For years the homosexual community has celebrated Gay Pride during the month of June. This year, for the first time, there was an official presidential proclamation declaring June Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. In his June 1^st  Proclamation, President Obama committed his Administration to aggressively support the top items on the homosexuals' wish list. Gay advocacy groups have publicly complained about the pace at which this administration has addressed their issues. In June, the president  took some steps to remedy that situation. 

He signed a memorandum that gives same-sex domestic partners of federal employees access to long term insurance benefits.  He was criticized by gay groups for stopping short of guaranteeing full health insurance to such partners. A bill winding its way through both houses of Congress will do that and more, extending to the same-sex partners of  federal employees the benefits married spouses already enjoy.

 The aforementioned presidential memorandum also allows civil servants to take sick leave to care for ailing domestic partners. Plus, the memo extends limited benefits to the same sex partners of Foreign Service officers including the use of medical facilities and medical evacuation services at posts abroad. Homosexual Foreign Service officers will also be allowed to include their partners when considering the family allocation for housing abroad. Sending U.S. Ambassadors and their gay partners into other countries, to live as married, exports an expansive definition of family, one most Americans do not embrace. And each of these benefits forces the taxpayer to, in some way, support homosexual unions. Still, the homosexual community says Obama is not doing enough on their behalf.  FULL POST

As lawmakers debate healthcare in Washington D.C., businesses across America are wondering how the promised legislation will affect their bottom lines. One CEO is charging into the debate.  He hopes that, rather than nationalize healthcare, Congress will consider what his company, Safeway Incorporated, has done to hold its per capita healthcare expenses flat over the past four years. This includes expenses for both employer and employee.  During the same time period, these costs for corporate America as a whole have risen forty percent. 

Safeway CEO Steve Burd has been to Capitol Hill several times this year to testify before members of Congress hoping to convince them not to tilt the system toward a government-funded option.  He says "...it is the market that reins in costs."  In 2005, Safeway implemented a two-part plan to contain the company's healthcare spending, which, prior to that time, was rising 10 percent per year:  For its non-union employees, Safeway now fully covers primary and preventative medical tests and doctor visits. Plus, the company deposits $1000 into a "health reimbursement account" for each employee.  After the first thousand has been spent, the second thousand dollars of care is the employee's responsibility. Employees pay 20 percent of remaining costs up to $4000.  Then, an insurance policy kicks in. 

The Wall Street Journal's Kim Strassel points out that employees treat that first thousand dollars ver-y carefully, since the next thousand will come out of their pockets. They're avoiding using the emergency room for routine care. They're comparison shopping, finding, for instance, that a colonoscopy performed near their California headquarters can cost anywhere from $700 to $7000 dollars. When people have 'skin in the game, they'll find ways to get good care at a fair price.  FULL POST

 One of President Obama's appointments needs to be discussed... with parental discretion advised. The president has tapped Kevin Jennings to be Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.  Jennings will operate as a sort of Safe Schools Czar.  Safe for whom?  In particular, for open homosexuals and transgendered students.

Kevin Jennings is cofounder and, until recently, Executive Director of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network. In the name of preventing bullying of homosexual and transsexual kids, GLSEN provides resources for teachers, clubs, and other programs for youth.  All of these inform kids... expansively ...about homosexuality.

Here's how one Hayward, California teacher made use of GLSEN's resources: During a celebration of National Ally Week, she passed out cards produced by GLSEN to her class of kindergartners.  The cards asked signers to be 'an ally' and to pledge to 'not use anti-LGBT (that's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) language or slurs. This is nice, but how do you explain to a kindergartner what a lesbian is? FULL POST

Recently forty-six states and the District of Columbia announced an effort to establish common standards for what children should learn each year, from kindergarten through high school.  This push towards a national yardstick is led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Once the standards are agreed upon, participation is supposed to be voluntary. But for how long? Only the governors of Texas, Alaska, Missouri, and South Carolina have not signed on and three of these leaders are known skeptics of national mandates.

 The country has been moving toward a centrally-controlled education system for decades. Beginning in the 90's, Congress enacted three successive pieces of legislation, each of which significantly increased federal control of public schools: First, Goals 2000.  Then, School-to-Work.   And, finally, the National Investment Opportunity (or Careers) Act. In each bill federal funding was increased as an incentive for states to adopt federal mandates that advanced the very-practical-sounding cause called Workforce Development. The idea here is to teach students the skills needed to be successful in the workplace. Some school districts have balked at the curricular changes that have gradually shifted focus from basics and classics to the shaping of attitudes.  Good for them.

 The latest federal education bill, President Bush's No Child Left Behind, added a major accountability component.      But, because Republicans have always been skeptical of national standards for education, states retained the ability to write their own. According to President Obama's Secretary of  Education Arnie Duncan, that hasn't worked out so well. The system provides a perverse incentive for states to show good results at the expense of really teaching kids something.         He says we're  "...lying to children and their parents because states have dumbed down their standards."    FULL POST

When the movie Juno received four Academy Award nominations and actually won the Oscar for best screenplay, former Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt was worried. In the film, Juno, a pregnant teenager, decides against an abortion partially due to her experience at an abortionclinic.  Ms. Feldt admits, "The clinic in Juno is terrible." But, she adds: "It's a terribly untrue stereotype." When Juno arrives at the clinic, a flippant and heavily pierced receptionist seems to care more about forcing a lavender condom on her than on offering real help for her current dilemma. This is a parody on what we know about Planned Parenthood: that they're a lot more about contraception and abortion than about abstinence and adoption. In an interview, Feldt said workers in Planned Parenthood clinics are "compassionate" and "dedicated to making women feel comfortable." However, it's pretty hard to make someone "comfortable" about aborting her baby. Juno decided to opt out. She kept remembering something the pro-life volunteer outside the clinic told her: "It has fingernails."

 Despite its name, Planned Parenthood is all about preventing children from being born and you and I are helping to foot the bill. By law, taxpayer dollars cannot fund abortion. But organizations with privately funded abortion programs are eligible for public funds if they are used for other purposes. The truth is, Planned Parenthood is, by far, the nation's largest abortion provider, performing more abortions every year. In fact their annual report, just released, shows an increase of over 15,000 in 2007. Even though it turns a huge profit, the organization receives more than $300 million in federal funding annually. It's leaders say they keep the money on the contraception side of the operation. But, in some states, like Texas, authorities are getting wise to Planned Parenthood.

 Four clinics in San Antonio were ordered recently to cease and desist from all abortions. It seems they were aborting without licenses. Clinic officials claim they didn't know they needed a license to give out the abortion pill. They do. Because the clinics receive state funding, some Texas lawmakers are asking for an investigation. Corpus Christi, seeing the need for some budgetary restraint, announced in December, it's cutting out Planned Parenthood. Citizens who pushed for this said the organization is far too wealthy and controversial to be deemed worthy of public support. And, in the Texas panhandle, after a 12 year battle, all Planned Parenthood clinics have been shut down. In 1997, there were nineteen of them. FULL POST

The party switch by Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter is the latest development that has various politicians and party elites calling for a new Republican brand. That, they say, involves somehow reshaping and redefining conservatism. It can't be done. Conservatism is a philosophy and a way of living. Political image-shapers can take it or leave it. They can't change it. And they shouldn't. On the financial crisis, health care, and the environment, conservative thinkers should be spending their time in the wilderness formulating solutions for the problems that face the country. These need to be fleshed out and ready when the electorate gets fed up with the current march toward socialism.

For some GOP bigwigs...recasting and rebranding means dumping the "wedge" issues: abortion and same sex marriage. The National Council for a New America was launched recently by Senator John Mc Cain, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, former Governors Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney, and others. This group is out to remake their party, by focusing on the bread and butter issues of domestic policy: the economy, health care. They are pointedly not, at this time, addressing the issues a large segment of their base cares most about: marriage, illegal immigration, and abortion.

Certainly, we need thoughtful solutions to the economic problems that threaten our very way of life. But this group isn't providing any...yet. A spokesman said, "This is not a contract with America-this is a conversation with America." They're missing an opportunity to offer solutions. South Carolina Senator Jim De Mint says, "Republicans became more concerned with staying in D.C. than reforming it." The right should figure out compelling ways to define core principles that cannot be compromised. Strong defense, small government., freedom, and ...yes...life and marriage.

John Mc Cain's daughter Meghan, wants a hipper, edgier party that will attract the youth vote. She calls for Republicans to embrace gay marriage. Recently a group of conservative homeschoolers in Dallas played her interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow to analyze her arguments. They concluded she had no idea why she was a Republican except that she likes the Republicans she met on the campaign trail. Maddow asked her if, since she disagreed with the party on social issues, was she a Republican because of economic issues? No...she says she really doesn't know that much about the economic stuff.

America can do better than this. If young conservatives want compassion toward homosexuals, let's find ways to offer that without changing the institution of marriage. Explain to them that strong marriages foster strong, free, and prosperous societies. FULL POST

Todaytwo members of Congress and leaders of several Christian pro-family organizations are holding a press conference in Washington D.C. about a vote this week that could usher in a big chill on religious speech. I hope lots of media outlets cover it. (Christian news outlets like the Christian Post and some Christian radio shows are reporting on it. I was on a panel last Friday on Point of View radio show and we spent a lot of time on the issue. They also did a whole show on the subject earlier in the week.) But, I'm surprised there wasn't coverage on conservative radio or television of last week's two-day hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on H.R. 1913, The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.

Passing this Hate Crimes legislation is a top priority for the gay lobby which has been trying for nearly 20 years to designate homosexuals as a special category of citizens deserving of special protections under the law. Specifically, H.R. 1913 would provide for enhanced penalties for people committing crimes against gay, lesbian and transgendered people because of their perceived bias or "hatred" against these people. Violent crime is already illegal. Current federal hate crimes legislation covers race, ethnicity, and national origin...immutable characteristics. H.R.1913 adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the list. Under this law, a victim who practices gay sex or who doesn't accept the gender he or she was born with, is deemed more worthy of protection than your grandmother or your little girl.

 The absurdity of this proposed legislation was highlighted at the hearing where lawmakers proposed amendment after amendment to try to add other classes of people to the list receiving this special protection. Concerned Women for America sent out a list which includes the following: FULL POST

AFTER THE TEA PARTIES

I went to one of those TEA Parties. You know: Taxed Enough Already. I showed up at an intersection near where I live. There was no program; no speakers. Just hundreds of people with homemade signs and flags. Lots of cars and trucks passed by, honking their enthusiasm. The rallies across the country on April 15^th were not simply about taxes. They were also about bailouts and the explosive increase in government spending. Nagging concerns reached a crescendo that day. Average Americans fear losing freedom. We recoil from the bondage of massive debt and government tyranny. We worry about our kids: Charles Colson said in that day's Breakpoint: "parents are supposed to leave their children better off, not saddled with debt."

 There is a real parallel between these grassroots TEA parties and the Boston Tea Party, because both are inspired by citizens' desire to be free from excessive government control. The colonists understood that if they accepted a tax, even if it was greatly reduced...and only on tea, they would be accepting the British Parliament's sway over their lives. Texas Governor Rick Perry has been called the "darling" of the TEA Parties. He warns that massive government regulation is too steep a price for accepting stimulus money. FULL POST

Proclaiming a "rainbow over Iowa, " Evan Wolfson, leader of the group Freedom to Marry says, "equality in marriage has come to America's heartland." No...marriage equality has existed in Iowa since before the first official American settlers moved there in 1833. All adults, gay and straight, are free to marry. Proponents of same sex marriage are attempting to change the very definition of marriage and, therefore, he institution itself. Their successes so far have been in the courts...the most recent: a unanimous ruling issued earlier this month in which the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a 2007 district court ruling that the state's Defense of Marriage law is unconstitutional.

Why Iowa? Gay rights groups say that while the Midwest is culturally and politically conservative, Iowa has an "independent streak." "Independent" is also the way these folks characterize New England where Lambda Legal and other gay advocacy groups are pursuing a "six by Twelve Campaign. Massachusetts and Connecticut and now Vermont already have same sex marriage. The aim of this effort is to achieve legal same sex marriage in all six New England states by 2012. FULL POST