The Slippery Slope of Reproductive Rights

"It's my opinion that a woman's right to reproduce should be limited to a number which the parents can pay for," Charles Murray wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Daily News. "Why should my wife and I, as taxpayers, pay child support for 14 Suleman kids?"

Wow! So if I follow his logic out just a little farther will I get to the point where the state will be in my bedroom telling me to use birth control because they don't think that we can support any more children? What about the family with 2 or 3 or 4 or 10 or 11 children who is supporting themselves just fine but then tragedy strikes in the form of a job layoff? Suddenly they are at the point where they are having to choose between the mortgage payment, the electricity bill, or groceries.

"From the outside you can tell that this woman was playing the system," host Bryan Suits said on the "Kennedy and Suits" show on KFI-AM. "You're damn right the state should step in and seize the kids and adopt them out."

According to Mr Suits, where is the line that needs to be crossed before the state steps in and seizes children from families who have fallen on hard times? Maybe he's only talking about families who, in his opinion, are "playing the system". But who decides that? There are so many families with any number of children who are only one or two paychecks away from disaster.

These opinions scare the living daylights out of me. Maybe that's because I have 4 children so far and hope that we are blessed with more. In this new world of "hope and change" should I someday expect to have to apply for a permit to have another child? Will I have to justify that choice by providing tax returns for a few years to show we can afford to raise another child? And who decides the cost of raising a child? If I am to believe the media reports I've read in the last few years it will cost in the neighborhood of $250,000 to raise each of my children. That certainly makes me laugh! Either we live in a totally different world from the people who calculated those numbers or my poor children are completely deprived.

What I find interesting about the recent case of Ms Suleman, the mom who just gave birth to octuplets, is that it seems to be the most rabid pro-choice people who are spewing hate all over the internet. She CHOSE to give birth instead of "selectively reducing" the number of babies. She CHOSE life over death. She CHOSE to use the embryos instead of allowing them to be destroyed, used for medical testing, or donating them to another couple. As a rabid pro-life person myself, I commend her for choosing life for the babies. I'm just saddened that she put herself in that position to begin with by creating life in a petri dish.

So to answer Mr Murray's question, "Why should my wife and I, as taxpayers, pay child support for 14 Suleman kids?" Maybe because you have a vested interest in ALL children succeeding and being able to support themselves some day. Maybe because you don't want the state in your bedroom telling you whether you have permission to conceive a child. Maybe because those children didn't do anything wrong and deserve the basic human rights of a safe place to live and safe food to eat. Maybe because those children will someday make great contributions to our society. Maybe because it's just the right thing to do.

Watch THIS VIDEO and think about it.

Obama defends life. Really??

According to the White House blog, here is an excerpt from President Obama's remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast this past Wednesday in Washington DC.....

"There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going next – and some subscribe to no faith at all. But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know." (I added the emphasis on the last 2 sentences.)

Really Mr President? Those are very kind words. I'm impressed. But I have a question. Is there any human life more innocent than that of an unborn baby living in its mother’s womb?

I'm getting new living room furniture!

No, it's not "new" but it's "new to me". I'm so excited about it! We were able to get a great deal from a local guy who was selling it on CraigsList. He's even going to deliver it tomorrow afternoon so I don't have to go rent a truck.

It's all leather and includes a sleeper sofa, a dual-reclining loveseat, a rocker/recliner, and a large ottoman with storage. It's originally from a high-end leather store that custom makes furniture at their facility about 30 miles north of here so it's MADE IN THE USA and not in China. I think that might be the best part for me. I looked at some furniture at Haverty's a few months ago and asked the salesman where it was made. He actually laughed at me and told me that no furniture is made in the US anymore. Guess he was wrong.

We paid cash for the furniture that is only about a year old and paid about 30% of the retail price. My point in writing about this is to show that if you "live like no one else" as Dave Ramsey says then later on you can "live like no one else". It does take patience, though, to save up the money and wait for the right deal to come along.

Here's a picture of the entire set that he posted with his CraigsList ad.

It's lighter than we had planned to buy but it was such a great deal that I was willing to compromise some on the color.