Tag Archives: children

Ohio Population Aging, Number of Children Under 18 Declines

New statistics from the US Census Bureau reveals an aging population. Since the 2000 Census, Ohio’s 18-64 year old population grew 3 percent from 6.97 million to 7.18 million. The number of 65 and over group increased by 4 percent from 1.51 million to 1.57 million.

The inverse is true of Ohio’s children. The number of children under 18 declined 5 percent. Children 5 years of age and under saw the least decline, only 1 percent (753,669 to 743,750). Ohio’s teen population also declined by nearly 1 percent (655,411 to 646,135). The largest decline was seen among Ohio’s 5-13 year old group, which was 9 percent. The number children ages 5-13 declined from 1,476,529 to 1,340,492.

The question is whether Ohio politicians and business leaders will find creative solutions for this group of future workers and taxpayers to both funding the elderly retirement and health needs, or will they simply greater debt burden that will rob them of a decent lifestyle. If so, the increasing debt burden will likely produce a citizenry oppositional to those aged leaders and their irresponsible generation.

What the School Bond Issue 28 Teaches Xenia Children

By Daniel Downs

One question rarely asked during elections is what children learn. Having spent a lot of time studying education, this is probably the most neglected issue about election campaigns. That is why this article addresses what children will likely learn from one particular campaign: the campaign to pass a 2.7 mill bond issue and 0.5 mill levy for rebuilding five elementary schools in Xenia.

After comparing the text of the bond issue with advertisements and statements made by school officials and supporters, I have come to the conclusion that one thing children may learn is that dishonesty pays. The text of Bond Issue 28 repeatedly states $34.57 million is for “renovating, improving, and constructing additions to existing facilities.” Yet, school officials, the Xenia Education Association, and supporters claim the state will only fund 5 new schools. If state rules prohibits the use of its money for renovations our schools, the state would not have approved the text of Issue 28.

So what buildings do school official plan to repair or renovate? The central office building? Warner Middle School? Xenia High School?

One thing is certain, Spring Hill Elementary will not be one of them. School officials claim state geologists tested the land on which Spring and found springs of water underground. Those springs are the reasons for flooding in the school’s basement. Therefore, the state determined the current site is unfit for building a new school.

School officials expect voters to believe soil sampling was neither performed 50 years ago nor were officials aware of those springs back then. Because they say so, voters are also to believe underground water seeping through unrepaired cracks in the basement makes the site unfit to build a new school. Didn’t anyone suggest building a new school without a basement. Buildings are probably built over supposed high water tables and springs often.

Another thing Issue 28 will likely teach children is government extortion is okay. Extortion is defined as obtaining money by using force, threats, or some other unacceptable means.” Isn’t getting taxpayers hard earn income by deceitful means unacceptable? So was the means states employed to get $200 billion from tobacco companies, of which Ohio got $10 billion.

According to the Cato Institute, tobacco companies were not held responsible for tobacco-related illnesses for over 40 years. In 1994, states began suing tobacco companies to recover medical expenses due to smoking. In the meantime, states changed laws making it possible to win their law suits based on charges that the companies were violating racketeering law. Congress helped the state by crafting master settlement legislation that forced tobacco companies to pay the states for tobacco-related medical expenses indefinitely. Yet, everyone knows smokers choose to smoke knowing the health risks. The money extorted by the governments was to fund medical costs, programs to reduce youth smoking, and programs to prevent tobacco related disease.

How then does building schools help youth quit smoking or prevent cancer?

I image some children will catch the message that government extortion is regarded by many as a good thing. So why we not regard cheating on tests, theft at work, and a host of similar behaviors as good too?

Issue 28 is an object lesson of how the rule of law has been made a bad joke. Rule of law is not whatever politicians say is law. It is not whether a majority agree with an idea, a plan, a party platform, or legislation that violates just laws. The rule of law is the supreme law. It is above all and is applicable to all, even elected and unelected politicians. Federal and state constitutions are the supreme law, not unjust legislation.

Just as states extorting money from tobacco companies violates the rule of law, so does Issue 28. The consolidation of elementary schools and the future middle schools violates the Ohio Revised Code. As I wrote in previous articles, Ohio law requires the building of small schools. I also referred to studies that proved the optimal size of an elementary school less than 350 students. Yet, school officials claim the Ohio School Facilities Commission refuses to fund construction of schools with less than 350 students. Either OSFC does not know Ohio law or doesn’t care. The consolidation plan further demonstrates that the rule of law is a huge farce.

The unlawful and unethical practices of public officials demonstrate that schooling has become the justification for all kinds of vices, corrupt, and illegal practices. Our children are nothing more than pawns in their political strategies.

And what Bond Issue 28 teaches the children of Xenia is that dishonesty and law breaking pays.

Previous posts on the proposed bond issue:

Xenia Community Schools Rebuilding Plan : What I Learned at the Forum, October 21, 2008

Xenia Community Schools Rebuilding Plan : Why Small Schools are Best, October 22, 2009

Xenia Community Schools Rebuilding Plan : Its All About the Money, October 23, 2008

Xenia Deserves Better Schools Than Proposed by Issue 20, November 3, 2008

Comparing City and School Revenues and Their Respective Tax Issues, January 31, 2009

May 5 Xenia Community Schools Bond Issue Text, April 30, 2009

Maintaining the Status Quo in Education, August 13, 2009

Man slaps baby at Wal-Mart?

The slap happy graphic commentary was captured by Drewski at “That’s What You Think” blog.

I can vaguely remember being slapped once or twice for not obeying my parents. My candy grabbing hands and sometimes gluteus maximus was stung by my very annoyed momma or pappa bee.

I must admit that I’m glad the government inspired hate crime goons did’t exist during my child arrearing.

Of course, this is not to deny real abuse exists. But, as the good book says, “spare the rod (or hand or paddle) spoils the child.” If you hope your child will one day grow to live the way he or she should, training is of a necessity. Pain teaches about consequences for doing what should not be done and praise teaches reinforces good behavior.

It looks like the kid must have given Dad his lesson. Poor Dad.

Ohio Supreme Court endangers children, violates parental rights, and supports the violation of law and decency

On July 1, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision that allows Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Ohio (PP) to keep secret their reports documenting whether or not PP is notifying authorities of instances of statutory rape of pregnant minors seeking abortion services at the Cincinnati clinic.

The Ohio Supreme Court heard arguments last October on this issue after granting a Motion for Rehearing which was brought by attorneys for Jane Roe.

In Roe v. Planned Parenthood, the parents of Roe allege PP employees breached their legal duties when they failed to notify the proper authorities of the young girl’s sexual victimization by the 22-year-old male who brought her to the clinic. They further allege that PP violated Ohio’s parental involvement laws by failing to notify or get consent from them before performing the abortion on their 14-year-old daughter.

Attorney for Jane Roe, Brian Hurley, states about the decision, “We respectfully disagree with and are disappointed in the decision. It allows Planned Parenthood, under the pretext of protecting privacy rights, to prevent anyone from reviewing its redacted records to determine the truth of what many people believe is Planned Parenthood’s policy and practice of violating its duty to report suspected or known sexual abuse of minors. We believe that the protection Ohio provides to its sexually abused children has been significantly weakened and parents’ rights to protect their children from abuse have been undermined. We agree with Judge Donovan’s assessment that the decision is neither just nor reasonable.1

I agree with Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, who said,

“It’s hypocritical for the Ohio Supreme Court to be concerned about the privacy of girls receiving abortions at Planned Parenthood when, by keeping the redacted, anonymous records secret, it is in fact protecting the privacy of older men who abuse underage teens. The Court, by its decision, is enabling and perpetuating injustice.”2

Lila Rose, 20-year-old UCLA student and president of the non-profit Live Action, caught on tape Planned Parenthood workers breaking state laws requiring prompt reporting of statutory rape and parental consent laws.

Lila Rose went undercover at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Birmingham and told a counselor that she was 14-years-old, pregnant by her 31-year-old “boyfriend.” Rose said she needed a secret abortion so her parents would not find out about her sexual relationship with the older man.

After telling the counselor that her “boyfriend” is 31, Rose asks, “Is it a problem about my boyfriend?” The counselor, identified as “Tanisha” in the video, responds, “As long as you consented to having sex with him, there’s nothing we can truly do about that.” Rose then says that her boyfriend “said he could get in big trouble,” and Tanisha acknowledges that “he could, especially if your parents find out that he’s 31.” She then tells Rose that the clinic manager, OB/GYN Dr. Desiree Bates, “sometimes does bend the rules a little bit” and states that “whatever you tell us stays within these walls” and “we can’t disclose any information to anybody.”

Alabama code 26-14-3 requires health professionals to disclose suspected cases of sexual abuse to state officials immediately.

“The law is explicit about a healthcare provider’s duty to report, yet Planned Parenthood pretends they cannot say anything,” Rose notes of the investigation. “Planned Parenthood increases its business and influence by circumventing state reporting laws, but inflicts terrible harm upon the vulnerable young girls sent back to statutory rapists.”

In the video, Tanisha also seems to tell Rose that a signature from an “older sister that’s over the age of 18” or someone “with the same last name” could function as a substitute for parental consent so Planned Parenthood could perform an abortion on a minor. Alabama Code 26-21-3 specifies that the written permission of either a parent or legal guardian is necessary before a minor may obtain an abortion.

The new video is sixth in Live Action’s Mona Lisa Project, a nationwide undercover investigation that documents Planned Parenthood’s repeated noncompliance with state mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse of minors. Alabama is the fourth state to be implicated in the controversy, along with Arizona, Indiana, and Tennessee.3

While Alabama's Attorney General is taking legal action, YouTube is banning this public evidence of Planned Parenthood's crimes. Are YouTube executives politically correct leftists or are they being strong armed by the Left's politicians and corporate members who are leading the drive help PP regain taxpayer funding for its baby-killing services? Because they are owned by Google, the ban on Rose's video is without a doubt politically motivated. Another reason for YouTube censorship is their executives partnership with billionaire George Soros, the global fund raiser for all thing Left like anti-Catholicism and abortion-on-demand.

Breaking state or federal laws is not limited to organizations like Planned Parenthood. Members of the Left seem to always break the law in order to achieve their agendas. It is no surprise that leftist politicians-at-law draped with black robes sitting high at the bar of justice collude with their associates. The false high wall doctrine of church-state separation was the beginning upon which all of the Left's goals have been achieved. Roe v Wade and all similar court decision– Roe v. Planned Parenthood–is merely one lethal example. Parents killing their unborn children is not a privacy right found in the US Constitution, but protecting life is.

References:

1   Christian Newswire, July 2, 2009.
2   Christian Newswire, July 3, 2009.
3   Live Action, June 30, 2009.

Lila Rose’s video can be viewed online at liveaction.org/alabama

Democrats attacks school choice – thousands of children are at risk

Free choice is for the privileged and liberals
 

For years Congressional Democrats told us they were “for the children”. Their policies were “for the children”. Their tax increases were “for the children”. Recently they were given a chance in Congress to prove their pro-child philosophy. The price tag was a mere 15 million dollars, a fraction of the one-trillion dollar stimulus they just passed. But House Democrats decided they could not find $15 million to save the D.C. Voucher Program. Instead they cut the funding and are throwing 1,900 children out of the school of their choice. Kids, whose parents on average make $23,000 per year. Kids who did nothing wrong other than have the courage to make a change for the sake of their future.

At the same time in the state of Ohio, Governor Ted Strickland and the Democrat-led House are on a crusade to wipe charter schools off the map. They want to force thousands of Ohio students back into failing schools in troubled school districts.

This is the purge mentality of the Democrat Party. They despise school choice. They owe the education establishment and the unions. The payback comes in destroying the lives of kids who have done nothing wrong.

At the same time, the leader of the Democrats, President Barack Obama, has placed his daughters in the school of his choice: Sidwell Friends, the most exclusive and expensive school in D.C.

There is something you can do about this injustice. First take a look at the video from the kids in D.C. Then join their plea and call the White House switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Politely ask the President to restore the D.C. Voucher Program.

Next, for those residents of Ohio, contact Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. Let him know you support charter schools in Ohio. Tell him you want more choice in education, not less. They may give you a bunch of rhetoric about “for profit” management companies that run charter schools. That’s a smokescreen. They want all choice eliminated. They are picking on the management companies today. The rest will follow.

Source: American Policy Roundtable eNewsletter

President Obama chooses former porn lawyer for #2 spot in Justice Department

Nothing has spoken more dramatically about our new president’s radical social agenda than the bios of persons whom he has appointed to key advisory and cabinet positions. Many are Clinton-era retreads. (What happened to “change?”) Many formerly held positions on some of the nation’s most notoriously anti-family, anti-life organizations.

President Obama’s nomination of David Ogden to be Deputy Attorney General – second in command to Attorney General Eric Holder – certainly is the most outrageous and potentially dangerous appointment to date.

To this critical Justice Department position President Obama has nominated an attorney whose list of private-practice clients includes the ACLU, the National Organization for Women, Playboy, Penthouse and Adam and Eve.

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on confirmation of David Ogden as Deputy Attorney General on this Thursday.

Here are a few highlights of David Ogden’s resume:

* Submitted a Supreme Court brief on behalf of the ACLU arguing that a man had been improperly convicted under the federal child pornography statue because the man’s videotapes – specifically, tapes with the names, “Little Girl Bottoms” and “Little Blondes” – which the Third Circuit Court of Appeals already had deemed “clearly designed to pander to pedophiles,” weren’t really pornography.

* Fought to remove porn filters from the Internet in public libraries.

* Argued that the law requiring producers of sexually explicit material to keep records about the identity and ages of their performers was unconstitutional.

* Co-authored a brief arguing that parental notification was an unconstitutional burden on 14-year old adolescent girls seeking an abortion.

It stands to reason that you do not trust the enforcement of a nation’s pornography laws to an attorney who has built his career on defending persons who violate those laws! Yet that is exactly what President Obama has asked us to do.

To urge Senator George Voinovich and Senator Sherrod Brown to vote NO on the confirmation of David Ogden as Deputy Attorney General, click here.

Source:
Citizens For Community Values
, 2/24/09.

Cell phone use during pregnancy and childhood behavioral problems

In the July edition of Epidemiology, researchers reported that children whose mothers used cell phones while pregnant were more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems.

A team of scientists looked at a group of more than 13,000 children, including their time in utero. When the children reached age 7, mothers were asked to complete a questionnaire about their own cell phone use in pregnancy and their child‘s use of cell phones, as well as their children‘s behavior and health.

Children with both prenatal and postnatal cell phone exposure were 80 percent more likely to have emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity, or problems with peers. Children who were only exposed prenatally had a higher likelihood of behavior problems compared to those who were only exposed postnatally, but not as high as those who were exposed at both times.

Dr. Mercola believes that an 80 percent increase in behavior problems is pretty drastic. In a recent article on the subject, he wrote,

“Could it be, as some have suggested, that mothers who use cell phones frequently are simply not very attentive parents? Sure. But those children who were only exposed in utero had significant increases in behavior problems too, which suggests there may be something deeper going on.”

Dr. Mecola also explained that something deeper.

“Electromagnetic radiation from cell phones poses a unique hazard to a developing fetus. Animal studies have shown that electromagnetic fields in that frequency range can affect their liver enzymes, glands, muscles, hormone balance, and heart and bone marrow. In fact, the cellular stresses caused by information-carrying radio waves can actually alter the DNA structure of both you and your child.

Autonomic nervous system expert Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt has noted this radiation can easily flip certain genes in the mitochondria. If this gene sequence is altered in a pregnant woman, she can pass her damaged mitochondria on to the child.

The child can then develop a mitochondrial disorder, which can include muscular atrophy and severe developmental problems. Even autism has been associated with cell phone use.

Because children are still growing, they also have far thinner skulls than adults. This makes their brains far more susceptible to these information-carrying radio waves. If you are, say, holding your infant while talking on a cell phone, the radiation plume can easily reach the child and penetrate their skull.

Of course, if you allow your child to talk on the cell phone himself, then this radiation will reach him directly.

To see an illustration showing just how much higher the electromagnetic radiation absorption rates are in a 5- and 10-year old’s brain versus that of an adult, see this article from a previous newsletter.

It’s very important that you keep cell phones away from infants, babies, children and pregnant women now, as the damage may not start showing up for 10 years or more, and by then it will be too late.

So, why hasn’t our government done something about this? A part of the deeper problem is that they are powerless. They serve the interests of the powerful, which means those corporations and politicians making big money. Yes, the FDA, FCC, and EPA have called for research on the problem, but the study reported by Epidemiology was conducted in the Netherlands not the USA. Dr. Mecola also goes into greater detail why the federal agencies are not doing much about the problem.

I should add that scientists have known about 20 years (maybe more) that high doses of electromagnetic waves is harmful to animals and humans. As Dr. Mercola points out, “[t]hese radio waves are literally everywhere, transmitting signals to wireless computers, cordless phones, cell phone base stations and countless other wireless technologies.”

In another article by Dr. Mecola, “Why Your Cell Phone Can Hurt Your Children,” a list of health problems caused by RF radio waves (cell phone, wireless, etc.) included:

*  Alzheimer’s, senility and dementia
*  Parkinson’s
*  Autism
*  Fatigue
*  Headaches
*  Sleep disruptions
*  Altered memory function, poor concentration and spatial awareness
*  Cancer and brain tumors
*  Sterility
 

Notice, health problems like sleep disruptions, headaches as well as the problems mentioned in the Epidemiology study such as hyperactivity, emotional and behavioral problems are related. In a previous post, I reported on the discovery that ADD and hyperactivity were often related to lack of sleep and even mild appendicitis. Yet, children have been drugged out the wazoo for profit not for a cure. The cure is to limit or end cell phone, wireless computer, iPod, and cordless phone use and maintain good health practices.

Read Dr. Mecola’s articles for tips on cell phone safety, good health practices, or for more in-depth information.

Coloring Pages of Ohio (free) at Homeschooling:about.com

I just came across this family friendly post at Homeschooling @ about.com. Actually, it is a Ohio State Bird and Flower Coloring page created by Beverly Hernandez. This 8-1/2 x 11 coloring page can be downloaded to your computer and printed out. I did but I couldn’t find my crayons– bummer. Your kids will love it (maybe) and you will love the peace and quite at for a few minutes. Many more coloring pages are also available for downloading (free).

Looking over the materials available at Homeschooling @ about.com, I’m compelled to think Beverly Hernandez is simply a educational and l Continue reading