Tough Love
Michael Reagan Remembers Jane Wyman

Back in the 1950s, spoiled Beverly Hills brats could go to their parents and extort money from them because they felt guilt because they couldn't spend time with their kids. They would get their parents to assuage their guilt by buying them things, such as the brand new 10-speed Schwinn bicycles that were then the rage.

All my friends were getting their parents to buy one -- it was the newest bike of the day and every kid, including me, wanted one. I had even picked out the brand new blue 10-speed Schwinn bike I wanted.

I went to my mom and told her I would love her forever if she'd just buy it for me. "How badly do you want it?" she asked.

When I said, "More than anything else," she said, "Do you want it badly enough to get a job?" I protested that I was only 10 years old and couldn't get a job, but she said that with a bike I could get a paper route. She said, "I will lend you the money and you can pay me back."

I asked her why she was doing this – none of my friends had to work to get a bike. Their parents simply gave them their bikes and everything else they wanted.

She said, "If I give you everything you want, and I can afford to do that, you'll grow up to be a 40-year-old child. I build men, not boys.”

Michael Reagan
Townhall

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Common Ground in the Mommy Wars

Some good news was released from the mommy war front last week. Though The Today Show and Good Morning America frequently fill time by throwing stay-at-home mothers and working moms into the ring to duke it out for their respective sides, a new Pew poll shows that they have more in common than television producers give them credit for. Namely, that neither group wants to work full-time.

Only 21 percent of working mothers report a preference for a 40+-hour work week, while only 16 percent of at-home moms say the same. Half of all mothers favor dropping out of the labor market altogether. These numbers pose a problem for feminists who spent the last few years arguing that the opt-out revolution is nothing more than a figment of the media's imagination.

After peaking in the mid 90s, the percentage of married mothers in the workforce has consistently inched backwards. Rather than admit the obvious, that women increasingly favor cutting back their careers when their children are young, some feminists are employing their own brand of voodoo economics. Women aren't opting out, they're being pushed out, they say.

Megan Bashan
Townhall

Christian Terrorists

School districts across the United States, unfortunately, have to prepare for tragedies inside the walls of the classroom. For the past decade, we've seen horrible incidents of school violence through hostage-taking in Colorado, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. No one disputes the need for proper preparation for school officials and emergency responders. But what happened in Burlington Township High School last week is inexcusable. Preparing for potential hostage-taking is one thing; blaming the hostage-taking on conservative Christians is not only inappropriate, but outrageous and raises serious constitutional questions as well.

School officials in Burlington Township, New Jersey stated, "We need to practice under conditions as real as possible in order to evaluate our procedures and plans so that they are as effective as possible." Accordingly, two police officers, playing the role of armed intruders, invaded the school and pretended to shoot several students in a mock exercise. Several students volunteered to act as hostages or as wounded victims. The officers barricaded themselves in the school's media center with ten student hostages. The school resource officer and the Burlington Township Joint Tactical Team worked to secure the school, and faculty members simulated a lock-down and evacuation.

Investigators described the gunmen as "members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called 'The New Crusaders,' who don't believe in the separation of church and state." The mock gunmen went to the school seeking justice "because the daughter of one had been expelled for praying before class."

Jay Sekulow
Townhall

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Latest Attempt to Abolish Marriage in California

“The attack on the institution of marriage is relentless,” said Larry Jacobs, global coordinator of the World Congress of Families.

Jacobs was reacting to a bill passed by the California Legislature which changes the definition of marriage in state law from “man and woman” to “two persons.” This would de facto establish homosexual marriage in California.

Jacobs noted that in 2000, California voters passed Proposition 22, a statute limiting marriage to a man and a woman.

“In liberal California, the measure passed with a vote of 61.4%,” Jacobs observed. “When it comes to same-sex marriage, what is it about ‘no!' that California politicians and judges don't understand?” There's also a ballot drive underway for a marriage amendment to the California constitution.

While California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed similar legislation in the past, he's now signaling that he might sign AB43 (the redefinition of marriage).

“Tampering with marriage will have catastrophic consequences,” Jacobs cautioned. “Society's essential business of procreation isn't done by same-sex couples.  Beyond that, the natural family is far and away the best arrangement for nurturing children. Rather than a fad that validates the life-styles of certain well-organized interest groups, the natural family is a time-tested arrangement for achieving social stability.”

Jacobs warned that California politicians are courting disaster. “Besides the end-run around the democratic process this legislation represents, the bill will validate the abnormal and undercut the overwhelming majority of California families.”