Saturday, February 25, 2012

State, Stay In Your Place!

On last night's episode of The O'Reilly Factor I learned of an outrageous act going on in California. In four of its counties, the state of California, using taxpayer money, is actually mailing condoms to kids as young as 12! You read that right. California is sending kids condoms, along with lubricant and pamphlets on avoiding pregnancy and STDs. How nice! And these neat little packages are being mailed in plain envelopes so as not to attract attention from pesky, nosy parents. This is government corruption and overreach on steroids!

Children belong to their parents. It is the sacred right and duty of parents to teach children morality and values. Consequently, parents have the right to know everything about their children's lives so they can guide them into making the right decisions. The state has NO right whatsoever to intefere with parents' rights and duties. Yes, some parents will fail in their responsibility, and that is the usual excuse used by progressive types to justify the government helping children evade parental oversight. The state must step in, they say, because some parents can't be trusted to do their job. But the failure of some parents to do their job does not justify government on any level overruling the rights and authority of all parents.

Yes, teen pregnancy and STD infection are disturbing. But state intrusion into the family isn't the solution. Not only does this shatter the cohesion of the family, but it undermines the general safety of children. As stated above, California is mailing condoms to children as young as 12, apparently without bothering to ascertain the age of these children's sex partners. That means that the state of California believes that 12-year-olds can consent to sex. How will that affect the enforcement of age-of-consent laws? It destroys the state's credibility to claim, on one hand, that 12-year-olds can't consent to sex while, on the other hand, giving them the means to do just that.

If the state wants to help stop teen pregnancy and STD infection it should flood the airwaves with public service announcements warning of the consequences of unprotected sex and give parents the correct information to discuss with their children. That is the limited role the state should have: dispensing information which parents then use according to their values. Some parents are very liberal and see nothing wrong with their (very young) teen children being sexually active. Such parents will, no doubt, give the go ahead for their kids to use birth control. Traditionalist parents wouldn't make that choice. But what ever choice parents make, the key is that they, and not the government, are in charge of their children.

We should not have government interfering with the sacred relationship between parent and child. Raising children is the job of parents, not the state. Unless abuse is happening, parents must be free to bring up their children as they see fit, even if they make choices the we-know-better progressives don't like. That is the essence of freedom, and the last time I checked, freedom was a good thing.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

As Athens Burns...

...Americans need to wake up.

The nation of Greece is facing imminent financial collapse and her people would rather riot in the streets than face the fact that their government can no longer support them. Americans need to wake up because we have a president who's determined to turn our country into the kind of welfare state that's bankrupted Greece.

America is an exceptional nation but she's not above the laws of math. If she continues to spend with reckless abandon she will financially implode just like Greece. America has a president fanatically devoted to the false belief that we can tax and spend our way to a just society. We can't. We can only tax and spend our way into more debt, dependency, and enslavement--yes, enslavement--to the foreign countries that are financing our debt.

Americans need to wake up.

Greece isn't the only European welfare state facing financial ruin. Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Italy are also having problems. Yet, Obama and the Democrats continue to see European welfare statism as the example America should follow, the model she should copy. And a huge swath of the American people agrees.

Millions of Americans believe that the government's job is to take care of them. "Entitlementism" is their religion. They don't want to hear that the government is broke. They just want the freebies they've been taught all their lives are rightfully theirs. If they have any concerns about the debt at all, they believe it can be solved by taxing the eeeeevil rich. But in general, they're in deep denial about America's financial danger. These are the people who will riot in America's streets if this nation financially implodes as Greece has done. It's the natural result of "entitlementism".

Athens is burning. America is heading down the same path that's produced the rioting in the Greek capital. America is at a crossroads. The upcoming presidential election will put this nation on the path to more and more welfare statism or the path back to economic freedom, fiscal responsibility, limited government and the consequent prosperity. The choice is stark, and it can't be based on "what's in it for me?". Rather, the choice must be made out of committment to the well-being of the nation both now and in the future. Athens is burning. That's telling us something, if we have the ears to hear.

Americans, WAKE UP!