My oldest goes to public school for half days, mainly for socialization and so I have a legitimate platform for my opposition to standardized tests and comprehensive sex ed. Sex ed should be taught by ministers or by observing the mating habits of our backyard hens.  I homeschool him in the afternoons. We do lots of great science projects like growing organic foods and those Sea Monkey kits we order from the back of his comic books.

I’m teaching my baby sign language and Spanish. I prefer that no one address the baby in any English at all, unless is educational television like Jeopardy. We haven’t told anyone the baby’s gender. The sexism in our society is epic and we don’t want our kids to fall victim to gender stereotypes. We made the mistake of telling our oldest he was a boy but we’re trying to make up for it by making sure his wardrobe is 50% dresses and skirts. I am making all of his clothes and plan to start an Etsy shop of BoySkirts before the holidays.

Click on over for the rest. It has it all from homemade vaccines to unmedicated c-sections!

You know how we get a little crazy with our Give it Up projects? Well guess what we’re doing now? We partnered up with Naughty Betty (the world’s most awesome gift and greeting card company) to make a series of Mother’s Day eCards for the Real World. Remember the Valentines for the Real World? These are like those only a million times more awesome.

Because for every time you share these eCards get on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter, our buddies at Sweet Relish.com will donate money to Shelter House  – up to $10,000. Shelter House provides safe haven and services for families struggling with homelessness and domestic violence. If you want to find out more about the project, you can also read the back story here.

Bad. Ass. All it takes is some clicking, which you’re already doing if you’re reading blogs right now, and some women who need the help get a big fat check. So click! CLICK!

Here are some of the best cards:

God, wouldn’t it be awesome if “target” in the title referred to the store and I was going to share a story about a surly employee doing something anti-social but hilarious? Sadly, that is not the case.

No, what I’m yammering on about is the NRA convention held last week. The speakers list was a veritable Who’s Who of big name Republicans without day jobs: Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent. I had a little fun with that on Twitter where I fantasized about Ted Nugent and Todd Palin being caught having an affair. I also speculated that Sarah Palin could rehabilitate her image by starting a line of cosmetics (Pitbull brand lipstick, perhaps?) and hosting a show on QVC. I joke about all of this to escape the cognitive dissonance of the idea of a convention center full of people who are drawn together to celebrate in owning deadly weapons. “We can shoot people! Yay!” Owning guns should be a more grave endeavor, if you ask me. There should be lectures on safety and responsibility, not pep rallies.

Nor should there be overt homages to rape and abuse. There’s a retail component to this convention, apparently, and there’s no Palin branded lipstick in sight. Instead, there are shooting accessories. Like targets for practicing your shooting. Realistic targets. Realistic, human shaped targets. Realistic, human shaped targets THAT LOOK LIKE HALF DRESSED, BLEEDING WOMEN AND ARE CALLED “THE EX”.

I’m not going to post a picture because the realism is a bit much and I don’t want to set off any triggers but here’s a link to the Zombie Industries monstrosity. I frankly want to storm their headquarters and beat the ever-living shit out of them for suborning domestic violence. You can’t tell me that people who think this is funny or clever shoot guns for sport or food or self-defense. They shoot guns to feel powerful and they are sick and disgusting. Yeah. I said it. Anyone who gets a chuckle out of this is sick and needs help and should probably not have guns. Because KILLING PEOPLE IS NOT FUNNY.

Targets like these is why domestic violence and sexual violence against women continues unabated in this country. We are expect to react to stuff like this with a mischevious grin and take it for the “joke” it’s meant to be. Wrong. It’s not funny. It’s not cute. Finding it funny or cute is a symptom of advanced moral decay and should require therapy.

This sort of thing is unacceptable. It promotes violence against women. I will be sending a link to this post to the company that makes these targets along with a letter explaining why glorifying violence against women is so fucking wrong. You can contact Zombie Industries to share your feelings here.

Also, watch this space today. Later, I’ll be posting something that is actually funny and also helps women.

But looking beyond the horror of a child killed in such a way, I’m drawn to the fact that the boy had his own hunting rifle. Not a rifle meant for adults, either. This is a rifle scaled and marketed for children. I had no idea such a thing existed and, frankly, I find it very, very upsetting. I have a 5 year old and he is in no way ready to handle lethal weapons, even if he took one of the much touted safety classes the NRA and local gun ranges offer. Hell, he lacks the coordination and attention to caution to carry a full bowl of cereal across the kitchen without sloshing it over the edge. He cannot and should not be given access to firearms. Yes, I know that some kids start hunting that early and it’s part of beloved family traditions but I look at it askance. I’d feel different about a 12 year old on a deer hunting excursion. A 5 year old is, in my opinion, too young.

But there’s more to marketing guns for kids that worries me. It’s part of something bigger and I don’t like the general trend, not just because I’m basically opposed to guns.

What’s my beef? Adult toys made smaller for kids. I don’t like Power Wheels. Or professional mani-pedis for little girls. Kids are kids, not little adults. They need kid things for kid minds. They’re not ready to be grown up and it’s up to us to make sure they have something left to aspire to by keeping them kids for as long as they need to be. That means keeping their toys and activities, you know, kid like.

Read the whole post over at Babble!

If you really want to be an agent of change,  you need to get off the Internet and get in the room. What room am I talking about? Any room with a decision maker in it. It might be an office on Capitol Hill, it might be community forum, it might be a fundraiser that you pay to get into. And decision makers can be legislators, corporate leaders, staff of a government agency, or the principal of your local school. These are people who are supposed to give ear to the voices of the people they serve.

They are not required to go trolling Twitter to find what those voices have to say. You have to break through the static of internet noise and get your message across clearly and individually.

What I don’t say over there, and I probably should have, is that as an internet presence, you’re unverifiable. Yeah, your cause FB page could have 1200 “likers” but how it is a lawmaker to know that it’s not the same person clicking like using 1200 fake FB accounts? And signatures on online petitions are just as sketchy. But showing up and showing your face is hard to argue with. That’s why I’m such a proponent of face to face activism.

Read the whole post at The Broad Side!

You can imagine what happened next, right?

The comments immediately turned into a slam-fest where judemental women rode in on their Perfect Mommy Sparkleponies* and started dumping Sparklepony shit all over the post. I alerted the troops and my amazing readers jumped into the fray. It’s been pretty epic. Lots of action. Lots of great women telling people to step back and let moms do their thing without judgement. It will probably send my Babble traffic for the month into the stratosphere.

I feel like a total dick about it.

This post was meant to stir the pot and boy, did it ever. I knew – and I hope everyone I quoted knew – that some people can’t just read  posts like this. They have to get on their Sparklepony and scream their judgement at the top of their lungs. This was like catnip for them and I knew it would be. I instigated the comment free for all.

There are better uses for all of our time than shouting at each other on the internet. While I love a show of solidarity as much as the next guy, what happened today didn’t make anybody’s life better. But I’m going to change that. See, I got enough clicks today that I’ll probably be getting a bonus from Babble for high traffic. I’m going to use that money to feed some hungry babies. I did a little research today and found some great organizations that help kids in the developing world get what they need to survive. There’s the Gates Foundation, the Water Project, UNICEF, Shot@Life, and the Clinton Global Initiative. These organizations are focusing on clean water, maternal and child health, ending hunger, providing vaccines, and stopping the spread of malaria. That’s what want to be a part of: an united effort to do good.

I’ll give my bonus to UNICEF for their programs to feed hungry children around the world. That’s what it’s all about right? Feeding children who need to be fed. It’s not about what makes us feel superior to each other. It’s about doing what needs to be done.

*I stole the word Sparklepony from Minnesota Vikings punter and all around awesome rabbleraiser Chris Kluwe.

Seriously, there is some group of nutbags calling themselves the Armed Citizen Project who think passing out shotguns, especially to women, is the answer to all of America’s ills. They’re already up and running in Arizona and the money is rolling in, according to USA Today:

Arizona gun proponents have donated about $12,500 to fund the gun giveaway and McClusky, a former mayoral and city council candidate, hopes to collect enough to eventually arm entire neighborhoods.

Participants will receive training on how to properly use, handle and store their weapon, as well as trigger locks. It costs about $400 per participant for the weapon and training.

Man, that’s like the the worst Welcome Wagon ever. “Hi y’all! Welcome to the ‘hood! Here’s a casserole and your complimentary shotgun. It’s great for shooting varmints or the neighbors’ kids if they sneak through your backyard!”.

I predict we’ll see emergency room visits for accidental firearms injuries in Tucson will spike in three…two…

Of course, arming women in sketchy neighborhoods sounds like common sense compared to this charming proposition:

He seems nice.

Yes, Representative Steve Stockman (R-TX) has a campaign sticker that proposes that if fetuses were armed, that would stop abortion. I assume this is supposed to be funny and elicit some sort of “Fuck yeah! ‘Murrica!” response. But if you spend more than about half a second thinking about this statement the two hemispheres of your brain will fuse and you’ll be unable to complete a logical argument against this because HELLO! IT’S THE STUPIDEST FUCKING THING ANYONE HAS EVER SAID!

But then again, Steve Stockman is the guy who invited Ted Nugent to the State of the Union so I guess crazy-ass stupid is the best we can expect from him. I hope he plans to legalize whatever he was smoking when he approved this bumper sticker. Because I need a hit of it to get over this kind of idiocy.

On the second Tuesday of each month, the church is a pick up location for a local food bank. I don’t know what time the food pantry opens. 9:30? 10? I don’t know because I have a kitchen full of food at home and a steady income with which to buy more. But every second Tuesday, by 9 am there is a line of people at the front doors of the church, waiting for a bag of groceries to take home.

The people there are all kinds. Many appear elderly. A few with obvious trappings of disabilities like wheelchairs. So many minorities. I don’t know what brings them to the food pantry. Job loss, maybe. Inadequate wages. Holes in the social safety new. I don’t know why they need food.

Most of all I don’t know where they go all the other Tuesdays of the month to get a bag of groceries.

Whenever I see that line of people, I feel a knot inside me. It reminds me to give to the food bank that organizes that food pantry and dozens like it in my county. Usually, I just give money but I’ll also contribute food when a drive or pick-up is nearby. I always give baby food and formula. Some mother needs it.

If you’re thinking about your charitable giving, consider a food bank. Somewhere in your community there is a line of people like the one at my son’s school every second Tuesday.

You may have noticed that I’m starting to change a few things here on my blog. For one thing, I’ve refreshed the layout. For another, I’ve added an appendage to the title. If you look to the top you’ll see that I’m calling myself Mom-in-a-Million: Stay At Home Pundit. That’s merely a first step. In the next couple of weeks, Mom-in-a-Million will be retired and I’ll be making Stay At Home Pundit my official moniker. Tomorrow, the URL here will change to www.stayathomepundit.com, my Twitter handle has changed to @AtHomePundit, I’ll be migrating to a new Stay At Home Pundit Facebook page and I’ll be getting shiny new graphics for the blog with the new name.

I am super, duper excited about all of this.

Why am I doing all of this? Well, because. I feel like it. And because for a long time now, this blog hasn’t been the story of a mom. It’s been a soapbox. This is where I come to shout about the things in our world that make me angry or elated or perplexed. It’s where I try to get to the heart of issues that seem important to me and where I explain all the details that the media can leave out. It’s where I indulge my passion for politics.

I am a mother and that colors how I view the world. But I am also a political creature, a cable news watcher and NPR listener. I talk to my kids all day. When I come here, I don’t want to talk about them. I want to talk about the wider world and what it means to me.

My content won’t change with the title change. In truth, my content changed a long time ago and the new title is just catching up. Now no one will come here looking for a classic mm blog only to be disappointed that all the posts are the ravings of a left-wing madwoman. (That happened to some poor woman a while ago and she commented that she couldn’t understand why I wasn’t a “ray of sunshine” like the other blogs she reads. Whoops.) You’ll still find all the wonk snark you’re used to around here, just under a different masthead.  I hope you keep coming back and letting my rants be part of your news cycle!

P.S. I updated my About Me page too if you feel like reading it.

Republican North Carolina state legislators have proposed allowing an official state religion in a measure that would declare the state exempt from the Constitution and court rulings.

The bill, filed Monday by two GOP lawmakers from Rowan County and backed by nine other Republicans, says each state “is sovereign” and courts cannot block a state “from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.” The legislation was filed in response to a lawsuit to stop county commissioners in Rowan County from opening meetings with a Christian prayer, wral.com reported.

OK everything about this sucks. Everything about this scream religious discrimination. Everything about this is bigoted, intolerant TOTAL FUCKING BULLSHIT THAT WILL ENSURE I NEVER SPEND A SINGLE ONE OF MY NON-CHRISTIAN DOLLARS IN NORTH CAROLINA.

I’m not a Christian but not a day goes by that I don’t witness some exhibition of Christian practice by elected leaders. When the President – any of them – end speeches with “God bless the United States – I roll my eyes and grind my teeth a little because I don’t believe in the kind of god that goes around blessing stuff. I don’t really believe in any gods. I want to ignore all the major religions. I don’t want to talk about them, hear about them or read about them. But I am not afforded that luxury because there is a presumption by many that everyone is Christian and if they aren’t they should be so HOLLA YOUR FAITH, YO.

Usually I just find overt Christian bloviating by elected officials sort of boring and I ignore it because they’re clearly pandering to a constituency and that’s what politicians do. But this? Attempting to codify Christianity into law? Bull. Fucking. Shit.

We are NOT a Christian nation. Don’t believe me? Read up on the Treaty of Triopli wherein the US Senate – including framers of the Constitution – straight up said the US is not a Christian nation. And because we are not a Christian nation, I don’t have to believe that Jesus rose from the dead and NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO CHANGE MY MIND. No jackass state legislator should even consider trying to say that any part of the US is officially Christian because doing so marginalizes everyone who isn’t Christian and that? IS TOTAL FUCKING BULLSHIT.

This move is nothing short of Christian bigotry based on the misguided notion that Christians are persecuted in America. Which they are not. Ever tried to do anything on Easter Sunday? Stores, restaurants, malls are closed. Because you know. Jesus. That’s the level of consideration the Christian faith gets. No one is trying to shut Christianity down.

You NC legislators are free as birds to practice your religion. And I am free as a bird not to. Don’t be trying to take that from me. Trying to elevate your religion above all others and enshrine it in law is flat out anti-American and I will not hesitate to say that to your face.