Christian actor, writer, and producer Kirk Cameron announced last week that he and his family have moved from California to Tennessee.
Read the full storyTag: family
Commentary: I’m Prioritizing Family and Marriage as a Gen Z Woman
“When I grow up, I want to be a mom.”
These are common words to hear from young girls; they aspire to be just like their own mothers.
Read the full storyCommentary: The Side of Homeschooling People Don’t Talk About Enough
As a veteran homeschooler, I am well aware of what a marathon this lifestyle can be. There’s no break when you live and work in the same place.
It’s time to take a deep breath and assess the situation. Burnout is a normal part of homeschooling. Everyone experiences it at one time or another, and it’s often associated with feelings of being distracted, overworked, and overwhelmed.
Read the full storyCommentary: Homeschooling Isn’t What I Expected It to Be
I’ve heard it said, “I was a great parent before I had kids.” The same can be said of being a homeschooling parent.
Homeschooling circles are full of idealistic moms and dads who often have very high standards for themselves and their children. Certainly, having strong ideals can work as a guide and benchmark for navigating what can be a very challenging endeavor. However, these high standards can also backfire and leave even the best of us feeling like failures.
Read the full storyCommentary: Battles We Can Win Are on Family, Morality, and Education
In “Burke on Our Crisis of Character,” which appeared in the December 2023 issue of Chronicles, Bruce Frohnen notes, “The American Way was real, rooted in families whose rights trumped the demands of the state because families were more natural and fundamental than the state.” The following month in the same magazine, Stephen Baskerville reviews a collection of essays, Up from Conservatism, in which he briefly addresses the pernicious effects of government welfare on family life and fatherhood.
As is the case in nearly everything that the federal government touches, be it education, health care, or anything else, its policies in the last 50 years have severely damaged the American family. Given the additional harms done by government in the first quarter of the 21st century—trillions of dollars in wasted expenses, woefully ignorant public school graduates, divisions along the lines of race, politics, and gender, a diminished pride in our past, the attacks on our liberties—some people I know despair about the future. Others of us want to restore the good that has been lost but feel frustrated and even defeated by the immensity of the task. We vote, we grouse (as I am doing here), yet each day brings some new assault on the culture, some new governmental dictate or intrusion, and we just want to hunker down in the trenches hoping that this bombardment will end of its own accord.
Read the full storyCommentary: The Right Needs to Use Public Policies That Promote Family Values
It is a tale as old as time. Older generations criticize the young, usually following a particular formula. The seniors say that the young are wimpier, lazier, less ambitious, overly entitled, and have weaker characters. Examples are now easier to come by because of social media, which allows one to encounter different types of people without having to enter their social circles.
While there are many issues of concern among the young, last week a TikTok rant by a young lady about the difficulty of working and paying her bills went viral. She seemed sad and overwhelmed. Her income apparently could barely cover the rent. Of course, she probably needed a smaller place and a roommate, but her complaints are universal, even among those who are more frugal.
Read the full storyCommentary: ‘To Have and to Hold’: Marrying Young and Making It Last
Kate Z. works in childcare and as a part-time barista in my local coffee shop. She’s the oldest of 10 children, with seven brothers and two sisters. Home-educated during elementary school, Kate then entered Padre Pio Academy here in Front Royal, Virginia, a hybrid school which combines homeschooling with three days a week in the classroom. She graduated in 2021 and currently lives in an apartment.
Jesse R. is adopted and the youngest of three siblings. For the most part, he was homeschooled before entering Padre Pio. He also graduated in 2021 and works as a chef de partie in the restaurant of a retirement community. He shares a house with a friend.
Read the full storyCommentary: The Way to Teach Children to Value Tradition
Traditionalism will come to nothing if it is not shared with future generations. You might have children yourself and are in the throes of parenting. Or you might be looking toward a family one day and wondering how best to prepare. How does one go about teaching tradition to children? Where should new and future parents focus in order to give their young ones the same mindset they hold dear?
Read the full storyTucker Carlson Grills GOP Candidate Senator Tim Scott on War in Ukraine, Biden’s Cluster Bombs
U.S Senator Tim Scott said there shouldn’t be American military “boots on the ground” in Ukraine. But the South Carolina Republican campaigning for president remains supportive in the U.S. providing the weapons and resources Ukraine needs to push back Russia’s invasion.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson hit Scott with tough questions on Ukraine, the border and more at Friday’s Family Leadership Summit, which included a cattle call of GOP presidential candidates.
Read the full storyMcCabe on the ‘Misalignment’ Between America’s Leaders and Her People, and What It Means
Political analyst, One America News journalist, and historian Neil W. McCabe joins The Tennessee Star Report Wednesday to expose the stunning misalignment between the nation’s elites and the people, and illustrates recent examples of the failures of “engineered” societies over that last century. TRANSCRIPT Michael Patrick Leahy: 7:18 a.m. broadcasting live from our studios on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. In-studio, the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael; on our newsmaker line, our very good friend, the great Neil W. McCabe – top political strategist and reporter for One America News Network. Good morning, Neil W. McCabe. Neil W. McCabe: Good morning, Michael. Good morning, Crom. Good to be with you. Michael Patrick Leahy: I forgot to mention, Bronze Star winner for your service in Iraq. Congratulations on that, First Sergeant. Neil W. McCabe: Thank you. Michael Patrick Leahy: Neil W. McCabe, still in the reserve, still serving our country. Can I ask you a big question, Neil? Neil W. McCabe: Absolutely. Sure. Michael Patrick Leahy: I’ve been thinking about this – I’m beginning to think that perhaps one of the most important issues in the 2024 general election is how the Democrats are trying to ruin our children and is…
Read the full storyCommentary: Actually, They ARE Coming for Your Children
From the South Lawn of the White House to the pulsing heartbeats of North America’s bustling metropolises, Democrats are stepping into the 2024 electoral fray armed with a transgender-dominated platform that makes the riots of 2020 look like a block party.
This time, the spotlight is focused on the very future of the country: our children.
Read the full storyKnox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs: ‘The Family Is the Building Block to Our Society’
Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, guest host Gulbransen welcomed Tennessee’s favorite mayor, Glenn Jacobs of Knox County to the newsmaker line to discuss his governing style.
Read the full storyMission America’s Aaron Spradlin Describes Nonprofit to Help Stop Child Sex Trafficking
Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Mission America’s Aaron Spradlin in studio to explain the different types of child sex trafficking that occurs at state and national levels.
Read the full storyCommentary: The Civil Disobedience of Raising a Family
In case you haven’t noticed, times have changed, and somehow, those who hold to traditional societal norms have become the new face of counter culturalism. As this is unfamiliar territory to those on the traditional end of the spectrum, a few lessons are needed in how to live up to this new moniker. One of those lessons is how to engage in civil disobedience.
If you’re like me, the phrase “civil disobedience” conjures up images of bra-burning hippies protesting Vietnam and demanding that society “make love, not war.” But in a world where up has become down and good has become evil, civil disobedience no longer means we must take to the streets and chain ourselves to some inanimate object. In reality, the best civil disobedience we, as members of the new countercultural movement, can perform is right in our own homes, raising our families.
Read the full storyDHS Encouraged Children to Report Family to Facebook for Challenging U.S. Government COVID Claims
In the cartoon below, you will see the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) encourage a young female protagonist to report her “Uncle Steve” to Facebook for posting “disinformation”.
DHS’s rationale? “Uncle Steve” posted that “Covid-19 is no worse than the flu”:
Read the full story‘Bideninflation’ Increases Price of Raising a Child by $26,000 in Georgia
Amid record-high inflation sweeping the country, the expense of raising a child has reached new heights. What is commonly called “Bideninflation” costs families $26,000 more per child.
Read the full storyCommentary: Yes, Taxes Can Drive People to Move
Many people will tell that people choose to live somewhere based on factors like the weather or proximity to family, and that taxes don’t enter into the equation. While there is a lot of truth to that understanding, when taxes reach a certain point, they can cause people to alter their behavior. Have you heard of voting with your feet? Here’s how that exact concept is playing out for two Iowa families.
Read the full storyInflation Is a Great Reason to Get an Abortion, Democrat Lawmaker Says
Democratic California Rep. Katie Porter said inflation and rising prices reinforced the importance of abortion on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” Wednesday.
Porter said inflation and abortion were closely tied together and that, as grocery and gas prices rose, people would realize the importance of controlling their family size through abortion.
Read the full storyCommitted to His Roots, Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles Still Mulling Over Run for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District Seat
Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in studio to answer the big question of whether or not he’ll run for the US House of Represenatives seat in Tennessee’s Fifth.
Read the full storyFormer Planned Parenthood President Says School Closures Harm Children
A former Planned Parenthood president and public health professional argued in a Thursday op-ed for The Washington Post that the rise in cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant is not a reason to keep schools closed.
Dr. Leana Wen argued “both sides [of the school reopening debate] are wrong,” in her op-ed. “let’s agree that schools are essential and then work to reduce risk to get students back to in-person learning,” Wen wrote.
Wen called it “astounding” that governors in states like Texas, Georgia and Iowa are fighting against school mask mandates and that Florida’s surgeon general is discouraging testing in schools, attributing ” “low vaccine uptake among children” to “rampant right-wing disinformation.”
Read the full storyCommentary: The Uncomfortable Truths About the Food Stamp Program
A recent administrative action has permanently increased benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by 25 percent. Unfortunately, this historic boost fails to address the structural problems that plague this nearly 60-year-old program.
The official Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) webpage proudly proclaims that, “SNAP provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food…”
To that admirable end, the program formerly known as food stamps distributed $79 billion to 40 million people last year. Yet this desire to provide wholesome food to needy families conflicts with clear evidence that wholesome food is not what they think they need. Whether they play by the rules or not, people receiving SNAP benefits currently spend between 70-100 percent of that benefit on things other than healthy food.
Read the full storyMissionaries, Family Reportedly Kidnapped in Haiti Returning from Orphanage
Seventeen U.S. missionaries and family members were kidnapped by a gang in Haiti on Saturday, according to a Christian aid organization that alerted churches and asked for prayer.
The missionaries, including some children, were returning Saturday from building an orphanage, according to the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries.
Read the full storyGingrich Commentary: Celebrating Labor Day
As Americans gather today to relax and enjoy Labor Day with their family and friends, it is a good time to reflect on what this traditional holiday means to working Americans in the 21st century.
The legislation which made Labor Day a national holiday was signed into law by President Grover Cleveland in 1894. It was created during a time of rapid industrialization and economic growth, as much of the United States shifted from an agricultural to industrial economy. This period of change created many challenges for working Americans as they had to learn new skills and work long hours.
The past year-and-a-half has also presented many challenges and changes for working Americans. The threat of a global pandemic reshaped work in ways we could not have imagined even a few years ago.
Read the full storyAnalysis: Republican Officials Leave Their Voters Behind over Not Supporting Monthly Child Tax Credits
As tens of millions of American families across the country began to see the second round of monthly cash payments appear in their bank accounts Friday, Republicans in Congress remained oddly quiet.
The checks were the result of an expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC), which was part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package President Joe Biden signed into law in March. While every Republican in Congress voted against the bill, the credit itself is overwhelmingly popular among registered Republicans and Americans overall, creating a rift between reliable conservative voters and the GOP lawmakers who represent them.
Read the full storyLawyer for Ashli Babbitt’s Family Says Fatal Shot at Client Was ‘Ambush,’ with No Command to Halt
An attorney for the family of Ashli Babbett, a protester killed in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, says the police officer who fatally shot Babbitt failed to warn her before firing and in fact ambushed her.
The attorney, Terry Roberts, made the allegation in an interview with RealClearInvestigations, and in opposition to the attorney of the alleged officer who shot Babbitt, saying his client issued a clear and loud command.
“It’s not debatable,” Roberts said. “There was no warning. … I would call what he did an ambush.”
Read the full storyAttorney General Ellison Announces $50 Million Settlement with Purdue Pharma
Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Minnesota will get $50 million from the settlement of the state’s lawsuit against the Sackler family’s company Purdue Pharma, which manufactured the opioid drug Oxycontin that contributed to the deadly opioid crisis nationwide.
The resolution will make public more than 30 million documents related to Purdue’s role in the opioid crisis and require the Sacklers to pay $4.3 billion for prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts in communities across the country.
Minnesota’s share of those payments is expected to exceed $50 million over nine years, the spending of which will be overseen by the State’s Opioid Epidemic Response Advisory Council.
Read the full storyCommentary: Republicans Against the Family
The coronavirus pandemic, real and exaggerated, has provided a unique opportunity to fortify the family and undermine the hegemonic cant of a regime that is hostile to Middle Americans.
Public school enrollment is down across the country, while homeschooling is on the rise, which should be good news for those frustrated with a system out to teach children what to think rather than how to think.
Read the full story44 Percent of People Say They’re Not Doing Christmas in Person Due to Coronavirus
A study found 44% of Americans said they’re not gathering for Christmas with their loved ones, a Civic Science infographic said.
More respondents in December reported canceling in-person Christmas than in October, the study’s infographic said. In October, 36% responded that they still planned in-person gatherings, but that number dropped to 30% just before the holiday.
Read the full storyFauci: Americans Should Not to See Their Kids for Christmas
Dr Anthony Fauci has revealed that he and his wife won’t be spending time with their three adult children for Christmas this year and urged other Americans to do the same as coronavirus cases continue to surge in the U.S.
The nation’s alleged top infectious disease expert told The Washington Post it would mark the first Christmas not spent with his three daughters since they were born.
Read the full storyCommentary: Amy Coney Barrett Exposes Society’s Double Standard on Family Size
Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, has seven children. Unless you have been living under a rock, you already knew that. All the media coverage of her nomination, which was announced on September 26, devoted extensive attention to this fact.
If a poll were to be taken, no doubt more Americans would be able to identify the birth country of Barrett’s two adopted children (Haiti), than the Federal Court Circuit on which she currently serves as a judge (the Seventh).
Read the full storyCommentary: The Destruction of Marriage and Family is the Destruction of Civilization
Marriage and families are the cornerstone of not only civilization but of nature itself, without which humans would have never survived as wandering nomads and early farmers, let alone building cities, an economy and governments to represent the people in state-to-state relations.
Without families as a basic building block, children are not nurtured, educated and empowered to raise and sustain families themselves, and the human race could not continue, always being but one generation away from extinction.
Read the full storyDean Phillips Challenger Says Single-Parent Homes ‘Chief Barrier’ to African-American Advancement
Republican congressional candidate Kendall Qualls said the “chief barrier to the advancement of the African-American community is the rise of single-parent households,” not “racism, police brutality or white privilege.”
Qualls is running against Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN-03), a first-term Democrat who unseated former Republican Congressman Erik Paulsen in 2018.
Read the full storyCommentary: The Destruction of Marriage and Family-Building Is the Destruction of Civilization Itself
Marriage and families are the cornerstone of not only civilization but of nature itself, without which humans would have never survived as wandering nomads and early farmers, let alone building cities, an economy and governments to represent the people in state-to-state relations.
Without families as a basic building block, children are not nurtured, educated and empowered to raise and sustain families themselves, and the human race could not continue, always being but one generation away from extinction.
Read the full storyCommentary: The Indispensable American Family
In August 1884, Washington Gladden, possibly the most famous Christian preacher in the America of his day, wrote an article in The Century Magazine on “Three Dangers” besetting the welfare of the nation he loved. Of the first and third dangers he named, intemperance and gambling, I have little to say here. I will note that Dr. Gladden concedes that alcohol may be used well, even for conviviality, though he himself did not drink.
Read the full storyCommentary: Happy Thanksgiving!
In an America devoted to the celebration of the self, Thanksgiving is an anachronism. Perhaps that’s why it’s become my favorite holiday.
Read the full storyCritics: Family-Oriented Culture, Not High Taxes, Is Why Minnesota Ranks Among Best Places to Live
by Bethany Blankley Minnesota ranks among the top places to live in the country according to the most recent U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best States Rankings. Some political leaders are attributing Minnesota’s third-place ranking to its high taxes, but critics argue that couldn’t be further from the truth. The Center of the American Experiment compared U.S. News’ ranking with the Tax Foundation’s state’s business tax climate analysis, which ranked Minnesota eighth-worst. Minnesota’s state and local tax burden was the 11th-highest in the U.S. in fiscal 2016, according to a report produced Key Policy Data (KPD). And according to the financial watchdog Truth In Accounting, Minnesota’s finances are on a “roller coaster ride,” with every taxpayer owing $4,700 to pay off the state’s debt. “We see no strong relationship between a state’s tax burden, as measured by the Tax Foundation, and whether it is a better or worse state, according to U.S. News & World Report,” John Phelan, an economist at the Center of the American Experiment, said in a statement. “Simply put, the causal relationship of ‘high taxes [lead to a] better state,’ just does not exist,” he argues. “Washington and New Hampshire, the two states which…
Read the full storyGoogle Employees Meltdown Over the Use of the Word ‘Family’
by Peter Hasson A Google executive sparked a fierce backlash from employees by using the word “family” in a weekly, company-wide presentation, according to internal documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. Many Google employees became angry that the term was used while discussing a product aimed at children, because it implied that families have children, the documents show. The backlash grew large enough that a Google vice president addressed the controversy and solicited feedback on how the company could become more inclusive. TheDCNF received the documents from a source who insisted upon anonymity in order to share them. One employee stormed out of the March 2017 presentation after a presenter “continued to show (awesome) Unicorn product features which continually use the word ‘family’ as a synonym for ‘household with children,’” he explained in an internal thread. That employee posted an extended rant, which was well-received by his colleagues, on why linking families to children is “offensive, inappropriate, homophobic, and wrong.” He wrote: This is a diminishing and disrespectful way to speak. If you mean “children”, say “children”; we have a perfectly good word for it. “Family friendly” used as a synonym for “kid friendly” means, to me,…
Read the full storyJC Bowman Commentary: The Best Gift of All
Lasting relationships are perhaps the key to a happy life.
Read the full storyCommentary: The Breakdown of Family and Religion Explains France’s Social Unrest
by Star Parker As France is gripped by civil disorder, many commentators identify, quite correctly, as the culprit the outsized burden that France’s bloated welfare state places on its citizens. According a recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the highest tax burden in the industrialized world is in France—46.1 percent of gross domestic product. In the United States, it is 27 percent, which includes taxes paid at all levels of government—federal, state, and local. Welfare state spending in France is 32 percent of GDP, almost double that of the U.S., meaning that $1 out of $3 generated by the French economy is captured by the government and redistributed into social/welfare spending. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] But let’s recall that all this government was put in place in the name of making life better for France’s citizens. There’s plenty of analysis regarding the French situation, as there is in our own country, about how to streamline and reform government programs and deliver the same quality of services at a reduced spending and tax burden on citizens. But…
Read the full storyCory Gardner’s Family Members Doxxed, Wife Sent Graphic Video of Beheading
by Jason Hopkins Several family members of Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner have had their names and home addresses made public, and Gardner’s wife has received a “gruesome” video of a beheading. A spokesman for Gardner has confirmed to The Daily Caller News Foundation that his family has been doxxed and graphic footage of a beheading was sent via text message to his wife. The Colorado senator — who has invoked furor from liberal activists for voting in favor of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — first revealed the doxxing to Fox News. Amid Kavanaugh furor & threats to mbrs, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) tells Fox that his wife received a text with a video attachment showing a gruesome beheading. Someone has has also released the names of and addresses of his family members. — Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 7, 2018 “The tweet is accurate,” Gardner press secretary Casey Contres said to TheDCNF on Sunday, also suggesting that his office may go into further detail at a later time. Gardner is not the first Republican senator to be doxxed amid the Kavanaugh nomination frenzy. Jackson A. Cosko, 27, a congressional staffer who most recently worked for Democratic Rep. Sheila…
Read the full storyImproving Economy In US Could Predict Next Baby Boom
by Jessica Kramer The U.S. saw a 30-year record low for birth rates in 2017, but the country’s increasingly prosperous economy could soon lead to a surge in childbirth. A Gallup poll showed 70 percent of American adults on average preferred having three or more children between 1938 and 1968, according to the New York Post. But starting in the 1970s — largely due to changes in family roles, divorce and out-of-wedlock births — the number of Americans who want at least three children has wavered between 32 and 42 percent. Fertility rates hit a 30-year record low in 2017, according to NPR. One explanation for the decrease in fertility rates could be an increase in wealth and quality of life, according to The New York Times. As people become richer, live longer lives and reside in metropolitan areas, their desire and likelihood to have babies tends to decrease, George Mason University professor Philip Auerswald and author Joon Yun wrote in TheNYT article. Birth rates typically reflect economic situations, including depressions, recessions and even periods of economic growth. Birth rates dropped during the financial crisis between 2007 and 2009, but despite record-low unemployment and continuous economic growth, the latest data published in a July Gallup poll shows 41 percent…
Read the full storyJC Bowman Commentary: My Father’s Son
It is an ancient ritual of fathers and their children. The child yearning to grow into adulthood, and a father’s tough love. Mothers can be demanding, but they have that nurturing and caring side that escapes most men. Fathers try to instill discipline in order to help their children succeed in a heartless, often uncaring, world.
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