State mandated Stepford Wives?

Task force blames breakdown of traditional family for social ills

Rep. Steven Thayn and his wife, Sherry, raised eight children on their family farm. She stayed home, and they home-schooled several of their children before eventually sending them to local schools.

Thayn said more two-parent homes and fewer working mothers could be both a social and economic boon. The Emmett Republican sees the breakdown of the traditional family structure as the root of societal ills such as drug abuse, crime and domestic violence.

That's why, as chairman of the Idaho House of Representatives' Family Task Force, he and others are considering controversial solutions such as repealing no-fault divorce laws and finding ways to encourage mothers to stay home with their children.

"In one of the articles I read, quite a large percentage of mothers really do want to spend more time at home, and if that's the case, what can we do to help them?" Thayn said.

With the end of the war, came the pressure for females to return to where they belong. All the women who took jobs during the war, were now all expected to make room for the returning men. The returning veterans were all unemployed and in need of work. The government's solution to the problem was to force women out of their jobs in order to make room for the men. The same as they were encouraged into the labor force, they were encouraged out of it. Posters, movies, and articles were posted to help push females to leave their jobs and return to their homes. Despite the pressure, women were not so quick to return to the kitchen.

http://redstaterebels.typepad.com/red_state_rebels/2007/02/steve_thayn_par.html

Pained by Thayn, Part 2

Taking up from where I left off yesterday, ace Ridenbaugh Press reporter Randy Stapilus
has found scads more evidence why we might crown state Rep. Steve Thayn (R-Emmett) as
Idaho's Most Extreme Lawmaker.

Randy unearths some fascinating and scary stuff, including a compassionately conservative
quote Thayn made a few weeks ago about hunger in Idaho. I'd seen this, but I'd forgotten it.
http://www.ridenbaugh.com/index.php/2007/02/07/out-on-the-edge/">Go forth and read.

The Red State Rebels blog (proprietor, Julie Fanselow) has nominated state Representative
Steven Thayn as the best choice, for the moment, as “the most extreme legislator” in Idaho.
The farthest out to the edge, that is, on his side of the philosophical divide, which probably
would mean the farthest out (on his side of the face) among the northwest’s 347 state legislators.

Update Feb. 9: As noted below by Bubblehead in the comments, Kevin Richert of the Idaho Statesman
has noted (and more or less echoes) this nomination in his new blog. Check it out.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/392/story/70756.html

" ‘Hunger is not always a negative as the report indicates. Without hunger or the threat of hunger probably half of humanity would not get up in the morning and go to work. Hunger is one of the great motivators of humanity. It is one of the tools that I used as a parent to encourage my children to do their choirs (sic) as young children. When used properly, hunger can motivate people so they can experience the joy of work and accomplishment.’”