Free Republic

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq, Jan. 7, 2010 – Any parent whose child follows him into his profession will feel pride. Army Sgt. 1st Class Gary Williard, left, and his son, Army Sgt. Joshua Williard, pose with a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter at Contingency Operating Base Adder, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Neil Gussman  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. A Pennsylvania National Guard soldier here can be doubly proud, then, as one son has followed in his military footsteps while another is pursuing his civilian career. Army Sgt. 1st Class Gary Williard of Company D, Task Force Diablo,...

It's a football Sunday, and between NFL matchups on television, Tyson Cole-Hines and his 9-year-old stepson create their own drama on the field with a video game on their Xbox 360. This is a father-son pastime, playing Madden NFL 10 or NBA 2K8 on a 62-inch flat screen. But late at night, the gaming gets edgier. That's when the Reston dad launches into higher-octane battles against enemies and aliens on mature-rated fare like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. In these war games, bullets are flying. Bad guys go down. Things blow up. This all happens in Cole-Hines's hushed...

There is but one path ~ Jesus There is but one comforter~ The Spirit that goes out from the Father There is but one Father And there is only one will There is no other path but persecution For truly only he matters and is our way And it is on this path we must stay Total inihilation of the flesh This is our test Until we come to find He is our rock and without him we are blind So come to the Rock and do not alter Him into the Rock of Gibralter Fo all those that wrestle...

In Crespo v. Crespo, the New Jersey Appellate Division overturned the June 18, 2008 ruling of Francis Schultz, who vacated the final restraining order (FRO) entered against defendant Anibal Crespo. Judge Schultz vacated the FRO entered pursuant to the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act because the standard of proof provided by the Act, the preponderance of evidence standard as opposed to the clear-and-convincing standard, violated the defendant’s right to due process. (He also noted that the Act’s “practice and procedure” components violate the separation of powers doctrine, but this finding had no affect on his decision to vacate the FRO...

"It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world." ~ George Washington I have written before about the critical need for Congress to reassert its authority over foreign policy, and for the American people to recognize that the Constitution makes no distinction between domestic and foreign matters. Policy is policy, and it must be made by the legislature and not the executive. But what policy is best? How should we deal with the rest of the world in a way that best advances proper national interests, while not threatening our freedoms...

In the Parade Magazine interview he told the interviewer: “…we need fathers to step up, to realize that their job does not end at conception; that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one. As fathers, we need to be involved in our children’s lives not just when it’s convenient or easy, and not just when they’re doing well — but when it’s difficult and thankless, and they’re struggling. That is when they need us most.” At the Town Hall meeting following the White House Barbecue for young men...

With Father’s Day almost upon us, expect a host of media stories on men and family life. Some will do a good job of capturing the changes and continuities associated with fatherhood in contemporary America. But other reporters and writers will generalize from their own unrepresentative networks of friends and family members, try to baptize the latest family trend, or assume that our society is heading ceaselessly in a progressive direction. So be on the lookout this week for stories, op-eds, and essays that include these five myths on contemporary fatherhood and family life. 1. THE ‘MR. MOM’ SURGE Open...

Well....Fathers Day is this weekend, so I thought I'd give you some gift ideas.... Coughing and Screaming Ashtray If nothing else works, pick up one of our specially designed ashtrays that looks like a real pair of lungs. Place a cigarette on it and it starts coughing and screaming! Uses 2 "AA" batteries, not included. Condiment Gun Condiment Gun "Shoots" Ketchup And Mustard! Blast away at burgers, wage war on weenies, lay siege to steaks, and assault those sausages with a flavorful squirt from the Condiment Gun! Load the cartridges with mustard, ketchup, steak sauce, or other non-chunky condiment, then...

LISTEN TO THE REAL REVEREND JESSE ON THE INTERNET OR A RADIO STATION IN YOUR AREA......BOND Action, Inc...Educating, Motivating and Rallying Americans! The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show Streamed live online from 6-9 a.m. PST / 9-12 a.m. EST. Call in the same times usually. For Live Questions or Comments Call 1-888-77-JESSE(5-3773) You can email comments and questions to radio@bondaction.org For more information on getting The Jesse Lee Peterson Show picked up on a station in your local area call Ermias Alemayehu at 1-877-WE ACT77 (932-2877)

Anger is a risky emotion. It inhibits clear thinking and leads to unwise actions. We would do well to control our anger, and direct it where it belongs – at terrorists, murderers, rapists and child molesters – rather than at those who disagree with us politically.

Video "Out of Order", a 2000 Chronicle (WCVB-TV) program, presents the injustice faced by men and fathers and the destruction caused to normal personal relationships today due to domestic abuse laws nationwide such as the MGL 209a restraining orders. Interviews of The Fatherhood Coalition leader Mark Charalambous, Harry Stewart, Dennis Watts and others.

Video"Out of Order", a 2000 Chronicle (WCVB-TV) program, highlights the injustice faced by men and fathers due to the MGL 209a-type restraining orders in Massachusetts. Interviews of The Fatherhood Coalition leader Mark Charalambous, Harry Stewart, Dennis Watts and others.

I have seen articles posted on FR quoting statements of faith by many of our founding fathers and how it influenced their view of governing. Can someone please post some of the most compelling statements as evidence in how their faith played a vital role in their daily lives? It will be much appreciated.

"A Visitor From The Past"

When I was a child he ran out onto a frozen lake to try to save a man whose car had gone down the icy hill into the lake. He didn’t know the man, or know that the man was trying to commit suicide …

Abortion and the Rights of Fathers by Armstrong Williams A fundamental assumption leading to the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade was that because women are biologically tied to the birth process, they should therefore bear all responsibility in deciding the life or death of their children. The reason for this perspective is straightforward: Roe v. Wade rejected the idea that another person controlled a woman's body. On the one hand, this shattered patriarchal stereotypes that regarded women as little more than vessels. Plainly that is a good thing. But in the continued fight for equality, various feminist groups...

Video here. Great interview with Sarah Palin in her own home kitchen as she prepares dinner and talks about what an awesome father to their kids Todd Palin is and related topics in the best four minutes and twenty eight seconds from the most recent home interview by Greta Van Susteren.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel apologized to an Arab-American group on Thursday for comments disparaging Arabs made by his father. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee sent a letter to Emanuel calling on him to distance himself from remarks made by the elder Emanuel in an interview with an Israeli newspaper following his son's appointment last week. In the interview, Benjamin Emanuel was reported as saying: "Obviously, he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn't he? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House." Advertisement While some political...

This is the Veterans Day episode of the Conscience of Kansas radio program. This episode includes interviews with Meg Meeker MD on the value of fathers in the family and Bob Parks a conservative activist. In the second half of the show is the first post election comedic episode of "Letters to Liberals". We invite you to listen!

"The child support system is asking very poor people -- the fathers -- to support other very poor people --the mother and child. This has not worked and will not work, because the money just doesn’t exist. "By pursuing these fathers with an iron fist collection policy, we turn these fathers into fugitives. This takes away the only thing the very poor father has to offer his child: his love and guidance." .... cont.

If you ever ran into Nokesville dad Thomas S. Vander Woude, chances are you would also see his son Joseph. Whether Vander Woude was volunteering at church, coaching basketball or working on his farm, Joseph was often right there with him, pitching in with a smile, friends and neighbors said yesterday. When Joseph, 20, who has Down syndrome, fell into a septic tank Monday in his back yard, Vander Woude jumped in after him. He saved him. And he died where he spent so much time living: at his son's side.

The "Cindy Bischof Law" has the potential for victimizing innocent Illinois fathers and may spread nationwide. The Bischof Law is a draconian measure that will allow judges to order anyone, mostly men and fathers, to wear a GPS tracking device if they are simply considered to be at a high risk for domestic violence without being found guilty of any crime. There is a presumption of guilt without the benefit of a trial, yet the foundation of our criminal justice system is that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Perhaps such a drastic measure would be warranted...

Fathers' rights activists have complained about arbitrarily high child support orders for almost two decades. Class action suits were filed, the fathers' rights movement grew, debates broke out in academic journals, a few social scientists demonstrated with calculations and documentation, some men have committed suicide because they were unable to support themselves, and a few serious investigative journalists analyzed in depth. Congress finally decided to act – with a flat luxury tax on child support income.

"I'm a dad, not a wallet." What may prompt millions of non-custodial dads to say this phrase -- or at least think it? How is it that millions of children of divorce or separation may wonder why they can't see their beloved Dad, or sometimes Mom, more than 4 to 6 days a month, if that? These are just two of the important questions raised by Angelo Lobo, Producer and Director of the full-length documentary "Support System Down," which examines problems within the nation's child support system. Lobo's film "Support System Down" comes to the Ohmann Theatre in Lyons,...

Hope comes in all different shapes and sizes. Today it comes in the form of a lizard. The hope? That some day I may procreate and produce Bo Jr. I know it sounds impossible, especially given that I had my nads removed, but if a 111 year old lizard can slip one by the goalie, I should be able to figure out a way to do the same.

Father, have you been to the mall lately and watched an unsupervised group of teenage girls get hit on by the ubiquitous male oxygen thieves? Pretty disturbing, eh? What’s even more mind numbing is the number of beautiful young ladies who actually give these scat based boys the time of day. Unreal. Ticks you off now, doesn’t it? If you have a pre-teen niña, then more than likely after watching those mall chicks capitulate to the weird male critter’s advances, you probably just swore to God that your daughter will never grow up to be one of “those girls” who...

Last Wednesday, the British House of Commons decided that a father is completely and totally irrelevant to a child's development. The legislation, which dealt with in vitro fertilization, or IVF, would have included a clause requiring a fertility doctor to "consider a child's need for a male role model before giving women IVF treatment," according to news site This Is London. Even though IVF already marginalizes fathers by effectively removing them from the procreative process, feminists would not allow even this bland and toothless reference to men to stand. The clause was voted down. This Is London went on to...

VIRGINIA, June 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a research brief this month, Bradford Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, analyzed three national studies in order to discover if "there is any evidence that religion is playing a role in encouraging a strong family orientation among contemporary American men?"   His research led him to conclude that men who regularly attend Christian services are engaged in happier and stronger marriages and are more involved in the lives of their children than men who do not. "70 percent of husbands who attend church regularly report they are 'very happy'...

Barack Obama's recent call for responsible fatherhood is welcome, overdue -- and misleadingly incomplete. That America's fathers need to embrace their most important role is no secret. Activist fathers have been trying to make the same claim for decades, without much success. Not all fathers are trying to be good dads, it goes without saying. But neither are all absent by choice, as Obama's message implied. His plea to fathers came on Father's Day, a time we usually reserve for praising good men. Noting the plague of fatherless homes, he called on fathers who have abandoned their responsibilities to act...

Good morning. It's good to be home on this Father's Day with my girls, and it's an honor to spend some time with all of you today in the house of our Lord. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus closes by saying, "Whoever hears these words of mine, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man who built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock." [Matthew 7: 24-25]...

Honoring Thy FathersBRADFORD WILCOXFor millions of children across the U.S., this Sunday will not be a cause for celebration. Because of dramatic increases in divorce and nonmarital childbearing, about 28% of our nation's children -- more than 20 million kids -- now live in a household without their father, up from 10 million kids (14%) in 1970, according to a recent Census Bureau report. Moreover, because most of these boys and girls see their dads infrequently (once a month or less), Father's Day will offer cold comfort to many of these children.Our nation's epidemic of fatherlessness is just the most...

Barack Obama asks fathers to take responsibility By Alex Spillius in Washington Last Updated: 12:51AM BST 16/06/2008 Senator Barack Obama has called on black American men to accept their responsibilities as fathers and to stop "acting like boys instead of men". Barack Obama speaking at the Apostolic Church of God In a Father's Day speech at a black church in his home city of Chicago, the Democratic presidential nominee listed the disadvantages faced by single parent families in the community, and urged men to realise that their responsibility as a father does not end at conception. "If we are honest...

Staff Sgt. Andy Graves, a Paragould, Ark., native, takes a moment from his deployment to go on a mental vacation with his three daughters on June 13. Graves is a sergeant of the guard for the 1123rd Transportation Company, an Arkansas National Guard unit, 1/152nd Cavalry Regiment, an Indiana National Guard unit, 1st Sustainment Brigade, in support of Multi-National Division-Baghdad. Photo by 1st Lt. George Fowler. CAMP TAJI — Alone with his thoughts, Staff Sgt. Andy Graves, a Paragould, Ark., native, sits quietly in the “Snack Shack� during his guard shift reminiscing. Presently Graves is a squad leader for the...

Walter Dean Myers, a best-selling author of books for teenagers, sometimes visits juvenile detention centers in his home state of New Jersey to hold writing workshops and listen for stories about the lives of young Americans. One day, in a juvenile facility near his home in Jersey City, a 15-year-old black boy pulled him aside for a whispered question: Why did he write in "Somewhere in the Darkness" about a boy not meeting his father because the father was in jail? Mr. Myers, a 70-year-old black man, did not answer. He waited. And sure enough, the boy, eyes down, mumbled...

“Son of a…” June 14th, 2008 by Tom Purcell Get this: Dads are essential to kids.According to the National Fatherhood Initiative, kids who grow up without dads are more likely to grow up poor, drop out of school, end up in jail and encounter numerous other struggles in life than kids who grow up with dads.This information comes as no shock to most men. We know that boys are prone to stupidity and that the creature best suited to taming them is the like-minded fellow called dad.When I was five, my father told me to stop jumping around the tub,...

A Fatherly Kind of Love June 14th, 2008 by Heidi Bratton I happened across a quote the other day that captures perfectly my experiences of fatherhood. The quote is from a small book titled, Radical Hospitality; Benedict’s Way of Love, by Fr. Daniel Homan and Lonni Collins Pratt. In describing a friend of theirs named Joe, the authors said, “He knew not the name of intimacy, but the meaning.” Joe, they said, “probably could not have articulated the meaning of hospitality, but he knew how to pour you another cup of coffee. You would leave Joe’s company feeling taller, stronger,...

The Blueprint for Heroic Family Life by Dr. Jeff Mirus, June 13, 2008 Owing to the confluence of an East-coast heat wave and the failure of a home air conditioning system, my son Peter, his wife Kristina and their two daughters lived with Mom and Dad again for a few days this week. Seeing Elena (age seven) and Natalie (four) bright-eyed and cheerful at the beginning of each day was a joy. It was also a reminder of how things used to be. With the last of our six children going off to college this Fall, I sometimes need to...

For millions of children across the U.S., this Sunday will not be a cause for celebration. Because of dramatic increases in divorce and nonmarital childbearing, about 28% of our nation's children -- more than 20 million kids -- now live in a household without their father, up from 10 million kids (14%) in 1970, according to a recent Census Bureau report. Moreover, because most of these boys and girls see their dads infrequently (once a month or less), Father's Day will offer cold comfort to many of these children. Our nation's epidemic of fatherlessness is just the most salient indicator...

During my 1960s boyhood, Father's Day was an awkward occasion. It required my brothers and me to express love to a man who considered such talk girlish, and who knew we feared more than liked him. Only for the sake of Mom did Dad and his five boys put on a Father's Day act. But after the death of my father last month, I understand that those fake-feeling gestures back then had conveyed a lot of truth, and that the expression of love between a father and his boys can be -- maybe should be -- at times difficult.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY, DADS!!! My Father When I was ... 4 years old: My daddy can do anything. 5 years old: My daddy knows a whole lot. 6 years old: My dad is smarter than your dad. 8 years old: My dad doesn't know exactly everything. 10 years old: In the olden days, when my dad grew up, things were sure different. 12 years old: Oh, well, naturally, Dad doesn't know anything about that. He is too old to remember his childhood. 14 years old: Don't pay any attention to my dad. He is so old-fashioned. 21 years old: Him?...

Inside the left's war against the family...and specifically fathers Eric Svane of the terrifically popular blog No Pasaran has done yeoman's service in exploring this topic. Here is a synopsis of his latest on the subject:Witch Hunts in Contemporary America: Is the United States Turning Into a Fascist Country? "Destroy the family, and you destroy society" —Lenin Like many conservatives, Erik Svane has been more of the optimistic type, thinking that lovers of liberty were winning the battle of ideas against the statists, or at least doing a pretty good job of holding their own. He found it therefore "highly...

Children of older fathers have greater risk of early death Men, listen up. No longer can you comfort yourselves with the notion that you can father a child at any time...Children of older fathers more 'likely to die early': LONDON: When it comes to fertility and the prospect of having babies, it has always been assumed that men have no biological clock — unlike women, they can father a child late in their life. But a study has dispelled this myth. Researchers in Europe have found that children are almost twice as likely to die before adulthood if they have...

Introduction. Who were the Apostolic Fathers? They were some of the first church leaders after the Apostles, whose lifetimes overlapped those of the Apostles, who at least in part had personal contact with Apostles, and whose writings have at least in part survived. They formed the connecting link between the Apostles and the church history which followed, which should be of real interest to us. These Apostolic Fathers include Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp; and in a broader sense Papias and the uncertain or unknown authors of The Shepherd of Hermas, The Epistle of Barnabas, The Epistle to Diognetus, The...

The news out of England is discouraging. Single women and lesbian partners will soon stand in the legal same place as fathers with the deletion of four words from British legislation called “The Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill”. The Bill had language in it which had been applied at fertility clinics to encourage two- parent, opposite sex families. Putting aside all of the vitally important moral issues of anyone ever even using a “fertility” clinic, and the horrid truth of the killing of the “spare” “embryos” which are “manufactured” in the IVF process, I write this commentary to address just...

"We are living in a new time, where people are behaving in abnormal ways and calling it normal…No longer is a person embarrassed because they're pregnant without a husband. No longer is a boy considered an embarrassment if he tries to run away from being the father of the unmarried child" -- Bill Cosby, speaking to African-Americans at St. Paul Church of God in Christ, Detroit, July, 2007. As Mother's Day approaches, it seems a fitting moment to point out the truth of Bill Cosby's observation. Left unsaid but well understood by him: This "new time" and these "abnormal ways"...

Good fathers 'powerless against vengeful mothers' By Tom Peterkin Last Updated: 1:04PM BST 01/05/2008 Decent fathers are left powerless to see their estranged children if vengeful mothers are determined to prevent access, a senior judge has admitted. Lord Justice Ward attacked child access law after presiding over a case that saw a “vicious” mother falsely accuse her ex-husband of sexually abusing their child. He spoke out after telling the father that there was nothing he could do to help him re-establish contact with his daughter after his ex-wife turned her against him. The man’s 14-year-old daughter, who cannot been identified,...

Five defendants were driving from Howard Circuit Court when deputies arrested them on charges of driving with suspended licenses because of delinquent child support payments, said the Howard’s Sheriff’s Office. “I think they were shocked,” said Lt. Charles Gable, sheriff’s office spokesman, referring to the arrests that occurred Friday and Monday. “We got all kinds of reactions; the first person we pulled over was like, ‘Wow.’ ” The defendants are John Porterfield, 43, of Columbia; Denee Powell, 43, of Silver Spring; Riko Johnson, 26, of Annapolis; Craig Myers, 44, of Highland; and Renard Whitehead, 41, of Bowie. The maximum sentence...

Pre-Millennialism and the Early Church Fathers by Bob DeWaay In this paper, I will show that the earliest fathers of the church (before 300 AD) primarily believed in a literal millennium. This will be accomplished by consulting the primary sources, the fathers themselves, and other writings about the views of the early fathers. Those early fathers who wrote about this issue will be dealt with one at a time. Papias The fourth century church historian Eusebius considered Papias to be a primary source for the millennial views of early fathers. He wrote: In these [Papias' accounts] he says there would be...

Children Who Have An Active Father Figure Have Fewer Psychological And Behavioral Problems ScienceDaily (Feb. 15, 2008) — Active father figures have a key role to play in reducing behaviour problems in boys and psychological problems in young women, according to a review published in the February issue of Acta Paediatrica. Erikson's stages of psychosocial development Swedish researchers also found that regular positive contact reduces criminal behaviour among children in low-income families and enhances cognitive skills like intelligence, reasoning and language development. Children who lived with both a mother and father figure also had less behavioural problems than those who...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2007 – The National Fatherhood Initiative is looking for a few good military fathers for the 2008 NFI Lockheed Martin Military Fatherhood Award. “The purpose of the award is to recognize the outstanding efforts of military fathers to stay engaged with their families while meeting the military missions, even through deployments,” said Jim Knotts, Lockheed Martin Corp.’s director of corporate citizenship. “(It) helps bring attention to those sacrifices and celebrates the efforts above and beyond the call of duty to balance military duty with family obligations.” Though the award is given to the father, he added...