Free Republic

Litchfield, Conn., is the kind of place a lot of people might choose to raise a family. Among its other appealing qualities, Litchfield has a microscopically low crime rate, as in other suburban communities across America. 'The Grip of the Devil' But no town can be protected from all things evil. Some time ago in this peaceful community, wife and mother Pat Reading felt as though she were possessed by satanic spirits. In a series of exorcisms, a local bishop tried to free her from what they saw as the grip of the devil. Reading's then-teenage daughter Michelle Reading witnessed...

April 25, 2007— This past Christmas, Riley Grant received a present that can be described as bittersweet — a video game that allowed her to morph a digital body into anything she wanted. Almost immediately, Riley, a 10-year-old transgender girl who is biologically a boy, adopted a virtual female persona. If only life were so easy, that she could punch a button and turn into a girl. "She has a birth defect, and we call it that. I can't think of a worse birth defect, as a woman to have, than to have a penis," Riley's mother, Stephanie, told Barbara...

Rudy Giuliani made the first serious blunder of his presidential campaign in a "20/20" interview that was broadcast on Friday. No, not the bit about wife, Judith, having a "secret" husband before marrying and divorcing Bruce Nathan, then wedding Rudy in 2003. That other bit, when Rudy told Barbara Walters that he would allow his wife to sit in on Cabinet meetings if he wins the White House: "If she wanted to. If they were relevant to something that she was interested in. I mean that would be something that I'd be very, very comfortable with." The First Lady hopeful,...

Republicans give a bigger share of their incomes to charity, says a prominent economistIt's been a tough month for conservatives, with the Republican Party losing control of both houses of Congress, but a new book being released this week may help brighten their spirits.  In Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism (Basic Books), Arthur C. Brooks finds that religious conservatives are far more charitable than secular liberals, and that those who support the idea that government should redistribute income are among the least likely to dig into their own wallets to help others.  Some of his findings...

Here's some TV tidbits. This past Friday I watched a "20/20" episode I can't get out of my mind. A young, vulnerable teen is forced to strip for an alleged search then for three hours is continually humiliated and forced to do unspeakable things. This while her horrible boss at McDonald's allows it to go on although the teen begs her for mercy. It really happened. And a whole bunch of people were so despicable, stupid and immoral that it boggles the mind. And the real perpetrator walked off completely free.

Reminder--Airing tonight 10PM ET/9PM Central on ABC

China is ready to increase imports of electricity from Russia to 60 billion kWh by 2020, Nikolai Voropai, director of the Melentiev Energy System Institute, said. At the request of Unified Energy System of Russia the institute and a number of other scientific institutions carried out an evaluation of the possibilities in Siberia and the Far East to export electricity to China, he said at an energy roundtable as part of the IV Baikal Economic Forum. In 2008 China may increase consumption of Russian electricity to 10 billion kWh, by 2010 - to 20 billion-22 billion kWh, and by 2012...

Is anyone watching 20/20? It's a pretty good episode. They are exposing teachers unions. Pretty good stuff I'm supprised this is on ABC.

Over time national elections in the USA have evolved into serving two distinct functions. The first is obvious, it's to re-elect representatives. The other, less obvious, is to finance mass media with infusions of advertising dollars. The second, less apparent function, is why campaign finance reform will never get very far. And I also believe it's why the Electoral College will be eliminated in the years ahead. When people of either party talk about leveling the playing field with campaign finance reform one party always blames the other when it fails to be implemented. I blame the media. The history...

A new book by David Horowitz and Richard Poe has enraged the Left and alarmed many conservatives. It exposes the machinations of a radical clique working at the highest levels of government and finance to undermine American power. That book is The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party. It hit the New York Times bestseller list in its first week in print. Here to tell us about The Shadow Partyis co-author Richard Poe, our esteemed colleague at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, where he serves as director of research. Mr....

The other evening I watched the television news program "20/20." This particular show featured a segment called "Stupid in America." As I watched, it wasn't the higher test scores European students received compared to Americas that stood out to me, although this was alarming, it was the way the whole school system was run. The show explained that the money to educate a child in Europe is "attached" to the child. This "attached money" gives parents the opportunity to send their children to a school of their choosing. It allows for parents to select the kind of education they want...

Education increasingly determines the outcome of economic competition, on both the individual and collective levels. Yet educational competition is lacking in the United States, where many schools remain mired in a pattern of academic failure that puts our nation - and our children - in long-term economic peril. The school choice movement aims to provide that competitive spark through charter schools, tax credits and vouchers. Like any initiative that takes on an entrenched bureaucracy, it has met intense resistance and experienced setbacks, including the recent Florida Supreme Court ruling scrapping that state's voucher program. That opinion, it should be noted,...

Are kids in the United States being cheated out of a quality education? In a special report airing this Friday on ABC's "20/20", John Stossel reveals the surprising truth. American high school students fizzle in international comparisons, placing well behind other countries, even poorer countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and South Korea. American kids do pretty well when they enter public school, but as time goes on, the worse they do. Why? School officials complain that they need more money, but as Stossel reports, most of the countries that outperform us spend less per student than we do. There...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democrats launched a plan on Monday for energy independence by 2020 that seeks to relieve historically high oil and gas prices by cutting reliance on foreign sources of energy. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) Pennsylvania's Gov. Ed Rendell said greater use of renewable energy, mass transit and domestic fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel could cut oil and gas imports. A plan they unveiled on Monday is called Energy Independence 2020. President George W. Bush is seeking more domestic production of oil by pushing Congress to include opening...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - The Navy wants to increase its fleet to 313 ships by 2020, reversing years of decline in naval shipbuilding and adding dozens of warships designed to defeat emerging adversaries, senior Defense Department officials say

ANKARA, November 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Turkey plans to send its first astronaut on mission by the year 2020. An agreement to the effect was signed between the U.S. Department of Defense and the Turkish Air Force in Ankara on Thursday, Radio Turkey said. NASA would assist the training and give technological support in joint aerospace projects with Turkey. The training of Turkish astronauts will start in 2008. When the studies are complete in 2015, the future astronauts will take a NASA exam and one of them would go on mission under the U.S. space program.

News from the Energy Saving Trust Households in 2020 could be purged of their modern luxuries and forced to revert to simpler standards of living unless action is taken now to reduce escalating levels of carbon dioxide emissions, according to independent research commissioned by the Energy Saving Trust. A panel of experts have predicted two alternative scenarios for life in 2020 within the report - '2020 Futures: Energy and Waste in an Age of Excess'. The bleaker outlook predicts that without a concerted effort to curb our individual carbon dioxide emissions and create a more sustainable future, the home comforts,...

With the shuttle fleet grounded and the International Space Station staffed by a skeleton crew, NASA is set to unveil plans on Monday to take people and cargo to the moon.Even before the official announcement, there is criticism from Capitol Hill over the reported $100 billion cost of the lunar program, given U.S. government commitments to the Iraq war and the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. "This plan is coming out at a time when the nation is facing significant budgetary challenges," Rep. Bart Gordon, a Tennessee Democrat on the House Science Committee, said in a statement. "Getting agreement to move...

Not a big fan of the guy but hey, its not everyday a prophecy guy gets on a major news network. If I can remember I'll post what he says. Hopefully he won't pull a Jerry Falwell or a Pat Robertson.

In 2020, America Will Still Dominate Global Economy A new study by the Deutsche Bank Group holds good news for the United States, with the latest forecasts showing that America will continue as the key driver of the global economy, its currency will remain the most trusted, and its demographics will be the envy of the world. But for Europe, the prognosis is not so promising, explains the president of Deutsche Bank France in this op-ed from French newspaper LeFigaro. By Jacques-Henri David* August 25, 2005 Le Figaro - Home Page (French) What will the world’s economy look like in...