One small yet very important rule I have is to never allow the entire family to be aboard the same plane, because all it takes then would be one crash to wipe out the entire family.  Something to keep in  mind.

An Air France passenger jet traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappeared after its electrical systems malfunctioned during a storm with heavy turbulence on Sunday evening, and officials said Monday that a search had begun for the wreckage near a small archipelago off the Brazilian coast.

Air France’s chief executive Pierre Henri Gourgeon spoke to reporters at the airline’s headquarters, at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday.
The New York Times

The plane disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean near the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, Brazilian authorities said.

The plane, an Airbus 330-200, was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members. The passengers were 126 men, 82 women, 7 children and an infant. There were nine cabin crew members and three pilots, the airline said.

Source/Full Story:: NYTimes.com

Source:  USATODAY.com

The percentage of American households with children under 18 living at home last year hit the lowest point — 46% — in half a century, government data reported Wednesday.

The trend reflects the aging of the Baby Boom generation and younger women having fewer children, demographers say.

“Baby Boomers have been a big force in driving a lot of different population dynamics,” says Rose Kreider, a family demographer at the Census Bureau, which released the data.

In 2008, about 35.7 million families (46%) had children under 18 at home, the Census figures show, down from 52% in 1950. The percentage peaked in 1963, when about 57% of families had children under 18 at home.
…

… When cash-strapped workers have fewer dollars to feed another mouth, couples are likely to have fewer children, or none.

The data also show:

•About 5.3 million “stay-at-home” mothers and 140,000 such fathers.

•The median age at first marriage was 27.4 years for men and 25.6 for women.

•Fewer women in their mid- to early 40s had children in 2008 (20%), up from 10% in 1976.

•The percentage of children with two parents at home varies: 85% of Asian children have two parents at home vs. 78% of white, 70% of Hispanic and 38% of black children.

Full Story

Technorati Tags: Demographic Winter, birth rates

The money will never be there in sufficient quantity to take care of all these elderly.  This is all the more reason to come together in a Biblically Patriarchal multi-generational family, where the needs of the elderly are met with the proper levels of love and commitment, and do not rely on the State to meet your needs at any age, as they will always let you down.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.   Exodus 20:12

“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of h peopleis household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”  1Timothy 5:8 

Source: Reuters

Fueled by the needs of a growing elderly population, spending on long-term health care under the Medicaid program will soar in the next 20 years, a report released Monday predicted.

Spending for long-term care for elderly and disabled people under the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor will total $3.7 trillion in the next two decades, according to the report by America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group.

That includes $1.6 trillion projected to be spent by individual U.S. states and $2.1 trillion in federal money, according to the report. Long-term care includes nursing homes and in-home care for people unable to live independently.

“Medicaid’s position as the payer of last resort for long-term care — despite the presence of long-term care insurance available in the marketplace today — will continue to create budgetary difficulties for states and the federal government over the next two decades,” the report read.

Full Story…

“Almost invariably, when this occurs [revolt against taxation], the state will resort to the most vicious, the most destructive, the most hidden tax of all.  It will resort to the reprobate tax of inflation.  By doing so, it decapitalizes virtually all of society because it destroys the currency medium upon which society makes its economic decisions and judgements.  As the currency goes, so goes society and the state.  inflation is the final act in the state’s play at being God.  t is its final attempt to create wealth by fiat.  It is the primary claim by man that he can create material propserity ex nihilo (out of nothing) in the same manner that God created the world.  In the area of economics inflation is the ultimate claim of man that he can legislate whatever he desires into existence.  It is his claim of being God in the realm of political-economy.  And because it is one of man’s primary menas by which he claims to be God, it brings one of God’s most severe judgements upon man.  God’s wrath against such unrighteousness means the virtual destruction of man’s political, social, and economic structure.”

From Tithing & Dominion, pg. 58, by Edward A. Powell and R.J. Rushdoony

Part two, again, from: St. Helena Star

Last week we delved into that shady world which is known affectionately as “Polygamy.” It seems so quaint — women dressed in gingham and calico, hair pulled back — well mannered and poised. The men — hard working — self-reliant folks who mind their own business. These sects tend live communally, in isolation — not bothering anybody — unless you are a child.

Does our government have any legitimate interest in their activities? Doesn’t the First Amendment guarantee freedom of religion? Who are we to divine the difference between a religion and a cult? (Some think Catholicism is an evil cult).

The Mormon Church disavowed polygamy over a hundred years ago, in 1890. So it’s not about them.

The cult busted in Texas has more in common with Jim Jones, Charlie Manson, David Koresh (and my favorite) Warren Jeffs than Joseph Smith.

There’s a theme here which isn’t confined to American extremists. It stretches from Bangladesh to Baghdad.

It revolves around Messianic leaders who conveniently end up with multiple sex partners — often wives or children of other followers.

It is patriarchy in extremis.

Snippet of part 1, from: St. Helena Star

“Debbie was 14 when she married her 57-year-old husband. His sixth wife, she became stepmother to his 31 children. As he was father to her own stepmother, she became stepgrandmother to herself.”

According to John Krakauer’s “Under the Banner of Heaven,” this is business as usual in polygamous cults.

Perhaps that’s none of our business. But upon closer inspection, the recent raids in Texas may have as much to do with what’s happening in Sadr City, as Colorado City.

It’s not about Mormons. They have disavowed polygamy since 1890. So don’t pick on them. This is about patriarchy and fundamentalist cults — worldwide.

It’s about what happens when one man hears the voice of Yahweh, Allah, Huitzilopochtli, Fred (whomever) and that “God” says that the quickest way to heaven is for a women to bend to a man’s will.

As a parent, I’m into obedience. But when blind obedience is the order of the day, free men everywhere are forced to sit up and take notice.

Many Americans think polygamy is cute. After all, what’s the harm in having multiple wives? Isn’t this the land of the free? If they want to live in an isolated compound, peacefully, who are they hurting, anyway? It is our government who is hurting their children, they say.

There is some merit to that argument.