Common Sense

Life down under

2012-01-22T15:37:00.000-06:00

Compelling look at the next generation down under.

The World and Everything In It - Nov. 12, 11

2012-01-01T01:53:00.000-06:00

http://online.worldmag.com/2011/12/31/listen-to-the-2011-year-in-review-edition-of-twe/

A 2-hour enjoyable weekly roundup of the news, culture, and more. This is a special edition looking back at 2011. I am pleased to be legal correspondent for The World and Everything In It. It's quality reporting from a Christian worldview. I hope you'll listen.

‘Jesus, what have I done?’: rock star Steve Tyler’s traumatic encounter with abortion | LifeSiteNews.com

2011-11-29T22:39:00.000-06:00

Powerful story from point of view of abortive father.

‘Jesus, what have I done?’: rock star Steve Tyler’s traumatic encounter with abortion | LifeSiteNews.com

The World and Everything in It - Nov. 12, 11

2011-11-17T16:15:00.001-06:00

The World and Everything in It - Nov. 12, 11

I am pleased to be associated with The World and Everything In It via this podcast. My story is the Conrad Murray report. Listen to the whole show, though, and subscribe! It's free. If you like NPR's format but not the left-of-center slant, you'll love TW&E.

The Moochers of Zuccotti Park by Heather Mac Donald - City Journal

2011-11-17T13:04:00.002-06:00

Favorite quote in summary:

"At their core, the protests represented another

outbreak of that perennial temptation in bourgeois

society: to take for granted the norms and institutions

that make Western prosperity and freedom possible."

The Moochers of Zuccotti Park by Heather Mac Donald
- City Journal Heather McDonald gets it right again.

Don't Hire an Anarchist to Babysit

2011-11-02T20:43:00.000-05:00

Separate anarchists from children. That’s what OWS-Portland has decided to do. This is because the anarchists prefer lawlessness and chaff at rules. Little children are vulnerable. Their mere survival depends upon rules and conventions.

The needs of this community compete with the needs of that community. The producers, looters, and moochers are present. Producers are workers who live near the camp, enduring the aggravations of a few hundred sleeping in their local parks. Moochers “come for food but don’t lift a protest sign,” said Steven Pierieto, a protester who’s fallen on hard times but scorns those who game the system. Who the looters are depends upon one’s perspective. For some, it is big business. For others, looters are politicians in cahoots with big business.

What is missing is a solution. Religion can serve as a unifier, but the milque-toast kind serve up here is too weak. Chakras, meditations, Buddhas, Mecca pointers and Jesus are all on display for equal sampling. A generalized “spirituality” is the order of the day, but order is hard to find.

One protestor praised a cleric for picking up trash and “ (not) trying to save me,” as though finding direction in life from such a man is anathema to common sense.

OWS may have had honorable intentions in the beginning. Now it is a mess replicating what it claims to protest.

In the utopian world envisioned by OWS, vulnerable little children are safe from danger. The utopian laboratory of OWS proves otherwise.

Medical Privacy, Your Teenager, and the Gov't

2011-10-20T13:51:00.000-05:00

What do you mean you can't tell me that?

Part of a hospital lawyer's job is making thousands of pages of rules and regulations understandable to people who can go to jail for unknowingly violating them while they are urgently taking care of sick people.
Here is a well-written saga of a mom trying to protect her college daughter from getting sick with TB, and the unintended effects of regulation upon common sense:

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/25/4/1127.full

To take action, join up with Phillip K. Howard's organization www.commongood.org. Let's end useless and overwhelming regulations from Washington that hamper up close and personal health care.

Interview with Alzheimer's Caregiver, Bob DeMarco

2011-10-14T16:56:00.000-05:00

Go to this link and listen to the radio interview I did with Mr. DeMarco. If Alzheimer's has touched your life, you will learn from this exchange.

http://www.alzheimersreadingroom.com/2011/10/touched-by-alzheimers-interview-by-mary.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAlzheimersReadingRoom+%28Alzheimer%27s+Reading+Room%29

A Loving Dog and a Hard Decision

2011-10-05T13:22:00.003-05:00

Frankie

Thursday, 9/29/11

At this moment, my little pup Frankie lies in the next room, lethargic and sad. He took sick suddenly

on Monday, prompting me to take him to the vet. This wasn’t my regular vet, who was out that day. It

was a younger vet with a caring manner and conversational style. He suggested getting Frankie fully

vaccinated against all the lurking deadlies out there, which I agreed to do. I had a nagging feeling that

inoculating a pup who already felt sick might not do the trick, but I had no idea what would unfold over

the next 2 days.

On Wednesday, my little blue heeler mix was coughing and had a thick nasal discharge. This time

when I took him in, the older and more experienced vet was there. After a physical exam, the vet told

me that Frankie looked to have distemper. What?! We’d just vaccinated him. But the timing was

wrong – the incubation period was between 3-15 days prior, after we’d had him only a short time.

We’d spent those early days trying to find his lost owner or find him a new home.But here we are. Last

night I wept over Frankie. If he was an old dog, I would still be sad, but there is an additional hurt

associated with Frankie. He is an unusual mutt. He looks like two breeds spliced together, hence the

shortened version of “Frankenstein” as his name. There is a kid’s short film called “Frankenweenie”

about a dog brought back to life and the dog star of that movie resembles Frankie. Anyway, he just

looks like a Frankie. And his personality! When he’d see me for the first time after 1 minute of

separation, he didn’t just walk over, he BOUNDED over to me. He didn’t just sit next to me, he put

both paws on my lap, gazed into my eyes, and gave air kisses. He didn’t just walk through the yard,

he charged in circles, chased butterflies, wagged his tail wildly, and carried found items around until he

collapsed with fatigue. He was exuberant beyond any other dog I’ve had over the past 49 years.

Frankie wasn’t just a nice dog, he specialized in extra-special love and attention. And even though I

wanted to keep him, my family wasn't in agreement.

We already have two big dogs who are expensive and tie us down. I vowed to find Frankie a great

home and visit him when I could.And then this horrible disease overtook Frankie. Yesterday when the

vet told me what he suspected I couldn’t face it. I said, let me take him home tonight. I was going to

pray hard for a recovery overnight, you see. I recruited friends to do the same. Then today wouldn’t

have that awful decision in it. But this morning, Frankie is listless. His eyes are partially covered with

swollen third eyelids that dogs have. His ears are down. His mouth is down. He barely wags his tail in

an effort to be dog friendly, even in the midst of his suffering. That’s the thing with dogs. They are

troopers. I wish there were more people with this kind of bravado in life.

I’ve researched distemper on the Internet, and although there is a sliver of hope, the dogs that

survive distemper are left with neurological problems. When I think of the frolicking Frankie of last

week, and the listless Frankie of today, I can’t bear to think of another 10 years of a sweet dog who

cannot do all the things he would naturally desire to do. And he is no longer likely to be adopted by

someone if they know of his affliction. And if, as my vet says, he is likely to die in a few weeks, what

kind of dog lover am I to keep him alive and suffering just for my own need to put off the inevitable?

So this is for Frankie: I’m glad you came to us that rainy Sunday, all sopping wet and so grateful

that we took you in. I’m so glad you have that shiny personality that I will never forget so long as I live.

Thank you for putting your paws around me, your chin on my shoulder, and for showing acceptance

for all things Reichard. That included two other dogs, one who didn’t like you and the other who did.

You understood us and minded without training – “stay,” “go to bed,” and “come.” You are smart. You

are loved. We will miss you terribly.

Sunday Oct 2, 2011 Dysautonomia Strikes Frankie

We didn’t put Frankie down as we thought we might earlier. This morning I found him out in the yard,

lying in the sun, and sat next to him for a long time. He was exhausted. He gobbled down the eggs I’d

prepared for him. Then he strained to go to the bathroom, and slowly walked a ways off from me,

turning around and slowly wagging his tail. I felt at that moment that he’d had enough. He’s been sick

10 days now, nose filled with drainage. When he sat up this morning, he collapsed to the side. So I

decided that I’d send the family off to church while I stayed home with Frankie for some quiet time

together. And I held him, stroking his face, and telling him what a good dog he was. And that I was

sorry that things were going badly.

I put him in the truck on his favorite towel and drove to the vet’s. Even though it was Sunday, the

veterinarian’s office is open. Turns out he doesn’t actually come in on Sunday, but the place is

operational for boarding purposes. The secretary called Dr. Phil (that’s his name, really!) and he said

he’d come in for us. By this time, I’d held Frankie in my lap and he was relaxed. He always rallied

when a human was near, so he wagged his tail around the secretaries. By the time my family got

there, the vet had arrived, too. He'd given a lot of thought to what might really be going on with

Frankie.

A new disease called dyautonomia appeared to be what was wrong. It was going to be a very hard

path from here on out, and Frankie already had neurological trouble with his eyes and was trembling a

lot. My vet was careful not to recommend euthanasia, but he did say he would not recommend giving

Frankie to the owner I’d found for him if that owner already had another dog. (He does.) So that left

us with the decision: would we keep him as our dog and spend several hundred dollars to find out

what exactly was wrong, with no guarantee that the results would help Frankie?\

What made me decide to put Frankie to sleep was this: we’d had a good morning together. I think he

understood my love for him, and I held him and petted him for a long time. He had a glorious ride in the

truck with the windows down, although he was too weak to look out. He rested his head on my lap and I

kept one hand on him the whole way in.

I’d wanted to be with him as he passed, but the vet didn’t understand this based on the last visit we’d

had where euthanasia was discussed. I’d gotten emotionally stronger since then and planned to hold

Frankie while he passed. Although this was disappointing to me, we’d had the whole morning, and it had

been good. This was better than waiting until he was in agony with dysautonomia, although still terribly

hard to do.

We brought Frankie home in a box and buried him in the woods out back. I feel numb and heartsick

still, and wonder if I could have tried lots of other things despite all the odds against us.

Frankie, I did the best I could by you. See you on Rainbow Bridge when my time comes.

Why I Love My Troublesome Dog

2011-09-17T10:03:00.003-05:00

Daisy the Loveable

Daisy is a black border collie/ chow mix, which means she is both smart and pushy. She has damaged our doors and window sills because of storm anxiety. Not only storm anxiety, but firecracker anxiety, gunshot anxiety, and any loud noises whatsoever anxiety. I’ve had dogs all my life and never encountered a dog with such a fear. So it was in the beginning of our association that Daisy destroyed our doors and windows until we learned to crate her whenever we left the house. She never balked whenever I said “Crate!” She made a beeline for her basement crate and looked relieved when I left her there before leaving the house.

Non-dog lovers would often ask me why on earth I’d ever put up with a dog like that. Even my favorite talk show host, Dennis Prager, said on his show that he thought dogs should compliment a human’s life, not complicate it. In other words, a dog should be quiet unless there’s a threat, should not do annoying things like jumping up or peeing on the floor. And I completely agree. Dogs should be trained in the rudiments of civilized man behavior. The thing is, though, human babies come with a plethora of annoying behaviors, including making noises when you don’t want them to and peeing on things. It is through the patient endurance of annoyance and then effective training that a baby of either species becomes domestically tolerable.

But then there’s Daisy with her fears. There is no training out of her an instinctual fear of loud noises. We tried drugs (Dennis would really find this annoying) and we tried therapy (oh, boy) and the latest is a tight coat sold specifically for storm anxiety that cost us $36.00. This latest seems to help although Daisy thought she was being singled out for punishment when I didn’t put coats on our other two dogs. Her ears were down, and her face sad, and she insisted on staying under foot the whole time.

So Daisy is just a whole heap of trouble to me. The question keeps arising in my mind, why do I put up with this? (Thanks, Dennis.) It really doesn’t make much sense to complicate my life any more than it already is. She is just a dog, after all. There are millions of dogs without these problems. But here is what I’ve come up with.

If Daisy was human, she would be a nurse. I know this because she is a nurturer. She knows when a human in the family is sick or suffering, even if it is emotional suffering. One touching example was when my husband was lying in bed after hip surgery, and he got the news that his mother had died. Daisy could hear him crying in the bedroom, but she was not permitted in that part of the house. Risking punishment, Daisy went through the safety gate, suffered the Invisible Fence shock, and went to my husband’s side. When they made eye contact, she softly slipped onto the bed (another verboten act) and laid her head on his chest. My cat-loving spouse was so touched by this that Daisy was made a permanent part of the family right then and there. Daisy absolutely knew what she was doing – comforting someone at the risk of personal chastisement.

When my son was in 7^th grade, he had a terrible time. He was in a new school with a demographic of students he had never encountered before. The kids were not cared for at home, coming to school dirty, hungry, and uncouth in behavior. Plus, my son had the habit of pulling his hood over his head and standing apart from the others in reaction to them, which further isolated him. When he got off the bus he couldn’t contain his tearful frustration. That’s when Daisy would come to him, and they would both lie on the floor with his face buried in her fur. They literally had their arms around each other every day when he got home from school. Let me tell you that is a bond that isn’t broken when things get easier, as they did for my son the following year at a different school. Daisy had a quality too many humans – including me – do not have: full acceptance. She was just there for my son, without fail, and stayed with him as long as he needed her. I would hear him telling her what happened in school each day, and she literally vocalized back to him. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.

Daisy is a beautiful dog. She has a fuzzy gray undercoat and a long, black, silky overcoat that makes her look quite fancy. Her chest appears to stick out and she holds her head up high. She has an unusual mannerism of sometimes sleeping with her head upright. Her eyes will be closed but she will be asleep. If I speak to her during that time and awaken her, she will open one sleepy eye, sigh, and then lie down as if to say “ok, I’ll lie down if that makes you happy.” When I come home after being away, Daisy has a lopsided “smile,” where she shows some of her teeth but only on one side, like a snarl, only not menacing at all. She puts her head down, walks towards me, wagging wildly, with her snarly smile. So endearing. Her beauty and unique mannerisms make us love her.

That’s the thing about dogs. Each one has a unique personality, just like humans do. I’ve had dogs my entire life, and each one stands out in my mind for his/her unique constellation of characteristics. I’ve had all of these characteristics in dogs: aloof, clingy, hunter, pointer, digger, burier, protector, companionable, beautiful, ugly, lovable, wiggly, loyal, obedient, sneaky, faker, driven, stupid, smart, watchful, attuned, chewer, slobberer, jumper, trickster, clown. The only kind of dog I’ve never had is a lazy one. Dogs are always willing to please and are up for doing and going whenever you are. All my dogs loved to ride in the car and all of them loved to be groomed. All of them made their emotional mark on me, and I’m so glad that they did.

So my answer to Dennis Prager is this: Dogs aren’t humans, it’s true. But they are aware beings capable of love, and come with a variety of pleasing traits as well as annoyances. I don’t cast out my annoying human family members, and that’s why I don’t cast out my canine family members even when they are annoying.

And Daisy is at my feet as I write.

ADF - News Release

2011-09-12T15:56:00.000-05:00

Missouri schools in the cross hairs of the ACLU and sexual anarchists.

ADF - News Release

British Degeneracy on Parade by Theodore Dalrymple - City Journal

2011-08-10T20:02:00.000-05:00

Theodore Dalrymple hits it on the head again. I have friends and family who are liberal and have often told me that "all crime stems from poverty." Yet the evidence is otherwise. What will it take to get otherwise sweet people to see the truth?

British Degeneracy on Parade by Theodore Dalrymple - City Journal

Humane Humans and Animals

2011-07-25T20:56:00.001-05:00

Dr. P. Michael Conn, author

I sell Shaklee products. Hence, I read with particular interest that Shaklee is suing an animal rights activist for bombing its headquarters. That fact was mentioned in passing in a piece written for the Wall Street Journal by Dr. P. Michael Conn. I contacted Dr. Conn, and he graciously appeared on my radio show. What follows is some of what I learned from him.

Any person who has received a vaccine, endured surgery, taken a life-saving drug, or used cosmetics has benefited from animal research. A few facts from Dr. Conn’s book (The Animal Research Wars):

Diptheria, smallpox, polio, syphilis, pertussis, and measles, which used to kill thousands, are now eliminated, over 90% reduced, or worrisome only as potential terrorist weapons.

Measles, mumps, and rubella have been virtually eliminated in the USA.

Death rates from the flu that killed more people in 1919 than in all battles of WWI are down over 85%.

A baby girl born today has a life expectancy of 78 years. One hundred years ago, the same child would have lived an average of 44 years.

All these life improvements can be attributed to animal research.

Methods of Animal Rights Activists:

Gullable school kids are used to promote fringe animal rights ideology. PETA enlists kids in a crusade that harms our collective health. How? Take this real life example. Students are greeted at a school by a man costumed as a giant vegetable who is handing out barf bags. Students are told to give the barf bags to classmates who eat animals as a protest of how it makes them feel to see their friends eating their friends. Cartoons with cows on them are handed out with an invitation to write a poem about how it would feel to be eaten by a cow.

Other actions by animal activists: Washington University in St. Louis researcher, Dora Angelaki, Ph.D., is mocked and demeaned in a website put up by an animal rights activist. $450,000 in damages when activists poured acid on data, released hundreds of rats and mice, forced closure of labs for 6 weeks and sprayed “Science not Sadism” in paint on the inner walls of another facility. Stalking scientists or family members as they shop or attend school; vandalizing property, setting fires; and even setting bombs under cars or at front doors of homes.

Are you reminded of any other groups in history that used public school kids to carry on a crusade of an ideological viewpoint?

There’s more: A scientist is warned that his children’s photos will be put on the Internet, and left there until he stops doing animal research. Scientists receive letters with razor blades set to cut the opener’s hands. Lies told about how research is carried out with photos seeming to “prove” what in fact is not true.

How many scientists have left the field because it just isn’t worth sacrificing their families as they try to work and still live in terror? How many future scientists never enter the field once they learn of the threats against them?

An animal welfarist is one who believes humans have the responsibility to care for animals and act humanely to minimize pain and suffering in animals. Animal rights activists think that animals possess inalienable rights. Some in this group think having pets is wrong, that the legal system should permit wrongful death lawsuits and pain/suffering awards against veterinarians on behalf of pets. In such a scenario taken to logical ends, the field mouse caught by an eagle for dinner would have rights in our legal system.

I’d read nothing of Dr. Conn’s side of the story in the media, having been saturated along with everyone else in animal rightist thinking. We all owe much to scientists such as Dr. Conn, who have taken unfair amounts of criticism for good work with precious little defense from all of us who benefit from it. I felt more than a little hypocritical about my self-righteous attitude about animal testing after reading this book.

And now as a seller of Shaklee products, I will no longer claim that “we do not test on animals.” One sales point I'd learned was that people want to hear that statement, even though it is not true. Federal regulations require such testing, human and animal lives are saved by such testing, and subcontracting out the necessary safety work to others without telling the whole truth is wrong.

Dr. Conn interview, July 21, 2011, on The Mary Reichard Show. Many thanks to this brave man.

How Did I Get On The Radio?

2011-07-08T19:29:00.001-05:00

People ask me how it is I came to be on the radio. I don't have a journalism degree and I don't have "connections." Here's how it happened.

One day I was listening to talk radio and it was abysmal. I mean, it was complete drivel. The guy was probably a nice guy, but he was talking on and on about something he obviously knew little about. He hadn't thought about it in advance, nor was it apparent he'd read any books on the topic. The topic didn't have anything to do with what talk radio listeners wish to hear. And as a life-long talk radio addict, I know a thing or two about the product of good talk radio. (My favorites: Dennis Prager, Sandy Rios, Dennis Miller, Ravi Zacharias. Why? I actually learn something from them. That's the key.)

I'd lived and breathed Chicago talk radio for years and years. That's where talk got started, after all. Good stuff with on-air talent that was rewarded for being prepared and if not humorous, at least informed. But now I live in a smallish town of about 150,000. Good people live here, but the way stations are run are of two kinds: Get paid $10 an hour for on-air (not including preparation time, which explains the ignorance - why prepare?) or find a sponsor and get them to buy time from the station. That's right - you pay the station to let you on the air.

I got my start with option 1. How that happened is after being terribly disappointed with talk in my new town, I sent an e-mail to the station saying I could do better, and certainly could do no worse than what I'd just heard. Management called me in for an interview, asked a few questions, and offered me the morning drive-time slot. The following week I was on the air with my own show. Monday through Friday 6-9 AM.

The reason I was willing to work for $150/week (15 hours live) and get zero pay for my preparation time was that I was certain the boss would value my hard work and talent. He did not, so after three months I quit. Still, I got my foot in the radio door and for that I am grateful. (He had paid the male host just prior to me much more - $50,000/year. But that's another story.)

Next, I looked for opportunities via option 2, finding a sponsor to buy the time for me. I found one in my favorite organization and with a little finagling got a weekly, one-hour show of my own. I work for free, but it is a pleasure to do because a) I don't have to get up at 4:30 AM b) I pick my own topics and c) If I work at it on the side, I can make some advertising money. Truth be told, by the time I work my real job (I'm an attorney at a hospital) and prepare for the show in addition to family duties, I don't have a lot of energy left over to find advertisers.

So that's how I did it. Unless you are in a big city, small town America isn't the place to get syndicated because it doesn't have the technical studio requirements, from what I've learned. But it is a darn good place to get a start, get practice, and then go from there if you want.

--Mary 7/8/11

A Love That Multiplies

2011-07-07T22:14:00.000-05:00

The Duggar family knows what it is all about. Their household has a very specific product, and everything is geared to make that product happen. What is that product? A responsible, contented child who knows he/she is loved. By all accounts, this family accomplishes just that.

July 7, 2011

Talking to Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar for the first time is like talking to friends you’ve never met. There is something disarming about talking to committed Christians; it’s as though they know you, because they know Christ. Non-religious people miss out on that.

Just about everyone knows about the Duggar family. The foundation of their lives is their faith in God, and if naysayers want to dismiss that, then those folks will have to contend with the successful products coming out of the Duggar baby factory! Kids who are well behaved, well groomed, well educated and on track to be welcome additions to society.

I’d asked about Josie first, because she was the primary focus of the Duggar’s latest book, “A Love That Multiplies.” Josie was born 3 ½ months prematurely, required a long hospital stay, and Michelle’s life was endangered due to preeclampsia. From 22 ounces at birth (!), Josie is now 22 pounds. “A miracle,” says Michelle.

This quote in the book made an impression on me: “Good and bad run on parallel tracks, and they arrive about the same time.” Attributed to the late pastor Ron Dunn, Jim Bob explained that waiting for everything to be just right before you do something or feel happy- isn’t advisable. Michelle said give thanks in all things, good and bad, and see blessings come from that attitude. (It reminded me of Betsy ten Boom, thanking God for the fleas in her barracks at a concentration camp during WWII. Those fleas saved them from the cruelest guard who wouldn't enter that barracks for the fleas!)

I'd asked about anger. With so many children there are ample opportunities to “practice” self-discipline around its expression. Undisciplined expression of anger can do so much damage to a child, so Michelle offers Proverbs 15:1: “A soft answer turns away wrath but grievous words stir up anger.” Michelle doesn’t want her children to remember her as an angry, bickering nag – she wants to be remembered as a loving, encouraging mother. SO she literally will whisper sometimes when she's angry, as a check against yelling. She uses prayer and self-talk to bring her internal mercury column back to a manageable level. She keeps the long view in mind – that is, her grown-up children who remember her well as a loving mother to them.

I’d asked them about criticisms received that they were putting their kids through the wringer with the TV show. Jim Bob answered that they feel the entire family has been called into the ministry, and that ministry is modeling to the world how a conservative, Christian family lives. Such a personal conviction isn’t something most people will scoff at, although there are of course people who still do.

Michelle said their goals are two fold, and if they accomplish these two things they will be a success: 1) Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and 2) Love and serve others. They teach this by looking for ways to show gratitude, writing notes of recognition and encouragement (that included the garbage man one day!), and going on mission trips to El Salvador. There are plenty of suggestions about how to create unselfish young people on the Duggar family website, at www.duggarfamily.com.

This is a family who doesn’t tell everyone else what to do. They go about their life and business with humility and love. I only wish there were more people like them.

Thanks to Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar for taking time out to visit with me on The Mary Reichard Show. Michelle will speak this coming November 11-12, 2011 in Springfield, MO at Second Baptist Church, Battlefield Road. The topic? Laughing, she said, “Anything from diapers to driver’s ed!”

Dotty's Boy Bob & His Passionate Calling

2011-07-01T13:47:00.000-05:00

Bob DeMarco

Dotty’s youngest son Bob made her proud. He worked on Wall Street, made a good living, and stayed in contact with Dotty in spite of his busy life. Then the day came when Dotty couldn’t manage her life anymore, and Bob dropped everything to take care of his mom.

For some souls on this earth, their true calling comes when unplanned events arise. Indeed, instead of spending time “finding yourself,” in ‘60s parlance, they find themselves instead when life happens and a clarion call of direction comes.

Bob not only takes care of his mom, he founded the Web’s biggest source of Alzheimer’s information, www.alzheimersreadingroom.com. There you will find every conceivable issue for patients and caregivers, and if by remote chance you don’t find it, ask. Thousands of followers will give you advice from their long and winding roads of experience.

I’m a radio host. My passion is finding people who are passionate about their calling in life, and Bob DeMarco is one of those people. He breathes Alzheimer’s information in and out. He is dedicated to the cause of prevention, raising awareness, helping caretakers, understanding what he calls “Alzheimer’s World,” and finding humanity where others do not. During our radio interview on my show, we communed in a way that radio hosts typically do not with people they haven’t met. Why? Because we share a common love and a common pain – that is, he loves his mom, I love my dad, and we suffer pain as we see them suffer. And therein lies the passionate communion, where the millions of caretakers on the planet instantly understand one another.

This show garnered the most response, and I know that is because so many are affected by Alzheimer’s. Bob wrote his own blog piece about it here:

http://www.alzheimersreadingroom.com/2011/06/alzheimers-off-top-of-my-head-dotty.html

Next time you meet someone you know is a caregiver, give him or her a warm smile, an encouraging word. As Philo of Alexandria once said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”

Thanks to Bob DeMarco for the work he does, and for being on the show June 23, 2011.

Blatant Rejection, Blatant Love: The Story of Christopher and Angela Yuan

2011-05-20T14:33:00.001-05:00

Christopher Yuan
The Beloved Son

Angela Yuan was a good Chinese wife and mother bringing up her two sons in the Chicago suburbs. She decided to end her life when her son declared his homosexuality and she saw no reason to go on.

Christopher Yuan was a good Chinese-American son who made good grades, obeyed his parents, and played piano. He decided to shut out his mother and father because he found that living life however he wanted was easier than dealing with their judgments.

Along the way, both mother and son came to see each other's lives and their own lives in completely different ways. Each came to see that sometimes real love is in conflict with what they once believed love to be.

A group of protestors outside a circuit party door said, "God hates fags" and "You are going to hell." Those entering the party experienced those signs as proof of why they would never want to associate with Christians. This story of a son's redemption and a mother's embrace of truth gives snapshots of events we've all experienced, but did not have the courage to speak aloud.

How these two people danced intimately around each other's judgments and their own fears to eventually embrace one another in a new way unfolds chapter by chapter. Angela learned to show compassion and acceptance for her son, while speaking the truth about the harm of homosexuality, and without a trace of self-righteousness. This is the narrow road we must all learn to walk.

Seemingly random wisdom came to Mother Angela. Someone gave her a booklet that explained how a certain kind of bird, called a shrike, kills its prey. This bird impales its prey on a sharp object and then pulls flesh off bit by bit. An analogy is the Christian who picks apart fellow human beings without acknowledging his own wrong actions. Angela recognized herself, and vowed to change.

Son Christopher had always felt different from other people, and did not know how to deal with secret feelings. Eventually, the secrecy became too much to bear, and he felt accepted by those who lived a lifestyle of drugs and promiscuity. So he rejected his family of origin and embarked on a lifestyle that eventually landed him in prison with a diagnosis of HIV+.
At his lowest point, a Bible found in the trash brought him hope, and hope brought him to new, meaningful life. How Christopher came to accept the way he was made and to embrace "holy sexuality" will inspire you to live for something bigger than yourself.

Out of a Far Country tells the story in a biographical way. How do you define love? How do you show acceptance? How do you rid yourself of wrongdoing? How do you become self-aware? What is the line between telling the truth with compassion and pushing people away with self-righteousness?

Interview April 28, 2011 of Angela and Christopher Yuan by Mary Reichard on the Mary Reichard Show, 1340 Ozarks Big Talker Radio

Tribute To My Daughter

2011-05-19T17:17:00.001-05:00

Tribute to my Daughter

Well, here it is. You are all grown up. Everybody told me the years would fly by, but when I heard that the first time, you had been in a colicky scream mode for several weeks and would not be comforted. Your dad and I had to take turns walking across the creaky wooden floor in our little 1950’s-built starter house, throughout the night, with your chin in the palm of one hand and your whole body half and half over the forearm with your legs hanging down. And your arms. JUST SO! And just like that for hours on end. It was agony, and it was thrilling, because you were OUR quirky little baby girl, and it was really, really tiring. Surely the years would not “fly by!”

But here it is. You are a graduate of high school. Wise parents told me to keep you so busy with school, church, and sports that you wouldn’t have time for mischief. That turned out to be pretty good advice. You excelled in school, learned about good and evil in church, and really took off in sports. In fact, you went to state in two sports, in two different states! Not many can say that! State champion in gymnastics two years in Illinois, and top 10 diver in Missouri for the past 2 years. And your mother was once voted “most likely to trip over anything.” God is pretty funny with stuff like that. You did so well in school that you graduated summa cum laude and got scholarships to attend college. Your best subject was math. Another funny joke from God, because I barely scraped by in that and so did your dad.

I got to be a stay-at-home mom for almost your entire life. I was there for practically every minute, car pooling, attending sporting events, taking you on trips, enjoying your friends, your many cousins. Our house hosted lots of sleep-overs. I overheard precious little snippets of conversation that revealed who you really are, and who you really are is a sweet, thoughtful, kind-hearted person. I’m really proud to launch you into the world.

And yet. I worry about what I didn’t do. You don’t know how to change the oil in the car, or how to change a tire. You let a lot of details slip, like paying attention to when the car tags need renewal. You’ve never kept your room neat. Maybe I didn’t give you enough responsibility around the house. You probably don’t know whether to use Windex or Pledge on which surface without thinking about it. What if you need a doctor while at college? Do you know how to manage the forms? How about balancing a checkbook? You are good at math, and will study accounting, so I assume you’ll figure it out. But I’m sorry that I didn’t SHOW you how to do it. That feels like a lapse on my part.

Come to think of it, I didn’t know any of that stuff when I left home, either. I didn't even know how to boil a potato and had to call your aunt! But I figured it out. And you are a whole lot smarter than I was, so I’m going to let you fly the nest, even though….even though if I could, I would do your entire life all over again. I wouldn’t sweat any of the small stuff. I would enjoy even those long nights on the creaky wooden floors. The years really did fly by fast.

I would love to do your entire life all over again, because you were a great kid to have then, and you are a great woman to know now. Your dad and I are very proud of you, and we love you forever and always.

Patience, Always

2011-04-22T12:37:00.003-05:00

Those of us with aged parents, small children, insolent teenagers, other humans....watch this as a gentle reminder to be patient, always. Click on the title "Patience, Always" to see the video.

School Choice is the Moral Choice

2011-04-21T22:44:00.000-05:00

www.edchoice.org

My middle class family spent over $100,000 in private tuition for our two children, just to get them through 12th grade. Sometimes, the government solution for educating a kid just doesn't work. And then, conscientious parents are on their own, forced to pay twice: once in taxes, and again in tuition.
At least we had the means to do this, unfair though it was. Most families do not.

That's why I advocate school choice.

My family has used public school, private school, home school, boarding school, religious school, and secular school. Each child has his or her particular set of needs and skills, and no one kind of school could possibly meet the needs of millions of kids. I know many children with above-average IQs but who cannot learn in the environment offered at their local public schools. So families have a terrible choice to make: send their kids where they know it isn't working; impoverish themselves to buy another, private education; compromise their beliefs using a public school that is hostile toward Judeo-Christian religious values; and/or send them to dangerous schools where there is no physical safety.

My own family's greatest expense in bringing up kids was education - when the public school had no solutions, and we had exhausted every single avenue we could think of, we were bereft. We were guaranteed an education by the state which we fund with our tax money, but that education wasn't working for us. And there is the problem - one size fits all education simply does not work.

This is my child and my money we are talking about, yet the government puts the bureaucracy first and foremost.

With school choice, there is no downside for parents, taxpayers, or students. Robert C. Enlow, President of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, had this to say. Private and home schools cost much less than public schools do and thereby save taxpayers' money. In Florida, where a successful voucher program operates, $40 million in tax money was saved. In other countries where vouchers are used, their students outperform American students. So, money is saved and performance is better when school choice is in place. Countless studies of real students prove time after time that there is no downside to school choice. Competition improves public schools as well as private schools.

Mr. Enlow made another interesting point for today's politically correct crowd: the data is clear that religious tolerance is greater in private schools than for kids in public schools. So if the Left is really concerned about diversity and tolerance, then even here the data shows private schools do a better job than public schools.

Also according to Mr. Enlow, families in Indiana who make up to $60,000 per year can get a voucher to attend the school of their choice. Collective bargaining reform was made, too - allowing teachers to bargain as to wages and benefits, but not as to hours or other matters. This corrected the imbalance of power that teacher unions had over taxpayers, students, and parents. In Florida, special needs children can go to any school their parents choose, and if the family earns less a certain amount, they receive a $4,500 voucher. So far, 50,000 kids have escaped sub-par education under this system.

The founders of the Friedman Foundation, Milton and Rose Friedman, said that we would create a more equitable system if we were to separate government money from government running the schools. This would solve the problem of punishing kids for where their parents live; in fact, it is immoral and wrong that the quality of schooling is based on zip code. Your address has nothing to do with what kind of education you should receive. School choice gives parents the freedom to choose a school based on its quality and their child's needs.

I don't mind paying for my children's education, but I surely do resent being forced to pay for it twice. Once through forced taxation, again through the needs of my children. I sacrificed a lot to see that my children received the education they received. It galls me that teacher's unions and government bureaucracy puts its needs ahead of educational choice.

My home state of Missouri has NO voucher program. This must change. For more information, see the following sites:

www.edchoice.org
http://www.childrenseducationalliance-mo.org/
http://www.showmeinstitute.org/education.html

I thank Robert C. Enlow of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice for his time on the Mary Reichard Show on April 21, 2011, and urge readers to speak up for the freedom to choose the best education for your child.

A Jew Calls for Christians to Stand Up for Christians

2011-04-20T10:45:00.000-05:00

Well, Dennis does it again. He makes sense.

The Dennis Prager Show

These Guys Can Fix It All

2011-04-11T21:06:00.003-05:00

APRIL 11, 2011 NEWSWEEK FEATURE

Dear Congress: Government is Broken. These Guys Can Fix It.

The government-shutdown drama displays Washington's big-picture paralysis. Our team of 20 leaders and experts suggests small, common-sense ideas that can get America moving forward right now.

by Philip K. Howard

April 10, 2011

Watching last week’s government shutdown face-off, as symbolic things like Planned Parenthood became proxies in a dysfunctional game of chicken, it was impossible not to wonder how these guys will ever solve the huge problems our country faces. Government isn’t just broke—it’s broken.

And this breakdown goes past a culture of spending, as Republicans argue, or a regressive tax policy, as Democrats might counter. Decades of accumulated laws, often obsolete, have created a government paralysis of its own making.

This giant junkyard of laws and regulations that are individually well meaning collectively act as a dead tyrant. Balancing budgets is impossible when so many policies come cast in legal concrete—farm subsidies from the New Deal made sense then, but they now send $15 billion in taxpayer dollars each year mostly to corporations because lawmakers cow to special interests. Bureaucracy crushes teachers; doctors order tens of billions in unnecessary tests to protect themselves from lawsuits; businesses forgo new opportunities because of bureaucratic hurdles; green infrastructure gets sidetracked by endless, mandated reviews.

In an ideal world, we’d scrap the byzantine legal framework we’ve inherited and rebuild simpler systems that permit flexibility to meet today’s needs. (I’m helping launch a new campaign, Start Over, to push political leaders in that direction.) A general sunset law—every law with budgetary implications would automatically expire every 10 years unless reenacted—would impose some automatic review.

In the short term, there are solutions that we could start with now. We pulled together 20 prominent Americans to nominate elegant policy fixes—from education tweaks to job-killing rules—rooted in common sense and designed to attract support from all political stripes. America needs to hold its representatives accountable to a simple philosophy: if it’s broken, fix it.

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/04/10/dear-congress-government-is-broken-these-guys-can-fix-it.html

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Government Is Broken. These Guys Can Fix It.

Philip K. Howard: Founder/Chairman, Common Good

We pulled together 20 prominent Americans to nominate elegant policy fixes—from education tweaks to job-killing rules—rooted in common sense and designed to attract support from all political stripes. America needs to hold its representatives accountable to a simple philosophy: if it’s broken, fix it.

Eric Schmidt: Former CEO, Google

Neutralize frivolous patent claims

America’s patent system des-perately needs reform. Sadly, it’s become a tool for people who produce nothing but patents of dubious validity, and frivolous lawsuits targeting the profits of true invention. Companies often settle rather than risk losing millions of dollars in front of a jury, and consumers, innovation, and the economy all suffer for it. Since patent law’s original purpose was promoting innovation, infringement-claim damages should be tied to the actual value added by a patented feature—not the entire product, which might have thousands of parts. Also, there should be a more effective reevaluation process after patents are issued, thus reducing expensive, time-wasting litigation. The history of America is one of amazing innovation. Let’s give our best companies and minds the protection to keep dreaming big, and moving us forward.

Bill Bradley: Former Senator, N.J.

Introduce health courts

The medical-malpractice justice system has a 25 percent error rate, according to a Harvard study. Anyone who has spent time in hospitals has witnessed the resulting “defensive medicine”—tests and procedures ordered by doctors mainly to show they did all they could. All this unnecessary medicine adds up—an estimated $100 billion annually. One obvious change is to replace the current system with health courts: special judges, advised by neutral experts, who would make written rulings on accepted standards of care. These courts would affirmatively defend wrongly accused doctors, and prove much better for patients injured by mistakes, with payments made within a year, not the five years typical today. I was thrilled to see President Obama’s budget include $250 million to help states pay for new systems of justice for health care. Let’s get it through Congress.

Mitch Daniels: Governor, Indiana

Merit-based civil service

Like many states, Indiana rewrote its civil-service statute in 1941. It’s been frozen in time ever since. By 2005 this geriatric law had us in a straitjacket. Employee complaints about the most trivial of matters (“I don’t like my uniform style”) subjected management, administrative-law judges, and indirectly the taxpayers to a five-step, year-long grievance process. Promotions and layoffs were dictated by seniority. Disciplining or dismissing poor performers? Forget it. This year, we are replacing this system with one that highly rewards the best workers and deals with the worst. Employee rights will still be carefully protected, but in a streamlined, three-step process less vulnerable to abuse. Fairness for taxpayers and that large majority of diligent, deserving state employees will result.

Alice Waters: Chef; Founder, Chez Panisse Foundation

Healthier kids’ lunches

For decades the federal school-lunch program has contributed to the obesity pandemic by serving cheap, fat-laden foods that met U.S. guidelines. A new law offers schools an extra six cents per meal if they meet healthier criteria. While a start, six cents isn’t enough to cover endless reimbursement paperwork—or the cost of real food. The economics are simple: it’s far cheaper to feed our children well now than to pay their hospitalization in the future (obesity drives $150 billion in health-care costs). The solution: a free, wholesome school lunch for every child in America.

Mark Cuban: Entrepreneur; Owner, Dallas Mavericks

Streamline entrepreneurial paperwork

To earn enough money for basketball shoes, I started my career selling garbage bags door to door. My father’s friend sold me the bags for $3, I sold them for $6. It was frictionless. When I started my first “big” company, MicroSolutions, I had no office. I got a sales-tax license and incorporated. Again, frictionless, and it turned into a $30 million (sales) business. Today, it’s impossible to start a business without professional help. Between local, county, state, and federal filings, it can easily cost as much time and capital to deal with administrivia as the business itself. Paperwork strangles small businesses before they start—this country’s greatest inhibitor to job growth. That could be fixed with a simplified startup legal structure (understandable in a pamphlet) that would reduce the friction involved in starting a business.

Mike Bloomberg: Mayor, New York City

Eliminate seniority hierarchy in education

The U.S. is the world’s greatest meritocracy. Hard work is rewarded. Talent is recognized. Achievement is celebrated. But in 14 states, including New York, a law known as “last in, first out” forbids school districts from taking performance into consideration when conducting layoffs. Instead, only one factor matters: years on the job. In New York City, we are facing 4,600 teacher layoffs. But rather than lay off those rated unsatisfactory, convicted of crimes, or lacking certification, we would have to let go of nearly every teacher hired over the past few years. We’ve made huge progress—graduation rates are up 27 percent over the past five years. “Last in, first out” would jeopardize that progress—and harm our kids. They—and their hard-working teachers—deserve better.

Peter Orszag: Ex-Director, OMB

Modernize shipping requirements

The requirements for U.S. shipping vessels are out-dated. The Jones Act of 1920 requires all shipping between American ports to occur on U.S.-flagged, built, owned, and manned ships, unlike other forms of transportation. As a result, it raises shipping costs, effectively operating as a tax on all of us. As economist Joseph Stiglitz pointed out, even a quarter-century ago, this rule cost America more than $250,000 for each job it saved. It’s basically a form protectionism: if the U.S.-made and manned ships were the lowest-cost option, the law would be unnecessary. The solution: rescind the law to get an efficient and cost-effective mode of shipping.

Paul Tagliabue: Ex-Commissioner, NFL

Increase visa cap for highly skilled workers

Our restrictive visa policy hampers our ability to hire the most highly skilled workers. Only 65,000 engineers, scientists, doctors, and other exemplary professionals are permitted to work domestically, and the 2009 stimulus bill requires companies to give preference to American workers. Meanwhile half the U.S. science and engineering doctorates go to foreigners. A simple, necessary reform: increase the H-1B visa total. If we want to foster innovation, we need to attract and retain the world’s top talent—not educate the rest of the world—without archaic limitations.

Glenn Hutchins: Cofounder/Co-CEO of Silver Lake Partners

Give preference to wireless technologies

The new broadband economy depends on spectrum—the airwaves over which wireless signals travel. It is also a finite, dwindling resource, which the federal government allocates in a grossly out-of-date manner. A huge percentage remains reserved for legacy media—broadcast TV and radio—despite massive consumer demand for bandwidth-intensive wireless applications for smartphones and tablets. Inefficient allocation stifles competition and impedes the development of wireless technologies and applications—the key to overall economic efficiency and growth. This massive waste of valuable resources demands a new approach: phasing in a market-based allocation concept where spectrum will be, in effect, rented for the highest and best use.

Bill Donaldson: Ex-Chairman, SEC

Consolidate regulators

The need for regulatory oversight of financial institutions has never been greater. But rather than clear lines of responsibility, the recent reforms have entrenched numerous, overlapping agencies, and created a 10-agency “Financial Stability Oversight Council.” The confusion will allow market abuses to slip between the cracks, and the central committee is a formula for paralysis. The solution: consolidate agencies along clear lines of responsibility. There should be one bank regulator, not four. There should one regulator of public markets, not two. As markets become more complex, and the different finance and securities techniques converge, it’s imperative to avoid regulatory turf battles and to clarify responsibility.

David Paterson: Former Governor, N.Y.

Real pension accounting

Controversial accounting standards have allowed state pension funds to appear more solvent than they are. The effect: delaying the day of reckoning, making state fiscal crises much worse than needed. The blame should not be put on public workers: we should not treat the product of a lifetime of work as partisan jujitsu. Congress can solve this problem by prohibiting states from estimating pension growth beyond the last three years of actual pension growth or state revenue growth. Overestimating returns, which has landed 48 states in huge deficits, would then cease.

Wendy Kopp: CEO, Teach For America

Flexible teacher hiring

We need great teachers, but the “highly qualified teacher” provision in No Child Left Behind, imposed with the best intentions, isn’t productive. School districts must engage in two distinct activities: jumping through hoops to check the box indicating their teachers meet the ‘highly qualified’ designation—while actually improving teacher effectiveness by recruiting top talent and investing in their development. We will transform our educational system only when we empower local leadership; micromanaging by central mandate produces incremental change, at best.

Jonathan Tisch: CEO, Loews Hotels

More tourist-visa waivers

Over the past decade, America lost 78 million visitors, 467,000 jobs, and $600 billion in spending, due in large part to our discouraging visa process. A new bill helps fix this by updating the framework for admission into the Visa Waiver Program. Countries currently in the program comprise two thirds of inbound travel to the U.S., and support 512,000 jobs. Let’s boost that number by making it easier for our allies (and customers) to get here.

Lisa Price: Founder, Carol’s Daughter

Startup ombudsman

When you start a business, it’s nearly impossible to know all the legal requirements until mistakes are made. When I started Carol’s Daughter, I paid sales tax at the end of every month, but once missed the deadline giving birth to my son. The penalty was huge: 10 percent of the month’s sales. A government ombudsman should help entrepreneurs negotiate the maze of rules, and reverse injustices.

Vince Gill: Recording Artist

Ease import-export documentation

The nation’s import-export laws have become red-tape nightmares. One tiny example I’m familiar with: A well-meaning law to save rare woods basically makes it illegal to travel with an old guitar. Any wooden instrument must have documentation of the genus and weight of every type of component wood—impossible given that antique fretted instruments are constructed from several types (my oldest dates to 1868 —good luck finding documentation on that). A solution: make antiques exempt. Other import-export quirks surely have similar fixes.

Mort Zuckerman: CEO, Boston Properties

End mortgage deductions

The tax code’s home-mortgage deduction favors the rich (who use taxpayer dollars to subsidize mansions), encourages people to buy homes they can’t afford, and contributed to the housing bubble, causing the current recession. It also costs taxpayers $130 billion annually. We should end it, or sharply limit it to mortgages of no more than $250,000.

Larry Thompson: Former Deputy Attorney General

Let U.S. firms compete

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act serves the important goal of discouraging bribery by U.S. companies overseas. But by making firms criminally responsible for even the most uncontrollable acts of low-level employees and agents—and ignoring any efforts to create a culture of ethics and compliance—many U.S. companies withdraw rather than face limitless exposure. As a result, less-scrupulous foreign competitors often step in, harming America’s economic vitality and, ironically, fueling the very misconduct the act was intended to reduce. The solution: make the act apply only to material misconduct and allow companies to assert a “best efforts” defense if they have effective compliance and ethics programs.

Randi Weingarten: President, AFT

360-degree education accountability

No Child Left Behind, despite admirable goals, has resulted in a misplaced focus on test prep, a narrow curriculum, and a rigid accountability that doesn’t serve the kids’ interests. The law correctly shines a light on the needs of all our children, but the current atmosphere is toxic, focusing schools on compliance rather than achievement. I suggest a 360-degree accountability system in which multiple parties—from principals to teachers to parents—are held responsible. Testing should be one of many evaluation factors, along with a culture of order and respect, attendance, and individual improvement. Under these redefined objectives, all stakeholders would answer to each other.

David Stockman: Ex-Director, OMB

Break up big banks

Our banking system remains a dangerous mix of leverage, bad assets, and speculation, which the ineffective Dodd-Frank financial reform did nothing to cure. The top six banks are 30 percent bigger than before the crisis ($9.2 trillion of assets)—yet they are wards of the state, utterly dependent upon deposit insurance and the Fed’s cheap money. Strip these crutches and the problem will be largely solved. Banks that are “too big to fail” are too big to exist, and should be broken up, not coddled by a 2,000-page enabling act for lobbyists, lawyers, and Beltway fixers.

Michael Lynton: CEO, Sony Pictures

Ban foreign IP pirates

The digital theft of intellectual property damages a wide swath of U.S. industries, from entertainment and software to fashion and biotech. And the problem’s getting worse as pirates build offshore websites to sell stolen IP goods. Senators Pat Leahy and Orrin Hatch are crafting legislation giving law enforcement the power to require Internet service providers to block international websites that traffic in bootleg products. It’s a whack-a-mole task, but a bigger hammer will whack more counterfeit moles out of business. Great news for America’s creative economy, businesses, and workers.

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/04/10/government-is-broken-these-guys-can-fix-it.all.html

Flipside of Feminism

2011-04-11T17:15:00.002-05:00

When I gave up my law career to stay home with my two children, my own worst enemy was me. I thought I would disappoint the people who put me through law school. I thought I would disappoint the women who had gone before me who made it easier for me to attend law school. I worried I'd lose my career edge and my work connections and I wouldn't be contributing to my retirement security.

With support from the Mommy Underground - other real women who were worrying as I did- I recovered. I spent both of my children's childhoods with them. I have zero regrets.

I grew up in the 1970s when the Feminist Movement was loud and provocative. "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle!" Gloria Steinem said at a lecture I attended. By this time I was already in my early 20's, and thought she was one neat woman to be saying such outrageous things. That's the thing, though. When you are young and inexperienced, provocative sayings can have a power beyond truth. And for me and many other women, her advice hobbled us. How? Because most of us wanted a husband, children, and family. Most of us didn't want to put down 50% of the human race in order to "get ahead." Most of us loved our dads, and didn't see men as idiots, klutzes, or rapists.

Author Suzanne Venker has written a book called "The Flip Side of Feminism" that more accurately describes what I experienced, and has advice in it that I give my own nearly-grown daughter. Suzanne says the #1 question she gets is this: "How DARE you challenge feminism, when it is because of feminism that you are now a writer and are educated!" The answer? Feminism didn't have anything to do with Suzanne's success today. Here's what did:

Inventions that freed us from household chores (which were invented by men, by the way)
Birth Control that kept our families smaller and hence freed up more time for women
WWII, which necessitated that women worked outside the home while men were away fighting

Feminists didn't have anything to do with those developments.

From the book: "American culture says to our daughters: Sleep around, postpone family life because that will cost you your identity. And if the marriage doesn't work, there's always divorce. But female nature says something else: sex (has consequences that requires love), marriage is important, children are a blessing, and men are necessary."

I like to connect the dots of history, which brings us to today. This quote from the book sums it up:
"Leftist thinking got us from rare instances of teen infections to nine million new cases a year; from 2 bugs to 24, babies having babies, sixth graders on the pill, teens with cervical cancer, and HIV/AIDS. Some great new world, huh?"

"The Flipside of Feminism" will provide conservative women with the reasons why they know what they've always felt is true: the least selfish thing is to think of the next generation before oneself. The book will give balance to liberal women who've only heard one side of the story for 50 years. Either way, you'll be glad you read it.

"Family Fun Center" Entertains with Abuse of Women

2011-04-08T11:32:00.000-05:00

Dear Mary,

Children are impressionable. That should come as no surprise to parents. And, in a society that glorifies violence -- especially that against women -- we must be extra vigilant in protecting our children from exposure to this damaging and disgusting content.

I write about this in my Culture Challenge of the Week:

Culture Challenge of the Week: Misogynist Video Games

Karen's nine-year-old son came home from a birthday party at a locally owned "family fun" center with plenty to tell. The party was great, especially the laser tag and the pizza. But he didn't like the arcade games, one in particular.

"It had, like, men hitting girls. Beating them up and killing them. I didn't like it."

Karen was appalled. First, that a facility that depends on family patronage would even have such a game. Second, that this violent, misogynist game was being used by young children.

While she was proud of her little boy's good instincts, who had been so disturbed to tell her, she was devastated at the on-screen violence that he witnessed-and recalled with exacting detail.

Karen, for her part, felt powerless to protect her son.

It had never occurred to her that such a "game" could have been part of a family restaurant at a supervised birthday party. Is there any place truly safe for children?

When Karen complained to store employees, they displayed a disturbing lack of concern, replying that parents should supervise their children better if they did not want them playing the games. Karen resolved that, absent some changes, her son would no longer attend parties in that facility.

Was she over-reacting? I don't think so.

Real-world violence brutalizes women and girls here and in other cultures. It's tragic. And, sensationalizing it, or worse, making a game about it, only guarantees that it will grow. And, America seems headed in that direction.

The Parents Television Council produced an excellent report in 2009 on the spike in TV shows that depict violence against women and teenage girls. Indeed, the overall increase in violence against young girls and women far outstripped the increase in general TV violence. Worse, the violence towards women was more graphic than ever, showing beatings, rapes, torture, and worse.

Research shows that repeated images of violence towards women -- even virtual images -- normalize the violence and desensitize viewers to it. Worse, gaming allows the viewer to "try out" those behaviors on the screen, to experience the rush of adrenaline while they simultaneously overcome their natural inhibitions against hurting women and girls.

Last month, the video game company Gearbox Software held a press conference touting its new, much-anticipated release, Duke Nukem Forever. That the press conference was held in a rented-out strip club, which should tell you something. The pre-release game segments are raunchy -- no surprise -- but, the game also features a multiplayer segment called "Capture the Babe," which was not pre-released. Reviewers, however, have described the segment as a take-off on the children's game Capture the Flag.

But instead of a flag, the player kidnap a woman and slaps her around a bit if she resists in fear.

How to Save Your Family: Speak Up

Many parents pay no attention to the content of video games they allow in their homes. It's way past time to smarten-up and protect our children from the adults who seek to manipulate them and their world views through "innocent" games.

And, unless we speak out, our children may be exposed to such trash when we least expect it -- in stores, arcades, and in the homes of their friends.

Karen took the right steps to defend her son's innocence, and to insist on respect for women. She asked that the game be removed from the open area, and when employees refused, she vowed to take her business elsewhere.

She also opened a conversation with the parents who hosted the birthday party -- who had been completely unaware of the situation. Like Karen and the vast majority of other parents, they never thought to check on the video games' content because they assumed that a "family fun" arcade would be safe for, well, families.

Even though the particular employees that Karen contacted proved unresponsive, Karen isn't stopping there. She has a conversation scheduled with the manager. She's going to let him know that the restaurant's family-friendly reputation is on the line and that she plans to notify other parents of the problem.

Finally, within our own families, let's celebrate the dignity of women and uphold a standard that insists on respect for all women -- even characters in a virtual world.

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Karen's story should serve as an example for parents in many different ways. The first is how rewarding it is to see the effects of raising your child to know right from wrong. Karen's son knew that what he saw on the video game was wrong, and he separated himself from it..

Second, Karen showed that standing up for what you know to be right is important in maintaining a positive environment for our children. Karen didn't write-off the apathetic attitude of the complex's employees, and simply forget the issue. She challenged them, as she will with the owner.

Even if the video game is not removed, Karen is doing her part to raise a red flag and notifying other parents.

This vigilance cannot be undervalued. In a society that is concentrated on destroying traditional family values, we all must stand strong together and do what we can to keep our families safe.

Fortunately, there are people like Karen who still care. And, for that, I am ever-thankful.

Warmly,

Rebecca

P.S. - If you know someone who would like this message on violence against women in our society, please send it to them using the "Forward to a Friend" tool below. You can also encourage them to sign up for their own newsletter at www.HowToSaveYourFamily.com.

2011-03-31T18:12:00.000-05:00

Dr. Michael Burgess delivered babies for 3 decades and then decided to go to Washington. At the time he was first elected in 2002, there weren't that many health care workers in Congress. Today, there are around 20 on the Republican side and a handful on the Democrat side. And because they've been in the trenches of health care and know what it is to be strangled half to death by paperwork, meager reimbursement, and runarounds, people like Dr. Burgess aren't for the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act of 2010. He favors lowering the cost of health care for consumers, making sure people who like their insurance coverage now can keep it, and making sure a pre-existing condition or low income doesn't keep people from getting insurance. In those ideas, he is aligned with President Obama's stated goals (although keeping your own insurance turned out not to be President Obama's plan despite what he said). The crucial difference is in who is in control - you and your doctor, or Washington and centralized planners.

As Dr. Burgess points out, once your national government is paying your health care bill, there will be no area of your life that won't be the government's business. If government has a hand in something, a very large string is attached to it. What you eat, how much you weigh, how much television you watch - it's all related to your health. That's what happens when bureaucrats analyze spreadsheets. You are just a number on a line.

Dr. Burgess' book is no dry account of Obamacare. Rather, it is one man's personal journey from the son and grandson of doctors who experienced massive changes in how health care is divvied up to becoming a physician himself, then going to Washington to try to make a positive difference. His account of what it takes to run for office, then actually going to Washington without knowing the ins and outs is instructive for all citizens. For example, he was unaware that he needed his own press secretary or that he needed to hire staff in two places.

But it is in his description of being shut out of improving the very substance of his life's work - healthcare- by those in power that is so disheartening. That an agenda was going to be pushed by Obama, Pelosi, and Reid is common knowledge. What I hadn't realized is just how rotten the process really was, and how what most Americans did not want was going to be made law whether they liked it or not. After all, physicians like Dr. Burgess were elected by their constituents because of their expertise, and for career politicians to shut them out to further their own agenda is wrong. Dr. Burgess' account of this dirty dealing will make you want to hold your elected officials to a better morality.

The book is not an unending slam against those who want socialized medicine. Dr. Burgess puts forth reasonable, affordable solutions to our obvious problems, such as incentivizing people to take responsibility for their own health. For example, premiums can be reduced if people lose weight and keep it off. He has statistics that show more than half of Americans' health problems are caused by lifestyle choices. For those in high risk pools, special insurance funds can be set up for them and managed accordingly. But the way ObamaCare takes an axe to healthcare when all that was needed was a scalpel is unconscionable.

My favorite chapter was "Seven Things Your Doctor Wishes You Knew." In it, he describes residents spending 6 hours a day on paperwork alone; fear of lawsuits; diminished job satisfaction; ridiculous insurance premiums and jury awards even when there is no evidence of medical error. Who would want to go to medical school until age 26, then years of internship and residency, come out $150,000 (at least) in debt, and face more paperwork, less reimbursement, and changing rules by bureaucrats after you've already invested so much of your life into the practice of medicine? Answer: Not many. In fact, 2/3 of doctors say they are considering dropping out of government health programs altogether and moving to a cash-only practice. Some doctors in my hometown of Springfield, MO have done just that.

Doctor in the House is the biographical story of a physician whose heart is for the people. If you like to learn about issues from a biographical standpoint, this book is for you.

Thanks to Dr. Michael Burgess, Congressman from Texas, for being my guest on The Mary Reichard Show today, March 31, 2011.

David Cassidy and the Swooners

2011-03-29T21:14:00.003-05:00

March 25, 2011

Back in the early 70’s when I was a skinny, knock-kneed teenager, I was in love with David Cassidy. And why not? He was the cute and caring star of The Partridge Family TV show, which I watched without fail. I used to dream about him at night and think about him all day long. Teenage girls can be so silly, can’t they? In love with someone they’ve never met!

Well, last week I went to see David Cassidy in concert. All 850 former-teenage-girls-now-in-their-50s were there, screaming and hollering, whistling and swooning, even throwing their undergarments on stage. My poor husband, whom I’d convinced to take me to this foray into musical history, was amused to find a row of middle aged women front and center. They were dolled up with makeup and jewelry and cleavage and heels, all smiles and nervous giggles anticipating the arrival of David Cassidy. My husband sniggered about it and I pretended to, but I totally understood them. Can we help it if our teen heartthrob didn’t find us when we were still young and nubile? NO! So we simply must put forth our best right now, even if it is too late!

I had waited 36 years to see my teenage idol in person, and there he was. Several women crowded around the front of the stage to get a picture, although with David on stage above their heads the photo must have looked odd. Just the tops of women’s heads with the bottom of David’s legs to show for it, but what the heck. When I went up for the same picture of me with David’s legs, the security guards shooed me away. I was secretly crushed, but didn’t want to appear so. I obediently returned to my seat, fuming every so slightly. I tried again later in the evening with the same surly guard telling me to sit down. “But those other women….” I protested, to no avail. At this rate, I’ll be 80 the next time I see David Cassidy in concert, and he’ll be 92. Rock on, David!

David started the set with “C’mon Get Happy” in a jazzy rendition. The crowd immediately stepped up the energy, and followed along with clapping and swaying.

The musical set was interspersed with Partridge Family standards along with rock standards like “Hush” and a few Beatles tunes. David told of having John Lennon as his mentor, during John’s househusband years, when David had just come off his successful world tour. Then David dedicated the poignant lyrics “In My Life” by the Beatles to us, his life-long fans who grew up with him.

Working the crowd like the pro that he is, David had fun with the audience. One lady had her cell phone near the stage and David offered to call her grandmother, which he did, but alas there was no answer. At least that fan will have a sad story of missed opportunity to tell Grandma! With gentle and fun repartee, David made the crowd feel important and connected to him.

I greatly enjoyed the concert. His band mates kept things fresh, with the keyboardist playing a unique rendition of “Happy Birthday” a bit early for David’s April 12 birthdate. Everyone on stage looked happy to be there, and it wasn’t lost on the audience. We gladly answered the call to “C’mon, get happy,” and the chance to relive yesteryear.

How Language Can Disarm

2011-03-25T09:36:00.001-05:00

Because you are human, you are persuaded with words and images that appeal to things you want. For example, read the following paragraph and be aware of how you feel as you read it:

"There are many different reasons to suspend, from pure adrenaline or endorphin rush, to conquering one's fears, to trying to reach a new level of spiritual consciousness and everything in between...to attain some sort of 'experience.' Some people are seeking the opportunity to discover a deeper sense of themselves and to challenge pre-determined belief systems which may not be true. Some are seeking a rite of passage or a spiritual encounter to let go of the fear of not being whole or complete inside their body...Many people believe that learning how one lives inside one's body and seeing how that body adapts to stress- and passes through it- allows one to surrender to life and explore new realms of possibility." *

As you read those words, phrases like "spiritual consciousness" and "opportunity to discover" and "let go of the fear" and "surrender to life," what is your reaction? When I read them, I am drawn to the idea that something good, something creative is available to me. Something uplifting, edifying to my spirit. Those phrases are inviting me to something new and different. I would like to have those experiences.

But it is all marketing with words. Go back and read the first sentence, and see the word "suspend." If you didn't know what that meant exactly, you might have skipped over it. But it's important, because what it actually means is utter depravity, mental sickness, self-mutilation. Suspension is a bizarre activity where you hang yourself from hooks, like a beef carcass.

When I put it like that, how do you feel? Do you still desire it? If you are of sound mind, of course not. If you've been taught discernment, obviously not. But this is how western culture has gone from the unspeakable to the already done.

David Kupelian's book, The Marketing of Evil, explains how depravity is prettied-up and perfumed to look good. I learned that even as a well-read conservative, I'd been taken in by slick marketing to accept sick ideas. I now understand how the journey from knowing something is wrong to actually embracing that same thing happens in my mind.
It is done subtly, gradually, so that my mind accepts the unacceptable via words that sound good.

The short history is this. Back when cigarettes were advertised, the early ads were not that inspiring. "This is fine tobacco with great taste" may relate directly to a cigarette, but it doesn't inspire you to rush out and buy a carton. Enter Marlboro Man, all masculine, outdoorsy, rugged, breathing in fresh air and feeling fine. Now, those are some words to latch on to! Those words make me want a cigarette. It was an effective campaign.

That's how advertising that didn't have much to do with the features and benefits of the product became seductive marketing. "Buy this, and get (fill in your desire: sex, beauty, health, freedom, etc.)" All lies.

And that is the process of how America went from a nation that embraced Judeo-Christian values to a nation where 80% of the people say they are Christians but live a life that doesn't reflect it. Where abortion, homosexual proselytizing to children, breaking up families with easy divorce, porn as art, promiscuity and degradation of human dignity is packaged to look like freedom, goodness, and love.

The Marketing of Evil will make you self-aware, so beware. To be seduced into loving something so bad for you is understandable; to understand it and then with discernment reject it is freedom.

*from bmezine.com; stands for body modifcation e-zine. Gruesome site.

Keep Your Own Doctor, No Matter What

2011-03-18T09:42:00.001-05:00

Missouri Senate Bill 111/March 17, 2011

Mr. Phillips is an 88-year-old man with dementia who recently underwent surgery that resulted in many complications. He lost over 45 pounds in 8 weeks, is very weak, rather confused, and in despair over having an ileostomy that reminds him every 4 hours how much things have changed. Amongst the near-dozen medications he takes every day, there are doctors' appointments and maintenance appointments and follow up appointments and more procedures and more testing.... it’s enough to make anyone despair, and not just the elderly.

Mr. Phillips could have gone to his primary doctor and his specialist during the same morning, because these two physicians were in the same building. In fact, they were just down the hall from each other. But because a "charitable" health system (that spends millions on parking lots and fancy signs) controls the insurance network, Mr. Phillips isn't allowed to visit the specialist down the hall. He has to drive miles away to see THAT SAME SPECIALIST in another building to satisfy the insurance rules. It's wrong. It's inhumane.

It can be changed. That is hasn't been changed so far is testament to the power of the insurance and mega-hospital monopoly.

Welcome to Missouri medicine. You can thank the insurance companies for it in large part. The government's ever-changing regulations and the strangulation of doctors and nurses by rules so esoteric that even lawyers can't decipher them are part of the problem, too.

Missourians have a chance to fix this problem with Senate Bill 111. Known as the "Any Willing Provider" bill, it allows Missourians to choose their own doctor and change jobs while keeping their same doctor. I remember being furious when my insurance changed and the pediatrician who had cared for my two newborns until they were teenagers was not "in network." That phrase, "in network," is another way to say "restraint of trade." In other words, solely due to profit desires, my doctor isn't in their network, so I have to change doctors. Even if I’ve had the same doctor for 15 years!

That's a bunch of hooey, if you ask me. The doctor-patient relationship, developed over time, shouldn’t be upended to suit the blue suits.

Missouri State Senator Dr. Rob Schaaf has tried multiple times to get legislation passed in Missouri to protect our rights to choose our own doctors. He's been slapped down time and again by the monopolists, that is, insurance companies and big hospitals who have a lock on the market. I'm not opposed to having a lock on the market, so long as it is because of excellent service and consumer choice. But we don’t have excellent service and consumer choice.

This is your chance, Missourians, to direct your own healthcare. Last year we overwhelmingly voted against healthcare being directed by Washington; let's keep the traction going with a level playing field and not pitting patients against the system.

CEO Paul Taylor, who runs a small hospital in Springfield, MO, has a unique perspective on the problems our current system causes. He points out that people covered by Medicare and Medicaid can already choose the doctor they want so long as that doctor accepts those programs. Now we are asking that commercial insurance accept willing doctors into their programs. Under an "Any Willing Provider" law, the rest of us will be freed from restrictive rules of insurance companies and monopoly hospital systems. How? Because ANY physician who meets the conditions of a health benefit plan will be able to practice and get paid under that plan. Here is the actual language of SB 111, paragraph II:

"Under the act, no health carrier shall refuse to contract with any Missouri provider who is located within the geographic coverage area of a health benefit plan and who is willing to meet the terms and conditions for provider participation established for such health benefit plan if the provider is willing, as a term of such contract, to be paid at rates equal to 99% of the standard rates established pursuant to this act."

Senator Schaff, who is also a physician, explained that when you follow the money, the incentives for insurance companies become clear. "There is economic incentive to keep the pool of doctors in a network small, because that makes the percentage profit larger for the insurance network." It is also a way to squeeze out perfectly qualified and wonderful doctors from practicing.

Let's take our doctors out of straightjackets and let them practice their trade with the best interests of their patients foremost in mind. Senate Bill 111 would break the monopoly on healthcare and lower costs because of increased competition. It would bring primary care doctors back to the forefront of medicine and reduce the super-expensive specialty emphasis we now have.

CALL your Missouri senators and representatives and tell them to support SB 111, despite the Missouri Hospital Association's money grab going against the bill. The last day of Missouri General Assembly is May 13, 2011. So please, contact your politicians right away.

Here's the link to find your senators and representatives in Missouri:

http://www.senate.mo.gov/11info/senalpha.htm

You'll need your 9-digit zip code to use the "Legislator look-up" service. Citizens, act now!

Are Christians Obsessed With Gays and Abortion?

2011-03-15T17:28:00.000-05:00

The answer to the question is to follow the money. And the answer is "no."

Are Christians Obsessed With Gays and Abortion?

Top Ten Reasons to Support Herman Cain for President

2011-03-14T19:12:00.000-05:00

A man in the White House who has actually met payroll....now, that's an idea whose time has come!

Top Ten Reasons to Support Herman Cain for President

sECULAR sTUPIDEST - Liberal Who Can't Believe Its A Black Conservative #socialist #animation

2011-03-13T21:59:00.000-05:00

Happened upon this site, and the conversation felt so familiar....

sECULAR sTUPIDEST - Liberal Who Can't Believe Its A Black Conservative #socialist #animation

The Story of Owen and Eunice Johns; Secularism is NOT neutral

2011-03-11T19:55:00.001-06:00

Important quote from this article:"... secularism is not neutral. It is directly and aggressively hostile to the Christian and Biblical morality which underpins western civilisation."

These judges want to destroy our core moral values. We simply can't let them succeed

By MELANIE PHILLIPS
Last updated at 8:41 AM on 8th March 2011

Low point: High Court judges are now stepping into territory that they should not be involved in

One of the great bulwarks of a democracy is an independent judiciary, which acts as the ultimate defender of liberty because the judges are free from political control.

In Britain and Europe, however, something very alarming has taken place. The judges are increasingly becoming a positive threat to liberty because they have usurped the political process.

As a result, they are straying — no, actually marching with banners flying and drums beating — into territory which should lie well beyond their remit.

In recent days, there have been two such outrageous court rulings. The European Court of Justice, the judicial arm of the European Union, ruled that insurance companies may no longer differentiate between men and women when calculating the rates offered on annuities which are used to convert pension pots into an annual income.

Until now, men have received higher rates because their average life span is shorter than that of women. But because the ruling will force firms to treat both sexes equally, men stand to lose hundreds of pounds of retirement income per year.

The reasoning, however, is utterly specious. The judges have interpreted anti-discrimination law in the most bone-headed way by saying that any gender difference in these rates is discriminatory.

But there is a very good reason for this difference, in that women live longer than men.

Discrimination surely occurs only when people in the same circumstances are treated differently. Which is patently not the case with pensions, where the different rates aim to ensure men don’t lose out.

The ruling will therefore impose unfairness upon the pension system. And to put the tin lid on it, this is being forced upon us by a foreign court.

What in heaven’s name entitles a bunch of judges who represent no one and are not even part of our society to supersede our own democratic decision-making and dictate to us our own pension arrangements? In any sane universe, nothing at all.

'What in heaven’s name entitles a bunch of judges who represent no one and are not even part of our society to supersede our own democratic decision-making and dictate to us our own pension arrangements? In any sane universe, nothing at all.'

The second case was in many ways very much worse. This was a ruling handed down in the High Court, which effectively upheld the ban on a black Christian couple, Eunice and Owen Johns, from fostering children because they refused to undertake to tell a child that homosexuality was acceptable.

In just about every respect the Johns are ideal foster parents — decent, solid, loving and with years of experience. Given the chronic shortage of foster parents and the large number of black children in care, one might have thought the Johns would be as valuable as gold dust.

Yet Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson justified the ban by ruling that the couple’s attitude to homosexuality was a legitimate reason to withhold official approval from them. Such people are therefore effectively being punished for having the wrong attitudes. This is the kind of behaviour associated with totalitarian societies, not liberal Britain.

More jaw-dropping still, the children whose ‘right’ to be told that homosexuality is acceptable is supposedly infringed by the Johns’ Christian beliefs would all be under ten years of age.

So the Johns are being punished for wanting to protect children from inappropriate talk which would surely be an abuse of their childhood.

And despite the judges’ insistence that they are not taking an anti-Christian position, that is precisely what their ruling does. For it effectively holds that traditional Christian beliefs harm children.

Indeed, the judges went much further and said there was no place in law for Christian beliefs, since ‘the laws and usages of the realm do not include Christianity’.

Wrong decision: Owen and Eunice Johns would make ideal foster parents

But Britain has an established Church, the monarch undertakes to be ‘Defender of the faith’, the country’s literature, history, institutions and attitudes are steeped in Christianity, and most people still identify themselves as Christian.

In short, the judges’ assertion is simply idiotic. But these judges are not idiots; they are clever men.

Their assertion must be seen instead as an attempt — at some level at least in their minds — to exclude Christianity from the public sphere.

For although they claim that they seek to uphold the equal rights of all creeds in a diverse society, they are actually denying the rights of Christians — and, by implication, pious Muslims and Jews, too — to live in accordance with one of the most fundamental doctrines of their faith.

In this, they were explicitly echoing last year’s controversial ruling by Lord Justice Laws against a Christian registrar who refused to officiate at civil partnership ceremonies.

In that ruling, the judge said it was wrong for the law to give preference to the Judeo-Christian tradition — which merely amounted to ‘subjective opinion’.

'The judges think it is wise and humane to assert that there is no hierarchy of values, and that all creeds are equal. But this is both absurd and nihilistic. Some values will always trump others.'

Well, so much for the Bible, then. And as if the opinion of these judges was anything other than wholly subjective! Their key error is to assume that secular — or atheistic — attitudes form a neutral middle ground, whereas traditional Christian beliefs amount to a kind of fringe sect.

But secularism is not neutral. It is directly and aggressively hostile to the Christian and Biblical morality which underpins western civilisation.

The judges think it is wise and humane to assert that there is no hierarchy of values, and that all creeds are equal.

But this is both absurd and nihilistic. Some values will always trump others. The only question is which ones will do so. And what these judges are doing is de-coupling the laws of this country from the western civilisation which underpins it.

Because ‘human rights’ and anti- discrimination laws claim to be universal, they inevitably serve as a secular weapon against Christian or other particular religious beliefs.

Since different rights compete with each other, judges are inescapably required to arbitrate between them.

But this means that — on issues which are among the most divisive in our society — the judges are given the power effectively to dictate the rules of moral behaviour on the basis of nothing more than their own prejudices.

Thus in the Johns’ case, they ruled that the equality provisions concerning sexual orientation should take precedence over religious rights.

But on what authority do they issue such a momentous cultural pronouncement? Only their own secular prejudices.

In similar vein, the judges of the European Court of Justice are imposing the deeply oppressive and unjust ideology of equality of outcomes.

This court has long been infamous for having a highly politicised view of its role, promoting a federal state by extending the reach of the EU deep into the internal affairs of member nations.

But it must be acknowledged that the only reason judges in Britain and Europe have got too big for their wigs in this way is because politicians have enabled them to do so.

It was the government which took Britain into the EU, thus placing us under the increasingly oppressive and anti- democratic meddling of the European Court of Justice.

And it was successive governments which signed us up to the European Convention on Human Rights and then saddled us with the ruinous Human Rights Act.

The fact that the judges are playing politics like this can only be undone by the political class. So come on, Mr Cameron — stop equivocating.

Take all this head on — the destruction of this country’s core moral values, the ‘human rights’ inquisition and the loss of democratic control to both the EU and the British judiciary — and you will walk on water ever after.

Burned Out?

2011-03-10T18:01:00.002-06:00

Remember when the governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, was pilloried on TV because she suddenly forgot what she was saying in the middle of a press conference?

Boy, did I understand the governor's predicament. Happens to all of us, and for nobody in the press to admit it was silly.

Joan C. Webb specializes in burnout. As in, she was one of those women who thought she could do everything, all at once, perfectly, for everyone, on time whilst smelling spiffy. Until one day, she didn't.

"A woman came up to me after I'd given a speech and she didn't have anything good to say about it. She ticked through several things she didn't like, and I had those familiar feelings of wanting to convince her of the rightness of my points and how we were really on the same page.

"Then I noticed that she was getting more agitated. Stopping myself, I just said, "Basically, you didn't agree with anything I said, did you?"

All the tension drained from this lady's face and shoulders, and after agreeing that she didn't agree, went on her way. And that was one of those "AHA!" moments where Joan C. Webb realized she wasn't responsible for other people's reactions. She didn't have to persuade this woman or silently judge her, either.

What freedom!

If you are burned-out, you know it wreaks havoc on your health. If it goes on for very long, you'll get "brain rot," as Professor of Psychology David Meyer says. Even though over-doing looks noble, it really isn't. It is irritating to the one you think you are helping, and exhausting for you.

One definition of burn-out: a type of emotional fatigue when our efforts in a series of events (in a relationship, job, etc) fail to produce the expected results.

Joan C. Webb told me that many women think that love is trying to help somebody to be better. We take that mothering instinct to our other relationships, and that rarely works out in the long run.

Joan's book, The Relief of Imperfection, gave me a feeling of relief just reading it. My tendency is to take on a whole lot of things, mainly because my energy levels seem higher than the average person's, so why not? But the answer is clear...if I don't leave time to just "be," and take time to listen to nature, to my family, to God, I wind up bereft. That's nothing to martyr myself over, and I thank Joan C. Webb for the good and important work she is doing to help women live better lives.

Websites:
www.intentionalwoman.org
www.joancwebb.com
On the Mary Reichard Show March 10, 2011.

The Dennis Prager Show

2011-03-10T09:56:00.000-06:00

Read Dennis Prager's column on why American Universities are not teaching much, except depravity. Pay attention to the "logic" of the professor in bringing in live sex acts to the classroom.

The Dennis Prager Show

Newly Tumbled and Pressed Married Couple

2011-03-08T21:53:00.001-06:00

My Husband and I in the Cosmic Machine

We were percolating along in life, my husband and I. Not stellar people, but not slacker people, either. We didn't take government handouts and we took good care of our children. We went to church most of the time. We called our parents. We didn't curse a lot, and we tried to keep up with what was going on in the world outside our own little lives. We thought that was probably good enough, if others were really living lives of quiet desperation. In comparison, we were doing pretty well. Why complain?

Then, Someone put us into a gigantic, cosmic washing machine and we got tumbled, turned inside out, bumped up against the sides and psychically bruised. Good grief. This is what we got for doing what we were supposed to do in life?

Now on the other side of the cosmic-cleaning, we've stood up and found ourselves clean and sweet-smelling, with renewed purpose and willing to try life anew.

What happened to us? We lost our jobs. We were bummed out. Then we took jobs outside our experience level, in other fields even, and we learned something pretty cool (thanks for reviving that phrase, Miley Cyrus): We are better off. We are happier. We are able to learn new tricks, even at our ages. If you do what you are gifted at doing, your life will improve.

Hooray for the Cosmic Washing Machine!

I Need Daddy (And So Do You)

2011-03-06T21:06:00.001-06:00

What if one generation blessed the next?

“Where Have the Good Men Gone?” created quite a stir when Kay Hymowitz posed the question in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial. (Feb. 19, 2011) Her basic thesis is that lack of responsibilities and an entertainment culture gives today’s young man no reason to grow up.

The observant person knows that our boorish culture does not produce the best in men or women. The best people I’ve ever known have been people with religious conviction of the Judeo-Christian sort. These days, that kind of talk can get me branded as a hate-monger or bigot, and indeed has elicited such descriptors from members of my own extended family.

This got me to wondering what is “out there” to call boys into manhood, much as in the days when rites of passage were the norm. In most cultures across time, boys have been separated from their mothers at a certain age in order to live as men and learn what it is to be a man.

Then I saw a video that provided a clue. It’s at www.achosengeneration.org, and there on the left is a series of videos called “Show Me How.” Each one is about 4 minutes long. Click on “A Father’s Blessing.” There is a real blessing being done there, and the men are not acting. It’s real.

Now, the interesting part. That crying man being told that he is a child of God, that this substitute father figure loves him just the way he is, that he is already sufficient, and a valuable member of his household. He is told that his role in this world is vital and that he is absolutely part of God’s master plan. That grown man is crying like a baby and receiving something he has needed for a very long time, because this man is already middle-aged. What he is receiving is affirmation. A call to manhood. You don’t see any titillation, crude talk, or entertainment here. It’s all basic to life, like food. Love, the kind that sees your best, your potential, your true purpose in life.

This is the ministry of Rev. Chuck Stecker, a man who experienced this for himself. Always trying to prove he was good enough, but never feeling that he was, Chuck lived in a way that left him unfulfilled. One day, also in mid-life, Chuck saw a man receiving a father’s blessing, and he knew he, too, needed this in his life. So he asked for it, and received it.

This led him to develop a ministry specifically for our age, in which entertainment is our god and our souls are empty. A Chosen Generation calls us into adulthood, empowers us to be sons and daughters who can then be fathers and mothers who freely give love (with dignity and respect, the healthy kind) without reservation. The book of Titus in the Bible tells older women to instruct the younger women, and the older men to model manhood to the younger men. This intergenerational living has been lost in the contemporary church, where the young are separated from the old, to the detriment of both. It isn’t biblical, yet it persists in the church.

From www.achosengeneration.org website:

“What does it mean to be an "adult"? How do you know when you become an adult?

Our culture says adulthood is the right to consume alcohol, watch "adult" movies and use "adult" language. We have an entire culture of young people that crave significance, yet live in a time of confusion, violence and immorality. How do they find their way out of "teenage never-never land" to become Godly adults, able to lead the church of the future?

… it is common throughout the Bible for people to receive their life calling and accomplish great things for the Lord while they are in their teen years. It is clear in Scripture that young people are a vital part of the church's present and future effectiveness.”

So, it turns out that the answer to Kay Hymowitz’s question of where the good men have gone is this: our culture has encouraged the damaging, the destructive (divorce, abortion, gender confusion, unwarranted feminization, hopelessness disguised into entertainment, for examples) and left the good men bereft of purpose. A Chosen Generation has the solution, and I thank Chuck Stecker for his time on the show March 3, 2011.

One Man's Letter to the CEO of Pepsico on the Super Bowl Ad

2011-02-27T20:30:00.000-06:00

Ms. Indra K. Nooyi February 8, 2011

Chairman and CEO

Pepsico, Inc.

700 Anderson Hill Road

Purchase, NY 10577

Dear Ms. Nooyi:

Like most football fans, and especially one who grew up near Green Bay, I was excited to watch the Super Bowl and all the commercials. This year, I was joined by my 16 year-old daughter to help cheer the Packers to victory. For the most part, it was a special time. That is, until we were “treated” to the Pepsi commercial with the couple enjoying a romantic time together where the man began fantasizing whether his date would sleep with him. Amazingly, this “message” appeared on Prime Time.

Ms. Nooyi, I found this commercial to be both appalling and gratuitous, especially considering the number of young people watching this event (and knowing full well that it would blindside unsuspecting parents). It was demeaning to both men and women, and frankly, I thought Pepsico was above that. It’s time that corporations begin to take some ownership over the cultural messages they’re sending through their advertising and products…and this comes from a long-time Pepsi fan, former pension consultant to Pepsico, father who wants what’s best for his daughter, and author of a book that provides young people with a positive message of empowerment, responsibility, and honorable character. My book launch literally took place the day before, and the juxtaposition of these messages could not have been more striking.

I am sending you a free autographed copy of my book, What I Wish I Knew at 18: Life Lessons for the Road Ahead, in hopes that you will consider this positive message for your audience and for a culture that desperately needs to hear it.

I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with you, because I know that this spot can’t be indicative of how Pepsico defines “corporate responsibility.”

Respectfully and Sincerely,

Dennis Trittin

dtrittin@dennistrittin.com

Matt Bowman on the Mary Reichard Show: Rights of conscience litigation for healthcare workers

2011-02-26T20:17:00.000-06:00

Matt Bowman on the Mary Reichard Show: Rights of conscience litigation for healthcare workers

What I Wish I Knew at 18

2011-02-25T17:47:00.004-06:00

If I could go back in time and slap myself around when I was 18, it would be over a few things I wish I'd done better. Of course, I didn't know these things then, or I would have done it right the first time. Finally, someone wrote a book that the smart high school graduate will read post-haste.

Wouldn't it have been nice to know, at age 18:

How to study effectively BEFORE you waste a semester in college?
How to pick out a guy worthy of your time?
How to set boundaries for yourself?
How to handle adversity?
How to find your best career?

Author Dennis Trittin (pronounced Tre-TEEN) had a lightening-bolt moment when he realized his son was about to fly the nest. Was he really ready? Had father taught son all he needed to know to be prepared for the real world? Dennis sat down to write his son a letter, and before long he had enough material for a book.

In the chapter titled "Love and Marriage," there are clarifying statements about what "love" really means. Our culture screams "love" means "lust," playing right into the hands of the teenage boy fantasy, but right into the land of devastation for our girls. Dennis clarifies the concepts and asks young people to evaluate media and cultural messages that they are cheap or unworthy of respectful and healthy relationships.

In "Life Perspective," Dennis provides young people with some truths we all eventually learn the hard way. He recommends a "regret check," whereby we stop and make corrections along the way, rather than at life's end when it is often too late.
In this same chapter, he reminds us to allow time for reflection, to observe the beauty of nature, and remember to recharge our soul batteries regularly. This seems so basic, yet I recall that when I was young, finding balance was difficult.

Dennis Trittin had a career as a successful investment manager, and devotes the last chapter to teaching basic financial management. Financial literacy is something the young are going to learn in a radically different way than the Boomer Generation did; the mindset that got us into our current financial mess is not the one that will get us out of it. "The peace of mind that comes from having positive and growing net worth cannot be underestimated..."

Peace of mind, indeed. "What I Wish I Knew at 18: Life Lessons for the Road Ahead" is packed with practical, wise advice from a dad to his son. A lifetime of wisdom is packed into this little book, covering a multitude of subjects that young people need to know. This would make a terrific graduation gift for the senior graduating from high school in your life.

Thanks to Dennis Trittin for his time with me on The Mary Reichard Show, Feb. 24, 2011. His website: www.dennistrittin.com

Depraved, anti-Semitic play at Concord-Carlisle High School

2011-02-25T10:42:00.001-06:00

Morning Bell: Is This Program Worth Bankrupting My Child? | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

2011-02-17T23:04:00.000-06:00

Each member of Congress should ponder this one.

Morning Bell: Is This Program Worth Bankrupting My Child? | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

How Political Correctness is Harming Our Girls

2011-02-17T10:09:00.002-06:00

www.miriamgrossmanmd.com

Part Two of Mary Reichard's interview with

Dr. Miriam Grossman, “100% M.D., 0% P.C.”

Feb. 3, 2011

Dr. Miriam doesn’t mince words: hard science proves why it is rational to delay sex.

She spent 12 years at UCLA’s campus health clinic and saw one young woman after another already infertile, infected, abortive, pregnant, or emotionally distraught. She’s made it her mission now to counter the culture’s deadly message of “anything goes,” and also counter the public schools’ dismal failure in teaching young women the fundamentals of their own sexual health.

In her book, “Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student” Dr. Miriam exposes the blatant lies told to our young women. Here are messages our young women receive in school and culture:

You are no different from men.

You are at no greater risk for problems so long as you practice safe sex.

Sex is no more or less a matter of importance than brushing your teeth.

Gay sex is just another form of self-expression that should be tried.

Your parents will get in your way, so learn how to deceive them to live as you desire.

Dr. Miriam described a startling study involving the hormone oxytocin. (This is not the same as the drug Oxycontin.) Women who gave birth vaginally and went through the hormonal shifts of that process had brains bathed in the hormone oxytocin, which in turn causes the mother to bond with her baby. Women who had C-sections did not have similar Oxytocin levels. The point of this study from Dr. Miriam’s perspective on female sexuality is this: the same hormone is released in a woman’s brain when she is intimate, and this in turn causes the female brain to bond with her lover. Girls expect emotional involvement after sex because they are wired to feel this way; even if they act like sex is no big deal, it really is an act. They are covering up to fit in to a culture that doesn’t value the differences women bring to society.

In order to more fully understand the subversive messages girls receive, take a look at websites promoted by many public school sex-ed courses: www.goaskalice.com, out of Columbia University, contains shockingly casual advice to young people. Advice that includes how to sneak around your parents, get abortions without telling anyone, and worse. The website www.gurl.com is geared to tween kids, and advocates sexual behavior amongst minors. BE FOREWARNED: These are graphic websites that are disturbing.

The facts are that girls pay a higher price for promiscuity. They have young cervixes, which means they are more vulnerable to infections. Young men often do not know if they are infected and even using condoms only reduces the risk by 60-70%. Young women who dream of home and family are risking a lot of heartache later on when they become infertile through years of bed hopping that causes diseases that in turn cause infertility.

I’d asked Dr. Miriam about the current youth culture phrases of “friends with benefits” versus “hooking up.” I thought these were the same things, but they are not. “Friends with benefits” means a friendship that becomes sexualized with no expectation of exclusivity or commitment. Less than 10% of these situations develop into a romance. It is a young male’s dream come true in many immature, dangerous ways; but it is also akin to driving around mountaintop winding roads without a seatbelt on or much driving experience. If you have a daughter, you don’t want her to be in that car with him. “Hooking up” means just sex, no friendship or anything. It is this culture of equating brushing one’s teeth with the most intimate of human interactions that is literally ruining the lives of our young women, whether they pretend otherwise or not.

Other resources for further study:

Judith Reeceman Kinsey, matriarch of sex education

www.miriamgrossmanmd.com

You’re Teaching My Child WHAT?

Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute www.cblpi.org

New Budget Includes $$$ for Med Mal Reform

2011-02-17T10:02:00.001-06:00

After all of our work together, I’m happy to report that President Obama's budget includes $250mm for medmal reform, and health courts are the favored proposal. Our press release is below.

While there's more work to do, this is a major step forward—and one that could never have happened without your help and support. Thank you, and congratulations!

Best,

Philip

*******

President Obama's Budget Includes a Breakthrough to Address Medical Malpractice Reform and Move Beyond Partisanship

Funding For Health Courts Would Assure Reliable Medical Justice, Thereby Reducing Defensive Medicine Which Is A Significant Factor In Unnecessarily Driving Up Health Care Costs

NEW YORK, Feb. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- President Barack Obama's recently unveiled Federal Budget for Fiscal Year 2012 calls for "a more aggressive effort to reform our medical malpractice system to reduce defensive medicine, promote patient safety, and improve patient outcomes" and "encourages Republicans to work constructively with him on medical malpractice as part of an overall effort to restrain health costs." It then allocates funding for state-by-state implementation of medical justice reform initiatives, including health courts.

As the Associated Press reports, "Obama's budget calls for $250 million in Justice Department grants to help states rewrite their malpractice laws in line with recommendations that his bipartisan debt reduction commission issued last year…Topping the list of ideas in an Obama administration summary of the proposal are health courts."

"This is a very significant moment for controlling health care costs," said Philip K. Howard, Chair of Common Good, the nonpartisan reform coalition that has championed the creation of health courts. "Health courts have long been opposed by the trial lawyers, a powerful special interest in Washington, which benefits handsomely from the lack of consistency in the current medical justice system. Yet, with this budget item, President Obama is moving beyond partisanship and, in effect, saying that the country can no longer afford the rising health care costs that defensive medicine unnecessarily fuels."

The concept of health courts originated with Common Good, working in conjunction with experts at the Harvard School of Public Health and with funding from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In health courts, expert judges with special training would resolve health care disputes. The judges would make written rulings to provide guidance on proper standards of care. These rulings would set precedents on which both patients and doctors could rely. As with similar administrative courts that exist in other areas of law – for tax disputes, workers' compensation, and vaccine liability, among others – there would be no juries. To assure predictability and fairness, each ruling could be appealed to a new Medical Appellate Court.

Common Good (www.commongood.org) is a nonpartisan legal reform coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to America. The Chair of Common Good is Philip K. Howard, a lawyer and author of Life Without Lawyers and The Death of Common Sense.

Interesting Read on Middle East Conflict

2011-02-04T09:27:00.003-06:00

One of the ways to measure a religion is by the "fruits" it produces. It is interesting to look at nations around the world and assess the status of women, how science is used and promoted, how the least of humanity is treated, etc. Here is a website that contrasts two major religions and their effects on the Middle East. Especially interesting is the heading "The Role of Religion in the Arab-Israeli Conflict."

You SHOULD Say Something About Victoria's Secret

2011-02-03T22:26:00.003-06:00

www.howtosaveyourfamily.com

How do you fight the culture without fighting your child who is enamored of that culture?
What do you say to your teen as you pass Victoria's Secret in the mall?
How do you slow down your life so you can enjoy time together?

If you have a family, you've probably thought about things like this. Rebecca Hagelin has thought about it a whole lot, and has a website devoted to helping us: www.howtosaveyourfamily.com. You can sign up for a free weekly newsletter there, and educate yourself on how to fight back and save your family.

I asked Ms. Hagelin for some practical advice. What DO we say when we pass soft porn in the mall? She says something like this to her daughter: "Isn't it sad that model feels the best way to be known is to be in the mall in her underwear?" There needn't be any long sermonizing, but a comment like this is teaching your child what you value. Ignoring the issue is far worse, because a kid is going to draw the conclusion that you think it is OK.

Ms. Hagelin encourages parents not to throw away their considerable influence while the kids are still at home. Parents are the #1 influence for kids and those precious few years will fly by. One lovely idea she has is to write a letter to your teens - not e-mailed - but an actual, handwritten letter that spells outs your undying love and commitment to them. Admit your mistakes, and tell them your hopes and dreams for their lives. It will be a treasured rarity.

It is never too late to begin building the family you always wanted. Let your kids know that they are rare and valuable, and to not believe the cultural messages that tell them they are cheap and expendable.

Rebecca Hagelin is a nationally syndicated columnist and a weekly columnist for The Washington Times and for Townhall. She's the author of Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture That's Gone Stark Raving Mad. She is Senior Communications Fellow for The Heritage Foundation and appears on FOX, CNN, CBN, and The Mary Reichard Show on 1340 Ozarks Big Talker.

From Girls Gone Wild to Girls Get Real

2011-02-03T21:45:00.002-06:00

http://www.miriamgrossmanmd.com

For all you ladies who thought your high school sex ed classes were comprehensive, take this little quiz:

1. What ratio of American high school girls have a sexually transmitted infection?

2. Using condoms carries a risk of 30-40% of still transmitting herpes or HPV. True or false?

3. Oxytocin is a hormone that is released during intimacy and makes you trust your partner, even if he isn't trustworthy. True or false?

4. A government website states that "anal intercourse is simply too dangerous to practice." True or false?

5. In the 1970's, there were two common STDs. Now there are over 24. True or false?

Answers:
1. one in four
2. true
3. true
4. true
5. true

Didn't hear this stuff in school, you say? Then you were the victim of educational malpractice. You can still educate yourself by listening to Miriam Grossman, MD, who tells it straight. In her booklet, "Sense & Sexuality: The College Girl's Guide to Real Protection in a Hooked-Up World," Dr. Miriam is concerned not only about your body's health, but about your mind, your dreams, and your future. What you do NOW while you are young has lasting repercussions, and sadly, our culture and our education system fail you. Here's help!

Dr. Miriam isn't some stuffy academic. She spent 12 years as a campus physician at UCLA. Too many young women came to her office with a life out of control, and the sad part was that it needn't have been. Abortions, diseases that never go away, broken hearts, shattered dreams aren't the stuff Hollywood romances are made of, are they? But those were the problems presented to her by young women with big dreams, who hadn't been told how to conduct their lives for maximum health and happiness.

Here is some of Dr. Miriam's wisdom, backed up with science:
"Intimacy promotes attachment and trust. When it comes to sex, oxytocin, like alcohol, turns red lights green." That guy you gave yourself to can't remember your name, but you trusted him.

"Science confirms: alcohol makes him hot...when he's not." Don't lessen your protective inhibitions and regret it in the morning.

"Girls expect emotional involvement almost twice as often as guys...Guys...are in part motivated by hopes of improving their social reputation, or of bragging about their exploits to friends..."

"The rectum is an exit, not an entrance." There is no way to do this safely, according to the government website www.fda.gov. It is just too dangerous to practice this. So don't.

You have big dreams, Young Woman: a good education, a great career, and someday a home with a husband and children. Remember your big goals will be achieved with thoughtful, careful consideration of who you give your heart to. Collecting sexual experiences won't get you where you want to go.

I thank Dr. Miriam Grossman for talking to me on the show today, and she has kindly agreed to return next week. Her work is important and I want to promote her message however I can.

Dr. Miriam's pamphlet can be ordered here: http://www.cblpi.org/media/press_release.cfm?ID=26
Her books are:
You're Teaching My Child WHAT?

A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How They Harm Your Child

Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student

Media Malpractice and the Culpability of Hollywood

2011-02-01T18:15:00.005-06:00

I am sick and tired of Media Malpractice. By that I mean media products that degrade, dehumanize, and hypersexualize people, even children. Hollywood degenerates parade their taut triceps before the cameras in dreary self-congratulatory award programs. They promote ideas that further tear down known goods for children: a mom and a dad, an intact family, values like honesty, integrity, self-control, thoughtfulness, kindness, self-sacrifice. Our culture is damaged by repeated exposures to personalities such as seen in "Jersey Shore." I can hear the chorus singing, "But people want this crap and it shows up in box-office receipts." Hogwash! The number 1 You Tube video of all time is "Charlie Bit Me," about two brothers in an innocent scuffle. The top box office hits aren't about disgusting depravity. For my own personal campaign against Media Malpractice, I make it a point only to buy tickets for entertainment that doesn't degrade. Same for dvd purchases or rentals.

There are many like me who believe the only way to turn the tide of Media Malpractice around is to support the wholesome stuff, publicly shame the degrading stuff, and demand that the connection between depraved media products and behavior be known.

Read the following essay for more analysis:

On the Boredom that makes ‘Skins’ possible

It is the right thing to do.

"Nobody Gets Married Any More, Mister" by Gerry Garibaldi - City Journal

2011-02-01T12:13:00.000-06:00

Until we have relationship justice and moral accountability, this is the face of our nation. I see it in my daughter's high school, where there is a day care at taxpayer expense so girls can have babies without too much inconvenience. If we have generational malaise like this, what will the following generations have? I shudder at the thought. Read the following essay by a foot soldier in this battle:

"Nobody Gets Married Any More, Mister" by Gerry Garibaldi - City Journal

An Old Man Needs Chapstick, But the Government Says NO

2011-01-26T13:04:00.001-06:00

Cracked Lips and Central Planning: a Tale of Woe

On the heels of discussing the meaning of socialism last week, I had a personal experience with the problem of central planning.

An immediate family member has been in critical condition in the hospital for some time now. He needed something for dry lips - petroleum jelly, chap stick - anything to moisten his cracked lips. I asked the nurse if she could help him, and she said she would like to, but needed a doctor's orders to moisten lips.

Here was an immediate need, quickly resolved, based on a patient's reasonable request. But his need was denied because:
1) a doctor's order was legally required;
2) and if that wasn't done, an auditor would question why money was spent without permission;
3) and if that were done, fines would be imposed;
4) and if something went wrong, an attorney would find a way to sue someone.

A human being needs chapstick, but regulations forbid it.

This is a perfect example of why central planning doesn't work, why tort reform is needed, and why taking decision making away from doctors, nurses, and patients is a terrible thing.

Vouchers are Welfare, Public Schools are Socialism

2011-01-23T21:35:00.003-06:00

"It's hard to name a dogma that has failed as spectacularly as socialism. And yet leaders around the world continue to subject millions of people to this dysfunctional, violence-prone ideology."

-editor's note on The Politically Incorrect guide to Socialism

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism by Kevin D. Williamson is a good, quick read. Everywhere you turn around these days, the label "socialism" is bandied about. What's the difference? One definition of socialism is this: the public provision of non-public goods with economic central planning. "Public goods" are those things that the market cannot easily provide, such as national defense and law enforcement.

There is confusion over what is and is not socialism. It isn't just the redistribution of wealth through taxes. As Mr. Williamson writes, "A food-stamp program is welfare; government-run farms and grocery stores are socialism. A school voucher is welfare; a government-run school system is socialism. Government housing subsidy is welfare; government-run housing projects are socialism."

Many believe that trading some quality for some security is worth the risk. This is dangerous thinking, however, because that assumes that the government is doing its job well. As we see with Social Security, we hoped the government would do a good job planning our retirements. It did not. In fact, when government steps outside its Constitutionally defined roles, it doesn't do a good job at all. This book provides example after example of this downfall.

Mr. Williamson pointed out that people will say to him that socialism sounds wonderful on paper, but that it just doesn't work in real life. He points out that even on paper, socialism doesn't work. Socialism on paper says that a committee of wise men living in D.C. making decisions for you that are different from decisions you would make for yourself is a good idea. He uses the example of milk production to make the point. What would be required to run a socialist milk distribution in this country? First, calculate the different kinds of milk consumption there are: for vegans, none. For big families, lots. In July, less. In December, more. And so on. Then calculate the different milk and milk-substitute varieties people prefer: whole, skim, organic, soy, chocolate, 2%, 1%, almond, rice... With 115 million households in the USA, we would need to figure out the milk consumption budget per week. That would be 5.98 billion household-weeks. Figuring in all the variables of types of milk and amounts consumed, that would be 6 trillion options to choose from.

Do you really believe that our central planners in DC can manage all this? Of course not. YOU know how much milk you need and when you need it and what kind. When someone plans for you who doesn't know you, you may get milk, but it is guaranteed you won't get the kind you want and the amount you want when you want it. What governments do when they want you to stop demanding different amounts and kinds of something is to label you something undesireable, e.g. bourgeois, selfish, not ecologically sound, etc. In some socialist economies, the central planners will TELL you what your preferences are instead of you telling them. But what is known for sure is that your actual preference will not be satisfied, resources will be allocated inefficiently, and someone else's agenda will be the guide for allocating resources.

Mr. Williamson's book is replete with historical examples to back up his analysis. He has a sense of humor, too: in his acknowledgements, he pays homage to the federal, state, and local governments who "will expropriate just about half of whatever proceeds are realized from this book, thereby inspiring the next one."

I thank Mr. Williamson for his time.
Mary Reichard interviewed Mr. Williamson on The Mary Reichard Show Jan. 20, 2011.
www.1340bigtalker.com

Ministries Network and Muslim Background Believers

2011-01-17T00:37:00.000-06:00

www.ministriesnetwork.org

You choose a religion different from the state’s, and you lose your life.

You are born into a culture that offers you second-class status as a woman.*

You doubt Allah, and this is considered blasphemy. The penalty is death.

Al-Fadi grew up in the most restrictive of the Islamic sects, Wahabbism. He was taught that Islam is the final religion on earth and that it is the only acceptable religion to God. He was taught that Muslims are superior to all others. The most compelling thing he was taught was to hate all those who do not worship Allah.

When the time came for a graduate school, Al-Fadi desired the superior education offered in a western country. This was a dilemma, because Islam teaches followers not to make friends with Christians and Jews. It is common Muslim belief that all westerners are Christians. When Al-Fadi was accepted into a graduate university in a western country, he went with the idea that he would stay as apart as he could.

Once there, though, he found the English language difficult. To overcome this, Al-Fadi signed up with a local family as part of an organization devoted to helping international students adjust to life in a new country. What he observed from this host family was astounding to him. The married couple was loving, giving their time and resources to meet Al-Fadi’s needs. They attended his sporting events, provided transportation for him, enjoyed meals and music with him. This couple had a sense of peace that distinguished them from others. Al-Fadi’s upbringing in Islam had taught him something false: that Christians were bad. This family did not evangelize Al-Fadi. What they did was show love to him, and he figured out they were Christians because they prayed in the name of Christ. At no time did they ever

criticize Islam or argue with Al-Fadi. They just showed him care and concern.

This young Muslim researched his faith and the Christian faith. He encountered other genuine Christians living out their faith they way this earlier couple had shown him. He concluded that Muhammad was not a prophet mentioned in the Bible, as he was taught; the Bible does not mention Muhammad anywhere. Al-Fadi began the process of self-examination and eventually professed faith in Jesus Christ.

Because of this, he must use a pseudonym, because his life in endangered.

Today, Al-Fadi is the director of the Quran.com project in collaboration with Ministries Network. He works with Harun, President of Ministries Network. Harun launched an Internet ministry that now averages 280 million visits per year. Harun promotes Al Hayat TV, bringing Christian programming to the Middle East and throughout the world. The purpose? To reach out to Muslims and teach them that there is another way.

During our conversation, I brought up the mosque at Ground Zero. Both of these men were stalwartly against building such a mosque. They said the very name of the proposed mosque – Cordoba House – reveals something important about its mission. Cordoba, Spain was conquered by Muslims in A.D. 711. Wahabbists want to retake lands formerly conquered, and beyond. Cordoba House underscores this desire. Harun explained that the doctrine of integration in Islam teaches that in order to spread Islam, followers should infiltrate foreign cultures and assimilate in the community. There is an agenda in Islam, he said, that western media does not consider. You can see it played out strongly in England, where a disproportionate number of Muslims with no intentions of working come to divert tax money toward their living expenses. Harun pointed out that in America, secular enablers use politically correct rhetoric to stamp out Christianity, all the while enabling another religion not known for tolerating differences to flourish.

The purpose of Network Ministries is to reveal the truth about Islam and share the hope of the Gospel to millions who can become Muslim-background believers. Ministries Network’s mission is to respectfully confront the problems of Islam with facts through television, telephone ministry, and websites.

Interview of Al-Fadi and Harun on Dec. 23, 2010, Ozarks Big Talker 1340 AM.

*The treatment of women in Islam is lower than that of animals. Sharia law actually says that women are evil beings whose tricks are worse than Satan. (Harun's comment)

Len Pense Can Show You How to Survive the Worst

2011-01-17T00:12:00.002-06:00

You might not think much of farmers, but you’d better become one if you want to survive what looks like an economic armageddon on its way. This is the informed opinion of Len Pense, military man, professional engineer, lifelong history buff and gardener. Mr. Pense is passionate about teaching survivalist gardening.

Here’s a statement from the National Inflation Association (NIA): “The average American family currently spends only 13% of their total annual expenditures on food and they spend 34% of their total annual expenditures on housing. NIA projects that by the year 2015, Americans will be spending as much as 40% of their annual expenditures on food, and as little as 10% of their annual expenditures on housing.” This organization predicts that if financial collapse continues, a 2-lb bag of sugar will cost $62.21. A 11.30 oz can of Folgers will cost $77.71. Sixty-four fluid ounces of Minute Maid orange juice will cost $45.71.

Can’t happen, you say? It did in Germany during the Weimar Republic, when people burned their paper money for heat because it was cheaper than buying wood. Housewives took wheelbarrows of money to the store to buy a loaf of bread.

What to do? Plant a garden, and do it post haste. If you live in loamy topsoil country, good for you. Your job is easier. But even if you live on a rocky mountaintop, you can build an above-ground garden for about $600 and a weekend. Your return on investment will more than double the first year – you’ll get $1,200 worth of vegetables back.

The steps are easy:

Measure out a 4’ by 16’ area that gets at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day.

Cover area with mole-proof netting.

Cover over that with black weed prevention fabric.

Surround area with cement blocks, piled two high. 64 blocks will complete one 4’ by 16’ area.

Fill with mixture of compost, rice hulls, and compost to 16” depth.

Plant your veggies.

Two L-shaped beds both 4’ by 16’ will suffice for a family of four; one bed should bed laid out east to west.

Soil must be replenished after each growing season. Mr. Pense sells Essential Elements to do this job if you don’t want to make your own compost. Essential Elements costs $80/year for the beds described here. If you do make your own compost, then you’ll need to add 2” of it to the garden every year.

The economic forecast is not good. Some predict that the American Empire is over. Some say our power grid is at risk of terrorism, and if that goes down, nothing will work. You won’t be able to buy gas for your car, trucks won’t transport food anymore, grocery store shelves will empty within a few days. We will be forced to live as our ancestors did without power. One man described our current situation as a train going around a mountain pass, having left the tracks and in a slow descent through the air before a violent crash at the bottom.

I hope these dire predictions aren't true. But people with far more knowledge than I have and who I believe are people of integrity are saying it is true. What I do know is that there is no downside whatsoever to planting a garden. If nothing bad happens, you have wholesome, inexpensive, delicious fresh food for your family. You take up a hobby that is enjoyable. Your health increases and you do the environment well by not supporting an industry that delivers food of questionable nutritive value. If the worst happens, you might survive it because you prepared.

Call Len Pense to take his how-to class held on Saturdays: 417-736-2338

Check out his website at http://www.gardeningrevolution.com.

He also has a DVD of his class available for purchase.

American Malaise by Rabbi Schmuley Boteach

2011-01-05T14:45:00.000-06:00

America seems to be running out of gas. Lethargy is creeping into the national DNA. We seem beset by problems that we can't fix and won't go away.

First, we're going broke. With a deficit of $13.9 trillion dollars, every American child is now born saddled with debts of $33,000. Economists believe that the trillion dollar Federal bailout of the banking industry is chicken feed compared to the coming bailout of state and municipal governments whose profligate ways have all but bankrupted them as well. Forbes reports that New York City alone has a debt of $64.8 billion, or $7,760 per resident.

The American human rights agenda is stymied by debt, with China successfully preventing even American beneficiaries like Afghanistan and Iraq from attending the Nobel prize ceremony for dissident Liu Xiaobo. The Chinese have embraced the values of thrift, hard work, and excellence in education that once made America great while we become more indolent and ignorant.

Rather than focusing on personal development, Americans seem obsessed with the lives of others. Social networking sites addict us with the goings-on of friends and acquaintances we haven't seen in decades and the internet is cultivating among our youth the trifecta of exhibitionism, narcissism, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Nielsen observed that online social activity of consumers increased from about three hours per day in 2008 to five and a half a year later.

Reality TV is assaulting the very notion of human dignity, with millions of Americans regularly prepared to subject themselves to public humiliation to garner attention. There is even a growing trend among teen girls to get pregnant just so as to qualify for MTV's Teen Mom and Sixteen and Pregnant, where the cost of fifteen minutes of fame is a lifetime of responsibility.

Our schools are a shambles with American high school students now ranking 25th in math, 17th in science, and 14th in reading worldwide. While we trail Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Liechtenstein, China is the world number one in reading.

American families are fractured and marriage is a rapidly deteriorating institution with forty percent of Americans now saying that it is obsolete.

Our kids are raised on junk food and junk TV, the lack of substance in the diet breeding a uniquely American form of insatiability. We eat but we're not satisfied and we have an epidemic of childhood obesity. And when we grow up we continue the trend of leaving no itch unscratched, no thirst unquenched, rarely asking ourselves what hole has opened up inside that is so bottomless that no matter what we shove inside it cannot be filled.

But where the American malaise is most felt is in the area of human happiness. Skyrocketing levels of depression seem incongruous in a nation with the world's largest economy and highest standard of living. Yet we consume three quarters of the earth's anti-depressants and one out of three American women is on one. Still, the number one cure for unhappiness in America remains shopping, which explains why, even with credit cards maxed we cannot curtail our spending addiction. On Black Friday 2010 millions of Americans got up at the crack of dawn to spend, according to ShopperTrak.com, $10.66 billion on things they may not need because it was twenty percent off.

I know, I know, we've had bigger problems before. During the Civil War we killed each other. During the Great Depression a quarter of the population was unemployed. And during World War II we faced a threat to civilization itself.

But there's a difference.

Previous crises always had an identifiable, external cause that could be remedied, however painfully. During the Civil War it was slavery, the Great Depression high tariffs. In the Second World War it was Hitler and the Japanese.

This time there is no external cause. The enemy is us. Americans are suffering from corrupt values. The Tea Party blames our problems on spending-addicted politicians. But other woes in America belie a similar lack of discipline that has no relationship to finance. Rotten principles are at fault. Thrift has been replaced with indulgence. Spiritual longing with material consumption. Genuine curiosity with obtaining knowledge merely to pursue a career. Being a blessing to others has succumbed to the single-minded focus on self. Character has been supplanted by personality. The loud and boisterous get attention while those of quiet virtue are overlooked. And hovering over the decadence is a hell-bent obsession with money at any cost and fame at any price.

America is the greatest country on earth, but no nation has ever surmounted the challenge of success. Prosperity replaces hard work with a sense of entitlement, a yearning for knowledge with a passion for luxury. It was abundance, rather than invading hordes that slowly corrupted the soul of Rome and it is ironically vast American achievement that is now eroding the moral fabric of the nation. The Talmud expresses it succinctly: when you have not enough to do, you do what you ought not to do. America's sense of high moral purpose has replaced with sustaining a standard of living. But plush carpets and plasma TV screens cannot nurture the human soul.

But there is hope. No country on earth can match America for determination and resilience and we can transform American malaise into American renewal by rebirthing the values that made us great.

Foremost among them is America recapturing a sense of adventure and discovery. We need teachers that excite students about the horizons of learning, a government that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship rather than penalizing hard work, families that turn off the TV and get their kids out hiking in national parks. Passivity is the enemy, strenuous activity the solution.

Second we need to recapture a sense of gratitude, appreciating what we have instead of being always greedy for more. America has many blessings. It must now the blessing of enough.

Third, we must instill within our citizenry civic virtue, living a life that is a blessing to others. The quickest way is to establish a mandatory year of national communal service that immediately follows High School.

Americans must also foster a new identity defined by the good deeds we do and not the things we own. This will most likely come from religion which must stop wasting its time fighting cultural battles like gay marriage and get back to teaching people the nobility of a purpose-lived life. We must create communities that are not on-line by reinvigorating Synagogues and Churches, community centers and charitable volunteering. We need a national Sabbath, a day where all stores are closed and where people don't shop but spend time with friends and family.

Finally, we need to teach our youth about human dignity and the necessity of values. Public schools should institute dress codes that emphasize dignified dress and there should be a mandatory values class imparting non-sectarian, universal values of right and wrong, the moral bedrock upon which this great nation was built.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is founder of This World: The Values Network and one of the world's leading relationships experts. This week he is publishing his newest book "Honoring the Child Spirit: Inspiration and Learning from Our Children." (Vanguard) Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.

Myth of Adolescence by Alex and Brett Harris, Part 2

2010-12-21T19:32:00.002-06:00

Myth of Adolescence (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this series, I wrote of the great elephants of India, who, although they have the physical capacity to uproot trees during the day, can be restrained all night long by a piece of twine and a twig. How is this possible?
The elephant’s training begins when it is still young and considerably less powerful. Removed from its mother, the elephant is then shackled with an iron chain to a large tree. For days and weeks on end, the baby elephant strains against its restraints, only to find that all exertion is useless. Then slowly, over a period of several weeks, sometimes months, smaller chains and smaller trees are used. Eventually, you can use a piece of twine and a small branch, and the great beast will not budge. Its mind is fully committed to the idea that it cannot go anywhere when there is something around its right hind leg.
And so I ask my generation, individually and corporately, “What is holding us back?” History demonstrates that we are far more capable than we think we are. Our failure to realize substantial achievement at early ages is due, not to any innate inadequacies on our part, but rather to our social conditioning. American society, with its media-saturated youth culture, not only follows trends and fads, but it creates them. Classrooms, TV shows, magazines, and websites, are not only addressing us at the level of social expectations, but they are in fact dictating those expectations. They tell us how to act, think, and talk; they tell us what to wear, what to buy, and where to buy it; they tell us what to dream, what to value, and what to hate. We are being squeezed into a mold where there is no room for Christian character or competence. And as the famous proverb goes, “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.”
In what could be considered the most maddening aspect of this crisis, not all areas of maturity are being stunted. In a powerful demonstration of teenagers’ ability to meet the expectations set before them, we witness young people today reaching unprecedented levels of technological proficiency and sexual experience. It is ironic that many teenagers, while fluent in multiple computer languages, are not expected to carry on an intelligent conversation with an adult. It is heartbreaking that so many young girls, while constantly pressed to become more and more sexually alluring, are not expected to attain any notable level of character beneath the surface.
Our world cannot last another generation of Christian young people who fit in. The shackles of society are on our minds and hearts, not our ankles. We are held back only by the myth of adolescence and the lies of social expectations. If we would only recognize that our restraints are illusory, and then let God’s Word and all of history govern our sense of what we are capable of, we would be a force this world could no longer ignore.
We face a crisis and an opportunity. A crisis, in the sense that we can no longer afford to slowly drift towards adulthood, viewing the teen years as a vacation from responsibility, and an opportunity, in the sense that we can embrace life now and make a difference for the glory of God, and for the good our family, our nation, and our world. Look down at your “ankle” and see the pathetic contrivance that has been restraining you. Now renew your mind in the light of God’s Word and take a step forward.

Myth of Adolescence by Alex and Brett Harris

2010-12-21T19:28:00.000-06:00

Myth of Adolescence (Part 1) written by Alex and Brett Harris

The trained elephant of India is a perfect picture of the power of psychological captivity. Tamed and utilized for its enormous strength, the great beast stands nearly 10 feet tall and weighs up to 5 tons when fully grown. Its tasks may include uprooting full-grown trees, hauling great boulders, and carrying enormous loads on its shoulders. And yet, when the day’s work is done and this powerful beast must be kept from wandering off during the night, its owner simply takes a piece of twine, attaches it to a small branch embedded in the ground, and ties it around the elephant’s right hind leg. Reason dictates that the elephant can easily snap the twine or pull the twig from ground, and yet the owner does not worry, fully confident that when morning comes he will find the animal exactly where he left him. And he does.
I’ll admit that upon first hearing of this practice, I couldn’t decide which was harder to believe: that the owner was confident, or that his confidence proved justified. A beast that can uproot trees is suddenly unable to pull up a twig? What is it about the piece of twine and the small branch that allows them to subdue all of the elephant’s power? I soon discovered that it had little to do with the twine around the elephant’s ankle, and everything to do with invisible shackles around its mind.
My contention is simple: The young adults of our generation are the elephant. Our twine is the 20th century concept of adolescence. Our twig is societal expectations. We stand restrained as a hurting world burns around us. Yet our twine and twig are of a recent origin. Young adults of the past were not so encumbered.
David Farragut, the U.S. Navy’s first admiral, became a midshipman on the warship Essex at the age of 10. At the age of 12, a mere boy by modern standards, Farragut was given command of his first ship, sailing a capture vessel, crew, and prisoners, back to the U.S. after a successful battle. Young David was given responsibility at an early age, and he rose to the occasion.
The father of our country, George Washington, though never thought to be particularly bright by his peers, began to master geometry, trigonometry, and surveying when he would have been a 5th or 6th grader in our day and ceased his formal education at 14 years of age. At the age of 16 he was named official surveyor for Culpepper County, Virginia. For the next three years, Washington earned nearly $100,000 a year (in modern purchasing power). By the age of 21, he had leveraged his knowledge of the surrounding land, along with his income, to acquire 2,300 acres of prime Virginian land.
These examples astound us in our day and age, but this is because we view life through an extra social category called ‘adolescence’, a category that would have been completely foreign to men and women just 100 years ago. Prior to the late 1800s there were only 3 categories of age: childhood, adulthood, and old age. It was only with the coming of the early labor movement with its progressive child labor laws, coupled with new compulsory schooling laws, that a new category, called adolescence, was invented. Coined by G. Stanley Hall, who is often considered the father of American psychology, ‘adolescence’ identified the artificial zone between childhood and adulthood when young people ceased to be children, but were no longer permitted by law to assume the normal responsibilities of adulthood, such as entering into a trade or finding gainful employment. Consequently, marriage and family had to be delayed as well, and so we invented ‘the teenager’, an unfortunate creature who had all the yearnings and capabilities of an adult, but none of the freedoms or responsibilities.
Teenage life became a 4-year sentence of continuing primary education and relative idleness known as ‘high school’ (four years of schooling which would later be repeated in the first two years of college). Abolished by law were the young Farraguts and young Washingtons, who couldn’t spare the time to be children any longer than necessary. Cultivated instead was the culture we know today, where young people are allowed, encouraged, and even forced to remain quasi-children for much longer than necessary.
The effect of this seismic shift in America’s philosophy of education is not limited to students in the public schools. As homeschoolers we may feel as though we have escaped the danger, but an honest evaluation proves that, as a whole, we also fall short of realizing our potential. After reading the examples of great men of our country’s past, we should recognize that there is no reason why a 13 to 18 year old cannot behave as a responsible adult. History proves it is possible. Diverse cultures confirm its validity. The only thing holding young people back in America today is the twine of this perpetual recess called adolescence and the twig of lowered social expectations. We expect immaturity and irresponsibility, from ourselves and from one another, and that is exactly what we get.
[Go to Part Two...]

Gary Bauer: Common Sense Reborn?

2010-12-17T20:54:00.005-06:00

"Conservatives try to shove their views down everyone's throats."

How often have I heard that! Human nature being what it is, though, isn't it true that everyone is trying to persuade others to share his views? If you have any opinions about anything, you are going to be selling that perspective one way or another.

Today on my radio show I played liberal to Gary Bauer's conservative. Mr. Bauer ran for President of the country in 2000 and is now president of American Values, an educational outreach. It was fun stating opinions and making arguments without backing them up with sources or facts. Just, "Gary everybody accepts homosexuality now. Why don't you just get over it already?" Or, "You are for school vouchers when everybody knows that public schools serve as the great unifier of Americans. Take that away, and our common values will disintegrate." Or, "The Founders were all deists or atheists, so your talk about Judeo-Christian values is wrong." Or, 'The Christian right is just like the Taliban."

I've heard all of those arguments. There really are not that many objections out there; they are just asked in slightly different ways.

Here is a synopisis of my little debate with Gary Bauer, questions first and my summary of his answer next:

"Gary, I hear you conservatives talking about a "culture of death." I don't see anything of the sort in my daily life. Nobody from the government is coming to my house snooping around for old people to knock off. Come on, get real."

Answer: The evidence of our "culture ofdeath is so pervasive that paradoxically we often cannot see it. But it is here all the same. Evidence: A media saturated with gratuitous violence, often paired with sex. Think video games that garner points per person killed, or points per prostitute shot to death. Evidence: America is the only nation on earth that enshrines abortion into its Constitution (via Roe v Wade). We can disagree on whether it should be legal, but the death result is clear. Evidence: The march toward a health care incentive system that makes the ill and elderly feel they are doing a public service by getting out of the way (so-called "death panels.") The Netherlands is already proving the effect on vulnerable people of state-sponsored euthanasia. More people die sooner.

So, that's where the culture of death phrase comes from. Reality.

"Gary, homosexuality is normalized now. Why don't you get over it?"

Answer: Homosexuality may be becoming more acceptable now in the west, but it has opened the door to every other argument. We can no longer argue that a man shouldn't marry two women. And why not? Once the definition of "one man, one woman" has changed, any argument against further change is dead. As Dennis Prager wrote in "Why Judaism (and Later Christianity) Rejected Homosexuality" and Gary Bauer reiterates, it isn't good for women when men are granted legal status to"marry" whomever they want in whatever numbers they want. Polyamorists and polygamists are already at the door asking for "acceptance," sure to be followed by "celebrating" their differences and then legal status.

"Gary, free public education is good for the country. We get common values transmitted that way. Why are you for vouchers that let people pick and choose education for their kids?"

Answer: Any transmission of common values ended long ago. The NEA has ensured that many values exactly opposite of what the majority of parents desire for their children is taught. Vouchers are a necessary solution to the failure of the American public school system. When competition is injected, product improves. In this case, the product is our childrens' education. When the product is put first, wonderful things happen. (My two cents here: The Wall Street Journal headline said it all last week: "A Sputnik Moment for U.S. Education" with the byline "China delivers another wake-up call to those who think American schools are globally competititve." We are not.) To keep beating our still-dead horse - thinking it will magically change- is futile.

One question I didn't get to with Gary Bauer was this doozy I hear often:
"You Christians are just the American version of the Taliban."

Here's an answer for that vial of vitriol:

There are ethics in several cultures that are wonderful for civilization: don't lie, don't steal, don't be violent toward your neighbor, don't commit adultery or murder. Christianity embodies these. Moral absolutes offend people who equate them with the Taliban. In the Taliban, morals are based on hate and fear which they impose most harshly upon women; the photo of the young woman with her nose and ears cut off on the front of Time Magazine this year makes the sickening point. Taliban "morals" allow them to commit crimes against women for being seen outside their homes without male chaperones; men who don't wear beards one fist-length long are flogged; adulterers are tortured and executed before throngs of people, including children. Does that remotely sound like anything you've experienced at the hands of Christians, or Christian society? Of course not.

I thank Gary Bauer for his time today, and wish his organization well in returning common sense to our American way of life. His organization: www.ouramericanvalues.org is a strong supporter of Israel as well.
Interview date: 12/17/2010.

Religious Freedom Sunday is January 16, 2011

2010-12-10T20:54:00.001-06:00

"Tolerance" is one of those words that meant one thing when I was growing up in the 70s and another thing today. I grew up thinking that tolerating something meant putting up with someone's annoyances. For example, Teresa ate like a slob at lunch, so you sat far enough away that you didn't get any of her meat loaf bits on your shirt but close enough you could still have a conversation with her. You didn't like her eating habits, but you put up with her anyway.

Not so anymore. My kids have been so saturated with unthinking tolerance that confusion reigns. They might think it means "Whatever." Or, "Who cares?" Or worst of all, "Why not?" They've been robbed of their proper convictions of right and wrong. We'd have to not only put up with Teresa's sloppy eating habits, but embrace and even celebrate them! (To apply the reckless sex ed teaching prevalent today, that is.)

Eric Buehrer founded an organization to address just this sort of thing. Gateways to Better Education (www.gtbe.org) gives parents advice on how to handle it when your child's teacher promotes views contrary to your views. He wisely counsels to approach a teacher as "a lamp unto her feet" as opposed to "a blowtorch that scorches everything in reach." Sometimes this is difficult to do when you are angry and think your child is being taught evil or dangerous things. (See Dr. Miriam Grossman's book, "You're Teaching My Child WHAT?") Still, Eric Buehrer's approach is much more likely to garner a positive response than if you go in guns blazing, so it's worth laying out the steps:

1. At the beginning of the school year, get to know your child's teacher. Do this before a problem arises. Remember, "it's always beautiful in the beginning." If you establish a relationship while things are going well, it is far easier to talk if things turn bad.

2. When an issue does arise, ask the teacher for an appointment.

3. Verify if what your child told you is true. Say, "This is what I understood was said. Can you verify whether this is so?" Then, "Help me understand where you got that information," if the view being offered by the teacher is counter to your views. This way, the teacher has a chance to explain and you can understand why the teacher thinks that way.

4. Find some common ground of agreement. "I appreciate you want the kids to think and not just accept anything that is said to them. I wonder if you have considered this...." and go on to explain your views.

The idea is to avoid putting the teacher on the defensive. Sometimes, a teacher is going to be defensive no matter what you say or how you approach her, but the method Eric Buerher describes is worth emulating.

Parents have to be more vigilant than ever. Over the years, my kids have had teachers who shared our views of traditional morality, allowing my kids to concentrate on academics. Other times, they've had teachers with a social change agenda being taught (sometimes aggressively) to my children. Eric Buehrer says when those situations arise, use a "predict and pre-teach" method. This means if you suspect a teacher is going to teach against your values that you talk to your child about it ahead of time. For example, if your family is pro-life and you suspect in health class that the teacher is going to be pro-choice, you can say to your child: "You know our family believes that abortion is wrong. I think your teacher may believe differently. Let's predict what she is going to say about it." Discuss what she might say, and ask your child to be alert for it. Then, your child will have something to watch out for in class and will likely tell you about it when it happens. You may decide to talk to the teacher, or you may decide not to, depending on how pervasive the politicizing of the classroom has gone.

What classes should you inquire about ahead of time? Health class is an obvious venue for radical values to creep in, but so is history. Even math has been politicized with "queering" in some jurisdictions. The little triangles in geometry were tinted pink to remind students that homosexuals are oppressed. This is an extreme example but was actually done in some jurisdictions. This is not to paint with such a broad brush that you should suspect every teacher of doing this. There are thousands of teachers with Orthodox values in the schools. Just be aware that it is happening and that you should find out if your school is one of the places with teachers teaching against your values.

Want to do something REALLY proactive for the conservative Christian cause?

Religious Freedom Day is January 16, 2011. You can order packets to distribute at your church that outline what freedoms we have in the public schools for a mere 15 cents each. Along with that comes a 60-second video to show during your church service explaining what Religious Freedom Day is all about. Then, the Alliance Defense Fund will send a letter to the school official of your choice clarifying the rights and obligations of religious students. With the ACLU sending threatening letters to principals and superintendents about "separation of church and state" don't you think it's time to bring balance back to our schools? It will only happen if religious citizens take matters seriously and tell others about religious freedom, guaranteed under the Constitution but rendered meaningless as we stay silent in the face of oppression. Something precious is slipping away faster and faster as secularized culture forces its views on all of us.

Go to www.religiousfreedomsunday.com and order your packets. It's easy, it's cheap, and not doing it makes a statement about what matters to you. "You can measure a man by his day timer and his checkbook." Where you spend your time and money says who you are and what you value.

What's Really Wrong with WikiLeaks by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal 2 December 2010

2010-12-03T11:42:00.000-06:00

Once again, Mr. Dalrymple sees the forest in lieu of just the trees. What a treasure he is.

What's Really Wrong with WikiLeaks by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal 2 December 2010

Save a Man this Christmas

2010-12-02T19:57:00.007-06:00

www.victorymission.com

Reverend James M. Harriger is one of those people who is so deliberate in speech that the listener knows he is saying something important and true. When I ask a question, there is a pause. Rev. Harriger is the sort that thinks first. I think that’s rare these days.

Reverend Harriger walks the walk. He’s been executive director of Victory Mission in Springfield, MO for 17 years, a success story for any inner city ministry. Here, broken lives are mended. Lost men on drugs are sobered up and trained in life skills. Chronically unemployed learn the work ethic, gain confidence, and become role models in the community.

In today’s secular world that ridicules Christians for being out of step, Victory Mission proves them wrong. Johnny and Trisha joined our radio conversation today. Johnny came to Victory Mission a broken man. As Johnny told me, “I was used to doing things MY way. I was drug addicted and unhappy. When I surrendered my life to the Lord, things turned around. I learned from the people who were doing better than I was doing.”

As Rev. Harriger says, Victory Mission “eliminates poverty from the inside out. We accept people right where they are, and love them too much to leave them there.” The myriad of success stories out of this ministry proves the point. Victory Mission provides a lifeline to those who have hit bottom: emergency services, a food pantry, a clothing store, evening chapel and meals. The bottom line, as Johnny put it, is “relationships. I was discipled.”

In the midst of doing such good works, I wondered what the greatest frustration is in running Victory Missions. Rev. Garriger thought for a while, and then said, “Fighting against the culture. We have a culture of dependency in America now. Victory Mission works to help people gain independence, get a job, pay taxes, learn to budget, cook good food for good health.” Yet, government incentives work in the opposite direction: there are actually incentive bonuses for social workers to sign up more people for dependency programs. Our culture glorifies sloth and being on the take; true happiness lies in pursuing one’s best purpose in life, one that doesn’t burden other people to the extent possible.

One of the joys of Rev. Harriger’s life work is seeing men walk with confidence in a new life discovered with a little faith and a lot of help. Men who develop leadership skills and graduate to become productive citizens when not long before they were drug addicts hanging on by a thin thread. I believe it was George Washington who said that our Republic needs a secular government with a pious Christian population. I’d say that Victory Mission in Springfield, MO has our founding father’s spiritual heritage. Work hard, live right, pray daily.

The daily expense of running Victory Mission is no small thing. The operating expense budget is $2.8 million dollars, and that is a shoe-string budget for an operation of this magnitude. Rev. Harriger says this is the Mission’s greatest need: daily cash for the light bill, insurance, upkeep, modest salaries. To donate, go to www.victorymission.com, look for the red button that says “Not your ordinary Christmas gift,” and follow the prompts to donate with e-check or credit card. If you give $100 or more on behalf of someone as a gift, that someone will receive a card acknowledging your gift from Victory Mission. As a small bonus, Askinosie Chocolate will give you some chocolate. AND if you mention the Mary Reichard Show, Rev. Harriger will send you a signed copy of his book, “Real Mission Workers Don’t Carry Spare Change.” But do it because it's the right thing to do.

Oh, and Trisha REALLY loves Victory Mission. Her husband Johnny is a graduate!

Men Make Better Feminists Than Women

2010-12-02T09:40:00.000-06:00

Men realize the value of mothers more than women do, based on my personal observation. A generalization for sure, but here's my basis for that opinion:

The scenario: After getting two graduate degrees and working for a few years, I stayed home with the kids. This was true "choice" as I understood the term: it worked best for our family with a husband who traveled for his job and me, an older mother who wanted to be involved in all things motherhood and children.

The circles I run with tend to understand this as a good choice. I had no extended family within 500 miles. The kids didn't have to wake up at 5 AM so mom and dad could get everyone fed, get the kids to day care, catch the train to downtown (we lived in Chicagoland then), put in a full day's work, then do it all in reverse every evening for "quality time." Yea, right. Quality time that looked to me like frayed nerves, annoyance, exhaustion, and divorce. Not the way I wanted to bring up the kids.

Flash forward 17 years. The economy crashed and every male in my extended family lost his job, including my husband. "Choice" now was a luxury we could no longer afford. I had to go to work.

What I learned in the 2-year quest to find a job was enlightening. For all the talk of women looking out after each other and feminists advocating choices in life, it was not a woman who hired me. A man did. Twice.

One woman with the same education as I have but about 10 years younger flat out admitted she'd thrown my resume in the trash. "You just don''t have the experience." But, I countered, you don't ask for experience in the job posting. I have one more degree than you require, and I am perfectly alright in admitting that I expect no more salary than you'd give someone just out of school. I knew her husband was a stay-at-home-dad, and thought she would see the value in his myriad of duties there. The answer: No. She hired a younger person with less education.

Another woman smiled pleasantly at me and said she'd get back to me. She hired a man, years younger, with less education and no experience. No reason given.

I get the message. And there isn't anything I can do about it. Because age discrimination is against the law, that's true - but trying to prove it is another matter. It is very difficult to prove and generally not worth the time and expense to pursue.

So today I want to thank the men who gave me a chance. I will work hard for you and you will get your money's worth from me. Thank you for not viewing the work a mother does at home as worthless. In fact, one man showed uncanny understanding when he told me, "I know who runs the bake sales, ferries the field trips, arranges the social calendar, takes care of the working woman's sick child for her, picks up everyone else's slack, and does all of it for FREE. Imagine what you'll do when you actually get PAID?"

Smart man.

Second Circuit denies pro-life nurse right to sue over forced abortion participation

2010-12-01T19:57:00.000-06:00

Christians have lost an important case. I covered this case when it first arose in summer 2008. A nurse who had signed paperwork that she was a conscientious objector on religious grounds against performing an abortion was forced to do so by the hospital. She lost the case in court. This Christmas, support Christian causes because George Soros sure isn't. Alliance Defense Fund has an 85% success rate in winning litigation, and it takes money, talent, and passion to defend our rights. Please send even a small amount to the Alliance Defense Fund; it is an encouragement to them, and does Kingdom Work. www.telladf.org

Second Circuit denies pro-life nurse right to sue over forced abortion participation