A few months ago, conservatives were outraged at the firing of liberalJuan Williams by National Public Radio for saying that flying with Islamic-looking males made him nervous on Fox News’ The O’Reily Factor. According to NPR’s head honcho Vivian Schiller, Mr. Williams had “several times in the past violated [their] news code of ethics with things that he had said on other people’s air.”

Apparently expressing an opinion based on the fact that virtually every airplane-hijacking terrorist in the United States over the past few decades has been a Jihadist is punishable by unemployment from NPR. Juan Williams did not state that he thought all Muslims were terrorists, or even that he refused to fly with them. He simply stated that it made him nervous.

Shortly thereafter, many prominent conservative pundits called for NPR to be defunded of the federal money that it receives. Private businesses can run things how they see fit, but organizations receiving taxpayer money should not be able to terminate someone’s employment for expressing a valid opinion, especially when it wasn’t even done on NPR’s airwaves.

In November, the then-Democratic House of Representatives defeated a bill to cut the federal fundingof NPR. The supposedly unbiased organization released this statement after the vote:

In an increasingly fractious media environment, public radio’s value in fostering an informed society has never been more critical. Our growing audience shows that we are meeting that need. It is imperative for federal funding to continue to ensure that this essential tool of democracy remains available to all Americans and thrives well into the future.

Fast forward to March 2011. Ron Schiller, a senior executive at NPR, was caught on tape in a sting operation criticizing the Republican party, and Tea Party Republicans in particular, as being racist, fundamentalist Christian, and fanatically involved in people’s personal lives.

**Side note: Democrats want to control our health care, our education, and what we can feed our kids, but Republicans are “fanatically involved in people’s personal lives”? Um, ok …

Read the rest at The Stir

People have been breaking rules since God said, “Enjoy the garden … just don’t eat that fruit off that tree.” The first rule in existence and the first humans couldn’t be bothered to follow it.

Let’s face it: Rules are rarely any fun or easy to follow. That’s why there are sayings like, “Rules were meant to be broken,” or my favorite from one of those pirate movies, “They’re more like guidelines anyway.”

Some of the bigger rules are relatively easy for most of us to follow. Thou shalt not murder is one of those that I’m fairly certain most Americans don’t struggle to keep on a daily basis. But what about speed limits? Anti-piracy laws? Tucking the price tags in on an expensive outfit, wearing it to a fancy party, and then returning it to the store for a full refund?

Rules can suck, but like it or not, they’re necessary for order and civility. Reckless driving is dangerous, and kills people every day. Illegally downloading software off the Internet is the same as walking into a store and stealing a boxed computer program. Returning worn clothes to a store as new is dishonest to both the store and the eventual end purchaser.

The wonderful thing about the way our government is set up is that it’s full of rules to protect us against tyranny. We have three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial … someone should remind Senator Schumer of that, by the way) that provide a unique system of checks and balances to keep any one person or group from getting too much power.

Read the rest at The Stir

In this fabulous era of equality, I’m hard-pressed to find something a man can do that I can’t. Maybe pee standing up, but that’s about it. I have the same opportunities as men in this glorious nation. Opportunities for an education, a career, the right to vote — things our grandmothers and great-grandmothers could only dream of.

It was a hard-won fight by our foremothers, but by golly, we have arrived. Growing up in the tail end of the twentieth-century, it never occurred to me to limit myself based on my gender. I never played dumb to attract a boy (in fact I tutored more than one boyfriend), never feared discrimination for having breasts, and never needed a man to intercede on my behalf.

In other words: I am woman, hear me roar!

Unfortunately, many of my homegirls have taken this whole equal-to-a-man concept and erroneously transformed it into a we-don’t-need-men-except-as-sperm-donors ideal. Want kids, but don’t want to put up with a pesky man and his stinky feet and his whiskers in the sink every morning? Just get yourself a spermsicle, and you too can be aglamorous single mom!

Who needs a perpetual man-child anyway? Aren’t we better off without them?

Read the rest at The Stir

As a conservative, I am often accused of being a selfish, heartless,mean girl. Somehow, believing that Americans are strong, hard-working people well capable of taking care of themselves and their communities means that I’m a thieving capitalist who only wants the rich to get richer. Oh, and for some reason I’m also a racist.

Let’s take a look at the current situation in Wisconsin. The public sector unions are protesting at the state’s Capitol against Governor Scott Walker’s plan to make the members pay a fraction of their own health insurance and retirement contributions, and to limit their ‘collective bargaining’ capabilities to salary alone (as opposed to benefits as well). I stand with Governor Walker on this issue (incidentally, so would Democratic hero FDR), which obviously means I’m joining the ‘attack’ on workers in Wisconsin.

Why is it that every time conservatives advocate for taxpayers keeping more of their own hard-earned money, we’re accused of stealing from the poor? The GOP opposes Obamacare, and Harry Reid claims we’re stealing from the middle class. If we so much as mention privatizing Social Security, John Boehner gets painted as a clown and we’re accused of trying to steal from people’s retirement accounts. (Newsflash: that money is already long gone.) Parents that support a voucher system so that they can choose the best schools for their children are guilty of defunding the public schools they are districted for.

Read the rest at The Stir

The left loves illegal immigrants. Let’s make all the criminals that sneak into our country citizens, with full access to social services! The right loves legal immigrants. We say, let’s reform the system and let anyone (that isn’t a criminal) that wants a shot at the American dream to come on over.

Oh yeah, and let’s build a big fence with armed guards to keep the drug traffickers, sex slave traders, kidnappers, and murderers out.

You know what else the left loves? The European Union. Especially countries like Greece, where an extravagant redistribution of wealth in the name of social justice has bankrupt the entire country.

I wonder if liberals still love the EU since news leaked of their strict border enforcement policy. Greece is the entry point for 90% of illegal immigrants trying to make it into Western Europe. The EU sent 175 border agents with guns to the Greek border with Turkey, but the Greeks have deemed it insufficient:

The socialist government has recently announced that it plans to build a razor-wire fence along the border. It will, say officials, be equipped with sonar systems and thermal sensors and be modelled [sic] along the lines of similar “walls” in Spain, Lithuania and France.

“If we could have it up tomorrow, we would,” said Christos Papoutsis, the country’s minister for citizen protection. “Greece is not a paradise… it is in the midst of economic crisis, wages are going down, unemployment is surging and there is not enough work for our own people or the migrants who are already here. Our hope is that this fence will send a message.”

You can’t have socialism and open immigration. Two plus two does not equal five. Liberals in our country can’t have it both ways. Either you allow everyone in and give them a chance to make a living, or you batten down the hatches and tell would-be immigrants, “No soup for you!”

Personally, I favor the approach that made America great to begin with. Let them in. Give them property rights. Don’t punish success with excessive taxation. Let anyone willing to work for it come in and take a shot at the American dream.  We might be welcoming the next Andrew Carnegie or Levi Strauss.

It’s no wonder that Republicans have such a bad rap with progressives. Apparently, we want to legalize rape. I wouldn’t like Republicans either if that were even one teensy weensy bit true.

The controversy stems from the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act, which seeks to expand existing Hyde amendment restrictions on the use of taxpayer money for abortions by prohibiting indirect funding and tax-exemptions to businesses that provide abortions.

As it stands now, the government claims it doesn’t fund abortions with taxpayer money, yet billions of dollars go to Planned Parenthood for non-abortion services. Which then frees up ‘private’ money for abortions and advice on how to run an underage sex slave ring.

The legislation includes an exemption for the 3% or less of abortions performed after rape or to preserve the life of the mother. The bill explicitly states that federal funding will not be withheld from women that ‘need’ an abortion, just those that ‘want’ an abortion.

Read the rest at The Stir

When the gut-wrenching story broke of the Philadelphia abortionist that routinely delivered live, viable babies before jamming scissors into their brains to kill them, I had to write about it.

The part of the story that struck me so deeply was the desperation that those women felt walking into that clinic. I don’t believe that anyone wants an abortion; but that women are pressured by family, friends, and society (mostly well-meaning, I’m sure) to believe that the procedure is no big deal.

How far below rock bottom does a woman have to be to walk into a filthy ‘clinic’ and have the kicking, squirming life sucked out of her? That woman needs love and support, not the legal right to an abortion. In the article I wrote, I mentioned some ways to actually help pregnant women, such as donating money to cover prenatal care for those that can’t afford it, bringing meals to single moms trying to make it, or volunteering with a pregnancy care center or adoption agency.

For that I got called a woman-hater.

It turns out that unless one believes that a mother-to-be has the right to end the life of her unborn child, that person hates women. I vehemently dispute that claim. I do like women. I like men, too for the record. I like all people no matter how big or small, no matter their age, and no matter where they live: In a mansion, on the street, or in a uterus.

I believe that God created humans (and other stuff … like everything), and even though you’re not going to get along with everyone, life is worthy of respect.

Read the rest at Pundit League

Raising our kids is probably the most important thing we moms will ever do in our lives. One of the biggest decisions we will ever make for our children is how they will beeducated.

We have a lot more options these days than our own parents did. Charter schools are popping up all over the country, and homeschooling is now seen as a viableeducation option. Of course, there are always private schools, but many parents can’t afford the expensive price tag that comes along with them.

This week is National School Choice Week, so there’s been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about different educational paths for our kids. Unfortunately, there still aren’t a ton of viable options out there for parents to choose from. Waiting lists for charter schools (if they’re even available) are notoriously long, private school may be financially out of reach, and homeschooling simply isn’t an option for some families. These limitations leave most kids at whatever public school they’re zoned for, no matter how crappy it is.

We’ve all known kids that have gotten transfers to different schools, and if your town was anything like my town growing up, there were a number of people that used a friend’s or relative’s address to claim residency in a better school district than their own.

One such Ohio woman was convicted of grand theft and sent to jail for using her father’s address toclaim residency in a top school district.

[Kelley] Williams-Bolar decided four years ago to send her daughters to a highly ranked school in neighboring Copley-Fairlawn School District.

But it wasn’t her Akron district of residence, so her children were ineligible to attend school there, even though her father lived within the district’s boundaries.

While her children are no longer attending schools in the Copley-Fairlawn District, school officials said she was cheating because her daughters received a quality education without paying taxes to fund it.

I was under the impression that schools were mostly funded by the state, so I didn’t really understand the ‘cheating’ aspect of it. Wouldn’t the school get extra money due to the kids’ attendance? Why then, would they complain?

Read the rest at The Stir

Next week, January 23-29, is School Choice Week. What is school choice?

School choice isn’t about raising oneeducational model above all others. It’s not about doing away with public schools. It’s about making them better, and giving families the freedom to choose the school — public, private, charter, religious, secular — that will help their children learn and grow. Above all, it’s about reforming the system so that every parent has the freedom to choose the education that’s best for their individual child.

It’s about putting parents in control of their children’seducation and their future. When did we decide that families should be limited to the specific school their neighborhood was zoned for?

Our public education system is a mess, and the U.S. is falling further behind other developed countries. Something is obviously broken, and we have a responsibility as parents to figure out what it is and how to fix it.

Is money the problem? Is a lack of funds preventing schools from academically challenging our kids? If this were the case, public schools in the DC district would be churning out little Einsteins and Curies, as they spend nearly $25,000 per student. Funding doesn’t seem to be the issue.

Read the rest at The Stir

We’ve all dated guys our dads or brothers didn’t like. In fact, looking back at my dating past, I’m impressed with my dad for the composure he maintained when I introduced him to a couple of my squeezes. While he may have been thinking, “No daughter of mine will ever end up with spiky-haired mama’s boy like you,” he managed a cool, “Have her back by 11. And I’m friendly with allthe cops. And I’m an attorney. Just so you know.”

I was always home by curfew.

As a teenager, I hated that my parents didn’t ‘trust’ me enough to let go of the reins, but at the ripe old age of 27, I’ve wisely figured out that they understood teenaged boys a lot better than I did. They were protective of me because they cherished me as their daughter, and couldn’t bear to see me get hurt.

It boggles my mind when I read stories like Afshan Azad’s. The 22-year-old Harry Potter star recently had to flee her home after being attacked by her old brother and receiving death threats from him and their father.  Her offense was dating a non-Muslim man.

Read the rest at The Stir