Happy Friday! We made it another week! Thank you so much for reading. If you feel so inclined, please pass this along to the other conservative women in your life who you feel could use a nice dose of sanity in their inbox every other Friday. :)
1 Thing to do today (if nothing else)
Eat a pop-tart and say a prayer for the tasty treat’s inventor, William Post, who died this week at age 96.
Though I don’t partake very much these days, pop-tarts are delightful and I don’t mind saying - nay, shouting it - from the rooftops. Best flavors in order: Brown sugar cinnamon, chocolate chip, and frosted blueberry. Yup. I said what I said!
Gut Check: Should parents pay for the crimes of their children?
I bet you know where I’m going with this. A couple weeks ago I became a bit obsessed with the trial of Jennifer Crumbley, whose son Ethan murdered four of his classmates in a shooting rampage at a high school in Michigan in 2021. His parents were both charged with involuntary manslaughter after the shooting, but were being tried separately. Hence why it was just Jennifer on the stand earlier this month.
I gotta say: After thinking this through long and hard, I’m actually in favor of charging parents with a crime if their minor child gets access to a gun and shoots up a school. And yes, I’m surprised myself. At first, I was a little uncomfortable with involuntary manslaughter. After all, Jennifer didn’t pull any triggers that day. She wasn’t literally present or involved in anyone’s death. And yet… Involuntary manslaughter is defined as an “unintentional killing that results from either recklessness or criminal negligence.” I think Jennifer (and probably her husband) fit the bill.
Here’s why I landed there. As a strong Second Amendment advocate, I take firearms extremely seriously. I take the right to own and carry one extremely seriously. So does pretty much every other Second Amendment supporter I know. It’s why we get so fired up when politicians try to infringe on those rights. But if you, as a law-abiding adult, are going to exercise the right to own a firearm, you have to accept and understand the responsibility that comes with taking ownership of a piece of machinery that can be used to kill another person.
That means if you share a home with someone who is exhibiting severe mental health issues - as it is clear Ethan was - the ONLY responsible action you can take is to remove any and every firearm from the home. If you don’t, then be prepared to face the consequences of whatever happens next. So yeah, maybe the Crumbley case example will act as a deterrent for other parents and help stem these school shootings. If it does, great. But even if it doesn’t, there is a time and place in which parents should be held legally responsible for the actions of their children. [Insert why being a good parent matters here]. I won’t rehash the case against Jennifer Crumbley today, but it’s clear she ignored warning after warning and allowed her very disturbed 15-year-old son to have access to a gun.
I’ll end with this: I’m not arguing that EVERY parent whose child breaks the law with a firearm should be convicted of a crime. I understand there are probably some cases where parents can take every responsible step and their troubled teen will STILL find a way to shoot up a school. I get that. But sometimes parents DO need to be held accountable.
And what’s more, for years now we’ve been railing against state and local governments that want parents to fork over our parental rights for the sake of radical gender ideology - and rightly so. But we can’t have it both ways. We can’t insist we’re the end-all-be-all when it comes to handling our kids’ gender identity, but not when it comes to handling their exposure to firearms. If you’re willing to tell a court system you’re responsible enough as a parent to know your kid shouldn’t be surgically transitioned to the opposite sex as a minor, then you should be able to tell a court you’re responsible enough to manage your child’s access to firearms. Period. Life is just too precious to take this sort of thing lightly.
And yes, I write this pondering my own future as a parent. We can’t control our children and Lord knows their destiny is in many ways out of our hands. It’s scary. But parents matter. The great ones and the negligent ones. I pray my children grow up to make good, smart choices that serve humanity. But who knows what will happen. I just know we owe it to them - and each other - to do the best we can. And sometimes that means taking a long, hard look in the mirror and realizing the kid just ain’t ok.
Feminist Files
I had never heard of Ballerina Farm until a few weeks ago when the internet blew up once it got wind that a woman in Utah competed in a beauty pageant about two weeks postpartum. Cue the outrage! Naturally, I did some digging. “Ballerina Farm” is a popular influencer on Instagram named Hannah Neeleman (8.8 million followers!) who posts about her life on a farm with her husband and 8 children. She’s tall and blond. She’s a former ballerina. She’s gorgeous. She competes in beauty pageants. She bakes bread and milks cows. She’s got. It. Made. Or so it seems. I perused her account and concluded her content ain’t for me (I tried getting into sourdough bread baking, for example, but I have neither the time nor the patience). Anywho, the progressives are very upset that she competed in Mrs. World right after having a baby. AND she had the audacity to marry an ultra-rich gazillionaire whose inheritance makes their lavish, secluded farm lifestyle possible (even easy?). I can kind of see why people are upset. Neeleman promotes her lifestyle without cluing people into the fact that she has lots of help, most of which sits in her husband’s bank account. I too, would like to wear sundresses and bake all day and give birth in a serene, beautifully-lit bathroom and then be able to strut in a two-piece. But that ain’t possible and maybe on any given Tuesday that would make me feel bad about myself. Maybe. And then maybe I would feel a little swindled if I found out Neeleman wasn’t exactly the average, middle-class person I thought she was. Still, I come from the school of “live and let live.” She’s doing her thing - good or bad - and that’s what feminism is all about, right? RIGHT?!
Axios: Utah’s Ballerina Farm influencer controversies churn amid tradwife controversy
File this one in the “Me Too Goes Awry” folder. A prominent writer named Yascha Mounk has been sacked by The Atlantic after a woman wrote to the magazine’s Editor in Chief and accused Mounk of raping her a little over two years ago. Mounk has denied the allegation, but in the year 2024, denials mean nothing. His accuser, another writer named Celeste Marcus, went public with her accusation on Twitter after emailing his boss. What gets me more than anything else though, is Marcus’ refusal to take her complaint to the police. Instead, she…emails his editor?? Is this how we’re supposed to take care of rape now? Please I hope not. If she was actually raped, that is terrible, of course. But if we’ve learned nothing from the Me Too movement, shouldn’t it be that accusations such as these should be treated seriously and handled in a court of law - not a court of public opinion?
Washington Post: The Atlantic cuts ties with prominent contributor after rape allegation
Pro-abortion advocates are now using mental health as an argument to expand pro-choice legislation at the state level. If you’re pregnant and live in a state that restricts access to abortion, your mental health is at risk. Or so the argument goes. I’m not one to sideline the importance of mental health - at all. But I’m loathe to include it alongside things like rape and incest in abortion exceptions. It’s a slippery slope. I understand pregnant women who don’t want to be pregnant will feel a certain level of anxiety, but it feels like we’re missing the root issue here. The problem isn’t the pregnancy. It’s the ability (or inability) to cope with unplanned life circumstances. Expanding abortion access to correct for this feels like we’re just putting a bandaid over a bullet hole. And yes, I apologize for the cliche.
AP: Mental health emerges as a dividing line in abortion rights initiatives planned for state ballots
Political Horse Race
This is INSANE. I doubt 86% of Americans would agree that the sky is blue. But whether or not Joe Biden is too old to be president? That’s a whole different story. Per ABC News:
An overwhelming majority of Americans think President Joe Biden is too old to serve another term, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.
According to the poll, conducted using Ipsos' Knowledge Panel, 86% of Americans think Biden, 81, is too old to serve another term as president. That figure includes 59% of Americans who think both he and former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, are too old and 27% who think only Biden is too old.
“Overwhelming majority of Americans” is the understatement of the year.
In Your Free Time
To Watch: Fargo season 5. I’m giving it a 12/10.
To Read: The Women Having Babies Underground by our friend Evie Solheim (The American Conservative)
To Listen: Two new awesome singles: Beyonce’s new country jam “Texas Hold ‘Em” (LEGIT) and Kacey Musgraves’ “Deeper Well.”
Thank you and we’ll see you in two weeks! -Amanda