Although the Washington media elite would like nothing better than to dismiss those who attended this past weekend’s Glenn Beck rally as single issue “racist Tea Party” folks, I think what transpired on Saturday left them smarting and scared to death about November.  Chris Matthews and others tried to marginalize the event in an interview with my good friend Colin Hannah, but Colin got the last laugh when hundreds of thousands of regular, small government, God-fearing folk descended upon Washington, D.C., like a couple from North Carolina who stayed at my own house during the weekend who came specifically for the event.

The Pattons own a dry cleaning business and work hard all week to build their business in a tough economy.  Lord knows they could have used the rest rather than drive six hours each way to Washington to stay just one night.  But they, like most of the others who came to the nation’s capital, desperately wanted their elected officials to hear their angst and to understand the seriousness of the situation.  They came to reaffirm the nation’s fidelity to founding principles, both from fiscal and social issue standpoints. 

The Beck rally was supposedly just about the economy, but the end result was a revival of sorts.  It was regular people joining each other to pay homage to their God and to show love for their country.  All of those ideas work in perfect harmony because it is from this same perspective that our nation was founded by similarly brave men and women. 

I think George Washington summed up the message Saturday when he said in 1789:

The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained. – George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789

As the mom of a 13-year-old daughter, I took time recently while visiting one of the giant retail bookstores to check out the section on parenting teens.  I expected the normal array of books on how to talk to teens about body image, discipline, and, perhaps, dating.  While some of these existed, the largest topic taking up shelf space was on something completely different.  Rows of books detailed the heartbreak of teens who engage in self-injury.

According to the Mayo Clinic, self-injury is usually the result of an inability to cope in healthy ways with deep psychological pain.  And while the most prominent form of self-injury — “cutting” — itself is not a disorder, it can be a symptom of serious psychological problems, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or borderline personality disorder.

The onset of self-injury tends to begin in the pre-teen to teen years and mainly affects girls.  Cutting is a tragic effort to relieve emotional pain by inflicting physical pain.

Honestly, I don’t think of myself as a person who is easily shocked, but the sheer volume of books dedicated to the topic took my breath away.  I left praying for God’s protection for my daughter in one more area of life and saddened for those children struggling with this dangerous behavior.

But the shock I felt that day is nothing compared to the outrage I feel now at the mall accessory retailer Claire’s Stores, Inc. — or Claire’s as they are commonly known.  

You’ve seen them packed with giggling pre-teens trying on inexpensive jewelry and getting their ears pierced.  Sounds innocent, right?  Well, not so much.  Apparently, there is a buck to be made off of teenage cutting. 

I read something recently that suggested Claire’s is hyping the practice by promoting razor blade jewelry to their pre-teen and teen customers.  Surely this had to be inaccurate?  No responsible company is that morally bankrupt!  However, this past weekend, a Concerned Women for America employee confirmed our worst suspicions.

Claire’s prominently sells razor blade jewelry.

This is particularly outrageous, considering a July 2010 study conducted by a psychologist at the University of North Carolina found that peers have great influence over whether or not their friends engage in self-injury.  Imagine the impact among young girls if they believe cutting is “the cool thing to do” because their friends are wearing razor blades as jewelry.

It is undeniably shocking to learn that children in our culture are so desperate that they resort to cutting themselves with razor blades in a plea for help.   But let me tell you, this is so shameful that I haven’t the words — and if I did they would not be printable here or in any of the parenting books that started me on this subject.  I find it vile, disgusting, and depraved that adults stoop to profiteering from a child’s pain and illness as Claire’s has done in this instance.  Shame on Claire’s!

Feel free to contact Claire’s Stores, Inc., to give them our own choice words on the matter.

Claire’s Stores, Inc.
3 S.W. 129th Avenue
Pembroke Pines, FL 33027
Customer Service: 800-252-4737
Headquarters Phone: 954-433-3900
Headquarters Fax: 954-433-3999
Customer Service E-mail: customerservice@claires.com
Marketing Dept. E-mail: marketing@claires.com

In today’s world, many women not only work to balance the family finances but, according to the Small Business Administration, 6.5 million of us also work to keep a business afloat.  The vast majority of these, eighty percent, have receipts of less than $50,000.  So it is fascinating to realize that these same women, many of whom are independents and voted for Obama, have become disenchanted with our winsome president.

Democrats and Republicans are scratching their heads and commissioning focus groups to understand why, but I think it’s clear.  Women are the chief operating officers of the American family and often of a small business as well.  Women understand what it means to live within our means and thus find it outrageous that Congress refuses to live up to the same standards. 

Sixty-three percent of such women say that the longer a politician is in Washington, the less he or she listens to voters, and the more they become part of the problem — and the health care bill is a good example of the kind of “problem” women are fed up with.  The same women who voted for Obama are very displeased with the president’s health care overhaul.  Fifty-two percent oppose it, with 42 percent saying it will make things worse in their personal or family situation.

And the fact that our government has chosen to saddle our kids with a $13 trillion debt — $1 trillion of which was run up in the last six months — is unconscionable to American moms.  That’s why CWA has joined SpendingRevolt.com.  Join us on the bus tour when it comes to your area, and let Washington know it needs to stop the spending spree!

Yet again, an investigation into the computer habits of government employees has revealed practices that are not just shocking, they are down right despicable.

The latest report shows that dozens of Pentagon officials and contractors have been purchasing and downloading illegal child pornography — sometimes even using their work computers to buy and view it.

Purchasing and viewing child pornography is never justified.  Child pornography violates all standards of human decency and is a sick perversion that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The fact that government officials — paid with our tax dollars and supposedly working to defend our country — are indulging in this illegal and immoral activity is horrific and completely unacceptable.

Alone, these allegations would be appalling enough.  However, this is only the latest in a long string of discoveries of malfeasance.  Still, when the Transportation Services Authority recently announced its list of banned website categories for employee computers, pornography was not on that list.

How many times will the gross abuse of taxpayer resources have to come to light before the federal government finally does something?

By ignoring this culture of corruption, our national security officials are putting our safety — and the safety of our children — in jeopardy.

At the very least, all government employees immediately involved in this child pornography operation should be terminated without pay.  So far, no other government agency caught up in a pornography scandal has taken sufficient action. 

The Pennsylvania Senate has voted unanimously in support of The Indoor Tanning Regulation Act, S.B. 460.  Sponsored by Sen. Pat Browne (R-Lehigh/Northampton/Monroe), the bill would require “informed consent” from tanning patrons so that they can tan safely for their skin type.  It also requires parental consent for those under 18, a signed parental waiver citing proper tanning practices and risks associated with UV exposure for those 14-16, and children under 14 must have written permission from a licensed physician.  The bill also includes *gasp* a required 24- hour waiting period — between tanning sessions, that is.

But you aren’t hearing howls from tanning salons in the state.  According to a report in The Express-Times, tanning salons there think the requirements are so commonsense that a number of them were already doing it.  Not one of the salon managers interviewed criticized the proposed tanning requirements as “biased” or “coercive,” and no cries were heard from patrons that they had a right to control their own bodies.  If this bill becomes law, I have to wonder if a boyfriend or unrelated adult might whisk a minor to another state to avoid the parental consent requirement — in the minor’s best interests, of course.

Seriously though, contrast that with the reaction of abortion advocates when Pennsylvania passed similar regulations on abortion.  Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania challenged those regulations signed into law by then-Governor Robert Casey all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Thankfully, the high court upheld all but one of the Casey provisions (spousal notification), and today, states are allowed to place modest, commonsense requirements on the abortion industry.

It’s as clear cut as a tan line.  The abortion industry is out of step with the thoughts of most citizens, and it will spare no expense to fight even the most commonsense regulations.

I am the mother of a thirteen-year-old daughter.  What I know, and other moms will agree, is that thirteen-year-olds are children.  One minute you get small glimpses into the young women they will someday become, but the vast majority of the time they are still wonderfully innocent and childlike. 

The news that the Swiss have sided with narcissistic Hollywood’s pressure to release child rapist Roman Polanski and refuse to extradite him to the United States to face criminal charges for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977 makes me beyond angry.  Who are these people?

Many of the Hollywood A-listers rallied behind the film director as an accomplished artist who shouldn’t have to face these charges.

Talk show host and outspoken actress Whoopi Goldberg said what Polanski did wasn’t “rape-rape.”

You be the judge.  Roman Polanski lured the 13-year-old into a hot tub, but she decided to get out. He told her to go lay down on the bed and kissed her, but she refused.  He then raped her, but once he figured out she wasn’t using birth control, he sodomized her.

What part of that isn’t rape? 

Why do so many in Hollywood think that they are exempt from the rule of law?  Forget Lindsey Lohan!  Look how many came to Polanski’s defense, including film mogul Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Martin Scorsese, and Costa Gavras and signed a petition that expressed “stupefaction” at Polanski’s arrest. 

The attitude over at the Huffington Post was: “Move on, everyone.  Nothing to see here.  Keep on directing, Roman.  Love ya!”

Let’s be clear here.  These people are so entitled that they have even stooped to defend a child rapist!  We at Concerned Women for America find this heinous and unacceptable, both that anyone would come to Polanski’s defense and that that the Swiss would refuse to allow him to stand trial in the United States for his crime. 

When will Hollywood wake up to the fact that real America is becoming fed up with their outrageous behavior?  It’s sad when it’s Lindsey Lohan’s train wreck of a life, but it’s outright dangerous when their poison spills over to harm other people’s children. 

Via CBS News, posted on Drudge, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) released a list of five categories of websites that it will be blocking its employees from accessing from a government computer.  Here’s the list (which isn’t defined of course):

• Chat/Messaging
• Controversial opinion
• Criminal activity
• Extreme violence (including cartoon violence) and gruesome content
• Gaming

The news today is over the “controversial opinion” websites, which I and many other conservative analysts and pundits agree are those websites that purport a differing view of the Administration, like MichelleMalkin.com, HotAir.com, Drudge Report, RedState.com, Human Events, and probably Fox News.

That is certainly concerning, but what’s the category that’s missing in that list? You get one guess — links here and here should help.

Pornography.

The TSA, under the Obama Administration, apparently aren’t that worried about blocking pornography websites.  In fact, they’ll apparently block an opinionated conservative over a porn site.

I don’t think it’s an oversight either.  More than a few employees at government agencies have been caught surfing pornography at work, some up to eight hours a day, and have received little to no punishment.  I’m not advocating government employees spend all day on the Drudge Report or Fox News, but I think it’s okay to check the news or opinion sites maybe during their lunch break, whereas surfing pornography is always a bad idea and should never be condoned, especially at work.

What kind of society do we live in that now views pornography as less harmful than ConcernedWomen.org websites?

As I’ve said here and here, 2010 is not only the year of the woman, but the year of the conservative woman.

Gloria Steinem, the well-known feminist and ardent pro-abortion supporter, when asked by CBS News anchor Katie Couric why all these conservative, pro-life women are now coming forward and winning elections, said that she defends “their right to be wrong” and that they are winning because of the success of the women’s movement.

Setting aside her extreme abortion position and supposed revolutionary quote about defending the pro-life woman’s right to be wrong, pro-life and conservative women are winning elections because that’s what Americans want.  More Americans are now pro-life than pro-choice, and they see the harm the feminist movement has done to our country and are looking to strong, traditional women to change it.

Conservative women — moms and wives, sisters and daughters — are standing up because they’ve had enough.  They’ve had enough of the “feminists” telling them pornography is empowering.  They realize the consequences that have come with abortion-on-demand and a complete lack of care and compassion for both the woman and her unborn baby.  They’ve had enough.

Half of the Tea Party movement is made up of women, and women vote.  And now these conservative women are running for office.

Whether or not you agree that the feminist label is even worthy of conservative women (not the other way around), it is clear that the women taking the national stage as our congressional leaders will be more in line with Concerned Women for America than Gloria Steinem.

The vast majority of Americans don’t want their money going to support abortion.  Yet, a just-released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report shows that citizens have paid over a billion dollars in federal funds — ahem, their tax money — to six organizations that promote and even commit abortions.  And that was just between the years 2002 and 2009.

How does this happen?  Taxpayers are funding groups like Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and the Population Council for family planning services under Title X.  Abortion advocates say that tax money is not being used for abortions.  But you and I both know that if you’re paying the rent and utility bills for a Planned Parenthood office and providing the funds for pregnancy testing and “counseling,” you are pretty much subsidizing the other activities in that office. 

Even the groups not directly providing abortions, like the Sexuality Information and Education Council for the United States (SIECUS), serve as recruiters, pointing their clients — our children — directly to the doors of the local abortion clinic.  Advocates for Youth, another beneficiary of federal funds, helps minor girls dodge parental notification and consent requirements to avoid the need for “a riskier procedure to end the pregnancy” and “complications from pregnancy.”

PPFA’s own records show that its affiliates committed 305,000 abortions in 2007 (the last reported year), while they reported a scant 4,912 adoption referrals and 10,914 prenatal clients the same year; family planning indeed!

Wendy Wright, Concerned Women for America’s president, appeared on CBN News this week on this very issue and reminds us of Planned Parenthood’s recent outrages like failure to report suspected sexual abuse of minors:

These groups are being supported by more than just Title X, though.  Our tax money is being misdirected to abortion groups through the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant to States, Social Services Block Grants, and even Temporary Assistance for Needy Families!  Imagine that, money directed to aid families in need — and there are plenty of those these days — is going to abortion providers!

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) has introduced the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, H.R. 614, which would stop government funding of abortion providers.  This bill doesn’t reduce the money available for genuine family planning services; it simply prohibits government funds from going to abortion providers.  Some of our good friends and heroes support this bill, like Reps. Joseph Pitts (R-Pennsylvania), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington), and Trent Franks (R-Arizona).   It’s time for fiscal responsibility, and ending federal subsidies for the abortion industry is a great place to start.

Republican Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana basically raised the white flag on social issues when, in an interview with the Weekly Standard yesterday, he said that the next president “would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues.  We’re going to just have to agree to get along for a little while,” until economic issues are resolved.

So we’re just going to give up the fight on abortion, on euthanasia, on “gay marriage,” on all of our most sacred traditional values and morals that are just “too tough” to focus on right now?  I don’t think so.

Conservatives are more revved up than ever before, having come together to fight the health care reform bill and taxpayer-funded abortion.  Pro-life leaders are rising up out of college campuses and at the ballot box.  Polling shows that more Americans are pro-life than pro-abortion, and pro-lifers are younger and more energetic than the aging pro-abortion feminists.

Why would we ever call a truce now?  Why ever actually?  Life is something we will never compromise and stop fighting for.