It's true, Megyn! The United States is "the only advanced country that doesn’t require paid leave" for new parents. We're also the only advanced country in the world that doesn't provide health care coverage for all its citizens. Maybe if your "nice employer" didn't spend so much airtime stoking xenophobia and condemning that evil socialism stuff they've got over there in Yurp and up there in Canadia then, gee, maybe our country could join every other advanced country in the world in providing its citizens with health care, paid maternity leave, four weeks of paid vacation per year, etc.

Sigh.

Conservatives with gay children are for marriage equality, conservatives with relatives who have alzheimer's disease are for stem-cell research, conservatives with drug problems are for drug-treatment programs over incarceration, and now conservatives with new babies are for paid maternity leave. Wouldn't it be wonderful if conservatives could see the value of a particular social program without first having the need for it touch them in some personal way? When will conservatives make the empathy leap? Is it really that hard for a conservative to imagine having a gay child or a loved one stricken with a terminal illness or a drug problem or a baby? (Via Sullivan.)