I was browsing my RSS reader, when I read the following headline:

HR20-New Mother’s Mandated Mental Health Test-JUST PASSED HOUSE!

Great Scott!

What exactly does this mean? My wife and I are getting ready to have our fifth (yes, fifth) child and I don’t want some government bureaucrat telling me that according to some Washington guideline, my wife is too crazy to let us take the baby home.

According to the Daily Paul, that’s exactly what is going on:

A sweeping government policy for all new births in the United States has just passed the House of Representatives and is now headed to the Senate. The Mother’s Act, if passed, will mandate that all new mothers be screened by means of a list of subjective questions that will determine if each mother is mentally fit to take their newborn home from the hospital. Just imagine that after your child is born, you are told that you can’t take them home since a multiple choice questionnaire wasn’t answered correctly. Just imagine being told that the only way you can take your child home is if you or your spouse goes into treatment or on anti-depressants which we know causes psychosis, delusions, and even homocidal thoughts.

This would be bad. However, what’s worse is taking this as gospel. I read through the comments and then decided to do something most people won’t do. I read the bill.

What is claimed above just isn’t in the bill. It’s a bad bill, there’s no doubt about that. But what is claimed above simply isn’t what the bill does.

And here’s the comment that I think tells the story of the whole post:

This story is going around the email chain as the new biggest threat against mothers. The worst thing in this country is a bunch of people who don’t even bother reading the bill and finding out what it is really about. This is not just for this particular issue but for all the chain emails that go around. The first thing anyone should do is research the issue and then make an educated comment. The author of this atricle, Sheila Matthews, uses scare tactics to get what she wants which doesn’t help her issue one bit. This doesn’t mean I agree with the bill but PLEASE do your research before calling your senator for this and all issues.

Trust, but verify. Someone said that once. I think it is sound advice.

By the way, when I told my wife about this, she had the greatest reply.  She said, “Fine.  We’ll just start having them at home.”

Smart lady.

If you read nothing else today, take the time to honor Ed Freeman, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, by reading this account of his actions:

You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you’re not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you’ll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn’t seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you.

Read the full story at the Absurd Report, an RFC Radio Partner.

Leave it to Glenn Beck to come up with the most offensive way to celebrate a holiday created by a man who loved the Earth but killed his girlfriend.  (Interesting aside, “Ira Einhorn was arrested for murder March 28, 1979, the day the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident occurred…The environmentalist killed more people than the so-called environmental disaster.”)

Anyway, Glenn Beck wanted to celebrate Earth Day in a way that could be remembered. So, he had an acre of forest clear cut so it would make it easier to shoot deer there.

The idea of clear cutting woodland and shooting deer was almost too much for Beck to handle, especially on Earth Day.

“This is not only going to hack off all the environmentalists but all the PETA people, too,” he said.

“I need Barry White music,” he excitedly announced. “This is almost full-fledged light some candles, this is eroticism.”

After the roar of the chainsaw fired up, Beck was told that Tim the forest manager felled two trees specifically for him and his producer.

“I laid down an Aspen tree with Glenn’s name on it and an Aspen tree with Stu’s name on it,” Tim the woodsman announced. “So you are both involved.”

Bigger

But Beck’s glee was short-lived. The Aspen trees were too puny he said.

“Don’t you have like a big huge oak or something?” Beck asked.

“No, no, we don’t cut oak. We cut Aspen and stuff like that and we leave behind the good stuff,” the woodsman replied.

When Tim announced he would cut down an American elm, however, Beck’s spirits were lifted.

“You go to Central Park, American Elms, those are a big deal because they are almost wiped out and everything else. So I mean, give me another Elm, just give me another American Elm,” Beck pleaded.

Wish received. Another elm was cut down.

Benefits

Tim the woodsman then tried to explain the environmental benefits of culling trees. But did so in a manner that Beck might appreciate.

“When you cut down trees for paper, it’s a positive thing because you wind up planting more trees and, you know, over time it’s clearly been shown that all these environmental benefits that go to these companies that are supposedly cutting down trees, blah, blah blah, blah blah, they were going to plant them anyway because it’s part of their business plan,” he explained.

How did Beck describe the experience?

“This is like nirvana here,” Beck said.

The only thing that could top this is if he were hitting the deer with a big SUV.

It’s law now:

Obama signed into law the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act before a crowd of more than 200 gathered inside a gymnasium at an inner-city boarding school in Washington that includes community service in its curriculum.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was one of 10 lawmakers standing on stage with the president during the bill signing. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, was in the crowd with other dignitaries including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

…

The legislation will triple the size of AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000 volunteers. It will also provide new service opportunities for millions of Americans at all stages of their lives — including a “summer of service” program that Dodd and DeLauro advocated that will allow middle and high school students to earn a $500 education award for college while volunteering.

Before I link to my post on 1388, I have to ask an obvious question: If you get $500, are you really “volunteering?”

Here’s my very popular post on the Obama Youth Brigade Act.  You really need to know what this one does.

Founding Bloggers was at the Chicago Tea Party and just happened to be on the scene following the incident with CNN’s Susan Roesgen.  They were able to capture video of tea party attendees setting her straight.

Check it out:

Really well done, folks. Roesgen has been on “extended leave” since this happened.

Hat Tip: Diggers Realm

I actually saw this for the first time at work the other day, but the Jawa Report reminded me to share it with you:

PETA, fresh off their effort to get the Pet Shop Boys to change their name to the Rescue Shelter Boys, now has taken aim at an audience sure to related to them:  NASCAR fans.

It seems they are upset about these great Americans doing the chicken dance.  No, really:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asked Guinness World Records Inc. on Monday to ignore an attempt to set a world record for the largest group chicken dance at the Talladega Superspeedway, site of the Aaron’s 499 race on Sunday.

The reason? KFC is the sponsor of the record attempt, and the animal rights group says the fast-food company is cruel to chickens.

I’m sure all the race fans will appreciate the effort to treat animals better before they are killed, cleaned and seasoned. It reminds me of this picture:

When I was doing “A Field Guide to American Politics,” there was a chapter in the “Field Guide” called “Gun Defense.”  (Is that enough quotes?  Perhaps I will switch to parenthesis…)

Anyway, the “Gun Defense” chapter focused on reinforcing the fact that guns save lives every day.  I could have Googled it every night, but lucky for me, there was already a great blog reporting on the used of firearms in self defense.

Recently that blog, Clayton Cramer’s Civilian Gun Defense Blog, reached it’s 4000th post:

Since I started this project in 2003, Dave Burnett and myself (and Pete Drum, before he went on to other activities) have been posting every news story that we could find in which civilians in the U.S. used a gun in self-defense. By “civilian” we mean persons who are not active or retired police officers (who have a special status in the law when it comes to carrying and using weapons).

These entries are (with one or two exceptions, such as when my neighbor chased an intruder out of his daughter’s room) all derived from published news sources. Of necessity, this means that these were incidents sufficiently high profile to receive the attention of both police and news media.

He’s got a boatload of great stats from over the years, including which states showed the most used of firearms in self-defense. Missouri came in with 89.

Congratulations, Clayton! Keep doing what you are doing.

Hat Tip:  Sharp as a Marble

I love books.  I mean, I really love books.  And one of my favorite places to buy them was at a HUGE book sale in Des Moines, Iowa.  I could walk out of that sale with 75+ books for around $100.  And I’m not talking about cheap, beat-up paperbacks.  I could buy pristine, hard cover books for $4.

I can’t do that anymore.  I can’t do it because of things like this:

Lila Rose, an adult posing as a minor, caught an abortion mill worker on tape saying, “Look, if we keep this conversation I’m gonna have to talk to my manager and yeah, [your boyfriend]’s gonna get in trouble…And please don’t say that I told you this…Don’t mention it. Just say you have a boyfriend 17 years old…whatever.”

Lila Rose goes undercover to expose this atrocity, but there have been real cases of PP workers covering up rape. In 2002, a judge found Planned Parenthood of Arizona negligent for failing to report the rape of 13-year-old girl by her 23-year-old foster brother, who brought the girl to the clinic twice in a six-month period. Too ridiculous for words.

One would think feminists who work in these mills and their “sisters” who support child killing on demand would be outraged even by the possibility that an adult male could get away with raping a female minor.

See, the book sale was hosted by Planned Parenthood. At the time, I justified my purchases by saying the money didn’t go towards abortions, that they went towards contraception and other services. But then I started learning about things like this.

Planned Parenthood hides rape, incest and child molestation in order to preserve abortion. I can’t support that in any way, and I don’t know how anyone else can.

Hat Tip:  La Shawn Barber

This video should be a training film for the Republican Party. If you ignore the will of the people and do something stupid like vote for the TARP bailout, you are going to hear about it.

This guy is so full of crap. I am surprised people didn’t start throwing rotten vegetables at him.

Congressman Barrett should probably start looking for a new job. I think he’s going to get ushered out of the building in 2010.

Check out my pictures from Phoenixville, PA.

I haven’t written here for a while and I do apologize for that. I will try to get more stuff up here as I think it is a great blog and is full of fantastic information.

I attended a Tea Party as did many many others on Wed. April 15, 2009. Members of my family also attended parties all across the country and one of my brothers penned an excellent letter that I felt should be read by all of our representatives in the Senate and House so with his permission I am posting it here.

[Sender Address]

April 15, 2009

[Favorite Senator],

United States Senate,

____ Hart Senate Office Building,

Washington, DC 20510-3002.

Dear Senator ________,

The Boston Tea Party is remembered by Americans proudly as an example of protest when government wouldn’t listen to its people. In that same tradition on this tax day, and with modern “tea parties” taking place across the nation, I write to protest a broad range of actions you and your colleagues in government are pursuing in the name of “change”.

For the sake of our country and preservation of the individual rights upon which it was founded, please stop:

- spending so much money;

- passing laws you haven’t even read;

- “investing” in pet projects under the pretense of saving the economy;

- taking control of private industry;

- trying to socialize healthcare – from the comfortable shelter of your own special lifetime benefits;

- proposing legislation to rewrite mortgages, retention agreements and other valid private contracts;

- refusing to enforce existing immigration laws, and victimizing those who do;

- apologizing to other nations on our behalf;

- trying to woo the leaders of Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and now Cuba with unearned concessions; they respect power and your efforts make us appear weak;

- disrespecting publicly the service and integrity of our last President and his administration;

- imposing such an extraordinarily disproportionate share of income tax on the most productive taxpayers;

- purporting to give “refunds” and other “tax breaks” to the large and growing percentage of people who don’t even pay income tax;

- trying to legislate away the Second Amendment;

- permitting tax dollars to fund the killing of unborn and partially-born babies;

- blocking the exploration and development of our domestic energy resources; and

- pretending to able to predict and even control the earth’s climate.

Respectfully,

April 15, 2009.

Here are some pics from the Kansas City Tea Party, starting with one of my favorites:

The crowd was huge.  It was difficult to get a good shot of it all, but here are a few from different angles (The Kansas City Star says the crowd was at least 4,000):

In this one, you can see they are lined up on top of the Liberty Memorial also.

There were plenty of children there also:

For all the DHS agents in the crowd, I think we have a dangerous extremist here:

And more than enough outrage:

Finally Kruiser’s slogan was popular in Missouri:

Nice hat!

The Democrats, who push forward so many government programs under the umbrella of helping the child, are refusing Washington D.C. area children a chance at a better education.  On Tuesday, March 10, the Senate voted to terminate a voucher program that DC residents were using to send their children to private schools, including Sidwell Friends School, where President Barack Obama sends his two girls.

The rationale was, as Reason.com puts it, “yeah that’s bad, but technically they’re continuing the program for one more school year, then requiring congressional reauthorization at that time, etc.“

However, that isn’t what is happening today.  The Washington Post reports that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will not allow any new students to enroll in the program for the 2009-2010 school year.

EDUCATION SECRETARY Arne Duncan has decided not to admit any new students to the D.C. voucher program, which allows low-income children to attend private schools. The abrupt decision — made a week after 200 families had been told that their children were being awarded scholarships for the coming fall — comes despite a new study showing some initial good results for students in the program and before the Senate has had a chance to hold promised hearings. For all the talk about putting children first, it’s clear that the special interests that have long opposed vouchers are getting their way.

Officials who manage the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program sent letters this week to parents notifying them that the scholarships of up to $7,500, were being rescinded because of the decision by the Education Department. Citing the political uncertainty surrounding vouchers, a spokesperson for Mr. Duncan told us that it is not in the best interest of students and their parents to enroll them in a program that may end a year from now. Congress conditioned funding beyond the 2009-10 school year on reauthorization by Congress and approval by the D.C. Council. By presuming the program dead — and make no mistake, that’s the insidious effect of his bar on new enrollment — Mr. Duncan makes it even more difficult for the program to get the fair hearing it deserves.

Now that is the rub, isn’t it?

The Washington Post is assuming the Obama Administration is interested in a fair hearing for this program. There is evidence that it simply isn’t. Which is ironic considering what Obama said before the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on March 10. There he decried the partisan divide on the issue of education and said his Education Secretary “will use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars: It’s not whether an idea is liberal or conservative, but whether it works.”

The evidence is clear: vouchers work. The Administration knows this and probably knew this before the Senate voted to kill this program:

Mr. Duncan’s help in New York is in stark contrast to his department’s decision to sit on a performance review of the D.C. voucher program while Congress debated its future in March. The latest annual evaluation was finally released Friday, and it shows measurable academic gains. The Opportunity Scholarship Program provides $7,500 vouchers to 1,700 low-income families in D.C. to send their children to private schools. Ninety-nine percent of the children are black or Hispanic, and there are more than four applicants for each scholarship.

The 2008 report demonstrated progress among certain subgroups of children but not everyone. This year’s report shows statistically significant academic gains for the entire voucher-receiving population. Children attending private schools with the aid of the scholarships are reading nearly a half-grade ahead of their peers who did not receive vouchers. Voucher recipients are doing no better in math but they’re doing no worse. Which means that no voucher participant is in worse academic shape than before, and many students are much better off.

“There are transition difficulties, a culture shock upon entering a school where you’re expected to pay attention, learn, do homework,” says Jay Greene, an education scholar at the Manhattan Institute. “But these results fit a pattern that we’ve seen in other evaluations of vouchers. Benefits compound over time.”

It’s bad enough that Democrats are killing a program that parents love and is closing the achievement gap between poor minorities and whites. But as scandalous is that the Education Department almost certainly knew the results of this evaluation for months.

Why would they do this?

Because the teacher’s unions demand it. We all know that’s what it is, but in the politcal world, the truth is raely given the sunlight it deserves. Sec. Duncan says the program doesn’t serve enough kids. But David Boaz of the Cato Institute notes that size only restriced by Congress.

Money isn’t the reason. As Andrew Coulson of Cato@Liberty wrote, “this program is achieving better results at a QUARTER the cost of DC public education: $6,620/pupil vs. $26,555/pupil.” That comes to nearly $8 million in savings, just for the kids in the program. Imagine the saving if they sent more kids to private schools, By the way, Cato did a study examining the fiscal impact of the voucher program. You can read it all here.

No, this is the NEA at work.  Cato@Liberty has a copy of a letter sent from the NEA to the Democrats in the House and Senate on the DC vouchers.To sum it up in three words:  kill the program!

March 5, 2009
Dear Senator:

The National Education Association strongly opposes any extension of the District of Columbia private school voucher (“DC Opportunity Scholarship”) program. We expect that Members of Congress who support public education, and whom we have supported, will stand firm agains any proposal to extend the pilot program. Actions associated with these issues WILL be included in the NEA Legislative Report Card for the 111th Congress.

Later in the letter they write:

Opposition to vouchers is a top priority for NEA. Throughout its history, NEA has strongly opposed any diversion of limited public funds to private schools.

It’s very clear. We supported you with millions. We own you. Do what we say.

This is simply the Democrat party doing the business of special interests at the detriment of not only America’s children, but America’s future.  It sickening and sad that the same party that fights for the parents right to abort these children fight against their right to choose where to educate them.