Americans around the country sat glued to their TV sets and computer screens on July 22 as news of a twin terror attack on Norway rocked our collective world and dredged up phantom pains from our own 9/11. News of the bomb blast in Oslo had barely begun to register when it was reported that a killer, dressed as a life-protecting policeman, was indiscriminately shooting people at an island youth camp run by the ruling Labour Party. All told, 86 people lost their lives that day.

I released the following statement as CEO of Concerned Women for America (CWA):

“As an organization founded on prayer, we call on Christians around the nation to pray for the people of Norway. Evil has reared its ugly head again in history, and we join others in condemning it and the violence it has wrought. The fact that the shooter used hatred of Muslims as his excuse is as insane as those within the Islamic faith who call for jihad against Christians and Jews. As a Christian, let me say clearly that Jesus taught that we must love even our enemies. Hate and violence is incompatible with being a follower of Jesus. Again, we condemn violence for any reason and call for healing for those suffering at the hand of evil.”

While the media tries its best to paint this deeply troubled man, Anders Behring Breivik, as a rightwing, Christian extremist, our own state director for CWA of North Dakota, Janne Myrdal — herself a Norwegian immigrant — has read his manifesto and tells the Plains Daily a different story. We offer it here for your edification.

Norwegian Breivik’s Manifesto Eerily Reminiscent of Hitler’s

“It is sad to see the American media at large and the New York Times playing politics with this, because the Norwegian media and the people of Norway are not playing politics at all,” said Janne Myrdal. “As a matter of fact, they are coming together asking for a more open society, more freedom, more liberty for individuals, in spite of perhaps wanting revenge, but that’s just the Norwegian people.”

Myrdal is a Norwegian native who immigrated to North Dakota and who still maintains close ties with friends and family, in addition to being the State Director of North Dakota’s Concerned Women for America chapter. She shared her insights with listeners on the Scott Hennen show this afternoon.

The recent shootings in Norway have shaken many across the globe who know the small Scandinavian country to be a peaceful, quiet nation, including North Dakotans, many of whom are of Norwegian descent.

Anders Behring Breivik, the man charged with the shootings that resulted in more than 70 deaths, wrote a manifesto prior to his rampage, which some media sources are saying displays the dangerous ideology of extremist right wing, Christian fundamentalists.

However, Myrdal has read his manifesto in the original language* and says that Breivik writes that he seriously doubts the existence of God, and that while he believes in the church as a Nordic strength, that science should supersede the church. “It is very frightening how like 1933-1939 it sounds, like somebody else who wanted to take the church and turn it into an instrument of their racist and evil agenda.”

“He was going after one particular political party, which leans very left,” Myrdal shared. “He had a target and sadly he is winning right now in the media opinion, because they are just tickling his feathers and keep saying that he is a right-wing fanatic. … The whole fact that they claim him to be a right-wing, fanatical Christian and Israel-loving person is just plain bull.”

There is no death penalty in Norway, and the longest sentence Breivik could receive is 21 years. There are currently suspects in Britain and Poland being detained in possible connection to the shootings. Breivik has claimed that he had two other terrorist cells working with him.

*The version of the Breivik Manifesto released by the media was in English.  Breivik’s previous writings and his diary are in Norwegian.  These are the writings Janne has read.

This article published by the Plains Daily on July 25, 2011. Find it here.

Some experts like to debunk the idea of a dad’s importance and talk about the “myth of the perfect family.” Such thinking, however, merely sets up a straw man and is erroneous.  There is a voluminous body of research that is clear and unambiguous: The very best family for a child’s positive development and good outcome is a married mom and dad. As Time magazine put it: “Growing up in a home in which different men cycle in and out is not good for a child’s health or well being.  Think of these families as having ‘domino dads,’ with each one’s departure putting pressure on the next.”

This is no small problem.  The negative consequences for both the mother and the child are so well documented they have almost ceased to register on the public’s radar.  The number of young women who are cohabitating instead of getting married is increasing; the number who have children before getting married is increasing; and the number of children who live in blended households as a result of divorce or prior cohabitation is increasing, as my research and writing reveals.

Single moms of children from multiple fathers are far more likely to be “under-employed, to have lower incomes, and to be less educated.” The children in these households live with enormous stress: “Everyday decisions are more complex and family rules are more ambiguous.” Just figuring out logistics, such as “whose turn it is to spend time with the kids and who gets more attention,” and dividing up time, responsibilities, and finances — who lives with whom when, who is responsible for what when, and who pays for food, clothing, and incidentals, as well as who pays child support for what child — is daunting and sometimes impossible.  Sadly, and most damaging to the children, is that the conflicts that lead the parents to separate in the first place tend to go on and on, with the kids often caught in the middle.

Cassandra Dorius, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, presented her findings from a recent study at the Population Association of America. She studied data from up to 20 interviews with each of 4,000 women over a 27-year-period.  The data for the study came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.  Dorius called the trend an “intergeneratic transmission of disadvantage.”  She said, “Juggling all the different needs and demands of fathers in at least two households, four or more pairs of grandparents, and two or more children creates a huge set of chronic stressors that families have to deal with for decades.”

While opposition to the findings was immediate, others believe the situation is not “inherently bad or good” and, in a flight from reality, they argue that any group of people can successfully parent.  They contend that the larger problem is whether the dad plays a role in his child’s life, whether married or not.  Yet research is clear and unsurprising: When a mother finds a new man or has a child by another man, fathers typically become less involved financially and emotionally, and they are far less likely to be a physical presence in their children’s lives.

Only by facing facts and addressing problems realistically can we hope to see a brighter future and the inherent potential of the next generation realized.

Good news!  Obama isn’t out to kill grandma after all.  He’s just threatening to hold up her social security check. … which would mean she can’t buy groceries. … which means she’d go hungry. … and grow weak. … and … and … OH MY WORD!!  Obama is trying to kill grandma — again!!!

[Insert collective sigh here.]  Seriously?  Obama is threatening to hold up seniors’ August retirement checks?  What a piece of work.  That he’s seriously going to give grandma the shake down (or at least shake her up) in order to try and force the GOP to go his way on the budget is sad, indeed, especially when one of the ways he can save money is by cutting his pet project, Planned Parenthood. 

But let’s be honest, grandma’s a better target.  She’s the classic sympathy picture — old, living on a fixed income, and needing our help.  She’s dependent on us, and if we don’t come to her aid, she’ll die.  The president’s just in an awful predicament.  Naturally, he doesn’t want to do it.  No.  Not at all.  It’s not his fault.  It’s the big, bad GOP that wants to cut and cap spending and balance the budget.  Darn those Republicans. 

And it’s not like the president can cut funding for abortions or anything.  I mean, why rile up the feminists?  Mercy no.  We’re not that far gone yet.  Better to target grandma, for pity’s sake.  The young, virile, liberal-headed, Obama-voting college sweethearts need access to abortion more than Republican-leaning seniors need food anyway, right? 

Hope and change: In with the new.  Out with the old folks.  Shame on you, Mr. President!

As Americans, we know what is necessary to achieve greatness.  And while we have found ourselves reaping the consequences of our nation’s ever-expanding budget and crumbling economy — nervously looking down the proverbial barrel of a loaded gun, so to speak — deep down, we all know that now is the time to act.

To get back on the right track, we must first understand that this issue is not a tax problem; it is wild spending that has placed us in our current predicament.  To fix it, we need to revisit the wisdom of our country’s founding: action and sacrifice.

Congress must cut spending to reduce the deficit.  It must also enforce a cap on federal spending in order to balance the budget.  Doing anything less would be like shoving more ammo into that already loaded gun and reaching for the trigger.

Many citizens and Members of Congress have already pledged to “Cut, Cap and Balance,” but we need to spread the word.  If Congress continues spending at this rate, our families are the ones who will pay, and that dearly.  It’s time for Democrats and Republicans to stop thinking in terms of the next election cycle.  We need to fall back on rooted principles that will assist us as they once did.  It’s time to “Cut, Cap and Balance.”  It’s time to heal our economy.

For more information, we’d encourage you to attend “America’s Fiscal Crisis Briefing” hosted by Concerned Women for America at the Capitol Visitors Center (Room SVC 203) on July 7 from 2:00-3:00 p.m.  You can also get more information at our Fiscal Crisis page.

The nation is aflame with the results of the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).   Google “don’t know much about history” and you’ll get all the articles:  they’re all using the same line from the famous song. 

In short, the news is bad.  Again.  The kids aren’t learning history.  Famed historian David McCullough tells the Wall Street Journal (6/18/11) that our textbooks are “so politically correct as to be comic.”   

True, we should worry about the coming generation.  But, the current one isn’t doing so great either. 

Last Fourth of July, the New York Times dropped the word “life” from its rendition of the Declaration of Independence.  As they said:  “We know the words well, but they bear repeating. …”  You betcha!

That fall, the President of the United States dropped the “Creator” from his rendition of the Declaration of Independence.  Oops. 

Just recently, NBC did a patriotic video montage as part of its coverage of the U.S. Open Golf Championship … in which they dropped the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.  Twice.  (But, they’re really sorry). 

Hmmm … Why do God and “life” keep getting dropped?

This Fourth of July, read the actual Declaration of Independence, especially to your kids.  Here’s a copy from our friends at WallBuilders, http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=25685.

And whatever you do, don’t rely on the kids’ politically correct comic-textbooks.  Or The New York Times.  Or NBC.  Or even the President of the United States.

Be sure you know what it really says and remember the words … because a lot folks keep leaving out the important stuff. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Virginia Gazette, July 26, 1776:

On Wednesday last, the Declaration of Independence was read at the head of each brigade of the Continental Army posted at and near New York, and everywhere received with loud huzzahs and the utmost demonstrations of joy.  The same evening, the equestrian statute of George III, which Tory pride and folly raised in the year 1770, was, by the Sons of Freedom, laid prostrate in the dirt, the just desert of an ungrateful tyrant!  The lead wherewith this monument was made is to be run into bullets, to assimilate with the brain of our infatuated adversaries…”

The Christian Century, “Editorial:  Don’t Know Much about History,” June 27, 2011, http://christiancentury.org/article/2011-06/don-t-know-much-about-history:

People who don’t know their country’s history make for poor citizens. People who don’t have a narrative sense of the American past are especially susceptible to politicians and other ideologues who try to weave their own versions of the past in an effort to manipulate people’s emotions. Knowing something about the past entails coming to grips with complexities and learning that real people wrestled with life-and-death questions and made tragic or wise choices. Historical knowledge keeps us humble about our own choices. We need the wisdom we can get only from knowing the stories of our past.

Interesting reading:

David McCullough in Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College, http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2005&month=04.