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Tickets now are on sale for The Family Foundation’s 25th Anniversary Gala Celebration. By acting now, you will receive the best available seating before thousands of official Gala invitations are mailed, so please reserve your seats or table today by clicking here.

This special event, taking place Saturday, October 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, will look back on our legacy and ahead to future successes. We are delighted to have U.S. Representative Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the chairman of the House Republican Conference, as our keynote speaker for this special celebratory gala. (See this special Mike Pence/Gala video, here.)

Individual tickets are available for $85.00 and couples tickets for $165.00. Sponsorships also are still available. To order your tickets today, click here. You may also register for the Gala by calling John or Dan at The Family Foundation at (804) 343-0010, or e-mail to Gala@FamilyFoundation.org. Act fast, though, as space is limited and this special 25th Anniversary Gala is sure to be a hot ticket.

For out of town guests wishing to stay overnight on October 9, a discounted group rate is available at the Hilton Garden Inn at 501 East Broad Street, located directly across the street from the Convention Center. Call (877) 782-9444 toll free and mention The Family Foundation Annual Gala for more information. The cut-off date for the group rate is September 9.

There is a private sponsors reception at 5:15. Dinner starts at 6:30. The dress is business attire.

President Obama’s top economic adviser, Christina Romer, said in her final speech in that capacity yesterday that “there is widespread agreement that the act (so-called stimulus bill) is broadly on track.” Another Orwellian attempt to make true what is not by saying it is despite the instinctive knowledge by almost all not in denial that it is false. Truly galling, especially to the millions suffering from unemployment or underemployment. They are the ones from personal experience, not the ivory tower and its theoretical exercises — from whence Dr. Romer came and to where she returns (UC-Berkeley) — who truly know how off track the president’s policies are.

Here’s how Americans For Prosperity President Tim Phillips expressed his anger in an e-mail today (the president in recent weeks has singled out AFP with vicious attacks): 

Today, the news media reported on the final speech of President Obama’s outgoing economic advisor. What Ms. Romer said helps explain why our economy is so bad. Defending the failed $814 billion stimulus boondoggle, she actually said, “there is widespread agreement that the act (Stimulus bill) is broadly on track.”

What planet is this lady on? Jobless claims are through the roof, unemployment is still almost 10% with 500,000 initial jobless claims, the stock market is plunging again, existing home sales fell 27% in August and new home sales fell 12% (always a key economic indicator), automobile sales fell 25% in August (we knew government run “cash for clunkers” was not genuine prosperity). I could go on.

Is the President’s top economist leaving to go back to business in the private sector? Uh, no. She’s going back to her academic perch at the University of California-Berkley. At least we just figured out the planet.

Reminds me of a famous quote that goes something like this: There are no experts in government. If there were, the private sector would’ve hired them by now. Ms. Romer and the Keystone Cops who comprise the Obama administration — most of whom have never worked in the private sector (Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog) — are, sadly,  fitting that bill.

Although people realize Planned Parenthood is pro-abortion, many might not know what its motivation is and why it is so vehemently against abstinence education. For example, in 2007, despite abstinence-education funding from governors of both parties, then-Governor Tim Kaine, at Planned Parenthood’s urging, abruptly ended Virginia’s matching grant to the federal program for abstinence-centered education, thus disqualifying the commonwealth from federal funds. Why?

Simple. Although Planned Parenthood obstensibly asserts that abstinence education isn’t effective, its motivation likely lies closer to the fact that abstinence education costs it government grants because it teaches “comprehensive sex education” in many states. This form of ”education” encourages sexual activity by blurring the lines of responsible behavior and the lack of consequences of irresponsible behavior (because, you know, you can always use “protection”).

But the big motivation is that abstinence education works, and a decrease in crisis and teen pregnancies, which “comprehensive education” helps foster, means less abortion business for Planned Parenthood. Recent studies have shown that abstinence-centered education, particularly programs in Virginia, have been successful in preventing teen pregnancy and delaying sexual activity. Additionally, polling indicates that parents want their children to be taught abstinence.

So the deck is stacked against Planned Parenthood. That’s why it ferociously fights to protect and advance abortion, uses tactics subtle and loud, and why it is particularly disturbed by Governor Bob McDonnell’s decision this week to apply for federal abstinence education funding and to provide a state matching grant as well to school districts who decide to teach it.

Of course, the irony that Planned Parenthood won’t acknowledge is that the federal funds come from President Barack Obama’s budget and, most shocking, unlike former President George W. Bush’s administration, does not require a state matching grant to qualify for the federal funds. This, undoubtedly, has added to Planned Parenthood’$ frustration and vitriol this week. However, it ha$n’t added to it$ motivation. That’$ alway$ been there and will continue to be.

The reaction to Tuesday’s announcement that Governor Bob McDonnell has applied for federal funds for abstinence-centered education has been intense (see Washinton Post Virginia Politics Blog). As you would suspect, Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia have opened rhetorical fire on the governor, as have several leftist blogs and commentators. If you read the comments at the end of newspaper articles (and unless you have a thick skin I wouldn’t) you would think the decision to help our teenagers delay sexual activity until marriage is a conspiracy to bring back chastity belts.

You may be running into some of the same misinformed rhetoric in your circles, much of it based on false claims or outright deception. Of course, those who profit from risky sexual behavior, Virginia’s abortion industry, are viscerally opposed to the idea that teenagers can control themselves. One legislator who works closely with Planned Parenthood and NARAL carried this message (see Norfolk Virginian-Pilot):

The reality is with teenagers their hormones come into play, and abstinence-only doesn’t always work.

Then again, if they can be taught effective ways of postponing sexual activity it cuts into the abortion industry’s profits.

But the primary argument has been that “abstinence education doesn’t work,” “parents don’t support abstinence education,” or “it’s naive to think that teenagers can be abstinent.” None of those arguments, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, are correct. In fact, this year a study paid for by HHS, and its own recent survey, found that abstinence education is highly effective and widely supported by parents and teenagers (Washington Post).

The HHS survey released late last month (see here) found that 70 percent of parents agreed that it is “against [their] values for [their] adolescents to have sexual intercourse before marriage” and that “having sexual intercourse is something only married people should do.” Adolescent beliefs, according to the survey, were similar.

More interestingly, HHS buried the survey results and was forced to release it to the public only after a deluge of Freedom of Information Act requests (as reported by Mark Tapscott of the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential). Why, one must ask, would HHS not want people to know the results of taxpayer funded research — results that show Americans want and support abstinence before marriage?

Let’s face it, the battle over sex education is indeed a battle of worldviews and a battle for the hearts, minds, and bodies of our children. The fact is that abstinence centered programs do work and they are making a difference — science is showing that. It’s up to us to get the word out.

We hope that if you haven’t already, that you please thank Governor McDonnell for taking this strong stand on abstinence education funding by clicking here to e-mail his office. Abstinence opponents are well-funded and are on the attack. We have to show the governor that the families of Virginia appreciate his action. Please contact him today.