November 21, 2008
As a daughter of Detroit...
I'm saddened by the implosion of the car industry.
I'm third generation Detroiter, with my heart tied in a very real way to the motor city. I have family members who work for the car companies, and I loved growing up in that great city.
Pat Buchanan wrote a piece yesterday asking who killed the auto industry.
And Mitt Romney recently opined in The New York Times that it would be best to just let Detroit go bankrupt.
As a free market proponent, I believe nationalizing the car companies would be about as terrible as nationalizing the banks and the hospitals.
No more bailouts!!!
Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family Company
Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!
The Natural Family BLOG
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:23 AM
November 16, 2008
My advice to the citizens of California who defaced the LA Mormon Temple...
Don't mess with the temple.
Los Angeles ringed by wildfires.
"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
Fires whipped up by hot hurricane force gusts ringed Los Angeles on Saturday, charring thousands of acres and hundreds of homes in California's largest city and threatening the city's power supply.
More than 10,000 residents were under mandatory evacuation orders as a fire that exploded overnight in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest barreled into the San Fernando Valley and burned more than 6,500 acres."
(Click on the image to get to the article at Meridian Magazine where these photos were found)
Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family Company
Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!
The Natural Family BLOG
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:14 AM
October 11, 2008
The Economic Meltdown: End of Capitalism or the fault of the Federal Reserve? Money Facts by Ron Paul
Ron Paul makes the case that we have not been living under true Capitalism. We need to win the intellectual argument.
To go to this video on You Tube: click here
PS to learn more about Capitalism, please read Ayn Rands book: Capitalism, the Unknown ideal (One of my favorite books!)
Intellectual Conservative has more here
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 12:55 PM
Ron Paul still has all of the answers for our economy
I don't really know or care how this whole mess is going to be fixed. It's a good time for a laugh as Babylon goes down the tubes. "Babylon, the great shall fall and great shall be the fall thereof." Now, if they will only take the medical profession with them....
Michelle Malkin has some thoughts.
I would not be surprised if the whole economic shakeup was manipulated to coincide with the election simply to help get Obama elected. Soros wants his global communist state and everyone knows it. Thanks to the writers at SNL for getting it right for once.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:19 AM
October 7, 2008
NRO: Bailing on the Constitution?
Bailing on the Constitution? By Todd Gaziano
One of the principal benefits of the constitutional separation of powers is that citizens know which branch to hold accountable when something goes wrong. It is symptom of the separation of powers sloppiness of modern times that instead of writing detailed laws that the president is then responsible to execute, Congress delegates vast new authority to the executive branch to “fix” he problem de jure and then tries to invent new ways to micromanage and nitpick the exercise of the authority. Such a power-sharing relationship is the exact opposite of the constitutional separation of powers perfected by the Framers of our Constitution.
The outline of the compromise bill seems to do very little to guide the Treasury secretary’s almost limitless discretion on what financial or other debt he may buy, for what purposes, to whom he may sell it, and on what terms. Instead, congressional negotiators simply added the tools of modern micromanagement: a quasi-unconstitutional inspector general (depending on how “independent” he is when the ink is dry), extra-special GAO audits and reviews, multiple layers of specially burdensome congressional reporting, and a questionable-sounding, whiz-bang oversight board.
James Madison would not approve. It’s a classic recipe for fingerpointing if something goes wrong and an equally worrisome precedent even if the immediate “crisis” abates. I prefer the Constitution.
— Todd Gaziano is the director of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
I prefer the constitution too.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 5:17 AM
September 25, 2008
Everyone Has an opinion....who is right???
Chavez has some advice for President Bush!
"Socialism is the only route to the salvation of the world."
And on the other side of the Political Spectrum,
Ann Coulter chimes in...
Meanwhile, economists were screaming from the rooftops that the Democrats were forcing mortgage lenders to issue loans that would fail the moment the housing market slowed and deadbeat borrowers couldn't get out of their loans by selling their houses.
A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted, food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. Democrats set an affirmative action time-bomb and now it's gone off.
In Bush's first year in office, the White House chief economist, N. Gregory Mankiw, warned that the government's "implicit subsidy" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with loans to unqualified borrowers, was creating a huge risk for the entire financial system.
Rep. Barney Frank denounced Mankiw, saying he had no "concern about housing." How dare you oppose suicidal loans to people who can't repay them! The New York Times reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "under heavy assault by the Republicans," but these entities still had "important political allies" in the Democrats.
Now, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, middle-class taxpayers are going to be forced to bail out the Democrats' two most important constituent groups: rich Wall Street bankers and welfare recipients.
Political correctness had already ruined education, sports, science and entertainment. But it took a Democratic president with a Democratic congress for political correctness to wreck the financial industry."
Who is right???
I'll go with the expert on Free Market Capitalism and the LAW of Supply and Demand.
CNN: Commentary: Bailouts will lead to rough economic ride - Ron Paul
Editor's note: Ron Paul is a Republican congressman from Texas who ran for his party's nomination for president this year. He is a doctor who specializes in obstetrics/gynecology and says he has delivered more than 4,000 babies. He served in Congress in the late 1970s and early 1980s and was elected again to Congress in 1996. Rep. Paul serves on the House Financial Services Committee.
(CNN) -- "Many Americans today are asking themselves how the economy got to be in such a bad spot.
For years they thought the economy was booming, growth was up, job numbers and productivity were increasing. Yet now we find ourselves in what is shaping up to be one of the most severe economic downturns since the Great Depression.
Unfortunately, the government's preferred solution to the crisis is the very thing that got us into this mess in the first place: government intervention.
Ever since the 1930s, the federal government has involved itself deeply in housing policy and developed numerous programs to encourage homebuilding and homeownership.
Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were able to obtain a monopoly position in the mortgage market, especially the mortgage-backed securities market, because of the advantages bestowed upon them by the federal government.
Laws passed by Congress such as the Community Reinvestment Act required banks to make loans to previously underserved segments of their communities, thus forcing banks to lend to people who normally would be rejected as bad credit risks.
These governmental measures, combined with the Federal Reserve's loose monetary policy, led to an unsustainable housing boom. The key measure by which the Fed caused this boom was through the manipulation of interest rates, and the open market operations that accompany this lowering.
When interest rates are lowered to below what the market rate would normally be, as the Federal Reserve has done numerous times throughout this decade, it becomes much cheaper to borrow money. Longer-term and more capital-intensive projects, projects that would be unprofitable at a high interest rate, suddenly become profitable.
Because the boom comes about from an increase in the supply of money and not from demand from consumers, the result is malinvestment, a misallocation of resources into sectors in which there is insufficient demand.
In this case, this manifested itself in overbuilding in real estate. When builders realize they have overbuilt and have too many houses to sell, too many apartments to rent, or too much commercial real estate to lease, they seek to recoup as much of their money as possible, even if it means lowering prices drastically.
This lowering of prices brings the economy back into balance, equalizing supply and demand. This economic adjustment means, however that there are some winners -- in this case, those who can again find affordable housing without the need for creative mortgage products, and some losers -- builders and other sectors connected to real estate that suffer setbacks.
The government doesn't like this, however, and undertakes measures to keep prices artificially inflated. This was why the Great Depression was as long and drawn out in this country as it was.
I am afraid that policymakers today have not learned the lesson that prices must adjust to economic reality. The bailout of Fannie and Freddie, the purchase of AIG, and the latest multi-hundred billion dollar Treasury scheme all have one thing in common: They seek to prevent the liquidation of bad debt and worthless assets at market prices, and instead try to prop up those markets and keep those assets trading at prices far in excess of what any buyer would be willing to pay.
Additionally, the government's actions encourage moral hazard of the worst sort. Now that the precedent has been set, the likelihood of financial institutions to engage in riskier investment schemes is increased, because they now know that an investment position so overextended as to threaten the stability of the financial system will result in a government bailout and purchase of worthless, illiquid assets.
Using trillions of dollars of taxpayer money to purchase illusory short-term security, the government is actually ensuring even greater instability in the financial system in the long term.
The solution to the problem is to end government meddling in the market. Government intervention leads to distortions in the market, and government reacts to each distortion by enacting new laws and regulations, which create their own distortions, and so on ad infinitum.
It is time this process is put to an end. But the government cannot just sit back idly and let the bust occur. It must actively roll back stifling laws and regulations that allowed the boom to form in the first place.
The government must divorce itself of the albatross of Fannie and Freddie, balance and drastically decrease the size of the federal budget, and reduce onerous regulations on banks and credit unions that lead to structural rigidity in the financial sector.
Until the big-government apologists realize the error of their ways, and until vocal free-market advocates act in a manner which buttresses their rhetoric, I am afraid we are headed for a rough ride.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 2:06 PM
Family Research Council: The Effect of Parental Involvement Laws on the Incidence of Abortion Among Minors
"This comprehensive analysis of minor abortion data from nearly all 50 states between 1985 and 1999 demonstrates that state-level parental involvement laws are effective in reducing the incidence of abortion among minors. Overall, the findings indicate that when a state enacts a parental involvement law, the abortion rate falls by an average of approximately 13.6 percent.
This study is the first of its kind to compare different types of parental involvement laws. The findings indicate that more protective parental involvement laws result in even larger abortion declines. Laws that require parental consent instead of parental notification reduce the minor abortion rate by about 19 percent. Furthermore, laws that mandate the involvement of two parents, instead of just one parent, reduce the in-state minor abortion rate by approximately 31 percent.
The overall minor abortion rate in the United States has fallen by close to fifty percent between 1985 and 1999, and this study shows that parental involvement laws are an important causal factor in this decline. Currently about 36 states have a parental involvement law on the books, but some are more effective than others in their ability to reduce the incidence of abortion. The laws that were enacted in Minnesota and Mississippi laws are among the most effective in reducing abortion rates among minors."
This should be a no brainer, but I get how concerned pro choice advocates are about the girl pregnant by her incestuous father, and the concerns that scenario could raise for the girl seeking the abortion. I would imagine this teen mother is in the minority of those seeking abortions though and still think the parental notification laws are some of the best on the books.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 1:28 PM
September 19, 2008
WND: Craig R. Smith: US Government should bail out of bailouts
I'm concerned about the bailouts at taxpayer expense, but I am MORE concerned about Wall Streets response to the bailout news. They should not be so vested in taxpayer money to prop up stock prices. To me, the news that wall street rallied yesterday was the most depressing economic info I have heard in a long time. The financiers should not be so dependent on taxpayer money that the market bounces the way it did when a bailout was announced.
Craig R. Smith said this in an opinion piece at WND Daily today:
"Democrats, at the time, ignored the fact that many loans were being made to completely unqualified borrowers to buy homes they clearly could not afford. Overnight, home ownership in America became a birthright under the Democrats. Discussions with the Congressional Black Caucus and housing executives from Fannie and Freddie were just one example of how the Democratic Party encouraged irresponsible borrowing behavior.
So what do we do now? We must suffer the pain and do the hard yet necessary things to return to reality or we had better get prepared for a whole lot more pain. These problems did not happen overnight and the solutions will not come overnight. But the longer we fool ourselves with feel-good government bailouts, the longer the problem will remain.
Why are we turning to the very perpetrators for the answers to the problems they caused in the first place? Are we crazy? Go back to the same folks who broke it for a fix?
Free markets works when they are operated under accountability. The only effective help the government can offer would be to immediate halt wasteful spending and begin to reduce the national debt. Fiscal responsibility at the government level would do more to instill confidence than any bailout a bureaucrat can offer. Bureaucrat bailouts are designed to bring new contributions into their campaigns. That is a huge part of the problem. Bailouts do not work unless they are accompanied with accountability.
It would be easy enough to kid ourselves and allow the government to throw huge amounts of taxpayer dollars at the problems and pass it all on to future generations. But that would be like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound. The patient will still bleed to death, just at a slower pace.
Accountability, not blame, is required NOW. Sacrifice, not politics, is the necessary cure. I know it isn't a popular message but it is reality. Americans are willing to do what it takes to strengthen the country if they know they will not be burned once again by politicians who are more interested in power and position than they are about what is best for America."
I would like to see some accountability, especially for the congressional people who had oversight....
"The lack of oversight provided by Chris Dodd and Barney Frank of the Banking and Financial Services subcommittee is unprecedented and should require the immediate dismissal of both men."
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:58 AM
September 12, 2008
IKE
IKE: My sister lives in a suburb of Houston and is hunkered down waiting for the storm. I called her this afternoon and she said they are ready, not evacuating. She said her community was told to stay put and just wait it out. She is pregnant with her fourth child and told me that her biggest concern was the aftermath.
Her husband is home with her and they have a generator and plenty of food and water. It was good to hear her voice. We are praying for her and her family and all of those affected by this storm.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:30 PM
September 11, 2008
White House: In Focus: Remembering 9/11
Days of Crisis: President George Bush and 9/11
Remembering 9-11 in pictures from Free Republic
9-11 Tribute God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood
Fact Sheet: The Seventh Anniversary of 9/11
White House News
President Bush Has Kept Our Nation Safe In The Seven Years Following 9/11
Tomorrow, in remembrance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President and Mrs. Bush will participate in a moment of silence at the White House and deliver remarks at the dedication of the Pentagon memorial. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush recognized the threat posed by terrorists and took action to protect Americans and defeat violent extremism.
Because of the actions taken by President Bush, America is safer, more secure, and winning the War on Terror.
Seven years later:
50 million people have been liberated, and two totalitarian regimes have been removed;
The al Qaeda network has been weakened;
We have not experienced another attack on American soil;
Our military has been transformed to meet the challenges of the 21st century;
We have expanded our intelligence capabilities to confront today's enemy; and We have created new and essential institutions needed to wage the War on Terror, including the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
We Have Been On The Offense Against Our Enemies Since The 9/11 Attacks
President Bush has kept us safe by weakening al Qaeda and its affiliates. Hundreds of al Qaeda leaders and operatives have been captured or killed, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who is currently awaiting trial by a Military Commission. The United States also apprehended several leading figures in the al Qaeda East Africa network through intelligence sharing and military action.
Since 9/11, more than two dozen terrorists and supporters have been convicted in the United States of terrorism-related crimes. Several key financiers and facilitators of terrorism have been isolated and captured, while more than 400 individuals and entities have had their assets frozen and isolated from the U.S. financial system.
President Bush took the fight to violent extremists in Iraq and Afghanistan and across the world so that we do not have to fight them on American soil. The United States and its coalition partners removed al Qaeda's safe haven in Afghanistan and al Qaeda is on the run in Iraq, including in its former stronghold of Anbar Province. The United States also acted to prevent al Qaeda safe havens from emerging in the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia.
There have been no attacks on American soil since 9/11, and the United States and our allies have disrupted key terrorist plots around the world. The President has built a 90-nation coalition to fight terrorism. The United States has partnered with nations in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America on intelligence sharing and law enforcement coordination to break up terrorist networks and bring terrorists to justice. Some of our counterterrorism victories include the following:
September 2007: German authorities disrupted a terrorist cell that was planning attacks on military installations and facilities used by Americans in Germany. The Germans arrested three suspected members of the Islamic Jihad Union, a group that has links to al Qaeda and supports al Qaeda's global jihadist agenda.
September 2007: Danish authorities disrupted a cell, which included an al Qaeda-trained individual, planning terrorist attacks using explosives.
June 2007: Four individuals were charged with plotting to blow up major fuel tanks at JFK Airport. Three of the individuals have been arrested, and the United States is pursuing extradition of the fourth.
May 2007: The FBI arrested six al Qaeda-inspired individuals plotting to kill soldiers at Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey. The plotters purchased weapons for the attack, which they had been planning since January 2006.
August 2006: British authorities disrupted a plot to blow up passenger airplanes flying from the UK to the United States.
The United States supported the creation of a democratic Afghan government and fostered broad international support for Afghanistan through NATO and the U.N. Afghanistan has ratified a new democratic Constitution with strong protections for women's rights and civil liberties; held the country's first Presidential election; and held the first free and fair legislative elections since 1969. Today, six million Afghans are attending school, and 85 percent of Afghans have access to basic health care. The United States has committed over $10 billion in 2008 and 2009 for political and economic development. The Afghan government is preparing for the next round of elections in 2009 with U.S. and international assistance.
Iraq is now a young democracy and an ally in fighting terrorists. The President's decision to send an additional 30,000 soldiers and Marines into Iraq as part of the "surge" has resulted in improved security conditions that have opened up space for political and economic advances. Iraq has seen meaningful progress, but this progress is fragile and there will be challenging times ahead. This success has fostered the appropriate conditions for Iraqi authorities to take the lead in all security operations for Anbar province.
President Bush persuaded Libya to dismantle its Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programs and renounce terrorism, leading to a normalization of our relationship with Libya. Just last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a historic visit to Libya, making her the highest ranking U.S. official to visit the country since 1957.
The President worked with the international community to isolate the regime in Tehran, and won support for three U.N. Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran because of its failure to suspend its uranium enrichment and other proliferation sensitive activities.
President Bush has teamed with international partners to prevent the proliferation of WMDs. We have expanded international efforts to deny terrorists access to advanced conventional weaponry and to WMDs, their delivery systems, and related materials.
President Bush Has Transformed The Institutions And Tools To Fight Terror And Protect America.
The President worked with Congress to implement reforms and create the institutions needed to wage the War on Terror. The President also integrated and unified intelligence gathering; disrupted terrorist financing; and created new legal and law enforcement frameworks to combat terrorism and deny safe haven to terrorist groups. The President:
Transformed the United States military to meet the challenges of the 21st century. President Bush provided our military with the tools, equipment, and resources to combat terrorism and other new challenges. We started moving American forces from Cold War garrisons in Europe and Asia so they can deploy more quickly to any region of the world to confront emerging threats.
Strengthened our ability to protect the American people by directing the most extensive security reorganization of the Federal Government since 1947. President Bush and his Administration have enhanced our homeland security and counterterrorism infrastructure through the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), the Homeland Security Council (HSC), and U.S. Northern Command, a Department of Defense combatant command focused on homeland defense and civil support.
DHS consolidated 22 Federal entities and 180,000 employees under one roof to foster a comprehensive, coordinated approach to protecting the U.S. homeland. DHS and FBI, in partnership with Federal, State, and local authorities, created a national network of 66 fusion centers in 48 states to facilitate information sharing on terrorist threats and operational planning.
The NCTC leads our Nation's effort to combat terrorism at home and abroad by analyzing the threat, sharing that information with our partners, and integrating all instruments of national power to ensure unity of effort.
The ODNI coordinates and integrates and leads the work of the Intelligence Community as a unified enterprise, led by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), to ensure information is shared among intelligence and law enforcement professionals.
The TSC maintains the Government's consolidated list of suspected terrorists and individuals with terrorist links and helps get this information into the hands of State and local law enforcement.
HSC ensures coordination of all homeland security-related activities among executive departments and agencies and promotes the effective development and implementation of homeland security policies.
Modernized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to provide the tools needed to win the War on Terror and protect America from another attack. This vital legislation allows our law enforcement and intelligence professionals as well as future administrations with the ability to quickly and effectively monitor the plans of terrorists outside the United States, while respecting the privacy and liberties of the American people.
Strengthened our defenses to protect the American people by implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Together with Congress, the President restructured and reformed the Federal government to focus resources on counterterrorism and took the necessary steps to improve the Nation's homeland security
The President Has Implemented Programs To Secure Our Homeland And Fight The War On Terror
The President and his Administration have increased border and transportation security. President Bush is implementing an effective system of layered defense by strengthening the screening of people and goods overseas and by tracking and disrupting the international travel of terrorists. The President:
Created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). TSA instituted a process to screen every commercial air passenger in the country, launched credentialing initiatives to strengthen our ability to identify passengers, and expanded the Federal Air Marshal program. We have hardened cockpit doors, armed pilots to defend the flight deck, and strengthened air cargo security.
Enhanced U.S. port security and increased scanning for radiological and nuclear threats. The President coordinated Federal, State, local, and industry port partners through the establishment of formalized Area Maritime Security Committees and Plans that clarify roles and responsibilities. Today, more than 98 percent of all containers entering the supply chain via U.S. seaports are scanned for potential radiological and nuclear threats - prior to 9/11, zero percent were scanned.
Increased containerized cargo screening overseas. We have worked with our international partners to employ the Container Security Initiative in 58 foreign seaports, screening 86 percent of all U.S.-destined containerized cargo being screened overseas before it enters the U.S. supply chain.
Increased border security and interior enforcement funding more than 110 percent and equipped the Border Patrol with better technology and new infrastructure. We have also added more than 8,000 border patrol agents. The Administration has constructed hundreds of miles of fencing and vehicle barriers along America's southern border and is moving toward the goal of 670 miles by the end of the year.
God Bless America and God Bless President George Bush
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:32 AM
September 9, 2008
New York Times Sheds 550 Jobs.....
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:05 AM
August 20, 2008
The Prostitutes Are Here, Let the Party Begin!!! DNC Convention boosts sex trade in Denver
From the Human Trafficking Project Blog
"The exact number of sex workers trafficked into the city for the DNCC would be impossible to calculate. But many metro area strip bars have already tripled their staff in preparation for the convention, said Stephanie Sharp, who has done outreach work with Denver prostitutes and works for the STD division of the Colorado Department of Public Health. "[The police] have a whole list of things they have to be concerned about as well, and prostitution and sex trafficking is not at the top," Moon added.
State Rep. Alice Borodkin, D-Denver, who has worked to crack down on human trafficking the last three years, said the convention could be a good opportunity to make contact with prostitutes brought into Denver, but logistically any outreach effort would be complicated. "My personal feeling is that we need to do a lot more. I'm not 100 percent convinced that people understand what they're looking at," Borodkin said.
Sharp said ideally outreach groups will join forces to offer resources and options outside of prostitution to any trafficked-in women."
I hope some of the people being brought into Denver by the Sex Trade will be able to get the help out that they need.
And from the RH Reality Check Web site:
"Women in Denver typically enter prostitution at the age of 11 or 12, slightly younger than the national average, Sharp said.
To make matters worse, Denver is "almost completely pimp controlled" with pimps controlling almost all of the women who work as prostitutes through psychological manipulation and violence, Sharp said.
Of the 500 Denver prostitutes that Sharp has interviewed, she said only a handful worked for themselves.
Moon and Sharp gave their talk, Human Trafficking and Consumerism, Friday as part of the University of Denver's Sexual Assault Awareness Week.
Human trafficking is a $44 billion a year industry, according to event organizers.
For more information or to report a possible human trafficking situation, residents can call 1-800-455-5075.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 1:17 PM
August 14, 2008
WSJ: Phelps in China
We are enjoying the Olympics.
No Comment necessary!
Here is the article from the Wall Street Journal.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:43 AM
July 2, 2008
Yahoo News from the AP: Newspapers reeling
Newspapers, reeling from slumping ads, slash jobs
"Some say complacency in the industry about the threat the Internet posed is to blame for the current quagmire."
Sniff, sniff.....
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:57 AM
Human Events: Ann Coulter - You can't fuel all of the people all of the time
Ann has a really great column this week!
"Liberals dismiss studies that show a link between abortion and breast cancer, claiming they are biased because the people promoting the studies are "anti-choice."
For the same reason, no one should believe the Democrats' "energy" policies.
Democrats couldn't care less about high gas prices. The consistent policy of the Democratic Party, going back at least to Jimmy Carter, has been to jack up gas prices so we can all start pedaling around on tricycles.
...Six long years ago President Bush had the foresight to demand that Congress allow drilling in a minuscule portion of the Alaska's barren, uninhabitable Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). In 2002, Bush, Tom DeLay and the entire Republican Party were screaming from the rooftops: Drill! Drill! Drill!
We'd be gushing oil now -- except the Democrats stopped us from drilling.
Drilling on only 0.01 percent of ANWR's 19 million acres was projected to produce about 10 billion barrels of oil. From all domestic sources combined, we currently produce about 1.8 billion barrels of oil per year. To a layperson like myself, 10 billion barrels seems like a lot of oil.
The other party -- plus John McCain -- ferociously opposed drilling in ANWR, drilling offshore or drilling anyplace else. Instead of Drill! Drill! Drill!, their motto could be: Kill! Kill! Kill!
They refuse to believe our abortion studies? I refuse to believe they care about Americans having to pay high gas prices."
Really good insights....
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:44 AM
June 22, 2008
Jenny Hatch, My thoughts on Homebirth and the American Medical Associations "Model Legislation", which as far as I'm concerned they can write up, propose to congress, and then shove that legislation where the sun don't shine.
UPDATE:
Good Morning America posted the video and story that ran on sunday morning on their web site. Go check out this link to see the story. And the Comments.
Here is the comment I left on the site:
"PS: I don't have time to respond to any more comments by Dr. Tuteur."
It is my humble opinion that party pooper Dr. Amy Tutor, the bloggin' doc with a personality disorder and ax to grind against home birth, is a paid hack for pharmacuetical companies. As a blogging doctor she advocates a 39 week c-section as the best birth choice for babes and mothers. Anyone with half a brain knows that major surgery is far more risky for mom and babe than a natural vaginal birth.
And hey, she has the Big Pharma funded study to back up her claim - so you nasty, wasty home birthers just shut up, because nothing you will ever say will ever ever ever change her mind or get her to accept that family centered birth has anything at all, ever, to offer to a husband and wife relationship or help bond the family with the new child.
Only thing to do with someone like her is to blow her a big fat raspberry as you orgasmically push your baby out into his/her fathers hands. She is the killjoy of the homebirth movement. I debated her all last summer. But Dr. Crappen pulled the debate hosted on his blog.
The Salon debate was fun and my personal favorite, the unassisted childbirth debate hosted at the Washington Post.
What rockin good times we had last summer! She just magically appears any time someone mentions home birth on the internet.....What a busy beaver!
Check out this thread to see more about Dr. Amy!
Posted by:
JennyMHatch 8:25 PM
Lately Ben and I have been playing alot of Monopoly. He loves it and we have both enjoyed the leisure hours spent playing this fun Capitalistic board game.
These past few days I have been pondering the recent document TMZ published from the American Medical Association.
The OB's currently enjoy a near monopoly with birth in America. And the usual suspects are claiming that AMA resolution 205 on Home Deliveries statement is NOT a step towards criminalizing home birth. It says:
"RESOLVED, That our AMA develop model legislation in support of the concept that the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex, that meets standards jointly outlined by the AAP and ACOG, or in a freestanding birthing center that meets the standards of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, The Joint Commission, or the American Association of Birth Centers."
Now, I don't know what all of you think "model legislation" implys, but to me it leans towards outlawing or banning/criminalizing homebirth and homebirthing mothers.
Or making the rules of engagement so tightly conformed that only a woman between the ages of 34 and 35 who has already sucessfully given birth to four children vaginally in the hospital, who only gains 23 pounds during her pregnancy, who has an ambulance waiting in the driveway, who goes into labor at midnight at week 39 of gestation, and lives within four minutes of a NICU (with pre paid doctor standing by), and who pays out of pocket four thousand dollars to the MEDwife who has been trained, credentialed, and sanitized by the AMA, will be allowed to give birth at home.
So for the twelve women in America who meet the criteria outlined.....You Go GIRLS!!! Have your babies at home. The American Medical Association says you can if, and only IF you meet their "model legislation" rules of engagement.
The rest of us, who have previous c-section scars, who have bled out after a birth, who have been troubled with post partum emotional illness, and/or who dare to go past our due dates with a ten month gestator well, sorry Mama, you are NOT WORTHY to give birth at home, because we have RISKED YOU OUT!! Too bad...so sad. Now conform to our rules or we will take your baby away, lock you up in jail, and rip your family apart...because hey, we are the Gods of Modern Medicine and we know what is best for you and your family!!!
Barf!! Gag, Gag...
More bloggers weigh in on this topic:
Hatch Family one week after Benjamins Home Birth!
Jenny and Ben three hours after our Home Birth. I felt GREAT!!!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:05 AM
News Target: Flawed St. John's Wort Study on ADHD Failed to Use Active Form of Herbal Extract
Flawed St. John's Wort Study on ADHD Failed to Use Active Form of Herbal Extract
"On the heels of shocking revelations that top psychiatric researcher Dr. Joseph Biederman secretly took $1.6 million from drug companies while conducting psychotropic drug experiments on children, it has been learned that Dr. Biederman is now one of the key collaborators behind the latest efforts to discredit St. John's Wort. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and widely reported in the mainstream media, Dr. Biederman and fellow cohorts "concluded" that the St. John's Wort herb is useless in treating ADHD in children.
What's astonishing about this study, as you'll learn in this article, is that all the children used in the study were given inactive forms of the St. John's Wort herb where the active ingredients had been oxidized and rendered useless! In other words, this clinical trial, which was widely reported in the mainstream media with headlines like "St. John's Wort Found Useless!" didn't test the herb's active ingredients at all! It sort of makes you wonder about the agenda of the people running the study, doesn't it?"
Why am I NOT surprised???
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 5:33 AM
June 7, 2008
Patrick Henry, uh, I mean Alex Jones, heckling the criminals at the DC Bilderburg meeting
Alex Jones Bull Horn should be cast in gold and placed in the Smithsonian Institution.
Prayers of protection are being offered for you right now Alex. God Bless and Protect you from these MURDEROUS THUGS!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 12:32 PM
Fox News: Greta Van Susteren interviews Jenny McCarthy "On the Record" on her sons Autism
I thought this interview was the best one Jenny has done so far. Thanks Fox and Greta for taking the time to do such a great interview.
PS Who does not bother to be "fair and balanced" on this blog, and thus will NOT share the recent letter from the American Academy of Pediatrics on Autism and the Green our Vaccines Rally.
My blog Mission Statement is "Healthy Families Make A Healthy World". Vaccines are being used by Globalist Elitists to implement a Population Reduction Agenda in our society. Because of that fact, I do not, nor will I ever trust a Big Pharma Vaccine for me or my children and will go to jail rather than allow my little ones to be poisoned.
Here are three documentary movies that will help educate you about these statements of fact:
David Ayoub, M.D. goes through the relations of Mercury to Autism as well its connections to “National Security Study Memorandum 200”; for population control. Showing its shocking connections to today’s G.A.V.I. Are powerful forces really trying to help the poor people or could it be for another agenda; the sterilization of the poor?
This is an upsetting video, so brace yourself.
Endgame by Alex Jones
We Become Silent
These are my three favorite videos that expose the frauds of the Pharmaceutical Companies.
Take the time to give them a look. Then the Vaccine Story will make sense to you as a consumer of health care. These movies and the types of information they contain explain WHY I call the Medical Profession, and the Pharmaceutical companies that give them their marching orders, the Whore of Babylon as described in the Book of Revelations in the Bible.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:59 AM
June 6, 2008
Bilderbergers set to meet in D.C. - The Annointed One Worlders are in the US this year!
WND is reporting that this years world government confab is taking place in DC.
Alex Jones heckling the world elites in Washington DC
Please review Alex Jones Endgame to get an earfull about this annual meeting of secretive elites.
"While the group claims its purpose is to facilitate discussion among Western powers, many see the group as a means toward globalization.
The highly secretive conference is off limits to press, but past reports from sources that have managed to penetrate the high-security venues have stated the meetings emphasize a globalist agenda and dismiss national sovereignty as regressive.
The BBC declared the Bilderberg Group to be one of the most influential organizations in the world."
For some odd reason Gadianton Robbers tend to come to mind when I read about these people.
I'm sure Alex Jones and Jim Tucker have it covered for us! If they are not locked up somewhere.
Only thing to do with these people is shine the light of day on them.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:00 AM
May 29, 2008
Sect Children should be returned to parents
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - In a crushing blow to the state's massive seizure of children from a polygamist sect's ranch, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that child welfare officials overstepped their authority and the children should go back to their parents.
The high court affirmed a decision by an appellate court last week, saying Child Protective Services failed to show an immediate danger to the more than 400 children swept up from the Yearning For Zion Ranch nearly two months ago.
"On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted," the justices said in their ruling issued in Austin.
The high court let stand the appellate court's order that Texas District Judge Barbara Walther return the children from foster care to their parents. It's not clear how soon that may happen, but the appellate court ordered her to do it within a reasonable time period.
The ruling shatters one of the largest child-custody cases in U.S. history. State officials said the removals were necessary to end a cycle of sexual abuse at the ranch in which teenage girls were forced to marry and have sex with older men, but parents denied any abuse and said they were being persecuted for their religious beliefs.
Every child at the ranch in the west Texas town of Eldorado was removed; half were 5 or younger.
"The moms are clearly very happy at the news that it looks like they're going to get their kids a lot sooner than expected," said Cynthia Martinez, a spokeswoman for legal aid attorneys representing 38 mothers who filed the complaint that prompted the ruling. "It's definitely an emotional day."
The case before the court technically only applies to the 124 children of those mothers, but it significantly affects nearly all the children since they were removed under identical circumstances.
The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled last week that the state failed to show that any more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and had offered no evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the other children.
The ranch is run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which teaches that polygamy brings glorification in heaven. It is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.
Roughly 430 children from the ranch are in foster care after two births, numerous reclassifications of adult women initially held as minors and a handful of agreements allowing parents to keep custody while the Supreme Court considered the case.
Texas officials claimed at one point that there were 31 teenage girls at the ranch who were pregnant or had been pregnant, but later conceded that about half of those mothers, if not more, were adults. One was 27.
Under Texas law, children can be taken from their parents if there's a danger to their physical safety, an urgent need for protection and if officials made a reasonable effort to keep the children in their homes. The high court agreed with the appellate court that the seizures fell short of that standard.
CPS lawyers had argued that parents could remove their children from state jurisdiction if they regain custody, that DNA tests needed to confirm parentage are still pending and that the lower-court judge had discretion in the case.
The justices said child welfare officials can take numerous actions to protect children short of separating them from their parents and placing them in foster care, and that Walther may still put restrictions on the children and parents to address concerns that they may flee once reunited.
This is a great day for American Families. May the CPS Workers burn in hell for the pain they have put these families through. And may abuses of this kind never happen again in the US of A.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:24 PM
May 23, 2008
Court rules Texas had no right to seize sect children
Go Here to watch a video about this story
Court rules Texas had no right to seize sect children
Go Here to read this story
Texas seizure of polygamist-sect kids thrown out
Texas had no right to take polygamist sect kids: court
"The ruling in one of the largest custody cases in U.S. history, hammered the state for removing the children and directed state District Judge Barbara Walther to vacate the order. Technically, it applied only to the children of 38 mothers named in the appeal, but the ruling was broad enough to cover nearly every child swept up in the April raid.
The children were taken into custody more than six weeks ago after someone called a hot line claiming to be a pregnant, abused teenage wife. The girl has not been found and authorities are investigating whether the calls were a hoax.
Child welfare officials argued that five girls at the ranch had become pregnant at 15 and 16 and that the sect pushed underage girls into marriage and sex with older men and groomed boys to enter into such unions when they grew up.
But the appeals court said the state acted too hastily in sweeping up all the children and taking them away on the broad beliefs of the renegade Mormon sect.
"Even if one views the FLDS belief system as creating a danger of sexual abuse by grooming boys to be perpetrators of sexual abuse and raising girls to be victims of sexual abuse ... there is no evidence that this danger is 'immediate' or 'urgent,'" the court said."
I hope these children are reunited with their parents soon.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 1:20 PM
May 19, 2008
Hugh Hewitt: The Aftermath in China
Go Here to read about the relief workers killed in China.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:21 PM
May 17, 2008
WND: Joseph Farrah: Abuse of Power in Texas
Go Here to read this excellent editorial
Day-old baby among 400 FLDS kids in custody
Abuse of power in Texas
Exclusive: Joseph Farah drubs state for taking over as parents of ranch kids
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: May 16, 2008
1:00 am Eastern
By Joseph Farah
Question: What's worse for children than to have parents who are members of a polygamy cult?
Answer: To have the state for parents.
And that's just what has happened in Texas following the state's raid on the so-called polygamy compound.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, a misnamed bureaucracy if ever there was one, has demanded the children seized by the state and placed in foster care be immunized immediately against the wishes of their mothers, who fear negative effects.
Ahh, but those mothers are no longer mothers, explains Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the department.
"We're the legal parents of the children and we would like for them to be immunized," he said.
Now, I'm the first to recognize the mothers in this case have made some objectively poor decisions about their lives. However, does anyone really believe Crimmins and his state bureaucrats really care more for these children than do their mothers? How have these mothers abrogated their parental rights? What crime have they committed? With what are they being charged? Why are they losing custody of their children? Have these children been abused or neglected? All of them? How?
All the public has heard since the raid on the compound is that the children seem to be in good health. Questions were raised by early pregnancies among some of the girls. I have news for you: Teenage girls are getting pregnant and having sex with older men throughout American society today. If these mothers are going to lose custody of their children as a result of that kind of sexual activity, what about the high percentages of teen pregnancies in our inner cities? Can we expect Texas and the other states soon to begin seizing millions of kids – both girls and boys in those families?
This situation in Texas is looking more and more like a heavy-handed abuse of power by government.
Is the state trying to make an example of these parents? Are all the parents being punished collectively for the crimes of a few? Is that the new American way?
When I hear a government bureaucrat claim to be the parents of children he has never met, it sets me off.
It is an explosive statement.
It is the kind of offensive and officious statement that will only serve to create more fear and distrust of government – frankly, the very conditions that lead to the creation of compounds like the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Frankly, the state does not even know whether the children have been immunized or not. In some cases, the mothers say their children have had shots, but the records are in Utah, not in Texas.
But these parents are hardly alone in our society when it comes to rejecting inoculations of questionable safety.
Who's next?
Will Texas decide it is also the lawful parent of children who homeschool and whose mothers and fathers made conscious and well-informed decisions not to immunize their kids because of the potential for dire health risks?
Why does the public accept the need for the state to intrude in this jackbooted manner when it comes to these parents and children?
Again, what were the individual crimes committed that warrant this heavy hand?
Or, are they being punished collectively for the guilt of a few?
If Texas authorities looked at certain neighborhoods in Houston and Dallas, they would likely find teen pregnancy rates at least as high as those in the FLDS compound. Why is it that the parents of those children are not being rounded up and their offspring being placed in foster care homes?
The answer is obvious: Because it would be wrong to do so.
If it is wrong in those neighborhoods, it is equally wrong in the FLDS neighborhood.
Again, I don't like some of the things that went on in that community. I don't approve of them. There may even have been some laws broken. But there is no evidence being made public to suggest every single mother in the compound abused or neglected her children – or to suggest these poor kids would be better off with the state of Texas as their parent.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:50 AM
May 16, 2008
FLDS Mothers May Have To Abandon Religion To Reunite With Children
Ruth, 31, a mother of four children, left rear, becomes emotional as Velvet, 31, right, a mother of one child whose children are all in state custody tell reporters during a news conference of how they were separated from their children earlier in the day as they stand outside the Yearning For Zion ranch near Eldorado, Texas, Thursday, April 24, 2008.
(Associated Press)
FLDS Mothers May Have To Abandon Religion To Reunite With Children
Watch the video associated with this outrageous story!
And here is the thread at Free Republic where a bunch of freedom loving constitutionalists are making complete idiots out of themselves by defending the Texas Authorities stealing children from their parents and forcing women to give up their religion and/or family life as they conform to societal expectations.
Please note: If children were being molested and/or If girls under the age of 14 were being forced into marriage with people they did not want to marry, then sure, charge the people who committed the crimes and then throw the book at them, lock them up, and then throw away the key.
Texans did not have any trouble with girls under sixteen getting married for the hundred years before the FLDS showed up, and created that law to increase the marital age just to punish the religious lifestyle of those families.
This lifestlye and religion does NOT give the old biddies at Texas social services the right to steal the children and then put them up for adoption into so called "normal" families. Children in foster care have a very high incidence of being molested, drugged with psychoactive medicines, and Texas in particular is in bed with the big pharma companies when it comes to children in Foster Care.
As I said before....Give em back!!!
This movie is an expose of the high incidence of foster kids being drugged with toxic mind altering meds while in Foster Care in the state of Texas.
Here is the text of the story:
Abandoning their religion and husbands may be the only way that FLDS mothers will be reunited with their children. Texas official issued new rules, Thursday, that dictate what the mothers will have to do before the state will return the 464 children.
The plan says that the mothers will have to prove that they have provided the children with “a home free of persons who have, or will abuse the children.”
Texas officials consider many polygamist husbands as abusers.
On top of that, Texas officials will have to know every person living in any building where any of the children live. This would make customary polygamist communal housing impossible.
FLDS Attorney, Rod Parker says that “the rules are subject to interpretation by Child Protective Services (CPS) in a manner that makes it impossible for these people to live on the ranch.”
To hammer their point even harder, Texas officials told FLDS communities that if they don’t cooperate, the court could “terminate parental rights” and “appoint a conservator with authority to consent to each child’s adoption.”
“Those terms are going to be defined, ultimately, by Texas CPS, and what Texas CPS says is a safe environment or appropriate education, exclude participation in this religion,” Parker said.
The initial call, that alleged that a 16-year-old girl was beaten and raped by FLDS member Dale Barlow, has never been identified, and is believed by many to have been a prank. Still, authorities are convinced that there is a repeated pattern of abuse on FLDS compounds.
Authorities point out that many of the teenage girls in custody were pregnant, some as young as 13 years old. They also say there is a conspiracy of secrecy within the mothers. They say that FLDS moms will not cooperate with identifying their children.
Authorities also claimed that FLDS boys had signs of broken bones and that they had possibly been sexually abuse as well.
Now, for the first time, the state is talking about lost boys who have allegedly been forced out of the group in order to have more women than men in the community for polygamy.
There are lost boys in Utah, however, Texas cannot name one lost boy.
Officials say that the proof is that there are more 16-to-17-year-old girls than boys.
FLDS attorney, Rod Parker says that Texas is counting 20-to-22-year-old women as underage girls.
“But we know they are counting women as underage girls,” said Parker. “That’s why the ratio is out of whack.”
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:35 AM
May 7, 2008
Go David Go!!!!
David rocked American Idol last night! We voted for him once again. It is so awesome to watch this young mormon singer make his mark on that show. I'm predicting he will win it.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:56 AM
One of my all time heros Phyllis Schlafly dissed by know nothing nincompoops
Phyllis Schlafly shelled by college flak
"More than 1,000 people are expressing outrage at a university decision to honor Phyllis Schlafly with an honorary doctorate of humane letters for her national leadership of the conservative movement and are calling for the school to withdraw its invitation."
By Chelsea Schilling
Students and faculty from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., have joined other angry individuals in a protest group called "No honorary doctorate for anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly" on the popular social network, Facebook, and membership is growing by the hour.
Schlafly is one of six guests who have been invited to receive honorary doctorates at the university commencement May 16. She has strongly opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, campaigned against gender bias laws, Title IX and the teaching of evolution. Schlafly founded the national volunteer organization Eagle Forum and is an advocate for full-time mothers and wives. It is her position on women's rights issues that is receiving the most public attention from students at Washington University.
A recent article in Inside Higher Ed stated, "Schlafly called for bans on women holding the positions of firefighter, soldier and construction worker and argued that a woman cannot be raped by her husband."
Mary Ann Dzuback is director of women and gender studies at the university. She told WND she objects to the college's decision to honor Schlafly.
"When the university chooses someone who has spent her whole life and career in opposition to full equal political and economic and social rights for women, it sends a terrible message to students," she said.
Dzuback said Schlafly's beliefs concerning women's rights are contrary to what the school stands for and are deeply insulting to male and female students who support women's rights and who plan to take on social and professional roles even Schlafly has assumed.
"It's not just that her positions appear to run counter to what the university appears to practice in its daily life, but, also, she's a hypocrite," Dzuback said.
Schlafly responded to negative responses to her commencement appearance saying, "That just shows how intolerant and narrow minded they are. If they were really for achievement of women, they would be admiring what I've been able to achieve. They would be praising other accomplished women like Margaret Thatcher, Condoleezza Rice, Elizabeth Dole, Jean Kirkpatrick and women who really accomplish something, but they're not for women's accomplishment. They're just for whining about how women are oppressed, which is ridiculous."
As for her position on women in male-dominated fields, Schlafly said,"[Feminists] want preferential treatment for women in jobs that most women don't want and are really more suitable for men because they require physical strength that women don't have."
Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show," is scheduled to deliver the university commencement address. He will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. Schlafly and other recipients are not scheduled to speak at the event.
In a statement released to WND, Washington University administrators stood by their decision to present Schlafly with the honor:
"Alumna Phyllis Schlafly's articulation of her perspectives has been a significant part of American life during the last half of the 20th century and now the 21st century, serving as a lightning rod for vigorous debate on difficult issues where differences of opinion are profound and passionate. Not only should a university serve as a place where such discussions take place, but it may also choose to recognize those who provide leadership and articulation – both pro and con – on vital issues."
However, Dzuback told WND she believes the administration should reconsider its decision.
"To invite somebody in who makes a mockery of everything we've been teaching our students to do just runs counter to any sensible criteria for an honorary degree," she said.
When asked how she would expect the university to handle student protests, she said, "I would like to see the university withdraw the invitation, and do it as gracefully as Northwestern did to Rev. Wright."
Some recent Facebook posts in the protest group include:
To award Schlafly with an honorary degree of any sort is a slap in the face to all who have worked so hard to overcome the injustices of the past. She is not simply an anti-feminist. She is anti-humanist.
– Jo Lucas
If you read what she has said, it's not hard to categorize it as puritanical psychobabble. How can anyone capable of thinking for themselves respect her "opinions" when they are so blatantly ignorant? What a disgraceful thing to do. I hope the university gets the kind of publicity it deserves for such a waste of an honorary doctorate.
– Chris Reader
All you people are crazy liberal idiots. … Respect her beliefs, and give me some reason to start respecting yours.
– Joseph Robert Smith
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:41 AM
April 30, 2008
The Final Five
(L-R) American Idol contestants Syesha Mercado, Jason Castro, Brooke White, David Archuleta, and David Cook arrive at the Britweek launch party at the British Consul Generals' residence in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
I'm thinking Jason will go home this week, but they are all so good, it is difficult to say. David Cook has the best voice, pure gold, but our whole family loves Syesha, Brooke, and David A, so it is challenging to predict who should be next.
David singing Coming to America last night - AWESOME!!!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:47 AM
April 28, 2008
Give em Back #2
Here is a link to my "Give em back" #1 Post
And the stimulating and interesting chat that resulted from this blog post over at Free Republic.
Sweep of polygamists' kids raises legal questions
"The move has the appearance of "a class-action child removal," said Jessica Dixon, director of the child advocacy center at Southern Methodist University's law school in Dallas.
"I've never heard of anything like that," she said.
Rod Parker, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, contends that the state has essentially said, "If you're a member of this religious group, then you're not allowed to have children."
Attorneys for the families and civil-liberties groups also are crying foul. They say the state should not have taken children away from all church members living at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado.
Church members said that not all of them practice polygamy, and some form traditional nuclear families. One sect member whose teenage son is now in foster care testified that she is a divorced single mother.
"Of course, we condemn child abuse and we don't stand up for the perpetration of that," said Lisa Graybill, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. But "what the state has done has offended a pretty wide swath of the American people with what appears to be an overreaching action to sweep up all these children."
Cultural Guide for Poligamists kids
Go here to read the excellent and timely coverage of this story at the Salt Lake Tribunes poligamy blog by Brooke Adams.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:38 AM
WSJ: German Tots Learn to Answer Call of Nature
German Tots Learn to Answer Call of Nature
"IDSTEIN, Germany -- Each weekday, come rain or shine, a group of children, ages 3 to 6, walk into a forest outside Frankfurt to sing songs, build fires and roll in the mud. To relax, they kick back in a giant "sofa" made of tree stumps and twigs.
The birthplace of kindergarten is returning to its roots. While schools and parents elsewhere push young children to read, write and surf the Internet earlier in order to prepare for an increasingly cutthroat global economy, some little Germans are taking a less traveled path -- deep into the woods."
Recently I registered Ben for kindergarten and was amazed as I listened to the other mothers in line. Many of them were planning on forking out the $350.00 a month to pay for enrichment kindergarten, which means the child will be in school all day long. A few parents I talked to were planning to do half days, but these other moms were so focused on a "whole day of learning" and how some of the teachers claimed it was better for the child academically. I just sat there marveling. After watching my four older children develop, I am convinced my job as a mother is to protect my childs right to PLAY until he or she is eight years old. This creative non organized/non scheduled time is crucial for them to develop imagination and a sense of self.
Ben will be one of our only children to attend school from kindergarten to high school and I am very curious to see how it all goes. If I feel that he is being harmed by the intensity of the academics, we'll pull him out and homeschool. He will be almost six when he starts in the fall, and with only half days, it will be like glorified preschool. He is very excited to attend school like his big brothers and sisters do. But I have qualms about him having too much academic pressure. I loved reading about these german schools that are so relaxed and fun.
This quote from the article claims that a debate is taking place.
"Mimi Howard, a director at the Education Commission of the States, which advises states on policy from Denver, says some U.S. teachers feel pressure "to push academics earlier and earlier." The federal No Child Left Behind law introduced standardized testing for reading and writing by third grade, but some studies recommend more "open-ended learning experiences" for young children. "We're in the debate phase," she says."
These educrats would not have to work so hard teaching children the basics if they would just dump whole language reading curriculums and use phonics to teach all of the children. I feel a very gentle and unstructured introduction to reading is best for the child, with an ideal being fifteen minutes a day of reading and writing practice with Mom starting when the child can hold a pencil. Maria Montessori belived it was best to teach a child to write and then the reading would come naturally. She believed five year olds were "wired" to want to learn how to write and read and handle the frustrations inherent in the process. I have really observed this with Ben as he has happily started writing notes to his Dad and wants to show everyone how well he can write his name etc...
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:05 AM
NRO: Don't doubt it
David Klinghoffer connects the dots between Darwin and the evil of Hitler.
"Get ready for the great Darwin-Hitler debate. There’s already been a volley of advance attacks on a new film’s suggestion of a link between Darwinism and Nazi ideology. The movie is Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, opening this weekend, a cheeky documentary that is not primarily about evolutionism in prewar Germany. Reviewers in Time, Scientific American, Variety, Fox News, and elsewhere have denounced the filmmakers for suggesting that Hitlerism without the contribution of Darwinism would be hard to imagine.
This movie is, in fact, about the professional ostracism visited today on American scientists who doubt that undirected natural selection can fully explain life’s development. They are academics at places like the Smithsonian Institution, Iowa State University, and Baylor University. Droll comic-actor Ben Stein stars, interviewing the researchers.
But for about ten minutes, Expelled touches on Darwinism’s historical social costs, notably the unintended contribution to Nazi racial theories. That part packs an emotional wallop. It also happens to be based on impeccable scholarship.
The Darwin-Hitler connection is no recent discovery. In her classic 1951 work The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt wrote: “Underlying the Nazis’ belief in race laws as the expression of the law of nature in man, is Darwin’s idea of man as the product of a natural development which does not necessarily stop with the present species of human being.”
The standard biographies of Hitler almost all point to the influence of Darwinism on their subject. In Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, Alan Bullock writes: “The basis of Hitler’s political beliefs was a crude Darwinism.” What Hitler found objectionable about Christianity was its rejection of Darwin’s theory: “Its teaching, he declared, was a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle and the survival of the fittest.”
John Toland’s Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography says this of Hitler’s Second Book published in 1928: “An essential of Hitler’s conclusions in this book was the conviction drawn from Darwin that might makes right.”
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 4:42 AM
April 16, 2008
Give em back - Texas Raid based on a LIE????
UPDATE: Friday April 18
The "Sixteen year old girl." A hoax???
I am SPITTING mad. Texas authorities better have those children back in their mothers arms by tonight.
"A 33-year-old Colorado Springs woman has been questioned about a telephone call that sparked a raid at the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound in western Texas two weeks ago.
Rozita Swinton was arrested at her home Wednesday night by Colorado Springs police for an incident that occurred in February. Members of the Texas Rangers were also in Colorado Springs as part of their investigation.
"The Texas Rangers were in Colorado Springs (Wednesday) as part of their investigation involving the compound in Texas. They left and have not filed any charges on Rozita Swinton as of this time," said Colorado Springs police spokesman Lt. Skip Arms.
Colorado Springs police said the arrest warrant has been sealed and refused to release any other details, reported Deseret News."
Original Post:
OK Texas, Give those children back to the parents!
That whole "they were having sex with underage girls in the temple thing" has been used against poligamists for over a hundred years.
Religious persecution, pure and simple.
If society wants to take an underage pregnant girl from her family, why not start with Jamie Lynn Spears. Prosecute her boyfriend for statutory rape and absolve her mother of all parental rights.
Not these families.
PS - If anyone in the Fundamentalist LDS church is breaking the law then, sure throw the book at them, but if the only crime these people have committed is "being different" and raising their children out of the mainstream of society....LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!
Whose next? The Amish? The Mennonites? The Muslims? Anyone who wants to homeschool? This is America for crying out loud. We were created on the principle of Religious Freedom. You Nanny State Bullies get out of the homes, bedrooms, and religious sanctuaries of "We the People".
The most visible family I see "grooming" children in obscene sexual behavior, immodesty, and living a lifestyle that is DAMAGING to babies and children is in fact the lifestyle of Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears. Go harass them if you want to do some good for the country.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:49 AM
April 13, 2008
Huff Po: Pamela Paul
"Little did I realize, but apparently, I am on the verge of destroying Mother Earth. Yup, Seventh Generation-using, SUV-less (car-less, doggone it!), recycling-law-abiding me. I even turn off the water while I brush my teeth, and bought local produce long before locavorism became trendy.
So what's my crime? My husband and I are contemplating having a third child, as I recently documented in the Washington Post. The essay itself, a semi-facetious, semi-serious look at the rising costs of parenthood was a riff off my book, Parenting, Inc., which documents the exploding parenting market. My goal was to offer parents a kind of annotated guide through the mind-boggling shopping experience that accompanies having a kid, and to help cut down on the commercialization of childhood. Having talked to parents around the country, I found that I'm not alone in thinking that raising kids costs a fortune. But given the wasteful and unnecessary gear that I'm planning on not buying, I thought having a third kid might be financially conceivable."
Pamela,
Have all the children you want to welcome into your life! When you are old and grey and the population nut jobs are dead and gone, you will have years of enjoying your grandchildren...the more the merrier! No guilt Momma! Just do what is best for your family.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:34 PM
April 4, 2008
Some of my favorite news stories and editorials from the past week
The Patriot Post - A great conservative round up of the weeks news!
Peggy Noonan - Getting Mrs. Clinton
Ann Coulter - Hillary Swiftboated!
Remembering William F. Buckley - A round up of readers praise for the late editor of NR.
Thomas Sowell - Irony on the street, A lesson in Economics 101
Ellis Washington - Detroit's tragic love affair with Liberalism
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:28 AM
March 29, 2008
Freebirth: A Message to Obstetricians from Jenny Hatch, "Physician Heal THYSELF!!"
This video is hosted on My Share Page at One True Media
In the past few months four obstetrics societies have made public statements about Unassisted Childbirth.
The Canadian Doctors (SOGC):
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC)
The Australian and New Zealand Doctors:
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
The Royal College (RCOG) in the UK:
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG)
And in a recent article in the Denver Westword Newspaper (I was interviewed for this story)
A Spokesperson for ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) claimed freebirth was "dangerous".
Childbirth goes solo.
By Jared Jacang Maher
Published: May 10, 2007
"According to the guidelines of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the organization "strongly opposes" any birth not performed inside a hospital. A spokesman for the ACOG has a one-word assessment of freebirth: "dangerous."
I have just one message for these doctors, and it is this:
"The moral of the proverb is counsel to prove your trustworthiness with your own affairs before attempting to tell others what they should do."
Break out of the Matrix!
When the various obstetrics societies PROVE that they have the will to reform themselves internally by setting up standards of care that are more about the mother and the baby than they are about the doctor and staff at the hospital, then I will feel more open about listening to any edicts they have about my lifestyle.
Hey Doctors: why don't you set some goals....
1. No inductions before 41 weeks
2. 10% C-section rate
3. No elective C-sections
4. Full acceptance of Lay and Nurse Midwifery both in the home and at the hospital
5. A Complete and total acceptance of VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean)
6. A willingness to embrace proper prenatal nutrition as the foundation for a healthy pregnancy as outlined by the Brewer Pregnancy Diet
When society stops locking up our midwives for bogus reasons, embrace and promote natural mothering as the IDEAL for a new baby (Natural Childbirth, Attachment Parenting, and Long Term Ecological Breastfeeding), then I will believe you have found your soul as doctors.
Until then? Well, I am going to continue promoting freebirth and encouraging families to break away from your way of giving birth, because frankly, the way you do it stinks.
Lamaze International has a white paper on Elective cesarean Vs. Vaginal Birth (PDF)
American College of Nurse Midwives:
RISKS OF CESAREAN DELIVERY ARE UNDERREPORTED,
BENEFITS OVERSTATED
Media Briefing Highlights Concerns In Advance of NIH Conference
QUOTE:
"Only women themselves can tell us if they are actually demanding cesarean section surgery. With what we are learning from Childbirth Connection today, we now know that women VERY rarely schedule first cesareans by choice without a medical reason," says Susan Hodges, president of Citizens for Midwifery. "Only women can tell us what kind of informed consent process was provided to them. Citizens for Midwifery believes that women are not being given adequate and unbiased information about all the risks and benefits of cesarean sections. Research is needed to understand who and what are now influencing decisions to perform major abdominal surgery 'for no medical reason' despite substantial evidence that all cesareans increase harmful risks for mothers and babies."
Free yourself from the Matrix~!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 2:35 PM
March 22, 2008
Winter Soldier 2 - Illigitimate Farce of a Marxist Fracas
This past week I read quite a bit about the recent Winter Soldier 2 inquisition. These people made Raoul Demming quite prophetic when he predicted that a campaign against our soldiers was revving up to pain them as the latest generation of American Military Baby Killers.
Here is Raouls Speech at the Gathering of Eagles III last fall when he predicted this event.
And here are several links which will help educate you about the current farce being waged.
Free Republic Thread with video links.
EAGLES UP WINTER SOLDIER II Live Video, March 14,2008
FYI, the whole reason that Free Republic was started was to defend the honor of our military. The men who set up the site were those who were betrayed by traitors like John Kerry during the Viet Nam war. They decided that they were not going to let that same betrayal happen to the current generation of soldiers, and so they set up a forum for those seeking the truth on the web. I have found my friends at Free Republic to be some of the most wonderful people I have ever known, and the various events that we have attended together to stand up for the troops have created some of my fondest and most terrifying memories.
This thread at Gathering of Eagles discusses the expulsion of a viet nam vet from the proceedings...I suppose only Anti American Vets are allowed to attend these types of events.
QUOTE:
"This morning Vietnam Veteran activist Jerry Kiley was jumped from behind and assaulted during the so-called Iraq Winter Soldier hearings currently in progress. Jerry, a long time POW/MIA activist and co-founder of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, stood up during the meeting and told the gathering of so-called peace activists that Kerry was a traitor that caused “good men” to die and that they were also traitors if they continued to lie about our Iraq War veterans..
Without warning, a “very large” man jumped Jerry, 61, from behind and lifted him enough to drag him into the lobby toward some concrete steps. When Jerry asked the man to let go, telling him he was a veteran, the man said “I don’t give a F--k and tried to flip Jerry down the steps.
Jerry saved himself by gabbing the handrail.
Once outside, the man pushed Jerry toward the Police who arrested and charged him with disorderly conduct. Jerry suffered a twisted neck and bruised back."
Jerrys arrest on You Tube:
(Click on the image to get to the person who wrote this post in the Eagles Thread)
"Meet Barry Romo. He is Vietnam Veterans Against the War's National Coordinator and has been an union organizer for the last 39 years.. Romo is one of John Kerry's original Winter Soldiers. He was a panelist in today's Winter Soldier dog and pony show testimony.
Romo was overhead bragging to an Iraq War veteran (who is scheduled to testify March 15) about how much he hates the "Eagles" and how much he enjoyed roughing one up today He said he wanted to kill him, referring to Eagle supporter Jerry Kiley who was physically assaulted during the March 14 meeting. Kiley was then arrested charged with disorderly conduct.
Peace Niks sure do have a funny way of showing the world how peaceful they are when they assault Viet Nam Vets who don't tout the marxist party line.
This blogger went to the hearing, and was treated all nicey nice until somone realized he was a patriot.
QUOTE:
"So I walk up, and all the Viet Nam vets smile and welcome me as I show my military ID. Walk further up, all smiles, fluffy bunnies, unicorns frollicking etc. Get to the last gate and they ask me "Your name?" Lots of teeth, all smiles.
"TSO, you guys heart me." (Or something to that effect.)
"Who are you with?"
Vets for Freedom." Me smiling, until I notice that the situation has changed. A lot. A real lot.
First he sneered, then yelled "Get the F*** off my property. Security!" Cops show up as I am trying to calm this lunatic down. Cops are pretty cool, but demand I leave, meanwhile the security guys, later identified as VVAW are literally shooting spittle in all directions.
So I call Army Sergeant. (Who is a cutie BTW) To say this young lady is a firecracker would be to suggest that a WMD is a large M80. About 5 mins later she comes running up (literally) and starts screaming. Just awesome.
I'm escorted everywhere I go. Some people sneer, and the way they look at me make me check to ensure my fly is not down about every 20 mins. And I look like I should a total preppy ass. Oh well. Tomorrow I am coming in rasta gear."
Blogger Jonn Lilyea also attended the Winter Soldier Farce and had this to say in an after action report. (This is the complete report)
"I’ve been ruminating how I would close out this weekend after focusing on Winter Soldier for the last few days. I thought a point-by-point refutation of the testimony, but I figured that’d be disingenuous of me, since the testimony lacked context - there were no dates or times or places (other than general references) or even participants in some cases. So, just like the participants, I can only give general impressions - only I’ll do it without playing to the applause.
First, my personal experience with the IVAW/Veterans for Peace and the other and sundry people was professional. I wasn’t especially pleased that I was escorted everywhere I went, or that we spent the day surrounded by security people, or that our blogs were being monitored - however, it does lend what I wrote a measure of credibility. But there were news outlets like the Guardian and al Jazeera wandering around without security and writing what they want. I’ll grant that my readership is somewhat less than theirs, but the product I created was under much more scrutiny while it was being released to the public.
I commend Army Sergeant for her hard work in getting access to the event for us. I’m sure she burned off more than a few calories running in circles making sure we weren’t overly-harassed or confined. Without her support, we’d have been stuck watching the streaming video from our homes like everyone else. We were instructed to only photograph the panels and that we couldn’t photograph the audience. When one member of the audience took a snap shot of TSO and me, I brought it to the attention of one security member and she deleted the picture from his camera.
However, I do condemn them for tackling from behind Gerry Kiley whom I reported stood up and yelled “Kerry lied and good men died”. I don’t agree with what Mr. Kiley did - it certainly didn’t remove any scrutiny from what we were doing - but tackling a frail 61-year-old from behind was just as cruel as any testimony from the panel. I’m sure they could have easily pulled him from the room without the drama. But then the whole day was about over-reaction, wasn’t it?
But to the testimony; War sucks. It’s sucked since the beginning of the invention of the rock as a weapon. Innocent people die in war, and that sucks, too. But not since the beginning of warfare has any Army taken such care to minimize innocent deaths as the United States armed forces. Never. That’s indisputable.
But, the people who testified Friday glossed over that fact. Take Kelly Dougherty’s testimony that Kellog, Brown and Root prevented scavengers from taking the diesel fuel from their disabled vehicles by firing beanbag rounds at them. What other military entity in the world uses beanbag rounds in a combat zone?
Jason Hurd testified that the ROE ALMOST forced him to shoot a woman carrying home groceries - he broke into tears and slung snot all over the panel because he ALMOST shot a woman. I guess the fact that escaped him was that the ROE worked - he didn’t have to shoot her.
Hurd also tearfully testified that his unit, when fired upon from a building turned a 50-cal on the building and unleashed 200 rounds on the masonry structure. The firing stopped and the unit continued their mission. Hurd went into great detail explaining the size of the rounds and the brass (by the way, Jason, a fifty-cal is a half-inch in diameter, you missed that) and how much ammo is in the metal container - but I fail to see how that reflects on the Bush administration or that Pentagon entity he was trying to blame. Hurd admitted that he doesn’t know how many people were in the building, that he knows of no casualties resulting from that action - so one is left to wonder what was his point?
The point of the whole testimony, for the entire day I spent there was that the war is illegal from the get-go. They offered no evidence that the war is illegal - but when there’s room full of aged bobbleheads nodding on cue - who needs evidence? All of these terrible things that happened could have been avoided if George W, Bush and the evil neo-cons hadn’t invaded Iraq in the first place. No one had stories of torture or atrocities - they only described the horror of being in war. You could only accept these things as atrocities if you accepted at the beginning that war is illegal. Without that admission, you were left to wonder what everyone was talking about.
That was one of the problems - I was probably one of the youngest people in the room and I’m nearly 53 years old. The audience were a bunch of old hippies who’d never served in the military and had never seen a war outside of the context of the politics of war. They tch-tched their way through the hearings without understanding the pains the military had to suffer to avoid real atrocities. Their only solution to the war was ending it - today with no real thought of the consequences. The only victory they sought was a victory of Democrats over Republicans regardless of what the nation would be forced to deal with when their solution was enacted.
Almost everyone testified that they were confused as to the ROE - but then they all testified to a measure of restraint they all knew was present. Um, the ROE. The confusion came when they actually had to apply their own common sense in relation to the ROE and their circumstances.
Jon Michael Turner started telling us how he shot people, he showed us pictures of his kills (dare I say trophies?) - but he neglected to fill in the part about why he shot those people in the first place. I’m pretty sure he didn’t just indiscriminately shoot “the fat man” or the guy in the bicycle. Why didn’t he tell us about the events leading up to his pulling the trigger instead of beginning his stories with the death of his targets? He referred to his “choking hand” and his bracelet on his choking hand - but he failed to tell us if he ever used his “choking hand” to choke anyone that didn’t deserved to be choked. Just that he had a “choking hand”. And then he went on to tell us that he’s not the monster he once was. Well, fellow Vermonter, what made you a monster - the fact that you designated one of your hands a “choking hand”?
From his testimony Friday, it seems the only policy of committing atrocities against Iraqi civilians was his own.
James Gilligan’s claims were funny. Some troops stole a few gold coins they found (wasn’t that in the movie “Three Kings?) - what about the troops who found billions of US currency and didn’t take even a George Washington? His first sergeant threatened a boy with a pistol - he didn’t kill the boy, he didn’t harm the boy, he just threatened him. hardly an atrocity. Oh, and he outright lied about witnessing someone being waterboarded - but then he was playing to the crowd. More detractors of the practice have been waterboarded to demonstrate it to the masses than have been actually waterboarded to extract information. But as soon as he said “…and of course they were waterboarded”, all of the bobbleheads in the audience went to nodding.
While we’re on the subject of lying, Adam Kokesh began his testimony with a lie - that’s why I switched on the video - so I didn’t have to listen to him and then get dragged out like Gerry Kiley. He claimed that he’d opposed the war before it began but joined because he thought it was his duty - his website used to claim he joined because he was a real hoo-ah guy and supported the war against terrorists and he’d been influenced by recruiters but the horrors of war turned him against it. So now that he’s established that he’s a liar. when was he lying - on Friday or on his blog? Kokesh depends on people to forget what he’s said in the past.
The real atrocity stories were being told out by the ashtray, though. I don’t know how many of the IVAW kids I heard relating their tales to the belly-shirt, hip-hugger wearing college aged chickies while I took my smokebreaks. But I don’t want to c***block on any of those guys who might still be laid up with their airhead honeys today - that’d be a neocon atrocity.
No matter how hard the panels tried, they tried to make it about the Bush Administration, but their testimony all boiled down to the actions of the soldiers. They claimed to support the troops, but their supposed atrocities were all the result of small unit leaders’ actions (yes, guys, your captains and lieutenants are “troops”, too). No matter how hard they tried to deflect their criticism away from the troops, it hit all of our service members square in the forehead. Registering your gun with willie pete isn’t a decision made by some faceless neo-con in the Pentagon, calling for fire on a village is a company commander’s decision, not Dick Cheney’s. Bragging about firing up a civilian car isn’t coming from the Defense Department. George Bush wasn’t pushing down on the 50-cal’s butterflies or reloading the gun.
I may have some more thoughts as the day goes on, but I’m going to spend the day with my grandson. Keep an eye on The Sniper, TSO is supposed to be live-blogging the media portion of the testimony.
Thanks to all the bloggers that linked to this today and welcome to the readers of Blackfive, Pal2Pal, the Democracy Project, Chickenhawk Express and Obit Dictum.
Update: Make sure you read the AAR of my battle buddy, TSO, at Vets For Freedom and The Sniper."
To learn more about Winter Soldier one, organized by Viet Nam vets against the war, go here.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 3:29 AM
March 19, 2008
Brooke White, another Stormin Mormon
Go Brooke Go!
And this just in from my friend Susana Baig:
My friends who are American Idol fans (and others),
Can you believe that I watched American Idol tonight for the first time and I about fell out of my seat! Here's why:
When we lived in LA I wrote several songs. I started to search out LDS people who were musically talented to help me with my songs. I was directed to an LDS gal who had moved into a ward that we had recenlty moved out of, who was a professional singer.
I called her up and asked her if I could meet with her and she could give me feedback on some of my songs. She said to pick one and she would look it over and give me feedback.
Well, I picked a song I wrote about my dad who was killed by a drunk driver. I played my rendition of it for her that I had taped on my hand held tape recorder (which was EMBARASSING 'cause I