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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL Putting children's well-being first Last week I began the discussion of how the increasingly “me-cen tric” American and global cultures are elevating the desires of adults above the needs of children. This week I will look closely at another area in which this attitude is making its mark: the attack on the traditional model of parenthood. Around the world, the two-person, mother-father model of parenthood is being fundamentally chal lenged, as evidenced in these recent events reported by the Institute for American Values: ■ In Canada, the same law that brought about same-sex marriage quietly included a provision to eliminate the term “natural parent” and replace it with the term “legal parent.” With this law, the power of defining who a child’s parent is shifts from civil society to the state. ■ In Spain, the birth-cer tificate terms “mother” and “father” have been changed to “Progenitor A” and “Progenitor B.” ■ In New Zealand and Australia, laws are being considered that would allow children conceived through the use of sperm or egg donors to have three legal parents. ■ In the United States, courts are increasingly hear ing cases to determine who the legal parents are among the many adults who might be involved in planning, con ceiving, birthing, and raising a child - even over the objec tion of the child’s biological parent. What is most shocking about these reports is that, despite the gravity of their implications, the general public is largely unaware that things like this are even going on, much less in their own back yard. Increasing state influence in these issues demonstrates how much children’s needs are being downplayed in the name of an adult’s perceived “right” to form a family. Despite sociological evidence that children live much healthier, happier and more stable lives in a traditional two parent, mother-father scenario, social and legal changes continue to under mine the traditional family and put children at risk. Around the world, govern ments are taking an increas ingly active role in defin ing and regulating parent hood far beyond its historic and child-centered purpose. Court decisions are expand ing the definition of a “par ent” with little to no consid eration of the effects that these decisions are having The bipartisan Katrina boon doggie Government sucks. It sucks billions of tax payer dollars down the drain in the name of pre venting disasters. It sucks billions more cleaning those disasters up when preven tion fails. It sucks millions on top of the billions for investigations and recrimi nations. And then the cycle begins anew. The Bush administration, like every administration since Jimmy Carter creat ed the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 1979, has failed mightily to break the natural disaster federal disaster cycle. Next to the systemic breakdown on border security and immigration enforcement, the Hurricane Katrina boondoggle stands as the Republicans’ most disgrace ful domestic failure. After years of hawking five-pound fiscal conservative blueprints for downsizing government bureaucracy and reforming federal spending, the GOP blew a monumental oppor tunity to show liberals how to end disaster socialism. Federal investigators now estimate the total for Hurricane Katrina waste could exceed $2 billion next year. Some $1 billion in aid has already been squandered on everything from unused trailers to empty cruise ship cabins, junkets, and disaster - or might have - on the children involved. For instance, many coun tries have legislation in place that denies children the right to even know the identity of their biological parent if they are the child of a single parentand Randy Hicks Georgia Family Council a donor. These laws are said to “curb the exploitation” of donors, but they do not consider a child’s desire or right to know their biologi cal parent and understand their heritage. Children in these situa tions are suffering from the loss of one of their parents and are, judging by their own statements, far from well adjusted. The Institute for American Values recent report on these and similar issues stated: “The redefinition of par enthood is taking new forms as cultural attitudes contin ue shifting; as reproductive technologies advance, access expands, and science contin ues pushing the boundaries on baby-making; as increas ing numbers of same-sex couples are openly raising children, with many of them also advocating for mar riage rights; as new players enter the marriage debate, including advocates of group marriage; and as the law struggles to catch up, often creating as many problems as it resolves.” Again, these decisions are being made by adults. Where are the advocates for the children who are being affected? And the attacks are not just coming in the courts. They are also beginning to permeate the court of public opinion. A recent issue of Newsweek ran a cover photo of a well known photographer with her three young, blond daughters on her hip and at her feet. It is clear from the story that she is not mar ried, and obviously beyond child birthing age, but no details are given about the her children’s father, if there is one. The only mention of the children’s births is this vague description, presented as if it were perfectly admi rable and normal: “She gave birth as a sin gle mother to her [oldest] daughter...just after 9/11. Then, a few months after [...] her twin girls were born via surrogate mother.” These changing family units are also being encour- aid debit cards that covered strip club and champagne expenses. Investigators reportedly will release the first of several audits examining more than sl2 billion in Katrina contracts next month. Adding to this already nauseat- lipL > . JSm Michelle Malkin Columnist ing debacle: grandstanding Democrats. According to the Associated Press, when the Dems take over in January, “at least seven commit tees plan hearings or other oversight -- from housing to disaster loans - on how the SBB billion approved for Katrina relief is being spent.” Among those chair ing oversight panels: Sen. Robert “They call me ‘The Pork King,’ they don’t know how much I enjoy it” Byrd, D-W.Va. When they hold their windy hearings and press conferences decrying wastefraudandabuse, they’ll bray about countless hurri cane contractors with GOP ties. They’ll turn over the microphone to corporate shakedown hypocrites such as Jesse Jackson to moan about favoritism in gov- aged by governments around the globe. Recently, the Danish parliament passed a law that gives lesbian cou ples and single women the right to obtain free artificial insemination at publicly funded hospitals. In essence, this ruling gives the state’s approval to intentional ly deny a child access to a father. In New Zealand, the law commission recently pro posed that sperm and egg donors be allowed to “opt in” to legal parenthood if they wish. This not only raises numerous questions, such as what will be the implications of “opting” in and out of par enthood, but also presents the opportunity for children to have three or more legal parents - the mother, the father and the donor(s). If and when children are recognized as having three (or more) legal parents, the arguments for recognizing some form of group mar riage will almost certainly become prevalent. Not only are polygamists already being cast in a positive light by the media, such as in HBO’s show about a polyga mist family, Big Love, but “polyamorists” are starting to make public appeals for acceptance as well. “Polyamory,” which is basically polygamy with out the marriage, questions why it should be abnormal to have numerous lovers - and thereby parents - in what is referred to as “ethi cal non-monogamy.” Many polyamorist forums are appearing online in which members complain that they have to keep their lovers and their lifestyle “in the closet” for fear of social ridicule or backlash. Some forums for so-called “poly-parents” have even asserted that their relation ships do not have a neg ative effect on their kids. They argue that while some children have one or two parents, others have four or five. “Why,” they ask, “should children with three parents be denied the same legal and social protections that children with only two parents have?” As shocking as most of these developments may seem, the biggest concern is that these extraordinary moves are being made with out any real public aware ness or debate. Perhaps you will help change that. Georgia Family Council is a non-profit organization that works to strengthen and defend the family in Georgia by equipping marriage advo cates, shaping laws, prepar ing the next generation and influencing culture. ernment contracting. And they’ll assail the Republican culture of corruption while looking the other way at Katrina’s Democrat profi teers. You will hear a lot about the Shaw Group, for exam ple, which snapped up major disaster relief and recon struction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Mainstream media outlets and Democrat mau mauers have zeroed in on Shaw’s “ties to the Bush White House” and the multi billion-dollar conglomerate’s status as a “major corpo rate client of Joe Allbaugh, President Bush’s former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” What Nancy Pelosi and company will not mention, though, is that the Shaw Group was founded by major Louisiana Democrat player Jim Bernhard - a former chairman, of the Louisiana Democrat Party who worked tirelessly for Democrat Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s runoff campaign and served as co-chair of her transition team. Bernhard was palsy-walsy with Blanco, whom he has lent/offered the Shaw Group’s corporate jets to on numerous occasions. Another Shaw executive See MALKIN, page SA LOCAL Looming tower: Origins of Al-Qaida Al-Qaida’s Ayman al-Zawahiri’B pre- Christmas rants backfired in both Palestine and in Washington, D.C. Dr. Zawahiri - Al-Qaida’s terror emir No. 2 - ordered the Palestinians to wage his globalist brand of jihad. In the midst of their own vicious civil war, Hamas and Fatah quickly told Zawahiri to butt out. Zawahiri’s history lesson for Washington Democrats elicited yawns. Zawahiri argued that the “the Muslim ... vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq ... won (the U.S. election), and the American forces and their crusader allies are the ones who lost ** Cave life in Pakistan evi dently limits the al-Qaida firebrand’s ability to affect current events. It isn’t sim ply a feat to simultaneous ly flop in the Beltway and Gaza Strip - it’s a defeat. Zawahiri’s December case of tin ear is small encour agement, however, for his insistent message remains an enormous menace. At the end of 2006, al-Qaida is a shattered organization, but not yet a shattered idea. The ideology al-Qaida and its “affiliated cadres” empowers a still potent enemy. Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh pro vided a domestic American example of the horror a handful of driven, delu sional and violent men can wreak. McVeigh, however, was truly isolated. Al-Qaida’s dark genius - or, more accurately, the dark genius of the Egyptian strain of internationalist jihadism - has been to con nect the Muslim world’s angry, humiliated and iso lated young men with a uto pian fantasy preaching the virtue of violence. That utopian fantasy seeks to explain and then redress roughly 800 years of Muslim decline. The rage energizing al- mew wemm mew mmmm 'K- ' ' _ ml The New Bank In Town Opening Soon Qaeda’s ideological cadres certainly predates the post- Desert Storm presence of American troops in Saudi Austin Bay Military Affair* Creator* Syndicate the Zawahiri’s Egyptian militancy, but together the Saudi-Egyptian link was the combination that forged al-Qaida operationally and philosophically. Zawahiri’s inspiration, mentor and fellow Egyptian, Sayid Qutb, is the modern father of jihadist rage and violence. Counter-terror experts have long acknowl edged Qutb’s resilient appeal. In his book “Assassins and Zealots,” terror expert Dr. Stephen Sloan notes Qutb “demonized” Western and secular Muslim leaders “as agents of revived jahiliyah (pre-Islamic heathenism) who ... could be attacked at will by true believers.” Lawrence Wright’s mag nificent new book, “The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11,” provides the most literate narrative history available of the origins and opera tions of al-Qaida. In doing so, Wright examines Qutb, Zawahiri, bin Laden and their cohorts in extraordi narily informed detail. “The Looming Tower” treats Qutb rigorously and poignantly. Qutb possessed a brilliant intellect, and his American sojourn (1948- 1950) had a profound effect on the man. Qutb visited New York and California, and attended college in Greeley, Colo. Wright says the freedom of American women led Qutb to conclude that “Islam and modernity First 1400 Sam Nunn Blvd. Perry, GA, 31069 SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2006 ♦ were completely incompat ible.” Qutb was palpably threat ened by, yet deeply attract ed to, Western women. Personal repulsion and fas cination fed a lurking sense of cultural and political humiliation. Qutb key facts: Qutb was born in 1903. He died in 1966 - executed by Egypt’s Game! Abdel Nasser, who at the time was a Soviet ally. Qutb’s rage fed Zawahiri and ultimately shaped bin Laden. The same rage contin ues to feed disaffected and isolated young Muslims trapped in corrupt autocra cies and denied other politi cal, cultural and aesthetic avenues of expression. Both Zawahiri and bin Laden grew up in compara tively privileged circum stances. Wright’s sources on Zawahiri’s early years include family members and family friends, provid ing a remarkable psycho logical record of a young, politically active intellec tual on the road to global murderer. Wright documents bin Laden’s inept record during the Afghan war against the Soviets. Hardened mujahi deen regarded bin Laden as a buffoon and poseur. Azza Zawahiri, Ayman’s wife, also receives tragic attention. Trapped in the debris of an air attack in Afghanistan, Azza chose to remain beneath the rubble rather than take the risk that men would see her face. She died there. The Wright vignette illustrates the fierce, unbending will of al-Qaida’s most committed cadres. And demonstrates why they remain a threat. To find out more about Austin Bay, and read fea tures by other Creators Syndicate writers and car toonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www. creators.com. Arabia. After 9-11, the popular press focused o n Osama b i n Laden’s Saudi money rather 5A Member FDIC "TOWfl