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I am sitting with my dad as I write this. That's mostly what I do these days. Just sit. With my ever-swelling feet propped up and some (mercilessly) decaffeinated (because of the pregnancy) beverage at my side. Dad is still staying in my mom's guest house and Mom and I rigged up a wireless doorbell so that he can ring us if he needs us during the night. Usually he needs us at least a few times. She and I joked that we'll already be used to getting up several times each night so when the baby is born sleeplessness...

Trying to raise a real man in today’s world may be harder than splitting an atom. Everyday our kids are bombarded with images and messages of the most unmanly things imaginable. Magazines are full of sexually ambiguous models dressed in feminine clothes in homo-erotic poses. There’s a new book out every month about how you don’t need a man in the house to raise a man. TV shows typically are full of metro-sexual, gay, and otherwise wimpy male characters, and nearly every Hollywood movie that comes out has at least one homosexual character. Almost every dad in the movies or...

Whenever I reflect on the most important moments of my life it's always those seemingly insignificant and casual conversations that come to mind. In every possible way he could devise, my father tried to impart to me the lessons and values he had learned the hard way, hoping against hope that my journey would be less torturous than his own. The most profound message that my Dad delivered to me was: "Put in a little effort now and it will pay off for the rest of your life." Of course, as a precocious (some say obnoxious) pre-teen I put more...

We encourage our readers to circulate the following in its entirety. Instead of speaking for (or about) the Obamas, we will let them and their church speak for themselves. Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would use all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” page...

A little girl fights for her life, and her last wish is to see her father. But that wish may not come true. "They didn't expect her to still be here. She's fighting, day by day, minute by minute," said Vonda Yaeger, mother. 10/11 has followed the story of 10-year-old Jayci Yaeger as she battled brain tumors. Now doctors say she is about to lose that fight. Her last wish is to spend what time she has left with her father, but he is in a federal prison for drug charges. Less than six months ago, Jayci was energetic, fun...

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- A father who forgot to kiss his son goodbye ended up saving his family’s lives. Kevin Roy said he was pulling out of his driveway Tuesday morning when he realized he hadn’t kissed his 1-year-old son, Koby, and worried how he might feel if something had happened. “I just wanted to tell him I loved him before I left,” Roy said. “I pulled up to the end of the driveway and thought, ‘I want to go in and tell him bye,’ because I normally do. It's just something I do on a daily basis, so I...

Obama's Black Identity Politics is Consistent With Jeremiah Wright’s Hate SpeechIf anyone believes that Barack Obama “just found out” about Jeremiah Wright’s vicious anti-American hate speech, we have a bridge in Brooklyn we would like to sell them. As shown by Obama’s own book Dreams From My Father, Obama’s deep involvement in Black identity politics–replace that with “White identity politics” to envision sheets, hoods, and burning crosses–is entirely consistent with his widespread involvement and association with racists, anti-Semites, and Catholic-haters. The bottom line is that Obama is not one of us and, by “us,” we mean mainstream America. To begin...

· Law change could help cancer victims · embryo bill fuels impassioned debate Mps are planning a change in the law to allow babies to be conceived from artificial sperm, a move described by opponents as playing God with human DNA. A furious debate is building over how far to leave the door open to its use in IVF treatment, ahead of a Commons vote due shortly on the government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill. The legislation currently allows ...#8239;so-called artificial gametes in research, but imposes a blanket ban on their use in creating a human pregnancy. The technique involves...

DAMASCUS BLAST ON TUESDAY KILLED SENIOR HEZBOLLAH MILITARY COMMANDER - LEBANESE POLITICAL SOURCE

The question posed is the meaning of John 1 (the Word) and whether the Father created the Son. Please be respectful of the opinions of others. Post your own thoughts, as opposed to simply copy/pasting of the opinions of others. Of course, supporting your beliefs with short quotes is helpful.

Woman searching for father discovers ... it's her boss Tue Jan 22, 6:25 AM ET TAIPEI (AFP) - A Vietnamese woman searching for her father worked at his home in Taiwan for seven months without realising who he was before the relationship came to light, her father and police said Tuesday. Tran Thi Kham, 40, travelled to Taiwan in 2005 hoping to find her biological father, who fell in love with her Vietnamese mother in Hong Kong in 1967, police said. Tran's mother became pregnant but was forced to return home for family reasons. She died two months after giving...

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A father sodomized his 18-year-old stepson to avenge the teenager's alleged rape of the man's 8-year-old daughter, police said. The father, 32, turned himself into to authorities on Friday and was released from jail Saturday after posting a $17,500 bond. He faces a charge of aggravated sexual assault. The stepson was arrested Jan. 2 and charged with suspicion of aggravated sexual assault. Police say the father caught him assaulting his daughter, and a subsequent examination at a hospital revealed the girl had been sodomized. Sgt. Cheryl Johnson, supervisor of the Fort Worth sex crimes unit,...

JOHN VINCENT COULTERJanuary 9, 2008 The longest baby ever born at the Albany, N.Y., hospital, at least as of May 5, 1926, who grew up to be my strapping father, passed away last Friday morning. As Mother and I stood at Daddy's casket Monday morning, Mother repeated his joke to him, which he said on every wedding anniversary until a few years ago when Lewy bodies dementia prevented him from saying much at all: "54 years, married to the wrong woman." And we laughed. John Vincent Coulter was of the old school, a man of few words, the un-Oprah, no...

Pvt. Christopher J. Forit Jr. (left), food service specialist from Renegade Troop, 4th Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, passes a case of drinks to a dining facility worker at ‘Command Sgt. Maj. Cook’ dining facility, Jan 1. Forit, a native of Fresno, Calif., comes from three generations of military service members. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Brandon Little, Task Force XII Public Affairs. CAMP TAJI — When Christopher J. Forit Jr. decided to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, more than two years ago, he started a voyage that would lead him halfway around the world. It...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Jan. 1, 2008) -- On Christmas Eve, a military aircraft flew in from Baghdad landing at Camp Fallujah transporting special cargo for one fortunate Marine; his father. The chance to spend Christmas together was one they didn’t take for granted and were fully aware of what a privilege it was for them. “I’d bicycle from Baghdad to be here,” said Paul Charbonneau, the father of 22-year-old, Owasso, Okla. native Cpl. Paul J. Charbonneau, a squad leader with 4th platoon, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6. Paul, a senior manager for a telecommunications company...

Father Christmas does exist -- Russian governmentAgence France-Presse First Posted 05:43pm (Mla time) 12/27/2007 MOSCOW -- Russia's government has ridden to the rescue of children by banning a television ad that declares Father Christmas does not exist, the daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta announced Thursday. The Federal Anti-monopoly Service ruled that the advertisement run by a network of electronics stores called Eto breaks a law against discrediting parents, the government-run newspaper said. The advertisement declares bluntly "that Father Frost does not exist," according to the report, referring to Russia's version of the gift-bearing, red-coated old man. "It means that parents are not...

Father catches bird flu that killed his son By Roger Highfield Last Updated: 3:01am GMT 08/12/2007 Fears that the virus responsible for bird flu has evolved to spread between people have been raised after the father of a man who died from the disease was reported to have developed the infection. Humans can contract the potentially lethal H5N1 bird flu virus from close contact with infected birds but scientists fear that it could mutate into a version that spreads from person to person, raising the risk of wider outbreaks or even a global pandemic. The World Health Organisation said that...

Father 'abandoned' girl, 3, in Melbourne train station By Sally Peck and agencies Last Updated: 2:34am BST 19/09/2007 Police in three countries are hunting for the parents of a three-year-old girl who was apparently abandoned by her father at a Melbourne railway station. Xue Qianxun Staff at the Southern Cross train station discovered Xue Qianxun, from New Zealand, crying and confused on Saturday. Authorities said they have grave fears for the mother of the 3-year-old girl. Australian police said they believe Xue Naiyin, a Chinese-language magazine publisher in New Zealand, flew to the US after dumping his daughter at the...

8/8/2007 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- One thing about deployment is that it makes people miss their family and friends. Not many people get a chance to travel to a deployed location with a family member. But an Airman here had good cause to smile when he deployed knowing his father would be with him throughout his deployment. Tech. Sgt. William Lanicek, deployed from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base at Fort Worth in Texas, looked forward to his deployment in Iraq, not just because his unit deployed together, but because he knew he would be sharing the...

TIKRIT, Iraq, July 16, 2007 — The first thing Command Sgt. Maj. Guy Boschee does when he wakes up every morning in his hooch in Iraq is give thanks. The first thing his daughter, Spc. Hope Boschee, does every morning when she wakes up in her tent in Afghanistan is give thanks. “I think about all the good memories I hold dear to my heart, and thank the Lord for giving me a great family, and another beautiful day on Earth,” Guy said. Hope is thankful for her family and her father. “Without them, I wouldn’t be who I am...

Mystery of Tut's Father: New Clues on Unidentified Mummy Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News July 10, 2007 Egyptologists have uncovered new evidence that bolsters the controversial theory that a mysterious mummy is the corpse of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, husband of Nefertiti and, some experts believe, the father of King Tut. (Photos: Who Was Tut's Father?) The mummy's identity has generated fierce debate ever since its discovery in 1907 in tomb KV 55, located less than 100 feet (30 meters) from King Tutankhamun's then hidden burial chamber. So an international team of researchers led by Zahi Hawass, head of...

  Happy Father's Day Fathering a child is truly a blessing from God.. It answers a primal calling, as it memorializes a man as a virile instrument fulfilling his destiny by passing his unique genic bloodlines on to the next generation. Fatherhood thus, offers a man a level of respect, and is universally recognized as one of his most important achievements.  However, is it really that much a personal accomplishment? Proof of true masculinity however, is not to be found simply in the act of procreation, if you are looking for a title that carries some real weight, ...try being...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, June 15, 2007 – Nearly three years ago during his first tour to Iraq, things were a little different for Army Sgt. Chester Temple, a supply specialist for Battery A, 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment. Army Sgt. Chester Temple, a supply noncommissioned officer for Battery A, 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, a, restocks his supply room with notebook binders and other items at Camp Taji, Iraq, on June 13. A single father and sole bread winner for his family, Temple is serving his second tour in Iraq while his parents are taking care of...

Y'all know the rules. No spittin', kickin', gougin', cussin', listin', or disobeying the grand poobah of the neeners, the Lord High Protector, yada, yada, rights and privileges apertaining thereunto. Special dispensations, indulgences, awards granted solely at the whim of the Lord High Protector. Absolutely NO lists!

In celebration of Father's Day today's post is a reprint of my very first blog attempt. December, 2006 I very rarely read New York Magazine, but a cover story caught my eye last week as I scanned the magazine rack in Dr. Zaman's waiting room. Authentic Happiness. Now there's a concept. The author of the article, a New Yorker, treated the subject the way the Discovery Channel describes UFO sightings. They know UFOs are fiction, dammit! Why do so many people claim to have seen them? Happiness, authentic or not, is something that most New Yorkers experience through the eyes...

CORPORAL Ray Evans of Darwin's 1st Brigade always knew his son would follow in his footsteps and join the Australian Defence Force. But he never imagined that his son, Tom, would follow in his footsteps all the way to Iraq. Corporal Evans, 42, and Trooper Evans, 20, are comrades in arms serving with the Overwatch Battle Group (West)-3 in southern Iraq . “I guess it’s a classic case of like father, like son,” said Corporal Evans. Corporal Evans greeted his son when he stepped off a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) C-130 transport aircraft at Ali Air Base in Tallil....

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2007 – On June 17, most fathers will awake to smiles, hugs and maybe even another tie for their collection. For more than 150,000 American fathers, sons and daughters serving in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, their Father's Day will be much different. To help bridge the gap between the front lines and the home front, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service actively partners with the American public on not just Father's Day, but every day troops are far from home, AAFES officials said. Available to the public since April 2004, “Help Our Troops...

<p>Gannett Publications will only allow the posting of titles and links.</p>

HOLLYWOOD - Fresh from his appearance as Captain Jack Sparrow's father in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards says he wants to play Shrek's father in Shrek Four: The Donkey's Revenge because he doesn't want to wind up being typecast. "Papa's got a brand new bag," snorted Mr. Richards in the library of his neo-Victorian Connecticut house, "but let's face it, who wants to play a spaced-out, ragamuffin drunk all the time?" Such is Mr. Richards' fear of being typecast that he has informed Pirates star, Johnny Depp, that he doesn't want to be included...

A carpenter “trying to impress” his 7-year-old son by treating him to a Red Sox game he would never forget was instead busted in front of the boy by police and Fenway Park security when he stormed the field Sunday in the top of the ninth. The Sox were trailing the Baltimore Orioles 5-0. But had Michael Baggott, 37, of East Haven, Conn., just sat tight, he’d have gotten his wish: the Sox staged a memorable comeback right after his stunt, rallying in the bottom of the ninth to clip the Birds, 6-5. Baggott, who was off base in the...

What a cool dad! Neat story.

HUE, Vietnam (AFP) - A dissident Roman Catholic priest in Vietnam was jailed for eight years Friday, yelling defiance to the last as the court convicted him of spreading propaganda against the communist state. Pro-democracy activist Father Nguyen Van Ly, 60, was found guilty and sentenced together with four other advocates of multi-party democracy in a swift, half-day trial in the central city of Hue. The priest -- who has been jailed three times since the 1970s for a total of 14 years -- was dragged into the courtroom in handcuffs and shouted angrily as a police officer hastily covered...

U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Johnnie UpshurU.S Air Force Airman 1st Class Jonathan Upshur Father, Son Reunite in Iraq By Spc. Chris McCann2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Moutain Division CAMP STRIKER, Iraq, March 15, 2007 -- When deployed, most soldiers spend almost a full year away from their families, communicating by e-mail and telephone except for two weeks of leave. Chief Warrant Officer Johnnie Upshur, the engineer technician for the Army's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, prepared for the same when he deployed to Camp Striker, Iraq, August 2006. But in January, his son, Airman 1st Class...

Father, Son Paratroopers Serve in Afghanistan By Staff Sgt. Daniel W. Bailey Task Force Fury Public Affairs BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Feb. 22, 2007 -- As a boy, Jose Gomez would watch his father come home from work or being in the field and dream that one day that would be him. “I saw my father and fellow soldiers while growing up coming home from the field and knew I wanted to do that,” said Gomez, a native of Puerto Rico. “I wanted to jump, deploy; be a hero.” “I’m proud of what he’s doing following my footprints in the...

Father killed family for being too western By Nigel Bunyan Last Updated: 2:16am GMT 21/02/2007 Mohammed Riaz A father killed his wife and four daughters in their sleep because he could not bear them adopting a more westernised lifestyle, an inquest heard yesterday. Mohammed Riaz, 49, found it abhorrent that his eldest daughter wanted to be a fashion designer, and that she and her sisters were likely to reject the Muslim tradition of arranged marriages. On Hallowe'en last year he sprayed petrol throughout their terraced home in Accrington, Lancs, and set it alight. Caneze Riaz, 39, woke and tried to...

EDINBURGH, Scotland, (LifeSiteNews.com) - Nurses and other health care professionals should avoid using the terms ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ to refer to family relationships since the terms could be offensive to homosexual couples with children, a new directive published by Scotland’s National Health Service recommends. Issued in conjunction with the country’s leading homosexual activist organization Stonewall Scotland, the publication is entitled Fair For All - The Wider Challenge: Good LGBT Practice in the NHS. Americans for Truth reported Feb.11 on the publication’s release. The booklet calls for a “zero-tolerance policy to discriminatory language” among Scotland’s health care system. Included in discriminatory...

The article sourced and linked above is old, but the question is (and this question may be more than academic, btw): Freepers, any suggestions on the best choice to play President George Washington (and young enough to maybe also play General George Washington) in a (hypothetical) feature film? Please keep in mind, this would be a film that seeks to portray Washington in an honoring and accurate light. This fact alone may rule out some talented actors, but shoot from the hip anyway!

FORT MCPHERSON, Ga. — A high school athletic director from Jefferson Township, N.J. is going to Iraq. For him, it has been a goal since April 6, 2004, when his son was killed during an intense firefight in Ramadi. Despite concerns for his well-being from family and friends, John Wroblewski Sr., a father of four boys, feels this will bring him closer to his dead son, Marine 2nd Lt. John Wroblewski Jr. “I see it as a way to be closer to my son”, said the positive Wroblewski, a day before his scheduled trip to Iraq. “I want to experience...

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS & RESEARCH MINISTRY www.carm.org The Baptist Confession of Faith With Scripture ProofsBaptist Adopted by the Ministers and Messengers of the general assembly which met in London in 1689 Chapter 1: Of the Holy Scriptures 1._____ The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience, although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary...

[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly] I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck. Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day. Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing...

BERLIN - A thirsty German sold his 6-year-old step-daughter's pet beagle to the owner of a bar to pay for beer, the Bild newspaper reported on Friday. The unemployed man offered to take the dog for a walk and then stopped at a bar where he convinced the owner to buy the 3-year-old dog for $53 (40 euros). The man spent the proceeds quenching his thirst for beer. The bar owner has now returned the dog to its owner.

...I'm 18, and for most of my life, I haven't known half my origins... ...That part came from my father. The only thing was, I had never met him, never heard any stories about him, never seen a picture of him. I didn't know his name. My mother never talked about him -- because she didn't have a clue who he was. When she was 32, my mother -- single, and worried that she might never marry and have a family -- allowed a doctor wearing rubber gloves to inject a syringe of sperm from an unknown man into her...

The Mary Cheney lesbian baby birthing threads are deteriorating into two factions, those who think it's ok for lesbians/homosexuals to raise kids and those who don't.Please answer Yes or No to the following question: Do you approve of Homosexual/Lesbian couples raising children?

*Geisler:* Right! There's a big difference between the two systems. The answer to the question of truth is of eternal importance. If there's a substantial difference between the two systems -- and if your eternal soul depends on a correct choice of one system or the other -- then it behooves everyone to examine seriously all the evidence and make a truly informed decision. We can't just say, "Well, I believe it, I was taught it, I was reared that way." The question is, _Which one is true?_ If Islam is true, Christianity is false. If Christianity is true, Islam...

- George Herbert Walker Bush is a proud father; tears easily come to his eyes when he thinks of his children, all of them, and there is gracious deference in his tone when he talks about the son he calls, with emphasis, "The President." He is not given to boasting about or bragging on his family; he still hears his mother's voice warning him to avoid "the Great I Am," but several times over the past few years the 41st president has mentioned to visitors that the 43rd president has read the Bible in its entirety?not once, the father says,...

FORT HUACHUCA — It was a father and son affair. On Thursday, Thomas Eisenmann and his son, Justin, were promoted at a simple ceremony on the post. Thomas became a sergeant major. Justin entered the noncommissioned officers rank as a sergeant. As for the new sergeant major, Col. Timothy Quinn said he was one of 34 soldiers holding that rank out of 5,500 in his intelligence field. “That’s less than 1 percent,” said Quinn, the Intelligence Center’s chief of staff. With an occasional comic’s touch, the colonel joked about the 305th Military Intelligence Battalion senior NCO, remarking on his tours...

10/6/2006 - LACKLAND AFB, Texas -- Traditions run deep in the military, and for this father and daughter, traditions are what brought them together in Iraq. Col. Steven Dreyer, 4th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Group commander, at Camp Victory, Iraq, reunited with his youngest daughter, 1st Lt. Kathrine Dreyer, 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, Balad AB, Iraq. The visit marked not only the end of Colonel Dreyer's final deployment, but also the beginning of Lieutenant Dreyer's first deployment. During the visit, the colonel presented his daughter with the family's American flag. "This flag symbolizes our family's dedication to serving in the...

Dennis and Stephen Henley filling sand bags together. Department of Defense photo. CAMP RAMADI -- It has been nearly four decades since Dennis Henley filled a sand bag in a war zone. In 1967, he was a Marine Corps corporal in Quang Tri, Vietnam. This September while visiting Camp Ramadi, he found himself once again holding a sand bag, but this time the chore proved to be a very special, emotional moment as the individual standing beside him with the shovel was his youngest son, Marine Corps Corporal Stephen Henley. DennisÂ’ 20-year-old son Stephen is in his final days of...

The film of the kidnapping of the 3 IDF soldiers on the Lebanese border in 2000, simulcast in Lebanon and Israel this week, lacks the parts implicating the UN in the affair, says the father of one. Chaim Avraham is the father of Benny Avraham, who was one of the three soldiers kidnapped and murdered by Hizbullah in October 2000. He produced a photograph today further implicating the UN in at least indirect involvement in the violent abduction. Videotapes of the kidnapping, filmed by UNIFIL sources, have long been known to exist, though the UN originally denied it for months....

Teen mails taped confession of father's slaying to paperAssociated Press Posted on Sat, Sep. 02, 2006 RALEIGH, N.C. - A man obsessed with the 1999 Columbine school attack made a videotape showing his father's bloody corpse and describing plans to attack his former high school, then mailed it to a newspaper which posted excerpts on its Web site. The release of the video late Thursday was the latest twist in the case, which began when Alvaro Castillo was arrested Wednesday in front of Orange High School in Hillsborough after multiple shots were fired from the parking lot. Two students suffered...