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Talking with an adolescent can be like walking through a minefield. At any moment you could be asking what you thought was a simple, sincere question only to find it triggering an explosive response. You know that communication keeps you connected to your child, but it often seems to backfire because of the type of questions asked. Research proves our instincts: The number one antidote to risky-kid behavior is a strong relationship with a parent. Believe it or not our kids even like us and want us in their lives! (Really!!!!) A recent Girl Scout of America survey found that...

Three of the nine teenagers accused of driving 15-year-old Irish immigrant Phoebe Prince to commit suicide have been ordered to stay away from her family. Sean Mulveyhill, 17, Austin Renaud, 18, and Kayla Narey, 17, were all freed today on personal recognizances as long as they left Phoebe's heartborken family alone. Judge Judd Carheart made the ruling in a brief arraignment which the three teenagers did not attend.

I last talked about the “Law of Successive Approximations”. I hope that was fun for you. This should be as well. Today I want to talk about kids, actually the grown-up kids in government, who can’t seem to have it any way but their way. If they were children we would call them brats. OK, so even as adults they are brats. For now let’s call them Senator or President or Partisans. The bottom line is they are a bunch of brats. They haven’t a clue nor the moral fortitude to do what is right for the country and the...

Young children spanked by their parents may perform better at school later on and grow up to be happier, according to a controversial new study that is drawing scorn from critics. The U.S.-based research states that spanking children up to six years old made them more successful in school, more optimistic about life, more likely to take voluntary work, and more keen to attend university than their never-spanked counterparts.

Dozens of people crowded the steps of Vallejo City Hall on Tuesday to protest a recent quoted remark by Mayor Osby Davis that gay people would not go to heaven. The protesters waved rainbow flags, held signs demanding the separation of church and state and some called for Davis' resignation. And then there was a roar. From inside City Hall came the sounds of more than 100 people clapping and cheering, praising God. "Lord, we're not against anybody. We're for our children," prayed New Hope Church Community Senior Pastor Terrence Nichols. "No matter what outside forces may stir up the...

Washington – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today responded to the “Manhattan Declaration” produced and released by 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders indicating that they will not cooperate with laws that conflict with their beliefs, including those recognizing same-sex couples. The document also references the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) as a threat to religious liberty. Yet ENDA – which prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity – broadly exempts religious organizations. The declaration also argues that religious groups that receive public funds...

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson St. Louis, Mo., Nov 30, 2009 / 06:17 pm (CNA).- In a statement Monday, Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis responded to a demonstration held outside the city's cathedral by a gay rights group protesting the use of archdiocesan funds to defend traditional marriage in Maine. Catholics have an obligation to “carry out Christ's teachings, whether in the privacy of our own home or in the public square,” stated the prelate on the Archdiocese of St. Louis website.On Sunday, gay rights organization Show Me No Hate protested the donation of $10,000 that the Archdiocese...

INDIANAPOLIS (June 23) - The son of former New York Yankees star first baseman Don Mattingly was arraigned Wednesday on misdemeanor charges of shoving his mother and spitting in her face after she allegedly sent him an insulting text message. The case against Taylor Mattingly, 24, was deferred so he can apply for a pretrial diversion program, said Angela Watson, director of the program for the Vanderburgh County prosecutor's office. Mattingly expressed an interest in the program during his court appearance, where he was not represented by an attorney, she said. He is scheduled to appear in court again Sept....

But as Twenge goes on to illustrate, all that narcissism is a problem that can range from the discourteous—residential advisers at Southern lament students disregarding curfews, playing dance music until 3 a.m., demanding new room assignments at a moment's notice and failing to understand why professors won't let them make up an exam they were too hung over to take—to the disastrous—failed marriages, abusive working environments and billion-dollar Ponzi schemes. Seems that the flip side of all that confidence isn't prodigious success but antisocial behavior.

Mr. & Mrs. Fred Thompson will be interviewed on Hannity & Colmes tonight.

When her husband comes home to Tucson on leave from Iraq, Keila Rios could face a dilemma she finds infuriating. She plans to take their children out of school for a week to spend time with their Army dad. But when she asked for makeup work they could do at home, she initially was told they'd receive zeroes if they didn't go to class. The head of the charter school they attend declared the absences inexcusable and told the Arizona Daily Star that Rios' children would not be allowed to make up missed assignments. It now seems the principal is...

S.M.U. Faculty Complains About Bush Library By RALPH BLUMENTHAL DALLAS, Jan. 9 — Intimates of President Bush have singled out Southern Methodist University as the likely site of his presidential library, but faculty members, complaining of being bypassed, are raising sharp questions about the school’s identification with his presidency. In a meeting Tuesday, faculty members complained of a lack of consultation over the emerging agreement and all but demanded answers from the university’s president, R. Gerald Turner, on the relationship that would develop between the university and the library. “There’s been a lack of transparency from the beginning,” said Tony...

For Cindy Nooney's 3-year-old twin boys, playing with the Thomas the Train set at their local bookstore in Southern California is a major thrill. Jack and Sam push Thomas, Arthur and friends down the track, they run around the table, jump up and down — and, of course, they squeeeaal. Nooney expects as much in the children's section of the store. But on a recent afternoon, she was surprised by an employee who confronted her, calling her darling Jack a tyrant. "He was a little loud but this is a children's section," says Nooney. "They run a noisy, cavernous bookstore...

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2006 – Military "brats" are powerfully shaped by the culture they grow up in, and that culture makes a lasting impression, author Mary Edwards Wertsch said. Military brat Mary Edwards Wertsch is the author of "Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress." The book has been credited with recognizing the military as a home culture. Courtesy Photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "It has everything to do with everything that's ever happened in my life," the St. Louis resident said. Wertsch, who wrote "Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress," lived in 20...

For all of those military brats out there and who do not know about this. “Brats: Our Journey Home” is a documentary of how we grew up. It is well done and a good film even if it is fixated on the negative of growing up in the military.

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, April 4, 2006 – Deployed to Afghanistan for a year, Army Lt. Col. Timothy Newcomer will miss his son's prom, high school graduation and, a few months later, his departure to college. Army Sgt. 1st Class Eddie Mitchell shares a few minutes with his 6-year-old son, Desmond, April 4 at Desmond's school. Photo by Elaine Wilson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But his son, Matt, is not upset in the least. "He loves to be a soldier, and if it makes him happy, it makes me happy," said Matt, a high school senior. "How...

Whiny, insecure brats who cowered with fear of being bullied on the playground grow up to be conservatives, while smooth self-confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grow up to be liberals, according to a new study conducted in the sheltered confines of Berkeley, Calif., the very heart of rabid liberalism. From the 1960s onward, a husband-and-wife team at the University of California-Berkeley spent 20 years keeping an eye on children from their nursery school days to young adulthood. According to the Toronto Star, Berkeley professor Jack Block and his now late wife and fellow professor, Jeanne Block, began tracking more than...

They knew it was dangerous. "We could have really been hurt," said one of the Atlanta college students after their experiment. It won't win an Oscar, but 'A Meditation on the Speed Limit,' a short film that was the brainchild of college student Andy Medlin, is quite a hit. Some strange scenes, including a car passing in the emergency lane, were the product of Georgia State students simply following the speed limit. "I was pretty sure that I was doing something stupid," said another. That may be true. But, young and brash, they had a plan. They wanted to go...

  Each year numerous requests are received for the following two poems.I hope you enjoy them!  A Soldier's Christmaswritten by a Marine Twas the night before Christmas,He lived all alone ,In a one-bedroom house made ofPlaster and stone. I had come down the chimney With presents to give,And to see just who In this home did live. I looked all about,A strange sight did I see,No tinsel, no presents,Not even a tree. No stocking by mantle,Just boots filled with sand,On the wall hung picturesOf far distant lands. With medals and badges, Awards of all kinds,A sober thought Came through my...

The prevalence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and its associated attention, hyperactivity and concentration problems among American children has been steadily on the rise in recent years. The US Centers for Disease Control now estimates that eight percent of children suffer from ADHD, and more than half of them are being treated with drugs like Ritalin. But according to a study conducted by Israeli researchers, if your child is showing symptoms associated with ADHD, it's possible that they're suffering from sleep apnea or other sleep disorders. The researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology's Sleep Medicine Center conclude that ADHD-diagnosed children...