Tommy Mann

On Monday the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision in favor of Hobby Lobby, the Plaintiff in a suit filed against The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Some might wonder why this matters. This is more than a Republican vs. Democrat issue. Hobby Lobby challenged the Contraception Mandate in Obamacare, which required employers to provide birth control to their employees.  The reason so many Americans don't understand Hobby Lobby's position is they don't understand contraceptives.  The word contraceptive means to prevent conception. A separate form of birth control, known as abortafacients, allow conception and then kill the fertilized egg. In essence, these pills intentionally cause abortions. After the Supreme Court ruling the Left immediately resorted to their "War on Women" mantra, saying Hobby Lobby is oppressing women and sending them back to the Stone Age. So now, some facts. *Hobby Lobby provides 16 different contraceptives to their employees,...

Our country recently took another step towards totalitarianism, once again having one person make a decision that is contrary to what the majority of Americans support. This latest insult-to-democracy came in the form of Plan B, which is known as the “emergency contraceptive” that is available to women 17 years and older. This pill has only been kept behind locked glass and required a clerk to get it, hopefully after checking I.D. Now the age has been reduced to 15 years, and the drug is being moved to the store shelves, right next to condoms. The plan is to make buying Plan B as easy as buying Aspirin (meaning no parental consent is required). To the President’s credit, he is contesting part of this controversial ruling. According to the White House there is not yet enough evidence to decide if the drug is “safe and appropriate for younger girls.” Unfortunately, the ruling is being contested for the wrong reason. The question is not whether it is safe for 15-year-old gir...

Darwinian evolution has had a great impact on our society, and I am not just referring to the classroom. When Darwin first crafted his theory of evolution, which his writings show was his attempt to get rid of God and hell, he opened the door to a world that puts no value on life. If mankind is nothing more than some animal, then what is the big deal if one man kills another? Isn’t that what animals do? And does not mankind kill “lower” animals all the time, for both food and sport? Was Darwin trying to push humanity down this slippery slope that devalues human life? I doubt it. Charles Darwin seems like he was a nice guy, but the tragic death of his daughter, the evolutionary influence of his grandfather, and the thought of his father in hell sent him down his own path. But some of his followers eagerly picked up where Darwin left off. Is Darwin responsible for what his followers do? Not really, but his ideas—his very worldview—helped influence some people to view life ...

With Sex Education being a part of our public school system, each county or district has to decide how they will teach it. Some have abstinence education, while others teach “safe sex” and give out taxpayer-funded contraception. In Union County where I reside we are abstinence only in our approach. The fact that as recently as three years ago we led South Carolina’s counties per capita in pregnancies among 15-19 year olds was a black eye on the abstinence approach. Was it time to introduce “safer choices”? Is abstinence a failing system? Do desperate times call for desperate measures?  For starters, the real problem was our county’s approach; the only thing we were abstinent from was a curriculum. It was discovered that with budget cuts and busy days many teachers didn’t have time to get around to what they were supposed to teach, and there was little to no oversight from the county. That led the county to form a Comprehensive Health Committee that was tasked with ...