Free Republic

For Hispanic girls in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the United States and elsewhere, the 15th birthday marks the most lavish celebration of their lives. Designating a girl’s transition from childhood to adulthood, the quinceañera is a two-part festivity that traces back to both indigenous and European cultural traditions and has become an increasingly opulent affair in recent years. Parents may even spend more on their daughters' "Sweet 15" quinceañeras than their weddings, in fact, which is why some refer them as mini bodas, or miniature weddings. Not counting the birthday presents a young girl might receive, a low-end quinceañera in...

These are deliberate attempts to inflict pain on the public wherever they can, including shutting down our White House, Our National Parks and Mount Vernon? This is beyond silly and those GOP hacks had better find some back bone. Someone needs to hold this A-hole accountable. He needs a very public humiliation.

“Eric, don’t call my bluff,” the president said, warning Cantor that he would take his case “to the American people.” He told Cantor that no other president — not Ronald Reagan, the president said — would put up with the treatment he was getting from the House majority leader. The latest and sharpest in a series of harsh exchanges between the two leaders heightened concern that markets could crash at any time amid fear of a reduction in the rating on once-ironclad U.S. debt. Cantor accused the president and congressional Democrats of progressively low-balling, over the last several days, the...

We keep hearing that young men are failing to adapt to contemporary life. Their financial prospects are impaired—earnings for 25- to 34-year-old men have fallen by 20 percent since 1971. Their college enrollment numbers trail women's: Only 43 percent of American undergraduates today are men. Last year, women made up the majority of the work force for the first time. And yet there is one area in which men are very much in charge: premarital heterosexual relationships. [snip] What many young men wish for—access to sex without too many complications or commitments—carries the day. If women were more fully in...

I'm just curious. Does it matter that to anyone that I don't fill in the "source" part of posts? Is it not enough that I give the URL? Does anyone except pissant give a damn? Get off my back, pissant! Just trying to do my part to save conservatism and fight Obamunism. Your pettiness about formatting gives this whole site a bad name. Not trying to start a fight; but get over yourself with the "proper posting" crap already!

"Premarital Abstinence Pledges Ineffective, Study Finds," heralds the Washington Post. "Virginity Pledges Fail to Trump Teen Lust in Look at Older Data," reports Bloomberg. And on it goes. In other words, teens will be teens, and moms or dads who believe that concepts such as restraint or morality have any application today are living in a dream world. Typical was the lead for the CBS News story: "Teenagers who take virginity pledges are no less sexually active than other teens, according to a new study." Here's the rub: It just isn't true. In fact, the only way the study's author,...

This is an animated video of a dove that we see in most back yards. As a child, I with a slingshot, 22 rifle and 12 gage shot gun, killed many kinds of birds just for sport, to see if I could aim good and bring the little creature to the ground. I didn’t kill for food but in adolescent behavior. It is so cruel and for this reason I created this video to show and teach the cruelty of this kind of behavior.

This is an animated video of children and the abuse of a homemade weapon. As a child, I with a slingshot, 22 rifle and 12 gage shot gun, killed many kinds of birds just to see if I could aim good and bring the little creature to the ground. I didn’t kill for food but in adolescent behavior. It is so cruel and for this reason I created this video to show and teach the cruelty of this kind of behavior, live and let live.

Forms, which must be notarized, also warn teens of medical risks AUSTIN — After 13 months of intense pressure from opposing factions, the state has adopted rules requiring written — and notarized — parental consent forms for girls under age 18 to get abortions. The new forms span six pages, warn of medical risks and tout "women's right to know" brochures backed by abortion opponents, said those on opposite sides of the issue. The rules would take effect 20 days later. Patrick said the governor's office backed the final form approved late last week, which requires parents' written consent be...

One of the adolescent things about liberals is that they won’t accept consequences of their actions, but will hold adults, Conservatives, to answer. This is becoming more obvious every year. The Minuteman Movement is spreading, as it should. And their mission and acceptance is becoming more obvious with every month! California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said that he would not obstruct the Movement’s arrival in California. For this he takes heat. Now, Texas Governor Rick Perry says about the same thing for the Movement’s coming to Texas. For this, he, too, is taking heat. One of the things Americans respect...

In the absence of intellectual arguments, liberals in the media and in politics have increasingly reverted to name calling. When I was a boy, school children would inevitably begin calling each other names when frustrated or angry. "You're stupid," one would shout. "You're dumb," came the reply. "Well, well, you're so ugly your mother doesn't even love you." "She does too—and you don't even have a mother." As tempers flared, the kids searched for even more hurtful names, eventually stumbling into the aura of World War II which had engulfed the globe. "You're Hitler," was the "baddest" insult one could...

As a Criminology Professor, I take every opportunity to attempt to attach one theory of crime causation or another to current events. There are numerous, and often repetitive, theoretical models intended to help us understand and explain criminality. Some of these focus on personality and upbringing. Others look at social conditions and neighbourhood deterioration. Still, others attempt to link criminality to the evils of capitalism (the dinosaurs may be extinct but there’s a whole breed of belly-dragging Criminologist that refuses to make its way to the tar pits). That’s what living in your mom’s basement till you’re thirty-five will do...

"US soldiers traumatized by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares. The US food and drug administration has given the go-ahead for the soldiers to be included in an experiment to see if MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, can treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Scientists behind the trial in South Carolina think the feelings of emotional closeness reported by those taking the drug could help the soldiers talk about their experiences to therapists."Full Story

Elizbeth teh fIRts's forces killed 0.5million Irish which is faer nore than teh Puritans, and a bit nmore the an Charle's tegh first's plague of teh 1640s, and the evil war he caused,. ther in that land, of beury

Hehehe....The Republicans can really dish it out but can't take it. They cry like little "Wussies" when they are told the truth! Maybe you guys can support your buddies the Republicans by supplying them hankies for when they start to cry. Oh. Your posts sound more and more like "Fagot Republican Bush Supporters" with your silly comments. I guess Kerry's got you boys squirming now. Ha!Ha!Ha! Now the sorry Republicans are trashing Kerry for being friends with Jane Fonda. Kerry could care less what you clowns think of him.

Back rubs, slumber parties, holding hands, and playing with each others’ hair: This is all typical teenage girl behavior. While boys tend to rough-house, girls tend to be more affectionate. It’s always been innocent. Until now, that is, writes Washington Post writer Laura Sessions Stepp. Nowadays, “sexual preference is a shifting concept” among adolescent girls, and in our sex-charged culture affectionate behavior between girls has gone well beyond child’s play. It’s hard to tell whether these girls are acting on attraction or are simply vying for attention. For example, in one Washington, D.C., private school, a group of girls charged...

UN demands funding for record adolescent numbers By Michael McCarthy Environment Editor 09 October 2003 The number of young people aged between 10 and 19 has reached an peak at 1.2 billion, or nearly a fifth of the total world population, United Nations figures showed yesterday. But Dr Thoraya Obaid, head of the UN Population Fund, said the biggest young generation in history faces unprecedented dangers from Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases, early marriage and pregnancy, broken homes, drug use, violence and sex slavery. Presenting the UN's annual State of the World Population report for 2003 in London, Dr...

Sept. 17 -- Americans may be getting used to the Terminator on the ballot. But can they handle his teenage fans in the voting booth? Laura Finstad says yes. She works, pays taxes, and has been a political activist for years. And she's finally won the right to vote in the United States. Her big accomplishment? Turning 18 last Saturday. Finstad fumes about the law that made her wait so long and is campaigning for the voting rights of younger teenagers. The teen is gathering signatures for a petition to lower the voting age in suburban Takoma Park, Md. "Young...

It is all satisfyingly horrendous - almost the smoking gun. The paintings of naked blonde maidens menaced by dragons and trolls, warriors wrestling serpents and a wet dream of missiles that have been found in Saddam Hussein's palaces and love shack feel like proof of something. They appear to reflect the man's authentic pleasures and interests or, at the very least, the culture of Saddam's court. That's certainly how the photographs make it seem. In lieu of American soldiers posed next to chemical warheads, we have an American soldier contemplating a mural of massed rockets framed in an arched recess...