Free Republic

The Blueprint for Heroic Family Life by Dr. Jeff Mirus, June 13, 2008 Owing to the confluence of an East-coast heat wave and the failure of a home air conditioning system, my son Peter, his wife Kristina and their two daughters lived with Mom and Dad again for a few days this week. Seeing Elena (age seven) and Natalie (four) bright-eyed and cheerful at the beginning of each day was a joy. It was also a reminder of how things used to be. With the last of our six children going off to college this Fall, I sometimes need to...

MARRIAGE is a constant source of joy, but introducing children into the relationship will send your happiness in a downward spiral, a conference has been told. [...] The more kids you had, the sadder you were likely to be, [Harvard psychology professor Daniel] Gilbert said. US and European studies had shown that people's happiness did spike while they were expecting a baby but sharply plummeted after the child was born. The low point came when children reached the ages of 12-16, and recovered only when they had flown the coop, he said. "In reality ... children do seem to increase...

On Wednesday a full transcript of Democrat presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama’s July 2007 speech to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund in which he vigorously defended legalized abortion became available. In the July 17 speech, Obama attacked the Supreme Court decision that upheld the federal partial-birth abortion ban and the nomination of Supreme Court justices who favor overturning Roe v. Wade. In the speech the senator said, "There will always be people, many of goodwill, who do not share my view on the issue of choice. On this fundamental issue, I will not yield and Planned Parenthood will not yield."...

Being broke need not mean social death in Sweden - as long as you are well-educated. But for Americans and Russians having a good all-round education is no substitute for having cash, according to a new survey on status symbols in the three countries. The international survey by analysts United Minds asked 1,000 people in each country what values confer status. 'Bling' items such as expensive jewellery and designer clothes come well down the list for Swedes, while featuring more highly for Americans and, particularly, Russians. "Sweden is the only country where you can be penniless but well-read and still...

Should Parents Be Allowed To Spank Their Children? (POLL)

National antiabortion leaders put the finishing touches yesterday on a letter to be sent to all members of Congress, urging suspension of more than $300 million in federal funding of Planned Parenthood until a massive criminal case brought in Kansas against the abortion rights organization is settled. That launches an attack against the nation's largest purveyor of "reproductive health care" -- including abortions. On Oct. 17, Johnson County District Judge James F. Vano in suburban Kansas City spent eight hours reviewing a 107-count grand jury indictment against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. He decided there was "probable cause" to...

A Planned Parenthood clinic was charged Wednesday with providing unlawful abortions and other crimes by a county prosecutor who had engaged in a high-profile battle with the clinic when he was Kansas attorney general. Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline charged the Overland Park, Kan., clinic with 107 counts, 23 of them felonies. Besides 29 misdemeanor counts of providing unlawful late-term abortions, the clinic is charged with multiple counts of making a false writing, failure to maintain records and failure to determine viability. Case documents have been sealed, according to a court order. The first hearing is set for Nov....

Duquesne University has ordered WDUQ-FM to stop airing underwriter support messages from the reproductive rights and health-care education group Planned Parenthood. The National Public Radio affiliate and jazz station, which is based on the Duquesne University campus and operates under the university's 501(c)3 tax-exempt status, pulled the underwriting acknowledgement messages Thursday. "Planned Parenthood is not aligned with the university's Catholic mission and identity and legally, stations are not required to accept underwriting support," said Bridget Fare, Duquesne University spokeswoman

As a poor boy who became educated and semi-successful due to conservative values, I’m wondering what should I do to raise a 5 year old daughter and a 2 week old son. Human observation would tell me to open up a savings account for them, work hard and try to balance earning income while being a good husband and father figure. “Poor” values lead me to think that sex will never be the same and I should balance “Human Observation” with “Poor Values”. “Modern” values seem to be “Poor Values”. “Conservative” values seem to require that I have a responsibility...

NEWSWEEK some weeks back had an arresting picture on its cover. The famous photographer Annie Leibovitz--tall, blonde, and 57, dressed in black trousers and a black V-neck top--stands with her three young daughters: a radiant, curly haired 5-year-old and adorable blonde toddler twins. Leibovitz is holding one of the chubby twins on her hip. All four are gently smiling.  Inside the magazine, in the middle of the cover story, there appear, without further explanation, these two sentences about Leibovitz's family: "She gave birth as a single mother to her daughter Sarah just after 9/11. Then, a few months after...

No, no, sorry. I don't have any . . ." Why does this always seem to be the first thing I'm asked? It takes my breath away, yet why do I feel the need to apologize for my reply? Looking vague and embarrassed, my questioner glances over my shoulder for someone else to talk to: someone with whom he or she has more in common, someone with children.... Just as some women talk of a visceral urge that propels them to have children, others speak of an equally visceral urge that propels them not to. Laurie, a transplanted southerner who...

ENCINITAS, January 16, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Many pro-life organizations use Christmas season sales of poinsettias to raise funds, but according to a US-based researcher, so do Planned Parenthood and other abortionists in the US. James Hartline, a Christian activist in California wrote to LifeSiteNews.com warning that the poinsettias decorating the churches and homes of Christians in the US could easily originate from a family-owned business that has been supporting abortion for decades. The Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, California, supplies 70% of all of the poinsettias sold in the United States and the Ecke family is among the most generous supporters...

Demo(n) parents form play group Outlet available for like-minded to talk politics Parents who want to add some political zip to outings with their children might consider the new Tucson Democratic Playgroup. Golda Velez came up with the idea to provide like-minded parents with an outlet for political discussions. Velez, a home-based computer programmer with two children, also hopes the new group can become politically active. "We'll let the kids play while we can talk about politics and be effective," said Velez, who was the Southern Arizona volunteer coordinator for 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry. "Parents always chat. Now we...

I've always done everything on my own time-table, including waiting until after age 30 to get married. My husband and I remained childless and planned to never be parents, but now in my early 40's I'm feeling differently. I also am blessed in that I would be able to stay at home with the baby. For every story I've heard about age-related fertility issues, I've also heard of yet another couple who thought they couldn't get pregnant, didn't worry about birth control, and got a nice little surprise. I would like to hear from Freepers who have become parents either...

Sorry, but my children bore me to death!by HELEN KIRWAN-TAYLOLR, Daily Mail 08:00am 26th July 2006It's the start of the summer holidays, when millions of mothers despair at how to entertain their children for the next six weeks. What none of them dare say is that they would rather their children were still at school or, frankly, anywhere else. Helen Kirwan-Taylor, a 42-year-old writer, lives in Notting Hill, West London, with her businessman husband Charles and their sons Constantin, 12, and Ivan, ten. Here, she argues provocatively that modern women must not be enslaved by their children. The lies started...

PISCATAWAY, New Jersey, JULY 22, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Life without children is a growing social reality for an increasing number of American adults. This is the conclusion of the 2006 edition of "The State of Our Unions" report on marriage, released last week by the National Marriage Project. The project is based at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Up until recently, for most people, the greater part of adult life was spent with young children forming part of the household. A combination of marrying later, less children and longer life expectancy means, however, that a significantly greater part of...

In the name of the fatherhttp://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1033732006 http://tinyurl.com/ozefu DANI GARAVELLI Sun 16 Jul 2006 ONCE upon a time, I believed it didn't matter a whit whether a baby was born into a family with one parent or two. Or with two mothers or two fathers rather than a mother and a father. Why should it? What was important was not the number or gender of the parents, but whether or not they were loving and attentive. That was, of course, before I had any of my own. Now I realise that bringing up children is a challenge even for two well-meaning...

Two fuzzy heartbeats—our doctor pointed to the black-and-white monitor of the ultrasound machine, and we both squinted and pretended to see what he was talking about. A lima bean, we thought, with a smaller lima bean next to it? Sensing that we weren’t getting it, he punched a few keys and suddenly the small exam room at Cornell’s Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility filled with a rapid-fire thump-thump-thump-thump: our embryos on speakerphone. So wait, it had worked? Twice? When we still didn’t say anything, our other doctor piped up: “This is good news, you guys.” How did we feel?...

As I was leaving the House chambers for the weekend our Democrat Speaker of the House announced that the coming Monday would be the final day of this year’s General Assembly. He went on to state that there were still numerous resolutions on the calendar which we would need to be addressed prior to the summer adjournment. Interestingly, he specifically mentioned that one of the resolutions we would be hearing was being carried by the House Majority Leader Alice Madden (D), honoring the 90th anniversary of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. As a strong pro-life legislator I was disgusted...

A federal survey of men about sex, marriage, children and fatherhood has revealed one surprising statistic: Fully 64 percent of men had their first child between ages 20 and 29. So much for delayed daddyhood. To arrive at this surprising conclusion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed almost 5,000 men ages 15 to 44 and 7,600 women about their feelings and relationships for what USA Today calls "the first comprehensive governmental glimpse into the male psyche." When men talk...this is what we find out: *Among black fathers, 25 percent fathered their first child as a teenager, compared with...

Jeremiah Clayton Jones discovered that his former fiancée was pregnant just three weeks before the baby was due, when an adoption-agency lawyer called and asked if he would consent to have his baby adopted. "I said absolutely not," said Mr. Jones, a 23-year-old Arizona man who met his ex-fiancée at Pensacola Christian College in Florida. "It was an awkward moment, hearing for the first time that I would be a father, and then right away being told, 'We want to take your kid away.' But I knew that if I was having a baby, I wanted that baby." Mr. Jones...

A funny thing happened to me the other day when my wife and I had, thank God, another baby (a boy). Many of my friends didn’t seem all that happy for me. Sure, they went through the motions of smiles and congratulations. But it was evident that many thought me insane. Why would a young man and his wife ruin their lives with eight children? Who could afford the day-school bills? Didn’t we want to live life a little, and not just be burdened with kids? It got downright surreal when a European film company pressed me, while my wife...

A seven-month pregnant woman - her belly vast - was at a supper with a friend. He, being of the family type, told her she was very lucky to be expecting a baby. He was the first person who had said such a thing, she told him. [snip] How is it that in cultures all over the world pregnancies prompt congratulations rather than anxious questions about childcare? How is it that in a culture equipped, materially and medically, to ease child-rearing, we are so reluctant to enjoy new life? [snip] The answer, I would argue, is that a bias against...

Another hectic week in the General Assembly is completed, and several important pro-family pieces of legislation are moving through the process. These bills will now move onto the Senate side as crossover approaches next week. At some point during the Senate debate we will need concerned citizens to contact their Senators to express support for the following bills. Stay tuned for further details. Student Survey Bill Delegate Tim Hugo's (R-40, Centreville) HB 1242 passed the House of Delegates this week by a vote of 93-4. This is legislation that will forbid school boards from surveying school children under 9th grade...

Three environmental activists were cooking up plastic explosives and had planned to test a device the day they were arrested, federal prosecutors alleged Wednesday as they indicted them. The three face five to 20 years in federal prison if they are convicted of conspiring to use fire or explosives to damage property. The suspects planned assaults this spring in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, a 'loosey-goosey, sort of mist-of-the-fog kind of an organization' of environmental activists, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said. Eric McDavid, 28, Zachary Jensen, 20, and Lauren Weiner, 20, remain in jail. They could enter a...

After a delay of nearly a month, a Flagstaff woman accused of being connected with the 1998 firebombing of a logging company in Oregon has been released from jail. Kendall Tankersley, 28, also known as Sarah Harvey, was released from an Oregon jail Jan. 10 on $150,000 bond. She is back in Flagstaff, ready to begin taking two classes at Northern Arizona University. Tankersley, a former employee at the university, was indicted in November by a federal grand jury in Oregon. She is accused of attempted arson and arson, acting as a lookout, in connection with a fire at U.S....

New research by economists Professor Andrew Oswald at the University of Warwick, and Dr Nattavudh Powdthavee at London University's Institute of Education, reveals that the more daughters a family has the more likely the parents are to vote for left of centre parties. Sons, by contrast, make people more right-wing. The researchers examined the data in the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) - a nationally representative sample of British households containing over 10,000 adult individuals. Individuals were tracked in each year from 1991 to 2004. Left of centre was measured by using individuals? support for the Labour Party or Liberal...

Presents Institution as "Patrimony of Humanity" VATICAN CITY, DEC. 4, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Children have the right to parents who are married, says Benedict XVI. The Pope made this point when addressing participants of a conference of presidents of the episcopal commissions in Latin America for the family and for life. The conference Saturday was organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family. "Children have the right to be born and to grow within a family based on marriage," said the Holy Father, who invited the ecclesial community to "present in all its richness the extraordinary value of marriage that, as...

BIRTHS TO UNMARRIED MOTHERS ARE at a record high in the United States--almost 1.5 million in 2004 alone, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. While the rising trend is of long standing, one novel factor driving up childbearing outside marriage is the growing popularity of single motherhood by donor insemination. The incidence of this "assisted reproduction," as it is called, has more than doubled in the last decade.Most public discussion of donor insemination for single women has been carried on in a neutral, positive, or breathlessly celebratory tone. Isn't it great, the thinking seems to be, that these...

News Tip: Upcoming Supreme Court Case 'Huge' for Abortion Rights, Law Professor Says “The question in this case isn’t whether Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned, but whether it is going to be severely undermined,’’ says Neil Siegel Monday, November 28, 2005 Durham, N.C. -- On Nov. 30, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider a challenge to a New Hampshire law that could significantly affect abortion rights, a Duke University law professor says. In Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, the Court will consider, among other things, how courts should analyze abortion restrictions and whether a...

Laws Concerning Food and Drink; Household Principles; Sermon on the Table OF the beasts of the field, and of the fishes of the sea, and of all foods that are acceptable in my sight you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the hoofed animals, broiled or ground into burgers, you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the cloven-hoofed animal, plain or with cheese, you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the cereal grains, of the corn and of the wheat and of the oats, and of all the cereals that are...

New Orleans, LA (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-life advocates say Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business, continues to exploit victims of Hurricane Katrina. The organization previously said it would provide morning after pills to victims, instead of food or shelter, and is now raising money off of the hurricane for its local abortion centers. On its national web site, Planned Parenthood solicits funds for Hurricane Katrina support efforts. In fine print, the abortion advocacy group explains that all of the money raised will be used to support its local abortion businesses. Under a headline "Help Those Affected by the Hurricane," Planned...

When it comes to the classroom, religious extremists have an ambitious agenda: to replace science with ideology at every opportunity. As if denying even that their own ideas can evolve, they've recently taken up their dusty arms against an old, familiar issue — the teaching of evolution in public schools. New Name, Same Agenda The supposed rival to the theory of evolution — creationism — now goes by the new name of "intelligent design." Just as with other phrases (like the Bush administration favorite, "culture of life"), the name change is merely the latest tactic in an ongoing strategy by...

Can you say ''perverse''? Planned Parenthood in Indiana and Kansas is effectively fighting to protect child rapists from potential prosecution in two high-profile legal fights. That an organization devoted to the interests of women finds itself in this position is a cautionary tale of abortion-rights extremism. In Indiana, the attorney general is seeking the records of girls under the age of 14 who have visited Planned Parenthood clinics. Let that sink in: We're talking about 12- and 13-year- old girls. It is a crime to have sex with a child under 14 in the state. Under law, individuals with reason...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- A fire someone tried to start inside a Planned Parenthood office burned out before causing significant damage in the second apparent act of vandalism there in two weeks. The FBI has joined local police in investigating the fire, which was reported after an employee saw the damage in the office's foyer upon arriving for work Wednesday morning. "Our facilities are safe for the public, and our staff are alert for anything unusual," said Theresa Browning, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Indiana. "We don't see this as a major cause for alarm. No services were disrupted."

INDIANAPOLIS - Planned Parenthood (news - web sites) sued the state of Indiana Monday to stop the seizure of its clients' medical records, saying investigators were on a "fishing expedition," possibly to identify the partners of sexually active 12- and 13-year-olds. The lawsuit filed in Indianapolis seeks temporary and permanent injunctions barring Attorney General Steve Carter and his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit from searching the private records of clients at 40 Planned Parenthood clinics across the state. Already, the unit has seized records of eight clients from clinics in Bloomington, Franklin and Lafayette, according to Betty Cockrum, chief executive officer...

Look at this ridiculous movie. I had a good laugh when I was watching it.

Abortion “rights” proponents are finding that their position is becoming even more indefensible because of the increased viability of small-sized infants. Proponents of abortion have always maintained that abortion — that is, killing babies — is not murder, but a “termination of fetal tissue.” And the legal system has upheld that viewpoint ever since the Roe v. Wade decision, even to the point of accepting third-trimester abortions and partial-birth abortions. However, recent events have called negative attention to the “logic” of the pro-abortion stance. On September 19, 2004, twins were born to Mahajabeen Shaik — not an unusual occurrence of...

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 (US) for a middle-income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. For those with kids, that figure leads to wild fantasies about all the things we could have had. WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU GET FOR YOUR $160,140? Naming rights. First, Middle and last. Glimpses of God every day. Giggles under the covers every night. More love than your heart can hold. Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs. Endless wonders over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies. A hand...

Man paid $20,000 in support for nonexistent child The Associated Press December 13, 2004 ALBUQUERQUE — Steve Barreras’ attorney said he had never seen anything like it. After Barreras was hauled into court, peppered with threats and demands for money for a child he adamantly denied fathering five years ago and even paid out $20,000 to support, his ex-wife was under a judge’s order to produce the child. So last week, Viola Trevino picked up a 2-year-old girl and her grandmother off the street, promised them a trip to see Santa Claus and $50 and took the girl to court,...

A pro-life group that monitors Planned Parenthood says the organization has reached "another disgusting low" by hiring a "sexuality educator" with an X-rated resume. The woman, who will oversee some of Planned Parenthood's youth outreach programs in Indiana, has experience "as an adult book store clerk, BDSM dungeon monitor and escort service phone dispatcher," according to biographical information gleaned by STOPP International. "The most disturbing part of this story is the fact that, through Planned Parenthood, this woman is in charge of programs for children," said Jim Sedlak, director of American Life League's STOPP International. "Planned Parenthood's website directs anyone...

Let me share with you the daydream that gets me through to Friday. I retire. I move to a house on a wooded acre from which I cannot see my nearest neighbor. My new house has a media room with a state-of-the-art sound system and plush recliners. When I am not there, I am lounging on the screened-in porch out back, watching the river travel past. Swell as all that is, here is what makes the daydream lovely: There are no children in the house. They have all grown up and moved away. Oh, I love them to death; don't...

There is an unspoken taboo in our society where if you admit that having kids wasn't quite what you thought it would be and that if you could do it all over again that you would have chosen NOT to have kids, that you are a monster, an evil, despicable monster. The truth is a large percentage of parents HATE being parents. They will never say it out loud and they can't even admit that to themselves because "only an evil demon" would come to that conclusion, they think. However, underneath it all, underneath all the B.S. is the truth...

Can anyone tell me - or point me to a reliable resource - if the Gates Foundation continues to support Planned Parenthood? The most recent contributions I find listed on their website is from 1998-99. Perhaps someone somewhere has more recent info? Thanks in advance. Regards, OSGrace

A few years ago, I took part in a telephone conference call involving 29 people. It was not a business venture, but a personal matter. Lines from Ukraine, China, France, Alaska, Texas, New York and Solon, Ohio, buzzed to Israel to wish my mother a happy 60th birthday. What made this call so special was that it symbolized the profound blessings of a large family. All of the callers were my mother's children and their spouses: seventeen sons and daughters and twelve sons- and daughters-in-law (b'li ayin harah). Everyone had the opportunity to extend words of good wishes. After this...

The Family Foundation of Virginia Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom Across the Commonwealth Victoria Cobb, Director of Legislative Affairs Wednesday, July 21, 2004 Action Alert: Summer Homework for Parents-- What Are They Teaching Your Children? Over a decade ago, public schools in Virginia began teaching "Family Life Education" (FLE), a euphemism for sex education. The Virginia Board of Education dutifully invented standards of learning (SOL) and curriculum guidelines in the teaching of Family Life Education, including: the value of postponing sexual activity until marriage (abstinence education); human sexuality; human reproduction and contraception, including the benefits of adoption as a positive...

More than 200 Friends of Planned Parenthood met Tuesday for their annual Spring Luncheon and awards presentation at Amarillo Country Club while outside a group of about 20 protesters stood vigil at the West Ninth Avenue entrance. The event was peaceful on both sides as the "pro-choice" advocates quietly entered and left the event and the "pro-life" group displayed posters, including one of an aborted fetus, and prayed. No negative exchanges occurred between the two factions. "One thing about it, those folks have a perfect right to be there," Claudia Stravato, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Amarillo and...

Of all the arguments against same-sex marriage, the most immediately compelling is that it hurts children. If children have a right to anything, it is to begin life with a mother and father. Death, divorce, abandonment, a single-parent's mistakes – any one of these deprives children of a mother or father. But only same-sex marriage would legally ensure children are deprived from birth of either a mother or a father. Why, then, doesn't a child's right to begin life with a mother and father have any impact on the millions of people who either advocate same-sex marriage or can't make...

A state appellate court pondered the claims of two women to be mothers of the same children -- one donated the eggs, the other carried them to term, and both raised the twins together -- and decided the birth mother was the only intended legal parent. In a ruling made public Tuesday, the Court of Appeal panel in San Francisco applied principles from a decade-old surrogate-motherhood case and said the deciding factor was the couple's intent before birth. Despite acting as a co-parent for most of the children's lives, the egg donor had agreed, both orally and in writing, that...

Would someone please tell me what in the world does providing the best education for our kids have to do with a pro-choice march in Washington, D.C., this Sunday, April 25? Why does the powerful and influential National Education Association feel it should have any role whatsoever in co-sponsoring such an event—to the point of allowing the NEA headquarters near the White House to act as a hospitality center for the “March for Freedom of Choice,” while the nation’s nearby state affiliates in New Jersey and elsewhere organize buses to bring in demonstrators for the all-day affair? So, tell me,...