.

New, comprehensive research from Finland contradicts that claim. It finds that mental illness isn’t caused by resisting transition. Rather, children who believe they were ‘born in the wrong body” are more likely to have underlying mental health issues.

What’s more, those struggles don’t ease after efforts to “transition”: in fact, they intensify. Rates of mental illness rose from around 10 to 60 percent in boys seeking to become girls, and from roughly 20 to 55 percent among girls transitioning to boys.

We’re not helping vulnerable children by denying reality. The transgender experiment has come at a steep cost, and it needs to end. Now.

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Congressman Eric Swalwell suspended his campaign for governor of California. Then, the very next day, he abruptly resigned from Congress.

This followed a cascade of accusations involving sexual assault, misconduct, and unwanted, inappropriate messages. 

Clearly, the Democratic establishment wanted Swalwell out. The entire episode unfolded in a matter of days.

But what’s most striking is that, by all accounts, people in political circles knew about Swalwell’s behavior for quite some time. Political insiders, journalists and left-wing influencers admitted this much on X. It was, apparently, an open secret.

And yet, no powerful Democrats acted until Swalwell’s candidacy became a liability in the governor’s race. Then, suddenly, his candidacy was done. And then he was gone from the House.

All in a matter of days.

What a complete failure of moral, professional, and ethical responsibility — all the way around.

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In recent days we’ve watched the NASA Artemis II mission that successfully sent four astronauts around the dark side of the moon. Human beings have now traveled a greater distance from the earth than ever before in history. Period. We’re talking about a distance greater by thousands of miles.

As we watched the mission unfold, it was interesting to note the language coming from the astronauts—language filled with wonder that at least implies a creator.

And then we saw the photographs—new, high-quality images of earth in our own time. It had been more than 50 years since the first photographs.

I don’t know how a person can look these images and think, “What an interesting cosmic accident.” Of course, we know: There are many scientists absolutely determined to believe it so, consistent with a naturalistic understanding of the entire universe.

But here’s the thing worth highlighting: It is very difficult to look at these images and say, “What a beautiful accident.”

The entire picture points to a creator. It points to God. Remember that.

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The Iranians had one reasonable chance to negotiate an end to the war. Donald Trump sent J.D. Vance, reportedly a skeptic of military action, to Islamabad to lead the American delegation. The Pakistan government urged the Iranians to take this seriously. Instead, the IRGC junta refused to negotiate at all on the main points of the conflict, especially their pursuit of nuclear weapons and claims of sovereign control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Then: Trump ordered a blockade of all Iranian shipping through the Strait—a move that will cost Iran’s regime $450 million dollars a day in lost sales and eliminate their only reliable method of resupply during the war. The Iranians threatened to escalate, but Trump has his own escalation options too.

As military analyst Sascha Bruchmann told a German news program, the Battle of Hormuz is a game of chicken, and “it is dangerous to play a game of chicken against Donald Trump.”

That’s the lesson the world ought to be learning. It’s a lesson we need to see through to the end in Iran.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Iranians had one reasonable chance to negotiate an end to the war. Donald Trump sent J.D. Vance, reportedly a skeptic of military action, to Islamabad to lead the American delegation. The Pakistan government urged the Iranians to take this seriously. Instead, the IRGC junta refused to negotiate at all on the main points of the conflict, especially their pursuit of nuclear weapons and claims of sovereign control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Then: Trump ordered a blockade of all Iranian shipping through the Strait—a move that will cost Iran’s regime $450 million dollars a day in lost sales and eliminate their only reliable method of resupply during the war. The Iranians threatened to escalate, but Trump has his own escalation options too.

As military analyst Sascha Bruchmann told a German news program, the Battle of Hormuz is a game of chicken, and “it is dangerous to play a game of chicken against Donald Trump.”

That’s the lesson the world ought to be learning. It’s a lesson we need to see through to the end in Iran.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.