President Obama was kind enough to take time out of his demanding schedule — including luxury vacations, celebrity soirees, and 90 rounds of golf — to give the State of the Union address.  Expecting to hear his usual fluffed rhetoric on hope and change, I was surprised when the speech quickly turned into a berating of Congress for excessive job outsourcing, unemployment, and a $15 trillion national debt.  Lucky for us, the president offered his solution to America’s problems — more federal rules. 

The president explained that his mission is to “restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules,” but he’s making up rules in the form of executive orders as he goes along.  It’s scary that the president has set himself up as the referee over America’s companies, communities, and households, ready to blow the whistle when we exercise our rights and freedoms (and can he really do that from the back nine?).     

The worst display of overreaching into our private lives came when the president said, “I am proposing that every state — every state — requires that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18.”  This proposal would require an executive mandate that would override state attendance compulsory laws and deny parents the right to decide for themselves how and where their children are educated.  You can bet that homeschool families are going to fight back.  The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) has already issued an official statement opposing the president’s plan.

President Obama spent the bulk of his address telling Congress to pass rules that initiate clean energy.  I have no qualms with developing alternative energy.  However, when the president promises to make clean energy bills the federal government’s top priority — while 13 million of Americans are out of work, 50 million are on food stamps, and the federal government owes China more money than any of us will ever see — then I believe there is reason for concern.

President Obama vowed to save money by ending taxpayer funding of oil companies — the same companies that prevent government monopolies, create competition and lead to lower gas prices.  Yet just this week, he squashed the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, an endeavor estimated to create 250,000 permanent American jobs.  Additionally, President Obama promised he will “not step down from protecting our children from mercury poison.”  But what about the soul-poisoning effects of pedophilia, which proponents are working to normalize by recasting as a mere issue of “minor attraction”?  Apparently, that’s okay.

And ever the tree-hugger, the commander-in-chief ordered the U.S. Department of Defense to turn its attention from satellite and human intelligence gathering to climate research and development.  Likewise, the Navy has been ordered to purchase “enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year.”  In other words, he is instructing our brave military men and women to cease defending our borders and fight the new terrorist threat — global warming.  In all fairness to the president, maybe his reasoning is that the more trees we have, the more structures we have to hide behind should terrorists attack. … Yeah.  That’s it.

Frankly, I think it’s long past time for us to remind President Obama that he is an elected representative, and not a dictator, before he redefines liberties and democracy and rebuilds an America that is destined to fail.

A news report from Osceola County, Florida states that 40 men were arrested and charged with trying to solicit sex with a child via the Internet during “Operation Red Cheeks.”  The men range in age from 18 to a man who will be 71 next month.  Child rape is acceptable evidently by teenagers still in high school and those old enough to be a grandfather to the child they hoped to abuse and exploit.

With the click of their computer mouse, these men sent messages – and sometimes pornographic images – to people they thought were children or, even more astounding, parents or guardians of children, to arrange a place to meet and have sex with a child.  The recipients were actually undercover detectives who deserve a lot of praise for being able to stomach doing a job like that.  Imagine chatting online with scum like those arrested.

So, who are the arrestees?  Are they society’s dregs?  Sadly, they could be your neighbor.

The arrested include a high school student, several college students, sales representatives, construction workers, a soldier, quite a few unemployed people, an “areole technician” (seems like a suspect answer to the question of what their occupation is and further proof of their degenerate behavior), a retired bee keeper (anyone else thinking of justice for him  and the rest of these men involving an angry swarm of bees?), a plant manager, a personal trainer, a warehouse clerk, a dispatcher, a wholesale dealer, an engineer, an eighth grade teacher, a vendor, a manager, a Public Works employee, a truck loader, a consultant, an information technology worker (you think this one might have been smart enough not to get caught), a professional golfer, and a swim coach.

Think about their professions, and then think about how many of them you or your child might encounter each day.

Take a look at their pictures.  You could walk by them on the street, and you probably wouldn’t look twice.  They don’t look like monsters, but they are.

Editor’s Note: This article was first printed on The Baltimore Sun, August 06, 2009.  It’s underlining message is as appropriate today as it was then.  Today, marking the 39th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade desicion and as we prepare for the upcoming elction, we thought it important for you to read throught Penny’s pice once again.

The battles on Capitol Hill over Sonia Sotomayor and health care have convinced me that pro-life Americans should take a cue from a popular chick flick. A hit movie newly out on DVD recently proclaims a shocking truth to women who make excuses for the bad behavior of men they date. That fact is: If he lies, cheats and treats you disrespectfully, “he’s just not that into you.”

The movie evokes cringes as one recognizes realistic scenes of bright women and men making humiliating mistakes and errors in judgment. In 2008, many pro-life Americans made a horrific error in judgment. Exit polling from the presidential election sponsored by Beliefnet.com showed that 20 percent of those voting for Barack Obama defined themselves as “pro-life.” According to Christianity Today, 25 percent of self-identified evangelical or born-again Christians voted for President Obama.

Why? Most of these same folks turned out in both 2000 and 2004 for George W. Bush. The reasons for this change of heart are complicated, as in any breakup. They may have been reacting to the war or overspending by Republicans or any number of scandals. Maybe the spark was gone. Or maybe they were seduced!

It’s OK, admit it. He’s cute, he’s smart, he’s likable and he’s charismatic. He promised change and attention to issues men and women of faith care about, such as poverty. One Christian conservative professor even wrote a book proclaiming that truly living like Jesus includes a vote for Mr. Obama. (Good to know.)

However, pro-lifers have been wronged. This lover who showed so much original ardor lied to you – and it started on the honeymoon. On the president’s third day in office – one day after the 36th March for Life – he issued an executive order reversing U.S. policy that prohibited the use of U.S. funds to promote or pay for abortions abroad.

In March, he restored funding to the United Nations Population Fund that had been frozen due to its support of organizations that promote and even coerce poor women in other countries to have abortions. He opened the door for the federal funding of research that requires the destruction of human embryos and canceled the Bush “conscience clause” regulation that protected health care workers from being penalized for refusing to participate in providing abortions.

The president has meticulously chosen advisers and top administration officials who have outstanding pro-choice credentials, including Kathleen Sebelius, who is in charge of the nation’s health care system as secretary of Health and Human Services. Make no mistake; in Washington, people are policy.

Then, of course, there is his appointee to the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, who said in her Senate confirmation hearing that Roe v. Wade is settled law and that there is a constitutional right to privacy. Americans United for Life’s research of her record warns that she is far more radical then even former Justice David Souter.

There are many other “indiscretions,” but let’s cut to the Mac daddy of all slights: heath care reform.

The Obama administration is pushing relentlessly and recklessly for government-run health care that would force almost all health care plans to include unlimited numbers of abortions for any reason and would make Americans complicit in these abortions due to the pooling of premiums. The legislation on the table amounts to the largest expansion of abortion in U.S. history.

How could he, you say? My fellow pro-lifers, grab a tissue and listen up. The truth is, he’s not scared to get into a relationship, he hasn’t lost your number, and he is not simply busy. Noooo. He is in bed with someone else. That’s right! President Obama loves the abortion lobby. He takes their money and their calls, but more importantly, he does their bidding.

Molesting for dollars?

While the American Psychiatric Association toys with the idea of calling pedophilia by a new name — minor attracted persons — and calling pedophilia a disorder only if it makes the pedophile uncomfortable or distressed, Greece has gone even farther down that path.  The Greek government has added pedophilia to their list of state-recognized “disabilities.”  The government decision means that pedophiles in Greece will be eligible for financial assistance in handling their “disability.”
Greece is experiencing a predictable backlash.  According to World Net Daily, the National Confederation of Disabled People, (NCDP) a major disability group in Greece, claims that the new decision will enable pedophiles to get more money than “people who have received organ transplants,” and they called the action “incomprehensible.”
At a time when Greece is teetering on the brink of financial collapse, it truly is incomprehensible that they would add pedophiles, along with exhibitionists, kleptomaniacs, pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists to the list of official “disabilities,” thus making the government responsible for providing financial resources for those who claim those conditions.
Further, the action flies in the face of social science research that reports pedophilia as a condition that is extremely difficult to reverse.  One study found that pedophiles who are imprisoned are 42 percent more likely than other offenders to “re-offend” after they are released, with the incidence of re-offence highest for the first six years, but the risk remains for 10-31 years later with 23 percent re-offending during that time.  Greece is making a long-term commitment to entitlements for people who put children at risk.

The nation is supposedly in an economic recovery period; some are calling it the post-”Great Recession.”  Others are calling this time a “mancession,” because the trends are defying the norms of gender roles, child rearing, and employment trends.  Oddly, the new domestic realities here in the U.S. are global trends existing in most of the developed countries.  While these new changes – including gender shifts – are troubling here in our country, other nations are facing far more complex ramifications.  For example, in Japan, women face an increased burden as breadwinners, giving young women less incentive to marry and have children in a country that already has the fastest-aging population in the world.

According to the Pew Research Center, “From December 2007 to May 2011, the employment of men has decreased from 70.7 million to 66.1 million, or by 4.6 million. For women, employment has fallen from 67.3 million to 64.9 million, or by 2.4 million. Thus, while men have taken an early lead in the recovery, they still have far more ground to cover than women to return to pre-recession employment levels.”

The U.S. Census Bureau provides corroboration, “one in three fathers with working wives is now a regular source of care for their children, the number of dads regularly caring for children age 15 and under increased from 26% in 2002 to 32% in 2010, and one-fifth of fathers with preschool-age children now serve as the primary caregiver.”

To put it in laymen’s terms, as Dr. Mark J. Perry, professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan, notes, “Despite the recent job gains for men since early 2010, the Great Recession has still had a disproportionately and significantly negative effect on men compared to women, and it’s not even close: For every 100 jobs lost by women since January 2008, men have lost 192 jobs, so it’s still very much of a ‘mancession,’ despite the recent ‘hecovery’” (emphasis mine).

Statisticians and economists aren’t the only ones focusing on the recent gender role changes; the media and entertainment industries have brought the issue into America’s homes with TV shows like NBC’s “Up All Night,” a series about a professional woman, her supportive stay-at-home husband, and the adjustments they make with the birth of their new baby.  Then there’s ABC’s “Work It,” which debuted January 3, 2012, and “centers on two unemployed men who believe that the current economic recession and job shortage affect men more than it does women.  Lee Standish then decides to apply for a job at Coreco Pharmaceuticals dressed as a woman and is hired.  Character development, starting in the first episode, involves the guys learning how to be more ‘sensitive.’”

Even the retail fashion industry has recognized the ramifications of the current “mancession” with the launch of a National Suit Drive by specialty retail giant Men’s Wearhouse, which collected over 102,000 items of donated professional clothing and matched each of the 22,746 suit donations with a new dress shirt and tie to help men “suit up” for job interviews in an attempt to offset the “mancession.”

Such are the trends as feminists celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ms Magazine.  Seeing men emasculated by these cultural trends reminds us of our frequent warnings about predictable unintended consequences of public policy and cultural changes.

Our guest blogger today is Elizabeth Waller.  Elizabeth serves as a research fellow for Concerned Women for America‘s Beverly LaHaye Institute.