Father of the Year | Footprints of Fatherhood

I?ve been quiet for a number of months now ? not for lack of thinking of writing, but I guess there truly is a season for everything.

And I guess it takes something significant to stir the desire to add something to the ever increasing depth of fatherhood blogging. ?Something like the recent commentary on true fatherhood with the announcement by the National Father?s Day Council (US) that Bill Clinton has been named ?Father of the Year?.

Shocked? ?Maybe. ?Our memories are not too short to drift back to the days of the early nineties and the drama surrounding Mr. Clinton?s very public private life. ?The comments at the end of the politico.com article show this to be true.

Yet looking over the news release put out by Rueters, there is no mention of him as a father other than saying he has one daughter, Chelsey. ?Here is what Dan Orwig of the Father?s Day Council says in the news release:

?With the profound generosity, leadership and tireless dedication to both his public office and many philanthropic organizations, president Clinton exemplifies the attributes that we celebrate through the father of the year award.?

These are all good things ? strong values that impact our world. ?But this says nothing about Mr. Clinton?s relationship with his wife and daughter.? I?m curious why the standards are set outside the home? ? ?Are they saying that the best dads are primarily involved in people?s lives outside of their families?

What are the standards we hold fathers to?

faithfulness to the mother of their child?
being a role-model worthy of their children?s respect?
community service?
church attendance?
reading to their children every night?
being gracious with their leadership of their family?
driving a minivan?

Fatherhood is more than a relationship between a man and his children. ?It is a statement to the world that there are good men, and good men are necessary for the future of a just society. ?Some would even say that a father?s heart focused on his children keeps peace and blessing in a society. ?I believe this to be true.

Are there good men out there? ? I believe this also. ?They are being the men that this world needs ? men who care about truth, have high standards of themselves, expect high standards from people around them, and react with grace when those standards are not met. ?The only place that Father of the Year should really matter is within the home of each and every dad, grand-dad, uncle and older brother who is influencing a child.

So despite our recollections of Mr. Clinton?s affairs, we must remember that 20 years have passed. ?People do change. ?Commitments can be renewed. ?Grace can be shown ? even to men who make very public and potentially damaging choices. But I can?t help but wonder if the premis under which he has been named Father of the Year doesn?t water down the essence of strong fatherhood.

And so I won?t give in to the urging and swaying and prompting to compromise the standard of what strong fatherhood is. ?Those standards are the footprints by which children can find their way. ?Those are the standards that I hope you help me reach for.

?How do good men become part of the regime?
They don?t believe in resistance.?
Josh Garrels,
The Resistance,
on Love & War & the Sea In Between

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Source: http://footprintsoffatherhood.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/father_of_the_year/

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The swish of skis, good food and drink, and fun company

This week has zoomed by, and sadly, everyone is leaving tomorrow. It was lots of fun and we enjoyed it as much as anyone.
More skiing and this time Penn was with our group for his second day post lessons. He did amazingly well! Amanda had a 90 minute massage, and Jay chilled at the house. Everyone doing what they wanted - happy.
Fox and coyote everywhere. Caught these two late afternoon, pausing in their hunting endeavors.


Great weather for the entire week. This area at its winter best -sunny piercing blue skies and brilliant white snow.

What is it about untouched snow that causes people to want to fall into it..
On a bad day, we must remember there are clearly worse things...
Garlic Mikes for a nice dinner out. Good company and yummy food.
Local news, Paradise Cafe has moved into the Forest Queen Hotel, and Heather just found out the entire building where Paradise was, will be the new home of Secret Stash. Wow!

Source: http://lifeonstarmountain.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-swish-of-skis-good-food-and-drink.html

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Tags: course, Engine, Generation, Optimization, Search, traffic, Training, website

Source: http://www.exoob.com/2013/02/website-traffic-generation-seo-search-engine-optimization-training-traffic-training-course/

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California boy to be arraigned in "swatting" prank on actor Kutcher

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Prosecutors charged a 12-year-old boy on Thursday with making a false emergency call that sent police swarming to the home of actor Ashton Kutcher in a "swatting" prank.

The name of the boy, who was arrested by Los Angeles police in December, was withheld due to his age. He was scheduled to be arraigned in a juvenile court in Los Angeles on Friday.

The trend toward placing false emergency calls is known as "swatting" because SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) officers often are sent to the purported crime scenes. Authorities say such situations can be dangerous due to the risk of a misunderstanding between police and occupants of a building.

The boy has been charged with two felony counts each of making false bomb threats and computer intrusion in connection with the October 3 emergency call that drew police to the Hollywood Hills home of Kutcher, star of the sitcom "Two and a Half Men," and a similar call on October 10 that sent police to a Wells Fargo Bank.

Authorities have accused the boy of having reported men armed with guns and explosives in Kutcher's home and that several people had been shot. Dozens of emergency personnel were sent to the house. Kutcher was not home at the time.

Swatting calls in recent months have also sent police to the homes of singers Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/california-boy-arraigned-swatting-prank-actor-kutcher-030457111.html

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Boston Top 5 winter storms ever: Blizzard of 2013 could top the list

A 2003 winter storm dumped a record 27.5 inches of snow in Boston. No. 5 on the list is a 2005 storm that dropped 22.5 inches. The Blizzard of 2013 looks likely to top that, at least.?

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / February 8, 2013

Pedestrians walk through the Public Garden as snow begins to accumulate in Boston Friday.

Brian Snyder/Reuters

Enlarge

The meteorological dilettantes among us will periodically prod snowbanks with yardsticks as the Blizzard of 2013 deposits its snow on eastern Massachusetts and beyond this weekend. But when it comes to storm records for Boston, all eyes will be on Logan Airport's snow gauge ? the ultimate arbiter.

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The Blizzard of 2013, which the Weather Channel as dubbed a somewhat unintimidating winter storm Nemo, is expected to dump at least 24 inches of snow on Boston. Anything over 22.8 inches will guarantee the storm makes the list of the five snowiest storms since 1892, according to records kept at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Taunton, Mass., which covers southern New England.

For Many Bostonians, the frame of reference for winter storms for now remains the Blizzard of 1978, which struck 35 years ago this week. It dumped 27.1 inches of snow on a city already coping with the leftovers from a storm three weeks earlier. That earlier storm brought 21 inches of snow.

The '78 storm remains the snowiest on record for Providence, R.I., although it ranks No. 10 for Worcester, Mass.. In Hartford, Conn., the '78 storm is tied for eighth place with a storm that hit in December 1947 and dumped 16.9 inches of snow on the city.

For Boston, the record for snow in a single storm belongs to the Blizzard of 2003, which struck on Presidents Day that year. The storm affected a long swath of the East Coast from Washington, D.C., through Boston. It brought record snow to Baltimore as well, which groaned under 28.2 inches of snow.

That storm's genesis bears a striking resemblance to the blizzard heading into the Northeast today. A storm system that formed over the southern Rockies on Feb. 14, 2003, headed east. As it approached, it triggered the formation of a coastal storm off the Carolinas.

That storm began to move up the coast, following a typical path for nor'easters. Meanwhile, a large pool of cold air linked to a high pressure system over eastern Canada provided the chill needed to make sure the usual line between rain and snow fell much farther south than it typically does. With the coastal storm drawing plenty of moisture from the Atlantic Ocean, the stage was set for the deep snows that blanketed the region in the storm's aftermath.

Five snowiest storms on record for Boston (since 1892)

• Feb. 17-18, 2003 - 27.5 inches (Presidents Day storm)
• Feb. 6-7, 1978 - 27.1 inches
• Feb. 24-27, 1969 - 26.3 inches
• March 31-April 1, 1997 - 25.4 inches (April Fools' storm)
• Jan. 22-23, 2005 - 22.5 inches

Source: National Weather Service

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/ZR3X4RuxFdc/Boston-Top-5-winter-storms-ever-Blizzard-of-2013-could-top-the-list

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Terminal Cancer Patient?s Candor & Beauty Documented in Inspiring Video

You might see pictures of Jill Brzezinski-Conley and think, at first glance, that she is a famous model in the latest ad campaign for a well-known fragrance or cosmetic line. You would be wrong. As told in a Huffington Post story, Brzezinski-Conley is a 35-year-old woman with incurable stage 4 bone cancer who is fighting for her life. At age 32, Brzezinski-Conley underwent a double mastectomy. Last August, she visited her childhood friend Nikki Closser, a wedding photographer, and asked Closser to take pictures of her breasts so that women could see what breast cancer looks like. She felt that the media never presents an accurate view. The two women hoped to send the pictures to magazines for them to use for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

After the photo session, Closser shared her friend's story and some of the pictures with another photographer, Sue Bryce, who lives in Australia. Inspired by Brzezinski-Conley's story, Bryce contacted her via Skype and then surprised her with a trip to Paris for a once-in-a-lifetime photo shoot. The shoot was videoed by Hailey Bartholomew to capture the cancer patient's experience.

Brzezinski-Conley said the trip was "a million times better than what she ever dreamed of." At the beginning of the video, called "The Light That Shines," she says, "If I could change one woman's life, I feel like I would die the happiest woman. Just to affect one woman, I would feel like I accomplished something." Through the video, Brzezinski-Conley's story is already touching people around the world, who are calling it "wonderful and inspiring."

Brzezinski-Conley told the Huffington Post that she hopes that women will be inspired by her story to celebrate their beauty no matter what they look like, especially those in their 20s and 30s who have been through cancer -- that "they can still feel sexy and beautiful." She passionately encourages young women to become educated about the

warning signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Her poignant advice: "Be educated, learn your body, learn the signs of breast cancer."

Like us on Facebook.com/TrendingNow, and follow "Trending Now" on Twitter: @Knowlesitall and @YahooTrending.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/terminal-cancer-patient-candor-beauty-documented-inspiring-video-203914564.html

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Historical perspective: How Maine acquired an income tax ...

Just 100 years ago the nation ratified one of the most far-reaching amendments to the Constitution: the 16th Amendment authorizing a federal income tax. Proposed by Congress in 1909, it won approval by three fourths of the states over a four-year period that ended in February 1913. The income tax has become so far reaching, the centennial of its enactment is an occasion that deserves a look at what it has meant to Maine.

Maine?s income tax has generated much public discussion recently after the 125th Legislature voted to lower income taxes. And the watchdog Tax Foundation on Wednesday said its analysis of the governor?s proposed 2014-15 biennial budget shows that if the governor doesn?t adjust income tax rates to inflation, it will raise average tax rates ?in all cases.? But how did Maine come to have income taxes? The history lends perspective to the debate today.

In Maine, both party political platforms in 1910 gave support to the federal income tax amendment. But when legislators convened a few months later many of them initially had cold feet about voting for ratification. Setting in motion a strange set of events was a nine-to-one vote of the Legislature?s taxation committee to withhold ratification of the federal amendment unless Maine at the same time enacted its own state income tax.

Both a large number of the majority Democrats ? who then controlled both branches of Maine?s Legislature ? along with many of the minority Republicans ? argued that only by a state income tax could Maine guarantee that the revenues raised would stay at home. House Taxation Chair William R. Pattangall, a Waterville Democrat, charged that the western states would rob eastern states, such as Maine, of their tax money in order to install ?irrigation schemes costing millions? and that Maine?s tax money would be sent out West to be ?taken up by speculators who hardly gave us a chance to say goodbye to it.?

Pattangall?s fears about the drain of federal income tax dollars away from Maine have not fortunately in modern times been borne out. The flow of federal dollars into Maine has always exceeded the amount our taxpayers have paid out. The surplus flow back in our direction is attributable in part to Maine?s large number of social security beneficiaries.

In any event, after an extensive debate over the wisdom of the new federal tax, the Maine House turned it down, 82 to 43. It then proceeded to vote for ratifying the federal tax on condition that a state income tax be enacted at the same time.

Surprisingly, the vote was not along either party or typical ideological lines. A number of rural Republicans voted for the tax. Some urban based Democrats voted against it. In a pattern that would repeat itself in future tax votes by the Maine Legislature, those hardest hit by the property tax ? such as farmers and logging contractors ? voted for a state income tax on grounds that such a tax held out the promise of property tax relief. Urban professionals, for whom the prospect of paying a tax on incomes seemed a greater threat, voted against it.

The Maine House vote tying the federal income tax to enactment of a state income tax didn?t last long, however. When the Senate balked, the House reluctantly then went along with ratifying the federal income tax constitutional amendment without tying it to simultaneous imposition of one at the state level. In less than two years, enough other states ? three fourths of the then 48 ? had ratified the amendment so that by February 1913 it became law of the land. Among its first missions was helping to finance World War I.

The question of whether Maine should adopt an income tax would continue to be a feature of Maine legislative debates for decades to come. By 1919, two thirds of the Maine Legislature, by then controlled by the GOP, went so far as to propose a state constitutional amendment, then seen as necessary to enable the state to enact one. When the next year the amendment came up for voter ratification, it failed on a 65,000 to 54,000 vote.

GOP Gov. Frederick Payne pushed for one in 1949 but wound up settling for the state?s first sales tax two years later instead. Our own income tax finally won approval in 1969, and it soon became a mainstay of state revenues. (It was passed by a Republican Legislature and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Kenneth Curtis.) We became the 39th state to adopt such a tax.

What Maine and the rest of the nation did a century ago set the stage then for sweeping change in the entire underpinning of both federal and state governments. After all, it would be hard to imagine our state governments today operating without the federal support to the states made possible by the national income tax. Whether one mourns or celebrates it, however, this year?s federal constitutional income tax centennial is certainly something to observe.

Paul H. Mills is a Farmington attorney known for his analyses and historical understanding of public affairs in Maine He can be reached by email at pmills@myfairpoint.net.

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/02/07/opinion/historical-perspective-how-maine-acquired-an-income-tax/

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