United Liberty

In an essay for Newsweek, writer Joel Kotkin contemplates the significance of Americans moving at the lowest rate since the 1940s. Deeming this phenomenon “new localism,” Kotkin argues that communities are growing stronger, with a new focus on families and local businesses as a result of economic crunches.

Kotkin describes the thriving local businesses in Long Island, where customers are “spilling into the streets.” The described scene reminds me of Alameda, California, where hordes of very young families are seen taking their children to ice cream, Mexican food and the movies at the recently renovated Alameda Theatre. A similar scene is present in Oakland’s Lake Merrit district, where I saw myriad families lined up at the Grand Lake Theatre to see Where the Wild Things Are.

These sort of family-centric towncentres are vastly preferable to the bohemian anarchy of major cities like San Francisco or the soulless industrialization of suburbia. However, some of the causes Kotkin attributes are very undesirable:

Family, as one Pew researcher notes, “trumps money when people make decisions about where to live.” Interdependence is replacing independence. More parents are helping their children financially well into their 30s and 40s; the numbers of “boomerang kids” moving back home with their parents, has also been growing as job options and the ability to buy houses has decreased for the young. Recent surveys of the emerging millennial generation suggest this family-centric focus will last well into the coming decades.

World Net Daily is reporting that a North Carolina judge has ordered that three homeschooled children must start attending public school in the fall, despite the fact that the children test well above grade level and appear to be well-adjusted socially.

The parents are going through a divorce, and though the children have been homeschooled for the past four years and, according to the judge, “thrived” in that setting, the judge has ruled in accordance with the wishes of the father, who believes that it’s time for the children to return to the public school system.

By: Don Casey

The global society is experiencing the repercussions from the first tidal wave associated with the “wrenching transformation” referenced by Al Gore in his book, “Earth in the Balance”.

This initial destructive wave (financial in nature) is due to the commitment by the majority of the governments of the world to provide a house for every form of family unit. Thus, this commitment, from the United Nations 1995 Habitat II Conference would be listed as priority one in the June 2001 “United States – Habitat II” Progress Report. Referencing this ill-fated policy, the report states:

One of the most explosive topics in the post-election public discourse has been Proposition 8 on the California state ballot, which passed. The initiative amends the State Constitution of California to read:

Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

In efforts to stem the growing trend of childhood obesity, California lawmakers passed legislation in 2005 that restricted the sugar and fat content levels in food sold on public school campuses.  The law went into effect in 2007, but outcry from parents and students against the regulations is bringing the nutritional restrictions to the notice of the national public.  While the focus is currently on California, over 600 school districts across the country have similar strictures, with Kentucky campuses being subject to the strictest regulations.

Recently, New Jersey angered parents by requiring children between 6 months and 5 years that attend day care or preschool to receive a flu shot.  The reasons given for laws like this are that it’s in the public’s best interest-  supposedly, fewer children will get sick and/or die, if they’re all inoculated.  Disease also costs companies and the state money in missed productivity and health care costs.  So, what’s to object to?  Won’t the majority benefit if everyone is vaccinated?

According to Ohio state law, convicted child pornographers are required to carry a Tier 2 sexual offender classification, requiring registration as a sex offender for twenty years. In this case, a teen girl from Licking Valley High School is charged with illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, a second-degree felony; and possession of criminal tools, a fifth-degree felony.