Obama to States: If You Can Do Health Reform Better, Go For It

Obama to States: If You Can Do Health Reform Better, Go For It

This article shares a type of an opt-out plan of the health reform.
Is this a good way of making a controversial policy more of a win-win type of situation for everyone?
Don't hold back, I want to hear your ideas.

The importance of recognizing and promoting ideals

Many speeches that I have heard have had a profound influence on my life, my ways of thinking, and my chosen educational focus. This speech, given by Jeffrey R. Holland in 2008, has remained with me since the day I first heard it. In his remarks, Elder Holland offers a parable of sorts about the fundamental role of ideals and patterns in consideration of the family during our era of what I consider a significant decline in essential family values.

Obama admin will no longer defend federal marriage act in court

Here it goes: changing of support in policy. The Obama administration will no longer support the defense of marriage as between a woman and man.

How do you think this will effect policies? Will more states be willing to adopt this policy? I wonder if they will feel 'pressured' to do so. It will be interesting, to say the least.

The Ounce

Hi All
So just in case you hadn't figured it out yet, my passion is pretty much anything to do with children and providing them the best possible world. This is an awesome clip from The Ounce. It is a national initative to gain support for and investment in children.
I think we have touched on presenting family policy needs in terms of the investment or financial outcomes and this video does just that. It is also a great example of how preventative policy can work wonders!
In other news . . . I am also including a couple of links in case any of you are also passionate about children. There are a couple of things happening right now at both the state and federal level that will affect kiddos (besides health care) and I just wanted to bring them to your attention.
http://www.utahchildren.org/
This website provides information on what is happening in Utah for children. It currently has legislative updates on bills that affect children. A couple of interesting ones is HB 111 on full day kindergarten (which would limit funding to extended day kindergarten services for at risk children) and HB 181 which will prohibit public schools from offering child care or preschool services.
Lastly at the federal level, part of the proposed budget cuts include cutting child care subsidies for low income parents by $39 Million. These are delivered in block grants to states to administer as state need dictates and many families rely on the subsidized child care in order to be able to have a liveable wage. In addition many family and center child care providers who serve these children depend on this funding. They also are proposing a $1 Billion cut to Head Start, the only federally supported free preschool option for at risk children. So if you want to take action and express your opinion you are urged to call your representative.
http://www.naeyc.org/policy/federal/2_14_2011 has more info and good updates.

30 days with an immigrant family

This is a video to provide perspective. It shows how complex the issue is.
Frank is a minuteman who goes to the border and calls immigration officers when he sees people trying to cross illegally. What is interesting is that he is Cuban. His family was able to come legally because of his dad's work, but had that not been the case he would have either still been in Cuba or in the same position as the family that he goes to stay with in the video. He goes to live with a family of illegal immigrants and is quite opinionated. He says to the cameras, If I could, I would call them in right now.
The video is 50 minutes long, if you have some time I really recommend seeing the entire thing. If you're short on time fast forward to the part when Frank goes to Mexico and finds out the previous living conditions of the family and what motivated them to come to the U.S. illegally. I recommend watching from 9:00 to about 23:00 or so, then 30:00 to 36:00.

30 Rock Clip

This is the clip I was talking about in class today. Pretty funny.

Chinese vs Western Mothers

This article is by a Chinese mother on how practices of Chinese mothers are superior to Western mothers. She makes 3 statements about Chinese practices:

1. "Western parents are concerned about their children's psyches. Chinese parents aren't."

2. "Chinese parents believe that their kids owe them everything."

3. "Chinese parents believe that they know what is best for their children and therefore override all of their children's own desires and preferences."

At first reading, I was appalled by most of what was in the article. Then I really focused on the following statement by the author: "All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that." I know for sure that these aren't practices that I would be a part of, but it seems to work for their culture.

What are you thoughts/ideas?

The mother/parenting song

I thought this was pretty entertaining. (And, she has an amazing voice.)

Utah House committee approves illegal immigrant guest worker bill

We all knew an article like this was going to be posted so I might as well start it...

I am personally against the bill. For one, I don't believe a state has or should have the ability to change or protect someone's undocumented/unauthorized immigrant status. I don't even understand why people might think we can...yes, States must obey federal laws. But no, the Federal government does not have to recognize state laws when there are federal laws that supersede them.

And two, it's all about the money. I love the beginning where it described that many Americans don't want to work in farm & labor type jobs. While that may or may not be true (more research is needed before I choose my side), it definitely highlights the motives behind such a bill, money...money...money... I don't think that there is anything wrong with making a buck but lets find another way to do; one that does NOT promote unauthorized immigration. This is another example of government policy that would promote a negative behavior (disregarding the law, i.e. not going through the proper channels for legal immigration or staying past the original visa time frame).

"A Soldier's Valentine's Day"

Here is an interesting post from a blog called Motherlode: Adventures in Parenting. This is an example of how different families are from one another. They each have to take their situation and decide for themselves what will be best for their family.

I lean towards the sequential deployment for the sake of the children. At the same time, I understand their rationale. Nurturing the couple relationship will help them to be better parents. Being apart could have hindered that relationship, the marriage, and the parenting.

What do you think?

Bread winer Mother, stay at home Dad

I thought about this during our last class, seems like it was a discussion question but never came up. I wonder what the concerned view would say about stay at home dad's. The "ideal" family is the bread winner father and stay at home mother. Does a stay at home dad and bread winner mother have cause for concern?

Lawmaker's proposals have gay rights community concerned - ksl.com

Lawmaker's proposals have gay rights community concerned - ksl.com

Watch the video or read the article from this link. I am curious to know any background information any of you know or your opinion about the clip or article.

a family court system

This link is to the University of Baltimore's School of Law Center for Families, Children and the Courts. You might find information on the family court system there, I just got it off of my brochure. Yesterday, I attended the first ever Utah Family Impact Seminar. The topic was about family courts. A Senior Fellow came from the University of Baltimore and talked about family court systems. Other presenters were of the opinion that Utah is already doing a good job of serving families in it's juvenile and district court systems. What do you think about family courts vs. juvenile or district courts?

Some of the discussion included:
Due Process (services being provided when fault has not yet been proven)

Specialization (A judge who is specialized in divorce and property distribution having to then serve a child abuse case)

"Back to the Future" (Is this just going back to the way things were and bringing that to present day or taking it to the future)

Number of judges a family will end up going to

Cost of services (therapy) and should those be provided by the state or the private sector

What other advantages or disadvantages do you see?