I endorsed this message - Platform building

Last week I announced my candidacy for the president. Then I explained that I was actually just planning to lay out what I thought was important for the candidate I intend to choose.

It seems from all the commercials I'm seeing, that Change is the answer. From the man who claims to have been the first to ask for change, to the lady who says she has the experience to change, all of the candidates, Democratic and Republican, are clamoring for change. Reminds me of the old adage about babies and politicians both needing to be changed often, and for the same reason.

I'm going to begin, not by asking for change, but by laying out my ideas. Before I begin, I want to lay out the areas I think should be addressed. This post won't tell you my opinion on any one topic, but instead will list topics I intend to cover later. They will be somewhat grouped, but that's subject to change (there's that word) later on.

I should note that I've already appointed someone to be my Secretary of Defense. I am step-related to a former soldier who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He's the most knowledgable person I know in this area.

In my platform, I intend to address these topics:
1. National Defense - 9/11 and America's response, the next 9/11, is there a Global War on Terror, the War in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts.
2) Foreign affars - Russia, Pakistan, Iran, India, Europe, Africa, South America, China (including trade) and Mexico (including immigration)
3) Isolationism vs. becoming entangled in the affairs of other nations (John Adams reference?)
4) National economy - Jobs, training, mortgages, housing, taxes and spending
5) Healthcare, education and abortion, global warming, carbon credits (hopefully, I'll explain why I grouped these)

What did I leave out? What do you, the voter, want me to address?

Thanks to those who responded earlier, I sincerley hope this gets some attention.

Birth control for 11 year olds

In Portland Maine, a middle school has begun dispensing birth control pills and patches to students. Yep, it's true, look here for the article.

Seems the school board voted 7-2 in favor of the action (at least 2 thought the plan was ridiculous). Of course this shouldn't surprise anyone, condoms have been available at the same school since 2000. There is a requirement that parents allow treatment at the school health center, but who wouldn't sign that (I guess "treatment" includes condoms and birth control).

I guess the next step is to give them the phone number for Planned Parenthood and the nearest abortion clinic. Thinking about that, I wonder who sponsors the pills and patches? Even adults have trouble knowing how to take the pill, don't they think these children will make mistakes while thinking they are "safe"? As for the patch, students will wear it some times, then remove it at others and the patch won't be effective.

Why must schools teach students that pre-marital sex is ok? Why can't they stick to teaching academics and let parents teach morals?

How many children do you want?

The Duggar family have 17 and aren't sure that they're through yet. This family from Arkansas (they father's real name is "Jim Bob" - actually James Robert, but he goes by Jim Bob) has had two sets of twins and 13 individual births.

I've seen their website, it's sure to meet the approval of my pro-life friends. In fact, you could almost say that it's pro-life to the extreme. But what impressed me was that it's not in-your-face pro-life. I got the impression that if one of their friends wanted to use birth control (they obviously don't) they would not chastise the friend.

I did some searching and found that their are some people who don't agree with the Duggars. While the Duggars won't get in their face, they will get in the Duggars' face. They argue that there are too many children starving (not these children though), that they will push their ideas on their children (isn't that a parent's job?) or that they're just weird. They also argue that it's not natural or healthy.

While I agree that they are different, I'm not sure weird fits. And as for natural, what's not natural? A child is the natural result of a healthy marriage. Sometimes it doesn't work that way, but when it does, it's a beautiful thing. The fact that they don't want to prevent childbirth just makes it completely natural.

I'm sure there's a lot I don't know, but I think this is great for this family. Congratulations to the Duggars.

* Update *
The Duggars were on NBC's Today show this morning. They consider each of their 17 children a gift from God. The background searching I did said that they own DEBT FREE a 7000 square foot home. I forgot to mention that the kids are home schooled, on the Today show was a clip of the school-teacher mom teaching bankruptcy law. All of the family looked normal, healthy and happy. My wife said "if you are really happy, you can't fake that".

Side note. We have half that many children (if you count sons-in-law and daughter-in-law).