CARL CANNON: From Guadalcanal to Garland: Why We Fight.

MOTHER’S DAY, PROGRESSIVE STYLE:  Kentucky child protective services has forcibly taken 10 children from their parents, Joe and Nicole Naughler, based on an anonymous tip.  Their “crime”? The parents are Mormons who live off the grid and to “un-school” their children, a type of homeschooling that emphasizes learning through life experiences, play, household management, travel, family and reading books– you know, the way children have been raised for much of history, before “public” schools were invented by statists in the latter half of the 1800s.

The Naughler family may be off-the-grid, but they’ve had a Facebook page called “Blessed Little Homestead” for several years.  On the Facebook page, the Naughler’s have posted recent pictures, including a picture of an “emergency custody order affidavit” issued by child services, in which the affiant (whose name is whited out) “the family is residing on property with only one makeshift shed and two makeshift tents.  Allegations are that there is no running water and no septic and the mother and father refuse to cooperate with the Cabinet and the police. Children are not living in appropriate conditions and are no [sic] enrolled in school.  The parents refuse to cooperate with the investigation.”  They also provide pictures of the sheds in which they live and the children, who all look healthy and happy.

It seems to me the “crime” this family has committed is living unconventionally– off-the-grid, and outside the public school system.  While I wouldn’t want to live this way personally, people must have liberty to do so, if there is to be any liberty at all. Parents must have the right to raise their children as they see fit, short of evidence of child abuse, which in this instance, seems utterly lacking.  The Supreme Court, in Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), invalidated an Oregon law that required all children to attend public school, concluding:

[It] unreasonably interferes with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control. The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excluded any general power of the state to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only.The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right and the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.

A famous progressive brief in the Pierce case, penned by the State of Oregon, argued that the mandatory public school law was necessary to properly educate “the State’s children” and thus overrode any parents’ right to direct the upbringing of their own children.  This notion– of children as belonging to the State, rather than the parents–is a persistent theme in progressivism/communism.  Just ask MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry.  Or Hillary Clinton, who famously proclaimed in 1996 that  “[W]e have learned that to raise a happy, healthy, and hopeful child, it takes a family, it takes teachers, it takes clergy, it takes business people, it takes community leaders it takes those who protect our health and safety, it takes all of us.  Yes, it takes a village.”   And in Komunistka, published in 1920, the communist vision of children was articulated:

Under capitalism children were frequently, too frequently, a heavy and unbearable burden on the proletarian family. Communist society will come to the aid of the parents. In Soviet Russia the Commissariats of Public Education and of Social Welfare are already doing much to assist the family. We already have homes for very small babies, creches, kindergartens, children’s colonies and homes, hospitals and health resorts for sick children. restaurants, free lunches at school and free distribution of text books, warm clothing and shoes to schoolchildren. All this goes to show that the responsibility for the child is passing from the family to the collective. . . .

The playgrounds, gardens, homes and other amenities where the child will spend the greater part of the day under the supervision of qualified educators will, on the other hand, offer an environment in which the child can grow up a conscious communist who recognizes the need for solidarity, comradeship, mutual help and loyalty to the collective. . . . There is no escaping the fact: the old type of family has had its day. The family is withering away not because it is being forcibly destroyed by the state, but because the family is ceasing to be a necessity.

Sound familiar?  It should.  The forcible removal of the Kentucky 10 children reminds me a lot of the Massachusetts girl, Jessica Pellietier, who was removed from her family and spent 16 months in State custody based on ridiculous, unfounded concerns of doctors at Boston Chidren’s Hospital, who second-guessed her existing Tufts University doctors’ diagnosis.  Or how about the removal in January of 7 children from an Arkansas home, after an anonymous caller said the children were running barefoot in the snow.  The parents were religious “preppers” who have homeschooled 9 children (two were grown and lived outside the home at the time the other 7 were taken by the State).  The children are still in State custody.

It is getting far, far too easy for idiotic progressives to impose their views, and take children out of their homes based on their belief that they aren’t getting the “right” care, the “right” education, or the “right” modern amenities.  There is a major difference between “unconventional” parenting and child abuse.

For all of you good, loving parents out there: embrace your children and teach them well.  Happy Mother’s Day.

CAMPUS SPYING FROM CHINA:

Recently a China sponsored student organization (Columbia University Chinese Students and Scholars Association or CUCSSA) at Columbia University (in New York) was shut down for violations of rules concerning finances and operational policies. The university administrators had been informed, apparently, apparently by the U.S. government and Columbia students, of the frequent use of CUCSSA for political and espionage functions.

China has long used “social organizations” of Chinese citizens overseas to achieve Chinese intelligence and diplomatic goals. It was also no secret that any Chinese citizen going overseas, to study or on business, was obliged to cooperate with requests (often benign) from Chinese intelligence. All this begins when Chinese intelligence officials examine who is going overseas and for what purpose. Chinese citizens cannot leave the country legally without the state security organizations being notified. The intel people are not being asked to give permission. They are being alerted in case they want to have a talk with students, tourists, or business people before they leave the country. Interviews are often held when these people come back as well.

Those who might be coming in contact with useful information are asked to remember what they saw or bring back souvenirs. Over 100,000 Chinese students go off to foreign universities each year.

The joke will be on China, though, when they start demanding “safe spaces” and denouncing “microaggressions” on their return.

THE HILL: Iran Letter Divides Democrats. “The warning from Democrats to Republican leaders about undermining President Obama’s Iran diplomacy has split party leaders. One hundred and fifty House Democrats wrote a letter to Obama Thursday urging him to exhaust all diplomatic avenues to a nuclear deal before pursuing tougher options like sanctions — a strong indication that Democrats are ready to block any Republican effort rejecting such an agreement. But while top leaders like Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Xavier Becerra (Calif.) endorsed the May 7 letter, Reps. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the minority whip, and Joe Crowley (N.Y.), vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, did not.”

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WAIT, I THOUGHT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED: Cloth Diapers May Not Be The Greener Choice After All.

But hey, if you’re post-diapers, you can still feel guilty about something: Flowers may be nice for Mom, but they’re terrible for Mother Earth.

AT AMAZON: Beautiful things for Mother’s Day.

BLUE ON BLUE: Obama On Trade Deal: Elizabeth Warren Is “Absolutely Wrong.”

President Obama slammed Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s comments that a free-trade deal the president is negotiating would roll back Wall Street regulations, saying the Massachusetts Democrat is “absolutely wrong” and that “her arguments don’t stand the test of fact and scrutiny.”

Obama, who made the comments to Yahoo News, is fighting resistance from the Democratic Party’s progressive wing over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement the United States is working on with Japan, Australia and nine other nations.

Warren has claimed Obama might use the trade agreement to undo the so-called Dodd-Frank regulations on banks and financial institutions. But Obama called the accusation ludicrous, saying the 2010 law is one of the top achievements of his presidency.

To be fair, “top achievements of his presidency” is setting the bar awfully low.

HE’LL MEET WITH TERRORISTS, BUT NOT WITH REPUBLICANS. THERE HAVE TO BE SOME LIMITS: No Bourbon Summit Between Obama, McConnell.

THE HILL: Walker goes strong on foreign policy.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) brought a South Carolina crowd to its feet Saturday during his remarks on national security, a topic generally considered Walker’s Achilles heel as he weighs a run for president.

Addressing the South Carolina Freedom Summit, likely GOP candidate Walker used foreign policy as the climax for his speech, framing the issue as a matter of courage and emotion rather than “something you read in the newspaper.”

“On behalf of your children and mine, I want a leader that is willing to take a fight to them before they take the fight to us,” Walker said, referring to ISIS and “radical Islamic” fighters. The line received a standing ovation.

Walker also repeatedly referred to his trip to Israel, scheduled for this weekend, where he will undergo what the Washington Post described as a “crash-course in foreign policy.”

“We need a president to affirm that Israel is our ally and start acting like it,” he told the crowd.

On reflection, I think we need to let Arab allies seize the ground now held by ISIS. That’s because — unlike us or Israel — they won’t be squeamish about running the firing squads until there aren’t any ISIS fighters left. We and the Israelis, on the other hand, should quietly remove the people funding ISIS.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! Pennsylvania Woman Gives Birth To Nearly 14 Pound Baby.

Just after the Insta-Wife and I were married, a high-school friend made us watch a video of her delivering a 12-pound baby by natural childbirth. “Thank you for ensuring I will die without issue,” I said afterward, though happily that wasn’t the case.

I’M INCLINED TO THINK THAT THIS IS BEING STAGE-MANAGED, SO THAT THE DEMS HAVE SOMEBODY WITH SEPARATION FROM THE INCREASINGLY OBVIOUS DEBACLE OF THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY. But on the other hand, would Obama’s ego allow him to entertain the thought that his presidency is a debacle? But on the gripping hand, would Obama have to know? Obama’s growing frustration with Elizabeth Warren. “For weeks, the White House has been fending off attacks from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on trade negotiations, and now the president seems to be growing more impatient, dismissing one of her objections as ‘pure speculation.'”

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD:  Rick Santorum says we should bomb ISIS “back to the 7th century.”  Good for him.  We need more courageous, blunt politicians.

ADRIANA COHEN: Americans must be ready to fight jihadis on U.S. soil. “America, you’ve just been given your wake-up call. Clearly the Islamist threat is no longer over there. It is now in our own backyard.”

IT’S TRUE! Barbell Training Is Big Medicine!

THE DIETARY GOOD NEWS JUST KEEPS COMING: Dark Chocolate May Make People More Alert, Attentive.