Free Republic

I'm just frustrated. I have 2 older daughters in their 30's. I can't talk to them about any current topic. Everything I say triggers them. Today I got in a fuss defending the gallantry of Southern soldiers. Then I got in a fuss about being a culturist because I believe a substantial portion of the Black underclass in 5 times more likely to commit crimes and murder than other groups. 30 people a week shot in Chicago or New Orleans is OK but DeSantis is a racist. I just said I never see race in a competent individual. I just...

Recently, an establishment called Nettie's House of Spaghetti in New Jersey announced they will no longer allow children under 10 to dine at their restaurant. The move caused controversy, with some respondents applauding the policy and others accusing Nettie’s staff of being “child haters.” But the top commenter at MSN.com summed the issue up succinctly: “We don't hate your kids,” she wrote. “We hate your parenting.” Congratulations, madam, you won the Internet today. If this seems a tempest in a teapot, know that it has implications for our entire society, because it reflects a deadly modern problem: Too many Americans...

"The silicon chip inside her head gets switched to overload..." Some of you might remember those lyrics from the song "I Don’t Like Mondays." It was written in 1979 by "sir" Bob Geldof, who was in a new wave band called The Boomtown Rats. Geldof wrote the song after learning about an elementary school shooting that had occurred in a quiet suburb in the city of San Diego, Calif. In January of that year, 16-year-old Brenda Lee Spencer killed the principal and a custodian and wounded eight children and one police officer when she opened fire on the Grover Cleveland...

The brides wore white — but hazmat suits might have been better. Alison Schumer, the younger of Sen. Chuck Schumer’s two daughters, married Elizabeth Weiland on Sunday in Brooklyn, with the couple posing for wedding photos on a bridge over the toxic Gowanus Canal.

Our family received shocking news. Our niece- a beautiful 13YO identical twin girl- Natalia, has decided that she wants to be a BOY. However, her family is celebrating the news. Natalia is now to be called 'Nace' and she dresses as a boy. We have been warned (threatened) we must use the pronouns--him or he. And it's so much worse because she has an identical lovely twin sister, Olivia. Olivia is a very feminine, modestly dressed, normal appearing happy-go lucky, girly-girl. Natalie and Olivia are naturally life-long best friends. This is being culturally normalized and may strike a family near...

Drew Carey's 11-year-old son may be in big trouble. Connor Carey is reportedly the young protester in a Fox News video of an inauguration rally where protesters were seen burning signs. The 11-year-old, who identifies himself as Connor, told Fox News' Griff Jenkins he "kind of started this fire" because "I felt like it and because I'm just saying 'screw our president.'" TMZ reported the child in the video is Drew Carey's son. A rep for the TV star could not immediately verify Carey's son is the child in the video, but a picture of the comedian with his son...

Seven mothers united in grief over losing their children to gun violence or excessive use of force by police will put their message in the spotlight tonight when they deliver a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The group known as the Mothers of the Movement includes Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, who was shot while walking in his neighborhood in 2012, and Lezley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown, whose death in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 at the hands of a police officer set off nationwide protests. Mothers of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner Offer Emotional...

A 25-year-old woman faces child neglect charges after posting a photo on social media that showed her dangling her baby over an apartment balcony, 12 feet off the ground. Friends of Aisha Jean Clark called Tampa police on Tuesday after spotting the photo on Instagram. Police said when they arrived at her apartment on Nuccio Parkway, they asked Clark if she knew why they were there. They said she laughed and went inside the apartment to get her iPad, pulled up her Instagram account, and showed them the picture. Police then arrested Clark and she allegedly told them, “I was...

I’ve been dealing with this scenario for so long, I had forgotten how strange it was until just a few days ago when I was talking to Joe on the telephone and the topic somehow came up. What scenario am I talking about? Well, that would be a law enforcement call for service that those of us in law enforcement refer to as the “Dial-A-Dad”. The “Dial-A-Dad” is essentially when a parent, for one reason or another, calls the cops to come and discipline their child. I am not talking about the 6’ tall, 200 pound high school football lineman...

Pet piranha bites off toddler's fingertip MAINE TOWNSHIP, Ill. (Sun-Times Media Wire) - When a northwest suburban mother discovered her 18-month-old daughter's finger had been bitten, she assumed the family pit bull was responsible. But Cook County sheriff's police said the culprit was actually another household pet: a piranha, Pioneer Press is reporting. Police said one of the child's fingertips was bitten off on the night of June 19 inside the family's home in the Bay Colony subdivision in unincorporated Maine Township. Police said the child's mother reported she heard her daughter crying and noticed the toddler's finger was bleeding,...

Ben Barnhard finally had reason to be optimistic this summer: The 13-year-old shed more than 100 pounds at a rigorous weight-loss academy, a proud achievement for a boy who had endured classmates' taunts about his obesity and who had sought solace in the quiet of his bedroom, with his pet black cat and the intricate origami designs he created. But one month before school was to start for the special-needs teen, his mother, psychiatrist Margaret Jensvold, shot him in the head, then killed herself. Officers found their bodies Tuesday in the bedrooms of their home in Kensington, Md., an upper-middle...

NEWARK -- Shaheed Wright feared police were closing in on him, authorities say, so he hid his bags of cocaine in his son’s jacket pockets, telling the child that it was candy. And when the boy arrived at his daycare center in Newark on Friday morning, he did what any other 4 year old might: The boy handed the white powder out to his friends. One girl ate it. She was rushed to Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark along with Wright’s son and two other boys from the day care suspected of eating cocaine. They all turned out to...

'Helicopter parents' still hover even as grads pound pavement By Eleanor Yang Su STAFF WRITER July 5, 2007 Rowena Paz's parents did everything they could to help her land a good job after college. They edited her résumé, suggesting experience she should play up or cut out. Her mother called regularly to remind Paz, 21, to get enough sleep before interviews. Her father coached her with interview questions and drove her to three job interviews in Los Angeles, because “driving in Los Angeles is tension-filled.” It came naturally for Paz's parents, who for years shuttled her to music and karate...

MOMMY DUMBEST ROLLS TOT THRU WAL-MART SNORTING HEROIN: COPS By TIM PERONE Caught on camera: cops.May 28, 2007 -- A Long Island mom was busted for snorting heroin as she pushed her 3-year-old son through a Wal-Mart in a shopping cart, cops said yesterday. Stacy Roe, 35, of Farmingville, was caught on video surveillance Saturday evening taking a straw out of her purse and shoving it up her nose, authorities said. Security at the Centereach store called 911. Cops responded, viewed the video and approached the woman while she was still in the store. Roe admitted that she was using...

A Shoals mother is accused of doing the unthinkable to get free food. The woman turned herself in Thursday to Russellville police in Franklin County. Investigators say a woman was trying to get a man to buy her a free pizza in exchange for sex with her teenage daughter.

LANTANA, Fla. Sep 13, 2006 (AP)— It seems a father's plan to cure his daughter's fear of heights fell short. Troy Stewart and his 10-year-old daughter were on their daily bike ride about 7:45 p.m. Monday when Stewart, 31, suggested they jump off a 15 foot bridge. Stewart held his daughter Meagan Stewart's hand as they jumped off the bridge into the Intracoastal Waterway, authorities said. "At first he said, `Do you want to do it or not?'" Meagan said. "I thought, `It's kind of high,' and then he's like, `Trust me.'" Meagan made the jump safely, but her father...

Thursday, March 30, 2006 No rave crackdown coming Teen rules wouldn't have stopped tragedy, officials say By ANGELA GALLOWAY AND D. PARVAZ P-I REPORTERS Faced with the senselessness of last week's slaughter of six young people hours after an all-night, all-ages dance party, many parents want not only answers -- but also accountability. That has some in Seattle's "rave" scene worried about a government crackdown reminiscent of the controversial and now defunct "Teen Dance Ordinance." But it's more likely that the only new restrictions on raves here will be self-imposed -- with at least two events scheduled for this weekend...

Boy suspended from school for wearing makeup and lipstick By Irma Lemus, Staff Writer SAN BERNARDINO - In what is shaping as a battle between conformity and self-expression, Pacific High School has suspended a ninth-grade boy for wearing lipstick and eye makeup. Officials are calling it a violation of school policy, which they seemed unable to find in writing... James Herndon, 16, repeating his second year at the school, and his mother, Valerie Wallace, say James has been wearing black lipstick and red eye makeup the entire time he has been enrolled at Pacific. He also wears his hair in...

SEATTLE - Should the people who make and sell "violent video" games be held accountable if someone commits a crime because of playing them? That's something our state lawmakers are considering, to open game makers up to more liability. House Bill 2178 proposes to hold the makers and sellers of violent video games liable if someone under 17 years old commits a crime, due in any part, to playing the game. Supporters of the bill, like Bill Hanson with the Washington Police and Sheriff's Association, say "kids" are getting the games, and they're becoming desensitized. "If you sit up and...

LOS OLIVOS, Calif., Dec. 17 — Christmas came early for some 200 children who got to play at Michael Jackson's amusement park and meet Santa Claus. ''I hope you have a wonderful day. Merry Christmas. I love you,'' the pop singer called out to the children Friday from the driveway of his estate. Jackson, who faces trial next year on child molestation charges, appeared happy during the few minutes he spoke to the arriving throng.