Free Republic

Too late to give my son the Airfix fix http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/09/01/do0102.xml http://tinyurl.com/h8gzw By Tom Leonard (Filed: 01/09/2006) Although he is only four, it is already clear that my older son has inherited two character traits from me: a fascination with militaria — ships, planes, tanks and soldiers, especially soldiers — and an unfortunate impatience, specifically a tendency to hurl stuff across the room when things don't go right. Or glue right. For if there was one area where these two facets of my personality clashed most spectacularly, it was when I turned my hand to the fiddly task of putting together...

The Dangerous Book for Boyshttp://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20058973-5003900,00.html http://tinyurl.com/or3b2 Christopher Bantick 12aug06 The Dangerous Book for Boys By Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden HarperCollins, 400pp, $39.95 UNAMBIGUOUSLY blokey, The Dangerous Book for Boys will have many fathers, or even grandfathers, remembering their days with crystal sets and billycarts. But are such things dangerous? According to the brothers Iggulden, who have in place of an introduction a piece called I Didn't Have this Book When I Was a Boy, boyhood "is all about curiosity". But the kind of curiosity here is of a certain age and time. There's nothing wrong with a fair swish...

Family welcomes 12th Eagle Scouthttp://www.tmnews.com/articles/2006/07/16/sections/news/news74.txt http://tinyurl.com/rwvkn Sunday, July 16, 2006 Last modified: Sunday, July 16, 2006 6:46 AM CDT By Jason Mullis, Hoosier Times BEDFORD - There are 12 virtues the American Boy Scouts espouse to the youth in their charge. Similarly, when Travis Scherschel earned the highest rank of Eagle Scout Saturday, he became the 12th Scherschel to do so. "Becoming an Eagle Scout is an outstanding achievement, which requires hard work and dedication," Mark Scherschel, Travis' father, read from a letter from President George W. Bush. "Your accomplishment serves as an example of excellence and a source of...

In the name of the fatherhttp://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1033732006 http://tinyurl.com/ozefu DANI GARAVELLI Sun 16 Jul 2006 ONCE upon a time, I believed it didn't matter a whit whether a baby was born into a family with one parent or two. Or with two mothers or two fathers rather than a mother and a father. Why should it? What was important was not the number or gender of the parents, but whether or not they were loving and attentive. That was, of course, before I had any of my own. Now I realise that bringing up children is a challenge even for two well-meaning...

Boys will be boyshttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2230571,00.html http://tinyurl.com/n3g5a DJ Taylor June 18, 2006 Why are fathers snapping up an old-fashioned book of boyhood lore? DJ Taylor looks at the gap in almost every father’s life -- Like practically every human relationship these days, fatherhood has become horribly institutionalised. A condition that was once thoroughly ad hoc and made up as one went along is now caught up in bureaucracy’s stifling grasp. Father’s Day (an American import that didn’t exist in my youth), fathers’ support agencies, parenting classes: on all sides comes evidence of a natural state hedged about with all kind of wholly...

I'm always drawn to stories about dads and sons who share a hobby or passionate pursuit. A few months ago, I read a story about a couple of father-son pairs in the Dallas area who have climbed three of the seven summits – the highest peaks on each continent. Jackson, my 10-year-old son, and I have done some indoor rock climbing at our community recreation center. But like a lot of boys these days, his passion is video games. He's always asking me to play – bad as I am at it. I usually choose NBA Live 2005 because I...

Protesters seek justice for dads in custody battles Sunday, June 18, 2006 Bill Bush THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH In 1953, Kris Slaughter’s father got full custody of her and her older brother after her stepfather was accused of sexually molesting a child from their neighborhood. It was the right decision, she said, although it was almost unheard of then for a father to get custody over a mother — and it was rare for couples to get divorced in the first place. Although her mother was accused of nothing, Slaughter didn’t see her again until adulthood. "She never came back, except...

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Amid all the hand-wringing surrounding Gov. George Pataki's fiscally responsible budget vetoes, a major policy initiative advanced by him, and agreed to by the state Legislature, has been largely ignored. The governor is one of the few, if not only, elected officials nationwide to attack the next frontier of anti-poverty policy by confronting the growing problem of poor, unemployed, predominantly minority, noncustodial fathers in urban and other communities. With few skills and extremely low employment rates, these young fathers are often disconnected from their children both financially and emotionally. Their struggle is seriously undermining the stability of low-income communities and...

U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Daniel M. Knight, 19, from Simpsonville, S.C., looks at names on the Beirut Memorial at Camp Lejeune, N.C., March 30, 2006. Knight is preparing to deploy to Iraq for the first time. His father, Morris, is a Vietnam veteran and said he is extremely proud of his son. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Lucian Friel U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Daniel Knight Marine Prepares for First Deployment By Lance Cpl. Lucian Friel 2nd Marine Division CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C., April 5, 2006 —“My father, a former Marine, served in Vietnam,” said Pfc. Daniel M. Knight,...

On Wed,March 22, there will be a hearing in Essex County Court in Massachusetts, which could result in the banning of a book by Fathers rights(Pro-Family) activist, Kevin Thompson. Kevin Thompson has been fighting a long and lonely battle in the Essex Probate and Family Court to try to be able to be a father to his son. Several months ago, the court impounded the records of the trial and Judge DeGangi has recently granted a restraining order forbidding Kevin from distributing his book, EXPOSING THE CORRUPTION IN THE MASSACHUSETTS FAMILY COURTS.

Jeremiah Clayton Jones discovered that his former fiancée was pregnant just three weeks before the baby was due, when an adoption-agency lawyer called and asked if he would consent to have his baby adopted. "I said absolutely not," said Mr. Jones, a 23-year-old Arizona man who met his ex-fiancée at Pensacola Christian College in Florida. "It was an awkward moment, hearing for the first time that I would be a father, and then right away being told, 'We want to take your kid away.' But I knew that if I was having a baby, I wanted that baby." Mr. Jones...

F4J UK Christmas Chaos - Friday, 12/09/05 At around 10 AM GMT Dads dressed as Santas gathered at Tufton Street, Westminster and marched from the Church of England's HQ, past Parliment, Downing St., to St. Paul's - all the while ringing Christmas bells... At St. Paul's, many of the Santas left a toy donation... Teri from Cali got some pictures up.. You could just skip my lame blog and go see Teri's...Slide show here (Xmas and Bedlam demos)...

Writing recently in National Review Online, Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), describes the huge social costs of family breakdown and the benefits to children and society of marriage. He also points out that his agency spends $46 billion each year on programs "the need for [which] is either created or exacerbated by the breakup of families and marriages." He rightly argues that we need to address this costly "family breakdown" problem. In fact, one could look beyond his Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and even HHS and make a similar point about virtually all...

One of the more fatuous beliefs that has been foisted off by self-proclaimed feminists and other politically correct lamebrains is that children don’t really need fathers. I used to say that American women, thanks to increased salaries and well- stocked sperm banks, had reached a point where they only needed men to open ketchup bottles and get stuff down from high shelves. Ladies, I was joking! I had no idea that so many women took the line to heart. Thanks to my good joke and Gloria Steinem’s bad one – that crack about fish needing bicycles – women have become...

Everyone knows about Spring Cleaning - but what about fall? What do you do in the fall? Prpare for winter? Recuperate from summer? In the next week or so I'll be borrowing a tiller, pulling all the finished stuff out of the garden and clearing it out for the winter. Hubby has gotten a start on the siding. We are hoping all the insulation and drywall he put up in the attic will make a difference in the heating bills this winter. While our furnace is very effecient - the price of fuel oil is staggering so we are also...

In late spring and early summer we shared our plans and likes and dislikes for summer plans. Please share with the rest of the table what you did on your summer vacation.

I had a light hearted topic picked out for today - but am just not in the mood. Everyone please have safe holiday weekend, and keep our fellow oAmericans of the Gulf Coast in all of your thoughts and prayers.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Perhaps one out of every 25 dads could unknowingly be raising another man's child, a finding that has huge health and social implications, according to report released Wednesday. Exposing so-called paternal discrepancy -- when a child is identified as being biologically fathered by someone other than the man who believes he is the father -- could lead to family violence and the breakup of many families. On the other hand, leaving paternal discrepancy hidden means having the wrong genetic information, which could have health consequences. A UK-based research team reviewed scientific research dealing with paternity...

Two weeks ago we discussed those items that we can't live without, that were worth every penny we paid for them. Let's go in the opposite direction today. We all have items we have purchased, often with high hopes for it's usefulness, that we regretted purchasing shortly after the fact. Regale us with your stories of duds, or warn us about things not to purchase.