Father's Day Cartoon

Father's Day: A dad wonders, does anyone ever get this job right?

This Father’s Day, I’ll begin with a confession: My most important job is also the one that I’m least confident I’m doing correctly.
It demands everything, guarantees nothing, frustrates completely, and challenges endlessly. The hours are around the clock, the stress is unbelievable, and the pay is lousy. It’s heavy on responsibility, light on training, fraught with worry, and overwhelming in its scope. There is no making friends, generating excuses, passing the buck or sitting on the sidelines. The praise is spotty, the criticism unavoidable, and the consequences of failing everlasting.
I’m convinced that, in the course of parenting, I make mistakes every day. If you need confirmation, ask my three kids (5, 8, 10). They’ll back me up. Although, owing to their chronic bouts with spotty hearing and selective memory, don't be surprised if they fail to mention their own misbehavior.
Oops. Can we still use the “m-word?” A generation ago, before the “wimpification” of so many of America’s parents, kids were told to be “a good boy” or “a good girl” and informed that there would be consequences if those expectations were not met.

I’ll know I’ve been successful at this gig if my kids turn out to be grateful, thoughtful and helpful. Those are lasting values, and I have to instill them.

Today, we’re far too enlightened for that brand of barbarism, and so we find it easier to excuse the mistakes and misdeeds of anyone under five feet tall by chalking it up to free expression and early leadership skills. Kids will be kids.
In those bygone days, a department store Santa Claus would still ask a child: “Have you been good this year?” Now a less judgmental Santa, who is after all on the payroll of the department stores, cuts to the chase and asks: “What do you want for Christmas?” No need to earn it. No strings attached.
As far as I can tell, my major shortcoming seems to be my inability to achieve the Goldilocks formula for parenting — not too much of this or that but just right. I’m too strict, I’m too lenient. I’m always in my kids’ face, or I’m nowhere to be found. I’m afraid that I’m not doing enough to provide my kids with a good living, but I’m also afraid of working so hard that I’m not spending enough time with them.
My college roommate’s father was a wise man. He once shared with us that the meaning of life was finding balance.
So true. But does anyone ever achieve the correct balance to parent? Honestly, I have to wonder, does any ever get this job right? Or are we just supposed to accept the mistakes as part of the process and move to the next level of the game?
Meanwhile, I wonder how my kids’ lives will be impacted by the fact that their dad is a “C-student" at parenting.
I have come to have tremendous respect for the parents of polite, responsible and well-adjusted grown children. In the last several months, I’ve sought out about a dozen or so fathers with kids in college — those near the end of the journey, and I’ve asked them a simple question: How does someone know when he has succeeded at fatherhood? The answers ran the gamut.
One father told me that it’s when your kids become adults and thank you for being there. Another said it comes at that comment when you look at your offspring and recognize that they turned out to be good people. Another said one measure of success is that your kids want to spend time with you.
For me, I’ll know I’ve been successful at this gig if my kids turn out to be grateful, thoughtful and helpful. Those are lasting values, and I have to instill them. You can easily imagine what kind of people you want your children to become or what you want them to achieve, but you also have to realize that they won’t get there organically. You have to lead the way. And that isn’t easy.
Whether my children grow up to be prosperous, healthy, or happy will have a lot to do with the decisions they make on their own. I can impact some of those decisions, but most of them will be out of my hands. There is only so much a parent can do, once free will comes into play.                                                                                                                    
Lately, I can’t shake the feeling that what my kids most need to hear is not what I’ll do for them but what I won’t do for them. Other parents will bend over backward to make excuses for their kids’ misbehavior and shortcomings, but I refuse to do that. It only hurts the kids in the long run. We’re here to raise these little people into not just bigger people but also better people, not to cover up their mistakes and smooth over their flaws.
Nor should we cater to their every whim. The more we do for our children, the less we teach them to do for themselves. I’m constantly reminding my kids that — as much as I do for them — I’m not their chef, butler, chauffeur.
Now and then, my kids will complain that they’re bored. So what? A little boredom is good since it fosters imagination and creativity. Besides, it’s not my job to entertain them. As I tell them, I‘m also not their cruise director.
I’m their dad. And — given that this is one job that, if done correctly, requires plenty of time, patience, and effort and seems to take a lifetime to perfect — that should be more than enough. 

Marquette University's decision to paint over mural of convicted cop killer draws protests

IDIOTS

More than 60 faculty and staff members at Marquette University are circulating an online petition against their own school for taking down a mural featuring convicted cop killer and the FBI’s first female most wanted terrorist, Joanne Deborah Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur.
Shakur was part of a revolutionary extremist organization called the “Black Liberation Army.” In 1973, she shot and killed a New Jersey State Trooper at point-blank range, according to the FBI. Then she escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba, where she is still believed to be living.
The mural showed Shakur’s face with two quotes on a wall inside the Catholic institution’s “Gender and Sexuality Resource Center,” which provides “a safe and welcoming space dedicated to dialogue, growth, and empowerment around gender, sex, and sexuality,” as noted on its Facebook page.
Some faculty members are also upset because Susannah Barlow, the GSRC’s director at the time the painting went up, no longer works for the school. The university’s communications director would not specify if she was fired or resigned.
There is a petition circulating online saying Bartlow’s “relief from her position at this university greatly hinders the Marquette student body and the institution as a whole.”
The mural was originally painted, at least in part, by Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority members and went up in March. One of the quotes read, “No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes if they know that that knowledge with help set you free.”
Leona Dotson, international communications chairperson of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., confirmed in a statement the group did contribute to painting the mural, along with other university staff and students. “Unfortunately, Ms. Shakur’s entire history and background was not fully researched. If that process had occurred, she would not have been featured in the mural,” Dotson said.
When the university discovered there was a convicted cop-killer on the wall, they painted over it in May. A statement by the university said, “this is extremely disappointing as the mural does not reflect the Guiding Values of Marquette University.”
Stephen Franzoi, Professor Emeritus at Marquette’s Psychology Department, authored the petition and wrote the latest events “demand a response,” saying the university adopted “the narrative of pure vilification” by erasing the image.
“Did the administration consider the chilling impact of the erasure of the image within the context of present conversations about police brutality and black life?” the petition reads. “Were the students consulted? Were they offered an opportunity to engage?”
Franzoi told Foxnews.com he was not available for comment.
The university responded to the petition in a statement published online: “We cannot in good conscience, as a Catholic, Jesuit institution, allow for a convicted murderer and fugitive to be held up as a model for our students…The administration welcomes discussion on campus about controversial issues. The discussion about the mural should have taken place before it was created, not afterwards.”
John McAdams, associate professor of political science at Marquette University, told Foxnews.com the staff members who signed the petition are “pushing Marquette to be less and less a Catholic university, or more a citadel of secular political correctness.”
The university is now working with its advisory board to hire a new director in the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center to “build off of the current programs and continue this important work. It is essential to have a place where students can have a safe environment to explore the issues of gender and sexuality,” according to the school’s statement.

IG: Harassment complaints at State Department nearly triple under Clinton, Kerry

WASHINGTON –  Harassment complaints at the State Department nearly tripled during the years Hillary Clinton and now-Secretary John Kerry have been in charge, a new watchdog report says.
The report, released Thursday, detailed a jump in formal complaints, from 88 in 2011 to 248 in 2014.
“With a continuous increase in harassment inquires each fiscal year, the current staff risks not being able to sustain current work performance levels,” the Office of Inspector General report said.
According to the data, 38 percent of formal complaints involved alleged sex discrimination or reprisals. Forty-three percent of the complaints involved promotions and unfair hiring issues.
It's unclear whether the jump reflects more cases of alleged harassment, or a more robust effort to report them. The Office of Civil Rights attributed the increases to “improved outreach.”
“According to S/OCR, department employees are more educated about harassment strictures and more knowledgeable about the reporting process than in the past,” the report stated.
Despite the spike in harassment cases, there is no mandatory training program in place. “A significant increase in reported harassment inquiries in the Department of State over the past few fiscal years supports the need for mandatory harassment training for Department of State employees,” the report said.
In 2013, Kerry issued a statement on discriminatory and sexual harassment to employees and emphasized his commitment to prevent and eliminate discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace.
“Mandatory training for department employees would strengthen this message and ensure that all employees are aware of their responsibilities and rights,” the report stated.
State Department spokesman John Kirby defended his boss on Thursday, and said there is “nothing that Secretary Kerry takes more seriously than making sure that everybody here at the State Department is treated with dignity and respect, and he has zero tolerance for harassment of any kind, sexual or otherwise,” the Washington Times reported.
Kirby, though, stopped short of saying whether the State Department would create a mandatory harassment training program as recommended in the report.
“I’m not going to get ahead of decisions that the secretary will or won’t make about the recommendations,” he said.

WikiLeaks publishes documents revealing Saudi intrigue, unpaid limo bills

ISTANBUL –  At the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, diplomats talked about airing the grievances of disenchanted local youth using Facebook and Twitter. At the embassy in Khartoum, they reported anxiously on Iran's military aid to Sudan.
Meanwhile, the Saudi mission in Geneva got stuck dealing with a multi-million dollar limo bill racked up by a Saudi princess and her entourage.
The incidents are mentioned in diplomatic documents published Friday by WikiLeaks, only the first batch of what the transparency group says will be a much larger release. But they've already provided an unusual level of insight into day-to-day Saudi diplomacy — giving a snapshot of the lavish spending habits of senior royals and the political intrigue percolating across the Middle East.
WikiLeaks so far has published roughly 60,000 documents, of which The Associated Press only has been able to authenticate a handful. But the organization has a long track record of hosting large leaks of government material and in a statement released late Saturday the Saudi government acknowledged its diplomatic servers had been penetrated ahead of the mass disclosure.
Many of the documents reviewed by the AP appear aimed at tracking Iranian activity across the region or undermining Tehran's interests. An undated memo apparently sent from the Saudi Embassy in Tehran made note of what it called the "frustration of the Iranian citizen and his strong desire for regime change" and suggested ways to publicly expose Iran's social grievances through "the Internet, social media like Facebook and Twitter." It also suggests "hosting opposition figures overseas, coordinating with them and encouraging them to use galleries to show pictures of torture carried by the Iranian regime against people."
Saudis also kept a watchful eye on Iran's friends, real or perceived. One 2012 memo warned that Iran was getting "flirting American messages" suggesting that the U.S. had no objections to a peaceful Iranian nuclear program so long as it had guarantees, "possibly Russian ones."
Another memo, dated to 2012, accuses the United Arab Emirates of helping Russia and Iran circumvent international sanctions. A third memo — marked "top secret" — alleges that Iranian fighter jets bombed South Sudanese forces during a 2012 standoff over the oil-rich area of Heglig.
The Iranian Embassy in London did not immediately answer a request for comment Saturday.
There are many such hard-to-confirm stories in the Saudi documents.
One of the most inflammatory memos carries the claim that Gulf countries were prepared to pay $10 billion to secure the freedom of deposed Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The memo, written on a letterhead bearing only a single palm tree and crossed blades above the words "top secret," quotes an unnamed Egyptian official as saying that the Muslim Brotherhood would agree to release Mubarak in exchange for the cash "since the Egyptian people will not benefit from his imprisonment."
Although the document is undated, the political situation it describes suggests it was drafted in 2012, when the Brotherhood appeared poised to take power. Senior Brotherhood official Mohammed Morsi served as Egypt's first freely elected president from June 2012 to July 2013 before being ousted by the military.
It's not clear if the idea of paying the Brotherhood to secure Mubarak's release ever coalesced into a firm offer. A handwritten note at the top left of the document says the ransom "is not a good idea."
"Even if it is paid the Muslim Brotherhood will not be able to do anything regarding releasing Mubarak," the note's unknown author writes. "It seems there are no alternatives for the president but to enter prison."
Still, the memo's existence adds credence to the claim made in 2012 by senior Brotherhood leader Khairat el-Shater that Saudi Arabia had offered billions of dollars in return for Mubarak's freedom — something Saudi officials hotly denied at the time.
Amid all the intrigue are other insights into Saudi attitudes abroad — especially their taste for luxury.
The AP found a 2009 invoice for an unpaid limousine bill racked up by Princess Maha Al Ibrahim, whom Saudi media identify as the wife of senior Saudi royal Abdul-Rahman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The invoice, from Geneva-based Golden Limousine Services and addressed to the Saudi mission there, says the princess skipped town after failing to paying a first installment of 1.5 million Swiss francs ($1.4 million at the time) owed to the company and her hotel. When the bill was brought to her attention, "she declared that the amount was too high" and asked diplomats to handle the negotiations over the payment.
Louis Roulet, the administrator of the limousine service, confirmed the document's authenticity when reached by the AP and said he remembers the incident well. The total bill was "far more" than 1.5 million Swiss francs, he said, adding that it was eventually paid in full.
"We don't work with this family anymore, for the obvious reasons," Roulet said.
Still, the Algerian-born Roulet was unfazed, saying these kinds of disputes were typical of the Arab customers he dealt with.

Cartoon

Mom says third-grade daughter banned from school party for Common Core opt-out

A New Jersey mom says her third-grade daughter was “bullied” by school officials - left out of an end-of-year cupcake and juice box party - because she opted out of the state's version of Common Core testing.
Michele Thornton, of Oldmans Township, said school officials would not let 9-year-old Cassidy participate in Monday's party, telling her the bash was only for students who took the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams. Thornton feels especially bad because it was she who told the girl not to take the controversial test, which critics say is part of a plan by Washington to nationalize school curriculums.
“She shouldn’t be punished for something I did,” Thornton tells Foxnews.com. “She’s not a bad kid. It’s bullying. I’m not 9, they can’t bully me.”

“She shouldn’t be punished for something I did.”
- Michele Thornton, mother of third-grader

Thornton said she told the school in November, when the PARCC test was being administered in the Garden State, that she did not want her daughter to take it.
“They pressured me to make her take it,” she said. “I told them that it was against the law to force my daughter to participate.”
Thornton was shocked last week when Cassidy brought home the school’s weekly newsletter, which mentioned an upcoming event.

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'Untest Afternoon' took place on the school grounds on Monday, but Cassidy was told to spend the afternoon in the library, said her mother, who picked her up instead. (Courtesy of Michele Thornton)

“Untest afternoon will take place Monday, June 15 beginning at 12:30 pm for children in grades 3-8 who participated in both PARCC assessments," it read. "Please have your child wear sneakers.”
Thornton went to speak with officials at the school on Friday.
“They weren't sure where they were going to put my daughter, so I told them that I would just pick her up early from school," she said. "When I went in to pick her up there were two gaming trucks, an outdoor play area (soccer and volleyball), cupcakes, juice boxes, and buckets full of prizes for the kids.
“She left school crying,” the mom said.

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Thornton first learned of her daughter being excluded from the event in a school newsletter sent home with students last week.

Thornton said the party snub followed others indignities. After sitting out the test, she was pulled out of class for a "meet and eat" with the school counselor/anti bullying coordinator, who drilled her with questions about why she didn’t take the exam.
When Thornton complained, she said the school agreed to launch an investigation, which it wrapped up with an e-mail she received on Friday.
“Mr. and Mrs. Thornton,” reads the email provided to FoxNews.com. “The HIB [harassment, intimidation, and bullying] investigation has been completed. Findings indicate that harassment, intimidation and bullying did not occur.”
Officials for the Oldmans Township School District did not return requests for comment.
“The federal government's testing mandates have driven school administrators to absurd lengths in order to comply,” Glyn Wright, executive director of the Eagle Forum, told FoxNews.com. “We all agree that parental involvement is key to a child's success, yet here we see some children punished and others rewarded because of the choices made by parents in exercising their fundamental right to direct their child's education.”
Carolee Adams, president of the Eagle Forum’s New Jersey chapter, said, the move by the school administration in Oldmans Township set an ugly new precedent.
“Refusals [students who refuse testing and surveys] were never treated like this before,” Adams said. “PARCC has made this a new low. It’s unconscionable and it’s absolutely bullying.
“If that would have happened to my child, I would have just brought them to the Jersey Shore for the day.”

Company that got millions from US taxpayers now profits Chinese owners

The good news is electric car battery maker A123 Systems is finally on track to turn a profit. 
The bad news is taxpayers don't figure to see any of the $133 million the federal government spent and the estimated $141 million in tax credits and subsidies secured from Michigan to help the company take off in 2009, only to see A123 Systems crash, declare bankruptcy in 2012 and then get purchased by a privately held Chinese conglomerate. 
"In the case of A123, they created some jobs and a year or two later those jobs were gone, so taxpayers weren't getting that money back," said Jarret Skorup, a policy analyst at Michigan's Mackinac Center, a free-market think tank. 
Earlier this month, CEO Jason Forcier announced that A123 Systems' parent company, the China-based Wanxiang Group, will spend $200 million to double the capacity of three lithium-ion battery plants, including two in suburban Detroit. 
Forcier told Crain's Detroit Business that A123 Systems is expected to generate $300 million in revenue this year and plans to double that amount by 2018. The company, Forcier said, will turn a profit for the first time in its history in 2015. 
"The strength of A123 has never been greater and we are honored to be expanding our existing customer relationships and establishing new ones at the same time," Forcier said in a company news release.