Rifle Girl

My brother e-mailed me this with a note saying this reminded him of my daughter in 7 years. With my husband, he might just be right.

When I was in high school, the rifle girls were like the drill team except that they twirled wooden guns instead of flags. This kind of rifle girl is probably more useful.

Constitution Day

Thanks to JR at A Keyboard and a .45 for pointing out that it is Constitution Day. The Constitution really is an amazing document. It is too bad we've come so far from the original intent. If you would like your own copy for free from The Heritage Foundation, click here.

Parental Involvement Laws

It looks like Texas' parental involvement laws have a significant impact on the number of teenagers getting abortions. According to NRO writer Michael New, the best case study of a pro-life parental-involvement law appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2006. This study analyzed the Texas parental-notification law that took effect in 2000. The authors found that the law resulted in statistically significant declines in the abortion rate in Texas among 15-year-olds, 16-year-olds, and 17-year-olds. Now the authors did find some evidence that some 17-year-olds were able to circumvent the law by waiting until their 18th birthday to have an abortion. However, they found little evidence that Texas minors were circumventing the law by obtaining abortions in neighboring states.

My recently released Family Research Council study contributes to this body of research. It is actually the first study that compares the effect of different types of pro-life parental-involvement legislation. The results indicate that parental-involvement laws reduce the minor abortion rate by 13 percent — a finding that is consistent with other research on the subject. However, state laws that require parental consent instead of parental notification are even more effective, reducing the abortion rate by an average of 19 percent. This finding held true for all age groups that were analyzed — 17-year-olds, 16-year-olds, and 15-year-olds.

I think that these laws are a step in the right direction on two fronts. 1. Reducing abortions is a good thing. 2. Parents need to be more involved in their teens' lives anyway.

All of these kinds of laws will be done away with if Obama and a Democrat House and Senate have their way. Obama has said he will sign FOCA which will undue all parental involvement laws as well as other restrictions on abortions.

The Emergent Church

I have been learning about the emergent church recently. A cursory glance makes it seem so nice even good. After all they (seemingly) just want to reach this generation. But when you dig a bit deeper you get to the no hell and how can we incorporate bits of Buddhism and truth is relative. This movement really frightens me because I don't think the average person would notice it as it creeps into their church. Because (as with all of his best lies) Satan won't just jump out and say the worst parts. In fact now that I have been learning more about it, I can see how it has been seeping into my church. It is so subtle. For now. Here is a video about the emergent church movement. It is the last (but I thought best) part of a sermon.