Monday, March 30, 2009

Obama's Cap and Trade Scheme: More Taxes for Your Family

You need to know about the latest Obama plan to raise your taxes. This is another bad idea.

Here's the link.

The bottomline: this will raise your family costs and taxes. The climate change science behind it is dubious at best.

Just remember that Denver got 14-16 inches of snow!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Kids May Get New "Rights" From United Nations

This has not been a good month.It seems that everywhere you look, anti-family, anti-life forces are on the march.

The latest is the resurrection of a new international treaty from the United Nations. This treaty would enshrine children's rights internationally. This is a Clinton-era relic which had been moth-balled since the late 1990's. Here's a good link for more information.

For some Utopians it sounds like shangri-la, but it's flaws are numerous:

-Creates a government agency to supervise parents and to ensure that children are given the opportunity to have binding arbitration to resolve disputes. You have to love this one. For example, your minor daughter wants to have sex and you say no. Hypothetically, she could sue you and be given that freedom. Access to abortion, religious freedom and any other issue could be arbitrated. Essentially, children would be owned by the state and indoctrinated in state ideology. Parents would become temporary custodians of their children.

-Imposes upon "national governments to ensure children's rights and that they have agreed to hold themselves accountable for this commitment before the international community." Yikes. What kind of international "supervision" will that entail? Ever heard of "Big Brother?"

This radical treaty pushes child autonomy. Its bad news for our nation, for parents and children.

Why Colorado Senate Bill 88 Is A Bad Idea

Health care is not a civil right. The "list" of civil rights are based on immutability, in essence those personal characteristics which cannot be changed: eye-color, gender, height and ethnicity. Martin Luther King advocated that civil rights embraced concepts such as liberty, freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom of speech, economic prosperity for all. Our nation's founders would agree.

The latest Colorado advent of "civil rights" for homosexuals is encapsulated in Senate Bill 88 which is working its way to Governor Ritter's desk. Here's its synopsis:

For state employee group benefit plans issued or renewed on or
after July 1, 2010, adds a state employee's domestic partner to the list of
dependents eligible for coverage under state employee group benefit
plans. Defines "domestic partner" for purposes of qualifying as the
dependent of a state employee.


Here are several problems:

-This new law will cost a lot of money for a small group of folks. Budget experts estimate that taxpayers will be charged nearly $120,000 in its first year of implementation in 2011. I don't want my tax dollars ensuring this high-risk community.

-In 2006, Colorado voters overwhelmingly defeated Referendum I. This referendum would have given homosexuals these same benefits. By legislative fiat, homosexuals and their Democratic legislative allies are trying to accomplish this despite the will of voters.

If passed, expect this same cabal to attempt to force this concept in the Colorado private business community in 2010.

Friday, March 20, 2009

2007 Brings Record Number of Babies

2007 was a fertile year for American women having babies.

Thursday's issue of the USA Today reported a baby boom!

In 2007, 4.3 million new babes were born to American women, reaching near historic levels. Opinions for this surge vary among pediatric experts. But one chilling aspect of this story is the huge increase of babies born to unwed mothers.

Childbearing by unwed mothers accounted for nearly 40 percent of total birth- about 1.7 million. Since 2002, birth rates have dramatically accelerated among unwed mothers, dispelling much of the taboos of having children out of wedlock.

The group having the most kids out of wedlock-young women aged 20-24.

These numbers are cause for great concern. One of the highest predictors of poverty are families headed by a single parent, more often than not by women. While many of these mom's may have the income stream to support their new child or a live-in boyfriend, there remains the glaring fact that many kids will slip into impoverished homes.

This story proves again the value of marriage. Children thrive in a married home with both of their biological parents. Married families have higher income, lower levels of mental health issues, more stabilit and less domestic violence.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Taxing Colorado Marriages

A bad piece of Colorado public policy is making its way through the 2009 state legislature.

Senate bill 68 would impose a $20 tax on new marriage licenses in Colorado, to fund domestic violence programs.

This is a bad idea on a couple of fronts. First, marriage is an antidote to domestic violence. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) notes that the vast majority of violent domestic incidents are among live-in boyfriends and girlfriends. When couples marry, they make an emotional and physical investment for the long-term, reducing the risk of domestic violence. This hedge is not present in cohabiting relationships. And, the DV (domestic violence) factor increase exponentially if children are included into the cohabitation mix. Imposing this type of tax sends a subtle and false message: if folks didn't marry domestic violence would end.

RMFC supports DV programs. But taxing the societal entity that bulwarks against this behavior is the wrong policy road to travel down. Engaged couples don't need additional tax burdens imposed by the state. Instead, we need to encourage more couples to take the right step by marrying.

Perhaps a tax break to marry would be a better idea.

Everyone wins in this equation.

Let the sponsor of this bill, State Senator John Morse know your views at 303-866-6363.

Second

Monday, March 09, 2009

Let's Stay With What Works-Obama Lifts Stem Cell Ban.

Mr. President, no more smoke and mirrors.

Let's be honest. Lifting the Bush-era prohibition on embryonic stem cell research has little to do with finding "cures" but more with paying off political allies like Planned Parenthood and other abortionist supporters.

No cures have ever been found with embryonic cells. However, real treatment progress is being made with though with adult stem cells.

While Obama's decision will not provide new lines of embryonic cells it will make available older preserved cells for research.

Our problem with this decision is that it gives the camel a chance to gets its nose under the tent. Once the door is opened to this type of unlimited federally funded research, "Pandora's box" will open wide.

Here is the full story.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Protect Your Right to Homeschool

We knew that this day would come somewhere. The public school bureaucracy hates homeschooling. The advent of the Obama administration will embolden these bureaucrat's to launch legal and legislative initiatives to gut homeschooling under a variety of guises.

Here's the first salvo in New Hampshire.

Denver's Archbishop Chaput in the National Crosshairs

I think the Archbishop's comments are right on. See what you think...

Chaput calls Catholics servile toward Obama
By Electa Draper
The Denver Post


Posted: 02/26/2009 12:16:17 PM MST

Updated: 02/26/2009 03:56:32 PM MST


Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput (Post file)

Denver Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput, on a book tour in Canada this week, stirred controversy with remarks about U.S. Catholics, who he says exhibit "a spirit of adulation bordering on servility" toward President Barack Obama, an abortion-rights advocate.

"In democracies, we elect public servants, not messiahs," Chaput told more than 700 people in St. Basil's Church on the University of Toronto campus, the Catholic News Agency reported.

Reaction lit up cyberspace, and it ranged from admiration for his defense of Catholic doctrine on sanctity of life to furious perceptions that Chaput is insulting Catholic Democrats and improperly meddling in politics.

Chaput's speech focused on his new book on faithful citizenship, "Render Unto Caesar."

He called Obama "a man of intelligence and some remarkable gifts" who has great ability to inspire.

"But whatever his strengths," Chaput said, "there's no way to reinvent his record on abortion and related issues with rosy marketing about unity, hope and change."

Chaput said that modern society has "a phony unwillingness to offend that poses as prudence and good manners but too often turns out to be cowardice."

Echoing remarks Chaput made before Obama's election in November, the archbishop said that Catholics must form a strong and genuinely Catholic conscience and follow that conscience when they vote. He has called opposition to abortion the litmus test for being Catholic.

"Tolerating grave evil within a society by itself is a form of serious evil," Chaput said.

Many Colorado Catholics reacted angrily during the election season to what they perceived as church attempts to coerce them into being one-issue voters.

Chaput said Americans focused on one issue, the economy.

"It's worth recalling that despite two ugly wars, an unpopular Republican president, a fractured Republican Party, the support of most of the American news media and massively outspending his opponent, our new president actually trailed in the election polls the week before the economic meltdown," Chaput said.

"Americans, including many Catholics, elected a gifted man to fix an economic crisis. That's the mandate," Chaput said. "They gave nobody a mandate to retool American culture on the issues of marriage and the family, sexuality, bioethics, religion in public life and abortion."