Jesus Story Is 'Nonsense'

So argues an English major at the University of Oklahoma.

More Debt, Taxes, Spending, and Broken Promises

And that's just the first 100 days.

Falling in Love

Why did former preschool teacher Barbara Curtis, author of Mommy, Teach Me!, decide to teach her own preschoolers at home?

I had been trained as a preschool teacher, and I had the experience of children falling in love with me—as they tend to do with their preschool teachers. And when I had my own children, I thought, why not just take the things that I know about what children need and their educational development, and apply them with my own children at home. They're just such rich, rewarding years, and I wouldn't want to give them up to someone else.

Acclaiming Gipp

OK, I don't know anything about The Flaming Lips. I had never heard of them until a couple of years ago when they made headlines for using an obscenity while getting a street in Bricktown named after them. And I missed the recent dust-up that occurred at the state capitol when a band member named Michael Ivins decided to wear a shirt with the hammer and sickle emblazoned on it. I was out of town at the time, visiting (ironically enough) the Ronald Reagan Library.

Now, I know nothing about Mr. Ivins. It appears that at the very least he needs some education on the matter, and indeed I suspect it goes deeper than that. My guess is that (to borrow from another band) he still hasn't found what he's looking for. In any case, for now I think it would be useful simply to juxtapose Mr. Ivins' silliness with the seriousness of the great man himself:



Certainly it's a weighty and eternally significant honor to have Oklahoma's "official rock song" or to have an alley named for you in Bricktown. But something tells me the Gipper is smiling -- as are millions of former victims of the hammer and sickle -- knowing that, for example, a traffic circle in (formerly Communist) Poland now bears Ronald Reagan's name.

How's That Workin' Out for Ya?

"I believe Senator Obama is uniquely positioned to unite our nation and move beyond the divisiveness and partisan skirmishes that too often characterize politics as usual in Washington," Brad Henry said a year ago at this time when endorsing Obama for president. "Senator Obama understands that the serious concerns facing average Americans must transcend partisan games if we are to rise to the challenges of today and tomorrow. He is a strong, committed and inspirational leader, ideally suited to bring together Democrats, independents and Republicans."

Earth Day: Time to Celebrate ... Humans

Pro-Life Lawmakers Rap Chambers

Our friend Stephen Moore has pointed out that, perhaps counterintuitively, chambers of commerce are oftentimes liberalism's echo chambers. Just this afternoon on Twitter I learned from Tim Carney that the number-one lobbying entity for the first quarter of 2009 was the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which spent a lot of money backing the "stimulus" package (among other things).

Also today, the willingness of the Oklahoma City and Tulsa chambers to sacrifice human life in the pursuit of "research dollars" has angered some pro-life lawmakers:

The Oklahoma City and Tulsa chambers of commerce support for embryonic stem cell research, which requires the killing of human embryos, will damage Oklahoma’s reputation as a state that values life, state Rep. Pam Peterson said today.

"The chambers' support of embryonic stem cell research as an 'economic growth' tool is a shocking violation of the public trust and basic moral values," said Peterson, R-Tulsa. "The chamber is effectively advocating the worst kind of discrimination based on age, size, and place of residence."

In the past week, both chambers have urged Gov. Brad Henry to veto legislation that would make embryonic stem cell research illegal in Oklahoma. Both groups argue the ban will hinder economic development, be an embarrassment for the state, and make it hard to attract "researchers."

"The idea that Oklahoma should condone the destruction of innocent human life in the name of 'economic development' is indefensible," Peterson said. "Our law clearly states that human life begins at conception. Now the chambers are advocating the destruction of a legally recognized life in exchange for research dollars, saying the state should determine the best use of a person's life for the state's purposes. That's a huge paradigm shift that runs contrary to the basic values of our nation." ...

As a result of the chamber's call for vetoing the embryonic stem cell ban, Peterson and other pro-life lawmakers will not attend a legislative event tonight jointly hosted by the Oklahoma City and Tulsa chambers.

Concentration

Taxed Enough Already

The political class is not at all amused by the recent "taxpayer tea parties" that swept the nation last week. Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod thinks they're unhealthy, while Democrat Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky thinks they're despicable.

Encouragingly, 51 percent of Americans have a favorable view of these tea parties. Here's a clip from an April 13 tea party in Norman:

More Higher-Ed Follies

The OU student newspaper reports that the university's Women's Studies program -- a harmful program which uses your tax dollars to promote a socially destructive ideology -- is offering a "Queer Theory" course this summer.
Presumably the lab section will be held in the library.

Give Me a Break

John Stossel is not buying the universal pre-K scam.

Tea, Not Kool-Aid

A nationwide protest of "taxpayer tea parties" in 500 cities and towns is scheduled for tomorrow, USA Today reports. "The goal is to pressure Congress and states to reject government spending as a way out of the recession and build an anti-spending coalition around regular taxpayers." The newspaper quotes my friend Bridgett Wagner:

Bridgett Wagner, director of coalition relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation, sees a possible reprise of the tax revolt of the 1970s and '80s, when a California movement to slash and cap property taxes led to successful ballot measures from the West Coast to Michigan and Massachusetts. "These movements in the past have shown that when people have finally had enough, even the politicians at some point have to listen," says Wagner, calling it a "bottom-up" phenomenon.

Though most of the tea parties are being held tomorrow (tax day), one was held yesterday on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. Speakers included Congresswoman Mary Fallin (pictured here), congressional candidate Kevin Calvey, labor commissioner candidate Jason Reese, and yours truly (among others). For my part, I delivered the following remarks:

It is fitting that this tea party should be held today, April 13, because today is Tax Freedom Day in these United States of America.

What is Tax Freedom Day? Well, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, the average American this year had to work all of January, all of February, all of March, and the first 12 days of April just to earn enough money to be able to pay all his federal, state, and local taxes. Finally, today, April 13, we can start keeping the fruits of our labor. Thank God Almighty, we’re free at last.

Think about how astonishing this is. The average American has to surrender 28.2 percent of his income to the tax collectors. The average American spends more on taxes than he spends on food, clothing, and shelter combined.

Now, in one of life's quirky little ironies, today is not only Tax Freedom Day. Today is the 266th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson.

What do you think Jefferson would say to the notion of Americans having to work three and a half months to pay the tax collectors?

You may recall that this country was founded by people who were disgusted with big government and high taxes. And just how high were those taxes? One economic historian estimates that when Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, the tax burden imposed by the British Empire on the colonies was approximately 1 percent of national income in the North, and about 2.5 percent in the South. In other words, Tax Freedom Day for the patriots would have come around January 9.

Dr. Rufus Fears, OU's indispensable historian of liberty, was in my office on Friday and reminded me that Jefferson and his fellow British subjects were the freest, most lightly taxed people in the world. And yet, they saw fit to declare their independence and take up arms against the greatest empire in the world. And, as Dr. Fears says, the focus of their grievances was taxes.

Well, fast forward 125 years, and you find that even as late as 1900 Tax Freedom Day came on January 22. Then as the years passed it moved to February, then March. According to author and tax lawyer Charles Adams, "By the mid-1900s, the American public had been so brainwashed about the virtue of taxation, and had become so ignorant of its true tax history and struggles, it is no wonder the statements of the Founders and leaders in the nineteenth century seem strange, almost bizarre. But just about all of them, for well over a century, believed that taxation — except for the essentials of government — was nothing more than 'legalized robbery,' a phrase they used repeatedly."

And today, as a Rasmussen poll last week discovered, only 53 percent of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism. Twenty percent think socialism is better, and 27 percent (God love 'em) aren't sure which is better.

I find it interesting that today, April 13, is sandwiched between two very holy days. Yesterday, of course, was a holy day on which millions of Americans celebrated the resurrection of the Savior (no, I'm not talking about Barack Obama). A couple days from now, April 15, is another holy day. Indeed, it's the highest holy day of the year for statists who have great faith in the government and its tax collectors. Gene Healy, author of the book The Cult of the Presidency, says these people believe "in the promise of redemption through presidential politics. It's the idea that the president can save us. That when it comes to whatever it is that ails us — whether it's unemployment or hurricanes, divisiveness or spiritual malaise — the president has the cure." As Obama himself once said, with the right kind of leadership we can "create a Kingdom right here on earth."

No. We. Can't. And if these tax-and-spend politicians are really going to try, then your generation is going to be working a lot later into the year than April 13 to pay the tax collectors. Your generation should not be forced to work four or five or six months a year just to pay the tax man. I urge you to get involved in the political process, and to work towards moving Tax Freedom Day the other way, closer to where it was when Thomas Jefferson lived.

For as Jefferson said in his first inaugural address: "a wise and frugal Government ... shall leave [men] free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned."

Happy Easter!

Happy 7th Birthday, Jack Henry

Freefall

Great Moments in Copy Editing

An edition of the BYU student newspaper had to be pulled from newsstands, the Associated Press reports, because a photo

showed members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns the university. The caption called the group the "Quorum of the Twelve Apostates."

University spokeswoman Carri Jenkins says it was an honest mistake that happened when an editor was doing a computerized spell check.

'Sound and Good Judgment' Watch

In the recent presidential campaign, University of Oklahoma president David Boren endorsed Barack Obama for president, citing Obama's "sound and good judgment" (hey, it sounded plausible at the time). I've already mentioned Mr. Obama's ill-advised cracks about Nancy Reagan's "séances" and about the bowling prowess of Special Olympians. Now the atheist feminist Camille Paglia chimes in:

Obama's staffing problems are blatant -- from that bleating boy of a treasury secretary to what appears to be a total vacuum where a chief of protocol should be. There has been one needless gaffe after another -- from the president's tacky appearance on a late-night comedy show to the kitsch gifts given to the British prime minister, followed by the sweater-clad first lady's over-familiarity with the queen and culminating in the jaw-dropping spectacle of a president of the United States bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia. Why was protest about the latter indignity confined to conservatives? The silence of the major media was a disgrace.

The Great Divider

President Obama "is letting his ideological convictions get in the way of his better political judgment," says the dean at my alma mater.

Red Wine ...

... helps you think.

What Do Bartlesville and Crested Butte Have in Common?

They both made American Cowboy magazine's list of the Top 20 Places to Live the West.

Go Reds

Today is opening day in Major League Baseball. My Cincinnati Reds are projected to be about a .500 team, but one never knows.

The Wounds of a Friend

"I believe President Obama has proposed the most significant shift toward collectivism and away from capitalism in the history of our republic," Sen. Tom Coburn wrote in a recent column. "I believe his budget aspires to not merely promote economic recovery but to lay the groundwork for sweeping expansions of government authority in areas like health care, energy and even daily commerce. If handled poorly, I'm concerned this budget could turn our government into the world's largest health care provider, mortgage bank or car dealership, among other things."

Governor Proclaims April 2009 'Abortion Recovery Awareness Month'

No, not that governor. Obviously.

I'm talking about our neighbor to the south, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who declares:

Ending a pregnancy through abortion interrupts the natural birth process and creates significant trauma and stress for those involved in the pregnancy. An abortion is a tragic ending, not only because of the loss of a life, but also because of the physical and psychological trauma caused by the procedure itself. This often leads to lasting emotional and mental health problems for the mother, father and other involved family members. Peer-reviewed research has shown that women who obtain abortions are often plagued by feelings of anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, grief and guilt due to the procedure. ...

The month of April has been designated as a time to highlight and reflect on the traumatic effects of abortion. At this time, I urge all Texans to learn about the lasting ramifications of abortion and the support and counseling options available after an abortion.

Happy 14th Birthday, Lillie