THE FOUNDATION: FAMILY

“It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently… to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability and happiness.” —James Wilson

INSIGHT

“The emasculation of society by the smothering effects of modern uniformity has precipitated a severely over-managed, sadly under-led, and passionately un-principled culture from top to bottom. The great cry for the renewal of our civilization is for men to arise and be men.” —Tristan Gylberd

FAMILY

“Sadly, the tentacles of radical feminist thought are poisoning the image of groups of males in different ways. If you watch a few commercials or sit-coms, you’ll see that dads are sloppy dolts who are always the last to know anything. Where’s the outrage? If you listen to the often foul and violent rap and hip-hop music of today, you’ll hear that young black and Hispanic men are hate-filled, selfish bigots who degrade women for fun. Where’s the outrage? If you’re a father-to-be, your pre-born baby can be legally killed without your knowledge, much less your consent. For crying out loud, where is the outrage?… There are consequences when we, as a society, tolerate the constant images of males of any race as knuckle-dragging Neanderthals. When the media portrays fathers and grown men as sots, we rob our boys of the role models they need—of the role models we all need… Please go out of your way to validate the value of the decent fathers, husbands and young men in your life. I think you’ll be surprised, as I was, to find out how much they long for a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.” —Rebecca Hagelin

THE GIPPER

“Families must continue to be the foundation of our nation. Families—not government programs—are the best way to make sure our children are properly nurtured, our elderly are cared for, our cultural and spiritual heritages are perpetuated, our laws are observed and our values are preserved. Thus it is imperative that our government’s programs, actions, officials and social welfare institutions never be allowed to jeopardize the family. We fear the government may be powerful enough to destroy our families; we know that it is not powerful enough to replace them. The New Republican Party must be committed to working always in the interest of the American family.” —Ronald Reagan

Editor’s Note: Celebrate Father’s Day with great gifts for Patriot Dads from The Patriot Shop.

CULTURE

“America does a much better job educating girls than boys. But now, out of nowhere, comes a book that may hold the secret to male learning… ‘The Dangerous Book for Boys’ is all about Swiss Army knives, compasses, tying knots and starting fires with a magnifying glass. It includes adventure stories with male heroes, vivid descriptions of battles and a history of artillery. Readers learn how to make their own magnets, periscopes and bows and arrows. It gives rules and tactics for poker and marbles—and secret moves for coin tricks. In a radical departure from modern schoolroom readings, the book has almost nothing to say about feelings, relationships or how boys can learn to cry. It valorizes risk, adventure and manliness. … The National Parent Teacher Association recommends a cooperative alternative to the fiercely competitive ‘tug of war’ called ‘tug of peace.’ By contrast, ‘The Dangerous Book for Boys’ has detailed instructions on how to hunt, kill, skin and cook a rabbit. … ‘The Dangerous Book for Boys’ will send bias and sensitivity committees into turmoil—but its very success may eventually put them out of business.” —Christina Hoff Sommers

LIBERTY

“America admits more legal immigrants than any country on Earth—there isn’t even a close second place in this regard. Why? Because if you want freedom and opportunity, where else are you going to go? And America is more accepting of immigrants than any other nation. The problem is that, regardless of how high our limits for legal immigration are, the world is capable of exceeding those limits—and there exists a constituency of corrupt businesses and politicians within our country that is willing to aid and abet the violation of any limit for their own gain… I am for free markets. I am for free people. I am not for a lawless free-for-all in which ambitious (or merely selfish) citizens get to pick and choose which laws they will obey (or insist that I obey) and which laws they will simply ignore because they want more money.” —Mac Johnson

FLAG DAY 2007

Today, our flag is a beacon for liberty, a symbol of hope for all people who “hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

On this Flag Day 2007, we American Patriots will display and pay homage to our National Flag.

For further information on the history of our flag, as well as proper etiquette and protocol, take advantage of The Patriot’s resources on our flag page. To purchase the highest quality U.S. flags available for yourself, a friend or an organization, please link to The Patriot Shop (Made in the USA, of course.)

(All purchases from The Patriot Shop support The Patriot’s advocacy for individual liberty, the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and the promotion of free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values in accordance with our Statement of Principles and in keeping with our Mission of Service to our Armed Forces.)

OPINION IN BRIEF

“It is said that by removing Saddam or the Taliban—regimes that were authoritarian but also kept a form of order—the plight of Iraqis and Afghans has worsened and terrorism has been allowed to grow. This is a seductive but dangerous argument. Work out what it really means. It means that because these reactionary and evil forces will fight hard, through terrorism, to prevent those countries and their people getting on their feet after the dictatorships are removed, we should leave the people under the dictatorship. It means our will to fight for what we believe in is measured by our enemy s will to fight us, but in inverse proportion. That is not a basis on which you ever win anything… The truth is that the conflict in Iraq has mutated into something directly fuelled by the same elements that confront us everywhere. Yet a large, probably the larger, part of Western opinion would prefer us to withdraw. That is the extraordinary dulling of our senses that the terrorism has achieved… There is no alternative to fighting this menace wherever it rears its head. There are no demands that are remotely negotiable. It has to be beaten. Period.” —British Prime Minister Tony Blair

GOVERNMENT

“Remember civics? Civics was where the ‘products of the last century’ learned how their government was supposed to work, and were taught the responsibilities and obligations of an informed citizen. But fashions change, and ‘social studies’ became a catchall class to teach history, sociology and government, and rarely well. Earlier this year in a national test to measure their knowledge of how their world works, only half of the nation’s 12th-graders understood what happens when federal and state laws conflict. Fewer than half could describe the meaning of federalism… The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services poses questions for new citizens before they take their oath of citizenship. Many are as basic as the red, white and blue of the flag, but some require a knowledge of civics many of our high school students (and no doubt some of their teachers) do not have. The future depends less on how we teach than on what we teach. Sadly, that’s a revolutionary idea.” —Suzanne Fields

RE: THE LEFT

“After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress’ pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year. Democrats are sidestepping rules approved their first day in power in January to clearly identify ‘earmarks’ —lawmakers’ requests for specific projects and contracts for their states. Rather than including specific pet projects, grants and contracts in legislation as it is being written, Democrats are following an order by the House Appropriations Committee chairman to keep the bills free of such earmarks until it is too late for critics to effectively challenge them. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., says those requests for dams, community grants and research contracts for favored universities or hospitals will be added to spending measures in the fall. That is when House and Senate negotiators assemble final bills. Such requests total billions of dollars. As a result, most lawmakers will not get a chance to oppose specific projects as wasteful or questionable when the spending bills for various agencies get their first votes in the full House in June… What Obey is doing runs counter to new rules that Democrats promised would make such spending decisions more open.” —Andrew Taylor

POLITICAL FUTURES

“No American president will be able to pull our troops out and watch the Iraqi government dissolve in chaos, only to be taken over by the very terrorists who are planting IEDs to kill our troops. And if a male American president can t do so, a female president certainly cannot. As a woman, as a Democrat, from the first moment Hillary Clinton were to take office as president, she would face the task of proving herself tough enough for the job. Even if foreign leaders and our enemies do not doubt her on this score, she will feel the need to prove herself. Any signal of weakness, such as a withdrawal from Iraq, would embolden our enemies and weaken her credibility… Pay no attention to her politically motivated vote to ‘end’ the war by cutting off funds or her support for a mandatory withdrawal schedule. Both votes were cast in the heat of a presidential race in which she cannot allow Edwards or Obama to flank her to the left. But do pay attention to her interview with The New York Times a few months ago in which she said that she would keep sufficient troops in Iraq to provide training, logistical support, air support and intelligence to Iraqi forces and to police the border with Iran to prevent infiltration and to hunt down al Qaeda operatives throughout the country. As much as she would like to, Hillary cannot back away from these missions.” —Dick Morris

FOR THE RECORD

“Just call him George W. Bush, star international diplomat. Don’t snicker, don’t spit out your coffee. Instead, read over the final document on climate change released… by the Group of Eight. Yes, it’s a major shift in how the world will address the supposed threat of global warming. It’s also largely the vision put forth years ago by none other than George W. Bush—that international cowboy—even if few European politicians will admit it. Don’t expect anyone to admit it. When Mr. Bush unveiled his new climate framework last week, calling on the world’s powers to reduce greenhouse emissions, it was portrayed as a capitulation. He’d removed the last ‘obstacle’ to world unity on this issue, and seen the error of his ways… There’s been a capitulation on global warming, but it hasn’t happened in the Oval Office. The Kyoto cheerleaders at the United Nations and the European Union are realizing their government-run experiment in climate control is a mess, one that’s incidentally failed to reduce carbon emissions. They’ve also understood that if they want the biggest players on board—the U.S. , China, India—they need an approach that balances economic growth with feel-good environmentalism. [Last week’s] G-8 agreement acknowledged those realities and tolled Kyoto’s death knell. Mr. Bush, 1; sanctimonious greens, 0.” —Kimberley Strassel

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