What's happening (so many people wonder) that is making at least half of kindergartners engage in frequent fighting, aggression, and tantrums?' Is it ADD or ADHD or any more letters from the beginning of the alphabet?' Yes, it must be...so drug 'em into obedience!Over the last year, we've also seen many reports that pre-schoolers were being thrown out, because of "bad behavior," including an unwillingness to cooperate, to listen to "teachers," and even a tendency to assault other children.' Well, we can drug 'em for that, too.' Or, how 'bout yoga and other forms of meditation? (I personally find that foot massages take off my edges!).We have two choices:' figure out how to get control of these out-of-control kids, or how not to drive them to distraction in the first place.' I vote for "Door #2."A 2006 study in the journal "Early Childhood Research Quarterly" demonstrated that day-care children show increases in the stress hormone cortisol throughout the day compared to children at home.'A 2007 study, headed by Susanna Loeb, an Associate Professor of Education at Stanford University, found that children who spend more time in child-care centers early in life show more behavior problems in later years, compared with kids who have spent less time away from home and momma, and that the negative effects were greater among children who had entered child-care centers at earlier ages.It takes a momma and a daddy, and a warm, loving home to get a child ready to deal with the unpredictable, unfair, restrictive, and demanding realities of life.' Please give them that time with you . More >>

Philosophers throughout the ages have contemplated and agonized over what causes people to fall in love.' Sociologists and psychologists have done the same over what causes people to stay in love.' Now neuroscientists are trying to solve both their problems by taking brain scans of folks in love looking for the "cause" of love.The report of their work prepared by the Wall Street Journal (2/8/08) seems to miss the main point.' Looking for brain sites of increased activity in people who after many years of marriage still feel fabulously in love, is not likely due to some abnormal hyperactivity in centers associated with affection or pleasure.' It is the opposite way around.' People who behave consistently in a loving manner constantly stoke the fires of affectionate and passionate love - all which will show up in their brain scans.The couple they "analyzed," the Turners, are described up front: "Ann Tucker is pushing a shopping cart through the produce section of a supermarket in Plainview, N.Y., when she turns to kiss her husband.' The supermarket kiss is a regular ritual for the Tuckers.' So are the restaurant kiss and the traffic-light kiss.' 'I guess we do kiss a lot,' says Mrs. Tucker...Mrs. Tucker is living happily ever after, and scientists are curious why." Why?' That's easy: she and her husband constantly behave like people in love.' Feelings follow behavior and both feed into brain pathways that become "well-worn" through constant activation.So, stop looking for supplements, hormone injections, or implanted brain stimulators, miracles or moonspots.' Instead, behave like a man/woman in love and you'll create what you wish for. More >>

According to the Associated Press ( February 1, 2008 ), remote-controlled explosives strapped to two mentally retarded women detonated in a coordinated attack on Baghdad pet bazaars on Friday, killing at least 73 people.' The women had Down Syndrome.' Considering the explosives were detonated by remote control, they probably were completely unaware that they were to be used as human bombs.' The attacks were most likely the work of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.Associated Press records show that since the start of the war, at least 151 people have been killed in about 17 attacks by female suicide bombers.' Involving women in fighting violates cultural taboos in Iraq, but Al-Qaeda in Iraq is recruiting females to perform suicide attacks because militants are increasingly desperate for volunteers.' Women in Iraq wear the long black overgarments called abayas , and can avoid searches at checkpoints, because men are not allowed to search them, and there aren't enough female guards.' This is an obvious "PC" mistake - this is war, and such proprieties need to be put by the wayside, because people are being murdered.I wish NOW (the National Organization for Women) would spend less time on rants assuring women that murdering the babies in their bodies is some kind of noble "right," and spend their time in the Middle East, protecting women from being used as cannon fodder. More >>

I sometimes hear from people who think I'm too harsh on my callers.' There are many reasons for the way I deal with someone who calls my program, but my particular approach is always in direct response to what I intuit from the callers themselves.'' Here's an email I got from Morgan, who titled her correspondence "Thanks For Your Advice and for TEARING Into Me!" I called you the other day, and was shocked to hear you for real in my ear!' My question was about why I was complaining about my fianc' a lot lately.' My complaints were about his extra weight, being quiet on road trips, an, lately, his constant wearing of a baseball hat!' You listened PATIENTLY to what I was nagging about, and then you truly laid into me...and well, I really needed it! You told me that I wasn't marrying myself, and if I wanted to be with someone exactly like me, well, marry myself (ha!), but not stay and complain.' You also stated that I was comparing him to me, and that wasn't helpful.' He is his own man - a quiet, baseball hat-wearing man.' Then you said that I should thank him for putting up with me for so long. It is really interesting to me that I have always prided myself on treating others the way I wish to be treated-- my students, my colleagues, my friend--but that I had been treating my own fianc' in a negative, terrible and condescending manner, instead of thanking him every day for coming into my life.' He is the most gentle, generous and loyal person I know, and the truth is I have been feeling crappy about myself and projecting that onto him. Well, I went home and re-read "Ten Stupid Things Women Do To Mess Up Their Lives," and got to the part that asks the reader to think about whether they would want their future daughter to be dating their partner.' It really sunk in.I'd love it if my future daughter would be dating someone like my fianc', but I don't think I'd want my future son dating someone like I have been lately! Good wake-up call for me, Dr. Laura.' I've listened to you for eight years.' You are a true voice of reason, morality, and plain common sense in my head! More >>

In response to my blog on the degeneration of interpersonal relationships through Facebook, MySpace, and the swell of gossip media outlets, I got this from Paul French: You are so correct.' My wife came across a great quote from Eleanor Roosevelt that I believe explains a lot of this:' 'Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.' Thanks, Paul! More >>

Frankly, calling abortion (the termination of a life within a woman's uterus) "reproductive health," is a ridiculous - but effective - way of obfuscating the realities.' A January 18 report from the Associated Press (which excludes California because its government does not provide data) estimates that in 2005 there were 1.2 million abortions - down from a peak of 1.6 million abortions in 1990, but still happening in 20% of the cases where conception has occurred.Half of the 1.2 million U.S. women who have abortions each year are 25 and older, while only 17% are teenagers.' Since abortion became legal, there have been roughly 50 million abortions in the US, and more than one-third of adult women are estimated to have had at least one."Planned Un-Parenthood," as I call that group, is launching a major effort to elect so-called "pro-abortion rights" candidates to Congress and the White House in November.' According to the Wall Street Journal (January 22, 2008), they plan to spend $10 million to elect candidates who back its priorities.' We are just in the beginning of a world wide jihadist movement to eradicate Western Civilization, and they want to focus only on protecting a woman's right to kill the life growing inside her body.' I don't love special interest groups.Tuesday, January 22, 2008, the Santa Barbara News-Press published a half-page ad from the "Santa Barbara Pro-Choice Coalition" concerned with what would happen to women in America "if Roe Fell?"' They list: "They may have to resort to back alleys, they'll be forced to travel to states with less restrictive laws, they may be prosecuted for self-induced abortions, [and] poor and low income women will suffer the most."' It is signed by just about every group in Santa Barbara that is dominated by women (except, of course, by religious or pro-life groups).When I woke up to that ad I thought immediately that "if Roe Fell" maybe women would be more circumspect about when and with whom they had sex; that women might show some proactive responsibility by using the birth control pill, an IUD, etc., or have the maturity to make sure their sex partner (or, if you're in college, it's just a hook-up partner) uses a condom.' I also thought that maybe they'd have the compassion not to make an innocent child experience capital punishment, and instead be offered for adoption to a two-parent, mature and responsible married couple and thereby create a family instead of terminating a life.Instead, we've got a culture that disdains personal responsibility and elevates freedom from consequences and the impact on others be damned.' Think about the so-called reality shows which have young adults mixing and matching sexual exploits, and the popularity of television programs like "Sex in the City" and "Friends."' Sharon wrote to me recently about the second American Idol pilot episode: "Auditioning was a young man who had made a promise to his father never to kiss or be intimate with a girl until his wedding night.' He wears a key around his neck that fits into a heart that hangs around his father's neck.' His father will give this heart to his son's bride when the time comes.' It was all very sweet and I admired him so much for his dedication to this promise.' I thought that his wife would be a very lucky woman." "I was shocked at American Idol's spin on this young man's promise.' I thought they would respond to it as romantic.' Instead, they essentially mocked him.' He did not get selected, and when he asked if the judges had any advice, they told him to go kiss a girl.' He told his father he would just keep working on his voice and come back next year.' The announcer said maybe next year he'll come back as a man instead of a boy." "I was shocked.' To me he already was a man.' It takes a man to make a sacrifice like that.' He was easily 25.' In today's world, boys as young as 12 are having sex, so does that make them men?' Who makes the standards on what makes a man today?' And does American Idol have any right to make that call?" About 13 percent of American women are black, yet new figures from the Centers for Disease Control show they account for 35 percent of the abortions and the overwhelming majority of children born to black women are "illegitimate."' Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther King Jr., calls herself a "reformed murderer" for undergoing two abortions when she was young.' According to the AP report, she is now an outspoken anti-abortion campaigner.' She says that the best way to reduce abortions among black women is to dissuade more of them from premarital sex.' "'We give free sex education, free condoms, free birth control,' she complained.' 'That's almost like permission to have free sex, and the higher the rate of sexual activity, the higher the rate of unintended pregnancy.'"Ms. King is so right.' The Denver Post (January 7, 2008) reported that pregnant students in a Denver high school are asking for at least four weeks of maternity leave so "they can heal, bond with their newborns, and not be penalized with unexcused absences."' These are unmarried teenagers whose children will now be in 'other than mom'-care, most likely grow up in poverty, and not have a dad in their lives.' Meanwhile, society is telling these girls that their actions should have no consequences on them...what about their children?!' The do-gooders who back up these young girls refuse to acknowledge this disaster cast upon innocent children, and instead propagate more such irresponsible behavior by demanding free child-care and elevating these girls to a sacred status.'It would seem that reinstituting shame for being a "bad girl" and having sexual intercourse out-of-wedlock (it works...there were no pregnancies in either of the two high-schools I went to in Long Island, NY), and pushing the heck out of adoption might be better for women in the long run than unfettered abortion rights.What is ignored or denied by Planned UN-Parenthood types are the wide range of emotional problems that women who have had abortions suffer.' To get up to speed with these facts, check out www.abortionfacts.com/reardon/after_abortion_psychological_rea.asp .'Nicole wrote to me about watching a popular morning television talk show where the topic was "hooking up." "On stage was a fourteen year old girl who mentioned that her friends were having oral sex at the age of 11 and that she had hooked up too.' Evidently, when the mother expressed some anger, the host and the 'expert' ganged up on her telling her how to be more understanding and go off with her and buy condoms." "That's when I shut the television off.' I grew up with parents who had a zero tolerance policy for sexual activity outside of marriage.' Sure, when I was a child our conversations about sex were calm and relaxed.' We talked openly about the consequences and reasons to wait.' However, when I became a teenager I knew that if I had sex and got pregnant, I was on my own.' I knew that if I had sex they would not pay for college.' I knew that if I had sex there were not only going to be consequences with my parents...and you know what?' As a teenager, losing the love and respect of my parents was enough of a consequence for me to abstain when my friends were not." "Parents need to be stern about sex outside of marriage - not compassionate.' If my parents had told me in advance that I could come to them after I had sex and all I would receive was a big hug and a trip to the drug store, I would have had no reason to abstain." Perhaps we should go back to thinking about sex as "making love," and then wait 'til we actually are...making love. More >>

I want to begin this blog by offering my deepest and most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Heath Ledger , the young movie star found dead this week in his apartment.' The point of view of this blog does not in any way intend to minimize the loss, hurt, and emotional suffering of those with whom he was close.However, the amount of media attention to this tragedy does seem excessive to some, while the heroically tragic sacrifices of other talented and brave young Americans go unnoticed.' A "Blue Star Mother" (an organization of mothers who now have, or have had, children honorably serving in the military bluestarmothers.org ) wrote to me: "In listening to the recent press hysteria surrounding Heath Ledger's death, I can't help but contrast that with the ultimate sacrifice our troops make every day with no fanfare. My son, a Specialist with the Army 25th ID, is stationed in Taji, Iraq.' Last Friday he witnessed the death of his very good friend, Specialist Jon Schoolcraft , age 26, to an IED, not to mention the grievous wounds sustained by others in the same attack.' I would ask your listeners to log onto the DoD website ( defenselink.mil/Releases/ ) just once to see the names and ages of the brave young men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.' Better yet, turn off the gossip channels on the TV and Internet and write a letter or send a care package to the troops to let them know they're not forgotten. God Bless you, Dr. Laura, for all you do for our troops.' I too am a Proud Mother of an American Soldier...Hoo-ah!" I believe that a civilization is measured in great part by what it chooses to honor. More >>

You could tell who the "visitors" were in Portland this past weekend.' We were the only ones using umbrellas...Portlanders simply go on with their lives as if water were not draining from the sky.'''' It was a great trip.' I arrived Thursday and stayed at The Benson Hotel on Southwest Broadway.' Friday morning we drove to KATU-TV where I had a fun interview about "In My Never To Be Humble Opinion," my one woman show that we did on Friday and Saturday night at the lovely Newmark Theater at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts.'''''' After the television interview, I arrived at KEX AM 1190 for an unbelievably moving Native American ceremony performed by Marshall Tall Eagle and his wife and granddaughter.' They presented me with a "Mother's Medal of Honor," in recognition of my being "the proud mother of a deployed American paratrooper."' Marshall Tall Eagle's special status among the tribes gave him the power to assign an "Indian" name to a "civilian."' He told me he'd prayed about it and was told what name to use for me:' "Walks with Warriors."' No question that I loved getting that name!''''' After doing my radio program from the KEX studios, I went to'afternoon team Mark & Dave's studio to be interviewed about whatever came into their very hilarious minds.' They and their crew surprised me with a birthday apple pie lit up with candles...very, very appreciated.'''' I'd asked Mark & Dave to open my one woman show and what a terrific move that turned out to be -- they were unbelievable witty and charming andjump-started audience enthusiasm.'''' I've been all over the country with my show, and the Newmark had the best audio of all by far - no matter where you sat from the front row to the last seat in the second balcony, you could hear every word.' The audience was fun and responsive...which brought the best out of me.'''' Saturday morning I got up way too early because the kind people at "Nolita's" (Pearl District) opened their shop up early so that I might take advantage of their cool styles and the luxury of a sale complete with no sales tax.' Don't ask how much I spent...their things were adorable.' Next stop was "Jane's Vanity" for a selection of fabulous lingerie.' I particularly like camisoles to wear under blazers.'''' We had a great lunch at Jake's Famous Crawfish.' The sourdough bread and the crab cakes were amazing.'''' We all walked back to our hotels after lunch to nap - traveling and performing...eating and shopping... take a lot out of you!''''' Saturday night's crowd was as enthusiastic and energized as the night before - with both nights totally sold out.'''' One couple had changed their marriage plans a bit in order to make sure they made it to the Saturday show.' They moved the ceremony and reception earlier in the day and then drove to Portland to see the show...still wearing their wedding clothes!' I acknowledged them from the stage and gave them a wedding present I'd purchased the week before in response to their email informing me of their "new" plans.' Just adorable.'''' I loved Portland, the folks at KEX, and Portlanders in general.' They were all gracious, fun, positive and quite sensitive to the more serious issues I addressed' as well as open to having a good time. Thank you all for your hospitality.'''' Sunday morning I got up at 5 AM to be home by 11 AM so that I could go out with my sailboat racing crew to practice.' My husband then made the best hamburger and potato salad on any coast and I just put my feet up, petted Bebe while watching some touching true story about a college that lost its whole football team in a tragic plane crash.' I'm a sucker for sentimental stories - even more so when they're about real life.'''' We're looking at a number of new cities to go to with the one woman show.' I'm hoping to see many more of you soon! More >>

I am amazed at the depth of commitment and compassion the listeners to my radio program have towards our United States soldiers and their families. Toward the end of 2007, I talked about the Congressional hearings on charity fraud particularly with respect to veteran's organizations and encouraged you to do your own research, not just for Operation Family Fund but for any charitable organization you were thinking of supporting. From the time of that commentary, Operation Family Fund has received over $120,000 in donations, and they're still coming in. Thank you for taking my favorite charity into your hearts, and helping the families of our brave men and women whose lives have been severely disrupted by the global war on terrorism. More >>

Go ahead and guess what came out as Number 3 on AOL's "Top Searches from Mobile Devices."' Right!' It's porn.' The Wall Street Journal's Carl Bialik ( The Numbers Guy ) got the original list in a draft press release, and said he "pointed out the surprising entry" to a spokeswoman, who said that normally, such terms are "scrubbed from the list."' And guess what?' When the final list was released, "porn" was nowhere to be found, replaced by "iPhone," which was pushed up to Number 3 from Number 4 on the original draft release.It gets even better...."...Britney Spears and Saddam Hussein could each top the category of 'celebrity' and 'news,' respectively, in lists from multiple search engines.' Those search engines willing to share numbers beyond their news releases made clear that, in search land, the troubled pop singer trumped the late dictator.' Searches for Ms. Spears ran six times those for Mr. Hussein on Yahoo!, and nearly 600 times on Lycos."How embarrassing for our nation.'[sources:' Bialik article:' you can search it on WSJ.com under The Numbers Guy for December 21.' Title of article is "What Topics Filled (Clean) Minds in '07?' For One:' An Asterisk or use the link here: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119820461738044109-lECMb7qhI7UaxADXmlRkefZGJhI_20081220.html?mod=rss_free ] More >>