The report, available HERE, reviews the costs to society of family fragmenting — that is, divorce and unwed childbearing. Nationally, the Institute’s report suggests that these acts cost taxpayers at least $112 billion, and California taxpayers at least $4.8 billion. The report addresses “hard costs” only, and does not include the broader, less-tangible costs to society of ill will and inadequate parent attention which often results from divorce.

While the Institute for American Values has not yet commented on the 2010 California Marriage Protection Act promoted at RescueMarriage.org, they clearly will come out in favor. As is stated in their FAQ,

We recommend that readers take a hard look at the data and decide for themselves whether it supports the idea that the U.S. should use modest taxpayer and other funds to support marriages and families before they end up in costly breakdown.

We believe the answer is yes, and that the investment will more than pay for itself.

What more cost-effective way to support traditional marriage than to make it illegal to divorce, except under exceptional circumstances?

Support the 2010 California Marriage Protection Act. Save marriages, and save money. Fund schools, not divorce!

You can join the effort at RescueMarriage.org. They also have beautiful, professionally-designed t-shirts and stickers to show your support.

If you prefer the more down-home, grassroots variety, check out some of our supportive offerings!

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Paliban Daily: We keep track of religion’s forays into politics, so you don’t have to!

Today, I received a notice from the American Family Association.

Safeway wants you to know how proud they are to support homosexuality. In fact, they want you to support it too!

In Safeway branded stores across America, Safeway is placing large posters encouraging you to celebrate the gay lifestyle with them during the entire month of June. We’re not sure what form that celebration will take, but fear that neither the deli counter (salami, anyone?) or the produce section (bananas, cucumbers . . .) will be family-friendly for the month.

Safeway is dedicating itself to promoting homosexuality. An AFA supporter in New Mexico reported to us that her local store also included a “WE SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE” poster. When she returned a day later to take a photograph of it, it had been removed because of the huge number of complaints by local customers.

Safeway owns and operates 1,516 stores in the U.S. Safeway operates under these names: Safeway, Dominick’s, Vons, Genuardi’s, Randall’s, and Tom Thumb.

You can contact Safeway to express your horror by calling their toll-free number: 1-877-723-3929.

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With a doublespeak name straight out of George Orwell’s 1984, the Employee Free Choice Act grants unions the right to intimidate and threaten employees into supporting unionization. The act, supported by Big Labor (you know, like the Teamsters, and the $73/hour United Auto Workers who helped kill Detroit), would allow unions to skip the currently-required secret ballot election when trying to unionize a shop. Instead, they would only need to collect signatures on cards from more than half of the employees.

Imagine working in a non-union business, with an employer you like.

The union people come around, and a fair number of your co-workers are interested. Soon, they’re signing their cards, and bringing them to you to sign, too. But you don’t want to.

“Why not?” “Come on, sign!” “It’s only 2% of your salary per month for dues, it’s not expensive!” “What’s wrong with you, do you like management better than us, your co-workers?”

Then comes peer pressure, threats, and intimidation.

“Once the union is in place, we’ll remember who supported us and who didn’t. Which list do you want to be on?” “I’ll stop by your house after work and bring the card so you can sign.”

American elections are also based on secret ballots. Would you vote to give up that right, so community organizers could come to your home and pressure you to vote for their candidate? Of course not! So why should employees be subject to union intimidation and lose their existing right to a secret ballot?

The Employee Free Choice Act is no choice at all. Kudos to Senator Specter for showing some backbone . . . if only this once.

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Statistics Netherlands reports that during the month of January 2009, year-over-year unemployment among men increased by 19,000. During the same period, unemployment among women declined by 26,000.

That means that a total of 7,000 new jobs were created; all 7,000 new jobs went to women, and 19,000 men were fired in favor of women. Affirmative action at its best, people.

This uncontrolled sexism damages the family, making it impossible for a man to remain head of household . . . when his wife is the one bringing home the bacon.

Surely, Jesus weeps.

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“Conservative types are always against anything that helps unions,” says union steward Diane Patton. “So, of course they don’t like EFCA, because it will make it easier for unions to organize.”

How will it do that, you wonder? By eliminating secret ballot elections in favor of so-called “card check” elections.

Under current law, a new union can only be certified by the National Labor Relations Board if 30% or more of the employees sign union cards. After this, the employees engage in a secret ballot election overseen by the NLRB, who can impose somewhat severe penalties upon employers who try to intimidate their employees. If a majority desire the union, the workplace becomes unionized.

Workers who don’t necessarily want the union might still sign cards to enable the election, knowing they can vote “no” in the privacy of the voting booth. This way, they are protected from harassment by union organizers.

Should the EFCA become law, these secret ballot elections will be a thing of the past. Workers will no longer have a right to privacy. Instead, a union will be certified if a majority (that’s 50% plus one) sign union cards.

Wait, sign?

Yes. SIGN the cards. In other words, the pro-union employees — the ones collecting cards – will know who voted for the union, and who was not interested in joining a union.

There will be no option to vote “no”. This isn’t a matter of the card-collectors turning their heads while you mark your choice; if you sign a card, that’s a vote for the union, and if you don’t, then that’s the only “vote” against that you have!

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would disenfranchise 105 million American workers. For union organizing elections, the legislation would replace the secret ballot with a system of “card checks,” where union organizers pressure workers to publicly sign a card stating they want to join a union. Workers would never have the option of voting against union membership, and millions of workers could be forced into a union without ever getting the chance to vote on the matter. Congress should preserve a worker’s right to vote in privacy on union membership.

What do you think: Does that lead to a “free choice”? Or does it leave those uninterested in the union subject to harassment, intimidation, and potential job loss for not being a “team player”?

How would you feel if your vote in a Presidential election was based on a “card check”? Would you change your vote in an election if you knew the winner would know exactly how you voted?

Maybe you wouldn’t. Maybe you’d risk being blacklisted. Maybe you’d risk having your children harassed at school, and risk losing your job, and your home.

But maybe you’d think twice about voting your conscience, and instead vote for the candidate who was ahead in the polls . . . to protect yourself from retribution.

Still on the fence?

Let’s bear in mind that Obama’s nominee for Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis — the Legislator who was on the board of American Rights at Work, a lobbying organization, and who authorized funds to lobby HERSELF — is one of the key supporters of this bill. (See an earlier article on Ms. Solis. )

Think about it. Is this the America you want to leave your children, one where the ballot box is public, and voting is done under threat of physical violence? Do you want to start this trend toward false elections, like in Third World dictatorships?

Once you’ve decided, contact your Representatives and tell them what you think about unions taking away the right to a secret ballot! Then join the Facebook group, “The Employee Free Choice Act is Bad for America”!

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Led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the European Union’s member states roundly rejected Hungary’s bid for a $240+ Billion bailout of Hungary and several other Eastern European nations, threatening a “new Iron Curtain” if aid was withheld. (Where Eastern Europe would get the funding for said curtain is unclear, as Russia veers toward collapse itself.)

Merkel stated that there was no need for a broad bailout package, claiming that “we cannot compare Slovakia nor Slovenia with Hungary”.

Merkel is correct. Slovakia and Slovenia are already on the Euro, and thus further stabilized, while Hungary is not . . . and suffering from a plummeting currency.

The tightening of the purse strings may be a sign of things to come. As all economies head farther into this recession (and probably the Second Great Depression), Western governments such as Western Europe and the United States will not be able to provide foreign aid to Eastern Europe, and will also have to cut the billions in food and medical aid currently sent to third world nations.

For decades, the West has provided “humanitarian relief” to parts of Africa, Asia, and other locales suffering from droughts, famines, and disease. Over time, these “developing nations” have become dependent upon foreign aid, seen their life expectancies extended and populations exponentially expanded. What will happen when we can no longer afford to provide what amounts to food stamps for entire nations?

Share your thoughts. Is the European Union’s closing of the checkbook the first step of many to come?

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Not long ago, CNBC analyst Rick Santelli spouted off at the Chicago Board of Trade to thunderous applause. Santelli shouted,

How about this, President and new administration? Why don’t you put up a website to have people vote on the Internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages; or would we like to at least buy cars and buy houses in foreclosure and give them to people that might have a chance to actually prosper down the road, and reward people that could carry the water instead of drink the water?

…

How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills? Raise their hand.

…

We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I’m gonna start organizing.

…

[Referring to his cheering audience, the all-white, mostly male crowd of securities traders] These guys are pretty straight forward, and my guess is, a pretty good statistical cross-section of America, the silent majority.

Well, a whole lot of people found they couldn’t argue with Santelli’s comments. Let’s face it; while it’s OK to bail out banks and investment houses and Detroit automakers, and it’s fine for the US to go after a 40% stake in Citigroup (that’s called “nationalizing the bank”, like what was done with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), it’s wrong, evil and just plain socialist to allow judges to direct lenders to revise the terms of mortgages during personal bankruptcy proceedings so the borrowers can repay the lenders and keep their houses. Even worse, Obama has put aside $75 billion to encourage lenders to refinance loans to 31-38% of income for borrowers. That’s OUR money, being used to help people keep their homes!

Why is it wrong?

Well, let’s see:

Bailing out multinational corporations at taxpayer expense costs us hundreds of billions of dollars, which we may never see again.

Permitting judges to direct banks to revise the terms of personal mortgages, well, that costs us nothing. But it means that the losers won’t have to give up their homes and be suitably punished for their shortcomings! It means the contracts the people signed aren’t sacred anymore! Worse, the Obama Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan costs us $1,000 per year for up to 5 years for each loan a lender agrees to modify, and another $1,000 a year for 3 years for each borrower who stays current! That’s $8,000 of taxpayer funds to prevent a single foreclosure!

Bailing out multinationals may keep some people employed for a little longer — a few months, if the automakers’ demonstration of talented recovery is any example. It will also allow CEOs to put some more money in their pockets before closing up shop. That’s good. It’s called “privatizing profits while socializing losses”, and is one of the ways a capitalist country’s government can help out in tough times.

Bailing out homeowners keeps people in homes. Well, I suppose that’s OK. It also prevents foreclosures. And sure, foreclosures damage the value of properties around them . . .

But it’s morally wrong, to help the losers — those who drink the water — instead of those who can carry the water. These people simply can’t afford their homes, and the government is doing nothing to prevent such losers from taking advantage!

policymakers had to walk a fine line between helping borrowers who have been caught off guard by tricky mortgage products and falling house prices and those who simply made imprudent decisions and genuinely can’t afford their homes. In order to avoid propping up the second group, Treasury won’t subsidize loan modifications that reduce the interest rate below 2%. If you can’t afford a 2% mortgage, in the eyes of the government, you can’t afford your house.

So, like Rick Santelli, we protested! Michelle Malkin cleverly scheduled the event for a Friday at mid-day, when many people, desperate to avoid layoffs, were sure to stay at their desks instead of skipping work for a protest sure to have no impact whatsoever upon Washington policy.

Turnouts were far better than expected, with up to six HUNDRED people turning out in San Diego, and over three HUNDRED in Washington, DC! Some estimates are that up to 0.0001% of the American population turned out in force to protest Obama’s socialistic, foreclosure-preventing policies!

Here are some images for you from Portland’s event.

Portland’s huge crowd . . . at least 150 people, in a metro area of 1.5 million, solidly meeting the 0.0001% population expectation! If that’s not a mandate, President Obama, I don’t know what is!

John McCain joined us, reminding us that he’d told us back in August that the fundamentals of our economy were strong. Why didn’t we listen, instead of following like rats drawn by Obama’s Pied Piper call to economic damnation?

Since I was taking the pictures, I couldn’t hold my own sign, but Janet (in red, on the right) held it for me. “Pay your own mortgage, dead beat!”

Sure, every time a house gets foreclosed it lowers surrounding property values by about 9% . . . but that doesn’t mean that these deadbeats who want their mortgages refinanced from 8 or 9 percent down to 5 (where mine is) should be able to ignore the terms they agreed to! Since when is a contract meaningless?

There are scads more pictures available. Go to Facebook.com and look up “tea party” groups for all the local groups!

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According to her own website, Roxanne is “Roxanne is a world-class Psychic, Metaphysician and Parapsychologist who has gained prominence because of the extraordinary accuracy of her psychic predictions. This includes private readings and global happenings. As a psychic consultant, her clients include businesses and professionals, people in the media, and major corporations. She is a psychic investigator and is sought-after to uncover previously unsolved crime cases and find missing persons.”

Oddly, her Testimonials page includes no comments from law enforcement agencies or people whose loved ones she has helped find.

Tell me, if you were a genuine “psychic”, wouldn’t that be the first thing you’d list? Something concrete, instead of nonsensical jabbering like Sandra Berhard’s utterly useless commentary, “Roxanne can see into other worlds – and we all need help…sometime.”

Huh?

Well, I have a question for Roxanne:

“Can Americans’ determination to turn their backs on God bring anything but greater disaster?”

Usleman says no. In fact, she insists that the recession will get worse and could become a depression. The housing market will also fail to improve in the near term, and people who’ve been laid off might have to start their own businesses if they want work.

Seems Roxanne’s read the paper this month. Good for her! But she claims that, as she clasps a visitor’s keys or other metal object, that she is given advice by “the angels”.

A review of Ms. Uselessman’s “talents” suggests that she’s not in touch with angels, demons, or anything other than a client’s money clip:

My many past lives as a French woman and someone with a strong musical connection come to her first. I tell her I don’t get to many shows and am not musical. She suggests I start: “Do as many musical interviews as possible. Be around musicians.” My life-mate will be around music and very smart, she hears: “They say you are not to get involved with any married men” — something I haven’t done in the past, and not good karma for anyone.

Later, Uselman begins to sense strong vibrations around me from the grandmother I never met. “She tells you not to be so stressed out, and massages your shoulders.” Worrying, she reminds me, shows that we don’t trust the universe.

Uh huh.

Deuteronomy 18:10 gives us God’s take on this business:

There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.

Were it not a violation of God’s Law, I’d be happy to rake in $135/hour to tell gullible fools who hate Jesus that everything will be OK, and not to blow all their money on things they don’t need in a down economy.

Course, Suze Orman does the same for free, in her books.

Regardless, people like failing businessman Bruce Levy flock to Uselessman’s door for her “valuable input”:

She helps me make better decisions. She is able to make me see things that I wouldn’t otherwise see. I just think that she has this intuition that gets through to my subconscious in a way that I can’t.

Seems that Mr. Levy, at least, is bright enough to recognize that she’s not talking to angels, but simply giving a different perspective.

Jesus can offer a perspective, too. Maybe Mr. Levy would like to meet Him?

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average roller-coaster of 2008 grew even more intense following the successful election of Barack Obama, the Socialist Party candidate. His pledges to raise taxes on the wealthy and redistribute their earnings to the poor have wreaked havoc on the once-stable American economy.

As we can see from this chart provided by Google Finance, the market plunged from a high of over 9600 on hopes that a decent conservative, Sarah Palin, might become President, to below 7600 a couple weeks after the election, as the news sank in.

Optimistic investors came back for more, only to watch their funds vanish again as Obama approached the podium. Opening just below 8300, the Dow plunged below the psychological tipping point of 8000, closing at a tragic 7915.

What did Obama do?

Shook his groove thang at ten different Inaugural Balls, of course! And why not?

As Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, stated in late November, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste . . . This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before.” Well, Obama’s got his crisis, which is his grand opportunity to move the United States into the socialist/economic fascist nightmare he envisions:

Few Americans are aware of or can recall how so many Americans and Europeans viewed economic fascism as the wave of the future during the 1930s.

…

Virtually all of the specific economic policies advocated by the Italian and German fascists of the 1930s have also been adopted in the United States in some form, and continue to be adopted to this day. Sixty years ago, those who adopted these interventionist policies in Italy and Germany did so because they wanted to destroy economic liberty, free enterprise, and individualism. Only if these institutions were abolished could they hope to achieve the kind of totalitarian state they had in mind.

Many American politicians who have advocated more or less total government control over economic activity have been more devious in their approach. They have advocated and adopted many of the same policies, but they have always recognized that direct attacks on private property, free enterprise, self-government, and individual freedom are not politically palatable to the majority of the American electorate. Thus, they have enacted a great many tax, regulatory, and income-transfer policies that achieve the ends of economic fascism, but which are sugar-coated with deceptive rhetoric about their alleged desire only to “save” capitalism.

Dystopia, here we come. Are you ready for the Glowbama?

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I was cruising through the HuffnPuff Post today, seeing what the liberals are trying to soak us for now, and saw Suze Orman’s blog. She predicts that Obama’s stimulus package will work wonders, with people becoming hopeful about their portfolios by . . . 2015.

Yes, 2015. Six long, hard, lean years.

After pointing out that many people have false hope for 2009 — the Dow dropping 32% in 2008, the worst year ever, doesn’t mean there’s anything to prevent 2009 from being as bad or worse — Suze makes a prediction, and unwittingly provides us the answer to all our woes:

What is so important for you to understand is that there is no magic market wand you or I can wave to make this all go away. And I am so sorry to say that I think it is foolish to think that [Obama's] massive [socialist] stimulus package will be an insta-cure. I can only pray it will help, but recovery is not going to be quick and there are no easy solutions.

There it is, in black and white. “I can only pray.”

God loves you, friend. He doesn’t want you to be hungry and poor. He wants you to be happy and prosperous. In order to achieve this prosperity, you can take three routes:

• You can put your faith in the “financial experts” who got us where we are today. If this is the route you choose, I suggest you hustle on over to Oprah.com and download Suze Orman’s new book, Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan.

In a callous effort to boost her bloated name recognition even further, Orman is giving away free downloads of the entire book until January 15. 227 pages of Orman’s shrill harping about debt and action plans and stretching your dollars and “People first, then money, then things”. Yippee. :lalala:

• You can put your faith in Obama’s Socialist Utopia. Say goodbye to anything resembling free markets, take the Mark of the Beast, and trade in Obama Dollars.

There may not be much choice in accepting That One’s plans; of course, you can refuse the Mark. But that may not be forthcoming for some time yet.

• You can put your faith where it belongs, in Jesus. Prayer. You can stop worrying about silly things like your mortgage. After all, He says He will take care of you!

Malachi 3:

10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

If you show your faith by giving back to Him, and by following each and every one of His commands, He will pour out His abundance to you!

Where God guides, God will provide. Is God not providing? That means you’re not allowing Him to guide!

Are you unemployed, and on the verge of foreclosure or bankruptcy? God knows! Why, He knows more about you than that ARIA supercomputer in Eagle Eye!

Matthew 10:

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Don’t curse your former employer for bad management decisions or poor investments. Stop whining about the freeze on credit markets making it impossible to sell your home. God isn’t punishing you for someone else’s choices! He’s withholding provision from you because of something you are doing (or not doing)!

Take a close look at your life.

• Have you given your every thought to Jesus?
• Have you foresaken all those in your life who hate Him, even if they’re your parents or your children?
• Have you obeyed His every command? There are over 600 in the Bible. God expects us to follow each and every one; disobedience is a sin, and any sin leads you to Hell.
• Have you even read the Bible? Have you meditated on it day and night? Or do you prefer the HuffnPuff Post?
• Have you tithed? That means 10% of your gross income to His work, friend. And let’s not play that tax-deductible nonsense; if you’re claiming a deduction and saving on your taxes, the amount you save should be part of your tithe! (Why, yes, we accept (non-deductible, to aid in your Salvation) donations using the PrayPal button in the right sidebar!)

Which will you choose? Will you put your faith in the likes of Suze Orman, who has created exactly zero universes in her short lifespan, or will you instead trust in the Creator of All, and let Him lead you, even if He means to guide you into homelessness and abject poverty to teach you to follow Him correctly?

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