Phoebe Prince’s suicide last January shocked the nation. Prince was not the first teenager to commit suicide (and will sadly not be the last), but her story was noteworthy for the allegations that bullying by her classmates at a Massachusetts high school drove her to it. Now, a lawyer for several of the teens accused of harassing Prince to death is arguing that she suffered from mental illness and that this was the true cause of her decision to kill herself.

From People:

“They say that without the name-calling … Miss Prince would not have killed herself. But before Miss Prince’s unfortunate and tragic death, she had a history fraught with problems,” a lawyer for Sharon Chanon Velazquez, 17, who is accused of tormenting Prince, says in court newly filed documents. “She had been diagnosed and treated for mental health issues before [Velasquez] had any interactions with her.”

You know, medical records or not, it’s evident that Phoebe Prince had some pretty serious problems. Anyone that would commit suicide has, at the very least, the lack of an effective coping mechanism (and sometimes that inability to cope is temporary … but sadly too late). That said, though, there’s this expression about a straw and a camel’s back, and it’s an adage I happen to agree with.  Those on the outside will never know the straw that turned Ted Bundy into a psychopathic killer of women … or Osama bin Laden into the most notorious terrorist of all time … or Lindsay Lohan to start drinking before she was a teenager.

In Phoebe Prince’s case, that straw is obviously the cruelty she suffered at the hands of her classmates.

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According to a recent article in American Thinker, there is a left-wing message that Americans in general—and conservatives in particular—are … well, dumb. And that Sarah Palin isn’t. And that Woody Allen is a political commentator to be taken seriously.

Stupidity is the face of American exceptionalism for Barack Obama and his media and university supporters. New York Times columnist David Brooks, a graduate of the elite University of Chicago, says the nation’s a “joke,” that Sarah Palin and ordinary Americans should shut up and let the “educated class” lead. Bill Maher, who practices his contempt at HBO and honed his arrogance at Yale, labels us a “stupid people.”

Meanwhile, Woody Allen says we are so clueless that Barack Obama needs to take his Harvard law degree in hand and become a “dictator for a few years.” Allen, who does not have an Ivy League degree, nevertheless burnished his elite cultural credentials with first an affair, and then a marriage to his stepdaughter a few years back. More recently, he dismissed the rape of a fourteen-year-old by fugitive director Roman Polanski with the observation “he’s an artist.”

Uh … it speaks volumes about your argument that you’re giving credence to Woody Allen’s word on politics. Is that the best example you can come up with, Stuart Schwartz of American Thinker?

They are angry that 81% of us put the nation “on the wrong track” and that two-thirds are “outraged” with what the “educated class” is doing to us. Their response, however, is pushback. The Atlantic magazine, a favorite of our political and media elites, just this month explained the growing anger on Main Street: “It’s that you’re stupid.”

Yeah, those numbers seemed a little funky to me, so I went to the link referenced by Schwartz’s article. It’s from an April 2008 CBS poll report essentially focusing on whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic candidate to go up against John McCain. Um, yeah …
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A Roman Catholic priest in Massachusetts has rescinded a school admissions offer to an eight-year-old boy because he is being raised by a lesbian couple whose lifestyle is “in discord with the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

From the Brattleboro Reformer:

It’s at least the second time in recent months that students have not been allowed to attend a U.S. Catholic school because of their parents’ sexual orientation, with the other instance occurring in Colorado.

The Massachusetts woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about the effect of publicity on her son, said she planned to send the boy to third grade at St. Paul Elementary School in Hingham in the fall. But she said she learned her son’s acceptance was rescinded during a conference call Monday with Principal Cynthia Duggan and the parish priest, the Rev. James Rafferty.

“I’m accustomed to discrimination, I suppose, at my age and my experience as a gay woman,” the mother said. “But I didn’t expect it against my child.”

Wow. I mean, I think it’s stupid to judge someone on their sexual orientation—in my book, people are people. However, Americans are entitled to their opinions. If that means they’re small-minded and bigoted, that’s their right. Judging two adult women for their lifestyle is also their right. Extending this horrible mindset to an eight-year-old child, though, is not.

There is an increasing understanding that homosexuality is not a choice. In fact, a character introduced in April to Archie comic books is gay:

Riverdale High, the stomping grounds of perennial teens Archie, Veronica, Reggie and Jughead, is about to get its newest student . . . and yep, he’s gay.

Archie Comics has announced that it will be introducing its first openly-gay character when Kevin Keller joins the cast of the comic books in an issue to be published this fall.

“The introduction of Kevin is just about keeping the world of Archie Comics current and inclusive,” said Archie Comics Co-CEO Jon Goldwater.

Catholics continue to struggle with this, though. According to a CBS News poll recently released, more than half of all Catholics view forced celibacy and homosexuality as factors in the clergy pedophilia.

More than one in two Catholics see both celibacy and homosexuality as at least minor factors in child sex abuse by some priests, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll.

Less than one in three believe celibacy and homosexuality are “major” factors in the abuse, however — which means that, overall, a majority of Catholics don’t see those two issues as a significant factor leading to abuse.

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In a surprising turn in the battle for same-sex marriage, the state of Massachussetts — the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage — is suing the federal government, claiming the Defense of Marriage Act interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit. The 1996 law denies federal recognition of gay marriage and gives states the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. It also denies same-sex couples federal benefits.

The suit, filed today in Boston, argues the act “constitutes an overreaching and discriminatory federal law.” It says the approximately 16,000 same-sex couples who have married in Massachusetts since the state began performing gay marriages in 2004 are being unfairly denied federal benefits given to heterosexual couples.

DOMA was recently challenged by a married same-sex couple in California, claiming it denied them their federal benefits, among other things. The U.S. Department of Justice — which represents President Obama — filed a brief suggesting the case should be dismissed.

So now it looks like they have to do the whole thing all over again — but against a U.S. state.

Way to go, Massachussetts!